Cops Arrest Man on His Own Property After Karen Neighbor Hears Gunshots

This is Zebulon. He likes to shoot guns on his own property in rural Tennessee.

Anytime we deal with a call that has to do with a gun, I'm going to take it off your side, okay?

No.

Yes.

Well, you're, that's, I mean, if that's what you're going to do, then I'm saying it's not okay as far as I'm concerned.

Okay, well, we're going to take it off your side. This is his neighbor who doesn't like hearing Zebulon shoot his guns. So he calls the cops and tells them he heard gunshots on his neighbor's property.

I had an ongoing dispute about the property line and he can't stay off me and I've asked him to stay off me. So I'll come out here and we're just gonna put up a fence. I've not said anything to him. And he come out there and stood behind that van right there. And he come out there and stood behind that van, I assume he shot up in the air.

He didn't see them, but he assumes bullets were fired into the air. The cops go onto Zebulon's property, where he's mowing his field.

At any point did you fire your weapon up in the air, sir?

No. Okay.

Why would we get a call that said that you had?

Whenever I started my mower a minute ago, al underneath my van once ag two shots in the ground t to their coop, but it was was two shots fired and i

Okay, it clears them out to see his I. D. Even tho he didn't fire any shots

do anything illegal. No, have an idea on me, but I'm not going to ID. I'm not giving you my name and date of birth because there's been no crime. I protect my Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment, it gets put aside when open.

And they arrest him for failing to ID while standing on his own property after no crime had even been committed that day. He had called the local sheriffs.

I didn't realize the effect that that was going to have.

This is a story about two rural Tennessee neighbors who don't get along. One neighbor likes to farm, and the other neighbor, his name is Zebulon, likes to shoot guns on his property. I got a chance to talk with him about the incident. Here's what happened. Tell me more about this dispute between you

and your neighbor. Is this something that had been going on for a long time?

We had gotten our mortgage here about six years ago. I had misunderstood the person who had sold me the place about a fence line. We have a five acre rectangle and this neighbor has a 50-foot drive all the way down it and then his property is behind our property off of

the road and that fence line goes all the way down the left side of our property. I had cleared it all out. I'd cut it all back, cut the trees down, cleared all the brush out. I didn't realize that the fence line didn't belong to me and it belonged to the neighbor to the side of me. He basically got mad. He eventually turned around and said, well if you get hurt on my property I don't want your wife to sue me. And I took that as an insult because no matter where, if I hurt myself, it wouldn't matter what property it on, my wife is not the

type to sue somebody. So after that I I realized he had a certain way of talking to people and whenever I give him that same energy, he 100% couldn't stand it. So years go by.

On August 8th of 2025, officers with the Macon County, Tennessee Sheriff's Office responded to a fence line between these two neighbors after being called by the neighbor who likes to farm. The neighbor explained that he was installing new fencing on his property when he heard gunshots coming from Zebulon's property.

So I would come out here and I was just going to put up a fence. I've not said anything to him.

He admitted that he did not see Zebulon shoot, but that he heard him shoot.

He come out there and stood behind that van right there. I assume he shot up in the air, but you can see his little target sitting right down there directly in line with us. He shoots every friggin' day we come out here. If we're outside, he's out here shooting. And it's a constant agitation with him.

I gotcha.

Oh. He said he assumes that Zebulon shot up into the air, though he admitted that he didn't actually see him do it because he was standing on the other side of a van. The neighbor complains that Zebulon is shooting just about every day.

He wants to shoot guns while we're sitting over on the porch. It's pretty stupid, but with no backstop.

He says this has been going on for five years, and they haven't even spoken to each other for the last two or three.

We're down here fencing and he's out there popping off friends. That's a little, that's, I haven't gone much farther. This has been going for five years. I got you. We ain't spoken two or three, so.

Okay.

But it never ends well.

I got you.

You got your ID with you, sir? The officer asks the neighbor for his ID and he provides it. Then he acknowledges that this is probably just going to make it worse, which as you'll see, it does.

This is probably just going to make it worse.

He still can't be out here doing that. But it's got to stop.

