Fitzpatrick Trial: Day One

JURY CHOSEN, FORMER GRAND JURY FOREMAN TESTIFIES FOR MORE THAN FOUR HOURS

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 23, 2014) — A trial in which testimony involving four charges against CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) brought by the McMinn, TN grand jury began on Monday at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

Fitzpatrick had repeatedly attempted to submit evidence to the grand jury showing that its foreman was a court-appointed employee rather than a true juror, as stated last fall by the state attorney general’s office.

Fitzpatrick learned in 2009 that Tennessee grand juries comprise 12 jurors purportedly selected randomly and a judicially-selected foreman who is allowed to serve for years and sometimes decades as determined by the criminal court judge.  The judge presiding over Fitzpatrick’s current case, Jon Kerry Blackwood, has selected and appointed foremen in such a manner, with one appointed in 1994 continuing to serve in the position two decades later.  However, Blackwood has also stated that “the grand jury foreman is no different than any other member of the grand jury.”

State law mandates that jurors be chosen by “automated means in such a manner as to assure proportionate distribution of names selected without opportunity for the intervention of any human agency to select a particular name and in a manner that causes no prejudice to any person.”

The 12 grand jurors who issued the presentment indicting Fitzpatrick on the four charges was the same group of people who Cunningham prohibited from interacting with him or reviewing his petition in January.  At last Monday’s hearing, one of them said she felt “threatened” by Fitzpatrick based on what Cunningham had related about him in the grand jury room and therefore voted to indict.

During last week’s preliminary hearing, Fitzpatrick’s attorney, Van Irion, contended during argument that the system currently in place in Tennessee makes the grand jury foreman an employee of the judicial district and that his salary is paid by the state, with which no one took issue.

Today’s hearing continued until 6:00 p.m. EDT, with Blackwood dismissing the charge of “stalking.”  Irion had stated last week that there were no grounds upon which to continue to prosecute the charge, but at that time, Blackwood had retained it.  The three other charges are “aggravated perjury,” “harassment,” and “extortion,” purportedly of former grand jury foreman Jeffrey Cunningham.

Cunningham testified at length last week and again today.  He was one of three witnesses called by the state.  Judge Amy Reedy was asked to testify by former District Attorney General R. Steven Bebb but did not appear.

Reedy appointed a foreman specifically for the case against Fitzpatrick, which curiously acquired its assigned number, 14-CR-69, before the grand jury deliberated on the evidence it was allegedly provided.

In February and March, respectively, Fitzpatrick filed a petition for a restraining order against Cunningham, who had threatened to have Fitzpatrick arrested if he again tried to submit a petition to the grand jury.  Judges Jeri Bryant and Blackwood both denied his respective requests, although neither conducted a hearing on the substance of the filing.

The other two witnesses who testified were Vickie Vaughan, the court clerk who accepted Fitzpatrick’s February petition for a restraining order, and Gwendolyn Chrisman, who fulfilled the same role in March.

Following the three witnesses’ testimony, the state rested its case.

An eyewitness observing today’s proceedings told The Post & Email that Cunningham was asked to read Fitzpatrick’s grand jury submissions aloud verbatim during his testimony, which ran approximately four hours for the prosecution.  The information Fitzpatrick had originally handed to Cunningham beginning in November of last year included Fitzpatrick’s first complaint of treason against Barack Hussein Obama naming him as a “foreign born domestic enemy” on March 17, 2009 and accusing him of committing treason against the United States of America.

While perhaps an unpopular view at the time, many now agree with Fitzpatrick that Obama is guilty of treason, while some mainstream pundits are calling for Obama’s removal from office or censure by a federal court for circumventing the Constitution and ruling by executive fiat.

Included in Fitzpatrick’s petitions were articles from The Post & Email on the compromised grand juries in the Tenth Judicial District, which were also read in full.

Recordings from Monday’s hearing are here:

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The same eyewitness told The Post & Email that prosecutor A. Wayne Carter called Fitzpatrick “a liar” “over and over again,” to which Irion objected as the prosecution making prejudicial statements about the defendant to the jury.

Cunningham reportedly contradicted himself numerous times while on the witness stand.  He also disclosed that Reedy had asked him to become her “next grand jury foreman” by means of a phone call made to his home one evening.

He also admitted to having briefed the January grand jury about Fitzpatrick’s “history” before informing Fitzpatrick that the grand jury had refused to consider the items in his petition at the time.  According to the opinion of a second eyewitness, based on Cunningham’s contradictory statements and admission that he “thought” he had the authority to refuse to give Fitzpatrick’s petitions to the grand jury, Cunningham could himself now be charged with a crime.

The trial will resume on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. EDT.