World & Nation
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Wednesday, August 21, 2019
BAKERSFIELD NEWS OBSERVER
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No One is Above the Law
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including judges and prosecutors,” Ohio State Senator Cecil Thomas said. However, in an Aug. 13 letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, Thomas said Hunter’s prosecution and subsequent conviction violated the law.
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Credo-The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world away from racial and national antagonisms when it accounts to every person, regardless of race, color, or creed full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person, the Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief that all are hurt as long as any one is held back. The Observer Group Newspapers reserves the right to publish views an opinions that may not necessarily reflect those of the staff and management and are solely the product of the responsible individuals who submit commentaries published in these newspapers. Letters, articles and comments appearing in the Observer Newspapers reflect the opinions of the contributor and do not constitute the opinion or endorsement by The Observer Newspapers or its staff. The Observer Group Newspapers assumes no responsibility for photographs, articles, letters, press releases and unsolicited materials. Decisions as to the editing and publishing of materials are at the discretion of the Publisher and Editors. All rights are reserved on materials accepted for publication unless otherwise specified. “The judge refused a motion for a retrial after he refused to poll the jury, in clear violation of the law and at the request of my attorney,” Tracie Hunter told NNPA Newswire during the annual National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) annual convention in Cincinnati.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent Former Judge Tracie Hunter, who became Hamilton County Ohio’s first black juvenile court judge, is receiving support from Ohio State Senator Cecil Thomas, who argues that her conviction should be overturned. Thomas said Hunter didn’t receive a fair trial and that she appears to have been the victim of corruption. After being convicted of providing confidential documents to her brother in an attempt to help save his job as a corrections officer and exhausting her appeals, Hunter was literally dragged off to jail last month. “No one is above the law, including judges and prosecutors,” said Thomas. However, in an Aug. 13 letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, Thomas said Hunter’s prosecution and subsequent conviction violated the law. On Sept. 17, 2013, Prosecutor Joe Deters filed a motion requesting special prosecutors for the case against Hunter. On that same day, Judge Beth Myers filed an entry with the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts appointing special prosecutors, to fully investigate Hunter.
“By filing the motion without due diligence, Judge Myers subsequently appointed Prosecutor Joe Deters’ lawyers and friends who have represented [Deters] in personal litigation,” said Thomas. One of the attorneys is a partner in the law firm that represented Deters in his divorce, the senator noted, adding, “There are numerous examples that will show just how close these attorneys are to Deters.” When publicly questioned regarding the appointments, Myers said she “dealt with things as they were presented to me. I will continue to do that,” according to Thomas. Deters has maintained that he didn’t recommend the appointments and that they were done strictly by the Common Pleas Court. However, Thomas said the appointed lawyers have twice referenced Deters’ role in the appointments. “Joe Deters requested a special prosecutor because he had a conflict. As such, by law, his only participation is to make the request and provide reasoning,” Thomas said. “Judge Myers’ role is to decide whether to honor the request and if so, to appoint with the assurance that there are no conflicts,” he said.
“It appears neither Deters nor Myers followed the law to assure Judge Hunter received a fair trial, free of any biases and [Myers] appears to have played a role in unlawfully securing a public contract,” Thomas said. By appointing Deters’ lawyers, any reasonable person can conclude there are inherent conflicts, Thomas continued. “First, the mere personal relationship speaks for itself. Second, by honoring his recommendation to hire his personal lawyers, in essence, [Myers] played a role in using her public office to secure a public contract of approximately $700,000 for the personal lawyers of another public official,” Thomas said. A spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office said they hadn’t seen the complaint. Yost’s office declined to comment. As Thomas submitted his letter, attorneys for Hunter formally asked that she be released. The judge who carried out her sentence is reportedly waiting for the special prosecutor in the case to respond before deciding. Hunter, who’s also a church pastor in Cincinnati, has
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had the support of so many including The Coalition for a Just Hamilton County which is composed of members from the Interdenominational Ministry Alliance; the Cincinnati Chapter of the NAACP; the local chapter of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network; the Black United Front; the Southern Christian Leadership Council; the Nation of Islam and others. “They’ve tried to stop me from telling my truth and all I have is my truth,” she told NNPA Newswire in June. She said she had mostly refrained from giving interviews because the local media has only used sound bites to try and embarrass her. “I’ve lost hope in the justice system which is why I became a judge in the first place,” Hunter said. “I’ve not lost faith in God even though they’ve tried to drive me out of this city.”
Florida Cop Investigated for Planting Drugs During Traffic Stops By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Correspondent A Tallahassee, Florida attorney said as many as 30 clients were victimized by a dirty police officer who was caught by his own body cam footage planting drugs in a woman’s car and arresting her. Mary Maddox said Officer Zachary Wester’s behavior would have gone undetected had it not been for the eagle eye of an assistant State Attorney who was responsible for reviewing evidence in the pre-trials of the accused. Wester’s misdeeds came to light in a video first posted online by the blog, Rare. The video, which Wester recorded after mistakenly believing he had shut off his body and dash cam, shows the officer pulling a woman over for an alleged traffic violation. Wester then claimed he smelled marijuana and conducted a search of the vehicle. While searching the car, the officer could be seen putting substances into compartments before claiming that he found methamphetamine and marijuana. Wester arrested the woman and proceeded to continue that practice of planting evidence to effect an arrest. One man, who was allegedly victimized by Wester’s activities,
was arrested and charged $1,100 in fines and court fees and sentenced to one year in jail. Seven months into his sentence in Sept. 2018, the state attorney’s office dropped the charges along with 118 others involving Wester, who has been terminated from his job. Now, the state’s attorney is conducting a criminal investigation into the former police officer’s activity. Rare reported that nine individuals have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing Wester and two other Florida deputies of planting drugs and making an illegal arrest. They’ve also sued the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. “[The alleged victims] suffered grave mental anguish, pain, and suffering, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, embarrassment, humiliation, lost employment opportunities, lost wages, and emoluments,” Maddox said in the lawsuit. She reportedly plans to add as many as 20 more individuals to the lawsuit. “This represents only the tip of the iceberg,” Maddox said.
Why I’m Visiting the Border The video, which Wester recorded after mistakenly believing he had shut off his body and dash cam, shows the officer pulling a woman over for an alleged traffic violation.
By Derrick Johnson NAACP President and CEO As I ventured to the southern border near Laredo, Texas, I could not help but think about the tragic shootings in El Paso and Dayton, which are stark reminders of the dangers that plague our communities under the resurgence of white nationalism, domestic terrorism, intolerance and racial hatred germinating from the White House.
The crisis at the border will now create a new generation of people of color that will be reeling from the discriminatory policies of the Trump Administration.
People of color are feeling less safe today and any day when we see the realities of domestic terrorism and raciallymotivated acts of violence. However, we’ve yet to see any tangible measures and policy initiatives from President Trump, only the repeated dehumanization of people who are the opposite image of what this administration believes Americans should look like. This is why it was imperative that the NAACP traveled to Texas, not only to raise awareness and visibility of the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border but to examine the current plight of immigrants that have been demonized and made actual targets of Trump’s hate filled rhetoric. As I walked through the doors of The Holding Institute – a non-profit community center located in Laredo that is committed to alleviating the cruel and inhumane conditions faced by immigrants – I was told that the facility can service as many as 25-100 people a day. Prior to coming to the facility, all processing documentation is given to people in English, which makes it more likely to be processed inaccurately and not properly vetted. I heard stories of immigrants from Ghana, Congo, and Angola who traveled to Brazil to assist with the construction for the 2016 Olympics, who were kicked out of their home countries and remain at the border seeking asylum. This was a much-needed reminder that the immigration crisis doesn’t just reside within the Hispanic and Latin American
community but touches Black people, and people of color from all over the world. I met a woman named Maricella who had to leave her teenage daughter in Honduras. She traveled 22 days from her country to the border where she was separated from her 27-year-old son and has not seen him since. She now fears bringing her daughter to the border as most young girls have a high-likelihood of being sold into sex-trafficking. I was also told a story of a young mother and daughter being held at a nearby detention center, who had not had a warm bath in months and were only allowed one-COLD burrito to eat a day to share between the two of them. I shook hands with a 13 year-old-boy whose mother told him to make eye contact and shake hands firmly. Even in the midst of horrific living conditions and imprisonment, children at the facility are still being taught to treat people with respect, while being treated less than human. As a community of people who were ripped away from our homeland 400 years ago, Black America understands the detrimental effects of family separation. The century that followed our emancipation saw the creation of policies that discriminate against Black people and largely excluded them from wealth building, creating an inherited disadvantage for future generations. Trump’s handling of the immigration system is racist, petty and inhumane. He is doing all he can to punish immigrants that he believes are undeserving this country and uses this as a rallying cry for his base. The crisis at the border will now create a new generation of people of color that will be reeling from the discriminatory policies of the Trump Administration. My heart may have been troubled when I left the facility but our work at the border doesn’t stop here. In the face of this cruelty, the NAACP – as always – is refusing to agonize, and instead, will continue to organize. We will demand that the Trump Administration and Congress: • Immediately remove the “zero tolerance” and “family separation” policies; • Limit the time to detain children to 20 days and requires immigration officials to give detained minors a certain quality of life (including food, drinking water, medical assistance in emergencies, toilets, sinks, temperature control); • Demand appropriate adequate funding to correct the cruel and inhumane conditions of detention centers and alleviate the current hearings backlog, shortage of judges and administrators to discharge asylum petitions; • Call for a moratorium on deportation raids; and • Continue to file lawsuits in defense of DREAMERS and on behalf of thousands of hard-working individuals negatively impacted by xenophobia and racist immigration policies This country was built on the backs of slaves and immigrants. Now is not the time to turn away from the crisis at hand but work to create realistic, sustainable and effective pathways to citizenship for immigrants in America.