Pittsfield man arrested after videotaping officer to fight charge at trial

Posted Wednesday, December 3, 2014 6:28 am

PITTSFIELD - A city man who was arrested after videotaping a police officer during a traffic stop is heading to trial in March to fight the charges.

Keith Stringer, 44, of Pittsfield, was videotaping Pittsfield Police Officer Dale Eason while he conducted a traffic stop on First Street on Aug. 20, according to court papers. When the officer became aware that he was being recorded by Stringer, who was on his bicycle on a nearby sidewalk, he asked the man what he was doing.

"I'm recording you because of that thing that's going on in Missouri," Stringer told the officer.

Stringer was speaking of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo., according to court documents.

Eason ordered Stringer to stop recording him and to move on, but when the defendant allegedly refused, the officer seized his phone and arrested him on a charge of disorderly conduct as a subsequent offense. Stringer refused to give Eason his name prior to being arrested, according to court documents.

In his police report, and later at a Nov. 19 motion hearing, Eason said Stringer smelled of alcohol and that his behavior was causing traffic to stop on the road at the time of the incident. The officer also alleged Stringer was interfering with his police investigation in connection with the motor vehicle stop.

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Stringer denied being intoxicated.

After being booked at the police station, Stringer was released and was given his phone back. He alleged that although other videos he had taken with his phone from around the same time were still there, the video he took of Eason had been erased.

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Eason later testified that he didn't delete the video and to his knowledge neither did any other police officer.

Stringer's attorney, Marc C. Vincelette Sr., filed a motion to dismiss the charge contending that it should be tossed out because the police destroyed evidence in the case by deleting the video from his client's phone. He said police are required to have a warrant to go into someone's phone to examine it, much less to delete potential evidence.

In Massachusetts, it's not illegal to record a police officer if the recording device is in plain view and the person alerts the officer to the fact they are recording, according to the Digital Media Law website.

Assistant Berkshire District Attorney Robert Royce alleged there was no evidence that a video had even been taken by the defendant, who may have believed he had been recording the scene but hadn't due to his intoxication. The prosecutor pointed out that Stringer was unable to produce the phone at the hearing because he said it had been damaged.

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Judge William A. Rota, in a written decision, denied the defense's motion to dismiss the charge. The video, had it existed, didn't show the defendant's arrest, only the unrelated traffic stop, and was therefore not evidence that tended to show the guilt or innocence of the defendant, the judge wrote.

Rota went on to state that based on Eason's testimony and probable cause report it was unclear exactly what Stringer's disorderly actions were that led to his arrest.

Another motion to dismiss filed in the case, this one alleging that Stringer's behavior didn't meet the standards necessary to charge him with disorderly conduct, was likewise denied in October by Judge Fredric D. Rutberg.

Stringer appeared with his attorney in Central Berkshire District Court on Tuesday and had a Jury of Six trial set for March 20. He remains free on his own recognizance.

Contact Andrew Amelinckx at 413-496-6249.