INSTALLMENT 11 — FOR PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS SEE BELOW
RACE HUSTLING 101
In 2013, even before George Zimmerman went to trial — and was acquitted — for killing Trayvon Martin, the insurance company for the homeowners association of the community for which Zimmerman was a neighborhood watchman settled a wrongful death claim with Martin’s parents for $1 million. The insurance company explained that it would have cost more than that to have fought the case.
The following year, Michael Brown was killed in self-defense by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Rioting, looting, and burning ensued, and Black Lives Matter showed up for face time. But in Ferguson, there would be no wrongful death settlement, and seven years later, after discovering that BLM had tens of millions of dollars in their coffers, Michael Brown’s family was clamoring for their share of the loot.
In 2020, the same year as the George Floyd $26 million settlement, the family of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville, Kentucky police when her drug-dealer boyfriend opened fire on them, forcing them to return fire, settled a threatened wrongful death suit for $12 million. The officers involved in the shooting were later cleared of wrongdoing.
In the United States, race is shamelessly used to pervert not only the criminal justice system, but the civil justice system as well. Prosecutors, especially elected ones, cave to political pressure in their prosecutorial decisions. Gil Garcetti, district attorney in Los Angeles during the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, essentially lost that trial before it began by deciding to hold the trial in downtown Los Angeles where the jury pool was predominantly Black. Facing election, Garcetti did not want to appear biased by holding the trial in the predominantly White section of Los Angeles where the crime occurred.
Governors and mayors, pandering to Black voters and fearing Black rioters, also fold to racial pressure, and thus, approve huge settlements of threatened wrongful death suits. After Jacob Thompson was no billed by the grand jury, the local Screven County newspaper, the Sylvania Telephone, published my letter excoriating the race hustlers:
The race hustlers are circling like vultures over Sylvania, Georgia.
Former State Trooper Jacob Thompson has been no-billed by a grand jury in the killing of Julian Lewis after a thorough hearing for which the prosecution had more than ample time to prepare. Mr. Thompson testified at the hearing, thereby subjecting himself to questioning by the prosecution and the grand jurors themselves. The grand jurors saw the video from Thompson’s body cam recording the incident. Twenty-two carefully chose, responsible adults serving on the grand jury have done their duty. Let the matter rest. Furthermore, restore Jacob Thompson yo the Georgia State Patrol, in which he was an exemplary officer and from which he was hastily and unjustly terminated due to the racial hysteria plaguing the nation in the wake of the George Floyd incident.
Race-hustling attorneys Francys Johnson and Mawuli Davis, sensing a big payday in the $13 million wrongful death filed against the state of Georgia, continue not only to malign the prosecutors, but the grand jurors themselves. As the attorneys for the family of George Floyd can attest, exploiting police killings of black criminals is big business. It is high time that we take a stand against those who would use race to pervert our criminal justice system into a money-making racket.
The facts in the Julian Lewis case are clear and simple. He was on probation for a previous violation when Trooper Thompson attempted to pull him over for a broken taillight. Lewis fled, refusing to stop, and therefore presented a public danger. Trooper Thompson very skillfully forced Lewis’s car off the road in a PIT maneuver. Mr. Lewis revved his engine and attempted to manipulate his steering wheel, leading to the reasonable conclusion that he could have, intentionally or not, driven over Trooper Thompson, who was forced to make the split-second decision to use deadly force to defend himself. A toxicology report later revealed that he had illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, in his system, a fact that would have violated his probation and sent him back to jail, thus explaining his desperation to avoid arrest.
It is time to say no to those who clamor for a new grand jury in this case, time to say no to federal intervention. Sylvania can be the place where America finally says no to the race hustlers who seek to further their ends and line their pockets at the expense of fine men like Jacob Thompson. We should all offer Mr. Thompson our support and wish him godspeed in returning to his chosen profession. We need law enforcement officers like him in our communities.
