It’s a gritty blue collar town with a reputation of violent crimes that dates back to the early 20th century. A violent era in American history where gangsters like Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran were the leading figures in Chicago’s organized crime order. The struggle for power once spilled over into the streets when seven men were lined up against a whitewashed wall and pumped with 90 bullets from submachine guns, shotguns and a revolver in an epic crime scene, later dubbed as the famed St Valentine’s Day Massacre. It was the most infamous of all gangland slayings in America, and it savagely achieved its purpose (the elimination of the last challenge to Al Capone for the mantle of crime boss in Chicago). Over three quarters of a century later, the brutal imagery of gun violence still remains a calling card for the way violent criminals conduct business on the streets of Chi Town. The only difference today is the mafia is now defunct, and the heirs to violent gang culture has been inherited by gun toting kids, who operate from a new standard of rules.

No one is immune from gun violence as babies, females, elderly people, and not even mourners attending funerals can escape a seemingly violent epidemic of biblical proportions as the body count continues to rise on a daily basis. In the past few weeks the weekends were filled with shootings totalling 38, 35, and 43 citizens hit by gunfire respectively. The numbers shadow past figures where at least 52 people have been shot in a twenty four hour time period, and a total of fifty or more people have been shot in Chicago in a single day, twice in as many years. While the cops blame the rise in violence on gang activity, politicians contemplate what actions should be taken to stop the violence and bring order to a city in desperate need of a complete public safety overhaul. Chicago’s mayor Rahm Emanuel has been dancing around the idea of establishing Martial Law, and allowing the streets to be policed by National Guards. The call for the government to stop the killing has been advocated by community leaders, louder than ever before.

The debate has formulated two sides of the war on violence in Chicago, and the urgency for government intervention depends on which side of the table you’re seated. For instance, communities in close proximity of the University of Chicago are among some of the most violent in the city, and some of the safest at the same time. Past violence on and near the institution’s campus sprung it’s administration into action decades ago, and many of the installations near the campus are now being patrolled by private police. Other communities in close proximity are also benefiting from such strategic community safety efforts. Crime and violence is in fact within the highest in Chicago for neighborhoods just blocks away. The alarming disparity of crime and violence becomes a simple matter of where you live. While neighborhoods populated by African Americans and other minorities are among those desperately seeking government assistance to police violence, some white communities in close proximity are numb to the need for intervention.

Community leaders say that such a perspective sends a false sense of security to the overall need for policing of troubled communities plagued with violence. The current status of public safety policy demonstrates that resources are only being afforded to communities which cater to one ethnic group, and primarily those entities associated with the University of Chicago and other prominent institutions. However, research shows that minority and low income communities produce 90 percent of the cities violent crime victims and perpetrators, a staggering statistic that some observers believe is primarily a problem solely indigenous to those communities. Poverty, poor education, and gang activity remain the normal rationalization for the onset of such a violent epidemic, but black leaders are concerned that the readily availability of guns on the streets of Chicago is the root of the city’s violence problem.

For more than a year now, the Chicago Police department has been on a triumphant run. Murders fell almost 20 percent citywide last year, according to department data, and the first quarter of 2014 saw the fewest murders in any first quarter since 1958. But then the mercury started to rise. Over the last two weekend (the first warm ones in the city this year) shootings spiked. More than 70 people were wounded by gunfire. More than 10 others were killed. Authorities say that violence in the city is a classic tale of two Chicagos, one of them safe and prosperous, the other one dangerous and poor—and both of them growing more so. NBC News confirmed the idea of two Chicagos in an analysis last year. Between 2007 and 2012 the murder rate in the most dangerous of Chicago’s official community areas was as much as 80 times higher than the rate in the tonier, quieter area’s like Chicago’s north side. As jobs leave and communities break down, gangs seem to move in and violence follows.

The disturbing factors related to Chicago’s violence is the casual approach some say city leaders are displaying related to stopping the killings. The basic consensus is that although research and statistical data explain some of the root causes of violent crime, drastic measures must now be implemented to quell violence in the city where citizens are being fired upon indiscriminately by fearless criminals who act with impunity. The cops continue to tout the fall of violent crimes over the course of the past few years, but as the climate changes in 2014 the body count, and the volume of shootings so far this year in Chicago demonstrates that a spike in shootings have come back with a vengeance. The city’s leaders along with community advocates are playing a dangerous game of “russian roulette” with the public safety viability of one of the nation’s largest cities, while violence in Chicago reigns as the order of the day. A drastic measure must be swiftly enacted to stop the killing. Mayor Rahm Emanuel must act now and establish Martial Law. His failure to implement unprecedented public policy related to Chicago’s violent epidemic will result in the blood of countless citizens falling upon his hands on his watch.

The reality of the extent of violence in Chicago reveals that since 2010 over 1500 school kids have been shot in the city, with over 350 of them being killed. These disturbing stats have gone unnoticed by national media, while the NRA and conservatives groups lobby for gun rights in”stand your ground” states, no one seems to be concerned with how to disrupt black youth and minorities access to guns, or where the weapons are coming from on the streets of Chicago. It seems as though no one cares about gun violence on the streets as long as the bodies falling are young black youth. A child’s safety on the streets of his own community shouldn’t be predicated on his economic status, and children shouldn’t have to be afraid because they’re not affiliated with a street gang. When a city’s government fails to protect our kids and the violence appears to be like a runaway train, Martial Law must be instituted to protect the public from violent criminals who destroy our communities. Do it now before more innocent lives are lost at the hands of cowardice gun toting thugs. Save your people Mr. Mayor and do the right thing! Now!

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

It’s a microcosmic view inside the depth of frustration that has long been simmering for quite sometime within the african american community, developing from an epidemic of violence, governments failure to assist poor families, and the growing trend of missing black kids. A dark place, seemingly banned to the obscure annals of America’s most indigenous and poverty stricken communities, the plight of poor black babies along with the growing destruction of black youth, in Washington D.C. at least, has spurned a grass roots movement advocating change to protect black children. The disappearance of a beautiful 8-year-old little girl name Relisha Rudd was the catalyst for change that got Keith Warren motivated to launch an all out assault on those responsible for the little girls’ disappearance. Warren’s efforts are deeply rooted with emphatic practicality of having to assist locating the disappearance of a child relative back in 2010.

In the small space he shares with a roommate at an assisted living center in Washington, Warren has rallied thousands of concerned citizens to aide in the fight to bring young Relisha Rudd home safely. Every night for the past few weeks, he has broadcast the “Finding Relisha Radio Show,” from an internet platform on Blogtalk. Hundreds of listeners tune in to add comment, share their thoughts, along with frightening theories that they believe may have happened in the child’s disappearance case. That effort has mushroomed into a task force of people who actively participate in searches, passing out flyers, and talking to people within the surrounding communities to get the word out about young Relisha Rudd’s story. The group’s members has ballooned into nearly a thousand people who are all actively communicating in the efforts to find the missing little girl.

“It’s a long overdue process that should occur every time a black child goes missing,” said Hakeem Abdul, a Baltimore based child advocate who echoes the thoughts of many who have been following Keith Warren, and the Finding Relisha Rudd movement. The show has highlighted interviews with members of the little girl’s family, who have appeared on air and engaged in arguing, fighting, and other deplorable behavior that really tarnish the efforts to find Relisha. At times listeners who call into the show questioning the family, have attacked family members with insults and brash condemnation of the child’s mother, grandmother, and aunts for what the public largely sees as their irresponsibility and failure of Relisha while not appearing to be doing enough to help bring the child home. Warren who is a U.S. Veteran and a bounty hunter, at times has struggled to keep the show’s decorum in tact, while an outpouring of emotion and outrage often prevails during the open discussion about the case. He has no formal training as a broadcast journalist, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, but his efforts are being applauded by a volume of people who say they will not let the little girl’s tragic case go quietly into the dark of the night.

Warren’s efforts have not gone without scrutiny, while some question “what makes this little girl different” from all of the other missing kids. Such a descent from an unprecedented community involved collaboration to find a missing D.C. kid, is quickly dispelled by followers who refuse to give up hope, and believe Relisha is still alive. Other factors which appear to make wide public advocacy to find the child unique, stem from the volume of women who have taken the case personal. Some of the details centered around Relisha’s disappearance are simply unconscionable, and have made parents with children around Relisha’s age livid, regarding the lack of awareness the child’s family had pertaining to her whereabouts for such an extended period of time. Mothers reject the notion that the nineteen days Shameeka Young allowed to go by without physically seeing her daughter, as an acceptable form of child rearing, and many have made it crystal clear that they want the mother to be arrested for her negligence.

Keith Warren’s broadcast has ushered in statements from other family members the public never heard from in mainstream media. Like Daniel Roberts (Relisha’s uncle) who told KWDC Radio that he witnessed Shameeka Young give her daughter to Kalil Tatum at a D.C. bus stop on March 7, 2014. His comment was a shocking revelation which discounts the mother’s earlier account which she claims to have last seen Relisha on March 1, 2014, and perpetuates growing suspicion that Shameeka Young is not being truthful about Relisha’s disappearance. Warren’s show also may have unveiled another possible missing child case. When Shameeka Young came under fire regarding her account that she left Relisha with her sister Ashley, she went of the offensive and disclosed that Ashley also has a daughter who is possibly missing. The dialogue caught listeners by surprise, and some have recounted that tensed moment of the show, contemplating whether missing children are a culture among Relisha’s family members.

The onset of Keith Warren’s personal mission to bring the community together to find such a beautiful child has brought a long decried quest of advocacy for missing children of color, to the very apex of Washington’s social consciousness. His show’s platform of an open mic dialogue has brought so many inconsistencies related to the case to the forefront, and many of the comments made by family members of Relisha Rudd are now a matter of record, which may be utilized by authorities to get to the bottom of what happened to this innocent and precious child. If you have some time, tune in to his show at 7:00 p.m. every night. I’m sure he’ll be there with an army of concerned parents who care about missing children in the “Chocolate City.” Where are you Relisha?

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Her story is the biggest news headline in Washington D.C., but even with extensive local media coverage the disappearance of young 8-year-old Relisha Rudd has failed to garner the kind of national attention that a high profiled child abduction story should receive. It was a case that almost never made it to press because the child’s disappearance seemingly wasn’t even under her family’s radar. If not of the concern for the little girl’s well being having been investigated by a school official, no one would have known that she was missing at all. The strange circumstance of a man name Kalil Tatum listed on school records as her doctor brought suspicion from a keen school counselor, who notified authorities during a home visit after discovering that he had the child in his care, and was only a janitor working at the shelter where Relisha lived with her family. Once the alarm of an Amber Alert was sounded, the search for Tatum commenced. The story became even more Bizarre when Tatum’s wife was found dead at a hotel in Oxen Hills Maryland. That mysterious discovery was only trumped by Tatum’s body being found also, a short time later from what police describe as an apparent suicide.

