NEWPORT, VT – Andrew Cappello and the City of Newport have reached a settlement agreement, resolving a lawsuit filed on Mr. Cappello’s behalf by the ACLU of Vermont in January 2023. The lawsuit alleged that the City had violated Mr. Cappello’s constitutional rights when he was arbitrarily banned from Newport public property for a year and given no opportunity to appeal the order.
With this settlement, the City has awarded Mr. Cappello $30,000, expressed regret for their sweeping trespass notice against him in 2022, and adopted a new policy against issuing trespass notices that bar people from accessing public property – a practice that is still common in jurisdictions across the state. The Vermont Superior Court in Orleans County granted the parties’ request to dismiss the case on [day of week].
Hillary Rich, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Vermont: “Forbidding someone from moving freely in a public space and participating in community life is in direct conflict with our most basic constitutional freedoms. While we wish our client had never endured this ordeal, we appreciate the City’s decision to acknowledge the need for change, compensate our client for the harm he experienced, and end this wrongful practice moving forward. The best practice for issuing trespass notices on public property, frankly, is to not issue them at all—and we are pleased to see the City of Newport is adopting this approach. Municipalities across the state would do well to follow their lead.”
The lawsuit stemmed from an incident on August 5, 2021, when Mr. Cappello, a long-time employee of the Newport Parks and Recreation Department who had recently left City employment, was visiting friends at the Prouty Beach Campground in Newport. The City’s Public Works Director, with whom Mr. Cappello had an ongoing workplace conflict prior to his resignation, approached and falsely accused him of harassing city employees, demanding that he leave the park. Soon after, a Newport police officer arrived and presented Mr. Cappello with a trespass notice that ordered him “not to enter upon property that is lawfully possessed by: City of Newport.” The notice had no information about why it was issued or instructions on how to contest it.
Mr. Cappello contacted the Newport Police Department for an explanation, but the Police Chief refused to justify or rescind the notice. When Mr. Cappello next asked the Mayor for an opportunity to petition the City Council to lift the notice, explaining that he needed to access City parks to volunteer for his children’s sports teams and to fulfill work responsibilities for his new job, he was once again denied with no explanation or recourse.
As a result, Mr. Cappello was forced to keep out of the City for months. Even after the order expired in August 2022, he continued to fear further retaliation from his former employer whenever he visited Newport.
Following this litigation, the City has now formally welcomed Mr. Cappello back. Included in the settlement agreement is the following statement: “The City regrets that the events in this case led to Andrew Cappello being temporarily barred from City property and acknowledges that a different approach would have better served all concerned. The City would like all members of the public to feel welcome in Newport, and Mr. Cappello is welcome to return to Newport and participate in all that Newport has to offer.”
Andrew Cappello, ACLU of Vermont Client: “I’m thrilled to be welcomed back to the City of Newport, and I’m especially pleased to learn that town officials will no longer be issuing vague trespass notices that needlessly block people from visiting parks, beaches, and other public places in Newport. It would be great to see this practice abandoned statewide, so that public property remains in the hands of the public and access to it can’t be taken away by those in positions of power. For now, I look forward to spending time enjoying the community with my family and knowing that no one else who visits or lives in Newport will experience what I went through.”
Mr. Cappello’s case is unfortunately not an outlier, but part of a troubling pattern of local officials excluding Vermonters from public places and civil forums. In 2023, the ACLU issued a demand letter urging changes to Rutland Town policies after discovering Rutland police had issued at least ten orders restricting access to public property between 2020 and 2022. Also in 2023, the ACLU filed an amicus brief in the case of Montpelier resident Stephen Whitaker, who was forcibly removed from a city council meeting in June 2022 and criminally charged for trespassing. And, in 2019, the ACLU settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of Jason Ploof challenging a no-trespass order prohibiting him from entering City Hall Park in Burlington; that case settled after the city agreed to policy changes consistent with constitutional requirements. The ACLU has called for statewide guidance for cities and towns to prevent these violations from recurring.
A copy of the settlement agreement and the original filing are available on the ACLU of Vermont’s website.
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