Dallas 6 Trial begins! Court report Monday April 4, 2016

Summary:

·       Trial began after six years

·       Unredacted video will be shown in court although the men may not have seen it despite court orders

·       The judge has not ruled on "justification" - whether the men will be allowed to say why they took the action they did.

·       Jury selected and, with alternates, includes nine women and five men, including three women of color

·       Duane Peters retained attorney Michael Wiseman (Carrington Keys' stand-by attorney) to represent him

After nearly six years – the incident took place on April 29, 2010 – the long-delayed trial of the three remaining "Dallas 6" began on Monday, April 4.  The day began with a press conference on the steps of the courthouse where mother of Dallas 6 member Carrington Keys spoke about the trial starting on the anniversary of the assassination of MLK.  Supporters raised that the court had already dismissed these ridiculous riot charges once, but were only brought again by then attorney Lisa Gelb who was running for judge.  Now Judge Gelb is presiding over the case.

About 15 supporters attended the start of the trial, a multi-racial group drawn mainly from the families, a women's group (Global Women's Strike), the religious community (members of Mishkan Shalom and Germantown Friends Meeting in Philadelphia), and Payday men's network. Most of the day was spent on jury selection, behind closed doors – no one was allowed in the courtroom presumably because of lack of space. But the day began with the men – Carrington Keys, Duane Peters, and Andre Jacobs – raising questions about why none of them got the same version of the cell extraction videos, and Judge Gelb laying out what would be allowed to raise to the jury and responding to the defendants' witness lists.

The men raised with the judge again that they have never received the original, unredacted videos of their cell extractions -- the beatings by guards for which they are accused of "rioting". They were only able to see the video once, and each of them saw different versions. This is a violation of their right to evidence and amounts to tampering with and hiding evidence. How can they adequately prepare their defense without having the original videos? The judge said that she had ordered the DA to send them the original videos and they told her they had. The DA and the judge said, outrageously, that "they have no control over the DOC (Department of Corrections)" – a bad precedent, which the men challenged. However, the judge said that all the original videos would be shown during the trial. Andre Jacobs also asked for a paper trail of who, when, and how the videos were redacted. The DA revealed the name of the attorney who ordered the redaction (Hogan) and the detective who did it – Charles Ballow (sp?).  They may be called as witnesses.

On the witnesses, those who were present at Dallas prison during the incident were accepted. Several character witnesses that Duane Peters requested were struck down because they were not at Dallas at the time, even though they could speak to the reasons Duane was sent to solitary at Dallas in the first place. The judge would not serve any subpoenas on behalf of the men – particularly those related to Carrington's criminal complaint, such as Superintendent Mooney – but said they can subpoena them now.

Tuesday began with opening statements. Carrington and Andre are representing themselves, while Attorney Michael Wiseman is now representing Duane. The trial is expected to last a week. Stay tuned for a report from Tuesday's hearing, which went very well!  TV coverage can be found here.

ANYONE WHO CAN ATTEND THE TRIAL ANY DAY THIS WEEK, PLEASE CONTACT US! 
WE URGENTLY NEED AS MANY SUPPORTERS AS POSSIBLE TO BE PRESENT IN THE COURTROOM.

Now is the time to help these brave prisoner whistleblowers win a major victory for prisoners across Pennsylvania and across the US!

Please do the check-in if you want to come or contact by email or phone. Rooms are available in the area.  

If you cannot attend, PLEASE, do the call-in/fax-in.  http://tinyurl.com/dallas6letter

  

UPDATES

CLICK FOR MARCH FOR FREEDOM ON MARCH 18

PACK THE COURT

APRIL 4, 2016 @ 9am

Judge Lesa Gelb
Luzerne County Courthouse
200 N. River Street
Wilkes-Barre,  PA  18701

Press Conference/Rally to begin promptly at 8:30

CLICK HERE IF YOU NEED A RIDE OR CAN SHARE A RIDE FROM PGH OR PHILLY

CLICK LINKS BELOW TO LISTEN TO STATEMENTS FROM
DALLAS 6 PEACE & JUSTICE RALLY IN HONOR OF MLK BIRTHDAY

CARRINGTON KEYS
DUANE PETERS

SEE  PREVIOUS COURT REPORT HERE

After more than 10 years in solitary confinement and enduring many years of torture and abuse, Mr. Duane Peters has maxed out of solitary on 10/14/14 and will be released into general population.  

California Families Against Solitary Confinement at the Left Form, 1 Jun...

After almost a year of going back and forth with the court, who in my opinion, was using incompetence as a retaliation and to hold up the case. Duane Peters has been found competent to stand trial on November 10, 2014.  

 UPDATE ON ANDRE JACOBS CIVIL TRIAL

Even though both of the defendants told different stories, the defendant being caught in more than a few lies,  and the co-defendant admitting that Andre was pushed and held up against a wall, the jury decided in favor of the defendants in about 2 hours.  Not very happy, but all we can do is keep on keeping on and fighting!  In the words of Maya Angelou:

"You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated."

DALLAS 6 WILL HAVE JUSTICE IN THE COURTS ON MAY 5TH!!!

Tune in to the Dallas 6 Radio Show

Every Thursday night from 9:30-10:30 pm

on Blogtalkradio.com

Dallas 6: Peaceful Protesters Charged with Riot in Solitary Confinement

Most Listened to
January 2, 2014 Radio Show 

CLICK THIS LINK TO LISTEN TO ARCHIVED SHOWS

Andre Jacobs Court Update

Today is the last witness, closing statements  and then jury deliberation.  Court starts at 10:30 at the U.S. Courthouse U.S. Courthouse, 700 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. 

Andre Jacobs, one of the Dallas 6, is in court this week for a civil case against US Marshalls and Allegheny County.  On March 3, of 2005, Andre was in court for another civil matter.  There was retaliation going on such as his witnesses not receiving meals, confiscation of his eyeglasses and racist slurs just to name a few.  On a trip to the holding cells for a morning recess, Andre was pushed into the elevator then pushed into the back wall, then choked until the door opened on the third floor to let a passenger on.  When the door opened, standing there was a court employee.  She says the door was opened for about 10-15 seconds and that Andre was screaming for help. Yet, this court employee, even though it was protocol and her duty, did not report the incident to anyone because she felt he did not need any help.  It’s real simple, she didn’t report it because it was marshals with whom she works with every day, and because who cares if someone’s abusing a prisoner.  Isn’t that what they deserve?  I guess she thought no one would find her and subpoena her to court. 

Apparently, he was escorted by two individuals one a federal marshal, one a ACJ guard who escorted with the marshals as a part-time job.  The federal marshal was the one who actually put his hands on Andre and the ACJ guard is the one who did not intervene.  According to the ACJ guard, the marshal pushed Andre into the elevator because he was refusing to go in.  Then once he got him in the elevator, he pushed him up against the wall and held him there from the 9th to the 2nd floor.  He did not see him choking or even remember stopping on the 3rd floor.  According to the marshal, nothing whatsoever happened.  It was a normal escort.  The marshal was very cocky and you could tell if you got out of line with him, he would put his hands on you.  He got caught in several lies on the stand and just dismissed them by being even cockier.  (Typical of guards who abuse people and almost always get away with it.)

Anyway, there was an expert witness who described various uses of force and explained scenarios and what would and would not be considered use of excessive force.  Choking a prisoner is excessive force, Pushing a prisoner is excessive force.  According to the witness, when another guard is present during use of excessive force, he should intervene and not look the other way.  When’s the last time you ever heard of that happening?