News

December 8, 2007

Dyller to represent Scranton ‘pottymouth’

SHERRY LONG slong@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – Civil rights attorney Barry Dyller of Wilkes-Barre is representing a Scranton woman charged with disorderly conduct after cursing at her toilet in her own home.

“The law is absolutely crystal clear. You are permitted to curse, even nasty curses,” Dyller said. “It’s beyond me why the Scranton police thought they could charge her with disorderly conduct.”

He said the U.S. Supreme Court and Pennsylvania Supreme Court have declared cursing is a form of free speech. Not a disorderly conduct as the police have charged. “The public needs to know the Scranton police have violated her civil rights by charging her with this crime,” Dyller said.

According to an ACLU press release:

On Oct. 11, Dawn Herb, a single mother of four, was frustrated as the toilet on the second floor of her home began to overflow. She expressed her frustrations by cursing, but apparently her neighbor, an off-duty Scranton police officer, heard her through an open window.

He told Herb to “shut the f*** up,” according to the ACLU release, and then called the police department, which cited Herb with disorderly conduct for the obscene language.

Herb is scheduled to appear for trial at 10:30 a.m. Monday in District Justice Terrence V. Gallagher’s court in Scranton.

She faces a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $300 fine if found guilty.

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