|
Criminal Background Check
About a month after Michael Stites was released from prison, he was dressing up for work as a salesman. He had a company cell phone, even business cards. Today he wears a uniform and works at Jiffy Lube.
'I was top in sales,?Stites said. 'Then about three months into it, they hired a new manager. Her first day was my day off, and when I came back in, she said that my services were no longer needed.?oneup>
Stites had joined Carrier Access Inc. as it was expanding from its landline phone business into the cellular phone market. Nowhere on the job application was Stites asked if he had a criminal record, he said, and he never mentioned in either of two interviews his misdemeanor convictions for third-degree theft, attempted burglary and possession of burglary tools. With a background in cell phone sales, he was hired along with several others to help start the cell phone division.
Three months later, someone conducted interviews with all Carrier Access employees as part of an assessment of the company and advised the company to start doing background checks, said Stites, and because of his past, he was let go.
'I was really mad,?he said. 'My mom works three blocks down the road, so I drove there and said, 'I don't understand. I gave it my all. They got to see me for who I am and what I want to be and all that didn't mean anything compared to something this big.' He held up a piece of paper.
Although Brendan Phelps, president of Carrier Access, said he could not comment on a former employee's situation, he did say the company has no policy on hiring ex-offenders at this time and is currently considering a candidate with a criminal record.
'We're just a small company that has grown,?said Phelps, 'and we've been implementing more policies as we've grown.?oneup>
Stites is one of many former inmates who quickly discover the struggle of beginning a career and moving up the corporate ladder when they are released from prison. Getting ?and keeping ?a job is essential for ex-offenders to fully reintegrate into society, but for many, getting a job is the hardest obstacle they face.
'If you put yes [that you have been convicted of a felony on an application], whether they discriminate or not, they don't call you back for an interview,?said Eric Randall, who was released from prison for third-degree burglary in March. 'It doesn't matter how many qualifications you have on there.?oneup>
Not being able to find a job poses problems not just for the ex-offenders but also communities. At least 95 percent of all state prisoners will be released from prison, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, which means that the majority of the 36,200 adults under correctional supervision (prison, jail, probation and parole) in Iowa will be looking for work in the future. Without a job, they may soon become discouraged and tempted to revert to crime.
'The reality is ?except for capital murder ?whoever we send away will get out of prison someday,?said Carol Egly, a district associate judge in the 5th Judicial District of Iowa, which includes Polk County. 'If they get out and are unable to be contributing members of society, we're probably going to see them again.?oneup>
'The transition and all the other things involved happen at a greater rate and a lot more success with a job,?said Jerald Brantley, executive director of Spectrum Resources, a program designed to support ex-offenders in all aspects of their lives, especially in securing employment. 'They feel more like being a citizen by being productive than being a drain. For a person to earn his way is a must.?oneup>
That's why the Directors Council, a coalition of non-profit agencies serving Greater Des Moines, is trying to develop a support system to help former inmates become employed, stable citizens. Through its program, the Council provides a variety of services, including mediation between employer and employee, temporary housing, substance abuse support, faith-based mentoring and education.
This year, the council will receive a Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative grant through the U.S. Department of Labor for $600,000 over one year and renewable for four years. Although the council already received funding through donations last year, the grant will greatly enhance its efforts to help non-violent former inmates in the 5th District. From the time the program started March 1 to March 31 of next year, the program hopes to increase the number of ex-offenders it serves from around 25 to 200.
'We've been doing this kind of work for 10 years,?said Brantley, 'but not at this level of funding and recourses. This is a huge boost to what we do?oneup>
The Directors Council received one of the 30 grants out of 600 applicants across the United States because, in part, it already had the systems in place to help ex-offenders. Two years ago, the council conducted a two-year study on factors involved with ex-offender re-entry and how the entire community could help remove some of those barriers. It developed a system that worked with several organizations and with the 5th Judicial District to receive recommendations for ex-offenders that needed the program's services most. In fact, when the council went to a conference with all the grant winners, it was the only group with an already established program.
'These were people who know they did wrong,?said Vernon Delpesce, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Des Moines, based on his observations from ex-offender focus groups. 'They very sincerely want to get back to normal life.?
Starting with nothing
When Randall was released from prison, a bus dropped him off at a street corner with nothing but a box of prison gear. Not knowing where to go, he began walking down the street to Spectrum Resources.
'I walked about 400 feet and people were hollering my name already,?he said. 'I just kept walking faster until I got here.?oneup>
Randall had no place to stay and little money from a prison job that paid $1.70 an hour ?which he said was better than the 36 cents per hour earned by inmates who can't work in the private sector. He had broken off contact with his family, had huge fines to pay, and as a result, no driver's license.
Curtis Bell, who at the time was a working for Spectrum Resources, helped him find a place to stay that night and fill out the necessary paperwork to get food stamps and the rest of the basic essentials he lacked.
