CHARLES. K.K. LEWIS: JUDGE ORDERS FINAL JLWOP HEARING(S) DESPITE LOST COURT FILE, INNOCENCE CLAIM

Posted on 05/22/2019 by Diane Bukowski

 45th hearing set for July 11, 2019, 2 p.m. Judge Lillard, Rm. 502  Frank Murphy Hall

 Judge Lillard orders prosecution, defense to present “sentencing memorandums” by June 9 and June 23

Lewis refuses witnesses for mitigation hearing; Judge Lillard says SHE will appoint them; prosecution indicates it will call polygraph examiner as a witness without having an exam conducted

Lewis: aiming to win case on appeal due to multiple unconstitutional rulings in JLWOP hearings lasting over 3 years

Lewis’ arrest in 1976 for the killing of an off-duty white police officer took place amid racist turmoil in Detroit caused by white cops, homeowners, judges

Charles Lewis shortly after his incarceration in 1977, with his mother Rosie Lewis.

DETROIT – Charles K.K. Lewis is in a pitched battle for his very life, as he has been since the age of 17.  

Third Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard has now set July 11, 2019 as the date she will begin mitigation hearing(s) on his juvenile lifer re-sentencing, after 43 years of his incarceration.  She set the date during a hearing April 16.

Despite Lewis’ objections, she said she will assign “mitigation” and other experts she thinks are needed for the event.

VOD recently discovered from a reliable source that the prosecution is planning to call an appointed polygraph examiner as a witness, despite Lewis’ express objections to using any witnesses, in particular a former police officer who heads an organization of polygraph examiners led by many former police officers to administer a polygraph exam.

Lewis has always maintained he is innocent of killing off-duty Detroit police officer Gerald Sypitkowski on July 31, 1976. Ironically, Judge Lillard denied his recent motion to dismiss his case based on actual innocence Dec. 3, 2018, without addressing the innocence issue at all. Instead, she mis-characterized his motion as a motion for a Ginther hearing.

See Lewis original motion, filed by his defense attorney Sanford Schulman at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/SS-motion-actual-innocence-CL-4-9-7-18.pdf 

See Judge Lillard’s response at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Motion-to-Dismiss-for-actual-innocence-motion-for-new-trial.pdf

Judge Qiana Lillard at hearing Sept. 28, 2018.

In his own pro se filing in response, Lewis said, “You [Judge Lillard] . . . refused to address my claim of ACTUAL INNOCENCE. And, my claim of Ineffective Assistance of [trial] Counsel. Refusing to address those issues denied me access to the Court. And effectively denied me the right to present mitigating evidence at a mitigation hearing. The Michigan Court of Appeals needs to address this issue before we move forward.”

Now, however, the PROSECUTION wants to call the polygraph examiner in question as a witness at the mitigation hearing, although no polygraph exam was conducted. Lewis cannot legally be FORCED to undergo a polygraph exam, although Schulman has told VOD a polygraph exam is necessary before any other witnesses are called, and AP Dawson has argued that the re-sentencing proceedings are not a re-trial.

These latest events follow more than three years of hearings on the likely deliberate loss of Lewis’ official court file, the wipe-0ut of his official Register of Actions, and his claim of innocence in the killing of Sypitkowski. 

Judge Qiana Lillard worked as an assistant prosecutor under Prosecutor Kym Worthy (shown above) for eight years before being appointed to the bench by Gov. Rick Snyder. Lillard has said she considers Worthy her “mentor.”

“I think they are just waiting for me to die,” Lewis told VOD earlier, referring to the apparent fact that Judge Lillard has kept him trapped in her court in what he believes is a deliberate effort to keep him from taking what he believes are unconstitutional rulings on her part to the Appellate Courts.

Another case of Judge Lillard’s, People v. Walker, is currently pending a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court on alleged gross irregularities in case conduct and sentencing. Three other cases resulted in Court of Appeals rulings vacating the sentences and ordering the defendants assigned to another judge for proper sentencing. In those cases, Judge Lillard reported on the record that she has a policy of sentencing defendants to the top of the sentencing guidelines for exercising their 6th Amendment right to a jury trial rather than taking a plea deal.

Lewis’ hero, Colin Kaepernick, Taking the Knee against injustice. Lewis received 60th birthday cards with this image, calling him a “political prisoner” and “freedom fighter.” Lewis is an avid football fan as well.

Lewis just reached his 60th birthday May 13, behind the walls of the Macomb Correctional Facility’s Re-Entry Program. He has been incarcerated since 1976, at the age of 17, when he weighed 150 lbs. and was about to graduate from Finney High School. He played keyboards and guitar with local bands and was noted for his extraordinary musical and athletic talent. His grandfather, who played with B.B. King, gave him his first guitar at the age of 4, calling him not his “grandson” but his “GRAND BOY,” in recognition of his obvious talent, according to Lewis’ mother Rosie Lewis.

Lewis took loving care of his four younger siblings while his parents Rosie and Herbert Lewis were at work. He had a potentially bright and happy future ahead of him.

But he came of age on Detroit’s east side in a racially volatile era, just after the election of the city’s first Black Mayor, Coleman Young in 1974. White cops were enraged when Blacks began to be hired on the force. White homeowners, led by Detroit Recorder’s Court  Judge Thomas Poindexter and the Greater Detroit Homeowners Council,  fought the incursion of Black families into their neighborhoods.

Lewis and his family had just moved into a home at 12631 Kilbourne on Detroit’s east side, becoming one of only two Black families on their block at the time.

“At seventeen I was old enough to know that being accused of killing a cop in Detroit was a death sentence,” Lewis recalls in a vivid life history he wrote shortly after his incarceration.

THE BIG FOUR–This photo is of the Major Crimes Mobile Unit of the Detroit Police Department.   

“The Detroit Police Department terrorized the black community in the fifties, sixties and seventies with brutal beatings and senseless murders,” Lewis said.

“It was no secret in the ‘hood that during the times when Detroit had the highest murder rate in the country, that most of the murders were committed by rogue police officers. Black males were routinely the victims of police brutality. Something as harmless as ignoring an officer’s command to walk to his squad car could get you killed.”

The New York Times reported in 1976 that over 600 murders had taken place in the City of Detroit in 1975, with the last being the killing of a Black man as he ran from the police.

Lewis’ father Herbert Lewis was falsely accused of robbing a Farmer Jack at Gratiot and Bellevue on Oct. 6, 1972. But Lewis and his wife produced “employment records. . . proving beyond question that Lewis was in Oberlin, Ohio, working  for the Federal Aviation Administration on October 6, 1972, the day of the robbery. The robbery charge was therefore dropped, and the criminal case was dismissed at the preliminary examination on March 30, 1973.” (See Lewis v Farmer Jack Division, Inc.327 N.W.2d 893.)

Rosie Lewis says police continued to harass their family after the charges were dropped and her husband sued the city, initially winning $40,000 in a jury verdict for “false arrest,” an award that was later overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Obie Wynn, 18. killed by white bar owner in 1975

Leslie Armstrong, 27, killed by white cops 1978

Later, in 1975, Black youth from across the city took over Livernois on the west side for three days after white bartender Andrew Chinarian killed 18-year-old Obie Wynn, unarmed, in the parking lot of Chinarian’s bar, claiming he thought Wynn was ABOUT to break into a car.

Chinarian was finally charged with second-degree murder  after a pitched community battle, but that was eventually reduced to a misdemeanor charge of careless and reckless use of a firearm resulting in death. Judge Leonard Townsend sentenced him to six months in DeHoCo, three years  probation, and a $300 fine.

Also in 1977, Detroit police prisoner Bernard Miller, 26, died of a fractured skull four days after police arrested him and subdued him forcibly during a neighborhood fight. He was unconscious in his cell for those days before police took him to Detroit General Hospital, where he died.

In 1978 Leslie Wayne Armstrong, 27, also Black and unarmed, was killed by white cops Jay Hammer and Charles Springer using a flashlight chokehold on the east side. They were charged and convicted in Armstrong’s death in front of Judge Poindexter, but Poindexter later overturned the jury verdict.

Exec. Dep. Police Chief Frank Blount was the highest-ranking Black in the DPD in 1975.

In 1977, the FBI was also investigating the role of DPD Exec. Dep. Chief Frank Blount in narcotics trafficking. Blount was fired at the time, and deputy chief Reginald Harvel committed suicide. However, many attributed those events to white Police Chief Phillip Tannian’s actions and attempts to attack the Coleman Young administration. Young later fired Tannian and replaced him with William Hart.

Gil Hill, then a DPD sergeant who had been with the predominantly white police force for 18 years, was later probed by the FBI for his role in cover-up of death of Damion Lucas, 13 in 1992 in a drug-related drive-by shooting. “White Boy Rick” Wershe says he reported numerous other such cover-ups by Gil Hill to the FBI.

Hill was to become the key actor in the frame-up of Charles Lewis.

Hill, then a DPD Sergeant used to working with white cops, fingered Lewis as the killer of an off-duty white cop, Gerald Syptikowski, at Harper and Barrett on Detroit’s east side, based only on reports by “confidential informants” according to Lewis’ DPD homicide file. That death has always had a cloud of rumors swirling around it about mob involvement in numbers rackets. 

Despite the fact that Sypitkowski’s partner Dennis Van Fleteren and numerous other eyewitnesses to the killing at Harper and Barrett outside Oty’s Bar testified at two of Lewis’ trials that a completely different perpetrator killed Sypitkowski, a jury allegedly convicted Lewis in front of Judge Joseph Maher during a third trial in Nov. 1977. There remains no record of the names of those jurors.

Attorney Kenneth Cockrel Sr. was targeted by Judge Maher for calling him a racist.

