This video is long and requires hip waders. The post that summarizes the video is just as long and just as messy.
From the hour plus press conference[1] with the lawyer for Daniel Martin, hereinafter to be referred to as the Holy Stammering Obscurantist for reasons that I explained in the previous post.[2] The lawyer for Daniel Martin starts out explaining why he has not said anything, yet.
Then he mentions that Oklahoma law has exempted audio and video recordings from the open records requirements, since 2005. He states that Daniel Martin wanted this video released. Daniel Martin apparently still believes that this video justifies his behavior.
One of the other reasons I want to speak out is on behalf of trooper Daniel Martin. There’s a lot of things that people ought to know about him. He’s not this ogre. This Constitutional depriver of people’s rights. He’s a good man.(at 0:03:38)[1]
I do not believe I ever stated that he was not a good man, but that he misbehaved. Many good men misbehave. This is part of being human. This is why we have laws. I have been ambivalent about how this should be handled, but I did not criticize the choice to not fire Daniel Martin. I prefer remediation.
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist points to Daniel Martin’s military record and a bunch of honors he has received.
I certainly do not think that Daniel Martin’s behavior is acceptable. Not even close, but I do see many things that many of his critics seem to ignore. He is irate. He is not in complete control, but he is also not completely out of control. He appears to be using what he feels is needed to physically try to control the medic.
Here is the problem I see. He never should have stopped the ambulance to begin with.
Upon learning there was a patient in the back, he should not have dismissed the health of a patient with, You are not running Code.
He should have immediately told the crew to continue to the hospital. He could have followed the ambulance, or decided to not pursue this any further, or contacted a supervisor to clarify how to proceed. He did not. This is how a good man becomes someone, who embarrasses his department, who embarrasses his family, who is the butt of jokes, et cetera.
This choice to continue to detain the ambulance, the crew, and the patient, is something that, while I do not know Oklahoma law, I believe exceeds the authority of a trooper. He is now interfering in patient care.
The measure by Rep. Marian Cooksey of Edmond authorizes a felony charge against anyone who assaults an emergency medical care provider or emergency medical technician who is performing medical care duties.
The penalty would be up to two years in prison under the new law.[3]
This is something that I expect that lawyers drool over. Which law takes precedence, when laws are in conflict. When an irresistible force (Daniel Martin) meets an immovable object (Maurice White, Jr.). I suppose that some of these have been worked out in the courts already, but how does active patient care affect this equation? Has that been decided by the courts? Is this something that legislatures should be looking at to clarify this issue?
I think that this is something that legislatures need to at least consider. Are their laws clear enough when different emergency responders have differing priorities? Are the people best served by having one agency trump all other agencies when laws conflict? What happens when this type of conflict occurs between different police agencies?
Anyway, back to the Holy Stammering Obscurantist.
Some of the other reasons are to speak out is because he has received numerous threats. Just last weekend we received our second notice from his internet service provider that people were attempting to hack his emails and enter his private email. He has received emails talking about doing a drive-by shooting on his house and his family.(at 0:06:12)[1]
This is not at all justified by anything Daniel Martin did. I have read many comments on different sites. There are a lot of people who view Daniel Martin as the personification of evil. The good news is that that kind of evil is not easy to find in this country, otherwise there would not be so many comments with such exaggerated criticism of Daniel Martin’s actions. As I have stated earlier, misbehavior by one person does not justify misbehavior by another person. I also do not think that we should be using extreme terminology in describing the actions of Daniel Martin. Misbehavior is adequate top describe Daniel Martin’s behavior.
Then the Holy Stammering Obscurantist starts talking about the ambulance not travelling Code. This is a huge misrepresentation of what is responsible behavior.
That ambulance has no more authority or requirements under the law than a private vehicle travelling onto the road. They are required to follow the Oklahoma laws as it pertain to vehicles.(at 0:12:44)[1]
Where did they fail to do this?
The following is continuous from 01:13:44. My comments are inserted.
