The Accused Madam

Classy DC Indictment Notes

2012-02-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

I did a thorough read of the Classy DCindictment and created this list of issues that seem significant tothe the counts charged. Some of the issues are ridiculous – theuse of email and telephones, for example. Okay, I'll be blunt here:The entire indictment is absurd, but then the grand jury inAlexandria, Virginia will quickly indict a ham sandwich ifprosecutors place it on the agenda.

According to an unknown (and strange) party thatcontacted me a couple of nights ago wanting specific adviceconcerning opening an escort service in DC, MD, and VA, these peoplewere in business since 2007 and the only reason for this indictmentis that “violence is involved”. Is the party “Witness A” oranother co-operating witness? I think so and from the wording of herquestions, I also believe she's attempting to drag me into thefiasco.

Note to that party: Honey,people used to try to set me up on a weekly, or at least monthly,basis and this continued for years - too many years and obviously rages on. You just ain't good enough. I canusually smell bullshit a mile away as should be crystal clear by myresponses. Try it again and I'll publish your emails for all to read,with the tracing info. It is clear that you did not read my Blueprintbook by the questions that you asked. I will write and publish anyflippin' books I want. I have a clear understanding of my protectionsunder the First Amendment – feel free to pass that message on.

According to info found in WHOIS forthe Classy DC Escorts website, it was created in January of 2006, butthe feds may not have noticed them until 2007, and didn't start anyinvestigation until June of 2009:

domain: classydcescorts.com
created:04-Jan-2006
last-changed: 04-Jan-2012
registration-expiration:04-Jan-2013

Without considering specifics, I alsotake issue with the firearm crap. It sounds like this guy wasripped-off and became angry – his mistake; however, it's also basedon the word of the parties that did the ripping. We do have a SecondAmendment in the US and non-felon citizens are entitled to own a gun.There are processes in place to obtain a concealed weapons permit andI must wonder if the defendant's only real mistake was the lack ofone. Escort business owners can be vulnerable to rip-offs. Havingstated that, I acknowledge that no matter the amount of money atstake, one must walk away. It sucks, but it is how it is.

A major issue that I have is with theinclusion of the woman (Churchill) that did image or photo crops andaltering for the website is that it seems this was her onlyconnection to the operation. I suppose that we must assume the fedshave her on tape acknowledging that she understood the images were ofprostitutes that should be disguised – flippin' far-fetched if youask me. Since when is something like this criminal, no matter whatthe circumstances?

The Indictment Notes

Also connected: DMV Indies, Prime DC,and 305 Playmates.

“Multiple facilities of interstatecommerce” - including Internet website, electronic mail (email),cellular phones, automobiles that traveled on interstate highways,automated bank teller machines (ATM), Federal Express, PayPal,Moneygram, and Green Dot prepaid value-added cards.

Had ads on EROS and Backpage.

Concealed the true identity ofprostitutes from LE and “johns” by directing prostitutes tochoose a “working name”. (Duh – the escorts have a right toprivacy)

One defendant altered or digitallyenhanced photos for the company website. (Churchill)

Would verify “johns” by asking themto send a blank email from their employer's account. (easilybypassed, as is now obvious)

Kept a computerized calendar forappointments and contact information for many of the “johns”.

Made airline flight, Amtrack, and hotelreservations for the prostitutes.

UCC-1 was a driver that picked-upprostitutes at airports and Amtrack and transported to hotels in theDC area.

“Johns” paid cash. (that wasintelligent)

Prostitutes kept 60% of collected moneyplus tips, but paid approximately 50% of travel and hotel costs.(fair business practice and more fair than most)

Agency collected from prostitutes on adaily basis and reports of money owed and collected were emailed toowner. Agency was paid in cash and on occasion Green Dot byprostitutes.

Mann Act and Travel Act violations.(that interstate crap will drag you down every time)

A part of the conspiracy thatdefendants made and received interstate telephone calls andelectronic communications. (conspiracy to create income and conductbusiness)

Used Green Dot and Moneygram forinterstate transportation of prostitution proceeds. (never advisable)

Paid Churchill (for image alteringservices) using PayPal – an UCC and defendants. ($60 in one case,$120 on another, and $200 on another) – (This poor woman has beendragged into a federal prosecution over that amount of money)

Deposits made to various defendants'personal bank accounts and several business accounts. (use ofpersonal accounts a serious mistake)

UCC-1 instructed to depositprostitution proceeds directly to a defendant's account on variousoccasions. (the driver made business deposits for the owner – neverhave a driver)

In September 2009, a defendant“brandished a firearm” and threatened a former Classy prostitute(Witness A). (You must wonder what she did to provoke such an action)

Emailed flight info to a woman that hadpreviously responded to ad soliciting prostitutes. (or did those adssolicit escorts?)

In June of 2010, Witness B traveledfrom Houston to DCA to engage in sexual activity for money with“johns” on behalf of Classy. (we should expect that this is tapedand not just the word of a busted hooker)

September 2010 a defendant assaultedUCC-1 and brandished a firearm during the beating. (We must wonder what provoked such an action)

January 21, 2011, Witness B traveled tothe Eastern District of VA to engage in sexual activity with “johns”on behalf of Classy. (again, better have a tape to back that one up)

These notes are just my initialthoughts, but I do not see much to prosecute in this case. However,as with 95% of federal prosecutions, I suspect that the defendantswill take plea deals. Time will tell.

Initial Thoughts on the Classy DC Escorts Indictment

2012-01-31T05:04:00.000-05:00

A regular reader of my blogs alerted meto the Classy DC Escorts indictment a couple of days ago. I have noidea if they were “classy” or not, but that was the main agencyname, and it operated out of Washington DC and in a list of states, including New York, Ohio, Virginia, and Maryland. The defendants are facingfederal racketeering charges and various additional counts including:

Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering

Conspiracy to Travel/Use InterstateFacilities in Aid of Racketeering Enterprises

Use and Carry a Firearm During and inRelation to a Crime of Violence

Money Laundering

Forfeiture (of course)

Thanks to a Scribd and a helpful party,you can read the entire indictment here:

USA v. Akuiyibo et al.

My first thought is that some peoplebelieve they are immune from prosecution no matter what they do.These people have been under federal investigation since June of 2009, long after the DC Madam case andtrial and Jeane Palfrey's subsequent suicide, though sometimes I havemy doubts as to whether it was a suicide or not. That, of course, isanother story for another day. This group felt they were immunethough, a mistake made all too often by too many.

Of course there are unindictedco-conspirators (UCC) in the case, some known and some unknown to thegrand jury that handed down the indictment. Though the indictmentstates that there was violence involved, it's hard to tell how truethis is. It is possible that whoever carried the gun had beenthreatened or robbed in past, so I'll wait to make a judgment call onthat.

What they did do is operate in multiple states, but then Washington DC is the District of Columbia (federal of course) so it has always been no man's land in my eyes no matter how much of a major hub it is.

According to what I read of theindictment, I do not believe that Classy DC Escorts accepted creditcards, or at least they are not indicted in relation to this. Itlooks like they did accept PayPal and Green Dot Money cards or ratherhad the escorts paying fees with Green Dot cards. Note to the niceguy elsewhere that insisted using Green Dot was okay: Told ya so (I know youremember!).

According to the escort business gossiptree, confidential informants and unindicted co-conspirators from thecase have been seeking work in New Orleans and Washington DC areafrom other escort agencies over the last week. Let's imagine that they will be in other cities calling services for work soon, if not already. The gossip treereveals that each has identities on TER, EROS and Big Doggie, but it seemsthat their targets are wide awake. They're apparently trying theirvery best to drag others into this fiasco. Word to the wise...

I know that the next question peoplewill have for me relates to client lists. I have no answer yet andtime will tell, but we can almost assume the worst. I will post moreon the Classy DC Escorts indictment and case as information isreleased.

Read the article in the WashingtonExaminer for more information:

6 Face Racketeering charges in $4 million D.C. Prostitution Ring

Edit @11pm on January 31 to add: Totally stunned at the number of people seeking info on the Classy DC Escorts situation - more than with Miami Companions and High Class NY in past. Message received and I will look closer at this case and situation and post in a couple of days.

Paul Bergrin Prosecutors are Judge Shopping

2012-01-26T02:49:00.000-05:00

Federal prosecutors in Newark want tohave it their way and swap the fair and impartial US District JudgeWilliam J. Martini for a more prosecution friendly judge that helpsin the quest to railroad Paul Bergrin. Hopefully the US Third CircuitCourt of Appeals will send them the message that this ain't BurgerKing and they can't have it their way.

So which specific judge do prosecutorswant on the Paul Bergrin trials in the future? Perhaps one that willbe happy about receiving a Christmas card from an AUSA while decidinghow to rule in relation to the next trial, shut-up about it, and ruleit their way. They need a wink and nod judge at this point if thelaughable evidence from the last trial bears any similarity toevidence in future trials. The main question that I have is: Who arethe contenders for the position?

This is an odd group of federalprosecutors. They claimed solid evidence in the last trial, butproduced only a lengthy parade of convicted felons exchangingtestimony for sentence reductions and jailhouse informants thatwitnessed nothing at all seeking the same. If the evidence is solidthen prosecutors should have nothing to fear; however, that is themain problem with the last trial: Prosecutors refuse to admit theyhad no actual evidence of anything. As if each actually believesevery word stated by each so-called witness. As if! That in itself islaughable, or they're all dumb as dirt. Which is it? Of coursethere's the other possibility... that the convicted felons were eachinstructed and coached on wording prior to testimony, even though it was a big fail.

As it turns out, Lawrence Lustberg hasreally come through for Paul Bergrin. I owe the man an apology as Ireally do not know what transpired in that other case I mentioned ina previous post. Just because a defendant is not guilty and takes aplea deal doesn't mean that it had anything at all to do with theattorney. Perhaps it was a simple case of the price is right.

Yes, if the evidence in the next trialhas any similarity at all to the evidence of the last trial, well,federal prosecutors do need to judge shop. I consider Judge Martinito be impartial and even feel that he sided with prosecutors oncertain points. There are judges that would have acquitted PaulBergrin and not just discussed it and considered it. The truth isthat there should have been an acquittal on all counts. The simplefact is that there was no evidence.

So now we all wait for the ruling fromthe appeals court and eventually find out if federal prosecutorsget to have it their way. Sore losers that they are, it is unlikelyto stop at the appeals court if they do not get the opportunity tojudge shop. This group has it in for Paul Bergrin, obviously, asthey've already made too many deals with the devils (many of them) inthis pursuit. The only remaining question is how far will they go?

I think they want a show trial.

Source article by Jason Grant with TheStar-Ledger:

Alleging bias, federal prosecutors want judge removed in Bergrin murder trial

The Megaupload Indictment: A Discussion

2012-01-20T16:12:00.003-05:00

My stand against SOPA and PIPA haslittle connection to my thoughts on the Megaupload indictment andarrests currently in the news. I mean let's not pretend that thesepeople believe information should be free or have some otheradmirable agenda because this is clearly not the case.

Kim Dotcom, or whatever he callshimself today, had a mansion with heavy security and a Rolls Royce tostart with here. I, on the other hand, have an old vehicle indisrepair and exist in a small apartment. I literally have nothingmuch. Meanwhile, Kim and his cohorts had links for free uploads of myBlueprint books on their megasite where they sold subscriptions andadvertising and lived extremely high. Not just high living, but toextremes – make sure to note that. In every sense of the word,these people were greedy pigs, worse than any of the Occupy targets.

So why does Anonymous run to theirdefense by knocking down various government websites and threateningmore havoc? Please feel free to explain if you have a clue.