Because of the gag order put in place by Judge Muldrew, Johnson and Davis could not comment on the Marc Wilson case. But Wilson’s supporters had plenty to say on social media, especially in response to my posts. Further, many national news and commentary outlets had taken notice of the Wilson case. The Washington Post, USA Today, The Atlantic, and Buzzfeed News all did pieces on the case. James Woodall, formerly Georgia state president of the NAACP, now with an organization calling itself the Southern Center for Human Justice, was regularly quoted in news and opinion pieces about the long, drawn out process that would, everyone assumed, eventually come to trial. Woodall echoed Francys Johnson’s view that if Wilson was White, he would have been able to invoke the “stand your ground” rule and would never have been charged.
Finally, in August, the defense filed a motion for an immunity hearing, at which they would argue that Wilson was immune from prosecution because he had acted in self-defense. Under Georgia law, an immunity hearing gives the defense an opportunity to present evidence to a judge that the accused indeed acted in self-defense, and, if the judge decides by a preponderance of the evidence — as opposed to the higher standard of beyond a reasonable doubt – that the defendant did indeed act in self-defense, he can declare that the defendant is immune from prosecution and is exonerated. However, if the judge so rules, the prosecution can appeal that decision to a higher court, and if they prevail, the original charges are reinstated against the defendant.
That very thing had happened in Washington County, not far from Statesboro. In 2017, three county sheriff’s deputies, while restraining Eurie Martin, a mentally ill Black man, had used their tasers on him when he resisted arrest. Martin died of a heart attack, and the deputies were charged with manslaughter. The deputies requested an immunity hearing, and a judge ruled
that they were immune from prosecution because they had been engaged in the lawful exercise of their duties and their level of force had been appropriate to the circumstances. However, a state appellate court reversed the judge’s decision, and the deputies were awaiting trial in September, the same month that Marc Wilson’s immunity hearing was scheduled for.
Immunity hearings have their pros and cons. While they give the defendant an extra bite at the apple in getting acquitted, they tip the defense’s hand to the prosecution concerning their defense strategy. Further, if the defendant is denied immunity, such will come out in any appeal he makes after conviction. In the George Zimmerman trial, his attorney Robert Mara opted not to have an immunity hearing for his client. He never explained why, but it is speculated that because he felt like the chances of him winning were slim, he saw no advantage in revealing his defense strategy to the prosecution. Further, because he planned on letting Zimmerman testify, Mara would have been at a disadvantage if the prosecution had been able to cross-examine him twice.
Bearing all this in mind, people wondered what Wilson’s defense team was thinking. Their entire case was based on the assertion that a truckload of drunken White teenage bigots had tried to run him and his girlfriend off the road, that he had been in fear for his life, that he had held his ground, and had used deadly force to defend his life and the life of his girlfriend. However, evidence from preliminary hearings, and evidence that had leaked from Wilson’s grand jury hearing, told a far different story. Wilson had claimed that the boys in the truck had shouted racial slurs, but Emma Rigdon, his then-girlfriend, had told Travis Kruen, the lead detective on the case, that she had heard no such slurs. Further she had been equivocal on whether the driver of the truck was trying to run them off the road, or had just crossed a bit over
the center line. She had testified that she had heard a loud noise, as if someone had thrown something from the truck and hit the Ford Fusion, but no damage had been found on the car. There were rumors of video evidence of Wilson’s Fusion speeding up to overtake the truck, and of witness testimony of Wilson yelling, “What did you say!” before firing his pistol. Finally, there was that undeniable, inexcusable, stubborn fact: the last shot had gone right through the middle of the back glass and had struck Haley Hutcheson in the back of the head, killing her. How could that be explained by a “stand your ground” self-defense argument? It could not. Therefore, Johnson and Davis were playing the race card, and people on social media and the mainstream media were helping him do it.
In order to counteract what they were doing, my posts on the matter became longer and more frequent. I talked about the facts of the case, and explained how Wilson’s supporters were trying to taint the jury pool by harping on the racial angle. After all, it had worked in the O.J. Simpson trial. The gist of many of my posts was that Johnson and Davis were slimy race hustlers using this case as a publicity and money-making stunt, and that Marcus Wilson was cynically using his race to wiggle out of a murder charge born of his short temper ignited by road rage. In a few posts, I stated my intention to attend the immunity hearing and “look that murdering bastard and those two race-hustling attorneys in the eye.”
