Video from the meeting<\/a> (2:17:00) shows councilors noticeably distracted. Chair Alan Clendenin interrupted the speaker, saying, “We have something going on here. I can’t pay attention.”<\/p>\nCouncil member Lynn Hurtak then remarked, “Somebody is being really loud.”<\/p>\n
Clendenin briefly left the chambers to investigate. Councilman Luis Viera was also out of his chair.<\/p>\n
When Clendenin returned, he said people in an adjacent office were “disruptive to city council procedures” and refused when asked to leave.<\/p>\n
He ordered doors to the chambers locked and briefly attempted to continue the meeting, but the distraction continued.<\/p>\n
He then recessed the meeting until police responded.<\/p>\n
Two cellphone videos recorded in the adjacent office captured the latter part of the dispute. They do not show what occurred before city staff and police became involved. The recordings were purportedly done by Sapp and an associated \u201cwitness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those videos show Viera observing in the office. Sapp tells Viera, \u201cI won\u2019t be leaving this office, so go back and do your job,\u201d and Viera replies, \u201cI\u2019m not leaving until you leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sapp then tells a plain-clothes officer, identified only as Barbosa, that he was not done with his city business and that \u201cI have lowered my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not known what \u201cpaperwork\u201d Sapp was there to obtain.<\/p>\n
Clendenin then steps into the room and says, \u201cGet out! We can\u2019t hear!\u201d Sapp gives an indecent hand gesture toward Clendenin as Barbosa tells him again to exit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t leave, I\u2019m going to ask the police to escort you out,\u201d Clendenin says.<\/p>\n
Sapp refuses and tells Barbosa, \u201cYou\u2019ve already asked me to lower my voice, and I\u2019ve lowered my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more officers arrive, Sapp leaves after he is threatened with arrest.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit emphasizes that Sapp was never arrested, arguing that the absence of criminal allegations underscores the claim that city officials unlawfully excluded him from City Hall, interfering with his ability to access and petition local government<\/p>\n
The complaint asserts that Sapp has the right to speak, petition government, seek information from officials and attend public proceedings \u201cwithout suffering retaliation from municipal officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
No police report of the incident has been released.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil found [Sapp] to be out of order by creating a disturbance and requested him to be trespassed for the day,\u201d a statement from Tampa police said. \u201cOfficers responded and asked Sapp to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sapp is represented by the Mount Dora law firm of Anthony Sabatini, a Lake County Commissioner and former state representative.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Sapp had gone to City Hall to obtain paperwork,\u201d the law firm said in a statement. \u201cThe City\u2019s response was unjustified and unconstitutional. Our lawsuit seeks a declaration that the City violated his rights, damages, and other appropriate relief.”<\/p>\n
Sapp played nine of his 13 NFL seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-410624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}