Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s surprise visit to Morgan, Utah, saw unhappy developments on Friday as real estate photographer Jahshua Grover was convicted of resisting arrest and interference after an all-day trial.
Grover was taking photographs outside of the first unit of a town house when the police were called by a woman in another unit. The woman said she thought Grover was a peeping Tom and that she and her family were in danger.
Police arrived on scene, Grover initially refused to provide identification and when he was taken into custody, he withdrew one of his arms as he was being handcuffed. This resulted in the resistance charge.
While a call to the owner of unit 1 and to the real estate company proved that he was, in fact, there on a job. He also reportedly offered to show the photos he was taking to police but was rebuffed as the police indicated that he could have deleted incriminating photos.
DeCastro, in a livestream held during the lunch break at the trial on Friday, explained that Grover was represented by Mary Couporon, who is highly rated on the “Super Lawyer” website and may be the top female defense attorney in the state.
He lashed out at the woman who reported Grover as a “peeping Tom,” calling her a “Karen” and asserting that the police did not have reasonable articulable suspicion to arrest Grover following the clarification by his employers.
Bemoaning the fact that he met with the judge and the judge was not persuaded to allow him to film the hearing, he was happy that the judge allowed him to use both his phone and computer while he reported on the trial.
DeCastro, however, was angry at the Judge as the Judge chastised him as the court broke for lunch because the diminutive YouTuber was nodding his head in agreement with the defense as he typed. The judge simply asked him to stop nodding his head as the act could influence the jury,
Defendant Grover stopped to talk with DeCastro as he was reentering the building. He said that the judge was “not very good” at his job, and corrected DeCastro’s assertion that having a retired police officer as part of the four-person jury would negative impact the case.
Grover said that because the Judge would not let his attorney explain reasonable articulable suspicion or probable cause, the officer may be able to bring that information in during jury deliberations.
In a video presented on YouTuber Utah Cop Watch’s channel and partially filmed during the dinner break, Grover again disparaged the judge as “corrupt” but was confident that the jury had seen enough of the evidence to find him not guilty.
That prediction did not come true. The four-person jury found Grover guilty of both charges. It is unclear whether or not a sentence was issued as Grover immediately vowed to appeal the case.
Both Utah Cop Watch and DeCastro interviewed a female juror who stopped to talk with the men. She said that she really didn’t think Grover did anything wrong, but his actions lined up with the jury instructions, and she found that she had no choice but to find him guilty.
When pressed, she called the woman who reported him for voyeurism a “Karen” and criticized the woman as she was home with her husband and the juror felt that the woman was in no danger and a call to the police was unreasonable.
The juror said that if it was up to her, she would assign no punishment to Grover for his actions.
Grover himself did not provide comment to either YouTuber.
DeCastro picked up coverage on Saturday as he was awaiting for a flight back to Las Angeles while at the airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He essentially gave a long-winded explanation for the “unfair” convictions, parroting in part what the female juror had said. Essentially, Grover picked up his resisting charge because he was holding his $7,000.00 camera in one hand when officers went to handcuff him.
Grover put one hand behind his back to accept a handcuff, then pulled his arm forward to take the camera out of his other hand, before putting the other hand behind his back. A second police officer took the camera out of his hand and he was then successfully cuffed.
DeCastro said that Grover also failed to identify himself to police when initially questioned. This was a problem as police had reasonable articulable suspicion that Grover had committed a crime based on the phone call from the neighbor.
The YouTuber pointed out that he believed that the police lost reasonable articulable suspicion when it was confirmed by the owner of unit 1 and the realtor that Grover was not a peeping Tom and was simply doing his job.
He also complained that the trial was a complete “kangaroo court” as there no hearing was held to confirm that police had probable cause, there was no evidentiary hearing, Grover did not testify in his own defense, and that the defense had one objection sustained to the government’s six sustained objections.
DeCastro all but promised a win on appeal for Grover.
As the livestream was ending, DeCastro announced that he would soon be showcasing a project he had been working on all year that multiple YouTubers had joined him in backing.
This project was so significant that it took him away from working on his long promised Constitution HQ board game and that his fans would be extremely excited to see it in action.
DeCastro’s return to the spotlight did nothing to spur his multiple crowd sourcing campaigns, as Liberty Troll took Friday’s title with a $31.00 donation to his “Support the Fight for Our Constitutional Rights” campaign.
No campaigns that we follow received donations on Sunday.
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