DEPUTY TOLD POTENTIAL TOURIST THAT THOSE OPPOSING GOVERNMENT TYRANNY ARE “CULT” MEMBERS AND “ECCENTRICS”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 15, 2011) — On the evening of June 14, 2011, Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III, who has exposed corruption within the Monroe County, TN Sheriff’s Department and judiciary as well as throughout the state of Tennessee, gave his response to a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy who told a potential tourist to the area that the information provided by Fitzpatrick was false and that it came from a few “eccentrics” and “radicals” who belonged to some kind of “cult.”
This report is identical to the kinds of things others have reported: “The cops are laughing, there’s a buzz in the community; you’re being followed, you’re being surveilled; your movements are being tracked. You better be very, very careful.” And then we get the report from the potential tourist. This is a sheriff’s department stating that I am part of a cult; that I am an eccentric and a radical. And now there’s a direct connection that can be made to a sheriff’s department spokesman who said this to someone who calls in as a stranger. That’s why the report is very significant.
These same words are being spoken to other people in the community. I received a call from someone the other night who has another story to tell you. There has been a development with him.
I know when Carl was arrested back in January and taken in to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, the buzz around the sheriff’s department was that I’m a crazy man, a kook. It’s time to name names now: Kenny Hope. His name keeps coming up over and over again.
The Sheriff’s Department is inciting unrest of which I am the object, and by the way, so are you. They’re painting people who are pointing to the sheriff’s department as the mobsters that they are as part of a cult, which is very serious. This is the same kind of report that the sheriff’s department would be giving to the FBI: “Oh, don’t worry about him; he’s part of a cult.” What cult do they suggest I am a part of? This is nothing but defamation of character: “a radical, an eccentric;” I belong to a “cult.”
I was in the courthouse on Monday morning with a recorder rolling with a motion of which you have a copy. I served a subpoena on a court clerk, an elected official, and she denied service. She refused to accept it. I have an audio recording of it. [DS400239] As we’ve talked about, the state constitution vests in me the power to subpoena anyone I want to bring in. She denied it. At the same time, we have judges denying service. Why are they denying service? Is it because they think I belong to a cult? Is it because they don’t want what they’re doing exposed? Is this the kind of activity that they point to deflect attention away from their criminal conduct? They’re doing it on the heels of the reports that have come out about what the sheriff’s department did to Michael Ellington. There are people looking into it, which is why the threats are starting to escalate. Anybody who looks at the Ellington case will see that the outcome was fixed.
You can’t make these kinds of comments about a person to the public, and that’s what the sheriff’s department just did. These death threats that we’re talking about are coming from the sheriff’s department, at least as one avenue. There are a few people whom we know are aware of extraordinary corruption in the sheriff’s department; Mr. Jim Miller knew about it. Some are afraid for their lives tonight. They’ve made these comments about me; my name has come up; they’ve lied about what happened, and they’ve lied about everything, frankly.
When they came to arrest me on the 27th of October, Mike Morgan, who is the lead detective and very much entrenched in the Michael Ellington miscarriage of justice, and another guy named Pat Wilson both said to me that they’re not afraid of the FBI. While they were doing friction burns on my head and ears, they were saying, “Who do you think you are? We’re not afraid of the FBI!” OK, why aren’t they afraid of the FBI? Is it because they’re telling the FBI this nonsense about me and the FBI believes it? I don’t think so. There has to be more going on here.
I called the FBI on May 19, which was the day after Michael Ellington was sentenced to life in prison on first-degree, premeditated murder. The reports on his trial have been out there for a while. They are accurate, and the Sheriff’s Department is lying about them in this telephone conversation they had with the caller. They’re telling a tourist to come here because the reports that he or she was hearing about the Sheriff’s Department are false. The only reason they would do that is that they don’t want to get caught.
I sent Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff Bill Bivens a summons/subpoena to serve on Clerk Martha Cook ordering her appearance at during my next criminal trial.
Sheriff Bill Bivens refused to serve process as Bivens explains in his letter received this morning (pictured above).
