The Kyles, the Kayos, the Chaos, and the Kayak Guy

[XLFD]

The long awaited response from the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) on the arrest of Alan Ross has finally materialized nearly four weeks after its request.  It's unknown why it took so long for the five page incident report and in-car videos to be released but they are, and they continue on the same pattern I have noticed before, when there was no official records released (as seen in this article Why Ludington's Kayak Guy's Arrest Affects You) and afterwards when the DNR officer's report was released (as we reviewed in The Passion of the Kayak Guy). 

From the original press release and the DNR Report, it seemed unclear as to why kayaker Alan Ross was harassed and pursued by the enforcement officials.  Conservation Officer Kyle Publiski suspected Ross had no personal flotation device (PFD) on his kayak, Ross may have made this suspicion more reasonable when he said he didn't need any, and failed to present one when the officer pressed him, and effectively paddled away from what Ross must have felt was an aggressive and obnoxious officer who hadn't the power to stop and search his kayak.

Legal Dictionaries cite:  "Police officers need no justification to stop someone on a public street and ask questions, and individuals are completely entitled to refuse to answer any such questions and go about their business... To possess either probable cause or reasonable suspicion, an officer must be able to cite specific articulable facts to warrant the intrusion."

As noted in the record by Publiski, Ross was told he was not going to be arrested, but then told Ross he was not free to go, which indicates detainment, a seizure, a prelude to arrest.  All over an unverified hunch that a DNR rule about PFDs was not being followed, and totally unverifiable without cooperation from Ross which he wasn't mandated to give without Publiski giving him specific articulable facts to warrant the intrusion. 

At this point, it could be an arguable point that Publiski had enough reasonable suspicion to check Ross' kayak for a PFD, and that his request to search the kayak was a lawful request, but in State v. McKeown, a very similar case, the Supreme Court (albeit of New Hampshire) found that the threshold of articulable suspicion for a kayak stop was not met when a state patrol boat asked a kayaker if he had PFD on board on a 'random' stop.

But let's look at the records of what happened as per the MCSO's involvement.  The responding MCSO Deputy Kyle Boyd prefaced his report with a brief narrative.

It shall be noted once again, that Publiski's 'investigation yielded zero probable cause to arrest Ross for Disorderly Conduct  (MCL 750.167 ).  While it could be argued Ross was intoxicated (his blood alcohol content (BAC) was never checked however), he was not "either endangering directly the safety of another person or of property or is acting in a manner that causes a public disturbance."  The creation of this misdemeanor by Pubiski to justify Ross' arrest is a crime in itself, committed by Publiski.  Boyd's report continues:

Boyd makes it clear in his report that he was going out to Crosswinds to effectuate an arrest based on what CO Publiski told him was disorderly conduct.  It is not clear why Boyd thought the narrative up to that point indicated disorderly conduct, but he does note it twice in this section.  Unfortunately, it is never noticed to Alan Ross, just that he was under arrest three times for an unspecified crime.  Ross demands to know why he is being arrested:

According to his own report, Boyd never tells what he is arresting Ross for even when Ross demands to know why.  Boyd's failure to articulate any reason for the arrest is a violation of Ross' Fourth Amendment rights.  Boyd set the table for a federal lawsuit by not telling Ross why he was arresting him, while subsequently aggressively attacking Ross.  If you do not know what a 'straight arm bar takedown is, here is a video explaining the mechanics of it. 

An altercation ensues after Boyd fails to grip Ross' wrist sufficiently.  Ross is standing in his beached kayak at the time according to the report, and delivers a 'left cross' to Boyd.  For those unfamiliar with boxing a 'cross' is a power punch, one that requires two foot shifts to effectuate and originates from shoulder level.  If one is drunk and standing in a kayak, an effective cross is very hard, nigh impossible, to do.  Yet Ross is said to have done a left cross that connected and then throws 'another right cross' that didn't.  Neither of the two crosses were noted specifically by Publiski watching the action with his binoculars, nor was any punch damage evident on Deputy Boyd after he went back to the MCSO.

Boyd evens the score with his own right hook, which then stuns Ross long enough for Boyd to utilize his taser, and shortly thereafter immobilize and handcuff a resistant Ross.   The rest of the written report is here:  MCSO Kayak Guy.pdf

As for the in-car recordings, there is little of importance in them.  The twenty minutes of recordings show Boyd taking off from the waterfront in Ludington going in full code around the PM Lake to Crosswinds and parking near their tennis courts before video cuts out.  The action took place a good walk away from where the car was parked.

Video then resumes a bit later, after dark, with Ross in the backseat of the deputy's car traveling back to the Mason County Jail.  There is never any audio, so even though you can occasionally see Ross moving his lips at the far extent of the camera (you can only see a small portion of Ross throughout the trip), you don't hear what anybody says. 

Boyd never activated his personal microphone, if he had one.  It would seem that would be the smart thing to do when you would be traveling so far from where you park the car, and later bringing in a suspect that may have further incriminated himself-- if indeed he had done anything criminal prior to an attempt to be unlawfully imprisoned and being physically assaulted by a less than articulate Deputy Boyd.  

[XLFD]

I am finding out that Sheriff Cole has his own skewed views of what he can keep from the public.  There is another incident I am interested in that the sheriff has refused dash cam footage claiming an invasion of privacy, which is total Barbara Streisand from their own admissions.   

[dowland]

He is 56

[stump]

[XLFD]

A drunken kayaker incident out of Logansport Indiana caught my attention this last week.  On Tuesday, May 24, a woman named Pamela Welton, let's call her kayak gal, was zipping down the Eel River on her kayak, when she decided to involuntarily disembark (flip) into the deep 8 inches of water; she fell into that 8 inch deep water and couldn't stand up, so she yelled for help. 

Emergency crews responded and rescued her from the depths of eight inches of water, and surprise, she was arrested for public intoxication after being made to take a Breathalyzer test.  It is not known why the original witnesses could not rescue her from the river, after seeing she was in distress.  Like kayak guy, the authorities believed her to be creating a public disturbance by apparently calling out for help (here it was for rescue, with kayak guy it was for a cigarette). 

The State of Michigan has designs on creating a water trail for canoes and kayaks along Lake Michigan with Ludington as a stopping and starting point and they will have a host of problems with people like kayak guy and girl who go out on these watercraft to escape the realities of life, which often include some alcohol assistance to do so.  Are we so easily going to accept the liabilities we will pay out and increased demands for 'proper and sober policing' for incidents like these?  Are we willing to accept the dead bodies on our pristine beaches from drunk and ditzy kayakers who head out to dangerous waters while getting plastered?