That is the title of the AVVO review from my client. The arrest was an absolute disgrace. The client was stopped for an inoperable headlight. When I got the video, I was so angry I was going to take it to the State’s Attorney’s Office to show them how absurd the arrest was as well as the client’s treatment. Instead I decided I would teach the officer a lesson. The prosecutor called me the day before to offer a guilty plea. I asked him what did she do wrong? He couldn’t answer it except to say he thought he had enough.
I had the judge watched the video before the officer testified so that the trial and cross-examination could proceed smoothly. The judge was clearly disturbed by what she was. The officer testified that the client swayed during the HGN. I said to him I have watched the video ten times and never saw a sway. He wound up testifying that his eyes are better than the video camera on his shoulder. I asked the judge if I could get him out to the witness chair to demonstrate. She was too through at that point and basically let me go after the lies. He had the audacity to “show” that she swayed all the way to the right and then all the way to the left. She didn’t move, much less go where she would have been out of the camera. He totally butchered the Walk and Turn. He then wanted to argue with me that even though he instructed her incorrectly and she did as he said, that it was still wrong. It was her fault that she did it the way it was instructed. The One Leg was perfect.
The judge found no probable cause to arrest and entered a Not Guilty. The officer came off the witness stand and shook my hand! When the bailiff, who is a retired police officer, came out to give us the paperwork, he agreed with me that without the video, the judge finds the client guilty. The bullshit police report and his testimony that could not have been impeached without the video would have been more than enough. It is outrageous that the officer had no clue what he was doing and pout this client through this trauma. Video is indispensable in these cases. Sometimes it kills you, but it frees truly innocent people.