Shooting by SJPD officer: Police tried to seize my phone, says man who recorded scene

Robert Salonga mercurynews.com SAN JOSE -- A San Jose resident who was one of several people recording the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting in South San Jose last month is alleging he was intimidated and threatened with detainment for refusing to surrender his cellphone or delete the images he took. The allegations are contained in an Aug. 21 internal-affairs complaint filed by Andrew Payne and comes as the issue of recording police performing their duties in public has gained national attention in light of the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Riley v. California that warrantless searches and seizures of cellphones and their contents during an arrest were unconstitutional. Because Payne was not under arrest at the time he said police demanded his phone, there's little ambiguity in this case, said Margaret Russell, a constitutional law professor at Santa Clara University. "They can't seize and search cellphones of criminal suspects, so they definitely can't do that to someone in the street," she said. to read more: mercurynews.com