It’s 5:00 am and I’m about to jump in the car for Louisiana, but this is something you need to know. What does this stunning development tell us about the rest of the cases? More later.
Lawyer: ‘Jena Six’ Teen Near Plea Deal
By MARY FOSTER – 7 hours ago
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate led to one of the largest civil rights protests in years is close to a deal that would allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid a second trial, his attorney said Sunday.
Mychal Bell, 17, could enter the plea as early as Monday, said attorney Carol Powell Lexing. He has been charged with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.
“We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what’s best for the client,” Lexing said.
LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters did not return a call Sunday evening requesting comment.
Bell, who is black, is scheduled to go to trial Thursday on the felony charges for his suspected role in an attack on Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in central Louisiana.
Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack but was discharged and attended a school event the night after the attack, which occurred about a year ago.
Bell was originally charged as an adult with attempted murder. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September, that verdict was thrown out by an appeals court that said Bell should be tried as a juvenile.
The charges against Bell and five other black students led to a civil-rights demonstration in Jena in September. Felony charges against the other students are pending.
Critics said prosecutors have treated blacks more harshly than whites in LaSalle Parish, pointing to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged.
Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.
Friends of Justice 
FROM DALLAS, TEXAS TO JENA, LA
JUSTICE IS STILL ELUSIVE FOR THE POOR
AND WORKING CLASS PEOPLE
While the tide of injustice turns in Jena, La in the cases of the Jena-6, the beat remains the same in the Dallas, Texas criminal courts as the story of Mary Mathis comes to light. Below is another example why the struggle for justice doesn’t stop at the Lousiana state line.
Mary Mathis and Dallas County Justice
Constitutional Rights Constantly Violated by Dallas County Judges
recuse v. to refuse to be a judge (or for a judge to be requested by one of the parties to step aside) in a lawsuit or appeal because of a conflict of interest or other good reason (acquaintanceship with one of the parties, for example). It also applies to a judge or prosecutor being removed or voluntarily removing himself/herself from a criminal case in which he/she has a conflict of interest, such as friendship or known enmity to the defendant. (See: recusal)
Dallas, Texas
Dallas County violated Mary Mathis’ constitutional rights, including Section 10 of the Constitution of the state of Texas and the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
When the defendant [Mary] made a court appearance on May 9, 2005 before Judge Manny Alvarez, the judge asked the defendant, “Where is your counsel?” The defendant explained that she had informed the court and the DA on Friday May 6, 2005 of her financial hardship. The judge then had Mary jailed until July 15, 2005.
The defendant was deprived of life, liberty and property due to cruel and unusual punishment inflicted by Judge Manny Alvarez. The defendant lost custody of her daughter.
The law states that when a judge recuses himself from a case, he or she can not take any action on this case. However, after Judge Alvarez’ recusal on May 6, 2005, he held that the defendant’s bond was insufficient and issued warrants.
The defendant on October 2007 approached the court with a Writ to have the warrants squashed and a trial date set, because, since the judge had recused himself, the warrant and bond held insufficient was illegal.
She was arrested and is still trying to get a bond hearing. This is not a murder case nor is it a robbery case but theft charges in a domestic dispute.
There have been several mock bond hearings where the DA interjected something and the judge gave him two weeks to investigate, while the cruel and unusual punishment of Mary continues.
The case numbers are F02-22877 and F03-23495.
I have been trying to get my wife out for Thanksgiving, but the judge is rather nonchalant about the person in jail.
Quill
CC: US Department of Justice Civil Rights
Kay Lee, MTWT
Sharif, MTWT Texas
No(S). F02-22877 and F03-23495 Mary Mathis
Mary Mathis has been locked up since September 17, 2007 involving an old case from 2001. Dallas County hunted her down like she was an armed robber or a murderer.
Mary had documentation showing that Judge Manny Alvarez had recused himself from the case, yet he issued warrants and held her bond insufficient.
The law states that once a judge recuses himself, he/she can no longer make any rulings on the case. So in essence, that made the forfeiture of bond illegal and the arrest warrants illegal.
So why was Mary arrested and why does she remain in jail?
She came to court and presented her writ to Judge Carter Thompson. The writ was to squash the warrants and set a trial date. Instead of addressing the writ, Thompson called Manny Alvarez and Manny said “arrest her”: Then the bailiff and the sheriff roughed her up in the process of arresting her.
