Shirley Sherrod will sue Andrew Breitbart

See all Shirley Sherrod posts.

This should be an interesting case. I think Sherrod will win. Andrew Breitbart intentionally doctored a video to make it look like she was saying the exact opposite of what she really was saying. This seems to be a hobby of Breitbart, who apparently does not find support for his positions in the real world, so he constructs fake evidence to back up his beliefs.

Obama urges a dialogue on race after Sherrod case
July 29, 2010
By Mimi Hall
USA TODAY

President Obama said Thursday that all Americans should spend more time talking about a sensitive subject that he has addressed only sparingly since he took office: race.

In a speech to the National Urban League and on the ABC daytime talk show The View, the president talked about race relations in the context of the controversy surrounding the recent firing of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod.

Sherrod's own comments about race were misconstrued after a snippet of a 43-minute speech she gave to the NAACP was posted last week on the conservative blog biggovernment.com. The clip made Sherrod, who is black, appear racist as she recounted a time when she purposefully didn't give a white farmer the help he needed. The whole speech reveals that she was using the anecdote as part of a broader story about racial reconciliation.

They day after she was fired, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized for taking action based on just the edited video and offered Sherrod her job back. She has not said whether she'll take it. She announced Thursday that she will sue the blogger, Andrew Breitbart, who posted the video...



Race isn't the problem -- economic inequality is
Shirley Sherrod says the social war is about money, not race.
Associated Press
By Michelle Singletary
July 25, 2010

Instead of focusing on the politics behind the firing and subsequent redemption of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod, we should consider what she was trying to tell us when she addressed the NAACP.

Sherrod became the latest hot-topic story after a conservative blogger posted a video that was edited to make it appear she went out of her way to not offer help to a white farmer when she worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund decades ago. Sherrod was summarily asked to resign and then, in a New York minute, was vindicated when the full video of her speech revealed she had been instrumental in saving the man's farm.

Given her work and experience, we need to hear Sherrod out.

There is a disturbing and widening gulf between the rich and the poor in America. And it would be even wider except for the fact that so many middle-income families have borrowed their way to a comfortable lifestyle. They are just a paycheck, a divorce or a heath crisis away from financial ruin.

Sherrod said that while working with the white farmer, she realized that the social war we've been having isn't about race but economic inequity.

"Y'all, it's about poor versus those who have," Sherrod said in her speech. "It's really about those who have versus those who don't, you know. And they could be black; and they could be white; they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people -- those who don't have access the way others have."
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Over the past several decades, more and more Americans have come to this realization. The number of people who believe they are among the have-nots has doubled from 17 percent in 1988 to 34 percent in 2007, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. The economic data back up this perception. Income gains over the past few decades have been heavily concentrated at the very top of the economic ladder...

Agriculture Dept woman was fired for promoting racial reconciliation

Conservative bloggers went after her with a distorted story, and Democrats caved in to the pressure.

Discrimination against black farmers (Look for the discrimination video by scrolling in the "recommended" window at top right.)

WH apologizes to fired Ag worker; she mulls return
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BEN EVANS
AP
7/21/10

The White House did a sudden about-face Wednesday and begged for forgiveness from the black Agriculture Department employee whose ouster ignited an embarrassing political firestorm over race...

Sherrod said she resigned under White House pressure after the airing of a video of racial remarks she made at an NAACP gathering. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said repeatedly on Wednesday that the decision had been his alone.

"I asked for Shirley's forgiveness and she was gracious enough to extend it to me," he said after reaching her by telephone...

It all began with the airing of a video on a conservative website of Sherrod's remarks about not doing all she could to help a white farmer two decades ago. After she was told to resign — with the NAACP declaring its approval — the situation grew more complicated when the rest of the edited video was released by the NAACP and Sherrod insisted her remarks were about reconciliation, not the stoking of racism...


