Alaska Judge Anna Von Reitz

Not all judges are evil. 

"I am a Great-grandma from Big Lake, Alaska, who can read and think like millions of other Americans and for whatever reasons-- mostly a 17 year-long battle with the IRS--I decided to research the mess this country is in and how we got here."

That's what's written in Judge Von Reitz's Introduction. I love the name of one of her books... America: Some Assembly Required.

At her Home Page, you'll find over 2300 articles on a variety of topics relating to politics, the government, and law.

Form 4473

People in states that allow either recreational or medical marijuana use are going to face big problems from the new form 4473, which apparently makes it a crime to purchase a gun if you use marijuana. If marijuana users aren't allowed to purchase guns, does that mean law enforcement could take a gun or guns away from someone if they know that individual uses marijuana? Here's a link to a Portland Press story about the new form 4473.

Law-abiding citizens who turn in their guns, or don't purchase them because of this new question on the form 4473, will be helpless against the real criminals. Anyone can get a gun, whether it be through a friend, or through a failed background check as shown below. Pete had been labeled a felon, due to a conviction in 1981, but was still approved in 2003 to purchase a gun.

From the U.S. Supreme Court decision Alden v. Maine, "the original understanding of the Constitution's structure and the terms of the tenth amendment confirm that states retained much of their sovereignty despite their agreeing that the national government would be supreme when exercising its enumerated powers."

Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Double Jeopardy...or worse.

Maine Game Wardens should never have seized our family's guns just because of Pete's decades old conviction in 1981 when he was 18 or 19 years old. That's like double jeopardy (prosecution twice for the same offense), only you don't get tried the second time...only convicted.

I asked for Intervenor status, as well as for there to be a hearing (called a Frank's hearing) to challenge the search warrant after the wardens, assisted by other law enforcement, came to our home and confiscated all of my family's guns in April of 2011. Most of the guns, probably all of them, were purchased during our marriage and are marital property.

So, a hearing was scheduled in 2013, but I was never notified of the hearing date by the court, apparently because I wasn't granted intervenor status. And though Pete and his attorney were notified, since Pete wanted to get things over with, he never told me. And neither he or his court-appointed attorney went to the hearing, so my motion was dismissed.

Pete ended up agreeing to a plea bargain for the supposed crime of being a felon in possession of firearms. He spent a week in jail, probably has another felon on his record, lost his guns to the state, has to pay a fine, and can't hunt with a gun, nor have one in our home for our protection. Oh, I can have one if I don't allow him possession of it apparently...come on.

The new form 4473 has a question on it, 11.e., which asks the applicant about marijuana use. Despite that your state may have legalized it for recreational use, or even if you have been prescribed marijuana for medical use, you will not be able to legally purchase a gun if you use marijuana. Here's a link to the form: Firearms Transaction Record, that was revised in October of 2016 and has been in use since mid January 2017.

Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. vs. Harford Glass Co.

I previously blogged about an employer who lied to the Maine Department of Labor, telling them that I had quit. I didn't quit, and I continue to try to get the Maine Department of Labor to reverse the decision denying me unemployment benefits.

The Unemployment Commission on January 31, 2017, affirmed the decision of the Office of Administrative Hearings, which had affirmed the decision of the Bureau of Labor...or whatever. They're all birds of a feather, and they flock together. By now I know the chances of getting justice if you are just an average Joe are pretty slim, I've asked for a reconsideration anyway.

I have 6 months from the date of the alleged violations of employment law, to file a complaint with the EEOC. That deadline will come around the end of March. But anyway, there is no deadline to get a decision reversed when someone commits fraud. Here's a Wikipedia article about the Supreme Court case that affirmed that.

Case dismissed...

11-16-2016 Maine Supreme Court Justice Ellen Gorman's order dismissing my appeal after Superior Court Judge Hal Stewart dismissed my complaint against Ken and Deb Martin (owners or former owners of the Long Lake Sporting Club in Sinclair, Maine).

In this letter to the Maine Supreme Court on 11-07-16 I requested more time to file my brief, as I had just received the audio recording of the hearings held in Superior Court. 

