Russell Bruce
September 22, 2009
Zenobia Barrow
September 24, 2009
Vowing to protest until “justice is served,” a Dularge man is taking word to the streets of Houma over the sentence administered against the men who beat and left him for dead.
Dedric Knight and his wife Vanessa believe District Judge David Arceneaux added insult to injury last month when he suspended the sentences of the men found guilty of the crime. Instead, the judge released two of the four white men responsible for assaulting Knight, who is black, in 2006 as he changed a tire in a Houma convenience store parking lot.
Arceneaux credited the two men with the time they had served in jail.
“I just want to let the community know that this was a bad message sent by Judge Arceneaux,” Dedric Knight said, as he stood last Tuesday morning in front of the Terrebonne Parish Courthouse. “I want justice served.”
The Knights were joined by members of the Terrebonne Parish National Association for Advancement of Colored People and the Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes’ Southern Christian Leadership Council.
“We are sending a message to the justice system in Houma,” Vanessa Knight said. “We will not tolerate things of this nature.
“It matters not what color we are because we are all formed from dirt,” she continued. “It wasn’t white dirt, black dirt, Hispanic dirt, Asian dirt or Indian dirt. God formed us all from the dirt. He breathed into man’s nostrils and (man) became a living soul – we are all equal in God’s sight.”
Dedric Knight was beaten by four Houma men – Dustin Boudwin, 28; Peter Billiot, 19, who was a teen at the time; Charles J. Brunet Jr., 26; and Dwayne Adam Racine, 32 – as he waited in the parking lot for an acquaintance to bring a tire jack. Brunet and Racine, were charged with second-degree battery and hate-crimes. The men were accused of yelling racial slurs at Knight as they beat him.
Dedric Knight said he was punched so hard, it shattered the bones in his left cheek.
“I had to have two surgeries with total reconstruction of my left cheekbone,” he said. “I have plates and screws in my face and above my eyebrow.”
Boudwin is serving a five-year sentence at Allen Correctional Center in Kinder for his role in the assault.
The punishment administered to the other three convicted in the beating, however, troubles the Knights.
Billiot, who was 17 years old the night of the incident, was prosecuted as a teen. He was later released from jail.
“I don’t know why,” Vanessa Knight said. “We were told that he was supposed to serve a sentence of juvenile life.”
Brunet and Racine, who knew of the assault and failed to notify authorities, were initially slated to be tried nearly two years ago. However, the Knights did not receive notice of the trial date.
“Because of that, Judge Arceneaux said that since my husband did not appear in court, he dismissed both of the charges against Brunet and Racine,” she said.
Fearing a repeat, the Knights sought help from Terrebonne Parish NAACP President Jerome Boykin.
Working through Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr., the Knights saw the charges reinstated.
“When I first heard about this whole case, I just couldn’t sleep,” Boykin said. “Everybody in this parish should be in an uproar about what happened, regardless of who you are.”
An all-white jury – five men and one women – found Brunet and Racine guilty in June at their second trial.
Weeks later, at a hearing, Arceneaux admitted he thought the verdict was going to be “not guilty,” Vanessa Knight said. “He said that – and he did not have any feelings behind it.”
On the day of the sentencing, the Knights appeared in court expecting the judge to sentence Brunet and Racine to the maximum penalty for their part in the brutal beating.
Instead, Arceneaux called defense and prosecuting attorneys to his bench, clasped his hands and announced, “If I had to decide this case, it would have gone the other way,” according to Vanessa Knight.
She said the judge thanked the jury and told them, although he respected their decision, he was overruling it. Brunet and Racine were credited for the time they’d already served at the parish jail and were released.
When contacted about the case, Arceneaux – through his secretary – refused to comment for this story.
“I’m in constant pain… it’s hard,” Dedric Knight said last week. “Sometimes, I feel like people just don’t care. The judge surely doesn’t. He sent out a loud message that anyone can do anything to anybody and just get a slap on the wrist, and then they’re free.”
As she clutched a white poster board bearing the message, “Justice for Dedric Knight,” Vanessa Knight said she is as outraged today as she was the night she learned of the assault.
“I can’t believe this judge made these comments after what he heard during the entire trial,” she said. “All four of these thugs kept telling my husband, “We’re gonna’ kill us a (vulgarity followed by the n-word) tonight!
“I’m not letting this drop,” she continued. “I’m going to do everything in God’s power to make a stand in the Tri-parish area – to let people know that racisim is going to be exposed and that justice has to prevail.”
Many of last week’s protestors joined forces with the Knights saying the case was a flagrant example of a hate crime.
Boykin said he joined others to “shine a light on injustice.”
“These perpetrators pointed a handgun at this man and used racial slurs,” he said. “This was a hate crime, and all of them should still be in jail – serving at least 10 years, in my opinion – for what they did. (The judge’s decision) is a slap in the face!”
The Rev. Vincent Fuselier, the SCLC’s Terrebonne chapter president, and the Rev. Thomas Tucker, who heads the group’s Lafourche chapter, have also joined the fight.
“This disturbs this community,” Fuselier said. “The decision sends a bad, awful message to our communities and all around the world – that this judge should suspend a sentence of a hate crime.
“Judge David Arceneaux needs to be put into a class among real judges so that they can teach him what’s right from what’s wrong,” the minister added.
Tucker said Dedric Knight’s case “is an all too familiar sight.”
He accused Arceneaux of taking “a nonchalant approach” by releasing Brunet and Racine and “punishing the victims even further by allowing an injustice to go on.”
The Knights also have the support of Terrebonne Parish School Board member Gregory Harding. “An injustice was done to Mr. Knight,” he said at last week’s protest. “This could happen to anybody. The whole community should be shocked. This is not a black-and-white issue, it’s a right-and-wrong issue.”
“This man has never bothered anybody,” Dedric Knight’s cousin Denise Watson added. “He’s never been in trouble. These guys saw what was going on and they did not call the police. They didn’t do anything. This (verdict) is not fair.”
Boykin said he personally delivered a letter to Arceneaux’s office questioning the sentencing of Brunet and Racine but has yet to receive word from the judge.
“There is no excuse for what Judge Arceneaux did,” Boykin said. “This is the first hate crime in Terrebonne Parish, and he has sent the wrong message to this community. If he thinks we are going to sit back and take it, he’s got another thought coming. Something is seriously wrong here.”
Dedric and Vanessa Knight (at left) are joined by supporters while protesting a Terrebonne Parish judge’s decision to suspend prison terms for two men convicted in Dedric Knight’s racially-motivated beating. * Photo by HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.
