you sound very hateful you really do are you filming us right now yeah beat it beat it you can't film him here I told you it's illegal in the old days boow and Luke Duke used to fight police corruption in Hazard Kentucky Well I guess we only got one choice go for it these days a new Hero has emerged meet Dallas you can support the police and still ask questions of the government who walk walked into the police station in Hazard Kentucky a free man just a good old boy trying to hold the police accountable and walked out in handcuffs hello I was going to do a record request and I went here early enough just like basic stuff like a personnel file of each officer I got a YouTube channel I'm telling you turn your camera off Le give you one more chance you going to turn your camera off leave and although like Boss Hog the hazard police chief thought that he was Untouchable in fact he wasn't Hazard city manager confirmed to lex18 the city commission voted unanimously last night to terminate Chief Williams he says they want to go in another Direction once again YouTube exposes a tyrant and now he's gone but why the success so far in this case but not in many others let's go through it this all happened on July 29th of this year when Dallas Campbell arrived at the hazard Police Department to submit a Kentucky open records request now Dallas Campbell has a YouTube channel called appalachin news first the about section of his channel says that his goals are to highlight First Responders and fire departments eliminate the Divide between citizens and law enforc ment advocate for our constitutional rights educate citizens and law enforcement officers of our rights promote government reform and police accountability and cover random news events in the community and to encourage citizens to participate in their local government also to learn as much as I can and most importantly to have fun and laugh more so he identifies himself as a beginner journalist beginner photographer videographer Freedom loving American in Kentucky proud so July 29th he's going to make this open records request under Kentucky law he walks into the public lobby of the police department but the self-identified clerk who he encounters behind the glass immediately does not want to comply with his request H I was going to do a record request and I wasn't here early enough little day a record request yeah okay is it an accident um I like I got like a five of them to gets no just like um just like basic stuff like a list of the all employees and hire date and salary and then like which back check on them just like their person media I got a YouTube channel like a personal file of each officer or just like of the officer yeah I mean not not their actual like uh like complaints and stuff like that just their hire date their name salary well they can't release the salary oh yeah they will that's absolutely public records ask him not unless you work here they why just take my request and and send it to your Clerk and they'll deny I I am the clerk honey I'm trying to figure it out but you can lose that attitude you don't have to be rud I ain't got I ain't got an attitude sound very hateful you really do sorry you feel that way I'm trying to help you but I'm not understanding what you're saying I know I can't give you information on the officers now I could give you a list with their name on it and their badge number like I can't give you like their pay and stuff like that you y'all got a form I know you're the record something she's the records Clerk yeah but I don't do like it's not it's like I do accident reports honey like you know like if you get in a wreck and you need to come get that accident report to take it to court or a cad is is mainly what I'm for not like the a payro clerk and stuff like that they're hiring someone else to do that but I you know what am I looking for request I think I have I think I have this is a dispatch request for it's not do I don't think that I've got information request for just put it inting that request records and put down much you that yeah that's all you got you can fill it out on blank sheet the LA the L says you can fill it out on a blank sheet of paper anything you can fill it out on anything or records request say fill it out I I already I mean I already got it if y'all want to give me a stamp copy huh are you fing this right now huh are you filming us right now yeah during the interaction the clerk and the chief chief Darren Williams who's standing there watching the whole thing they tell Dallas that it's illegal for him to be recording now I have a copy of the lawsuit that was filed in September by Dallas's lawyer and that takes the position that it was not illegal under Kentucky law to film as Dallas was doing indeed Dallas was not charged with the allegedly illegal act of filming inside the lobby of that police station and I know this hasn't happened yet but after Dallas was arrested according to the lawsuit while Dallas was waiting to be taken to the jail after his arrest the clerk took his phone and deleted the video from it without his permission as Chief Williams stood by so had that been a crime that was evidence of a crime that they then deleted so did they destroy evidence no because it wasn't a crime but they did attempt to destroy his property obviously he saved it somehow are you filming us right now yeah okay that's yeah you can't do that