It's got to get documented somewhere and know that this is going on.

So this neighbor's complaint to law enforcement is that for the past five years, that Zebulon has been shooting guns on his own property, which has continuously agitated him, and that they haven't spoken in two or three years, and that the most recent gunshots he heard were from that day, and though he assumes that the gun was fired into the air, he didn't witness it, nor did he explain any other basis for his assumption. He didn't allege any sort of altercation or threats by the neighbor involving guns or otherwise.

He did express concern that Zebulon didn't shoot into a backstop, ironically complaining that he was shooting into the ground. In other words, for five years his neighbor is shooting into the ground, which is perfectly legal, but it just so happens that on the day he decides to call the cops on his neighbor, he assumes he was shooting in the air, which he knows would be something illegal.

Has he said anything to you today?

No, we've not spoken to each other in two or three years.

I got you.

And despite this having been allegedly ongoing for five years, the neighbor failed to provide the officer, and nor did she ask by the way, with any sort of video evidence of the shooting activity that would indicate that there is any sort of dangerous or illegal conduct occurring on Zebulon's property. If you don't mind, go ahead and hop in your his property in his field towards him. here. Well, it's right this way. It's closer to the property. How are you? Good.

Good and all right.

Good. Good.

Good.

Good. Good. Good. Good. Sergeant Meyer, she's gonna be the one dealing with you. Anytime we deal with a call that has to do with a gun,

I'm gonna take it off your side, okay?

No. Yes. Well, if that's what you're gonna do, then I'm saying it's not okay as far as I'm concerned.

The officer ignores him. He places his hands on Zebulon, still standing on Zebulon's private property and then he removes Zebulon's pistol from the holster and then he's holding it in his right hand pointed towards the ground. This occurs before the officers even explain the reason why they were there.

Okay well we're gonna take it off your side.

Alright. Okay. So the reason that we're here is we got a call about someone firing shots up in the air.

Okay? So, that's why there's so many of us coming out here.

Zebulon responded that there's no crimes being committed on his property.

And you said Aberdeen and...

Meyer.

Sergeant Meyer.

Well, there's no crimes being committed here.

Okay.

Then, while standing on this man's property holding his gun that they claimed they weren't there to take, the male deputy then responds, we're not saying that you committed a crime.

Look, we're not saying that you committed a crime.

No, I'm just taking the statement.

We're just saying that we've got to — I understand that. And I'm not an advocate to take people's guns. I'm not, but it's just an officer safety thing. As soon as we figure this out, if there's nothing wrong, I'm gonna give you your gun back. I'm cool with everybody having guns. I'm cool with everybody walking around with them.

The female deputy then asks Zebulon if at any point he fired his weapon up in the air, to which he immediately responds no.

At any point did you fire your weapon up in the air, sir? No. Okay. Why would we get a call that said that you had it?

Whenever I started my mower a minute ago, all my chickens was congregated underneath my van once again. So I dropped two shots in the ground to scare them all back to their coop. But it wasn't in the air. There was two shots fired and it was in the ground. It clears them out fast.

It's not the first time I've done it.

I got you.

I understand that completely. Cebulon explained that the shots the neighbor heard were fired because when he started up his mower, a bunch of his chickens once again congregated underneath his van. So he fired two shots into the ground to scare them off back to their coop. She then asks him again if he fired a weapon up in the air. So at no point you fired a weapon up in the air?

No.

Okay.

I would never fire a weapon up in the air. He responds no, that he would never do that and that he takes gun safety seriously to the extent that he takes training classes and had just recently finished one.

I just got finished with a training class this Saturday.

Yeah.

Yeah, what goes up comes back down. Yeah, you don't hear fire whippin'. I just fired him off into the ground. Alright, you got your ID with you, sir?

Um, I haven't committed any crimes.

Sir, we're out here for a call for service.

We have to identify him.

Why do we have to identify him?

This is a great illustration about why you should not talk with the police. Why you shouldn't allow them from your property. They can lie to you, they can gaslight you, and they do it because they want to put you in a cage and ruin your life. Here, this guy was just minding his own business, mowing his field, and now he's surrounded by agents of his government interrogating him while holding his own firearm against

his will on his own property.

