Victim in Jena Six racial beating case files suit

PR Inside ^ | December 4, 2007 | Staff

[abb]

JENA, Louisiana (AP) - The family of Justin Barker, the victim in the «Jena Six» racial beating case in Louisiana, has filed a civil lawsuit against the local school board, the parents of the six young men accused of beating him and the adult members among the six.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 29 in state district court, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk newspaper reported.

The case and its racial overtones _ sparked by the hanging on campus of nooses, a traditional symbol of lynch mobs _ have attracted the attention of U.S. civil rights leaders, who led a large protest and said the original charges against the Jena Six were too strict.

David and Kelli Barker and their son allege that seven Jena High School students attacked Justin on Dec. 4, 2006, as he walked out of the school's gym. The suit names the attackers as Mychal Bell, Jesse Beard, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones and Robert Bailey Jr., as well as a seventh student who has not been officially named by law enforcement as a part of the attack.

The lawsuit alleges that school employees were not adequately supervising students or maintaining discipline.

The Barkers are asking for a jury trial.

Bell pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor second-degree battery charge and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. The other members of the Jena Six are awaiting court appearances. Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack but was discharged and attended a school event the night after the attack.

[abb]

This just in.

[misterrob]

I say good. Let’s just continue to expose the double standards on these cases.

[zipper]

So does this mean he gets invited to the MTV Music Awards?

[abb]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-04-jena-six_N.htm

[MrB]

Yeah, blacks can’t be racist because they “lack the power to impose their racism”.

Tell this guy that blacks “don’t have any power to impose their racism”.

[MrEdd]

Lest we forget

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Im sure the Black Klux Klan types like Sharpton and Jackson arent happy...wonder if they will show their racist selves in another protest. They seem to love whites getting best up

[scan59]

Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack but was discharged and attended a school event the night after the attack.

I see they're still downplaying his injuries and making it seem like the attack occurred just after the noose incident -- not months after.

[I see my hands]

"nooses"

First the N word and now the N thing.

[MindBender26]

Abb,

Anyone know if Louisiana has Joint or Several liability from civil actions?

If it’s Joint, the School Board can be required to pay the entire judgement if these six all stars and/or their parents can’t.

[abb]

Do not know.

[Verloona Ti]

And according to articles I’ve read, he showed up because he’d been looking forward to it a long time-but had to leave after less than an hour due to the pain he was in.

[Augustinian monk]

Each party is only responsible for their apportioned fault in La.

[massgopguy]

They also made allusions that he was involved in the noose incident. You know, to justify beating the carp out of him.

[Calvin Locke]

...and, he only attended to get an award or some other recognition that he was scheduled to receive at the event.

I'm not familiar with PR Inside, but they could at least get the underlying facts right, not just parrot the shameful coverage of the beating and its aftermath.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

Who’s gonna post the picture of the fine young gentleman with the money in his mouf?

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

I guess I gotta do it myself:

[Tahoe3002]

In 1971, in the Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton, 4-6 black Marines (from Chicago or “Chi-town” as they like to call it), had a disagreement over something with a white Marine. So, brave guys that they were, they waited until the white guy was in the crapper, with his pants around his knees, when they kicked in the door and beat hell out of him. The white Marine required medical attention and was resident at the hospital for a day or two.

My platoon was in the next squadbay, so not involved. The thing is, our platoon was 100% reservists, and 100% from the south. Even the black guys in our reservist platoon were PO’d. The Chicago bros NEVER crossed with us.

[Altura Ct.]

But we are supposed to excuse it all away because he:

A. Didn’t die.
B. Went to a ring ceremony
C. He is white.

[abb]

www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/chi-jena_bdnov11,0,6545985.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

chicagotribune.com
NATION
What of the Jena 6 funds?
Questions grow over use of donations made to aid teens’ defense
By Howard Witt

Tribune senior correspondent

November 11, 2007

HOUSTON

Just weeks after some 20,000 demonstrators protested what they decried as unequal justice aimed at six black teenagers in the Louisiana town of Jena, controversy is growing over the accounting and disbursing of at least $500,000 donated to pay for the teenagers’ legal defense.

Parents of the “Jena 6” teens have refused to publicly account for how they are spending a large portion of the cash, estimated at up to $250,000, that resides in a bank account they control.

Michael Baisden, a nationally syndicated black radio host who is leading a major fundraising drive on behalf of the Jena 6, has declined to reveal how much he has collected. Attorneys for the first defendant to go to trial, Mychal Bell, say they have yet to receive any money from him.

Meanwhile, photos and videos are circulating across the Internet that raise questions about how the donated money is being spent. One photo shows Robert Bailey, one of the Jena 6 defendants, smiling and posing with $100 bills stuffed in his mouth. Another shows defendants Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis modeling like rap stars at the Black Entertainment Television Hip-Hop music awards last month in Atlanta.

The teenagers’ parents have strongly denied that they have misused any of the donated money. Bailey’s mother, for example, insisted that the $100 bills shown in the photograph were cash her son had earned as a park maintenance worker.

But civil rights leaders who helped organize support for the youths say they are concerned about the perceptions that are spreading.

“There are definitely questions out there about the money,” said Alan Bean, director of a Texas-based group, Friends of Justice, who was the first civil rights activist to investigate the Jena 6 case. “I hate to even address this issue because it inevitably will raise questions as to all of the money that has been raised, and that is going to hurt the defendants.”

Only one national civil rights group, Color of Change, has fully disclosed how the $212,000 it collected for the Jena 6 via a massive Internet campaign has been distributed. The grass-roots group, which has nearly 400,000 members, has posted images of canceled checks and other signed documents on its Web site showing that all but $1,230 was paid out in October in roughly equal amounts to attorneys for the Jena youths.

snip