On my Facebook posts, I frequently attached a picture of Haley Hutcheson, a petite, pretty smiling teenaged girl next to Marc Wilson’s mugshot, which depicted a smug, defiant young man with a wild afro hairdo. I made these posts not only on my general Facebook page, but on the White Heritage group page and the White heritage website. And, I noticed, these posts got a lot of views.
I decided to attend the immunity hearing, and announced such on my Facebook page. A few of Marc Wilson’s supporters commented that if I came looking for trouble I would find it. I responded, “I’ll see you at the hearing.”
I was the first one at the hearing on the morning of September 21, 2021, the first of three days scheduled for the hearing. It was being held in the Bulloch County Superior Court building in Statesboro, off a side-street and catty-corner to the Bulloch County Courthouse. The deputy at the front entrance instructed me to take off my belt and empty my pockets into a plastic container before going through the metal detector. He directed me to the large jury assembly courtroom, explaining that they were expecting a big turnout and the courtrooms upstairs were just not big enough to accommodate the overflow.
I sat in the front row, just behind the defense table. As other people started to drift in and take their seats, I would occasionally turn around to see if anyone I knew had arrived. I noticed two young women seated directly behind me giving me very hostile looks. As it got close to nine o’clock, the court room was nearly full. I recognized Daphne Totten and Barclay Black, who were getting set up at the prosecution table. Mawuli Davis entered the courtroom from the side entrance used by lawyers, court personnel, and jurors. He stood just inside the courtroom, crossed his arms, looked directly at me, and went back out. A few minutes later, the same deputy who had ushered me through the metal detector came into the courtroom, stood in front of the gallery, and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, out of an overabundance of caution, I am going to ask that everyone go back outside and come through the metal detector again.”
Many of spectators looked around at each other, puzzled by this directive. I was one of the first ones back outside, and after I came back through the metal detector the same deputy as
before took me aside and said, “I need you to do me a favor. Don’t sit on the defense side, and don’t sit near the front.”
I nodded, and asked, “What’s this all about?”
“I don’t know. Just following orders.”
Back in the courtroom, before opening arguments started, the prosecution made a motion that certain evidence be excluded. It seems that just the day before the defense had subpoenaed the school records of the teenagers who had been in the truck with Haley Hutcheson on the night in question. The prosecution argued that they had been improperly acquired, and cited a law to support that contention. After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Muldrew agreed to peruse the records in chambers and give a ruling later.
From my seat in the middle of the prosecution side of the gallery, I studied Marc Wilson. He still had that wild afro, but was dressed in a suit and wore horn-rimmed glasses. An ornate cross was tattooed on the right side of his neck. He was a tall, athletically built, light-skinned young Black man. At one point, Mawuli Davis happened to turn and see me. He looked both surprised and alarmed. I was puzzled by this.
In his opening statement, Francys Johnson not only played the race card, he wore it out. He portrayed the boys in the truck as drunken, vicious racists who had called Wilson a “nigger” and Emma Rigdon a “nigger lover.” He spoke at length about Georgia’s stand-your-ground law, and the law governing use of force in defending oneself and one’s habitation. Under Georgia law a motor vehicle is considered a habitation for purposes of that self-defense statute, and Johnson emphasized that fact. He also emphasized that the judge, in order to make a ruling of immunity from prosecution, only had to base his decision on a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt. In order to illustrate this, he stood in front of the podium and, sidestepping to the left, said, “The court only has to find one fact that makes it more likely than not that Mr. Wilson acted in self-defense in order to declare him immune from prosecution.”
I turned to a friend of mine who had come to the hearing and said, “This is stuff for a jury. The judge knows what preponderance of the evidence means. This is an insult to his intelligence”
The prosecution’s opening statement was clear, concise, and to the point: Emma Rigdon did not hear any racial slurs, Marc Wilson tried to hide what he did, his story changed over time, shooting through the backglass of the truck did not constitute stand your ground or defense of habitation, and there was no damage to the car Wilson was driving.
