William Merideth, the man from Kentucky who shot down a drone earlier this year, told WDRB that he felt vindicated after a district judge dismissed the charges against him, even if the accuser can still take the case before a grand jury.
He was originally charged for firing his gun within city limits, but the judge has decided on Monday that the drone invaded his privacy, giving him the right to shoot it. The judge came to that conclusion after two witnesses testified that the UAV flew below the tree line of Merideth’s property. However, the Phantom 3 drone’s owner and pilot, David Boggs, provided Ars Technica with a video back in August showing that his machine was flying 200 feet above the ground. Boggs said that the judge didn’t bother looking at the video he provided, a decision that he claimed shocked even the police officers involved in the case.
He told Ars:
What happened in court was unbelievable — I don’t know how to describe how I feel about it. Before [the hearing] was 20 minutes old, she dismissed the wanton endangerment charge. She said, ‘I don’t think anybody’s life was in danger, and I’m going to dismiss that.
When I came back in and she was going to make her ruling, she didn’t look at the video, she didn’t look at the telemetry data, and there were no witnesses called on behalf of the state. She didn’t care what the video said. She believed what the neighbor said and that the drone was below the tree line. The judge didn’t look at the video, paid no consideration to the video. I’m just shocked, beyond shocked. The police officers were shocked. So in essence what she’s saying is that if a news helicopter flies over your house, you can shoot it down, too. There was no regard to the truth whatsoever. None.
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9 comments:
The guy should have shot that idiot operating the drone in the head instead of shooting the drone.
Peeping tom. That's what these punks were. Dad did the right thing!!!!
Good for the Judge. We need more judges to protect our privacy.
If he shot it with a shotgun it had to be close. Keep your drones over your airspace or pay the price.
Some knucklehead shot at the runaway blimp the other day,thinking it was a drone.That's a double duh.
Shoot skeet with shot at 200ft easy. You obviously don't honey.
Eleven and twelve years of age kids flying to buddy's house. Nice kids Boy Scouts. This ant over
But the government has 30k armed flying over us right now. This guy wants to kill a kids toy. Super brave guy.
12.38 what country do you shoot skeet ? google skeet field layout and 132' is out of bounds. targets hit the ground before 200' average shot under 70'. Next i live on 7 acres and let one fly in my air space honey.
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