Corrupt Officers Cost The City $41,000

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]On March 31st, Officer Romero of the Pueeblo Police Department in Colorado made contact with Shaun O'Connell, a First Amendment auditor who was standing on a public sidewalk and photographing the exterior of the police department.

[00:00:13]Within seconds of that contact, Romero placed Okonnell in handcuffs. The interaction that followed was captured on officer body camera.

[00:00:25]Are you working?

[00:00:28]>> Hey there. How are you?

[00:00:35]Excuse me, sir. What are you doing? Hey.

[00:00:38]Hey.

[00:00:44]I'm asking you a question. Who are you?

[00:00:46]Why are you taking pictures of the department?

[00:00:49]Sir, >> don't touch me.

[00:00:55]>> Okay, I'm gonna put you in cuffs. Okay, >> you're going to be put in cuffs.

[00:00:58]>> Supervisor.

[00:00:59]>> Okay, supervisor's on his way.

[00:01:01]>> Okay, I'm asking you questions here.

[00:01:03]>> You guys, I'm being arrested right now.

[00:01:05]Being put in cuffs for uh taking pictures of the police department.

[00:01:10]Don't turn my phone off.

[00:01:11]>> Okay. You are not in control here.

[00:01:13]>> I am actually. You work for me. I don't work for you.

[00:01:15]>> 46. I got one in custody over here. I need a supervisor. Lose your job, buddy.

[00:01:19]It's illegal detainment. Can you please call a supervisor out here? This is an illegal detainment under 163103.

[00:01:26]Okay.

[00:01:27]>> Hang out here.

[00:01:28]>> You don't have permission to search me.

[00:01:29]I don't consent to any search and procedures.

[00:01:32]>> Okay. I went for a supervisor to come up here.

[00:01:34]>> Okay, that's fine.

[00:01:34]>> Okay.

[00:01:35]>> What's your name and badge number?

[00:01:36]>> Romero 0702.

[00:01:38]>> Okay, sounds good.

[00:01:39]>> Did you stop my video camera over there?

[00:01:41]>> Your computer. I'm not messing with your phone. Okay.

[00:01:43]>> Can you uh tell this officer to take his hands off me and to uncuff me?

[00:01:46]>> No, I don't want to tell him anything.

[00:01:48]Okay.

[00:01:48]>> Yeah. Wait till supervisor gets here and you can talk to him from there. Okay.

[00:01:51]>> All right. I'm done talking to you guys then.

[00:01:52]>> Okay.

[00:01:53]>> So, what's up?

[00:01:54]>> Just taking picture of the department.

[00:01:56]Taking pictures of all our stuff here.

[00:01:58]So, I don't know what he's doing. Try to talk to him. He's not talking to me. He starts walking away.

[00:02:01]>> Is that a reason they're cuffed me?

[00:02:02]>> Yeah. You're being detained right now.

[00:02:04]For what? For what kind?

[00:02:05]>> It's reasonable suspicion.

[00:02:07]>> What crime? You have to have reasonable suspicion of a crime to detain somebody.

[00:02:10]>> I am not going to speak to you. You can speak to my supervisor when he gets here.

[00:02:12]>> You have me in cuss right now.

[00:02:13]>> Okay. Yeah. You're being detained at the moment. Yeah. because you're an >> What you just watched is not just an illegal detention. It is an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment and it was unconstitutional from the first second. Colorado falls under the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and within that circuit, the right to photograph and record in public spaces was already what courts call a clearly established constitutional right at the time of this encounter. That matters enormously. For a right to be clearly established, the law must be sufficiently settled that any reasonable officer would have known their conduct violated it. Romero did not need a legal briefing to understand that a man standing on a sidewalk with a camera, was committing no crime. Beyond the unlawful detention, by immediately applying handcuffs, a significant physical restraint, Romero did not simply stop Okonnell for questioning. He escalated straight to a level of force that the Fourth Amendment does not permit absent specific articulable facts of danger. Under Terry versus Ohio, decided by the Supreme Court in 1968, an investigatory stop requires reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed.

[00:03:28]There was none here. What Romero had was a camera, a sidewalk, and an assumption.

[00:03:33]And none of that is a crime.

[00:03:42]You're wearing your uh >> Yes, sir.

[00:03:45]>> Okay.

[00:04:00]>> I want to answer your questions.

[00:04:03]>> We're not asking you questions. What?

[00:04:06]You didn't ask me any questions? You asked me what I was doing. What I was doing? What I was doing? I chose not to answer you, which I have a right to do.

[00:04:11]Do I not?

[00:04:13]>> I do. Thank you.

[00:04:16]I hope this doesn't take long before entering into an arrest.

