Friday, July 15, 2016

To seal or unseal.....

The Clarion-Ledger published a story about Judge Melvin Priester, Sr. recusing himself from State v. Robert Shuler Smith Wednesday.  JJ broke the story on Tuesday but the newspaper reported some very interesting information:


The affidavit said Smith unlawfully advised and provided counsel to Christopher Butler, who had been charged with embezzlement, wire fraud and possession of a controlled substance, and Darnell Turner, who had been charged with aggravated assault and domestic violence. Smith represented Turner before he was elected district attorney, court records show.

All but one of the six counts focus on Smith’s actions related to Butler.

According to the affidavit, Smith gave Butler’s attorney, Sanford Knott, a letter that outlined ways to attack the state’s case against Butler; met with Butler twice at the Hinds County jail without his attorney present; met with Butler’s family and referred to him as his client; and used the grand jury to pressure a circuit judge to dismiss drug possession charges against Butler.

When Smith met with Butler’s family, he attempted to retain an attorney to represent him and worked with defense counsel to release Butler from jail, according to the affidavit.

 According to his letter to Knott, Smith filed a motion for contempt of court in March “due to blatant and contemptuous behavior of Assistant Attorneys General Patrick Beasley and Shaun Yurtkuran.” The attorney general's office scheduled a hearing without telling Smith, and the court held that Smith had waived his right to object because he didn’t attend, according to the letter.

The affidavit said that this month, Smith gave Turner’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, emails that touched upon information that had previously been sealed by the court, court records show.

Sweet filed a motion to dismiss Turner’s case that alleged improper, ex parte communication between the court and the attorney general's office, which had been investigating whether Hinds County was properly indicting individuals. Two circuit judges recused themselves from Turner’s case and from hearings conducted by the attorney general's office.

Sweet said Smith didn't provide any info that the defense wasn't entitled to.

Smith's attorney, Jim Waide of Tupelo, filed an amended discovery motion on behalf of Smith this week in County Court. Among the things he is requesting are the names and addresses of all state witnesses, all written statements obtained by any witness, the substance of any oral statement given by any witness, all expert reports, all documents, videos, photographs, phone records, emails, or any other tangible things relevant to the claims against Smith.  Rest of article.

So the District Attorney apparently filed a contempt of court motion against two prosecutors from the Attorney General's office in March over the Christopher Butler case.  JJ reported on the hearing that so irked the D.A. and posted the transcript. 

However, a review of court files reveals no contempt of court motion as mentioned in the letter to Mr. Knott.  The lack of the motion begs the question: does the letter actually exist or does it exist under seal?  A judge can impose a fine upon the defendant or throw him in jail for contempt of court.  Thus it must be asked if the D.A. tried to throw them in jail or at least fine them for that hearing?   

The D.A. and his attorney have protested mightily over sealed motions and reports.  Mr. Waide and his client should release any similar sealed motions if any exist. 

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see the crux of the friction now...Shawn Y. Used to work for RSS and knows his ways.

So it's a bit like an inside job.....trying to "right" what he saw as "wrong."

Wild

Anonymous said...

Patrick Beasley worked for him too

Anonymous said...

Shit RSS has had about 50 people work for his crazy ass...and quit.

Anonymous said...

Maybe RSS was lying to Knott about the motion and hearing. Or hallucinating (more likely). No way in hell could the A.G. schedule a hearing on RSS's motion without RSS knowing about it. That's got to be total crock.

He's sounding crazier by the day.

Anonymous said...

Why does RSS own property with Winston Thompson in Madison County???? Hmm???

Anonymous said...

RSS is going down HARD. And expect big time repercussions for his past activities and sources.

Anonymous said...

I want to see this purported video of the MBN.

Anonymous said...

My guess is you will 8:10. And a whole lot more. The FBI the FBI IS INVOLVED. READ THAT AGAIN. Slowly. The FBI. IMHO everyone mentioned will be investigated

Anonymous said...

8:36 - yeah, and the FBI "investigated" Hillary Clinton too; and you see the outcome of that fiasco.

Anonymous said...

9:49 pm You haven't read Comey's entire comments and you don't seem to know his history . You also don't seem to know the obvious (which would have worked for Clinton if she could admit to ignorance rather than lie to Congress) and that is that few 68+ year olds are cyber savvy. Indeed, most do well to email, text, go cyber shopping and do FB. And, it's worst for those who , like Clinton, had secretaries and IT people working for them. That is the obvious defense.
There were zero personal computers when she was in law school.
But, since , like most politicians, she's learned a lie works politically, she's now lied to Congress.
Comey did the best he could do which was to hand Congress the only tool that would cause Clinton trouble.
There are no criminal charges for Clinton unless you want to arrest Colin Powell and most of Congress too because proving " intent" is impossible.
One of the bad things about " take no prisoners politics" is that it destroys trust in our institutions. None of them have every operated perfectly and without some rotten apples getting into the barrel. So, it's been easy to repeatedly point to flaws and errors and those who don't know shit about how government functions are easy dupes.


Anonymous said...

7:13, would it be too much to ask for someone running for president to not lie under oath? Remember we already had one Clinton show how easy it was to do and get away with it.
I can not understand how a person could have such low morals that they would vote for such a person. She either lied or is just too damn stupid to be elected to any office. Democrats are as bad as republicans. Our country will not survive them both.

Anonymous said...

8:10, That video has already been destroyed. Even if it wasn't the FBI would not be able to find it or even know how to watch it.

Anonymous said...

As one who is older than our simpleton Hillary, and being somewhat "computer savvy", I believe this is a stupid a defense as the "affluenza" defense which eventually put that child turned adult into jeopardy. It has been interesting to see the AG Loretta Lynch getting away with impropriety and hoping that miscarriage of justice doesn't apply to our deadbeat DA. He has been a major part of the crime problem in Hinds County. All parts of the jigsaw puzzle that is local crime need to be exposed and mainly discover the persons profiting most.

