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The sheriff called the mobilization "Operation Third Option," and he said it was about fighting drugs. [88] In his November 10 report, Chicago Tribune correspondent Howard Witt noted that Color of Change was the only national civil rights group to be fully transparent with their use of the funds. On Melissa Bells wall hung a commendatory plaque from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization Martin Luther King Jr. co-founded and led. As talented and versatile as Bell was, Fowler said, at 5 feet 9 inches or so, and maybe 190 pounds, he probably wasnt big enough for LSU, and likely could have played only for a Division II or a small Division I school. Barker The first witness to take the stand in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin on Monday was Jena Scurry, a 911 dispatcher in Minneapolis who alerted a police supervisor in Walters commented that Representative Lee's "passion for racial equality is admirable, but her grasp of the facts is not". As it turned out, all of the Jena Six lived outside of Jena. "Wouldn't none of this be going on if justice had been done the way it was supposed to have been," he says. [43], Bell's retrial in the Barker assault was scheduled for December 6. He reported that attorneys for Bell claimed that they have yet to receive any money from him, and that the six families had refused to publicly account for the donations. [50], On June 26, 2009, the remaining five defendants entered pleas of "no contest" to a charge of simple battery. But their polarized perceptions, as much as the legal encounter between Walters and Bell, seemed to capture the competing truths of the Jena saga: Bells denial of her sons responsibility, and the towns denial of its racial cliquishness. But, it could not be prosecuted as such since juveniles are rarely prosecuted in the federal system, and this offense did not meet departmental standards for charges to be brought. On the first day of trial, June 26, 2007, Walters reduced the charges to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. He warned them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Franklin indicated that the fire was not racially motivated, and had no connection to the Jena Six. [19], On December 1, 2006, a private party was held at the Jena Fair Barn. Barker was injured on December 4, 2006, by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment at an emergency room. A 1971 photo of Ollas high-school football team included Walters, then in 10th grade, and one black player. Sammy Franklin could think of two: a car-detailer and a funeral home. There were six or seven just in my bedroom." LaSalle Parish is a politically conservative enclave located in northwest Louisiana. On the gray day when I met Melissa Bell, her mood was as dismal as the weather. Bell still received an 18-month detention sentence. He said in interviews years later with The Associated Press that he didn't know why he was attacked. There wasnt. Blood at the Root premiered on March 28, 2014 at Penn State Center Stage. Walters was invited to testify but declined. Three days before the trial began, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of battery, and was sentenced to 18months in a juvenile facility, with credit for time served. Partly for that reason, the Harts did not press for anything more serious than probation and an apology. He focused on the piece circulated by Bean to news outlets, "Bean's story is framedby his own admissionas an indictment of the criminal justice system and the people in power in Jena and, therefore, the story is unfairly biased". He left the dance early due to pain. OLLA-TULLOS-URANIA SIGNAL His conviction in the Justin Barker case had been overturned on the grounds that he shouldnt have been tried as an adult, but he faced retrial as a juvenile. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. She and Mychals father, Marcus Jones, were never a couple, Jones told me; and when Mychal was little, she took Jones to court for child support. [13] Black residents of Jena have said that this comment stoked racial tensions leading to subsequent events. More. J. Reed Walters, the white district attorney, devolved into caricature, as did Jena itself. The day was the culmination of an investigation that LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin said had been going on for nearly two years. [65] The 2005 report also found that a black male who is arrested is three times more likely to go to jail than a white male arrested for the same crime. [95] According to Fowler, the tree would have had to have been cut down to make way for the rebuilding of the school after the fire. But thanks to the legal discretion that Louisiana grants its district attorneys, it is Walterss character, not any Jim Crow statute, that has shaped the course of Bells case. Bell was a draw, which helps explain why, when he began to get