From Montana Supreme Court Justice James Jeremiah Shea's concurring opinion Tuesday in City of Kalispell v. Doman:
I concur fully with the Court's Opinion. I write separately only to highlight the exchange that occurred between Officer Minaglia and Doman, as set forth in the Court's Opinion. As the Court accurately notes, nobody disputed Doman's right to film the officers conducting the traffic stop—this included Officer Minaglia, whose first words to Doman upon exiting his car were: "Hey brother, I don't mind if you film … just do me a favor and kind of go a little bit a ways."
In response to Doman's statement that he was engaging in "First Amendment protected activity," Officer Minaglia stated "Right, I agree." As Doman repeatedly asserted his right to video the traffic stop, Officer Minaglia repeatedly agreed with him, stating: "I agree, just do me a favor and get out of where we're working, and you can totally film from right over here by this tree." It was only after Officer Minaglia's repeated requests that Doman move back from the scene while he recorded the traffic stop that Officer Minaglia arrested Doman for obstructing a peace officer.
Because Doman failed to preserve his constitutional arguments for appeal, this case ends up being only about whether or not the State presented sufficient evidence at trial to support Doman's conviction of the misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer. That being the case, this Opinion likely will not warrant much, if any, notice from either the public or the press.
The pity in that is what will also be lost is an accounting of the professionalism that Officer Minaglia exhibited in this encounter. Regardless of whether you think that Doman was guilty of obstruction or even what you might think of the merits of his constitutional challenges—had they been preserved—you would be hard pressed to view the video of this encounter and conclude that it should have been handled any differently from a public engagement standpoint.
This bears noting because we are constantly inundated with images of violent and confrontational encounters between law enforcement and citizens who are attempting to record and document their interactions with law enforcement. The encounter in this case stands in stark contrast to those images. But when those are the only images you see, it's easy to think that is how these encounters typically unfold.
Having reviewed the record in countless cases that involved encounters between law enforcement and the public during my tenure on the Court, I would contend that Officer Minaglia's handling of this situation represents the norm rather than the exception, at least here in Montana, and stands as an example of how these encounters can be and are professionally handled. It is unfortunate that the video of this encounter will likely go the way of the Lost Ark because it doesn't make for good clickbait.
Here's what appears to be the video; the interaction with the police officer starts at around 1:45 into the 2:31 running time:
