CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE

Judge Joseph Condon Knows Cops Were Wrongfully Accused, Bianchi And Owens Should Be Jailed Instead

2008-02-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

Found Here: Marengo Gazette

Corruption is undermining justice which is denying the basic human right to a fair trial of the innocent.

I would like to congratulate Volstad and Pilati for their victory against a corrupted judicial system.
It is nice to see that even Judge Joseph Condon could not ignore the fact that Louis Bianchi and Nichole Owens tampered with crucial evidence in the case. There is nothing more incriminating than having two audios of the call to 911 and having them being different. Let’s not forget that William Kroncke handed over the remix. Also, he was probably responsible for the missing video tape that was taken from a gas station across the way that might have captured the whole thing. What video tape!? You will have to ask Nichole Owens about this one.

The way I see it, 90 days in jail and 2 years probation is much better than 5 years in prison. There lies the victory. Who knows, they might only serve half of that.

Tags: Judge Joseph Condon, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, William Kroncke, Volstad, Pilati, McHEnry County, Fox Lake, Fox Lake Bar, Justice, Judicial System, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County States Attorney, States Attorney, Lou Bianchi

The Northwest Herald Is An Unethical Newpaper, Louis Bianchi Is No Good For McHenry County, Vote For Dan Regna

2008-01-20T11:07:00.003-05:00

Linked from here Marengo Gazette

Louis Bianchi is nothing but a snake. He has been a terrible State's Attorney. The Northwest Herald has portrays Louis Bianchi as some kind of "Hero" for convicting high profile cases. How many of those case had the evidence been tampered with? Hey Bianchi? Like the cops from the Fox Lake bar beating. It must of been nice to of had a tempered recording. The Northwest Herald never mentioned that. Why? How about illegal wire taps? Boy did Bianchi waste a good sum of our tax dollars on unnecessary and illegal wire taps.... and got nothing!
The list goes on and on. Bianchi will find some other way to buy his candy and eat on our tax dollars.
Lets not forget that he seems to hate Army Reservists. You have to admit, he treats his people very poorly.
Louis Bianchi is bad for McHenry County. He has to resort to law breaking measures in order to get his convictions. Truly innocent people in McHenry County will never get a fair trial while Bianchi is in office. If you look at his cases, more criminals go free while innocent people go to prison.
One thing about the Northwest Herald, they will never print the truth. The county government has this paper wrapped around their finger. I bet they were some how forced or bribed into endorsing Bianchi.... which is unethical for a printed newspaper to do.

Tags: Northwest Herald, McHenry County Illinois, News, Louis Bianchi, Bianchi, Dan Regna, Regna, McHenry County States Attorney, Newspaper, McHenry County

Vote for Dan Regna, McHenry County States Attorney, Over Throw The Tyrant Lou Bianchi!

2008-01-20T11:07:00.001-05:00

Linked from here Marengo Gazette

Vote for Dan Regna, McHenry County States Attorney

DAN REGNA

“Mr. Bianchi’s administration has been a failure. The state’s attorney’s office is in chaos, defeat and ruin.”

Lou Bianchi

* Anne Brophy: "She took a three-month humanitarian trip to Peru in 2006 as part of her military service. When she came back he punished her by demoting her to juvenile court attorney."
* Phil Reiman: "Did the same to him when he went I leave."
* Stole taxpayers money.
* He put more innocent people behind bars than actual criminals.
* Wasted taxpayers and the money of the innocent on cases that he knew that should have never gone to trial.
* $17,000 of this taxpayer money was used for personal meals, gift certificates, candy and snacks.
* Since taking office in 2004, Bianchi’s office has received expense reimbursements for more than $24,000 and used petty cash to pay for more than $32,000 in additional expenses. He is a crook.
* Bianchi and his team often violate the rule but Bianchi and defense attorneys have denied wrongdoing and described the complaints as examples of maneuvering.

Tags: Dan Regna, Louis Bianchi, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County, McHenry County States Attorney, Lou, Bianchi, Regna

McHenry Judge Condon Is Corrupted By Nichole Owens And Lou Bianchi, William Kroncke Had 911 Tape Was Altered

2007-11-05T09:39:00.001-05:00

Illinois State Police William Kroncke corrupted the trail will tampered 911 tape.

The two former officers who were acting in self-defense during the February 2005 altercation outside KC's Cabin are found guilty of all charges after saving the life of Jessica Thelen. Defense lawyers agreed that the former officers jumped Hallett, but only to save the life of a woman they say he had taken hostage at knifepoint.
Ryan Hallett told the jury that he went to the bar already intoxicated and with the intent to go to the bar and start trouble with one of these offiers becauce of a friend. Ryan Hallett got what he deserved after taking a woman hostage. He could of killed her.
Not only that, these men did not get a fair trail due to Judge J Condon. There was a 911 tape that William Kroncke from the Il State Police had an altered copy made which was given as evidence. Judge Condon knew, and did nothing. Judge Condon should be arrested along with with William Kroncke and Nicole Owens. These people have broken the law and should loose their jobs. Judge Condon has proven that no one in McHenry County can have a fair trail, especially under him. How many other innocent people in McHenry County were found guilty by Judge Condon in which he had knowledge of "tampered evidence" and did nothing?
The Attorney General needs to look into this corruption.

Tags: Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHenry Prosecutor, McHenry County State's Attorney, Judge Condon, Police, Bad Cops, Police Abuse, Injustice, State Police, Illinois State Police, Illinois Bad Cops, McHenry County Judges, William Kroncke, McHenry County Judge, Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois, Police Brutality, William Kroncke Il State Police, Nichole Owens, Nichole P Owens, McHenry County Nichole Owens, Joseph Condon, Ryan Hallett

Marengo Police Chief Les Kottke, Going Senile Or Just Plain Idiot? Allows Courtney Miller Back On The Job After A Drunk Driving Arrest

2007-06-07T09:33:00.001-04:00

Is Marengo Police Chief Les Kottke mind being clouded by old age? Marengo has one of the worst police departments in Northern Illinois. City Hall is no better. Marengo will sure be know as the breeding hole for bad cops and politicians.

Marengo cop back to work
By EMILY PREVITI

MARENGO -- Despite pending drunken driving charges, a police officer is back to work in Marengo, which some local police chiefs say they would not allow.
Courtney Miller appeared Tuesday in Winnebago County court on charges related to a February arrest in connection with driving under the influence of alcohol.
Miller, of Loves Park, was on paid leave from the Marengo Police Department after her arrest Feb. 6 in Rockford by Illinois State Police. She’s been back for a few weeks, Marengo Police Deputy Chief Joseph Hallman said.
Chief Les Kottke was unavailable for comment, and Carlos Arevalo, city attorney, declined to detail the decision to allow Miller to return.

“There was an investigation, the union was involved, and that culminated in the arrangement,” Arevalo said.

Winnebago County Judge Richard Lucas ruled in April that the suspension of Miller’s driving license was unfounded.
Arevalo said that finding left city officials to believe that the case won’t merit a conviction.

“It will play itself, and the case is going to go away, as simple as that,” he said.

Miller, 32, has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of alcohol with blood-alcohol content of more than 0.08 percent, and speeding 15 mph to 20 mph faster than the posted limit.
Law enforcement driving under the influence of alcohol has been, in the recent past, an issue for agencies throughout the county.
In Marengo, Arevalo explained, the police department considers each discipline case individually.
Jim Pasco, director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said the organization hadn’t issued recommendations specific to DUI arrests and deemed all discipline “negotiable.”
While other local departments agreed that cases vary, some, including the McHenry County sheriff’s department and those in Fox River Grove and Algonquin, said they would not put an officer on duty before the criminal case had concluded.

In Crystal Lake and West Dundee, disciplinary action would probably, but not always, be taken after a case’s conclusion.
Algonquin Police Chief Russell Laine said for officers whose Breathalyzer tests register above a certain level, the department would seek unpaid leave and dismissal.
Harvard Chief of Police Dan Kazy-Gary said in his department, a DUI charge wouldn’t always prompt paid leave until the conclusion of a court case.

What’s next
Miller is expected to appear again in court July 20, when her attorney plans to argue that her arrest lacked probable cause.
The maximum penalties for a DUI conviction include losing one’s driver’s license for at least a year and up to $2,500, as well as land her behind bars for up to a year.
Arevalo wouldn’t say whether that would change her job status in Marengo.
Some area departments adhere more rigidly than others to court verdicts in deciding whether to keep an officer on staff.

In Algonquin, a DUI conviction would lead to termination, but acquittals could, too, Laine said.
McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren said he adhered to a similar principle.

“Chances are, they’re going to lose their job, which I guess is more than the average citizen pays,” he said. “Maybe we’re held to a higher standard. If you don’t like that, then don’t get in the business.”

Pasco pointed out that standard also can be unfair.

“Too often, there’s a presumption that police officers check their civil rights at the station door, and that’s just not true,” Pasco said.

Troy Wise had been a McHenry County assistant state’s attorney for about six months when he was fired Feb. 15, a day after his car collided with a utility pole and he was charged with DUI.
And Donald Anderson was working as a sheriff’s deputy on probationary terms when he crashed a squad car into a tree in January. Crystal Lake police responded to the scene and delayed filing DUI charges against Anderson until several days afterward after the Northwest Herald had filed a Freedom of Information request for related reports.

Appeared Here

Tags: Courtney Miller, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHenry Prosecutor, McHenry County State's Attorney, Judge Condon, Marengo IL, Marengo, City of Marengo, Marengo Police, Police, Bad Cops, Police Abuse, Injustice, State Police, Illinois State Police, Illinois Bad Cops, McHenry County Judges, William Kroncke, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Don Lockhart, Donald Lockhart, Mayor of Marengo, McHenry County Judge, Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois, Police Brutality

Bogus Disorderly Conduct Charges Dropped Against Teen Who Wrote Essay - Police Chief Ron Delelio And States' Attorney Louis Bianchi Are Both Morons

2007-05-24T14:48:00.001-04:00

(CBS) WOODSTOCK, Ill. The disorderly conduct case against a high school student who wrote a disturbing essay has been dismissed.

Prosecutors said they dropped the charges partly because the teacher at Cary-Grove High School in McHenry County didn't want the case to continue.

As CBS 2's North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall reports, Cary-Grove senior Allen Lee will now be able enlist with the U.S. Marine Corps in 5 months.

Just a month ago, his dream of becoming a marine was nearly shattered when he was charged with disorderly conduct for alleged threats he made in a school essay.

On Wednesday, the McHenry County State's Attorney’s office dropped the charges.

The essay included discussions of mass murder and sex with the dead, and warned a teacher not to be surprised if she inspired the first shooting at the high school.

Lee's teacher, Nora Capron, was alarmed by Lee's essay and called her department chair, who then spoke with Cary-Grove Principal Susan Popp.

Popp called police and signed the disorderly conduct complaint shortly afterward, prosecutors said, and Lee was arrested on April 24. The arrest jeopardized the straight-A student's dream to join the Marines and forced him out of school for a period of time. He has been back at school since May 4.

On Wednesday, the McHenry County state's attorney's office dropped the charges, saying Lee did not pose a threat to himself or others. He may now pursue his planned career in the Marine Corps.

Lee's lawyers said all along it was the assignment and not the student's words that were to blame.

Attorney Dane Loizzo said, “A little bit more care should be placed in the types of assignments that we are giving these children.”

In the assignment, students were told not to censor themselves. Lee addressed his teacher in his essay, saying not to be surprised if she inspired a school shooting.

“It would seem to me that the teacher would then put in there do not write anything that refers to sex drugs alcohol or violence,” attorney Tom Loizzo said.

McHenry County State’s Attorney said he decided to drop the charges, but still believes the school did the right thing. “Freedom of speech is not absolute,” he said.

Bianchi said had they not brought charges and a tragedy took place at the school, this would have been a very different story.

“It was always about safety his safety the teacher's safety the school's safety,” Bianchi said. "The arrest and charges were clearly warranted by the Cary Police Department. … The police were obligated in the circumstances to do whatever legally possible they could to ensure the safety of Mr. Lee the students and the school."

Lee has been back here at Cary Grove since May 4th and will graduate this Saturday with his class.

Appeared Here

Allen Lee's Essay

Blood sex and Booze. Drugs Drugs Drugs are fun. Stab, Stab, Stab, S...t...a...b..., poke. “So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone..., then had sex with the dead bodies. Will, not really, but it would be funny if I did.” Umm, yeah, what to wright about...... I’m leaving to join the Marines and I really don’t give a F*** about my academics, so why does the only class that’s complete Bull S***, happen to be the only required class...enough said. The model citizen would stay around to vote in new board member to change the 4 years of English policy, but no one really stays around to vote for that kind of local crap, so whoever gets there name on the Ballet with a pretty face gets to do what the F*** ever they want with local ordinance. A person is smart, but people are dumb selfish animals. We can’t make rules for ourselves so we vote others to do it for us, but we can’t even do that right, I meen seriously, Bush for President? And our other option was John Kerry who claimed to partake in Vietnam Special Forces missions that haven’t been declassified....F***ing Bull S***. So Power Flower Super Mario. Pudge, hook, rot, dismember “Fresh Meat.” Most new/young teachers are laid back, and cooperative with students as feedback and input into the curriculum and atmosphere. My current English teacher is a control freak intent on setting a gap between herself and her students like a 63 year old white male fortune 500 company CEO, and a illegal immigrant. If CG was a private catholic school I could understand, but wtf is her problem. And baking brownies and rice crispies does not make up for it, way to try and justify yourself as a good teacher while underhandidly looking for complements on your cooking. No quarrel on you qualifications as a writer, but as a teacher, don’t be surprised on inspiring the first cg shooting.

