Footage out of Texas showing deputies during a search. One deputy thought he turned his bodycam off at the start of the clip, but it stayed live for the entire duration. The audio captures some pretty controversial conversations while they go through the residence. What do you guys think of the conduct here?
12 Minutes In, I Asked If I Was Detained. They Kept Me Anyway.
Today, I signed with Holland & Knight.
They are now representing me pro bono in my federal civil rights case against the City of Sunrise.
One of the biggest law firms in the country is stepping into a case I carried alone for over a year.
But before anyone talks about lawsuits, motions, or headlines —
watch this clip.
This is not the end of what happened to me.
This is the beginning.
About 12 minutes after I was first stopped, I am standing there trying to calm my dogs while more officers keep pouring into the scene.
I ask a simple question:
“Am I being detained?”
That question matters.
Because after this, I say I was kept detained for roughly 50 more minutes before being arrested.
Then I was placed in the back of a police car, handcuffed, for approximately two more hours.
I yelled for water.
I yelled for air conditioning.
I yelled for a bathroom.
And while I was trapped in that car, officers stood around the hood laughing, talking, watching, and letting it continue.
That is what this case is about.
Not one moment.
The whole record.
The timeline.
The detention.
The officers who kept arriving.
The officers who were not properly documented.
The paperwork that does not match the video.
The dispatch record that does not match the official story.
The body camera evidence that I believe was not produced as the full, clean, original record.
For over a year, I carried this alone.
No firm.
No team.
No money.
No machine.
Just me.
The video.
The dispatch records.
The timestamps.
The contradictions.
The filings.
The hearings.
The truth.
I fought sick.
I fought broke.
I fought exhausted.
I fought while people laughed.
I fought while people called me crazy.
I fought while the system tried to turn what happened to me into paperwork and move on.
I did not move on.
I kept comparing the video to the reports.
I kept comparing the reports to dispatch.
I kept finding the gaps.
I kept identifying missing officers.
I kept showing that the official story did not match the record.
Now we are at summary judgment.
This is where police civil rights cases often get killed before trial.
This is where qualified immunity comes in.
This is where the defense asks the judge to end the case before a jury ever hears it.
They thought I would break before this moment.
I didn’t.
I kept the record alive long enough for serious federal litigators to step in.
Holland & Knight did not step in because I was loud.
They stepped in because there is a record.
There are questions.
There are contradictions.
There is a federal case still alive.
This is not the finish line.
This is backup arriving.
My name is Nihal Michael Gautam.
I am the father who kept fighting for his name.
I am the pro se plaintiff who refused to disappear.
I am the one they thought would be alone forever.
I’m not alone anymore.
The record survived.
Now let the docket speak.
Let me start by saying my whole perspective has changed after today. I truly thought that it’s not all cops but today taught me a hard lesson on how wrong I was. I was thinking about posting this in my local group on fb but I knew it would get backlash and I would be called a liar and I’m not willing to listen to it even though I believe the community deserves to know how local law enforcement conducts themselves.
We will start the story off sweet by stating I was leaving the awards ceremony of my niece with her mother who was driving who is my older sister. My nieces grandmother and my 1 yr old nephew was also in the car with us. My niece won some awards and we were on our way to celebrate with some chick-fil-A because that’s her favorite restaurant. Overall a great day so far.
As we’re heading down the road we notice a police officer sitting in a turning lane on a 2 lane road. We are very familiar with the area and neither of us have ever had a run in with the law. I’ve gotten one speeding ticket out of town when I was young in all my 27yrs of living, my sister has never gotten a citation in her life. I think that speaks to our character and how we conduct ourselves.
Okay back to it. Officer sitting in the turning lane with her flashers on. We come to a stop bc we’re all a bit confused. We’re all thinking if she didn’t want us to go she would let us know. She didn’t. Traffic clears so we proceed straight. The officers decides now is a good time to assert herself instead of when were stopped next to her vehicle. She hauls butt to drive in front of us almost causing us to collide with her. At this point I’m hot because we have the whole family in the car and if we had hit her that would be on my sweet, soft spoken sister. That would have just torn her up and it would have been a whole other ordeal she would have to deal with.
I immediately throw my hands up in the air and say “what are you doing? Why aren’t you directing traffic??” I feel like ya know pretty normal response to someone who almost caused a crash. Police officer rolls her window down throws her hand up in the air asking what my problem is. I pointed and said “YOU”. She’s all pissy, slamming her car into park and proceeds to walk over to the car. The first thing that comes out of my mouth is what were you thinking? Why did you do that? She proceeds to ask for my sister driver license and mine.
