KEY WEST, Fla. — The organization that runs Key West’s Sunset Celebration publishes rules for its artists, performers and vendors, including a process for barring them from the event. Above the Fold found no published conduct rules for attendees explaining when a visitor can be ordered out of Mallory Square.
That distinction is central to the July 31 arrest of Cristen Nicole Brigham. Key West police Officer Ivan Golovanov told her the nightly celebration was a private event and that the waterfront was “not public property,” according to his arrest report and edited police video posted online.
The city calls Mallory Square a public square. The Key West Cultural Preservation Society, which leases space there from the city, says the celebration is free and open to everyone. No ticket is required.
The society’s published procedures give its pier manager authority to suspend or trespass participants who fail to follow event rules.
Participants are the people approved to sell food or art or to perform. The procedures call for a warning for a first offense. The society’s visitor information, by comparison, lists no attendee conduct code or removal process. It asks visitors to support the people working at the celebration through purchases and tips. None of the public materials reviewed by Above the Fold describes the nightly gathering as a private event.
The absence of a published attendee rule does not mean a visitor can never be required to leave. But, the question raised by this arrest is what authority applied to Brigham, what conduct justified using it and whether that authority was accurately explained to her.
Golovanov’s arrest report says event manager Leeanne McCarthy reported that Brigham had harassed vendors and refused repeated requests to leave. The posted video begins after Golovanov arrives and does not show Brigham’s earlier interactions with the vendors.
On camera, Brigham says she criticized the artwork and had a First Amendment right to do so. Golovanov acknowledges that right but says the celebration is private until 8:30 p.m. When she offers to move elsewhere in the square, he says the restriction covers “all these areas” and asks whether she will leave or go to jail.
It is unclear whether that “restriction” would apply to the vast parts of Mallory Square not occupied by the celebration, which has dwindled almost to nothing under the current CPS management.
Brigham then begins walking away. Golovanov tells her she is detained after she starts to leave, according to both the video and his report. He pursues her when she does not stop and takes her to the ground. He wrote that she tensed her arm and twisted her body as he tried to handcuff her — all typical cut-and-paste language used by law enforcement officers to justify arrests
. He charged her with misdemeanor trespass and resisting an officer without violence. His report does not explain why he pursued her as she moved away.
Golovanov’s written account describes the claimed restriction more fluently than he does on camera. That difference does not establish who wrote the report but raises another question. His assertion that the square was not public property, however, conflicts with the city’s description of the site.
Not the First Time
The dispute has a historical echo. Sunset Celebration grew from informal waterfront gatherings in the late 1960s. When development of a cruise dock threatened the space used by artists and vendors in the early 1980s, police tried to clear the pier. Marilyn Kellner, known as the “Cookie Lady,” and two other protesters were arrested on trespassing charges, according to a 1990 Solares Hill profile of Kellner. The profile says public objections focused on the arrests taking place on public property and that the charges were dropped before trial.
Kellner helped found the Cultural Preservation Society in 1984; the group later negotiated its city lease and established rules for those working at the celebration.
Above the Fold has requested the original body camera footage and police records from the Key West Police Department but has yet to receive a reply.
This is an evolving story. Watch this space.
Key West, Mallory Square, Sunset Celebration, Cultural Preservation Society, Cristen Brigham, Marilyn Kellner, Key West Police Department, public access
