SURVEILLANCE STATE USA CAN MONITOR YOUR CELL PHONE CALLS
Charles Lewis
By Charles Lewis
August 4, 2018
I just read the following article in the July issue of “Criminal Legal News,” “Cell-Site Simulators: Police Use Military Technology To Reach Out And Spy On You,” by Christopher Zoukis. The article is about CellSite Simulators. This according to CLN was technology that was developed by the military to fight foreign terrorists.
According to CLN, “Cell-site simulators, also known as stingrays, trick cell phones into connecting to the device instead of an actual cell tower. Police operating the devices can track the location of all connected cellphones within a certain radius, (500 meters, 547 yards) and also can potentially intercept metadata about phone calls (the number of calls made and length of the call), the content of the calls and text messages, as well as the nature of data usage-including brower information.All of this takes place unbeknownst to users whose cellphones have been hijacked.”
It is absolutely mind-blowing to know that your local police force could possibly have a device that they can use to track and listen to cell phones in say a hundred block radius. Stingrays are also used by the FBI, ATF, DHS, ICE, DEA, NSA and US Marshalls. CLN also wrote “Cell-site simulators are suitcase-size devices that mimic the signal of actual cellphone towers-they even emit a stronger signal than legitimate towers. And, because cellphones are programmed to seek the best signal, all phones within the radius of the signal will connect to the device.
“Despite he growing popularity of these powerful devices, little is known about their exact capabilities. Perhaps more importantly, even less is known about what police are doing with their stingrays.”
Some of hundreds of protesters condemn justice system outside Detroit home where police killed Terrance Kellom,19, in 2015. Photo: Kenneth Snodgrass
Can you imagine stingrays in the hands of corrupt cops? Can you imagine what they could do with a device like that? Manufacturers have gone to great lengths to keep information about stingray capabilities, and use, secret.
The Harris Corporation has worked with the FBI to create a NonDisclosure Agreement (NDA) that prevents local and state law enforcement agencies from revealing any information about the stingrays, including its very existence.
Your local police department could be using this device right now without your knowledge. There is nothing to stop rogue officers with access to stingrays from spying on those running for public office. Imagine what a rogue officer could do with highly sensitive information illegally obtained about a particular public official? A rogue officer could determine the outcome of many political positions with the right information. The moral of this story is watch what you say on your cell phone because your conversations are not personal or private. And, watch what you text. If you don’t want to end up in a compromising situation say nothing that will hurt you.
“The Facebook intervention is a qualitative escalation of the McCarthyite offensive.”
Facebook has assumed additional political police powers, disrupting a planned counter-demonstration against white supremacists, set for August 12th in Washington, on the grounds that it was initiated and inspired by “Russians” as part of a Kremlin campaign to “sow dissention” in the U.S. The Facebook intervention is a qualitative escalation of the McCarthyite offensive launched by the Democrat Party and elements of the national security state, and backed by most of the corporate media, initially to blame Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat on “collusion” between Wikileaks, “the Russians” and the Trump campaign to steal and publicize embarrassing Clinton campaign emails.
Two sides of the same coin.
After failing to produce one shred of hard evidence to support their conspiracy theory, the anti-Russia hysteria mongers switched gears, focusing on the alleged purchase of about $100,000 in Facebook ads by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a St. Petersburg-based Russian company, over a multi-year period. The problem was, most of the ads had no direct connection to the presidential contest, or were posted after the election was over, and many had no political content, at all. The messages were all over the place, politically, with the alleged Russian operatives posing as Christian activists, pro- and anti-immigration activists, and supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller was forced to flip the script, indicting 13 Russians for promoting general “discord” and undermining “public confidence in democracy” in the United States – thus creating a political crime that has not previously been codified in the United States.
“Mueller was forced to flip the script.”
In doubling down on an unraveling conspiracy tale, the Mueller probe empowered itself to tar and feather all controversial speech that can be associated with utterances by “Russians,” even if the alleged “Russians” are, in fact, mimicking the normal speech of left- or right-wing Americans — a descent, not into Orwell’s world, but that of Kafka (Beyond the Law) and Heller (Catch-22).
White supremacist’s car plows into protest against their Charlottesville rally, killing one, Aug. 12, 2017.
Facebook this week announced that it had taken down 32 pages and accounts that had engaged in “coordinated and inauthentic behavior” in promoting the August 12 counter-demonstration against the same white supremacists that staged the fatal “Unite the Right” demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, a year ago. Hundreds of anti-racists had indicated their intention to rally against “Unite the Right 2.0” under the banner of Shut It Down DC, which includes D.C. Antifascist Collective, Black Lives Matter D.C., Hoods4Justice, Resist This, and other local groups.
Facebook did not contend that these anti-racists’ behavior was “inauthentic,” but that the first ad for the event was purchased by a group calling itself “Resisters” that Facebook believes were behaving much like the Internet Research Agency. “At this point in our investigation, we do not have enough technical evidence to state definitively who is behind it,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy . “But we can say that these accounts engaged in some similar activity and have connected with known I.R.A accounts.”
“The Mueller probe empowered itself to tar and feather all controversial speech that can be associated with utterances by ‘Russians,’ even if the alleged ‘Russians’ are, in fact, mimicking the normal speech of left- or right-wing Americans.”
Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning, whose prison sentence for sending secret documents to Wikileaks was commuted by President Obama, said the counter-protest was “organic and authentic”and that activists had begun organizing several months ago. “Folks from D.C. and Charlottesville have been talking about this since at least February,” Manning told The New York Times.
“This was a legitimate Facebook event that was being organized by Washington, D.C. locals,” says Dylan Petrohilos , of Resist This. Petrohilos was one of the defendants in the Trump inauguration “riot” prosecutions. He protested Facebook’s disruption of legitimate free speech and assembly. “DC organizers had controlled the messaging on the no UTR fb page and now FB made it harder for grassroots people to organize,” he tweeted. The organizers insist the August 12 counter-demonstration — “No Unite the Right 2 – DC” — is still a go, as is the white supremacist rally.
Whoever was first to buy a Facebook ad — the suspected Russian “Resisters,” or Workers Against Racism, who told the Daily Beast they decided to host their own anti-“Unite the Right 2.0” event because they thought “Resisters” was an “inexperienced liberal organizer” – there was no doubt whatsoever that the white supremacists would be confronted by much larger numbers of counter-demonstrators, in Washington. Nobody in Russia needed to tell U.S. anti-racists to shut the white supremacists down, or vice versa. The Russians didn’t invent American white supremacy, or the native opposition to it. Even if Mueller, Facebook, the Democratic Party and the howling corporate media mob are to be believed, the “Russians” are simply mimicking U.S. political rhetoric and sloganeeriing – and weakly, at that. The Workers Against Racism thought the “Resisters” weren’t worth partnering with, but that the racist rally must be countered. The Shut It Down DC coalition didn’t need the “Resisters” to crystallize their thinking on white supremacism.
“Chelsea Manning said the counter-protest was ‘organic and authentic.”
Robert Mueller, sixth head of the FBI.
The Democratic Party and corporate media, speaking for most of the U.S. ruling class — and actually bullying one of its top oligarchs, Mark Zuckerberg — is on its own bizarre and twisted road to fascism. (Donald Trump’s proto-fascism is the old fashioned, all-American type that the white supremacists want to celebrate on August 12.) With former FBI Director Robert Mueller at the head of the pack, they have created a pseudo legal doctrine whereby “Russians” (or U.S. spooks pretending to be Russians) can be indicted for launching a #MeToo campaign of mimicry, echoing the rhetoric and memes indigenous to U.S. political struggles, while the genuine, “authentic” American political voices — the people who are being mimicked — are labeled co-conspirators in a foreign-based “plot,” and their rights to speech and assembly are trashed.
