Fitzpatrick Court-Martial Forgery Author Charges Local Defense Attorney with Perjury

THEN STATES:  “DEFENSE ATTORNEYS ARE USUALLY CONSCIENTIOUS AND LAW-ABIDING”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jan. 25, 2014) — The former defense counsel in the court-martial of CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) in 1990 has charged a defense attorney working in Kitsap County, WA with perjury.

Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Kevin “Andy” Anderson has been identified by Fitzpatrick as the forger of his name to a document which he had never seen until at least a year following the sham court-martial, for which Anderson served as Fitzpatrick’s defense counsel.  In late 1997, NCIS investigator Richard Allen determined the document matched others emanating from Anderson’s printer.  When NCIS investigators interviewed Anderson in January 1998, he denied any knowledge of the letter or its origins.

However, in January 2003, after filing a false report claiming that Fitzpatrick was stalking his family, Anderson told a Port Orchard police detective that he had produced the document but did not admit to signing it.  Fitzpatrick did not learn of the complaint until more than a year later, at which time he obtained a copy of the police report and submitted it to the NCIS for action on the forgery.  The NCIS responded by threatening Fitzpatrick’s life if he were to continue to demand justice for the conspiracy carried out against him.

Anderson spoke to this writer nearly three years ago but would not go on the record.  Fitzpatrick said that Anderson was chosen for him by the commanding admiral of his unit, who convened the court-martial and acted as prosecutor simultaneously.  “They rig court-martials [sic] all the time,” Fitzpatrick told us.

Of the accused attorney, Dennis Goss, Anderson was quoted by The Kitsap Sun as having commented that he “couldn’t think of the last time” a defense attorney had been “charged with a crime.”  “Defense attorneys are usually conscientious and law-abiding.” Anderson was quoted as having said.

Although Fitzpatrick first believed that Lt. Tim Zeller, who acted as investigator and prosecutor against him in the court-martial, was the forger of his name, but Allen’s revelations about the forgery led to the conclusion that Anderson had committed the crime.

Anderson has been informed of the book which Fitzpatrick and this writer are finalizing on the court-martial, which will name names and reveal the voluminous document record amassed from the U.S. Navy over the last 23 years, and has offered no comment.  High-ranking officers, many of whom are retired and receiving military pensions, have also been informed and submitted no response.

There is no endorsement record showing that the document was ever sent by Anderson to Fitzpatrick and vice-versa, and the Navy refuses to respond to requests to open Fitzpatrick’s file for scrutiny.

In his own defense, Goss claimed that “The prosecutor of Kitsap County has gone wild.  He’s gone unchecked for years. Now he’s going after me because I’m not like your normal attorney. I actually pay attention to what my clients are saying. I actually listen to my clients. I actually sit down with my clients. I don’t meet them for 30 seconds before a hearing and go over issues with them.”  In his statement, Goss was referring to Russell Hauge, Anderson’s boss, who Goss claimed was carrying out “a vendetta.”

Fitzpatrick and his former Command Master Chief have described the circumstances leading to the court-martial as “a vendetta.”  When Fitzpatrick received a phone call rescinding his orders to attend the Naval War College on October 13, 1989, he realized that “the outcome was predetermined.”

The military “justice” system does not contain the Fifth Amendment protection of a grand jury review of evidence nor the objectivity of a randomly-selected jury panel.  Increasingly, America’s civilian courts are denying defendants their constitutional rights by rigging juries and obstructing justice.