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Library Board this afternoon @ SGLB 2013-05-21

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1PM-3PM today, according to the VDT calendar. Who’s running it now that Kay Harris isn’t chair? And will whoever it is welcome video cameras?

The South Georgia Regional Library Board of Trustees will be meeting Tuesday, March 19 at 1PM in the Folsom Room of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Public Library to conduct regular business.The meeting is open to the public and all are welcome to attend. For more information call 333.0086.

Yes, that says March, but the calendar entry says May 21, today. And it says “open to the public and all are welcome to attend”. But are all welcome to record? Or do all have to stay inside an 8×4 foot blue rectangle next to a loud air cleaner? Was that just Kay Harris’ policy and will it change now that she has resigned as chair and from the board?

If there’s anything about this meeting on the library’s website, I can’t find it.

-jsq


Mrs. Watkins says her 14-year-old daughter was charged with a felony at Pine Grove Middle School despite no evidence

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Mrs. Watkins said a sheriff’s deputy used excessive force against her daughter and despite no evidence her daughter was charged with a felony. George Boston Rhynes asked:

If your child would have been been caught with what her child have experienced, wouldn’t you want somebody in Valdosta and Lowndes County and the state of Georgia and the state and the nation to know what had happened to your child?

Mrs. Watkins about her daughter at Pine Grove Middle School According to Mrs. Watkins, between 11AM and noon on 14 May 2013 she Watkins was called by the principal of Pine Grove Middle School saying her daughter had assaulted her. When Mrs. Watkins got there Deputy Robert Adkins told her he was going to charge her daughter with several charges, even though he had no statement from anyone. When she got home, she found a facebook video of two children attacking her daughter, who wasn’t attacking anyone, and the teacher was never struck, which the deputy also confirmed he had not heard happened. Yet Mrs. Watkins said none of the other children were charged and her daughter was charged with a felony. See for yourself what she said, in a lot more detail:

Here’s the video:


Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

Perhaps the school to prison pipeline has run into a barrier in Mrs. Watkins, who knows how to write down the facts.

-jsq

Watkins family on other cases

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It’s not so much what you know as what you can prove, says a concerned father, and the mother wants better representation for others whose children like her daughter have gotten caught in a felony with little if any evidence at school.

Know Your Rights say the Watkins parents Mrs. Watkins said after her daughter was tackled at school be a deputy, she found “there are a lot of children in the judicial system that may not have good representation.” She and Mr. Watkins and George Boston Rhynes are starting an organization to at least show concern. George said in one visit to juvenile court he encountered two families with problems with probation and law enforcement knocking down doors and searching without search warrants.

Mr. Watkins wants to help people know their rights. Things we older folk may have done as children now there are laws against, and the children and their families need to know things like the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor, and the importance of writing things down. “Details is all that matters.” Later he noted that it’s not enough to go to church, but “there needs to be an application class” so people can get out and “take the next step” and put some paper behind it, such as “file a suit on a police officer”, which he said the Watkins have done.

Mrs. Watkins amplified that the more information you have, who, the time of day, etc., the more you can do. “You’re allowed to film; film if you need to, but please know your rights.”

Here’s the video, in which Mr. Watkins explains how to file a lawsuit against police.


Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

If enough people know their rights, maybe we can all stop the school to prison pipeline.

-jsq

Quitman 10+2 trial, three years late

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Trials for the Quitman 10+2 have finally started. George Boston Rhynes is covering them every day on YouTube.

The only other reporter George has seen there was one from the Valdosta Daily Times. George is waving a copy of the VDT here as he discusses what the case is about: the Quitman 10 registered enough voters that several black people got elected to the school board in Brooks County for the first time ever.


Front Row: Linda Troutman, Lula Smart, April Proctor, Diane Thomas
Back Row: Latashia Head, Sandra Cody, Robert Dennard, Angela Bryant Nancy Dennard, and Kechia Harrison

Front page of the VDT yesterday, Quitman 11 trial gets under way, with no byline and no pictures,

Underneath the Latin inscription Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum — Let Justice Be Done Though The Heavens Fall — the trial of Lula Smart got underway Tuesday morning at the downtown Brooks County Courthouse.

