photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Phillip Michael Eravi

A Lawrence YouTuber was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison, suspended to 12 months of probation, after a jury convicted him in August of felony interference with law enforcement.

Judge Amy Hanley handed down the sentence to Phillip Michael Eravi, 56, after she denied his attorney’s request for a continuance as well as Eravi’s motion for a judgment of acquittal/new trial. That motion – seeking to toss the jury’s verdict – had argued that multiple errors were committed by Hanley in the conduct of the long-running case, all of which the state denied in its response and which Hanley rejected. Eravi’s attorney, Angela Keck, said an appeal would be forthcoming.

Eravi’s crime was a low-level nonperson felony, and his relative lack of criminal history made it a case of presumptive probation by law.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Phillip Michael Eravi is pictured with attorney Angela Keck Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, at his sentencing in Douglas County District Court.

The case concerned an early-morning incident on May 20, 2023, when Eravi, a local tow truck operator and YouTuber who calls himself a “citizen journalist,” went to the scene of an armed standoff on Heatherwood Drive, where he was arrested for interfering with the duties of a police officer. Eravi had entered a zone that officers, fearing gunfire or other activity from the suspect’s house, were trying to keep clear.

Eravi ignored repeated requests to leave the area, yelling at police to “leave me alone!”, berating them for waking him up as they responded to the standoff, and insisting that he was a “free human being.” When it became clear that he was not going to obey a lawful command, officers placed him under arrest, which he physically resisted, flailing his arms, calling them obscenities and falsely accusing them of “attacking” him.

Keck had framed the case to jurors as being about the First Amendment’s right to a free press and constitutional due process, describing Eravi as “a free human being trying to do his job to inform the citizenry” with his journalism, but prosecutor Eve Kemple dismissed that characterization as a blatant smokescreen, saying the case concerned one thing and one thing only: Eravi’s failure to obey a lawful police order to leave an area where police were dealing with an armed standoff.

At the sentencing Tuesday, Major Hayden Fowler, who had testified at Eravi’s August trial, asked for special permission to directly address Eravi, which Hanley granted. Normally, people speaking at sentencings address the judge.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Major Hayden Fowler is pictured at Phillip Michael Eravi’s trial on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

Fowler, looking straight at Eravi, said that officers had simply been doing what they were expected to do that night: protecting citizens from an “extremely dangerous subject, who had already fired a gun outside in the neighborhood.”

“When you chose – and it was a choice – to interfere with LPD operations in the middle of this incident,” Fowler said, “you knowingly put the lives of our officers, the citizens we were protecting, the suspect and yourself in jeopardy.”

Fowler told Eravi that in his repeated refusals to obey commands he gave police no choice but to arrest him.

“LPD officers acted heroically that night, despite you,” he said, adding that Eravi has shown “zero remorse” and “zero accountability” for his actions.

“In fact,” Fowler said, “you continue to attempt to bully and disparage those that serve this community.”

“I am speaking today to remind you that, despite your efforts to interfere … we will continue to serve to the best of our abilities, to keep you and this community safe,” Fowler said.

Eravi, when given the opportunity, did not speak at his sentencing. Keck said that she had advised him not to, given his intention to appeal.

Hanley also ordered Eravi to pay $513 in various costs and fees within 90 days, to not consume alcohol or illegal drugs and to perform 20 hours of community service, among several other probation conditions. She advised him that Court Services has the authority to order two- to three-day jail terms if he violates certain conditions. She also advised him that as a convicted felon he can no longer possess firearms. He responded that he owned a pistol and a shotgun, which he said were already out of his house, along with the ammunition for them.

The state had also requested that Eravi attend an anger management class, obtain a mental health evaluation and to have no contact with witnesses in the case, but Hanley declined to order those conditions, noting that Court Services had not made such a request and noting her desire to treat similar cases consistently.

Eravi has other pending cases before Hanley, including an appeal from a municipal criminal trespass case, misdemeanor battery on a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor criminal trespass at the Lawrence Public Library, which he had been banned from entering.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Michael Eravi shields his face from a camera as he is given a citation for trespassing at the Lawrence Public Library Friday, June 27, 2025.

Keck told Hanley that she had made an offer to the state to resolve the pending cases but had not gotten a response. Kemple said she would consider the offer, but she appeared skeptical that the cases would be resolved “by plea offer.”

In addition to the criminal matters, Eravi has sued numerous government entities, claiming violations of his civil rights, but he has so far not prevailed on any of those lawsuits.

Related to the current interference case, Eravi filed a lawsuit claiming that Lawrence police violated his civil rights when they arrested him at the standoff, but a federal judge tossed that lawsuit. Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled that officers acted reasonably and with reasonable force when they removed Eravi from the scene.

Crabtree did not order Eravi to pay attorney fees in that case, but such fees were ordered in an Elk County case, where a judge ruled that Eravi will have to pay the cost of litigation and reasonable attorney’s fees after his suit against a public official there was thrown out. Eravi is appealing that decision.

SEE THE VIDEO OF HIS ARREST

A police body-cam video of Eravi’s arrest was played for the jury at his trial. In it, he is seen approaching the armed standoff area and ignoring an officer’s command to “stop right there.” The officer tells him that he can’t be there, but Eravi continues to ignore him, moving forward and saying “there’s no line.” The officer tells him that if he keeps walking he must be covered by police, to which Eravi says, “I ain’t nobody that needs to be covered” and “you need to leave me alone.”

After the officer tells him again that he needs to leave, Eravi insists that he is a “free human being” and repeatedly tells the officer to “leave me alone!” The officer then radios to a supervisor that “I can’t get him to move.” Eravi then says, “You mother[expletive] woke me up and got me out here! Leave me alone!” The officer is ordered to arrest Eravi after he refuses to leave the area. Eravi resists the arrest, flailing his arms and shouting, calling the officer names and falsely accusing the police of “attacking” him.

The first 30 seconds of the body-camera footage contain no audio. Viewers are advised that the video contains graphic language.

TRIAL COVERAGE:

Long-delayed trial begins for ‘citizen journalist’ accused of interfering with police during armed standoff

Jurors watch video of man being arrested at standoff scene; teen testifies that it was ‘obvious’ that people should stay away

At trial, ex-cop fired for untruthfulness suggests police were out to get Lawrence YouTuber

Jury finds ‘citizen journalist’ guilty of interfering with police officer, rejecting claim that case was about 1st Amendment