Ticket broker sues Fresno State for false arrest

A ticket broker who was arrested outside the Fresno State-Nebraska football game last year has filed a civil rights lawsuit, contending campus police didn’t have probable cause to arrest and detain him for reselling game-day tickets.

Pete Kennedy said Wednesday he was doing a public service when he tried to resell about 50 tickets outside Bulldog Stadium before kickoff.

“I was trying to get people in the stadium so they could enjoy the game.”

And when he was told by campus police to leave, he says he left the stadium grounds and set up shop on a public sidewalk.

Apparently, that didn’t satisfy Fresno State police.

Officers arrested Kennedy, causing him to lose thousands of dollars in unsold tickets, says Fresno attorney Anthony Capozzi, who is representing Kennedy.

Kennedy, 41, says that when he was arrested, at least a dozen other people, “including a little old lady,” sold tickets outside Bulldog Stadium without any problem.

In his Fresno County Superior Court lawsuit, he contends the Sept. 13, 2014, incident caused him humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress and physical pain because he was handcuffed in front of hundreds of people, shoved into a patrol car and booked into the county jail. He was then cited and released.

The lawsuit names the Board of Trustees of California State University and campus police officers George Rascon and Addison Lee as defendants. Kennedy is seeking unspecified damages for negligence, false arrest and false imprisonment. He is also seeking punitive damages “to punish and deter the defendants” from harming other ticket sellers.

Fresno State spokesman Tom Uribes said CSU officials had just received the complaint and are in the process of reviewing it.

Court records say the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office has charged Kennedy with causing a campus disruption, a misdemeanor. Kennedy has pleaded not guilty. His next court hearing is Dec. 3.

In an interview, Kennedy, owner of Pete’s Seats, says he is not a “street ticket scalper” but a ticket broker who has been “providing the best tickets for the best price” since 2003 to such events as pro and college football games, the World Cup, the Stanley Cup and the World Series. He has an office in Bakersfield and one on Shaw Avenue across from the Fresno State campus.

He says his clients include judges, lawyers, doctors and other professionals who are too busy to track down good tickets to a big event. “Everything I do is legal.”

Since his arrest, Kennedy says, he is “on a crusade” to educate Fresno State, police and others about the business. “I’m not here to cause trouble.”

Kennedy says he has done business throughout the U.S. and Canada without problem. But for some reason, he says, people who run Fresno State athletic events and the Save Mart Center don’t like what he does for a living. “I don’t get it. I put people in the stands. Fresno State makes money and so do I. This way the whole world keeps rolling.”

This is not the first time Kennedy has been in the limelight. In 2007, he was accused of ticket scalping but won his case against a Bakersfield man in the televised courtroom of Judge Joe Brown.

The California Penal Code generally defines ticket scalping as any person who buys a ticket with the intent to resell it at a higher price while on the grounds of a stadium or arena. It’s a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and/or a fine.

Before he was arrested, Kennedy says, he was trying to sell his tickets above face value. He says that if a customer wanted to make a transaction, he would have taken the customer away from the stadium and made the deal on public property in order to stay within the law.

But as kickoff approached, Kennedy says, he was scrambling to sell tickets at or below list price.

Kennedy was not charged with ticket scalping. He was charged with violating Penal Code 626.6 (A) which, in general, is “committing an act likely to interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of a college campus or facility.”

A Fresno State police report gives details of Kennedy’s arrest:

A sheriff’s deputy and campus officers were dispatched to the stadium for a report of a ticket scalper in front of the ticket booth near Bulldog Lane. The deputy asked Kennedy to leave after he was caught asking people in line if they wanted to purchase tickets.

“Kennedy refused and told him (the deputy) he had every right to sell tickets here,” the report says. He then cursed, extended his arms and challenged the deputy to arrest him.

Campus police then told Kennedy to leave. The report says Kennedy walked a few feet from the ticket booth and “continued to try and sell his tickets on state property.”

Police then told Kennedy that he was breaking the law by interfering with the peaceful conduct of the campus.

But Kennedy stood his ground, saying he had the right to sell his tickets.

Because Kennedy didn’t have permission to sell, campus police escorted him off the stadium grounds. But that didn’t deter him from trying to sell the tickets. While walking in a parking lot, Kennedy tried to sell a $20 ticket to a man for $40, a report says.

Once Kennedy made it to the sidewalk along Bulldog Lane, he told police: “There, I’m off your property and you don’t own the sidewalk.”

Police asked him to conduct his business across the street. When he refused, police arrested him and confiscated his tickets as evidence.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Ticket broker sues Fresno State for false arrest."