Judge Vonda Evans whole speech when sentencing cop Williams who assaulted black man, Floyd Dent
Prior to joining the court, Evans served as an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County from 1990 to 1996.
Judge Vonda Evans is a shining example of what our Criminal Justice system should be about.
Below are videos to give you and idea of what kind of human this beautiful woman is from the core.
Police Celebrate & Joke After Allegedly Beating Floyd Dent At Traffic Stop
(ROBOCOP) WILLIAM MELENDEZ TRIAL- VERDICT
Judge Vonda Evans Hands Down Just Sentence To Abusive Cop
(Entire Sentencing)
http://thingsthatsuck.info - Judge Vonda Evans gets my vote for actually giving out an undeterred, unbias sentence. Former police officer William Melendez is just a spec of what kind of sh*t we have to go through. And look how long it takes. Had that been a white jury of no peers, as it often is, William Melendez would have been set free.
William "Robocop" Melendez Trial Day 2 (Floyd Dent on the Stand) 11/05/15
William "Robocop" Melendez Trial Day 3 Part 1 11/09/15
Below is an article which updates the William "Robocop" Melendez case and shows that while Judge Vonda Evans served justice, she was more than fair. This disgraced police officer has been involved in prior criminal activities with other police officers. Despite this prosecutors should have really insisted on more time and pursued charges against the other officers involved as well their resignations and two investigations of the entire police department on a federal and state level.
Imprisoned officer known as 'Robocop' to be paroled this week
By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
January 23, 2017 at 2:25 PM, updated January 23, 2017 at 2:58 PM
Former Inkster police officer William Melendez at his Feb. 2, 2016 sentencing hearing in Wayne County Circuit Court. Melendez was convicted of beating 58-year-old Floyd Dent in a January 2015 traffic stop. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive)
William Melendez, a former police officer imprisoned for his involvement in a violent, videotaped assault of a motorist, is set to be released on parole this week.
Jailed since his conviction on a charge of assault with intent to cause great bodily harm in November 2015 -- a jury found him not guilty of strangulation -- Melendez, 48, will no longer be able to work in law enforcement or possess a gun.
Melendez, who earned the nickname "Robocop" for his aggressive policing, choked and punched motorist Floyd Dent 16 times after ripping Dent out of his car during a traffic stop on Jan. 28, 2015.
Several months later, dash-cam video of the arrest emerged and led to Melendez being suspended and later fired.
Police accused Dent, who was bloodied and later hospitalized for his injuries, of cocaine possession and resisting arrest. All of the charges were eventually dismissed. Dent's attorney, Gregory Rohl, and Dent claimed Melendez planted cocaine after the traffic stop; however, tests following the arrest showed Dent had cocaine in his system.
In an unusual move, Inkster quickly settled the civil lawsuit with Dent for nearly $1.4 million, well before the criminal case involving Melendez had been resolved.
Michigan Department of Corrections records obtained by MLive through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate Melendez owns a cleaning business and a private security company in Novi that he plans to return to after his release.
Numerous people submitted letters of support for Melendez when he came up for a Parole Board review last August.
Supporters included retired Detroit Police Commander Charles Barbieri; who offered Melendez employment at his bar, Pappy's Pub, in Lachine upon his release; friend and Detroit Police Officer Association union President Mark Diaz; and Inkster Police Officer Phillip Randazzo, who is seen kicking Dent in the police video that helped convict Melendez.
The Michigan Parole Board reviewed dozens of awards Melendez received throughout his career, including for saving the lives of multiple elderly residents carried from a burning apartment in 2015.
MDOC records obtained by MLive indicate Melendez committed no violations while in jail and was considered a good prisoner who followed the rules with respect, but case summaries indicate he was still trying to justify his actions against Dent.
"Mr. Melendez has no idea why he assaulted and seriously injured a citizen that posed no threat to him or his partner," says a report from last August. "His lack of understanding of his criminal behavior leads me to doubt his statement that something like this will never happen again."
Melendez received a sentence of 13 months to 10 years. He's expected to be released Tuesday, at which time he'll have served more than 14 months.
Melendez last year was placed in a boot-camp program that upon completion would have allowed for the his early release, but Wayne Circuit Judge Vonda Evans, after learning he'd been placed in the program, intervened to have Melendez removed.
For his protection, Melendez spent the majority of his prison time at Ionia's Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in protective custody segregated from the general prison population.
Reports say Melendez expressed remorse for injuring Dent and admitted to conducting himself "poorly," but also include reasons Melendez gave for his action.
He said Dent had his hand under the seat, leading him to believe there could be weapon, and threatened to kill Melendez once the struggle began.
"He claims he assaulted the victim because he was trying to protect fellow officers and in accordance with Inkster police protocol," a case summary report from October says.
Upon release, Melendez plans to live with his wife, whom he married in June 2015, and her son, according to MDOC records.
His security business generates nearly $100,000 per year, and Melendez has a fully vested Detroit Police Department pension that will begin paying out when he turns 62.
Melendez has been involved in numerous prior lawsuits alleging civil rights violations.
