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CNN Live Today
Man Who Shot Alleged Police Brutality Video Wakes Up in Hospital
Aired July 12, 2002 - 11:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move on now to Inglewood, California, and the police investigation. The man who shot this week's most talked about video woke up this morning in the hospital.
Our Charles Feldman joins us with the bizarre story of the taper, and how he himself was caught literally on tape.
Charles, good morning.
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
What a mess this has become, huh?
Mitchell Crooks, who is the young man who took the videotape of the Inglewood police officer beating that African-American youth last week -- well, Mitchell Crooks himself is now arrested. He's back in jail. He was arrested yesterday right outside the CNN building here in Los Angeles. You can see a surveillance tape that CNN camera recorded of the arrest.
Why was he arrested? The Los Angeles county district attorney's office said it was because he outstanding warrants for his arrest from northern California on charges ranging from hit and run to petty theft.
Well, he certainly didn't go along with this totally voluntarily, if at all, because in this next videotape that our cameraman shot, if you listen carefully, and we turn up the sound, you can hear Mitchell Crooks shouting for help.
Now, Mitchell Crooks was hauled away first to jail, then to a hospital, because his attorney said he suffered some injuries as a result of the arrest. Now he's back in jail. And he did appear before a grand jury, we are told, to authenticate the tape he took of that beating.
Now, in the meantime, he now has an attorney, an attorney he got courtesy of Johnnie Cochran, the famed attorney in the O.J. Simpson case. And Mitchell Crooks attorney, as you might well imagine, is outraged about what happened to his client.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEAN MASSERMAN, CROOKS ATTORNEY: It's appalling. I think it's just another arm of the state reaching out, and making the case worse than it is, exacerbating the situation.
My client never refused to authenticate the videotape, never refused to testify in front of the grand jury, but he merely expressed a concern that people were threatening him, that he was taking those threats seriously, that he was a marked man, and was scared, and what they did was scare him more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FELDMAN: So here's what happens now, Daryn. For Mitchell Crooks, his next stop in the next few days, back up to northern California to be arraigned on the charges against him. For Inglewood, California a rally later this morning, the Reverend Al Sharpton winging way from the East Coast to the West Coast to take part in that. And the district attorney's office in L.A. still investigating the beating incident, which is after all how this entire story began, and something may happen on that front with the DA's office in a matter of days -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, Charles, as I understand it, not just local authorities, but the U.S. attorney has also shown up and looking at possible civil right charges.
FELDMAN: Absolutely, and the FBI in Los Angeles is looking into it. This videotape that Mitchell crooks shot last week, there's no way I'm sure that he had any idea what he was in for, in terms of what it led to, the investigations, the charges, the countercharges, and now his own arrest.
KAGAN: And his attorney did make it interesting point, and I know there are some bizarre twist to the story, but the attorney made an interesting point earlier this morning on CNN, saying so the guy who took the pictures, he's in jail, and the officer who's accused is sitting at home with full pay.
FELDMAN: I'm afraid that is sort of the way it's playing now. And there are people I heard just last night on the radio, some people in the African-American community here who are making that very point, that isn't it odd that the police officer who is accused of this beating, he's out on paid leave, the guy who takes the video is arrested, even though he's arrested on charges unrelated to this, from a PR standpoint alone, from a public relations standpoint doesn't play well, does it.
KAGAN: Not the best. I have a feeling this is not the last we'll hear on this story. More to come, and we will look forward to reports on that.
Charles Feldman in Los Angeles, thank you.
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