Judge: Detective immune in high-profile library-arrest case

The off-duty Kansas City Police Department detective who arrested a Kansas activist at a Kansas City Public Library event in 2016 is entitled to qualified immunity, a federal judge ruled before throwing out counts against him.

In a Jan. 30 order, Chief U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips granted summary judgment for Detective Brent Parsons, ending Jeremy Rothe-Kushel‘s civil rights suit stemming from his high-profile arrest at the library’s Plaza branch in May 2016.

The arrest occurred while the library hosted Dennis Ross, the U.S. Middle East envoy during the Clinton administration,  in partnership with the Truman Library Institute and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City, according to the opinion.

During the event’s question-and-answer session, Rothe-Kushel, of Lawrence, Kansas, asked a question in which he accused the United States and Israel of participating in state-sponsored terrorism, according to testimony in a trial involving another person charged in the event. Ross answered the question, prompting Rothe-Kushel to ask a follow-up question. During his follow-up, library staff cut his microphone.

Members of a security team of off-duty Kansas City police officers also relocated him to a reception area outside the auditorium, where officers took Rothe-Kushel into custody. Steven Woolfolk, the library’s director of programming and marketing who tried to intervene on Rothe-Kushel’s behalf, also was arrested and charged with interfering, assault and resisting arrest.

Rothe-Kushel was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, but the charges were dropped prior to trial. A Kansas City municipal judge acquitted Woolfolk of his charges in September 2017.

In April 2018, Rothe-Kushel sued the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City and its officials, an official from the Truman Library Institute, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith and members of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners.

Rothe-Kushel’s suit also listed as defendants members of the security team, including Blair Hawkins, Sgt. Michael Satter, Detective Michael Curley and Parsons. His suit alleged First and Fourth Amendment violations from the incident, and he also brought claims of failure to train and failure to supervise, as well as  state-law claims of battery, false arrest and conspiracy.

By the time of Phillips’ order, Parsons — who arrested Rothe-Kushel — was the only remaining defendant in the suit. Others were dismissed during the suit.

In his motion for summary judgment, Parsons asked that five claims against him — including First and Fourth Amendment violations, conspiracy to violate civil rights, false arrest and state law conspiracy — be thrown out.

In her order, Phillips ruled that Parsons had probable cause to arrest Rothe-Kushel for trespassing and also refusing to provide identification. Rothe-Kushel argued he was never told to leave, so he couldn’t have been trespassing. She disagreed.

“While this contention may have served as a defense to the charge, this does not preclude Parsons from having probable cause to believe that Plaintiff was trespassing; the events objectively demonstrated that Plaintiff’s license to remain in the auditorium had been revoked and Parsons confirmed with Hawkins that [the Jewish Community Foundation] wanted to press charges for trespass,” the judge said.

In Rothe-Kushel’s First Amendment claim, he alleged he was arrested based on the content of his question, Phillips said. He failed, however, to plead and prove the absence of probable cause for the arrest — a requirement for bringing a retaliatory-arrest claim, the judge said.

Phillips also granted summary judgment for Parsons on the remainder of his claims. A police spokesman declined to comment.

Rothe-Kushel’s attorney, Fred Slough of Kansas City, also declined to comment on the ruling, but he said it is “a great injustice” when a person asking a controversial question at a public library event “is dragged off and arrested over the objection of the public library.”

The case is Rothe-Kushel v. Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City et al., 4:18-cv-00319.