Tags: Louise Bianchi, Allen Lee, Ron Delelio, Cary Il, Cary High School, McHenry County, McHenry County States Attorney, Cary Grove

Louis Bianchi Vindicates Marengo Police Department, Mayor Don Lockhart Should Be Satisfied

2007-04-25T10:08:00.001-04:00

Source: Marengo Gazette Online

“This plea is a vindication of the Illinois State Police and the Marengo Police Department,” Bianchi said. “Everything they did was appropriate and legal.”

Tags: Marengo Illinois, Marengo Il Police, City of Marengo, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, McHnery County, McHenry County States Attorney, Marengo Gazette, Marengo Illinois Police, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Round Lake Hts, Round Lake, Round Lake Police, Round Lake Hts Police

State's Attorney Louis Bianchi Admit's Wrong By Offering Sweet Deal To Guaghan Brothers, Gaughan Brothers Record Will Be Expunged Of All Charges, Civil Lawsuit Against Marengo Illinois Will Be Likely

2007-04-23T18:54:00.001-04:00

After nearly three years McHenry County Prosecutors throw in the towel. Nichole Owens, the prosecutor who was going after the Gaughan brothers for aggravated battery of a police officer, criminal damage to government property, criminal trespass and filing a false police report, contacted the Gaughans' attorney last week and told them she did not wish to proceed with the case, and will drop all charges if the Gaughan brothers plead to a minor charge. The deal was if both brothers pleaded guilty to attempted disorderly conduct, which is a misdemeanor, that they fabricated the abuse allegations. Basically, there records will be expunged and the Gaughans were sentenced to one year of conditional discharge.

Of course Louis Bianchi said they had a very strong case. Louis Bianchi said. “It was so strong, it persuaded them to plead guilty.” It persuaded them to plead guilty? It must have been one of those moments. In a way that statements implies that the prosecutors are guilty of malicious prosecution. Think about it, this was a deal that no one would turn down. I did not see this one coming. I believe this was a way for the prosecutor to avoid being sued by the Gaughans, since they pled guilty. This also now makes the prosecutors look good in the media and for the up coming 2008 election for Louis Bianchi since the case was brought to a conclusion. I guess it was better to make the City of Marengo look bad then to look bad at election time.

This deal has paved the way for a strong civil lawsuit against the City of Marengo. Even though the brother plead guilty to this odd charge, it will make it hard for the City of Marengo to make their own defense since the brothers record will be wiped clean.

Congrats to the Gaughans’!!!

Tags: Marengo Illinois, Louis Bianchi, Nichole Owens, Marengo Police, City of Marengo, Police Abuse, State Police, McHenry County Illinois, McHenry County, McHnery County Prosecutor, States Attorney, McHenry County States Attorney, Scott Crawford, Kelly Given, Don Lockhart, Mayor Don Lockhart, Marengo Mayor

Identity Theft and Fraud

2007-04-12T10:59:00.001-04:00

"But he that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed." - Shakespeare, Othello, act iii. Sc. 3.

The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. These Web pages are intended to explain why you need to take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft.

Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims's names. In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.

Read More Here..................

Attorney General Lisa Madigan ignores residents with blow off letters, Another Marengo resident tells how bad police are in their town, What is wrong with the City of Marengo Illinois

2007-03-28T19:47:00.001-04:00

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has ignored our cries for help when it comes to injustices in McHenry County. Many people have sent letters to her asking for some sort of help just to receive a blow off letter of ignorance. How could someone talk to the McHenry County State’s Attorney if they are the ones who are part of the problem? Here is a letter that was sent to the Northwest Herald by a Marengo resident:

Best to avoid Marengo

To the Editor:
Anyone planning on moving to Marengo – don’t.
When walking home, the police can press charges for whatever crime was reported that night.
Recently, a small-business owner was charged with a crime, simply because he was in the neighborhood where the crime occurred.
By the way, Marengo police don’t have to obey traffic laws.
And if a person gives specific information about who, what, when, and where a crime occurred, unless it’s on their route that night, nothing will happen.
Don’t bother reporting anything against an officer, either.
In conclusion, Marengo police are a joke at best, and don’t care about anything, especially the law.
Everyone should avoid Marengo.
Police brutality and misconduct lawsuits already have been filed, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Thomas Tripp
Marengo

URL: NORTHWEST HERALD

Lou Bianchi And Nichole Owens Continue To Maliciously Prosecute Brothers, Lou Bianchi Is Out For Vengeance Gaughan's Will Not Get Fair Trial

2007-03-20T10:30:00.001-04:00

McHenry County Justice:

Today, there was a clear example of how corrupt the State’s Attorney’s Office in our county is.
What happened?

The charges against Jerry Sweat, a man who shot a teenager who was in his yard three times, were dropped by the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Why were they dropped?

Simple. The State’s Attorney’s office excuse is that the two boys, Patrick Gaughan and Robert Hartwig, took the 5^th and refused to testify against Sweat. But why did they do so?? CAN they testify against Sweat?
No, they can’t. They have indictments against them currently. Patrick Gaughan’s trial was postponed each time that he went to court with a continuance from the judge. Jerry Sweat’s trial, on the other hand, was moved AHEAD of Gaughan’s. Even though the offense of shooting someone 3 times is far more serious then a teenage prank. What the result of this is, is that the Sweat’s trial for a serious crime was allowed to proceed within months of his arrest, while Gaughan’s trial is still postponed and he doesn’t even have a trial date yet.
Why was this done?

Well, the State’s Attorney’s Office had two choices on what to do with this one. They could prosecute a dangerous, deranged shooter, or they could prosecute a Gaughan as revenge. If they prosecuted the shooter, Sweat, they’d have to have Patrick’s trial proceed first, this way allowing him to testify against Sweat instead of the other way around. Of course, in this case, they might not have had Sweat to testify against Patrick Gaughan because he might well take the 5^th and stay silent. They chose to take revenge.
In fact? They never planned on prosecuting Sweat in the first place.

No one from the State’s Attorney’s Office talked to either of the boys after the incident to find out what they witnessed.

The bullets which were removed from Patrick Gaughan’s body following the incident were not even taken by the State’s Attorney’s Office as evidence. They were not interested.

And, of course, Sweat’s trial was scheduled immediately, to run before Gaughan’s trial.

How much trouble was taken to charge Patrick Gaughan, who did not shoot or try to kill anyone, who at the very worst played a childish prank?:

There was an enormous amount of work done to obtain evidence against Gaughan. This included phone taps in an attempt to obtain evidence, dropping the charges against Hartwig in order to try to incriminate Patrick, etc.

None of the above evidence was given to the Gaughans for their defense at this point, despite repeated orders from the judge to have the prosecution produce it. It still was not produced. In any other county, this would have resulted in a charges being dropped.

Now, lets think for a second. What is worse? Trying to play a prank, going into someone’s yard, even if someone went into a car, which Patrick did not do, what is worse? That? Or seeing a person in your yard and shooting them 3 times, wounding them, and potentially injuring them for life?? Even if, as people keep saying, Jerry is “not guilty”, would it not make more sense to bring this before a jury? Let THEM decide. But, no, this never happened. The charges were simply dropped. At least bringing it before a jury would send a message to other potential shooters that “if you shoot someone you will be prosecuted”. Instead, what message does this send? That it’s ok to shoot, that its allowed by the county, that if I or you shoot someone we see crossing our yard, they won’t even prosecute me! That’s the message this sends.

Does the State’s Attorney’s Office care what message is sent to other potential people in our county who might want to take a gun and shoot someone in their yard? No, of course not. They only care about prosecuting a Gaughan for the sake of revenge against the family in an ongoing vendetta.

What about Jerry Sweat? A fine upstanding individual, who was “frightened” in the middle of the night? An “honest” individual who would not make up a story about someone being in his car after being arrested?? The State’s Attorney’s Office was right in dropping the charges against this honest, moral individual who was simply “frightened”. Right? Why let a jury decide? The State Attorney in our county makes much better decisions.
Let’s look at what kind of a person Jerry Sweat really is:

In July 1997, Jerry Sweat plead guilty to possession and masturbating in front of a group of 7 year old girls at Glacial Park Conservation Area. The court documents state that “he recklessly exposed his sex organs in a lewd manner with the intent to arouse his sexual desires.” Jerry was sentenced to 30 hours of community service which he did not do. He had to pay an additional $300, $10 for each hour not served.
What was he doing in Glacial Park? Well, there was a camp of 7 year olds there with two camp counselors. Jerry got off with a real light sentence for these charges. Anywhere but McHenry County, he would have had jail time.

This upstanding citizen had a history of disorderly conduct, of being sued by people, and of drug possession. He is clearly unstable. What did he have to lose by telling a few lies? Nothing. To gain? A lot. His freedom. Second offenses are not looked at lightly and he would have had some well deserved prison time, which he apparently missed the first time.

Also, think about this one: how stable is this individual? Look, he masturbated in front of children. 7 year old GIRLS. He tracked down this group of children in order to masturbate in front of them, seeing Glacial Park is a relatively isolated location, from those who have been there. And very far from Marengo as well. He possessed drugs, and had charges for that. He was sued for not paying his bills. You want this person free, without even having a jury look at the evidence, after shooting someone he saw in his yard, a person who did not touch him and wasn’t near him, three times?? You feel safe with him in your town? He won’t do this again? The whole point of our justice system is to protect us against people who might hurt us. Who is more likely to hurt you, Patrick Gaughan or Jerry Sweat?

The whole matter is utterly disgusting. Patrick is being prosecuted and Sweat got away with what he did, simply because Patrick is a Gaughan. Had he been anyone else, Sweat would never have gotten off.

Remember the case, last year, of the guy who shot a dog? This guy lost his job and was sentenced to two years probation. For what? For shooting a dog on his property who tried to attack him!! The dog actually did something to the shooter, who then shot him! How much money did the State’s Attorney’s Office spend defending the dog? Well… lets see... they did an autopsy to see which path the bullets traveled in the dogs body. They saved the bullets for evidence. They did none of this in the Sweat case. The State’s Attorney’s office did not even so much as take the bullets as evidence that were taken out of Patrick Gaughan or even talk to the victims. A DOG got a lot more time and a huge amount of money spent to convict his shooter than a human being.

THAT is McHenry County Justice. Lets hope its not you next time at the wrong end of it.

Let’s ask this: would it be ok to shoot someone who masturbated in front of your 7 year old child? Think of that before giving this a rest.

Tags: Jerry Sweat, Nichole Owens, Lou Bianchi, McHenry County State's Attorney, Marengo Il, City of Marengo, Marengo Teen, Mchenry Prosecutor

Marengo Teen Will Not Have A Fair Trial, Shooter Jerry Sweat Has Charges Dropped, Nichole Owens Lou Bianchi Continue To Maliciously Prosecute Brothers, Judge Condon

2007-03-19T18:47:00.001-04:00

From the Marengo Gazette:

Marengo resident Jerry Sweat, the person who shot Marengo teenager Patrick Gaughan, has had the charges dropped against him. However, Jerry Sweat could still be charged at a later date which could be filed at a later date. Either way, Jerry is not in the clear. Dropping these charges is not a surprise. They would rather try to convict and jail a teen who has mistakenly tried to tee-pee a wrong residence then put a potential murderer behind bars. So let’s see…. 30 years in prison for Jerry Sweat or 3-5 years for Patrick Gaughan for potential breaking and entering and obstruction. Well, since it’s a Gaughan let’s screw him. The McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office has a vendetta with the Gaughan family since 2004 and it is no secret.

Here is something that is very interesting.

A Harvard man shot and killed his neighbor’s dog claiming self defense. The McHenry County State’s Attorney spent countless taxpayers’ money on forensic investigation. They studied the travel of the bullets, angles, distance, and etc. They convicted him with felony animal cruelty, which carried a potential maximum three-year prison sentence. He was ordered to two years of probation, pay a $2,000 fine and perform 50 hours of community service. Look at the extent the prosecutor went through to convict this person for shooting a dog. Why didn’t the prosecutor go though this much when it came to a person shooting another person? Why? The only thing that had been done was some questions asked by the Sheriffs Department when Patrick was lying in a hospital bed. They never even collected the bullets that came out of Patrick. WHAT!!! The McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office never bothered to contact the family. Again, why?

It’s because it is the Gaughans. The City of Marengo with their McHenry County connections have collaborated with each other and set out to tear this family apart over police abuse charges filed against Scott Crawford. I just cannot believe how people can be blinded by this corruption. Scott Crawford should have been fired and charges brought up against him. But thanks to the help of the McHenry County State’s Attorneys Office, found a way for him to still be a creditable witness against the Gaughans by resigning his position. I know that’s why Nichole and Lou were at the hearing. To make sure their witness was secured. The McHenry County State’s Attorneys probably did not figure that Kelly Given would do something so stupid. Kelly Given should have had charges brought up again her for stealing sealed juvenile records. But again, with the help from the prosecutors and the City of Marengo, no charges were filed. They had to secure that witness as well so she resigned. They knew that if anyone of them had charges against them they would not be a creditable witness. That is why they have temporally dropped the charges against Jerry Sweat.

You cannot imagine how much tax payer dollars went to maliciously prosecute this family. The Crawford issue will be going for a third year. I believe it all comes down to the prosecutor does not have squat against these boys. Their strategy is to financially destroy this family until they can claim victory.
This family will not EVER get a fair trial.

I cannot wait to see what the papers will print tomorrow.
Where is the Justice in this county?

Tags: Jerry Sweat, Nichole Owens, Lou Bianchi, McHenry County State's Attorney, Marengo Il, City of Marengo, Marengo Teen, Mchenry Prosecutor

Basic Surveillance Tips

2007-03-12T11:40:00.001-04:00

Basic Surveillance Tips:

A: Types of Surveillance
There are two types of surveillance.
1) Tailing, also known as shadowing (on foot, or by private and public transportation)
2) Fixed surveillance - also known as "The stakeout."

