City of Hayward loses lawsuit over late-night music
Western Wisconsin News-- Taxpayers in Hayward will give $628,000 to a musician who had to fight-for-her-right to put on late-night music in that northwest Wisconsin city.
HAYWARD - Taxpayers in Hayward will give $628,000 to a musician who had to fight-for-her-right to put on late-night music in that northwest Wisconsin city.
Molly Otis took the city to court, after her Pavilion music hall prompted an ordinance which banned outdoor live-or-recorded music after 10 at night. She won her case in federal court, but Hayward officials made an effort to throw out the damages and legal fees she won. Otis said the city’s insurance company stepped in, and the two sides reached a settlement.
She’s getting $401,000 and three lawyers – including one whom she married last fall – are splitting the rest. Otis tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel she hopes her case will quote, “send a strong message to public officials about the importance of music as protected expression under the U.S. Constitution.” The 54-year-old Otis opened her music venue after a country music recording career in Nashville. Her group Molly and the Heymakers had a Top-50 song in 1991 with “Chasing Something Called Love.”
Tags: western wisconsin, news, wisconsin, courts
More from around the web
RSS Feeds