oh roll over this guy right here is about to get taser pistol whipped by a police officer St with it he already t stop you may be asking yourself how did it even come to this would you believe that this guy found himself in that position because he allegedly jaywalked excuse me what's your name oh you didn't use crosswalk there and the way you tried to avoid me I think a crosswalk I'm not in the car I'm walking no you got still use a crosswalk even if you're walking stop being you're got dict you better not believe it or not this actually resulted in one of these police officers being charged but it's never that easy it's not over yet let's go through it this one is pretty [Music] crazy many of you have discovered that it can be nearly impossible to find a civil rights lawyer although I get calls from all around the country every day I'm only one person and I only take specific types of cases and only in West Virginia the good news is is that if you need a lawyer because you've been injured you can hire America's largest injury Law Firm no matter what state you're in Morgan and Morgan has over 1,000 attorneys in all 50 states because they're the biggest they have the ability not to settle for lowball offers last year in Florida they got a victim who was in life altering car crash 12.2 million the insurance only offered them 350 Grand they got another victim in New York 6.8 million ion the insurance only offer the victim 275 Grand best part their service is free unless you win it only takes a few minutes to see if you have a case you can submit a claim and communicate with your legal Team all from your smartphone if you've been seriously injured it will only take a couple of minutes to start a claim with Morgan and Morgan at forthepeople.com slthe civil rights lawyer found in the description below it's pretty rare that I do a Vermont video but that's where this one is from specifically from St Johnsbury Vermont which is clearly where I would live if I lived in Vermont it all started a few minutes after 5:00 p.m. on May 10th of this year when a sergeant Johnson of the St Johnsbury Police Department was on duty driving in his marked police cruiser on Bay Street near the three River's path Pavilion whatever that is the sergeant said that he saw a guy wearing a hoodie he didn't know who it was didn't know the guy's name at the time he saw him leave the Pavilion area on foot and then change directions in what he thought was a reaction to the sight of a police car Sergeant Johnson said that when he saw the man failed to properly Cross Bay Street at the marked crosswalk he decided that that was enough to then confront the man Sergeant Johnson's body cam begins recording as he drives towards the man who's walking towards the railway overpass that's referred to locally as the honking tunnel apparently they don't have a lot of tunnels in Vermont Sergeant Johnson initiates contact as his police car slowly starts to to roll alongside the man who's walking you can hear for yourself the verbal exchange that takes place excuse me what's your name huh what's your Taylor what Hey Taylor what Taylor hey how do you spell that why what's going on oh you didn't use crosswalk there and the way you tried to avoid me I think use a crosswalk I'm not in the car I'm walking no you guys still use the crosswalk even if you're walking yeah at the end of it no I want stop here you're being DET you're going to DET you better not you doing you doing don't move why are you doing this I why you doing this I told you stop are you doing I'm not doing anything help help help help help help help fighting with one on BAS I don't have anything dude I don't have anything I swear to god dude I don't have anything stop st you're being detained stop dude stop stop SE stop I'm not doing anything dude now obviously I'm not a Vermont lawyer so you may want to take this with a grain of salt but I went ahead and looked up the jaywalking ordinance for the state of Vermont and here it is right here um section 1052 Crossing except at crosswalks it just says that every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any Point other than within a marked crosswalk shall yield the right of way to all vehicles upon the roadway and then there's another section about if there are official traffic control devices which I don't think is the case here this shows where I believe that this happened where you can see the actual crosswalk that this guy alleged not to have used this doesn't appear to be the scenario where there are actual traffic control devices on either side it's not some big intersection it's just like some random small Street in front of the honking tunnel near the pavilion Park not a big deal right to be safe I also checked what I think are the town ordinances for St Johnsbury Vermont and as you can see there doesn't appear to be a town jaywalking ordinance So based on my cursory review of the applicable crime that's being alleged here it doesn't appear to me to be possible that it would be reasonable for a police officer to believe that any crime had been committed by this individual in fact what has