in troubleto be troubleso many adults looked the other way. [41] Bell was released on $45,000bond,[29] subject to electronic monitoring and under the supervision of a probation officer. "I'm a freedom fighter," she says. The school disciplinary process that followed is unclear. P: (318) 992-4121 Some commentators believed that the defendants had been charged initially with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly. Town", "Official sought to clear up 'Jena Six' 'misinformation', "Jesse Jackson: Obama needs to bring more attention to Jena 6", "La. Shaw was one of six black students arrested in Jena, La., in the beating of a white high school student. Addressing the rumors that the attack had been provoked by Barker using a racial epithet, they said on behalf of the defendants:[52], To be clear, not one of us heard Justin use any slur or say anything that justified Mychal Bell attacking Justin nor did any of us see Justin do anything that would cause Mychal to react. F: (318) 992-2287, Office Hours: Witness the towns selectively fluid geography: even as black areas have remained unincorporatedunable to vote for mayor or police chief, ineligible for town services like garbage collectionin 2005 Jena annexed a new subdivision to the north of Snob Hill.. "Cutting down that beautiful tree won't solve the problem at hand," said Caseptla Bailey, Robert Bailey's mother. But soon the simple narrative began to fray. Jordan Flaherty, a Walters won 51.6 percent of the vote3,212 votes. Protesters took buses from such distant cities as Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Together with District Attorney Reed Walters, Sheriff Franklin has said he is seeking maximum penalties for people charged with small-time offenses. A former teacher at McKinley School in Pasadena was arrested and accused of sexually victimizing a 14-year-old student, police said. On March 16, 2009, Judge Ronald Lewellyan was assigned to hear the civil case. [6] Based on this, MTV posted a retraction for incorrect information that it had reported on the case from other news sources. The story is told through the lens of one of the Jena 6's sister, who also attended the high school. [82], Many online petitions have circulated calling for various actions in response to the Jena Six case. As a football star, he seemed to have found the loophole in his fathers lesson that a black man cant get a break. On October 11, 2007, Mauffray found that Bell had violated the terms of his probation for previous convictions. By News Staff on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. His cat, Fancy, nestled on his belly. OLLA-TULLOS-URANIA SIGNAL Copyright 2023 KALB. Supporters of the Jena Six circulated online petitions, raised money for legal defense, and held a demonstration in Jena on September 20, 2007. [1] According to some of the school's teachers and administrators, the tree in question was not a "white tree", and students of all races had sat under it at one time or another. [6] [12], The school superintendent was quoted as saying, "Adolescents play pranks. [81], Blood at the Root is a play written by Dominique Morisseau about the Jena 6. [8], The following day, an incident occurred at the Gotta Go convenience store, outside Jena in unincorporated LaSalle Parish, between Matt Windham and three black youths, including Bailey. He bonded with Mychal over football and became a mentor to him. [53], On August 6, Judge Yeager terminated Beard's probation (he remained under the conditions of his bail release in the Barker incident) so he could attend the Canterbury School in Connecticut. [89], On September 22, 2007, the FBI opened an investigation of a white supremacist website that listed the addresses of five of the Jena Six and the telephone numbers of some of their families "in case anyone wants to deliver justice". But although the protesters passed right over the town lines, they didnt take up the cause of moving them. By the time Mychal Bell turned 16, Walters had been reelected twice. And this day was all about option three. It was initially reported that the punishment was reduced to three days of in-school suspension. All of the frustration at the disproportionate imprisonment of black men seemed to find its way to Jena, as if here, at last, in a small towns idea of justice, was an explanation. [83] Color of Change raised more than $212,000 for the Jena Six legal defense, largely through online donations. [63], Many major editorial pages and columnists have been sympathetic to the supporters of the Jena Six. The coaches and school officials had to know, she says, because other players told them: They wanted the child to bring them their touchdownsand thats not fair.. "It is not and never has been about race," Walters said, according to an AP report at the time. He combined a knack for the game with the work ethic to make it look easy. ", (Photo: Caseptla Bailey and Catrina Wallace). As Bell stood in line, she