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January 22, 2015

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BySeanCarlinand Geoff Mulvihill The Associated Press BRIDGETON, N.J. With the dashboard camera in their cruiser rolling, police pulled a Jaguar over for running a stop sign on a dark New Jer- sey night. But things sud- denly turned tense when one of the officers warned his partner that he could see a gun in the glove com- partment. Screaming "Don't you f—- -ing move!" and "Show me your hands!" at the man in the passenger seat, the of- ficer reached into the car and appeared to remove a silver handgun. Then, de- spite being warned repeat- edly not to move, the pas- senger stepped out of the car, his hands raised about shoulder level. The officers opened fire, killing him. The video of the Dec. 30 killing of Jerame Reid in Bridgeton, a strug- gling, mostly minority city of 25,000 people about 35 miles south of Philadelphia, was released this week, raising a host of questions and stirring anger over yet another death at the hands of police. The shooting came af- ter the killings of black men in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, triggered months of turbulent protests, vio- lence and calls for a re-exam- ination of police use of force. Both Reid and the man driving the car were black. The Bridgeton officer who spotted the gun, Braheme Days, is black; his partner, Roger Worley, is white. Both officers have been placed on leave while prosecutors in- vestigate. "The video speaks for it- self that at no point was Jerame Reid a threat and he possessed no weapon on his person," Walter Hud- son, chairman and founder of the civil rights group the National Awareness s, said Wednesday. "He complied with the officer and the of- ficer shot him." Reid, 36, spent about 13 years in prison for shooting at three state troopers when he was a teenager. And Days knew who he was; Days was among the arrest- ing officers last year when Reid was charged with sev- eral crimes, including drug possession and obstruction. In Bridgeton, where two- thirds of the residents are black or Hispanic, the kill- ing has stirred small pro- tests over the past couple of weeks, including a dem- onstration on Wednesday, a day after the video was made public on a request made by two newspapers under the state's open re- cords law. The Cumberland County prosecutor's office previ- ously said a gun was seized during the stop but would not comment further on the investigation. Bridgeton po- lice would not answer any questions about the video and said they opposed its release as neither "compas- sionate or professional." County Prosecutor Jen- nifer Webb-McCrae has disqualified herself from the case because she knows Days. But activists are de- manding the state Attorney General's Office take over the investigation, some- thing it said it will not do. In the video, tensions flare as Days tells his partner about the gun and starts yell- ing, "Show me your hands!" The driver, Leroy Tutt, raises his hands immediately. Reid does not at first. Days, still yelling, reaches into the car and appears to remove a gun. "I'm going to shoot you," Days shouts, at one point addressing Reid by his first name. "You're going to be f—-ing dead. If you reach for something, you're going to be f—-ing dead." Days tells his partner, "He's reaching for some- thing." Faintly on the video, Reid can be heard telling the of- ficer, "I ain't doing nothing. I'm not reaching for noth- ing, bro. I ain't got no rea- son to reach for nothing." Then one of the men in the car tells the officer, "I'm getting out and getting on the ground." The officer again orders Reid not to move. Seconds later, Reid emerges from the car, raising his hands, which appear to be empty. Both officers fire immedi- ately, shooting at least six rounds. The South Jersey Times reported this week that res- idents had filed seven mu- nicipal court complaints against Days since 2013 and two against Worley in that span for alleged abuses of power; all the complaints were later dismissed. ANGER, QUESTIONS VideoshowsmanshotbyNewJerseypoliceraisinghands By Eric Tucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON The FBI has completed its investigation into the police shooting of an unarmed, black 18-year- old in Ferguson, Missouri, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will file a federal civil rights charge against former Ferguson police offi- cer Darren Wilson. But offi- cials and experts have said such a prosecution would be unlikely, in part because of the extraordinarily high legal standard federal pros- ecutors would need to meet. The official was not au- thorized to discuss the case by name and spoke on con- dition of anonymity. Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson declined to comment. Wilson was cleared in November by a state grand jury in the Aug. 9 death of Michael Brown, a shooting that touched off protests in the streets and became part of a national conver- sation about race relations and police departments that patrol minority neigh- borhoods. Attorney Gen- eral Eric Holder visited Fer- guson in the days after the shooting to calm tensions and meet with Brown's fam- ily and law enforcement. Wilson, who shot Brown after a scuffle in the middle of the street, told the grand jury that reviewed the case that he feared for his life when Brown hit him and reached for his gun. Some witnesses have said Brown had his hands up when Wil- son shot him. To mount a federal pros- ecution, the Justice De- partment would need to show that Wilson will- fully deprived Brown of his civil rights. That stan- dard, which means prosecu- tors must prove that an of- ficer knowingly used more force than the law allowed, is challenging for the gov- ernment to meet. Multiple high-profile police-involved deaths, including the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York City, have not resulted in federal charges. Wilson, who had been on administrative leave since the shooting, resigned days after the grand jury deci- sion. A separate, broader Jus- tice Department-led investi- gation into the practices of the Ferguson police depart- ment remains open. That