Archive for the ‘Court Radio’ Category

Two weekends ago, Philadelphia’s South Street residents, merchants and community suffered from yet another “flash mob” incident, where bands of teenagers summoned each other via cell phone text messages and social media Web sites including Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to hang out and get together.

But as it’s happened in the past,  it was way more than just “hanging out.”  Many of the teens became agitated, some became violent and all became essentially out of control, according to witnesses who told their stories to news reporters from The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News. Witnesses said they have been menaced and that the mood of the growing crowd was worrisome.

This is the fifth episode of such behavior here in Philadelphia since December and it’s got to stop.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/Sean_Warren

Last weekend, Mayor Michael Nutter, accompanied by his wife and family and a large contingent of city police officers, went down to South Street and helped take back the street from the teens who have caused all the commotion, according to The Inquirer. It was great to see Nutter there, taking decisive and symbolic actions to help residents and business owners. It was confidence-inspiring to see him there on a Saturday night, walking along the street and taking in its sights and sounds with the rest of South Street’s visitors. His presence, and that of the police, seemed to keep away the teens who had caused the previous problems.

The only problem with this method for bringing calm to a volatile situation is that Nutter probably isn’t planning to spend every Saturday night walking with his family on South Street.

So we have a better idea.

Let’s go back to the days of the Scarlet Letter, when people who committed crimes had to pay penance in a very public way.

For every teen and young person who is arrested by the police in the event of unacceptable and violent behavior at any future flash mob gatherings, upon conviction on their charges — from reckless endangerment to assault to curfew violations or whatever — they’ll have to return to South Street in the daylight as part of a clean-up crew to clean up the mess left by the flash mob crowds.

And if that’s not enough, they’ll also have to wear the proper clean-up uniform — a bright T-shirt emblazoned with the word, “MORON,” across its front and back.

Because if they are stupid enough to think that they can do whatever they want, wherever they want, to whomever they want, then it’s time to make them feel as stupid as they really are.

But even that’s not enough, perhaps.

Many critics of the flash mobs have been arguing that the parents of these teens need to be held responsible as well. The critics argue that the wayward and irresponsible teens are apparently not getting enough guidance and structure at home and that they’re being allowed to act out as part of flash mobs because no one at home is doing enough parenting.

To those parents whose kids are running amok as part of flash mobs, they too can come and wear their own special T-shirts while their kids are cleaning South Street as part of the work crews. The message on those T-shirts? How about “PARENT OF THE MORON” in bright letters?

Yes, it’s ridiculous, but so are bands of teens who think they can disturb and threaten others without consequences.

City officials are fed up with the behavior of these kids and it’s understandable.

The flash mobs have disrupted business in downtown restaurants, bars, stores and coffee shops. They have caused law-abiding citizens to change their plans and stay out of the downtown where they want to relax, enjoy and gather with friends on a weekend night.

This has got to stop, and the city needs to continue to address it. We commend the city for its actions so far and if the city needs sponsorship for the T-shirts, give us a ring here at MyPhillyLawyer.com.

This is definitely a case where losing a city’s soul to a bunch of out-of-control, violent and irresponsible teenagers is certainly not an option.

It took 35 long years for justice to prevail, but James Bain’s release from a Florida prison in December for a crime he didn’t commit will be celebrated this weekend at several events here in Philadelphia.

Mr.  Bain, who was freed on Dec. 17, will receive the 2010 Drum Major Award for Criminal Justice from the Philadelphia Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violence in ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, Jan. 18.  The award presentation will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, 17^th and Race streets, Philadelphia. Mr. Bain will also participate in a National Bell Ringing ceremony at The Liberty Bell at noon before the luncheon.

He will also be the featured guest on MyPhillyLawyer’s Court Radio show broadcast this Sunday morning, Jan. 17, at 7 a.m. EDT on WRNB-FM 107.9 with attorney Dean I. Weitzman.  Mr. Bain will talk about his case, experiences and legal battles since his arrest back in 1974.

