Deputy threatened to arrest 12-year-old daughter for “unlawful photography”
Update: I talked to Scott Conover this morning and he said they delayed his court appearance to Sept. 3rd, which sounds familiar because they kept doing the same thing in my case. (I was arrested last year for photographing cops against their wishes). In my case, I took it as a sign that they were hoping the delay would cause the media interest to die down.
By Carlos Miller
After arresting Scott Conover for “unlawful photography” in Mountain City, Tennessee last June, Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputy Starling McCloud threatened to arrest Conover’s 12-year-old daughter with the same charge after she snapped two photos of her father getting handcuffed.
As it turns out, she is a better photographer than her father because she actually managed to photograph the camera shy deputy.
The fact that she snapped the photos knowing it could get her arrested proves she is a chip off the old block. Her father, after all, is a rabble-rouser who has been a thorn in the side of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office since moving to Tennessee from Key Largo five years ago.
But what else can we expect from a man born and raised in Miami in a hospital down the street from where I grew up?
“They don’t like us Florida guys because we fight back when we get picked on,” Conover said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Conover, who was charged with unlawful photography, pointing a laser at an officer and disorderly conduct, will be in court Wednesday to answer to the charges.
It won’t be the first time he’s faced off against the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in court.
“A couple of years ago, we had problems with the sheriff, so we sued them and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum,” he said.
But the problems started even before that, after he witnessed deputies beating a man in front of the restaurant/bar he owns.
“They beat the shit out of him,” he said. “The guy’s lawyer came back and took witness statements. When the statements made it back to the sheriff’s department, they came by and asked me why I was getting involved.”
Not long after that, deputies started staking out his business, Jammers Rocking Road House, which he said is modeled after the Tiki Bar in Key Largo.
“They were wolf-packing my customers,” he said. “They would lie and wait for them to leave and then pull them over to see if they had been drinking.”
Conover struck back by suing them.
Since then, Conover purchased another bar called the Last Chance Saloon about ten miles from his other bar in Northeastern Tennessee.
On the night of his arrest, Conover and his family had left the Last Chance Saloon after picking up the nightly earnings and were on their way back to Jammers. His wife was sitting in the passenger’s seat. His son and daughter were in the back seat.
Up ahead were a group of customers who had just left the bar. A Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy, who was parked along side of the road, pulled over the car with the customers.
“The lady who was driving doesn’t drink,” he said. “Her husband, who does drink, was sitting in the passenger’s seat.”
Conover pulled up to the scene and stopped his Hummer in front of the traffic stop. He asked his son for his IPhone, then rolled the window down and said:
“Hey fellas, I’m just getting your picture.”
Then he snapped the photo. Deputy McCloud - who has been on the force only 18 months - told him that photographing him was illegal.
“I asked, ‘what planet are you from?’,” Conover said.
McCloud started threatening to arrest him if he did not delete the photo, which as it turned out, did not even capture the deputy.
Conover’s wife even asked her husband to just hand the deputy the IPhone, but he refused. The deputy kept threatening him with arrest if he didn’t delete the photo.
The deputy then ordered Conover out of his car.
“I threw the phone back to my daughter and told her to keep taking photos.”
By then, two Mountain City police officers had pulled up to the scene, including Kenneth Lane and Ben May, who is in the dark uniform in the above photos. McCloud placed two sets of handcuffs on Conover, who is six-feet tall and weighs 270 pounds, and apparently looked as if he could break out of a single pair of handcuffs.
Conover’s daughter snapped two photos before McCloud threatened her with arrest.
“He started trying to get in my Hummer and get to the back seat where my kids were. I told him, ‘You better not go back there or else we’re going to have some real problems’,” he said.
McCloud decided against arresting the daughter.
At the jail, Conover asked McCloud if had ever heard of the First Amendment.
“He then turned to me and said, ‘I’m charging you with disorderly conduct’.”
Thirty minutes later, after McCloud had left the jail - and had time to think of what other charges he could come up with - he called the jailer and added another charge against Conover; pointing a laser at an officer.
The problem is, the IPhone does not even emit a laser. A local TV station even aired a segment where they proved the phone did not emit a laser, Conover said.
And as I’ve mentioned on this site many times, disorderly conduct is a charge that police use when they can’t think of an actual crime committed.
And the unlawful photography charge? Anybody with any common sense can read the law and realize it should have been thrown out weeks ago.