B: Do Your Homework First
1) Before doing any surveillance, get information about the person habits and social place.
2) Know the neighborhood you'll be working in. Plan possible routes the person might take.
3) Have an alternative plan you can put into action should things suddenly go wrong.
If you have done your homework, you may be able to re-establish the tail even if you lose it.

C: Your Presence is Everything
1) If sitting in a car, it maybe best to sit on the passenger's side and not the drivers side. It is less suspicious.
2) A female is nowhere near as obtrusive as a male. If you plan to do a stake out, it might be to your interest to a female present.
3) You can sit in the back seat and slump down.

D: Appearance
1) You may have to rent or borrowing a car. Especially if the person you are watching knows you. Also keep in mind you will need to blend in depending on the area worked.
2) Change your appearance. You should always have a change of cloths on hand. This is very important. You will need to blend in. Also some wigs or any other hair wear is recommended.

E: Cover Story
Always have a good cover story in case you are made.

Working with Court Indexes

2007-03-07T18:09:00.001-05:00

Working with Court Indexes:

The court house records are a good way to anonymously find information on anyone. You can find divorce records, lawsuit records, criminal records, and even records of such things as custody battles and anything else that has gone through the court system. It is quick and easy to use. You just walk into a courthouse of choice and look records up in a computer without anyone knowing that you did so. Leaves no record of your own actions.

Taken From: You Can Find Anybody
By: Joseph. C. Culligan

Each court keeps indexes of all civil and criminal cases brought before it. In some courts, the indexes for the most recent years may be searchable at a computer terminal. In others, you may have to look through bound com- i puter printout volumes. In still others, the indexes may be on microfiche, in an automatic rotating card file, or even (for older local records) entered in ledger books. Criminal court cases are listed by defendant; bankruptcy cases, by petitioner (either debtor or creditor); probate actions, by the i decedent's name. Civil suits are listed alphabetically by either plaintiff j or defendant, although some courts have both a plaintiff/defendant and a defendant/plaintiff index (or else one index that merges both in a single alphabetical listing in which each case appears at least twice—this is called "party index"). In general, the plaintiff/defendant or defendant/plaintiff] index will list only the first-listed plaintiff and first-listed defendant in multiparty cases.
Some computerized indexes and some microfiche indexes generated from I the printouts of computerized indexes will list all parties (if a system com-l bines index and docket information in a single database it almost certainly! will be all-party searchable). Computerized systems are not available ml every trial court, however, and where they do exist the coverage usually doesn't extend back very many years. If you want the names of those 10 other plaintiffs in the 1981 product liability suit Barnett et al. v. Ace Toys, you will have to go to the docket sheet or the case file.
To find all the local civil suits involving your subject in a nonelectronic index requires considerable ingenuity if there is no cross index and/or if indexing is restricted to the first-listed parties. Yet this type of search - not only for active cases but also for closed or dormant cases from past decades —is often of vital importance in investigative journalism. This is especially true in tracking a corrupt politician or an organized crime figure; the conspiracies in which such people are involved often go way back, and today's trickery may be understandable only in the light of courtroom revelations from a decade or more ago.
The following are some methods you might find useful in getting around the limitations of your local court indexing systems. These methods (which should be used in tandem with LEXIS searches and other techniques described in section 9.3) are intended for the most difficult type of search - to find cases involving your subject in an index in which the cases are listed alphabetically by first-named plaintiff only, with no cross indexing by defendants.

Look up all cases in which the state or city is the plaintiff. Depending on local practice, these may be listed under "People of___ ," "State of___ ," or "City of___ ," or possibly under the official designation of the state or city attorney (e.g., "Anystate Attorney General," "Anystate Department of Law"). Under the most commonly used of these government plaintiff headings, you may find hundreds of defendants listed in alphabetical order.

Flip through the plaintiff indexes, looking for examples of plaintiffs who file massive numbers of cases. In the metropolitan and/or state district court indexes of any large city, hundreds of defendants may be listed alphabetically opposite the name of the city hospital corporation and other public and private entities that deal with consumer debt problems on a large scale.

Go to the judgment books (see section 8.4). If a private or governmental plaintiff has obtained a judgment against your subject in the local courts, the case file number will be listed alongside subject's name.

Whenever you find subject listed as one of several plaintiffs or defendants, check the names of the other parties separately in the index to find other cases that might include subject as a party.

Whenever you find a case involving subject, look on the docket sheet and in the case file for references to other lawsuits. Especially look for countersuits or cross suits. Examine the transcript, if any, of subject's deposition or court testimony to see if he or she was asked about previous litigation. Also, check directly with the other parties (or their attorneys); they may be aware of cases you would otherwise miss.

Look in newspaper and business periodical databases and clippings files for reports of any lawsuits involving subject.

Check for "bad blood" suits. If you learn from the plaintiff index that your subject is suing Mr. X, check to see if Mr. X has independently sued your subject about another matter.

Use the federal court party index to find possible leads to state court cases indexed only by plaintiff. A person who is suing your subject in federal court might have sued him or her on a related or entirely separate matter in state court.

Follow clues that emerge from other aspects of your investigation. For instance, check in the plaintiff index under the names of subject's ex-spouses or ex-lovers, former business partners (especially in businesses that went bankrupt), political rivals, and others. They may be suing subject or current associates of subject. Any time you find an antagonist or associate of subject listed as a first-named plaintiff or first-named defendant, check the docket sheet or the case file to see if subject is one of the unindexed parties. (All this should apply to any businesses linked to subject as well as to individuals.)

Check the bankruptcy court index to see if subject or his or her business has ever been involved in a bankruptcy proceeding, either as debtor or creditor. Debtors in bankruptcy cases must file with the court a list of all outstanding judgments against them and all pending litigation in which they are involved in any jurisdiction.

Note that when you are searching court indexes that are not online (e.g., microform, CD-ROM, or bound computer printout volumes), you should always search any supplements produced since the last cumulation.

The Moratorium Campaign

2007-03-06T17:45:00.001-05:00

The Moratorium Campaign:

Here is an another interesting site that is of interest to those seeking justice. It is called “The Moratorium Campaign”. Its website is http://www.moratorium.org/index.lasso

It concerns the death penalty and the way it is practiced in the USA. One can send petitions or try to change votes on issues by taking action through this site.

One of the issues presented this week on it is that of Attorney General John Ashcroft, who is a proponent of the death penalty. His recent actions have been to step up the use of the dealth penalty, seeking recommendations for it even in states where it is not legal and that do not have the death penalty. The other issue is that the federal government use of the death penalty shows a clear racial bias and that Ashcroft’s record in administering the death penalty leaves a lot to be desired.

“According to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, a group helping lawyers defend capital cases, of the 28 cases Ashcroft overrode, 26 are people of color – African American, Hispanic, Native American, or Asian. The Justice Department claims that Ashcroft is unaware of the defendant’s race or ethnicity when reviewing prosecutors’ recommendations and he is only reviewing the laws involved. But the statistics show that the same kind of racial bias at the state level is found at the national level as well.

Add to the race issues the idea of geographic disparity. Twelve of the 28 overrides were cases from the New York / Connecticut area. This sort of concentration is not new to the federal system. Indeed, a study in 2000 showed a sizeable portion of the cases (42%) occurring in just 5 of the 94 federal districts.

With twelve states and the District of Columbia having no death penalty laws, the issue of federal jurisdiction is also noteworthy. Previously, federal prosecutors have been more likely to pursue the death penalty in states that practice capital punishment rather than in those states that do not. Last year, a death sentence was handed down in Michigan, which has not had a death penalty in 150 years. Officials are now seeking death sentences in Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington, D.C. and have contemplated seeking death sentences in Rhode Island, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. None of these jurisdictions has the death penalty.

A senior Justice Department official explained Ashcroft’s policy: “Someone who commits a federal death penalty crime should be treated the same no matter where they commit the crime. States do not have the option of opting out of the federal death penalty law any more than they had the option of opting out of civil rights laws in the 1960s.” (Washington Post) This is a clear contradiction to the current administration’s commitment to state and local control over policy decisions, and reflects the irony of comparing a system that blatantly targets people of color with the civil rights movement.

Ashcroft?s actions have sparked criticism from Congress. In a letter to Ashcroft, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy questions the rationale behind this death penalty approach while Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold expresses concerns over the fairness of the decision-making process for determining death eligible cases. In his letter, Feingold indicates that the Attorney General appears to be ?intent on making the federal system replicative of states that aggressively pursue the death penalty ? states like Texas.?

While Ashcroft?s actions are beginning to attract more attention, the federal government proceeded with the execution of federal inmate Louis Jones on March 12, 2003. This was the first federal execution in almost two years.” From the Moratorium Site.

An Interesting Magazine For Those Seeking Justice

2007-03-04T16:44:00.001-05:00

An Interesting Magazine For Those Seeking Justice:

http://www.justicedenied.org/

Here is an interesting magazine for those who have been wrongly convicted of something that they did not do. It features people who were convicted of murders and robberies when they were as much as 170 miles or more away from the crime scene at the time. A woman who was convicted of aiding her son’s suicide, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court, and others of that nature. A very interesting magazine, that anyone facing or having faced a wrongful conviction should read. Some of the articles featured talk about the other side of wrongful convictions, that people who actually did the crimes are getting off free. Then there are political articles and causes to read about. 33 issues of this magazine are available online.

Checking Out Subjects Thesis or Dissertation

2007-03-03T20:31:00.001-05:00

Checking Out Subjects Thesis or Dissertation:

Taken From: You Can Find Anybody
By: Joseph. C. Culligan

All universities will have in their library stacks the master's theses and doctoral dissertations of graduate students who obtained degrees at that school. (Note: Not all master's degree programs require a thesis.) Some college libraries, especially those of the colleges that require a thesis from every senior, will also keep copies of senior honors papers and senior theses.

Many theses and dissertations have an acknowledgments page in which the author thanks his or her adviser, the members of the dissertation committee (and other professors), friends, parents, spouse and children, the department secretary, and so on. Often 20 or more names will be mentioned. The acknowledgments are especially valuable in finding out the names of ex-spouses and ex-lovers. Also look for any mention of grants or scholarships received by subject.

If you cannot visit subject's college library, you can still easily find out details about his or her dissertation. Look in American Doctoral Dissertations and the Comprehensive Dissertation Index at your local research library. These indexes will indicate if subject indeed has the doctorate he or she claims to have. You can then consult Dissertation Abstracts International and Masters Abstracts International, which contain abstracts (usually written by the authors themselves) of dissertations (dating from 1938) and theses (dating from 1962).

Via DIALOG or CompuServe, you can access Dissertation Abstracts Online, which provides an index to the subject, title, and author of almost every dissertation accepted at a U.S. university since 1861 and master's theses since 1962. It also provides dissertation abstracts (from 1980) and theses abstracts (from 1988). Many research libraries will have this database on CD-ROM.

If you need the entire dissertation, you can order the microform or a photocopy from University Microfilms International (UMI) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If a particular dissertation or thesis is unavailable from UMI, you can get it via interlibrary loan from the library of the university that awarded the degree.

Local Weeklies

2007-02-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

Don't throw out those driveway papers!

Taken From: You Can Find Anybody
By: Joseph. C. Culligan

Local Weeklies

In every metropolitan area, you will find flourishing weeklies, both of the free-distribution variety and of the paid subscription/newsstand type, aimed either at the entire city or at a particular city neighborhood or suburban community. You will also find weeklies specializing in ethnic or alternate-lifestyle news.

A few weeklies will have excellent clippings files organized like those of the dailies. Most weeklies lack this, but they may keep files on ongoing local political conflicts or the paper's most important investigative pieces through the years. In addition, the editor may remember an article on your subject and be willing to dig out the back issue in which it appeared.

Never underestimate the weeklies, including the smallest. Major investigative pieces by large dailies frequently are based upon spadework performed by the weeklies, and the latter may treat a story in much greater detail (and with much less pulling of punches) than any large daily would.

The Alternative Press Index and Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals cover feisty metropolitan weekly newspapers such as New York City's Village Voice, as well as defunct or still-existing counterculture newspapers that, in their heyday, uncovered vast quantities of scandalous (and still relevant) material about people in high places. (Most of the counterculture papers have been put on microform by UMI; a few of those not covered in the two indexes mentioned above may be found in The Left Index.) If you are investigating a crooked politician, landlord, or businessperson, the alternative press is often the best place to start. Note that its investigative function is also performed to a lesser extent in some localities by city magazines, such as Boston, and state magazines, such as Texas Monthly. You can find profiles of hundreds of such periodicals in Regional Interest Magazines of the United States.

DIVORCE RECORDS

2007-02-27T18:09:00.001-05:00

Divorce records can be obtained from the courthouse, electronically. They are a part of civil court records. They are useful because one can obtain information on a person that would not be obtainable elsewhere.

Taken From: You Can Find Anybody
By: Joseph. C. Culligan

DIVORCE RECORDS

A review of a complete divorce file will yield information that is unattainable anywhere else. The file will contain the names and ages of the children of the subject. If time has passed and the children are of age, they may be of assistance in locating the subject. You may, of course, use all the regular means of locating one or all of the children.
The divorce file will contain a list of vehicles owned by the couple and will include the vehicle identification number (VIN) in many instances. See which vehicle your subject took possession of. Even if this case is years old, the VIN will never change on a vehicle, so you may want to order a body history on the vehicle. If your subject does not own the vehicle anymore, you will be able to see all the documentation that will include the name of the person who purchased it. You will then contact that individual and they may be able to provide information about your subject.
Many times the divorce file will specify what boats or vessels the couple owned. You will want to follow the course outlined in the above paragraph.
The divorce file will contain a listing of property owned. You will learn what real estate your subject retained. If your subject keeps even a small undeveloped piece of land, this will be of help. The mailing address for the tax bill will be public record and may lead you to your subject.

