![[Nameplate]](http://www.dailystatesman.com/images/nameplate.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Read comments (31)
Share link
Facebook
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Newsvine
Reddit
Google
 Noreen Hyslop photo Heather Ellis, arm-in-arm with her mother, Hester Ellis, exits the Stoddard County Justice Center Wednesday afternoon following a pre-trial hearing in a case that has gained national attention. |
The case against Heather Renae Ellis of Kennett has garnered national attention from such groups as she tells her side of a story stemming from a Jan. 6, 2007 incident at the Kennett Walmart.
As soon as court began, Judge Joe Satterfield made it clear that he would not tolerate any bad behavior in his courtroom.
 |
| Noreen Hyslop photo Heather Ellis (second from left with head bowed), gathered with supporters in a circle of prayer following Wednesday's court proceedings. About a dozen people representing family, friends, ACLU members and representatives of the NAACP, were present in the Stoddard County courtroom for Ellis' pre-trial proceeding. Leading the group prayer, at left, is Rev. Dwight Montgomery of Memphis, with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. |
"I know emotions have been high in this case," he said. "However, any outbursts will be dealt with swiftly."
Appearing alongside her attorney, T.J. Hunsaker of Rosenblum, Schwartz, Rogers and Glass out of St. Louis, Ellis went before Judge Joe Satterfield to take up motions as the court prepares for a November trial.
Among the motions in question was a Motion in Limine filed by Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Sokoloff prior to the court proceedings.
The motion asks the court to prohibit statements in front of the jury regarding several points.
Among those are the general reputation of the victim (law enforcement officers alleging assault), dishonesty of witnesses, evidence of other complaints or accusations against victims relating to previous arrests, any evidence of matters claimed to have arisen at the police station after the arrest, evidence of the purpose of Ellis' trip to Walmart, character evidence of defendant except by general reputation in the community, testimony on the impact of the incident on the defendant and asks to strike the testimony of three witnesses who have reportedly been uncooperative.
The order also requests that Ellis refrain from "wearing or displaying any religious symbols or religion-specific clothing or any testimony relating to the defendant's faith, religious beliefs or training."
Because the document was only filed shortly before court, Satterfield gave Hunsaker until Nov. 4 to file responses to the state's requests.
Satterfield also made it clear that, as far as he is concerned, the Nov. 18 trial date will stand.
"I fully intend to proceed with trial on that date," he said as he stressed to the attorneys the importance of having all motions returned on time.
The case will be heard in a Dunklin County courtroom next month.
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please
Sounds to me like this woman wants a motion to prohibit ANYthing that has to do with the case. Prohibit the jury from hearing about the assault on a police officer? I thought that was one of the charges! And since when are prior bad acts not allowed? Screw the ACLU! Looks like a publicity stunt now!
Hoon! Where are you?
Get off it, geezerette! Let the Dead rest in Peace.
The comments on the Kennett website are interesting. Go to www.dddnews.com.
I gotta go with bobby wayne on this one. This is the epitome of racial baiting at its best.
She's getting legal help with the American Communist Liberties Union? C'mon! And of course, she, her family, and her pastor have to get help with the racist NAACP! I'll tell you what, if you're white and get arrested by a black officer and end up in jail, see if the NAAWP will help! You'd be called a white supremacist. Why the double standard here? She was unruly and uncooperative and disturbed the peace in public on private property! I guess if you're black, it's alright to do all that?
gl, thanks for the link to the paper in Kennett. Dunklin county seems to feel the same as Stoddard county.
swift, I HAVE been arrested by a black officer, he was compleatly proffesional and I was after all in the wrong. I firmly believe that you cooperate with a cop until you get your phone call, then clam up. You really need a pill of some kind,and I thought I was hostile.
I only got "banned or banished" for a week, poor 'hoon must of really got under someones skin.
That woman with the Dr. King shirt on surely must realize this is not what Dr. King stood up and died for.
