Cuffed for a middle finger?! | HO

That 2019 arrest cost Sams $1,500 to post bail, and she says she has spent the last two years making monthly court appearances — sometimes twice a month — racking up legal fees and watching her family struggle under the financial strain.

‘I added it up and I think it was a total of 45 days in the last two years I have spent in a courtroom all day long,’ she said. ‘That’s over a month of income just in court dates.’

The ordeal left her physically injured as well.

‘My wrist now, it clicks all the time,’ Sams said. ‘My shoulder, I can’t really put my hand behind my back anymore comfortably at all.’

She was still recovering from a serious accident that had left her unable to walk for months when the first arrest occurred. She had been walking for only a few weeks when Officer Akers approached her in that alley.

The charges stemming from that encounter ultimately resulted in a conviction in municipal court — a type of court that critics say functions more as a revenue generator for cities than a true arbiter of justice.

‘Municipal courts are basically profit centers for cities,’ said Stephen Janis, an investigative reporter who covered the case. ‘They’re run by the city government. So hence you don’t have the separation of powers like you have with a real independent judiciary.’

Sams says the officer who arrested her appeared to realize he needed a justification for his actions when he spotted the pipe in her car.

‘You know the exact second when he sees it, because he sees it, he gets a sigh of relief,’ she said. ‘You can tell because he is like, oh, how am I going to explain this? And then it’s like he gets confident.’

The pipe was never tested for illegal substances, according to Sams. But that didn’t stop the charges, the court appearances, or the financial drain on her family.

Then came the incident that would put Sams and Officer Akers on a collision course once again.

Last month, Sams was driving through New Braunfels when she spotted the same officer conducting a traffic stop. Still angry about her previous arrest and the ongoing legal battles, she did something she had every legal right to do.

She raised her middle finger.

‘I flipped him off,’ Sams said simply. ‘I wouldn’t just go around flipping off any cop. I would flip off Patrick Akers.’

The gesture, long protected as free speech by courts across the country, apparently didn’t sit well with the officer.

Akers immediately left the traffic stop he was conducting, activated his lights, and pulled Sams over.

‘Because the cop that arrested me for resisting arrest now has pulled me over for flipping him off,’ Sams can be heard saying on video she recorded during the stop. ‘You are retaliating against me. You turned your sirens on and everything ran over here like a crazy person.’

The officer’s response was captured on both Sams’ phone and his own body camera.

‘Well ma’am, the reason why you’re being contacted is you failed to signal a lane change when you flipped me off,’ Akers told her.

Then came the moment that stunned even experienced police observers.

‘You’re under arrest for fail to signal a lane change,’ Akers announced.

‘I’m under arrest for failing to signal a lane change?’ Sams asked, incredulous.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ the officer replied.

The Texas Transportation Code does authorize up to a $200 fine for failing to signal a lane change. But nowhere in the law is there any mention of jail time for this infraction. Handcuffs and an arrest are not warranted for what is essentially a ticketable offense.

But the most revealing moment was still to come.

As Akers prepared to transport Sams to jail, a supervisor arrived on scene. The body camera captured their conversation.

‘Did she not have a driver’s license or what? Why are we arresting her for a traffic infraction?’ the supervisor asked.

Akers explained that Sams had flipped him off and then failed to signal during a lane change.

‘You think it’s going to be an issue? Given your history with her,’ the supervisor pressed.

‘Yeah,’ Akers admitted.

‘Any other person you would write a ticket to, right?’ the supervisor asked.

‘Yeah,’ Akers conceded.

‘So that’s how you have to treat every interaction,’ the supervisor instructed. ‘Okay.’

Sams was ultimately not taken to jail. Instead, she was issued a citation for the turn signal violation and released. But the damage had been done — both emotionally and financially.

‘I am terrified to go to jail,’ Sams said. ‘Seeing Officer Akers, having your hands put behind your back and the cuffing itself was just very traumatizing.’

The body camera footage also revealed a bizarre detail about Sams’ first encounter with Akers — one that internal affairs later confirmed.

During that 2019 arrest, Akers had somehow managed to handcuff himself to Sams.

‘He handcuffed himself to me,’ Sams said. ‘We were just tangled together until you guys got here. That’s why I didn’t get slammed on the ground.’

Other officers had to come help Akers detach himself from Sams and then re-handcuff her properly.

‘In the internal affairs meeting, they said, “I think Akers is just a little embarrassed about something. He had handcuffed himself to you. His radio and his shirt or something were caught in the handcuffs, so you guys were attached to each other until the other officers came and detached you,”‘ Sams recounted.

The New Braunfels Police Department has not responded to requests for comment from multiple media outlets, including the city manager, assistant city manager, the police department liaison, and the police chief.

But Sams is not the only person in New Braunfels who has raised concerns about Officer Akers’ conduct.

A local First Amendment activist known as Corners News, who regularly records police interactions, told the Police Accountability Report that he was handcuffed by Akers and another officer while recording from what he says was 15 to 20 feet away.

‘They told me to move back because they might arrest me for interference or something like that,’ Corners News said. ‘So I did move a little bit back. I want to say I was somewhere around 15 to 20 feet away from them. So I wasn’t speaking to them. I wasn’t interfering in any way. So the other officer decided to arrest — well, they cuffed me because I wasn’t moving back.’

The officers claimed Corners News was walking in a threatening manner.

‘How do you walk in a threatening manner?’ he asked. ‘I don’t see anyone walking in a threatening manner unless you’re making threats or something of that sort. But when you’re silently walking towards them to record them, unless they consider a camera a threat, maybe.’

