[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Hi, everyone, I'm dan abrams, and this is "courtcam."
- You ready to take the plea?
[group shouting]
- [bleep] you!
♪ ♪
- I'll kill all you [bleep].
- I hope you die in prison as well.
♪ ♪
We kick things off in orange county, florida,
Where the defendant is making his second appearance
Here on "courtcam."
- Jeremy dewitte. Did I say that right?
- Yes, sir.
- 41-year-old jeremy dewitte is charged with carrying
A concealed weapon.
The orange county sheriff's office
Is very familiar with dewitte...
- Since dewitte's been arrested
Several times in the past, and convicted once
For impersonating a police officer.
- What are you doing?
- What the [bleep] does it look like I'm doing, dumb [bleep]?
Get the [bleep] over before you find out.
[siren wailing]
- Dewitte runs a security company
That provides escort service during funeral processions.
But he has a long history of using this business
To drive recklessly through traffic...
[truck horn blaring]
Block intersections...
- Go past me! Go past me!
- And confront other drivers
When he believes they're disrupting his services.
- Hey, pull over! Pull over!
- Police eventually caught up with dewitte,
And he was charged in two different counties
With impersonating an officer
And failing to register as a sex offender.
He was released on bond.
And that's when police catch up with him again,
Ten months later.
A deputy stops him, along with one of his employees,
When he sees dewitte carrying what appears to be a firearm.
- Don't reach for that firearm!
Walk away from your bike!
Keep your hands up!
Go down to your knees!
Do not reach for that firearm!
You're being secured
'cause you're openly carrying a firearm.
- What?
- You're openly carrying a firearm.
- It's illegal to openly carry a firearm in florida,
And after he's placed in cuffs,
The deputy tries to remove dewitte's helmet,
Which the faux police officer does not appreciate.
- What are you taking my helmet off for?
- I'm trying to identify you, 'cause I can't see you.
- You're trying to identify me?
- When dewitte learns why he's being arrested,
He goes ballistic.
- I do not know that. That is a firearm.
That is a firearm right now.
All right, jeremy, you're being arrested
For carrying a concealed weapon.
- Concealed? It was in plain view!
- That's not plain view. That's concealed.
That holster is concealing it.
- How the--what are you talking about?
- Dewitte is furious with police,
And there seems to be only one thing on his mind.
- Get me a lieutenant! Get me a lieutenant!
It was in plain view!
It's in plain view! Get me a lieutenant!
- Sit down!
Sit down and be quiet! Sit down!
- Where is the lieutenant? Where is the lieutenant?
- But the real police don't take kindly to his demands.
- Get me a lieutenant. This is not right.
- Are you listening to me? Are you listening to me?
- I'm listening to you. - I'm a deputy.
I'm not an officer. You don't tell me what to do.
- I understand. - Stop yelling at me,
And I'm gonna stop yelling at you!
- Roger, officer. - Do not yell!
Do not raise your voice at me! - Yes, sir.
- Do you understand? - I understand.
- You've already asked the sergeant for a lieutenant!
You don't get to pick and choose
Who comes to the traffic stop!
♪ ♪
- Dewitte's taken to the station
And officially charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
But when it's later determined
It was just an unloaded pepperball gun...
- This online identifies as a glock--
Basically a glock replica.
Can you show me on here anywhere--I mean,
I don't know why you'd have a light on a less-lethal--
But can you show me anywhere on here
Where it gives anybody the idea
That this is not a firearm?
- I can't answer that. I don't make those.
- That it's a less-lethal? - Sorry. I can't answer that.
I don't--I don't make those.
But you know they're less lethal.
- No, no, no, I'm asking. - I don't know.
- If I saw this, I wouldn't know that.
- That's for your [indistinct]. - Come on.
- So you can save that for somebody else.
- Okay.
♪ ♪
- How's it going, sir? - Good. How are you?
- The charges are dropped. - Wherever you want to go.
Do you need a ride? Where can I take you?
- Isn't it amazing how [bleep] nice you guys are
When you screw up?
Thank you. Let's go. Come on.
- But dewitte's far from being out of the woods.
Because of his recent arrest, his current bond is revoked,
So dewitte goes before the judge
To clarify the situation.
- Your honor, I was on bond. - Yeah.
- They revoked my bond with the new charge,
But that charge was dopped.
- Oh, you got a bunch of different cases
That are keeping you.
- Right.
- Dewitte's eventually set free,
With his bond back in place,
But will still stand trial for impersonating a police office,
And if found guilty,
He could be looking at five years in prison.
♪ ♪
- Thank you, your honor. Have a good day.
- Yep.
♪ ♪
- Next, we're at the fresno criminal courthouse
For a hearing.
31-year-old inmate
Brandon brophy's been charged with burglary.
He's in this courtroom, about to begin proceedings,
When he decides he's not that interested in sticking around.
♪ ♪
A shackled brophy doesn't get far before a deputy tries
To restrain him in the hallway.
