Lee Heidhues 9.2.2023

A shameful prosecution against American women who are literally putting their bodies on the line to save planet earth.

Here’s a story buried by the American mainstream media. A pipeline protestor in Minnesota has been convicted for obstructing construction of an environmentally destructive pipeline apparatus. A section of the notorious tar sands oil pipeline was the site of ongoing and rigorous protests in North Dakota.

On January 20, 2021, United States President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office.

On June 9, 2021, the Keystone XL project was abandoned by its developer. At the time of the project’s cancellation, approximately 8% of the pipeline had been constructed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline

Mylene Vialard, 54, was found guilty after a Minnesota trial beset by legal irregularities after protesters efforts to block a fossil fuel pumping station.

Excerpted from The Guardian 9.2.2023

A non-violent environmental activist has been found guilty of felony obstruction for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by legal irregularities which ended with the prosecutor demanding jail time.

“Jury returned a guilty verdict on felony obstruction, following a trial in which the prosecution engaged in repeated, flagrant and intentional misconduct throughout the trial and during closing arguments … the court turned a blind eye to the legal violations of law enforcement and the prosecutor, as well as its own legal errors, at the expense of Ms Vialard’s constitutional rights in this trial,” said Claire Glenn, Vialard’s attorney from the Climate Defense Project.

Mylene Vialard, 54, was arrested in August 2021 after attaching herself to a 25ft bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county, northern Minnesota.

Her arrest was part of a crackdown on non-violent Indigenous-led protests opposing the expansion and rerouting on Line 3 – a 1,097-mile tar sands oil pipeline with a dismal safety record, that crosses more than 200 water bodies from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the US midwest.

“Mylene’s guidelines are presumptive 12 months and a day stayed, meaning the judge is expected to give her 366 days probation. If the prosecutor wants anything more serious than that, there are specific showings he must make to justify that request. But he asked for 366 days executed with no justification, which is illegal for him to do,” Glenn added.

The Aitkin county prosecutor, Garrett Slyva, who is reportedly under investigation for alleged misconduct in North Dakota, has been contacted for comment.

Vialard was among more than a thousand arrests by Minnesota law enforcement – which along with other agencies received at least $8.6m in payments from the Canadian company Enbridge behind Line 3.

Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed including several people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil fuel companies.

Earlier this week, Jill Ferguson, a 70-year-old grandmother from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was found guilty of obstructing legal process (interference with a peace office), a misdemeanor, and sentenced to two days in prison with time served for her role in a protest in July 2021 in Clearwater county.

“I am guilty,” Ferguson told the Guardian. “Guilty of protecting the headwaters of the Mississippi river, so this is a badge of honor.”

Ferguson suffered a concussion during the arrest, and continues to experience chronic physical and psychological effects from the trauma

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/02/mylene-vialard-us-pipeline-protester-convicted

Top photo: Minnesota cops detain protesters – Summer 2021

Lee Heidhues 9.1.2023

When does a late night memorial for a senseless murder in the outer reaches of San Francisco turn into a political event? When there is an upcoming election for a seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Thursday night a large crowd gathered at the Richmond Market on Balboa and 41st Avenue to pay its respects to Yohannes “John” Tewolke who was murdered by a shoplifter a week earlier. The suspect is still at large.

The mainstream media is playing the story of the memorial service straight. Talking about the murder and its devastating personal impact on the family, friends and neighbors there is another component.

The vigil was moderated by Drew Min, who in the view of some is a political operative supporting a more law and order agenda in the politically diverse Richmond District.

Min told the crowd, “This (the murder) is going to be a turning point.”

One of the speakers, Marjan Philhour, is a district resident and one time candidate for Supervisor. She was Mayor London Breed’s senior advisor after she became Mayor in 2018. It is expected Philhour will challenge incumbent Supervisor Connie Chan in 2024 to whom she lost in 2020 by 125 votes.

Supervisor Chan was at the gathering but did not speak. One of her associates told me the Supervisor, “felt it not her place to say anything.”

Philhour was one of the first to speak and told the gathering the murder of Yohannes Tewolke was. “a terrible thing which shouldn’t have happened in our neighborhood.”

Several people in attendance thought Philhour’s comments were distasteful and too political. Words such as “awful” and “crass” were used in describing her comments.

One person who was there asked, “Why was she (Marjan) the first person to speak?”

I spoke with Marjan about her appearance. She has been a long time customer at Richmond Market.

When I apprised Marjan of the negative comments directed her way she responded, “I think we need to focus on the fact we lost a dear friend to tragedy in our neighborhood.”

After talking to people on both sides of the divide in San Francisco who attended the memorial service it’s obvious that politics in this town are akin to a kick boxing match inside a phone booth.