Caller ID

2007-02-26T14:13:00.001-05:00

Caller ID:

I think we all might know about this.
If you decide to call around to find person who doesn't want to be found, that person may find out from somebody and become curious or even angry. That person may just call your number just to hear what your voice sounds like and then hang up without saying anything. The person may call pretending to be someone else and try to get information from you. That person may even call anonymously with threats, obscenities, or heavy breathing. With Caller ID, it will tell you the number from which the call was made. If you call back immediately and ask to talk to that person, that person may break down and talk to you. If you reverse the number in the crisscross directory, you may find that it's a residential number listed under a name you've never heard of, like if the person is under an assumed identity, or perhaps staying with a friend, a business number, or a pay phone in which may tell you what city the person is in.

If the Caller ID has been blocked or you do not have Caller ID, another method that can be used is automatically call back last number. Most states phone providers should have this option at a small fee. In order to find out who called, you will have to wait to receive your phone bill to see the number that the service was applied to.

To block Caller ID in IL:

Before placing your call, pick up the telephone and wait for the dial tone.
Push *67. (Dial 1167 on a rotary phone.)
A series of tones, followed by a dial tone, lets you know that your blocking is activated.
Dial the desired telephone number.

Automatic Callback in IL:

To activate Automatic Callback on a pay-per-use basis, just press *69 (1169 from rotary phones) and your call rings through to the last number that called you. To cancel, press *89 (1189 from rotary phones).

Cops And DUI’s:

2007-02-24T20:02:00.000-05:00

Cops And DUI’s:

Looks like the Marengo Police Department received some more bad publicity this week. Marengo Officer Courtney Miller was charged with a DUI, making her the third McHenry County law enforcement officer charged this month. She was driving in Rockford at 3am when stopped and apprehended. Marengo Chief, Les Kotke, of course, put her on PAID administrative leave instead of firing her. Of course, she was simply apprehended, not convicted yet. But it would be interesting to see what will happen if she is convicted. Will Marengo get rid of her?? Or will she be forced to resign and given a good reference like the other two Marengo cops, Crawford and Given?? Or will she simply take some sort of deal with the prosecutor and simply beat the DUI one way or another. In that case, we have a police officer who will now drive around while potentially being drunk on and off the job, have access to a gun on and off the job while being potentially drunk in the future. We have a real danger to society. The scary thing is it is happening again and again in McHenry County. Police officers and drinking just does not mix, on or off the job, because of their access to weapons. One also might wonder just what kinds of police officers are being hired in McHenry County. Those who are likely to drink?? Those who are unstable emotionally?? What kinds of incidents can this potentially lead to in the future?

Read the story: Another officer faces DUI

Pedestrian Rally Against Trucks....What About Bad Cops?

2007-02-23T16:38:00.001-05:00

This is an article that was written during the summer, when there was a protest held on Main Street in Marengo, IL to protest the truck traffic on the street. I think it is important to read because, while the truck traffic was annoying and at times dangerous, no injustices were involved. It shows the attitude of people in a small town toward their fellow citizens and issues in their community and is a lesson to all.

This article has been reposted with permission from: Marengo Gazette Online, Marengo Gaztte Blog

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Pedestrian Rally Against Trucks....What About Bad Cops?

Concerned citizens and Marengo Pedestrians will be holding a Rally in the Downtown Business section of Marengo on Friday July 28 at 10 AM in support of pedestrian rights. There will be marches, speeches and refreshments.
This is the email I received earlier this week. Now, what seems to be wrong with a rally? Sounds like fun, right? Speeches, marches, even something to eat. A whole event. Sounds like something that the citizens of Marengo might want to attend and take part in.
Well, there's a problem.
What are rallies, demonstrations, speeches, and marches generally conducted for? Well, they are all a form of activism whose purpose is to bring about changes and to get the current government's attention that people are not pleased with what is going on. This certainly seems to be the intention of this demonstration. The downtown store owners want the situation of truck traffic on Rt.23 looked into, they want better pedestrian laws, and more signs. In return, the downtown owners will benefit by increased traffic and profits.
Does anyone except me see anything wrong with this picture?
Look at the traditional reasons rallies and demonstrations are usually held. Civil Rights Demonstrations, for instance. Compare Martin Luther King Jr's speech to a speech about….pedestrian rights!! Does this not demean the whole idea of protests and demonstrations? Here Martin Luther King Jr. risked his life and liberty to demonstrate and give speeches, as have those who participated with him. And then we have Marengo store owners risking nothing at all to have a demonstration in order to get more profits for themselves. And to also increase business on the day of the demonstration itself too, of course. There were other rallies throughout history, of course. Vietnam War protests, Iraq War protests, and Immigration Marches and rallies. Again, compare the seriousness of the issues involved to that of pedestrian rights. These people were out there protesting for a reason with great risk for themselves. They wanted to bring about important changes for themselves and others. Their acts were selfless, whereas the acts of these protestors in Marengo clearly are meant to benefit themselves. And will not piss anyone off too much, as I'm sure everyone in and outside town either agrees with them or is neutral.
Finally, my biggest issue with this rally is that some of the owners of these downtown businesses were asked to contribute money to help the Gaughans in their legal battle and to start a fundraiser. They have not agreed to it and were shocked at the audacity of the suggestion. They also are not willing to go out there and protest the Marengo Police falsely imprisoning and beating people in the police station. Clearly, that is not an important issue to them. But, when it comes to profits and something that will benefit them, they are out there ready to rally, march, and give speeches!
What would a speech about pedestrian rights be about anyway? Will it get people inspired? I doubt it. In fact, let's face it, Rt. 23 is a truck route. Some of the trucks and tractor trailers pay over $10,000 just to buy their plates for their trucks. Do they not have the right to use the route? What about their rights? The whole issue is ridiculous.

Serial Directories and Catalogs

2007-02-22T13:48:00.000-05:00

Serial Directories and Catalogs:

In backgrounding a prominent Midwest businessperson, you may decide to search the daily newspapers in his or her state as well as local and national business and trade publications. But how do you find out which publications are online and from which vendors? And what if you want to search smaller dailies (and weeklies) in subject's locality that are not online? Or pre-online issues of the major local daily? Or the backfiles of the latter's now defunct rival? The following directories and catalogs are available in most research libraries:

• Fulltext Sources Online. This directory, updated every six months, lists over 4,500 journals, newspapers, newsletters, and newswires available online. It includes vendors, coverage dates, database codes, lag times (between date of publication and date available online), title changes, and whether the coverage is selective or complete.

• Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media (formerly Ayer Directory of Publications). This three-volume set (with an interedition supplement) enables you to identify quickly by city and state/province about 43,000 newspapers and periodicals in the United States and Canada. It includes every type of publication except newsletters, house organs, publications issued less than four times a year, and publications issued by primary and secondary schools or houses of worship. Defunct publications are removed from the main body of entries and listed as "ceased" in the master name and keyword index. (For further listings in a given city, see the local yellow pages.)

• Standard Periodical Directory. This includes annotated entries on 75,000 periodicals in the United States and Canada, divided into 250 major subjects and featuring a title index and cross-index.

• Newsletters in Print. This includes over 12,000 newsletters arranged under 33 subject headings.

• Newspapers in Microform. This cumulative Library of Congress reference set (with annuals between cumulations) includes religious, collegiate, labor, and other special interest papers, as well as general news dailies and weeklies. It also covers defunct and merged papers. Under the current title of a paper will be listed its previous names and the names of papers that merged with it or split from it, with the dates of each change; for example, if you look under the Anytown Courier-Herald you will find that it is the successor to the Anytown Courier and the Mist County Herald, which merged in 1949. Newspapers in Microform tells which libraries, archives, or microform companies in the United States or overseas have copies of the given newspaper; it also indicates partial or badly broken runs.

• The Union List of Serials and New Serial Titles. These multivolume sets, available in major research libraries, include many obscure and long-ceased serials that are not listed anywhere else. They will tell you which libraries in your region have a particular serial.

• University Microfilms International's Serials in Microform. This is a biennial catalog that lists over 18,000 periodicals and 7,000 newspapers (with years available and price). The major public or university libraries of the locality in which a given publication is or was published will probably have the microform backfiles, and you should be able to obtain the issues you need through interlibrary loan.

Copied from: Get the Facts on Anyone
By: Dennis King

The Reverse Trace

2007-02-21T14:20:00.000-05:00

The Reverse Trace:

When the police or the FBI want to find one of these paper trippers badly enough, they first identify through database searches everyone who appeared for the first time in certain key public records systems for instance, the motor vehicles bureau records of the state where subject is rumored to be hiding within a certain time frame following subject's disappearance. Next, they narrow this list to include only those who, according to their driver's licenses and other available data, share certain physical characteristics of subject (e.g., race, height, approximate age).

You don't have to be a police officer to use this method. If you believe the person you are looking for moved to a certain city two years ago and is now living there under false ID, examine that city's roster of water connects and other utility connect records if they are available, and compile a list of names of all persons who had utilities turned on during the weeks following that persons disappearance from their previous address. Then crosscheck those names against the local crisscross directory and/or back-issue white pages to identify those who were prior telephone subscribers at other addresses in the same locality and those who are new-to-the-directory subscribers. Prentice Hall Online's People Tracker may also be useful for this purpose. Next, obtain abstracts of the driver's licenses of all those who were listed both as new water connects and new-to-the-directory telephone connects and cross off those whose physical characteristics don't fit. If you now go to visit or conduct surveillance on the homes of the remaining people on your list, you may find that one of them as living under their new identity. Of course, a highly intelligent paper tripper would have prepared their disappearance carefully, either by purchasing or renting a new home and getting the utilities turned on months in advance, or else by waiting a couple of months after their disappearance before getting any new utilities under any name whatsoever. In addition, they would have avoided getting a telephone listing in the white pages, precisely in order to keep out of local and national crisscross directories.

A Message From Those Wrongfully Sentenced to Death Row

2007-02-20T19:34:00.000-05:00

A Message From Those Wrongfully Sentenced to Death Row:

It is scary to see how many innocent people have been sentenced to Death Row and then found to be not guilty. I wonder what the justification for putting people to death is, if there are so many instances of the system being wrong and failing? Here is a plea from people who have been falsely sentenced to death row, and then later released, to look into the case of one man, who not only is on death row, perhaps after being falsely accused, but also who is not allowed to express his views or write about them.

“THERE ARE INNOCENT men and women on death row in this country. We know, for we were numbered among them. Many of us endured for years in the narrow and isolated confines of a barren cell designed to murder our spirits, as the State struggled to win final legal sanction to steal our lives.

SUCH IS THE CASE with Mumia Abu-Jamal, an award-winning journalist, an outspoken opponent of racism and police brutality, a militant champion of justice for Black people, a man who for decades has been the voice of the dispossessed and the disenfranchised -- and an innocent man on death row in Pennsylvania.

WE KNOW MUMIA'S STRUGGLE, because no one knows better than we of the lengths to which the criminal "justice" system will go to in its relentless quest to take a life. Many of us are intimately familiar with the daily degradation of Mumia's seventeen years on death row: locked in his cell for 23 hours each day, forbidden to embrace or even see his family members, prohibited from being filmed or audio taped by reporters, slapped into punitive detention for writing and publishing his views, refused the right to confidentially communicate with his attorneys. We were sustained in our struggle for justice, as Mumia is, by the tireless support of our families, friends, and people of principle who organized to liberate us from the machine that tried to slay us. And above all else we were sustained, as Mumia is, by the only real certainty we were allowed on death row - the knowledge that we were innocent.

THE STATE sought to poison us, electrocute us or hang us with the machine-like indifference it reserves for people it has determined to be worthless and therefore disposable -- in this country, overwhelmingly poor people and people of color. If our murders could be used to enhance a political career or a partisan policy debate, then so much the better. But the State seeks to murder Mumia with a ruthless and relentless fervor that has publicly defied any pretext of fairness or decency. Let us be clear: the State's campaign to murder Mumia is designed above all else to silence a Black man who dares to speak truth to power. As Mumia himself has said, the State does not just seek his death, it seeks his silence.

IT IS FOR THESE REASONS that we call on all people of conscience to speak out, to organize against this travesty of justice, and to demand Mumia's freedom. To allow Pennsylvania to murder Mumia is to allow the State to succeed in slaughtering another innocent and in silencing a voice for the voiceless. We know that the State will not concede its wrongdoing without a struggle. We know that the authorities who have sought to murder this man will not submit to justice unless we, the people, organize to fight the State's abuse of power. Join us. Stand with Mumia Abu-Jamal, our brother and our friend, and demand that the State of Pennsylvania set him free.

Kirk Bloodworth
(Maryland, Convicted 1984, Released 1993)

Joseph Burrows
(Illinois, Convicted 1989, Released 1994)

Perry Cobb
(Illinois, Convicted 1979, Released 1987)

Muneer Deeb
(Texas, Convicted 1985, Released 1993)

Gary Gauger
(Illinois, Convicted 1993, Released 1996)

Verneal Jimerson
(Illinois, Convicted 1985, Released 1996)

Troy Lee Jones
(California, Convicted 1982, Released 1996)

David Keaton
(Florida, Convicted 1971, Released 1973)

Ronald Kline
(New Mexico, Convicted 1974, Released 1976)

Carl Lawson
(Illinois, Convicted 1990, Released 1996)

Wilbert Lee
(Florida, Convicted 1963, Released 1975)

Bradley P. Scott
(Florida, Convicted 1988, Released 1991)

Delbert Tibbs
(Florida, Convicted 1974, Released 1977)

Darby (Williams) Tillis
(Illinois, Convicted 1979, Released 1987)

Dennis Williams
(Illinois, Convicted 1979, Released 1996)”

http://www.cuadp.org/message.html

Mountain Justice

2007-02-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

Mountain Justice:

Here is an another interesting organization that tackles an issue in justice that many people do not think about. The issue of miners in the Appalachians. “Mountain Justice” is an organization that seeks to let people know about the environmental effects of mining, runs a campaign for civil resistance and public outreach, and strives to increase mine safety for those working in the mines. It teaches people that mountain removal mining strips the whole top of a mountain in the Appalachian range, removing valuable topsoil and leaving a biologically bare moonscape. It also attempts to seek justice for those of mining disasters, such as the Sago disaster, and to try to show people that these accidents happen because of outdated equipment that was last used as early as the 1940’s and hasn’t been replaced with new equipment, the mining companies interest in the bottom line more than worker safety, and things of that nature. A very interesting organization, one that is not afraid to get out there and conduct protests and civil disobedience in order to stand for what is right:

http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/index.php

False Confessions

2007-02-17T18:15:00.000-05:00

False Confessions:

Here are some methods that police can use to obtain false confessions from people. Of course, these methods can also be used to obtain confessions from serial killers and perpetrators of really terrible crimes. So, they are legit methods that police can use to obtain a confession. The problem comes in when they are used against an innocent person.

