Ticket salesman takes on Fresno State in court

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A civil lawsuit has been filed against Fresno State because of a confrontation between a ticket broker and university police before a sold out football game at Bulldog Stadium.

The man selling tickets was arrested after a heated argument with police. A lawsuit filed in Fresno County superior court alleges Fresno State university police did not have legal cause to arrest a ticket broker last September.

Attorney Tony Capozzi said, "He was off the campus, he's allowed to sell the tickets there, there was no reason to arrest him. What happened in this case was he angered the police officers and they just wanted to show him who was the boss here."

Capozzi is representing Pete Kennedy in the lawsuit. Kennedy also own's Pete's Seats across the street from the Save Mart Center. According to the police report, officers told Kennedy he could not sell a stack of tickets in the parking lot near Bulldog Stadium so, he stepped just outside the gate and said, "There, I'm off your property and you don't own the sidewalk."

"What he did is purchased a number of tickets to the Nebraska/Fresno State game," said Capozzi. "Apparently the game had been sold out and he was trying to sell the tickets that he had, now he was told when he was on campus you can't do it here, he argued with him and eventually he left."

Fresno State issued a statement about the lawsuit: "The complaint was just served today on the CSU and the university is in the process of reviewing it."

Officers seized 37 tickets with a face value of $65 each and other various tickets. Kennedy was arrested and booked in the Fresno County jail for failure to leave campus. The district attorney later charged him with one misdemeanor count of campus disruption. During his court appearance, the prosecutor agreed to dismiss the case as long as Kennedy follows all laws until early December of this year.

Officers told Action News Kennedy was defiant and refused to comply with orders. The tickets Kennedy had left were worth around $3,000 -- he is asking for that along with damages.