The attorney wanted to place YouTuber Jose” Chille” DeCastro on parole when he was due to be sentenced to a probationary relationship for allegedly obstructing justice by stopping a Las Vegas authorities traffic stop.
However, Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman had another viewpoints.
DeCastro was found guilty in a March chair trial, and she ordered him to provide 180 days in the Clark County Detention Center.
The self-declared” First Amendment assessor” and” legal professor” had been accused of consciously preventing an officer from filming a visitors stop and refusing to back up when requested.
” Is that suspended”? DeCastro’s lawyer asked, questioning if the 180- time word may work as more of a deterrent while DeCastro was on probation.
” Oh no, it’s going to begin right now”, the prosecutor announced as she stood to move out of the court, while commanders handcuffed DeCastro. In a chair trial, a prosecutor makes a conviction, rather than a judge.
This was n’t the first time DeCastro, 49, has been in trouble with law enforcement. According to body-camera film, he claimed to have been detained four more times for filming officers across the nation.
His YouTube network, Delete Lawz, with more than 500, 000 subscribers, is full of hundreds of videos where he spends hours talking about police physique- lens recordings and footage from another self- proclaimed auditors. In some of his clips, he videos his own interactions with policemen, where he often makes racist remarks or refers to them as “pigs.”
The channel advertises DeCastro’s various cash apps and a$ 25 flier — titled” Learn the Law. DeCastro claims he will send to clients from Los Angeles under the name” Know Your Freedom,” but court records show he now resides in Henderson. DeCastro claimed at the test of Zimmerman that he” sells legal papers to people” and that he makes money from doing so.
After convicting DeCastro, the judge said,” It seems to me from watching him in the video that he wants this.” ” He wants to acquire arrested, he wants to get into an altercation with police officers. He welcomes this, this helps his YouTube channel”.
A visitors stop in a parking lot
In a park bit close to Flamingo Road and Grand Canyon Drive on March 15, 2023, DeCastro approached a girl who had been pulled over by a police officer. Body-camera footage showed the commander, Branden Bourque, exiting his car and telling DeCastro to backwards away and halt speaking with the passenger.
” You can picture, but you need to stay away from my driver”, the official said.
DeCastro and the official argued for the next moment and a half, until DeCastro said:” Mind your business. I’m a part of the media. Get get in your vehicle and do you work, small doggie”.
The official told DeCastro he was being detained.
As several police officers arrived for back, body-worn camera images showed DeCastro being in handcuffs and standing in front of a police car. DeCastro continued insulting officials while waited for a commander to arrive on the scene, often using visual sexual language. Additionally, he repeatedly told the police that they had injured his shoulders.
By the time a commander arrived at the scene, DeCastro had already threatened to sue several police officers and had repeatedly asked not to go prison.
” What you’re doing is fine”, the commander told him. ” You just ca n’t get involved in the middle of a car stop, that’s all. But finally, this will serve as a learning experience.”
Court records show that DeCastro was arrested repeatedly on Feb. 14, at the field of a , dangerous hit- and- work crash , near Charleston and Decatur boulevards. When officers inquired as to what he was doing at the crime scene, footage that was posted to DeCastro’s YouTube page revealed him telling them to” shut up” and “mind your business.”
He has entered a not-guilty plea to an obstruction-related demand in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Court on May 1.
Controversial bench test
DeCastro’s chair trial began on March 19 when he demanded a court captain be a “pig” after the judge instructed him to turn over his phone. Zimmerman claimed that she had not approved a press demand for DeCastro to report the reading.
DeCastro was threatened with contempt of court until he apologized to the captain.
Afterwards in the test, DeCastro was seen shaking his head when the counsel, Chief Deputy District Attorney Agnes Botelho, argued that DeCastro had been detained to guard the officer’s health after he would not following directions.
” This is not a First Amendment issue”, Botelho told the judge. Officer Bourque did not have a problem with the defendant recording, as you repeatedly stated on the video.
Michael Mee, DeCastro’s attorney, claimed that no federal law supports training for standing about 20 feet back from a scene despite the testimony of Bourque. He claimed that DeCastro was unlawfully detained for it and that he had a First Amendment right to film the officer and speak with the driver.
Bourque claimed that despite DeCastro” swatting” at him, he did not think DeCastro was attempting to hurt him.
” The case law is you can passively resist an unlawful arrest”, Mee said.
A comment request was not received by Mee.
Before convicting DeCastro, the judge noted that his defense attorney’s argument did not address the officer’s safety concerns. DeCastro nodded his head and gave the judge a thumbs up as Zimmerman continued to discuss DeCastro’s mute dislike of police.
Before DeCastro was sentenced to jail time, Zimmerman said,” He called the officers here in my courtroom today pigs, and he’s nodding his head, so apparently he hates every law enforcement officer in the United States.”
DeCastro claimed it was a” travesty of justice” that he was being sent to jail after being handcuffed at the conclusion of the trial.
DeCastro has since retained Christopher Oram, a well-known defense attorney in Las Vegas, to represent him in an appeal. On Thursday, Ram declined to comment further on the situation. DeCastro has also requested that he be freed from jail or placed on bail.
He will make an additional appearance in court on Monday to hear arguments for the bail motion from attorneys.
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