This post is prompted by an articlethat I just read: Megaupload site wants assets back, to fight charges

Newsflash to Kim whatshisname: We haveforfeiture laws in the US and that ain't happenin'. The money youmade selling the property of hard-working, and often poor, people wasnever yours to begin with and you won't be getting it back.

Once the DOJ gets its hooks in yourbanks accounts and starts scouting for assets, you'll have nothingmuch at all – just like me. Usually that also translates to alldefendants ending-up with attorneys from the Federal Public DefendersOffice, so expect to fight like the rest of the people dude. Therewon't be $millions to hand to top-notch attorneys and buy your wayout; it doesn't work like that at all. Your days as a greedy jerkwith a license to steal are over.

Sure, there's the argument that many ofthe freeloaders that downloaded movies, books, and music fromMegaupload would not have purchased any of the products anyway, butif even one out of 100 did, then people like me could possibly surviveand continue to produce content. No doubt in my mind that independentmusicians and authors have suffered the most by the actions of this greedy gangand the others still out there.

Having stated all of that, I do notadvocate life imprisonment (or any prison) for any criminal activitythat doesn't involve violence or the serious and actual threat of violence. I don't wantto see these greedy thieves go to prison at all. I would rather thateach learned how so many of their victims have to live – firsthand.

Former Melbourne Cop Frank Carter: Revisiting the Cases

2012-01-19T17:50:00.001-05:00

There have been numerous searches forinformation on Frank Carter, the former Melbourne PD officer firedlong ago and now pursuing a civil suit in federal court, recentlythat have arrived at this blog. I figure that I may as well obligethe reading public and post an update and my synopsis of the entiresituation. Have I changed my mind about Carter? I will let youdecide.

To establish my own mindset you needonly read through this blog. I really do not trust cops and for themost part, I do not like cops. If you have read many of my posts,this should be obvious to you. However, I also do not like selectiveand/or malicious prosecutions. I am not so sure that Frank Carter'sstory is either, but they did hang him out to dry and fail to followthrough. They did end his career even though he still has his lawenforcement certification. Who in the hell would hire the guy? (noone I hope)

In my opinion, prosecutors failed tofollow through on prosecuting Frank Carter because to do so wouldopen a monstrous can of worms, which is also why the judge on thecriminal case refused to allow certain evidence in the case againsthim. What can of worms am I referring to? Ha – the many, manyprosecutions and plea deals that were made as a result of Carter'slegally insufficient (i.e. illegal) traffic stops and vehiclesearches. They would have to deal with hundreds of appeals and civilsuits as opposed to dealing with lone cop Carter. That is my opinionand you may do with it what you wish.

Was Frank Carter a Bad Cop?

Well absolutely –there is nothing good about a cop that uses creative reasoning (i.e.lies and/or falsifies information on reports) to make a traffic stopand then again to search a vehicle. We still have a Fourth Amendmentto the US Constitution in this country, however diminished it istoday.

I have encounteredmany cops similar to Carter over the years and my son has encounteredmany exactly like Carter in his many traffic stops in the State ofFlorida, most being in Brevard County. I know who Frank Carter reallyis, but I also know that he was allowed to proceed as he saw fit forfar too many years. Face it – this guy should never have had a 20+year career with the Melbourne Police Department to use as leveragein his quest for $millions today.

Maybe, just maybe,Frank Carter has experienced a revelation of sorts and secretly knowsthat his many illegal traffic stops and vehicle searches over theyears were wrong and illegal. Maybe he has learned a lesson that hewill never forget. We can only hope so.

Carter's civilsuit that was filed in federal court in Orlando is now in mediation.Lucky him as he gets cop-friendly federal judge Anne Conway – shedismissed my civil suit against bad cops after having a luncheon withformer Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary (a defendant in my suit)less than a week earlier. Coincidence? Maybe, but I doubt it.

I do not believethat Carter will get $millions as he so desires, but I do believethat there will be a settlement soon. And really, Carter needs themoney to pay the many creditors that have filed suits against him.His life stopped when he was arrested and so did his ability to paybills apparently as there are 10+ suits against him. We use the name“Frank Carter” but his actual name is Francis Carter, so if youwere searching for information and didn't locate it, that may be why.

I also feel thathis many victims did not do all that each could do to push prosecutorsinto pursuing the case against Carter. How many put it on paper andswore to it? It's hard to tell, but not many in my opinion orprosecutors wouldn't be able to play hide-n-seek on the case. MaybeDienecia Johnson was the only one and now she will suffer for it asshe probably is already. Been there and done that with a differentgang of bad cops. So if the other alleged victims didn't followthrough, well, we can't blame Carter. Lucky him that they all losttheir backbone somewhere long ago. It is clear that he still has his(backbone).

If you want toread my previous posts about Frank Carter, go to the label on thisblog: Frank Carter

If you areinterested in what specifically prompted Frank Carter's arrest tobegin with, read: Carteria

The amendedcomplaint in the current civil suit is here:

Francis Carter Amended Complaint August 2011

The latest filingin reference to mediation is here:

Francis Carter Mediation Notice 12 January 2012

This is a casethat offered serious lessons for many, including Carter. Hopefully hemoves on in life and is able to put his former career behind him. Iwould not be surprised if Carter opted to finish a bachelor's degreeand go to law school as it is really the only area of law to pursuethat will benefit him in the future. May he decide to actually studyconstitutional law, especially in relation to the Fourth Amendment.

Taking a Stand Against SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-17T17:07:00.001-05:00

As a party that holds numerouscopyright registrations and is in-process of registering additionalmaterial, my opinion should count when it comes to the Stop OnlinePiracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).However, the response from Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) could easily be summarized as:

It's all good. We know what's best foryou and you really don't know a damn thing about it. I'm going tovote where the money is and it is overwhelmingly in support of PIPA.So go bake a cake or do something useful.

A main issue that I have with the SOPAand PIPA legislation is that it gives our government agencies such asthe Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security(DHS), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even more powerthan each already holds. As a copyright holder, I am more thancapable of sending out a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)takedown notice and have done so in past. I do not need or want theUS government to have the ability to block the offending party'sdomains and initiate prosecution. Thanks, but no thanks – I'llpass.

As a blogger that often posts YouTubemusic videos I am also on the other side of that street and am wellaware that the SOPA and PIPA legislation could serve as a platform toremove and/or block this blog, my other blogs, and my websites and prosecute me.

Any copyright holder of the music in aparticular YouTube must only contact Google and request that it beremoved or embedding be blocked. Many copyright holders do preciselythat. I had a YouTube on my Blueprint Blog a couple of daysago that stated, “This content is not available in your country,”or something close to that when I returned to change it the followingday. An example of embedding disabled is the Haddaway YouTube, “Whatis Love” found HERE. I love that video, but can't post it on thisblog as it states, “embedding disabled by request”. So as yousee, this is a simple solution for copyright holders.

So what in the hell is the Problem?

Well, the backersof the PIPA and SOPA legislation will slam you with all sorts oftwisted reasoning about why we need these bills to pass, but thetruth of the matter is that the laws will be abused and used toremove and/or block blogs such as this one. Consider what they managed todo with the PATRIOT Act long ago. As an early victim of the PATRIOTlegislation passed in October of 2001, trust me when I tell you thatthey used it to eliminate the Fourth Amendment protections of manycitizens. I was far from alone.

When the backersrespond that this thesis of defense is all hype, just remember thePATRIOT Act, which I actually read shortly after it passed, unlikethe dazed representatives that voted to pass it. Thanks, but I willpass on my government protecting me from pirates in othercountries and anything else for that matter. They taught me long agothat they are the perpetrators, not the protectors.

As a writer withnumerous registered copyrights, I am the alleged victim that theyclaim to help with this legislation and I want you to fight them allthe way to the courthouse steps. Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla,WordPress, and Boing Boing will be implementing a blackout of allwebsites at 12 midnight EST (Washington DC time) on 18 January, 2012.That is tonight at midnight and it will be in effect for 24 hours.Contact Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, and Bing and request that eachsupport this blackout also!

Now, Senator BillNelson of Florida, since I have published my viewpoint, I think Iwill go bake that fucking cake. Thanks for nothing as usual.

Before I leavehere, just in case the legislation does pass at some point, you maywant to know about the MAFIAA Fire Redirector: MAFIAA

For moreinformation from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Setting the Record Straight on SOPA: Some Evidence-Based Analysis

Orlando MBI: The Long War on Adults

2011-12-29T18:01:00.000-05:00

The War on anything adult and allpublishers of ads for anything adult in the Orlando metro areastarted over 3 decades ago for Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) and continues today. The MBI's overzealous agentshave left a trail of thousands of victims, many still in state andfederal prisons. I was one of the lucky victims (lucky I'm not spending life in prison anyway) and Memoirs of an Accused Madam is my story.

The most vehement critic of the OrlandoMBI was always the Orlando Weekly and the agency managed tosilence the newspaper's investigative reporting with the October 2007arrests of several advertising sales employees for selling ads toescorts and unlicensed massage therapists that offered more than thelaw allows.

Many around back in 1996 could testifyto the fact that this was not a new strategy for the MBI, myselfincluded. The War on publishers of ads for adult business began withthe Yellow Pages Fiasco in 1996, when Sprint Publishing wasthreatened with a RICO case over a refusal to remove the “escortservices” category in the Central Florida yellow pages. Sprint didremove the category, stopping the presses (literally) on the 1997directories printed and distributed by November of 1996.

Someone stated to me back in 1993-94that Orlando was a testing ground of some sort in relation to theeradication of anything involving adult business or vice, fromgambling and bingo to escort services and X-rated movies. I believeit. The MBI's War on Adults has spread throughout the US these dayswith the attacks on Craigslist (an MBI priority before anyone elseever touched it) and now on Backpage.

Enjoy Bingo?

The MBI would have liked to make surethat you would never enjoy bingo in Orlando; however, Philip Furtneyof Ontario fought the agency from 1995, until he died in late 2007,while in-process of a civil suit against members of the MBI GoverningBoard to retrieve his stolen property. Furtney's brother Bruce, onbehalf of the estate, carried-on with the suit and won a judgment. Asfar as I am aware, Furtney's estate finally collected from the Stateof Florida.

I would like to keep Philip LeroyFurtney's criminal and civil cases alive in our memories forever anddo so with the inclusion of links to posts on this blog. Never forgetwhat the MBI is capable of:

The Bingo Racketeering Case

The Great Bingo Fiasco

Bingo Case Hearing

The Cost of MBI

Most Bizarre Racketeering Case Ever

True Investigative Reporting of aRenegade Agency

Over the years, the Orlando Weeklyand its investigative reporters were often nipping at the heels ofthe dogs at the MBI. Retaliation is hell and the Weekly and itsemployees paid dearly for placing the agency in the public eye. Oneday last week I did a search for MBI articles written by Weeklyreporters and each link was dead. A fear of sorts gripped me at thediscovery, a fear that all the solid online information concerningthe vicious pursuits of the MBI was being deleted and removed. Whew!It didn't happen and a few days later the links were all working. Oneother thought I had was that perhaps the Weekly hadcommissioned a book – that would have been wonderful; it wouldbecome a bestseller overnight. (Idea for the Weekly to helpmake-up for lost revenue!)

