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Chicago Creates Reparation Fund For Victims Of Police Torture
Sisters Found Fatally Shot In St. Louis After Mayweather Fight
CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL
Chicago Police commander Jon Burge outside the Federal Courthouse after he was re- leased from custody in Tampa, in 2010.
Atty.: Officers Viral Arrest Of UVA Honor Student Was Under False Pretenses
The city of Chicago will take a big step today to- ward closing what Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called one of the darkest chapters in city history, as the city council is expected to approve a $5.5 mil- lion dollar reparations fund for victims of police torture.
The fund will compensate victims tortured by notorious former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, and his detectives under his command, between the early 1970s and the early 1990s.
During many of those years, Burge was com- mander of Chicago's Police Area 2 headquarters on the city's South Side.
For decades, hundreds of mostly Black men said that, when taken into questioning about crimes in Area 2, they'd been stripped, punched, beaten, shocked with cattle prods and other electric de- vices, suffocated with plastic typewriter covers and abused in other ways.
Anthony Holmes, who served 13 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit, claimed at a recent city council committee hearing that he was one of Burge's first victims.
Another victim, Darrell Cannon, was emo- tional as he testified, Corley reported. Cannon was arrested in 1983 and served 24 years in prison for murder, and was freed after a review board de- termined the evidence used to convict him was tainted. Cannon says that when he was arrested, three of Burge's officers placed a shotgun at his
VIRGINIA - State law en- forcement officers charged Uni- versity of Virginia honor student Martese Johnson - whose bloody arrest was captured on viral video in March - with public intoxication even though they knew he was not drunk, his lawyer tells the Richmond Free Press.
Instead, agents with the Vir- ginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control believed John- son might have been using a fake ID, his lawyer, Daniel Watkins of the Williams Mullen law firm based in Richmond, Va., tells the news outlet.
A statement issued to the newspaper by Mr. Watkins’ law firm states: “We have already re- viewed the reports from the ar- resting ABC agents and the local police on the scene, and our posi- tion remains that the (agents) lacked legal justification to arrest or brutalize young Martese.”
A State Police report has been completed on the March 18 arrest of the 20-year-old African-Amer- ican third-year student from
Martese Johnson and his lawyer Daniel Watkins.
Chicago that riveted the nation, sparking protests much like last month’s arrest of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after he was injured in police custody.
Johnson was charged with public intoxication and obstruc- tion of justice after state agents ar- rested him near popular campus hangout, The Trinity Irish Bar. Photos of his bloody face were dis- seminated across the nation.
The findings in the UVA inci- dent have been handed over to Dave Chapman, the Char- lottesville commonwealth’s attor- ney, the report says. Watkins tells the Free Press that he expects to review the file before John- son’s court hearing on May 28.
Stanley Wrice, (C), pauses in December 2013 as he speaks to the media with his lawyer Heidi Linn Lambros, (L), and his daughter, Gail Lewis, while leaving Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Ill. Wrice was released after serving more than 30 years. He claimed for decades that Chicago Police detectives under the command of then-Lt. Jon Burge beat and coerced him into confessing to rape. M. Spencer Green/AP
head and played a sort of one-target Russian roulette as they questioned him.”
The city already has paid about $100 million in lawsuit settlements to Burge victims. The $5.5 million dollar fund will provide up to $100,000 each to those with credible torture claims who have not received settlements, and provide them with education, psychological counseling and job train- ing.
The Chicago City Council also will issue a formal apology to torture victims.
The mayor says it's time for "the city to own up to its dark past" and provide victims with closure.
A Chicago Police board investigation found evi- dence of torture under Burge and fired him in 1993, but no criminal charges were filed for the acts of torture. A special prosecutor appointed in 2002 spent four years investigating and found over- whelming evidence of torture by Burge and his "Midnight Crew," but concluded the statute of lim- itations had run out.
Finally in 2010, then-U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Burge, alleging he lied about torture under oath in civil lawsuit proceed- ings. Burge was convicted and sentenced to four- and-a-half years in prison.
