03-20-2005, 09:49 PM
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#182 (permalink)
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Easy Rider
Location: Moscow on the Ohio
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Looks like they had a community meeting to find out if the charges against the mad woman are racially motivated. Prosecutors have since offered her a plea bargin that essentially gives Sims what she has been seeking for several months: credit for the six months she served in Summit County Jail and an end to the case. A trial date has been set for May 9.
Quote:
Felony charge raises concern at meeting
About 75 people showed up at the Gus Johnson Community Center on South Hawkins Avenue to find out why Prestina Sims was charged with a felony after she accepted a plea bargain from city prosecutors and was already serving a jail sentence. Some are calling it ``double jeopardy.''
``Our concern is not whether Prestina Sims was wrong, because we know violence is wrong,'' Paramore said. ``The issue is if she was offered a plea bargain while serving time how can prosecutors change their minds. And why does this happen for the first time in the courts to us African-Americans... is it racially motivated?''
Sims told the group it had never been a racial issue until now.
``It didn't start as racism. No one was even talking about it until last month when the tape was released. This didn't happen last week, it happened last summer, July 31. It wasn't a racist act, we aren't bullies or even angry people, it could have happened to anybody at any time.''
She told the crowd she was wrong, but claimed the victim, Joseph Scarpino, 28, muttered something to her that set her off.
``I'm sorry for the incident,'' she said. ``I can't believe I let that man push me that far to get me that angry.''
She also apologized for her boyfriend.
``Mark (Jones) is a good man. He has always been a gentleman. He felt like he was protecting me because of something that happened to me.''
Jones was convicted of felonious assault and sentenced to four years in prison.
``We don't embrace violence as a community, it could have happened to anyone. It was not a racial response, but a human response,'' Paramore said. ``If a man hears their wife, sister or girlfriend has been assaulted, physically or verbally or in any kind of trouble, he will come to their rescue.''
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