Williamsburg bar faces uphill climb in suit against city

Business has been better in the past at the Sundown Bar & Grill in Williamsburg, but the owner isn't blaming the economy for his tavern's woes.

He's pointing the figure squarely at the city's local police force.

John Donahue Jr., owner of the Sundown Bar at 112 West State Street, is suing the city of Williamsburg for abuse of process and interference with prospective business advantage on accusations its police officers for years have targeted the bar by following employees and customers after they leave and surrounding the premises “without reasonable suspicion.”

The lawsuit accuses the city of “unnecessary surveillance and harassment” in an attempt to harm the establishment - or even run it out of business. The case, after winding its way through the court system for nearly two years, is scheduled to go to trial Tuesday.

Legal experts say lawsuits against municipalities can be won, but not easily.

“The bar faces an uphill battle,” said University of Iowa law professor Todd Pettys.

The city answered the bar's lawsuit with a motion asking the court to dismiss the case on grounds that Williamsburg is immune from liability through a section of the Iowa Code that protects municipalities and their employees.

The court denied that request and set the case for trial, but Pettys said Iowa law gives broad discretion to police officers. If it didn't, he said, cities and police departments would be in court constantly defending themselves against everyone who has had a disputable encounter with an officer.

“Police and cities would be in court nonstop trying to justify what they did,” Pettys said. “So the law gives cities and police officers a great deal of protection to make sure they have the freedom to go out and investigate crime and enforce the law without worrying they are going to be sued.”

Typically, to win a case against a municipality, evidence must show that officers were egregious in their abuse of power, according to Pettys.

“The bar is going to have to show that the police officers in this case are behaving far beyond what we ordinarily regard as acceptable police behavior,” he said.

The lawsuit, filed in November 2010, accuses Williamsburg's police force of targeting the Sundown “for the purpose of unnecessary surveillance and harassment” since 2008. Specifically, it accuses the city and its officers of following and pulling over employees and customers “without reasonable suspicion,” maintaining a constant presence at or near the bar, and parking by the entrance and exits “in an effort to diminish patronage.”

The lawsuit also accuses officers of shining spotlights onto the patio, regularly sending in underage patrons to try and buy alcohol and cigarettes, and doing all of this in a manner that's inconsistent with similar businesses in the area.

“As the regular and consistent police presence at Sundown continues, patronage continues to dwindle,” according to the lawsuit.

Officials with the city of Williamsburg and its Police Department declined to comment for the story because of the pending litigation. Donahue and his attorney, John Wagner, also declined to comment about the case before it goes to trial.

In the city's motion asking a judge to dismiss the case, officials called the Sundown lawsuit and its request for a jury trial “improper” and “unnecessary.”

UI law professor Patrick Bauer said he agrees that lawsuits against municipalities can be difficult to win, but he said the Sundown owner and his attorney must feel they have a good case to be willing to see it through to trial at the state court level and in the same community where the alleged infractions are occurring.

“What you've got to do is persuade someone that (the Williamsburg police) are not doing they're job, that they're doing something wrong,” Bauer said. “And if there's a jury that's going to be able to tell the difference between appropriate and inappropriate conduct, it would be those folks.”

According to Williamsburg police records, the department from 2006 and 2011 was called to the bar nine times on a report of a fight, three times on a request for an ambulance, twice on a report of a domestic dispute, twice on a report of vandalism and once on an assault complaint. Officers have made just two arrests for public intoxication at the bar during that time period, according to department records.

But Regis Witte, 57, of nearby Conroy, said he visits the Sundown occasionally and has noticed what he considers to be an abnormal amount of officers monitoring the bar. He's witnessed squad cars parked on opposite ends of the block where the Sundown sits while another car idles near the rear exit, Witte said.

One evening, Witte said, his wife was followed by an officer as she left the bar after picking up their college-aged daughter and her friends. Witte said his wife was not pulled over.

“I believe, to a certain extent, it's over the top,” Witte said. “I have nothing against law enforcement, but when it comes to laying in wait, that's a different story all together.”

Witte said he's concerned the police department is targeting the bar because it's an easy way to bolster ticket numbers and boost city revenue. But, he said, since the lawsuit was filed, the police presence outside the bar seems to have receded.

“Before that it was constant,” he said.