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Why Judge Beaty should recuse himself
Topic Started: Mar 19 2011, 01:05 PM (3,757 Views)
Quasimodo

Quote:
 


ATOP THE MOUNTAIN
Greensboro News & Record - Tuesday, November 15, 1994
Author: JERI ROWE Staff Writer


(snip)

Beaty was born four years after World War II in a small South Carolina mill town.

A child of unwed parents, he was given his military father’s name and turned over to his mother’s older sister to raise. Ida Neely, a shirt presser, and Joshua Neely, a garbage man, lived in Thomasville with their two daughters.

Beaty was 3 weeks old.

(snip)

In the spring of 1963, one of their eighth-grade teachers challenged them to speak out against the era’s racial attitudes, to stand up and say no like several N.C. A&T students did at Woolworth three years earlier in Greensboro.

You should stage a sit-in, their teacher urged. Beaty , head of the school’s safety patrol, stood up in class and declared, “Let’s make it happen today.”

He gathered about 10 of his friends and headed downtown.

One of those boyhood friends was B.W. Whitesides, now an upholsterer for a High Point furniture company.

“We left school that day, and we decided to pick Joe’s Place - it was a sandwich shop downtown - and we thought we might as well start there,” Whitesides says.

“When we walked in, Joe got a stick from behind the counter and threatened us to get out. We walked out and decided to go to Elites Cafe - it was right across from the police station - but they saw us coming, and they pulled the shades.”

Beaty then led the group to the Thomasville police station and the Davidson County’s sheriff’s office nearby to complain.

“Bill kept saying, ‘We’ve got our rights,’ “ Whitesides recalls. “We didn’t know much about rights, but we went to the police department anyway. They said they couldn’t do anything about it, and we then went to the sheriff’s department, and they said they could do nothing about it.

“But Bill was the smart kid, you know, he was doing all the talking.”

Beaty ‘s leadership caught the attention of the Rev. W.E. Banks, then the president of the local chapter for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Banks selected Beaty and several other black students to become the first to integrate Thomasville’s white public schools in the fall of 1963.

That morning 31 years ago, Banks spoke to Beaty and the others: “You’re just going to school. This is the first time black people in Thomasville have ever attended a white school, and there’s nothing to be excited about. The children are just like you.”

Beaty remembers it well, walking into Thomasville’s Main Street School with several other black students and heading to class.

“I remember seeing the crowd of people, and they all looked like giants,” Beaty says. “They all looked so big. I went on to class - it was a civics class - and I remember having a seat right by the door, and I thought about getting my work done and getting on with what I had to do.

“I wanted to become a student like everybody else.”

It wasn’t easy. Beaty remembers being called racist names, having a lit match stuck in his face and having a baseball bat struck across his back during gym class.

But Beaty didn’t let these racist remarks faze him.

“Billy was calm, and he could set an example if someone started harassing them,” says Banks, who baptized Beaty as a boy. “A lot of them would accept the idea of non-violence until they were pushed into a corner and violence would come out, but that’s not true with Billy. That is why he is where he is today, his attitude and his philosophy.”

Beaty later became the first black football player at
Thomasville High School. He starred as a defensive back and running back for Thomasville High’s football team and did well enough to receive a full athletic scholarship to play football at Western Carolina University.

(snip)

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Quasimodo

(hat tip: maggief) :


Quote:
 


A judge does his job


[editorial]

The News & Observer - Monday, March 4, 1996

Eager to brand judges appointed by President Clinton as too easy on crime, Republicans have seized on a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Beaty Jr. of Winston-Salem. Not that they care, but they have chosen a poor target for their trumped-up outrage.

When Clinton nominated Beaty to the District Court two years ago, even the fire-eating Senator Helms was enthusiastic. But with the election nearing and with Clinton wanting to promote Beaty to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, Republicans now are holding off on the compliments. Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had voted to confirm Beaty for the District Court, but you would never know it from a recent Senate speech.

What caught Hatch’s eye was a ruling Beaty made while temporarily filling a vacancy on the appeals court. Hatch cited the decision while expounding upon Clinton’s appointment of “some judges who are too willing to put criminals back on the street.”

(snip)

Beaty and a second member of a three- judge panel found that this error was no mere technicality. Since Sherman’s ability to hide the gun in the tree was an issue in the trial and since other evidence was “conflicting,” Beaty concluded that the juror’s expedition may have had an impact.

The ruling may or may not hold up upon review by the full appeals court. But this is no case of a judge being reflexively partial toward a criminal. The integrity of the judicial system relies upon jurors considering only evidence admitted in court, and each defendant deserves at least this much fairness.

