Following the beating of Justin Barker at Jena High School, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into the noose-hanging incident and found no link to the assault on Justin Barker or other confrontations between black and white students in Jena. Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told CNN that “A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection.” He added that “We could not prove that, because the statements of the students themselves do not make any mention of nooses, of trees, of the ‘N’ word or any other word of racial hate.” Washington also told CNN that Bell had “several previous assault charges on his record.” The CNN story is online at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/index.html?iref=newssearch

Justin Barker was not involved in the noose-hanging incident and has not been named in any other cofrontation between black and white students that occured prior to the beating. In their statements to police, none of the black students accused of beating Barker or witnesses to the attack allege that Barker used racial slurs. These allegations emerged in blogs after the Jena case atttracted national attention. One of the accused does claim that Barker taunted one of the black students does claim that Barker taughted his about losing a fight at a private party, but Barker denies this allegation. Signed statements made by wittnesses and the defendants during the police investigation are online at http://listics.com/20070927137.