Robbins v. MCILS - ACLU lawsuit

At the website of the American Civil Liberties Union you'll find the complaint, as well as motions and orders, in pdf form, regarding the lawsuit in Maine which was granted class-action status in 2022.

Under the heading "Take Action" if you scroll to the bottom of the ACLU's webpage, there are topics you can click on and send prewritten letters by email to lawmakers.

In August, 2023 the Portland Press Herald reported that the ACLU and the Commission (MCILS) tasked with providing legal counsel to indigent defendants, had reached a deal. However, it didn't get approved by Justice Micaela Murphy. In September of 2023 under the story "Judge rejects proposed deal on indigent defense lawyers"

The agreement notably goes beyond the commission’s direct control, relying heavily on outside cooperation from court officials, state lawmakers and county jails. Much of the settlement depends on the commission “successfully advocating” for increased resources and support.

“I just don’t know what that means,” she said. “Does that mean you have to bring sleeping bags to the appropriations table?

If Husson College's law students had been allowed to take the Bar exam and practice law in Maine, even though professors at the college located in Bangor were not tenured, maybe there would not be this shortage of attorneys in Maine. From a March 4, 2010 story by Judy Harrison at the Bangor Daily News website, titled Supreme court rejects Husson law school’s application

In its proposal to the supreme court, representatives from Husson said its law school would cater to nontraditional students, offer courses at night and during the day, and allow students to attend part time. As of Thursday, Husson had received 192 inquiries from potential students, mostly from northern and eastern Maine, said Julie Green, Husson’s spokeswoman.

In 1963 The Supreme Court of the United States decided a case, Gideon v. Wainright. That case expanded legal assistance, to criminally charged defendants who could not afford counsel, not only in federal cases, but in state courts. At the American Bar Association's website, from a story in 2008 titled Access to Justice: Is Civil Gideon A Piece of the Puzzle? it's revealed that the ABA has known for thirty years what a problem we have in the United States, regarding the lack of legal aid in civil cases as well as criminal ones. 

 

...a 1994 ABA study that found that about four of every five civil legal needs for low-income families were not being met. Several subsequent state surveys found similar results.

"No peace can exist without justice" Alaska Judge Anna Von Reitz

Not all judges are evil. From Judge Von Reitz's Introduction:

"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."

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...and lawlessness.

Form 4473 - and the "Felon" label

The new form 4473 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 can 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. My husband, Pete, had been labeled a felon, due to a conviction in 1981, but was still approved in 2003 to purchase a gun.

He also purchased guns at K-Mart, Joe Jones, and other dealers. The "felon" label never goes away in Maine, unless you apply for a pardon and it's granted. The state arbitrarily preys upon those who, though they may have made mistakes in the past, might have changed.

Double Jeopardy...or worse.

Maine Game Wardens assisted by other law enforcement officials in April of 2011, raided our home and seized our family's guns, all because of Pete's decades old conviction in 1981 when he was 19 years old. That's like double jeopardy (prosecution twice for the same offense), except you don't get tried the second time...just convicted.

I asked for Intervenor status. Any firearms purchased during our mariage were marital property. Also, I thought it a good idea for Pete to have a Frank's hearing to challenge the search warrant. Law enforcement also took guns that belonged to our sons, which we kept in our safe until needed during hunting season. 

A hearing regarding my request to have intervenor status was scheduled in 2013; however I was not 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, lost his guns to the state, has to pay a fine (put on a payment plan), and probably has another felony on his record. 

Form 4473 (Firearms Transaction Record) has a question on it, 11.e., which asks the applicant if they use marijuana. Despite that your state may have legalized it for recreational use, or even if you have been prescribed it for medical use, you will not be able to legally purchase a gun if you admit to using marijuana. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) explains to Federal Firearms Licencees in this open letter in 2011.

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

I previously blogged about an employer who lied to the Maine Department of Labor during an interview regarding unemployment benefits. He said I had quit. I didn't quit...I was wrongfully terminated. 

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 or Joann are pretty slim. I've asked for a reconsideration regardless. 

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. 

Anyway, there is no deadline to get a decision reversed if someone lies in court, or to a government agency like the Maine Department of Labor. Here's a Wikipedia article about the Supreme Court case Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co. which affirmed that. However, most people even if they're sure the law is on their side, can't afford the high cost of litigation.

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Look a likes - Gorsuch and Stewart II

Neil Gorsuch was nominated to be the next justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He has a look alike in Maine: Justice Hal Stewart II.

Gorsuch was chosen by President Donald Trump, though former President Barack Obama wanted a judge, named Merrick Garland, to replace Antonin Scalia, according to an Associated Press story. Scalia passed away on 2-13-2016. 

Neil Gorsuch

                                   

Harold Stewart II

Lawyers Reprimanded

I was working for Wyman's of Maine in their factory in Cherryfield during blueberry harvest when I first read the story while on break in the cafeteria. The August 6, 2015 story in the Ellsworth American is titled "Two area lawyers reprimanded", written by Stephen Rappaport. I've provided a link to the newspaper's website, but couldn'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..."

Huh, an attorney was reprimanded for doing what Judge Hunter had done to Pete: got his signature on a form from the District Attorney when Pete didn't have an attorney's help. 

When I tried to stop Pete from signing anything, and called out "don't sign", Judge Hunter imprisoned me. That morning I had asked the clerk for a form and filled it out with Pete; he hate's paperwork you know. The form was a request for an attorney, at the state's expense. Maine Game Wardens in 2011 confiscated our family's guns under the guise of public safety. Pete had never asked to be pardoned after being convicted of a felony in 1981.