And you are Vincent and you are Woodard? Yes, sir. No, actually I don't have an ID on me, but I'm not going to ID. I'm not giving you my name and date of birth because there's been no crime.

He expresses that he wants to protect his Fourth Amendment rights, but the female deputy responds that the Fourth Amendment at this point gets put aside.

I'll protect my Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment at this point gets put aside when, okay.

I'm not gonna fight you, I'm not gonna resist, but I'm not gonna ID. I've done no crime.

Listen, listen, listen to me.

But I'm just telling you.

No, I'm glad to hear you.

No, I'm really glad.

Listen, listen, listen.

We don't want to arrest you. OK, well, you don't want to ID me either because I committed no crime.

We have a right to ID you because we had a call for service out here. No, sir.

You said that you fired shots off.

I didn't say that. I did. But she asked if I fired him in the air. So it doesn't matter if I fired shots off. So we get a gun call. No, are you arrested? What am I arrested for? Right now you're detained. OK, well if I'm being arrested for not giving my right now,

we're trying to give you right now.

We're trying to give you a chance to tell your side and try to ID you. They want my ID.

You're not ID.

That's why I'm not refusing to ID. But until you give me a lawful reason as to why I have to ID? Okay. Because we got a call for service. A call for service is not a lawful reason to ID, sir.

Yes, it is.

No, Dave, because anybody could call and make anything up. If I hadn't fired those shots and he called it up and lied to y'all,

we'd still go get his ID too.

So what if you lied and you shot it in the ground and instead you were shooting a film? Oh is it? But that's burden of proof is on them. It's not burden of proof for me to prove I'm innocent, is it?

That's why we're out here. Well, I'm just making a statement. It's not... You got cameras on your eyeglasses too?

There are three basic types of police versus citizen encounters to be aware of in order to understand Fourth Amendment rights and implications. Consensual encounters where the Fourth Amendment isn't implicated at all because it's a voluntary consensual conversation where the citizen is free to leave at any time, at least theoretically. Then there's the Terry Stop or Investigatory Detention where the citizen is temporarily not free to leave which does implicate the Fourth, and therefore requires the objective existence of reasonable suspicion.

And then there's the full-blown arrest, which requires the objective existence of probable cause. So we first look to categorize the encounter into one of these three situations in order to understand the rights at play. Here the officers skipped right past the consensual encounter stage and went right to the Terry

stop. Well, no crimes have been committed, so I don't know quite what to say.

Let me explain the reason for IDing.

I'm not really wanting to hear it. I'm really not. Are you going to arrest me for not, for failure to ID? Because that's a secondary charge. You got to have a crime first, and I have not committed any crime.

How do we know this was a detention as opposed to a consensual encounter? Generally, police may approach people in a consensual encounter and ask for ID, but that individual is at all times free to leave and walk away, unless he is being detained.

I've tried to explain to you why we have to ID you, sir.

I'm trying to explain to you

why I'm protecting my Fourth Amendment right. Had I known that it was going to be this way, I would have went and got my phone camera so I could have recorded this.

You can always confirm whether or not you're being detained by asking, am I free to go? Here the officers made it clear that Zebulon was being detained. Right off the bat, he even asked at one point if he was free to go and was told that he was not.

This is the special unit on Spring Creek. Am I free to go? Therefore, there's not going to be much dispute Not because of being invited and not because this is casual.

10-4.

10-4.

I understand, sir. Therefore, there's not going to be much dispute that this was a detention, and therefore, reasonable suspicion was required. So for this to be a lawful detainment, an officer needs specific, objective facts, not just a hunch, indicating that a crime or violation has occurred. The officer must be able to clearly explain

observable evidence that justifies the detention. No hunches, or in this case assumptions, are allowed, including unsupported intuition, such as in this case, the neighbor or the officers saying, well, we don't know for a fact that he didn't shoot into the air.

Who knows, he may have shot into the air, even though he denies it and no evidence has been presented.

