Viral video shows arrest of two filmers. Did Las Vegas police retaliate for a rude comment?

A group of police officers did not stop or arrest a man and woman filming when they initially encountered them in downtown Las Vegas after an immigration protest.

It was only after an officer made a snide comment and the man filming replied, “Honor your oath, b - - - -,” that he and the woman near him were arrested, a now-viral video of the interaction shows.

Weeks after those June 12 arrests, the consequences of the encounter remain to be seen.

The Metropolitan Police Department says the incident is the subject of an open internal affairs investigation. The woman’s attorney says he assisted her in filing a complaint with the FBI. Neither protester has been formally charged, according to a city spokesperson.

A police union leader suggests that context is missing in video clips circulating online.

But legal experts say the arrests appear to be unconstitutional and indicate Metro officers improperly arrested the people because they were offended by a comment.

“I don’t think there’s any question that this is unconstitutional,” said Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “This is people who are standing on a corner. They’re not engaged in any sort of misconduct. The dozens of police officers that passed them by did not think they were involved in any sort of misconduct until they said something critical of a police officer. That is clearly protected speech, and you can’t give officers the discretion to go around arresting people for insulting them.”

Steinbaugh aided the spread of the footage by posting it on social media platform X. The video, which was also circulated by other accounts, has received over 3.4 million views on X alone.

Reports, video diverge

Metro reports for the two people arrested in the video — Karlin Martinez and Cesar Corrales — paint a different picture from the videos.

Officer Hunter Whiteford wrote in short reports for Corrales and Martinez that they were “refusing to leave the area after the dispersal order had been read.”

Video clips do not show Martinez or Corrales refusing to leave.

Whiteford claimed both provoked a breach of peace. The reports also list “unlawful assembly” under the charge category. The officer did not mention the conversation between police and the arrestees.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal asked to speak with Whiteford through Metro, which did not make him available for an interview. The officer could not be reached for comment.

The footage showed a group of officers walking past filmers. “Enjoying yourself?” one asked. “Got nothing better to do?”

“Honor your oath, b - - - -,” Corrales replied.

At that comment, an officer in the back of the group gestured to the others and the swarm of officers reversed course to make their arrests, apparently taking Corrales to the ground.

“You need to learn there’s rules,” someone said in the video.

A voice in the video added, “You should have left hours ago. Get a job, punk a—. Now you’re going to jail. Let’s go. Anything else you want to say?”

In a second video, someone tells the woman: “You should have shut your mouth, too. You should have left hours ago. Well now, shut up.” She protests that she didn’t say anything.

Attorney Stephen Stubbs, who represents Martinez, identified a sergeant as the official who ordered Martinez and Corrales arrested. Stubbs said the sergeant was also the person who told Martinez she should have kept her mouth shut.

Metro also did not make the sergeant available for an interview, and he could not be reached for comment. The Review-Journal was unable to confirm the sergeant’s identity, and Metro would not verify it.

Stubbs said his client did not hear any dispersal orders.

“What is in the police report is a complete fabrication,” he said, adding, “You can’t refuse to leave when you were never told to leave.”

The lawyer said the breach of peace claim was “hilarious.”

“What they’re essentially saying is that she somehow did something to provoke them to attack her,” Stubbs said.

The fallout

“The video speaks for itself and clearly shows that the officers were motivated by the content of my client’s speech, which is unconstitutional,” said attorney Maggie McLetchie, who represents Corrales. “And while that’s not the way I personally talk to police, it’s not illegal to say, ‘Honor your oath, b——.’ What is illegal is to punish someone for saying that to the police.”

In Stubbs’ view, his client was attacked. He said the complaint about the sergeant was filed with the FBI on June 26. Other officers were happy to identify the sergeant, according to the attorney.

“I have never seen a more clear example of an officer who has willfully violated people’s constitutional rights,” Stubbs said.

“The FBI is aware of the allegations and is communicating with (Metro),” FBI Las Vegas spokesperson Sandy Breault said in an emailed statement. “However, the FBI does not comment upon the existence or the nonexistence of any investigation.”

Metro Sgt. Jakob Shallenberger, a department spokesperson, said there is an open internal affairs investigation into the encounter with Martinez and Corrales, so police would decline an interview request.

Shallenberger said he was not aware of anyone being disciplined over the incident. Whiteford and the sergeant identified by Stubbs remain on regular duty, he said.

Las Vegas spokesperson Jace Radke confirmed that Corrales’ and Martinez’s cases have landed in Las Vegas Municipal Court. They have not been formally charged because the city attorney’s office is still reviewing all June protester cases, he said.

According to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, the city attorney’s office has authority over the cases because they are misdemeanors within city limits.

Did officers act legally?

David Rudovsky, a longtime civil rights attorney in Philadelphia, said there was a factual dispute at play in the arrests.

If the “honor your oath, b——” comment was the reason for the arrests and Corrales and Martinez were acting legally, they were falsely arrested, he said. But if they did something that violated state law, he said, there would be grounds to arrest them.

“The video may trump the report if it’s clear that’s what was said and then they acted accordingly, and then having left it out of the report is even more damning,” Rudovsky said.

Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association union, said context appeared to be missing in the video.

If a dispersal order was given and people refused to leave, he said, it would appear there was probable cause for their arrest.

But to others, the arrests were clearly troubling.

“On the face of it, it looks like the police were trying to pursue a personal grievance rather than enforcing the laws of Nevada,” said Steve Wasserman, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice who handled police misconduct cases during a long career as a public defender.

Multiple attorneys said the arrests appeared to be retributive.

“Protesting and videotaping is a protected right under the United States and Nevada Constitution and it appeared to be a retaliatory and false arrest based on exercise of constitutional rights,” said Andre Lagomarsino, a Henderson lawyer who has filed lawsuits against police.

Patrick Jaicomo, an attorney at the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, said it is often hard to prove police retaliation cases.

“I think the thing that stands out in this video is just how clear the retaliation was,” he said.

Still, Jaicomo said, Martinez and Corrales could have difficulty suing because of immunity provisions for police.

Steinbaugh said the arrests could raise broader concerns about Metro.

“This is not just one officer having a bad night and making a mistake and apologizing for it later,” he said. “This is what appears to be a leader within this group of officers acting and a whole bunch of officers following right along with him.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.