The Civil Rights Lawyer

Last week I posted a Tik Tok video showing what appears to be a police SWAT team style entry into a home related to a building inspection in New Port Richey, Florida. The woman who uploaded the video to Tik Tok reached out and shared the rest of the story with me. It only gets worse with more information.... Check it out. Copies of the "inspection warrant" and underlying affidavit are now posted at the link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/27/swat-style-entry-for-scary-crime-of-no-building-permit/ Here's the First Video: https://youtu.be/AWXBaTqSkTc

You may have seen the video I posted back in January of 2021 showing my client being arrested in a West Virginia Walmart for bringing an uncased shotgun into the store. He brought the shotgun into the sporting goods section in order to determine if they had any slings that would fit. 911 calls ensued from store employees. What happened was captured on surveillance footage. Well, big update today. Original video: https://youtu.be/i7Jpe7ep26w More at link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/08/01/tased-and-arrested-in-walmart-lawsuit-filed/

Just released, body cam footage shows Gastonia, North Carolina police arresting a homeless veteran, suspected of panhandling in a median, and doing "this" to his dog, named Sunshine. This is brand new footage, ordered released by a judge, against the will of Gastonia law enforcement, who fought the release of the footage, supposedly to guarantee the homeless vet, Joshua Rohrer, a “fair trial.” Yeah, right. If law enforcement doesn’t want you to see it, then you probably need to see it. More at the link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/29/cops-arrest-homeless-vet-for-being-in-a-median-and-do-this-to-his-dog-sunshine/ Raw footage from Joshua Rohrer's channel: https://youtu.be/qr4zhKosQsk

There’s a jury trial in Euclid, Ohio this week where Euclid police officer, Michael Amiott is being prosecuted for a use of force incident following the 2017 traffic stop of Richard Hubbard. Amiott is charged with two counts of assault and one count of interfering with civil rights. Cell phone video showed the officer repeatedly punching Richard Hubbard after he was pulled over for an unspecified moving violation. The entire trial has been live streamed on Youtube by WKYC and some of the testimony has been interesting. This is what we’re dealing with by the way, in the mission to obtain some accountability where citizens are violently victimized by the government. Read more and links: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/28/police-officer-michael-amiott-fired-rehired-sued-and-now-prosecuted-live/

Someone sent me another interesting video from Tik Tok, this time showing cops making an entry into a home pursuant to a search warrant, guns drawn, due to the alleged high crime of failure to obtain a building permit. You can hear them yell search warrant and then abruptly make entry, which is very close to a no knock entry. There is a constitutional requirement that police officer knock and announce their presence prior to making entry, even with a valid search warrant. There are exceptions for where a no knock warrant is obtained, or where exigent circumstances are presented at the scene, assuming the dangerousness presented wasn't known prior to the warrant being obtained. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/27/swat-style-entry-for-scary-crime-of-no-building-permit/ Link to original video: https://www.tiktok.com/@1_2_3_4more/video/7119230155666640174?_t=8UD8meAcQow&_r=1

About 7 months ago, I posted a video about a West Virginia police officer, Everette Maynard, formerly of the Logan, WV Police Department who was found guilty by a federal jury of violating an arrestee’s civil rights by using excessive force. This was caught on video. This is the one where the officer was caught by a surveillance camera flipping the bird to the camera. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/26/former-logan-pd-officer-sentenced-to-9-years-for-civil-rights-violations/ First video I did on this: https://youtu.be/ZJz9d_rOfOI

My email inbox blew up this weekend after a nationally-known First Amendment auditor on Youtube, @Long Island Audit , posted a video of his interaction at a courthouse that is local to me, in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/lYQwF8ASyLg People have been asking for my take on this video. Given the fact that I have an office a stone’s throw away from where this was filmed, I’ve been in that courthouse many times. In fact, I was first sworn in to practice in West Virginia circuit courts in that very courthouse. Read more and see the footage: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/25/greenbrier-county-first-amendment-audit-video/ #audit #firstamendment #lawyer

To see footage of police officers secretly inside someone's home, where there's no criminal investigation, or even charges, and where there's no legal justification, is scary. I get asked all the time for an update on the Creepy Cops Search case out of Putnam County, West Virginia, where plain-clothes police officers from the sheriff's department's "Special Enforcement Unit" were caught on hidden camera literally breaking into my client's home, sneaking in through the window, searching the inside of the house for non-existent drugs. Read and see more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/22/update-on-my-creepy-cops-search-case-of-putnam-county-wv/