Media coverage of the case unveiled security surveillance footage from a hotel on February 26, 2014, that depicted Tatum escorting young Relisha to a room. It was a gripping image that sent shock waves of fear through most following the story, as the video seemed to illustrate a haunting portrayal of a 51-yer-old pedophile luring the child into an isolated place to met out sexual perversions upon her. That video surveillance has led the public to believe that Tatum was the last person to have Relisha under their care, but the conflicting stories of her family members cast doubt that her disappearance actually occurred in the manner they have told the authorities. Kalil Tatum’s unfortunate death by suicide has created a tremendous burden on finding young Relisha, and to obtain knowledge related to exactly what kind of relation he had with the child, or arrangements that her family made with him regarding his supervision of her.

The complexity of this child disappearance case is exacerbated by conflicting stories from her mother, aunt, maternal grandmother, and who all collectively can’t determine as a matter of fact the last time either of them had the child under their care. More importantly, Shameeka Young (Relisha’s mother) has admitted that nineteen days had gone by without her having any physical contact with her daughter. Her claims that she left Relisha in the care of her sister has been disputed by the child’s aunt, who states that she gave Relisha to Tatum at her direction. With Tatum out of the picture, her family has turned this tragic case into a saga of finger pointing, name calling, and bashing each other with threats of violence. Most followers of this child’s story would agree that the public has shown more genuine concern for locating young Relisha, while her family seems focused on deflecting blame of her disappearance on each other.

TPC’s close observation of the Relisha Rudd disappearance case offers a volume of unanswered questions. If Kalil Tatum is in fact responsible for the child’s disappearance, why would he suddenly take her from her family now, when he had a pattern of supervising her and bringing her back safely? What prompted him to murder his wife (if you believe he is responsible)? Why was Tatum and another man (Stokes) known to rent hotel rooms when they both had residences of their own? Why did Tatum take Relisha to a hotel and not his home if she was suppose to be interacting with his daughter/granddaughter? Why did Kalil Tatum purchase garbage bags, lime, and a shovel? Was those items for the purpose of disposing a body, and if so, was that person Relisha or his wife? Media reports that establish three people being at a hotel with Tatum, when one person returns the following morning, and recalls observing Tatum’s wife spread out across the bed while Tatum denied him access to the room, creating suspicion as to why all of these adults may have been in a hotel room with an 8-year-old girl. A theory detailing what ever was going on in that hotel room almost certainly may have led to the demise of Tatum’s wife whether he was responsible for her murder of someone else, becomes a very compelling scenario.

However, if we follow the storyline with the belief that Tatum is responsible for whatever happened to Relisha, we have to contemplate why the child’s family members are telling some many lies regarding what happened. If Tatum is responsible, just tell the cops what you know so they can establish what happened to her. The vicious attacks against each other, coupled with their lack of authentic concern for finding Relisha points to complicity of what happened to her by her own family. Why was Shameeka Young so complacent pertaining to Relisha’s interaction with this man, who purchased expensive gifts for her without drawing her suspicion? Did she know what Tatum was doing with her precious child? When the cops became involved in the case, she appears to have given statements that have come back to haunt her.

Shameeka Young says that she last saw Relisha on March 1, 2014 when she dropped her off at her sister’s home. A witness has come forward and dispelled her claim after revealing that he saw Shameeka give her daughter to Tatum at a D.C. bus stop on March 7, 2014. Her sister Ashley says she gave Relisha to Tatum on March 2, 2014 at Shameeka’s request. Relisha’ stepfather says they last saw Relisha on March 8, at his son’s birthday party which was held at Asheley’s home. Sadly, none of the little girl’s closest family had a handle on her whereabouts or didn’t seem to care who had her. The gravity of the family’s inability to get the story straight leaves the door wide open for speculation that at least one of the family members, if not all of them, knows exactly what happened to young Relisha. The murder of Tatum’s wife and his subsequent death by suicide are disturbing and alarming aspects of the case, but eyewitness statements and accounts by the little girl’s own family establish that Shameeka Young had contact with her daughter at least a week after the time frame she has given to the authorities.

It seems that the more Shameeka Young talks about her daughter’s disappearance, the more contradictory her version of what happen appears. Why has her story consistently changed? Some attribute her inability to get the dates correct, to suspected narcotics use. However, if we offer the benefit of the doubt pertaining to her allege poor memory, I’m sure most would agree that at the very minimum, there is an expectation that Shameeka should have the ability to recall the actual event of when she last saw Relisha. If she can’t recall the date when she last saw her daughter, it’s simply unbelievable that she is confused as to who she last gave the child to. The failure on her part to recall the date she last saw Relisha appears to be a smoke screen. She has consistently given March 1, 2014 as the date she last saw the child, but it’s a date that seems purposefully chosen for some undisclosed reason. Ashley (Relisha’s aunt), Daniel Roberts, and Antonio (Relisha’s stepfather) all gave statements revealing that Shameeka Young had her daughter beyond March 1.

Even more suspicion is centered around Shameeka’s date memory fiasco when other statements she has made regarding the case are considered. Shameeka Young told KWDC Radio on Blogtalk that she never gave her daughter to Tatum or never allowed her to go anywhere with him. Her statements stand in strong contrast to comments she made on live television, when she told a reporter from NBC Washington Channel 4 “I thought he was a nice person, and thought I could trust him,” and indicating that she had in fact given her consent for Tatum to care for her daughter. See the interview below:

In the same interview Shameeka Young initially told the reporter that she wasn’t under the impression that Relisha was missing, but when the question was rephrased, she admitted not calling the cops surrounding Relisha’s disappearance out of fear that she could lose her other three children. Her conflicting statements only serves to construct a spinning web of untruthfulness that may land her in the hot seat facing criminal charges related to the disappearance of her daughter. Others believe that Shameeka has been coached on most of her statements surrounding the case, and because her comments aren’t her authentic thoughts, she has struggled to recall what she was told to say. Even during her interview on KWDC Radio, listeners could hear people in the background telling Shameeka what to say. One caller who posed questions to her, even called her on it and asked if others were telling her what to say. Shameeka denied that assertion, but clearly she was being given comments to say by others with her the night she spoke on the air.

So, the facts in this missing child case remain very cloudy and unfortunately, the little girl’s own family appear to be the greatest hinderance in the case, prohibiting authorities from determining what happened to this beautiful little girl. We can no longer look at the surveillance video from the hotel depicting Tatum escorting Relisha to a room as the smoking gun evidence establishing that he was solely responsible for her disappearance. When others place the child with the mother well after that video, it raises a mountain of suspicion whether the child’s family were in fact responsible for her disappearance themselves, and may simply be attempting to cover their tracks with a volume of deception. D.C. child protective services has several case files related to allege physical abuse of Shameeka Young’s children in the past, and it’s quite possible that the little girl suffered some traumatic incident at the hands of her family. There are so many unanswered questions surrounding this tragic story, and the cops should start at the very doorstep of the child’s parents. Where are you Relisha?

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

The sudden disappearance of young 8-year-old Relisha Rudd from a Washington D.C. homeless shelter is simply a heartbreaking story. The adorable little girl was reportedly last seen with Kalil Tatum who was a janitor working at the old D.C. General Hospital shelter where the child lived with her family. Since the story first broke I have held serious reservations regarding the account of the child’s family members, that Tatum took the child and just vanished. Although news media has published a February 26, 2014 surveillance video from a Maryland hotel which established Tatum at some point having Relisha in his care, but statements by witnesses and family members clarify that Relisha was in the custody of her family in early March of 2014. It’s been disputed exactly which day she was last seen by the family, as March 1,2,7, and 8th are all dates which were given describing the last time she was seen alive.

The lack of clarity from those closest to this child highlights the irresponsibility of young Relisha’s caregivers failure to properly supervisor and protect her. Relisha’s family have now digressed into a finger pointing, diatribe of vicious rhetoric, with insults, threats of violence, and a complete profane dialogue towards each other that questions the believability of any of them at all. I listened to a rebroadcast of the little girl’s story, “The Finding Relisha Rudd Radio Show” on KWDC Radio, which is a D.C. based Blogtalk broadcast. The shows aired April 16 & 17, 2014 with Relisha’s mother on the 16th, again on the 17th with Relisha’s stepfather, Aunt’s, and step grandmother   as special guest. The show was suppose to give the little girl’s family an opportunity to have their side of the story heard, while dismissing media reports that they say were inaccurate. That may have been the intent of the show’s producer and host, but what actually happened was an implosion of the family’s dysfunction, and establishing why such a tragic ordeal could have happened to a young child like Relisha.

What started out as a question and answer forum where a volume of people within the public posed tough questions to Shameeka Young pertaining to her account that she has given regarding the disappearance of her daughter, soon escalated into a free for all debacle. Many listeners called into the show and spewed insults and other innuendo toward Shameeka. The host never policed the discussion which only made matters worst. The callers were relentlessly brutal as many made it clear that Shameeka wasn’t being honest about what happened to young Relisha. Despite the onslaught of abusive callers, Shameeka Young maintained her stoic posture, seeming unphased by the rhetorical abuse. One caller posed questions to Shameeka regarding her demeanor and wanted to know how she could participate in such a discussion on a radio show and not show emotions. “Why aren’t you screaming at the top of your lungs begging God to help you find your only daughter,” the caller said. For the first time publicly Shameeka Young appeared to be moved and fired back, “You don’t know what I go throw. You don’t know about all the dreams I have where I see my daughter reaching for me and I can’t get her.”

It was an emotional laced broadcast that shed some clarity on the overall picture that police authorities are now faced with unraveling. The investigation should now be centered around to versions of the little girl’s family members account that led up to the child’s disappearance. Shameeka says that her sister Ashley Young was the last person who had Relisha in her care. She gives the date of March 1, 2014 as the last day she actually saw Relisha when she dropped her off at Ashley’s house. However, Shameeka’s version is contradicted by statements from a man (I believe is related to Relisha) name Daniel Roberts, who stated during the broadcast that he actually saw Shameeka give Relisha to Kalil Tatum at a bus stop on March 7, 2014. He said that he doesn’t know why Shameeka is lying about the last time she saw her daughter, because she knows that she was the last person to have Relisha. Also, Antonio who is Relisha’s stepfather revealed during the broadcast that Ashley was the last person who had Relisha because Relisha was at his son’s birthday party held at Ashley’s apartment on March 8th. Even Antonio’s statement contradicts his wife’s own account as to when she last saw Relisha. During the show Antonio’s mother could be heard stating, “I keep telling antonio to stop saying when Relisha was last seen because that’s only what Shameeka said.”

