Post by KC on Aug 7, 2006 22:16:51 GMT -5
August 07, 2006 - A federal appeals court has scheduled arguments for Sept. 5 in an appeal by former Jackson police Officer Maceo Simmons of his conviction of civil rights charges stemming from a 1999 sexual assault.
The appeal was among several announced by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
In the Jackson case, the victim, then 19, said Simmons stopped her in traffic Sept. 19, 1999. She said Simmons then took her in his patrol car to a remote spot and sexually assaulted her while a second officer acted as a lookout, according to the court record.
The woman said she waited a year before filing a report because she was scared.
Simmons and Officer Thomas Catchings were arrested in December 2000 and placed on administrative leave without pay. The two were acquitted in state court in 2001.
Simmons was convicted in March 1, 2005, in federal court in Jackson on a charge that he had committed the assault while acting under the color of law. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Catchings, a Jackson motorcycle officer who was fatally shot March 17, 2005, was granted immunity and testified against Simmons in the federal trial.
The 5th Circuit also has scheduled arguments for Sept. 7 in the case of a former Georgia politician convicted in 2004 of defrauding elderly blacks by charging them a fee to pursue tax credits and other phony reparations from the U.S. Treasury.
Morris James Sr., president of the Montezuma, Ga.-based National Resource Information Center, was convicted in federal court in Oxford and sentenced to six years in prison.
The center claimed to sell information to promote education, growth and success and to help enhance communities. A federal jury found that James and his center defrauded victims of $431,000.
Federal prosecutors said James appeared before church groups and other organizations and led people to believe they are entitled to money from the U.S. Treasury because of a legal action called the Black Farmers Class Action lawsuit.
He led blacks to believe they were entitled to refunds of tax payments based on a Black Tax Rebellion, Black Heritage Tax or a Black Inheritance Tax credit, none of which is a legitimate program of the U.S. government, according to the court record.
Prosecutors said several black residents of Mississippi complained to authorities that they paid a James representative to prepare their federal tax returns claiming the black heritage tax credit. No such credit exists.
James has been an agricultural activist and was an unsuccessful candidate for Georgia governor in 1998.
Also on Sept. 7, the 5th Circuit will hear the appeal from strip-club developers Weldon Frommeyer and Kirk Ladner, whose lawsuit challenging Hancock County's permit process and new adult entertainment regulations was dismissed in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled for the county in the dispute.
The county's nine zoning districts were established under a 1997 ordinance, which included more than 80 ways to legally use land. There was no mention of strip clubs, meaning the county would need to make a "special exception" before issuing a building permit.
In 2004, Frommeyer and Ladner sought building applications under the special exception provision. They sued the county contending that before the two strip club proposals the county did not have specific ordinances regulating adult entertainment.
Nearly four months after the applications were filed, supervisors adopted an ordinance regulating how the clubs can operate and another prohibiting alcohol in businesses where employees are exposing "anatomical areas" or engaging in "sexual activities."
Despite another ordinance adopted several months later, allowing adult entertainment in specially zoned areas, Frommeyer and Ladner claimed the new how-to-operate rules made doing business in Hancock County nearly impossible for strip clubs.
www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060807/NEWS/60807010
The appeal was among several announced by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
In the Jackson case, the victim, then 19, said Simmons stopped her in traffic Sept. 19, 1999. She said Simmons then took her in his patrol car to a remote spot and sexually assaulted her while a second officer acted as a lookout, according to the court record.
The woman said she waited a year before filing a report because she was scared.
Simmons and Officer Thomas Catchings were arrested in December 2000 and placed on administrative leave without pay. The two were acquitted in state court in 2001.
Simmons was convicted in March 1, 2005, in federal court in Jackson on a charge that he had committed the assault while acting under the color of law. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Catchings, a Jackson motorcycle officer who was fatally shot March 17, 2005, was granted immunity and testified against Simmons in the federal trial.
The 5th Circuit also has scheduled arguments for Sept. 7 in the case of a former Georgia politician convicted in 2004 of defrauding elderly blacks by charging them a fee to pursue tax credits and other phony reparations from the U.S. Treasury.
Morris James Sr., president of the Montezuma, Ga.-based National Resource Information Center, was convicted in federal court in Oxford and sentenced to six years in prison.
The center claimed to sell information to promote education, growth and success and to help enhance communities. A federal jury found that James and his center defrauded victims of $431,000.
Federal prosecutors said James appeared before church groups and other organizations and led people to believe they are entitled to money from the U.S. Treasury because of a legal action called the Black Farmers Class Action lawsuit.
He led blacks to believe they were entitled to refunds of tax payments based on a Black Tax Rebellion, Black Heritage Tax or a Black Inheritance Tax credit, none of which is a legitimate program of the U.S. government, according to the court record.
Prosecutors said several black residents of Mississippi complained to authorities that they paid a James representative to prepare their federal tax returns claiming the black heritage tax credit. No such credit exists.
James has been an agricultural activist and was an unsuccessful candidate for Georgia governor in 1998.
Also on Sept. 7, the 5th Circuit will hear the appeal from strip-club developers Weldon Frommeyer and Kirk Ladner, whose lawsuit challenging Hancock County's permit process and new adult entertainment regulations was dismissed in 2005.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ruled for the county in the dispute.
The county's nine zoning districts were established under a 1997 ordinance, which included more than 80 ways to legally use land. There was no mention of strip clubs, meaning the county would need to make a "special exception" before issuing a building permit.
In 2004, Frommeyer and Ladner sought building applications under the special exception provision. They sued the county contending that before the two strip club proposals the county did not have specific ordinances regulating adult entertainment.
Nearly four months after the applications were filed, supervisors adopted an ordinance regulating how the clubs can operate and another prohibiting alcohol in businesses where employees are exposing "anatomical areas" or engaging in "sexual activities."
Despite another ordinance adopted several months later, allowing adult entertainment in specially zoned areas, Frommeyer and Ladner claimed the new how-to-operate rules made doing business in Hancock County nearly impossible for strip clubs.
www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060807/NEWS/60807010