Black Legal Issues

Fishburne's daughter to release sex tape

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:34:30 GMT

It's pretty much all in this classy movie's tagline: "An A-List Daughter Makes Her XXX Debut."

At just 19 years old, this product of Hollywood has decided that the best way to jumpstart her acting career isn't to follow in her famous, Oscar-nominated dad's footsteps, and has instead chosen to make a name for herself through more titillating means.

So who is she?

It's Montana Fishburne, the daughter of "Matrix" man Laurence Fishburne.

She'll be making her debut in Vivid Entertainment's oh-so-cleverly titled "Montana Fishburne," a roughly hourlong DVD that follows her sexual exploits in a car, a hotel room and a public mall. Versatile!

"I view making this movie as an important first step in my career," Montana said. "I've watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape by Vivid.

"I'm hoping the same magic will work for me. I'm impatient about getting well-known and having more opportunities and this seemed like a great way to get started on it."

On the one hand, you can't cite her for falling back on nepotism. On the other hand, we'd argue there are worse things in life than accepting a relative-assisted career boost.

But hey, plenty of people sleep their way to the top — most just aren't so, um, bold as to document their journey.

Rapper T.I. marries longtime girlfriend

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:28:51 GMT

Rapper T.I. (real name Clifford Harris) and longtime girlfriend, singer and BET reality star Tameka "Tiny" Cottle, tied the knot at a Miami Beach court.

They'll repeat their vows in an elaborate ceremony in three cities, a rep for the couple tells UsMagazine.com exclusively.

The couple will wed again Saturday in front of close family and friends (including Tiny's BET costar Antonia "Toya" Carter) on a small private island off the coast of Miami Saturday. Tiny will wear Valentino.

They plan on returning to their hometown of Atlanta for a reception Saturday afternoon before jetting off to Las Vegas to celebrate with friends into the wee hours.

Waters plans House trial to fight ethics charges

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:23:51 GMT

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., plans to go through a House trial to contest charges of misusing her office, NBC News confirmed Friday night.

A House ethics subcommittee says Waters, 71, improperly intervened in 2008 with federal regulators to help get bailout funds for a bank that her husband owned stock in and on whose board he once served, said NBC and other media reports. Waters also once held stock in the bank.

Formal charges are not expected to be announced until next week, according to several congressional officials who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening, the Times said.

Politico suggested the panel's charging document was delayed because Waters said she would go through with the trial instead of accepting and settling the panel's charges.

The House began its six-week summer recess Friday.

Modern-day precedent
The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., would be a modern-day precedent for the House, congressional officials told the Times.

At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them, the Times said.

Waters and Rangel are longstanding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Waters would not comment publicly Friday night but has denied any wrongdoing. "I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly," Waters said in a prior statement.

She has been under investigation by the House ethics panel since last fall.

The Times and The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Waters called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in 2008, as the economy was in a free fall, to ask him to host a special meeting with executives from black-owned banks.

As a Financial Services Committee member, Waters often called Paulson. He agreed to arrange the requested meeting, the Times reported last year.

$250,000 in stock
Paulson did not know at the time that Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock at least $250,000 worth of stock in and had served on the board of Boston-based OneUnited, whose chief executive turned the Treasury headquarters meeting into a special appeal for bailout assistance, the Times said.

OneUnited also had branches in Miami and Los Angeles. Waters' district includes part of Los Angeles.
The executive from OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, asked for $50 million in federal aid, the Times reported.

OneUnited got $12.1 million in TARP money soon after a second meeting, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Waters has said she called Paulson on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a Washington-based organization of minority-owned banks, to help minority-owned banks get their fair share from the government.

Its incoming chairman, Robert Cooper, was a OneUnited executive.
After articles about the meeting appeared in the Times and the Journal, the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog agency, began an inquiry, the Times said. The office referred the matter to the ethics committee.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have complained that the OCE has unfairly and disproportionately targeted them, and many have signed onto a legislative effort to de-fang the office, Politico reported.

Waters plans House trial to fight ethics charges

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:21:15 GMT

Congresswoman denies misusing office to aid bank partly owned by husband.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., plans to go through a House trial to contest charges of misusing her office, NBC News confirmed Friday night.

