Fitzpatrick Kept in the Dark after Hearing in Monroe County Court

“I TOLD JUDGE J. REED DIXON HE’S A CRIMINAL”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 10, 2010) — A phone call came in from LCDR Walter Fitzpatrick at  9:20 a.m. today from the Monroe County detention facility regarding a hearing held on November 9, 2010.  The session regarded the two additional charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest on October 27, 2010.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: My hearing was supposed to be 9:00 yesterday, but they didn’t get me here until about ten minutes to three o’clock in the afternoon.  So I waited and then tried to call later.

They sent me over there yesterday in two-point restraints; shackles at the ankles, but I did not wear a vest, and there was nothing on my hands yesterday.  I was there from 14:50 hours until 15:30 hours.  There was no press present when I arrived; I think that there might have been one when I left. I suspect  that someone showed up at 9:00, but they didn’t take me until late afternoon.  I’m thinking that maybe they took me later in the afternoon, guarding against people who might have been there in support of me in the morning.

Mike Morgan, the defensive captain from the sheriff’s department, testified for the state, and later on when I got to speak, I called him a liar.  I stood up to make a statement at the end of the hearing to defend myself; I identified J. Reed Dixon, the judge, as having threatened attorneys and corrupting the process in my case already, which is to say that Judge Dixon has no business on the bench in any case that has to do with me.  My intent yesterday was to stand up and to make a record and to name J. Reed Dixon as a criminal in open, public court.

The court was empty yesterday of any press; it was a controlled environment. The only people who had business in the court that day were allowed to get in.  When I stood to speak at the end of this charade, I said that the court should be ashamed of itself; I said that what was committed was a false arrest as part of the massive corruption and that they were trying to silence me from speaking out in the community.

There was a bond in place yesterday, but I don’t know what that means because the other court has no bond.  So I don’t know if I can get out on bond or not.  I don’t know what the conditions of my bond are.  But because I spoke up and spoke against J. Reed Dixon, he held me in contempt of court and added ten days, so I’m here until…(could not hear)

MRS. RONDEAU: He added ten days from today?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: I think today’s date is (could not hear)

MRS. RONDEAU: There were some comments that came in on the website.  One person had called the jail and was told there was a $1,500 bond; someone else called and was told no bond and that the next hearing is January 18, 2011.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: I don’t know what’s going on around me.  I know that one court has me held here without bond, and yesterday I’m told that there was a bond in place, so I don’t have any inkling what’s going on.  I don’t know if it’s ten days or not.

I was walked out the back door at the end of the hearing, which means that once people heard that I was in the room, there may have been a response from the press, but I can’t tell.  I want to make this very clear: Judge Dixon has no place on the bench, and what we’re going through right now is the same process that we went through before, which was that Judge Dixon sends it over to the grand jury and it has no place before this grand jury.  This whole community is nothing but corruption.  And as I said before, the only way it’s going to change here is if we get federal intervention.  Then guys like J. Reed Dixon could be placed under federal arrest.

So it’s going to the grand jury in December.  I asked at the beginning of this if there was an audio recording or any kind of recording.  He said, “Yes, there’s an audio recording and you can have it if you pay what we ask you to pay.”  So there’s an audio recording of what was said yesterday.

MRS. RONDEAU: So you don’t know if there’s a bond, and it appears there are two conflicting stories.  Have you heard anything about the December 1 date being changed?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, I haven’t heard about a date change; I do know that there is a bond in place that I was told about yesterday.  And it goes to these last two charges.  I don’t know if I could have been bonded out yesterday or not.  Blackwood’s court has me arrested and held without bond.  So there are two different courts and two different judges who are involved.  I have a bond out of Dixon’s court; I don’t think I have one out of Blackwood’s court.  I don’t know how one applies to the other.

MRS. RONDEAU: I was just going to ask how those two things are reconciled, when one judge says “No bond,” and the other one says, “Possibly a bond” or something on different charges.  And now we’re getting reports that there’s been a postponement in your hearing, unless the new hearing  is just for the two additional charges.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: People on the outside have better access to finding out what’s going on around me than I have, and don’t expect to be told the truth.  Did you post the information that we talked about the other night?

MRS. RONDEAU: Absolutely.  However, the FBI agent questioned me as to why I would put it out if it might put you in danger.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: You can tell them because I insisted.

