i'm not going to stop recording people here because it's my right first amendment the first amendment does not protect your recording yes it does freedom of press the guys that just enforce the law just left and told me i'm fine to be here so i don't know do you want to like call them back or i understand you know there might be feelings involved but there's also rights and the law freedom of press is all you really need to know man there are limitations on frameworks okay right well you're saying people you can't be liable right right yeah i mean you're not doing that here so you understand their limitations i understand that yes and there are restricted areas this is not one that says you cannot video record people without their consent that's not true do you have your id on you no okay welcome back to the lackluster channel today's story features slow county observer back in october of 2019 slo went to explore the santa cruz county government center in california which houses the assessor's office county clerk d.a courts and other government offices shortly after his arrival his camera catches the attention of one of the state employees hi is this part of the court yeah do you have a question just looking around that was my question part of the court like traffic tickets and stuff come here is this for like traffic tickets and stuff are you recording us yeah is this for traffic tickets and stuff yeah okay gotcha i'm allowed to record though i am she disappears for a moment and slo continues to record until deputy cummings and lopez arrive on scene and ask him to leave because he is filming why you cannot film in here i can totally film there's a government building so we have the code yeah what's the code this is a public building i'm allowed to record now actually not there's a little court that doesn't require no you're no you're wrong yeah i'm sorry i just went in the courthouse too i felt all around in the courthouse no that's they let me in the sheriff's let me in so there's a rule of court so it says that you can't do that penal code 632 so if we're admonishing you otherwise we're gonna go ahead and set you up this is tim newman but we will discuss him momentarily as he becomes a defendant in the lawsuit resulting from what you're about to witness deputy lopez just claimed that penal code 632 is the reason why slow county observer cannot record in the government center 632 covers invasion of privacy which is basically when a person uses an electronic device to eavesdrop on confidential communications typically this would apply to recording a telephone call without notifying the other party or intercepting emails not directed to you applying this to capturing conversations held in public where privacy is not reasonably expected is ridiculous and would almost never hold up in court okay out of a public building so there's information on our website that tells you that you have to get an order to film in a courthouse you can go to the website and look at it this will be the peanut code right so you can have that for your reference as well privacy pc632 okay i'll hang on to that sure do you have any any lawful business here yeah what is it gathering information okay for it's none of your business it's not my business yeah because privacy sure let's go with that okay all right so you gotta stop recording people nope okay what do you mean no i'm not gonna stop recording people here because it's my right first amendment the first amendment does not protect your recording yes it does freedom of press that wasn't just a solid own this is a pathetic demonstration on why law enforcement has such a terrible image outside of the widespread recording of misconduct and brutality cases most law enforcement officers seem to be the most ignorant of the first amendment which is wholesomely ironic considering that the very first page of the santa cruz county sheriff's office policy manual the very first sentence describing the law enforcement code of ethics states that they will respect the constitutional rights of all to liberty equality and justice but how can you respect the constitution if you don't know what it is now that we know deputy lopez doesn't understand the very first part of his job what else do you think he and his comrades will get wrong i understand i'm not allowed to film in a courtroom i understand that this is not a court room this is a public building this is part of the courthouse i don't care well it doesn't matter what are you going to do i'll go ahead i'll you know what i'll throw i'll throw a loss today you guys go for it if you want to do something so what we're going to do is as long as you're not involved in disrupting business you're completely fine okay cool and then you got that paper for your reference as well 632 privacy pc yeah perfect all right so cummings and what's your name lopez okay just so you know i'm not trying to be offend anyone but when my rights get violated or almost violated i get offensive offended this is a perfectly legal activity what i'm doing yep and i agree okay we confirmed what started so you're all good he's gonna check with him okay okay after contacting their sergeant the deputies confirmed that what slo county observer is doing is legal and notify the window clerk that he can continue recording so you're completely fine and film the one thing i ask is just trying to get inside there because there is some private information inside the booth so if you can see it from a public spot it's kind of on the onus on them if they want anything hidden or consider it private then they need to hide it they need to keep it out of the public view you know what i mean a kitchen package so yeah that's just that's it so as long as you're not interrupting them or in line okay okay have a good day is he still going to print out that thing is he going to give me the printout [Music] is he's still gonna give me the print out that guy yeah i'm trying to get it for this okay right here are you in the press yeah okay [Music] court director tim newman said he was going to print out penal code 632 for slo but instead he emerges with a permission slip for slo to fill out to request the ability to express his civil rights they close the window because i'm recording that's why they did it man he's going to come out real quick he'll here we go okay i need to fill that out and oh i'm not going to fill anything out i thought this you're going to print up the law so we make all all people who come to the courthouse who are members of the media are required to complete this in order to take any footage record anything there's a rule of court you can read up on it if you want to test it and the guys that just enforce the law just left and told me i'm fine to be here so i don't know they're they're you want to like call them back or no that's court