Maryanne Godboldo, center, with sister Penny Godboldo at right and Ariana's father Mubarak Hakim behind them, are welcomed by young supporters who rallied outside during previous juvenile court hearing
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT, June 28 — Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell on June 17 overturned a decision by 36th District Court Judge Paula Humphries that stayed criminal charges against Maryanne Godboldo. In a case that gained broad nationwide and community support for the mother, Godboldo stood off Detroit police helicopters, armored vehicles and a Special Response Team in assault gear, to protect her daughter Ariana, 13, from what her attorneys say was an illegal seizure by Child Protective Services last March.
Maryanne Godboldo speaks out against illegal seizure of her child at community rally at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church April 2
Her child has since been returned to her aunt’s custody, with overnight visiting privilges for her parents, after a six-week captivity in a mental institution. Her juvenile court attorney Wanda Evans said “Ariana is doing fine now.” She is under the care of Dr. Margaret Betts, a renowned Detroit M.D. and allopath, who with the medical director of the psychiatric hospital where she had been incarcerated, agreed on a plan of treatment and called for her immediate release.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy boasted in a release by Asst. PA Maria Miller, “On April 4, 2011, Judge Paula Humphries granted a stay of the preliminary examination and adjourded the case against Godboldo until the Michigan Supreme Court rendered a decision in People v. Moreno. The court reasoned that the decision could affect the law to be applied in her case. On April 25, 2011 the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office (WCPO) filed a leave to appeal with the Third Circuit Court Criminal Division. WCPO argued that the lower court abused it’s discretion in granting the stay because Moreno involved a warrantless search and Godboldo’s case involved the execution of a court order to remove her daughter from Godbold’s home.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has a daughter of her own but evidently no sympathy for Godboldo as a mother
In an order dated June 16, 2011, Judge Edward Ewell vacated the stay because the Moreno case raised different issues that the Godboldo case. Accordingly, the case was remanded back to 36th District Court for preliminary examination. A new date has not been set by the court. The opinion is attached for review.” (Click on: 2011,_June_17_-godboldo_opinion[1] to read opinion.)
Judge Ewell’s chief contention is that in the Moreno case, there was no warrant issued to enter the premises, while in Godboldo’s case, a court order was issued. However, Godboldo’s attorneys have disputed whether a “court order” is equivalent to a “warrant” to enter the premises, and have said that the court order issued in the Goldboldo case was “flawed.”
While Worthy pursues criminal charges against Maryanne Godboldo for protecting her daughter, she has not to date filed murder charges against Police Officer Joseph Weekley, who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, to death after police bombed her home May 16, 2010
Additionally, the Justice4Maryanne Committee has announced that the trial in the permanent custody hearing in Juvenile Court will begin Aug. 1. However, Evans said she has filed a motion to hold an evidentiary hearing and dismiss the case, which will be heard on July 29.
In an email June 28, the Justice4Maryanne Committee announced:
Upcoming Events:
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 – Trial begins for Maryanne’s criminal case. Frank Murphy Hall of Justice: 1441 Saint Antoine Street Detroit, MI 48226 (time: tbd). VOD ed: a request is in to Ms. Godboldo’s criminal defense attorney Allison Folmar-Givens for further information on whether the trial will proceed or whether additional actions have been filed to contest Ewell’s decision. For recent daily media coverage, go to Doug Guthrie’s article in The Detroit News, June 20, 2011, at http://detnews.com/article/20110620/METRO/106200390/Criminal-charges-to-proceed-against-Detroit-mom-in-standoff-with-cops
Sunday, July 17th, 2011 – Speakout Rally! Little Rock Baptist Church Resource Center. 8801 Woodward ave @ Gladstone. 4-6pm
Monday, August 1st, 2011 – Trial begins for Custody hearing. More details as they become available. (VOD: hearing on motion to dismiss the case July 29, per attorney Wanda Evans. Further information will be forthcoming. Godboldo, her family and attorney do not feel there is a need for a trial, since Ariana is fine now that she is home among her loved ones and not in a psychiatric hospital.)
The “rebels” in Misrata in Libya have driven out the entire Black population of the city, according to a chilling story in The Wall Street Journal today under the headline Libya City Torn by Tribal Feud.”
The “rebels” now eye the city of Tawergha, 25 miles away, and vow to cleanse it of all Black people once they seize the city. Isn’t this the perfect definition of the term “genocide”?
Misrata "rebel" commander Ibrahim Mohammad-Al-Halbuse
According to The Journal’s article, the “rebels” refer to themselves as “the brigade for purging slaves, black skin.” The Journal quotes a rebel commander Ibrahim al-Halbous saying, of Black Libyans, “They should pack up,” and that “Tawergha no longer exists, only Mistrata.”
You won’t read this kind of article in The New York Times, which has become as journalistically corrupt and as compromised as the old PRAVDA, during the Soviet era. This editorial page has been insisting since the beginning of the Libya conflict that the “rebels” embraced racism and used the allegation that Muammar al-Quathafi had employed mercenaries from other African countries as a pretext to massacre Black Libyans.
Black Libyan killed by "rebels"
The evidence of public lynching of Black people are readily available online through simple Google or YouTube searches, even though The New York Times has completely ignored this major story. Does anyone believe that if people of African descent controlled the editorials in The New York Times or even the news pages that such a huge and damning story would be ignored?
If the case were reversed and Black Libyans were committing ethnic cleansing against non-Black Libyans, does anyone believe that the people who now control the editorials or the news pages at The New York Times would ignore such a story? Evidently, it doesn’t much bother the sages at The Times that Black Libyans and specifically being targeted for liquidation because of their skin color.
Instead The New York Times is busy, as in a recent editorial boasting of its support for NATO’s bombing campaign, which this week alone is reported to have killed 20 civilians.
LIBYAN STATE TV VIDEO OF CIVILIANS, INCLUDING TODDLERS AND WOMEN, SLAUGHTERED BY US/NATO BOMBING LAST WEEK-END IS BELOW.
The Times has also ignored Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s call that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate NATO commanders on possible war crimes in connection to Libyan civilians killed.
The Times can’t write about the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans and migrants from other African countries because it would diminish the reputation of the “rebels” who the Times have fully embraced, even after the ICC also reported that they too have committed war crimes. Instead, The Times is comfortable with the simplistic narrative: “al-Quathafi bad,” and “rebels good,” regardless of the fact that The Wall Street Journal also reported that the rebels are being trained by former al-Qaeda leaders who were released from U.S. custody on Guantanamo Bay.
