Bridgeport, West Virginia Trooper A.J. Trupo, who was caught on a secret audio recording two years ago verbally abusing a female businesswoman, has once again been recording abusing people. A family was on a roadtrip, visiting family in West Virginia for the Christmas vacation. As they drove through Shinnston, West Virginia, they stopped to get the kids food in the McDonald’s drive through.
As they pulled back onto the road to continue driving, the dad observed a car speeding towards them. He motioned for the car to slow down. It happened to be a West Virginia State Police cruiser. It didn’t have emergency lights activated, but rather was just speeding illegally. Apparently upset about being signaled about his speed, the trooper turned around and stopped the family.
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.
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.
This 18 year old country music singer from Montana was pulled over for speeding by a state trooper who is looking for reasons to accuse him of driving intoxicated. Even though he blew a 0.0 showing he had no alcohol in his system, and even though he did all the stupid human tricks he was asked to do, and even though he was 100% polite and cooperative with the officer, he was still wrongfully arrested and charged. A blood test taken after the arrest showed what any rational police officers should have known: that the kid was completely sober. Yet this happened to him. He wrote a song about it.
Jaden’s test results, both the official blood test and the urinalysis:
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.
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 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.
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.
A police officer in South Whitley, Indiana pulled over an 18 year old high school girl for allegedly speeding, as well as for one of her headlights being out. Within minutes, he violently pulled her out of her car and slammed her onto the asphalt. He handcuffed her and put her in the rear of his police car. This was her first time ever being pulled over. The charge? She didn’t provide her ID quickly enough. Her father showed up to the scene, and is now fighting for justice.
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.
