| Blog and Media Roundup - Sunday, November 1, 2009; News Roundup | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 1 2009, 07:38 AM (151 Views) | |
| abb | Nov 1 2009, 07:38 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/story/168895.html Published Sun, Nov 01, 2009 02:00 AM Modified Sun, Nov 01, 2009 05:46 AM Hearings put Easley on spot It's not close to being over for Mike Easley. The judgment Friday by the State Board of Elections that evidence suggests Easley, a Democrat who served two terms as governor, committed crimes while in office is the result of only one arm of state and federal probes that are wide-ranging and continuing. But the board's four-day hearing has produced new evidence and testimony about actions by Easley while he was in office. And board members offered a clear decision, saying in interviews they tended to believe what a longtime friend and aide named McQueen Campbell had said over the version offered by Easley during five hours of testimony. Federal prosecutors will undoubtedly scour Easley's words and his version of various events related to free flights, a free car, and campaign-paid home repairs that Campbell testified were purposely hidden from the public. "The matters from this week are probably one slice of the investigative pie," said Kieran Shanahan, a former federal prosecutor and Raleigh lawyer and a Republican. He had a minor client in the hearing, and after watching said he saw nothing that would make prosecutors hesitate. Easley spoke openly of the federal inquiry in his testimony, talking of isolation from friends and associates to avoid obstructing justice. He said he has been scouring bank accounts in detail, recently cutting a $4,200 check to cover unpaid rent on his son's college housing. At one point, during a break, Easley went five rows deep into the audience and shook the hands of an FBI agent and IRS agent who were taking notes and have been tracking him. The board's decision to refer its case to a state prosecutor could be folded into the wider range of other issues surrounding Easley that all seem to fit a pattern of accepting favors, at times apparently mixed with government action. Those other concerns include: a job Easley helped create for his wife at N.C. State University; action by his administration to waive violations or possibly speed up permits; and a $137,000 discount he accepted on a coastal lot he purchased. Some of the same people involved in those issues, such as developer Gary Allen, testified narrowly, and the elections board avoided getting into material outside of campaign finance law. The election board's inquiry also exposed a top Easley aide, Ruffin Poole, as being involved in fundraising while he was also serving as a key agent for Easley to clear obstacles at various state agencies. Poole, now working at the same law firm as Easley, fought the board's repeated efforts to question him. The case reached the state Court of Appeals, which has said Poole should be required to appear. The board could return to Raleigh to call him as a witness. Discrediting Campbell Easley's lawyer, Thomas Hicks, says investigators should focus just as hard on Campbell as they will on Easley. He has sought to discredit Campbell as a witness, relying especially on comments Campbell has made to The News & Observer. Campbell, for instance, had told The N&O last year that he had been paid by the Easley campaign, writing on Oct. 21, 2008: "When I flew for the Easley campaigns, reimbursement was provided." At the hearing, he produced a four-page memo and said he hadn't been paid for scores of flights worth more than $100,000. Elections board member Anita Earls, a lawyer and Democrat from Durham, said the board weighed both "words and actions" in reaching its unanimous conclusion. "We would not have referred it, obviously, if we didn't think that there was some evidence that McQueen Campbell's version was true," she said. Anecdotal answers Easley did not make a major blunder, such as denying something and then having to admit it after a confrontation. But Easley also testified in a way, familiar to reporters, that he has perfected in 16 years of holding statewide office. Faced with tough questions, Easley has been known to divert discussion to otherareas, or tell an anecdote. During the hearing, for example, Easley testified he contacted car dealer Robert F. Bleecker this spring to settle up on an SUV that Easley's son had been driving for six years but that the Easley family didn't own or pay for. Bleecker had testified that he had called Easley and sought payment before then. Elections chairman Larry Leake asked Easley if Bleecker had been in error. Easley didn't answer the question: "My recollection is the last time I talked to Mr. Bleecker I was vacuuming out my fireplace and the vacuum cleaner came unhooked and all of the dust started blowing out the back and I had to hang up and we didn't discuss the car at all." It drew chuckles throughout the room. Much of the testimony covered a central dispute and possible crime involving Easley and Campbell, dealing with two payments from Easley's campaign treasury to Campbell in 2005. Campbell says that the money covered house repairs he paid for on Easley's home in Raleigh and that Easley suggested he get the money from the campaign. Related - or not? Easley says he thought the payments were for flights. He denied taking part in any scheme to avoid paying Campbell for $11,000 in home repairs, including fixing a major water damage problem; records now show Easley also accepted a $5,400 insurance claim for water damage he hadn't paid for. At one point in his testimony, Easley emphatically told