But when it comes to speaking with the media these same political combatants parse every word before being quoted on the record. Which can lead to some uncomfortable moments for a diligent journalist.

Photos: San Francisco Chronicle and The Tewolke family

Lee Heidhues 8.31.2023

The Lee’s Perspective camera girl was on the job early this Labor Day Weekend in downtown San Francisco shopping for clothes. The inquisitive photographer got a bonus story as she walked the aisles of a major department store.

One of San Francisco’s finest was on the job shopping for clothes. Its reassuring to know that our taxpayer dollars are being put to good use. Making sure the cops look their best as they keep San Francisco safe.

Another of San Francisco’s keepers of the peace was sighted checking out his messages. Was he earning some of that 25M overtime pay approved by the Board of Supervisors?

Lee Heidhues 8.29.2023

The cold blooded murder of a clerk at the Richmond Market took place just three blocks from our home in the neighborhood we have lived in for decades.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard and SF Gate 8.29.2023

LATEST: Aug. 29, 3:45 p.m. A 60-year-old San Francisco store clerk died after being beaten with a bat during a violent robbery, the family told KTVU-TV. The clerk, who was in a coma, died around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, the family said.

A San Francisco shopkeeper has died after a brutal assault on Thursday, his daughter told The Standard on Tuesday.

Richmond Market store clerk Yohannes “John” Tewolde was pushed to the ground and beaten with a baseball bat after confronting a suspected thief in the store, his eldest daughter, Meron Tewolde, said.

Tewolde said her father, who was hospitalized, died around 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

“My dad was just trying to do the right thing,” she said. “My dad stood up in front of him; the guy pushed my dad and smashed his head with a baseball bat.”

The San Francisco Police Department has not released an updated statement following Tewolde’s death.

On Monday evening, a police spokesperson confirmed the incident and said no arrests had been made.

“The suspect confronted the victim, who was holding a bat,” a police spokesperson said. “The suspect assaulted the victim, took the bat from the victim, then struck the victim with the bat. The suspect then threw the bat at another victim and fled the scene in an unknown sedan. The second victim was not injured during this incident.”

Police said this is an ongoing investigation and a suspect has not been arrested. Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to contact the department at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-store-clerk-allegedly-hit-bat-robbery-police-18335232.php

Top photo: SFPD at the crime scene on August 24, 2023

Lee Heidhues 8.29.2023

How convenient. The very same day a California Court of Appeal rules that then Assistant District Attorney Brooke Jenkins engaged in prosecutorial misconduct, now DA Brooke Jenkins files criminal charges against San Francisco city workers for corruption.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/san-francisco-city-hall-corruption-arrests-18336850.php

Talk about audacity. While her record of judicial misconduct implodes around her, London Breed’s hand picked successor to the man she wanted gone, Chesa Boudin, engages in a bit of prosecutorial jiu jitsu. Indicting people for misconduct on the same day she is rung up for misconduct herself.

Equally appalling is the unmistakable fact that her former boss, the man she drove from office and earned over 150K while calling herself a “volunteer,” pilloried Chesa Boudin for his alleged misguided priorities; i.e. prosecuting white collar crime. Falsely alleging Chesa Boudin was ignoring “more serious” offenses.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 8.29.2023

Written by Jonah Owen Lamb Published Aug. 29, 2023 • 5:11pm

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins committed misconduct when, as an assistant DA under Chesa Boudin, she accused a defense lawyer of fabricating their case in order to fool the jury in a murder trial, according to a California Appeals Court ruling.

The misconduct took place during the closing arguments of the initial trial, after which Daniel Gudino was found guilty of murder, according to court documents. He was later found not guilty by way of insanity and sent to a mental institution. 

Even after losing her bid to declare him sane, Jenkins sought to send Gudino to prison for life instead of to a mental health facility.

When the District Attorney’s Office declined to proceed with a retrial on the insanity portion of the case, Jenkins did not show up to court, according to transcripts. She resigned that same day, saying publicly that her superiors had undermined her.

Jenkins downplayed the ruling, which culminated an appeal related to the murder case. In a statement Tuesday, she said the misconduct in the fall 2021 trial was a minor mistake that did not impact the case’s outcome. 

The trial of Daniel Gudino—who killed his mother in the throes of a mental health crisis that made him think she was a demon, according to records reviewed by The Standard—was the last case Jenkins tried before quitting her job. She said her decision to leave Boudin’s office to join the push to recall him stemmed in part from how her bosses handled that case. 

However, the defense attorney at the center of the ruling says the findings send a message about what she called “ethical issues” at the top of the DA’s Office. 

“It calls into question her ethics—and she is the head of the office,” said Deputy Public Defender Ilona Solomon Yañez, who defended Gudino. “There is something especially gratifying by the fact that part of the misconduct was impugning my integrity.” 