The Times also has totally ignored the African Union (AU) peace plan, which actually calls for a ceasefire, negotiations for a constitution, and democratic elections, all to be monitored by the International community.
So what can one say about the Times for ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans by the “rebels” in Mistrata, with the help of NATO? Does this make The New York Times culpable of the ethnic cleansing, since the newspaper not only deliberately ignores the story, but also falsely depicts the “rebels” as Libya’s saviors?
Call The New York Times at (212) 556-1234 and ask for the Foreign Desk editor–ask him why his newspaper is not reporting on the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
Editorials About Libya from The Blackstarnews.comto share them widely with your email contacts.
Also put “Libya” in search box on blackstarnews.comfor past editorials…Thanks
Cynthia McKinney has just returned from a three-week tour of Libya
Human and civil rights defender, former congressperson Cynthia McKinney questioned whether NATO unleashed a race war in Libya. In a major victory for McKinney, President Barack Obama lost support to continue war on Libya today when the House overwhelmingly rejected a measure giving the president authority to continue the U.S. military operation against Libya, a major repudiation of the commander in chief. According to McKinney, “the rebels” are cleansing Blacks out of the area.
In a written plea sent today to the writer, McKinney urged, “Please call the House and Senate and ask for an end to this madness. Defund US War Against Libya now!”
“Please let them know that US Libyan allies, the ‘rebels,’ are cleansing Blacks out of areas under their control.”
One day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a last-minute plea for the Libyan mission, the house voted today, 295-123, against continuing aggression on Libya according toAssociated Press:
In a last-ditch effort Thursday, Clinton met with rank-and-file Democrats to explain the mission and discuss the implications if the House votes to cut off funds. The administration requested the closed-door meeting.
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said Clinton apologized for not coming to Congress earlier. But he said she warned about the implications of a House vote to cut off money.
“The secretary expressed her deep concern that you’re probably not on the right track when Gadhafi supports your efforts,” Walz said.
Young Black Libyan prisoner of "rebels" is interrogated
Despite what some have referred to as Clinton’s human rights table turning, Obama lost support of 70 of his Democrats.
“The president has operated in what we now know is called the zone of twilight as to whether or not he even needs our approval,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla. (AP)
John McCain, opposed passing a resolution that would “encourage Moammar Gadhafi to stay in power.”
Earlier this week, a Black Star News Editorial (VOD: at bottom of this post) condemned the recent New York Times editorial supporting the campaign against Libya, referring to it as ethnic cleansing:
So what can one say about the Times for ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans by the “rebels” in Mistrata, with the help of NATO? Does this make The New York Times culpable of the ethnic cleansing, since the newspaper not only deliberately ignores the story, but also falsely depicts the “rebels” as Libya’s saviors? The Times also has totally ignored the African Union (AU) peace plan, which actually calls for a ceasefire, negotiations for a constitution, and democratic elections, all to be monitored by the International community. also reported that the rebels are being trained by former al-Qaeda leaders who were released from U.S. custody on Guantanamo Bay. is comfortable with the simplistic narrative: “al-Quathafi bad,” and “rebels good,” regardless of the fact that The Times can’t write about the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans and migrants from other African countries because it would diminish the reputation of the “rebels” who the Times have fully embraced, even after the ICC also reported that they too have committed war crimes.
Media war propaganda
Libyan oil field
It is no secret that Libya is the home the world’s ninth largest and most proven oil reserves, 43.6 billion barrels, and some of the best drilling prospects. Oil, however, is publicly unspoken before invasions.
AP reports that, earlier this week, Hillary Clinton gave lawmakers the freedom to raise questions, but asked, “Are you on Gadhafi’s side, or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been bringing them support?”
Last month, McKinney led an independent fact-finding mission to Libya that reported, with video evidence released by independent journalist DonDebar’s WBAIX radio station, in-hospital interviews with survivors and doctors. The team of independent journalists showed that, instead of the US “supporting aspirations of the Libyan people” and “taking support to them,” the US was maiming and killing innocent Libyans and destroying their communities.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, raised in Atlanta, Georgia, attending high school in Torino, Italy, obtaining a history degree from University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and presently a Juris Doctorate candidate at University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, Coy McKinney is a strong human rights defender using independent media to help provide news in best interest of humanity.
Today, Cynthia McKinney endorsed the recent words of Coy McKinney, “The question for our generation becomes: At what point do we categorically reject war and its mechanisms from the beginning rather than in retrospect? We can do this by repudiating all war.”
Coy McKinney was highlighting the role media has played in gaining public support for war to achieve imperialism.
“The way the ‘established’ media portrayed the Libyan conflict, and its subsequent reception, illustrates our society’s failure to recognize how the power dynamics of plutocratic governance shape our realities,” he wrote in his article, “The Media Fog of War.”
“We must reject the seemingly righteous theory of humanitarian intervention because it is divorced from how social conflicts actually arise and are resolved. The idea that bombing — an indiscriminate killing method the U.S. has become notoriously inaccurate at — can improve a situation is untenable. The most recent example is Kosovo; it was the nonviolent movement that ultimately resolved the conflict.
“Moreover, what right does any country have to determine the affairs of another country? This is the same expression of moral superiority used to justify imperialism.”
“If we want to live in a world of peace, we must learn from our history and see that war is an unnatural phenomenon; we need to reject it on a philosophical and spiritual level.”
Copyright Deborah Dupré, June 2010. All Rights Reserved
It was a wonderful afternoon in Benton Harbor with intervals of great sadness. Not only in mourning for T-Shirt, but for the homeless and mentally ill human beings roaming the streets.
It’s easy to understand why Rev. Edward Pinkney has a tone of desperation and urgency in his voice at times. Almost unfathomable is the inhumane cruelty of one of the world’s wealthiest corporations, which is letting this happen within mere blocks of their headquarters. The argument can be made that it’s happening because of the corporation’s outsourcing. Would they EVER let this happen in St. Joe? (you can answer…)
Protest against police brutality in Benton Harbor July 12, 2003 in wake of rebellion Photo WSWS.org
**************
Many thanks to all who attended the the Terrance “T-Shirt” Shurn Memorial Rally last Saturday. It marked the eight-year anniversary of the Benton Harbor uprising, a public response to the June 16, 2003 high-speed Benton Township police chase resulting in the death of Terrance “T-Shirt” Shurn.
