Saturday, March 15, 2014

A rare deal in Sparta, Mississippi


Word count: 1,432

It was my intention to post only sharlogs (definition: pl. for a flog by Sidney Harr) on this site, however the production of one is time consuming and very energy-intensive. It takes several weeks to write, narrate, and put images together to make a sharlog… and I’ve been averaging one a month recently. There are many topics of interest and importance which I haven’t been able to address because I’ve been working exclusively with sharlogs. As they say, “a brilliant mind is a terrible thing to waste,” ergo I have decided to change policy and to once again resume posting blogs… that have to be read. I’ll post blogs once or twice weekly while posting sharlogs once or twice a month. Although it was my intention to have a sharlog posted this weekend, despite my frantic efforts, it looks like it will be ready to be posted closer to next weekend.

This afternoon the regular CBS programming was rearranged for airing of the NCAA basketball tournament, so I turned to WRAL-2 (I don’t have cable) to await my soap opera, “The Bold and the Beautiful”… anxious to see if Wyatt’s evil mother would toss crazy Allie from the overpass railing onto traffic below and whether Brooke would succeed in wresting her former husband and fiancĂ©e Ridge from her little sister Katie’s newly formed relationship with him. While waiting for the show to come on, I had to sit through an episode of “In the Heat of the Night,” a Carroll O’Connor police drama set in the deep South… fictional Sparta, Mississippi.

This episode featured Kevin (or Keith, I don’t remember which) a friend of the police captain nicknamed “Bubba.” Kevin, considered a good guy, was deeply in love with his wife, and they had nearly completed work on adopting a one year old boy. Turns out, the boy’s father Dalton Jones is a real creep and shows up at the last moment and tells Kevin that he won’t contest the adoption if he’s paid a little moolah. Kevin, not wanting to stress his wife, keeps this from her and pays the boy’s father thousands of dollars. Naturally, Dalton keeps upping the ante, to where Kevin can’t shell out any more dough. At that point Dalton tells him that he will go to Court to get his boy. Kevin is very concerned because he knows that his wife’s heart would be broken if she were to lose the child.

Dalton makes Kevin one final option… promising to refrain from going to court after his son if Kevin would give him the code to the alarm system at the shop where he’s employed. After hours of vacillating, Kevin agrees and gives the shady character the numbers to enable him to burglarize the place.

That night, Dalton using the codes given him by Kevin, gains entry into the shop and begins using a torch to break through the safe containing cash revenue. Unfortunately, the owner of the store just happens to walk by, notices the burglary in progress and proceeds to go to his office and grab his revolver to confront the thief. End result, the burglar pulls out a concealed gun of his own and shoots the owner in the chest, killing him.

The next morning when Kevin goes to work he finds police mulling around and the ambulance taking a body from the building. It was then he learns that his boss had been killed. Bubba, who had been watching his friend closely, began questioning Kevin about his whereabouts the previous evening. Bubba had also been looking into the boy Kevin and his wife were going to adopt and learned that Dalton with his criminal record was the birth father of the boy.

Distraught, Kevin goes over to the shack where Dalton lives and tells him to high-tail it… that the police are going to figure that he was responsible for the fatal burglary. Dalton doesn’t need to be told twice.

Meanwhile Kevin goes to his wife and tells her that he’s in big trouble. She comforts him and later on he goes into town to the Sheriff’s Office. After giving him a well-deserved tongue lashing, Bubba takes Kevin to Chief O’Connor’s office, and Kevin confesses to his role in giving Dalton the codes to the alarm system. The Chief then tells one of his officers to arrest Kevin for a slew of charges… conspiracy to commit a crime, aiding and abetting, interfering with a police investigation, blah-blah-blah. (I can’t really remember all of the charges against him.)

Now I’m thinking: “this guy’s in big trouble… by being an accomplice in a burglary gone wrong and involving the death of a store owner, he’s facing some serious jail time.”

Eventually Dalton is captured after a long car chase and gun battle from the barn of a small country farm… with Bubba supplying the heroics in subduing the villain.