Judge Joseph Maher

Maher was renowned for his earlier, unsuccessful attempt to take militant Black attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr.’s law license for telling the media that Maher was a virulent racist. He was also instrumental in the release of notorious Detroit Police S.T.R.E.S.S. officer Raymond Peterson, who killed 12 unarmed Black men as an undercover cop.

Lewis says today of court proceedings in 1977, “It felt like I was sitting through my own lynching. When I stepped into the courtroom racism was the order of the day. White Power was in full effect.”

Lewis’ court-appointed trial attorney was M. Arthur Arduin, a Grosse Pointe resident who earlier headed Judge Poindexter’s campaign committee. Arduin ignored the testimony of Sypitkowski’s partner and numerous other eyewitnesses in his opening and closing statements in Lewis’ first trial in March, 1977.  Instead he focused on the coerced testimony of the three Black juveniles. Arduin said he believed essentially that Lewis was guilty, but that the three juveniles should have been tried and convicted with him.

Judge Deborah Thomas

At one point, Lewis recalls, the Court clerk called him up to speak to her on the side, and told him, “You need to get another attorney.”

That trial ended when Maher dismissed the jury without cause on the record. Years later, in 2006, Judge Deborah Thomas said in an opinion that Lewis should therefore have been considered acquitted and subject to double jeopardy.

She added that the three juveniles’ version of the killing was a “scientific impossibility.” Judge Thomas was the last known judge to have possession of that first transcript and likely Lewis’ complete file.

So Lewis should have walked free to continue his young, basically care-free life in March, 1977. He had the whole world still in front of him. But he was to face two more trials, one cut short after Maher took it back over from Genesee County’s first Black Circuit Court Judge, who was visiting.

Lewis reports that he was beaten thoroughly in the course of his arrest, and that police appeared to have set him up for death when he went to turn himself in at the Penobscot Bldg. office of Attorney Gerald Lorence. He had been instructed to go in the back door of the building, where cops were waiting, but instead went through the front entrance.

Charles K.K. Lewis

During his incarceration, Lewis vowed to learn about the law, since it had resulted in his conviction. He become an accomplished writer and  a reporter for various newspapers, including city and prison publications. His voluminous pro se legal filings attest to his writing and analytical skills. He has earned a paralegal certificate among other degrees in prison, and is well-respected by others in prison, from staff to fellow prisoners, for his assistance in their cases. He was a law clerk at the Lakeland Correctional Facility for 10 years.

Throughout his time in prison, Lewis has also honed his musical skills, heading prison bands in various locations, writing music for them, and coordinating dozens of concerts. 

He currently plays in the church band at Macomb Correctional Facility’s Re-Entry Unit. His placement there by the MDOC caused he and his family to assume that he would be re-sentenced to 40-60 years after a brief court hearing, as were others recommended for life without parole in his group there. He has enough “good time” on his record to discharge immediately with that sentence.

But that fell through on Jan. 10, when AP Thomas Dawson moved for Judge Lillard to certify a pile of documents, much of it attorney-client privileged material that Lewis had provided to his previous attorneys from Foley & Lardner, as the official court file in his case.

Defense attorney Sanford Schulman

Lewis moved for dismissal of his case in Sept. 2016 due to the loss of his file, based on numerous U.S. and Michigan court precedents, but Lillard denied that motion along with a motion filed by Atty. Valerie Newman for 40-60 years which also cited the loss of the file. Newman did not appeal her ruling and stepped down from his case shortly before joining the Prosecutor’s office as head of its “Conviction Integrity Unit.”

Lewis says that Lillard’s subsequent certification of the file violates Michigan Supreme Court precedent, as well as Michigan Court Rules. He filed a demand for his attorney Sanford A. Schulman to appeal the certification immediately. But Schulman told VOD outside the courtroom one day, “You have to have a court file for a mitigation hearing,”

VOD notes that you also have to have a court file to re-sentence a juvenile to LWOP, which Lewis believes Judge Lillard is intent on doing, since she already denied his earlier motion for 40-60 years.

On April 16, with Lewis on videotape from Macomb, the parties gathered once again to push for the mitigation hearing despite the lack of a case file, a valid Register of Actions, the dismissal of his first jury without a record of the jurors’ names who allegedly convicted him in 1978, the lack of dismissal of his case after a 1980 Pearson evidentiary hearing was held beyond the time limits allowed by state law, and Judge Lillard’s failure to recognize a 2000 court order dismissing his murder conviction and sentence.

Below: video from Lewis court hearing April 16, 2019. AP Tom Dawson is shown in video thumbnail photo.

Lewis asked to be present in person for the July 11 hearing. For the past months, he has appeared on video from prison because of health reasons. He asked Judge Lillard to contact the MDOC to arrange for his transportation directly from Macomb to the Court. VOD earlier covered a hearing in which this was done. Guards from that prison facility remained in court during the session, and left with the defendant afterwards.

During previous stays at the Wayne County Jail, Lewis has not received the proper medication for his severe case of diabetes and has faced other problems as well. Lillard said she would check with the “chief” of her Wayne County deputy sheriffs to see if that can be arranged, although Lewis informed her it should be arranged through the MDOC.

Below, Lewis’ mother Rosie and other supporters address the media after a hearing on Oct. 6, 2017. 

#FREECHARLESLEWISNOW, #FREEMICHIGANJUVENILELIFERSNOW, #ENDMASSINCARCERATION, #ENDSCHOOLTOPRISONPIPELINE 

Related stories:

FREE CHARLES K.K. LEWIS NOW! CRUELTY: 43 JWLOP RE-SENTENCING HEARINGS IN 3 YRS; HEARING TUES. APR. 16

FREE AT LAST? PROS. SHATTERS PLAN FOR CHARLES K.K. LEWIS’ RELEASE; HEARING THURS. JAN. 24 @ 10:30 AM

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LEAVING NO JUVENILE BEHIND–RAISE THE AGE!

Posted on 05/22/2019 by Diane Bukowski

All truth passes through three stages… FIRST, it is ridiculed. SECOND, it is violently opposed. THIRD, it is accepted as being self-evident. – Arthur Schopenhauer

Jermaine Hill

BY JERMAINE HILL

May 21, 2019

For those who may not know, the fight must continue on for juveniles serving life without the possibility of parole.

In 2012 the United Supreme Court ruled that it was against the Eighth Amendment to sentence juveniles to a mandatory life sentence in prison without first given a Miller hearing to see if they could be amenable to treatment and rehabilitated.

Some states moved on the decision immediately such as California and began processing their juveniles out and some states did not such as Michigan. Prosecutor Kym Worthy and former state Attorney General Bill Schuette argued that it was not retroactive for those juveniles already housed in the M.D.O.C prison.

So it took until the 2016 Montgomery v Louisana opinion for the United States Supreme Court to rule that not only was Miller retroactive and applies to all those who were juveniles at the time of their offense, but that they thought that they made it clear in 2012.

So today, there are still juveniles that have yet to be resentenced due to the snail’s pace of different County judges and courts.

Yet, there still arises a critical issue that has not yet been addressed and that is for those who were under the juvenile jurisdiction of the Family Division Court. These are juveniles that were given an extended period of probation until either their 19th or 21st birthday. Those who were kept among other juveniles that was 18 and younger.

Detroit police stop Black youths in in 2009. Photo: Carlos Osorio

Michigan law 780.901 (f) reads “Juvenile Offense- means an offense committed by a juvenile under the jurisdiction of the juvenile division of the probate or the Family division of circuit court under section 2(a)(1) of chapter XIIA of the probate code of 1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 712A.2, that if committed by an adult would be a felony, misdemeanor, or ordinance vioation, if the juvenile’s case is not designated as a case in which the juvenile is to be tried in the same manner as an adult.

Another Michigan law of 1995 was MCL 712A.2a(3) entitled “Continuing jurisdiction beyond maximum age: As used in this chapter, ‘child”, ‘minor’ or any other term signifying a person under the age of 18 applies to a person 18 years or older concerning whom proceedings are commenced in the juvenile division of the probate court pursuant to section 2 of this chapter and over whom the juvenile division has continuing jurisdiction pursuant to subsection (1).

With this said, I was 19 years of age at the time of my crime and still under the jurisdiction of the Family Division Court and I had to be waived over to the general court of Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in 1995. I was under Supervised Independent Living (Spectrum) and given a social worker.

Below is excerpt from Juvenile Justice Initiative website at  https://jjustice.org/resources/raise-the-age/.The organization supports raising the juvenile age to 21.

Therefore, although I was 19 years of age I was not an adult by Michigan law. The Family Court was my legal guardian and had charge over me such as clothing, housing, transportation, schooling; etc. For each juvenile under family court care, the court receives government money.

So today, this issue not only needs to be highlighted but recognized and those who were 18-21 years of age under the jurisdiction of the family court and given life without the possibility of parole need to be re-sentenced as their other juvenile counterparts (17 years or younger).

The scientific evidence has already been proven. For those who were 21 years and less, neuroscientists have alerted us that the frontal lobe of our brains that deals with reason, risk-taking, easily influenced, logic, decision making, etc. doesn’t fully develop until age 21 or older and in some case until the 25th birthdate. (See “Legislation Sets Juvenile Mental Health Court Rules Advocates Hope for Increase of Specialty Courts,” by Lee Bryden, also “The Supreme Court and The Transformation of Juvenile Sentencing,” by Dr. Laurence Steinberg) and many more researchers.

Right now, there are other states that are acknowledging the facts.

[VOD: following is a compilation of reports from various juvenile justice agencies:

On May 30, 2018, Vermont became the first state in the union to set its juvenile justice age threshold above 18. By the year 2022, with some exceptions for violent offenses, all teens including 19-year-olds will be treated as juveniles. The Justice Policy Institute reported that the following states have now raised the age of juvenile jurisdiction: Connecticut, Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Louisiana and South Carolina. North Carolina and New York plan to change the age cut-off for juveniles from 16 to those under 18 this year.

