September 01, 2016
By Charlene Muhammad
Contributing Writer
The family of a man who says he was framed by the Los Angeles Police Department and District Attorney’s Office is fighting vehemently for his release.
Sherri Pegues said she always knew her son was innocent, but was shocked when Victor Gouche, stepped forth and said he lied under coercion and helped send an innocent man to prison over 10 years ago.
Gouche became paraplegic after someone shot him on Crenshaw Boulevard while he was riding in a car.
“This is real life out here … It’s some real s—t that went down 10 years ago, and we’re fixing it,” Gouche said during a recent rally at the scene.
“I ain’t gone lie. I got shot right there 10 years ago and I lied on the person that shot me, and now we’re here today to prove a point that the man that I said shot me didn’t, so he needs to come home. Marvin Pegues did not shoot me, so he needs to come home ASAP,” Gouche stated.
Sherri Pegues said she always knew her son was innocent, but was shocked when Gouche stepped forth.
The ordeal has taken a toll on Gouche, who has also admitted why he gave the false testimony, and the effect it had on him after trial. He felt he had no other choice, and she understands that, Sherri Pegues said.
But she knew he was being coerced into lying, because he was a street kid who needed things that began manifesting.
“They offered him stuff. He got relocated to a new house. He got vans and wheelchairs, but they were things that he needed, so my whole thing in it is we were out to save two kids, not one,” she stated.
She commended his actions, saying it took courage to stand up. He’s had to endure a second deposition, a lie detector test, which he passed, and emotional and physical stress and illness, she continued.
“I was just overwhelmed with emotion. The main thing was we never had anything against Victor, because he was a victim in it the whole time,” Sherri Pegues said.
The ordeal also took a toll on her family. Her husband, Marvin Pegues, Sr. died recently, and so did her son’s grandfather. Her husband just couldn’t take the stress of knowing his innocent son was locked away for life, she said.
Sherri Pegues carries on with the Free Marvin Pegues, Jr. Campaign, strengthened by the conviction of Gouche and supporters.
“Mr. Gouche actually called the rally where he got shot, because he wants everyone to know my son was innocent and what really happened, but unfortunately, it’s falling on deaf ears, because of the LAPD and DAs office who knew. He’s ready to sit-in at DA Lacey’s office until he’s heard,” Sherri. Pegues said.
She has written two letters to District Attorney Jackie Lacey and one to Governor Jerry Brown, but has received no reply, she said. Her family has also reached out to the DA’s Conviction Review Unit.
The Sentinel’s request for an interview with Lacey was unfulfilled at press time.
In addition, Sherri Pegues put up a change.org petition calling for her son’s release. At press time it needed 101 more signatures to reach its goal of 1,000. Sherri Pegues plans to deliver the documents to Lacey, Brown and Mayor Eric Garcetti.
She is baffled that her son remains behind bars, even though the victim has cleared his name of a false conviction on three counts of attempted murder and one count of great bodily injury.
Marvin Pegues, Jr. was sentenced to 45 years to life and has served 11 so far. He faced over 100 years.
According to Sherri Pegues, he became entangled because he was “given a hot pistol at some point and was picked up” by police. “He requested an immediate poly test and was denied by the DA’s office,” she stated.
His family ordered their own independent test, and he passed it overwhelmingly, Sherri Pegues said. Gouche also took a Polygraph test and passed.
“I saw the person who shot me at a bus stop after Marvin Pegues was already in prison,” Gouche said in a written statement in 2011.
Based on the lie detector test and Gouche’s statement, she said she thought surely her son would get out, but she was wrong.
That compelled Liana Taylor to step forth. Gouche was her passenger when he got shot. And she also testified at Marvin Pegues, Jr.’s trial under coercion, she said.
“When he didn’t (get out), the girl was like, I can’t take it. She was scared, and was like, I think the police will come get me,” Sherri Pegues said. Taylor found Pegues’ family and revealed her truth.
Taylor said she knew for certain Marvin Pegues, Jr. was not the shooter or the person she saw walking down the street on the day of the shooting, but she was under extreme pressure from a police detective to pin the crime on Marvin Pegues, Jr.
In a 2013 declaration, she said she had a pending felony case which was ultimately reduced to a misdemeanor. She also said that among other things, a “Detective Garcia” threatened that her name and address would be in a police report, which made her fearful.
The detective pointed to a picture after she said she recognized no one in police photographs, she said. She said Det. Garcia allegedly told her, “….that’s who Victor said it was. Do you agree with Victor?”
According to Taylor, police put her away from family in The Mustang motel, near the police station for approximately a month until she testified.
“….I knew at the time of trial that I did not know who the shooter was, but I had no one to tell as Det. Garcia or one of his officers was always with me and I was scared about my name and address being in police reports,” she stated.
