Sauntore Thomas tried to deposit settlement checks from racial discrimination lawsuit; Detroit-based TCF Bank called Livonia cops on him
Thomas files second lawsuit against TCF–“Banking while Black”
“I wanted to make sure I stayed as levelheaded as possible, because I wasn’t going to be the next person on the ground saying, ‘I can’t breathe'”– Thomas
Storm of tweets: “Everyone knows that TCF hates Black people. Boycott the Grand Wizards of banking.” “Time to boycott TCF Bank.” #BoycottTCF
$45 billion TCF Financial Corporation, headquartered in Detroit, with subsidiary in Livonia
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan renamed Cobo Hall “TCF Center” in alleged move against racism despite his own record
By Diane Bukowski
January 25, 2020
Planned TCF headquarters building in Detroit, at Woodward and Elizabeth, across from Comerica Park. Taxpayers shelled out over $17 million for construction.
DETROIT — The story of Black Detroiter Sauntore Thomas’ arrest by Livonia cops, called in by TCF Bank officials, for trying to deposit checks from the settlement of a racial discrimination lawsuit, has gone viral, covered by virtually every major news outlet across the U.S.
NewsOne gathered angry tweets from across the country responding to those stories, including:
“Everyone knows that TCF hates Black people. Boycott the Grand Wizards of banking.”
“Nothing that Mr. Thomas asked for was “unusual” the only thing that was unusual was that a Black man with three checks amounting to $97,000 walked into their bank.”
“TCF is the name of the bank that called the cops on the brother who won a settlement against guess?? racism! if you are Black change banks. Black power!”
“ I hope his lawsuit causes this racist bank to shut down….”
Detroit’s Cobo Hall is now called the “TCF Center.”
Thomas has now sued TCF, whose parent company, the TCF Corporation, is headquartered in Detroit. It recently merged with Chemical Bank, making the new TCF bank the 27th-largest in the U.S., with $45 billion in assets, over 500 branches, and 10,000 employees.
Crains Detroit said, “Chemical Bank was already by far the largest bank headquartered in Detroit since announcing its move to the city from Midland in 2016, filling a void left by Comerica Inc. in 2007 when the bank with roots in Detroit predating the Civil War moved its corporate headquarters to Dallas.”
Crain’s also pointed to the Livonia-based TCF Equipment subsidiary, which grew from making $100 million for TCF in 1999 to $5 billion annually.
Renaming ceremony Aug. 29, 2019: TCF backed the election campaigns of both Duggan and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Chemical Bank, now merged with TCF, received a $17 million tax subsidy from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to build its new headquarters, with more than $16 million coming from state school taxes and $621,000 in local tax captures, approved by the Detroit City Council. Available local and state school capture for the project actually totaled nearly $34 million.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan last year renamed the city’s downtown Cobo Hall convention center “The TCF Center,” allegedly to counter the racism embodied in the use of former Detroit Mayor Albert Cobo’s name.
Duggan said, “This center ha[d] been named for an individual who was responsible for policies that moved large numbers of African Americans out of their homes, out of their business with no place to go — in the name of urban renewal.”
But Duggan has himself long been denounced by many Black business owners and homeowners in Detroit for the same practices.
Groups rally at Coleman A. Young Center July 15, 2015 to protest the “Great Black-Out” of Detroit businesses, residents, and services under Mike Duggan. VOD photo
In 2015, VOD reported, “Black Detroit business-owners, cab drivers, homeowners, city retirees opposing the takeover of the Detroit water department and water shut-offs, and residents campaigning for streetlights rallied July 21 against what they called ‘The Great Black-Out’ of Detroit,” Protesters said Duggan and other government officials were aiding a reverse “white flight” INTO the city by corporate and banking vultures.
Bert Dearing speaks at July 21, 2015 rally.
Marcus Cummings, who chaired the rally, said, “We were here long before Dan Gilbert.”
Bert Dearing, owner of Bert’s Entertainment Complex in Eastern Market, was one of the protest leaders, battling efforts to oust his establishment from its locale, as his jazz venues have previously been ousted from W. Jefferson and Broadway Aves. in downtown Detroit over the past decades.
“I’ve done business in Detroit for over 47 years,” Dearing, Jr. said during the rally against the “Black-Out” of Detroit July 15. “My club was at 150 W. Jefferson beginning in 1957, but I was displaced from there and forced to move to Eastern Market. What programs is our government putting together for people of color to survive in Detroit?”
TCF’S half-hearted apology bodes ill for Blacks and Detroiters
The half-hearted, arrogant apology TCF issued for Thomas’ arrest should alert Blacks, Detroiters and businesses owned by people of color, to the likelihood of future problems in dealings with TCF.
“We strongly condemn racism and discrimination of any kind,” TCF spokesman Tom Wennenberg told the Detroit Free Press..
“We take extra precautions involving large deposits and requests for cash and in this case, we were unable to validate the checks presented by Mr. Thomas and regret we could not meet his needs.”
Prominent plaintiff’s attorney Deborah Gordon with Sauntore Thomas.
“A man who tried to deposit a settlement check from a workplace racial discrimination lawsuit said he was again discriminated against for being Black, this time by the bank, who called the police on him over accusations the check was fraudulent,” Reinstein wrote.
Reinstein said Thomas told her he had just confidentially settled the lawsuit against Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Detroit and wanted to open a savings account at the TCF Livonia branch, where he had been a customer since 2018. He said he told bank employees he wanted to deposit his settlement money and withdraw some of it.
Instead, the assistant bank manager “treated him suspiciously, even asking him how he got the money in the first place,” Thomas told Reinstein. The manager said she needed to verify the checks. and Thomas said he would wait in the lobby.
“Ten minutes later, the Livonia Police show up,” Thomas recounted. He said he told the four officers, “‘This is crazy, I literally just got them from my lawyer’s office.'”
Eric Garner choked to death by NYC police
Thomas said he thought about the large numbers of Blacks killed in police encounters over past years, and did his best to stay calm in a “very stressful and unpredictable situation.”
“I didn’t give them any type of indication that I was getting upset,” he said. “I wanted to make sure I stayed as levelheaded as possible, because I wasn’t going to be the next person on the ground saying, ‘I can’t breathe.'”
Reinstein reported that Thomas’ prominent attorney Deborah Gordon spoke to the police and the bank manager, providing lawsuit documents and the bottom half of the check pay stub.
“[The assistant bank manager] basically said, ‘We can’t even prove that was your lawyer on the phone we were talking to,'” Thomas said.
“And I said, ‘OK, if you’re going to treat me like this, and I’m a customer, and I have an account. That is not right. There’s no reason why I have to do business with you at all — I have to close my account,'” Thomas told Reinstein.
TCF bank branch at 13401 Middlebelt Road, Livonia, MI 48150 called cops on Thomas.
Thomas said he closed his TCF account on the spot, then took his checks to Chase Bank, which opened an account for him with no problem. The checks cleared the next day.
Now, Thomas has filed a lawsuit against the bank, saying his “race was a factor” in how he was treated at the bank. He is asking for damages for “mental anguish” and “humiliation.”
Even after his attorney called the bank to validate the checks, the suit states, “TCF Bank subsequently filed a police report against Plaintiff for check fraud.”
The lawsuit says Thomas was humiliated by the incident and suffered mental anguish and emotional distress. He is seeking damages.
Gordon told Reinstein she believes her client was in fact discriminated against for “banking while Black.”
“This is just another classic example of what it’s like living your life as a Black male,” she said. “The checks are for real. Why was there an issue? Why could you not verify them? You’re a bank, after all — it’s your job to verify checks.”
WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday let residents of Flint, Michigan pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the city and government officials that accused them of knowingly allowing the city’s water supply to become contaminated with lead.
The justices turned away two appeals by the city and the state and local officials of a lower court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to move forward. The lower court rejected a demand for immunity by the officials, finding that they violated the residents’ right to “bodily integrity” under the U.S. Constitution by providing the tainted water after switching water sources in a cost-cutting move in 2014.
The justices’ action comes as similar class-action cases are currently on appeal at the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Flint switched its public water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River to reduce costs during a financial crisis. The corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes.
Flint water protest Oct. 12, 2015/Photo: Record-Eagle
Lead poisoning can stunt children’s cognitive development. No level of exposure is considered safe.
The city switched back to Lake Huron water the next year. The contaminated river water also triggered an outbreak of bacteria-caused Legionnaires’ disease, which killed 12 people and sickened dozens of others
DeMario Stewart of Flint said feeds his son Damonei Stewart during his two month checkup at Hurley Childrens Center. USA Today
Lawsuits over Flint’s water have proliferated in recent years. The number of people who have reported being harmed through exposure to contaminants in Flint, including lead and bacteria, or who experienced ailments such as rashes and hair loss, has reached more than 25,000, including more than 5,000 children under 12, according to court records.
The cases center on the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of due process under the law, which can protect people from government-induced harm to their personal security or health, a legal principle known as “bodily integrity.”
Courts have previously enforced the right to confront abuses of power in cases of direct physical intrusion, such as non-consensual medical procedures or forced drug administration.
Newark children had gone with parents to get free water.
The defendants argued that the lower courts have dangerously expanded that right by applying it to policy decisions that result in public exposure to environmental toxins. They also argued they are protected from the claims through a legal doctrine known as “qualified immunity” because they could not have known they could be held liable for “doing the best they could in difficult circumstances with limited information.”
The case before the justices was filed in 2016 by two Flint residents including Shari Guertin, who said that she and her child were exposed to high levels of lead.
Calling the water crisis a “government-created environmental disaster” in a 2019 ruling, the 6th Circuit green-lighted the constitutional claims and rejected immunity for the officials.
Flint residents in bitter protest at City Council meeting.
This story has been updated Jan. 17, 2020 and later Jan. 19, 2020 with an account from Nikita Landrum’s family members detailing and honoring the life of their beloved daughter and sister, and their research into her death and that of their grandchildren.
Mainstream media neglects to investigate suspicious circumstances behind death
Mother, children’s father (not married), in bitter custody dispute
Mother’s autopsy report, photos differ drastically—was forehead entrance wound actually exit wound from shot in back of head?
Shell casings scattered around scene, lack of blood spatter, no gunshot residue or fingerprints inconsistent with reports of deaths
Bay County Sheriff, Michigan State Police conducted incomplete investigations, told media outlets it was “murder-suicide” early on
By Diane Bukowski
December 20, 2019
VOD editor warning: this story contains graphic photos published with the permission of Nikita Landrum’s family.
BAY CITY, MI—Nearly tw0 years ago, on Feb. 21, 2018, Bay County workers, state sheriffs, and Michigan State Police discovered a horrific scene on the desolate, muddy grounds of a Bay County drain commission facility just outside of Bay City, Michigan in Bangor Township.
The bodies of Nikita Landrum, 31, an Oak Park resident who worked as an IT specialist at Secure 24 in Southfield, Michigan, and her toddlers Mikayla, 3 and Dariel Walker, Jr., 2, lay inside and next to Landrum’s black Lincoln, on a field near the building. According to all family sources, the young mother and her children had never been to Bay County and were not familiar with the area, 100 miles away from home.
Initial reports by police investigators on the scene made no mention that a handgun was allegedly found on the floor of the driver’s seat, but photos given to the Michigan State Police showed the gun on the driver’s seat floor next to her loose hand.
Photographs taken by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office show Ms. Landrum’s body casually draped on her back across the front seat and its divider, with her right hand casually positioned toward the floor, and a huge bloody wound in the top of her forehead.
Little Mikayla was in her car seat in back of the car, Dariel was found lying outside the rear side of the car. Both had been brutally shot in the back of the head, according to their autopsy reports.
Only one day later, media headlines from Bay City and metro Detroit to the United Kingdom and Latin America trumpeted variants of MOTHER, CHILDREN IDENTIFIED IN BANGOR TOWNSHIP DOUBLE MURDER-SUICIDE” (WXYZ-TV, Feb. 22, 2018).
Stories focused on the grief of the children’s father, Dariel Walker, Sr., who readily submitted to numerous interviews and supplied photos and videos of the children, gaining media support. Most reporters conducted no further investigation after Bay County sheriff Troy Cunningham declared the deaths to be a case of “murder-suicide,” on the day the bodies were discovered, long before autopsies and forensics reports were complete.
Reporters also initially neglected to indicate that Walker had been in a lengthy custody dispute with Ms. Landrum, to whom he was not married. Walker had been convicted in domestic violence situations involving injuries while living with Ms. Landrum in Farmington Hills, 0n Oct. 16, 2014, and on Sept. 23, 2016. Ms. Landrum’s personal notes discovered by police showed that she also suspected Walker of abusing the children while they were staying with him. She said she found bruises on them when they returned to her.
Ms. Landrum moved out of their home in Farmington Hills to Oak Park with her children after the second occasion, according to court documents and police records.
Oakland County Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted joint custody to parents despite father’s DV convictions
Oakland Co. Family Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan (r) presents award to Judge Karen McDonald.
Despite the domestic violence history, Oakland County Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted the two parents joint custody of the children in on Sept. 19, 2017, according to court records. The official Michigan Custody and Parenting Time Investigation Manual, issued by the State’s Friend of the Court, however, cites domestic abuse as the first factor to investigate in such cases.
“While reviewing the pleadings and questionnaires, the investigator should attempt to identify any indications of domestic violence as well as other issues related to the best interests of the child,” says the manual. “If there are indications (e.g., complaints for divorce, pleadings, sworn statements, personal protection orders between parties) of domestic violence, the investigator should refer to office policy on screening domestic violence cases and take the appropriate steps.”
But, despite his domestic violence-related convictions, Walker continued to file court motions to extend his visiting times with the children after winning joint custody on Sept. 19, 2017.
Ms. Landrum had just filed her response to his latest motion asking to have the children overnight on Wednesdays, a school night. A lawyer friend she was dating helped her with the motion. The hearing was set for Feb. 22, 2018, one day after the family’s bodies were found. Ms. Landrum was also pursuing a claim of indigenous heritage in an attempt to have the case moved out of Oakland County Courts, according to her mother.
