Independent Journalist Sues Deputy Who Arrested Him For Filming Officers Responding To A Call

Maybe if enough cases pile into the federal court system, the Supreme Court might decide to actually establish a First Amendment right to record public officials as they engage in their public duties. Until then, we're stuck with a patchwork of precedent that recognizes this right only in certain parts of the nation.

Fortunately for the plaintiff, independent journalist Justin Pulliam, the Fifth Circuit established a right to record law enforcement officers back in 2017. Given the events being sued over occurred in 2021, the officers cannot hope to plausibly claim this right wasn't clearly" established.

Pulliam's lawsuit [PDF], filed with the assistance of the Institute for Justice, alleges a Fort Bend (Texas) Sheriff's deputy illegally arrested him for recording officers responding to a mental health call. But his history with the Fort Bend County Sheriff doesn't begin with the arrest in December 2021.

On July 12, 2021, Pulliam arrived at the scene of a reported submerged vehicle and began recording. Soon after his arrival, he and other press members were asked to leave the park and wait for law enforcement to address them later. The Sheriff and another FBCSO officer, Dalia Simons, then went after Pulliam, pushing him away from the scene while allowing other press members to inch closer to the site of the crash.

Pulliam complied. Despite his compliance, the Sheriff ordered him to be removed from the press gathering that was awaiting the Sheriff's Office press representative.

Nonetheless, as Justin approached, the Sheriff gestured toward him and appeared to be giving Hartfield instructions. The Sheriff appeared to say: [If he] don't do it, arrest him. Cause he's not part of the local media, so [he has to] go back."

Having unilaterally decided Pulliam wasn't part of the regular press, he sent deputies to move Pulliam away from the pending press conference. From his new vantage point - approximately 10 parking spaces away from the rest of the press - Pulliam was unable to hear or obtain a quality recording of the Sheriff's statements.

Because of this Pulliam began attending fewer Sheriff's Office press conference, reasonably fearing deputies would again force him to record from further away or prevent him from attending at all.

That led to the December 2021 incident where Pulliam was arrested for recording.

However, just before Christmas-on December 21, 2021-Justin saw an FBCSO vehicle (later discovered to be driven by FBCSO officer Ricky Rodriguez) pass at a high rate of speed. The vehicle ultimately began heading toward a remote area of Fort Bend County, and Justin knew that one of the only properties that direction was tied to a mentally ill man whose case Justin had followed for some time. Justin thus suspected that officers were heading to the property for a mental-health call on the man.

Justin had recorded previous FBCSO interactions with the mentally ill man and believed officers had a history of unnecessarily escalating their responses to him.

Pulliam began recording the officers from nearly 130 feet away, standing near the mentally ill man's mother, who had given him permission to film the incident. This overhead photo (from the lawsuit) shows how far away from the deputies Pullliam was:

That apparently wasn't far enough.

While Justin was filming the trailer, defendant FBCSO officer Taylor Rollins approached him from behind-the opposite direction from the house-and ordered him and the mental-health advocates near him to move across the street. Rollins did not appear to order the mentally ill man's mother to leave.

Pulliam began moving towards the area he had been directed to go. He exchanged a few words with the deputy about his concerns the officers would hurt the man. Shortly after that, things escalated.

In the middle of his conversation, Rollins stopped and ordered Justin to leave. Justin responded that he had a right to remain there as long as the other bystanders were there, too.

Rollins continued to insist that Justin leave and began counting down on his fingers while moving toward Justin. Justin continuously moved back, away from the trailer and away from Rollins, as Rollins approached.

Rollins then arrested Justin.

At the time of his arrest, Justin was approximately 170 feet away from the trailer.

The other bystanders were still standing where Justin had been filming when Rollins first approached him. FBCSO officers did not arrest the other bystanders based on their proximity to the scene. While the bystanders later moved locations, to the front of the gas station's main building on the property, officers did not force them to move across the street until approximately an hour or more later.

After his arrest, Deputy Rollins seized all of Pulliam's recording equipment and his iPhone. Some of this property has been returned. The notable exception are the memory cards from Pulliam's cameras and iPhone, which contain recordings of the mental health call along with his interactions with (and arrest by) Deputy Rollins.

Pulliam was booked, strip-searched, and obliquely threatened by deputies.

After Justin arrived at the jail, Rodriguez and another unidentified officer discussed Justin's arrest in front of him. The unidentified officer, upon learning that Justin was an investigative journalist, replied in substance that Rodriguez should teach [Justin] for fucking with us."

Pulliam refused to speak to the Sheriff without a lawyer present. He spent several hours in jail before he was bailed out.

More bullshit followed. He was booked on one count of Interference with Public Duties, a Class B misdemeanor. Despite it only being a misdemeanor, prosecutors insisted on presenting this charge to a grand jury to secure an indictment. The indictment alleged Pulliam interfered" with Deputy Rollins' attempt to set up a perimeter" - something Pulliam somehow managed to do from 130-170 feet away from the scene and while the deputy allowed other bystanders to remain inside the so-called perimeter."

So, there's a whole bunch of obvious rights violations. Pulliam was engaged in protected First Amendment activity when he was arrested. The sheriff's office may claim he was somehow interfering" with the mental health call, but it's undeniable he was singled out specifically because he was filming the officers. That ties in with the retaliation claims, with Pulliam being singled out for filming and (possibly) because he expressed his opinion that he believed deputies would harm the man they were supposed to be helping. That others were allowed to remain inside the perimeter" established by the deputy brings with it selective enforcement claims under the 14th Amendment.

As was noted at the beginning of the post, the right to record is firmly established in this circuit. That alone should be enough to deny qualified immunity to the deputy. And once QI is denied, a settlement almost always follows. The deputy was on notice arresting someone for filming was unconstitutional, no matter how he chose to frame it after the fact. Hopefully, Pulliam is headed for a quick victory. And hopefully the Sheriff's office will soon be re-training officers on established rights.