Spence-Jones pleads not guilty to bribery charges
The suspended commissioner turned herself in today in a Miami-Dade courtroom, but was released on her previously posted bond. She entered a not guilty plea, and left the courtroom saying only “God be the glory.”
Meanwhile, the Miami New Times’ Riptide team gives the developer in the latest Spence-Jones saga, FOJ (friend of Jeb) Armando Codina, the Tiger Beat treatment. Spoiler alert: Spence-Jones isn’t the only Miamian to refer to themselves in the third person…!
Grand jury delivers new charges against Spence-Jones
The ousted commissioner’s life just got even more complicated. From the Miami Herald comes word a Miami-Dade grand jury has indicted Michelle Spence-Jones on bribery charges, stemming from allegations she solicited $25,000 from a developer seeking her vote on an office building project. (Read the indictment) Read more
Austin terror pilot left anti-tax screed
Austin suicide pilot Joseph Stack
File this one under “ideas have consequences…” Who knows what his ideology was (is there an ideology called “insane?”) but Joseph Stack, the man who plowed a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, injuring at least 13 people, left an anti-IRS manifesto that sounded eerily similar to some of the more extreme stuff coming out of the right, including at tea party rallies and “patriot movement” protests (not to mention Glenn Beck) … Stack appeared to be a grab bag of complaints. He rails at taxes, the bank bailouts, government in general, corporate greed the IRS and more, and he concludes with what sounds like a call for others to follow his lead:
UPDATE: Stack made a music video
“I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
Roeder convicted of Tiller murder in just 37 minutes
Convicted murderer Scott Roeder
It was an open and shut case, and never hinged on whether or not Scott Roeder, 51, shot Dr. George Tiller in the head while the doctor was attending a church service, because he admitted that he did just that (and there was a church full of witnesses.) Instead:
Roeder even admitted that he had planned the killing. The defendant’s lawyers argued only that the criminal charge should be something short of murder– voluntary manslaughter, perhaps– because Roeder said that he had killed Tiller in order to save others– unborn children– from harm.
Clearly, Tiller posed no harm to “unborn children” as he sat in the pews of a Lutheran church, in addition to the fact that Tiller’s practice, providing abortion services, is legal, even in Kansas. Read more
Burned teen goes home for Christmas
Michael Brewer, the teenager who was set on fire by a group of classmates earlier this year, has gone home from the hospital:
The take-down of Buju Banton
The DEA has put its case against Buju Banton (real name Mark Myrie) on blast, and the details aren’t pretty. From the Jamaica Observer:
Yesterday, the DEA released a criminal complaint signed by Special Agent Daniel McCaffrey who said that on December 8 he and agents from the DEA Tampa district office, as well as officers from the Sarasota Police Department received information from a confidential source (CS) that Buju Banton and associates “wanted to purchase kilogramme amounts of cocaine in the Sarasota area of the Middle District of Florida”. Read more
Pastor Smith, ‘invincible’ Eggelletion, face the music
Rev. Gaston Smith found guilty of grand theft on December 11.
The trial was short — lasting only three days. The defense called no witnesses, and lawyers for Friendship Missionary Baptist Church’s senior pastor Gaston Smith did the opposite of what many had expected: hitching their defense to ousted Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones, and claiming that the prosecution of Smith was part of a witch hunt against Spence-Jones. Smith’s side called no witnesses, but Gaston’s attorneys tried to convince the jury that the state attorney wanted the right reverend to lie on his numero uno parishioner by saying the $8,000 Spence-Jones got from his $25,000 Friends of MLK grant (while she was a staffer for then-Mayor Manny Diaz) was a bribe, and not a “consulting fee.” As for the $10,000 from that grant that Smith himself was accused of looting? Read more
Well you knew how this thing was gonna end
Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of gunning down four Seattle police officers who were minding their own business, sitting in a coffee shop, has been shot dead by police. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a prosecution (or more than one) in this case … Read more
Teen expresses sympathy in torching of ‘friend’
Jeremy Jarvis, the younger brother of Denver Colorado Jarvis (yes, that’s his real name) — one of three teenagers charged with attempted murder (as adults) in the torching of Michael Brewer, who was doused with rubbing alcohol and set on fire as five boys surrounded him, has made his first public statement, expressing sympathy for the burned teen. (Contrary to the headlines, there was no actual apology.) Jeremy Jarvis who is just 13, has not yet been charged like his broth “DC,” aged 15, and two other teens, Matthew Bent, 15 and Jesus Mendez, 16. And he includes a shout out to his brother, along with “Mikey,” whom he called “one of his best friends” (a friend he allegedly watched being set on fire.) In the video below, Jarvis’ lawyer reveals that the seventh grader has been expelled from school due to his arrest, and is being home schooled. Watch:
By the way, Denver and Jeremy Jarvis’ mom previously apologized to the Brewer family, in the old fashioned sense of the word. Read more
Local Buzz: Spence-Jones, Charlie Crist and the walk of shame
Charlie Crist wants no part of the Miami mess, according to press reports. The Herald is reporting that the governor has no current plans to name replacements for two disgraced Miami commissioners, and instead, is hoping to defer to the rump commission, despite the fact that it currently has just two members, and let them choose replacements for Angel Gonzales, who stepped down to avoid facing the long arm of the law, and Michelle Spence Jones, whom Crist suspended yesterday after she turned herself in on theft charges. Crist has apparently been in touch with newly elected Mayor Tomas Regalado, and has said that he’d prefer to wait for the District 4 run-off, and then to allow a three-man panel to pick the two replacements. If that’s true, it would makes sense, since the governor would likely prefer to avoid a fresh fight with the crazies in his party who would no doubt demand that he find two purity-tested wingnuts to fill the posts in the majority Hispanic and majority black districts (in Marco Rubio’s back yard), where he could also risk alienating two key general election constituencies. And oh, what a headache that would be. Read more
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