Donnie Lee Barrigar is arrested during Monday’s Watertown City Council meeting after causing a disruption.
(Provided photo — Craig Fox, Watertown Daily Times)
WATERTOWN — A local man who espouses his flat Earth beliefs was escorted out of Monday night’s City Council meeting by city police and arrested after he caused a disruption when he refused to stop talking about the theory.
During the meeting’s privilege of floor, Donnie Lee Barrigar, 37, of Watertown, was warned three times that he would be arrested if he continued to talk about a topic that isn’t about city business.
Council members recessed the meeting twice while police officers tried to convince Barrigar to obey Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith’s instructions to direct his comments to an issue about the city, but he refused.
“I don’t want to arrest you,” Sgt. Cristin O’Brien said, telling him that council members wanted him to obey the rule of sticking to city issues.
“Arrest me for what?” Barrigar said, adding that he thinks his freedom of speech was being violated by the Council not allowing him to talk.
O’Brien and two other officers put him in handcuffs, escorted him out of council chambers and took him to the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building, where he was processed and charged with trespass. He was given an appearance ticket for Watertown City Court and then released.
The incident was prompted by a proposal to cut down the time during which members of the public could speak during the privilege of the floor sessions of council meetings to three minutes. Before council members approved the change on Monday night, there was no time limit on how long members of the public could speak, although an informal rule kept the limit at five minutes. But speakers, including Barrigar, were frequently allowed to go beyond the five minutes.
However, Monday night’s incident was coming to a head for weeks.
Two weeks ago, Barrigar went on a tirade that lasted about eight minutes that included accusing new city Councilman Leonard Spaziani of causing him to be “red-tagged” at the Dulles State Office Building for allegedly removing the U.S. flag, turning it upside down and putting it back on the flag pole.
On April, 19, Barrigar was not allowed to enter the state office building without an escort by security because of the alleged incident. It was the same day that his trial was scheduled to begin for a separate incident involving a Gay Pride flag at City Hall last June. He blamed the councilman for mishandling the situation at the state office building that caused his trial to be postponed until June 1.
On June 23 of last year, Barrigar was charged with third-degree criminal tampering after he allegedly took down the flag, which hung in front of City Hall in celebration of Gay Pride.
At the time of his arrest last year, Barrigar said he was well within his constitutional rights to take down the flag. He insisted that he was protected by his First Amendment rights to use the Gay Pride flag in his protest, saying he gets his views about homosexuality from his religious beliefs. He’s accused of lowering the Pride flag and stuffing it into a City Hall mailbox. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge.
Barrigar’s actions prompted more than 150 LGBTQ supporters to come together in a show of solidarity to protest what he did. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also offered to help the state police with the investigation into Barrigar’s action. The governor called him a bigot.
Even before Monday night’s council meeting began, Barrigar caused another disruption when he breached a barrier that was put up to keep the public from approaching council members at their seats.
“Get back on the other side,” Spaziani told him before a police officer instructed him that he was not allowed to pass the barrier.
Barrigar and other members of the public got into an argument during one of the council recesses, when they questioned why he didn’t stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. One man told him to shut up.
Over the weekend, Barrigar showed up at Smith’s and Councilwoman Lisa Ruggiero’s houses to confront them about limiting the time to speak at council meetings. Neither were at home at the time.
Before the meeting, Ruggiero tried to give him a letter advising him not to step foot on her property again or he would be arrested for trespass. Barrigar refused to accept the letter, in which Ruggiero told him that she notified the police about the incident at her home.
At the end of the meeting, Smith said that he had to do something because the situation was getting out of hand with speakers taking over the privilege of the floor. He also noted that the new three-minute rule would not be strictly enforced if speakers stayed on topic of city issues and have legitimate comments.
City Manager Kenneth Mix said after the meeting that staff decided that the portable barrier should be installed for meetings to keep council members and employees safe. Two weeks ago, Barrigar followed Spaziani into the area of staff offices near the council chambers and confronted him while videotaping him for his flat Earth YouTube channel.
Mix said he plans to talk to council members about how to deal with Barrigar in the future.
City Attorney Robert Slye said Barrigar will be allowed to continue to attend meetings and speak at them as long has he obeys the rules.
“We’re not trying to limit your free speech,” Smith said.
After police escorted Barrigar out of the meeting, two members of the public asked council members to rethink the three-minute rule because it’s the only time that the public gets to tell them what they think about city issues.
S.F. Gates, who has attended countless council meetings to lobby for a city dog park over the past 14 years, told council members they should not make changes just because a couple of speakers get out of line.
As part of the new privilege of the floor rules, council members also made a change in not allowing speakers who are running for elected office to use the privilege of the floor to speak about their platforms.
