The Pretrial Hearing Did Not Show a Video of James Fields' First Backup

This article follows up my previous article titled James Fields' Backward Movement Before He Drove into the Crowd. One reader responded to me that the journalists who attended the pretrial hearing on December 14, 2017, saw a video there that showed Fields backing up a long distance before he drove into the crowd.

Please read my clarification that follows and then study the hearing transcript.

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Detective Steven Young's finding that Fields' car backed up before driving into the crowd was based on statements of people who had been standing at the intersection of Fourth Street and Market Street and who had been looking south down Fourth Street.

The backup was reported to police by people
who had been standing at Fourth and Market

Young testified:

There were several sources [of information] -- from open source videos, i.e., FaceBook, YouTube, as well as private business surveillance camera footage, officers' body-worn cameras, and speaking to several victims and many witnesses, both at the intersection of Fourth and Water, as well as the intersection of Fourth and Market Street during the incident.

(Page 13, lines 18 to 24; emphasis added)

Later, Young testified in particular about the statements of the people who had been standing at Fourth and Market.

Many witnesses I spoke to noticed [Fields' car] a gray Dodge Challenger slowly drive on Fourth Street from Market Street towards Water Street at a slow pace. At one point it was idling near the [Main Street] crossover on Fourth Street and this is confirmed through video.

One witness I spoke to actually commented that the Dodge Challenger was an unfortunate driver [who] is stopped here on the downtown mall but [it is a] good thing there’s no one at the intersection of Fourth and Market and that the Dodge can simply back up and leave the area.

Several witnesses claim and confirm through video that no one was at the intersection near Fourth and Market. There were some people but no crowds whatsoever at Fourth and Market, which is where the Dodge Challenger came from.

Many witnesses saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street, thinking that the Challenger would just simply get back onto Market and leave the area.

(Page 20, lines 13 through page 21, line 8; emphasis added)

The above passage is Young's summary of statements made by people who had been standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market. Those people provided important information to Young about what had happened. They ...

... saw the Challenger back up towards Market Street.

(Page 21, lines 5-6; emphasis added)

Those eyewitnesses were Young's only evidence about this particular backup of the car.

There is no video evidence of this particular backup of the car.

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Two videos were shown in court.

1) A video from the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK) showed cars driving past the restaurant.

2) A helicopter video showed only the southern end of Fourth Street.

The helicopter video shown at the hearing showed Fields' car driving into the crowd (page 23, line 15, through page 25, line 25).

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The RPK video showed Fields' car twice (pages 28-31) :

1) driving south when the camera's clock showed 13:52:56

2) backing up north when the camera's clock showed 13:54:06

The camera's clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast (page 29, line 6). If the clock ran precisely 13:00 minutes fast, then the camera's clock times are corrected as follows.

1) driving south at 13:39:56

2) backing up north at 13:41:06

The backup shown in this video was Fields' backup after he had driven into the crowd, which he had done between 13:40 and 13:41.

Keep in mind that the discrepancy between the RPK camera's clock and real time is only approximately 13 minutes.

The RPK video showed also each of the other three vehicles (maroon van, black truck, white Camry) driving south past the restaurant one time.

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At the hearing, there was no video that showed the previous backup that had been described by the people who were standing at the intersection of Fourth and Market.

This distance of that previous backup was not specified by Young in his testimony.

The journalists' reports about the distance (e.g. "more than a block") must have been based on off-the-record statements of an informed official after the hearing.