That’s truly crazy, but devilishly clever, too. If “Russian” mimics (or cloaked spooks) can reproduce the vocabulary and political program of U.S. dissent, then all of us actual U.S. lefties can be dismissed as “dupes of the Russians” or “co-conspirators” in the speech crimes of our mimics — for sounding like ourselves.
The excellent video above is by long-time activist and photojournalist Kenny Snodgrass. He is the official videographer for Voice of Detroit, but also publishes independently on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/KennySnod.
“Black youth in danger!”
Protest frame-ups of Charles K.K. Lewis, Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy, Kelly Nobles, Ethan Carter, others
Next court date for Lewis Fri. Aug. 3 at 9 am, Rm. 502; Searcy has “review hearing” scheduled Aug. 17
Mothers of Adaisha Miller, Kimoni Davis condemn murders by police
Rally condemns Pros. Kym Worthy’s complicity in mass incarceration of juvenile lifers, others
By Diane Bukowski
July 22, 2018
Some of the dozens of people who turned out for the rally July 20, 2018. Videographer Kenny Snodgrass is at left; more had left shortly before photo was taken.
DETROIT – “Free those juvenile prisoners that you’re holding captive, Kym Worthy, free those that are wrongly convicted, Kym Worthy, free those that have been falsified by police officers and falsified evidence, Kym Worthy, free those that are wrongly convicted, America: 2.9 million, that’s insanity!” Marilyn Jordan cried out during a people’s rally at the Frank Murphy Hall July 20.
Marilyn Jordan marches for her son June 17, 2011.
Jordan, whose son Kelly Nobles is serving life without parole, is president of the Detroit People’s Task Force, Inc. (DPTF), founded in 2009 by prisoners and their families in the wake of the Detroit crime lab shutdown. At least 147 people are serving time in Michigan prisons based on falsified results from that lab.
The rally picked up force as other groups and individuals joined to speak out against what they said is a “prison nation” that endangers Black youth in particular.
They included the national “Feet to Fire” campaign which is organizing against murders by police, the BYP 100 which is a national youth group between the ages of 18-35 organizing to end mass incarceration and prisons, period, and many individuals who have fallen victim to the criminal injustice system.
BYP100 members led the crowd in various chants, including, “Stop the New Jim Crow, mass incarceration, police brutality, the whole damn system, shut it down! Stop the cops and fund Black futures.”
Among advocates attending the rally was 25-year-old Jessica Lee, the girl friend of Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy, whose story VOD broke two years ago, recounting his 14-year struggle to overturn his false conviction for the murder of Jamal Segars outside Detroit City Airport on Sept. 4, 2004. Searcy’s is one of the 147 cases where falsified crime lab results landed people in prison.
Thelonious Searcy, in fight for his life.
Searcy filed a pro se motion for a new trial in July 2016, after self-confessed hit man Vincent Smothers came forward to say he, not Searcy, had murdered Segars.
Smothers sent written affidavits confessing to the crime to numerous law enforcement and media sources for several years, while Searcy was busy researching falsehoods in his homicide file and court transcripts. His trial judge, Wayne County’s Presiding Criminal Court Judge Timothy Kenny, finally granted an evidentiary hearing in August, 2017. It lasted from Jan. 2018 through June 29.
Smothers took the stand and gave a thorough account of the Segars murder corroborated by ballistics evidence and other witnesses and events at the scene.
Searcy earlier discovered that crime lab technicians mislabeled a .40 caliber bullet taken from Segars’ body by the medical examiner. AP Patrick Muscat and later AP Timothy Chambers falsely contended that the murder weapon was a .45 caliber gun seized from Searcy’s grandmother’s home. During the trial, the prosecution deliberately lied to jurors, telling them that the bullets in Segars’ body could not be identified. Chambers retired with unexplained timing before the evidentiary hearing ended.
Searcy is still waiting for a ruling from Judge Kenny. (See previous stories on the Searcy case in “Related Stories” below.)
Below, Thelonious ‘Shawn’ Searcy’s girlfriend Jessica Lee, 25, who attended the rally with her two children, spoke out on his behalf during the rally.
Reporter-advocate Diane Bukowski also spoke on behalf of Michigan’s 247 juvenile lifers, still being held captive in Michigan prisons, many for decades, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016). The high court declared “juvenile life without parole” unconstitutional, and said “only the rarest” child should be sentenced to die in prison.
Wrongfully convicted juvenile lifer Charles Lewis, 42 years in prison.
But Michigan’s county prosecutors, including Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, as well as the Michigan Supreme Court in its June 20t Hyatt/Skinner ruling have ignored the U.S. Supreme Court’s dictates.
Bukowski recounted the case of juvenile lifer Charles ‘K.K.’ Lewis, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for 42 years since the age of 17, accused of the murder of an off-duty police officer in 1976, although all eyewitnesses including the officer’s own partner identified a completely different perpetrator, not Lewis. They testified they saw the real killer shotgun the officer from a white Lincoln Mark Iv.
Then Sgt. Gil Hill, who has been revealed as a corrupt cop with gangland and drug connections, interviewed the driver and released him without even a gunshot residue test.
Lewis and his family have undergone a grueling series of “re-sentencing” hearings in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lillard for nearly three years.
During the hearings, officials from the Wayne County Clerk’s office have testified that Lewis’ official court file is ‘lost,’ and that his Register of Actions has been wiped clean from 1976 through 1999. Lewis, a skilled ‘jail-house lawyer,” says court precedents indicate his case should therefore be dismissed.
Lewis’ next hearing is Fri. Aug. 3 at 9 a.m. in Judge Lillard’s courtroom #502. He is expecting that the judge will hear a series of motions he filed pro se, to dismiss his case due to actual innocence, ineffective assistance of trial counsel, the failure of the prosecutor to specify reasons for asking for LWOP again, and others. Judge Timothy Kenny appointed a defense attorney in the case, Sanford Schulman, after the motions were filed. But Schulman pledged during a hearing June 19 that he would preserve and argue Lewis’ motions. He saw the demonstration July 20 on his way into the courthouse.
In video above, father of Ethan Carter, currently being held on $1 million bond by Warren police on false murder charges, says his son was racially profiled and arrested after getting his hair cut in Warren before returning to Detroit for his high school graduation. He has been held for over a month and a half.
Parents tell stories of murders by police
Above, Yolanda McNair, president of P.O.S.T. (Protect Our Stolen Treasures) condemns Wayne County Pros. Kym Worthy for her failure to prosecute killer cops and wrongful convictions.
McNair’s daughter Adaisha Miller was shot to death in 2012 by Detroit police officer Isaac Parrish, while he danced with her at a party in his house where alcohol was served. Parish, who carried his S&W .40 caliber gun at his side in his holster, claimed it accidentally discharged, but Miller died from a gunshot wound directly to the chest. He has never been charged; his blood alcohol level was never tested.
Kimoni Davis and 2 year old son.
Adaisha Miller died a day before turning 25.
At the right in the video above is Kimberly Griffin, whose son Kimoni “Kodak” Davis, 19, along with his friend Airshaawn Warren, 17, died in 2015 during a high-speed chase by a white cop from Hanging Rock, Ohio, Damon Caruso. Caruso, who had been involved in four such chases earlier, was pursuing Davis for going 11 mph over the speed limit on an Ohio freeway. Small towns in Ohio are known for taking drivers into custody for traffic violations until they pay their tickets.
The rally concluded at 11 a.m, with Marilyn Jordan announcing they will hold more and larger gatherings in the future. Balloons representing the lives of the wrongfully convicted and those killed by police were released into the sky, floating upward past the offices of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Update April 20, 2021: DeAnthony Witcher, referenced in stories on Thelonious Searcy case, stated in a phone call to VOD Editor Diane Bukowski that he is NOT a police informant and denies all allegations made against him in this and subsequent stories on the Thelonious Searcy case.