Smart, part of the “Quitman 11” who were charged with multiple counts of unlawful possession of ballots in relation to the July 2010 Brooks County school board primary election, is charged with 25 counts of illegal possession of ballots and six counts of interfering with an elector. One count of each was dropped Tuesday, leaving 24 counts of illegal possession of ballots and five counts of interfering with an elector.

Initial charges came after school board candidates lost the election at the polling places then won their respective races via absentee ballots. Though charged in the case, these school board officials served, then couldn’t serve for several months due to the charges, then were reinstated to the board. Originally, these suspects were called the Quitman 10 then two more people were charged prompting the title Quitman 10+2. One suspect has since passed away.

The VDT story continues with details of the first day.

John Robinson from Valdosta told George he thought the judge was doing a fine job. Miss Gladys Lee, former teacher from Quitman, told George all media should be covering this trial.

George reports that during jury selection some of the potential jurors got up and left without permission, and one came back late from lunch.

Judge Ronnie Joe Lane is enforcing a no recording policy on everybody. The judge has even told people nobody can record on the street in front of the courthouse. At least he’s being consistent, unlike the Lowndes County Commission.

George says Lowndes County District Attorney David Miller was on the stand yesterday, among others.

I didn’t start out to do this. I only got into this when I found out there’s so much news in south Georgia and North Florida that goes unpublished. And so I took it upon myself.

George says the Madison 9, who were brought up on charges like those of the Quitman 10, had all charges dropped except 2. He speculates it’s all a voter intimidation ploy, and he wonders why a high profile case such as this is not being covered.

Here’s a video playlist:


Quitman 10+2 trial, three years late
Videos by George Boston Rhynes, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia

-jsq

Madison 9 down to 2

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9 people were arrested just across the Florida line in Madison on charges similar to the Quitman 10, but on trial all charges have been dropped except for 2, as George Rhynes pointed out.

Interviewing one of their lawyers 20 December 2012, George heard that at least her clients refused to accept plea bargains.

The Madison 9 were arrested in November 2011, and the obvious question came, as Trymaine Lee wrote for Huffpo 18 January 2013, Nine Election-Related Arrests In Florida: A Case Of Voter Fraud Or Voter Suppression?

As soon as Judy Ann Crumitie answered the banging on her door one November morning last year, police officers and FBI agents streamed into her home, some with their guns drawn and trained in her direction.

They barked, Did she have any weapons, Crumitie recalled.

The next thing she knew officers were rushing through her house searching for who knows what. She’d know soon enough.

“I was just trying to help the people vote,” Crumitie, 51, told the Huffington Post’s Black Voices.

Crumitie, of Madison, Fla. — along with eight other people — was arrested and charged with voter fraud in connection to a local school board election in 2010. The incident came just months after a new law was passed in Florida that made it illegal for absentee ballots to be sent anywhere other than a voter’s registered address.

Lawyers for Crumitie would not elaborate on the circumstances of her arrest or the charges. But they said that the incident and the way officials handled the investigation and ultimately her arrests — including entering her home with guns drawn and without a search warrant — are part of a broader political movement across the state and country to suppress poor and minority voters.

It also didn’t take long for talk of a countersuit, as News Talk Florida wrote 18 January 2013, “Madison 9″ Attorney Announces Suit Against State ,

The attorney for those known as the “Madison Nine” for being defendants in a north Florida voting-fraud case says he plans to sue the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over their arrests.

Attorney Benjamin Crump of Tallahassee appeared Tuesday outside Gov. Rick Scott’s office in the Capitol to announce his plans. Madison County’s top elections official and a school board member are among those charged.

Crump said the arrests were wrongful and done with improper force. FDLE has maintained the arrests were lawful.

Supervisor of Elections Jada Woods Williams is charged in an absentee-ballot scheme to help elect school board member Abra “Tina” Johnson in 2010. Johnson also faces charges. Gov. Rick Scott has suspended both of them.

Quite like Georgia governor Nathan Deal suspending the Quitman 10 members who were elected to the Brooks County school board.

And it didn’t take long for some of the Madison 9 charges to unravel. Garin Flowers wrote for WCTV 15 January 2013, Jan 2013 Charges dropped for 1,

Laverne Haynes, Tina Johnson and Judy Ann Crumitie are all hopeful.

