The Sno’ Ho’s Terrorist Friends…

There were reports of Palin’s connection with Domestic Terrorist groups before she was selected by McCain to run as VP candidate. Those were never fully followed up by the MSM.

Palin’s Hit Men Pals Shafer Cox and the Alaska Militia

The recent arrest of some of the Sno’ Ho’s friends and political supporters for the planned assassination of Judges and elected representatives may open up that can of rancid worms…

“I am not against violence. OK? I am not against spilling blood for freedom,” Cox told a group in Hamilton, Mont., in December 2009. “You know, everybody asks, ‘Would you die for liberty?’ That’s not really the question to ask. The right question to ask is ‘Would you kill for liberty?’ “

“Pallin’ Around with Terrorists”: Palin’s Link to Militia Leader Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Murder

According to sworn testimony Thursday during federal court proceedings in Alaska, two close associates of former Governor Sarah Palin — Joe Miller, a staunch political ally of Palin’s whom she supported in his failed bid for the U.S. Senate; and Palin’s former director of boards and commissions Frank Bailey, more commonly known in Alaska as Palin’s “hatchet man” — were responsible for introducing FBI Informant William “Drop Zone” Fulton to Schaeffer Cox, the leader of the so-called Alaska Peacekeeper Militia.

Cox and two other Fairbanks-based militiamen have been charged with conspiring to kidnap and murder Alaska judges and law enforcement authorities. They have also been charged with violating various federal weapons laws for owning or attempting to purchase machine guns, silencers, hand grenades and other combat-type weapons.

It’s an only-in-Alaska story.

The surreptitious meeting between Fulton, Cox and Palin’s associates took place a scant six months before Palin was selected by John McCain to serve as his running mate on the GOP ticket. Cox, a supporter of Palin’s, was then a Republican candidate for the Alaska House of Representatives, District 7. He finished with 36 percent of the votes.

Cox’s trial, now in its third week, has revealed the bizarre cultural and political milieu in which Palin came to power in Alaska and which eventually catapulted her to a national stage.

Jennifer Hudson Family Killer Conviction

One of the most dispicable lies told by black conservatives about the black community has to do with crime. That somehow the black community has failed in policing it’s own. This is despite the fact that more black men have been incarcerated sine Raygun’s “War on Drugs” than were held in slavery in 1860, at the start of the Civil War.

Because 90% of crime is intra-racial – this means that it’s within the community, AND if the Justice System is selecting a “Jury of Peers”…

That many of the jurors are black.

So the community that is supposedly doing nothing, or in the most racist screeds by the Uncle Tom black conservative set is acquiescent to the criminality…

Is the same one that has put 1.5 million black men in jail for their crimes.

Hardly “doing nothing”.

The problem is – the “Criminal Industrial System” in America is a failure – taking small time users, giving them sentences with hard core felons…

And making more felons.

Indeed the sole purpose of the “War on Drugs” is to suppress the vote. There is an excellent book on the subject by Michelle Alexander - “The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”.…

Read it.

Jennifer Hudson Family Murder Trial: William Balfour found guilty on all counts

After three days of deliberation, jurors found William Balfour guilty in the October 2008 shooting deaths of the Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew.

Balfour has been convicted on all seven counts against him, which include three counts of first-degree murder, one count of home invasion, one count aggravated kidnapping, one count residential burglary, and one count possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

Hudson, who expressed her undisguised disdain for William Balfour when she took the witness stand and who endured weeks of excruciating testimony about the October 2008 killings, was visibly overcome with emotion as the verdict was read. Hudson’s eyes filled with tears and she shook her head and bit her lip. Afterward, she looked over at her sister, Julia Hudson, and smiled.

Balfour, the ex-husband of Hudson’s sister, killed 57-year-old Darnell Hudson, 29-year-old Jason Hudson and 7-year-old Julian King. Prosecuters believe that Balfour shot the family in a jealous rage because ex-wife Julia Hudson was dating another man.

Balfour, 31, now faces a life sentence in prison.

