you're not going to comply or you're not going to comply dude he's not physically resistive your partner's got his hands on him he's in a handcuffs he's complying out comes the pepper spray and he sprays him do you think he'll [ __ ] murder nobody man what are you gonna do if you think your words bother me what are you gonna do about it fat boy I'm scared nothing come on nothing get suede you pepper sprayed somebody in handcuffs like you're not avoiding the lawsuit [Music] Can the police pepper spray a handcuffed man just because he's running his mouth here's some brand new exclusive footage from a federal civil rights lawsuit just filed by my friend Chris Weist a Kentucky civil rights lawyer we had a great discussion about this footage about the lawsuit he just filed on behalf of this guy as well as some great general advice he has when potential clients of ours are interacting with police officers I'll post the full lawsuit up at the blog links in the description we also discussed a few more of his cases one of which involves some breaking news so make sure to subscribe and hit the Bell notification so that you don't miss that upcoming video I'll let Chris explain what happened so this came in right around Christmas of last year my understanding is he was living with a girlfriend they were arguing they both called 9-1-1 he won a 9-1-1 there to move his stuff out with police president just to you know and she called 9-1-1 because she wanted him out but recognized that he had his stuff there and she wanted the cops to be there while he moved his stuff out just to make sure that he was moving his stuff out so there was there was a domestic spat I would not describe it there was no allegations either way of anybody engaging in any violence will the police show up um it's the city of Berea Kentucky police it's uh outside of Lexington Kentucky kind of in the central part of the state there's two officers that are on the scene a guy by the name of Sergeant Ward and an officer by the name of um Cody Jones and Cody Jones at the time was doing his field training with Robert Ward the sergeant and I thought that that was really interesting because he's he's like a baby cop that's like being trained and this is the example that he's being trained by and so um there's this interaction they allege that he is engaged in disorderly conduct music is engaged in disorderly conduct and alcohol intoxication music denies all of that there's no indications from anyone about music smelling of alcohol or anything else and nobody's articulating that but obviously they're looking for an excuse to have arrested him what I find the most interesting thing about the alcohol intoxication charge is like he's driving there where's your DUI charge like that's the serious thing that's going on right like where's your DOI charge why didn't you breathalyze him why didn't she do any of that and so it's obvious this is all a cooked up you know pretext because they're mad at him because he's mouthy and he is mouthy in the interactions with the with the police um and uh you know what what I found most significant about that is they get them in handcuffs they've ostensibly placed them under arrest Cody Jones has his hand on him he's obviously under control this is still moving right um he is still verbally you know argument argumentative with the police um because he's not real happy about the fact that he's being basically maliciously and falsely arrested for a bunch of garbage that he didn't do you think he'll [ __ ] murder nobody bro man what are you gonna do if you think your words bother me what are you gonna do about it fat boy I'm scared nothing come on nothing get suede no put him in the [ __ ] car come on we'll see who's [ __ ] tough unlock the [ __ ] car unlocked it's unlocked put him in the [ __ ] car not this one okay actually sit down sit down sit down by the way on the back end of this they dismissed the state charges with a stipulation or probable cause they thought that they were going to avoid the lawsuit I'm like you you pepper sprayed somebody in handcuffs like you're not avoiding the lawsuit you know so he's in handcuffs you see him you know getting mouthy um with the police officer and then the sergeant you know you're not going to comply or you're not going to comply dude he's not physically resistive your partner's got his hands on him he's in handcuffs he's complying out comes the pepper spray and he sprays him and you know he's in a handcuff so um it's a fantastic use of force case the damages aren't that high he goes to the jail he's suffering sort of this you know the effects of this pepper spray gets released the next day goes home showers that does reactivate the pepper spray by the way when you shower they don't decontaminate them in the jail I don't know why they didn't decontaminate him in the jail so he's got about a 24 hour where this stuff is like on him exposed still and then you know he says it mostly dissipated although he had some respiratory issues saw a doctor a couple weeks later yeah the pepper spraying was essentially the punishment for running his mouth uh yes yeah and they didn't even decontaminate him at all no right I think that goes to show that it was it was the punish him for you know doing what he's supposed to be allowed to do criticizing the police under the First Amendment well you'll see there's a couple claims use of force there's the Cody Jones for allowing the sergeant to do it at one point Jones steps away so we can be pepper sprayed well you know you have a duty to intervene not to help facilitate the the Fourth Amendment um violation and then you know first amendment retaliation I think were the claims we brought in this case obviously obviously so I mean it's I think it's a pretty good case I think it all just depend on which you know which jurors you get if you end up at trial you know are they gonna are they gonna side with the Constitution or are they going to just weigh whether or not they like your client as opposed to the police officers well you know you're always dealing with the he had a coming defense and the defendants are going to certainly advance that defense to the extent the judge lets them um and I'll be howling about it and you know that's just the nature of these cases so yeah I think that's one of the most difficult part of these cases is just ultimately this you know facing a jury in the end where you can end up with somebody who you know 99 of the time claims to support the Constitution you know they're a strong Second Amendment supporter they have flags all over their truck but at the same time you show them that video and they're not thinking about the Constitution now like they would if the second amendment was involved what they see in their mind is oh well this this is one of those [ __ ] Collide moments what I mean what is the what is what is the way to defeat this or to explain this to people and that's kind of what you know my freedom is scary deal with it is kind of along that lines like why can't you realize that this is not just you know when [ __ ] Collide this is an interaction between a government and a citizen and you have to set aside your feelings and focus on the Constitution here I mean what how do you how would you address that to to a jury where you have these types of potential jurors to try to pound that into their head yeah at the end of the day I think I've got to see who's on the jury panel but you know God country and apple pie you know my my God country apple pie closing where you know basically either everybody has constitutional rights or no one does depending on your political persuasion you know you may agree or disagree with certain aspects of the