Cooper, Congressmen, City choose Cruelty over Compassion for Crystal

Letter to Congressman G. K. Butterfield

Word count: 578

On Thursday, March 28, 2013, I went to United States Congressman G. K. Butterfield’s Durham Office to deliver a letter to him about one of his constituents, Crystal Mangum.
Although his main office is in Wilson County, because of creative redistricting by the Republican-majority North Carolina General Assembly, he also represents individuals in Durham County… replacing David Price.

His office was closed, so I slipped the three paged letter under the door.

The following Monday, I called Congressman Butterfield’s Durham office and spoke with a gentleman named Reginald Speight. He confirmed receipt of the letter, which he did not open, and he told me it would be turned over to Mr. Butterfield’s regional director.

The following day, Tuesday, April 2, 3013, I received a phone call from Ray Rogers, the congressman’s regional director in Wilson County. He had read the contents of the letter which focused on the fraudulent autopsy report that was used as the basis to charge his constituent, Crystal Mangum, with first degree murder.

Mr. Rogers asked me what I wanted the congressman to do about the situation. I told him that I wanted Mr. Butterfield to do something… to write a letter to me, to the newspaper, to the Durham district attorney…. to call for an investigation. I told him that I wanted the congressman to do something.

I explained that I was not a politician and that Ms. Mangum was not my constituent, but that I was not going to sit by and do nothing in the face of such an injustice. Mr. Rogers told me that he would discuss the letter with others on his staff and make a determination about forwarding the letter to Congressman Butterfield.

After not hearing from the congressman or his staff, I placed a call to the Wilson office two weeks later on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Mr. Rogers was unavailable… in a meeting, and would not return that day.

The following day, Wednesday, April 17, 2013, I called again and spoke with Mr. Rogers. He told me that the congressman would be taking no action on this issue because it was in the courts. This is not an uncommon response, as many politicians use this as an excuse to refrain from getting involved in political quagmires.

I then asked if Congressman Butterfield had even seen the letter, and Mr. Rogers told me, “No.” By not seeing the letter, the congressman automatically has deniability… he’s out of the loop, so to speak.

I can’t speak for Congressman Butterfield, but I believe it is a serious breech of justice and ethics when a medical examiner provides a fraudulent autopsy report in order to snare an innocent individual. That is what has happened in the case against Crystal Mangum.

Congressman Butterfield’s constituent, Ms. Mangum, potentially faces a life sentence based on bogus charges in a vendetta prosecution within the congressman’s district, and it appears that he is not going to do anything about it.

The congressman can’t act on an issue about which he has no knowledge. That is the purpose of this flog. To see that he learns about the tragic injustice that is going on in his district… although it is many miles away.

To viewers of this flog, I request that you contact G. K. Butterfield at one of his many offices and let him know that he’s got mail. And he can find it posted on this blog site. 

Public response to injustice against Crystal Mangum

I am not alone in my view that the prosecution and persecution of Crystal Gail Mangum is nothing more than a vendetta by the state and the mainstream media because of her role as a victim and accuser in the Duke Lacrosse case of March 2006. Although many people share my view that Mangum is a victim of vindictiveness spawned ultimately by the actions of the Carpetbagger Duke Lacrosse defendants’ families, few of them are willing to publicly express it.

Many people keep their feelings about this case bundled up inside because they lack the will to do anything to rectify the failings of the state’s justice system. Others remain quiet because they lack the courage to take a righteous stand against an unpopular position. This is understandable after witnessing the brutalization of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong by the state and the media for his actions in doing the right thing in prosecuting the Duke Lacrosse case. Courageously prosecuting the Duke case in the true sense as a “minister of justice,” he butted heads with the Powers-That-Be who demanded that the charges against the student/athlete/partygoers be dropped. As a result, the state went through extraordinary means to make an example of Mr. Nifong… something which they did very well, as is evidenced by the fact that there is little if any movement to go against the Powers’ will by offering support to Ms. Mangum.

I have not tallied the members of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong on the issue, but I am sure that the majority, if not all, would be supportive of Ms. Mangum and demand that the murder and larceny charges she now face be dismissed. Those who should take a stand on her behalf and who are not are the politicians who represent Durham and its residents… Senator Floyd McKissick, Representatives Larry Hall and Mickey Michaux, and Congressman David Price. They have all remained idle and silent when it comes to the unjust treatment she has sustained… languishing in jail now for more than 450 days on bogus charges based on a flawed and fraudulent autopsy report. Unfortunately, civil rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have been quiet as dormice when it comes to Crystal Mangum’s case.