I had filed a complaint in Superior Court of Aroostook County in December of 2013 against the former restaurant owners...but only after the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) failed to properly investigate my complaint and ruled in favor of the Martins. What the employer did was fail to pay me for a few hours I worked as a waitress. The reason they wouldn't pay me: there were no customers to wait on. My complaint also stated that for every shift worked, I hadn't been paid an equal share of the pooled tips. Their reasoning was that I was a new employee. These things are clearly illegal.

Judge Hunter - who previously imprisoned me in the law library when I tried to help Pete with his case - had been presiding over the case until Judge Hal Stewart came along. I wasn't nervous being in front of Hunter though, even though I had filed a complaint about him which of course got dismissed.

The case was moving slowly, since neither I nor the Martins had an attorney. I tried to settle with them...though if I could have afforded the attorney fees that I should be reimbursed, and could count on the justice system to work the way it should I would never have settled. Finally though, the employer hired a lawyer, and he filed a motion to dismiss my complaint due to a missed deadline. 

Judge Hunter had early on in the proceedings addressed the issue... allowing me the additional time. I remember specifically, I told him that I had been working at potato harvest that fall during the months right before my complaint was due to be filed. In an order he wrote, he dismissed other complaints I filed (such as defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress) as an amendment to the original complaint...but he was allowing me to proceed with the Whistleblower claim.

I was away from home when Pete received the paperwork (motion to dismiss) in the mail. I had him mail it to Wyman's office in Deblois. I was living in one of their cabins and working in the factory in Cherryfield during blueberry harvest that fall. Judge Hunter, despite that he'd already stated he'd allow me to proceed, instructed the clerk to schedule a hearing on the motion to dismiss. But it wasn't until the next summer that a hearing was scheduled, and it was the new judge, Hal Stewart II, who presided over the hearing. And he had been a lawyer practicing in the same town as the defendants' lawyer was.

June 20, 2016 was the date of the hearing. In interrogatories, the defendants' had failed to provide information I had asked for: checkstubs of the wait staff who worked the same shifts I had. When I told the judge that, he said I could put in a request for a hearing on this discovery dispute. So I did. I hand wrote it and filed it with the clerk immediately. And I also requested a jury trial, and stated that the only reason I had not previously requested one was that there was a $300 fee. Within three days, Judge Hal Stewart had dismissed my complaint. I remember it was on the same day that another Maryland police officer, the one driving the van, was found not guilty on charges in connection with the death of Freddie Gray. 

Since the Supreme Court of Maine dismissed my appeal I guess I could file a certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. The odds of getting a case heard are pretty slim...less than 1%. Or, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) might help me.

I just discovered that the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) never dual-filed my complaint with the EEOC, and they were supposed to. The EEOC is the federal agency that enforces employment discrimination laws. The state ones are called Fair Employment Practices Agencies, or FEPA. Either the state or the feds can investigate a complaint, and if you don't like the outcome from one, you can get a review from the other. So, I faxed them some information a few days ago...basically, my complaint and the MHRC findings.

Interestingly, at the MHRC website I came upon a name that I recognized: Michael Afthim. A jury awarded him over a million in damages after his boss lied about the reason for his discharge, and failed to deal with safety concerns brought to him. Now what I discovered was that prior to him filing the lawsuit, Afthim had made a complaint to the MHRC, and they had found there was reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Afthim had been discriminated against...however, they failed to take further action. You can see his name here on page 4; it's the first one under the category Litigation.

The budget of the Maine Human Rights Commission is about one million dollars per year, half of which comes from the federal government... and most of it is for payroll. And guess what? They want more. See # 13. At # 8, it seems an admission that they do not dual-file with the EEOC.

Look a likes - Gorsuch and Stewart II

I don't know if I can handle Gorsuch being on the Supreme Court of the United States. He looks too much like Judge Hal Stewart II.
Neil Gorsuch

Judge Hal Stewart II

Lawyers reprimanded

Under both state and federal laws, an employee who notifies an employer of illegal policies and practices in the workplace, and who is fired for doing so, is protected by what are called Whistleblower statutes.

The Maine Human Rights Commission took two years to investigate, then dismissed my complaint against Ken and Deb Martin, so I filed a lawsuit in Superior Court of Aroostook County in December of 2013. My case was being presided over by Judge Hunter for the most part. Yes, he's the judge who imprisoned me. Read about it in the last paragraph of a former post of mine.