The bottom line is, Starling tried to intimidate a citizen into deleting a photo without any legal backing whatsoever. But he chose the wrong citizen.
A Miami native.
Check out this excellent legal analysis of the arrest from a Tennessee blogger (with a law degree from Notre Dame who is certified to practice law in Colorado).
Check out the original site this story was published on and read how it crashed the server because so many people read it.
August 6th, 2008 at
Conover’s got guts and I’m glad he’s making that police dept look as bad as Georgie the illegitimate Pres of the humiliated USA.
August 6th, 2008 at
Way to go Conover. If we all stood up for our Constitutional rights and priviledges there would be a lot less corruption is this country. Don’t just lay down. Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights. I’ll be on the look out.
August 6th, 2008 at
If the deputy isn’t reprimanded and re-educated in his country’s laws, this is a sad day for freedom.
August 6th, 2008 at
LOL, what a bunch of hillbilly cops! Just imagine if they had to deal with some REAL criminals? LOL, they are probably scared of real criminals there in TN.
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
August 6th, 2008 at
and then Conover, leaving jail, having had his day in court, with a smile on his face proclaiming victory for the oppressed gets home to find his daughter has been missing for several hours and no one can find her. Wondering who he can turn to for help, for a fleeting moment, he thinks maybe he should call the police, but….
August 6th, 2008 at
What exactly are you suggesting, Time Traveller? That citizens shouldn’t object to blatant trampling of their rights because we all depend on police officers to secure our safety? What absolute bullocks, what utter authoritarian nonsense, what disgusting and anti-American garbage (I’m being polite). It is precisely BECAUSE we depend on police to “serve and protect” us that we MUST demand they respect our rights!
It would be different if this case was a “close call,” where perhaps the officer could be given the benefit of the doubt. But, in fact, there is no possible justification for these officers’ actions, and thus it is absolutely imperative that they be held to account. You seem to be suggesting, however, that by holding them to account, Conover is doing something wrong. How can you possibly justify that position?
Your attitude, if I’m understanding your comment right, is literally tantamount to authoritarianism (and I’m NOT some sort of 9/11 Truth / Ron Paul conspiracist or some police-hating nut; I loathe the fringe crazies). Without actually defending the police’s specific actions here (which are indefensible), you’re suggesting that Conover has sacrificed his right or ability to depend on the police’s protection by objecting to conduct that blatantly violated his rights. So basically, you are saying that police are above the law, because anyone who objects to their law-breaking should not then expect them to do their jobs. As I said: that is literally authoritarianism.
If I misunderstood you, and that’s not what you meant at all, I apologize.
August 6th, 2008 at
P.S. Re: my assertion that “there is no possible justification for these officers’ actions,” I refer to my most recent blog post about this issue:
August 6th, 2008 at
I think he’s implying that 1) the police kidnapped the daughter or that 2) Now that he’s ticked of the police (which he has already done) he can’t expect a lot of cooperation from them - and laws or not, human nature is that they will work less hard for him
August 6th, 2008 at
If that’s all he’s implying, as a matter of fact and without implying that it’s in any way okay, then I suppose it’s unobjectionable on its face — but if he’s suggesting that we, as citizens, should just passively accept the notion that “he can’t expect a lot of cooperation from them,” then I reject that concept utterly.
I guess it just seems to me that some people are way too quick to point out those sorts of “human nature” arguments, and way too slow to say, “oh, and by the way, ‘human nature’ or not, that’s f***ing wrong and should not be condoned or tolerated in a decent, just, law-abiding society.”
August 6th, 2008 at
P.S. To finish the thought: we can’t ignore or deny human nature. But to the extent that “human nature” sometimes runs contrary to the highest ideals of our society, like freedom and justice and civil rights, that’s all the more reason to stand up and fight back against actions that put “human nature” ahead of those ideals. After all, it’s human nature that “power corrupts,” yet we are supposed to demand that those in power not be corrupt.
Preventing the corruption of power requires constant vigilance against, not passive acceptance of, the worst excesses of “human nature.”
August 6th, 2008 at
These are not police. These are thugs. Real police follow the laws… Thugs don’t.
August 6th, 2008 at
Populism at it’s dead-level best! Keep it up. Break the stereotypes.
The Man provokes us to fight with each other and ignore who really has his foot on our necks. Break the barriers.
Good for you. I can’t recommend your work enough!
Keep up the good fight and ORGANIZE.
