The lawsuit stemmed from an incident during a Sept. 17 Tampa City Council meeting. Sapp claimed that officials violated his First Amendment rights by ordering him out while he was trying to obtain paperwork from a City Hall office near the council chambers.<\/p>\n
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This story continues below.<\/p>\n
Tampa police had documented it as an administrative \u201ctrespass warning only\u201d case. Sapp was not arrested or charged.<\/p>\n
The city had filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Tom Barber dismissed the lawsuit but is allowing Sapp to file an amended complaint on or before Nov. 12.<\/p>\n
“The question before the Court is whether [Sapp] has alleged enough facts to support a plausible First Amendment retaliation claim,” the court document, signed off by Barber, says. “He has not.”<\/p>\n
\nPolice: Voices disrupted council meeting <\/p>\n
According to the police report, Officer Ferdinand Barbosa was providing security inside the council chambers when he heard a \u201cloud commotion\u201d coming from the adjoining City Council office lobby, a secured area accessible through electronically controlled doors.<\/p>\n
Barbosa wrote that Sapp and another man were speaking loudly enough that council members were having trouble hearing a presentation. Council Chair Alan Clendenin then motioned for the officer to respond.<\/p>\n
Barbosa said he asked Sapp and his companion to lower their voices because they could be heard inside the chambers. The officer wrote that Sapp became \u201cverbally confrontational and argumentative\u201d and continued speaking loudly, and that the council meeting was eventually stopped.<\/p>\n
The report says Clendenin then came into the lobby and told both men to leave. According to Barbosa, they initially refused, and Sapp extended his middle finger toward Clendenin.<\/p>\n
Barbosa wrote that he repeatedly ordered the men to leave and warned them they could be arrested for trespassing if they remained. Sapp then began walking out before the officer finished giving the warning, according to the report. Both men ultimately left City Hall.<\/p>\n
The report also notes that the scope of the warning was described somewhat differently within the document. Its summary says Sapp was trespassed for the day from the City Council Chambers, while the narrative says the officer advised the men they were being trespassed from City Hall for the remainder of the day before explaining that the warning applied only to the council chambers.<\/p>\n
\nBodycam captures Warren Sapp’s account <\/p>\n
The officers who initially confronted Sapp, Barbosa and Reserve Officer James Dausch, were not wearing cameras, so the main confrontation inside the council office lobby was not captured on police bodycam.<\/p>\n