Christopher "Dudus" Coke Wanted

Christopher "Dudus" Coke, 40, a Jamaican national, is wanted by the US authorities on a number of drug and weapon offenses. See the story here.

The U.S. has officially asked the Jamaican government to hand him over to face those charges and has complained about the tardiness on the part of Jamaican government to do so. See the extradition request here.

"The U.S. government is looking forward to the Jamaican government respecting their obligations under the treaty," Patricia Attkisson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, said.

Acknowledging the request for Christopher Dudus Coke's extradition, a Jamaican official responded:

“The Government has been notified and discussions are taking place. It is principally the prerogative of the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s office”, Foreign Affairs Minister Kenneth Baugh said.

Coke's lawyer, Tom Tavares-Finson, said he had not seen any paperwork and did not know why the U.S. was interested in his client. He claimed that Coke had no connections with the United States and was also not sure if his client would turn himself in voluntarily.

"We're waiting to hear what the decision is," said Tavares-Finson, who has dismissed the U.S. charges as "hype."

According to reports, Coke is the alleged leader of the "Shower Posse" gang. He is charged in the U.S. Southern District of New York with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. Coke faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. Under the Extradition Treaty, accused persons do not have to sell illicit drugs in the United States to be convicted in that country. See a report in the Jamaican newspaper the Jamaica Gleaner concerning the U.S.- Jamaican Extradition Treaty.

Christopher Coke is not only politically well-connected to the governing party in Jamaica, the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party), he is also the recognized leader of his community of Tivoli Gardens in downtown Kingston. His influence stretches across the entire island of Jamaica and overseas to the U.S. and England. His extradition to the U.S. would likely have huge ramifications among his followers and his community.

View Tivoli Gardens, Jamaica in a larger map

Another Jamaican newspaper, the Jamaica Observer gives this perspective on Coke, as well as some background information. His aliases include Dudus, President and Shortman:

"He is the leading figure among JLP garrisons and many leaders in those communities report to him. He is tremendously powerful and is feared by friends and foes alike"

According to an article in Jamaicaviews.com, there could be social unrest if Coke was to be extradited. He has the legitimacy that the government can only envy among the urban poor. A Caribbean scholar with knowledge of the workings of inner-city communities across the region put it this way:

“For the people, legitimacy in the Government stops at Carib 5 cinema (in Cross Roads). From that point down, he (Dudus) is more legitimate than the Government. He has a monopoly of force and consensual power because he has legitimacy that the Government of Jamaica cannot even dream to have where the urban poor is concerned.”

“What does a government do when they have created a government within a government? What do they now do when they have to hand up this government to another government?” he asked. “He (Dudus) can get kids to be off the street at 8:30 pm. The Government does not even have the power to scratch anybody’s hair much more to do something like that. People feel safer in Tivoli Gardens than anywhere else. It is the safest garrison. This is touchy. In a country that barely understands order, you have found somebody to provide order in the midst of chaos because downtown is chaos. What do you do with him?”

The government in Jamaica is under pressure to respond to the U.S. request for extradition from the opposition party the PNP (People's National Party). Peter Bunting, Opposition spokesman on national security, claims that the Government's failure to extradite Tivoli Gardens strongman, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, has caused a stand-off between Washington and Kingston.

Peter Bunting, said in a press statement that the longer the Government took to honor the US request to send Coke to stand trial, the country's national interests and international reputation was being jeopardized.

"It is completely untrue," said Minister of Justice and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne:

"The Jamaican Government has, indeed, responded through the channels laid down in the Extradition Treaty between Jamaica and the United States and there is ongoing communication between the authorities of both states," she said in a press statement.

There has also been criticism of Jamaica's Prime Minister, Bruce Golding. Tivoli Gardens is his constituency and he has mostly been silent on the requested extradition of Christopher Coke. An editorial asked a question that Prime Minister Golding needs to answer clearly and unequivocally:

That question is "whether the Government's loyalties lie with those who hold that the end justifies the means or the citizens of this country who are committed to order and the rule of law".