September 01, 2016
By Danny J. Bakewell Jr
Executive Editor
On Thursday August 25, California Attorney General and US Senate Candidate Kamala Harris met with African American Publishers from across the State of California as well as with African American owned radio station KJLH (Stevie Wonder) to discuss the importance of the African American Vote in November’s election as well as challenges that Black media in California and across the nation are facing, getting fair and equitable access to advertising dollars.
The attorney general highlighted the fact that many African Americans are currently feeling unmotivated or disenfranchised in this election but that the African American vote and African American voter participation is and has always played a major role in getting any candidate elected. She also pointed out that when African Americans were inspired to vote for President Barack Obama in 2008 they turned en masse, at 68%, however in the 2010 non-presidential election, the numbers dipped to 44%. She then pointed out that in 2012 in looking to re-affirm President Obama, African Americans again showed with a 72% voter turnout only to be followed up in 2014 with a lowly 35% turnout.
“When African Americans show up and vote, we absolutely make a difference but when we don’t show up, all of the gains we have made over the years are put into jeopardy,” said Harris.
The leading U.S. Senate candidate was also asked about her position in the polls and if she was confident that she would win in November.
“I learned a long time ago, that as a candidate, you can never get comfortable and that you have to run and continue running as if you are behind,” she said.
“I have always and will continue to put my faith in God, not in polls, so me and my campaign will continue working and fighting to put the issues of this campaign before the people with the hope that we will be victorious in November”.
Sr. Executive Publisher and Chairman of Bakewell Media Danny J. Bakewell, Sr. who convened the meeting along with Ameilia Ward, executive publisher of the Sun Reporter in Northern California called the group together.
“Kamala Harris is a friend, not only to me but she is and continues to be a friend and supporter of Black Media throughout the state and the nation,” Bakewell said.
“We need to rally behind her and her campaign to insure victory in the upcoming election and make history by electing Kamala Harris as the first African American U.S. Senator in California history.”
Other African American Publishers and Media who were in attendance included Karen Slade and Ron Turner of KJLH Radio, Peggy Hunt Tri County Sentry (Oxnard-Simi Valley), David Miller Our Weekly (Los Angeles-Palmdale), Mark Kimber California Advocate (Fresno), Joe Hopkins Esq. Pasadena Journal (San Gabriel Valley), Lisa Collins LA Focus (Los Angeles), Larry Lee Sacramento Observer (Sacramento), Chida Warren San Diego Voice and Viewpoint (San Diego), Clifton Harris San Bernardino American News (San Bernardino), Brian Townsend Precinct Reporter (San Bernardino), Regina Wilson Black Voice News (Riverside).
“This was a historic gathering of Black Publishers from all over the state,” Ward stated.
“It takes a dynamic leader like my friend Kamala Harris to pull together such a powerful group and I am honored to have been asked along with my friend Danny Bakewell, Sr. to bring all of these publishers together to help our friend push to the finish line and win this historic election.”
All of the members of the Black Media have vowed to get the word out and inform the millions of readers and listeners of the importance of voting. KJLH has launched a social media campaign #myvotematterskjlh which the Sentinel and other papers and local organizations have vowed to join and support.
“This is a very important election. While we have all enjoyed 8 wonderful years under our President Barack Obama, we must remember that if we do not show up and make our voices heard, all of his accomplishments will be undermined by those who do not wish for him to go down in history as one of (if not) the greatest presidents in U.S. History. The Sentinel and the L.A. Watts Times, all of our social media teams and the Taste of Soul Nation will all be working hard to insure we show up and make our votes count,” said Bakewell Sr.
August 25, 2016
By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press
The Army reservist who killed five Dallas police officers last month showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home from Afghanistan in 2014, but doctors concluded that he presented no serious risk to himself or others, according to newly released documents from the Veterans Health Administration.
Micah Johnson had sought treatment for anxiety, depression and hallucinations, telling doctors that he experienced nightmares after witnessing fellow soldiers getting blown in half. He also said he heard voices and mortars exploding, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.
“I try to block those out, but it is kinda hard to forget,” Johnson told his care provider, according to the documents.
Johnson, 25, was the sniper who targeted the officers at the conclusion of a peaceful march July 7 in downtown Dallas, where demonstrators were protesting fatal police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana. Armed with an assault rifle, he took multiple positions as he fired. Hours later, authorities used a bomb-carrying robot to kill him.
During his deployment, Johnson was largely confined to base in an area of Afghanistan that had seen heavy combat but that was relatively quiet when his unit arrived in November 2013, according to his former squad leader.
Upon his return to the U.S. nine months later, Johnson told doctors he was experiencing panic attacks a few times a week, including once while at Wal-Mart, where there was an unspecified conflict that required a police response, the records said.
“Veteran states hearing all the noises, fights and police intervening caused him to have palpitations, ‘My heart felt like someone was pinching it while it was beating fast,’” the records state. Johnson said he began shaking, felt short of breath and got chills following the Wal-Mart incident.
The records do not show that Johnson was formally diagnosed with PTSD.
The type of screening that he underwent is typically a first step to determine if the patient should be referred for further assessment to a mental health professional, said Joel Dvoskin, a clinical and forensic psychologist in Tucson, Arizona.
Doctors eventually decided that Johnson presented a low risk for suicide or for hurting anyone else.
Johnson was “not acutely at risk for harm to self or others,” according to a medical record from a visit on Aug. 15, 2014. The patient was “not felt to be psychotic by presentation or by observation.”
The reservist who specialized in carpentry and masonry told health care providers he had lower back pain and was avoiding “crowds of people and when in the public, scanning the area for danger, noting all the exits, watching everyone’s actions.”
“I feel like I can’t trust all of these strangers around me,” Johnson told his doctor, who noted that he had taken to drinking since his return to Dallas, consuming three to four shots of vodka up to three times a week. “It’s hard for me to be around other people and I am so angry and irritable.”
Records from the Aug. 15 visit state that Johnson described his childhood as “stressful.” His responses to a section of the form titled “Sexual/Physical/Emotional Abuse History” were redacted. Johnson was also advised to talk with a health care worker about erectile dysfunction.
Johnson was prescribed a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant and anti-anxiety and sleep medication, and a nurse offered him tips on managing anger, records show.
He also saw a psychiatrist and was further evaluated for his PTSD symptoms in September of that year, but the physician noted that his mood was “better.”
When providers called Johnson in October 2014, he requested to put off further assessment for PTSD, saying he was busy remodeling his mother’s house, according to the records. He had previously told providers he planned to find a job in construction and that his long-term goal was to become a self-defense instructor.
Johnson’s mother, Delphene Johnson, has said her son sought medical care from the VA for a back injury but got no help after filling out forms and going to meetings. He “just finally gave up,” she told TheBlaze, a news site founded by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.
Dallas VA spokesman Ozzie Garza did not immediately respond to questions regarding Johnson’s treatment within the VA North Texas Health Care System, the second largest VA health care system in the country.
In May 2014, new patients seeking mental health care at the Dallas VA faced a 50-day average wait, then the 10th longest in the nation.
The mother of Gavin Long, the former Marine and Iraq war veteran who killed three law enforcement officers July 17 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told PBS’ Tavis Smiley that her son had post-traumatic stress disorder and unsuccessfully sought the VA’s help.
August 25, 2016
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA News Wire Contributor)
The Black Press lost one of it’s most celebrated warriors when George Curry, veteran journalist and former Editor-In-Chief of the NNPA News Wire, died from an apparent heart attack on Saturday, August 20. Curry was 69.
He passed away in suburban Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
“On behalf of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), we are all saddened and heartbroken by the sudden passing of one our most admired, respected, and gifted colleagues, George E. Curry,” said NNPA President Dr. Benjamin Chavis. “Black America, and in fact millions of African people all over the world, had come to know George Curry as a fearless scholar and writer who used his pen and wit to aggressively advance the cause of freedom, justice and equality for Black people and for the whole of humanity.
“George was our trusted comrade on the frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement and on the front pages of the Black Press of America. We will miss him.”
It’s hard to believe that Curry, who led the NNPA as Editor-In-Chief of its news wire from 2003 to 2007 and then from 2012 to 2015, has died, said Washington Informer Publisher and NNPA Chair Denise Rolark Barnes, who called Curry a giant in the journalism profession.
“As publisher of ‘The Washington Informer,’ I admired George's leadership as Editor-In-Chief of ‘Emerge,’ the preeminent monthly news magazine targeting issues impacting African-Americans,” Rolark Barnes said. “George’s uncompromising journalistic leadership delivered on Emerge’s promise to deliver edgy, hard-hitting, intellectual, well-written and thoroughly researched content that attracted national attention and left an indelible mark on the lives of many.
“As a member and now chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, I was honored to carry George’s weekly column in ‘The Washington Informer’ and to work with him while he served as Editor-In-Chief of the NNPA News Wire. George provided so much of his time, energy, wisdom and incredible journalistic genius to the Black Press,” she said.
“His work will stand as a lasting legacy of journalistic excellence and integrity of which all of us in the Black Press and the journalism industry at-large can feel extremely proud. My prayers and sympathy extend to his family and closest companions. He will be sorely missed.”
