MMA Bay is alleging there is an interview Rampage conducted with "cbs.com" where he asserts the police who arrested him in July acted unprofessionally and outside the boundries of proper police conduct:
- Turned the heat up in the car even though he was already dehydrated
- Phoning friends and mocking him to them while in the car with him
- Sped up and slowed down while taking him to the station, tightening his handcuffs
- Refusing to move his cuffs from the back to the front, leaving him squashed and uncomfortable in the car
- Tightening his cuffs further as they escorted him into the medical facility, so much so that he lost the feeling in his wrists for three weeks
- Escorted him through the facility with his pants below his knees, exposing his underwear
I've yet to find the "cbs.com" article where Rampage enumerates these claims, so we have to be careful before these charges are verified. If Rampage is claiming this, though, one wonders what corroborating evidence is going to work. His defense is likely to be that because he wasn't an agent of moral choice due to his "illness", then holding him fully responsible would be inappropriate. But Rampage's word is going to go head-to-head with the police's word and that's unlikely to work in Jackson's favor. First, the officers will almost always have benefit of the doubt. Second, to the extent that Rampage needs delirium to save him from the more serious aspects of his charges, his alleged delirium also calls into question his recitation of events. What judge is going to Rampage's word - the word of a man who evaded police in broad day light in a monster truck forcing pedestrians to flee for their lives - over the word of officers who removed that threat from the streets?
We'll have to wait for more evidence to emerge to be sure of anything here. I personally get the sense that Rampage's defense team is throwing the book at the District Attorney's case and hoping something - anything, really - sticks. These counter claims seem flimsy, but they could sufficiently muddle the picture enough to reduce to spotlight on Rampage's more serious infractions.
UPDATE: A reader points me towards this video where Rampage makes the claims of police misconduct.
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