[R-G] Update on the murder of May Molina: Funeral today in Chicago

[usman x]

----Original Message-----
From: Gregory Lewis 

Wake, Funeral, Next Steps for Activist May Molina,
Dead in Police Custody  Current rating: 0  
by CIMC repost
(No verified email address)  01 Jun 2004  
Wake and Funeral Arrangements for May Molina:

TODAY, Tuesday, June 1: Wake/Visitation, 2-9PM,
Casey-Laskowski & Sons Funeral Home, 4540-50 W.
Diversey Ave.

Wednesday, June 2: Funeral, 9:45 a.m. from
Casey-Laskowski & Sons Funeral Home, 4540-50 W.
Diversey Ave., to St. Genevieve Church, Mass 10:30
a.m. Interment Mount Olive.

Wednesday, June 2: Following the Wednesday funeral and
burial, activists and family will proceed to the US
Attorney General's office at 219 S. Dearborn, ETA 2:30
PM to deliver a letter demanding a full independent
investigation.  
Wake and Funeral Arrangements for May Molina:

Tuesday, June 1: Wake/Visitation, 2-9PM,
Casey-Laskowski & Sons Funeral Home, 4540-50 W.
Diversey Ave.

Wednesday, June 2: Funeral, 9:45 a.m. from
Casey-Laskowski & Sons Funeral Home, 4540-50 W.
Diversey Ave., to St. Genevieve Church, Mass 10:30
a.m. Interment Mount Olive.

Wednesday, June 2: Following the Wednesday funeral and
burial, activists and family will proceed to the US
Attorney General's office at 219 S. Dearborn, ETA 2:30
PM to deliver a letter demanding a full independent
investigation.

Thursday, June 3: Generation Y Youth to March to End
Police Brutality and Racial Profiling; 5:30 PM;
Converge at Chicago Police Headquarters, 3510 S.
Michigan -- March will continue to 15th and Indiana.
Activists in support of May Molina will deliver a
letter to Mayor Daley regarding the situation.

Friday, June 4: March against police torture at home
and abroad, 4PM, Federal Plaza, Jackson and Dearborn,
organized by Evg. C. Scott (Lil' Scotty) and the
Enough is Enough Campaign.

Sunday: A group of family members and community
supporters will meet at 3 pm. to discuss next steps in
the campaign to win justice for May Molina.

The family of May Molina (Ortiz) is in desperate need
of funds to pay for funeral expenses. Make the checks
payable to Marisol Allende and send c/o April Ortiz to
PO Box 412004, Chicago, IL 60654.

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail
or call.

------

May Molina, age 55, loving mother of Salvador Sr.,
Michael, and April Ortiz and Anthony DeJesus, dearest
grandmother of Salvador D. Ortiz Jr., Jose Torres,
Jason Dalgado, Elias D. and Gloria Gonzalez, dear
mother-in-law of Shannon Guzman, fond sister, aunt,
and friend of many. Funeral Wednesday, 9:45 a.m. from
Casey-Laskowski & Sons Funeral Home, 4540-50 W.
Diversey Ave., to St. Genevieve Church, Mass 10:30
a.m. Interment Mount Olive. Visitation Tuesday, 2 to 9
p.m. Co-founder of Comite Exigimos Justicia and
Families of the Wrongfully Convicted. 773-777-6300.

Published in the Chicago Sun-Times on 5/31/2004.

------

Activist's death sparking protest
Friends question drug allegations

By Carlos Sadovi, Tribune staff reporter. Published
May 30, 2004

A meeting between police officials and supporters of a
local activist who died of undetermined causes while
in police custody was canceled Friday after the two
sides could not agree on whether to meet in public or
private.

More than a dozen supporters of May Molina, 55, who
died Wednesday, confronted officials from the Office
of Professional Standards, the group looking into her
death, angrily demanding that the meeting be held in
public.

