DEPUTY, FATHER WHO ALLEGEDLY
LED WHITE “MOB” TO BLACK FAMILY
HOME, FILES COUNTERSUIT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The white former New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputy who allegedly led an armed white “mob” to a black Pender County family’s home in May 2020 has now filed a countersuit, along with his father, against that family, charging that they “…were exploited by greedy lawyers who preyed on racial sensitivities and falsified a story just to seek fame and fortune by committing racial extortion.”
Jordan Kita, the ex-deputy who lost his job because of the incident, but escaped conviction when the case went to criminal court, has denied, through his attorneys, that race was a motivation in the May 2020 late night incident.
His lawyer, Woody White, demands that the black family - Monica Shepard and her teenage son, Dameon - apologize to Kita and his father, or else face a defamation lawsuit.
The Shepards refused, feeling that they were the ones who had been originally violated.
“[The Shepards] were terrorized by Defendants’ actions, which constitute trespass, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, interference with civil rights…and violation of the right to fair housing,” their Jan. 2021 lawsuit claimed.
But in their countersuit, Jordan Kita and his father, Timothy, deny that they led an armed angry “white mob” to the Shepard’s home, saying that they and a group of “concerned citizens,” with assistance from the Pender County Sheriff’s Office, were looking for Timothy Kita’s adopted “mixed race” daughter, who “ran away from home” earlier that day.
In fact, despite Jordan Kita ’s appearance at the Shepards’ front door wearing his then New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputy uniform - complete with visible holstered service weapon - and another of the accompanying searchers, Austin Wood, carrying a visible “firearm on his shoulder” or “some type of rifle” in front of the Shepard’s property, in their countersuit, the Kita’s admit that their group that night was “… involved in a “desperate search,” that caused the Kitas and their search party “…to be under duress and the condition of there minds was one of stress and anxiety…solely motivated by their desire to find [the missing child]...”
The Kitas assert that their conduct that evening “would not have resulted in any injury to any ordinary person,” despite later admitting in being involved in a “desperate search,” that caused the Kitas and their search party “…to be under duress and the condition of their minds was one of stress and anxiety…solely motivated by their desire to find [the missing child]...”
According to press accounts, the Kita search party late night “conduct” at the Shepard’s home was loud enough to wake the neighbors, who promptly called the Pender County Sheriff’s Dept.
The Kitas maintain that they were at the Shepard’s house “a very short time.”
They also deny being part of an “armed mob,” and “..assert that there was implied permission for persons to approach [the Shepard’s] home, and [they] posted no sign or notice forbidding entry to [their] property.” warning of trespassing.
Legally, trespassing is invoke once a property owner demands that you leave immediately and you don’t, which the Shepards allege happened after 10 p.m on that Sunday night, May 3rd, 2020.
Interestingly, the Kitas admit that Dameon Shepard was “shouting” at them, yet they deny any “confrontation” with the Shepards several times in their countersuit, saying only that they had a “short conversation” with Monica Shepard before leaving to continue their search.
Denying any “confrontation” with Dameon Shepard, the first to answer the door, is critical to the Kitas countersuit, for it was his loud demands for Jordan Kita to get his foot out of the front door and go away that awakened his mother, Monica, and drew her to the disturbance at her home.
The Kitas maintain that all of their actions that evening were without racial malice or threat, even though they also admit to looking for a black teenager named “Josiyah” who they were erroneously told was harboring their young missing family member at the Shepards’ Avendale neighborhood address, and whom they also erroneously accused Dameon Shepard of being initially upon arriving at the Shepards’ home, according to the Shepards’ lawsuit.
In their countersuit, the Kitas claim to not know the race of “Josiyah,” even though Dameon Shepard claims Jordan Kita immediately accused him of being Josiyah upon answering the door.
In fact, the Kitas’ countersuit says very little about ever speaking to Dameon Shepard at all, even though he was the first to answer the door upon the Kita “search group” arriving, and the first to insist that Jordan Kita allegedly stop trying to put his foot in the door as he demanded answers.
The Kitas claim that attorneys for the Shepards and the media are using race as an aggravating factor because of the “political climate.”
As a result, the Kitas claim defamation, and seek damages and punitive damages of at least $25,000, and a trial by jury.
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AL ROKER
BLACK MEN OVER 40, BEWARE
OF PROSTATE CANCER
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
If you’re a Black male over the age of 40, this story could save your life.
This week, the public learned of the plight of a white actor who used to appear on the popular NBC-TV sitcom “Friends.” The actor, James Michael Tyler, 59, who portrayed the character “Gunther,” revealed that he is suffering from stage four prostate cancer, and is no longer able to walk.
"I've been dealing with that diagnosis for almost the past three years,” Tyler told NBC’s Today Show. "It's stage 4 [now], late-stage cancer, so eventually, it's gonna probably get me."
The cancer from James’ enlarged prostate has created lesions in his body that have eaten away at his bones and spinal column, making him unable to ever walk again.
