Posted on 03/18/2008 8:09:03 AM PDT by SmithL
Without explanation, the region's chief federal judge has snatched the case of community activist-turned accused dope peddler Perry Redd away from a fellow judge in Knoxville and taken it for himself in Chattanooga.
"It is hereby ordered that this case is reassigned to the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, Chief United States District Judge, for all further proceedings," Collier wrote. "This case will proceed to trial on March 25 in Chattanooga."
The order offers no reason for the shift. Redd's attorney, Mike Whalen, confirmed Monday the reassignment came as a surprise to Redd. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracee Plowell, who is prosecuting Redd, was not immediately available for comment, but court records do not show any request by her for a change in judges or jurisdiction.
Also glaringly absent from the court record is any order by U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips, who has been presiding over Redd's case since Redd won an appeal nearly two years ago, to step down from the case. Typically, a case is shifted from one federal judge to another when some sort of conflict or problem arises and the presiding judge opts to step down.
Phillips, through a spokeswoman, declined comment. An attempt to reach Collier was unsuccessful.
Collier's order wresting control of the case from Phillips came one day after a jury in Phillips' court deadlocked along racial lines, with the lone holdout a woman whom prosecutors Plowell and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jennings had earlier tried to convince Phillips to remove from the panel.
Jurors signaled conflict within three hours of the beginning of deliberations in that case, in which accused drug chief Johnnie "Bro" Martin represented himself. They later sent a note to Phillips citing claims of racism as contributing to a continued deadlock. Plowell and Jennings then unearthed evidence that the daughter of the woman, later identified by fellow jurors as the lone holdout in an 11-1 vote to convict Martin, had been arrested on a drug charge by the very same agency prosecuting Martin. She did not disclose that arrest when asked during jury selection about any legal woes involving family members.
Phillips refused, however, to remove the only black juror on the panel and insisted it was the News Sentinel, in its reporting of the racial divide among jurors, that was the problem. He insisted the note referencing racism did not mean the panel was divided along racial lines.
However, after the deadlock was announced and a mistrial declared, fellow jurors confirmed in interviews that the woman accused both police and her brethren on the jury of being racist. Fellow jurors also alleged the woman lied during jury selection when she insisted she believed her sister, imprisoned on a drug conviction, was rightfully incarcerated.
Other than the fact that both Redd and Martin are black, the cases have few other similarities and no apparent link.
Martin represented himself. Redd has an attorney. Martin claimed he was being targeted by racist law enforcement. Redd has not raised racism as a defense, although he has insisted his role as a high-profile police watchdog made him a target. Martin is accused of running in 2007 a massive operation involving several drugs, several underlings and a series of weapon-fortified stash houses. Redd was nabbed in February 2004 with a small vial of crack and a gun and has since been accused of being a bit player in a crack conspiracy.
Phillips, Thomas W.
Innerestin’.
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