MRS. RONDEAU: I’m told by people in the community there that some FBI agents in the area are part of this whole thing; they know about it and they won’t do anything.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Well, yes, we’re getting that feedback, too.  But that’s why I wanted you to get a hold of Robert Clifford.

MRS. RONDEAU: That’s being worked on aggressively.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: One we get to Bob Clifford, we can tell him, “Hey, we think we have some of your colleagues in the FBI that are part of the corruption in Monroe County.”

MRS. RONDEAU: And I’m told that the TBI is totally immersed in the corruption.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Yes, absolutely.

MRS. RONDEAU: Particularly as it speaks to the investigation on Mr. Miller’s death.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Yes, absolutely.  And you can report that, and re-report that, and really put that out there.  Then, of course, there’s the compromise of the evidence locker.  The people around here are walking around like there’s nothing going on on the outside…they’re like “ho-hum.”  As I said, keep the pressure coming and coming and coming from every direction that we know.

MRS. RONDEAU: The person who sent you a form and a $50 money order, told me that an employee at the  jail  named Desiree told her that she gave you the envelope and that you were able to see that what was in it.  Did you get a form in the mail with a money order for $50?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, I haven’t received anything like that.  I received another piece of mail yesterday; it was a priority mail…

Automated Operator: You have one minute remaining.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: I’ll call you right back.

Automated Operator: Your balance is too low to receive this call.  To accept the call, you must deposit more money in your account.  If you wish to deposit  the minimum of $25, please press “1.”  To add $25 to your account, please verify the last four digits of the credit card you have on file…Thank you for using NCIC.  You have 15 minutes.

MRS. RONDEAU: Hi, Walt.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Hi, Sharon.  Now you were asking me questions, so go ahead.

MRS. RONDEAU: We were talking about the two hearing dates…you’re not sure if the December 1 hearing is still in place, or are you told that it is?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: The information that I have about hearing dates is what I’m hearing from you for the first time.

MRS. RONDEAU: I got it from people who made comments at the website who had contacted the jail.  Then we were talking about someone who had sent you a legal form with a $50 money order, and the person reportedly said that they put the $50 on your “books,” which mean that you have an account.  So if they did, you should have $50 that you can spend any way you want.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: OK.  I haven’t been notified about that.  I’m hearing about that from you for the first time.

MRS. RONDEAU: The sender said she verified that it arrived a week ago.  Even the jail confirmed it was received, so now we’re wondering what happened to the money.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: I have not been told that by anybody here in this facility.

MRS. RONDEAU: I’m speculating, but if you don’t see that money in an account with your name on it, someone could have stolen it.  Regarding the hearing, as far as you know, there were no press there, but you said there might have been one person there at the end?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: They took me out the back door afterward, and that tells me that there was somebody out front that they didn’t want to have see me.  I don’t know who that would have been, but you can speculate on that as well as I can.

MRS. RONDEAU: Have you had any visitors?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Just the one we talked about before, Fr. McGuinness.

MRS. RONDEAU: I know you’ve been moved to a different cell.  Do you know the visiting days for Cell 5?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Cell 5 visiting days are today, Wednesday, and Saturday.

MRS. RONDEAU: The same as Cell 1?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Apparently so, yes.

MRS. RONDEAU: OK, because somebody wants to visit, and I didn’t know if the visiting days were different.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, I’m told that it’s Wednesday and Saturday here.

MRS. RONDEAU: I wonder why the FBI hasn’t moved on the lead I conveyed to them from you.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: You can put that out to other news agencies, especially those in and around the Knoxville area.

MRS. RONDEAU: Yes, I’ve contacted one already.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Contact Bill Poovey from the Associated Press.

MRS. RONDEAU: I know some of the readers have contacted him and reportedly received nothing back from him.   I have as well.   How are you holding up outside of all of these other things?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Let’s not talk about that, OK?  It’s a bridge too far, Sharon.  But we have to keep the pressure up.  I don’t know what the other guys are doing, and don’t tell me, but I’m calling a Broken Arrow.  When you speak to him, and you know who I mean, please extend to him my respects on the 235th anniversary of the Marine Corps.  It’s the Marine Corps’s birthday, so tell him “Semper Fi” from me.

Broken Arrow…bring as many forces to bear on this thing as possible, and keep them coming.  The information that’s been sent to you is just off the scale.

