@LDixon_3
South Miami has agreed to pay $90,000 to a father who says his daughter’s 15th birthday party was brought to an abrupt end when a police officer handcuffed the dad and put him in the back of a patrol car.
The officer had come to the house in response to complaints about noise, but the charge against Julio Sanchez was later dismissed and he responded to the incident by suing the city for battery, false arrest and civil-rights violations.
The city recently agreed to settle the case after a federal judge decided that a section of the city’s noise law, which provided the original reason for the arrest, was unconstitutionally vague.
The law made any noise illegal if it would “annoy” anyone on a nearby street, sidewalk or adjacent building.
U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga struck down that part of the law in a Nov. 25 opinion.
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