Posted on 04/23/2011 3:02:32 PM PDT by DariusBane
When Mitchell Crooks checked out of the county jail last month and checked into a Las Vegas hospital, the 36-year-old videographer knew he had a fight on his hands.
His face was bloodied and bruised. His $3,500 camera had been impounded by police, and he faced criminal charges for battery on a police officer.
One month later, things have changed for Crooks.
The Clark County district attorney's More..office has dropped all charges, and Crooks has retained an attorney of his own. The Metropolitan Police Department has opened an internal investigation into the Las Vegas police officer, Derek Colling, who Crooks says falsely arrested and beat him for filming police.
And his camera -- which captured the entire March 20 altercation between Crooks and Colling -- has been returned.
The words are friendly enough, but the tone is tense:
"Can I help you, sir?" Colling asks from his patrol car after parking it in front of Crooks' driveway and shining the spotlight on Crooks.
"Nope. Just observing," Crooks responds, fixing his camera on the officer.
Crooks had for an hour been recording the scene across the street from his home in the 1700 block of Commanche Circle, near East Desert Inn Road and South Maryland Parkway, where officers had several young burglary suspects handcuffed and sitting on the curb.
As Las Vegas crimes go, the activity was fairly boring. Crooks wanted to use his new camera, and he figured his neighbors would like to see the suspects' faces.
When Colling loaded suspects into the back of his car and drove in a circle through the cul-de-sac, Crooks said he thought police were leaving. Then the officer stopped his car.
"Do you live here?" Colling asks.
"Nope," Crooks says.
Colling steps out of his patrol car.
Crooks said he now regrets not telling the officer that he was in fact standing in his own driveway. He realizes his response seemed cheeky, but he said the officer made him nervous. Colling walks toward Crooks, left hand raised.
"Turn that off for me," Colling orders.
"Why do I have to turn it off?'' Crooks responds. "I'm perfectly within my legal rights to be able to do this."
The officer repeats the command several times; each time Crooks reiterates his right to film.
"You don't live here," Colling says, now close to Crooks.
"I do live here!"
"You don't live here, dude."
"I just said I live here!"
As Crooks backs away, Colling grabs him by the shoulder and throws him down. On the ground, Crooks grabs the camera and turns it toward his face.
Colling's leg then enters the video frame. Crooks says he believes that was the kick that broke his nose.
The camera records the sound of Crooks screaming. He said that's when Colling was punching his face.
"Shut up!" Colling yells. "Stop resisting!"
YOU'RE IN A WORLD OF HURT,' OFFICER SAYS
In his arrest report Colling wrote that Crooks grabbed his shoulders "and attempted to take me to the ground. I in turn took him to the ground."
At Clark County Detention Center, Crooks was booked for battery on a police officer and obstruction of justice. He was released from jail the next day. On March 26, the Review-Journal reported on his case. Four days later all charges were dropped.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said he dismissed the charges because the police report was vague.
"I asked for a more definite description of the battery because battery requires a violent touching," Laurent said. Police never provided that information.
Crooks said he always believed he'd be vindicated, but after police returned his camera he knew he had proof.
"I was confident I was doing the right thing, but I was excited they (the DA's office) weren't wasting any time, and that somebody was smart enough to know I was acting within the law," he said.
Crooks said the incident looks worse on tape than he remembered.
What bothered him the most, he said, was Colling's attitude after he was placed in handcuffs.
"Why did you do that? I live here," Crooks is heard pleading on the tape.
"You just told me you didn't live here," Colling says. "You live right here, in this house?"
Crooks asks for paramedics. Colling tells him to shut up and follow orders.
"If you fight again, dude Hey, if you (expletive) fight again, dude, you're in a world of hurt. You hear me?
"You're not in charge here, buddy. You hear me?"
Colling mocks Crooks' labored breathing.
"Oh yeah, buddy. Hey, when you don't do what I ask you to do, then you're in a world of hurt. Then you're in a world of hurt. Aren't ya? Huh?"
Crooks was later diagnosed with a deviated septum and a chest wall injury. Crooks believes his ribs were broken, but never got X-rays that could prove it.
ACLU LAWYERS SAY OFFICER WAS WRONG
Allen Lichtenstein, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, reviewed Crooks' video and said Colling was clearly in the wrong. Officers are trained to avoid escalating situations, but Colling initiated the incident and created a physical confrontation without provocation, he said.
"It raises serious questions about whether the officer used good judgment and whether he was properly trained," Lichtenstein said. "Those questions require answers."
Police have no expectation of privacy, and it's perfectly legal to film officers as long as it does not interfere in their investigation, he said. Colling erred in claiming that Crooks was trespassing. By law, only a property owner or resident can make a trespassing complaint, Lichtenstein said.
"Even if the officer didn't think he lived there, that doesn't mean he didn't have permission to be there,'' Lichtenstein said. "In the video I heard, that question was never asked."
Crooks' attorney, David Otto, on Thursday sent police a statement from Crooks, along with a demand for $500,000 to cover Crooks' medial care, pain and suffering.
Colling had no legitimate reason to approach Crooks that night, Otto wrote.
"Officer Colling was aggravated that a citizen should have the audacity to video tape, him -- a Las Vegas Metropolitan Patrol Officer,'' Otto wrote. "Officer Colling decided to use the fear and terror of his physical ability to beat Mr. Crooks into submission -- to teach Mr. Crooks and, by example, all citizens and residents of the Las Vegas Valley."