To keep the information out there Ihave compiled a list of important Orlando Weekly stories about theMBI over the last 10 years. Whatever the Weekly did last week withthe links has made it so that the articles are on a dark redbackground with dark blue text – if you highlight the text it ismuch easier to read. They are in no particular order and searchingthe Orlando Weekly for stories on the MBI revealed 135 results sothese are my picks:

29 Embarrassing Years: An MBI timeline

The Morality Police (scroll to view 2images, 1 of the MBI director in 1989 and the other of Hitler's SAand both concerned over morality – scary stuff)

Operation MBI Shame: A close look at how Orlando's vice cops really operate

Cops in Cocoa stamp out sin

The MBI busts heads and Rich Crotty attempts to smile (smoke shop raids)

Our little Gestapo (MBI = "Central Florida's Church Lady with a Badge") (love this story!)

Score one for the MBI (about my federalcivil suit being tossed with a twist at the end)

Something's Fishy (bad behavior ofagents at a strip club)

Dirty Politics (on the Video Exposétakedown)

Operation Overexposed

Breasts out

Run 'Em Out of Town

Happytown Column (on The OriginalBookstore raid)

The Booby Trap

Told You So (Part 2) (I can't locatepart 1)

Legal Haze (smoke shop raids)

The links I have included reveal whatthe MBI really is, but there are many cases that even the Weeklywas not aware of and many defendants that have suffered at the handsof the overzealous agents of the Metropolitan Bureau ofInvestigation. Few appreciate this agency in Orlando – the citizensdid not ask for this whacked task force to eliminate all that isadult in Orlando. I will leave it to you to figure out what monsterenterprise did.

I have written about a variety of casesin Memoirs that are not in any Weekly articles. In the pastcouple of months I've discussed the Orlando federal conspiracy trialof the 11 defendants from Eastern Europe on this blog – this isindeed an MBI case. MBI is not a local agency. I am not clear on howthe agency has changed since former Director William Lutz retired,though at the conclusion of Memoirs I did believe there hadbeen a significant change. Well, I have changed my mind.

I consider it important to keep theinformation out there and perhaps if I had given away free copies ofMemoirs a couple of years ago after it was published, the mostrecent case involving the Eastern European defendants would neverhave happened; maybe, just maybe, they would have passed on Orlando. If not for the arrests of the Weekly employees in late 2007, there would be many more articles of cases that are now buried by the MBI.

If you are an adult that likes togamble, play bingo, visit smoke shops, rent X-rated movies, readX-rated books, get a massage with a happy ending, patronize stripclubs, or call escorts... well, Orlando is not the place to be. We live in a fantasy land for children here - think about it - Disney shut down Pleasure Island (the nightclub theme park) in late 2008, after 20 years, because of demands by visiting families. TheMBI has not been dissolved yet, with emphasis on yet, and we can only hope that one day...

If you do not like me, realize thatit is the MBI that made me the person that I am today. I like who I am, but if you don't, well, you should know that I used to be a nice, mild-mannered woman. More than a decade of continuous harassment, interference in my life, and a show trial that rivaled many in the Stalin era did it. Change can be a good thing. I learned to kick back.

Memoirs and Blueprint FREE in All Kindle Stores 29-31 December 2011

2011-12-28T16:12:00.000-05:00

Blueprint for an Escort Service andMemoirs of an Accused Madam: The War on Adult Business in Orlandoare my New Year's present to you:

From 29 December at approximately12:01AM Pacific Standard Time (PST) through 31 December 2011 atapproximately 11:59PM Pacific Standard Time (PST), both ebooks arefree in ALL Amazon Kindle stores.

Blueprint for an Escort Servicedescription:

“Blueprint for an Escort Service”is written with legal issues in mind, but from a businessperspective. The idea is to send out sexy escorts ordancers/strippers by the hour, and not for sex. If opening an escortbusiness or entertainment company is your plan, this book will saveyou unimaginable trouble and avert potential disasters at everycorner.

You are receiving the benefit of my 13 years ofexperience in the escort business, and the 13 years does not includeseveral years of knowledge developed from the arrest, case, and trialthat resulted in my acquittal by jury. If you are going to readadvice and operational plans in relation to the escort business,don't you want that advice to come from the one escort service ownerin the US that beat racketeering and conspiracy charges?

Thisbook is written for those people that suddenly find that they're onthe verge of poverty and have the desire, audacity, and guts to digtheir way out of that hole. It is also written for the wage slavethat wants to live for a change, or the single mother that wants tospend time with her children, not working 50 hours a week fornothing. It could also be for the person with health problems thatcan't go out and do physical work, or for the reader that simplywants to know about escort business operations. Adult business iswhat you make it, and it certainly can be fun, exciting, andprofitable all at the same time. It is a potential solution tofinancial problems.

The entire point of the book is to makeopening an escort service or entertainment company anywhere a simpleproject. Some chapters are short as it is not my intention toreinvent the wheel. The word count total is 32,000.

Memoirs of an Accused Madam: The War on Adult Business in Orlando description:

The story begins in early 1993, withthe discovery of blocks on escort service telephone lines in Orlandoarea resort PBX systems during large convention bookings. The blocksbegan in the late 1980s and were not isolated to the Orlando area,but were also in operation in Las Vegas. The blocks have evolved, butstill exist today.

In 1992, Vicky Gallas opened escortservices in Orlando, Florida. Two years later she became the focus ofan intense criminal investigation that resulted in her arrest in late2001, and subsequent jury trial and acquittal in 2003. In thishard-hitting memoir, she reveals how racketeering and organized crimecharges were brought against her based on proof so flimsy that agentsand prosecutors could not get a wiretap or a warrant to search.

Foranyone fascinated with the foibles of our criminal justice system,the sensational Orlando connection, and how escort services reallywork, this is a must-read book.

Happy New Year!

Verdicts Filed in Orlando Conspiracy Trial

2011-12-26T13:44:00.000-05:00

Finally the verdicts have been filed in the federal conspiracy trial of the Eastern Europeans. There has also been a verdict transcript filed and I am linking both below. Beyond this, defendants Saida Babaeva and Alina Priadko have also filed motions for a new trial and defendants Natalia Fedorova and Aleksandra have joined them by adopting the Motion for a New Trial.

Though the date of filing on these documents is 21 December 2011, none were recorded on 23 December when I looked in PACER. I hope to see defendants Alexandr Postica and Tatiana Belinschi also file motions for a new trial. Remember - the prosecutors have until the end of December to respond to motions for mistrial.

Verdict

Verdict Transcript

Motion for New Trial

Babaeva and Priadko Motion re New Trial

According to the verdict form filed, the jury found the following defendants guilty of counts:

Alexandr Postica - 8 counts
Tatiana Belinschi - 10 counts
Saida Babaeva - 4 counts
Alina Priadko - 4 counts
Natalia Fedorova - 3 counts
Aleksandra Liubina - 4 counts

So what in the hell was this MSNBC article stating:

“The group were convicted on 18 of 19charges filed against them including conspiracy, traveling ininterstate and foreign commerce to promote a prostitution business,and using facilities of interstate commerce to promote a prostitutionbusiness, prosecutors said.”

Source: Florida jury convicts 6 over Eastern European prostitution ring

This is why I did not want to elaborate until I could view the actual verdict form filed. Apparently MSNBC just believed whatever someone from the prosecutor's office (DOJ) claimed. Like I believed it was a sex trafficking case because the Orlando Sentinel stated that it was. The defendants were convicted on a total of 33 counts and it is all much worse than we initially believed.

Check back in another week - I will be posting the government / prosecutor response to the motions for acquittal by all convicted defendants.

Backpage Under Attack: My Expert Opinion

2011-12-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I did a search for the term“backpage” in Google News and found pages of news articlesconcerning recent arrests that involve ads on Backpage. Today I didthe same search and found additional articles of arrests made in thepast day. Village Voice Media, the owner of Backpage, is underserious attack by anyone and everyone that hates adult business ofany type. Cops are using the website for stings all over the US now - really - search for yourself.

Before continuing here, I would like togo ahead and establish my expert status on the topic. While I am notan expert on sex trafficking, I do consider myself an expert on theso-called “sex trafficking experts” that are demanding Backpageremove its entire “adult” category, which includes thesub-categories: escorts; body rubs; strippers & strip clubs; domand fetish; TS; male escorts; phone & websites; and adult jobs. Ihave dealt with one form or another of these experts with an agendasince 1992, and that is longer than any one of the so-called expertshave tackled sex trafficking.

The religious groups involved inattacking Backpage are still cheering with delight over their victoryat Craigslist. To clarify, it wasn't really a victory as those typeof ads are now spread-out through many categories on Craigslist –participants in adult business manage to find the ads. Beyond this,Craigslist only lost in the court of public opinion and not in anyactual court. In fact, if anything threatened by so many stateattorney generals had actually gone to any court, Craigslist wouldhave won and they all know it, which is why they choose the court ofpublic opinion.

I would also like to establish that Ihave no horse in this race. I placed ads promoting my books in the“adult jobs” sub-category for close to a year ending over a yearago. So, I have no personal or business need for the “adult”category of Backpage and in fact, quite the opposite as many thatpurchase my Blueprint books start an escort service and followinstructions in the books and have websites and local listingsonline. There is no advice in any book to advertise services onBackpage or Craigslist and there never has been. There is an optiondiscussed to place an ad in the sub-category “adult jobs” if onehas any trouble finding independent escorts for the business, butthen all advice is geared to working only with escorts over 21 yearsof age and even this option is updated to exclude such an ad anywhere on theBlueprint Blog.

The “adult” category ads onBackpage interfere with escort businesses that operate properly withwebsites and local listings, so I do not have any reason whatsoeverto defend Backpage or the crowd that advertises in the “adult”category. Who really wants all these independent escorts advertisinga $100 special? Not me or anyone that bought my books to enter thebusiness. You can conclude that I have no horse in this race. Myinterest is based solely on the First Amendment rights of thepublishers and an unequivocal disgust for the anti-adult businesscrowd.

The Print Publishing Agenda

When anything and everything adult wentonline many years ago we all realized that there would be good andbad. The world has progressed beyond print ads and this is true ofany category. Is there anyone out there that actually believes thatthere were no sex traffickers that actually exploited children inoperation before adult business went online? There were pimps on thestreet. There were underage prostitutes that worked for businessesthat advertised in mainstream newspapers, independent newspublications, and yellow pages. Nothing at all has changed except thedelivery of the ad.

Print publications that include “adult”or “entertainment-adult” categories that have not succeeded inthe world of online publishing and marketing would love to see the“adult” category of Backpage eliminated. Those inept advertisersnot capable of creating and publishing a website or not interested inputting forth time and effort in their businesses to list onlinelocally would probably flock back to print and they'd be back in themoney – and make no mistake – it was big money for theprint publishers. My print ads in the Reuben H. Donnelley (now DexOne Corporation) yellow pages in Central Florida total was around$50K back in 1996. These days one could accomplish the same byspending less than $1K a year online. Hopefully you understand thepoint here.

The Sex Trafficking Expert Agenda

These so-called sex trafficking expertsdisseminate false information to the naïve general population andmost fall for it hook, line, and sinker. More often than not, peopledo not even bother to question the source agenda. You do realize thatthe DOJ passes out major grant money and funding to all of theseso-called non-profit groups, right? They are non-profit” only inthe sense that they do not show profits or pay tax on profits, but in reality allparticipants are collecting serious money in the form of paychecksand research grants. Do include local, state, and federal lawenforcement in this agenda.

They have all formed task forces forwhat has existed forever by giving it a new label – the sextrafficking label. The pimp from the street moved online and now theyall need $millions+ to find him – have you ever heard anything thatabsurd? I could pick out the pimps and underage prostitutes onlineeasily in much less time and for much less money. These people areinept idiots that have managed to give themselves long-term paychecksat the expense of adult business, the US taxpayer, and the First Amendment.

