“A WATCHDOG, NOT WILLING PARTICIPANT”
April 6, 2014
Mr. Dewey Morgan, Staff Writer
The Daily Post-Athenian
Via Email
Dear Mr. Morgan:
I am owner/editor of The Post & Email, an online newspaper which reports on corruption in government.
Early in our publication’s 4.5-year history, residents of your state began to report systemic corruption within the judicial branch which affects every single citizen of the Volunteer State but has not been reported by the local press.
I read your March 23, 2014 article regarding the March 18 indictment and arrest of Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III, who is now out of jail on bond, for “aggravated perjury and extortion.” There were also two other charges listed on the indictments from the “grand jury.”
The indictments against Fitzpatrick are completely bogus, and the District Attorney General’s office, including Steve Morgan, whose name appears on the indictments which are in my possession, knows it. So does Jeffrey Cunningham, a bank executive and attorney who was illegally serving as grand jury foreman until March 4 and claims he was the object of “stalking” and “harassment” by Fitzpatrick.
The grand juries in eastern Tennessee are nothing but tools of the government used to incarcerate people, extort money and ruin their fellow citizens’ lives, saddling them with attorneys’ fees, insurmountable debt, loss of property, and fear for their lives.
The same thing has been done to Marvin Young by the illegally-convened and duly-rigged Monroe County grand jury in a case scheduled for trial on June 26, 2014.
These “trials” are nothing but show trials in the style of the “People’s Court” during the reign of Adolf Hitler used to incarcerate, and sometimes murder, political enemies.
State code dictates that grand jurors and trial jurors must be selected randomly, “without opportunity for the intervention of any human agency…” (TCA 22-2-304).
Are you aware that grand juries in the state of Tennessee are illegally formed? State code TCA 40-12-206 states that grand juries must have 13 people, and the District Attorneys General Conference agrees with that:
http://www.tndagc.org/vwh.htm#jury
Instead, criminal court judges illegally choose a foreman from wherever they want, via an unknown vetting process, and mix him or her in with the 12 others who have allegedly been randomly-chosen. On December 7, 2011, Fitzpatrick was an eyewitness to Judge Amy Reedy hand-picking names of grand jurors for the next term from a pile of papers placed before her rather than from a box, blindly, as also is dictated by state law.
While Criminal Court Rule 6(g)(1) states that the judge can pick the foreman, it does not mean that the judge can “pick the foreman from wherever they choose.” In Davidson County, that amounted to a convicted felon serving as grand jury foreman and the review of hundreds of indictments thereby invalidated: http://www.thepostemail.com/2014/02/19/fitzpatrick-tennessee-criminal-courts-a-closed-system/
Rule 6(g)(2) then clarifies: “(2) Qualifications of Foreperson. The foreperson shall possess all the qualifications of a juror.”
Picking a foreman by an unknown vetting process means that no one knows whether or not the foreman “possesses all the qualifications of a juror,” meaning that he has not previously served during the preceding 24 months, as mandated by TCA 22-2-314, and other qualifications, such as being a resident of the county for the required amount of time and a U.S. citizen.
A handpicked foreman represents the interests of the judge and the county or state and cannot therefore be considered impartial, as grand jurors are supposed to be. This has been evidenced and reported on countless occasions in Monroe and McMinn Counties over the last four years by The Post & Email, including the case of George Raudenbush, whose case was reversed and allegedly will be reheard by the same criminal courts which falsely convicted him of eight driving violations after denying him access to an attorney. Raudenbush has just spent 2.5 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, with the full knowledge of criminal judges such as Amy Reedy and Carroll Lee Ross.
“Defense” attorneys and the public defender’s office appear to be part of the racket which has been ruining people’s lives for at least six decades. What no one wants to admit is that the judges, law enforcement, court personnel and sheriffs’ departments have all been working together for decades to bring false charges against people they don’t like or to serve as “fall guys” for crimes when they know they are innocent or there is not enough evidence to even issue an indictment.
Jessica Kennedy Powers was sentenced to 22 years in prison for “facilitating” the murder of Jim Miller, while the real killers have gone unprosecuted, even though The Post & Email has long reported, with evidence, just who they are and why they carried out “a government hit.”