'People don't realize that when you get caught doing a crime,?said Bell, 'the hoops you have to go through to get back on your feet ?it's a lot.?oneup>
After attending to Randall's basic needs, Bell immediately began working with him to help him find work, including giving him several job applications to places such as the Firestone Agricultural Tire Division and buying clothes suitable for job interviews.
'We act as a mediator with an employer to help get them into a job situation where the obstacles are limited,?Bell said. 'We have got to make certain that when you do your time, your time is up.?oneup>
After a month of being out of prison, Randall found a job with Freeman Decorating Co., helping set up equipment for conferences and other large events. Randall, who wants to become a computer programmer, realizes, like many non-violent ex-offenders, that the jobs he can get right now are far from his ultimate goal.
Although Stites was lucky enough to have the support of his family, who helped pay his fines so he could get his driver's license back, and offered him a place to stay, he cannot find a position in sales, his desired career, with a burglary misdemeanor on his records. Most companies tell him to come back in five years, if at all.
'I hope it doesn't take me five years,?he said. 'I'm settled with what I have to do now. I have to have a paycheck. Whether it's flipping burgers at McDonald's or doing what I want to do, I have to have some income.?oneup>
Reasons for struggle
'I never did much work my whole life,?said Anthony Smith, who has three felony convictions on drug charges. 'I never thought it would be this hard. Others look at me as nothing but a felon.?oneup>
This is a common situation for many people who come out of prison ready to start life on the right foot. Most lack basic interview skills, need to further their education and above all, lack confidence.
'Our society moves rapidly as far as business and job skills and types of things you need to be able to do,?said Egly. 'Necessary skills may no longer be there if they had some skills before.?oneup>
The Iowa Department of Corrections helps ex-offenders gain education and employment skills by placing people in programs such as Spectrum Resources or helping them register for classes at Des Moines Area Community College, said Gary Sherzan, the department's judicial district director for the 5th Judicial District.
'They are no different from anyone else,?Sherzan said. 'You have to have the skills the employers are looking for, and you have to get the education or training in something that employer is looking to hire. Many employers in the Des Moines area are willing to give ex-offenders an opportunity depending on what their skill level is.?oneup>
But for someone like Stites, it's nearly impossible to get a job in sales, even with skills and experience. If an employer is willing to hire, it's usually in construction, manufacturing or some other kind of labor or entry-level position.
Stites said, when he goes into an interview 'it kind of feels pointless. Especially in sales, with my background, nobody is going to care why I did it.?oneup>
Building ex-offenders?confidence is especially important in helping them make a good impression in employment interviews, which is why programs like Spectrum Resources encourage their employees to develop a relationship with their clients.
'The act of getting support helps them maintain their sanity,?Brantley said. 'They have the ability to talk to someone when problems arise rather than react.?oneup>
For many, it's realizing that they need to start at the bottom and work their way up.
'For the most part, most of our people are employed,?Sherzan said. 'It doesn't mean at the level they wish to be, but you have got to keep trying and working it until you prove yourself again.?oneup>
Greater consequences
Not being able to find a job affects restitution payments and other physical needs, as well as emotional relationships with family and friends.
'It hurts when you know you can't provide for [your family] as well as yourself,?said Smith, who is trying to take care of his 9-month-old twin sons and 3-year-old stepdaughter. 'When you fill out an application for a job, you get your hopes up, they never call back. It's very hard.?oneup>
Many who served time for non-violent offenses come out of prison with the intention of starting over, but consider reverting to crime when they become discouraged.
After a week of being unable to find a job, Stites contemplated attempting to steal again to help pay bills. He still owed money to the government, to his father and to the bank after he overdrew his account to pay bills. Sitting in an interview to work at the Nutty Bavarian vendor at Adventureland, which would have paid him $7 an hour for about 25 hours a week 'made me want to go out and do what I'd done before, because I knew I could get flat even right there that minute and just be done.?oneup>
Instead, he chose to take his truck to Jiffy Lube to get it worked on, where he met a friend who landed him a sales position there.
Randall said that if he hadn't started walking toward Spectrum Resources when he got off the prison bus, he'd likely be on the road back to prison as well, simply because the only place he would have found to stay at would be a place swarming with criminal activity.
Helping former inmates not just find work but achieve career goals is key to keeping them from ending up behind bars again. Already the Directors Council has had a high success rate with its few clients and believes the same will be true as it expands its services.
'We believe that if we can show success, funding will follow,?Delpesce said. 'People who paid their dues want to get back into society, but they need help.?/FONT>
Article Comment Form
Criminal Background Check
Believe in the American credo, do you? Second chances, bootstraps, clean slate, all that? Good for you. I do too. Let's see whether you still do after reading this.
A vast class of men and women -- maybe 13 million of them -- live under an unbreakable glass ceiling. They committed a crime, and they helped to put that ceiling in place themselves. But isn't there a statute of limitations on punishment? Can't someone help them turn that glass ceiling into a sunroof?
These people, ex-felons mostly, are out of the cell, but they're still in "the box" -- the little square on almost every job application that asks, "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" Most of us breeze by it. For those millions -- and another 650,000 who are paroled or released every year -- that box is the end of the line. Check that box, and check off your chance for a job.
