Andrew basio went around to the front of sha Kastner while two other officers each had a hold of his arms behind him and Andrew basio delivered two knee strikes blood my knee Spike busted his face open okay well I got blood on me I need something to clean my hands with I tased him several times taking his knee and putting it in Sean kastner's face resulting in trauma to Mr kastner's face he was ente seven times in his living room to knee Spike somebody in the face it has to reach a level where you feel that your life is in danger obviously that was not at that point the video is troubling shocked absolutely shocked it's crazy what's happening with the CMI Florida Police Department here's how things started for their newest police chief in May of 2023 Betty Holland the CMI police department has announced Holland as their new police chief Holland says her top priorities include strengthening Community relationships and training it's my responsibility to ensure they grow and they become you know the best person they can be and here's how things are going now in the last 2 hours a city of CM announced it has accepted the resignation of Chief Betty Holland after another cumi police officer was indicted by a grand jury his use of force on a man during an arrest Betty Holland has resigned as chief of police after taking over that role in May of 2023 so body cam footage from this one incident has now led to the resignation of the CMI police chief Betty Holland along with 10 other officers who were were also under investigation some officers who are still employed with the CMI Police Department were either not forthcoming or outright lied during interviews and testimony before the grand jury you are allowed to resist an unlawful arrest so somebody's unlawfully in your house like this particular instance where law enforcement was unlawfully in your home you're allowed to lawfully resist them without violence which is what happens at a press conference Florida State Attorney Andrew Bane announced the findings of a grand jury in indictment of CMI police officer Andrew basio the grand jury found the cons Police Department harbored a culture of silence or a culture of covering up misconduct where officer misconduct is not only not reported but accepted to our community I want you to know that we are committing to restoring and earning your trust daily shocked absolutely shocked you know all these things that they found it's nothing unusual stuff like this happens across the country what's unusual here is the way this has been handled they are actually cleaning up the situation I'll show you the body cam footage that triggered all this it would basically just be a routine video that I cover here on my channel it's one lie and then you try to cover it up with another lie and then it just mushrooms into something that we never intended to to be and that's kind of what's going what happens in in the department sometimes and unfortunately this is what happened here but first you know how I love these promotional videos that police departments put out I found this one that the CMI Police Department did a few years ago so I did them the favor of sprucing it up just a little bit and updating it check it out what we're looking for when we recruit an officer to the CMI Police Department is uh you know our integrity our honor that is the Cornerstone of what we do in law enforcement we promote teamwork we value dignity we strive to do everything that we can to serve the community and do it in the right way it's very important for us to shed a positive light to let the public know that we're still humans and we are all in this together everything centers uh around building relationships in our organization so that's not only inside the building but our dealings with a community and Jesse in the last 2 hours of of CMI announced it has accepted the resignation of Chief Betty Holland this decision comes after the state attorney's office sent the city a letter raising concerns about her credibility and The credibility of others within the department after another cumi police officer was indicted by a grand jury his use of force on a man during an arrest the police chief and deputy chief resigned other officers are on administrative leave 11 are targeted for investigations the issues the grand jury and the state attorney's office has identified are deeply troubling raising deep concerns as to the issues about systematic practices within the considered Police Department bodyw warn camera footage showed the involved officers laughing about the incident I get out of my car I talk to people I feel like Community involvement is probably one of the top things every agency should be thinking about you need to know who you're serving um they need to understand where you're coming from well if you could sum up the grand juries take him the cimi police department you could say it's a mess for a number of reasons including lack of Integrity for some staff members lack of training and scariest of all a Code of Silence that allegedly allowed officer Andrew basio to basically get away with beating a man when we say family we really mean family uh we treat each other like that we want everybody to feel like they are welcome like they're included I will give you the same challenge I give to anybody in our community the grand jury found this culture of non-reporting extended to basso's punishment which was limited to a single day off without pay and labeled merely as a quote failure to obey policies thus avoiding mandatory reporting to the criminal justice standards and training commission the agency responsible for maintaining ethical standards s in law enforcement come give the CMI Police Department a chance and you'll see what's in our heart come visit us come ride along with our officers I promise you you want to be a member of our organization today we are here to share the grand jury's findings and recommendations uh for the use of force involving uh consi police officer Andrew pesio during a press conference last week Florida State Attorney Andrew Bane announced the findings of the grand jury following this misconduct investigation in indictment of CMI police officer Andrew basio this investigation came after officer basio was accused of attacking a man inside his home while other police officers allegedly covered it up in August of 2024 in August of the also kind of grand jury indicted officer basio on six charges U