Mychal Bell’s plea bargain caught me, and almost everyone else, by surprise. Mr. Bell’s attorneys were talking tough–as if they were prepared to go to trial this Thursday; a surprising move considering that any competent attorney would have been putting off the day of reckoning by filing motions to recuse Reed Walters and change the venue.
Mychal’s attorneys were able to get a reasonable plea offer from the LaSalle Parish District Attorney because Reed Walters doesn’t want to face a recusal hearing that would draw media attention to his complicity in the sad events of December 4, 2006. It was a year ago today that Justin Barker was felled by a single punch; but the animosity between black and white students dated back to the first week of September when Walters tried to intimidate black students into dropping their protest with a stroke of his pen.
When the legal process in Mychal’s case was opened to public scrutiny, Reed Walters saw the writing on the wall. Plea agreements draw a few lines of passing interest from the media; a full-blown trial would have placed the Jena 6 back on the front page and on the evening news. That wouldn’t have been good for Walters, it wouldn’t have been good for Jena, and it probably wouldn’t have helped the defendants either.
Hopefully, yesterday’s plea agreement has sucked the wind from the sails of the March for Hate scheduled for Jena on Martin Luther King Day. Read Craig Franklin’s recent article on the event (at the bottom of the page–you have to wait a minute for it to come up) and tell me if he sounds enthusiastic about the impending event, horrified by it, or if he has mixed feelings. Franklin clearly spent a long time chatting with event organizers. Jena officials aren’t officially endorsing the march-from-hell; but they aren’t distancing themselves from it either.
Hopefully, if all these cases are resolved (or near resolution) by mid-January, these twisted individuals will keep their confederate flags flapping in the back yard instead of parading them down main street. If so, Jena will have dodged a bullet. A well-publicized hate march would solidify the community’s reputation as the most racist town in America. It is time for community leaders to take the stand against overt bigotry they failed to take in September of 2006. I can’t think of a better way to change public perception.
Did Mychal Bell administer the knock out punch to Justin Barker? I still don’t know. True, his plea agreement involves a frank, and presumably sincere, admission of guilt. But innocent people frequently admit to crimes they didn’t commit if they think it will improve their legal standing. Nonetheless, as a point of law, it is now established that Mychal Bell knocked Justin Barker cold.
Like me, the parents of the Jena 6 have mixed feelings about yesterday’s ruling. Something there is that loves a court fight. The media is praying for such a dispensation. But, as I suggest below in Howard Witt’s article in the Chicago Tribune, it would be in the best interest of all if this saga is resolved out of court. My prayer is that none of the remaining defendants will face additional prison time–but I don’t get to make that call.
It has always been my primary concern to see these kids represented by competent legal counsel with the media (mainstream and independent) looking on. The legal system tends to work properly when attorneys know their business and the public takes an lively interest. Stay tuned.
chicagotribune.com
TRIBUNE UPDATE
Plea deal arranged for teen in Jena 6
No trial, lesser charge may ease way for rest
Tribune senior correspondent
December 4, 2007
HOUSTON
The district attorney in the racially-charged Jena 6 case in Louisiana agreed to a plea bargain Monday that sharply reduced the charges against the first of the six black teenagers who was facing trial, while attorneys for other defendants said the prosecutor appeared eager to settle their cases as well.
LaSalle Parish District Atty. Reed Walters, whose initial decision to charge the black teenagers with attempted murder for beating a white youth was condemned as excessive by civil rights leaders, dropped a conspiracy charge against Mychal Bell, 17, and agreed to let him plead guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery, with a sentence of 18 months and credit for time he has served in jail.
District Judge J.P. Mauffray approved the plea agreement Monday afternoon, just three days before Bell’s trial in juvenile court was to have begun. Bell’s attorneys said Walters offered them the plea agreement Thursday, a week after a coalition of U.S. media companies, led by the Chicago Tribune, successfully sued Mauffray to force him to open the trial to the public and the press.
“This case has been a very difficult chapter in the town’s life and for the individuals involved,” said David Utter, an attorney for another of the Jena 6 defendants who was charged as a juvenile. “My sense is that the district attorney would like to close this chapter now.”
