Dec 21, 2016 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – A Western Pennsylvania city has dropped a lawsuit against a man who unsuccessfully sued the city’s police for allegedly using excessive force during his 2010 drunken-driving arrest, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

The ACLU sued the city of Greensburg last December, seeking to prevent what the ACLU considered an illegal, retaliatory lawsuit by the city against Edward Wisneski – the man alleging police misconduct – and his attorney, Robert Owsiany.

The city had sued in state court seeking to recoup its legal fees because it argued Wisneski’s initial lawsuit was frivolous. The ACLU countersued, claiming the city could have simply asked the judge who dismissed Wisneski’s lawsuit to order him to pay its legal fees, too. Instead, the ACLU argued the city’s lawsuit was meant to retaliate against Wisneski and Owsiany and discourage others from suing its police by making a public example of the men.

Under the settlement announced by the ACLU, the dueling lawsuits have been dropped and Greensburg’s insurance carrier has agreed to pay $98,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees. Officials in Greensburg didn’t immediately comment.

“We are pleased that Greensburg agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the plaintiffs,” Sara Rose, an ACLU attorney, said. “Individuals who believe their civil rights have been violated should not be discouraged from exercising their constitutional right to file a lawsuit for fear that the government will sue them if they are unsuccessful.”

Rose wouldn’t say how much of the $98,000 will go toward attorneys’ fees and how much will go to the plaintiffs.

Wisneski sued the city in 2012, alleging police used excessive force, but a federal judge threw out the suit under a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision that bars people from suing over claims that have already been rejected in criminal court. The judge also said “no reasonable jury could conclude” that police acted unreasonably by using force to get Wisneski out of the car.

Wisneski, 46, has had at least four drunken-driving convictions including one in 1989, when he was 19 and too young to legally drink in Pennsylvania. His initial lawsuit, and the others spawned by it, all related to a traffic stop on July 4, 2010.

That’s when Greensburg police contend Wisneski tried to drive away after he was stopped, even as an officer was reaching inside his car to keep Wisneski from turning the ignition. One officer punched Wisneski in the head to try to keep him from driving away, and police dragged Wisneski from the car after a 2½-mile chase, using a stun gun to subdue him.

Wisneski argued at his criminal trial that he drove off because he feared police brutality, but a jury rejected that, and he was eventually sentenced to 21 to 41 months in state prison.