A Peoria man who repeatedly parodied the city's mayor on Twitter, then saw police raid his home in an unsuccessful attempt to bring criminal charges against him, has agreed to settle his lawsuit against the city, his lawyers and the city announced Wednesday.
Peoria will pay Jon Daniel $125,000 in damages and attorney's fees to settle the lawsuit brought in June 2014, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, whose lawyers represented Daniel.
"I'm really satisfied with the outcome in this case," Daniel said in a statement. "I always thought the Twitter account was a joke for me and my friends. I never dreamed that it would result in my home being raided and me being placed under arrest."
Daniel created @peoriamayor using third-term Mayor Jim Ardis' official portrait in March 2014, following the theme of the numerous satirical accounts poking fun at celebrities, politicians and others. In the postings, Daniel portrayed "Ardis" as a crude politician whose social life involved drugs, alcohol and prostitutes.
"Im bout to climb the civic center and do some lines on the roof who's in," one tweet read.
But Ardis said Daniel essentially stole his likeness and sullied his reputation with the tweets. Ardis also argued that users would not have been able to tell that the account was a joke.
Documents obtained by the Tribune last year showed that Peoria's top officials wanted to prosecute Daniel, even as some doubted a crime had been committed. Citing a state law that makes it a misdemeanor to falsely identify oneself as a public official, the police subpoenaed Twitter and Comcast for Daniel's information and raided his home April 15. Officers seized four computers, four iPhones, an iPad and two Xboxes during the investigatio
Police raid over tweets leads to lawsuit against Peoria mayor
Daniel was briefly taken into custody after the raid before being released. He was never charged with a crime.
People must not think very highly of him