Why should you care? Because you pay for it too, one way or another. Connect the dots: One Californian in five has a criminal record (in no small part because the "war on drugs" has been cramming prisons with first-time offenders). Two-thirds of the prison population is brown or black. In South Central L.A., for example, more than half the people don't work, and nearly one-third live below the poverty line. "The box" is one of many reasons why.
Janet D. is 51, with a long misdemeanor record for prostitution and drugs. Eight years ago she was arrested in an alley at 3 a.m. buying dope. A Superior Court judge named Craig Veals gave her a choice: two years in prison or a year in drug rehab. She took rehab, sullenly, but now, once a year, she goes back to thank him, to show him she's still clean. Last time he didn't recognize her, with her suit and her briefcase and her hair all done up.
Employers are harder to impress. Janet got an associate of arts degree in clerical work, but agencies can only send her to temporary jobs that don't put "the box" on the application. She just spent four months in a temp job, and the company was eager to hire her full time. She passed two interviews. She passed a drug test. Then she came home to a blinking light on the answering machine -- a call from the temp agency.
"The message," Janet told me, was "'You know that thing you worried about? Well, it came up. And your assignment has ended.'
"I was devastated, and I thought, 'Some dope would sure be good right now,' and I said, 'No, I can't do that.' And I had this credit card, and I thought, 'Some shopping would make me feel better,' and I said, 'No, I can't do that either. I have come too far."'
Too far from that alley at 3 a.m., but not close enough to full-time work.
"If I show up late and I'm not giving 100 percent, I can deal with you letting me go," Janet said. "But I'm trying to get in the door, and you say you can't hire me because I was arrested in 1996? ... You don't make a decision on a whole person based on a little box."
She can see why companies wouldn't want to hire rapists or murderers,
but "the box" doesn't make a distinction between an ex-hooker and an ex-killer.
Her cousin's boyfriend "was a thug, but he got a degree at (California State University) Dominguez, and he can't get a job because of his background," she said. "He's just gonna go back to what he was doing" -- selling drugs. And get caught. And go back to prison.
That kind of human recycling is one reason the Bush administration backs a measure called the Second Chance Act.
"When the prison gates open," the White House says, "the president believes that the path ahead should be an opportunity for a better life."
Boston, Chicago and San Francisco officials are "blocking the box" -- taking the prior-conviction question off applications for city and county jobs and leaving it to be asked in a face-to-face interview, where the full story can be told. Los Angeles city and county are thinking of doing the same thing.
Otherwise, such applications go to the bottom of the pile. Matthew Burke knows, because he put them there, when he was an employment recruiter, a man who went to college and mastered computers, a man with his own office.
"Then I got in trouble," he said, "and now the tables are switched."
He cashed a forged check to finance his methamphetamine habit and served 44 days for grand theft. That was three years ago, and even this former job recruiter, who knows all the angles for getting in the door, can't find a good permanent job.
"They'll even tell me, 'Your qualifications are great, but we can't hire someone with a felony; that's company policy."'
He's paying restitution -- $7,500 -- but without a good job he can't wipe out the debt, "and if you don't pay it back (in time), you can never get (the felony) off your record."
"You want to be truthful, you want to explain your side ... but 90 percent of this world will say once a felon, always a felon -- there's no forgiveness."
If they've served their time for a not-too-heinous crime, how about letting them punch a time card? If we're going to let them out, then give them a means to stay out.
Morrison is a Los Angeles Times columnist and frequent commentator on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."
Criminal Background Check
I'd like to comment on the recent attack on Father Jim Jones, the Franciscan friar assaulted on June 6 near Bayshore Drive in downtown St. Petersburg.
I am a primary-care physician, and Father Jim is one of my patients. He is a gentle and kind man and has been a pleasure to care for. I am sickened and dismayed to think he was the victim of such a brutal assault. Apparently one of his assailants has a criminal record, and the public rest room where this occurred is a site of frequent drug dealing. It reflects poorly on our police and city administration that this occurred downtown at a busy time of the evening.
Many people who pass through the downtown area are struck by the large number of transient individuals there. Many of these unwelcome guests make temporary homes for themselves along the waterfront and in city parks. Their presence there is not only an affront to the regular citizens of this town but poses a safety risk for us all, as this assault has demonstrated.
I live in downtown St. Petersburg and have had numerous unpleasant encounters during my walks along the waterfront. Many other residents I've spoken to have had similar encounters.
One should also consider the impact that this may have on potential investors and businesses that are considering establishing themselves here in St. Petersburg.
It's time for the mayor's office and Police Department to take strong action on this matter. No longer should we tolerate the encroachment of the transient population here, and the police must step up their efforts to make our public areas safer. Our parks and sidewalks are meant to be used for recreation and enjoyment, not as campgrounds for vagrants and criminals.
A. Clemente, M.D., St. Petersburg
Do something about derelicts
Re: Friar beaten, robbed; one suspect arrested.