Bay County Sheriff Troy Cunningham gives press conference outside death scene Feb. 21, 2018, declaring deaths of Ms. Landrum and children “murders-suicide” before investigation completed. Photo: MLive
On the Wednesday night previous to their disappearance, Walker kept the children overnight with no notification to their mother, although the court order allowing that was still pending. Ms. Landrum was terrified that Walker would eventually win full custody. Interviewed by police investigators, her c0-workers at Secure 24 said she “lived for her children” and was frightened of Dariel Walker, Sr.
Nikita’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Landrum, say they have never believed their daughter killed herself or her children. Grieving heavily, they have been conducting their own investigation since February 22, 2018, meeting with Bay County officials and others over the intervening months seeking the truth.
They have run into numerous roadblocks, first told by the Sheriff’s office that they could not see the bodies of their daughter and grandchildren because “the coroner was still conducting other autopsies in the area.” They were only shown their partially obscured faces on camera for identification purposes
Bay County Executive James Barcia
Afterwards, Bay County officials stonewalled the family’s requests for access to reports and personal effects, particularly those related to the grandchildren. Apparently the officials considered the father the children’s official surviving representative.
Ms. Landrum’s parents, siblings and supporters visited Bay County offices numerous times for months after the killings. VOD accompanied them on their last visit, when the group met with representatives of the Bay County Office of the General Counsel as well as Bay County Executive James Barcia. Barcia said he too had doubts about the discovery of the mother and children’s bodies.
The Office of the General Counsel finally provided extensive, yet incomplete documentation in response to two FOIA requests.
AUTOPSIES, POLICE/COURT RECORDS CONFLICT WITH MURDER-SUICIDE THEORY; QUESTIONABLE CERTIFICTIONS OF OFFICIALS
The Autopsy Report on Ms. Landrum was written by Dr. KanubhaI Varani, Consulting Forensic Pathologist for the Bay County Medical Examiner. In addition to the written autopsy reports on Ms. Landrum and her children, VOD received autopsy photos of Ms. Landrum, but not the children.
Varani is now the Deputy Medical Examiner for Oakland County, where Walker still lives. Walker’s sister is an Oakland County Deputy Sheriff.
Dr. Kanu Virani testifies at court hearing.
Varani previously held the Deputy Medical Examiner position in Bay County, but stepped down due to a conflict over organ donation. He obtained the well-paid Oakland County position shortly after conducting the Landrum autopsies. Otherwise, he had floated around the state on a contractual basis to other county ME offices for years. He has a state license as a medical doctor, but no state licenses related to forensic pathology.
His published curriculum vitae says also that he is “board-certified” by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology & Clinical Pathology, and Forensic Pathology. However, his name does not come up on a member search of the ABP website.
In 2018, The Tribune published an article by Brenda Battel that says the state of Michigan is seen as “living in the Stone Age” in comparison with other states’ regulation of medical examiners and forensic pathologists. A state-appointed panel is currently drafting proposals to update deficiencies including:
Lack of mandated qualification and standardized training for ME’s and medical examiner investigators (MEI’s).
No mandated death scene investigation standards, forensic autopsy standards or accreditation of forensic pathologist.
Shortage of forensic autopsy facilities and forensic pathologists.
No standardized data collection and reporting requirements.
No coordinating entity or leadership within the system to provide support, vie for funding or represent the system at the state or national level.
VOD left messages on Varani’s personal line at the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s office about evident conflicts between the written reports and photos from the Bay County autopsy. VOD has also left messages with the Bay County Medical Examiner’s office. To date, no response has been received.
Is bullet wound in forehead an exit wound, not an entrance wound?
Nikita photographed on ground outside car; flap at top of head wound is clearly seen here, appearing to have been blown out from inside head. Why was her body dragged outside to ground instead of having it lifted onto a gurney for transport to ME?
Nikita Landrum on autopsy table, with what appears to be flap from head wound severed.
Dr. Varani’s report on Ms. Landrum says she died of a “gunshot wound of the head, with 1) Contact entrance wound; forehead; 2) Perforation of skull and brain; 3) bullet recovered from occipital [rear] area of the head; 4) Mild blood aspiration.” It says the contact entrance wound was 1/2 inch in diameter.
Is the wound in Ms. Landrum’s forehead actually the exit wound, while the wound at the rear base of her skull is the entrance wound, meaning she was shot in the back of the head?
The “entrance” wound in Ms. Landrum’s forehead, is massive, ovoid in shape, with unknown dark particles mixed in with copious blood, as seen in photos from the morgue and at the crime scene. Close-ups of the wound appear to show a flap at its top, blown out from the inside.
Forensic literature on contact entrance gunshot wounds says, “In hard-contact wounds, the muzzle is pressed firmly against the body. All the muzzle emissions accompanying the bullet—the flame, the hot gases, the soot, the propellant particles, the primer residue, and metal particles—are forced into the wound. The wound appearance can vary from a small perforation with searing and blackening of the wound edges caused by the hot gases and flame, to a large, gaping stellate [star-shaped] wound, with soot visible within and around the wound and searing of the wound edges from hot gases and flame.”
A photo of the alleged “exit wound” in the occipital area (back) of Ms. Landrum’s head shows what appears to be a bullet protruding, with Dr. Virani determining that was where the bullet from the front of the head ended up. After removing that item, the examiner pulled the wound back into its original shape, a small hole more consistent with an entrance wound. (See box above). Other photos show the “entrance wound” without the top flap seen in photographs taken on the scene.
Nikita was allegedly found lying on her back, with her right hand casually draped over console, and gun on floor far from hand and head. No fingerprints found on the gun, or gunshot residue on Ms. Landrum’s hand. No blood spatter of any significance was found on car’s interior walls, seats, windows, or ceiling.
The autopsy report also states there was NO GUNSHOT RESIDUE found on Ms. Landrum’s hands. Police reports say there were no fingerprints found on the gun in the car. There are no reports linking that gun with the wounds that killed Ms. Landrum and her children, despite VOD’s FOIA requests for just such ballistics reports.
Bruises and scrapes on Nikita’s arms; photo from ME office.
Bruises on Nikita’s kneews and darkened areas on feet and ankles that could have indicated ligatures. Photos: ME’s office
Dr. Virani also failed to note evidence of scratches and apparent bruising all over Ms. Landrum’s arms and legs, and dark areas on her feet, although the shoes she was wearing would have covered any sun exposure.
Oddly, initial police and crime lab reports from the scene make no mention of the gun as part of the property collected from the crime scene. It only appears later in reports from the State Police, and in photographs allegedly taken at the time the bodies of Ms. Landrum and her children were discovered.
Gun with number 18 found (or placed) inside of car.
Narratives from the Oak Park Police Department say they visited the Oak Park home where Nikita lived with her children and a sister and brother. They say that the brother told them he had a gun and showed them the box in which the gun was kept, surprised to find that the gun, a Smith & Wesson SD 40 VE, was missing.
Some gun experts consider that model gun to be equivalent to the Glocks used in most police departments nationally. In Detroit, however, police use the 40 cal. Smith and Wesson according to national records.
There are no records of ballistic reports indicating what type of bullets were recovered from the bodies of the young mother and her children.
However, police claimed it was the same gun found on the driver’s seat floor of Ms. Landrum’s car, below her hand, almost as if the scene had been set up. The photo of Ms. Landrum in the car shows her lying casually on her back, with her head on the console in the middle of the seat, as if she had gone to sleep there. It is hard to imagine that she shot herself in the head while sitting in the driver’s seat, then peacefully laid back down, with the gun casually dropping to the floor a long ways from her hand and head.
The Crime Scene
Police reports and photos of the crime scene show up to 23 shell casings a significant distance away from Ms. Landrum’s car. (See photos below.)
Markers 1, 2, 3 for bullet casings found atrear of car.
Bullet casing 1 at scene
A shell casing normally drops from a gun at the location where the gun is fired. Ms. Landrum’s car appears to have been subjected to several rounds of fire from OUTSIDE the car, including the bullet hole found in the rear passenger door. The fact that no significant blood splatter was found inside the car, as seen in crime scene photographs, is not consistent with an assumption that Ms. Landrum killed her children inside the car, then shot herself, and laid peacefully down on the front seat afterwards.
Bullet casing 17 near water-filled ditch at driver’s side of car.
Bullet casing 23 in water-filled ditch at side of car.
While State Police reports noted the presence of the shell casings surrounding the car, no explanation was attempted before the case was declared a “murder-suicide.”
Police also found packs of food and clothing supplies in the trunk of the car, possibly indicating that Ms. Landrum was fleeing Walker in fear for the lives of her children and herself. Double sets of tire tracks at the scene show she may have been pursued by another car to the final site.
CSI photoof Nikita’s car surrounded by ditch and muddy water-filled trenches. Spent bullet casings were found surrounding the car at significant distances.
Double tire tracks leading to Ms. Landrum’s car at crime scene, not investigated.
DARIEL WALKER, SR.
Dariel Walker, Sr., the children’s father, is evidently living a pretty prosperous life, touting himself as a motivational speaker on his Facebook page, which is also replete with photos of attractive women (https://www.facebook.com/dariel.walker.3
Dariel Walker Sr. and children with unhappy faces.
He was employed at Tom Holzer Ford in Farmington Hills at the time of the murders, but according to the company is no longer working there.
Walker handled the children’s funeral arrangements and then set up a business entity called “My Little Champions, LLC” in honor of his children, on April 10, 2018. He also sponsored a GoFundMe page for the children’s funeral expenses. The program “My Little Champions” garnered extensive media coverage, but state records show that Walker has not submitted annual financial reports since the organization’s original incorporation.
Nikita Landrum’s mother says Walker called her at the time of her daughter and grandchildren’s disappearance, telling her he feared Nikita might have done something to herself and the children. She says she told him, “If anyone did anything to my daughter, it was you.”
Dariel Walker Sr. held funerals for the children at the Lomax Temple AME Zion Church on 17441 Dequindre in Detroit, on March 1, 2018.
Nikita Landrum’s parents say they are still seeking the truth and justice for their daughter and grandchildren and will not stop. They particularly want their daughter’s name cleared, after the global publicity naming her a murderer of her own children.
Donations for the Voice of Detroit are urgently needed to keep this paper, which is published pro bono, going. Among ongoing expenses are quarterly web host charges of $360 (due this month Dec. 26), costs for court documents, internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc. Please, if you can:
(VOD: this heart-rending addendum to the story of Nikita Landrum and her children has now been provided by her family members using their own research and photos showing Nikita’s stunning beauty in life.)
Nikita Landrum worked as a model.
Apparent Possibilities
Law Enforcement Agents of Bay City, Michigan State Police, And Oakland County committed a Felony when a presumption of depression was used to diagnose and assassinate Nikita.
(Numerous mainstream media reported a murder-suicide due to depression the day after the bodies of Nikita and her children were found, even providing links to sites advertising mental health assistance. Most did no further research into the Bay County Sheriff’s unfounded declaration that the deaths were a murder/suicide, except to indicate many days later that the father of Nikita’s children had been convicted of domestic violence against Nikita twice and was in a bitter custody dispute over the children.)
Her HIPPA Rights were violated; there was never a release of any records giving credence to the notion of mental depression. To hint or allow inconclusive rationalizing without basic facts shows bias.
The police case narrative presents only hearsay without any concrete proof. The Department officially closed the case without an Affidavit of Facts or Truth, which makes the whole publication defamatory. These Administrators have shown Malfeasance, and Malicious injury motives inflicted on Nikita, Mikayla, Dariel Jr., and all of Nikita’s people.
A timeline of mother and children’s last days, which refutes contention that Nikita was contemplating suicide
Wednesday 14, of February 2018: Children’s dad kept them overnight, violating the actual Administrative Order. Nikita was highly upset about this, however, a brother suggested working some of the frustration off at the gym. Nikita then called upon a friend to proof read the Motion regarding the dad’s actions.
February, Thursday 15th 2018: a legal Motion was filed at the Court and emailed to the Attorney of Dariel Walker [Sr.] Plaintiff. That evening Nikita spoke with her mother informing her something had happened. She said because they were in transit she would talk about the matter over the weekend. Mikayla and Dariel Jr. spoke joyfully over the speaker about the dessert they were to get. [The text below verifies that after the incident of Wednesday she was arranging for the next exchange with the Dad.]
Friday 16, February 2018. Early that day preparation was being made for the drop off of children. When Nikita did not show up later nor on Saturday it became a concern to all. The Law Enforcers were not called because foul play wasn’t expected. It had not been contemplated until the Dad expressed “He believed she had hurtherself and the children.”
The last known validated texts on Nikita’s phone between her and her brother Friday morning are shown in photo below. They discuss arrangements for picking up the children, which fly in the face of contentions that Nikita was planning to harm them.
Nikita’s cell phone and work laptop were found at the house, after her disappearance. Which raises the question of how she found her way to Bay City, where she had never been before. There was no known connection.
It was a work day, their clothing did not reflect how they dressed when going out.
The last known validated texts on Nikita’s phone Friday a.m, between Nikita and brother.
Nikita had moved on from the children’s dad, because of tension between them after leaving him. Others were asked and allowed to stay with the children to give aid to each other. Autochthonous women nurture all that is part of their world if given the chance.
There was a new guy in her life who had met some of her loved ones. That weekend there were to be events they planned to attend. They were engaged, he was to meet her parents in March and inform of their future plans.
The proposed Court Order was not set in stone! They were planning to address it when time allowed. Nikita was looking to have her day with a jury trial. Members of her bloodline were already asked to give testimony. Exhibits were being gathered for the trial.
There was also a Motion showing violations from the Plaintiff [Dariel Walker Sr.] Nikita Landrum told those close to her, “the case was not being handled fairly”. Yet she did not despair; other alternatives were being worked on. Which made the whole Murder/Suicide unthinkable.
Lately she had begun working more from home which was a perk, more time for the children. Her first home was being painted inside. The whole idea that she had in some way lost hope is a one-sided assumption. Which asks who implied it and why?
Nikita honored life and cherished Mikayla as well Dariel Jr. They had just begun a new learning center; Spanish was to be a new language. Nikita noticed being followed and stated it on occasions. The night before their disappearance she seemed tense at times. “He [children’s dad] was calling and chiding to cause her frustrations,” a friend stated. Nikita planned to renew the PPO against Dariel Walker, Sr. [who had two earlier domestic violence convictions related to Nikita].
Nikita listed herself as an Organ Donor, and allowed the umbilical cords of her children to be used for medical purposes, because she believed that doing this would allow others to live a better life if their organs were saved for those in need.