The final scene takes place in the County Courthouse where Kevin is before a female judge… getting ready to pronounce sentence. Chief O’Connor is sitting in a pew near the back when Bubba comes in and announces to the judge that an agreement has been reached with the district attorney which calls for Kevin to have five years of supervised probation… no jail time! The judge then looks over to the Chief, as if awaiting his response. He subtly nods his head, after which the judge then announces that she will accept the deal worked out with the district attorney. Then, fade to black.

The takeaway

Prior to my enlightenment regarding the way the justice system works, I would’ve thought that the good guy had a happy ending, the bad guy got caught… a warm and fuzzy ending to the story. Because I am enlightened, what has leapt out from that episode is: rare deal! Kevin got a rare deal because he was a friend of police officer Bubba. No doubt the district attorney worked out the sweetheart plea deal as a favor to Bubba.

The second thing that jumped out at me was the awkward relationship between the judge (judicial branch) and the Police Chief (executive branch). It was obvious that the Chief held significant sway over the judge’s actions, and I found this to be quite disturbing.

Rare deals have no doubt been meted out by adjudicators since a legal system was first used by man. Discretion given to sentencing has usually favored the privileged and powerful, whereas “raw deals” (those that are disproportionally harsh and severe) have been handed down to the poor, disenfranchised, and people of color. Unfortunately, the discretionary power has been the province of the district attorney. Therein lies the problem as most, if not all, district attorneys in North Carolina lack Nifongian courage, and are nothing more than marionettes dancing to the strings of the Powers-That-Be.

Because former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong was a man of uncompromising integrity and independence, he did not fit into the takeover scheme of the big boys, and he had to go. So, like Crystal Mangum, charges were trumped up against him to force his resignation and disbarment. To prevent other idealistic prosecutors from following his lead, Mr. Nifong was severely persecuted by the State and crucified in the media.

As far as the executive branch overstepping on the toes of the judicial, as it did in the television drama, the same thing happened in real life on April 11, 2007 with Attorney General Roy Cooper’s famous “Innocence Promulgation.” Although it was within his professional rights to dismiss the criminal charges against the three Lacrosse defendants, it was totally inappropriate and unprecedented for him to make a declaration of “innocent.” That is not in his purview. Legally acceptable judgments of innocence or guilt can come only from a jury or a judge in lieu of a jury. In other words, it must emanate from the judicial branch. Officials in the executive branch cannot hand down judgments.

The mainstream media is aware that the innocence proclamation by the attorney general is bogus, but it wants to mislead the public into believing that it’s true. In almost all of the media releases, either press or broadcast, the Duke Lacrosse defendants are mentioned to have been found innocent (or exonerated) of the sexual abuse allegations.

Viewers of this blog site who elect to become enlightened have the privilege of being able to dissect the relevance and discern the nuances of issues covered in the news… stories both factually occurring in real life and those fictionally generated in Hollywood. 








10 comments:

Nifong Supporter said...


Anonymous said...
You are right Dr. Harr.

Sharlog has better ring to it - but you'd have to google it to see what it might mean already.

Sharrlg is kinda representative of the sound your brain may make as it trys to grasp the corruption and the way the durham / duke / nc / usa justice system continually ignores the duke malpractice and me discrepancies in the medical and autopsy reports which your flogs indicate in detail. Kinda like what duke did all those years with the coal ash ponds. Imagine how it will be with the fracking or off-shore drilling. 100 plus whales and dolphins all lying stunned on wrightsville beach from the seismic testing off-shore - not a problem - they'll be gone in a week or so. A huge tsunami when the fault lying dormat just off the eastern shoreline is rudely awakened - no big deal - the next big floating city will be bigger and better.

... an operation that will require more expensive operations to repair the damages from an then ultimately end in death with a few viable body parts left ... great ... we will make sure to charge 500 times the cost for each operation and then get paid for the pieces ... got any more like that?

sharlog sounds better
sharrlg is the sound your brain makes after viewing a sharlog and grasping its meaning



Thanks for the feedback.

