on January 1st 2024 while on patrol officers from the penell county sheriff's office ran the license plate of a car through the system and received feedback that it was stolen but they did not share the license plate with dispatch and asked for confirmation as they normally would have done and quickly initiated a traffic stop they handcuffed the father driving the car and his 16-year-old epileptic daughter at gunpoint the incident was captured on multiple officers body [Music] cams driver step out of the vehicle driver and all passengers hands up driver step out of the vehicle with your hands up face away from me passenger stay in the vehicle stay in the vehicle driver take two steps to the left with your hands up with your left hand pick the back of your collared shirt up and do a circle yep lift it up and do a circle spin to your left spin keep spinning stop you want to take him over there driver take three steps to your left Face Forward Face Forward face the other way take four steps to your left keep going keep going keep going I'll take it from here step back towards the sound of my voice keep coming keep coming keep coming keep coming stop down on your knees place your hands above your head keep them there all pass keep your hands in the air I got him hands back behind your back behind your back my 16-year-old daughter's in the car can I ask what's going on confirming a couple things right now brother is that your car yeah okay to your knowledge everything's 104 on that yeah all right go and get up step back with me all right take a seat inside that's my 16-year-old daughter just take a seat inside she's got epilepsy it's okay we'll handle it with that as it is okay take a seat can I ask what's going on stay right there your left hand sir hold on that's all right just stay tight she's 16 years old that's okay stay right there why don't have a gun on her she's got epilepsy what is going on what are you doing how many people are in the car just her just her she's a special needs child okay that's fine not fine she doesn't understand officer keep going keep going she doesn't understand what's going on she's doing exactly what we need her to going this car just one keep going just her keep going we're going hands off got all right stop come back towards the sound of my voice keep coming keep coming keep coming somebody needs to have my cover so you need to have my cover keep coming back toward the sound of my voice back someone have my cover back come back here all the way back all the way back is there anybody else in that car just you you were the last person re hands up come over here keep keep challenging the car passeng hands up you're the only person that was last in that car let me know now cuz somebody's liable to get hurt if if you don't let us know okay all right just me and my dad just you and your dad okay you got anything on you no do you have a bra on under here yeah I'm going to shake your shirt out nothing think that's going to poke you or hurting you okay I'm going to put you in the back of his car I'll explain to you what's going on in a second okay you can walk back into the shoe I don't know where your other one is but I'll bring it to you okay passenger in the rear step out okay I'll bring it for you after minutes of interaction it finally occurred to an officer to verify the license plate and the response from the center was truly ridiculous and frightening at the same time 74 can you confirm tag November Mike a Yankee 69 Forte Yankee 6923 white that's not 10 license that was run was November 769 oh my God you kid clear clear anyway just just clear it all right unbelievable I'm going to get you out of these handcuffs what's happening is that this car it was coming back as stolen for the deputy that was behind you but we've just confirmed that car is not stolen I'm getting right of Cu what all right so we'll explain that to you and your Dad's getting out of handcuffs right now okay okay you all right okay you can have a seat on the actually don't cuz it's wet let me try and find you your shoe hey can we Life song She's epileptic the father told them at the very beginning of the stop that his daughter was epileptic but the police never listened to him and now that they have been proven innocent they remembered that she was sick you okay yeah okay are you feeling okay do you want Medics no do you take any medicine yeah okay do you have it with you we'll get here you go we'll try to get those lights off for you come up you can come have a seat in your car oh we'll get your dad for you okay all right so this is this is your car correct yes okay it's registered to you and everything you live in Bay Arbor no okay she does it to our mom's house the reason why we're doing this okay we have a we had a hit on your vehicle saying that it was stolen okay that's why we're doing the things that we're doing okay that's the only reason okay you can hop on out for me though how how would it be stolen again we just had a hit on it we're what does that what does that mean so we have license plate readers in our vehicle you I'll take your handcuffs off us you're okay okay I mean I just got that all right I don't understand why you put her in handcuff there's no one else in that vehicle literally okay sorry I'm just no it's okay again so that's why I'm explaining it to you okay we had to hit on your license plate what am I supposed so what am I supposed to do about that so that's why we're that's why you're good go ahead you're good okay that's why I'm explaining that's why I'm just explaining everything to you so understand where is she she's in that other vehicle she's probably getting sted out right now so what does that mean there's a hit like I don't so again so you see our little I'll even show it to you so then you can understand exactly what happened okay so you see explain to you what the heck doing yeah I'm explaining it to him right now so well okay yeah so you see that little camera that's right there beyond my um my rearview mirror yeah so that's also a license plate reader okay so we got a hit off for your vehicle saying that it was stolen but it's it's fully registered which again that's why I'm saying we had a hit on it which is why we did what we did okay just so then we can kind of explain everything and