welcome back to the civil rights lawyer Channel several people have asked for my
reaction to this body cam footage from Florida that was originally posted by Body cam watch
I will post the video link in the description sometimes it's interesting to go through some
of these videos and see if the majority of the people commenting are right or are they wrong
legally there is an interesting legal issue that pops up here involving law enforcement
at somebody's home what they can do and what they can't do let's go through it [Music]
what's going on so here as is often the case in police interactions there is an underlying custody
dispute between a man and a woman and that's what happened here this woman was apparently repeatedly
calling 9-1-1 and alleging that her 15 year old son had been kidnapped by the father foreign
it's okay but I don't
I don't know I am for a reason
what is your name hold on
apparently this woman is upset about a perceived lack of response by law enforcement to her
complaints she does appear to be the resident at this house the cops are standing within the
cartilage of the home she comes outside and the description in the video and in some of
the comments say that she's being immediately aggressive towards law enforcement I don't know
if I would agree with that she does appear to be upset she appears to be distraught but you
can see she goes back into her house the cops are standing on within the cartilage of her
home there's no allegation that I've seen so far that she may have committed any crime she just is
a potential victim there could be some concern that she may be in some distress let's continue
give me another eye to open up so you can see yeah I'm just wearing some special stuff no I
need some more because I'm hurt I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and guess what sort of
surgery it was that this woman had as you can see the the cops potentially are worried like
what is is this woman on something and they they sort of ask questions I think at this
point this is still a consensual encounter between the homeowner and law enforcement
let's see where it goes oh and by the way a consensual encounter means that it is a
an encounter that's taking place with the consent of both parties so therefore the Constitution the
fourth amendment has not been implicated yet not until somebody is being forcibly detained
okay
here we go I'll call the place I don't want you I think this is
yeah push a little button I talked to you two days ago I told you everything but I need help
no ma'am you did not help me with it if you want to tell me what you need help with oh no come on
turn over again you're not gonna run back in the house and slam the door and over and over
again your dogs are already outside okay now everything has changed as of the moment when
that police officer reached out and grabbed the woman physically stopped her from going back
inside her home the circumstances have changed now the U.S Constitution has been implicated the
fourth amendment has been implicated at this point this woman is no longer free to go back
inside her home she is being forcibly detained by law enforcement here is the most important thing
is where is this occurring if this is occurring in the Kroger parking lot or inside Walmart that
is a completely different legal analysis than if it's occurring where it's actually occurring
here let's proceed just a little bit more with the footage and then I'll explain that
clearly going through some sort of distress here yeah oh yeah I just
had a [ __ ] surgery I'm not seeing my son in the [ __ ] month why haven't you seen
your child a deal is my [ __ ] attorney has nothing to do with that business
I can't you're not invited I already have anything no it's not funny the last time I got here was
April ma'am it's okay that's fine I don't know I just need to like I'm not what medications do you
take I don't you don't deal with the mice son have you ever taken medication I have not seen my son
in a month okay have you been drinking today no not at all at all getting working I'm dealing with
[ __ ] work until my [ __ ] son and my son's dad I will not even give him a [ __ ] phone he came back
to his house so I can call him how old is your son he's 15. okay her and cops always complaining
that they don't want to be social workers you know the first thing that pops in my head here
um is you know once this woman's being detained what is necessary for law enforcement to justify
that detention well there has to be reasonable suspicion that some crime has been committed
and that this individual may have been the person who committed that crime so here
if you stop back and think about it like wait a minute why are they there what crime may have
potentially been committed I think at this point it's clear this one there's something wrong with
her okay she hasn't seen her son in what she said a month and it was a kidnapping call so clearly
this this is a family court issue that is very traumatic to her she's very distraught possibly
on something but there's no like crime in in progress here there was no actual kidnapping
so why are all these cops standing around talking with this woman and just dealing with this drama
they don't want to be social workers right so what actually is going on here so there could
be now a concern that this is somebody who's having some sort of Health episode and and
may need help but at the same time they're not the social workers right so this woman called
police reported was potentially a non-crime now they're standing on her property she clearly
is not happy with them why not just leave like why are you there I know you're asking
it's okay I'm trying I'm just trying to understand what's going on that's fine okay who kidnapped
your son my ex-husband his name is Clay Butler clay c-l-a-y-b-u-t-l-e-r okay where is he now
in Orlando okay and why are you saying that he's been kidnapped do you guys have like a
court agreement or oh a minute ago you were saying that you were dealing with the court
processes is that like he has a question are you asking me questions or is he now because what for
one second I want to stop and now I'm gonna get a recording hold on do not oh no don't push me
that hard to [ __ ] touch me like this again you touched me hard I want a phone for a question or
not no keep putting your hands in my face I'm not going to I want to get my phone no I'm not
he's hurt right now who's hurting you he just did over here you'll notice that the female officer is