Though the Committee for Judicial Responsibility and Disability dismissed my complaint against Hunter, it later reprimanded an attorney for doing what Hunter had done: attempt to get a signature, or assist and allow the prosecutor to, at a time when Pete (my husband) was without an attorney. I was away from home doing seasonal work at Wyman's of Maine in Cherryfield when I first read the story on my break in the factory's cafeteria. The Ellsworth American story is titled "Two area lawyers reprimanded". While I've provided a link to the newspaper's website, I can't find the story online. I did save the newspaper clipping, so I'll quote from it:

In a second order also issued July 20, Ellsworth attorney Steven A. Juskewitch was similarly sanctioned for his "repetitive improper conduct and inappropriate action" for communicating with a woman who was not his client, and who had no lawyer, in an effort to obtain her signature "on documents that would ultimately benefit his client..."

In that story, it's also mentioned that former Hancock County Assistant District Attorney William B. Entwisle of Sedgwick was sanctioned for actions "arising from his failure to turn over discovery materials to the defendants or their lawyers in two separate criminal cases he was prosecuting."

Anyuhow, after the Superior Court dismissed my claim against the Martin's, I appealed to Supreme Court of Maine, which upheld Judge Stewart's dismissal of my complaint. The decision was signed by none other than Justice Ellen Gorman. She's the judge who ruled summarily against us in a lawsuit several years ago in which my son had broken his arm, and been misdiagnosed as having a dislocation. That treatment displaced the fracture...requiring surgery. I blogged about this, in 2007. On my homepage, type in "Gorman" in the search bar at the top left corner of the screen and you'll bring it up...along with other unjust decisions she's made.

Hungry for Justice - Panel finds no bias in MHRC?

Here's a link to a post I made in October of 2011 after being fired from my waitressing job at the Long Lake Sporting Club.

So, I filed a complaint with The Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) regarding the Martin's. Soon, the MHR gagged me. That is, they made me sign a statement agreeing not to discuss (or write about) the case while they performed their so-called preliminary investigation. Sounds to me like a violation of the 1st Amendment right to free speech...by a Commission that's supposed to protect human rights?. 

Regardless, I refrained from blogging about what the owners of this high-end, family-owned restaurant in the small town of Sinclair Maine had done to me...as well as what they and some of my former co-workers were about to do: defame me in an attempt to get a favorable decision from the Maine Human Rights Commission. Well, the employer's plan worked; the Commission dismissed my complaint.

Well, I recently read that last fall the governor ordered an investigation of the Commission, after he felt that the Commission was biased against employers, or the business community! And guess what? Well, read about it here. The story's title, LePage’s probe of human rights panel finds no bias against businesses,
leaves no doubt in ones mind of what the outcome was. The supposed independent panelists apparently didn't look at the documents they needed to in order to come to the conclusion any reasonable person would have after a thorough review of the MHRC. That is, that the Commission is biased. How else can you explain this, from the story? 

The report found that in 2014, only 5 percent of the cases filed with the commission resulted in the commission finding reasonable grounds that there was a violation.

Now understand this: only when the Maine Human Rights Commission finds reasonable grounds (after a preliminary investigation) to believe that a violation has occurred does it take any further action such as mediation (which often results in a settlement offer made to the harmed party) or further investigation. So, does this panel really believe that 95% of the complaints received by the MHRC in 2014 were totally baseless?

The latest on Mary Kellett...

Well, here's news about Mary Kellett. An attorney named Luke Rioux posted the latest at his website Harmless Error, writing that the penalty for the Assistant D.A. Kellett's dirty deeds was "almost nothing."

I had helped circulate a petition calling for her dismissal a while back, after Judge Kevin Cuddy found Kellett guilty of prosecutorial misconduct. She'd kept important facts of the case from Vladek Filler's attorney... evidence which was detrimental to the prosecution. Filler was then found guilty of domestic violence and/or charges of that nature.

Interesting, Kellett's disciplinary hearing was presided over by Ellen Gorman. She's the judge who kept us from getting to trial in Androscoggin Superior Court after doctors at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital treated my son, Aaron, for a dislocated shoulder, when it was in fact broken.

