Pending Matters and Open Discussion

Dear friends and visitors,

Here’s heartfelt appreciation to all followers and participants.  Words cannot express my appreciation.

Here are some things happening;

Mesa Police Department officer Philip Brailsford is on trial for the killing of Daniel Shaver.   I’ll post on it when the jury hands in a verdict.

The jury is deliberating in the federal trial of three Boynton Beach police officers accused of violating the civil rights of a passenger in a vehicle.   If they reach a verdict tomorrow, I’ll blog it on Monday.

Charleston, West Virginia officer Stephen Doss plead guilty to failing to use his lights and sirens in a crash that killed 80-year old Dora Clarke.  Doss initially faced a charge of negligent homicide which carries a one year prison sentence and $100 fine.  His plea carries a maximum sentence of 10 days in jail.  Sentencing is scheduled for December 7, 2017.  Last week, the Charleston City Council approved a $675,000 settlement for a wrongful death claim that followed Doss’ accident.

After failing to appear in court on Tuesday, Loveland, Colorado police Sgt. Justin Chase is headed to trial on November 14, 2017.  He is charged with harassment and third-degree assault for allegedly using excessive force.

Last week, former DeKalb County Georgia corrections officer Charles Pinckney was found guilty on charges of statutory rape, child molestation and sexual battery.  Pinckney was a no-show on the last day of trial and has fallen off the radar.  A warrant has been issued and the U.S. Marshall is on his trail.

Trial for Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago officer who killed Laquan McDonald, is scheduled for next month.

I cannot find where any of the trials currently taking place are live-streamed or followed in a manner that tells us anything worthwhile to follow.   Because Illinois does allow cameras in courtrooms, there’s a chance that we might get to watch Van Dyke’s trial.

Because so much is happening so quickly, I generally tweet links to news articles rather than taking time to write and publish posts on each trial.  If you do not have a Twitter account to follow me, you can still see my timeline on the right-side border of this blog under “My Beautiful Community.”

The section for “documents” has been removed.  It had not gotten any hits in months.  I considered doing a page containing a database of the documents, but that would require me to consistently update each time a document was added.  Most of the documents were embedded in posts so if anyone is looking for documents, they can use the search engine on this blog.

Veterans Day is approaching, and with it my annual family gathering for free meals for vets.  Since Veterans Day this year falls on a Saturday, Friday is considered the federal holiday. Many restaurants are offering free meals to vets on Friday and others are doing the same for the entire weekend.  We anticipate long lines in the restaurants.  That means preparing a list of at least 5 restaurants so if the line is too long in one, we can continue to another.

I don’t plan on writing a blog post until after the weekend.  Please feel free to use the comment section to post and/or discuss any subject.

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Play nice with each other.  Hold on to faith and if you have no faith, hold on to someone you love.  Heck!  Hold on to someone you love anyway.