Vermont to pay $175,000 to man arrested for raising middle finger at state trooper

“This incident should never have happened in the first place,” ACLU Vermont attorney Hillary Rich said in a statement released Wednesday. “Police must respect everyone’s First Amendment rights, even for things they consider offensive or insulting.”

Riggen stopped Bombard in St. Albans in February 2018 because he thought Bombard had raised the middle finger at him, according to the ACLU's complaint filed on Bombard's behalf in 2021.

The lawsuit says Riggen questioned Bombard, who denied making the gesture, for “several minutes” before saying he was free to leave.

As he walked away, Bombard “cursed and gave the finger,” according to the complaint. Riggen then arrested him again and said he was under arrest and that his “rude behavior in public” constituted disorderly conduct, according to the document.

Bombard was jailed and held for more than an hour and his car was towed, according to the complaint, and the Franklin County prosecutor charged him with disorderly conduct. The ACLU said he was “forced to undergo criminal proceedings for nearly a year” before that charge was dismissed.

The state's attorney later filed a second disorderly conduct charge against Bombard following the same incident for “recklessness [creating] a risk of public embarrassment” by obstructing traffic when he was arrested, although a court dismissed that charge before a settlement was reached.

Under June 12 settlement, the State of Vermont will pay $100,000 in damages to Bombard and $75,000 in attorneys' fees to the ACLU and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), both non-profit organizations lucrative who represented him in this matter and announced the agreement on Wednesday.

According to the settlement, Riggen and the State of Vermont did not admit to the allegations made against them in the lawsuit or any liability. Vermont State Police and the Vermont governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment overnight. State police told NBC5 that Riggen retired on May 31.

“With this settlement, I hope the Vermont State Police will train its troopers to avoid silencing critics or conducting unfounded car stops,” Bombard said, according to the state's press release. ACLU Vermont. “And at least now I can pay my criminal lawyer for defending me against the false accusations and take my 88-year-old mother out for a nice dinner.”

In 2019, a federal appeals court ruled that yelling an expletive at a police officer was constitutionally protected speech and not grounds for arrest, weeks after another federal appeals court ruled that a Michigan woman's constitutional rights were violated after she was arrested and ticketed for raising her middle finger to an officer.

The appeals court judge ruled that the “overly familiar gesture” was “protected by the First Amendment.”