Alleged Illegal Acts By Morton County Sheriff's Office, Assisting Officers And State Partol Investigated By ACLU In N. Dakota

The ACLU-ND considers filing a lawsuit against the Morton County Sheriff's Office and N. Dakota State Patrol for alleged illegal and warrantless acts targeted at Native Americans protesting DAPL.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

October 16, 2016

Mandan, N. Dakota - On Thursday, the ACLU of North Dakota issued a press released announcing that they had filed an open records requests seeking information about the policing practices and possible use of surveillance technology by the Morton County Sheriff's Department and North Dakota Highway Patrol related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The ACLU-ND stated, that the open records requests were made to aid us in there investigation into whether there are constitutional violations related to the law enforcement agencies' policing and surveillance monitoring of DAPL protests in the state. 

The use of highway roadblocks and checkpoints, and militarized equipment by law enforcement in response to DAPL protests and the numerous reports of unwarranted stops by police sent to our office from individuals prompted the records requests.

On October 8th, Myron Dewey was stopped near a DAPL site in a public access road and his vehicle was searched without permission and a drone was seized without a warrant. Law enforcement officers assisting the Morton County Sheriff's Office at the scene were video recorded live by Dewey engaging in an illegal act to seize property.

Dewey says, the officer in charge had told him that they had a warrant, but it turned out the officer didn't have one. The Morton County Sheriff deputy wouldn't give his name when asked by Dewey and he was not wearing a name tag, but would only reply that his name was deputy. He told Dewey that a warrant would be issued later for his arrest by the N. Dakota State Attorney General's Office. The officers at the scene seized a drone from Dewey's vehicle without a warrant.

None of the laws enforcement officers assisting the MCSO including deputies wear name tags or badge numbers to keep victims of illegal acts by officers DAPL protests from identifying them or filing a complaint against them.

Myron Dewey's recorded live video exposing illegal act and warrantless seizure of drone by officers assisting the Morton County Sheriff's Office http://bit.ly/2ek1n8f