The four states still setting the bar at 17 for juvenile offenders—Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin, have now had legislation introduced that would raise the age. Other advocates are looking overseas at countries such as the Netherlands, where the juvenile jurisdiction age is 23.

“Bringing 18- to 20-year-olds into the juvenile system as well would lower recidivism by giving that population better access to educational and rehabilitation programming, diversion programs and court record confidentiality,” said Hannah Legerton, Emerging Adult Justice Project Coordinator at the Campaign for Juvenile Justice.

Advocates are also looking overseas to countries such as the Netherlands where the juvenile jurisdiction age is 23.]

In closing, in 1990, President George H.W. Bush launched the “Decade of The Brain” initiative to enhance public awareness of benefits to be derived from brain research. It has been well over two decades since this program and research has been funded. So, now we have a lot of data and understanding not only on how our brains work and function, but we also have the psychological information.

At this present moment we can contact our local senators, legislations and there committee about this issue. The Judicial Committee…

I thank you for perusing this article as I pray that it sparked some thoughts of body movement. (Smile) More next issue…

Related:

Raise the Age in Michigan

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/03/12/juvenile-court-age-raise-21

Emerging Adults-Raise the Age

https://www.raisetheagemi.org/youth-in-prison-package

NY Sees Success with Raise the Age campaign

 

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U.S. REP. TLAIB ANNOUNCES 10M SIGNATURES TO IMPEACH TRUMP; INTRODUCES CALL FOR CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY

Posted on 05/19/2019 by Diane Bukowski

10 MILLION SIGNATURES MORE THAN POPULATIONS OF LOS ANGELES, HOUSTON AND CHICAGO–LARGEST PETITION IN U.S. HISTORY

ANNOUNCEMENT A WEEK AFTER ONE-YR. ANNIVERSARY OF TRUMP’S IMMIGRANT FAMILY SEPARATION POLICY

FROM U.S. REP. RASHIDA TLAIB:

May 19, 2109

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter

As I stood with concerned Americans, received the 10 million signatures, and read some of the comments left by constituents in my home district, it was a reminder of how far we are coming together in the public case for holding the president accountable. 

Back in January, I was one of the first members of this Congress to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump. Well before the Mueller report’s release, we already had all the information we needed to begin impeachment hearings, just based on what Trump had done in plain sight during two years in office.  

Now, with the evidence from Robert Mueller and with Trump’s rampant abuses of power to pursue his hateful agenda, I have introduced a resolution calling for Congress to begin an inquiry investigating whether grounds to impeach Donald Trump exist and, if so, to act—but I need your help. Click here to watch and share the video to help spread the word about the movement calling for an impeachment inquiry. 

Some of thousands of migrants waiting for entry to the U.S.

It can be easy to be desensitized to big numbers here in D.C., so I want to just take a moment to appreciate how historic this petition delivery is. Ten million signers is more than the entire population of the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston … combined! Whenever anyone tells you that impeachment is not politically possible, you can tell them that the largest petition in U.S. history, as far as we know, says otherwise!  

Every day brings new obstruction and abuse from the Trump administration—as they defy subpoenas, stonewall Congress, and continue to trample on our rights and liberties. The fact that last week was the anniversary of Trump’s family separation policy—for which nobody has yet been held accountable—is proof of the high stakes of our fight to confront and stop this administration’s hateful and illegal agenda.  

Protesters demand No War on Iran, Support Palestinians

This show of popular sentiment can put wind in the sails of my impeachment investigation resolution, will help more members of Congress of both parties to see that impeachment is critical, and can ensure that nobody—not Trump, not his cronies—is above the law. And just like impeachment, today was a team effort; many allies, including Free Speech for People, Democracy for America, CREDO, By the People, Need to Impeach, and more joined MoveOn members’ voices to reach 10 million, because we’re louder together!  

Together, we must make our voices heard. Because doing nothing is dangerous. Trump is blatantly disregarding our Constitution and our ethical norms. By delaying impeachment investigations and falsely claiming that we need more evidence, my colleagues are bolstering Trump’s lies that we have nothing on him. We must hold him accountable, using the only tool that makes sense: impeachment investigations. 

Check out this recap from the historic press conference.

Thanks for all you do.

–Representative Rashida Tlaib

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THELONIOUS SEARCY TARGETS WAYNE CO. PROS. PATRICK MUSCAT IN ATTY. GRIEVANCE COMMISSION COMPLAINT

Posted on 05/13/2019 by Diane Bukowski

Thelonious (Sean) Searcy (r, seated) listens as his attorney Michael Dezsi (standing center), plays Vincent Smothers’ recorded confession to the 2oo4 murder of Jamal Segars into the record on (Smothers is on stand with head bowed, listening.) Smothers then testified in explicit detail about the crime, for which Searcy is currently serving Life Without Parole. Smothers said he used a .40 caliber gun to kill Segars, firing repeatedly from behind Segars’ car before he shot him directly through the driver’s door. Smothers stated he did not know Searcy and that Searcy had nothing to do with the killing. While claiming that he did not know what caliber gun killed Segars, Pros. Patrick Muscat presented a .45 caliber gun as the murder weapon.

Searcy’s appeal of Judge Timothy Kenny’s Dec. 3, 2018 denial of his motion for a new trial based on actual innocence currently pending

Grievance targets repeat offender AP Patrick Muscat, who also falsely prosecuted Davontae Sanford, later freed after nine years in prison

“I SEE MY LIGHT COME -SHINING”

Searcy’s complaint among of a number of recent shocking revelations about deliberate misconduct in Wayne Co. Prosecutor’s Office, DPD, including police murder of Terrance Kellom

(Editor’s Note: Voice of Detroit broke the story of Mr. Thelonious Searcy’s false conviction, and extensively covered the evidentiary hearing he won through a pro se complaint written after his own thorough research and documentation, aided by other outstanding jailhouse lawyers. Searcy’s success in winning that hearing is a beacon of light for hundreds of other falsely convicted individuals behind MDOC walls.

Links to VOD’s stories on Searcy’s case are below this copy of Searcy’s grievance.)

THELONIOUS SEARCY GRIEVANCE VS. AP PATRICK MUSCAT

Dear Attorney Grievance Commission:                                         February 11, 2019

I submit before this commission that Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Patrick Muscat, is in violation of the MICHIGAN COURT RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT, RULE 8.4 MISCONDUCT (B) & (C).

AP Patrick Muscat testifies at Searcy evidentiary hearing May 9, 2018.

Attorney Muscat, engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, or violation of the criminal law where such conduct reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer. In accordance with Violation (C), Muscat has engaged in a conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of  justice.

Muscat was the Prosecuting Attorney in the People v. Thelonious Searcy, case number 04-12890-01.  This violation occurred on May 6, 2005  during jury deliberation. The foreperson for the jury sent a letter to the court, specifically asking “What type of caliber weapon or bullet killed the deceased?” The court responded, after speaking with both attorneys they agreed that the bullets were too deformed to determine the type of caliber that killed the deceased . . . . (trial transcripts, volume 5, May 6, 2005, pg. 89, lines 5-13).

Upon receiving this information from the court, the jurors found Searcy Guilty of Premeditated Murder, Assault with the Attempt to Murder and Felony Firearm (trial transcript, volume 6, May 9, 2005).

This question asked by the jury was critically serious for multiple reasons. (1) First and foremost the jury was deliberating on a First Degree Murder charge. (2) Secondly, this question showed that the jury had doubt. This assertion can be supported by the question posed to the court. “We want to know what type of caliber weapon or bullet that killed the deceased.” The jury could not or would not render a verdict until this specific question was answered about the weapon that killed the deceased.

Thelonious Searcy

Prosecuting Attorney Muscat had a legal, ethical duty as a sworn Officer of the Court to provide truthful information to the jury in the above case mentioned in this Formal Complaint.

This attorney’s deceitful, malicious actions caused Thelonious Searcy to suffer irreparable harm as a criminal Defendant. Searcy was sentenced to Life Without Parole in the Michigan Department of Corrections because this Prosecuting Attorney chose to deliberately lie to the jury about not knowing what type of caliber weapon killed the deceased.

On May 15, 2018, Thelonious Searcy had an evidentiary hearing before 3rd Circuit Court Presiding Judge Timothy Michael Kenny. During this hearing it was factually proved that Prosecuting Attorney Patrick Muscat deliberately lied to Searcy’s jury about the caliber bullet found in the deceased. The Prosecuting Attorney representing the Wayne County Prosecuting Office during this evidentiary hearing was Thomas Chambers. Mr. Chambers commissioned Sergeant Patricia Little from the Wayne County Conviction Unit to retrieve the following evidence property tags listed below:

E07191604, E0719704, E07191804 and E07191504 

The above property tags were identified as being 40 calibers.

Independent firearms expert David Balash identified these bullets as 40 calibers. Balash further stated that no other caliber bullet weighs the same as a 40 caliber bullet. He also testified that these bullets were found in the deceased’s body.  A Laboratory Firearm Analysis Report dated 1-7-2005 was listed as People’s Exhibit #23 by Prosecutor Patrick Muscat during trial. This specific report shows that Muscat knew the caliber of the weapon that killed the deceased. Detroit Firearm Expert David Paunch identified those tags listed above as 40 calibers (see laboratory report number F-0436E).

Ignoring the exculpatory findings from the Detroit Police Firearm Experts David Paunch and Lloyd Allen exposes that Prosecutor Muscat deliberately committed perjury to obtain a criminal conviction. Thus, disregarding Searcy’s constitutional right to have a fair trial, which was utterly adverse to the judicial system.