[00:04:25]Hey guys, I'm still live streaming. Call uh the PBLO Police Department. Let them know officers Romero and wearing boring something like that are both detaining me illegally outside the PBLO department.

[00:04:41]>> I don't know how street this is.

[00:04:45]>> Okonnell cited the exact statute Romero was violating and he was correct on every word. Colorado Revised Statute Section 16-3-103 authorizes a peace officer to stop a person only when the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. And Romero had nothing that met that threshold. But there is a second constitutional violation layered on top of the first, and it is important. When Romero escalated to handcuffs in direct response to Okonnell declining to answer questions, that is First Amendment retaliation. Courts have consistently held that when an officer takes an adverse action against a citizen, including physical restraint, specifically because that citizen exercised a constitutionally protected right, the officer has crossed into retaliation territory. The right to remain silent is protected by the Fifth Amendment. The right not to speak to police during a consensual encounter is protected by the first. Romero cuffed a man for doing both. Okonnell's response was exactly right. He stated the law, demanded a supervisor, and went silent.

[00:05:56]He did not argue. He did not escalate, and he gave Romero nothing to build on.

[00:06:01]That composure preserved every legal option Okonnell would later exercise.

[00:06:09]Heat. Heat.

[00:06:30]your bike.

[00:06:36]>> Is yours on?

[00:06:37]>> It's always on. It's always on.

[00:07:02]So, I'm loading I'm loading up.

[00:07:08]I'm loading up. This guy's on the corner. I thought he was taking a picture of the eagle on the department.

[00:07:12]He's like, "Oh, okay. No big deal." So, I start, you know, putting myself in my my patrol vehicle. So he he he walks past it and I was like, "Oh, he's leaving. Give me an answer." Can't talk right now. I'm busy.

[00:07:28]So he starts walking. So I'm I back up and then he's out next to this corner now taking pictures. What is he doing?

[00:07:34]So then he comes over. He starts taking pictures. Oh, looks like he's taking pictures of these signs. I don't know if he's taking pictures of these cars or what?

[00:07:39]>> He's part of an organization called the First Amendment Strike Team.

[00:07:41]>> Is he?

[00:07:42]>> Yes. So he's trying to see what we're going to do.

[00:07:44]>> Okay.

[00:07:44]>> He has every right to do that.

[00:07:45]>> Okay. And that's fine with that. I I don't I don't have >> uncuff him.

[00:07:53]>> Uncuff him. I did nothing wrong. I was not breaking the law. This officer just legally detained me under CRS 16 103.

[00:08:01]>> Right there, Romero's own words ended the legal debate. He thought Okonnell might be photographing cars or an eagle on the facade of the building. And that was it. That was the entirety of his justification. The Supreme Court in Terry versus Ohio was explicit.

[00:08:15]Reasonable suspicion must be supported by specific and articulable facts, not a hunch, not a feeling, not a guess about what someone might be pointing their camera at. A man looking at a vehicle or a decorative eagle on a public building is not committing a crime. It is not suspicious. It is not anything. What Romero described to that fellow officer was the definition of a hunch. And a hunch has never been and will never be sufficient legal justification for putting a person in handcuffs. The 10th Circuit has been equally clear that public photography standing alone cannot establish reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Romero did not meet the standard when he first approached.

[00:08:52]He did not develop it during the encounter and his own admission confirmed that no standard was ever met.

[00:08:58]>> I've seen your video, sir, and I know exactly what you're talking about.

[00:09:01]>> Uh, who am I?

[00:09:02]>> Um, first amendment strike team.

[00:09:04]>> Okay.

[00:09:04]>> I know exactly who you are.

[00:09:06]>> Exactly.

[00:09:06]>> So, you know, I'm not out here doing anything illegal. I do know nothing.

[00:09:10]>> I do. Um, >> I'd like to file a complaint against this officer probation rights.

[00:09:15]>> You can actually go into the department.

[00:09:16]>> Okay.

[00:09:17]>> File complaint if you'd like to.

[00:09:19]>> Um, should you um but uh I understand totally what you're doing.

[00:09:26]>> So, you being suspended uh administratively until uh the thing is cleared out.

[00:09:31]>> No, he just broke the law.

[00:09:32]>> I understand. So, an internal affairs investigation, uh, if you want to file a complaint will be conducted and depending on the findings of that, um, it'll be dealt with depending on what, uh, So, is there going to be any issue with me getting his body >> that you would have to go through our um, records division?

[00:09:50]>> Not sure how that works.

[00:09:51]>> Hey guys, call PBLO Police Department and complain about Officer Romero, manage number 070.

[00:09:58]he just detained me. Uh and said that he was detaining me because I chose not to answer his questions.

