in a prior video i first showed you the footage where my client's wife had filmed police arresting him in the front yard of their house this was following a domestic call when the cops arrived boom it went straight pretty much into a use of force against my client the latter basically half of that ended up being filmed by my client's wife so fast forward to the federal lawsuit being filed and i'll link the original video here in the description so you can review that first now you get to see this just happened last week where i took the depositions of the police officers who were involved in that incident got to put them under oath and ask them questions so here's something really you rarely get to see and i'm curious i cut it up a little bit this will have to be part one because it's it's long i'm curious to see what you think so you saw the video and you can actually read the lawsuit allegations now you actually get to see the evidence take a look really curious to know what you think this is the video deposition of joshua bish being taken by the plaintiff civil action 121 cv 615 captioned melbourne sergeant v joshua bish u.s district court for the southern district of west virginia at blue field do you remember why you were initially called to this scene i was advised by mercer 911 that there was a ongoing domestic between a melvin sergeant and another female where melvin sergeant had apparently was arguing and physical and was trying to kick down the door and do you remember who had called 9-1-1 off top my head now did you know at the time no no all we received was the name of the individual that was possibly causing problems and had you ever been to that location before no i have not were you familiar with that location at all no did you know who lived there no as of that moment did you know who melvin sargent was no okay when you pulled up to the scene on november 28th tell me about it what what did you see upon your initial arrival when i pulled in i observed a female a few car lengths away walking away and observed mr sergeant the male individual that was described to be melvin sergeant walking from the road in the yard going towards the basement door of the residence at that point i observed the male he was kind of walking with this clint fitch's his fists clenched kind of looked irritated and the female was obviously upset crying and because moore hadn't been certified and what hadn't dealt with any i didn't feel comfortable with her approaching anybody that may have been aggressive of any way i told her to go talk to the female and i went to go talk to mr sergeant it was one of those real quick hey you go talk to her i'm gonna go talk to him um let me let me refer you to your your police report again you wrote that report right correct you were aware of the fact that you need to include all important details in your report correct okay and do you believe that you did that i believe it did yes okay you wrote that deputy adair later advised you that mr sergeant and her were talking about mr sergeant's deceased mother at which point her mother came into the room that they were in and rolled her eyes about the conversation which aggravated mr sergeant causing them to argue she advised prior to law enforcement arrival there was no violence and nothing is wrong yes is that your understanding that's my understanding now you told me you didn't know who the 911 caller was correct did you ever talk to the 9-1-1 caller before arresting melvin sargent that day no did you ever even find out the name of the 9-1-1 caller prior to arresting melvin sargent i i think i remember asking him but i don't ask him darren them to get all the information but that was about it but you did you never talked to the 911 caller no i did not did you talk to jolina chavez prior to arresting melvin sergeant prior to arresting now but prior to arresting him you had not talked to any witnesses correct correct prior to arresting him you hadn't even talked to the plaintiff about what had happened or what had not happened correct now what about melvin sargent did you know who he was uh i just gathered from the description 911 gave and his mannerism how he was walking and he was obviously upset and irritated and i wanted to talk to him first considering he was the more because how he was walking and carrying himself felt he was more of possibly the possible suspect that 911 had described and figured go ahead and talk to him before he gets too far away and i have to run so where was he located physically when you first saw him whenever i was first pulled in he was to my three o'clock in the driveway maybe from here to the second pew so he was located in the in the driveway to this residence correct and walking away from me towards the basement door and did you say anything to him initially i did i asked him hey stop right there for a minute did he say anything to you no he acted like he didn't hear me which i gave benefit of the doubt that just pulled in a woman down the street was screaming pretty loud and crying and my car was running so i went around to the front of the car kind of faster pace hey bud stop right there and he complied did you upon your arrival did you see did you personally observe any crime being committed by anybody up on my arrival no it didn't appear to you that melvin sargent was threatening her in any way did it i didn't see any type of threats at that point no he was walking away from her you didn't see any domestic violence anything like that no did you know at the time who lived at that house no i don't know did you assume that these two individuals lived at that house i'd have imagined that they were the ones that was living there did you identify yourself to him yes what'd you say like i did with every any time i approached anybody deputy [ __ ] with the sheriff's department and did you tell them why you were there i was getting ready to hey i need you to stop right there he stopped and i said before here over some type of fight or something i don't know what else is going on but before we go any farther i need to patch it down make sure there's no weapons or anything that can hurt me or you all right so at the time this interaction took place you're both standing in the driveway correct close to the basement door and you had not at that point talked to jolina chavez correct you had no idea what you had