Gun Owner’s Highway Patrol Encounter Highlights Importance of Asserting Rights
“I recently won a 40k settlement against the Wyoming Highway Patrol after they violated my rights as not only a gun owner, but as an American citizen,” Eli Pagunsan of the “Eli Writes Stories” YouTube channel tells AmmoLand.
No stranger to harassment by law enforcement over exercising his right to keep and bear arms, Pagunsan was victimized by bullying Riverside County (CA) overreach when he was unjustly “red-flagged as a potential school shooter” as a high school freshman at age 14. As “The Gun Writer” Lee Williams wrote in a 2021 Second Amendment Foundation Investigative Journalism Project report, detailing how he was unjustly reported and how police bullied their way into searching his home, while forced to attend an online alternative school to complete required coursework, “Pagunsan was never charged with a single crime” but emerged from the ordeal with “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), severe depression, and general anxiety disorder.”
“He wants parents to know that if their child is ever confronted by officials as he was, they should not let police into their home,” Williams wrote. “’They will try to pressure you. They’ll tell you the search will be quick. It won’t take long. They’ll use every trick in the book,’ he said. ‘Get a lawyer immediately.’”
With that as background, police intimidation and an unsubstantiated overreaction when the Wyoming Highway Patrol interrogated and detained him after he refused to allow them to search his car.
“I got pulled over on an empty stretch of highway for speeding,” Pagunsan tells AmmoLand. Trooper [Kyle] Hawn, the officer who pulled me over got the idea that I was a drug trafficker. I was disarmed and I was detained in the front seat of the car where Hawn called for backup, but not before interrogating me as being a potential drug trafficker.
“He used getting my wallet and my permits from my car as a way of running my pistol as either stolen or used in a crime,” Paunsan elaborated. “I was let go after their dog went and found nothing and was released from my detention.”
“Later on, I’d agree to a 40k settlement of the case, but not before I went and showed it to James White of Southern Drawl Law who made … videos,” he concluded.
Those were “Wyoming Trooper SUED After Search Refusal & Unlawful Detention!” posted a year ago to chronicle Pagunsan’s ordeal and legal response, and more recently, “Wyoming AG Tried to Come After Me For Sharing Eli’s Story- IT DID NOT WORK!,” posted two weeks ago, in which Criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, and former police officer James White announced:
“There’s a huge update. We have helped Eli secure a win in his lawsuit, but in the process, the state of Wyoming actually endeavored to try to depose me because I dared to report about the constitutional violations of their Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper…”
“Here’s the dash and bodycam footage,” Pagunsan disclosed to AmmoLand in a follow-up email. “I’ll provide timestamps for when things happen. Both the bodycam and dashcam are synced, but the bodycam provides the best footage outside of the car, with the dashcam providing the best footage of myself speaking with him.”
1:12 is the initial contact where he approaches me.
At 2:54 I’m asked to step out of the vehicle and I’m disarmed. I comply with the demands of the officer, geet searched, and during this even tell him where my knife and flashlight are.
At 14:42, I’m given the ticket which should, legally, end the stop. I’m detained in the vehicle. Trooper Kyle Hawn asks if I’d consent to a search. I decline, and later on, this would be used against me to say that I’m acting suspicious.
At 28:52, under the guise of getting my wallet from my car to see my other permits, Trooper Hawn calls in my pistol to see if “It’s been used in any crimes or reported stolen(might be butchering that completely).”
I’m let go at the 1:11:29 mark, and at the 1:11:45 mark the gun grabbing officers have an exchange over me being a potential trafficker, and openly ask:
“He’s bipolar and carrying a pistol?”
That Trooper Hawn came off as friendly and understanding, but all the time was trying to entrap Pagunsan, who was being respectful and compliant with orders throughout, should be an object lesson and guide for all gun owner/law enforcement encounters. When they compel you to pull over, they are not doing it to be your understanding friends.
That Hawn made assumptions based on ignorance or prejudice is another. Pagunsan informed him the lithium he was prescribed accounted for his sweating (something easily verifiable with a simple Google search). As for his being “nervous,” the power imbalance and intimidation by multiple troopers against a lone, disarmed driver in the middle of nowhere, bringing several cars out and subjecting him to an extended grilling over an ostensible speeding ticket, and knowing whatever happened would be their word against his, would unnerve anyone.
It also points to an inexcusable lack of competence and training that an armed “Only One” does not understand that without adjudication resulting in a court-ordered stay in a mental health facility, or being ruled mentally incompetent, a citizen, particularly one who is responsibly following a documented medical regimen, is in full possession of his rights.
There’s another lesson here for gun owners that’s every bit as important as not consenting to having your car searched (don’t physically resist, just make it clear you don’t consent and fight it later with an attorney who can argue probable cause): Don’t talk to the police.
Not being a lawyer, I rely on those who are. If you haven’t watched Regent University Law Professor James Duane’s classic cautions to always exercise your Fifth Amendment rights when questioned by government officials, set aside the 46 minutes it takes to do so—and share it with your friends.
Likewise, bookmark The People’s Lawyer YouTube channel, where criminal defense attorney Jeff Hampton tells you exactly what to say when police ask you questions, how to decline to answer until you can consult your attorney, and ask if you are being detained or are free to go.
Pagunsan’s experience gives us plenty of reasons to see how standing up for our rights is good advice that we ignore at our peril.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
