Mexico puts its drug suspects on parade

Critics of the media events say human rights are also on the line, along with the country's efforts to establish the rule of law. But Mexico wants to show victories in its drug war.

By Ken Ellingwood

February 26, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

The manhunt was over. Raydel "Crutches" Lopez Uriarte, the alleged top enforcer for a vicious Tijuana drug gang that dissolved victims in lye, would now have to face justice.

First, though, he would have to face the press.

A day after his arrest, Lopez found himself standing woodenly with his hands cuffed behind him as news photographers snapped away at him and three others arrested in the same raid.

The 30-year-old Lopez, one of the most dreaded figures on the border, had a trim goatee and combed hair, and wore a sensible checkered shirt and dark jeans that looked like they were meant for someone half a head taller. He appeared more annoyed than menacing, like a sullen student summoned for an unwelcome yearbook picture.

The spectacle, covered live on Mexican television, lasted only as long as it took a federal police official to read a statement and take a few questions about the Feb. 8 arrest, hailed by authorities as a major achievement in the war on drug cartels launched in late 2006.

The images were on TV all day.

The ritual is called a presentacion , Spanish for "presentation" or "introduction," though no one ever shakes hands. Almost daily, one of the thousands of suspects who have been rounded up in the drug war is paraded in front of cameras, posed with seized weapons and contraband and even grilled by police officers while reporters jot down answers that are often self-incriminating.

Human rights advocates are appalled by the practice, a more elaborate version of the U.S.-style "perp walk," saying it violates suspects' rights by exhibiting them as if they were guilty before they have even been charged.

Yet for a society haunted by a level of violence not seen since the Mexican Revolution, the presentacion serves as hunter's trophy and modern-day dunking stool, a chance for Mexican authorities to convince crime-weary constituents that they're making the streets safer, and for residents to savor a morsel of justice meted.

It is where shadowy figures made famous by lore and "wanted" posters are at last hauled into the light, sometimes looking as if they had been rousted from bed. (Often, they have.) Think celebrity mug shots, but live.

Luis Garcia Lopez-Guerrero, an official with the National Human Rights Commission, said the growing frequency of presentaciones presentaciones endangers Mexico's efforts to establish rule of law and cultivate a functioning democracy.

"We don't want to see justice in the media," Garcia said. "We want to feel safe."

The show-and-tell sessions aren't only for drug lords. Around Mexico, authorities at the federal, state and local levels stage hundreds of presentaciones a year as a result of President Felipe Calderon's crackdown, many for smaller-bore offenses such as car thefts and stickups. The other day, three men in Mexico City were posed by prosecutors with cases of bottled water they were accused of stealing from victims of recent flooding.

The suspects are made to stare into the camera, usually in front of a backdrop printed with the name and logo of the police agency. (Lopez and the three other Tijuana suspects were posed in front of an armored car belonging to the federal police.)

Those "presented" wear whatever fate clothed them in at the time of their arrest: dingy T-shirts, floppy sandals, sweat pants. Three alleged members of the notorious Zetas gang were made to answer questions before news cameras in swim trunks and bare feet after they were arrested in the Yucatan peninsula in 2008. Two of them were shirtless.

Many suspects show up bruised and scraped.

Presentaciones can offer small but revealing slices of life in Mexico's criminal underworld: the upscale "narco-junior" clad in an Abercrombie & Fitch track suit, the dark-haired beauties snared alongside alleged drug bosses, the surprising number of suspected hit men who favor sneakers.

In a country where people tend to mistrust their leaders, parading a suspect serves as proof that authorities have arrested the person they say they have. And it's catnip for mainstream Mexican media outlets and the publications that focus on crime coverage, a hugely popular specialty known in Mexico as "red news."

Edgar Cordova, an editor at the gore-heavy El Grafico tabloid, said publishing photos of suspects might help counter crime by inviting corroborating reports from other victims.

Few Mexicans report crimes, out of fear and mistrust of police.

But Cordova said presentaciones probably don't make his readers feel safe for long.

"People go out in the street, and the violence and the aggressions continue," he said.

The ritual faces growing resistance. Last fall, four justices of Mexico's Supreme Court signed a nonbinding opinion that said exhibiting suspects before they have been charged violates their right to be presumed innocent.

Mexico's Roman Catholic bishops criticized the practice last week, urging officials to treat suspects as innocent until they are proved guilty.

"Because now we see that detainees are exhibited before the media before being brought before judicial authorities," the Mexican Council of Bishops said.

"If we really care about the rule of law, we should stop this," said Ernesto Lopez Portillo Vargas, executive director of the Institute for Security and Democracy in Mexico City. "This is a political decision."