James Bain talks to the media outside a Florida courthouse after being released from prison Dec. 17, 2009/ Image credit: The Innocence Project of Florida

Mr. Bain, whose visit is being sponsored by MyPhillyLawyer, was released from prison in Florida last month after DNA testing conducted on behalf of non-profit group, The Innocence Project of Florida, revealed what Bain insisted since his arrest back in 1974 – that the wrong man had been convicted and incarcerated in connection with the kidnapping and rape of a nine-year-old boy (See the MyPhillyLawyer.com blog entry on the case from Dec. 18, 2009).  Mr. Bain is the 248th person who has been exonerated of crimes due to DNA testing in our nation, according to The Innocence Project.

One of Mr. Bain’s attorneys with The Innocence Project of Florida, Melissa Montle, said that  it took so long for his eventual innocence to be determined because for years his appeals were denied on procedural grounds.  The first problem was that he only had two years after his guilty verdict to file an appeal based on DNA testing — but such testing didn’t even exist at that time, she said.  Later, another court rejected his request after it interpreted that two-year window as being after the development of such DNA testing,  Montle said, which was difficult to determine.

Mr. Bain’s case was also tainted, she said, by a poorly conducted police identification procedure set up for the young and traumatized victim at that time.  The police allegedly asked the boy to describe his attacker and when he did, the boy’s uncle, who was present for the procedure, said “that sounds like Jimmy Bain,” Montle said. “The procedure that the police used was very suggestive. The photo line-up wasn’t put together well.  The police  didn’t ask the victim to select the photo of the man who had raped him,” Montle said. “They told [the victim] to pick out the photo of Jimmy Bain.”

“Studies have shown that once a victim decides who their attacker is, that’s who it becomes for them,” Montle said.  “It was an honest mistake and no one is blaming this poor kid who went through this horrible experience.”

Also leading to the erroneous conviction, she said, was evidence presented by an FBI crime lab scientist who testified in court against Mr. Bain.  The FBI expert testified that a sample of semen from the attacker which was found on the boy’s underwear was from a man with Type B blood. Mr. Bain’s blood is Type AB, but the FBI expert explained that discrepancy away by saying it could “be a weak A and the B part just jumped out,” Montle said.  The FBI expert “fudged it a bit,” she said. But for the jury, it was enough. “You have to think that someone from the FBI testifying had great weight with the jury,” she said.

Mr. Bain is once again a free man after the justice system failed him 35 years ago.  Now he will work to put his life back together after more than three decades in prison for a crime that was committed by someone else.

We look forward to hearing his words, to hearing his story, straight from the man who lived through such a long and difficult nightmare.

Is he bitter? Is he happy to be free? Did he ever give up on his dream of being released from prison? Did he ever give up hope? And through it all, what kept him alive each day and able to cope with the inequities he endured?

Be sure to listen in this Sunday morning at 7 a.m. EDT at WRNB-FM 107.9 and call in with your questions and comments for Mr. Bain.

We are honored to sponsor his visit and we thank him for sharing his story with us.

What a racket.

Private companies come in to operate two juvenile detention facilities in Luzerne County and Butler County. Then two Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judges allegedly accept kickbacks from the juvenile detention facilities to send juveniles for lengthy, profitable stays, regardless of the facts of the legal cases against the kids.

It’s like a bad made-for-TV movie script.

But the worst part of it is, that’s exactly what federal prosecutors say actually happened. The Pennsylvania Federal District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has since ordered that a special master be appointed to get to the bottom of the sordid mess and make recommendations to resolve the injustices that have occurred.

The two judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan pleaded guilty in February to charges of corruption and tax fraud, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The two are going to spend the next seven years in jail, but now the legal wheels are rolling to figure out the status of the kids who got enmeshed in the judges’ scheme.

This is so outrageous, so incomprehensible, that it boggles the mind.

The juveniles involved were taken in to a system that was tilted against them from the start, no matter what the “facts” were in each of their cases.

There must be a higher accounting, a higher responsibility for judges in our court system.

So now, what’s needed?

These children, and their families, who have been illegally detained by these corrupt, evil judges, must be compensated for their grave losses. They lost their freedom. They were taken away and locked up under bogus punishments. Their rights were violated by the very judges who were supposed to protect them.

Money damages resulting from successful lawsuits can’t give them back that lost time in juvenile detention, but it is the only way these children and their families can be compensated for some of the pain and suffering they have endured. This must never happen again, and justice must be served for every child who was unfairly and illegally victimized by these former judges. Someone must be held accountable. It is our responsibility to these kids.