A House ethics subcommittee says Waters, 71, improperly intervened in 2008 with federal regulators to help get bailout funds for a bank that her husband owned stock in and on whose board he once served, said NBC and other media reports. Waters also once held stock in the bank.

Formal charges are not expected to be announced until next week, according to several congressional officials who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the proceedings remained confidential. Details of the specific accusations of wrongdoing were not available Friday evening, the Times said.

Politico suggested the panel's charging document was delayed because Waters said she would go through with the trial instead of accepting and settling the panel's charges.

The House began its six-week summer recess Friday.

Modern-day precedent
The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., would be a modern-day precedent for the House, congressional officials told the Times.

At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them, the Times said.

Waters and Rangel are longstanding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Waters would not comment publicly Friday night but has denied any wrongdoing. "I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly," Waters said in a prior statement.

She has been under investigation by the House ethics panel since last fall.

The Times and The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Waters called Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in 2008, as the economy was in a free fall, to ask him to host a special meeting with executives from black-owned banks.

As a Financial Services Committee member, Waters often called Paulson. He agreed to arrange the requested meeting, the Times reported last year.

Paulson did not know at the time that Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, owned stock at least $250,000 worth of stock in and had served on the board of Boston-based OneUnited, whose chief executive turned the Treasury headquarters meeting into a special appeal for bailout assistance, the Times said.

OneUnited also had branches in Miami and Los Angeles. Waters' district includes part of Los Angeles.
The executive from OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks, asked for $50 million in federal aid, the Times reported.

OneUnited got $12.1 million in TARP money soon after a second meeting, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Waters has said she called Paulson on behalf of the National Bankers Association, a Washington-based organization of minority-owned banks, to help minority-owned banks get their fair share from the government.

Its incoming chairman, Robert Cooper, was a OneUnited executive.
After articles about the meeting appeared in the Times and the Journal, the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog agency, began an inquiry, the Times said. The office referred the matter to the ethics committee.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have complained that the OCE has unfairly and disproportionately targeted them, and many have signed onto a legislative effort to de-fang the office, Politico reported.

Obama wants Rangel to end career with dignity

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:14:34 GMT

President Barack Obama hopes embattled New York congressman Charlie Rangel can end his career with dignity.

"I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very well. But these allegations are very troubling," Obama said on Friday in an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith.

"He's somebody who's at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens." Obama added.

Obama commented Friday just hours after a subcommittee of the House ethics committee recommended that the Harlem Democrat be reprimanded.

A reprimand would be a relatively light punishment, compared with censure and expulsion.

The recommendation was made to the ethics committee before Thursday's public hearing detailing charges against Rangel. The full committee and the House would have to approve any sanction against Rangel.

Asked about the recommendation, Rangel initially told reporters on Friday that it's "untrue." Rangel's attorney, however, later said that the embattled congressman "misspoke" and the possibility of a reprimand "was one of a number of issues addressed in settlement discussions."

The full committee has accused Rangel of 13 violations of House rules involving alleged financial wrongdoing and harming the credibility of Congress.

Among other things, Rangel has been charged with using his influence to solicit donations for a college policy center bearing his name from corporate heads and others with business before the powerful House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chaired until forced to give up the leadership position earlier this year.

Other charges involve alleged income tax and financial disclosure violations, as well as improper use of government mail service and letterhead. An ethics committee trial of Rangel is still set to be held, most likely in September, barring a settlement between Rangel and the committee members.

13-year-old boy shot again and again in West Pullman

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:58:44 GMT

Gunman killed wrong kid, police sources say.

The killer stood over 13-year-old Robert Freeman’s bleeding body and pulled the trigger again, again and again.

But though he was just feet from the 8th grader’s face on the Far South Side Wednesday night, the gunman got the wrong kid, police sources said.

Bloodstained pavement and a makeshift memorial of teddy bears Thursday morning marked the spot on the 11500 block of South Perry where the latest Chicago schoolboy murder victim fell, in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

“The doctor told me he found 22 bullet holes in my baby. Twenty-two,” said his devastated mother, Theresa Lumpkin, who ran from her home moments after the shooting to find Robert dying in the street outside.

“That’s too many to...give a 13-year-old child,” she told ABC7. “You’re not supposed to kill a baby, not a kid. Period.”