They’re facing charges of voter fraud, and Monday they found out that someone facing the same charges had theirs dropped.

Tina Johnson, Madison Nine, stated, “we just trying to just do the best we can, but it’s really been rough,” Johnson said.

Judy Ann Crumitie, Madison Nine: “we just got caught up in a ordeal that it really shouldn’t have happened,” Crumitie said.

Laverne Haynes, Madison Nine, “it’s like a rollercoaster, we’ve had highs, we’ve had lows,” Haynes said.

Known as the Madison 9, they all asked a judge to completely dismiss their case, claiming they did nothing wrong.

That worked for Montollis Roberson, the only one so far who had that to happen.

After a bit more than a year, almost all of the charges had unravelled. George was there that day, 23 January 2013, interviewing a lawyer who came from Tallahassee to help.

Garin Flowers wrote for WCTV 31 May 2013, 31 May 2013 Judge denies motion to dismiss charges for last 2,

Tina Johnson and her husband, Earnest Johnson, petitioned a judge two weeks ago to drop the voter fraud charges the two face.

That request was denied, and they will go to trial.

-jsq

Mistrial in first Quitman 10 trial

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The trial of Lula Smart ended in a mistrial, reports George Boston Rhynes from the Courthouse in Brooks County. So the first of the Quitman 10 is going like the Madison 9 did.

Here’s Part 1 of 3:

George says witnesses today talked about voter intimidation and some said they would not vote again because of this investigation on the Quitman 10+2. He says the GBI agent was asked how they were trained before they were sent to Brooks County, and they had little training in voting investigations, plus they took ballots home from the Board of Elections, including some with no addresses for any of the persons they were investigating.

George also reported WCTV had a camera in the courtroom, after you may recall the Judge told George he couldn’t even record from the street in the front of the courthouse.

Here’s Part 2 of 3:

George interprets this mistrial as ending all the trials.

The defendants’ attorney Chevene B. King Jr. reported:

Attorney Chevene B. King Jr. The judge reconsidered a motion for mistrial that we had made a couple of days ago because of comments that he … that had prejudiced Ms. Smart’s right to a fair trial.

The judge said there was nothing he could say that could make the jurors forget what was heard, so he declared a mistrial. George asked if it was also because of the evidence stacking up. The attorney said if the trial had continued there were good grounds for acquittal.

Here’s Part 3 of 3:


Videos by George Boston Rhynes on YouTube.

-jsq

Transparency in government is essential to the public trust –VDT

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VDT editorial yesterday, Violating public trust,

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens successfully fought for and implemented changes to the state’s Open Records law, believing that transparency in government is essential to the public trust. The law passed in 2012 states, “The General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of open government; that open government is essential to a free, open, and democratic society; and that public access to public records should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the efficient and proper functioning of its institutions.”

The VDT asked for records from the Lowndes County school system and didn’t get them. Their experience sounds quite similar to many LAKE has had with the county government in particular, with records not being provided in the statutory three days, and sometimes not even an excuse or a list of what might eventually be available.

That plus failure to make even agendas for the Planning Commission available in a timely fashion so citizens can see whether they need to attend (somebody explain to me the expense of agendas; clearly I don’t understand this Internet suff), and even in response to open records requests returning paper when the documents are obviously composed in electronic formats, agendas for County Commission meetings that are just plain incorrect, resulting in people taking time off from work to show up unnecessarily for a Sabal Trail pipeline item that didn’t happen, a public hearing that wasn’t listed as such on the agenda, a secretive retreat “work session”, and not even being clear about what tax dollars for SPLOST would go for. That’s not even all; just a sample of county government lack of transparency.

And it’s not just the County Commission. Look at George Rhynes’ experience at the Library Board, being required to stay within an 8 x 4 foot blue square next to a loud fan? That blue square did disappear not long afterwards, so there’s some small improvement.

It’s not even the actual local governments; it’s also the VSU Foundation, which in addition to being led by a climate change denier, doesn’t even list its members on its web page, even though that web page is on the website of the tax-funded Valdosta State University.

The public has a right to know. The press has a right to request. These rights are protected by state law. Public officials have the responsibility to be open in their actions and abide by not only the letter of the law but also the spirit and intent. When they fail to do so, it erodes the public’s trust.

