probably the only good cop on the course I'm not trying to be a bad cop I was literally not trying to even have any of this happen and I did apologize you apologize but you're following his his director he's a sergeant yeah but still like you swore over to the Constitution right and you know what's right and wrong and sometimes you got to stand up to people listen No when asked for your information you have to identify yourself at this point we're on a traffic stop together but you still have to quit the traffic stop is not a crime and I asked him about being detained and nobody answered that listen welcome back to the civil rights lawyer Channel you may have seen this footage before showing the arrest of Demetrius Kearns in the Cleveland area of Ohio well there's huge news now and we're going to talk to his civil rights lawyer my friend Chris weast about what that news is if you don't identify yourself that is obstruction that I commit there's no crime yeah he's yeah done by himself I'm not gonna sit out here okay and argue with somebody for an hour the legalities of it you can come to court okay and then sometimes you see what we have here where there's this effort after the fact to cover up the initial wrongdoing the bad arrest let's just we need to charge forward and falsely charge this guy I mean that to me screams conscious misconduct conscious wrongdoing [Music] so you may have seen Chris weast already on some of my videos I've done several videos with him he is a civil rights lawyer based out of Kentucky but he also practices in Ohio and he's one of the best civil rights lawyers in the country he gets a lot of interesting cases and this is one that has already gone viral on the internet and he has just filed a federal section 1983 lawsuit just a couple of days ago and he's here to exclusively explain it to us right now he's going to break it down as we go through it all right well you know I appreciate you uh you know coming on to talk about this uh tell me about this case that you just filed in Cleveland so there was a gentleman Demetrius Kern um who was driving in September of 2022 and there was a Cleveland Heights police officer who uh was making a traffic stop but she did not activate her light Sirens because she was she was trying to get behind um the uh the motor she was trying to stop before she did that her name was Carly Lewis and cut off Mr Kern um who was in the other lane she then activated license Sirens affected the stop he pulled over because he wanted to get her badge number and her identity to file a complaint against her Access Road sent me another unit because another party does not know how to yield to a license sirens and he's sitting here recording me being an animal ran him off the road Chris you okay yeah okay I'm officer Lewis with Cleveland Heights the reason I'm for the traffic stop is the place on the vehicle expired not even a big deal do you know that guy behind me in the porch I'm trying to hurry up and move you're good no you're good you did the right thing I'm putting my lights out on Sirens he did not move over oh he was shaking up you know she almost caused an accident she is apologetic at first I'll give you the plate to the other vehicles that's out for the conversation I apologize you almost ran me off the wall I initiated my lights in Sirens but you where's your music on because I had the life of siren dancer I apologize he stopped abruptly okay I'm not wrong the lights and Sirens were activated okay I did not do that sir the lights and Sirens because he stopped abruptly causing me to stop causing you to stop differently and I apologize for that however the lights and sirens were on okay the police vehicle is marked you can clearly see it's a marked Patrol vehicle I initiated lights and Sirens I'm not gonna argue I'm gonna tell you I do apologize that he did stop a problem nobody was wrong I'll tell you to disconnect right so between the public and you and the public is that driver check okay if there's something wrong and you actually get it all you say my bad and I did I just said keep going I said my bad I said I activated a traffic initiated traffic stop in a marked vehicle with lights and Sirens If you didn't hear the sirens or see the light the I don't I mean well I call it back up because somebody is getting out of a cop car well I think the situation would resolve itself and then her supervisor enough calling wolf shows up and escalates the situation and threatens me it shows up knows nothing about what happened today but well you don't pull up behind an officer on a traffic stop you're right I don't so why are you saying it because I'm here and what you're doing right now is against the law okay well then you should have pulled over for likes and siren she said it on the radio that you that you didn't yield and it's on dash cam I'm assuming it's just a disconnect man I'll tell you what let her finish her business and then we can sit down and talk like that I'm gonna let him go we're good I'm gonna let him go what I'm sorry what was your last name my last name yeah because I'm asking if I'm talking to you anymore just give me your last name why because I'm conducting business with you right now what's the reason of my crime I'm gonna get rid of him I'll explain to you threads Mr Kern with a rest says he needs to you know immediately produce identification Ohio of course has a requirement that if if the police are investigating you for a crime um you do have to identify yourself but unless they have Azure aware reasonable articulable suspicion that you've committed a crime there's no need to identify yourself and there's clear clearly established six circuit case law which is the federal circuit you know that Ohio is in it's also Kentucky Michigan Tennessee that says listen you know on this Ohio obstruction statute if if you're not being investigated for a crime you have no duty to identify yourself and he Mr Kern takes that position he's like what's your Reasonable articable Suspicion what did I do yeah doing what you're doing right now no sir she almost ran me off the road again you didn't yield to light some siren and you