PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The city of Providence has acknowledged it violated a woman's free speech rights when she was told to move from a public sidewalk in 2010 as she handed out flyers critical of then-Mayor David Cicilline before one of his speeches.
As part of an agreement approved by a federal judge on Monday, the city agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Judith Reilly.
U.S. District Judge William Smith ruled earlier this year that the city violated Reilly's rights.
Reilly was distributing the flyers outside Cicilline's 2010 "State of the City" address. Police told her to move across the street, but she said she wasn't able to give flyers to people going into the speech, so she returned. Police then threatened to arrest her.