let you understand what's going on well I mean I I mean literally I'm no I I 100% her home but this is like yeah I 100% get it which is again why I'm just talk all right we're going to [ __ ] out of here [ __ ] morons yeah grow up buddy did I stutter yeah people make mistakes get over yourself you could got somebody kill oh get over yourself such a [ __ ] the police officer can easily defend his mistake due to his awareness of qualified immunity he may argue that it was a simple understandable mistake one that anyone could have made however this mistake had the potential to result in the loss of innocent lives hey hey hey St hey 1012 that's why everything to you okay just so you kind of understand what's going my LPR went off it showed Sig 10 was am am I under arrest not at all that's why we're just explaining so this if this happens that's why that's why we're going to get this all taken care of and we're going how that how's that H like how does that happen so again it's it's sometimes just user it could be user error or it could be again FCC NC off and it popped up a stolen so fcic NCC which is the guys that work through D through the DMV that say like oh yeah license plate information driver information all stuff even though my my registration is just like November it was just renewed and stuff like so again somebody may have just put in a cleric clerical error so then again it could be handled that way okay my so we're still going to we're still going to be documenting everything so then this hopefully doesn't happen to you in the future okay we appreciate the fact that you're super Cooperative with us well I mean we going to have a chat with him and you kind of get again we see no I don't get I mean I don't know I thought like commit a murder or something man like this no let's move out the road I just didn't you know I'm just concerned no I I get you brother like I said I yeah go ahead you're good do your thing I'm assuming he explained to you everything that happened do you have any questions about it it's just it's concerning it's very concerning but like I said I got a 16-year-old daughter even if it was just you it's still I know but I'm saying she's she's special needs child they put her in handcuffs I mean you know she has epilepsy and she's been she's been so good for the past like two or 3 years without the seizures I don't know if this is going to Spring something so yeah it's very concerning and very scary so like you know for literally I was just taking her from my house to bringing her back to her mom's so it's just you know we were all in a good mood just had dinner watching the the football game and next 5 minutes later we're handcuffs and she and she's in the back of the police car like I mean but I just don't understand how the system like I said this is a my car you know my registration yeah tags the same the carard brand new you know like 3 months ago okay so yeah that I don't know I mean sometimes Times Obviously we have the license readers it reads tags and we have to confirm it but I don't know what the image looked like when it came through cuz sometimes it can skew numbers and that could be it obviously we have to go off of what's in front of us at the time and then obviously figure it all out once everyone's safe um so cam I'm going to shut this um and which I'm sure they said but I am truly sorry that you had to go through this those guys had gun know I know what if she like made a a sudden move that she's not aware of and luckily it didn't but I I I get it I understand that be the same way if I was in your shoes um the only thing I can do is hey we'll document it apologize you know for the inconvenience did you like let her know absolutely yeah we can talk to her yeah no absolutely everything is fine everything is fine um my name kind of explain kind of everything that happened Okay the reason why we're doing things up the license plate on the car came back saying we just have to do things I just wanted to make sure that you had all your questions answered if you have any concerns I don't have concerns listen I'm not a troublemaker I'm not you know what I mean I'm just but it's kind of shaking me up a little bit you know what I mean like having guns absolutely feel the same way so here's my card uh my contact information is at the Top If you have any further questions concerns um I will get you the report number this will all be documented um obviously we all have cameras so everything is is audio recorded and Visually um but like I said I mean sometimes the the tech the technology fails us we have to take action on what we see um I'm very grateful that nothing did happen I appreciate y'all's cooperation I'm sure is very stressful um but at the end of the day you know mistakes are made so um you know I'm going to look into it a little further and find out where theate and know I can give you a call back if you'd like just with the outcome of sure my findings but um I'm just glad that you're okay and she's okay yeah she'll be all right she'll be appreciate it all right not a problem and you already gave your information to okay I can give them my card my name yeah I just gave them you want to just give him the report number I gave him my card oh my God this is ridiculous I appreciate it yes sir I apologize again that's the case number and that's my name all right appreciate it man all right we free good to go that's good all right just 56 in this B walk back here so I can be brief find out I tell some going um can we figure out if I mean it's obviously my [ __ ] up but um if like the LPR hit or if I police turned off the body camera while talking to colleagues although they blame the system this was clearly human error after the incident the Sheriff's Office did not take any action against the officers involved the father on the other hand is preparing to file a lawsuit on July 12th 2023 West Virginia resident Paul O'Brien noticed a speed trap set on the road in front of the home of a Taylor County Sheriff's deputy he posted about it on his Facebook account in the post he made statements that were obviously a joke and not meant to be taken seriously saying that he would like to set off a firecracker in front of the deputy's house and cause him to have a heart attack in the same post he also