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Rape Kit Backlog Update

The latest update on the city’s rape kit backlog was disclosed during the Memphis City Council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting Tuesday morning.

Nearly 7,000 of the 12,374 untested rape kits discovered by the Memphis Police Department (MPD) in late 2013 and early 2014 still await laboratory analysis.

According to the Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Taskforce, at the end of January, there were still 5,846 untested rape kits. Another 1,142 have been processed for serology (evidence of bodily fluids) but haven’t been sent off to a laboratory for DNA analysis. This leaves the number of kits that have been analyzed or are at the lab awaiting analysis at 5,386.

“We’ve made improvement on every front, from the number that have come back for DNA to the number that have come back that are negative for serology,” said Doug McGowen of the SAK Taskforce. “We’ve made significant progress since last month.”

Kit testing thus far has enabled the MPD to initiate 352 investigations. Of that amount, 127 are active, and 225 are closed.

MPD investigations have resulted in 58 indictments. Of this number, 25 rapists have been identified.

Individuals convicted of aggravated rape face up to 60 years in prison.

The latest rape kit backlog numbers are below:

• 12,374 total rape kits discovered untested in 2013/2014

• 5,846 kits untested by end of January 2015

• 2,375 kits at forensic laboratories now

• 1,142 processed for at least serology

• 1,965 negative for serology

• 1,046 processed for DNA

• 352 investigations have been initiated

• 127 investigations remain active

• 225 investigations have been closed

• 28 individuals identified as being previously convicted

• 58 indictments issued

• 25 named suspects

• 33 John Does (unidentified)

• 28 victims/suspects are deceased

• 33 victims declined to participate in an investigation

• 5 victims were unable to be located by law enforcement

• 47 cases were past the statute of limitations

• 23 cases had insufficient/degraded DNA

• 3 cases investigated did not meet the statute definitions of a crime

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Oak Court Mall Shooter Sentenced to 14 Years

Otis Reddic

A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for shooting another man inside Oak Court Mall last spring.

On March 6th, 2014, Otis Reddic reportedly fired a small handgun at 22-year-old Theodis Pitchford as he stood with some friends near a kiosk on the mall’s lower level. Pitchford was struck once in the left side during the shooting. Seven others in the area fled for safety.

Today, Reddic was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted second-degree murder, employing a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony and seven counts of reckless endangerment.

According to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office (SCDAG), Reddic entered an Alford plea in which a defendant proclaims his innocence while admitting prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction.

The shooting last March left Pitchford hospitalized, but he managed to survive. Following the shooting, Reddic fled the scene and remained on the run for nearly two months before turning himself into law enforcement on April 30th, 2014.

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Three Men Receive Hefty Prison Sentences for Crime Spree

Three Memphis men have been collectively sentenced to more than a century in prison for a crime spree that lasted several months.

Between May 2012 and January 2013, brothers Devonta and Deshun Hampton, and friend Matthew Tyler, committed robberies, burglaries, and assaults in the area of Kimball and Cherry Road.

In the early morning hours of May 24th, 2012, Deshun and Tyler, both 18, also attempted to murder a security guard and killed a pit bull.  

At around 4 a.m., Deshun and Tyler opened fire on a guard sitting in his vehicle in the Cherry Crest Apartments complex. Although he wasn’t struck during the gunfire, the guard’s face was cut from shattered glass. 

Deshun and Tyler recorded the incident on a cellphone while taking turns shooting at the guard, according to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office (SCDAG).

The same day, they also recorded the fatal shooting of a pit bull, which was used for security by a Cherry Road businessman. Deshun reportedly shot the pit bull in the neck before he and Tyler ran away laughing. The dog succumbed to the gunshot two days later.

Last October, both Tyler and Deshun pled guilty to attempted murder of the security guard and murder of the animal, in addition to several other charges, including aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and aggravated assault.

Tyler, who is already serving an 11-year prison sentence for aggravated robbery, has been sentenced to 66 years for his role in the felony offenses. Deshun has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for his participation in the crimes.

