In March of this year, a Twitter account was established in the name of @peoriamayor. Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis's photograph was used as the account "avatar." The account's biography read "I am honored to serve the citizens of our great city."
The problem? Neither Mayor Ardis nor any other City official or employee had anything to do with the @peoriamayor account. Instead, the Twitter account was established by Jon Daniel, a 29 year old resident of Peoria, who posted a series of tweets about the Mayor using drugs and associating with prostitutes. When the City learned of the Twitter account, it contacted Twitter and the account was shut down shortly thereafter, according to news reports.
Just last week, Mr. Daniel (with some help from the ACLU) filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Peoria, Mayor Ardis, and a number of other City officials claiming that the City and officials conspired to violate Mr. Daniel's constitutional rights. The complaint alleges that the City violated his First Amendment rights, as well as his Fourth Amendment rights when police searched his home and seized his computer and other property as part of its investigation of potential criminal conduct in impersonating a public official (the States Attorney declined to prosecute Mr. Daniel). Mr. Daniel asks that the court enjoin the city from engaging in future conduct that suppresses his freedom of speech rights and requests an award of unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
