you won't get in my house without a search one sees the photos off the wall they searched his closet they searched the cabinets in here his phone was taken outside as he was caught recording but he submitted the video and audio to local attorney John Bryan who then put it up on YouTube he said he handles lots of illegal search and seizure cases but never one like this I don't know if I've ever really heard that my my house was illegally searched by a judge and the reason for that is because that's not what judges do judges do not search houses judges do not search anything foreign this is a case where a judge searched my client's home the case went before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on issues of judicial discipline and now the federal civil rights lawsuit is at the U.S 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue of judicial immunity I have some fantastic news about the case but first let's recap what's happened so far imagine that you're sitting in Family Court as a litigant and the judge looks at you and says what's your address I'll meet you there in 10 minutes I'm going to search your house with your ex-wife and my bailiff March 4th 2020 that's exactly what happened to my client here's what happened when everyone arrived at his house foreign step off the property yeah step off the property judge can I ask you something real quick before we get started judge can I ask you something before we get started can you come here right so I don't have everybody else listen well well Mr Washington's delicious that's good um I'm asking you right now to I'm putting a motion to recuse yourself because you're putting yourself in a witness capacity instead of a Judiciary capacity there's no search for it I need a list of everything that we're looking for got a list of everything let's work towards not today not today I don't know where somebody was at well we're doing fine you got it your emotions tonight it's not timely possible I need to search one you won't get in my house without a search one and on that order mammoths this swing these are two separate purchases you can't argue with me while I'm doing this sorry order the door I'll have to think about that because that's pretty permanent it is bolted down to all four legs it is absolutely both of them yes it is ma'am step off I don't need you in my Lane please go that way please go away you're not allowed to record this don't take my phone sir turn off your phones I'll take you to jail if you don't turn them off do you understand that put it up give him the phone are you going to be arrested I can record in my land I cannot this is my land man I am the judge trying to affect equitable distribution here we are having a hearing okay okay go you let me in that house being in direct contempt of court I don't think the phone's off and on I think system is possible I just turned it off let's go come on no my phone's not off it's on the recording's off much much later during the discovery phase of the lawsuit we were finally able to obtain a short video taken by the judge's bailiff showing a portion of the search that occurred inside my client's home here it is take that one here set it right there we'll get everything when we leave oh well he's not huh like gee I would never do it my understanding words I understand what you're saying that is not what the order said where can I say oh there's the other picture it's just like to order him follow the rules um is where we catch them anymore I could still looked like they were outside looking around I got DVDs I got the oh they're downstairs okay I thought the picture that we have is evidence showing there and pick the ones you want and if foreign ERS yes ma'am what's their best ones she's picking away yeah these are ones I know yeah she knew it was foreign so I want you to kind of watch her so you can disagree with any one of the ones that she had will let you pick the first 12 because she got 12. may want to caution them on how much stuff she's taken if she has the capacity to take it out of here okay and all of these are ones we have purchasing over here all of the Box series of The Walking Dead I posted the video to YouTube the news media picked up on it and the rest is history this is my client's home your home is your Castle your home is the most protected place there is under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution so that hits the internet judicial disciplinary charges come down against the judge ultimately the West Virginia Supreme Court found that she had committed 13 different cannons or violated 13 different canons of judicial ethics that she had performed an unlawful search of my client's house and that in acting in that way she wasn't acting in a judicial capacity but rather in an executive capacity which is law enforcement capacity so why is that important well now we're in this the civil lawsuit in federal court basically a violation of the fourth amendment is the allegation and the issue is over money damage now similar to qualified immunity judges can assert what's in even better for them judicial immunity which is a form of absolute immunity that's almost impossible to get Beyond so that's why this case is important that's why it's interesting so we have a West Virginia Supreme Court decision saying that she searched my client's house that that was unlawful and that that was not even a Judicial act that's allowed under the West Virginia constitution in her State authorities we're at the point now to where we've completed Discovery we're either headed to trial or we're going to lose on judicial immunity so the the federal court is going to have to make a decision here but now there's no doubt that this search was declared by the West Virginia Supreme Court to be unconstitutional as an egregious abusive process a violation of the sanctity of my clients home and I think they also called it um serious misconduct everyone involved has now testified that they don't care what the West Virginia Supreme Court says both of the bailiff and the former bailiff who were involved in this search testified during their deposition that really um you know they haven't had any policy changes and the department authorized these sorts of judicial searches and there has been no policy change the longtime bailiff of this particular judge has testified that if she asked him to do it again today he'd go and do it and that's just outrageous the highest court in the land has declared that judges don't search houses which should be obvious and that it was unconstitutional again egregious abusive process serious misconduct and now you have two active sworn law enforcement officers who are involved in this illegal search of my client's house saying that they don't really care what the Supreme Court says they'll do it again so now all of this has been brief and it's been submitted to the federal court the federal court will decide the immunity issues and let us know whether or not we get to go to towards a to a jury trial so just today the federal court issued an order denying the judge's claim of judicial immunity ordering that the jury trial is on as the order acknowledged the West Virginia Supreme Court already found that judge golson's conduct was in violation of the law now this opinion that's out today went on to address judge goldston's arguments that she was merely holding a family court hearing inside Mr Gibson's home and that she should be immune from liability the court pointed out the obvious flaws in her argument stating quote the Crux of Judge goldstein's argument is that her actions were taken during the course of adjudicating a family court dispute she contends that assuming he she exceeded her Authority her actions were judicial in nature and hence subject to judicial immunity as noted the court examines the nature of the act and not the actor the nature of the Act was a warrantless search of Mr Gibson's residence and a warrantless seizure of his property does a judge normally execute a search warrant on personally uh or personally search residents to ask the question is pretty much to answer while the issuance of a search warrant is unquestionably a Judicial act the execution of a search warrant is not again I'm reading from the Court's order today judge Goldston was not engaged in an act normally performed by a judge so where are we now well we won the issue of judicial immunity just before the jury trial was set to begin the defendant judge appealed the case to the fourth circuit since this matter involves judicial immunity it's capable of being appealed prior to trial usually a defendant is required to wait until afterwards they just filed a brief a couple of days ago next it's our turn to file a response brief here's some great news the institute for justice is joining the case since this issue is so important and they're going to be doing what they do best so our response brief is due in mid-november I'm excited to have them on board and I look forward to seeing what happens here as always thanks for watching and you can find more detailed information on this at the blog post Linked In the description at thecivilrightslawyer.com the briefs will all get posted there as well make sure to subscribe for updates remember freedom is scary deal with it I'll see you next time