Jul 22, 2010
The civil rights heroism of Charles Sherrod
Andrew Breitbart sure picked the wrong people to symbolize black "racism." Taylor Branch and Clay Carson weigh in
By Joan Walsh
Salon.com

People who care about civil rights and racial reconciliation may eventually thank Andrew Breitbart for bringing Shirley Sherrod the global attention she deserves. Really. Her message of racial healing, her insight that the forces of wealth and injustice have always pit "the haves and the have-nots" against each other, whatever their race, is exactly what's missing in today's Beltway debates about race. What's even more amazing, but almost completely unexplored in this controversy, is the historic civil rights leadership role of her husband, Charles Sherrod, an early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who served on the front lines of the nonviolent civil rights movement in the early 1960s.

Despite Breitbart's attempt to cast Shirley Sherrod as The, um, Man ("The Woman" doesn't have the same ring), out to keep oppressed white folk down, under our first black racist president, she turned out to be the opposite, an advocate of justice for everybody. Given that history, it's fascinating to learn more about her husband, an early SNCC leader known for being willing to work with white volunteers even after tension developed over the role of whites in the organization. Charles Sherrod is important for much more than the fairness with which he treated whites, but given Breitbart's attempt to make his wife the poster woman for black "racism," that footnote to his leadership history is particularly noteworthy...

Innocent teacher Tonya Craft says false accusations can happen to anyone, anytime

The fact that these cases keep popping up around the country, with outrageous false accusations that no normal person would take seriously, is an indication of how dysfunctional our justice system is. How do police manage to ignore the warning signs of a child custody suit gone wrong, and witnesses who admit they're lying?

See all Tonya Craft posts.

“I want to make people aware that this can happen any time, anywhere, to anyone,” she said. “The children that are part of false accusations are just as devastated as those who are truly molested.”


Craft gives live interview on NBC, defense team to appear on 'Larry King'
Rome News Tribune
May 11, 2010

Former Ringgold teacher Tonya Craft appeared live on NBC’s “Today” show this morning, a day after being acquitted on charges she molested three young girls...

"Today" host Meredith Vieira interviewed Craft, her husband and her lawyer. Craft told Vieira that she had been worried about the verdict after researching other cases involving false accusations.

“I almost couldn’t let myself think there was going to be a not guilty,” she said. “I never thought I could be arrested for something I didn’t do, so I absolutely had to expect the worst.”

Craft also talked about her daughter — one of the alleged victims — testifying for the prosecution, and how the children truly believed something happened to them.

“That was the absolute hardest thing I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “There was no anger towards her. It absolutely broke my heart.”

There have been death threats made against Craft since the verdict, the interview revealed.

But Craft’s focus now is on regaining custody of her children, and educating others on the effects of false accusations...

Ex-Teacher's Trial a Sham, Supporters Say

UPDATE: TONYA CRAFT NOT GUILTY

Tonya Craft Verdict: Not Guilty - Tonya Craft Found Not Guilty of 22 Counts of Child Molestation
May 11, 2010
Gather

Ex-kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft was found not guilty today of 22 counts of child molestation. The Tonya Craft verdict was announced at about 5:30 today.

The jury read the not guilty verdict to all 22 accounts, including molestation, sexual battery, and aggravated molestation.

The Tonya Craft verdict may have gotten Craft out of going to prison, but Craft's life will never be the same. Since she was arrested for molestation, Craft has lost her job and her house...



This case sounds an awful lot like the Dale Akiki and Jim Wade cases here in San Diego. I must say this about our District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis: as much as I am appalled by the abuses of her Public Integrity Unit (now defunct), at least she never did anything this insane.

The timing of these accusations was extremely convenient for the ex-husband of the accused, who who waging a child-custody battle against the accused.

"As the trial continued, many conflicting details emerged. One of the alleged victims admitted to lying in a previously taped interview, and another said she was promised a toy for talking to police. Other times, witnesses said they could not remember pertinent details of the case."


Ex-Teacher's Trial a Sham, Supporters Say
May 11, 2010
AOL News

Supporters of Tonya Craft are speaking out as both sides anxiously await a verdict today in the five-week trial of the former northwest Georgia elementary school teacher accused of molesting three young girls. Craft's supporters called the entire ordeal a "sham" that should never have been allowed to occur.

