photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Michael Eravi appears at a hearing on March 19, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

Updated at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 27

A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit by a man who claimed that Lawrence police violated his civil rights when they arrested him two years ago at the scene of an armed stand-off.

Judge Daniel Crabtree, in an order filed Wednesday, ruled that four officers acted reasonably in May 2023 when they removed “citizen journalist” Michael Eravi from the scene in the 1900 block of Heatherwood Drive, where an armed man was holed up in a residence. Eravi, an avid critic of police, was in the neighborhood to film the incident and refused to leave an area where police said it was dangerous and distracting for him to be.

Police, at the scene with an armored vehicle, arrested Eravi for felony interference with law enforcement, leading to a criminal case that is still pending in Douglas County District Court. Eravi asserted at the scene that as “a free human being” he had a right to be where he was.

In the civil suit Eravi claimed that the officers, who had prior experience with him, were retaliating against him, that they used excessive force, failed to intervene in an unlawful arrest and were responsible for a malicious prosecution against him — claims that Crabtree comprehensively rejected, ruling that the officers had the defense of qualified immunity. Once such a defense is raised, a plaintiff has the burden of proving that a constitutional violation occurred, which Eravi failed to do in all instances, Crabtree said.

With respect to the excessive force claim, Crabtree wrote that the police used a reasonable amount of force and that Eravi provided no facts to support a finding of any injury other than a “de minimus one.”

Eravi also named as a defendant the City of Lawrence, which oversees the police department, claiming that the city deprived him of his civil rights — arguments that Crabtree likewise rejected out of hand, noting, among other things, that a police policy regarding public recordings of law enforcement activities contained reasonable restrictions, such as specifying that members of the public could not be so close to the activity as to present a safety hazard or to interfere with an officer’s communication with a suspect or witness.

Though Crabtree tossed Eravi’s suit, he declined to order him to pay attorney fees for the defendant officers, noting that they “never argue — much less establish — that plaintiff’s action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation.”

The City of Lawrence, via spokeswoman Cori Wallace, told the Journal-World it was happy with the result: “We are pleased with the outcome of the recent court decision. The City looks forward to continuing our focus on serving the people of Lawrence.”

This is the second lawsuit by Eravi that has been dismissed in the past year by a federal court. Last summer, Judge Julie Robinson threw out — for failure to state a claim — Eravi’s lawsuit claiming that the City of Lawrence and others violated his First Amendment rights when he was trespassed the previous year from the city-supported homeless camp in North Lawrence.

Between the two federal lawsuits the city has spent more than $19,500 on attorney costs, Wallace said.

In addition to being a vocal critic of the police, Eravi, 55, is a frequent public commenter at government meetings, where he insists on using foul language and on personally insulting public officials, including using the N-word in the presence of Black commissioners. He was once banned by the city manager for 60 days for “threatening and harassing behavior,” including telling two commissioners that he knew where they lived.

Most recently, Eravi has joined two people from Johnson County who show up at Lawrence school board meetings to insist that they have the right to use any language in any manner at a government business meeting if such language appears in a library book. Though the school district has declined to comment on the matter, Eravi suggested via an online comment that he had been banned from appearing in person for 60 days. He and the other two — Justin Spiehs and Carrie Schmidt — all employ the same attorney, Linus Baker, in multiple lawsuits claiming that government bodies have violated their constitutional rights.

“I’m going to be back in that room and say a lot more than ‘frack you,'” Eravi told school board president Kelly Jones at Monday’s meeting after using a series of gendered insults against her and substituting various words for the F-word.

In addition to the pending felony interference case, Eravi is also facing a charge of misdemeanor battery on a law enforcement officer in connection with an incident last fall when police cleared out a homeless camp on the south bank of the Kansas River.

Eravi also has a pending lawsuit in Elk County, filed by Baker, against a prosecutor whom he accuses of violating his rights.