DeCastro v. City of Duncan, Oklahoma et al

On December 18, 2025, Jose DeCastro filed a Federal lawsuit in California, this time against the City of Duncan, Oklahoma, and various public officials. It appears that Mr. DeCastro filed this Federal civil rights lawsuit in an attempt to halt a lower court's criminal case against him by including an Emergency Motion asking the Federal court to "quash" a warrant for his arrest issued in theState of Oklahoma v. DeCastrocase, but his Motion was DENIED.

In his complaint Mr. DeCastro claims he is a member of the press and was conducting an "investigation." The State alleges that Mr. DeCastro was captured on video as he attempted to open doors on police vehicles without permission after he viewed/recorded weapons in the vehicles during a visit to the City of Duncan. The State filed charges and a warrant was issued for Mr. DeCastro's arrest in December. Mr. DeCastro then filed this lawsuit claiming a violation of his civil rights.

In this complaint Mr. DeCastro appears to be claiming that informing the officers he is a journalist conducting an investigation protects him from the charges, that waiting until December to file makes the charges untimely, and that the arrest warrant was actually filed in retaliation for filming in September and for filing FOIA requests in October. The Nevada Judge questioned venue and DENIED Mr. DeCastro's request to "quash" the warrant as Federal civil cases are often stayed until the criminal case concludes.

On January 6, 2026, Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. GRANTED Jose DeCastro's requset to transfer the case to the Western District of Oklahoma, the juridiction that the case should have originally been filed in.

After the case was transferred in January of 2025, Mr. DeCastro waited until March to request an extension of time to serve and issues the summons for the defendants. The court did, but they pointed out to DeCastro that he was attempting to serve one party who was not a named defendant in the case. They did not issue that summons. Two weeks later, DeCastro filed the First Amended Complaint to fix the error.

At that time, DeCastro also requested an Emergency Writ of Mandamus in what appears to be an attempt to get the Federal Court in his Civil case to stop the State Court Criminal Case. This is after he was denied an Emergency Restraining Order to prevent the Criminal case from moving forward back in December of 2025.

Part of DeCastro's claims is his concern that the charges were not filed until 3 months after the affidavit. However, it appears to us that Oklahoma allows prosecutors at least one year to file Misdemeanor charges after an affidavit is filed. More information on this and the rest of the case will be posted as it becomes available.