Man Charged in Connection with Recording Aftermath of Crash That Killed Teen

blaze915 · #1 ● 07-16-2015, 10:31 AM

Lorain resident Paul Pelton is charged with vehicle trespassing after he open the back door of a crashed car in Lorain to take cell phone video
Police say a highly unusual case has sparked outrage by viewers of a video posted to Facebook, and now the video has the attention of the Lorain city prosecutor.
The controversy focuses on cell phone video posted online showing the inside of a car seconds after what turned out to be a deadly car crash.
"He's there for his own gain. Then he breaks the law by trespassing into someone's vehicle."

Pelton recorded the car smoking seconds after the crash. He then opened the back door and continued recording.

“I thought I saw movement in the backseat so I wanted to open the door there to see if there were any victims back there that maybe I could help," said Pelton.
“Had he videotaped it across the street, we wouldn't have an issue with it," added Sivert. "The issue started when he entered the vehicle to take the video and the fact that he's videotaping two young men who were, one critically injured, one seriously injured.”
In the video, he reportedly calls the boys "idiots" and continued to record the inside of the car while neighbors attempted to help. Police added that he never offered aid to the victims.

The man offered the video to news organizations, including to newsnet5.com. In a Facebook message, he asked for a donation to a charity with which he's involved in exchange for the video.

newsnet5.com declined.

We chose not to show the video from inside the car because it is too graphic.

The passenger, 17-year-old Cameron Friend, died from his injuries after the crash on Kansas Avenue just after midnight Monday morning.

The driver, 17-year-old Zachary Goodin, is being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Police said the car lost control after speeding over a train crossing and crashing into an SUV, a house and a tree.
As the car caught fire, other neighbors helped pull the driver from the car.

Police reviewed the video and now the Lorain prosecutor has charged Pelton with vehicle trespassing.

The charge is a misdemeanor in municipal court.

The case itself has sparked debate over what crosses the line by how the video was obtained and why the graphic content was posted online.

In this case, Lorain Police said the law was broken when the man entered the car to record video and not to assist.

Police arrested Pelton just before noon Wednesday.

Lorain Police said there has been community outrage by people upset Pelton posted the video online.

As smartphone and social media technology quickly evolves, Lorain Police are concerned others might enter what are considered potential crime scenes and disrupt evidence to gather cell phone video.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-n...math-in-lorain

CrunchyCripple · #2 ● 07-16-2015, 11:25 AM

It's cute that he tried to profit from it, even if it was to his charity.
I wonder if he was an idiot from a gore site that failed to notice that the videos of this nature, are not filmed in the U.S.

It's not because people don't happen to have a phone on them when witnessing a crash.

The derp.