The fracture was so slight that it went undetected by emergency room doctors. Yet after they treated for a dislocation, my son needed surgery and pins because they displaced  the fracture. That happened in 2000, when Aaron was 14 years old.

The case was pursued for six years with Attorney Anthony Ferguson before we finally got before the medical malpractice screening panel. After an unfavorable decision there, Ferguson dropped the case, and I filed suit on behalf of my then minor son.

Ellen Gorman, a Superior Court justice in 2006, soon awarded summary judgment to the doctors involved, though in their responses to my complaint, they had admitted a "valid claim exists to defend."

Their attorney had asked for a jury trial and paid the fee. Now, here's something I discovered recently in the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 38 e.  Withdrawal. A demand for trial by jury made as provided in this rule may not be withdrawn without the consent of all parties.

Judge sentenced to 28 years... Yahoooo!!!!!!!!!

Remember a few years ago in Pennsylvania a few judges were selling out to private prisons... jailing adolescents who shouldn't be? Well, one of those judges was just sentenced... here's the story.
The state's Supreme Court just threw out 4000 convictions under Ciavarella's rule.

  

Looking For domestic violenc...

Info and results on domestic violence.

click here

endlessmatches.com

Marijuana legalization

Found a story titled Portland, Maine May Legalize Pot. Maine's largest city may soon legalize the herb.  

Among the plan's supporters, Maine ACLU representative Bob Talbot notes that Maine spent $8.9 million enforcing marijuana laws in 2010, and that 47.9 % of all the state's drug arrests that year were for pot charges.

Since legislators killed a bill to legalize pot recently, I read somewhere that it will be 2016 before any law legalizing recreational use could be passed and go into effect.

Pete accepts plea bargain.

Regarding the charges against my husband stemming from the April 28, 2011 search and confiscation of my family's firearms at our home...Pete accepted a plea bargain. Maine Game Wardens obtained a search warrant based on nothing but Pete's "felon" conviction from 1981 and the fact that they'd seen him carrying a gun, while hunting.

Just before he pled guilty, I mailed to the court a motion to be an intervener in the case; but I got no answer. I have a stake in this, as the guns are marital property. The judge didn't respond to my filing. However, the clerk of the court did send a date-stamped copy of my motion to the D.A., and to Pete's attorney who then sent it to Pete.

If a warrant is obtained on false or missing information which would have made a difference in the judge's decision to issue the warrant or not, the case should be dismissed. Well, I requested a Frank's hearing to challenge jurisdiction. However, since the judge wouldn't acknowledge me as a party to the case, that went nowhere.

Two other attorneys had asked to be dismissed from his case... probably because I was asking questions they felt uncomfortable answering, or just couldn't answer without admitting that the whole system is set up to screw the average Joe! Law enforcement officers, in this case the Maine Game Warden Service, often play the "public exigency" card to obtain a warrant, when they have no real reason to believe any danger is about to come to the public.

Apparently, Judge Hunter recused himself from the case. It could well be due to my filing a complaint against him with the Committee for Judicial Responsibility and Disability. Why did I file a complaint? Well, Judge Hunter imprisoned me in the law library of the Superior Court. It's true, he had me handcuffed by the bailiff and escorted out of the courtroom when I tried to assist Pete, who had yet to be appointed an attorney. Judge Hunter wanted him to sign papers put before him by the prosecution: bail conditions, though he wasn't under arrest! With me out of the picture, Pete signed. And he was not too happy that I'd caused a scene, because he had to wait for me for about an hour after he got out of court. To be released I had to apologize to the judge for disrupting his courtroom.

My complaint to the Committee for Judicial Responsibility and Disability was dismissed. Are you surprised? I'm not. This Committee's budget is controlled by judges; complaints are usually dismissed.

The state has yet to return any of ours or our sons' guns. 

Is there a pharmacist in the house?

Yes. after I wrote to Representative Joseph Bruno a few years ago asking for his help regarding a summary judgment by Judge Ellen Gorman in my son's medical malpractice case, essentially denying him a trial and telling him "You lose," Bruno resigned. 

