A man who was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing at the 2023 Franklin Pride Festival saw the charge dropped in court this week, and now he's suing the City of Franklin.
38-year-old Joseph Mario Cocchini II, of Smyrna, was among a group of Christian protesters who gathered and prayed outside of the 2023 Franklin Pride Festival prior to entering the free festival and discussing and debating Christianity with some attendees and pro-LGBT church groups who had festival booths.
Police eventually arrested Cocchini after he refused to leave the festival, and he was charged with criminal trespassing.
On Monday, that charge was dismissed after a Williamson County Judge found that there was no probable cause found for the arrest.
On Friday, Cocchini filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Franklin alleging infringement of his rights of free speech and assembly, as well as infringements on the exercising of his religious beliefs, citing an alleged violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Cocchini is seeking $2 million, as well as a jury trial and a declarative judgment that the City violated his constitutional rights.
The complaint was sent to The News by Cocchini's lawyer, Larry Crain of Crain Law Group, who said that they filed the suit on Friday in federal court. The court website has not yet been updated as Friday is a national holiday.
According to the complaint, Cocchini is a member of a group called the Nashville Evangelists, and he was among several dozen people who peacefully gathered in prayer and protest at The Factory at Franklin, across from the Park at Harlinsdale Farm, where the festival was held. While the event took place in one section of the park, the group's permit was for the entire park.
Several Christian protesters entered the festival and were told by Franklin Police to leave the festival.
"We got in there and were going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and we walked up to a church booth and started talking to that particular church to try and get some ideas about what they thought the gospel was and what the truth of Christ is, and I guess the event organizers thought that we were being very hateful to people and making them feel uncomfortable, so they actually asked the police department to escort us out of there," another Christian protester, David Schaffer, of Smith County, told The News prior to Cocchini's arrest.
Cocchini and another Christian protester, identified in the complaint as Ben Gonzales, entered the festival and began speaking with attendees, including people who were working at church booths.
FPD officers who were assigned to work the festival had been instructed, according to the details of the Williamson County court hearing as detailed in the complaint, to treat the festival and park as if it were “private property” since it had been permitted to Franklin Pride, in which organizers could remove anyone from the event “for any reason.”
The complaint also cites an April 2023 video posted to Franklin Pride's Instagram profile which features several Franklin Pride leaders and supporters reading portions of a message meant to “introduce” the group to community members who haven't been to the annual festival.
Part of that video features Franklin Pride President Clayton Klutts who said in part, “We do not allow anyone to proselytize for any reason their religion, their politics, their lifestyle.”
“We do require unconditional acceptance of the LGBTQ person,” another speaker added during the montage of speakers.
That video was posted days before Franklin's Board of Mayor and Alderman narrowly approved the 2023 festival, an approval which occurred, in part, due to concerns that denying the festival would lead to a lawsuit, as occurred with Boro Pride in Murfreesboro this year.
“The actions of the City of Franklin effectively bestowed the full police power of the state on an independent actor, i.e. Franklin Pride, to carry out and enforce an arbitrary and discriminatory policy designed to punish individual free speech activity based solely on the content of viewpoint being expressed,” the complaint reads in part.
The suit also alleges that Franklin Pride volunteers “randomly monitored” conversations of attendees and “established a ‘check point’ ” that the complaint alledges was a “means of enforcing intolerance of anyone who adhered to a traditional, biblical view of marriage or human sexuality,” citing what the complaint alleges was an instance of two women who were turned away from the festivals for carrying Bibles in their purses, something the complaint said was “characterized by Franklin Pride as ‘dangerous literature.’”
Klutts told The News that written material, such as flyers, were prohibited from the festival, but declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The News did not witness those specific alleged actions, but did witness Cocchini's arrest, as did a video crew from the right-wing media outlet The Daily Wire.
Cocchini and Gonzales were told by officers to leave the festival, but Cocchini argued that the park was a public place and disagreed that he should be forced to leave.
The entirety of the park was rented by Franklin Pride, which was patrolled by both police and a private security company.
"I'm gonna leave with you guys, but I'm going to need you to essentially tell me that you're forcing me to leave," Cocchini told a group of FPD officers.
"I'm going to tell you one more time to leave or else I'm going to arrest you," an FPD officer told Cocchini. "Are you going to leave or am I going to arrest you?"
"You're going to have to arrest me, sir, I'm sorry," Cocchini replied, after which he was placed in handcuffs and escorted to a patrol car without incident. Gonzales agreed to leave the park and was not arrested. Cocchini's wife paid a $500 bond, and he was released that day.
The Franklin-based right-wing group Tennessee Stands, led by former District 27 State Senate candidate Gary Humble, published some of the body camera footage from the arrest in a podcast with Cocchini in July.
Tennessee Stands has also raised more than $15,000 to help cover Cocchini's legal fees in what the group calls an opportunity to “defend religious liberty and free speech in Tennessee.”
Crain specializes in civil rights and Constitutional issues and also serves as Tennessee Stands’ general counsel.
Crain told The News that this specific case is "rare," but said that it shares some similarities to a 2016 case which involved two street preachers who were protesting outside of the 2015 Nashville Pride Festival and were told to move from a public sidewalk, an action that an appeals court later determined was a violation of the preacher's First Amendment rights.
"The park remained a public park despite the permit granted to Franklin Pride," Crain said. "It didn't convert or transform the property out of its public nature or form."
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