(L to r) Defense attorney Michael Dezsi, Judge Timothy Kenny, and AP Jason Williams during Thelonious Searcy evidentiary hearing.
Vincent Smothers’ confession to Segars murder fits autopsy report, true ballistics evidence — Dezsi
Trial jury falsely told bullets that killed Segars “could not be identified”
Searcy one of 147 cases which led to shutdown of Detroit crime lab due to falsified evidence; Worthy/SADO processed only 4, sent them back to prison
AP Thomas Chambers, in charge of hearing, retires just before final date—how deep does corruption in Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office go?
AP Patrick Muscat, DPD Sgt. Dale Collins played key roles in the convictions of both Searcy and Davontae Sanford
Searcy supporters to protest at Frank Murphy Hall, Mon. July 16, 10 AM; Detroit People’s Task Force to rally against wrongful convictions Fri. July 20, 9 to 11 am
By Diane Bukowski
July 3, 2018 /Updated July 15, 2018
Update April 20, 2021: DeAnthony Witcher, referenced in story below, stated in a phone call to VOD Editor Diane Bukowski that he is NOT a police informant and denies all allegations made against him in this and subsequent stories on the Thelonious Searcy case.
Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy enters court for final phase of evidentiary hearing June 29, 2018.
DETROIT — “I would like to say for the record–NO, I’m not guilty of these charges that were brought against me. These charges are false. I didn’t kill Jamal Segars and I didn’t shoot Brian Minner. I thought justice would prevail. But still as a young Black man in the system I didn’t have a chance.” – Thelonious “Shawn” Searcy, of Detroit, statement May 23, 2005, prior to being sentenced to life without parole.
Defense attorney Michael Dezsi quoted his client as above during a stunning evidentiary hearing summation June 29, in front of Wayne County Circuit Presiding Criminal Court Judge Timothy Kenny. During his summation, Dezsi accused Detroit police, prosecutors and evidence technicians of falsification of evidence and other crimes that led to the conviction of his client for the murder of Jamal Segars Sept. 4, 2004, a murder to which Vincent Smothers later confessed.
“I am one of 147 prisoners whose cases were found to have falsified forensics and ballistics evidence, leading to the shutdown of the Detroit crime lab in 2009,” Searcy told VOD later.
He said the ballistics evidence in his case was reviewed by the Michigan State Police crime lab at the time, but that the MSP let it stand. As part of Searcy’s current evidentiary hearing, however, the MSP found a .40 caliber bullet which the Wayne County Medical Examiner said came from the body of the victim. It was mis-identified in original reports as a 9mm shell casing from the crime scene.
Atty. Dezsi (top), AP Thomas Chambers
Scott Lewis testifies during Searcy hearing March 19, 2018.
“The bullets don’t lie,” defense attorney Michael Deszi said. “When the [trial] jury wanted to know what kind of bullet was in this guy, jurors were lied to and told ‘we couldn’t tell.’ Now we know they COULD tell. It was a .40 caliber bullet, and there were .40 caliber casings all around the car the victim was in.”
Private Investigator Scott Lewis, who interviewed Smothers, noted that no jury would have convicted Searcy knowing about the .40 caliber bullets, since prosecutor Patrick Muscat told them the murder weapon was a .45 caliber gun taken from Searcy’s grandmother’s house.
Assistant Prosecutor Jason Williams, head of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s appeals unit, took the place of AP Thomas Chambers June 29, because Chambers had abruptly retired. Chambers represented the prosecution during the evidentiary hearing, which began Jan. 29, and also wrote its brief. Williams’ chief argument, given during a painfully brief presentation, was that Smothers was not credible because he had retracted an earlier confession to the Segars murder.
The June 29 hearing resulted from a 14-year battle for freedom begun by Searcy himself. Kenny finally granted Searcy’s pro se motion for the evidentiary hearing after Vincent Smothers confessed in writing and on tape to the Segars murder. Smothers himself testified from the stand during the hearing.
During each hearing, the courtroom has been packed with Searcy’s supporters, who have now called a rally at his request outside the Frank Murphy Hall Mon. July 16, at 10 a.m. (See flier at end of story.) Another rally on similar issues is being held by the Detroit People’s Task Force, which originally protested crime lab frame-ups, on Fri. July 20 from 9 am to 11 am, at the same location.
“They’ve included some of my high school and middle school teachers, preachers from the neighborhood, my landlord and her husband, along with my family and friends from my community,” Searcy told VOD. “During this last hearing, there wasn’t enough room for everyone, so many people had to wait out in the hall.”
Davontae Sanford (center) beams as his family including (l to r) sisters, nephew, mother Taminko Sanford-Tilmon, stepfather the lateJeremaine TIlmon, and Apostle W. J. RIdeout III applaud his release. at press conference June 9, 2016.
Smothers also confessed to four 2007 Runyon St. “drug-house” murders shortly after the false conviction and sentencing of Davontae Sanford, 14 at the time, for those killings. Smothers’ confession opened the door to Sanford’s release in 2016 and his compensation by the state for his wrongful conviction. Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Muscat prosecuted both Sanford and Searcy at their original trials, and Detroit Police Sgt. Dale Collins played a major role in both cases.
“I believe my client is entitled to relief under both statute and court rule,” Deszi, who was appointed by Kenny, told the court June 29. “Statute MCL 770.1 controls: it allows the court to grant a new trial…when it appears to the court that justice has not been done.”
Vincent Smothers took stand to confess to Segars murder in detail
Vincent Smothers takes stand March 19, 2018 to give detailed confession to murder of Jamal Segars Sept. 4, 2004, exonerating Searcy.
Dezsi continued, “Mr. Smothers testified over the advice of his counsel [attorney Gabi Silver] and having waived his Fifth Amendment rights. In doing so, Mr. Smothers provided us with a wealth of detail as to what happened on the night of the murder of Jamal Segars. In particular, he identified the victim Mr. Segars and indicated that he had been tracking Mr. Segars and was there to rob him because he knew Mr. Segars was a drug dealer. . . Mr. Smothers has provided both the identity of the victim and has now provided a motive.”
Dezsi pointed out that during Searcy’s trial, Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Muscat contended that Searcy killed Segars in a case of mistaken identity. Muscat said Searcy mistook Segars’ 2004 silver Corvette for a car driven by DeAnthony Witcher, Muscat’s key witness against Searcy who claimed the two had an ongoing dispute. Testimony at the trial was that Witcher drove a “twin” silver Corvette, later painted blue.
But Searcy earlier had his grandmother file an FOIA request for his homicide file. In it, he found a police report describing Witcher’s arrest Nov. 14, 2004, for carrying a concealed weapon in a 1998 blue Corvette. Witcher was never charged. Instead DPD officers stormed Mrs. Richardson’s home the same day and arrested Searcy in front of his terrified grandmother, wife and two toddler daughters, for Segars’ murder.
That arrest was based on testimony largely extorted from Witcher during a prosecutor’s witness subpoena interview, where the individual is not allowed legal representation.
Dezsi continued, “Mr. Smothers provided us with a detailed map on which he marked the location of the murder, he marked the locations that he and his accomplice Jeffery Daniels had parked their cars, he marked the foot pattern of his actual whereabouts, how he walked to the car and how he shot Mr. Segars.
“But the most important and crucial evidence that we had from Mr. Smothers—Mr. Smothers identified the bullet trajectory that matches exactly what we heard and what is reflected in the autopsy report from Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt. . . . Mr. Smothers told us . . . he approached the car from the back, he said he started shooting from the back. He said that he shot Mr. Segars once in the back of the head and then he told us he walked around to the side of the driver’s side of the Corvette and shot several more times.”
Dezsi said only the actual murderer would have known those details.
