An Ohio man is in trouble with police after attempting to warn drivers of an upcoming drunk-driving checkpoint with a sign that read "DUI checkpoint ahead! Turn now!"
Douglas Odolecki took to a street corner in Parma, OH to warn drivers, although police quickly intervened, ticketing him for his sign and claiming that he was obstructing their ability to do their job. Odolecki says he was simply exercising his first amendment rights.
"It's an issue of freedom of speech for me because they wanted to make me take down my sign. They're trying to tell me that certain words on my sign are not proper," Odolecki told WOIO-19, a Cleveland-area CBS affiliate. "They're not going after DUI's anymore. They're going after everything else." According to WOIO, police are required to make all information regarding a DUI checkpoint available to the public one week before hand.
Odolecki has acquired legal representation on a pro bono basis. "He's not in the street. He's not doing anything at all to physically interfere or impair the police ability to conduct their checkpoint at the checkpoint site. It's absolutely free speech under the first amendment," Odolecki's lawyer, John Gold, told WOIO.
Police wouldn't comment on the Odolecki's case, although they did tell the news station that they did make one DUI arrest with this particular checkpoint. Odolecki, meanwhile, faces up to a $700 fine and 90 days in jail. We have the news report from WOIO embedded below, as well as video taken by Odolecki of his 16-minute encounter with police. Take a look at both by scrolling down, and then head into Comments and let us know who you think is in the right here.
19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports
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