Arthur Partee, killed by police in Benton Harbor prior to death of Terrance Shurn
During the course of the afternoon there were between 200 and 300 people listening to speakers and bands, and partaking of the catered food. Rev. Pinkney read a poem he wrote for T-Shirt, What Is Next? An inspiring speech was given by Fred Hampton Jr. from Chicago, some highlights of which are at the end of this report. The rap group Stargang performed an excellent original song. Ellis Bethea sang (beautifully) We Are America with input from recorded Rachel Maddow talking about BH – unusual to say the least! Two other bands were Big Dudee Roo and Chicago blues band, Amoree. Rev. P. led the audience in 3 minutes of silence, a very simple but very moving tribute to T-Shirt.
Law enforcement profiling and brutality, Whirlpool land grab and destruction, Whirlpool outsourcing of jobs to Mexico, and state takeover of BH are all actions which oppress residents. Pinkney spoke about this, and took the opportunity to educate. He said the dictatorship called Emergency Financial Management is facism. Whirlpool has been systemically destroying the city and driving citizens out; the new governor Rick “the Ricktator” Snyder is now assisting the corporation as did the former gov., Jennifer Granholm.
Other points made by Pinkney:
–Gone is democratic self-rule in BH. Almost gone is collective bargaining. Public discourse is minimized as local elected officials are stripped of authority. The EFM, Joseph Harris, can: remove elected officials without permission from the people, disburse all state-fed.-local funds without oversight, reject-modify-or-terminate any contract, sell off local gov. property, borrow money, and ignore notice requirements for the public in the adoption of ordinances.
–12,600 families will be thrown off welfare rolls on Oct. 1. They also lose health insurance and food stamps. Every month thereafter more families will be eliminated. If you have been on welfare for 3 years, you have just 1 year left.
Several of many points made by Fred Hampton Jr.:
–oppression is embarrassing.
–what they have in mind for our “new housing” is either the penitentiary or the graveyard.
–gentrification = land grab.
–it’s important to distinguish between the ability to articulate and intelligence.
–the will of the people is greater than everything else including technology and politicians.
He stated that he’s been struggling with law enforcement since before he was born. During the violent Chicago police death of his father, a cop put a gun to the pregnant mid-section of his mother. (She was pregnant with Fred Jr.)
In talking privately with Hampton, it was learned that his family is guarding the legacy of his father to maintain it’s integrity. There are two places on facebook where this information can be accessed: The Real Chairman Fred Sr. and Who We Be POCC. Type in Fred Hampton Jr. at youtube.com for speeches by him.
On Satursday we registered more than 400 hundred people to vote. We now have a total of 700 .Our goal is two thousand young voters.
People's Task Force rallies outside Kym Worthy's office June 17; Pres. Marilyn Jordan is at center in orange shirt; Exec. Dir. Kevin Carey at left.
People’s Task Force to meet with U.S. Rep. John Conyers Tues. June 28 at 1:30 p.m., calling for “Peace Rally” at Federal Bldg. on W. Lafayette
By Diane Bukowski
June 17, 2011
DETROIT – Families of prisoners packed the streets outside the Frank Murphy courthouse in downtown Detroit June 17. They denounced Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for not re-opening the cases of their loved ones, who they say were convicted based on deliberately falsified forensic evidence.
Marilyn Jordan calls for justice for her son Kelly Nobles
They also called on Worthy to charge Police Officer Joseph Weekley and others who shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones to death after bombing her home in Detroit in May of last year.
The Detroit police crime lab was closed in 2008 after an audit showed its firearms unit, staffed by police officers, produced false results in at least 10 percent of its cases.
“WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET!” declared Marilyn Jordan, president of the Detroit Peoples’ Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, whose son is serving a life term in prison.
The Task Force is a coalition founded by prisoners themselves, along with their families and advocates.
“We want a federal investigation of the crime lab, and we want Kym Worthy to pay back the $2.7 million the city gave her to investigate because she should not be in charge,” Jordan said. “Her office convicted our family members in the first place and that’s a conflict of interest. When Worthy asked for the money, she said nothing about time limits, and she has no jurisdiction anyway. Now she is refusing to review any cases except those from 2003 to 2008.”
Ricardo Guzman addresses rally; blue and orange balloons in photo were later released into sky as a symbol of freedom for wrongfully convicted prisoners
At least a hundred people were at the protest, chanting, “Worthy is Worth-less,” and “What are we going to do? Walk like an Egyptian!” They released blue and orange balloons into the sky at the conclusion of the rally, representing the hoped-for freedom of their loved ones.
MDOC prisoners usually are required to wear blue and orange uniforms.
Task Force paralegal Roberto Guzman said their members will meet with U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Detroit), head of the House Judiciary Committee, on June 28 at 1:30 p.m. to ask for federal intervention. They plan to hold a “peace rally” at the same time outside the Detroit federal court building where his offices are.
“The Detroit Police, Kym Worthless, and the City Council have a wicked interest in keeping these scandals covered up,” Guzman told the protesters. “Because to confess error as she continues to promise but not do would mean the end of her career; it would mean both the city and the county would have to pay millions of dollars in wrongful convictions.”
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
The current City Council approved funds for Worthy’s investigation in 2010. She claimed she would investigate all cases brought to her, including 147 questionable cases identified at the time. She later limited her review to convictions from 2003 to 2008, involving only firearms evidence, and recently said it was not possible to comb through all 31,000 cases from those five years.
Only four cases have been re-tried since Worthy began her investigation, with three re-convictions resulting. She has refused to re-try one case.
In May, large amounts of forensic evidence from cases under investigation at the time the crime lab closed were found in the building which housed it, the former Stephen Foster Elementary School. The building was open to trespass and in deteriorated condition.
Kelly Nobles
Among cases Worthy has refused to review is that of Jordan’s son, Kelly Nobles, 36, who was convicted in 2002 of first-degree murder and related charges, just outside her arbitrary time limits.
The victim was Nobles’ best friend. Jordan said forensics evidence, including a 19th shell casing proving more than one gun was used, was deliberately kept out of his trial, in retaliation for his refusal to plead to lesser charges.
“He said he was innocent, why would he kill his friend?” commented Kevin Carey, Executive Director of the Task Force. “The evidence in his case, along with thousands of others, is tainted.”
Jarrhod Williams' sister Dominique Manuel and mother Valarie Watts at right demand his freedom, in case that shut crime lab.
The family of Jarrhod Williams, 24, including his mother Valarie Watts and sister Dominique Manuel, was present with signs and photos of their loved one.
