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Jena Money: Where Is It Now?  How Much?
10/09/08 - 04:37 PM
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Blane Williams is an Alexandria defense attorney who represented Jena 6 defendant Mychal Bell 5 times in Juvenile Court and Williams represented Bell during his criminal trial for attempted murder- for the attack on Justin Barker at Jena High. 

The last time Williams was interviewed was the week before Bell’s trial began.  He sat down with News Channel 5’s Diana Iles.  When the trial concluded and the jury came back with a guilty verdict, Bell got new lawyers.  Lawyers hired seemingly with money from the Jena 6 Defense Fund.  As the new lawyers came onto the case, Williams was criticized for the way he handled Bell’s defense-he called no witnesses, showed no evidence. But Williams says he had a strategy all along, and says he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation about the way he represented his client.  Williams says he was just starting to fight for Bell in the appeal process, when Bell dropped him.  Williams is talking with us NOW because a gag order has been lifted and he wants NC5 to investigate some of the details about the Jena 6 story that have been brushed over.  For instance, Williams says the story was never about racism-but he says spinning it that way allowed some non profit organizations to cash in. 

This is Alan Bean.  Exec Director of Friends Of Justice, based in Texas.  It was Bean’s written narrative of the Jena Situation that attracted the BBC and the rest of the media.  It was Bean who first suggested to the families of the boys that there could be fundraising opportunities- to help with the costs of attorneys.  I asked Bean, how much money was raised and where did it all go?  Was all of the black vs white hype- really just a ploy to collect? 

Like in a lot of high profile cases, there are multiple lawyers involved-we contacted 2 jena 6 lawyers.  Carol Powell Lexing would not go on the record with NC5 about how she got paid or by whom. 

Bell’s other attorney, Louis Scott was unavailable, but according to the civil rights group ColorsofChange, Scott received 33 thousand dollars from *them.* Much of that money raised via credit card donations online.  According to the Exec. Director of Colorsofchange, as of last November, the group had raised over 200 thousand for Jena legal bills.  Some of that money has been given directly to lawyers- here are copies of the checks…and some of the money has gone to an entity called the Jena 6 Defense Committee. 

Here’s a look at The Jena 6 Defense Committee’s website.  A lot of sites link to them and they do some fundraising of their own.  Please send Checks sent to a PO Box in Jena.  No names on the website, no telephone number to call. 

So who’s behind the Jena 6 Defense Committee?  What families?  Those are the questions NC5 is left with and we’ll keep digging. 

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