taken place is exactly what the Fourth Amendment does not allow and that's for police officers to just see you and just have some hunch some hunch that you look like you're engaged in criminal activity and reality the Constitution requires that they have to be able to articulate some reasonable suspicion that an actual crime has occurred a reasonable articulable suspicion it can be more difficult for police officers to do that for p pedestrians than in cars when you're in a car they just have to find one of the hundreds of traffic violations to say they pulled you over for or actually observe one very easy to do with a pedestrian they can't be honest about why they want to stop and detain you here he just had a hunch which was not allowed so in order to come up with some pretext to make the detainment he had to use jaywalking but it doesn't look to me that jayw walking actually legitimately applies here therefore I think this entire detainment everything that happens is illegal is unconstitutional and that's a problem because some serious violence occurs and the fact that the initial detainment is illegal that actually plays a big part in the evaluation of whether the violence was justified please stop I'm Street help stop dude come on I'll gra me I'm I'm not doing nothing stop help help help help dude come on stop help this cop stood some help me help help stop stop stop so while the chase ended quickly the physical altercation ends up lasting over 3 minutes while this individual is placed in handcuffs I'll just read the description of what happened in those minutes footage shows styel that's the guy he basically tackled here on the ground for most of the time from his back he uses his legs and left hand to try to keep Sergeant Johnson from Gaining control of him Sergeant Johnson's left hand grasps the front of Style's sweatshirt as he tells the man to stop moving roll onto his stomach and put his hands behind his back Sergeant Johnson tells styel that he will shoot him with a taser if he doesn't comply styel repeatedly yells help stop and I'm not doing anything stop hurt stop help help stop stop behind everything stop for one I'm not doing nothing you're under arrest help you're under arrest stop it's going to get for stop I'm going to use for stop last to roll over your own stop I don't have anything I don't have stop dude please please please help stop stop Sergeant Johnson tells him he's under arrest but styel does not submit and the sergeant said it's going to get worse I'm going to use Force last chance to roll over on your own 20 seconds later after brief struggle for control of sergant Johnson's taser the sergeant fires the taser at styel it has no effect and styel gains control of the taser and uses the second cartridge of probes to fire at Sergeant Johnson it temporarily puts Sergeant Johnson on the ground just as officer Johnson arrives which is confusing so we have Sergeant Johnson and officer Johnson styel falls back on the ground as officer Johnson stands over him with his taser drawn Sergeant Johnson tells the officer to fire the taser hit him with it he already tased me said Sergeant Johnson now he's saying that to officer Johnson roll over it with it he already Tas footage from the camera worn by Officer Johnson shows Sergeant Johnson holding his taser repositioning it in his hand and using the handle to hit styel in the face basically pistol whipping him but with a taser it appears to be the cause of blood on sel's face that had not been there prior at least two punches to the back of sel's head follow Sergeant Johnson then places his taser against sel's lower back to stun him the footage shows Sergeant Johnson controlling Style's wrists until officer Johnson puts him in handcuffs please get off my back you you already Ted me man the footage that follows shows styel being held face down on the ground and other police officers arriving two members from the Vermont State Police also [Applause] arrive I got a probe somewhere shot me with a taser he shot you oh yeah after I got him he ripped it from my hands and stop me with it if I know you call for an ambulance don't don't move what's your name what's your real name I don't know you don't know your name look at me out what you see a probe sticking out of me com so I thought the took it and shot me with it I good I did I mean that go ahead yeah yeah I did well there was barely any left I didn't I haven't searched him yet [ __ ] got spray all over my eye Fu I came around that way he ducked behind the bike PA I mean behind the Pavilion there so I turned around and they headed back this way and jaywalks wrote up to him ask him for his name and then he give his real name so I got out to write him I was him give me the name cuz I was going to write him a civil violation for I told me Jay walked and that time he took off out a run I told him was pain caught up to him over here and then he just started brawling with me tase me taste him he tased me my yeah he took the taser L taser on my hand turned it on me shot me with the taser oh yeah got pepper spray my oh I did but bro enough came out they wiped it