cops confiscate guys phone & accidentally record themselves debating the best way to frame him

cops confiscate guys phone & accidentally record themselves debating the best way to frame him Journalist Michael Picard was illegally detained for lawfully carrying a firearm and filming police on public property. During the illegal detainment, Connecticut state troopers confiscated his phone However, the trooper who took the phone went on to make a critical mistake when he and another officer began to make up stories on ways to frame him even after they admitted to each other that he did nothing wrong from a legal standpoint.

UPDATE TO THIS CASE: A state police internal affairs investigator concluded there was "no evidence" to support Michael Picards claim that three troopers conspired to concoct charges against him during a contentious interaction at a DUI checkpoint.

Michael Picard, who supports the carrying of firearms and opposes random DUI checkpoints, was charged with two infractions while protesting at an I-84 ramp in West Hartford.

Police seized Picard's camcorder during the confrontation, which, unbeknownst to the troopers involved, captured them discussing whether to file charges. In the audio, one trooper is heard stating that the officers "gotta cover our ass," while another adds they could "claim that, um, in the back-up, we had multiple people stop to report" a man with a gun.

All of the troopers — now retired Trooper First Class John Barone, Sgt. John Jacobi and Master Sgt. Patrick Torneo — were exonerated, with the investigator accepting their explanations for their statements.

Trooper Barone told the investigator that he was trained to always create some sort of documentation — such as issuing an infraction — any time he puts his hands on someone, and "that 'cover your ass' is merely an expression which he has created over the years," according to the investigator's report.

Trooper Torneo, a 15-year member of state police, told the investigator he used the term "claim" only because another trooper, Jacobi, told him that none of the motorists who said they saw Picard with a gun had stopped to give a report. "Based on that information he advised Sergeant Jacobi that Trooper Barone would have to 'claim' that witnesses had reported to him the information. All three troopers said the video was edited by Picard, and did not accurately portray what happened that night.

Picard's lawyer, Joseph Sastre, declined to comment on details of the report Thursday, but said it wasn't based on a complaint by his client and would not affect a civil suit Picard has filed against the three troopers.

"The state police command initiated the internal 'investigation' themselves after the story broke. Picard's lawyer Joseph Sastre said "The fact that the state police concluded the investigation by exonerating themselves should be of a surprise to nobody. We never made a citizen's complaint. Because we never had any faith in them to conduct a legitimate internal affairs investigation."

I can absolutely see how he was inconvenienced and accosted but I can also see that the officers were attempting to stop a perceived threat that many scared or concerned people brought to their attention.

Legal issues are legal issues but on thoughts of perception of all sides the cops were in a pickle trying to appease the complainers and to diffuse the situation that brought the complaints. While it is bullshit all around - these are the problems that someone who doesn't conform to the majority face be it by way of police, tough guy vigilantes, or guidelines of social structures.