August 6th, 2008 at
The onus lies upon the Sheriff [in ancient law terms—the keeper of the community] of that community to discipline this deputy. It is my opinion, a deputy being a sworn “representative of the court” who acts outside the law (a.k.a. an outlaw) should be removed from duty.Furthermore, if the Sheriff doesn’t act in the interests of the law and protecting his community and its citizen’s constitutional rights; then the public officials overseeing the sheriff need to act, swiftly, rigorously, and justly.
Time for a new sheriff in this county .Does this county have county commissioners ?!
August 6th, 2008 at
This is in reply to the : ” Time Traveller”
I don’t where you are coming from with this kind of a comment in reference to the daughter missing , but obviously you know a little too much about them and your IP address wouldn’t be hard to find out immediately .
August 7th, 2008 at
Lets face it. The police aren’t here to “Protect and Serve” only to harass and annoy, look it up in your legal statutes of your state; I know in my state no government entity or person acting in such a capacity has any liabilty for failure to enfore any law. They have to legitimize their budget somehow, so threatening 12 year old girls and making up charges probably happens more than anyone actually knows. Just recently, my cousin got shook down for $300 by an officer while trying to change his flat tire outside the front of a gated community, the officer threatened to arrest him if he didn’t pay up. If thats not a clear case of police abuse, I don’t know what is.
August 7th, 2008 at
This article while interesting and worth thinking about cannot be accepted at face value. Maybe it’s all true and maybe someone has an axe to grind. How do I know? My point is simply this: Maybe there are other angles to this story. Just because it reinforces my prejudices doesn’t make it true.
Am I suggesting citizens be passive? NO
Am I suggesting citizens not be vigilant? NO
I’m not suggesting anything except maybe before I go poking my local policeman in the eye, I might want to consider
1) if there isn’t a better way to be vigilant.
2) what is it really going to accomplish.
It’s neither correct or productive to presume that the police are a bunch of power mad thugs out to harass the citizens. I agree there are bad cops. Most are not.
Maybe the deputy is young and stupid…he’s the product of the community he grew up in. If I’m living in that community, I’m going to take that into account. If I think he needs educating, it’s probably not going to be all that effective to point out what are I perceive to be his shortcomings while he is trying to do his job.
The fact that the policeman pulled over someone who had just left a pub ( I would suggest a reasonable activity for a policeman to engage in ) doesn’t automatically mean he is harrassing someone. Activities like Conovers may create or re-enforce the attitude in the young impressionable patrolman that the general public are his enemy, which tends to worsen the situation Conover seems to think he is correcting.
August 7th, 2008 at
Time Traveller,
This is what we can accept at face value. That Conover was arrested for “unlawful photography”.
He was arrested for refusing to delete an image. Even the cops state this in their report.
What the cops didn’t realize is that they have no right to order any citizen to delete a photo without a court order.
August 7th, 2008 at
What the hell happens when you get in to a real city where they have cameras mounted on their dashboards and the cop was to walk in front of his police car while stopping someone?
What should he do? Arrest himself? For unlawful photography?
August 7th, 2008 at
Why don’t the Sheriff dismiss the deputy immediately for trying to destroy the evidence that he arrested Conover for, as he stated in his report. Also, write up the other two officers that were involved, so it’s on their jacket forever!
Where is the law in this county?
August 7th, 2008 at
Until today I had not seen the pictures taken by Conover. Am I right in assuming all the accompanying photos were taken with the iPhone? If so, why does it look like they were lit with an on-camera flash? I don’t want to discredit Mr. Conover, but something is amiss.
Either the pictures were not taken with an iPhone and the statements by Conover are questionable, or some of the photos were taken with one camera and some were taken with an iPhone. (Or maybe there is an iPhone-mountable flash that was used, but I’m not aware of such a device. I’m using an iPhone to write this, so I am quite sure it doesn’t have a flash.)
To me the devil’s advocate, if a different camera was used, it’s possible that a focus-assist light may have fired before the pictures were taken, and it’s also possible that this light could have been misstaken for a laser.
August 7th, 2008 at
Phil,
I don’t own an IPhone but the light could very be from the interior of the car as well as the police headlights and spotlight they tend to use on their cars.
August 8th, 2008 at
I live in TN, and I certainly do not hope all cops act like the assholes that live here. - They all seem to have been the kids that everyone picked on in school, so they grow up to be a cop to bully people like they were.
