Sparks paying ex-police officer $525,000 to settle a free speech lawsuit over social media posts

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — The city of Sparks has agreed to a $525,000 settlement with a former police officer who filed a lawsuit in 2021 accusing the city of violating his free speech rights by suspending him for contentious comments he posted on his private social media account.

George Forbush, a 20-year veteran of the Sparks police force, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno seeking $1 million in damages after he was suspended four days for what that the city said constituted threats to Black Lives Matters activists and others.

A federal judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022 and last September the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected its attempt to force the dispute into arbitration.

On Monday, the Sparks City Council unanimously approved the $525,000 payment to settle the First Amendment lawsuit along with a lifetime health insurance stipend, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.

The city launched a disciplinary investigation based on an anonymous complaint from a citizen regarding more than 700 comments Forbush posted on his private account with Twitter, now called X, in 2020.

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