First Amendment Auditor Craig Hendry released a produced video on Sunday featuring a screaming confrontation between Hendry and a security guard at the courthouse in Olney, Illinois, as the security guard attempted to stop him from entering a private area of the building.
Hendry became aggressive when a security guard asked him not to go past his security station at the back of the building in order to access the city clerk’s office. The YouTuber started to scream at the officer that if he touched Hendry, Hendry would respond to “protect himself” and indicated that he would knock the security guard down with one punch.
The security guard remained calm in the situation, while Hendry continued to scream and protest not being allowed into the private area. To de-escalate the situation, the court clerk stepped in and brought Hendry into her office where Hendry attempted to make a FOIA request.
The clerk explained that all the FOIA requests in the county were handled on-line as Hendry pretended that he didn’t have access to a computer at home and insisted that the Clerk print out a copy of a FOIA Form. Hendry’s continued filming in the private area resulted in the other workers in that area protesting Hendry’s filming of them, denying consent to be filmed, which Hendry laughed at and then left the private office.
After a jump cut, a local police officer was on the scene. The YouTuber told the officer that it was for “your benefit” that he was only filing a verbal report and not a written report. He again said he’d defend himself any way he felt fit if anyone, including the police officer, touched him, as he filed a verbal complaint against the security officer for originally blocking him from accessing the court clerk’s private office.
The YouTuber then challenged the belief that there are “private” areas in “public” building such as a courthouse to the police officer and that he believed that as a taxpayer, who helped “pay for the building,” there should be no areas that are off limits to him or his camera.
Hendry then filmed himself going up to the second floor where he encountered a judge who promptly threw him out of the building for recording. The encounter with the judge or ejection from the building was not featured on Hendry’s video.
The YouTuber explained that there was a 25-minute cut as he dealt with the ramifications of the Judge’s “illegal” action. He then re-entered the building and complained loudly to the police officer that an Illinois’ law, the same law he tried to apply to his contempt charges in Indiana for filming in a court room, gave him to the right to film anywhere he pleased including within the Court.
Attempting to de-escalate the situation, the police officer gave Hendry his business card and Hendry promised to e-mail him the statute that proved everything he was saying was correct and that the police officer would soon agree with him and stop enforcing the Judge’s “illegal” orders.
Hendry himself declined to challenge the Judge’s orders, explaining to his friend on the scene that he was already being persecuted in Indiana by authorities and “could not afford” an arrest in Illinois before ending the video.
