Alleged pooper's lawsuit: City policy stinks

MOUNT DORA, Fla., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A Florida man who was allegedly caught defecating in the woods filed a lawsuit accusing police of violating his civil rights.

Elvan Moore II of Lake Mary filed a federal lawsuit this week in Ocala against Mount Dora police officer Jeremy Alexander and the city of Mount Dora.

Moore alleges his civil rights were violated in a July 7, 2010, encounter with Alexander in a wooded area near a Mount Dora bar just prior to 1 a.m.

The Mount Dora police report of the incident alleges Alexander saw Moore leave the bar and followed him into the woods, were he discovered the man squatting with his shorts down next to a disabled vehicle. The officer said Moore was clutching a handful of napkins and there was a strong smell of feces.

The police report said Moore told the officer he was having a bad digestive reaction to some vitamin supplements and he left to avoid defiling the bar's bathroom and because his girlfriend was creating a disturbance inside the establishment.

Moore was cited for disorderly conduct and told to dispose of his waste in a sanitary manner, the report said.

However, the lawsuit contends Moore was vomiting, not defecating, in the woods that night.

The suit states the disorderly conduct charge, which was later dropped by the State's Attorney's Office due to a lack of evidence, caused the incident to became a matter of public record and led his employer, Merrill Lynch, to fire him from his $55,000-per-year job as a financial advisor.

Moore's lawsuit accuses Mount Dora of adopting a "careless and reckless policy" for police that allowed him to be cited and "harassed" by Alexander. The suit is seeking damages in excess of $15,000.