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Man Who Taped Police Beating Arrested in L.A.
Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | 07/11/02 | Dan Whitcomb

Posted on 07/11/2002 4:37:33 PM PDT by socal_parrot

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The man who videotaped a police beating near Los Angeles that enraged black leaders and then dodged a grand jury inquiry into the matter was arrested on Thursday as he prepared to grant a television interview.

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Mitchell Crooks was taken into custody on warrants issued in northern California for petty theft and drunken driving. Authorities also served him with a subpoena to testify before the Los Angeles County grand jury.

Crooks' arrest was videotaped and broadcast on local KCAL-TV, showing undercover officers hustling him into a sports utility vehicle with tinted windows outside the studios of CNN as the 27-year-old man repeatedly screamed for help.

Crooks had failed to appear on Thursday morning at Los Angeles Superior Court, where the grand jury was meeting, after telling a local radio program that he feared for his life.

"All we're doing is arresting him on the basis of a warrant," Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "If there had not been a warrant, we would have escorted him to the grand jury."

"He is a witness and we need him to authenticate the tape recording, otherwise its value in court would be greatly diminished," Gibbons said. Crooks shot his videotape from a motel room across the street from the scene of the incident in Inglewood, which abuts south-central Los Angeles.

Crooks called a KFI-AM talk radio show hosted by John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou on Wednesday to discuss the case and said he was afraid that officers would be "coming after" him for videotaping the beating of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.

'I FEAR FOR MY LIFE'

"I fear for my life," Crooks said. "They're going to kick my ass in a cell and take turns on me, probably."

Deputy District Attorney Kurt Livesay, who was also a guest on the show, then told Crooks over the air that authorities did not want to hurt him, and asked that he give his address to investigators. Instead, Crooks hung up the phone.

The videotape, first broadcast on Sunday, shows Inglewood Police Officer Jeremy Morse picking up Jackson and slamming him face-first onto a patrol car. Several seconds later, Morse is seen slugging Jackson in the face with a closed fist.

The tape sparked cries of racism and comparisons to the incendiary 1991 beating of Rodney King, which was also videotaped. The acquittal of four Los Angeles officers in that case led to the worst urban riots in modern U.S. history.

Several local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were investigating the altercation between Jackson and Morse, a three-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department. U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) sent his top civil rights deputy to Los Angeles on the case.

Jackson and his 41-year-old father, Coby Chavis, who was present during the incident, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Wednesday against the officers involved in their arrest, the city of Inglewood and the County of Los Angeles.

Black leaders, including congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat who represents the area, and Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn have called for Morse to be immediately fired and brought up on state or federal charges.

ATTORNEY: OFFICER DESERVES DUE PROCESS

But Morse's lawyer told Reuters in an interview that the 24-year-old officer had been condemned by public officials before all of the facts were known or the probes even begun.

"I think it's quite unfortunate that people who have sworn to defend and uphold the Constitution would ignore the presumption of innocence and find individuals guilty before there's even been a trial," attorney John Barnett said. "I thought we stopped doing that a couple hundred years ago."

Barnett, who also represented one of the officers acquitted in King's beating, said public officials were offering inappropriate assurances that his client was guilty.

"This very same thing happened (in the King case)," he said. "That's why it was such a big surprise when they were acquitted with tragic, tragic consequences."

Barnett said that Morse lifted Jackson from the ground and heaved him onto the car because the teen had let his legs go limp in an effort to resist.

"After his hands were cuffed, Jackson was able to reach out and grab my client's testicles," he said. "And on that occasion the punch was seen in order to make that activity cease."

In Oklahoma, meanwhile, civil rights activists called for immediate disciplinary action against two white police officers who were videotaped beating a prone black suspect with batons.

The officers, Greg Driskill and E.J. Dyer, were to remain on regular duty pending the results of a probe. Oklahoma City police have asked the FBI ( news - web sites) to investigate.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: barbarity; beating; brownshirts; cops; cruel; donutwatch; fourthreich; governmentcontrol; governmenttyranny; heart; homelandinsecurity; inglewood; inhumane; jackbootedthugs; jbtalert; justified; longknives; lookmano; lookmanoheart; misanthropy; neuteredrobocops; nwonow; ofcunfriendly; policebrutality; totalitarianism; unmerciful; useofforce
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To: Japedo
Check out the numbskull in post 100. He advocated rioting.

Some people would rather believe the cops' words over their own lying eyes.