came out what's next to me it stopped and almost ran me off the [ __ ] road okay listen to me you asked my Reasonable articulable Suspicion it's not a sparkle God if you wrestling you violate my right I don't want to arrest you we have to adjust okay we have to ID you you understand that yes we do she admits she's like I don't think he committed any crime unless it talk to me just do me a favor all I'm asking you I'm a private citizen just take your hands out of your pocket while we're talking okay okay I called for backup all right yeah I initiated traffic stop I understand you and I and that's him and we all just saw what happened okay I'm calling for another person because I'm dealing with one person who I don't know who I'm dealing with and you get out listen sir let me speak I'm letting you explain something I call for another person because I have a man getting out of a car walking towards me you know how Society is I know how Society is now listen right I'm asking you to identify yourself so I can let my dispatcher know who I'm out with if you don't identify yourself that is obstruction there's no crime but I want to I'm identifying you and the supervisor continues to to escalate this eventually placing him in handcuffs okay like I need your driver's license I'm sorry obstructing is the crime identify yourself she almost ran me off the road and then both did I still have to identify no you don't yes okay well I'm gonna call it into the car you can arrest me okay because I didn't do anything I didn't do anything listening because I need to have to know it's not a big deal Mr Kern um had a shoulder injury uh and you know required actually some surgery because of the way that his arm got yanked behind his back okay like I need your driver license I'm sorry have a seat sit down all the way in they arrest them there's further discussion than the police when he's sitting on the police car between um Carly Lewis and her supervisor he's like we got to charge him with something basically because otherwise we're in some serious trouble is he valid I don't know I'm waiting for the radio to say what so this this happened that vehicle match a description of the vehicle from weird [ __ ] yesterday I saw it I initiated a traffic stop that person instead of like pulling over he stopped abruptly and I'm getting behind him but he stopped abruptly this guy was very close to him and we did we almost caught we almost did get into an accident because that driver stopped so aggressive I did yeah himself [Music] listen let me explain to you you don't get out of the car yet the sergeant wants me to give you a ticket for obstruction okay I'm not gonna do anything else is that he is the boss I don't have to refuse if I didn't commit a crime this isn't a stop and ID State at this point it is a traffic stop because you're out off the road we just had that conversation I did not almost run you off the road that Tesla has cameras in it okay you guys are gonna pay for this okay Mr Kern I apologize I really do and this is on body cam all right this is uh the sergeants tell me to do this so yeah when you police have to identify you you do have to identify yourself I broke the law if I if I broke the law I have to identify Mr Kern you got out of the vehicle in the middle of a traffic stops I understand that and I needed to identify you don't payment for this for what sir oh kidnapping illegal detainment no one's kidnapping you okay I'm kidding this is not kidnapping the sergeant place you under arrest for obstruction [Applause] she asked for your information and you didn't give it to him listen I'm gonna be there'll be a court date you and I will both go to it and our prosecutor is really good and we'll work through it okay listen I'm just doing what I'm told to do all right what do I put for this verbiage when asked identifying himself he refused for my own foreign so we're literally here and I'm coming up because I saw that car it looked like a car from the yesterday's incident I ran it it's expired I am in this Lane I put my lights on to activate the guy instead of like continuing he like whips over stops of broccoli and I'm like halfway in between the both lanes and this guy was right behind him so we did it did almost cause an accident absolutely no I was trying to go behind he was it would have been a sure clear distance accident but because of how that guy stopped abruptly it would have been and he stopped him well and he was pissed because he did we did almost into an accident no I I it would have been an accident yeah yeah so the guy stopped abruptly but he did then he got out and he's yelling he's yelling while I'm initiating right so I told him I said sir just stand there and let me talk to him I'll come talk to you and he did but then he's continuous like because he did because that happened I called for backup and then he was upset rightfully so it was not whatever why are they [ __ ] um like was that necessary sorry here's your property sure um do you want to sign are you going to refuse all right I'm gonna give you a copy of it well I'm not trying to be a bad cop I was literally not trying to even have any of this happen and I did apologize you apologize but you're following his director he's the sergeant yeah we're still like you swore over to the Constitution right and you know what's right and wrong and sometimes you got to stand up to people listen No when asked for your information you have to identify yourself at this point we're on a traffic stop together you still have to quit a traffic stop is not a crime and I asked him I be entertained and nobody answered that listen so I didn't I'm pregnant on my bases all the stuff in me typed in the report I had no choice but to give you my ID that's why I specifically asked yeah it might be in detained well at that point it's the traffic stop but still if I'm being entertained you should tell me and if I'm not being the same yeah I'm free to go in the situation well right now you're free to go yeah all right I hope that you feel better and I'm sorry that all this had to happen this way well we did we went to a little accident almost the middle