2y ago

After traffic-stop video goes viral, Newton police sue teenage citizen for defamation

iowacapitaldispatch.com

After traffic-stop video goes viral, Newton police sue citizen for defamation - Iowa Capital Dispatch

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2y ago

After traffic-stop video goes viral, Newton police sue citizen for defamation

iowacapitaldispatch.com /2023/10/02/after-traffic-stop-video-goes-viral-newton-police-sue-citizen-for-defamation/

22 comments

The officers’ counterclaim alleges Galanakis defamed them and invaded and their privacy when he posted to social media a series of police body-camera videos documenting his arrest and appended to those videos his own commentary on the incident.
Unfuckingbelievable.
- Defamation is apparently when you get caught being an ass on camera, and someone puts that video of your actions on the internet.
Yeah, that'll never hold up. That doesn't even come into the ballpark of defamation.
- Seems like the judge is allowing the countersuit to proceed on the one narrow statement that Winters had been "convicted" of domestic abuse for beating his girlfriend. In actuality, Newton Police Officer Nathan Winters had orders of protection entered and extended several times because he was beating his girlfriend. Winters has not been convicted of domestic abuse, so the statement could be considered defamatory, and that's why it wasn't immediately dismissed with the rest of the claims.
  
  Sounds like you know what you're talking about, and I don't — doesn't defamation have to be 'intentional'? Sounds like, at worst, a misstatement that can be rewinded with a published correction.
- Looks like an effort to suppress resistance to police bastards
- Police are bastards, but we might want to check the article out before switching to outrage mode
  As part of his social-media postings, Galanakis made several statements, alleging he “basically got kidnapped then raped by the NPD all night,” and falsely indicating Winters had been “convicted” of domestic abuse for beating up a girlfriend.
  So it's not the posting of the video w/ commentary that they're saying it's defamatory, it's claiming he was 'raped' and the false domestic abuse accusation. Stupid teen was in an excellent position for compensation but he's probably wrecked his chances with statements like that.
  
  Try reading the article before you start polishing those boots.
  As for the city’s complaint that Galanakis claimed to have been “kidnapped then raped,” Judge Locher found that statement was a clear and allowable expression of opinion and rhetorical hyperbole.
With regard Galanakis’ claim that Winters had been convicted of domestic abuse, the judge noted that specific allegation appeared to based on a 2021 protective order ... which was extended on at least three subsequent occasions.
Galanakis argued that under Iowa law, a protective order was close enough to a conviction to make his statement substantially true. Judge Locher disagreed, noting that a criminal conviction is very different from a civil judgment and carries a higher burden of proof.
Teenager sued for slander for claiming that the officer who wrongly arrested him was convicted of beating his girlfriend. Really, officer winters had just been civilly judged for beating his girlfriend.
It's always so sad to see how much slander hardworking domestic abusers face - just let them get back to policing our country!
- Policing our country? They've got wives to beat! You can't have it both ways
  
  Abuse and negligence go hand in hand.
That's not what defamation means, stupid pigs.
Here's the video that Galanakis uploaded.
And here are the two goofballs. Tons-of-Fun is Nathan Winters, the other is Christopher Wing.
- Tons of fun. Lol
- Isn't there any kind of physical fitness standard they have to meet?
- They look like fucking losers

22 comments