Journalist suing for video of police shooting in North Dakota federal court passes first hurdle

Multiple body-cams prove law enforcement altered cam evidence of police shooting

by Timothy Charles Holmseth on August 22, 2016, 8:34 P.M. CST

Prima Facie evidence of illegal tampering with a public record by law enforcement to hide the truth about a police shooting of an unarmed man in North Dakota is in front of a federal judge in North Dakota.

Timothy Charles Holmseth, an investigative journalist and author from East Grand Forks, Minnesota has been authorized by the federal court to proceed Pro Se in Holmseth v. City of Grand Forks et al - Case Number 3:16-cv-303 - United States District Court - District of North Dakota.

Holmseth filed the lawsuit after Mark Nelson, chief of police, Grand Forks Police Department, issued a ‘Special Order’ to destroy all the officer cam files of a police shooting – Nelson issued the Order changing the retentioin dates of police video, right in the middle of an independent investigation being conducted by Holmseth.

Holmseth alleges Nelson is involved in a multi-agency conspiracy to conceal the true facts and circumstances of a police shooting that occurred in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 2015. The Complaint further alleges Holmseth's First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution are being violated.

Included in the filing to the Court is a video Holmseth produced and published on You Tube.

All the facts support Holmseth's assertions.

In a joint press release by GFPD police chief Mark Nelson, UND police chief Eric Plummer, and Grand Fork County Sheriff Bob Rost in 2015, law enforcement announced a police officer was involved in a shooting at approximately 12:45 A.M. on February 28, 2015.

Timothy Holmseth aquired enough officer body and dash cam video to prove the police altered public records in effort to fool the public about what happened, which Holmseth believes accululates to attempted murder of an unarmed man that was being stalked by a police officer.

Holmseth was able to demonstrate the deception by comparing the time-stamps of the body-cams to the time-stamps on the dash-cams because they don't match.

Moreover, Holmseth received body-cam from multiple officers, and the time-stamps on the body-cams are all off - thus proving it was deliberate and not just the time on one body-cam accidently being set wrong.

In this screenshot (seen above) taken from a police officer's body cam you can see David James Elliott sitting atop the Columbia Road Bridge in Grand Forks, North Dakota; the time-stamp at the bottom right says 12:27 A.M. CST (06:27 Greenwich Mean Time). Just ahead at the bottom of the overpass bridge is Altru Hospital where Elliott will be shot in the Emergency Room parking lot. In the next screenshot you will see the slow speed pursuit of Elliott, which, in reality, has not even come close to reaching this location.

In this screenshot (seen above) of an officer dash-cam it is revealed the slow speed pursuit of David James Elliott has just exited I-29 and turned east onto Gateway Drive in Grand Forks. The pursuit will not reach the Columbia Road Bridge for many more minutes because they will first travel east on Gateway, then turn South on Columbia Road where they will then travel until they reach the bridge. If you look at the time-stamp in the officer dash-cam, you can see the time is 12:32 A.M. However, as you will recall by looking at the first photo in this series, David James Elliott is already (supposedly) on the Columbia Road Bridge at 12:27 A.M.

In this screenshot (seen above) you are seeing the slow speed pursuit of David James Elliott after they have turned South on Columbia Road and are heading toward the Universitty of North Dakota where they will then reach the Columbia Road Bridge. As you can see, the time-stamp says 12:35 A.M. However, as you have seen, body-cam shows David James Elliott sitting atop the bridge at 12:27 A.M.

In this screenshot (seen above) of officer dash-cam you can see David James Elliott sitting atop the Columbia Road Bridge at 12:39 A.M. In the next photo you will see what the body-cam of a second (different than the first body-cam you viewed) officer, which is ALSO wrong.

In this screenshot (see above) you see the body-cam footage of Sgt. Mark Ellingson, GFPD. In this screenshot the shooting of David James Elliott has already taken place and is over. You will note the time is 12:39 A.M. But if you look at the time of the previous image in this series, you see Elliott was sittig atop the bridge at 12:39 A.M. You will recall the police officially stated the shooting occured at approximately 12:45 A.M. (which is the actually close to the time the shots are heard being fired at 12:47 A.M.) This photo PROVES GFPD Police Chief Mark Nelson KNOWS the body-cam evidence has been altered, which is WHY he ordered evidence destroyed. It is also noteworthy that GFPD Lt. Derik Zimmel notified Timothy Holmseth of Nelson's 'Special Order' directing the video files to be destroyed, alsmost immediately after Holmseth obtained this specific body-cam video (Sgt. Mark Ellingson) via a public records request.

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