My employee Nicholas wrote down the details of the events that led to his arrest on 10/20, along with the confiscation of MY camera that he was using to videotape the events that were unfolding on MY property. This confiscation was captured in the video above.
"As an employee for Carol Mas and Esteban Agustinho at 24419 Lanark Road, Brooksville FL, I was asked by Carol Mas to take her camera to their property (at the time we were at Carol Mas's mother's house) and film her property.
I saw three sheriff vehicles parked outside the gate, one of the vehicles was running but nobody was inside. I started filming as soon as I hopped the dummy locked gate. I walked about 10 feet and passed a person wearing a white shirt and black pants. It looked like he was leaving so I didn't say anything to him. He walked passed me too without saying anything at first.
Then a couple of seconds later he shouted something and I turned around with the camera filming and asked him to repeat what he said. He then snatched the camera out of my hands and quickly turned it off and said something to the effect that the camera was evidence. He did not identify himself as a police officer. I told him if he takes that camera, it is considered stealing.
He demanded me to walk with him up the drive-way where I was confronted by at least 5 guys wearing the same white t-shirts and pants. I noticed the shirts said "Sheriff" on the back and saw a couple of badges hanging on the belts of some of the men's pants. The guy who took the camera out of my hands told the other guys "He was filming evidence for us" and they laughed. I was confronted by a man in a yellowish-tan shirt, his badge was sticking out but he didn't identify himself as a police officer. He said "Identify yourself." and told him (assuming he was an officer) "I didn't break the law or any statute and since I have not broken any laws or statues, I do not have to identify myself." He said "Where is your ID, do have ID on you?" I told him "I am not obliged to have ID at this point, I am a private individual." He said in a loud and threatening voice "Okay MR. Private Individual, how would you like to be arrested?" He then told one of the officers standing behind me to arrest me. I said, "You need my consent for that and I don't consent." He proceeded to handcuff me, I didn't resist. The arresting officer then proceeded to put me into a near-by police vehicle that was already on the private property. I asked "Are you going to read me my rights?" He said "At this point you have no rights." I asked "What am I being arrested for?" He said "For not identifying yourself." I proceeded to explain that there is no law or statue that states one must identify who they are if they didn't break the law, but he ignored me and slammed the door behind him.
After 3 hours of sitting in the vehicle, a new officer who I didn't see before, opened the car door and identified who he was as an officer and first name. We talked for a bit and he convinced me to give him my first name, middle name, last name, birthday, and birthplace.
About 30 minutes later he said he could identify who I was with the information he had and couldn't let me go with just a ticket like he said he could do.
About 15 minutes later I was driven to the jail by the arresting officer and his partner.
Once we arrived. The arresting officer told the lady at the counter that he had a problem identifying me. She asked me "What is your name?" and he said "He will not talk". I interrupt him and said "I will talk, my name is Nicholas Powell." She said the officer "Well what is the problem here?" He said, "I can't confirm that he is that person." I said "You can confirm it through my birthday which is 4/3/82 and I also have my finger prints in the system already so you can confirm me that way." Ignoring my statement, the arresting officer booked me as a John Doe and wrote an affidavit as such. I asked the lady "Do you see anything wrong with this?" She said "It's at the officers discretion. Maybe you pissed him off, you should be more cooperative next time."
When the arresting officer came back with the completed paperwork, he said "There is no bond with this one (pointing at me)." I asked the lady "Why no jail-bond?" She said "because you are being entered as John Doe and as a John Doe you can't have bail until we can identify you. You have to talk to the judge to identify yourself now because the arresting officer already filled the affidavit as John Doe."
AFTERWARD
Recently, I found the piece of paper that was given to him in court that day. What is perplexing, is that still they had his birth date wrong.
After Nicholas's hearing, I was finally able to pick up my camera. Funny how no one at the police station even questioned me about picking up evidence pertaining to another person's case...but my guess is that by that time, everyone in the County knew who I was.
I came across the evidence bag which had contained the video camera a few days ago, and the offense listed on the bag is "Resist w/out violence". Exactly what charge was Nicholas being arrested for that he was resisting?