DOJ-Funded Human Trafficking Task Forces – An excerpt:

“To facilitate multidistrict contactsand cooperation in sex trafficking cases, the U.S. Department ofJustice has funded 42 jurisdictions and 36 trafficking victimservices providers to form human trafficking task forces to identifyand rescue victims of trafficking by proactively investigating suchcases.”

Or could it be that it is not really adeep concern for a few underage prostitutes and their pimps and moreof an anti-adult business agenda? Bingo. These people want towipe-out all forms of adult business, but escort services andadvertising websites used by escorts are the target du jour. They arehappy that they'll put 200K+ adult independent escorts out ofbusiness with some lame pretense that they must stop a few minorgirls from being sex trafficking victims. Bullshit – I have lookedcloser at many of their crap cases on this blog.

The fact is that they want noadvertising venues to accept ads for any adult business or operatorof any type. They have been at this for many years in the US, buthave finally figured out out to get serious $$$$ for the agenda. Backwhen the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) went after SprintYellow Pages in Orlando there were no big funds available and fewrallied to the cause – the MBI was on their own (with grant money from Disney) against the FirstAmendment rights of publishers and it was an ugly game. Read Yellow Pages Fiasco for more information on that mess.

More recently (2007-08) there was theMBI's lone pursuit of Orlando Weekly and its employees – a local Orlando newspaper: Well, Google the term “orlando weekly andmbi” to see the pages of results as all stories about the MBI inthe Orlando Weekly are currently down or have been eliminated (http 500 error) or read FirstAmendment attorney Marc Randazza's thoughts: The Orlando Weekly Case

Now I am curious as to what is going onwith the Weekly. All of the previously published stories aboutthe MBI are unavailable, including The Morality Police,a major story published concerning many cases, including my own case.All stories that exposed the truth about the MBI have disappeared.

TheReligious Agenda

Thisshould be obvious to you. In the name of religious zealotry, the sextrafficking card is played often these days, but it isn't anythingnew for religious groups in the US to pursue the anti-adult agendawith any means available. A short story from Memoirs:

For an entire year I received aboutforty to eighty calls a month on my main toll-free number wherein thecallers requested a free book about Jesus that they had seenadvertised on a Christian program on television. I was always nice,and explained that it was a business line and I had no such ad. Iadvised them to call the program and question them about it. This wasno big problem and only added about twenty or thirty dollars to mymonthly bill.

After about a year, things suddenlychanged: The phone would ring off the hook with calls coming in fromall over the country. The callers were responding to an ad for freephone sex that ran on USA Network affiliate stationseverywhere. Some stated that they saw the ad in a magazine as well.The callers described an ad with ladies almost entirely nude exceptfor a small piece of lingerie. They all repeated my number to me, andthe phone rang constantly with this crap from around eleven in theevening until two or three in the morning.

Afterabout two months of these harassing calls I had the numberdisconnected. Every time I picked up the phone the billing started,and it was ten cents a minute. It was seriously running up the bill.I never actually saw the ad on television, but an escort that workedfor me did and called me and described it to me. This was a toll-freenumber that I’d had since opening the business, and many repeatclients called it, usually from out-of-town numbers.

WhenI thought about the situation I realized that the free book aboutJesus ad had not served the purpose that someone intended: to get meto turn the number off. Regardless, someone dug into their deeppockets and finally achieved the desired result. I was never able toget a person on the phone at any affiliate station that could directme to anyone that had the advertiser’s information. This was anintelligent maneuver deliberately used to prevent me from receivingtoll-free calls from clients, and it was successful.

TheCourt of Public Opinion

Ican see that someone wanted all of those articles from the OrlandoWeekly removed and unavailable online to the general population. Theydo not want you to know how long this war has been going on here andwould prefer that you believed it was an admirable agenda. Someonetold me many years ago (1993-94) that Orlando was a testing ground ofsorts – I believe it. What used to be an MBI agenda is now beingpursued all over the US using any and all tools in the toolbox. Caveat Emptor. The goods they are selling the general population are indeed defective in this situation.

USA vs Tatiana Belinschi Update

2011-12-19T10:13:00.000-05:00

This is a short post as I have been ill and am not able to do much each day - it is already time for me to return to bed and I just woke-up at 6am. The reason for the post is to link an update posted on my website in the case of Tatiana Belinschi.

The federal clerk of courts has not been properly posting documents in the case of these 11 defendants from Eastern Europe, but I found an Order that reveals much. The Order is posted under Tatiana Belinschi's file in PACER and is related to her attempt to get a bond and be released prior to sentencing - the judge denied the bond, but the Order lists the counts that she was convicted on. She was convicted on 10 counts altogether. The earlier news report stated that six defendants were convicted on a total of 18 counts, so that leaves 8 counts between the remaining defendants that were convicted.

Order in USA vs Tatiana Belinschi

It is beyond my imagination how this jury could convict Tatiana Belinschi on so many counts for what many people are doing today all over the US and other areas of the world: posting ads on Backpage and calling people. Tatiana could receive up to 50 years in a US prison, but that is the high figure and it will probably be closer to 10 years, which is horrific. People have been sentenced to less than that for killing. Do you see how much they hate someone involved in adult business of any type here?

Yes, this really is the most corrupt place on earth.

I will return and post again when I am feeling better - had to update the website in case I don't feel better and I am limited in what I can do each day. I have many emails and handwritten letters to respond to and hopefully will be able to answer soon - I promise that I am not purposely ignoring anyone.

Jason Itzler Disappears

2011-12-14T02:39:00.002-05:00

I have written a few posts recently about Jason Itzler and occasionally I will look online at his current criminal case to see if there are any updates. I last looked a few weeks ago and there was a future court appearance date, but otherwise everything was the same: Itzler was still in jail and couldn't make bond.

Well, I just now looked as I was in New York WebCrims to see if there were any updates on the NY High Class prosecution (there are not). To my surprise, the major case against Jason Itzler totally disappeared. There are no cases showing at all under his name and trust me, there sure was before. My only posts on this blog concerning Itzler are:

Jason Itzler of NY Confidential Fame: Clown or Killer?
Too Many Enemies
More on Jason Itzler and Sumnicht's Death

Itzler was arrested on a list of major charges back on September 8 or 9 of 2011 - as in three months ago. I have been having an argument of sorts with one of his fans (not) on this blog and we all know the case existed. There are still news articles out there concerning his arrest and court appearances.

So what in the hell is going on with the guy and the case? Did he die in jail or is he being prepped/protected for his new career as a witness, namely in the Paul Bergrin case? If it involves being a witness, well, the guy has zero credibility so I cannot imagine what government prosecutors are thinking. He has always been rather close to a few news reporters, so I would think that it would be in the news if he died.

He is still showing on an inmate search for Riker's Island, for what that's worth. When I search WebCrims by the case number showing in NYC Dept. of Corrections, which states that Itzler is in the Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC), the result is "no cases found" - same as a name search.

Call me confused.

Edit 16 December 2011 @11:20am EST - Now the case shows in New York WebCrims. It also shows under "appearances" that Itzler was in court on 13 December 2011. Coincidence? I seriously doubt it.

Orlando Conspiracy Trial: Verdict Confusion

2011-12-08T11:36:00.001-05:00

I discussed the jury verdicts in thetrial of the 11 defendants from Eastern Europe in my last post. TheOrlando Sentinel statement was vague – it only stated that 5defendants were acquitted and at the conclusion of the article theconvicted defendants were named. The MSNBC article included thestatement:

“The group were convicted on 18 of 19charges filed against them including conspiracy, traveling ininterstate and foreign commerce to promote a prostitution business,and using facilities of interstate commerce to promote a prostitutionbusiness, prosecutors said.”

Source: Florida jury convicts 6 over Eastern European prostitution ring

So what is the confusion?

Here is a link tothe final “Court's Proposed Verdict Form” filed on 30 November2011 from my website: Court's Proposed Verdict Form

Now if you add thecounts that each convicted defendant was charged with you will seeclearly that there were more than 19 counts (as stated by MSNBC)charged. The figures:

Tatiana Belinschi– 14 counts
Alexandr Postica – 9 counts
Saida Babaeva –8 counts
Aleksandra Liubina – 8 counts
Natalia Fedorova –7 counts
Alina Priadko – 7 counts

There were nomotions and orders to dismiss counts filed after this last verdictform. There were motions for acquittal, but they are not available inPACER for whatever weird reason, and there were no orders on themotions anyway, at least the system doesn't show any orders listed asentered in the files.

The clerk's officestill has not filed and scanned the verdict form that showsspecifically which counts each defendant was convicted or acquittedof. Yes, this really matters!

This is one of themost confusing cases that I have ever seen in federal court. My takeon the entire story is that Tatiana Belinschi was posting ads onCraigslist and then later on Backpage that offered massage servicesand also booking appointments. Other defendants, some already in the USfor other reasons, went to the massage appointments and/or worked inspas (or massage parlors or body scrubs) in various locations fromOrlando and Tampa to Massachusetts and Ohio. Alexandr Postica drove acouple of the women from one place to another, crossing state lines,but if he did anything else at all I sure did not read it in the manydocuments. They all talked on telephones and communicated withmessaging. A few of the women agreed to more money for extraservices with clients, not realizing that a hand release is consideredprostitution here. Roman Caraiman allegedly threatened a couple ofthe women, but one (Natalia) stated the opposite – they neverdiscussed sex and he was never even rude to her and certainly did nottell her to offer extra services of any type.

So have Isucceeded in confusing you yet? Prosecutors claim that all theconvicted defendants were in the US illegally, but there arestatements that confirm they had the required paperwork and came tothe US for employment – one as a nanny and another to work in ahotel and I read no statements about the others at all in thedocuments.

What did any ofthese people actually do wrong or illegal here? Sure, US laws(especially the conspiracy laws) are convoluted, but still I amseeing people criminally prosecuted for what amounts to commercialbehavior. And if you think that conspiracy laws are absurdlyconfusing here, wait till you try to understand sentencing laws andhow they apply a sentence – this is why it matters so much how manycounts each defendant was convicted of. I do not even want to gothere, but if we knew the specific convictions for each defendant wecould at least know the maximum possible sentence.

Unlike the OrlandoSentinel and MSNBC, I am unable to make a telephone call to theprosecutor and ask – the reason should be obvious to you, and neither of these news outlets bother to post any documents. If theclerk's office decides to file the verdicts (as required by law –this is public information) I will post on it.

EDIT @3:10pm on 8 December 2011 - To be clear, there are motions for acquittal filed by the convicted defendants' attorneys. The prosecutor was given until the end of December to respond to all of the motions. This is common in any criminal case when a defendant is convicted, but in this case there are solid, valid reasons of law for acquittals. This is the case that should never have been a case to begin with, at least not in federal court and as it was charged.

The only Motion for Judgment of Acquittal that was available to the public is the one filed by Natalia Fedorova's attorney: Motion for Judgment of Acquittal

An important part of this motion in relation to Roman Caraiman is found on page 15. Another important part relating to Alexandr Postica is found at the end of page 15 and top of page 16. One other major issue in the motion to consider is that Fedorova and Liubina were never even accused of offering any "sexual act". They allegedly offered "hand jobs" to a couple of clients for additional money - the general population would be surprised to know that "hand jobs" are actually considered prostitution here.

Totally absurd case. What was originally described by the Orlando Sentinel as a "Russian sex trafficking ring" is actually a few workers in a massage parlor offering "hand jobs" for tips. Can you imagine that the US prosecutors would attempt to give these people anywhere from 2 years to 40 years in a federal prison because a few women gave "hand jobs" and even admit that Tatiana Belinschi, Alexandr Postica, and Roman Caraiman never knew this fact???

