In the past couple of days, WCHS has been reporting about an anonymous whistleblower letter from someone within the West Virginia State Police, revealing numerous specific allegations of misconduct, mostly by senior staff at the agency. I just obtained a copy of that letter and it’s unbelievable.
Here are screenshots of the actual letter:
Breaking news out of federal court in South Carolina, where a federal jury has just awarded a $550,000 verdict against a former Richland County Sheriff’s deputy, as well as the sheriff’s department itself.
Here are the relevant case documents, including the complaint, jury instructions, verdict form, as well as the full deposition transcript of one of the officers:
On May 10, 2019, officers attempted to stop Ronald Greene over an unspecified traffic offense around midnight. A high-speed pursuit began, ending in brutal treatment at the hands of police officers. They did everything in the book to Mr. Greene, who repeatedly cried out that he was scared. Just this week, the other surviving police officers involved in the death of Ronald Greene were criminally charged in Louisiana State Court with crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance.
The 46-minute clip shows one trooper wrestling Greene to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face while another can be heard calling him a “stupid motherf——.”
Greene wails “I’m sorry!” as another trooper delivers another stun gun shock to his backside and warns, “Look, you’re going to get it again if you don’t put your f——- hands behind your back!” Another trooper can be seen briefly dragging the man facedown after his legs had been shackled and his hands cuffed behind him.
https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-arrests-monroe-eca021d8a54ec73598dd72b269826f7a
Facing the most serious charges from a state grand jury was Master Trooper Kory York, who was seen on the body-camera footage dragging Greene by his ankle shackles, putting his foot on his back to force him down and leaving the heavyset man face down in the dirt for more than nine minutes….
The others who faced various counts of malfeasance and obstruction included a trooper who denied the existence of his body-camera footage, another who exaggerated Greene’s resistance on the scene, a regional state police commander who detectives say pressured them not to make an arrest in the case and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy heard on the video taunting Greene with the words “s—- hurts, doesn’t it?”
Associated press, 12/15/22
Law enforcement attempted to coverup their misconduct and to suppress the body cam footage from the public.
Greene’s May 10, 2019, death was shrouded in secrecy from the beginning, when authorities told grieving relatives that the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned by both his family and even an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using force and 462 days would pass before state police began an internal probe.
All the while, the body-camera video remained so secret it was withheld from Greene’s initial autopsy and officials from Edwards on down declined repeated requests to release it, citing ongoing investigations.
But then last year, the AP obtained and published the footage, which showed what really happened: Troopers swarming Greene’s car, stunning him repeatedly, punching him in the head, dragging him by the shackles and leaving him prone on the ground for more than nine minutes. At times, Greene could be heard pleading for mercy and wailing, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”
Associated press, 12/15/22
Not surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time. Now the DOJ has instituted a broad investigation into the Louisiana State Police.
The AP later found that Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings of mostly Black men, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers said the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, racism.
Such reports were cited by the U.S. Justice Department this year in launching a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police, the first “pattern or practice” probe of a statewide law enforcement agency in more than two decades.
Associated press, 12/15/22
Imagine you’re sitting in family court and the judge looks at you and says, what’s your address? I’ll meet you there in 10 minutes, and I’m going to search your house with your ex-wife and my bailiff – a police officer who will arrest you if you don’t let me in. March 4, 2020, that’s what happened to my client. Here’s an update on the current status.
We won on the issue of judicial immunity. Just before the jury trial was set to begin, the defendant judge appealed the case to the Fourth Circuit. Since this matter involves judicial immunity, it’s capable of being appealed prior to trial. Usually a defendant is required to wait until afterwards.
They just filed their brief a couple of days ago. Next it’s our turn to file a response brief, which is due mid-November.
Here’s the federal court opinion denying judicial immunity:
By now we’ve all seen the footage of the train in Colorado hitting the police car stopped on the tracks, severely injuring a woman in police custody who was placed handcuffed in the rear of the police cruiser. My immediate thought was qualified immunity. There can be no doubt that the police officer was directly at fault in causing the severe injuries to the woman in his custody. No doubt about it. But unlike a doctor who negligently injures someone, a police officer get to assert qualified immunity.
