WORTHY GOES AFTER AIYANA JONES’ DAD WITH A VENGEANCE; KILLER COPS WEEKLY, TAYLOR GET KID GLOVES

Demonstration in downtown Detroit June 26, 2010

 P.O. Kata-Ante Taylor snatched Aiyana’s body from home despite her family’s pleas; he previously executed teen in 2008, not charged in either case

Federalist Society member WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny was “one-man grand juror” for Weekly, A&E photographer

WCCC Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, married to a law enforcement officer, is to preside over their trials 

By Diane Bukowski 

Oct. 21, 2011 

Killer kop Kata-Ante Taylor

DETROIT – Killer cop Kata-Ante Taylor was the officer who snatched Aiyana Stanley-Jones away from her family after she was shot in the head by Detroit cop Joseph Weekly May 16, 2010. Taylor ran the child out of her home “like a rag doll,” in the words of Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, thus depriving Aiyana in the last moments of her conscious life from being held by family members who loved her. 

Attorney Jonathan Marko of the law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney and Giroux, P.C.. who represents Aiyana’s parents in a civil lawsuit against Weekly, provided this information to VOD. He said he has taken depositions of several of the other officers involved in the raid, but cannot release any other details at this point because the process is still ongoing. 

Artrell Dickerson, 18 at time of death

Taylor and his partner Aubrey Wade shot 18-year-old Artrell Dickerson to death as he ran from them after a friend’s funeral at the Cantrell Funeral Home on Mack in Detroit, in 2008. (Click on http://michigancitizen.com/police-executed-teen-at-funeral-say-witnesses-p4173-1.htm to read article by this reporter.) No charges were ever brought against them, despite the fact that eyewitnesses said the cops shot the teen in the back as he lay on the ground, already wounded. 

“One officer stood over him and executed him,” a relative of the family of 24-year-old Dontell Martin, who was being buried that day, said at the time.  “I saw this because I was on the street corner watching. There was no gun nowhere near him. His hands were visible, he was face down, and the officer shot three times. He executed that boy. He didn’t have to do him like that. All he had to do was put handcuffs on him.” 

Worthy’s treatment of killer kops, Aiyana’s dad, differs drastically  

Joseph Weekly, Aiyana Jones, depiction of killing after second autopsy

This new revelation starkly illustrates the disparity between Worthy’s treatment of Aiyana’s father and that of killer cops Weekly, Taylor and the police command involved. 

She directly brought first-degree murder charges against Jones in the killing of Je’rean Blake May 14, for “aiding and abetting” defendant Chauncey Owens, not for shooting Blake. But she brought no “aiding and abetting” charges against Taylor or other Detroit police involved in Aiyana’s death. 

Heckler & Koch MP5, gun indictment says Weekly used to kill 7-year-old Aiyana

“Are they going to charge the cops that threw the flash bomb and the ones that tried to cover it up?” Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones asked Oct. 5 after her son was arraigned. 

Ducking police criticism which has come anyway, Worthy said she used a “one-man grand jury” to bring only involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm charges against Weekly, the actual shooter. Allison Howard, a  photographer with A&E’s “The First 48,” faces perjury and obstruction of justice charges. She is allegedly the only person on the TV show’s crew who had enough compassion for the family to show the video to Attorney Fieger. 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Weekly was released on a $100,000 personal bond, Howard on a 10 percent $50,000 cash bond, while Jones was remanded to jail without bond. 

Weekly and Howard will not have a preliminary exam in 36^th District Court under the grand jury proceeding, but will first appear before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway Friday, Nov. 11 for a “calendar conference.” 

Jones’ preliminary exam is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 18. He will be represented in his criminal case by Fieger’s firm, which asked for time for discovery before the exam. 

Worthy claimed that under state law she cannot comment on the alleged “grand jury” proceedings which resulted in charges against Weekly and Howard. 

Federalist Society member WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny was “one-man grand juror” 

WCCC Judge Timothy Kenny, "one-man grand juror"

However, a review of the court files for the two shows that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny, who is presiding judge of the Criminal Division, brought the “grand jury indictment” Oct. 4. There is a separate case file for the “grand jury” proceedings, #11-501-GJ, but Kenny told VOD that the file is not open for public review. 

Kenny is a member of the Federalist Society, “a well established network of right-wing lawyers, politicians, pundits, and judges [who] advocate a rollback of civil rights measures, reproductive choice, labor and employment regulations, and environmental protections,” according to “Right Wing Watch.” 