"It's divided the community between those who are intelligent and can think for themselves and those who are blindly led," local resident Harmony Lefler told AOL News. "It's horrible to say that, but it is the truth."

Keri Mann, a resident of nearby Chattanooga, Tenn., and a member of the Facebook group Truth for Tonya, agrees.

Tonya Craft arrives at court on May 6, 2010, in Ringgold, Ga.
Billy Weeks, AP
Tonya Craft arrives at her trial in Ringgold, Ga., on Thursday. She was charged with child molestation in June 2008.
"I have not met one person who believes she is guilty," Mann said after closing arguments Monday in Ringgold, Ga. "There are several teachers and former teachers in my family who were all stunned by this case. ... As a future teacher, I am scared to even work in this community because of these allegations."

Craft, a mother of two, was arrested in June 2008, after she was accused of molesting three girls, age 5 and 6. Prosecutors say the incidents occurred at her former residence on Sycamore Drive.

The five-week trial began in Catoosa County Superior Court on April 12. Jurors heard tearful testimony from the three young accusers, who are now 8 and 9 years old, and their parents. One of the alleged victims said Craft molested her "in kindergarten and first grade."

As the trial continued, many conflicting details emerged. One of the alleged victims admitted to lying in a previously taped interview, and another said she was promised a toy for talking to police. Other times, witnesses said they could not remember pertinent details of the case.

A nurse and doctor testified that the three girls in question showed signs "suspicious of sexual abuse," but Dr. Nancy Fajman, a professor of pediatric medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, said she saw nothing suspicious in her review of the forensic photos of the exam.

"I find nothing suspicious about it, and I would report it as a normal examination," Fajman said.

The defense also presented several teachers from Chickamauga Elementary School who said they had no reason to believe Craft had acted inappropriately with any of her students and spoke highly of her as a teacher.

Craft's attorneys argued she was the victim of revenge, following an April 2008 investigation she had initiated when she began to suspect her own children were being abused after her divorce. That investigation, which was later closed, occurred one month before the allegations against Craft surfaced...

Teresa Barth thinks if Jerome Stocks isn't doing what she wants, then he's harassing her

Teresa Barth sounds a lot like Robin Donlan and her pals at Chula Vista Elementary School District, although at least Barth didn't make an anonymous complaint. I believe that the public has a right to know when public servants go nuts. It seems that the harasser here is Barth, not Stocks.

Councilwoman's harassment complaint eyed
Findings could be released
By Tanya Mannes, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 10, 2010

Encinitas City Councilwoman Teresa Barth filed a harassment complaint with the city against Councilman Jerome Stocks late last year after he didn’t nominate her for deputy mayor and criticized her in remarks to newspaper reporters on why he didn’t choose her.

Legal counsel deemed the complaint invalid because Barth is not technically a city employee, but only after the city spent $15,249 in legal fees investigating it.

Stocks and Barth are accusing each other of political gamesmanship. Barth’s complaint also mentions Mayor Dan Dalager, saying he and Stocks are part of a “good old boy” culture at City Hall. Stocks has called for making the results of the investigation public, and the council will vote Wednesday on waiving the city’s confidentiality policy; Barth released the complaint itself last week.

“I tried to do this internally so that it would not be politicized, and it was Mr. Stocks who leaked the presence of the investigation to the media,” Barth said Friday.

She said Stocks and Dalager targeted her because of her “whistle-blowing in terms of open government.”

Stocks said, “These allegations demonstrate very clearly that Ms. Barth is vindictive, mean-spirited and is unhappy that she didn’t get her way.”...

Ira Glass takes on Steve Poizner and his (apparently untrue) book about Mount Pleasant High School

This American Life Episode Transcript
“What’s That Smell?”
Broadcast April 23, 2010
Acts One of Episode #406, “True Urban Legends”

...At the age of 45, after starting one Silicon Valley company that he sold for 30 million dollars and a second one that sold for a billion dollars, Poizner didn't need to work any more...

