Monday saw new filings from the defense in SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes’ (LIA) case against the New York City Police Department, with the defense seeking to dismiss the case due to lack of jurisdiction.
LIA is suing the NYPD over a policy that prevents citizens from recording in NYPD facilities after he was arrested multiple times in 2023 for violating that policy. The YouTuber claimed that New York City and New York State’s individual “Right to Record” laws give citizens the right to record police in the course of their duties anywhere, including where otherwise prohibited by previous laws or policies.
The defense filings essentially ask for a dismissal of all claims by LIA with prejudice and states that the “Right to Record” laws did not supersede the constitutional protections that established forum-based categories (public forum, designated public forum, limited public forum, non-public forum).
Continuing their argument, they claim that LIA was in a traditionally non-public forum or limited public forum when the arrest occurred, and his constitutional rights were not violated as it has been established that the government can block recording in those forums.
The defense is also asking for a dismissal of LIA’s state law claims for lack of jurisdiction. LIA’s challenge to the state laws, they argue, should have been made at the state court level rather than in federal District court.
They also argue that since LIA’s state level criminal court cases in relation to his arrests have not been resolved, issuing a ruling on his claims would be a Younger abstention violation as it would impact the criminal cases against LIA. The Younger abstention applies when a plaintiff is seeking federal action to interfere with pending state criminal prosecution.
A more recent example denial of actions due to the Younger abstention came last year when Jose “Chille” DeCastro attempted to have the federal court that is hearing his lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metro Police Department delay his criminal case until the federal case resolved. The Federal court found that the request was improper due to the outstanding criminal charges in the State court and ruled against it.
The defense is seeking a complete dismissal of all charges against them with prejudice.
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