One of the deputies who pulled him over also claimed it was illegal to drive through the state with a monkey but that also was not true.
Since then, Raymond Feaste has been waging a one-man battle against the Georgia legal system to clear his name, documenting his battle on his YouTube channel, Thabo and Ray, where he mostly post videos of his pet vervet monkey, Thabo.
Feaste obtained body camera footage from both the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office and the Turner County Sheriff’s Office, revealing that Feaste was not driving to close to the vehicle in front of him in either case.
“I have two sheriff’s departments that are conspiring and colluding to send me away to prison for literally no reason and all of the evidence to show that I’m innocent is on video,” Feaste said in the opening of one of the videos where he discussed the traffic stops.
“And even further, all of the evidence shows how illegal and criminal what their behavior has been and how many times they violated my rights.”
Feaste, 32, is facing a misdemeanor charge of following too closely to the vehicle in front of him which is punishable by up to a year in jail. Penalties can also include fines, license suspension, added points on his driving record and increased insurance rates.
“Why has this prosecutor not dropped these charges?” Feaste asked in his video. “This looks like prosecutorial misconduct for me.”
“Prosecutors have to drop charges if there is no evidence to charge you. The evidence they submitted through discovery shows I didn’t do anything.”
The Evidence
The traffic stops took place on October 15, 2024 while Feaste was driving back from North Carolina to Florida, where he is from.
Body camera footage from the first stop shows Dooly County sheriff’s Deputy Steven Peavy pull alongside Feaste as he was driving on the interstate — allowing him to see the driver —- before allowing Feaste to drive ahead of him where he deputy then began tailgating him to pull him over.
The video also shows the tractor trailer he had been accused of tailgating was at least seven car lengths ahead of him so it’s not even debatable.
“I know he just pulled me over for no reason,” Feaste said. “I know I was not tailgating a semi so I know he just pulled me over and he’s trying to just see if the car smelled of marijuana.”
“You can’t just pull someone over just because you feel like it. It is an unlawful detainment.”
Police bodycam footage shows Feaste telling the deputy he was not tailgating as well as asserting his right not to respond to questions not pertaining to the traffic stop which irritated the deputy, who happens to the son of Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy.
Body camera footage shows Peavy was very confident in his accusation, informing Feaste that the evidence is on his camera,
“I got you on camera right on the bumper of that car,” Peavy said. “I was going to give you a warning but if you want to …”
The deputy did not finish his statement about the warning but it is evident he was referring to Feaste asserting his constitutional rights.
“I don’t care what you believe,” the deputy continued. “I got it on camera that you ride too close.”
“You got to give at least a couple of car lengths, you were less than a car length off the back of that tractor trailer.”
“It’s not my opinion, it’s a fact,” Peavy stated.
Peavy ended up giving Feaste a criminal summons for driving too close, which is still pending.
Body camera footage also shows Peavy muting his camera while inside his car and making a phone call, which Feaste believes was to the deputies in Turner County which is just one county south of Dooly.
Less than an hour later, Feaste was pulled over by Turner County sheriff’s Deputy Justin Partain on the same allegation that he was driving too close to a tractor trailer in front of him.
However, dashcam video obtained by Feaste shows the tractor trailer passing the deputy two lanes to the left of the highway emergency lane where the deputy was parked. Then, two seconds later, Feaste drives by in the lane immediately to the left of the emergency lane.
“I’m not even in the same lane and I want you to know that the officer whose daddy is the head town sheriff there called these officers ahead and had them illegally do this,” Feaste said in his video.
Partain’s body camera footage shows the deputy accusing Feaste of driving too close to the tractor trailer when he notices Thabo in a cage in the back seat.
“Is that a monkey?” Partain asked. “You have your paperwork to transport that monkey?”
“There’s no paperwork required if I’m just traveling through the state,” Feaste explains.
“Yes sir, you got to have you got to have paperwork with you to transport a monkey.”
“That’s not true,” Feaste responded.
Illegal Frisk
In his YouTube video, Feaste posts a screenshot of the law that states “no such license or permit shall be required solely for the transportation of wild animals through this state where the animals remain in this state no more than 24 hours and are not sold or transferred while in this state.”
Driving through Georgia takes about six hours, and Feaste said he had no plans on stopping other than for bathroom breaks or meals.
Partain walked back to his patrol car to do research on the monkey law, then walked back to Feaste’s car and had him step out of the car to frisk him for weapons which Feaste says violated a Supreme Court ruling since the deputy did not have reasonable suspicion that he could be armed and dangerous.
“There is no reason to believe I am armed and there is no reason to believe that I am dangerous,” Feaste said. “I’ve been nothing but respectful the whole time, so he violated my rights when he does this.”
But Partain threatened to arrest him for obstruction if he did not comply.
Partain ended up giving Feaste a warning as well as asking him to allow him to photograph the monkey so he can send it to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources which issues licenses for wildlife, but they have not contacted him.
However, five months later, Feaste still has the initial misdemeanor charge of driving too closely hanging over him. Online court records from Dooly County show his next court date is March 20.
Watch Feaste explanatory video here as well as another explanatory video by the police accountability site Lackluster.