The child’s step grandmother actually revealed a very telling moment in the case, that establishes that others close to Shameeka Young apparently have difficulty with her version of what happened when Relisha went missing. Shameeka also told KWDC Radio that she has never allowed Tatum to take Relisha anywhere, and contradicting other media reports where she had previously stated on television that she allowed Relisha to go with Tatum because “he seemed like a nice person.” When all hell broke loose on the show with the family members arguing, the step grandmother also revealed that she had question whether Tatum was young Relisha’s father. That argument sparked when Ashley gave her version, describing how Shameeka had called her to ask if she (Shameeka) could give Tatum her phone number because he was on his way to pick her up. Ashley says that the last time she saw Relisha was on March 2, 2014 when tatum arrived at her home to pick the child up. “As the Aunt, the only thing I can do is give the child to who ever the mother tells me.” is what Ashley Young told listeners of the show.

That is the meat of the entire case. Who had Relisha last and what date was it. We may never know the facts simply because all of the family members who cared for the child have given conflicting statements, and seemingly about the most minute details surrounding the case. The other disturbing aspect of the case that derived from the conversation, calls into question how exactly did Tatum and Relisha’s maternal grandmother develop such a close relationship with Kalil Tatum. Ashley Young told KWDC Radio that Shameeka first met Tatum back in 2007 (conflicting earlier reports of 2005), but indicated that her mother didn’t know Tatum. The step grandmother however, revealed that Ashley Young indicated to her that her mother worked with Tatum for years, and that claim perpetuated the argument further while Ashley Young denied those allegations. It was a very plausible question, because if Melissa (Relisha’s maternal grandmother) had no relationship with Tatum as Ashley claimed, why on earth would she have admitted to talking to Tatum over the phone regarding a trip to Atlanta, and telling Tatum to bring Relisha back by a certain time?

You must hear the broadcast for yourselves to even began to make sense of any of the nuisances of this case. One glaring fact in this case continues to bother most following this story. How is it possible for any mother to allow her daughter to be out of her presence for nineteens days without calling her or visiting her to check on her well being? If the little girl’s stepfather is correct and Shameeka last saw Relisha on March 8, 2014, it becomes very problematic, and creates suspicion as to why she has misled the authorities and the public regarding these facts. Given these disturbing facts, it’s hard to focus on Tatum as the person solely responsible for the child’s disappearance. The lies that are being told is mounting a volume of suspicion that Shameeka Young herself maybe responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, and not Kalil Tatum. Listen to the disturbing radio broadcast below. Where are you Relisha?

To Be Continued ..

When heinous violent crimes are committed against the law abiding citizens within any jurisdiction in America there is an expectation from the public that those empowered to protect the people will act swiftly to bring criminals to justice in the name of public safety. There is even a greater presumption that those who have been charged with crimes will be afforded all of the liberties granted by law, such has a right to a fair, public, and speedy trial with competent legal representation. We believe that these elements of our justice system, though often flawed, is in fact the greatest criminal system of justice in the world. It’s a principle for which many souls have perished while defended democracy fighting in foreign wars. There has never been a more symbolic act of patriotism to protect the idealism of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness for which all Americans are to fall heir.

Despite the tremendous decree detailed in the U.S. Constitution by the forefathers of this nation and other historical congressional legislation such as the Bill of Rights, and the Emancipation Proclamation designed to insure all Americans obtain equality, there are still states within our union who perpetuate division, racism, and injustice. The case of young Shannon Nyamodi is perhaps a human rights story that propels our society back to an era in America which predates slavery. Young Shannon was also an American citizen with aspirations of becoming a patriot defending our nation in the armed forces. Those dreams were soon dashed when he displayed an act of bravery by coming to a woman’s aid after she had been shot in the face at point blank range, only to become accused of actually having committed the crime. Now nearly two years later, he remains in a isolated jail cell in Franklin County North Carolina with no pending court date.

The case file is disturbing because evidence pointing to his guilt is completely non existent, and official documents are compelling to establish that prosecutors and law enforcement officials knew before his actual indictment that he was in fact innocent. To compound matters even more in this case, the youth is being held in isolation confinement, denied access to any visitors, not allowed to make phone calls, and hasn’t been given any written communication from anyone from the outside world whatsoever. In short, Shannon Nyamodi is being held hostage by rogue, racist, and criminal public officials who have trampled just about every right he is guaranteed under Constitutional law. The youth’s criminal case was taken off the court’s management system docket back in February of 2012. Shannon hasn’t been brought to trial within a year, which triggers the presumption that his 6th amendment rights have been violated. Essentially, this young man has been hidden within the North Carolina criminal justice system.

We must now ponder a series of questions pertaining to why the great American justice system has failed this youth. If the authorities have culpable evidence proving that Shannon Nyamodi is guilty of this crime, then why hasn’t prosecutors brought his case to trial? Why delay justice for such a violent crime? Why has the court afforded prosecutors such discretion in delaying trial proceedings while the DA also gains a tactical advantage? Why is this youth being housed in confinement? Why can’t his mother nor anyone from the public visit him? Why no phone calls? Why no written communication hasn’t been given to him? Why has Shannon Nyamodi been kept in stringent security conditions while in custody that are similar to terrorist who are being detained at Guantanamo Bay Cuba? We may speculate forever the premise for many of the questions posed, but one fact pertaining to the case of Shannon Nyamodi remains crystal clear. The authorities don’t have a solid case against him. because if they did he would have been prosecuted with a resolved disposition.

It’s frightening to even imagine that an American citizen could be charged with a crime, locked up in a jail cell with no trial date in sight, and while prosecutors along with law enforcement officials having previously obtained exculpatory evidence completely exonerating the accused. The 6th and 14th amendments were designed to insure that states pay respect to a citizen’s right to a speedy, public and fair trial while avoiding the accused from languishing in jail for infinity. To the contrary, this unfortunately is exactly what is happening to young Shannon Nyamodi and possibly many others faced with criminal charges within the North Carolina criminal justice system. How is it even possible that such blatant and heinous acts of injustice could occur during the 21th century in America? There has been crimes more heinous committed against Shannon Nyamodi than the criminal charges he face. A close look at official documents in Shannon’s case reveals complete incompetence by judicial officials or deliberate disregard for the law by the state’s courts.

Without a pending court date in the court’s system docket for Shannon Nyamodi, a habeas corpus becomes the strongest legal measure to challenge his lawful detention. Unfortunately, research of case law regarding a “writ of habeas corpus” establishes that Franklin County North Carolina has historically ignored it’s own general statues pertaining to a defendants right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. The court’s disrespect of this vital piece of legislation coupled with no speedy trial statue in North Carolina, paves the way for criminal defendants to be literally warehoused in jails indefinitely, while eroding their constitutional rights along the way. This culture of locking citizens up for extended periods of time with no timetable in the court’s system establishing when cases will come to trial must be brought to bare on a national stage. The general consensus is that defendants detained for crimes may in fact be innocent, and their detention for such a long time is seemingly unjust, if not criminal. This argument is especially true when we consider that prosecutors and law enforcement officials may have known all along that a defendant is in fact innocent of the crimes for which they have been charged.

In Shannon Nyamodi’s case the arrest warrant should never even have been issued. He was already in custody when an allege confidential informant (CI) gave cops hearsay statements implicating him in the crime. Other eyewitnesses who place an unknown white male at the scene of the crime moments after the shooting, gave statements which were omitted from official police reports. The victim herself told police officials from at least two separate police agencies that “someone” (meaning she didn’t know who) had struck her with a pole. In fact, if cops have culpable evidence proving that Shannon Nyamodi committed this crime, it has never been made public. Additionally, the entire theory that shannon conspired with the victim’s daughter in “a murder for hire plot” has always been the authorities official story for what happened the night of the crime, but state law enforcement officials conducting the investigation discovered that the allege CI statement implicating Shannon Nyamodi was in fact false, and suppressed discovery of these facts by filing their findings with the court over ninety days after learning the CI had lied to police.

The case file against Shannon Nyamodi is a complete joke, and those responsible for creating this horrible injustice are nothing short of characters from a mayberry style sheriff department or a keystone cop comedy. More importantly, the prosecuting officials are just as responsible for not throwing the entire case out when they more then likely knew that the case against this defendant was weak from the very start. Instead of doing their jobs by meting out real justice and setting the Nyamodi youth free, they have perpetuated a lie conspiring to convict an innocent man, while the real perpetrator of this violent crime remains free. If Shannon Nyamodi is guilty then prove it by taking the case to trial. No one is fooled by the antics of the prosecutor or judges in this case. You don’t have a case against this youth, and you have resorted to attempting to torture him while in custody, hoping and praying that he breaks, and agrees to a plea deal for the crime. Thank God that Shannon Nyamodi is more resilient than the likes of any of the racist cowards who are responsible for his current plight.

The bottom line is that in North Carolina a culture of injustice and racism exist solely because backwoods rednecks think they are above the law. Their unlawful criminal behavior must be exposed, and those officials responsible for this kind of foolishness must be brought to justice. It is personally my greatest hope that the prosecutor, judges, and law enforcement officials responsible for the wrongful persecution of Shannon Nyamodi will in turn spend an equal amount of time in an isolated jail cell for the exact number of days that he has been forced to endure. Please write the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, or have your U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator write a letter to the DOJ Civil Rights Division on Shannon Nyamodi’s behalf, and request that a Civil Rights investigation be conducted into his case in Franklin County North Carolina. This youth needs our help, and the North Carolina racist criminal justice system must be exposed. May God continue to be with this young man and his family.

U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530-0001

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

He is a young man with no prior brushes with the law of any kind, but sadly a horrific ordeal landed him in a Franklin County jail cell nearly two years ago. Quite frankly, it’s rather bizarre how cops came to the conclusion that he conspired with Rhonda Maclean’s daughter, to kill her and rob her of nearly $65,000.00 dollars one autumn night back in 2012. Many of the official documents have already been made public while pointing to Shannon Nyamodi’s innocence of having been involved in this horrible crime. In fact Shannon should never have even been charged with shooting Maclean in the face at point blank range. There was sufficient evidence very early on in the investigation that even the most inexperienced lawyer could have successfully argued for the charges to be dropped. Instead, an incompetent lawyer has failed to properly represent the youth’ efforts of regaining his freedom.

