Check CU has acquired nearly an hour of police body camera video from the City of Champaign, Illinois in regards to an incident which occurred at the Red Lion bar last month. An altercation which occurred around 2am on March 5th, 2022 between a patron and a Red Lion staff member resulted in a young woman leaving the scene in an ambulance.
On March 25th, Check CU released security camera video of the incident. Video from the interior vestibule of the bar shows Red Lion employee Jorge Vasquez holding student Jaelynn Edwards by her arms and pushing her through the bar and out the door. The exterior video shows Edwards release from his grip, turn and take a swing at Vasquez. It is not clear from the video if she actually lands a blow, but Vasquez then grapples with Edwards and takes her down in such a way that her head strikes the pavement.
The altercation left Edwards on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from her head. Two University of Illinois Police Officers, Benjamin Crane and Kennedy Hartman, happened to be sitting in their cruiser across the street – Officer Crane witnessed the incident himself.
A summary of the Champaign Police body camera video:
U of I Officer Michael Unander: “The girl here, a Parkland student, in the back of the ambo, she apparently took a swing at one of the security guards and he put her down hard enough to split her head open.”
Champaign Officer Dillon Holloway: “Apparently this guy slammed her into the ground hard enough that it split her head open and she’s unconscious.”
Champaign Police Sergeant Kaitlin Fisher tried to ask the Red Lion security manager Kohle Anderson if their staff receive training on how to use physical force, but he did not seem to know how to respond.
Officer Holloway to Vasquez: “So what happened?”
Vasquez: “So we were escorting her out of the men’s bathroom and she kept on grabbing stuff so I grabbed both of her arms and I just escorted her out. Once we got to the outside, I let go, she turned around and socked me in the lip, and then I just grabbed her, turned her, tried to put her to the ground. Not being like too vicious cause she weighs like one hundred and two pounds, but she just ended up just going straight down.”
Officer Holloway: “How did she get all busted up in the head?”
Vaquez: “She hit the ground.”
Officer Holloway: “Say what?”
Vaquez: “She hit the ground.”
Sgt. Fisher to the Red Lion General Manager: “I’m Kate Fisher how are you? So the way I understand it is there was a female in here causing a ruckus, she ended up punching one of your employees in the face, he ended up taking her to the ground. There’s some significant injuries to this female because of that, so we’re going to need the security footage from this event.”
Officers Fisher and Holloway follow the Red Lion manager into their security room to view the footage.
Perhaps the most curious aspect of the police investigation is that officers Fisher and Holloway did not attempt to view any security camera video which might show what preceded the altercation. The Red Lion video system has more than a dozen cameras, but Fisher was only focused on seeing the portion of the video where Edwards takes a swing at Vasquez.
After viewing two camera angles of the portion of the incident near the exterior doorway of the bar, Officer Holloway says, “I think she fell down, from that video…If she is not cooperative in any way, give her a ticket, and let’s see if he wants to be a victim.”
Officer Holloway: “Do you want to be a victim of battery”
Vasquez: “No, as long as she’s okay.”
Sgt. Fisher: “We’re going to take a photo of your lip before we leave.”
Vasquez: “I think you guys already did, but I’m okay…I’m good.”
Sgt. Fisher: “We’re going to take an informational report to say what happened and then attach the video with it. That way, should a U of I student’s parents want to get ugly with this we have it documented, okay.”
Vasquez then jokes about just putting some Tiger Balm on his lip instead of needing “a stitch”.
U of I Officer Michael Unander: “So, essentially, [U of I Police Officer] Crane’s going to take the face on this and write the report otherwise there’s this other agency and then ‘assist sick and injured’ because that’s why you ended up on scene, he saw some girl bleeding. And then, because this is kind of a reoccurring theme with these guys my [Lieutenant] Bradley called me and he’s like get at least a supervisor on scene so that they can document something so if there needs to be something done with these bouncers, security guys, whatever.”