They also called for the case to be turned over to the
U.S. attorney's office or an independent commission.

"This is too big for you. Write a letter to the U.S.
attorney's office," said Aaron Patterson, a lead
protester who was one of the Death Row inmates
pardoned by former Gov. George Ryan.

Lori Lightfoot, chief administrator of the Office of
Professional Standards, refused to meet with
protesters. She told them to go to the U.S. attorney
and the FBI to request an investigation.

"We will not turn this into a circus. I have offered
to meet with you," Lightfoot said. "You don't want the
terms of the deal."

Molina founded a group called Families of the
Wrongfully Convicted. She was arrested Monday at her
home, where police said they found more than 80
tinfoil packets of heroin.

An autopsy found that she had ingested six tinfoil
packets.

The packets, the size of a fingertip, were found in
her esophagus, stomach and small intestine, according
to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's
office.

A ruling on the cause of death will be made after the
results of a toxicology exam are available, the
spokesman said. Police are also awaiting test results
to determine if the packets found inside the woman
contained drugs.

The packets in her body were similar in size and
packaging to the heroin packets found in her home,
police spokesman Patrick Camden said.

In 1991, Molina was sentenced to 3 years in prison on
a drug conviction.

Molina, who was in a wheelchair, had diabetes, asthma
and a thyroid condition.

Friday's confrontation between the protesters and
police capped nearly a week of sparring between the
groups. On Thursday, a meeting with the Office of
Professional Standards was canceled after protesters
shouted down police officials.

Patterson, who spent 17 years on the state's Death Row
for murder before he was pardoned last year, was
arrested and spent a night in jail Wednesday evening.

Patterson was charged with a misdemeanor count of
reckless conduct after a protest outside Belmont Area
headquarters, where Molina had died.

Patterson was arrested after he refused to stop
banging on windows at the police station, police said.

Patterson said he was wrongfully arrested.

Alexander Hauad, Molina's nephew, disputed that she
had drugs in her home and said he did not believe that
drugs were found inside her body.

Hauad said that she had been held for nearly two days,
and he questioned how the drugs could have stayed in
her system.

"We know that May Molina did not have drugs in her
system and in her house," he said.

Police dispute claims that Molina or her attorney
asked for medical attention.

But because of her age and her use of a wheelchair,
her health was at greater risk than that of the
average person held in a lockup, said Charles Fasano,
director of the prisons and jails program at the John
Howard Association in Chicago.

If police knew about her medical problems, they should
have kept a closer watch on her in the holding cell,
Fasano said. Police said they looked in on her every
15 minutes.

"When people are taken into custody, they're very
frequently in bad shape. They may have medical
problems. They may be traumatized. They may be
intoxicated," he said. "They may be at risk for
serious injury or death."

Legal standards detail how lockups should be run,
Fasano said. State officials used to require annual
inspections of all lockups and prisons in all 102
counties in the state, he said.

Two people in the Illinois Department of Corrections
are charged with evaluating if people are treated
fairly in lockups, although the inspections are
conducted only if they are requested by county
agencies, said Sergio Molina, a spokesman for the
agency. He is not related to May Molina.

May Molina's estate may have a tough time trying to
make a case against the city, according to the Jury
Verdict Reporter, which tracks the outcomes of jury
trials.

In 1997, a Lake County jury awarded the estate of
Victor Connell $459,455 after the man died in the
county's jail of a cocaine overdose complicated by
undiagnosed diabetes. The jury concluded a doctor with
the jail's medical unit failed to provide care to the
man even after determining that his vital signs were
abnormal.

But a jury in 1996 found the Village of Mount Prospect
not guilty after Edward Fitzgibbons died of a diabetic
attack after he chose not to take his insulin shot
while he was being held on a shoplifting charge. The
estate had sought $1 million, but the jury ruled
Fitzgibbons was responsible for declining to have the
injection.

Copyright ) 2004, Chicago Tribune