Interactive Flog
Running time: 25 minutes
http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog9.html
NOTE: Click the link above to access the flog, or read the script below.
Tracy E. Cooper was a correctional officer with fifteen years of service in the state of Illinois. Tragically, on September 28, 2010, at the age of 42, Officer Cooper passed away. Records acquired online state that he died as a result of an assault that was alleged to have occurred months earlier.
According to documents, on January 25, 2010, Cooper escorted a convicted felon to court, at which time the judge ordered for the felon to be unshackled. Upon being freed from his bonds, the young man bolted in an attempt to escape. Officer Cooper subdued the would-be fugitive by wrestling the convict to the floor, during which time he injured his left shoulder.
When his traumatized left shoulder failed to heal, it was later determined that Cooper had torn his left rotator cuff. Approximately eight months later Cooper underwent surgery to repair the damaged shoulder. Unfortunately he never emerged from the general anesthesia, and he was pronounced dead the following day.
The Illinois Department of Corrections has recorded the cause of death to be an “assault” and the weapon used, a “person.” In other words, the inmate who attempted to flee in January 2010 is being held responsible for the death of the correctional officer in September 2010… eight months later.
I have a problem with this reasoning on many levels. My reading of the incident suggests that the inmate was attempting to escape and that Correctional Officer Cooper executed his job appropriately by its prevention. The injury to Cooper’s left shoulder was plainly work-related and not a result of an assault. It might be different had the inmate charged at Cooper and knocked him to the ground… but that did not happen.
In addition, it is obvious that the proximate cause of Officer Cooper’s death was due to a complication in surgery, most likely due to a problem with the administration of the anesthesia. The injury sustained eight months earlier had nothing to do with Cooper’s passing.
With Cooper’s death being attributed to the incident eight months prior, and it being deemed to be due to an assault, then the inmate, for attempting to flee the courtroom, could be charged with murder… a totally ridiculous and inappropriate charge.
This is the same emotionally irrational logic used in Reginald Daye’s death. The stab wound by Crystal Mangum had absolutely nothing to do with Daye’s death… and everyone knows it, including the prosecutors, the medical personnel at Duke University Hospital, the medical examiners, and the media.
A stab wound made by a paring knife that only damaged the splenic flexure of the colon should have been easily managed without residual effects… Reginald Daye should have made a full recovery.
The pathetic autopsy reports purposely shed no light on the cause of death in Daye’s case, giving us no more information than was initially available from the media on April 13, 2011… that Daye sustained a stab wound, and that he died. For the medical examiner to say that he died of “complications of a stab wound” provides not a scintilla of enlightenment. The links connecting the stab wound to Daye’s death ten days later are omitted… again, on purpose.
I no more agree with the Illinois DOC that the cause of Tracy Cooper’s death was due to an assault eight months earlier, than I do with Durham Assistant District Attorney Kelly Gauger’s position that the stab wound to Reginald Daye resulted in his demise ten days later. The cause of death in both cases is folly and lacks serious merit and consideration.
The amazing cases of Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn
On life support, twenty-one year-old Cory Harrison was not expected to come out of the coma, and his doctor in Spain recommended that no heroic measures be taken if he were to contract a life threatening infection. The coma was the result of severe head trauma he sustained when he landed on it after falling from a second story balcony onto a cobblestone pavement while working at a summer job in Spain. In addition to a skull fracture, he had fractures of his ribs and vertebrae.
Although many neurological practitioners did not expect him to recover consciousness, Cory Harrison did just that… but only after more than seven weeks in a comatose state. Currently he is undergoing rehab and physical therapy to help him regain use of his extremities and the ability to speak. Because he was not pulled off life-support prematurely, Cory had the opportunity to emerge from his comatose state.
On April 3, 2011, 29 year-old Joshua Martin Wrenn was arrested on a warrant for assaulting his wife. Shortly after being booked, Wrenn was involved in an altercation with correction officials during which he lost consciousness. He, like Reginald Daye, was taken to Duke University Hospital and placed on life support in its intensive care unit.
Doctors told Wrenn’s mother, Kathy Treadway, that her son was brain dead. However, on the advice of an attorney, the family would not allow doctors to remove him from life support… because that would prevent them from filing a lawsuit against the state for inflicting wounds that rendered Joshua comatose.
Then, on May 30, 2011, approximately eight weeks after being beaten into unconsciousness, Wrenn surprisingly emerged from the coma… no longer requiring the ventilator, making eye contact, and moving his extremities. He is far from being fully recovered as he is partially paralyzed, and has yet to talk… morbidity possibly in part due to several strokes he suffered during hospitalization. According to his mother, he is making progress, slowly but surely.
Now, contrast these two cases to that of Reginald Daye. For certain reasons, which have been concealed from the public by the Duke University Hospital staff and media, Reginald Daye went into a coma on the third post-op day. Prior to lapsing into unconsciousness his evaluation had him on the mend from the stab wound to the torso. Specifics surrounding his downward spiral and his week-long coma were shielded from media consumers, their first awareness that the hospital course of Mr. Daye had gone terribly wrong was with the announcement of his death.
Although I have not been privy to actual events, my sources have stated that Daye passed away shortly after he was taken off life support. In other words, the neurologists had determined that Daye had suffered irreversible brain damage – was “brain dead” in the layman’s parlance – concluded that he would never awaken from his comatose state, and electively removed him from life support with the consent of Daye’s family. The cessation of supportive measures by the medical staff was the proximate cause of Reginald Daye’s death and not any actions that preceded it.