“It was my son’s case that shut down the crime lab,” Watts said. Jordan calls her the “mother” of the Task Force.
Williams initially confessed to the shooting deaths of two men in May, 2007 in exchange for a reduction of charges to second-degree murder. Williams said all along, however, that his confession was coerced, and withdrew his guilty plea after the broadly-publicized exposure of falsified evidence.
Jarrhod Williams during first trial
The same scenario occurs in many cases, said families at the protest. Black defendants take plea bargains even if they are innocent, because the alternative is facing juries composed predominantly of suburban whites who tend to believe whatever the police say.
In Williams’ case, Detroit police officers, who staffed the firearms unit of the crime lab, claimed all 42 spent shell casings at the scene came from Williams’ gun. When State Police re-examined the casings, at the request of Williams’ attorney at the time, Marvin Barnett, they found that they came from at least two different guns.
Judge Timothy Kenny
Worthy would not drop the case. Instead of throwing out the evidence and dismissing the case, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen ordered a new trial. Williams was re-convicted by an all-white jury in 2009 during a trial presided over by Judge Timothy Kenny, Watts said.
“The prosecutor brought in the same gun they used in the first place, except this time they showed it to the jury and said it was the wrong weapon,” she explained. “But all the jury saw was the gun. There were no eyewitnesses. How can you convict someone on a statement a police officer wrote down, and didn’t even read to him? The police said they found a scoop of shell casings all in the same spot. My son’s gun was never fired and its clip couldn’t hold that number of bullets anyway.”
Watts said she is retaining an attorney to take her son’s case to federal court.
Attorney David Moffitt, representing Alexander Aceval, addresses rally
“Worthy cannot be trusted to bring herself to justice,” attorney David Moffitt told the crowd. “She knows what is going on among the top staff at her office.”
Worthy faces charges before the attorney grievance commission related to the case of Alexander Aceval, Moffitt’s client.
“The case against my client lays bare the worst instance of public corruption in the history of Michigan jurisprudence,” Moffitt said. “It involved a vertically integrated perjury conspiracy where a Circuit Judge, the Chief of the Drug Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office, and two police officers conspired together to falsify not merely trial testimony, but proofs in every proceeding from warrant swear-to, to preliminary exam, to evidentiary hearings, to jury trial, to corruptly-declared mistrial, to post-trial cover-up, to second falsified trial, to appeal after appeal.”
Alexander Aceval
As a result of the highly publicized scandal, former Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mary Waterstone, former Assistant Prosecutor and Narcotics Unit head Karen Plants, and two Inkster police officers were convicted in March, 2009 of committing perjury in Aceval’s case.
With the full knowledge of Plants and Waterstone, the officers did not disclose to Aceval’s jury that the chief witness against Aceval was a paid informant who had the drugs in his own car trunk. Despite the perjury convictions, Aceval is still serving 10 to 15 years in prison, having lost all appeals at the state level.
Karen Plants
Worthy allowed Plants to continue in her position until the charges were brought by State Attorney General Mike Cox. Plants is currently serving a six-month term in prison, and the other parties are awaiting sentencing.
Video of interview with Moffitt after arraignment of Plants, Waterstone and the Inkster officers is below.
Latonia Lindsay’s son Joseph McNoriell, 30, was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and sentenced to 15 to 25 years in 2002, again outside Worthy’s time limits.
Erika Williams; Natl. Acad. of Sciences says crime labs should be independent of law enforcement
“He’s been in there for 10 long years, and he is unjustly accused,” Lindsay said. “The police lost evidence and placed other evidence at the scene themselves. The bullets that were used did not go to the gun they claimed he used. They came into our house without a warrant, and did an unlawful search and seizure, and came up with items that didn’t even pertain to the case.”
Erika Williams has been active with the Task Force since it testified before City Council in 2008. The City Council as constituted at that time voted unanimously for a federal investigation of the crime lab scandal, despite Worthy’s appearance before them.
Her husband is Terrance Lonzell Williams, 38, who is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years for second degree murder. He was convicted in 2005.
“He was railroaded,” Erika Williams said. “They falsified the firearms evidence. He was 100 percent innocent. He wasn’t even at the scene. Kym Worthy should not be in charge of this investigation.”
Williams told this reporter after the 2008 City Council hearing that police had confiscated a gun from Williams during a traffic stop, than later used that gun and a bullet they said was fired from it to convict him for a murder that happened later. His first trial resulted in a hung jury, but the prosecutor’s office re-tried him and he was convicted the second time.
Family of Toriano Johnson, including mother Sharon Johnson, center
Toriano Johnson, 40, was sentenced to life without parole in 2001 on three counts of felony murder, among other charges.
“My son did not commit the crime, he didn’t even know the people who were killed,” said Johnson’s mother Sharon Johnson. “He was at work when it happened. A crackhead in the basement of the place where the killings happened testified against him, but a little boy who was there couldn’t even pick him out of a line-up. But the judge said it was a hideous killing, and he was getting what he deserved.”
Johnson’s aunt Paulette Strayhorn and cousin Tina Williamson attended the protest in his support as well.
Crime lab protesters: in case of Johnnie Henderson, cops claimed they lost fatal bullet
One of the protesters, whose name is being withheld to avoid retaliation, said he served five years in prison on a firearms charge, with police using an inoperable gun they found down the street as evidence. He said he was stopped in his car by police for no reason, and that they conducted an illegal search of the car three times over, finally coming up with a quantity of heroin.
He said the drug charge was dismissed in 36th District Court, but the police got two witnesses to say they saw him throw the gun out of the car before the stop.
James Burbridge, 20, is serving five to twenty years for armed robbery and carjacking. He was convicted in 2010, putting him out of Worthy’s 2003-08 time limits.
“I feel my son was wrongfully convicted,” said Denise Beard. “I want people to know we care about our loved ones, whether they are down here or up north. If attorneys for the prosecution and the defense would take the time to really look at the cases, they could do something to stop all these young men and women from going to prison. They could do community service or be put in diversion programs.”
Comments from Kym Worthy’s office on the allegations made by the Detroit People’s Task Force are included in an earlier VOD article, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7930.
To contact the Detroit People’s Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, call Marilyn Jordan, at (313) 784-4021, Kevin Carey, at (313) 887-4344, or Roberto Guzman, at (313) 272-1406.
Families pray for justice for loved ones at end of rally.
