Content Creator Arrested Exposing Town’s Sewer Disaster

There's no public comment. We don't know nothing. Everybody can leave. Can I ask you a couple questions? A content creator tries to help a small community by exposing an environmental disaster and then he gets arrested for it. This well-known content creator goes deep into the hills of West Virginia where locals are upset about this small town sewage disaster. They ask him to come document what's happening and so he does. He drives there and he begins to document all of the terrible things that they show him. It's literally forcing people out of homes that they've lived in forever. So, the content creator goes to a public meeting seeking more information, but it doesn't go well. The public officials are not interested in discussing this ongoing disaster that is actually harming their constituents. I'm not really podcaster, but people reached out to me to cover this. Ma'am, what did you say? So, we're not going to be there's a disaster in this community and the people have asked me to cover it. Put your camera in my face. Leaving you plenty of room. What? You're going to hit me? But he doesn't give up. The next day, he comes back and he tries again. And he ends up getting arrested. That content creator, Michael Bowman, is here to tell you everything that happened. With your help, we can expose this cover up and help not only Michael but also the people of this small town who have been completely failed by their public officials. And he's like, "We don't we don't deal with that around here, boy. " He's like, "This patch wears differently in Worthing in Marian County. What you just dealt with is what we've been dealing with for years. Our personal information is all over the internet and it's being used against us, not just by the government, but by private corporations and AI and it's only getting worse. You have to stay on top of it 24/7 and constantly get that stuff removed. Fortunately, I have software that does that for me and you can too. And Cogni tracks down and removes your personal data from multiple sites, including online directories, people search sites, and even commercial databases. The process is fully automated, so it will continuously remove your data from these places. As of today, Incogn has removed my personal information in 996 different places online. But I also use the custom removal feature available in the unlimited plan and the family unlimited plan to take down everything that's exposed about you online. So check out Incogn using the link below or go to incogn. com/sivil for 60% off. And Cognney helps wipe yourself from the internet completely. They can't harm you if they can't find you. Now, back to the video. This is Michael Bowman. Many of you probably already know who he is. He's a content creator who is basically a social commentator with a journalistic twist who goes into communities to highlight the good, the bad, the corrupt in an effort to enact change. He's got about 71,000 followers on Facebook, but his largest following is on Instagram where he has about 186,000 followers. He's also on Tik Tok with about 37,000 followers there. Although he's not from West Virginia, he became aware of some of the insane things that are happening here, especially some of the serious issues pertaining to water quality and pollution issues that are harming just regular folks. You see this West Virginia? This is your creek. Call your politicians right now. So if you drink this, is it poisonous? Yes. Today I'm in Wyoming County, West Virginia. And according to my friend and advocate Richard Altiser, Southern West Virginia, you are being poison. There's several on this creek. Several what? Illegal discharges. What does that mean? They don't have a permit to put it in the creek. Specifically on this creek, what are you seeing? Seeing rashes of one holler. The whole family has got bladder cancer now, kidney cancer. This is not natural, but the D is saying it's natural. It's cheaper to leech it out into the creek than it is to take it to where they want to take it and take the rare minerals out. Today I'm in North Fork, West Virginia and I just finished touring the top of Burke Mountain where not a single family in this mountain has clean or running drinking water. This is where we have to haul water for everyday use. We don't have a running water source on this mountain. So, how does this get refilled? It comes out of a mine. This is the way you turn the valve on for the water to come out. So, what's your dad doing over there? Holy [ __ ] If you if you're not very skilled, how long have you been doing this? since I was about 12 years old and I'll soon be 60. We go through a lot of vehicles. The road's not upkeep. It's snow on the road. It's nearly impossible to get in and out. So, what do you do? You do without water. My mother's family settled this mountain back in 1800s. Well, I have contacted some officials and they say they don't know what to tell us. 90% of the people that has died off on this mountain has died with cancer. And that's what led him to the tiny town of Worthington, West Virginia, which is in Marian County up in the north central part of the state. Some of the locals in Worthington asked him to come there and see for himself. So he did. How did you end up in Worthington, West Virginia of all places? When I started covering the water