Look, we don't want to have to take you to jail.

I don't want to go to jail. But if you're going to arrest me on something that is a secondary offense, when you actually have no original crime, then that's just something I'm going to have to fight in court. Isn't that what you always say? No roadside court. Just do it after the fact and if I have to sue the county, then I'll sue the county. No big deal. But we have to see who we're messing with.

We have to run our IDs, see who you are, you say you are.

Just because somebody gave you a call to service doesn't mean I have to surrender my Fourth Amendment right.

It does not.

It's not a Fourth Amendment right when we've come out here for a reason. No, no. Right now this is an investigation. You can investigate if you have proof that I shot, fired. Matter of fact, you didn't even say shots fired at him. You said shots fired at him. You said how in the world do we know since you said they were shots fired that you didn't shoot them at him? She didn't even say shot at him.

She said shot in the air. Shot at him would come up on your part. You said that you shot in the ground or shot up in the air? Because they called in and said you shot up in the air. How do we know if you're shooting a dead person up in the air? Well then they need proof or else they're in, they're falling, falling, falling. You see where we're at?

You see where we're at?

You see where we're at?

Are you going to let me answer? Either they are filing false allegations or your investigation will prove otherwise. No, you have the proof. The burden of proof is not on me to prove that I didn't shoot in the air. Now I'm sitting here telling you, I'm not a moron, so I didn't shoot in the air.

Okay.

We're not saying you're a moron, but- No, anybody that does is though.

We either need our ID or name and date of birth.

All right, put your we need your ID. That may be department policy to obtain the ID of anyone that you interact with at a call, but it also may or may not be constitutional justification under the Fourth Amendment. That would depend on whether or not the call involves any specific objective facts indicating that any crime or violation has been committed. That's why I argue that it's a good idea for police officers to just use their own common sense a little bit before they escalate a situation where no underlying crime has been committed to an arrest for failure to ID. They should

just stop and ask themselves before putting handcuffs on someone, is this a consensual encounter? If not, what is my reasonable suspicion? What crime am I actually investigating here? And what relevance does this ID that I want so badly have to the investigation of that crime? Here, had those common sense questions been considered, all of what's about to happen could have been avoided. I mean, at this point, how does obtaining Zebulon's ID prove or disprove whether or not he fired

a shot into the air?

I don't know what to do with it. I'm tired of coming home and somebody shooting a gun every time I come back here. I've been ignoring it for years. But now this is the first time I've been out in the driveway.

So you was out here in the driveway driving T-Pos?

I stayed right there where the property line went back.

But now, to be honest, I don't know that he shot back here. I'd say he shot in the air.

But still.

Alright, well let me talk to the chief and the...

The neighbor said he didn't witness it. He assumed it. Zebulon gave his side of the story and he said that he didn't do it. He shot into the ground. It's not like his identity is some mystery that needs to be solved. They know who he is. He's the guy who owns the property they're standing on.

They just want that physical ID because it's like crack for police officers.

Put your hand together like you're praying so that way it doesn't pinch you.

And what am I being arrested for?

Right now I figured I identified.

Okay, you figured you identified as a secondary offense. You need an original charge.

No. I didn't do anything and y that's not disorderly. Can

in a disorderly or do you have to have somebody else?

You absolutely can.

Alright, do you have anything else on you, sir?

Yes, I got a magazine.

In this pocket right here. I'm not giving you permission to take any of my belongings. Well, you're in custody right now. So, you can't send it false arrest. Alright. All prerogative. No, it's law.

Okay.

You either follow the law or you don't. You're supposed to be here upholding your oath to the Constitution.

You're right.

Well, this is a 40-minute oath violation. You don't have a crime.

I'm going to call for service.

It doesn't matter if you get called for service. Any loony can call you up and tell you to go search somebody. Mine's the first car up in here. They have to. You can't work like this way off anonymous, can you?

I said, well, we don't know if he's shooting at them, shooting at the man. That's why we're out here for a call.