He's allowed to teach one U.S. government class for one semester, under another teacher's supervision.

...there's a full chapter and Poizner links to it from his campaign website, you can read it yourself. And the chapter raised more questions than it answered. It is a very odd chapter, all about Poizner's first days teaching a class at Mt. Pleasant. There's scene after scene where he's floundering, standing in front of the class asking big, abstract questions – "would you want to live in a country where the leader didn't want to lead? If the money issued by the government wasn't any good, or people were treated unfairly?" None of the students respond. He's a rookie teacher; he doesn't know how to engage them yet. Nothing unusual there.

But here was the strange thing: the conclusion Poizner comes to - again and again during these scenes - isn't that he's doing anything wrong or has anything to learn as a teacher. Instead, he blames the kids. They're tough, they're unmotivated, they lack ambition, they're wired differently. The students, meanwhile, in every scene in the book (I read the whole book), seem utterly lovely. Polite, they don't interrupt, they don’t talk back, they just seem a little bored. His very worst student is a graduating senior who's hoping to go into the Marines.

Checking school records I learned that Poizner's unmotivated, unambitious class included one of the school valedictorians, Charles Rudy, who graduated and went to college.

Could he be getting this so completely wrong? I wondered. Could he have written an entire book misperceiving so thoroughly what was happening right in front of his eyes, and now is trying to use that book to run for governor? It seemed too incredible. And, that's what brought me to San Jose last week, to visit the school and its neighborhood...

Sudhir Karandikar: The whole ducking bullets, and the kid’s going to hit him and his Lexus is going to get stolen, it was either a gross exaggerations for the sake of making a dramatic book or he just misread it. Let’s move on. We know he got the safety issue wrong. As far as academic performance of the school, he was dead on. Academically, I don’t find anything wrong in his conclusions or assessments of our school. Academically.

Mark Holston: Half the state of California who he’s trying to represent looks like our neighborhood. Our neighborhood looks more like California than the neighborhood he comes from. So I think he’s completely out of touch. I hate to think that somebody even getting this far could be that naïve and be that clueless. That’s even scarier, because I’m sure he’s going to run for something else, and he can’t be that way off. It’s terrifying if he’s that way off again. This is an average high school, and if he was the governor, he’d be the chief educator for the state of California. And if he can misinterpret what he sees in this school, and portray a school as one of the toughest when it’s an average high school in California, it’s scary for our future in California if he ever got elected.

Ira Glass: One week after Poizner's book made it to #5 on the bestseller list, it dropped to #33. The campaign declined to give sales figures for the book, and declined to say whether it bought enough copies itself in that first week to put the book on the bestseller list.

The principal at Mt. Pleasant told me she now finds herself now with an awkward dilemma. Poizner has donated the profits from the book sales to the school, and she's not sure they should take it. He got so many things wrong about Mt. Pleasant and offended so many people. But at the same time, with budgets being slashed, it's hard to turn her back on any money that might help her students.

Woman wrongly arrested wants apology from police, Bonnie Dumanis

Stories like this make me realize why there are so many innocent people who are released when their DNA is tested: eyewitness identification is pretty close to worthless, especially across racial lines. If there hadn't been a video for a clear-eyed judge to look at, this woman might still have charges pending against her. Couldn't District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis find a black cop to take a look at the video? The problem might have been solved a lot sooner if she had.


I don't understand why some people can't apologize when they make a harmful mistake. It makes me wonder if the police and District Attorney think that it's okay for them to trample on people like this and then shrug it off. This isn't what we pay them to do. They get high salaries to do a thorough, professional job.

Woman wrongly arrested wants apology
By Brian Flores
FOX 5 San Diego
April 14, 2010

LA MESA, Calif. - A La Mesa woman who was mistakenly arrested for a series of crimes against senior citizens says she wants and apology from the San Diego District Attorney's Office and police.

Deidria Nicholson told Fox 5 News that she didn't know what she was being arrested for Thursday, but she knew it was a serious situation.

"I can tell you that at that moment, I did not fully understand the charges against me," Nicholson said. "But when I got outside and saw the media, I thought, somebody out here made a big mistake."

