At around 1:45 a.m., the Grand Prairie Police Department responded to a 911 call. But because of a dispatch error, officers went to the wrong house. The homeowner, Thomas Simpson, woke up to his dogs barking, armed himself, and stepped into his garage—only to be met with officers who, according to him, never announced they were police. Within moments, shots were fired, and Simpson was hit in the leg.
Imagine that a law abiding, completely innocent, Texas oilfield worker is just driving to a worksite and back one day as a part of his job, and his government, who is spying on him from some secret base somewhere, where a spy named Kiki is wondering why he was making the trip in one day, as opposed to two… And so he directs a secretive unit of Texas deputies, who were trained by the highly respected legal scholar, “Dennis,” a former cop who runs Street Cop Training – since banned from training police in his home state of New Jersey – to pull over the innocent oilfield worker, and using the Jedi-mind tricks they learned from Dennis, along with an alert from a drug dog who has never NOT alerted for them, reveal the truth that the innocent oilfield worker is actually a mastermind cartel smuggling kingpin… Except that he isn’t.
After detaining him for an hour and searching every inch of his truck, the deputies let the guy go. But the guy is pissed, and he complains. Internal Affairs said they did nothing wrong. So he calls the Institute for Justice. They investigate and file a lawsuit. They also tell this West Virginia lawyer with a YouTube channel, who is sort of just starting out, about the case, and he does a video on it that goes viral… Which in turn causes Internal Affairs to reopen the case and fire the deputy. And at his termination hearing, the deputy complains that the YouTube video left a lot of stuff out of the video – and that it’s just not fair… That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? Well it all happened, just like that. And more….
My original video:
Raw footage and documents coming soon…
Alek Schott’s Raw Dash Cam:
Deputy Joel Babb’s Raw Bodycam – Part A:
Deputy Babb’s Bodycam Part B:
Deputy Martin Molina’s Raw Bodycam:
Deputy Joe Gereb’s Raw Bodycam:
The Complaint (which has links in a footnote to the raw bodycam and dash cam):
Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment:
Deputy Joel Babb’s Deposition Transcript:
Sheriff Salazar’s Deposition Transcript:
First Internal Affairs Report:
2nd Internal Affairs Report:
Deputy Babb’s Termination Documents:
Screenshots from the termination documents used in my video, showing the significance of Street Cop Training on what Deputy Babb ended up doing to Alek Schott, and others:
My 2024 Video on Street Cop Training and Dennis Benigno:
Exhibit Showing Deputy Babb’s Vehicle Positioning:
Exhibit Showing Deputy Gereb’s Vehicle Positioning:
Exhibit Showing Chat of the Interdiction Officers’ What’s App Group:
The warning citation issued by Deputy Babb to Alek Schott:
Redacted (due to a protective order I believe) Exhibit Showing Facebook Chat Between Deputy Babb and Dennis Benigno of Street Cop Training:
Initial Complaint Emails Involving Alek Schott:
Exhibit Showing Texts With Deputy Molina (K9 handler):
Exhibit Showing Personal Texts of Deputy Gereb:
Officers with the DeKalb, Texas Police Department pulled over a paraplegic man and his fully blind best friend over a broken tag light on their country Cadillac. One of the officers claimed to smell marijuana and ordered both men out of the car (the search of which did not subsequently produce marijuana) – at night, on the side of a highway. One of the men couldn’t see a thing, and the other had no use of legs and had no wheelchair. It went about how you might expect…
This footage was circulating on X/Twitter, showing police in Longview, Texas arresting this guy just inside the front door of his home. The incident began as a traffic stop for speeding 10 mph over. The stop took place in the driveway of the home. The driver proceeds to be extremely aggressive towards the obviously-rookie officer. After a backup officer arrived, the young officer issues the citation for speeding. Then the man goes to walk inside the house, but the backup officer follows him and an arrest was made.
Here’s the original video from Blue Streak Cam.