The most striking thing about the lineup of witnesses called by the defense that day was that they were all key witnesses for the prosecution: SPD Detective Travis Kruen, Mason Glisson, Ashton Deloach, and Luke Conley. Detective Kruen testified about the underlying facts of the case, and summarized the questioning of the surviving occupants of the truck. He testified that he had arrested Luke Conley for obstruction of justice when his stories changed. On cross examination, he explained how Wilson had been evasive when he interviewed him, and how Emma Rigdon had denied hearing any racial slurs. Further, he revealed that there had been no damage to the Ford Fusion.
When Conley was called to testify, his attorney entered the court with him and sat in the first row of the gallery in eyeshot of him. Francys Johnson asked Conley about an altercation in which he had been involved in Evans County, and Conley elicited laughter from Wilson’s family and supporters when he said, “I don’t see what that has to do with why we are here today.”
The judge called for order, and instructed Conley that witnesses cannot object to a question. When Johnson repeated the question, Conley said, “I invoke my Fifth Amendment right not to testify.” After invoking the Fifth to several more questions, the Judge asked Conley if he intended to do so in answer to all the questions put to him. Conley answered yes, and the judge excused him from the stand.
Mason Glisson was next. The driver of the truck, he recounted the events of the day: picking up Conley and Deloach and the girls; stopping by the convenience store where Luke Conley bought beer and wine coolers; going to Hopeulikeit to the home of a girl Ashton knew; going to another friend’s house; going to the convenience store, where they saw girls they knew from school; and heading back toward home after failing to find a place for a late-night meal. He described first noticing the Ford Fusion on the 301 Bypass after passing it at a stoplight, and not paying it any more attention. Singing along to the loud music, he did not realize anything was amiss until Ashton shouted, “Get down! We’re being shot at!”
Johnson asked him if at any time did he swerve over the center line. Glisson said no. He asked if he heard any racial slurs, again, Glisson said no. Johnson then asked if he had any animosity toward Black people. Glisson explained that he had Black friends. When Johnson asked if he ever used the word “nigger, Glisson explained that he sometimes used the word “nigga, with an ‘a,’ in a joking manner. I use it with my White friends and Black friends.”
I remarked to my friend, “This idiot Johnson is making the prosecution’s case for them. Any kiddie lawyer knows you never ask a question unless you already know the answer.”
Johnson did not fare any better with Ashton Deloach, who answered every question calmly without hesitation. He readily admitted that he had had three or four beers, described how
Luke Conley had smart-mouthed the older man at the convenience store, and admitted that Luke may have given the finger to the people in the Ford Fusion. He also described how he had thought that the female in the Fusion was Mary Jane Swanson, a girl he knew from school. When asked if he had any animosity toward Blacks, Ashton testified that not only did he have Black friends, at one time he had had a Black roommate. At this, Johnson stood mute for several moments. I chuckled, and some spectators in chairs ahead of me turned and smiled at me.
During the lunch break, I saw Haley Hutcheson’s father and step-mother in the hall. I recognized them from newspaper stories. Mr. Hutcheson nodded at me, obviously recognizing me. Later, I introduced myself to him. I discovered that he was also a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I also met the mother of Laci Neagley, the other girl in the truck who had been sitting next to Haley Hutchson when she was killed. Laci’s mother explained that they had been served Johnson’s subpoena only the day before. I could see that Laci, who had only been fifteen at the time of the killing, was upset at having to be there.
After the lunch break, the defense called Mary Jane Swanson and Michaela McClain. Their testimony established that Swanson had been at the convenience store with her mixed-race boyfriend, and that Ashton Deloach had sent a snapchat to McClain. I told my friend, “This whole idea of mistaken identity only helps the prosecution. Deloach and Conley saw Emma Rigdon, thought she was that Swanson girl, waved at her, maybe said something wise, and Wilson, mad because someone mouthed off at his girl, pulled out his gun and started blasting. Doggone if Johnson isn’t the dumbest lawyer I’ve ever seen.”
