An armed man claims he was assaulted and beaten by Lyon County employees in Dayton while making a “First Amendment audit” video to post on YouTube and social media.
Anthony
E. Passalacqua of Dayton was arrested Jan. 2 at the Dayton Utilities
Building after he filmed a video on his phone that caused Lyon County
employees to feel threatened. Passalacqua was armed while making the
video, according to County Manager Jeff Page.
The Lyon County Sheriff's Office was called and Passalacqua was arrested on a firearms charge.
Passalacqua, who uses the name “Sunrie” to post videos to YouTube, posted an edited, nine-minute version of the video on the video sharing website. He also posted a version to Instagram.
The video has nearly 18,000 views and is titled “1st Amendment Audit – Lyon County Public Works – Beaten up and Arrested!”
The video shows Passalacqua walking around the building, and then entering the building, filming things such as employees working and employees’ personal vehicles. The Dayton Utilities Office is at 34 Lakes Blvd.
“Let’s see if they respect our First Amendment rights,” he says as he starts filming.
When an employee asks who he is and why he is filming, he refuses to give his name. He says he is recording employees’ vehicles “because they’re out in public.”
When he enters the building, a smiling woman who identifies herself as the office supervisor asks who he is and why he is filming, and Passalacqua answers “who are you that I have to answer to?”
Another woman who appears to work for the county takes his camera from him, and Passalacqua can be heard, yelling, “You are now putting me in fear for my life and there is more than one of you … Do not touch me, I will defend myself … Nevada law says in the presence of two or more people I’m allowed to defend myself if necessary.”
Utillities Director Mike Workman can be heard telling Passalacqua to go outside.
"Nevada law allows individuals to open carry a gun in many county and city publicly owned buildings; however, it doesn’t allow the individual to brandish that gun to a government employee during a dispute," Sheriff Al McNeil said.
Passalacqua’s take on the incident, according to a post under his YouTube video, states “I am contacted by multiple employees, who then attack me, steal my camera, continue to beat me up and call the police on me.”
In a bio posted to his Wordpress site, Passalacqua says “I’m Italian, blue eyed, like to fish, hunt, hike, ride motorcycles, was military (Army) and law enforcement, currently an EMT, easy to annoy, tattooed and everything else is subject to change.”
He has also posted First Amendment videos that featured him filming the Dayton Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, Chamber of Commerce and Nevada Department of Transportation in Carson City.
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office has transferred the investigation to the district attorney’s office.
Page said nothing like this has happened in the county before.
“It appears from the video a female employee walked into a doorway and has a camera shoved in her face and takes it. That necessarily isn’t a wrong action. She’s startled,” he said. “I’m a little reluctant to say where it went wrong without knowing the full story (Page said he has only seen the edited video, not the unedited version.) If we did something wrong I want to verify that before I go public.”
He said since Passalacqua posted the video on YouTube the county has received “hundreds upon hundreds” of phone calls from people across the country about the matter and that “the people who call are offensive and/or threatening.” Some employees have received threatening emails, and Page said his family members have received threatening messages on Facebook.
“If a resident has a concern, I don’t have a problem that. I don’t have a problem with anyone in the nation having problems, but let’s have a conversation,” Page said. Regarding Passalacqua, Page said “I’d be more than happy to sit down and address his concerns with him. I’m not saying the county can’t improve its services.”
Passalacqua is set to appear in district court Jan. 23.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/local/mason-valley/2018/01/08/armed-dayton-man-claims-assault-lyon-county-employees/1015127001/
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