Jourdain sentenced in Red Lake shooting:
Just some more information on the sentencing of alleged Red Lake co-conspirator Louis Jourdain in addition to the previously posted sentence…
The teenager will be on probation until he is 21, and during that period, a federal judge will have discretion to send him to other facilities as a condition of probation, the paper reported.
Jourdain pleaded guilty to making threatening interstate communications.
Families criticize teen’s penalty:
Louis Jourdain’s sentence hasn’t been made officially public, but according to the article, he will spend less than one year in a private treatment center for children. Jourdain pleaded guilty to making threatening interstate communications in connection with the Red Lake shootings. And the families of the victims are none too happy about it…
“It doesn’t seem like enough,” said Rose Rosebear, whose 15-year-old granddaughter Chanelle Rosebear was among those killed. “He got the easy way out, I guess.”
Adding to the frustration, though, is that many in the community do not know Louis Jourdain’s actual role — if any — in the events leading up to the March 21 shootings. And they may never know.
Jourdain’s juvenile status in the proceedings means court records are sealed.
Victims’ families say they are frustrated. They are left to speculate about whether Jourdain, who was Weise’s cousin and rumored to have exchanged e-mails and text messages with him regularly, thought Weise might kill his grandfather and take his gun to wreak havoc in the halls of Red Lake High.
One of the bullets Weise fired struck then-freshman Cody Thunder in the hip. Cody survived but has not gone back to school. A bullet remains lodged somewhere in the teen’s body, says his grandfather, Al Thunder. The lack of detail about Jourdain’s trial and involvement, he said, grates on him.
“We’re the people that got hurt. Not him,” Al Thunder said. “Now, it seems like he’s the one getting the best deal.”
Francis “Chunky” Brun still chokes up when he talks about his 28-year-old son, Derrick. Derrick Brun worked as a security guard at the school and was the first person Weise encountered when he stormed the school. Brun, who was lauded for trying to stop Weise, was shot to death.
Seeing justice done helps ease the minds of those who’ve lost a loved one, Francis Brun said. But there are many who suspect the penalty doled out to Louis Jourdain does not fit whatever role the teen might have played, he said.
“I can’t prejudge the boy,” he said. “I know he’s going to have to live with this thing, and it’s going to haunt him the rest of his life, just like it’s caused so much grief and sorrow for my family and all family members of people who were killed.”
Red Lake Teen Sentenced for Threats:
A tribal chairman’s teenage son, once accused of conspiring with a 16-year-old friend who killed nine people on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, was sentenced behind closed doors Friday on a lesser charge of sending threatening messages.
The sentence for Louis Jourdain, 17, wasn’t revealed, and his father, Floyd Jourdain Jr., said he would not disclose it.
“The judge’s ruling will reflect what I’ve said all along … my son is a good kid,” the elder Jourdain said.
Attorneys left the court without commenting.
I’ll let you know if the sentence itself ever becomes known.
Sentencing for Jourdain postponed, no new date set:
The headline pretty much says it all.
Louis Jourdain, the alleged co-conspirator in the Red Lake shootings, had his sentencing postponed. If you remember, Jourdain pleaded guilty to threatening interstate communications and charges of conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States were dropped.
No new date has been set.
The threatening interstate communications charge carries a maximum five-year sentence.
Teen Pleads Guilty for Role in Shootings:
Louis Jourdain, the teen arrested for allegedly being a co-conspirator in the Red Lake shootings, has pleaded guilty to threatening interstate communications. Conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States charges were dropped.
The docket, some of which had been blacked out, gave few details of the charge, saying only that Jourdain used a computer to conduct interstate communications that “could be taken by an objective observer as threatening” sometime between Jan. 1, 2003 and March 2005.
No sentencing date has been set yet.
But according to this article, even though Jourdain may get off easy in criminal court, he’s still looking at problems with possible civil trials.
“The civil part is just beginning,” Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick said. “The end of the criminal case is just the turning point to start the wheels moving in the civil end, of which there’s no shortage of plaintiffs and an abundance of defendants.”
Personally, I don’t see how a civil suit could be filed unless Jourdain had implicit knowledge of the exact time and place of the attack. Since according to the judgment reached, it doesn’t seem to me that he had such knowledge. Then again, I’m not a lawyer. I really should keep one around here. Any volunteers?
Red Lake victims’ families seek access to Louis Jourdain’s trial:
Families of Red Lake school shooting victims filed a motion in federal court Wednesday seeking access to the trial of a juvenile arrested in the case, according to sources familiar with the case.
The government has filed a similar motion seeking to allow the families into the trial, one of the sources said.
So hopefully, the victims’ families will be able to attend. And the media will be shut out.
Shut out of trial, families frustrated:
I am no longer torn on the decision to keep the trial of accused Red Lake accomplice Louis Jourdain closed to the public. Yes, he is a minor. No, the media does not have the right to be in on every little thing. However, I do believe the victims’ families of the Red Lake shootings should be entitled to attend the proceedings.
A day after a federal judge ruled court proceedings for the only person charged in the case will remain closed to the public, the father of one victim said he and other families have hired an attorney to seek access. A victims’ rights group says getting answers is an important step in the healing process.
“If nobody is going to go into the courtroom, we will all have unanswered questions,” said Al Thunder, a cultural coordinator and Red Lake tribal courts judge, whose grandson Cody Thunder was one of seven people injured in the March 21 shootings. “All the ruling is going to bring is frustration.”
“We have never had access to any evidence gathered,” said Francis Brun, a retired tribal administrator and the father of Derrick Brun, a security guard slain at the high school. “I would like to know what exactly happened and whether people could have done something to prevent what happened.”
Hopefully, they will allow the victims’ families to attend while keeping the vultures of the press at bay.
Judge rules Red Lake trial will stay closed: (Log in info)
A federal judge ruled on Friday that the trial of Louis Jourdain, the teen being tried in connection with the Red Lake shootings, will remain closed. The AP and other local media had sued to open up the trial.
Like I said before, I’m torn on this decision because, on one hand, I think a trial of this magnitude should be opened up to the public. On the other hand, Jourdain is a minor, and it galls me when the media thinks they have the God-given right to have to know everything.
Jourdain Red Lake shootings trial to be delayed:
The trial of Louis Jourdain, who was arrested in conjunction with the Red Lake shooting, has had his trial postponed…
Originally scheduled to begin Nov. 14 in federal court in Minneapolis, the trial is now targeted to start sometime in mid-December, the source said.
Jourdain is facing charges for his alleged role in the March 21 fatal shootings at Red Lake High School in which his cousin, 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise, killed nine people and then took his own life.
Prosecutors have not said what Jourdain is accused of doing. Sources with knowledge of the investigation have said he is charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Star Tribune, AP sue to open Jourdain trial:
Both the Associated Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune are suing to have the trial of Louis Jourdain open to the public. Jourdain was arrested in conjunction with the Red Lake shootings, but the proceedings have remained close since he is being tried as a juvenile.
I’m torn on this because on the one hand, I think a trial of this magnitude should be open to the public whether the suspect in question is a juvenile or not. On the other hand, though, it irks me to no end to see the arrogance of the media who think it’s their God-given right to have complete access to any and all information, no matter how sensitive the information is.
As much as I personally would like to see the case opened up, I think the media is once again way off base. They are not entitled to know everything.