Trial jury falsely told techs could not identify .40 cal. bullets in victim; AP Muscat presented a .45 caliber gun as murder weapon
“Mr. Smothers also provided other details about the weapon,” Dezsi continued.
“He said he used a .40 caliber gun. This is equally important—at trial, the jury wanted to know what type of bullet was in the victim. Your honor was told . . . .and I believe it was at the instigation of the prosecution, that they could not determine the type of bullet that was in Mr. Segars. Well, we have now heard testimony that the bullet that came out of Mr. Segars was a 40 caliber.”
Searcy earlier obtained from his homicide file a forensics report that used the same evidence tag number for both a .40 caliber bullet and for a .9mm bullet casing found at the scene of the crime, on Conner off Gratiot.
During the hearing, DPD Sgt. Patricia Little, assigned to Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s “Conviction Integrity Unit,” produced the envelope containing the evidence in question and said the conflict was simply a “data entry” mistake. She said it originally had a red tag, used for evidence taken from a scene, which was replaced by a white tag, used for evidence from the medical examiner.
Judge Kenny took possession of the evidence and ordered it re-examined by State Police as well as an independent forensics examiner for the defense. All parties determined the envelope contained a .40 caliber bullet taken by the medical examiner from Segars’ body during the autopsy.
Dezsi said AP Patrick Muscat also presented what he claimed was the murder weapon at trial, saying it was tied to Searcy.
“But it was a .45 caliber gun, it wasn’t a .40 caliber, and Sgt. [William] Anderson admitted that that gun could not have been the murder weapon,” Dezsi said, referring to Anderson’s testimony during the course of the evidentiary hearing.
Dezsi noted that evidence technicians found both .45 caliber and .40 caliber casings at the scene. He said during the course of the evidentiary hearing, Chambers had asked witnesses about the casings found around the Corvette, and said they were .45 caliber.
AP Patrick Muscat testifies at Searcy hearing May 9, 2018.
“This is very important because the prosecution didn’t want to acknowledge that what was actually surrounding the Corvette were .40 caliber casings,” Dezsi said.
“I have submitted to you Exhibit W, a police narrative report, which indicates the casings found on and around the Corvette were 40 caliber. This is important because the jury wanted to know since there were both 40 and 45 calibers at the scene, tell us what bullets killed Mr. Segars. And the jury was told we don’t know. It was false. That was simply false evidence that was presented to the jury.
“How could this evidence have not changed the outcome of the trial if the jury would have heard that the bullet that came out of the victim was a .40 caliber and you now have a confession from an individual who says it was a 40–I used a 40?” Dezsi asked.
He noted that Smothers knew other details about the crime scene, including the arrival of an unmarked police car that crashed with a burgundy Marauder, and the fact that the police car air bags deployed.
“How would he know that information?” Dezsi asked. “He was there. He knew there was a Caucasian officer that got out of the car, also that the police were firing their weapons. We have two other witnesses who also said the police were firing their weapons. The police deny they were firing their weapons, but we now have tw0 witnesses corroborating Mr. Smothers statement.”
Dezsi emphazised, “Mr. Smothers presented a confession to this court that this court should accept at least for purposes of finding that the outcome of this trial would have been different had this information been given to the jury and the jury had been given the true and accurate information about the forensic evidence including the .40 caliber bullet that was removed from the victim’s body.”
He reminded the court that if there are any lingering doubts about the veracity of Smothers’ confession, it should review the 20-minute audiotape taken by private investigator Scott Lewis of that confession over the phone.
Testimony presented by AP Chambers during the hearing included a State Trooper’s report that Smothers had recanted his first confession to the Segars murder, during the MSP investigation that led to the release of Davontae Sanford in 2015. The Michigan Innocence Clinic sent that confession to the MSP. Smothers said during the hearing that he recanted because he was told that his statement in the Segars case would impede the release of Sanford.
Atty. David Moran
He never said who told him that, but this reporter received an email from Michigan Innocence Clinic head David Moran stating the Clinic could not represent either Searcy or Charles Lewis. Lewis is a juvenile lifer who has been in prison for 42 years for a crime he has always said he did not commit. Moran said the Clinic’s representation of the two would constitute a “conflict of interest,” but never specified what it was.
The prosecutor’s brief on the evidentiary hearing contained an allegation that Smothers could not have found Searcy’s case while he was looking for cases involving prosecutorial misconduct, because Searcy never raised the issue of prosecutorial misconduct in his court filings. Smothers told Searcy that was how he found his case, in his first letter confessing to the crime. That letter was given to Searcy by an intermediary.
Dezsi’s summation, the hasty retirement of Assistant Prosecutor Chambers, and the fact that AP Muscat and DPD Sgt. Dale Collins prosecuted both Searcy and Sanford raises serious questions about the level of ongoing corruption that exists within Detroit’s criminal justice network, including the Detroit Police Department and the office of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Judge Kenny concluded the hearing June 29, saying he would review the prosecution and defense briefs, as well as trial and hearing transcripts, and produce his ruling later. The Register of Actions for Searcy indicates that he plans not to do that until Aug. 17, 2018.
After the June 29 hearing, Atty. Michael Dezsi discussed importance of ballistics evidence in Thelonious Searcy’s case with Scott Lewis, the private investigator who interviewed Vincent Smothers by phone in prison and later obtained notarized affidavits detailing his confession to the murder of Jamal Segars. They agreed that if the trial jury had heard the evidence brought forward during the evidentiary hearing, Searcy would likely have been found not guilty.
Belle Isle Concern calls on advocates to attend this meeting to raise their concerns about the continued use of the Island for the Grand Prix
Wants public meetings, accounting of finances for Grand Prix and all other events on island, environmental assessment, compatibility for public park
BELLE ISLE PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2018 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Belle Isle Boat House
Directly east of entrance, has parking lot
By Diane Bukowski and Belle Isle Concern
July 10, 2018
DETROIT — The Belle Isle Concern, a citizens group that monitors the effects of the encroaching corporate takeover of Belle Isle, and is opposed to the staging of the Grand Prix on the Island, is asking supporters to attend the “regular” Belle Isle Park Advisory Committee (BIPAC) meeting July 13.
Michael Montri
Michael Montri, General Manager of the Detroit Grand Prix, will be presenting a Detroit Grand Prix Event Proposal during this meeting. Although public comment is limited to 3 minutes, note that the small print on the bottom indicates that is the time limit is for “non-agenda” items. ”
The Grand Prix will be included under “Upcoming Events” as listed on the agenda. Belle Isle Concern has been protesting the use of Belle Isle Park for the Grand Prix race for several years. Most other Grand Prix races are held in the downtowns of cities world-wide, as they used to be held in downtown Detroit. Belle Isle Concern says a public park is not the place for such a race.
Last fall, Belle Isle Concern presented an appeal to Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to conduct an independent third-party environmental impact study of the Belle Isle Grand Prix as part of consideration for a new contract for the race.
The DNR did not respond to their request.
But, says Sandra Novacek of Belle Isle Concern, “We are asking again for public support as we continue to struggle to reclaim the integrity of Detroit’s most precious public space. All indications now are that the DNR is poised to approve a new multiyear contract for the Grand Prix on Belle Isle with a few minor concessions.”
Previous protest against Grand Prix sponsored by Belle Isle Concern
The group is asking for the public to endorse their “Public Request to the DNR” made on June 21, 2018, send letters and emails to contacts listed at the end of the request, and speak out at the meeting of the Belle Isle Park Advisory Committee meeting listed above, as well as other future meetings.
PUBLIC REQUEST ON BEHALF OF BELLE ISLE CONCERN TO THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES (MDNR) RE THE GRAND PRIX ON BELLE ISLE
June 21, 2018
In MDNR surveys and public meetings, a substantial majority of park users have expressed strong opposition to continued staging of the Grand Prix on Belle Isle. That opposition is not just because of the extended length of the race set-up and takedown time, but to the impact of the event itself on public access to the park and to the natural landscape and habitat of the island.