Well, I have seen it before in another MBI case that was prosecuted by the State of Florida back in 1997. I wrote about it in my Memoirs book as a good friend was one of the MBI victims in the case. She was charged with 3 counts of prostitution and 1 count of racketeering (punishable by up to 30 years in a Florida prison) for allegedly giving one client "hand jobs" on 3 separate visits - the MBI scared the guy to death and he gave this statement. I will find the page in Memoirs wherein I discuss it and create a new post later.

The verdict form is still not available in PACER.

Orlando Conspiracy Trial: Verdicts In

2011-12-06T21:17:00.001-05:00

I am sorry to post that 6 of the 11 defendants from Eastern Europe were convicted on various counts by the Orlando federal jury late this afternoon. The remaining 5 defendants were acquitted (found not guilty) by the jury.

The defendants that were acquitted are:

Kateryna Krykovlyuk
Elena Shashurova
VladaBlisciuc
Elena Abushinova
Irina Luchina

The defendants that were found guilty of at least 1 count are:

Tatiana Belinschi
Alexandr Postica
Saida Babaeva
Aleksandra Liubina
Natalia Fedorova
Alina Priadko

The information of the verdicts came from the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper did not state what specific charges each of the 6 defendants were found guilty of. The information should be filed by tomorrow (7 December) and available in the PACER system - I will update this post as soon as the filed information is available.

The article in the Sentinel: Verdicts returned in suspected Russian sex ring

According to the article, sentencing is scheduled for February 23, 2012, for the 6 defendants that were convicted. The Orlando MBI totally sucks. I am not finished discussing this case, but I would rather see the verdicts for each defendant before I continue.

EDIT @11:58am 7 December 2011:

I found a news article on MSNBC that better describes the convictions. The document still has not been filed in the clerk's office and is not available in PACER, but should be by the end of business today. The MSNBC article: Florida jury convicts 6 over Eastern European prostitution ring

An excerpt from the article:

The group were convicted on 18 of 19 charges filed against them including conspiracy, traveling in interstate and foreign commerce to promote a prostitution business, and using facilities of interstate commerce to promote a prostitution business, prosecutors said.

This is not good news.On that note, I recommend that each convicted defendant get a strong federal criminal appeals attorney, like this guy: The Federal Criminal Appeals Blog

Here is an interesting post regarding a conspiracy conviction and federal conspiracy definitions in general: The First Circuit Vacates a Conspiracy Conviction

Orlando Conspiracy Trial: Verdict Watch

2011-12-05T16:56:00.001-05:00

The outcome of this trial is ofconsiderable importance for anyone involved in the world of adultbusiness, more so than many seem to believe. The defendants in thisOrlando federal court trial are:

Tatiana Belinschi

Alexandr Postica
Saida Babaeva
Kateryna Krykovlyuk
Elena Shashurova
VladaBlisciuc
Elena Abushinova
Irina Luchina
Aleksandra Liubina
Natalia Fedorova
Alina Priadko
RomanCaraiman (absent)

If you place ads on Backpage for adultservices, you are as guilty as any one of these defendants. In myopinion they are being selectively prosecuted because they are fromEastern Europe. Tatiana Belinschi faces many years in a US federalprison for the simple act of placing ads on Backpage and bookingappointments for massage.

I will return later to update this postwith more information. In the meantime, here is a link to the articlein the Orlando Sentinel: Jury deliberating in suspected Russian sex ring

EDIT at 2:20am on 6 December 2011:

Free Enterprise and the Children ofTomorrow

Wind of Change bythe Scorpions is playing at the top of the blog at this time forreason. This song is familiar to most people around the world,especially in Eastern and Western Europe. Perhaps the meaning of thesong is slightly different to anyone hearing it. For me, the songsignified hope, dreams, and change – the reunification of Germanymainly – the fall of the Berlin wall, the end of CheckpointCharlie, and the end of separation of East and West... Wind ofChange has always been all abouta better future; at least this is what I felt when I first listenedto it in 1990.

In1989, the future looked promising for the children of tomorrow in theformer Soviet Union. Everything was changing and life was supposed toget so much better. Free Enterprise was coming soon and the Stalinera would soon be buried in the past. Today those “children oftomorrow” are adults like the 12 defendants in the Orlandoconspiracy / sex-trafficking trial currently on verdict watch. Eachof the defendants are in the 25 to 28 age range and probably neverwanted to leave home, family, or culture. In many situations theyleft to support family. Moldova is the poorest of all the formerSoviet states and this is where most defendants are from. Read aboutthe Economy of Moldova.

Howcould anyone from Moldova, or anywhere in Eastern Europe for thatmatter, have any understanding of convoluted US laws? Most of the USpopulation has little understanding of how the US criminal justicesystem actually works, so we sure as hell shouldn't expect anyonefrom the former USSR to get it.

Somuch for hope, dreams and change. So much for the market economy andfree enterprise. I will continue to watch for the verdicts and hopethat the federal jury in this trial sets the defendants free. Mythoughts and tears are with the families of the defendants.

See my latest post, "Orlando Conspiracy Trial: Verdicts are In"

In Support of Paul Bergrin

2011-11-28T03:40:00.001-05:00

This post is to call your attention tothe plight of high-profile defense attorney and former Assistant USAttorney Paul Bergrin of New Jersey. Paul Bergrin is a formermilitary officer that represented one of the soldiers prosecuted inAbu Ghraib (Javal Davis) and Corey Clagett in the Operation IronTriangle case in Iraq pro bonoas he fought to hold Bush administration officials accountable forauthorizing torture and violating the Geneva Conventions.

Paul Bergrin wasfighting for Corey Clagett against all odds when he was himselfarrested in 2007 on a slew of false felony charges in what wasclearly a vendetta and a successful attempt to elicit guilty pleasfrom defendants and suppress further testimony in the Operation IronTriangle case. By 2009, federal prosecutors added a lengthy list ofoutrageous counts against Bergrin, including murder conspiracycharges, and he has been awaiting trial in federal court in NewJersey since. The first trial on several severed counts resulted in ahung jury and mistrial on November 23, 2011. The judge stated at thattime that the next trial, on 31 counts, would begin on January 4,2012.

Paul Bergrin needsyour support in the form of publicity. Please do not allow thefederal government to quietly bury this zealous defense attorney thatsupported and represented US military soldiers against the Bushadministration. The mainstream media is not reporting the truth aboutthe cases against Paul Bergrin or the serious lack of evidence inthese false allegations.

Tofind out more about how you can organize and help Paul Bergrin,please contact Creative Spirits of the State of New Jersey, a grassroot organization founded in 1979, at 973-551-4235. Please visit theorganization's website, http://www.paulbergrin.orgto learn more about Paul Bergrin's courageous defense of US soldiersprosecuted overseas and his current predicament. Please do feel freeto contact me with any questions that you may have regarding thisextremely urgent matter.

Help us to makesure that the world is watching!

The Paul Bergrin Trial: Egregious Prosecutorial Misconduct

2011-11-21T23:32:00.001-05:00

We have watched it before in highprofile cases and as we sit on the sideline discussing the PaulBergrin trial, it is omnipresent once again. In fact, for Bergrin,the egregious misconduct by prosecutors has continued since at least2009, with no relief in sight. How many trials will this zealousdefender of the persecuted be required to contend with himself?

The first trial is over, but may indeedbe repeated as jurors have already announced to Judge Martini thatthey are deadlocked. How much fucking money will prosecutors spend tohave it their way? Is there no end to the deep pockets of theDepartment of Justice? Oh wait – it is all taxpayer money sothere's an endless supply available.

It is apparent to me that the jury inPaul Bergrin's trial has jurors that think like I do and want to seeactual evidence if they're going to send a man to prison for life andjurors that just believe what a prosecutor says just because theprosecutor is supposed to represent the people and would neverlie. Prosecutors are not supposed to seek convictions like notches ona belt; they are supposed to seek truth and justice.

Is a parade of convicted felonwitnesses seeking reduced sentences in their own criminal casesseeking truth and justice? How about an FBI agent that threw theinformant down a proverbial drain when she didn't help him beforehe was murdered on a Newark street? There are a fewinconsistencies in testimony that tell me there is no way that theprosecutors in the Bergrin trial are not aware that their witnessesare lying on the stand.

I originally believed that the jurywould find Paul “not guilty” on both counts quickly, but after acouple of days I realized that there is at least one of those typesthat blindly believe the statements of anyone claiming to representthe people and the government in a courtroom. These types do not evenfeel that a trial is necessary as after all, he was indicted andisn't that evidence enough?

Who needs trials and juries wheneveryone arrested and indicted must be guilty?

Isn't a random convicted felon servinga 10 or 20 year sentence that allegedly spent a few minutesdiscussing an informant with Baskerville in jail a few years ago agood witness? Do you really believe that Baskerville was so stupid asto discuss some intention to kill an informant with a cellmate? Whatdoes the cellmate have to gain by testifying? Years off his sentence.

And what of Paul's ex-girlfriendYolanda “Jezebel” Jauregui that had a heated romance with drugtrafficker Alejandro Castro – a man that she admitted to helpingwith his drug operation? What possible reason could Jauregui have tolie? She used Paul until there was no more to use and now she needsto weasel her way out of a 15 to 20 year prison sentence because sheneeds to “stop the lies” and “see her daughter”. It is clearthat her daughter was far from the first thought on her mind foryears. She was a busy little bee for sure.

But that Anthony Young – now he was aserious piece of work. This guy actually confessed to murdering KemoDeshawn McCray on a Newark street even though the only witness,Kemo's stepfather, described a shooter with dreadlocks when Young hada shaved head at the time. He doesn't even bother to pretend he worea wig and we are simply supposed to believe that the only realwitness can't tell the difference between bald and dreadlocks. It'snot enough that the agent in charge of handling Kemo refused to helphim – now prosecutors must paint his stepfather as an unbelievableidiot when he was actually the only witness.

So why would Anthony Young confess to amurder that he didn't commit? Well, it was a lengthy story in thetrial, but apparently he read a book that described what prosecutorsand agents will accept in a witness and what they won't. They'llaccept him if he was the shooter as long as the murder was ordered bysomeone else – enter Paul. We can suppose that Anthony Young is inwitness protection now – he met the criteria.

A so-called witness can still be in aprison, but they're in under an alias. There's all sorts of benefitsavailable to this type of witness, including a major reduction insentences. I know (or rather knew) someone that was in federal prisonunder an alias. He tried to set me up, but thanks to a cop's advice Ithought before I acted. It was nothing mysterious and something mostpeople wouldn't think about twice and I didn't either, until the nicecop made a clear statement. Today he's free and clear and informingon an unknown number of people in South Florida, but before hedecided to work with the feds he had a slew of charges, includingimporting cocaine (federal) and kidnapping with a weapon, conspiracyto commit murder etc... from the state. Now he has a clear record andonly had to spend less than 10 years in prison for all of his crimes(state and federal). He testified against the Colombians to get itall though. Risky business indeed.

Sometimes I think about the many peoplethat he helped lock away for life. As far as informant witnesses go,he was as dirty as they get, with the exception of Sammy Gravano. Sowhy do federal prosecutors befriend and help such criminal witnesses?Because they're more than willing to lie on the stand and help aprosecutor create a career from dirt. The prosecutors in the Bergrintrials will be forever remembered favorably in their career field ofchoice if they get the convictions. This one could be eyingthe Attorney General position in his future.