to say correct you had not observed any crime being committed as of yet have you correct in fact you you didn't have probable cause at that point to believe that any crime had been committed i had to read the form i'm sorry you can answer i had reasonable suspicion that there was something that had happened you got a domestic goal yes you had reasonable suspicion to show up to that call yes now you know what probable cause is correct you would agree with me that at the point you first encountered melvin sargent you didn't yet have any probable cause to believe that he had committed a crime correct all i had was reasonable so when you first encountered him he wasn't under arrest at that point no was he a suspect no he was an individual in the scene of the call that would fit the description of what was described so he wasn't even a suspect of any particular crime at that point correct when this first initial encounter between you and mr sergeant took place did he attempt to flee or evade you no so when you told him to stop he stopped after the second time but i gave him the benefit of the doubt because of the circumstances and then what happened uh he turned around looked at me told us hey my name is deputy bishop sheriff's department you just stop we're here over some type of fight and prior we go any farther i'm going to make sure you don't have any weapons or anything that can hurt me or you so we can figure out what's going on he ended up putting his left hand kind of towards me like this and he started to move his right hand behind his back and at this point you don't have an arrest warrant right no you don't have a search warrant for the residents no so did did melvin turn around and face you he did you asked melvin at that time for id no did you ask him what his name was no my main goal at first is to make the scene safe did you have any indications that this the scene was not safe from his how he was walking and his nature of how he he was looking felt that there may be something to it and you said that was the fact that he had clenched fists clinch fist how he was walking and just his overall mannerisms how would you describe this this walk tents like his muscles with tense were you wearing a body cam no i was not and did melvin say anything to you at this point no so at that point were you detaining melvin at that point i was approaching to conduct the safety check to ensure the scene was safe and beginning to ask my questions for why are we here well i mean was he free to leave and go in the house at that point at that point no so you were conducting a safety check and he was being detained had to comply with that safety check yes did you ever ask for uh melvin sargent or any other homeowner or any other resident at that time or someone you thought was a resident for permission to be on the property no i assume nobody gave you permission to be on the property nobody told me i couldn't did melvin give you any indications that he didn't want you on the property no you wrote in your report that at first melvin began to comply yes he told him to stop and he stopped yes he stopped turned around faced me put his left hand up and stuck reach behind his back with his right didn't you ask him to put his hands on his head no you didn't no i asked him to stop right there and i'm just going to pat you down real fast you didn't write in your report that you asked melvin to put his hands on top of his head no all right i asked you if you asked melvin sergeant to put his hands on top of his head and your recollection was is that you had not no but reviewing the report that you wrote after this incident your report indicates that you did yes which is it it would be the what's on the report right you wrote in your report as i approached i observed mr sergeant had his right hand in his right front pocket and his left hand on his side yes i told mr sergeant to place his hands on top of his head that i was going to conduct a safety check to ensure he did not have any weapons correct when you ask mr sargent to put his hands on top of his head what did he do he put his left hand out in front of him and started reach behind his back with his right and you didn't know who he was right so then what did you do when his hand went up and then i seen his right hand going behind his back with my left hand i wrenched around on his wrist to do a come along hold with a simple wrist maneuver to gain compliance because i didn't know what he was reaching for and i'm not taking any type of chances to risk myself for himself or anybody else's safety and why do why specifically his right hand why did you grab his right hand i grabbed his left i'm sorry as he was facing me all right well you you wrote in your report that you grabbed his right hand all right i believe if you look at the third paragraph you say i told mr sergeant to place his hands on top of his head that i was going to conduct a safety check to ensure he did not have any weapons at this point mr sergeant began to comply at which point i stepped towards him and began to reach for his right hand at which point he started to step away yes all right so initially you went to reach for his right hand yes that was the one that was moving but it was on his opposite side and his left hand was right there in front of me all right why why would you why did you begin to reach initially for his right hand i didn't know what he was reaching for okay it wasn't because you were going to handcuff him no because he wasn't under arrest no no at that point if we could play a whole what if game all day with it but if he would have just let me pat him down and found out nothing would have been wrong we'd all would have been on our way he hadn't threatened you no he hadn't attempted to strike you no so what happened next uh whenever i started when i was able to grab his wrist he attempted to pull away very aggressively and considering he was still trying to reach behind his back and then complying with me to from telling him to stop stop i end up striking him with a closed fist to the right cheek or left cheek i'm sorry i ended up striking him in the right in the left side of his cheek we began to spin around and wrestle around a bit until my back was to the house and he ended up getting pressed up against a car door that a car that was in the driveway i was able to get him spun around at