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Great News! Juanita Young Found 'Not Guilty!'

by Steve Yip/October 22nd Coalition
Juanita Young was found not guilty today in Bronx Supreme Court by Judge P. Benitez after a four day trial taking place more than two years after the initial incident.
Great News! Juanita Young Found 'Not Guilty!'
This is a quick alert!

Juanita Young was found not guilty today in Bronx Supreme Court by Judge P. Benitez after a four day trial taking place more than two years after the initial incident.
The courtroom drama included the Bronx DA producing several witnesses--including
Juanita's former landlord, the former super, and the arresting police officer, and a
representative from the City's Housing Authority--who contradicted one way or
another either themselves or the DA's assertions, and where Juanita herself took the
witness stand for two days of cross examination and redirects, Judge Benitez
declared that Juanita Young was not trespassing when she was arrested in her own
home on the morning of June 7, 2003 in an illegal eviction carried out by the NYPD,
and engineered by her landlord.

Members of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality have long held that
the illegal eviction of Juanita Young was politically motivated one, and that it was
directed at silencing dissension in the post-911 political climate. Juanita Young
was represented by Geoffrey Stewart of the Stewart Law Offices.

Juanita Young is a well known and outspoken anti-police brutality activist who first
came into political light with the police killing of her son, Malcolm Ferguson, in
March 2000 in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Juanita has since been an
activist with the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, and with the
Justice Committee of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. Juanita is one
of the recent signers of a letter introducing "New Orleans: A Call to Resist!" a
statement that is beginning to circulate the country condemning the government's
criminal negligence in the enveloping social and political crisis caused by
Hurricane Katrina.

The illegal eviction carried out against Juanita Young and her family in June 2003
left her and three children homeless for three months. At the time of her arrest,
NYPD cop Hernandez declared to her, "No rallies for you today." Juanita was also
manhandled and brutalized in the course of her illegal eviction and arrest and
continues to suffer from those injuries sustained on that day over two years ago.

We will be looking forward building for this year's October 22nd National Day to
Stop Police Brutality; and to the civil suit action that will go forward with the
conclusion of the criminal trial.

The next organizing meeting for NDP will be on Saturday, September 17 at 2pm, at
Project Reach, 1 Orchard Street, Chinatown/Lower East Side. F train to East
Broadway. For more information: 866-235-7814 or oct22ny [at] yahoo.com

--
the system is waging war on the people...
...the people must wage war on the system!
Steve Yip, yipz [at] onebox.com - email
Voice and Fax: (866) 841-9139 x2670
P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station
New York NY 10002-0900
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