The so-called evidence that we havewitnessed in this trial is nothing more than a charade, a farce, anda criminal fraud perpetrated against the people and Paul Begrin. Whatcan we possibly expect in the next trial? Truth and justice? LOL

On another note, I started a blog forPaul Bergrin and in the future intend to post all related posts onthat blog. I have invited a couple of people to contribute andideally I imagine 4 to 10 people contributing posts on a regularbasis in relation to Paul Bergrin's next trial. I haven't decoratedthe blog yet and decided it would be 100% ad-free, but if you (thereader) have an interest in contributing, please do contact me. Therewill be no off-topic posts on that blog – it will be all about thenext trial. If you are serious about participation, I will give youadmin access so you can also design and change the blog. More on thissoon...

Paul Bergrin's Closing Argument: Truth and Justice

2011-11-15T15:22:00.001-05:00

While the Sammy Gravanos of the worldenjoy first class witness protection, the Kemo Deshawn McCrays areshot dead on the street. Was Kemo far less important to his handlersthan Sammy was to his? Does the level of protection correlate to thelevel of information offered by the witness?

Kemo did make many controlled drug buysfor his FBI handler, Shawn Brokos. His work as an informant was soimportant that it successfully dismantled what prosecutors haverepeatedly referred to as a “violent Newark gang” and placedWilliam Baskerville in prison for life. Was Kemo not deserving ofactual protection? He was denied entry to the Federal WitnessSecurity Program according to trial testimony. Think about that for amoment.

The same people that denied Kemoprotection for his risky work on their behalf seek to place PaulBergrin in prison for life over the allegation of mentioning hisname.

The same people that denied Kemoprotection resulting in his murder on a Newark street offered aparade of convicted felons that traded testimony for relief in theirown cases as witnesses against Paul Bergrin.

The same people that denied Kemoprotection intend to reduce the prison sentence, yet again, of hisconfessed killer. Do they secretly know that Anthony Young was not the killeras they offer his perjured testimony for the jury or are they justkicking Kemo one more time?

Kemo has been dead for many years nowand the same people are still kicking him, but now they make absurdattempts to blame his death on Paul Bergrin. How is that for truthand justice? Doesn't exactly make one want to run out and become thenext informant for them, does it?

This case will soon be with the jury ifit isn't already at this moment. I will be seriously and thoroughlyshocked if Paul Bergrin is not acquitted on all counts. Is therestill some semblance of truth and justice in the United States?

More soon...

The Case Against Paul Bergrin is a Charade

2011-11-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

I must imagine that Judge Martini andthe jurors expected to see actual evidence as they sat through atrial that has already lasted close to a month. They must be trulydisappointed and feel that federal prosecutors have wasted theirtime. I know that I view it as time for Paul Bergrin to file a motionfor acquittal as soon as prosecutors conclude their case, which couldbe today or tomorrow.

Prosecutors grabbed attention worldwideutilizing tools familiar to many, including me. They used the mediato create a public charade and turn public opinion on Bergrin. Theycounted on the fact that perception often overrides actual evidenceand influences jurors. The reality here is that there is no evidencethat Bergrin is guilty of the crimes which he is on trial for.

Today the prosecutors have ThomasMoran, convicted felon seeking leniency, claiming a conversation withPaul as they walked through the Essex County jail one day so longago. According to Moran, Paul Bergrin admitted to givingBaskerville's associates the name of the informant that was gunneddown on a Newark street several months later. I seriously doubteverything that Moran says.

First of all, Baskerville doesn't soundlike a stupid man to me. I have little doubt that he could figure outwho the informant was in the case against him. It was a drug case andthere were large drug sales to the informant (Kemo) and all it takesto figure out whodunnit is to know the amount of drugs involved ineach sale and the approximate dates of each sale. Even without that,Baskerville most likely already had an idea. Most drug traffickersrealize when they may have made a mistake.

This entire trial is a parade ofconvicted felons saying anything that seems to fit with the ultimategoal of knocking years off their own sentences. It is a charade careof federal prosecutors – far from the first time it's been done,and certainly not the last. This charade has included careercriminals, jailhouse snitches, a mistress involved in drugtrafficking with a lover, convicted felons that Paul gave a chance inlife and allowed to work in his office, and anyone willing to tell afictional tale of a non-existent conversation. What it does notinclude is any evidence at all.

If I were judge or jury, I'd feelscammed.

Paul Bergrin Trial: Week 3 Notes

2011-11-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is my journal of weekly news andevents in the ongoing Paul Bergrin trial. It is a summary of how Iread the events and testimony and includes the news source. At theend of the post you'll find myassignment of points to the feds and to Paul Bergrin, and again thisweek to Judge Martini as well. I have my own personal point system that is interpretive and from myperspective and will most often be based on belief or disbelief oftestimony. Points will accrue as the trial moves forward. Anystatement in brackets should be attributed to me.

For me it is hard to understand howanyone can believe the testimony of the procession of convictedfelons seeking to reduce their own prison sentences in exchange fortestimony that helps to convict Paul Bergrin, but that is areflection of my own experiences. Without going into too much detailhere, I will say that listening to testimony that changedsignificantly from original deposition prior to my arrest to trialtestimony was insightful and helped develop my understanding of howprosecutors work a case wherein the defendant must be discredited andviewed with contempt to achieve guilty verdicts.

In my own case, one witness stated inher original deposition that she had never met me, didn't know me,and only spoke with me briefly one time when I called myco-defendant's escort business looking for him and she answered thephone; this was the truth. By the time she plopped her ass on thewitness stand during trial, that testimony changed to a claim of manyconversations with me, including one in which I begged her to workfor me and sex on calls was the topic. She was brought-in thecourtroom in shackles, but this was hidden from the jury (they wereremoved from the courtroom) until she stood-up during testimony in anabsurd attempt to make a point. She was incarcerated on someunrelated felony and faced several years in prison and she wasworking to reduce that sentence.

Another so-called witness testifiedthat she went to an occasional call (once a month or so) during thesix months she worked with me, charged additional $s for sex, and herand I never discussed sex when she was deposed; this was the truth.When she testified in trial, that statement abruptly transformed toher going to hundreds of calls in the brief time she worked with meand we discussed sex on calls frequently. Wow! Right?

Now these particular two so-calledwitnesses were just escorts – one answered my co-defendant'stelephones on occasion and the other briefly worked with me. Theseriously damaging statements came from other escort service ownersas each was threatened with a major felony prosecution. There reallywas solid evidence against these other escort business owners foractual criminal activities (in one situation it involved credit cardtheft, forgery, and fraud), but instead of prosecuting any one ofthem, the MBI and prosecutors suborned their false, perjuredtestimony in my case.

Consider Salvatore “Sammy theBull” Gravano

Sammy murderedanyone that stepped in his way and that included cops, innocentcitizens, and fellow mobsters. Yet Gravano was a witness for federalprosecutors and helped them lock away an unimaginable number ofpeople that committed crimes far less serious than his own. He servedonly a couple of years for the uncountable number of murders hecommitted as a result of selling his testimony to the government inexchange for a minor sentence. Being a career criminal, this laterbackfired on Gravano as he was sentenced to 19 years for his ecstasytrafficking ring and is currently in the Supermax USP in Colorado.

The Gravano storyis clear evidence that prosecutors have no concern whatsoever when itcomes to how horrific the crimes of informants are. In my own case,state witnesses were guilty of various crimes and escaped prisonsentences by selling their false testimony to prosecutors. In thePaul Bergrin trial, the parade of criminal informants/witnesses thatsold their testimony to the government are already convicted ofcrimes and seeking to reduce their own sentences. This is most oftenreferred to as a Rule 35 Motion.

Note that Rule 35 omits the word“truthful”

There is nothingin Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that states arequirement of truthful testimony or substantial assistance based ontruth and facts. This is the most abused rule in existence inrelation to federal crimes. It is frequently used in the pursuit ofselect defendants targeted by government prosecutors, for examplePaul Bergrin. Paul is an attorney that frequently interacted withcriminal defendants in connection to his law practice, so it wasn'ttoo complicated for prosecutors to dig-up 20 people that have met andinteracted with him on various occasions in a variety of locations.

When Paul allowedseveral of these so-called witnesses to work in his law office hemust have seen the possibility of redemption and a changed life. Inreality, several of them connected with other criminals under hisnose and in his offices. Instead of being a positive influence intheir lives, he gets this current parade of criminal liars that wouldsay or do absolutely anything to get that sentence reduction underRule 35. It's easy to say that he should have known better inhindsight. We often learn the hard way when it comes to helpingothers – I know that I sure did as I recounted the help I gave toseveral state witnesses in my own trial when I testified.

Do I still walkout on a limb to help people? No, not really, I tend to stay far awayfrom people. I love animals though and have been known to feed thesquirrels nuts and talk to the kitty cats around here. I admit to noteven bothering to meet any neighbors. People can be dangerous. Asstated in past posts, informants are a main reason that I passed onlaw school. The bottom line is that if no one really knows me oranything much about my life these days, well, no one can offer falsetestimony as there are no facts to include – facts of time, place,and events are necessary to connect the false testimony, throw in thedamaging lies etc.... Yes, I blog... And?

Week 3 of the Paul Bergrin Trial

The trial didn't resume until Wednesdayso it was a short and mostly uneventful week. Paul continued hiscross-examination of the feds so-called witness and confessed killerof Kemo, Anthony Young. There was additional rehashing of theinfamous evolving comment, “no Kemo, no case” that is reallyabout an attorney telling a client that a crime with an actualeyewitness is a viable case.

Young is the one to claim that PaulBergrin spoke to a group of major drug dealers on a dark Newarkstreet corner and made some far-fetched directive to kill Kemo.

[Isabella's was used as some sort ofstash house by Yolanda Jauregui and her drug trafficking relativesand cohorts.]

Source: Peter J. Sampson – TheRecord

Bergrin drills holes in witness testimony at trial

[So now prosecutors have Paul makingthis estranged statement to drug dealers on a dark street corner anda client in Isabella's. Will they also claim that he shouted it fromthe rooftops of Newark and how will it evolve if they do?]

Thursday began with Paul continuing thecross-exam of Anthony Young; however, about an hour into it JudgeMartini called a recess, excused the jury, and voiced his displeasurewith the star witness:

“This man has admitted to lying backand forth all over the place,” the judge said, referring to Young.“Every time he spoke to the FBI, he admitted to lying ... now he’stelling the truth.”

Judge Martini then put prosecutors intheir place, having already warned both Gay and Minish privately:“When I rule against you, don’t shake your head,” Martini said.“You don’t like my rulings, sit down and keep a straight face.”

Judge Martini then made the mostimportant declaration of all: ““You brought this indictmentagainst this man, and he’s entitled to a fair trial,” Martinitold the prosecutors, referring to Bergrin.”

The cross-examination eventuallyresumed and as Bergrin was concluding with Anthony Young, theso-called witness admitted that the “entire reason” he cameforward, “was to gain his freedom and reduce his time in prison”.Young already received one letter of cooperation from prosecutors inthe Baskerville case and is now working on another one.

Source: Peter J. Sampson – TheRecord

Judge in Bergrin murder conspiracy trial questions credibility of star witness

On Fridayprosecutors called Abdul Williams to the stand. Williams is aconvicted felon that Paul tried to help and was working in the lawoffice for a short time in 2007. According to Williams, Paul confidedin him that he feared Baskerville would implicate him. Williamsdescribed Paul as “agitated, annoyed, concerned, and flustered”on that day so long ago when he became confidant to Paul.

According to JasonGrant with The Star Ledger, Abdul Williams seemed to enjoytestifying against Paul. Williams often smirked, smiled, mocked andlaughed during his testimony and in response to Paul's questions.

[Williams isnothing but a career criminal seeking a reduced sentence for hislatest legal turmoil.]

