Category Archives: Wrongful Arrest

City Pays $250,000 for Abusing Elderly Man for Looking at a Police Car

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A 70 year old man in Ada County, Idaho was arrested by police officers at a police station, after he dared to look into a police cruiser window. The charges were later dismissed. He filed a lawsuit, which just settled for $250,000, along with mandatory additional training for sheriff’s deputies in that county.

Here’s Sherriff Matt Clifford’s troubling statement, as discussed in the video:

Earlier this week, we settled a lawsuit with Mr. Heikkola, stemming from an incident in January 2023. It wasn’t our best day. It is the expectation that Ada County deputies perform to the best of their abilities every day — while keeping people’s constitutional rights in the forefront of their minds, while also keeping our community safe.

For anyone to claim we are trampling on someone’s constitutional rights simply isn’t true.The reality is, we have hundreds of contacts every day with people of all different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and socioeconomic standings. While the vast majority of those interactions go well, occasionally we fumble and miss the mark.

Part of the settlement was to include additional constitutional policing training; fortunately, we had already implemented this training prior to the settlement. We will now also include a scenario similar to Mr. Heikkola’s in our scenario-based training. We are one of few law enforcement agencies across the country with routine built-in training time. Every patrol deputy receives 9.5 training hours per month. These blocks of training include topics such as firearms training, scenario-based training, legal updates, EVOC, de-escalation techniques, arrest and control techniques, CPR and first aid, and more.

Part of our culture at the Ada County Sheriff’s Office is to always strive to be better – and learning from this incident will help us to do just that.

– Matt Clifford, Ada County Sheriff

Here’s the full lawsuit:

Heikkola-ComplaintDownload

LYING Sheriff Attacks ME Over Viral Video Exposing ILLEGAL Arrest

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The video I posted last week about the illegal arrest in Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia apparently made the news today. Here’s my response.

Here’s the FULL uncut raw bodycam footage from the incident, from beginning to end:

Here’s the newspaper article:

Cop Resigns (AGAIN) After Barging in Woman’s Home (AGAIN)!

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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.

Media report here.

The lawsuit filed by Ms. Myers:

Myers-Complaint-KYDownload

The lawsuit filed by the other couple that was settled:

show_temp.pl_Download

Guy Posted About Local Cops on Facebook – They Arrest Him For it!

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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 is the location of the incident:

Here’s the police report / charging document:

Here’s the dismissal order:

“Anabolic” Cop Pulls Man From Car AFTER Stop was Over

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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:

United States v. Hill, 852 F.3d 377 (4th Cir. 2017)

United States v. Robinson, 846 F.3d 694 (4th Cir. 2017)

Gang of Cops Bully & Arrest 17-year-old Girl on the Drive Home From School

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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.

The Real News Video is here.

Somewhat grainy copy of the actual police report (best I can do, sorry):

Cop with a Personal Grudge BUSTS Into Man’s Home ILLEGALLY – Over Parking Violation!

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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.

Cop KICKS Dog | Caught on DoorBell Video | Does your Family Pet have Rights?

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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.

Grandmother Rushes a 3-year-old to the Hospital – but Gets Pulled Over!

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In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a 53-year-old grandmother was attempting to rush her 3-year-old granddaughter to the hospital emergency room, but on the way was pulled over by a Bartlesville Police Officer, who essentially yanked her out of the car, put her in handcuffs, put her in the rear of the police car, and arrested her. Later, the police chief apologized to the community for the way his officer treated the woman.

Media report here.

The statutes discussed in the video:

Bad Cop Was PROMOTED After This – Now CHARGED!

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This officer has now been indicted for the violent illegal arrest of Michael Scurlock over two years ago. But initially, rather than being punished, he was promoted from officer, to the rank of sergeant. Scurlock had been hit by an SUV while riding his bicycle. Instead of allowing him to leave the scene after the incident was over, the officer violently attacked Scurlock, leaving him unconscious for nearly three minutes. Instead of taking him to a hospital, they took him to jail, processed him, and drove him home – ignoring the obvious signs of head trauma. It would ultimately lead to his death nearly a year later.

Media report here.

Media report on the officer’s past here.