HARTFORD — The ACLU of Connecticut appealed a ruling today in a First Amendment case concerning the right to record the government in public. Two Waterbury police employees arrested Keith Massimino for politely declining to identify himself while video-recording the outside of the Waterbury police station. Police and the state contend that the First Amendment right to record is unclear.
Mr. Massimino was arrested in October 2018 by Frank Laone and Matthew Benoit, after the two detained him and demanded identification because he was video-recording the exterior of the police station from a sidewalk. Mr. Massimino never left the sidewalk, the exterior of the police station was not shielded from view, and everyone driving by East Main Street could see the same thing that Mr. Massimino could through his camera lens.
In a video of interaction that was caught on Mr. Massimino’s camera, he can be seen politely declining to identify himself and asking the police what crime they thought he was committing. “Reasonable suspicion,” Officer Laone answered.
Mr. Massimino spent three years fighting the resulting criminal prosecution for interfering with police, a charge that was ultimately dismissed by the Connecticut Superior Court. He then sued Mr. Benoit and Mr. Laone, alleging that they violated his First Amendment right to memorialize what he saw with his eyes, and his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonably seizing him to demand identification. The federal trial court decided that Mr. Laone and Benoit have qualified immunity because the law wasn’t sufficiently settled when they arrested Mr. Massimino.
“We are appealing because we firmly believe that everyone has the right to record government buildings and employees that are visible from a public sidewalk,” said Dan Barrett, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. “Our ability to observe the government is key to participating in democracy, and vital when it comes to things like holding the police accountable. And, we have the right to decline conversation with the police when we have not committed any crime.”
“It is hard to understand what I went through during the last eight years because of these sergeants” said Keith Massimino, a professional videographer. “I was targeted for simply exercising my First Amendment right to record the outside of a public building from a public sidewalk. People should know they have constitutional rights, and should be proud to exercise them. I was disappointed by the trial court’s ruling, and I look forward to our day in court at the Court of Appeals.”
A copy of the appeal can be found here.
