Judge in Jena 6 case again closes records, will appeal order that opened Mychal Bell hearing
By MARY FOSTER , Associated Press
Last update: December 7, 2007 - 11:48 PM
A week after one of the so-called Jena Six defendants pleaded guilty to second-degree battery in the beating of a white schoolmate, the judge in the case said the records will remain closed, pending an appeal.
Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. will appeal to the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal an order that opened the hearing and records in Mychal Bell's case.
"In the interim, we have advised the clerk and his staff that the judgment is not yet final, and that they should not permit access to the record in the two Mychal Bell proceedings, nor any other juvenile proceeding," Donald R. Wilson, Mauffray's attorney, wrote on Thursday.
State District Judge Thomas Yeager's order to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Associated Press and 24 other media organizations that sued.
"There's not much we can do at this minute," Zimmerman said. "We'll just have to wait until it gets to the appeals court."
Bell, 17, was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility on Dec. 3. He was given credit for the 10 months he had already served.
Bell was charged with taking part in an attack last December on Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School. Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack, but was discharged and attended a school event later in the day.
Barker and his parents filed a civil suit this week against the LaSalle Parish School Board, the parents of the young men accused of beating him, and the adult members of the Jena Six.
Bell originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September that verdict was thrown out and Bell was ordered tried as a juvenile.
The charges against Bell and five others _ the so-called Jena Six _ sparked a huge civil-rights demonstration in Jena in September.
The activists said prosecutors treated blacks more harshly than whites, and pointed to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three other white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged; LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.
The AP and other news organizations went to court seeking permission to attend hearings in Bell's case, and to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records in the central Louisiana case.
New York State of Mind
Ruston Man Who Claims Someone Put a Noose In His Work Locker is Arrested for Work Theft
(December - 4 - 2007)
RUSTON (TV8) - A Lincoln Parish man is being investigated for two separate incidents. Both alleged crimes happened while he was working at the Lowes in Ruston. TV8's Jennifer Townley reports.
25-year-old Jonathan McZeal was booked at the Lincoln Parish Jail Tuesday.
He turned himself into police custody after learning Ruston Police had a warrant out for his arrest.
McZeal works at Lowes in Ruston, where he's accused of stealing about 6-thousand dollars.
He's being charged with theft over 500-dollars for refund fraud.
Lieutenant Curtis Hawkins says, "he would either of somehow obtained a receipt or someone would bring a receipt in and he would either give the money back or take money out of the register and keep it himself, um, you know, something along those lines, where there was no merchandise turned back in to balance that out."
The alleged thefts happened between August Second and October 20th.
Meanwhile, Ruston Police are also investigating a claim McZeal made in November, just a few weeks after the last theft at Lowes took place.
McZeal told police he found a noose and a hate letter in his locker at work.
Hawkins says, "right now we're treating these as two separate cases. The noose complaint that was called in, the harassment, the threatening letter that was called in was one case. During the course of that Lowes said hey this guy, we're going to contact you and they contacted us about the internal theft complaint that was going on there at Lowes. It just happened to be the same guy. We don't know if there's any type of connection or thing like that."
If police find that McZeal filed a false police report about the noose to cover up the alleged theft he could be charged with criminal mischief.
Hawkins says police are following leads on the noose incident.
Criminal mischief is considered a misdemeanor offense.
Jonathan McZeal is 25 years of age.
Congressman Conyers?! The Bishop says, the rule of justice in america is to deprive the poor & black of their rights as much as possible. The rule of justice for the poor & the black and all people of color, should be to 'bang the walls' of injustice until they crash and come tumbling down like humpty dumpty! Judge J P Mauffray and his partners in crime are in contempt of court, a court presided over by an adhoc judge appointed by the LOUISIANA STATE SUPREME COURT! It should by "Krystal" clear now that the JUDICIARY COMMISSION & the LOUISIANA ATTORNEY DISCIPLINARY BOARD should step in and do its job.
A hearing should be now held, on the judicial malfeasance & prosecutorial "indiscretions" which have emanated from the 28th Judicial District. Mauffray, in contempt of Court; will the Judidciary Commission, put the blind fold on like the lady, holding the unbalanced scales of justice in Louisiana.
The coercive matters at hand, should require another round of subpeona-ed Court officials; including the Court Administrator, the Clerk of Court; his assistant(s) the Criminal Clerk of Court, the Civil Clerk of Court [in reference to the Barker family suit & possible manipulative malfeasance in office] plus, the defense attorneys for Mychal Bell, Louis G. Scott, Bob Noel, Peggy Sullivan & *Carol Powell-Lexing.
Such a subpeona should also include *Sister Krystal Muhammad, Regional Director of the New Black Panther Party in New Orleans. The alledged Thursday 29 November filing of the civil suit at 11:56am & the ensuing pending court case of December 6th 2007, of which case; certain attorney(s) were still working towards a December 6th Trial.
Now, all proceedings concerning the Mychal Bell case and plea, & consequently the other Jena Six defendants, should be enjoined by a higher court, possibly at the federal level; from pursuing any further action until a "FINDING OF FEDERAL FACT can be garnered.
Again, we call on President George W. Bush, to issue an executive order, demanding a full & thorough investigation of the matters concerning the 28th Judical Court District & Jena,Louisiana!
Bell's records closed while ruling appealed
Staff and AP reports
An appeal is being filed to challenge the opening of criminal records of "Jena Six" defendant Mychal Bell.
Meanwhile, LaSalle Parish officials aren't releasing those records and already have rejected a media request for them.
An order by 9th District Judge Thomas Yeager of Rapides Parish to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Town Talk, The Associated Press and 23 other media organizations that sued. |then|
gssc Free Michael Cobb
Access to Mychal Bell's court records denied
Staff report • news@thenewsstar.com • September 26, 2009
|now|
The Louisiana Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, denied a writ application Friday by a group of media agencies, including The News-Star, for access to court records and transcripts in the case of Mychal Bell, a member of the "Jena Six."
The ruling leaves intact a June decision by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal that said a trial court had "erred in ordering that the transcripts of all hearings held, or to be held, in this juvenile's case be made available to the public, and, in ordering that, following an in camera inspection, the juvenile's record be open to the public."
Bell was first charged as an adult in the case of six black males accused of beating a white classmate at Jena High School, but his case eventually moved to juvenile court. Media organizations filed a civil lawsuit last year, arguing that those records should be open.
A state appeals court in April reversed a ruling that would have allowed the public to see transcripts of all hearings in the case of the only Jena Six defendant to be tried so far.
A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that because Bell's case is in juvenile court, all records are private — even those of hearings that should have been open to the public. The media are asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.
Bell was convicted in 2007 as an adult on a charge of second-degree battery in the December 2006 attack on another student at Jena High, but the Third Circuit overturned that verdict, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile.
Juvenile proceedings for felonies or violent crimes must be open to the public under Louisiana law, the Third Circuit ruled.
Both sides in the case agree that Bell's case was a violent felony, it said, and Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. should have opened the hearings.
However, the judges ruled, there is no requirement for a juvenile's record or transcripts to be open.
It overturned 9th Judicial District Judge Thomas Yeager's ruling that the transcripts should be public because the hearings should have been.
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