Doctors are not gods and their prognoses are not 100% accurate. If that were the case, then Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn would both have been removed from life support and would have expired many weeks before their miraculous awakenings. Like Harrison and Wrenn, Reginald Daye deserved the opportunity to recover. However it was not to be because before a week’s time had elapsed, Daye was removed from life sustaining treatment at Duke University Hospital and allowed to die.
From media coverage just days following his emergency surgery the public had been led to believe that Daye’s course would be uneventful and his recovery complete. But that was not to be and mysterious events at the hospital resulted in a loss of consciousness as well a cardiac arrest. And while Daye lingered in a coma over a long seven day period, the media kept mum about the frightening and unexpected chain of events… with the public first learning of his condition after he was pronounced dead.
Why the rush to remove Daye from life support? Were there those with decision making powers who were concerned that he might recover and deprive the prosecution of charging Mangum with murder? The plug was pulled on Daye before the public even had an opportunity to enter into a debate about his comatose condition. With all certainty, Mangum was not responsible for Reginald Daye’s death or his coma.
If Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn could awaken from their comatose states and be weaned off life support measures, Reginald Daye should have been entitled to the same opportunity.
Mangum defense strategy: genius, inept, or Judas-like?
According to The Herald Sun, Crystal Mangum’s attorney, Chris Shella of Durham, entered a motion with the court on September 20, 2011, asking that his client be given a psychiatric evalution. Superior Court Judge G. Wayne Abernathy signed the order shortly thereafter for the purposes of supposedly determining whether or not she is mentally competent to stand trial for the murder of Reginald Daye.
This unexpected defense move was a surprise and one which I feel undercuts the original strategy which stated that she acted in self-defense. Shella had initially and repeatedly stated that Mangum stabbed Daye to prevent him from continuing to beat her up. It has been established that the two, prior to the incident, had been arguing about money orders which Mangum had purchased in the name of Daye to pay rent on the apartment the two symbiotically shared. Mangum wanted to use the money for rent, whereas Daye wanted it to purchase beer and alcohol.
Prosecutor Kelly Gauger and the state have never presented a motive for Mangum’s actions in stabbing Daye. Is the public to believe that she stabbed him without provocation in order to “steal” the two money orders that she had purchased? Or did she merely succumb to an underlying urge to kill boyfriends as the media would have you believe? The prosecution lacks a motive for the stabbing, while on the other hand, the self-defense argument for Mangum makes sense.
The prosecution has a weak murder case against Mangum, as a cursory look at the arrest warrant and grand jury indictment documents will show. Like the autopsy reports on Reginald Daye, both the warrant and indictment lack any information regarding the alleged murder and consist only of one generic sentence statements. Contrast it with the indictment of the trumped up case with which Crystal was charged in 2010.
Furthermore, you will notice that no where in the arrest warrant is there any mention of Reginald Daye being stabbed “seven times” or “multiple times.” ABC-11 News had frequently and erroneously stated that based on the arrest warrant Crystal Mangum stabbed Daye multiple times. This is simply false and misleading… and is typical of mainstream media reporting on this subject.
In addition to lacking a motive, discrepancies between the April 13th and 14th 2011 autopsy reports fail to provide a cause of death and introduces the strong likelihood of criminal fraud in the report of April 14th. There is nothing to support Crystal being driven by insanity to stab Daye, nor anything to suggest she is mentally unable to understand the charges that she faces or her legal situation. It seems to me that Shella undercuts Mangum’s self-defense position by suggesting that she is mentally incompetent and her mental status may have had something to do with her actions the morning of April 3, 2011. That is why his motion seeking a mental health evaluation is so troubling.
To my knowledge, Elisa Baker, who was convicted of killing, dismembering and burying her stepdaughter Zahra Baker, never had her mental faculties brought into question… she was never ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for competency.
My concerns about this psychiatric evaluation tactic venture far beyond legal matters. With her being transferred to Central Regional Hospital in Butner for evaluation, concerns about her well being and even her life are brought to the fore. Had a psychiatrist or psychologist been sent to Durham’s Detention Center for the evaluation, I would be far less anxious. Within the confines of a mental institution, however, where she is vulnerable to mind-altering drugs and treatment that is shielded by confidentiality policies, anything is possible… and I am fearful for her.
Transferring Mangum from Durham to Butner also deprives Crystal of what little access in visitation that she has to those who support her and care about her. How long she will be held at that institution is an unknown.
Weight of the prosecutor’s case
In 2010, the state of North Carolina’s trumped up case against Crystal Mangum had the weight of straw, and the prosecution was able to prevail in several misdemeanor charges which were: child endangerment, injury to personal property, and resisting a public official. Despite a feather-weight defense by attorney Mani Dexter, the
prosecution was unable to convict Mangum of the felony charge of arson. The jury deadlocked because a few of the jurors with a conscience refused to convict her when they had doubts about her responsibility for setting clothes ablaze in a bathtub. Fact is that the Durham Police officers were the only ones with the motive, means, and opportunity to set the fire.
Crystal Mangum now faces murder charges for a prosecution case that has the weight of dust. The question is whether Mangum will get another featherweight defense performance. Initially I had hopes when attorney Shella challenged the state regarding its murder charge because an autopsy report had not yet been released that specified a cause of death. My hopes were bolstered when he told the media that Crystal acted in self-defense. I have been sent into a tailspin by his recent motion to the court seeking mental evaluation for his client.
A more effective and appropriate tact would be for Shella to ask the court to dismiss the murder charge as the autopsy reports clearly fail to show a nexus between the stab wound and Daye’s death, the discrepancies between the two reports strongly suggests biased criminal fraud, and the elective removal of Daye from life support by hospital staff automatically exempts Mangum from responsibility for his death.
