Lets hope they get it right this time: New trial date set for July in Duanna Johnson case

Earlier this week in news that was as shocking as placing your tongue on a 9-volt battery, officer Bridges McRae’s trial for the beating on transgender woman, Duanna Johson, ended in a mistrial. In spite of the entire beating being caught on tape and there being several eyewitnesses to the event on juror decided to hold out for the officer’s innocence.

But a hung jury does not a free man make… The trial has now been rescheduled for July and with all new jurors. My fingers are crossed that this time…they will give Duanna the justice that both she and her loved ones so justly deserve.

Memphis, TN – A new trial date has been set for the former Memphis police officer accused of beating a transgendered woman.

Bridges McRae will face a new jury on July 12, 2010 after jurors in his first trial could not reach a verdict. Eleven jurors thought he was guilty. One juror believed he was innocent.

McRae is accused of violating Duanna Johnson’s civil rights.

Surveillance video shown during the first trial showed McRae punching Johnson while she was being processed on a prostitution charge.

If convicted, McRae could face up to ten years in federal prison.

Duanna Johnson was shot and killed about nine months after the beating. Her murder remains unsolved.

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Mistrial decalred in Duanna Johnson case

You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see this coming. However there is a bit of good news as far as I am concerned. The just which ultimately could not come to a unanimous decision was prevented from doing so by a lone holdout. One man stood between Duanna and justice.

Its nice to know that for the most part the jury actually sided with Johnson and wanted to see the man responsible for the assault (McRae) held accountable.

MEMPHIS, TN – One juror tells myEyewitnessNews.com, the justice system has failed. Will Batts with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center agrees. “It looked to be unprovoked. It looked to be excessive on the part of the police officer. It looked to be just an attack on someone in a police station with other people standing around. And it was just incredibly violent.”

At the center of the case was a video that shows McRae beating transgendered woman Duanna Johnson. “It just seems so clear cut to me,” says Batts.

Five witnesses testified the attack was unprovoked. Enough to convince all but one juror McRae was guilty of violating Johnson’s civil rights. “Talking about taking handcuffs and putting them around his knuckles,” says Batts. “That to me seems like a conscious act. That’s not an act of passion of the moment.”

McRae’s attorney, Larry Trapp claims the ten Memphis Police Officer acted in self defense against the 6’5, 250 pound Johnson. “I believe the tape, if you look at it and was diligent about it, and I believe the jury was, demonstrated he had no intent to use excessive force and he used reasonable force under the circumstances he faced.”

Johnson’s supporters tell myEyewitnessNews.com they will not take this lightly. They feel because Duanna Johnson was different, she wasn’t given due diligence. The Memphis Gay and Lesbian Center will hold a rally on April 20, 2010 at 6:30p.m. in front of the Federal Courthouse to show their disapproval. “Would it have been different if Duanna were not transgendered,” asks Batts. If it were just an average person from the suburbs that happened to be sitting in that jail room on that day and had this kind of response from the police, would the decision be different?”

All parties involved plan to meet with the judge to discuss setting a new trial date.

Duanna Johnson was shot and killed nine months after the beating. A spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department tells myEyewitnessNews.com Johnson’s murder is still unsolved.

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Jury Deadlocked in Duanna Johnson case!

“Deadlocked” my ass! This is some Bernard Goetz shit right here. I cannot believe that a jury can be so blatantly prejudicial. I mean seriously, what more evidence is needed to get a conviction. The officer can be clearly seen beating the victim (unprovoked).

This is why so many cases of trans-abuse and hate crimes go unreported. Because many victims feel the justice system will let them down just as it is doing Duanna.

MEMPHIS, TN – The jury in the Duanna Johnson jailhouse beat down case is hopelessly deadlocked.  On Friday, April 16, 2010, they once again failed to reach a verdict.

And Johnson’s family and friends say they know why the jury is reluctant to convict the former Memphis Police officer accused of the attack.

A jury of seven women and five men has been deliberating for three days, and still no verdict, even though the 2008 beating was caught on videotape.  That’s good news for Bridges McRae, the former Memphis cop on trial right now for violating the civil rights of Johnson, who was a transgender prostitute.

But it’s disappointing for Duanna Johnson’s loved ones who say this case should have been a no-brainer.

“This should have been decided the day before yesterday,” says Johnson family friend Larry Jackson.

