Man Who Taped Police Beating Arrested in L.A.

Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | 07/11/02 | Dan Whitcomb

[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.

[dougherty]

I've been cuffed

Somehow, I'm not surprised at this admission.

[drlevy88]

P.S. Just being silly. I don't believe racism is a culprit here. A temper flying out of control may be. But what else can you rhyme with face?

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I'm wondering why they have different last names. I have my father's last name as do people that are married to each other usually do. Do you not have your father's last name? I'm wondering if this so called *kid* is really the blood relation to the so-called father. Do you have any evidence they are actually related? Or is he one of many male so-called father figures in this young persons life. It is a fact of life for many.

Oh and I'll spare you...yes ..I'm sure you will call me RACIST for asking this legitimate question.

SNORE!!!

But please provide actual proof that this child really belongs to that man.

[drlevy88]

If no change on the face
It's a temper out of place

[Sparkvark]

LOL

[dougherty]

Well, boys and girls, looks like this whole "police brutality" set-up is unravelling before the sorrowing faces of our cop-hating media and politicians.

Don't forget the cop-haters here on FR, there are a number of them in these threads regarding this poor 'child'.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Not only am I suspicious, I am doubting whether this *child* really belongs to that man as their last names are completely different.

I'm waiting for the RACIST trolls to come btw, for me asking that question...LOL!

[drlevy88]

Ever hear of adoption?

[drlevy88]

IMHO no "set-up" is "unraveling." It would be too hard to do. How do you manage to drive around and not have your expired plates noticed until you are within the reach of a convenient candid camera?

[sheik yerbouty]

In Gray Doofus' PC Peoples Republic, an accusation is the same as a conviction in these matters.

[drlevy88]

Oh, and they sure picked an "impeachable" cameraman. Mr. Morse's defense is sure to hammer on the jury that this sad sack with a DUI trial coming up can't be trusted when he says the tape is accurate, after all he might have Photoshopped it to the quality of our own Registered!

[dcwusmc]

What does it matter? It isn't at all germaine to the issue at hand... except maybe to you. To me, I see a cop beating a kid... and 17 is a KID anywhere you wanna go in this country. It seems to me you are going well out of your way to bring up issues which are totally irrelevant to the fact of a kid getting beaten by a cop. I guess the kid should be grateful the cop didn't have a shotgun out while he was on the ground. He might not have lived to tell about it, given the propensity for cops to trip over nothing at all and blow innocent bystanders away... like the deputy did out in san berdoo... and WHY was the kid cuffed anyway? NO ONE has addressed that. If his DAD was stopped for having an expired tag on his car why was the KID cuffed? And why so many cops? Is it a felony in LA to have expired tags? Is it worse than bank robbery and the clown making the stop has to call in the whole world on the perp? WOW...

[drlevy88]

It is a custom but not the law, anymore than the bride has to take the groom's name. This er, "learning challenged" child was probably so used to his former full name that they didn't confuse him with a new one.

[dcwusmc]

Cops are surely no heroes as a rule. Too many of them are afflicted with the cowboy mentality and the "Us vs the Citizens" idiocy. They are federalized storm troopers who are all too eager to try out their mailorder pacifiers on suspects.

I have the utmost respect for those who KEEP THE PEACE as opposed to being mindless LEOs.

I also agree that corrupt cops are hard to find... because any cop who bothers to look usually puts his blinders on first. From firsthand knowledge, I am aware that LAPD is a hotbed of corruption, crooked cops, murder-for-hire rings, molesters of Explorer Scouts (male and female) and every other perversion known to mankind. I should respect these people?

And for a cop who could have been beaten by his wife the night before, maybe saying that a mentally retarded 17-year old KID beat him is somehow more "manly."

The only problem I have with all of this is that it seems to put me on the side of the race/poverty pimps who are circling like sharks in the water and smelling blood!

[dcwusmc]

By the way, welcome to FR. You sure have a mouth for someone who just joined us today.