do you have a one no that's illegal Iris you're fine that is illegal excuse me you cannot force your way into my home remember the video I showed you about 8 months ago where the cop in Kentucky barges into This Woman's home while she's standing there in only a towel and she correctly says that you can't do this that's illegal you are not legally you are this is illegal get out of my house this is illegal you just excuse and the cop says so file a lawsuit it's illegal file ail law well she did file a lawsuit and now it's settled before I tell you how much it settled for in a comment tell me how much you think her lawyers were able to settle her lawsuit for not what you think she should get what you think she did get I'll tell you what happened and we'll see if you're close or if you're right he said if it's illegal file civil lawsuit so I did [Music] if we want to stay on top of the constant government overreach we have to be able to consistently and comfortably absorb all the new information I need audio gear that's reliable and comfortable to use all day every day it's not books anymore everything now we have to absorb with our eyes and our ears and that's where raycon wireless earbuds comes in these earbuds deliver top-notch sound quality at half the price of the other premium audio brands that have similar features with with 32 hours of battery life in a weatherproof and sweat resistant design raycon earbuds are great whether I'm out in the field or working on new case here at the office or even out in the gym they pair seamlessly with my phone via Bluetooth super convenient when I'm on a call with a client or most importantly at one of my daughter's dance competitions these have active noise cancellation capable of drowning out an auditorium full of screaming girls and if you need to hear what's happening around you but you still want to listen using your earbuds it has in Awareness mode that allows you to do that and they're designed to fit the widest range of ears including mine these optimized gel tips actually are very comfortable for me and they stay in so if you're like me and you want to absorb all the information go to by ron.com civils lawyer where you'll get 20% off the everyday earbuds that's right raycon is offering 20% off the everyday earbuds when you go to by raycon.com civils lawyer you'll find the link in the description below trust me your ears and your wallet will thank you and I'll thank you also because you'll be supporting the work that I do now let's get back to the video my first video on this situation was from about 8 months ago and focused not only on this actual incident but also the history of this police officer and the fact that a judge called him out in court this police officer showed up at This Woman's home without a warrant he said he wanted to make sure that her daughter was okay when she asked for a warrant he forced his way inside the house do you have a warrant no Ah that's illegal excuse me you cannot force your way into my home the footage of this shocked a judge who dismissed the criminal charges and laid an epic SmackDown on this officer Mr Curtis had zero respect for the Constitution for which he took an oath and sore to uphold and quite frankly I was appalled I've never seen a video like that that police officer resigned but then he was hired somewhere else and after a few months he got fired from there and as it turns out the wasn't the first time that he had entered somebody's home and committed violence inside without a warrant or any other lawful justification he actually was sued for it before but wait there's more another man came forward with body cam footage that shows this officer trying to collect a private debt using his job and another police officer I don't know why he thought he could just intimidate me like that I I don't disagree so this incident occurred in Frankfurt Kentucky and by the way Frankfurt supposedly got its name from the 1780s when Frontiersman Steven Frank was killed by Indians at a Crossing on the Kentucky River and that spot became known as Frank's Fort which eventually evolved into Frankfurt Frankfurt is the capital of Kentucky but it's actually pretty small frankfurt's population was only around 28,000 people as of 2020 making it the smallest state capital in the United States by population it's nestled in a deep valley along a bend in the Kentucky River and it's home to the Buffalo Trace Distillery one of the oldest continuously operating distilleries in the United States legendary Frontiersman Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca do you know what her last name was Rebecca Bryant a distant cousin of mine they're both buried supposedly in Frankfort cemetery perched on a hill overlooking the city now to more recent events it was July 7th of 2023 Kimberly Meers was a 46-year-old mother she had a career in corporate accounting but on that particular day she was just spending a leisurely day at her home in Frankfurt with her teenage daughter Kimberly had just gotten out of the shower she hears a knock at the door so she answers the door having just gotten out of the shower she's dressed only in a towel and it was then she cracks the door open and that's when she sees then Frankfurt police detective Larry Gus Curtis with a group of police officers and social workers Curtis demanded that Kimberly allow him to speak with her daughter Serv just make sure the daughter okay yeah she's fine have a wife I'm sorry have a when Kimberly merely asked Curtis if he had a warrant to enter her home Curtis responded no but then he immediately shoved the door into Kimberly injuring her and unlawfully invading her home do you have a wife no that's illegal Iris you're fine that is illegal and excuse me you cannot force your way into my home you are not legally you are this is illegal get out of my house this is illegal you just excuse me Officer Curtis was enraged by Kimberly's assertion of her constitutional rights so he directed that she be placed in handcuffs and had her arrested on the spot without probable cause and therefore in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights as he twisted her arm behind her back with a towel falling off of her Curtis glibly told if it's illegal file a civil lawsuit it's illegal file a civil laws so she did in federal court she sued the city of Frankfurt the former Frankfurt police chief an Curtis for excessive force and violating her civil rights all settled with Meyers for $350,000 and under the agreement ctis can never work for the city of Frankfurt in any capacity at least I was able to get that in this settlement to at least protect the city of Frankfurt from this officer but there's still an issue of public oversight it can really make a difference for the success or the settlement amount of a civil rights lawsuit what type of PL if you have who filed the lawsuit is this a criminal whose rights were violated or was it somebody who a jury could sympathize with was it a regular person and it's just as important when it comes to the police officer who was involved do they have a history of this sort of thing are they a sympathetic individual will a jury like them or will a jury hate their guts have they been fired from other departments have they resigned elsewhere so this was a situation where that was at play on both ends of that you have this regular mom sort of in a towel answering the door that any woman you're going to have on a jury is going to be able to sympathize with and then you had this by all accounts apparently terrible cop so according to the lawsuit and I'll post the entire thing at the blog it will be linked in the first pin comment below so this was