I'm telling you right now I'm the one talking to you and I'm a police officer in the state of Nevada so I'm going to tell you right now to refuse to answer my questions I will arrest you okay okay I recently released this raw video of a police officer arresting someone for exercising their right to remain silent and like most of you when I first saw the video I thought that an officer was what he was probably a rookie unfortunately as I started researching I found that he's the captain of the police department and the acting chief of police not only that but in 2016 when he worked for Las Vegas Police Department he was slapped with multiple felony charges for arson and insurance fraud then as I started researching the jurisdiction and authority of Tribal Police I found that they have none over U.S citizens who aren't tribe members even on the reservation Tribal Police also cannot even issue citations or summon you to tribal court unless you are a tribe member on every other reservation in the U.S citations to non-tribe members are issued either by state county or federal police yes even on reservation land and you are summoned to either a state county or federal court not a tribal court and you're probably wondering how did a piece of work like this end up becoming the captain and acting police chief of an entire department well the answer is that in 2019 there was a mass Exodus almost a dozen officers simultaneously resigned from the Department leaving Jeffrey Harper as the sole police officer causing him by default to be promoted to Captain and acting police chief allegedly the reservation is required to self-generate 1.4 million dollars a year in order for the reservation to survive the reservation is about 70 000 Acres but the population is only about 271. all of the 271 residents live up in the northeast corner of the reservation but the police don't spend their time working the area where the population is at instead they work in the southern Corner along I-15 generating Revenue through traffic stops for a population of 271 people the police department generates 1.5 million dollars in traffic citation Revenue in a year traffic citations issued to non-tribe members make up one hundred percent of the budget the tribe Council refused to allow the police officers to arrest any tribe members even when they committed violent crimes or robberies and the officers were ordered to strictly generate revenue on I-15 and to leave the criminals in the community alone in 2019 News 13 Las Vegas reported that most of the police officers in the department had had enough yeah guys the former officers say criminal activity goes unchecked and the tribe instead wanted those officers to concentrate on generating cash this former tribal officer who wished to remain anonymous corroborates Sherry's allegations he claims officers were routinely threatened with their jobs by the council if they attempted to arrest any tribal members or their relatives even serious crimes like weapons violations and domestic abuse are going unchecked according to the former tribal officers tribal leaders they allege primarily wanted officers to write tickets and generate money for the tribe they are unmoral they are unethical the Moapa band of Paiute the tribal council and so one Summer Afternoon in 2019 all except for one of the members of the department decided that they would no longer commit highway robbery for the Moapa band of pyots while ignoring their criminal activity all but one decided this was just too much corruption for them that one being Jeffrey Harper you see highway robbery seemed like a perfect gig for Harper who in 2016 was charged with one count of theft one count of burning property with intent to defraud and ensure both class B felonies one count of attempted theft a class C felony two counts of insurance fraud both class D felonies and one count of third degree arson a Class D Felony due to Jeffrey's excellent looking rap sheet and the fact that he didn't resign because of a conflict of conscience like all the other officers did he was promoted to captain of the police department and acting Chief he's been in that position ever since and has continued the extortion racket on I-15 for the Moapa band of paiuts so when I first started working on this story I thought I was just showing you a video of a police officer who arrested somebody in retaliation for exercising their right to remain silent but at the time I had no idea that that officer was actually a captain and acting police chief accused of multiple felonies and heading up a 1.5 million a year traffic citation extortion racket citing and arresting people that the department doesn't even have jurisdiction over so what they do is cite you and send you to tribal court which has no jurisdiction over anyone but tribe members but one of the problems that the other officers had is that the tribal court was understaffed and wasn't even actually capable of trying cases when people wanted to fight their tickets I've had some of the locals tell me that they've chosen to completely ignore their citations and that they've never heard anything from the police or the courts since they don't actually have jurisdiction they have no ability to issue a warrant they're just hoping that you'll be ignorant enough to pay and since most of the people they hit on I-15 are just Travelers passing through day one don't understand that these guys don't have jurisdiction to even cite you in the first place and two don't have time to come back and try to fight in court so most most of them just mail their money in but if you look at the information from all the different angles this arrest was wrong on so many different levels not just the fact that this suspect was arrested for exercising his right to remain silent from 1978 to 2021 Tribal Police didn't even have the legal authority to detain someone unless they were a tribe member even if that non-tribe member is on reservation land now in 2021 that changed when in the United States V Cooley the U.S Supreme Court unanimously upheld that tribal officers have the authority to at least investigate and detain non-native people that they suspect of committing crimes on reservations while waiting for backup from non-tribal law enforcement in other words law enforcement that does have jurisdiction over those citizens but Tribal Police still have zero authority to make any arrests on non-tribe members which makes Jeffrey Harper's arrest of this person illegal on multiple levels hi officer harder with the Moab travel place we're just gonna stop two days your attacks come back expired do you know they're expired uh no oh yeah I know okay do you have your driver's license registration and insurance uh my insurance is on my phone okay yeah no worries where you heading uh Vegas to Vegas cool I was a registration expired uh May 31st I was actually just looking up to I just moved to Vegas you just moved to Vegas so I just got a new address okay I was planning on I'm just out for it Henry stopped recording on the phone to show proof of insurance which was on his phone but then immediately turned the recording back on nope all right at this point Jeff Harper arrives on scene and begins asking Henry questions how you doing man you good where are you headed okay you live in Vegas how long you live there okay [Music] you do realize that your car had no registration on it right now and it's expired and part of the question you know why we're asking you how long you live there because you have a certain amount of days to register your car and to also do there so it's part of this investigation of why we stopped you and what we have going on so you know when we ask questions it's not just sometimes it is for small talk a little bit but if you move to