says, she watched the teacher, who was white, embrace and smile at Jenas better-off whites, even as she greeted black and lower-class white parents much less warmly. By News Staff on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Please login hereto access content or go here to purchase a subscription. Adrian Richardson, 34, who pled guilty on April 23 to two counts of distribution, received twenty-five years. They have used the case to discuss broader trends of racism in the US criminal justice system and to call for a renewed civil rights movement. That reality was not lost on Jenas black residents, including Mychal Bells mother. In the year leading up to the attack on Barker, Bell had punched a girl, physically assaulted a man, and committed two acts of vandalismfour offenses he was found guilty of in juvenile court. All rights reserved. He raised his sons in a large house with a swimming pool on Snob Hill, as Jenas wealthier section is called. When opponents lined up, he knew exactly what they were going to run, Mack Fowler, his former coach, says: He was like a coach on the fielda leader. JENA, La. Virtually all evidence in the cases comes from the testimony of twenty-three-year-old Evan Brown of Jena, who also wore a hidden camera during the investigation that parish officials have said provides powerful visual evidence. [71], Rallies in support of the Jena Six were held in Jena on September 20, 2007, the date upon which Bell was scheduled for sentencing. I've never been in trouble. But [Bell] was never nothing but Yes sir, no sir around us. Still, Fowler knew enough to warn Bell that if he didnt watch out, the streets would whup him and he would end up with nothing. A white male, who was not a student, moved in front of the woman and a fight ensued. Gender: Female. She graduated from Jena High and at 20, after half a year of college, gave birth to Mychal. [18] Two of the arson defendants pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to ten years in prison, with restitution ordered in the amount of $10million. The editor and publisher of the Jena Times, the town's only paper, is Sammy Franklin, who has owned the paper since 1968. "When this case was brought to me and during our investigation and during the trial, there was no such linkage ever suggested. "We hope our actions today help to resolve this matter for Justin, Mr. and Mrs. Barker, and all others affected, including the Town of Jena.". "I would say we kind of put pressure on the officials and everybody that run the town to make a change," Purvis added. Like John McPherson, LaTara Hart has become ammunition in the information wars, used, in her case, by those seeking to prove that Bell was violent. Once outside, the black students were involved in another fight with a group of white males who were not students. "It's crooked," says Howard. The arrest of Ms. Sturgeon, who resigned as leader of the Scottish National Party in February, follows that of her husband, previously the partys chief executive, and of By Maria Cramer and Erin Nolan. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said to Washington and other Justice Department officials, "Shame on you. Fri: 8am - 4pm. [30] The charge of aggravated battery requires the use of a "dangerous weapon",[31] and Walters argued that the tennis shoes worn by Bell while allegedly kicking Barker were dangerous weapons. [10], The case provoked reactions that the charges against the Jena Six were disproportionate and racially motivated. Mug Shot for Jena Nowak booked into the Wyandotte county jail. [56], The first mainstream US print media outlet to cover the matter was the Chicago Tribune, whose Southwest Bureau Chief, Howard Witt, wrote a piece covering the story on May 20. Melissa Bell worked a series of low-wage jobsat a hospital, Burger Barn, Procter and Gambleand had her own run-ins with the law, including a stream of bounced checks, for amounts as small as $4, in 2005. "From racial profiling to unequal punishment in school to potential misconduct by authorities, the Jena Six case causes great concern," Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a 2007 statement. He also authored the book, "My Story as a Jena 6," in 2015, but is now focused on his future beyond the "Jena Six" label. By then, he, along with his co-defendants, had been transformed yet again: together, theyd been dubbed the Jena Six and had become icons of a 21st-century civil-rights movement. Deputies. At Gray, our journalists report, write, edit and produce the news content that informs the communities we serve. Jun 27, 2023. [4] Subsequent reactions included songs alluding to the Jena Six, numerous editorials and opinion columns, and congressional hearings. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? It has toured internationally and has been described as "catalyzing conversations on difficult and essential questions of race and justice". A Seal Beach man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of child abuse and attempting to evade arrest by leading police on a pursuit that (KALB) - According to a report by The Jena Times, a student at Jena High School passed away after going into cardiac arrest on Tuesday, April 18. Less surprising is that the movement avoided the other side of Mychal Bells story: his own choices, for starters, or the link between the generational disintegration of black families and black incarceration. Over the next decades, Jena settled into its post-segregation identity. The Jena Times Find directions to Fawn Creek, browse local businesses, landmarks, get current traffic estimates, road conditions, and [6] Craig Franklin, assistant editor of The Jena Times, said the nooses were hung as a prank by three students directed at white members of the school rodeo team. You had the judge and DA at those ball games Friday night, clapping them onyou see what Im saying? Jena Six supporters demonstrate in Washington, D.C, Oct. 2, 2007, saying their civil rights have been grossly violated and demanding that all charges against them be dropped. However, all involved say they doubt they can receive a fair trial in LaSalle. As I did, I noticed that most of the areas where blacks live are outside the official town limits. Most Republican members of the committee declined to attend. [103][111], Theo Shaw was able to attend classes at another high school and have his credits transferred to Jena. The assistant principal was sports-minded, you know, so he didnt want to disrupt, Fowler says. [90], On September 25, 2007, Representative John Conyers (D), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that he would hold congressional hearings on what he described as "the miscarriages of justice that have occurred in Jena, Louisiana", with the goal of pressuring the United States Department of Justice into taking action. Given the poverty of Bells background, the odds were against him: black men in Louisiana are five times as likely to go to prison as to college; in LaSalle Parish, they are incarcerated at twice their proportion in the population. The boy had a history of getting in trouble, she says, and it should have been reckoned with. Her sons future seemed unpredictable. And we finished 7 and 3 and barely missed the playoffs. SHARE. P: (318) 992-4121 According to U.S. Attorney Washington, they were told by a woman that no one was allowed inside without an invitation. His convictions were overturned on the grounds that he should have been tried as a juvenile. He was sentenced to 18 months, including time served, which means he should be out by summer. Jones and Purvis attended the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta on October 13, 2007, and were invited to present the award for Video of the Year. Extensive news coverage related to the Jena Six often reported these events as linked. [100] Mauffray subsequently retired. [86], In the months following the Jena Six rally, controversy arose about accounting and dispersal of the legal defense funds. Vigorous defense lawyering got Bells conviction as an adult overturned earlier that month. "Let me put it to you this way," declared the sheriff, "When the man says, 'We don't sell dope today,' dope won't get sold.". Despite catching the accused residents by surprise with early morning raids, in which doors were battered down by SWAT teams while a helicopter hovered overhead and then search teams were brought in to take houses and businesses apart, no drugs or other physical evidence were retrieved -- other than small traces of marijuana at one house. Critics say he is pursuing a vendetta against the town's Black community. The Jena Six case sparked protests by people who considered the arrests and subsequent charges, initially attempted second-degree murder, as excessive and racially discriminatory. To her son, she was more friend than limit-setter, according to Mychals best friend, John McPherson. [42] The defense filed a motion to dismiss the Barker charges on the ground that retrying Bell would amount to double jeopardy. The popular actor, Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. LaSalle Arrests. On the October Sunday morning when I visited, he began Bible study by taking attendance (six adults, including his wife) then turned to the Sermon on the Mount, explaining why Jesus had come to reconcile man to the law of God. During the 2022 fiscal year, Border Patrol agents arrested migrants who crossed the border illegally more than 2.2 million times. Marcus Jones, the father of one of the Jena Six youths, doesn't mince words. Samuel Howard was sleeping in his bed, naked, when police broke down his door at five am. The parishs white district attorney charged Bell and five others with attempted second-degree murder. Bell and the other players didnt know that, and Fowler and the other coaches didnt tell them. He's afraid of the sheriff's office arresting him if he leaves the