Majikthise

Smoking Gun exposes Tupac document forgery

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that associates of Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs murdered rapper Tupac Shakur in 1994.

Yesterday, the Smoking Gun revealed that the Times had been duped by an incarcerated forger:

The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs's trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud.

The con man, James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur's shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, Sabatino was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight white kid from Florida whose own father once described him in a letter to a federal judge as "a disturbed young man who needed attention like a drug." [TSG]

The Times has since issued an apology. (Scroll down to read the story as it appeared on March 17.)

How a sociologist became "gang leader for a day"

Cool item from the Crime and Justice newsletter compiled by Ted Guest:

How Sociologist Became "Gang Leader For A Day"

For seven years, sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh led a  double life in Chicago, reports National Public Radio. For days, Venkatesh stayed inside one of Chicago's  worst housing projects living with poor families and hanging out with gang members. Then he returned to he tony Hyde Park neighborhood, where he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.

Now at  Columbia University, Venkatesh ventured into Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes housing project in the  1990s to do research for his doctorate. He befriended the leader of the Black Kings, one of the largest and most violent crack-dealing gangs, and led the group for a day. Venkatesh's new book, Gang Leader for a Day, describes his years inside the projects and how residents and gang members interacted, coexisted, and raised families. Venkatesh's guide during his research was J.T., the leader of the Black Kings who took an interest in the budding academic and showed him the ropes inside the projects. Though J.T. had a college degree, he left corporate America to run a drug operation that made him up to $100,000 a year. National Public Radio

By coincidence, I recently started reading Venkatesh's earlier book about the Robert Taylor Homes, American Project. The writing style is atrocious but the content is fascinating.

In the course of his Chicago fieldwork, Venkatesh obtained the hand written records of a crack dealing gang in the Taylor Homes. Economist Stephen Levitt drew heavily on these records for a chapter of his successful popular work, Freakonomics. The chapter is called "Why Do Crack Dealers Live With Their Mothers?"

Religious vigillantes killed 40 women in Basra

Juan Cole points to a horrifying news item about religious vigilantes in Basra suspected of murdering at least 40 women in the past year:

By  SINAN SALAHEDDIN  

BAGHDAD (AP) — Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.

"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

"Those who are behind these atrocities are organized gangs who work under cover of religion, pretending to spread the instructions of Islam, but they are far from this religion," Khalaf said.

"Your makeup and your decision to forgo the headscarf will bring you death," according to the red graffiti proliferating in certain districts.

Notes are found affixed to the mutilated bodies that explain why the victim was targeted. Stated motives include alleged adultery and violations of "Islamic teachings."

The authorities estimate that the true death toll exceeds the 40 murders reported so far. Many families are too afraid to come forward, they say.   

Trent Lott's brother-in-law and nephew indicted on federal bribery charges

Trent Lott's brother-in-law and nephew were indicted by a grand jury for allegedly conspiring to bribe a judge.

$22 theft got Queens pickpocket 15-to-life

A Queens judge sentenced a pickpocket to 15-to-life for stealing $22. (link fixed)
 

Undercover police officers busted the perp in 2004 as he tried to boost an old man's wallet on a city bus.

Prosecutors offered him an 8-month sentence if he were willing to plead guilty. He refused. Prosecutors then petitioned the court to designate him as a persistent felony offender.

Queens judge Arthur Cooperman was willing to play along, even though the pickpocket had no history of violence:

Truesdale was found guilty in June 2005 of grand larceny, possession of stolen property, three counts of jostling (bumping into the attended victim), and possession of a burglar's tools (the sweatshirt). In a hearing to determine if Truesdale was a persistent felony offender, his trial lawyer argued that his crimes were nonviolent and were committed only to feed drug and alcohol addictions that Truesdale was seeking help to control. Cooperman wasn't swayed, ruling that Truesdale—who by then had served four state-prison stints under three different names—deserved the "persistent" tag, and sentencing him to 15 years to life on the top charge and a year each, to run concurrently, on the other five counts. [Village Voice]

Luckily the court of appeals threw out the persistent felony offender designation last month.

Coroner: Journalists executed in East Timor

A coroner in Sydney has ruled that five Austrialan-based journalists were deliberately killed by Indonesian special forces to stop them from exposing the invasion of East Timor in 1975:

The deputy coroner of New South Wales, Dorelle Pinch, said there was enough evidence to constitute a war crime.

She said two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander were killed by Indonesian special forces to stop them exposing the invasion of East Timor.

Official Indonesian reports always said they were killed in crossfire. [BBC]

A spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry told the BBC that the coroner's findings will not change the official account of the killings.

Giuliani says he used "intensive questioning"

An interviewer asked presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani whether he knew more about torture than his opponent John McCain. Giuliani replied:

MR. GIULIANI: I can't say that I do but I do know a lot about intensive questioning and intensive questioning techniques. After all, I have had a different experience than John. John has never been - he has never run city, never run a state, never run a government. He has never been responsible as a mayor for the safety and security of millions of people, and he has never run a law enforcement agency, which I have done.

Now, intensive questioning works. If I didn't use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is.  Intensive question has to be used.  Torture should not be used.  The line between the two is a difficult one. [Bloomberg]

Does he mean that he abused prisoners a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York? I wonder if Giuliani's loose talk could result in investigations of some of his old work as AUSA between 1983 and 1989.

Speaking of the mafia... Maybe Giuliani should have asked a few more questions of his buddy Bernie Kerik. Giuliani testified in 2000 that his aide told him about Kerik's ties to an allegedly mafia-linked company. In 2006, Kerik pleaded guilty to allowing the company to do $165,000 worth of free work on his Bronx apartment.

Update: Joe Conason questions some of Giuliani's more overblown claims about his record on terrorism, with the help of formerly sealed testimony obtained by Wade Barrett of the Village Voice. On the campaign trail, Giuliani claimed that the threat of Osama Bin Laden was obvious to him before 9/11, however he testified to the 9/11 Commission that he wasn't even briefed about Al Qaeda until after the attacks.

Barret notes that Giuliani and Mukasey go back a very long way.

About yay big...

Barry Scheck, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

New York, NY.

Attorney and law professor Barry Scheck discussing the problem of wrongful convictions at DMI's Marketplace of Ideas forum at the Harvard Club in Manhattan.

Baton Rouge to add gunshot location to video surveillance

Interesting.

Govtech.com reported on Wednesday that the city of Baton Rouge is planning to add gunshot-locating technology to its video surveillance system.

Chicago police disband elite unit run amok

Chicago disbanded its elite Special Operations Section, Tuesday, amidst allegations of widespread misconduct in the anti-drug/anti-gang unit:

The recent incidents of police misconduct, which include charges that SOS officers robbed and kidnapped people, and that one accused officer plotted to murder another, have been "disheartening and demoralizing, especially for officers who serve honorably every day," interim Supt. Dana Starks said Tuesday at a news conference called to announce the abrupt disbanding of SOS. [Chicago Tribune]

One erstwhile SOS officer,Jerome Finnigan, is accused running a home invasion crew and plotting to kill a former police officer.

HT: WindyPundit