Las Vegas Attorney Stephen Stubbs: “Stand Up and Tell the Truth” – Why #PoliceLiesMatter

May 20th, 2016

Awake Goy

This video was recently submitted to me by Las Vegas Attorney Stephen Stubbs so it could be shared with the CopBlock Network. In it he discusses several incidents he and/or his clients have been involved in with officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada Highway Patrol, Boulder City Police, and other Las Vegas area police departments.

The main case discussed in the video is the very first case for which Stubbs was ever featured on CopBlock. In that instance, he was arrested after a group of bikers (belonging to a ministry group called “Bikers For Christ“), who had been stopped and then detained by LVMPD officers, requested he act as their attorney during that detention.

Not long after, Lieutenant Yatomi of the LVMPD Gang Task Force arrived and illegally ordered Stephen Stubbs to leave his clients, even though they had a right to have counsel present, which is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. When he refused, he was arrested for “obstruction.” As Stubbs points out in the video, he was subsequently exonerated in court without even having to present a defense, once the case finally went to court.

One of the important points, especially in relation to Cop Block, is the role in which bystander video played in this and the other cases discussed. Obviously, we always encourage people to film the police anytime you interact with them or see them stopping someone else. In many instances, it is essentially a tool of self defense, which proves or even prevents misconduct by police by providing concrete evidence of what actually happened.

In the case of Stubbs’ arrest, the video taken by others nearby proved, without doubt, that he was not obstructing the police and that Sgt. Yatomi had in fact lied and fabricated information within her police report to justify arresting him. In another instance mentioned, one of his clients was beaten because LVMPD Officers Glowinski and Kolkoski, who were clearing out a bar in Downtown Las Vegas, decided he wasn’t moving fast enough. Similarly, another of his clients, who was actually trying to intercede and stop a potential fight from escalating, was tased by the Metro officers involved.

A final example Stubbs mentions in the video is that of a client who was riding his motorcycle on a Las Vegas freeway when he was intentionally hit by a Nevada Highway Patrol officer after that officer turned the dashcam in his car off. Unfortunately for him, he turned it back on just in time to record himself admitting he intentionally hit the motorcycle. This NHP Trooper also just happened to have posts on his Facebook page making light of Nazis and joking about using force against people. BTW, the victim of his vehicular assault was a black man.

So the common thread among all these is that all of those Good Cops lied (committing perjury in the process) and those lies were later proven to be just that by the video. Obviously, those departments and the other officers within them held those Bad Apples accountable for their actions, right?

Not so much…

Not one of those cops was punished in any meaningful way at all. In fact, as Stephen Stubbs points out in the video, Sgt. Yesemia Yatomi, whose lies were so blatant that the charges against him were tossed out without him even having to provide a defense, has now been promoted to lieutenant by Metro.

And it gets better…

After Lt. Yatomi’s promotion, she was placed in charge of the LVMPD’s Internal Affairs Division.

In case that somehow isn’t clear, that means a cop who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about citizens’ Constitutional rights and who was proven on video to have committed perjury to justify an illegal and vindictive arrest is now in charge of the department that investigates misconduct by Las Vegas police officers and complaints of abuse from them by Las Vegas citizens.

That sort of constant and systemic pattern certainly makes the public trust police and believe that it is only a Few Bad Apples committing all the abuses.