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AN INCREDIBLE SISTA, AN ENORMOUS EFFORT!!
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JUANITA YOUNG SUPPORT COMMITTEE
supportjuanitayoung@gmail.com (mailto:supportjuanitayoung@gmail.com) MySpace.com - juanita - 53 - Female - BRONX, New York - www.myspace.com/juanita_young (http://www.myspace.com/juanita_young)
• Bronx Activist Grandmother Who Was Attacked By Police
Wins Victory Against D.A. and NYPD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On October 17, 2008, after two and a half hours of deliberations, a jury of three women and three men returned a resounding NOT GUILTY verdict on all six charges leveled against Bronx resident Juanita Young.
For four days, the jury heard vastly contradictory testimony from three police officers, an EMT, Young, and her neighbor about an incident that occurred on November 26, 2006, when a 911 call was made for assistance for Young's teenage daughter, who has had emotional trauma since her brother Malcolm Ferguson was killed by police in 2000. Police asserted Juanita Young assaulted them and prevented them from doing their job. But, when Young took the stand, she revealed to the jury her years of continual harassment by the police due to her ceaseless activism to get justice for her slain son. She told the court that what happened on that cold November night was simply a continuation of that harassment.
The legally blind grandmother, who faced charges of Obstructing Governmental Administration, Criminal Possession of a Weapon, two counts of Attempted Assault, and two counts of Harassment, described up to eight police entering her home and brutally attacking her, then arresting her. As the lawyers had been instructed to relate only what took place up to the arrest, the jury never found out about how Young was taken in handcuffs to Jacobi Hospital, where she was handcuffed to a bed for four days while suffering life-threatening asthma, bruised ribs, and head, leg and back trauma. During that time, lawyers and supporters were given contradictory information as to why Young was being held under such conditions, the charges being changed almost daily. After four days of this cruel treatment, Young, weak and terrorized, was handed a DAT (desk appearance ticket), which spelled out most of the charges that stood throughout her trial.
Juanita Young has been a strong and relentless voice against police brutality since the killing of her son, 23-year old Malcolm Ferguson by plainclothes cop Louis Rivera on March 1, 2000. While the DA and NYPD ruled Ferguson 's death as a "justifiable homicide," last year a Bronx jury awarded Young $10 million in a wrongful death suit (more than her attorneys had asked for). The city is appealing.
Young is also strong in her support of other families whose loved ones have died at the hands of the NYPD, joining with other families in Parents Against Police Brutality and through her work with The October 22 Coalition and The Justice Committee. But, this has made her a hated target of the NYPD, especially the Bronx 's 43rd Precinct.
Since Malcolm's murder, Young and her kids have been harassed, arrested and, in some cases, brutalized. In 2003, during the course of an illegal eviction from her home of six years, police pushed the handcuffed woman, causing her to stumble down the stairs and fracture her wrist. She was told by one of the cops, "No rallies for you today," and then held for 35 hours. Charged with "criminal trespassing" and refusing to accept an ACD (adjournment contemplating dismissal), Young was acquitted of all charges at a bench trial. Young then brought suit against the NYPD and won, with the jury awarding her $1.35 million, which the City is also appealing.
Next, in 2005 she was arrested for "disorderly conduct" during a World Can't Wait rally in NYC, after asking police why they had thrown another protester to the ground. Refused medical attention while she was having an asthma attack under police custody and then hospitalized for three days, she later received a notice in the mail informing her that the charges had been dropped.
During this last case, once again police attempted character assassination and intimidation to justify their years of attacking Juanita and her family and to silence this powerful voice against police brutality. And, once again, truth won out and their blatant lies were impossible to ignore.
The Juanita Young Support Committee would like to thank the jury for seeing past the fabrications, Judge Clancy for being fair and impartial in the proceedings, Juanita's amazing lawyers Geoffrey Stewart and David Rankin, and all those who supported Juanita through this ordeal, coming to court, getting the word out, writing letters to the DA, etc.
A statement from Juanita Young follows:
I want to express my sincere gratitude to the jury for their thoughtful and just verdict. The panel acquitted me on all of the bogus charges, sending a strong message to law enforcement that the intimidation and brutalization of citizens will not stand. As a parent of a child wrongly murdered by police, I have paid a heavy price for speaking out against police abuse. But I will not be silenced. Until people can walk the streets without fear of rogue police, I will continue to advocate on behalf of stolen lives.
BlackNificent news! Meda ase for sharing with the rest of the fam as always!:)
Obadele