From cnn.com:


July 12, 2002.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who videotaped Inglewood police roughing up African-American teen-ager Donovan Jackson was hospitalized Thursday after being taken into custody.

Mitchell Crooks was arrested on an outstanding warrant for petty theft with a prior conviction, driving under the influence and hit-and-run in Placer County, in northern California.

On Thursday night, he was taken to the Los Angeles County USC Medical Center after complaining of injuries, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney's office said.

Crooks was picked up in Hollywood, just outside a building housing CNN offices, and taken to the grand jury looking into the beating case. Crooks had spent much of his time over the past two days with a producer for a television studio housed in the same building.

He did not appear to be roughed up as the district attorney's officers made the arrest and put him in the black Ford Explorer, but CNN photographer David Lake heard him say to the officers that they were probably going to beat him like the police in the Inglewood incident he had captured on tape.

From inside the car, Crooks yelled at the top of his lungs, "Help! Help! Help! Help me!" as the SUV drove away.

The arrest was captured on crisp surveillance video as well as by a CNN photographer.

Dean Masserman, an attorney for Crooks, told CNN he was given permission to see but not speak to Crooks as he was being transferred on a gurney from an examination room to have X-rays taken.

"He doesn't look good," Masserman said. "He was strapped down," but did not have any visible injuries.

Crooks had failed to appear before the grand jury Thursday morning as scheduled, authorities said. Late Thursday, a source with the district attorney's office said they were "through with him for the time being," leaving Crooks to face the charges from Placer County.

The Placer County sheriff's office said Crooks was arrested in February 1999 for stealing two VCRs from his mother's home. On his way to steal them, he was in a traffic accident and fled the scene; he was later charged with hit and run and driving under the influence for that wreck.

Crooks was convicted of the three crimes in March 1999 and sentenced to seven months in jail but failed to report for the sentence, leading to the warrant for his address, the Placer County sheriff's office said.

Crooks had not been booked yet on the Placer County charges, according to Masserman, who also said he did not know if his client had appeared before a grand jury or not.

Dan Hanna, who has been traveling with Crooks for the last two months, said his friend was terrified of the police after he shot the video and realized its value to the beating case.

"He felt that if the police found the video then they would be able to brush the whole thing under the table," Hanna told CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight."

Masserman said he did not know the source of his client's fear, but he assumed it was a result of "people in favor of law enforcement, people against the rights of African-Americans, white supremacists. ... He apparently has gotten threats and he takes them seriously."

Crooks, who is white, has had prior run-ins with police that left him frightened, said Tom Martinez, a producer for T.A.M., a local television production studio.

Crooks used the TV studio for television interviews this week with various outlets and confided to Martinez, "All I have here is you and the makeup artist." Martinez offered to let Crooks sleep on his couch, which he did Wednesday night.

"He really wanted to get his face on television, doing as many types of shows that he could, so people would recognize him," Martinez told CNN. "He was afraid that if the police caught him, what they might do to him. That's what he told me."

The officers arrested Crooks when he and Martinez drove to the studio Thursday.

Hanna said Crooks spoke with the District Attorney's office Wednesday about testifying for the grand jury, but he was not served with a subpoena. He said his friend did not believe there were any warrants out for his arrest.

On Wednesday, Crooks and a prosecutor had a terse exchange on a Los Angeles radio show, with the prosecutor telling Crooks that a subpoena was waiting for him. (Full story)

Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade, a minority assistance group in Los Angeles, said the group plans to raise money for Crooks' bail.

"We believe that this man, in spite of the fact that we understand that he has problems in his past, he has done a powerful bit of justice for our community," said Bakewell. "We are going to stand with him through his trials and tribulations."

Crooks' mother, Pat, told Connie Chung that her son "tried to do good" by showing the video but it backfired.

"The sad part about this is that the light is being directed on him," she said. "Instead, it should be directed on the young man who was mistreated in the video."

Meanwhile, the attorney for the police officer suspended in the case said the teen-ager deserved to be punched because he grabbed the officer's midsection.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/U...index.html

I think it's odd they keep showing the video on the news over and over, quite possibly an attempt to desensitize people to the beating.
"It's gonna take Martial Law..."- GC.
[This message was edited Fri Jul 12 7:52:25 PDT 2002 by mrchristian]