Freddie Allen, the managing editor of the NNPA News Wire, called Curry an icon in the Black Press and said that his legacy of mentoring young journalists will bear fruit for many years to come.
Recently, Allen and Curry were part of a Black media delegation that worked with the Black AIDS Institute to cover the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.
“George taught me what it meant to be a professional journalist and also about the importance of working in the Black Press,” Allen said. “His writing and insight on critical issues affecting the Black community will be sorely missed. I’m thankful for the time we spent together in Durban.”
Curry was a consummate journalist with integrity as his mantra, said Dorothy R. Leavell, publisher of the Crusader newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Indiana.
“We shall miss this voice of reason and thought-provoking columns full of researched facts. It was just the week of August 13th that George wrote a column titled ‘Even Funerals Are Not Family Reunions Anymore.’ He used his family as an example of the loss of closeness that he had enjoyed during his childhood and early adult life and bemoaned the fact that at his cousin Charlene’s funeral the week before that closeness was no longer there,” Leavell said.
“What was ironic is that he pledged that he would try to get his family back together by saying, ‘Neither Big Mama nor Aunt Julia Mae would be pleased that our once close-knit family is in shambles, but as long as I have breath in me, I am going to try to get my family back together. I know it’s a very long shot, but I owe that to Big Mama and Aunt Julia Mae to keep trying.’
“I’m sure George meant to keep that pledge and perhaps the closeness of his family will become a reality, but at a large cost,” said Leavell, adding that she hoped his family will reunite at his funeral. “We miss you already, George.”
"George Curry was the consumate professional,” said Los Angeles Sentinel Publisher and Former NNPA Chairman Danny J. Bakewell Sr.
“Not only was he an award winning journalist and supporter of The Black Press, but he was a man driven by the understanding of the importance of the Black Press within our community. He understood and promoted its history, its significance and its power. George was not only a personal friend but I will forever be indebted to George for all of his work in helping elevate NNPA during my time as Chairman.
“We were able to accomplish some amazing things, we brought on national advertisers who were taught the importance of all of our papers and wouldn't allow them to pick us apart because George understood and helped promote the ideaology that a United Black Press (NNPA) was a stronger and much more Powerful Black Press.”
“I am heartbroken to learn that Mr. George Curry has passed. He has been a beacon for so many and a pivotal voice among black publishers. His strength and pursuit for the truth will carry on in the lives he touched,” said NABJ President Sarah Glover.
“I had the chance to talk with him recently at the Democratic National Convention. His 5,000 watt smile stays etched in my mind. On behalf of the entire NABJ family, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”
The news of Curry’s death not only reverberated throughout Black media, the loss was also felt in the halls of government.
“The Congressional Black Caucus joins with members of the press from around the country to mourn the loss of George E. Curry, a pioneer in Civil Rights and journalism,” CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), said in a statement. “Curry was a giant in journalism and he stood on the frontlines of the Civil Rights era and used his voice to tell our stories when others would not. The CBC offers our sympathies and condolences to his friends and family, his readers from around the country, and to the countless number of individuals he mentored in the art of reporting and journalistic writing until his untimely death.”
“George Curry was a good friend and true journalist who understood his responsibility to the African American community and the power of his words to create impactful change,” said Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
“He was a celebrated standard bearer within the profession who believed very deeply in the Black press and its role in documenting the untold stories within our communities. When mainstream publications ignored the major tragedies or achievements encapsulating Black lives in America, we could always count on George to help ensure black news became mainstream news. Long before social media, George’s magazine, Emerge, was our collective platform for provoking thoughtful discussion on the many challenges facing our community.”
Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton even took a moment from her busy campaign to express her thoughts about Curry, whom she called a friend.
“I am saddened by the loss of an outstanding journalist and supportive friend. George E. Curry was a pioneering journalist, a tireless crusader for justice, and a true agent of change,” Clinton said in a statement. “With quality reporting, creativity, and skillful persuasion he influenced countless people, including me, to think beyond their narrow experience and expand their understanding. George may be gone, but he will not be forgotten.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton called Curry a “trailblazer” and said he was “saddened beyond words” at news of Curry’s death.
In 2003, Curry was named “Journalist of the Year” by the National Association of Black Journalists and he’s also on NABJ’s list of the Most Influential Black Journalists of the 20th Century.
“We pledge to keep the journalistic genius and spirit of George Curry alive in all that we will do in the future to sustain the liberating and empowering voice of Black owned newspapers and media companies,” Chavis said.
“George and I were life-long friends and co-workers at the NNPA, NAACP, SCLC, ANC and just about every other national and international organization that is serious about demanding justice and equality. The legacy of freedom-fighter journalists like George Curry will never pass away, but will always be kept dear and present in our continued struggles to liberate all from injustice.”