Dozens of youths were hanging out in the street at 8 p.m. Wednesday when the killers snuck through a thicket of overgrown weeds in an empty lot and opened fire, relatives said.

Robert, who moved to West Pullman a few months earlier, had quickly established himself as a friendly face on the block, mowing lawns for pocket money and riding his bicycle with an infectious smile, neighbors said.

He attended Oglesby Elementary School, but when his family moved he transferred him out of the Chicago school system in May.

Wednesday night wasn’t his first brush with trouble, a police source said. Earlier this summer he was arrested for allegedly throwing bricks at car windows.

But Lumpkin said she told her son all the time to stay out of trouble. And she said he always told her, “ ‘Momma, I ain’t like that.’ ”

“He loved fishing, and he was always begging me to send him to his grandma’s in Saginaw, Michigan, so he could go fish there,” she said. “I wish I’d listened to him. . . . He might still be alive.”

Lumpkin said Robert was still conscious when she rushed out to him Wednesday night.

“He was saying, ‘Go get my momma,’ ” she said. “I’m hurt — it hurts real bad.”

Detectives spent Thursday interviewing witnesses but had no suspects in custody. They appealed for the public’s help.

The neighborhood has been plagued by crime. In the past two years, there have been two other killings within a block of where Robert was killed. In July alone, there were two armed robberies with a handgun and six batteries within a block, police records show, while 16-year-old Jeremiah Sterling was shot dead in a gang dispute a mile away on July 15.

Elonda Jackson, whose 15-year-old nephew Percy Rounds was gunned down in an unsolved July 2008 killing less than 100 yards from Wednesday’s murder scene, said, “what can you do when there are all these random killings?”

“It grips you to the depths of your soul.... You just want to know why, but we still don’t.”

And Riccardo Pittman, whose niece Elaine Brown was shot in the face in 2008 a block from where Robert was killed, and whose daughter, Leslie Brown, was strangled to death a half mile away, police say, by alleged serial killer Michael Johnson, added “The killing is totally senseless out here. It never stops.”

Neighbor Cola Townsend, 80, said that after he heard the gunshots Wednesday, he looked outside and saw “the boy was lying there in the street and 10 little kids in white T-shirts were running away as the cops arrived, like they always do.

“I’ve lived on this block 35 years, and it’s never been this bad.”

Democrats call on Rangel to resign

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:48:01 GMT

President Barack Obama on Friday called ethics charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel "very troubling" and said he hopes the longtime lawmaker can end his career with dignity. Several House Democrats went further, flat-out urging the New York congressman to resign.

"He's somebody who's at the end of his career," Obama said in an interview that aired Friday on "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric." "I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens."

Obama, speaking on the issue for the first time, praised the 20-term Rangel for serving his constituents well but called the more than one-dozen tax and disclosure charges against him "very troubling."

It was hardly an endorsement for the veteran lawmaker, but fell well short of the calls for resignation Rangel received on the eve of the House's August recess. As House Democrats headed home, they wrestled with how to handle the matter in their districts ahead of the midterm elections.

Republicans, meanwhile, raced ahead with plans to make Rangel the face of corrupt Washington under the rule of Democrats who had vowed to clean up Congress.

For his part, Rangel met with perhaps his staunchest supporters, members of the New York state delegation, in the stately Capitol parlor named for the Ways and Means Committee that he headed until March.

"He indicated there was some sloppiness" in his official papers, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., told reporters, "but, you know, there's no criminality here."

House rules and credibility — not criminality — were the reasons cited by more than a half dozen House Democrats known to have called for Rangel's resignation by late afternoon Friday.

A House panel on Thursday made public for the first time 13 charges of misusing his office and tax and disclosure violations against Rangel, 80, as it opened the trial phase of the ethics proceedings against him. If Rangel and the ethics committee do not settle the case, it goes to a public trial this fall, at the height of an election season in which every member of the House, 36 in the Senate and the Democratic majorities of both chambers are on the line.

Either conditionally or outright, Democrats calling for Rangel's resignation included Rep. Walter Minnick of Idaho, Betty Sutton of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Zack Space of Ohio, Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio.

"Too many politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, have fallen victim to the idea that they are 'different' than regular folks and nothing could be further from the truth," Kirkpatrick said in a statement.