He refuses to, or whenever I left, he refused to identify himself. He says he's not committed a crime or violating the store commandment. I took his weapon off of his side whenever I got here because it's a safety issue.

He's even claimed that he's fired off rounds, but he claims he shot him in the ground.

First floor up here.

The female officer, Sergeant Rachel Meyer, then handcuffs and arrests Zebulon and places him in the rear ofiser, the officers all gather around to discuss the situation.

I'll give you the firearm that came off his side.

I just put it in my passenger floorboard that way it was out of play.

Alright. They speculate that Zebulon could be intoxicated and one of the officers says well, that's disorderly conduct

Oh, you're gonna find I'm pretty sure he's intoxicated

Well, there you go

I'm not gonna say no. It's too hot. I'm going to get some peace and talk with him. We've tried to be nice.

He's been made a few.

With the investigation, you can only go off

what your witness says.

I know.

Well, I mean, I know what I'm going to do.

Not much hurtless and dangerous.

Exactly. That's my whole thing is,

just so we can get through it.

It's dangerous. I was going to say, you can talk to him or whatever.

However, under Tennessee law, to commit disorderly conduct requires first that a suspect be in a public place, which clearly Zebulon was not since he was on his own property at all relevant times. I mean, Tennessee is still America, even in rural Tennessee.

And I believe that you are allowed to drink on your own property and be intoxicated on your own property if you want to. However, there was no evidence beyond these officers just speculating looking for any way to jam Zebulon up. So he owns here and I've seen you

own the car. Yeah, I own five acres on the downside of the side of my home. Where does he live? He live up there? Yeah he lives in the double

Y dress haunt. What's his name? Do you even know? Zebulon Passmore. Okay. He moved in

here about five years ago. I don't, that's all I know about him. I don't know nothing

about him. So what kind of happened today? I know you probably didn't tell Brian but

I was just trying to kind of get. Today if you're going to go back the whole way. I mean, it's been an ongoing issue. I understand that it's probably been a huge issue. Yeah, well, today, of course, I come out here, every time I go home, he does something. You know, just a finger in your ass, basically. So, I come out here today, and he mows a little further every week.

Well, I got tired of it. I was gonna put a pants up here like I did up there and just let it figure and grow up. It seems to be the best issue.

He said he fired two shots into the ground to scare the chickens back away from his vehicle.

So, having just identified himself, it could have been worth warning to be on our way.

Well, we don't know if that's really what he did.

Yeah.

That's what you're trying to explain to us. Yeah, that's what I're trying to explain to him.

That's what I was trying to explain to him.

How do we know he's a moron?

What do you need to give to us, sir?

The van keys. You can't leave the house with the kids. All right, are they on the mower? No, they're on me. Okay.

I'll get them and I'll give them to her.

I ain't cleared it or nothing else. Alright are they on the mower? No, they're on me. Okay, I'll get them and I'll give them to her.

I ain't cleared it or nothing else. It's exactly how it was.

Hold that.

Clear. That's clear. You know how that goes. That'd be all right. Where are the keys at, sir? Right there.

Have you told me, have y'all figured anything out yet?

Yes.

Okay.

We can get these to his wife.

Down there at the house.

You can put them in the property. He's gonna need to get them to his wife. there at the house. He can put them in his property.

He's got any needs to get them to his wife.

Oh, okay.

We're not going to be liable because he's been brought to us already, so he goes to his property.

All right.

I obtained a copy of the affidavit of complaint and even after reading it, it's still unclear to me. Sergeant Meyer doesn't actually even specifically allege that Zebulon fired shots into the air. She just states that she was told that by witnesses. But that's not actually true. She did not clarify the fact that the complainant slash neighbor admitted that he did not witness

shots being fired into the air, but he just assumed it. That's a material important fact that is being omitted from what the court is being provided in her affidavit. In fact, it's so important that if it was included, there wouldn't be any probable cause at all and the arrest would be invalid on its face.