I was under the impression that the new DA was trying to rid himself of such cases as these. The case involved $1500.00 in wall art that her ex-lover says she stole. He had no receipts, nor could he describe the art, and a 1998 Mercury Marquis which he had the keys to that was parked at his house.
JP court ruled it a relationship gone bad and ordered the ex-lover Joseph Lockwood to return Mary’s things, which he never did. Instead, he hired a good friend of his, Ms. Rhonda Hunter. Rhonda Hunter filed civil charges against Mary and Ms. Hunter being who she was, walked the case through the channels and got a judgment against Mary.
Mary, having somewhat of a photographic memory, began to look at court cases and found that Ms. Hunter had violated some rules in other cases. So Mary filed an appeal with the 5th Circuit Court and they handed her appeal back to her and told her that they were not going to look at any part of it.
Either they were friends with Ms. Hunter or didn’t like Mary or maybe it was the fact that she was pro se’. That seems to be a big thing down at Dallas County. If a person represents themselves, they are ostracized.
What if a doctor got angry because I bought over-the-counter drugs, instead of coming to his office? So, why are attorneys so bent out of shape with pro se’ litigants? The madness of it all.
Mary filed the case with the Texas Supreme Court and it was overturned. Another reason to hate her, because she had a case overturned against Ms. Hunter.
While the case was in the Supreme Court of Texas, Ms. Hunter filed criminal charges against Mary. First it was the $1500.00 in wall paintings and about a month later charges were filed for the 1998 Mercury Marquis.
The 1998 Mercury Marquis was set at 20,000.00 to 100,000.00. Now I would not pay that much, nor do I know how they came to that amount in mid 2001. This estimated value was of course to charge her with a felony, even though the ex-lover had his car back by this time.
The irony of all of this is that there was once a Deputy Sheriff who was willing to testify that she did not do these things, but I have since learned from a reliable source that he was under pressure from his superiors to recant his story. All of these are people who take oaths, but to who and to what?
DEPUTY SHERIFF’S STATEMENT
Martin Luther King once stated that justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere. That’s certainly true in Mary’s case because, as in Sharif and so many other Dallasites’ cases, justice is continually being denied in Dallas County.
Mary had two court appointed attorneys. The first was one Kenneth Weatherspoon, who kept the case for over a year. During that time, not one motion was filed nor were any of her witnesses contacted, even though she requested a speedy trial by jury.
The second attorney, *Rex Gunter, followed in the footsteps of Mr. Weatherspoon by not filing any motions and not contacting any of her witnesses. However he did try to set up a Trial-By-Court, but he forgot one thing – to invite any of Mary’s witnesses. Smells like a railroad (just my opinion).
Mary noticed that all of the prosecutor’s witnesses were there and none of hers, so she requested a trial by jury, which apparently made Judge Alvarez.
After Mary fired her last attorney, Judge Manny Alvarez told her that she had better have an attorney when she comes back to his court. She had filed bankruptcy and the law states that you can force someone to get representation.
Anyway, Mary appeared in court to tell the judge that she will represent herself. He told her to sit down and wait, which she did.
At the end of court, Judge Alvarez orders the bailiff to arrest Mary. She was locked up for over two and a half months without a bond hearing or even a trial for that matter. If a judge was really interested in having a trial, he had the perfect opportunity, yet nothing happened.
While she was in jail, Dallas County dropped felony charges on Mary’s ex-husband, who had pled guilty and waived his rights. The judge gave him custody of their 11 year old daughter, whom he had not seen since she was three.
Mary was kept in jail long enough that the appeal time had lapsed and she could not file sanctions against Attorney Hunter since the case was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court.
Mary has been in jail now for five weeks and the DA Mr. Chris Pryor, said that he did not want to set bail, even though the Texas Bill of Rights states that everyone is entitled to bail, except in capitol cases.
If you look at the whole process, it was actually illegal to arrest Mary and definitely illegal to keep her in jail due to Judge Alvarez’s recusal and the issuance of warrants after his recusal. Does that mean the judge is breaking the law?
Mary appeared seven (7) times in court because it was on a tentative docket and was never heard. I think that they were waiting on her to not show up (personal opinion).