"It is our job as members of Congress to hold each other accountable to a higher standard regardless of party," she added. "If the serious charges against (Rangel) are accurate, he needs to resign."
Rangel denies the charges and says the indictment released Thursday contains factual errors.

"We've heard Charlie in the Ways and Means Committee, and he's addressed these charges. He never denied they happened. He always has an explanation. You can excuse one or two, but not 13," Yarmuth told the Louisville Courier-Journal in an interview published Friday. "I don't see how he can stay if they're true. I believe they are."

Back home in Rangel's Harlem district, he remains popular with many voters and could well win reelection if his political career survives the ethics probe, though one woman said Friday she had mixed feelings after reading news accounts of the allegations against him.

"I don't think he is 100 percent honest, but he's no worse than other politicians," said Charynda Morez, a college student who was buying groceries at a deli.

She said that she didn't know how he should be punished, but that Rangel should resign anyway. Rangel has four apartments "when there are people who don't have a home," she said, citing allegations that Rangel lived in four combined rent-stabilized apartments instead of one, in violation of New York City law.

But outside the apartment building in question, food vendor Curtis Parker defended Rangel and said the 40-year House veteran was being targeted despite all the good he's done for the community.
"They're just airing his dirty laundry," he said, adding that the charges fall far short of what would normally deserve "jail time."

Democratic leaders are urging their members to cast the election as one about a choice between their party, which under President Barack Obama has overhauled health care and Wall Street, and a GOP-tea party combination that wants to roll back Democratic accomplishments.

House Republicans relished using Rangel to change the subject — especially if he does not reach a settlement with the ethics committee. A public trial equates to a free media presentation of the misdeeds of one of the most senior Democrats in the House.

The House Republicans' campaign arm released a list of Democrats who have not returned campaign contributions they received from Rangel during their careers and said those lawmakers would face questions about the matter from constituents during the August break.

"It's very difficult for Democrats to make the case that this is a 'choice' election when the national headlines are focused around an ethics scandal that has clearly impacted the party in power," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Rangel retained many supporters Friday. The New York delegation and the Congressional Black Caucus, which was co-founded by Rangel, urged their colleagues not to rush to judgment. House leaders eager to avoid alienating black voters remained mum on what Rangel should do.

Some Democrats privately said they took a small measure of comfort in one revelation. Rep. Gene Green, the Texas Democrat who led the four-member bipartisan panel of investigators, told reporters that his committee recommended a relatively mild punishment for Rangel — reprimand, a statement of wrongdoing voted by the whole House that carries no other penalty.

But statements continued to trickle out that left no doubt that at some point, Democrats would have to look out for No. 1 - themselves.

"If at the trial's conclusion Mr. Rangel is found guilty by his peers, then he should incur the full punishment allowed by the House, including removal from office," said Rep. Bobby Bright, D-Ala.

Wright's ex-wife got threatening visit

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:37:54 GMT

Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife was threatened at her home by three men who were carrying guns and looking for the former NBA player about six weeks before he was shot to death, the woman's attorney said Friday.

Sherra Wright warned her ex-husband, the father of her children, about the visit by men dressed in sport coats with weapons tucked in their waistbands, lawyer Gail Mathes said. But she was frightened by their threats and didn't tell authorities about it until Monday, when she alerted police in the Memphis suburb of Collierville, near her home.

"She was told that if she said anything she would be killed, or her children," Mathes said. "Mrs. Wright was terrified."

The body of the 34-year-old athlete was found in woods in Memphis on Wednesday, six days after his family reported him missing. He was last seen around midnight July 18, when he stayed over at his ex-wife's house.

Sherra Wright told officers he left in the middle of the night with an unidentified person. Police records indicate Wright was probably carrying a large amount of cash when he disappeared.

An investigation is now under way by police in nearby Germantown, another Memphis suburb, about how a 911 call from Wright's phone early on July 19 was handled.

Autopsy results haven't been released, so it's not clear when Wright died or how many times he was shot. Police said the medical examiner had to use dental records to establish a positive identity, indicating the body might have been in the woods for some time before it was found by a police search team.

Memphis police are leading the homicide investigation and won't discuss a motive or if they have suspects. Memphis police Lt. Alan Ruhl said Friday that the department isn't discussing details of the case because the investigation is ongoing.

