Man cusses out worker when water is cut off — and gets arrested, Ohio suit says (2025)

An Ohio man is suing after he says he was rude to water department staff, then wrongfully arrested and prosecuted.

The federal lawsuit filed April 4 lists the city of North Ridgeville and three individuals as defendants.

McClatchy News reached out to North Ridgeville for comment April 8 but did not immediately hear back.

On Feb. 9, 2021, the man found out his water service had been disconnected, according to the civil complaint.

The man called the water department but was repeatedly hung up on, the lawsuit said.

Frustrated, the man “raised his voice and used profanity throughout his numerous calls with the water department” but never made any threats, according to the lawsuit.

At one point, the man called back and left a voicemail in which he “angrily accused the water department officials of trying to harm him by depriving him of water and objected to being hung up on,” the lawsuit said.

“He expressed his willingness to come to the water department in person to have a conversation if the department was not willing to resolve the matter on the phone,” the lawsuit said. “Although (the man) used an angry tone and profanity, he made no threats in his voicemail.”

Eventually, the man was transferred to the city’s safety director, who agreed to restore his service for a payment of $31, plus an agreement to pay the remainder of what he owed when the man received his paycheck two days later, the lawsuit said.

Later that day, the man emailed his councilman to complain about the customer service he received from the water department, the complaint said.

“Unfortunately, what should have been a successful interaction with a citizen-in-need instead metastasized into an egregious civil rights violation when water department officials and the chief of police saw to it that (the man) be criminally punished for his rudeness on the phone that day,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said the city’s new public works director “disagreed with the arrangement” to turn the man’s water service back on and thought he was given “an undeserved ‘gift.’”

“She felt that (the man’s) demeanor on the phone was disrespectful, and she was especially upset that (the man) had complained to his local councilperson about the incident, so (she) sought to teach (the man) a lesson,” the lawsuit said.

The director contacted the chief of police and insisted that the man be arrested for telephonic harassment, the complaint said. She then wrote a statement saying that the man verbally abused her and the staff, according to the lawsuit, which said the statement was false.

Ultimately, the man was arrested, prosecuted and convicted, the lawsuit said. He served three days in jail.

However, a judge with Ohio’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction saying “prosecutions for telecommunications harassment such as the one here could have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of citizens to contact government offices in order to redress grievances,” the lawsuit said.

The judge also said “courts should remain mindful that the First Amendment affords protections against laws which abridge the freedom of speech as well as the freedom to petition the government to redress grievances,” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit is asking for more than $75,000 in damages.

North Ridgeville is about a 25-mile drive southwest of Cleveland.