PUBLISHER’S NOTE: AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRE DISASTER:
Like so many others who are horrified by the devastating loss suffered by so many people affected by the rampant bushfires in Australia, I have been looking for a way to help out. So I turned to Bob Moles, of Adelaide, Australia, and Bibi - great supporters of this Blog - and the powerful presence behind so many exonerations in their country - as well as powerful forces in the movement to establish independent criminal case review boards in Australia and beyond - for their recommendation as to where donations could be safely and usefully put. Bob and Bibi recommended a ‘gofundme’ site for their friends Helen and Geoff Glanville - who run an organisation which helps children and families of prisoners - who lost their home in the bushfire in South Australia. As their “gofundme’ site informs us: “Helen and Geoff lost their home in the Adelaide Bush Fires the weekend of the 20th December. They lost their home and everything in it - they escaped with only the clothes they were wearing and their car. Helen, Marion and Mary (Marion and Mary are sponsors of the site) all studied together back in the early 1970’s. For decades now Helen and Geoff have been working with the children of prisoners. As they have cared for others in difficult times in the community, now is an opportunity for us to show our support for them. Please do consider contributing to this GoFundMe campaign as they make plans for the future. Regaining their own home will be part of their goal. All funds will go directly to Helen and Geoff.“ Take a look at the photo on the site of their home. I invite readers to join me in doing what we can to help out the Glanvilles in their very dire situation as per the donation instructions on the site at the link below..
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/1ukuje90pc?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR03WtpqswixHGqSCToqv2KcUa2xXEVSwgFG7gJolvdkDvXa6gXGXem6WVc
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STORY: "Gardner alleges racist conspiracy in federal civil rights lawsuit against St. Louis, police union, by Tony Messinger, published by St. Louis Today, on January 13, 2020. (Tony Messenger is metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The lawsuit has interesting timing. It was filed the day before several black, female, progressive prosecutors from around the country are scheduled to meet in St. Louis in support of Gardner. “This is not about Kim Gardner running for office,” Gardner said, when asked about the timing. “This is about making sure reform-minded prosecutors are able to do their job without fear or retaliation.""
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The lawsuit, Gardner said in an interview, “is going to set the tone that the people of St. Louis are not going to allow a select few to stop criminal justice reform. We will reform the system.” Gardner is part of a national trend of “progressive” prosecutors — many of them black — who campaigned on a platform of making the criminal justice system more fair and equitable for all citizens. Their efforts have included increasing diversion programs, holding police more accountable, reducing jail populations and starting Conviction Integrity Units to investigate old cases for possible mistakes. . To date, local courts have blocked Gardner's attempt to overturn the murder conviction of Lamar Jackson, in which she alleges prosecutorial misconduct and lies by police detectives in obtaining a fraudulent conviction. "
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GIST: "The first black woman elected as circuit attorney in the city of St. Louis is taking long-standing racial tensions, specifically between her office and the police department, to federal court.
On
Monday, Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner filed a federal civil
rights lawsuit alleging a racist conspiracy to stop her from doing her
job. Gardner is suing the city of St. Louis; the St. Louis Police
Officers Association and its longtime business manager Jeff Roorda; a
former police officer named Charles Lane who sued Gardner's office; and
Gerard Carmody and his children, who are the private attorneys appointed as special prosecutors to investigate her office's handling of the investigation of former Gov. Eric Greitens. “Gardner
was elected in 2016 on a promise to redress the scourge of historical
inequality and rebuild trust in the criminal justice system among
communities of color,” says the lawsuit, filed on Gardner's behalf by
three outside law firms, from St. Louis, Washington and New York.