issues at WV, uh things started opening up in a lot of ways. People started opening up, problems started opening up. But when I saw Worthington pop up a few months ago in, you know, in my comments and then somebody directed me to their Facebook page, I knew that was an issue that I had to cover. It just was very evident that there's sewage, raw sewage flowing into these people's homes, uh, if they're lucky, according to them, and I quote, "If they're lucky, it gets flown into the yards. Um, it's miserable in the summertime when it gets hot out. You know, the entire community smells terrible and all of that nature. " And the thing about Warthingington is like Worthington's a very nice community. A lot of times throughout WB you find these abandoned coal towns, you know, which have their charm and their appeal, but they're really not um they're really not moving in any positive direction. So yeah, I mean I had contacted the Facebook group basically said I'm very eager to to cover this. I've contacted them a couple times actually and then I was eventually connected with one of their main points of contact over there. I was told that the problem like most issues in WV is multiaceted. you have the infrastructure issues that are failing. So in this particular case, the sewer system was installed incorrectly. It was uh it was able to handle the load for a period of time and then it started failing and the first complaint there was as early as 2009. The most recent complaints uh were all over the last year, year and a half. So it's really started coming to a head as of late. Uh but then you have the governmental element of things. I mean you have a mayor there that was elected on six votes. You have a mayor prior to her that apparently was very crooked. I have no idea, but according to what I'm told, it was very, very crooked in a lot of ways. You have a retaliatory nature to the local government. Um, basically anybody that speaks out against the issue, mayor gets retaliated against. Uh, and in many ways, like I saw and experienced myself last week. So, we set up a meeting. I told my point of contact that basically you know in order for this to be successful like if you could connect and round up the troops with the locals uh you know and all of that then um then you know we can meet up and I can just turn the camera on point and shoot and we can just take it from there. She set that up for Tuesday the 15th. The day before that I called her. I was on my way from Charleston to Worthington and I called her and I said, "Hey, I'm coming up. Just want to make sure we're still good for the next day. " She said, "Yeah, we're good. Everything's fine. " Uh, she did mention that there was a sewer board meeting that night, which was very appealing to me on a lot of levels. Number one, I need B-roll for the for the uh for the video. So, and then two, I was told that I just wanted to stress test the environment and see what me and me as an outside journalist would receive by filming in the chambers. She told me very clearly, you're going to see like, what's going on here very quickly. I get there, everyone's pretty cordial, I got to be honest. there. The mayor's pretty much just keeping her head down, doing the bare, just doing the basics, really doing what a city official should do and just ignoring the camera because it really doesn't matter that the camera is there. I wasn't being aggressive, wasn't being in any anybody's faces, but I was getting my footage and I was sitting back down and things like that. The meeting ends, a person raises their hand and there's no public comment on the agenda that night, so nobody could make any comments or anything like that. Somebody raised their hand and basically asked a question. She said, "This is a comment. There's no public comment. Everybody needs to go home. We don't know anything. We don't know nothing. Everybody can leave. Can I ask you a couple questions? I'm filming all of that interaction. My camera's on the mayor and I asked the mayor very kindly. We have a very polite exchange, mutual exchange, both of us. We had a very cordial conversation. She told me to call city hall the next day. I asked her basically, "Hey, can I um get your statement on the way on how things are going? " This is a mayor that was elected on six votes. I'm essentially a volunteer position. And I told her, I said, "I know that this issue supersedes you, but I want to know your side of the story. " And um she said, "Yeah, it's been going on for years. " She said, "If you want to talk one-on-one, we can talk. Here's the number. May I come tomorrow and ask you some questions? " What time? I can be flexible, ma'am. Could you call 2872238? You're the podcaster I've seen on I'm not really podcaster, but people reached out to me to cover this. It's something that supersedes when you got elected. Obviously, going on for you. You want to talk oneon-one? Okay. Thank you, ma'am. And I said, "Okay, great. Thank you. " And that was what I thought was it. We walked outside, everybody left except for two people who I now know to be a city council member and the unofficial spokesperson of the mayor, Renee. Renee is somebody that runs Worthington Truth Chronicles. It's like this, it's this combative page to the Worthington Sewer Crisis, which is basically the sewer crisis is what brings exposure to the crisis. The Truth Chronicles basically is the place where a lot of the retaliatory nature takes place. So I open the door and start filming and I'm like rules for thee, not for me. Like that's what I'm calling this one because you guys are in here and talking. Why aren't we allowed to talk? If this you know if you guys if this meeting's over, this meeting needs to be over or we all need to come back and are able to ask her questions. Rules for thee, not for me. Well, you don't know the whole story. That's what I'm trying to get is the whole