The mugging of the friar in the comfort station at Second Avenue NE and Bayshore Drive was very sad, but locking its gate to prevent further access by the public, half of whom are visitors, isn't very swift.
Derelicts always congregate outside it and there is never a police presence to check on their activities. In a city with money for everything (listen to Mayor Rick Baker on hold sometime), we could afford a camera outside and inside to monitor safety. The same situation exists at the station on the beach, north toward Snell Isle. Maybe do something bright before something happens there, too. This isn't rocket science.
Tony Witlin, St. Petersburg
We must help the hungry, homeless
Until now, I didn't realize just how little we do for the hungry and homeless in Pinellas County. I have always tried to help others, by cooking and donating food and clothes from time to time, but I realized it's not even a drop in the bucket compared to what others do and what I could be doing.
Have you ever wondered about your next-door neighbors and if they have enough to eat? Maybe they are down to their last dollar, and it's a week before their check is due. And believe me, except for the grace of God, it could be happening to any one of us. Years ago, we knew our neighbors. We knew who was hungry in our area, and we helped feed them. Today, we just refer them to a county agency, if we even know about someone who's hungry or living on the street.
Most of us live in our own comfortable little world and can't be bothered with others. We are so blessed and yet we don't help others. Why? God has blessed us and we need to pass those blessings to others.
Did you know we have more than 500 churches in Pinellas County? Did you know as churches, preaching the word of God, we should be feeding the hungry and providing shelter for those in need? And yet are we doing that, or do we leave it up to city services? I do believe if churches believed what they are preaching, we would not have hungry people in this area.
After helping in a soup kitchen and seeing those hungry people come in to eat, I know I will do more of the same in the future. There are so many ways we can help if we really want to. Just pick up the phone and find out what's needed and where. These local soup kitchens and food banks need help every day. We must open our eyes and hearts and help those in need.
Fran Glaros, Clearwater
Blame spending for property tax hikes
Re: As tax rate falls, revenue rises, June 10.
I read with great interest the article regarding St. Petersburg's budget cut proposals for this year. Once again I believe the blame for soaring property taxes is being misdirected.
Under our current tax system, the amount of taxes levied really depends on four factors: property value, millage rate, government spending and homestead qualification. Of these only the millage rate and spending are under direct control. The value of property depends on fluctuating capitalistic market forces.
Therefore the reason our property taxes have soared over the past five years has little to do with home values and much more to do with uncontrolled government spending and a failure to decrease our millage rate in proportion to rising property sales.
Even though the millage rate has been microscopically lowered, taxpayers have felt little relief as the reduction has not been close to offsetting the rise in property values. The net result has been higher taxes annually to just about everyone.
The latest budget proposal is just another example of "fuzzy" math. The 5 percent proposed cut in the tax rate really represents a $12-million raise that will be shared by all city property owners. Most of us would love such a pay cut! This is despite the fact that we have enjoyed record new development and home prices. Frankly the millage rate should have dropped by at least 4 to 6 points over this period (an amount that might bring real relief).
So let's stop blaming rising property sales for our tax problem and place the blame where it belongs: on the overzealous spending of our elected officials.
Richard Knipe, St. Petersburg
Add these to 'tacky' list in Seminole
Re: Seminole gives vendors cold shoulder, June 7.
To the Seminole council members worried about the "tacky stuff' that could be sold along the streets: Let's add cars, boats on trailers, campers, cars on trailers that sit on front lawns all over town. That's not tacky? I'd rather have hot dogs at Home Depot than see two or three sitting on my neighbors' front lawns.
Tim Sutton, Seminole
Litter is overwhelming Florida
There are many signs around with the slogan "CLICK IT OR TICKET." It is a popular slogan, especially in this time of massive road rage.
Can we add this message: "FLICK IT AND TICKET" in regard to cigarettes and other trash? Our beautiful tourist state is seriously being polluted by selfish, uncaring individuals.
Just open your eyes and look at the interstates, roads and storefronts as well as our treasured beaches. I am already fretting over the deluge of trash and filth that will be left on our beaches on the Fourth of July.
Cheryl Mogul, Gulfport
[Last modified June 18, 2006, 07:40:25]
Neighborhood Times headlines
Park Street to get 'innovative' lights, maybe Kohl's
These bikes generate real buzz
Sign down but a ban on activities remains
Stop, look twice as streets change
Diver, 9, is also a D.C. lobbyist
Yacht's delay is kink in gala
Putting his mettle to the pedal for a good cause
Group hopes picnic builds membership
Countdown to new pool
Atlanta Breadto reopen threestores that closed
Paraphernalia is drug law's focus
'A new school with an old school soul'
Legal storm brews at condo
Litigious storm brews at condo
Profane parrot is on the mend
Subway stays on to flank new Publix at 104th Street
Park St. to get unusual lights
Quick action contains blazeat Crabby Bill's
Wikipedia's creator: I'm not so influential
Criminal Background Check
Posted 1:45 p.m. A drifter believed to have been panhandling in Albuquerque on May 2 has been arrested in the rape and strangulation death that day of a 70-year-old Albuquerque woman.