Judge Hunter had the bailiff take me in handcuffs to the law library of the Superior Court in Caribou. It was only for an hour or two, until he got Pete to sign what Assistant District Attorney April Hare had placed before him. It was bail conditions, though he hadn't been arrested! When they took our guns they gave him a summons. I made a complaint regarding Judge Hunter, but the Committee for Judicial Responsibility and Disability dismissed it of course. 

And here's what the the other attorney was reprimanded or sanctioned for, by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar. The Ellsworth American story doesn't say what the sanctions were. 

In a Stipulated Report of Findings and Order dated July 20, Hancock County Assistant District Attorney William B. Entwisle of Sedgwick was sanctioned "for improper actions and lack of appropriate professional judgment" arising from his failure to turn over discovery materials to the defendants or their lawyers in two separate criminal cases he was prosecuting.

Hungry for Justice - Panel finds no bias in MHRC?

I filed a complaint with The Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) regarding a former employer. Soon, the MHRC gagged me. That is, they made me sign a statement agreeing not to discuss 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 the employer. It took two years for the MHRC to complete it's investigation; and they found there was NRG - that is No Reasonable Grounds to believe that discrimination occurred. 

Last fall the governor ordered an investigation of the Maine Human Rights Commission, worried that the Commission was biased against employers! 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. Any reasonable person would have found that the Commission is biased... against employees! 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.

You can see for yourself from the pdf's of the meeting minutes at the Commission's website. The MHRC didn't take Michael Aftkin's case, and he ended up winning a huge lawsuit against his employer. 

The MHRC posted about the findings of the investigation at their website, under news or archives, titled "News flash: MHRC is not biased!" And can you guess what they feel is needed in order to advance the MHRC's good work? You'll find the answers at the law firm PretiFlaherty's website in a post titled "Governor's Panel supports Maine Human Rights Commission" at #13. Increase the MHRC’s budget. 

Litigant-unfriendly decision in Maine - Kingsbury v. Forbes (1998)

Following is a bit of the dissent from a 1998 case, which got to the Maine Supreme Court on appeal after being dismissed in a lower court. Chief Justice Daniel Wathen was in the majority who voted to dismiss Robert Forbes' appeal. 

From the dissent in that 1998 case, Kingsbury v. Forbes:

[¶ 11] A pro se party who has complied with the requirements of the rules and reasonably has placed the responsibility for the next step in the proceedings in the hands of the court, in my opinion, has demonstrated the good cause necessary to prevent dismissal pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 41(b). Holding pro se litigants involved in small claims actions to the technical requirements of Rule 41(b) in circumstances where the court system has failed to fulfill its own responsibilities defeats the goal of providing a litigant-friendly procedure to resolve small claims disputes.   I would therefore vacate the judgment of the Superior Court.

If you go to the Findlaw website, the decision doesn't state who the dissenting judges were, but at Casetext: Smarter Legal Research it does:

DANA, Justice, with whom ROBERTS and CLIFFORD, Justices, join, dissenting.

Here's the citation given at the Casetext website: 

Kingsbury v. Forbes, 714 A.2d 149, 152 (Me. 1998)

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 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."

The attorney, Patrick Strawbridge, of the law firm Preti Flaherty representing the medical professionals, had asked for a jury trial and paid the $300 fee. From the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 38 e regarding withdrawal. 

A demand for trial by jury made as provided in this rule may not be withdrawn without the consent of all parties.

Aaron was and I believe still is entitled to a trial by jury.

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.

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. I was excited 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." 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. I met a woman there named Mindy, who said the owners of the Sporting Club, Deb and Ken Martin, had done the same thing to her.

 

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

My husband, Pete, had to appear in court today regarding the "felon in possession of firearms" charges. He wouldn't let me go to court with him. He wants to get this over with. I want him to go to trial. It's causing alot of anxiety in our home. 

Hunting was a sport that he enjoyed so much, and something our sons liked to do with him. Maine and federal law enforcement officers, judges, and other players in the so-called "justice system" have turned our lives upside down. 

Back in May I blogged about the unreasonable search and seizure involving about a dozen employees of Maine - most of them Maine Game Wardens, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). 

Agents of the state and federal governments took over a dozen guns - many belonging to our sons - from our home on April 28, 2011. They did it under the guise of public safety, even though they waited 3 months before acting on the knowledge that Pete was a "felon" and in possession of a firearm. We kept our family's guns in a locked safe until needed during hunting season.

Here's some information about plea bargains from a 1979 law journal, titled Plea Bargaining - A Necessary Evil? 

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 whose been labeled a "felon," as my husband has, but who has since changed his/her ways, is simply put a revenue-maker for the state. Laws which enable this 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.

Budget for legal services for indigents... not enough?

The Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services responds to request to slash its budget by saying it wants more money! Its chairman, Ron Schneider, said:

“Our obligation is to provide those people, if they are indigent, with an attorney. That is a constitutional obligation that we have.”

Constitutional obligation? Nice try. The Bill of Rights protects a person's right to counsel; it doesn't obligate taxpayers to fund anything. More important is that an individual gets due process of the law... a fair trial; and that's just not happening, no matter how much money the state pays out to attorneys who provide counsel to indigent defendants.

The story mentions that the process for collecting payment from defendants found at least partially able to afford counsel will be changing next summer.