Jason & Fischer

Boston Globe
March 3, 2005

Testimony Begins in Suit by Cyclist Arrested in 2001

By Shelley Murphy
GLOBE STAFF

Peter Rowinsky was riding with about 100 other cyclists on Memorial Drive in Cambridge in 2001 when he was arrested after protesting a trooper’s efforts to force them off the busy roadway. To Rowinsky, then a 27-year-old from Chelsea, his arrest was an affront to bicyclists.

But to trooper John Walsh, Rowinsky and the other riders were blocking traffic and causing a hazard, and he was just doing his job when he arrested him.

Rowinsky sued State Police, alleging that they were wrongfully stopping and harassing bicyclists on roads where cycling is permitted. The suit also aims to force the State Police to train troopers about the law. Testimony began yesterday in the case in federal court in Boston, but only on a narrow part of the suit: whether Rowinsky was wrongfully arrested.

Still, Rowinsky, now a 31-year-old second-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, said that if he wins the case, it would send a message. “What’s most important to me,” he said in an interview yesterday, “is establishing some kind of precedent that will prevent State Police from continuing to harass bicyclists.”

During opening statements yesterday, Rowinsky’s lawyer, Andrew M. Fischer, said Rowinsky and his wife were riding that day with Critical Mass, a national group of bicycle advocates who try to “win motorists over to the idea that on a bicycle you can travel faster than a car.”

Fischer told jurors that the group, which included seniors and parents with children in tow, was not blocking traffic and that Walsh tried unsuccessfully to pull other riders off their bikes and arrested Rowinsky after he stopped to talk.

“It was a difference in political philosophy,” Fischer told jurors, saying that Walsh chided Rowinsky for “disrespecting” soldiers who had died by staging a ride along Memorial Drive at the start of Memorial Day weekend.

But Walsh’s lawyer, Brian Rogal, told jurors that the cyclists were blocking two lanes on the eastbound side of Memorial Drive on a busy Friday evening, riding at 5 miles per hour and stretching the length of a football field, making it impossible for cars to pass.

“The idea that he’s grabbing and pulling at people is nonsense,” said Rogal, explaining that Walsh ordered the cyclists to move to the right or onto a bike path. Walsh arrested Rowinsky, Rogal said, after he repeatedly argued and refused to get off the roadway.

Rowinsky was charged with refusing to obey the lawful order of a police officer and disorderly conduct, but the charges were later dismissed.

Walsh, who retired from the State Police in 2002 after 21 years on the job, said after testimony yesterday: “I do ride a bike, and so does my daughter and grandkids,” he said, adding that he never disputed Rowinsky’s right to ride on Memorial Drive as long as he followed the rules of the road. “I also believe in motor vehicle safety.”

What’s not challenged in this case, Chief Judge William G. Young of US District Court in Boston told jurors, are state laws governing bicycles that give cyclists, like motorists, the right to be on most public roadways, including Memorial Drive.

A judge has yet to rule on whether Rowinsky will be able to pursue the broader aspects of his suit.