Seriously, do the scales of justice swing differently in a gentle Carribean breeze? You be the judge...
The murder of you Jamie Cockayne has the eyes of this country and beyond glued on St.John U.S. Virgin Islands.
And the spotlight shines especially brightly on a Judge named Leon Kendall, and a justice system that seems interesting to the the least, eh? Are there parameters for judicial interpretation? We’d like to share some snippets we found particularly interesting:
May 2007: From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton
.....On April 26, I sent a formal complaint to the Virgin Island Commission on Judicial Disabilities against Superior Court Judge Leon Kendall. (According to the U.S. Virgin Islands Code “any person” can submit such a complaint.) Why? We were approached by concerned citizens and so Judicial Watch acted. Here’s what I wrote in my complaint letter:
“By numerous accounts, Judge Kendall has engaged in a disturbing pattern of conduct that has undermined public confidence in the judiciary and the administration of justice. On at least eight occasions, Judge Kendall reportedly has allowed persons arrested for violent crimes to be released back into society with little or no bail.”
Here’s just one example:
Daniel Castillo was arrested and charged with a violent attack on a woman. Despite the fact that he had an extensive criminal history, including charges of rape, assault, and weapons violations, Judge Kendall released Castillo on his own recognizance. (In other words, Castillo was allowed to leave without paying bail so long as he “promised” to appear in court when required.) Shortly after being released by Kendall, Castillo was arrested and charged with murdering a 12-year old girl. He has confessed to the crime. ....
Related:
Virgin Islands Complaint/Judicial Watch.org
ST. THOMAS, VI - The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed a federal judge’s ruling finding Virgin Islands government officials in contempt for failing to provide court-ordered mental health care and appropriate housing for mentally ill Virgin Islands prisoners......Government officials claim they have nowhere to safely house Ramos and other prisoners who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. Three years ago, then-Attorney General Alva Swan promised to build a facility suited for chronically mentally ill Virgin Islanders, including mentally ill prisoners who cannot safely be housed in the territory’s correctional facilities. No such facility has been built. Governor John DeJongh, who took office this year, and Attorney General-designee Vincent Frazier are the two officials now burdened with complying with the court’s orders. Judge Brotman noted that it was previous administrators who failed to comply with his orders and are primarily responsible for the contempt order as a result.
File this next one under the category of “Why didn’t Judge Kendall exact the same amount of bail in the Jamie Cockayne case?”:
Community-Oriented Policing Works: Suspect Charged August 7, 2006
Monday, August 7, 2006 brought a successful conclusion to the homicide of Kelmon L. David last February. At about 8:10 p.m., Mr. Kishawn J. Smith of Estate Thomas turned himself in to officers of the Virgin Islands Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit, bringing to a close a case that had remained open since it occurred on February 4, 2006. Smith was arrested on a warrant issued by Judge Leon Kendall of the Virgin Islands Superior Court, charging him with Murder in the First Degree for the shooting death of David. Unable to post one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) bail, Mr. Smith was remanded to the Detention Center awaiting a court appearance.
Onepaper.com: Shock, Horror and Judge Leon Kendall by Patrice Sotomayor
An open letter to Gov. John deJongh Jr. and the Commission of Judicial Disabilities:
I live in NY and I am writing to express my shock and horror about the actions of Judge Leon Kendall. I have been reading on the Internet about the decisions that Judge Kendall has made regarding violent offenders and I am sickened that he is still a presiding judge!
Onepaper.com: Kendall's Decision Will Keep Them Away by Tim Foreman
Dear Source:
Since I don't know the proper way to place my opinion in your paper, I will share it with you this way. My wife and I have made St. John our only vacation destination for the last 5 years. We travel there at least 3 times a year. The last time we looked seriously at real estate. I have followed the Jamie Cockayne murder through "The St. John Source". Judge Kendall's recent bail decision tells me the justice system is very poor at best.
....For the most part, stateside media, including a segment on Wednesday night’s Larry King Live, have come across the air waves as biased in favour of the Cockaynes’ allegations against local law enforcement....On Monday, August 6, Thomas came before VI Superior Court Judge, Leon Kendall for a preliminary, advice-of-rights hearing. Territory prosecutors hoped to convince Judge Kendall, whose judicial decisions are currently being monitored by a Washington D.C. watchdog group, to rule that Thomas would have to remain in custody until his trial.