The grand juries are completely controlled by the courts and the “commanding officer” foremen who are placed there purposely by vindictive judges.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people have gone to jails and prisons across your state because of tainted grand juries. If the people are not told, how can they stop it? How can they get back their constitutional rights to a fair trial after proper evidence is presented to a legally-convened grand jury?
I realize that because my paper is subscription, you cannot read the entire articles for which I have sent you links. I am more than willing to grant you complimentary access to The Post & Email so that you can read what we have written on Tennessee corruption over nearly five years. I know it will not only inform you, but also shock you.
Additionally, just after District Attorney General Steve Bebb gloated that the BOPR had exonerated him of criminal wrongdoing after the legislature tried to have him removed from his post, he is now accused of assaulting an employee in his department:
The following is a letter I wrote on March 25 to the BOPR, the Tennessee Supreme Court, and several state legislators about the rampant judicial corruption in Eastern Tennessee:
What Do Tennessee “Public Servants” Have to Say About Corruption in Their State?
Posted By Sharon Rondeau On Wednesday, March 26, 2014 @ 12:04 PM In States | 3 Comments
“SYSTEMIC CRIMINALITY”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 26, 2014) — The following letter has been sent to the Tennessee Supreme Court and the individuals noted below.
March 25, 2014
Tennessee Supreme Court
Administrative Office of the Courts
511 Union Street, Suite 600
Nashville, TN 37219
Dear Sir or Madam:
RE: GRAND JURY FOREMEN/CONFLICT OF INTEREST
I am owner and editor of The Post & Email (www.thepostemail.com), an online newspaper which covers government corruption.
I have been reporting on corruption in your state, particularly eastern Tennessee, for the past four years. During this time, I have learned that systemic criminality involving judges, sheriffs, court personnel, local police, members of the TBI and even the FBI works to incarcerate as many people as possible in order to glean money from state and federal coffers, which is then used for other illicit purposes, most likely drugs and the drug trade.
While this might sound harsh, it is true, and it is no secret.
A major factor in the criminal syndicate which operates in the Tenth Judicial District and most likely, other districts, is that the grand juries are wholly corrupted, put in place only to serve the local government’s desire to indict as many citizens as possible, innocent or guilty, to keep the money flowing.
While Tennessee Code states that grand jurors are chosen from a jury pool via random selection http://www.chattbar.org/downloads/Book18_2_1.pdf http://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/op/2010/op/op10-125.pdf , as you know, in Tennessee, the foreman is chosen by the judges and serves for years and perhaps decades. Last fall, the attorney general, who you appoint every eight years, affirmed in a brief filed in the Knoxville appeals court that the grand jury foreman “is not a juror.” http://www.thepostemail.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HIXSON-BRIEF.pdf Why, then, does the foreman vote with the grand jury on whether or not to indict someone?
There is nothing in the state codes which allows for a judicially-appointed foreman http://www.lawserver.com/law/state/tennessee/tn-code/tennessee_code_22-2-304 . If a judge were to select a trial jury foreman, the jury would certainly be considered compromised.
What are the qualifications of such a court-appointed foreman? What about the state law which mandates 13 members to a grand jury, http://www.lawserver.com/law/state/tennessee/tn-code/tennessee_code_40-12-206 , not 12 plus a judicially-chosen foreman who serves indefinitely and votes the way the judge, his employer, wishes?
In McMinn County, for example, the grand jury foreman, Jeffrey Lane Cunningham, is a trained and licensed attorney active in the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) http://www.tba.org/profile/jeffrey-cunningham and serving his third term as foreman. Atty. Cunningham expresses one of his areas of concentration as “Criminal Law – Prosecution.” How could his appointment as grand jury foreman not be considered a conflict of interest and an injustice to the people of the county?
What about judges who hand-pick grand jurors’ names with all of their personal information visible rather than out of a closed box, as mandated by law? http://www.thepostemail.com/2013/11/21/will-there-be-consequences-for-judge-amy-reedy-pb/
http://www.thepostemail.com/2013/11/21/will-there-be-consequences-for-judge-amy-reedy-pb/
It is no coincidence that the same judge, Amy Reedy, picked and installed Cunningham.
