A former Penn State student is suing four State College police officers for allegedly seizing and destroying a videotape he made -- actions his lawyer says are in violation of the First Amendment.

The suit was challenged by the State College Police Department last month with a motion to dismiss. State College Police Chief Tom King said this is the third or fourth case that has been filed against the department in more than 10 years.

According to documents filed in federal court in Williamsport, Wayne "Skip" Dreibelbis, Class of 1986 and State College resident, was anticipating a conversation between his mother and ex-wife and began videotaping as his mother walked to the door of his ex-wife's house on Nov. 3, 2003. His mother was supposed to pick up Dreibelbis' daughter for visitation rights.

Dreibelbis' ex-wife, who had previously filed an order for Protection from Abuse (PFA) against him, called police when Dreibelbis and his mother arrived at her State College residence. Dreibelbis remained filming in the street outside his ex-wife's house, according to court documents.

While Dreibelbis and his mother waited for his daughter, the police arrived and told him to stop filming.

Dreibelbis' complaint alleges that State College Police officer Todd Scholton grabbed the video camera out of Dreibelbis' hands and threw it about 15 feet onto the hood of a police car.

Scholton then arrested him for violating the PFA order.

According to Dreibelbis' Nov. 7, 2003 complaint, he was filming the incident because his ex-wife had been lying about his commitment to picking up his daughter for past custody visitations. Dreibelbis' lawyer, J. Michael Considine, said that because Dreibelbis was filming in a public place, his actions were not illegal.

Additionally, Dreibelbis alleged that State College Police officer Eric Lesher visited his house after the incident. When Dreibelbis tried to videotape their conversation, Lesher allegedly told him that he would charge him with a felony.

Dreibelbis is suing Scholton, Lesher, Sgt. Mark Argiro and evidence supervisor Richard Ososkie for an amount in excess of $75,000. Accord-

ing to his suit, it was unconstitutional for police to confiscate and refuse to return the videotape and to threaten Dreibelbis for attempting to videotape an officer.

The officers' lawyer, John Flounlacker, countered the suit by filing a motion to dismiss Jan. 5.

Flounlacker's motion denies Dreibelbis' allegation that the police violated the First and 14th Amendments. It states that the First Amendment does not protect unlawful conduct just because it might involve some kind of expression and that the police lawfully seized the tape as part of the PFA violation arrest.

The suit is slated to appear January 2007 before U.S. District Judge John Jones III, the same judge who recently ruled in the case that teaching "intelligent design" in a Pennsylvania public school is unconstitutional. The case roused national attention.

Both King and Argiro declined to comment about the suit because the police department's policy does not allow employees to discuss pending court cases.

Repeated calls to Flounlacker's office were not returned by press time yesterday.