As the Department of Public Safety denies FOX23’s request to release the troopers dash cam video of the confrontation between an Oklahoma trooper and a paramedic.
A clip came from a witness whose cell phone has a video camera.
But the dash cam video would be more complete and could clear up a lot of questions.
FOX23’s Abbie Alford explains why we’re not the only ones who feel the trooper’s video should be made public.
The cell phone video shows Trooper Daniel Martin with his hands around EMT Maurice White.
Trooper Martin says before that video was shot he claims the driver gave him the finger.
The Okfuskee and Creek Counties District Attorney Max Cook made a decision last week not to file any criminal charges against anyone involved in the May 24th, 2009 incident between an OHP trooper and Muscogee Creek Nation paramedic near Prague, OK. Cook says the trooper’s dash cam video tells the rest of the story. Cook has asked OHP to release it.
The public knows about it only because the son of the patient at the time had a cell phone with a video camera and he used it.
The video then ended up on YouTube.
But according to Trooper Martin’s statements a lot more happened, that we have not see.
In Martin’s statement he says paramedic Maurice White wouldn’t listen to him, “…I released my hold on Mr. White and informed him to get back in into the ambulance and take care of the patient," says Martin. “Mr. White had presented himself to me that he was more concerned with my interaction with the driver than his patient. And in fact, was more aggressive toward me contacting "his" driver than delaying the patient from getting to a hospital."
Fact of the matter is the trooper’s dash cam video could show without a doubt what happened.
Cook says the public should see it.
"I think the dash cam video sheds a little more light on a lot of things,” says Cook. "There is more on that video that would be enlightening then what is on the other video,” says Cook.
But DPS says under the Open Records Act, it doesn’t have to release what happened during the traffic stop.
However, FOX23’s attorney says there’s a case for making the video public.
"It's not just to get a story, just to stir something up but it actually is serving a purpose for the people," says Sara Smith with the Jones Gotcher law firm.
