A video clip showing LSU student Madison Brooks arguing with her alleged rapists in a car just moments before she was fatally hit by a rideshare vehicle has been described as “hurtful and shameful” by her mother’s attorney. The footage, taken by one of the men, was released by their defense attorneys to WBRZ last week, who claim it exonerates their clients.
The video shows Brooks seated between two men in the back seat, slurring her words and telling one of the men to “Get out, get out. I will Uber on my own,” before he stepped out of the car so she could exit. As she gets out of the car, she can be heard calling the driver, Casen Carver, “gay,” before the short clip abruptly ends. Shortly afterward, Brooks was hit by a car and later declared dead at the hospital.
Kerry Miller, who is representing Brooks’ mother Ashley Baustert, described the video as “hurtful and shameful,” and said that every time the defense releases another video clip to the media, it cuts Baustert “like a knife.”
In January, the defense released a short video that showed Brooks running after her alleged attackers after leaving Reggie’s bar and on the way to their car in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Miller accused the defense of trying to try the case in the media, showing a level of desperation.
Defense attorneys argue that the video shows that Brooks had consensual sex with two of the men and was not raped. Attorney Ron Haley, who is defending one of the suspects, told WBRZ that the video shows Brooks “speaking and engaging in conversations, using very vulgar language to the driver of the vehicle” and insulting him, implying that he is not straight based on him not wanting to engage in certain activities with her.
However, prosecutors have argued that Brooks was too intoxicated to consent to sex. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.319% – nearly four times the legal limit at the time of the alleged rape, authorities said.
Four men have been arrested for allegedly raping Brooks before her death. Kaivon Deondre Washington, 18, Desmond Carter, 17, and Casen John Carver, also 18, were charged with third-degree rape, while a fourth passenger, 28-year-old Everett Lee, was charged with principle to third-degree rape, meaning he witnessed but did not participate in the sexual assault.
The district attorney’s office is reportedly considering upgrading charges against Carver and Lee as more evidence is presented to the grand jury. Washington has since been arrested and charged with two more alleged rapes in Livingston Parish in 2020 and the same area of East Baton Rouge in October 2022.
The suspects’ defense attorneys claimed they have additional unreleased video evidence from that night that proves their clients’ innocence, including footage that shows Washington and Carter receiving “verbal consent” from Brooks. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office ruled Brooks’ cause of death as “multiple traumatic injuries 2nd motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision.”
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