Nikita while breastfeeding Dariel Jr.
When she spoke of the reason for advocating, it was thought the organs wouldn’t be available until she died, hopefully of natural causes. Why were she and the children found 100 miles from home? Who would or could benefit from this happening? What made the Murder/Suicide speculation ideal and then confirmed?
Nikita’s mother: These pictures are from different periods of her metamorphosis as a woman, the first taken as a model.
The photo at right, while breastfeeding Dariel Jr. Motherhood brought a need to give more towards nurturing her children. Everyone marveled at the way she provided for them.
VOD FOUND THIS PHOTO ONLINE: Nikita Landrum clears snow off her car, parked on Thompson, to run some errands on a day off from classes Monday morning. Melanie Maxwell AnnArbor.com
Crime scene and autopsy photos do not correspond to law enforcement conclusions about the deaths of Nikita, Mikayla and Dariel Jr.
Dariel Jr. lying on his back in water and mud at crime scene; family zeroed in on larger CSI photo to find this heartbreaking image in one corner.
This picture shows Dariel Jr. lying on his back, the face is intact, no blood shows. The structure has no disfigurements. The Bay County Sheriff’s department told the world Nikita Landrum shot both children then killed herself with a 40 caliber S&W, before any investigation including autopsy reports were complete. What impact would show if that action was done to the children’s heads?
It was reported that Dariel Jr. was found right outside the vehicle. Examining photo, he is seen lying alone, where is the car? If this was a murder suicide, what purpose would there be to separate the children? The car seats had them restricted from a quick escape! Why kill them in different locations? It was stated that Dariel Jr. was shot in the back of the head. Shouldn’t there be some type of damage to the frontal head or face?
(VOD: The Bay County Sheriff and Medical Examiner denied Nikita’s family access to morgue photos of their grandchildren and to their personal effects.)
AUTOPSY FINDINGS CHILDREN
Gunshot wound of head: Entrance wound; occipital region of head [Dariel Jr.] Perforation of skull and brain, Exit gunshot wound; left side of the forehead.
Gunshot wound of head: Entrance wound; left occipital region [ Mikayla] Perforation of skull and brain, Exit gunshot wound right temple area.
Children’s car seats, where they were supposedly shot, show no blood spatter and appear to be undisturbed. No blood spatter is seen anywhere in car. CSI photo
Evident ligature mark on Nikita’s wrist in later photo.
Photo of Nikita’s other arm shows bruises.
Nikita’s swollen ankle and foot.
Nikita’s right foot, possibly broken.
Bruises on Nikita’s knees.
Close-up of knee bruise.
Why would these bruises show if Nikita shot both children and then herself? Why are her hands swollen? Photos of her in the car have the body relaxed. The pants worn were loose. People, does the body resemble what was told?
How did a woman who modeled and took extra efforts to work out, eat a certain way, end this life, punched in the face and bruised throughout her body? Why were those signs ignored by Law Enforcers, and Medical Physicians? Nikita was last seen Thursday night February 15, 2018 at the home she shared with Mikayla, Dariel Jr., a brother, and sister. Her car was viewed in the yard early Friday morning. A text message was sent from her number that asked a brother would he be able to take the children? There wasn’t any other communication from her or the children.
The right foot has a swelling with possibility of being broken. The discoloration is not Livor Mortis, when the Mortician was asked the reply “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” What happened to Nikita and why did it take Bay County Law Enforcers over 16 months to give any evidence? The bloodline had to submit an FOIA over three times. An attorney was paid to set up a meeting to view any and all findings. It never happened.
Does this photo show possible moving of the body by pulling or lifting? Nikita’s body was placed on ground as shown in photo below. Narrative states close gunshot to head, where is blood splatter from actual wound? Why is there blood shown in this manner?
Photo of back of car seat, showing bullet hole. Bullet was recovered inside. Why would bullet be at body mass when Nikita shot in head?
It had been raining for days before bodies found. Bottoms of Nikita’s pants were wet, the rest of her body dry. The bottom of her shoes are clean, while the ground outside is muddy. There were numerous shell casings found at various distances from the car, indicating someone fired a gun(s) at the car during its presence there. There is one bullet hole in the rear passenger door outside of which police reports claim grandchild Dariel Walker was found dead
Photo of Nikita’s clothing at morgue.
Clothing in morgue photo.
The clothing and shoes reflect how you would see Nikita early possibly from dozing after a full day with the children. Starting off the day Mikayla and Dariel Jr. would be getting fed and dressed.
Friday June 21 2019 we finally received some of the rest of Nikita;s items. A week later her brother Naseer Landrum was found drowned. To date there has been a refusal of total transparency.
Basic ballistics state that the entry wound is always smaller than the exit wound.
Why was this massive wound on Nikita’s head characterized in the written autopsy report as a 1/2 inch entrance wound?
Crime scene photo of Nikita’s head as her body lay suspiciously relaxed on front seat.
No blood spatter shown on front passenger seat or elsewhere in the car.
No blood spatter on passenger door or elsewhere in interior as shown in this crime scene photo. Bullet hole in rear right passenger door can be seen here.
Nikita after dragged onto ground for unexplained reason, contaminating crime scene (why was her body not placed on a gurney instead for transport to ME office?)
I, Landrum, Ms, implore you to launch an investigation at all governmental levels, because I am an American Indian by blood heritage and my ancestors helped your ancestors establish the United States, as well as its Constitution; therefore, I require and request your aid, because Congress passed House Joint Resolution 331, December 1988, which is:
“A concurrent resolution to acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution.” — 100th Congress (1987-1988)
The United States Government owes an obligation of protection and preservation to my people. My consort and progeny are what I am; therefore, I bring to your attention the following incidents:
First, my consort Landrum, L was repeatedly harassed by City of Detroit Police from August 2015, through August 2017, based on false allegations of assault made by M. MONTREUIL, which resulted in him being kidnapped twice, thrown into an alternative culture, held against his will for ransom, tried on February 13, 2017, and ultimately exonerated of all charges by a jury of 12.
Second, my daughter, Landrum, Nikita, as well as both her children were all suspiciously assassinated. Unfortunately, I have battled with intimidation, bullying, fraud, deception, collusion, harassment and conspiracy before/since their demise.
All three were found executed in Bay City, Michigan on February 20, 2018. However, despite the fact that my daughter’s body showed definite signs of a physical struggle, efforts are repeatedly made to compel me to accept her assassination as suicide.
Moreover, I have been repeatedly denied access to important evidence, reports, my daughter’s children effects – auto, and all contents (which all, by blood right belong to our clan now, because they hold sentimental significance for us all).
Third, my son Landrum, Naseer, suffered a suspicious drowning death on June 28, 2019, that is also being pushed on me as yet another doubtful suicide! We request Federal intervention, because it appears that our bloodline is being targeted for extermination, assassination, and genocide.
As an Indigenous Aborigine of America, I am invoking federal jurisdiction, using Title 42 USC Section 14141, to launch an investigation into everyone and every agency that violated the following Federal laws involving my clan: Title 18 USC Section 241; Title 18 USC Section 242; Title 18 USC Section 249; Title 25 USC Section 174; Title 25 USC Section 194
Thank you in advance for any protections you can offer, because it appears that suspicious efforts are being made to bully my clan and drive my bloodline to extinction, while labeling all these executions as suicides that I do NOT accept – especially when vital information is withheld, as well as personal property, from us by repeatedly stalling and avoiding my requests. Please help protect and preserve us before we no longer exist!
WHERE IS ALL OF NIKITA’s PROPERTY? WHY WAS SHE MADE TO ENTER INTO FAMILY COURT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAD A POLICE PROTECTION ORDER AGAINST THEM? HOW DID SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN? WHAT TYPE OF COUNTY ALLOWS WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO BE DONE IN THIS MANNER?
It was alleged that Nikita committed the murder and suicide in the car. Multiple close-range gun shots from a .40 caliber weapon should create large splatters. There are none..
The question is how did the Investigation reach its findings/opinions? Why did the media quickly give a report without substantiating or inquiring for balance? We do not Consent and Openly Object to this lack of Investigation by all involved in anyway. The only reason we have obtained what is being viewed is due to continued “Demanding, and FOIA requests.”
Addendum to the people at large: Many letters were sent seeking and demanding that Authorities answer questions. People, you are being asked to give a voice to those that have no voice. Reminisce over the many faces and names. That come over the radio, news station, internet and paper. What is told does not add up nor make sense.
Nikita, Mikayla, and Dariel Jr. meant something to “Us” because we are like you. Many are joined with us. If what you’ve read and seen gives doubt of Murder, Suicide! Affirm that the “Soulless” wicked ones shall be brought to light. Any and all who have any information do find strength to give it openly or anonymously! Wherever you are, give a measure of support, do something to secure this world by acting. Whenever “We” resonate energy together for a purpose it shall cause real Luvv [ Luminating Universal Vigilantly Victoriously]
During 2018 different government departments were sent letters, or emails because of the constant onslaughts against our People. Only the prior Attorney General William Schuette of Michigan responded, while other offices and elected Members refused to respond or act. The offices are being shown for any and all to give power, strength, and clarity for a Public Resolve. Call them, fax, or email!
We enter this document and any other validations, For Proof on the Record.
Truly,
Landrum, Ms.
cc: File, and
The Honorable Donald Trump. President of the United States
IF BLOOD ACTUALLY GOT ON DAVONTAE’S SHOE, HOW DID IT GET THERE?
Above is Channel 4 News interview by Paula Tutman with Davontae Sanford after Pros. Kym Worthy announced she would not bring charges against then DPD Commander James Tolbert for perjury in manufacturing the false case against Sanford. Tutman notes that she would have a step-by-step account from Sanford at 6 p.m. on what police did to him the night of the 4 murders for which he was wrongfully convicted, and spent almost 9 grueling years in prison. However, the 6 pm video is no longer on the WDIV website and was blanked out in an earlier VOD story on the case.
19741 Runyon St.
But, a 117-pp MSP report says a DPD evidence technician performed a gunshot residue test (negative) on Sanford at the 19741 Runyon address at 3:13 a.m. Sept. 18 (while the scene was being investigated after the murders Sept. 17 around 11:30 pm), indicating that Sanford was present at the crime scene AFTER the murders.
Victim Angelo McNorriel, seated near the front door, was shot multiple times by Vincent Smothers and an accomplice, clearly causing copious blood spray there.
According to the MSP report, then Cdr. James Tolbert, Sgt. Michael Russell, who had unofficially taken over the position of Officer in Charge, and Sgt. Dale Collinshad driven Sanford around the neighborhood for several hours after Russell encountered him in his pajamas outside the Sanford home on Beland the night of the murders, prior to Sanford’s documented presence at the crime scene. ________________________________________________________
DNA evidence debated in ongoing federal lawsuit against DPD officers Michael Russell, James Tolbert
City claims new DNA testing method shows blood of victim McNoriell on Sanford’s gym shoes; Sanford’s attys. contest validity of test
Potentially dangerous Detroit News story ignores evidence cited in MSP report that GSR was done on Sanford at the crime scene after murders
Vincent Smothers confession: “I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Davontae Sanford was not involved in the killings at 19741 Runyon Street in any way.”
By Diane Bukowski
January 12, 2020 Updated January 15, 2020
CORRECTION TO EARLIER STORY: VOD’S Jan. 12 story reported incorrectly that U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson had sealed the report on DNA evidence collected from a gym shoe alleged to belong to Davontae Sanford. However, a check of the federal court PACER website shows that Judge Lawson denied the plaintiff’s motion to seal the report on January 14, 2020.
Davontae Sanford (center) beams as his family including (l to r) young nephew, sisters, mother Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, stepfather the late Jeremaine Tilmon, and Apostle W. J. Rideout III applaud his release, at press conference June 9, 2016.
DETROIT — An inflammatory, potentially dangerous Jan. 10 story in the Detroit News, “DNA Evidence Contested in Davontae Sanford Case,” says “Blood found on 14-year-old Davontae Sanford’s shoes after a 2007 quadruple homicide was retested last month, and it matched one of the victims, Deangelo McNoriell, city attorneys claimed in recent federal court filings in a lawsuit over his disputed murder conviction.”
The News further reported that Sanford’s attorneys are contesting the methods used by a new company called Cybergenetics to test the DNA evidence, after the Michigan State Police tested it in May and found no match. Those attorneys filed a motion to seal the report but U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson denied that motion Jan. 14, after the Detroit News story was published.
The four people found murdered at 19741 Runyon on Sept. 17-18, 2007, were DeAngelo McNoriell, Michael Robinson, Nicole Chapman and Brian Dixon, whose families are still grieving their loss. Worthy has never brought charges against Vincent Smothers and his accomplice in the murders, despite Smothers’ detailed confessions. Despite the News’ characterization of Sanford’s ‘disputed conviction,’ Sanford has NO CONVICTION on the record for the murders.
Four killed on Runyon Street: (clockwise) Nicole Chapman, DeAngelo McNoriell, Michael Robinson, Brian Dixon.
Davontae Sanford, now 27, is known worldwide for his release in 2015 after nearly nine grueling years in prison due to his wrongful conviction of the Sept. 17, 2o07 homicides at 19741 Runyon St. in Detroit..
A highly detailed confession to the murders by Detroit hitman Vincent Smothers, who said Sanford was not involved, and a Michigan State Police investigation that thoroughly discredited the original charges brought by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy led to a ruling by Third Judicial Circuit Court trial judge Brian Sullivan dismissing the charges against Sanford “without prejudice” in 2015, leading to his immediate release.
In one affidavit, Smothers stated unequivocally, “On Sept. 17, 2007, Ernest (Nemo) Davis and I shot and killed four people at 19741 Runyon St. in Detroit. I had been hired by Leroy Payne to kill Michael Robinson, who lived at 19741 Runyon Street, over a drug-related dispute. Nemo and I not only killed Robinson, but three other people who were present in the living room at the time of the hit. We left two survivors in the back bedroom, a young boy who had been sleeping in bed, and a woman who had run from the living room and hid under the bed.
Vincent Smothers appears in court March 25, 2012.
“I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Davontae Sanford was not involved in the killings at 19741 Runyon Street in any way. Before my arrest by the Detroit police department in April of 2008, I had never met, spoken with or even heard of Davontae Sanford or anyone connected to him. Davontae Sanford is being wrongfully incarcerated for crimes I know he did not commit.”