Utter and attorneys for several other Jena 6 defendants confirmed that they were engaged in plea negotiations with the district attorney, heralding a potential conclusion to the controversial case that drew more than 20,000 protesters to Jena in September and earned the small Louisiana town a portrayal by civil rights leaders and the national media as a racist backwater.
The latest turnabout
The decision to reduce the charges against Bell was the latest turnabout for Walters, who had vowed to aggressively prosecute the six black youths for their alleged roles in assaulting Justin Barker at Jena High School on Dec. 4, 2006, and kicking him while he lay unconscious.
The incident capped months of racial unrest in the town set off when three white students hung nooses from a tree traditionally used by whites at the high school after black students sought permission to sit beneath its shade.
Black students and their parents regarded the noose incident as a hate crime and demanded that the white perpetrators be expelled, but school officials dismissed the incident as a prank and issued lesser punishments. A series of fights ensued between black and white youths, but civil rights leaders asserted that the schools and the courts in Jena treated black students more harshly than whites for similar offenses.
After the Jena story gained national attention last spring, Walters backed away from the attempted murder charges and instead charged the six teenagers with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. He tried Bell on those charges as an adult in June and won a conviction, but an appeals court reversed the verdict in September, ruling that Bell should have been prosecuted as a juvenile.
Since then, Walters has come under growing political pressure to conclude the Jena 6 cases. Local leaders have been dreading a drawn-out series of criminal trials that would keep Jena in the spotlight throughout 2008. And Louisiana’s departing governor, Kathleen Blanco, directly pressed Walters not to pursue an appeal of the decision that struck down Bell’s adult conviction.
Walters did not address the question of political pressure, but he said in a statement Monday that he hopes to have the remaining Jena 6 cases resolved early next year.
“My goal and intention has always been to find appropriate justice for Justin Barker, and I believe this plea accomplishes that,” Walters said.
A potential perfect storm
Before Walters made his plea offer, Bell’s attorneys said they had been preparing pretrial motions seeking to recuse both the prosecutor and Mauffray from the case. The attorneys said evidence contained in those motions would have embarrassed both men.
“A trial would be very bad for the town, very bad for Reed Walters, very bad for anybody in Jena associated with the process, and it could turn out very bad for the defendants as well,” said Alan Bean, head of a small civil rights group called Friends of Justice who was the first activist to call attention to the Jena case. “It had the potential for being a perfect storm in which everybody lost.”
Parents on both sides of the case agreed.
“If the district attorney makes an offer to us and my son doesn’t have to do any jail time, that would be fine,” said Tina Jones, who insists that her son, Bryant Purvis, was not involved in the school attack. “I’m ready to get this all over with.”
Plea bargains “would be the best solution, as long as they don’t get away with no punishment at all,” said David Barker, the father of Justin. “This case has taken its toll on everybody. Justin has ulcers now. Letting it drag on for years would just be additional stress for him.”
Bell’s attorneys said they urged their client to agreed to the plea bargain to spare the former high school football star the danger of being convicted of more serious charges.
In October, Mauffray sentenced Bell to 18 months for four prior juvenile convictions for battery and destruction of property. But under the plea deal, that time will be served concurrently with the new sentence for the 2006 attack, and Bell will get credit for the nine months he spent in jail while awaiting trial. His attorneys said the teen could be released by June.
Friends of Justice 
Everything you state about Walters’s motivations are speculation.
This is far from over. On Nov 29, Barker’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Jena 6, their parents and the school administration.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/BREAKINGNEWS/71204016
Plea bargaining is normal in criminal cases. Only a small percent of criminal cases actually go to trial. Reduced sentences are also routine. As part of his plea bargaining, Bell agreed to testify against the other Jena Six defendants. The others will almost certainly seek and receive plea bargains similar to Bell’s. I think there is a good chance that those who have no prior convictions may receive probation rather than jail time. One defendant’s mother claims he did not take part in the attack and will not agree to a plea bargain that includes jail time, so Bell’s testimony my prove pivotal.
