Sunny Hostin, one of the co-hosts of ABC’s popular morning talk show, The View, was recently captured on video trying to use her fame with law enforcement officers in June to convince them not to arrest her son for a trespassing violation. Hostin’s son, Gabriel, was stopped by police on June 16 along Metro-North Railroad tracks located in Westchester County for suspicion of criminal trespassing.
Hostin quickly arrived at the scene where she tried to talk the cops out of arresting her son. The interaction was caught on bodycam footage and released in a report from the New York Post. Law enforcement was called after Gabriel was spotted “on the right-of-way of the active railroad tracks, in violation of the posted no trespassing sign.”
The talk show host’s son then told police officers that he was out for a jog, saw the gates to the tracks were open, and decided to go inside. As he was being arrested, Hostin showed up and is seen in the footage telling the police, “My name is Sunny Hostin and I’m one of the co-hosts of The View and I’m a former federal prosecutor.”
According to a report from Breitbart News, at one point during the conversation, Hostin said, “I’m a former federal prosecutor. He knows. He’s a Harvard grad who teaches 4th grade geometry to South Bronx kids.” She then added, “He’s not a kid who’s ever in trouble. It’s an innocent mistake.” The same bodycam footage also showed Gabriel attempting to talk his way out of the arrest.
“Is this necessary?” he asked officers at the scene before trying to convince them not to issue him a summons, asking, “What happens if you didn’t do it?” The officers informed Gabriel that he was participating in an “arrestable offense” going on to say, “Because it is an arrestable offense. I want to make that clear, okay? Where you were on the tracks is an arrestable offense.”
The officer then explained to Gabriel that they were already giving him a break and not arresting him outright. “We’re dimming it down to a trespass violation because you were in the right-of-way, you weren’t in the gauge or anything, which is the middle area where the tracks were on,” the officer stated. “And you’ve been very cooperative with us and you have a good background, everything like that.”
“We know you’re not a criminal or anything like that but our hands are tied with cameras everywhere,” the officer continued. Following the arrest, Hostin wrote a letter to Westchester Assistant District Attorney Amanda Greene claiming that her son spotted a gravel grade inside and thought he could use it for “hill training.”
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“When jogging, he observed what appeared to be a gravel incline that could be used for hill training,” Hostin stated in the letter. “Although there was a gate at the entrance of the gravel incline, the gates were standing open.” She then added, “The only ‘No Trespassing’ sign was affixed to the left gate and, because the gates were open, it was not visible to my client as he entered the property.”
On her program, Hostin has repeatedly shared fears that her son might be gunned down by police because he’s black. However, this latest incident showcases police being respectful and calm with Gabriel and giving him a break by not taking him into custody, opting to give him a citation instead, despite the fact that it would have been perfectly justified for them to arrest him and put him in jail.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video