Deshun’s brother, Devonta, 20, has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for his role in eight different felonies, including aggravated robberies, burglaries and employment of a firearm.

According to the SCDAG, at least eight people were victimized during the three culprits’ crime spree. Victims included men, women and children.

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V-Day Monologues to Combat Violence Against Women

Jakatae Jessup performs an excerpt from ‘The Vagina Monologues.’

Local women will share real-life stories of happiness, heartbreak, and hardship during the fifth annual presentation of Memphis Monologues this Saturday.

Inspired by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, a stage play that highlights various female experiences ranging from birth to rape to menstruation, Memphis Monologues will put a localized spin on the production. Instead of revisiting stories from the play, ladies will share their own accounts of life as a woman in the Bluff City. 

Memphis Monologues will be the first of three productions presented locally to celebrate V-Day, an international movement dedicated to ending violence against women and girls. Each February, groups worldwide reenact Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, along with other plays promoting female empowerment, to raise money for projects and programs that combat violence.

Money raised locally will benefit Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region (PPGMR), specifically funding its women’s healthcare services. Among the resources offered to women by PPGMR are wellness exams, contraception, and sex education. 

Already sold out, Memphis Monologues will take place Saturday, February 6th at Amurica Studios (410 North Cleveland). It begins at 7 p.m.

Although the local production is influenced by The Vagina Monologues, PPGMR’s Aimee Lewis assures the presentations are not solely for women’s enjoyment nor centered on sex.

“It’s real Memphis women telling their story and it’s been phenomenal,” said Lewis, vice-president of external affairs for PPGMR. “The ladies are asked to speak to what their experience is as a woman. So, we’ve had women talk about difficulty breastfeeding, what it’s like to be a woman working in a male-dominated field, the experience of pregnancy or not being able to become pregnant, and things like that. The subjects aren’t always as taboo as they might be in The Vagina Monologues.”

Ladies slated to grace the stage this year include Deidre Malone, Chloe Evans O’Hearn, Holly Whitfield, Christine Davenport, Leah Keys, Adriane Williams and Gale Jones Carson.

Next Thursday, locals will act out excerpts from A memory, A monologue, A rant and A Prayer, a collection of essays addressing violence against women from various aspects. Maya Angelou, Jane Fonda, Slavenka Drakulic, Michael Eric Dyson, Edward Albee, and Michael Cunningham are amid the book’s contributors. 

The event will take place Thursday, February 12th, at the Circuit Playhouse (51 Cooper St.). It starts at 7:30 p.m. 

The last gathering of V-day will be for the reenactment of The Vagina Monologues.

On Friday, February 13th, the first installment of the play will be presented at the Circuit Playhouse. It begins at 7:30 p.m. 

A matinee performance will be provided on Saturday, February 14th. It starts at 2 p.m.   

“It speaks to the female experience, everything from coming of age, puberty, child birth … it runs the gamut,” Lewis said. “To be a woman and sit there and hear other women speak about things that have touched me in some way and really see that things I may have thought or issues I may have had now have a voice, it’s a very moving and empowering experience. It gives us a wonderful, deeper perspective on what each one of us is going through.”

Since V-day’s emergence over a decide ago, it’s helped raise more than $100 million to fund resources that aid girls and women impacted by violence worldwide.

More than $15,000 was raised in Memphis last year from both Memphis Monologues and The Vagina Monologues. Ten percent of the funds raised locally each year are contributed to V-Day’s movement.

For ticket information on the forthcoming V-Day events, click here.

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Teen Learning Lab Breaks Ground at Benjamin Hooks Library

CREDIT: Stephanie White

Stephanie White

Mayor A C Wharton and others unveil the name of a forthcoming teen learning lab.

The Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library will soon be home to a new state-of-the-art learning lab for local teens.

In a packed room on the library’s ground floor Wednesday, library and city officials, along with representatives from various agencies, gathered to hear details about the forthcoming learning lab.

Boasting a total of 8,300 square feet, the center will occupy areas of the central library’s first and second floors. A multitude of resources will be available for teens to utilize.

A citywide contest was held to decide the learning lab’s name, which garnered around 700 submissions. The winning entry was revealed during the gathering: Cloud901. 

The same room selected for the information session Wednesday will be transformed into an area used for Cloud901. It will feature a video production lab, brainstorming center, sound mixing lab, projection screen, technology gallery, and several other amenities.

A staircase stationed in the middle of Cloud901’s ground floor area will be used to access its second floor resources. Amid the features offered on the floor will be an art studio, gaming zone, a performance stage, and a “hi-tech treehouse” area where teens will be able to experiment with graphic design.

Cloud901, which specifically caters to teens aged 13 to 18, is currently in its construction phase. It’s slated to launch officially in six months.

“There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to teens. This is why the offerings are so diverse,” said Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Wednesday. “Whatever it is that they wish to pursue, they’ll be able to do it right here in the soundness and safety of this building. The skills they learn in the learning lab here will go with them a lifetime. It is the world of tomorrow that they’re going to be able to navigate and explore right here in our library.”

Cloud901 is projected to cost $2 million to complete. Thus far, $1.6 million has been raised.

Check out next week’s issue of the Memphis Flyer for more information on Cloud901.

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Free Dental Care Being Provided to Middle School Students

UTHSC students provide dental care to a middle schooler.

A significant amount of kids across the nation lack access to oral health care. 

According to a Pew Center on the States report, an estimated 17 million low-income children — one out of every five — go without dental care every year.  

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will contribute to lowering the amount of disadvantaged kids who fail to receive dental care during its adaptation of “National Give Kids A Smile Day.” 

The event will take place Thursday, February 5th from 8:30 a.m. until noon.

This is the fourth consecutive year UTHSC has participated in National Give Kids A Smile Day. The program was launched in 2003 by the American Dental Association with the goal of making dental education and services more accessible to underserved children.

Faculty, students and staff from the UTHSC’s College of Dentistry will provide more than 80 students at Memphis Academy of Health Sciences Middle School with free dental screenings, teeth cleaning and a range of other oral health services. Students will receive assistance on the third floor of UTHSC’s Dunn Dental Building (875 Union Avenue).

“Outreach to low-income and underserved communities is part of what we teach every dental student,” said Tim Hottel, dean of the UTHSC’s College of Dentistry, in a statement. “In the three years since we started participating in this national initiative, our students and faculty have performed almost 2,000 dental procedures on more than 340 children. Without this program, many of these youngsters would go without the quality dental care that they need.”

The value of the nearly 2,000 dental procedures that UTHSC has donated to Memphis students thus far reportedly amounts to more than $57,000.

In addition to Memphis, there are UTHSC College of Dentistry clinics in Jackson, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas. Dental clinics in Bristol and Union City are scheduled to open this summer. Facilities in Nashville and Knoxville are slated to launch next year.

All UTHSC dental clinics are supervised by faculty and staffed by senior-level students. The clinics are focused on serving underserved adults and children.

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Tennessee Joins Multi-State Immigration Lawsuit Against President Obama

President Obama

The Volunteer State is one of the latest additions to a 20-plus state coalition filing an immigration lawsuit against President Barack Obama.

Twenty-six states are being represented in the lawsuit, which alleges that Obama’s “Immigration Accountability Executive Action” to provide deportation relief to nearly five million undocumented immigrants is unconstitutional.

In November, Obama announced he would allow undocumented immigrants who have been U.S. residents for at least five years or are the parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to remain in the country temporarily. 

Those who qualify would be eligible to receive a three-year work permit. They would have to pass a criminal background check and pay taxes.

Under the executive action, Obama also expanded the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program originally prohibited the deportation of people brought to the U.S. illegally as minors by their parents before June 15th, 2007. Those eligible were able to receive a two-year work permit.

The expansion of the DACA program extends the cut-off year to January 1st, 2010 and provides a three-year work permit.

Tennessee, along with Nevada, reportedly joined the multi-state lawsuit yesterday. The lawsuit is led by Texas, who initially presented a lawsuit against Obama for his executive actions on immigration in December 2014.

