MIDDLETOWN – The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has dismissed former Middletown school superintendent Kenneth Eastwood’s appeal from the district court’s denial of qualified immunity with respect to Francis Hoefer’s First Amendment claim against him.
Hoefer, a resident of Oswego County and a former school board member there, had filed suit against Eastwood, then-Middletown School Board President Will Geiger and the school district claiming his civil rights were violated when he was denied the right to speak at a school board meeting eight years ago.
In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals stated that, “Eastwood asserts that the undisputed evidence shows he did not personally participate in any alleged First Amendment violation and, for that reason, cannot be held liable” under the law.
The judges wrote that “Assuming Eastwood has preserved this argument for appeal, he relies on disputed facts to support that argument. The video footage of the school board meeting does not lead to the undeniable conclusion, as Eastwood would have us determine, that he played no part in preventing Hoefer from speaking that evening.”
The court wrote that “Because a jury could reasonable interpret the video footage as evidence of Eastwood participating in the alleged violation, genuine issues of fact exist as to this issue, and we cannot determine qualified immunity as a matter of law. Where therefore lack jurisdiction over this appeal.”
