Incidents in February, March, June, and July of 2011, relating to protest activities at a Harrisburg abortion clinic, have culminated in four Federal civil rights actions being filed by Suzanne C. Doller, against the City of Harrisburg and individual police officers. Doller is represented by national civil rights attorney Devon M. Jacob, Esquire, of the law firm of Boyle, Autry & Murphy. In each instance, Doller alleges that police officers from the City of Harrisburg intentionally violated her civil rights because of the viewpoint of her protected speech.

In the February of 2011 incident, she was she was forced to stop using a megaphone while peacefully protesting on a public sidewalk on Front Street in front of the clinic because of an unlawful threat of arrest. Doller claims that the megaphone was necessary to be heard over the street noise and that she had previously used the megaphone at other downtown locations without being arrested. In the March of 2011 incident, Doller again used the megaphone and was arrested. In December of 2011, however, Judge Bernard L. Coates, Jr., of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, found Doller not guilty of the criminal charge.

In the June of 2011 incident, Doller was carrying a sign that expressed her pro-life views and her opposition to the activities being carried out at the abortion clinic. Officers from the City of Harrisburg unlawfully confiscated her sign. In the July of 2011 incident, Officers from the City of Harrisburg again unlawfully confiscated Doller’s sign, only this incident turned violent when Officer Tammy Adams used unlawful force against Doller, knocking her camera out of her hands and to the ground in an effort to prevent Doller from using the camera to record the events in question.