Back in 2009 & 2010, I wrote extensively about Steven Anderson's beating by federal Border Patrol agents and Arizona DPS officers during a Border Patrol checkpoint encounter outside Yuma, Arizona along with the subsequent malicious prosecution he was forced to endure by an overzealous Yuma County prosecutor. See:

 

* Arizona DPS Delivers 'Service' With A Smile

* Steven Anderson's 'Ode To The Border Patrol'

* Charges Dismissed With Prejudice Against Steven Anderson

* Video from Steven Anderson's court hearing now available

* Full Video of Anderson's Checkpoint Hearing Released

* A Deja Vu Moment. Anderson Found Not Guilty - Again

 

During the 2009-2010 time frame, Anderson was initially acquitted of all charges by the judge in the case only to have them reinstated after the prosecutor appealed the dismissal and had the lower court judge's dismissal reversed. Anderson then went to trial starting August 12, 2010 for two days, with a jury, on two trumped-up criminal charges. After listening to three of the prosecutor's witnesses and watching the entirety of Mr. Anderson's videotaped checkpoint encounter, the jury found Mr. Anderson not guilty on all counts after deliberating for about 1 1/2 hours.

 

Up until a few months ago, video of the jury trial had not been made available. Fortunately, Anderson has now posted the video of the trial in its entirety in 14 separate clips. I've embedded those 14 videos below. For those interested in getting right to the actual trial, they can start with the 5th video. The first four center around motions to the court and jury selection. The last video is when the jury's verdict is read.

 

For those interested in checkpoint issues along with courtroom procedure in general, these videos are well worth the time to watch. I especially found the testimony regarding the Border Patrol's alleged K9 alert to be quite interesting. To summarize, the Border Patrol claimed their K9 alerted to Anderson's vehicle as he was driving into the checkpoint and before he came to a stop at primary which was why they wanted him to move to secondary. When Anderson asserted that the dog never alerted and demanded that it be brought over to his vehicle for another pass while his vehicle was sitting stationary in the lane, the Border Patrol refused despite the fact one of the AZ DPS officers asked that they do so as well. In fact, the DPS officer testified in court that he thought this was a reasonable request. Nonetheless, when the Border Patrol refused, the DPS officers still initiated Anderson's extraction from the vehicle in a very violent fashion.

 

You'll also note that one of the prosecutor's witnesses testified that the wind was blowing North to South at the time of the alleged dog alert with the lanes of traffic running East and West. He also testified that the dog 'drafted' as opposed to alerted which means the dog turned in the direction of Anderson's vehicle after it passed by and appeared to be pulling in that direction. Why the defense didn't point out that the dog never actually sniffed Anderson's car since it was moving at the time but rather was smelling a block of air that could have had a scent of interest blown in on the wind - possibly from a vehicle in a different lane of traffic or someplace else entirely is beyond me. The defense also failed to raise the point that the dogs are dual trained to detect people and drugs and there's really no way to know to which the dog is alerting if all known humans haven't been removed from the vehicle before allowing the sniff - especially when the vehicle is still moving in the lane of traffic.

 

Anyway, I found the videos to be quite educational. They are available in chronological order below:

 

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 1 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 2 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 3 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 4 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 5 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 6 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 7 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 8 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 9 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 10 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 11 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 12 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 13 - Border Patrol Checkpoint:

Anderson Full JURY Trial (08/12/10) Part 14 - Border Patrol Checkpoint: