Travis Guthrie found not guilty

Travis Guthrie took cell phone video of his friend Curtis Adams’ arrest around 2 a.m. on May 4th of 2014. That was the same video that led to his arrest for failing to obey a police officer under a lawful order.  However on Wednesday, a jury found him not guilty of that charge.
 
Luke Rommel, Guthrie’s attorney says, “It’s just a tremendous amount of relief ever since we raised the issue that there might be a problem. We’ve had six cases, this was the sixth case. It was the final one ending in our favor so we have a certain sense of relief.”

Guthrie is one of three former Salisbury University students arrested that night. He and the other two former students are suing the Salisbury Police Department alleging police misconduct and use of excessive force.

According to reports, police responded to a crowd of about 20 to 30 people leaving a bar across the street from Salisbury University.

According to Guthrie, Officer Justin Aita told everyone to disperse. When the crowd started walking through the tunnel under route 13, Officer Aita allegedly grabbed one of Guthrie’s friends and threw him to the ground.

Once Guthrie’s friend was taken to the ground, Guthrie started recording video on his phone.

Officer Aita reportedly told Guthrie to back up three times. Officer Aita says he arrested Guthrie for not backing up. In court Wednesday, Guthrie’s defense argued that he did back up, and that the video shows he did.

However now that he’s been found not guilty, Guthrie is relieved and ready to move on.
      
Guthrie tells 47ABC, “Go back home and continue working and move on with my life and put this behind me.”

For now, the next time Guthrie is discussing the incident in the lawsuit against police, he won’t have to worry about criminal charges.

In fact, if any of them had been found guilty it could have thrown a huge wrench in their lawsuit. That’s because it basically would have meant that the arrests were lawful in the first place.      

With all three plaintiffs now found not guilty, it clears the way for that lawsuit to move forward.