Earlier this month, police released a video surveillance photo of a woman responsible for a string of burglaries against local elderly people. Investigators received a phone tip last Thursday that led them to Nicholson. Nicholson said her La Mesa apartment was surrounded by 10 to 14 police officers that afternoon. She said the officers gathered evidence, including receipts, post cards, and some of her hair products. She said she was taken away in handcuffs.

Nicholson's son, Ellis Twine II, said his mother's arrest was bewildering to everyone who knows her.

"I was just shocked, and everybody I told about was in shock, thinking if it was an April fool's joke or something," Twine said.

Nicholson spent five days in custody. She was arraigned Monday afternoon and pleaded not guilty. She adamantly maintained that she was a victim of mistaken identity. Just hours after the arraignment, prosecutors dropped all charges and Nicholson was released. Authorities said they had arrested the wrong person...

Police Beating of Maryland Student Caught on Video

"In a sworn statement, county police officer Sean McAleavey said McKenna and Donat "struck" other officers and their horses, "causing minor injuries.""

I think that police officers who file false reports should be reprimanded. I believe that the same is true for school officials and employees who file false reports. The Maryland police officers' stories are even more outrageous than stories made up by Richard Werlin and Castle Park Elementary teachers.



Police Beating of Maryland Student Caught on Video
Mara Gay
AOL News
(April 13, 2010

Without the video, this might have been a classic case of "he said, she said."

But there is a video. And so the case against two University of Maryland students accused of attacking police after a basketball game last month was dropped after the footage showed county police beating one of those students repeatedly with a baton. Now a new kind of accusation is being leveled, this one against the officers: police brutality...

Pete Wilson, who opposed Proposition 13, is on board of Chamber of Commerce that attacked Brown for opposing Prop 13

Deceiving voters is apparently the goal of the Chamber of Commerce, and, one suspects, the goal of Pete Wilson and Meg Whitman.


"The chamber ad fails to point out that the organization took the same position for which it is now criticizing Brown...The chamber's commercial and Web site acknowledge that the job losses to which it refers have occurred since 2007—long after Brown was governor and while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who received the chamber's endorsement, was in office."

Groups say attack ad against Brown violates law
By JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
04/07/2010

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Two groups complained Wednesday to California's campaign watchdog agency about a television commercial funded by the California Chamber of Commerce that attacks Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown.

The ad and an accompanying Web site say Brown, the state's current attorney general, raised spending as governor from 1975 to 1983 and opposed Proposition 13, which limited property tax increases.

"California's lost 1 million jobs. We're $200 billion in debt, and Jerry Brown has a 35-year record of higher spending and increased taxes," says the ad, which the chamber said in a news release will air "throughout virtually all of California in the coming weeks."

The California Democratic Party and the Santa Monica-based group Consumer Watchdog complained Wednesday to the Fair Political Practices Commission, arguing that the ad violated California elections law.

The groups say the ad, which was not paid for by the chamber's political action committee, is intended to defeat Brown and therefore should be subject to disclosure rules about who paid for it. They also say it's costing the chamber more than $1 million.

They also note that Republican candidate Meg Whitman's campaign manager, former Gov. Pete Wilson, is on the chamber's board...

The chamber's commercial and Web site acknowledge that the job losses to which it refers have occurred since 2007—long after Brown was governor and while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who received the chamber's endorsement, was in office.

While Brown did oppose Proposition 13, which was approved by about two-thirds of voters in 1978, so did Wilson and the chamber, along with the California Taxpayers Association. They supported an alternative measure for a split-roll tax with lower taxes for owner-occupied homes.

The chamber ad fails to point out that the organization took the same position for which it is now criticizing Brown...

Eric Cantor's phony victim story: His false claim of office gunshots functioned as the Ashley Todd tale of 2010, distracting from right-wing violence

AP
Left: Ashley Todd on Oct. 22, 2008. Right: House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia.




