Officers Sued For Warrantless Search

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers exigent circumstances warrantless searches and police tactics and is brought to us by Siouxsie DS Channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we get into the episode I have a brief announcement regarding this channel many of you may already be aware of YouTube's new Terms of Service beginning on December 10th 2019 the language of these terms are troubling in this channel and many others may be in danger of being removed once these terms go into effect the term state that any channel which YouTube deems as not commercially viable can be deleted along with the entire Google account associated with the channel the phrase commercially viable is extremely vague and allows YouTube to indisputably delete any channel for any reason I worry that some may interpret this channels content as provocative which is explicitly not the intent of this channel I cannot speak on the exact intentions of YouTube but I fear that audit the audit may be a victim of YouTube's heavy hand in the near future that being said I will be relaunching audit the audits patreon account with a new one dollar a month tier so that I can keep creating content that is accessible to everyone I will be regularly posting content to patreon that is ad free uncensored and exclusive to patreon patreon platform will allow me to cover a broader spectrum of interactions that I have intentionally avoided in order to conform to YouTube's guidelines such as encounters involving shootings violence and vulgarities I love this platform and I will continue to post to YouTube for as long as my channel is alive and by no means am I suggesting that you must support me via patreon this will be extra content that you can access if you want to it is not a requirement I cannot guarantee that audit the audit will survive on YouTube in 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their home and allowed pounding on their front door in Fredericksburg Texas upon answering the door the dancers encountered two Gillespie County officers deputy Hindman and deputy Westbrook who were searching for the dancers son after receiving an anonymous tip that he was with an unnamed female whose health might be in jeopardy [Music] all right you need to go in just to make sure show me the law man we don't we've already explained that test that we have already explained it to you we don't record it so now we live in a police state now that your boys no ma'am we need to make sure that he is here by himself with or without a female subject that is under a met possibly medical condition right okay that's all we need to do deputy Westbrook and mr. dan slur get into a brief scuffle after mr. dancer refused to obey the orders of the deputy yes detained and if he if he's going to resist or fight with my house or the my officer has to do what he has to do okay we need to go in and just make sure that he's not here is he here no he's not here I'm sorry that you deal with lowlife liars day in and day out if he was here in his truck will be parked right there and you can see the evidence I said if he was here his part it would be parked right here you can see the evidence of where he parks and how we can be past seeing the law when you offered it to me not too long ago I don't know and you also told me can I show you the law and now you're refusing in the 1982 case of United States v Makani the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals defined exigent circumstances as those circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that injury or other relevant prompt action was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons the destruction of relevant evidence the escape of a suspect or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts however the history of exigent circumstances extends back much further than the Makani case legal scholars do not point to any particular case from which the exigent circumstances doctrine arose but many attribute the foundation of the doctrine to former supreme court justice Felix Frankfurter whose Stern dissents in multiple cases laid the groundwork for the development of the concept of a per se position with respect to warrantless searches in the first clear articulation of the reasoning and logic supporting the various exceptions to the per se rule over the years the exigent circumstances doctrine has both evolved and devolved under the interpretation of various courts and has essentially amounted to a loosely outlined axiom which is generally considered on a case-by-case basis many courts have struck down cases that involve the invocation of the exigent circumstances doctrine and just as many courts have upheld cases involving the doctrine often the rulings of these various courts are in direct contradiction from each other which has left the doctrine somewhat ambiguous and difficult to both argue for and defend against in a courtroom courts have ruled that the emergency prong of the exigent circumstances exception operates as an extension of the community caretaking function of law enforcement officers a warrantless entry or search that would otherwise be barred may be justified by the need to protect life or avoid serious injury given the deputy Hyneman and deputy Westbrook were basing their search on the possibility of a medical emergency it could be argued that their search was valid but that is highly dependent on the interpretation of the presiding court plus I just hit the door frame is my elbow when I turned see if he's here okay all right how about if you walk right over there to the very last window and I'll pull back the curtain and you can see he's done his bed you said all we need to do is see where he sleeps you can see where he sleeps through that window okay the story's changed on y'all twice now no I [Music] am getting a I'm getting a lot of signs that you're not being truthful with me at this point okay no I'm upset because my husband is standing over there in handcuffs he's not under arrest he's just being detained so now you're a psychologist no there is no psychology internet it's the fact that he's being detained right now no you're telling me that you know you can tell I'm not telling that truth no one one of you can come in here and I'm not this is against this is against my will this is a gift my will y'all y'all are invading my home against my will No boy you will be involving this Black's Law Dictionary defines duress as any unlawful threat or coercion used to induce another to act in a manner that they otherwise would not the theory of duress is generally