now standing in the woman's doorway blocking her from re-entering her house again a second time
a second police officer placed his hands on her pretty aggressively and what's happening that's
escalating the situation at some point police officers really should stop and think like what
legal basis what legal justification do I have for this interaction that's happening right now
because I'm on This Woman's property I'm within the cartilage of her property which according to
the U.S Supreme Court is pretty much the same as being inside her house and she's being sort of
hostile towards me like she doesn't want me there what right do I have to put my hands on her to
stop her from going back inside her home do I have an arrest warrant no do I have a search warrant no
do I have probable cause to arrest her well even if I do what's the problem well I'm basically
inside her house I'm in her doorway what do you police officers need to arrest somebody inside
their home they need an arrest warrant do they have an arrest warrant no so even if they observe
somebody inside their home committing a crime and they have probable cause that's not the same thing
as being in the Kroger parking lot the the uh the entire legal justification changes let's continue
do you want to help to understand yeah I want four more cops out here right now because
neither one of you are doing this and don't ever touch me you're too close if I can touch
you that means you're too close so you're not welcome do you do you need help with your son
or not so she said you're not welcome you can go she's asking this police officer to
leave the curlage of her residence the police officer is not doing that now what is necessary
legally speaking to justify this I think at this point if this officer has a concern that
this woman is suffering some sort of Health Emergency that could do it this is you know
you have just two basic exceptions to the warrant requirement one is consent which clearly if given
at some point has now been revoked she's asked her to leave what's the other exception that
is exigent circumstances so there's a bunch of case law on what exigent circumstances are and
what they are not so here that is the legal issue that I would say is does she have does it appear
to this police officer there's there's some sort of emergency occurring that is this woman
is requiring help but her words don't really corroborate that or support that because what
does she say she says do you want help with your original call with with your 15 year old or not no
no I will call because okay well if you call there is Carl's coming out
okay then do your map if you call it's us coming out
you ready then do your [ __ ] job touch me again touch me again stop please stop
touching me I just got a [ __ ] surgery and you're [ __ ] touching me when I [ __ ] kill
again you're touching me yourself
I have a question for you can I have all my [ __ ] back it's like I will never hurt in somebody's
just please let me go so I can talk to somebody yeah I think that you need to talk to somebody too
oh he's somebody I don't [ __ ] lie about [ __ ] Nicole are you okay
so apparently there was a struggle as they tried to put her into the back
of the police car and she kicked the female cop right in the face
sure yeah I'm not waiting right no I don't think so
I'm good okay I just
now you just got a felony for kicking her in the face you did I watched you do it okay so she
apparently afterwards was charged with a felony count of battery on an officer the information
from body cam watch in the description says that she and eventually pled no contest I don't know
if that was to that or to a lesser included I mean that would be pretty bad to plead to felony
battery on an officer when there are there are lesser options that most defense lawyers would
be able to get especially in light of the fact that there does appear to me to be a legitimate
suppression issue here and that's the fact that the police officers were within the cartilage
of her home when all this occurred and she had asked at least one of the officers to leave if
not arguably all of them if you look at a lot of the comments on the video the they almost
all are supportive of the officers and very critical obviously of this woman and that's
sort of what you deal with with civil rights issues is you have the the common sense take
that a lot of these people have such as I can't imagine why she doesn't have custody of her kid
or she's definitely proving the point of why the son should stay with his father or she's
a real peach mad respect for the officer who took a kick to the face without losing her temper but
then you also have the the legal analysis side of things is that well still we have
the government making a warrantless arrest of somebody right at their front door and
so have they met the the Constitutional burden to be able to do that lawfully because just
because you don't like this woman because of the way she's acting that shouldn't play into
it because if you deny constitutional rights to her they're not going to be around for you
freedom is scary that's why you have to allow freedom for people that you dislike or people that
you think are [ __ ] you know when [ __ ] Collide that is not a constitutional analysis that being
said she gave them enough gray area to convict herself here because yeah she she was illegally
detained in my opinion but then she came out and sort of started a second incident where she's sort
of charging at this officer so I can see why it did end in a conviction but the the end point
here is two things one is the police officers if they don't want to be social workers then don't be
social workers you got just because you got cold doesn't mean you have to hang around with this
woman all right there's no crime being committed leave secondly it's very important to remember the
distinction of are you in a Kroger parking lot or are you on somebody's front doorstep and if you're
on somebody's front front doorstep remember a warrant is required just because you have probable
cause that doesn't mean you can arrest somebody inside their house unless you have exigent
circumstances and that may have been the case here given the way the woman was acting that's my take
on it anyways thanks for watching if you enjoy looking at these sorts of interactions between
the government and the peasants and analyzing the Constitutional law involved then subscribe
both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com remember freedom is scary deal with it
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