The following is a newspaper article about my cousin, Kevin:

Defendant gets break in racial threat case
By Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 19, 2008


It wasn't exactly a birthday present, but a judge's order handed down Tuesday to a Fayette County man accused of creating a racist Web site will enable him to put the allegations behind him.

"It's time to move on," said Kevin Burd, 21, of Uniontown shortly after he was accepted into a program for first-time, nonviolent offenders on charges he created a fake Myspace page that threatened violence against blacks.

Judge Gerald R. Solomon yesterday morning accepted Burd into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, or ARD, for a period of six months.


The ARD program does not require defendants to admit guilt, but it does require that they be placed on probation. If they satisfactorily complete the probation, they must then file a petition to have their case expunged.

State police last year charged Burd, who turned 21 yesterday, with terroristic threats, identity theft, recklessly endangering another person and harassment.

In a criminal complaint, police said Burd used a 16-year-old student's name and photograph to create a fake MySpace page in April 2007. It contained numerous racist slurs directed against blacks and a threat to "bring a gun to school someday and kill them all."

Burd has maintained his innocence since the charges were filed. His attorney, Simon John, had at one point hoped to show through e-mails that someone else had created the Web page.

Burd yesterday said he decided to forgo a trial in favor of ARD because he has other obligations to focus on, including his 2-month-old son, Ezra.

"I just wanted to get it over with," Burd said. "I used to worry about it, but I don't anymore. I just want to get on with my life."

My dad's side of the family has a completely different lifestyle than what I've grown up with, and truthfully it's always been hard for me to even recognize that I'm related to them. My dad's sister has 3 chidlren--my only cousins. All three of them have children--my first cousins once removed. I have at least 10 of those, and it's horrible that I don't know for sure. Almost each one is from a different father, there have been plenty of divorces and marriages and live-in boyfriends and welfare and so many things. Since my grandmother died about a year and a half ago, we really have no contact with this side of the family. My dad talks to his sister every once in awhile on the phone, but that's it. They live in Pennsylvania, and now that my grandmother's gone we don't really have a reason to go up there for a visit.

These people don't seem like family to me. I don't really know anything about them. All I hear about is the bad stuff. But as I reread the article about Kevin (and feel like throwing up), I think how my cousins--just like everybody else--need to know Love and recognize that it's not up to them to do life on their own. Will you send up a quick prayer for Beth, Melissa, Kevin, and they myriad of children?