Wal-Mart surveillance video will show an Illinois man violently wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by a store security guard after he refused to hand over his receipt for a door search.
Michael J. Phelan, a town alderman from Berwyn, Ill., was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly scuffling with an off-duty Chicago police officer who was working as a private security guard in the Forest Park, Ill. Wal-Mart Supercenter on July 27. The guard, Louis Jones, claims Phelan refused to show his receipt and resisted his attempt to handcuff him.
Phelan told IndieRegister.com that he showed Jones his receipt but refused to hand it to him. He is contesting the disorderly conduct charge and said Wal-Mart has caused his court appearance to be delayed because it has failed to turn over store surveillance tapes in a timely manner.
By their very nature, retail receipt checks are voluntary. Store employees can ask to see a shopper’s receipt or look through his purchases, but customers can decline to be searched.
Under state shoplifting laws, stores cannot detain you unless they have probable cause or reasonable suspicion — depending on your state — to believe you’ve committed a crime. Both are established legal standards that require some sort of evidence.
Phelan said Jones blocked his path and prevented him from leaving the store after he refused to hand Jones the receipt.
“(H)e pulled his cuffs off his belt and attempted to put them on my left wrist as my hands were still on my cart,” Phelan said in an e-mail. “I then instinctively did what just about anyone would do, I pulled my hands away. At this time he spun me around, threw me face-down on the ground and jumped on me along with the loss prevention individual.
“They cuffed me, pulled me up off of the floor and forced me into some sort of security room with monitors and whatnot. It was at this time that the security officer, Louis Jones, who happened to be an off-duty Chicago police officer with his Chicago-issued gun and badge on him had noticed that he cut his finger in the process of attacking me. He then threatened to break my jaw right in front of the camera. The cuffs were so tight on my left wrist that my wrist was bloody and my hand was purple.”
Jones said in a police report that Phelan was “getting out of control,” but Phelan said the surveillance video tells a different story — the unjustified cuffing of a man who had broken no laws.
Wal-Mart provided some of the surveillance tapes but is dragging its feet on turning over the rest, he said.
“They did have the footage from the front door where I was assaulted,” Phelan said. “My attorney agrees I was merely standing there conversing with the security guard when out of nowhere, he attacks me and body slams me to the floor.
“My attorney thinks there is clearly enough there to get me off on the local ordinance disorderly conduct charge. However, I told him I wanted them to turn over the rest of the tapes. Walmart was told to comply and produce all of the tapes. They haven’t. Therefore, my case has been delayed again. It will probably be a date later this month although nothing has been set just yet.”
This case is nothing short of an outrage. Store employees cannot demand to search our purchases — which became our private property as soon as we paid — and block our exit, tackle us and handcuff us if we refuse. While Jones is a sworn police officer, he has no more right to search a shopper than a store greeter or manager.
Police must have probable cause in order to detain and search a suspect. Jones clearly didn’t. Phelan hadn’t stolen anything, no witnesses had accused him of theft, and no reasonable court would ever conclude that Wal-Mart customers are always guilty until proven innocent.
Phelan should win his court case handily. He is also considering a lawsuit against Wal-Mart, and I hope he is successful. Jones should face, at minimum, a suspension without pay and some remedial education on consent searches and probable cause.
Hopefully, it’s not too late to file a complaint with the Chicago Police Department’s internal affairs office.
I’ve written extensively on IndieRegister.com — some would say too much — about receipt checks and our right of refusal. This case, however, isn’t just about post-purchase inspections.
It’s about police brutality, a false arrest and a bogus disorderly conduct charge against a man who did nothing wrong.
Give ’em hell, Michael.
indieregister.wordpress.com 
I was told by China-Mart that if one item is not in a bag, they will ask to see a receipt. Even if a store person takes your stuff out, they will ask for a receipt, the store person might be part of a system to steal stuff. If all boils down to one thing, You are a thief, you are guilty, prove yourself right!! There was to be a constitution in this country, where has it gone??
Nobody gets treated like that in Chinese supermarkets, Wal-mart or otherwise. You don’t get fondled before getting on a plane either.
I’m with you in spirit, but I have a legal quibble. The Constitution — and specifically, the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable search and seizure — only applies to the government and its agents. Until Uncle Sam deputizes store greeters, they’re private citizens just like we are and aren’t bound by the Bill of Rights.
State law, however, offers plenty of protection against these searches, and that’s the silver bullet we should load in our proverbial pistols.
-Corey
We must remember the 14 Amendment, this put it all together. But the real thing is that, according to state law, you must be out of the store before you can be approched. In this case, if the guy goes to court and wins, it could change China-marts policy.
