A 15 year old girl in the care of the state of Louisiana, while living with her Aunt consistently expressed her complete discontent for the living conditions she was exposed to. The teen mom had sounded the alarm that she was in trouble, chiefly because she made complaints of having been sexually assaulted (raped) by her Aunt’s live in boyfriend. Patricia Andrus told Duson, Louisiana police investigating the Keiosha Felix’ missing persons complaint that she “was unaware of any rape but her boyfriend may have played with her privates.” That revelation was revealed to police by witnesses who had contact with the girl prior to her disappearance and has infuriated followers of the little girl’s case, and at the time Keiosha was reported missing her aunt had not reported the child’s complaint of allegedly having been raped to state childcare officials nor local police.

Despite police responding to a missing child complaint that indicated possible sexual assault and abuse, the girl’s relatives were successful in selling police a story the child had been communicating with the family. One report indicated that a cousin had overheard the child’s voice over the phone. The family’s initial statements to police caused Keiosha’s case to be classified as a runaway case. Other relatives more knowledgeable of the child’s situation demonstrated sufficient and compelling information that completely dispelled any theory which would suggest that the teen had run away. Chiefly, the police were told that Keiosha would never under any circumstance simply abandon her one year old daughter.

By the time cops began to reevaluate information they had received in the case, it may have already been too late. Some believe that the inconsistent stories relatives initially told police may have been purposefully orchestrated to cover up what actually happened to the child. Investigators also expressed concern that the child may have been a victim of human trafficking, although no details were provided explaining why trafficking may be an element of this case, officials noted that child prostitution and human trafficking was not only a possibility but a prevalent industry in the region.

Upon Duson Police investigating claims that Keiosha had been in contact with the family, police discovered that the cousin who made the allegations had in fact lied. Cops eventually arrested the child’s Aunt boyfriend Leon Wilkerson on second-degree kidnapping and simple rape charges, which were eventually dropped because the state couldn’t produce the child to testify as a witness in the case. However, the aunt Patricia Andrus was charged with being an accessory to rape and improper supervision of a minor, while Cousin Portia Felix was charged with obstruction of justice for lying to police about having been in contact with the teen.

The unfortunate circumstance that caused the girl’s case to start off slow with police treating her as a runaway case hindered the investigation initially, but the child’s aunt dropped the ball, and failed the youth from the very start. After Keiosha made complaints regarding having been raped, the aunt never took the appropriate course of actions to  verify the child’s personal safety. It’s even more disturbing considering that when cops asked the aunt why she hadn’t notified the authorities regarding the rape allegations, that she said “I asked Leon about it and he said it was not true so she left it alone.” That’s an extremely tragic aspect of the child’s disappearance, and primarily why suspicion lingers indicating that foul play may have occurred in the case. Duson police says despite these factors, sufficient evidence doesn’t exist indicating that the child may have been harmed in any way.

Keiosha’s case also had a disturbing element which spark controversy within the town’s police department, when it was discovered that a high ranking police official was in fact related to some of the child’s relatives who had been arrested and charged surrounding the teen’s disappearance and rape allegations. The incident sparked community outrage which led to the termination of a police administrator. Baring that strange sidebar related to this story, the only other significant piece of information which has surfaced is the discovery of an adult male who police say was captured in a cell phone retailer security video surveillance, and who was only believed to have purchased a cell phone which was used to contact the youth. Police say he was never a suspect in the case but believed he could provide crucial details which could lead to what happened to Keiosha.

Police were successful identifying the man, but no new leads have developed regarding where Keiosha’s whereabouts are. The girl’s family say they believe she is still alive and haven’t given up hope that she will eventually be brought home to her precious daughter and their family. Sadly, cases related to missing black girls start off slow due to various dynamics which establish crucial information often fail to impact the direction police take surrounding the investigation of children of color. Man people are convinced that somebody knows something regarding what happened to young Keiosha Felix, and The People’s Champion Blog implores everyone of the thousands within our readership base to be vigilante regarding any information they may have regarding the whereabouts, or any knowledge they may possess related to the Keiosha Felix case to notify authorities investigating her case.

Let’s pray for this child that she may be brought home safely to her young daughter and family. It’s been over a year since the child’s disappearance, but The People’s Champion hasn’t forgotten her painful story. May God move on behalf of this child and others who have simply vanished without a clue.

Find Keiosha Felix Now

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Part 2 of 5  Some of the information contained in this article comes from Federal Census Records, Government Record Archives, statements from living relatives, and other sources that derive from second hand information from the researcher who actually conducted my family genealogy search, and others who  know the family. Considering these sources, please give the accuracy of the article it’s due weight accordingly.

The rural backdrop of Charlottesville, Virginia where my maternal ancestors hail from provides the perfect enclave conducive for the concealment of dirty little secrets. The seclusion of small towns like the Black Branch section of Charlotteville (a term dubbed for the town by local blacks) set the ideal place to harbor a family’s shame and sin. I believe that a young girl not even of preteen age gave birth to my mother, and she was sent to Virginia to conceal her pregnancy until her child was born. It was a common practice of the times to ship girls off who had conceived a child while in fact being minors themselves to quiet places where the pregnant child wouldn’t draw much attention.

Such arrangements also benefited concealment of child pregnancies because the births were performed by mid wives in small rooms of homes in the south. Those births were recorded when the mid wife filed a report with the town or county clerks office, and many towns during that era only had birth registries which only required the documentation of the newborn’s mother and father names along with the month and year of the child’s birth. These practices contrasted very differently from birth records documented in larger cities with sizable populations. There were hospitals and other medical centers that adopted different approaches to the filing of birth records, and a young preteen girl would be problematic as local, state, and federal agencies could potentially launch investigations into exactly how a child became pregnant.

To avoid trouble which official investigations from agencies like social services and child welfare agencies would bring, the child would be sent away where more control could be obtained regarding exposure of these child pregnancies, and mid wives who recorded child births were dependent upon the parents of the children to provide accurate information for the birth file. I’m not convinced that honesty while providing this crucial information for the record was of a priority to many families who may have had invested interest in false information being provided. I have conducted a volume of interviews with sources who actually lived during the era in question, and many of their accounts regarding such practices are continuously consistent as I have described.

Often times I am told that accurate information was provided to court clerks, but upon the child and her newborn’s arrival back to their family homes is where the falsehoods in many instances began. My initial article for this serious previously outlined the pressures of the social climate during the early and mid nineteenth century regarding societal codes on family values and moral turpitude, and parents of these child mothers fabricated the parentage of babies born to child parents to shield the family from purported public scrutiny. My intent isn’t to cast aspersions upon these grandmothers whose child became pregnant, but rather my effort is simply to state the facts which depict the culture of untruths on the  concealment of child pregnancies as well as how many children developed having falsely believed that women other than their biological parent had been named as their mother.

The 1940’s U.S. Census revealed that my great grandparents had 5 children living in their home at the time the census recordings for that year was documented. They were all girls ages 16, 15, 13, 9, and 7 (the later of which would have been my grandmother). Just four years later in 1944 which was the year of my mother’s birth, my grandmother would only have been 11 years old. Not only is this revelation disturbing, but it remains the most logical explanation as to why the true identity of my mother’s biological mother was concealed. The ages of the other girls living in the home when my mother was actually conceived would have been 20, 19, 17, and 13 respectively. The 20 year old sister had previously given birth to a daughter a few months prior in the same year (naming her as my mom’s mother would not have been possible). It’s widely believed by members of the family investigating our family genealogy that a story was fabricated naming the 19 year old sister, the only other daughter in the family of legal and acceptable child bearing age as my mother’s biological mother. This of course would have resolved any suspicion related to the birth of my mother by a strict society that shunned child pregnancies during that era.

