Friday, June 12, 2015

Orals show how weak MHP's defense on racism claim really was.

This is a recording of the oral arguments made at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the post about discrimination at the Mississippi Highway Patrol that was posted yesterday.  Needless to say, the judges brought out some pretty interesting facts that were not mentioned in the opinion (Strippers, anyone?).  The MHP lawyer also took a pretty good beating as the judges nearly laughed him at of court because his case was so weak although they recognized he was doing the best job he could. 



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seriously? this guy has been fired 3 times for his conduct and he is in charge of training.
Sounds like the guv needs to find a new leader or two for the MHP

Anonymous said...

Those are two very good lawyers arguing, but Peter Cleveland really had no shot. I love Judge Jolly.

Anonymous said...

This isn't surprising considering some of the things these folks are allowed to get away with. He must have some good artwork! And why wasn't he prosecuted for stealing buy money while working in narcotics? This "law enforcement officer" is permanently damaged (by his own doing) and will forever be disqualified from testifying in court and should be barred from ANY position of public trust.

MS Highway Patrol WTF?

Anonymous said...

Anybody else wondering how the judge will react to getting the case sent back? Is there even a judicial performance review board for federal judges?

Anonymous said...

That ought to make for funny cross exam for ever officer taught by him in the future.

So you went thought an academy where the commander had been discharged X times for _______________?

Why does MHP have a background check if you can be a commander after _________?


Did he teach you to hide things?

Die he teach you to discriminate against people based on race?

Did he teach you to lie?

Die he teach you to _________?

Field day

Third Row said...

Cute, 11:30, but objection will be sustained before the second question is finished.

In Favor Of The Plaintiff said...

It would take a real idiot (or a black judge) to buy the presentation of the defendant's attorney. Obviously, the players all being black except the plaintiff, the plan was to structure the announcement so as to exclude the plaintiff. She was not interested, then, in a lateral move. The job she wanted, and applied for, historically had been filled at Captain level. That was the position originally announced. That's what she applied for. Then, curiously, the vacancy magically became a lieutenant, which made it easy for Berry to slide his preferred candidate, an African American, into the job.

What we have here is obvious. People with no HR experience, apparently no knowledge of employment law and little if any EEOC experience, making decisions that will be found obviously to be in violation of plaintiff's rights. You do not just reclassify positions willy-nilly in an effort to affect the candidate pool. And that is what was done.

We often see Requests For Proposal (bid requests) being structured so as to craft the situation to fit only a particular service provider. What Berry did, in this case, was the same thing - deciding he would retailor, reclassify and repaint the available position so as to exclude one or more candidates and which would result in the favorable positioning of the preferred candidate (instead of the most qualified). Then his attorney (on this recording) engages in a real weak attempt to make that practice acceptable.

Anonymous said...

11:08, perhaps it's the voters who need to find a new state leader, who will appoint qualified and competent persons to the job! Obviously the current occupant of the governor's mansion is lacking in those skills.

Anonymous said...

7:28 has finally gotten to the real issue. Until the man at the top is held accountable - or defended, if that's the way he feels - by the Governor we shouldn't expect anything to change.

Anonymous said...

So from what I understand, its not alright if only one trooper is having sex the CI, but if EVERYBODY is having sex with the CI, then I guess its fine. Why wasn't everybody fired once the facts were revealed? And what happened to the case? Obviously tax dollars were spent developing the informant and exploiting her (or his), ahem, information... If this witness was coerced or if there was a quid pro quo implied, it is criminal. But as long as troopers investigate troopers for wrongdoing, this kind of bull shit will never stop and bad actors will become emboldened, and even promoted.

The real question is, how often is the same type of crap happening, and to what lengths have management gone to cover it up? Someone (hello MS Attorney General, PEER, DOJ, State Legislature) needs to step up and do an independent investigation of the entire department.

Its no wonder Mississippi is in the sad state it is in. Mississippi troopers think they are above the law,and with management decisions like this, how wrong are they? What a joke and disappointment to the taxpayers of the state.

Huh? said...

8:02, who or what is 'the CI'?

Anonymous said...

Confidential Informant. I.E. Snitch.

In Favor Of The Plaintiff said...

If there is a confidential informant in this scenario, she/he is irrelevant. On it's face this is clearly about race and sex discrimination. No informant is needed.

Anonymous said...

@9:12 - what 8:02 was probably referring to was the informant Pack (apparently along with the rest of MHP) had sex with while he was working in narcotics (on the clock?); this damages the state's case by virtue of the MHP officer creating an association with a criminal actor, and calls into question the quality and reliability of the informant's information.

Either the whole scumbag crew needs to go, or we need to accept this kind of behavior as the new standard for the state's premier "law enforcement" agency.

Anonymous said...

It is a shame that the only way to be heard by public safety management is through a lawsuit. When it would have been easier to do the right thing and promote the qualified applicant, department of public safety brass decided it was a better idea to break their own procedures to favor a specific candidate, gamble with their reputation and publicly expose the ineptitude of their management team. From what I'm told this is a problem in many divisions of public safety.

McMullin should be applauded for her courage in standing up for what is right - I just hope she doesn't suffer any further retaliation.



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