[Recall for amoment the testimony of Yolanda Jauregui. Yolanda claimed that Paulreferred to Baskerville as his “brother”. So why in the hellwould Paul suddenly have this strange fear that he easily professedto career criminal Williams? This is the root problem with testimonyfilled with lies – the stories never really mix. Williams wouldn'thave any testimony to offer if not for this claim, but prosecutorsdidn't foresee that it clashed with Yolanda's statement. Thetestimony from all government witnesses in this case is filled withsimilar inconsistencies.]

Source: Jason Grant– The Star Ledger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Witness says Bergrin feared being implicated in shooting

All considered itwas another uneventful week in the Paul Bergrin trial as prosecutorspresented yet another career criminal seeking a reduced sentence totestify against Paul. The irony of this, at least to me, is that thevendetta against Bergrin is so strong that prosecutors are more thanwilling to put career criminals and confessed murderers back on thestreet in exchange for their false testimony. How many more so-calledwitnesses will later be filing that Rule 35 motion? How many morewill be given letters of cooperation in prearranged deals for theirstate court cases?

Many defenders ofthe prosecution have mentioned this idiom often: If you lie downwith dogs, you end-up with fleas. Clearly this is applicable tothe federal prosecutors and their witnesses in this case.

POINTS

Paul Bergrin – 6 (accrued – 21)

U.S. District Judge William Martini – 5 (accrued – 10)

the feds – 0 (accrued – 1)

On Trial in Orlando: The Defendants from Eastern Europe

2011-11-04T01:41:00.000-04:00

This is one puzzling case and trial. Iam referring to the case given the label “Russian sex-traffickingring” by the Orlando Sentinel when the indictment was handeddown and the defendants arrested back in middle February of 2011. Forone thing, this case made it to trial faster than any case I haveever watched, especially considering that there are 12 defendants.

I will repeat the defendants' namesonly so the reader is clear on which case I am discussing:

Tatiana Belinschi
Alexandr Postica
Saida Babaeva
Kateryna Krykovlyuk
Elena Shashurova
VladaBlisciuc
Elena Abushinova
Irina Luchina
Aleksandra Liubina
Natalia Fedorova
Alina Priadko
RomanCaraiman

What is so puzzling?

Hell, I could giveyou a list here because there is so much, but I will begin withaddressing the speed in which the case made it to trial. The trialbegan less than 8 months after indictment and in any case with 1defendant this is unheard of, but 12 defendants? My case took 14months to make it to trial and the judge rushed it – he was in areal hurry to have that show trial and sentence me to 10+ years inprison, only it didn't work out that way, obviously. The Rachel'scase took over 2 years to make it to trial and never actually did asa deal was arranged in the end.

The Ofer Lupovitzcase actually started in 2005, was refiled in 2006, and Ofer just hada trial a couple of weeks ago. The Deborah Jeane Palfrey (former DCMadam) case took over a year to go to trial and she was the lonedefendant. I'm sure that some case somewhere in federal court hasmade it to trial in 8 months, but I've never heard of it happeningwith so many defendants. So call me puzzled on the speed issue. Idon't like it. An attorney cannot prepare for such a trial soquickly. Witnesses must be investigated and deposed, discovery mustbe demanded and received etc...

The Next Issue Here

I do not see thatany discovery was submitted by the defendants. In my own case Isubmitted a lengthy list of documents in discovery when I was stuckrepresenting myself. I did this because I read the Florida Rules ofCriminal Procedure and noted that there was a time limit. The hell ifmy documents and evidence were going to be refused because of anytime limitation crap – I did it myself. They tried to tell me thatit was unnecessary. Ha. I quoted the Rule. They then had the audacityto have the main case agent, Brant Rose, call me attempting tocollect it from me. Not in this lifetime – I tried to make acomplaint against that asshat and was threatened and prosecuted –not a chance I would meet him alone or even with 5 witnessespersonally known to me. They gave-up and allowed me to hand it toprosecutors in court. Screw them.

But in this case,there was no discovery from any defendant. I read a motion whereinthe prosecutor reminded all defendants' attorneys that time wasalmost up to submit discovery. Still, there is none. Attorneys cannotcreate discovery documents when they get roadblocks at every turn andthey cannot depose witnesses when the government refuses to allow it.

Prosecutors arehiding records for law enforcement witnesses. There is no witnesslist available to the public, but I could read in daily court minuteswho specifically was called to testify by the government thus far.The one name I recognized was James Edmundson and all I know abouthim is the allegation stated in this post: MBI Back in Orlando News

The only article Icould find online referencing Edmundson's breast grab is: Report: Breast grab puts MBI agent under scrutiny, though there were manyarticles when I posted on the topic back on February 25, 2010.

Next Major Problem

This entire casewas called a “sex trafficking” case by the Orlando Sentinel backwhen the defendants were indicted. There is no one charged with sextrafficking in the case though. The defendants are all charged withConspiracy to defraud the US and some are also charged with what isreferred to as the Travel Act. Though the “conspiracy to defraud”charge is considered a general conspiracy charge, I really do not seehow it fits this case and all 12 defendants.

From what I haveread in the many documents, it looks like all have been tied to thisalleged conspiracy simply by having a conversation or two with RomanCaraiman. Now I will be the first to say that “conspiracy” asdefined in federal courts and in Florida courts is far-reaching andoverly broad, but this is even an extension of that assessment. It'sa charge usually used in drug trafficking cases, which is no doubtwhy many drug cases, including the Magluta case, are cited in thetrial brief.

The Elephant in the Room

As stated in mylast post on this case and trial, a defendant, Alina Priadko, allegesthat Roman Caraiman coerced and threatened her, with violence, or shewould never have been in Ohio in his massage parlor. If I recallcorrectly, defendant Saida Babaeva made a similar allegation.Certainly there may be additional defendants that make similarclaims, but no statements are available. It should also be noted that I have not read any such allegation anywhere against defendants Postica and Belinschi - only against Caraiman.

In the situationof Alina Priadko, the statement is available in that motion linked inthe last post. Alina's attorney asserts that she willingly spoke tolaw enforcement in Ohio and also agents from Florida that traveled toOhio – I will assume this refers to MBI agents, but I do not knowfor sure. All law enforcement officers assured Alina that she wouldbe released and Ohio did release her when prosecutors dropped thecase. She was transferred to the custody of FL agents when the grandjury indicted her though.

So even thoughagents from Florida got her to speak with them by promising her she'dbe released, the information was instead used to indict her. This isa woman that barely speaks English, and certainly not enough Englishto understand that they all lie and make false promises frequently.They used her story to get an indictment. What sort of fucking peopleare they? When I read Alina's story in that motion I was angry on onehand and shocked on the other. Do they have hearts of stone? Who dothey claim to represent? Certainly not “we the people”!

I have oftencomplained that most so-called “sex trafficking” cases are notactually sex trafficking at all. This is an opinion shared by the“sex trafficking” expert, Dr. Ronald Weitzer. He couldn't help inthis situation though as no one is charged with sex trafficking. Itis also an opinion shared with Norma Jean Almodovar, the former LAPDcall girl: Cop to Call Girl

NormaJean is a wonderful woman that has fought for sex workers' rights herentire life, since her own release from prison, following a 3-yearsentence, back in the late 1980s. She knows all there is to know whenit comes to the overuse and abuse of “sex trafficking” statutes,but again in this case no one is charged with this. Norma Jean wasthe head of COYOTE – Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics – in past andnow is the President of International Sex Worker Foundationfor Art, Culture and Education ( ISWFACE).

In this case no one actually admits tobeing a prostitute, so there's nothing much that Norma Jean could doto help. She was certainly willing to help. I have discussed thiscase and what I have read in documents and she is also puzzled. ViewNorma Jean Almodovar's website and scroll down to the two cartoons onthe main page; each seems to describe this case rather well: Police Prostitution and Politics

What I see with the informationavailable to me is that there is a decent case against Roman Caraimanon sex trafficking charges, but there isn't a case at all againstanyone else and at least 2 defendants (and probably more) are actualvictims that should have been treated as such.

Paul Bergrin Trial: Week 2 Notes

2011-10-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

This is my journal of weekly news andevents in the ongoing Paul Bergrin trial. It is a summary of how Iread the events and testimony and includes the news source. At theend of the post you'll find myassignment of points to the feds and to Paul Bergrin, and this week to Judge Martini as well. I have my ownpersonal point system and it is not scientific, but more interpretiveand from my perspective and will most often be based on belief ordisbelief of testimony. Points will accrue as the trial movesforward. Any statement in brackets should be attributed to me.

Week2 of the Paul Bergrin trial started off with a bang as the jury heardfrom Paul's former girlfriend, Yolanda Jauregui, who is occasionallyreferred to as “jezebel” herein. The Urban Dictionary defines“jezebel” as “a girl who is incredibly manipulative andfucks with dudes minds,” and that is also my definition andviewpoint of Yolanda.

The week ended with a bang as the man referredto as prosecutors' “key witness” testified and Paul exposed themany discrepancies in his testimony. Judge Martini declared a recessuntil Wednesday, November 2, 2011, probably to decide if he shouldtoss the entire case out.

Week2 Trial Events and Testimony Recap

The mentalpicture of a soft-spoken, meek Yolanda Jauregui testifying againstPaul doesn't match the description of her that I have heard in past,but then she is the actress and the courtroom is her stage as sheworks it to gain favor with prosecutors in her own drug traffickingcase. Not much unlike working Paul for years.

Jezebelcried crocodile tears to gain sympathy from unsuspecting jurors andwhen the prosecutor asked her why she was cooperating with thegovernment against Paul Bergrin, “Through tears, she said,“I want it to end, the lies. ... I just wanted to end the lies, thelifestyle I was living in.””

[No problem dear. Thatlifestyle, care of Paul Bergrin, is over forever. Get used to yournew digs in club fed, cause you're going to be there for years tocome.]

Source: Jason Grant – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: ex-girlfriend testifies he told her drug kingpin was 'like a brother to him'

Jezebel had theaudacity to look at Paul with a half smile, sit down on the witnessstand, and pour herself a glass of water. She testified that as a 17year-old she went to Paul's office under false pretenses and flirtedwith him to get his attention. She played games with frequent phonecalls and drop-in visits for years and when she was 25 years old, therelationship turned romantic [i.e. Paul eventually fell forher trap]. A short time later (2002), she became “partners” inthe restaurant with Paul.

Ms.Jauregui testified concerning the alleged conversation Paul had withCurry and Claudio in the restaurant back in 2003, admitting that shecouldn't hear a word. On cross-examination, Paul pointed out thevarious inconsistencies between her testimony and her statements tothe FBI, and she responded, “They probably misunderstood mewrong, you know?”

“She acknowledged she had an intimaterelationship with Alejandro Barraza-Castro, who also pled guilty todrug trafficking in this case, while she was living with Bergrin.Jauregui faces 20 years to life in prison on her charges.”

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Ex-girlfriend says attorney met with major drug dealer,supplier

[So long, farewell,auf wiedersehen, goodbye...]

Tuesday andWednesday would reveal an array of testimony, from a crime sceneinvestigator that changed his report years later to a jailhousesnitch to a career criminal and Kemo's stepfather, Johnnie Davis.

Kemo DeshawnMcCray's stepfather, Johnnie Davis, testified and was able tomisdirect his anger at Paul Bergrin, though in reality we all knowthe family blames the FBI for his murder on a Newark street.

“In the year before his murder,McCray had worn a wire for the FBI as he made six crack cocainepurchases from a dealer named William Baskerville.”

Davis had identified someone withdreadlocks as the shooter of his stepson, but prosecutors would becalling a bald Anthony Young to the stand next. Young “confessed,”was convicted in the murder, and would testify to further reduce his30 year prison sentence.

