A newly released video provides another perspective on what happened the night two men were arrested in downtown East Lansing during MSU's Welcome Week weekend.
The video is security camera footage from outside Dave’s Hot Chicken, the restaurant where the arrests were made.
Police say Lonnie Smith, 21, of Okemos, and Mason Woods, 22, of East Lansing, were arrested after officers broke up a fight outside the restaurant at around 1:39 a.m. on August 24.
Lonnie Smith was charged with disturbing the public peace and cited for misdemeanor disorderly fighting.
Woods was charged with disturbing the public peace and resisting or obstructing a police officer.
On September 27, about a month after the incident, police released bodycam videos. You can see them here.
But according to Smith's attorney, Jack Rucker, the police videos don't tell the whole story. Rucker released additional video to WKAR News from the surveillance camera. He said it shows the two weren’t fighting each other at all.
Rucker said the video instead shows that Smith attempted to break up a physical altercation, approaching the scene later in the video.
In the video, Woods, wearing a black graphic T- shirt and watch, stands at the front of the line to go inside Dave's Hot Chicken, interacting with two women he's friends with, Rucker said.
"There's another group of gentlemen that are behind him in line who he's friendly with at the beginning of the video, but he doesn't really know them," he said.
When the bouncer cleared Woods to go inside, the men insisted they should be allowed in with him, he said.
"At some point the bouncer tries to separate him from these other gentlemen, and the other guys pull Mason back out," Rucker said.
Smith, wearing a white graphic T-shirt and black jeans and a mutual friend saw what was happening, walked up to intervene and get Woods out of the escalating situation, Rucker said.
"He doesn't want anything to happen, he doesn't want him to get hurt," Rucker said. "So, he goes in to grab his best friend he's known since elementary school and get him out of there."
Almost immediately after Smith puts his hands on Woods, the police pepper spray and arrest them, he said.
"It's about five seconds from that point on until the police pepper spray him for allegedly fighting with Mason which is just remotely not accurate to what the video shows actually happened," Rucker said.
Rucker said he thinks the police used excessive force on a situation that they didn't understand, didn't care to learn what actually happened and took no steps to deescalate.
The narrative about the arrests created by the East Lansing Police Department is inaccurate and misleading, he said.
"Smith has no criminal history and is not a troublemaker by any stretch of the definition," he said. "It is frankly appalling that the East Lansing Police Department feels so cavalier about dragging his name through the mud."
The press release from the police department indicated that Smith was drunk, when he was sober the entire time, Rucker said.
"They included in their press release that Lonnie was held until he was sober," Rucker said. "He was sober, he was released immediately."
Rucker said he expects the charges will be dropped against Smith and Woods as there's no evidence that the two men were fighting each other.