The Christian clergy preach to their flock on Sunday about acting Christ-like in the pursuit of their daily lives, yet even the ministers steer clear when it comes Crystal Mangum’s case. Do they really believe that if the Man from Nazareth was roaming the planet today and made a stop in the Triangle Area that He would be mum and say nothing about the immoral and un-Christian-like treatment of Ms. Mangum? I can envision Him now raising a ruckus like he did amongst the lenders with high interest rates (equivalent to bankers back in the day).

However, there is a man who has the courage to speak out and the desire to do something to see that justice is served. His name is Riccardo Darnell Jones, and he was moved to speak out about the injustice he perceived in the charges against Crystal Mangum. Mr. Jones accurately determined that the Durham prosecution team had discarded its role as “minister of justice” in an attempt to seek vengeance against Mangum because of her actions in the Duke Lacrosse case… the prosecution going to extremes in an attempt to saddle her with a lengthy imprisonment… life without parole if possible.

Mr. Jones drafted a motion on May 26, 2011, which was filed in Crystal Mangum’s criminal folder on June 3, 2011. Not an elected politician, not a man of the cloth, and not an employee of a civil rights organization, Mr. Jones is a man who believes in justice and is willing to fight for it for others. The irony is that Riccardo Darnell Jones is incarcerated at Central Prison in Raleigh, but yet he is doing more to serve the interests of Lady Justice than the politicians, civil rights activists, ministers, and most so-called law-abiding citizens. He is deserving of our gratitude. 

To view the motion by Riccardo Darnell Jones that is on file in Crystal Mangum’s file click the link below:

LINK: http://www.justice4nifong.com/legal/cgm/motionRDJ052611.htm

North Carolina’s disgraceful treatment of Erick Daniels continues…

Click the link below to access the flog.

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog3redo.html


The Independent Weekly, a Triangle area arts and entertainment tabloid out of Durham, has made it clear to me, for reasons which are not, that it doesn't want anything to do with me. I believe its hostility towards me is due to the fact that I am a supporter of Mike Nifong. Despite that, however, I would be remiss to miss an opportunity to look at the publication every chance I get because it does tackle important criminal and social justice issues that other mainstream media avoid like the plague. In fact, I credit its articles about the unjust incarceration of Erick Daniels to be instrumental in public awareness about his plight, and to be responsible for his subsequent release from prison after serving seven of a ten to fourteen year sentence for an armed robbery conviction... a crime he did not commit.

What is particularly tragic about the Daniels case is that he never should have been arrested for the September 21, 2000 armed robbery, let alone convicted and allowed to serve time. Compounding the tragedy is that Erick Daniels was taken into custody at the age of fourteen... hand-cuffed and led away from his middle school class room like a hardened criminal. That the case against him was flawed was evident from the very beginning, but his defense attorney seriously compromised his case by putting the young boy on the witness stand.

Licking her chops, the Durham Prosecutor Freda Black tore into her prey, convincing a pliable jury that Daniels was a threat to society... that he had gang affiliations, etc. She was unable to present credible evidence linking Daniels to the armed robbery, as he differed from the victim's initial description of the perpetrator in hair style and complexion.

The victim’s description of the armed robber was an African American male of light complexion with his hair braided in cornrows. Erick Daniels has a dark complexion and his hair is short cropped.

Fingerprints at the crime scene did not match Daniels's and there was no other forensic evidence to implicate him either. Discrepancies in the lead investigator's records and missing police reports further raised doubts about the legitimacy of the state's case against Daniels. The prosecuting attorney even failed to interview a young man who was later incarcerated who fit the suspect's profile and admitted to committing the robbery.

Perhaps what is most disturbing is that the reason Erick Daniels was deemed to be the most likely suspect was due to the fact that he was picked out of a middle school yearbook based upon the shape of his eyebrows. Daniels appeared before Judge Osmond Smith III, the same judge who sentenced Mike Nifong to 24 hours in jail on a trumped up contempt of court charge. The honorable Judge Smith sentenced Daniels to a sentence of ten to fourteen years. So Daniels languished in jail, year after year, with the state having stolen his youth.


