Deputy Levoular McCray is Shit of Luck on Justice

[WaTcHeR]

04/26/2006 - A Fulton County sheriff's deputy who claims she was assaulted by District Attorney Paul Howard last month is determined to have him arrested.

But on Wednesday, the attorney for Deputy Levoular McCray had no luck finding a judge to sign an arrest warrant for Howard.

On Tuesday, Fulton County Chief Magistrate Judge Joann Bayneum dismissed the deputy's application for an arrest warrant without a hearing and instead referred the case to the Attorney General.

Levoular's attorney, Dennis Scheib, said the process should not be this complicated.

"If a deputy was to go before a judge and say this person did this to me, a judge would sign a warrant," Scheib said. "But because it's Paul Howard, the district attorney, nobody wants to touch it."

McCray was still wearing a sling on Wednesday and remains on sick leave.

She declined to comment to reporters. Her attorney said it would be a violation of sheriff's department rules if Deputy McCray talks.

Deputy McCray claims that she suffered a dislocated shoulder during a scuffle with D.A. Howard on March 31.

The alleged incident took place after Judge T. Jackson Bedford ordered the district attorney to stop questioning jurors who returned a not guilty verdict in a rape case. When Howard continued to poll the jury, the judge ordered some deputies to remove Howard from the courtroom.

Deputy McCray claims Howard resisted, striking her and dislocating her shoulder. The district attorney issued a written statement denying that he hit anyone. At least one juror and a defense attorney backed Howard's version of the events.

But an attorney for the deputy said he has medical proof of the dislocated shoulder and adds that Howard assaulted the deputy a second time in a holding room after he was escorted from the courtroom.

Earlier this month, Deputy McCray filed an application for an arrest warrant hearing, but Judge Bayneum ruled that Georgia law excludes law enforcement officers from using the warrant application process, which is designed for private citizens.

[WaTcHeR]

Deputy Levoular McCray either has some balls to try that or she's really ignorant to expect a judge to piss off the D.A..

[WaTcHeR]

04/29/2006 - Special prosecutor tosses warrant for DA

By HARRY R. WEBER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ATLANTA -- A felony arrest warrant was thrown out Friday against Fulton County's district attorney, accused of injuring a deputy in a courtroom altercation, but a newly appointed special prosecutor promised that the allegations would be thoroughly investigated.

The special prosecutor, Richmond County District Attorney Danny Craig, threw out the warrant against Paul Howard. Earlier Friday, the warrant had been suspended by the judge who issued it a day earlier.

Craig said he dismissed the warrant on charges of felony battery and obstruction of a law enforcement officer because the state attorney general's office had not been notified before it was issued. That office assigned Craig to the case Friday.

Craig vowed to get to the bottom of what happened between Howard and Fulton sheriff's deputy Levoular McCray, who says Howard injured her shoulder March 31.

"This is something that could certainly be possibly presented to a grand jury," Craig said Friday at a news conference.

Howard, who has been district attorney for the county that includes the city of Atlanta since 1997, vigorously denies the accusations and says he has no intention of resigning

"My hope is that he will investigate, he will look very carefully at what happened," Howard said of Craig in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. "I hope once that happens, attention ought to be turned to the folks that are doing this. It is mighty strange."

The March 31 incident stemmed from a judge's order keeping Howard out of a debriefing where prosecutors and defense attorneys were questioning jurors about their decision to acquit a defendant of rape charges. When Howard failed to comply, Judge T. Jackson Bedford told deputies to take him into a detention cell.

According to incident reports, Howard resisted, and while waving his arms, injured the deputy's shoulder. Howard pushed her against a wall as he tried to return to the courtroom, the reports said.

Howard said Friday that Bedford has made things difficult for him in the past, and that the episode should have never escalated the way it did. His attorneys claim McCray had complained of shoulder discomfort prior to the altercation.