Elizabeth Crudup (Shannon’s mother) said she got bad vibes from attorney Maitry “Mike” Klinkosum from the very start. The mother said that he appeared to be more interested in collecting money from other clients unrelated to her son’s case, and declined to hear details regarding Shannon’s case when her family met with him to possibly obtain his services. Displeased with Klinkosum’s apparent apathy pertaining to shannon’s case, Crudup says that she decline to acquire him for her son’s legal representation for criminal charges he faced. Crudup also said that it was very clear to Klinkosum, her brother, sister, and her sister’s husband that she didn’t have confidence in Klinkosum to be the right attorney for the job. The family began to filter out of the law firm’s office and she explains that the elevator was very small, so she and her brother went down first, but her sister and her husband were delayed for an extended period of time before coming down.

Crudup said that she learned days later that Klinkosum had became her son’s attorney against her wishes. According to Crudup, Shannon telephoned her from the Franklin county jail with excitement, and told her that Klinkosum had come to the detention center to get him to sign legal documents authorizing him to represent him. Crudup says she was in disbelief and stated to her son “no shannon you didn’t do that?” Shannon told his mother that the attorney had promised him that if he signed the documents for him to represent him, that he would have him out of jail by noon Monday the next day. She also discovered that her sister had given Klinkosum a $30,000.00 dollar check for Shannon’s legal expenses. knowing that the family made it perfectly clear that they weren’t comfortable with Klinkosum, Crudup says that her sister’s actions were nothing short of complete betrayal. She has repeatedly requested that Klinkosum be terminated because the manner in which he went to the jail and deceptively had Shannon sign documents naming him as the attorney of record in the case, confirmed for Crudup that he couldn’t be trusted.

At one point when the family challenged Klinkosum regarding the tactics her used to obtain representation of Shannon, Klinkosum called the sister and agreed to return the check. On the day he was suppose to reimburse the family Klinkosum went to the jail and threatened Shannon. Shannon telephoned his mother later on that day and expressed to her that he could no longer speak to her. When she inquired as to why he made such a statement, Shannon advised his mother that attorney Klinkosum told him that “if you speak to anyone else or your mother regarding this case, and I get fired, I will help the prosecution convict you and make sure you get a thirty year sentence.” Crudup says that her sister also called her daughter and made similar threats. Crudup said that her sister stated “Shannon is going to get thirty years if your mother doesn’t back off.” The sister’s actions appear to be counterproductive to assisting Shannon in regaining his freedom, and seemed confusing at first.

However, Crudup explained that her sister was dealing with post pardon depression and that she is known to display rather peculiar behavior. She also revealed that there is an apparent spat among her siblings related to her sister. Crudup said that the sister is very self centered and becomes agitated when she isn’t at the center of attention. She also believes that her sister may have deliberately went behind the family’s back to hire Klinkosum in an effort to bring shame and humiliation upon her and Shannon. She says that the fact her brother flew from Africa to support her son may also have been a determining factor for her sister to display such viciousness against her child. Crudup expressed that she believes that her sister wants Shannon to be locked up for as long as possible, despite whether he is guilty or innocent. To support Crudup’s belief that her sister has acted viciously to hurt Shannon during such a difficult time for the youth, she says that the family had agreed to work together to assist Shannon with the criminal charges that he faces. Crudup said that her sister was sitting in the room when Klinkosum was told that they declined to retain him, and the fact that she sneakily hired him any way speaks volumes regarding her intentions to negatively impact her son’s legal troubles.

Crudup also points out that the arrest warrant for Shannon should never have been issued. The story that cops were given to implicate Shannon in the crime and forensic evidence (if any) linking him to the crime were all obtained by police after the youth had already been in custody. Additionally, as it stands right now, the only thing that connects Shannon to the crime are hearsay statements from a confidential informant, which state investigative reports prove that the witness had in fact lied to police. If there is any hard evidence like traceable forensics linking Shannon to this crime, they have never been made public. Most of these facts have already been publish through various blog articles. Klinkosum hasn’t even made any discovery that he has obtained from the prosecutor public either. Other disturbing elements of the case against Shannon Nyamodi highlights Klinkosum’s poor representation of this client as well.

Shannon was also charged with larceny of a firearm (the victim’s .22 caliber rifle), but a police seizure log from the residence where the crime occurred reveals that the weapon was actually confiscated by police on the day of the shooting. Klinkosum never motioned to the court to have that charge thrown out. There are so many rudimentary actions that should have been accomplished as early as the pretrial phase of this case that Klinkosum failed to do. Crudup says that Klinkosum has also refused to speak with her regarding Shannon’s case. She said that he has been telling judges to ignore her when she files legal documents on Shannon’s behave. Perhaps the most damaging inaction that Klinkosum has done, is to have allowed Shannon’s case to be taken off of the docket indefinitely with no sign of a court date, according to Crudup. Crudup says that her son’s case continues to be postponed while Klinkosum is involved with a high profile criminal case unrelated to Shannon.

The court has allowed the case to be continued without any record establishing justification for such extended delay, nor any timetable placed on the record for the trial to continue. The case was taken off of the docket February 20, 2013 and the only continuance in the case file was entered on February 14, 2014 after issues pertaining to Shannon’s constitutional right to a speedy trial were made public, and there is no order indicating if the judge in the case had in fact granted the motion for continuance. All of these irregular procedural aspects of the case are disturbing, but the most compelling element which may point to malicious prosecution of Shannon Nyamodi, is the manner in which he is being housed at the Franklin County detention Center. Shannon has been placed on segregation (solitary) and has been in such tight housing condition for over a year. Jail officials won’t even allow his mother to visit him. Crudup was told that she wasn’t going to be permitted to see her son so she might as well stop coming to the jail. In recent attempts to visit Shannon on his regular visiting days, she was told by a jail official that Shannon wasn’t allowed to have any visits whatsoever.

Despite these unlawful actions, Klinkosum has done nothing to assist Shannon related to these issues. Shannon Nyamodi isn’t on death row and nor has he been convicted of the charges against him. Jail officials have not shown good cause to keep him locked up in his cell for 23 hours a day. Many from the public following this case believe that Shannon is being treated in this fashion to solicit a plea agreement from him for crimes he didn’t commit. Even Klinkosum seems to think that Shannon will eventually break and plea to a lesser charge. In the motion for continuance request that Klinkosum submitted to the court February 14, he writes that he is confident that the case will have a non trial resolution. It’s puzzling that Klinkosum could make such an assertion considering that Shannon has never confessed to these crimes, and has been adamant about not accepting responsibility for something he didn’t do. Sources on the ground in Louisburg, North Carolina tells TPC that Shannon is being beaten down by jail officials, and may explain why no one is being allowed to visit him.

More disturbingly though, is the fact that Shannon hasn’t written or called his mother, his father, and not even his sister whom he is extremely close with. This reality is frightening and has caused National Action Network officials, journalist, and others advocating Shannon’s plight to question whether he is even still alive. Elizabeth Crudup refuses to even entertain such a mindset, and reiterates how fearful she is regarding her son’s safety while in custody. The mother expresses how vicious the actions of her sister are, and makes it known that Shannon is being persecuted solely because of her sister’s refusal to fire Klinkosum as Shannon’s attorney of record. Crudup says that Klinkosum has been pressuring Shannon to take a plea deal from the onset of this entire ordeal. The very inference or suggestion of plea bargaining in Shannon’s case from Klinkosum who was allegedly paid $50,000.00 dollars to represent him when considering the case file is simply preposterous.

That’s of course if you believe that Klinkosum actually received all of the money. The sister’s  alleged act of betrayal toward her siblings and Shannon by sneakily hiring Klinkosum against the family’s desire, coupled with her assisting Klinkosum by soliciting a threat of a thirty year sentence for Shannon against her own family, may point to some other adverse dynamic associate with her intentions, and clearly bolsters Ms. Crudup’s claim that her own sister is working along with the prosecutor and attorney Klinkosum to negatively impact the criminal case against her nephew. If it’s all true as it has been described to TPC related to Shannon’s aunt hindering him from obtaining the best legal representation possible, the actions of his aunt are not only vicious, but also a disturbing dilemma which has caused her siblings child great emotional, psychological, and perhaps physical torture when he is clearly innocent. It’s disturbing that other family members, chiefly the men, haven’t become more involved to correct the sister’s egregious actions that appear to have been meted out to hurt Shannon. Klinkosum should have been fired a long time ago, especially after he threatened the family, and the fact that the sister who hired him refuses to do so, is an evil and vile act which may permanently divide a family predicated solely on individual selfishness. She isn’t Shannon’s mother, and the funds she used to pay Klinkosum wasn’t hers alone. What a selfish witch!

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Her daughter is now officially declared missing, but the mother of 8 year old Relisha Rudd doesn’t resemble a person who has lost a child to some stranger, who just may have been a pedophile that set prey upon a defenseless little girl to met out horrible sex crimes. In fact, the little girl’s mom has maintained a stoic posture throughout this entire ordeal. According to official reports, young Relisha was last seen sometime in late February of 2014. police learned of the child’s last citing after a proactive school counselor took notice of Relisha’s extended absence from the elementary school she attended. The little girl hadn’t been to school in nearly a month, when school officials went to the homeless shelter where Relisha was living with her family. That inquiry raised suspicion, and prompted a school counselor to notify police.

Once police authorities became aware of the child’s disappearance a disturbing, senseless, and unimaginable story emerged. Depending on what version you believe, the details are simply horrific, and outline what may be a bizarre tale of abandonment, abuse, and betrayal of the pretty little girl by her own mother. Media reports initially claim that Relisha was willfully given to Kalil Tatum, a janitor working at the homeless shelter where the family was staying. As the public became outraged at the very thought of a mother allowing a 52 year old grown man to have such intimate contact with her daughter, other stories began to surface that Tatum had a granddaughter around Relisha’s age, and that Tatum was allowed to take the child to his home to play with her. The mom even publicly admitted that Tatum had always brought the child back, but failed to do so when she was allowed to go with him in late February.

Her story seems plausible if you consider that Tatum was well liked by the residents at the shelter, and was known to offer gifts to Relisha and other children living at the  homeless shelter where he worked. Apparently, Tatum’s close interaction with children never raised suspicion by any of the residents, and perhaps the missing child’s parents in fact did have tremendous trust in Tatum. However, there are other very disturbing and compelling facts about this missing child case that hasn’t gone unnoticed by many associated with this investigation. Relisha’s mother hadn’t seen her little girl in nearly a month but she never notified anyone pertaining to her child’s disappearance. It almost seems as if the child wasn’t even on the mother’s radar the entire time, until school officials got involved and attempted to ascertain why Relisha hadn’t been in school.