the board members that "these two invoices are totally unrelated, at least in my mind, totally unrelated to anything to do with the house." But he seems to have contradicted that in his own testimony. It came when he talked about researching whether he had actually received the insurance payment. He was looking at the accounts this year because investigators were bearing down on him. Easley told the board he wanted to acknowledge that he had checked and was clear on the fact that he, and no one else, had received the insurance money: "We received the check, and the check was deposited." Leake: "But you didn't realize that until our investigators, if you will, got involved in making inquiries." "No," Easley told Leake. "They didn't make any inquiry about that." Easley then revealed that, in his mind, he actually had connected a Campbell invoice with his home repairs insurance payment. "I made the inquiry," Easley testified, "when I found out about something I'm sure you are going to ask me about, which would be one of the [campaign flight] invoices." Easley also testified that, as he went looking, he had hoped that he hadn't received the insurance money and was now willing to give it up. acurliss@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4840 |
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| abb | Nov 1 2009, 07:39 AM Post #2 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/story/168755.html Published Sun, Nov 01, 2009 02:00 AM Modified Sat, Oct 31, 2009 08:52 PM Esteem turns to poison During a state Senate debate years ago, a frustrated "Uncle Ralph" Scott, the plain-spoken brother of one governor and the uncle of another, put it bluntly: "I don't know the smooth language lawyers use, but somebody's lyin'." It was evident last week that somebody was lying before the State Board of Elections. Much of the drama focused on contradictory testimony from former Gov. Mike Easley and McQueen Campbell, the former chairman of the N.C. State University trustees. The two men's starkly different stories will likely play out in the coming weeks as state and federal investigators continue investigating whether Easley misused his position to get a sweetheart land deal, a free car, illegal plane rides and other benefits. The Easley and Campbell families had been close for decades. Easley rose in politics as a Brunswick County district attorney, while the Campbells were prominent Bladen County business leaders. Easley watched young McQueen grow up, and he took him under his wing. When Easley wanted to get somewhere fast, Campbell flew him in his plane. When Easley wanted repairs on his private home, he asked Campbell to take care of it. When his wife, Mary, wanted a job at NCSU, he asked Campbell to help make it happen. In return, Easley helped move Campbell into the fast lane of big-time politics, business and academia. That relationship has now turned poisonous. State and federal investigators have been circling Easley, and it seems evident that they have gotten Campbell to cooperate. On Monday, a stone-faced Campbell unloaded on his old mentor. Campbell, 38, said he had provided free, unreported flights for Easley for years. He also said he repaired Easley's private residence and falsely billed Easley's political committee for the work, charging it as a campaign flight and then filing a bogus insurance claim. Appearing before the board on Wednesday, Easley, 59, strongly denied Campbell's testimony. He said that Campbell had assured him that the flights were paid for, and that in no way had he approved the filing of the insurance claim. Easley and his lawyer, Thomas Hicks, began trying to discredit Campbell. Hicks referred to Campbell several times as a "young man" and compared him to a teenaged boy who, once he starts telling a lie, can't stop. Easley and his lawyer noted that Campbell has told contradictory stories in public. At another point, Hicks referred to Campbell as a "sycophant," which the dictionary describes as a servile person who tells lies against a fellow citizen for a kind of profit. Why, Hicks asked at one point, would a two-term governor, two-term attorney general and former prosecutor risk his reputation and possibly his liberty for a few thousand dollars in house repairs, when his political campaign could have paid for them? But several members of the State Elections Board openly wondered: Why would Campbell invent such a story, in which he was implicating himself in part of an illegality? Now state and federal authorities, like Uncle Ralph, have to figure out who is lyin'. rob.christensen@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4532 |
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| abb | Nov 1 2009, 07:46 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/story/166758.html Published Sun, Nov 01, 2009 02:00 AM Modified Fri, Oct 30, 2009 07:56 PM Down to cases Given his chance to speak at the conclusion of a State Board of Elections hearing on finance issues surrounding the campaigns of former Gov. Mike Easley, the man who in July had asked for such a hearing said simply, "The emperor has no clothes." Bob Hall, executive director of nonprofit Democracy North Carolina, sought the hearing in a long and thorough letter to board Chairman Larry Leake. In that letter, Hall detailed some of the big-money contributions Easley's campaigns had received, and noted some of the positions to which donors had been appointed and various ways in which those donors were connected to the former governor. When, at the hearing's wind-up, Hall spoke about that naked emperor, he was referring to a campaign finance system in which wealthy donors with an interest in