Presiding criminal court Judge Timothy Kenny, who was Searcy’s trial judge, has since been appointed Chief Judge of the 3rd Judicial Circuit Court.

It is well said that the Prosecutor may not use knowingly false testimony to obtain a criminal conviction. A Prosecutor’s duty to prevent lies from entering the evidence in the guise of truth stems not from any particular role in the adversary process; rather it is derived from the prosecutor’s duty to represent the public interest and to place the pursuit of truth and justice above the pursuit of a conviction.

In this particular case, the false information given to the jury has not been corrected. Nor has this prosecutor been held accountable for this malicious misconduct. Searcy prays that this Honorable Commission would conduct a fair and impartial investigation into the inflammatory, corrupt tactics utilized in this formal complaint.

 

 

 

 

Above is Vincent Smothers’ confession to the murder of Jamal Segars, taken by Private Investigator Scott Lewis.

VOD stories on Thelonious Searcy’s wrongful conviction in 2005, evidentiary hearing 2017-18, in chronological order:

 http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/06/10/false-detroit-conviction-vincent-smothers-says-he-not-thelonious-searcy-killed-jamal-segars-in-2004/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/07/05/is-exoneration-near-for-thelonious-searcy-serving-life-for-murder-vincent-smothers-confessed-to/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/08/14/searcy-wins-evidentiary-hearing-smothers-expected-to-testify-he-was-the-killer-in-2004-case/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/13/pack-court-to-stop-wrongful-conviction-of-thelonious-searcy-mon-march-19-9-am-judge-kenny/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/23/vincent-smothers-takes-stand-to-exonerate-thelonious-searcy-in-2004-detroit-murder/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/03/27/smothers-co-defendant-marzell-black-backs-confession-to-segars-murder-at-searcy-hearing/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/04/26/testimony-at-2-march-hearings-showed-searcy-likely-innocent-next-hearing-delayed-to-may-9/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/05/10/favorable-significant-evidence-surfaces-at-searcy-hearing-on-innocence-claim/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/05/17/trial-evidence-vs-thelonious-searcy-in-2004-city-airport-murder-discredited-at-may-15-hearing

 http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/07/15/prosecutors-cops-techs-lied-falsified-evidence-vs-thelonious-searcy-atty-says-in-final-hearing/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2018/12/06/judge-kenny-strikes-down-thelonious-searcy-bid-for-freedom-on-actual-innocence-of-2004-murder/

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KELLOM FAMILY PACKS COURT AFTER COP’S ADMISSION THAT DETROIT DAD WAS UNARMED WHEN ‘EXECUTED’

Posted on 05/12/2019 by Diane Bukowski

Terrance Kellom’s family and friends outside federal courthouse in Detroit May 2. They include Yvette Johnson (2nd from left), Nelda Kellom, Terrance’s mother (in pink), Kevin Kellom, Terrance’s father, with his son’s two children Terranae Destiny and Terrance Desmond, and group of Terrance’s sisters.

Hammer DPD claimed Terrance had, no fingerprints found

Fed. court hearing May 2 follows DPD off. Darrel Fitzgerald’s admission that Terrance had no hammer, none was in house; did not resist arrest

“He (Fitzgerald) had a tear in his eye during deposition, likely thinking of his own 20-year son”–Atty. Ayad in brief

Forensic evidence negates police version of killing, indicates more than one shooter: shell casings of different kinds found in rear bedroom, bathroom

Terrance Kellom shot in back twice, evidence and eyewitness reports indicated Off. Quinn shot him as he lay on ground

Father Kevin: police saw his son with him in the street before illegally raiding home; they could have arrested him on street.

Federal court hearings continue as State AG Dana Nessel, Wayne Co. Pros.Kym Worthy open new investigations 

 Ayad: “If Kym Worthy doesn’t do her job this time, we will do it for her.”

 By Diane Bukowski

 May 10, 2019/Updated May 13, 2019

DETROIT – Family and friends of Terrance Kellom, including his two little children Terrance Desmond and Terranae Destiny, packed the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox May 2 to listen to oral arguments on defense motions to dismiss the family’s civil lawsuit filed after the young father’s death.

The family had watched in agony April 27, 2015 as members of a Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Task Force (D-FAT) including I.C.E., the DPD, and other out-county agencies, shot Kellom a total of four times inside his father Kevin Kellom’s home on Detroit’s near northwest side. Evidence shows I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn shot him in back as he lay on the ground.

An additional fusillade of other bullets left spent casings scattered through the home.

Kellom was 19 years old, with a pending arrest warrant for armed robbery. He was also expecting the imminent birth of his second child. and was planning to turn his life around, according to his father.

After the court hearing May 2, family and friends gathered outside and chanted, “Justice for Terrance,” echoing the cry raised in massive street protests, largely by Black youth, that took place directly after Kellom’s death. 

Judge Cox held the hearing in the wake of the stunning disclosure April 8 by the family’s attorney Nabih Ayad that Detroit Police Officer Darell Fitzgerald changed his earlier version of events and said in a sworn deposition Nov. 26, 2018 that the young father was in custody, unarmed, with no hammer in his hand when he was killed, and that he buckled to his knees after the first shot before a fusillade of bullets struck him. Fitzgerald is a defendant in the lawsuit and headed the DPD section of the task force. Pros. Kym Worthy earlier showed a photo of a hammer at a press conference, admitted it had no fingerprints, but refused to issue charges against I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn due to “insufficient evidence.”

Atty. Nabih Ayad with co-counsel William Savage and Kevin Kellom at April 8 press conference.

“Defendant Fitzgerald blew the lid off this cover-up,” Ayad wrote in his response to the defendants’ motions.

“As every practicing attorney would know, it is not every day that law enforcement have the courage to come forward and speak the truth as to what transpired in a situation like this. As anyone with common sense can see, it is clear what could happen to this individual in his everyday employment with the department. E.g., isolation, stigma, harassment, hostility and possibly even violence.”

Ayad alleged that the officers on the D-FAT team and their superiors conspired to cover up the true circumstances of Terrance’s death.

The defendants claimed depositions given by family eyewitnesses were contradictory and unbelievable. Defendant Quinn said he entered the home due to “exigent circumstances,” after hearing from officers inside that the younger Kellom was “belligerent” when they attempted to arrest him. Ayad said in his brief that Quinn assumed it was OK to enter when he saw Defendant Fitzgerald inside. However, one account of what happened said that Quinn along with his parter Eaton and Fitzgerald were all outside the house prior to entry.

“Here, a defendant who is being sued for wrongful death of an individual changes his story and admits the decedent was unarmed when shot,” Ayad continued. “If Terrance Kellom was unarmed, there was excessive force used . . . All of Defendants should be thanking their lucky stars that they are not being criminally charged and put in jail at this time for conspiring to cover up the unlawful killing of an unarmed African-American young man.”

Marchers protesting Terrance Kellom’s death on April 28 2015 also remembered 7-yr. old Aiyana Jones, murdered by DPD task force in raid on home May 16, 2010

APRIL 22, 2015: Hundreds of people march through the streets of Baltimore to seek justice for the death for Freddie Gray who died from injuries suffered in Police custody in Baltimore, USA on April 22, 2015. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The D-FAT team killed Kellom as a rebellion was erupting in Baltimore over the police killing of Freddie Gray, and Black Lives Matter marches were taking place all over the country.

Ayad additionally cited a report by Firearms Examiner and Forensic Science Consultant David Balash indicating that bullets from more than one shooter, not just Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) officer Mitchell Quinn, likely entered Kellom’s body from four different directions, including two from the rear which landed in his back and leg.  Balash cited other forensic evidence contradicting the police version.

“The investigation into the shooting death of Terrance Kellom by the Detroit Police department appears to have been driven solely by what the shooter and other members of the arrest warrant entry team told the investigators what happened rather than having the evidence drive the investigation,” Balash said.

Ayad and his partner Atty. William Savage said State Police Officer Richard Sanchez, handling his first criminal investigation, did not interview any of the officers involved. Neither did members of the Prosecutor’s office. Sanchez was situated at DPD headquarters while the investigation proceeded, and was officially embedded in the DPD homicide unit for the duration.

After Ayad’s April 8 disclosure, both Worthy and State Attorney General Dana Nessel  said they would re-open their offices’ investigations into Kellom’s death. No further word from them has been heard.

Ayad said after the hearing, “If Kym Worthy doesn’t do her job this time, we will do it for her.”

The May 2 hearing itself was brief, with Judge Cox indicating that he had already thoroughly studied the filings in the case. (See box at top left for description of Plaintiffs’ Claims and Defendants’ motions.)

In addition to his First Amended Complaint, Ayad submitted a powerful brief in response to defendants’ motions. (See FAC and brief links below story.)

He attached depositions including those from Darell Fitzgerald, in which Fitzgerald denied that Terrance had a hammer and said he saw no hammer in the home, from Kevin Kellom and other family eyewitnesses who completely contradicted the police version of events, from I.C.E. agent Quinn, who alleged he could not remember how he got to the scene or what he was wearing, from state investigator Richard Sanchez, and the report from Balash. Many of the public copies of those depositions kept in the federal court for inspection were substantially redacted.

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox

Regarding Quinn’s motion for summary judgment, Cox said the dispute between family eyewitnesses who reported police surrounded Kellom as they walked him down the stairs from an upstairs bedroom, and police reports claiming he jumped through a hole in that bedroom’s closet to the first floor was not as relevant as “what occurred while Terrance was in the [downstairs] hallway.”

“What would you give if Terrance Kellom was not resisting, had no weapons, and had his hands up?” Cox asked the defendants.  At one point, he interjected during Atty. Ayad’s arguments claiming excessive force, “You’re winning.” He also cited Kevin Kellom’s testimony in his deposition, asking if defendants were writing that off.