1. Feigned sympathy and friendship.
2. Appeals to God and religion.
3. Blaming the victim or an accomplice.
4. Placing the suspect in a soundproof, starkly furnished, room.
5. Approaching the suspect too closely for comfort.
6. Overstating or understating the seriousness of the offense and the magnitude of the charges.
7. Presenting exaggerated claims about the evidence.
8. Falsely claiming that another person has already confessed and implicated the suspect.
9. Other forms of trickery and deception.
10. Wearing a person down by a very long interview session

SHADOWING THE MARK ON FOOT

2007-02-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

SHADOWING THE MARK ON FOOT:

There will be times when you will find it necessary to shadow the mark on foot. To do that, you'll need some special equipment, and will have to change your tactics. Some special equipment you'll need:

Spy glasses. For about $8, you can buy sunglasses that have a mirrored inner surface. You can see where you're going, but also what's behind you. These actually are marketed as "spy glasses."
Small binoculars in pocket or monocular size (a single-tube monocular is about $20).
A small hand mirror. If the mark stops, another trick is to carry a small hand mirror and stand with your back to the mark and observe him or her in the mirror.
Sunglasses and a hat if tailing in daylight.
Comfortable shoes that make very little noise (No hard heels that clack on the stieet.)
Props to ensure that you look like you belong in the environment you're tailing in. Such items would be: shopping bags, a clipboard, a dog leash, or a missing animal poster and hammer.

The above was taken form:
"Private Investigator's Handbook"
By: "Chuck Chambers, P.I."

Fighting Against Property Forfeiture - Help

2007-02-15T14:50:00.000-05:00

Fighting Against Property Forfeiture - Help:

There is an organization called Forfeiture Endangers American Rights, or FEAR, for short. Besides a nifty abbreviation the organization is interesting in that it exists to try to change state and national forfeiture laws in order to ensure that people’s property rights are protected.

The organization has an online bulletin, run by Brenda Grantland, which features news articles, court decisions, reports on pending legislation, victim stories, requests for help, and new announcements about what is new in the organization. Their website is: http://www.fear.org/

The scary thing about forfeiture laws is that they allow police to confiscate private property without having to pay for it, arrest anyone, or even prove that a crime has taken place. Under the current laws you could lose your money, house, car, or any other property simply because police or a prosecutor suspect, even falsely, that some sort of crime has taken place. The police are then allowed by law to keep whatever they forfeited. They don’t have to account for it to you, the citizen. The FEAR organization is fairly small, and unless more people join will likely not have much effect on either helping people or on current legislation. The government is much more powerful then a few people who have banded together to change the laws and get justice. A way to help is for more people to join this organization.

State Records

2007-02-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

State Records:

States do license many professions, trades, and crafts. Write to the Secretary of State and submit your persons name to be searched for any licensure by the state. The following are some occupations that may require licensing:

Aircraft Mechanics
Airports
Alarm Contractor
Alarm Installers
Auctioneers
Auto Inspectors
Auto Wreckers
Bankers
Barbers
Bill Collectors
Builders/Carpenters
Building Contractors
Building Wreckers
Carpet Cleaners
Certified Public Accountants
Embalmers
Investigators
Notary Public
Pawnbrokers
Pest Controllers
Pet Groomers
Pharmacists
Pilots
Real Estate Agents
Brokers
Scrap Dealers
Security Dealers
Security Guards
Stockbrokers
Surveyors
Talent Agents
Teachers
Therapists
Veterinarians
X-Ray Technicians

If the person is licensed by the state for any of the above occupations or any others not listed, then you will be able to receive, at least, the following information from the licensing board - work and home address, length of time the person has been licensed, the schools attended to be certified, if applicable, date of birth, any complaints lodged against the person, and name of any spouse.Of course, the most important information will be the addresses you are given, but you may want to take special note of any complaints filed. A court or hearing date may be scheduled in the near future and the exact date and location will be listed. Wait to see if your "friend" tells you about this hearing he has to attend.

Is Blue the Color of Fear in Chicagoland?

2007-02-13T12:05:00.000-05:00

From the Crusade For Justice Forum:
Posted By: pandora

Is Blue the Color of Fear in Chicagoland?

Please let me state beforehand this does NOT apply to honest police.

I salute, thank and pray for all honest law enforcement. You are true heroes.Is Blue the Color of Fear in Chicago?Blue! The color of the ocean and the sky! Sometimes it symbolizes peace, serenity or tranquility. That is, unless you live in Chicagoland. If you happen to be African American, blue can be the color of fear as you walk down the street and get harassed by a police officer for no reason at all. Never expect an apology, even if you are completely innocent. Blue can be the color of indignity, as you drive your new car, only to be pulled over and questioned as to whether or not it is really yours. Never expect an apology, no matterhow hard you worked for what you have. Blue was the color of terror for black men arrested during the reign of police commander Jon Burge . You may have been tortured into admitting to a crime you never committed. Never even thought about committing in your wildest nightmare. You MAY get a half hearted, politically expedient apology, but never expect enoughpublic outcry to change things. What is a little human dignity as long as business is good and downtown looks pretty. If you are African American in Chicago, a police officer’s uniform can be the color of fear.

Is blue the color of apathy? Just ask Fran and Casey Gaik of Oak Brook, who wanted to form a citizens group for better local government. The were harassed, spied on, and threatened via e-mail by officer Randy Mucha,at the request of public officials. They sued the village and won. But will they ever trust again? Will they ever take a stand again? Will they ever so much aspublicly voice an opinion again? What message does this send an electorate that increasingly doesn't’ even bother to vote. Never mind that your candidate didn't win! Try to change things and pay a price. For democracy in Oak Brook, blue is one of apathy's strongest enablers.

Is blue the color of betrayal? For college students Brian and Kevin Gaughan of Morengo, in McHenry County IL, blue used to be the color of pride and aspiration. As youngsters, when the brothers wore a toy badge or drove a tiny fire truck, it was just a little more to them then child’s play. Because mom was a police officer and dad was a firefighter. For these youngmen,the fantasy was already tempered with reality. They knew theirs was a family always willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Imagine how their faith wasshattered when Brian Jr. was thrown to the ground and had his head bashed into a wall by officer Scott Crawford, who has a record of serial harassment and abuse of power. Imagine being dragged into the policestation, and have a stranger beaten in front of your eyes to intimidate you. Imagine the disbelief when the state police vindicated local law enforcement, even as they saw blow after blow on a police surveillancevideo. (Watch the video yourself!) Imagine being charged with a felony simply for making the complaint in the first place. A family in shock!!! Firefighter Brian Gaughan Sr. went to Ground Zero days after it happened. He went to New Orleans as soon as he heard the call for help. To the Gaughanfamily of Morengo, how can this not hurt from the inside out? This is not just some bureaucratic mistake, nothing personal, you just got caught up in aheartless (and mindless) system. This is what it feels like when your most beloved friend thrusts a knife in your back. Or when the child turns his head away from the parent who has given him everything he had. Or when thetoddler, who runs across the room with gleeful outstretched arms , has grandpa slap him in the face when he gets to the other side. To the Gaughan family of Morengo, blue is heart wrenching betrayal.

Is blue the color of stench? Chicago firefighter Robert Cook might think so. Officer Jerome Finnigancame to his house, beat him and threatened him with a gun. Cook went to the Office of Professional Standards. He was told if he didn't want to lose his job he would shut his mouth. Like the Gaughans, hefound out what a fortress the “blue wall” can be. Cops do not just protect their own, sometimes they devour the rest of us. Cook finally came forward after Finnigan was arrested. Another man ready to make the ultimate sacrifice who found himself at the end of the ultimate double cross. Maybe not all cops in Chicagoland are involved in stench, but there is a funny blue smell around these parts.

The sheer number of cases starting to expose abuse of power in Illinois is astonishing. We need to stop looking at them as isolated incidents and realize there is problem endemic in the system. And endemic within ourselves for being so complacent about the system. There is a famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller, “First they came for the Communists; I wasn't a Communist so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Trade Unionists; I wasn't in a Union so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Jews; but I was a Christian, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Catholics; I was a Protestant, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me; and there was no one left to speak up.” The parallels are a bit frightening. Jon Burge came for African Americans, but I wasn't African American, so I said nothing.Besides, those were poor people. Those kinds ofthings can’t happen to me and my middle class kids. Then they came for the Gaiks of Oak Brook. Well,they were trouble makers right? If they hadn't rocked the boat it wouldn't have leaked. Then they came for one of my neighbors. But, ya know, I heard my neighbors have loose morals. At least that is what I heard somebody say, can’t remember who. It must be true, because bad things won't happen if we don’t bring it on ourselves. Then they came for the Gaughans and the Cooks. Folks who are "their own," their brothers and sisters in arms. If they take down all the honest people within the system itself, just who do we think will be left to stand in their way when they finally come for us?

(The above may be freely distributed as long as the contents stay in tact)

To watch the tape of the police beating a man tointimidate Kevin Gaughan, scroll down to the lastarticle and play the video: http://truthandjustice.wordpress.com/

The Innocence Project - News

2007-02-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

The Innocence Project:

“The Innocence Project” is an organization that helps people who have been wrongfully convicted. It does this through the continuing improvement of the justice system and attempts to change legislation to bring about those improvements, as well as DNA testing usage in order to help overturn wrongful convictions. The fact that this organization exists in the first place is a powerful statement of how many people in the US are convicted falsely and sentenced to prison for crimes that they did not commit. The organization has many members and takes donations for DNA testing in order to help free people who are wrongfully convicted and still serving prison time. It also has a list of overturned convictions by state that one can look up. Just the list of people who have been falsely convicted and imprisoned is staggering.

The way the “Innocence Project” works is to get people to first of all, be familiar with the cases, then to know the causes of false convictions, which span the list from eyewitness misidentification, unreliable science, false confessions, government misconduct, forensic misconduct, misuse of snitches, and bad lawyering. The next step from then on is to try to change the system, and the site offers many ways of doing so and things one can do to help. Finally, there are news releases and other information for whoever is interested.

The website address is:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/

The Amityville Horrors: A Hoax And An Injustice

2007-02-11T18:59:00.000-05:00

The Amityville Horrors - A Hoax And An Injustice:

A Hoax And An Injustice:
Ronald DeFeo was accused of murdering a mother, father, and four of five children execution style in the house that would later be part of a hoax of the Amytville horrors that was made into two major books and a movie.

Weber, DeFeo’s lawyer, had proof that he was held in custody for over 36 hours; and he was intentionally deprived of his rights to counsel; that he was severely beaten during this period of illegal confinement; that he was denied due process of the law, and there were several witnesses to support the allegations, including relatives, attorneys and members of the clergy. It was at this time that he made a confession.

The prosecution did not let DeFeo’s defense see the documents and evidence that the police had against him and also misrepresented the case to the jury. A petition is made on this site for a new trial and DNA testing for DeFeo. There is also a lot of interesting information having to do with the Amityville hoax, documents and police reports in the DeFeo case, other websites, and even a forum. It is interesting to browse through, just to learn about the Amityville horror, and the injustices and story behind it.

http://www.injusticesofamityville.com/startframeindex.html

http://www.amityvillehorror.com/index2.html

AMERICAN MEDICAL DIRECTORY

2007-02-10T11:37:00.000-05:00

AMERICAN MEDICAL DIRECTORY:

Here is a way to check out if a person is truly a physician.The directory will list a doctor by state and city, year of birth, medical school and year of graduation, year of license, residence and office addresses, specialties, and membership in associated medical organizations. A name index of all doctors is provided.In addition to the directories focusing on individuals that are listed in this section, several other directories cited in this chapter, under other sections, contain information about individuals.

These other directories are the Associations Yellow Book:
Directory of Corporate Affiliations - Who owns whom, Dun & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Directory, Law Firms Yellow Book, Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, Moody's Bank and Finance Manual, National Directory of Law Enforcement Administrators, Prosecutors.

Correctional Institutions, and Related Agencies:
National Trade and Professional Associations in the United States, Standard & Poor's Corporation Records, Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, and Thomson Bank Directory.

This is done by online search, though local or state library.

Corporate Yellow Book

2007-02-09T18:39:00.000-05:00

Corporate Yellow Book:

This is a good tool to use in case you encounter an injustice involving a company or a corporation. It will allow you to find out who runs the corporations or companies involved in order to take action against them.

Does someone you know or a friend say they are the director of a large corporation? Do you wish to find a person who runs a company that refused to pay you?
This is a directory of the people who manage, direct, and shape the largest public and privately held companies in the United States. It enables subscribers to access corporate leaders, including board members who are taking increased responsibility for corporate decision making. The features of the directory:

Over 1,000 leading corporations and over 7,500 subsidiaries and divisions.
Names and titles of over 45,000 executives, including more than 10,000 corporate board members and their outside affiliations.
Over 18,700 direct-dial telephone numbers of executives.
Business descriptions and annual revenues.
Addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of corporate headquarters and domestic and foreign subsidiaries and divisions.
Washington DC, government affairs offices, with addresses and telephone and fax numbers.

