On September 22, 2019, Preston Sowl and his wife were leaving a pub in downtown Loveland, Colorado when they found a motorcyclist on the pavement, pinned under his own bike and bleeding. They stopped. They called 911. When police arrived, an officer began asking Preston what he had seen. Preston didn't want to answer. Twice, on his own body camera, the officer told him he could go: "If you're not talking to anybody, you can leave. You're dismissed." And then: "Okay, you're free to leave." Three minutes later Preston Sowl was face down on the pavement, under arrest for obstruction. Three things on this recording are easy to miss: The officer's claim that started it - "You have to talk to me" - is not true. Preston was a witness, not a suspect, and a witness has no general legal duty to answer a police officer's questions. Seven minutes after the arrest, briefing another officer, he says: "And I still don't even know who this is." He had arrested a man for obstructing his investigation and could not say who that man was. And from 7:50 to 11:00, this recording contains no audio at all - measured at -91 dB, digital silence, for three minutes and ten seconds. It goes quiet seconds after the officer says he is muting to speak with his supervisor. The video keeps running the whole time. Later, Preston's wife tells the officer the thing his entire justification rested on was wrong: Preston never moved the motorcycle. Other people had already lifted it before they arrived. The 8th Judicial District Attorney's Office dismissed both charges. The City of Loveland's internal review found the officer violated three department policies: limits of authority and exercise of discretion, search and seizure, and use of force. Sowl says he needed shoulder replacement surgery - you can hear him reporting the shoulder injury on this recording, at the scene. In January the city settled his federal civil rights lawsuit for $290,000. CHAPTERS 0:00 "You have to talk to me." 0:15 What he stopped for 0:54 "You're dismissed" - "You're free to leave" 1:39 The sentence everything turns on 2:05 "I came down here to help them" 2:42 Does a witness have to answer? 3:20 "Put your hands behind your back" 3:46 The takedown 4:20 What he is on the ground for 4:47 "You are under arrest for obstruction" 5:36 "That's what happens when you throw me down" 5:59 "I still don't even know who this is" 6:47 "I will mute to talk to my supervisor" 7:07 Three minutes of silence 7:40 The shoulder 8:04 "Two seconds and we'd have been done" 8:44 "But he didn't move the bike" 9:50 $290,000 10:27 The practical lesson SOURCE Full unedited Loveland Police Department body-worn camera footage - a public record obtained in civil litigation and published in full by attorney Sarah Schielke, The Life & Liberty Law Office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XkKgH3YLJE Reporting used for the outcome and the legal record: 9NEWS, Coloradoan, Colorado Politics. Profanity in the original recording has been muted. Nothing else in the footage has been altered. This video is commentary and analysis of a public record. Nothing here is legal advice.

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