More importantly, common sense begs the question as to how an 11 year old child would have gotten pregnant in a home with four older siblings as well as the presence of both parents. An inquiry into such a question is even more intensified considering my mother’s father was a 19 year old adult at the time of my mother’s birth. There isn’t any rationalization that could explain these extremely troubling circumstances which amount to nothing short of rape of an 11 year old girl. Even if the sexual relations which produced my mother were consensual by both parties, it would still constitute statutory rape in the State of Maryland. Unfortunately, in the 1940’s the U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) had not authorized contraceptives in any form, abortions weren’t being performed, and baring some sort of natural termination of a woman’s pregnancy like a miscarriage, she had no other recourse other than to carry her baby full term until birth.

I can not express more emphatically how child pregnancies of this nature were almost never reported to the authorities. One rationalization could be the shrewd fashion many child protective agencies during those times investigated child rape cases. With a number of other children in a home which produced a child pregnancy, the parents were subjected to the potential removal of all other minor children from the home, as a pregnant minor child was often times looked upon as neglect by the parents. These practices by the government related to black families is a well documented historical fact on how government agencies utilized similar cases to continue the disruption of the black family core. Irregardless of how a child became pregnant proactive measures were normally taken by the child’s parents to shield the family from scrutiny and separation.

Some people rationalize that the family did what they had to do to keep it all together, but a more critical observation reveals how many of these decisions exposed the child parent to grave psychological and emotional distress, and not withstanding how the destruction of concealing the truth about a child’s parentage impacted the direct lineage of unborn children within the family for generations to come. In fact, though mothers of child parents contrived in their minds that such decisions made on concealing the truth regarding a child’s true parentage was in the best interest of the family, the decision in all actuality only guaranteed that children in future generations who held direct lineage to a child living under assumed and false parentage would never ever know their true bloodline.

Ignorance and selfishness to some degree are the sole derivatives explaining why mother’s sent their daughters away upon learning of their pregnancies. A strict societal code can never be permitted to justify the traumatic experience of being sent away from the only home these pregnant girls had ever known, especially if the child was in fact a victim of rape. The only living offspring of my grandmother have both confirmed that their mother was sent to live in Charlottesville in her youth. They both don’t recall ever being given an explanation from their mom as to why that occurred. Women that I have interviewed for this article have expressed outrage at such a practice, and have conveyed that they could never have fathomed allowing their child to endure the physical and emotional discomfort that the burden of child birth entails by herself, let alone sending her away in some sort of exile on the mere premise of concealing a family’s perceived shame.

These child mothers often times were exposed to complete culture shock, having to now adapt to life in rural settings that lacked the culture of urban life where many of these girls were sent from. They also lost the sense of family they knew, leaving siblings, friends, and other family behind they were more accustomed to interact with. Now having to learn how to live with relatives they were unfamiliar with, they were forced to learn the often times coarse life of country living. I can’t help but think how my grandmother, and young girls like her had to succumb to the ill advised decisions of their parents, who made decisions regarding a child’s development and care, solely on the premise of  their concern regarding how others perceived, not the pregnant child, but these adult parents themselves.

Let’s face it, whether the pregnant child consented to sexual relations with an adult male or not, there should be serious accountability placed squarely of the shoulders of the child’s parents. A pregnant little girl shouldn’t have to be ushered off into oblivion to conceal her pregnancy and her parent’s failure, while the parents should be held responsible for how their minor daughter became pregnant in the first place. In my grandmother’s case at least, it appears that no consideration was given in regards to how the entire ordeal would impact her development and social interaction with others after such an ordeal. She was eventually allowed to return to the family home with my mother as her newborn child, but her baby was cared for by others in the family.

I believe that the acquisition which transpired with her 19 year older sister having been named as my mother’s biological mom may have been the catalyst which sparked a family feud that would last for decades. It’s safe to say that the dynamics of a house full of young girls is certain to be marred with some conflict at the very minimum, but when you add children mothered by the girls to the equation it could be very disastrous. The accounts of offspring of the woman who we were taught was our grandmother (my Aunt and grandmother’s sister’s kids) establishes that there was a running feud between the two sisters. One Aunt explained to me that the reason my grandmother’s children weren’t known to her and her siblings was a direct result of the negativity and hatred their mother spewed about her sister on a regular basis.

“We weren’t around them because every time she came around or her name was mentioned, Momma would say ‘that bitch’ or ‘them motherfuckers’, so we never saw them,” is what she conveyed to me. Her comments were very consistent with what many of the Johnson Family grandchildren were told about our grandparent’s relationship with their siblings. Although a clear picture was painted for us describing how they almost never got along, stories were told which established that a very bitter relationship existed between the third born daughter, and her younger sister who would have been the Johnson’s sixth child (my grandmother). I have since been troubled by these facts considering there was a seven year difference in their ages, but the reality of the older of the two women having been placed with the burden of motherhood for her little sister’s child is perhaps a very compelling premise as to why bitterness and hatred ran deep between these sisters.

There were other strange elements to this particular story. The family has since expressed concern as to how a 19 year old man would have the ability to gain intimate access to an eleven year old girl and get her pregnant. The man had to have been around the home for some purpose, and it makes sense that he was more than likely dating or friendly with one of the older girls living there. The two older girls in the home were 20 and 19 when my mother was born, the 20 year old had previously had a baby, and my mother’s father and the older 19 year old who we were taught was our grandmother, were both born in 1925, and with both of them being 19, it’s common sense that they more than likely had a relationship as the other girls were all minor children. This of course would mean that the man some how had sex with the older daughter’s kid sister and impregnated her. It seems logical that the family would have taken serious legal action against the man considering my grandmother’s age at the time, but the bitter feud between the women that lasted until their deaths points to a clear indication that my grandmother was persecuted as a result, and she just may have been targeted because she mothered a child by a man in a relationship with an older sister who would subsequently be forced to be named the child’s mother.

My grandmother’s marital records illustrates further proof of just how bad the relationship in her parent’s home was only a few years after she gave birth to my mother. She was married at an early age (16) and even during those times, minors had to have a parent or guardian sign the license giving consent to the marriage. In 1949 when she was married, her address is listed as being the same as that of the family of the man she was going to wed, and the person who signed the license giving consent to the marriage was in fact the grandmother of her husband to be. This raises questions as to why my grandmother left her parent’s home, and how her grandmother-in-law had obtained guardianship over her or the legal right to give consent to her marriage. There must have been serious and continued turmoil among the Johnson sisters that forced my grandmother out of that home, and causing her to have to go and live with her future husband’s family.

Also, the older sister who was named as my mother’s mom had a son a short time later. She would eventually give him away for some unknown reason, and I suspect that she may have mothered a child by the same man who fathered my mother, which reveals that she may have continued an intimate relationship with the same man who had raped her younger sister just a few years prior. She married her husband while purportedly having 5 kids, and stories told over the years that the family couldn’t afford to provide for all of the children and rationalizing giving away her first born child just doesn’t make sense at all. Having a child by a man who had fathered a child by your kid sister must have been a tremendous burden to carry psychologically, and this sister may have held serious animosity toward my grandmother for having to give her first born child away because the pain probably was just too much to bare. To complicate matters even more, this women’s children have repeatedly told the family for years that my mother never stayed the night over their house, and for the most part never lived in their home. My mother was actually raised by her grandmother and these recent revelations may explain why. My grandmother was too young to care for a child, so her mother raised the baby, and the title of mother placed on my grandmother’s older sister was only to conceal the child pregnancy and the family from public scrutiny.

Other compelling evidence exist that spells out why there was serious family dysfunction among the Johnson siblings which I will explain in the next article. However, family members have conveyed details describing how my grandmother was often times on a regular basis shunned away from the family. One of my mother’s surviving siblings revealed that she remembers being taken over family members homes, then being told to put their coats back on after only having been there for five minutes. She also describes how on many of those occasions her mother could be seen crying profusely. She recalls her mother having very personal internal issues which she suspects derived from the broken relationship my grandmother had with her siblings. The family has continuously expressed how meek, shy, and timid my grandmother was. Some say she had a very loving spirit similar to that of my late mother. The description many express regarding her character doesn’t align with a fast little girl who would be consensual to having sex at the age of eleven. She was simply too reserved to fit that characterization.

