See that bitch in the back hugging her thug son? Yeah.. That's Gwen Moore! The proud member of the House of Representatives for MIlwaukee!http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan06/386498.asp
ON WISCONSIN : JS ONLINE : NEWS : MILWAUKEE : E-MAIL | PRINT THIS STORY
Sudden plea deals in tire-slashing case
By DERRICK NUNNALLY
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 20, 2006
In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire-slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors.
The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction. The fifth defendant in the case was acquitted by the jury later in the afternoon.
Michael Pratt, 33, Sowande Omokunde, 26, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, and Lavelle Mohammad, 36, have all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property. Omokunde is Moore's son.
Prosecutors will recommend probation sentences as part of the deal, and that the four together pay $5,317 in restitution for the damaged tires.
The surprise resolution was offered by prosecutors at 2 p.m., nearly 7 hours into deliberations and an hour after a jury note complained of an impasse.
Defendant Justin Howell, 21, was the only one of the five charged not included in the deal. The jury later found him not guilty of the felony charge.
A note this morning from the jury to the judge about the verdict forms had hinted it was considering at least some convictions in the case, but the jury did not return a verdict before breaking for lunch.
Then around 1 p.m., the jury sent a second note suggesting they could not reach a verdict. “We have people that are adamant about their decision and are not budging. We don’t know what to do,” the note read in part.
Defense attorneys immediately requested a mistrial, which Circuit Judge Michael Brennan denied. He doubted that the jury was intractably hung, since testimony lasted close to seven court days and deliberations had only been going about six hours.
“That’s (an) insufficient amount of time to declare a mistrial,” Brennan said, and ordered the jury to continue deliberating.
Less than an hour later, news of the plea deals emerged.
Complete coverage of this story will appear online later today and in the Milwuakee Journal Sentinel in the morning
Defendant Sowande Omokunde, son of Congresswoman Gwen Moore (back), is hugged by Malika Williams, a family friend who lived with them as a young child, following the trial for five men accused of slashing tires on election day 2004. Four of the five defendents had their original charges plea bargained to misdemeanor criminal damage to property and party to a crime.
Tell me if these kids would have been white how much national press it would get! It would blow Natalie Holloway out of the water!
WHY DO DEMOCRATS KEEP MAKING ME HATE THEM MORE AND MORE?????????????????????????????
