These screengrabs show the arrest of Commissioner Niki Frenchko of Trumbull County, Ohio. She was arrested during a commissioners meeting in July 2022 because officials deemed her disruptive. She sued Trumbull County and the sheriff’s office in April 2023. A judge ruled the arrest violated Frenchko’s First Amendment rights. (Niki Frenchko’s Facebook page)
A federal judge has ruled that county officials and the sheriff’s department violated the free speech rights of an elected county commissioner from Ohio when they arrested her during a public meeting.
The arrest happened in July 2022 during a Trumbull County Commissioners meeting after deputies deemed Commissioner Niki Frenchko was being disruptive and took her into custody on a charge of disturbing a lawful meeting.
In a ruling filed Wednesday, federal Judge J. Philip Calabrese determined Frenchko’s arrest violated the First Amendment and qualified immunity did not apply to those named in her lawsuit, meaning they could be sued for monetary damages.
“Here in America, we do not arrest our political opponents,” Calabrese wrote. “This case tests that longstanding norm as well as our Constitution’s robust protections for free speech that allow us to criticize our representatives and public officials.”
Frenchko, the lone Republican on the three-person board, has been a controversial figure pretty much since her election in 2020: Officials questioned if she met the residency requirement after she won office, one commissioner derided Frenchko as “this lady” during a meeting, and the three commissioners often argued during the meetings, according to the judge’s ruling.
The incident that led to her arrest began at a meeting a month prior when Frenchko read aloud a letter from the mother of an inmate who died at the Trumbull County Jail. The mother accused the jail of giving her son inadequate health care. In response, Trumbull Sheriff Paul Monroe wrote a letter that one of the other commissioners instructed the clerk to read during the July 2022 meeting where Frenchko was arrested.
Frenchko, who was filming the meeting via FaceTime, left her seat on the dais to record the clerk reading the letter. Frenchko made several critical comments as the clerk read, drawing the ire of her fellow commissioners who accused her of being disruptive and appearing to visibly upset the clerk. After the clerk was finished, Frenchko returned to her seat and criticized the sheriff in response to the letter.
One of the commissioners chimed in that Frenchko was “talking about the chief law enforcement officer in Trumbull County. That’s unacceptable.” That prompted the three of them to bicker with one another.
Moments later a deputy walked up to the commissioner’s seat and asked her to “please stand up.”
“We’re not going to deal with this, you’re being very disruptive,” the deputy says. “You’re disrupting the meeting.”
The deputies escort Frenchko out to a hallway where they ask her to stop recording them.
“This is for my safety,” she said.
The deputies then arrested her. She was taken to jail and later released. The case against her was dropped about two months later.
Frenchko filed a lawsuit in federal court against the county, the commissioners and the sheriff’s office in April 2023 claiming they violated her First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
“Simply stated, Defendants battered Commissioner Frenchko, they humiliated her, they restrained her, they caused emotional suffering, and they abused the justice system because Commissioner Frenchko upset them with protected speech and would not apologize for it,” the lawsuit said.
Calabrese ruled that Frenchko’s speech is protected under the First Amendment, noting that as a commissioner she has a right to speak on government matters at a commissioner’s meeting.
“Without question, the disruption that led to Commissioner Frenchko’s removal and arrest was her speech itself. And not just any speech. The speech of an elected official, delivered at a public meeting, addressing a matter of public concern. Speech that communicated a message disfavored by those in power. Speech highly critical of another elected official,” Calabrese wrote.
The judge also noted that commissioners could have taken other avenues besides arrest such as adjourning the meeting or reprimanding Frenchko.
Messages left at the commissioner’s office and sheriff’s office were not returned.
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