hello I'm officer Smith I started today man you got no inspection sticker in the car why are you so shaking yeah look at your arm this is traveling is anything illegal in the car [Music] welcome back to the civil rights lawyer channel one of the unique things about my channel is that it can be interactive you learn from me and also I do learn from you this is a West Virginia case Body cam footage of a traffic stop and warrantless arrest the guy in the video wants to file a lawsuit here I have a focus group with literally thousands of eyes so you tell me what do you think does he have a case in your opinion watch the footage with me I'll point out some things that pop out at me and you do the same in the comments and no Eco here I'm pretty well versed in the law but that's just a small part of civil rights litigation mostly we deal with facts what are the facts I miss things all the time that people in the audience point out additionally an important part of the decision of whether or not to file these lawsuits is whether the facts and the footage appeal to normal people who watch it and I'd like to know how this footage makes you feel was this right or wrong okay let's go through it this happened on August 23rd of 2021 in Martinsburg West Virginia which is up in the Eastern Panhandle and this guy DJ beard who was the driver he went to a store driving this little sort of a farm car that had a dad registration sticker and he gets pulled over by a city of Martinsburg Police Department Officer named Daniel Smith the encounter took place in a parking lot of a store okay first let's start with patrolman Smith's police report his own words at approximately 11 30 hours I observed the purple Chevy Metro Bearing West Virginia plates driving down the 1000 block of Foxcroft Avenue without a motor vehicle inspection by the time I was able to catch up to the vehicle and initiate my emergency lights and Sirens we were pulling into the parking lot of Mattress Warehouse which is the 800 block of Foxcroft Chevy Metro the trollman Smith continues in his report upon approaching the vehicle and speaking with the driver later identified as Mr Dale Bernard beard Jr he was extremely shaky when asked to present his ID and registration card to me so I asked him to step out of his vehicle so take a look at the footage and see if that matches what you see in the video hello I'm officer Smith I'll stop today man you got no inspection sticker on your car yeah I know we're working on it okay I do I got you got your license registration why are you so shaky look at your arm s is everything illegal in the car s you have registration insurance on the car yeah okay what's up Martinsburg this County have a K-9 working today [Music] hey I'm gonna tell you what Mr beard go and step out of the car for me did I commit a crown step out of the car patrolman Smith then wrote Mr beard refused to exit the vehicle and told me he did not commit a crime and would not exit the vehicle I then opened his door and told him to exit the vehicle and he was yet again resisting to exit the vehicle I then grabbed him and assisted him out of the car and placed him under arrest for obstructing I then called for a canine and county unit and his partner came to my stop and did a canine sniff of the vehicle watching the body cam footage do you think that that is what actually happened let me rewind it just a little bit hey I'm gonna tell you step out of the car he's refused to step out of the car get out of the car get out of the car you're under arrest for obstructing excuse me I told you step out of the car I told you once what Crown do I can make you don't have to commit a property have you step out of the car give me the other hand hold on let me give me your other hand give me your other hand if you're videotaping that's fine I'm videotaping too man when I ask you to step out of the car you're required by law to step out of the vehicle when asked by negative I asked what crime I told you I stopped you for uh dead inspect well no inspection actually you're acting very nervous you're shaky for my officer safety that's why I had to step out of the vehicle Lawrenceburg on 95 with him do you have any weapons on you yeah I'm scared look man you turn this into somebody didn't need to be man all I was doing was asking for your yeah I have nothing to hide okay that's nothing to have at all all right well I told you what's going on I stopped for inspections okay we have to step out of the vehicle I know you may disagree but that's the law you get what I'm saying spread your feet okay all right I don't you know I can have anybody I want to step out of the vehicle okay I'm not doing this I think that's true okay well this is my lieutenant you feel free to ask him any questions you you feel you need to I just have to cry myself okay all right buddy walk back to to my car I mean you're really gonna arrest me for this 60 animals here go ahead I'm on my way there well then I guess you should have thought about being a little different now I'm asking one more time is there anything illegal in the car there's nothing illegal okay all right all right I'm gonna take your sunglasses too I'll put them with all your belongings okay man I gotta take care of these animals but all right all right how's this DJ beard yes his ID's up there all right all right yeah I think that's him he gave me his license well see I he was shaking horrible so I um I don't think anything illegal in the choir said do you have anything illegal on you and I was like okay I don't know what I did with his license yeah we're good now uh all right oh close them I thought you said open them all right continuing with the police report the K-9 alerted to the vehicle and a search was done we located a backpack full of prescription pill bottles and baggie of marijuana tar and a small container with a white powdery substance appearing to be possible cocaine I'm guessing I was a positive alert I'm a destiny okay good alert s in my life Martinsburg positive canine alert on the vehicle we're going to be doing a search DJ beard Dale Jr Dale beer Jr recording his phone is still recording too I never stopped it he was recording me [Applause] I can't tell what that is that I'm sorry it's about