I’m 19, and I’m constantly being harassed by cops or know of many stories of my friends being harassed by cops. Though, we never get charged, they seem to enjoy the power they have.
It sickens me that some Americans are so completely OK with the government lying, cops not having to follow the laws, and our lives being pretty much ruled by someone else.
- We are NOT a free country ~ Why are there 2000 + kids under 18 serving life sentences in America, while their are 12 kids under 18 serving life sentences in the rest of the world? - The government is trying to rule us by fear and harsh rules they themselves do not follow. We have less then 5% of the worlds population, yet about 25% of the worlds prisoners. - That DOES NOT MEAN We have more criminals or our justice system is better. It means we act much harsher punishments on lesser crimes and give felons next to no opportunities to have a normal life again once they get out.
- I am not a felon. - None of my friends or family are - But I think it’s sick how a person can judge another person. - Just the title judge is so annoying, no one has the right to judge anyone. Some people don’t need to be in public, crazy killing machine type people. But if someone smokes pot (I do no smoke pot, have tried it, never liked it) and can go to jail, I find that so incredibly stupid. But so many cops/judges/DA’s/government people have smoked pot. I honestly cannot wait to see how they plan to justice condemning people in front of God.
August 8th, 2008 at
Carlos,
The light in those photos is NOT from the car’s interior lights or from the police headlights or police flashlights. Take a close look at the shadows thrown on the subjects. In each image the shadows exactly duplicate shadows thrown from an on-camera flash, specifically one mounted above and to the [shooter's] right of the lens. As a professional photographer, I would think you would be able to recognize the effects of on-camera flash.
In the first photo a speck of floating dust (above the black-uniformed officer’s head) has been illuminated by the flash, and it also appears he’s showing some signs of red-eye, although it’s hard to tell at this resolution.
In the second photo we can see more shadows and tell-tale signs of camera flash. Look at the bezel around the rear-view mirror. You’ll see the flash reflecting off the right edge of the glass and again we can see shadows cast onto the officer by the mirror housing.
I don’t want to sound like I’m sticking up for the police — I’m totally against this kind of ridiculous abuse of power — but Mr. Conover had better get his story straight because the prosecutor is going to point out these same facts to disprove anything Conover says in court.
August 8th, 2008 at
unlawful photography? maybe thats a law in china… you know where they destroy people’s cameras, detain and tourture them for taking pictures they dont like. it looks like thats where we are headed, atleast in this part of tn. but hey thats what you get for electing officials who let meatheads like mccloud have a badge and a gun.
August 8th, 2008 at
I’ll use the same line that that those in authority use on all of us “no account civilians”…”If you aren’t doing anything wrong…then you have nothing to be afraid of.” So smile and say cheese (or maybe…oink) cops…or are you hiding something? I think you are and you have no desire to be scrutinized as you scrutinize the rest of us. This all just reaffirms my belief that 90% of cops are really nothing more than school bullies who have found a legal way to continue their ways…with the government’s blessing and a blind eye.
Yeah yeah yeah…I know…”just wait until YOU need a cop blah blah blah.” Odds are, I’ll NEVER call one…I like my dogs too much and my 30lb dog, MIMI, just might prove too much of a threat for them and end up getting shot because they “fear for their lives” as she uses her only self-defense system which is cowering and peeing copiously….Big brave cops : ) Oh yeah…I forgot…pet dog shooting…another fringe benefit of being a cop.
August 8th, 2008 at
So, a police officer illegally demands that an innocent person cease doing something the innocent person is completely entitled to do, and then assaults, kidnaps, and imprisons him for doing what the innocent person is still completely entitled to do.
18 USC 242 calls this “deputy” a felon, and since a kidnapping was committed, eligible for a sentence of death.
18 USC 241 says the same of any of his cop buddies who knowingly helped the first felon in the commission of his crime.
August 8th, 2008 at
Good point, Time Traveler, but if you read the whole story you see that Our Hero has a history of issues with the local police. He witnessed a beating, and was asked by the police whey he was getting involved. (don’t they want citizens involved?) They harassed his business and he sued, successfully. It’s obvious he’s know to these officers, so it’s probable that the cop knew who he was jailing. Conover kind of egged them on it with his statement, but the police still need to understand what the laws are. It’s obvious this one doesn’t.
August 8th, 2008 at
“It’s neither correct or productive to presume that the police are a bunch of power mad thugs out to harass the citizens. I agree there are bad cops. Most are not.”