MRS. RONDEAU: I do have one more question.  I called the jail on Monday and the employee, Robbie, who said he works in “booking,” ended up hanging up on me.   I asked him about Mr. David Jacobs, and he denied that he had been rushed to any hospital.  When I asked where Mr. Jacobs was taken, and Robbie said, “To Loudon County jail.”  I then said, “I was told that he was rushed to the hospital with a bleeding pancreas,” and “Do you deny that?” and he said, “Yes, it didn’t happen.”  Then I called Sweetwater Hospital and they denied that he was there.  What do you think that means?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: The word that I got was that he was driven from this facility by a Loudon County sheriff directly to the Sweetwater Hospital and that he was taken into the Intensive Care Unit, and when you called, he may have been released.  So you asked if he was there, and they came back and said “No.”  But that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t there a couple days ago.

MRS. RONDEAU: I asked if he had been there anytime recently, and they said “No,” although they gave me a last date of service as September 29, 2010.  However, they qualified that by saying, “Even if he’s still here, that’s the last date of service.”  That was from Medical Records, which was able to give me just that “last date of service,” which was reported as 9/29/10.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Well, he has your phone number, and so do his daughters.  Maybe he’ll call you and touch base with you.  I’ve asked him to contact you, so when you hear from him directly, maybe that will be the way to go.  Have you heard from his family yet?

MRS. RONDEAU: No.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: OK.  The word that came in from his family was that he was in the Intensive Care Unit.  That came in through the network here in the jailhouse, and it came from his family.  So now I suspect that people are trying to keep it quiet for reasons that they would want to keep it quiet.

MRS. RONDEAU: I also called and I asked why it’s so cold in there, and the answer I got was, “It’s winter-time, ma’am.”  And I said, “Well, it doesn’t have to be 58 degrees, does it?” and he said, “It’s not.  They keep it 68 year-round.”

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Who knows what they do?  It’s just cold.  Last night, and I have three other guys who are listening to this telephone conversation, and we were all shivering in our racks last night because it was so gosh-darn cold.  And you know what, it’s winter-time, you turn on the heat.

MRS. RONDEAU: That’s right.  I said that to him:  “If it’s winter-time, why don’t you turn on the heat?” He said, “It’s on, ma’am.”

LCDR FITZPATRICK: You’re going to get nothing but double-talk from people, Sharon.  That’s all it is.  I know you have to call and confirm things.

MRS. RONDEAU: Well, yes, but Robbie did end up hanging up on me.  He said, “If you have any complaints, call Sheriff Bivens.”  Clink.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Well, you can deal with Sheriff Bivens separately as we have discussed, and I suggest that you go after that guy aggressively for reasons I’ve been discussing.

MRS. RONDEAU: Did you say Sheriff Bivens is never there?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No.

MRS. RONDEAU: How can I reach him if he’s never there?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Oh, he never comes in to the jailhouse, but you can call him at his office.

MRS. RONDEAU: Oh, he has a separate office?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Yes, oh, yes.  He’s never in the jailhouse.  He’s across the street.  But he never comes over to inspect these facilities to see how the inmates are being treated.  That’s the point.  He never does an inspection; he just lets this place rot.

MRS. RONDEAU: Are there any other conditions you can tell me about that you haven’t mentioned?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Well, the black mold, the crowding…Cell #3 next-door has four men in an 8 x 8 cell sleeping on top of one another.  It’s like they’re stacking cordwood.  This place is completely unsatisfactory.  The construction dates back to 1920 and then new construction in 1950.  That’s the age of this building.  It’s raining on my rack right now; there’s water condensation coming out of it.  This is just a really, really old facility; it’s just completely unsatisfactory.

MRS. RONDEAU: It sounds as if they haven’t put any money into it in ages.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, they’re putting the money in their pockets.  There’s more that I can’t talk about over the phone but I can talk about when I get out, whenever the heck that is.  That would be nice to know.  Where are all the vets?  Bring them in.

MRS. RONDEAU: People have been posting that.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: So I’m here for at least another ten days, and after that, who knows what the heck is going on?  The point yesterday is that Judge Dixon was named openly in open court as a criminal who has already infected my case and that we’re going through the same process and that this grand jury here is no more capable of hearing these recent charges as they were the initial fix.

MRS. RONDEAU: Did you specifically bring up to J. Reed Dixon yesterday about the grand jury being contaminated?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, I talked about massive corruption in the community, and I said that J. Reed Dixon is part of that corruption, and he interrupted me twice. He denied the fact that he had threatened public defenders early on, and I said, “No, you did that, and I know you did that.”  And I said, “You’re not going to get away from it.”  So basically I called him a liar in open court.