Detroit youth on Belle Isle in 2012, now run by the state. Youth like these are at peril from state troopers.
Therefore, we request that the MDNR, as leaseholders with stewardship responsibilities for this treasured piece of Detroit public property, undertake the following public steps in its process for evaluation of any request from the Grand Prix organization for a new contract for the race:
1) Conduct a series of public meetings, with at least one in the evening, to present the contract proposal, with members of the public allowed to ask questions and get answers from MDNR officials and staff and to have a significant opportunity for public comment (not limited to a few minutes).
2) Provide information on rental fees the Grand Prix would pay, on amount of set-up and takedown time allowed, and on the exact area of the island occupied and for how long, including year-round storage of race-related equipment.
3) Provide detailed financial information on park revenues from rental fees for all events—including weddings, gatherings, kayak and canoe rentals, photo shoots, and all other events that require permits or rental fees—held in each month of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Family re-union picnic on Belle Isle, 2012. Families travel from all over the country for these events.
4) Provide information on how future races would affect access to all areas of the park, including Scott Fountain, the Conservatory, the Aquarium, the Dossin Museum, the Casino, and the Oudolf Garden. For what specific times would access be limited or roads rerouted?
5) Provide an explanation of how the Grand Prix comports with the criteria for major events in the Belle Isle Strategic Management Plan and on compatibility with land use for a public park. If the race conflicts with such criteria, what is the rationale?
6) Provide a detailed breakdown of the purported contributions by the Grand Prix organization to island improvements. How much was spent by what entities on exactly what facilities on the island?
Family picnics on the Belle Isle beach in between swims with gorgeous view of downtown Detroit skyline, in 2012
7) Provide a third-party independent environmental impact assessment of the event, including air and noise pollution, on the island’s flora and fauna, on migratory birds and threatened animals, on storm-water runoff, and on physical structures including the MacArthur Bridge and historic buildings that should be protected by the island’s presence on the National Register of Historic Sites.
In addition, we believe the Belle Isle Park Advisory Committee (BIPAC) should not be the forum for any public review process of a Grand Prix contract, because the public has no meaningful voice in its meetings and there are committee members with conflicts of interest which should remove them from discussion, deliberation, and decision-making in relation to running the Grand Prix on Belle Isle.
The Chairperson of the Belle Isle Park Advisory Committee is Michele Hodges. Her paid full-time job is President of the Belle Isle Conservancy, which is supported by a Grand Prix fundraiser.
Michelle Hodges
Bud Denker
Bud Denker of Bloomfield Hills is President of Penske Corporation and Executive Vice President of Human Resources for the Penske Automotive Group. Denker is Vice President of Penske Performance as well, a unit that oversees race teams competing under the “Team Penske” banner. Since 2006, he has served as Chairman of the Detroit Grand Prix.
Sommer Woods, appointed by the Detroit City Council, is principal consultant at Sommer Solutions and director of external relations for M1-RAIL. Roger Penske is chairman of M1-RAIL. Woods was director of sponsorship services for the Detroit Super Bowl XL Host Committee, chaired by Roger Penske.
Sommer Woods
Roger Penske
There are no members of the committee appointed to specifically represent regular users of Belle Isle Park.
As Michigan taxpayers, we believe this is the minimum that the MDNR, performing proper stewardship of Belle Isle, should do to conduct a transparent public process for any approval of a contract for the Belle Isle Grand Prix in the future.
Lewis in prison 42 years since age 17, innocent, official court file and ROA have disappeared
Lewis makes record during June 19 hearing of voluminous documents still missing from file, objects again to re-creation, handover of defense docs.
Lewis: what reasons did Pros. specify in asking for LWOP again? MSC decision in People v. Hyatt, Skinner says factual reasons must be stated
AP Dawson challenges Lewis’ pro se motions as ‘non-existent’ because he had no atty., violating USSC Faretta v. California,Louisiana v. McCoy
Rally for Wrongfully Convicted, others Fri. July 20, 2018 at Frank Murphy Hall
By Diane Bukowski
July 5, 2018
(VOD apologizes for the lateness of this story on June 19 hearing; MSC ruling in Skinner/Hyatt, which affects Lewis’ case as well as cases of 246 other Michigan juvenile lifers, came down June 20. VOD story on that intervened.)
Charles K.K. Lewis, 59
DETROIT—During a hearing June 19 on the case of juvenile lifer Charles ‘K.K.’ Lewis, Wayne Co. Circuit Court Judge Qiana Lewis said that she still must “certify” a file which purports to be a recreation of his missing official court file, before moving forward with his juvenile lifer re-sentencing. She set a court date of Fri. Aug. 3 at 9 a.m. in her courtroom #502 for further action. Hearings on Lewis’ re-sentencing have been ongoing in front of her since May, 2016.
Lewis is serving juvenile life without parole on charges that he murdered an off-duty Detroit police officer in 1976, when he was 17, charges which were refuted by all actual eyewitnesses at the scene including the officer’s own partner, both at trial and in newspaper accounts. Corrupt Detroit police officials threatened three Black juveniles from Lewis’ east-side neighborhood that they would be charged as well if they did not testify against Lewis.
Lillard noted for the record that Lewis has repeatedly objected to the rcreation of his file, citing higher court rulings, and that the parties were also still waiting for the Michigan Supreme Court ruling on People v. Hyatt, Skinner. (Ed. note: That ruling came down the following day.)
“I have not made a final ruling as to whether or not the file has been successfully recreated,” Judge Lillard said. “Mr. Schulman can make those arguments—I’m assuming it will be his position that we have been unable to recreate the file in any meaningful manner to move forward,” Lillard said.
Judge Qiana Lillard at Charles Lewis hearing June 19, 2018
Lewis, attending by video from Lakeland Correctional Facility, interjected forcefully, listing massive amounts of documents still missing from the “re-created” file.
“These are specific objections I would like to place on the record regarding the file,” Lewis said. “I got a copy of the ‘recreated’ file and the first trial transcript is totally incomplete, like it’s not even there, from March 9 to March 23 of 1977. A record of proceedings held in front of visiting Judge Ollie Bivins March 23 is also not in the file.”
Lewis told VOD earlier that his first trial judge, Joseph Maher of Detroit Recorder’s Court, intervened to take Bivins off the second proceeding after questionably discharging the jury in his first trial. Bivins, a visiting judge, was the first African-American Judge appointed to the Genesee County Circuit bench. As VOD has previously noted, the late attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr. told reporters that Maher was a “racist monkey, a honky dog, a racist pirate, and a bandit.”
“There’s no voir dire transcript for the July 5 trial,” Lewis continued [referring to jury selection.] “There are also no proceedings from the appeal of right or the appointment of appellate counsel or the initial appeal that was sent to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Then proceed to the transcript from the Pearson evidentiary hearing in 1980, but there’s no record of all the proceedings that led up to the evidentiary hearing, and no ruling on the Pearson evidentiary hearing. All the proceedings from 1980 to probably 1997, none of those are in the file. So all of that makes the file incomplete in my opinion pursuant to People vs. Fullwood. 392 MI 751.”
Defense attorney Sanford A. Schulman of Federal Criminal Defenders Office.
He asserted again that the Judge has no authority to certify the file, to order the defense to produce attorney-client privileged documents for it, or to issue orders to the prosecutor’s office or the Wayne County Clerk’s office in the matter.
Defense attorney Sanford Schulman told Judge Lillard that AP Tom Dawson gave him a flash drive which he thought contained the entire recreated file, but Dawson said other documents are still outstanding in physical files in Lillard’s courtroom.
