Richard Scrushy’s probation officer wants the former
HealthSouth CEO to wear a LoJack on his ankle after Scrushy went AWOL in south Florida. Scrushy was on vacation with his family to Disney World when he left his approved hotel for warmer climates near Miami, according to the probation officer’s report.
Last June, a federal jury in Montgomery convicted Scrushy of bribing former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman for a seat on the Certificates of Needs Board, an influential hospital regulatory agency. Since then his attorneys have engaged the government in a bizarre series of motions, alleging that jurors had improperly taken information from the Internet, against the court’s instructions.
Lead defense attorney, Art Leach, says that Scrushy was within the parameters of his parole rules and that no violation occurred. According to Leach, Scrushy had permission to visit family and friends in south Florida during his stay there.
“Since November of 2003, with the exception of a short period between his acquittal in Birmingham and his indictment in Montgomery, Richard has lived with the requirements of probation office supervision,” Leach said in a press release this week. “He has always maintained a solid relationship with the probation officers that supervise him.”
Now the feds say Scrushy is a flight risk and they want him monitored more closely as his sentencing date approaches. Federal Magistrate Judge Charles Coody has scheduled a hearing next month to hear arguments.
Meanwhile, friends of Gov. Siegelman are soliciting letters of support to be used during his upcoming sentencing — a sign that the long-awaited date could happen soon. A series of emails sent out this week encouraged Siegelman’s supporters to write letters emphasizing the former governor’s redeeming qualities. So far, U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller has been meticulous beyond measure to avoid having last year’s guilty verdict overturned, and Siegelman’s sentencing date has remained in limbo. But with this development, it seems that date might be near.
Following Scrushy’s indictment in 2003, authorities required Scrushy to wear a similar tracking device on his ankle, but “structural” issues of his Vestavia Hills mansion interfered with its transmission.
In other news …
Birmingham radio talk show host Frank Matthews is pushing the Birmingham City Council to pass a resolution apologizing for American slavery — never mind that Birmingham was first incorporated in 1871, six years after the Civil War and eight years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
The proposed resolution follows another symbolic gesture that the council rejected last week. That resolution proposed that Birmingham join the Partnership for Inclusive Communities, condemning all forms of bigotry, including discrimination by sexual preference. Several councilors attacked that resolution, saying that it was superfluous and that it equated gay rights with the civil rights movement.
Several southeastern cities had already passed the Inclusive Communities resolution, including Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte and Nashville, as well as a few Alabama cities — Selma, Talledgea, Valley and Aliceville.
Read Matthews’ resolution below.
Proposed : offical City of Birmingham Resolution of Apology for Slavery .
WHEREAS,
The council of the city of Birmingham and its citizens are deeply concerned about persistence and growing,racial discrimination, related intolerance and acts of violence; and
WHEREAS,
Acknowledging that there is a difference between what is wrong and right; and that slavery as an American “Institution” was a wrong committed upon millions of Black Americans and that their ancestors are the beneficiary of such wrongs including, but not limited to, segregation under Jim Crow, housing discrimination, discrimination in education, and other ills inflicted upon black people; and
WHEREAS, The Birmingham City Council, the Mayor, and its citizens are conscious of the facts of slavery that the many atrocities and gross violations of human rights that slavery imposed upon black people, and that knowing this can and will avert future tragedies, be they in the Sudan, or other parts of the world: and
WHEREAS, The City of Birmingham has a long history of civil rights involvement and is on the cutting edge of effective measures to promote racial tolerance(the Birmingham Pledge is an example of establishing the Beloved Community); and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Birmingham, with Mayor Bernard Kincaid concurring, that we resolve-to apologize for slavery and its after affects in the United State of America;and expresses our deepest sympathies and solemn regrets to those who were enslaved and the descendants of slaves,who might have been deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United State; and encourage that we remembers and teach about the history of slavery , Jim Crow, and modern day slavery, to ensure that these tragedies will neither be forgotten nor repeated.Resolution to be presented to City Council April 3, 2007
— Kyle Whitmire
Popularity: 4% [?]