♪ ♪
During the struggle,
Brophy appears to go for the deputy's gun.
These two bystanders decide
They want no part of the situation.
♪ ♪
Brophy's a foot taller
And at least 50 pounds heavier than the deputy,
But she's determined to keep brophy from getting away.
Another bystander sees the struggle,
And unlike the two who took off earlier,
Bravely joins in, helping subdue brophy,
Helping the officer.
♪ ♪
Deputies and court staff eventually rush in
To provide backup.
♪ ♪
Brophy's subdued, shackled, placed in a wheelchair,
And wheeled back to jail.
♪ ♪
Brophy was arrested and booked again
Into the fresno county jail
On new felony charges of escaping jail
In addition to the original burglary charge.
His bail is set at $1,693,000
As he awaits his next court date.
- Next, we're in bakersfield, california
For the arraignment of tobias roman.
♪ ♪
The 27 year old was charged with multiple crimes,
Including attempted robbery,
Threatening with intent to terrorize,
And exhibiting a deadly weapon
For allegedly stalking a female employee
At a shopping mall.
♪ ♪
- Roman, stand up.
- And now, his initial hearing is off to a rocky start.
- [mutters]
- Stand up, roman.
♪ ♪
- Once on his feet, the judge then asks
A standard procedural question.
- Mr. Roman, what is your true correct name?
- Giggles may be his street name,
But there's nothing funny about the crimes
He's accused of committing.
- At this time, I will appoint the public defender
To represent mr. Roman.
The charges, mr. Roman,
Are attempted robbery, second degree--
- Mr. Roman, you need to be quiet.
♪ ♪
- After being interrupted and then told to be quiet,
Judge charles bremmer gives the defendant a final warning.
- You got one more chance, and then you're gonna be
Removed from the courtroom.
That'll be your choice.
- For a second, it appears giggles might quiet down.
But his silence is short-lived.
- But as he's being led out of the courtroom,
Roman gets in the last word.
♪ ♪
[tape whirs]
- The judge heard that comment loud and clear.
- I'd like to note for the record
Mr. Roman's statement on the record
That he will murder me if he sees me,
And I'm gonna request law enforcement
Take the appropriate action.
- Tobias roman later pled no contest to the charge
Of threatening a public official
And was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Of his original charges, all were dismissed,
Except for threatening with intent to terrorize.
He pled no contest and was sentenced
To three years in prison.
♪ ♪
- You're a vicious liar with no remorse.
What a monster you are.
♪ ♪
- Next, we're in cleveland, ohio for a sentencing hearing.
The defendant, 52-year-old lance mason,
Is no stranger to this very courtroom.
For six years, he served here as a cuyahoga county judge.
But today,
He's the one receiving judgment for a vicious crime.
♪ ♪
Just minutes before police arrived on the scene,
Lance mason was waiting at his sister's house
For his ex-wife, aisha fraser,
To arrive with their 8 and 11-year-old daughters.
At the time, the couple was in the middle
Of an ongoing custody battle.
Once at his sister's house,
Mason violently stabbed fraser to death outside the home.
♪ ♪
This police bodycam video shows the chaos that followed.
[suspenseful music]
[officers shouting indistinctly]
- [bleep].
♪ ♪
It's him! He came out of the house!
♪ ♪
It's him.
Put your--put your hands up!
- Attempting to flee the murder scene,
Mason crashed a black suv into the side of a police unit.
An officer who was exiting the vehicle was struck
And severely injured.
- Put your hands up!
Put them up! Put them up!
- We're back in shaker heights, ohio,
Where judge lance mason is being apprehended by police,
Who believed the judge
Had just stabbed his ex-wife to death.
- Put your hands up! Put them up!
[officers yelling]
♪ ♪
- Now on foot, mason tries to outrun police.
- Put your hands up! Put your hands up!
Put your hands up!
- He runs back to his sister's house and scene of the crime.
- Holy [bleep].
- On a stairwell inside,
Police finally catch up with mason
And place him under arrest.
- Put your hands behind your back. Do it now.
- Get him down.
- Okay. Have a seat right here.
- Outside, evidence of the heinous crime comes to light.
♪ ♪
- Mason would later plead guilty
To the aggravated murder of his ex-wife, aisha fraser.
He was also charged with felonious assault
On a police officer for crashing his suv
Into the officer and his vehicle.
♪ ♪
Now at sentencing, the victim's mother recounts
Her daughter's abusive relationship with mason.
- Today, I confront you on behalf of my husband and myself
For the aggression that you have rendered to my daughter
And our family, causing her to live in fear,
And ultimately resulting in aisha's murder at your hands.
You're a vicious liar with no remorse,
Other than the fact that you ruined your own career.
What a monster you are.
We ask that the courts render a sentence of life
In prison to you,
Without the possibility of parole.
♪ ♪
- Before learning his sentence,
Lance mason stands to address the court.
- I can't begin to say or articulate how sorry I am
About all the pain that I've caused.