Just for the heck of it… One of my favorite artists, Howard Hewitt…

Black Chicago Policeman, Shot 21 Times in the Back – Charged With Attempted Murder

On the surface at least – something appears to be very wrong here. How exactly dies a police officer getting stopped for a simple traffic violation devolve into a full out gunbattle?

And how exactly do you charge the only guy in said gunbattle who never discharged his weapon, and was shot 21 times in the back, with “attempted murder”?

Howard Morgan, Black Off-Duty Cop Shot 28 Times By White Chicago Officers, Faces Sentencing

As much of the country follows the Trayvon Martin case, activists in Chicago are hoping to bring some of that attention to Howard Morgan, a former Chicago police officer who was shot 28 times by white officers – and lived to tell his side of the story.

Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery.

According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims.

“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times.

She was not the only person to doubt CPD’s side of the story. A Change.org petitionsigned by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved.

“After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him,” Occupy wrote on their website, adding that Morgan was found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder — and another jury found him guilty in January.

That jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges.

Protesters and Morgan’s family say the second trial amounted to double jeopardy, and claim officers have gone to great lengths to obstruct justice in the case:

• Howard Morgan’s van was crushed and destroyed without notice or cause before any forensic investigation could be done.
• Howard Morgan was never tested for gun residue to confirm if he even fired a weapon on the morning in question.
• The State never produced the actual bullet proof vest worn by one of the officers who claimed to have allegedly taken a shot directly into the vest on the morning in question. The State only produced a replica.

“If they can do this and eliminate double jeopardy and your constitutional rights, then my God, I fear for every Afro-American — whether they be male or female — in this corrupt unjust system,” Morgan’s wife told the Sun-Times.

Howard Morgan will be sentenced Thursday. He faces 80 years in prison.

Guilty in Conrad Murray Trial

No big surprise here.

Is it just me, or is Dr. Murray beginning to look a lot like Herman Cain? Faces of the guilty… Indeed.

Doctor Found Guilty in Michael Jackson’s Death

 Michael Jackson, among the most famous and beloved performers in pop music history, spent his final days in a sleep-deprived haze of medication and misery until finally succumbing to a fatal dose of potent drugs given to him by the private physician he had hired to act as his personal pharmaceutical dispensary, a jury decided on Monday.

The physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter nearly two and a half years after the star’s shocking death at age 50. The verdict came after nearly 50 witnesses, 22 days of testimony and less than two days of deliberation by a jury of seven men and five women. The trial had focused primarily on whether Dr. Murray was guilty of abdicating his duty or of acting with reckless criminal negligence, directly causing his patient’s death.

Dr. Murray now faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license. Judge Michael Pastor denied a defense request for bail for Dr. Murray and ordered him handcuffed and taken into immediate custody in the courtroom…

NYPD Fabricating Drug Arrests By Planting “Evidence”

It just doesn’t get much uglier than this. In a country which incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than even communist regimes…

The Police in the Big Apple have been found to be framing suspects to make drug arrests. The Big Apple certainly isn’t a stranger to crooked cops.

Kinda makes you wonder how prevalent this is around the country?

We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup.

Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as “flaking,” on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez, whose buy-and-bust activity had been low.

“Tavarez was … was worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case,” he recounted at the corruption trial of Brooklyn South narcotics Detective Jason Arbeeny.

5 NOPD Officers Guilty in Katrina Murders

Five current or former New Orleans police officers were convicted in the Danziger Bridge murder case, and subsequent cover up. They are, from top left: Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon, Robert Gisevius, Arthur Kaufman and Anthony Villavaso.

The wheels of Justice turn slow, and they are often out of alignment, and way too often can be bought -

But every once in a while they actually produce justice…

5 NOPD officers guilty in post-Katrina Danziger Bridge shootings, cover-up

A jury this morning convicted all five New Orleans police officers accused in the Danziger Bridgeshootings, which took place amid the chaos after Hurricane Katrina and claimed the lives of two civilians, and a cover-up of startling scope that lasted almost five years.