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(BALTIMORE) – The United States Conference of Mayors, representing 1,200 cities with populations over 30,000, voted in their June 20 plenary session to call on the federal government to end America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and redirect that military spending to home land priorities.
The Conference of Mayors first convened during the depths of the Depression and mayors have met annually ever since; but the last time they addressed American military policy was when they called for an end to America’s war in Vietnam.
Kitty Piercy, Mayor Eugene, Oregon
Mayor Kitty Piercy, of Eugene, Oregon, introduced Resolution 59 stating, “Mayors call on our country to begin the journey of turning war dollars back into peace dollars, of bringing our loved ones home and of focusing our national resources on building security and prosperity here at home. Our children and families long for and call for a real investment in the future of America. It is past due.”
Resolution 59 does not call for immediate withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, but calls with the “fierce urgency of now” to speed up those efforts as nationwide municipalities face cuts in services that affect all citizens and most especially those in the greatest need.
In 1967 at Riverside Church, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon and speech, “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence” and addressed three of America’s demons; racism, materialism and militarism.
King called our government; “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” and “the war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.”
Being a person of faith, King knew the power within and that, “there is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.”
Mayor Dave Norris of Charlottesville meets with women of Code Pink
Among the mayors who comprehend King, is Mayor Dave Norris of Charlottesville, Va., who issued a statement:
“It is our citizens who are being asked to fund these wars with their tax dollars. And it is our communities that struggle when huge sums of money are being diverted from local priorities to military adventurism and ‘nation-building’ activities abroad.
“You might say, it’s time to do some ‘nation-building’ here at home for a change.
“Passage of this resolution puts the U.S. Mayors firmly on the side of a growing bipartisan coalition, whose members include Senate Tea Party Caucus Founder Rand Paul, Congressional Progressive Caucus Founder Bernie Sanders, former Ambassador and current Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, Republican Senator Mike Lee and many others, who have argued for a quicker drawdown of American fighting forces than the Obama Administration has seemed inclined to support. This position was embraced by 73 percent of Americans in a recent ABC News poll, where strong majorities of Democratic, Independent and Republican respondents alike agreed that we should start bringing substantial numbers of American troops in Afghanistan home to their loved homes as soon as this summer.
“We know that this action alone won’t bring a speedier end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we certainly hope it will help amplify the growing chorus of support for the effective enshrinement in national policy of Isaiah 2:4, which reads:
And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.” [1]
As read by the parliamentarian, this is the amended resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors Calling on Congress to redirect military spending to domestic priorities:
— Whereas, every member of the United States Conference of Mayors and the Americans they represent support our brave men and women and their families; and
— Whereas, the drawdown of troops should be done in a measured way that does not destabilize the region and that can accelerate the transfer of responsibility to regional authorities; and
— Whereas, the severity of the ongoing economic crisis has created budget shortfalls at all levels of government and requires us to re-examine our national spending priorities; and
— Whereas, the people of the United States are collectively paying approximately $126 billion per year to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
— Whereas, 6,024 members of the US armed forces have died in these wars; and at least 120,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the coalition attacks began.
–Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports efforts to speed up the ending of these wars; and
Be it further resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls on the president and the U.S. Congress to end these wars as soon as strategically possible and to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy. [2]
Reverend King knew that the only hope for real change “lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”
One million Libyans demonstrate to support Gaddafi June 17, 2011
Click on http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185602.html for video showing civilians, including toddlers, murdered by NATO; interviews with independent journalists regarding demonstration of one million supporting Gaddafi and anti-government forces lynching Black Libyans
Sent by Don DeBar of WBAIX
Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:2AM
Press TV talks with Lizzie Phelan, journalist and political activist in London who has been to Libya and says that Western media is complicit in war crimes in the North African country through omission of fact and that the vast majority of the population are in support of the Libyan government. Following is a transcript of the interview.
Libyans show clothing of toddlers killed by NATO in airstrike
The mass pro-Gaddafi street demonstration of one million Libyans held in the capital Tripoli has gone unreported by Western media as has news of civilians killed for the past three months
.
Press TV: NATO have issued an apology for a strike so about this publicized NATO strike that has killed civilians, they have blamed ‘technical error’. The conclusion we can draw from that is if that happens it may happen again, which relates to the risk of more civilian casualties. Concerning this air campaign – Do you think it has actually gone too far when it is not saving lives?
Phelan: Yet again we are seeing what the US and Europe shamefully call collateral damage in the form of human lives like we have seen previously in Iraq and Afghanistan and in many other parts of the world.
In this photo taken on a government-organized tour, members of the media and others examine the remains of a damaged residential building in Tripoli, Libya Sunday, June 19, 2011. The Libyan government accused NATO of bombing a residential neighborhood in the capital and killing civilians early Sunday, adding to its charges that the alliance is striking nonmilitary targets. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)
This apology by NATO is an absolute joke. It’s the first apology we’ve had from them in the three months despite the fact that civilians have been dying at the hands of NATO air strikes everyday in the past three months there have been thousands of strikes on the country so they made the apology yesterday on Sunday. But again at 2am in the morning there was another attack on the city of Sorman, 130km west of Tripoli where a further fifteen civilians were killed and a further three children were killed.
In previous weeks we have seen the bombing of al-Nasr university in Tripoli in the daytime where civilians were killed and so these are the military targets that we’re seeing them bomb – we’re seeing them bomb universities; we’re seeing them bomb Friday market street in Tripoli where there is no military site in the area. Friday market street – I’ve been there – it begins with a GPO post office and ends with a primary school and they bombed four buildings and killed nine civilians including a toddler of four months old.
So, we are seeing what ‘humanitarian intervention’ and the ‘protection of civilians’ al-a-NATO means – it means the killing of children as we are seeing.
The real crime here is the crime of the media. Where has the media been? The media has picked up on this now because NATO has made their apology, but we’ve been seeing civilians dying every day for the past three months; we have a swarm of western journalists based in Tripoli…
Press TV: The NATO apology concerns it’s responsibility for the deaths of 9 civilians and 18 injured in an early morning strike at an apartment building. In terms of what NATO is exercising it does put into question the goals of what NATO has on the ground… and this comes when there are CIA officers and covert operators as has been reported that are on the ground in touch with the revolutionaries.
Phelan: I wouldn’t call anybody who is inviting NATO or the CIA or intelligence services into their country revolutionaries, they are in fact counter-revolutionaries.