I sent Sheriff Bivens a second command this afternoon to serve process on Cook.
Marty Cook refused to receive process on Monday of this week. Marty Cook interfered with service of process on Donald P. Harris.
There exists in plain view a clear trend.
Sheriff’s and court clerks obstructing the process wherein a defendant commands the presence of witnesses favorable to the defense so that they may be questioned face-to-face.
Cooks aggressive obstruction, when viewed in the context of her earlier criminal participation and conduct, is most revealing and consequential.
There is a very real and credible threat that is coming from the sheriff’s department of Monroe County. The murder of Jim Miller is being mishandled, dragged out. It’s not being properly investigated. All signs point to this goon squad, this mob of gangsters, racketeers, who are enforcing what the judges are doing. We know that the judges are part of the criminal syndicate. The judges wouldn’t be able to carry out what they’re doing without the participation of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department and the other sheriffs’ departments within the state of Tennessee.
There is a running dialog with these men and women in the sheriff’s department about me and about what I’m trying to do. And they’re trying to deflect as much attention away from themselves as they can, but all they do is draw more attention to themselves as was the case with the exposition of what the Sheriff’s Department did to lock up Michael Ellington. That is very, very, very serious.
There are threats that are being expressed against people, and this has been going on for a long time. Everyone you talk to knows about the Sheriff’s Department. We’ve gone to the federal government and said, “Come in here and clean up this snake pit.”
The caller to the Sheriff’s Department was talking about how they believe that Walt Fitzpatrick is nuts and nobody in this community supports him. Well, they were talking about the night that I spoke at the town hall meeting, October 5. In fact, Atty. Steve Pidgeon, who was with me that night, sent me the following comments about his recollection of it:
I was in attendance with Commander Fitzpatrick at the meeting with Senator Bob Corker, as were many well placed county officials from the several counties surrounding Madisonville, including police detectives. During the course of the event, there were several private conversations with the Senator, with a police detective and with other county officials. These conversations were extensive and included recitation of the charges of corruption concerning the grand jury in Madinsonville [sic].
During the course of the meeting, Commander Fitzpatrick took a moment to dispel the defamatory inferences that had been posted about him in TIME MAGAZINE. Both Jim Headings and I were there in solidarity with Commander Fitzpatrick. To indicate that there was no second witness to the charge that the grand jury mechanism in Monroe County was corrupt is simply not accurate. As the case proceeded to the pretrial stage, the press in both Chattanooga and in Knoxville were closely following the events, and I was quoted as saying that the grand jury system in Monroe County was “hopelessly corrupt.” Fitzpatrick was not the only witness to this condition, and the legal argument appeared in pleadings which continue to be in the public record.
Gene Whiting was there that night. I stood up, I said what I had to say, and there was a very enthusiastic, rousing round of applause. Everybody in the audience reacted positively. Right after the comment was made, Sen. Corker made a dismissive kind of a comment and moved on, but everybody in the audience was clapping as hard as they could. The sheriff’s department didn’t report that.
I’m being followed; I’m being watched. We know that for sure, because the information given out on Sunday by the Sheriff’s Department is a lie. I was roundly supported that night, aggressively and enthusiastically supported. People came up to me afterward, patting me on the back, shaking my hand. Some people were dismissive and negative, and it wasn’t the audience. I’m talking about cops and politicians. This was the night I ran into Jimmy Matlock, and I said, “I saw you in August, and you said you were going to get back to me,” and he said, “Well, I’ve had this medical problem…”
Matlock was there that night, and there was another state representative there. Tim Yates, the Mayor of Sweetwater, was there that night. There were a few negative comments from people whom I didn’t think I’d get negative comments from, but I was roundly supported that night. I was there in uniform.
I’m being watched very carefully. How do we know that I’m being watched? On the 16th of May, almost a month ago, after I was chased out of the courtroom, I went downstairs. There was nobody there; it was deserted. I went into the mayor’s office, which is at the bottom of the stairs; you turn right. The door is right there. I went in, and I met with Amy Tallent, the receptionist. I spoke with her about setting up an appointment with the mayor. I was there for maybe ten or 15 minutes, and then I came out. When I came out, there was nobody around. I sat on the bench and waited. I took notes, and later in the day, I was allowed to go back up.
