Hidden Harbour resident Martin O’Boyle, his lawyer son and his business lawyer have elevated their grudge against Gulf Stream to the highest court in the land.
In a July 21 filing, the three — O’Boyle, son Jonathan, and lawyer William Ring — asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review opinions by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that said the town’s legal efforts targeting them were not retaliation for O’Boyle’s numerous public records requests, which were protected by the First Amendment.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit ruled on Feb. 8 that the O’Boyles and Ring had to show that the town did not have probable cause to arrest Martin O’Boyle for disorderly conduct, nor to ask that Jonathan O’Boyle and Ring receive court sanctions and ethics penalties, nor to sue them under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
However, it turns out the three men had agreed in a joint stipulation in an underlying case that the town did have probable cause to file Florida Bar complaints and to charge Martin
O’Boyle with disorderly conduct, the panel of judges said.
That stipulation “was fatal to his retaliatory prosecution claim,” they ruled on Feb. 8 and again on March 21 in denying a request by the O’Boyles and Ring to rehear the case.
— Steve Plunkett
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