Soon after that, I discovered his ties to the medical community. Well, a recent investigation reveals other legislators and their spouses who benefited from State of Maine contracts from 2003 to 2010 totaling about $235 million... contracts not required to be disclosed because the receiving party was the legislator's company and not the individual legislator; how sick is that?

In the story there's a link to a chart telling who and how much. 

LePage proposes cuts - but there is a larger debt train than Medicaid!

A December 7, 2011 Morning Sentinel story gives these numbers:

MaineCare is a $2.5 billion-a-year program, although federal funding and other revenue cover most of the cost. MaineCare will cost the state's general fund about $660 million this year.

From a New York Times story on December 23, 2011, about Governor LePage's proposed Medicaid cuts:

Calling the state’s entitlement system “a runaway train,” he has proposed contentious changes, including some of the most drastic Medicaid cuts in the nation.

But Dan Billings in May of 2010, before he was appointed as LePage's chief legal counsel, wrote about another, even larger debt train than Medicaid - it's Maine's unfunded pension obligations, totaling in the billions of dollars! Quoting Billings from the article:

You may wonder how Maine has more debt than the bonds approved by voters. Though the Maine Constitution strictly limits loaning Maine's credit "directly or indirectly," through the years politicians have been creative in coming up with numerous ways that debt could be incurred without voter approval. Unfortunately, Maine's courts, beneficiaries of this extraconstitutional debt, have upheld such schemes.

Maine also has unfunded pension obligations totaling nearly $4 billion. In addition, unfunded obligations for health care coverage for retired state employees, teachers and legislators is estimated to be more than $2.2 billion. These are bills that are certain to come due that will be paid by Maine taxpayers.

"Legislator loophole" - Governor LePage proposes to close it

Legislators and government officials, may soon have to disclose more details about their ties to companies which receive government monies. From the 12-15-11 article:  

Current law only requires that legislators or high-level state employees report state purchases of goods or services worth more than $1,000 directly from the individual legislator or family member, not from a corporation or entity for which the legislator or family member works.

A report by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting  apparently is what prompted Governor LePage to propose the legislation. The story by Naomi Shalit and John CristieIt looks like in a seven year period, 2003-2010, an average of 34 million dollars per year was received by companies owned by legislators or immediate family members of legislators, or by companies which employed them.

Another loophole exists; and the Executive Director of the Ethics Commission, Jonathan Wayne, doesn't believe that it can be closed until 2013. It's that the deadline for legislators to report such affiliations with companies which receive government money, often comes due after the legislator has left office...so it never gets filed. From  the January 4, 2012 story

There is no disclosure form on file, for example, for the last month and a half that Kurt Adams served as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission in 2008.

This link from one of the stories  shows the names of the Maine officials and legislators whose companies, or companies owned, or partly owned or run by family members, were the major benefactors of our hard-earned tax dollars.

Felon in possession case law

Here's some case law that I should print out and give to my husband, Pete. It concerns a nonviolent felon charged with possession of firearms.

I'm blogging from the Madawaska Public Library. I've moved, and my Internet is currently disabled; so my roadrunner account isn't working. I'll be creating another through gmail or hotmail.

I got a new job: inspecting military garments at Creative Apparel in Fort Kent. 

Food for thought

I've been soooooo busy. I'm trying to get my rental units occupied for winter, and my father-in-law, Alcide Michaud, passed away on October 2. 

I started work as a waitress on Friday, September 30, at the Long Lake Sporting Club in Sinclair. I hadn't done anything like that since high school, and was fired up about the chance to earn a hundred or more dollars in like five hours of work; however, I was denied an equal share of the pooled tips! Telling me I was still "in training" the owners allowed the waitress in charge to give me less than half the pay other waitresses received... including one who was hired a few days AFTER I was!  

About the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

And now I've been fired. Quoting the owners "It's just not working out." What a disappointment. Luckily chef and co-owner of The Swamp Buck, Mark Tardif, had called me just a few days before I was fired, and I've been putting in a few hours at the restaurant, doing some cleaning. We actually get to take breaks there, and we have a time clock... unlike at the Sporting Club. Though it isn't illegal to not have a time clock, it is illegal not to pay employees for hours worked simply because you didn't get any customers that day, or night.

Maine Department of Labor


Maine Human Rights Commission - The Whistleblower's Protection Act is supposed to protect a person who reports his/her employer's illegal activity and then is fired. You'll find actual reports at the Commission's website, however names are hidden. 
 
 

Deal, or No Deal? The plea bargain

I came upon this information about plea bargains and thought I'd share it with you as well as list it under my Law Links.

Pete (my husband) had to appear in court today regarding the "felon in possession of firearms" charges. He wouldn't let me go to court with him and he didn't bring home any paperwork. He said he was unable to speak to the judge and that the Assistant District Attorney, April Hare, would like to see him get jail time if he doesn't accept a plea bargain! He is very stressed out about this situation. Hunting was a sport that he enjoyed so much, and now Maine State employees have taken that away from him, and turned our lives upside down. One of our sons blames us because his guns were taken from our home and we haven't been able to get them back for him. 

Back in May I blogged about the unreasonable search and seizure in which ten or more agents of the state took over a dozen guns (most belonging to our sons) from our home on April 28, 2011.

Pete's court-appointed attorney, Tobey Jandreau, apparently filed a "motion to suppress statements of defendant" but he never sent a copy of the filing to Pete. Jandreau should have put in a notice of disqualification of the judge. I provided him a copy of the letter I received from the Committee on Judicial Responsibility and Disability acknowledging receipt of my complaint against Judge Hunter.

Maine is in the spotlight again!

Click on the headline to read the story. Quoting from it:

"Presidential candidate Bob Barr has called for an investigation into civil rights crimes committed by Kellet and renowned private investigator TJ Ward has been tackling the case for Filler free of charge. According to Ward, this prosecutorial corruption scandal is affecting numerous innocent lives. As Kellett’s wrath wages on, more men in the town of Ellsworth aren’t safe from persecution as the DA continues her witch hunt."

Intervention is key to a safe community! Maine man with extensive criminal record shot by police, dies.

I just learned about this story, posted earlier this morning. Paul Fritze opened fire in the home of a neighbor who had invited him over for a birthday party; and Maine State Police shot and killed him. I agree that guys like Fritze should not be allowed access to guns. Quoting the Kennebec Journal story by Craig Crosby:

A New Jersey probation officer was quoted in published reports describing Fritze as dangerous, "a time bomb and an accident waiting to happen" when in possession of a firearm.

However, grabbing guns from someone who has been labeled a "felon," as my husband has, but who has since changed his/her ways, is nothing but a revenue-maker for the state; and laws which enable such action do nothing to prevent true crime, and actually increase organized crime, committed by agents of the state and federal governments.

An apparent neighbor of Fritze, Donna Bruen, "said she wishes that neighbors had done more to reach out to Fritze" Crosby wrote. Intervention is integral.  

They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice. ~William Penn 

Judge dismisses "eavesdropping" charges against Illinois man

Michael Allison was facing 75 years in jail for recording police officers in court; certain statutes in Illinois make it a felony to record without the permission of all parties. Fortunately, Judge David Frankland dismissed the five counts.

Allison, who repairs cars, was facing charges for breaking an ordinance dealing with non-registered vehicles in his yard, and had asked for a court reporter in his case; when he was denied, he recorded the proceedings himself.

Judge Frankland takes a common-sense approach. He states:  

“The statute [as it is currently written] includes conduct that is unrelated to the statute’s purpose and is not rationally related to the evil the legislation sought to prohibit,”

Allison was a guest on Rule of Law Radio, where you can listen to the archived show. The charges appear to have been in retaliation for Michael Allison exposing what is described at the Rule of Law website as "a massive car title theft ring implicating public servants of municipalities, sheriffs departments, and the State of Illinois." Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Maine v. Roland G. Pouliot

I was looking for Maine cases regarding instances in which someone had been charged with "possession of firearms" that were actually owned by someone else; and I found a 2003 Maine Supreme Court case Maine v. Roland G. Pouliot.

The State of Maine confiscated eighty-eight firearms from the Pouliot family! The defendant's wife, Sylvia, and her son operate a discount store in Machias, Maine; and son Jamie operates a pawnshop. She confirmed that all but one gun, a black powder rifle, were returned to Jamie, who was a third party intervenor. I spoke with Sylvia Pouliot today and she said her husband did spend 90 days in county jail for the charge, but there was no fine. They hired their own lawyer, and she said costs were about $30,000.        