Howard’s indictment for perjury says that on May 21, 2010, she “testified that she did not show third parties the video recording, and/or that she did not provide third parties with copies of the said video recording,” and that that “slowed the investigation.” 

Allison Howard at arraignment

It further states that she “committed the crime of obstruction of justice by providing false testimony under oath at an Investigative Subpoena requiring redirection and expenditure of law enforcement resources to uncover the falsity of the testimony and the truth of the underlying matter.” 

Marko said a video he alluded to in the civil proceedings which is in the Fieger firm’s possession is not the A&E video, but another murky film that was shot from a distance away. 

What does “The First 48” lead to? Former First 48 Detroit cop Ed Williams shot and killed himself and wife Patricia

Worthy’s media representative, Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller, said she could not comment on the date testimony was taken by the “grand juror.” Worthy had announced shortly after Aiyana’s killing that she was turning the investigation over to the Michigan State Police. It is thus unclear WHO took her allegedly perjured testimony May 21, 2010. 

During the civil suit, it was “The First 48” TV series and its producer Kirkstall Rd. Enterprises of New York who refused to provide their videotapes of the Jones homes raid.  However, no corporate representatives have been charged with “obstruction of justice.” It is unknown whether the A&E tape is in the prosecutor’s possession. 

Abbe Raven, CEO of A&E: why isn't she charged for "wantonly" causing Aiyana's murder for the sake of profit?

Weekly’s indictment for involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm says he “did because of carelessness, recklessness, or negligence but not willfully or wantonly cause or allow a certain firearm under his/her immediate control, to wit, a 9 mm. submachine gun, to be discharged so as to kill another person.” 

The phrasing leaves open the opportunity for his defense to claim, as have city attorneys in the civil suit, that Mertilla Jones caused the gun to go off by having contact with Weekly, a charge she has vehemently denied. 

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, married to cop, to preside over Weekly trial  

Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway with husband DeWayne Hayes

Whether Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway was picked by blind draw to preside over Weekly’s and Howard’s trials is another matter open to question. 

According to her official biography, “Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway is married to Rev. DeWayne R. Hayes, Wayne County Deputy Sheriff and Founder of The DeWayne R. Hayes Law Enforcement Officers and Youths Support Foundation. 

The State of Michigan “business entity” site listed the foundation is listed as a non-profit corporation created first in 2008 and dissolved, then re-created in 2009. There are however no tax returns or other financial statements available for it on guidestar.org, which receives documents for non-profits from the IRS. 

Gray Hathaway is divorced for WCCC Judge Michael Hathaway but has maintained the well-known Hathaway name, likely  for electoral purposes. 

Jason Gibson with his attorney Susan Reed in Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway's court

Hathaway presided over the trial of Jason Gibson in March for the killing of police officer Brian Huff in May, 2010, and the wounding of three other cops. The improbable scenario presented at that trial was that Gibson shot Huff in the living room of what many believed to be a drug house operated by the police. 

Cops testified he then jumped out on the front porch, gun blazing, and shot three other cops, among dozens who were aiming their guns at him. Mysteriously, Gibson ended up with only one bullet in his buttock, rather than shot dozens of times as normally would have been the case. 

Hathaway facilitated the guilty verdict by allowing the testimony of   police officers involved in two prior arrests of Gibson, in 2007 and 2009, over the strenuous objections of his attorney. 

Gibson had never even been tried and convicted in the second case. VOD interviewed eyewitnesses to the second arrest who completely contradicted the cops’ testimony. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/22/%e2%80%9cfree-jay-bird-gibson-trial-continues-mar-15-18-wrap-up-due-mar-22/ .) 

The City of Detroit has fought Aiyana’s parents’ lawsuit every inch of the way. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Daphne Means Curtis shot down Weekley’s request to seal all materials related to the suit Sept. 1. (http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/02/judge-shoots-down-killer-cop%e2%80%99s-request-to-seal-file/) 

 On Oct. 11, she denied Weekley’s motion to stay proceedings pending the outcome of criminal charges against both himself and Aiyana’s father Charles Jones. (http://detnews.com/article/20111011/METRO01/110110393/Judge-won’t-halt-research-into-wrongful-death-lawsuit-in-Aiyana-case#ixzz1aUzYZMfD.)

Means-Curtis sealed depositions of both Weekly and Jones in the civil proceedings. The family’s brief contended, “Charles Jones’ criminal proceeding has absolutely nothing to do with how and why Defendant Weekly shot Aiyana. This Court should recall that it already ruled Charles Jones’ conduct was not relevant to the gross negligence claim in this case. . . This court should not allow the City to dictate the direction of this action through nothing less than executive fiat.”