Good Officer Stops Bad Officer's Mistake

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what in the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers lawful detainments possession of stolen property and officer conduct and is brought to us by the news and observers channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on january 14 2021 an unidentified harnett county resident reported her dirt bike is stolen to the fuquava arena police department in north carolina 16 days later the resident contacted a seller through facebook who she believed was in possession of her stolen bike the resident and her boyfriend arranged to meet with the seller to verify that it was the bike that had been stolen from her and were able to positively identify the bike through its vehicle identification number the resident then contacted the fuquay of arena police and informed them that she had located her bike and gave a brief description of the cellar along with his name malcolm ziegler two officers were then dispatched to mr ziegler's home to investigate a possible case of felony possession of stolen property okay what's your name malcolm what's your last name malcolm ziegler yeah okay you got your idea no okay but that wasn't us right we haven't run at all this week where where do y'all where do you stay you stay here yeah okay okay i haven't really lost today just came by here who's that guy who's that guy running down the street that's his phone somewhere up there okay give me a favor man go and put his money back for me okay within minutes of arriving on the scene the initial responding officer decided to place mr zigler into handcuffs without verifying any of the facts associated with the encounter the question of whether or not mr ziegler was legitimately detained is a major aspect of this encounter and it is important to examine the court's perspective of what constitutes a lawful detainment the fourth amendment was intended to protect citizens against arbitrary arrests and unreasonable searches and the supreme court has routinely verified its intention through various rulings and held that some objective justification must be shown in order to validate any seizure of a citizen in the 2001 case of atwater vs lago vista the supreme court held that although the case involved quote gratuitous humiliations imposed by a police officer who was at best exercising extremely poor judgment case-by-case analysis of the legitimacy of any given detainment should be relegated to statutory rule rather than constitutional scrutiny the court reasoned that if every detention could be challenged on the merits of a fourth amendment violation quote lest every discretionary judgment in the field be converted into an occasion for constitutional review and held that so long as probable cause was present a detainment is justified regardless of the severity of the crime in the 1991 case of county of riverside vs mclaughlin the supreme court upheld the notion that individuals subject to detainment or arrest are entitled to a quote-unquote prompt judicial determination of probable cause and upheld a previous ruling that limited the time allotted for a prompt determination to 48 hours from the time of the seizure working in tandem the app water and mclaughlin rulings essentially provided officers with nearly unbridled discretion to determine whether to make an arrest or issue a citation on any given charge even if the charge is as miniscule as a traffic violation and hold the suspect for up to 48 hours with little to no recourse the court also reasoned that an officer's true intention was not a prevailing factor in determining the legality of a detainment or arrest in the 1996 case of ren versus united states and that the legitimacy of a detainment depends almost exclusively upon whether or not probable cause existed at the time of the detainment in an effort to properly determine when a seizure occurs the court held that the appropriate inquiry is quote whether a reasonable person would feel free to decline the officer's requests or otherwise terminate the encounter in the 1991 case of florida versus bostic according to the bostic ruling it is clear that mr ziegler was not free to decline the officer's requests or terminate the encounter and it is likely that a court would determine that he was officially detained once the officer placed him into handcuffs however the officer failed to validate any of the claims made by the complainant before deciding to detain and search mr ziegler and as mentioned earlier probable cause is a necessary element in determining whether a detainment is valid at the moment of mr zigler's detention the officer had no way of objectively knowing whether he was in fact in possession of stolen property and was operating purely on the hearsay and speculation provided by the complaining party given that the officer lacked any objective substantiating evidence at the time of mr zigler's detainment it is entirely possible that a court would rule the detainment unlawful can i get the bill of sale and show you that i bought it yeah we'll get all that taken care of man but what i what i need to do is just hang tight for me right here okay what did i do just hang that for me right here okay the officer leads mr zigler to his patrol vehicle and searches him during the search mr ziegler informs the officer that he is a minor and the officer decides to place mr zigler into his patrol vehicle while another officer makes contact with mr zigler's father in an attempt to locate the bill of sale during the search the officer brought casa code 1095 to dispatch which is widely accepted to mean that an officer has a subject in custody with the intention to perform a formal arrest well i'm going to work on getting you out of this soon okay just keep cooperating with me i appreciate it and we'll get everything squared away before i don't answer i'm trying to find this ability and i'm not saying that you stole it right now what we've got is we just got a stolen motor vehicle um we're not saying that you stole the vehicle okay i'm not saying that at all okay but it still is a crime to be in possession