In one instance the mother is attributed with making the statement that “he always brought her back,” and in recent t.v. interviews she is now denying ever having given her daughter to Tatum at all. Relisha’s mother is now even deflecting all responsibility for her daughter’s disappearance unto her mother and sister. Take a look at an exclusive interview she gave to NBC Washington’s Channel 4:

Exclusive Interview With The Mother Of Missing D.C. 8 Year Old Relisha Rudd

The mother’s responses to the reporter are very troubling to me for various reasons. Firstly, her composure is amazing considering her daughter is missing, and when she is presented with the possibility that Tatum may actually have killed her daughter, she only reflects momentarily on that possibility before starting to deflect responsibility to her mother and sister. She claims that she thought she could trust her mother and her sister, but even if she did in fact drop Relisha off to the home of family members, it’s simply unconscionable that she never contacted them regarding Relisha’s well being for such an extended time period. The other confusing part of this story that hasn’t been clarified, is even if Relisha was given to Tatum by the mother, a volume of questions still remain. Did he continue to come to work everyday at the shelter, and if so, did she ever inquire about the welfare of her daughter? No reports establish whether Tatum was also missing for nearly a month along with Relisha. If the later of these scenarios is true, then the mother clearly neglected and abandoned her child knowing that she was with Tatum who had disappeared with her child, and while she never bothered to notify the police.

Other comments this woman made to reporters are interesting and may possibly offer a clue to unravel this disturbing case. She tells the reporter that her mother stated that Tatum told her that if anything ever happened to him or his wife, that Relisha would be set. That statement raises suspicion as to what exactly is Tatum’s relationship to the child. Typically when a reference is made to some unexpected tragedy befalling upon someone, that another person, and more specifically in this case that Relisha would be set, kind of infers that some financial arrangement has been previously established to provide for a benefactor (Relisha), More importantly, what does that statement even have to do with the disappearance of her child? What was she trying to convey? What does the family know about Tatum and the disappearance of Relisha that they are not making known publicly? The mother’s comment was so puzzling to me that I began to look very closely at the physical appearance of Tatum and young Relisha. There appears to be a striking physical resemblance between the pair. Look for yourself:

My assertion could be entirely wrong, but I offer such a perspective on the basis of the child’s likeness to this man, coupled with her mom never demonstrating concern for her child’s welfare after she had been gone for nearly a month knowing that Relisha was left in his care. The most startling aspect of this story is the level of trust Tatum was extended pertaining to such intimacy he was granted with the child. Some followers believe that the gifts Tatum gave the child was typical grooming that known pedophiles enact upon children to gain their trust prior to striking with their perversion. The concern many people have developed pointing to Tatum possibly being a sexual predator has come largely from the age disparity between him and Relish, and the chilling surveillance video that captures him walking in and out of a Red Roof motel with her in Oxen Hills, Maryland. Once the cops became aware of where he was staying, they pounced on his rented room, and discovered the body of his wife who had been murdered from a gunshot to the head. Official reports reveal that witnesses admit having been in the room with Tatum, and one witness states that when he came by, Tatum’s wife was spread out across the bed in a similar fashion in which cops found her deceased.

These facts  diminishes the chilling image of the child and Tatum going to a motel room. It’s possible that Tatum’s wife and others were already inside the room, and just simply wasn’t captured by surveillance video. Also, at least one person reported seeing Tatum and Relisha near the motel. In short, nothing so far has pointed to Tatum having displayed predatory sexual behavior toward the child. Don’t get me wrong, Tatum may possibly be a violent murderer who killed his wife, but how were the cops able to come to such a conclusion. Tatum at the very minimum should be a person of interest related to that crime. Just because it’s his wife that was killed, he was staying in that room, and he is believed to have young Relisha with him doesn’t make him the perpetrator who shot his wife to death. In fact, I’m not sure that Tatum could even be charged with kidnapping Relisha. Hell, if the school officials hadn’t called the cops, no one would ever even know that the child was missing in the first place. The child’s family hadn’t reported her missing at all, and the story that Tatum has Relisha is simply the child’s family statements to police. After all the family admitted giving Relisha to him voluntarily. Realistically, Tatum could very well be a victim of a crime in this case as well. The public simply will not know until he is located and questioned by police.

Moreover, many followers of this story fault Relisha’s mother solely for this entire ordeal. Some even challenge her competence to even properly care for a child. Her inability to simply grasp the gravity and severity of her daughter’s disappearance during the interview gives credibility to those who question the mother’s competence. When the reporter advised her that rumors circulated accusing her of refusing to file a missing persons report for Relisha, she responded “they never asked me to file a missing persons report.” The comment clearly highlights complete detachment from concern of the overall well being of her child, because women have an inherent and innate protective system for their offspring which typically kicks in automatically, even at the mere inference of potential danger toward their children. Her demeanor is frightening considering that she has three other children. Something is amiss, and it’s widely believe from many within the public that the mother is being deceptive, and knows a lot more about her daughter’s disappearance then what she has made public.

When she was posed with a question that many people have raised, concerning why she never called police when she discovered Relisha was missing, she said “I was never under the impression that she was missing. I was under the impression that she was at my sisters house where I left her, under my mother’s care.” When the reporter asked the very same question another way, she responded “I ain’t want to lose my other three kids. That’s why I didn’t call the police,” and completely contradicting her previous claim of not having been under the impression that Relisha was missing. Additionally, the reporter asked the mother what she would say to Tatum if she could talk to him. She said “I have a lot of questions to ask you (Tatum). I want you to answer them properly, and give me the correct answers.” For a mother whose child is in fact missing, her comments for the man who suspected of unlawfully having her daughter is void of any animosity or anger at all. She doesn’t even make a plea for Tatum to bring her child back home unharmed. It seems more like she has resolved that the worst has already happened to Relisha, and is only expecting to hear what he did to her.

The more this mother speaks, the more it appears that she possibly isn’t being honest about the details pertaining to what happened to young Relisha. Her contradictory statements regarding not having knowledge that Relisha was missing, then admitting the reason she didn’t call the cops was out of fear of losing her other three children, demonstrates that her account regarding what happened is fluctuating. In the last portion of the interview she attempts to set the record straight and claims that she never gave her daughter to this man, but earlier reports and interviews revel that she admitted Tatum had always brought Relisha back home. This story stinks really bad, and the mother’s comments raise serious credibility issues for her pertaining to what happened to her beautiful little daughter. Given the lack of credibility she has displayed, is simply very difficult to even find the story that she and her family have offered as being believable. Does Kalil Tatum actually have young Relisha rudd, or is his purported involvement in this entire case the product of some fabricated story concocted by the child’s family to conceal something more sinister surrounding her whereabouts and overall well being? Maybe Tatum is the child’s biological father and the mother is deliberately concealing this information for some other distorted purpose. Which ever the case, we can’t rush to judgement when the facts given so far are so contrasting and cloudy. We pray for the safe return of Relisha Rudd, and ask that God protect this child wherever she may be.

To Be Continued

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

For some people the image of being locked up in a caged jail cell is simply a concept where the very worst of mankind are suppose to dwell for conduct intolerable throughout civilization, and in many instances such a place is justified for those who have committed the most heinous acts against society. The unfortunate reality is that the American criminal justice system is flawed. Far too many defendants who find themselves embroiled in criminal cases are being incarcerated for crimes they are in fact not responsible for having committed. The disparity of defendants placed in such an awkward position while having to fight tooth and nail to regain their freedom is disproportionately weighed heavily against young black defendants, and in many instances those charged with prosecuting criminals are well aware that culpable evidence against many defendants of color doesn’t exist.

Rather than do the right thing and set these youth free, a systemic culture of suppressing exculpatory evidence which exonerate many of these defendants has become the order of the day by prosecutors who see black defendants as subhuman, and conspire to wrongfully convict defendants of color solely on the premise of race. Also, in southern states like North Carolina, such a culture of malicious prosecution isn’t limited to just the DA’s office, but has far reaching elements of corruption that extend to the very apex of some state’ justice systems, and often include judges as well as defense lawyers. The disadvantage of being a black man facing criminal charges in American has always depicted an unwritten rule that a black man is guilty of having committed a crime for which he is charged, until otherwise proven innocent.

Although pundits may argue that my perspective isn’t accurate, I’ll offer the plethora of wrongfully convicted black men who emerge within media regularly after being set free decades later for crimes which evidence proves that they were innocent of committing all along, as a prime example to support just how justice often fails black defendants. The suppression of exculpatory evidence doesn’t simply end at the threshold of prosecutorial misconduct, but rather other methods are being utilized to pressure, ware down, and coerce black defendants into accepting some sort of plea agreement to secure conviction of defendants who are clearly innocent. Regardless of the circumstance that lands criminal defendants of color in the seat of prosecutorial scrutiny, the uneven playing field along with the rules remain the same. A tremendous upheaval to regain liberty from the American injustice systems typically follows after the onset of purported criminality.

The case of young Shannon Nyamodi who was charged with shooting a woman in the face at point blank range and robbing her of nearly $65,000.00 dollars in Youngsville, North Carolina, is a textbook case study of the unfairness of that state’s justice system. Often times criminal cases of this magnitude result in police authorities fabricating or doctoring investigative reports, to frame or direct suspicion upon defendants when they know evidence supporting their exonerance exist. Also, witness statements are frequently omitted from investigations that point to other potential suspects, but the unexplained premise for charging innocent blacks while allowing actual perpetrators to go free is simply a phenomenon. Many observers resolve to blaming racism as the ruling factor in many of these instances. However, the multi billion dollar American Prison Industrial Complex may also be a driving force behind the injustices committed against defendants of color charged with a crime.

In the Nyamodi case, the various layers of exculpability towards his innocence are frightening considering the youth has been locked up for over nineteen months without a trial. In any criminal case the typical variables necessary to obtain a conviction are the suspect’s motive, established evidence linking them to the crime, and potential supporting witness testimony which ties it all together. When any or all of these variables aren’t present in criminal cases the probability of securing a conviction diminishes drastically. Unfortunately for Shannon Nyamodi the case file at the Franklin County Courthouse is void of all of these variables, but he remains locked up charged with felony crimes, and despite the surviving victim having previously stated (according to police records) that she didn’t know who her assailant was.