The flash drive itself is controversial since it contains numerous attorney-client privileged documents which Lewis never gave consent to his former attorney Valerie Newman of the State Appellate Defenders Office to release. It was created by SADO, evident by looking at the flash drive itself.
In addition to the loss of his file, which comprised a tall stack of boxes, the entire Register of Actions for Lewis dating from his first arraignment Aug. 2, 1976 through 1999 has been wiped off the Third Circuit Court’s computers. It does not even include a “PDF” of actions during the existence of Recorder’s Court, which all other ROA’s VOD has reviewed do include.
SADO flash drive containing Lewis’ documents.
“Before we go, Mr. Dawson, I was wondering if you had access to the agreement that was made with the three juveniles in this case that testified against me,” Lewis asked AP Thomas Dawson. “I’ve never seen that and that’s something we would definitely want to have for any mitigation hearing. Also we would really like to know why exactly why you are asking for LWOP, what your reasons are. It’s impossible for me to mount a defense without really knowing why you have made that request.”
DPD Investigator report shows charges dropped for two of juveniles who testified against Lewis, a fact jury was never told. It makes no mention of well-publicized shooter in white Lincoln Mark IV.
Dawson responded, “Any question your lawyer brings me I will be happy to answer any and all. So when he presents those to me, I will try to answer those.”
Schulman objected on the record to Lewis addressing the court without consultation first with his defense attorney. However, Judge Lillard in the past has allowed Lewis to do so on numerous occasions.
Dawson said earlier in the hearing that he did not respond to Lewis’ pro se motions because they were not filed by an attorney, and therefore as far as he was concerned, “they did not exist.”
But Dawson’s arrogant statement dealing with Lewis, a Black man, age 59, who has become a well-respected ‘jail-house lawyer” and holds a paralegal certificate and associates degree, violated well-known U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975).
“The U.S. Supreme Court held that criminal defendants have a constitutional right of self-representation,” says a posting on Lawyers.Com. “In Faretta, the Court found that the Sixth Amendment not only provides the right to counsel in one’s defense, it implicitly protects a defendant’s right to control and present his or her own defense.
Faretta said, ‘The right to defend is given directly to the accused; for it is he who suffers the consequences if the defense fails.’ The right to self-representation, however, is not absolute. To exercise this right, a defendant must: “knowingly and intelligently” waive the right to counsel, and be able and willing to abide by courtroom rules and procedures. (See: https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/criminal/criminal-law-basics/representing-yourself-in-a-criminal-case.html.)
Pro se motions filed by Charles Lewis, which Atty. Sanford has committed to argue.
In McCoy v. Louisiana, handed down on May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court was most emphatic about a defendant’s rights regarding defense counsel’s actions.
“The Sixth Amendment guarantees to each criminal defendant ‘the Assistance of Counsel for his defence,’” said the Court. “The defendant does not surrender control entirely to counsel, for the Sixth Amendment, in ‘grant[ing] to the accused personally the right to make his defense,’ speaks of the ‘assistance’ of counsel, and an assistant, however expert, is still an assistant.” The Court said the decision to plead ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ falls entirely within the control of the defendant alone, (addressing specifically death-row prisoner Robert McCoy’s objection to his defense counsel telling the jury he was guilty, an unsuccessful move to avoid the death penalty).
They added, “Violation of a defendant’s Sixth Amendment-secured autonomy ranks as error of the kind our decisions have called ‘structural’; when present, such an error is not subject to harmless-error review.”
Schulman, of the Federal Criminal Defense Office, said during the hearing that he would preserve his client’s pro se motions and essentially argue them as his own by providing praecipes for them, as requested by Dawson. Judge Lillard so directed, but did not cite any legal requirement for such an additional action; Lewis himself had praeciped the motions when he e-filed them, as pro se litigants are permitted to do under state law and court procedures.
Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy
Additionally, Lewis’ question about the reasons for the LWOP motion was addressed the next day by the Michigan Supreme Court in People v. Hyatt, Skinner (June 20, 2018). Although most of the decision has been viewed as a direct violation of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the unconstitutionality of juvenile life without parole, the MSC did address the responsibility of the prosecutor in such cases.
The MSC said, “MCL 769.25(3) does require the prosecutor to file a motion to seek a life-without-parole sentence for a defendant less than 18 years old, and this motion must specify the grounds on which the prosecutor is requesting such a sentence. If such a motion is not filed, the trial court must sentence the juvenile to a term-of-years sentence.”
In Lewis’ case, as in all the other 66 cases in which Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy requested LWOP again, nearly all for Black men, only boiler-plate motions were filed not giving any specific reasons for requesting the harshest penalty that can be inflicted on a child offender.
During a hearing on the case of Jenard Sharp, Oct. 17. 2017, defense attorney Nefertiti Alexander of the New York law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton argued that the boiler plate motion used by Prosecutor Kym Worthy in all of the 67 Wayne County cases recommending renewed JLWOP is insufficient and asked for the case against Sharp to be dismissed. The case has not yet been resolved. Judge Richard Skutt, who was hearing it, passed away Feb. 5, 2018 and it has been transferred to another judge.
Juvenile lifer Jenard Sharp
NYC attorney Nefertiti Alexander argued to dismiss Jenard Sharp case.
Judge Lillard said she stood by her order to re-create Lewis’ court file, but she has stated on the record that she would address his legal objections to that re-creation as stated in his pro se filing June 23, 2017. Lewis cited rulings from the U.S. and Michigan Supreme Courts which say that even the partial loss of a file means the case must be dismissed and re-tried.
Attorney Schulman said he would also brief and praecipe the 1974 Michigan Supreme Court ruling in People V. Fullwood, raised by Lewis. In that case, the defendant’s criminal conviction and sentence were reversed due to the impossibility of reconstructing his lost file.
Meanwhile, support for Lewis and other wrongfully convicted prisoners like Thelonious Searcy (see previous article) is growing in the community. During a show at Detroit’s oldest blues club, the Raven, on June 29, the CJ Styles band announced their support for Lewis and pledged to attend his hearing Aug. 3. Lewis says he was playing with the band leader Charles Jackson’s former band, Pure Pleasure, until late into the morning of July 31, 1976, at the UAW Local 212 hall (formerly located on Mack in Detroit), during the time Officer Sypitkowski was killed. (See video at top of story.)
Charles Lewis on guitar, Bill Lemons on keyboard, both noted musicians, now play in prison bands.
His trial attorney Arduin never called any of the band members or the audience that night to testify as Lewis’ alibi witnesses. Jackson said members only found out about Lewis’ conviction and time in prison several years ago [when Lewis’ previous attorneys from Foley & Lardner contacted them). Arduin also argued at trial that Lewis was essentially guilty, a member of a Black youth “gang” whose other members should have been charged in the killing of the off-duty police officer as well.
His case will also be addressed as part of a rally on Fri. July 20, below, to be held outside the Frank Murphy Hall. The rally is meant to unite the wrongfully convicted and their families, Michigan’s juvenile lifers, and victims of police brutality, along with organizations representing them, including Protect Our Stolen Treasures (P.O.S.T.) and the Detroit People’s Task Force.
Read CHARLES K.K. LEWIS full pro se motions below:
Media outlets have largely overlooked the troubling record of Bethany, a well-connected powerhouse of the anti-choice movement, even as reporters have interviewed the agency’s leaders on the plight of migrant kids.
Christian adoption agencies like Bethany have “a pattern and history of coercing women to relinquish their children,” as journalist Kathryn Joyce has reported. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A Michigan state official told Rewire.News there is no real system in place for finding the parents of children separated from their families by the Trump administration. Some of those children are being housed in the state by Bethany Christian Services, a religious adoption agency with a troubling record.
Vicki Levengood, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, described a “chaotic” situation where the foster agency calls detention center officials, who then cry out the names of children into rooms full of people to see if anyone there knows them.