But Judge Sullivan’s ruling meant that the prosecution could re-charge Sanford at any time if it wants. A full exoneration would have meant a ruling of “dismissal with prejudice,” invoking the double jeopardy prohibition.
Worthy has never brought charges against Vincent Smothers and his accomplice in the murders, despite Smothers’ detailed confessions.
She continues to contend, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that Sanford is not innocent in the case, which she still claims is under investigation. In a press conference after Sanford’s release, which was livestreamed on Detroit’s local news stations, she spoke almost exclusively about the evidence her office had used AGAINST Sanford.
His family’s initial joy at Davontae’s release was subverted months later by the murder of Sanford’s community activist stepfather Jeremaine Tilmon in 2016, while he was unarmed and holding his hands in the air, for unclear reasons. Sanford himself was shot in the leg months later in Detroit and later placed on probation in Arizona, where he had moved with his brother, on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
In a Facebook post Jan. 10, responding to the Detroit News article, Sanford’s mother Taminko Sanford-Tilmon said, “I know you all … will start harassing my family like you did for nine years! . . . Roberto Guzman who tirelessly fought [for Davontae] . . .told me this would happen because they dropped the case without prejudice and they [were] mad and embarrassed that he got out. . .We are about to start getting pulled over for nothing maybe over false evidence [planted] on us, getting probation violated for nothing, watching our house like before!”
Taminko Sanford-Tilmon is interviewed at rally for her son Davontae outside Frank Murphy Hall June 29, 2010. His young sisters and brothers surround her. VOD photo
The motion to allow the DNA test into evidence, filed by city attorneys Jan. 3 and posted on the PACER website, says in part, “On December 20, 2019, D/F/Lt Weimer informed Defense counsel and Plaintiff’s counsel that Cybergenetics had conducted its initial DNA analysis and found a victim’s, Deangelo McNoriell’s, DNA on the exterior of Plaintiff’s shoes.”
The city’s attorneys had asked that U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson deny the plaintiff’s attorneys’ motion for sanctions regarding their proposed submission of the questioned evidence.
Regarding chain of custody of the shoes, MSP Investigator Christopher Corriveau reported, “On July 21, 2009, during an evidentiary hearing on People v Sanford in 3rd Circuit Court Sgt Russell testified that he confiscated a pair of tennis shoes possibly belonging to Davontae Sanford. However, no record of the seizure of the shoes can be located in the report or in the tabulation of the search warrant. D/S gt Roti and I requested a review of the Detroit Police Department property logs. The property logs show an entry on September 19, 2007, of a pair of blue and white gym shoes by Dale Collins. The entry shows the shoes were taken from Davontae Sanford at [address blocked out].”
Justly Johnson hugs mother after his release.
Later in the MSP report, DPD Investigator Barbara Simon, who was named the Chief Investigating Officer (CIO) on the case but was muscled aside by Russell, says SHE who collected Sanford’s shoes during a search of his family home on Beland. Simon said she did not do most hands-on investigation during the case, and particularly was not told of Vincent Smothers’ confession to the Runyon Street murders.
Simon along with DPD Sgt. Catherine Adams is currently being sued by Justly Johnson and Kendrick Scott in federal court, in another case pursued by Prosecutor Worthy. They are two recently exonerated men who say the women coerced two teenagers into falsely implicating them in the Mother’s Day shooting death of Lisa Steinberg Kindred in 2000. They spent 18 years in prison, and were not released until after Worthy ultimately decided not to retry them.
IS DNA TEST MOOT?
But the DNA testing issue may be moot in light of claims the Michigan State Police made against the DPD in a 117-page report they submitted to Prosecutor Worthy just before Sanford’s release in 2015.
The most telling was a report of the Gunshot Residue Test an evidence technician conducted on Sanford in the early morning directly after the killings at 19741 Runyon.
“According to the relevant Detroit Police Department Gunshot Residue Test information sheet, a Gunshot Residue Test was conducted on Davontae Sanford on Sept. 18, 2007 at 3:13 [the night of the murders which began at 11:30 pm Sept. 17], by William Niehous at 19741 Runyon St. The subsequent laboratory analysis (Detroit Police Department Lab No. B-07o631) states the following: GSR Kit #5038 was submitted, consisting of three aluminum SEM sampling stubs labeled Right Web, Left Web, and Forehead/face. Significant amounts of lead, barium and antimony were NOT DETECTED on any of the sampling stubs from Davontae Sanford.”
Photo of gym shoe allegedly taken from Davontae Sanford, with substance city claims is blood on side of shoe.
The MSP also reported, “The Detroit Police Department ‘Witness Conveyance Consent Form’ for Davontae Sanford is dated ’09-18-07′. The written time is illegible but appears to be ’33’. The officer requesting the consent is Michael Russell and the witness signing for Davontae Sanford is Pamela Sanford, his grandmother.”
Thus, Sanford was present at the crime scene the night of the murders, afterwards, contaminating the scene and potentially contaminating himself. Whoever brought him there should have been subject to severe charges.
Citing DPD reports issued at the time of the murders, the MSP report says that both Russell and Tolbert, along with another DPD officer Dale Collins, used Tolbert’s unmarked truck to drive Sanford around the neighborhood where the killings took place for several hours, after Russell first encountered Sanford on Beland St. outside his family home.
Cdr. James Tolbert
Sgt. Michael Russell
Russell claimed they were having Sanford point out locations where people he falsely identified as involved in the murders lived. Later reports by Collins said they were having him point out alleged drug and gun houses.
Tolbert first told MSP investigators that a controversial diagram of the house and murder scene was drawn inside the truck, and later that Sanford drew it at police headquarters, before he admitted drawing it himself at headquarters.
Ironically, MSP Det. Sergeant Christopher Corriveau said he took a call from Sgt. Russell during the investigation in which Russell said that only Tolbert, not he himself, was involved in the diagram situation. Corriveau said he would testify about the call if necessary. But Russell actually signed the diagram (shown below).
Joseph Weekley
Dale Collins
Russell and Dale Collins were both featured as stars on A&E’s “First 48” website, along with DPD officer Joseph Weekley and others involved in the DPD murder of 7 year-old Aiyana Jones during a horrific SWAT-style raid on her home in 2010.
Sanford said in later interviews that police showed him photos of the victims’ bodies as they were placed in the house, before he drew them in on Tolbert’s diagram.
Tolbert’s second statement to investigators that Sanford drew the diagram led to MSP recommendations that he and Russell both be indicted for perjury, recommendations that Worthy never followed up on.
Crime scene as drawn by Tolbert, with bodies placed by Sanford after he was shown photos of the murdered victims as they lay dead in the house.
Instead, one day before the statute of limitations was up, she announced that she would not charge Tolbert due to insufficient evidence, because Sanford would not testify about the diagram himself.
Sanford vehemently denied that twice, in an interview with Paula Tutman of Channel Four, and in an interview with Kate Walls of Michigan Radio.
Walls reported, “Sanford says police start showing him pictures of the crime scene: pictures of the bodies of four people who had been gunned down earlier that night.
“Those images will live with me for the rest of my life. I will never in a million years forget – like, it was, like stories.” [Sanford]
“He says police were telling him just cooperate – then we’ll take you home. That’s when another police officer comes in, Detroit Police Commander James Tolbert.
“And Sanford says Tolbert starts drawing a sketch of the house where the crime took place – the living room where the gunmen burst in, the couches – and Tolbert asks Sanford, ‘Draw for me where the bodies fell.’
‘And um once they showed me the pictures, I drew the bodies.’ Sanford said. ‘I drew the bodies on the diagram. And once I did that, Tolbert was like, ‘See? I told ya’ll. I told ya’ll.”
Listen to full Sanford interview by Kate Walls of Michigan Radio below.
In an affidavit submitted to Sanford’s attorneys from the University of Wisconsin Innocence Project, Sanford said he himself told Sgt. Russell about the fact that he and Davis had committed the murders on Runyon St, when he saw Russell during his police interrogation on other murders.
The MSP report adds,
“Investigator’s Note: Sgt Russell documents Sanford’s height and weight on the statement form as 5’5″ and 155 lbs. Further, Cary Daily AKA “Cary”[a youth Sanford said was with him during the killings in a since discredited confession] is listed in the report as 5 ’07” in height and 140/bs in weight. Both subjects are substantially shorter in comparison to the description of the suspects provided by Jesse King and Valerie Glover.”
Apparently, Russell ignored the statements provided the night of the killings to DPD officers and in later interviews and court testimony by King and Glover.
Vincent Smothers
Ernest Davis
The MSP report says, “King stated that the two subjects left Robinson’s house approximately five to ten minutes after he heard the first round of gunfire. King described the first subject as being “5′ 11” – 6′, brown skinned, slim medium build, dark clothes something like they wear in the winter with the center out but they had it up on their heads.
“He advised the initial subject was carrying a long gun. King described the second subject as slightly shorter than the first with the same build and complexion. He advised that subject was carrying ahandgun. King stated that his storm door was open and when the subject with the long gun saw that he (King) was looking at them, the subject with the long gun fired at him. King stated that he fired back with his 9mm pistol. King stated that both subjects then walked towards the fence and he lost sight of them.”
In an MSP interview, “King indicated he did not believe that either subject was Davontae Sanford. He explained that he knew Sanford because he (King) used to volunteer at the local school where Sanford was a student. He advised Sanford was also well known in the neighborhood. . . King stated he was familiar with Sanford’s walk and neither subject that night appeared to move like Sanford.”
Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, Davontae’s mother (l) and Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Jones, killed by DPD at the age of 7 in 2010, held joint rally June 23, 2012, demanding justice for Aiyana and freedom for Davontae and Aiyana’s father Charles Jones. The Jones family recently won an $8.2 million settlement from the City of Detroit.
Valerie Glover was present in the 19741 Runyon St. house the night of the killings, but fled to a back bedroom when the killers entered, and hid under a bed where Robinson’s young son was sleeping.
The MSP report says, “Upon questioning Glover advised that the only subject she saw was the one that was in the bedroom with her. Glover described the subject as a black male, no more than thirty to thirty-thirty five years old with a soft voice. Glover further described the subject as approximately 6′ to 6″1″ tall with a slim build. She also stated that the subject had something on his face like a ‘raid mask’.”
Smothers speaks with a very soft voice, which could be mistaken for a child’s voice, but another witness interviewed by the MSP, neighbor Sonia Roi Gaskin, denied the man she saw fleeing the home was a child.
The MSP report says, “Gaskin stated she saw a tall man wearing a dark trench coat walking north along the side walk. She said that he was walking like he was carrying a weapon. . . . Gaskin also described the subject as not being heavy set nor was the subject a child. She only saw one subject and could not tell if the subject had anything covering his face. She said it was very dark out at the time of this incident.”
Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy was falsely convicted in 2004 of a murder to which VIncent Smothers confessed. Searcy is awaiting state supreme court action on his case. Many of the same players in Sanford’s case took part in Searcy’s frame-up, including PA Patrick Muscat and DPD Sgt. Dale Collins.
The Michigan State Police reported extensively on other discrepancies in Worthy’s case against Sanford, including the weapons used to kill the victims, described correctly by Smothers, but falsely by Sanders, the type of bullets found at the scene, which correlated with the weapons Smothers described, and other forensic evidence confirming Smothers’ account of events.
The report makes it clear that Sanford’s initial confession was nothing more than a fantasy concocted under pressure from the police, as well as a wish to impress them. The Detroit police also assured Sanford that he would go home as soon as he confessed.
The complete 117-page MSP investigative report is linked below this story in three sections due to its length, and also included in a link inside “The Innocence Deniers” story below.
“THE INNOCENCE DENIERS”
San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos in 2017, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in 2013, and Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro in 2014. Photo illustration by Slate.
On Jan. 10, 2018, the national online newspaper The Slate published an article by Lara Bazelon, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
It was called: “THE INNOCENCE DENIERS—When convictions are clearly wrong, these prosecutors don’t just hinder justice—they actively work against it.”
It prominently featured Wayne County Prosecutor Worthy and Davontae Sanford’s case, along with that of exoneree Lamar Monson. It featured two other prosecutors, San Bernardino County (CA) District Attorney Mike Ramos, and Orleans Parish District (LA) Attorney Leon Cannizzaro.
Bazelon wrote, “These prosecutors do not “do justice” as the Supreme Court defines it. Instead, they delay justice to an exoneree all over again, sometimes under a wildly different theory at the expense of time and resources that should be used to pursue the crime’s actual perpetrator. They may also threaten endless legal challenges to wring ‘no contest’ pleas from innocent prisoners in exchange for time-served sentences. The prisoners, desperate to be free, accept these Faustian bargains, which brand them convicts for life and allow prosecutors to proclaim their guilt and the state to deny them compensation. Some prosecutors are so committed to adhering to the original mistake that they fail to prosecute the actual perpetrators, even when there is evidence to convict them.”
Davontae Sanford, now 27, Christmas 2019 Facebook
Regarding Davontae Sanford’s case, Bazelon wrote, “Sixteen days after Sanford was sentenced, a hit man named Vincent Smothers told the police he had carried out 12 contract killings, including the four Sanford had pleaded guilty to committing. Smothers explained that he’d worked with an accomplice, Ernest Davis, and he provided a wealth of corroborating details to back up his account.
Smothers told police where they could find one of the weapons used in the murders; the gun was recovered and ballistics matched it to the crime scene. He also told the police he had used a different gun in several of the other murders, which ballistics tests confirmed. Once Smothers’ confession was corroborated, it was clear Sanford was innocent. Smothers made this point explicitly in an 2015 affidavit, emphasizing that Sanford hadn’t been involved in the crimes “in any way.”
But Smothers and Davis were never charged. Neither was Leroy Payne, the man Smothers alleged had paid him to commit the murders. (Through his attorney, Payne has denied any involvement.) Instead, Smothers pleaded guilty to the other eight killings. Davis, who was never prosecuted, was convicted of an unrelated felony in 2013 and could be released from prison as early as July. Payne, who remains a free man, left Detroit in 2016. His whereabouts are unknown.”