I hate to agree with the VDT, but I do also often quote the VDT editorial of 3 March 2012:

When the media requests records, it is doing so on behalf of the public. Taxpayers have the right to know how their money is being spent by officials elected to represent them. When officials are reluctant to comply with requests, it raises legitimate concerns.

There should be no transaction or record that an official should be concerned about being made public….

When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do, and when they begin to consider the government’s business as their personal business, it’s time for the public to become concerned.

If Effingham County, half the size, can do put its entire County Commission agenda packet online, why not Lowndes?

Do our local governments have something to hide?

Do we want to be a metropolitan area attractive to both new businesses and local people? Or do we want to be a secretive backwater that ejects its students as soon as they graduate?

It’s 2014. Maybe the powers that be should start to make up their minds about that.

-jsq

Second mistrial of Lula Smart of the Quitman 10 + 2

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How many mistrials does it take before the whole Quitman 10 +2 case gets thrown out of court? Two and counting, as of Friday.

George Boston Rhynes interviewed Brooks County Commissioner James Maxwell outside the courthouse in Quitman on a rainy day:

Mistrial! Another mistrial.

And the prosecutor wants to schedule another trial. George asked the Commissioner how much another trial would cost Brooks County.

It will cost quit a bit of money. We could use that money on a day like today to repair roads. People can’t get in and out and here we are wasting the taxpayers on another mistrial.

No evidence! No evidence! And another mistrial.

Here’s Part 1 of 2:

And they’re spending the taxpayers’ money. While the taxpayers are hollering and screaming about the condition in Brooks County. We are a poor community. Don’t have manufactures, don’t have jobs, but yet we are spending the taxpayers money, you understand, on another mistrial.

George pointed out the mistrial might show deeper problems since it revealed a postal worker getting “information off of official mail and give it to an agent”. The Commissioner agreed: “Eighteen years in the postal service … and don’t know the rules and regulations of the postal service.”

George also asked if a former Brooks County Board of Education member had hired a private investigator to look into this case. The Commissioner said yes, he was. George wondered if that didn’t reveal a deeper undercurrent.

Commissioner James Maxwell summed up:

What we need to do as the governing body… is money being spent on something that end up in another mistrial. If the state does not have adequate proof of what took place they really need to drop it. Because all we’re doing is just spending taxpayer money.

George also noted that other news media were not there. And he had been told to get off of courthouse grounds to video. Unlike in every other place he had done similar videos.

The American people want to know what is going on in their nation, in their communities.

George Boston Rhynes also stood on the rainy bricks outside the courthouse and asked more questions about what will happen about the new information of apparent postal service infractions and the statement by an employee of the Georgia Secretary of State that apparently caused this mistrial.

Here’s Part 2 of 2:

Finally, Patrick Davis wrote for examiner.com Saturday, Second mistrial declared in Brooks Co. absentee ballot case,

In essence, it was ‘same script, different cast’ as Superior Court Judge Richard Porter resided over a case which has had several twist and turns since July 2010.

The Lula Smart trial which began on Monday, April 14, lasted five days and just like the first trial, the State of Georgia’s presentation and explanation of evidence relating to absentee ballot fraud had fallen apart in open court within the first week and the Superior Court judge decided to declare a mistrial.

This was the second mistrial declared in the last seven months. The first one occurred when Superior Court Judge Ronnie Lane from Seminole County made a similar motion after hearing the case after just five days.

The State of Georgia couldn’t prove that Lula Smart and/or the Quitman 10+2 committed absentee ballot fraud.

Even though Porter didn’t reside over the first mistrial, the Sonny Perdue judicial appointee in 2009 was instrumental in allowing write-in candidates—Myra Exum and Gary Rentz— to appear on the ballot for the Brooks County School Board contest back in 2010.

I have to wonder why someone who was directly involved in the case on trial was the judge for the trial. Further, Patrick Davis points out letting those write-in candidates on the ballot may have violated this Georgia law:

(d) No person shall be eligible as a write-in candidate in a general or special election if such person was a candidate for nomination or election to the same office in the immediately preceding primary. (O.C.G.A.§21-2-133)

Why wasn’t that possible violation of the law investigated?