The verdicts were a huge victory for federal prosecutors, who won on virtually every point, save for their contention that the shootings amounted to murder. The jury rejected that notion, finding that the officers violated the victims’ civil rights, but that their actions did not constitute murder.

Sentencing for the five officers, all of them likely facing lengthy prison terms, has been set for Dec. 14 before U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt.

Four of the five officers – Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso — have been in custody since their arraignment.

The fifth, retired Sgt. Arthur “Archie” Kaufman, who was not involved in the shootings but headed the police investigation into them, remains free on bail.

In remarks on the courthouse steps shortly after the verdicts were rendered, lead prosecutor Barbara “Bobbi” Bernstein said she was “in awe” of the relatives of the bridge shooting victims. Without their persistence, she said, the truth about the incident would never come to light.

Lance Madison, whose brother, Ronald, was shot and killed on the bridge, and who was jailed for allegedly shooting at police, thanked the jury and the federal authorities who brought the case, while noting he will never get his brother back.

“We’re thankful for closure after six long years of waiting for justice,” Madison said.

The landmark civil-rights case — one of four major federal cases involving use of force by New Orleans police to result in indictments so far — has been closely watched around the nation.

Because of its sheer magnitude, the Danziger case was the most high-stakes of the nine civil-rights probes into the NOPD the Justice Department has confirmed. Before today’s verdicts, five other former officers, all of whom testified during the six-week trial, had already pleaded guilty to various roles in the shootings and the subsequent cover-up.

The two other cases to go to trial so far — involving the deaths of Henry Glover and Raymond Robair at the hands of police — both resulted in convictions, although two officers accused of different roles in the Glover case were acquitted, and a third officer who was convicted recently had that verdict vacated.

While today’s verdicts close the book on most aspects of the Danziger case, one officer charged in the cover-up still faces charges: retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, who is set to be tried Sept. 26…

Michael Jackson’s Lawyer to Stand Trial – Loses License.

Apparently the Judge in LA had hear enough…

Michael Jackson’s doctor ordered to stand trial in pop star’s death, stripped of medical license

A judge stripped Dr. Conrad Murray of his medical license Tuesday after ruling that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to try him for manslaughter in the death of pop star Michael Jackson.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said testimony presented during a six-day hearing into Murray’s treatment of the singer had convinced him that allowing the cardiologist to keep his license “would constitute an imminent danger to public safety.”

Evidence presented by prosecutors, the judge said, showed “a direct nexus in connection between the acts and omissions of Dr. Murray and the homicide in this case,” the judge said.

Pastor’s decision to send the case to trial was widely expected, including by Murray’s attorneys, but his defense had strongly contested the loss of his license, calling it a “nuclear option” that would destroy the 57-year-old doctor’s ability support his family and mount a criminal defense.

Murray is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 25.

 

F. Lee Bailey – “OJ is Innocent!”

Wow – seems like old times keep coming up. First there was the wife of Clarence Thomas calling Anita Hill…

Now the OJ case… Again.

F. Lee Bailey says document provides new evidence that proves OJ Simpson’s innocence

Evidence of O.J Simpson’s innocence was held back in the 1995 trial in which he was acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles, one of his former lawyers says in a new document.

In the 20,000-word document, F. Lee Bailey tells of four people who could have bolstered Simpson’s case but never testified. He also gives an overview of the sensational trial from his own perspective.

Simpson was found not guilty. Most Americans are convinced that he is guilty, Bailey said, but the document might persuade some doubters that he is innocent.

Bailey wrote the document, “The Simpson Verdict,” in 2007 as a proposal for a book that never materialized. He published it on his website Sunday.

“It’s time somebody put out the real facts of the case,” he told The Associated Press.

In the document, Bailey said the defense team was prepared to call four people who never testified _ a forensic scientist, an expert on battered women, a blood expert and the person whose possible testimony he says is the most important of the four: a man who might have seen the killers.

That witness, he wrote, saw a woman the night of the murders matching Nicole Simpson’s description in an apparent confrontation with two men, neither of whom was O.J. Simpson. Upon hearing of the murders the next day, the witness recalled what he saw on a tape recording and wrote a detailed description and sketch of his observations.