He asked what evidence was present that Quinn was going to shoot, and how defendants could have prevented the shooting, including obtaining a search warrant. A warrant to search the father’s home was not signed until three hours after Terrance’s death. According to depositions from family members, Teria Kellom, Terrance’s sister, had to demand to see even the arrest warrant for Terrance, which alleged he had held up a pizza delivery man.

I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn was previously a DPD officer with a record of brutality.

“Upon further inquiry, Officer Fitzgerald changed his story again regarding an arrest warrant, confirming that he never showed any warrant to anyone, because he was going to show the arrest warrant to Mr. Kellom only after the house was ‘clear’ but before that could happen, other officers had apparently made their way into the attic where they began shouting at Terrance Kellom,” Attorney Ayad wrote in his brief in response to Quinn’s motion for summary disposition on the case.

Ayad added that the defendants had deliberately taken a statement from a police interview with Kevin Kellom after the traumatic death of his son out of context.

“Defendant Quinn argues that Kevin Kellom consented to officer’s entering his home, and ‘supports’ this argument by quoting two partial-statements to purposefully take them out of context,” Ayad wrote.

“On the very day of his son’s killing while still emotionally shaken, Kevin Kellom was interviewed by police and stated the following in regard to the encounter he had through his screen door with officers standing on his porch:

A. And he said, “Open your door.” I said, “Open my door for what?” I said, “What’s the problem?” I said, “I didn’t call the police.” And the other guy said, Open the motherfucking door or I’m going to tear it down.” I opened the door and I let them in. I ain’t got nothing to hide from the police. I let them in . . .”

The defendants argued that there was evidence the younger Kellom lived at his father’s home, whereas Atty. Ayad said the D-FAT team went to three different addresses before going to the father’s home. He said none of Terrance’s official ID’s and other documents used his father’s address. A search warrant for the father’s home was not obtained until three  hours after Terrance’s death.

In his report, forensics investigator Balash said, “Mr. Kellom suffered four (4) bullet strikes and all four are from different angles as well as directions. . . .[cites GSW’s from autopsy report]. Agent Quinn stated that Mr. Kellom charged at him and that he fired while retreating and falling with Mr. Kellom falling toward him (facedown) on the floor. The evidence and the account of the shooting do not correlate.”

Prosecutor Kym Worthy at 2015 press conference announcing no charges in Kellom death, pointing to autopsy diagram of bullet wounds. She had sealed the autopsy report until after her findings, although autopsy reports are public record. Entrance bullet wound in Terrance’s back, which had no exit wound, is visible in diagram. Worthy explained it by saying it resulted from Terrance “turning slightly to the right” as he was shot from the front. However, further defense investigation revealed it partially exited his chest, after he was shot in the back, likely because Quinn shot him as he lay on floor.

Balash said fired cartridge casings were found in the hallway, bathroom and on one of the closet shelves. In his deposition, Kevin Kellom said he saw three officers go into the bathroom and the two rear bedrooms before his son was killed. The police version indicated only Quinn shot Kellom while standing in front of him. Fitzgerald, who was holding Terrance, said he moved to the side when Quinn began shooting.

Hallway where Terrance’s body was allegedly found by police. Black cloth covers area where gouge was found in floor, which was later determined to be a bullet hole caused by a partially exited bullet, directly under Kellom’s body.

Balash said “GSW wound #3 was located in the back of Mr. Kellom with the bullet partially exited his right chest wall . . .something prevented this bullet from fully exiting the body.” Family members Kevin and Teria Kellom reported seeing Quinn stand over their fallen loved one, possibly with his boot on his back, and shooting him in the back as he lay on the floor. Officers handcuffed Kellom after the fusillade of shots ended.

Noting the poor quality of crime scene photographs, Balash reported there was no photograph of the uncovered floor area under which Terrance allegedly laid after being shot. (Note photo to right shows area with evidence markings is covered by what appears to be a black article of clothing.)

MSP personnel had noted a gouge in the floor there. Balash said a fired bullet was recovered next to Kellom. He said the counter number #8 (seen in photo at right) was assigned to two pieces of evidence, including a bullet hole in the floor beneath Kellom’s body, which disappeared in subsequent police reports and was converted to a shell casing.

He added he did not “note any testing of the involved officer (Quinn’s) weapon for either confirmation that he was the only shooter or for the ejection pattern of his weapon. The dispersal of the fired cartridge cases at the scene should have required that testing.”

Below is a quote from the medical examiner’s autopsy regarding GSW #3:

In his answer to the Quinn motion to dismiss, Ayad additionally says that MSP Investigator Richard Sanchez could not answer questions about why the third bullet did not completely exit Kellom’s body and says eyewitnesses confirmed the circumstances:

A photo of the bullet which partially exited Terrance’s back before it impacted a hard surface, likely the floor after Terrance fell face down after being shot initially, is included in Ayad’s ongoing explanation of GSW #3, taken from his continuing deposition of Investigator Sanchez.

Photos of partial exit wound in Terrance’s chest, resulting from shot in back which hit hard surface. It clearly did not result from Terrance “twisting slightly to the right” as Pros. Kym Worthy conjectured. Was she deliberately covering up the evidence that this was nothing but a brutal “assassination” as Kevin Kellom called it?

After the hearing, Judge Cox said he would issue rulings on the defendants’ three motions but did not give a time frame.

Below is interview with Kevin Kellom about his son, before massive march April 28, against Terrance’s execution that took over the streets of Joy Road for hours, as Detroit police hovered nervously around, worried that it would erupt into another Baltimore rebellion.

Related Documents:

TKellom First Amended Complaint, by Atty. Nabih Ayad:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TKellom-First-Amendend-Complaint.pdf

Terrance Kellom rest in power!

Part I and II of Atty Ayad’s response to motion for summary disposition:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/TK-response-to-motion-for-summary-disp.-Pt.pdf 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Response-to-motion-for-summary-disp.-P2-compressed-1.pdf

Forensic consultant David Balash report 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Balash-Forensics-report-TKellom.pdf 

RELATED STORIES:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2019/04/10/justice-for-terrance-kellom-aiyana-jones-jail-killer-lying-cops-remove-kym-worthy-james-craig/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/04/13/family-files-federal-lawsuit-in-police-killing-of-terrance-kellom-father-pros-worthy-must-go/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2017/03/17/feet-to-fire-march-with-families-victims-of-pros-kym-worthy-wed-march-22-2017-1-3-pm/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/10/02/families-block-woodward-in-detroit-to-protest-police-slaughter-of-their-loved-ones/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/08/21/no-justice-for-young-detroit-dad-terrance-kellom-worthy-refuses-to-prosecute-killer-cops-again/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/04/30/police-assassination-of-terrance-kellom-19-detroit-chief-craig-feds-have-blood-on-hands/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/03/hundreds-comfort-terrance-kelloms-family-at-vigil-will-autopsy-show-both-feds-dpd-shot-him/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/05/family-members-want-terrance-kelloms-autopsy-report-unsealed-funeral-announced-to-public/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/09/coalition-confronts-i-c-e-demands-justice-in-terrance-kellom-killing-end-to-other-attacks/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/06/20/detroit-rally-demands-charges-in-police-execution-of-19-yr-old-dad-terrance-kellom/

#JailKillerKops, #Justice4TerranceKellom, #Justice4AiyanaJones, #Justice4AdaishaMiller, #Justice4KimoniDavis, #DownwithPoliceState 

Above: Members of P.O.S.T., including Kevin Kellom at left, call for Pros. Kym Worthy to step down March 22, 2017. Kellom has never stopped fighting for his beloved son.

Donations for the Voice of Detroit are always needed to keep this paper, which is published pro bono, going. Among ongoing expenses are quarterly Lunar Pages web host charges of $350, costs for court documents such as those used in this story, internet fees, office supplies, etc. Please, if you can:

DONATE TO VOD at https://www.gofundme.com/VOD-readers-up

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I AM NOT MY CIRCUMSTANCES, I AM MY DETERMINATION

Posted on 04/30/2019 by Diane Bukowski

Detroit’s Monique Williams, RN, continues trail blazed by first Black nurse Mary Eliza Mahoney and Drs. Rebecca Lee Crumpler and Eliza Grier 

Williams overcame negative influences in her background to become a nurse, teacher, and prisoner advocate  

She is raising and inspiring her daughter and many other young women to build a brighter future for all

Ricardo Ferrell, staff writer Voice of Detroit

 By Ricardo Ferrell

April 30, 2019

Growing up on Detroit’s west side near Joy Road and Schoolcraft, an area once known for drug infestation and violence, Monique Williams managed to navigate around the traps and snares which could have been an obstacle to her growth and advancement had she not held on to her determination. She refused to follow in the footsteps of those closest to her.

Looking back 20 years, Monique shared with this writer how vulnerable and impressionable she was, and how several of her friends either ended up strung out on dope, dead, or in jail. She said she had a strong determination to make it out of a virtual  war zone filled with shootings and killings that happened regularly.

While Monique’s friends were busy staying in the streets, she was doing the opposite by studying, and staying in the books. She knew that in order to make a meaningful difference and help change a culture replete with hopelessness and despair, she would have to seek and acquire a solid education.

Monique Williams, RN

Recognizing the high demand for nurses, Monique enrolled in her first nursing class in 2006. She has striven relentlessly ever since, first obtaining two degrees. Monique now works at the Drew School for the Disabled, and mentors and assists students with their school work, while also working there as a shift nurse.

Monique Williams is following in the footsteps of those who came before her, including Mary Eliza Mahoney, Rebecca Lee Crumpler, and Eliza Anna Grier. They were some of the first Black women nurses and doctors known to enter the field in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Monique’s fiancé Keith Thomas, who has known her since childhood, told me, “Monique is the love of my life. Every day I wake she is on my mind. She is one of the most selfless individuals I’ve ever known.”