Bernalillo County sheriff's detectives today arrested Arturo Alvarado, 31, of Chamberino in the killing of Mary Padilla.
Authorities still aren't sure how Padilla, described by her family as a recluse, was lured from her South Valley home to the nearby vacant lot where her body was found.
They say Alvarado and two other homeless men were panhandling for money to buy liquor at the intersection of Bridge Boulevard and Sunset Road Southwest on May 2.
Padilla lived in an apartment complex at the intersection's southeast corner.
Family members, two of whom live at the same complex, became concerned when they found her door unlocked around 10 p.m.
They searched the area, and shortly after midnight found Padilla's naked, beaten body about 300 feet west of her apartment in a vacant lot on the southwest corner of the intersection. She'd been strangled to death.
Her pants were wrapped around her neck, her other clothes tossed near her body.
A homeless man, passed out across the street, offered clues when authorities interviewed him, according to a Metro Court complaint.
That man told investigators that he, Alvarado and another man had been "hustling" for money at Padilla's complex. He said all three had been staying at the Victory Outreach shelter, 905 Atrisco Drive S.W., about 2 miles away.
The man told detectives he saw Alvarado and the other man walk away before he passed out around 7 p.m. the night of Padilla's death, the court document said..
On May 9, detectives interviewed staff at the shelter.
The director said Alvarado and another man came to the shelter the night of Padilla's death, the document said. Alvarado had blood on him, the shelter director told investigators. The shelter director said he threw Alvarado out of the shelter.
On May 10, Jeff Liley, a Las Cruces lawyer, contacted investigators, saying he'd heard they were looking for his client, Alvarado.
Detectives asked Liley to set up an interview with Alvarado. Liley told authorities is client's DNA was on file, meaning Alvarado had spent time in prison. Authorities didn't have details on his record available at press time.
They said they matched that DNA to evidence left on Padilla's body.
"We want him to go to death row, no doubt," said Padilla's daughter, Beatrice Padilla. "Everybody's curious. We want answers, and we want justice."
Alvarado was taken into custody early today at a homeless shelter in Deming, near Chamberino. Detective Lawrence Tafoya said investigators are close to uncovering a motive but wouldn't release details today.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Authorities have arrested a drifter in the rape and strangulation death of a 70-year-old Albuquerque woman.
Arturo Alvarado, 31, was taken into custody Friday at a Deming homeless shelter. He faces charges of murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration in the May 1 death of Mary Ellen Padilla.
The woman lived in an apartment complex near a vacant lot where her body was found. Authorities said they weren't sure how Padilla was lured from her home.
Family members became concerned when they found Padilla's door unlocked. They searched the area and found her body shortly after midnight. Her pants were wrapped around her neck and her other clothes tossed near her body.
Authorities said DNA found at the scene matched Alvarado's, which was in the New Mexico DNA Identification System.
Bernalillo County Sheriff's Detective Lawrence Tafoya said Alvarado admitted killing Padilla but declined to give more details.
A criminal complaint stated that a homeless man offered clues when authorities interviewed him. He told investigators that he, Alvarado and another man had been "hustling" for money at Padilla's complex.
The man said he saw Alvarado and the other man walk away before he passed out around 7 p.m. the night of Padilla's death.
The director of the shelter where the men had been staying told investigators that Alvarado had blood on him that night and that he threw Alvarado out.
Alvarado's attorney, Jeff Liley of Las Cruces, contacted investigators May 10, saying he had heard they were looking for his client. Detectives then asked Liley to set up an interview with Alvarado.
Alvarado's criminal record includes domestic violence and drunken driving.
"We want him to go to death row, no doubt," said Padilla's daughter, Beatrice Padilla. "Everybody's curious. We want answers, and we want justice."
___
Criminal Background Check
THE CAMPAIGN to press for the release of a young Shetland man of Thai origin who is threatened with deportation, received a boost yesterday (Friday).
For the first time since his arrest last week, Sakchai Makao was able to write from the high security prison in Durham to thank islanders for the huge amount of support they have given him.
Family friend and campaign co-ordinator Davie Gardner said Mr Makao's spirits were remarkably high, given the circumstances.
The 23 year old was taken into custody from his home in Lerwick's Haldane Burgess Crescent by immigration officers in the early morning of 6 June. A notice of deportation was served a few days later.
He is one of more than 1,000 foreign nationals with a criminal record the Home Office is keen to round up after being accused of inefficiency by the national media.
But Mr Makao's arrest has created outrage in the isles where the young athlete and pool attendant is a popular member of the community.
More than 7,000 signatures on a petition calling for his release have been collected during the first week of the campaign, while 800 islanders turned out for a support rally earlier this week.
Yesterday, Mr Gardner said that Mr Makao's letter was giving them all new strength to continue their fight for his release even more vigorously.
He said: "I think if the campaign was in any ways flagging which it isn't, this is the sort of letter that is absolutely reinvigorating. It certainly did for me last night. While I was not flagging mentally, I was physically by that time. It completely refocused me on the fact that this is a very remarkable young man we are dealing with here.