He has his suspicions about why the majority white jury in the case is still undecided.

“There are those that still feel that old-status, Jim Crow quota,” says Jackson, “you know, that whatever is done to people of color is right.”

Joan Bailey, who often counseled Johnson, thinks there’s another reason for the difficulty in reaching a verdict.

Duanna, who was born Dwayne Johnson, chose to live as a transgender woman.  And a transgender victim, says Bailey, may not be a sympathetic victim to a jury.

“They should give them the respect that is due them,” Bailey tells myEyewitnessNews.com.  “They’re citizens of the United States and have protection under our constitution.”

A videotape that went global on the internet clearly shows McRae beating Johnson.  He testified that it was self-defense.  Five other witnesses called his attack “unprovoked”.

McRae refused to talk about the hung jury with reporters outside the federal courthouse, referring all questions to his attorney, Frank Trapp.

“You’d always like to have a not guilty verdict,” says Trapp, “because that’s what we think the evidence shows.”

With Duanna Johnson’s 2009 murder still unsolved, those who know her mother, Hazel Skinner, say she deserves some justice for her child.  This police brutality case, they contend, is being watched far outside Memphis city limits.

“The entire world is looking at this case,” says Larry Jackson, “and how it’s going to be played out.  We’re trying not to make it a racial thing.  We want to make it a thing about justice.  And we hope that justice will prevail.”

The judge dismissed the jury for the weekend.  They’ll start deliberating again on Monday.

If found guilty by a unanimous verdict, Bridges McRae faces up to 10 years in prison.  If the jury cannot reach a verdict, it will be up to federal prosecutors to decide if they want to put McRae on trial a second time.

He was fired from the Memphis Police Department in 2008, shortly after his altercation with Johnson inside the Shelby County Jail at 201 Poplar.

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Memphis cop who beat transsexual woman on videotape, claims self defense

Some of you may remember the tragic story of Duanna Johnson but for those of you who are not familiar…take a look at the video below before reading the story.

Seeing the video only makes what the officer has to say that much less credible.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Former Memphis Police officer Bridges McRae took the stand Tuesday during a federal trial on charges he violated the civil rights of the late transsexual Duanna Johnson. But, McRae’s testimony of what was captured on videotape two years ago at the Shelby County Jail portrayed him as fighting in self-defense.

It’s said pictures don’t lie, and for more than two years since shocking Shelby County Jail surveillance video first lit up television screens and websites, it’s been widely assumed the late transsexual Duanna Johnson was the victim of a brutal assault by former police officer Bridges McRae.

But, what if the apparent victim was actually the aggressor?

Well, then you’d have the key to the strategy that Jackson, Mississippi attorney, Frank Trapp is using to defend his client Bridges McRae against federal charges the beating violated Johnson’s civil rights.

The 30-year old McRae took the stand in his own defense as the 7th day of the trial got underway on Tuesday. In a loud, but calm voice, McRae was led by Trapp through critical segments of the tape as a jury peered into a monitor.

McRae testified he had arrested Johnson without incident in December 2007 for prostitution and possession of a crack pipe. At the time Johnson identified himself on a police report as Reginald Jones. However, when picked up again by McRae in February 2008 on the same charges, Johnson initially gave his name as Dwayne Johnson not “Duanna.” McRae then testified once the uncuffed Johnson reached the booking area Johnson allegedly became more belligerent and actively resistant, refusing his numerous and firm requests to have a thumbprint made.

In an interview with FOX13 in June 2008, Johnson, who was murdered 9 months after the incident, alleged McRae yelled slurs at her during the booking procedure.

“As he was calling me he said, ‘he/she come over here.’ I knew he couldn’t be talking to me because that’s not my name,” said Johnson.

McRae testified when he decided he’d cuff Johnson again because he feared she was getting “completely out of control,” Johnson grabbed his right arm and jerked him which he alleges suddenly made him “startled, scared and afraid.” He said he operated on instinct to act in self-defense.

In court, he demonstrated how he held the handcuffs he would use only to ward off the aggressive Johnson, who he says slapped and kicked him, causing him bodily harm in the form of cuts and a gash in his head.

McRae concluded Johnson assaulted him as other officers watched the fracas and did nothing to help him. The case should be handed to a jury by Wednesday.

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