A little over two weeks ago, I posted a video showing Kentucky State Police Trooper Myron Jackson wrongfully arresting a mom of three who was on her own porch, filming Trooper Jackson’s illegal traffic stop. The bogus criminal charge against the mom was dropped by prosecutors and a lawsuit was filed. Now yet another lawsuit has been filed against Trooper Jackson – this time for the wrongful arrest of an innocent Door Dash driver. I have the exclusive first look at the lawsuit and the bodycam footage. Just like the prior video, prosecutors dropped the bogus criminal charge. But looking a little deeper into the Kentucky State Police, it’s no huge mystery where Jackson learned to make these sorts of unconstitutional arrests.
In Broward County, Florida, a teenage high school student was driving to school one morning, along with his younger sister, in rush-hour bumper-to-bumper traffic. They encountered a police officer who appeared to them to be directing traffic. When the officer pointed towards an empty right-hand lane of traffic, they turned the vehicle in that direction and continued driving to school. Unbeknownst to them, the Broward County Sheriff’s deputy was attempting to perform a traffic stop, albeit in a lazy and confusing manner. Believing that the kids purposefully chose not to stop, he chased them down, pulled the brother out of the car, put him in handcuffs, and arrested him, being as rude as humanely possible in the process. Once he realized his mistake, he lied.
A Marion County (Florida) Sheriff’s Deputy saw a couple sitting in their car, on their own property, where they were building a new “barndominium” in the middle of a large field behind their home. The deputy pulled onto the property, got out of his police cruiser, approaching the couple, who were sitting in their car eating a meal, as it was raining. There had been no report of criminal activity. The deputy just thought they looked suspicious and that they could be trespassing.
On July 31, 2024, Kentucky State Police Trooper Myron Jackson took exception to Christen Johnson, a dental assistant and mom of 3 young children, silently filming his illegal traffic stop from her front porch. Trooper Jackson stormed up to Christen and threatened her, “Go inside of the house or I will take you from your kids and take you to jail.”
When Christen remained filming on her porch, Trooper Jackson grabbed her, forcefully pulled her from her porch, and dragged her across the ground. Christen’s two, seven, and ten-year-old children screamed and cried, watching helplessly as their mother was violently hand- cuffed and dragged away to jail. When she got out of jail the next day, she was forced to walk several miles home, and when she got there, she found her children gone.
In Margate, Florida, Officer Sohn of the Margate Police Department observed a man sitting in his parked car during daylight hours in a local park. He approaches the driver’s side window of the car and begins to ask questions and demand identification. The officer refuses to take no for an answer, and the situation escalates to eventually holding the man in handcuffs. Once the supervisor arrives however, Officer Sohn is unable to justify his actions.
In the blink of an eye, a peaceful day of yardwork for Penny McCarthy turned into a nightmare. She was on her driveway in Phoenix, Arizona, in a sleeveless shirt, shorts, and slippers, when a team of United States Marshals pulled up in unmarked vehicles and aimed firearms at her.
Penny—who is a 67-year-old grandmother—was clearly at their mercy. And yet, the officers threatened to “hit” her, frisked her, placed her in handcuffs and ankle shackles, and drove her away from home. The officers did not so much as check Penny’s driver’s license or run any other basic checks on her identity before violently arresting her.
The whole time, Penny calmly but persistently insisted that there must be a mistake. The officers claimed that she was Carole Rozak, for whom they had an arrest warrant. But Penny was not Rozak, and Penny had no connection to Rozak. The officers had made a huge, inexcusable error.
Eddie and his mom went to the Gadsden, Alabama, Walmart to pick up a pair of shoes. But a Karen security guard called the cops and requested that they trespass Eddie from the store. Even though Sgt. Unlu of the Gadsden Police Department admitted that Eddie had committed no crime, he wanted Eddie’s ID in order to provide his personal information to Walmart for purposes of a trespass notice. This is a common issue around the country. Is there a Walmart exception to the 4th Amendment, or does Eddie have any constitutional protections in this scenario?
22 year-old Paul was sitting outside the CVS store where he works in Edgewater, FL, sitting on a bench waiting for a ride using the Lyft app. Edgewater Police Department Officer Daniel Rippeon observed Paul and concluded that he looked suspicious. No crime had been committed. No crime had been alleged by anyone to have been committed. Yet Paul was almost immediately seized and threatened with being tased and bitten by a police K9. He was taken to jail, despite the fact that Officer Rippeon was fully aware that Paul was a store employee waiting for a Lyft driver.
Here’s the full unedited raw bodycam from Ofc. Rippeon, so that you can see what was cut and that there was no misleading editing involved. This is as provided via FOIA request from the City of Edgewater, FL:
In October of 2024, Monroe County (Florida) Deputy Jonathon Lane pulled over a dad/husband who was hauling a boat too slowly. The driver had previously suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Deputy Lane immediately escalated the situation to a felony arrest of the driver, afterwards lecturing the man’s wife about his integrity and the importance of following the law. But as it turns out, Deputy Jonathon Lane has a “confidential” past that exposes his own law-breaking, as well as his department’s apparent coverup of that law-breaking.
Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy Lance Kuretza was indicted by the Feds as a result of this never-before-seen bodycam footage showing him suddenly confronting and arresting an innocent man, who was sleeping in a hotel room. I tried to get the footage over two years ago. Since then, he was acquitted by a federal jury in his criminal prosecution. Now he’s back to work as a deputy. But should he have a badge in light of this footage, showing what really happened that night?
The hatemail that jogged my memory about the incident:
Viral Twitter post about the indictment that first got people talking about it:
The US Attorney’s statement about the incident, from a radio show appearance (IIRC):
Here’s the press release by the DOJ about the indictment of Deputy Kuretza:
Photo taken by the police during arrest processing:
Monongalia County Sheriff’s Quote (recently retired now) about the trial result, commenting that he was “glad” the jurors came to the same conclusion he/his department had:
A media report about the trial, revealing shocking testimony from an EMT an unnamed deputy lied to her about the cause of Mr. Graciano’s injuries:
EMS was eventually called to the department and the jury heard from one of the emergency medical technicians (EMT) who responded to the call.
Camden Boggs, who worked as an EMT with Star City at the time, said a deputy in a black shirt told him Graziano “was drunk downtown starting fights and got beat up.” He could not say whether that deputy was Kuretza.
Boggs said a fight made sense because he initially saw blunt force trauma and at minimum a fracture to the nose or eye and at maximum a traumatic brain injury. He testified that Graziano’s right eye was so swollen, EMTs could not pry it open to evaluate his pupils for brain injuries.
Initially, Boggs said Graziano wanted to go to the hospital, but after being told by an unidentified deputy that by not going to the hospital he could see the magistrate sooner and go home sooner, Graziano then refused to go with the EMTs.
Fourth Circuit caselaw I referred to in the video regarding the 4th Amendment rights of hotel tenants is here. This is based on the US Supreme Court opinion from Stoner v. California.
The RAW footage, showing that not only did I not edit in a misleading way, I substantially censored the footage in order to comply with Youtube’s guidelines. The raw footage is much worse. Here is the full, unedited, footage from Lance Kuretza’s bodycam from January 18, 2018:
The full, unedited, uncensored, footage from Isaac Coe’s bodycam from January 18, 2018:
The full, unedited, uncensored, footage from Lance Kuretza’s bodycam during the arrest processing portion of January 20, 2018:
The full, unedited, uncensored, footage from Sgt. J.D. Alexander’s bodycam from January 20, 2018:
Here’s the full complaint from the civil lawsuit that was settled for $175,000:
Here’s a clip of Deputy Ethan Mongold encouraging Deputy Kuretza to give Mr. Graciano “the solution.”
Here’s the portion of the trial transcript (from above) that features Deputy Ethan Mongold testifying under oath to the jury that he admits that is indeed his voice that can be heard encouraging Kuretza to “give him the solution,” but unfortunately doesn’t remember saying it, and doesn’t remember why he would have said it – and also doesn’t know what “the solution” was.
