Man sues city, Home Depot

Claudia Peschiutta

GLENDALE -- The sting of being arrested for something he didn’t do

remains with Bill Wright.

More than a year after Glendale Police took him into custody at a

local hardware store for using money officials mistook for fake bills,

Wright this week filed a lawsuit against the city and Home Depot.

Wright is seeking monetary damages for battery, negligence, false

arrest, violation of his civil rights and infliction of emotional

distress stemming from a 2000 arrest at the Home Depot on San Fernando

Road.

“Bill went into Home Depot as a customer, not intending to do anything

wrong,” said Mike Shannon, the Pasadena attorney representing Wright.

Police and city officials maintained Friday the arrest was warranted.

While buying gift cards at the hardware store on Jan. 25, 2000, Wright

tried to pay with two $100 bills. Home Depot employees determined the

bills were fake, after testing them with a counterfeit-detecting pen and

checking their serial numbers with the U.S. Secret Service, according to

police.

Wright was arrested and held on $15,000 bail. The bills were later

proved real at a local bank and returned to him.

The suit claims Wright was “publicly humiliated,” which caused him to

suffer “embarrassment, fear, depression, anxiety and severe emotional

distress.”

Glendale Police Sgt. Rick Young said officers had reason to arrest

Wright.

“We feel confident, in our investigation, that we did nothing wrong,”

he said. “We’ll leave it up to the court system to decide.”

Ron Brayden, Glendale’s chief assistant city attorney, was confident

Friday that a judge would decide in favor of the city.

“We clearly had probable cause to arrest [Wright] and ... we’re going

to prevail,” he said.

The city will not consider settling the case out of court, Brayden

said.

“We’ll fight it,” he said.

Wright’s suit claims he was battered because “officers intentionally

touched the plaintiff without his consent.”

Brayden said the claim is unfounded.

“When a police officer makes an arrest, they have to intentionally

touch somebody,” he said.

Shannon said he questioned whether he should include the battery claim

in the lawsuit.

“I thought about that and it’s probably more or less redundant with

the false arrest charge,” Shannon said.

In August, the city denied a $50,000 false arrest claim filed by

Wright. A claim filed against Home Depot was also denied, Shannon said.

Home Depot officials declined to comment on the suit.

The city and Home Depot have to respond in March to the lawsuit, filed

in Los Angeles County Superior Court. A pretrial hearing was set for

August.