Walter Scott Murderer, ex-Cop Michael Slager to Plead Guilty in Federal Court

Those who are either old enough to remember the KKK murders in places like Mississippi, and the resultant trials where all-white juries of the time couldn’t find them guilty will draw a correlation between the Walter Scott Murder trial ending in a hung jury despite video evidence that he was murdered by former Officer Michael Slager.

In quite possibly the last Civil Rights prosecution until the racist Chumph and his minions are removed from office, one small victory.

Sources: Police officer arrested in Walter Scott shooting to plead guilty in federal civil rights case

The former North Charleston police officer who was filmed shooting Walter Scott to death is expected to plead guilty this afternoon in connection with a federal civil rights prosecution, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the case.

Such a plea agreement for Michael Slager, 35, would come on the eve of his trial stemming from the April 2015 killing.

It remains unclear to what charges Slager would plead. In federal court, sentencing also is seldom handed down on the same day as a plea. Instead, probation agents would prepare a pre-sentencing report in the coming weeks, and a judge would decide a penalty later.

The sources confirmed that Slager was scheduled to enter the plea during a 2:30 p.m. hearing at U.S. District Court in downtown Charleston, but they declined to publicly discuss the development until then. The former lawman also could change his mind before the proceeding.

A Scott family spokesman, Ryan Julison, said the loved ones would speak out after the hearing.

Slager could face as little as no prison time and as much as life behind bars on the most serious count against him: deprivation of rights under the color of law. He also is charged with lying to state investigators and using a firearm in a violent crime.

In state court, where a hung jury prompted a mistrial last year, Slager is still charged with murder. It’s unknown whether that case also would be resolved.

Jury selection for the May 15 federal trial had been scheduled for next week.

Today’s pretrial hearing had been set for this morning, but it was rescheduled for the afternoon, according to a Monday filing that did not give a reason for the time change. The hearing was expected to be lengthy, with attorneys offering expert testimony and arguing in front of Judge David Norton about whether certain witnesses should be allowed to testify in the trial.

Slager, who is white, has maintained that he shot Scott, 50, a black man, in self-defense after Scott took his Taser.

But the federal indictment alleged that Slager used excessive force when he opened fire.

The officer pulled over Scott’s car because of a broken brake light on April 4, 2015, and Scott ran. Slager said Scott grabbed the stun gun during a fight.

But the video, filmed by eyewitness Feidin Santana, showed Scott turning around and running as Slager pulled his .45-caliber pistol and started shooting. Five of the eight bullets hit Scott from behind.

Santana called it “abuse,” and his footage captured worldwide attention amid scrutiny of police uses of force against black people.

A jury made up of Charleston County residents last year considered Santana’s and Slager’s views in state court, where the panel could not agree on whether Slager had committed murder, manslaughter or no crime at all.

The jurors for the civil rights proceeding are scheduled to be chosen next week in Columbia from a pool of residents from across South Carolina.

The defense team, led by attorney Andy Savage, had argued that a jury that’s less exposed to intense news coverage of the shooting would give Slager a fairer trial.

 

Justice Department to Seek Death Penalty for Dylan Roof

Bring back the Electric Chair! Toast him.

Justice Department To Seek Death Penalty For S.C. Church Shooting Suspect

The Justice Department says it will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof, accused of fatally shooting nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015.

“The nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm compelled this decision,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

The federal hate-crime charges against Roof “center on both the victims’ race and their identity as church-goers who were attempting to follow their religious beliefs when Roof attacked,” as The Two-Way reported last summer. At the time, Lynch called hate crimes “the original domestic terrorism.” Roof also faces federal weapons charges.

“The Justice Department says he selected the [Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church] and his victims to win notoriety and to try to ignite a race war,” NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports. “Roof has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.”

Roof’s lawyer David Bruck declined to comment on Tuesday’s decision in an email to Carrie.

There is a separate case against Roof filed by authorities in South Carolina. Prosecutors in that case are also seeking the death penalty, as we reported in September.

Survivors of the attack and family members of the deceased victims “had differing views on whether Roof should face execution,” The Charleston Post and Courier says. An attorney for family members of three of the victims told the paper on Tuesday:

“The families will support this decision. Really, I think the families have mixed emotions about the death penalty. But if it’s ever going to be given, this case certainly calls for it.”

Roof is scheduled to be tried in January in the state case. It’s unclear at this point when the federal trial will take place.

 

Orange Jumpsuit Award…Kwame Kilpatrick

What do you award a guy who already has a monogrammed, bespoke, Orange Jumpsuit?

Ex Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick mulls a long stay in Prison

Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick indicted by feds on 19 mail fraud, tax counts

Kwame Kilpatrick illegally used the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund like a piggy bank to pay for crisis consultants, a Cadillac, trips — even summer camp for his kids — a federal grand jury said Wednesday, charging the former mayor with 19 counts of fraud and tax evasion.

The indictment comes seven years after Internal Revenue Service and FBI agents began looking into the fund in the wake of a Free Press report that a homeless shelter operator gave the fund $50,000 during Kilpatrick’s first run for mayor in 2001. The newspaper reported that Kilpatrick then wrote a letter recommending the shelter receive a multimillion-dollar public contract.

Despite Kilpatrick’s repeated claims to the contrary, the indictment says he used fund money for campaign and personal expenses, ranging from polling to yoga and golf lessons to college tuition for relatives.

Prosecutors contend he failed to report more than $640,000 in taxable income while mayor that he received in the form of cash, flights on private jets and perks paid for out of the civic fund.

“This indictment sends a clear message that those who make up their own rules based on fraud and deceit will be prosecuted,” said Maurice Aouate, head of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Detroit.

The indictment did not include public corruption charges, a point Kilpatrick spokesman Mike Paul seized upon.

He called speculation that the former mayor was involved in bribery schemes “lies from the pit of hell!”

“The FBI found nothing remotely close to that in their investigation because it never happened! This investigation puts an end to the ridiculous rumors that the mayor was personally involved with corruption, payoffs and bribes.”

Two questions behind this prosecution –

1) Why aren’t the Feds convicting Republican David Vitter for “Ho’ Fraud” – using federal money to pay for prostitutes? Or whatever happened to the criminal prosecution of Tom Delay?

2) What do you award a guy who already has an Orange Jumpsuit with his name on it?

The First Ever, BTx3 Orange Bootie Award to match that Orange Jumpsuit! With the Very Masculine Harley-Davison Logo... So the other Prisoners don't get the wrong idea!