“Unfortunately, entrenched interests in St. Louis, including Defendants,
have mobilized to thwart these efforts through a broad campaign of
collusive conduct, including the unprecedented appointment of a white,
ethically conflicted Special Prosecutor to investigate the activities of
Gardner’s office and a patently overbroad and unconstitutional
ransacking of the office’s electronic files.” Gardner
alleges the SLPOA and its officers are at the core of a conspiracy to
“thwart and impede her efforts to establish equal treatment under law
for all St. Louis citizens.” She cites the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, also
known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, to allege violations of her
Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. “The Ku Klux
Klan Act was adopted to address precisely this scenario: a
racially-motivated conspiracy to deny the civil rights of racial
minorities by obstructing a government official’s efforts to ensure
equal justice under law for all,” the lawsuit alleges. “The stakes are
high. This case cries out for federal enforcement.” Gardner
says the lawsuit is not an attempt to block Carmody's prosecution of
her former investigator, William Tisaby, who has been charged with
perjury in the since-dropped investigation of Greitens over his alleged
threat to disseminate a photo he took of a partly nude woman without her
permission. Gardner's lawsuit was filed the same day another of
Gardner's former investigators, Anthony Boxx, was scheduled to be
deposed in that investigation. Gardner's office has been blocked by a
judge from participating in the deposition. The
lawsuit, Gardner said in an interview, “is going to set the tone that
the people of St. Louis are not going to allow a select few to stop
criminal justice reform. We will reform the system.” Gardner
is part of a national trend of “progressive” prosecutors — many of them
black — who campaigned on a platform of making the criminal justice
system more fair and equitable for all citizens. Their efforts have
included increasing diversion programs, holding police more accountable,
reducing jail populations and starting Conviction Integrity Units to
investigate old cases for possible mistakes. . To date, local courts have blocked Gardner's attempt to overturn the murder conviction
of Lamar Jackson, in which she alleges prosecutorial misconduct and
lies by police detectives in obtaining a fraudulent conviction. That
case is now before the Missouri Supreme Court. Gardner's federal lawsuit is being financed by the legal advocacy fund of a Dallas-based nonprofit called Mothers Against Police Brutality.
The organization was founded by Collette Flanagan, a former IBM
executive whose son, Clinton Allen, was shot and killed by Dallas police
in March 2013. Allen was unarmed. In
nearly every city where a progressive prosecutor has won an election,
the local police association has opposed his or her efforts. But what is happening in St. Louis is unique, says Roy Austin, one of Gardner's attorneys. “What
we are seeing here is a unique set of circumstances,” Austin said. “We
can have a debate on policy. That's a fair and righteous fight to have.
But they are personally trying to destroy Kim. I don't know of another
case in the nation where they have taken all of the prosecutor's files
and handed them over to the police department without any constraints
whatsoever.” In
the case against Tisaby, Carmody, the special prosecutor, sought
Gardner's files as part of his investigation. Gardner opposed the
request in court but a judge ruled in favor of Carmody. Austin says the federal lawsuit is not an attempt to “interfere” with Carmody's criminal investigation. The
lawsuit goes to great lengths to outline what Gardner and her attorneys
call a “History of Invidious Racial Animus Within the City, Its Police
Division, and the SLPOA,” including detailed descriptions of social
media posts by multiple white police officers, many of which were outed
by the Plain View Project in 2019. Very few of the officers involved in those posts have been disciplined, Gardner's lawsuit says. The
lawsuit cites the federal prosecution of several St. Louis police
officers over the violent beating of black, undercover officer Luther
Hall after protests that followed the acquittal of white police officer
Jason Stockley in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. “The
resistance to Gardner’s efforts to improve investigations of police
misconduct in St. Louis included threats by Defendants Roorda and SLPOA
to reduce protection for members of the City’s Board of Aldermen if they
supported Gardner’s proposals,” the lawsuit alleges. “The SLPOA,
Roorda, and the Police Division have continued to oppose Gardner’s
reform efforts at every turn.” The
lawsuit has interesting timing. It was filed the day before several
black, female, progressive prosecutors from around the country are
scheduled to meet in St. Louis in support of Gardner. “This
is not about Kim Gardner running for office,” Gardner said, when asked
about the timing. “This is about making sure reform-minded prosecutors
are able to do their job without fear or retaliation.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-gardner-alleges-racist-conspiracy-in-federal-civil-rights-lawsuit/article_357ab90f-c308-5c08-aa3f-afaf33d3b47f.html
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-gardner-alleges-racist-conspiracy-in-federal-civil-rights-lawsuit/article_357ab90f-c308-5c08-aa3f-afaf33d3b47f.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191210/da-drops-murder-charge-against-taunton-man-who-served-35-years-for-1979-slaying
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.""
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191210/da-drops-murder-charge-against-taunton-man-who-served-35-years-for-1979-slaying
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