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# Criminal charges dropped against local game inventor
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/criminal-charges-dropped-against-local-game-inventor/
- Published: 2003-08-09T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:42:23.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Crime, Promenade, #archive-import

*Man plans to sue City Hall in federal court*

A judge has cleared the way for a local game inventor to sue City Hall in federal court for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins this week dropped the last seven criminal charges against Stewart Lamle, inventor of the game “Farook.”

Over the past several years, Lamle has been slapped with numerous criminal charges for performing on the Third Street Promenade without a permit, using a table with illegal dimensions, possessing milk crates, which is against California law, and operating a business without a license.

Lamle has for years argued that City Hall is violating his constitutional rights by not allowing him to sell or showcase his game and refusing to grant him a business license.

Lamle contends that it’s his First Amendment right to express himself by playing and selling Farook, a high-level strategy game with similarities to Chinese checkers and chess.

Kamins said he wanted to give Lamle the opportunity to take his civil case against City Hall to a higher court and the pending criminal charges were prohibiting Lamle from doing so.

“I’m delighted,” said Lamle, adding that he intends to sue City Hall for $1 million in lost wages, embarrassment and emotional distress. “Now I just want to collect the money.”

Deputy City Attorney David Fairweather said City Hall agreed to drop the charges, but only on the condition that Lamle not return to the Promenade to sell his game.

“Mr. Lamle is on notice,” he said. “He certainly doesn’t have a free pass to go out on the Promenade and do this again.

“If he thinks he has the right to do this, then he can go to the federal courts and see if they agree with him.”

Lamle lost his appeal of City Hall’s decision not to grant him a business license in March. The anticipated civil suit will not only ask for monetary damages, but also that he be granted a business license.

In this week’s ruling, Kamins indicated that denying Lamle a business license may have been unfair. He also ordered Lamle’s games and the table on which he sells them, which were confiscated more than a year ago, to be returned.

Paul Mills, Lamle’s attorney, said City Hall has acted in flagrant disregard of the U.S. Constitution by arbitrarily deciding not to grant Lamle the license.

Mills won’t represent Lamle on the civil suit, but said Lamle has to petition a state or federal court for a writ of mandate, a court order which would force City Hall to grant him a business license.

But doing so with the criminal charges pending would have been nearly impossible, Mills added.

“It’s like climbing Mt. Everest in flip flops,” he said. “It’s just very, very hard.”

Stewart Lamle

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/080903-01_01-7.jpg)

Lamle, inventor of the game, “Farook,” was denied a business license. (Photo: File photo Stewart)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 9, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)