Here’s the 8 minute clip showing the train hit the cruiser:
Qualified immunity is unfair and needs to be abolished. A lawyer representing this woman, if a lawsuit is filed, is going to have the legal requirement to point to some past clearly established case law describing the officer’s conduct as a civil rights violation. Well, how many cases have there been in any particular jurisdiction where police officers let people in their custody get hit by trains? Moreover, as I’ve explained before, to establish section 1983 liability, you have to allege intentional conduct – not negligence or incompetence. Some intentional or purposeful conduct. For this reason, when one police officer accidentally shoots their partner, there’s generally no liability. I did a video on that one already.
I took a quick look at the case law in the jurisdiction where this train incident happened, which is Colorado, which is in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. So that’s where you want to look first for federal civil rights case law. I have a theory of liability here. First, take a look at some of the new footage released, from another angle.
There’s a legal doctrine under section 1983 called the state-created danger theory. Basically, it allows a pathway for a plaintiff to establish section 1983 liability for a civil rights violation where the government may not have directly or intentionally caused the injury to the plaintiff, but created the possibility or likelihood that it would occur. This theory has been adopted in the 10th Circuit. Here’s what a plaintiff would have to prove:
- the charged state … actor[ ] created the danger or increased plaintiff’s vulnerability to the danger in some way;
- plaintiff was a member of a limited and specifically definable group;
- defendant[‘s] conduct put plaintiff at substantial risk of serious, immediate, and proximate harm;
- the risk was obvious or known;
- defendants acted recklessly in conscious disregard of that risk; and
- such conduct, when viewed in total, is conscience shocking.
Estate of Reat v. Rodriguez, 824 F.3d 960 (10th Cir. 2016)
But to defeat qualified immunity, you still have to point to a prior case with a similar fact pattern. Again, a non-exhaustive review of 10th Circuit case law shows that the state-created danger doctrine has been applied:
Off-duty police officer on personal business who crashed his police vehicle;
On-duty police officer who engaged in a high-speed chase;
Firefighter who crashed his truck into a car;
Police officer who caused the death of a bystander by instructing him to help physically subdue a suspect, who then shot the civilian;
Social worker who removed a child from his mother’s home and placed him with his father, who killed him;
School official who suspended and sent home a special education student who subsequently killed himself;
State mental health administrators who eliminated a special unit for the criminally insane, causing the transfer of a murderer to the general hospital, where he killed his therapist.
The common theme for liability in the 10th Circuit under the state-created danger theory is that the victims were unable to care for themselves or had limitations imposed on their freedom by state actors. This is very much like the deliberate indifference standard imposed on correctional officers entrusted with the care of inmates. The arrestee is unable to act herself. She can’t get out of the way of the train. Likewise, if a prison catches fire, inmates locked in their cells can’t get out on their own.
I can think of a few other arguments and theories for liability. But this is an often-overlooked one, and popped into my head first. It seems to match our facts here. Watching the footage establishes, without much potential for dispute, that the arresting officer created the danger; that he rendered the victim incapable of helping herself; that he put her into harm’s way, and that the risk was obvious. You can see the fact that he had parked on the train tracks. No doubt the evidence would show that he was aware of the fact that these tracks were frequented by trains. You can actually hear the train coming in the body cam footage.
If this woman is left with no justice due to qualified immunity, hopefully people will start paying attention. Qualified immunity serves no legitimate purpose. It’s the very definition of judicial activism. I’ll be watching this one to see what happens.
Here is part 2 of the body cam footage from the arrest of Jason Tartt by Deputy Dalton Martin of the McDowell County, West Virginia Sheriff’s Department. The part 1 video and lawsuit is posted here.