In an open federal lawsuit stemming from a July 26, 2011 raid in Inkster, DeShawn Acklin sued the city and seven officers, including Melendez. Acklin claims he visited a home targeted in a raid conducted by police. Acklin was using the bathroom when police "barged into the house," the complaint says.
The lawsuit says Acklin complied with officers' orders, dropped to the floor and was subsequently choked and beaten unconscious. Inkster police detained Acklin for three days before releasing him from jail. He was never charged with any crimes.
According to a consent agreement, the city planned to tax Inkster residents to raise $100,000 for a settlement in that case.
DeShawn Acklin V. Inkster, Melendez.pdf
Another lawsuit naming Melendez involved the killing of Ernest Crutchfield II. The lawsuit, filed by the victim's son and eventually settled by Detroit for $50,000, claimed Melendez and other officers raided Crutchfield's home in November 2003 without a warrant and fatally shot the man.
Melendez was indicted along with 16 fellow Detroit police officers in 2003 stemming from claims they planted evidence, falsified reports and stole cash and property from suspects. A jury acquitted the officers in that case.
See Melendez's MDOC file that was released to MLive:
William Melendez MDOC docs by MLive.com on Scribd
Interview with Vonda Evans WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel 7
Judge Vonda Evans 09/10/16 (Dick Gregory Interview!)
910 AM Radio Superstation
***********************************************
Judge Vonda Evans roasts Bob Bashara before issuing life prison sentence
By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
on January 15, 2015 at 4:18 PM, updated January 15, 2015 at 4:44 PM
DETROIT, MI -- Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans, who is not shy to speak her mind, on Thursday condemned Grosse Pointe Park's Robert Bashara, 57, before sentencing him to life in prison for the first-degree murder of his wife on Jan. 24, 2012.
Before giving her pre-sentencing statement, she chastised defense attorney Lillian Diallo, who said, "good grief," when Bashara asked to present four independent motions from behind the podium.
"Good grief" is not a legal term, Evans said roughly.
When Bashara cupped a hand to his ear and asked Evans to repeat something she'd just said, Evans shouted the sentence back at Bashara a second time.
And before proceeding with the sentencing, after a recess Evans ordered in order for Bashara to have time to review the sentencing report, she lectured the media, saying her decision was based on Constitutional necessity and any reporter who had someplace else to be was free to stand up and walk out.
It is not clear what prompted this address to the more than a doze media members.
But she saved the most biting words for Bashara, just moments before she deprived him of freedom for the remainder of his life.
Here are some highlights:
- You were a product of privilege ... (your mother) loved you, but she did not know how to train you to be a man. There were no boundaries, no expectations. You were not allowed to fail, and failure teaches us more about life than all the successes combined.
- They say, you give a man a fish, you'll feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he'll never go hungry. You were never taught to fish.
- Your job was to do you and make you happy ... to be the life of the party. While your wife was working, you and your friend were at Lochmoor, one of the most prestigious golf courses, smoking weed and doing cocaine. When he asked you how life was, you said, 'I'm living the dream.'
- They say an idle mind is the Devil's workshop. While you main slave, your wife, who bore you two beautiful children, was required to work 12-hour days, and after 20 years required to return to the workforce to maintain a fantasy life that you were allowed to lead you were free to sharpen your manipulative skill by being involved in the BDSM lifestyle.
- (BDSM) was your arsenal to prey on vulnerable women ... and you used it to torture your victims, mentally and physically (her voice gets louder), Master Bob, jack of manipulation.
- When your victims put their guards down, trusted you, you sucked them emotionally like a vampire ...
- You words and demeanor were your scalpel, which you used with experience and precision to take from women ... sex, love, attendance, self worth ... When you were done ... they were nothing more than a gutted animal that you used and discarded. No one was off limits to you.
- You were a modern-day Trojan House, a delight on the outside, evil inside.
- Jane was physically destroyed on January 24, 2012, but she was mentally and emotionally destroyed by you a long time ago.
- You cheated, bringing women to your marital bed while she was away with your children looking for schools for them to attend.
- Your desire to have Rachel was obsessive. You openly conducted this relationship around your family and friends. You told her that this was the last Christmas you will spend with Jane, you caused a mentally challenged man, Joe Gentz, with a car and money, to murder your wife.
- According to the medical examiner, her windpipe was broken .. Orchestrated by her husband, which she loved and adored. I can only imaging the heartbreak she felt to know that the man who took a vow to protect her would be the one who would destroy her.
- You took her lifeless body and threw it in the back of her car like garbage, leaving her in a desolate part of Detroit, cold, alone ...
- One of the greatest mistakes you made was to leave Jane in her Mercedes in that staged scene in Detroit, a city plagued by violence ... What they lack in technology, they possess in experience. The hunter was about to be hunted.
- Jane's murder symbolized that violence against women in Wayne County will not be tolerated ...
- You now feel that the world is against you, but you rejected it and you destroyed that with your lies ... You believed you were smarter than God ...
- I have no mercy for you
Upon completion of her often dramatic tongue-lashing and synopsis, Evans quickly read the sentence, mandatory life in prison.
"Take him out, take him out," Evans said as she walked to her chambers.
No comments:
Post a Comment