Officers Sued TWICE For Unlawful Conduct

[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 trespassing officer conduct and obstruction of justice and is brought to us by okc vet hpa's channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on march 22 2019 oklahoma city-based insurance adjuster kenneth grant's was parked outside of a home on summer valley road in blanchard oklahoma awaiting assistance to conduct an inspection of the home's roof upon arrival mr grant's contacted a neighbor who had been instructed by the homeowner to allow mr grants to enter the property mr grants had been parked for approximately 15 minutes when he was contacted by officer haynes of the blanchard police department how's it going man uh you live over here what's we doing over here i got a couple people call in on you okay am i doing something illegal well no they're just calling on you saying that i recognize a truck in the area my duty to check and see if you live over here or what's going on i'm over here for a purpose okay all right yeah working you see you got a lot in the back you're working somewhere well if i'm making contact with you for a reasonable suspicion call like i am right now being suspicious like many states oklahoma has no laws which require a citizen to produce identification in the absence of reasonable suspicion i have discussed the topic of reasonable suspicion in many of my other videos and i will link one of them in the info card above if you are interested in learning more about that subject one important aspect of reasonable suspicion is that it requires a substantive standard of facts that compound upon one another to form a reasonable degree of suspicion simply witnessing something that may appear out of the ordinary is not enough to meet the level of suspicion required to detain and identify a citizen it is also important to note that no 9-1-1 call was made to the blanchard pd officer haynes was flagged down by a passing motorist who drew his attention to mr grant's although it is impossible to know what exactly the motorist told officer haines it is clear that his only motivation for contacting mr grant's is that he was not from the area okay well sir here's the i was called on you okay um for a suspicious vehicle you said yourself you don't live over here you have a purpose what's your purpose is purpose legal or illegal that's pretty good okay so if you're determined i need to see your id how is my id going to determine whether i'm well let you know who i'm dealing with let you know i'm dealing with my name my name doesn't tell you whether i'm yeah well tell me like if i don't know if you belong over here you said you don't so i don't know if someone over here is going to be pill or something against you if you get your id right i said i didn't belong over here he said he had purpose i don't live over here okay okay i do belong okay all right so that's as far as i'm willing to take that do you have a date of birth then because i have to run it with the name and date of birth i'm not going to answer that question so you're if you're asking you're telling me how i should do my job you're not allowing me to do my job and i understand that like i said haven't done anything wrong i'm doing my job conducting the investigation i haven't committed a crime i'm sitting here in front of the house which is perfectly legal [Applause] well you're not completely on the roadway there sir you understand that by not identifying yourself appropriately as requested by the officer easily that's obstruction if that's a secondary charge okay i have to be for you to id from the state of oklahoma the conditions of trespassing laws vary from state to state but the general principles are relatively similar subsection a of oklahoma statute 21-1835 states that whoever shall willfully or maliciously enter the garden yard pasture or field of another after being expressly forbidden to do so or without permission by the owner or lawful occupant thereof when such property is posted shall be deemed guilty of trespass the code goes on to state that the word posted refers to signage clearly stating that trespassing is forbidden on the property and that the signs must be placed conspicuously and at all places where entry to the property is normally expected whether or not the property is fenced there were no signs present at the home mr grant was parked outside of and he did have the permission of the owner to enter the property officer haynes's assertion that mr grant was trespassing by parking his vehicle on the outskirts of the property simply does not correlate with the language of statute 21-1835 as officer haynes continues to accuse mr grants of trespassing captain bulone makes a few questionable remarks shut up and you are also required by law upon request from law enforcement to id yourself as captain bulone continues to question mr grant's officer hanes returns to his patrol vehicle and calls assistant district attorney travis white hey travis hey what's up nothing sorry to bother you i got a random question for you though well technically there's no obligation for him to identify himself i mean unless you've got reasonable suspicion that you get a crime well the thing is is i have no reason suspicion to believe that he's not committing crime because he has a ladder in the back of the truck and he's in front of houses that aren't occupied right now yeah um there's no compelled id statute in oklahoma i have to think about if you have anything else to suggest that he might be involved with something illicit well just honest i'm curious why man from oklahoma city is parked on a dead end road in blanchard and uh you know he has no i asked him if he lives here and he says i don't answer questions yeah man i don't think he's got him i don't think he's got enough to compel him to give you his identification okay i mean i know i know that's not what you wanted no that's why i called you instead of just ripping him out of his truck he'd asked if he was free to leave and i said no at this time i've had my emergency equipment activated and i'm trying to investigate what if he's going to drive away absolutely but you don't have a traffic violation at that time well i fall out of town until i get one this statement highlights officer haynes's willingness to violate mr grant's civil liberties in an effort to force mr grants to reveal his identity officer haines is essentially admitting to planning to execute a pretextual stop but what is more troubling is that it would be completely legal for officer haynes to do so in the 1996 supreme court case of ren versus united states the court held that so long as an actual traffic violation occurred an officer's pretextual