TPC has brought many of the disturbing issues related to Shannon Nyamodi’s case to the world with supporting documentation that offers a glimpse into the North Carolina criminal justice system. Perhaps the most compelling evidence of a systemic problem can be seen in established documentation by North Carolina’s superior court, in which preprinted forms are being utilized to warehouse criminal defendants, or “hide people”, as the Franklin County Clerk of Courts has admitted. In Franklin County at least, it appears that a judicial climate exist where a common practice of removing criminal cases from the court’s docket system without sufficient grounds to prosecute cases, has eliminated the very principles of due process guaranteed under the law through the U.S. Constitution, and is being replaced with an adjunct culture of injustice to wrongfully convict innocent people. If the courts give prosecutors unyielded wide discretion in determining when criminal cases are to be prosecuted, while a defendant’s liberty has been taken, justice is denied, and such an action results in defendants serving a sentence of infinity without actually having ever been convicted of crimes for which they have been charged. Take a look at the subject preprinted form being utilized in North Carolina’s Superior Court below:

In what may be an unprecedented attack on the 6th and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the state of North Carolina (who has a repealed speedy trial statue) Superior Courts are utilizing a practice of allowing prosecutors wide discretion in determining when a criminal defendant has their day in court, while trampling civil rights requiring due process under the law.

While such a practice may not be solely unique to the Shannon Nyamodi case, the lack of public access to culpable evidence against him reveals how blatant illegalities within the justice system in North Carolina actual is. Assuming that prosecutors actually have very damaging evidence pointing to the guilt of Shannon Nyamodi and other accused defendants just like him, it’s confusing why the DA’s office would want to prolong justice, and not bring these defendants to trial. The general consensus in North Carolina is that the state’ criminal justice process is simply slow, as if such a reality is acceptable when the constitution has established law prohibiting states from throwing citizens in jail for an indefinite period of time without a trial. This unlawful practice is a direct infringement upon the civil rights of criminal defendants in North Carolina, and may penetrate the crust of a disturbing culture of injustice enacted primarily upon defendants of color, that predates the civil rights era.

The volume of rather peculiar circumstances compiled in the Nyamodi case undresses the injustice that has landed this young defendant in a county jail for nearly two years. A victim who survived an extremely violent attack that she initially couldn’t identify anyone as her assailant, witness accounts describing a person of another ethnicity having flee from the scene shortly after the shooting, and the purported evidence against Shannon Nyamodi which has never been made public all collectively lays the foundation for a classic frame up of an innocent black man. Additionally, the heinous injustice against this defendant is of a nature so disturbing, lawyers with knowledge of the case file have conveyed publicly that an arrest warrant for Shannon Nyamodi should have never been issued in this crime. Also, Nyamodi appears to have been linked to this crime based on mere hearsay alone  even before evidence was gathered, which all collapsed when investigators discovered that a witness had lied to police. The authorities had made such a discovery with ample time to dismiss charges against Shannon Nyamodi, but chose a destructive course to charge and indict him for the crime anyway. The establishment of exculpatory evidence and the suppression of it by police and prosecutors isn’t just a complete miscarriage of justice in the Nyamodi case, but underscores how the law of the land seems to dissipate when black people are charged with a crime.

It doesn’t require rocket science to understand that some other dynamic is at play in this young defendants case, and the manner he is being held in jail along with his family being denied access to him, exposes some of the tactics frequently used to force black defendants into admitting to having committed a crime they are in fact not responsible for. With Shannon Nyamodi being held in an isolated housing condition which limits his movement to only one hour a day and minimum access to others, serious concern has developed regarding his mental health. It’s widely believed that authorities are deliberately imposing such sanctions upon him to avoid ever having to take his criminal case to trial. A forced confession from a defendant under duress to simply get out of mentally exhausting living conditions would also alleviate the prosecutor’s burden of proving the youth actually committed this crime. Therefore, culpable or exculpatory evidence of any kind would be insignificant because a judge nor a jury would never see it.

Moreover, serious concern for the physical safety of Shannon Nyamodi’s mother has always been a major concern. Ms. Elizabeth Crudup who has been working tenaciously to secure her son’s freedom may have been targeted by police within her home town. On March 21, 2014 she experienced a violent encounter with a Dunn, North Carolina police officer where she was beaten for what amounts to a mere traffic violation. The incident was witnessed by various citizens in the town, and resulted in the mother’s clothing coming unraveled. For some strange reason, she was transported to another town outside of Dunn and booked for resisting arrest charges. While in transit to the Harnett County Sheriff Department, the arresting officer taunted the mother about her son’s criminal case. The cop asked her “do you think you are some kind of lawyer, is that it? You think your a lawyer?” Since Crudup had never had an encounter with this officer before, he apparently knew something about her, and such a statement could only have been an inference to Shannon whose case she has filed various documents. To further complicate that entire ordeal, police had Crudup’s car (which was legally parked in the parking lot of a local establishment) towed to an impound yard completely out of Harnett County.

Crudup’s vehicle had valid registration and insurance. The fact that the car was even towed at all suggest that it was an act by police to further harass her. More importantly though, where the car was actually towed to is extremely unnerving. The car was taken to Benson, North Carolina, and locals there say it’s any area within the state few blacks venture, because it’s in Johnston county, a known foothold for the United Klu Klux Klans of America. Research by TPC has discovered that the county has a famous billboard sign posted at it’s northern county line which greets commuters entering that jurisdiction. See an image of the sign below:

A disturbing sign entering the northern part of Johnston County, North Carolina.

Against the advise from many who have been working closely with Ms. Crudup pertaining to her son’s criminal case, she went to the location where her car was towed. Crudup explains that she needed to retain her purse which contains important personal items. She describes the trip there as an extremely terrifying experience. The route she took was in fact the quickest way to get there, but she says it was extremely rural with mostly swamp land. It was a place that she vowed to never return, and she very well may have a valid reason for coming to such a conclusion. Since the area appeared to have very little population, Crudup and those who drove to Benson with her believed that had they encountered an emergency they would have been stranded, and anything could have happened to them, especially in a jurisdiction which has very tensed social climate with known hostility toward people of color. Take a look at a view of where her car was towed below:

Click image to enlarge.

By virtue of the county where Ms. Crudup’s car was towed, there was concern from the very start that serious trouble could be awaiting her when she went to retrieve the vehicle. Now after having obtained knowledge of what the landscape actual looks like in that neck of the woods, concerns for her personal safety have heightened. Crupdup and her friend also told TPC that as they left the impound yard and headed back toward the town of Dunn, a state trooper went flying pass them in the direction they had just came. looking at the geography, it’s very clear that not much is going on out there. Crupdup says they believed someone may have called the state police to alert them of their presence in the area. They also conveyed that they believed the state cop had gone to the impound yard they went to because nothing else is out that way, and the trooper came directly behind them a few minutes later. They also said that he followed them for about 7-8 miles. their perception and account of this ordeal may be just inherited fear blacks manifest based on the history of the KKK, but she has justification for adopting such a mind set. Afterall, the women had recently been beat up by police and had her car towed to one of the most racist counties in the state. It the very least, the account she describes appears very coincidental.

Since no explanation for why her car was towed has never been offered, it raises concern as to whether some sort of message was being sent to her. She has been advocating her son’s case, and has exposed serious flaws in the criminal justice process along the way. Having her car towed all the way out in such a remote place, and circumventing at least other impound yards within her own county appears to have been deliberate. Anything could have happened to her out there and she could have never been heard from again. It wouldn’t have been the first time that a black person went missing in a known KKK community. Many believe that her life may be in danger and the necessary precautions must be taken to insure her personal safety. It’s an ever evolving case which points to systemic racism in North Carolina and we must continue to watch to insure that justice prevails for this family.

To be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

It’s a story with so many angles and sub plots that’s hard to image occurring in 2014, but the realization that cops can simply arrest American citizens at a whim without provocation is continuously developing into a growing problem. A North Carolina family has become the target of what can only be characterized as police corruption, and abuse of authority. Nearly two years ago a young recent high school grade name Shannon Nyamodi found himself embroiled in the criminal justice system after being charged with a violent crime, where police allege that he shot Rhonda MacClean in the face at point blank range, and robbed her of nearly $65,000.oo dollars. The youth was taken into custody when it seemed that police officials had just began their investigation. Although cops were initially told that young Shannon wasn’t the perpetrator of the shooting, witnesses telling police that a white male had fled the scene shortly after the shooting, and Shannon having never left the scene, he still somehow was subsequently charged with the crime.

The criminal case file at the Franklin County court house paints a very disturbing picture depicting how police, prosecutors, and judges have all mishandled the Nyamodi youth case, while violating state and constitutional law along the way. Mean while Shannon has had his case removed from the court’s management system docket altogether while he remains locked up in a county jail cell. Shannon has been locked up for over eighteen months now and most of that time has been spent in a segregated housing classification, which means his movement is limited, and typically only permits him to leave his cell for an hour every day. To compound his plight, jail authorities have denied Shannon access to his family by not allowing him to see his mother. His isolation and denial of contact with family has raised serious concern regarding his mental health. Research has proven that such confinement can cause permanent brain damage within days, and his family has been frantically attempting to secure his release

Ms. Elizabeth Crudup (Shannon’s mother) has been her son’s strongest advocate and has single handedly launched a campaign to bring exposure to her son’s story. Her efforts has garnered national attention from blogs, radio stations, and other media from Connecticut to Louisiana. However, her efforts have come at a price. Despite her family having lost $50,000.00 dollars to the inept law firm Cheshire, Parker, Schneider, and Bryan, who essentially have done nothing for Shannon but allow him to rot in jail, this mother has apparently become a target of the police in municipalities other than where her son was arrested. Some of the peculiar circumstances in her son’s case are so blatant, that Crudup has been constantly advised to take extra precautionary measures to insure her personal safety. She has to drive hundreds of miles within various counties to carry out business pertaining to her son’s case, and it’s widely believe that the rural backdrop in the region could prove to be hazardous when considering that police corruption is what landed her son in jail in the first place.

On Thursday March 14, 2014 at approximately 6:45 a.m. fears regarding Ms. Crudup’s personal safety manifested itself into a violent encounter with a police officer from her hometown in Dunn, North Carolina. Crudup and her boyfriend had driven to a local restaurant, legally parked their car, and were seated in the car discussing which establishment they wanted to have breakfast. Out of nowhere, a Dunn city police officer who was identified as officer Wise, suddenly emerged and began banging on the driver’s side widow with a flashlight demanding that Ms. Crudup get out of the vehicle. She inquired from the officer what was going on and asked why she needed to get out of her car. The officer continuously demanded for her to exit the car. Crudup tells TPC that she became freighten due to the agitated nature of the officer’s demands. So, she requested that the officer have a supervisor respond to the location. The officer continued to request for her to get out, and began to demand that she present her I.D. Crudup remained in the car and the officer began to threaten her and stated, “if you don’t get out of the car I will drag you out.”