of a stolen motor vehicle the officer informs mr ziegler that they are not accusing him of committing the act of stealing the dirt bike but that being in possession of stolen property is still a crime section 14-72 of north carolina's general statutes covers the crimes of larceny receiving stolen goods and possessing stolen goods and states that quote the receiving or possessing of stolen goods of the value of more than one thousand dollars while knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that the goods are stolen is a class h felony according to the language of section 14-72 the offender must have had prior knowledge or a reasonable indication that the property in question was stolen in order to be found guilty of the violation and in the 1953 supreme court of north carolina case of state versus brady the court clarified that in order to be convicted under section 14-72 it must be proven that quote a the stealing of the goods by some other than the accused b that the accused knowing them to be stolen received or aided in concealing the goods and c continued such possession or concealment with a dishonest purpose however that does not necessarily mean that an individual cannot be arrested without the officer first proving that they had such knowledge the burden of proof rests upon the state and it is often difficult to prove whether or not a suspect had knowledge of the item's history prior to obtaining possession of the item as mentioned before an officer's arrest must be based on objective facts that led them to believe that the individual may have had such knowledge and without evidence to prove that the item was obtained through a legitimate transaction a court would likely find such an arrest to be reasonable in this interaction mr ziegler offers to show the officers a bill of sale to prove that the dirt bike was purchased through a legitimate transaction in good faith which would dissolve the necessary clause of possessing the bike with criminal intent so he's your dad he's talking with your dad right now um i'm gonna tell you i can show you if you can go i can go on my phone i can show you exactly what i'm about okay okay hey how are you doing sir hey um dad i need that sale reason all this is going down um that vehicle has been entered at a stolen international crime information center do you have the bill of sale money chancer i don't know what it is it's either in my room look at facebook inside the kitchen the first one that has all where you put the mail at mr zigler's father and one of the officers go back to the house and begin searching through various bills of sale to locate the one associated with the transaction involving this particular bike while mr zigler's father is searching for the correct bill of sale two of the responding officers discussed the legitimacy of mr zigler's detainment from what i heard 1095 and that was before i even verified the van okay but the first thing i asked that's that's what i did now i'm not 100 certain but i believe i heard 109 i heard essentially 295 before i was even able to verify the van upon clarifying whether mr zigler had been detained or arrested one of the officers confronted the initial officer about his decision to handcuff mr zigler hey he's detained right now because he is not he's 14. yes okay so already explained to him he's detained right now i told him that it wasn't because that's a stolen motor vehicle okay so i mean diggs verified the vin number right did you was that before all that that did you verify it before you i detained him and then that's why if he was 1095. he's a team okay so obviously he's a juvenile right yeah you're not charging him with largely of a nope okay because that's that didn't happen yeah so worse you have is what unless i was on a vehicle which is you gonna think you get secure custody and all that probably not a petition all right you're 14 me personally he ain't going nowhere you're here with what dad ain't no sense to have him sit in the car ten with handcuffs on you ain't if he was 18 and you might be taking a joke for possession stolen property different but when you ain't gonna take him joe right it's gonna be a petition the confronting officer urges the other officer to consider the practical implications of his decision to detain mr ziegler and points to the distinction between the protocol for adults and minors there are vast discrepancies between how the law and legal process applies to adults and minors and arresting a minor generally invokes a much more thorough and determinative process than arresting an adult according to a guide assembled by youth justice north carolina which is an organization of law and policy experts focused on the juvenile justice systems in north carolina the juvenile court process begins when a complaint alleging that a child is a quote unquote juvenile delinquent is filed with the juvenile court a juvenile delinquent is any child ages 6 to 15 who is alleged to have committed a crime or infraction and individuals who are 16 or older go directly to the adult court system not the juvenile system juveniles may be taken into temporary custody only under one or more of the following conditions one a law enforcement officer witnesses the juvenile commit or has probable cause to believe that a juvenile committed a serious crime two a law enforcement officer or court counselor has reasonable grounds to believe the juvenile is beyond the disciplinary control of his or her guardian or three the juvenile escaped from a residential facility the person who takes the juvenile into temporary custody must notify the juvenile's parent and a juvenile cannot be held for more than 12 hours or 24 hours if it is a weekend or a legal holiday or by a judge's order petitions for juvenile delinquency are processed by a court counselor and typically involve an intake meeting whereby the determination is made to either dismiss the complaint altogether divert the case to restitution community service mediation or a counseling program or to file a petition which orders the juvenile and their guardian to go to court if the parent is served with a notice and