Dashcam shows Delaware cops conspiring to drum up bogus charge against motorist who flipped them off
By: A Delaware man is suing the state police, saying they destroyed a sign he made to warn people about their speed trap, and they created a bogus reason to charge him with an infraction because he gave them the finger, Delaware Online reported.
Jonathan Guessford had launched a mini-protest by holding a hand-made sign that read, "Radar ahead." Body cam footage shows Cpl. Stephen Douglas and Officer Nicholas Gallo approach Guessford and incorrectly tell him he could not stand on the side of the road with the sign. Gallo eventually pulled the sign from Guessford's grasp and ripped it up.
As he was leaving, Guessford gave the officers the finger, prompting them to follow him. When they pulled him over, Master Cpl. Raiford Box arrived on the scene and told Guessford that he was going to be locked up for disorderly conduct and have his child taken away. The officers issued him a citation "under a law that governs hand signals for non-motorized vehicles like bicycles," Delaware Online's report stated.
New dash cam footage that was recently released shows officers conspiring to drum up a bogus charge against Guessford. Douglas was warned by Box that the hand-gesture charge was bogus, but that didn't stop him from issuing it.
“We can lock him up for disorderly conduct," Box tells Douglas in the video. "It might not go anywhere, but we can definitely lock him up for disorderly conduct."
"We can lock him up, take his kid, put his dog in the impound … for now it is what it is," Box later says.