A bit of relief for Crystal Mangum in court

On Monday, July 12, 2010, Ms. Mangum attended court for a hearing in which she had the condition for house arrest removed, yet she remained under electronic surveillance. She is now free to leave the small confines of her residence and its porch, but is limited with respect to the time she is free, as she is under curfew from 5:00 pm until 8:00 am. These limits, which are supposed to currently in place, were set by individuals from the Pre-trial Jail Diversion program, specifically Ms. Christie Long. Attempts to reach her for an explanation have been unsuccessful. Wake County Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan gave the Pre-trial staff the discretion of parameters of her monitoring, including hours of curfew.

Judge Morgan was brought into the hearing when Judge Kenneth Titus, for reasons unknown, did not make an appearance. He seemed to be relatively unfamiliar with the case, which is to be expected, and was not specific about the monitoring. On both occasions when Ms. Mangum attempted to address the court, Judge Morgan inexplicably denied her the opportunity, telling her instead to confer with her counsel, who would then communicate with him.

Prosecutor Angela Garcia-Lamarca argued that Crystal Mangum’s three children were victim’s of Ms. Mangum because she set clothes on fire in the bathtub while they were in the house… a charge that Ms. Mangum has steadily denied. The judge appeared to side with Ms. Garcia-Lamarca by conceding to her request that the children’s visits with their mother are supervised.

At the trial’s end, Public Defender Clayton Jones requested that he be removed as attorney of record for Crystal Mangum. He cited meddling by members of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong as the reason, stating that it interfered with his ability to adequately represent his client. Judge Morgan granted this request, and the high ranking officer in the Public Defender’s Office is believed to be seeking other counsel for Ms. Mangum.

Well attended by the media, the hearing got off to a rather auspicious start when the location of the hearing was shifted from court to court, and it was learned that the judge who had scheduled the hearing a week earlier would not be sitting on the bench.

All in all, Ms. Mangum landed on the positive side of the ledger, having been removed from the stringent conditions of house arrest, and being to enjoy periods of unsupervised freedom. The process of obtaining justice for Ms. Mangum has been like peeling an onion… removing one layer at a time. Next on the agenda for Ms. Mangum’s justice is working to do away with all monitoring of Ms. Mangum. This monitoring is solely punitive, of no beneficial value to Ms. Mangum or the state, and is an unnecessary financial burden to the taxpayers. Social services or Child Protective Services should restore unbridled visitation rights of Ms. Mangum with her children without much ado.

Little by little the prosecution in this flawed and trumped up case is being pushed to the brink. Any leverage it had to force Ms. Mangum to accept a plea deal has been drastically whittled to the size of a toothpick. One thing is certain, and that is that what happened to James Arthur Johnson under the watch of the NAACP, will not happen to Ms. Mangum. The only question is whether the prosecutor will use common sense and take the initiative to drop all charges, or proceed naked into the blades of a whirlwind, fueled by the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong. Pursuing the later course will put many of Durham’s Finest on the line and in the spotlight… facing the possibility of committing perjury in order to keep in lockstep with the Carpetbagger Jihad’s Plan of Retribution. The question… is it worth it? I don’t think so.

A link is provided below to take you to our website’s news directory. Click on the button that reads, “Posted: July 14, 2010” to see detailed examples of how the prosecution’s case falls apart.

LINK: http://justice4nifong.com/btnnews/btnnews.htm