this point deputy moore had came down uh assisted with the wrestling match for a moment and we both observed that there was a firearm in the small of his back uh deputy moore secured that was able to pull that weapon out and went to go secure it at which point i was able to manipulate his arm a little bit more to where he was able i was able to put him on to the ground he ended up rolling onto his back and we continued to wrestle at that point he was in my eyes he was under arrest and he kept it was pretty much just a big old wrestling match until deputy moore got back after securing the weapon somewhere and i was able he was able to get him rolled over on his stomach and handcuffed right but you didn't have any information or indication that he was armed at that point i didn't know because you hadn't seen the gun yet correct okay so you you're just treating him like like like anyone you're encountering they theoretically could be armed yes anybody can be armed with anything and my goal is i want them and me to go home at the end of the day but nobody had told you that he was armed correct and he hadn't told you that he was armed no you hadn't seen a gun no so you hadn't run his criminal history or anything like that no so at this point we're still in the driveway but because we're moving it's the doors i'm not sure where the basement door was he he doesn't want to have this interaction with you correct so was he under arrest at that point at that point whenever as soon as he refused to allow for a safety pat down he was under arrest for the obstructing so did you ever go to the ground with him after the firearm was secured when me and uh melvin ended up going to the ground continued to wrestle when moore got back down there he kicked her in the chest after which point i again struck him with a closed fist trying to gain compliance and eventually we was able to get him rolled over and handcuffed melvin sergeant had never grabbed the gun no he never actually touched it and what happened after you punched him in the face uh he lost bounce a little bit and i was when i was able to maneuver where i was facing his back to get him to all right what happened after you got him to the ground um we wrestled trying to get him to roll over using empty hand control wrist manipulation to get him to roll over did you strike him again i don't remember punt i think i'm pretty sure i did but i don't technically remember now melvin alleges that at some point during this time period that you stomped his hand or his wrist do you deny that yeah i never stomped anything do you have any idea what could have injured his wrist through his hand during this encounter during this encounter nothing it could have been from before we got there him hitting something or that something happened to jli but you did punch him in the face yes you never were aware of any injury to melvin's rest no now when you punched melvin were you wearing gloves i was tell me about your gloves uh they're a cloth mixed with a type of ufc type uh knuckle covering to protect my knuckles and anything i come in contact with all right i'm gonna show you what's been previously marked as exhibit number five for this deposition yes i'll represent to you that that is a screenshot that i took out of the video that we have in this case does that screenshot accurately represent your hand and your glove on the date of this incident it does i'll also show you what's been marked as exhibit number six i know this isn't the greatest quality but that is a close-up of your glove also from the same video it is would you agree with that yes it's your testimony that these gloves they have reinforced knuckles i wouldn't say they're reinforced um you know the ufc type gloves that have like a little padding that's all it is it's a thing it's just i broke my hand a few times so i wear it so i don't do it again and you broke your hand a few times punching people well yes it was in a fight while you were working as a police officer yes okay so as a result of that you bought these gloves yes they have extra material at the knuckles they do it's a padding type thing so that's to protect your knuckles when you're punching people it protects my knuckles and if i make contact with another individual it protects them from any type of like knuckle cut or anything so you're saying that when you punch somebody with that it's actually going to feel better to them because you have that glove it should yeah it feels just like one of the ufc glove like little little makeshift blocks and gloves you wear when you're sparring yeah i mean i've i've i've seen the ufc gloves and and those are not ufc gloves no they're not ufc but that's what the padding feels like i mean they'd have some problems in ufc if they use those gloves okay i'm just saying that the gloves are very that's what the padding feels like do you still have the gloves i do not why not uh when they got blood on them i threw them away i don't take anything that gets gets blood on back home to my house did you buy another pair i did do you still have it those ones no now those were not issue gloves correct so that was just your your private purchase yes did you get any sort of authorization from your employer to buy or wear those gloves i got them from at the time when i bought them chief deputy bailey and i showed them to him he said they were perfectly fine at any point did your employer instruct you to no longer wear those gloves but since you left the mercer county sheriff's office you've never worn them again no because the policy down there is is what they don't have they don't allow any type of gloves in your job now you don't find the occasion to punch people i probably will but i haven't yet you said you threw those gloves away because they had blood on them right correct and that blood was melvin sergeant's blood not sure well they didn't have blood you're your the knuckles of your gloves did not have blood on them already on your first arrival at melvin sergeant's house correct my mouth was bleeding as well all right well you you punched melvin sargent you said in the face yes in the cheek right and he was bleeding i'm not 100 sure if he was or wasn't i didn't notice any cuts or all right so you have no idea if that's melvin sergeant's blood correct you're saying it could be your own blood it could be on your knuckles yes you didn't