While incarcerated, appeals were filed on his behalf, but all were for naught.
In 2003, after spending several years in jail, Erick Daniels passed a polygraph test which supported his contention that he was not involved in the crime for which he was convicted. It wasn't until the following year that Attorney Carlos Mahoney took over Daniels's case and filed an appeal with Durham Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson which eventually led to Daniels’s release from prison. In releasing Daniels, the judge dismissed all of the charges against him, and as he is legally empowered to do, declared that Erick Daniels was "innocent."

The News & Observer, a Johnny-come-lately in the travails of Erick Daniels, published a front page article in its Sunday, February 1, 2009, issue titled "After injustice, Durham man's eyes are on the future." However, the article by Anne Blythe was quick to turn its attention and sympathies to the three Duke Lacrosse defendants. Defendants who served no time in jail, who through their avaricious lawyers shook down Duke University for $20 million each, and who are attempting to pry another $10 mil each from the cash-strapped city of Durham. Per mainstream media custom, the Duke three are described as "exonerated” and “declared innocent..." However, writer Blythe failed to mention in the article that they were declared "innocent" by an attorney general... a proclamation which she very well knew carried no legal weight and which was meant to mislead the public.

Comparing the Duke Lacrosse defendants to Erick Daniels is like comparing apples and eggplant... as Daniels was declared "innocent" by a judge, not an attorney general. In addition, the Duke Lacrosse defendants were never convicted of a felony, as was Daniels. Daniels’s record is stained by the unjust felony charge and conviction, whereas the Duke Lacrosse defendants’ record is spotless.

Despite a case in which Daniels did not have a forensic print, had ineffective legal representation, had a confession from another man with a criminal past who fit the description, and had been declared "innocent" by a judge, he has been unsuccessful in receiving a pardon. Under state law, without the pardon he is not eligible to receive compensation that the state legislature has designated to go to the wrongfully incarcerated.

With his current attorney Gladys Harris, Daniels had been in the pursuit of a pardon for years through the North Carolina Office of Executive Clemency, which is charged with granting pardons and commuting sentences. A Pardon of Innocence is granted when an individual has been convicted and criminal charges are subsequently dismissed, as has occurred in Daniels's case. Although, like Gregory Taylor, Erick Daniels has been legally determined to be "innocent," a petition to the Governor for a declaration of innocence to enable him to seek compensation from the State for being erroneously convicted and imprisoned by it has not been granted.

There is no doubt among fair-minded people of good conscientious that Erick Daniels is innocent of the charge of armed robbery for which he was convicted, sentenced, and suffered seven years of incarceration. Neither is their doubt that Daniels deserves to be made whole by all measures at the State's disposal, such as expungement of the crime from his record and financial compensation to which he is rightfully entitled by state law.

In the Gregory Taylor case, Governor Bev Perdue had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to do the right thing in giving Taylor a pardon for his seventeen years of wrongful incarceration and enabling him to receive the compensation to which he was entitled. For reasons which have no logical answer, the Governor and her Executive Office of Clemency are bracing themselves to deny justice for Erick Daniels.

According to the Independent Weekly, the Clemency Office denied Daniels's pardon in February 2011, and Daniels's attorney Harris stated that she had not received notification from the state office. Harris went on to state that the office informed her that the denial was issued because "those granting pardons from the state do not disturb jury verdicts." Whoever the mysterious people are in the Clemency Office must believe that Attorney Harris is an idiot. If I am not mistaken, practically all innocent people are wrongfully convicted by a jury. Gregory Taylor was convicted by a jury... yet he was pardoned by the Governor's office. Their explanation for refusing to pardon Daniels makes no sense and they know it. That is why the Governor's office and the secretive Office of Clemency rebuffed the Independent Weekly's efforts to contact them. This is the kind of insanity that makes North Carolina the laughing stock of the country.

One reason that the governor and her Executive Office of Clemency believe that they can get away with this egregious and amoral mistreatment of Erick Daniels is because Daniels’s political representatives U.S. Congressman David Price, State Senator Floyd McKissick, and State Representatives Mickey Michaux and Larry Hall keep at arms length when it comes to defending their constituents caught in a system that dispenses selective justice based on Class and Color.