This week, following public release of the footage showing the arrest of Brian Beckett by Officer Aaron Shrewsbury, of the Mount Hope WV Police Department, the prosecutor on the case filed a motion requesting dismissal of all of the charges, which was granted by the Court. The pending charges of obstruction, disorderly conduct, speeding, and reckless driving were all dismissed and Mr. Beckett was released from bond.
The prosecutor noted in his motion that, “A review of the evidence does not support prosecution of the case.”
This is great news. Many thanks to Mr. Beckett’s criminal defense attorney on the case, Jody Wooten, for a successful conclusion. This doesn’t automatically create civil liability in a federal civil rights lawsuit, but it does foreclose the defense from using the criminal charges, or any criminal conviction, against us in a civil lawsuit. It was also the right thing to do. Our investigation continues in the meantime, both in regards to this incident, as well as into the Nathan Nelson case, where my client had his jaw fractured in two places by the same police officer. Many questions still remain, and information received is still being examined and sorted out.
One of the interesting things I’ve learned is that the police department in this tiny West Virginia town apparently takes up around 50% of the town’s budget. I’ve received lots of tips from credible sources about multiple allegations of corruption surrounding this. So I’ll be taking a deep dive into these issues.
Here’s the dismissal motion and ensuing orders from the Court:
For some unknown reason, following police vehicle pursuits, the suspects rarely make it to jail without suffering violent injuries. They always tend to resist, or get accidentally injured in some way. I’m about to show you brand new footage showing my client, Hiram Tolliver being taken into custody by the Bluefield, West Virginia Police, after leading them on a brief chase. It’s not all that clear why he was fleeing, or why they were chasing him. Other than an allegations of hearing screeching tires, he wasn’t suspected of committing any prior crime. On May 5, 2022, Bluefield Police Department Officer D.R. Barker was assisting the city manager at an intersection in Bluefield, West Virginia. He claims that he heard a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. He claims that he heard the screeching of tires “where the vehicle was taking turns too fast.” Once the vehicle came into view he pulled in behind it and tried to stop it, but the driver fled.
According to the police reports, the pursuit began at 9:29 p.m. Body cam footage shows that the pursuit ended at around 9:36 p.m. – so roughly 5 or 6 minutes – at which time the driver, Hiram Tolliver, was violently taken into custody on the dead end street in front of his parents home. By around 9:48 p.m., Mr. Tolliver would end up falling off the roof of the local fire department building. That’s right, this story doesn’t end with the arrest itself.
See the footage for yourself:
Does what we saw on the video line up with the police reports? Officer Barker wrote the following:
The vehicle then came to a stop at the dead end. The driver was then ordered out of the vehicle and to get on the ground. The driver went to the ground. When he was ordered to give us his hands, he resisted arrest. Detective K.L. Ross could not bring his hands together to effect the arrest. Defensive tactics were used to apprehend the suspect in order to effect the arrest. I was finally able to cuff the driver of the fleeing vehicle.
Officer Barker mentioned in his report that he sustained an injury to his right hand. In fact, we can see that injury in his body cam footage. Gee, I wonder what could have inflicted such a brutal injury?
Unfortunately, similar to the missing body cam footage, we have no report from the first officer to make physical contact with Hiram, Detective Ross.
Justifiable force must be reasonable in light of the circumstances. Courts don’t generally second-guess an officer making split second decisions with 20/20 hindsight in a struggle with someone physically resisting or fighting with them. But if the facts show the arrestee has submitted to them, not resisting, and that force is applied unnecessarily, as a punishment or retaliation, rather than in an attempt to gain control or custody of the person, that is always going to be unreasonable.
Officer Barker didn’t elaborate on what he meant by “defensive tactics” being used on Hiram. There were multiple eyewitness we may hear from later, but what does the video show? Injuries are important evidence in use of force cases, as they can help establish the level of force, and type of force, used. There were several glimpses of Hiram’s face following his arrest. You saw how one side of his face appeared to be bloodied, and the other didn’t. This matches up with subsequent photos from the hospital. You also saw how Detective Ross took Hiram from the first police cruiser all the way back to the last police cruiser, with Hiram limping, in obvious pain. Instead of providing, or making available, medical treatment for his arrestee, Detective Ross instead lectures Hiram, essentially telling him to suffer because of what he had done, endangering police officers during the pursuit.