She writes further, “In 2015, the Michigan State Police began to re-investigate the case. One year later, the police issued a 117-page report detailing compelling evidence that Smothers and Davis were guilty; that Sanford was innocent; and that Detroit’s then deputy police chief, James Tolbert, had lied to convict Sanford. It was at that point, nine years into Sanford’s incarceration, that Worthy finally agreed to his release—but only on account of Tolbert’s misconduct. She continues to insist that Sanford is guilty, pointing to his discredited confession. The state police recommended bringing perjury charges against Tolbert [and Russell] and murder charges against Smothers and Davis. Worthy declined in all three cases.”
Below is Channel 7 News report on the exoneration of LaMarr Monson, also covered in Brazelon’s article. The name of Investigator Barbara Simon is also shown in this video.
The question becomes, when will Worthy, Detroit Police Chief James Craig, and others involved in stonewalling Sanford’s federal lawsuit with patently absurd claims that fly against the preponderance of the evidence cease their persecution of this young man, now 27 years old and trying to get on with his life?
When will the real wrongdoers in this case, including Worthy, Russell, Tolbert, Collins and others who manufactured the case against Sanford, despite Smothers’ confession and all the evidence supporting his guilt and that of Ernest Davis, be appropriately charged for their actions?
In video above, Davontae Sanford asks why Michael Russell is still on the police force. In fact, there is a movement growing across the U.S. asking that prosecutors publish “Brady lists” of law enforcement personnel implicated in issuing false reports, committing perjury, and other crimes. Under Brady v. Maryland, the prosecution is obligated to provide the records of law enforcement officials testifying at trial if they provide exculpatory evidence on behalf of the defense. In Baltimore, 800 cases are under review by the State’s attorney and may be thrown out for failure to provide such information, Kym Worthy’s office told VOD they do not keep lists of such personnel, known as ‘Brady lists.”
Above: Videos of protest in Detroit by WDIV Channel 4 and Voice of Detroit
Protesters shout: “No War on Iran” in downtown Detroit Jan. 4, 2012
By Jan Wolfe
January 4, 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Groups of protesters took to the streets in Washington and other U.S. cities on Saturday to condemn the air strike in Iraq ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Trump’s decision to send about 3,000 more troops to the Middle East.
“No justice, no peace. U.S. out of the Middle East,” hundreds of demonstrators chanted outside the White House before marching to the Trump International Hotel a few blocks away.
Similar protests were held in New York, Chicago and other cities [including Detroit]. Organizers at Code Pink, a women-led anti-war group, said protests were scheduled on Saturday in numerous U.S. cities and towns. [Later reports said over 70 cities in the U.S. held protests.]
Protesters in Washington held signs that read “No war or sanctions on Iran!” and “U.S. troops out of Iraq!”
Speakers at the Washington event included actress and activist Jane Fonda, who last year was arrested at a climate change protest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
“The younger people here should know that all of the wars fought since you were born have been fought over oil,” Fonda, 82, told the crowd, adding that “we can’t anymore lose lives and kill people and ruin an environment because of oil.”
Young speaker in Detroit emphasizes that U.S. attacks on Iran and other countries in the Middle East take place under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Palestinian speaker in Detroit says U.S. attack on Iran is an attack on all, including Palestinian people.
Detroit: Speaker calls for an end to attacks on Muslims and others of Middle Eastern descent.
“Going to a march doesn’t do a lot, but at least I can come out and say something: that I’m opposed to this stuff,” said protestor Steve Lane of Bethesda, Maryland. “And maybe if enough people do the same thing, he (Trump) will listen.”
Soleimani, regarded as the second most powerful figure in Iran, was killed in the U.S. strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport on Friday in a dramatic escalation of hostilities in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and its allies.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)
Protest in Times Square, New York City Jan. 4, 2020
Protest outside Trump Tower in Chicago Jan. 4, 2020
OUTRAGED PROTESTERS POUR INTO STREETS OF TEHRAN, ELSEWHERE, CHANTING ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’
“Revered in Iran as completely heroic figure, personally very brave, troops love him,” has been mastermind of Iranian policy in Middle East–Zakaria
U.S. airstrike kills:
Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force,
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, dep. commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which carried out storming of U.S. Embassy on New Years’ Eve, in response to earlier U.S. airstrikes in Iraq which killed dozens
IRAN VOWS ‘HARSH’ RESPONSE TO US KILLING OF TOP GENERAL
“We are waking up in a more dangerous world,” France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin.
The European Union fears a “generalized flare-up of violence.”
Russia condemns killings, and China said it is “highly concerned.”
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Zeina Karam, Associated Press Published 7:50 p.m. ET Jan. 2, 2020 | Updated 12:47 p.m. ET Jan. 3, 2020
Baghdad – Iran vowed “harsh retaliation” for a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport that killed a top Iranian general who had been the architect of its interventions across the Middle East, as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.
The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
General Qassim Soleimani, top commander, Iran’s military
The United States urged American citizens to leave Iraq “immediately” following the Friday airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport that Iran’s state TV said killed Soleimani and nine others. The State Department said the embassy in Baghdad, which was attacked by Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters earlier this week, is closed and all consular services have been suspended.
Around 5,200 American troops are based in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and help in the fight against Islamic State group militants. U.S. embassies also issued a security alert for Americans in Lebanon, Bahrain Kuwait and Nigeria.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the U.S. after the airstrike, calling Soleimani the “international face of resistance.” Khamenei declared three days of public mourning and appointed Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani’s deputy, to replace him as head of the Quds Force.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the killing a “heinous crime” and vowed h his country would “take revenge.” Iran twice summoned the Swiss envoy, the first time delivering a letter to pass onto the United States.
Thousands of worshippers in the Iranian capital Tehran took to the streets after Friday Muslim prayers to condemn the killing, waving posters of Soleimani and chanting “Death to deceitful America.”
The targeted strike, and any retaliation by Iran, could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel’s doorstep.
However, the attack may act as a deterrent for Iran and its allies to delay or restrain any potential response. Oil prices surged on news of the airstrike and markets were mixed.
The killing promised to further strain relations with Iraq’s government, which is allied with both Washington and Tehran and has been deeply worried about becoming a battleground in their rivalry. Iraqi politicians close to Iran called for the country to order U.S. forces out.
The Defense Department said it killed the 62-year-old Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It also accused Soleimani of approving the orchestrated violent protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The strike, on an access road near Baghdad’s airport, was carried out Friday by an American drone, according to a U.S. official.
Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces
Soleimani had just disembarked from a plane arriving from either Syria or Lebanon, a senior Iraqi security official said. The blast tore his body to pieces along with that of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. A senior politician said Soleimani’s body was identified by the ring he wore. Iran’s state TV said Friday 10 people were killed in the airstrike, including five Revolutionary Guard members and Soleimani’s son-in-law, whom he did not identify.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
The attack comes at the start of a year in which Trump faces both a Senate trial following his impeachment by Congress and a re-election campaign. It marks a potential turning point in the Middle East and represents a drastic change for American policy toward Iran after months of tensions.
The tensions are rooted in in Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, struck under his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Since then, Tehran shot down a U.S. military surveillance drone and seized oil tankers. The U.S. also blames Iran for other attacks targeting tankers and a September assault on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry that temporarily halved its production.
Supporters of Friday’s strike said it restored U.S. deterrence power against Iran, and Trump allies were quick to praise the action. “To the Iranian government: if you want more, you will get more,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted.
“Hope this is the first step to regime change in Tehran,” Trump’s former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, wrote in a tweet.
Others, including Democratic White House hopefuls, criticized Trump’s order. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox,” saying it could leave the U.S. “on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East.”
Trump, who is vacationing at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, said in a tweet Friday the airstrike was ordered because Soleimani was “plotting to kill” many Americans. “He should have been taken out many years ago!” Trump tweeted.
The potential for a spiraling escalation alarmed U.S. allies and rivals alike.
“We are waking up in a more dangerous world,” France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin, told RTL radio. The European Union warned against a “generalized flare-up of violence.” Russia condemned the killing, and fellow Security Council member China said it was “highly concerned.” Britain and Germany noted that Iran also bore some responsibility for escalating tensions, while Saudi Arabia urged restraint.
Ibrahim Bayram, a political analyst with Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper, said the U.S.-Iran tensions had now entered a new phase, “an open conflict with no horizon.”
While Iran’s conventional military has suffered under 40 years of American sanctions, Iran can strike asymmetrically in the region through its allied forces like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on “the resistance the world over” to avenge Soleimani’s killing. Frictions over oil shipments in the Gulf could also increase, and Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has built up a ballistic missile program.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it in a statement Friday that it had held a special session and made “appropriate decisions” on how to respond, though it didn’t reveal them.
Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett held a meeting with top security officials Friday, but the Israeli military said it was not taking any extraordinary action on its northern front, other than closing a ski resort in the Golan Heights near Lebanon and Syria as a precaution.
In the United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally in the Gulf, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, called for “rational engagement” and a “calm approach.”
Emirati political analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdullah said the U.S. strike could help restore confidence among Gulf leaders that Washington will push back against their rival Iran. But, he said, they also don’t want to be caught in the middle. “Is the region ready for a sharp escalation?” he said. “We are the closest to the theater than anyone on earth.”
The most immediate impact could be in Iraq. Funerals for al-Muhandis and the other slain Iraqis were set for Saturday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi condemned the strike as an “aggression against Iraq.” An emergency session of parliament was called for Sunday, which the deputy speaker, Hassan al-Kaabi, said would take “decisions that put an end to the U.S. presence in Iraq.”
Ordering out American forces would heavily damage Washington’s influence and make the U.S. troop presence in neighboring Syria more tenuous. But Iraq’s leadership is likely to be divided over such a step. President Barham Salih called for “the voice of reason and wisdom to dominate, keeping in mind Iraq’s greater interests.”
Iraq has been gripped by massive anti-government protests since Octo October, partly against Iran’s influence. But there was little celebration of Soleimani’s death among protesters camped out in a central Baghdad square.
“America and Iran should solve their problems outside Iraq,” said one protester, who asked not to be named for security concerns.
For Iran, the killing marks the loss of a cultural icon who stood for national pride and resilience in the face of U.S. sanctions. Soleimani’s profile rose sharply as the U.S. and Israel blamed him for Iranian proxy attacks abroad.
As the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Soleimani led all of its expeditionary forces and frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Quds Force members have deployed in Syria’s war to support President Bashar Assad, as well as in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.
Soleimani rose to even greater prominence by advising forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria.
U.S. officials say the Guard under Soleimani taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use deadly roadside bombs against U.S. troops after the invasion of Iraq. Iran has denied that.
On Sunday, U.S. airstrikes killed 25 fighters from an Iranian-backed militia in retaliation for the killing of a U.S. contractor at an American base in a rocket attack the previous week. The strikes prompted two days of protests orchestrated by the militias at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where their supporters breached the compound and set fires, though no one was wounded.
Karam reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Zeke Miller in Washington; Jon Gambrell and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Bassem Mroue and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut; and Joseph Krauss and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Detroit, MI—Detroit has many things going for it, not in the least the recent effort to upgrade its infrastructure for community welfare. Redeem Detroit, an established non-profit organization that works with teen parents, senior citizens and veterans, has partnered with Martin Evers Missionary Baptist Church, My Safe Haven, and other community stakeholders to renovate three buildings owned by the church on the same block to target each of their demographics.
To fund the initiative, a TELETHON will take place on Sat. December 28, 2019 from 10am to 9pm at Martin Evers MBC located at 11111 Whittier Avenue. The event will be hosted by Monique Owens, who just made history this year as the first Black Mayor of Eastpointe, a sister city of Detroit’s east side. In attendance will be many judges, politicians and local celebrities.
One building will be dedicated to young mothers and their children, ages 0-3, one building will be dedicated to senior citizens, and the other building will be dedicated to veterans.
The projects are:
Project NOAH Baby Tech Center (for young mothers)
ARK Senior Center (for senior citizens)
Veterans of Detroit Resource Center (VDRC)(for veterans).
Says Rev. Alonzo Bell, Executive Director at Redeem Detroit, “The entire Bible is about second chances and redemption. So if you believe in the principles of God, then you should believe in Redeem Detroit, because the only way for Detroit to have better schools, better neighborhoods and better government is through redemption.”
(VOD has added photos, videos to original Counterpunch article.)
“Hoffa symbolizes a political economy long gone, an era when a union leader could strike fear and loathing in the hearts of senators and presidents, when the old industrial working class, millions strong and capable of bringing the economy to its knees if it so desired, was still the foundation of the social order.”
“While he recognized the value and necessity of having a welfare state, at bottom he thought the working class had to take care of itself, do whatever was necessary to survive, and constantly fight against a hostile world.”
Jimmy Hoffa used to say he’d be forgotten ten years after his death. This was an uncharacteristically unintelligent judgment. Forty-four years after his murder on July 30, 1975, Hoffa is still famous enough that one of the most celebrated movies of the year is about the man who claims to have killed him, Frank Sheeran.
“The Irishman,” movie by Netflix, about mob hitman Frank Sheeran, tangentially about Jimmy Hoofa
Called The Irishman, the film, directed by Martin Scorsese, stars Robert De Niro as Sheeran, Al Pacino as Hoffa, and Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino, the Mob boss who approved the killing. For a labor leader, such a level of fame is not only extraordinary; it is unique.[1]
Of course, the reasons for Hoffa’s fame are not entirely to his credit. He is seen as the dictatorial and corrupt union leader who was close friends with gangsters and allied his union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), with the Mafia. Bobby Kennedy went after him for years, starting with the famous McClellan Committee hearings of 1957–59 (for which Kennedy was the chief counsel), and finally got him convicted in 1964 on charges of jury tampering and fraud, for improper use of the Teamsters’ pension fund. His appeals having failed, Hoffa went to prison in 1967, but was released in 1971 when Richard Nixon commuted his sentence. As described in Charles Brandt’s bestseller I Heard You Paint Houses, on which Scorsese’s movie is based, Hoffa’s subsequent campaign to regain the presidency of the Teamsters was sufficiently threatening to the Mafia that they had him killed.