Monique is the second eldest of five siblings.

“I recall how she would help take care of her siblings while her mother worked multiple jobs to provide for them,” Keith continued.  “Monique had a child at an early age. Her daughter fueled her determination to excel in many classes on her way to the top. Now at 32, Monique is on the way to becoming the best in the medical profession.”

Keith said she started a career in cosmetology, but soon realized it didn’t fill her need to help people, so she switched professions and went into nursing.

Monique Williams and family

“She immediately found her calling and passion to help those she encountered,” he said. “Monique also has a beautiful and infectious smile, and a caring and loving heart, which shine during her work at Drew five days per week from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.,  helping children with special needs. The world is yet to know her, yet she does so much for the world.”

Keith said despite the negative energy in her background, Monique is determined to prevail, beating the odds by turning a negative into a positive.

“Now she works relentlessly to make the world a better place, as an advocate to young women all over the state, in addition to her work with the disabled and in-home health care,” Keith added. “She continues to be a blessing to everyone she comes in contact with during the course of her day.”

Keith went on, “She never let her storms wash away her dreams, or prevent her from seeing the sun which comes afterwards. She is now in a position to see to it that her beautiful teenage daughter is on track to attend a good college, where she can focus on a healthy future. She will not have to deal with the struggles her mother faced as a teenage mother, who had to surpass insurmountable odds, in an inner city that often times traps innocent-minded individuals, many of whom find themselves in the School-to-Prison pipeline.”

He said Monique extends herself to many incarcerated women and men with heart felt words of wisdom and hope that they too can prevail and overcome their own hardships by committing themselves to change their thinking, and focusing on finding their true purpose in life.

He summarized, “This beautiful spirit is definitely one of a kind, and her leadership skills and qualities will go on inspiring and motivating the next wave of positive Black women for the future. There’s no doubt whatsoever that Monique Williams will have an impact on generations to come. We love and appreciate you Pooda, for all that you do. Keep up the hard and meaningful work young lady, because you’re surely making a mark on this world. We will always recognize your greatness, for you have, and will continue touching countless lives.”

Writer’s final note: This universe has been blessed with the unique presence of Monique. Let the core of her existence touch everyone who is reading this written acknowledgment of one of God’s special creations, whose  heart, mind, spirit and soul is bringing hope to those that are lost, extending healing to those who are sick, and visiting those who are in prison. Monique Williams, I commend you for recognizing your true worth, which is that of being a service to others. May your beautiful heart and soul be filled with the light of joy and happiness you so truly deserve. Many women and young girls will find inspiration from your story, and strive to discover  their way out of the same dark circumstances.

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2ND ANNUAL MARYANNE GODBOLDO FORUM FOR PARENTAL RIGHTS SAT. APRIL 27

Posted on 04/21/2019 by Diane Bukowski

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FREE CHARLES K.K. LEWIS NOW! CRUELTY: 43 JWLOP RE-SENTENCING HEARINGS IN 3 YRS; HEARING TUES. APR. 16

Posted on 04/14/2019 by Diane Bukowski

NOTE: THE COURT HAS RESET THIS HEARING FOR 1:30 PM APRIL 16, 2019

MCR 6.004 (A): “The defendant and the people are entitled to a speedy trial and to a speedy resolution of all matters before the court. Whenever the defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial is violated, the defendant is entitled to dismissal of the charge with prejudice.”

 Charles K.K. Lewis: 43 hearings on juvenile lifer re-sentencing, one for each year of his incarceration; no end in sight

Judge Qiana Lillard denies sentencing defendants to top of guidelines if they exercise their 6th Amdt. right to trial, despite three COA opinions

“My stand will help all these little kids coming after me whose court files have been lost”–Lewis

By Diane Bukowski

April 14, 2019

Charles K.K.. Lewis awaits belated start of his 43rd juvenile lifer re-sentencing hearing March 23, 2019.

DETROIT — In the case of juvenile lifer Charles K.K. Lewis, are Wayne County Pros. Kym Worthy,  Judge Qiana Lillard, and AP Tom Dawson obstructing justice in order to protect Lillard from further disastrous Court of Appeals rulings, three of which have remanded defendants to a judge other than Lillard for sentencing?

Those Appeals Courts cited Judge Lillard’s stated policy of sentencing defendants to the top of the guidelines if they insist on their Sixth Amendment right to a trial instead of pleading guilty at the outset.  In a fourth case, People v. Walker, an MSC ruling is expected shortly. Inside sources indicate that it may result in a suspension of Judge Lillard from the bench.

“At this point, it’s probably better to just move on to the sentencing,” Lewis told Judge Lillard during his last hearing March 29. “I know you have a policy of sentencing people to the high end of the guidelines. The only thing I need to deal with is whether I’m going to start my appeal of right today or whether I’m going to start it nine months from now.”

Judge Lillard kept interjecting that she had no such policy, but it is documented in transcripts from the cases of Christobal DeLeon (2016), Derek James Smith (2015), Floyd Pennington (2014), and Harold Lamont Walker (2014). (Read opinions below story.)

Judge Qiana Lillard sported green nail polish in support of her alma mater Notre Dame March 29, 2019. Her mentor, Kym Worthy, also graduated from Notre Dame.

Lewis says he has no confidence that a mitigation hearing in front of Lillard will result in anything other than a sentence of life without parole, in part because Lillard already denied a motion to sentence him to a term of 40-60 years filed by SADO defense attorney Valerie Newman in 2016. Newman did not appeal.

The Judge has held 43 hearings in Lewis’ re-sentencing over three years, after denying his earlier motion to dismiss his case due to the loss of 28 years of his court files and his Register of Actions. His 44th hearing has now been set for Tues. April 16, 2019, at 1:30 PM, when yet more hearing dates will be set.

Lewis says he is “100% confident” that any Appeals Court will consider his and his lawyer’s contentions on the record that a mitigation hearing cannot be held without a complete court file.

They have also filed motions recognizable under the U.S. Constitution declaring his actual innocence and incompetent assistance of trial counsel.

Judge Joseph Maher

Judge Deborah Thomas read his first trial transcript, now missing, and opined that he should have been considered acquitted because there was no record of why Judge Joseph Maher dismissed the jury then.

There is also no record of who the jurors were in his third trial in front of Maher, which supplanted a second jury seated in front of Judge Ollie Bivins, the first African-American judge on the Genesee County Circuit Court bench. Judge Maher, a long-time racist, took it back from Bivins. For information on Judge Bivins’ illustrious history fighting for his people, see http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/people/2008/01/ollie_bivins.html

Judge Ollie Bivins, Jr. sworn in Oct. 10, 1968. Flint Journal photo.

Lewis has contended on the record that he was the first juvenile lifer to win a re -sentencing in front of Judge Edward Ewell in 2012, and that therefore he is not subject to the Michigan statutes established for juvenile lifer re-sentencings in 2014, under ex post facto rulings. 

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith recently banned the portion of those statutes that denied re-sentenced juvenile lifers access to earned good time and disciplinary credits, also citing the ex post facto bar.

“Once we set the mitigation date, Mr. Schulman and I will work together and come up with dates for all the experts to testify,” Dawson said. “Mr. Lewis can then decide how much he wants to participate—that’s his right. We can then decide how to move forward. Mr. Schulman and I can then present evidence and the court has ability to address it sometime in the future.”

For the second time in the last two hearings, defense attorney Sanford Schulman presented himself for the hearing set for 10 a.m., then disappeared to another courtroom for over an hour. He and Dawson then left to confer in the witness room.

Lewis told VOD that he was about to be taken back to his room in the Macomb Correctional Facility when the Court finally called and said it was ready.

Schulman reported that two “mitigation experts” he tried to hire for Lewis’ hearing have now backed out. The second, Gayl Amalfitano, submitted a questionable resume as documented in VOD’s last story. 

He said that once a mitigation expert is hired, that expert would designate any other experts needed for the hearing, causing further delay.

Two television news cameramen waited patiently in the courtroom during all the delays.

Some of Charles ‘K.K.’ Lewis supporters rally outside courthouse during 2016 hearing.

Related documents:

Court of Appeals dissenting opinion in Harold Lamont Walker case, pending Michigan Supreme Court decision .http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/COA-H-L-WALKER-dissenting.pdf

Court of Appeals opinion castigating Judge Lillard for racial anti-immigrant comments in Christobal DeLeon case: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Lillard-People-v-DeLeon-2.pdf

Court of Appeals opinion in Floyd Pennington case: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/People-of-Michigan-COA-Floyd-Ray-Pennington.pdf

Court of Appeals opinion in Derek James Smith case: http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/Lillard-People-v-Smith.pdf

#FREECHARLESLEWISNOW, #FREEMICHIGANJUVENILELIFERSNOW, #ENDMASSINCARCERATION, #ENDSCHOOLTOPRISONPIPELINE 

Related stories:

JUDGE LILLARD TRAPPING CHARLES K.K. LEWIS TO STOP ACCESS TO HIGHER COURTS? HEARING FRI. MARCH 29

 

Continue reading →

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JUSTICE FOR TERRANCE KELLOM, AIYANA JONES! JAIL KILLER, LYING COPS, REMOVE KYM WORTHY, JAMES CRAIG

Posted on 04/10/2019 by Diane Bukowski

______________________________________________________________

 (Note: the story on the Aiyana Jones settlement falsely says that police had a warrant for her father Charles Jones. The warrant was for Chauncey Owens, her aunt’s fiancé, who did not live in the Jones household.)

Kellom lawsuit continues in front of Judge Sean Cox April 16, 2019 at 2 p.m.