A slew of lawyers, fellow judges and even prosecutors have vouched for Beaty , previously a state Superior Court judge for 13 years. They describe him as fair and serious, ready to hand down tough sentences when warranted. Anyone who cares about encouraging a strong, independent judiciary ought to be alarmed by the way he has been ripped for simply doing his job
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Quasimodo


(hat tip: maggief)

Quote:
 


[editorial]

PARTISAN HATCHET JOB VICTIMIZED N.C. JUDGE

Greensboro News & Record - Friday, March 1, 1996

Senator Orrin Hatch’s attack on James Beaty ‘s nomination is grounded in ignorance and it’s unfair.

Federal Judge James Beaty of Winston-Salem, tapped by President Clinton for a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, is a solid choice for the court. But some Republicans in Congress have gone bonkers. They attack Beaty not because a thorough examination of his record shows him to be wanting, but simply because he’s a Clinton appointee.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, launched the attack on Beaty about three weeks ago with a speech on the Senate floor in which he denounced the judge as soft on crime. His evidence? A single decision in a Maryland murder case in which Beaty ruled with the majority of a three-judge panel that the case ought to be retried.

On the strength of that one decision, the conservative establishment, which now includes a Senate majority, has hung the Winston-Salem judge out to dry. To no one’s great surprise, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has joined the attack on Beaty , arbitrarily singling out that one case from a distinguished 14-year career on the bench.

This is a smear campaign, pure and simple. The whole episode is a regrettable example of how partisanship overrides principle and propaganda drowns out honest debate.

It’s simply ludicrous to call Beaty soft on crime. Those who have observed his career first hand - defense attorneys, judges and prosecutors - vouch for his fairness and toughness. No one characterizes him as soft.

“If we know there is a violent offender or drug trafficker, we welcome Judge Beaty sentencing that individual,” Walter C. Holton, the federal prosecutor for the Middle District, told the Winston-Salem Journal.

Beaty has a record of toughness, perhaps too much. He recently sentenced a man convicted of selling handguns illegally to eight years in prison. Just a couple of weeks ago he sentenced a first-offender in a crack cocaine case to 16 years. Soft on crime?

Even Senator Jesse Helms supported Beaty when Clinton appointed him to federal district court, which he joined in November 1994. “My distinct impression is that Judge Beaty is the kind of judge who applies the law as written, and rules on the facts as they are presented,” Helms said a little over a year ago.

The case that has so energized conservatives involves a 17-year-old who was convicted of murdering his parents. The evidence points to the defendant, but a juror compromised the case by violating his instructions and visiting the site where the murder weapon was found. Beaty and another judge ruled that the juror’s transgression substantially tainted the jury’s verdict. The third member of the panel dissented.

It was a close call, as procedural decisions often are. But it is not the end of the world. The defendant is still in jail. If the panel’s ruling stands, the state of Maryland will try him again. And if the evidence is as solid as it looks, he will be convicted again. But that’s not how this thing is being played.

“In the Sherman case, the liberal Clinton and Carter judges take a view of defendants’ rights that is so expansive that they are willing to put a murderer back out on the streets because a juror took a look at a tree,” says The Wall Street Journal. “The more conservative Reagan and Bush judges, on the other hand, are willing to overlook a technical violation in order to protect the rights of the community.”

To characterize a judge’s entire career this way on the basis of a single case is absurd.

A regrettable politicization of the judiciary proceeds apace. Democrats and Republicans share in the blame. But we have arrived at the unhealthy juncture where the party affiliation of a judge’s sponsor seems to count for more than his or her record. Justice , for judges, and for those who come before them, is in danger of becoming an afterthought
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Quasimodo

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Judges say justice starts with listening - N.C. Central panel says courts fairer than in the past

Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) - Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Author: PAUL BONNER pbonner@heraldsun.com; 419-6621

Impartial justice begins with listening, said a panel of county, state and federal judges Tuesday evening at N.C. Central University.

The discussion in NCCU’s Alphonso Elder Student Union was presented by NCCU’s political science department and was titled “The Court System: Is Justice Blind?”

Participants were Allyson K. Duncan, a judge on the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals; James A. Beaty Jr., a judge in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina; Sarah Parker, chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court; Patricia Timmons-Goodson, a justice of the N.C. Supreme Court; Wanda G. Bryant of the N.C. Court of Appeals; A. Leon Stanback Jr., a Durham-based state superior court judge; and Durham County District Judge Craig Brown.

Asked to what extent race and class affect the administration of justice in North Carolina, the judges said courts today are fairer than in the past.