French helicopters readying to attack Libya
The purpose is clear and that is to curb the Arab spring, but it goes back further than that since the revolution (military coup) of 1969-70, when Gaddafi kicked out the British and the Americans and closed their military bases and nationalized the oil. The West has had an agenda since then to get back into Libya and take complete control of the oil resources. Yes they’ve had a period of reproachment with Libya whereby they have been able to make some good deals with Libya, but they haven’t had any where near the kind of control that they would like to have – like they have in Saudi Arabia or Qatar or the other Gulf states where these are effectively client regimes.
So the agenda is clear to completely violate international law and assassinate Gaddafi against the will of the Libyan people without actually every asking them what the Libyan people want.
Press TV: Since you have visited Libya, what is the support that Muammar Gaddafi has and what is going on in terms of the tribal allegiance that exists there? Because as we understand there has been a split along traditional tribal lines – animosity has existed; and also based on some research done this has indeed been funded by the West.
Phelan: Exactly. Just on Friday there was a complete blackout in the media except for one CNN report about a march of one million Libyans in a country of six million people in Tripoli towards Green Square in support of the government and also in support of the people of Benghazi and Misrata who are being harassed and persecuted by what I call counter-revolutionaries, which is what others call rebels – in particular black Libyans who because of the really shameful story that al-Jazeera has pumped out about Gaddafi hiring African mercenaries, black Libyans in places like Misrata and Benghazi – I’ve met refugees from these areas who are victims of these atrocities – black Libyans being lynched publicly and the most unspeakable atrocities are being committed against them by pro-NATO counter revolutionaries.
In terms of the tribes in Libya – from my sources I have information that 90% of the tribes in Libya are supportive of the government including the largest tribe in Libya.
Of course, before the uprising there were frustrations In Libya as there are within every singly country, but the Libyan people are an extremely non-confrontational people that will go to the ends of the earth to resolve in a non-confrontational way.
And that is also reflected in the government in the way in which the government has tried over the decades and bent backwards to accommodate opposition forces within the government, which in a sense has backfired as we saw from the people who defected from the government and who sold out because they were in the pockets of the CIA andMI6 and the other Western intelligence services.
So, from my experience in Libya the support for the government is absolutely widespread. There was a Guardian journalist in Libya who thankfully was deported from Libya for reporting that the reason why there is no opposition in Tripoli is because there are informers everywhere. A million people marched through the streets of Tripoli so the people have spoken for themselves.
Press TV: When will a political solution be discussed? Is NATO going to be ready to face the fact that there has to be a political solution in Libya? Many officials in the US have talked about having a political solution in Afghanistan and have conceded that for any war this is the best way forward…So why is this (military bombing) continuing in Libya?
Phelan: I have no faith in NATO to ever have the humility to suggest that what is needed and what was needed from the outset is a political solution.
It’s clear that NATO have no way at the moment to get out. They have gone into this war and they can’t lose face now.
I want to quickly mention something that has not been or rarely gets mentioned and that is the sanctions imposed on Libya have led now to a crisis in the country whereby people have to queue for six days for food and fuel and we’ve seen the impact from that in Iraq; sanctions are one of the greatest killers, sometimes more so than outright military war; it killed millions of people in Iraq.
…Coming back to your question, I would say that the UN has been acting as an extension of NATO and has done so in Libya.
Press TV: I have said that NATO is the armed wing of the UN in which the UN is used and then of course NATO comes in and of course we see how that gets exercised when it comes to various countries.
Phelan: I would say it the other way round that the UN is essentially a wing of NATO in the sense that it gives legitimacy to what NATO’s agenda is. And I have no faith in either of these institutions to deliver any kind of political solution in the country. The UN has proved itself a failure since the war on terror began and even before then…
Another excellent website reporting world news including the US/NATO war on Libya has also been added to the VOD links: http://alexandravaliente.wordpress.com/
Commentary on the Bing, Snyder, Duncan, Bobb, Lewis et al. orgy
DETROIT – Just before Mayor Dave Bing’s former executive assistant Rochelle Collins filed her lawsuit against him and his now former chief of communications Karen Dumas, Bing announced it contained “salacious” allegations.
Karen Dumas and Dave Bing: Detroit's latest celebrity couple
Collins levels charges in the suit that Dumas falsely accused her of authoring an anonymous letter stating Bing and Dumas were having an affair, and that Dumas told her the Mayor and his wife Yvette have a “strange” marriage. She says Dumas ran around on shopping trips during a joint trip to Washington, D.C., preventing Bing from having a scheduled meeting with a U.S. Senator. (Lawsuit pdf too large to download to VOD; click on http://detnews.com/article/20110616/METRO01/106160424/Ex-Bing-aide%E2%80%99s-lawsuit-stirs-City-Hall-turmoil for link to lawsuit, at right of article. )
Rochelle Collins with husband Oreese Collins, Jr, former DPS purchasing chief; is this why she wanted mayoral control over DPS?
Here we go again. But whether Bing and Dumas were screwing around on the side, or whether Dumas was busy stocking up on Burberry apparel, is not the point.
The real and absolutely appalling affair exposed in the lawsuit is that between Bing and Governor Rick(tator) Snyder. According to Collins, not only did those two have a relationship which gravely betrayed Bing’s oath of office, it was a regular orgy involving U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, DPS czar Robert Bobb, Bing’s Group Executive Kirk Lewis, and various and sundry staff members of all involved.
According to Collins, Bing, Snyder, et. al. were intimately involved in the birth of Public Act 4, better known as the “Dictator” Act. They also planned to eliminate officials elected by the people of Detroit, including the City Council and the Detroit Public School Board, and put the city and school district under the dictatorial rule of Bing as emergency manager.
So the issue is not whether Bing is screwing Dumas, but that Bing, Snyder et. al. are screwing the people.
More players in Bing-Rick-tator gate orgy: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, billionaire advocate of charter schools Eli Broad
Dumas and Collins, while aiding and abetting this clandestine orgy, no doubt provided a titillating sideshow for its chief players. They are now providing a distracting “catfight” for the daily media to amuse itself with, while ignoring the real scandal. Unashamed, Dumas even had the nerve to appear on Channel 2’s “Let It Rip.”
