National Roundup

Tennessee
Gorilla-masked man’s charges of intimidation could be dismissed
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — A former East Tennessee State University student accused of civil rights intimidation during a Black Lives Matter demonstration is seeking to have the charges against him dismissed.

The Johnson City Press reported Sunday that Tristan Rettke’s attorney filed a motion last week to dismiss charges of civil rights intimidation.

The then-freshman Rettke attended a September rally at a free-speech zone on campus wearing a gorilla mask and overalls and carrying a burlap sack with a Confederate flag. He also dangled a banana with a rope around it while offering bananas to demonstrators.

Campus police arrested and charged Rettke with civil rights intimidation. The motion filed by his attorney, Patrick Denton, says the statutes Rettke was charged under are the same ones that protect the free speech he was exhibiting.

Missouri
Cop charged in 2011 death faces trial this week
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A murder trial begins this week for a white former St. Louis police officer accused of killing a black suspect nearly six years ago.

Jason Stockley, 36, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the December 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. Charges were filed last year after then-Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce cited unspecified new evidence. The trial begins Tuesday and is expected to last two weeks.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Smith was shot following a police chase during a drug investigation. Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson has ordered lawyers and witnesses not to discuss the case, but evidence will certainly include video , both from police and from a bystander.

A key issue is a .38-caliber Taurus revolver police said was found in Smith’s car. Police reports say Stockley’s DNA — but not Smith’s — was on the gun. Stockley told investigators he unloaded the revolver as a safety precaution after the shooting.

The police video from after the shooting shows Stockley going into the back of his police SUV. He appears to dig through a duffel bag. He didn’t appear to have anything in his hands when he got out of the SUV and returned to Smith’s car. The police video then stops.

Stockley’s lawyer has said Stockley was looking for a “clot pack” to stop Smith’s bleeding.

Video from a bystander shows Stockley later climbing into the driver’s seat of Smith’s rented Buick immediately after officers pulled Smith out.

According to police reports, Stockley told internal investigators and his sergeant that he believed Smith was reaching for a revolver after being ordered to show his hands.

The trial is the latest of several across the U.S. involving the fatal police shootings of black men. Officers were acquitted in recent trials in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. A case in Ohio twice ended with hung juries, and prosecutors have decided not to seek a third trial.

Stockley has waived his right to a jury trial, so his case will be decided by a judge.

Wilson must determine whether Stockley feared for his life and was justifiably defending himself in killing Smith, 24. Wilson has ordered lawyers and witnesses not to discuss the case and has barred cameras and electronics from the courtroom.

“This is not an easy case,” Wilson wrote in his July 24 order granting a bench trial, which prosecutors opposed. “Whatever the ultimate outcome, it likely will be melancholy.”

The shooting happened after Stockley and his partner spotted Smith in a suspected drug transaction in a fast food parking lot, leading to a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) chase that ended with Smith’s car crashing.

Police dashboard recordings and two videos from a restaurant show the officers pulled behind Smith’s silver Buick. As they got out, Smith backed into the police SUV and sped past Stockley, who fired several shots.

The officer eventually rammed their SUV into the back of Smith’s car, causing its air bags to deploy. The officers got out, and Stockley fired several shots into the car.


New?Jersey
Anti-drug activist pleads guilty to weapons charges
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man arrested last year outside New York with a vehicle full of weapons on a self-described mission to rescue a teenager from a drug den pleaded guilty Monday to weapons charges, but said he would do it all again to save someone’s life.

John Cramsey, of East Greenville, and two associates were arrested outside the Holland Tunnel. He told authorities they were going to rescue the girl. She died months later of an overdose.

Cramsey pleaded guilty in a New Jersey courtroom to unlawful possession of a gun and possession for an unlawful purpose. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years with no parole for a year. Cramsey’s attorney plans to seek probation.

Acquaintances say the gun range owner became an anti-drug crusader after his daughter died of an overdose. Cramsey posted online shortly before his arrest that he was heading from Pennsylvania to New York to “rescue” a girl whose friend had overdosed. His vehicle was stopped in June 2016 at the entrance of the Holland Tunnel on the New Jersey side.

Police recovered a semi-automatic, military-style rifle, a shotgun, five handguns and tactical gear.

Asked if he would do what he did again, Cramsey said after the hearing that he would but would be more careful.

“It’s a mission in memory, not just of my daughter, but of many people who’ve lost their lives,” he said. “I would have carried her out if I’d had the chance. I still would to this day. If I’d had to leave my truck there and run to get that girl, I would have.”

Dean Smith, of Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and Kimberly Arendt, of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, made deals with prosecutors this year to avoid a trial. All three were charged with multiple weapons offenses.

Smith was driving Cramsey’s neon-painted truck when the group was stopped. According to police, the vehicle was pulled over because it had a crack in its windshield and had some objects hanging from a rearview mirror.

The defendants contended they were actually stopped because of the truck’s Second Amendment-themed decorations, and they sought unsuccessfully in court to have the search invalidated.

New Jersey has more stringent gun laws than Pennsylvania. It doesn’t recognize carry permits from other states, and guns in cars must be kept locked and unloaded in a trunk or secure container.

“This is an ongoing thing, I don’t stop. I don’t go looking for it, it finds me,” Cramsey said. “It’s as much a curse as it is a blessing. It consumes me every waking moment of the day.”