LEE COUNTY NO-JUSTICE CENTER

Have you noticed how a lot of communities are now building Justice Centers? Sounds like a good idea until you look a little closer and see the fraternity atmosphere. It is the police domain just like the courthouses. The police are in charge and they are armed to the teeth, where no one is armed? The Judges feel secure with such protection as well as the District Attorney and their minions. Pay attention and you will see all the same people at lunch somewhere, or surly in Church.

Now consider this, let’s say you get sideways from the police. It is your word against the police. Court will be held in the Justice Center. The same Judge is protected by the police and the same prosecutor and District Attorney that work with police on a daily basis. Depending on the charges there may be more police in the courtroom as spectators than witnesses. Police are often allowed in courtrooms as spectators when others may be denied especially when police actions are being challenged.

Here is another consideration: Let’s say it is obvious that the police overstepped their bounds and tramped on your constitutional rights. You get an attorney and wind up in the “Justice Center” facing the legal fraternity that will do anything to avoid guilt. I mean anything.

In Baldwin County the Prosecutor, Lead Sheriff Investigator, who is now sheriff, Judge and several sheriff deputies convicted an innocent man of capital murder. He has been in jail for 20 years. How could this happen? The Police Fraternity.

The surfacing of this second autopsy and its exclusion from Lawrence’s 2005 trial raises the specter of a “Brady Information” violation in the case that his attorney believes should at least afford him a new trial. Lawrence was convicted in a trial that had no physical evidence identifying him as the killer.

AUBURN POLICE, NO NOTIFICATION

Alabama has a horrible reputation when it comes to wrongful convictions, excessive sentencing and the worst jails. Auburn is no exception. Alabama is also the worst, according to the FBI, for police officers that are fired from one police department and are hired by other police departments or the sheriff departments, who just overlook any facts of the officers firing. The police and sheriff departments will fight tooth and nail not to disclose an officer’s personal file and any history of previous firings, as well as any camera footage that taxpayers pay for.

The Ripp Report heard of a case in Auburn Alabama that got our attention. Cole Barkley, a family man in a middle income neighborhood had an alcohol problem that would change his life. Cole had sought treatment for his alcohol addiction and indeed completed a one year treatment. His life seemed on track until he lost his job and he fell off the wagon into depression. His wife Nicole was at home with her three children. Cole was intoxicated and Nicole became aware of the fact that he had a small pistol in his shirt pocket. She became concerned that in his depression that he may harm “himself”, she had no fear of him hurting her or the children. She calls 911 and informs them that she does not have any fear of him hurting her; however she is concerned about Cole harming himself. Cole had no knowledge that she called 911 and they called the police. A single police officer from the Auburn Police department responds to the call, he did not use a siren. It was requested by Nicole not to use a siren as she did not want to escalate the situation. Upon arrival the officer approaches the front door as Nicole is exiting the house with her youngest child in her arms. She advised the officer her other children were in the house. The officer approaches the front door and rapidly retreats when he sees Mr. Barkley standing in the foyer of the house. The officer later states “he was pointing a snub nose revolver at him”. After retreating from the door the officer then charges the partially opened door and starts firing his weapon shooting through the door and side glass panels. The officer never identified that he was a police officer and Cole had no knowledge of police being called.

Listen closely and you can hear the officer firing and then a short pause and you hear Mr Barkley return fire hitting the ceiling and above the door, inside the house. If Mr. Barkley had the gun in his hand and the officer fired he would have fired before the officer unloaded his gun, not afterwards. Keep in mind he is in his house and the door is almost closed. His wife told the officer that children were in the house and the officer immediately started shooting. The officer’s personnel record was never made public nor any information about previous employers. Cole was hit multiple times and remained on the floor bleeding for a few hours, it was a miracle he did not die. The officer was from the Auburn Police department and the Barkley home is outside Auburn Police Jurisdiction? Upon discharge from the hospital Cole was taken to Lee County Jail and charged with attempted murder.

“The crime of attempted murder can be charged when a person intends to commit murder and tries to carry out the killing but, for whatever reason, is unable to accomplish it. Like murder itself, attempted murder is a serious crime and one that comes with some of the most severe penalties in the criminal justice system.”

Cole never had any intent of murder, the fact is he returned fire on someone firing on him in his house. The police officer never announced who he was before firing through the door.

There is no weapons course in the United States that endorses shooting through a door or at something you cannot see.

The statement given by Nicole is different from the police report. The police report is slanted towards justification of the officer shooting. Nicole’s statement is supported by facts.

Auburn had experienced a police officer being killed and two wounded in the 2019 case of Grady Wilkes. This was a high profile case that emotionally affected the police and community. It involved police approaching a closed door and the occupant opening fire. The difference is police announced their presence in the Wilkes incident, where they did not announce their presence in the Barkley case.

Mr. Barkley may have been guilty of a crime however it was not attempted murder, so how come he was convicted? Because if the police were found at fault for the shooting through the door and not announcing he was a police officer, the city and police could be held liable. That could be potentially millions of dollars.

Do you think that the police, city, judge, and prosecutor were not aware of what their legal vulnerability was? There is a motivation to convict on this basis alone.

I did not attend the trial however I have read many legal documents relative to the case. I did attend the sentencing hearing in the Lee County Justice Center where there was an audience of police officers in the back of the room plus all the other officers working in the courtroom.

Judge Tickle was the presiding Judge. He was formerly a prosecutor for 15 years and tried hundreds of cases in both Opelika municipal and Lee County Courts. He is also a member of the First Baptist Church where he serves as a Sunday School teacher for high school students. Nothing funny about Judge Tickle who has allegedly bragged about sentencing over 3000 years of prison time. Figure what that would be at a 15 thousand a year for each year incarcerated. If that is true it sure does not sound christian.

At the sentencing hearing the good Judge sentenced Mr. Barkley to 45 years in jail. The police in attendance were ecstatic and the prosecutor and District Attorney gladly shook police hands.

No one was shot, the police did not announce their presence. Mr. Barkley had no idea that police were called, who shot him through a door, after being told children were in the house. Mr. Barkley had never been convicted of a violent crime. I am sure a crime was committed however it was not an attempted murder. A sentence “must not be grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime, or be shocking to the sense of justice or the conscience of reasonable persons, or outrage the moral sense of the community,” as required by s 15 of the 1901 Alabama Constitution.

The sentence was “grossly disproportionate”. The newspapers and TV did not cover the trial or sentencing; their editors did not want to upset the police or status quo. And the city escaped any responsibility or accountability. The Judge racked up another 45 years on his tally of incarceration. Justice was not served, it was abused.

It will now take more lawyers and judges to unwind this excessive sentence and charge. This will all take money and Nicole who called for help, is now working two jobs to finance the appeal. It is easy to put someone in jail and very difficult and expensive getting them out.

The legal process is broken today you are guilty first and it is incumbent on you to prove your innocence, which is impossible if you face the fraternity.

Mr. Barkley’s case is being appealed, as it should. The Justice Center Fraternity is alive and well and citizens are kept in the dark. Thanks to the local news media and their lack of any “moral sense to the community.” This is why Alabama maintains it’s reputation as the most corrupt state in the United States.

DON’T THINK THIS COULD NOT HAPPEN TO YOU!