`The Greeks' Trial Expected To Start Monday In High Security Courtroom

A trial is finally expected to start Monday against five alleged members of The Greeks, charged in a series of gangland slayings in the Vernon area in 2004 and '05.  More than two dozen Crown and defence lawyers are involved in the trial which may hear up to 200 witnesses. ``We anticipated this day would come,'' says RCMP Inspector Al Haslett. ``It took alot of work to get here, between ourselves and our Crown counsel team, and now we are prepared and ready to start.'' Haslett says the investigation and preparation of the case has already cost millions of taxpayers' dollars. He says the trial is expected to last ten months to a year. Pre-trial motions began three years ago. The case is to be heard in a high-security Vancouver courtroom which was originally built for the Air India murder trial. The five are charged in connection with three slayings, part of a crime wave involving the drug trade which left seven people dead.

 

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federal judge has sentenced the wife of a former Philadelphia police officer to 10 years and six months in prison for plotting to steal heroin from a drug dealer and resell it for cash

federal judge has sentenced the wife of a former Philadelphia police officer to 10 years and six months in prison for plotting to steal heroin from a drug dealer and resell it for cash, a scheme that also involved her husband and two other officers.

Christal Snyder, 28, pleaded guilty earlier this year to helping plan the heist by passing information between her husband, two other police officers, and Angel Ortiz, a drug dealer who has children with Snyder's sister.

Snyder's husband, Robert, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last week. The couple's three children - ages 11, 7, and 4 months - will be cared for by Christal Snyder's mother while their parents are in prison.

"This is one of the most painful sentencings I've been a part of," U.S. District Court Chief Judge Harvey Bartle said during Monday's proceedings. "It is indeed one of the saddest."

Snyder, her husband, Ortiz, and two other officers planned to steal almost 300 grams of heroin from a drug dealer last year. The officers discussed the scheme with a man they believed was a drug dealer and money launderer, but in fact was an undercover DEA agent who recorded their conversations.

Moments after a drug courier delivered heroin to Ortiz last May, Officers Mark Williams and James Venziale pretended to stop Ortiz's car and arrest him, giving the courier the impression that the drugs were seized. The officers and Ortiz planned to have the drugs resold and split the profits.

Venziale pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 31/2 years in prison. Williams, convicted in a trial, has not yet been sentenced.

Snyder and her husband were also charged and sentenced for plotting to rob a supposed Mafioso of cash.

Snyder's attorney, Robert McCann, asked that Bartle impose the minimum sentence of 10 years. Before Snyder's arrest last July, she had no criminal record, and McCann said she had cooperated with authorities.

"She took responsibility," he said.

McCann said that Snyder was not a danger to the public and was remorseful. Snyder will serve her time in either Connecticut or West Virginia, McCann said, adding that family members would not be able to afford to visit more than twice a year.

Snyder said little during the sentencing and barely raised her head. Sniffling, she told Bartle that her 7-year-old daughter has a medical condition that may require surgery and that their 11-year-old daughter, "cries a lot" since the arrests.

"It hurts so much to think about being away from my children," she said.

More than a dozen tearful friends and family members sat in the courtroom, including Snyder's husband, whom McCann said she had known since she was 13.

Bartle called Snyder's actions "incomprehensible" and said his heart went out to her children.

"Your desire to satisfy your greed seemed to be more important than the welfare of your children," he said. "You lost your moral compass."

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Snoop Dogg wants TV talent show for the hood

Snoop Dogg fancies taking on Simon Cowell at his own game - but he's gonna do his talentspotting in da hood.

"The American Idol and X Factor shows, they're great shows," said 39-year-old Snoop yesterday.

"But I think I need to make a show like that, that's straight directed to the hood. To the artists that don't get that attention, that don't have the money to make themselves representable. This raw talent and ability."

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In a direct call to US TV networks, he added: "I'm looking for a deal from one of you TV networks to give Snoop Dogg his own hood TV show where I can find America's hottest hood artists. Holla at me."

But first the rapper, who is in London to promote his latest album Doggumentary, has another dream to achieve...

