PROSECUTORIAL CORRUPTION NOT ACTED UPON
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 16, 2014) — The following letter was sent to Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr., who determined in March of last year that then-District Attorney General R. Steven Bebb for Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial District had not committed offenses which rose to the level of criminality. The Post & Email recently learned that Cooper has knowledge of the irregularities regarding the will of Charles William Young, who died in 2011, and now refuses to take calls from his son, Marvin Young, who has been falsely accused of two felonies with the apparent intent of imprisoning him so that he is unable to inherit the sizable estate his father left which is now being plundered by a man with a lengthy criminal record in Florida.
A corrupt judicial system in Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial District has allowed Young to be falsely charged rather than the perpetrator of the stealing of Young’s father’s estate under suspicious circumstances. On June 23, Judge Carroll Ross ordered Young, although indigent, to appear at his next status hearing on August 25 with an attorney with an “or else” implication.
Ross is scheduled to retire at the end of August and refuses to speak with The Post & Email, having hung up on us last week.
Young’s will went through the Probate Court and was approved by Judge J. Reed Dixon more than two years ago. When The Post & Email attempted to reach Dixon for comment on Marvin Young’s claim to have documentation proving that his father’s will was fraudulent, we were not able to speak with him personally and the court clerk told us “That estate was closed more than two years ago” and “This is not a criminal court.”
Cooper has taken no action on the reported crime, which Bebb originally admitted to Marvin Young was evident after Young faxed him his documentation.
Last September, Cooper’s office issued a brief for an appellate hearing in a case involving CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) in which his attorney, Van Irion, challenged the legitimacy of then-grand jury foreman Faye Tennyson, who was serving a second term as a judicially-selected individual rather than coming from the jury pool, as state law commands. The brief, written by Deputy Attorney General Kyle Hixson, contends that the grand jury foreman is chosen by the criminal court judge and not “empaneled” from a group of jurors chosen by automated means, in contradiction of state law. Fitzpatrick’s case has been appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
On June 24, Fitzpatrick was convicted of “aggravated perjury” and “extortion” after a jaundiced grand jury issued presentments against him within ten minutes of a new foreman having been appointed by Judge Amy Reedy. The Post & Email will be discussing both of the aforementioned cases on “The Roth Show” on Thursday evening between 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. EDT.
Copies were mailed to the addressees which appear below the closing. Early last week, The Post & Email spoke to the media representative for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, who asked us to send her pertinent information on corruption in Tennessee courts as it relates to federal judicial corruption, which we did.
On Tuesday, two former attorneys general for the state of Utah were arrested on charges of bribery and “influence peddling.” Cooper is coming to the end of his eight-year term. Tennessee is the only state in the country where the attorney general is appointed by the state supreme court.
Cooper and Bebb are both Democrats. The new Tennessee Tenth Judicial District chief prosecutor, Steve Crump, took office on July 1 after Bebb resigned more than two months before the end of his term. The Post & Email has left two voice messages for Crump indicating the irregularities with both the Young and Fitzpatrick cases but not received a response.
VIA FACSIMILE
(615) 741-2009
July 7, 2014
Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
Office of the Attorney General and Reporter
P.O. Box 20207
Nashville, TN 37202-0207
Dear Attorney General Cooper:
RE: JUDICIAL CORRUPTION WITHIN THE TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
R. STEVEN BEBB AND OTHERS
As you may know, The Post & Email has reported on systemic corruption within your state for the last four years, particularly as it relates to judicial wrongdoing in the Tenth Judicial District comprising the counties of Polk, Bradley, McMinn and Monroe.
I am aware that your office conducted an investigation of former District Attorney General R. Steven Bebb two years ago and determined that his actions did not warrant a criminal investigation. The information accompanying this letter refutes that contention and leads to proof that Bebb and others committed criminal acts which continue unabated today.
Bebb’s precipitate resignation, announced in The Washington Times on June 7, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/7/prosecutor-who-was-subject-of-complaints-retiring/ does not change the fact that he knowingly signed grand jury indictments which were produced as a result of the criminal conduct of Judges Amy Reedy and Carroll Lee Ross and supported by absolutely no evidence. The indictments from two cases accompany this letter.
Although your deputy, Kyle Hixson, wrote in a brief last fall to an appellate court that the grand jury foreman is hand-picked by the criminal court judge, http://www.thepostemail.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HIXSON-BRIEF.pdf , there is nothing in Tennessee Code which allows that practice.