Opponents say the risk that a suspect trotted before cameras will end up being freed is especially high in Mexico because cases frequently fall apart on flimsy evidence. For the innocent, it may be too late to recover their reputations.

But where critics see politically motivated spectacle, Mexican officials see proof of difficult battles won.

Getting every detail of a presentacion right is important.

When masked Mexican police officers led Lopez and the other Tijuana suspects before the cameras, they took care to arrange the quartet so the two most important catches were in the middle. Posed next to Lopez was Jose Manuel Garcia Simental, allegedly the gang's financial brains.

Garcia's older brother, Teodoro, the gang's alleged ringleader, had been "presented" by police in January.

The jowly older Garcia, in a Nautica pullover and saggy jeans, had glowered while police described his alleged role in hundreds of gruesome murders.

Less than a month later, the younger brother, in a stained polo shirt and even droopier jeans, bore a similar scowl.

Both brothers wore white sneakers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-perp-walk26-2010feb26,0,542764,print.story

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EDITORIAL

A registry of animal abusers is a bad idea

When you've done your time or paid your fine, that should be punishment enough in most cases.

February 25, 2010

Oh heck, why dither: The proposal by state Sen. Dean Florez (D-Shafter) to create a registry of animal abusers -- to be funded by a new tax on pet food -- is a cockamamie idea.

Animal protection is rightly a concern of most Californians, and the state has some of the stiffest laws in the nation against illegal enterprises such as dogfighting and cockfighting. California is also in the forefront of the national movement to improve treatment of farm animals, and Florez deserves credit for championing this cause. But to track felons convicted of animal abuse, publicizing their names, addresses and places of employment forever -- long after they've served their time or paid their fines -- would be way over the line.

There is a certain appeal to knowing where the criminal offenders among us live. But if we are going to take that route, then why not track drunk drivers or drug dealers or people convicted of domestic violence or car theft? The reason is that ours is a society that believes once their sentences have been served, offenders should have an opportunity to reform and begin life anew. Exceptions have been made in the cases of sex offenders and arsonists, who are believed to have a particular tendency toward recidivism, but that should not become standard practice. It's a reckless way to fight crime.

The pet food tax is just bad policy. As a rule, sales taxes hurt the poor disproportionately. Hiking them can be effective, however, when it discourages undesirable behavior linked with the purchase, such as an increase in the excise tax on cigarettes. But is the owner of a tabby cat really responsible for cockfighting? Florez said he does not know yet how much such a registry would cost. But a system that calls for returning convicted animal abusers to prison for failing to register is going to add up to a lot more than a few cents on every can of Alpo.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund, which drafted the bill, says the registry would serve as an early warning system for potentially violent criminals, citing the cases of serial killers and school shooters who had tortured animals as children. The FBI has long acknowledged a connection between cruelty to animals and sociopathic behavior. Would a registry help? Maybe, maybe not. Jeffrey Dahmer abused animals as a child, and with age moved on to human prey. Yet he would not have been tracked, because the registry would apply only to those 18 or older.

What is certain is that the worst abusers -- animal hoarders, proprietors of puppy mills and fighting rings -- share a variation of the same pathology, a lack of empathy. California already prohibits their cruel behavior, and a registry, however tempting, won't help them to learn compassion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-registry26-2010feb26,0,376241,print.story

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OPINION

A bit of hell in Paradise

The Sierra town doesn't quite live up to its name, seemingly the perfect place to beat a child to death.

By Jaime O'Neill

February 26, 2010

The town is called Paradise, and there's more than a little unintended irony in the name. There's really nothing particularly paradisiacal about the place. It sits atop a ridge that looks down on the northern stretch of California's Central Valley.

There are lots of towns like it up and down the Sierra, towns where lots of marginal people go to live in the margins these mountains provide, places where things are a little cheaper, a little less daunting and where illicit activities like meth labs and child abuse are easy to shield from view. Cults take refuge in places like this, and more and more, the inter-mountain American West has come to resemble the Deep South of the 1940s, where redneck ignorance holds sway, where bigotry can go to find its comfort zone and where more than a few nut jobs can find like-minded company.

I live on this ridge, and one of those nut jobs may have been among our neighbors, though they didn't live next door long enough for me to find out for sure. One night, soon after we moved in, I awoke to hysterical screaming coming from that house, from two very young children and their mother.

"Jesus hates kids like you," the mom shrieked. My younger daughter was visiting, sleeping in the guest room nearest the property line. As the commotion escalated, she said, "We should call the cops, Dad."

