A Minnesota man was video recording an incident outside his apartment complex when a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy walked up to him and snatched his camera, informing him that she didn’t want to end up on Youtube.
The man, whose first name is Andrew, was using another device to record the interaction, so he was able to capture deputy Jackie Muellner’s words when she acted illegally.
“We’ll just take this for evidence, and you can talk to an investigator,” she said before asking for his name.
When he points out that he had every right to video the incident, which involved two deputies placing a handcuffed man into the back of an ambulance, she said, “If I end up on Youtube, I’m going to be upset.”
Because the video she confiscated has not been released, I took the liberty of posting her Facebook profile photo so we can all see how she looks like.
Adding insult to injury, Andrew was eventually charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing legal process, which is ironic, considering those are the exact charges Muellner should be facing along with theft charges.
It is not clear from the video when he was slapped with those charges because he recorded himself the following day entering the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve his camera and a deputy, who also states he is a photographer, acknowledged that he had every right to record in public.
But that tone changed when he recorded himself two weeks later going into the same department after he had already been charged.
This time, they informed him that he had broken the law by recording a citizen who was having a mental breakdown, which we all know is bullshit.
The video ends with an Investigator Eggers telling Andrew that perhaps the prosecutor will have sympathy on him and “agree to dismiss charged after like one year or something like that. Something that would be a reasonable agreement amongst all parties involved.”
The incident took place October 30, 2012. The video was uploaded today. His court date was not mentioned but he vowed to plead innocent.
I sent him a message through Youtube for further comment, so I will update this if he gets back to me.