After Corners News posted video of his encounter online, he received comments from several women in the area who said they had problematic interactions with Akers.

‘One of them was Brittany,’ he said. ‘I clicked on that link and I saw body cam where Akers, without warning, just walks up to her and starts grabbing her and detaining her for no crime.’

Another commenter claimed Akers entered someone’s home without a warrant and threatened arrest.

The pattern, according to critics, reflects a deeper problem with policing in New Braunfels — and across the country.

‘Over 50% of the discretionary spending of the budget goes into policing, law enforcement and public safety,’ Janis said, citing city financial records. ‘Whereas only 13% to 12% goes into quality of life.’

He described this as a classic example of over-investment in policing.

‘You have these bogus arrests, you have police who have nothing better to do,’ Janis said. ‘Why would a cop pursue something for giving them a finger? It makes no sense if there was other crime going on, and yet the city still spends half of its discretionary budget on policing.’

The implications extend far beyond one Texas town, according to Taya Graham, host of the Police Accountability Report.

‘One of the biggest challenges to holding police accountable is fighting back against the unique set of powers that are vested in them and their ability to retaliate using the law,’ Graham said. ‘If a department or even a single cop doesn’t like what you have to say, they have an easy and extremely effective way to push back — namely, the arrest.’

Sams says she flipped off Akers not just out of personal anger, but as a statement.

‘I flipped him off for the sake of America,’ she said. ‘Because this is not right. What he did to me was completely wrong.’

The financial toll of her two-year legal saga has been devastating.

‘I went to jail, so that was $1,500 cash to the court,’ she said. ‘My husband basically took all the money we didn’t have and got me out of jail. He’s amazing, but he’s also went through a lot because of this.’

She estimates she spends at least $40 a month just on travel to court appearances. Her husband or sister often miss work to accompany her.

‘I had to pay for my public defender, which was $1,500. I wasn’t allowed to have a public defender in the other one,’ she said. ‘Court costs on top of it, which is about $350. For the trials, I have to pay overtime for the police. It’s like he gets a bonus when he does things like this. Because now he gets to sit in court and not have to actually go do his job, and all he’s got to do is sit there and lie and he gets paid overtime.’

The emotional impact has been just as severe.

‘It’s put a lot of strain on our family, especially for me to be so traumatized by it that it has affected my life,’ Sams said. ‘Just not wanting to leave the house, not wanting to — I get scared when I see him.’

The New Braunfels Police Department has not provided any comment on the allegations against Officer Akers or the department’s policies regarding traffic stops and arrests for minor infractions.

Legal experts say the case raises serious questions about police discretion and the potential for retaliation against citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.

Courts have consistently held that flipping off a police officer is protected speech. In 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a Michigan man who was arrested for giving an officer the middle finger could sue for retaliation.

‘We call this the “continuous and often difficult task” of balancing liberty and safety,’ the court wrote in that decision. ‘But one would have thought the “liberty” side was clearly established in the context of a person giving an officer the finger.’

Despite such rulings, incidents of officers arresting people for the gesture continue to occur across the country.

Sams hopes that by sharing her story, she can help prevent others from going through the same ordeal.

‘I want people to know what happened,’ she said. ‘This officer targeted me, retaliated against me, and the system allowed it.’

She also hopes that body camera footage showing the supervisor intervening will encourage more oversight of police conduct.

‘Often during the encounters we report on, people ask for a supervisor, and often police respond in ways that could generously be characterized as dismissive,’ Graham noted. ‘However, as this case proves, that request is firmly founded in the fact that during a questionable arrest, another set of eyes or the presence of another cop can help.’

The supervisor’s questions to Akers — ‘Any other person you would write a ticket to, right?’ — and his instruction that Akers must treat every interaction the same way, likely prevented Sams from spending a night in jail for a traffic infraction.

But she still received a ticket, and she still faces the ongoing stress of her original case.

‘It has not stopped since June of 2020 that I’ve been going to court at least once a month, usually twice,’ she said.

As for Officer Akers, he remains on the New Braunfels police force. The department has not announced any disciplinary action related to either of Sams’ encounters with him.

The city’s budget priorities, Janis argues, reflect a broader societal problem.

‘This is really exemplar of the problem with over-policing and why we spend too much on arresting and punishing people and not taking care of them,’ he said.

For Sams, the fight is not just about her own case.

‘When we rebel, when we push back, the reaction is swift,’ Graham said. ‘When we challenge and stand up to arbitrary government power, the consequences are merciless.’

But Sams says she has no regrets about raising her middle finger at the officer who she believes wronged her.

‘I did what every American has the right to do,’ she said. ‘I expressed my displeasure with the government.’

The New Braunfels city government has not responded to requests for comment about the police department’s policies, Officer Akers’ conduct, or the city’s budget priorities.

Local media in the area has largely not covered the story, according to Corners News, who says that’s typical for police misconduct cases unless someone dies.

‘Local media doesn’t cover any sort of stories on police misconduct unless there’s a death or there’s something serious,’ he said. ‘They usually don’t cover any misconduct.’

That’s why videos like Sams’ and Corners News’ are so important, advocates say.

‘If you have video evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us,’ Graham urged viewers. ‘We might be able to investigate for you.’

The Police Accountability Report, which examines systemic issues in law enforcement, has called on viewers to submit tips and evidence of misconduct.

Sams says she will continue attending court dates, fighting her case, and speaking out about her experience.

‘I flipped him off for the sake of America,’ she repeated. ‘Because this is not right. What he did to me was completely wrong.’

As for whether she would do it again, given everything that has happened?

‘I would flip off Patrick Akers,’ she said without hesitation.