"It just drives us more to take this young boy home into the community he deserves to be in."
In his letter, addressed to his work colleagues at the Shetland Recreational Trust and to his supporters, Mr Makao (prisoner number PG7923) wrote: "I want to say thank you to you guys and Davie from the bottom of my heart.
"Like my dad always said; when you find a true friend that friend will show you how much he loves you, and he was right. I've found you guys and I can't be any happier no matter what happens.
"Everyone in Shetland has brought tears and joy to my heart, so don't worry about me. I can handle anything they throw at me. My hope and faith will be with you guys. Hope to see you soon."
He also finds time to write about the performance of his dream team at the football World Cup and describes his lawyer as young and sexy.
Mr Makao has been living in Shetland since the age of ten, and in the UK since he was seven, when he moved with his mother and sister to Glasgow. He has been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
In 2004, he was sentenced to 15 months in a young offender institution after being convicted for fire raising. No request for deportation was made at that time.
Two years after his release he has fallen victim to the Home Office's crackdown on the 1,000 foreign nationals who have been released from jail into the community without being considered for deportation.
Mr Gardner said the community in Shetland was ready to fight on until they had Sakchai back.
He added: "The campaign is breaking off into two places now. We are continuing with the work of writing letters to pressure to bring Sakchai home and to get justice for him, but we are also have now a fund raising group to raise money we inevitably need for the legal campaign and his and his family's expenses throughout that campaign."
An application for bail was lodged last week and the bail hearing has now been set for Tuesday.
Criminal Background Check
EIGHT MPs from three different parties have signed a cross-party parliamentary motion tabled at Westminster by northern isles MP Alistair Carmichael in support of Sakchai Makao.
The 23 year old Shetland of Thai origin is presently at the high security prison at Durham where he is being threatened with deportation to Thailand.
The motion is the latest step in a growing campaign to secure Mr Makao's release.
It reads: "That this House notes with concern the appalling treatment of Sakchai Makao, in his arrest and subsequent detention in Durham maximum security prison; also notes that the deportation order was issued two years after serving eight months for fire raising; further recognises the widespread public support in Shetland for Mr. Makao and the valued position that he holds within the local community; and urges that the Home Officerescind the deportation order and release Mr. Makao."
Mr Makao was sentenced to 15 months in a young offender institution in 2004 after pleading guilty to two charges of fire raising in 2002. After serving eight months, he was re-employed by Shetland Recreation Trust.
Last Tuesday Mr Makao was hauled from his house by immigration officers in the Home Office's crackdown on foreign nationals with a criminal record.
Mr Carmichael said the Home Office had made no effort to investigate the case properly. "They continue to maintain an unsustainable position. Until they do I will do everything I can to highlight the unfairness of this case.
"A number of MPs have contacted me to say that they are keen to support the campaign to secure the release of Sakchai. I am confident that a large number of MPs from across the political spectrum will back this motion - adding further weight to the campaign to get Sakchai back to the community where he belongs. So far Liberal Democrat, Labour and SNP MPs have agreed to co-sponsor this motion.
"The huge turn out at the rally on Tuesday showed the strength of feeling in Shetland. It is difficult to imagine another community that would have responded in the way Shetland has responded to Sakchai's case. Ministers must be made aware of the massive support Sakchai has both in Parliament and from people in Shetland."
The motion has so far been backed by Labour MP Michael Connarty, SNP MP for the Western Isles Angus MacNeil, and Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs Jo Swinson (Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland), Michael Moore, (Foreign Affairs spokesperson), Danny Alexander, Alan Reid, Sir Robert Smith, and John Thurso.
Meanwhile, Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson has lodged a similar motion in the Scottish Parliament. He has also written to First Minister Jack McConnell urging him to intervene.
Mr Gibson wrote that the Home Office's actions were neither needed nor wanted and that it was up to the First Minster to stand up against injustice in Scotland.
He continued: "The Scottish Executive must petition the Home Office for his release. A failure to do so would send out a worrying message from Scotland that the ideal that lies behind the Fresh Talent Initiatives and One Scotland Many Cultures campaign, as well as strong local opinion, can be rode rough shod over by dictates from a distant, embattled and out of touch Home Office in London.
"I see no benefit in sending a young Shetlander back to the country of his birth. He has lived in Shetland longer than anywhere else and rightly regards it as his home.
"Should the First Minster not make representations to the Home Office for his release then that is a gross dereliction of duty which he should be ashamed of."
Criminal Background Check
OCALA - Judge Jack Singbush has denied a motion to disqualify himself from the ongoing legal dispute between Jumbolair Inc. and defendants affiliated with neighboring Greystone Airport, ruling against a filing that questioned the magistrate's ethics.
Singbush's response is one of recent developments connected to the case that features the prominent aviation community best known as being the part-time home of actor John Travolta and his aircraft fleet. Singbush in April ruled, among other judgments, that Jumbolair did not have reciprocal rights to grant the community's residents access to the 7,550-foot paved runway.