A day before stunning revelations about deaths of Terrance Kellom, Aiyana Jones, Chief Craig tries to blame lying cops for “letting criminals go free” 

Will the real criminals Craig, Pros. Kym Worthy, and killer cops go to prison instead?

By Diane Bukowski

Commentary

April 9, 2019

DETROIT —  Will Detroit killer cops now be sent to prison?  What about lying cops, who Chief James Craig said he will fire in a newscast April 3, only to be confronted in the following days with lies told by cops in the slaughters of Terrance Kellom, 19, and Aiyana Jones, 7?  Will Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy, Chief Craig, and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade face charges of collusion and obstruction of justice in the cases of  Kellom, Jones, and many more? 

Terrance Kellom: Officer says in sworn deposition that 19-yr.-old father was executed by Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team (D-FAT)

In a stunning deposition announced April 8 by attorney Nabih Ayad, Detroit police officer Darrell Fitzgerald swore under oath that the version he and 0ther police gave of the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Task Force (D-FAT)’s slaughter of Terrance Kellom 19, on April 25, 2015, was a complete falsehood. 

Attorney Nabih Ayad with Kevin Kellom and Terrance’s son. ““His son asks me all the time where is my daddy? Is my daddy coming home?” said Kellom. Photo: Michigan Radio

He corroborated the statements of Kellom’s father Kevin Kellom and family eyewitnesses that Terrance was brought downstairs, unhandcuffed, by two Detroit police officers, then knelt on the ground in the hallway to the family’s living room, surrendering.

He denied Kellom previously had jumped through a hole in a second floor bedroom closet onto the first floor and emerged,  threatening cops with a hammer. He said the Task Force, specifically I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn, executed the young father as his family watched.

He also said that forensics and autopsy reports showed that more than one cop killed Kellom, since different types of bullets penetrated his body from different directions, including from the back.

“The witnessing officer changed his story and made clear that there was no hammer in Terrance Kellom’s hand and that he never saw a hammer at the scene of the house that day,” Atty. Ayad said during a press conference held on the steps of the U.S. Federal Courthouse April 8.

“They assassinated my son,” Kevin Kellom told an angry rally of hundreds, largely youth, near their home on Evergreen in Detroit April 26, 2015.“They [police] closed the [front] door, then they brought my son down the stairs, and they shot him in the chest. They executed my son in my face.”

Fizgerald was the lead Detroit police officer in a joint task force that included I.C.E. agent Mitchell Quinn, earlier fired from the Detroit police force over assaultive behavior, and cops from various suburbs.

Prosecutor Kym Worthy at 2015 press conference announcing no charges in Kellom death.

Despite having seen the father and son returning home from the store on the street, when the D-FAT could easily have arrested him, they instead invaded the home without a search warrant and slaughtered Kellom.

Pros. Kym Worthy sealed Kellom’s autopsy report and waited for months until she finally announced no charges would be filed against Quinn or the rest of the team.

She admitted no fingerprints had been found on the hammer Terrance Kellom allegely brandished, and that there was evidence that at least one bullet had penetrated Kellom in the back.

Below, Kevin Kellom tells what he and his family witnessed during the slaughter of their son Terrance on Aug. 

Aiyana Jones settlement

On April 4, Attorney Geoffrey Fieger announced that the City of Detroit had agreed to an $8.2 million settlement in the 2010 slaughter of Aiyana Jones, 7, by another joint task force incuding Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley during a military-style assault on her grandmother Mertilla Jones’ home.  Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said the family would not comment, but a family friend’s Facebook comment on grandmother Mertilla Jones’ page said it all: “No amount is enough, them bitches need to fry.”  

Aiyana Jones, 7, dad Charles Jones during happy times that ended with police bullets and lies.

Worthy and Assistant Prosecutor David Moran, along with trial Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway, colluded in two trials of Detroit officer Joseph Weekley, part of a Detroit “Special Response” task force that forcibly entered the home of Aiyana Jones, 7, on May 16, 2010 and shot the little girl to death with an MP-5 submachine gun, on Detroit’s impoverished east side.

Weekley contended that Mertilla Jones had confronted him and shoved his gun, causing it to fire accidentally. Evidence produced at two trials against Weekley showed that could not have happened.

Meanwhile Aiyana’s dad Charles Jones was sentenced to 40-60 years in prison largely on the false testimony of jail-house snitches who claimed he supplied the gun to Chauncey Owens to kill Je’Rean Blake “48 Hours” before the slaughter at Aiyana’s home. In a police video shown at Owens’ trial, Owens denied any involvement by Aiyana’s father, and named another man entirely.

The anguish this family has experienced in the years since the brutal slaughter of their little angel Aiyana goes far beyond that one incident. Above, Mertilla Jones recounted the horrific events of that night. Her version was largely corroborated by a medical examiner who testified at Weekley’s trial that the gunshot that killed Aiyana showed no stippling, but that that did not mean Weekley was firing from a distance.

He said there is also no stippling in a contact gunshot wound, which Ms. Jones described during this court session. She was widely reviled in the mainstream media for that comment as well as a comment that police “came to kill” her family.

What more could be surmised from the fact that an A&E “48 Hours” production crew worked closely with Detroit police in planning the entire raid to satisfy public blood lust, when in fact the cops could have arrested Chauncey Owens, the target of the raid, several times when they saw him walking the streets as they surveilled the house?

Craig: lying cops will be fired???

Police Chief James Craig said in a widely announced interview on WXYZ Channel 7 on April 3, just days before the Kellom and Jones announcements, that that he would “fire” Detroit police officers caught lying, because their previous lies prevented them from testifying against “criminals” who then walked free. The broadcast targeted two women officers charged with lying about domestic incidents, instead of the many cops who have been shown to lie in order to send “criminals” to prison for decades.

 

What about Olie McMillian, who had evidence from 16 cases in his home?

Earlier, Chris Graveline, Director of Professional Standards and Constitutional Policing, described what criminal case files and evidence were found in the home of retired Detroit Police Sgt. Olie McMillian during his eviction Feb. 7. Graveline spoke during a Feb. 14 community meeting of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, but did not provide names of the defendants or  case numbers. He reported that materials police officials took out of a dumpster and the residence included:

  • Portions of case files and evidence relating to 16 criminal cases from 1997 to approximately 2008, when McMillian worked in the DPD homicide division.
  • Physical evidence including clothing, cell phones, and a handgun.

Deputy Police Chief Todd Bettison says no wrong has been done during term of Chief Craig.

He said the DPD is sorting through the files and evidence to determine whether the cases are still open or closed, or have gone to trial, among other matters, then will turn them over to the Wayne County Prosecutor. That was Feb. 14, but nothing has been heard nearly two months later from the offices of Chief Craig or Kym Worthy regarding whether charges of concealing evidence will be brought against McMillian.  Even more important, nothing has been revealed about the names of the 16 defendants, whether they are in prison, and whether the evidence concealed in McMillian’s home affected the outcome of their trials.

Strangely, Deputy Chief Todd Bettison commented that no such instances of concealed or otherwise corrupted evidence have occurred since Chief Craig’s appointment by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr in 2013. 

Robocop Melendez, who beat Floyd Dent, earlier framed son of Coalition V. Police Brutality member and dozens of others, killed two

“Robocop” William Melendez was recently in the news for nearly beating Detroit auto worker Floyd Dent to death last hear. But previously he had a long tenure with the Detroit Police Department, during which he murdered one man. In 2000, he was allowed to testify in the 2000 trial of the young son of a Coalition v. Detroit Police Brutality activist, accused of armed robbery. Melendez claimed the young man had a gun, which was never found. His attorney filed a post-conviction motion for relief after discovering Melendez had been convicted of filing a false police report.

Retired Police Officer Reginald Crawford

Ironically, the trial was held in front of then Judge Kym Worthy. Worthy denied the motion. Reggie Crawford, featured in the video at top condemning lying cops, campaigned on behalf of Melendez for the young man’s conviction. He also claimed that Lamar Grable had a gun when he was shot to death 8 times in the back and chest by three-time killer cop Eugene Brown.

The jury in a civil trial against Brown vehemently disagreed, awarding $4 million to the Grable family for Lamar’s murder. The city appealed and lost in the state Supreme Court, increasing the amount to $6 million with interest.

The 10-yr. battle by Arnetta Grable and Lamar’s father Herman Vallery was finally victorious, but took its toll. Ms. Grable passed at the age of 69 in 2017, and Mr. Vallery passed a year later. Cornell Squires, whose son was framed by Melendez, passed at the age of 57 in 2016.

(L to r) Members of Original Detroit Coalition Vs. Police Brutality attended rally for Terrance Kellom April 28, 2015. Shown outside the family’s home are (l to r) Arnetta Grable, Jr. Butch Carrington, Arnetta Grable Sr., Herman Vallery and Cornell Squires.

Related stories:

Related stories on Terrance Kellom: 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/04/30/police-assassination-of-terrance-kellom-19-detroit-chief-craig-feds-have-blood-on-hands/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/03/hundreds-comfort-terrance-kelloms-family-at-vigil-will-autopsy-show-both-feds-dpd-shot-him/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/05/family-members-want-terrance-kelloms-autopsy-report-unsealed-funeral-announced-to-public/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/05/09/coalition-confronts-i-c-e-demands-justice-in-terrance-kellom-killing-end-to-other-attacks/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/06/20/detroit-rally-demands-charges-in-police-execution-of-19-yr-old-dad-terrance-kellom/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/04/01/anthony-clark-reed-24-black-dies-during-detroit-police-traffic-stop-i-cant-breathe/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/06/11/detroit-police-prosecutor-cover-up-in-death-of-anthony-clark-reed-24/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/10/11/warrior-cop-weekley-walks-again-in-aiyana-jones-death/  (One of dozens of stories on the death of Aiyana Jones published in Voice of Detroit, which covered all three of Weekley’s trials as well as the trials of Aiyana’s father Charles Jones and Uncle Chauncey Owens. Put “Aiyana” in search engine to find stories.)

