Remember this video I posted about a month ago showing Orman Beach, Florida police officer Jacob Cannon arresting this woman for DUI. Why am I being in here? Hi, police. Hi. then calmly listening to her throw about a thousand fbombs at him. You guys are [ __ ] pathetic. Pathetic. It used to be a shame of what the you're doing to yourselves. [ __ ] you. Until finally, out of nowhere, Officer Cannon explodes into this violent rage, slamming this drunk small woman to the ground, seriously injuring her. Then officer Cannon lied to his supervisor, claiming that she basically just slipped and fell. But the footage showed what it showed. That was his belief at that time until he saw the video. And then once he saw the video, that's when he realized that wait a minute, I I don't recall that. And he ended up getting charged with a felony. Well, just a couple of days ago, he was convicted of that felony. You're going to enter a plea of no contest to the charge of felony battery. And he was sentenced. You have no criminal history and I'm trying to treat you the same as I would anybody else under similar circumstances in a similar situation. I think some jail time is appropriate. Do you mind if I ask your client what he thinks is an appropriate punishment? This is what accountability looks like. And it would not have happened if this was not captured on video. Instead, this woman probably would have been charged with additional criminal charges for allegedly assaulting police officers. Video footage is just so important. It's a bell that cannot be unrgung. Once seen, it cannot be unseen. And on this channel, I show you footage that needs to be seen. Sort of like that medieval practice where they would hang the bodies of convicted criminals outside of the city gates as a warning to others. This footage of what ended up happening to Jacob Cannon should serve as a warning to other police officers not to do similar things. Was the sentence that Jacob Cannon received in this case, was it enough? Jacob Cannon pled no contest to felony battery under Florida state law. My understanding of what you're intending to do today is you're going to enter a plea of no contest to the charge of felony battery. The no contest plea is essentially a best interest plea. You're not admitting anything. You're not denying anything. and you're simply saying it's in your best interest to resolve the case. You would leave the determination of the punishment up to me and uh it's a thirdderee felony so it's punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison. Do you understand all that? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um having heard all of this, how do you plead to the felony battery charge? No. No. No contest? No. Okay. Pleading no contest is effectively the same thing as pleading guilty. It has the same effect. you get the same punishments. It's like saying, "I know that I did nothing wrong, or rather, I'm not admitting that I did anything wrong, but I realize it's in my best interest to take this plea." And here, prosecutors were asking the judge for a 19-month sentence. He's standing over her and said, "I said, have a [ __ ] seat." Standing over her as she's on the ground. That's what he said to her. The prosecutor called only one witness during the sentencing hearing, and that was the victim in the case, Shauna McRae, who testified about the injuries that she received as a result of what Officer Cannon did, which primarily consisted of this permanent scar across her face. I have people ask me what happened all the time. Um, I I whenever I take pictures, it's visible. I see it like plain as day. Um, you know, I think about when my son gets married, pictures. It's it's just going to be there and it's just a constant reminder and it's it's a disfigurement. I mean, I'll have it for the rest of my life. Does that bother you? Yes. And in most states when victims appear at sentencing hearings, they will have the opportunity to sort of give their opinion on what the sentence should be. Well, you know, we're here today for sentencing. I kind of explained that to you. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. And um is there anything that you'd like to say to the judge about what you would like to see happen today? Um I would like to see him, of course, no longer be a police officer. Um I think I think some jail time is appropriate. Um and uh I just I hope he gets some anger management or or some kind of valuation. um you know so he doesn't do this to anybody else. During a sentencing a defendant will be given an opportunity to speak to the judge who is about to sentence him and that occurred here. The judge in this case actually asked what sentence he thought would be fair for himself and this is what he said. Do you mind if I ask your client what he thinks is an appropriate punishment? Um yes. Um, I'm not an attorney by no means. I'm not a, you know, I'm simply just a basic law enforcement officer at best. Uh, I don't know what parameters should be set for this and I believe it's the court's best interest to determine