A woman who admitted she sold stones to rioters in Benton Harbor last year has pleaded no contest to a felony charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Yuolanda Taylor, 32, toted rocks through a riot-wracked neighborhood on the night of June 16, 2003, according to police, and sold small rocks for $1 each and bigger ones for $5.
The rocks were thrown at police, prosecutors said, though Taylor claimed she did not participate directly in the violence that tore through the area around Empire Avenue and Broadway.
Taylor told police she collected about $70 selling rocks, but quit when she got hit by one herself. She later used the money to pay her cable TV bill.
In Berrien County Trial Court Monday, Taylor pleaded no contest to inciting a riot, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Judge Casper Grathwohl accepted the plea one day before Taylor was to have faced trial. She is free on bond pending sentencing Nov. 15.
A no contest plea is the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes but cannot be used as an admission of wrongdoing in a civil lawsuit.
Berrien Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Vigansky said Taylor was arrested after police investigated an informant tip.
She was one of several people charged about one year after mobs burned houses, and assaulted police and firefighters in two nights of violence. Taylor was one of six people named in warrants in June.
Ten people were arrested initially at the time of the riots, most of them for driving up to or through police lines.
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2004/10/05/news/news1.txt
Yuolanda Taylor, 32, toted rocks through a riot-wracked neighborhood on the night of June 16, 2003, according to police, and sold small rocks for $1 each and bigger ones for $5.
The rocks were thrown at police, prosecutors said, though Taylor claimed she did not participate directly in the violence that tore through the area around Empire Avenue and Broadway.
Taylor told police she collected about $70 selling rocks, but quit when she got hit by one herself. She later used the money to pay her cable TV bill.
In Berrien County Trial Court Monday, Taylor pleaded no contest to inciting a riot, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Judge Casper Grathwohl accepted the plea one day before Taylor was to have faced trial. She is free on bond pending sentencing Nov. 15.
A no contest plea is the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes but cannot be used as an admission of wrongdoing in a civil lawsuit.
Berrien Assistant Prosecutor Gerald Vigansky said Taylor was arrested after police investigated an informant tip.
She was one of several people charged about one year after mobs burned houses, and assaulted police and firefighters in two nights of violence. Taylor was one of six people named in warrants in June.
Ten people were arrested initially at the time of the riots, most of them for driving up to or through police lines.
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2004/10/05/news/news1.txt
