Cortland Standard .net

By AMY GERNON
Staff Reporter
agernon@cortlandstandard.net
GROTON — A federal judge on Wednesday agreed to allow a local man to keep large signs on display at his property accusing Cornell University of terrorism and a Tompkins County judge, the FBI and town officials of corruption.
U.S. District Court Judge David N. Hurd sided with property owner John Beck, who brought a lawsuit against the town, and Hurd ordered the town to pay $1,300 in compensatory damages to Beck.
Hurd found the town selectively enforced Section 316.7 of Town Code that permits four signs measuring 4 by 16 feet along Route 222, and two signs measuring 4 by 16 feet along Champlin Road.
Beck, of 422 Champlin Road, won his case in federal court nearly six years after Town Code Enforcement Officer Gary Coats first asked him to remove signs from his property. Beck’s land includes approximately eight-tenths of a mile of frontage along Route 222.
In addition to the damages, the town is prohibited from enforcing the code against Beck.
Beck, 76, first began erecting the signs in early 2009, he says, to inform the community about crimes against animals and children that he alleges occurred at Cornell University during his time as an employee there. He had been fired from the university for feeding cats in a Cornell research farm barn in Harford, but his accusations against Cornell go beyond cruelty to animals. He also claims that crimes as serious as terrorism and child molestation have been systematically covered up by the university and investigators.
“The town of Groton didn’t like what I had to say because the town supervisor, Glenn Morey, worked for Cornell,” Beck explained.
Beck was first asked to remove his signs in June 2009. The following year, on June 10, Beck was issued a violation notice ordering him to remove all signs from his property because they exceeded the permissible dimensions. Beck did not remove the signs, and was served with a summons charging him for violating section 316.7 of the code.
After his case at Groton Town Court was dismissed without prejudice in March 2011, Beck initiated a civil lawsuit in federal court on April 15 of that year because he claimed his first amendment rights were being violated.
The town also filed a complaint against Beck in April 2011, again alleging a violation of town code and asking that Beck be forced to remove his signs. Between December 2011 and July 2012, Beck removed and reinstalled the signs on his property twice.
Coats made a criminal mischief complaint about Beck’s signs to the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department in May 2013. According to court documents, the responding officer wrote in his report that Coats believed that Beck was targeting him with the signs. One of the signs had two large swastikas and read “Gary Coats and Glen Morey belong in prison.”
Beck does not deny that his signs are controversial, and he says he has received a lot of support from the community. He says that the swastika was meant to confer that Coats and Morey were “acting like Nazis,” and does not espouse a personally held view of anti-Semitism.
Beck eventually submitted an application for a sign permit in December 2013, but it was denied the following March. At trial, Beck argued that he was treated differently from his neighbor, Robert Fouts, who had erected at least three large signs on his property but had only received a Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) variance for one sign. Fouts’ son, Paul Fouts, serves on the ZBA.
Coats, who testified that the signs on Beck’s property exceeded the size and quantity permitted by town code, also claimed under oath that he did not feel threatened by Beck’s signs, as stated in the sheriff’s officer report.
“The thing that messed this up for the town of Groton was Gary Coats calling the sheriff,” Beck said.
Judge Hurd ruled that there was sufficient evidence that the selective treatment was intended to inhibit Beck’s exercise of his right to free speech. He also questioned the credibility of Coats’ testimony in which he claimed he never felt targeted by the signs because it conflicted with the officer’s report.
Beck, who says he is the one who should feel threatened, is happy with the judgment and plans to comply with the ruling, which will reimburse his legal expenses and give him what he applied for in the variance.
Coats and the former Groton town supervisor, Glenn Morey, could not be reached for comment before publication.