that for myself. Um, like I said, I don't know what would be appropriate, what wouldn't be appropriate as set to the parameters. Fair enough. Okay. Anything else you want me to know? Um, I do have a family. Uh, I had two small children that depend on me and with I have a one that's five, he'll be six in a couple weeks and I have a 7-month-old. Um, my my wife, she does work, but um taking me out of the home is extremely detrimental to our our finances. you know, I bring in more than 80% of the household income and any time away from them, including just this week alone, was u it would set me back at least a month, if not more. Uh but being out of the home, uh any at any additional time, uh we will lose our home. we lose the things that we have and it's not fair to her or my family um to have to continue to try to support me somewhere else while they're trying to get their stuff together elsewhere. Okay. And how long have you been in custody? Uh I turned myself in Monday. His lawyer, whose job it is to speak for him, to argue for leniency, to argue for a lesser sentence, basically had a three-part argument. One, he claims that when his client initially got caught lying about the cause of the injuries to to the victim, rather than admitting that he used violent physical force on her, claiming that it was, you know, some accident, his lawyer is saying that it wasn't intentional that he just sort of misremembered what actually happened and his memory wasn't jogged until he actually reviewed the video. You know, that this is obviously an unsophisticated act. Again, he has no prior criminal history. um he is remorseful. I can tell the court that uh it was within 24 hours of this incident occurring that um Mr. Cannon became our client. Uh and one of the first things he uh requested of me was he had been shown the video. Um he what he had testified or not testified to but what he was saying on the recordings on the axons was his belief of what had occurred. Um then once he saw the video had a totally different perception and uh wanted to contact Miss McCree. Um and I told him absolutely not. He was prohibited from doing that cuz he wanted to apologize. That was his belief at that time until he saw the video. And then once he saw the video that's when he realized that wait a minute I I don't recall that. Um and that's what the when the the counseling started. Secondly, his lawyer argues that he has some sort of mental illness, like an explosive disorder of some sort, which perhaps he does. And third, that the actions of the victim and being drunk and running her mouth and so on provoked that mental disorder. Uh, you've been in law enforcement for 12 years. Um and this is the the incident that uh has occurred. But um you know the the one counselor uh had dubbed it u you know PTSD probably from um law enforcement experiences. The other u with the psychiatrist and the counselor has it as a an explosive disorder. Um either of which is a mental health disease that needs to be uh addressed. her behavior and the contribution that her behavior made to it. It's not an excuse. It's not defensible. It's just that that's a component. And we always ask ourselves, how did something like this happen? And then you can look at it. You don't agree with the end result, but you can see, okay, they did watch the video in open court with the victim and with live TV watching along. Either you [ __ ] take me or I'm [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] And though his lawyer said that he was remorseful, this was the only portion of all this footage I could find where he actually apologizes. As this is unexpressable as a law enforcement officer, I have voluntarily relinquished my certificate. Your honor, I'd like to say I am sorry. I'd like to apologize as I was in a position of power and should have never lost control. And then the decision was up to the judge. Ultimately, the judge sentenced him to 6 months in jail with 11 days credit for time served and then 2 years of probation to be served after his release. Again, prosecutors were asking for a 19month sentence. And I' I've watched all of the videos. Miss McCree was highly intoxicated. She was verbally abusive. But that's your job in law enforcement to deal with all sorts of people, including people that are hostile, verbally abusive, and highly intoxicated. She was placed in a holding cell, I think, ignored, as best I could tell. Nobody attempted to tend to her or give her any kind of aid. I do find that you suffer from a mental illness that's unrelated to substance abuse. Uh that you are amendable to treatment. I am going to consider in addition your lack of any criminal history whatsoever in the seven years of public service that you've done through your job. And I want to be very clear. I am not downward departing because you are police officer. I am downward departing um because you have no criminal history and I'm trying to treat you the same as I would anybody else under similar circumstances in a similar situation. So, um I am going to adjudicate you guilty. The