sex schedule open container all right foreign I'm looking for like an emergency latch to open up the trunk especially tonight so I said step out of the car I didn't commit a crime I don't need to step out step out of the car no I don't need to step out okay you're an arrestor so obstructing whoa whoa whoa wait just a minute is that right what he's telling a supervisor is that how it happened let's watch it again you're under arrest for filthy I told you to step out of the car I told you once what Crown do I can make you don't have to commit a property have you step out of the car nope I didn't hear him once say that he was refusing to step out of the car he was merely questioning the officer's authority to make him get out of the car and also to open his car door but he never refused foreign test that white powder okay and um let me get a bag are you having them come down right now to do it I'm gonna call and see if they're available okay oh brother don't arrest me for this it's too late for that buddy that's Trazodone [Applause] please yes sir [Applause] they're gonna meet your own station okay let's cross some of the uh all right foreign it's getting towed yep so my wife can't get it nope nope unless you yeah maybe yeah that ain't gonna work less is already in rounds they're good it's getting towed once I've told you to step out of the vehicle and you're not stepping out yep I can't I don't have to tell you get out of the car one time if you refuse one time I have every right to take you out of the vehicle Pennsylvania versus men's is the um the federal case law if you want to research it I'm not arguing with you no I got you I'm just saying I mean no I got you sir well I don't know what your research is telling you but that's federal case law man all right man right through that door and here's how the police report ends I'll put the entire thing up on the blog post to link in the first comment upon arrival back to station the task force was able to come and field test the white powdery substance for me their results came back inconclusive but did indicate to me that it was that it tested negative for a fake narcotic substance I will be sending the white powdery substance to the West Virginia State Police forensic lab for further analysis the white powdery substance weighed in at approximately 24 grams the task force did have to pour some of the powdery substance into a clear bag for testing Mr beard has been charged with obstructing possession of marijuana possession with intent to distribute cocaine nothing further to report patrolman D Smith the only problem was there were no drugs in that car so he was arrested and charged with basically dealing drugs when all of the reports come back completely negative yet this man was prosecuted following his warrantless arrest and eventually all of the charges were dropped once the state police forensics lab said that none of this is illegal drugs I think what we see here is a bogus obstruction arrest used as a trojan horse to perform a misguided and hunch-based Drug investigation the Reasonable Suspicion for the Stop was a missing or expired inspection sticker then using the claim that Mr beard was supposedly shaking which I didn't observe in the video he was asked get out of the car pretty much instantaneously but if you watch the footage again you'll see that officer Smith called for a drug dog even before getting Mr beard out of the car thus he appears to have ordered him out of the car pursuant to a drug investigation rather than for some officer safety reason pursuant to just a routine traffic stop the biggest problem was that Mr beard was pretty much immediately placed under arrest so we don't even get to the usual question of whether the officer is unreasonably delaying a traffic stop for a drug investigation we just have an immediate warrantless arrest and that requires probable cause that some crime was committed here that supposed probable cause was obstruction for allegedly refuse using to get out of the car the officer was correct that the Supreme Court case Pennsylvania versus Mims authorizes officers to order drivers out of their vehicle during a traffic stop but that's probably irrelevant here because the driver never actually refused he merely questioned the officer he was hardly even given a chance then the officer lied to his supervisor telling him that Mr beard expressly and verbally refused to get out but he didn't this appeared to be retaliation for Mr beard expressing criticism of the officer when he asked him if anything illegal was in the car Mr beard asked that question right back to the officer additionally the officer admits to his buddies that Mr Mr beard had been recording him this is really nothing more than your usual retaliatory arrest under the guise of the vague obstruction statute fortunately this was caught on video thus the prosecutors could view the evidence and see clearly that Mr beard did not refuse to exit his vehicle and about the allegation of Mr appeared shaking even assuming that he was shaking there's a sick circuit case saying that shaking itself they've held many times cannot be used as Reasonable Suspicion for further detention by police officers during a traffic stop because everyone expresses their nerves in different ways also and more importantly there's a fourth circuit case which is the controlling law for this incident that says that police officers can open a car door where the tent is so dark that he can't see the occupants of the vehicle for officer safety reasons but as you can see here there was no dark tent there was no tent issue at all thus there was no valid reason for this police officer to open Mr Beard's door and Mr beard was correct about that so I think there's a false arrest here in violation of the Fourth Amendment because Mr beard did not commit obstruction which is why the charges were dropped and then there's a violation for malicious prosecution as well for trumping up drug charges based on perfect illegal substances that they found in the vehicle just in retaliation but I'd like to know what you think let me know in the comments should I file a lawsuit here thanks for watching please subscribe and remember freedom is scary deal with it [Music] foreign