CullenCollimore

CIVIL RIGHTS DEFENSE

Both Brian and Kevin actively defend municipalities and their agents in defense of claims ranging from employment decisions to open meeting laws and from property rights violation to civil rights claims.

Brian's five years of prosecution experience in Boston included numerous appellate arguments, innumerable suppression motions, and over a dozen felony trials. Drawing from that base, Brian regularly represents individual officers and police departments against allegations of false arrest, malicious prosecution and excessive force. Often turning on issues of probable cause, Brian's appellate background has helped his clients gain summary judgment in numerous cases, even obtaining attorneys' fees where allegations were particularly egregious. [MacDonald v. Windham order at Fed Ct]. Where issues of material fact preclude summary judgment, Brian has successfully defended officers at trial in both state and federal jury trials, including recent defense verdicts in Jerrard v. Town of Chester, and Galibois v. City of Nashua. Having worked closely with line officers and supervisors as a prosecutor in developing as well as prosecuting cases, Brian understands the "on the street" decisions officers face and ensures that judges and jurors have a full picture of the underlying events that give rise to any particular claim.

Brian and Kevin have also applied their more general litigation experience to defend towns from federal and state claims arising from zoning and planning decisions, public meeting challenges, eminent domain claims and negligence claims, including recent appellate victory in McKenzie v. Town of Eaton, defending a Town against due process and equal protection claims arising from the granting of a variance to an abutter of the appellant.