Stories below detail many of known killings by Detroit police during Kym Worthy’s tenure as Wayne County Prosecutor, since Jan. 6, 2004.

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/10/11/detroit-police-sex-scandals-who-is-monitoring-police-brutality-2/  

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/10/25/ella-bully-cummings-killer-cop-chief/

#BlackLivesMatter, #BlackLivesMatterDetroit, #TerranceKellom, #SavageTee, #NBTF, #Fuck12, #LamarGrable, #AiyanaJones, #PoliceState, #PrisonNation, #BeatBacktheBullies, #ODCAP

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RUSSIAGATE FEAR-MONGERING IN U.S. PRODUCES BILLIONS IN PROFITS FOR ARMS INDUSTRY, GROWTH OF FAR RIGHT

Posted on 04/04/2019 by Diane Bukowski

‘Truth was the real take-away from Mueller’: RT America’s Sanchez tackles Russiagate (VIDEO)

So many countries meddle in US affairs – and the US meddles right back. Why did Russia become the exclusive boogieman; the bête noire of the US media’s road to nowhere? RT America host Rick Sanchez explains how Russophobia drives the biggest, most powerful industry in the world: US weapons. 

Rick Sanchez has broken down the true lessons of the Robert Mueller probe and Russiagate, revealing why he believes Russia was pegged as the US’s “exclusive boogieman.”  

U.S. Pres. Trump, Russian leader Vladimir Putin, US Special AG Robert Mueller

On Thursday’s edition of ‘The News with Rick Sanchez’, the show’s host gave his unfiltered response to the Mueller report that aimed to finally put an end to the two-and-a-half-year-long anti-Russian hysteria in US politics and the mainstream media. 

Sanchez claimed “truth was the real take-away” from the report, given that there was no evidence of Russian collusion and despite this lack of evidence, so many MSM journalists readily participated in Russiagate, leaving real stories untold in their pursuit of this “trail to nowhere.”

 Instead, Sanchez explained that the “demonization of Russia” is used to drive the “most powerful industry in the history of the world” – US weapons.

 “Using a complicit media, the arms industry rakes in billions and billions of dollars simply convincing us and other countries all over the world that they need protection from Russia,” said Sanchez. “Whether Russia really poses a threat or not doesn’t really matter.”

U.S. missile strikes Libya as part of joint invasion with NATO.

 

https://www.rt.com/usa/455101-rick-sanchez-response-mueller-probe/

ICYMI: MUELLER’S COLLUSION DELUSION: US MEDIA IS FURIOUS THEIR PRESIDENT ISN’T A RUSSIAN SPY

The dysfunction in American politics has reached the bizarre stage where there is visible anger that President Donald Trump didn’t collude with Russia to take the office.

Russiagate has been a fixture in the news for two years, where the media sold a story that it wasn’t a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ Special Counsel Robert Mueller would find evidence to prove that Trump was Moscow’s man in the White House. Unfortunately, Mueller wasn’t playing ball and – having taken the unprecedented approach of considering facts and not wishful thinking – he concluded that there was no evidence of collusion to be found. So ICYMI looks at how America is dealing with the fact that Trump may have been elected because people thought he was the best option. Like what you see? Please subscribe: http://youtube.com/ICYMIvideo.

RUSSIAGATE HYSTERIA LIVES ON: ELECTION MEDDLING SANCTIONS BILL HAS ITS DAY IN THE SENATE

April 3, 2019

Mueller may have had his day, but the specter of Russian meddling still hangs over Washington. A bill newly introduced in the Senate promises to slap harsh sanctions on Russia should future election interference be discovered.

The ‘Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines’ (DETER) Act is the latest attempt by US lawmakers to squeeze Russia for a range of perceived election-related offenses. Introduced on Wednesday by Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida), it would require the Director of National Intelligence to determine within 30 days after every federal election whether Russia or any foreign government attempted to interfere.

If the DNI were to find such interference, it would require sanctions to be imposed on a list of Russian banks and energy companies. It would also prohibit US citizens from engaging in business with any entity owned by the Russian government, and freeze the assets of Russian political and business leaders targeted for sanction in the US.

Chris Van Hollen and Marco Rubio

The bill’s text, seen by Reuters, appears to be a carbon copy of a bill introduced by Van Hollen and Rubio in January 2018. That iteration of the DETER Act never made it past introduction, and has languished in Congressional limbo ever since.

While the bill pays lip service to targeting election interference from “China, Iran, North Korea, and other foreign governments of concern,” its main focus is undoubtedly Russia.

Whatever form any potential interference takes, six Russian banks would be immediately blacklisted: Sberbank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank, Bank of Moscow and Rosselkhozbank. Ditto for Russia’s energy sector: the act requires “two or more” of Russian energy firms Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil to be sanctioned if interference is discovered.

 Establishing what exactly constitutes ‘Russian interference’ is left up to the US intelligence agencies, reporting to the DNI.

Although the oft-repeated line is that “17 US intelligence agencies” found evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, only three of these agencies claimed to have noticed any foul play: the CIA, FBI and NSA. The DNI’s report, published in January 2017, was nevertheless characterized in the media as representing all 17 agencies.

After last year’s midterm elections, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a report concluding that “Russia, and other foreign countries, including China and Iran, conducted influence activities and messaging campaigns,” but were unsuccessful in influencing the vote. Coats’ report did not provide details of these “messaging campaigns.”

Sanctions are a favorite tool in the US diplomatic arsenal, but their effectiveness has been questioned. Russia has one of the world’s lowest debt to GDP ratios (somewhere around 13 percent), and has for years been selling off US bonds and stockpiling gold. In his state of the nation speech in February, Putin declared that Russia now has enough cash in its reserves to cover all of its external debt.

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LEFT OPT FOR ELECTION SCAREMONGERING? REPORT CLAIMS ‘US DARK MONEY’ MEDDLING IN EUROPE

FAR RIGHT PROTESTERS IN EUROPE

March 29, 2019

A new alarming report claims American Christian conservative groups funneled millions to fund “shocking” meddling in European politics. Seems like a big scoop, or just a ploy to sway European Parliament elections?

The report released by the UK-based political website openDemocracy this week spares no black paint to produce a picture of gross interference in European affairs. The perpetrators are conservative Christian charities, which, the records show, pumped at least $50 million into European countries.

U.S. Pres. Trump and right-wing evangelist Franklin Graham

All the right names that can scare a left-leaning reader are duly mentioned. Donald Trump? Check. Vladimir Putin? Check. Steve Bannon? Check, three times. Also listed are billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, the DeVos family, including Blackwater founder Erik Prince, and the evangelical preacher Franklin Graham – who notably travelled to Russia earlier this month, the report stressed for some arcane reason.

Of course the US public records over the past decade, which openDemocracy used as the source for the figure, don’t identify the recipients. But the readers may well assume that they had the most nefarious goals in mind.

“The scale of this meddling by US extremists is shocking, but sadly no surprise to us. Every day European societies face concerted attacks by outside forces seeking to impose reproductive coercion,” commented Caroline Hickson, regional director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s European Network. “This is utterly at odds with the European values of democracy and human rights.”

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session at the European Parliament on March 14, 2018 in Strasbourg, eastern France. / FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

The authors make no secret that they compiled their work ahead of the European Parliament elections, which will be held throughout EU member states in late May. Right-wing and Eurosceptic parties are widely expected to score big wins at the ballot. Some 40 incumbent MEPs penned a letter calling for action to investigate “US Christian fundamentalists” and their influence on Europe.

The report seems to be an exercise in scaremongering, painting private donations made by a conservative foundation as something untoward, John Laughland, British conservative author and historian, told RT.

“Some of the organizations that they mention I personally know. This is just ridiculous. There are MEPs and European political parties that receive money from American sources, including liberals,” he said.

The notion of ‘dark money’ being used to ‘interfere’ in European affairs has been around in some political circles for quite some time. The only difference with this report is that the parties accused of interfering are private charities rather than a foreign nation like Russia, the most popular target for such accusations in the past few years.

Perceiving ‘dark money’ behind political opponents is a kind of conspiratorial thinking that some people in the left-wing camp demonstrate, Laughland added. “They think that any kind of movement or current of ideas that is not their current of ideas is either because people are stupid or because they are paid,” he said.

The complaints about “Russian election interference” made by the EU and the US, which have a long record of their own meddling in foreign nations, looks like a vivid example of pot calling kettle black, he said. The left complaining about the right receiving foreign money while receiving foreign money themselves would look similarly hypocritical.

British Journalist Neil Clark, pointed out that while $50 million may seem like a large sum of money even spent over ten years, it dwarfs compared to the billions and billions floating around in European politics. A significant portion of that money goes to liberal causes funded by wealthy sponsors like Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, the best-known person of that ilk.

The impact that his Open Society Foundations made on Europe, especially in the eastern part during post-Soviet transition, is undeniable. Incidentally, the foundation is one of the primary sponsors of openDemocracy itself, alongside US-based groups like National Endowment for Democracy, and the Ford Foundation.

Clark warned against piling up a dozen Christian conservative groups into one vaguely neo-Nazi-shaped boogeyman, which is what the report seems to have done. More so, if the goal was to turn it into a campaigning point for the May elections.

“The issue that the left should be fighting on is economic. Employment, rising poverty in Europe, austerity – these are the issues they should be focusing on, and not culture wars,” he told RT. “And this report to me seems as if it wants to encourage culture wars… Basically, Steve Bannon versus George Soros.”

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