Madison Brooks’s family has decried the release of a video showing the Louisiana State University student minutes before she was hit and killed by a car.
Prosecutors say that moments before Brooks was fatally struck by a vehicle on 15 January, she was dropped off in the middle of the road by four men now charged in her alleged rape. Desmond Carter, 17, and Kaivon Washington, 18, face third-degree rape counts while Casen Carver, 18, and Everett Lee, 28 have been charged with principal to third-degree rape for witnessing the purported assault.
A grand jury has also charged Mr Carter with first-degree rape, which carries a sentence of life in prison without parole. The defence has claimed that Brooks, whose body alcohol level was four times over the legal limit, consented to engage in sexual activity with both Mr Carter and Mr Washington.
Earlier this month, a defence lawyer in the case released a cellphone video of Brooks inside the car with the four men after she was allegedly raped. In the video, taken by one of the suspects, Brooks and her alleged attackers appear to be arguing in the car as the student slurs her words.
Kerry Miller, an attorney for Brooks’ mother Ashley Baustert, called the decision to make the footage public “shameful and hurtful.”
“It’s one thing to defend your clients. It’s another to try the case in the media,” Mr Miller told Fox News Digital. “It shows a level of desperation.”
In the video, Brooks is heard saying, “I’m sorry that I offended you that bad,” before one of the men orders the others to “take her home.”
Brooks then asks Mr Carter to “get out of the car” so that she can take an Uber on her own.
“Get out, get out. I will Uber on my own,” she says.
Defence attorney Ron Hakey told WBRZ in an interview last week that Brooks then “used very vulgar language” to address the driver.
“Implying that he’s not straight based on him not wanting to engage in certain activities with her,” Mr Haley told the outlet. “It doesn’t put anyone in the best light, but again, not being put in the best light isn’t the same thing as rape.”
Mr Miller added that every time the defence leaks videos of Brooks’ final night it “cuts [her mother] like a knife.”
The defence had previously released surveillance video that showed Brooks crossing the street with the suspects near Reggie’s bar in Baton Rouge and moving towards the parking lot before getting inside the car with the men.
Brooks had met the men at Reggie’s bar following a night of drinking, according to police. Footage from the bar — which has not been made public — showed her falling over several times, stumbling and struggling to stand in front of at least one of the suspects before they left the bar together, according to an arrest warrant.
The suspects then allegedly dropped her off along a dark stretch of road, where she was struck by a rideshare vehicle.
Two samaritans attempted to give CPR to the 19-year-old before she was taken to a hospital where she died, Fox News reported. Authorities have said that the driver was not impaired when the collision took place and that they stopped the vehicle immediately.
The suspects’ attorneys also commented during a press conference in late January that Brooks “wouldn’t have complained at all” about the alleged assault if she were still alive.
At the time, Mr Miller slammed the remarks telling Fox: “I was blown away by that comment. I mean their clients gave sworn statements that they raped a young girl who was intoxicated.”
He added: “She was raped. Rape is rape.”
Court documents show that Mr Washington was arrested for alleged rape in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, in 2020, and in the same area of Baton Rouge in October 2022, according to Fox News. In 2020, Mr Washington was 16 and his alleged victim was 12.
The victim in the 2022 case reported the alleged sexual assault to police on 25 January, the day after he and the other three men were arrested in the Brooks case.
Mr Haley has previously claimed that the sex was consensual, while prosecutors say that Brooks was too drunk to be able to give her consent.
Toxicology reports showed that Brooks had a blood alcohol level of .319.