I did not have my license on me that day because I was not driving and I told her so she asked me how old I was and I told her 27. She says “you’re 27 years old and you don’t have a license”. I told her I have a license. I’m just not driving so no I don’t have it on me. I did give her my social. I know I didn’t have to because I had not broken the law and I was not driving but I was so heated I just blurted it out. She starts saying that she was in our lane blocking it, which I know not to be true. Every person in the car knows that not to be true. She’s trying to lie directly to her faces like we weren’t involved in the situation and have eyes? And that’s what I told her. She did not like. Told us to pull into the entrance of the school.
Mind you this was not the time school let out so that added to our confusion even more on why she was there. 100% of the time a cop is outside of there car directing traffic and she was doing neither. Of course we obey and immediately pull off. We’re waiting for her to come back. My sister is all upset asking me to just let her handle it. I apologized but she understood because she was just as confused and upset as I was she’s just not the type to take up for herself towards people in a position of power. She was scared I would get arrested and I reassured her if I did it would be okay because it’s not against the law to give a cop attitude and it would play out in my favor eventually.
The cop comes back and proceeds to tell my sister “your sisters mouth is gonna get you in trouble.” I’m just side eyeing her like yeah okay. Trying to keep my mouth shut to appease my sister. The officer explains shes not giving her a ticket today but she could. I blurt out “for what?!?” She said for not obeying a police officer demands. I say “listen ma’am I’m not trying to be disrespectful but from our perspective you were not blocking our lane, you gave us no direction or demand when we were stopped and we waited till it was safe for us to go. Then you proceeded to almost cause us to crash into you with the babies in the car and that’s what has me so worked up. Normally cops are outside of there car directing and you were not doing that” then she told me both me and sister lacked common sense. “If a cop is sitting with there traffic lights on you stop.” I’m thinking we did stop and you did NOTHING. I just shut up because I’m not arguing with someone who is both disrespectful and wrong.
That’s the end of the interaction. We tell a few family and friends. They all say you need to report her to a higher up. I wasn’t going to but the more I thought about the more I was like ya know what that was very inappropriate and maybe her Sargent isn’t aware this is now she conducts herself. I call him. He’s super apologetic which makes everyone involved feel much better including me. Everyone was content. Now this is what has me worked up. I will include screenshots and just let yall decide after reading my story and seeing the officers side of the story.
I’ve realized this group does not allow photos so here was the response I got asking for an update. “I did speak with Officer blue. (Changed her name) She stated she had the north and south bound lanes stopped to let the cars coming off of high school drive out because there were cars backing up. She stated she did have her truck facing north bound with the front of her Tahoe out in the roadway. She stated your sister then proceeded to go around her vehicle. As your sister began to go, Officer blue stated she pulled her vehicle further into the lane to keep her going forward in an attempt to keep her from colliding with a vehicle coming off of High School Dr. she did state she threw her hand in the air as you began yelling at her. She states as she was talking to your sister who was calm, you kept interrupting and escalating the interaction. After talking to her about the situation she did say she could understand the confusion because she wasn’t out of the vehicle. I spoke with her about the importance of making it clear to motorists of what she is needing them to do. As far as her temperament to be an SRO she is highly respected by the faculty, staff and the students and there isn’t another officer I would trust to protect the kids at any of the schools. I have addressed your concerns with the interaction and feel as if it has been handled accordingly. If you would like to speak further I can talk to you more about this tomorrow during work hours.”
Now I’m going to point out how her story is flawed. This really makes me wish my sister had a dash cam. She says we went around her. If that were true we would be in the grass on the side of the road. We were not. She didn’t turn her wheel she literally drove straight. Would not be possible if the police officers car was in the road. She almost collided with us to stop a collision with another vehicle? Meanwhile we were stopped and waited till it was safe for us to go. There was a car coming but it was further back on the road then they would have had to turn onto our road so unless they were speeding (they were not) we were fine to pass. Hence why we were stopped and waited till it was safe to go. Also to say I was interrupting her was not true at all. She addressed me several times and also spoke about me as if I was not there and even then I kept my mouth shut till she told us she could give us a ticket. I will admit I hollered when she almost caused us to crash because what was she thinking? When she was at our vehicle I was not yelling but definitely had a tone with her. Quite literally she same tone she had with us.
That being said. Cops do lie. Even when they are in the wrong. Cops do treat you like some type of criminal when their ego is bruised. Cops will flex their authority to scare you into complying. Cops will create an unsafe situation then get upset when you’re upset about the situation they created. Cops can dish it out but cannot handle it when it’s returned. I wish there was more I could do so she learns her lesson but I did all I could and contacted the proper authority and told the real version of events. It does not matter. Cops are always right apparently and cannot lie.