The lack of curiosity on the part of the media and the inactivity on the part of politicians and community leaders reinforces their willingness to allow the state to continue to purse its ruthless persecution of Crystal Mangum as retaliation for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case.
Recently a reliable source stated that prosecution notes handed to defense as discovery, contained a written interview with Reginald Daye in which he admitted that prior to being stabbed he had dragged Crystal Mangum by her hair and “slapped her around.” This admission should be more than enough to have made the prosecution entertain the likely possibility that Ms. Mangum acted in self defense the morning of April 3, 2011. However, despite this, Prosecutor Gauger has pressed forward with her prosecution of Mangum in this case… a waste of county resources and taxpayer dollars, and a slap in the face of Lady Justice.
I have been taking action on behalf of justice by enlightening the people with flogs and by writing letters. Also, I have filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina State Bar against prosecutor Kelly Gauger for her malicious and merit-lacking prosecution of Crystal Mangum.
I am in a quandary as to what to expect next of defense attorney Chris Shella. Whose interests will have his highest priority… his client Crystal Mangum, or those of Duke University Hospital, state medical examiners, the powerful Carpetbagger families of the Duke Lacrosse defendants, and the state? Only time will tell.
A time when the Bench needs to step in and toss out
Because prosecutors often pursue criminal charges against defendants that are totally without merit, vendetta-based, and/or frivolously pursued, judges in the state of North Carolina have the ability to dismiss charges before they even reach the jury.
In a recent Durham case, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson felt compelled to dismiss murder charges against Michael C. Dorman II because Durham police had allowed crucial evidence to be destroyed. In this particular instance, the judge issued his order following a hearing brought by a motion presented by the defendant’s attorney. The charge was dismissed despite the fact that Dorman was in possession of the murder victim’s skeletal remains and an alleged confession to another party.
On July 7, 2011, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner dismissed a murder charge against Antonio Smith because the prosecutor failed to present any evidence that Smith committed the stabbing death for which he was standing trial. The charge was dropped even though Smith had previously been charged with another murder.
As in the aforementioned murder trials of Dorman and Smith, the trial judge in the murder case against Crystal Mangum would be well within justifiable bounds to dismiss the murder charge against Mangum in Reginald Daye’s death. The basis for dismissal would be as follows: (1) the major discrepancies between the investigative report of April 13, 2011 and the autopsy report of April 14, 2011; (2) that the autopsy reports were totally inadequate, full of omissions, did not express a specific cause of death, and did not link the stab wound to Daye’s death; and (3) Crystal Mangum had nothing to do with the removal of Reginald Daye from life support, the true and proximate cause of Daye’s death.
Prosecutor Kelly Gauger’s case is further weakened by the fact that the prosecution has offered no motive for the homicide, and the fact that public sentiment fueled by the mainstream media has insidiously tainted the public and the state’s attitudes against Ms. Mangum.
I believe that Mangum’s attorney Shella should have filed a motion long ago to have the murder charge dismissed. Because it seems to me that such a motion is not forthcoming, it is my hope that Judge Abernathy will take the initiative to step in and toss out the murder charge against Crystal Mangum… a charge that should never reach the hands of a jury.
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http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog2.html
The mainstream media has once again painted a mirage for its viewers, readers, and subscribers regarding the April 3, 2011 stabbing incident involving Crystal Mangum and Reginald Daye. What the media wants you to believe is that Reginald Daye was a good citizen with a kind heart who took it upon himself to try and help Crystal Mangum, who had been burdened by notoriety of the Duke Lacrosse case and the February 17, 2010 case in which she was found guilty of several misdemeanor charges. It suggested that Daye offered to share his apartment with Crystal and her three children, who were for all intents and purposes homeless. And that he did so despite a warning from his nephew about Mangum.
Then, the media would have you believe that Crystal, who had been labeled by police as the physical domestic abuser against her boyfriend in the February 17, 2010 incident, followed an established pattern by stabbing Daye, for the purpose of stealing his money. Conscious, after being wounded, Daye told police that Mangum stabbed him and took his money.
Shortly, after the incident, Mangum was apprehended and charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
Daye underwent emergency surgery on April 3, 2011, for his stab wound and was on the mend and on the verge of discharge when he suddenly went into a coma around April 9th or 10th. It was an irreversible coma and on the evening of April 13, 2011, Daye was taken off life support. The cause of death was not established at the time.
On April 18, 2011, five days after his death, Durham prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment against Mangum for murder, and two counts of larceny… one count for each of two money orders Crystal was alleged to have taken from Daye. At the time of the indictment, an autopsy report had not been released and there was no official cause of death listed for Reginald Daye.
On April 19, 2011, the sixth day following his death, Reginald Daye had a funeral and was laid to rest.
Before explaining what happened during the wee hours of April 3, 2011, let’s review the events which led up to the encounter… beginning with the Duke Lacrosse case. What the media persistently glosses over is the fact that Ms. Mangum’s services to entertain on March 13, 2006, were fraudulently obtained… with a Duke lacrosse party host using an alias and claiming he wanted an exotic dancer to entertain a small bachelor party of four or five. Media also frequently ignored the presence of under-aged drinking at the party… a crime. Finally, in recounting the tale, the media goes to extreme lengths to shield the fact that racial epithets were hurled at Ms. Mangum by the partygoers.
The abject bias of the specific rulings pertaining to the prosecution’s case and the media coverage is apparent as Mr. Nifong, who had always maintained an open file policy – even prior to it being mandated by law – handed over nearly 5,000 pieces of evidence to each of the three teams of defense attorneys. Brad Bannon, one of Joseph Cheshire’s underlings, led the charge that Mr. Nifong delayed turning over lab evidence, which he claimed was exculpatory. Fact is, that the so-called evidence was not exculpatory, and that the basis of the prosecution’s case was not DNA. The media, however, tried to represent before the public that Mr. Nifong had withheld evidence… especially vital exculpatory evidence. This was blatantly false and misleading.
What is not false is that when Mr. Nifong sought reciprocal discovery from the defense attorneys, he was rebuffed, ignored. Defense attorneys had no problem plying media types with snippets of videos, which may or may not have been doctored, but they refused to submit them to the prosecution. This is a twist of irony, again that the media does its best to conceal.
Aftermath of the Duke Lacrosse case fielded many innocent casualties, the most obvious being former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong who was selectively disbarred, selectively jailed on trumped up contempt charges, and otherwise persecuted. Subsequent to Attorney General Roy Cooper’s April 11, 2007 “Innocence Promulgation” the media began in earnest its ambitious quest to mislead the populous into believing that the boys were by legal determination found to be innocent. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the media boldly and brashly trumpeted that the Duke Lacrosse defendants were “innocent,” “exonerated,” and “cleared.” Ms. Mangum, in the meantime was shackled with the label of the “false accuser.” Furthermore, the media had the audacity to intimate that grounds existed to charge Ms. Mangum – supposedly with filing a false report.
K Rae Evans, mother of Duke Lacrosse defendant Dave Evans, used to work as an executive for CBS News for a decade. Afterward, this enterprising lady founded a very successful public relations firm in Washington, DC. During an interview on “60 Minutes,” the CBS TV newsmagazine she expressed her unlimited enmity towards Mike Nifong, and her desire to see that he “paid every day for the rest of his life.” This statement fueled the flames of critics of Mike Nifong, and ushered in the despicable and malicious treatment against Nifong, Crystal Mangum, Nifong supporters, and others considered by the Powers-That-Be to be on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case… a juggernaut which has come to be known as the “Carpetbagger Jihad.”
On February 17, 2010, Durham police, like true Carpetbagger jihadists, took full advantage of their encounter with Ms. Mangum, who at the time was self-supporting, employed, independent mother, attending classes at NCCU in pursuit of a Masters degree. Durham’s finest were summoned to Ms. Mangum’s apartment by a 9-1-1 call placed by one of Mangum’s children during an altercation initated by Mangum’s ex-boyfriend who had repeatedly punched her in the face. Instead of taking him into custody, police designated him as the victim and proceeded to arrest and charge Crystal Mangum with assaulting him. To invoke more serious charges which carry heavy jail sentences, police evacuated the house on the pretense of smelling smoke and then set clothing ablaze in the bathtub. They made no attempt to extinguish it by turning on the water. Instead, the assembled law enforcers closed the bathroom door, called the Durham Fire department, and waited for there arrival.
Among the outlandish charges the police saddled on Ms. Mangum were attempted first degree murder, assault and battery, first degree arson, identity theft, child abuse, communicating threats, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer. The number and seriousness of the charges supported a bail of one million dollars, which is unheard of in a domestic violence case.
Of those charges, Ms. Mangum was indicted on felony first degree arson, three counts of child endangerment related to the fire, injury to property, and resisting a public officer. She was held under a reduced bail of $100,000. There is no doubt in my mind that Ms. Mangum would still be languishing in jail today awaiting trial had not a generous and benevolent bail bondsman satisfied the bond, which paved the way for Ms. Mangum’s release from the jail after 88 days of incarceration. Because prosecutors cruelly labeled Mangum’s children as victims of their mother, conditions were set by the Court regarding visitation with them, and Ms. Mangum was required to remain under house arrest.
Prosecution took the case to trial, and Ms. Mangum was convicted of the three misdemeanor charges. Despite a feather-weight defense by Mani Dexter, the prosecution was unable to prevail on the felony arson charge and a mistrial was declared. She was sentenced to time-served and released.
A friend from her church allowed Ms. Mangum to live with her in her apartment, and that is where she and her three children remained until recently. Because of the notoriety of the Duke Lacrosse case and the February 17th incident, Ms. Mangum was unable to secure employment. Apartment hunting was fruitless as well, especially with the arson tag deceitfully affixed to her by Durham police.
Taking inventory following the February 17th incident, Ms. Mangum faced the reality of having lost her job, being dropped from courses at NCCU, losing her apartment, losing many of her belongings, and basically losing her independence. Furthermore, during her incarceration, she was unable to help care for her father, and he passed away. Her mother, who was unable to care for herself, was spirited off to a nursing home by Crystal’s aunt, who then proceeded to terminate Crystal’s mother’s lease. Although her friend was gracious and generous to house Crystal and her children, by the spring of 2011, Crystal was desperate to find lodgings for herself and her family.
In the spring of 2011, Reginald Daye, who had been working as a painter, had been laid off work. He had a history of heavy alcohol consumption and a history of criminal activity, although mostly misdemeanor. According to records from the court, Daye had approximately fifteen charges against him, including two for assault… one victim in particular identified as being a female. I was told that by March 2011, Daye was a couple of months arrears in his rent, and that he was on the verge of being evicted from his apartment.
These conditions set up the symbiotic relationship which was to develop between Crystal Mangum and Reginald Daye. I am unaware as to how the two initially met or the precise nature of their relationship, other than they, including Crystal’s children, were to share the apartment. Although Daye had been laid off, there is the possibility that he was re-hired shortly before April 3, 2011… but he had not generated money to pay the rent due. Although Crystal was receiving training to enable her to become once again gainfully employed, she resorted to only avenue of employment open to her… exotic dancing at a club. Working for several days she cleared enough money to pay rent due on Daye’s apartment. In addition, she anticipated receiving a tax refund which would supplement her financially.
Around April 3, 2011, Crystal, using her money, purchased two money orders, one in the amount of three hundred, and the other for four hundred, as there was probably a five hundred dollar maximum limit. I was told that she wrote “rent” on the memo portion of the money orders, and used Reginald Daye’s name as its purchaser. The reason for using Daye’s name on the check was because he was the one listed on the rental agreement as the renter. With her negative name connotation, had Crystal placed her name as purchaser of the money order, recognition of it by the landlord might very well have jeopardized the arrangement and possibly even the apartment.
I was informed that the argument between Crystal and Reginald began because he wanted to use the money order to purchase beer or otherwise have a good time. Crystal, on the other hand, wanted the money orders to go towards paying the rent. The verbal argument, to my understanding, was quite heated and lengthy, and I am ignorant as to the proximate events which led to the stabbing itself. To my knowledge Daye was stabbed once, although he might have been stabbed as many as three times. ABC-11 news which has a very biased anti-Nifong bent, reported that Daye was stabbed as many as seven or eight times. The autopsy report, if and when it is made available to the public, may shed light on the number of wounds he sustained.
Taking a look at the Certificate of Death for Reginald Daye, a public document, you will notice that the immediate cause of death is listed as “pending.” For sequential cause of death, there is nothing which states that a stab wound or laceration was involved. In the section for “manner of death,” “pending” is checked… not “homicide.” This death certificate was dated April 18, 2011, the day that Crystal Mangum was indicted by the Grand Jury for premeditated murder. The updated cause of death will be at least four months from the time the autopsy was performed. I am further unaware if toxicology tests were performed on Daye and whether or not, if done, their results will be made available.
Examining the criminal record of Reginald Eugene Daye, as provided by the Clerk of Courts Office in Durham, you will note that the first page contains incidents involving mainly traffic offenses, including a misdemeanor involving beer or wine.
Page two lists two traffic offenses, one of which is driving while intoxicated… most likely due to alcohol consumption. On that charge he pled guilty. The other charge appears to be driving with license revoked.
Page three contains four misdemeanor charges including breaking and entering, assaulting a female, larceny, and simple assault. The fifth name on the page carries a middle name of Douglas and a birth date which differs from Reginald Eugene Daye, so this might be a different individual who shares the same first and last names.
Page four is a mixed bag containing a couple of traffic related charges and several misdemeanor charges including larceny and shoplifting.
My assessment of Daye’s criminal record is that it is not representative of a hardened career criminal. However, the presence of assault charges, along with the confiscation of brass knuckles from his apartment, indicates to me that he is not adverse to using physical force. The brass knuckles and his criminal record, in conjunction with his apparent problems with alcohol, and allegations from my sources relating multiple instances of the physical abuse of females, entertains the likelihood that Crystal Mangum’s actions were borne out of self-defense.
That Daye was stabbed by Mangum is not in dispute, but that he died by her hands most vigorously is. To charge Ms. Mangum with the murder of Reginald Daye is outlandish, and to charge her with two counts of larceny for money orders which she purchased is a joke. This extreme and vindictive scorched earth take no prisoners mindset that is and has been utilized in attacking Crystal Mangum, Mike Nifong, Nifong supporters, and others considered to be on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case is unholy, unjust, and makes the North Carolina justice system the laughing stock of the country.
The Carpetbaggers need to take charge of their own dirty work when it comes to inflicting punitive retribution against Mangum, Nifong, et al… we Tar Heelians, and Durhamians, in particular, need to immediately cease and desist from doing it for them.
On Friday, December 17, 2010, a twelve member jury in a Durham criminal courtroom mercifully put an end to yet another legal fiasco hosted by the State of North Carolina. The trial against Crystal Mangum for felony arson and a spate of misdemeanors, culminated a ten month legal process which began amid much fanfare in the media. As is often the case, the media gave little in the way of attention with regards to the conclusion. And this is not to say that the prosecution lost, for they were actually big winners in the verdict delivered on Friday. Because Ms. Mangum was not convicted of the most serious charge, she escaped the probability of more time behind bars, but she was the big loser in this shameful episode of Tar Heel juris prudence.
Make no mistake about it… the case against Crystal Mangum is unlike any other case involving domestic violence in the state’s history. Actions by the first responders to the 911 call made by Crystal’s children, rulings by the magistrate and judges involved in the case, the prosecution’s charges, and the featherweight defense put forth on Ms. Mangum’s behalf were all part of a grand scheme of retribution against individuals who had any part in prosecuting the case against the Duke Lacrosse defendants. Anyone with a scintilla of common sense knows that Crystal Mangum’s case was not handled like similar such cases, and they also know why… Crystal Mangum was the accuser in the Duke Lacrosse case (or as labeled by the media, “false accuser”).
The power that the Carpetbagger families of the Duke Lacrosse defendants hold within the state is embarrassingly immense. Nationally, these families of wealth, status, and privilege have always exerted tremendous sway on the media (the main conduit being through former CBS News executive Rae Forker Evans – mother of Duke Lacrosse defendant Dave Evans), and they used it effectively against Ms. Mangum.
There is no doubt about the vindictive nature of the Carpetbagger families against anyone they perceived to have had a hand in the prosecution which stemmed from an incident in which their sons attended a beer-guzzling, stripper ogling party held in a Buchanan Street house on Duke property in March 2006. The Carpetbagger Jihad against former prosecutor Mike Nifong et al. was officially unleashed during a “60 Minutes” interview in which Ms. Evans promised that “he (Mike Nifong) would pay every day for the rest of his life” (for essentially having the audacity to do his job which happened to include charging their party-going boys with a sexual assault). The city of Durham, the state of North Carolina, and the media enthusiastically embraced this call for vengeance, and pursued, with relish, the destruction of Crystal Mangum, Mike Nifong, and others. And with regards to Ms. Mangum, they were successful, but not quite to the degree in which they had hoped or envisioned.
