davenport supplimentary motion for new detention hearinger

8/14/2019 Davenport Supplimentary Motion for New Detention Hearinger

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v. WDQ 09-183

DIETRA DAVENPORT

MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION

FOR RECONSIDERATION OF DETENTION STATUS

Background

Ms. Davenport has worked for 20 years with the same company, raised two

children, purchased a home, lived a life outside the criminal milieu and is well

respected by those who know her. Her employer in the email set out below says

eloquently how different she is from the normal set of defendants that appear

before this Court:

Dear Mr. Saunders:

Per your request, I am writing to provide my personal and professional

comments as they relate to Dietra Davenport and your efforts to have her

relocated from incarceration in Washington, DC to a half-way facility in

Baltimore.

As you are aware, Ms. Davenport has been an employee of The Joseph E.

Shaner Co. for nearly 20 years. We consider her to be a valuable part of our"family." Ms. Davenport has always been a loyal and dedicated employee

who has willingly taken on new responsibilities and who is always available

to assist others with special projects or needs. In addition to her regular

daily administrative responsibilities, Ms. Davenport also directly serves one

or two of our smaller client associations and has been instrumental to them

in keeping them organized and addressing the needs of their members. At no


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time during her employment with us have we ever felt anything other than

great affection and pride in having Ms. Davenport on our staff. Needless to

say, we are all devastated by the recent events which have led to Ms.

Davenports incarceration. We firmly believe that Ms. Davenport was naive

and was misled by Eric Brown.

Personally, we have watched Ms. Davenport raise two well-disciplined

children. The oldest, Martasia, was just born when Ms. Davenport joined

our firm. Only three months ago, we added Martasia to our staff. Ms.

Davenports son, Dante, was born while she was working with us. Ive been

delighted to watch how Dietra has sternly, but lovingly, raised her children

and how shes managed to keep them off the streets in a community where

others have failed in this challenge. She is a mother that any child would be

proud to call "mom".

Im not sure what else I can add that will help you in your efforts. As we

discussed, it hurt me deeply to have to have filled Dietras job here, but it

had to be done. When the present situation is finally resolved (in what I can

only pray will be to Dietras favor), I will do everything I can to assist her in

finding new employment.

If I may be of any further assistance, please feel free to call upon me.

Thomas C. Shaner, CAE

The Black Book

It would be easy for a person to view the "Black Book" as a nave

political statement meant to learn from the mistakes of criminal experience

and jail time with the intent to further oneself within his community through

political action. It is interesting to note initially that the book is endorsed by

Dr. Audrey Bundley, Leslie Parker Blyther, Professor Anne Arundel

Community College, Tyrone Powers, PhD, Institute for Criminal Justice,


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Bridget Smith, Executive Director of Partners in Progress, and Mike Jones,

author of Black Son Rising.

A quick Internet search of, for example, Tyrone Powers shows that he

was a past member of the Baltimore City Police Department and the FBI. He

was also a speaker at a conference held by the Department of Juvenile

Justice in 2005 at the Anne Arundel Community College along with

Kenneth C. Montague Jr., Secretary,Department of Juvenile Services.

Dr. Powers states as follows in his endorsement:

These are difficult days that require concrete, specific, effective

solutions. This book provides that and more. If we want to win,

to change our condition, our situation and the life chances of

this generation, of our children and of our children's children

then we must read, analyze, think, learn and apply the lessons,

concepts and practical solutions that are a part of thisextraordinary volume written by four extraordinary insightful

men and leaders.1

In its preface the book describes itself as a "changing lifestyles living

policy book." The book goes out of its way to describe itself as appealing to

a political organization and not a gang. The book references the gang

mentality as "the backdrop to the chaos that we face in our neighborhoods."

1 Ms. Davenport's husband, Eric Brown, is one of the authors of this book.


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In the first few pages it starts off as follows:

To all gang members throughout the state please heed our

warning, put your gats down and pull your pants up. Learn to

love yourself and your people, try being a Black man instead ofa big boy get yourself some morals and principles and get rid of

that half slip Bush an attitude that you display which is only an

imitation of the buffoon to see on... B. E. T.... This struggle

within that I'm speaking of is the one between being a

conscious Black man or being a gangster.

There is nothing on the face of this book that would in anyway lead

the ordinary reader to believe that this book was being used in the manner

that the Government describes that Mr. Brown was using it, to guide and

control a violent gang both inside and outside of the prisons in Maryland.

Indeed, the Government at the prior detention hearing noted that Mr. Brown

chastised Mr. Davenport for reading certain correspondence intended for

him (clearly showing an intent to keep her in the dark about his illegal

purposes). That is in startling contrast to his other conversations, for

example with Rainbow, clearly setting out his intent.

s/

Thomas J. Saunders

Federal Bar # 250843600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 201

Baltimore, MD

410-662-5586

[email protected]

cc: Pretrial Services
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

davenport supplimentary motion for new detention hearinger

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