On the 20th of May in 2012 James Crocker was driving northbound on I-95 in Martin County, Florida, when he observed an overturned SUV in the interstate median that had recently been involved in an accident. Crocker pulled over on the left shoulder and ran toward the SUV. About fifteen other motorists also stopped to assist. Soon after, a road ranger arrived and assured the bystanders that emergency personnel were nearby. Upon their arrival, Crocker stepped away to make room, but he remained in the interstate median about fifty feet from the SUV. 

Crocker noticed some of the other bystanders were taking photographs and videos of the crash scene with their cell phones. Crocker took out his own cell phone, an iPhone, and proceeded to take photos and videos of the scene. He captured images of empty beer bottles, the overturned vehicle, and firemen, but no images of any persons involved in the accident. About thirty seconds after he had started using his iPhone camera, Steven Eric Beatty of the Martin County Sheriffs Department walked over toward him, reached out from behind him without warning or explanation, and took the iPhone out of his hand. 

Beatty asked Crocker why he was on the scene. Crocker explained that he stopped to assist before first responders had arrived. Beatty told Crocker to leave. Crocker agreed to do so, but said that he needed his iPhone back. Beatty replied that the photographs and videos on the iPhone were evidence of the state, and Crocker would need to drive to the nearest weight station to wait for instructions about the return of his phone after the evidence could be obtained from it. Crocker indicted he would leave the scene immediatley if Beatty would return his iPhone, and offered to delete the photographs and videos in an attempt to secure its return. Beatty refused to hand over the phone, and in turn, Crocker refused to leave. Beatty then arrested Crocker for resisting an officer without violence.

James Crocker filed a lawsuit against Beatty and the Martin County Sheriff in 2016. 

October, 2018: MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. - A federal jury decided this week that a Martin County deputy violated a local man’s civil rights nearly six years ago when he took the man’s cellphone while he was recording a crash scene.James Crocker and his attorney, Guy Rubin, said this decision is a landmark case that sends a strong message to both the public and to law enforcement: It is your right to record a crime scene or crash scene in a public place. Click here to read the full story

 

James Crocker is the founder of the Stuart, Florida based manufacturing company, Hog Technologies.