Key to the disqualification motion filed on behalf of Jumbolair Inc. was Singbush's handling of a National Crime Investigative Center criminal history report entered into the local non-jury civil trial conducted last year. The report, which profiled one of Jumbolair's principal witnesses, was the subject of an immediate mistrial request made by the legal team representing the developer.
The disqualification motion alleged that Singbush "improperly conducted (his) own investigation into the criminal record of a witness," in obtaining the NCIC report, which can only be procured by law enforcement officials.
The motion also suggested that Singbush was biased against the witness' "Jewish heritage," based in part to the judge's references to Jesus Christ during the mistrial sidebar hearing conducted in the presence of Jumbolair attorney Robert Batsel, Greystone Airport attorney Todd Hopson and defendant Lawrence Evans, who was representing himself.
"I don't know of anybody that's not made a mistake - and except for perhaps one, and for that we murdered him," court transcripts record Singbush saying in reference to the NCIC report, which he eventually ruled wasn't pertinent to the case. "You know, he (Christ) was faultless and we murdered him for it. That's not politically correct, but I happen to believe in God."
After those assembled at the bench offered no objection to his statements, Singbush added, "Christ is the intercessor."
NCIC reports are not public record and attempts by the Star-Banner to verify the contents were unsuccessful. Following Singbush's April 3 judgment, Jumbolair Inc. requested that the NCIC reports submitted during the trial be sealed, but Singbush instead denied that request and removed them from the court file.
Co-counsel Wilbur Anderson said Jumbolair would appeal the disqualification denial to the appellate court level.
"We believe that it was improperly handled and that the court became an adverse witness," Anderson said.
But attorney Todd Hopson, who represents Greystone Airport co-owners James and Christine Garemore, said Jumbolair's motives are much different.
"They are just unhappy with the judge's decision and they are willing to try anything to get it overturned," he said.
Singbush did grant a Jumbolair request for a retrial hearing, which is scheduled for Aug. 1 in the judge's chambers.
Some members of Jumbolair's property owners association this week also petitioned the appellate court to overturn a post-trial ruling by Singbush that wouldn't allow them to intervene in the dispute.
"We are looking to protect our interests," said association president Steven Grantz, reiterating a position the group took in a recent letter to the editor published in the Star-Banner. "But we are urging both sides to settle this out of court."
Evans, who owns a 10-acre parcel near the paved runway, the Garemores, who carry the license to operate and manage Greystone Airport, last month rejected a stipulated settlement offer from Jumbolair Inc. that totaled $3.45 million.
In a separate development, the son of former Jumbolair owner and Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones wrote a letter to Singbush, in which he claimed that Jumbolair Inc. has missed the last two payments on a $400,000 buy-out settlement. During the 2005 trial, William Edgar Jones accused co-developer Terri Jones-Thayer of threatening to cut off the payments unless he testified to Jumbolair's benefit.
"Despite their threats, I testified truly in this case," wrote Jones, whose father was once married to Terri Jones-Thayer.
The letter questioned how Jumbolair Inc. could afford to pay $650,000 for land next to Greystone Airport in May, but miss the last two $1,200 monthly payments to Jones. The letter says that $328,000 is left on the balance of the agreement, which was drawn up in 2001 to settle William Edgar Jones' interests in part of the Jumbolair property.
William Edgar Jones didn't agree to an e-mail request by the Star-Banner for an interview, and neither Terri Jones-Thayer nor Jeremy Thayer, her husband and co-developer, could be reached for comment.
__________
Ryan Conley may be reached at ryan.conley@starbanner.com or (352) 867-4123.
Criminal Background Check
Obituary
James Cameron, rights advocate
By Jocelyn Y. Stewart
Los Angeles Times
James Cameron, who was believed to be the United States' last known survivor of a lynching, and whose brush with death fostered a lifelong commitment to civil rights that included the creation of America's Black Holocaust Museum, died last Sunday of congestive heart failure at a Milwaukee hospital. He was 92 and had suffered from cancer for several years.
On a summer night in 1930, the bruised and battered bodies of two young men were found hanging from the limb of a maple tree. Between the corpses was a space, wide enough for another black youth to be lynched.
The space was intended for Cameron.
The same mob that lynched his two friends also came for 16-year-old Cameron. A noose was forced around the teen's neck. Voices called for his death.
Yet Mr. Cameron lived to tell the story of that night in Marion, Ind. ' and the story of lynching in the United States ' well into the 21st century.
"They had the rope around my neck, and they were going to rope me up between my buddies. And I prayed to God," Mr. Cameron told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year. "I was saved by a miracle."
Mr. Cameron later gave voice to history's untold numbers of lynching victims, reminding the nation that its disgraceful past was not so long ago.
"Dad was constantly teaching," his son Virgil Cameron of Milwaukee told the Los Angeles Times. "He just wanted people to become more aware of their history. He believed if you know your history there would be a tendency not to repeat some of the things that happened."