Ms. Crudup says that although she was afraid of the officer, didn’t understand why he had approached her in the first place, that she complied with his request and got out of her vehicle while keeping her hands in plain sight so the officer could see them. Once she was out of the car, she says that the officer immediately grabbed her, spun her around, grabbing her by the back of her pants with one hand and by the back of her neck with the other, and began violently slamming her into the car multiple times. Ms. Crudup says that she repeatedly asked what she had done and asked why she was being beat up. The officer slammed her into the car several more times. Another Dunn police officer arrived on the scene and intervened. Ms. Crudup says that the officer was carrying a flashlight but placed it on the hood of the car and got between her and officer Wise in an effort to stop the assault that was being inflicted upon her. Crudup says Wise began to slam her against the hood of the car again, and even slammed her with the other officer’s arm and the flashlight between her and the hood of the vehicle.

Crudup says that Wise then placed her into handcuffs and escorted her to his police cruiser. She says that while going to the police car, she felt a firm object being pushed into her back. Wise placed her in the front seat of the cruiser and then got inside on top of her. Crudup says Wise was a very large man and had his knees on her lap. She turned to the side and asked one of the other officers present why he was on top of her like this because she wasn’t resisting or trying to get away. Crudup says the officer who was just observing, said nothing and just looked away from her. Crudup said that Wise began to transport her to jail, but didn’t take her to a Dunn police facility which was less than ten minutes away, but drove her to the Harnett County Sheriff Department in Lillington, North Carolina which was 45 minutes away. Crudup says that her ride was the scariest moment she has ever encountered in her life, as Wise took her down long, narrow, and whining roads. She says Wise continuously taunted her asking, “so you think your a lawyer huh?” She said that his language was so abusive toward her that she began to tuned him out, and was trying to concentrate on surviving this horrific ordeal. She admitted that she was in fear for her life because Wise appeared unpredictable and capable of doing anything to her.

Officer Wise’ comments regarding Crudup thinking that she was a lawyer perhaps may be very telling as to why he approached her, physically assaulted her, and arrested her without merit. Crudup says she believes the Lawyer comment was a reference to the legal documents that she has filed on her son’s behalf for the criminal charges he faces. On her way to the county jail Crudup asked Wise “why did you beat me up?” She said that Wise stated “because you were trying to hurt me.” Crudup then said she sarcastically asked Wise when did she do that to him because it wasn’t back at the scene where she had been arrested and beaten by him, and she said that Wise told her “I misspoke.” During the ride to the county jail Crudup also said that Wise never informed her as to why he approached her, what laws she may have broken, and never said what she was being charged with. Upon their arrival at the Harnett County jail, Crudup says that Wise ordered her out of the car, but she said she refused to get out because the jail was in a very secluded area and was afraid of what Wise might do to her. She said that Wise threatened to drag her out of the car again if she didn’t comply. She said that she requested for a female officer to come and bring her inside of the building because her pants had come loose and were down as a result of the violent way Wise had slammed her into the car, and very physical manner that he placed her into the police cruiser.

Crudup says that Wise made a radio transmission over his police radio and several Harnett County Sheriff deputies came running out of the building to the cruiser where she was. One of the female deputies came up to her and asked what was going on, and Crudup requested that she be allowed to simply pull up her pants and told the deputy that she was afraid of Wise. The female deputy got her out of the police car, pulled her pants up and fastened them for her, and remained with Ms. Crudup during her entire booking process. In fact Crudup told TPC that all of the Harnett County officials she encountered were extremely professional and treated her with courtesy and dignity. Crudup says that Wise went into the booking area and began speaking with the magistrate on duty. She was unable to hear their conversation, but once she was taken before the court official, she was finally advised that she was being charged with resisting arrest and that her bond would be $500.00 dollars. She said that Harnett County officials were kind enough to allow her to make calls to secure payment of her bond, and subsequently made bail around 4:00 p.m. that same day.

Upon the arrival of her friends Crudup learned that her car had been impounded. The male friend who was with her when the incident occurred had been ordered away from the scene, and once he was gone her vehicle was towed away even though it was lawfully parked in the lot of the Holiday Inn hotel in Dunn. When she went to the Dunn police department to inquirer where her car had been towed, she was initially told that her vehicle was at an impound lot somewhere in Dunn, but police officials checked and determined that her car had been taken to the town of Benson, North Carolina several towns away. TPC has learned that Dunn police has a rotating roster for various tow companies, and the company who towed Ms. Crudup’s car wasn’t on the list for that day. Additionally, the town of Benson North Carolina potentially poses even more problems for her. The cost to retrieve her car is $320.00 dollars, but it’s actually located in a town where blacks seldom venture. Benson is actually in Johnston County an known Klu Klux Klan strong hold. For years stories have been told about the famous billboard sign that greets motorist traveling up U.S. 401 into that county. Take a look at the billboard below:

Klu Klux Klan billboard advertisement posted on U.S. 401 entering Johnston County, North Carolina.

The billboard is a very alarming reality and speaks volumes about some parts of North Carolina’s social climate in 2014. Ms. Crudup says that she can’t ever recall anyone who has had their vehicle impounded in the town of Dunn being taken to a tow yard several towns away like her car had been. The entire incident has caused Ms. Crudup to flee her home and she is now at an unknown location. She tells TPC that she is never going back because she is afraid of what police may do to her. She has only had one personal encounter with the law in her life, and that was during a demonstration in which she participated in a protest for fair housing. The protesters were ceremoniously arrested and let go a very short time later. Baring her participation in that demonstration which only amounts to her exercising her right to free speech, Ms. Crudup has no prior criminal past.

The entire ordeal that landed this mother in a county jail after being physically assaulted and beaten by a Dunn police officer is extremely disturbing. It appears that officer Wise may have followed Ms. Crudup from her home to the location where the incident occurred. It was during the early morning hours, not very well lighted on the streets, and the manner in which Wise approached her while she was completely off guard illustrates that this may have been planned. The fact that Wise beat this woman for no reason  also demonstrates that he is a cowardice scumbag cop who is a disgrace to uniformed law enforcement officials everywhere. An unprovoked attack on this woman coupled with her having been charged with resisting arrest without a premise for her even being arrested in the first place tends to point to some sort of intimidation tactic by this police officer.

It’s also unclear why a municipal police officer would transport a prisoner charged with a crime in his jurisdiction three towns away for booking and processing at a county jail. In many rural areas the police agencies aren’t big enough for the town to have a jail and prisoners are transported to a county lockup in those instances, but the town of Dunn has it’s own jail. Officer Wise having gone into the booking area to speak to the magistrate himself personally, further creates suspicion that what happened to Ms. Crudup was not only planned, but perhaps sanctioned by some higher authority. Apparently, Wise was also behind the impound of Ms. Crudup’s vehicle. Her car was legally parked at the Holiday Inn and having it towed seems to only serve the purpose of further harassing her. Then again, sending her car to such a historically racially charged location several towns away may in fact be a message from the Klu Klux Klan. Why on earth would a police agency permit a tow company from another county take business away from tow companies in it’s own county? No one is fooled by these antics. No one is afraid, and the day of reckoning for these backwards racist North Carolinians is coming.

To Be Continued

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams

Most of us still remember our youthful days when we were in high school preparing for graduation, trying to decide what we wanted to do with our lives, and enjoying the newly found freedoms of adulthood. Well, when young Shannon Nyamodi graduated in May of 2012 he had made up his mind that he wanted to serve  our country, while helping to defend democracy, and was scheduled to join the U.S. Marine Corp. The teen had scored high enough to actually enlist in the Air Force, but settled on joining his friends who already were headed toward a “jarhead” life. His mother says that Shannon wanted to be among friends in boot camp and that was the determining factor for which branch of the military he would join.

The process is slow upon passing testing, physical examination, and waiting on orders prior to being ship to a military installation to begin basic training. So, young Shannon got a job as an electrical assistant until the time came around for him to start a career in the U.S. Armed Forces. The ambitious teen was also a talented musician who had showed prowess as a bassist earlier on during his childhood. Shannon worked and played in a local band when he wasn’t working. Much of his spare time was spent between a girlfriend he’d been seeing for a number of years, and hanging out with one of his best friends (Mike young). Shannon was a regular at the Young’s home in the small quiet town of Youngsville, North Carolina. According to sources, Shannon was seen as a member of the family. An elder female in the Young home needed assistance quite frequently due to health related issues, and when a member of the family was unavailable Shannon often volunteered to look after her when he had free time.

Elizabeth Crudup (Shannon’s mother) says her son had a good heart, loved animals, and was a very trusting person. Apparently, the Young family held Shannon in the same light, as Shannon often stayed at their home over night. Shannon would sleep in a truck in the front yard when he didn’t travel back to his mom’s home all the way in Harnett County. Many people confused Shannon out in the truck with being homeless. but Shannon comes from a close knit family who raised him with strong moral ideologies. Crudup also said that her son was a trouble free kid, and she couldn’t remember him ever talking back to her, engaged in negative discourse or arguing with anyone. Needless to say, the night she received a phone call and informed that Shannon had been locked up, she was shocked, frightened, and completely unaware of the nightmare that her family would endure.

Crudup went on to say, that although Shannon never gave her any problems while she raised him, her son, and children in general are not perfect. She responded to the jail anticipating to hear the worst about her son. When she arrived she immediately asked what he was charged with and was told by a police official, “Well, we know he did something. Let him tell you what he did.” When Crudup made eye contact with her son he shouted “Mom you know I didn’t do what they say I did.” That’s when she learned that he was accused of shooting a woman in the face at point blank range. Like most mothers, Crudup says she has a knack for determining when her kids are being truthful or not, and she said her son’s demeanor didn’t reveal any deception on his part to her. She believed that it was all a misunderstanding and felt the matter would be resolved. As time went on she became suspicious of the charges filed against Shannon. She began to speak with people within the Youngsville community who were there the night of the shooting.