off his face and wiped it on my [Applause] face just to be watching in jail as the J for what how how would I come up and assault you I was trying to detain you for what what I did nothing wrong how did I jwalk I was walking across the crosswalk from over there I didn't come from that way I came from across the bridge the camera camera y anything back on a out of conquer is 1967 she is to be valid you just said to me do you have warrants no I'm in jail all right is this your yeah that's where we were talking and then he took off running from over there he just hit me with a car dude no I didn't body camera the whole time time you start to dig you down there oh there's a camera right over it shows this whole area so really no I have my I have my thing on before I got out and talk to [ __ ] I won't say his name CU he's wanted up right here anyway so here's what happened afterwards styel was initially charged with crimes related to this encounter he was lodged in jail and arraigned in court where he pled not guilty in the paperwork justifying the charges Sergeant Johnson notes styel has a lengthy criminal record with six felony convictions and 30 misdemeanor convictions among those convictions was assault on a police officer but importantly body cam footage shows that the officer had no idea who he was until afterwards rendering all of that legally irrelevant soon after the arraignment calonia County States Attorney Jessica zisy decided to drop all the charges against stel after finding fault in Sergeant Johnson's Behavior so here's what happened the charges were dropped against stel and instead the police officer was charged so he was charged with aggravated assault under Vermont law accusing him of using excessive force while arresting this man for jaywalking in May of this year St Johnsbury police Sergeant George Johnson did not have sufficient cause to stop John styel on May 10th according to the state police and as I already explained I would agree with that Sergeant Johnson has pled not guilty his lawyer said in a statement that his client is confident that if given the time and Grace to defend himself in a court of law the community will agree that his conduct was both lawful and Justified and that's a common tactic really for police officers who were prosecuted basically jury nullification it's difficult to get a conviction with a jury drawn out of the community against a police officer even where it's Undisputed or you see on video that a civil rights violation has occurred juries will want to support the police officer at least if they conclude that he believed he was subjectively acting in good faith especially where the victim in the case has like six felonies and 30 misdemeanors on his record in reality though the jury should follow the law as they are instructed and they should not be swayed by the he deserved it defense and in my opinion this is a clear case of excessive force as I explained the initial stop was unjustified because there was no Reasonable Suspicion to detain the individual in the first place the only thing the police officer could have lawfully done if he had this hunch was try to engage in a consensual encounter which by definition means he can't chase him down in forcibly detain him and then use force on him so if he had no right to seize him at all then no amount of force to effectuate that seizure would be reasonable so if the court concludes that this was an illegal seizure then everything that happened afterwards was unconstitutional but in a criminal case he still gets to make his argument to a jury or to try to hold the prosecutor to their burden of proof Beyond any reasonable doubt he could still win the criminal case he's got a great he deserved at defense because he's a police officer and the other guy was a criminal at least he was a criminal in the past here being jaywalking that goes against the police officer and it goes for Mr styel because it would be very unreasonable to use violent physical Force to see somebody for the suspected crime of jaywalking the officer didn't know who this guy was at the time he didn't know that he had been charged or convicted previously of assaulting a police officer he had no information that he posed any immediate safety threat or that he was or that he was a danger dangerous individual at least not at the beginning now the point at which he took the taser away from him and tased the officer back then that changes things assuming that it's lawful to seize the person in the first place but that doesn't mean he has cart blanch to just pistol whip the guy but at the end of the day it's difficult to get past that this was a jaywalking allegation that likely did not even justify any detention whatsoever much less the violence that occurred here I'll continue to follow this one if you want to follow along subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com also in a comment let me know what you think if you're on the jury are you AC quitting Sergeant Johnson are you going to hold him accountable let me know remember our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it [Music]