Good thinking, BobbyW. You have a balanced view. We need to be rational on this issue. I feel that the comments I've seen on the Kennett site seem fair and balanced: They're obviously familiar with the family. Of course, I haven't seen the comments since this morning. Someone may have gone haywire since then.
And speaking of "haywire," we don't know if hoon left voluntarily or has been banned. I personally think he left just before getting his butt kicked off. I feel it was his choice to leave. He was a wonderful blogger at the beginning - but he went off the deep end before the election - and he never got himself back to his funny/satirical self.
BobbyW - Were you really banished for a week? Or did you make that up? We wondered what happened to you!
I did honestly lose my privileges once, this last absence was due to a trip and a divorce.
WOO HOO! Maybe Reverand Al or Jesse will show up for some TV time.
Good grief! I'm sorry --- I hope you get yourself back together. You've had a rough time of it!
bobby wayne..sorry dude, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and wore it out (in reference to the divorce). That by itself will mess you up for awhile, but once I started getting myself back together, I realized it was the best thing my ex ever did for me (except for my son, that is). Hang tough and you will be alright.
The t-shirt the lady (?) has on is one of the reasons I said this is typical racial baiting...along with the naacp...they want us crackers to say something derogatory so they CAN scream discrimination and that will be that.
The rest of the facts will go right out the window.
The divorce thing is fine, and my stuff is all in one sack as they say. So don't worry or fret for me..." so I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign, it said Thank you Lord for thinkin' bout me I'm alive and doin' fine". The Gods of Rock keep me going like a 4X4 in the snow!
allriiiighty, then....good for you.
If Wal mart has the whole thing on tape, wouldn't that pretty much prove who did what? I'm glad the judge decided to tell everyone he wasn't going to put up with any crap in his court room because otherwise I'm sure there would have been.
It would as long as the prosecutor can get it admitted as evidence...most everything is not going to be admitted...
bobbywayne: I think you misread this article.. and the article is poorly written both. Ms. Ellis isn't putting these things in motion, the prosecutor of Dunklin county. He is pushing against her, not for her. I had to reread it myself. I knew it made no sense when I saw where the motion also keeps her from wearing anything that refers to her religion. She is a very strong christian who's father is a minister and has been for years. I do not know this young lady now but had the wonderful opportunity to know her through my high school years even though that was a few years ago. I think this article is poorly written because you have to go out yourself to find out what is actually going on. All you have to do is google it and it will bring up a million hits. It is very fishy to me. She is a very respectable person in the community very very smart and has been rejected from medical school because of these charges. She and her cousin were in walmart and her cousin was in line and she went up to her cousin because they rode together and they accused of her cutting in line. When she tried to explain that she was with this person and that they were leaving together they called security whom before knew the situation called the police. They will not release the surv. tapes from wal-mart. They are trying to charge her with 2 felony counts of assault on a police officer and many other charges. They tried to get her to accept a plea deal for one count of disturbing the peace and she refused stating that she did no such thing and was going to fight this. I too believe that if you do nothing wrong, you should admit to nothing. However, doesn't it seem strange that they would drop those two assault charges if they were true? Isn't assaulting a police officer a big no no? do you think if she really did that they would be so willing to drop that? I think that sounds fishy. Another thing this leaves out is why the NAACP and the ACLU have stepped in. When the people in the community were planning a rally for her a Kennett police officer (who has admitted to doing so) showed up at her parents home with a business card stating that this was "social visit from the KKK.. next time it will not be social" He stated that he picked it up on the street, but to the family they took this as a direct threat and intimidation from the police for pursuing this further. I wish everyone would please read into this further and not take this article at face value. She is truly a remarkable person. I didn't mean to offend anyone if I did, I just wanted to clear this article up. Have a blessed weekend!
Sorry but I also left out that she is facing 15 years in PRISON for this.. who hasn't joined a family member in the line at walmart? I'm sure the police in Kennett have other cases that they should be pursuing more aggressive than this. I wonder how many children's lives could be saved if they would spend more time pursuing molesters, drug abusers and such. Sad world when they spend all these tax dollars on a case such as this.
