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Town of Hurley officials have received dozens of angry emails and phone calls—some threatening violence and calling for their removal from the country—after a self-proclaimed “First Amendment auditor” posted a YouTube video of a confrontation with town officials and law enforcement at the town offices last week.
The incident is one of hundreds that have occurred in public spaces across the country over the past decade, prompting court cases and debate over whether those confronting public officials are citizen journalists seeking to uphold the Constitution, or opportunists aiming to provoke reactions that generate viral videos—and revenue.
Dan Warmus, a 43-year-old from the Buffalo area who operates the “Auditing Erie County” YouTube channel, entered Hurley Town Hall on Jan. 8 with a handheld camera. In the video, Deputy Town Clerk Jeffrey Mann asked Warmus why he was filming. Warmus responded that he “is investigating the town.” When Mann pressed him on what, and for whom, Warmus said he could not say because it was “an ongoing investigation.”
Mann left and returned with Town Supervisor Michael Boms, who asked Warmus to turn off his camera. Warmus refused. When Boms asked why he was there, Warmus, calling himself an “independent journalist,” again said he was investigating the town “for misconduct.” He asked Boms why the town’s Google reviews were “down to one-point something” and said he was “down here to find out why they are so bad to the public.”
Boms appeared to touch Warmus’ arm while asking him to leave. Warmus responded, “Don’t touch me. Don’t you ever touch me again,” and threatened to have Boms arrested for touching him. Boms then asked an employee off-camera to call the police.
While waiting for officers to arrive, Warmus shifted from accusations of “misconduct” to demanding Mann’s name. Town Councilmember Deborah Dougherty joined the exchange and told Warmus she was “not comfortable” giving out employees’ names, adding that the information was available on the town’s website or through a Freedom of Information Law request. Warmus told Dougherty he was “uncomfortable paying his taxes, but I have to,” and that she needed to “leave her comfort at home.”
A state trooper arrived about 16 minutes into the 58-minute video and spent the next 20 minutes speaking with Boms, Dougherty and Warmus. Warmus later said he would leave only after the trooper and an Ulster County sheriff’s deputy left, which they did. The final 20 minutes of the video showed a less contentious interaction with officials in Hastings-on-Hudson.
‘It’s like being abused’
In September 2022, Warmus was convicted and sentenced to 45 days in jail for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He pleaded guilty that May to misdemeanor charges of “willfully and knowingly parading, demonstrating, or picketing” inside the Capitol. Prosecutors sought a 30-day sentence, but the judge cited Warmus’ history of recording public officials and law enforcement when imposing a longer term.
Warmus did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously defended his confrontations as exercises of First Amendment rights meant to test officials’ understanding of those rights.
Warmus’ YouTube channel has about 174,000 subscribers. He is listed as the operator of Worm-A-Fix Automotive in Orchard Park, N.Y.; a phone number for the business is no longer in service. He also appears to run a Facebook page under the name Dan Erie. At the top of the page is a photo of a person dressed in a police uniform, wearing a pig mask and holding a semi-automatic rifle in front of a red sedan bearing a photo of Warmus and the slogan “Auditing Erie County, Civil Rights Enforcer.”
Before his 2022 sentencing, Warmus apologized for his conduct at the Capitol.
“I’m sorry for the people I let down that day,” Warmus said then. “I know sorry doesn’t change the past or even what I did but I will say I definitely learned a hard lesson, a valuable lesson.”
At the time, prosecuting attorney Kathryn Fifield said Warmus’ ability to mobilize his YouTube audience had led to threats against officials.
“This conduct mirrors exactly what Mr. Warmus is doing on January 6th,” Fifield said.
Hurley officials say they experienced similar threats after the recent video.
“We received 150 calls and messages the next day from his group threatening us and calling [Dougherty] a cuntface whore,” Boms said, adding that officials also received more than 200 emails. “Why? Because we refused to give the deputy clerk’s name? It’s mind-boggling.”
Emails reviewed by The Overlook ranged from mild chiding of Boms and Dougherty for being “rude,” to calling them “scum” and making physical threats.
“ICE should deport un-American people like you who try to violate ‘we the people’s’ rights,” one email read. Another said, “You’d like me to pay a visit. You won’t be supervisor much longer.”
“The scary part of this is I’m getting emails with the nastiest names you can call a woman,” Dougherty said. “It’s like being abused.”
Dougherty cited an uptick in political violence—including the 2025 murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence, and two assassination attempts on President Trump—as heightening her anxiety.
“The people who watch that get riled up because they think I’m taking their rights away,” she said. “I can open my door and there could be someone with a shotgun.”
A history of conflict and court cases
The concept of “First Amendment auditors” is relatively new, with most incidents occurring over the past decade. Since 2017, a flurry of cases has tested the boundaries of recording on public property, though relevant case law dates back further. Courts have long held that public recording may be subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.
That principle was affirmed in Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment activity in public spaces may be regulated to prevent disruption. In Glik v. Cunniffe (2011), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that citizens have a right to record police performing their duties in public, finding that arresting someone for doing so violated the First and Fourth Amendments.
A 2022 case involving First Amendment auditor Christopher Cordova was upheld by an appeals court in 2024, reinforcing limits on recording in certain government buildings. Cordova, who operated the YouTube channel “Denver Audits,” recorded inside a Social Security Administration office and was convicted of unlawful photography and failure to comply with posted rules and lawful directions. In United States v. Cordova, the court ruled that federal agencies have the authority to set and enforce recording restrictions on property they oversee.
Similar cases have resulted in convictions elsewhere. In 2019, Jesus Padilla, a San Antonio-based First Amendment auditor, was convicted of disorderly conduct after filming police while shouting insults at them.
A search of YouTube for “First Amendment auditors” yields hundreds of videos from dozens of accounts, with titles such as “Idiot Female Cop and Dumb Partner Get Owned,” “Shutting Down the District Attorney’s Office” and “INSANE Karens PANIC During First Amendment Audit.”
View counts range from the low thousands to more than a million.
“They are looking to get you to say something to make it viral,” Boms said.
Dougherty agreed.
“He does it for clicks,” she said of Warmus. “It was obvious he wasn’t a journalist and he was just there to cause trouble.”
Both officials said they believe the abuse was intended to drive them from office. Dougherty said the experience nearly succeeded.
“It was the worst experience,” she said. “I’m not a politician. I’m not seeking any farther office than I am right now. But it was pretty close for me walking away. That is what he wants.”
“I guess if something bad is going to happen, it’s going to happen,” she added. “I just can’t understand what we are becoming as a society.”
Jim Rich is a senior reporter for The Overlook. You can reach him at jim@theoverlooknews.com.