Levengood said the department’s director, Agustin V. Arbulu, learned the details during a phone call with Dona Abbott, branch director of refugee services for Bethany.
“She described to him how they are backtracking with the little information children come with: name, age, gender, nation of origin, and the area where they were held, not necessarily [the] name of the exact detention facility,” Levengood said. “Staff at Bethany, from what they’re telling us, contact detention centers in the vicinity where the child was taken, asking the staff if they have anyone in detention who is connected to X child and leave a name.”
Children detained by the Trump administration in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas. (Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP Photo)
Levengood’s agency released a statement last week noting that infants as young as three months old had been transported to the state.
“We’re doing our best, but I don’t think we have a handle on it all,” Levengood said.
Her words reflect the apparent lack of a plan to unify about 2,000 migrant children who remain divided from their parents, though a federal judge on Tuesday ordered that border authorities reunite families within 30 days. Rendered “unaccompanied” by the government, these children are now the responsibility of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which handles unaccompanied immigrant minors.
ORR has funneled these children into a patchwork of shelters and foster homes overseen by organizations including Bethany, which has long faced accusations of discriminating against LGBTQ couples and coercing parents into giving up babies for adoption.
Toddlers as young as three are being taken from parents.
Media outlets have largely overlooked the troubling record of Bethany, a well-connected powerhouse of the anti-choice movement, even as reporters have interviewed the agency’s leaders on the plight of migrant kids. Nor have outlets mentioned the troubling history of ORR director, Scott Lloyd, who blocked young people in ORR custody from accessing abortion care.
Nothing in Lloyd’s professional background suggests he is qualified to head ORR, yet he’s been tasked with overseeing the day-to-day care of the country’s most vulnerable people: child refugees, many of whom came to the United States to escape persecution and gender-based violence. As Rewire.News reported, Lloyd is an anti-choice radical who has emerged as a staunch opponent of reproductive rights. Lloyd has taken it upon himself to “counsel” pregnant young people in ORR-affiliated shelters, as he admitted to the Christian Broadcasting Network. Immigration advocates see Lloyd as an ideological pick by the Trump administration as it ushers “anti-choice fanaticism” into the immigration system.
Bethany, other foster care agencies profit with federal funds for every child snatched.
Even prior to the Trump administration, there have been documented cases of young people being punished for wanting abortion care.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently litigating a religious shelter case against ORR that began in 2016 under the Obama administration. Religiously affiliated shelters, which have received millions of dollars in federal funds as contractors with ORR, have kicked out young people for having an abortion or simply requesting access to abortion.
Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, is the lead attorney on both the religious shelter case and Azar v. Garza, a class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s exercise of veto power over unaccompanied immigrant minors’ access to abortion in ORR custody. The attorney told Rewire.News earlier this month that even if the class action is successful and the injunction in Azar v. Garza essentially stays in place, things will go back to where they were under the Obama administration. Meaning: “If you are in a religiously affiliated shelter, you get kicked out for even asking for an abortion,” Amiri said.
Jane’s Due Process
Susan Hays is the former legal director of Jane’s Due Process, one of the grassroots organizations that initially alerted the ACLU to the fact that young people in ORR custody were being denied access to care, even in instances of rape. The information led to Azar v. Garza, which is ongoing, but an injunction is currently in place allowing young people in ORR custody to access care.
“Perhaps it’s my paranoid mind or doing this work too long, but since the policy emerged from ORR that was trying to force migrants to have children, I’ve worried this was always about getting babies [away from migrants for adoption],” Hays told Rewire.News. “We have no idea if they are shuffling children around as quickly as possible so their parents can’t find them, and I frankly don’t believe the [Department of Homeland Security’s] claim that 500 children have been reunited with their families. We have no way of knowing if they’re actually making an effort to reunite families.”
In a written statement to Rewire.News, Bethany denied that any of the children in its custody would be put up for adoption, saying the agency “will not rest until every separated child in Bethany’s care is safely reunified with family.”
But the concerns of advocates like Hays are rooted in reality: Christian adoption agencies like Bethany have “a pattern and history of coercing women to relinquish their children,” as journalist Kathryn Joyce has reported.
Much like ORR’s director, Bethany has gone to great lengths to dissuade people from seeking abortions, raising questions about access to reproductive health services for migrant youths in their care, many of whom may be sexually assaulted en route to the United States.
As Rewire.News revealed in 2016, Bethany’s particular efforts to cajole patients out of ending their pregnancies have included hiring an ad firm to target “abortion-minded women” by sending ads for Bethany to their smartphones while they are sitting in Planned Parenthood clinics.
But that’s just scratching the surface of its long and complicated history. Here’s what we know.
1. Bethany has several federal contracts.
Despite speaking out against the Trump administration’s treatment of refugees, the Christian adoption agency has announced plans to expand its foster care operations as a result of President Trump’s policy of separating families at the border. As of June 19, Bethany had reportedly placed nearly 100 migrant children in foster homes in Maryland and Michigan.
The organization was initially approved by the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees as part of its resettlement program in Michigan in 1998. However, in 2016, Bethany was approved to “provide refugee resettlement and refugee youth foster care services” in Pennsylvania, according to the agency’s site.
Protesters outside Bethany’s headquarters in Grand Rapids.
2. Bethany has a record of coercive adoption practices.
Last year, 17-year-old Alex Robinson gave birth at a Catholic hospital in Muskegon, Michigan. Robinson had been on a beach trip with friends and did not realize she was pregnant until she went into labor. While her mother was five hours away in Illinois, a counselor told Robinson she could give the baby up for adoption without anyone knowing, according to a local news report.
Within a few hours of the birth, a Bethany representative was at the hospital with adoption paperwork. But after returning home, Robinson changed her mind. She ultimately had to fight Bethany in court to regain custody of her child.
“They exploited her,” Robinson’s mother, Leah McDonald, told the news team Local 4 Defenders. “You know, they took advantage of her because they wanted her baby.”
This was not an isolated incident for Bethany.
The agency’s 2017 tax forms show it provided “pregnancy counseling services protecting unborn children” to “3,078 expectant parents” under its domestic adoption program.
But such counseling often amounts to coercion, as journalist Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, has reported.
“They come on really pro-life: look at the baby, look at its heartbeat, don’t kill it,” one woman, whom Joyce called Carol Jordan, recalled of her experience with Bethany in South Carolina in 1999. “Then, once you say you won’t kill it, they ask, What can you give it? You have nothing to offer, but here’s a family that goes on a cruise every year.”
Jordan told Joyce that Bethany isolated her by sending her to stay with one of its “shepherding families,” where she felt “like a walking uterus for the agency.”
When Jordan had second thoughts about the adoption after delivering her baby, a Bethany counselor brought the prospective adoptive parents, sobbing, into her recovery room.
“The counselor warned Jordan that if she persisted, she’d end up homeless and lose the baby anyway,” Joyce wrote.
Bethany declined to respond directly to concerns about its record of coercive practices.
In March, Philadelphia announced it had halted adoptions through Bethany following reports the agency refused to work with same-sex couples who wanted to be foster parents. In Michigan, one of the states where Bethany is caring for migrant children separated from their families by the Trump administration, same-sex couples sued the state last year for contracting with Bethany and other agencies that turn away prospective adoptive and foster parents because of their sexual orientation. Bethany had lobbied Michigan to pass legislation in 2015 allowing such agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples under the guise of religion.
At least nine states have passed such measures, five of them since last year. Of the states where migrant children have been placed, at least five have passed such provisions allowing discrimination.
“Bethany is part of this wider movement of organizations pushing to enshrine the right to discriminate into law—an effort that has gained widespread success under Trump,” Jessica Mason Pieklo, Rewire.News vice president of law and the courts said.