Information she obtained from witnesses confused her and she became concerned why police even charged her son with the crime. Several people revealed that a white male was seen fleeing the scene shortly after the shooting took place, and they told the police this that night. Crudup says that when she travels in the community, people ask her if she is Shannon’s mom. They almost always follow that question up with, “You know he didn’t do it right?” Others have informed her of who the real alleged perpetrators were that shot Rhonda MacClean in the face that night. Crudup says that people in the community have told her that Donald Chalk and his brother Steven Chalk were actually the cowards who shot her. Crudup has also continuously been advised that the two brothers have been terrorizing the community, committing violent crimes such as robbery, other shootings, and drug soliciting. When she inquired as to why no one has notified police regarding the pair, she was informed that everyone was afraid to do so because they were related to Franklin County Sheriff Jerry Jones.

Armed with this disturbing information, she began launching a campaign to free her son from the criminal charges that he faced. She created a website to garner support for Shannon’s cause (Free Shannon Nyamodi) Crudup was able to obtain support from various blogs and other media sources to help her with Shannon’s fight to regain his freedom. Once TPC obtained the criminal case file it was clear that something was drastically wrong with the entire case against this young man. One police officer appears to have honed right in on Shannon from the very start. When Youngsville police Lt. Little arrived on the scene he was told by shannon that he had seen a man running away from 109 Shearin Court (actual crime scene) with a gun. Lt. Little asked Shannon where he was and was told by Shannon that he was asleep in the truck. Little probably became suspicious of the teen without even knowing the relationship Shannon had with the Young family whose truck he often slept in while hanging out with his friend.

Little didn’t even believe Shannon was staying in the truck. He verified Shannon’s account by asking the grandmother of the Young’s home who he was and if he lived there. Shannon Nyamodi was already guilty in the eyes of a white police officer, who obviously was concerned that a black man was in a relatively white neighborhood, and at the scene of a serious violent crime. Take a look at an excerpt from Lt. little’s police report from that night below:

Notice Lt. Little hones right in on establishig who Shannon Nyamodi was.

No where in Lt. little’s report does he mention that he attempted to verify who anyone else was, or if they lived there (in other words everyone else belonged there because they were white). The victim repeatedly advised police that her daughter was involved. She told police that she heard her fifteen ear old daughter say “she’s dead, the money is upstairs, come on hurry up.” Shannon Nyamodi was still at the scene, in fact when the cops arrived it was Shannon who led them to the victim’s location. When police filed their reports that night, they all collectively determined that the suspected shooter was no longer at the scene, and the reports don’t indicate that the victim (Rhonda MacClean) ever told cops that Shannon was the person who shot her.

Strangely though, just ten hours later Shannon would be charged with the crime. Police described the shooting as a “murder for hire” scheme between Shannon and the victim’s teen daughter. They had no DNA, no finger prints, and allegedly only had a bloody shirt. We know that none of these traceable elements of forensic evidence were available to them by the time Shannon was arrested at 3:10 p.m. that same day because the DNA swabs were taken from him on August 17, 2012 a day after the crime. Shannon didn’t have a criminal past, so that meant they only got his finger print profile after he was arrested, and according to witnesses, the bloody shirt was retrieved from the truck where he slept in the Young’s family yard several weeks after the crime by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI). It’s just simply very doubtful that authorities had sufficient probable cause to arrest Shannon for the crime in a such short period of time.

Moreover, the entire he said she said, song and dance story that cops eventually would use to create the theory that Shannon had conspired with the victim’s daughter, was first made known to them at 4:30 p.m. on August 17, 2012, and over 24 hours after Shannon had already been arrested and charged with the crime. Ironically, Lt/ Little (the same cop who honed in on Shannon from the very start) is provided with a statement from a anonymous source who says he knows someone who knew about the plot to kill Rhonda MacClean, between her daughter and Shannon Nyamodi. Although Lt. Little’s entire police report is composed on a form meant to add more information to a previously written report (Supplementary Investigation report), he submits it on August 19, 2012. three days after the crime, and while Shannon was arrested. Now, it’s not advisable for police officials to submit reports in a delayed fashion (days after the crime) which typically cause personnel to forget details, but it just drives home the point that authorities didn’t have this information pertaining to the allege plot until after Shannon was locked up. Take a look at an excerpt from Lt. Little’s official report where he establishes that a confidential informant (CI) advises him of the plot  below:

A portion of Lt. Little’s report describing the plot theory by a persons name which is redacted from the report.

The interesting thing is that when cops finally caught up with the witness who supposedly knew about the plot to kill Rhonda MacClean, he lied to police about Shannon supposedly attempting to solicit the use of his shotgun to carry out the crime. In the middle of his story, somehow he was able to convince Special agent J.E. Heinrich of the State Bureau of Investigations that he had a Facebook text exchange regarding the shotgun on his phone. Donald Chalk who authorities identify as the allege witness, even showed SA Heinrich the text exchange on his cellphone, according to police records. So, following the witness’ lead regarding the plot theory, cops obtained search warrants for the Facebook accounts of the victim’s daughter and Shannon Nyamodi. The warrants were obtained and executed on August 27, 2012 by SA Heinrich, as you can see from his findings below, no records were found nor seized. However, take notice to how long it took the document to reach the county clerk’s office to be placed in the case file:

North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations Special Agent J.E. Heinrich concluded After searching the Facebook accounts of Shannon Nyamodi and the victim’s daughter, who were allegedly plotting to kill her, the police official determined that ‘no records were located.

Heinrich’s Facebook search warrant findings establishes that D.J. Chalk had lied to police regarding his text exchange between Shannon Nyamodi. More importantly, what exactly did Heinrich see on D.J.’s cellphone? I have it right here. Heinrich claims in the Facebook search warrant application that D.J. Chalk accessed the text between him and Shannon, showed it to him, and that he only took note of it. His findings are so contradictory as to what he alleges to have seen, that it raises suspicion if Heinrich even wrote the search warrant application. I highly doubt it and I’ll explain why shortly. Take a look at an excerpt from the Facebook search warrant application describing Heinrich as having allegedly seen the text message exchange:

This portion of the Facebook search warrant proves that authorities even told the judge that Heinrich had seen the text exchange, and probably was a deciding factor for the issuance of the warrant.

Heinrich’s Facebook search warrant findings doesn’t  just say that no records were found between D.J. and Shannon Nyamodi, but clearly indicates that there were no records found between Shannon and his allege co defendant either. Also, where are the text messages from the cellphones allegedly made between the pair? Shannon didn’t own a phone and with D.J. story crumbling, it’s hard to image authorities even pursuing charges against Shannon Nyamodi. It’s a bizarre tail (a lie) which was fabricated by individuals whom have been accused by various people within the community as having actually been the perpetrators who shot Rhonda MacClean, and who are also rumored to be related to the Franklin County Sheriff, Jerry Jones. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t even doubt it that Jones wrote the Facebook search warrant fabricating the eyewitness account offered by Donald D.J.Chalk.

The Facebook search warrant application is even written in third person, referring to Heinrich as a third party to the document. Most authors of such documents use possessive terms to describe themselves. Just because the application states that Heinrich is reporting that he actually saw the text exchange doesn’t mean he was the affiant to the document and did in fact actually saw it. Scroll back up in this article and take a look at Heinrich’s Facebook search warrant findings document again. Notice the area used for “items seized?” Heinrich specifically drew large lines all through that area on both pages, after writing “none.” Heinrich’s deliberately obscuring that area speaks volumes for several reasons. Firstly, it establishes his level of experience, as most seasoned officer know about or have experienced previous situations where their reports were altered after they had submitted it. Secondly, it seems that Heinrich knew how significant his findings were related to the allegations that Shannon Nyamodi had communicated on social media with his allege co defendant , and Donald “D.J.” Chalk, and made certain that the record would truly reflect his findings (smart cop) and prohibit his report from being altered after he submitted it.

Furthermore, it’s very suspicious that Heinrich’s Facebook search warrant findings document was submitted to the county clerk’s office nearly three months after he had actually executed the warrant. A source familiar with the case attempted to convince me that the officer’s delayed submission of the document is simply a casualty of police bureaucracy, due to the high volume of cases they handle on a daily basis. Now had Heinrich just simply been the person who executed the search warrant, such a perspective might be plausible. However, he was very familiar with the case. He conducted the interview with the witness who provided the “plot” theory, allegedly swore out the warrant for the Facebook accounts, and actually executed the search himself. I’m not buying the bureaucrat rationalization for the document’s delay being filed at the county clerk’s office.

In fact, county clerk officials have recently established that the Facebook search warrant document wasn’t even in the case file when it was transferred from District Court to Superior Court, and a clerk official who logged the file into the record remembers someone walking the document in after the clerk’s office had already previously received the case file (no District Court time stamp indicating that it had been filed with the District Court is present on the document). The three month disparity from the time that the findings of the Facebook search warrant were recorded, and the date that it was actually sworn before a clerk official drew special attention from clerk officials. The fact that the clerk’s office confirms that the document more than likely was never filed with the District Courts, raises serious concern and fairness issues for Shannon Nyamodi related to the manner in which Shannon Nyamodi was indicted and subsequently prosecuted for this crime.

This would also mean that the Grand jury or Judicial official who authorized the indictment was never presented with this document which in part, appears to be very exculpatory for this young defendant when considering the theory police developed regarding his allege “plot” to commit this crime. Heinrich’s findings in his report dismisses the entire conspiracy or plot theory, and it’s troubling that the document was suppressed by authorities in this case. It’s highly unfair, prejudicial, and would almost certainly elicit grounds for an appeal if Shannon Nyamodi were ever convicted of these crimes. Take a look at Shannon Nyamodi’s indictment record noting the area to the right highlight with yellow. He was actually indicted on October 04, 2012, an entire week after Heinrich had established that there was no compelling evidence that Shannon Nyamodi had communicated with his allege co defendant or D.J. Chalk:

Shannon Nyamodi was indicted on October 04, 2012 a week after SA Heinrich had discovered that witness statements alleging that he communicated about the plot to commit the crime via text and Facebook were untrue. Heinrich made the discovery on August 27, 2012, plenty enough time for the document to have been presented to the court.

Now, it should be clear to everyone following this case how malicious and unfair the prosecution of Shannon Nyamodi actually is. How could any police official understanding the gravity and importance of such a document, wait so long before submitting it to the courts. Without supporting evidence detailing the conspiracy or plot, how was his arrest and indictment ever justified? Clearly there has been peculiar circumstances which appear to be deliberate to falsely convict this young defendant, but when we consider Shannon Nyamodi was willing to die for his country by serving in the military we can’t overlook just exactly how unjust this entire story really is. “It’s not the deeds of bad people, but the silence of good people” that makes this case an American tragedy. Our hearts go out to a little brown boy name Shannon Nyamodi. May God be with you now and forever! stay strong young Lion!

To Be Continued ..

The People’s Champion

I’m David Adams