I thought that might be a good idea, especially after I heard a little boy crying, "No, mama, no."

But I didn't call the Sheriff's Department that night. The children grew quiet at last, and we all went back to bed, seeking sleep that proved elusive. Within a few weeks, those neighbors moved away, but not before we heard more episodes in which those children were threatened with the wrath of God.

What was going on seemed like abuse, but I could not be sure, though it wouldn't take a shrink to know that some kind of trauma was being inflicted on that little boy and his sister.

I wish I could say that my reluctance to act was simply a matter of not wanting to intrude my child-rearing attitudes on people who obviously did not share them. I wish I could say that I merely was acting out of respect for the biblical mantra I heard so often when I was growing up, that notion about "sparing the rod and spoiling the child."

After all, in my own family, there were more than a few times when my siblings and I were disciplined with my dad's belt, and we all feared my mother when her patience was exhausted.

But we were never menaced with the threat of God, never made to believe that Jesus would approve the punishment we took and hate us for our childish misdeeds.

Because property is a little cheaper in Paradise, there are lots of poor people, many of whom find their way into some of the ubiquitous churches that dot the landscape. Certain kinds of ministries have always preyed on the poor and the ignorant, providing ready-made answers for those who seek absolutes in a world where certainties can be hard to come by.

Earlier this month a couple in Paradise were charged with beating one of their three adopted kids to death, a child from Liberia. The girl was named Lydia, and she didn't make it to her 8th birthday. The parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz, also have been charged with torturing their 11-year-old adopted daughter and with a misdemeanor count of cruelty for signs of bruising on their 10-year-old son (one of their six biological children).

The Schatzes allegedly beat Lydia and her sister with a piece of plumbing tubing. The Butte County district attorney told writer Lynn Harris, in an article on the online site Salon, that the couple allegedly were following the guiding principles of a ministry called No Greater Joy. The organization is headed by Michael and Debi Pearl, and their manual on child-rearing has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. A 2001 article by Michael Pearl recommends disciplining a child with "a section of 1/4 inch plumber's supply line . . . it will fit in your purse or hang around your neck."

After the Schatzes' arrest, Michael Pearl wrote the local newspaper that "we teach parents how to train their children, which sometimes requires the limited and controlled application of a spanking instrument," but that his ministry does not advocate punishment to the point of serious injury.

The beating Lydia sustained caused such trauma to her system that it shut down entirely. She was punished, according to media reports, because she had mispronounced a word.

By all accounts from those who know them, the Schatzes didn't look or act like monsters, but people who can torture children for mispronouncing a word can hardly be called anything else.

Which brings me back to that incident I overheard coming from my neighbors' house. It has been five years since those people moved away. I'll never know for sure if I might have averted something bad happening to those kids, something even worse than what they were already enduring. It's sometimes hard to know when to butt in and when to mind one's own business, hard to know just when religious belief is veering off into insanity sanctioned by a grotesque misreading of faith.

But I'm haunted by the suspicion that I hesitated to call the cops merely because I didn't want to create a tense relationship with neighbors who lived so close and seemed none too rational. I can't entirely acquit myself of the thought that I didn't call because of the cowardice that encourages so many of us to avoid getting involved just when getting involved is what is required of us.

But, with so much insanity afoot, it becomes even more imperative that those of us who suspect abuse of children pick up the phone and seek help for those who are utterly helpless.

Jaime O'Neill is a writer in Northern California.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-oneill26-2010feb26,0,1496082,print.story

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OPINION

Too many heroes

The daughter of Austin suicide-pilot Joseph Stack claimed her dad was one and got a vehement response. But she deserves some slack.

by Meghan Daum

February 24, 2010

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that your dad was so angry with the government that he flew a single-engine plane into an office building, killing himself and one other person and injuring 12 others. Let's just say you lived in a foreign country far away from the scene of the crime and agreed (maybe because you were exhausted; maybe because there was catharsis in speaking publicly) to submit to a phone interview for a major U.S. morning news and entertainment program.

Let's say you didn't make a whole lot of sense in this interview. Let's say that amid the dual shock of learning that your father committed an act of domestic terrorism and is also dead, you find yourself doing what a lot of children (grown-up or otherwise) do when their parents (unhinged or otherwise) come under attack: You defend him. Not unequivocally or anything: His "last actions, the suicide, the catastrophe," you emphasize, "were wrong." But when the interviewer asks if you consider your father a "hero for standing up to the system," you say "yes."