reason for that is as a convicted felon, you will not be able to own a gun, buy a gun, possess a gun, and that's important to my sentence. I'm going to sentence you to 6 months county jail. Madam clerk, how much credit does he have? I have 11 days. Okay, you have 11 days credit. Um, that's going to be followed by two years of probation during which time you need to undergo a mental health evaluation in any recommended treatment. Um, you will be required to surrender your law enforcement certification to the state of Florida, but I believe you've already done that, sir. And then the other thing I wanted to mention is that uh any of the items that were submitted and taken into evidence are public record currently and defense may want to consider whether to steal the medical records. Okay. Anything else the court needs to address today? No. Okay. All right. Thank you folks. Thank you. Was the sentence that Jacob Cannon received in this case, was it enough? No. Absolutely not. And here's what I base that opinion on. The judge made a point to say that she was going to treat him just like she would treat anybody else under the same circumstances. And I want to be very clear, I am not downward departing because you are a police officer. I am downward departing um because you have no criminal history and I'm trying to treat you the same as I would anybody else under similar circumstances in a similar situation. I don't think you can separate that here. What he did was illegal because of the badge that he was wearing and the trust and authority that was placed in him, which in my opinion is even more egregious than the raw physical act of violence. This wasn't just a regular battery case that ended up as a felony because somebody got a scar on their face. As a police officer on duty acting under color of law, he was completely justified in having this woman in his custody. There's no dispute that she should have been under arrest and Canon had done nothing wrong up until the point where he did. Had it become necessary in the course of his duty to use violent force on her, he would have been justified in doing so and would have a defense under the law, at least where it was necessary. Because it was all captured and documented very well on video, this was the smoking gun. They had him dead to rights. And even the judge found that he put this woman in a cell and just left her there. She was placed in a holding cell. I think ignored as best I could tell. Nobody attempted to tend to her or give her any kind of aid after seriously injuring her. Well, it's a crime in Florida to deprive a crime victim of medical care. If a police officer's excessive force results in injury to a detainee and the officer intentionally deprivives that detainee of medical care, that could be a felony in the state of Florida. And while not a Florida statute, excessive force by a police officer under these circumstances, certainly also violates federal law, 18 USC section 242, which prohibits willful deprivation of constitutional rights under color of law. And if that results in bodily injuries, it's a federal felony, and federal charges can be filed right alongside state charges. So in my opinion, the fact that he was only sentenced to 6 months is actually giving him special treatment as a police officer when it should be exactly the opposite. You know that if the tables were turned that if the arrestee had done the same exact thing to officer Canon, assuming that was physically possible, you know very well she would be in prison for a long time, probably after a very stern lecture from this judge. The more we get involved as citizens and share footage like this and educate ourselves, the more powerful we become and the more accountable our government becomes. And yes, I'm biased, having had a career as a civil rights lawyer. That's why I'm here. But I do my best to bring you accurate facts and accurate law so that things like this can be avoided in the first place. More accountability will lead to better policing, having safer communities, and more freedom for us. So here, no, the sentence was not sufficient. It was not enough. But at least we have accountability. Individuals who have this knee-jerk compulsion to support law enforcement doing absolutely anything to anybody, they like to say, "F around, find out." That ought to work both ways. And if somebody is a police officer and they're going to intentionally abuse the authority, the trust that we've placed in them, they should find out even more than the rest of us, which would deter that from happening again in the future, would make policing better, would make our community safer and give us more freedom. So, if you like safety and freedom, don't forget to subscribe both here and at the blog, the civil rightsawyer.com. You can follow me on X, JohnBrianesq. And I also want to say happy 20th anniversary to my wife. We returned to the very same spot where we got married and recreated the photo. Well, almost. Remember, our rights don't end where your fear begins. Freedom is scary. Deal with it.