a specific candidate can give a maximum $4,000 contribution to that candidate, and then give as much as they like to a political party, confident that those donations also will benefit the candidate. It is against the law, however, for solicitors to promise donors that money they give to the party will go specifically to their candidate. Therein lies the rub, and one reason the elections board on Friday referred the issue to the Wake County district attorney for criminal investigation. This will be interesting, because in the course of the elections board hearing, some of those connected to financing and managing Easley's campaigns couldn't recall specifics. They will now have another chance, this time talking to prosecutors. The board concluded its hearing by docking Easley's campaign $100,000 for not reporting some of the many airplane flights the governor was given (the value of them is considered a contribution) and to cover the cost of its investigation. The Democratic Party is giving up another $9,000 in contributions solicited by Easley supporters from people who allegedly were told the money would benefit Easley. This episode has been an embarrassment to the state, even exclusive of a federal investigation still in progress. Federal authorities are looking into issues including Easley's wife's former job at N.C. State University and his bargain purchase of a coastal lot, a deal that also involved long-time campaign donors and supporters. Mike Easley and his allies may have played the money game very well, but it can be a game that soaks politics in a foul brine convincing the few that they're due more attention than the many. And money-raising becomes an obsession that distracts politicians themselves from the reasons they supposedly got into the business - you remember, to serve the people. |
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| abb | Nov 1 2009, 07:58 AM Post #4 |
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http://sprocket-trials.blogspot.com/2009/10/death-sentence-in-christian-newsom.html Saturday, October 31, 2009 Death Sentence in Christian-Newsom Torture-Murder Trial GUEST ENTRY by DAVID in TENNESSEE! On Wednesday, October 28, 2007, Lemaricus Davidson was found guilty of the murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Davidson was considered the ringleader of the 5 individuals who have been charged. Eric Boyd was convicted in ferderal court of accesory to carjacking in 2008 and sentenced to 18 years. Davidson's half-brother, Letalvis Cobbins, was convicted of the murder of Channon Christian last August and sentenced to life without parole. Davidson was defended by two prominent Knoxville attorneys appointed by the court, Doug Trant and David Eldridge. Surprisingly, Davidson insisted on a Knox County jury, despite advice to the contrary from Judge Richard Baumgartner. His attorneys agreed with their client. Opinion was running high against the defendant. Why did he and his lawyers not want an outside jury? The answer seems to be in the tactics employed. The defense was to smear the two victims. There is no other word for it. They thought this would change the perception of the case. Here is my outline of the case written in August. The accepted story was that Christian and Newsom were carjacked by a gang led by Davidson. Cobbins testified in his trial to taking part in the carjacking which brought the victims to Davidson's house on Chripman Street. In his police interview, Davidson admitted the pair was brought to his house at gunpoint, but claimed he wasn't involved, and had never seen the couple before. He also said his DNA would not be on Channon Christian. It was. At the trial, attorneys Trant and Eldridge claimed that Christian and Newsom were out looking to buy drugs and came to the Chipman Street house voluntarily. Some druggie friends of Davidson provided dubious testimony of seeing the victims in the area. This is recounted here. This put the prosecution on the defensive for part of the trial. Marijuana was found in Newsom's truck and a small amount in his toxicology report. Christian's toxicology report showed her clean of drugs, and she had passed several drug screens for employment. There was no credible evidence that the victims had ever met Davidson. Cell phone records showed neither had ever made or received calls from the defendant. The defense claimed that Davidson's DNA was on Channon Christian because of "consensual sex," after which Davidson went on his dope selling run while the other members of the gang killed the couple. Channon Christian's injuries were recounted by the medical examiner. She was found in a trash can in the kitchen wrapped in five garbage bags. She was bound so tightly her knees were touching her cheeks. Christian was alive when placed in the trash can and died of suffocation. She had a plastic bag over her head. Her body had brusing and abrasions indicating rape with blunt trauma and an object. Davidson's sperm was in both Christian's vaginal and anal region. Cobbins sperm was in her mouth and vagina. Her vaginal area had been kicked or beaten bloody. Does this sound like consensual sex? Chris Newsom, according to the ME, was raped with an object hours before he was killed. His bare feet were bound and he had been led or dragged to the railroad track. Newsom's face was wrapped in a sweatshirt with a hole showing in it where he was shot in the head. His hands were tied behind his back and he was gagged with socks. Newsom's was shot three times, the third to the head caused death. He was dead when set on fire at the railroad track. When Newsom's body was found, his mother, a genteel lady, wanted to see it. The police would not let her. She put her arms around the body bag. This is only a brief account of what was done to the victims. The first time I watched the ME's testimony on the live stream, I cried. The second time, I was in a cold rage. In most murder trials, the prosecution puts it together in the closing argument. The lead prosecutor, Takisha Fitzgerald (TK), did exactly that. She spoke to the jurors for over an hour Monday without notes making a passionate call for justice. TK framed it by playing Davidson's own police statement in which he admits the couple was brought to his house. She questioned his motive for sullying the couple's reputation. TK described the horrors the couple suffered. "The only thing that matters is giving these two kids justice," Fitzgerald said. The jury found Davidson guilty of both murders. At the sentencing phase, the defense brought in a series of social workers who tried to help Davidson. He had received chance after chance to change his life but went back to crime each time. In 2001, Davidson was convicted of carjacking and was paroled in 2006. His former foster parents (white incidentally) testified at the hearing and offered him a job in New Orleans rebuilding after Katrina. Instead, Davidson went to Knoxville to sell drugs and commit robberies. In January 2007, the murders of Channon and Chris occured. There was no objective reason for mitigation. On Friday, the jury of 7 men and 5 women voted for death. One of the men was black, normal for a Knox County jury. "The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel," the foreman said, reading the verdict form for Newsom. The same was said regarding the murder of Christian. Davidson was taken to death row at Riverbend in Nashville Tennessee. In my first article on this case, I wrote that the 6 days of the Cobbins trial was harder to get through than both Spector trials combined. The Davidson trial was even worse. Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom were good and decent young people with a promising future who died in unspeakable agony. Here is a complete archive of articles by the Knoxville News Sentinel. A professional writer needs to write a book about the case to do this story justice. This is the best I can do. David From Tennessee Thank you David for your excellent coverage of this horrific case. I know it has been very emotionally draining for you to write about the trials and T&T is greatly appreciative of your efforts. Sprocket. |
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| abb | Nov 1 2009, 08:00 AM Post #5 |
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http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/oct/31/no-brainer-cobbins-placement-prompts-burchett-prop/ 'No-brainer': Cobbins' placement prompts Burchett to propose crackdown on violent inmates By Matt Lakin Saturday, October 31, 2009 KNOXVILLE - State Sen. Tim Burchett said today he plans to introduce legislation to make sure such violent killers as Letalvis Cobbins never end up in anything less than maximum security lockup again. Burchett, R-Knoxville, said he decided the system needed changing after he learned Cobbins, convicted in August and sentenced to life without parole for the carjacking, torture, rape and killing of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, had been housed at the medium-security Hardeman County Correctional Facility in West Tennessee. Burchett, who's running for Knox County mayor and serves as secretary for the state Senate Finance Committee, said he called state Department of Correction Commissioner George Little on Friday to find out why. The department announced the same day Cobbins would be moved to a maximum-security prison. "It seems like it would be a no-brainer," Burchett said. "If you're convicted of murder, you don't need to be in a medium-security prison, especially for a crime like that. I'm going to file legislation dealing with that." The senator said he plans to call for an overhaul of the department's procedures for evaluating and classifying inmates to make sure that doesn't happen again. He expects to introduce the bill around the first of the year. Little didn't immediately return calls for comment. Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said prison officials decided on the move out of concerns for Cobbins' safety. She said she didn't know what role Burchett's call played in the decision. Cobbins, 26, arrived at the Hardeman County prison Oct. 23 after spending 60 days at the Charles B. Bass Correctional Complex in Nashville, where inmates typically enter the prison system for evaluation prior to ending up at their final home. "We had been looking for days at what would be the appropriate placement for him," Carter said. "Since the day he came, we had been evaluating what would be best for him. The commissioner decided it would be best to go ahead and move him in the next couple of days." Cobbins had been in a protective custody unit at Hardeman at his request after he told correction officials he feared for his safety. More details as they develop online and in Sunday's News Sentinel. |
