The Disturbances During the Pretrial Hearing

During the pretrial hearing of James Fields, there were two disturbances in the audience while case agent Detective Young was showing the video from the surveillance camera of the Red Pump Kitchen (RPK). The hearing transcript indicates the disturbances but does not reveal what the disturbers were saying. The transcript includes the following two passages:

Judge Downer
Quiet in the courtroom.

Bailiff
Quiet in the courtroom.

Judge Downer
All right, he needs to go out. All of them.

(Page 32, lines 11 - 14 )

... and ...

Judge Downer
All right, once again, anybody else who makes a sound like that, out you go. All right.

(Page 32, lines 17 - 18)

The disturbances are explained in a newspaper article titled James Fields of Ohio now facing first-degree murder charge in Charlottesville car attack Aug. 12 written by Ned Oliver and published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The article includes the following passages.

The video was too much for some of the victims of the Aug. 12 car attack to bear: James Alex Fields drives his 2010 Dodge Challenger toward a crowd of protesters, stops, reverses, and then, with even more room to build up momentum, speeds toward the mass of people.

Prosecutors played the footage during a court hearing Thursday to help make the case for upgraded charges against Fields — who now stands accused of first-degree murder, which requires premeditation ....

It was the first time the video, captured by a restaurant’s security cameras, had been viewed publicly, and the courtroom stirred with anger at the moment when Fields is seen backing away in what prosecutors presented as an apparent windup to the attack.

Three of about 20 victims who attended the proceedings abruptly left as the judge and bailiffs called for order.

“I’ve got to go; take me out,” shouted one man who was struck in the attack ...

The disturbers were angry because Fields allegedly had backed up to give himself a better starting position before he drove into the crowd.

Right before the first disturbance, Detective Young had said:

At this point, you’ve got many witnesses testify that the Challenger began to back up, assuming that it would head back onto Market Street and leave the area.

(Page 32, lines 8 - 10)

Then Young continued showing the RPK video to the court. When the video showed the car backing up -- after it had crashed into the crowd -- through the RPK camera's view, the second disturbance happened.

It seems from the above article and from the transcript that people left the courtroom only after the first disturbance.

=====

The second disturbance happened as the RPK video showed the car backing up after it had crashed into the crowd.

Because of the second disturbance. the last part of the video was shown to the court again. The last part showed the video after Fields had backed up through the camera's view. In the video's last part, no vehicles were seen.

Prosecutor
I’m pausing and starting again at 1:54:49 and, Detective Young, you said it left view at a high rate of speed?

Detective Young
Yes. At this point, many people began to run after Mr. Fields ...

(Page 32, lines 19 - 23)

Because the RPK clock ran approximately 13 minutes fast, the time 13:54:49 is corrected to 13:41:49.

In an earlier statement, Young had said that the car backed up through the camera's view at 13:54:06 (corrected to 13:41:06).

In other words:

* At 13:54:06 (13:41:06), the car, after the crash, backed up into the view of the RPK camera.

* After 13:54:49 (13:41:49), no cars were seen in this last part of the video. Rather, people were seen running after Fields.

It is not true that the car began to drive forward again at 13:54:49 (13:41:49).