Just do a Google or Yahoo search for Corporate Yellow Book. There are payed services and maybe a free one or two. Also the Library might have one on hand.

The Abandoned Property Search

2007-02-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

The Abandoned Property Search:

An abandoned property search is another effective method in finding out about one's person. There may have been a time when your person as ran out on their family, a job, or the law. In most cases, a state may take possession of the following after a person has disappeared for at least seven years:

State Income tax refunds
Bank accounts
Dividend checks
Telephone deposit refunds
Safe deposit boxes
Annuity checks
Credit balance on cards
Payroll checks
Utility refunds

Each state should have a listing of all persons who have property or money held in escrow by the state.

I have listed some states where you can search. There is a more complete list at our message forum:
Crusade For Justice Forum

Illinois
http://www.cashdash.net/

Indiana
http://www.state.in.us/serv/ag_ucp

Iowa
http://www.treasurer.state.ia.us/unclaimed/great.cfm

Michigan
http://www.michigan.gov/treasury

Wisconsin
http://www.ost.state.wi.us/home/unclaim.htm

If you find property held in the person's name, you can write to that state and as for the full file. The file will contain where the person lived, valuables left, claims made by relatives, and more.

The Complaint Center - www.policeabuse.com

2007-02-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

The Complaint Center:

The Police Complaint Center is another good place to go if you were treated unfairly by police officers or were a subject of police brutality. It’s a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to victims of police misconduct. They conduct undercover stings of police departments against whom complaints were filed and also provide media exposure to victims. They give the victim 48 hours notice before coming out to conduct a sting operation. However, they do charge a hefty fee for their services. Their website is: www.policeabuse.com

What Happens to War Objectors

2007-02-06T15:34:00.000-05:00

What Happens to War Objectors:

First Lt. Ehren Watada believed that the war in Iraq is wrong. He spoke out against military involvement in Iraq two times. Watada did what he considered morally right. All of us should have the right, indeed the responsibility, to do what we consider is ethical and moral. What happens, however, when that interferes with what is currently considered illegal? What happens when someone follows what their conscience tells them is clearly the right thing?

For Lt. Watada the consequences for following his conscience are a court martial a probable four year prison sentence. Watada faces one count of missing movement, for failing to ship out with the rest of the troops, and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer, for speaking out against the war in Iraq two times. In other words, the military wants to punish Ehren Watada for being a conscientious objector and for speaking out about what he considers wrong. The military, even in our supposedly democratic United States, clearly cannot have someone who has a conscience, thinks for himself, and speaks out on issues that they disagree with. Such a person must be silenced and sentenced to prison in order to instill fear in other soldiers who might similarly consider the Iraq War wrong or wish to speak out against it. It’s a way to insure that there’s silence and fear.

Watada claims that it would be unlawful for him to take part in the movement to fight in Iraq and that this would lead to actions that would make one a party to a war crime.Of course, it is a very courageous action for him to risk his standing as an officer and an almost certain prison sentence in order to stand up for what he believes. He claims that any officer of honesty and integrity would stand up against the war and speak out against it.

Whether one agrees with what Watada is doing or not, clearly he is not being allowed to have a defense to his actions. A judge ruled that the legality of the war in Iraq and whether or not it goes against the United Nations regulations that specify wars, cannot be used as part of his defense. This action basically leaves Watada defenseless in his trial and a conviction is certain. The military is also looking for Watada to be sentenced for the full term in prison, since his lawyer put forth a deal which would have allowed Watada to be dishonorably discharged and serve only 3 months in prison. The deal was rejected. One thing is certain, and that is that Watada’s desire to do what is right will definitely cost him a prison term in the end, and he will no longer be able to serve in the military. I am not sure how he would feel about that, but the whole situation surely seems to have been handled very unjustly.

Fighting Home Injustices - Family

2007-02-05T11:42:00.000-05:00

Fighting Home Injustices:

One of the injustices that is becoming increasingly more common is that of injustices within the family. Here is one ways to detect if a spouse is cheating:

• A new exercise regimen
• Losing weight
• Buying spouse a gift without a reason
• A pager
• Suddenly staying late and working overtime
• Calls from strangers
• Altering of sexual patterns
• Dressing differently
• A new shampoo or soap smell(could be evidence of showering in a hotel room)
• Shaving in the afternoon
• Coming home smelling of alcohol or perfume
• Altering of patterns with family
• Suddenly leaving for work early
• No wedding ring
• Renewed buoyant spirit and energy
• Incriminating paperwork in the car
• Overprotective of briefcase and calendar
• New interest in eating different dishes

A Disgusting Situation - Barrington IL

2007-02-04T18:55:00.000-05:00

A Disgusting Situation:

Barrington School District is one of the best in Illinois. It has huge funding, field trips, plenty of supplies and equipment for kids, and excellent pay for teachers. What is the only problem? Well, the Barrington Special Needs Preschool, a program for young kids with disabilities who need therapists to work with them who are part of the school district, is currently located in a dump pile. Literally.

While the rest of the district enjoys state of the art classrooms and equipment, the Special Needs classroom isn’t even located in the town of Barrington, but in an old gymnasium in Carpentersville. The building that the school is in is so old and is in such a degraded condition that the children are in actual danger. There is little ventilation, a problem with rats and mice, the electricity often fails, and there is no air conditioning. The only way to plug in some of the learning tools students might need is to turn off other electrical equipment, like the lights, or a fuse often blows. Dead mice are often found in the classroom in the morning.

The injustice of this? While a Down’s Syndrome or Autistic student has to learn in this kind of an environment, their brothers or sisters, who might not have these disorders, learn in state of the art classrooms with all the equipment and supplies that anyone might need, even more than anyone would need. Do people not notice this disparity? Why doesn’t the district spend less money on some of the other things and put more money into doing something about this situation?

Connecting the Dots - McHenry County IL - Marengo

2007-02-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

Connecting the Dots - McHenry County IL - Marengo

This article has been reposted with permission from: Marengo Gazette Online, Marengo Gaztte Blog

Here is an interesting little side story to the police matters in Marengo. We have all, I am sure, read the stories of the Richmond and Spring Grove officers accused of beating up Ron Hallet. His picture was even on the front page of the Northwest Herald, garnering him huge amounts of sympathy. However, what I am about to claim is even more shocking.
I firmly believe that the reasons the Spring Grove officers were arrested and charged with the beating was because of Brian and Kevin Gaughan’s case. The investigator William Kronke wanted to show that he did not make mistakes in the Gaughan case and that he was not purposely taking sides with the police for personal interest, despite evidence, by going and arresting police officers whom he did not know.It is interesting to note that the prosecutor, Nichole Owens, and the judge are exactly the same as in the Gaughan case. Also, the officers Quilici, Pilati, Volstad, and Thelan, had a share of troubles with their case, that shows how ruthless the state investigator, Kronke is. How far he is willing to go to bring charges against people, even bending the law to make this happen. And how the McHenry County judicial system works in his favor. We all read in the paper how he sat in on the grand jury for these officers, how he intimidated the grand jurors by rolling his eyes and making gestures. From what I understand, he talked to one of the witnesses who testified before this grand jury and threatened her on the stand, by sitting there and intimidating her. Nichole Owens, the prosecutor, also contacted a grand jury member beforehand, and should not have been allowed to prosecute the case, yet the judge let her. He also ruled that it was alright for Kronke to be there, despite that they couldn’t find the document saying that he had permission. Just as in the Gaughan case, certain cameras supposedly had blank tapes, so things could not be handed over. My guess? There was no such document, and the judge, investigator, and prosecutor got away with bending the law to suit their own reasoning.What really happened?
Of course, all this leads to the question of what really happened with the three cops and Hallet? Apparently, Hallets injuries appear to be real, so he did get beaten up. But why? What occurred? I myself am not as familiar with this as with the Gaughan case. In the latter, I know for a fact that Kevin and Brian Gaughan are innocent of all charges. In the case, of the four cops, I am not quite as sure that all four of them are equally innocent. One of them appears to have a bad track record….Brian Quilici has been arrested and almost fired for a DUI before, but all charges against him were dropped. He used his position as a police officer to interfere with his roommate’s personal relationships with a girlfriend. He had a complaint filed against him because he yelled at someone who discovered a motorcycle lying in a ditch. He was involved in domestic abuse with his girlfriend by throwing water in her face and pushing her against a wall. Worst of all, Quilici got into a fight in Porter’s Oyster Bar in Crystal Lake with an another man, whom he accused of dating his ex-girlfriend. If he got into one bar fight and seems like an interfering, violent person who doesn’t follow the law in all other respects, why wouldn’t he beat up a man outside yet an another bar?
Well, I think he would! I see no reason why this man wouldn’t pick a fight or make one that is in the making that much worse! I just don’t think the other police officers, including the female cops Thelan, would be involved in it as well.
From what I understand happened, it is mysterious to me why or how the original argument that took the cops into the parking lot with Hallet started in the first place. But there they were in the parking lot. Yes, I am fairly sure they were arguing. The female cop, Thelan, walked past Hallet and he grabbed her and put a knife to her throat, then started dragging her into his car. The other officers fought back to protect her and from there on, its anyone’s guess how he obtained his injuries. Innocent of all wrongdoing, he is not, though. Very unlike the Gaughan brothers, who did nothing wrong but say two words to Crawford, who then got the older of the two into handcuffs before proceeding to beat him up.
But, things do not end there. Like with the Gaughan brothers, the state investigator Kronke proceeded to interrogate them in much the same way. He threatened them, yelled at them, and called them names. He charged Volstad for impersonating a police officer simply because he told Kronke that he was on sick leave. Kronke used weird interrogation tactics by asking him if he was a police officer. Of course he is, right? Who wouldn’t say so?! There you go, now Kronke had an another charge against him - impersonating a police officer! Much the same way irrelevant charges were added on for the Gaughan brothers. He also, much as in the Gaughan interrogation, lied to the people he was interrogating. He insisted that he had a tape of he parking lot to the bar and knew what really happened. The officers insisted that if he really did indeed have the tape, then he would know what happened and that they were not at fault. Of course, Kronke had no such tape, since there was no video camera facing out to the parking lot!
With all this in mind, we must keep in mind how corrupt our McHenry County system of government is and how corrupt some, not all, but some, state police officers are. Kronke is definitely one of them. I would venture to same that so is Perez, who lives in Marengo, and was also one of the investigators who was interrogating the Spring Grove cops. He is very familiar with the Marengo Police department. I am sure that the reason for the arrest of these officers and the piling up of extra charges against them rests with how they treated the Gaughan brothers and how they have completely screwed that case up. I hope the truth will soon come out and Kronke and his buddies will pay a price.

The Homeless Problem

2007-02-02T21:07:00.000-05:00

The Homeless Problem:

The “homeless problem” sounds like something that inner cities have to deal with. It is usually not discussed as being a problem in small towns and rural areas. Certainly, when one thinks about a town like Crystal Lake, one doesn’t think about homelessness. We don’t see cardboard box houses and people on the streets walking and pushing shopping carts filled with all their belongings. But there is indeed a homeless problem in Crystal Lake, whether it is acknowledged by the majority of people living here or not.
There is, of course, an agency, PADS, set up to deal with the homeless in our county. PADS provides the homeless with a place to sleep, an evening meal, breakfast, and even a sack lunch to take with them. It is good that these services are available for the homeless in our area. However, the problem is that these shelters are not located on one site, but are scattered in various churches throughout the county. What’s more, the location of the shelter changes each night. On Sunday, the PADS shelter is in Bethany Lutheran Church in Crystal Lake, on Monday in St. Peter and Paul Church in Cary, Tuesday in the Christ King Catholic Church in Wonder Lake, Wednesday in the Congregation Unitarian Church in Woodstock, Thursday in the St.Paul’s Episcopalian Church in McHenry, Friday in the Christian Fellowship Church back in Crystal Lake, and Saturday its back to Cary again in the Cary United Methodist Church. This raises the question of how does someone who has nowhere to live get from Crystal Lake to Cary, which is at least 10 miles distant, then to Wonder Lake the next day after that, which is at least 25 to 30 miles from Cary, and back to all the other places? It seems that this would involve possession of a vehicle, walking in the cold for many miles, or waiting for the free PACE bus and hoping that it is heading in the appropriate direction. It seems that if so much of a homeless person’s time in our county is spent traveling, how are they going to be able to get their lives together and seek medical care, a job, or a possible place to live? Wouldn’t it be much better if funds were available to open one general location where the homeless can then spend each night?
The other issue is that these shelters are only open at night. From 7pm until 7am, the homeless have a place to eat and sleep. What are they to do during the day though? After 7am, the shelter is no longer operational and, in fact, moves to a completely different location. So, this leaves the homeless person no choice except to take to the streets and the cold, try to get to the town where he needs to spend the following night, and wait until the appropriate time in libraries, malls, parks, and other locations. Just the other day, I was in the Crystal Lake Library, which now has little enough room, and saw at least 8 homeless people sitting around looking at magazines. Which is alright, except that I feel bad for them having no place to call their own during the day, and being forced to sit in a middle of a public place, where people look at them in disgust and fear, and they must surely feel unwanted.
This brings me to the last issue with homelessness in our county. The way homeless people are generally treated. Just a few months ago I watched a homeless man approach a lady who was sitting in an SUV, smoking a cigarette with her window open. The man asked to borrow a smoke, told her he really felt a need for one. Not only did I watch this lady turn him down, she yelled at him and told him to go get a job and buy his own smokes. This was callous and unnecessary. Can you imagine what a person who is down and out, at a real low point in his life, must feel after being treated this way? This, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident, but happens in our county and town each and every day.

