Last Monday, after a week-long trial, dozens of witnesses and just before the lawyers were to begin closing arguments, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore threw the Chapp case out of court. Former Key West Police Lt. Thomas Chapp had been suing the City because, he said, he had been wrongfully fired back in 1997.
On Wednesday, a juror in that case told Key West The Newspaper that, had the judge allowed the case to go to the jury, they would have probably found in favor of Chapp.
"After the judge excused us, we met back in the jury room and discussed the case," said Leonard Whitley, one of the seven jurors. "The general feeling was that we had been cheated, after spending all that time listening to the attorneys and the witnesses," he said. "And we felt that Chapp had been cheated, too.
"While there were certainly some differences of opinion among the jurors concerning various points that came out during the trial, we generally agreed that Chapp's civil rights had been violated. I believe that we would have found the City liable and Chapp would have been awarded substantial damages— at least $1 million."
Some observers called the trial "the best theater in town." It was as much about the alleged 1997 plot by City Manager Julio Avael to fire then-Police Chief Ray Peterson as it was about Chapp's charges.
Chapp got into trouble in January 1997 after writing a letter to the editor suggesting that it was OK for the residents of Bahama Village to fire guns into the air on New Year's Eve.
Avael, who was at that time building a book of charges against Peterson, reprimanded Peterson, not Chapp, claiming that the publication of the letter "proved" that the Chief couldn't control his officers.
The publication of the letter generated several Internal Affairs (IA) complaints against Chapp. He was subsequently fired for failing to show up at his IA hearings— although he said he was too ill to attend.
One of Chapp's star witnesses was former City Attorney Diane Covan, who called Avael "ruthless."
During his testimony at the trial, Avael said he had been fearful of Chapp because he carried a gun and because he had a history of violence. But under questioning by Chapp's lawyer, he was unable to produce any documentation of such a history.