A bench warrant has been issued as new charges were filed against a YouTuber Press On Harder, who was previously held in the San Juan County Detention Center.
David Durant Cook, 47, of Huntsville, Alabama, did not show up for his May 15 pretrial hearing in Farmington Municipal Court, where he faces two counts of resisting or obstructing an officer and one count of concealing identity.
An additional charge of disorderly conduct was filed May 15 by Farmington City Attorney Jennifer Breakell, who also requested the warrant.
Cook “clearly said he has no intentions to appear,” in a social media video, Breakell said, adding that Cook stated that “if the city of Farmington wanted him to be here, they should have kept him in jail.”
Defense Attorney Ian Jump argued that the statements made by Breakell were “hearsay,” and then, requested the court reset the matter for a later date, considering a new charge was forthcoming.
Municipal Judge Robert Miller did not agree and granted the bench warrant in the case.
Cook was arrested April 23 after allegedly disrupting an active crime scene, where Farmington Police were investigating a sexual assault.
He was held in the San Juan County Detention Center for eight days under the name of John Doe, and was only released after the jail and the court learned his identity.
On April 22, Cook and Justin Chee, a YouTube content creator with the handle of 4Corner FistNtheair, reportedly were listening to the police scanner and showing up at crime scenes to record police activity, according to the police report.
They were at Cedar Ridge Apartments in the 300 block of East 20th Street, the scene of the sexual assault, where it is alleged Cook disobeyed officers’ requests to move back while they attempted to secure the apartment. Inside the apartment, the suspect allegedly barricaded himself with the female victim.
Chee and Cook stood in the area of the crime scene and refused to move, the report states. Cook reportedly called the officer a “f---ing b---ch,” told him to “suck his testicles” and continued “yelling profanities,” the report states.
Farmington Police spokeswoman Shanice Gonzales said the “male repeatedly interfered with the investigation, ignored verbal boundaries, yelled profanities and diverted officers from their duties.”
“As officers interviewed the rape suspect, outside the apartment, the disruptive male continued to interfere, ultimately resulting in his arrest after refusing to comply,” she said.
This is what led to the disorderly conduct charge, according to amended complaint filed by Breakell.
The complaint alleged Cook engaged “in violent, abusive, quarrelsome, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct or shouting which disturbs or tends to disturb the public peace by arguing” with law enforcement “in a loud abusive and quarrelsome manner.”
Cook also is accused of “inciting, causing, aiding, abetting or assisting in creating any riot, affray or disturbance” with police by “using obscene, indecent, profane, challenging” words in a public place, the complaint states.
When police asked Cook to stop he allegedly said, “I will talk, did I make myself clear, I will talk all I f---ing want.”
He ultimately was arrested at which point he reportedly refused to move his body and stopped speaking.