The Irishman focuses on this seedier side of Hoffa’s life, thus perpetuating the image of a wholly amoral and self-serving criminal with which the McClellan hearings made Hoffa’s name synonymous. Most articles published in popular media, such as Steve Early’s recent piece “The Ghost of Jimmy Hoffa Won’t Go Away,” express a similarly one-sided view. The truth is that Hoffa’s Mob connections were hardly the defining feature of his life. Rather, he deserves to be known, in large part, as the preternaturally effective and hard-working—20-hour days six days a week—leader of what was then the largest union in American history, responsible for raising millions of truck drivers, warehousemen, laundry workers, retail clerks, and others into the middle class.
Hoffa was a devoted civil rights activist as well; here he is seen in 1965 at the funeral for Viola Liuzzo, murdered by the KKK/FBI during the voting rights battles in the South. Liuzzo’s husband was a Teamsters leader as well. Hoffa is seated in second row 2nd from right. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the second man to Hoffa’s right in that row. The funeral was held at Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Detroit (where VOD editor Bukowski went to grade school.)
With the possible exception of John L. Lewis, no twentieth-century union leader was as beloved by the members as Hoffa. He made it a point to be approachable and endlessly responsive: in speeches, for example, he regularly gave out his office phone number and insisted that members call him at any hour of the day or night if they had problems. The contracts he secured were remarkably generous—and yet, ironically, even employers profoundly admired him, considering him a master negotiator, a “genius,” more knowledgeable about the trucking industry than anyone, all in all “a great statesman” who was scrupulously honest and realistic in bargaining.
Civil rights hero Viola Liuzzo, murdered in 1965; Jimmy Hoffa marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the south as well.
Indeed, the fundamental reason for the perennial fascination with Jimmy Hoffa may be not so much his ties to the Mafia as his sheer power and success. No other industry was more critical to the nation’s economy than trucking, and Hoffa did more than anyone to rationalize and stabilize conditions in this chaotic, competitive industry (a service for which employers were grateful). Bobby Kennedy may have exaggerated when he said Hoffa was the second most powerful man in the country, but he certainly did have a degree of power unimaginable for a union official in the twenty-first century.
And that’s what’s so interesting about him: Hoffa symbolizes a political economy long gone, an era when a union leader could strike fear and loathing in the hearts of senators and presidents, when the old industrial working class, millions strong and capable of bringing the economy to its knees if it so desired, was still the foundation of the social order. Certain sectors of the working class were even defiantly independent of the corporate-liberal “consensus” of the Cold War establishment, having carved out their own self-policed political economy with the help of organized crime, informal deals, and a willingness to meet violence with violence. The Teamsters epitomized this independent working class, and Hoffa epitomized the Teamsters.
Jimmy Hoffa with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It was the aesthetic, so to speak, of the Teamsters and their form of unionism to which Bobby Kennedy and other “corporate liberals” objected (together with “socially responsible” unionists like Walter Reuther of the United Autoworkers).
As historian Thaddeus Russell argues, “the confrontation [between Kennedy and Hoffa] represented a cultural conflict between the rising, respectable professional class of the prosperous postwar years and the uncultured, unassimilated, and unruly industrial working class of the Depression.” To have such an untamed and independent social force right at the heart of society—in the age of triumphant liberalism—was an embarrassment.
That working class is dead now. But in its heyday, it was one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
The Rise of Jimmy Hoffa
Years later, Hoffa formulated the moral philosophy he had imbibed from his early days in Indiana and Detroit:
“Every day of the average individual is a matter of survival. If by chance he should go from home to work and have an accident, lose an arm or an eye, he’s just like an animal wounded in the jungle. He’s out. Life isn’t easy. Life is a jungle… Ethics is a matter of individualism. What may be ethical to you may be unethical to someone else… But my ethics are very simple. Live and let live, and those who try to destroy you, make it your business to see that they don’t and that they have problems.”
It was in Detroit in the Depression years that Hoffa learned the law of the jungle. As a dock loader at Kroger’s warehouse, Hoffa led a strike against the sadistic foreman, which resulted in a temporary agreement with the company that improved conditions and pay. When he was fired a couple of years later, in 1935, for dropping a crate of vegetables on the loading dock, he was immediately hired by a Teamsters official to be an organizer (or “business agent”) with Local 299. He was only 21, but with his boundless energy and intelligence, he proved effective.
Across much of the country, the IBT was beginning a sustained offensive in these years. In 1934 its members played a decisive role in two successful general strikes: one in San Francisco, where they joined the longshoremen’s union to shut down the city, and one in Minneapolis, where the Trotskyists in charge of Local 574 led a strike that elicited shocking violence from the police and thugs hired by employers. The Teamsters’ almost total victory in this strike, leading to the unionization of thousands of “unskilled” workers, began its transformation from a small conservative craft organization to a national industrial union encompassing over two million members.
The more politically conservative Detroit Teamsters were, in their own way, just as militant as the Trotskyists in Minneapolis. To organize the increasingly numerous—and abysmally paid—intercity freight drivers, Local 299’s organizers favored a strategy much simpler than signing up workers and petitioning for elections that would be overseen by the newly established National Labor Relations Board. Instead, they approached an employer: “either enroll your workers with the union or we’ll bomb your trucks.” If he refused, they bombed his trucks. And sometimes his home. In a violent, lawless city, this strategy worked well. (They had likely learned it, in fact, from having their own cars bombed by “hired thugs.”) Combined with frequent strikes and strike threats, such intimidation resulted in an influx of new members into the local and steadily rising wages.
Hoffa and his several union colleagues didn’t limit themselves to organizing drivers; anyone who worked on a loading platform was fair game too. “We’d go out,” Hoffa later recalled, “hit the docks, talk to drivers, put up picket lines, conduct strikes, hold meetings day and night, convince people to join the union.” It was treacherous work: “My scalp was laid open sufficiently wide to require stitches no less than six times during the first year I was business agent of Local 299. I was beaten up by cops or strikebreakers at least two dozen times that year.” During one strike he was jailed eighteen times within a 24-hour period, since he kept returning to the picket line after being released. In these years he also had a list of arrests “that’s maybe as long as your arm” for fighting with strikebreakers, hired thugs, and members of rival unions who were trying to organize the same workers the Teamsters were.
Farrell Dobbs, a leader of the Teamsters 1934 Minneapolis strike
In 1938 two developments occurred that would later facilitate Hoffa’s centralized control over the entire union. First, Dave Beck, an organizer from Seattle (who went on to become president of the IBT in 1952), formed the Western Conference of Teamsters, an administrative body covering the eleven western states and British Columbia. Such a higher-level body was necessary for coordinating organizing and bargaining in a fragmented industry that had thousands of small employers and hundreds of local Teamster unions. That very year, two thousand employers in the eleven states signed an agreement to bring higher wages to intercity (“over-the-road”) drivers.
Around the same time, Farrell Dobbs was achieving a similar ambition in the Midwest. One of the Trotskyists who had led the 1934 Minneapolis strike, Dobbs realized it was inefficient and mutually damaging for locals to separately negotiate different wage scales for their own over-the-road drivers. So he and his comrades, with the cooperation of the IBT leadership, created the Central States Drivers Council (CSDC) to bargain for all unionized over-the-road drivers in the twelve Midwestern states.
To force reluctant—and widely scattered—employers to come to the bargaining table, Dobbs gave them the kind of ultimatum that Hoffa used to great effect in later years: all firms with lines ending or beginning in Chicago (which meant most firms in the Midwest) would have to negotiate an areawide contract or face a devastating strike. They quickly complied, and over two weeks they and the CSDC hammered out the most ambitious and important contract the IBT had ever negotiated. Establishing uniform minimum wages, maximum hours, seniority rights, safety guarantees, a grievance committee, and a closed shop (all drivers had to belong to the Teamsters), the contract covered 125,000 workers at 1,700 companies. Continue reading →
Above: Channel 7 coverage of attorney Nabih Ayad’s disclosure that Detroit cop Darrel Fitzgerald’s deposition showed Terrance Kellom had no hammer
Blue wall of silence stands: Fitzgerald reverses testimony third time during civil trial, claims he did not see Kellom with OR without a hammer, did see hammer in house after he left and returned
Most of civil trial proceedings held through motions ‘in limine’ held in Judge Sean Cox’s chambers out of public view
By Diane Bukowski
December 3, 2019
REVISED FROM DEC. 2 STORY AFTER VOD REVIEWED FITZGERALD’S TESTIMONY AT COURTHOUSE, ONLY MEANS ALLOWED BY JUDGE COX
Terrance Kellom, 19, with baby son. He was expecting the imminent birth of his daughter. Facebook
DETROIT — The news that a federal civil jury rendered a verdict of “no cause” Nov. 4 after deliberating for three hours, on a lawsuit against the 2015 death of 19-year-old Detroit dad Terrance Kellom at the hands of I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn and a police task force, has devastated his family and shocked many community members.
“Y’all took my son away from me, his kids, and our family!” his father Kevin Kellom commented on his Facebook page. “Y’all then lied on him in court, and a biased judge allowed y’all to get away with murdering my son in me and my daughter (Teria Kellom)’s face. I want y’all to understand, justice will be served, by hook or crook, you still have to deal with karma and there is no biased judge or jury in her courtroom. Everybody has to answer to God!!”
The family’s attorney Nabih Ayad said he plans to appeal the case.
A “Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team” (D-FAT) stormed Kellom’s home without a search warrant to arrest his son Terrance on an outstanding armed robbery warrant April 27, 2015. The police had seen both Kelloms outside just prior to the home invasion and could have enforced the warrant in public view.
Freddie Gray during his arrest.
Former Detroit police officer Mitchell Quinn, deputized as a federal I.C.E. agent, and possibly other Detroit officers, unexpectedly opened fire on an unarmed Kellom in a living room hallway, killing him with at least four gunshots, as he cried out, “Dad, Dad!,” according to family eyewitnesses.
In the next days, masses of “Black Lives Matters” protesters occupied Evergreen outside the family home and marched down Joy Road. Simultaneously, Baltimore was in chaos, even forced to cancel a Major League game, as protesters rose up for days against the police killing of Freddie Gray.
Contradicting the family’s version, police and later Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy claimed Kellom was wielding a hammer, swinging it over his head as he ran at Quinn.
However, In her press conference, held months after the killing, Worthy admitted that no fingerprints were found on the hammer. Earlier, she sealed the Medical Examiner’s report on Kellom’s death from public view until the press conference. That report showed that Kellom had indeed been shot in the back, likely as he was lying on the floor because the bullet did not exit his chest. Worthy claimed the bullet hole resulted from Kellom “turning slightly to the right.”
Pros. Kym Worthy press conference on Kellom killing.
Kellom family supporters had been expecting that Detroit Police Sgt. Darrel Fitzgerald would testify that Kellom was NOT armed with a hammer as Fitzgerald said in his sworn deposition taken by plaintiff’s attorney Nabih Ayad. Fitzgerald earlier wrote directly after the killing that Kellom was “holding a hammer over his head and advancing on Quinn” when he was gunned down.
The mainstream media covered Ayad’s announcement of Fitzgerald’s recantation extensively and internationally. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said they would re-open their investigations into the case.
But Fitzgerald reversed his testimony during the trial a THIRD time, swearing Oct. 24 that he did not see Kellom at all, either with or without a hammer, as he was shot to death.
Fitzgerald, the Detroit officer in charge of Kellom’s outstanding armed robbery warrant, said Agent Quinn and Kevin Kellom began running upstairs after Fitzgerald heard an officer there shout, “Put the hammer down, I’m not going to shoot you.”
In the ensuing chaos, he testified, gunshots rang out in the first floor hallway, but he could not see Terrance Kellom AT ALL during the confrontation, despite standing directly nearby.
Fitzgerald also reversed his sworn deposition testimony that he saw no hammer in the house at all. He claimed instead that he left the house shortly after the shooting, and saw a hammer when he came back. Forensics testing showed that hammer had no fingerprints on it.
His testimony is currently only available by viewing it on the U.S. Federal Courthouse terminal directly, with no copies allowed by Cox until Jan. 29, 2020.
Matthew Schneider of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit issued the following release on the federal jury verdict, headlined “Federal Agent Cleared of Wrongdoing in Death of Fugitive:”
“After a two-week trial, an eight-member jury found defendant Mitchell Quinn, deputized at the time as a U.S. Marshals task force officer, did not violate the constitutional rights of Terrance Kellom, a felon who was wanted on an arrest warrant for armed robbery, among other offenses. The jury deliberated less than three hours before returning their verdict of no cause.
“According to the evidence presented at trial, agent Quinn acted in self-defense when Terrence Kellom attacked him with a hammer during the attempted arrest of Mr. Kellom on April 27, 2015.”
In addition to the serious setback represented by officer Fitzgerald’s reversal of his deposition testimony, VOD’s research of court documents shows that U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox used his gavel to hammer most of the plaintiff’s evidence and arguments out of the trial, preventing the jury from ever hearing them. He held numerous in limine (non-public) hearings, then issued an order Sept. 4, 2019 upholding most of the defendant United States of America’s arguments. See 31 page protective order at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Cox-order-Kellom-case-pages-deleted.pdf.
Cox ruled that “plaintiffs “may not present evidence or make assertions regarding the adequacy of the criminal investigations.” He referred to reports and conclusions by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, the State Police, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In other words, their conclusions of “justifiable homicide” remained intact and admissible.
In addition, Judge Cox wielded a heavy hammer against Attorney Ayad and Kevin Kellom in response to Ayad’s disclosure of the plaintiff’s own sworn deposition of Officer Fitzgerald.
Judge Cox ruled that Ayad had violated an April 23, 2018 “Stipulated Protective Order” and ordered him to pay $2,220 to Quinn’s attorneys.
A story by Detroit News reporter George Hunter called the original order a “gag order,” which “barred anyone involved in the lawsuit from discussing the case.” Hunter said both plaintiffs and defense had agreed to that order.
The actual order, however, falls far short of Hunter’s description.
The filing opens with the following wording, “This Protective Order shall govern the production and disclosure of any documents, electronically stored information, materials, things, discovery material (including responses to interrogatories, depositions, and requests to admit), materials filed with the Court, or testimony in this action.”
But it goes on to state without reservation, “This order permits Officer Mitchell Quinn and the pertinent federal agencies, such as the United States Department of Homeland Security, its Office of Inspector General, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the United States Marshals Service, and other agencies, to disclose information regarding Terrence Kellom and Officer Quinn.”
