Blogger Ben Holder, alias the Troublemaker, has received some unwelcome scrutiny in my reporting of how the controversy surrounding Greensboro police Officer Julius Fulmore has been framed in the community. He fires back by assembling a litany of examples of my purported "journalistic malpractice."
Holder doesn’t cite any passage of my reporting that states that Officer Julius Fulmore was exonerated of criminal charges. In fact, I reported in yesterday’s YES! Weekly that the Guilford County District Attorney declined to pursue criminal charges against Fulmore. This information is thoroughly non-controversial.
Holder writes that I leave out certain facts about polygraphs administered to Fulmore and Weidman. I contend that I have highlighted the relevant facts in this and many other stories.
Yes, I have written that a page from an internal affairs by Cpl. N. Davis was “presumably” written by Detective Scott Sanders. As Holder knows from interviewing me, I was given this page in a stack of documents that lawyer Amiel Rossabi described as being produced by the defendants in a libel case by Fulmore and Lt. Brian James against Jerry Bledsoe and The Rhinoceros Times. There was no malice in my suggestion that this page might have been written by Sanders; it was simply conjecture from the best information available at the time. At the time, I did not have the full document and could find no one, including Rossabi, who could enlighten me as to the authorship of the page. I now have the entire document and have clarified that it was written by Davis.
Holder’s obsession with my misunderstanding about the page describing Fulmore’s polygraph clouds the point that this document contains some very interesting information. Holder’s readers might like to know, for instance, that the accounts of Fulmore, a female friend who admitted to having sex with him in the room at the Red Carpet Inn and a male employee who later used the room are entirely consistent. The allegations by Brenda Weidman, a prostitute and informant, that Fulmore had sex with her and provided her with drugs could not be substantiated by investigators. For example, the specific page on which Holder is so fixated contains this statement: “The results excluded Ms. Weidman’s DNA as a match for that present on the used condom, but did not exclude Detective Fulmore’s DNA as a match for that present on the used condom."
The administrative report on Fulmore wraps up with this conclusion: “The facts revealed Ms. Brenda E. Weidman was the occupant of room#310, and had been residing there for five consecutive days prior to June 2. The facts revealed at approximately 1730 hours on June 2, Detective Fulmore and [name redacted by author] used room#311 to have sexual intercourse and vacated the room at approximately 1930 hours. At approximately 2330 hours Detective Fulmore met with [name redacted by author] and gave him the key to room#311. [Name redacted by author] occupied the room from approximately midnight until 1000 hours on June. 3. Detective Fulmore did not return to the room.”
There are many facts available from which to select in this extensive investigation. Smart readers can discern from the wide array of journalistic reports, which are relevant.
As for Joya Wesley’s statement to me that she was unaware that Holder wore a wire for the police while presenting himself as a reporter for the Carolina Peacemaker, the point is that Wesley, then the editor of the newspaper, along with commentary editor Hal Sieber and co-owner Vickie Kilimanjaro, contradicted Holder’s statement that his editors were aware of his undercover police work. Whether Wesley believed there was a possibility that Holder wore a wire or not is beside the point. Most people do believe he wore a wire for the police.
My reporting for the wire story, in which I shared a byline with Amy Kingsley, that Holder met with Al Stewart, then an investigator for the Guilford County District Attorney and a former police vice captain, to discuss a request by police to wear a wire during his interview with Dunlap comes from a background source. Regrettably, I am unable to name that source.
10 comments:
Ben?
Roch?
Mom?
Meh.
Jordan also wrote: Holder’s readers might like to know, for instance, that the accounts of Fulmore, a female friend who admitted to having sex with him in the room at the Red Carpet Inn and a male employee who later used the room are entirely consistent.
My readers already know that Jordan is an idiot. He is not informed. He simply doesn't know much about the facts. The accounts are not entirely consistent as the short bus reporter claims. Let's check a few facts. Why didn't Jordan offer any proof that the accounts are entirely consistent?
Fulmore reported that he had rented room 311 at about 5:30 only for himself. However, he previously told investigators that he rented it specifically for his employee (Gregory Lewis). Why are there two answers for one question, Jordan? The most basic question about why the room was rented had two versions. Bzzzzzzzz. That is not entirely consistent.
Fulmore reported that he told Lewis he had a motel room he could use. Fulmore said he agreed to meet Lewis at Hardee's on Randleman Road. He previously reported that he had met Lewis near Lewis' shop on Lee Street. Why are there two answers for one question, Jordan? Where Fulmore met Lewis to give him the room key is an easy question. However, Fulmore gave two different locations. Bzzzzzzzz. That is not entirely consistent.
Investigators asked Lewis how he knew Fulmore, Lewis said he had not known Fulmore long. He reported he had only been doing transmission work for him for about six months. Fulmore contradicted Lewis when he said the two were longtime friends. Why are there two answers for one question, Jordan? We have been friends for years or we just met six months ago? Which is it? One thing is clear, it isn't entirely consistent. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz!
When detectives asked Lewis when he last had spoken with Fulmore, Lewis answered that he had seen him since Fulmore was suspended. Fulmore contradicted Lewis when he reported that he hadn't seen Lewis since the night of the hotel incident. Why are there two answers for one question, Jordan? I saw him yesterday and I haven't seen him for a few days? Which is it? The two are not entirely consistent.
The only things that are entirely consistent are the ass whippings I have been laying down on Jordan Green. Now, about the betting? Bri? Womack? Amy?
The Troublemaker is a child...screaming for attention. His whole self worth is based on the 40 or 50 people that read his blog every now and then. He is also like a bug that flies around your head in the summer. There are two things to do to that bug...ignore or swat.
Mr. Holder's name-calling can indeed seem as childish and tiresome as Bill O'Reilly's, but the claim that his self-worth is based on the people who read his blog is a barb that could be aimed at just about any blogger anywhere. Does that mean we should throw out the blogs with the bongwater. I wish that Mr. Holder would be less inclined to scream and fling poo (or at least that he would take better aim before flinging it), but he continues document things that nobody else is documenting. I know a guy who knows one of the guys who allegedly tried to put the hit on Bledsoe, and this acquaintance of mine, a middle-aged liberal black man who is decidedly not a fan of either David Wray or John Hammer, has repeatedly said that Mr. Holder reports more accurately about Greensboro's career criminals "than any other white boy I've read."
If Mr. Holder's strident tone means that he's often preaching to the choir rather than trying to reach the unconvinced middle, that's true of a lot of people, including Brian, Jordan, Ed Cone, John Hammer and me.
Hey Ian, I've always wanted to meet you. Next time I'm making copies in Kinko's on Tate Street I'll be sure to exercise discretion when answering my cell phone, however.
I wish more people would, Jordan, I truly do. I absolutely loathe cellphones and how they cause people to treat public spaces as private ones, something which reduces me to slathering clench-fisted rage every time it happens. Right now a neighbor of mine is so loudly blathering on her cellphone about her sex life and what a bitch her boss is that I can hear her even though she's on the front porch next door and I'm inside my apartment with the air conditioner running. That makes me wants to go outside and punch her (but I won't, as she's a strapping wench who'd likely kick my ass). If I ever go completely bonkers (some would say I am already) and embark on a multi-state killing spree, it will be because of those goddamn tools of Satan and the pod people who have them glued to their ears.
Sorry for the raving digression. Yes, we should meet. We have a mutual acquaintance who insists that you're a nice guy and that I'd like you, and coming from a FOX-news-watching dittohead like him, I find that interesting praise.
I see Ben is scared....or in TROUBLE....hmmmm
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