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| abb | Nov 1 2009, 08:02 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/nov/01/jurors-unafraid-to-press-for-truth/ Jurors in Lemaricus Davidson torture-slaying trial unafraid to press for truth Judge allowed jury in Davidson trial to ask approved questions By Jamie Satterfield Sunday, November 1, 2009 Armed with charts, studies and percentages, psychiatrist Dr. Peter Brown spent more than an hour explaining the complexities of convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson's psyche. When he was finished, this Knox County jury posed a single question: "Does he know right from wrong - yes or no?" The query, like the dozens of others jurors made during this two-week trial, revealed a jury unafraid to ask pointed questions, challenge evidence and press witnesses for the truth. Allowing jurors to question witnesses in a criminal case is a relatively new practice approved by the state Supreme Court. It is optional. Judges can opt out. Most East Tennessee judges do. But Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner has embraced the practice since its inception earlier this decade. The state's high court established tight controls on the practice. Jurors must submit questions in written form sans any identifying information at the end of a witness' testimony. The judge holds a bench conference with attorneys from both sides to determine if the question passes legal muster. If approved, the judge can either read the question to the witness verbatim or rephrase it. Jurors from Davidson County impaneled to decide the fate of Davidson's brother, Letalvis Cobbins, in the same January 2007 slayings of University of Tennessee student Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, did not make a single inquiry during his August trial. Cobbins was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Davidson demanded a Knox County jury for undisclosed strategic reasons. The panel that, on Friday, sentenced him to death, more than made up for the lack of questioning by the Cobbins' panel, firing off as many as a half dozen at a time. The panel asked Knoxville Police Department fingerprint experts if they were "100 percent sure" it was Davidson's prints on the couple's belongings and three of five trash bags in which Christian's body was placed inside a trash can in Davidson's Chipman Street house. Of Knox County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, a juror asked, "Did you receive anything from Chipman Street that could have been used for blunt trauma (suffered by Christian)?" The panel wanted to know whose DNA had been found on strips of cloth used to bind Newsom. The judge answered that one. "This cloth was not tested," Baumgartner said. Jurors pressed witness Stacy Lawson on why she abruptly left the Chipman Street house in the days before the slaying. "Did you know at any time what they were planning to do, and that's why you got uncomfortable and left?" the panel asked. Lawson was not allowed to tell jurors the truth, however, because Baumgartner opined it was too prejudicial. Lawson has testified in motions hearings that Davidson pulled a gun on her. Instead, she simply answered, "No." There were a few questions that the judge disallowed without revealing what it was jurors wanted to know. For instance, when the panel peppered the judge with queries for Davidson's ex-girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, Baumgartner responded, "These are questions I cannot ask this witness. That's all I can tell you." Love sought Lawson was the girlfriend of slaying suspect George Thomas, who is set to stand trial next month. But testimony showed her affections waned for Thomas in the days following his arrest and instead shifted to Davidson. "You wrote Mr. Davidson a letter in jail about wanting to have sex with him, didn't you?" Davidson's defense attorney Doug Trant asked. "Yes," Lawson responded. Trant, who represented Davidson along with attorney David Eldridge, told jurors that Lawson wrote in that same letter she regretted not bedding Davidson "when I had the chance" before he was jailed. Love denied It was perhaps a portend of the jury's decision to take Davidson's life that the panel remained dry-eyed during defense testimony in the penalty phase of trial aimed at showing the 28-year-old Memphis native suffered a horrific childhood. More telling, though, was jurors' reaction to testimony by the parents and siblings of victims Christian and Newsom. Many wept as Newsom's father, Hugh Newsom, described a wedding of one of his son's friends after his death in which a framed photograph of the slain trim carpenter was prominently displayed. "We looked over there and the beams of that sunlight were shining on that portrait," Hugh Newsom said. There were more tears when, for the first time since this case began, Christian's brother, Chase Christian, took the stand. "I said, 'I love you, Sis,'" Chase Christian recalled. "She said, 'I love you, too, Chaser.' That was the last time I ever saw my baby sister, my inspiration, my best friend." Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308. |
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| Kerri P. | Nov 1 2009, 09:42 PM Post #7 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6326604/ UNC student stabbed after Halloween bash Posted: Today at 5:06 p.m. Chapel Hill, N.C. — Police say a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student was stabbed late Saturday after the town’s Halloween bash. The student, whose name was not released, was stabbed on or near Franklin Street, police said. Paramedics transported the victim to the hospital where he was treated and released. No additional information was available. |
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| chatham | Nov 1 2009, 09:58 PM Post #8 |
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The Greatest 'Obama' Pumpkin Ever . .Plus, Organizing for America's Scheme To Promote ObamaCare On Halloween: 'Halloween Reverse Canvass' The TelePumpkin, compliments of Doug Powers at The Powers That Be: credit : weasel zippers |
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5:09 AM Nov 27
