From courierpostonline.com, posted March 29, 2019 By Phaedra Trethan CAMDEN — “I am no longer your prisoner,” the woman identified in court as A.S. said, her voice at once shaking with emotion and yet strong, “and I will no longer be a prisoner in my own body.” She was addressing Mason Mallon, who sexually assaulted her when she was 17 years old. Mallon, 25, was in Camden County Superior Court Friday afternoon to be sentenced on two counts of aggravated sexual assault for separate attacks on A.S and another woman. Judge Gwendolyn Blue, who called Mallon’s actions “cruel and depraved,” sentenced him to 15 … Continue reading Victim to attacker: ‘I am strong, you are weak’

Her voice shook with emotion. Her hands went to her face as she spoke. She said her name, clearly and publicly, at least as a matter of court record. In the filings against Mason Mallon, who was about to be sentenced for sexually assaulting her and another woman on separate occasions, though, she was A.S. She spoke for several minutes to Mallon, giving a victim impact statement that I later remarked lived up to its name in compelling fashion. She called him a monster, but told him that wasn’t all he was or needed to be. She talked about feeling … Continue reading From the notebook: A.S. in her own words

Published in the Courier-Post Aug. 6, 2018 CAMDEN – Darnell Moore’s book, “No Ashes in the Fire,” isn’t just about Camden. It is Camden. It’s the heat coming in waves off the asphalt in summer. It’s the smells generated by a waste plant in Waterfront South. It’s the porches and the stoops, the neighborhoods with names that recall old families and the ethnicities of the people who once lived there. It’s Broadway and downtown, Fairview and Centerville. It’s The Castle on the Hill, redlining and riots, escape and return. It’s poverty and pain. It’s the will of a teenage mother “who discovered her … Continue reading ‘A love letter’ to his hometown of Camden

Published Jan. 18, 2019 at courierpostonline.com CAMDEN –  It’s a cold, blustery January day, but John “JB” Brown doesn’t really seem to mind. Bundled up in a thick winter coat, his head covered with a hat and a hoodie, he leaves the comfort of the well-appointed recreational vehicle parked in a lot on Mount Ephraim Avenue to surf the asphalt ocean around him. He walks to a dollar store across the road. To the bus stop, where riders hop on and off the NJ Transit 400 route bus. Past half-frozen puddles to the parking lot at a former strip mall that … Continue reading The return of the needle exchange

Published June 25, 2018 at courierpostonline.com CAMDEN – Three women were huddled against the cold, wind-blown mist, the hoods on their sweaters partially obscuring their faces as they stood under the marquee of the  Camden Miracle Center on Broadway. Jay Lassiter approached them, kits in hand. He asked them if they knew anyone who might need clean needles. All three said yes, and took a kit. Two quickly left. “They scattered,” he said. Laurie, who did not want to give her last name, stayed, clutching the kit tightly in her arms. “I’ll take this for the Narcan,” she told Lassiter, a … Continue reading City, provider stuck on needle exchange