Detroit journalist sentenced to probation in retaliatory case

June 5, 2009 @ 3:24AM

Detroit journalist sentenced to probation in retaliatory case

By Carlos Miller -...

Although she was facing four years in prison, Detroit journalist Diane Bukowski was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours of community service and fined $4,000 for her two felony convictions of police obstruction last month.

Still, the trial appears to have been a farce.

Bukowski was arrested last year after a high speed chase involving police officers which resulted in the death of two civilians. She was accused of crossing police lines to take photos. While arresting her, police deleted her photos which is a crime in itself.

Although police initially charged her with a single misdemeanor, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy upgraded those charges to two felonies in a clear act of retaliation over Bukowski’s harsh and honest reporting on the prosecutors’ lenience towards criminal cops.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Nevertheless, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hathaway pretended there was no evidence of political retaliation in the case.

“If the defense could show that any trooper knew who she was it could perhaps explain a motive,” he said. “We kept politics out of this case and I’m gonna keep politics out of the sentencing.”

The trooper might not have known who she was, but Worthy sure as hell knew.

Hathaway also said neither Bukowski nor police were completely forthcoming in the trial.

However, Bukowski’s non-forthcoming moment was when she failed to disclose one of her character witnesses, foreclosure attorney Jerry Goldberg, was her ex-husband, who was not even at the scene of the arrest, so his opinions are irrelevant anyway.

The non-forthcoming moment of police was when the testimony of a state trooper was refuted by a local TV news report – essentially meaning he was lying about the circumstances surrounding the actual incident.

Bukowski’s lawyers plan to appeal the decision on several factors, including the fact that the troopers who deleted her images should have also been charged with obstruction.

“The photos, if preserved, would have been unfavorable to the prosecution,” he told Michigan Messegner in an interview after the sentencing.

Comments

Anonymous

2 years ago

Deleting photos is a lot harder than just pushing delete. Several programs exist to recover data from Flash cards.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Well, I suppose Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy got that reporter back for making Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy look bad.

I bet Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy will only show up in a Google search for “Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy” or “Kym Worthy” for good things now.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Carlos, I just attempted to email you but it bounced back to me saying your mailbox is full.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Detroit police and politicians corrupt? Who would have ever thought.
Kym Worthy has a wikipedia page that features links to some of the articles written criticizing her and the police. Rather interesting reading.
I would still say, if it’s illegal for press to cross police lines in Detroit, then what she did was illegal.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Carlos I’ve been reading a lot about the Tiller case (involving the doctor that performed necessary late term abortions that was murdered at church in cold blood) – and i always keep your RSS feed open on my browser, and a few other cases – such as the BART cop (which was on CNN yesterday)

I’m starting to see a trend. Little itty bitty charges like yours and the one in this post tend to take up a huge amount of time and resources and the sentences are always blown up for no reason… But people out there committing actual crimes against humanity (assault, murder, manslaughter, infomercials) generally get a “free-er” ride than the less treacherous of our brethren.

Do high profile cases attract charitable contributions for legal fees more, or is it that lawyers will take a press case pro bono more often than a non-press case (press meaning in the spotlight)

The justice system needs a bit of an overhaul. and i think that ALL private schools, and hopefully ALL public schools start to teach Jury Nullification as a standard lesson.

Perhaps if your jury knew that it could find the law they returned “guilty” on was unjust, therefore nullifying your responsibility…

Anonymous

2 years ago

LT,

Try again. It should come through. I just had to pay extra money to Go Daddy for an “unlimited account”, which I thought I had, but just learned that I had “unlimited until it reached a certain quota”.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Genewitch

I don’t agree with your characterization of Tiller’s practice but I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said after that. I guess that debate can wait for another time and another place lol.

The thing about fully informed juries is you can in no way, shape or form let anyone know about it once you walk into the supposed halls of justice. Fully informed juries are the legal equivalent of shoot, shovel and shut up.

Anonymous

2 years ago

prosecution and judges hate the very idea of jury nullification, yet it is 100% legal everywhere. In fact, judges have declared mistrials when defense lawyers bring it up during the closing arguments (citation needed)

Anonymous

2 years ago

It worked for OJ.

Judges think that they are the only ones fit to judge the law.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Carlos, you report, “Wayne County Prosecutor Kym unWorthy upgraded those charges (1 misdemeanor) to two felonies in a clear act of retaliation .”

I want to remind you that Madam Prosecutor upgraded the ONE misdemeanor to 5 felonies. unWorthy never backed off the 5 felonies, Judge Halfway actually threw 3 of the charges out before the trial started.