According to Claude Robinson, a journalist with the Jamaica Observer:

All that can be expected of the Prime Minister is a simple and clear statement acknowledging the request and affirming that it will be dealt with in accordance with our democracy and our constitution without regard to the political affiliation of the target of the request. Once that due process is complete, the country will be told the full outcome. That's all that was expected from the prime minister. He should have delivered.

So the question remains, as it has for over two months now:

Will the Jamaican government hand over Christopher "Dudus" Coke to the U.S. authorities to answer the criminal charges against him?

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Honeymoon in Jail

I know love can make one do strange things and I would assume that a newly wed couple would want to spend some quality time together. Well, Brian Dykes and Mindy McGhee's idea of quality time landed the Tennessee honeymooners in big trouble on their wedding night.

Brian Dykes and Mindy McGhee were married Wednesday at the Angel's View Wedding Chapel in Sevierville's Black Bear Ridge Resort where  they also rented one of the resort cabins.

View Black Bear Ridge Resort in a larger map

According to a police report, a resort worker  noticed the couple's car back outside the chapel around 1:00 a.m. After the car left, the worker found the chapel had been burglarized and a lock-box with cash was missing.

Sevier County sheriff's deputies found Dykes and McGhee at a Pigeon Forge restaurant. The sheriff's department said the couple confessed and turned over a lock-box with nearly $500.

They are being held in the Sevier County Jail on bonds of $10,000 each. Hopefully they are in different cells, just in case they come up with another crazy scheme - like trying to break out of jail.

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Homeowner Thwarts Burglars

Patrick Rosario, 32, a recently laid-off employee of Washington Mutual, was alone at home doing some work in the basement. He heard noises coming from upstairs and went to check it out. That was when Rosario realized he was being robbed. He called 911. Then he discovered that the thieves' van was outside, left running, with the keys in the ignition. Well Rosario did the first thing that came to his mind - He stole the van!! He drove it a few blocks away and waited for the police. According to him: "The good guys win for once."

It all began on Tuesday afternoon when the former technology-program manager happened to be in the basement of his three-story home, building a fiberglass part for his stylized car. His wife, Jamie, was at work; his 2-year-old son, Thomas, at day care.

At around 1:35 p.m., Rosario heard what he thought was a knock at the front door. Then — a loud noise. For a second, he thought it might be the Thursday housekeepers, but then he realized it was only Tuesday. He walked up the stairs, peered through a one-inch opening under the door into the main living area, and saw a pair of unfamiliar jeans. Then, a sound he did recognize — the serpentine slap of electric cords against hardwood, as one of his three flat-screen TVs was being hoisted away.

Fortunately the thieves did not hear Rosario. Rosario hurried back downstairs, grabbing a hammer along the way for protection while dialing 911. He ran out the back door towards the front of the house and hid behind a garbage can. The 911 dispatcher was still with him on the phone when Rosario noticed the white Ford Windstar van parked in front of his house. The exhaust fumes were sputtering out of the idling vehicle. Rosario approached the unattended van and:

Against the 911 dispatcher's advice, Rosario announced he was going to take it. What jury in the world was going to convict him, he thought?

He drove up a steep hill away from the house, figuring whoever was ransacking his home wouldn't be able to keep up on foot. He stopped a few blocks away in front of a friend's house and waited for the police.

Meanwhile, back at his home, a passing driver visiting an across-the-street neighbor saw the burglars exit the house. According to the detectives' report, "the males looked back ... and appeared startled." The two fled the house toward busy Southeast Newport Way, leaving a pile of flat-screen TVs by the door, along with Rosario's laptop, game consoles and his wife's jewelry box.

"I kept a pretty cool head," Rosario said. "You never know how you're going to react until you're in that situation."

"I wish I could have seen the look on their faces," Rosario said.

The suspects are still at large. Both are described as approximately 20 years old, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. Even as detectives took Rosario's report, the story apparently was making the rounds. Rosario said he received more than a few high-fives from other responding officers.

"Two pulled up, and they looked over at me and go, 'You stole their car — way to go, dude. That's awesome.' Another told me that I just made her month."