But since she made this misrepresentation, the reviewing judge concluded that probable cause existed and the prosecution proceeded. Clearly, Sgt. Meyer has no respect for the Fourth Amendment. Sgt. Meyer knew there was no reckless endangerment. She admitted to the other officers that the only available evidence was that Zebulon fired two shots into the ground to scare the chickens, and that had he just identified himself, they could have been on their way. Meyer then walks back to where the neighbor is standing, where he's once again telling

the officers that he didn't actually see Zebulon shoot into the air, but that he's basically just angry that Zebulon is out there shooting on his own property every day.

And then, when we come out here, Julio drove up. I was driving fence posts and Julio drove up and he come and stood back there at the back of his van right behind there. And he shot, we heard three shots. I'd say they was in the air. I'm not saying he shot at us. I'm not going to go there.

But he shoots back this way every day. You can see his little target on the home front. I mean, every day we're home, he comes back here and shoots. Or he stands back there at that van and shoots that target. Now it's kind of in line with my property. There's no backstop. It's a constant agitation.

The neighbor then states that he probably should be more tolerant of the fact that Zedbulon likes to exercise his Second Amendment rights on his own property, but that he's not.

Coming out here and shooting an arrow at me standing in my driveway is about all I can

stand.

I probably should have tolerated more, but I don't know.

And he also acknowledges that calling the cops on his neighbor is probably the worst thing he could have done.

I think this is the worst thing I probably could have done.

But I'm tired of it.

You know what I mean?

I need it on record that...

Well, unfortunately, if we don't start doing something, it's going to get worse.

And I'm not saying that it won't get worse.

Yeah, exactly.

But at least you've done your part.

The cops appear to be kind of on the same side with the neighbor, as if they've teamed up to help him.

You know, to try to prevent it going to the next step. Yeah, I don't believe it will. You just gonna bring it down here for me?

What's that?

His gun.

I'll give it to you.

All right.

They ultimately decide to charge him with reckless endangerment and failure to identify. It's unclear what probable cause exists for the reckless endangerment charge where the complainant admittedly did not see it and no evidence existed that it occurred and the suspect denied it.

So what is it I'm being arrested for?

Right now, failure to identify disorderly conduct.

What happened after you got arrested?

After I got arrested, they basically, you can hear some of the car ride where she didn't give my wife the keys. And at that point, you had been lied to and I took it personally. So the ride in was somewhat, you know, aggravated.

They gotta go with us, man. They gotta go with us, man.

Huh?

They gotta go with us, whatever property you have on you.

Okay, I'm posting it.

She offered me a house with the kids. She has three kids and all the car seats are in the van and the only way that we can make any kind of move is with the van. So you're sitting here telling me that- Wow, that's very interesting. Can you quote the law that says that has to happen or is that just officer discretion?

That's going to be discretion at this point.

That's going to be officer discretion, thank you.

So you purposely make it where the person who is going to have to come to the jail to get me can't because they don't have the keys to the vehicle to transport three children under the age of eight. You know, whenever you ask to get them off of me, if they were on me or the mower, do

you remember telling me whether or not then you would get her the keys when you took the keys off of me?

Because your body camera is going to say one way or the other.

Yeah.

This is my wife.

What do you need to give to her, sir?

The van keys.

She can't leave the house with the kids.

Alright, are they on the mower?

No, they're on me.

Okay.

I'll get them and I officers to lie to civilians. It's just not okay for civilians to lie to officers, right? And at your discretion, you chose to make sure that it was as hard as possible for me to get back home after you took me from my home for no crime, all because I wouldn't identify myself. Y'all really are addicted to IDHM.

When Sergeant Meyer arrested Zebulon, obviously there was no arrest warrant at that time. If you'll recall the little diagram I made, this is where she skipped over the Terry Stott portion of the diagram and went all the way over to the arrest portion. An arrest requires more than just reasonable suspicion, but the greater standard of probable cause. According to the Sixth Circuit, applicable to Tennessee, a warrantless arrest is only reasonable under the Fourth

Amendment where there is probable cause to believe that the suspect committed a criminal offense. More specifically, an officer has probable cause for an arrest if the facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge would lead a reasonable officer to believe that the suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an offense. Because probable cause is an objective standard,

courts require concrete and articulable facts from which a reasonable officer can reasonably infer criminal conduct. In assessing probable cause, courts look to the totality of the circumstances confronted by the officer at the time of the arrest.

