[Ppnews] Political Prisoner Abdul Majid update

[Political Prisoner News]

FYI - 3 very (typical) awful stories about Abdul Majid from the 'NY papers'


http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060504/NEWS01/60504004

Officers' kin awarded $42M By Larry Fisher-Hertz
Poughkeepsie Journal

May 4, 2006

A Dutchess County jury today awarded $42 million in civil damages to 
the family of a slain New York City police officer and his partner, 
who survived the 1981 shooting.

The jurors deliberated for about eight hours Wednesday and Thursday 
before deciding Green Haven prison inmate Abdul Majid should pay the 
money to the family of Officer John Scarangella and to retired 
Officer Richard Rainey.

Rainey was awarded $13.6 million in lost earnings and other losses 
and for the pain he has suffered since he was injured, and an 
additional $25 million in punitive damages.

The Scarangella family was awarded $3,504,413 in damages for lost 
earnings and other expenses. The jury was barred by law from awarding 
the family punitive damages because Scarangella died in the attack.

Majid, who acted as his own attorney during the trial, told Judge 
Thomas J. Dolan he intended to appeal the verdict.

The wrongful death trial began Monday in state Supreme Court in 
Poughkeepsie, 25 years to the day after Scarangella died of gunshot 
wounds to the head. Rainey, who was forced to retire on a disability 
pension after receiving eight bullet wounds in the attack, testified Tuesday.

The shooting occurred in the St. Albans section of Queens on April 
16, 1981. Majid, then known as Anthony LaBorde, and another man, 
James Dixon York, were later convicted of murder and attempted murder 
and are serving state prison terms. Both men were reputed members of 
the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army.

The suit against Majid was filed under the state's so-called ``Son of 
Sam'' Law. The law, first passed in 1979 and amended in 2001, permits 
crime victims to seek civil damages from those convicted of 
committing the crimes.

The verdict entitles Rainey and the Scarangella family to obtain 
$15,000 Majid was awarded in a settlement stemming from injuries he 
received in a fight with officers at Sullivan Correctional Facility in 1997.



COP KILLER MUST PAY $42 MILLION
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/63325.htm

By MURRAY WEISS

May 5, 2006 -- A jury has ordered convicted Black Liberation Army cop 
killer Anthony Laborde to pay $42.1 million to the family of slain 
Officer John Scarangella and to his wounded partner, Richard Rainey, 
who were shot 25 years ago in Queens.

"It is time for this cowardly cop killer to pay his debt," said 
Gregory Longworth, a police-union lawyer who handled the lawsuit 
against Laborde, who has since changed his name to Abdul Majid.

The civil verdict ends a seven-year battle by the Scarangellas and 
Rainey, who, under the "Son of Sam" law, wanted to make sure that 
Laborde did not receive a $15,000 settlement he won from the state in 
a 1999 lawsuit that claimed he was roughed up by guards.

That money instead will go to his victims, who also will receive any 
cash he amasses in his prison account whenever it exceeds $50.

At a previous hearing, Laborde was asked what he would be willing to 
pay to settle the suit.

"Zero. Nothing whatsoever," he replied.

The April 16, 1981, shooting was one of the most vicious assaults on 
city cops in NYPD history.

Laborde and fellow BLA radical James York emerged with guns blazing 
from the rear of a white van that Scarangella and Rainey pulled over 
on a Hollis street. The armed duo fired scores of bullets into the police car.

Scarangella, then 42, clung to life for 16 days. Rainey, who still 
carries bullets in his body, was shot eight times, but miraculously survived.

Laborde and York are serving 331/3-year-to-life sentences upstate.



New York Daily News - <http://www.nydailynews.com>http://www.nydailynews.com
Cop-killer socked for 42M after winning 15G
BY DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, May 5th, 2006

A jury had a message yesterday for a cop-killing black radical: 
Forget about striking it rich in jail.

The panel ordered imprisoned thug Abdul Majid to pay a whopping $42 
million to the estate of slain NYPD cop John Scarangella and his 
surviving partner Richard Rainey.

"He doesn't deserve anything," said Tom Scarangella, 33-year-old son 
of the cop who was gunned down on a Queens street in 1981. "He 
deserves to spend his life in jail - and that's it."

Even though the families will likely see little of the cash, they can 
rest easy knowing Majid, 57, won't get to enjoy a $15,000 award he 
won after prison guards roughed him up.

"[He] is nothing more than a cowardly cop killer," said Gregory 
Longworth, a lawyer for Rainey and Scarangella's estate. "Today, his 
debt has come due."

The jury in Poughkeepsie deliberated for eight hours to reach the 
verdict under the state Son of Sam law, awarding about $25 million to 
Rainey, 59, and the rest to Scarangella's widow, Vivian, 61, and the 
couple's kids.

Jurors say they had no doubts about Majid's liability and only 
regretted that a legal technicality prevented them from giving more 
to Scarangella's estate.

Along with another Black Panther, Majid, formerly known as Anthony 
LaBorde, riddled Scarangella and Rainey with bullets after the cops 
stopped their van on a Queens street in 1981.


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