The owner of a towing and repair company is suing the City of Centralia and several officials, alleging they terminated his participation in the towing rotation after he displayed a confederate flag at his home.
Jerry Patten and Jerry & Sons Repair-Towing Inc. filed a lawsuit on Oct. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Greg Dodson, Herb Williams, Howard Jones, Robert Smith, Andrew Marshall and David Sauer.
According to the complaint, Patten owns and operates Jerry & Sons Repair-Towing Inc., which was included in the towing rotation for the City of Centralia. Patten claims that in early 2020, he displayed a confederate flag at his home. Patten currently lives in Sandoval. The lawsuit is unclear if he was living in Centralia or Sandoval at the time at issue. Patten alleges that on Aug. 10, 2020, Centralia Mayor Williams and city council members Sauer, Marshall, Jones and Smith met and discussed Patten’s flag.
Patten claims that during their discussion, the defendants decided to terminate his participation in the tow rotation list maintained by the Centralia Police Department. The suit states that the mayor and city council members realized they did not have the authority to remove the plaintiff from the tow list, so they pressured Police Chief Dodson to remove him.
Patten claims that other than his “exercise of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States,” there was no reason for his removal from the towing list.
On Aug. 18, 2020, Patten alleges he as notified that Jerry & Sons Repair-Towing was no longer on the tow rotation list due to his confederate flag display. He claims he applied to be added back onto the list as applications for participation are collected annually. On Jan. 23, he was again denied participation.
“A causal connection existed between defendants’ denial of plaintiffs (sic) right to participate in the tow rotation and plaintiffs (sic) exercise of free speech,” the suit states.
“Such denial and the resulting loss of income would chill a person of ordinary firmness from exercising their First Amendment right to display a confederate flag,” it continues. “Plaintiffs had not committed any unlawful acts and were otherwise eligible to participate in the two rotation.”
Patten accuses the defendants of retaliation. As a result, he claims he suffered damages for physical, mental and emotional injuries, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment and lost income.
Patten seeks “full and fair” compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, interest, costs and all other relief the court deems just.
Patten is represented by attorney William Atkins of Johnson Bunce & Noble PC in Peoria.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-1335