Cecil County violated man’s 1st Amendment rights; judge upholds punitive damages

Listen to this article

A Maryland federal judge on Tuesday upheld punitive damages against the former Cecil County attorney in a First Amendment case.

A jury last month awarded $250,000 to Vincent Sammons, who sued after he was blocked from the county executive’s public Facebook page, was prevented from commenting at a public meeting on the county budget and was then blocked from emailing county officials.

After a five-day trial, the jury found that Sammons’ First Amendment rights were violated by County Administrator Alfred Wein Jr., former County Attorney Jason Allison and the county itself.

The jury awarded $25,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in nominal damages for being blocked from emailing county officials, $100,000 in nominal damages for being censored during a virtual budget meeting, plus $25,000 in punitive damages against Allison.

The jury did not find former County Executive Alan McCarthy liable for free-speech violations.

U.S. District Judge Julie Rubin reduced the two nominal damages awards to $1 each but declined to reduce the punitive or compensatory damages.

Neither party’s lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment. Sammons was represented by Ray Shepard of the Shepard Law Firm in Towson. The defendants were represented by attorneys from Karpinski, Cornbrooks & Karp in Baltimore.

Sammons is well-known in Cecil County as a political gadfly, posting often on Facebook and participating frequently in public meetings. He is conservative but expressed discontent with the county’s Republican leadership. He opposed tax increases and supported Danielle Hornberger in the 2020 Republican primary against McCarthy, who had been elected in 2016.

First, Sammons was blocked from commenting on McCarthy’s public-facing Facebook page in 2019, according to his complaint.

The next year, Sammons attended a Zoom meeting on the county budget. On his screen, he played a video with three messages repeating: “McCarthy Stop Blocking Me on Facebook,” “Vote for Hornberger” and “No More Tax Increases.” His video was allegedly cut, while participants displaying other political messages were not censored.

Later, during the public comment portion of the meeting, Sammons was allegedly passed over when he didn’t turn on his microphone within 10 seconds, losing the opportunity to speak.

Sammons “left the Zoom meeting angry and in disgust with the manner in which he was treated,” his complaint stated.

The next day, he sent an emailed grievance to members of the County Council and the council manager. After a few emails, Allison blocked him from emailing anyone in county government.

“If [you] want to take this to war, I’ll engage you in war,” Allison wrote, according to the complaint. “At this point, I’m going to advise IT to block you from all communication with County agencies. You’re adversarial, and have a litigious agenda. You have freedom of expression, but it will be via pen and paper, USPS, and not in harassing email to myself or other County officials.”

In an email that night, Allison added, “you’re a hypocrite and a coward of the first degree” and called Sammons a “bottom feeder.”

Allison appealed the jury’s award of punitive damages, arguing such damages cannot stand without an underlying award of compensatory damages on the same claim. Rubin agreed that the law required her to reduce the nominal damages to “a token sum” but didn’t touch either the compensatory or punitive damages against Allison.