Before that night in 1930, Mr. Cameron was a shoeshine boy with no criminal record. He was in a car with two older youths, Thomas Shipp, 18, and Shipp's friend Abe Smith, 19, when they began to plan a robbery, "and like an idiot, I followed them," he said.
The other two gave him a gun and told him to rob a couple parked at Lovers Lane. He tried, but realized the man in the car was Claude Deeter, someone whose shoes he shined. The young Cameron gave the gun back to a friend and ran home, never turning back even after he heard gunshots.
Deeter died of his wounds the next day. Word of his death and the claim that his girlfriend had been raped spread, and a huge mob soon formed. The mob broke into the jail and dragged the youths out one by one. From the window of his cell, Mr. Cameron watched the barbaric spectacle of his friends being beaten and lynched.
"They got Tommy, and they dragged him through the street like a dead horse," he told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter.
Then they came back for Cameron. The mob brutally beat the boy, spit on him, kicked him, bit him and chanted for his death. He looked into the faces of neighbors, people whose shoes he had shined, "and with whom I'd pass the cordialities of the day."
The noose around his neck, he prepared to die. He described what happened next as divine intervention: "And then a voice came down from heaven and said, 'Take this boy back. He had nothing to do with any killing or raping.' "
Someone removed the noose, and the mob allowed him to stumble back to the jail.
Deeter's girlfriend eventually admitted she had not been raped. After a year in jail, Mr. Cameron was convicted of being an accessory before the crime and served four years of a two- to 21-year sentence.
No one was convicted of the lynchings.
After his release at age 21, Mr. Cameron moved to Detroit, where he found work driving a truck for a laundry. He met Virginia Hamilton on his route, and the two married in 1938.
The couple would have five children. In addition to his wife and son Virgil, Mr. Cameron is survived by son Walter Cameron of West Palm Beach, Fla., daughter Dolores Donzetta Cameron of Chicago, as well as five grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
After an emotional 1979 visit to Yad Vashem, the museum in Israel that honors the memories of the millions of people killed in the Holocaust, Mr. Cameron decided to create a similar memorial to pay tribute to those black lives lost to lynching, slavery and other injustices. America's Black Holocaust Museum opened in Milwaukee in 1988.
Copyright ? 2006 The Seattle Times Company
Most read articles
Teacher's topless pics may cost job
Ski area takes out ad to apologize for statements about man's death
5 teens shot dead in New Orleans
A conversation with Bill Gates: Reflecting on where he's been, where he's going | Brier Dudley
Seattle is no place for Bonds | Larry Stone
M's Notes: Seattle adds Cuban left-hander
Birthday greetings: McCartney turns 64 | Music
Congressman's gift to wife true treasure, and critics take note
Fair welcomes all in its 35th year
U.S. drawn, but not out of World Cup yet
Criminal Background Check
But before the police officer in Boise, Ohio, could wave down the driver, he witnessed a sight that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
As pickup truck veered suddenly into the path of an oncoming car and crashed, a woman's head flew out of the passenger window and landed on the road.
But the appalling sight was not the result of the accident.
It turns out that the driver of the pickup truck, Alofa Time, 50, had earlier allegedly killed his wife, chopped off her head, then driven away with it on the seat of his vehicle.
He smashed into the oncoming car about 6.30am on Thursday allegedly on purpose in a bizarre bid to kill himself.
He walked away from the wreck unscathed.
But the driver and a passenger in the car he hit were killed instantly - Mrs Samantha Nina Murphy, 36, and her 4-year-old daughter Jae Lynne Grimes.
Ms Murphy's other daughter, 8-year-old Syndee, was injured.
She is in a stable condition in hospital.
Mrs Murphy had been taking the girls to day care on her way to work.
'It was one of the more horrific and complex crime scenes in memory,' Ohio police spokesman Lynn Hightower said of the crash scene.
When police officers arrested Time at the scene, he pleaded with them to kill him.
They found a suicide note and US$300 ($480) for his own cremation, and another eight-page suicide note in the pickup truck, reported Ohio television station Fox 12.
Time allegedly also told the officers about murdering his wife hours earlier.
The police went to his home, where they found the headless body of Mrs Theresa Time, 47, in the garage.
At a court hearing on Friday, prosecutors alleged that Time had deliberately swerved his Dodge Ram pickup into oncoming traffic. The motive for his bizarre actions were contained in the suicide notes, they said.
ABUSIVE PAST
According to court records, Time has a criminal record for wife abuse in California.
He was also facing domestic battery charges for allegedly choking his wife in March. That trial had been set for 25 Jul.
He had also been barred by a court from having any contact with his wife.
But last month, after Mrs Time completed safety-planning classes at a local crisis centre, the no-contact order was lifted.
Time has been charged with first degree-murder over his wife's death. If convicted, he could face the death sentence.
For his role in the car crash, he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
At a court hearing on Friday, bond was set at US$1 million. A preliminary hearing date was set for later this month.
Criminal Background Check
|
Search This Site
Syndicate this blog site
Powered by BlogEasy
Free Blog Hosting
|