Compare the screenshot from the video with the hospital photo. Clearly the facial damage was caused during the initial arrest, not the drop from the roof:
Given everything that just happened, as well as the officers’ allegations that Hiram had almost killed several police officers and resisted arrest, to the extent of requiring “defensive tactics,” they wouldn’t un-handcuff him to walk him into the police department for processing would they? Apparently they did, and according to them, Hiram made a run for it just as they were entering the police department door. He jumped over a guardrail, and onto the roof of the fire department, running across the roof and jumping off the roof onto the asphalt 16 feet below. Here’s the only police report to document the roof incident:
The officer who was present for the fire department jump wrote in his report that the first thing he did when he reached Hiram, injured on the asphalt, was handcuff him. Indeed, those handcuffs can be seen in the body cam footage, despite what appears to be a compound fracture of his arm and wrist. There didn’t appear to be much concern by the Bluefield Police Department about the constitutional responsibilities and obligations placed on the government after taking a citizen into custody. Government officials have a duty to provide medical treatment. They have a duty to ensure the safety of their arrestees.
Hiram was airlifted to Charleston Area Medical Center and underwent extensive surgery, treatment and rehabilitation. Why would Hiram have tried to get away? Perhaps he was scared. You could hear that during his arrest, when it sounded like he was being struck by the officers, he was crying out to his parents, who were eyewitnesses, that he was in fear for his life. If he was really trying to flee, why would he pull onto his parents’ dead end street and stop in front of his parents’ home. Perhaps he was scared that the police were going to hurt him? Perhaps he thought there would be safety in witnesses. It’s not all that far-fetched that the fire department roof jump resulted because Hiram thought he would be killed inside the police department and ran for his life?
There were indeed multiple eyewitnesses. In the video, you can hear one of the officers threatening them to get back in their home, and to stop watching the use of force being inflicted on Hiram. I’ll continue investigating and will have more on this later, so subscribe to the email updates to follow along.
What you see here is Bluefield West Virginia off duty police officer, James Mullins, on October 24, 2021 physically attacking multiple individuals, including a local business owner, his girlfriend, and multiple coworker police officers. He had just been involved in a shootout with multiple people in this parking lot. There are bullet holes in his car and shell casings laying around on the ground. At the end of the day, nobody was charged for the parking lot shootout, including the off duty officer. In fact, despite all the crimes you are about to see committed, only one misdemeanor charge of domestic violence resulted, for the video taped violent push of the officer’s girlfriend. And today, that charge was supposed to go to trial. Instead it was dismissed without prejudice. My original video on this was pretty long, but take a look at these few snippets, and let me know if you think the off duty officer appears to you to have committed any crimes.
For some reason, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, and the West Virginia state trooper assigned to investigate it, only saw fit to charge one count of domestic violence. Nothing for the shootout; nothing for physically assaulting the bar owner; nothing for physically assaulting the multiple police officers.
Today that case was scheduled to go to trial. A conviction for domestic battery would have prevented the off duty officer from ever possessing a firearm again legally, and therefore preventing him from ever being employed as a police officer again in the future. But that didn’t happen. The charges have been dropped and he has been released from bond. He’s currently perfectly capable of now possessing a firearm and also to work as a police officer. Unbelievably, as far as I know he’s still certified to be a police officer through West Virginia’s LEPS subcommittee on law enforcement certification. When I previously asked them if they were going to take steps to investigate or decertify Officer Mullins, they responded that he was being prosecuted criminally, so no they weren’t. Oops. Government fails us once again.