What about a judge who denies a defense attorney the opportunity to present his case, upholds forged charging documents, and opines in court that the defendant is a “self-appointed vigilante?” http://www.thepostemail.com/2013/11/21/will-there-be-consequences-for-judge-amy-reedy-pb/
In agreement with the legislature, the District Attorneys General Conference describes a grand jury as “a group of thirteen citizens chosen from the jury panel. One of these thirteen is the fore person and will preside over the grand jury.” http://www.tndagc.org/vwh.htm#jury How, then, is a judge allowed to choose the foreman through an unknown vetting process?
In one case in Davidson County, it was found that a judicially-selected grand jury foreman was a convicted felon, which violated TCA 22-1-102 http://franklincountycircuitcourtclerk.org/juror-information/ and resulted in the need to review approximately 900 cases in which he had been involved, at taxpayer expense. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/jan/31/nashville-da-says-grand-jury-foreman-was-felon/?preventMobileRedirect=1
An article in The Tennessean on the subject has conveniently been removed. http://www.tennessean.com/errors/404/
According to Criminal Court Rule 6g(2), “the foreperson must possess all the qualifications of a juror,” which means that he or she must have first been selected by the random method used for everyone else. http://www.tncourts.gov/rules/rules-criminal-procedure/6 At that point, the foreman would then be chosen from the group of screened jurors, not “from wherever they [the judges] choose.” http://advocateanddemocrat.com/story/21576
Finally, why is Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood called repeatedly to preside over cases involving CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.), who has exposed much of the aforementioned corruption, at his own peril, over the last four years? http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/oct/28/grand-jury-intruder-arrested-east-tennessee/?comments_id=1533841 In the most recent case against Fitzpatrick, on March 17, 2014, Blackwood denied Fitzpatrick’s request for a restraining order against Cunningham, who threatened to have Fitzpatrick arrested just for bringing a criminal complaint to the McMinn County courthouse. After Cunningham gave false testimony on March 18 to his “grand jury” to have Fitzpatrick arrested, Blackwood was the judge called in to preside over the initial hearing on March 24, 2014. How could that not be considered a conflict of interest?
Blackwood has also said on the record that a juror serving consecutive terms is acceptable, which directly contradicts TCA 22-2-314. http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/10/15/the-dictatorship-of-the-judiciary/ http://www.thepostemail.com/2012/06/22/tennessee-prosecutors-and-judges-try-to-deny-state-law/ http://franklincountycircuitcourtclerk.org/juror-information/
I would very much appreciate your explanation of how and why these issues continue year after year to the detriment of Tennessee citizens. These questions continue to make headlines at The Post & Email and certainly beg answers from you as public servants sworn to uphold the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions.
Very truly yours,
Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
P.O. Box 195
Stafford Springs, CT 06076
editor@thepostemail.com
203-987-7948
IMPORTANT NOTE: Just as this letter was being reproduced for mailing, this writer learned that Cunningham resigned from his position as grand jury foreman on March 4, which was then confirmed with Sherry at the McMinn County courthouse.
Cc: Board of Professional Responsibility
10 Cadillac Drive
Suite 220
Brentwood, TN 37027
Rep. Jon Lundberg
Tennessee General Assembly
Chairman, House Civil Justice Committee
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 20 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243
Rep. Eric Watson
Tennessee General Assembly
Chairman, House Criminal Justice Committee
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 112 War Memorial Bldg.
Nashville, TN 37243
Senator Brian Kelsey
Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee
Tennessee General Assembly
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 7 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243
© 2014, The Post & Email. All rights reserved.
Article printed from The Post & Email: http://www.thepostemail.com
URL to article: http://www.thepostemail.com/2014/03/26/what-do-tennessee-public-servants-have-to-say-about-corruption-in-their-state/
————————————–
To date, I have received no response back from any of the copied parties.
This corruption must be exposed. The First Amendment calls upon the press to be a watchdog on government, not a willing participant in what government does against the citizenry.
Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com
P.O. Box 195
Stafford Springs, CT 06076
203-987-7948
editor@thepostemail.com
Hickman County TN.