Ironically, it was on the Today Show where that program’s iconic black weatherman, Al Roker, 66, announced last November that he was taking a leave of absence to have necessary prostate cancer surgery, because during a routine health checkup that he almost skipped, it was detected that he had a “little aggressive” form of prostate cancer that if caught early (by removing his enlarged prostate), could be neutralized.
“This one was kind of just a weird feeling that nobody can outwardly see anything different about me,” Roker later said. “I looked in the mirror, there was nothing outwardly different. But I knew there was something intrinsically, inherently, internally different.”
Roker’s prostate cancer was indeed caught early, unlike James Michael Tyler’s, and he has since returned to work as the nation’s premiere weather forecaster.
Finally, there is a heretofore unidentified 65-year-old African-American male living here in North Carolina who we’ll call “Jake.”
Just a few months ago, Jake found himself waking up with tremendous pain on his left side, and that pain would spread. He finally went to an orthopedic doctor to find out what was wrong, had x-rays taken, but nothing was determined, so Jake was given medicine for the pain.
Soon after, Jake went in for a routine checkup with his primary physician, who discovered that he had lost a significant amount of weight since November 2020, his last visit. She had a blood test done, and specifically a PSA, or prostate specific antigen test.
“Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, is a protein produced by normal, as well as malignant, cells of the prostate gland. The PSA test measures the level of PSA in a man’s blood,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
Though there is some current debate in the medical community, men (women do not have prostates) with PSA levels between 1.0 ng/ml and 4.0 ng/ml are generally believed to not have prostate cancer. Men with higher PSA levels are believed to be more at risk.
Jake’s PSA level was over 2,000, and a subsequent biopsy at a local urologist confirmed the presence of prostate cancer.
But what was the source of the pain in James’ side?
Late one Saturday evening, he recalls, James was watching television, and right before he went to bed, he felt his chest and back virually explode in pain. Nothing he did or took could relieve it. His wife rushed him to the local emergency room, where a more precise MRI was taken.
The MRI revealed that deep lesions had taken hold of Jake’s spine and bones, causing the tremendous pain he was suffering. A visit to an oncologist (cancer doctor) and full body scan confirmed it, and now Jake is under testament for stage four prostate cancer for the rest of his life.
He has to take a chemotherapy drug every day that kills his testosterone (necessary to deplete cancer cells, doctors say), and receive two shots monthly to replenish his bones, in addition to taking daily calcium and Vitamin D supplements.
“I don’t know how much longer I have to live, but I’ve accepted the fact that I probably won’t see my 70th birthday,” Jake now says.
The following is literally true, though doctors admittedly don’t know the reason why - black men are more likely the other men to develop prostate cancer. Therefore, it is important that black men age 40 and over routine have a PSA test done annually. Early detection is the surest way to cure prostate cancer.
However, doctors have agreed, detecting it too late means that there is no cure. Prostate cancer is more likely in older and non-Hispanic black men. Average age for diagnosis is 65.
Other famous men have been diagnosed with prostate cancer - golfer Arnold Palmer (deceased); singer/activist Harry Belafonte; South African President Nelson Mandela (deceased) and former US. Sec. of State Colin Powell.
Be safe, black men. Have annual blood tests, and make PSA testing a required part of the examination.
Until medical science finds a cure, prevention for black men IS the only cure for prostate cancer.
For more information, call the American Cancer Society helpline at 800-227-2345.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 06-24-21
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES SAYS “NO”
UNLESS UNC TENURE IS GIVEN
[CHAPEL HILL] NY Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones will not take her new job at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media on July 1st unless she is given tenure, according to a letter from her attorneys quoted in current press reports. That letter was shared with UNC - Chapel Hill Trustee Board members Tuesday afternoon. Depending on how the trustee board reacts, the next show to drop could be a promised discrimination lawsuit from Hannah-Jones. Sources close to the board said she is being denied due to her award winning work on The 1619 Project.
REPUBLICANS DO NOT FUND STATE CAPITOL BLACK HISTORY PROJECT IN LATEST BUDGET PROPOSAL
[RALEIGH] Call it spite, but Republican budgetwriters area now refusing to fund $2.5 million to the much heralded state capitol Black history project, meaning that unless the funding is forthcoming, there will be no monuments honoring Black history on the state capitol grounds. The project has been in the planning for several years, an ben Gov. Cooper had the funding in his proposed budget. Head GOP Senate budgetwriter Sen.Brent Jackson told the News and Observer that given the several confederate monuments have been taken down in recent years, “We felt like this was not the time to put something back up there of any type.” Sen. Gladys Robinson, Black Democrat from Guilford County said, “ Really? That’s an insult.”
The funding could re-emerge when the final House and Senate budget is debated and passed in several weeks.
McCRAE DOWLESS PLEADS GUILTY IN ABSENTEE BALLOT SCHEME
[GREENVILLE] The central figure in the 2018 Bladen County absentee ballot scandal that made national news pled guilty Monday in federal court to two of four charges stemming from Social Security fraud,
Minutes before h was scheduled to go on trial, McCrae Dowless copped a plea that also has him paying back up to $14,000 in stolen disability payments. Sentencing is set for August 23rd.
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