that's illegal in the police station I don't think it is he's the chief of police sir this is a pure government building you can't feel Poli turn it off I ain't going to turn it off be huh be it beit it beat it you can't film it I told you it's illegal what's what's what's the wild I know it's a little hard turn your camera off leave what what while break I told you this is security government building you cannot film here I disagree I don't care what if I don't leave if you don't leave I'll make you leave now are you going to leave or not com mebody in here this guy why are you do this because the media should have right to that so you should have a right to come here and argue with police here I'm telling you turn your camera off leave give you one more chance and you go J off don't touch my camera because I can't L I'm about to get sick of you just arrest me I am Dam I'm waiting on somebody to come down your put hands on don't put my hands on let me tell you something bu you don't come in here and tell me what to do this is my Police Station you work for the people though I work for the city of Hazard I don't work for you you don't come in here and tell me what to do and you don't come in here and tell me what I have to do and say you understand that I hear you she sit down sit on they all right absolutely ridiculous you come in here and have yourself put in jail for no reace despite the fact that he had actually committed no crime at all after being arrested Dallas was charged with menacing and disorderly conduct those charges were terminated in Dallas's favor when the Perry County attorney moved moved to dismiss those charges on November 4th 2024 so the charges were all dismissed then a lawsuit was filed and also Dallas published on his YouTube channel the video footage that you're seeing right now this in turn got the local news reporting on it you have this Trifecta of a lawsuit Youtube footage which then was picked up by several large YouTube channels and then the local news reporting on it together coalesced into a large amount of public outrage directed at Hazard County Kentucky the one perfectly consistent way to get accountability is when the politicians behind the badge start getting worried about their own continued future political viability usually they will have a knee-jerk support for their police officers as they apparently did here because they only did that once public outrage reached a certain point but once you reach that point they just go ahead and throw Chief Williams under the bus we've been telling you about lawsuits against Hazard Chief Darren Williams well now we've learned he's been fired Campbell didn't get his records and instead was arrested his charges just recently dismissed he believes this video prompted public outcry and pressured officials to fire Williams it's kind of surprising on one hand but not on the other I mean it seemed like it was riding on the wall but Hazard city manager confirmed to lex18 the city commission voted unanimously last night to terminate Chief Williams he says they want to go in another direction as we reported Campbell is suing the city and Williams for false arrests and malicious prosecution they didn't choose to react whenever they charged Dallas and we and we had argued that case in court had it dismissed and raised some serious questions about the evidence about the the the claims there was no reaction Campbell hopes Williams firing will lead to a culture change I do think that there obviously needs to be more training on open records and how the police department could be more transparent as Campbell's attorney Rex Kilburn said Hazard County only chose to do this once they realized that the public was upset about it prior to that they were okay with it apparently and there's also one other thing you noticed that Dallas is just a reasonable nice guy he was completely polite the entire time even in the TV news interviews he doesn't come off as overly biased in any direction he's just engaging in this honest Endeavor at being a citizen journalist and he laid out his goals right there and they're all good ones so he's a likable guy he appealed to to the public he would appeal to a jury he would appeal to a judge and you can't underestimate how important that is perhaps the most important thing in civil rights litigation is having a sympathetic plff that is so important even though there's no black and white law that is affected by it it's an extremely important consideration so that's another reason why this was successful in getting rid of this Tyrant Sheriff I've been in contact with Dallas and with his attorney and they've promised to keep me updated as this lawsuit goes on so expect more updates hopefully some exciting ones they also provided me with a full copy of their second amended complaint that has all the allegations and lays out all of the legal principles involved including the fact that Dallas was entitled to what he was requesting under Kentucky law and that it was not illegal to videotape in the way that he was doing so I'll post a copy of that on the blog Linked In the first pinned comment below like always so you can follow along too by subscribing both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com you can also follow me on Twitter John Brian Esq also called the civil rights lawyer there remember our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it