does not appear in court the judge may issue a quote unquote show cause order which can result in the parent being fined or jailed in this instance the confronting officer questions whether a full-scale detainment is necessary given the fact that the initial officer only intended to submit a petition for juvenile delinquency and further asserts the notion that the initial officer did not have any objective basis for detaining mr ziegler when he was placed into handcuffs the initial officer agrees to release mr zigler but also questions whether or not he would be justified in charging mr ziegler with possessing stolen property anyway and the confronting officer once again urges the officer to consider the facts of the encounter before making such a decision i'll go ahead and take him out um question for you um so supposedly i know they're working on getting both so right now i haven't asked him any questions but he's been running his mouth he said that he got it from some guy off in wilmington okay okay my whole thing is i know legally he can still be charged yeah if he's got a villa sale me personally yeah i have grown up racing dirt bikes buying four wheelers i got yeah three four lives at the house now yeah i have never once had one run until i was a cop yep basically what you're saying is if he has a bill of sale you wouldn't end up following the position no but i'd have him to talk to lake county the officer removes the handcuffs and mr zigler is allowed to enter his home where he was able to locate the bill of sale for the dirt bike the officer explained to mr ziegler and his father that as victims of a crime they are entitled to restitution for the loss of their fund through the purchasing of an item that they were not aware was stolen and after the owners of the dirt bike retrieved their property the officers left the scene without filing any charges against mr zigler over a month later the fuquay verena police department released the full body camera footage from all of the officers involved in the encounter and mr ziegler's parents held a press conference regarding the incident on march 1st in the press conference mr zigler's parents called for police reform and training and suggested that race played a major role in this encounter and went on to assert that their son had been arrested not detained in a response to the controversy fuquay of arena mayor john byrne called for the community to move forward from this encounter and declared that the officer's actions were standard procedure and not motivated by race in any way at the time of writing this episode it is unclear whether the ziggler family will be pursuing legal action overall the initial responding officer gets an f for detaining mr ziegler before obtaining any substantiating evidence exercising poor discretion by signaling an arrest to his fellow officers rather than a detainment and for failing to consider the practical implications of his discretionary decision-making and authority one of the most troubling aspects of this officer's conduct is the fact that even after he was confronted and corrected by the other officer and had evidence to prove mr zigler's innocence at his disposal he still considered filing a petition against mr ziegler and questioned the other officer's logic one aspect of this encounter that was not yet discussed in this episode is that the initial officer was still in training which is a testament to the notion that officers are often trained to focus on the criminal aspects of any given circumstance even when innocent explanations are readily available and bear equal merit to the possibility of a crime being committed if it had been left solely to the discretion of this officer there is a good chance that mr zigler would have been inappropriately charged with possession of stolen property regardless of whether he could prove that he legitimately purchased the dirt bike or not and this interaction highlights the importance of consulting a superior before making decisions that could dramatically impact the life of an innocent juvenile if the officer had simply afforded mr zigler the same degree of trust and opportunity to present evidence as he did the complaining party then the fallout from this encounter could have been avoided entirely the confronting officer gets an a-plus for considering the real-world implications of his fellow officers actions challenging the officer on the merits of his conduct and ensuring that mr ziegler did not face any unnecessary or unwarranted charges far too often are officers complicit in the misconduct of their co-workers and it is certainly refreshing to see an officer object to the conduct of one of their own not every encounter requires an arrest and officers sometimes tend to lose sight of the ramifications of subjecting an individual to the legal process in favor of securing an arrest or quickly restoring peace it is imperative that officers consider the potential benefits or detriments to the community that their actions will cause and take into account the effect their conduct will render to the individual beyond their arrest i commend this officer for having the courage and conviction to challenge the initial officer's conduct and ensure that justice was administered to the actual perpetrators of crime rather than punishing an innocent victim for being scammed this officer's conduct is a great example of how community policing should be practically implemented and i firmly believe that there are strong lessons to be learned from this officer's behavior as for mr ziegler i cannot rightfully offer a grade to his conduct because he was a minor at the time of this interaction and it is unreasonable to judge his actions on a scale that is representative of the decisions made by fully developed adults however i do commend him for remaining calm and collected throughout the encounter and making a concerted effort to prove his innocence let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 754,527

Rating: 4.9132452 out of 5

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: fu8810MIowY

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021