Jose “Chille” DeCastro offered a mix of sadness and elation in his nightly address to his fans after the fourth day of his federal trial involving the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD), warning his fans that while the case went to the jury, not to expect a win on Friday.
The YouTuber explained that his testimony finished by mid-morning and the defense put on arresting officer Brandon Bourque as a rebuttal witness. Following Bourque’s testimony, both sides presented closing arguments, and the case was given to the jury late in the day.
No court minutes were released as of press time. Those following the case have been left with DeCastro’s brief videos posted on Instagram and Facebook during the proceedings followed by extended livestreams on both platforms later in the evening.
DeCastro’s burden in the lawsuit was to prove that he was wrongly arrested and physically abused by the LVMPD when he attempted to film a traffic stop in downtown Las Vegas in March of 2023. DeCastro was ultimately convicted of charges of interfering in a traffic stop and obstructing an officer, that were later overturned on appeal.
DeCastro is separately suing the officer who arrested him in this incident for what he says is “perjury,” along with the prosecutor, various bailiffs, Clark County, Nevada, and the Judge who convicted him along with the Judge who set him free.
During his daylight videos, DeCastro projected that he was elated that the jury would be getting the case after the lunch break and closing arguments. He continued to say that his testimony on Wednesday and Thursday was “fire” and that he wanted to use “AI characters” to recreate his exchanges with defense attorney Craig Anderson.
He also offered his belief that he had no way of prevailing “on the District Court level” with the jury, stressing that the defense played videos that painted him in a negative light and that there were two jurors who had familial relationships with police officers.
After proceedings wrapped up for the day, he released a brief statement where he was angered by the defense pointing out that in his original complaint, he stated that Officer Sandoval had struck him in the groin, when he later changed that to arresting officer Brandon Bourque.
He expressed concern that the defense had said that because he had made that mistake in his filing, other aspects of his lawsuit were also incorrect.
The diminutive YouTuber addressed this again in his later YouTube livestream.
Broadcasting from his car as he was staying with his relatives in the Las Vegas area and explained that there were too many kids to broadcast freely in the house, he offered another somber reflection on the case.
He said that he had made a mistake by putting in a monetary claim and for suing the police officers on the scene for failure to intervene. DeCastro said this opened the door for the defense to paint him as money hungry and that the extra officers testifying only hurt him as it was more voices to deny his claims and paint themselves as good people.
DeCastro said that the lawsuit was a “bad” case and that he did not expect to win on the district court level and had a clear shot of appealing to the 9th Circuit as he disagreed with the judge’s decision to withhold the news that he had been convicted of and acquitted of the charges against him from the incident.
The inventor of fine sun tanning garments seemed concerned that the defense called officer Bourque as the only defense witness and that they were able to highlight DeCatro’s violent statements following his arrest.
These statements included his multiple statements that he could have picked up Officer Bourque and killed him by slamming his head into the concrete repeatedly.
DeCastro then told his fans that he had changed his approach to first amendment auditing since the arrest and was much more kind to police officers as he has gotten older. He reminded them that he advocated for non-violence and directly stated that they should not attack police officers.
In DeCastro’s later Instagram livestream, he said that he was concerned about the defense stating that officer Bourque had reasonable articulable suspicion to detain DeCastro at the scene, which led to the probable cause determination.
DeCastro claimed that officer Brandan Bourque stated that his reasonable articulable suspicion was DeCastro’s walking up to the traffic stop with his camera. He did not address his aggressive refusal to step away from the scene when directed to by the officer.
The YouTuber claimed that as press, Bourque did not control the scene as his first amendment rights meant that he controlled the scene.
He again bemoaned the fact that “three of four” members of the jury had family relationships to police officers. DeCastro also had an extended giggling session over the fact that it was also brought up that he had broadcasted a “hilarious cutdown” of officer Bourque that he once put up a picture of Bourque and called the officer a “butthurt pig.”
On both streams, DeCastro tempered expectations of a victory and ended with his offer of hope that the expected loss will be overturned in his appeal to the 9th Circuit. He further announced that he would be opening another fundraiser when the appeal is heard by the 9th Circuit.
On the earlier YouTube livestream he announced to his fans that he had a major surprise for Friday, which is his expected filing of a lawsuit against members of the LVMPD for a Valentine’s Day arrest in 2024 where the charges were ultimately dismissed against him.
DeCastro also updated his travel itinerary, saying that he would be immediately leaving Las Vegas after the verdict to go to parts unknown in order to work on his new “technology” that he was excited about.
The YouTuber’s crowdsourcing efforts to fund expenses related to the trial won Friday with $1,690.00 in new donations.
SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes’s Detained for MY Rights – continuing the Fight for OUR Rights campaign took second place with $52.00 in new donations.
The First Amendment Protection Agency placed third with $25.00 in new donations to his ILLEGAL ARREST DEFENSE FUND!!!
Frauditor Troll came in last place as he actually lost $21.00 USD due to exchange rate changes. Troll has not had a new donation in eight days and the fluctuations are due to the ever changing conversion rates between CAD and USD.
We will continue our verdict watch later today as DeCastro is expected to be in court at 8:30AM local time (11:30AM ET). Please check reallycoolsite.org and youtube.com/reallycoolnews for the latest updates on the case.
If we do not live stream after the verdict is announced, we will be live at 8:00PM ET later tonight with a recap of the day.