Spanking Will Be Illegal

2007-02-01T13:40:00.000-05:00

Spanking Will Be Illegal

In California, Assembly woman Sally Lieber is trying to pass a controversial new law, which will make spanking a child under 4 illegal. If this law passes, spanking a child will be considered a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Now, of course there is currently a lot of opposition to the law from ordinary people. And, of course, if the law passes it might be a precursor for more of such laws in other states. For all we know, by the end of the next ten years, spanking will be illegal everywhere!

Now, I personally am not a big fan of spanking. But think about this for a second: when would a parent normally spank a child? At the age of 4 and under, I would think. Sometimes you might have an angry two or three year old who just doesn’t listen to his parents, and a light smack on his behind is what he or she really needs. How many people actually lightly spanked their child? Quiet a few, I would think. Maybe the majority? What will happen if this law goes into effect is, quite simply, a child who has received a light swat on his bottom will then go to preschool or daycare, where he might mention in passing that “my daddy spanked me”. What will happen now, with this law in effect? Well, DCFS will get called in and the parent will be arrested. Now, I am not talking about children who are brutally beaten by their parents. That’s a different story. But already there are laws that protect children against this. It is illegal and child abuse. But can an independent third party really know what kind of spanking a young child received? Would they be able to distinguish behind a light swat, perhaps even made in jest, versus a more serious spanking, if a child says “my daddy or mommy spanked me”? No, of course not. What this will lead to is more arrests, more people convicted of crimes they did not commit, and more people going to jail and having criminal records.

As I mentioned, Lieber received plenty of complaints from people and a large amount of criticism. Lawmakers sought to make spanking illegal in Massachusetts last year and in Wisconsin 15 years ago and failed. So, who does Lieber receive most of her support from? Why, prosecutors. Of course. Who else?

Freedom Of Information Act

2007-01-31T19:22:00.000-05:00

Freedom Of Information Act:

This is a valuable tool in the fight for justice. Information has to be provided to you, and various agencies had lawsuits before because of their failure to provide information in a timely manner.
Take a look at this website. It provides information on the freedom of information act for each state in the US. http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/foiamap.html
Nearly every state has their own version of the freedom of information act and this site provides valuable information about each one.

A Shamful Problem

2007-01-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

A Shamful Problem

Here is a problem that can potentially effect all of us. The Justice Department reported that one out of ever 32 Americans is currently in prison, on probation, or on parole. That is a huge number of people who are serving prison time. Our country, in fact, has more of its population in prison then any other country in the world! One would think a strange communist or third world country undergoing a civil war would imprison most of its population. Right? Nope. It is our own country, one that is supposed to be based on freedom and equality.
What is more interesting is the racial disparities of those who are in prison. 8.1 percent of those imprisoned are African Americans, making the statistics of African Americans who are now in prison one in 13.
Why this problem? How could this have gotten so out of hand? Are people committing more and more crimes?
Could be. But of all the offenses, 49 percent are drug related. Meaning, in a failing attempt to keep drugs off the street, people are thrown in prison for 10, 20, or 30 years or more for having a habit they cannot control, being with someone who had drugs on them, etc. Of course, some of this percentage consists of people who actually deal drugs, but there are far more people caught in the system and given long sentences for relatively small and innocuous offenses. The other reason is that those who go to prison are the poor, the disenfranchised - those who cannot afford to pay a good lawyer to provide them with a proper defense. They have little choice but to plea bargain and plead guilty to crimes, whether they committed them or not, or risk pleading not guilty with a public defender to defend them. Either way, the result is often prison. The last reason is something that many might not be aware of. The courts, towns, and counties make money from the system. It is in their interest to find as many criminal offenses as possible in order to get as much money as possible from fines and fees.
The end result of the above? Our country, which is supposed to provide us with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is actually imprisoning one out of 32 people in its population!
An Important Article To Read:
Here is an interesting article I found on the internet, of interest to all who want to know why the above problem happens. I was shocked when I read it. See what you think.

Prison Nation
by Sasha Abramsky
Toward Freedom magazine, October/November 2001

There is a prevalent image in the US of a violent lumpen underclass, what the
Victorian journalist Thomas Wright, describing 19th century London's
slum-dwellers, termed "The Great Unwashed," controllable only by punishment. It
is an image that influential conservative criminologists such as James Q.
Wilson, urging a far more expansive recourse to imprisonment, pandered to back
in the 1970s and 80s, when the groundwork for today's massive prison system was
laid.
And, to a degree, its true: The country does have a phenomenal number
of murders and murderers, gangsters, mercenary drug pushers, kidnappers,
rapists, and armed robbers. Arguably, since the very birth of the
nation-complete with the roving gangs of brigands in Appalachia and privateers
off the Atlantic seaboard-it always has had. And, like all things American,
violence here, whether it be the gang violence associated with illegal drugs, or
the urban upheavals of the rioting poor, happens on an epic scale. At the height
of the crack wars of the 80s, more than 25,000 people were being killed
annually. Parts of inner-city Los Angeles, Washington, Detroit, New Orleans, New
York, Chicago, and several other cities, are, indeed, virtual war zones.
No
two ways about it, but there are an awful lot of angry, brutal, and
trigger-happy men in the US. And there are an awful lot of weapons available to
these people to carve out their twisted realities on the national landscape.
Super-maximum-security prisons such as the notorious Pelican Bay-nestled in
the coastal Redwood forests of California's northernmost county, surrounded by
two high razor-wire fences and a lethal electronic harrier, and more escape
proof than the island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay- house thousands of
men, many of them mass murderers, rapists, kidnappers, and other seriously
disturbed individuals.
But no matter the hysteria, there aren't nearly
enough US psychopaths, enough real-life Hannibal Lecters, to justify a prison
and jail population that now hovers in the two million range, incarcerated in
hundreds of facilities across the 50 states.
In fact, for the first time in
history, most US prisoners-over a million people-have been convicted of
nonviolent, often victimless crimes:
offenses, just as marijuana possession,
that hurt nobody but the person arrested. Hundreds of thousands are now serving
ten-, 15, and 20 year terms for crimes that in Europe or Canada would generally
result in noncustodial sentences and commitment into drug rehab programs. And
so, in addition to housing the violent menaces that they were intended to
incarcerate, maximum-security prisons have seen an increasing number of
nonviolent inmates pass through their phenomenally secure gates. Meanwhile, in
many cases, the big-time criminals go free: trading information, snitching on
subordinates, hiring million-dollar attorneys who will do anything possible to
limit the years their clients spend in jail. The land of the free has become a
place where rural backwaters-catapulted into economic collapse by
deindustrialization and the oft-vaunted global market -now bid for the privilege
of building new hightech prisons to incarcerate the urban unemployed, and the
urban addicted. People like Lillie Blevins.
Lillie Blevins is a diabetic in
her mid-50s. She has chronic high blood pressure, back problems, knee problems.
A couple of years ago her appendix ruptured. She is scheduled to spend the rest
of her life in Carswell Federal Medical Center, inside the Forth Worth army
base, just outside Dallas, Texas.
Her crime was conspiracy to sell crack
cocaine, allegedly head of a family operation involving three of her sons and
her brother. The evidence against her the word of a snitch who was friends with
her drug-dealing sons, along with three grams of crack cocaine found in her
Mobile, Alabama house by federal agents. her status is a nonviolent, minimum
security federal inmate, no prior time served in prison, no money, and hence no
lawyer working on her case; at the time of her sentencing, her husband was in
jail on an unrelated charge.
An African American woman born in Selma,
Blevins was pulled out of school in the third grade to look after her seven
brothers and sisters. Her father had just died. Her mother, Pearlie, was in the
fields all day, picking cotton. Lillie had her first child, a boy, when she was
14, and moved south to Mobile, on the hot, sultry Gulf Coast, shortly after.
Over the next decade and a half; six more sons followed. Lillie was an active
member of the Shallow Baptist Church. But in a world of grinding poverty and
limited horizons, no amount of religion could prevent some of her boys, and at
times herself; from being tempted by drugs.
In the early 80s, the police
arrested her for growing what she terms a "reefer bush" in her garden. Later on,
she was hauled in for possession of crack. Neither arrest resulted in prison
time. Then, in 1990, three of the Blevins boys, now living in an apartment away
from Lillie, were caught up in a federal drug sweep turned in by a friend who
bartered 25 names to federal agents in exchange for probation. For good measure,
the friend, who had once lived clown the road from Lillie, added her name to the
list. One morning, when Lillie was at home, the agents knocked on her front
door. She opened it, and they stormed into her house. They found three grams of
crack-and carted the 42-year-old woman off to jail. The snitch said she was in
charge of the family operation. Her sons denied she had any knowledge of their
actions. Their denials counted for little: Blevins was sentenced to life
imprisonment in a federal prison.
As of summer 2000, 144,750 people were
serving time in federal prisons-convicted in the federal courts for crimes
ranging from the murder of a federal employee to drug trafficking across state
lines to simple drug dealing in a place where the state police passed the arrest
on to federal agents. The latter had become common practice, because federal law
allowed for the local police to keep a high percentage of any moneys or assets
confiscated from drug suspects in federal busts.
As long as the courts
judged a law enforcement officer's suspicions to be justifiable, you didn't even
have to gain a criminal conviction in order to seize a person's car or cash or
even, on occasion, their other property and bank accounts. And, as a result,
agencies had fallen over themselves trying to take advantage of their easy new
source of revenue. Asset forfeiture was proving such a bonanza that even the
Bureau of Land Management had set up their own anti-drug SWAT team. Six in ten
of these inmates were serving sentences for drug crimes. Fully 56,238 were
African American.
The sentences handed down by the federal courts are
staggering: 33,168 have bought five-to-ten; 21,439 are serving ten-to-15; 10,057
are doing 15-to-20; and 10,731 are locked up for over 20 years. According to the
Rand Drug Policy Research Center, these sentences "reduce cocaine consumption
less per million taxpayer dollars spent than spending the same amount on
enforcement under the previous sentencing regime. And either enforcement
approach reduces drug consumption less than putting heavy users through
treatment programs."
Warehousing millions of people for petty crimes has
become the number one US Public Works program, what the radical sociologist Mike
Davis calls "carceral Keynesianism." The reference is to the economist who urged
governments to spend their way out of the Great Depression, through throwing
vast sums of money into public works programs and providing the unemployed with
enough spending money to rejuvenate depressed local economies. Now, Davis
argues, instead of dams, roads, and great public buildings, instead of rural
electrification programs and hospitals, the public works of our age are the
sprawling concrete prisons. Nowhere is this more true than in California.
California's incarceration industry is big business. Super-hi-tech prisons
are sprouting up across the state, no money spared. Take a drive down any rural
highway and you will pass a new prison. Local newspapers advertise job fairs at
which these institutions seek out the local talent and local politicians trumpet
their achievements in bringing such employment into the district. Each prison
costs hundreds of millions to build, and guards, represented by the politically
powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association, are attracted to
the industry by the relatively high salaries. Says Bruce Gomez, the community
resource manager at the 1.7 million-square-foot super-maximum security Corcoran
prison (home to, along others, Charles Manson and Bobby Kennedy's assassin,
Sirhan B. Sirhan) "a correctional officer, with a high school education's
starting salary is $2,500 a month. Their counterparts round here [in a remote
agricultural region in the Central Valley] make $1,200 to $1,600 a month
outside. So it's a real sought-after job."
Behind the razor-wire fences, the
deadly electronic barrier (covered with netting to stop the birds from flying
into a nasty surprise), the computer-operated gates, and the watchtowers, a vast
complex is laid out. Low-lying under the immense blue California sky, concrete
blocks-each one housing hundreds of prisoners, each either confined to a private
cell or double-bunked with another inmate- lead onto large exercise yards,
watched over by gunners ready at the first hint of trouble to set the red alarms
off. Deep inside the complex, a series of "pods" contain the Secure Housing Unit
inmates - men, like Charles Manson, who are segregated from the general
population and kept in conditions of near isolation. Even deeper inside are the
workshops-a dairy, a metal-working unit, a furniture shop. There is a medical
facility and a mental unit, convenience stores, and a gym-currently being used
to house overflow prisoners. In a real sense, this is a town, albeit a highly
autocratic, violent sort of town, unto itself:
California s Department of
Corrections estimated in the late 90s that the state's prison numbers might hit
300,00() in the not-too-distant future; although recently the state's prison
population has given some signs of stabilizing, and possibly even declining
slightly. Since it costs over $20,000 per year to incarcerate one person,
$35,000 to incarcerate them in solitary confinement, and over $60,()()0 to
incarcerate and provide medical care to elderly inmates, the Rand corporation
and other researchers have concluded that over the next 2() years, California's
investment in its once-vaunted public universities will dramatically wither away
as the state struggles to find money to pay for new prisons and staff existing
ones. Already, the state s elementary school system is in such disarray, partly
as a result of two decades of spending cuts, that its fourth graders scored
second to bottom in the country in a recent study of reading ability.
Over
the past two decades, California's Department of Corrections, along with those
of Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and handful of other states, and the federal
prison system s facility at Florence, Colorado, have perfected the panopticon, a
control mechanism dreamt up by 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
The panopticon was a space in which a person in a central room could see into
every nook and cranny of the institution, thus denying inmates even the barest
modicum of privacy. California s computerized prisons, built as a series of
bleak concrete cell "pods" radiating out from central control rooms, watched
over by gunners, surrounded by razor-wire fences and lethal electric barriers,
offer up as little chance of escape as Nazi concentration camps. New "level
four" institutions at Corcoran, Pelican Bay, and High Desert-a prison deep
within the mountainous landscape north of the preternaturally blue Lake
Tahoe-have been built specifically to house the worst of the worst, according to
Pelican Bay's Deputy Warden Joe McGrath; to isolate predatory, dangerous
prisoners, people ''who preyed upon other prisoners and were assaultive." Since
the new prisons were created ten years ago, violence within the prison system as
a whole has indeed declined.
In Pelican Bay, a huge camp in the rainy north,
just south of the Oregon border, on ground that used to be lumber land, 40
percent of the 3242 inmates are lifers. At any one time, between 1300 and
1500-those deemed a threat to other inmates, those with known gang affiliations
-are housed in a Secure Housing Unit (SHU). There, behind perforated orange
metal doors, they remain isolated in their cells, eight feet by ten feet,
approximately 23 hours per day. When they receive visits-which is rare, since
Los Angeles, where most of the prisoners are from, is a 16-hour drive to the
south-they visit through a bulletproof glass window. Anybody from the outside
admitted onto the SHU has to don a bulletproof vest to guard against sharpened
debris being launched through the perforated doors.
Most inmates are there
for an "indeterminate sentence," often for years on end. They eat and they shit
in their cells. They exercise, alone, in barren concrete yards ten by 20 feet.
In some SHUs in the US, even the showers are built inside the barren cells. This
is, says Lieutellant Ben Grundy, an African American and an ex-marine, no
picnic. We don't want to make this a fun place for them."
Although the
prison now has an extensive mental health program -a safety valve that is
noticeably missing in Texas's enormous supermax prisons such as
Huntsville-senior psychologist Dr. David Archamballlt says that at least one
person a month has some sort of psychotic collapse inside the SHU. When the
mental health unit first opened, more than 100 prisoners were removed from the
SHU with severe mental disturbances. Many isolated prisoners routinely
self-mutilate as an expression of impotent rage at their confinement, slashing
at veins and arteries until the spurting blood has covered the walls of their
cells in a spectacular mosaic of deep red slime. Oftentimes, inmates "gas"
guards through their doors with a pungent mixture of urine and feces. Violence
feed on violence here, and the guards themselves have been known to abuse
inmates in return.
In Corcoran in the mid-90s, guards routinely organized
"gladiatorial" combats between rival gang members in the small triangular
exercise yards. The guards would then proceed to shoot the antagonists apart.
First rouncd, wooden bullets. Second round, for those who didn't stop fast
enough, high-impact explosive bullets. Seven inmates were killed and numerous
others injured over the years before the practice was eventually exposed, and
the prison's administration was overhauled. Yet, despite grainy black-and-white
videotapes of' the incidents that were captured by the security cameras, juries
in California refilsed to find any of the of ficers responsible for the deaths
of these inmates.
In Pelican Bay, an African American inmate who had gone
mad in isolation and had covered his body in shit, was dropped by guards into a
tub of scalding water, and held down in it until the skin boiled off his legs.
"Nigger, we're going to scrub you until you're white," the guards were quoted as
telling their victim.
Few Californians know about Pelican Bay and, according
to McGrath, even if they did, hard time stories generally wouldn't concern them.
"The average person out there in society isn't very concerned about the
criminal," he asserts. "They just want to he able to conduct their life without
becoming a victim." Somewhat pensively for a prison official, McGrath goes on to
say that "the things, like family, that have held us together as a society are
breaking down, and we now expect prisons to socialize people. There're a lot of
things we need to be working on as a society and a culture to treat the illness
rather than just the symptoms."
But, 21st century US is showing no signs of
a new War on Poverty. And so, the prison numbers continue to rise. How many
prisoners is too many in a supposedly free society? "I guess I'd have to ask the
question: what is the alternative?" McGrath answers slowly. ''I'm somewhat of a
utilitarian on this. I'd weigh the cost and I'd weigh the benefit. I'm a civil
servant and I'm here to serve the state. If that's what the people want, I'm
here to implement that."

