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New trash from Cash...

http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=706aabb4d17ad96af197074ce5e740ba&threadid=271963
CASH, and the ship I'm on!

javascript:smilie('')Everyone take a deep breath, please!

Yes, this is me. I've always had a membership on this board, and have been asked many times in the past to log on and weigh in, but I just didn't have the time.

I still don't, but for now, here i am.

So that you don't go off believing this stuff about me "jumping ship," let me make you aware of the ship I was always on -

The Black community was told that a brutal crime was committed against someone in our community. The police and District Attorney left no doubt that a crime had been committed. In their public pronouncements and official applications to the court, they cited "evidence" (medical report, etc.) to back up their claims.

Now, today, exactly five months to the day of the alleged crime, the Black Press is asking, "WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?"

Chief Chalmers still insists that his investigators have done their jobs, and we will see the fruits of that at trial. But based on what the record shows thus far, given a sober, unbiased analysis of press accounts and what is now in the public domain regarding the 1800 pages of discovery evidence (we were not offered, nor did we ever have access to those documents), it is clear that the African-American community, and certainly everyone who supported the alleged victim early on, based on the assurances of law enforcement and D.A. Nifong, is deserving of a full explanation of these discrepancies, a few of which are outlined in my story (which was actually finished and distributed nationally a week ago BEFORE I got on the abc11tv forum).

Though I did share Chief Chalmers remarks on the TVD site, since he made them in answer to a question I submitted for the TV show i appear on, i could not talk about my story until the Journal posted it, and I had no idea when that would happen given that folks were out on vacation, plus I'm learning now, some computer problems they ran into.

So why the so-called "shift?" Because it isn't a shift. It is a DEMAND of the criminal justice process to be immediately accountable as to what is going on, and where is the evidence of a crime you insist you have.

As a reporter on this case, that has been my charge since the beginning - to monitor the process, and make sure that it is working. And if it isn't, ask tough questions why.

(My other charge has been to expose those who sought to destroy the alleged victim long before a trial, or conclusive judge's ruling, was had.)

That's what my story does, in the context of Chief Chalmers' most recent answer.

The Black community is not blind, or blinded. We want the truth too. But instead of distilling this case in bits and pieces, which is what the media in general have done (to their detriment), we look at it in context and much more deliberately, so that when we do publish a story like this one, EVERYONE knows we're about business.

Let me put this even more bluntly - if the state can't prove its case, which is what it promised (overpromised really), then it needs to be dismissed, because no one likes to be lied to.

Especially a community to whom fairness and justice in the criminal justice system has been few and far between.

Right now, I'm not planning to write anything this week (actually i might go after my friend Juan Williams and his new book), but next week, everybody's scheduled to be back in court.

As I write this message, the producers for Imhotep Gary Byrd's radio program on WLIB-AM in New York just booked me for an interview at 12:15 tonight - thanks to the story being published in the Amsterdam News there, so those who can listen in, are invited to.

So nothing's changed here. We just want answers.

Sincerely,

Cash Michaels
The Carolinian/Wilmington Journal newspapers
(rez and Harley's best friend - yeah right!)