However, Kendall did not agree with the nature and reasoning of the prosecutorial arguments. This was not an unusual stance for Judge Kendall, who continues to appear unaffected by ongoing criticism throughout the territory for such decisions. Bail was set at $25,000 at the hearing on the charge of witness intimidation.
Thomas again appeared before Kendall on Thursday, August 9, for a pre-trial detention hearing. Although prosecutors requested a bail amount of $500,000, the court set bail for the charge of first-degree homicide at only $75,000. Thomas is required to post only ten percent of that amount, or $7,500 to be released on bail.
Once that amount is posted, Thomas will wear a monitoring device and remain under house arrest in the custody the supervision of his uncle, since the court believes he is a flight risk. Judge Kendall indicated his decisions were based on the fact that the VI Government had not presented adequate evidence that Thomas actually committed the murder
Onepaper: Thin Line between Clever and Stupid?
by Emmett Hansen II
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) -- Police arrested a St. Croix man late Thursday and charged him with first-degree murder in the June killing of a Pennsylvania man.
Anselmo Boston, 31, is the third person charged in the slaying of James Cockayne, 21, of New Hope, Pa., who was stabbed June 19 on the island of St. John. Boston also faces assault and weapons possession charges and is being held without bail, authorities said...British Virgin Islands custom officials, as well as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, helped track Boston as he left the U.S. Virgin Islands for Antigua.
A judge earlier Thursday said he found no probable cause for a first-degree murder charge against Kamal Thomas, 18, another suspect in the case who was arrested last week. The judge said the charge was premature and influenced by media pressure, but Thomas remained in jail on $75,000 bond for the murder charge, along with assault and weapons possession charges
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Onesource: Judge Kendall's Release of Convicted Rapist Is Indefensible by Source editorial
And then of course there are the endless message boards...but the message seems to be clear: this island’s government and judicial system ain’t no paradise...can it be said it helps turn paradise into hell on earth? The Jamie Cockayne case may also be an unfortunate catalyst for change...hopefully people will do more than just talk about change....
.
VI Justice
It would appear from the outside that justice is not served. Indeed this is true. A case with so many facets is often not solved in a few weeks. The investigators will need to speak with people who had been in contact and known both the victim and the accused. Having been a resident of the Virgin Islands for 15 years, I have had the opportunity of seeing many such actions of this sort in the past. The character of the accused will come out in the investigation as soon as the people who know them feel comfortable talking to the authorities. This also stands true for the people who may have known the victim. The true character of the victim will become evident as people feel more comfortable speaking to the authorities. I am not about to pass judgment on the victim. But In my experience in matters of this sort I have found that the victim is often an antagonist in his own demise. I have many friends here and I myself frequent these same places with the same people. The people that I know who get into arguments and fights in drinking places all share one common characteristic. They cannot control their tempers when they drink alcohol, and they often get into arguments while intoxicated. While this does not justify the killing of a human being, intelligence and self control have helped myself and my friends to avoid situations like this one.
Tom, I think everyone can
Tom,
I think everyone can agree that the more you drink, the more you increase the chances of getting into troubble. However, the insistence (and it isn't just you) that Jamie was an "antagonist in own demise" is ludicrous. Court affadavits tell us that Jamie was attacked two hours after his altercation with the individuals now charged with his murder. Jamie left the bar, was chased down and butchered. This is not a consequence of drinking too much...this is premeditated murder.
If the defendants managed to do harm to the witnesses they threatened, would the witnesses be "antagonists in their own demise?" They were also in the bar drinking.
Had Jamie slammed his car into a tree while driving drunk, then yes...he would have been an antagonist in his own demise. That's not what happened here.
not what we're discussing per se
Stay on topic please, Tom, we're not talking about this endless diatribe of "townies" vs. "boaties", we're talking about what is wrong with these island governments, police, and judicial systems.
thanks
Well after much research
Well after much research this weekend, I have found that "Captain Cocaine" may have been involved in some illegal activities. There have been references to him trying to start his own dealing ring. I have many friends both on St. Thomas and on St. John. Some of my friends own businesses in St. John and are familiar with Jamie. The Front Yard bar is known as a drug bar, and a place to find dealers. I, like many of my friends are well aware of this fact, and we avoid such places. I am very certain that there are known drug bars in and around Philly also. My references to his demise did in no way relate to his use of alcohol. Let everyone find out all the facts in this case before anyone is declared innocent. I believe that there is a great deal more to be learned about the victim. Due to the nature of the answers I also feel that people who have the answers will be reluctant to give them to the authorities. Doing so would expose these people to misdemeanor and or criminal charges. In short, the people who know what really happened are Jamie’s close friends that he partied with in St. John.