Sasha Abramsky, a TF contributing writer, is currently a media fellow of the Open Society Institute's Center on Crime, Communities and Culture. This article i.s an edited excerpt from his upcoming book, Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation, to be published by St. Martin s Press in January, 2002.

The Witch Hunt Trials of the 21st Century

2007-01-30T09:56:00.000-05:00

The Witch Hunt Trials of the 21st Century:

It started in the 1980’s. At various daycares across the country, workers and daycare teachers were accused of crimes they did not commit. Parents and prosecutors accused them of sexually molesting children, of sticking things like forks and even a sword into little girl’s vaginas, of licking peanut butter off of little boys’ penises. Not only were the charges extraordinary ridiculous, something that any normal person could see as nonsense, but there was no physical evidence to back the charges. None of the “abused” children had any damage in their vaginas or anuses. None really even knew what “sexual” abuse was. They were questioned incessantly by prosecutors and social workers, who psychologically convinced them that the abuse happened. The people who were put on trial were convicted and sentenced for 30 or more years in prison. One of them even served 5 whole years before common sense was seen and her conviction was overturned. In fact, its entirely possible that there are still daycare workers in prison who were part of this wave of accusations. Here are the similarities between the Salem Witchcraft Trials and the Daycare Witchcraft Trials of the 1980’s, as out lined on this site: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/salemparallels.htm

1. "Both the Daycare Abuse Trials (McMartin, Michaels, and others)
and the Salem Witchcraft Trials placed heavy reliance on the testimony of
children. In both sets of trials, people urged others to "believe the
children." In practice, that generally meant, "believe the children when
they are making remotely plausible accusations, but ignore the inconsistencies
in their stories."

2. "In both sets of trials, accusations multiplied over
time. At first just a few persons faced accusations, but as the hysteria
spread, so did the accusations. Often, the new targets of accusations were
those who expressed skepticism about charges or who came to the defense of an
accused person."

3. "Both sets of trials had their origins in behaviors or
statements of children--behaviors or statements that could have been given an
innocent interpretation, but instead were interpreted in the most omenous or
threatening way possible."

4. "In both sets of trials, "experts" found meaning in unlikely
places. In Salem, for example, the presence of a mole on the body of an
accused person was seem as evidence that the "familiar" had an entry (or
sucking) point on the accused. In the daycare cases, for example, the
drawing of hands on stick figures was seen as evidence that the child who drew
the figure had been molested. In another example, a child's dislike of
tuna fish was seen as evidence that the child had been exposed to vaginal
smells."

5. "In both sets of trials, the investigation itself was the
source of many of the problems. Investigators in both instances employed
leading questions, and effectively put the burden of proving innocence on the
accused. In Salem, accused persons were asked to explain how their
presence could trigger such bizarre reactions in the allegedly afflicted.
In the daycare cases, the accused were confronted by the suggestion that the
children would not be talking about penises and the like if they hadn't been
molested--when in fact their frequent use of such anatomic terms resulted from
the investigation of the alleged crime."

6. "In both sets of trials, the extent of the injustices was
increased by the unwillingness--or fear--of enough persons to step forward and
say, "This is crazy!" People in both instances feared that by doing so
they might either face accusations themselves or hurt their standing in their
communities--be it the church community in Salem or the journalism community in
the daycare cases."

Here is some more information for those interested:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/mcmartin.html

http://members.shaw.ca/imaginarycrimes/timeline.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_fells.htm

Who are These Poeple? - McHenry County

2007-01-30T09:53:00.000-05:00

Who are These Poeple?

I’ve driven past Rt.14 and Main Street the other Thursday and noticed a whole bunch of people dressed warmly for the weather, holding signs protesting the war in Iraq. They stand right by the bicycle tunnel on Main Street, next to King Wok.Who are they?The McHenry County Peace Group, which is dedicated to protesting the war in Iraq. Their common goal is:

“ Working for peace through a dedication to social justice, compassionate
action, and nonviolent expression.”

It is an honorable enough goal and interesting. The group now has its own website: http://www.mcpg.org/ and a $20 fee in order to join, which will involve participation in discussion groups and a chance to stand out on Rt.14 to hold up a sign with like minded other people protesting the war in Iraq.I have talked with a former member of this Peace Group. It is interesting that we have groups like this in our otherwise very conservative county. This particular group is indeed very peaceful. They do not believe in any confrontation. When the group was barred from holding signs in last year’s Gala Parade, instead of standing up for their right to do so, they settled this “peacefully” by not holding up the signs in next year’s parade. They are not, as its founder Libby, stated to the person who was involved in the past with the group, confrontational, but believe in only peaceful methods of settling conflicts. They also seem to have little interest in matters that concern us in this county. I think there are many injustices and wrongs in McHenry County, many people who need someone to stand up and protest for them, but this group has only concentrated its efforts on the Iraq War, which, while an interesting and relevant issue, is one that is unlikely to require courage or confrontation of any sort in our County. Had this group tackled issues like the abuses of the court system, poverty, and discrimination, at that would involve confronting people who might then get angry in their desire to maintain the current situation, the result might have angered many people, changed minds, and caused situations which would require courage and, yes, conflict, to resolve. That would indeed not be acceptable. So, while I admire standing up for a cause, I think that it is far more important to tackle local causes and issues before moving in to national and international ones.

McHenry County Illinois - Marengo

2007-01-30T09:42:00.000-05:00

McHenry County Illinois

Does your county, town, or city have a problem with police, the justice system, or the courts? Email us and we’ll get your issues out there. We can open up a section having to do with your local issues, just like this McHenry County, IL section and write about an injustice that might be effecting your town or county.

This article has been reposted with permission from: Marengo Gazette Online, Marengo Gaztte Blog

Corruption

There is something truly wrong with the judicial system in our county. I am sure all who read the Gazette also read the message board, so they can see some of the articles that are posted that indicate this. But it's a lot more than that. It goes down to the very marrow of how the court system works in McHenry County. Here are some examples I personally know of, which illustrate some of it:

1. Someone, I'm not going to say who, drives five miles over the speed limit and gets a traffic ticket for doing so. A minor thing, but I guess they broke the law, so no complaint there. They go to court. What's there? Why, tons and tons of people for traffic tickets. Most for really small, stupid offenses, like sitting too long at a traffic light or not making a left turn in the right place. Clearly, little towns here are looking to raise money.Well, that's still sort of alright. But then this person, who took a day off work to go to court, decides to plead not guilty. Well, you see, its not that easy. Your not supposed to do that. Because if you do, then they tell you that they'll set up an another whole date for you to go to court, so then you'll miss an another day of work. So, what do you see? Everyone, almost no exception, pleads guilty to their traffic ticket. Even those who don't feel they did anything wrong.

2. Someone else has a teenager who was falsely accused of trespassing into someone's yard. He decides to plead not guilty and, in fact, the owner of the yard drops all charges and will not go to court. So, he arrives in court with his parent. The prosecutor comes up to him and asks him how he'll plead. Not guilty. Of course. The prosecutor then starts warning the young man that he'd better take a plea bargain and just get off with a small fine, otherwise if he is found guilty it will be much worse. The young man's parent intervenes and says they will plead not guilty and explains that the owner didn?t even show up in court. The prosecutor practically insists the young man should still plead guilty. They plead not guilty, sure enough there's no owner, and the charges are dropped. However, the parent stays a while to watch the system at work. Person after person goes up and pleads guilty after being told by the prosecutor that they HAVE TO do so or it will be much worse. Most of the other young people there do not have a parent with them and are not aware they even had a choice, which is what the parent finds out afterward after talking to a few of them. Many also had cases where they did nothing wrong, and no one showed up for the complaint, yet because the prosecutor insisted there would be dire consequences unless they plead guilty, they go and do so.

3. Finally, the police. There are many cases of police misconduct in McHenry County. Police falsely arrested and interrogated a teenage boy in Crystal Lake last year and forced a confession out of him for a crime he did not do. It didn't get far from that point because as soon as the boy left the interrogation where he falsely confessed, he committed suicide. Later on the real culprit was found by the police. Then there's police who stop people as a form of revenge in Marengo, and those related to them or visiting them. Which is clearly a form of police abuse. Add this in to the other factors, and they are a picture of corruption rivaled in few places.

Learning More About Law Practice

2007-01-30T00:17:00.000-05:00

Learning More About Law Practice:

One thing that you can do when confronted with a problem like some of the ones above is to learn more about how prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges operate. Learn investigation techniques and how to find things out. There are computers that have information about criminal and civil past records for anyone, including bad cops, prosecutors, judges, and others. Learn how many of the prosecutor’s or judges cases were turned over on appeal. Also, its very useful to just know the law oneself, it might be helpful and, in any case, will also allow one to see what is going on. A person I know hunted through craiglist.com and found a set of lawbooks that were given away for free. He drove over 60 miles to pick up these otherwise very expensive books and spent hours reading about trial techniques, ethics, and other issues a lawyer would learn in law school, in order to be better aware of how the system works and how judges and prosecutors might think, as well as to provide himself with detailed knowledge of the law and how its conducted. I think anyone facing the issue of problems and accusations will do him or herself a favor if they did the same thing.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Conducting a Protest

2007-01-29T23:58:00.000-05:00

Advantages and Disadvantages of Conducting a Protest:

This is something that we should all consider. However, in considering it, we encounter the first problem with it. Its hard to arrange. If one wants to protest the local police, State’s Attorney’s Office, or other such entity, one will find that few people will be brave enough to want to join you in this risky venture. No one wants to get arrested and have a problem themselves, after all. Or get on the bad side of th local town governments and the police by protesting against them. However, those kinds of protests were conducted before in large cities, standing up against police brutality and other issues. So, it can be done. How to do it? I would start by putting out notices about the issue that’s effecting you in every bulletin board in town. There are community boards in town halls, boards in hot dog stands and doctors’ offices, boards in coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. Its surprising how many places have a bulletin board. I would include an email address or phone where you can be contacted at, and the information needed about the protest and what you are trying to get together. Interested individuals then might have a chance to contact you. After this, I would contact various area organizations and Peace Groups that might be interested in getting involved when given the right reason. The downfall of this? It might work in a really large city, which would have many such groups, as well as individuals, but not in a small town or county. In that case, the effort might well fail. Even if it doesn’t result in a protest, though, I think its still worthwhile posting the notices up on bulletin boards, as it will result in people being informed of the situation effecting their area.

Welcome

2007-01-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

Technorati Profile