security okay so i'm the director of the court here so i know the rules of the court gotcha regardless of what they may tell you so the the law enforcement officer so they might not be aware of what the rules of court are of the laws to be fair after witnessing the misuse of pc 632 and their lack of understanding of the first amendment it doesn't seem to be too far-fetched that they may not know the law well they just told me i'm free to do what i'm doing here they're incorrect so the law the sheriff's department you cannot fill in the courthouse okay well i'm not gonna stop so do what you gotta do man okay go let them know okay they're gonna come back and tell me that i'm free to record here man they just did i just had a conversation with them yeah the surgeon said you're fine okay you're fine dude it's a public area ah yeah i know um my partner and i were making a better like hey dude 20 minutes they're gonna get a call for myself he's recording it's like dude it's a public area yeah for sure hey i appreciate you man thank you dude that was like now the second i saw you recording i was like hey give me a good series i already knew what you were up to yeah for sure i just wanted to show people around the santa cruz government dude you know what it's just that the first the first amendment freedom of press freedom recording pictures in a public area it's completely fine right and it's just that some people don't realize that they don't these people a lot of most of them they [Music] they gave me this pc632 that's the law that i'm breaking well that's the court right yeah hey i appreciate it i totally i thought it was like 20 minutes 18 minutes for me yeah oh for sure um silk county observer on youtube if you want to see it's going to be up in a week or so yeah all right man have a good one after a brief chat with a security guard who understands the constitution better than the sheriff's deputies tim newman returns did you get that straightened out uh i did as i said so it's what i said and it is as i said you have to have a judge's order in order to be recording the courthouse so are you are you refusing to stop recording yeah okay okay your name yeah okay i'm just here to gather information i'm not i don't know what you're causing anything but it doesn't give you any information oh okay here we go oh no no i don't want the form just do a business card too okay thanks you don't want to read up then you don't want to know them i don't need a media pass this is free press so what does that mean well i mean if there are rules that apply to the press for recording in the courthouse and you're part of the press that you claim then they apply to you it's not the first amendment issue well this is a government buildings so i mean the law enforcement people already came and said i'm fine to do this but you want to like get make them come back and tell you again or i'm just following the rules okay you're not though you're just misinformed man i'm sorry you're trying to give me the form so you is this two copies of the same thing yeah yeah i'll just take one okay if you want to be informed okay for sure so i'm gonna wait around until you get this straightened out okay i'll be right here just out of consideration for other people who come up and they have court business it's really about them it's not so much trying to protect the court but it's trying to protect people who have they're having a bad day here usually when they're here and they probably don't want to be on camera and they don't want other people to be seeing what's happening to them same thing in the court building it's like we have jurors and other people who are here not necessarily because they want to be here but because they're brought here for some other reason and then to have somebody just kind of coming in and video camp videotaping them again consider their right to privacy their right to be able to come to a public place and have their business heard without having somebody video record it it's just not very compassionate or understanding their situation so i was asking you to consider that you know you you're in a situation because this is a county building where the deputies are a little bit at a loss of what to do so you know you've accomplished that but i understand you know there might be feelings involved but there's also rights and the law and stuff like that and there are so there are if you can tell me i'm allowed to be here if you can tell me that i'll take off right now if you succeed i'll take off right now yeah i mean i just gave you what i think is the rule cordless i said it over there i i documented it all okay i mean if you read it i think it'll tell you i did you can't you can't that's to record courtroom proceedings no but if you go in and you read that if you read the rule and you read what is defined as a courtroom it would define both the airport building it talks about the the entrances and the exits of the court building okay so i think it covers yep so you said a deputy deputy's coming yeah i think so so you think so yeah he told me he's gone so i mean they're busy they're trying to deal with we have you know people in the court they're trying to deal with that you know already came out what's that two of them already came and yeah and gave i just want you to understand that right but again i'm telling you that they're not always informed about rules of course like their job is generally to patrol and understand law as it pertains to you know maybe what things you can bring into the courthouse okay sometimes there are things that they might not know or be aware of especially as you get patrol officers who rotate through here they're not always experts on what happens in a courthouse that's just kind of okay the way this ostrich gets me right all right well i just i'm trying to make you understand i'm allowed to do this i'm allowed to be here i understand people might get hurt about it but i would have been gone by now if this interaction hadn't occurred you know they got all offended didn't answer my question but you're not allowed i mean that's a whole different law you're not allowed to be video recording somebody else without their consent that's not true again you're misinformed if you're in public there's no expectation of privacy in public this is a public building what authority are you using for that no that's just common knowledge man it's coming up but there's got to be some authority right there's going to be some legal authority there for the first amendment the first amendment is the highest legal authority right there freedom of press there are limitations on the first one freedom of press is all you really need to know man there are limitations okay right well you're saying people you can't be liable right right yeah i mean you're not doing that here so you