4. Bethany has benefited from figures within the Trump administration.
Bethany has a massive reach, with an annual revenue of more than $98 million, millions of which comes from government-funded programs, tax filings show.
Among the lawmakers who have directed public funding to Bethany is Vice President Mike Pence. As governor of Indiana, Pence shifted funds intended for low-income families in the state to a crisis pregnancy center umbrella organization, Real Alternatives, that subcontracted with Bethany Christian Services, Rewire.News reporter Jenn Stanley reported.
The agency has also benefited from the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation donated $25,000 to Bethany in 2015 and 2016, while the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation outlined $2.5 million in planned and executed donations to Bethany in its 2016 filing alone.
IN 50 STATES AND EXTREME HEAT, THOUSANDS MARCH IN ‘FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER’ RALLIES
WASHINGTON — Thousands of people descended on cities from coast-to-coast Saturday in “Families Belong Together” rallies to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that left more than 2,000 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the nation’s capital, thousands poured into Lafayette Square, across from the White House, to chant “We care” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
While President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump avoided the chants in Washington, the protests followed them to their weekend retreat in Bedminster, N.J.
Rally at Indiana Statehouse
Only a few miles from Trump National Golf Course, more than 100 protesters lined the side of a major New Jersey highway waving anti-Trump signs and chanting, “Where are the children!”
Jack Gavin, of West Caldwell, N.j., handed out miniature copies of the U.S. Constitution, “Facts Matter” pins and cold drinks. He said he also planned to attend rallies in Newark and Clifton,N.J.
In Washington, Shelley Kohl, a retired business owner from Johnson City, Tennessee, said she does not usually engage in politics, but the images of children being separated from their parents motivated her to travel to Washington for today’s protests.
Indiana rally.
“Kids don’t belong in cages. Families don’t belong in cages, and kids absolutely don’t belong being removed from their families,” Kohl said.
In New York City, protesters at a Manhattan park chanted “shame!” and “shut detention down” as they geared up to march across the Brooklyn bridge to Cadman Plaza, near the federal courthouse.
Episcopalian Chaplain Jenifer Gamber, 52, said she hoped to send a strong signal to elected officials about the public’s opinions on immigration.
“I am appalled at the Trump administration’s treatment of people seeking asylum in the United States that criminalizes asylum-seeking and separates families,” Gamber said.
Washington D.C. Rally: Families Belong Together
Organizers in the Families Belong Together Coalition included the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the ACLU, Leadership Conference and MoveOn.org.
“(The) family separation crisis is not over. We have a situation where the Trump administration seems to be aiming to detain families,” said Karthik Ganapathy, a MoveOn.org spokesman.
Each state is hosting at least one event, with some states, such as Texas and Massachusetts, participating some 30 events. California was on track to host at least 80 on Saturday, according to the Families Belong Together website.
In Boston, the “Rally against Family Separation” was beginning with a morning march from City Hall to Boston Common, where a large rally will take place. The protest was timed with other protests nationwide and is also meant to oppose Trump’s ban on travelers from certain Muslim-majority nations.
Washington, D.C.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Joe Kennedy III, both Democrats, will be among the attendees.
A second demonstration Saturday afternoon was expected to begin with a march from Wellington Common Park to the South Bay House of Correction, a county jail in Boston which houses undocumented immigrants apprehended by federal officials.
Rallies were also underway at mid-morning in El Paso and Atlanta, and communities big and small.
Among the protests:
— In Louisville, Ky., protesters sought refuge from thesweltering heat arond Metro Hall. Art Baltes stood out from the crowd, pacing back and forth under the sunshine with a banner in hand: “Immigrants and Refugees Welcome.”
Baltes, of Louisville, said his Catholic faith spurred him to attend the rally. “That’s exactly where it starts — our faith,” he said. “We just want people to know that people in this town support immigrants and refugees.”
Rally at Senate Office Bldg.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Joe Kennedy III, both Democrats, will be among the attendees.
A second demonstration Saturday afternoon was expected to begin with a march from Wellington Common Park to the South Bay House of Correction, a county jail in Boston which houses undocumented immigrants apprehended by federal officials.
Rallies were also underway at mid-morning in El Paso and Atlanta, and communities big and small.
Among the protests:
— In Louisville, Ky., protesters sought refuge from thesweltering heat arond Metro Hall. Art Baltes stood out from the crowd, pacing back and forth under the sunshine with a banner in hand: “Immigrants and Refugees Welcome.”
Baltes, of Louisville, said his Catholic faith spurred him to attend the rally. “That’s exactly where it starts — our faith,” he said. “We just want people to know that people in this town support immigrants and refugees.”
— In Nashville, Abigail Taylor, a 37-year-old mother of three, said she “can’t in good conscious pretend like nothing is happening and have my family go about like nothing is wrong.”
“The idea of someone taking them from me without saying goodbye, and them thinking I abandoned them, breaks my heart,” she said.
The rallies were in response to a widespread desire among many Americans to take action against Trump’s strict immigration policies, said Lorella Praeli, ACLU director of immigration policy and campaigns.
“This is our country, and if there is something happening that takes us in the wrong direction, we can’t stay silent,” Praeli said. “It’s on us to hold our elected officials accountable, to hold our president accountable and to demand action. So silence in this moment is complicity.”
After Trump signed an executive order last week ending the family separations, a California judge ordered the Trump administration Tuesday evening to reunite the migrant families it had separated.
There are 2,047 children that must be placed in the same facility as their parents within the next two to four weeks. But U.S. law and a series of court rulings that limit the amount of time minors can be held in detention will further complicate those reunions.
A June 18 CBS News poll showed 67 percent of Americans found separating undocumented immigrant children and parents at the border “unacceptable.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said she has been engaging with organizers ahead of Saturday’s demonstrations, and many are concerned about the direction of the country.
“The separation policy here, separating children from their parents and detaining them in internment camps and caging them is something that you would think would happen in tyrannical, authoritarian countries, not in a country that says that it is a democracy, not in the United States of America,” Weingarten said.
Fabiola Perez, 24, said she will be protesting in Winston-Salem, N.C., because of her personal history with the U.S. immigration process.
“I have been in those kids’ shoes. I’m currently a DACA recipient; my parents brought me to the U.S. when I was only 7 years old. I had to cross the border and we failed multiple times, my little brother, my mom and I were detained by the immigration officials,” said Perez, a sales operations coordinator at PepsiCo. “It was scary not knowing what to expect and also not knowing the language at the time. Thankfully, we were always kept together, which helped my brother and I feel safe.”
Perez said she’s also protesting as the mother of a 6-year-old son.
“Just the thought of getting my son ripped away from while only trying to get a better life for him would not only devastate me but it would definitely traumatized him,” Perez said.
Contributing: Nick Muscavage, in Bedminister, N.J.; Jordyn Pair, in Nashville; Shannon Hall, in Louisville, USA TODAY Network
It is absolutely mind-blowing to know that your local police force could possibly have a device that they can use to track and listen to cell phones in say a hundred block radius. Stingrays are also used by the FBI, ATF, DHS, ICE, DEA, NSA and US Marshalls. CLN also wrote “Cell-site simulators are suitcase-size devices that mimic the signal of actual cellphone towers-they even emit a stronger signal than legitimate towers. And, because cellphones are programmed to seek the best signal, all phones within the radius of the signal will connect to the device.
zy, but devilishly clever, too. If “Russian” mimics (or cloaked spooks) can reproduce the vocabulary and political program of U.S. dissent, then all of us actual U.S. lefties can be dismissed as “dupes of the Russians” or “co-conspirators” in the speech crimes of our mimics — for sounding like ourselves.
“Mr. Smothers also provided other details about the weapon,” Dezsi continued.
By Diane Bukowski and Belle Isle Concern
In March, Philadelphia 
