One particular police officer in Kentucky, Larry “Gus” Curtis, has repeatedly resigned while under investigation, subsequently appearing somewhere else. This last time, he was fired, and as far as I know, his current whereabouts are unknown. Prior to resigning from the Frankfort Police Department, he was sued twice for barging into women’s homes without a warrant. In one such case, a Kentucky judge lambasted Curtis for bodycam footage showing him barging into a woman’s home as part of a CPS investigation, even after the woman asked for a warrant.
Paul O’Brien, who lives in Grafton, West Virginia, observed a Taylor County Sheriff’s Deputy running a speed trap across the road from his residence. He posted on Facebook about it, joking that he WISHED he had an M-80 (firecracker) so that he could set it off and cause the deputy to have a heart attack. In the same post, he criticized the department for the deaths of three individuals over the years. Deputy Cody Mayle of the TCSD then paid Paul a visit at his home. He had no warrant, but rather just wanted to “talk.”
When Paul decided he didn’t want to talk with Deputy Mayle, Deputy Mayle suddenly grabbed him and arrested him. Paul spent two nights in jail. Around three months later, the frivolous charge of “obstruction” was dropped, since it was admittedly frivolous, according to the prosecutor. Paul submitted a complaint to the department, but heard nothing back.
This is Deputy Cody Mayle, who is seen on bodycam laughing as soon as Paul was thrown in the holding cell:
My last West Virginia based video coincidentally, was from Barbour County, which is only the next county over, and that deputy also has the same last name – Mayle. Here’s a link to that video. I’ll have more information soon about that situation…
This video shows a very recent police interaction that occurred in Barbour County, West Virginia. It shows Barbour County Sheriff’s Deputy Christian Mayle violently pulling a man named Vince out of a car. Vince is a nurse and was on his way to the nursing home where he works. His longtime girlfriend was driving him. They were pulled over on an allegation of the car going “left of center.” The traffic stop actually ended and a warning citation was issued to the girlfriend/driver. But then, suddenly Deputy Mayle ordered both occupants out of the vehicle. When Vince questioned his authority to do so, the officer cited Pennsylvania v. Mimms and quickly lost his temper, macing Vince and pulling him violently from the car.
Days after the incident, as the video was going viral on Facebook, amidst online discussion over his conduct, Deputy Mayle posted this, presumably referring to the incident. It was later deleted.
Here’s the police report:
Fourth Circuit case law sources cited in the video:
This footage was documented by The Real News Network in a great video, where they interviewed the family involved. It’s a perfect illustration of these “gangs” of drug task force type cops, who like to wear backward ball caps, cover their bodies with tattoos, and otherwise attempt to NOT look like cops. Often that causes problems when they go to do cop things, like pull people over for traffic stops. This footage shows just one instance of that. Then, when they don’t find what they were looking for, they often resort to lying and fabricating charges.
This shocking footage was released by the Broken Arrow Police Department via their Facebook page. It shows the bodycam video of a police officer who “hates” a citizen named Richard. He really wants to arrest Richard, but all he has on him is a sketchy allegation of a parking violation. Does he just issue a citation and mail it to him, or go get an arrest warrant? No, he busts into Richard’s house illegally and violently arrests him inside his home. This is crazy footage showing one of the worst false arrests I’ve ever seen.
Here’s a screenshot of the Facebook post:
The comments are sort of hilarious though. Apparently everyone hates Richard – especially his neighbors, and they’re willing to overlook the concept of constitutional rights, just to keep Richard in jail for a little while longer.
This footage was submitted from Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, showing the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office knocking on a man’s door and then kicking his tiny dog shortly afterwards, after the dog apparently attempted to urinate on the cop’s leg. The officers knocked on the man’s door while investigating him for allegedly causing damage to a police cruiser. Without obtaining a warrant first, the officers ended up arresting the man.
As I’ve explained numerous times, according to the 1980 Supreme Court opinion in Payton v. New York, in order to legally arrest someone in a home, rather than in a public place, absent consent or exigent circumstances, police officers must have a warrant. But what about kicking the homeowner’s dog? Or shooting the dog?
As an initial matter, it is well-settled that privately owned dogs are “effects” under the Fourth Amendment, and that the shooting and killing of such a dog constitutes a “seizure.” So it’s a different legal standard that standard police shooting cases. It’s an overall reasonableness standard, recognizing that police can shoot dogs where officer safety justifies the decision.
