It's over????

All about Alex

Moderator: Priests of Syrinx

Post Reply
User avatar
Walkinghairball
Posts: 25037
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.

It's over????

Post by Walkinghairball »

Deputies Cleared in Guitarist Arrest
By Associated Press
3 hours ago



FORT MYERS, Fla. - Deputies didn't use excessive force in an altercation with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson at a hotel on New Year's Eve 2003, a federal judge has ruled.

Lifeson, whose real name is Alex Zivojinovich, had sued in federal court claiming that Collier County deputies violated his civil rights while subduing him and his son during a skirmish at a party at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples. Tasers were used on the pair, and Lifeson's nose was broken.

But U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson wrote in a ruling last week that deputies' actions "were objectively reasonable." The judge also ruled that the hotel and a security employee weren't negligent in the case.

Lifeson's Naples lawyer, Michael McDonnell, said he plans to appeal.

The skirmish started when Lifeson's son, Justin Zivojinovich, agitated hotel security by getting up on a platform where the house band had been performing.

Security called deputies, who escorted Justin out of the hotel with his father following behind. The two then fought with deputies in a stairwell.

Criminal charges resulted, and last year Lifeson, 53, and his son accepted a plea deal that included no jail time.

Rush, a Canadian trio, has been recording and touring together for more than three decades. Rush's hits include "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight" and "The Spirit of Radio."
Last edited by Walkinghairball on Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
This space for rent
zepboy
Posts: 6760
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:42 am
Location: Lookin for a place.
Contact:

Post by zepboy »

I think Alex, as great a guitarist as he is, needs to recognize that his stardom doesn't eclipse his responsibility to a civilized society. If he chooses to defy the poeple charged with maintaining law and order, he needs to deal with the consequences, not assume he can supercede them.

That's my two cents.
CygnusX1
Posts: 17306
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:53 pm
Location: We don't call 911 here.

Post by CygnusX1 »

It's not over 'TILL WE SAY IT'S OVER!!

....was it 'OVER'....when the GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR???

Seriously, if laws were broken - laws were broken.

If I went to Toronto and got in a drunken confrontation with cops...sure, I'd take a couple of billyclubs and tasers and get my ass whipped too.

Yup, I never got a whuppin' I didn't deserve.
Don't start none...won't be none.
User avatar
ElfDude
Posts: 11085
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2003 1:19 pm
Location: In the shadows of the everlasting hills
Contact:

Post by ElfDude »

Launch Radio Networks reports: RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson couldn't believe it recently when he found out the sheriff's deputies who arrested him in Florida a few years ago had been cleared of any wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson ruled that the officers from the Collier County Sheriff's Department "were objectively reasonable" in their behavior, which included arresting and Tasering Lifeson and his son Justin at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Naples on New Years'Eve 2003.

Lifeson told Launch that no one could have seen things going this way. "I was quite shocked with the judge's ruling, as all my lawyers were shocked," he said. "And I think that if you probably asked the defendant's lawyers, they would have to admit that they were surprised, too. The ruling was just so overwhelming."

Lifeson also told Launch that he still believes in his case, so he and his lawyers will continue to move forward. "All we can do is go to appeal," he said. "I know what happened to me ? I know what happened in that stairwell, I know the brutality of these police officers, and I know the way the hotel behaved. And, you know, someone else's opinion is someone else's opinion, but I was there, and I know what it was like."

On December 31, 2003, Alex Lifeson, his son Justin, and Justin's wife Michelle were at a New Year's Eve party at the Ritz-Carlton, when Justin got up on the bandstand twice, without being invited. The sheriff's department was called in, and Alex thought the deputies were being too harsh on Justin. When he got involved, both men were hit with Tasers, and Alex also suffered a broken nose in the brawl, during which he allegedly pushed one deputy down a flight of stairs and spit blood on another.
Aren't you the guy who hit me in the eye?
Image
User avatar
ElfDude
Posts: 11085
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2003 1:19 pm
Location: In the shadows of the everlasting hills
Contact:

Post by ElfDude »

Ryan Mills of Naples Daily News reports that Cpl. Christopher Knott ? one of the officers involved in RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson's countersuit (stemming from the incident on New Year's Eve 2004 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples, Florida) ? has been fired for sexually harassing women.

According to an internal investigation obtained Monday by the Naples Daily News and reported on NaplesNews.com, Knott, who started with the agency in January 2003, was fired in January after it was revealed he grabbed the shorts of a woman working at a local restaurant and told her he wanted naked pictures of her.

Another investigation revealed that Knott, 32, had been "checking out" a woman in a shopping center parking lot, and then pulled the woman over in Lee County for what she deemed to be no apparent reason.

But Knott said in the report he was joking with the restaurant employee, whom he had known for years, and had pulled the other woman over because of a report of littering. Multiple attempts to reach Knott, who collected $45,413 a year, for comment were unsuccessful.
Aren't you the guy who hit me in the eye?
Image
User avatar
Walkinghairball
Posts: 25037
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.

Post by Walkinghairball »

Ok, so it's Knott over. :lol: :lol: :lol: :roll:
This space for rent
User avatar
awip2062
Posts: 25518
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:15 am
Contact:

Post by awip2062 »

I thought it was Knott's Berry Farm?
Onward and Upward!
Post Reply