121 posted on 07/11/2002 7:13:26 PM PDT by Poohbah
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To: socal_parrot

122 posted on 07/11/2002 7:13:31 PM PDT by PatriotReporter
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To: freebilly
If the testicles are bruised; you must re-hire the man accused....

If he went for the meat
Cop's back on the street....

123 posted on 07/11/2002 7:13:52 PM PDT by meyer
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To: Map Kernow
Yup. Makes one wonder... say, btw, has anyone pinged Dain to this thread? Or would that be a bad idea? Heh heh heh... ;0)
124 posted on 07/11/2002 7:14:33 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks
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Comment #125 Removed by Moderator

Comment #126 Removed by Moderator

To: Japedo
While I do agree that he is a "witness" I do not understand why anyone needs to "authenticate the Tape Recording".

He needs to authenticate that the tape is exactly as he made it, that it hasn't been doctored... In this day and age, it is very important.

127 posted on 07/11/2002 7:17:03 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: Libertarians for Sharpton
That and the fact that most of the libertinetarians here have a criminal mentality.

As opposed to "Libertarians for Sharpton," hunh?

Having fun on your first day at Free Republic? Learning the "right-wing lingo"? You sure convinced me, bub....

128 posted on 07/11/2002 7:17:10 PM PDT by Map Kernow
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To: 1L
The tape only represents one angle of a few moments of an incident. What we don't see behind the teen and below the car hood tells a significant part of the whole, not to mention what happened before the record button was pushed.
129 posted on 07/11/2002 7:17:21 PM PDT by skr
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To: J.W. Collier
Well, technically Driving With Expired Tags COULD be considered Tax Evasion, and we all know the penalties for that are pretty steep. That guy's lucky it wasn't the IRS that arrested him...
130 posted on 07/11/2002 7:18:28 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks
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To: Japedo
Don't want to see it don't want to taint my chances of sitting on the jury.
131 posted on 07/11/2002 7:18:33 PM PDT by dts32041
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To: HairOfTheDog
He needs to authenticate that the tape is exactly as he made it, that it hasn't been doctored... In this day and age, it is very important.

Exactly. Unauthenticated evidence is not admissible in court, and cannot be used to convict. Period.

And that includes videotapes.

132 posted on 07/11/2002 7:19:22 PM PDT by Map Kernow
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Comment #133 Removed by Moderator

To: Poohbah
Check out the numbskull in post 100. He advocated rioting. Some people would rather believe the cops' words over their own lying eyes.

Thank you Poohbah, I stand Corrected, I did Over look that post, I apologize.

I agree with not only your second statement, But also, Some would rather "Believe the Police" with out even Viewing the said tape, yet advocate the Killing of the teenager (post 44) which outraged me to begin with.

134 posted on 07/11/2002 7:22:47 PM PDT by Japedo
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To: Howlin
It's suspicious. In poor black neighborhoods it's very unusual to have white people there. Even white liberals don't live there. The motel across the street in *this* neighborhood, where a white guy stayed...makes me go "hmmm."
135 posted on 07/11/2002 7:23:07 PM PDT by I_Love_My_Husband
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To: HairOfTheDog
He needs to authenticate that the tape is exactly as he made it, that it hasn't been doctored... In this day and age, it is very important.

Valid Point, I agree with that, Thank you for the clarification! :)

136 posted on 07/11/2002 7:24:47 PM PDT by Japedo
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To: Helix
Perhaps he is a family jewel thief?
137 posted on 07/11/2002 7:24:54 PM PDT by myrabach
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To: grlfrnd
How about a poor white person who can't afford a nice place in a nice neighborhood?

One of the operative words, after all, is "poor."

138 posted on 07/11/2002 7:25:52 PM PDT by Poohbah
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To: grlfrnd
In poor black neighborhoods it's very unusual to have white people there

As a white someone who used to live a few miles from the area where this occured, let me point out that, while this neighborhood is poor, it is NOT all black. It's a mixed neighborhood, and it is not at all unusual to have people of any particular race there.

139 posted on 07/11/2002 7:26:56 PM PDT by Jubal Harshaw
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To: dts32041
Don't want to see it don't want to taint my chances of sitting on the jury.

I think your statements about wanting to have the Unarmed kid "CAPPED" pretty much doomed your chances to begin with!

140 posted on 07/11/2002 7:26:58 PM PDT by Japedo
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