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Alex versus the Ritz-Carlton; Lerxst will appeal

Wed, May 2, 2007@10:43PM | comments removed/disabled

[Rush guitarist pursues lawsuit]

A press release just came out a few hours ago where Alex Lifeson pledged to appeal the US court decision that last month cleared officers of any wrongdoing in the New Year's Eve 2004 incident at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples, Florida involving Alex and his son Justin. If you're unfamiliar with the incident you can read a running history of it at the Power Windows site. In the article, Alex goes into detail about how the case has adversely affected him and how he's determined to fight the decision:

Lifeson ... says the ordeal has caused him immeasurable grief.

"I didn't sleep for months," Lifeson recalls of the altercation, in which he says he was punched in the face and Tasered several times.

"Not more than two hours. I was in total fear. My wife was in a deep depression and that was killing me to see that. She was worried that her husband and her son were going to jail and they were threatening me with 30 years in prison at the time. Like, I'm not the first person that's been beaten up in Florida ... but I can't just not do something. I can't just let it go."

Already weary from a three-year legal battle to clear his name, Lifeson says the appeal could take months to get to court. He suggested that his band's upcoming tour and recent album release may have something to do with the drawn-out process.

"It's a wonderful play by their lawyers to get this delayed at a time when there's a lot of notoriety around the band," Lifeson says.

"We're going on tour, Rush fans are all excited, it's all fired up. If I was going to court, there'd probably be a lot of Rush fans there."

... U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson wrote in a ruling last month that deputies' actions "were objectively reasonable." The judge also ruled that the hotel and a security employee weren't negligent in the case.

"We have thousands of pages of documents, we have about 15 witnesses, we have video, we have so much compelling evidence of the brutality that we went through that night," Lifeson counters.

"To have it just thrown out, and to have a judge, who advocates me being punched in the face twice by two cops, breaking my nose and Tasering me six times, (deem it) as adequate and appropriate conduct on the part of the police, that's not right."

"I feel terrible for the guy who doesn't have any money or doesn't have any celebrity who this happens to all the time. ... If I can do something to make it easier for the next guy who gets jumped on by the cops, then I'll feel good about it." ...

Thanks to andrew for the heads up.

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