But the defense team decided not to call any of the four to the witness stand out of fear that additional jurors would be dismissed and a mistrial declared if the eight-month trial didn’t soon end, Bailey wrote. Bailey said Monday he thinks the real killers were out to collect a drug debt and killed Nicole Simpson and Goldman after mistaking them for their targets.

The document might sway a sector of the public into believing in Simpson’s innocence in the 1995 case, Bailey said. But he knows there’s another group whose minds couldn’t be changed “with a sledgehammer,” and thinks the trial damaged his reputation among that group.

“Among the rednecks of America, which there are many more than people seem to realize, it was terribly damaging,” he said. “I got blamed for O.J.’s acquittal.”

Looking at 3 1/2 Years in Leavenworth – Birther Suddenly Discovers He’s In the Army!

Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin

Disobeying the orders of a superior in the Military is a career limiting, if not prison ending exercise outside of some very narrow circumstances. Disobeying your commander because you don’t think he or she is qualified to be a commander…

Isn’t one of those exculpatory situations.

Faced with 3 1/2 years in the slammer – this “Birther” discovers he’s in the Army!

Army ‘Birther’ Changes Course, Says He’d Deploy

The View at Leavenworth, Which Lt. Col Lakin May Have Bought Himself a Ticket To See... From the Inside

An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned President Barack Obama’s eligibility to be commander in chief told a jury Wednesday he was wrong to do so and would now deploy if he could. Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of Greeley, Colo. was speaking during a court martial hearing Wednesday at Fort Meade.

He faces up to 3 1/2 years in a military prison and dismissal from the Army after being found guilty of missing a flight that would have gotten him to his eventual deployment and pleading guilty to disobeying orders to meet with a superior and to report to Fort Campbell in Kentucky. He asked the jury to let him remain in the Army when it decides his punishment, and jurors are expected to begin deliberating on his sentence on Thursday.

“I don’t want it to end this way,” said Lakin, a 17-year veteran of the Army. “I want to continue to serve.”

Under questioning by his defense attorney, Neal Puckett, Lakin expressed remorse for disobeying orders. He said he now understands that the Army cannot answer his question about Obama’s eligibility to be president and that it was not the appropriate place to raise the issue.

“I was wrong for trying to push this issue within the Army,” he said.

In videos posted on YouTube earlier this year, Lakin aligned himself with the so-called “birther” movement, which questions whether Obama is a natural-born citizen as the U.S. Constitution requires for presidents. Lakin had said he would “gladly deploy” if Obama’s original birth certificate were released and proved authentic.

On Wednesday, however, Lakin reversed course, saying he would now deploy even with his question unanswered. Puckett asked him why.

“That’s my duty. It’s what I’ve trained for. I’m in the Army,” he replied.

“Are we done disobeying orders, Lt. Col. Lakin?” his attorney asked him.

“Yes,” Lakin replied.

 

Katrina Convictions

More convictions coming down in the murders by New Orleans Police after Katrina…

Jury convicts 3 officers in post-Katrina death

For years after Hurricane Katrina, relatives demanded justice for Henry Glover, who was gunned down outside a strip mall in the storm’s aftermath. His charred remains turned up weeks later in a burned-out car.

At least one of Glover’s family members didn’t find solace Thursday even though a jury convicted three officers in Glover’s death, the burning of his body and in the doctoring of a report to make the shooting appear justified.

Glover’s relatives were also disappointed that two others were acquitted of charges stemming from the alleged cover-up.

“It’s still not behind us,” said Rebecca Glover, Henry Glover’s aunt. “They all should have been guilty. They were all in on it.”

Rebecca Glover also questioned the jury’s decision to find David Warren, a former officer accused of shooting an unarmed Glover in the back, guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.

“It should have been murder, not manslaughter,” sh

France Convicts Continental Airlines of Homicide

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any stranger – a French Judge has convicted Continental Airlines of involuntary homicide for a piece of metal falling off one of their airplanes which is believed to contributed to the Air France Concorde crash in 2000. I am not terribly sure how the French Court could assign blame here – much less a criminal penalty.

