McMahon

Here we hold that appellant David McMahon’s motion for directed verdict was appropriately denied and that the jury properly rejected his false arrest claim. His conduct of dumping gallons of garbage on the floor of a schoolroom during a school board meeting was sufficient to support an arrest for disturbing a public meeting and was not speech protected by the First Amendment. We reject McMahon’s other claims of error as well and affirm the judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

The events at issue here occurred at the April 1996 meeting of the board of the Albany Unified School District (the District), attended by the five board members and School Superintendent Dale Hudson. Between January and April 1996, the board held its meetings in the multipurpose room of Cornell Elementary School. Meetings included time during which members of the public could speak to the board. Speakers used a microphone located in front of the board members and Hudson, who sat at tables facing the audience.

Before the meeting in question, McMahon had attended several other board meetings at Cornell Elementary School. At two of those meetings he spoke about trash left by Albany High…