The question is whether, at the time the officer shot the dog, he held a reasonable belief that the dog posed a threat to himself or others. If the facts are sufficient to show that such a belief was unreasonable, then the law is clearly established in most circuits that shooting a dog under those circumstances would constitute an unreasonable seizure of property under the Fourth Amendment. That’s not a great way of looking at the value of our dogs, but that’s the actual legal analysis.
This video was submitted by a guy who was pulled over in Pflugerville, Texas for an allegedly broken tail light. For 45 minutes, a police officer asked the man questions entirely unrelated to the reason for the stop. Apparently this officer received some sort of interdiction type “training,” and he concluded he was able to find drug smugglers otherwise disguised as law abiding citizens. Meanwhile, the drug sniffing dog was en route, and after it arrived, the dog smelt nothing.
Here’s the man’s explanation about his experience:
A passenger and I were driving within the speed limit on Pfleugerville parkway. At 14:24 officer Z. Tatum #436 did a u-turn and got behind my vehicle. He remained behind me through three stoplights and engaged his emergency lights at 14:32. He approached the passenger side of my vehicle and explained the reason for the stop was that my third, center, brake light wasn’t functioning and he intended to give me a written warning for that. He collected my drivers license, registration, and proof of insurance, then returned to his cruiser. At 14:35 he returned to the driver’s side and asked me to exit my vehicle. I asked why, and he said “I just want to talk to you”. At this point officer Adkins #391 and another unidentified officer were on the scene. Officer Tatum explained that he had called a neighboring jurisdiction and had requested a K9 officer to report to the scene. He repeatedly asked if there were drugs in the car, by name, and each time, I honestly answered that there were no drugs in the car. I also offered that there were no weapons in the car and voluntarily surrendered my pocket knife, placing it on the roof of the car.
I asked officer Tatum what reasonable suspicion he had that there were drugs in the vehicle but he only gave me vague responses. I asked about the legality of extending the stop beyond the scope of writing the warning for the infraction that was the purpose of the stop, and he insisted that it was within his authority to do so. I know it is not in his authority to do so, and extending the stop was a violation of my fourth amendment protections. I asked again about what reasonable suspicion he had and he responded with “I’m trained up and have been to a few classes” and that my behavior somehow indicated something to him. The K-9 unit, Round Rock officer Garmong #5160 didn’t arrive on scene until 15:11. They arrived at my vehicle at 15:13 after a brief conversation with the Pflugerville officers, did an open air sniff of the car, circling it four times as well as into the open passenger window, and returned to their vehicle at 15:18 without indication or further incident. After finally printing the written warning, officer Tatum handed it to me and I was released to return to my vehicle at 15:20. However, officer Tatum had not returned my driver’s license, and I had to go pick it up at The station later.
His timeline is as follows:
14:24 officer makes u-turn to get behind me. 14:25 stoplight 14:27 stoplight 14:31 stoplight, left turn 14:32 lights, contact 14:35 officer returns to unit 14:38:02 returns to my car 14:38:30 I exit car second unit on scene, 3rd officer on scene 15:11 K-9 unit arrives 15:13 K-9 at car 15:15 K-9 returns to unit 15:18 K-9 unit leaves 15:20:30 I return to my car.
A federal lawsuit was filed after a man was shot and killed by a Princeton (West Virginia) Police Officer inside his own house, following allegations from his neighbor that he had been riding his ATV through the neighbor’s yard. The officers were captured on bodycam footage engaging in an investigation within the curtilage of the man’s yard, and ultimately kicking in the door and shooting him. The officer who shot and killed the man claimed that the man had a baseball bat and refused to drop it. Conveniently however, he wasn’t wearing a bodycam, despite a department policy mandating that he do so. Some of the shooting was captured on another officer’s bodycam. It was recently released by the family’s lawyers.
In Elyria, Ohio, cops encouraged a woman to kick in her ex-boyfriend’s front door, so that she could get her belongings inside. They did not have a warrant. But they followed her inside the man’s house anyways, and proceeded to walk upstairs and surprise him as he got out of the shower. Then they tased him multiple times, arrested him, and charged him with multiple felonies. But then he got a lawyer, and the lawyer reviewed the body cam footage.
By the way, this is the same police department that went viral for the huge SWAT raid where they used the flash bangs against the innocent mom and baby inside. Media report from that here.
This footage was submitted by Meika Prince, who went into a two-story Walgreens in Seattle, Washington, only to be accosted by a huge private security guard, who was wearing – not-one – but two, in-operational bodycams, as well as two police badges, one of which appears to be an actual police detective badge from New York. The footage made the local news, after which the security guard was apparently fired. She’s already filed a lawsuit. But can she sue a fake cop for civil rights violations?
