The Dillon Shane Webb settlement that many people expect to find does not exist as a public dollar figure. Webb’s federal civil rights lawsuit over his 2019 arrest for an “I EAT ASS” window sticker ended on November 15, 2021, when both sides filed a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice, agreeing that each party would bear its own attorney’s fees and costs.1Internet Archive. Joint Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice, Webb v. English No settlement amount appears in any court filing, news report, or public record.
What the Dismissal Does and Doesn’t Tell You
A dismissal with prejudice by joint stipulation, filed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a), permanently ends the case and bars Webb from refiling the same claims. When it happens after active litigation, it often signals a settlement. It can also mean the parties simply agreed to walk away. The stipulation in Webb v. English is silent on any payment.1Internet Archive. Joint Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice, Webb v. English
Federal civil rights settlements in Florida are not automatically disclosed through public records, and neither Webb’s legal team nor the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office appears to have made a public statement about the resolution. If money changed hands, the amount has stayed private.
Why Only One Claim Was Left to Resolve
By the time the case ended, most of it had already been decided against Webb. On September 23, 2021, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard granted qualified immunity to Deputy Travis English and Corporal Chad Kirby on Webb’s First Amendment claims. She wrote that “reasonable officers could think that the bumper sticker was obscene, making it an arrestable offense,” and found that even if the sticker was protected speech, the law on that point was not “clearly established” when the deputy acted.2ABA Journal. Cop Who Arrested Man for I Eat A Bumper Sticker Is Entitled to Qualified Immunity, Federal Judge Rules
The judge did allow Webb’s Fourth Amendment claim to move forward. That claim challenged the search and impoundment of his truck rather than the arrest itself.2ABA Journal. Cop Who Arrested Man for I Eat A Bumper Sticker Is Entitled to Qualified Immunity, Federal Judge Rules So when the parties stipulated to dismissal less than two months later, only that vehicle search and impound issue was still live. Any settlement would have been limited to that surviving claim, not to the free speech claims the ruling had already knocked out.
The Arrest That Started the Case
On May 5, 2019, Deputy Travis English of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office pulled Webb over at a traffic light in Lake City, Florida, after seeing the sticker on his truck. English told Webb the sticker violated Florida’s obscenity statute and ordered him to peel off one of the letters. Webb refused, citing the First Amendment.2ABA Journal. Cop Who Arrested Man for I Eat A Bumper Sticker Is Entitled to Qualified Immunity, Federal Judge Rules
After consulting a supervisor, English arrested Webb and charged him under Florida Statute § 847.011, a second-degree misdemeanor covering “obscene descriptions, photographs, or depictions” displayed on a motor vehicle, along with resisting an officer without violence. His truck was searched and towed.3NBC Miami. Charges Dropped Against Florida Man Arrested for Obscene Sticker Four days later, on May 9, 2019, Assistant State Attorney John Foster Durrett declined to prosecute, writing that Webb had “a valid defense to be raised under the First Amendment” and that “a jury would not convict under these facts.”4Gainesville Sun. Citing Free Speech, Prosecutor Won’t Pursue Crude Sticker Case
Webb, represented by Jacksonville attorney Andrew Bonderud, filed his federal suit on August 21, 2019, in the Middle District of Florida under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The complaint named Deputy English, Corporal Kirby, Sheriff Mark Hunter, and the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, and alleged both First and Fourth Amendment violations. Webb had also been suspended from his job after the arrest.5CourtListener. Webb v. English, 3:19-cv-009756New York Post. Florida Man Arrested Over I Eat A Sticker Prepares to File Lawsuit
What the Case Did Not Decide
The lawsuit ended without a ruling on whether Webb’s sticker was constitutionally protected. Judge Howard’s qualified immunity decision addressed only whether the deputies could be personally liable, not whether Florida’s motor vehicle obscenity statute is valid as applied to crude but non-pornographic stickers. That underlying free speech question remains unresolved in the Eleventh Circuit.2ABA Journal. Cop Who Arrested Man for I Eat A Bumper Sticker Is Entitled to Qualified Immunity, Federal Judge Rules
Courts elsewhere have generally sided with vulgar bumper stickers. The Georgia Supreme Court struck down a “Shit Happens” conviction in Cunningham v. State (1991), and a federal court in Alabama ruled in Baker v. Glover (1991) that a sticker reading “How’s My Driving? Call 1-800-EAT SHIT!” had “serious literary and political value” as parody.7First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University. Bumper Stickers None of that became binding law in Webb’s case. The docket closed, the constitutional question stayed open, and any money that may have resolved his final Fourth Amendment claim stayed out of view.