house, and he wants to stay close to his kids, who were traumatized by his arrest. Many of Jena's Black residents say that the town's white power structure - including the DA, Sheriff, and the editor of the local paper - wants revenge against Black people in town who stood up and fought against unjust charges. "We recognize that the events of the past two and a half years have also caused Justin and his parents tremendous pain and suffering, much of which has gone unrecognized," the teens said in a prepared statement read in court, according to SPLC. Midway is among Jenas larger and more prosperous churches, and Walters is among its pillars. [28], Proceedings were on hold for some time pending resolution of various motions to require Mauffray to recuse himself. Along with the small-town culture in which he was raised, Walterss Southern Baptist creedhis certainty of the path to eternal salvationhelps to explain him: in matters of faith, or law, he has the confidence of his convictions. Anonymous readers posted the arrest record of Mychal Bells mother, and other allegations about the family, in an online forum of The Town Talk, a daily newspaper based in nearby Alexandria. [61] Given the racial history of the Deep South, many news reports from Jena evoked the Civil Rights Movement, referred to historic lynching, or Jim Crow. Relations were cordial, barring a few incidents of white-on-black violence recounted with the horror of legend and occasional school fights stemming from interracial dating. Skeptics seized on each such revelation to argue that the case was more about black criminality than white racisma manufactured racial drama la Tawana Brawley (with Sharpton once again playing a role) or the Duke rape case. "[97] The two members delivered speeches thanking family, friends, the "Hip-Hop Nation",[97] and those who came to Jena. At the beginning of the 2006 school year, several Black students were sitting under a tree at Jena High School where white students usually congregated, according to the ACLU, which advocated on behalf of the Jena Six. [107] On August 27, 2008, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association turned down Bell's request for an extra year of athletic eligibility. LaTara and her mother forgave Bell, although her father has not. Human beings who kept trying to bend the law to their convenience and desires needed an attitude adjustment, he said, offering a modern example of bending the law: even though the speed limit is 55, we interpret it as 64 because thats what will trigger a ticket. Gas-and-oil exploration joined timber as a stalwart of the economy. Mychal Bell was, in essence, a stranger. Online advocacy group Color of Change, which had previously advocated for victims of Hurricane Katrina, called for District Attorney Walters to drop all charges and for Governor Kathleen Blanco to investigate his conduct. [13] Witt had received a summary of the situation[57] from Alan Bean, a Texas minister who had founded the advocacy group Friends of Justice. [103] On June 3, 2018, he graduated from the University of Washington School of Law, having received a full scholarship as a Gates Public Service Law Scholar.[112][113]. ET. Sat-Sun, Closed, The following people were booked into the LaSalle Parish Jail last week as reported by the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office: Jordan Washington, 21, of Pineville, was arrested June 2 by the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office for contempt of court. On September 20, for a span of hours, Jenas demography inverted: suddenly, the protesters against the status quo outnumbered its defenders by at least 6-to-1. Wed: 8am - 4pm. In 2000, when Mychal was 10, Jones decamped for Dallas, returning only for intermittent visits until 2007, when he came to free the son hed left behind. The Nationalist Movement, a white-supremacist (pro-majority) group, ran interviews on its Web site with the victim and the town mayor, providing ammunition for those seeking to prove the towns racism. [35] The media had initially reported that Bell had no prior criminal record. The paper celebrated his triumphs in articles and photographs, including a dramatic one in which Bell, whos black, stiff-arms a white defender by clutching his face guard. It probably helped reduce the charges against the boys, although Walters denies that public pressure swayed him. Websection b page no page 2 of 263 holder number holder name report period ending original owner name (list by last name, first name, mi) original street address amount due Tia Owens-Powers/The Town Talk via AP, FILE. All appeals were dropped as part of the plea agreement. Myths replaced facts the truth about Jena will eventually be known". The rain was beating through the pine thicket around his home, and dark had fallen early. P: (318) 992-4121 Termaine Lee, a twenty-two-year-old who had no previous record but faced six counts of distribution, received