I studied Martha Hall, the former district attorney and only White member of the defense team. She seemed to cringe at Johnson’s bumbling. I thought about the situation. From all accounts, Hall was a very good defense attorney. Surely, she could not have foreseen that Johnson was going to perform so ineptly in questioning the witnesses. Or perhaps she just did not yet understand what many of us were coming to realize: the defense of the client was secondary to Johnson. This trial was just a forum for him to preach his Black liberation ideology, and to put himself forward as a leader in that cause. This trial was not about Marc Wilson, it was about Francys Johnson and, to a lesser extent, Mawuli Davis.
The last witness of the day was Laci Neagley. Johnson asked her how much had Mason Glisson and the other boys had to drink that night. She answered that they were drinking, but not drunk, not “drinking one beer after another.” When describing how Haley Hutcheson had been hit by the bullet through the backglass and had fallen over into her lap, she broke down in tears, and Judge Muldrew recessed court for fifteen minutes while Laci left the courtroom and composed herself. When she returned, she testified on cross examination that she had heard no racial slurs, had not seen anyone throw any objects from the car, and had not realized they were being shot at until Ashton Deloach had yelled, “Get down!”
After court was recessed for the day, I went home, got on my computer, and posted about the day’s testimony. My big question was: what is the defense going to do now? There were two more days left scheduled for the hearing. Would Marc Wilson testify? Probably not. Johnson was surely not going to subject him to cross examination, not after the way he had been evasive with the detectives, and after changing his story. More than likely, Johnson was going to call Emma Rigdon. But this presented a dilemma. She had testified in a preliminary hearing that she had heard no racial slurs, and had been equivocal about whether the Silverado had crossed over the center line. What was she going to testify to? Besides her, did the defense have any other witnesses?
The next morning while we were all waiting for court to come in session, Judge Muldrew’s assistant came into the courtroom and handed a thick black binder to Francys Johnson. Johnson opened it, and his eyes widened. Daphne Totten rose and informed both the assistant and Johnson that the binder was the prosecution’s and asked that Johnson hand it over. Johnson ignored her, and shortly thereafter the judge entered the courtroom and called the court to order. He informed everyone that he would be recessing for lunch at eleven o’clock because he had to attend a funeral, and that court would probably not resume until about two o’clock.
Johnson called Emma Rigdon as his first witness. She came into the courtroom accompanied by a man in a suit and tie. I heard someone remark, “That’s her lawyer.” Rigdon, a willowy, pretty blonde, looked visibly shaken as she took the stand. Her attorney sat on the aisle seat of the front row where he could make eye contact with her. Questioned by Johnson, she testified about the events of that night, saying that the truck “had followed them through several lights.” She testified that the boys in the truck were hanging out of the window and waving, and “may have made rude hand gestures.” She said nothing about racial slurs. She said that after they had passed the shopping center at Brannan Street and the Bypass, Wilson pulled his gun and shouted at the truck, “Back off! We don’t want any trouble!” At this point, describing how Wilson shot “under” the truck, she became emotional and started crying. She also kept looking towards her attorney. Martha Hall rose and asked the court if the witness could step down and compose herself. The judge said no, and instructed Rigdon to continue. He glanced toward her attorney as he said that.
Cross examining the witness, Daphne Totten asked, “Isn’t it true that you told Detective
Kruen that ‘Marc got mad and started shooting, and you told him not to do that’?”
Rigdon broke down crying again and said something indistinct, at least to the people in the gallery. Johnson rose and asked Rigdon to clarify her answer. Judge Muldrew said, “She answered yes.” Rigdon then told the judge that she was looking to her attorney for guidance. Sternly, Judge Muldrew instructed Rigdon that she could not do that, that she was to answer each question truthfully. He then turned toward her attorney and instructed him to sit on the other side of the gallery out of sight of his client.
It was after ten when Rigdon stepped down. At this point both the defense and prosecution attorneys gathered at the bench for a sidebar with the judge. After a few minutes, an audible verbal contretemps began, with Judge Muldrew ordering Johnson twice to “turn over the binder.” Johnson held the binder tight to his midsection and started walking back towards the defense table. Muldew then ordered one of the sheriff’s deputies present to take the binder from Johnson. When the deputy tried to do so, Johnson snapped, “NO!” like a rebellious small child. The deputy, a big, stocky man, wrested the binder away, warning Johnson, “Don’t snatch it, Francys.” The deputy handed the binder to the judge, who ordered them to remove Johnson and hold him in contempt of court.