Constitution but but that's the beauty of it it's there to protect all of us and all of our rights and if you don't stand up for Josh music's constitutional rights including his rights to engage in you know arguably offensive speech including his rights not to have excessive force imposed on him when he's not resisting if you don't stand up for his rights here today right who's going to stand up for your rights when some tyrant in DC comes in and takes your guns away when some tyrant in DC comes in and you know has an FBI arresting parents and school board meetings you don't stand up for the Constitution ladies and gentlemen here and now when it counts when it's hard if Josh music doesn't have rights no one has rights and so you're going to get the god country and apple pie because what kind of advice do you would you give to people when they're interacting with police I mean there's there are people who would advise to you know be confrontational you know am I being detained sort of stuff and then there are other people who would advise to sort of just keep your mouth shut be polite and cooperative and and go talk to your lawyer later I have some advice generally about those interactions and interacting with the police you need to be cognizant of what you're doing and where you're doing it at I had a um a case a lady got arrested at a school board meeting for not wearing a mask face mask and I you know I brought a federal claim she was charged in state court and ultimately she got you know unfortunately a disorderly conduct conviction it wasn't from the refusal to leave it wasn't from the you know sitting there without a mask on that would have been I would have been able to deal with that it was because she raised her voice and got very very argumentative and confrontational to the point that it was kind of disturbing everybody around her and and the problem with that was you know she wasn't under arrest at the time obviously I mean she walked into the disorderly conduct charge as a result of getting upset at the police so Chris's rule number one is you've got this thing between your ears it's called a brain and think about what you're doing in that situation when you're interacting with the police I think either of those ways of dealing with it whether it's articulating your rights in a calm collected manner or you know sort of remaining polite but silent and not incriminating yourself and then going and seeing a lawyer later either approach I think you got to think between you know with what's between your head first and remain calm and remain collected and not get upset you know don't threaten the police I would advise that not even threaten to sue the police not there and then I mean that that never sounds good afterwards during a deposition never as we're going to see I mean it just it's not it's just not the right way to handle the situation um but I think you know can you articulate you know officer am I free to go am I being detained if you're asking those questions in a calm cool collected manner I think that that is perfectly acceptable and that isn't a perfectly that is a perfectly acceptable way to do it if you're raising your voice if you're screaming at the officer because you're getting upset because you know he's violating your rights or she's violating your rights that's not the way to do it um you know cooler heads always Prevail and you're going to win you know there were some lawyers they were down I think in Alabama and the police just wrongfully arrested them and they they let them up in court afterwards their client I'm like giving them evidence there was a big deal down there and that guy again calm cool collected you don't have to answer questions you should not answer questions you have a right not to incriminate yourself no one ever advances the ball by by you know providing information there's the First Amendment Auditors that are out there um you know the state ID laws are different in every state you probably need to know what that is if you're going to go out and do that kind of activity you're going to do like a First Amendment audit you're gonna like require or police stations record jails you know from from public sidewalks um you know you should know what the what the what the laws are in each state in terms of uh being required to provide identification you need to comply with them one of the things that's hard for people to understand is sometimes I'll have a case where somebody's been arrested for one thing and they obviously didn't do it but they did something else and and people don't seem to understand that if if it's any misdemeanor they can arrest you for even in a state like Ohio doesn't allow minor misdemeanor arrests by Statute but constitutionally in Ohio when I do Ohio cases you know those mine are misdemeanor arrests if the police complain to you haven't committed any it'll be a get out of jail free card for the police in a civil rights case in Ohio because they've got the basis to do it so you know you got to be careful with that kind of thing with what I call you know either non-charged or other charge defenses because if they've got a single reason to arrest you they're going to be good with the arrest and again you know remaining calm I think you're going to search your rights I'm not going to answer questions I'm not gonna you know I have a right now to talk to you I'm not going to talk to you I think you can do that I think you could say you know am I under arrest am I being detained you know I think articulating those things is helpful particularly for you and I because you know if we have video it's helpful right then we're not having to argue about whether or not they were free to go or whether or not they felt like they were free to go because they've asked so as long as it's done in the calm cool collected manner people you know when the rights are being violated they have a reaction a visceral reaction sometimes to get very upset I would urge folks not to do that whoever keeps their cool and is thinking up here about what they're doing and what they're saying is going to be better off than the folks that are you know popping off because they're upset so that would be what I would say as always thanks for watching it's always a fantastic opportunity for all of us to hear Chris explain what he's been up to if you search past videos on the channel you'll see some of our prior conversations Chris practices both in Kentucky and Ohio so if you're in need of civil rights lawyer in those States that's who I would try first and I'll put his contact information in the description you know I guess steady stream of phone calls from people across the country searching for a civil rights lawyer and as I try to explain frequently for the benefit of my staff I only handle cases in West Virginia and if you watch my channel you know that I already have my hands busy doing that still working on compiling a referral database for all 50 states for people looking for civil rights lawyers so if you are one or you know of one in other states please have them reach out to me for inclusion on that list if you have a West Virginia matter then you want to speak to me about or even something else you want to speak to me about I do have a limited number of consultations I try to do with people per week if you are interested in that I do have an actual office with people answering the phones who can set you up if you enjoy this type of content reviewing police interactions And discussing the underlying constitutional law Please Subscribe hit the Bell notification as well keep the Channel Growing share it with your friends remember freedom is scary deal with it I'll see you next time foreign