story. The council woman said, "Well, you don't know what's going on. " And I said, "Well, that's part of what I'm here for. Like, I want to know the whole story. " I turn off my camera. I start talking to one of the locals about her sewer problem. We're exchanging phone numbers. She's giving me she's wanting to send me pictures and videos that she has going on. The mayor locks up the door. We're standing right in front of the door. The mayor locks it up, walks past us and says, "City attorney says, "Don't call this building. " And I'm like, "Wait a minute. What just happened? " So, I start recording and following behind her. And I'm like, "Ma'am, what did you just say? " Like, I'm trying to get her to repeat it on camera because I didn't have it recorded. What' you say, ma'am? Ma'am, what did you say? So, we're not going to meet. She rounds the corner and there's a city worker there who I thought was the city attorney because she immediately said, "Derek, this is the guy. " And I thought in my head, "This is the city attorney. " Well, it ends up just being a city worker that she called over. He was eating ice cream with his kids at the local ice cream shop. And he she had called him over to basically, I guess, deal with the situation. Whatever that means. This is a guy. You don't have to be disrespectful. Nobody's being disrespectful. Was smart on the phone. Why is your tone totally changed? We had a nice conversation in there. You said I can talk to you. Are you filming just to There's a disaster in this community and the people have asked me to cover it. Derek was very cordial at first. I mean, he was like, yeah, he can film. It's in public. There's no issues. But then he starts going on this train of you can't harass. And I'm like, I'm not harassing anybody. Like, there's sewage pouring into people's homes. I'm an outside journalist. I need to know what's going on. This is not about harassing. And then her tone like just abundantly changes. Like she starts getting like very aggressive, but just very like smart with me. And I'm just like, what just happened? We just had a conversation. You just agreed to meet with me and now we're at this position where we're kind of going at it. Go ahead and just leave. We just ignore him. You don't want to hear the truth. So to be clear, you are not having a conversation with me any longer. Continue to leave me alone. This is exactly what I was told what happened. Well, one thing leads to another and the video really speaks for itself. Uh you know, she get he tells her to leave. That kind of pisses me off cuz I'm just he's like just ignore him. And again, at this time I thought he was the city attorney. So I was like why is the city attorney telling her to ignore a journalist? So, she gets in the car, gets to leave the city, the uh Derek, who again is the sewage worker, you know, him and I start chirping at it, and it's really nothing else beyond just two dudes chirping at it, and that's really all it is. Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself. You told her cuz you told her to ignore me. I'm not harassing anybody. Someone says, "Do not film me. " Nobody asked me not to film. Asking you not to film this. I'm on a public sidewalk. Drama is It's drama. People have been living with sewage in their home for [ __ ] Put your camera in my face. Leaving you plenty of room. I was being cordial. passing people with the camera. Have to put the camera in my You're a [ __ ] attorney, [ __ ] Put the camera away. Let's go down the road. I will happily You want to go at it with a [ __ ] Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt? I don't give a [ __ ] about nobody. Just chill out. We don't need to fight like that. fight. That's what not what this is about. The video is pretty damning. He tries to like speed up and hit act like he's about to hit me. I don't know if he was trying to hit me or not. We'll have to see. What' you say? Right in front of his [ __ ] kids. What? You're going to hit me? Step back, sir, so I don't run you over. I'm perfectly fine. I'm giving you space. That was ridiculous. And you know it. Yes, you are. You know, it starts escalating in a lot of ways. Uh, you know, and then it deescalates. I mean, they leave, everyone leaves. The cop there was a cop drive driving by that apparently was not called there, but he just saw people kind of getting at it. Wanted to see if everything was good. I said, "Yep, everything's good, man. Have a good night. " Now, we got the cops here. I saw people going out. I was see All right, sir. Have a good day. Let's do it. One of the pe the woman that I was speaking to prior to all this happening before the mayor stormed out of there was basically got on camera and said, "What you just dealt with is what we've been dealing with for years. What years. " So, that was the sewer meeting. That's kind of what we've been dealing with here on the sewer side. Uh