An Iowa Man Published Body Camera Footage From His Arrest. The Cops Are Suing Him for Defamation.
Tayvin Galanakis was arrested last year on suspicion of intoxication, even after a Breathalyzer showed he was sober.
An Iowa man published body camera footage of his arrest at the hands of two Newton, Iowa, police officers last year. Now, he's being sued for defamation.
In August 2022, 19-year-old Tayvin Galanakis was driving in Newton just after midnight when he was pulled over by police officers Nathan Winters and Christopher Wing.
"How much have you had to drink tonight?" Winters asks Galanakis in body camera footage from the incident.
"None," Galanakis responds. Winters incredulously asks, "What do you mean none?" Galanakis said, "Great, let's do a test then."
The footage then shows Galanakis undergoing a series of field sobriety tests. After Winters claims Galanakis failed them, he administered a Breathalyzer test, which showed that Galanakis had a blood-alcohol level of 0.00. Almost immediately after proving his sobriety, body camera footage shows Winters asking Galanakis about how much marijuana he had consumed.
"Despite previously claiming he could smell alcohol on Tayvin, Officer Winters now claimed he believed Tayvin was intoxicated due to his use of marijuana," reads a legal complaint later filed by Galanakis. "Tayvin continuously told the officers that he did not use marijuana and that his placement on the William Penn [University] football team renders him unable to use marijuana because of his weekly drug tests."
"I've had no weed tonight," body camera footage shows Galanakis telling officers. "Why do you think it's tonight? I blew a zero, so now you're trying to say I smoked weed. That's what's going on. You can't do that, man. You really can't do that."
"Absolutely I can," one of the officers responded.
According to Galanakis' suit, the officers arrested Galanakis and took him to the Newton Police Station, where he agreed to undergo drug tests, which came back negative. Eventually, he was released.
Less than a week after his arrest, Galanakis published body camera footage from his arrest to YouTube, where it eventually gained over 2 million views. According to the Newton Daily News, viewers flooded the Newton Police Department with hundreds of calls expressing outrage over the arrest.
Galanakis filed a lawsuit against Winters and Wing in February 2023, alleging that the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights, wrongfully arrested him, and caused "humiliation, degradation, public ridicule, loss of personal reputation, and emotional distress."
Soon after Winters and Wing filed a counterclaim against Galanakis, arguing that he had defamed them by publishing the footage and making derogatory comments about the officers on social media. In several posts, Galanakis made statements such as "basically I got kidnapped then raped by the NPD all night," "they didn't show the clip of Nathan sexually harassing me," and stated falsely that Winters had been convicted of domestic abuse.
In May, a federal judge dismissed most of Winters and Wing's defamation claims. "Galanakis made extensive video footage from his encounter with Winters available on YouTube and TikTok," wrote Judge Stephen H. Lochner. "Viewers therefore had the opportunity to see for themselves what Winters said and did. With this context in mind, it would be even harder for a listener to interpret Galanakis's statements as anything other than his opinion or 'rhetorical hyperbole' about what happened during the encounter."
However, Lochner also ruled that several of Galanakis' statements—namely, his claims that Winters was convicted of domestic abuse or had abused an ex-girlfriend—were possibly defamatory, and thus the defamation suit could move forward in part.
This isn't the first time Newton police have lashed out against a disgruntled citizen. Last year, they arrested Noah Petersen, then 22, and charged him with disorderly conduct after he claimed during a City Council meeting regarding Galanakis' arrest that the police department was employing a "domestic abuser," in reference to Winters.
Petersen was found not guilty, and the city ordinance allowing his arrest was overturned for violating the First Amendment.
"What's the First Amendment for if not criticizing the government?" Petersen told the local TV station KCCI last October. "I think government can handle three minutes of criticism."