“It depends on your perspective,” said Beaty . “Historically, sure, the answer is yes, it’s had an influence. But we’d like to think it doesn’t play as great a role as it has in the past.”

Timmons-Goodson said defendants’ wealth or lack of it often determines the effectiveness of an appeal.

“This may be a throwaway line, but I am blind,” said Brown, who ascended the podium with the aid of a white cane and assistants, “and of course, justice is my courtroom is blind. ... You have to have the ability to listen and ask yourself whether what you hear makes sense.

“Certainly in Durham, if there’s any perception by a very strong African-American community that any of the judges were not being fair and impartial, there would be a strong effort to remove us.” Brown also noted he is running unopposed for re-election this year.

Asked whether Hispanic criminal defendants should be advised of their rights in Spanish, Stanback described his ruling in favor of a Spanish-speaking defendant in an impaired-driving case. A breath-test consent form was available in Spanish, but the arresting officer used one in English.

“When people waive their constitutional rights, I think it’s important that they understand their waiver,” Stanback said.

Asked what led them to careers in the law, Beaty described growing up in Thomasville during segregation.

He was in the eighth grade and “the question was asked about the sit-ins, when it is going to happen in Thomasville. I said, ‘It’s going to happen today,’ “ and he led efforts to desegregate his school and community, he said.


(snip)

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Quasimodo

(hat tip: maggief)

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JUDGE DISMISSES ALL CHARGES IN EVIDENCE-TAINTED DRUG CASES
Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - Saturday, November 18, 1989

Author: HELEN ARTHUR, Concord Bureau

Superior Court Judge James Beaty dismissed all charges Friday against 14
people who had been sentenced on multiple drug offenses, because evidence used against them was tainted.

(snip)

Warrants allege Scott and Mathis falsified evidence and police reports of
numerous drug buys during the undercover operation.

(snip)

"In 37 years I`ve never seen anything like this," said John Plumides of
Charlotte, attorney for one of the defendants.

As Beaty dictated his dismissal order, the defendants, their friends and
families celebrated.

(snip)

Beaty also ordered that defendants who were placed on probation and had
paid fines and court costs be reimbursed.

Scott and Mathis, the two charged with the improprieties that brought on
Friday`s dismissals, were charged with obstruction of justice this week.

(snip)

Scott, an Albemarle police officer for five years, was suspended without
pay last week. All other cases he worked on in Albemarle are being audited.


So did anyone think to audit other cases worked on by Gottlieb and Himan?

Or Nifong?

Where are the defense attorneys whose clients had interactions with these three?

Are they afraid to go up against the Durham system?
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Quasimodo

(hat tip: maggief)

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JUDGE UPHOLDS PRIMARY RESULT - SONJA HOLE SAYS UNAFFILIATED VOTERS MAY HAVE COST HER THE ELECTION BY GIVING - OPPONENT NESTOR CAPOTE THE EDGE IN THE MAY 2 PRIMARY.
Greensboro News & Record - Tuesday, August 22, 2000
Author: MIKE FUCHS Staff Writer

A federal judge has refused candidate Sonja Hole’s request to throw out the results of the Republican primary for Guilford County District Court judge .

In his ruling filed Thursday, U.S. Middle District Judge James Beaty Jr. said Hole failed to prove unaffiliated voters cost her the election.

"It is entirely possible that a majority, if not all, of the unaffiliated voters who voted in the primary election for selection of a Republican nominee for Guilford County District Court judge voted for’’ Hole, Beaty said in his ruling. "If this were the case, then it would not be argued by the plaintiff that she was harmed.’’

The ruling came after Hole filed a federal lawsuit May 11 challenging state election law that allows unaffiliated voters to have a say in primary elections.

Hole, who lost by 69 votes, contends unaffiliated voters may have cost her the election by giving opponent Nestor Capote the edge in the May 2 primary.

She contends state law allows unaffiliated voters to "dilute the votes of affiliated Republicans,’’ which violates her constitutional rights.

Beaty said in his ruling Thursday that Hole failed to show the results caused her "irreparable harm.’’

Hole "can only surmise that Capote’s 69-vote victory included the votes of unaffiliated voters in the Republican primary,’’ Beaty said.

Hole said Monday she hasn’t discussed with her attorney what - if anything - they will do next.

"I would have to say I’m certainly not shocked,’’ said Hole, an assistant district attorney in Randolph County for 13 years. "But I’m very satisfied with the judge in regard to his time and effort to listen to us. No, not disappointed.’’

Capote, an assistant district attorney in Guilford County, won the Republican primary with 8,130 votes. He will face Democratic incumbent Judge E. Raymond Alexander Jr. in the November general election.

Capote could not be reached for comment Monday.

Hole filed suit the same day a recount she requested did not change the outcome.

In May, Beaty also denied an earlier request by Hole that a temporary restraining order be granted to prevent county election officials from declaring Capote the winner until the case was heard in court.

In an election, unaffiliated voters have not registered with a political party but must request a ballot for either Republican, Democratic or Libertarian candidates at the voting booth.

They are given an unaffiliated ballot if they don’t decide.

Unaffiliated voters have been allowed to vote in Democratic primaries since 1996 and Republican primaries since 1988.
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sceptical

Thanks Quasi for all this work about Judge Beaty's background and his associates. While some of this information is disconcerting, Beaty does have a reputation for fairness. One wonders whether a controversial decision concerning the lacrosse civil cases will be based more on the law than his background as a black lawyer and judge who grew up in the segregated South.
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abb
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sceptical
Mar 24 2011, 08:53 PM
Thanks Quasi for all this work about Judge Beaty's background and his associates. While some of this information is disconcerting, Beaty does have a reputation for fairness. One wonders whether a controversial decision concerning the lacrosse civil cases will be based more on the law than his background as a black lawyer and judge who grew up in the segregated South.
What decisions? So far he's made precious few.

And that is a problem.
:think:
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wingedwheel
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Not Pictured Above
What percentage of lawsuits started the same time as this case are still waiting for depositions? Beaty needs to stop dragging his feet and do his job.
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Quasimodo

Reverse the colors.

Imagine a case in the Old South (1950s or before) where three (out-of-state?) black students,
wrongly accused of rape and pilloried for a year in a obvious railroading, are suing their school
and the city which falsely prosecuted them.

Imagine that a white judge intervenes to prevent discovery; accepts the DA's contention that
he has $180 million in liabilities (while at the same time he is claiming he is immune to liability);
delays for years deciding a relatively simple matter of whether or not the plaintiffs have presented
sufficient allegations to permit their cases to proceed...

and then consider whether you would consider that judge to be acting in a properly neutral judicial manner.

Moreover, what appearance would the actions of such a judge give?







Edited by Quasimodo, Mar 25 2011, 08:37 AM.
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Quasimodo

If Judge Beaty had been truly outraged at the abuses of justice connived at by
Nifong and co. (an attempt to railroad three innocent persons for a crime which
never happened, and which involved playing the minority community of NC along with it )
then his indignation and passion for justice might have showed itself...


Quote:
 
“You waved a petition. You waved it in the air, like a banner! . . . You were on TELEVISION. An artist drew a picture of you brandishing your petition like Robespierre or Danton, and you were on TELEVISION! You played to the mob, didn't you--and perhaps there are those right now in this courtroom who ENJOYED that performance! Well, I got news for you! Those who come into THIS courtroom waving banners. . . LOSE THEIR ARMS! . . . DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

--Judge Kovitscky in Bonfire of the Vanities, by Thomas Wolfe


Instead, the appearance is that he was not indignant; and that he has done everything
possible to prevent the defendants from ever having to testify.

Whether that is correct or not, it is the IMPRESSION which his actions have given.

And it is the APPEARANCE of bias and partiality which is the standard.

And whenever a judge's actions have given lay observers a belief that the judge is not
neutral and is biased in favor of one side or the other, it becomes his judicial duty to recuse himself
(as did the woman whose only impediment was that her SISTER was an officer of La Raza).

The judge's duty does not have to wait for a motion by one of the litigants; he is to do this
sua sponte, on his own.
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Quasimodo

Judge Beaty gave a relatively light sentence to a civil rights figure
who was caught in an embezzlement scheme:


(hat tip: maggief)

Quote:
 

DUDLEY STUDENT SPARKS ``GREENSBORO REBELLION’’
Greensboro News & Record - Monday, May 3, 1999
Author: STAN SWOFFORD Staff Writer

(snip)

Before those three weeks ended, hundreds of N.C. A&T and Dudley High School students, including Barnes, were tear-gassed, beaten and/or arrested; gunfire erupted between police and N.C. National Guard troops on one side and people on the A&T campus on the other; an A&T student, Willie Grimes, was killed; and four police officers were wounded, one seriously. Grimes’ killing and the officers’ wounding have never been solved.

The hostilities left a wedge between the Greensboro Police Department and the city’s black community that lasts until this day.

But they left something else, too, Barnes says. ``They left us a respect from the white establishment we never felt before. They knew we’d fight back.’’

The hostilities grew out of a confrontation that began with Barnes and a handful of Dudley students protesting what they believed to be an unfair decision made by school administrators.

Dudley Principal Franklin Brown, backed, and many thought directed, by the central administration, refused to recognize Barnes’ overwhelming victory in the election for Dudley Student Council president.

Barnes, 17, was a popular honor student in the spring of 1969. He was a former president of his class, vice president of the school service club, a member of the student council and a member of the Greensboro Youth Council. He was also a linebacker on the football team and ran track.

It was only natural for him to want to contend for his school’s highest elective office, that of student council president.

But a couple of weeks before the election was held on May 2, school authorities ruled that Barnes lacked the qualifications. They gave no reasons.

Barnes thought he knew the reasons. In an era of emerging black political consciousness, Barnes was becoming politically aware and was very outspoken about it.

Barnes traced the beginnings of his awareness to his sophomore year in 1968 when he attended a summer session for superior and gifted students at Western Carolina University. ``The white students were talking about books and authors I’d never even heard of,’’ he said. ``That’s when I saw that black students were being short-changed.’’

(snip)

Barnes immersed himself in the works of black authors and poets such as Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Leroi Jones, Langston Hughes and Sonja Sanjez. He met and talked with black power leaders Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown. He associated with Nelson Johnson, Brame and other students considered by many in Greensboro’s white power structure to be ``militant.’’

Barnes organized Dudley High School students. He became youth director of the Greensboro Association of Poor People, a community action organization started by Johnson, and one which police claimed was an organizing tool of the militant Black Panther Party. He was a founding member of Youth for the Unity of a Black Society and Black Students United for Liberation .

Barnes urged students to fight Dudley’s strict dress code against jeans and dashikis and long hair. He protested the administration’s refusal to allow students to leave the campus during lunch, a privilege allowed at other schools. He demanded a more black-oriented curriculum and protested the obvious disparities between Dudley and predominantly white schools, such as Dudley’s crumbling tennis courts and stadium.

By the time Dudley student council elections rolled around, school authorities considered Barnes a militant coached by the Black Panthers. ``That wasn’t true, of course,’’ Barnes said. ``They (school administrators) believed anyone who wore black belonged to the Black Panther Party. I dressed in black, like a lot of black kids at that time.’’

Barnes stroked his neatly trimmed beard as he sat in his office in A&T’s political science department and thought back over the decades to that second day in May 30 years ago.

Although the administration refused to allow his name on the ballot, students wrote it in anyway. Barnes won by more than 400 votes. School authorities declared his victory ``illegal.’’

Barnes and four of his friends walked out and picketed in front of the school in protest. The next day nine walked out. ``That’s all that would come. If they had just left it alone, it would have run its course and nothing would have happened,’’ Barnes said.

Instead, school authorities called the police, and the school system’s central office sent its own representative to the school.

``That just encouraged others to join the protest,’’ Barnes said. A week after the election more than 100 students protested in front of the school. On May 16, nearly 400 students boycotted classes, some of them carrying signs calling for the return of ``our exiled president.’’

Nelson Johnson and Brame, as well as more established leaders in the black community at that time, urged school authorities to recognize Barnes’ election. ``We pleaded with them to meet with us,’’ Johnson said. ``They wouldn’t.

``There was a complete unwillingness to follow the democratic process,’’ Johnson said. ``To this day, Greensboro still struggles with democracy.’’

The protests at Dudley exploded in violence on May 19. ``It was the most surreal thing I ever saw,’’ said Barnes, who was bopped in the head with a nightstick as police began arresting students for ``disrupting the public schools.’’

It got worse two days later when police riot squads fired tear gas to disperse students, who threw rocks at the school’s humanities building where the representative from the schools’ central administration had set up office.

``It got worse and worse,’’ Barnes said. ``It seemed like the entire black community came out to help us, and they gassed the entire community.’’ The students ran toward the A&T campus. ``We thought A&T would be our sanctuary,’’ he said.

Barnes said he could hear bullets ricocheting off the sidewalk as he ran as fast as his legs would carry his 5-foot, 7-inch, 130-pound body away from Dudley High School.

Willie Grimes was killed that night about 1:30 a.m. near Carver Hall on the A&T campus. Witnesses said someone fired on him from a car. Some said it was a police car. Others said it was unmarked. Police emphatically denied shooting him.

On May 22, the next night, four police officers were wounded, one seriously, when they were shot near Scott Hall.

On May 23, A&T President Lewis Dowdy closed the university. Students grimly and silently, some seemingly in shock, filed from the campus toward the airport and train depot.

Barnes spent most of the time in his aunt’s house. He said he carried a pistol for a long time after the violence. ``I became paranoid,’’ he said. ``I was sure the police were going to come after me and shoot me.’’

Three months later, when Barnes began his senior year at Dudley, he and the school administration ``finally worked things out in a cooperative spirit,’’ Barnes said.

``I agreed not to seek office. They agreed to about everything we had asked for.’’ Barnes said that included giving students input in determining the curriculum; relaxing the school dress code; allowing students to leave campus at lunch; and establishing a committee to determine ways to get money for tennis courts and a stadium.

(snip)



Quote:
 

N.C. civil rights leader guilty in embezzlement
Greensboro News & Record (NC) - Friday, July 23, 2010
Author: RYAN SEALS
WINSTON-SALEM - A well-known civil rights leader and former N.C. A&T professor was sentenced to 21/2 years in federal prison Thursday after pleading guilty to his role in defrauding the estate of a deceased neighbor.

Claude Barnes Jr., 58, was sentenced for his role in a four-person fraud and embezzlement scheme that resulted in the loss of more than $122,000 from the estate of Betty Burton in the fall of 2008.

“I am truly sorry for what I have done,” Barnes said at his sentencing before Chief District Judge William J. Beaty Jr. in U.S. District Court. “I can’t explain it. It embarrassed my family and my colleagues.”

Barnes is known for his role in the 1969 “Greensboro Rebellion,” which came after officials at Dudley High School failed to recognize his write-in victory for student body president when he was 17. Three weeks of protests and violence included a deployment of the National Guard.

According to federal court records, the fraud scheme began on Oct. 10, 2008, two days after Burton, 76, died from cancer.

She was long-time friends with Barnes and had assigned him to be the executor of her estate and living trust. He was to transfer her assets to her children, who live out of state.

Instead, federal court documents say Barnes revoked the woman’s living trust and transferred her house and property to his former wife.

Barnes then associated with Koretta Ann King, Burton’s in-home nurse, who moved into the deceased woman’s home, to deposit a $93,600 annuity check into a bank account for her estate.

Burton had opened the annuity before her death with a Minnesota-based life insurance company. Records state that King conspired with her friend Andrea Barksdale by having her pretend to be the deceased woman on the phone and request the annuity be closed.

The duo then forged the woman’s signature on documents requesting the closure, prompting the company to issue the $93,600 check in Burton’s name.

Once Barnes deposited the check in the estate account, the funds were distributed among the group. Of that, he spent an estimated $14,000 for personal use to buy a laptop computer, attend the January 2009 presidential inauguration in Washington, and on rental cars, according to court testimony.

King, Barksdale and another defendant, Alex Habersham, were found to have opened credit card accounts using Burton’s personal information.

Greensboro police unraveled the scheme in April 2009 when they noticed suspicious financial transactions in King’s name, who was on federal probation.

Barnes pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, identity theft and engaging in monetary transactions from unlawful activity.

He faced a maximum of 32 years in prison, but because of his cooperation with police and admitting remorse, his sentence was drastically reduced.

He is scheduled to report to federal prison Sept. 2 and is required to pay $38,000 in restitution.

King, Barksdale and Habersham also pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from probation to seven years in prison.

Though disappointed with the lighter sentence, Burton’s family said they are eager to put the matter behind them.


“For (Barnes) to be a family friend and go and betray that trust, the sentence does not begin to address that,”
said Vernon Burton, Betty Burton’s stepson. “(But) I can say that all parties to this saw the light of justice.”


Quote:
 
http://www.jtbf.org/index.php?src=directory&view=biographies&srctype=detail&refno=35


James Arthur Beaty, Jr. has served his profession, his state, and his nation with distinction as a jurist, public servant, and civic leader. A political science and history major, Beaty graduated with honors from Western Carolina University in 1971. While a student at Western, he was a three-year letterman on the football team; president of the Political Science Association; a founder of Black Students United for Liberation, the university*s first organization for African-American students; and a member of the Men*s Leadership Honorary Society.



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http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dTm1hVCurDcJ:www.greensborotrc.org/barnes.doc+%22Black+Students+United+for+Liberation,%22&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

Claude Barnes, PhD
Public Hearing #1 of the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission
July 15, 2005 Greensboro, North Carolina

Transcript

(snip)

Almost every major predominantly white institution of higher education has a Black studies program, but what is interesting to me is that so many historically Black colleges and universities don’t have a Black studies program. That’s a contradiction which still makes no sense, but at that particular time we did have an organization called the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU) which was created in Greensboro in A&T’s student union of May 1969 that was discussing these kinds of issues. And in fact one of the projects of the student organization for Black Unity was to create what they called the Save and Change Black Schools Project where they talked about it’s a need to go beyond something called Black Studies but talk about the reconfiguration of Black education period. And of course this is what led to the creation of the Malcolm X Liberation University which grew out of a struggle for quality education at Duke University. Malcolm X Liberation University, the African Liberation Support Committee, which was also created in Greensboro in 1972, the African World Newspaper which was housed right there on McConnell road in the old Sebastian House, the Student Organization for Black Unity, which I already mentioned, the Foundation for Community Development which came out of Durham, NC, but which was one of the first anti-poverty organizations in the state, and also I would mention that North Carolina group of Nationalists and Progressives who were also connected to the growth of activism from the standpoint of being involved with organizations like the Revolutionary Workers League, the Workers Viewpoint Organization and then the Communist Workers Party. Those same individuals were responsible for the creation of organizations like the Black Students United for Liberation, and the North Carolina Black Political Assembly which in the 1970s helped produce the groundwork for one of the greatest political conventions that’s ever taken place in the history of America and that was the Gary Convention which tried to create a third party or a Black political party in America because neither the Democratic Party or the Republican Party were providing any kind of leadership or any kind of justice if you will for the concerns of African Americans.


Edited by Quasimodo, Mar 25 2011, 02:59 PM.
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Quasimodo

Three possibilities:

Either Judge Beaty was outraged by the rape allegations;

or he was outraged by the abuse of power by Nifong;

or he was possibly both (first outraged by the false allegations, and then later
as the truth emerged, by Nifong).

It is not probable that he was the only person in NC who did not
even form a strong opinion about the lacrosse case.


If he was outraged in the end by Nifong, he had the opportunity to help bring
about justice and to restore the public's confidence in the judicial system (and
especially as it is perceived in NC) by permitting the civil suits to proceed as
they would in the normal course of litigation.

Instead, he used his judicial discretion to intervene and prevent discovery (fed.
rules call for a discovery conference to be held "as soon as practicable).

That has had the practical effect of protecting the defendants from having to testify,
vastly increasing the expenses--both financial and emotional--for the plaintiffs;
and irreparable damaging their case through the loss of evidence and witnesses.


Quote:
 
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-963545.cfm

Lawyers seek evidence exchange in lacrosse case
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Jul 1, 2008

DURHAM -- Lawyers for three former Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape have complained to a federal judge that city officials are dragging their feet about providing evidence in connection with the players' civil-rights lawsuit.

In a motion filed June 24, lawyers for David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann asked U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr. to order city officials to sit down for a formal conference to discuss the exchange of evidence. [THIS IS A MANDATORY CONFERENCE REQUIRED BY THE FEDERAL RULES]

The move came because the players' legal team wants to start gathering depositions from key officials soon so their testimony "can be preserved before memories fade still further," the lawyers said in their request to Beaty.

(SNIP)

Federal rules dictate that the parties in a lawsuit meet "as soon as practicable" to plan the work involved in exchanging documents and testimony.

(snip)

City officials are known to have promised to preserve e-mails and other computer-generated documents.

[However, they have admitted to not having preserved emails from before Aug. 2007--surprise!

They had also not turned over computers--nor in some cases even identified the computers used--
although they claim to have 'mirrored' them. But this 'mirroring' was done by the defendants themselves,
which is like relying on crime scene photos taken by the criminal himself--who assures you that everything
is just as it was, because it's a photo, isn't it?]


But that "represents only a fraction of the evidence in this case, and prompt action is required to preserve other types of documents and to preserve witnesses' testimony," the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann legal team argued in their motion.

Documents associated with the case indeed have proven to have gaps, suggesting that the full story of how city officials investigated the lacrosse case will emerge only from testimony.

For example, the notes of the lead detective in the case, former Durham Police Department Investigator Ben Himan, omitted mention of key meetings with City Manager Patrick Baker and Mayor Bill Bell that occurred before police and Nifong planned a key photo-ID session for the exotic dancer who lodged the false rape charges.

Meanwhile, on Monday court officials relayed to Beaty the record of a hearing on whether federal bankruptcy law should shield Nifong from the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann lawsuit.

(snip)



This was more than two and a half years ago.

Does anyone believe that the situation with regard to evidence has since gotten better? That the possibilities
for discovering the truth have increased?


In the interim two witnesses have died.

In the interim, there is no reasonable doubt that more evidence has "escaped" somehow from the possession of the defendants;
and while Judge Beaty has noted that it is possible to impose sanctions for spoilation of evidence, he inserted in his order the clause,
that such loss might also be caused "not through bad faith".

Given all the above, is there anyone who does not at least question whether or not Judge Beaty has deliberately
stalled the cases and the taking of testimony, in order to shield the defendants--whether because of
political pressure, bias, or some other reason?


And in that event, is there anyone who will not at least question any ruling which he gives--especially so if the ruling goes
against the plaintiffs in major ways--and wonder if it is the result of legal analysis or of bias
and pressure?


And assuming that either one or both of the propositions above is true, then the judge through his
own actions has become controversial in the eyes of lay observers. And in such circumstances,
it becomes his duty (it is in fact
the requirement) that he recuse himself from the case. Not to do so is an abuse of judicial discretion.


Edited by Quasimodo, Mar 26 2011, 10:48 AM.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://www.browndailyherald.com/second-judge-recuses-self-in-mccormick-case-1.2509432

Second judge recuses self in McCormick case

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The second federal judge
to preside over William McCormick's lawsuit against the University and two alums recused himself from the case this afternoon.

McCormick's lawyer, Scott Kilpatrick, motioned for Judge Ronald Lagueux to recuse himself Feb. 11 because a lawyer for the two alums has previously represented Lagueux.

The alums' lawyer, Joseph Cavanagh, represented Lagueux in 1988 before the Judicial Council of the First Circuit, a body charged with disciplining federal judges.

Lagueux was called before the body and admonished after he banned Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz from his courtroom. In a book, Dershowitz had alleged that the Rhode Island's judicial system was corrupt.

Normally, a lawyer's past representation of a presiding judge would not be grounds for recusal. But Kilpatrick argued in the motion for Lagueux's recusal that the relationship between Lagueux and Cavanagh could give the appearance of partiality, especially because Cavanagh may be called on to testify as a witness. McCormick maintains that Cavanagh acted improperly in coercing him to sign an agreement to withdraw from Brown after being accused of rape by one of the alums in 2006.

In a hearing on the issue this afternoon, Lagueux said he believes the agreement is a critical document in the case. He said it had been unusual throughout his judicial career to allow lawyers representing parties in a case to also act as witnesses in that case. Because that scenario may come to pass in the McCormick case, a reasonable person could question Lagueux's impartiality, he said.

Lagueux acknowledged his prior hiring of Cavanagh for personal representation and his personal relationship with Cavanagh and Cavanagh's father, also an attorney. The judge attributed his decision to recuse himself to the strong possibility that Cavanagh will have to testify about his role in obtaining the agreement.

Lagueux became the presiding judge because the original judge, William Smith, recused himself Jan. 6. after his daughter applied to Brown. At the time, Smith informed the lawyers the case would likely be transferred to a New Hampshire judge after his recusal. But Cavanagh wrote a letter to Smith requesting that Lagueux, who is semi-retired, hear the case instead, and Smith complied. McCormick's lawyer then discovered that Cavanagh had represented Lagueux in the past.

It is exceedingly rare for even one judge to recuse himself from a case once litigation has commenced. The other federal judge in Rhode Island, Mary Lisi, cannot hear the case because she is married to another lawyer for the two alums.

Lagueux said the case would now in fact be transferred to a judge in New Hampshire.
An officer of the court prevented The Herald from taking notes at the hearing.


IOW, just because the judge's daughter APPLIED to go to Brown, the judge recused himself.

(Just as another judge in Arizona recused herself because her SISTER is an officer with LaRaza.)

In both instances, as well as in the above instance, the APPEARANCE OF IMPARTIALITY is what
decided the issue.

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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_fb2c1292-4e62-11e0-a195-001cc4c002e0.html

Judge recuses self from county lawsuit against collective bargaining law


March 14, 2011

A Dane County judge recused herself Monday morning from Dane County's lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin over the recently signed budget repair law, a move that could delay a hearing set for this week on putting a temporary halt to implementation of the law.

Dane County Circuit Judge Amy Smith had said on Friday that she could not hear the case if AFSCME or the Wisconsin State Employees Union became involved as a party in the case. Neither organization has yet joined the case.

At a brief hearing Monday, Smith said she discovered while reviewing the case over the weekend that one of the plaintiffs, county worker Shannon Maier, is an AFSCME representative.

Smith said she must recuse herself because she had dealings with WSEU and AFSCME while she was deputy secretary of the state Department of Corrections and as head of enforcement for the state Department of Natural Resources.

(snip)
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