Is A Corrupt Judicial Systemically Abuses the Uneducated and poor people of the Community.
I would love to have a full investigation of the Paperwork in the Clerks Office and of the People on the Grand Jury .
As I have seen the Corruption that goes on between the General Sessions Judge
Amy C Puckett her Magistrates
The District Attorney And Public Defenders Offices .
As they All work together , Invoking false Felony Charges drummed up by anything
A magistrate feels he or she wants to add to
Someone’s Charges.
Then Use every Method possible to Hinder
The Paperwork and right to Speedy Trial.
Illegally Detaining a Hickman County Citizen
For Months and Months with Mental Health Institution happy to obtain 30 day State paid
Evaluations pump them with Medicine
And then evaluate again.
The Poor Victims or Inmates are Mentally and Emotionally Exhausted and then Take a deal on the Falsification Charge that was completely fabricated.
And then began phase 2 of the long term abuse Hickman County Probation.
I have seen a lot of Things in my Life
But Hickman County Judicial Systematic
Abuses of the Locals .
Is Something that Horror Filmmakers
Dream to capture on films.
The paperwork is fake the guy is charged with a horrible crime and the Inmates
Assault the guy who has been detained and held illegally.
The Case nevertheless probably will not
Ever see the Grand Jury and if So It’s probably A Corruption Of 13 Members
Selection by Judge
Amy C. Puckett
And the paperwork game will Continue
Until Close to Actual Trial then the
District Attorney
Will finally offer a Deal that the Defendant’s will except after a year or more of Abuse.
Judicial , Emotional and Physical.
Some will be harmed for life with Sex Offenders registration and or PSTD
And it’s a Shame that TN Government
Don’t Intervene and place Guidelines and Checking Systems into place so that Corruption is not something that is so
Harmful to the Public.
The Worst of it all
That The Poor Victims are extremely exploited by the Legal System
Purely for Financial purposes.
Everyone involved gets TAX Payer Money
It’s Good Business to Look the Other Way
And Keep your mouth Shut.
The County Jail, The Judges, The Lawyer’s District Attorney , Public Defender
The TN Mental Health Institution.
Everyone gets paid but the Poor Guy Getting Abused by the Hickman County Justice System.
He’s Probably made And Disbursed $200.000 or more of TAX Money into the Corruption Scandal
And then takes a Deal that Extends the Abuse with Probationers.
It’s one thing to prosecute crime and run an Honest Justice System.
But Hickman County General Sessions
Is not that Honest Court Room.
All are Guilty because rules of Ethics
State that if you know there’s such acts happening. As a Lawyer or Judicatory Officer you must report.
And if only one says no I’m not Completely Complaint to the Judicial Abuses of Power.
Then it doesn’t work!
Therefore all of them know fully what’s going on but continue with the Paperwork and Persecution’s of Poor , Uneducated, Hickman County Citizens.
Amy C. Puckett
and All of Her Staff
should be Brought to Justice.
How or Why Should The Community Respect any of the Local Laws
When the Judicial Corruption Is More Illegally Compromised
Than anything that General Public
Actually dose .
Excluding Capital Crimes
The Biggest Crimes in Hickman County
Are Perpetrated By The Staff of the
General Sessions Court.
