Matt Clendennen gives an account of what took place from his perspective:
*note* at 14:15 the issue of the previously discussed “Hold Harmless” agreement surfaces.
Marilyn Mosby files some additional statements in response to defense requests for substantiation of “probable cause”.
However, the oddly worded response -obviously intentionally obtuse- does not provide much additional detail as to how she can derive legal charges against the Baltimore Six.
To the contrary, if you are following the ongoing construct of her claims, based on her prior sunlight avoidance tactics, you can find additional support for a reasonable belief the ME report is not supporting Mosby’s public assertions. From the Baltimore Sun:
[…] The office of State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby filed the documents in response to motions by the officers’ defense attorneys requesting more information on her reasons for filing the charges.
Gray died in April after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in police custody, according to police and prosecutors. But how he was injured remains unclear. His autopsy results have not been made public.
♦ In Sanford Florida 2012/2013 Benjamin Crump demanded prosecutor Angela Corey not use a Grand Jury. Crump won a victory in that regard getting George Zimmerman charged with murder and getting the case to jury trial; but lost the case when his fabricated claims were exposed in front of a trial jury. George Zimmerman was found not guilty.
♦ In Ferguson, 2014, Benjamin Crump tried the same “anything to get to trial” approach by demanding prosecutor Robert McColloch again not use a grand jury. However, this time Ferguson/Saint Louis were wise to the strategy and Crump failed to pressure his demands.
Again, as in 2012/13, another fraudulent case, this time against Police Officer Darren Wilson. The prosecutor didn’t bow, used the Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury found no cause.
♦ In Cleveland, 2015, Benjamin Crump has refined his strategy. This time he doesn’t try to get the Prosecutor to comply with his demands – instead Crump asks a “Municipal Judge”, that does not usually handle such issues, to weigh in on the evidence of a police shooting of his client’s son, Tamir Rice. (more…)
FERGUSON, Mo. — A petition to recall the mayor of Ferguson lacks the required number of valid signatures, according to the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners.
A group called Ground Level Support delivered the petition to recall Mayor James Knowles on May 28th, saying they had 400 more than the 1,800 signatures required. All signatures must be from Ferguson residents who were registered to vote during the last mayoral election.
The St. Louis County Board of Education Commissioners began verifying the signatures’ validity the day the petition was turned in. Tuesday, the board announced the required number of valid signatures was not met. It says of the 2,133 signatures submitted, only 1,008 were valid.
The reasons for being invalidated include: (more…)
(Via Vice) The Department of Justice has ordered libertarian website Reason.com to turn over the information of six commenters after they made threats against the federal judge who presided over the Silk Road trial.
Ken White of the blog Popehat obtained the grand jury subpoena issued by the Department of Justice last week, which demands “any and all identifying information” the website has pertaining to the threatening commenters. This includes email addresses, telephone numbers, IP addresses, and billing information associated with the accounts.
The subpoena targets users who commented on an article published on May 31st regarding a letter from Ross Ulbricht, the creator of online drug market Silk Road, pleading for leniency ahead of his sentencing for charges surrounding the site. The comments appeared after Judge Katherine Forrest gave Ulbricht two life sentences for his crimes. (read more to see the threats)
An underreported story today comes amid the resignation of Stacia Hylton, the head of the U.S. Marshals Service. The timing of the resignation could not be more transparently tied to a growing investigation into domestic surveillance programs operated without oversight, and potentially unconstitutional.
For the past several years stories have been quietly surfacing about the USMS using stealth cell phone captures via drone and fixed unit operations known as “Stingray Devices”.
Stingray technology secretly captures cell phone communication, data, voice and text from users without their knowledge.
In addition the USMS has recently been outlined using Automatic License Plate Reading (ALPR) technology to track movements of people driving. Both programs track every American and are not related specifically to investigative foundations. (more…)
It would appear that the BGI Narrative Weavers are still singing from the same sheet of music.
Going through media reports it appears that familiar actors and entities have quickly inserted themselves into the confrontation, deliberately driving a local issue national. (Sound familiar?)
The rallying point for the BGI foot soldiers in the media and attendant “Social Justice” entities seems to be the viral video of bikini-clad Dajerria Becton being subdued by police after repeatedly ignoring specific instructions to disperse and leave the area.
Many people seem to be mystified how this incident quickly became the top story on major news networks. To those who have followed the evolution of the Narrative, it isn’t surprising.
Enter a familiar face: The National Bar Association.
The National Bar Association, a network of predominantly African-American attorneys, judges and law professors, called for Casebolt’s immediate firing.
“It is insufficient to place him on paid administrative leave, when it is obviously clear that this officer was not enforcing the law, but instead was enforcing his will and power and showing explicit bias towards these African-American teenagers,” the Washington, D.C.-based group said. “The girl is obviously in distress and not in any manner moving or attempting to get away from the officer. She posed no physical threat to the officer.”
However, not everyone actually on the scene who witnessed the interaction first hand agrees with the BGI /National Bar Association manufactured narrative: (more…)
The decision by South Carolina’s Ninth Judicial Circuit Solicitor, Scarlett Wilson, yesterday to charge Officer Michael Slager with murder in the shooting death of Walter Scott is the impetus for the alert.
Wilson presented only one charge, only one option, to the South Carolina grand jury; a charge of murder:
Within the indictment you can see the broad framework of the three elements needed to convict a person of Murder. They are: ¹) The unlawful killing of another human being, ²) with malice aforethought (ie. depraved heart); and ³) specific intent to kill. (more…)
We know this is pointing out the obvious, but can you imagine what would happen if the district attorney or prosecutor in the Mike Brown shooting asked a Ferguson judge for a gag order and a motion to hide the autopsy? The hypocrisy of the professionally aggrieved is jaw dropping.
BALTIMORE – The judge presiding over the prosecution of six Baltimore Police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray struck the state’s motion for a gag order in the case.
Judge Charles J. Peters ruled the motion lacked standing in an actual proceeding, as it was filed by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office in Circuit Court on May 14. At that time, the officers’ cases were still in District Court. They weren’t transferred to Circuit Court until May 21, when the officers were indicted.
Rochelle Ritchie, a Mosby spokeswoman, declined to say whether the state planned to file a new gag order motion, which Peters’ ruling did not preclude.
“We’re not going to litigate this case in the media and discuss our trial strategy,” Ritchie said. (more…)
Disparate Impact is the social justice legalese term when an innocuous process or qualification standard disqualifies minority applicants at a higher rate than non-minorities.
‘Legal work status’ for employment eligibility is another insane example of applying “disparate impact” rules. Because, as the theory applies, Hispanics are disqualified from employment at a greater rate than non-Hispanics -when employment eligibility is reviewed- it is therefore unlawful to use a standard of a social security number check (for eligible employment authenticity) when considering job applicants.
In essence, this is why progressives don’t like “card-check” systems; and, in a more broad sense this is why President Obama tried to institute employment eligibility in his Executive action last fall.
Any qualification standard that adversely impacts minorities more than non-minorities is considered racist; the same applies to testing candidates.
(Via Daily Caller) A federal judge in New York has struck down a test used by New York City to vet potential teachers, finding the test of knowledge illegally discriminated against racial minorities due to their lower scores.
At first glance, the city’s second Liberal Arts and Science Test (LAST-2) seems fairly innocuous. Unlike the unfair literacy tests of Jim Crow, LAST-2 was given to every teaching candidate in New York, and it was simply a test to make sure that teachers had a basic high school-level understanding of both the liberal arts and the sciences. (more…)