Miami reporter sues police for false arrest

January 26, 2008 @ 8:08PM

Miami reporter sues police for false arrest

By Carlos Miller -...

In an incident that was captured on video, Local 10 reporter Jeff Weinsier was arrested in October on charges that he was “trespassing on school property”.

However, the unedited video of the incident shows that at no point was Weinsier ever standing on school grounds.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office had no choice but to drop all charges against him two weeks later.

Even the fact that Weinsier was carrying a loaded pistol had no legal consequence against him because he had a concealed weapons permit, not to mention the fact that it was discovered after the false arrest.

Now Weinsier is suing the Miami-Dade School Police Department as well as the Miami-Dade School Board on claims of false arrest, infliction of emotional distress and malicious persecution, according to a Local 10 article.

Weinsier filed the suit as a private citizen. WPLG-TV, who owns Local 10, has nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, it has been almost a year since my arrest and my trial has yet to start.

During that time, the prosecutor in my case was fired, one of the arresting officers’ was killed and my attorney withdrew from representation under mutual agreement.

If I ever go to trial, I might represent myself despite the old proverb that says, “only a fool defends himself in court”.

But it also takes a fool to see that a lawyer did not coin that phrase.

Comments

Anonymous

4 years ago

Calm Bobby likes what you’re doing here. Check out the new site.

Anonymous

4 years ago

CB,

I like your blog already. You’re a good storyteller. But you make it difficult to leave a comment by restricting it to Blogger and Google clients.

I have a Google account, but it’s under a completely different name than I normally post under, so it would ruin everything for consistency purposes.

Anonymous

4 years ago

You need a lawyer.
Can you sue the police? That’s possible? Isn’t that similar to sending food back in a restaurant? You can do it, but what happens next is on you.

Anonymous

4 years ago

Carlos,
on another note:
I know you have written about your admiration for John Edwards. Have you heard the rumor that he has struck a deal with Obama? According to some beltway insiders the deal entails Edwards giving his delegates to Obama at the convention and Obama would later name him Attorney General. Many in the labor unions would love to see him in that position . . . should be very interesting.

Anonymous

4 years ago

FerfelaBat,

I am unable to sue the police until I get cleared of the criminal charges against me.

Ms Calabaza,

I had not heard that rumor, but he would make an excellent Attorney General. That’s even a better position for him than Vice President because it gives more power.

Anonymous

4 years ago

I too would like to sue officers for my arrest, but since it has been dropped. I have been unable to find an attorney, it would appear that if you were not raped or did not suffer major physical damage during the incident the attorney’s are not interested because false arrest is difficult to prove and not a money maker since a cap was put on it. What this has done is given a free rein to officers so that they can do what ever they want to your civil rights with little or nor fear of recourse. If you (or anyone) can find a good attorney for these matters, please give me his or her name. Thanks

Anonymous

4 years ago

Why lawyers are afraid of police?
Police and lawyers feed by the blood from the same victims.
Go ahead and defend yourself, just do it.
Let’s them to know that cowards lawyers are not going to impair people from taking legal action against unlawfull procedures made by police

Anonymous

3 years ago

I totally agree with cheryl snow. I too wish to sue for false arrest, but I simply cannot find an attorney. I have been looking for weeks… maybe this guy could give us a phone number of someone willing to help? And no i wasn’t beaten to a pulp, just falsely arrested..

Anonymous

2 years ago

There’s a busted link for the video – an extra “http://” at the beginning.

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2 years ago

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