Another banner day at the Darrell Brooks trial as he objects to showing one of his own rap videos

On Tuesday of this week, Darrell Brooks was removed from the courtroom during his own trial because he could not stop making snide comments and interrupting the court. Today, Brooks had another meltdown, this time over the addition of a new exhibit which turned out to be one of his own rap videos.

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Just to set up where we are in this trial, the state is calling its last witness today and then the rest of the week will be taken up with 12 witnesses that Brooks intends to call for his defense (one of which he has already called out of order because of a scheduling issue). He has not decided if he will testify in his own defense. So with that in mind, the prosecutors spent the morning tying Darrell Brooks to the red Ford SUV used in the Christmas parade attack. It wasn’t hard to do. There’s video from the attack showing the SUV and the license plate. There’s also video of Brooks performing a rap video in front of the same SUV with the same plate number.

It got worse for Brooks after that. A doorbell video provided by his mother showed him walking around the same SUV the morning of the attack and, at that time, you could clearly see there was no damage to the vehicle’s front end.

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Maybe this was getting to Brooks because he started challenging the judge’s authority again.

Here he is admonishing the judge and arguing the law with her.

In any case, Brooks managed to step on a rake when he asked a detective on cross how he knew the person in the rap video screengrab (see above) was in fact Darrell Brooks. Since the identification was being challenged, the prosecutors asked to play the video so the jury could see it was definitely Darrell Brooks.

The judge determined that the video could be played but without the audio. Brooks, who again set up the playing of the video by questioning the identification in the still shot, interrupted to complain that the video had not been previously added as an exhibit (which appears to be true).

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The point of this is that in the video you can see it’s Darrell Brooks with the same SUV used in the attack. The detective who was on the stand said so under questioning by the prosecutors. Brooks clearly wasn’t happy and started demanding to know when the video had been made an exhibit. He then lashed out at the prosecutors who he claimed were laughing at him.

Minutes later he accused the judge of hiding things from the jury (while the jury was leaving the room).

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Finally, we return to the issue of the rap video. Brooks again said he didn’t know it was an exhibit and the judge responds, “Mr. Brooks, I presume, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re familiar with that video. Yes or no?” Brooks wanted to know why that mattered and Judge Dorow explained that she was going to make a ruling. She pointed out the obvious: “It appears to me, even without the video, that that’s a music video, that you are in it, that the vehicle that has been the subject of this entire case, that red Ford Escape with the plate that’s been testified to, is in that video. That video is relevant for a number of different reasons.”

Finally the prosecutors have had enough of Darrell Brooks behavior in court. They are venting that the video was clearly relevant and there is no problem making it an exhibit at any time.

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Brooks responded by lashing back at the prosecutors saying they’ve been disruptive and laughing at him throughout the trial.

Brooks went on to tell the judge he didn’t like her tone! And for once Judge Dorow seemed close to losing her temper but still managed to bring it back to court business.

A short time later the state rested its case and at that point a defense attorney would normally request an acquittal (which obviously would not be granted in this case) but the question just confused Brooks. He’s not an attorney and the judge can’t advise him because she’s not his attorney either.

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With that, the court took a break for lunch and later today Brooks will start calling his witnesses. I would say there was a good chance he would manage to further incriminate himself but honestly I don’t see how he could appear any more guilty than he already does.

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John Stossel 12:00 AM | May 03, 2024
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