The arrest and slew of serious charges against Ms. Mangum were made for the purpose of justifying a high bail. Believing that the likelihood of Mangum bonding out was nil, it was the intent of the prosecution to drag out its case over several years while Ms. Mangum languished in jail awaiting trial. (This was the same successful strategy employed by prosecutor Bill Wolfe against defendant James Arthur Johnson who was incarcerated for 39 months before the case against him came to trial.) As in the Johnson case, after Mangum had served a couple of years in jail the prosecutors planned to offer her a plea deal to confess to a felony in exchange for “time served,” the threat being that she could face many more years in jail if convicted. After serving 88 days in the Durham Detention Center a benevolent and generous bail bondsman placed bond which resulted in Ms. Mangum being transferred to house arrest. With Mangum no longer incarcerated, and with prosecutors losing their major bargaining chip to reach a plea deal, they decided to move ahead with the flimsy case against her. Although the prosecutor would have liked to have kept Mangum locked up for two or three years, they realized that they would have to settle for three months. Their goal was now to seek a resolution that would place them and their agents in he best possible light and free of any subsequent civil legal entanglements.
With the three month incarceration following her February 17, 2010 arrest, severe personal damage was sustained by Ms. Mangum. Prior to her arrest Ms. Mangum worked full time, she had custody of her three children, she was enrolled as a graduate student at North Carolina Central University in the Masters program, she rented an apartment for her family, she had amassed personal property for herself and her children, she was able to help take care of her parents, and she was a financially independent individual in society, attempting to put her past Duke Lacrosse history behind her. The aforementioned she lost due to her arrest and three month incarceration, although Judge Abraham Jones did reinstate for Ms. Mangum the custody of her children.
I am of the opinion that the police, most likely Officer Tyler, started the fire in the bathtub, not Crystal or her ex-boyfriend. Police, prosecutors, lab technicians, investigators have often gone afoul of the law in order to win a conviction. In the James Arthur Johnson case, for example, the prosecutor planned to introduce two eyewitnesses to the crime after his main witness retracted his initial statement implicating Johnson. The two “so-called eyewitnesses” both had connections with the police department, and prosecutors discarded this strategy once the NAACP brought media attention to the case. In the Floyd Brown case, prosecutors came up with an alleged verbatim confession from a man who mental health experts testified was too retarded to have made. In the Gregory Taylor case prosecutor Tom Ford used perjured testimony procured through plea deals to convict an innocent man of murder. For the police to set blaze to clothes in a bathtub in a controlled setting in order to concoct a serious felony charge is not much of a stretch.
Why do I believe that police set the fire? The following reasons are but a few:
(1) Police made no attempt to put out the fire. All that was required was to turn on water in the bathtub. That is what you, me, or anyone possessing a modicum of commons sense and sanity would naturally do.
(2) Police had the opportunity to stage the fire after Officer Tyler ordered everyone out of the house because he “smelled smoke.” That is most likely when the fire was set.
(3) With the large number of police on scene, no one saw the bathtub fire actually being set, and police cannot provide a sensible narrative about what transpired from the time they arrived to when the fire was allegedly discovered.
(4) Police and prosecutors sought the most serious charge, first degree arson, when conditions did not merit it... the structure suffered on flame damage.
(5) Police, firemen, and prosecutors did not provide a list of clothing articles which allegedly filled the bathtub or the number of articles damaged by the fire. Are we to presume that a boyfriend who occasionally spends the night at the apartment has a bathtub full amount of clothing there?
(6) The fire report contains no documentation that there was any structural flame damage, only smoke damage to the building (i.e. the box for flame damage to the structure was not checked). I was told that some fire reports which I requested were confidential and I was denied access to them. Those fire reports which were delivered to me were vague. One fire report also exaggerated by stating that the fire department responded to what police described as a “structure fire with a subject trapped.” I believe that the firemen were misled by Officer Tyler.
(7) Although I was not present at the trial, it is my understanding that Judge Jones declared at the beginning of the trial that he would not allow the Durham Police Department to be put on trial. Why even make such a statement unless he had reason to believe the likelihood that the police had a hand in the fire and/or other misconduct?
(8) Police, especially Officer Tyler, realized when they arrived on a call to the residence of Crystal Mangum that they had an opportunity to somehow ensnare her into the criminal justice system. They seized upon the opportunity to the extent that they completely ignored the domestic complaint which triggered the 911 call. In other words, they ignored the fact that Crystal Mangum was repeatedly struck in the face by her ex-boyfriend and that her ex-boyfriend initiated the physical contact (he was never charged.) The media, as well as agencies and groups against domestic violence, kept silent regarding this.
