March 8, 2005

A federal jury yesterday rejected a civil rights suit brought by a bicyclist arrested on Memorial Drive in Cambridge in May 2001, concluding that the man wasn’t wrongly arrested by a state trooper. Peter Rowinsky, 31, now a second-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, alleged that he was harassed for riding a bike on the busy roadway. But former trooper John Walsh, who retired from the State Police three years ago, testified last week that Rowinsky was among 100 cyclists from the group Critical Mass, which was blocking traffic and refused to move despite repeated requests. Jurors in the civil case deliberated for less than an hour.