Lee Heidhues 8.28.2023

The wheels of justice are grinding inexorably for Mr. Donald Trump.

The Federal Judge presiding over his case of attempting a coup d’etat on January 6, 2021 has decreed defendant Trump will have his day in Court. Soon.

Excerpted from The New York Times 8.28.2023

“Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said, adding that “there is a societal interest to a speedy trial.”

The decision by Judge Chutkan, issued at a contentious hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, to start the trial on March 4 potentially brought it into conflict with two other trials that Mr. Trump is facing that month.

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election set a trial date for early March, laying out a schedule that was close to the government’s initial request of January and that rebuffed Mr. Trump’s extraordinary proposal to push off the proceeding until nearly a year and half after the 2024 election.

The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has proposed taking Mr. Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state on the same day. A second trial in Manhattan, in which Mr. Trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to a porn actress in the run-up the 2016 election, is set to go to trial on March 25.

While Judge Chutkan noted that she had already spoken to the judge in the Manhattan case, the fact that three of the four criminal cases confronting Mr. Trump could go before separate juries in separate cities within weeks of one another reflects the extraordinary nature of the former president’s legal situation.

Lee Heidhues 8.26.2023

Now that Russian Thug Vladimir Putin has dispensed with his number one nemesis Yevgeny Prigozhin he can turn his attention to the barbaric jailing of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Languishing in a Moscow jail as a political pawn.

If the following report in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is correct the Russian speaking, Jewish journalist may be held hostage until after the 2024 American presidential election.

Excerpted from JTA 8.26.2023

A Russian court has extended the pretrial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for another three months.

The Journal has reported that any consideration of a swap involving Gershkovich would have to wait until after a verdict is reached in his case, and that Russia may delay a prisoner exchange until after the 2024 presidential election in order to exacerbate discord in the United States.

In a hearing on Thursday at Lefortovo District Court that was closed to press, a judge ordered Gershkovich to remain in detention until at least Nov. 30, a court spokeswoman said. Investigators from the FSB, a Russian state security agency, had requested the extension.

Gershkovich, 31, is the American-born son of Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union. He was arrested while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg on March 29 and charged with espionage.

Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal and the United States government deny the charges. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in a penal colony.

Gershkovich’s pretrial detention was initially scheduled to end on May 29 before it was extended until Aug. 30. This latest extension until November means he could remain in jail for eight months following his arrest, if not longer, before a trial begins.

At a news conference in Helsinki last month, President Biden said the United States was “serious about a prisoner exchange,” which American officials have long seen as the most plausible way of securing Gershkovich’s freedom. In 2022, The United States obtained the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia, via a prisoner swap.

But in a briefing last month, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who met with representatives from The Wall Street Journal and Gershkovich’s family, said he did not want to “give false hope” about bringing him home.

Russian officials have previously hinted at a prisoner exchange. But discussions of a possible swap have hit roadblocks, according to the Journal, as the United States has been unable to extradite Russian prisoners held in German and Brazilian custody. Russia has not appeared to express any interest in prisoners currently in U.S. custody.

https://jweekly.com/2023/08/24/russian-court-extends-pretrial-detention-of-jewish-journalist-evan-gershkovich-until-november/

August 24, 2023

Fulton County Jail – Atlanta Georgia

Excerpted from Time Magazine 8.24.2023

The world’s seen hundreds of thousands of pictures of Donald Trump. But this one’s different.

In Donald Trump’s mug shot taken at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, he’s looking straight into the camera. His platinum blonde cotton candy wisp of hair shimmering in the harsh jailhouse lighting. His eyes locked in a hard stare. His mouth flattened in a grimace. Instead of smiling like some of his co-defendants, he appears to be scowling. 

https://time.com/6308324/donald-trump-mug-shot-georgia/

Lee Heidhues 8.23.2023

Who’s next?

The World knows who is leading the orchestra.

When even criminal thug mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin is brought down to earth. Dead. There’s no respite from Vladimir Putin’s wrath.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 8.23.2023

Wagner paramilitary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived uprising that challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority in June, was killed Wednesday after the plane he was aboard went down northwest of Moscow, according to Russian authorities.

Russia’s civil aviation authority confirmed that the Wagner founder was on the flight.

Social-media channels close to Wagner said Russian air defenses shot down the jet, an Embraer Legacy 600. Video footage posted by onlookers showed what looked like the trail of a missile and the plane falling from the sky with one wing missing.

Images of debris published by Russian media appeared to have multiple small holes consistent with the damage that is caused by air-defense missiles.

If Prigozhin’s plane was indeed deliberately shot down, it would amount to a very public execution of the man who presented the most serious threat to Putin in the Russian president’s 23 years in power.

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/plane-carrying-wagner-owner-prigozhin-crashes-in-russia-all-aboard-killed-82d25f1e