The next morning, on the 17th, I was waiting downstairs during the jury selection process, and the mayor came in and spoke with me. He said, “I’ve been approached by the sheriff’s department, who tells me I can’t meet with you because it’s a violation of your probation.” That’s a lie. I’m being followed. The sheriff’s department is on a campaign to destroy me, and whatever way they can do that, whether it’s impugning my character or my existence, so as to protect themselves. We know for a fact that I am being surveilled by the sheriff’s department. They’re following me. They know what kind of contacts I’m making in the community. They are going to people with whom I am making contacts, and they are telling them to “stay away from Fitzpatrick.” This is what’s going on, and it’s the sheriff’s department that’s doing it.
This is the kind of thing that a federal agency needs to look at. If they don’t then they’re allowing it to continue. We have been involved with the FBI now for almost two years with regard to what’s going on here in Monroe County.
These criminal prosecutions against me are because I carried out a citizen’s arrest. That’s where this all comes from. It started with Judge Carroll Ross making these ridiculous accusations, and now every judge we’ve run into is backing up Ross and the fact that they’re rigging the juries. We’ve discovered so much more. This is all because I tried to conduct a citizen’s arrest. Why did I do that? Because we went to every other law enforcement agency at the state and federal levels we could, and none of them engaged.
It’s almost two years later. The complaint against Mr. Obama was filed in March 2009; I was away during the summer. It was during the first week of August that I went to the grand jury for the first time and was turned away because I missed the date; they met on the first Thursday of August and I walked in late, not knowing their schedule. I didn’t get back in until September, when I was blocked. That was the third. That night, September 3, 2009, after I talked to Tim and others, we realized that we had just been blocked from getting in to the grand jury. I was making phone calls all over the place that night and into the next day.
One of the calls that I made on September 4 or 5, and I have all the notes, was to the FBI. So when we get to September 2011, it will have been two years. We’re not that far away from two years of engagement with the FBI, telling them that there’s a problem here with the judiciary, and now, by extension, with the sheriff’s department. There is a real problem here in Monroe County. And so far, nothing has been done.
I am a whistleblower, and I am being retaliated against because I’m trying to raise up the issue of government corruption here. We know that once they start looking into the activities of the sheriff’s department here, in a little bit, they’re going to find nothing but bad. And when they start looking into the judges, it will be the same thing. And the judges have been covering for themselves and each other. Because the FBI has not responded, the problems continue, and you get these kinds of ridiculous comments being made by the sheriff’s department against me. It’s nothing but a lie.
I’m facing two more criminal charges here in a week, and we’ll see how that’s going to go. It needs to be said: The reason I am facing these additional two charges is that I was set up in an ambush. Marty Cook was part of that, and as an elected official, she refused to be served to appear as a witness, to explain how she believes I was notified of the hearing on October 22, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. She said she notified me, but she didn’t. And then the judge ordered my arrest. That was an ambush.
The Post & Email said, “She told us that she made two phone calls to your house to notify you of the hearing.”
I never spoke with her. Proof of service is required, which means that she has to have something in her hand which I signed, or that a police officer signed, or that a process server signed to show that I was properly served. When that police officer or process server makes the claim to an elected official, a court clerk, that I have been served, it is a contact service. You’ve seen all the way that people are served: these process servers are waiting in bus stations or train stations or waiting for you at your office. They give you the papers, and you’ve been served. Then that process server can go back to a court clerk or to an attorney and say, “I made the contact with the object of the process; I saw them; I gave them the paperwork; they have it; I’m making that declaration to you now under oath.” OK. That did not happen during that week, that 57 hours and 15 minutes. Blackwood set that up as an ambush. He scheduled a hearing on a Tuesday afternoon that was to be held the following Friday morning at 10:00. He didn’t allow enough time. And service is easy enough. You’ve seen me do it a couple of times here. When you get the green card back, it is signed by someone who is either the object of the service or a representative or agent of that person. That’s what I’m doing. So Blackwood could have scheduled that hearing into the next week or the week after that to allow for enough time for a letter to be sent to Fitzpatrick that says, “Your hearing is scheduled for this day…” They could have gotten the green card back. But Ms. Cook didn’t do that; she was part of the setup of an ambush.