Wrong. Most cops know who the bad cops are and keep their mouths shut about it. and worse, they back up the bad cops when they are pressed between exoneration of the innocent and telling the truth about their fellow cops. That leaves the bad cops free to do a lot of bad things and, in my book, that makes the cops who keep their mouths shut just as bad.
August 8th, 2008 at
“Most cops know who the bad cops are and keep their mouths shut about it”.
So more than half of all cops are corrupt John? > 51% ?!?! Really?
You could make the argument that more cops are corrupt in Miami than elsewhere and I would agree with you, but MOST cops EVERYWHERE?!?
People who make those kind of sweeping generalizations reveal themselves to have problems with authority. ALL authority - usually as a result of unresolved daddy issues (or lack of a daddy). John, have you had problems with your boss at work? How about you church pastor? Teachers in school? I bet you have.
Cops are people who are willing to go into places they don’t know, to defend people they don’t know, from unknown danger. There are easier jobs out there. How about this - why don’t we agree that SOME cops are bad and that when those bad cops do wrong it is the responsibility of the good ones to help.
August 8th, 2008 at
You should put up the email/phone of the city’s police department, city coucil etc, so whoever wants to call/email to complain about this police atrocity can do so.
Thanks,
E.
August 10th, 2008 at
Here’s hoping the cop gets shot on duty, over and over and over again. So much so that he has no time for any real police work. He can deal with the photographers while real crooks rob and steal with impunity.
Do you have the cops home address so we can start sending him mail about this? Maybe some 20 pound postage due packages of cowmanure or buffalo chips?
What a moron. Maybe syphilitic dementia is kicking in early as there isn’t any rational explanation since “Photography” is not against the law in Tennessee.
August 10th, 2008 at
Mahonri,
As much as I dislike what this deputy did, I do not wish him to get shot over and over again.
August 10th, 2008 at
“McCloud placed two sets of handcuffs on Conover, who is six-feet tall and weighs 270 pounds, and apparently looked as if he could break out of a single pair of handcuffs.”
Actually, cops do this for big guys (like me…265 lbs., 6′) because we usually have wider shoulders and it makes it less uncomfortable for us. They use two sets linked. They’re still restrictive, but won’t pull any muscles.
But, everything else in the article I agree with.
September 27th, 2008 at
That is so not an iPhone taking those pictures. He better get his story straight.
October 26th, 2008 at
Carlos,
While this does sound like another abuse of police powers, and I think that the police are FAR too often getting away with violating our rights, I think the facts are not quite straight here.
Conover might be telling the truth about why he was taking the photo, but he is definitely lying about the gear he used. Take a quick look at the EXIF data from the photos, they were taken with a norcent DCS-760, the flash was fired in auto mode, with red-eye reduction mode enabled. This was NOT taken with an iPhone.
Unfortunately I have to ask, if he’s lying about the equipment used to shoot the photos, what other truths are being bent to make him sound like an “innocent victim” here?
I honestly believe that there are far too many cases of police abuse of power, especially in regards to the right to take photos and document illegal police activity and abuse of power, which is one of the only things we can do to bring this behavior to light.
Unfortunately we do not know what is really going on here as we are just having to trust his statements, which we know are not completely true now. How do we know if this was a legitimate attempt to document the police abusing their power? Perhaps it was a chance to “set them up” to win another out of court settlement against the PD for “harassing” his customers and trying to “harm” his business.
When someone with questionable motives is getting into lawsuits over photographing the police, it hurts everyone who is trying to do so. It gives the chance for precedents to be set to “protect” the police from people trying to set them up. People have tried to file false claims against PD’s and sue them for potentially huge damages in the past, what makes anyone think that people still aren’t doing that? Having photographic “evidence” of them committing whatever “offense” you are accusing them of can be pretty helpful in court….
All that said, people should be able to document their interactions with the police, just as the police should be documenting their actions with the people, this provides for the evidence of abuse from BOTH sides, with a lot less risk of either side having “lost” whatever they recorded when they don’t want it to be seen. The police should be able to their jobs without fear of being set up and sued, and the citizenry should be safe in the knowledge that the police AREN’T corrupt and are actually DOING their jobs. Maybe there will be some future where this is actually the case, if there is, I think photo and video documentation will play a very large part in exposing the criminals and corruption and weeding it out to get us to that eventuality.