In 2007, Hamilton County affirmed that all members of its then-grand jury, including the foreman, were “duly impaneled” as the law requires: http://media.timesfreepress.com/docs/2009/01/frizzell.pdf
The judges’ longstanding practice of selecting the grand jury foreman “from wherever they choose” http://advocateanddemocrat.com/story/21576 is not only illegal, but has resulted in a convicted felon having been appointed foreman and in hundreds of cases having to be reviewed at taxpayer expense after it was discovered: http://www.newschannel5.com/story/20916839/davidson-county-district-attorney-general-statement
The “star chamber” trial of CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) on June 23 and 24 was a waste of taxpayer money, as the key witness for the prosecution, Athens Federal Community Bank president and CEO Jeffrey Cunningham, retracted his status as Fitzpatrick’s accuser and admitted that Fitzpatrick had not submitted information to the grand jury which was inaccurate or knowingly false in any way. I and others have the recordings from both a June 16 pre-trial hearing and the trial to prove my claim.
How did the jury convict Fitzpatrick of “aggravated perjury” and “extortion” when there was no accuser, no police report, no perjury as testified to by the man alleged to have made the accusations, and no violation of existing law? Who was Fitzpatrick’s accuser?
After Fitzpatrick’s attorney began issuing subpoenas for grand jury members and others to appear on June 16, Bebb promptly resigned his post more than two months early.
Similarly, in the other case involving false indictments, Marvin William Young of Monroe County is being railroaded through pre-trial hearings with Judge Ross on trumped-up charges also unsupported by any police report, criminal complaint, or sworn affidavit. That matter concerns his late father’s sizable estate, which was stolen from him and involves a fraudulent will and possibly two murders. Instead of seeking the real perpetrators of the crimes, the corrupt Tenth Judicial machine intends to put Marvin Young out of the way for possibly the remainder of his natural life so that the spoils from his father’s estate can be enjoyed by the thief and others who are likely waiting for their hefty respective payoffs.
I have tried to bring these criminal matters to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, who claims on his website that “public corruption cannot be tolerated.” http://www.justice.gov/usao/tne/public_corruption.html. However, I am then directed to the TBI and FBI, who have already been informed of the crimes but appear to have done nothing about the ongoing corruption which unfortunately appears to be a way of life in your state.
The TBI maintains that it cannot take a criminal complaint from a citizen and that complaints concerning judges must come from the District Attorney General’s office. But what is to be done when the DAG’s office itself is the perpetrator of the crime? Having posed this to a member of the Knoxville TBI’s Criminal Investigative Division on June 27, he had no answer except “Have the FBI call us.”
Young, who is now indigent, was denied his constitutionally-protected right to a public defender by Judge Ross, who is retiring at the end of August. Ross is also responsible for having ejected a citizen of the community from a hearing three years ago for the “crime” of taking notes with a fountain pen during the proceedings.
The defendant in that case, George Raudenbush, has filed civil lawsuits against the county and had his convictions reversed because Ross also denied him his constitutional right to counsel. Again, the cost of a new trial will be borne by Tennessee taxpayers, who are undoubtedly struggling under a sluggish economy rife with home foreclosures, layoffs and rising fuel costs.
I would have addressed myself directly to your press contact, Sharon Curtis-Flair, but I did not appreciate her sarcastic and rude responses when I spoke to her in 2012 with an inquiry on the Bebb investigation.
A 20-year Marine veteran victimized by judicial corruption in Wilson and Davidson Counties has requested a federal investigation of the 15th and 20th Judicial Districts for many of the same reasons for my request concerning the Tenth District.
Bebb knew when he signed the indictments against Young and Fitzpatrick that they were false. The question is: What are you going to do about it to protect the citizens of your state from further mistreatment, unwarranted incarcerations, and an ever-increasing tax burden for your citizens?
Please respond to me at your earliest convenience on this very serious matter.
Very truly yours,
Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com
P.O. Box 195
Stafford Springs, CT 06076
Phone/Fax: 203-987-7948
Cc: Mr. Richard H. Roberts, Commissioner
Tennessee Department of Revenue
Andrew Jackson Building
500 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37242
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann
U.S. House of Representatives
230 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
State of Tennessee
Comptroller of the Treasury Justin P. Wilson
State Capitol, First Floor
Nashville, TN 37243-9034
Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
437 Russell Senate Bldg
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510