happy tuesday about seven months ago i posted a video about a west virginia police officer everett maynard formerly of the logan west virginia police department who was found guilty by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of an arrestee by using excessive force this was caught on video and the video footage was shown to the jury this is the one where the officer was caught by a surveillance camera flipping the bird to the camera well today i talked to one of the investigators involved in the prosecution of that case and i thought i'd give you an update video about what ended up happening to officer or former officer maynard well the u.s doj recently issued another press release in the case announcing that former officer maynard has been sentenced to nine years in prison followed by three years of supervisor supervised release after that due to his conviction for violating an arrestee's civil rights by using excessive force so in the video that i posted late last year i showed you the actual photos that i had obtained that were presented to the jurors during the trial and i went over with you the actual jury instructions that were used in that case because that is always the most important thing what jury instructions were used what did the judge instruct the jury that the law was so i'll post a link to my first video on this case in the description below so this is a rare case of a police officer being held accountable in the most important way he received almost a decade in prison for his actions the u.s department of justice had this to say about the sentencing of former officer maynard this defendant's abuse of law enforcement authority inside a police station was egregious and caused serious injuries said assistant attorney general kristen clark for the justice department's civil rights division police misconduct undermines community trust in law enforcement and impedes effective policing this sentence confirms that law enforcement officers who use excessive force against arrestees will be held accountable and this is just the most important issue in policing in america it is a lack of accountability and believe me when i say that there is nothing that police officers or any government officials fear more than federal prosecution most of what i can do it all comes down to money public exposure but also money there's something different about ending up in federal prison for 10 years now title 18 united states code section 242 makes it a crime to the private person of his civil rights under color of law so for a jury to define the to find the defendant guilty of this federal prosecutors have to prove these following elements beyond a reasonable doubt at a trial one that a defendant acted under color of law generally not an issue with police officers two the defendant deprived the victim of a right secured or protected by the constitution or the laws of the united states here the right of an arrestee to be free from unreasonable seizures fourth amendment which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer and the final two elements third and four three and four are that the defendant acted willfully pretty easy but more importantly number four that the defendant's acts resulted in bodily injury to the arrestee and that was the case here and note elements one and two under color of law and violated a federally protected right are by themselves a misdemeanor okay so when elements three and four are added to that which includes bodily injury to the rsd now we're talking about a felony and that's the conviction that we had here and this happened on november 17th of last year back when i posted the first video this federal jury looked at the evidence they convicted of former officer maynard of using excessive force against an arrestee while he was a police officer with the logan police department this is in west virginia at trial the jury heard evidence that maynard had assaulted the victim in the bathroom of the logan police department before dragging him into an adjoining room hauling him across the room and ramming his head against the door frame the assault initially rendered the victim unconscious and left him with a broken shoulder a broken nose and a cut to his head that required staples to close while the defendant officer assaulted the victim the defendant berated the victim for quote making demands of him by among other things asking to go to the bathroom after the assault he left the victim unconscious in a pool of his own blood thereafter he bragged about the force that he used it's important to note that in this actual case the jury was instructed that a police officer and i quote may not use force merely because an arrestee questions an officer's authority insults the officer uses profanity or otherwise engages in verbal provocation unless the force was otherwise objectively reasonable at the time it was used additionally the jurors were instructed that an officer may not use force solely to punish retaliate against or seek retribution against another person police officers generally will be given by the courts a lot of leeway you know all of the case law says we're not going to judge police officers with 2020 hindsight that's the language that's always been used so if a police officer does actually use excessive force looking at it in hindsight they're going to be given a lot of leeway and that's where the courts use qualified immunity which by the way doesn't apply as a defense and a criminal prosecution only a civil lawsuit but they're going to get a lot of leeway because in the end the jury is determining what is reasonable an arrestee could say anything could insult the mother or sister or daughter of the police officer almost say anything if violent force is used in response to that that is almost never going to be reasonable under federal law under federal constitutional law and especially if it's really just used as a retaliation or a punishment or retribution for something the individual did not response to an imminent existing threat that is going to be highly illegal and wrong so how did the jurors know that it happened this way in this case well because it was captured on video which is by far the most important tool available to us for constitutional accountability the police certainly like to use video evidence in court when they prosecute members of the public but they don't like it when it happens to them in this case however i'm told it actually was a law enforcement officer who originally blew the whistle on this guy to federal investigators and good for that individual there needs to be more of this and i have reason to believe that there is going to be more of this in west virginia and uh please feel free to send me links i really love that or send me your footage if something happened to you and i will see you next time [Music]