UPDATE September 4, 2024:
So it looks like there was an outstanding warrant from 2014 for “ISSUING CERTIFICATE TO VEHICLE MISSING OR WITH NON-COMPLIANT INSPECTION ITEM” that was “executed” on the same date as the body cam recording. According to Gregg County, Texas court records, Trenton Futrell “did not show up” to the May 9, 2024 docket call / court date for that citation, resulting in a $273.00 fine (if I’m reading this correctly).
Then, after the court date on the warrant that Trenton was arrested for on April 18, 2024 (the bodycam incident), they charged him by complaint/information on May 16, 2024 with “RESIST ARREST SEARCH OR TRANSPORT” – presumably for what had occurred during the April 18 incident (though I don’t know for sure without reviewing the charging document). It appears that charge is still pending.
Here’s the text of the Texas statute he’s accused of violating:
Sec. 38.03. RESISTING ARREST, SEARCH, OR TRANSPORTATION. (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally prevents or obstructs a person he knows is a peace officer or a person acting in a peace officer's presence and at his direction from effecting an arrest, search, or transportation of the actor or another by using force against the peace officer or another.(b) It is no defense to prosecution under this section that the arrest or search was unlawful.(c) Except as provided in Subsection (d), an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.(d) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree if the actor uses a deadly weapon to resist the arrest or search.
A prominent judge in Houston, Texas, was pulled over on suspicion of DUI back in April. She was allowed to leave with only a warning, even though the officers believed she had been drinking and observed her driving on the wrong side of the road and speeding. Also, there was no footage of what transpired during the 45 minute incident, because the officers “obstructed” their body cams. There was however audio, and both the audio and dash cam footage later surfaced once it was realized by the media that the judge had seemingly disappeared – only to reappear under arrest several months later for DUI. But this wasn’t the same DUI, but a separate incident.
Latest media report here.
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.
Video from Texas shows a guy being pulled over based on the allegation that his mud flaps were too short. But then, the officer opens the passenger side door on his own, while holding his pistol. He orders the driver out of his truck, making the new allegation that he smells marijuana. Then he frisks the man and searches his vehicle. During this entire ordeal, the driver is filming with his phone and questioning/accusing the officer. He actually did a really good job of completely destroying the alleged justification for the officer’s conduct.
On October 16, 2021, the life of Silvester Hayes was altered forever. That morning, Hayes woke up early and went out to get breakfast for his four young children. While driving to get their favorite meal, which was french toast from a restaurant only a few blocks away from their home, Silvester encountered two Dallas police officers. He did not return to his kids with breakfast. Now a lawsuit has been filed and the bodycam footage has been released.
The raw use of force clip:
The lawsuit:
The lawsuit alleges the existence of a Texas state law conferring a right to resist an unlawful arrest:
In Texas, the use of force to resist an arrest is justified: (1) if, before the actor offers any resistance, the peace officer uses or attempts to use greater force than necessary to make the arrest or search; and (2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the peace officer’s use or attempted use of greater force than necessary. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 9.31.
It’s happened yet again. More innocent people ordered out of their cars due to police mistakenly believing the car was stolen – this time in Frisco, Texas. Police held a Black couple at gunpoint and handcuffed their son after mistyping their car’s license plate into their system, leading them to falsely believe the car the family was driving was stolen.
“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in the department’s later statement. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. “Instead, we will learn from them.”
The last video I made on this issue was from Lehi, Colorado. Generally speaking, without more, police officers should not be aiming firearms at people. Reasonableness is the key. Aiming guns based on clerical entries and government policy is rarely going to be reasonable. Doing so should be based on actual perceived threats presented by the persons with whom they’re dealing.
This guy in Texas pulls into a Buc-ees to get gas. Next thing you know, a police officer “stops” him while he’s trying to pump gas, claiming that traffic violations were committed on his way through the parking lot. When the guy expresses criticism of the officer, he ends up being arrested for not sufficiently respecting the badge. Is future crime an arrestable offense?
Original video and raw footage here.