Supreme Court rulings - Gun "use" in drug deals

I found this entry at Wikipedia very interesting. The Supreme Court, in one case (Smith v. United States), found that trading an automatic weapon for cocaine constituted "use" of a firearm in a drug deal; but in Watson v. United States, receiving a firearm in a drug trade was not considered "use."

In Watson, Justice Ginsburg was in the majority. Quoting from the Wikipedia entry: 

Her reasoning is that she defines the word “use” to mean using as a weapon and not in bartering transactions. She also goes on to state that she would overrule Smith, 508 U.S., at 241, and make the precedent both “coherent and consistent with normal usage.”



   

I found Laura! Or she found me rather.

When I opened my email earlier I found a message from someone who I thought I'd never hear from! Click on the headline to read Laura's story at Ripoff Report. Judge French screwed us in 2004, and in 2005 Laura wrote about how Judge French ignored her evidence after she had her son taken from her due to her husband's actions. 

I didn't discover the story until the autumn of 2009, at which time I posted about it; and hours ago Laura posted a comment under that post. Below is the email message I received. Thanks Laura... I definitely do plan to keep in touch! 

Laura Kirkland has left a new comment on your post "Government Monster Out of Control - CPS/DHS - Augusta Maine.":

Hello,
My name is Laura Kirkland, the woman mentioned in your posting here. It has been several years since I wrote that account of my DHS/CPS nightmare. Since then, I have tried to stay active in working with and helping other individuals and families affected by unbalanced, unethical, tyrannical and often illegal policies. I am very interested in working to make changes in our VERY primitive system(s). Although I am now 47 years old, I am a senior in college working towards my Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Criminal Justice. I also believe that active communication is key to successful changes and am very pleased to have found this site!
My email address is LauraKirkland123@aol.com if anyone would like to contact me regarding...anything :)
 

"Hunter" season is here!

Tensions are high in the Michaud household. Hunting season is here and our sons want their guns back! Our oldest telephoned the Maine Warden Service and was told the guns would probably not be returned, and that he'd better have good receipts.

Pete's court-appointed attorney, Toby Jandreau, has done virtually nothing to get the ridiculous charges against him dropped... you know "felon in possession of firearms" and "fraudulently obtaining a hunting license." The lawyer should disqualify the judge, whose name is ironically "Hunter"; and the Assistant D.A.'s name is April Hare. The D.A. made Pete an offer: forfeit the guns - although it's not clear which ones as the state hasn't bothered to determine who actually owns them - and pay a total of $2500 in fines. Scroll back to my May 3 blog entry to read more.

1902 Dick Act invalidates gun control laws

Apparently, legislation passed in 1902, called the Dick Act, invalidates all gun control laws; the problem is, Congress just ignores it.

I want to thank the anonymous commenter to my July 14, 2011 blog post for bringing this to my attention. 

AFFIDAVIT UPON REQUEST BY JUDGE

Rod Class put in an affidavit (click on title above to access it) in his traffic court case after the presiding judge requested he do so. The judge, Howard E. Manning Jr., has since recused himself. 

You'll find a link to the affidavit, and other documents related to the issue of "driver's licenses" and "travel," at the Rod Class Team website. Just scroll down to the section about the traffic case. 

Here, in Rod's letter to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, he includes various sections of United States Code, Title 49, and explains the codes don't apply to the average individual, but to those who are operating in commerce... that is, being paid to transport goods or people. 

Promises, promises...

As a gubernatorial candidate, Paul LePage promised transparency; but as governor of Maine, he's not being very open about his schedule of activities. Here's the story.

Update from Bill Windsor

Though the grand jury had, according to Bill Windsor, invited him back on Tuesday to present evidence of corruption, the jurors apparently disappeared before he could. Here's the story. 

Grand jury in Georgia accessed by private individual!

Bill Windsor got before the grand jury in Fulton County Georgia today. The grand jury is supposed to be a tool for the people to bring charges against corrupt officials, but access to it is routinely blocked. From the website of Lawless America... here's Bill's report! 

Bill will discuss the encounter on The American Reconstruction Project call this Saturday, August 20, with Jack Bauer.