A day after a jury found 27-year-old Jeremy Abston not guilty of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend last May, police released a video and 911 call related to the incident.



Jeremy Abston

The Ann Arbor News obtained them Friday via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Police also had a short statement and a picture of a ripped jacket to release.

Farrah Cook's jacket was ripped during the May incident.

"(The) case (was) presented to the jury," said Ypsilanti police Detective Joe Yuhas. "They have the final word."

While much of the action in the video is just slightly off camera in the lower lefthand corner, a struggle is evident. Farrah Cook testified Abston and 22-year-old Raymond March grabbed her in the parking lot of Ypsilanti's Hamilton Crossing at 5:30 a.m. May 6 and stuffed her in the backseat of a Bonneville.

Cook was taken to The Villas, an apartment complex in Ypsilanti Township, where she and Abston stayed for hours.

Police and prosecutors called it an abduction, and both Abston and March were charged with unlawful imprisonment. A jury on Thursday thought otherwise.

In November, March pleaded no contest to counts of unlawful imprisonment, conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment and interfering with the reporting of a crime and aggravated assault for his involvement. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 8.

Police have also released two 911 calls placed by Cook's mother, who also lives at Hamilton Crossing. In the first call, she reports a woman was put in the backseat of a car by two men. At that time, she did not know the woman was her daughter.

When she realized Cook was missing, she called 911 back.

The jury also found Abston not guilty of interfering with a crime report, assault with a dangerous weapon and larceny in a building.

The jury did find Abston guilty of interfering with electronic communications, domestic violence, assault and battery and malicious destruction of building less than $200. The electronic communications charge is a felony with a maximum sentence of two years in prison and/or a fine of not more than a $1,000. The other three counts are misdemeanors.

"When looking at this case from an outside perspective, you have to understand that there was a whole other side to this story," Abston's attorney, Erika Julien, said in a statement. "Jeremy made a full statement to the police about what happened and testified during trial. The jury got the whole case; there was no evidence withheld from them and they were able to consider everything in their deliberations. Jeremy was dutifully found guilty of the charges for which he was, but the jury did the right thing in finding him not guilty of the remaining charges."

Abston remains in the Washtenaw County Jail on $250,000 bond. His sentencing is set Jan. 15.

John Counts covers crime for The Ann Arbor News. He can be reached at johncounts@mlive.com or you can follow him on Twitter. Find all Washtenaw County crime stories here.