A teen who was recorded in a viral video of police brutality has just been found guilty.
A judge ruled that the Petersburg teen, Devin Thomas, was in the wrong for recording the confrontation with police.
Watch the local report below…
The judge mandated that Thomas perform community service rather than doing time in jail, thereby suspending the year-and-a-half sentence he handed down.
The video which Thomas was supposedly “in the wrong” to record, quickly went viral right after his arrest. It showed a Petersburg police officer who confronted Thomas at the Petersburg East apartments. A snap shot of Thomas during the ordeal shows him clearly bloodied and bruised.
“I ain’t happy about it,” Thomas explained in court.
“I feel like I’m innocent.”
But the judge didn’t agree with him. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. It is unclear how these charges are relating to the act of recording the police, which the judge said Thomas was in the wrong for doing.
For Thomas’s part, he claims that he was assaulted and wants an apology.
Petersburg police said that they launched an investigation, and cleared themselves of any wrong-doing.
Another family also captured the arrest on video that they took from their front porch.
JaQuan Fisher recorded one of the cops saying, “Unless you want me to take your phone from you,” right before he did exactly that, and the video cut off.
Prosecutor Gray Collins refused to comment on the case.
(Article by More B.D.K. and Jackson Marciana; reporting and video via local WWBT NBC12)
he’s not actually charged with anything that’s really about filming the police, because there’s no such law in virginia. WTF is up with that?? i love how they just make shit up as they go along! but one problem here is in the headline of the article itself. it’s worded so it sounds like he was actually found guilty of filming the police and that’s not even the truth. if it’s not illegal, you can’t be found guilty. he was charged with disorderly and resisting. it’s not like there’s not enough real shit going on with the police that you need to mislead like this. that aside,it was fucked up for the judge to say in open court that he was in the wrong for filming if it’s not illegal! i’m sure it helps in scaring people so they won’t film. utter bullshit.
It’s a first amendment right to film police, his arrest and sentence was illegal.