| Dec. 2, 2009: NAACP demands answers regarding indictment |
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Posted: Thursday, December 3, 2009 3:13 pm
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED Dec. 2, 2009
By GERRY L. DICKERT
The Bee
The Jasper chapter of the NAACP spoke out in support of two Silsbee teens who were indicted this past week of sexual assault of a child.
The family of one of the two young men accused of sexual assault requested that the Jasper chapter of the NAACP come to Hardin County in support of their arguments against indictments leveled by a second grand jury.
Christian Rountree along with his mother, Martha Jordan, and sister Chelsea Morgan, were on hand for the NAACP appearance. Rahkeem Bolton was in the courthouse at the time but did not attend the gathering.
Rountree and Bolton, both students at Silsbee High School at the time of the alleged incident, were indicted this past Tuesday in the sexual assault accusation leveled by a 16-year-old cheerleader at SHS.
The incident is said to have taken place at a house party in Silsbee on Oct. 19, 2008.
Both young men, along with a 16-year-old juvenile, were arrested after the incident and held on $100,000 bonds. A grand jury in January no-billed Rountree and Bolton and charges were dropped against the young men in the case.
A civil lawsuit was filed by the family of the cheerleader earlier this year, which was later dismissed by a federal judge. In the meantime, a new grand jury asked to hear evidence in the case. Because District Attorney David Sheffield was forced to recuse himself after being named in the family’s civil suit, a district judge named David Barlow as a special prosecutor. Barlow took his case to the new grand jury on Tuesday and after about three hours of deliberation, the jury brought back the indictments.
The NAACP, represented by president of the Jasper chapter, Billy Robinson Sr., questioned the necessity of bringing the case back before a new grand jury when the first grand jury brought a no-bill decision after its investigation.
“We have some questions that need to get answered,” said Robinson, who spoke in the Hardin County Commissioners Courtroom on Monday morning. “We want to find out the facts surrounding this case.”
Robinson’s written statement questioned a number of issues:
• Why were there no investigators or other witnesses on behalf of the boys allowed into the grand jury process?
• Why was the alleged victim the only person allowed to testify before the grand jury?
• If there was not sufficient evidence to send the case to trial after the first grand jury hearing, why was Barlow appointed and a second grand jury allowed to hear the case?
Robinson said his organization had received information through open records in regards to the testimony and evidence presented at the most recent grand jury presentation.
Robinson went on to say that his organization’s concerns also involved the perceived political motivation behind the newest grand jury investigation as well as the fact that the most recent grand jury was not representative of the community.
According to members of the group in attendance at Monday’s gathering, there was only one black member serving on this grand jury while there was a majority of black jurors on the first grand jury.
“We aren’t here to make this a race issue,” said Robinson. “We’re seeking the truth in this matter.”
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