Yesterday afternoon we filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police officers involved in the viral video showing police (without a warrant) forcing my client, James Walkup, to crawl to his own front door, only to have his head smashed with a boot on his front porch. If you haven’t seen the video, here it is:
This happened in the Western end of Greenbrier County, West Virginia. And here’s the filed lawsuit, now pending in the Beckley Division of the Southern District of West Virginia. We made claims for unlawful search and seizure, as well as use of excessive force. The defendants are one Rainelle, WV police officer and two West Virginia State Troopers.
Video update Part 2, providing more background and evidence in the case, and summarizing the lawsuit:
Here’s the damage to Mr. Walkup’s head:
Here’s the Rainelle Police Department officer who smashed Mr. Walkup’s head:
Here’s the West Virginia State Trooper who grabbed the phone and turned it off, and who we allege attempted to delete the video footage (which was retrieved in the trash of the phone’s “cloud”):
I am a one man operation you tube investigative reporter. Could I follow this please? I would like to get behind the scenes ( without jeopardizing the case) to help draw a line between what crappy police look and act like that compared to good cops. We need to cleanse our departments of these scumbags. They are making it very very very difficult for Joe Average Cop on the street to be effective. And he needs to have the longest arm of the law rammed up his you-know-what so he NEVER forgets.
What’s your channel?
Why don’t you file obstruction of justice and/or tampering with evidence against the police officer who erased the video from the phone. The police is Texas do it all the time.