Randy Salazar claims his First Amendment rights were violated while videotaping an arrest.
Salazar shared the videotape he made in the early-morning hours of Jan. 1.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, police were called to Halawa Housing after a report of a large fight. Officers said they were confronted by an intoxicated man.
"It was an acquaintance and actually the reason he started videotaping was because the suspect did not appear to be resisting arrest, or arguing with the police officers, yet they had tasers drawn," Salazar’s attorney Tracy Fukui said.
"My client was not arrested, or did not commit a criminal offense. And there was no warning or provocation," Fukui said.
Fukui says her client was hit with the butt of a taser gun
A complaint was filed with the police commission and HPD opened an internal affairs investigation.
Prosecutors declined the case saying, "It could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s action caused physical injury or that it was intended to harass the complainant as opposed to clearing a path out of the housing."
"It speaks volumes if the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office is not going to accept it because they felt that the officer acted within his abilities and his rights then it is what it is. So, credit to the Prosecutors Office and to the officer doing the best he could given the circumstances at that given time," SHOPO President Tenari Maafala said.
The officer being sued, Robert Steiner, has actually received the department’s highest honor. He was awarded the Warrior Gold Medal of Valor for his actions in the shootout along the H-2 Freeway back in 2001. A shootout that left him injured.
"Many times a lot of these cases, the camera does not catch the emotion and the adrenaline that builds up to that point," Maafala said.
With so many people owning cameras and smartphones, Fukui says anyone is allowed to film police arrests in a public area.
"The federal courts have confirmed that that right is covered, for not only the press, but individual citizens. And the reason for that is the Federal Courts have stressed the importance transparency and openness when it comes to police action," Fukui said.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
