Howard University is a haven for crime. With at least a dozen Howard University students getting jacked on campus in the past month and two others getting raped, the school’s police department wants everybody to carry the dispatch number and keep their cell phones at the ready. “I urge students to call the dispatch number, since most students have cell phones,” Campus Police Chief Leroy K. James told Jessica Lewis of Black College Wire. “[Use your cell phone so] that when you’re in a situation where you need help, you get help.” Nearly half of the robberies occurred on the historically Black campus in Washington, D.C. The number of robberies and assaults is likely even higher than the number reported by campus police, because the figures do not include unreported crimes, Lewis writes. The number to the dispatch is (202) 806-1100 and is to be used whenever students find themselves in a situation requiring police assistance.

Atlanta accused murderer was a slick one, deputy testifies. Accused mass murderer Brian Nichols is one slick criminal, a Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy testified Wednesday. During Nichols’ trial, on charges that he killed a judge and three other people in a daring escape from an Atlanta courtroom in 2005, Deputy Sharon Pauls told jurors that the defendant had warmed up to Deputy Cynthia Hall and eventually convinced her to escort him to court without shackles before overpowering her and brutally beating her. She was left brain-damaged from that whipping and won’t be testifying, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Pauls said that Hall, who escorted Nichols to court each day for his rape trial, chatted with him daily like he was a friend. “Deputy Hall stated we didn’t need to place leg irons on him,” Pauls testified. Two days later, the Journal-Constitution reports, “Nichols beat Hall after she removed his handcuffs so he could change from his ‘inmate blues’ to his civilian clothes for trial.” There were other times when Nichols displayed his cunningness, Pauls said, pointing to an occasion when the defendant allegedly tried to get jurors to see his handcuffs while being escorted to his initial rape trial, knowing full well that such an event could have caused a mistrial. Jurors aren’t allowed to see defendants in shackles or cuffs because jail jewelry makes them look more like dangerous criminals and could prejudice the jury against them. “The defendant told his attorney that he thought a juror saw him,” said Pauls, who now is a patrol officer for Clayton County Police. “It was concluded that she [the juror] did not see the defendant.” On two other occasions, she was forced to warn Nichols about trying to carry ink pens out of the courtroom in his Bible, she said. Inmates can only have rubber ink pens, because the others can be used as weapons. “I said ‘Nichols, I told you before not to take pens out of your courtroom. And he said I don’t have a pen. I said, Yes you do. It is right there in your Bible.”

TAGS: atlanta, Brian Nichols, crime, Howard University, testimony

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