A YouTube content creator with the handle of Press ON Unleashed was released May 1 from the San Juan County Detention Center and was ordered to appear May 15 in Farmington Municipal Court.
David Durant Cook, 47, of Hunstville, Alabama, would not provide authorities with his name when he was arrested April 23. He spent seven days in the county jail, refusing to speak or eat.
Upon his release, Cook was ordered to appear for his court date and to avoid any additional criminal activity. He also was ordered to “not consume any alcohol, marijuana or THC products, or illegal drugs,” and to not frequent any business or establishment that sells any of those items, court records state.
Cook refused to signed the order, thus not acknowledging it. He also refused to sign his booking card and his notice of hearing.
He is ordered to appear at 3:30 p.m. May 15 in Farmington Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing on the charges of two counts of misdemeanor resisting or obstructing an officer and one count of concealing identity.
The charges are in connection to an April 22 incident at the Cedar Ridge Apartments in the 300 block of East 20th Street, where Cook was with Justin Chee, another YouTube content creator with the handle of 4Corner FistNtheair. They reportedly were listening to the police scanner and showing up on the scene of police activity to video record the police, according to the police report.
Farmington police were called to the scene to investigate an alleged sexual assault, and 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.
At one point, Cook “fell to the ground and pretended to be asleep,” according to the incident report.
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.
The police report alleges Cook “was constantly maneuvering himself to get closer despite the verbal perimeter, he was yelling obscenities, he was causing those involved to pay more attention to him than the investigating officers, and his actions required officers to spend time dealing with his conduct than the investigation,” the report states.
Cook allegedly told police, “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.
A community of citizen journalists came to Farmington April 30 to support Cook. They took to YouTube posting about their visit and claiming Cook was unlawfully arrested.
According to YouTube influencer James Freeman, it was Cook’s right to be on the scene and speak as a citizen journalist.
Freeman told his version of the story in an April 29 feed, saying Cook “was kidnapped” and was being “held hostage” by Farmington Police, whom he called “violent extremists.”
Freeman in a YouTube feed from May 1 cited a 2011 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that states citizens have a First Amendment right to record police carrying out their duties in a public place, from the case of Gilk v. Cunniffe.
Freeman said the apartments are a public space and alleged police were only keeping Cook and Chee out, which he claims violates their rights.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government weighed in, saying that is not necessarily the case.
“While any person has the right to be in a public space and observe law enforcement activity, the First Amendment does not give a person (or journalist) license to obstruct a law enforcement investigation, cross police boundaries at a crime scene, or trespass onto private property,” said Amanda Lavin, legal director for NMFOG.
“You have to respect the boundaries of a crime scene whether you are a private citizen or a journalist,” Lavin added.
The May 15 preliminary hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence to charge Cook with the crimes for which he was arrested.