investigation, which will ex- amine potential racial bias among officers, has the po- tential to have more sweep- ing consequences than any individual criminal prose- cutions, experts say. The New York Times re- ported Wednesday that Jus- tice Department lawyers were preparing a memo rec- ommending against prose- cuting Wilson, but that the memo was not yet complete and that Attorney General Eric Holder — who is ex- pected to leave his position within weeks — had not yet made a decision. Benjamin Crump, a law- yer for Brown's family, said in a statement that the fam- ily would not address spec- ulation from anonymous of- ficials and was waiting for an official Justice Depart- ment announcement. AUG. 9 DEATH FBI completes probe of Ferguson shooting, official says MELEVANS‑THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A woman wears a shirt with a photograph of Jerame Reid during a news conference, Wednesday, in Bridgeton, N.J., a er police dashboard camera footage was released from the Dec. 30, 2014shooting of Reid during a traffic stop in Bridgeton. By Larry O'dell and Alan Suderman The Associated Press RICHMOND, VA. A Virginia lawmaker who was just re- elected despite being jailed for a sex scandal with a teenager has been indicted on four new felony charges. The forgery and perjury indictment of Del. Joseph D. Morrissey was returned the day before that election and unsealed Wednesday in Henrico County Circuit Court. The lawmaker now stands accused of forging a document he vouched for in court, and persuading the girl's mother to swear to its authenticity as well. That woman, Deidre Warren, also was indicted on per- jury and forgery charges. Morrissey faces up to 10 years on each count if con- victed, special prosecutor William J. Neely said. Morrissey, an attorney known as "Fighting Joe" since his 1993 courthouse fistfight with another law- yer, said the charges are false and vowed to beat them. "This is a very harmful and mean-spirited blow, but I'll do what I've always done. I'll prevail," Morrissey told reporters after arriving at the Capitol for the legis- lative session soon after the indictments were unsealed. Morrissey is spending nights in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a mi- nor but is allowed out each day on work release, earning a day of "good time" credit reducing his six-month sen- tence for each day he serves in the legislature. He accepted the misde- meanor conviction to avoid trial on charges of taking "indecent liberties" with a 17-year-old, child pornogra- phy and soliciting a minor — felonies that could have put him in prison for de- cades and caused the auto- matic loss of his legislative position. After his conviction, the four-term Democrat an- nounced his resignation un- der pressure from his col- leagues and then angered them by running as an in- dependent in the special election called to choose his successor. He won that elec- tion last week, defeating a Republican and a Democrat just before the start of the General Assembly session. Technically the most ju- nior member of the House because of his resignation and re-election, Morrissey has been moved to a desk in a far corner of the cham- ber. His colleagues largely ignore him. House Speaker William J. Howell stripped Morrissey of his committee assignments, and legisla- tive leaders from both par- ties are debating whether to censure or expel him. "This is a truly painful and embarrassing chapter for the oldest continuously operating legislative body in the world," Howell said after learning of the new charges. "The House will evaluate these new indict- ments as it pertains to dis- ciplinary action." Morrissey, 57, has de- nied having sex with Myrna Pride, who worked as a re- ceptionist in his law office at the time. The young woman's sis- ters and father said they got suspicious after find- ing a nude photo and an exchange of sexually ex- plicit text messages on her phone. They tracked Mor- rissey and Pride from a res- taurant one night in August 2013, and then called police, who found the teenager in- side his home at midnight. Pride — now 18 and preg- nant — also has denied hav- ing sex with Morrissey, a bachelor who has fathered three children with three different women. But she said in a broadcast inter- view last week that she still cares and worries about him as a friend. The Associated Press usually does not disclose the names of alleged sex crime victims, but Pride has gone public with her side of the story. Morrissey claimed that Pride came to his home that night in August 2013 not to have sex, but to get his legal help recovering child sup- port from her father, Cole- man Pride. Neely said Morrissey pre- sented a document in court last month to support this version. It appears to be a court order showing that Coleman Pride had agreed to pay $50 a month into a college fund for his daugh- ter. But Neely said there is no court record of any child support order, and that the document "appears to be a fabrication." WORK RELEASE Jailed Virginia lawmaker charged with forgery, perjury STEVE HELBER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Del. Joe Morrissey, D‑Henrico, leaves the Henrico County Regional Jail East where he is incarcerated, on work release, in Barhamsville, Va., Wednesday. Red Bluff Community Resource Guide N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PublishDate:Thursday,February26,2015 2015 20,000 + readership! Full color, gloss magazine Ad space reservations deadline: Thur., Feb. 5, 2015 ReserveyourSpaceToday! Gayla Eckels: (530) 737-5044 geckels@redbluffdailynews.com Suzy Noble: (530) 737-5056 snoble@redbluffdailynews.com • OnlineversionofthisspecialpublicationispostedonRedBluffDailyNews.com,all year long, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! This highly viewed online edition reached over 15,000 unique visitors during 2014…don't miss the opportunity to reach prospective residents and visitors in 2015. • Digital technology allows viewers to "turn pages" and even click from your ad to your website! Red Bluff and Tehama County Chambers, Tehama County and City of Red Bluff post this special edition on their websites. 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