The assault charges have not been dropped. What sounds fishy is that sahmo06 thinks anyone would be looking at 15 years for a simple peace disturbance.
And if a cop did show up at the door with a KKK card he wouldn't admit it,he woould loose his job the next day, and I would consider that a terroristic threat and show the officer my gun.
We'll see how things go as the drama plays out, i was not there, don't know the facts. hope the paper does a better job keeping up with this Ellis case than they have the Max Ellis case.
No they were trying to get her to take the plea deal and with that it was going to drop the assault charges, but since she feels she done no wrong she woul not take it and thus is facing 15 years for the assaults. You must have
misunderstood me. They have documentation in the courts from the police officer admitting that he took the card to their home but claimed that he found then lying among the streets and was just letting the family know. Feel free to not take my word but to do ur own research on the issue. I can't believe how much national media coverage this has gotten vs. Local because it's a local story. I'm not sure on all the facts either just what I gathered doing my own research.
Sahmo06, thanks for your posting, giving the other side of the story; however, I've been trying to find an unbiased account of this incident, and so far I haven't been successful.
I can find black news agencies which give Heather's side of the story, but it sure isn't helpful when one of them posts an undocumented photo of a KKK rally and makes it sound like this rally went on in Kennett, where the incident took place.
If the KKK was really involved, then the issue has certainly been tainted. I guess I'm naive, but I sure didn't know that group was even present in Dunklin County.
Yeah I'm not sure if they actually showed up either butthat is why the police officer states that he took that to their home because he found them among the streets after the rally and was lettin the family know they were apparently there. And I guess that visit being their social visit but to not expect the next one to be social. And I agree about trying to find the other side of the story. It just doesn't make sense to me y they won't release the tapes that would obviously clear up everything. To me common sense tells me that she knows without a doubt that she didn't do what they are accusing her of because those tapes will easily prove if she did or not there will be no her word against theirs. And another point is I think if the tapes did prove the police side of the story they would have released them a long time ago. Again just my take on te situation.
I like to analyze people's body language. I believe Ms Ellis' body language and facial expression indicates a major "attitude"!
She does look like she has a major "chip on her shoulder"! I stand by my comments on the American Communist Liberties Union being asked to help in this case. Does the family and their pastor realize what the ACLU stands for? Why do blacks (usually the liberal ones and their sheeple) always have to ask for the NAACP and the revs Sharpton and Jackson (small letter for rev not by mistake). I bet Alan Keyes or some black conservative preachers would've refused to help.
You are an ideologue swift. Do you have a KKK card? I don't even know real Klans people that advertise, the invisiable Empire and all ya know.
This is not liberal or conservitive, it's just stupid.
Bw, I am not an ideologue (I don't think) and I hate the klan and all it stands for because I hate racism. There are black racists who believe everything negative that happens to them is somehow racist. I work with some like that. I agree though that this certainly is stupid!
Hey, everyone, I heard on the news this morning that the KKK is on the rise again down here in Texas..I hate racism, was not brought up to be a racist. What I see happening is what you said, Swift...reverse racism, where everything negative is the fault of the oppressive whites..and racial baiting where 'they' taunt us hoping we will do or say something that they can yell 'racist' at us. There is a big thing going on now, where the man who owns Whitten Inns here has been chastised and possibly worse, because he just bought an inn in Taos and asked his employees there to use English sounding names. Don't know if you all heard about it up there or not, but it is just another example.
sounds to me like she trying to use here race to get out of trouble.poor black lady thats been abused because she black.Ive seen this a million times. I agree with bobby wayne 100% here past acts have everthing to do with this case
Just to clear up the question, Hoon left on his own terms and Bon Scott is soon to follow. It's been fun blogging and I'm not even going to nibble at this story. Keep rockin' bw, great Tesla reference.
Peace