And I'm aware of it. I accept full responsibility for it.
I'm ashamed.
I know it's a betrayal of my faith and my belief,
And I failed my daughters.
Every day I live,
I know that my daughters will go without their mother
And their father, and that tears me apart.
I love those girls more than I love my life.
♪ ♪
- The state and the victim's family have asked the court
To impose the maximum sentence of life without parole.
But judge john haas has a different view.
- You deserve
The maximum sentence the state requests.
However...
♪ ♪
If there is something-- anything--
Positive to transpire out of this in the future,
It's for you to make a difference
While you are in prison,
To help others with your background,
You will then be eligible
To appear before a parole board.
I am hopeful that during that period of time,
With that glimmer of hope,
That you will take advantage of that,
And you will in fact make a difference
In the lives of those people around you.
The court sentences you to life in prison,
With parole eligibility in 30 years,
And five years for the felonious assault
On a police officer.
♪ ♪
- Lance mason will be eligible for parole in 2053,
When he would be 86 years old.
As for the children,
They were placed in the custody
Of aisha fraser's best friend and their godmother
Per her wishes.
The problem is,
You don't want to play by anybody's rules.
You want to play by your own rules.
- Next, we go to berea, ohio, for a probation hearing.
The defendant's 18-year-old william demopoulos.
He's on probation for criminal damaging,
Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle,
And obstructing official business.
Things have not started off well,
As judge chris greene is annoyed with demopoulos
For refusing to hand over his cell phone
To a probation officer.
- Give me that phone!
What's in that phone you don't want us to find?
- Nothing. I just didn't see no need for you guys
To confiscate my phone and go through it.
- And you play by your rules.
You don't want to play by anybody else's rules.
- When the judge hands the phone to a clerk,
The defendant starts to retreat.
- Come here. Hey, come here.
- If you're gonna act up...
- Get me an officer. Get me an officer.
- No.
- I'm right now thinking about charging you with resisting.
- Stand there, and stand like a man.
- Then you're gonna go to jail today.
- Sounds like this teen is willing
To give up his freedom for a phone.
- What did we talk about with regard to following the rules?
- And they told you to give them the phone.
- I don't know why.
- The judge breaks it down for demopoulos.
- When you are on probation, your probation officer
Has the right to take anything they want to take of yours.
If they want to search your phone, they search your phone.
The problem is you don't want to play by anybody's rules.
You want to play by your own rules.
- It's not like that, your honor.
- Getting nowhere, the defendant
Changes his story.
- Whose cell phone is it?
- Then why didn't you tell them that?
I need him handcuffed, please.
- Even with deputies closing in,
Demopoulos doesn't seem interested in cooperating.
♪ ♪
As quickly as demopoulos hops over the table,
The deputies tackle him to the floor.
♪ ♪
- That's the defendant's grandfather looking on.
- It's like this because you make it like this.
[tape whirs]
♪ ♪
- My problem is I can't have someone on probation
If they won't listen to their probation officer.
- Man, he's kind of like a little cat.
- Yeah, he jumped.
- Yeah.
- The judge revokes the defendant's probation,
And he's charged with resisting arrest.
He's sent to jail for 40 days.
Joining us now is the judge you saw there from the back,
Judge christopher greene.
Judge greene, thanks very much for joining us.
Appreciate it. So take us back to that day.
What were you expecting as the proceedings started?
- Well, you know, as a judge, I think the one thing--
You can never have an actual day
Where you expect things to go just simply.
You do sometimes have those days.
I didn't expect the guy to jump on the table, though,
And try to take off out of the courtroom.
- Now, did you know him?
Did you know anything about him before this started?
- I did not know him personally.
And if I'm not mistaken, this might have been
Either the first or second time
He was in front of me while he was on probation.
- Had you ever had anyone try
And run out of your courtroom before?
- Yeah, we've--I mean, an escape case
Is not an unusual case, even in a municipal court,
Like mine, where we're handling
With mostly misdemeanor things.
So yeah, we've had people that have fled the court before.
Some are good at it, and escape,
And some are bad it, and don't escape.
- Now, at one point,
You instruct the court officers to handcuff him.
- I need him handcuffed, please.
- What were you thinking at that moment?
- I'm thinking, at any time,
When I'm going to hold somebody in contempt
Or put a jail sentence on them,
There is always that opportunity for them
To go out--I mean, the impulse sometimes for them
Is to fly out of control,
To try to get away from what they're about to face.
Come here. Hey.
♪ ♪
- Get--what are you--
Get off me, man. No, man. This is not right, man.
I'm telling you it's not right.
- So routinely, I think most judges would instruct them
To handcuff the individual
To help impede them from being able to get out of our control.
Judge christopher greene,
Thanks so much for taking the time.
We really appreciate it.
- Dan, thank you for having me on.
It's been my pleasure.
- That's it for this edition of "courtcam."
I'm dan abrams. Thanks for watching.
♪ ♪