A week ago, Calvin Christian, who is either Springfield’s most persecuted motorist or its biggest traffic scofflaw, had access to wheels and lawyers who were handling his civil-rights lawsuit against the city in which Christian claims that he became a target of traffic cops after filing dozens of requests for internal affairs records and twice winning court orders compelling police to produce the documents. He also infamously sued the city when police shredded internal affairs files rather than turn them over. Now, Christian is a pro se pedestrian. Police seized his car on Monday, when he was arrested for an outstanding warrant stemming from a petition to revoke probation, according to Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney Richard Kim. Christian had received probation in January to settle more than 50 outstanding traffic cases, and Springfield police ticketed him for driving on a revoked license after stopping him on Monday and taking his car. Under terms of his probation, Christian faces as many as 150 days in jail if he engages in unlawful behavior. Prosecutors filed the revocation petition shortly after Jacksonville police arrested Christian in March on suspicion of using fake credit cards. In January, he was charged with battery stemming from an altercation inside a car with a woman, and he failed to appear for a Wednesday court hearing on that case, prompting Sangamon County Associate Judge Rudolph Braud to issue a $5,000 bench warrant. In his civil rights lawsuit, Christian claims that police unfairly ticketed him in retaliation for his demand for police disciplinary files, but on Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Eric Long granted a motion from Christian’s lawyers to withdraw from the case, saying that they hadn’t been able to contact Christian and that they had “irreconcilable differences” with their client.
This article appears in May 14-20, 2015.