[00:10:04]>> Um I'm not really sure on how that works.

[00:10:10]I believe that there's a charge. Here's Sergeant Reyes. He's the supervisor on the watch commander. Um and he might know. I'm not sure how that works. I can make a phone call and find out. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[00:10:25]>> Thank you.

[00:10:27]>> You're good. I'm going to go home.

[00:10:28]>> Yeah, you can go home.

[00:10:41]>> Guess Captain Martin needs to speak to you. So, I don't know if they even need me here anymore. So, >> is there a charge?

[00:10:56]Okay. Do you know what the charge is?

[00:10:59]>> Okay, I'll find out.

[00:11:04]>> Okay.

[00:11:06]>> Yeah, he's asking question.

[00:11:16]>> How are you, sir?

[00:11:18]>> Could be doing better. Do better.

[00:11:23]>> I actually like this officer charge.

[00:11:26]What plays 4K on your camera? What plays 4K?

[00:11:30]>> I know like TVs do, but how do you edit 4K?

[00:11:33]>> Uh, computers do also and all the uh software editing is all 4K compatible.

[00:11:40]So, even if your computer isn't Um, you call records real quick. There you have to submit a freedom of information act for the body cam video.

[00:12:04]There's a charge. I'm not sure what the charge is.

[00:12:06]>> Okay. Um, but I'm going to point out records can probably tell.

[00:12:11]>> Yeah. I'm going to call just so you know. Thank you, man. I appreciate all your help.

[00:12:17]What was your name, sir?

[00:12:18]>> I'm not.

[00:12:19]>> Okay.

[00:12:22]630 records are going to be a plane.

[00:12:29]>> They need me here. Or should I leave?

[00:12:31]>> Huh?

[00:12:32]>> Just hang up.

[00:12:41]>> Yeah.

[00:12:45]This is what a supervisor is supposed to do. The captain assessed the situation, recognized that no lawful basis for the detention existed, had Okonnell uncuffed, and directed him toward the formal complaint process. He did not minimize what happened or provide cover for Romero. Supervisors who correct violations on the spot without waiting for a lawsuit to force their hand are one of the most effective tools for limiting institutional liability. And this captain exercised that responsibility clearly. It does not undo what Romero did. But it matters. It preserved the department's ability to argue, however thinly, that internal correction mechanisms existed, and it gave Okonnell a documented pathway to the civil remedy he would later pursue.

[00:13:26]Officer Romero gets an F. He approached a man engaged in constitutionally protected activity, applied physical restraint without legal justification, ignored a specific statute cited to his face and then admitted to a fellow officer that his entire basis for the stop was nothing more than a vague curiosity about what Okonnell might be photographing. That is not reasonable suspicion. That is a hunch. And under Terry versus Ohio, a hunch has never been enough. More than that, by handcuffing Okonnell specifically in response to his silence and refusal to engage, Romero committed First Amendment retaliation, punishing a citizen for exercising rights that were clearly established under both federal and 10th Circuit law at the time. That last point is what made the lawsuit so damaging.

[00:14:11]When a right is clearly established, an officer cannot claim qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that generally shields officers from personal liability. Because qualified immunity only protects conduct in legally gray areas. This was not gray. Okonnell was on a public sidewalk with a camera and said nothing. The city of PBLO ultimately settled for $41,000 and that settlement was almost certainly a deliberate decision to avoid a trial where qualified immunity would have been denied and the evidence against Romero would have been heard in full. Beyond the money, the settlement required the PBLO Police Department to update its general orders and training materials regarding First Amendment protected activities. Meaning Romero's single unlawful stop produced a policy change that every officer in that department now trains under. One constitutional violation, one settlement, one rewritten rulebook. Shan Oonnell gets an A+. He was calm, precise, and legally prepared from the first second. He cited a specific Colorado statute being violated while the cuffs were still on his wrists. He exercised his fifth amendment right to silence without provocation or drama. He called for a supervisor the moment it was clear Romero would not self-correct. And when that supervisor arrived, he was cooperative and measured. Okonnell did not use this as a confrontation. He used it as documentation. The $41,000 settlement, the policy overhaul, and the lasting impact on how PBLO officers are trained regarding public recording are a direct result of how effectively he handled those first three minutes. The responding supervisor gets an A. He arrived, assessed quickly, removed the cuffs, and gave Okonnell a clear and professional path to a formal complaint.

[00:15:50]He corrected a constitutional violation on the spot without deflecting or minimizing. And in doing so, he fulfilled the most important function a supervisor has in a situation like this, stopping a bad stop from becoming a worse one. Let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below. Thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe to Legal Logic for police accountability analysis.