And I could take you to jail today for your unsigned registration card. That's actually up to 6 months in jail. You think it's funny, sir? I'll take the ticket, sir. I know, but do you think this is funny? >> I'm I'm allowed to laugh. I can laugh all I want. Go and step out of the car. Am I being detained? Yes, sir, you are. Step out of the vehicle. Are you serious? Place your hands behind your back for me. >> serious? Yes, sir. Place your hands behind your back for Oh, man. You're serious, bro. You're arresting me for laughing. No. That was pretty stupid, wasn't it? Yes, sir. Flashing your lights at everybody to let them know that law enforcement was sitting there running radar. Is that what I did? Is that a crime? Yeah. It is? I didn't know that. >> Yeah. You got your license and registration pretty much. Why would you do that? You're flashing your high beams at people to In the daytime? Yeah. I didn't know that was a crime. It doesn't say daytime or nighttime. It just says that you can't do it, and you did it. What's that? My insurance, I got to look it up on the phone. I don't think I got the actual card yet, but let me see what insurance cuz I got the insurance. I switched from Allstate to Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't know that was a crime. I didn't know that was Yeah, you can't high beam people at any time in the daytime or nighttime. >> I didn't know that. I didn't know. I mean, I Yeah, nighttime I understand, but daytime I didn't know. I'm sure I could articulate some other kind of driving charge in there for doing that, too. That's I mean, that's pretty crappy. Yeah, I apologize to Just uh You can hang tight, listen to what he says, and All right, sir. There's your stuff back there. And I wrote you two citations today. First one being special restrictions on lamps. Uh which you can read that code, and it says no flashing lights shall be on a vehicle. And at that point time, you had flashing lights on your vehicle. It's unauthorized. Under the Constitution, it's a it's protected under the First Amendment. I'm going to look into it. >> That's in Tennessee. Yeah, I'm going to look into it. I'm going to see about West Virginia. Yeah. I have free speech, too. Yeah, it's not illegal to do that. To flash and warn, but it's illegal to high beam. Okay. And it is illegal to have flashing lights on your vehicle uh not being an emergency vehicle. Huh? I said, "I'll see." Okay. And I could take you to jail today for your unsigned registration card, but I just wrote you a citation for that. That's actually up to 6 months in jail. You think it's funny, sir? I'll take the ticket, sir. I know, but do you think this is funny? >> I'm I'm allowed to laugh. I can laugh all I want. Go and step out of the car. I didn't do anything. Sir, I'm asking you to step out of the Am I being detained? Yes, sir, you are. Step out of the vehicle. Are you serious? Place your hands behind your back for me. >> serious? Yes, sir. Place your hands behind your back for Oh, man. You're serious, bro. I'm not your brother. I believe me, you're not. Yeah, I'll never be your brother. I'll never be your brother. >> know. You'll never be my brother. Just be careful I don't want to be your brother. No. Just be careful with your hands. Don't jerk away from me. >> Just be careful. Don't jerk away from me, sir. Just be careful. Don't jerk away from me. My my wallet is in the car. Okay, I don't want you to jerk away from me right there. >> from the traffic. No, I was putting you in front of my car. Okay. Which is away from traffic. >> You're You're arresting me for laughing. No. I didn't do anything. I'm arresting you for unsigned registration. >> Okay. All right. That's fine. Okay? I should stay right there. Do you have any weapons in the vehicle? >> no weapons. No. I don't have any weapons in the car. I'm working now. Okay. Hang tight right in front of my vehicle for Hang tight right here in front of my vehicle for me. I guess I'll see you in court. All right. Ticket still stands there. Special restrictions on lamps. Unsigned registration card. I gave you till the 23rd of this month to contact the magistrate Phone number is on your copy there. Once you contact them, they can tell you how to take care of it. Okay. All righty, sir. Be safe. This man gets pulled over and put in handcuffs for basically laughing. This is one of the most clear-cut cases of contempt of cop ever caught on camera. And the legal fallout that followed may cost Deputy Ellison everything. On May 13th, 2022, William Inacone was driving down US Route 19 in Nicholas County, West Virginia. A stretch of road so notorious for speed traps that a federal judge later took judicial notice of it in his written opinion. William did what any decent driver would do. He flashed his headlights to warn oncoming traffic of the speed trap. But police officer Deputy J.D. Ellison turned his cruiser around and immediately pulled him over. He hit William with a bogus citation under a lamp equipment statute, a law that has nothing to do with flashing your high beams, and then threatened him with 6 months in jail over an unsigned registration card. When William laughed at the absurdity of it, Ellison snapped. He ordered him out of the car, frisked him, and put him in handcuffs on the side of the road. He only let him go after calling a prosecutor who apparently told him the arrest wouldn't hold up. What happened next was a legal roller coaster. William marched down to the magistrate court without a lawyer, and he was actually convicted of the flashing lights charge. That conviction was a serious problem. Under a legal rule called the Heck Doctrine, if stood, he could never sue for civil rights violation because the courts would treat the stop He quickly got an attorney named John Bryant, who also runs the YouTube channel The Civil Rights Lawyer. Now, as a team, they appealed, and a real judge took one look at it and threw the conviction out. The lamp statute was an equipment law, and it had nothing to do with William's behavior. And just like that, the conviction was gone. William then filed a federal civil rights lawsuit exactly 2 years after the incident. Ellison tried to get the case thrown out using qualified immunity, arguing it wasn't clearly established that flashing headlights or laughing at a cop were protected rights, but the judge wasn't buying it. US District Judge Thomas Johnson denied the motion to dismiss in March 2025, allowing the lawsuit to move forward. The court wrote that every reasonable officer already knows you cannot retaliate against protected speech. Qualified immunity is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. The Nicholas County Commission itself was dismissed, but Deputy Ellison is still personally on the hook. No settlement amount has been made public yet because this case hasn't gone to trial yet. But what we do know is that a federal judge has looked at this case and said, "Yes, this was likely retaliation, and yes, this needs to move forward." This is one bad cop that might end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal court. Subscribe if you want to see how this one ends. Please like and subscribe for more videos. >> [music]