The bitterness and hatred ran deep among the Johnson girls well into their adult lives, and they passed much of the poison that existed between them unto their offspring. It created the unfortunate circumstance prohibiting their offspring from interacting or even getting to know the offspring of their siblings, despite the fact that for the most part the majority of the family were all living in the city of Baltimore. Each home develops a culture within their family and if a child is raised in a home where their parents speak negatively about their siblings, eventually the children will adopt such rhetoric as fact, causing them to foster the exact same perception of the relative as their parents continuously convey, and often times creating a child to lack any desire whatsoever to meet their family members.

Moreover, the 1940’s census listed 5 girls living in the Johnson home when the census data was recorded, but there was another daughter (the oldest) who wasn’t living in Baltimore. The Census Records for the same year listed the oldest daughter as living in the home of my great great grandmother, and her grandmother in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is in fact currently the sole surviving sibling of the Johnson daughter, and is the family matriarch. My great aunt is a beautiful very very fair complected woman who was sent to live with her grandmother at the age of two. Fortunately for her, she wasn’t raised in the home with the rest of her siblings, but that didn’t stop the family’s controversy from following her as well. For years members of the family have talked about her light complected pigmentation and have even spread rumors about her parentage. I’ve heard these stories most of my life, but the rumors have been put down because recent research in Birth Registry records revealed that in 1922, my great grandparents gave birth to a child, and there were no other parents baring their names within the entire year as also having a child. This pretty much closes the case on that issue.

The rumors surrounding my great aunt is extremely important for this commentary, because it demonstrates how much jealously existed among the sisters. I never met my great aunt til the woman I was taught was my grandmother passed away. I didn’t know what to expect considering all of the negative things I had heard about her over the years, but I would soon be put at ease as she appeared dignified, full of wisdom, and projected a loving spirit. It was a far cry from the arrogant, snobby, and well to do characterization I had heard regarding her character over the years. My mother had often mentioned her and the church they attended in her youth, but another perspective of my great aunt was held among her sibling’s kids and grand kids. Some of these very relatives I speak of , mask themselves as loving caring family, while I bare witness to some of the negativity and other aspersions they’ve cast upon my great aunt’s character in the past.

A close observation of may of these dysfunctional traits within the family are born out of mere jealousy. There appears to be an internal rival between light and darker complected family members (a script straight out of the “Willie Lynch Papers”), and among those who are perceived as having been more prosperous. Drugs, alcohol, and other vices seem to drive these disputes, and may have been born out of hatred passed down through the generations and continue today mirroring the fashion in which many of our ancestors carried this disease until the bitter end of their lives.

To Be Continue ..

Next: Until The Bitter End: Eyewitness Account And Heritage Of A Culture Of Secrecy 

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

As far back in my life as I can remember I always carried a pen. It was imperative for me, I never knew when somebody would say something to me that I didn’t want to forget, and I always used other people’s comments to convey a perspective on short stories I wrote to myself. Back then I had a lot to say even though my thoughts and writing weren’t as coherent as my written material today. There was so much going on around me and in my youth I felt powerless and it seemed I had an inability to exact change. Poverty has a way of shaping your mind into a crusader, utilizing every resource available to you to pave a smoother path for the those who may travel in your steps, and it also instills the ability to possess compassion for others in despair. You understand because you have walked in those shoes also.

A glimpse of the block where David Adams (The People’s Champion) grew up in his youth.

So many others who literally crawled out of the gutter and have been blessed with prosperity and a better quality of life have forgotten the roads from which they traveled to reach their current station in life. Suddenly the conditions of poverty and struggling people has become foreign to them when they grew from the very unfortunate indigenous people who remain in deplorable conditions around the globe. I have witnessed countless people refuse to even sit in the homes of their relatives as if such places they themselves once dwelled in, was now simply beneath them, while many of them attend churches within the community from which they reside. I believe that mankind can’t possibly believe in the word of God until they want for their brothers, that which they want for themselves. I made a commitment to myself years ago that I would spend my entire life working to serve other people and changing the playing field that most times has the deck stacked squarely against those less fortunate. That commitment coupled with my philosophy of change through advocacy is what motivates me to champion for those who can not, or have lost the ability to promote a voice of their own.

For nearly twenty years I have worked in public safety, which allowed me a first hand glimpse of some of the worst crimes perpetrated during our time, and the very dregs of our society who commit them. In particular, violent crimes against young African Americans, at the hands of others who look just like them has been my greatest interest. I have practical knowledge of the level of violence which continues to perpetuate within the black community, having developed as a youth within one of the most violent urban cultures in America. Some how I was successful in navigating the gritty streets of East Baltimore, a task many of my peers were unsuccessful in accomplishing. Advocacy for change should appear natural for many who experienced living in the ghettos of this country, yet most simply flee from these communities without ever looking back.

Those of us who do care about the less fortunate, commit our time, and scarce resources unfortunately at a cost probably unknown to most. As a black journalist writing about black on black violence, and crime within the African American community, I remain a target of those who live by a street code of secrecy and silence. Sadly, decent law abiding citizens in many of these same communities enable the very people who commit violent crimes by remaining silent and creating a platform for these criminals to hold communities hostage with their violent and criminal acts. Other people have adopted passive approaches to quell the violence in our communities, but my tactics are more streamlined, focused on the root causes, and critical of the African American community’s failure and inability to resolve the most prevalent social dilemma plaguing our community as a whole.

Yet, the black community remains suspicious of the system, other ethnic groups (chiefly white people) and refuse to even lift a finger to call the police when violence and other crimes occur within their own community, and often times just footsteps away from their front door. These are also some of the same people who sit in the pews of local churches in the community every Sunday professing faith unto the unseen and unknown. How can you have faith and fear? They cannot coexist! I have heard the rationalization that fear prohibits direct involvement from the community, but our community is readily prepared to point to local police as being inept, and ineffective in resolving the violence and criminal behavior that permeates the black community. How can any community expect support and assistance from government entities when the citizens of these very same communities refuse to help themselves. Fear is real and I empathize with those who experience it, but I often reflect and live by a quote of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“I hear the people always talking about freedom. Well, you all know what I say about that. I say don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to die, because once you overcome the fear of death itself, you are free”  — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I am no fool and understand how difficult it may be for a human being to grasp the very significance of such a perspective, but to resolve crime and violence within the black community, some of us just may have to pay the ultimate price to accomplish such an objective, and I stand prepared to get in line and lay down my life for the prosperity and deliverance of the masses of all of God’s people. We can no longer live in fear. We can no longer just simply turn our heads from evil, and in 2013 the African American community should refuse to be afraid of our own people. Considering the plight of black people since the conception and acquisition that brought our African ancestors to these shores, we must ask ourselves what are we prepared to do to save our young people? What are we prepared to sacrifice to cease the violent bloodshed that reigns within many of our communities? What do we actually have to live for if we cannot live in peace?

One of the greatest challenges for the African American community to overcome is the state of mental slavery. We suffer from a condition of self hatred, and it runs so deep that it causes black people to rise to a level of fatal violence against each other. Those of us who speak out against such senseless violence are even target with threats of violence and death, labeled as snitches, and the threats even come from those within our own families. They will have to kill me to silence me from continuing what I believe is righteous.

I am an advocate for change against crime and violence out of the ghettos of East Baltimore. Never run, never will!

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Part 1 of 5 My commentary for this series will most certainly elicit controversy, bitterness, and perhaps even alienation from some people within my own family. I believe the significance of this story is an imperative documentary which may benefit others by encouraging them to conduct their own independent investigation of their heritage. It isn’t my intention to spurn any further pain nor emotional distress for anyone these revelations may impact adversely, and it is my earnest hope that my perspective here is met with complete objectivity and understanding. My writing is mine alone without influence from others. I believe my work as an editorial commentary writer has paved the way for me in preparation of what  may be the greatest story I have ever told.

The long winding roads that lead into the southern states of America are filled with scenic landscapes which embrace a distinct culture far different from the way of life most northerners and others are acclimated to. The air is thick and something lurks there, hidden, but perpetuating an omnipresence nonetheless. Though unseen, I feel it, and it’s so overwhelming at times that it causes me to simply stare timelessly unto the vast fields of corn and other farming cultivation. I’ve often resolved to believe that the spirits and souls of those who have come and gone remain trapped in a time vortex due to perhaps what may be a direct result of the untimely, and harsh manner they departed from the physical world as we know it.

Black people were owned as slaves in many of these states and many of them perished while in bondage. The stories of how blacks were treated can best be understood in author Alex Haley’s documentary “Roots”. The novel highlighted a case study of how blacks were not only owned as property, but depicts the carnage of brutality they endured and the inhumane fashion in which many families of black slaves were broken by the institution of commerce that sold members of one family to other slave captors, and never seen again. The task for many of these slaves who were brought from Africa to find their heritage back across the sea seems impossible, and the constant separation of black slaves from their loved ones made such a daunted task even more improbable.

For years these stories circulated regarding the black experience in America citing slavery as the primary reason that the African American had lost it’s heritage identity due to dynamics of their bondage. Though such horrific transgressions of humanity certainly played a significant role in the disruption, disbursement, and separation of the black family throughout the African Diaspora, compelling evidence exist revealing that a cycle of the black family’s continued destruction accelerated in the 2oth century by the black family itself. My argument on this topic shouldn’t be interpreted as a rationalization nor a scapegoat to lesson the traumatic experience of slavery, but rather a clarification as to how other factors played a role in the dissipation of the black family heritage. In this article I’ll use my own lineage as a case study to demonstrate how this was perpetuated and may have also occurred in other families for over a century.

Many may or may not have ever heard of the “Willie Lynch Papers“. He was a Virginia slave owner who wrote a “how to” on the best way to control slaves which would insure psychological, emotional, and a sort of institutionalized control of blacks which could run on auto pilot for ever. This indoctrination couldn’t be more evident than within my own family. The objective of Willie Lynch was to cause complete disruption of the black family by creating the culture of distrust within the black family itself, so that suspicion would rein causing animosity among each family member. Other forms of psychology were utilized to control the black family by creating class structures within the slavery culture. Usually lighter complected slaves were often used as an instrument to create division, and were often seen as having the favor of a slave master who kept such slaves in their homes for the purpose of more intimate domestic chores (i.e. the term house nigger was born).

The slave master also used some slaves as trustees or overseers to keep a close eye on slave activities, which in turn gained special favors and perks for those slaves hand chosen by their master to keep things in order. Those slaves heavily guarded by the master’s chosen representative in his absence, were usually slaves that worked the fields picking cotton, and other strenuous work requiring long hours of hard labor (i.e. the term “field nigger” was born). The presence of a slave acting as part of the institution of the culture of slavery administration was well scripted and designed to insure that distrust and continued dissention prevailed within the entire black family, and whether doubters and other pundits agree or not these same traits of black social interaction among their own people are evident within the black family to this very day. Black on black violence in African American communities across this country couldn’t be more indicative of my argument in this regard.

However, the institution of slavery within the black family is only the tip of the iceberg for us to even began to understand the legacy of our broken heritage as a people, and the level of the current dysfunction within the black family core is not predicated on the byproduct of slavery alone. Once the African American sheds the intoxicating perception of slavery being the sole premise for the conditions of  our modern mental slavery, we will be able to pull back layers of deceit, self hatred, and a volume of lies which were perpetrated by many of our own ancestors. During the post slavery era there were also heinous crimes committed by black men including incest, rape, and other sex crimes against females within their own family.

This same era in which black people were suppose to be finally gaining a strong hold on the freedom and control of developing their own families, a horrible culture of men fathering children by their own daughters, and other minor females existed without many of these cases being pursued as a crime. The practice became so prevalent that it became an acceptable way of life, and the adult women of many of these victimized children enabled the behavior by covering up the crimes in a purported effort to shield the entire family from public scrutiny. Additionally, many of these sexual predators were the sole provider for black families, and having them hauled off to prison was almost unheard of as it would simply decimate or cripple the complete financial stability of everyone living in the house hold.

Other little girls as young as 10 years old produced children that were products of rape by adult men unrelated to them, and a pregnant child during that era raised so much suspicion that the little girls were often sent away to more secluded rural communities to live with relatives or friends of the family during their pregnancy term, to keep youth pregnancies a secret. After the child was born the young mother and infant were aloud to return to the home, but the baby would be raised by someone else, and in many cases stories were fabricated naming the infant as being the child of perhaps and older sibling of the mother. For decades the mother and daughter would have to perpetuate untruths regarding their true biological relationships, continuing the lie, and in later years to avoid embarrassment and potential psychological issues which such revelations might bring to other family members who had been lied to and kept in the dark about their relatives parentage.

These kind of revelations are always certain to create serious opposition after the facts have been made public. Some within a family will always have a desire for the truth to remain hidden, but in many cases those who want to suppress the truth are normally the individuals or direct descendants of some of the very people who conspired to cover up the ordeal. They are also of the variety in a family who has traditionally practiced a culture of superiority among family members, promoting the “better than you” personification. The overt discourse whether public or within a family setting in which direct and emphatic displeasure of untruths being revealed publicly tends to infer some knowledge regarding the matter, and it widely breeds suspicion, distrust, and other other social behavior scripted directly from “The Willie Lynch Papers.”

Furthermore, youthful pregnancies were also exacerbated when minor girls became pregnant or lived in homes with other children in which they weren’t blood related. The dynamics of a baby and a young mother bred all kinds of social deficiencies within a household that many relationships among young kids mushroomed and carried over into their adult lives, creating animosity, hatred, and broken relationships. These cultural traits in a family community in many instances were handled extremely poorly by the adults living in the home, and often times so badly that a young mother would have to move into other homes to quell serious sibling rivalries that became unbearable for a family setting. Often times the untruths were fostered about a child’s parentage predicated solely on the adversity and strife that would certainly follow from a strict societal code, which was critical in the area of family values and garnered a high standard for moral turpitude.

Moreover, parents who encountered minor children that became pregnant were uneducated and very ignorant during those times. No consideration was ever given to the damage that untruths regarding a child’s parentage would have on the overall picture of family heritage. Decisions were made hastily after many parents simply caved in to the pressures of the prevailing social climate of the times.  My family wasn’t exempt from these cultural and social disparities. In fact, an untruth regarding who my mother’s mom actually was has been extorted, subverted, and covered up for nearly 70 years to conceal the truth. Some within a family who fight to conceal the truth have an invested interest in protecting their direct descendants involvement in a plethora of lies which was the very premise a family’s heritage remained broken for so many years, and not as a direct result of the system of slavery as some may lead others to believe. Fortunately for us, a granddaughter of my true late grandmother has unraveled a volume of lies which may point to why such secrets were hidden until the bitter end of the lives of those who created it or knew.

To Be Continued ..

Next: “Until The Bitter End: The Exile Of Grandma And The Continuing Cycle Of A Family’s Jealousy, Hatred, And Concealment Of The Truth.”

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

An image of the devote church going honors teen Chanel Petro-Nixon before her high school years!

Those who knew her say she was a devote regular at the Mt Olive Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. The Boys and Girls High Honors student was also known to frequent the library which just might explain her straight A student reputation. Church, school, and family pretty much defined the kind of background Chanel Petro-Nixon came from, and the day she went missing was even more indicative of her upbringing because the child had enough motivation at the young age of 16 to go out and look for a job. Chanel’s short life glared with the kind success that most parents only dreamed their child could obtain. She was a well adjusted problem free kid who suddenly disappeared from the gritty streets of New York without a clue or even a simple rationalization explaining why.

