Recent Experiences With the Federal Courts

It seems to me our entire news-media has been ignoring some of its responsibilities to respond to the report of crime in our state and federal judiciary systems.

Our judiciary system, from the lower courts to the Supreme Court,is not working correctly. Yet, there is very little effort to report and correct the problems, from the illegal security systems searching strangers for weapons to the common collusion between the courts and the Attorney General's office.

As an example, when I had cause to sue the B.A.T.F in the U.S. District Court (Springfield, Mass.), I immediately discovered a collusion between the Court and the Magistrate.

After filing a series of discovery motions, without objection from the defense attorney, along with a motion for management of discovery, 3 days before a scheduled hearing for discovery I received a motion for summary judgment. There was no time for me to respond to it and, after reading the motion, it was obvious the defense was attempting to use summary judgment as an illegal device to avoid hearing discovery. Every year thousands of cases are treated this way and summarily dismissed. Since I am a pro se litigant there was also a prejudice I was incompetent and would not know any better.

On the following Monday morning, at the scheduled hearing, the Magistrate Neiman listened to the defense attorney very respectfully even though she misrepresented the integrity of her actions (by pretending to be honest). Also, there was a contradiction in the tone of voice of the defense attorney (a female) and the tone of voice in the defense's submissions (aggressive male with a criminal interpretation of law and rules of practice and precedure), suggesting someone with far more experience in law and litigation wrote the submissions.

However, the moment I stood up to speak, the Magistrate interrupted me. He was brutal. I was not allowed to speak more than a few seconds before an abrupt and rude interruption. He started to make clicking sounds with his tongue, while shaking his head, to suggest I was pathetic in my incompetence.

In spite of constant interruptions and brutal treatment, I stood my ground and said everything I had to say, sometimes twice. I reported the Magistrate did not have the legal authority to use summary judgment in this way. I accused him of collusion with the defense.

He exploded! He said I was "paranoid" and intimated I ought to see a psychiatrist. But I am getting too old with far too much experience not to recognize a criminal conspiracy when I see one.

Magistrate Neiman stomped out of the courtroom like an angry spoiled child unable to get his own way.

When I walked out of the courtroom into the elevator, a security guard approached me to apologize for the Magistrate's behavior. He said, "They always treat people like you in this way ..." (among some other unprintable things). I thanked him for his concerns and sensitivity and then walked into the elevator.

As I drove home from the Court I began to rehash the ugly exchanges between us. It occurred to me, I thought, there was a law which specifically prohibits a magistrate from examining summary judgment.

When I got home I immediately went to my library to research the subject and -- behold! found it under 28 U.S.C. 636(b)(1)A, which says "a judge may designate a magistrate to hear and determine any pretrial matter pending before the court, except a motion for injunctive relief, for judgment on the pleadings, for summary judgment ..." As we can see, the Magistrate did not have the authority to even preside over summary judgment. Yet, my case was summarily dismissed without a hearing under that procedure without my participation. I filed a motion for review with the argument the Magistrate did not have the legal authority to preside over summary judgment. Surprisingly, both the Magistrate and the defense had agreed with me. Then they argued that, when I had signed a document to allow the Magistrate to preside over my case, it gave him the legal authority to preside over summary judgment. It does not say such a thing and, if it did, it would immediately contradict a whole array of rules, regulations, procedures and statutory provisions.

How do I get out of this situation? If I were to appeal to the court of appeals, the collusion at the lower court will accompany my appeal. If I go to the Supreme Court, they will wait a few months before dismissing my case without a hearing, effectively terminating the controversy. Those justices are just a bunch of thugs! I don't think some of them even read most of the petitions the Court dismisses each year!

If I were to complain before the Circuit Council, I will run into the "good O'boys network", who will dismiss my complaint without a hearing . If I were to appeal before the Judicial Council, I will run into the same problem but this time it terminates the controversy, again without a hearing.

Our entire news-media ignores the problem and, with the exception of my state Senator Michael Knapik, every state and federal political representative will do nothing. I want an investigation.

Nor will my local newspaper -- The Republican (Mass.) -- publish anything critical about the judiciary system in the Letter-to-the-Editor column. In fact, I just received a letter from the CEO & Publisher, Larry McDermott, saying, "We do not wish to publish your letter." In some instances, my letters to this Column have simply "disappeared." To this day, though I have some suspicion and some circumstantial evidence, I really do not understand their behavior even when I offer to provide proof of my allegations. When I make this offer they do not respond. I think they are afraid of me.

Recent Experiences With the State Courts

About 30 years ago a man, drunk, with a history of assault and battery, attacked me with a ketch-up bottle. He was trying to kill me just for the hell of it and struck me on the back of my head with that bottle. I had done nothing to provoke him, either. He was just drunk and out of control.

Since I had just gotten out of the U.S. Army I was a little "hardened" from an enormous variety of physical and emotional hardships. Instead of going un-conscious, a more normal reaction, I immediately turned around and shot him.

When the police had arrived, I soon discovered, they personally knew the man who had attacked me by his first and last name. They looked at me and said, "Jesus Christ, man, was that gun really loaded."

Several eye-witnesses told the investigating police officers I had been defending myself from a man who had assaulted me. However, in spite of that man's history of arrests for assault and battery and the evidence, they arrested me for: "Assault with the intent to commit murder", "assault and battery with a dangerous weapon" and "an unlawful discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling in use" (a fish and game regulation).

Later, when the police discovered they made a mistake by arresting the wrong person, they panicked and began to falsify evidence against me to support their charge of "assault with the intent to commit murder."

But I was far too strong to break down under the pressure and had refused to confess or to plead guilty to lessor charges. During a period of 21 months I went through 5 separate attorneys, each one inadequate in his own way. Two of them actively participated in a criminal conspiracy with the criminal prosecutor to manipulate me to plead guilty to lessor charges in order to protect the arresting police officers from civil and criminal liability.

However, I refused to co-operate with them. Two of them tried to feed me false information on law and rules of practice and procedure in order to intimidate me into submission and to manipulate me into a more agreeable position for the prosecutor.

In American law, if the criminal prosecutor fails to prosecute the defendant within a period of two years, the judge must automatically dismiss the charges against the defendant. In this instance, when I hired my fifth and last attorney, it became immediately obvious he was working for the criminal prosecutor -- not for me!

He demanded that I plead guilty before the judge and ask for mercy. He said it was "rather obvious" I was guilty. With 21 months of experience with the criminal judiciary system, the prosecutor, the judge, arresting police officers and four different attorneys, I perceived him as a fraud working for the opposing side.

Without the slightest hesitation, I called him a massive failure as a man; accused him of conspiracy with the criminal prosecutor and demanded he either commit suicide or seek psychiatric treatment. His whole body shook from my rhetorical response. He clearly wasn't accustom to anyone speaking to him in this way. Too bad!

Surprised by my powerful reaction, he got up from his chair and angrily walked out of the conference room. I noticed, at the same time, the woman who had been taking notes, had stopped taking notes of our conversation immediately after I verbally attacked my attorney for fraud and conspiracy.

One hour later, while still sitting in the attorney's conference room, my attorney returned and told me, after consultation with the criminal prosecutor, a decision was made to dismiss the charges against me.