Does the First Amendment protect a FJB flag? A video went viral on Tik Tok showing Ring doorbell camera footage of a police officer removing a family's "F" Joe Biden flag from its display on the front of the home. The homeowner explained in a subsequent video that he had been previously threatened with arrest for good 'ole disorderly conduct if he continued to display the flag. Is this a violation of the First Amendment? What about the Fourth Amendment? Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/21/police-caught-on-doorbell-video-removing-fjb-flag/

Video footage was released from a Delaware man’s Ring Doorbell showing two ATF agents and one Delaware State Police trooper questioning a homeowner about recent firearms purchases. Do they need reasonable suspicion or probable cause, you ask? The footage, accompanied by an article at Ammoland.com, explained that the homeowner, in hindsight, felt that his privacy has been invaded and that he felt coerced into cooperation with the officers. The officers explained that they were part of a task force investigating potential straw purchases, which occur when someone buys a firearm on behalf of another person, who is otherwise unable to purchase directly. They had records in-hand, showing the homeowner’s recent purchases, and they said they wanted to verify that the man still had the firearms. Here’s the footage, then I’ll explain the law. Read more and get the links: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/20/atf-agents-show-up-at-the-door-to-check-firearms-purchases/

On the morning of July 20, 2020, rookie Cleveland Police Officer Bailey Gannon shot his partner. Screaming as he fled in panic down a flight of stairs from a man who was neither chasing nor threatening him, Gannon pointed his gun over his head—in the opposite direction he was running— and began firing blindly behind him. One of his bullets hit his partner, whom he had just run right past. That was the opening paragraph in a federal civil rights lawsuit just filed by Cleveland police officer, Jennifer Kilnapp, against her former partner, as well as the City of Cleveland. So this is a police shooting case – an excessive force case – from one cop against another cop. Can a police officer, who is unintentionally shot by another police officer, sue the government for a civil rights violation? Unfortunately, I can answer that one. But first, here’s a portion of the body cam footage. Full video, exhibits and full lawsuit at link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/19/cop-sues-partner-for-excessive-force-for-missing-the-suspect-and-hitting-her/

A dozen or so people sent me this media story over the weekend involving a West Virginia judge who has been accused of pulling a gun in his courtroom, mocking the "man purse" of a Texas lawyer's ex-CIA private security contractor, and otherwise treating her abusively and unfairly. It was first published in the Daily Beast, and also was published in the WV Record on Friday. Now it's even made the Daily Mail. This involves West Virginia state court Circuit Court Judge David Hummel, in the small town of New Martinsville, in Wetzel County, West Virginia, who presided over a trial regarding gas royalty payments to landowners back in March, being tried by a Texas corporate attorney, Lauren Varnado. She is apparently the source of the allegations. Despite this going viral in the national news, I'm going to point out something to you that I think they may have overlooked. More on that in a minute. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/18/wv-judge-pulls-gun-in-courtroom-and-then-it-got-weird/ ETA: for some reason the end portion was cut-off on upload. While I try to remedy that, the Facebook version has the full video: https://fb.watch/emqkmtitvS/

Hazelwood, Missouri Police Chief Greg Hall, who had been with his department for 43 years, and who was chair of the St. Louis Area Police Chief’s Association in 2019, was pulled over by another police agency on May 28 for a traffic stop. He was “hammered drunk.” Was he carted off to the jail like you or I would have been? No… Here’s the footage. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/15/hammered-drunk-police-chief-gets-ride-home-and-a-talk-instead-of-dui/ Full video and investigative report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/video-hazelwood-police-chief-was-hammered-drunk-during-stop-driven-home-by-another-chief/article_2048c7d5-0fe9-5ad4-89ac-4d855f36199a.html

Breaking news today in the federal civil rights lawsuit against Family Court Judge Louise E. Goldston, which alleges constitutional violations for her search of my client's house in March of 2020.... Just today, the Federal Court issued an order denying the judge's claim of judicial immunity, ordering that the jury trial is on for Tuesday. Read the awesome opinion 😎: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/13/breaking-federal-court-denies-judicial-immunity-in-family-court-judge-lawsuit/