the sewer board meeting and all of that. The next day, I meet with Andrea. Uh my I meet with my point of contact over there and everything's going really good and the community is opening up to me. We're doing interviews. I'm just doing my normal thing, taking videos. She's showing me signs of active sewage spilling out. It's quite appalling in a lot of ways. We again, we have about a half a day. We go to lunch. We come back. We pass the city hall and I say, "Listen, it's about 1:00. " I said, "What time does city hall close? " She said, "About 4:00. I should stop into city hall and see if I can get a public statement from the mayor. So, I walk into city hall. I record everything from start to finish. All right. So, after the fiasco last night, I'm coming back to the town of Warthingington to see if I can speak with the mayor. Hopefully, things have calmed down a little bit. She immediately So you walk in and to the right is a window glass window with an assistant sitting behind it to the left and then the mayor was over here beyond I couldn't see her and she I heard her though she's like oh no and she walks to the back room makes a phone call and I'm like what is going on here? I think one of the points of contention to her was when I walked into this secondary uh room which was like a clear common area. The door was wide open. There was

literally public bulletins sitting on the wall. Um, there was a staircase going upstairs and then there was a room, a door to the right that said official use only. And that's where the mayor and her assistant were working. I know enough about the First Amendment audit movement. I'm not walking through that door that says that has that notice. And so, I stayed in that room for a little bit because she was telling me that I couldn't be there. Some at one point I was told I couldn't be there and I was very sure I could be in that room. Again, like I said, the door was wide open. It was a general common area of a public city hall. She ends up coming out and out of the her office and she's like her backs towards the front door and I'm in the back. So, she's in between the front door and me and she starts filming me and we just start looking at each other with our cameras and I'm just like, "What are we doing? Is this like a new day like kind of standoff? " So, if we could just reset, have a conversation, and move on, I'd be happy to do that. Hell, I'll even turn my camera off for you. Now, the cops are pulled up. Well, then the cops show up, and then I'm like, "Well, here we go. Here's the cops. " They barged through the door um really very aggressively, and I don't use that term lightly. They were very aggressive. And he said, "Give me your ID. " I think pretty sure he just flat out demanded my ID. He didn't ask for it. He just said, "Give me your ID. " And then he starts aggressively closing the gap. I mean, to a point where it was like very hostile. And I'm like, "Hold on a second. " Like, "Give me a space, please. " There was no time to get that out. He instantly said, "You're obstruction. You're obstructing an officer. You're under arrest. " Like, grabbed me, like acted like my phone hit the ground. I'm pretty sure I turned my phone off on the way down. On the police records, they say that I resisted, which is absolutely and abundantly not true. Um, I mean, I think any reasonable human being if they're being sworn by people maybe has some level of just knee-jerk kind of like, "Hold on a second. " Like tenseness, but I was not resisting because I was saying, "Yes, sir, no problem, sir. " Whatever. Like, yes, sir, no problem. But they were acting like they were fighting me. They were acting and they didn't get like physical like that with me in the sense of like, "Ruff me up. " But they were acting like I was they were acting like they were wrestling me. It was kind of reminiscent of this like hold me back, bro. Like if people like want to get in a fight but they don't want to act like they get in a fight. They're what they're wanting to get in a fight and they're like telling someone to hold them back. Just dramatized show of like acting like I was resisting when I absolutely was not. So they end up handcuffing me quite aggressively quite tight left a red thing around my freaking hands but whatever. I mean it is what it is. I'm a grown ass man. They throw me in the back of the cop car. Never meandize me which my understanding is isn't necessary anymore. I guess they you only have to Miranda someone if they're being questioned. Is that right? Yeah. Custody plus interrogation. And it's not anything you can sue over. Um you know the potential consequence is the whatever statements you made being inadmissible. Makes sense. Yep. So my phone hits the ground. Again, I recorded the entire interaction. Um, that's really what I was concerned about was making sure that footage stayed intact and making sure that my phone was locked by the time it hit the ground because I didn't want it unlocked and in police hands. I get in the back of the cop car and I'm asking the cop questions. I mean, uh, it's a very uncomfortable and hot situation for me. I've never been in the back of a cop car before. I've never been in any legal issues whatsoever. Um, so I'm asking him, "What's the process? How long do we have to go? Where is it going to be? " And he is answering every legal question that I ask him in terms of the