I wanted to say this is a long over due insight into the criminal Justice system of east Tennessee and wanted to thank you for your hard work and dedication for exposing this corruption in the beautiful state I have lived in for 49 years soon to be 50 in March I was convicted of aggravated Burglary in the early 90s I would like to convey that I am not the criminal The State of Tennessee has labled me by no means this insodent was nothing more than a drunken brawl if anything the man that I got into it with was a contributing factor in my delinquency and was the so reason contributor to me becoming a full fleged alcholic by the age of 14 .He did not want to press charges against me but the state of Tennessee picked up the charges and offered me a plea and to pead guilty for aggravated Burglary .So ! After that I was sent to prison and it has been on my record every since ..13 years later I was liveing in an apartment complex in Johnson City Tennessee and was single and if it wasn’t for my Mother and father I would have been homeless ,they paid my bills bought me food and took care of just about everything I wanted to work but every time I applied for employment the aggravated Burglary conviction would raise it’s ugly head and the corporation I was applying for said no way . Needless to say the state of Tennessee labled me a monster that under any circumstances cannot be trusted .I was very depressed and anxious and had nothing to do I lived alone and was barely surviveing ..To make a long story short an appointment got broken into threw a crawl space in the Attic there was two tween brothers who lived in the same complex who were far from law abiding citizens and I witnessed them on several occasions pry doors open to other apartments and I did not say anything because I did not want to get involved I was in my apartment one day and out of the blue the Jhonson City police department knocked on my door and when I opened the door I was arrested for aggravated Burglary there is so much to say about it I don’t know where to begin they took me to jail would not let me use the phone treated me cruel beat me up and threw me in a cell alone I was very confused and very upset to say the least I did not commit this crime nor did I know who actually did,I had my suspiciouns but did not see who did it I was gone part of the day that it happened and was told I was the only one at the complex of 14 other units that day..I took this to a jury trial and was aqiuted after sitting in jail for a little over a year but was convicted of a lesser mistaminer crime of criminal tresspaceing in witch I did not commit either…Two weeks after I was incarcerated the same apartment was broken into again the same exact way threw my apartment threw the closet the judge .Robert cupp had represented me years prior to this on an unrelated offince they give me a court appointed lawer that I had for a whole year he was very familiar with the case and was fighting for me two weeks before my trial Jugde Cupp fired this lawyer and appointed me another lawyer that I had never met before in my life he did not want to talk about the trial and in fact wanted me to plead guilty and appeard to be upset with me for some reason and acted like he was pressured to get me to plead guilty and was down right angry that I would not do so..I’m sure they violated my constitutional rights a million different ways but I’m working now with elderly folks that I help and I don’t pay taxes cause I could never get a tax paying job The district Attorney said I was a career criminal and used the other lawyer I had to convict me of failure to appear because I felt to show up for court for lack of haveing a ride to court and I really wasn’t sure about the court date but when I found out I turned myself in because I had gotten out on bond for a little while ..The DA also rattled my mother’s cage on more than one occasion because she was supposed to testify that she had came to my apartment that day and picked me up and took me to her house to make some phone calls regarding my food stamps case in witch I did go there and make these calls and I wanted phone records to be interested into evidence that would prove I was not there at the time the apartment was broken into the new lawyer that was appointed to me said no such records excited my mother was intimidated by The DA to the point that she testified that she could not remember the day she picked me up for fear of being arrested for perjury because of The DA threatening her with this offince…Any way I just wanted to let you know and your readers and all that are trying to stop this corruption because they literally destroyed my life in more ways than one and thanks again for your hard work and dedication to opening the right eyes to the state of Tennessee s corrupt criminal Justice system..I have paid the state of Tennessee thousands of dollars and have spent months and years behind bars for no reason other than haveing nothing and being poor..
Misprision Of Felony is now a “culture” in American Political Operations. Treason/Perjury/Election Fraud/Identity Fraud In POTUS/Murder Of Special Operators, Mission Compromising, Theft Of Trillions, Sabotage Of U.S. Military And Chain Of Command. They’re doing a great job!
I convened a couple of presidential prep rallies when I ran for that office in 2012. The word went out (by word of mouth) a couple of weeks prior to one of the gatherings (that had somewhere between 600-1,000 attendees) and at no time did I inform law enforcement nor the press of our “right of assembly”, nor did any of the participants, which ran the gambit of Americana: a cornucopia of age and ethnicities.
I had one requirement and one requirement only: in order to attend, you MUST be carrying a loaded weapon. Most women showed their handguns that they carried in their purses, whereas most of the men showed-up with shotguns and scoped rifles.
Here’s the point: no one squealed to the cops or the press. Everyone who attended were believers in the Constitution. The word that went out was transmitted to “Lovers of America and her Constitution” that OPOVV was to hold a meeting at so-and-so at such-and-such a time.
Interesting, is it not, that no one passed the word to any law enforcement personnel or any politicians?
Have faith in Americans, I certainly do.
And if I were a member of the court or a member of the press who supports corrupt behavior, of denying their fellow citizens their Constitutional rights, well, I wouldn’t.
Word to the wise, don’t you think?