On July 8, following a 3 week trial, a federal jury convicted three former state-level correctional officers in Hawaii of felony civil rights violations for the physical assault of an inmate under their custody, as well as of charges relate to the subsequent coverup. After the trial, the federal judge immediately ordered the U.S. Marshalls to take the men into custody pending their sentencing hearings. I have the surveillance footage, and it’s pretty bad. I also obtained some of the criminal case documents, including the indictment, jury instructions and jury verdict form, which you can find at the website at thecivilrightslawyer.com. Take a look at the surveillance video, and then we’ll go into the indictment, which was initially sealed. It’s somewhat long for a use of force incident, but watch the whole thing, because it must be seen to be understood. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/12/three-correctional-officers-convicted-following-jury-trial/

A former officer with the Monroe Police Department in Monroe Louisiana, has now pled guilty in federal court to a felony charge of deprivation of rights under color of law, in a case handled by the U.S. DOJ Civil Rights Division. The excessive force incident happened on April 21, 2020 and involved former officer Jared Desadier. I obtained the body cam footage. Check it out…. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/11/former-officer-enters-guilty-plea-to-federal-civil-rights-violation/

This morning I received multiple links and copies of this video that’s been circulating, showing a West Virginia State Trooper, in what appears to be inside a family’s home without a warrant. Apparently it was originally posted to Tik Tok, and then removed for some reason. It appears to involve a police response to a church traffic cone, which resulted in the homeowner apparently banging on the church’s door at some point. This trooper shows up, walks in the guy’s home, admittedly without a warrant, and without permission. Then the trooper makes a move on the phone, followed by some sort of altercation at the end. Here’s the video, then I’ll address some legal issues which I see. Is a warrant required? If not, is there an applicable exception? Citations and law at the link: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/08/wv-trooper-walks-in-house-and-demands-to-be-sued/

A friend of the eyewitness to a crazy police shooting that happened today in Beckley, West Virginia, sent me the footage captured via smartphone, while bystanders stuck in traffic watched it go down right in front of them. I already posted it on my twitter page, where it’s spreading quickly and obviously disturbing most people. I didn’t want to get in trouble again on Youtube, so I’m going to edit the version I post there, and then re-direct anyone who wants to see the entire thing to this post. So, here’s the footage: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/06/man-shot-by-police-today-while-onlookers-film-in-beckley-wv/ Twitter Video : https://twitter.com/johnbryanesq/status/1544729897750478850?s=21&t=y2EB60FRFt_2SikZ3AXeJg

On June 27, 2022, Judge Darrell Jordan, of Harris County, Texas, was indicted on the misdemeanor state-law charge of Official Oppression for ordering the contempt arrest of journalist Wayne Dolcefino. The arrest of Dolcefino occurred exactly two years earlier, on June 30, 2020, while Judge Jordan was presiding over County Criminal Court at Law No. 16 of Harris County, Texas. Using a pen camera, Dolcefino surreptitiously recorded his arrest. I reached out to him and he gave me permission to show the footage. Also, you won’t believe the update out just today. Or maybe you will…. Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/05/judge-indicted-after-hidden-camera-records-contempt-arrest/ Mr. Dolcefino’s channel: https://youtube.com/c/DolcefinoConsulting Mr. Dolcefino’s website: https://dolcefino.com

It’s an American tradition to burn gunpowder on July 4. Happy 4th from The Civil Rights Lawyer, family and friends. Should be some big news coming out tomorrow in the Family Court Judge case, so stay tuned….

Update on the Family Court Judge Search Case: It was over two years ago – March 10, 2020 – when I uploaded a video on what was then my fairly new Youtube channel, showing the footage depicting a West Virginia Family Court Judge searching my client’s home. The judge ended up being charged with judicial disciplinary violations, which went all the way to the State Supreme Court, ending in a written censure to the judge, describing the search as serious misconduct, which was not a judicial activity authorized under state law. A federal Section 1983 civil rights lawsuit was filed, which I’ve documented extensively, and which I’ve spent hours upon hours litigating. Today we had a pretrial conference in federal court and I want to give a quick update on where we stand. Original Video from March 10, 2020: https://youtu.be/_0IDL8ll2x4 Part 2 Update Video from October 1, 2020: https://youtu.be/V-2o0PVLQtk Read more: https://thecivilrightslawyer.com/2022/07/01/looks-like-were-going-to-jury-trial-in-the-family-court-judge-case/