Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Boynton Beach apparently got pretty crazy -- an officer states in the report below that "my working of the detail emphasized the bar area in which approximately 400 people were celebrating the Cinco de Mayo holiday and to which every officer in the city of Boynton Beach had to respond multiple times because of fights." A Boynton Beach police spokesperson says that roughly 12 officers responded to the area, and more may have been pulled off other details.
While officer Brent Joseph was standing on the north side of Bar Louie, he noticed 23-year-old Joshua Mandel standing about two feet away from him, recording with his iPhone. The light on the phone was on and pointed in the officer's direction. Joseph approached Mandel, telling him that it's illegal in Florida to record an officer's oral communications without his permission.
"Upon making contact with Mandel he smelled strongly of an
alcoholic beverage and his eyes were red, bloodshot and he placed the
camera approximately one inch from my nose," wrote Joseph in his report.
He
continued, "I repeated multiple times reference the illegality of his
use of the recording device without my consent to which Mandel began to
repeatedly chant FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS causing a crowd to gather."
Joseph
arrested Mandel for disorderly intoxication as well as "interception
of oral communications," based on Florida State Statute 943.02, which
calls for the punishment of anyone who "intentionally intercepts,
endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or
endeavor to intercept any wire, oral, or electronic communication"
without consent. The law does not apply specifically to police officers.
The
expanded legal definition of "oral communications" on the Florida books
is "any oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an
expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under
circumstances justifying such expectation and does not mean any public
oral communication uttered at a public meeting or any electronic
communication."
The law does not apply to video footage, only to audio recordings.
When
Mandel was booked, officers demanded that he hand over his iPhone as
evidence, but he refused to provide them with the locking PIN code, so
they were unable to access the phone and review the recorded footage.
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