punch yourself right no i did not you punch melvin sarge correct and it's your testimony here today under oath that you don't know whether or not he was bleeding correct i'm not 100 no he was treated subsequently for lacerations inside his mouth you have no idea how that could have occurred uh inside of his mouth now i have no idea that's not from you punching him in the face you have no explanation for that no did you ever see melvin sargent punch himself no did you ever see him slam his head into your police crews or anything like that i know he kicked and thrashed around in the backseat of the cruiser quite a bit but i never seen him physically punch himself you're not you're not alleging that he injured himself oh no whatever side it was other than the one punch to melvin's face that you already testified about did you ever strike him in the face again during this incident yeah while he was on the ground wrestling after he had kicked deputy moore causing her to fall backwards is this before he was handcuffed yes okay and how many additional times did you strike just though just the two total the one initial and the one on the ground i didn't want to hit throw any more punches because i was afraid if i would because i where i was on top of him and he was on the ground his head would have bounced off the ground or something caused do undo harm i didn't want to do that so to the best of your recollection it's your testimony that you punched melvin twice that day yes and are you positive that you didn't punch them any more times correct were were your were your emotion levels up at this point no were you angry just fattening out of birth then what'd you do uh we both stood up for maybe 5-10 seconds so we can collect her so i me personally could collect my breath and like i said we just got i just got done eating thanksgiving dinner and i didn't want to throw up on the poor dude and we collected ourselves and we was able to get him to stand up and walk him up towards my cruiser so you guys got him up and you put him in the in the police car is that right walked him up walked him up to the drive up the driveway and towards the on the passenger side of my cruiser and then did you put him in the car yeah i put him in the seat sat him down his feet was still outside the cruiser he refused to put his feet back into the cruiser i told him multiple times to do it he complained that his handcuffs was too tight but prior to that whenever he was handcuffed it was with deputy moore's handcuffs and i'd been training her and i observed her do the pinky tight which is where you can slide your whole finger inside the cuffs who put the cuffs on uh she did all right it's my understanding from reading your report that you guys put him in the back of the police cruiser and shut the door initially no no not initially no take a look at the report let's see if we can clear this up okay the next sentence you wrote in your report after closing the passenger rear side door mr sergeant began to kick the inside of my door causing the door to begin to bow out correct all right that seems to imply to me or to tell me that you had closed the passenger rear side door when we first got to up there he refused to get in and ended up having to force him into the vehicle to get his legs all the way in before we could shut it the point is is you put him in the car and you close the door after i had to force him in yes all right so you you force them in the rear passenger door and close the rear passenger door yes so he's inside the rear of the police cruiser yes the door is closed yes he's handcuffed yes behind his back yes then what happened i went to the opposite side to where his head was open the door pulled out my oc spray and advised him if he did not stop trying to kick the door break the window he would be pepper sprayed so you had the door closed and then you open that same door opposite door all right are you sure it's the opposite door yes because his head was toward i wasn't going to go down where he was kicking at all right you wrote in your report at this point i opened the same door at began to tell mr sergeant to calm down and stop kicking the door or he would be sprayed with oc i'm gonna go with that it's gonna be a typo no all right so you're saying your report is wrong on that sentence why would you have written the same door in your report considering this narrative was probably was written quite a few hours later and tired wanting to go home brushed it it is a mistake would be fair to say that you're even a few hours after the incident that your memory about the incident would have been more accurate in 2019 than it is here today in august of 2022. my regular it's pretty still pretty similar to it all right so he's closed he's handcuffed behind his back he's in the rear of the cruiser he's kicking the inside of the door you then open you say the driver's side passenger door right yes and then you do what i tell him if he doesn't stop he will be pepper sprayed and then what happened he says [ __ ] do it and started kicking the door again and then what happened i administered a short three to five second burst of oc spray so you sprayed it with pepper spray for three to five seconds yes which is what we were talking did you strike him at all no so at this point you still hadn't talked to any witnesses no you closed him inside the rear of the police cruiser with pepper spray in his eyes it was yes were the windows rolled up it was cracked cracked how long how how far i'd say enough to to where you're if somebody had free hands they'd be able to put their fingers through the tops of both and did it appear to you that melvin was suffering from the pepper spray at that point he was in pain from it but it was nothing that i hadn't seen or felt myself before but you didn't strike him at all in the rear of the police cruiser i did not strike no did melvin attempt to strike you uh in the back of the cruiser no he attempted to spit all right you didn't write anything in your report in your report about him attempting to spit on you at any point did you no but you did write in your report an allegation that melvin had leaned back and kicked towards you striking you in the chest yes this was after i'm thinking right in whenever we had to stop because he started to kick the door again as we was traveling all right so you're saying that that happened during the transport yes i don't think that exactly jives with your report if you want to take a look at it hard to see it looks like i probably just forgot where i was in the narrative when i was typing and imposed both post them on separate sides one what looks like that one goes to the other paragraph reading your reports you would agree with me that it it says that this encounter took place before you left the scene correct because you described what happened the allegations that you're trying to get him to calm down and stop kicking the door and that you ended up that he tried to kick you and that you sprayed them with pepper spray and then you described deputy adair arrives on the scene with trooper ross yes so the way you wrote the report it sounds like this all happened at the scene before you left to transport mr sergeant yes but you're telling me today that your testimony that your report is inaccurate is that is that right that section yes all right i'm going to show you what has already been marked as exhibit number two for this deposition now that is the criminal complaint that charged melvin sargent in this case yes and that criminal complaint includes a narrative written by you correct yes the same narrative and that's the same narrative the same police report that we've been discussing yes you included that this same report written in the same way to the magistrate i think it was magistrate dorsey to review yes and the magistrate did review this report and it actually indicates that probable cause was found for the warrantless arrest of melvin sargent that day yes okay and then melvin sargent was prosecuted pursuant to this criminal complaint correct okay would you agree with me that the report that you submitted to the magistrate as part of this criminal complaint was under oath yes okay so you're telling me here today that there are these inaccuracies in your report but you never informed the magistrate that there were inaccuracies in your report did you i didn't notice them so you didn't notice the inaccuracies in your report until today august of 2022 yes okay so he had been charged with two counts of battery on an officer right yes and then one count of obstruction yes now i take it the obstruction as you i think you already testified the obstruction was when you initially encountered him and tried to perform that safety track yes he didn't initially or he began to comply but then pulled away pulled away yes that was the obstruction that's the obstruction but you also had him charged using your report with two counts of battery on an officer correct whenever he kicked more and i got hit sometime i don't know when it was well you wrote in your report that he had tried to kick you in the chest yes but your report says that that happened at the scene yes you're telling me now that that happened during transport i believe so yes that's what's making sense all right i mean you understand that you're under oath here today i do yes all right i'm not i'm not asking you to guess i don't want you to guess if you don't remember okay do you remember whether or not the allegation of melvin trying to kick you happened before you transported melvin or or during the transport that was during the transport you're positive yes but that's not what's represented in your report correct that's an answer all right i'll show you what's been marked as exhibit number three and that is a court order or a motion form indicating that the two charges of battery on an officer were dismissed by the court correct melbourne sergeant was not convicted of those allegations or of those charges was it of the the batteries now all right i'm going to show you the video that we have in this case stop it all right so that was zero through about 32 seconds of that video correct that shows you in the video right yes and you're placing melvin sargent in the rear of that police cruiser correct you saw and you heard melvin sergeant asking you to loosen his handcuffs yes that section of the video would you agree with me that it shows you engaging in a use of force against melbourne sergeant it does would you also agree with me that that section of footage zero through 32 seconds does not show melvin sargent kicking you in the chest correct it does not show melvin striking you in any way correct what would you characterize as the nature of the force that you use what did you what did you do the push in and while he was inside the vehicle i held his head down with my right hand because he kept trying to come up trying to spit on me okay and again your report mentions nothing about melvin trying to spit on you correct so are you saying that you didn't strike him at all i never hit him in the back of the cruiser now what we see in the first 30 seconds of this video you're saying that no punches were thrown by you no no you're just holding him down yes hold him down trying to talk to him tell him calm down quit as soon as we get to the office we'll figure everything out all right so looking at your report again the use of force that you you did engage in at this point the first 30 seconds of the video you didn't mention anything about that in your report no melbourne sergeant was handcuffed at this time yes all right let's continue to watch the video where you can we're 32 seconds i'm going to play it a little longer there's no [ __ ] please all right so i stopped at 55 seconds there from the 30 second range to the 53 second range would you agree with me that shows additional uses of force by you against melbourne sergeant from forcing him into the vehicle you told me left from the from forcing him into the vehicle and that was it from holding his head down and me getting out and using vocal commands all right did you use physical force on melvin sergeant at this time to find physical force all right let's play let's play it again for 30 seconds this time we won't stop it okay so that was part one well let's call that part one and as you can see i'm dressed like i've been in court and i have been in jury trial for the past two days so i'm pretty exhausted this is all i've gone through so far but you're going to want to see part two because if i recall correctly and it was just last week it gets even better and there the other police officers involved took their depositions as well so you will want to see part two you