-jsq


Quitman 10+2 third trial set for 19 August 2014

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Will three strikes against the prosecution make it give up on trying to convict the Quitman 10+2? Dear prosecutor, we know you read this blog, because you asked potential jurors at Lula Smart’s second trial,

Have you read or talked to or followed a blog called “On the Lake Front?”

So, dear prosecutor, when is enough enough?

Fannie MJ Gibs notes that Quitman Free press posted on facebook yesterday:

The retrial voter fraud case has been set for August 19 at Brooks County Courthouse. See this week’s issue for details.

So far as I know, Quitman Free Press only prints on paper and does not post any articles online, so we have to guess they’re referring to the Quitman 10.

When George Rhynes first posted about the arrests of the Quitman 10 in December 2010, he remarked:

Today’s arrest will surely end up in the courts.

Who would have expected it to be in the courts three times?

In July 2012, the Chair of the Brooks County Board of Elections tried to throw George Boston Rhynes out of her board’s meeting for videoing, betraying ignorance of state open meetings law. Then she unilaterally declared an executive session without a reason or a vote, also betraying her ignorance of state law. This is the same Board of Elections that permitted the losers in the 2010 Board of Education primary to run in the general, apparently in violation of state law, after calling in the GBI to investigate the winners. It took some digging just to find out who is on that Board of Elections, but the Chair who tried to throw George Rhynes out was Nancy Duncan. And the man at the head of the table who was put on suspension by the board was Ken Collins, Election Supervisor. He had been in place for six months after the previous one, Johnny Spearman, resigned “Due to an unforseen illness”. There do seem to be a lot of elections irregularities in Brooks County, but a lot of them appear to be on the part of the Board of Elections.

The first mistrial of Lula Smart ended 28 September 2013, in which we larned the GBI had little training in voting investigations and they took ballots home from the Board of Elections, plus the judge told George Rhynes no cameras were permitted in the courtroom, yet he let WCTV in.

The second mistrial of Lula Smart ended 20 April 2014, in which we discovered the judge was directly involved in the case on trial: he let the losers in the primary run as write-in candidates in the general election, which appears to be in violation of state law.

And here’s George Boston Rhynes on YouTube 1 August 2014, Quitma 10+2 Introduction to 3rd Trial August 19, 2014

District Attorney David Miller and the Quitman 10+2 must be questioned along the lines of why a U.S. Postal Clerk along with a registra have not been called out for correction or has a new precedence been set for all times that workers can do whatever they want without being called to a standard of professionalism.

Nearly four years and on the third trial, what happened to the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? What happened to the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy?

[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb…

Sure, this is not a capital case, but it has dragged on so long one of the defendants has died.

Dear prosecutor, when is enough enough?

-jsq

Quitman 10+2 third trial

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“Thank you for not plea bargaining” said George Boston Rhynes starting his series of videos on the ongoing third trial of Lula Smart of the Quitman 10+2. No newspapers, radio, or TV reporters at this trial about voters’ rights. But George is there.

Here’s George’s first report:

And here’s one from the second day, still during jury selection, including some video from inside the courtroom this time, with permission from Judge McCarvey. The first thing the judge said from the bench was that anybody whose cell phone went off would spend the night in jail. The attorneys for the prosecution declined to identify themselves when George asked, while the defense attorney did identify herself. He also said anybody who discussed testimony of witnesses with a witness before the trial would spend more than one night in jail; attorneys and clients excepted.

And another, in which Kevin Moran from Atlanta said he’d been following this case for some time, and had concluded the case was being orchestrated from the highest levels of the state, and was for the purpose of suppressing minority voting not only in Brooks County but also across the southern counties of the state. He pointed out the absentee ballot strategy the Quitman 10 used was previously used by the Republican party. And since that one election the same Quitman candidates had been repeatedly elected to the school board by large majorities.

During these trials, he had noted that a postal service employee had collected names of people who had mailed in ballots, which is in violation of his duties as a postal employee. Plus it was shown on cross-examination that the postal employee’s claims of blocks of ballots sent in at the same time didn’t match the actual dates on the envelopes.

George is at the courthouse every day this trial goes on. Do yourself a favor and watch his videos as they come out.

-jsq





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