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American Morning

Mitchell Crooks Hospitalized After Being Arrested

Aired July 12, 2002 - 07:01   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, though, Mitchell Crooks was hospitalized after he was arrested and taken away from outside of the CNN offices in Los Angeles. Crooks, who videotaped a police beating last week, was apparently wanted on charges not related to the beating.

Charles Feldman joins us from Los Angeles. He has the very latest on some of these latest strange developments -- good morning, Charles.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Strange is really the word for this. Mitchell Crooks who, as you pointed out, is the young man who videotaped the beating of an African-American youth by an Inglewood city police officer, is now in a hospital, he says from injuries suffered when he was arrested yesterday outside CNN's building here in Los Angeles.

He was in the building to do some interviews with another network, when the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office arrested him. You are looking at a videotape made by the CNN surveillance cameras outside of our building. He was arrested on outstanding warrants from northern California, where he was charged with hit-and-run driving while under the influence, as well as petty theft.

The arrest was also, Paula, captured by a CNN cameraman. And if you listen to this tape, you can hear Mitchell Crooks' cries for help -- he is inside that van -- as he was being driven away.

Now, Crooks' attorney, who by the way apparently was hooked up with Mitchell Crooks through the courtesies of Johnny Cochran -- Johnny Cochran, of course, being the famed attorney of -- who was O.J. Simpson's defense attorney. Mitchell Crooks' attorney says that this arrest was absolutely outrageous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN MASSERMAN, ATTORNEY FOR MITCHELL CROOKS: 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: Now, we should point out that the L.A. Country District Attorney's office claims that the arrest of Mitchell Crooks has absolutely nothing to do, or had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he had thumbed his nose at a subpoena that he was issued the day before to appear before a grand jury about that videotape. The D.A.'s office claiming that the arrest was because of the outstanding warrant from northern California, and that they had no choice but to make the arrest -- Paula.

ZAHN: Well, Charles, that's where some of the confusion comes in. Was he really served this subpoena? Because early on, his attorney said he never got one.

FELDMAN: Yes. And there is some debate about whether he did or didn't. He was certainly notified about it while he was doing a radio program here in Los Angeles. Whether or not that was legally sufficient to constitute his being served, we'll leave to a court to decide, I suppose. But he certainly was aware of the grand jury, and the L.A. D.A.'s office says all it really wanted was for him to come before the grand jury to authenticate the tape and say, yes, this is the tape recording that I made, nothing more than that.

ZAHN: Now, you have the D.A.'s office this morning confirming that Mitchell Crooks is in the hospital. Any information on the extent of his injuries and the extent of pain he is in right now?

FELDMAN: No. I know that one of our producers caught up with the lawyer last night at the hospital here in Los Angeles, and the lawyer said that he didn't see any visible signs of injury. Of course, that in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean anything. But, you know, this is going to obviously play out throughout the day, and we're going to, I am sure, learn a lot more about this as the day progresses.

ZAHN: Weirder and weirder by the minute. Charles Feldman, thanks so much for that live update -- appreciate it -- see you a little bit later on in the morning.

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