process. I asked him if he had body cam footage or if his body cams were on. He said he didn't have they don't have body cams. We get out. He takes me back to Marian County Sheriff's Department. Um I get out in the back room. Sheriff walks in the room. You know what's he in for? And I go to answer. Whatever. I probably should have kept my mouth shut because he know you know every you know but I was like oh that I didn't give ID. He screams at me. you know, I didn't ask you, you know, and then looks at, you know, they officer told him obstructing an officer, two counts. And he's like, we don't deal with that around here, boys. He's like, this patch wears differently in Worththing in Marian County. Well, I'm sitting in this wooden chair facing the room and there's a gentleman typing on a phone on a laptop. There's the sheriff in there. There's the person with the fingerprints that's in the room. And then there's the officers that arrested me. The one officer that got aggressive the most, Gump, had my phone. Um, he had it plugged in and it looked like it was lit up, but like it wasn't a typical view. Like, it looked like he had it in some sort of program. I don't know how. I believe personally that it was probably still open and filming when they got a hold of it. And he had it plugged in and was working on it. I don't know what he was doing. I have no idea, but he showed it to me at one point and like I said, it was like a fluorescent light up the phone was. So, I start talking about my phone like because I'm like, I need to get out of here and my phone. And then they start telling me basically because it was the uh the witness to the to everything that happened

it's now evidence. So, now it sounds like I'm going to have to actually go through a process to get this footage back. Number one, I was never asked to leave city hall. Never one single time, which still wouldn't have mattered even if I was because I was off in official capacity as a journalist. I was not committing a crime. I was in a public building. Nobody articulated an actual crime to demand ID. And then the one witness in the room that's unbiased, I mean, a camera is an objective witness that is unbiased is now held in the hands of the people that have wrongfully arrested me and is being held hostage by them. And did they seize the mayor's phone? You said the mayor was filming. Did they seize the mayor's phone as evidence? Definitely not. So when I got into that room, they asked, "Was this the guy from last night? " and somebody answered yes and the guy said figures. What was funny was they had actually been called out there that night after I left. Not the offduty cop, but the actual sheriff's department had been called out there after I left. And again, there wasn't a call associated with that either. So, there's some sort of back backdoor deal going on here to where the mayor has a direct line to somebody and they show up and it's not over the it's not over 911. It's not I don't know what that is. Yeah, they're using cell phones and all of those cell phones, like the mayor probably called some of these officers, these deputies via cell phone and the mayor's filming with her cell phone. All that is going to be discoverable if not in your criminal case in the litigation. All of that has to be preserved. Like they have a legal duty to preserve all of that. And if they don't, you know, they are violating the law. After you arrested, you're sitting at the sheriff's office and when you said the sheriff came in and called you boy or whatever he said, do you mean the actual elected sheriff of Marian County, West Virginia? Yep. What's his name? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. How did you know he was the sheriff? I think he had a name tag on or something. Um badge or whatever. It was very obvious though, and he we eventually ended up having a conversation about it. How long were you in custody? Yeah. So, we're in that room and everybody's still hostile except for a couple cops, whatever. They're just doing their job. They fingerprint me very lightly and then they transport me to the back, I guess, where uh the magistrate is. So, I wait my the magistrate coming in and basically talking to me. I go back to the magistrate. He, you know, basically this is where he lays out, you know, what I have going on. a $17,000 bond, which I've been told by many people is very excessive, but whatever. It is what it is. He said it's up to two years in jail. He's just very staunch and very like just very like matter of fact about everything. I sign the paper. I go back to where I'm supposed to be processed. So, this is where it gets interesting because the cop comes back and says, "Hey, your fingerprints didn't go through. We need to like we need to take you back into that room. " So, we go back all the way back into the sh that room where I was first brought where the sheriff was and all that. Instantly, everybody's tone changes. I don't know what has happened, but the sheriff is now my friend. I don't know if this is a good cop, bad cop thing. I don't know what has happened between those between that 30 25 30 minutes, but for whatever reason, everybody's tone in that room has changed. And the sheriff is like basically my buddy and this is where we're talking about him being unelected. You know, he'd been in the sheriff's department for 30 years. He's elected sheriff. Like