twenty years. Bells volatility became evident in dramatic fashion when he assaulted a female student, LaTara Hart, on Christmas Day, 2005. The protesters didnt press to improve the parishs indigent-defense system, poor even by the standards of Louisiana; didnt ask why two schools in the southern part of the parish are still effectively segregated, providing an escape valve for white Jena parents who wish to avoid sending their children to integrated schools; and didnt talk about the habitual-offender law Walters used to send a peer of Bells father to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for life for three nonviolent offenses. (KALB) - According to a report by The Jena Times, a student at Jena High School passed away after going into cardiac arrest on Tuesday, April 18. Billy Dewey Wiley, 42, of Jonesville, was arrested May 11 by the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office for possession of drug paraphernalia, battery of a dating partner, false imprisonment, and possession of CDS II. Austin L. Lefebvre, 30, of Jena, was arrested May 9 by the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office for possession of drug paraphernalia. [59], A segment on a BBC program This World followed on May 24. [78] The video juxtaposes images of Jena, the high school, and the tree with video from the 1960s, including civil rights marchers and police beatings, video of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. speaking, and an image of a black man in shackles. [32], Before the trial began, public defender Blane Williams had urged Bell to accept a plea bargain. WebThe Jena Times Don Moses Retiring After 34 Years Craig Franklin Editor Tuesday, June 20, 2023 For 34 years Don Moses has been a familiar face at the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office. Even as events refused to cohere into a sensible whole, activists, reporters, and participants kept trying to package them into a recognizable story line. Town Along Racial Lines", "Black and White Becomes Gray in La. LSP investigating after pedestrian killed in Grant Parish crash, Piccadilly is closing its doors in Alexandria, Vacancies continue at FCC Pollock, union calls for more legislative action, LSU fans seek out National Championship gear, Public Inspection File - digicomm@kalb.com - (318) 483-4211. He had come home in September after more than nine months in prisonthen been returned to custody two weeks later because of his previous juvenile offenses. Six months laterafter the DA had reduced the charges against Please provide the title of the article in your email. When she opened her eyes, her small home was filled with police. In a community so small that, as Marcus Jones puts it, if you burp you can hear it all over town (perhaps on the police scanners that many residents have in their homes), the families are connected: Jones was best man at LaTaras parents wedding. Joshua Whatley, 30, of Jena, was arrested May 7 by the LaSalle Parish Sheriffs Office for possession of CDS I and possession of drug paraphernalia. Hours. [51] On June 26, it was announced that the civil case by Barker against the Jena Six members had been settled on undisclosed terms. [7] According to Donald Washington, United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the principal said the question was posed in a "jocular fashion". P: (318) 992-4121 Journalist, TV and film producer, author of the books Floodlines and No More Heroes. Now this is the college, he told Mychal, handing him the letter. This compact story line has only been suggested after the fact. [68] Writing in The New York Times, Professor Orlando Patterson of Harvard University used the case to highlight the use of the prison system as a means of "controlling young black men", which is one factor in a broader "crisis in relations between men and women of all classes and, as a result, the catastrophic state of black family life". Philippine police have rescued over 2,700 workers of various nationalities who were allegedly tricked into working for cybercrime operations. When I asked if he had ever made a mistake, he thought for a moment, then cited a 25-year-old case in which he had misread a report and failed to file a lawsuit in time. They said they wrestled the gun away from him and fled the scene. Austin Lefebvre, 30, of Jena, was arrested April 14 by sheriff officers and charged with contempt of court. The Jena Times "We went to school together. Emcee Katt Williams joked, "They don't look so tough, do they? For all its noise, the Jena Six movement lacked a clear sense of where to apply its force. Chelsea Brown, who was arrested for contempt of court, received a sentence of 25 days. Bell's new defense attorneys, Bob Noel, Walter Lee Perkins Jr., Peggy Sullivan, Louis Scott and Carol Powell-Lexing, requested a new trial on the grounds that Bell should not have been tried as an adult.

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