intentions beared no relevance to the legality of the stop by stating quote the temporary detention of a motorist upon probable cause to believe that he has violated the traffic laws does not violate the fourth amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures even if a reasonable officer would not have stopped the motorist absent some additional law enforcement objective the rent ruling is highly controversial and critics of the ruling argue that it incentivizes officers to conduct cursory traffic stops in hopes that the stop will produce evidence of more serious crimes as well as paving the way for discriminatory enforcement of petty traffic infractions nonetheless the high courts have yet to offer a solution for the potential problems created by the ren ruling and officer haines would be within his authority to stop mr grants for any minor traffic violation in order to obtain his identification during the phone call between officer haynes and mr white blanchard police chief stacy white arrives on the scene within 16 seconds of his arrival chief white concludes that the officers have enough evidence to arrest mr grants well we don't want to identify ourselves completely we have his name based on the tag but we don't know that that's actually his name that could just be the person registered to this vehicle and he doesn't a suspicious person yeah we're about to get ready to do that i'm matt's trying one more time are you investigating a crime or a possible crime possibly okay he's instructing an officer for doing his duty right okay all right i'm here to tell you what's going on okay i don't care if you record me oklahoma's obstruction of a public officer statute is relatively vague and leaves much of its language open to interpretation oklahoma statute 21-540 states that any person who willfully delays or obstructs any public officer in the discharge or attempt to discharge any duty of his or her office is guilty of a misdemeanor chief white is attempting to use the ambiguous language of statute 21-540 to circumvent the state's lack of a failure to identify statute it is highly unlikely that mr grant would be successfully prosecuted under statute 21-540 because the officers lacked the reasonable suspicion necessary to detain him in the first place which essentially negates any charges that would stem from that detention okay why do i have to answer questions right mr grant was placed into handcuffs as the officers continued their investigation mr grant then suggested that the officers speak to the neighbor who was supposed to allow him to enter the property who confirmed to the officers that mr grant was an insurance adjuster and was supposed to inspect the roof of the home he was parked outside of before leaving the scene chief white ordered the officers to cite mr grants for obstruction of a public official but once the chief left none of the officers were willing to issue the citation eventually the officers left the scene without further incident mr grants filed a formal complaint against chief white about two hours after the encounter began and went on to file complaints against city attorney david perryman city manager robert floyd and assistant district attorney rebecca brink for failing to file charges against the officers who detained him and for failing to fulfill his public records requests after mr grant's posted the video of his encounter the blanchard police department deleted their facebook page due to the messages and comments they received mr grants went on to file a lawsuit against the officers which resulted in a settlement for an undisclosed amount mr grant has since filed a separate lawsuit against the city which is still ongoing overall the blanchard police department officers get an f for violating mr grant's fourth amendment rights displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of reasonable suspicion and conducting themselves in a manner that was both hostile and demeaning there were many aspects of the bpd officer's conduct that were either questionable or blatantly illegal and it is undeniable that the department suffers from poor leadership the fact that chief white came to the conclusion that an arrest was warranted within seconds of arriving on the scene is a testament to his abilities as both an officer and a leader departmental corruption tends to trickle down from the upper echelons of the law enforcement hierarchy and the adversity mr grant's faced in an effort to seek justice indicates that the bpd's malfeasance extends beyond the department itself it has become a common theme in many of the episodes of ata that elected officials work in tandem to shield their departments from any form of accountability and this pattern highlights the importance of taking part in local elections and ensuring that representatives operate in the best interest of their citizens mr grants gets an a for maintaining a calm and collected demeanor throughout the interaction insisting that his constitutional rights were respected and following up this encounter with the proper legal action mr grant did a fantastic job of invoking his rights without becoming vulgar or disrespectful and challenging the officers despite being threatened with arrest and citation i commend mr grants for having the legal knowledge to defend his assertions and the determination to see them through the ensuing fallout from this interaction was particularly dense and i was unable to cover all of the post-interaction developments in this episode i highly recommend checking out mr grant's youtube channel to gain a deeper understanding of his legal battle with the city of blanchard and its police department 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 like and subscribe for more police interaction content you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,866,465

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: MS1nGB2lXDE

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Crimsonak-]

I really love audit the audit. Laws differ so much state to state and having someone cite specific laws and grade responses based on those laws is really refreshing.

Its also honestly just refreshing to see someone be objective instead if jumping to conclusions.

Edit: Atrocious typos.

[u/velocibadgery]

I don't understand how cops could think that parking on a public street was something that, in and of itself, meet the requirements for identification and or arrest. It absolutely boggles my mind. And then thinking that refusing to waive your 5th amendment right equals the crime of obstruction? WTF?

[u/Spacesider]

I wonder how much shit went down before bodycams were a thing.

[u/QuikImpulse]

Im glad to see some follow up to this guy.