Such was the course of events this week for Samantha Bell, the 38-year-old daughter of Joseph Stack, who, on Feb. 18, after setting his own house ablaze, flew into an Austin, Texas, building that housed IRS offices. In a suicide manifesto posted online, Stack lamented his long-standing tax troubles and inveighed against what he perceived as taxation without representation by a corrupt system.

His wife had the presence of mind to say, through a spokesperson, little more than that she had "sincerest sympathies" for the victims. Bell, who lives in Norway, proved less media savvy and went on to pay a big price. Within moments of the airing of her Monday phone interview on "Good Morning America," a mostly content-free segment in which family photos flashed across the screen while Bell rambled rather incoherently about how "if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished," Twitter and the blogosphere practically exploded with venom.

It wasn't so much her filial defense that tweaked the public's ire. It was that claim: hero. By Monday afternoon, Bell had retracted her statement, but the damage was done. Bloggers excoriated her knee-jerk defense of her dad, and commenters tarred her with vicious epithets.

(Meanwhile, no one seems to have remarked on the fact that Bell, at 38, is a mere 15 years younger than her 53-year-old father; hello! Can we discuss? But I digress.)

Here's what I want to know: Does any word -- other than, perhaps, "patriot" or, depending on what circles you run in, "genius" -- get misused and misappropriated with more abandon than "hero"? A staple of pop songs and political speeches alike, the concept of heroism no longer refers exclusively to superhuman strength or courage, or even to someone who sacrifices his own safety or interests for the benefit of others. In fact, the only requirement for the role these days is not to be a monster -- and even then you never know.

That's because we love to pay lip-service to "ordinary" heroes (working folks pulling double shifts to make ends meet, people who volunteer and, of course, moms everywhere), and we tend to slap the hero label on just
about anyone who's made lots of money or become famous, even if they've done so by less than noble means.

For every traditional (some might say genuine) hero out there (Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, for instance), there's someone who has been handed the mantle for little reason other than that they happen to do something really well (like, I dare say, Tiger Woods). For every Martin Luther King Jr. there is, well . . . anyone who's ever
received, deservedly or not, a "world's greatest dad" statuette.

So maybe it's time we ease up on Samantha Bell. Sure, her words were unfortunate, even offensive. But it's worth noting that it was the "Good Morning America" interviewer, not Bell, who uttered the word "hero."

Meanwhile, there's a reason Stephen Colbert addresses his audience as "heroes." Because almost everyone out there, even Joseph Stack, is someone's mom or dad. Either that, or he's angling for a job on "Good Morning America."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum25-2010feb25,0,5171825,print.column

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From the Daily News

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When help is needed, couple always respond

"I didn't cry the whole time we were there, but literally sobbed on the plane the whole way home," the Sherman Oaks nurse said.

"Lee and I spent every night for the next two weeks going through pictures and telling each other stories because we hadn't worked together while we were there. It was our way to deal with it."

They dealt with it. Twelve days later, Sherman Oaks internist Dr. Lee Kagan and his wife, Patty - a critical care nurse at Providence Tarzana Medical Center - got back on a plane and flew to Haiti a second time to help.

They just got back Sunday night. Monday morning they were back at work. Talk about dedicated.

Most of us write a check or donate supplies to local groups and schools trying to help the Haitian people recover from the devastating earthquake that ravaged their already fragile, poor country.

The Kagans hop on a plane and go. Twice. It's just what this married doctor/nurse team does.

"We didn't tell them to go over there. They told us they were going and what supplies they needed," said Sister Colleen Settles, regional director of mission integration for Providence hospitals.

"So many people might have said, `Whoa, we don't know what we're getting into here.' Not them. They went full throttle."

It surprised no one. This couple has been hopping on planes and flying to Haiti for years working with a group called International Medical Alliance.

They go into bateys - company towns where sugar workers live in deplorable conditions - and provide the only health care they will get for an entire year.

They were going back again this month. Then the earthquake hit and their plans changed. They were needed now.

Lee canceled his appointments with patients and Patty told her bosses at the hospital she'd be gone for a while.

"They said, `Godspeed' and gave us 300 pounds of antibiotics and IV fluids that were desperately needed in Haiti," Patty said Thursday.

The couple helped their fellow doctors and nurses from International Medical Alliance set up a hospital in a vacant clinic in the bordertown of Jimani, about 30 miles outside Port-au-Prince.

"The town was overrun with the injured," Patty said. "We had every bed filled, over 400 patients."

While Lee spent his time inside the clinic caring for patients in a 12-bed ICU/recovery room, Patty worked in a post-op tent outside.

"It was overwhelming, horrific," she said. "Everybody worked in silence. It was too intense for chatter."