everybody's nice to me all of a sudden, you know, and he's like, "Hey, man. You just got wrapped up in some in other people's drama. You know, we're just the middleman basically. Like it's basically like this conversation. " And then they go through a very extensive fingerprinting process. Like significantly more extensive than the first time that they fingerprinted me or they get my palms. They get everything. I mean, they leave no stone unturned. So, I am not sure what has changed, but my speculation in terms of their tone changing is that they found out who I was. And I don't mean that in a in an aggressive way, but I think they just found out that number one, I think somebody found out that they [ __ ] up. Pardon my French. I think somebody found out that they screwed up. And then I think that they found out that I was a anate content creator with a very large following in West Virginia. They looked you up and they found your what? Your Instagram. They're starting to fear there's going to be some sort of public backlash um with what they're doing. I'm gonna show you something real quick. Hopefully this will work. Can you see that? Yeah. Yeah, that's the sheriff for sure. Is that him? Roger Cunningham, the sheriff on the left. 100%. Okay. That's the guy that initially came in the room and said called you boy. Yep. He said the patch wears a little differently here and went Marian County boy. We don't put up with that. And then he was while I was getting fingerprinted the second time, he's like, "Man, things have sure changed. " He's like, "It was so much different back in the day. " And then I kind of, you know, I'm being who they think I am at this point. I'm being some just

some yes sir, you know, outsider that's kissing their ass. And I'm like, "Yeah. " I was like, "Our society sure has gotten soft, hasn't it, sir? " Oh, yeah. We've gotten way too soft. He's like, "Back in the day, things were way different than it is today. " When you were arrested, they just demanded your physical ID. Is that right? Did they ever say, "Hey, what's your name? " No. Or, "Who are you? Why are you here? " Nope. They never asked for my name. They certainly side. They never asked me to step outside and like diffuse the situation. It just went from zero to 100. And I think part of that is what shot me so much. I was like, "Wow, this really escalated very fast unnecessarily. " So, is it illegal to refuse to provide identification in West Virginia? According to the West Virginia Supreme Court, refusal to identify is not actually illegal in West Virginia. Refusal to identify oneself to a law enforcement officer does not, standing alone, form the basis for a charge of obstructing a law enforcement officer in performing official duties in violation of West Virginia's obstruction statute. That case is called State versus Snerski from 2003. Remember that case name. We'll come back to that. So, if you're not doing something that actually requires a physical ID, such as driving a car on a public road, you can walk around without an ID in West Virginia all you want. It's not a crime to fail to produce a physical ID to a police officer that is not required to be carried. Under some circumstances, you can be required to identify yourself to a police officer if there's some legitimate reason that the officer needs to know your identity during the course of a lawful detainment where there's already reasonable suspicion supporting that detainment. So here, if there was reasonable suspicion to detain Michael in the first place, it could have theoretically been obstruction for Michael to fail to identify himself. Again, I'm not saying produce physical ID, though. if the officer needed to know his identity for some reason and also communicated that necessity to Michael prior to asking him and prior to arresting him, which is pretty much common sense. Police officers in West Virginia, in my experience, have consistently lost cases in cases such as these where they have abused West Virginia's obstruction statute to serve as their go-to tool for obtaining IDs and setting up false arrests, such as happened to Michael. The West Virginia Supreme Court has been clear that obstruction in West Virginia requires forcible or illegal conduct that interferes with a police officer's discharge of official duties. here. The only forcible or illegal conduct that was occurring was Deputy Gump's obstruction of Michael's First Amendment rights to document and cover this sewage disaster. Does it matter that Michael is just some guy on social media as opposed to a journalist who was employed by some legacy media outlet? No. The fourth circuit has said explicitly that the rights of access of the media are co-extensive with and do not exceed those rights of members of the public in general. It's a setup. You know, he did not really want your ID. He knew who he already knew who you were because the mayor had called. He knew exactly who maybe not exactly who you were, but he knew that, you know, they he knew the basics. Yeah. And this is a common setup that I've seen around the country, but especially in West Virginia, where they know like from the beginning, they're going to use this vague obstruction statute to arrest you. That's the goal. It's not to investigate anything or to find out what's going on or who you are or to actually get your ID. They're setting up an arrest for obstruction. It