accident and I apologize well we're gonna work through it all right I don't think he violated your rights and he wanted you to identify yourself and you didn't all right you know you swirled say again you swore oh I did I did all right Mr Kern I hope that you feel better all right all right you're gonna go to Metro four right there yes sir and so they decide to charge him about three or four days later not long enough for that the city bro skier looks at this and is like there's nothing here dismisses the charges there was obviously video of this it got viral in I think February and then more recently obviously we filed suit last Friday actually in federal court up in up in the Cleveland area we asserted two 1983 claims one for a violation of the Fourth Amendment because of the um the tension of the plaintiff and then the arrest of the plaintiff um the expansion of the scope of the uh investigation um gratuitous use of force so there's four different Fourth Amendment um issues there fair to intervene on the part of Officer Lewis particularly since she articulated that he didn't do anything wrong and yet this Behavior can continued brought him O'Neill claim which is basically you know as you're aware John it's a claim against the municipality itself those are not always easy to um as you're aware to to to to establish because it's not a one-off it's not just a bad officer it's a policy and practice claim effectively and um there were admissions by the mayor when this went viral in February that there was inadequate policies my client had a meeting with the police chief there's a recording that we've got where they admit he admits that there's inadequate training and so you know I don't often bring a manual claim but I thought the facts established it here and then because Mr Kern and everything they did was in in reaction to him saying what did I do wrong um you know you're violating my rights Etc um I brought a First Amendment retaliation claim as well um and so those are the federal claims and then a bunch of state law claims that are analogous civil assault and battery and it's wolf unlawful imprisonment against wolf and Lewis civil false arrests against wolf and Lewis malicious criminal prosecution against Wilson Lewis and then there's a civil liability claim as well under Ohio statutes that we brought against the municipality so those are the legal claims um you know I think the facts justify it and when you look at the officer's Behavior particularly Sergeant wolf I mean it's pretty egregious I'm pretty bullish about punitive damages in this case too I was thinking First Amendment retaliation as well when I watched that footage what crime did he commit you know to begin with right none I mean they allege well you were obstructing what distracting a lot well you you violated the traffic code because you didn't yield a lights and Sirens wait a minute like one her body camera footage by the way does not begin and we've got that until after the stop is already occurred she's required to have that and that that activates at the time the lights and Sirens are activated so there's a real disconnect there about when those lights and Sirens went on that's inconsistent with her story that's usually problematic but even if she activated it right I mean you have to have some reasonable amount of time to app you know to deceive a lights and sirens and then yield so plainly he didn't commit any offense he was cut off he wanted her um identification to file a complaint against her they didn't like it this whole thing was retaliatory and you know and frankly the only thing I can figure out you know with this guy with the sergeant and the reaction that he has from the outset which is hostile antagonistic doesn't investigating I think that there's a racial animus here and I say that in part because we open record requested his personnel file and there were other complaints about his dealings with minority citizens you know which suggests that there's a there's an issue with this guy um and it's race-based and I don't throw that accusation around lightly but I think the evidence here warrants it and there's some pattern and practice stuff with this guy so um you know and and that I think boils down with what we saw in our evaluation of the evidence was there any disciplinary action taken against either of the police officers involved here yeah I think the sergeant was counseled you know was told you know bad boy don't do it again plainly that is effective given the pattern of this guy's you know complaints with citizens which predated this particular incident and there were a number of them and this was again I will tell you we opened record requested his personnel file this is not this guy's first rodeo and it's a problem that blows my mind that you can get those through a records request in Ohio I mean yeah you you can we can only get those here in West Virginia not only can we not get it through a foia request but when we get it through Discovery it comes along with a protective order that that severely limits you know what we can do with it I mean it should be available via foia but our our legislature is just beholden to the public safety interest in the state and they've put all these protections on these police Personnel files that nobody else has nobody else has but the police do it it is insane I mean I understand why you may not want to publicize an officer's home address right maybe you want to redact that for officer safety but the fact that somebody is generating citizen complaints which goes to a core function of government and the people's ability to scrutinize the government and you can't get them that's insane to me one of the things that really struck me in reviewing this video and I is where he does the oh I'm gonna beat the hell out of you and try and justify it routine with stop resisting when the guy is just sitting there stop resisting I mean I you know I've seen that before um you know they do it they do it whenever they're planning the tune up um and you know I always look at what's what is the client or what's the victim of of the conduct um what are they doing at the