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie declined comment, saying the internal investigation remains open. Colling remains on duty, and Crooks has declined requests to be interviewed by detectives.
The suspects in Colling's patrol car may have witnessed the event and given statements to detectives, but their names have not been released. Police said they were not arrested or booked, so their names are not public record.
Crooks said he doesn't want to talk to detectives.
LOL, what do you? You watched the tape, right? You know, the one with the meek officer hurting his hand on the violent video perp? "Speculation, conjecture and hyperbole," plus an implication of presumed innocence for the cop who is now under investigation from the tape of the released videographer (hint, hint), comprise the entirety of your post, which you've kept completely context-free!
How annoying for you that civilians would watch a tape and have an opinion on their own, instead of waiting to bow to the Internal Affairs report!
Not to mention the DA about messed himself when he watched the tape and begged the police for clarification about the assault on an officer charge. To which the police never responded.
He (the DA) knew full and well after he saw the tape what had happened and what was coming...
I agree with Jim...I wouldn’t have lied to the LE. That gives them reason to mess with you. If he’d been in the street, he’d been perfectly within his rights.
Maybe he was nervous about the cops and he initially lied to them because he had reason to fear they might assault him or violate his rights...
... oh wait a sec...
If you only knew how many times I have listened to cops brag about the beat downs they handed out.
I see how lying prevented his azz whoopin...
Oh wait..
You know me. I ain’t no bootlicker. Me, personally, I don’t lie to LE’s. And it pizzez them off. If I don’t want to tell them something, I don’t lie, I just don’t tell them.
And even that will get you assaulted by todays cops... as someone already say a good number of cops are just itching to use force.
http://twitter.com/#!/InjusticeNews
I think in retrospect he would agree with you. If you listen to the video, (which I hope you have) you will here that he believed that he told the cop that he lived there. He was just nervous... Wonder why?
You have NO obligation to tell cops the truth. They are not your priest. They have one job, and only one job. To put you in jail. Your job is to stay out of jail.
I learned a long time ago that no matter how screwed up a situation, any situation happens to be you can always make it worse by involving the cops.
Always.
Amen!
Am I a giggly high school girl out past curfew and the LE my daddy? I’m a grown damn man and I don’t lie to anybody about anything. Mainly because I could give a damn what anyone thinks about the truth. It is what it is.
Doesn’t mean I have to tell them the truth. I don’t have to tell them anything. I tell them as little as I have to or nothing at all. That’s where most people mess up talking to police...they say too much. Telling a lie is saying too much. They know when you’re lying and by doing so, you are giving them an opening they wouldn’t otherwise have.
In all honesty, I’ve probably had more dealings with LE and defense attorneys than the average FReeper...in my younger days.
ditto
Once the puke turns evasive you've got him.
Doesn't mean you have to beat him up ~ although I did sometimes go through the rigamarole to get an inspector involved in some way.
That's why it's a good reason to not lie to cops ~ THEY KNOW. Even if you're just trying to brush him off he's out there doing a job. That may even be pushing up their blood pressure and kicking in some adrenalin.
Leave the lies for when you're pushing back beers with Officer Neckvein ~ he may well be a nice guy ~ but when he's on the job he'd choke an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), or just walk in and shoot a guy in a Wal-Mart.
Cool!
He subsequently told Officer Colling twice that he did live there. Do you think the officer acted appropriately in this situation?
If he'd been in the street, he'd been perfectly within his rights.
Are you saying that he was NOT within his rights in this situation?
He was within his rights whether he was in the street, on his own property, or on someone else's property. Do you say otherwise?
I don't know.
Not that it makes the cop right or anything, but...
Ahh, now that's an interesting point. Do you think the cop was indeed right?
What is your opinion of Officer Colling's behavior in this episode?
I'd be hard pressed to p!ss on one if he was on fire. If I saw the one in the story being shanked, I'd mind my own business and go get a pizza.
The Department of Just Us.
F'Em, each and every one.
When they return to knocking on doors and explaining the warrants they are delivering, and politely asking for assistance, and stopping the gestapo crap, I'll change my mind. Then they would be deserving of respect.
I don't blame them for the speeding tickets. That's not their fault. Local politicians force that crap on them. They want to stand out in the rain and do it as much as I want the ticket.
Until "conservatives" wise up, and stop this crap we will never be free. Nothing will change by electing Palin if you allow this to continue. You will literally wake up two elections later and wonder WHY society is worse, and WHY we are less free, and WHY nothing changed. You don't get it.
They are enemies of freedom. And cops or cop humpers, spare me the "Who will protect you" business.
What you mean is who will show up 20 minutes after the crime is over, act tough and stupid, not listen to the victims or witnesses and fill out papers.
I protect me.
Supreme Court has already ruled cops have no obligation no legal duty to protect anyone. (So you can scratch "Protect" off the door there. And since you don't SERVE anyone but yourselves, mark that one off too. Or stencil "Donuts" on there after "Serve".)
Black people have a proper viewpoint of the police.
Ignorant conservatives think they are your friends.
You wear chains formed in your own minds. Need to wise up and realize when the left is right. They may be stopped clocks, but still.
Prison time or no deal.
A cop (or judge, or politican) that breaks the law and HARMS a citizen should face THREE TIMES the punishment a citizen faces with no possibility of parole.
Las Vegas. I’m surprised they didn’t shoot him.
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