The only thing I can see Continental guilty of, in my experience… Is losing bags.

France Finds Continental Guilty in Crash of Concorde

A French judge ruled on Monday that Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics were guilty of involuntary homicide for their role in the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde jet that killed 113 people.

Judge Dominique Andréassier of the court in Pontoise, northwest of Paris, ordered the American carrier to pay a fine of $265,000 and civil damages of more than $1.3 million to Air France. John Taylor, 42, the mechanic, was fined $2,650 and given a suspended 15-month prison sentence.

Henri Perrier, 81, considered the “father” of the iconic supersonic jet and an executive of Aérospatiale, the company that built the Concorde, and two other French officials, Jacques Hérubel, and Claude Frantzen, formerly of the French airline regulator who certified the plane’s airworthiness, were acquitted.

A 2002 report by French air accident investigators concluded that a small strip of metal had fallen off a Continental DC-10 that took off minutes earlier and that the piece punctured a tire of the Concorde as it accelerated down the runway on July 25, 2000. The tire disintegrated in seconds, investigators said, sending shards of rubber into the fuel tanks and causing a catastrophic fire. All 109 passengers and crew members were killed, along with 4 people on the ground.

Olivier Metzner, the French lawyer for Continental in the case, vigorously challenged the investigators’ findings in court, however, and presented a starkly different scenario. Mr. Metzner argued that the investigators disregarded accounts of the accident from more than 20 witnesses who said the plane appeared to have caught fire at a point on the runway several yards before it reached the metal strip.

Continental said it would appeal the “absurd” ruling, which took more than a decade to work its way through the French courts. “To find that any crime was committed in this tragic accident is not supported either by the evidence at trial or by aviation authorities and experts around the world,” Nick Britton, a Continental spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.

 

 

Rangel Trial Begins

Another reason Democrats lost the House. While I certainly support getting the crooks out of Congress, and punishing the guilty…

You mean to tell me there are no guilty white folks in Congress?

And nobody deserves prosecution from the Bushit most corrupt administration in American history?

No wonder the Democrats lost.

Charlie Rangel threatens to walk out of ethics trial

Complaining that he was denied the right to have an attorney present for his ethics trial, an emotional Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) threatened to walk out of the proceedings unless he was given more time to hire counsel.

Rangel began today’s hearing without an attorney present, and he quickly asked for a continuation of his trial. The ethics committee then went into a private session to consider Rangel’s request to postpone the trial.

Rangel parted ways with his law firm Zuckerman Spaeder last month after paying the firm $1.6 million. The New York Democrat said the firm wanted another $1 million, funds that he no longer had available after running through his campaign account.

“I am being denied to the right to have a lawyer right now because I don’t have the opportunity to have a legal defense fund set up,” Rangel said. “And because I don’t have a million dollars to pay my counsel.”

Rangel also complained bitterly that the ethics committee was trying to end the trial and sanction him before the end of the 111th Congress.

“Can you tell me under what theory of fairness would dictate that I be denied due process, that I be denied an attorney, because it’s going to be the end of the session?” Rangel said.

“How far does this go to a person not having counsel, not having due process, because we don’t have the time?”

When Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the ethics committee, said the responsibility to have an attorney present was Rangel’s alone, he lamented that “All I’m asking is for time to have counsel.”

“My reputation, 50 years of public service, has to suffer because you have concluded that this matter has to end before this Congress ends,” Rangel said.

 

Oscar Grant Killer Found Guilty of “Involuntary Manslaughter”

It only took the Rodney King riot and the 2009 Oakland riots to get some justice – what would it take to have had a 2nd degree Murder conviction?

This was flat out murder. In a situation similar to the trial of the Police who beat Rodney King, the trial was moved to an area where the selection of minorities on the jury was statistically improbable – resulting in an all0white jury…

And probably a compromise to convict on the lesser charges.

Oscar Grant's Mother, 2nd From Left.

California transit cop found guilty of manslaughter

A white transit police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man that triggered a night of rioting in Oakland, California.