He says: "I want to open up a chain of supermarkets, I want to call them Snoopermarkets."

You heard it hear first, folk

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Two men are to stand trial accused of being part of a racist white gang that "targeted and killed" the black teenager Stephen Lawrence because of the colour of his skin

Two men are to stand trial accused of being part of a racist white gang that "targeted and killed" the black teenager Stephen Lawrence because of the colour of his skin, the appeal court has said.

The killing in 1993 in Eltham, south-east London, is one of the most high-profile unsolved murders in Britain.

The men charged are David Norris, who has never before been charged over the stabbing, and Gary Dobson, who stood trial previously and was found not guilty.

Dobson was acquitted of killing Lawrence, 18, after a private murder prosecution brought in 1996 by the parents of the talented youngster who dreamed of being an architect.

A new law established in 2003 abolished the longstanding ban on people being retried for the same crime after being found not guilty, if "compelling" new evidence came to light.

The appeal court agreed on Wednesday that new evidence was compelling enough to allow Dobson's acquittal to be quashed.

In effect, the appeal court, in a ruling by the lord chief justice of England and Wales, wiped the legal slate clean. This means Dobson and Norris will stand trial for the murder of Lawrence, in November at the Old Bailey in central London.

The Crown Prosecution Service and police charged Dobson and Norris in September 2010, but some of the toughest reporting restrictions on the media meant the dramatic development in the long-running case could not be reported until now.

In March, a hearing was held at the appeal court to decide if the acquittal of Dobson could be set aside, watched by Lawrence's parents, Doreen and Neville. The media was also banned from reporting that hearing.

The judgment says the murder of Stephen Lawrence was a "calamitous crime" and declares he was "a young black man of great promise, targeted and killed by a group of white youths just because of the colour of his skin".

The new evidence that convinced the appeal court to quash Dobson's acquittal is based on forensics.

The media is restricted in its reporting to Wednesday's judgment from the court of appeal.

According to a summary of its judgment: "The present application depends on the reliability of new scientific evidence which by reference to the grey bomber jacket (LH/5) and the multi-coloured cardigan (ASR/2) closely links Dobson with the fatal attack on Stephen Lawrence.

"It does not and could not demonstrate that Dobson wielded the knife which caused the fatal wound, but given the circumstances of the attack on Stephen Lawrence – that is, a group of youths in a violent enterprise converging on a young man, and attacking him as a group – it would be open to a jury to conclude that any one of those who participated in the attack was party to the killing and guilty of murder, or alternatively manslaughter (a verdict which would, if there had been sufficient evidence, also have been available at the first trial).

"If reliable, the new scientific evidence would place Dobson in very close proximity indeed to Stephen Lawrence at the moment of and in the immediate aftermath of the attack; proximity, moreover, for which no innocent explanation can be discerned."

Counsel for Dobson, Timothy Roberts QC, argued the new forensics were unreliable because they "are likely to be the product of contamination over the years, that is, by contact with Stephen Lawrence's blood and his clothing". This was "the result of outdated or incompetent storage or packaging or transporting arrangements".

Furthermore, Roberts said Dobson's acquittal should stand because "the huge wave of constant publicity over the years, directly identifying some of those suspected of the murder with involvement in the crime" meant there could not be a fair trial.

In the judgment by the lord chief justice, the appeal court decided there was enough new evidence for Dobson to stand trial for Lawrence's murder for a second time: "There is sufficient reliable and substantial new evidence to justify the quashing of the acquittal and to order a new trial.

"This decision means – and we emphasise that it means no more than that – the question whether Dobson had any criminal involvement in Stephen Lawrence's death must be considered afresh by a new jury, which will examine the evidence and decide whether the allegation against him is proved. The presumption of innocence continues to apply."

The judgment states that its ruling does not mean that Dobson is guilty and stresses that the court of appeal "is certainly not required to usurp the function of the jury, or … indicate to the jury what the verdict should be".

Lawrence was murdered just after 10.35 pm on 22 April 1993. He was waiting at a bus stop in south-east London with a friend, Duwayne Brooks.

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