14th May 2025

Episode 12 - Watanga OK PD

Episode 12- Watanga, OK PD

https://youtu.be/9YrdjUAJ0QQ

Hello again and Welcome back to Real Talk – Behind the Badge.  I’m Tim, a military vet and  retired police Detective Sergeant.    This is the second video of a new part of our Real Talk. There are many police audit channels, but only one I can think of by a former cop, who calls out police misconduct that's “We the People University” and I applaud him for his channel. What we intend to do is a little something extra. We will be evaluating everything at the end of a video to tell you exactly what we feel was illegal, police misconduct, etc. We hope to show the public that good cops aren’t afraid to call out the actions of bad cops and get them retrained, disciplined or even fired. Today, we’re going to view police body cams footage from officers of the Watonga, OK Police Department. A man and his young son are out for a morning walk when they are stopped by officers.  The original video is on YouTube by Audit the Audit. I can say up front, I totally condemn the actions of these officers. I have cut out some of the video where there is nothing going on to save your time, so, let’s get going and you can chime in at the end with your comments. We encourage everyone to leave a comment! If you have a video you would like us to analyze, please send it to MainStreetBusGrp@gmail.com.

View Video Here

Alright, now it’s my turn.  It’s my opinion that the actions of Officer Goodwin and the other officers were totally excessive, unlawful and violated the constitutional rights of the citizen.  I believe there was an illegal detainment, illegal search or pat down and assault.  Before working at the Watonga P.D., Goodwin worked for the Blaine County Sheriff’s department where the Sheriff told the media that Goodwin had been demoted and eventually left the department after complaints from deputies he supervised!  After this happened, Mr. Sexton filed a complaint against Officer Goodwin & Montoya.  The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation filed a report with the District Attorney, who declined (refused) to file criminal charges. The Watonga Police department terminated Goodwin after an internal investigation, but was reinstated after an appeal.  He should have permanent desk duty until he learns the law and how to treat people.  And they wonder why some young kids are afraid of police officers. He has been scarred for life.  Sexton has retained legal counsel and intends to file a civil lawsuit, which he should easily get a settlement.  I believe this would be an easy lawsuit for at least around $100K, maybe more.  As I have stated before, the actions of the officer I am going to outline only cause people not to trust police officers and causes animosity towards good police officers who try to do their jobs correctly. I looked up the Watanga Police Department and there is absolutely NOTHING about it online.  I wonder why… 

Now let’s analyze the different parts of this video:

  1. As Goodwin stated in the video, there was no crime Sexton was suspected of, he was on public property and was legally taking a morning walk with his young son.
  2. Goodwin gave unlawful orders for the citizen to identify himself without any legal authority to do so. Even at the end, he was telling Sexton if he doesn’t want to go through that again, just give up your constitutional rights and everything will be great.
  3. Goodwin unlawfully patted down and searched the Sexton without any suspicion of him being armed.
  4. Goodwin unlawfully took the phone/camera from the citizen and threw it on the ground.
  5. Goodwin unlawfully detained and handcuffed the citizen after detaining him. As I see it he had NO probable cause or even a suspicion of unlawful activity.  He even admitted the citizen had done nothing wrong or illegal. The only reason I could see that he detained the citizen and handcuffed him and placed him in the cruiser was to punish him for disobeying his unlawful commands.  This is NOT official police work; it is just plain ego and bullying.
  6. Even if Goodwin wrongfully believed he had enough probable cause to detain, that doesn’t mean he has probable cause to handcuff a person. He could have detained the citizen without handcuffing and searching him. He had no reasonable suspicion to believe the citizen was dangerous, a threat or a risk of flight.

 

  • Was the officer properly trained? If not, why not?  The city will find out it’s cheaper in the long run to train their officers then to keep paying out substantial awards. 
  • Did the Watanga PD do their due-diligence on Goodwin’s past before hiring him?
  • What steps did the Chief take to correct this officer after reinstatement? I’m willing to bet this officer has had many complaints before.
  • If he was properly trained, then there should be some type of penalty Goodwin should have to pay, and I’m not talking about 2 weeks vacation.
  • The other officers- did they understand there was no violations of law by Sexton? If they did, why didn’t they take immediate steps to remedy the situation? Totally bad police work.
  • I believe that Officer Goodwin’s official duties ended when he questioned the citizen and found there was no crime he was suspected of, he was on public property and was legally taking a morning walk with his son. Everything after that was personal ego and animosity towards Sexton which should earn him personal liability and lose his qualified immunity.
  • The district attorney should be recalled as she obviously doesn’t have the best interest of the citizens in mind. But at the same time, we don’t know what the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation report stated.  I would just hope they did their job as no one else seemed to.

The other officers present are just as guilty if they knew what was going on and didn’t try to intervene to stop what they knew or should have known was illegal.

 

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Signing off until next time.