The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he mistakenly drew his pistol instead of his electric Taser weapon and shot Oscar Grant, 22, while trying to subdue him during a New Year’s Day 2009 confrontation.

But prosecutors said in closing arguments that Mehserle “lost all control” and intentionally shot Grant because he was resisting arrest.

The Los Angeles County jury of four men and eight women deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their verdict, indicating they essentially believed Mehserle’s account that he shot Grant accidentally.

Juries can find a defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter if they believe he lacked the intent to kill but that his actions were so grossly negligent that he should be held criminally responsible for them.

Legal experts have said involuntary manslaughter is generally punishable by two to four years in prison. It is rare for a law enforcement officer to be charged with murder in connection with an on-duty shooting.

Police in Oakland, across the Bay to the east of San Francisco, moved to a tactical alert status as they braced for the possibility of renewed violence following the verdict. But civic leaders appealed for calm.

Demonstrations by supporters of Grant, a young father who worked as a grocery store butcher, were planned in Oakland and Los Angeles.

“We don’t know if we’re going to have a riot or a celebration, but either way we’re going to have one,” protester Cindy Delgado said outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse before the verdict was announced.

“I’m concerned about riots. I don’t want to be hit by a bottle,” said Francisco Raygoza, 30, an accountant leaving work in San Francisco. “Our office manager said leave as soon as you can.”

Video footage of the slaying shown widely over the Internet and television, appeared to show Grant lying face down on the train platform when he was shot in the back. Mehserle was seen holstering his gun immediately afterward and putting his hands on his head as in disbelief.

The killing unleashed charges of police brutality and a night of civil unrest in Oakland, where demonstrators smashed store windows and set cars on fire. Police arrested over 100 people on charges of vandalism, unlawful assembly and assault.

The Alameda County Superior Court judge in the case, which was moved to Los Angeles because of heavy pretrial publicity in Oakland, ruled that the jury could not consider a first-degree murder charge. Judge Robert Perry held there was too little evidence to show the killing was premeditated.

Had he been convicted of second-degree murder, Mehserle faced a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. The jury could alternatively have found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter or acquitted him entirely.

Lawrence Taylor Indicted

Going down…down…down…

Lawrence Taylor indicted on felony third-degree rape charge

Former NFL great Lawrence Taylor has been indicted on two felony counts and three misdemeanor charges related to the alleged rape of a 16-year-old allegedly hired as a prostitute, the Rockland County, N.Y., district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Taylor, 51, faces two class “E” felony counts — third-degree rape and a third-degree criminal sexual act. The other counts are class “A” and “B” misdemeanors: endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree patronizing a prostitute, plus two counts of third-degree sexual abuse. The indictment alleges Taylor had intercourse and oral sex with the teen, then paid her $300. Under New York law, sex with a person younger than 17 constitutes third-degree rape.

Dist. Atty. Thomas P. Zugibe, in a statement, called Taylor “the end-user in the criminal chain known as sex trafficking” and said his office was “going to hold those who create the demand accountable.”

Taylor’s attorney did not respond to Associated Press calls seeking comment.

In a new variation of Mayor Marion Barry’s famous statement when busted for cocaine possession -

Taylor’s wife, Lynette, said she believed her husband was set up.

Another Rodney King Jury In Oscar Grant Trial?

Hat Tip – NewsOne

No Black Jurors Selected For Oscar Grant Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES — The upcoming trial of a white ex-transit officer charged with killing an unarmed black man in Oakland has already sparked racial tensions in the city, one of the reasons the trial was moved to Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, a jury of seven whites, four Hispanics, one East Indian — and no blacks — was selected to hear the case against former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle, according to KTVU-TV.

Mehserle is accused of murdering Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009 in a shooting that was captured on video by several bystanders. He has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys have said he mistakenly pulled his gun rather than a Taser in an attempt to subdue Grant.

Prosecutors contend he intended to shoot Grant and he used his weapon because officers were losing control of the situation.

The trial could be the most racially polarizing of its kind in California since four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King in 1992.