Here, what they were investigating objectively was reckless endangerment, which they ultimately charged Zebulon with. So looking at the totality of the circumstances that were known to the officers at the time of the arrest, were there any concrete and articulable facts indicating that this offense was committed? Under Tennessee law, a person commits reckless endangerment if he recklessly engages in conduct that places or may place

another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury." Here, what objective, concrete facts did the officers know at the time of the arrest? The neighbor, who was the complainant, said he heard gunshots fired on Zebulon's property and that he did not see them being fired and did not know which direction they were fired towards. He assumed they were fired towards. He assumed they were fired into the air, but he didn't know.

He further told them that Zebulon was shooting on his property pretty much every day over the past five years, and that it agitated him. The only other thing that the officers knew at the time of the arrest is Zebulon's explanation that he did not fire any shots into the air, that he was at all times being safe, and that he fired shots into the ground, which was completely legal on his own property. The totality of these facts that were known to these officers did not indicate that the neighbor or any other person was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury as a result of

Zebulon shooting on his property. However, the judge who signed off on the arrest did not know the actual facts that were indeed known to the arresting officer at the time because she concealed those facts by omitting the important acknowledgement by the neighbor that he only assumed the shots were fired into the air,

but he didn't actually know. In her affidavit, she made it sound to the judge like it was a he-said-she-said sort of deal where there was disagreement between witnesses that potentially required a trial to decide. But it never was, which is probably why the neighbor never even showed up at the court date.

The point of this whole thing was never to actually convict Zebulon. It was just to make him suffer the humiliation, the expense, and the hassle of an arrest and prosecution.

He took an oath to the Constitution in the Fourth Amendment that there's no reason to give search, seizure papers, none of that. There was no law being broken. Had there been a law being broken and you stated that,

then I would have given you that information, but you wasn't stating the original charge. You were just stating that you were gonna arrest me for non-ident, failure to ID. And then whenever I told you, failure to ID is a secondary charge,

that's when you started him hauling around. As for I asked you why you're arresting me, you didn't say that. And then after you have me in the car, you come back and you're like, yeah,

that's what it is.

As for the charge of resisting and obstructing for failure to ID, I don't see any requirement for an ID to be produced under the wording of that statute that they charged him under. And I haven't seen any explanation or indication that the officers actually needed his ID in order to investigate the neighbor's allegations of shooting into the air.

Is it Officer Meyer?

Yes.

Are you wearing your seatbelt, Officer Meyer? No, sir, I'm not.

No, you're not?

Do you think that that's safe?

Do you think it's safe to not be wearing your seatbelt, Officer Meyer? Is it possible that you're not wearing your seatbelt?

No, sir. Do you think it's safe to not be wearing your seatbelt, Officer Meyer? Is it legal for law enforcement officers to not have to wear their safety belts? Are they above the law? So even though on a daily you would pull people over and write them tickets for not wearing their safety belt, you feel above the law to wear it? You can just ride around all the time without one?

Is that how that works?

Despite the fact that Sergeant Meyer said to her colleagues that it wasn't a big deal, that he should have just ID'd, that it wasn't illegal for him to shoot into the ground to scare his chickens, Zebulon basically faced the full wrath of that local criminal justice system

where he got arrested and gets this bond so high that it makes him unlikely to be able to afford to even bond out of jail before trial.

After I got there, they basically handed me over to somebody else, and then we went into the front of holding.

One of the people who work in booking, who had just gotten a job there, was a person who was a fireman.

And he was a fireman, and he was a fireman. One of the people who work in booking who had just gotten a job there recently, her name was Spanky, and she used to work at the local Walmart and I knew Spanky. So when Spanky turned around and looked at me and seen me standing there, first thing out of her mouth is, what are you doing here? And I basically said, yeah, what am I doing here? And I had went through the whole spill with her about the wrongful arrest and this, that, and the other. And then they had brought in another person into booking.