Regarding Kellom’s family and their attorneys, the order says, “Plaintiff, her counsel, and other parties shall not disclose any of the records or information to any person unless the disclosure is reasonably and in good faith calculated to aid in the preparation and/or prosecution of this case. Such records shall be maintained in strict confidence by all parties. Plaintiff, her counsel, and all parties are prohibited from copying such records or disclosing or discussing their contents, except as is necessary for purposes of this litigation.”
In fact, Ayad did not provide actual copies of Fitzgerald’s deposition during his press conferences regarding Fitzgerald’s disclosure that Terrance Kellom did not have a hammer and that he did not see any hammer in the house. This reporter tried to find a copy of the actual deposition in on-line court documents, but was unable to do so.
Protest after brutal killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO
It is certainly arguable that the public had a right to know about Fitzgerald’s disclosure of events he witnessed on April 27, 2015, in the midst of the national “Black Lives Matter” movement. The Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team killed Kellom just after Baltimore police killed Freddie Gray, an event that led to widespread uprisings throughout Baltimore and the nation. Those uprisings followed numerous others that began with the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Virtually no law enforcement agents have been indicted, charged or sentenced for any of the hundreds of murders.
Even the U.S. Department of Justice, which is playing a heavy-handed role in the Kellom case, refused to find civil rights violations in most of those cases.
The remainder of the order comes perilously close to concealing court records from public view in violation of both state and federal laws, just as Judge Cox is concealing the transcripts of Officer Fitzgerald’s testimony at the trial.
Baltimore Councilwoman Shannon Sneed announces the passage of bill banning gag orders, accompanied by Council Pres. Brandon Scott (l) and activist Tawanda Jones (r).
There is a movement against gag orders, particularly in police brutality cases, growing across the nation.
According to WYPR 88.1 FM radio, “The Baltimore City Council passed a bill Oct. 27 that bans the use of gag orders in the settlements of all police brutality and discrimination cases and bolsters transparency throughout the city’s litigation system.”
“The bill, titled Transparency and Oversight in Claims and Litigation, was introduced by Councilwoman Shannon Sneed and City Council President Brandon Scott in July. Dozens of city residents testified before the council in a September hearing about their experiences with gag orders in lawsuit settlements, calling them “hush money” and “abusive.”
“Tawanda Jones, an activist whose brother was murdered by police six years ago, called the bill a huge victory.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” Jones said. “I had to take my name off of my brother’s settlement because I refused to be silent. At the end of the day, forced silence condones police violence.”
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in 2017 said, “Communications service providers are constantly faced with demands to turn over their customer’s records to law enforcement. But Microsoft found that when it was served with these demands, they were all too often accompanied by gag orders with no ending date, forbidding them to talk about the demand or tell their customer that their records were involved. So the tech giant decided last year to sue the government over those gag orders in federal court in Seattle, and in February, it overcame the first hurdle by beating back the government’s effort to have that part of the case dismissed.\
Brother C.J. Airs Video for Aiyana Jones, 7, killed by cops
Yana world cj – letter to aiyana
(Official Video)
Shot by @Dodbh
The video above was released by Aiyana Stanley-Jones’ younger brother Christian Jones, who was in the house as a toddler when a Detroit police task force shot his sister, aged 7, to death May 16, 2010, as she lay sleeping with her grandmother Mertilla Jones.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office relented somewhat in Jones’ case with a civil settlement and reduction of Aiyana’s father’s sentence, but Prosecutor Kym Worthy worked hard to defeat civil lawsuit Nov. 4 for unarmed Terrence Kellom, 19, killed by police DPD/I.C.E. task force in 2015.
Aiyana Jones and little brother light Christmas tree before her vicious murder in 2010
November 21, 2019
Editorial
By Diane Bukowski
Detroit--News aired today over all stations that Detroit police officer Rasheen McClain was killed after entering a Detroit home where a yet unidentified man allegedly had threatened members of a family with a high-speed rifle. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Police Chief James Craig were there afterwards, along with hundreds of police standing vigil at Sinai-Grace Hospital. If the alleged killer is charged and convicted, his life will likely end in prison.
In contrast, after a Detroit police SWAT team led by an armored truck and police in military gear with machine guns shot 7-year-old Aiyana Jones in the head to death May 16, 2010, her large family and neighbors held an agonized vigil outside her home. They called on then Mayor Dave Bing and Police Chief Warren Evans to speak to them. The two never came to that vigil. They never apologized to the family for the horrific raid, during which Officer Joseph Weekley, Jr. fired his gun within seconds after kicking the door down, directly into the child’s head, possibly at contact range according to Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt.
The other day, I visited with Mertilla “Maria” Jones, Aiyana’s grandmother, who was sleeping with her during her vicious murder by police. Mrs. Jonese is still grieving and in poor health. She told me that after nearly ten years she still has flashbacks of watching her beloved grandchild’s head blown off by Weekley’s MP-5 automatic submachine gun. Members of the police team then snatched up Aiyana and ran with her out of the house before the family had any chance to touch and console her as she lay dying. Aiyana was the oldest child of Charles Jones, who with her mother Dominika Stanley and two toddler brothers were all in the home at the time. Also present were Mertilla Jones’ sister and two male relatives.
Killer cop Joseph Weekley as star on previous A&E DETROIT SWAT website.
The police forced Charles Jones to crawl out of a back bedroom, where he was sleeping with Aiyana’s mother Dominika and their two toddlers, over blood-stained glass and pieces of Aiyana’s brain, then forced him and the other occupants to sit on the blood-stained couch where Aiyana died.
After several mistrials for “manslaughter,” Weekley walked out a free man while Aiyana’s dad Charles Jones was falsely charged in the murder of Je’Rean Blake, 17, two days earlier outside a neighborhood liquor store. Despite the mainstream media’s constant assertion that Charles gave his brother–in-law Chauncey Owens the gun to kill Blake, a police video at the trial of the two men showed Chauncey naming another individual who provided the gun, not Charles.
Charles was finally re-sentenced to a charge of manslaughter, reduced from second-degree murder, to run concurrently with a 10-year sentence for perjury. He will face the parole board finally in 2021, and his attorney has pledged to be there to support him. Charles had been expecting to serve 40-60 years. He pled “nolo contendere” to the charges, meaning he would be shielded from civil liability. The action came as a result of appeals by his attorney, not as a “gift” from Prosecutor Kym Worthy, known nationally as an “Innocence Denier” due to her refusal to admit that 14-year-old Davontae Sanford was innocent of the four Runyon Street murders
Video below: community asks where Police Chief and Mayor are the night after Aiyana’s death, during a candlelight vigil.
Meanwhile, Ms. Jones told me, her family has flourished, with her own eight children producing 50 grand and great-grandchildren. Aiyana’s brother Christian Jones, known as C.J., recently released the militant video at the top of the story about his older sister’s death and his continuing grief and longing for her. He was accompanied by some of Aiyana’s other relatives at her gravesite.
Wayne County Prosecutor and the City of Detroit, after viciously pursuing the victim’s family, constantly harassing and arresting her aunts and uncles for many years aferwards, finally relented to some degree, approving an $8.2 million lawsuit settlement in her death, filed by Attorney Geoffrey Fieger. In the video, Christian vows to use the money to assist others. It is published on his Facebook page, yanaworldcj.
As the House opens impeachment hearings for President Trump, Professor Stephen F. Cohen (above) warns that the US military assistance at the heart of Ukrainegate escalates the US-Russia Cold War.
Guest: Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, contributing editor at The Nation, and author of War with Russia: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate.
TRANSCRIPT
AARON MATÉ: Welcome to Pushback. I’m Aaron Maté, here with Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies at Princeton and NYU, author of the book, War With Russia?, question mark, From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate. Welcome, Professor Cohen.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Good to be with you again. Thank you.
AARON MATÉ: So, let’s talk Ukrainegate, dominating the news right now. At the center of this impeachment drive against Trump is that he briefly froze military aid to Ukraine and the belief there is he did so for political purposes. Putting that question aside, what has gotten lost in all this is the question of why are we sending military aid to Ukraine, and is that wise policy? The conventional line we get is that we are helping defend Ukraine from Russian aggression after Russia invaded Ukraine, took Crimea illegally in 2014, and we are helping Ukraine respond to that and to help support Ukraine in its fight against Russian separatists in the Donbass. What say you to that?
Pres. Barack Obama
U.S. Pres. Donald Trump
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Well, the first thing to remember is, is that President Obama was under enormous pressure to send military equipment to Ukraine. I don’t know if you remember that or not, but it was a major campaign and it was led, as I recall, by people very close to him, and he refused. And why did he refuse? Well, I’m not sure what his calculation was, but the, the wisdom of not sending is clear.
First of all, what everybody must want is peace between Russia and Ukraine. So why would you pour more weapons, why would you tempt one Ukrainian—now the leadership of Ukraine has changed—but why would you tempt one or another Ukrainian leadership to broaden the war, where you want above all to bring peace? Correct? Secondly, in whose hands eventually do such weapons fall? I mean, there’s no guarantee in a place like Ukraine, that the Ukrainian army, which is involved in the black market in a big way, those weapons could go anywhere.
But ultimately you have a situation now which seems not to be widely understood, that the new president of Ukraine, Zelensky, ran as a peace candidate. This is a bit of a stretch and maybe it doesn’t mean a whole lot to your generation, but he ran a kind of George McGovern campaign. The difference was McGovern got wiped out and Zelensky won by, I think, 71, 72 percent. He won an enormous mandate to make peace.
Vlodomyr Zelensky
Vladimir Putin
So, that means he has to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. And there are various formats, right? There’s a so-called Minsk format which involves the German and the French; there’s a bilateral directly with Putin. But his willingness—and this is what’s important and not well reported here—his willingness to deal directly with Putin, which his predecessor, Poroshenko, was not or couldn’t or whatever reason—actually required considerable boldness on Zelensky[‘s part], because there are opponents of this in Ukraine and they are armed. Some people say they’re fascists but they’re certainly ultra-nationalist, and they have said that they will remove and kill Zelensky if he continues along this line of negotiating with Putin.
So now along comes Trump, right? So, Trump makes a wrongheaded phone call to Zelensky, about Biden and information. It was the wrong thing to do, no two ways of looking at that. But the more important thing is, and that’s why I’d like to see the full transcript of the…we’ve only been given a partial so far as I know. I want to know if Trump encouraged Zelensky to continue the negotiation with Putin, and here’s why. Zelensky cannot go forward as I’ve explained. I mean, his life is being threatened literally by a quasi-fascist movement in Ukraine, he can’t go forward with full peace negotiations with Russia, with Putin, unless America has his back. Maybe that won’t be enough, but unless the White House encourages this diplomacy, Zelensky has no chance of negotiating an end to the war, so the stakes are enormously high.
Why are U.S. weapons going to Ukraine?
All this stuff about Biden, it’s bad but it’s a distraction. It’s not what we should be focusing on. We should not be shipping more weapons there. What we should be doing, and certainly what, given Trump’s inclination to be a dealmaker and like a semi-peace candidate—but you wonder if there’s anybody around him to explain these things to him—but this is an opportunity for Trump to do the right thing and do it clean, to say to Zelensky, “I support this negotiation with Putin. I hope that you and Putin can settle your conflicts.” If the Germans and the French, because there was this so-called Minsk format that involved them, need to be brought in, okay, but Europe’s pretty much lost interest in this and there’s no leader.
I mean, what makes the moment interesting, stop and think about it a minute, Aaron, is there’s no kind of—what’s the right word?—there’s no transformative or decisive type of leadership in Europe. I mean, because these countries have their own leader[s]. Merkel’s on her way out. We don’t know what will be the next leader. Boris Johnson is, well, Boris Johnson. Macron is attempting to fill the role. He wants to be the leader of the West in a relationship with Russia. He’s trying to…it’s very interesting what he’s doing because he’s trying to replicate what de Gaulle did. De Gaulle wanted France to be the diplomatic bridge between east and west. Let him try, but there’s, there’s a moment, I mean, I, all my life I, I have a book called Lost Opportunities, Soviet Alternatives and Lost Opportunities [Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives]. There’s, there were moments in history, political history, when there’s an opportunity that is so good and wise and so often lost, the chance. So, the chance for Zelensky, the new president who had this very large victory, 70 plus percent to negotiate with Russia an end to that war, it’s got to be seized. And it requires the United States, basically, simply saying to Zelensky, “Go for it, we’ve got your back.”
The “military-industrial complex,” a term coined by former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
AARON MATÉ: Well, let’s talk about the forces in Washington that do not share that point of view, that do not want to encourage a peace process between Russia and Ukraine. You know, you mentioned Trump, when Trump met with Zelensky, Trump did say that he encourages Zelensky to make a deal with Putin and he thinks that would be a good thing. But that is not an opinion shared in, in Washington.
Talk about the people who in DC, who helped bring us this crisis to begin with, the same ones who were pressuring Obama to send a lethal aid…
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Let me sit in your chair a moment. I mean, just theoretically, what could…what imaginable reason could anybody in Washington have for not wanting to see peace between Ukraine and Russia?
AARON MATÉ: You know, I have my theories. The influence of the military-industrial complex. It’s profitable to have tensions with Russia. There was an attempt in Ukraine, obviously, you know, at, with the Maidan crisis, the, which began all this, to wrestle…
STEPHEN F. COHEN: In 2013, 2014.
AARON MATÉ: Yeah, which is when the US helped—including Joe Biden—helped back an ouster of a corrupt but democratically elected president, Yanukovych.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: So, let’s stop there. I mean, we are obliged to use this formula, “corrupt but democratically elected.”
AARON MATÉ: It’s true.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Well, yes and no. But there…which is more important? That he…I don’t even know what it means that he was corrupt. I mean, he siphoned off a lot of state money for himself…
AARON MATÉ: He’s corrupt.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: This is culture.
AARON MATÉ: Okay.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: This is a culture. I mean, the point here is, is that we, since the end of the Soviet Union, have said that we want to promote democracy and particularly constitutionalism, right? As opposed to political caprice in the former Soviet territories. You agree, that’s been official American policy. Why then would you, you, you depose…support the overthrow by a street mob—whatever you call it, I don’t care what democratic banners they were carrying because there were plenty of neo-fascists among them, too—who had been a leader, who had been by all ratifying European monitoring organizations freely and fairly elected? It had been a fairly clean election, especially when he had already agreed to move elections up. I think within nine months you could vote him out.