So I am trying to call Marty Cook in as a witness, for which the Tennessee constitution, Article I, Section 9, allows. I can serve process to call in witnesses who are favorable to my defense. And within moments, it was, “No. I refuse to be served.” Well, why would she refuse service? If she is steadfast in her case and knows for a fact that she has proof of service, why wouldn’t she want to come in and say, “Yeah, we told the guy.”
More than that, she wasn’t allowed to be a clerk on the case at the time back in October 2010 because she had already testified against me as a witness for the state of Tennessee. She had an adversarial relationship established with me; by law, she was not allowed to continue on because of her conflict, but she did.
When we talk about all of the things that we’ve just talked about — the fact that I’m being turned away from trying to meet with an elected official in this town who is the mayor and responsible for the sheriff’s department; when we see an elected official who is denying service because she doesn’t want to have to be forced to come in and talk about what she did or about how juries are chosen around here; when we talk about all of the things that the sheriff’s department has been caught doing — When this phone call came in on Sunday morning, they denied all of that and declared me a crazy man, part of a cult.
This is an incitement to cause unrest, and I am the object of that unrest. The sheriff’s department is at the core of a whisper campaign in the community to destroy me. They are also part of a whisper campaign to destroy anybody else who might have information that would visit upon Sheriff Bivens and any one of his deputies a criminal consequence. This is a pattern.
Jim Miller died because he knew things about the sheriff’s department. The sheriff of this community is a criminal, and the guys working for him are nothing but thugs. We now have this report that is nothing but defamation, to make the locals fearful, to instill fear and intimidate. These things are all against the law. So where do you turn to report this kind of criminal conduct in the state of Tennessee? Well, you and I both know that there is nowhere in the state of Tennessee where we can go, so we go to the FBI. Or, in the alternative, we go to the federal grand juries. We haven’t heard from them, either.
We have elected officials and judges who are not responsive to subpoenas. They’re ignoring them. When you have government officials who do not obey their own laws and don’t have to because there is no law enforcement in the state, what you have here is chaos. The kind of misinformation campaign that the sheriff’s department is involved in here is the same kind of thing that you had in the Soviet Union. It’s the same kind of thing that you had in Nazi Germany. This is intentional misinformation. They’re lying to the people to protect themselves so that they don’t get caught in their thuggery, their racketeering, their criminal syndicate which they have been running for as long as anyone can tell. The treason…the installation of their own government…what we have here is the kind of chaos which comes from not being able to walk into a courtroom and know that you’re not going to be arrested. You can’t walk out on the street. I’ve seen vehicles here. There’s one silver SUV which I see infrequently, but every once in a while, I’ll walk out or I’ll look through the window, and there it is. When I say “infrequently,” I’m talking about this month I will see it; the month after next I’ll see it. It’s a government vehicle. And when I’ve gone to get my camera and come back out, I’ve missed them now, twice.
We know that I’m being surveilled by the sheriff’s department; I’m being followed. Anyone with whom I make contact has been threatened by the sheriff’s department. On June 3, 2010 and during my trial, the sheriff’s department was taking people away from the courthouse. So this is an ongoing pattern of criminal conduct.
I sent a subpoena to Ms. Tennyson through the sheriff’s department, and there’s been no response. I sent a subpoena directly to Ms. Tennyson some months ago to identify herself. I wanted to see a picture ID with her name on it, and she hasn’t responded. Ms. Tennyson is going to be called as a witness if this trial goes forward next week. I haven’t told you yet why, but I can tell you that she’s not properly installed as the grand jury foreman in 2011 in the Monroe County grand jury. And she’s the grand jury foreman who signed off on those charges that I’m facing on the 23rd of whenever. The charges didn’t come from a properly-constructed grand jury, just like the charges that came down against me in 2010.