As he (Daniel Martin) approaches the Okfuskee County ambulance, the question would be How long are they behind him? A breakdown that I have done of the tape shows, that at least, we believe for approximately 24 seconds they should have seen lights and sirens coming.[4]
It is about 30 seconds into the video when the ambulance pulls off of the road. It is not clear when they could have heard the sirens. I doubt that they ever heard the lights. I suspect that Paul Franks does not hear the sirens until the ambulance is already passing car in front of them. The car that is pulling to the side of the road. This is not proof that they heard the sirens, but the Holy Stammering Obscurantist states that, in his mind it is proof. If he were speaking for a defendant, accused of not yielding, I would expect a whole different pile of feces to be emanating from him. When in the ambulance, sometimes cars just pull over, even when there is no siren in use anywhere in the vicinity. Cars also sometimes pull to the side of the road for other reasons. This is not proof. Perhaps they could get the plate number of the car off of the original video and contact the driver to clarify this.
There was also some confusion, based on the statements made by Mr. White and Mr. Franks, that the trooper, on the initial incident, was not running lights and sirens. I think, quite obviously, now that the tape is released, everyone is cognizant, he was running lights and sirens.
Finally something we agree on.
You will see the vast majority of the emergency, or other vehicles on the road, did pull off as he approached. As he came up onto the Creek Nation EMS ambulance, you can see the vehicle in front of them pulls over and starts to get off of the road, which at least in our position would think they must have heard the lights and sirens and knew that emergency vehicles were coming.
You will see the vast majority of the emergency, or other vehicles on the road, did pull off as he approached. Really? What video did he have access to? There are no other vehicles shown before the ambulance. assuming that he has access to a longer tape, how quickly did the other vehicles yield? This might give us an idea of how far away the sirens would have been heard.
Were any of these other vehicles ambulances transporting patients? Vehicles with several emergency radios competing for the attention of the driver, a patient in the back, and a family member up front, travelling on a curve that obscures vehicles to the front and rear?
What? He did not even consider any of this? I am shocked!
Maybe this lawyer should consider riding in an ambulance to become familiar with the differences between an emergency vehicle and a non-emergency vehicle. Differences that exist regardless of whether the lights or sirens are on.
Do any of these apply to Daniel Martin?
Several emergency radios?
Check.
A patient in the back?
No.
A family member up front?
Check.
Travelling on a curve that obscures vehicles to the front and rear?
Check.
Maybe everybody ought to be a bit less judgmental.
Have any ambulances ever been behind a car that took a while to pull over?
This has happened hundreds of times to me, perhaps thousands of times. It is not important. I would have to be extremely sensitive to chase after someone to make a big deal out of this, but I am not authorized to pull people over for this. Maybe Daniel Martin will campaign for EMS to be able to pull people over to write them tickets. He seems to think this is quite the priority.
As he starts to go around the EMS ambulance, they turn, drift left of center and kind of cut off his going around, trooper Martin gets on the county EMS radio and says, You think you guys would look in your rear view mirror.
Now that statement has been described by Mr. White and the ambulance driver as his mean and rude statement to them. Trooper Martin was just a little shocked that they did not afford him the duties or the requirements of an emergency vehicle. He is running lights and sirens.
Daniel Martin, here’s your tissue.
Go have a good cry. You may need some stress debriefing after waiting a few seconds longer than you would have liked.
After he gets to the town of Paden, when he gets there, he realizes there is other sheriffs there, that there’s no longer an emergency matter pending.[1]
Since there appears to be no communication by any means between Daniel Martin and anyone on scene, how does he conclude that his assistance is not needed. If someone calls for assistance and just shows up and sees that other vehicles are present, then drives away, is this the kind of person you want to call for help? Was there any communication that was not visible/audible on the tape?
If I call for help, I do not want some self-cancelling, overly sensitive, easily enraged LEO to be the person I am depending on. Fortunately, most police take their jobs, and the safety of those they are called to help, more seriously than Daniel Martin appears to. Maybe there was some communication, but I missed it. He never left the vehicle.
Is Daniel Martin psychic? Can he tell what other people are thinking? Why then, did he engage in such bad behavior on camera on two cameras?
As the ambulance goes by, trooper Martin says that the driver gave him the finger.[1]
Maybe Paul Franks did give Daniel Martin the finger. In which case, he is even more childish than Daniel Martin. I do not know.
Perhaps Paul Franks is just pointing out that since Daniel Martin is no longer responding to an emergency, that now Daniel Martin has no more authority or requirements under the law than a private vehicle travelling onto the road. Or does that only happen with emergency vehicles transporting patients?
