Commission suit dismissed
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Chesterfield Planning Commission and two of its commissioners. According to County Attorney Steve Micas, Judge Robert E. Payne "found Planning Commission Chairman Sherman Litton acted within his appropriate capacity as chairman to restore order at the meeting, and the exchange between [Planning Commissioner Dan] Gecker and [Robert] Steinburg was not constitutionally significant."

Steinburg, a former president of the Old Gun Civic Association, filed a $2.6 million lawsuit last year, alleging his civil rights were violated when he was declared to be out of order during a public hearing in Oct. 2005.

Steinburg refused to confine his remarks to the deferral of a zoning case and was arrested for disorderly conduct, a Class I misdemeanor. He was handcuffed and taken to a magistrate. At a court hearing in December 2005, the county attorney's office dropped the charge.

During a hearing before Payne last year, Micas insisted "the actions of the [commission] chairman were entirely appropriate... because of a qualified immunity defense." Micas cited case law to support his argument that a chairman can confine the discussion to a specified topic.