The injustice suffered by Daniels is not a problem restricted to the Durham area, rather it is an issue which plagues the entire state of North Carolina. Representatives, senators, and all politicians who value the concept of “equal justice for all” should not just feel shock and abhorrence at the mistreatment of Erick Daniels, but they should do something about it.

The NAACP’s state organization under its president, Reverend Doctor William Barber, as well as the Durham chapter of the NAACP, has remained silent as dormice. By so doing, this civil rights organization is nothing more than an enabler to the unacceptable and discriminatory status quo and it does a disservice to all people of color who’s civil and constitutional rights it professes to protect.

It is time for Governor Bev Perdue, her administration, and other state officials to start assuring that “equal justice for all” is being dispensed by the state’s criminal justice system instead of bad jokes. Erick Daniels certainly deserves better... and so do all Tar Heelians.

Politicians’ lack of will and courage hamper justice in Duke Discrimination case

On this blog site I have frequently complained about the gross mistreatment I received when I attended a public event on Duke campus in April 2010. I have also mentioned my attempts to reach out to politicians who represent me in hopes that they would help resolve this issue to everyone’s satisfaction.

The other day, a commenter asked the following: Anonymous said...

Sidney, give us the specific reasons why your US Representative declined to intervene with Duke University on your behalf. Could you quote the reasons word for word. April 7, 2011 7:31 AM

Therefore, I devote this blog in response, with links to the letters in question. I wrote not just one, but three politicians who represented me… U.S. Congressmen David Price and Brad Miller, and State Representative Deborah Ross.

What I basically sought from them was a letter seeking an explanation from Duke University about its alleged treatment of me, or if they were satisfied with the extensive amount of evidence presented on my website, a letter to admonish Duke for its excessive and barbaric treatment of me. In other words, I wanted Duke University to know that my political representatives, if not concerned about my treatment, were at least giving it their attention.

Not to my surprise, all three of the politicians who represent me refused to get involved. To do so would require the will to seek justice for me, and the courage to go up against Duke University – attributes which, with regards to this instance, were regrettably lacking among Price, Miller, and Ross. The media, employing its Jedi mind-tricks on the public, has made support of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong political poison… regardless of issues of fairness, ethics, and justice. In addition, Duke University is a powerful conglomeration with deep pockets which are capable of filling coffers of candidates.

Requesting assistance from my representatives in the form of a letter was both appropriate and doable. Congressmen Price and Miller both tried to convince me that their First Amendment Right to Free Speech was somehow impinged by their roles in the U.S. Capitol. They should know better than anyone that their right to express concern, support, disappointment, or any other emotion on a constituent of theirs who has been mistreated, is protected by the Bill of Right and by common decency.

I do take offense from Mr. Price making the reference about “self-imposed exile from the (Duke) campus,” which is meant to absolve Duke from any responsibility for me not feeling comfortable to return to Duke. There is no doubt in my mind that Duke University would have arrested me had I not had the fortune of running into Duke law professor James Coleman. Professor Coleman is a friend of mine, and his intercession on my behalf is the only thing that kept me from being tossed into the clinker. By its actions, Duke did, in effect, exile me.

Mr. Price also attempts to give credence to Duke’s flimsy excuse of solicitation, which I find insulting. No reasonable adult would believe that handing out a business card to a selected number of individuals and inviting them, in a private conversation, to visit a website should be construed as soliciting.

Bottom line regarding Mr. Price is that he had two of his constituents who were at odds with one another. He choose to side with the constituent with deep pockets rather than the one with justice on his side.

At the time that Congressman Miller and Representative Ross responded to my appeal, they redefined my problem as being a legal matter, which it wasn’t. I had hoped for their intervention on my behalf for the explicit purpose of preventing it from becoming one. Unfortunately, that was not the case and I was left with no option but to take it to the next level. Had a politician aggressively become involved in seeing that justice was served, I believe there would have been a decent chance that the issue could have been amicably and expeditiously settled.

Below is the link to the letters.

LINK: http://justice4nifong.com/direc/irepoDirec/irepoB2/ltr5reps.htm

Also, below is a link to Part 15 of “The MisAdventures of Super-Duper Cooper.”

