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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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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.
You know what you little SOB, there were 61 people the were murdered, killed in the 92 riots. Many were completely innocent. Hundreds of innocent people had their businesses burned to the ground.
With statements like these, it's no wonder our society is so F-ed up.
If he went for the meat
Cop's back on the street....
If he grabbed the scrotum
you can't demote 'im
You are one sick puppy.
Actually, you CAN see the officer put his left hand quickly to his crotch right before he punches the kid. Half the time they show the video, they leave it out, but it's there.
Reginald Denny.
Now there is some tape.
This is going to get out of hand.... hand.... Hmmmmn....
If its in his hand
you can't repremand....
Let's hope the Police give this lowlife the "treatment" he deserves, like they did to the teenage miscreant on tape.
If he grabbed the crotch
the case is a botch.
All I saw was one punch... apparently, you and I have differing definitions of 'wailing'...
There is no excuse for this kind of behavior.
Yup... redefining words is so Clintonian...
LOL!!
You got to look at the picture in post #156 for this one...
From the look on his face,
the perp has no case...
Top talk radio host Jim Villanucci in Albuquerque does a special shout-out to New Mexico drivers getting their TENTH DWI--
Gordon House killed a family of four in 1992 and Lloyd Larson killed two couples for a total of four in 2002--
With a huge body count in the interim decade--
Killed--and nobody rioted.
Go figure.
Ah, wrong. It's called chain of custody. Sean Hannity already said it looks edited.
Editing is irrelevent. Chain of custody is only relevent for physical evidence. This tape isn't physical evidence. It will only be offered as "(witness), does this tape accurately depict the events that happened," to which the witness responds yes or no.
I have no doubt what you and I see on the news is edited. If it is true that an "edited" copy is the only thing that gets to the grand jury/court, then the answer to the above question will be "yes, but it doesn't show everything." To the extent that that is true, the factfinder weighs the oral testimony and gives the tape whatever value they deem. An edited tape is just as admissible as a raw one.
I respect your inclination since that was my first thought on photographic evidence when we talked about it in evidence class in law school a few years back. Being a photographer and having some idea about editing capability, I raised the scenario you are raising here. I quickly learned that it doesn't matter because it either is or isn't an accurate depiction of events. On the other hand, California may have weird rules of evidence (provided this is a state and not federal) grand jury. So, if I'm wrong on that account...
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