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Shoemaker suit gets federal judge's preliminary go ahead
by Jason Dietrich
A federal judge has tentatively denied the City of Redondo Beach's motion to dismiss a federal civil rights complaint brought by harbor area businessman Steve Shoemaker.
Shoemaker brought the lawsuit in February, alleging that the city selectively enforced its codes against his business and engaged in other discriminatory practices in retaliation for his speaking out against the city's decision to buy property on the Pier and Boardwalk area. He claimed that the city was engaging in a systematic campaign to drive him and his video arcade business, the Redondo Beach Fun Factory, out of the harbor area.
He asserted that the city's conduct violated his constitutional rights under the First and Fifth Amendment, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Shoemaker is a candidate for mayor in the upcoming March city elections.
In seeking to dismiss the complaint, the city argued that the lawsuit was filed to obtain information Shoemaker could not procure in a criminal case pending against him and that the court should abstain from hearing it to avoid interfering with the pending criminal prosecution. The city is prosecuting Shoemaker in state municipal court for knowingly displaying child pornography on the Internet. The city also contended that Shoemaker's allegations failed to state any claim for which relief could be granted.
In a 22-page opinion issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Margaret M. Morrow refused to dismiss the entire case, finding that the suit would not interfere with the pending criminal proceedings. She also said that the claims were ripe and sufficiently specific. And while she dismissed four of Shoemaker's five claims, she gave him 20 days to re-file three of them under a federal civil rights statute.
"This is frivolous litigation and it's a waste of the taxpayer's money," said city attorney Jerry Goddard. ER