Dear Much Research/Magnum PI
You know, even if you are posting anonymously, it doesn't mean you can just slander a dead kid. If Jamie's friends know something and aren't coming forward, they are obstructing the course of true justice. But that is between them and their God to deal with at this point.
However, Magnum PI, what is your irrefutable proof that this kid was up to illegal acts? Who are your sources? Maybe those who would be best served by inane slanderous babble like your comment? Hmmmm. If you have PROOF, go to the authorities, as in US Federal authorities. If you KNOW something, you have a legal and moral obligation to go to authorities. If not, I expect we'll expect to see more of your comments?
Truth is the most powerful defense in the entire world. Tell your buddies that. Any lawyer will concur.
Strange
A "known drug bar" where dealers hang out is right next door to the police station? That doesn't say much for the intelligence of your average St. John drug dealer or the capability of your average St. John cop.
So Jamie's real agenda down there in the islands was to start his own drug ring? Hmmm. He sure went to a lot of trouble to come up with a cover story....going to sailing school...getting certifications...applying for BVI working papers. You think he would have learned a lesson from ol' Kemal and just gotten a job on a St. John fishing boat.
Interesting that we now have two theories from "insiders." Magnum PI's investigation has uncovered a drug ring in the making. The defendant's roommate who posted a letter in the USVI Daily News claims that Jamie was a loudmouth drunk who got in people's faces. So which is it....is he a cunning and ambitious drug dealer or a sloppy drunk? Or maybe, just maybe, he's a kid who personified something that a couple of local scumbags hate....and they killed him for it.
Have you seen his MYSpace
Have you seen his MYSpace website:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=52526396
Well, well, well, look what
Well, well, well, look what we have here now. A rich white kid, grandson of a politician. Went to sailing school, moves to the Islands and is randomly murdered. The islands see about 40 to 60 murders per year with a population of just over 100,000 people. That is, lets see...50 divided by 100,000 is 0.05% chance of being murdered here. That is 1 in 2,000, what are the stats in your city? We also have a great deal of illegal immigrants floating in here at night by sea. The INS is overwhelmed with enforcement here. So we have an additional burden of violence from these people who are from very poor countries looking for work and not finding it. These illegals are now here, cannot work and are getting hungry for food. Crimes will then be committed in order for these illegals to feed themselves. If you attribute this to some of the murders here, and I cannot state facts, you stand a pretty good chance of not getting murdered here. I have lived here 15 years, and I have never had any one that I new, or even a friend of a friend that was murdered. So how is it that this young energetic white kid nicknamed “Captain Cocaine” http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=52526396 (please see his MySpace site) from a well off town outside of Philly gets himself into a situation that is not so common here? And then how is it that all of a sudden the news is all over the murder of this poor innocent white boy from the states. Where were CNN and Larry King when the preschool girl was missing for days when her partially decomposed body was found stuffed into a plastic crate in an abandoned house near the high school?
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article?id=17607349 Is it because the white boys granddaddy knows some people who will “go down there and get things done”?
Sorry for your loss, but please do not think that we here are a bunch of dumb island people. We see what goes on here, and we know how this story will turn out. This murder should not have happened, but do not think that your place is superior to ours.
Inferiority Complex
Listen, my friend. If Jamie was murdered in a back alley of his "well off" hometown of New Hope, PA, I can guarantee you his family would have pursued justice as broadly and vocally as they did following his murder in St. John. But I can also guarantee you that the police in his hometown would not have hosed down the murder scene before investigators arrived, would not have discarded forensic evidence because they ran out of evidence bags, would not have allowed those now charged with the crime to walk around town for six weeks even after being identified by witnesses three days after the murder and would not have allowed the car used by one of the attackers to continue to drive around the island without being impounded and searched. If that makes the police here sound, you know, all superior and stuff, then I'm really sorry.
