Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Re: Pepper Sprayed for no reason

You have a three part question. The first part is to talk to the officer in OH. You are under no legal duty to talk to any individual for any reason. If you intend to sue, you should not talk to this individual, even by telephone. I do not know the law in OH, but the law in NY is that one consenting party to the telephone conversation may tape the conversation. If the law in OH is the same, your conversation may be taped.

The second question is your compliance with a subpoena. Although you are not a PA resident and there is no duty on your behalf to comply with a subpoena, there is a provision in the Constitution that is called "Full Faith and Credit". Simply put, each State must give full faith and credit to the law in a sister State. Therefore, if you piss off the prosecutor, application may be made in New York to have the subpoena enforced. I suggest contacting the prosecutor, informing him or her of your problem, and see if you can come to an acceptable solution.

The third question is damages. You may have an action against the individual that sprayed you with peppar spray. You may have an action against the producers of the concernt and the security force if an independent company. However, in terms of where to sue, you will probably have to sue in PA since there none of the defendants are from New York and since the concert took place in PA.