The court ordered Bell and his family to pay restitution to Justin Barker and his family. The other defendants, if they accept similar plea bargains, will also likely be required to pay restitution. This morning, the Barkers filed a civil lawsuit against the LaSalle Parish School Board, the parents of the Jena Six and the adult members of the Jena Six. The school board will probably pay an out-of-court settlement to avoid a trial. The Barker’s attorney will probably seek some of the money, said to be more than $500,000, that has been donated to the Jena Six families since the Jena Six incident made headlines. Bell’s guilty plea will be used against him in the civil lawsuit. If the other defendants plead guilty or are convicted, their guilty pleas or convictions will also be used against them in the civil trial.
I have a few correction / elaborations to respond to your article, Mr. Bean:
1. You say that “Walters tried to intimidate black students into dropping their protest with a stroke of his pen”.
I don’t quite understand. As involved in this case as you have been, this incident has been categorically proven false! He said the pen speech in an assembly in the auditorium full of high school students. It was not at a protest. Eye witnesses have said it, the school has said it. What is it going to take to make you realize that this incident DID NOT occur?
2. You say “When the legal process in Mychal’s case was opened to public scrutiny, Reed Walters saw the writing on the wall. ”
Isn’t this the same plea bargain Bell was offered the first time? Isn’t this the same plea bargain that he agreed to then changed his mind in open court? This is what Walters wanted from the start. You make it out as if he’s getting scared of the media and has decided to cower in fear. Everything Walters has done so far shows me that he wants justice served and wants nothing to do with the media circus.
3. You say “Franklin clearly spent a long time chatting with event organizers. Jena officials aren’t officially endorsing the march-from-hell; but they aren’t distancing themselves from it either.”
Isn’t it a journalist’s goal to be completely unbiased? The Jena Times did the same thing with the last protest. They gave details and interviewed people. You seem to be implying that our town and town officials are in cahoots with white nationalists, which is completely absurd. And to be honest, I am disgusted at ANY group of people condemning a race, ethnicity, or nationality, so I disagree with the philosophy of the marchers that may be coming to my town. But when our entire town was being pummeled by people who were misinformed about what happened in Jena, these were the only people taking up for us. So hate them or not, at least they were taking up for us. I’ve seen some of them posting comments online and they are about as misinformed as many of the racial activists were; all they want to do is preach hate. But many of the marchers for the Jena 6 were chanting “BLACK POWER!”. Why must we have a double standard?
4. You say “If so, Jena will have dodged a bullet. A well-publicized hate march would solidify the community’s reputation as the most racist town in America.”
You read the article. They have a right to freedom of speech just like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do. These two individuals are racist, yet they marched on our town with ease and without heat from the town or public officials here. So we’ve dealt with racist marchers in the past, and we will deal with them now. Note that I am not implying all of the marchers in the past protest were racist, just ones such as Sharpton and Jackson. As long as the nationalists march in our town, say their peace and leave, then everything will be okay. If they come here to start trouble, they better be ready to be cuffed and stuffed. That won’t be tolerated. Why do you expect our town to violate the law and ask for a lawsuit by keeping these people out of our town? Yes, we’d rather them NOT be here, but “freedom of assembly” is covered under our constitution to these hate mongers just as it was to hate mongers such as Jackson and Sharpton.
5. You say “I can’t think of a better way to change public perception.”
I can.
How about we get the whole country to see the truth behind this case and unravel the finely woven story that has been created by the media. How about we bring to light everything that is mentioned in the eye witness statements that have been consistently ignored by you and the media, including:
1. The “list” that some witnesses claimed the Jena 6 had of male white students they planned on attacking.
2. The four OTHER male white students they threatened that day but did not decide to gang assault.
3. One of the Jena 6 saying “There’s that white mother f***er.”, presumably Mychal Bell. This was right before Barker was knocked out cold.
4. The anonymous female black student who says she heard Bell saying “I swear on my mama I’m gonna knock his block off.”
5. The absence of ANY mentioning of a beer bottle in Bailey’s statement regarding the Fair Barn incident.
The truth is starting to come out, Mr. Bean, and Bell’s confession will be the start of something. Finally the country will see this case for what it really was, not what you and a few others made it into. Your biased accounts from the Jena 6 and their families are contradicted in some cases, and counteracted by logical reasoning in others. A rounded perception of my hometown is deserved. I look forward to watching this thing turn around, while many activists quietly drift off into the sunset.
