Story
Man Sues Over Arrest for Taping Police Chief
Aspiring Filmmaker Spent Three Days in Wash. Jail
July 24, 2000
By Randy Dotinga
SEQUIM, Wash. (APBnews.com) -- Six months ago, an aspiring filmmaker videotaped his way into a three-day stint behind bars.
Now, Tony Johnson is creating some off-screen drama by suing the police chief of this small town for $5 million.
Johnson alleges that he was wrongly thrown in jail after he innocently videotaped police chief Byron Nelson during a visit to a Sequim skateboard park.
Nelson declined to talk to APBnews.com about the case, and his attorney did not return phone calls.
Ignored orders to stop taping
Attorney Stuart Phillips, who is representing 23-year-old Johnson, a film student at a local community college, said his client was videotaping some friends at the skateboard park on Jan. 28 when he saw the police chief pull up.
"He started filming the police chief and saw him looking over at the group [of skateboarders]," Phillips said. "The police were instrumental in getting the skate park built, so he thought that connection would make an interesting segment in a film he was trying to make."
The police chief ordered Johnson to stop filming and told him repeatedly that he could not record without permission, Phillips said. The chief "put him in an arm hold and a chokehold and knocked him to the ground," Phillips said. A friend of Johnson's grabbed the video camera and filmed part of the arrest.
The videotape of the incident shows Johnson spread-eagled over the hood of a vehicle as he was arrested.
Johnson spent three days in jail on charges of recording a private conversation. A judge then threw the case out, Phillips said.
No right of privacy, suit claims
The lawsuit, filed on June 16, contends that Johnson was wronged because police have no right to privacy when they are working.
"They violated his First Amendment rights," Phillips said. "He was actively engaged in making a film. He had a right to be in public and record things in public.
"Whenever the police are able to put themselves in the role of a censor on what you can record and put in a film, they're setting themselves up as a police state," the attorney said. "It's very dangerous when police start setting themselves up as arbiters of what can and cannot be recorded."
The case hinges on a Washington state law that prohibits the recording of private conversations without consent of both parties. Phillips said courts have declared that the law doesn't cover police activity in public.
Phillips is also representing a Bremerton, Wash., man who was arrested when he tried to tape-record a state patrol officer during a traffic stop in 1997. That case has yet to go to trial.
Randy Dotinga is an APBnews.com West Coast correspondent (randy.dotinga@apbnews.com).
Man Sues Over Arrest for Taping Police Chief
Aspiring Filmmaker Spent Three Days in Wash. Jail
July 24, 2000
By Randy Dotinga
SEQUIM, Wash. (APBnews.com) -- Six months ago, an aspiring filmmaker videotaped his way into a three-day stint behind bars.
Now, Tony Johnson is creating some off-screen drama by suing the police chief of this small town for $5 million.
Johnson alleges that he was wrongly thrown in jail after he innocently videotaped police chief Byron Nelson during a visit to a Sequim skateboard park.
Nelson declined to talk to APBnews.com about the case, and his attorney did not return phone calls.
Ignored orders to stop taping
Attorney Stuart Phillips, who is representing 23-year-old Johnson, a film student at a local community college, said his client was videotaping some friends at the skateboard park on Jan. 28 when he saw the police chief pull up.
"He started filming the police chief and saw him looking over at the group [of skateboarders]," Phillips said. "The police were instrumental in getting the skate park built, so he thought that connection would make an interesting segment in a film he was trying to make."
The police chief ordered Johnson to stop filming and told him repeatedly that he could not record without permission, Phillips said. The chief "put him in an arm hold and a chokehold and knocked him to the ground," Phillips said. A friend of Johnson's grabbed the video camera and filmed part of the arrest.
The videotape of the incident shows Johnson spread-eagled over the hood of a vehicle as he was arrested.
Johnson spent three days in jail on charges of recording a private conversation. A judge then threw the case out, Phillips said.
No right of privacy, suit claims
The lawsuit, filed on June 16, contends that Johnson was wronged because police have no right to privacy when they are working.
"They violated his First Amendment rights," Phillips said. "He was actively engaged in making a film. He had a right to be in public and record things in public.
"Whenever the police are able to put themselves in the role of a censor on what you can record and put in a film, they're setting themselves up as a police state," the attorney said. "It's very dangerous when police start setting themselves up as arbiters of what can and cannot be recorded."
The case hinges on a Washington state law that prohibits the recording of private conversations without consent of both parties. Phillips said courts have declared that the law doesn't cover police activity in public.
Phillips is also representing a Bremerton, Wash., man who was arrested when he tried to tape-record a state patrol officer during a traffic stop in 1997. That case has yet to go to trial.
Randy Dotinga is an APBnews.com West Coast correspondent (randy.dotinga@apbnews.com).
