officer i understand your position in this however in the advice of castle i've been instructed not to answer any questions pursuant to salinas versus texas and reported immediately raised fifth amendment protections i don't answer questions okay sir my party is refusing to answer questions i'll be entering him momentarily in the call go ahead and just send me a second please i've dealt with this guy before have you yeah he's not wanting to give me any answers so i probably hit him with some obstruction he's just playing a game he's just not answering questions yeah if you refuse to give me any more information as far as your address or phone number i'm gonna charge you with obstruction as well uh do you know what you have to do the elements of obstruction are probably talking to his attorney right now welcome back to the lackluster channel today's story was submitted by a viewer named david who on september 12th of 2020 was traveling in his vehicle in the town of castle rock colorado when he was pulled over by officer watts of the castle rock police department for an expired license plate hey hey officer watch castle rock police the reason why i stopped you is your license plate expired back in march okay so if i can get your driver's license right through the windshield i have no idea where it's at [Music] i'm assuming that's the latest one right there yeah this one is one year prior but it's still i don't know yeah expired um maybe this one i don't know if that was good yeah that was just one this okay that not this and not that whatever works okay is the court a good address for you i'm sorry of course that's not mine upon being lawfully pulled over you are required to provide your driver's license registration and insurance david has complied with the officer's request and has now satisfied his legal responsibilities for the stop here i have blurred out the information on the registration card to protect the anonymity of an uninvolved party the officer holds up the registration card and asks david if the address on the card is a good address for him is the report a good address for you i'm sorry however the vehicle is not registered to him and david points out that the registration card isn't his that's not mine note that the officer also holds in his possession david's driver's license which contains all of david's personal details including his address what's a good address for you oh my body cam i have a little phrase i use uh officer i understand your position in this however in the advice of counsel i've been instructed not to answer any questions pursuant to salinas versus texas and reported immediately raised fifth amendment protections i don't answer questions okay sir you have been stopped for i got it for a reason you've got my driver's license we're done all right do what you got to do we're good i'm actually what's up can i get a phone number from you once again i don't answer questions you've got my driver's license you got it you got what you need to know be back in a few minutes as we covered a moment ago david has provided his driver's license insurance and registration and has satisfied his legal responsibilities including providing the officer with his address you are not required to provide a phone number in david's words officer i understand your position in this however in the advice of council i've been instructed not to answer any questions pursuant to salinas versus texas and required to immediately raise fifth amendment protections i don't answer questions he mentioned salinas vs texas where police in houston questioned a man prior to being placed in custody or receiving miranda warnings during a murder investigation salinas answered all of their questions until the police asked whether he thought that the casings found at the murder scene would match the shotgun the police found in his house only then did he remain silent he was charged with murder tried and convicted on the basis of evidence that he had remained silent during police questioning before he was arrested and giving his miranda warnings salinas claimed that the court should not have admitted evidence of his silence because of the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination arguing that allowing evidence of the silence would violate the fifth amendment by forcing him to speak or have his silence be used against him the prosecution used his failure to answer as evidence of guilt because he did not remain silent prior to the questions regarding the shell casings which was prior to being placed in custody or receiving miranda warnings all of this indicates that you should never answer questions before during or after an arrest and more importantly that you must explicitly raise your fifth amendment protections the only issue is sometimes you'll meet people like officer watts who will call for backup and add charges if you dare use your right to remain silent my party is refusing to answer questions i'll be entering him momentarily in the call and 32 go ahead and just send me a second please officer watts waits for a second unit while he writes david's citation what was uh what's going on i've built this guy before have you yeah well um he's not wanting to give me any answers so i probably hit him with some obstruction including uh expired 122 vehicle contact uh plate send him to court and let you heard that right obstructing for not answering questions have you what'd you charge him with i never charged him with anything last time he uh got called in for not wearing a mask at natural grocers and then basically caused a disturbance and then it was the same thing he refused to answer any questions i think if you tell him to do something he'll do it i asked him for his address you refused to give it to me yeah i asked him for his phone number he refused i think if you're like give me your address i'll do it but maybe i should phrase it and i need your address or charge with obstruction as well as expired yeah i would just tell him if he says no then he's just playing a game he's just not answer any questions okay so here's the thing yeah all right i am going to give you a ticket today if you refuse to give me any more information as far as your address or phone number i'm going to charge you with obstruction as well uh do you know what you have to do the elements of obstruction are it's not cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation no it isn't i'll tell you what the elements are the elevator is there have to be three people you have to we need your address all right that's fine good day i'll be with you in a minute good work so um he is not wanting to give me anything so he's probably talking to his attorney right now okay last time he told me he was hoping next time he's contacted by law enforcement that we arrest him so he can fake an injury and get um paid out that's part of his retirement plan lying to law enforcement while being questioned falsifying or destroying any potentially incriminating documents that are being sought after by law enforcement during a criminal investigation would qualify as obstruction for a person to be convicted of obstructing justice that person must not only have the specific intent to obstruct but that person must know that a proceeding was actually pending at the time and there must be a connection between the endeavor to obstruct justice and the proceeding and the person must have knowledge of this connection nowhere in colorado's revived statutes does it qualify exercising the fifth amendment as obstructing the officers mute their body cams for nearly 10 minutes while officer watts writes the citations stay on hindering the penal investigation so this is this is okay right there's one ticket there's your ticket there's your information and here's my card have a good day sir have a good day i don't leave mine rolling don't mind it after giving david his citations officer watts leaves abruptly david fought the charges in court and beat both as the elements for obstruction were absent and simply reading colorado revived statute 42-3-114 reveals that expired registration only applies to the vehicle's owner he's currently pursuing legal action the takeaway from this case is a recurring theme that we see in almost every video we watch law enforcement officers are becoming increasingly more ignorant of the law either that or they're purposefully abusing their power to retaliate against members of the public that exercise their constitutional rights or both the following was beautifully articulated by senor contino in a recent email to me the ones that suffer are us everyone at court is paid to be there but you even the cops they're paid to lie and are typically believed by the establishment because they are an intrinsic part of the establishment system the police bring in tens of thousands of new customers to the system each month and the establishment needs the police to keep the system of lawyers police officers prison guards and probation officers lubricated and flushed with taxpayer cash if the establishment wanted law enforcement officers they would hire lawyers or at a minimum require a law degree as a term of employment but because they don't instead we are offered order followers as always let me know what you think of this interaction in the comment section below david does not have a youtube channel but feel free to extend your gratitude to him in the comment section as well thanks for watching if you have a video you'd like me to review email it or send it in via facebook messenger you can also view this and other content on my website if you're new here subscribe for future content if you've been around for a while remember to like share and comment down below of what you think of this interaction shirts and other goodies are available at the teespring store linked below channel membership start at just a buck if you'd like to further support the 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