Despite June 16, 2006 being “Father’s Day” it was a normal Sunday, when young Chanel left her home and set out to fill out a job application at a local Applebees Restaurant. . The pretty teen never made it there, and was declared missing for four days until New York sanitation workers happened upon and unusually large piece of garbage that reeked with an extremely foul odor. Alarmed by their discovery, city workers summoned the police who revealed the gruesome remains of young Chanel, who had been stuffed in a plastic bag and discarded like common trash in front of 212 Kingston Avenue.

Her Autopsy later revealed that the petite book smart kid form the Bedford Styvesant section of Brooklyn had been strangled to death. I can’t imagine nor even attempt to try to empathize with the anger and frustration her grieving family has endured all these years. For me the tragedy of this young girl’s killing is not mere simplicity of our times where society should just chalk up her death as another casualty of violent urban street culture. Chanel Petro-Nixon was somebody’s baby, and the monster who snatched her from this world remains at large without justice, retribution, and reconciliation for those who knew and loved this beautiful and promising child.

In seven years the lure of a $38,000 bounty, the star power of Michael Bloomberg (Mayor of New York at the time of her killing), the likes of Rev. Al Sharpton, “America’s Most Wanted” journalist John Lieberman, and the NAACP alike who all have advocated justice in the child’s killing has fallen short. The very same streets that snuffed out Chanel’s life remain silent without even a whisper as to who maybe responsible for her murder. Credit most be given to NYPD (One of the most efficient police agencies in the world for crimes of this nature) who did as much as they could to heat up the child’s murder investigation. Sadly though, the location of Child’s body when it was discovered wasn’t the actual crime scene, and with her body having been moved left very little evidence and much to be desired by way of culpable forensics that could pinched the cowardice monster her killed this child.

However, there were some clues that could help the cops close this case. Chanel’s white and Pink Air Jordan “Retro 14” sneakers and her cell phone were missing. Cops have made certain the public knew about those details very early on in the investigation with hopes that the items would jaw someone’s memory who may have observed the items in a person’s possession or their home. That’s the only lead the police has ever had in this murder case, and it’s just heartbreaking to think Chanel was killed for trivial material items of this nature. The child’s mother ( Lucita Nixon) is convinced that people who have information to her daughter’s murder exist, and she continues to plead to them to come forward, and tell police what they know so justice can be served for this horrific crime.

Now that glaring lights from News Cameras, the cops, and all but the memory of Chanel Perto-Nixon seemingly having dissipated, her family, and other watchdog advocates serving as “gate keepers” of society remain the only vehicles of advocacy who speak for her tragic story. Her parents continue to organize demonstrations and marches on the anniversary of Chanel’s disappearance to continue the fight for justice for the unnecessary death of their precious daughter. Their effort serves the community well if not only to demonstrate the imperativeness of continued grassroots efforts championing the plight of all victims of crime whose cases dwell in dusty boxes on the shelves of police cold case depository files.

Those of us who care and make it known that we haven’t, and never will forget the tragedy of murdered children remain encouraged that one day justice will be served with these killers locked up forever. The most important challenge is to sell the spirit of community involvement to society at large. As long as people lack understanding or practical first hand knowledge after experiencing the murder of their own child, our children will never be safe to walk the streets of this country, and the evilness that lurks in the shadows of society will continue to prey upon the innocent and most vulnerable within our communities.  I won’t stop caring nor stop fighting for those who spirits continue to cry out from the grave.

A reward for information leading to a conviction of Chanel’s killer has grown over the years and now stands at more than $33,000. Anonymous tips should go to (800) 577-TIPS.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Their story didn’t make sense from the very start. Most people following the tragic and brutal slaying of Vanessa “Honey” Malone never bought into the alleged sequence of events that left a beautiful hundred pound promising teen girl dead in a Stone Mountain apartment just a little over a year  ago. Three adults who say they survived a home invasion told cops that 4-6 mask gunman broke into there Atlanta suburb home, tied them all up, and killed the Malone youth who they say walked in on the robbery while it was in progress. Responding officers to the shooting scene say they found the pretty petite woman dead from multiple gunshots to her back.

The door to the apartment had damage consistent with someone having gained entry to the dwelling by force, it all fit the story the survivors told police, but the behavior of the 2 men who survived the home invasion suggest that they both had something to hide. One of them actually fled the scene before cops arrived (later revealed he had an outstanding warrant for an unrelated handgun charge) and the other hid potential evidence in the case. Travarese Benefeld was subsequently charged with tampering and hindering. TPC has learned that he walked with just probation on those charges last week. It was widely believed that the disposition of that case would prove to be crucial in unraveling what happened the night “Honey” was gunned down. Now it seems as if the cops have accepted the story they were told, and dashing any hopes that Benefeld would play a key role in finding the young woman’s killer(s).

The murder of “Honey” is perhaps one of the most cowardice acts of violence that I can recall in recent memory. The tale of 4-6 gunman just doesn’t make sense, and if we consider that the Malone teen may have been killed to silence a potential witness to the crime, it’s mind boggling why the others lives were spared. It’s clear in my mind that “Honey” was an intended target of violence that night. A woman more stout than the small framed 100 pound Malone youth wouldn’t have stood a chance against such a heavily armed ban of robbers. Malone posed no threat to these men, and if they were all masked as the survivors have alleged, she wouldn’t have even been able to identify any of them. There is serious doubt that the men killed the teen out of fear that she could finger them for the home invasion.

Furthermore, if it all went down like the survivors describe, “Honey” would have only gotten a mere glimpse of the men anyway. The three adults who strangely weren’t killed also, more  than likely got a better look of the thugs considering they were all tied up by the men.  The gang of men allegedly searched the apartment but only took a wallet and a cell phone. That’s a crock of shit. You mean to tell me that they killed the girl for a blackberry? It doesn’t fit. In fact it almost sounds like the wallet and cell story was fabricated to give the appearance that at least something was taken from the home, and justifying the home invasion story.

I believe the fact cops accepted this entire home invasion-murder tale is just keystone cop work at it’s best. If this murder had occurred in a major metropolitan area like New York . Philadelphia, Chicago, or Detroit, the survivor’s story wouldn’t even have been entertained. Police are suspicious by nature because the job dictates that everyone is a suspect until sufficient evidence presents itself excluding potential suspects to the contrary of their possible involvement in violent crimes. Why police investigators were readily eager to adopt the fishy story that these three told, is beyond comprehension. Then to add insult to injury, nobody in the neighborhood heard nor saw anything. Those who may have information pertaining to the case, remain hidden in a cowardice peril like scared bitches.

Then again, Dekalb County has a storied past of inadequate police investigative work. The Atlanta Child Murders case went unsolved for years, until police investigators and their crooked politician cronies picked a patsey named Wayne Williams and framed him for the murders. Justice for people of color in the south historically comes slow, and often times never arrives. It’s even safe to assume that had “Honey” been white like her mother, the case would already have been solved. The police would have turned the entire community upside down until somebody gave the killers up. Now that’s not playing the race card, but a sad fact on how murders of people of color are poorly and haphazardly investigated.

However, the time has long since come and gone for the black community to stop depending on the government to correct violence, crime, and other community disruption which derive from some of the very people who live within the black community. As long as black people remain silent bowing down to a “street code of silence” which derived from criminals, many of our sons and daughters will continue to perish in street violence from black on black crime.

In “Honey’s” case many say she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. A sane person couldn’t possibly believe that. These cowardice bastards were waiting for her, and it’s clear they wanted her dead. None of the three who survived has come to offer any information to Flora Malone (“Honey’s” Mom) since she was killed. To me, that in it’s self speaks volumes about their knowledge of exactly what happened the night she died. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have come to the Malone family’s aid in terms of support and getting “Honey’s” story out to the public. Many of these people will probably never even meet the Malone family, but their sheer compassion moved them to make an impact in some of the smallest ways, yet those who survived and were supposed to have been her friends haven’t even made it a priority to speak to Ms. Flora about what happened to her beautiful daughter.

