Remember the cop who moved from California to Idaho, and then slammed a kid on the ground because he wanted to take some pictures of a dirtbike? My video on it went viral – now over 6 million views – and made the TV news in Idaho. And as that was happening, the cop abruptly sort of disappears… Well, now a year and four months later, I have a final update for you. That case went to a jury trial, and the verdict may not be what you expect. And you’re not going to believe where that officer ultimately ended up, and what his new employer had to say about that incident; about my video.
This is Braden, a blue collar guy who saw a state trooper violating traffic laws in his small town of Rigby, Idaho. He’s considering making a complaint, because it’s a double standard. He snaps two photos of the cruiser so he could ID the officer in a complaint. But then the officer stops and detains him, accusing him of being a possible terrorist… forces him under threat of arrest to provide his ID, openly hoping he had a warrant; he then looks for his vehicle, hoping to find a reason – any reason – to take Braden to jail.
When the trooper finds out Braden has a concealed weapon permit, he harasses him further, putting his hands behind his back and generously frisking Braden – again almost hoping for any reason to escalate the situation. The trooper claims that even though he, as a police officer, gets to look into the windows of our vehicles, that we can’t do the same to a police vehicle. Because they’re special. Fortunately, Braden had a dash cam that captured the trooper’s driving, and additionally, there was a good cop there, who documented – with his bodycam – the trooper’s open and defiant retaliation against this citizen exercising his First Amendment rights to document police misconduct.
A few days ago I posted a video showing officers from the Idaho Falls, Idaho Police Department entering a family’s home and forcing them outside. When the homeowner, who was filming, demanded a warrant, the officer claimed that he didn’t need a warrant. The problem is, they did in fact need a warrant, as I explained in the prior video. The local TV news in Idaho picked up the video and reported on it, prompting the Idaho Falls Police Department to issue a statement. Here’s the statement:
Here’s the case law I discussed in the video:
Case law regarding any claims that this entry was justified by a claim of “exigent circumstances”:
The 9th Circuit discussing the very practical reason why the Fourth Amendment rights of homeowners must be protected:
Cops with the Idaho Falls, Idaho Police Department busted in an innocent family’s home, breaking their front door, looking for a third party fugitive. Though the homeowner knew his constitutional rights and demanded a warrant, the cops claimed they didn’t need a warrant because they believe a dangerous fugitive (the girlfriend’s brother) was inside. They did come inside and forced the family outside into the cold for about 30 minutes.
During this time period they handcuffed the dad, even though he was suspected of no crime and there was no search warrant for the home. The problem is, according the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1981 opinion in Steagald v. United States (1981), exigent circumstances to enter a home do not exist merely because the police know the location of a fugitive, even if they possess an arrest warrant for that person. They must also have a search warrant for the residence.
UPDATE to the case where my video made the TV news in Idaho. The cop, former Meridian Police Officer Bradley Chambers, who disappeared, has now surfaced at another agency. Also, I now have all the police bodycam footage from the incident. The footage corroborates much of what we already knew. But it also raises new questions.
A retired California police officer moved to Idaho and began working at the Meridian (Idaho) Police Department. In June of this year, a 16 year old kid crashed his dirt bike about a mile from his home. Later, when his brothers went to retrieve the bike for their brother (who was in the hospital), they were approached by Officer Bradley Chambers. Encountering the least bit of resistance from the boys, who had just struggled to load the bike into a truck, Officer Chambers chose violence.
Original video that was age restricted (probably due to the dirt bike wreck footage):
UPDATE Video, Sept. 24, 2024:
Police Report:
This shows the wreck scene, with police present at the scene. Two of the brothers who were later involved in the arrest incident are also at the scene at the time. The dirt bike had already been removed by one of the homeowners:
The dirt bike crash video (filmed by kids down the street):
Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Ashley Hayes detained a woman and her boyfriend because they “were at a gas station an abnormal amount of time.” They were ultimately held for over 90 minutes, while a drug dog was brought to the scene, unsuccessfully searching them for drugs. The boyfriend was arrested for refusing to sit on a curb during the detention, despite the fact that no crime had even been alleged to have occurred. The video went viral locally, with many residents calling for the termination of the deputy. The sheriff acknowledged the existence of the video, but has refused to comment on the situation due to the pending (bogus) charges against the boyfriend. So basically, a couple went to the gas station, and then got harassed by some cops for no actual justified reason.
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.