time are they struggling are they you know or is it just like like it was in um you know the music case that we reviewed before is it just an officer that's engaged in misconduct trying to cover it up I think here plainly that's the case especially when you look at the discussion that Lewis and and wolf have about um we got to charge him with something or we're in trouble for the arrest like yeah there's a conscious wrong there it'd be interesting to see what happens and uh you know hopefully you can take their depositions and get some more information I'm looking forward to it yeah yeah maybe we do a a part two video after you've taken some depositions here yeah yeah well we've seen how that goes sometimes those are always fun right it makes me happy anything else about this case you think that that is interesting or unusual the only thing that I think is striking is some of the admissions that they have between themselves when he's in the car already and he's arrested I think you know that there's like I said there's there's evidence of sometimes you're dealing with just what I would call anger in the heat of a moment um where somebody overreacts and that's bad in and of itself when people's rights are violated and then sometimes you see for instance what we had in Hornback and what we have here where there's this effort after the fact to cover up the initial wrongdoing the bad arrest with let's just we need to charge forward and falsely charge this guy I mean that to me screams conscious misconduct conscious wrongdoing ladies and gentlemen of the jury you need to award an amount sufficient to deter this you know because pun of Damages are warranted here under the standard in an amount that's going to deter not only these officers but anyone else from engaging in this after the fact fundamentally it's dishonest right to sit there and make up false charges you know to try and cover up your civil rights violation which who who was it who did who was it that decided to drop the charges what did you say it was the prosecutor the prosecutor after reviewing the after viewing the footage yes so so in Ohio the cops can just on their own begin the prosecution and get it to the point at which the prosecutor looked at it and decided to dismiss the charges correct in West Virginia anyways and I'm pretty sure across the country they they will push these case and just to prosecute somebody so that the cops don't get in trouble and it's good that they didn't in that case but I just my last video I did here in West Virginia the prosecutors were pushing a case that was BS just to defend the state police and and thankfully a judge in that case dismissed it but prosecutors do it with impunity and they know that they can't be sued for it but if they could they I guarantee they wouldn't I I absolutely agree with you the absolute immunity that they are afforded I think is problematic and I don't know if you know this that absolute immunity that they're extended extends to like administrative agency and administrative agency enforcement action like like you're and I see a lot of potential cases in that area I had a guy call me yesterday where it was an administrative agency case um with systemic sort of targeting uh in Kentucky of um minority asian-owned um you know effectively beauty salons where they've got this what appears to be a racist inspector going around Jenning up these Enforcement cases against minorities and I'm like and the guy calls me and he's like you know I want to sue him and I'm like well that's great except you got to resolve the underlying issues first because we've got a younger versus Harris problem which is you know you know that that's uh you know you can't go in the federal court effectively and challenge a state court conviction or a state court administrator proceeding you know criminally attack versus Humphrey but if it's an ongoing proceeding it creates a younger issue if it involves challenging it trying to hold it Etc and so you know it is I mean it's a thing that absolute immunity is a thing it is I mean it's pretty bad it's it's up there with qualified immunity in my view in terms of just actually it's worse to qualify immunity at least you could sometimes overcome qualified immunity by showing prior cases that were similar you could show flagrant unconstitutionality like it could be right on point and like you're right you can't hold them liable it's an absolute immunity all right man well I appreciate it I uh it's always fun you know and then we've got this other matter right that we're briefing so in the Northern District do we have court scheduled or are we just waiting for a written order so at that point we began discussing this other case that we're litigating together up in the Northern District of West Virginia so you don't want to hear about that right now but there you have it those are the facts of the case of a viral video that you may already have seen this is that that video that case coming to fruition into a federal civil rights lawsuit via civil rights lawyer Chris Wiest who just told us all about it and the good thing about Chris is he'll come back again and tell us about it after he's taken the depositions of these police officers and perhaps video depositions that we can perhaps use again and remember it was Chris who took the video deposition of that police officer or officers I think they were Troopers in Kentucky where they got caught lying and one of them was charged with perjury I did a video or two on that now Chris's uh his lawsuit his complaint I'll go ahead and post it up at the blog you'll find the link in the description so you can see all of the allegations for yourself you can get the case number you can follow along on Pacer and certainly I'll be doing a follow-up video on this one we can see it from beginning to end so as always if you like going through these sorts of cases not just looking at the body cam footage but going over the law talking to the lawyers and seeing what happens in the end then subscribe both here and at the blog at thecivilrightslawyer.com remember freedom is scary deal with it I'll see you next time foreign