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Approximately one year ago, I was also, I feel, wrongfully detained by wal-mart loss prevention, as well as one electronics department employee. I went into a wal-mart supercenter to return an mp3 player that i had spilled a drink earlier that day. When I purchased the mp3 player I also purchased the replacement plan for just this type of occasion. (I seem to have bad luck with them) So I’m in wal-mart and instead of it being a simple process of either replacing it or refunding the money, or even giving me store credit, they had me waiting for all of these different employees and managers. Not one of them had anything helpful to say. It almost seemed like they didnt want anything to do with it so they would pass the problem off to the next employee. So after about an hour of this they eventually told me there was nothing they could do. I was extremely frustrated by now because I payed over $120 dollars for this mp3 player, and I’m not that well off, I only made $8 an hour at that time. So in one last attempt for some kind of satisfaction I asked if they could at least refund the $10 I payed for the replacement plan. Still they refused. So I said , in my frustration “You know what? F**k you guys, keep the damn thing”. I tossed it on the ground, not aggressive to where it would have damaged any merchandise, and it was no where close to causing any employees or customers harm. Then I began walking out of the store. The entire time I was walking, keyword walking, out of the store there was a manager behind me, on his radio, watching my every move, so they knew that I wasn’t causing any harm or any more of a disturbance. Well once I reached the exit, right about where the security sensors are, I noticed an un-uniformed man running towards me on his radio. So once I exited the front door I began running towards my car. I mean at that point I knew I could be in some sort of trouble, a disorderly conduct at the most. So I ran to my car, got in, closed my door and went to put my key in the ignition when all of a sudden my door flies open. It was one of the electronics department employees, he started grabbing me and trying to pull me out of my car, telling me to “get the f**k out of the car”. Now, this guy was just an employee so who knows what could have come from this, so i put one foot out of the car and shoved him away with two hands, and sat right back in my car. I tried to close my door again when two or three loss prevention agents arrived and once again tried to remove me from the car. I was holding onto the steering wheel the whole time, I never swung at anyone, I’m not dumb, I wasnt going to turn a simple disorderly conduct into anything else. They couldnt remove me by pulling me out so the one loss prevention guy threatened to taser me. Well that was all I needed to hear, almost immediately I said “ok, fine I’m done I’ll get out”. I stepped out of the car, and I was cooperating, when out of nowhere the guy jerks my arm around my back and starts raising it to the point where I’m almost completely off balance and falling on my face. So I started struggling again, not to run, but to get out of that position. Well he throws me to the ground face down, jumps on my back, and continues to jerk my arm behind my back and in an upward motion to where my hand was almost touching my head. Now its July 15th, a sunny day, and I’m face down, on wal-mart parking lots hot ground. in direct sunlight ok, no shade. Just picture that for a second. So I’m literally screaming in pain at this point, my throat was so hoarse by the time the police arrived. My face was burning against the hot ground.While on the ground me and this guy exchanged some words, I never threatened him, but at one point he was yelling so closely in my face that I said “get the f**k out of my face your breath stinks”. He didnt like that too much, he then grabbed my head by my hair and slammed it off of the ground. So anyway, the cops come, stand me up, put me in handcuffs and take me to central booking to be processed, they never told me what I was being charged with, or anything. They just said that I would be in and out after I signed some papers. I was arrested at about 5:30 pm, I sat in a holding cell, handcuffed by my ankles and my wrists, until about 11:30, still not knowing what I was charged with. So about 11:45 I saw the judge, he tells me that I’m being charged with Simple assault, disorderly conduct, and harassment. He set my bail at $5,000. When they gave me the police affidavit, I was dumbfounded. I thought maybe I had gotten simple assault for resisting while in my car. Well that wasnt the case. Wal-mart employees concocted the most ridiculous story in an attempt to justify their actions. They said that before I entered my car, at some point I turned around and swung on one of the employees, and I quote “Which lead to abrasions on their forearms and legs”. What kind of none sense is that? First of all how could one punch lead to multiple abrasions? On their legs and forearms? The whole thing was ridiculous. I spent 13 hrs handcuffed and shackled before I was trasfered to the county prison where I spent another 5 hrs before getting bailed out. Just two days ago I signed a plea agreement to disorderly conduct. I had a public defender throughout the entire process but I’ll tell you what, she did her thing, we built up an almost perfect defense case against them, which wasn’t too hard actually, at one point the electronics department employee messed up on the record and said I swung at him inside the store when on the original police statement, it happened in the parking lot, I had one of the security guards as a witness on my side, and on top of the fact that all survaillence tapes of that day just happened to disappear after they were ordered by the judge, It was pretty simple. But they dragged it out for over a year……. I dont know what to do about it though, simply beating the case doesnt serve any justice. Who do I contact? I’m only 20 yrs old, I never went through anything like this before.
I have been through a very simular experience and fought a 15 month court battle without a lawyer (self represented) The crown tried to deny video’s existed and the police claimed to have viewed the non existant videos and that they were unable to make any conclusion by the video so they used 7 crown witnesses one of which was a federal peace officer. After I proved to the judge video evidence did exist and managed to get it brought before the courts I was able to prove just about every witness lied both in police statements as well as on the stand…keep in mind I only produced one witness but used the evidence provided by the crown to prove my innoccence…If the video had never shown up I faced assault, mischief, and 2 counts of assault while resisting a lawful arrest. 10 plus years of incarceration had the lies not been proven with the video that crown said did not exist…The video that was turned over to the crown by the police… So were the police lying when they said they turned it over or was crown lying when they said one didn’t exist…I wonder how many innoccent people are in jail because there was no video…I would like to try to build a network of others that have the drive to persue this type of injustice
Derek, are you familiar with copblock.org or nevertakeaplea.org? Sounds like sites right up your ally.
-WRT
This whole Walmart/Sam’s Club receipt and item check is completely out of control and as Anti-American as it gets. Yet, our lawmakers do nothing to stop their vigilance, which, by all rights, is exactly what it is. If the common man interrogated people about their purchases at a store, he would probably be charged with harassment.