one of them being felony batt two counts of tampering with a witness official misconduct solicitation of perjury and misamee a battery these charges stem from an incident that happened in 2023 and with a 911 call resulted in officer basso's knee spiking a man in the face causing Serious injury the body cam footage shows a struggle between Shan castner and his father outside their home get out and shut the door no I'm not coming out officers then entered the res Ence get out and shut the door but then the video cuts the black and what happens next inside that home prompted this prosecutor's office to open a used of force investigation and that was in April of 2023 just one month after the new police chief came into CMI I didn't threaten anybody's life I didn't I didn't want to hurt myself I'm not going to Park Place he is okay this is harassment I'll calm down you can't bakea me cuz I'm not SU B against myself I didn't threaten anybody's life and I'm asking you nicely can you take the Cuffs off I didn't do anything you can't have me in cuffs right now cuz I didn't do anything wrong I didn't fight you I didn't know he tried to make it look like I pushed him he treding to get me in trouble one officer on the scene described the incident saying we went handson to arrest him and he's sweaty he has no shirt on we got him pinned against the couch right there he kept fighting so I gave him a couple of knee spikes to the face good ones split his face open he got blood everywhere multile okay my my knee Spike blood my knee Spike busted his face open okay well I got blood on me I need something to clean my hands with okay I tased him several times the officer added that he used a taser on castner who was later arrested with visible injuries including blood on his face and something lodged in his back the incident triggered an internal investigation into honesty within that Police Department on October 21st State Attorney Andrew Bane's office sent a letter to CMI leadership requesting a formal investigation into allegations of untruthfulness and misconduct by some members of the police department and it also follows an Oola County Grand jury's findings and recommendations in the letter Bane's office said the investigation initially focused on the 2023 use of force case involving officer basio who responded to a disturbance and entered a home without a warrant and violated the Department's use of force policy to take a man into custody the grand jury found that the CMI Police Department Fosters a culture of Silence where officer misconduct is not only not reported but it's accepted the grand jury found the cons Police Department harbored a culture of silence or a culture of covering up misconduct evidence and testimony that was presented to the grand jury showed that the officers failed to report vedio's excessive use of force which went on for several minutes without intervention from the two other officers on the scene and the body cam showed the other officers on the scene laughing about the incident the grand jury found that the cimi police department Fosters a culture of Silence where officer misconduct is not only not reported but accepted evidence and testimony presented to the grand jury showed officers failed to report basso's excessive use of force which went on for several minutes without intervention from two other officers who was on the scene body warn camera footage showed the involved officers laughing about the incident and intentionally avoiding discussing it on their body worn camera I get out of my car I talk to people I feel like Community involvement is probably one of the top things every agency should be thinking about you need to know who you're serving um they need to understand where you're coming from statements made by other officers at the scene SU suggest that officers were aware that the use of force that night was excessive and still they did nothing when we say family we really mean family uh we treat each other like that we want everybody to feel like they are welcome like they're included the grand jury found this culture of non-reporting extended to basso's punishment which was limited to a single day off without pay and labeled merely as a quote failure to obey policies thus avoiding mandatory reporting to the criminal justice standards and training commission the agency responsible for maintaining ethical standards in law enforcement the grand jury went on to say it lacks confidence in the CMI Police Department's Command Staff and has requested the city conduct a thorough evaluation of that group everything centers uh around building relationships in our organization so that's not only inside the building but our dealings with a community the grand jury found that despite clear evidence of misconduct in officer basso's use of force incident that former Chief Holland chose not to criminally investigate the incident initially and failed to rep report basso's Department policy violations to the appropriate agencies including the Office of the State Attorney well I mean chief Holland did say that it was her top priority or one of her top priorities to take care of the police officers under her command so that they too could one day be the chief of police of the CMI Police Department Holland says her top priorities include strengthening Community relationships and training she says the most rewarding part will be being able to help those in need and help members of the agency grow it's my responsibility to ensure they grow and become you know the best person they can be and so I think that will that will be more impactful for me to see you know them grow and maybe one day be Chief the investigation was compromised from the very beginning um because uh officer pagio was able to have access to knowing the investigation was going on and then began to tamper with other Witnesses along that learing that time so then we went back in and re interviewed a lot of those witnesses that were inside of that investigation ation and it turned out that many of the things that they stated were falsified in fact the state attorney's office only learned about basso's unlawful use of force after watching a news report on TV after which we repeatedly requested the CMI Police Department request a criminal investigation into the matter the grand jury determined that when the CMI Police Department finally relented and authorized the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation that that investigation was compromised from the very start what we're looking for when we recruit an officer to the CMI Police Department is uh you know our integrity our honor that is the Cornerstone of what we do in law enforcement not only did Chief Holland notify basio about the criminal investigation but he was also shown the final re report before prosec reviewed it allowing him to tamper with Witnesses when asked by the media why the prosecutors thought that police officers would actually lie to cover up the misconduct by one of their colleagues they really had no idea I mean it's just shocking this has never happened before has it Sean Wiggins assistant State Attorney there's no indication on why they all chose to make the decisions that they they made through the course of this investigation um but our investigation uh consistently came across individuals who are listed in that letter that took actions um that we felt warranted uh notifying the department of of their conduct through the course of the investigation the grand jury's investigation also highlighted broader issues in the Department's in the department regarding training deficiencies although designated as quote critical incident trained none of the officers on scene in the besio use of force matter recognized the victim was experiencing a mental health crisis additionally officers entering the victim's home were unaware that this war warrantless entry violated clear legal standards the grand jury found that this demonstrates an insufficient understanding of search and seizure laws and they are calling for enhanced training for for all KPD officers in crisis management search and seizure and proper investigative procedures the ago's conduct was initially reviewed by a Corporal who approved it despite clear wrongdoing the grand jury concluded that the CMI Police Department also repeatedly failed to comply with Florida law that requires it to report policy violations to the criminal justice standards and training commission come give the CMI Police Department a chance and you'll see what's in our heart the grand jury found approximately 10 instances where sustained policy violations went unreported to the commission and spanned multiple Chiefs administrations the grand jury discovered a pattern of labeling excessive force incidents as mere policy failures rather than specifying actual misconduct suggest in possible intent to avoid the mandatory reporting reminder that this reporting allows the commission to ensure that law enforcement officers who are disciplined resign or are terminated by one agency cannot simply get a job with another agency without the second agency knowing of the wrongdoing finally the grand jury believes the Integrity of the cim Police Department is further undermined by instances of dishonest during the investigation into basso's use of force the grand jury found clear evidence indicating that some officers who are still employed with the CMI Police Department were either not forthcoming or outright lied during interviews and testimony before the grand jury raising serious concerns with the grand jury about the Department's credibility you know it's part of the psychology of group thinking um mean and then you try to you know say it's one lie and then you try to cover it up with another lie and then it just mushrooms into something that we never intended to to be and that's kind of what's going what happens in in the department sometimes and unfortunately this is what happened here well then you you have situations where people are being arrested for things that they may not have been arrested should have been arrested for people's rights could be violated like what happened in this particular case uh there are certain a lot of things that could happen in the course of an investigation or in course of case that can cause you know serious problems for multiple people including uh the public the incident involving bagio and everything that sort of sprung from that obviously began in April of 2023 uh what you'll see discussed in the grand jury presentment is uh through the state attorney's investigation audit of uh past initial or IAS or Internal Affairs investigations was conducted and then brought to our attention that reports that should have been submitted to the commission that sort of tracks officer misconduct were never submitted we know that those reports date back to at least um the prior Administration um that was in charge of cmic police department is there anything as many times I spoken to you all um my Administration is not going to turn a blind eye to anyone uh whether they are police officers politicians um Regular People in the public um Know Rich poor it doesn't matter um you know wherever ethnic or religious background we're not turning a blind eye to wrongdoing in our community there was a report of a disturbance and when officer basio arrived on scene and this is all captured on body warn camera there were articles of clothing and other items throughout the driveway at one point officer bagio actually tells one of his other officers that there's a chance they need to do some sort of mental health check so they did not take action on his Mental Health crisis even though there's evidence that they were aware that one was going on and then at least one of them proceeded to use excessive force while the other two watched Mr castner refused to come out of his home which at that point he had a right to do and the officers followed him into the home without a warrant and that's where the use of force occurred Andrew basio went around to the front of sha Kastner while two other officers one each had a hold of his arms behind him and Andrew basio delivered two knee strikes taking his knee and putting it in Sean kastner's face resulting in trauma to Mr kastner's face he was in tased seven times in his living room Mr Kastner was resisting under the law and under KPD policy but his level of resistance did not come close to warranting the force that was used so I want to get this correct for the law for legal purposes um you are allowed to resist unlawful arrest so somebody's unlawfully in your house like this particular instance where law enforcement was unlawfully in your home you're allowed to law aul resistant without violence which is what happened so um everything that Mr casman did on that night at that point was legal underneath the law and them being inside of