Sharrlg... the sound of industry, creativity, and resourcefulness. Sounds good to me.


Nifong Supporter said...


Anonymous said...
I guess Sid is happily back from Las Vegas. Glad to see you back and continuing to spout inanities. You need to get your buddy from Indy Week to write another follow-up of your latest exploits in frivolity with the Duke stuff.


Hey, I'm impressed by your prognosticating skills. My bud, John Turner did write an article in the Indy Week this week, and I plan on writing a blog about it in the next day or two.

Had a great time in Vegas, but did not fare too well at the slots.

Whatchoo tawkin 'bout, Sidney? said...

It's now been almost 7 years since Nifong the Numbnut was disbarred.

Has he ever applied for readmission to the Bar?

Anonymous said...

Mike has publicly stated on many occassions that he is happily retired and has no interest in reapplying for his license. He has no intention or desire to ever practice law again (or work - he got a good pension).

Anonymous said...


Whatchoo tawkin 'bout, Sidney? said...

"It's now been almost 7 years since Nifong the Numbnut was disbarred.

Has he ever applied for readmission to the Bar?"


The "Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong" was formed because of what I perceived to be the excessively harsh, injust, and disparate treatment he received from the North Carolina Attorney General (Roy Cooper), and the North Carolina State Bar. It seems that since its inception, Mr. Nifong is the only prosecutor to be disbarred. According to an article by UNC law professor Rich Rosen, no other prosecutor has even been severely disciplined by the State Bar. An organization which has no compunction about disbarring attorneys (according to its own web site, during a ten year period 373 attorneys were disbarred).

The "Committee" was formed without Mr. Nifong's knowledge or consent. It acts independently and without input from the Nifong family. After initiating my crusade for justice on his behalf, I had the honor of meeting this decent, dedicated, family man, and his lovely family.

Let me make it clear that Mr. Nifong does not intend on practicing law again, does not really want his license to practice law in the State of North Carolina reinstated, and did not encourage me to work towards getting it. In other words, he is not going to get on his knees and beg the state, or hop through any hoops for the state's perverse amusement.

I firmly believe that his license was taken from him selectively and unjustly by the state, and that the state should take responsibility for its actions (including its wrongdoings). That is why the state should reinstate Mr. Nifong's license to practice law. It should do the right thing and make amends to him.

Whatchoo tawkin 'bout, Sidney? said...

"That is why the state should reinstate Mr. Nifong's license to practice law."

Dude's gotta ask.

It is a mercy to the citizens of NC that he won't.

Anonymous said...

"Did medical examiner’s office withhold murder evidence?" printed online News and Observer March 15, 2014 about Dr. Nichols and the reason for his firing. The incident in question happened in May 2011, and the article states Dr. Nichols started work there that year.

What is the date of the autopsy report in this case by Dr. Nichols? Did Duke request Dr. Nichols' services specifically for this case? If so, why and what proof is there of that?

Anonymous said...

What is the date of the autopsy report in this case by Dr. Nichols? Did Duke request Dr. Nichols' services specifically for this case? If so, why and what proof is there of that?


Duke does not request any specific ME, bodies are transferred to the ME's office, and the pathologist in that office does the autopsy. The autopsy in this case was done within a few weeks of the autopsy that got Dr. Nichols in trouble.

Duke had nothing to do with who did the autopsy.

Walt said...

Sid wrote: "Because former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong was a man of uncompromising integrity...."

Men of integrity do not lie to the court, they do not lie to adverse counsel, they do not lie to the media. Prosecutors of integrity do not prosecute cases for which they lack probable cause. Whatever he was, Nifong was not a man of integrity.

Walt-in-Durham

Anonymous said...

"Did medical examiner’s office withhold murder evidence?" printed online News and Observer March 15, 2014 about Dr. Nichols and the reason for his firing. The incident in question happened in May 2011, and the article states Dr. Nichols started work there that year.


This whole issue was known, and it's why a continuance was requested until the investigation was complete to see if the Mangum autopsy was affected at all, however the Judge denied the continuance request.