A mentally-ill homeless woman who was on Skid Row when officers from the Los Angeles Police Department shot and killed a homeless Cameroonian immigrant is facing life in prison after picking up an officer’s baton that was dropped in the scuffle.
Trishawn Cardessa Carey’s arrest took place as Charly Keunang, a Skid Row resident, was killed by police, in an incident that was captured on camera by a witness and sparked protests across Los Angeles.
During the scuffle, one of the officers dropped a baton. Carey, picked it up, which can be seen in the videos. She does not appear to hit or threaten anyone with it, lawyers argue, but she was quickly tackled by police. She was subsequently charged with resisting arrest and assault with a deadly weapon.
“Is possession of a baton an assault? No,” a lawyer representing Carey stated at yesterday’s hearing.
Carey has been imprisoned ever since her arrest in March, held on $1 million bail. On Wednesday, her bail was lowered to $50,000 after a judge called her prior bail amount “way too high.”
She is facing life in prison over the encounter, thanks to California’s three-strikes law. Carey has had, by all accounts, had a rough life, including going into prostitution at the age of only 14.
“The legal basis appears to me to be a distraction or cover-up of the killing of a man by the police,” her lawyer commented.
The judge has ordered that if Carey does make bail, she enter into a local rehab program. The founder of the program testified at a previous hearing that if she joined the program, “maybe, just maybe [Carey] would get the first break of her life.”
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150723/1024978715.html#ixzz3gkZbuHFo
Cause skid row “residents” always have that extra 50k laying around “JIC”. I don’t know if we can get more grotesque and pathetic as a society. Truly befuddling.
woohooo.
this just created a test-case.
now you can kill someone who comes at you with a baton.
because these clowns have just classified it as a “deadly weapon” in a courtroom and on the record!
Oh brother….. 🙄 What a pathetic bunch of cowards! And they call themselves cops? They’re afraid of a baton? IT’S A STICK FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!!!
What’s next? Don’t lean against a squad car or touch the squad car or face life in prison? Now we can’t accidentally touch the king’s apparel and gear?
WHO THE F**K DO THEY THINK THEY ARE??!!!!!
Unfrigginbelievable…….
Look at them all quickly setting up the YELLOW police tape to barricade themselves from the crowd like the YELLOW belly cowards that they are. How ironic.