Second Amendment suit against Dighton, police department dropped

A federal lawsuit in Boston against the town and the police department was recently dropped.

Police Chief Robert MacDonald and Selectmen Chair Dean Cronin both confirmed that 19-year-old resident Matthew Plouffe and his lawyer Matthew Trask, of Framingham, dropped the Second Amendment suit that they brought against the town and police in United States District Court.

Trask, a Second Amendment lawyer and co-plaintiff, did not return a call seeking comment, after he and Plouffe alleged that the town violated Plouffes Second Amendment rights. Plouffes firearms were seized by police and his firearms identification card was suspended by MacDonald earlier this year.

MacDonald said this week that the lawsuit was dropped because Plouffe has a separate legal issue. MacDonald could not comment further, other than to state that this legal issue influenced Plouffes and Trasks decision to drop the suit against the town and police.

Matt Costa, the towns lawyer in the case from Gay & Gay in Taunton, also would not comment further.

According to Gazette reports, the initial lawsuit states that Plouffe was stopped by a Dighton police officer in the late afternoon on March 26, after a passenger in a car matching Plouffes vehicle had been involved in a verbal altercation earlier that day.

The officer spotted an unloaded shotgun, equipped with a cable trigger lock, in the back seat, the lawsuit states. Plouffe, according to the lawsuit, produced a valid FID card and the officer inspected the gun, but the items were returned and no citation was issued.

MacDonald said this week that concerned parents had called the police station, stating that Plouffe was friends with a 13-year-old male who was in a verbal altercation between a group around that same age near one of the towns fire stations.

MacDonald said Plouffe was not related to the 13-year-old and police at an earlier time had pulled over Plouffes car when he was with the youth. In that car at the moment, Plouffe had a shotgun.

Fearing that a violent altercation could erupt between Plouffe and his friend, along with the other 13-year-old kids, MacDonald seized all of Plouffes firearms and suspended his license. All told, the town police seized from Plouffes home two pump-action shotguns, 10 rounds of rifle ammunition, five rounds of shotgun ammunition, a muzzle-loading black powder rifle, a 28-inch shotgun barrel, a box of black powder bullets and other accessories and tamper-resistant locks.

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Second Amendment suit against Dighton, police department dropped