understand there are limitations on i understand that yes and there are restricted areas this is not one of the law that says you cannot video record people without their consent that's not true so we'll agree to disagree okay but so hopefully if you got what you needed it'd be great if you just you know if you tell me i'm i'm okay to record in here i'll take off man i don't think you well okay so if i tell you you're okay to record here you'll leave but i want you to understand that i am man i'm okay at recording here the deputy two deputies already came and told you that and you just don't like what i'm doing so you're making up your own rules and the way the way you interpret the law that's to film and record courtroom proceedings and i've seen that and i know that mc500 i know that it's the extension of the courthouse gotcha man okay well keep doing you i'm gonna hang around i guess a short time later sheriff yanez arrives on scene hello hey how's it going man did you get called over here okay how's it going uh okay i just wish these guys would understand that this is a public building and i'm allowed to be here and record so he's i've already talked to two deputies they've cleared it with their sergeants here okay i'm just wondering what are you doing here oh just recording i was trying to show my audience the santa cruz government center and i asked her a question and she didn't want to she got all offended immediately so you understand that she's serving like people that are coming here for court business like um i understand her job yeah so if you had a question about a ticket or some court matter that you needed help with she'd be happy to help you you understand that yeah okay so well i'm assuming that i mean you're you're assuming that but what's that you're assuming that do you have your id on you no okay i need to see some identification and get your identification why because you're in a public building and you're recording in here i'm not gonna give you okay i i need to okay for the purpose of this could be a security issue later i'm not gonna give you my id now okay well here's the deal you're not gonna give me your name or anything i'm waiting for the guy i have business here with that guy in there which guy the guy tim tim newman yeah he already talked to me he wants me to arrest you so i don't want to do that okay okay so if you won't give me your name you won't identify yourself i'm gonna ask you to leave the courthouse okay leave the government facility the government building yeah i have business here i'll leave the area but i'm going to go upstairs and keep looking around what business do you have get gathering information i didn't know how to send my people to different places and locations inside this building who are your people what do you mean your people i'm not gonna answer any more questions okay well then you need to leave the building slow county observer is now told that he needs to leave the building seemingly because he won't provide his identification reluctantly slow turns to leave oh i'll go over it are you gonna escort me i need you to leave the building okay what's going on why are you you want to do i have a business here i don't need to identify i have a business business too i don't need to identify myself to you you do no i don't yes actually no i don't i'm asking you to and i have a right to ask for it okay you can ask for it go for it okay you need to leave the building can you back up man what's your deal backing up i'm just waiting for you to leave the building i'm gonna follow you till you leave at this point you're disrupting no you're you're disrupting my my business here so here's the deal i'm going to arrest you if you don't leave right now okay okay can you just tell me for what for disrupting a government building i have the code right here i can show it to you i'm not gonna show it to you i'll arrest you then i'll show it to you how's that your choice are you gonna leave you need to leave right now what's your name i'll give you my card okay yeah let me get your card no i'll give you my card after we're done here give me your card and i'll leave oh sure i just need to know where to file a complaint 5200 so-called so-called complaints here's my name and also a lawsuit man you're violating my first amendment right right now i hope you know that santa cruz is open for a lawsuit now that's great good for you dude i have a lawyer on retainer man there you go here's my name that's your business card that's not like i don't have this card on me right now come on you knows okay you need to leave right now time to go time to go i'm leaving around put your hand behind your back slo county observer has now been arrested as he was walking towards the exit for pc 602.1b malicious mischief and 148 a 1 obstructing a peace officer well guys that was some that kept me in there for about five hours however the charges were never filed and the statute of limitations has since expired slo went on to file complaints on the officers and when body cam footage was requested the department refused claiming that based on government code 6254-f if you make a complaint on an officer they are not required to provide you with their records because it would endanger the safety of a person involved in the investigation or would endanger the successful completion of the investigation slo ended up hiring dan near to sue the county of santa cruz santa cruz sheriff mark yanez and court director tim newman and because the court director was included in the suit all of the santa cruz judges recused themselves requiring the court to bring in a retired judge the court has even given tim newman a free attorney and he is not required to pay any of the filing fees under the court's claims that he himself is a government agency meanwhile slo has had to spend 30 thousand dollars pursuing this case and has still yet to have a single discussion regarding a settlement the reason that that is all so important is because one of the only ways things change and policies are updated is through these lawsuits i often receive emails and comments asking for updates or complaints that victims of similar incidents don't sue and those are valid complaints until you realize that a case that seems this simple on the outside has now been in motion for almost two years and has cost insane amounts of money that some people wouldn't be able to afford even if they represented themselves a good question to ask is whether the court system is part of the corruption that permits tyrannical behavior by government officials let me know what your thoughts are down below and be sure to visit slow county observers channel for new videos and continued updates on this incident 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 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