The reason given to the news media regarding the dismissal was that the victim was allegedly “uncooperative.” Okay, that’s common in domestic violence prosecutions. But why is that dispositive here, where the crime was caught on video? Do you even need the victim to testify? What if she doesn’t show up? Who cares. What is she going to show up and say, “nothing happened?” It’s on video. Is justice achieved if violent domestic abusers can persuade their victims to not cooperate? No, of course not.
Now, to be fair, the dismissal documents did note on them that the charge was being dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they can be refiled at a later date, and also noting that “related” charges are going before a grand jury. So, it’s possible that more charges are coming, including possible felony charges, which require grand jury indictment. However, the expected date for the grand jury decision is October. West Virginia has a one year statute of limitations for misdemeanor crimes. So if they wait until after October 24, 2023, he’s in the clear and cannot be prosecuted for this, or any other misdemeanor arising from this incident. That does not prevent indictment for felony charges, which do not have a statute of limitations in West Virginia.
Also, I know from past experience that the favorite way of prosecutors generally to coverup acts of police misconduct, especially shootings, is to present it to a secret grand jury where they return a “no true bill,” or a decision not to indict. This would clear the officer, and make it look like it wasn’t the decision of the prosecutor. In reality, we know that prosecutors are known to be able to indict ham sandwiches, controlling the flow of evidence and law to the grand jurors.
Make sure you subscribe to follow along to see what ends up happening. It would be a travesty of justice, as well as a clear and present danger to the public, to allow this to fade away at this point. The public and politicians should look into West Virginia’s LEPS subcommittee on law enforcement certifications and find out why they haven’t decertified this police officer.
Original full video:
Also, let’s not forget about the fact that he appears to have been drinking from an open container in his car before and during this incident:
You may have seen the video posted last week about Mount Hope, WV, police department officer Aaron Shrewsbury. Since the video was posted, I’ve received a lot of information from the public, including from other police officers. That’s always an indication, in my experience and opinion, that there’s a real problem there. I was told today by credible sources that Officer Shrewsbury has now been suspended with pay. I have not received verification of this as of yet, however. As you will see below, his supervisor / Chief of Police, had already signed off on the use of force I’m about to discuss, so hopefully he’s not in charge of the internal investigation…. In the video about what happened to Mr. Beckett, I mentioned that kid from Ohio who had his own encounter with Officer Shrewsbury last year. Let me tell you more.
On August 15, 2021, several police agencies responded to a 911 call from Ace Adventures Complex, a vacation and white water rafting facility located in Minden, Fayette County, West Virginia. There was a verbal altercation that took place at the complex. 20 year old Nathan Nelson, from Ohio, had been visiting his sister, who worked at Ace Adventures Complex. At some point they became involved in some sort of altercation or argument involving multiple other individuals.
Several police agencies arrived, including Officer Shrewsbury from the Mount Hope Police Department. Marijuana was found in the car belonging to Nathan and his sister. Officer Shrewsbury arrested Nathan and placed him in handcuffs.
According to Shrewsbury’s subsequent police report, he handcuffed Nathan and escorted him to a police cruiser. While standing beside the cruiser, nathan allegedly became angry and asked, “why he was fu&cking being arrested.” Shrewsbury then asked him to stop swearing, and then advised him he was being arrested for disorderly conduct and possession of a controlled substance. Nathan responded, “this was fucking bullshit,” to which Shrewsbury responded, “yeah it is,” and that, “I wasn’t knowledgeable about how things were done in Ohio where he was from, but in West Virginia, possessing marijuana and other illegal and dangerous drugs, using profanity in public and fighting in the streets definitely are all illegal here.”
Shrewsbury then wrote in his report that, “I turned away from the male subject briefly to get an Oak Hill officers’ attention to unlock the police vehicle, so I could place the male subject safely inside of it,” but that “As I turned back to the male subject, he turned his head toward me and pursed his lips while making a noise as if he were clearing his throat of flem and filling his mouth with it and sputum. He then moved his head towards me in a motion that made me believe that he was going to spit on me. Observing this, I then rapidly used a straight arm with an open palm to divert the male subject’s head away from me, making physical contact with the left side of his head and facial area. The maneuver was abrupt, but did not cause him to fall to the ground.