There are an estimated 100,000 undocumented immigrants in Tennessee. More than 11 million are in the nation, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In addition to Texas, Tennessee, and Nevada, the states being represented in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The multi-state lawsuit was heard on January 15th in a Brownsville, Texas federal court by Judge Andrew Hansen. A ruling hasn’t been issued yet. The Obama administration has until January 30th to respond to the lawsuit.

A dozen states, along with the District of Columbia, have banded together to support Obama’s immigration order. The 12 states include Washington, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.

The group filed an amicus brief on January 12th. They argue that the president’s immigration order would not only improve the lives of immigrant families but also the economy. 

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13 Indicted in West Tennessee on Cocaine, Marijuana Charges

Thirteen residents of Dyer County have been indicted on federal drug trafficking violations.

Nine of the 13 suspects were located and arrested earlier today. Another three were already in custody. One individual identified in the indictment remains free.

During the round-up, illicit narcotics, firearms, drug paraphernalia and money were seized by law enforcement.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the charges in the indictments stem from the selling, manufacturing, and distributing of powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana, as well as the unlawful possession of ammunition by convicted felons.

“These individuals are charged with serious drug crimes, and the consequences they face if convicted are also serious,” said U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton in a statement. “Illegal drug trafficking and the violence that often accompanies it are a plague upon our communities. My office will vigorously pursue any and all involved in these illegal activities.”

The case was investigated by members of the FBI’s Memphis Safe Streets Task Force (ME SSTF). The ME SSTF is comprised of agents from the FBI Memphis Division’s Jackson Resident Agency, the Dyer County Sheriff’s Department, and the Dyersburg, Jackson, and Lexington police departments.

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Man Pleads Guilty in Death of Elderly Mother

Ronald Goodwin

Ronald Goodwin has pled guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his 72-year-old mother.

On May 6th, 2012, paramedics found Jackie Goodwin lying lifeless on top of a pile of trash in her Cherry Road home. According to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office (SCDAG), insects and feces covered her body. A large ulcer was on her back that penetrated to her spine.  

The culprit behind Jackie’s death is her 56-year-old son, Ronald Goodwin. Instead of providing his elderly mother with proper care, Ronald reportedly neglected her and withdrew thousands of dollars from her bank account.

On the morning of May 6th, Ronald notified 911 dispatchers that his mother had become non-responsive, according to the SCDAG’s office. It was later determined by a medical examiner she had been dead for at least 18 hours when she was discovered. She died from dehydration and malnutrition.

The utilities at Jackie’s home were off, and there was no sign that her prescribed medications had ever been purchased.

Following his mom’s death, Ronald fled Memphis and was later apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Arkansas.

Today, Ronald was sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole for his mom’s death. He also pled guilty to two counts of theft of property over $1,000 for withdrawing thousands of dollars from her bank account for his personal use instead of using it for his mother’s care. He was given concurrent two-year sentences in those cases.

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Former Sheriff’s Detective Pleads Guilty in Sex Case

James Bishof

A former Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) detective has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman.

In July 2011, James Bishof, then 58, was on duty at the SCSO’s General Investigation Bureau inside 201 Poplar. A 22-year-old woman who was involved in a domestic violence case visited the bureau to discuss her case.

While at the office, Bishof convinced the woman to disrobe in a women’s bathroom, according to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s (SCDAG) office. He subsequently took nude photographs of her, which he claimed to need to document injuries for his investigation.

After taking the photos, Bishof said he would need to come to her home with a better camera to take additional photos for the investigation. When he arrived to the victim’s home, Bishof had her undress again. He took more explicit photos of her. He also touched her inappropriately and made sexual remarks, according to the SCDAG’s office.

Bishof, who is now 61 and no longer with the sheriff’s department, has pled guilty to official oppression and assault involving offensive contact. He has been sentenced to six years in prison for official oppression and six months on the assault.

On Feb. 27th, Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee will determine whether Bishof will serve his sentences in prison, on probation or in some combination of the two. He also would be eligible for diversion.