Maybe, as he stated, Paul Franks just threw up his arms in frustration at the whining of Daniel Martin. Since this was not captured on the video, we will never know. If we are to go by the judgment of Daniel Martin on the video, then the benefit of the doubt has to go to Paul Franks. Paul Franks is the only one to remain calm at all times he is on camera.
Then the Holy Stammering Obscurantist goes into a bit of song and dance about how Daniel Martin reads minds and how he feels about the possibility that he might not look like the toughest guy on the playground, when they go to recess.
All of this depends on Daniel Martin actually being given the finger and not misinterpreting anything. If he did misinterpret Paul Franks just throwing up his hands in frustration, then it seems that the Holy Stammering Obscurantist has no defense for the immature and violent behavior that follows, but the Holy Stammering Obscurantist is stating that this is Daniel Martin’s playground and Daniel Martin should not even be allowed to think that somebody is not treating him with the greatest of respect.
Respect my authoritI!
I would accept any of the concerns that the Holy Stammering Obscurantist raises. No problem. But only if he waits until they drop off their patient at the hospital. Since he does not treat a patient in the back of an ambulance as more important than these concerns, I don’t see this as anything other than a tantrum.
Respect my authoritI!
It has been reported, and now that you’ve all seen the video, but it’s been reported that as soon as he got out of the vehicle he immediately began cursing. I would ask you, go back and watch that video closely. And that’s not what happened.(at 01:17:46)[1]
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist does have a point. Daniel Martin does not start his cursing immediately.
No, it takes Daniel Martin almost half a minute to begin cursing. Daniel Martin is the picture of self control. He ignores the welfare of the patient, and for what? A failure to yield ticket. Daniel Martin certainly seems to need counselling.
When the ambulance was stopped, it had pulled over for a vehicle travelling very quickly, probably in excess of the speed limit, but with only lights on, no sirens. Maybe, according to the Holy Stammering Obscurantist, this was wrong for the ambulance to pull over for a vehicle that has no more authority or requirements under the law than a private vehicle travelling onto the road. Or does that only happen with emergency vehicles transporting patients? Is speeding acceptable without the siren on. After all, this is the kind of thing Holy Stammering Obscurantists spend their time worrying about.
From here I do believe that Maurice White, Jr. was a bit too aggressive, but he does repeatedly back off and point out that they have a patient and they should deal with this at the hospital. Apparently logic is not a language that Daniel Martin uses, when his panties are bunched.
What is Oklahoma law on who is in charge in a patient care situation? I doubt it has anything to do with the lights or the sirens. I know that if I am the patient, I do not want Daniel Martin in charge.
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist states that he has gone through this video and broken this down a ton of different ways, then he states that when Daniel Martin yells at Maurice White, Jr., You get your a__ back in the ambulance is the first time that he shows anger, when just before that he was cursing at Paul Franks.
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist is a liar.
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist had a lot of time to prepare for this. The Holy Stammering Obscurantist states that he has gone over the tape many different ways.
Does the Holy Stammering Obscurantist think nobody else will notice his lies?
Then the crux of this, the Holy Stammering Obscurantist states, He is not complying with a lawful order.
Is it a lawful order, when Daniel Martin has been told that he is interfering with patient care? I do not know how the laws are interpreted in Oklahoma, but are troopers exempt from obeying the EMT protection law that had just been signed by the Governor? Are troopers allowed to interfere in patient care on a whim? This is something that can wait until patient care is transferred at the hospital, so is it more than a whim, that Daniel Martin addresses it right there on the side of the road.
Perhaps Daniel Martin should be transferred to the Department of Whimsy.
That’s what troopers do and that’s what police officers do. They follow the law.(at 0:20:00)[1]
Daniel Martin seems to pick only one law to follow at any one time. This does not appear to be a case of a trooper having any interest in upholding the law or of exercise any discretion, except as it serves Daniel Martin’s most primitive instincts.
Then there is more song and dance about allowing troopers to make patient care decisions, which is what this is about. How does the trooper’s medical training exceed that of the paramedic. According to the Holy Stammering Obscurantist, the ability of the trooper to enforce traffic laws is more important than the laws that protect patients. Maybe that is the way things are in Oklahoma. Maybe people like the Holy Stammering Obscurantist make the laws, there. That is a scary possibility. Maybe Oklahoma laws discourage troopers from making any intelligent decisions, such as let’s handle this at the hospital.