The story given by Unander is inconsistent with what University of Illinois Officer Benjamin Crane says immediately after: that he was sitting in his cruiser and witnessed the fight between Vasquez and Edwards. It is not clear why the U of I officers wanted to paint the incident as a simple “assist sick and injured” event when they had personally witnessed what Champaign officers classified as “battery”.
It also still remains unclear why U of I command staff were so insistent that the case be passed off to the Champaign Police Department.
Sgt. Fisher comments further on the Red Lion security camera video: “Honestly, we looked at the video he didn’t really do anything wrong. She does, she turns around and slugs him and then he tries to tussle with her and she, it looks like she falls, because she’s so drunk she can’t stand up straight…it looked like she tripped or fell or something while he was scuffling with her…”
Fisher closes her conversation with U of I Officers Crane and Unander by expressing her irritation with college students: “I hate college students. I know I used to be one and I thought it was like the most fun thing I ever did in my life but now I’m really starting to show my age.”
From fifty four minutes Champaign Police Department body camera video, Check CU reviewed the video and distilled it down to ten minutes of relevant clips, which can be viewed below. The University of Illinois has thus far refused to release body camera video collected by their officers.
CORRECTION: The original version of this article mistakenly named “Valerie Marcotte” and “Matthew Seaver” as two of the University of Illinois Police officers whereas the correct names are “Kennedy Hartman” and “Michael Unander”. We apologize for the error.
This article leaves me shaken and sickened.
The toxic law enforcement mentality is all too familiar. The officers quoted are with the Champaign Police Department, but acting hand in glove with the University of Illinois Police Department, which I know, from traumatizing experience, may as well have as their motto: Protect and Serve – Powerful Perpetrators.
The CPD body cam transcriptions here expose that same victim-vilifying agenda that I’ve experienced with the University Police. The UIPD body cam footage, when finally released to CHECK CU, will no doubt be even more telling.
Here, thanks to CHECK CU going to the trouble of acquiring and scrutinizing the evidence, we plainly see CPD Officer Fisher aggressively pursuing an agenda to build a case against the weak and injured party.
Female officers betraying female victims of assault (as in my own experience as the mother of a sexual assault victim on campus) feels particularly heinous.
Fisher appears unconcerned with documenting injuries to the small female victim, but fixates instead on the idea of injuries to the large male aggressor.
Officer Holloway also immediately proposes an intimidate-the-student and protect-the-batterer scheme, while displaying sheer contempt for the unconscious victim – who is literally bleeding from the head: “I think she fell down, from that video… If she is not cooperative in any way, give her a ticket, and let’s see if he wants to be a victim.”
Conspirator Holloway flat out proposes to the perpetrator: “Do you want to be a victim of battery?”
Fisher disdainfully characterizes the more than likely response of any normal concerned parent of a battery victim as, “getting ugly,” and lays out the preliminary steps in her protect-the-perp insurance plan / build-a-case-against-the-victim strategy.
Fisher: “We’re going to take an informational report to say what happened, and then attach the video with it. That way, should a U of I student’s parents want to get ugly with this we have it documented okay.”
At least she’s honest about one thing.
Fisher: “I hate college students.”
And meanwhile, we learn that the UIPD, whose job it is to protect and serve the campus community, is attempting to engage in foil-the-FOIA tactics with CHECKCU. That in itself only confirms that the recording of officer conduct in this incident urgently needs to be made public.
Clearly, Champaign needs to initiate a full review of officer conduct in this latest incident of failing the victim, without further delay.
What process of accountability exists at UIPD? Absolutely none as far as I know. I am unaware of any mechanism for review of officer misconduct complaints other than the usual self serving internal review performed with zero civilian oversight.
Aggressive behavior by drunk college students is not an easy thing to deal with. Hope the young lady gets help with her alcohol problem.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes! And….. don’t drink if you can’t handle your alcohol.