Now they are saying Ms. Flora needs to keep quiet, stop posting so much about “Honey”, and just let her rest. I can’t believe how insensitive some people can actually be. What if “Honey” was your daughter, and the bastards who shot her in the back and took her life are still walking around free? I hope she talks about her precious daughter until the day she leaves this earth if the killer(s) haven’t been caught. I won’t stop talking about her, I want stop writing about her, and I will continue championing this promising child’s tragic story until justice has been served. That’s the absolute single most disturbing issue within the black community, being too afraid to take a stand for the benefit of your family, and the entire community. Start pointing their black asses out  and just maybe you can make a difference in your community and save someone’s child life, or you can sit around remaining silent until the next body bag picked up off the streets is your kid.  #R.I.P Honey

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

A Continuing Series On The Murder Case Of Phylicia Barnes

With just under a week away before the scheduled 2nd murder trial of Michael Maurice Johnson begins, who is accused of killing the promising honors student Phylicia Barnes, it’s sad that nearly three years later the pretty book smart kid’s story has failed to clear Baltimore City’s Circuit Court docket, and give her grieving family closure in one of the city’s most gripping and tragic stories. Johnson was actually convicted of 2nd degree murder in the child’s killing, but discovery law violations by the city state attorney’s office forced Circuit Court Judge Alfred Nance to throw out the verdict, while citing civil rights violations in the case.

During the first trial, Johnson was also acquitted of 1st degree murder, the most severe charge he faced, and the state can’t charge him a second time on that count. It’s a very disturbing realization considering the fact that the state’s failure to convict Johnson on that charge will almost certainly guarantee that Michael Johnson will walk the streets of Baltimore City again one day. It’s not even a lock that Johnson will be convicted a second time for killing the Barnes teen. The state gambled on a petty criminal name James McCray during the first trial, with his testimony placing Michael Johnson at the dead teen’s sister apartment in which he testified that he saw the girl deceased, and wrapped in a bed sheet.

It was a very compelling piece of testimony because McCray had not only put Johnson at the scene, but also stated that he advised Johnson to strip the child of her clothing, and advised him to dispose of her body in water to aid in the concealment of potential forensic evidence. Cops had found Barnes’ body during the spring of 2011 after thawing waters caused her nude body to surface in the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland where the child had apparently been placed after her killing. McCray’s testimony seemed to tie it all together, after all authorities had found Barnes dead, stripped of her clothing, and placed in a body of water just as McCray had testified to. Only the problem with McCray’s testimony is that he was a known criminal, which carries the burden of credibility issues for obvious reasons, and Johnson’s defense counsel were successful in doing damage to his testimony during cross examination.

Lawyers for Johnson picked away at his account by asking if he recalled when his allege encounter with Johnson and the child’s dead body had actually occurred, and McCray testified that Johnson had called him to the apartment prior to Christmas. The statement cast serious doubt on the accuracy and credibility of McCray’s testimony because the Barnes teen had gone missing on December 28, 2010 three days after the Christmas Holiday. However, jurors who were interviewed after Johnson had been convicted during the first trial, say they didn’t give McCray’s testimony too much weight, but rather believed that Johnson was guilty based on recorded jail house telephone conversations in which he discussed leaving the country to avoid prosecution.

In fact, jurors also told news outlets that Johnson never once proclaimed his innocence during those jail house phone recordings, and believed that he was guilty, had something to hide, and was trying to run from justice.  However, despite the problems a witness like McCray posed for the state, which was emphasized during inconsistent testimony during the trial, the jury still believed that Johnson had killed the child and came back with a conviction of 2nd degree murder.  The state had won it’s case, but Montgomery County State prosecutors had submitted documentation detailing that McCray had been scrapped as a witness for an unrelated murder case which McCray had testified during Johnson’s trial that he had in fact testified during that case.

The revelation completely decimated the state’s star witness’ testimony proving that McCray had as a matter of fact lied on the stand during Johnson’s first trial. Trouble for the state began when the state attorney’s office failed to inform Johnson’s attorneys that the documents existed as required by law. The state actually waited 13 days after they had received the documents impeaching McCray’s testimony.  Upon discovery of the Montgomery County documentation Johnson was almost certain to be guaranteed a new trial, but the states failure to be forthright with the discovery violated Johnson’s Civil Rights, and also cast a tremendous cloud over the entire prosecution of Michael Johnson. It almost gives the impression that the state was trying to railroad him in a case many believe they could have easily one, had the state utilized other compelling evidence that points to not only the involvement of Michael Johnson, but other members of his family in the killing of pretty young Phylicia Barnes.

Now with the testimony of the state’s star witness James McCray having been destroyed, many followers of this story wonder what direction the state will take it’s case to prove that Michael Johnson killed the Barnes teen. Judge Nance scolded the state during the first trial, citing that he believed the state’s case was “based on a theory”, and fell short of tossing the case entirely before sending the case to the jury. McCray’s testimony of having been summoned to the apartment where he observed Michael Johnson with the child’s dead body, is the only tangible evidence the state produced during the initial trial. Now that the state doesn’t have his testimony, it’s case has become even more circumstantial and may be a tough sell to a Baltimore jury historically known for it’s controversial rulings, and a complete mistrust of the Maryland judicial system as a cultural fact.

Although Johnson has remained locked up at the Baltimore City Detention Center pending the start of his second trial, many of his family members suspected by the public at the very least of conspiring to cover up the Barnes teen murder continue to walk freely in the streets of Baltimore. Though it’s widely believe that Johnson killed the child, many remain outraged that Phylicia’s half sibling Deena Barnes has eluded prosecution in this tragic case. The older Barnes lied to the child’s mother about who would be staying at her northwest Baltimore apartment while Phylicia came to visit. Her deception toward the child’s mother is what ultimately allowed Janice Mustafa to allow her beautiful daughter to start traveling to Baltimore to develop a relationship with her half siblings. Phylicia who was described by her parents as a fun loving, silly, naive, and book smart country girl was no match for the fast paced gritty street culture of Baltimore city that took her young life.

A toxic combination of drugs, alcohol, a freaky sex laced environment  with adult males, and coupled with lies and deceit developed into a horrible crime in which no one has yet been held accountable. Phylicia’s family tells TPC that they are prepared for any verdict in the upcoming second murder trial, but the story of Phylicia Barnes is textbook on how murderers escape the criminal justice system in Baltimore, and avoid paying the ultimate price for heinous crimes of this nature. Phylicia was a pretty flower thrown in a river, gone from us forever, but not forgotten.

To be Continued …

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

It’s a story which has been shared all over the world. The senseless and tragic killing of a beautiful hundred pound teen girl from Stone Mountain, GA name Vanessa “Honey” Malone went viral, as followers of her case struggled to understand why 4-6 masked gunman would shoot the unarmed young woman in the back and leave her for dead at a friends apartment that fateful day back on October 23, 2012. Vanessa’s killing seemingly sparked a revolution related to how young people are beginning to respond to gun violence against youth across the globe. The power of social media was influential in gaining wide spread outcry to have the teen’s killers brought to justice. While her story gained international prominence, the very community where the crime took place has failed to get people to start talking about what they know.

Sketchy details related to how “Honey” died which were given to cops by so called friends, continue to be a troubling factor for many following this unsolved murder mystery. A tale of gunman breaking down the door to the apartment that night, tying up three adults who all survived, and only resulting in “Honey” having been killed while she walked in on the alleged home invasion, is a fishy story that doesn’t make sense at all. Chiefly, “Honey’s” obvious lack of a threat to such a fierce and heavily armed cast of murderers, creates serious doubt about why she was killed, and coupled with the fact they shot the teen in the back and three other potential witnesses having been left behind alive points to the fact that “Honey” was an intended target of violence that night.