included a section criticizing the department for the deaths of three people years ago in response sheriff's deputies Cody Ma and wear came to Mr O'Brien's home to talk the encounter was recorded by a body cam how's it going Paul how are you all pretty good man I just want to talk to you for a minute CU it sounded like you had an issue with one of our deputies yeah he follow me whole last night follow you home last night Zane I don't know was listen man when you're making the comments that you're making on Facebook that kind of brings issue to me you know what I mean for one I the direction that our Department's going in is a lot different than what it was 30 years ago okay secondly when you bring up Howard Ferris you bring up somebody that's important to me cuz he was like my uncle okay so if there was something anything negative or ill or anything like that towards him I would have 100% looked into that okay so and and when when you make comments such as if you had an M80 you give him a heart attack that can be taken as a terroristic threat okay so I've always been cool with you I've always been 100 with you and and but when when you make comments like that that that kind of upsets me you know I'm saying so instead of freedom of spee I say whatever I want listen man I I fought the Marines I'm 100% for freedom of speech but when when you make certain comments that that passes freedom of speech you get what I'm saying when you're when you're saying you wish you had an M80 to give a deputy a heart attack that I I could 100% write up a warrant for you the law makes clear that individuals have a First Amendment right to make abusive statements during interactions with law enforcement officers in Lewis V City of New Orleans the court over returned a conviction under a Louisiana law that made it illegal to use obscene or profane language against police officers in the performance of their duties these cases confirm that abusive speech is protected expression and cannot be criminalized I'm not I'm not you you want me to do okay that's fine I I'll gladly do that for you I I came well I came down hold on I'm talking to you you're not walking away from me no get back over here me turn around that's fine you want to do that we can do that no problem bud I came down here to talk to you like a man and be cool with you and you want to say something like that to me cool it's fine a good jaob there got anything on you not supposed to have no take that stuff out I don't understand why you got to be like this when I'm coming down here to talk to you and be cool with you what's your reasoning my reasoning is you're threatening one of my officers oh really that's my reasoning the deputy initiated the conversation with Mr O'Brien on a purely consensual basis however the references to terrorism that he emphasized during his speech raise a question question why did the deputy not show up at Mr O'Brien's home with a warrant and investigate in line with legal documents as a result of this Facebook post which he saw as terrorism and a threat as mentioned since this encounter was entirely consensual Mr O'Brien of course had the right to refuse to talk and to ask the police to leave his property and as a result of that right Mr O'Brien did not want to talk to the police and said he was going to work Deputy M unable to control his emotions harshly arrested him and unjustifiably went through his wallet although he said something about his coworker being threatened the police report lists a charge of obstruction we have no idea what was obstructed here anything a waste man yeah back here oh [ __ ] back man all [Applause] right I mean I mean I raised him I know him that's why I came he I don't understand that I say he's on that [ __ ] he's got that [ __ ] in him that's all I because cuz he's not like that he's never been that way he's been fine for I just his grandpa just died not long ago I mean he spent three years taking care of him and he's been I don't know what's going on he's just got a lot of confusion going on right now and I'd say he got in a DAT last night yeah I mean I'm not sure but I'd say that's what's happened so cuz I mean honestly I I wanted to come down here and talk to him because I I I have I heard I heard you being respectful and he just got he's got to tell hisself I don't understand that either but when when you're saying that you're going to when you're taking pictures of my death I the job and then you're saying you're going to throw m80s at them well I understand that's a that's a threaten that's a threatening manner yeah it would be it would be not to mention the deputy wasn't following him he was literally parked in front of the hot dog house running radar right yeah yeah I see him down there we've had a lot of drug activity down through here we've been getting compl understand that so we're working on it and right I understand that there is a lot of people running around down here for him to make some of the comments that he's making that's I I just I'm not going to put up with that so yeah I wouldn't either so so I appreciate it what was your name my name is James Jam all righty sir stuff I'm not going to take all right I'll get it thank you guys I appreciate it I'm sorry you had seen that watch that the [ __ ] pushing man God damn I'm see Stay Stay do whatever you want yeah stay in there Mr O'Brien was arrested for obstruction and imprisoned for 2 days after a period of time the charges against him were dropped by the prosecutor's office on the grounds that he did not fulfill the conditions of his guilt Mr O'Brien had no obligation to talk to the officers and could leave or ask them to leave the the officers tried to force a conversation leading to an unjust arrest when he wasn't intimidated the arrest on private property protected under the fourth amendment was unconstitutional without exigent circumstances which were not present the first amendment protects freedom of speech and against retaliation by public officials the fourth circuit allows questioning a police officer's Authority if it doesn't involve fighting words an arrest under a general obstruction Statute in this case violates the First Amendment the officer's actions violated Mr O'Brien's first and Fourth Amendment rights making the seizure unlawful and unreasonable