Cops Arrested Her At College Graduation — Then Her Father and 20 Marines Stood Up
Chapter 11
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Calvin leaned forward, studying the multiple video tracks on Jasmine's screen. "So, they can't control what this system records?""Exactly. And I copied all the raw files onto a portable drive before anyone could overwrite them." Jasmine patted her jacket pocket. "Complete protection."Nia felt a surge of gratitude toward this young woman who barely knew her, but was risking everything to preserve the truth. "Keep that drive secured. When Sergeant Cole reviews this, I want him seeing the original footage, not some edited version.""Already planned," Jasmine said, pulling out her phone. "But let me film a quick preview so you can see what we're working with."She aimed her phone at the monitor and played the sequence again, capturing Mercer's initial approach, his aggressive grabbing, and Nia's measured response. The phone recording clearly showed the larger screen displaying the original footage.Footsteps echoed on the staircase behind them. Hart appeared in the booth doorway with Vale close behind, both breathing heavily from the climb."Ms. Price, I'm ordering you to erase that footage immediately," Hart commanded, striding toward the console. "The university owns all recordings made on campus property."Calvin stepped directly into her path, his Marine bearing making him an immovable barrier. "Nobody touches that equipment.""Mr. Lawson, you're interfering with university operations," Hart snapped."I'm protecting evidence," Calvin replied coldly.Jasmine remained calm at her station, her hands moving steadily across the controls. "Dr. Hart, deleting relevant evidence after someone files a complaint creates a separate legal problem for the university. I studied media law last semester."Hart's face flushed with anger and frustration. She clearly wanted to push past Calvin and seize control of the booth, but his presence made that impossible. Vale hung back near the doorway, clearly uncomfortable with the confrontation."Fine," Hart said finally, backing toward the stairs. "But I'm ordering all production staff to keep Ms. Lawson off the graduation screens. No footage of her appears on any display."She disappeared down the staircase with Vale following close behind.Jasmine immediately turned back to her monitors, pulling up additional recorded segments. "There's something else here," she said, scrolling through the intercom recordings. "Before your arrest, there's a segment where Dr. Hart's voice comes through the production intercom."Calvin moved closer to the screen. "What's she saying?""Let me find it," Jasmine said, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she searched through the audio tracks.Jasmine's fingers moved across the keyboard, scrolling through layers of audio recordings until she found what she was looking for. "Here it is," she said, clicking on a file labeled with the timestamp from just before Nia's arrest.The speakers crackled to life with Hart's voice coming through the production intercom system:"Security coordination, this is President Hart. I need Officer Mercer to handle a situation in the honors section."