She managed to hold it together until that first flight home.

It was better the second time, the Kagans said. People were talking. There was chatter.

Initial wounds had been cared for, now it was secondary infections and skin grafts that had doctors and nurses working late into the night.

It's good to be home, the Kagans say. Nice to take hot showers again and not eat rice and beans.

How long will this married doctor/nurse team stay home this time? Who knows? It's not up to them.

"We'll just have to wait and see what nature brings," Patty said.

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_14474470

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Teen dating violence is real and rampant

EARLIER this month, in Northern California, 17-year-old Rebecca Layson was brutally murdered and raped allegedly by her 17-year-old boyfriend and 18-year-old male friend. This tragedy occurred just weeks after California Assembly Resolution 100 was introduced to declare February National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.

Teen dating violence is real and rampant. It's hard to believe that just 15 years ago no one acknowledged this as a serious issue. Many parents ignored the black and blue marks on their daughters, dismissing them as the result of "puppy love." We've come a long way, but there are still many black and blue marks to erase and many more of them to prevent.

That's why Peace Over Violence, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence, has been educating hundreds of Los Angeles middle and high school students on dating violence prevention through Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships, a national program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson and Blue Shield of California foundations.

A striking feature of Start Strong is its emphasis on educating 11-to 14-year-olds, an age group that is usually absent from dialogue about youth dating violence. More than 4,300 students at Berendo and Virgil middle schools will participate in Start Strong Los Angeles. These students are 85 percent Latino, very low-income, and chronically exposed to violence.

Teaching middle school students about preventing relationship abuse may seem premature. However, statistics show that waiting until they enter high school could be too late.

Sixteen- to 24-year-old women experience the highest rate of dating-related homicide, at a rate three times the national average. During their teen years, one in three girls will experience physical abuse in a relationship. Ten percent of California teens report being in an abusive relationship each year. Shockingly, up to 80 percent of teens say they know someone in an abusive relationship.

The effects of teen dating violence and abuse are serious. It can lead to poor academic performance, anxiety, depression, chronic health problems, physical injuries, and even death. Given such a grim reality, it's critical that prevention education starts before the violence begins.

Peace Over Violence, through Start Strong Los Angeles, provides resources and materials to help preteens understand what it means to be in a positive, healthy relationship. We are working with teen leaders, parents, mentors, teachers, school administrators, among others, to provide information, reinforce positive behaviors, and break down the acceptance of relationship violence and abuse.

Start Strong Los Angeles is also available to students and teachers at Marshall and Miguel Contreras high schools through youth activism groups and training for educators.

El Centro del Pueblo, USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy, and the Los Angeles Unified School District are our local partners in this prevention initiative, and throughout the country there are 10 other community organizations like us that have received a $1 million grant as part of Start Strong to implement the program at their local schools.

Even as February's National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month comes to an end, Peace Over Violence and other groups around the country will continue to educate teens about relationship violence prevention.

We can't have another Rebecca Layson, and we can't ignore the prevalence of teen dating violence. When parents and children know the warning signs of relationship abuse, it is only then that we can begin to stop the violence. And the earlier we start having these conversations, the better chance we have of educating and protecting our children.

Every child should have the opportunity to start strong in healthy relationships.

For more information visit www.youthoverviolence.org and www.startstrongteens.org/resources

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_14471638

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Former Klansman Sues FBI Over 1964 Case

JACKSON, Miss.—A former Ku Klux Klansman convicted in the 1964 slayings of three civil-rights workers has sued the FBI, claiming the government used a mafia hit man to pistol-whip and intimidate witnesses for information in the case.

Edgar Ray Killen, an 85-year-old former saw-mill operator and one-time Baptist preacher, was convicted in 2005 of manslaughter based in part on testimony from a mistrial 40 years ago in Mississippi.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court seeks millions of dollars in damages and a declaration that Mr. Killen's rights were violated when the FBI allegedly used a gangster known as "The Grim Reaper" during its investigation.

"Money is secondary, we really just want the truth out," said Robert A. Ratliff of Mobile, Ala., who represents Mr. Killen. "What we're looking for is the complete, unredacted FBI file. Stand up and tell us what happened."

Mr. Killen has maintained his innocence in the killings. He is serving a 60-year sentence at a prison in central Mississippi.

Mr. Ratliff said one of the defense lawyers, the late Clayton Lewis, who represented Mr. Killen and several others in a 1967 federal trial was a paid FBI informant.

And, he said, known gangster Gregory Scarpa Sr. was hired by the FBI allegedly for $30,000 to coerce witnesses to tell where the bodies were buried and who put them there.

