Testimony

"I'm a good mother. I'm a good decisionmaker," a weeping Angela Honeycutt said in a cell-phone call secretly recorded by police detectives last spring. "What the [obscenity] happened?" That is the question before a Bucks County Court jury today when it weighs the fate of Honeycutt, accused of sexually assaulting two boys during a teen sleepover April 12. Deliberations are expected to begin in the trial of Honeycutt, 39, a single mother of two who was supposed to be helping to chaperone the party.

Municipal Judge Earl J. Simmons didn't seem particularly concerned when MOVE member Gerald Ford Africa refused to swear on the Bible yesterday before testifying during the second day of Charles "Boo" Burrus' preliminary hearing. The judge sat patiently through Africa's testimony. But a few minutes after Africa left the City Hall courtroom, Simmons blew up at Assistant District Attorney Harry Spaeth. "You didn't expect trash like that to come in here and tell the truth, did you!"

What is the general public impression of the courts of Pennsylvania? That on the whole the system works, but out around the back door there is corruption. To what extent this opinion may be well-founded is a question. One practice, however, of the criminal court system amply justifies it. I refer to the practice of prosecutors' bribing criminals to testify against accused persons. Convictions secured by this method cannot enjoy the trust of the public. Mistrust is its due. Bribery?

Testimony wrapped up Friday in the trial of a Colwyn police officer charged with improperly arresting and Tasering a 16-year-old detainee. Cpl. Trevor Parham is accused of using a stun gun on Da'Qwan Jackson on April 23 while the teen was handcuffed and shackled in a holding cell. Parham testified Friday in his defense. Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Kevin R. Kelly, who presided over the nonjury trial, said he would announce his verdict Wednesday. On Thursday, Jackson testified that he was cuffed by Parham and told, "You're being uncooperative.

Camden Mayor Milton Milan's jury isn't rushing things. Milan, 38, who denies any wrongdoing, stands accused of taking more than $30,000 in bribes from the Philadelphia mob, as well as a variety of other federal crimes. Since late Wednesday, when deliberations began after a month-long trial, the eight female and four male jurors have discussed a 19-count indictment behind closed doors for more than 21 hours. The jurors haven't had a question, but they've asked to review transcripts of the testimony of 10 prosecution witnesses.

WASHINGTON - A former Justice Department official testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that his superiors told lawyers they were not interested in pursuing Voting Rights Act accusations against two members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia. The department denies the allegations. The commission is looking into the handling of accusations of attempted voter intimidation in the 2008 election. - AP

Saying it needed more testimony, the Whitemarsh Township Zoning Hearing Board continued a hearing on a restaurant proposal Wednesday night. The proposal called for transforming a run-down bar at the corner of East 10th and Spring Mill Avenues into a "first-class seafood restaurant," according to Thomas Spears, an attorney representing owners George and Karen Davis. During the last 30 years, a bar has occupied the site. But lately, it has become "quite an eyesore," Spears said.

Jeffrey Sessoms' mother, Alma, is in a hospital after suffering a stroke. But that didn't stop a prosecutor from using her testimony against her 36-year-old son, who pleaded guilty yesterday to third-degree murder in the killing of a woman last year. Common Pleas Judge D. Webster Keogh allowed Assistant District Attorney Judith Frankel Rubino to use the notes of the mother's testimony, given at a preliminary hearing last year. The mother had testified that Sessoms, of 59th Street near Thompson, called her after the death of Nadine White, 32, inside her apartment on Walnut Street near 54th, on May 25, 1998.

As they have done on the first Wednesday of most months since the summer of 1990, the Northampton Board of Supervisors convened again Wednesday for a hearing to decide a challenge to the township's zoning ordinance. In the 20th hearing session, the attorney for developers of a proposed 518- unit subdivision on 130 acres south of the intersection of Tanyard and Hatboro Roads grilled a Bucks County Planning Commission staff member on testimony he gave at a previous session. In a challenge filed March 28, 1990, Green Valley Associates of Newtown Borough contended that Northampton's zoning ordinance unlawfully prohibited the construction of homes on lots of less than 8,000 square feet, thus preventing medium-income people from becoming homeowners in the township.

On Jan. 6, nearly three years after Texas jurors sentenced Andrea Yates to life in prison for drowning her children, an appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. The three-judge panel in the First Court of Appeals cited false testimony by the state's psychiatrist - testimony that, by affecting how the jury deliberated, may have violated the defendant's rights. Who was actually to blame for this error? It is a bit of a mystery. But who is ultimately responsible is not. Expert witnesses should take care to ensure the veracity of their statements - especially in capital cases.