“IT TOOK ABOUT 30-40 MINUTES TO DESTROY THE CELL”
by LCDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.), TDOC Inmate #540003
(Jan. 15, 2016) — [Editor’s Note: The following letter was received on Friday, January 15, 2016 and details an ongoing situation of which The Post & Email has been aware and about which it has recently taken action.
In August 2014, Fitzpatrick was sentenced to three years in state prison for challenging the legality of the then-McMinn County grand jury foreman, who was handpicked and obstructed Fitzpatrick’s submissions over a number of months to the sitting grand jury. Having been named in at least one of the complaints, then-foreman Jeffrey Cunningham refused to recuse himself from the three-person panel making the alleged initial review of Fitzpatrick’s petition.
Having lived in southeastern Tennessee, Fitzpatrick is housed in a facility in the northwest section of the state, NWCX, more than eight hours by car from his attorney’s office in Knoxville.
Fitzpatrick’s reports of rigged grand juries and trial juries in Tennessee have been echoed multiple times in letters received by The Post & Email from various inmates over the last year. North American Law Center (NALC) lead attorney Stephen Pidgeon, who once represented Fitzpatrick and composed Articles of Impeachment against Barack Hussein Obama, has called Tennessee’s “justice” system “completely corrupted.”
In September, an appellate court ruled that grand jury members could possess bias against an individual accused of committing a crime, the evidence of which they were tasked with considering.
Fitzpatrick’s present attorney, Van Irion of Knoxville, has appealed the appellate court’s upholding of his client’s convictions on “aggravated perjury” and “extortion” to the state Supreme Court, the same institution which in 1883 described a grand jury as a group of 13 individuals chosen from the community, one of whom becomes the foreman.
According to that description, which appears in State of Tennessee v. John Gouge, the handpicking of grand jury foremen by the creation of a paid, semi-permanent position had not yet occurred. However, the legislature, executive branch and judiciary in the Volunteer State appear willing to protect one another to maintain the corrupt system which imprisons the very people who pay their salaries in an apparent effort to fill county jails and state prisons to maximum capacity.
The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference agrees with the 1883 Supreme Court definition of the grand jury but does not currently enforce it. The U.S. Supreme Court has also expressed in two opinions, Hobby v. U.S. and Rose v. Mitchell, that the grand jury foreman must be chosen in an environment without bias or interference by a government functionary.
Rose emanated from a case in Tipton County, TN, where corruption has been reported in the cases against Michael Parsons.
In earlier letters, Fitzpatrick described physical threats, intimidation, and more recent attempts by NWCX staff and others to portray him as mentally ill or suffering from dementia as a result of his exposure of the stealing of government funds by NWCX staff and other examples of corruption.
The mainstream media has reported on gang uprisings and other examples of corruption within the TDOC but will not broach the subject of the root of the problem: the corrupt grand juries and the judges who commandeer them through their handpicked foremen.
The Post & Email is also aware that Fitzpatrick is not in good health. He will turn 64 later this month.
NWCX Warden Mike Parris can be reached at (731) 253-5000 and TDOC Commissioner Derrick Schofield at (615) 741-1000.
Fitzpatrick also reports that Parris has ordered his outgoing mail to be held in some instances. An update on this situation will be published next week.]