can be done in a number of context, but usually when it's somebody on foot like yourself, they'll say, "Give me your ID. " when you ask why, boom, they arrest you. Or it could be you're in your car and they say, "Step out of the car, you say why, boom, they arrest you. " Like that would that's the goal from the beginning. And it's sad because they really should have arrived at the scene. What's going on? What's the problem? Is there a problem? Has anyone even reported that any crime is committed at all? And so if there's no 911 call, what do we have? just a phone call or a text between the mayor and some police officer. They could be related. What did she say? You know, we don't know. Instead of doing what they're supposed to do, they came in to illegally arrest you because as the sheriff admitted, this is a corrupt place. We don't wear body cams, not because we can't afford it, but because we don't want the public to see what we're doing. Like, do you know where you are, boy? like we don't follow the Constitution around here. You don't have the same rights here in Marian County, West Virginia that you would have in some other county in West Virginia or in some other state. That was what they were communicating to you until they figured out who you were and that you have a public platform. By that point

it was too late. They already screwed up. And so now, what do they have left? What they have left is the pending criminal charge against you. And that charge is still pending, right? Yeah. I'm being told, I got a text this morning from a very close friend in this situation that it is 99% going to be dropped. Sure enough, he was right. I talked to Michael yesterday. And then just this morning, boom, the charge does in fact get dropped. Why? First of all, because it had to. Because the arrest, the charge was wholly unsupported by the law. It was illegal. Secondly, and probably most importantly, the public was watching. Because of Michael's social media presence, the public was watching. And then even more eyes began to watch because fortunately, the local TV news started to cover what was happening. For the past several months, 12 News has reported on the ongoing sewage crisis in the Marian County town of Worthington. This week, the town's issues took a different turn as a viral internet content creator was arrested after an incident. Not only am I not guilty, I am innocent. I did absolutely nothing wrong. I was exercising my journalistic uh right to cover a story and also a local newspaper started to cover it. That created a situation where the relevant public officials in that local criminal justice system had to look carefully at this and decide whether or not that was a hill that they wanted to die on for this mayor who has literally stirred up the [ __ ] in this small town. There's a West Virginia based podcast. It's great. It's called Creepalatcha. JD runs it. He was one of the first to cover the situation. He told me that he actually spoke to the prosecuting attorney of Marian County, West Virginia, the elected prosecutor, and that he personally directed, the prosecutor I'm talking about, not JD, personally directed the dismissal of the charges against Michael Bowman due to the fact that they didn't even allege that a crime had been committed. Remember the case that I told you about, State versus Snerski? Well, I actually pulled a copy of the dismissal order today from Michael's case, and the prosecutor actually referenced that case in his motion to dismiss the charges. So, good for the prosecutor. At least the people of Marian County, West Virginia, have one public official willing to do the right thing. But they have a tyrant of a sheriff there. Apparently, at no point did this elected sheriff do the right thing. He's not looking out for the people. He's looking out for public officials. the government, not the people. Perhaps the people there in Marian County, West Virginia, need to demand body cams at this point. You know, I look at body cam footage from around the country all day, every day, or at least every day. And almost never now in 2026 do I ever even hear of law enforcement agencies anywhere who don't have body cams. I mean, if you like law and order, it's the greatest law enforcement tool ever created. It is an evidence capturing machine that is always admissible in court for the most part. It's probably put more criminals behind bars than anything else. If in 2026 your elected sheriff purposefully does not have body cams on his deputies, he's probably the type of guy to take you in a back room somewhere surrounded by his employees armed with guns while you're in handcuffs and call you boy, such as happened to Michael here. Fortunately, Michael's video was actually recovered. He now has it and he will be releasing it on his social media platforms I'm told by the end of the week which I will link his platforms below. He did give me a sneak peek of it though which I have shown you in this video. So if we could just reset, have a conversation and move on. I'd be happy to do that. Hell, I'll even turn my camera off for you. Now the cops are pulled up button. If I hear anything else, I will update. And you can follow along by subscribing both here and at the blog at the civil rightsawyer. com. You can follow me on X at JohnBrian ESQ. Remember, our rights don't end where your fear begins. Freedom is scary. Deal with it.