No, that was the way they ended up handling this. Maybe the Holy Stammering Obscurantist is just full of it. Well, that would be consistent with the rest of what he says.
If Mr White would have turned around and been arrested and let this matter be handled in the courts, where they’re supposed to be, we wouldn’t be here.(at 0:23:44)[1]
That is the Holy Stammering Obscurantists solution. Lawyers are the answer to everything. The patient is going to the emergency department, but it is not an emergency, because the lawyer has a bunch of copies of laws, that allow him to make this claim. What if the patient were to suffer a sudden change in condition, through no oversight of the paramedic, but just because things change? What would happen then? How would Daniel Martin handle that situation?
Would he curse at her?
Would he arrest her?
Would he get the Holy Stammering Obscurantist to stammer at her?
We do not know.
What if Daniel Martin had been given the finger by the emergency physician working in the hospital that night. would he arrest the only emergency physician caring for the patients in the emergency department without allowing for someone to take over care of these patients? Maybe. It is Daniel Martin. He can do anything. Right?
Daniel Martin would probably be behind bars, if he had taken Maurice White, Jr. into custody. Daniel Martin owes Maurice White, Jr. a tremendous debt. Daniel Martin probably owes the integrity of his sphincter to Maurice White, Jr.
How does Daniel Martin satisfy the responsibility for the care of the patient in the ambulance. Daniel Martin cannot.
Daniel Martin is exceeding his level of competence.
I would expect that a phrase like gross negligence would apply to this action by Daniel Martin.
At 24 minutes, out comes the handkerchief, which becomes more and more important to the Holy Stammering Obscurantist, who is acting like a Wholly Sweating Obscurantist. He does not appear to know where his towel is.
The Holy Stammering Obscurantist makes a bunch of statements that are misleading and draw unwarranted conclusions. He parses the written statements of the medic and the EMT, which are not completely accurate, but they do not have a video to base their statements on.
There were statements made by Daniel Martin, but they were not spoken immediately. The Holy Stammering Obscurantist claims that therefore these statements were never made and therefore the medic and EMT are lying. If you watch the video, Daniel Martin made these statements that the Holy Stammering Obscurantist denies were made, Daniel Martin just did not make these statements immediately. Oh my. Where did I ever get the idea that this liar is an obscurantist. I was wrong. I apologize. He has repeatedly lied. He is a Holy Stammering Liar.
The Holy Stammering Liar says that there is absolutely no reason to not comply even with an unlawful arrest. Just handle it in court. What would you expect from someone who makes money by running up court costs. Suppose that Daniel Martin is not depriving a patient of medical care, but actually attacking the patient, should that be handled in court? The difference is only a matter of degree.
Why didn’t he end up taking him into custody?(at 0:35:52 this question was not from the Holy Stammering Liar, but a question from the press)[1]
About a minute of attempts to change the subject by the Holy Stammering Liar, then he is asked the same question, again. Good reporter. Don’t fall for the bait and switch. Then some explanation that it would have been wrong to arrest the paramedic attending to the patient. The Holy Stammering Liar states that this would have left the county without a medic, never mind the immediate patient, so that was the reason the District Attorney decided that it would not be good to do as Daniel Martin desired.
Then the Holy Stammering Liar claims that there was never any consideration of the District Attorney charging Daniel Martin, that it was really Maurice White, Jr. they were considering bringing charges against. Of course the Holy Stammering Liar is probably just referring to the phone call from the scene – before the District Attorney realized how out of control Daniel Martin was.
There is a written statement from the District Attorney that he has decided not to press charges against Daniel Martin. If you listen to the Holy Stammering Liar, you might ignore that and believe these lies. They do not match up with the facts.
