Hell, they'll lie to get a lousy traffic conviction, so why not?
guys- here are the facts of life:
AMOC told the local CBP to go search this guy. No facts at all - just the 'suspicious flight plan' to the Bahamas. No matter WHAT the CFIs they will claim that they received consent from him. Absent video - its a he said / he said and we all know how that works out with cops.
This is why recording needs to happen -
Had a situation where a person was cited for an 'illegal' 'U' turn. No such beast in California = you can make an 'unsafe' u-turn but even with a posted no U-turn sign you can still make one if it is safe.
Had a client, and picture this - made a u-turn in front of a no-u-turn sign at 530a in a suburb 0 not another vehicle within 3 miles - except for the cop sitting at the side of the road behind a fence - he could NOT see one way down the intersecting street.
He could obtain a conviction by testifying that there were cars coming up the street in front of the u-turn that were required to brake to avoid collission. so thats what he testified to - clearly a blatant lie over a $125 ticket.
He did not know that I had obtained his video from that entire morning.
I rolled it back to the stop. And played it for him. My client appears, passes him - and then he pulls out - the camera shows the street - his u-turn to get my client and then the stop - no a single car passed in front of his camera the entire time
or was even visible down the entire street during the entire period of the recording.
I asked him if he wanted to amend his testimony about other vehicles - and the idiot said no. the Judge asked him - are you sure officer? He said no, very angrily. The judge then found my client not guilty, asked that prosecutor be brought into court, and asked that perjury charges be filed against the officer, who was cuffed by fellow members of his department and hauled off.
Never knew what happened -
In this - I would file a civil rights complaint just so you can obtain the information they based the stop on . . . if it is relevant to their defense- then you get it - end of story. They'll bytch, whine, moan, complain, threaten, cajole, etc etc etc but sooner or later a judge will order them to turn it over - and - considering there are no criminal charges to drop to make you go away - and you are suing them - its a beautiful situation to put some sunshine up their rears. . . the moment they have run out of appeals - and have to disclose their non-evidence and lack of probable cause, you will get a check. A nice fat one.