And what about Jamie's MySpace page? What do we learn from it? That a 21 year old boy had a vulgar sense of humor and a taste for rap music? Gee, that puts him in a very select group of about a billion other kids.
If you're ashamed of your island and what it has become, I suggest you take your appeal to your governor.
bugger off well, well, well
Did you look at Jamie Cockayne's bank account? How do you know he was rich? And so what if he was white? Would it have been more convenient if he wasn't white? He was nicknamed "Captain Cocaine" because it was a play on words and how his last name sounded. He was a kid, would have undoubtedly dropped the nickname as he grew older...much like the myspace page. And as we have heard it, crime happens on your island....only if people are complacent sheep and don't raise a fuss, nothing happens or gets better. So you are going to put a dead kid on trial because of the color of his skin, because you assume his net worth, and oh, most henious of all, his grandfather pursued a political career? What an ignorant creature you are.
If you wanted Larry King to cover past crimes in the Virgin Islands, you should have done what all of us have done stateside in addition to Jamie's family: contacted the media and/or written about a great injustice yourself when it happened - not after the fact like we did something wrong because we all didn't know about certain crimes.
If you want change and you want other crimes to have justice, and you want toget over your inferiority complex, then chop, chop! Get busy. Your ilk who like to criticize and defame are the largest cowards of all: you are all so brave hidden behind your anonymous posting.
Take action in your community if you want change, and lay off a dead kid who will never see his life evolve, never fall in love, never enjoy the job he worked hard to get, never get married, never have children, never grow old, never speak again. We combine our voices stateside for Jamie Cockayne, because he cannot speak for himself. So get over your cruel self. And PS if you read blogs like this stateside, you will see this is not the first time blogs have let their voice be heard to bring killers to justice. Google and search this site for a woman named Latoyia Figueroa. She wasn't caucasion, she wasn't rich, she was brutally murdered. We all as bloggers didn't see color when we raised a hue and cry for her - we just knew it had to be done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaToyia_Figueroa and http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/1372 are but two web links for your shallow mind to follow.
Well, well, well, look at
Well, well, well, look at what we have here from the small towns near New Hope. 2,000 to 11,000 people in these cute little towns with an AVERAGE white population of, it looks like 95%. I am white by the way. And by the looks of it the average income there IS quite high compared to the surrounding area.
http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=14538
http://philadelphia.about.com/cs/fast_facts/a/diversity.htm
The average income is almost 20K above US average, and 43K above Philly? So what was that you were referring to about the bank account? Do you even have any crime there? It looks like just some burglaries, and property crime, are the rich kids out smashing mailboxes in their daddies caddy? http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_08_pa.html
Have you ever been to a big town with a larger slice of humanity? Listen, there are bad people out there, and some of them may be the people you know. When they get out into the world that they aren't used to, some times a genie is let out of a bottle. Most genies are difficult to put back into the bottle. And as you were told genies are very powerful, and hard to control. You all continue to miss the point here. Things happen for reasons. That is, events follow a very specific execution of actions.
When you know a place very well, and something happens, you just know what was done to cause that action. This is the point.
What Point?
We continue to miss the point because you have yet to make one. I'm still trying to untangle your last post.
You're still fixated on the notion that Jamie's killing got national attention because he was white, privileged and had a grandfather in politics. Wrong. Jamie's murder is not the story the media that has the media's attention. The media is interested in the botched police investigation and the stench of corruption that pervades the islands. If the STJ cops arrested these losers three days after the murder and that excuse for a judge used common sense in establishing bail, the media wouldn't have had any interest in what's happening. But hey, maybe when they find out that this is all related to a giant drug cartel that Jamie was breaking into, they'll put this right back on the front page. If only the national news media had your investigative talents.
You can go right on posting your cryptic references to "knowing" what happened, but since you're so concerned with the image of your islands, wouldn't your time be bette served writing your messages to Governor deJongh?
oh well, well, well....
...you are as pathetic as hell...
Fact
According to a recent study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, the Carribean Basin today features the highest murder rate in Latin America, at 30 per 100,000 people, as compared to 26 per 100,000 in the rest of Latin America, and 7 per 100,000 in the US.
So it isn't just about the raw number (i.e. only 3 people murdered in St. John this year.) You have to dig a little deeper to see that your chances of getting killed in the Islands is a lot higher than your chances of getting killed in the US.