By all means, review the pertinent portions of Officer Shrewsbury’s report for yourself:
After the strike to Nathan’s face, Shrewsbury then placed Nathan, still handcuffed, in the rear of the Oak Hill police cruiser, essentially abandoning him there for the Oak Hill officers to find.
Ultimately, Nathan was only charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Nathan maintains that he wasn’t resisting Shrewsbury in any way. And contrary to what Officer Shrewsbury wrote in his police report, Nathan maintains that it went down a little differently. Nathan says that he was told by Shrewsbury, “if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna take these handcuffs off and do one of those old West Virginia ass whoopins.” After apparently not liking Nathan’s response, Nathan states that Officer Shrewsbury, who started to walk away, quickly turned around and punched him in the face with a close fist right hook, with Nathan still handcuffed and not physically resisting in any way.
I discussed in the previous video about Officer Shrewsbury that he had been decertified as a police officer while working at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in 2015, for lying and dishonesty as a police officer. The next year, Shrewsbury ran for the position of Magistrate Judge in Fayette County, touting his law enforcement experience – not mentioning his decertification – and also bragging that he was a professional boxer.
A review of old social media also reveals at least one past boxing photo of Officer Shrewsbury.
The physical trauma inflicted to Nathan corroborates that, and corroborates Nathan’s recollection of being punched with a closed-fist right hook, rather than the word salad written by Officer Shrewsbury.
Nathan was discovered by other police officers, sitting in the back of a police cruiser, covered with blood, with his tooth laying in his lap, his shirt covered with blood, suffering in severe pain. These other officers took Nathan into their custody and transported him to a nearby hospital, where he underwent emergency treatment. Nathan’s jaw was broken in two different places. He was going to require immediate surgery. He ended up being transported all the way back to Ohio to a specialist surgeon at Ohio State University, for the necessary surgery on his jaw.
Excerpts of Nathan’s medical records from Plateau Medical Center Emergency Room:
So you have a 20 year old kid, handcuffed, charged only with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, punched in the face by a police officer claiming to have experience as a professional boxer, knocking out at least one tooth, and fracturing his jaw in two places, requiring transport by ambulance, all the way to Ohio for surgery, where he spent four days hospitalized.
One of the police officers from the nearby Oak Hill Police Department who discovered Nathan injured and bleeding in the back of the police cruiser, and who transported him to the emergency room of the nearby hospital, noted in her report that she didn’t even know who had arrested and handcuffed Nathan, even identifying the design of the handcuffs she removed from him at the hospital.
Another Oak Hill officer noted in his report that he was “made aware that an officer had punched the male” [arrestee] and placed him in into the other Oak Hill officer’s car, basically abandoning him there with no information or documentation.
Laughably, in his subsequent written police report, Officer Shrewsbury filled out a use of force report that contained almost no information about the force that he used, or the reason for using it. Mind you, I don’t believe his report even alleged that Nathan spit at him, just that he allegedly heard sounds that he alleges were leading up to a spit. Importantly, Nathan wasn’t charged with spitting, or attempting to spit on any police officer.
Police use of force incidents are judged by the federal courts using the Graham Factors, which are going to easily show that this was an unreasonable and excessive use of force. Here you have an individual charged with an extremely minor crime, who is handcuffed, who is not physically resisting, but rather only running his mouth, expressing criticism, who is punched in the face with tremendous force, by a large police officer who claims to be a boxer.
While that police officer claims he heard pre-spit sounds, that same police officer has already been decertified for lying as a police officer. Thus, it’s probably for the best if Officer Shrewsbury is suspended. All of this begs the question about why the town of Mount Hope, West Virginia hired him in the first place, and why they appear to have let him escape real supervision.
Make sure you subscribe and follow-along to hear what’s happening next, because we’re learning more by the day, and lawsuits are looming.