The Dunklin County prosecuting attorney has stepped aside in a criminal case with racial overtones, and Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle has been appointed as special prosecutor.
Swingle has been asked to prosecute Kennett resident Heather Ellis. In an incident at the Kennett Walmart in 2007, Ellis was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault on a law enforcement officer, a count of misdemeanor peace disturbance and a count of misdemeanor resisting arrest.
A scuffle broke out in a checkout line at the store after she was accused of cutting in line.
Ellis’ attorney filed a motion Nov. 2 requesting Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Sokoloff to recuse himself from the case.
Sokoloff was accused by Ellis’ lawyers of "making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused."
On Thursday, Judge Joe Satterfield denied the request, saying there was no legal basis for it.
According to the defense motion, Sokoloff replied to a story about the case written by Michael I. Niman of Progressive Populist, a twice-monthly publication.
New prosecutor in Heather Ellis case has a picture of Confederate flag on the cover of his book. Should we be concerned?
http://yourblackpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/heather-ellis-trial-new-prosecutor-has-confederate-flag-on-his-book-cover/
Leaving aside anything having to do with the amount of melatonin in Miss Ellis’ skin…
1. Regardless of whether her line was moving slower than the line that her cousin was in, she was rude. Even kindergarteners are taught to take their turns.
2. Americans, no matter what color their skin is, feel entitled to things for which they have no entitlement. Ergo…special treatment. Miss Ellis deserved no special treatment in comparison to those shoppers who were standing in line behind the cousin.
3. Because Miss Ellis deserved no special treatment, she was asked to leave. It doesn’t seem to me to have a darn thing to do with her skin tones.
After reading about this case, I can’t see that Miss Ellis has acted with anything other than a complete lack of respect for others or common sense. If she turned down lesser charges in order to make some point about race, then she’s pretty much gotten what she asked for.
Dr. King wanted equal rights & treatment under the law…not special rights & treatment under the law.
I am not signing up for this newsletter and am appalled that you have such a website. You are propagating racial division and hatred by trumpeting “black power, black slavery” etc. I was equally chagrined by your support of Heather Ellis in Louisianna going so far as to organize a racially charged rally to support someone who obviously was either so upset and disoriented as to not remember her own actions and the circumstances of the events which transpired in Kennett MO or was and continues to be a congenital liar. This is not the 1950s and 1960s – Ms. Ellis’ fellow shoppers (witnesses) and the Kennett police force didn’t rise up in some spontaneous lynch mob to all conspire against her and have her arrested. Perhaps you haven’t been to the Walmart I have frequented and seen the black women who are either ignorant of common courtesy or feel entitled to demand preferential treatment and bring full shopping carts with 50 or 60 items into the 20 Items or Less Express Lane. Although I was not in the Kennett Walmart that day, the police and witnesses accounts seem much more plausible than her weak excuse for her misbehaviour and rudeness. If you want to be legitimate, don’t support racially biased causes and bigots and criminals.
Well, Katie and Stuart, last time I heard, the penalty for being rude is not having the police called and getting arrested. If that were the case, then most of the white women who shop in upscale stores would be arrested on a daily basis. Oh, Stuart, so you never saw a white person with more than 20 items in a 20 item or less line? Get REAL! White women in particular are the most arrogant, rude shoppers in the WORLD, not just the United States. Just ask anyone from Europe.