his house putting hands on him um was a problem next the city of CMI responded city manager Mike sterwald and the new interim police chief and Zoo responded to the grand jury findings last week interim Chief anuo has been tasked with performing an extensive and comprehensive Ive review of the department with a primary focus on the following areas first leadership he'll be evaluating The Command Staff knowledge experience and skill set to ensure a trustworthy and competent law enforcement professionals lead this department I want to take this opportunity to reaffirm the city of cmi's commitment to addressing these issues transparently and thoroughly we recognize the need for change and today's releasee of the presentment and the announcement of actions we are already implementing makes marks a crucial step in that process the actions that we've taken are not just a response to past failures but a clear path forward towards restoring trust within our community and we thank the grand jury for their hard work and their recommendations the issues the grand jury identified are deeply troubling showing errors in former Chief Holland's decisionmaking stiger Wald said it's my responsibility to provide our community with a seasoned leader to make the changes necessary to correct deficiencies and restore the Department's image perhaps they just need a new hype video I'd be happy to help them with that or they could just use the one I just did I've already tasked my staff to implement refresher training on all sworn on crisis management search and seizure and investigative procedures furthermore I've have already made changes on day one to revamp our Internal Affairs section every decision we make and every step we take forward must be grounded in our promise to serve CMI with honesty and professionalism to our community I want you to know that we are committing to restoring and earning your trust daily together we can build a department that truly reflects the best of this community and serves as an example of excellence in law enforcement it's troubling the video is troubling uh but this is day two for me uh let me digest everything and Implement whatever changes are necessary shocked absolutely shocked are KN spikes within Department policy are you and then we'll go back to you say that again I'm sorry KN spikes within Department policy because I know it happened twice plus seven taser Cycles yes knee spikes are a part of our use of force cont or respon to resistance Continuum uh but to knee Spike somebody in the face there has to to be um uh it has to reach a level where you feel that your life is in danger uh and obviously that was not at that point do we have some that might might not be doing the right things we're going to learn that in the investigation from the Orange County Sheriff's office he said that Resources with Orange County Sheriff's Office will lead an inquiry into the 11 officers named in the grand jury report who are alleged to be Liars basically and who are still at the department with a badge and a gun and might pull you over at any moment and then lie about it my goals are clear to equip officers with the resources and training to perform duties safely and effectively to set and uphold high standards of conduct let me help you just fire the 11 officers who lied the grand jury clearly thought that the Citizens need needed to know who these officers were who were involved in the investigation and mentioned in the report in order to protect themselves and also to hold their government accountable I have the report I will post it at the blog post on this Linked In the first pin comment below so you can read the entire report yourself it's 35 pages long it does mention who the police officer Witnesses were who were subpoena before the grand jury anyways the report has all the names you can review the report yourself if you have any interaction whatsoever with the CMI Police Department either now in the future or in the past the craziest thing is is is that this is like I said it could be any one of my videos or any other video on the the internet I mean these things happen all the time and it is so common for law enforcement to circle the wagons and to protect their colleagues The Thin Blue Line than it is to engage in any actual meaningful search for the truth or enforcement of civil rights now why did this occur here was it for political reasons because there's an election happening right now and this particular prosecutor is up for reelection I don't know and I don't really care because this is exactly what should be happening across the country this is real accountability it's not perfect but look what happened I mean they're not even done cleaning house and this didn't require the feds to step in this was prosecutors in that jurisdiction hauling everybody before a grand jury and not to cover it up but to actually search for the truth and deliver accountability well we should care I mean you should care about the quality of the people that are there to protect and serve you and so that's the the whole thing about what we should be looking forward in any public servant is that are they there to do the job and they doing it with Integrity accountability and are they being transparent about what's going on and when something does go wrong cuz look things are going to go wrong are you going to step up and be the person that's going to say hey this is wrong we're going to do something about it we're going to change what's going on we're going to identify this thing and we have to make sure that that's what we're going to do as a community and as especially in a law enforcement Community I think this is great what's happened but there's still more work to do because there's at least 11 that are still there there's more house to be cleaned and you can help with that by sharing this footage keep the pressure on and send a message to law enforcement agen elsewhere that this is what's coming either do it yourself or one way or the other we're going to do it for you let me know in the comments how do you like cm's new video that I helped them with also subscribe both here and at the blog at the civils lawyer.com because I'll continue definitely to follow this one follow me on Twitter at John Brian Esq also called the civil rights lawyer there our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it come get the CMI Police Department a chance and you'll see what's in our heart