Update on Lockport sign law protester who sought to help injured deputy

David Mongielo

Going into the New Year, we wanted to check on the progress of some of the cases we have reported during this past year.
The story of David Mongielo, the Lockport businessman who was fined and sentenced to imprisonment for violating a Town of Lockport sign ordinance that limits the frequency of message changes on signs is an instance that we wanted to update.

Mongielo’s ‘illegal’ message was one for a fund raiser to benefit Niagara County Sheriff’s Deputy, Allen Gerhardt. Gerhardt lost both legs in the line of duty, after crashing his vehicle when rushing to the aid of a fellow deputy.

The last we had heard from Mongielo, his case was delayed by the court because he chose to represent himself, but had failed to properly inform the court.

The new court date, before Lockport Town Justice Raymond Schilling - who had formerly sentenced Mongielo to jail, but whose conviction was overturned because Schilling had failed to permit Mongielo a jury trial- is set for January 8, 2013.

Mongielo can expect to be arraigned at that time, unless his Amended Motion to Quash is heard and decided in his favor and the case out of simple justice is dismissed by the judge.

Legally, it may be an uphill battle for Mongielo, as his self-prepared papers rely heavily on historic freedom principles and centuries-old common law, where freedom and the spirit of the law trump officious and bureaucratic enforcement of the letter of the law. It remains to be seen whether arguments on over-reaching bureaucratic and judicial authority versus personal liberty (i.e the right to change a sign message on one’s own property) will carry the day.

The Reporter has been interested in whether the issue of jury nullification, the right of 12 jurors to use common sense in deciding both the facts and fairness of the law, and its application, will come into play in this case. It well lends itself to the question of whether a law should be upheld when it doesn’t make sense or create any sense of justice.

The jury can legally veto the law by finding Mongielo not guilty despite the fact that Lockport officials, who have had a long-standing political feud with Mongielo, seek to have him put in jail because they believe they got him on a technicality.

Justice or technicalities, personal liberty versus an ever expanding bureaucracy and a bossism style of government is what the jury will sit to decide. And oddly enough a simple sign may wind up being a landmark case. The Reporter will be watching closely.