The cowardice nature of her killing is gut wrenching because if eye witnesses accounts are accurate, the teen couldn’t possibly have identified them at all as they were allegedly wearing mask. Unless the killers were all intimately known to “Honey”, who could be identified to her by the sound of their voices or the apparel they all were wearing. Even more disturbing is the fact that the alleged home invasion heist only landed the killers a score of loot consisting of a wallet and a cellphone. It just doesn’t add up and the suspicious circumstances surrounding one of the survivors having left the scene of the crime before police arrived, points to a potential conspiracy to cover up the teen’s killing by some of the very people who were suppose to be “Honey’s” friends.

It seems clear to everyone but the cops investigating this crime that the survivors of this horrific ordeal know more about what happened to “Honey”than what they’ve told.  Perhaps the greatest crime committed in this case is the refusal of people within the Stone Mountain community who may have information regarding the teen’s murder, but won’t cooperate or come forward to bring justice to “Honey” and her grieving family. Rumors have sense surfaced that some of the items taken in the alleged home invasion have been returned to their owners, highlighting the probability that some people may know at least one of the gunman involved in the case.

Without vital and necessary information pointing to the perpetrators of this terrible crime, the killers will never be captured and the murder of Vanessa “Honey” Malone will join the ranks of countless other unsolved cold murder cases from around the country. The continuing perpetuation of black on black violence is only shadowed by the growing number of violent crimes against women of color.  Sadly though, the culture of violence in black communities are harvested and cultivated out of the lingering conditions of slavery black people have endured. American slaves were indoctrinated into a code of secrecy and silence out of fear of being killed if they divulged knowledge of criminal details.  The exact same culture exist within the black community today, except black people are no longer fearful of reprisals from the slave master, but rather transfixed with fear from a polarizing culture of violent criminals who are now also blacks living in their own communities.

Someone knows who killed Vanessa “Honey” Malone and why. They should break the shackles of mental enslavement by rendering justice to “Honey”, her family, and their own community by coming forward to reveal what they know, or stay idle with a gasping silence which only leads way to the next victim of such a violent crime that could result in the lost of a loved one’s life or your very own. #justice4honey.

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Sigma Chi is one of the largest Greek-Letter social fraternities in North America with more than 240 active chapters in the United States and Canada and more than 300,000 initiates. Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. According to the fraternity’s constitution, “the purpose of the fraternity shall be to cultivate and maintain the high ideals of friendship, justice, and learning upon which Sigma Chi was founded.” The largely white dominated membership host a bolstering list of prominent fraternity brothers ranges from members of Congress, entertainers, and scholars alike, but there is the memory of a black man name Gregory Johnson Jr. who mysteriously died in a Sigma Chi frat house on the campus of San Jose State University in 2008 that continues to haunt the otherwise unblemished Greek social group. The official reports surrounding the death of Gregory Johnson claims that the California native, who had no history of social or psychological issues committed suicide by hanging himself for no apparent reason.  

Denise Johnson who is Gregory’s mother, has been on a crusade for nearly 6 years in an effort to find the truth and what happened to her son that fateful day. The mother has even taken her fight for answers to the halls of the highest realm of justice in our land, only to have U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s office denied her access to investigative reports pertaining to Gregory’s death investigation, based strangely on the grounds that the documents were a matter of national security. Why the death of a black college kid in the basement of a frat house would be a compromise to the security of the United States of America is not only puzzling, but suspect to many following her son’s story.

The People’s Champion’s preliminary investigation into the Gregory Johnson Jr. death at San Jose State has found some of the usual components which normally exist when a black man is allegedly discovered hanging in this country. Gregory’s case isn’t unique related to the manner in which police agencies investigate death of black men by hanging. Although police reports indicate that there was in fact an investigation into his death, the reports appear to only highlight their pursuit of sufficient evidence to support that he had committed suicide. The questioning of his college professors and others that knew him focused largely around his behavior and any possible changes in his character leading up to the day he died.

Members of the Sigma Chi fraternity were questioned regarding his social interaction with the group’s members, all of which revealed no conflicts with members of the social group or any other despondent behavior at all. However, witness statements appear to be inconsistent with information that his family provided to police investigators, and the story provided to police by the fraternity brother who found Gregory Johnson hanging in the basement of the frat house was just simply too convenient. the reports indicate that he was found hanging, and conveniently had another fraternity brother on the phone while Gregory’s lifeless body was  found. The witness statement from the person on the phone states that he heard what appeared to be a cell phone dropped, screams for someone to call 911, and that Gregory had attempted to hang himself.

One police report revealed an inconsistency in that statement while another report describes Gregory as having been discovered deceased by his frat brother. The reports indicate that his body was taken down and placed in a chair, and that an orange colored extension cord tied in a noose was discovered just a few feet away. The fact that no one other than the Sigma Chi member who allegedly found Gregory’s body actually saw him hanging, should have made police more hard pressed to conduct a complete and thorough investigation into the crime scene. In fact, the reports are void of detailed and descriptive indications pointing to a timeline of where people actually were upon his discovery. The reports fail to disclose these details and other pertinent forensic evidence. For instance, there are no reports indicated that police investigators conducted finger printing of DNA testing on the extension cord to determine if Gregory Johnson had in fact touched it.

If no police official or any other person actually witnessed a body hanging, then such forensic evidence is crucial to measure the credibility of the account provided by the eyewitness who viewed the body hanging. Barring my suggestion related to this particular and rudimentary investigative fact finding measure, the cops simply took the Sigma Chi frat brothers story on it’s face as the gospel. The extended time the coroner’s office took to release his body to the family also raises some serious questions regarding the integrity of the investigation into Gregory Johnson’s death. The Coroner’s report indicates a 16 plus inch abrasion on Gregory’s neck, but photos taken by Denise Johnson of her son after she obtained custody of his body do not show marks or contusions of any kind. I suspect as rigor mortis settles into the body, soft tissue begins to harden, and the flesh begins to discolor, but the image below clearly illustrates that no ligature marks our abrasions existed around his neck.

The body of Gregory Johnson also had it’s neck broken. Even if Gregory had committed suicide as police and the coroner have suggested, the crime scene doesn’t support a scenario where his body would have adjusted itself to create enough pressure to break his neck while in a hanging position. Also, how could the coroner have possibly ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation when the neck had been racked? Bottom line, there is some fishy shit related to this man’s death. I’ll have my team on this case investigating who was there, and why the cops never conducted a more thorough and complete investigation into the death of Gregory Johnson Jr. Mean while, read the autopsy and police reports for yourselves.  http://justiceforgregory.com/coverup.html

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

A Continued Series On the Murder of Phylicia Barnes

If someone would have told me that the murder case of Phylicia Barnes would span several years I would not have believed them. Sadly though, nearly three years after the book smart country girl from rural North Carolina went missing, her case continues to make it’s rounds through the Baltimore City Circuit Court System. The case has been listed in the Maryland Judicial Case Docket with a November 7, 2013 retrial date, and not the anticipated October 1, 2013 date previously listed. Rumors have circulated that defense counsel Russell Neverdon will no longer be representing Michael Johnson during his 2nd Degree Murder retrial for killing young Phylicia Barnes. There has also been speculation that Johnson will now be represented by a Public Defender (state paid attorney). The case file doesn’t have any new defense attorneys listed as having entered their appearance in the case, but the recent postponement more than likely centers around Neverdon’s recent public announcement that he will be running for the Baltimore City State’ Attorney post, and Johnson’s new legal counsel may have filed the motion for a new court date to allow the defense an opportunity to get up to speed on the merits of the case.

