That supervisor, Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy Lieutenant Don Milazzo, states that the courthouse is a public building. (While that statement is very much true, Milazzo’s statement obviously implies that he believes that means you can’t film there, which is very much not true.)

Pink Camera Magic replies, “Yes, that’s exactly why I’m recording it.”

Lt. Milazzo then tells her there is a judicial order banning the filming of the courthouse ( which doesn’t actually do that ). He then begins demanding that she come inside the courthouse so they can show her that judicial order. She repeatedly refuses those demands and asks if she is being detained. In the meantime, Lt. Milazzo begins requesting “someone with handcuffs” to come outside.

“I’m being detained for just taking pictures of the building?” She asks.

“Yes ma’am. You’re doing something suspicious and we need to know who you are and why you are doing it, ok?” He responds. “Are you familiar with the First Amendment?” She asks.

“Yes,” the officer responds as he violently snatches the video camera from her hands. She is then placed under arrest and forcibly taken within the courthouse where she is accused of being crazy for asserting her rights.

Illegally Deleted Footage

Later, once she has been held for a matter of hours, she was brought into court for a hearing. During that hearing, District Court Judge Peter A. Felice reportedly also demonstrated that he isn’t very familiar with the constitution or those first ten amendments (particularly the first and fourth ones in this case) to it. According to Pink Camera Magic she was given an order by Judge Felice to delete the footage she had legally recorded earlier.

However, she was unable to follow that illegal order because someone, presumably Lt. Milazzo, had already done so. The now empty memory card from her camera was then confiscated on order of Judge Felice. She was subsequently released without charges, but with a warning that recording the courthouse again would result in her being held in contempt.

That card was returned to her two days later at another court appearance. Perhaps having realized that their previous actions were unconstitutional, Judge Felice claimed at that hearing that they had not searched the SD card (which requires a warrant) or deleted any video (which violates evidentiary rules). Both of those illegal things had, of course, already been done prior to Pink Camera Magics first hearing, during which she was also ordered to delete the footage on the card.

In spite of the video having been deleted, Pink Camera Magic was able to send the SD card to a technician, who was able to restore the files on it and recover the footage. She has now filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.