Monday, December 10, 2012

What Happened To McDonald Case Instigator Molly Shannon Flaherty?

Laverne Cox has a post up on HuffPo focused on CeCe McDonald, our Minnesota transsister who stood her ground against a hate attack instigated by a white supremacist and transphobic bigots.  Due to a massive miscarriage of justice she is unfortunately doing three years in jail behind it. 

Laverne's post led me to ponder what's been happening in the legal case with Molly Shannon Flaherty, the woman who triggered that fateful June 5, 2011 altercation outside Minneapolis' Schooner Tavern that night and shoved a glass in CeCe's face that opened up a cut that took 11 stitches to close.

There was a lot of justified griping from the African-Americans trans community and our allies about the glaring reality that none of the white people involved who started this crap were facing charges or jail time like CeCe was.   The 41 year old Flaherty was arrested May 11 and charged with two felonies: second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and third-degree assault causing substantial bodily harm

Interestingly enough, Hennepin County Prosecutor Michael Freeman (D) is still trying to cover his rump and cited a unspecified conflict of interest in not prosecuting Flaherty's case in Hennepin County where it happened, but instead in Washington County

Note that ever since then and the announcement that Flaherty had been charged, it seems as though there has been a cone of silence cloaking what has happened ever since.  What's up with that?  

If the Washington County prosecutors are trying to keep this quiet in the hopes that dropping this case off the news radar will allow people to forget it and give them the opportunity to let Flaherty walk for instigating this BS instead if putting her butt in jail like y'all did CeCe, umm no, that ain't happening.   

It's time for the media and everybody else to ask questions in terms of what is happening in this case.  If no answers are forthcoming, then the Washington County prosecutors need to asked in front of unblinking camera eyes why.   It may also be time to light a fire under Michael Freeman's behind if necessary.

Flaherty deserves jail time and a fine for causing bodily injury to CeCe, and the trans community should not rest or let this crap slide until CeCe gets some justice out of this fracked up situation, too.instead of the heaping helpings of injustice she's had to deal with.

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