the Frankfurt police department but Curtis had previously worked at the Georgetown Police Department and he resigned from there February 1st 2017 2 days after being served with a 48-hour notice regarding numerous acts of Miss conduct despite his employment record of numerous acts of misconduct where he had to leave Georgetown frankfor Police Department hired him anyways but his unsuitability for police work would become evident to Frankfurt almost immediately when in August of 2018 he unlawfully entered the home of two other people Keon Russell and Cheyenne Washington Curtis tased and beat Russell before arresting both of them all without any probable cause and that manifested into a lawsuit which settled before trial so what does Frankfurt do after that happens nothing he received no additional training he was permitted to remain on the force he was given no punishment for entering the home unlawfully of a law biting Kentucky resident and attacking them inside that Home Instead Frankfurt Police Department promoted Curtis to detective and assigned him to work with vulnerable people such as victims of sexual crimes children and people with mental health issues what could go wrong according to the lawsuit during his time there Curtis amassed numerous citizen complaints and more 48h hour notices and the department failed to address those issues many of those arrests resulted in charges that were dismissed for lack of evidence or significantly amended down he had a habit of significantly overcharging which meant that many people would spend substantially more time in custody and would have their families torn apart before the charges were inevitably eventually dropped as was the case here that happened to Kimberly Meyers despite all of this the Frankfurt Police Department saw it fit to award officer or detective Curtis its 2022 officer of the year award why well they said because he had a high volume of arrests the records that Kimberly's lawyers were able to fine showed despite their reward they knew that he had issues in 2023 Curtis supervisor specifically stated in his performance evaluation that he had a quote tendency to push quickly to a conclusion and that he should quote take note not only of facts that lead to the believed conclusion but also those that lead elsewhere and as a result of his false arrest in a legal entry into Kimberly's home how was she damaged well according to the lawsuit frankfurt's local newspaper The State Journal published the false information created by Kur along with her mug shot it said local Mother charged with strangling and assaulting teen in fact Kimberly spent 3 days in jail after her arrest in an overcrowded cell in the Franklin County Regional Jail drinking melted ice from a cooler to try to stay hydrated then when that case went to trial there was a suppression hearing where it was relevant whether or not Curtis followed the Constitution and the judge was not happy at all and basically the judge concluded that Curtis had lied and violated the Constitution and she let him have it at this hearing Mr Curtis had zero respect for the Constitution for which he took an oath and swore to uphold and quite frankly I was appalled I've never seen a video like that regarding the injury she said this is law school 101 this is the textbook example of the definition of what constitutes an unlawful entry into a person's home after reviewing the body cam footage multiple times thinking surely to goodness I had missed something it instead became glaringly apparent to me that Mr Curtis had zero respect for the Constitution for which he took an oath and swore to uphold I was appalled by the arrogance and I was incredibly disappointed and thereafter Kimberly's charges were dropped but they weren't dropped until April 16th of 2024 the following year so remember in addition to 3 days in jail in this terrible jail terrible conditions mugshot accusing her of these terrible things things in the community and having the charges held over her head for almost a year all of that plays a part in What that case would eventually settle for it's not just the technical unlawful entry of that home and the arrest of that individual lacking any context it's the context of this officer's history the Frankfurt Police Department's decision to hire them everything they ignored everything they allowed everything they ratified by giving him Awards and promoting him that all played a part it wasn't just this one bad officer it was the systematic lack of accountability that altogether caused the harm to this woman and the harm to her wasn't just theoretical constitutional injury because he entered her home she suffered real harm at some point she would go before a jury and testify about all these things that happen and the effect that it had on her and a jury could award damages based on that it's all intangible but where you have this unlikable officer you have this likable plth who knows what a jury would do they would also have the ability to probably award punitive damages and then damages against the city itself for their part in this all of that is at play and it's very difficult to put a number on things like this and here's my opinion that is a pretty good settlement for an unlawful entry into a house it's pretty good settlement for false arrest again it depends on all those factors you have have to look at it in context and if this case had gone to trial this case had all those different things going for it which many people don't most often the cops violate the civil rights of people who are not necessarily sympathetic they have committed some crime they have engaged in some wrongdoing they're spouting off on the body cam in a way that a jury is not going to like maybe the officer has no prior disciplinary history the officer wasn't fired at prior departments and you don't have a judge who is specifically set on the record that this officer has violated the Constitution and is a terrible cop and is not to be trusted so this case had a lot going for it so don't be fooled by the number $350,000 pretty good there will still be people out there saying well it's not enough it should be $350 million yeah but that's not reality that's not the real world that we live in you never know what a jury is going to do the more common result is that qualified immunity is given to the police officer and you don't even get to with jury and when you do when and if you do get to a jury the most common result is they side with the government they side with the police because they're not told that the officer doesn't have to pay whatever they award they're not told that there's Insurance they're not told that the city is going to indemnify the officer the jury is shielded from that so the you know when they do award money they assume the officer himself is going to have to pay it and unless they're really really angry at the officer a lot of times it's a very very small number so anyways that's my thoughts on this settlement it's good to share that information so that other civil rights plaintiffs around the country can point to it and say look what here's what happened to that woman and $350,000 was the mutually agreed upon a settlement amount for that case and then you can compare it to the facts of some other case and say it should be more or less as compared to those facts if you like staying on top of constitutional rights and civil rights litigation Please Subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights la.com you can also follow me on Twitter at John Brian Esq where a lot of times I'll post updates that never make it to YouTube our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it [Music]