LINK: http://justice4nifong.com/direc/sdcDirec/sdcEpv/sdc181.htm

Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca leads DPD down wrong path at taxpayer expense

In her bid to do the bidding of the Carpetbagger families of the Duke Lacrosse defendants by prosecuting Duke Lacrosse victim Crystal Mangum, Durham Assistant D.A. Angela Garcia-Lamarca is leading the Durham Police Department down the slippery, slimy path of disgrace, mayhem, and degradation. She is doing this while Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. watches, his mouth closed and hands in his pockets. She is doing this while The Herald-Sun, The News & Observer, and the local news outlets, which have a duty to use their investigative powers and op-ed forums to protect the masses from corruption and waste, ignore the full scale malfeasance that envelops Ms. Mangum with the trumped up criminal charges which emanated from events the night of February 17, 2010. She is doing this while hardworking taxpayers are unaware that their hard earned tax dollars are being wasted to fulfill the malicious and vindictive agenda called for by the Carpetbagger Jihad.

The taxpayers’ tab is only going to grow as long as Ms. Garcia-Lamarca allows the so-called “criminal case” against Ms. Mangum to proceed. The Durham Police Department will continue to be dragged deeper into a quagmire of deception, which, if the case should miraculously go to trial, will end in the inevitable perjured testimony of many of Durham’s Finest. There is only one way out of this self-inflicted criminal justice cesspool, and that road to recovery, redemption, and restoration lies clearly in the hands of Prosecutor Angela Garcia-Lamarca. The way is clear... no GPS is required. All Ms. Garcia-Lamarca need do is to unilaterally and unconditionally drop all charges against Crystal Mangum. It is the morally right thing to do. It is the legally just thing to do.

There is no hope for a “Hail Mary” salvation in the form of a plea deal akin to what happened in the tragic fiasco known as the James Arthur Johnson case. Ms. Garcia-Lamarca cannot rely on Ms. Mangum’s legal counselor to do her in by pressuring her to accept a plea deal and admit to a crime which she did not commit. Although James Arthur Johnson, with the NAACP in his corner, caved in to Special Prosecutor W. David McFadyen’s last desperate plea deal, Crystal Mangum has the full support of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong behind her. What the courts shamefully did to James Arthur Johnson will not be visited upon Crystal Mangum. The sooner Ms. Garcia-Lamarca comes to the reality that a last-minute plea deal will not materialize, the better. She can then proceed to drop charges, implement the principles of restorative justice, and begin the healing process… one which will lead to public confidence and credibility in the Durham Police Department.

For Ms. Garcia-Lamarca to proceed against a headwind of logic, reason, and common sense by taking the case to trial will result in the same disastrous consequences suffered by the state when it decided to contest the innocence of Gregory F. Taylor in court before a three judge panel. Not only was Mr. Taylor (who wrongfully served 17 years in prison) vindicated in the murder ascribed to him by Wake County Prosecutor Tom Ford, but to the state’s dismay, the State Bureau of Investigation was shaken to its core and has come under media scrutiny and criticism for its handling of the case. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby was ill-advised to proceed against Mr. Taylor. The upside for trying to keep a clearly innocent man behind bars the rest of his life were nil, and the downside was potentially huge and unpredictable… as Mr.Willoughby and Ford learned in time. Ms. Angela Garcia-Lamarca needs to weigh her options with the Mangum case very carefully, and understand that in going forward to trial that the risks are potentially great, whereas the benefits, if any exist, are miniscule.

Elected politicians (such as U.S. Congressman David Price, State Senator Floyd McKissick, Representative Mickey Michaux, and others of whom Ms. Mangum is a constituent) can distance themselves from Ms. Mangum (who is being blatantly mistreated by the state because of her role in the Duke Lacrosse case) and say that their hands are tied due to protocol. The NAACP, the Durham Committee On the Affairs of Black People, and other civil rights organizations can remain silent as dormice when it comes to the injustices against Ms. Mangum (like they were during the persecution of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong). But the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong will be ever present to see that justice prevails with regards to the trumped up charges against Crystal Mangum. There will be no plea deal. The tragedy of James Arthur Johnson will not be visited upon her.

Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca needs to clearly understand that regarding Ms. Mangum, there is no plea deal in the cards… it is not even on the table.