Entertainment

Ex-Prosecutor: Don’t Pardon Mark Wahlberg for Racist Attacks

Published

9 years ago

January 14, 2015

Judith Beals, a former prosecutor in the Massachusetts attorney generals office, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Boston. Beals, who secured a civil rights injunction against a young Mark Wahlberg in 1986 after he hurled rocks and racial epithets at black schoolchildren, said the actor should not be pardoned as he has requested for a separate attack on two Asian men. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A former state prosecutor who secured a civil rights injunction against a young Mark Wahlberg after he hurled rocks and racial epithets at black schoolchildren says he shouldn’t be pardoned for attacks on two Asian men two years later.

Judith Beals, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general, said Tuesday she believes in “forgiveness and reconciliation” but Wahlberg’s request should be denied because he hasn’t acknowledged the racial element of his crimes in documents he filed with the state last November.

“That acknowledgement of the crime and that facing of history is absolutely critical in the issuing of a pardon,” she said.

Wahlberg, who became a rapper and then an A-list actor nominated for an Oscar, acknowledged in his pardon application that he was high on marijuana and drugs at the time. He said he’s dedicated himself to becoming a better person as an adult.

“I’ve been looking for redemption (since) the day I woke up and realized that I done some horrific things and was on a path of self-destruction, as well as causing a lot of people harm,” Wahlberg, 43, said in a December interview. “When I decided to go and petition for a pardon, it wasn’t based on the things I accomplished in my career. It’s been the things I’ve been able to do in my personal life: giving back to the community and helping kids, especially inner-city kids and at-risk youth and kids growing up in that same situation.”

Wahlberg wants to be officially cleared of a 1988 incident in which he hit a Vietnamese man in the head with a wooden stick while trying to steal alcohol from a convenience store. Wahlberg, then 16, punched another Vietnamese man in the face while trying to avoid police.

He ended up being convicted as an adult of assault and other charges and was sentenced to three months in jail. He was released after about 45 days.

Beals said what made Wahlberg’s 1988 crimes unique was that, just two years earlier, he had been issued a court order triggering criminal charges in the event he committed another hate crime.

According to court filings in that 1986 case, which Beals prosecuted, Wahlberg and two white friends chased three black siblings in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, throwing rocks and yelling racial epithets.

The following day, Wahlberg and a larger group of white friends harassed a group of mostly black fourth-graders until an ambulance driver intervened.

Beals argued that Wahlberg’s status and wealth should not place him in a better position than others to erase his misdeeds. She also suggested hate crimes should be held to a higher standard.

Representatives for Wahlberg, whose movies include “Boogie Nights” and “Lone Survivor,” didn’t return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

The state parole board has to hold a hearing on the request by Wahlberg and send a recommendation to the governor, who decides whether to issue a pardon. Final say then rests with the Governor’s Council, an elected body.

Governors generally don’t make pardon decisions until they’re leaving office. Former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, issued just four in the final days of his eight-year tenure. His predecessor, Mitt Romney, a Republican, never issued one.

Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, took office this month.

___

Associated Press reporter John Carucci contributed to this story.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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April 19, 2024

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Entertainment

O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.