Martha Hall, a look of stunned disbelief on her face, shook her head as she returned to the defense table. Mawuli Davis addressed the judge over the microphone at the podium. He explained that the binder had contained copies of e-mails sent and received by Marc Wilson while in the Bulloch County jail. Because the defense had not been made aware of the fact that the prosecution had such documents, he accused the judge of engaging in ex parte communication with the prosecution. Muldrew explained that the binder had been sent to him in error by the prosecution thinking that it contained the school records that he had stated that he would look at in chambers. He explained that when he had saw the word “e-mails” on the cover page inside the binder, he had closed the binder and instructed his assistant to return it to the prosecution, who had then obviously misunderstood him and given it Mr. Johnson instead. He made it clear that no ex parte discussions had taken place with the prosecution.
Davis then asserted that, inasmuch as Johnson was lead attorney on the case, detaining Johnson was a violation of Marc Wilson’s right to counsel of his choosing. Muldrew responded that the other members of the defense team, Davis included, constituted adequate counsel. Besides, Muldrew added, it had been Johnson’s own actions that had gotten him removed from the courtroom and detained. He then recessed for lunch.
Two o’clock came and went. While I was waiting outside the courtroom for the judge to reappear, a young man in a suit and tie whom I recognized from team trivia night approached me. He shook my hand, and explained that he was an attorney and had stopped by to see how things were developing on the Wilson case. He also said that he was a friend of Jacob Thompson, and had been reading my posts about that case. I told him to say hey to Thompson, and that I hoped he would be back on the State Patrol soon.
It was after four before Judge Muldrew called court back in session. He explained to all present that the defense had filed a motion to have him recused from the case. Until that matter was adjudicated and resolved by another judge, the immunity hearing and the case overall could not move forward, not under him anyway. He then adjourned the proceedings.
The Marc Wilson case was stalled, for the moment anyway. And it was plain to see what had happened. Francys Johnson had held onto the binder of e-mails mistakenly given to him until after he saw that he was bungling the hearing. He then used the binder to stage the contretemps with the judge, knowing full well that the judge would find him in contempt and that the case would be stalled indefinitely. Perhaps Judge Muldrew would be recused, but would that necessarily help the defense? Muldrew was by no means the toughest judge in the Ogeechee circuit. On the other hand, Johnson would get a lot of publicity for his stunt, and he would buy time.
One thing that came out of the whole mess was that I got an explanation for why the deputy had asked me change seats the first day of the hearing. In a supplemental affidavit Mawuli Davis filed during the recusal process, he wrote:
Prior to the commencement of the Immunity Hearing on Wednesday, September 22. 2021, Attorney Francys Johnson was alerted to a racially motivated threat to our client, Attorney Johnson, and me on social media. The individual was identified as Marshall Webster, a member of a “White Heritage” Facebook group. Judge Muldrew questioned whether or not the individual “was even out there.” I entered the courtroom and identified Mr. Webster, who was sitting in the courtroom directly behind the defense table. Attorney Johnson showed Judge Muldrew some of the information contained on social media, and asked that Mr. Webster be removed from the courtroom. The court declined removing the individual and offered to run all spectators back through the metal detector. When a deputy present suggested that Mr. Webster be requested to take a seat in the rear of the courtroom so that he could be easily observed, Judge Muldrew declined that suggestion. Attorney Johnson informed the court of his serious concerns given the postings, that he had in fact reached out to a contact at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Court was dismissive of these concerns and stated that the FBI had no jurisdiction in his courtroom.
I laughed out loud when I read this. The strongest thing I had said on social media was that I was going to “look that murdering bastard and those race hustling attorneys in the eye.” Only in the topsy-turvy world of Biden-era America could that move one to contact the FBI.
It was finally decided that a seasoned, well respected judge from Savannah named Michael Karpf would handle the recusal process. Judge Karpf scheduled a recusal hearing for November in Statesboro. Francys Johnson appealed his contempt of court charge.
The Marc Wilson case was in limbo. Again.
White Heritage 