Standing up for racial equality is right, but to convey inaccurate information to achieve this agenda is NOT!
From Jena:
I’m glad that we can at least agree that standing up for racial equality is right. That suggests that standing against bigotry is also right. Hence my suggestion that Craig Franklin, perhaps in a column where he is free to express his opinion, denounce the hate march planned for January. You raise many issues, and I have already expressed my views and the evidence and reasoning behind them repeatedly and in detail. If you want to know what I think and why I think it, please browse through some of my earlier posts. If these cases move to trial we will all learn a great deal. If the cases are settled by plea agreements, many issues will never receive serious attention. That is clearly in the best interest of Mr. Walters and the good people of Jena. Meanwhile, denounce the march and the world will get the message.
From Jena:
I’m from Tulia, but I also have a name which I am neither ashamed nor afraid to sign.
Charles Kiker
Before Walters made his plea offer, Bell’s attorneys said they had been preparing pretrial motions seeking to recuse both the prosecutor and Mauffray from the case. The attorneys said evidence contained in those motions would have embarrassed both men.
Then why did Bell take a plea? If what they knew was so damaging, he would not have.
“If the district attorney makes an offer to us and my son doesn’t have to do any jail time, that would be fine,” said Tina Jones, who insists that her son, Bryant Purvis, was not involved in the school attack. “I’m ready to get this all over with.”
She said on CNN that they would not accept a plea. Why is she changing her mind now if her son had nothing to do with the attack. Maybe she realizes that Bell will tell the truth if it goes to trial about her son being involved.
You know what, Sammy and Craig Franklin are good men and journalists. I cannot same the same for a lot of people in the media, you included. You have printed many lies about what happened in Jena and continue to do so even though the truth has come out. You are attacking the Franklins because they are the type of Christian men who refuse to stoop to your level of so-called journalism.
Yes, I agree in racial equality. There was no racial inequality shown in charging these boys. Reed would have done the same had it been 6 white students attacking 1 black student. He would have charged them the same had it been black on black or white on white.
You do not know how people here really are and never will. You are showing your bigotry agaist my town by the untruths in the articles that you continue to get wrong. Your sources are the Jena 6 and their families. That is where you evidence comes from and it is wrong.
I am so tired of people in other places telling us what we and the town of Jena should do. We did not want the J6 matchers to come but they did. We do not want the White Supremists to come but they will. That is their right under our Constitution. I did not attend the first rally and I surely will not attend the second one. That is my right as a free American.
My name is not important…
…but my message clearly is.
The public deserves to know the truth. Judging by some of your responses to me, it seems that you felt it was okay to spray this story out to whoever and breaking a few eggs in the process is okay. That the media WILL sensationalize things and it’s OKAY to not get the details exactly right, just as long as the overall agenda is driven. The things I mentioned above…why were they never mentioned? You never pointed them out to anyone, the MEDIA certainly have never reported them. WHY? Perhaps it’s because it would have killed the public support system that you and others have created. I ask you this question: Is it fair to leave crucial details out (intentionally or accidentally) when you are spraying information out to people because you know they will water down your agenda that you stand behind? Is leaving crucial details out allowing people to form an accurate perception of what happened? NO! It’s misleading.
When you stand for equal justice, you show that you attempt to look past bias (sometimes your own innate bias driven by nature/nurture) and show that you want everything to be fair. When you and others left these critical details out (mentioned in the eye witness statements and other places), you did not stand for equality & fairness. You stood for an agenda that was so important to you that fairness and equality took a backseat.
What you have been examining for so long, what the media has largely left out, is now online. The eye witness statements are here (http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/003979.html). These are the original eye witness statements for all the incidents in Jena available at the courthouse. People can actually read the truth and make their own conclusions. They can read what you read and actually get the information that you and others have conveniently ignored.
I’ve given this link to many people, including Dr. Ogletree and others who were in Congress discussing the Jena 6. I’ve also sent the link to Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil. Maybe this is why Opera hasn’t taken up the cause? I hope so. Oprah understands that we should back valid causes instead of repeat violent offenders.