The dark heart of the lawsuit is the following section:
Suit says DPS communications chief Steve Wasko and DPS czar Robert Bobb were part of conspiracy
“With the full knowledge and authorization of Defendant Mayor Bing, Plaintiff [Collins]participated in the strategy developed by the Governor and his Executive Staff, the Emergency Financial Manager of Detroit Public Schools (DPS), Defendant Mayor Bing, and the Group Executive to transfer control of DPS to the Mayor of Detroit; including, but not limited to, performing the following duties:
Worked with a consultant paid for by the Bing Institute (click on BING Institute helps put feet to big ideas) to conduct polling of Detroit citizens whether they support mayoral control of DPS, the results of which showed overwhelming support for the idea;
Scheduled clandestine meetings between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the Governor and/or his Executive Staff, and/or the DPS’ Emergency Financial Manager to develop and execute the strategy;
Worked with stakeholders to ensure that Public Act 4 contained all necessary provisions to accomplish the goals of the strategy, which included Defendant Mayor Dave Bing being named emergency manager for the city of Detroit and DPS, and dissolving both the Detroit City Council and the DPS School Board;
Participated in meetings with the Group Executive, the U.S. Department of Education, the Deputy Superintendent for DPS, and/or the chief communications officer for DPS to develop and execute the strategy; and
Handled every detail of the Group Executive’s transition to become the new Emergency Manager for DPS, and worked closely with the Governor’s Administration and the existing Emergency Manager to finalize details of the transition and ensure that all paperwork was in order.
Recount hearing called for by Tom Barrow (l) Dec. 23, 2009 was packed by his supporters
To add injury to injury, Bing was clearly not truly elected as Mayor of the City of Detroit in 2009. The recount conducted on the election, requested by his opponent Tom Barrow, found that up to 60 percent of the vote, including 100 percent of all absentee ballots, were classified as “non-recountable.”
Barrow has appealed his lawsuit to the State Supreme Court. But if the “mayor” becomes Bing-tator of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools, the issue of whether he was honestly elected will become moot.
APTE Vice-President Cecily McClellan at Charter Commission meeting Aug. 10, 2010
Meanwhile, said Cecily McClellan, vice-president of the city workers’ Association of Professional and Technical Employees, the City Council needs to begin action to remove Bing for violation of his oath of office by conspiring to trash the Council, the School Board, the City Charter and the State Constitution. She said members of various organizations plan to appear in front of City Council to demand action Tues. June 21 during public comment in the morning session.
Also see upcoming stories on campaign for a referendum to repeal Public Act 4, which was rolled out at AFSCME Council 25’s hall in Detroit June 18, and 12 other cities across the state; the privatization of Catherine Ferguson Academy and other DPS schools under Evans Solutions (owned by Blair Evans, brother of Warren Evans, former Wayne County Sheriff and Detroit police chief); and update on new assault on DPS announced today by Rick-tator Snyder.
LANSING — Under a budget proposal released by the Michigan House GOP last week, prisoners housed in the Michigan Department of Corrections would see their pay for work and educational assignments eliminated, and an increase the fees assessed for phone calls. Advocates for prisoners call the move “immoral” and the MDOC says it opposes the plan.
Under the proposal, the state would eliminate $11 million in prisoner pay, and raise an additional $4 million by charging prisoners more for phone calls.
The prisoner pay policy (pdf) on the MDOC website shows prisoners are paid anywhere from 17.5 cents an hour to $1.24 an hour. Some prisoners are eligible for pay of $3.29 per day to $3.34 per day.
John Cordell, an MDOC spokesperson, says prisoner pay is important to making prison life “more tenable.”
“It gives them a little bit of spending money,” Cordell said. “It allows them to buy some extra goods through their prisoner store.”
Prison store
Those items include food items and writing supplies. The prisoners are also allowed to use money in their accounts to purchase goods through “approved vendors.” Those goods can include tennis shoes and clothing, says Cordell.
“[If that pay is eliminated] then the state may be subject to that expenditure. That would be a greater loss [budget wise],” Cordell said.
Cordell said the money spent in the prisoner stores are then used to finance the store operations, as well as other prison related expenses such as purchasing new recreation equipment and paying for cable or satellite costs.
State Rep. John Proos (R-St. Joesph) called Cordell’s argument a “misnomer.” He said the legislature would be very willing to shell out $250,000 for exercise equipment in order to save the state $11 million in prisoner pay.
Asked if the MDOC supported the budget proposal Cordell said he had not discussed it with the administration of the department, but he said he “doubts” it would garner support.
He also said that there are other good reasons to maintain the program. “It provides an incentive for our prisoners to work or go to school,” Cordell said.
A prison reform conference at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ included a panel of prison reform advocates representing various agencies accross Michigan. Left to right: David Tjapkes, Penny Ryder, Kay Perry, Miriam J. Aukerman and David Moore. Photo by Bethany Duemler
“The prisoners definitely need to have meaningful work. One of the big issues for many prisoners is that they never had a work ethic,” Ryder explained. “In our culture a work ethic is tied to some form of compensation. [Eliminating the pay] would be equating them with slaves again, and many of the prisoners are African Americans, and it doesn’t provide an appropriate philosophy in terms of the work ethic. We try to get them to understand that they need to put in a good day’s work for their pay.”
Ryder says her group encourages prisoners to save their payments for their eventual release. But she said they find many spend their money on food from the prisoner store because the prisoners don’t like the food served in the “chow hall.”
“Some prisoners have put their children through college — or helped put them through college — with the money they have earned, little by little with the work in prison,” says Ryder. “And they should be allowed to do that.”
“We are built on the idea of being a capitalistic society,” says Ryder. “We should show that standard and acknowledge that standard for prisoners’ work.”
Michigan State Sen. John Proos
Rep. John Proos, Minority Vice Chair of the House Appropriations Corrections and Human Services Subcommittee, said he takes Ryder’s views “very seriously.”
“I would not disagree with that perspective at all,” he said, “but during these extraordinary times, we have to make tough cuts.”
He said he would like to see the committee hold a hearing about the proposal to eliminate prisoner pay, so that the committee could fully hear the perspective of Ryder and her program. He said that in doing so the public may better understand the importance of the program and how it reduces recidivism.
Prisoner pay rates have not been increased in “at least” 10 years, Ryder said. And her group has been advocating for an increase, not an elimination or reduction. She notes that while prisoner pay rates have stagnated, costs in the prisoner store and for approved items from approved vendors has increased.
A second proposal would reinstate a surcharge on all phone calls from prisoners. The GOP plan says the surcharge would raise an additional $4 million. But exactly how much that surcharge would be was not detailed.