Vegas you got Tennessee plates it's something that we try to figure out because we try to give people a little bit of a grace period to say like hey man if you just moved there and you realize that it's expiring in a day or two or whatever and you're waiting to get it and okay that's a little bit more understandable than like hey it's expired from Maine you've not been back to Tennessee and you're a student okay no I mean that that's totally fine like I said I'm just trying to figure out what you're doing where you're going and all that I mean yeah I I'm not trying to be a jerk if I was going to be a jerk I'd just say well you know what why don't you start trying to find a ride we're gonna tow your car because it's not registered in the state of Nevada and I talked to him about that and you know okay so you already told them how long you've been staying in Vegas well today okay that's why I'm asking you so according to the law you have 30 days to change your registration over after you've moved to a new location Jeff Harper is trying to ask this guy how long ago he moved to determine if it's been 30 days or more Henry refuses to answer the question and this is a classic example of exactly why the Fifth Amendment exists you have the right to remain silent so that you don't intentionally or accidentally incriminate yourself if he tells the officer for example that he's been here for 32 days then he is just self-incriminated which he absolutely is not required to do Jeff Harper even articulated that sometimes police are just making small talk but other times they are conducting an investigation the truth is that the small talk is meant to bring your guard down and in the middle of the small talk they also ask investigatory questions with the intent to get you to incriminate yourself if you are detained by the police they are investigating you therefore if you are detained by the police you should never end answer questions not even arbitrary small talk [Music] delay our investigation it's a crime yeah I mean I guess you have the right to remain silent I mean if you didn't do anything wrong and you're not going to invest you're not going to allow us to investigate what's going on then we'll just cool no problem brother we'll we'll play the game and when you lose the game I guess you'll think was this really worth it or was this just somebody that doesn't have registration they're trying to go down the road you know I got a phone call I'm telling you right now I'm the one talking to you and I'm a police officer in the state of Nevada so I'm going to tell you right now to refuse to answer my questions I will arrest you okay okay so you think my rights are again no I'm not saying that but if I'm investigating a crime and you're refusing to answer those that's a crime in the state of Nevada it's called obstructing it means that you're not allowing us to further our investigation so yeah that that is a problem whether he's the one that stopped you or I am what would I tell you that if I was the one watching you over at the travel plaza and your your activity is suspicious to me you sit in your car for about five to ten minutes you go into the store you don't purchase anything you come outside you look underneath your car looks a little suspicious and then now you're absolutely refusing to answer any questions that that's called reasonable suspicion [Music] put your hands behind your back [Music] I'm like you're gonna play this game and you're gonna lose don't ever pull away from me now you're under arrest it is what's in your pocket that you will read people [Music] when you're reach into there then I think you're grabbing a weapon it's a little hard Target uh you'll get all of it on the arrest paperwork my friend I'm like you're playing a game that I don't understand why I don't understand you're refusing the answer what you've been arrested for everything else so yeah you know what there is an issue with that Harper yep [Music] all right what's that okay my rights are not a game okay but answering simple questions of suspicious activities is an issue like I told you I just stopped to stop at a gas a gas station so I could be but again if you don't answer the questions how am I supposed to figure it out you've told me I'm not going to answer anything so if I'm telling you why I'm stopping you what is going on and everything else and I'm trying to further in an investigation then go ahead what do you what do you have to say so at this point Jeff Harper actually articulates that his officer has been watching Henry for the last 15 to 30 minutes that he observed him go into a store not purchase anything come out look under his hood and then sit in his car for 10 minutes before driving away he declared that this activity is suspicious previously the only question Harper was demanding the answer was how long ago he moved here now he's demanding that Harper explained all of his activity for the last 15 to 30 minutes Henry has made it perfectly clear that he wants to assert his right to remain silent but Captain Jeff Harper has now used force and violence via arrest to coerce a statement out of someone who has declared that they want to exercise their right to remain silent I'm going to exercise my rights to cool see that's exactly the point is exactly as soon as I start to ask you any questions you don't want to answer anything so by exercising my rights no your activities is what got you in handcuffs you being suspicious you not answering questions how is that being suspicious to stop somewhere to park now you're walking away you want to listen now do you want to talk every time I've tried to ask you anything all you want to do is say that you don't want to talk so if you want to talk to me absolutely I'm here to listen to you but again keep cutting me off you're gonna allow me go ahead go ahead sir stop there to use the restroom I'm sure y'all seen that came back out sat on my phone because I didn't want to be driving while on my phone there was leakage under my car which I've checked somehow that's suspicious how's that suspicious glad I'm allowing you to talk go ahead keep going so now under the force and violence asserted by Jeff Harper via arrest Henry decides to explain his activities after Henry explains all of his actions Harper is upset that there was no crime so he continues to pry for more but there just isn't anything else to me Jeff Harper seems like the kind of guy who will coerce a murder confession out of someone who never committed a murder [Music] how is that suspicious you'll you'll you'll see everything in either arrest report or your citation it's your name on it yep okay you started a toe yet Henry told me that he was detained in handcuffs by his estimate for about 30 to 40 minutes before being released his vehicle was not impounded and he was not actually arrested or sighted with interference or obstruction he was only cited for having expired or no registration as far as the investigation into Jeff Harper for violating someone's rights by arresting him for refusing to answer questions Sergeant Pasco informed me personally that he would do a thorough and unbiased internal investigation of his police chief I informed him that no such thing would be possible now that we also know that the department is operating completely outside of jurisdiction the investigation has since been escalated to the Bureau of Indian Affairs a federal agency under the United States Department of interior at this point I do not know if the Bia will continue to investigate or if it will be passed off to the FBI in my opinion it's time for Jeff Harper to be held accountable and eat his own words cool no problem brother we'll play the game and when you lose the game I guess you'll think was this really worth it