They were never in discussions that this trooper had committed any crimes.(at 0:37:50)[1]
After careful consideration off all facts and circumstance, it does not appear it would be appropriate to file any charges against White, Martin or any other person involved. Although, I do not condone their actions, I do not believe that filing charges at this time would serve the best interests of the public or the interests of justice.[5]
The decision from the District Attorney. Somebody who should be interested in punishing anyone behaving as badly as the Holy Stammering Liar claims Maurice White, Jr. was behaving. This decision is not to press charges against Maurice White, Jr. or against Daniel Martin. Why mention a decision to not file charges against Daniel Martin if nobody ever considered filing charges against Daniel Martin. If the District Attorney had never considered filing charges, why did he consider mentioning not filing charges? Is the District Attorney not paying any attention to the Holy Stammering Liar? Probably not. Maybe we should do the same.
Later the Holy Stammering Liar states that the patient is not an emergency patient, although the patient was transported to the emergency department.
The Holy Stammering Liar states that Maurice White, Jr. was obviously an extreme danger to society. One of the reporters asks why an extreme danger to society was released to continue to endanger society. The double talk from the Holy Stammering Liar is that the ambulance service would not have a medic.
But I thought he was an extreme danger. WTF?
Then he backpedals to something that is along the lines of, someone who is willing to fight to protect his patient is an extreme danger to society. The Holy Stammering Liar is beginning to suggest to me that David Konig may not be wrong about resisting arrest to protect our patients. I still do not recommend it. I would still allow the trooper to take me into custody and continue to try to explain that the trooper is depriving the patient of care, just as the traffic stop was depriving the patient of care in the emergency department.
During the questions at the end there is some interesting information that I did not see elsewhere.
Actually at about the 2 minute and some mark, he tells them, We’ll deal with this at the hospital. Go.(0:54:18)[1]
I do not hear that in the dashcam video. Can someone point out where Daniel Martin says this?
Witnesses have confirmed at the hospital someone had asked him What happened? and he says, I don’t know. I just came back from Iraq.(at 0:56:14 from a reporter)[1]
That initial incident, trooper Martin would have let that rode. You know, he felt they did it, but when he got the finger, he felt it was an intentional act at that point in time.(1:00:??)[1]
There were other, some other people you will see that didn’t pull over as quick either. He didn’t go after them. There’s 2 or 3 cars that don’t . . ., do similar to the ambulance.(1:01:??)[1]
When asked why Daniel Martin did not just file a complaint, rather than pull them over, he goes back to double talk mode and states, At that point he felt a crime had been committed. He is back at the point after the traffic stop claiming that the resisting arrest was the crime that justified Daniel Martin stopping the ambulance. The traffic stop happened before the resisting arrest. This press conference went on for over an hour of these kinds of ridiculous contradictory statements.
Again, the most up to date information seems to come from STATter 911.
OHP vs. Creek Nation EMS from the beginning, post by post:
Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Creek Nation EMS, and Abandonment 5/31/09
More on Abandonment, OHP and EMS 6/06/09
OHP Trooper Update 6/11/09
OHP Trooper Update II 6/11/09
OHP Trooper Update III 6/13/09
OHP Trooper Update IV – Holy Stammering Obscurantists 6/16/09
OHP Trooper Update V – Over an Hour of the Holy Stammering Obscurantist 6/17/09
OHP Trooper vs. EMS comment from anonymous 6/18/09
Some Corrections on OHP vs. Creek Nation EMS 6/20/09
OHP Trooper Update VI – A little Background on the Participants 6/22/09
OHP Trooper Update VII – A Little More Background on the Participants 6/22/09
Daniel Martin Suspended for 5 Days 6/22/09
Trooper Daniel Martin Subject of a Lawsuit 7/22/09
OHP Official Position – Don’t Get Caught On Camera, Otherwise Good Job. 7/23/09
An Interesting Development in the Daniel Martin Case 7/24/09
Trooper Daniel Martin In Trouble, Again 10/06/09
Maurice White Arrested 01/11/10
Footnotes:
^ 1 Trooper’s attorney holds press conference
News9.com
Video
^ 2 OHP Trooper Update IV – Holy Stammering Obscurantists
Rogue Medic
Article
^ 3 Governor signs EMT protection law
Associated Press
May 22, 2009 1:45 PM ET
News9.com
Article
^ 4 OHP Trooper Update III
Rogue Medic
At the bottom of the page is the dashboard cam video.
Article with video
^ 5 No charges to be filed in Oklahoma confrontation between trooper and EMS. DA wants incident to be used to open a dialogue. Urges OHP to release video.
Friday, June 5, 2009
STATter911
Article
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