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This interesting little lawsuit that encompasses issues relating to free speech, first amendment rights, defamation, and the Citizen Participation Act, all began because of some derogatory statements posted on a newspaper website aimed at the son of a Buffalo Grove woman who was running for village trustee.

In March 2005, Samuel McPeak was stopped by a Police Officer in Lee County who noticed him not wearing his seat belt. When McPeak exited the vehicle at the Officer’s request so that he could give Mr. McPeak his ticket for the seat belt violation, the Officer noticed an odor of cannabis, which the officer testified he noticed coming from McPeak’s person.