The FBI has never acknowledged using Mr. Scarpa. FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden hadn't seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

Mr. Killen walked out of federal court in 1967 because the jury couldn't reach a verdict.

Some of the information and testimony from that trial was later used to convict him, when many witnesses were dead and he no longer had the chance to question his accusers, Mr. Ratliff said. Some of that testimony was based on information gathered by Mr. Lewis and Mr. Scarpa, he said.

Stories about Mr. Scarpa, who died in 1994, have been the stuff of gangland lore. But in 2007, Mr. Scarpa's mistress testified in an unrelated case involving an FBI agent.

Linda Schiro said she came to Mississippi with Mr. Scarpa and he once shoved a gun into a Klansman's mouth to get information for the FBI. Her entire testimony during that trial was later questioned, though, and an FBI agent accused of conspiring in a mob murder spree was cleared.

Still, after that trial, New York Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach said he was troubled by Mr. Schiro's testimony and referenced the Mississippi Klansman story.

"That a thug like Scarpa would be employed by the federal government to beat witnesses and threaten them at gunpoint to obtain information ... is a shocking demonstration of the government's unacceptable willingness to employ criminality to fight crime," the judge said.

The lawsuit also claims Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who helped prosecute Mr. Killen in 2005, was complacent in a "conspiracy of silence" for knowing about the FBI's alleged improper conduct.

"I get sued everyday or criticized for playing by the rules and doing my job," Mr. Hood said. "I'm getting used to the job. We've got 3,000 suits out there and this is just another one."

In 1964, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two white men from New York, came to Mississippi as part of Freedom Summer and teamed up with James Chaney, a young black Mississippian, to help register black voters.

They were ambushed by members of the Klan in June and killed before being buried in an earthen dam. Their bodies were found weeks later after an intense search.

A desire for swift justice reached the highest levels of federal government, including then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who dispatched numerous agents to Mississippi.

The lawsuit claims the FBI brought in Mr. Scarpa, who found the burial site through "the use of intimidation of potential witnesses, pistol-whipping actual witnesses, and assaulting other local residents."

The lawsuit also names as a defendant John Doar, a federal prosecutor in 1967, and six unknown FBI agents. Mr. Doar is now in private practice and didn't immediately respond to a message left at his New York office.

Mr. Killen claims in the lawsuit that Mr. Hood, Mr. Doar and the FBI conspired to "suppress, chill, and tortuously interfere with his constitutionally protected activities of free speech and freedom of association, all in defense of his society and culture, and otherwise injure him and abridge his civil rights."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704479404575087821813210924.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#printMode

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From MSNBC

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Inquest ordered in Bishop's brother's slaying

CANTON, Mass. - A Massachusetts prosecutor has ordered an inquest into Amy Bishop's 1986 fatal shooting of her brother, saying there are new questions about whether it was the accident investigators concluded at the time.

The handling of the case has been under renewed scrutiny since Bishop was accused of killing three faculty colleagues in a shooting Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

In announcing the inquest Thursday, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating revealed that investigators recently examined a photo taken of Bishop's bedroom after her brother's death and enlarged it. They found a newspaper article that described someone killing a relative with a shotgun and stealing a getaway car from a car dealership.

Bishop shot and killed her brother, Seth, with a shotgun at their Braintree home. She then went to a car dealership body shop and tried to commandeer a car, police said. After her arrest, she told police that the weapon had accidentally discharged.

"We were struck by how parallel the circumstances were," he said. "That could go to the state of mind of Amy Bishop at the time."

Keating said the inquest would allow a judge to subpoena Bishop's parents. He said they refused to talk with two state troopers who went to their home last week, saying they had retained counsel. Bishop's mother, Judith, was the only other witness to the slaying.

"Had they cooperated and we thought their answers were forthright and truthful, this might not have been necessary," Keating said.

Bryan Stevens, an attorney for the Bishops, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Serious errors

Judge Mark Coven, presiding judge in Quincy District Court, will conduct the closed-door inquest and report his findings to Keating, who would then decide whether to issue an indictment. The only possible charge that could be filed is murder because the statute of limitations on all other counts, including manslaughter, has expired.

"Finding out who is responsible may not mean that you can prosecute that person," Keating said. The fact that the only other eyewitness says it was an accident is "a huge burden to overcome," he said.

Police reports Keating released last week said Amy Bishop told the officers she had first accidentally fired the shotgun, which her father bought as protection against burglars, in her bedroom as she tried to unload it. She said she then went downstairs to ask her brother to help.