So they ended up sticking me in one of the holding cells in booking. And I'd sat there probably a couple of hours. And then one of the officers in Booking had come up and asked me my name. I hadn't at this point realized that any of this had been blown out of proportion to the way that it was. I had thought that it was gonna be 500, $250,

whatever, so forth, so on. It wasn't until being released that I had realized that it was a $25,000 with a 2,500 get out. That really changed everything. Sergeant Meyers, she hadn't actually wrote up that report whenever she had arrested me. That report wasn't written up until hours later. And then that was whenever I realized that it had been changed from something about being arrested for failure to ID

to now it was reckless endangerment and obstructing resisting. I learned that basically whenever I signed out with the bail bondsman. How long were you in jail? I have been told since I was only in jail for four hours

that it wasn't that, it wasn't like, oh, well, it didn't really hurt you that bad. It was just in jail for four hours that it wasn't that, it wasn't, you know, like, oh, well, it didn't really hurt you that bad. You was just in jail for four hours. But what had hurt was the fact that my wife had to go back to work the next morning. We don't have any family around us. We homeschool. She had to have me out that night because she had to go to work the next morning and I had to be there to take care of our Children. A lot of people are like, Oh, well, it's no big deal. You just had to spend four hours in jail. What's the big deal? Well, it kind of goes more toward the lawfare side of them upping the charges

and making it $2500 because they fully intended on keeping me in jail for three weeks. I mean, you know, what, what are they going to do? Ruin her 18 year career and our six year mortgage because they want to keep me in their jail for three weeks. I mean, I guess if I had done that, then they'd have been lawyers jumping all over me like chickens on June bugs want to litigate,

but I learned a valuable lesson don't ever tell officers that you're going to sue him. Even if you plan on it, don't just don't say it.

And what ended up happening to the criminal charges? Are they still pending? No, we had gotten the lawyer and that had cost us another thirty five hundred. Basically, what happens, we showed up the first time and he said, OK, now we've showed up and we've said our case. The D.A. is going to do his subpoenas, and this is the first time he's been

introduced to it. He's going to familiarize himself with it, and then he's going to come back with what he'd come back with. So we showed up at the next court date. They brought me back there, and then he's like, I never subpoenaed him. So we're just going to dismiss it on something something like I think it's called no pros and they say that they can bring it up in the future, which I don't understand that but I mean, I've been trying to figure that out. But except for that I was told it was dismissed The paperwork states that the alleged victim failed to appear though As we know had the alleged victim appeared the truth would have been revealed that he witnessed nothing that the entire

Prosecution was nothing but retaliation for Zebulon exercising his Fourth Amendment rights. If any Tennessee lawyers would be interested in representing Zebulon in filing a civil lawsuit, he is interested in doing so. He just can't afford it.

I'm more than willing to litigate. I'm more than willing to take on the battle, to fight the whole thing. We are actively looking for it. We are wanting to pursue it 100%. So if you'd be interested, reach out to me and I can put you in touch. Has anything else happened between you and the neighbor? Nothing has happened between me and him.

Do you have a GoFundMe set up? Yes, there's one on the civil servant accountability page. That's our page. I was hoping to pass it forward for some type of litigation of some sorts. I want what happened to me and the way that I go about trying to bring light to it and shine the light on it, I just want it to help. I want to go forward and be able to have it

where lawyers will look at it and say, well, over here in this case, this was decided, so we need to go in the correct direction. Either they are filing false allegations or your investigation will prove otherwise. But until you have the proof, the burden of proof is not on me to prove that I didn't shoot in the air.

Now I'm sitting here telling you, I'm not a moron, so I didn't shoot in the air. Now I'm sitting here telling you I'm not a moron so I didn't shoot in the air. If I hear anything else I'll update and you can follow along by subscribing both here and at the blog at thecivilrightslawyer.com. You can follow me on x at John Bryan ESQ. Remember, blog at thecivilrightslawyer.com. You can follow me on x at John Bryan ESQ. Remember, our rights don't end where your fear begins. Freedom is scary. Deal with it.