The current delay in court proceedings only compounds the frustrations of the murdered teen’s family and those within the public who have been following her tragic story. The jurors in Johnson’s first trial did their job by rendering a verdict of guilty on the count of 2nd degree murder, but shenanigans by state prosecutors set the stage for Johnson’s conviction to be overturned by a Circuit Court Judge who not only appeared to be eager to set the Barnes teen accused murderer free, but made his displeasure with the state’ case known in open court by chastising prosecutors for his personal perception of a weak case against Johnson. Nance’s comments were highly irregular for a sitting Circuit Court judge and caused many to question his objectivity while presiding over the case.

Judge Alfred Nance ripped into state attorney Lisa Goldberg before the case went into deliberations, citing that he believed the state had built a case against Johnson based on a theory with mostly circumstantial evidence. Nance fell just short of granting the defense’ motion to have the case tossed, but cited that the case should go to the jury. The defense won a reprieve when the state’ star witness James McCray lied on the stand about having testified in an unrelated homicide case. Prosecutors were aware that evidence had surfaced impeaching McCray’s testimony, but for some unknown reason the state failed to follow established discovery laws. State law requires prosecutors to turn over all exculpatory evidence against a defendant, by not doing so violated Johnson’s constitutional rights, and judge Nance ruled that “while the defendant isn’t guaranteed a perfect trial, he is entitled to a fair one” striking down Johnson’s conviction.

Misconduct by prosecutors related to the McCray witness isn’t the only eyebrow raising issue with the state’ case. The state actually rolled the dice on this witness and it became apparent when McCray testified that Johnson summonsed him to the teen’s older half sibling’s apartment soliciting help disposing of her body. McCray testified that Johnson admitted to him that he had strangled the child after he raped her and he couldn’t get her to stop crying. Prosecutors believed that McCray’s testimony would be powerful because he stated that he observed the teen’s dead body wrapped in sheets at the apartment. On cross examination the defense quizzed McCray on his memory pertaining to the actual date of his allege encounter with Johnson. When McCray testified that Johnson had called him for help prior to Christmas, the defense poignantly exclaimed “no further questions” to highlight that McCray’s testimony was suspect considering that Barnes had gone missing after Christmas on December 28, 2010.

The obvious inconsistency in McCray’s testimony pointed to serious credibility issues in the eyes of many, but others highlight the fact that despite the conflict in McCray’s testimony on that issue, the state’ allegations charging that Johnson strangled the child, stripped her of her clothing (to avoid possible forensic evidence detection), and disposed of her body in water, is precisely and very consistent with the details McCray testified to in open court surrounding the instructions and advice McCray said he gave Johnson. McCray’s testimony is identical to what prosecutors claim Johnson had committed when he killed the the girl. The state avoided tons of other evidence which not only pointed to the culpability of Johnson, but others related to him possible involvement at the very least in conspiring to cover up the child’s murder.

The state missed or ignored valuable evidence that pointed to involvement by others, and even possibly another scenario altogether of how the teen was murdered and disposed of. It has been proven at the very least, Johnson family members and friends had discussed among themselves what happened to Phylicia Barnes, and was even discretely mentioned on social media. A girlfriend of Johnson’s cousin tweeted on January 28, 2010 “it’s trapped at the dam, don’t pull the lever”, a shocking revelation which occurred months before the teen’s nude body was discovered at the Conowingo Dam in Northern Maryland. That information was given to the Maryland State Police from the public, and even prompted authorities to question the young woman regarding her comment on twitter. The state chose not to utilize that information as part of evidence in the trial for some strange reason.

Perhaps the argument could be made that judge Nance refused to allow the comment in court because the state failed to connect the tweet to Johnson, but it’s a no brainer that Johnson’s relative, one of the initial people questioned by police during the beginning of the Barnes teen disappearance investigation, more than likely had advanced information regarding what happened to Barnes. The connection is that the young woman and the Johnson cousin were regulars at Phylicia’s older half sibling’s apartment around the time the child had gone missing. It’s confusing how that information doesn’t get in the trial when it’s very compelling that the woman obviously knew where Barnes’ body was months before the cops found her floating in a river near a dam. There were also other tweets and comments on social media that painted a disturbing picture of who may have been involved in Barnes’ murder, and the police’s inability to connect the dots related to much of that extremely revealing and telling information is simply very poor police investigative work.

However, there may be other factors which could have created bias by police and judge Nance regarding the manner in which many of these suspicious and problematic issues failed to ever reach inclusion of the state’ summation of their charges against Johnson. Johnson whose mother is a Baltimore City Police Officer, and Deena Barnes who was responsible for taking care of Phylicia while she stayed in Baltimore, also has a relative who is a city police officer as well. In fact, the Barnes relative working for Baltimore police showed up at the apartment the day Phylicia was reported missing and began to conduct an unofficial investigation by questioning people. It’s very compelling that the officer’s presence at the scene of the missing person call may have been crucial in avoiding the Barnes teen disappearance having been taken seriously.

There were a volume of lies that were initially told to police during the early hours of Phylicia’s disappearance. Chiefly the fabricated story that Phylicia had gone to get something to eat and probably would be coming back to the apartment shortly. Many of the lies which that were told became unraveled during the trial when the teen’s half sibling had to admit that she gave her kid sister alcohol and marijuana (facts that she repeatedly lied about to the child’s mother, and various media organizations), allowed her to run around intoxicated completely nude with her boyfriend and other males, and that she had even witnessed Johnson attempting to fondle Phylicia in her presence. Th older half sibling’s failure to convey to police at the very least, what she had previously witnessed Johnson attempt to do to Phylica, is highly probable that the investigation may have been directed toward Johnson as a suspect early on, and may have also resulted in the child being found alive.

The Barnes relative who is a police officer may have went into protect mode simply looking out for the best interest of his niece, Deena Barnes. The presence of a police officer who just also happens to be related to people involved in a potential crime, has a very powerful persuasion upon police actively working a potential criminal case. It’s an obvious conflict of interest that should also been entered into the trial proceedings. The volume of missteps by the state is too convenient and coincidental considering police culture and the dynamics of the Baltimore City Criminal Justice process.

There are so many inter twined elements of this case which calculate to clear injustice for Phylicia Simone Barnes’ memory and her grieving family, and it’s also an unfortunate and unfair bi-product of a storied but troubled criminal justice system where murderers walk free on a regular basis in an extremely violent city. Those within the community who know how the system works in Baltimore and have their blinders off, can see clearly that the shuffling and juggling of the Michael Johnson murder case may be by design. With Johnson now possibly being represented by a Public Defender, it may spell trouble for those seeking justice in this promising kid’s murder case. Johnson will not have the luxury of lawyers utilizing resources to conduct independent investigations into forensics and other pertinent aspects of the case, but depending on his PD’s case load he may benefit from a overwhelmed court docket, and his counsel may be priming state prosecutors for a plea deal. In many instances State Public Defenders are consumed by a bolstering docket which results in brokered deals which allow some defendants in serious crimes to plea to a lesser included offense.

Johnson would only serve 25 years if convicted of 2nd degree murder, creating the possibility that because of his youth he may very well walk the streets again one day. The state failed to convict him of the most serious charge of 1st degree murder. He was acquitted of that charge and can’t be retried again on that count due to double jeopardy laws. Johnson could realistic plea down to Manslaughter and only serve 10-15 years in prison, and once he is adjudicated by prison officials on his conduct while incarcerated, Johnson could earn time off of his sentence for good behavior (11 days off of 30 in the Maryland Division of Corrections). In short, if he behaves himself while locked up he could only do 6-7 years of real jail time and win his release on early parole.

It’s a horrible scenario to consider when we digest the fact that a beautiful promising kid was killed for no other reason than the fact she trusted those around her who were suppose to protect her. It’s unimaginable that her case could have digressed to the disturbing possibilities that may result in this case. I can’t help but wonder if  family ties to police in the city of Baltimore has aided Johnson in his attempt to elude justice in the killing of Phylicia Barnes, and then again I can’t help but to wonder if justice will ever come at all in this case. A sad commentary on the inequities of justice for a pretty little girl snatched out of this world from us forever.

Part III of a series

To Be Continued …

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams