CAMPBELL, Ohio - A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by a Campbell resident who claimed his rights were violated after he was arrested for sharing details from a former mayor's disability letter on Facebook.

Chief Judge Sara Lioi, overseeing the case in the U.S. District Court, ruled in favor of the City of Campbell, former Mayor Nicholas Phillips, police officer Pat Kelly, and special prosecutor John Zomoida Jr. The decision, made on Friday, effectively closes the case.

The man who filed the lawsuit, Jorge Rodrigues, had accused the city and the three individuals of false arrest, malicious prosecution, and violating his First Amendment rights, among other complaints, all stemming from his arrest in 2019.

The core of the case involved a 2003 letter from Phillips's psychiatrist. This letter described Phillips's diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, which led him to receive disability benefits from the police department. Phillips worked as a Campbell police officer until 2004 and later served as mayor from 2015 to 2021.

In April 2019, while Phillips was running for mayor for the third time, information from this old letter was posted on Facebook by two local citizens, including Rodrigues. Rodrigues then uploaded full images of the letter to Facebook in October 2019.

Phillips reported Rodrigues's posts to the police. Officer Pat Kelly took over the investigation but tried to get other law enforcement agencies, like the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department or the Youngstown Police Department, to handle it because Phillips was involved. Both agencies declined.

Kelly then continued the investigation himself and gave his findings to Special Prosecutor John Zomoida Jr., who approved a charge against Rodrigues for receiving stolen property.

On Oct. 31, 2019, U.S. Marshals arrested Rodrigues at his home in Akron. He spent one night in jail and was brought before a judge the next day. Zomodia later dropped the charge, stating there wasn't enough evidence to prove the case in court.

In her decision, Judge Lioi stated that Zomoida, as a prosecutor, was protected by absolute prosecutorial immunity. This means he cannot be sued for actions he took while performing his official duties, like deciding to charge Rodrigues and later dropping the case.

The court found that Rodrigues didn't provide enough evidence to support his claims against the other two defendants. The judge noted that the police had a "probable cause" to arrest Rodrigues, which means they had a reasonable basis to believe a crime had been committed. This finding weakened Rodrigues's claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, and First Amendment retaliation.