City Council

Springfield Missouri

Dear City Council Members,

Attached is a copy of a letter I sent to your Chief of Police. It relates to my illegal arrest on 09-08-98 and the subsequent coverup by the Internal Affairs Department. I have also attached 3 letters I've received from Robert Greer and Chief Rowe as well as the case law supporting my claim that it is illegal to arrest a person in his home without a warrant for an ordinance violation. If you want to read the details of the case, I posted it on the Internet at www.perkel.com/arrest.

I still have a false trespassing charge against me and the City hasn't yet dropped the charges. As you can imagine, I'm not the least bit happy about this. I'm most concerned about living in a town where the government has no regard for the constitution. I know a lot of you are lawyers and I suggest you research the case law on municipal liability and how it relates to false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution.

I am still at the point where I would rather work something out that would include serious reform of the police department as opposed to a civil rights suit. I am a reasonable person as are you and we should settle this. But I would remind you that you have a duty to fix this problem. You can't have the police running around arresting people they don't like without warrants and throwing them in jail on false trespassing charges for not disclosing information that they don't have a right to know. I think that when you read my web site which contains the police report and see what the police did and compare it to the case law, that it would be prudent for Springfield to take the necessary steps to resolve this matter.

Sincerely,

________________________________________

Marc Perkel * 10-19-98