MRS. RONDEAU: I’ve talked to Darren Huff, and his story to me is that even his public defender, Randy Rogers (and I’m going to put this out there today) told him in open court, “I really don’t see the case against you here,” and Huff said that that didn’t appear in the court transcript.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Yes.  These court reporters are not court reporters.  They’re editors; they add things that they need to add to protect the judges and they leave things out.  They’re editors, Sharon.  You can quote me.  They’re not court reporters; they’re court editors.  They add stuff, and they leave stuff out.  They’re writers.  They’re freelance writers on the bench, and that’s what they’re doing.  So again, the audio recording of yesterday’s hearing I’m told is available, so if people want to get a hold of that, can do a public records request for the audio recording which I’m told by Dixon is available.

MRS. RONDEAU: OK, we’ll do that, and we’ll see what we get.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: OK.  And you’ll hear my words.  I’m doing the best I can to reconstruct what happened yesterday.  As I said, it’s been recorded and we’ll see if they give it to you.

MRS. RONDEAU: Your story is going to be covered on a radio show in the Midwest today.  I don’t think the host has ever covered this story before, and we’re working on getting it on some other national outlets as well.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: OK.

MRS. RONDEAU: Is there anything else you can think of?

LCDR FITZPATRICK:  No, I think that covers the bases for right now, Sharon.

MRS. RONDEAU: We’ll try to find out about this possible bond.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: Yes, but I would be beating the drum very, very loudly about what was discussed the other night.  That’s huge.  We know, we know; that’s a huge piece of information.

MRS. RONDEAU: My FBI contact is at the Violent Crimes Unit, and I called him right after I got off the phone with you, and I sent him a follow-up email and the finished article.  And as I said, he questioned me and asked, “Do you really think you should put this article out if you’re concerned for Mr. Fitzpatrick’s safety?”

I think he meant one of two things:  that I was making an unwise decision and doing something that might endanger you further; or he might have thought that if I put this out, then it would cast a light on the FBI…

Automated Operator: You have one minute remaining.

MRS. RONDEAU: Then it shines a light on the FBI and asks, “Why aren’t you doing something about it?

LCDR FITZPATRICK: You need to report that story over and over again to keep the pressure on, because there’s something going on here; people are trying to cover that up.  Just put it out there; we know what’s going on.  And as I said, there’s more information available, and as soon as an agent gets in here, I can talk to him or her.  And please tell people at my insistence that this needs to be publicized, and repeatedly; don’t let up.

MRS. RONDEAU: As I said, some people are saying, “You shouldn’t have done that,” including the FBI agent, and some have suggested that I pull the story off.

LCDR FITZPATRICK: No, don’t, don’t, don’t.  Tell ’em you talked to me, and that’s not what to do.

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An inaccurate news report from TV station WATE stated that Fitzpatrick was given ten days in jail for “missing a court date.”  Rather, on November 9, Judge J. Reed Dixon gave him an additional ten days before he could be eligible for bond.

The Post & Email sent a money order in the amount of $10.00  for the transcript of the November 9, 2010 hearing for Walter Fitzpatrick today to the following address, which was provided by court clerk Martha M. Cook:

General Sessions Court
310 Tellico Street, Suite 1
Madisonville, TN  37354

Ms. Cook stated that because their offices are closed tomorrow for Veterans’ Day, she will mail out the audio recording in the form of a CD to The Post & Email on Friday.  When we asked whether or not she needed to have the money in hand first, she replied, “Oh, no.  I trust you.”

Editor’s Note: The Post & Email has been notified by the person who sent the habeas corpus form plus a $50 money order to Walter Fitzpatrick that she was told yesterday by Desiree at the Monroe County detention facility that Walt “should have received what was in the envelope”.

AP reporter Bill Poovey’s email address is bpoovey@ap.org.

The radio show referenced above will broadcast today at 4:00 p.m. CST/5:00 p.m. EST.  The program announcement received by The Post & Email this morning is as follows:

4:00 – 5:00 pm CST

Rick Biesada of WJJG AM radio 1530, Chicago will have Tim Harrington of the U.S. Patriots Union as a guest on his show tomorrow afternoon from 4-5 p.m. CST to discuss Lt. Cmdr. Walter Fitzpatrick, who has been imprisoned without an accuser.  It can be accessed over the Internet at www.wjjgam1530.com.  Please spread the word and if you are available, please call in to the show at 708-493-1530.