)ujy20- 2005__________________________________
0:1,1 ÿlarthnth © b scru er_____________________________ Page as
L aw & J ustice
Local Student Earns
Medical Degree
Justice Overcomes Republican Block
year for a third six-year term
with 62 percent of the vote.
S he w as s u b s e q u e n tly
elected by her fellow ju s
tices to be their chief.
S ears vow ed to “strive
m ightily to uphold the in
d e p e n d e n c e and in te g
r ity ” o f th e ju d ic ia ry .
T h o m a s , a lo n g tim e
friend w ho is also a n a
tive o f the Savannah area,
said “ my pride runs deep
as a hum an being, as a
m em ber o f the ju d ic ia ry
and as a G e o rg ia n .”
I never thought that in
my lifetime I would be able
to w itness a black woman
Sears first black
woman to lead
Georgia court
A black fem ale state Suprem e
Court justice who overcam e Re
publican efforts to block her re-
election has taken the oath of the
ch ief ju stic e ’s office, with her
longtim e friend U.S. Suprem e
C ourt Justice C larence Thom as
sa y in g he n e v e r th o u g h t he
would w itness such an event.
Leah Sears is the first black
woman to head the highest ap
peals court in any state, accord
ing to the National Center for State
Courts based in W illiamsburg, Va.
Leah Sears
She took office last month, be
com ing the first woman to serve tivist judge by Gov. Sonny Per
as ch ief justice in G eorgia.
due and other R epublicans, but
Sears, 50, was branded an ac- she won a nonpartisan race last
as the ch ief justice of the state of
G eorgia’s Suprem e C ourt,” he
said.
Sears was the first woman and
the youngest person ever to serve
on the G eorgia Suprem e Court
when she was appointed in 1992
by then-Gov. Zell Miller, a Demo
crat.
Thom as said he is confident
Sears will “call them as you see
them .”
“Those o f us who are judges
know that it is easy to judge when
you already have your mind made
up,” he told Sears at her oath of
office cerem ony. “ It is hard to
judge when you have to make
your mind up.”
SAFEWAY
Hands Down for Secrecy
Lacreasia K. Wheat
Congratulations to Lacreasia
K. Wheat of Portland for her hard
work and determination in gradu
ating May 26 at the University of
Pittsburgh with a medical degree
in internal medicine and pediat
rics.
A 1989 graduate of Jefferson
High School, Wheat first went on
to further her education at Lloyla
Marymont University where she
graduated with a bachelor’s de
gree in performing arts. She then
moved to New York City and for
several years performed with the
Nicholas Rodriduez Dance Com
pany.
In 1998, she decided to further
her education and applied and
was accepted for medical school
at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ingredients for life.
State Senate supports domestic
violence survivors’ confidentiality
The state Senate gave unani
mous support last week to a bill
proposing the creation of an Ad
dress Confidentiality Program in
the Oregon Department of Justice.
The program is designed to protect
victims of domestic violence, sexual
assault, and stalking who have re
located from having their address
disclosed through public records.
The proposal, Senate Bill 850, is
modeled on the successful pro
grams currently operating in 17
o th er states, like W ashington
where they first started the pro
gram in 1991.
Senator Richard Devlin, chief
sponsor of the bill, say the program
would provide survivors with a tool
to escape and abusive relationship
and end the violence against them
and their family, while at the same
time allowing public agencies to
easily respond to the requests for
public records.
“Theactoffilingforarestraining
order orchild custody requires court
documents to be completed,” said
Devlin, “In cases where the victim
has taken extreme measures to con
ceal his/her location, he/she may
be hesitant to take any steps that
could reveal their whereabouts to
the abuser.”
The A ddress C onfidentiality
Program functions by giving the
victim a substitute address through
the Attorney General’s Office to
use on all public records, including
drivers license, voter registration,
public assistance and court pro
ceeding. All the state and local
government use this address both
for public records and correspon
dence. First class mail is forwarded
by the Attorney General’s office to
the victim’s actual address.
Senate Bill 850 received wide
spread support from district attor
neys and law enforcement agen
cies around the state along with
domestic violence and sexual as
sault advocates and the Oregon
Attorney G eneral's Office. The bill
will not proceed to the Oregon
House of Representatives.
This is a security
camera's view
o f the bank
robber that hit
Wells Fargo and
Bank o f America
branches
recently.
Repeat Bank Robber at Large
H e’s hit two local banks within a
month, and the FBI needs the
public’s help in finding him.
The first robbery occurred on
June 9 around 4:30 p.m. at the
W ells Fargo Bank lo cated at
W ashington Square. The second
robbery took place at Bank of
A m erica on SW 185lh and W alker
in A loha at 4:40 p.m. on July 8. In
both cases, the robber w alked
into the bank, dem anded cash
from the teller and left on foot. He
may be arm ed.
Witnesses describe the robber
as a man in his late 20s to early 30s
with a medium build between 5 ’7”
a n d 5 ’9”.
Anyone with information about
the robber’s identity or either bank
robbery is asked to call 503-224-
4181.
Laurelhurst Sees Rise in Burglaries
hours later, but released him be
cause they c o u ld n ’t prove the
property he had was stolen. The
property was later found to be
connected with an
T he L a u re lh u rst
other burglary.
area in northeast Port
land has seen a few too
Further investiga
many burglaries lately,
tion connected Jen
and it's possible that
kins to a burglary that
one man is behind all of
occurred on June 25,
them.
among others.
On W e d n e sd a y ,
T h e S o u th e a s t
July 13, detectives ar
P recinct has e x p e ri
re ste d 2 9 -y e a r-o ld
enced an e sc a la tio n
Stacy Russel Jenkins
o f cat b u rg la rie s in
on three counts of bur Russel Jenkins
in n e r n o rth east and
glary and one county of attempted so u th east P o rtland in the past
burglary.
sev eral m on ths, but it is yet to
Early m orning on June 11, o f be determ in ed if Jen k in s isc o n -
ficers responded to a reported nected w ith any o f th ese in c i
burglary in the Laurelhurst neigh d ences. T he in v estig atio n is o n
borhood. They spotted Jenkins going.
Man arrested on
four counts
I
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