Massachusetts: Juvenile court cases on the decline in state
LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — A sharp drop in the number of juvenile court cases in Massachusetts despite economic conditions that put additional strain on families has experts perplexed.
According to court statistics, delinquency complaints have plunged 35 percent in the past three years while cases involving troubled youth have fallen 15 percent. Abuse and neglect cases have dropped 21 percent over the past two years.
Social workers, child advocates and other experts have a variety of theories.
They tell The Boston Globe police are spending less time prosecuting minor offenses, while prosecutors are focusing more on crime prevention and sending low-level offenders to diversion programs rather than the courts.
Some say community programs that reach at-risk teenagers are keeping many out of trouble.
Washington: Commission raps DOJ over Black Panther case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The conservative-dominated U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has published a report criticizing the Justice Department for its handling of voting rights accusations against the New Black Panther Party.
The report has been published on the commission’s website. It says the department has failed to cooperate with the investigation and left open the question of whether political interference played a role in limiting action against the New Black Panther Party.
Two lawyers who formerly worked in the department’s Voting Rights section have described hostility from senior officials and career attorneys to pursuing Voting Rights Act accusations against minorities who harass white voters.
The department has repeatedly denied that race played any role in its handling of the 2008 incident in Philadelphia.
The department investigated complaints that New Black Panther Party leaders King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson intimidated white voters at a Philadelphia polling place. A criminal investigation into the episode was dropped by the Bush administration, but the Justice Department under Obama obtained a narrower civil court order against the conduct than Bush officials sought.
Evidence obtained by the commission puts the department’s “version of events into serious doubt,” says the report. It relies heavily on the testimony of former Voting Rights lawyers Christopher Coates and J. Christian Adams.
The commission adopted the report by a 5-2 vote when it met on November 19, but did not immediately make it public. The Republican and independent appointees voted to adopt the report, while the two Democratic appointees voted against it.
Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican appointee who has been critical of the commission’s inquiry, was absent.
Thernstrom has said accusations against the department are overblown, especially considering that there is no evidence that the presence of the New Black Panther leaders scared anyone away from voting.
Oklahoma: Defense wants judge off pharmacy shooting case
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A hearing is scheduled to determine whether the judge should step down in the murder trial of an Oklahoma City pharmacist accused of killing an unconscious teenager during a robbery.
A hearing will be held Monday to determine if District Judge Ray Elliot should be removed from the case.
Attorneys for pharmacist Jerome Ersland allege in court filings that the judge used racial slurs and that the judge’s wife, who works in the district attorney’s office, e-mailed the judge about the case.
Prosecutors say there is no evidence to support those allegations, and that even if proven true, there is nothing that would deprive Ersland of a fair trial.
Ersland is charged with first-degree murder in the May 2009 shooting death of 16-year-old Antwun Parker.