Proos said he could not recall what the original surcharge was, nor could he recall what the surcharge was that was used to calculate the $4 million revenue stream. But he said it was a conservative estimate based on technology, the former surcharge rate, and the cost of bidding the phone service out to a third party. The last of those items, he said, was particularly difficult and is currently undergoing a bidding process.
He called the surcharge a “significant” revenue generator for the department. He sad the item was eliminated in the 2008-2009 budget, at the insistence of Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Salem Twp.).
“It’s an argument Chairman Smith made and it’s one she won on a public policy debate,” said Proos about the earlier elimination of the surcharge.
The GOP plan noted that when the surcharge was being charged to prisoners it resulted in a $10 million revenue stream to the state. Again, specifics of the surcharge at the time were not included in the plan.
But Ryder says the move to start the charge over again was “discriminatory.”
“We believed it was discriminatory. It unfairly targets a class of people and if you communicate with that class of people, you are gouged,” said Ryder. “I believe it is totally immoral and unethical for the state to try to bring in a tax for something like this.”
The charge, Ryder says, has been an unfair burden in years past. She said some family members, eager to continue communications with their loved one, racked up huge phone bills in the process. She said some families ended up declaring bankruptcy as a result.
“We fought and fought for years to get the cost of a telephone call down to where it is because we know communication with the outside world is very important,” Ryder said. “In some situations making telephone calls is necessary and with the focus on re-entry all studies have shown that a contact with a family is extremely important in the recidivism rate going down.”
The Southern Michigan Correctional Facility's 7 block has five floors consisting of 515 cells in total. Photo: Nick Dentamaro, Jackson Citizen Patriot
By Aaron Aupperlee | Jackson Citizen Patriot
Sunday, June 19, 2011, 11:36 PM
PCS system will block prisoners’ use of cell phones
By the end of the month, the cost of a 15-minute phone call between Robert Avery and his incarcerated son will increase by 67 percent.
Under a contract with a new company, telephone calls from Michigan’s prisons will jump from between 10 and 12 cents per minute to 18 to 20 cents.
Prisoner makes vital contact with loved one
The new contract, signed with Alabama-based Public Communications Services, PCS, allows the prison system to maintain a relatively inexpensive phone system while paying for technology upgrades and better security, said John Cordell, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.
“This rate is still very good,” Cordell said. “We understand there is a great cost burden for families. We totally get that.”
But for Avery, the rate increase will make it more difficult to talk with his son, Aaron Avery, currently serving five to 15 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Robert Avery said. “I’m retired, and I’m on a pension, but I’ll do what I have to to keep the phones open.”
Pugsley Correctional Facility
Robert Avery, who lives in Jackson, is in a wheelchair and considers a visit to see his son at the Pugsley Correctional Facility in northern Michigan unlikely. Phone calls, he said, are his only way of staying in touch with his son.
“The phone call and the writing,” he said. “And I’m a lousy writer.”
In 2008, Aaron Avery, then 31, met a woman over the Internet, his father said. The woman told Aaron Avery she was 19 and the two arranged a visit in Cheboygan County. Police came looking for Aaron Avery, who lived in Jackson at the time, shortly after the two met in person. The woman, Aaron Avery later learned, was only 15 years old.
“He knew he did wrong,” Robert Avery said. “He turned himself in. It was too late to do anything about it. He’d already committed the sin.”
Aaron Avery pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person 13- to 15-years-old. He was sentenced in October 2008.
He calls his father nearly every day, Robert Avery said, at least five times a week.
Prisoners are allowed to talk for 15 minutes at a time.
“Sometimes he’ll call me two or three times a day, if he gets irritated,” Robert Avery said.
Under the old contract, Robert Avery would send his son money to call him collect. At 12 cents a minute, each 15-minute call cost Robert Avery $1.80. Five calls a week, a low week, ran Avery $9. A retired U.S. Postal Service employee living on a pension, Avery has built phone calls to his son into his budget.
Under the new contract, phone calls will cost Robert Avery 20 cents a minute. That 15-minute phone call now runs him $3; a week’s worth of calls costs $15. He will find the money somewhere and still talk to his son as much as he can. Talking with his son will help Aaron Avery when he is released.
“If you can make life more comfortable for my son or who is ever up there, do it, because they got enough problems as it is,” Robert Avery said.
The corrections department had contracted with Kansas-based EMBARQ. That contract expired in 2009 but the company agreed to continue service until the department found a new vendor, Cordell said. EMBARQ offered the department the fifth cheapest phone rate for prisons in the country. The new contract with PCS gives Michigan prisoners the 11th cheapest phone rate in the country.
The contract is a zero-dollar contract. The corrections department contracts with PCS for the service and the users pay for it. It does not generate a profit for the department, Cordell said. (VOD ed.: See note at end of story with link to federal anti-trust lawsuit filed against PCS’ parent company, Global Tel*Link.)
The new rate is still much cheaper than collect calls placed outside of the prison system. According to rate information on AT&T’s website, collect calls using 800-CALL-ATT cost $1.49 per minute with a $5.99 to $8.50 service charge per call. It costs $3.99 per minute and a $9.99 connection fee to make a call using 800-COLLECT, according to rates on their website.
The rate increase will go toward providing more phones in prisons and upgrading existing technology. About 29 percent of the per minute rate goes into a fund to equip the prison to detect and jam cell phones within facilities, Cordell said.
Across the country, inmates using smuggled cell phones is becoming a growing problem.
It has not gotten out of hand in Michigan, Cordell said, with about eight to 10 cell phones confiscated each year. Michigan law makes it a felony to bring in a cell phone as contraband. But the trend has prison officials concerned. They search for cell phones everyday, and the new technology will allow prisons to jam cell phone signals.
“They are a huge security issue — especially a smart phone. You can run your criminal empire. You can run and organize escapes. You can put hits out on people,” Cordell said. “We take them very, very seriously.”
The new phone system will be phased into Michigan’s prisons throughout the month. People can go to www.pcsdailydial.com for more information.
VOD ed. note: Effective November 10, 2010, Global Tel*Link (GTL) acquired Public Communications Services (PCS). A federal prisoner in Rhode Island, Michael Alan Crooker, has filed an anti-trust suit against Global Tel*Link that contends their contract with the prison where he is housed involves kickbacks, among other allegations. Click on Crooker v Global Tel Link to read lawsuit, filed earlier this month. Click on http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/GTL-Global-Tel-Link.aspx to read complaints against GTL. Also read the MICHIGAN MESSENGER story below which says prisoner pay is to be eliminated while the phone costs increase.