Mar 26, 2010
Eric Cantor's phony victim story
His false claim of office gunshots functioned as the Ashley Todd tale of 2010, distracting from right-wing violence
By Joan Walsh

Did House GOP Whip Eric Cantor just become 2010's answer to Ashley Todd, the white McCain supporter who claimed she was assaulted by a black Obama backer in October 2008?

You remember the story: A 20-year-old McCain-Palin volunteer told Pittsburgh police that a black man robbed her, and then, when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on her car, he beat her and carved a B – for "Barack" -- into her cheek, and told her she better support the black Democrat. Days later, the clearly disturbed Todd confessed that she made up the attack, and apparently mutilated herself to provide "evidence." But for a few days, the right wing insisted Todd's attacker was the Democratic equivalent of the menacing crowds at Sarah Palin rallies shouting "Kill him!" and "Terrorist!" about Obama. Drudge and Fox News hyped the story, with Fox news V.P. John Moody even claiming the attack might lead some voters to "revisit their support for Senator Obama."

No one's accusing Cantor of shooting up his own office, but from the minute he made his claim -- also implying he was targeted because he was Jewish -- it was almost certain to be untrue. [Maura Larkins' note: Cantor isn't the only one who plays games like this. See declaration of Daniel Shinoff for his lawsuit for defamation against this blogger.]

In the very first AP report on the incident, the Richmond police said the bullet had been fired into the air, not through Cantor's window. Two photos in Salon show that the nondescript office building is unmarked, with no signs indicating Cantor or his staff have one of the suites inside. Friday Richmond police confirmed the bullet was a stray: Neither Cantor nor his office was targeted, and in fact the bullet didn't even land in his office. A spokesman for Cantor told reporters he was "very happy" his story turned out not to be true...

De Villepin was a victim, not an instigator, of smear campaign

Former French PM Acquitted of Slandering Sarkozy
Voice of America
January 28, 2010


Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin has been acquitted on charges of orchestrating a smear campaign against President Nicolas Sarkozy. The verdict opens the path for Mr. de Villepin's political return.

In a statement following the verdict, Mr. de Villepin saluted the Paris court that delivered the judgment for its courage in allowing justice to prevail over politics.

...Several other defendants were convicted on a variety of charges and another was acquitted.

...Mr. de Villepin was accused of complicity in slander and forgery in a tangled case involving bogus kickback accounts. The fake accounts were part of a larger campaign to smear the image of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other top political figures...

Acquitted teacher awaits word on reinstatement

Sometimes guilty people can be the most vehement in making accusations of innocent people to cover up their own wrongdoing. I saw the mother of the 16-year-old in the story below on TV. The woman seemed to be out-of-bounds in her anger. Some parents just won't believe their kids might be lying, but this jury unanimously agreed that the accuser was covering up his own guilt in this matter. The teacher only needed one juror on her side to avoid conviction; she had all twelve on her side.

It looks like Bonnie Dumanis screwed up again on this prosecution. Was she just doing what district lawyers wanted to gain political support?


Acquitted teacher awaits word on reinstatement
San Diego Union Tribune
January 28, 2010

IMPERIAL BEACH — The school district that placed a South County teacher on paid leave pending her trial on molestation charges said yesterday that it would know more next week on whether Carmina Erica Lopez, who was acquitted Monday, would get her job back.

Jurors on Monday found Lopez, 33, not guilty of all charges in the two-week molestation trial involving a former student, who also is her godson, after beginning deliberations late Friday in Chula Vista Superior Court.

South Bay Union School District Superintendent Carol Parish said the district was awaiting word from the state about whether Lopez’s credentials would be reinstated.

In a statement released yesterday, Parish said Lopez’s compulsory leave of absence would end no later than 10 days after Monday’s judgment. She said the district could make no decision until then.

Lopez denied molesting the boy, who is not being identified by The San Diego Union-Tribune because the newspaper does not name minors involved in sex-crime cases. She testified that she was repeatedly raped and threatened by the boy, now 16, to keep quiet.