We know that these jurors are being picked by hand, and we know, for example, that Martha Cook, in her position, has been tailoring, sculpting these juries to get the kind of results that they’re able to get from a rigged jury. All of the sheriff’s deputies know the fix is in, and they’re laughing about it. They’re laughing about it because they think they’re going to get away with it. The Post & Email has become the fly in the ointment.
Should the FBI come in here and make just one arrest, this would stop. One would lead to the next in a cascading effect. Coming back to the comment that the two sheriff’s deputies made to me as they were tasering me and doing what they were doing – “We’re not afraid of the FBI” – and someone else said she knows there’s at least one crooked FBI agent – and there’s a U.S. Marshal I’ve spoken with who says there are crooked FBI agents out of Knoxville – you’re blocked everywhere you go. What we’re looking at here is chaos. The government is not obeying its own laws. They are applying laws to punish citizens which are not found in the constitution. We’re not breaking the law. It’s out of control. The sheriff’s department is making a bundle of money off of this in a racket and laughing about it up their sleeve, thinking, “Who’s going to bother us? We’re not afraid of the FBI!” And you know what? Now I can see why. They are setting people up in this community for bad things to happen to them.
It is very, very important that the sheriff’s department had a motive to kill Jim Miller. They had several motives. I know things that Jim Miller knew. I don’t know if I know as much as he knew, but that’s not important. That’s why you got this report that you got on Sunday morning: they’re trying to deflect attention away from themselves. They believe that they are as clean as a shark’s tooth, and they are not.
If I were some kind of mental case, acting in a way that they’ve described in the citizen’s arrest or in anything else that I’ve done, they wouldn’t need to lie. It wouldn’t hard for them to prove if I can non comis mentis or something. And the writer of that story pointed that out. People on the outside looking in call Fitzpatrick a crazy guy, but people know me, and they know about what’s going on here, and they say, “Excuse me, but no, he’s not.”
The sheriff’s department really is a threat to the people in this community. They are following people; they are threatening people; they are in the community as an active, dark, evil force to have their way with the people in Monroe County. Seventy-two percent of this community is under some kind of misdemeanor probation handed down by the courts; 72%. I’m one of those people. What did I do? When the corruption got so bad that it was tangible and visible, and we went to the police and the sheriffs to try and have them come in and clean up the problem themselves, they said “No.” We went to the FBI; we went to the TBI; they said “No.”
Then we announced in the newspaper that this crime was going on, and the people in the community didn’t react because they are so frightened and scared. Then we told the police department and the sheriff’s department that we were coming in with a citizen’s arrest; “Help us out with this; give us some guidance,” and they didn’t answer the letter. Then we actually conducted a citizen’s arrest, and judge, Carroll Ross, said, “That was inciting a riot. That was disturbing a meeting” and the grand jury was legitimate. Later on, he said Gary Pettway was “doing a great job” and promoting racial harmony in this community. They doctored the transcripts.
If there was any kind of legitimate law enforcement around here, or, for that matter, a legitimate grand jury, we wouldn’t be faced with these kinds of oppressive, overreaching, tyrannical, dictatorial kinds of government actions. This is the working model of how corruption works in the community. It may not be as bad here as it is someplace else; that’s not important. It’s not necessarily something that we have to measure by degrees. What we do know is that it is everywhere you look. There is no remedy or relief found in government. The government has gone nuts; they’re out of control. Everything that you see wrong in government anyplace you see wrong here. This is the demonstration. This is where you see it happening in real life, in real time.
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Editor’s Note: The Post & Email contacted Sweetwater Mayor Tim Yates’s office today to ask why Sheriff Bill Bivens allegedly told him that he and Fitzpatrick could not meet face to face. The secretary asked us to identify ourselves by name three times and state very specifically why we were calling. We did so. Our phone call was not returned.