She said the gun went off again as Seth walked across the kitchen. She told police she did not realize she had hit him. She said she ran away and thought she dropped the gun. She claimed she did not remember anything else until she was taken to a police station.

Keating said there were serious errors in the 1986 investigation. He said it was a mistake for authorities to release Amy Bishop on the day of the shooting even after booking had begun and to not question her and her mother again for 11 days.

A state police investigation conducted for the district attorney at the time also did not contain a Braintree police report that said when Amy Bishop fled her home after the shooting, she threatened workers at the car dealership body shop while trying to get a car and was still armed when she was arrested at gunpoint by police.

"The more information we got, the more we looked at reports, the more questions we had," Keating said. Keating and state police said last week they also are reviewing how the original investigations were conducted.

Mail bombing

Later incidents involving the Harvard-educated neurobiologist also have raised questions. She and her husband James Anderson were questioned but never charged in the 1993 attempted mail bombing of a medical researcher who gave her a bad job review. The U.S. attorney in Boston is reviewing that case.

Bishop also was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after a fight over a child booster seat in a restaurant in 2002. The charges were dismissed after six months' probation.

Bishop 45, is charged with capital murder and attempted murder in the Alabama shooting, which wounded three other faculty members. Colleagues say she had complained for months about being denied the job protections of tenure.

A police spokesman in Huntsville, Ala., said it was unclear whether information gathered in a Massachusetts inquest could be used in the capital murder case against Bishop in Alabama.

"It's too bad they didn't do a a good investigation up there the first time," said Sgt. Mark Roberts of the Huntsville Police Department. "If they had in 1986, we might not be where we are today in 2010."

Keating said it's important to find out what happened for the Alabama shooting victims.

"They deserve everything under the law we can do to get answers to the questions."

Also Thursday, University of Alabama-Huntsville spokesman Ray Garner confirmed to The Huntsville Times that Amy Bishop has been suspended retroactively to the day of the attack and will be fired.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35589713/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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From the Department of Justice

The Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York has returned a superseding indictment charging Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin with terrorism violations stemming from, among other activities, their alleged roles in the plot involving Najibullah Zazi to attack the New York subway system in mid-September 2009. Ahmedzay and Medunjanin are scheduled to appear in federal court today in Brooklyn at 11:00 a.m.

Ahmedzay, 25, a U.S. citizen and resident of Queens, N.Y., was previously indicted on Jan. 8, 2010 in the Eastern District of New York on charges of making material false statements to the FBI about his travels to Pakistan and Afghanistan and about his conversations with a fellow traveler. Medunjanin, 25, a U.S. citizen and resident of Queens, N.Y., was previously indicted on Jan. 8, 2010 in the Eastern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization, namely al-Qaeda.

The five-count superseding indictment unsealed this morning charges both Ahmedzay and Medunjanin with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction (explosive bombs) against persons or property in the United States. Specifically, they are charged with conspiring with Zazi to conduct an attack on Manhattan subway lines that would take place on Sept. 14, Sept. 15, or Sept. 16, 2009. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is life in prison.

"The facts alleged in this indictment shed further light on the scope of this attempted attack and underscore the importance of using every tool we have available to both disrupt plots against our nation and hold suspected terrorists accountable for their actions," said Attorney General Holder. "This attack would have been deadly, and the many agents, prosecutors and intelligence professionals who worked together seamlessly to thwart it deserve our thanks."

Both defendants are also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country. Specifically, the superseding indictment alleges that on or about Aug. 28, 2008, both Ahmedzay and Medunjanin accompanied Zazi on a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., to Peshawar, Pakistan, in furtherance of the conspiracy. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is life in prison.

The superseding indictment also charges both defendants with providing material support, including currency, training, communications equipment and personnel, to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al-Qaeda. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is 15 years in prison.

In addition, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin are charged with receiving military-type training from al-Qaeda. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is ten years in prison.

Finally, Ahmedzay is further charged with making false statements to the FBI in a terrorism investigation. According to the indictment, Ahmedzay falsely told the FBI he had disclosed all the locations he visited during his trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan, when he had failed to disclose all these locations. The maximum statutory penalty for this offense is eight years in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado and the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division. The investigation is being conducted by the New York and Denver FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which combined have investigators from more than fifty federal, state and local law enforcement agencies .

The public is reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation of a crime, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-ag-200.html

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Missing Person Case Closed after 22 Years Thanks to Justice Department & ABC Television

The following post appears courtesy of the Office of Justice Programs.

