Trending
MORGANTOWN - A new trial date has been set in the federal class action lawsuit challenging Monongalia County's Pedestrian and Vehicle Safety Ordinance.
The bench trial before West Virginia Northern District Chief Judge Thomas Kleeh was originally scheduled for Aug. 17.
Kleeh issued an order last week pushing the trial to Nov. 16. The hearing is expected to last five days.
The commission passed the ordinance on Oct. 25, 2023.
It includes a number of prohibitions for both pedestrians within a right of way and vehicle passengers that would make it illegal for pedestrians to stand, sit or physically remain within a roadway for any reason apart from crossing the road. It also makes it illegal for both pedestrians and vehicle passengers to interact and pass or exchange items.
Attorneys with nonprofit legal advocacy group Mountain State Justice filed the lawsuit in December 2024 on behalf of Chris Peterson, Becky Rodd, and others similarly situated, alleging the ordinance violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech “because it prohibits them and others like them from asking for donations or giving donations in public areas where those protected activities were common before its passage.”
Legal counsel for Monongalia County Commissioners Tom Bloom, Jeff Arnett and Sean Sikora, and Sheriff Todd Forbes countered that the law is not unconstitutional because it is content neutral, meaning it doesn't target specific speech or activity.
“Courts have found that pedestrian safety ordinances are content-neutral when they apply even-handedly to all conduct in a given location – regardless of the speaker’s message – and when the government’s justification for the restriction is grounded in safety rather than in disagreement with any particular viewpoint … The Ordinance here regulates the physical presence and actions of individuals in roadways – not the content of their speech – to address legitimate public safety concerns."
The lawsuit identifies Peterson as a "poor person who regularly solicits donations from stopped motorists in public in and near ... public roads, highway medians, and intersections." It identifies Rodd as "a person who frequently gives donations from her vehicle to pedestrians in those areas."
According to court filings from April, Peterson received three of the four citations issued under the ordinance to that point.
Court records indicate defendants Bloom, Arnett, Sikora and Forbes are expected to be called by the defense to testify, as are both plaintiffs, former Sheriff Perry Palmer, County Administrator Rennetta McClure, and former Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Executive Director Bill Austin.