used as a legal defense in instances involving crime but can also apply as a defense to certain legal violations for instance if a person is charged with a crime then they may raise duress as a defense and claim that they may not be held liable for their actions this is because the fact that they were under duress caused them to commit the crime or violation thus they may actually be admitting to the Act but contend that they should not be held liable because they had no choice but to do the act citizens also have a right to raise a duress defense if force or violence was used to compel an individual to enter a contract or to break one it could certainly be argued that miss dancers consent to search was given under duress from the deputies however just as with exigent circumstances it would be left to the presiding court to decide the scope and limitations associated with the duress defense in this particular case simply declaring that the given consent is under duress may not satisfy the courts interpretation of the duress defense doctrine you said you want to see where he sleeps this is where he sleeps you said you weren't gonna look at anything else making sure my office the way to just making sure he's not in another room in the house no someone's controlling this young lady's life and she's running from them y'all are not taking care of the person who obviously needs help he's not over there he's just done a good house dude I'm just making sure that's all okay all right I'm just gonna make sure somebody doesn't get up and stand in the back thank you that's it he's lying here that's my bedroom he's not in my bathroom he is not in this house okay if I just took no it is not he's not in this house he's not in did you wanted to see where he lives that's what we've done where he sleeps that's what we've done is he in your bathroom no he's not in my bathroom let me look real quick and everything will be fine okay take me okay deputy Hindman searches the bedroom and the bathroom and does not find anyone the deputies remove the handcuffs and offer to summon emergency medical services to treat the minor wounds that mr. Dantzler suffered during the scuffle with deputy Westbrook but mr. dancer refuses the medical assistance I have removed this clip from the video due to the graphic nature of the wounds last time that you people come into my home I've tried mentally I've tried mentally to be in support of you guys a try I'm an army brat 20 years of service by that was murdered and clean with what's going on with you guys and what you the injuries that you just put on my husband for no reason because someone is trying to control Margaret Marilyn whatever her name is no you don't but you come and you bully these people taxpaying citizens of this County his wrist is almost tore open it is tore open because I've got a videotape he didn't do nothing again like I said we explained it to you in the beginning we asked us nicely as we could we explain the reason why we're here exactly the reason was okay it's not like we came up here with no reason whatsoever and just told you to get out you didn't do that well you know what the Constitution protects us of having military and law enforcement coming through our homes and embodying it in our homes you know I've been told by a cop before if you're so into the Constitution you must have something to hide no the Constitution protects me now [Music] to the police to get them to control him we were meeting with them the same way we were meeting with you know what the reasons why I wouldn't use the police officers unless it was a dire situation to be the nannies the deputies leave the scene without further incident three months after the incident the dancers teamed up with the Rutherford Institute of Virginia based civil rights organization to challenge the legitimacy of the warrantless search the following month a federal court rejected efforts by Texas police to dismiss the Fourth Amendment lawsuit brought by the Rutherford Institute US District Court Judge David Azra ruled that the officer's actions as set forth in the lawsuit were based on inaccurate information from an anonymous source and violated the dancer's clearly established constitutional rights in January of 2018 the sheriff's office agreed to settle the case before going to trial for an undisclosed amount overall Deputy Hyneman and deputy Westbrook get a c-minus because although they seem to be acting in good faith and genuinely concerned for the well-being of an individual who may be in the midst of a medical emergency the deputy stretched the boundaries of their authority without consulting any high powers and ultimately violated the dancers rights in the eyes of a federal court the deputies carried out their duties based on unreliable information but it is difficult to attribute that fault to the deputies alone given that many police departments suffer from a lack of sufficient communication it is very likely that these deputies were just doing what they were told to do and were unaware of the reliability of the information which they were operating under it is beyond the control of these deputies to verify and assign legitimacy to the information that the department receives an axe upon the feeble information verification process and deficient communication channels and procedures of police departments is a nationwide issue that has no simple solution and it is unreasonable to place the burden of fixing that system on one department much less to deputies mr. and mrs. dancer get a a - for challenging the validity of the deputy search and following up this encounter with legal action although mr. dancer did unnecessarily resist detainment and prompted deputy Westbrook to engage in a scuffle the dancers were still able to walk away from this encounter with compensation this interaction is an excellent example of the services that civil rights organizations can offer to individuals who are wronged by members of law enforcement the Rutherford Institute deserves high praise for taking on this case and securing indemnity for the dancers and I commend them for their representation in the courtroom let us know if there's an interaction or legal topic you would like us to cover in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to Like and subscribe for more police interaction content and check out our patreon for even more encounters [Music]

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,596,690

Rating: 4.8750305 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: bpGWA4JaE7U

Length: 18min 47sec (1127 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019