Guam Police violate Anthony Smith’s civil rights, beats and jails him. Police report no. 20-11511

On May 3, 2020, at 3am, a public disturbance (fight) ensued at the Paseo parking lot in the city of Hagatna, Guam when A Good Samaritan citizen, Anthony Smith had witnessed the ongoing altercation. Anthony recorded the incident and called the police for assistance.

Shortly after the call was made to the Guam Police Department, officers from the central precinct showed up to investigate the incident.

With reasonable distance, Anthony positioned himself on the public sidewalk over 20 feet away and continued to film the scene. Two officers who spoke with Anthony had no issue with him filming until a third officer, Patrick Corpuz noticed him video recording. Corpuz took issue with Anthony and harassed him for it in an attempt to intimidate and criminalize him for exercising his 1st Amendment right.

As Corpuz continued to take issue with Anthony video recording, Anthony put more distance between himself and the scene but that did not satisfy Corpuz. It was never about the distance, but retaliation for filming them in the course of their duty (General order 13-005).

Anthony then decided to leave the scene and Corpuz pursued him on foot after soliciting a harassment complaint from the parties involved in the altercation that Anthony witnessed in order to justify an arrest against Anthony. As Anthony continued to walk away in peace, Corpuz impeded his freedom of movement by physically arresting him, manhandling him and even sucker punching him in the gut while Anthony was cooperative, defenseless, and not resisting.

Anthony’s personal property was illegally seized under the 4th Amendment and he was taken to jail for several hours and arbitrarily charged for obstruction, resisting arrest, failure to disperse, and harassment. Those charges did not stick.