Rodney Bright, Germantown's deputy police chief, said department officials did not know about the 911 call until Tuesday, eight days after it was received by a dispatcher in the early morning hours of July 19.

Bright said Friday he can't discuss what was said on the call, which has been turned over to Memphis police. They also won't talk about the call.

The Commercial Appeal newspaper, which first reported the call, said the dispatcher heard a garbled male voice utter an expletive and then heard at least 10 gunshots. The call went dead and no one answered when the dispatcher called back, the newspaper reported.

Police said area law enforcement agencies didn't meet until Wednesday to discuss the case. Investigators were able to locate the source of the call and a few hours after that meeting, officers found Wright's body nearby.

Police in Collierville had taken the July 22 missing person report. Before Wright was found dead, they had repeatedly said they didn't suspect foul play.

Wright's friends have questioned why police didn't act with more urgency. Mathes said Germantown police were negligent in failing to report the call to other law enforcement in the area, and the delay has hurt the homicide investigation.

"I do believe there was a disregard with a transparent obliviousness to the significance of a call where you hear 10 shots," Mathes said.

The 6-foot-11 Wright played 13 seasons in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and most recently the Cleveland Cavaliers. Wright left the University of Memphis early for the NBA, and the Clippers made him a lottery pick with the No. 7 selection overall.

He averaged 8 points and 6.4 rebounds in 778 career games.

Wright leaves behind six children, his mother Deborah Marion, and father Herb Wright, who coached his son from a wheelchair after he was shot in the spine. Lorenzen Wright's 11-month-old daughter, Sierra, died in March 2003 of sudden infant death syndrome.

Messages of sadness and condolence have poured in from around the NBA since Wright's body was found. Hundreds of people have visited the scene near where Wright's body was found to pay respects to the beloved Memphis native.

Mathes said she is hoping to set up a fund for Wright's children, with hopes of getting contributions from NBA players.

Callers threaten to kidnap woman's son

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:48:00 GMT

An Albany, NY mother says she was scared out of her mind believing her 7-year-old son was being threatened by someone with the Ku Klux Klan.

The Benitez family first started receiving the calls a few weeks ago.

"They said they were going to kidnap the little black boy," Maria Benitez said.

Caller ID showed the first as coming from Albany bar, and the others from a number belonging to a white power organization in Arkansas.

But police do not believe Maria's son is being threatened by the Klan, but rather someone who is doing something called "telespoofing."

Telespoofing works by disguising a caller ID when you make a call. Certain websites offer the service for a small fee. The call can also disguise the voice.

Albany police believe the culprit is likely a nasty and cowardly neighbor.

The bar owner has been cleared by police.

Police plan to prosecute the case for harassment.

Two New Orleans police officers indicted in 2005 beating death

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:42:24 GMT

Two officers in the troubled New Orleans Police Department have been indicted in connection with the beating death of a civilian in 2005, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The federal indictment alleges that Officer Melvin Williams kicked the victim and struck him with a baton, fracturing his ribs and rupturing his spleen. The victim, Raymond Robair, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Williams and Officer Matthew Moore were also charged with obstructing justice when they submitted a false incident report and failed to tell hospital personnel Williams had beaten Robair, according to the indictment in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Details of the indictment were released by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington.

Moore also allegedly lied about the incident in an FBI investigation in March of this year according to the indictment. Moore is accused of telling federal agents Williams had not kicked or beaten Robair.

Robair's death occurred in July 2005, two months before the city was slammed by Hurricane Katrina.

The indictment of the two officers comes only weeks after five current and former members of the police department were indicted in connection with two deaths at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina.

All of the charges come as the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division continues a separate broad investigation into the "patterns or practices" of alleged misconduct within the New Orleans police department.

On May 17, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez told New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu that the Justice Department will investigate "allegations of excessive force, unconstitutional searches and seizures, racial profiling, failures to provide adequate police services to particular neighborhoods and related misconduct."

On July 13, in a visit to New Orleans to announce the Danziger Bridge indictments, Attorney General Eric Holder vowed the Justice Department "will not tolerate wrongdoing by those who have sworn to protect the public."

"Making sure that this city's police department is the best that it can be is our sacred obligation," Holder told a crowd in the city.