Anonymous said...



Jackson is 80% black.

The system is rigged against 80% of the populace per common thought with in that community.

Behavior 20% would find objectionable is simply not seen as objectionable to 80%.

Criminal conduct is tolerated to keep the system from incarcerating the crime committing "victims."

Is it so hard to see now how RSS thinks it's ok to represent criminal defendants charged with crimes by him?

A white guy can never be DA.

A black guy can never be a truly effective DA given current thoughts re: "justice."

Only when black people own Highland Village or Maywood Mart (as illustrative examples only people) and crime takes money from the black owners will there ever be any hope for an effective justice system in Hinds county.

Until then....buy gun, learn to use gun, carry gun, use gun when needed.

E said...

7:13 I am having a little trouble following your English; however, the thyme of it seems to be Clinton is to stupid to know that setting up a couple of servers, one of which was in a bathroom, and having an IT guy sweep said servers, not just delete but sweep, to try to make sure all materials were wiped out was oh just one of those accidental mishaps. REALLY!
First, you would be hard pressed to find anyone less tech savvy than me and even I know that to have some one sweep the server is a very deliberate act of hiding what you have been doing. She is savvy enough to know deleting was not going to get the job done. Exactly how many times have you or ANYONE you know swept their server? And what is the purpose of sweeping?
Second, Powell did not have his own server. HUGH DIFFERENCE
Third, the IT guy who set up her servers took the 5th 125 times--125 times in his testimony to congress. Why would that be if all was on the up and up? Do you really think this guy just showed up on clinton's doorstep one day and said hi I'm here to set up a free computer server in the bathroom? Because everybody else is doing it why not. She said she was only using one device come to find out that was not true. Why hide the other devices?
Forth, the only people who could look at all the evidence and come up with she did not intended to lie, cover up, manipulate are those who want to vote for her and can not or will not see her for what she is.
Fifth, For her to claim, when convenient, oh my I am just a bubble headed confused blond with all these new fancy things is absurd and extremely insulting to our intelligence.
I am taking a shot that your last couple of sentences mean ya sure she is one of the crooks, lairs, money grabbers in government but that is just how it is who cares. WOW REALLY????
Lastly, I believe intent screams out from all she has done, HOWEVER, intent IS NOT part of one of the statutes that was stated. If a drunk driver hits and kills someone he did not leave his house that night with the intent of killing someone yet he is still guilty of killing. That is an asinine notion that you have to have intent all the time before you can be guilty/charged with anything. The majority of prisoners could be released with that as the primary guideline. I did not intent for him to die when I shot him just wanted to scare him. OH if that was all go on home it's ok sorry we detained you.

Anonymous said...

10:46, you have to understand that no matter what the facts are there are some people so low that they will accept the crimes because of who happened to commit the crimes. Now if it was someone else they would demand the person be executed. Their person is special.
Even a child knows Hillary lied. To think we have a high number of people who will accept the lying is hard to understand. Most people have at least some pride and morals. That is not the case. I wonder when this type of person was growing up what their parents taught them? I wonder if they are teaching their children the same thing?

Anonymous said...

11:49 - i believe you are correct in your analysis of those folks that will 'accept the crimes', but it is even worse than that in my opinion.

90% of the people that are voting for Hillary don't even know there is a question about the servers, emails, truth, lying under oath, etc. etc. They don't even know whether she is running for President or Queen. It doesn't matter - facts and details just don't come into play when they walk in the voting booth.

Problem is further compounded by the fact that almost the same number of people that are fanatic about Trump are the same. They don't care about whether every time he opens his mouth and he says something whether he really means it, whether it is the same or opposite of what he said the last time he opened his mouth, or anything else. They don't know whether he is running for President or whether he will continue to be an entertainer on TV. Facts about his past, his philosophy, and also for him his truthfulness need not get in their way.

The idea of having some degree of intelligence test given before casting one could cast a vote would be good - but the current set of elected officials would never pass such a law because it would mean most of them would lose next time their name was on the ballot.

Anonymous said...

4:57, I do wish there was some test given before casting a vote but in many places even an identity is not needed to cast a vote. People can vote as often as they like. Dead people vote very often.

Anonymous said...

I'm 7:13

I was defending Comey and the FBI. I was not defending Clinton.
I was trying to explain to those of you who were led to believe Clinton would be criminally charged why Comey couldn't do what you hoped he could.
Both political candidates for President have told incredibly stupid,self-serving and unnecessary lies.
Comey is the only one whose integrity has never been questioned on either side of the aisle until this insane election.
If you didn't read Comey's entire statement or bother to find out anything about his personal history, you are one of the dupes that is to blame for the sorry state of affairs in which we find ourselves!

Anonymous said...

6:18, I read the entire statement. I listened to his speech.
To begin with it wasn't his job to decide if Clinton would be indicted. His job was to give us the facts. He did that. All that came after the facts was total BS.
Do you actually think all of this could happen in such a short time? Look at the time between Clinton taking his cigar on the plane for a visit to the time Comey finished his fact finding mission.
Comey was not even there when Hillary was questioned. There is no recording or notes taken of the questions and answers. Comey didn't even talk to all of those who were there when Hillary was questioned.
Can you explain how Comey came to this decision in such a short amount of time? Why did the other FBI members that were there have to sign an oath of silence?
His personal history does not matter. He does not have much of a future.

Anonymous said...

6:18 and 7:13 Comey has a looooong history with the Clintons. He was investigator in Whitewater Scandal. He found no wrongdoing on Hillary's part then either! He is a very significant part of the Clinton s--- pile!!


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