The above are but a few of the glaring reasons why I believe police set the fire and why I have serious doubts as to Ms. Mangum’s involvement in it. And I am not alone in my beliefs. Media-types are aware that the charges against Ms. Mangum were bogus and directly related to a stealth vendetta strategy spawned by the Carpetbagger Jihad. That is why after the initial charges were made and subsequent stories about the case (especially the trial) were muted. For example, if you go to wral.com, the online site of CBS affiliate WRAL – TV 5, you will find a plethora of articles about Mangum’s arrest and events leading up to the trial, but no coverage about the trial itself, or the outcome. I understand that the shameful case made by prosecutors against Mangum was such an embarrassment that the media did all it could to shield it from the public. Coverage by the media was purposely sparse to keep from affording the public a chance to glimpse the cockamamie case against Mangum. And what coverage there was about the trial focused in large part on defining Ms. Mangum as the “False Duke Lacrosse Accuser” (what a way to assure that Ms. Mangum receives a fair trial). Many of the stories, including those by Associated Press, continue to mislead the readers by stating that the Duke Lacrosse defendants were declared innocent. (As I have written for some time, this is misleading because the defendants were not found legally innocent. Roy Cooper, the Attorney General had no authority and was overreaching when he declared the boys innocent. Cooper did so at the urging of defense attorney Joe Cheshire’s underling Brad Bannon… and of course the media has latched onto it for the purpose of repeatedly stating that the boys were “declared to be innocent.”) What the media (including the Associated Press) consistently uses when it drags Mike Nifong into any conversation about the Duke Lacrosse case, is that the North Carolina State Bar convicted him of twenty ethical charges. What charges?… the media doesn’t even name one. Furthermore the average person on the street can not only name one so-called ethical charge against Mike Nifong, they can not even give a reason for Mr. Nifong’s disbarment. And remember that although the media persistently talks about Mike Nifong’s disbarment, they never inform the public that Mike Nifong is the only prosecutor to be disbarred by the State Bar since its inception in 1933. Keep in mind that the people in the media are extremely intelligent. When it comes to Mike Nifong and the Duke Lacrosse case the media aim is to keep the people ignorant… and they have been able to mislead those in the public who are not savvy to their ways of bending, molding, fabricating, spinning and distorting the truth.
Regarding the defense of Ms. Mangum, there is no doubt in my mind that the public defender initially assigned to the case was working more to achieve an outcome that was most favorable to the prosecution. After all, they are both state employees. I believe that the goal of Mangum’s public defender was to have her plead guilty to a felony arson charge in exchange for a sentence of “time served.” At least, by going to trial represented by a private defense attorney, Mani Dexter, Ms. Mangum now has only misdemeanor charges on her record. The major problem that I have with the defense was that (to my knowledge) there was no attempt to obtain a change of venue. As I blogged earlier, this is one case that screamed for it… just like the case against James Arthur Johnson should have had a change of venue from the media inspired racially divided city of Wilson. The judge in the Johnson case denied the motion for venue change, and I am apt to believe that the same would have happened had Mani Dexter, Mangum’s attorney, sought one. I believe that Ms. Dexter’s defense was hampered significantly by rulings from the bench… rulings which may have thwarted an aggressive defense. But I feel that she could have more effectively challenged the misdemeanor charges. Instead of calling one witness, I believe that she should have called several, including Mangum’s ex-boyfriend, and Mangum’s older children. She should have thoroughly investigated and brought before the court the alleged “injured property” (clothing and alleged damage to the car). The defense of Ms. Mangum was featherweight, but the prosecution’s case against her had the weight of straw. A dedicated, determined, competent defense held in a court out of Duke University’s sphere of influence would have trounced the prosecution’s case and resulted in an acquittal on all charges, I strongly believe.
The Durham based jury did its duty by convicting Ms. Mangum on all of the misdemeanor charges against her, even though the charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor convolutedly relied on a guilty finding in the arson charge… a charge with which Mangum was not convicted. In other words, what is the jury’s basis for finding Crystal Mangum guilty of contributing to the delinquency of her children? Even Judge Jones did not find the charge credible as he reinstated custody to Ms. Mangum of her children. Although the jury deadlocked on the most serious arson charge, it delivered for the prosecution by convicting her on the misdemeanor charges. With those convictions, the police, firemen, prosecutors, and the state are absolved from any future civil prosecution for wrongful incarceration or civil rights violations.
Now Durham County prosecutor Mark McCullough, whose passionate courtroom oratory about his concerns for Ms. Mangum’s children’s safety when the fire was allegedly started, coyly stated to the press that he will take a month to consider re-trying Crystal Mangum in the future. I fail to see McCullough’s concern for Ms. Mangum’s children by a continued attempt to put the mother of the children they love in jail for years based on trumped up charges. Alas, the Carpetbagger Jihad has no consideration for children other than their own and those of the higher social class. Take this to the bank. McCullough’s bravado about considering to re-try Crystal Mangum is empty. There are a number of reasons why. First and foremost, doing so would risk exposing wrongdoing and misconduct by the Durham Police Department. Secondly, even in a Duke University dominated city, a conviction against the “false Duke Lacrosse accuser” could not be reach… in fact, the jurors polled nine to three in favor of acquittal on the charge. And third, the media is not supportive of the prospect of lingering coverage of a bogus charge which they know is based solely on Mangum’s role in the Duke Lacrosse case. A factor which I would not expect to entertain McCullough’s consideration is the tremendous expense and waste of taxpayer money in re-trying Ms. Mangum. If he thought he had a reasonable chance of prevailing at a second trial, expense would not be an obstacle, and the public, which would be unaware of the waste of their taxpayer dollars in doing so, would not object. But, this is all moot, as there will be no re-trial.
Finally, with regards to Jackie Wagstaff, I believe that her utterance of “this is ridiculous” was not intended to travel any further than to the individual seated next to her and to whom she was addressing. However, her emotional investment in the case inadvertently and unintentionally resulted in her blurting out the comment at a decibel level higher than intended. I believe the judge’s ten day sentence was extreme, especially with it lasting over the holidays, and I am hopeful that he will take the initiative to drastically reduce it. 24 hours housed in the jail is more than enough to make a point. (And was what I perceive to be the severity of her sentence due to Wagstaff’s position with regards to the Duke Lacrosse case?)
My final major conclusions:
(1) Ms. Mangum is fortunate to be freed at the conclusion of this trial;
(2) the charges and prosecution against Ms. Mangum were due to her role in the Duke Lacrosse case;
(3) the arson case against Ms. Mangum was bogus, and the fire most likely was started by Officer Tyler;
(4) the defense should have filed a motion for a change of venue, which would have most likely resulted in a trial held on a more level playing field;
(5) the media’s coverage was typically biased for anything related to Mike Nifong and Duke Lacrosse case; and
(6) the prosecution is satisfied with the trial’s outcome and will not risk a re-trial.
The one important thing to take away from this trial is that discrimination from all quarters exist against individuals who are supporters of Mike Nifong and/or whose opinions are not favorable and sympathetic towards the Duke Lacrosse defendants. It behooves people who fall into this category to be aware of this when they encounter a situation which might attract attention or authorities. Examples are Crystal Mangum’s treatment at the February 17, 2010 incident, and Ms. Wagstaff’s severe contempt of court punishment. From my own experience, I can attest to the discrimination and my near-arrest on the Duke University campus which was appalling. The Carpetbagger Jihad influence weighs heavily in North Carolina and throughout the United States, and that is truly shameful.
Although I have concentrated on other cases of injustice since the founding of the “Friends of Crystal Mangum” advocacy group, I feel compelled to comment on the obvious. There is no way that this so-called trial should be held in Durham, the cash-strapped city which is for all intents and purposes owned by Duke University. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has a better chance of getting a fair trial in a federal court in Washington, DC than Ms. Mangum has in Durham. In jury selection, having a residence in Durham, working in Durham, working for Duke University, having any relationship to Duke University should all be grounds for automatic dismissal for consideration.
Is it any wonder that jury selection took five days, and that defense and prosecution exhausted their peremptory challenges? Actually, I am shocked that Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones even bothered to dismiss five potential jurors who admitted that bias might keep Mangum from getting a fair trial. At least they were being honest, and I would be more inclined to have one of them sit on the jury than a graduate from Duke University who states he had formed opinions about the Duke Lacrosse case but that he could put them aside and make an unbiased finding.
The prosecution’s case is totally screwed up, and one cannot ignore the bias inherent in the charges and prosecution which are selective and stem from Ms. Mangum’s involvement in the Duke Lacrosse case. For one thing, I don’t understand why Crystal Mangum’s attorney would even bother trying to suppress “evidence.” What evidence? This whole case brought by the authorities and prosecution is a complete waste of time, and is obviously done in concert with the Carpetbagger Jihad agenda… the same one that nearly got me arrested on the Duke University campus for being an openly known supporter of Mike Nifong.
Officer Hilary Thompson testified that Mangum lunged over her shoulder and threatened to stab Milton Walker, her ex-boyfriend… but she does not say with what… a knife, shears? How ridiculous is that? Thompson and her supervisor John Tyler then arrest Mangum for communicating threats, according to The News & Observer article… but that charge is dropped. The charge of attempted first degree murder (a charge used for the sole purpose of obtaining a million dollar bail against Mangum) is also dropped prior to going to trial. And although the police describe how badly Milton Walker is scratched and beat up, prosecutors drop the charge of assault against Mangum. That is a wise move on their part in light of the fact that the physical altercation was initiated when Walker first sucker punched Mangum in the face with his fist. Something which the police and the media continually keep hidden from the public.
So, what are the catastrophic charges against Mangum that warranted an initial million dollar bail, and prompted Durham Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough to ask Judge Jones to sequester the jury for the duration of a trial expected to last a week?
They are as follows:
(1) first degree arson (for allegedly setting clothes in a bathtub on fire in the presence of police… and during which police made no attempt to extinguish the fire – keep in mind that the clothes are in the bathtub);
(2) three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor (a convoluted charge related somehow to the so-called arson… attempting to explain how the charge is related to the arson would require a treatise);
(3) injury to personal property - media is extremely vague on this… burned clothing, alleged damages to the car… what? (Instead of using the word “damage” the prosecution uses the word “injury” to try and humanize inanimate objects for the purpose of making the charge seem more serious); and
(4) resisting an officer - for allegedly using a false first name when questioned by police.
For the above trifle, the Durham prosecutors have gone out of their way in wasting taxpayer money and time that could be spent on serious crime, to try and place Crystal Mangum behind bars for a lengthy period of time… again a further waste of taxpayer money. If the prosecutors were so concerned about Ms. Mangum's children they would not make it such a priority to take away the mother they love and put her behind bar in order to settle a score (the Duke Lacrosse case).
As weak as the case is against Ms. Mangum, because of the extreme bias that Crystal Mangum faces in Durham, the likelihood of a conviction is not beyond the bounds of possibility. However, the fact of the matter is, that Ms. Mangum, despite the outcome, cannot receive a fair trial in the city of Durham. Just like James Arthur Johnson could not receive a fair trial in the city of Wilson in the case related to Brittany Willis’s murder. That is probably why James Arthur Johnson made the Alford plea to a misprision of felony charge, even though he was innocent by its very definition of “not notifying authorities of his knowledge of a crime.” The judge in that instance, Milton Fitch, tightly controlled the case against Johnson, denying the defense motion for a change of venue from the racially divided town. It is unlikely that Honorable Abe Jones would have permitted a change of venue in the case against Crystal Mangum.
Whether or not Mangum’s attorney Mani Dexter filed a motion for a change of venue is unknown to me, but if I Mangum were my client, a change of venue would be my first line of defense.