In 1987 Paula Beverly Davis went missing from Kansas City, Missouri. She was 21, worked as a store clerk and had a 1-year old son. Later that year, police in Englewood, Ohio, found her remains but could not identify her. They called her Jane Doe, and buried her in a local graveyard.

Jump ahead to October 2009, when Davis' younger sister, Stephanie Clack, was watching ABC's “The Forgotten.” At the end of the show, ABC aired a public service announcement about a Justice Department Web site - www.NamUs.gov - designed to match records of missing persons with records from unidentified decedents. (“NamUs” stands for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.)

Ms. Clack started surfing www.NamUs.gov and found the record of a woman with tattoos that matched her sister's tattoos. Authorities used DNA to confirm the match.   Thanks to her sister's search of NamUs and a television show's public service announcement, Paula Davis's remains are now going home. She will be buried next to her mother and grandmother in Kansas City.

NamUs is a free, online system. Medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials, the general public, families and loved ones can search www.NamUs.gov any time day or night from anywhere in the country—just as they may have searched newspapers or telephoned morgues looking for information. They are all part of the process, helping one another resolve cases involving missing persons and unidentified decedents.

A Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of the nation's medical examiner and coroner offices found that in 2004 about half had no policy for retaining records (such as X-rays, DNA, or fingerprints) on unidentified human decedents.

The Department of Justice established NamUs to manage the overwhelming need for a central reporting system for unidentified human remains cases. The Web site was launched in 2007; it became fully operational in 2009. It is estimated that, nationwide, about 100,000 missing persons cases are active on any given day.

Read more about the Paula Beverly Davis case on the Kansas City blog.

http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/598

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From ICE

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3 accused of smuggling defense items to Philippines

Ex-owner of now defunct LA-area gun store among those charged

LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury has indicted the former owner of a now defunct Los Angeles-area gun store and two other men for violating international arms trafficking and export control laws, alleging they exported sophisticated gun sights and equipment used to manufacture assault rifles to the Philippines without the required licenses.

Romulo Reclusado, 59, one-time owner of RNJ Guns & Ammo in Carson, Calif., is named in the four-count indictment, along with two other Carson men, Tirso A. Aguayo, 56, and Mike Cabatingan, 56. Cabatingan worked at a Carson freight forwarding company, Fastpak Cargo.

The men are accused of conspiring to illegally ship defense articles and other controlled items to the Philippines in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The items included molds or "forgings" used to make components for AR-15 assault rifles and holographic rifle sights touted by their Michigan-based manufacturer as "perfect for tactical environments." The AR-15 forgings are classified as "defense articles" on the United States Munitions List, and written permission must be obtained from the U.S. Department of State in order to legally export them. The holographic sites are export-controlled items, and a license must be obtained from the U.S. Department of Commerce to legally export them to the Philippines.

The charges are the result of a long-term investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Commerce and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS).

"The export of these defense articles to the Philippines or anywhere else in the world is tightly regulated for good reason. Arms traffickers have shown that they are willing to provide this equipment to anybody who is willing to pay -- from terrorists to criminal organizations," said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary John Morton, who oversees ICE. "One of ICE's top enforcement priorities is preventing military equipment and sensitive technology from falling into the hands of those who might seek to harm America or its allies."

Aguayo and Cabatingan were taken into custody by federal agents Thursday morning at their residences in Carson, and they are expected to make their initial court appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles. Reclusado, whom authorities believe fled to the Philippines several years ago, remains at large.

According to the indictment handed down earlier this week, from March through May of 2005, the defendants conspired to purchase and export to the Philippines, in three separate shipments, a total of 250 AR-15 receiver forgings and 11 sophisticated rifle sights. Two of the shipments were intercepted by Philippine customs officials.

"At the Office of Export Enforcement, we strive to keep the most sensitive goods out of the most dangerous hands," said Anthony Levey, special agent in charge of the Department's Los Angeles Field Office. "This case in an example of the important work we do in conjunction with our law enforcement partners."

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.

If convicted of the charges contained in the indictment, Reclusado and Cabatingan would face maximum statutory sentences of 45 years in federal prison, and Aguayo would face a maximum possible penalty of 25 years in prison.

In fiscal year 2009, ICE counter-proliferation investigations resulted in more than 700 arrests, approximately 300 indictments which resulted in more than 250 convictions for export-related criminal violations. Thus far in fiscal year 2010, ICE has made 96 arrests and generated 52 indictments which resulted in 40 convictions for export-related criminal violations. These efforts significantly contribute to preventing sensitive U.S. technologies as well as weapons from reaching the hands of terrorists, hostile countries and violent criminal organizations.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1002/100225losangeles.htm

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