Metro recommends $100K settlement for man attacked while videotaping police

By Joe Schoenmann

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 | 2:48 p.m.

A man who was attacked and arrested by a Las Vegas police officer as he videotaped police activity in his neighborhood will likely receive $100,000 to settle his lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department.

Metro’s Fiscal Affairs Committee is being asked to approve the settlement with Mitchell Crooks at its meeting Monday.

The lawsuit stems from an incident March 20, 2011, in which Crooks was in his driveway in the 1700 block of Commanche Circle near East Desert Inn Road and South Maryland Parkway.

Crooks was taping police as they investigated a report of a burglary across the street. Crooks’ video shows Officer Derek Colling approaching him and asking if he lives there.

Crooks first answers “no.”

Colling tells Crooks to turn off the camera.

“Why do I have to turn off the camera?” Crooks asks, saying it’s his right. “I’m within my legal rights to do this.”

“Turn off the camera for me,” Colling replies.

Then Colling closes in and yells for Crooks to get on the ground. Crooks at some point says it’s his house, his property.

The camera falls to the ground. Another officer is seen on the video but only Crooks and Colling — including Crooks screams’ — can be heard.

“Stop resisting!” Colling yells. Crooks is heard screaming for help.

“Are you ready to cooperate?” an officer, presumably Colling, asks. “You fight again, dude, you’re in a world of hurt.”

The same officer says “you’re not in charge here buddy, hear me?” Then he mocks the Crooks’ heavy breathing.

Then later, Crooks asks, "What am I being arrested for?"

"Obstructing a police officer," Colling says.

In December, Sheriff Doug Gillespie fired Colling, who had been on paid administrative leave for several months. In July, a police internal investigation concluded that Colling broke departmental rules in the incident.

Colling, who joined Metro in 2006, fatally shot 15-year-old Tanner Chamberlain, who was holding a knife to his mother’s neck, in a September 2009 incident. A coroner’s inquest ruled the shooting justified.

Chamberlain’s mother filed a federal lawsuit in May 2011, seeking $5 million and alleging Colling violated Chamberlain’s civil rights. The lawsuit also attacks Metro for its training and supervision.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who is a member of Metro’s Fiscal Affairs Committee, said Crooks “obviously had the right to videotape and his rights were violated.”

“But it’s another $100,000 that Metro is paying, which is a worry,” he said, citing several past settlements between Metro and other litigants.

Metro’s record of officer-involved shootings has drawn some focus from the Department of Justice, whose Community Oriented Policing Services office is reviewing Metro’s use-of-force incidents and is expected to make some recommendation to the department.

Sisolak called Colling a “rogue” officer: “I’m glad he’s not on the force anymore.”