Racial activists have made a mistake by making Mychal Bell their beacon of hope for the new civil rights movement. He is a repeat offender that needs help. Hopefully the Masonic Children’s Home will be helpful to him. If racial activists really wanted to create a civil rights movement, they should have chosen a victim instead of a perpetrator.
You can write me off as another “racist Jena person”, but judging by your posts, it sounds to me as if you’ve spoken to NOBODY in this town except for the Jena 6 and their families. I have black friends here and most of them WANT these guys to be punished because most of these guys have been a nuisance from Day 1.
You haven’t represented Jena.
You haven’t represented the black community in Jena.
You haven’t represented the truth.
All you have represented is the story of the Jena 6 told through the eyes of their families.
I commend you for wanting to fight for equal rights. I will join YOU and ANYONE in the investigation on racist DAs who prosecute based on race. Anyone who does this should be disbarred. I would like an investigation on Walters. If he has been doing this, he should be disbarred. I apologize for being so critical of you. I’m not angered at your overall intentions, just your careless way of getting the Jena 6 story out.
Join me in hoping that the public sees the truth in this case, not skewed facts and outdated information. After all, truth is a part of the whole “equality” structure that you and me both strive for.
Friends from Jena:
I welcome your input. I assure you that my “way of getting the Jena 6 story out” was far from careless. Before I breathed a word about Jena to the media, I spent an hour and a half with Craig and Sammy Franklin, giving them ample opportunity to give me their side of the story. I also chatted with several other prominent members of the white community. I was probably the first person, apart from local officials, to view the eye witness statements–they were part of Mychal Bell’s file. If I express uncertainty about Mr. Bell’s guilt it is because the eyewitness statements are all over the board (as eye witness statements generally are). I have even made the statements to journalists who expressed an interest. They have been online for months now.
I’m sure that, from your perspective, “the truth” and Craig Franklin’s account of the facts are one and the same. I have no personal beef with Mr. Franklin–he and his father run one of the best small town newspapers I have ever read. But his version of the Jena story is unconvincing, strained, and frequently bizarre. Check out some of my earlier posts if you want to know why I feel this way.
When the only folks rallying to your cause are obscure sports columnists and white supremacists you have a serious PR problem. Mr. Franklin needs to solicit statements from civic leaders denouncing the hate groups who seem poised to descend on your community in January. There won’t be many of them on hand (there never are), but they will attract more than their fair share of media attention.
In addition, the Franklins both need to write editorials denouncing the tenets of white supremacy. If they don’t, the world will draw its own conclusions.
Finally, I did not get my facts simply from the families of the Jena 6. I spoke to dozens of people in the black community, read every published story on the noose incident, the school fire, and the events of December 4, 2006. Finally, I read everything on file at the courthouse. If you feel that Craig Franklin disconnected my dots, that’s fine. Unfortunately, most journalists will check things out for themselves. Good reporters won’t write a story on the say-so of folks like Craig Franklin and Alan Bean. I alerted the media to this story; but the facts on the ground speak for themselves.
When will F.O.J. believe the truth…
M.B. admitted to the crime, but now y’all are saying he did it because he is innocent.
I will repeat what has been said….
“You haven’t represented Jena.”
“You haven’t represented the black community in Jena.”
“You haven’t represented the truth.”
“All you have represented is the story of the Jena 6 told through the eyes of their families.”
Mychal Bell admitted to the crime, true. If you think that necessarily means he did the deed your don’t understand the way the American plea system works. Don’t take that to mean I think Mychal is innocent. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other on that subject–I wasn’t there. In the eyes of the law he is guilty; that is the important fact. This means that Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Jesse Ray Beard didn’t deliver the knockout punch. Of course Friends of Justice hasn’t represented the black community in Jena–who has? You, perhaps? And I certainly haven’t attempted to “represent Jena”; that’s Craig Franklin’s role and he has played it very well. I have represented the truth as I understand it. I am not the mouthpiece for the Jena 6 families any more than the media is my mouthpiece. We all do the best we can. If these cases go to trial more “truth” will emerge. If they don’t go to trial we will all have to live with educated guesses.