King County Sheriff's Department spokesman John Urquhart wouldn't say whether Rosario's actions were advisable. "We expect responsible adults to make their own decisions," he said. "Clearly, this worked in this case, but in another case it might not have."

Patrick Rosario also realizes that he was lucky and things could have turned out much differently. A day earlier and he'd have been napping with his young son. "I would have been trapped in my bedroom," he said.

"I got lucky," Rosario said. "In retrospect, it was pretty stupid."

Killer of Homeless Man Caught

Benjamin Mathew Martin, 30, was arrested at about 11:45 am on Jan. 22 2009 for setting a homeless man ablaze, killing him while he slept. The homeless man was later identified as John Robert McGraham, 55. The killing of John McGraham, which occurred on Oct 9 2008, garnered significant media attention both because of the brutal nature of the attack and because the attack occurred without any provocation. Read the full story here.

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John McGraham was also featured on the TV program America's Most Wanted which painted a melancholy picture of John's life, who grew up with an abusive father, had an ill-fated love affair and suffered from depression which ultimately led to his homelessness.

The gruesome slaying of John Robert McGraham, 55, as he sat on his usual corner at 3rd and Berendo streets in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles on  Oct. 9, galvanized the multi-ethnic, largely working-class neighborhood. Martin is Latino, as are the neighborhood people who regularly gave McGraham -- who was white -- food and clothes. LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said the alleged motivation for the killing appears to be "straight-up personal dislike." The crime provoked widespread introspection about the dangers faced by homeless people in the state. Hundreds gathered for vigils at the corner that McGraham called home.

"The attack occurred without any apparent provocation. The victim was totally helpless," said LAPD Chief William J. Bratton. "The suspect intentionally set the victim on fire and then ran from the scene, leaving a red plastic gasoline container."

Benjamin Martin was described as a former barber in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood with a grudge against the homeless. He has a previous criminal record for a drug offense. It was with the help of eyewitnesses and by matching his DNA on file, with evidence found at the crime scene, that the police were able to identify and eventually capture Martin. He was taken into custody in Rancho Mirage - 120 miles away from the scene of the murder.

McGraham's sister, Susanne McGraham-Paisley, was very grateful to the police and the community for their support in capturing her brother's killer. After hearing the news she called her brother David McGraham, who lives in Washington state. She started to cry soon after he picked up the phone.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"No, David, it's OK," she said between sobs. "They got him."

He grew tearful as he recalled the phone call. "I thought, 'My God, I can't believe it. They got him.' "

Man Shot in Movie Brawl

James Joseph Cialella Jr, 29, is in a lot of trouble. He was arrested, charged with: Attempted murder, Aggravated assault, Violation of firearms act, Possession of an instrument of crime, Simple assault and Reckless endangerment of another person. He is accused of firing a shot that broke the arm of Woffard Lomax Jr., 31, of Yeadon, during the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

The incident happened at about 9:30 p.m. on Christmas night, inside the Riverview Movie Theater on Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia. Earlier reports say that according to the police, James Cialella was upset that the Lomax family - who were also at the theater, seated in front of him - were making so much noise that he could not watch the movie. He asked them to be quiet and when that failed he threw popcorn at the son. The boy's father, Woffard Lomax, started to quarrel with Cialella, who pulled a gun - a black colored Kel-Tec .380 handgun - from his waist and shot him in the left arm, breaking it.

Police said James Joseph Cialella, of the 1900 block of Hollywood Street, was still in the theater complex when they arrived. Officers recovered the Kel-Tec .380 caliber handgun from the front of Cialella's waist, clipped inside his sweatpants.

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However, Attorney Greg Pagano, Cialella's lawyer tells a much different story. Pagano says 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella was being choked and punched as he tried to break up a fight, in which another person was pistol-whipped, in the Philadelphia theater on Christmas night. He says his client is an Iraq war veteran who fired in self-defense.

The victim, Woffard Lomax, testified that a brawl broke out after a man - not Cialella - told his group to be quiet. Lomax says he started fighting with that person when another man pulled out a gun and fired. A judge ordered Cialella held for trial.