Mary’s mother has since died and been buried, but Judge Alvarez would not have the decency to set a bond and let her attend her mother’s funeral.
After her experience in jail, being arrested in court for no apparent reason, child taken away and given to an abusive father, there was nothing good going to happen for Mary in Dallas County.
Judge Manny had become so personal with this case, that he should have removed himself long time ago. Judge Manny interfered with child custody in San Angelo and in Louisiana, but he was not alone.
Mary filed complaints with the Texas Bar against all three attorneys, but since Ms. Hunter is working with the state bar, the cases were rejected after 3 days on all three attorneys.
She filed with the judicial board and they stated that since Judge Alvarez was no longer on the bench, there was nothing they could do.
They finally gave Mary a bond hearing on Friday 9, at 8:30 in Judge LenaLevario’s court. The bond hearing was a farce.
The bond hearing had started and Mary was on the stand. She got about half way through and Judge Lena stated, “oh, I can’t hear this case. I represented this man, well I think that I represented him. I have to recuse myself.”
I think that cannon law states that she should apologize to the defendant and attorney. Instead, she got rude with the defendant.
Judge Lena asked the attorney, “Well how is Mr. Lockwood?” I said to my self what? She did not represent Mr. Lockwood, but tried to intervene on behalf of Ms. Hunter in the Texas Supreme Court Case.
The case is then transferred to Judge Creuzot’s court. He sets a bond hearing for the 13th of November.
The DA comes in with Judge Manny Alvarez, who went around shaking hands like it was a social event. The DA states that Manny Alvarez wanted to testify first since he had somewhere to go. He began a rhetorical deluge of character bashing. He sounded as though he was intimidated by Mary. Judge Alvarez left the stand after his 15 minutes of tirade and rambling. Judge John Cruezot did not intervene.
Mary took the stand and Judge Cruezot told her to speak only when spoken to. After she got off the stand, the DA stated to the judge that Mary had a hold in Louisiana for charges of interfering with the custody of a child and she had a P.O. Box in Odessa, Texas.
The attorney addressed the issue of the bond forfeiture set after Judge Manny had recused himself. Judge Creuzot stated that he would take responsibility for that, but no one addressed the warrants. I guess Judge Creuzot is taking responsibility for the warrants issued by Manny Alvarez on which Mary was arrested and detained?
Judge Creuzot gave the DA two weeks to investigate the hold in Louisiana and the P.O. Box in Odessa. All it takes is a phone call to both places to get the information.
The information concerning the Louisiana hold was presented to Judge Creuzot on Friday November 16th. I just knew that when he saw that there was no hold in Louisiana, he would do the just thing and post a bond.
The judge looked at it twice as if in disbelief, asked about the P.O. Box, and restated the two weeks meeting. The attorney stated that his client had been in jail now for a month. Judge Creuzot was unfazed.
Judge Creuzot seems not to mind that the DA has lied to him repeatedly. It is like he doesn’t care if justice is being served.
Mary is still locked up by hard core DA’s and judges and this is not even a murder case, nor is it an armed robbery case. What happens to the average Joe Dummy who has no understanding of the law and his rights under those laws? Is he/she being maneuvered like pawns in a chess game by the attorneys and judges? Is it only happening in Dallas County, or has our American Judicial system really come to this?
Why has Mary spent all this time in jail? Is justice being served, if so, whose justice
I always thought that the lady of justice was blind, but in Dallas County, she has taken off the blinders and the scales are tilted.
*Rex Gunter
Firm: Moore Gunter & Barrett
Address: 3500 Oak Lawn Ave.
Suite 700
Dallas, TX 75219-4370
Map & Directions
Phone: (214) 341-7476
(214) 521-5322
Fax: (214) 521-0012
UPDATE: December 2nd, 2007: Mary is out of jail. Details are being prepared.
If anyone has a story to share about the Judges or justice of Dallas County, you can contact myself, Kay Lee, Sharif, or Mary’s husband, Quill.
“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both sides.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
DALLAS COUNTY JAIL
Dallas County Justice
http://www.angelfire.com/crazy4/texas/marymathis.html
“What does this stunning development tell us about the rest of the cases?”
That Reed Walters now has a snitch?