He was released from a halfway house in Febru- ary. He lives in Florida — and continues to collect a Chicago police pension.
ST. LOUIS, MO --- This was not an easy Mother’s Day for Mary Baca of St. Louis. Her two daughters, 20-year-old An- quonette Hale, was fatally shot in the back and 15-year-old Tah- naizja Smith, was shot in the face, neck and arm in North St. Louis around midnight exactly one week before Mother’s Day.
To add to her grief, she does not have the money to bury them and is trying to raise $10,000 through a GoFundMe page.
The sisters were found shot to death in a vacant lot and the family says they have no idea
ANQUONETTE HALE And TAHNAIZJA SMITH
why. The sisters may have at- tended a Mayweather/Pac- quiao fight night party as the murders took place shortly after the fight was ending. The two are among a sad statistic in the St. Louis area – an increase in fe- male murder victims this year.
Mississippi Officers Murdered By Couple After Traffic Stop
School Principal Apologizes For Racial Comment During Graduation
Marvin Banks and his girlfriend, Joanie Calloway. Also charged was Curtis Banks.
HATTIESBURG, MS -- A law enforcement of- ficial says three people have been arrested and two of them have been charged with capital murder in the fatal shootings of two Mississippi police offi- cers during a weekend traffic stop in Hattiesburg.
Marvin Banks, 29, and 22-year-old Joanie Calloway have each been charged with two counts of capital murder, and Banks' 26-year-old brother, Curtis Banks, has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.
Dead at their hands following a routine traffic stop, police say, were 25-year-old rookie cop Liquori Tate and decorated K9 officer Ben- jamin Deen, 34.
Both Marvin and Curtis Banks reside close to the scene of the shootings in Hattiesburg, where each also has a history of criminal offenses includ-
Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate were killed.
ing felony convictions and guns charges.
Police say a gold 2000 Cadillac Escalade was pulled over by one of the officers in an industrial
area of Hattiesburg at 8:30pm.
The second officer arrived as backup when shots
were fired.
The officers were discovered by Tamika Mills
and Pearnell Roberts when they drove by. Mills heard one of the officers say, 'Am I dying? I know I'm dying. Just hand me my walkie-talkie.' Liquori Tate had not been on the force even a full year when his life was cut tragically short. The 25-year-old had graduated from the police acad-
emy in June 2014,
LILBURN, GA - The Georgia principal who sparked a walkout at her high school's graduation ceremony with a racist comment apologized for the incident, as her son wrote an n-word rant about the incident on Facebook. Video capturedthemomentTNTAcad- emy Nancy Gordeuk lost her cool when seniors and their family members ignored her requests to come back into the auditorium after she prematurely ended the ceremony on Friday. 'Look who's leaving - all the Black peo- ple,' Gordeuk says in the video, prompting most of the remaining students and their parents to get up and leave in disgust.
On Saturday, Gordeuk is- sued an apology for her remarks, which she said were made 'in the emotional state of trying to let this last student finish his speech' after inadvertently skipping it. 'Frus- trated with the prospect of ruining the once-in-a-lifetime ceremony the graduates have worked so hard for, my emotions got the best
of me and
that is when
I blurted out
"you people
are being so
rude to not
listen to this
speech,"'
Gordeuk
wrote in an
apology let-
ter, obtained by NBC News.
In relation to her slur about 'all the Black people' leaving, she said: 'When I looked up all I saw was Black families leaving, and thus the comment.' She added: 'I deeply apologize for my actions.'
In an interview with WSB, Gordeuk went on to say that she does not believe her statement was racist. 'It was not a statement of racism, it was just my frustra- tion,' she said.
Since the incident, Gordeuk says the video has made her a tar- get and that she hasn't been able to eat or sleep - but she's hoping to put it all behind her.
Principal’s Son, Travis Reacts Via Facebook
NANCY GORDEUK
PAGE 20 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015