Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Farrakhan ordered to court over son's car crash case


I generally steer away from stories about relatives of well-known people getting in trouble unless it directly involves the actual famous person.

For instance, often I'll stumble across a story about an adult son or daughter of a judge getting arrested for drunk driving. Unless the accused received special treatment, the public official should not be the focus of the story--but it often is. Most journalists disagree with me, based on the plethora of articles like this I read on the internet.

But here's a story that's worth commenting on.

From the Times of Munster, Indiana:

Minister Louis Farrakhan, the spiritual leader of the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, has been ordered to appear in Hammond federal court next month to explain why weekly cash stipends given to his 48-year-old son are not considered income.

It's an issue because the son, Nasir Farrakhan, was ordered by a federal jury in Hammond last year to pay a Gary couple $350,000 in punitive damages for crashing his father's Hummer into their car in 2003 on the Indiana Toll Road and then fleeing the scene.

Nasir Farrakhan has said he can't pay the debt because he has no income, has never been employed and has no checking account or savings.

He argues the $1,400 in cash he receives from his father each month is legally considered "charity," even though Nasir Farrakhan has acted as head of the minister's 20-man security force for many years over the past several decades.

My advice to Messrs. Farrakhan is to pay up now. The discovery process could be unpleasant for the Farrakhan family--and the Nation of Islam.

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