The US –including Joe Biden—helped back an ouster of democratically elected president, Yanukovych, who called the effort a “coup.”
Why would the United States, therefore, immediately, within hours, this being President Obama, support was for essentially a street coup? I mean, it’s a blow to constitutionalism, the very cause that we claimed to be promoting, so we need to think about that. That was a turning point. It sent a message about what the United States really was prepared to send. I mean, that’s a little digression on my part, but it was a very important moment—and it was very wrongheaded.
AARON MATÉ: It was. You had John McCain and Victoria Nuland visiting Ukraine, Nuland passing out cookies to protesters. We can imagine if, say, Russians went to Mexico City, helped back a coup there and changed the government, and then talked about having Mexico City join a military alliance with Russia, which was the talk about Ukraine joining NATO.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: I fully agree, but I just keep coming back in my mind and replaying these events, that this idea that maybe democracy and constitutionalism could take root in these areas that really hadn’t had much of it, right? And this is a pivotal moment because Yanukovych, then the president, had by all counts been freely and fairly and constitutionally elected. Mind you, he had also signed an agreement brokered by the, I believe this is right, by the British, the French and the Americans, to have early elections, which happens in some systems. In other words, to have new presidential elections, not in a year and half but within nine or ten months.
AARON MATÉ: This is after that Maidan crisis began…
STEPHEN F. COHEN: As it began [crosstalk], a negotiation with the protesters, but okay, stop occupying the building, stop trying to drive me out of office, I will agree to new elections.
AARON MATÉ: But it doesn’t matter, he’s overthrown anyway.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Stop and think what was at stake there. Every person who wishes constitutionalism and democracy, well, in that part of the world, should seize that opportunity. Now, it is said that Putin and Obama had a conversation, and it is said that Putin said to Obama, “Do you agree to this solution? New elections?” Obama said, “I do.” Thirty-six hours later Yanukovych was driven out of office by a coup. So apart from it being it’s wrong, it’s bad, it’s stupid on the face of it, but it’s consequential, it sets precedence for American behavior. So now people are ragging on Trump about Ukraine. But we’ve forgotten what was really the turning point. I mean, it’s just been deleted.
AARON MATÉ: What was the interest, what was the motive? I mean, you asked me, but I’m asking you, what was the motive of the Obama administration to do this, to have Victoria Nuland and the Ambassador to Ukraine—they were caught in a phone call basically talking about who they were going to install as the Ukrainian president—what was their…
STEPHEN F. COHEN: The story gets a little torturous here, and a little legalistic. The pretext for the overthrow of Yanukovych was, is that he had been offered this wonderful trade agreement, this partnership with Europe which would make Ukraine prosperous forever but excluded Russia. And yet Russia was Ukraine’s not only largest trading partner, and still is today, by the way, which is interesting, right? But if you go into the demographics, the number of inner marriages between Russians and Ukrainians, it runs in the tens of millions. I mean, I don’t want to say they’re, they’re not one people, I mean, there is a separate Ukrainian identity. Ukraine is a diverse country. Western Ukraine looks to Poland and Lithuania, not to Russia. But, nonetheless, much of central Ukraine and almost all of southern Ukraine look to Russia as brethren, as kinfolk, as family.
Yanukovch, ousted by coup because he balked at bringing Ukraine into NATO, splitting it from Russia, its chief trading partner
To trespass in a family spat, which is not a good idea in our everyday lives, in geopolitics it’s a greater mistake. We went into something with profound cultural, familial, historical consequences that we didn’t understand. So, what was at stake at that moment was this, that the economic trade agreement that Yanukovych was offered, so-called European Partnership, I think it was, if you read it, and almost never…nobody bothered to read it. Other countries had signed it.
There was a clause that said that if you signed it, you agreed to adhere to the procedures, rules and norms of NATO. Very few people know that was included, but the Russians knew, they’ve got a lot of international lawyers. No, there…what this was, was an attempt to bring Ukraine into NATO, via the back door without saying, well, really, this is really a way of getting into NATO, it’s just benign. But it wasn’t benign. So, when Yanukovych balked, and by the way he balked also because financially it was not advantageous to him.
AARON MATÉ: He would have faced massive protests over the subsidies, the fuel subsidies that he would have had to have cut.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: With, I would then add, he, having already agreed to an early election, which meaning he would have lost the election.
AARON MATÉ: Right.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: But, nonetheless, coups are not good things in general. But in this country, with this legacy, with this notion that democracy is a really viable, viable alternative, and we, the United States represent that alternative, it was utterly discredited. Except by people…I mean, I’m not going to name the names of people who write fairytale stories about what happened, but, you know who they are, they’re very influential, they’re on television a lot, but it’s a fairytale, it’s not what happened. And, you know, to be candid, with Trump as our president, Obama looks a lot better to a lot of people than he did at the time, but the truth is, is that Obama was an exceedingly unsuccessful foreign policy president, and one of his failures of foreign policy was this, the way he handled this whole Ukrainian thing.
Trump impeachment inquiry
AARON MATÉ: Well, it’s interesting there, though, because here you had…you mentioned earlier that Obama did not want to send this lethal military aid to Ukraine out of concerns about it fuel… further fueling this proxy war that he helped start and about the weapons falling into the wrong hands. Trump gets into office and he actually adopts a more hawkish policy in the sense that he’s not facing all this pressure, because he’s being accused of being a Russian agent and a traitor. So, I think it’s fair to deduce that in response to that, to help get that off his back, he approves, he approves the lethal aid to Ukraine that Obama rejected. So, he, in fact, went further than Obama and actually acceded to the demands of the bipartisan foreign policy consensus in Washington, which, that leads us to this moment here, because then he puts a brief freeze on that military aid and now he’s facing impeachment.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: And he’s facing impeachment not because of the military aid but because he appeared to want something for it.
AARON MATÉ: Yeah.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: The Biden stuff.
AARON MATÉ: Yeah.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: It goes back to the question, why are we in Ukraine anyway? What were the Bidens doing there? Why were we there? The short answer is obviously, I mean, let’s do what you just pointed out. Ukraine is really far away. It represents no particular national interest or a threat to us what happens there. As you say, it’s not like our border with Canada or Mexico. For Russia, again, to make my point, it is absolutely vital. It’s simply…there’s no more existential area abutting Russia than Ukraine, whether you talk about families, shared history, military threats and all the rest.
AARON MATÉ: So, in terms of what could actually solve this, assuming that Ukrainegate doesn’t derail the prospects for peace in Ukraine, the prospects of talks between Ukraine and Russia, first of all, do you think that Russia ever gives back Crimea?
STEPHEN F. COHEN: No. No.
AARON MATÉ: That won’t happen.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: No, well, “never” is a capacious word. Not in my lifetime and not in your lifetime. The reason is, is that even though Russia acquiesced into Crimea’s kind of assignment to Ukraine, nobody in Russia actually thought it was real. And to tell you the truth, if you have look at the lack of investment or caring about Crimea, it wasn’t clear Ukraine even cared about Crimea, but the reality is, is that in…in history, in folklore, in sentiment, in culture, Crimea has always been, in the Russian mind, Russian. But it hasn’t been exclusive. I mean, they understood that Ukrainians, Tartars, Crimeans lived there, and for the most part, you know, harmoniously. So, it’s a kind of tragedy the way Ukraine got plucked out of its history.
Ukraine ethno-linquistic map/By the Business Insider
But no, no Russian leader in your lifetime, I—we should never say never, one thing I’ve learned, never say never—but it’s hard to imagine any circumstance where Russia would say Crimea goes back to Ukraine. However, a little diplomacy could go a long way, that the relationship between Ukraine and Crimea should be fulsome. By the relationship, I mean particularly, particularly involving the natural resources Ukraine has…the Crimea has a lot of resources, from fresh water [to] the minerals. There’s no reason why because it’s now legally part of Russia [that] Ukraine should be excluded. So, and I was in—I guess it’s okay to say that I was in Crimea—and I talked to the leader of the Crimean Republic, and I said, “I don’t see any reason why the best outcome isn’t a fulsome economic, cultural and political relationship between Russia, Crimea and Ukraine.” And he said, “I agree. Go convince Putin of that.” So, there’s resistance in the Kremlin, of course.
AARON MATÉ: Why?
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Well, because it’s been raised to this geopolitical stake by the outside world.
AARON MATÉ: If they give ground there then they’re giving ground to Washington.
STEPHEN F. COHEN: Yeah, but it’s gonna happen, I think. I mean, I don’t know if Putin has to leave power, if it’s that far down the road. But all the rational, whether they’re human or economic or cultural, the factors are, is that [Crimea] is kind of, belongs to both, and there’s no reason why it should be one or the other no matter whose map it’s on, if you see what I mean. And I think that’s going to happen. The, the number of tourists when I was in the Crimea two years ago, it’s hard to tell the nationalities of a lot of tourists because so many people speak Russian, but it still seems to be a very popular Russian tourist spot, obviously for Russians because Putin’s made a big effort of cheap flights and all the rest, but Ukrainians come, too, which is as it should be. There’s actually no reason to have this, this conflict over Crimea. None. Crimea has fallen victim to larger geopolitics.
AARON MATÉ: Do you think the people who drove this in Washington DC, who helped spark the Ukrainian crisis, who backed the coup, who I guess had visions of bringing Ukraine into NATO, as crazy as that sounds, do you think that they’re willing to give ground? And do you think that they can be overcome here?
Handout picture released by Cuban newspaper Granma of Cuban militiamen manning an anti-aircraft battery of Czechoslovakian-made M53 12.7 mm quad guns at Havana’s Malecon during the 1962 missile crisis. AFP PHOTO/Granma
STEPHEN F. COHEN: It would be a struggle because their perspective is, is what’s bad for Russia is good for us, so, this kind of reasoning. And we went through this from the previous Cold War, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis there was a kind of…I wouldn’t say transformation in American thinking about that Cold War, but a shift where you began to see more and more important people that say, people who could influence policy, whether in the media or politics or whatever, beginning to say maybe it’s time for us to think more about what we have in common, what we can do together. Because that was really dangerous, the Cuban Missile Crisis, you know, we almost went to war with Russia.
We need some galvanizing force like that, I guess, and I’m afraid it might come, I mean, I can imagine easily. I mean, my anxiety, which I talk about in this book, War with Russia? question mark, is a Cuban Missile Crisis-like situation between the United States and Russia. Not in Cuba, but it could be in Syria, could be in Ukraine, where we’re eyeball to eyeball militarily, right? One can imagine something going wrong or not going wrong, by intent, by provocation, because there are a lot of provocateurs out there running false flag operations. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but false flag operations exist. So, say we get into a Cuban Missile Crisis-like situation. Kennedy had all the leeway he needed, and did Khrushchev, the Soviet leader then, to negotiate us away from war. Would Trump?
Stop and think. Here’s Trump, who’s routinely and pointlessly and idiotically referred to as a Russian puppet, right? That hasn’t gone away. I still get campaign solicitations from Democrats that say, “Send me to Congress so I can get rid of the Russian puppet.” And this lingers like a cancer in the system, it’s a malignancy. But imagine this crisis, and it’s easy to imagine in Syria, in Ukraine, wherever we’re eyeball to eyeball militarily with Russians. We now ask Trump to do what Kennedy did: to negotiate with Khrushchev’s successor Putin, away from war. Would Trump be permit… even if Trump knows how to do it, would he be permitted to do it? Because a large part of the American political class says Trump is not a legitimate president. To say that—and there’s no reason to say it, by the way, there’s no evidence that he isn’t by our rules legitimate—but to say that and keep saying it, then you have to ask yourself: and what if it came to a Cuban Missile-like Crisis? Would he be legitimate enough to negotiate the way Kennedy did, away from war? I think about that, really often.
AARON MATÉ: Well, let me ask you then, quickly, as we wrap. Is part of this, the point then is the aim of portraying Trump as this Russian puppet, is the utility of that for these people, to actually take away his ability to make peace and make détente with Russia?
STEPHEN F. COHEN: I think there’s probably a small faction in Washington that really likes cold war and the more the better with Russia. Whether it’s for economic reasons, they sell a lot of weapons; whether because they were raised that way ideologically; whether because Russophobia is a major factor in American politics; whether because they have—I don’t want to denigrate anybody—they have a lot of Ukrainians in their constituency where they’re from; or whatever reason. But it is exceedingly dangerous and getting more dangerous by the, by the week, by the day. Trump has to be free in a crisis to negotiate as a legitimate president on behalf of the United States, and a crisis could come at any time. And if he’s not, all bets are off.
BELOW: VLADIMIR PUTIN INVOKES LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. HOPE FOR PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS FUTURE IN WAKE OF END OF USSR
I mean, I have to say to you, Aaron, that in four, maybe more decades of studying Russia, studying Russian-American relations, I never really took seriously the possibility of war between the United States and Russia. I never thought it was ever a…had a high probability. Today I think it’s a very high probability, partly because of this Russiagate nonsense, partly because the lack of American leadership. And I guess you could be called a Putin apologist, but I will say again as I’ve said to you on other occasions, that what Putin came to power to do was to modernize Russia, and that does not involve a cold war with the West. Period. End of story. That’s his mission. He wants to go down in history as the man who did this.
Cold war, not to mention hot war, is spoiling what he sees as his mission. He’s there for the having. And even if Trump wants to do it, it’s not clear he knows how to do it or that the people around him would advise him or even forbid him to do it, it’s not clear even with the departure of Fiona Hill and some of the other hawkish members of his administration. Because we have to remember that the one area where an American president who really has almost not autocratic but exclusive powers making foreign policy, short of doing a treaty there’s almost nothing, to use a double negative, they can’t do for better or worse. And there’s a golden moment now to be had for everybody’s security, and it’s been thwarted by this mindless…I mean, you can hate on Trump all you want, but there’s got to be a higher priority and that’s got to be international American security, and we’re letting that opportunity slip away, I fear.
AARON MATÉ: Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies at Princeton and NYU, author of several books including his latest, War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate. Professor, thank you.
Aaron Maté is a journalist and producer. He hosts Pushback with Aaron Maté on The Grayzone. He is also is contributor to The Nation magazine and former host/producer for The Real News and Democracy Now!. Aaron has also presented and produced for Vice, AJ+, and Al Jazeera.