Settlement may cut citations for cursing in Pennsylvania

It's not a license to curse a blue streak, but a settlement between the Pennsylvania State Police and the American Civil Liberties Union may at least reduce the number of citations for cursing in the commonwealth.

In a recent 12-month period, troopers wrote more than 770 citations for eruptions of expletives. Lona Scarpa, a mother of three children, received one of them.

Scarpa, of Luzerne County, did not contest that she yelled an unpleasant phrase at a motorcyclist who tried to run her down in 2008.

But she was gobsmacked after she reported the incident. A trooper, who did not witness the event, wrote her a $300 ticket for disorderly conduct for shouting the ugly epithet.

Scarpa, 35, filed a federal free-speech lawsuit the next year against state police officials.

"Using profanity is not polite, but it should not result in a trip to court and hundreds of dollars in fines," said Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Scarpa challenged the disorderly-conduct citation and won. The ACLU proceeded with the free-speech suit.

The Pennsylvania and the U.S. Supreme Courts ruled long ago that foul language is protected as long as it is not threatening, Roper said.

Reached in late 2010, the terms were announced Tuesday. The state police will pay a total of $17,500 to Scarpa, her criminal defense lawyer, and the ACLU. Neither party admitted any wrongdoing, a state police spokeswoman said.

"Members of the public cannot be cited solely for profane words or gestures because they are protected by the First Amendment," Lt. Myra Taylor said. "We as law enforcement officers have to understand that while [swearing] shows disrespect, it doesn't violate the law."

The ACLU has pursued several cases similar to Scarpa's, Roper said.

Roper said a borough councilman was arrested, jailed, cavity searched, and held for 56 hours for leaving a nasty message about youths who were riding ATVs through his constituents' neighborhood.

A 13-year-old girl was cited for swearing at a classmate who had said something unkind to her first.

"Not only did she get a school punishment for using profanity outside the school, she got a criminal citation for harassment," Roper said.

The ACLU was not looking for punitive damages in Scarpa's suit, Roper said.

"It's about police training, and that's why it was a focus of our settlement," Roper said. "We brought it to change the practices of the state police. We accomplished that."

The Associated Press reported that, in perhaps the most memorable cursing case in Pennsylvania, the City of Scranton in 2008 paid $19,000 plus legal costs to a woman charged for swearing at her overflowing toilet.