Lopez most recently taught fifth grade at Sunnyslope Elementary School in Palm City. She began teaching at the district’s Oneonta Elementary School in Imperial Beach in 2004, and later that year transferred to Nestor Elementary. She moved to Sunnyslope in 2005.

Bob Boyce, Lopez’s attorney, said yesterday that his client was taking things “day by day.”

JANINE ZÚÑIGA

What did Bonnie Dumanis learn from former DA Ed Miller's prosecution of Dale Akiki? Ask Thad Jesperson.

The DA's Power to Disappoint
January 5, 2010
Voice of San Diego
By KELLY THORNTON

Part three of a five-part series.
...A prosecution in 2004 against Thad Jesperson, a popular and respected teacher accused of molesting eight second and third grade girls, conjured memories of the Dale Akiki debacle. Like Akiki, the case against Jefferson was built solely on accusations by children, made after they'd been questioned at length by investigators. There was no other corroborating evidence.

Under then-District Attorney Ed Miller, Akiki was charged in 1991 with 35 felony counts of sexual and physical abuse of children at Faith Chapel in Spring Valley, where he volunteered with his wife in the preschool. A jury took just seven hours to acquit him after a seven-month trial in 1993. He later won a $2 million lawsuit against his accusers.

Also like Akiki, Jesperson spent time behind bars. After three separate trials, Jesperson was finally convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life. He spent four years in prison before being released in January 2008 when an appeals court threw out the convictions and granted a new trial on grounds of juror misconduct and mistakes by his attorney and the trial judge.

Dumanis decided not to take the matter further.

Defense attorneys have said the prosecution is an example of poor judgment by Dumanis , who continued to pursue multiple trials in a case like the bogus one against Akiki which relied on the testimony of children alone. Jesperson's defense was primarily that the students' inconsistent stories were the result of suggestibility, in which interviewers' questions are leading and influence responses...

When Kentucky prosecutor charged Edwin Chandler, had no second thoughts. Now innocent man is exonerated after 9-year jail term

His conviction for manslaughter and robbery in Whitfield's death was vacated just hours after a Jefferson County grand jury indicted 45-year-old repeat offender Percy Phillips for her death. Phillips is already serving a 20-year sentence for assault.

October 13, 2009
Man's conviction set aside in 1993 shooting death
Courier-Journal Louisville, Kentucky
By Jessie Halladay
and Jason Riley

For 16 years, Edwin Chandler faithfully believed the day would come when everyone would know he wasn't the man who shot Brenda Whitfield in the head during a 1993 robbery at the Chevron station where she worked.

That day finally arrived Tuesday, when Jefferson Circuit Judge Fred Cowan vacated the manslaughter and robbery charges against Chandler after prosecutors and police announced they had convicted the wrong man...

When Steve Schroering prosecuted Chandler in 1995, he said he had no doubt that the right man went to prison.

[Maura Larkins comment: Prosecutors never have any second thoughts, do they?]

“It was never a case I had second thoughts about until this morning” when Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Stengel called to tell him the conviction was being set aside.

After all, a store video camera captured the crime and an eyewitness tentatively identified Chandler. Fingerprints, a knit cap and sunglasses were found at the scene. And Chandler made a taped confession to detectives, admitting to the robbery and saying the shooting was accidental.

But the fingerprints didn't match Chandler's, the owner of the cap and sunglasses was uncertain, and Chandler said he falsely confessed, coerced by police scare tactics and coaching.

Chandler said then-Detective Mark Handy told Chandler he believed he was lying and threatened to charge his sister and girlfriend with harboring a fugitive if he didn't tell the truth.

Chandler said he was a few blocks away, watching a movie with his girlfriend. He remembers seeing a swarm of police cars but didn't know what had happened.

Police focused on Chandler after a witness identified him near the scene, and he already was wanted on a jail-escape charge...

But Chandler's jurors never heard some of the information that could have helped acquit him.

They never heard from John Gray, who was pumping gasoline when the shooting occurred. Gray left his name with a county officer at the scene, but it was never passed on to the city officers investigating the case..

In 1996, Gray was serving time in prison with Chandler and told him he saw the shooter and his name was Percy...