Source: Peter J. Sampson – TheRecord

Witness at Bergrin trial angrily describes son's slaying

[What happened toKemo is sad and I feel for his family. Apparently the feds were ableto push buttons with Johnnie Davis and misdirect his anger at Paul.The bottom line is that Kemo played in a heavy game, helping the fedsset-up major drug traffickers, and they did not protect him. Heshould have been in WitSec.]

RichardHosten, another convicted drug dealer seeking favor with prosecutors,testified that major drug trafficker Baskerville discussed his casewith him in lock-up. Since few people in such positions are thatstupid, or they wouldn't have such a position, and Hosten is anotherconvict looking for a better sentence, I will leave this one. Enoughis enough guys, really...

Aformer client of Bergrin's, Albert Castro, claimed that Paul offeredhim $10K to kill Kemo and even added that Paul tried to sleep withhis 5 ft. 350lb. 21 year-old daughter. Oh well – at least he cuthis deal to save his daughter from drug trafficking charges whenkilos of coke were seized from her home, though they were probably his kilos.

“Bergrin initially represented Castroafter he was arrested in 2008 by the Essex County Prosecutor’sOffice on charges of drug trafficking, attempted murder of a policeofficer, gun possession and planning to rob a restaurant.”

[Alrighty then. One more lying loser.Good grief!]

Source: Peter J.Sampson – The Record

Drug dealer says Bergrin offered him $10K to 'hit' FBI informant

The articlesconcerning the evolving testimony of a forensic pathologist seem tobe missing in action. I recall reading the testimony though, and itchanged substantially from his original report.

The next on thestand to testilie would be “confessed” shooter Anthony Young.According to Young, Paul plainly spelled out the directive to killKemo to five different people, contradicting earlier testimony byprosecution witnesses. Young actually claimed that Bergrin statedthis directive on a Newark street corner to five major drug dealers

Accordingto Young, alleged drug organization leader Hakeem Curry offered $15Kto the first one to find and kill Kemo. “Young said hewanted the cash because, although he had $50,000 to $60,000 stashedat his house, he wanted extra funds to finance an upcoming trip toLos Angeles for the NBA All-Star Game.”

[I thought Kemo was killed in earlyMarch. The game referenced by Young was on February 15, 2004 –thank you MotoGP in the article Comments section. This is a majorconflict with the testimony, but no more so than imagining Bergrinstanding on a street corner in Newark with five major drug dealers,directing them to kill Kemo.]

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Confessed shooter of federal informant provides damaging testimony

[MaryAnn – Excellent coverage of thetrial! One thing though, concerning the title of this article: Youare referring to testimony damaging to the government, right?]

Before Paul Bergrin would get thechance to cross-examine Young, the jury would be removed from thecourtroom twice by US District Judge William Martini. The judge isalready tired of the government procession of lying convicted felonsbrought from prison to testify against Paul Bergrin.

[So are we Judge Martini, so are we.]

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Judge sends jury out of courtroom twice over troubles with witness

Finally we reach the end of the weekand the cross-examination of Anthony Young. It's clear that Young wascoached by prosecutors, and probably coached for a week. When a“witness” tries to memorize false testimony, well, it's bound tobe mixed-up. It was indeed confusing and Paul hammered away at eachand every discrepancy. Young denied being coached, though histestimony had changed substantially to fit securely into theprosecutor's description of events. This guy is so used to lying onthe stand that he's almost got it down to a science; however, he wasno match for Paul.

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: attorney exposes discrepancies of key prosecution witness

[I truly would not be surprised ifJudge Martini tossed this abhorrent parade of convicts seekingleniency and obviously malicious prosecution next week.]

There is a recess until Wednesday,November 2, 2011.

POINTS

Paul Bergrin –11 (accrued – 15)

US District JudgeWilliam Martini – 5

feds – 1(accrued – 1)

Orlando Conspiracy Trial: Revealing Update

2011-10-28T18:21:00.000-04:00

I am ready to hurl unprintable cursesat the effing MBI and prosecutors on the USA v. Caraiman et al. Casecurrently in trial in Orlando. If you read the document I have linkedhere, you will understand why. Any agent or prosecutor going afterthe women in this case is misogynistic scum, including any femaleinvestigators and prosecutors.

I am not going to attack Roman Caraimanhere because he is missing in action and cannot respond, but it wascertainly a consideration.

First, I want you to understand thatthe MBI in general operates from a misogynist direction. They want tocontrol women and anything they do. The MBI is like George W. Bushwhen he stated that women on welfare should get married and offeredtax credits for those that did – he didn't give a rat's ass if lovewas involved or if they were beaten. The MBI, as an organization,targets women in adult business based on misogynist religious beliefsthat women belong in the kitchen and catering to husbands. With the exception of one female I encountered in the way past, the agency is run by all men.

A friend of a couple of the women inthis current Orlando trial contacted me concerning two specificdefendants and I went searching for documents. One document inparticular has resulted in this angry rant. So I will go ahead andupload it to my website. Then youcan feel what I am feeling at this moment.

The defendant in question is AlinaPriadko. Let it be noted that I intend to send a copy to variouswomen's rights groups around the country. Alina's story (factual background) is on pages 3-9 of this PDF.

Motion to Suppress Statements – Alina Priadko

The questions that should be answered are below, and this is not related to the motion; it is about Alina's actual story:

1. Was law enforcement (LE) able to disprove Alina's account?
2. If LE was unable to disprove Alina's story, then why has she been in jail all of this time and why is she now on trial for major felonies in federal court?

Point: Unless LE disproved Alina's story, she should be treated as a victim.

The next question: Are there other defendants with similar accounts?

More later...

Paul Bergrin Trial: When Prosecutors Lose Focus

2011-10-27T15:10:00.000-04:00

US District Judge William Martini has anew admirer: me. Prosecutors are supposed to represent the people andseek truth and justice, but it is all too obvious that Bergrin'sprosecutors lost their way long ago, as many have in courts aroundthe US.

We are in week #2 of one of the mostwatched trials in recent history and US District Judge WilliamMartini is already tired of the government procession of lyingconvicted felons brought from prison to testify against Paul Bergrin.One can only imagine what Judge Martini would have thought if he hadpresided over the Nino Lyons trial in the Middle District of Floridawith 31 convicted felons transported from prisons to testify (orrather testilie) for prosecutors.

These days prosecutors ignore truth andforget that they're supposed to be representing the people. The oneand only goal is to obtain convictions at all costs. According toMaryAnn Spoto with The Star Ledger, Judge Martini has sent thejury out of the courtroom twice so far today to refresh AUSA JosephMinish's memory as to why he is there: “The process here is tosearch for the truth.’’

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Judge sends jury out of courtroom twice over troubles with witness

If these prosecutors had ever beensearching for truth, there wouldn't be a trial.

Peter Sampson with The Recordreported that AUSA Stephen Sanders had the audacity to complain to Judge Martiniand actually stated that, “It is the jury’s job to determine whois telling the truth”.

Judge in Bergrin murder conspiracy trial says he's 'deeply concerned' about witness testimony

Yes, it is the jury's job to determinetruth; however, it is the prosecutor's job to present witnesses thatthey at least believe to be truthful. With the witnesstestimony in the Bergrin trial and a list of other cases I havewatched, including my own in past, it is clear that these prosecutorsare either dumb as doorknobs or knowingly offering-up liars with thehope that the jury is.

It's great to know there are stilljudges around that believe in truth and justice in thecourtroom!

Orlando Conspiracy Trial (not sex trafficking)

2011-10-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

I am not clear on which party initiallyreferred to this as a sex trafficking case – either it was theoriginal news release from the government or it was the OrlandoSentinel. The original news release was a dead link when I checkedlast week and I replaced it with a valid link, but I do not recallwhat was stated in the original. At any rate, no one in this case ischarged with sex trafficking and of course I am referring to the casefrom my last post with 11 defendants from Eastern Europe on trial infederal court in Orlando.

I was unable to retrieve the documentsin the case until recently – a personal money issue – or I wouldhave seen this a while back. Thanks an effing bunch to the OrlandoSentinel for not bothering to clear-up their previous reporting whenthe defendants were indicted. This is a conspiracy case.

Now I understand why none of thedefendants' attorneys responded to Dr. Ronald Weitzer, the sextrafficking expert. It looks like the only sort of expert thatcould be of assistance is an MBI expert, which would be me except fora few issues. Actually a sociologist and expert on modern economichistory and current economic problems in Eastern Europe could help inrelation to state of mind.

From a prosecutor's perspective, thiscase is purely based on law, albeit draconian and abusive law (USconspiracy statutes), and that is the approach that this prosecutorhas taken. I read the trial brief and the notice of supplementalauthority along with all other documents and it seems that some lawclerk enjoyed repeatedly citing Magluta. Ironic for me – I lived inMiami in the 1980s and.... For the unaware, Sal Magluta was sentencedto close to 200 years and is in the worst federal penitentiary in theUS (USP Florence in the Colorado Rockies).

I have stated this before and I'll sayit again: The 11^th Circuit is not friendly to anyone inadult business, but they love cops – good cops, bad cops; itdoesn't matter. It doesn't matter in this case either as at least onedefense attorney has been trying to get personnel files and discusspolice misconduct in trial, through to no avail. Furthermore, thewitness list is not available to the general public so I have no cluespecifically which MBI agents are involved, but I do know for surethat the MBI had no minor role in this case; it is an MBI case.

I would have liked to believe that theMBI method of operation changed when William Lutz retired at the endof 2008; however, with the references in documents to misconduct, Iam thinking that is pure fantasy and they're the same as ever. Withthe MBI it is a pattern of racketeering behavior as an organization –that is why I refused to allow the attorneys that offered file acivil suit personally against the main case agent to do so. Why allowthe one soldier to pay for what is really a racketeering conspiracyfrom the top down? They all knew what he did and his actions wereaccepted and encouraged. And so the civil suit, filed my way, wasdismissed – it is a matter of record though and the complaint is asworn affidavit.

The defendant in the worst position inthis case is Tatiana Belinschi. Really all this stay-at-home motherdid was place some ads and answer a phone. Alexandr Postica is in asimilar position, though he is charged with fewer counts and from myreading in this case, he wasn't involved for long at all. This is sounfair to these people – I seriously doubt that either one of themtold any unlicensed massage therapist to do anything immoral orillegal.

Of course the case is also unfair toall of the unlicensed massage therapists. It looks like one or two ora few stepped over that thin line to make extra $$s and now everyonein this case is paying for it, which is how a conspiracy case works. These women came to the US with thegoal of earning a living, nothing more and nothing less. Not one ofthem is an expert on US conspiracy laws, which is what one needs tobe to participate in such an operation, apparently. Surprise! - nowthey all know that the US has one of the worst criminal justicesystems in the world.

Here is a link to PBS Frontline: Snitch– there is an abundance of information on conspiracy laws, frominception to recent times. In Snitch conspiracy laws are usedin drug cases, but it is the same strategy that the prosecution hasused in this case. And yes, there are confidential informant(s) anduncharged co-conspirators in this case also.

Another informative Frontline documentary isThe Plea – be sure to read Dr. Albert Alschuler's statements. Bothshows pertain to drug cases, but then this case is being chargedutilizing the very same strategies that are used in War on Drugs cases.We must only look at the all too frequent citing of Magluta tounderstand that.

Interesting resources to understand conspiracy laws in the US:

Federal Conspiracy Law: A Brief Overview

Inchoate Crimes

US conspiracy laws are distinctively different than conspiracy laws in the UK, France, Germany, or anywhere else in the world.

More on this case soon...

Orlando Sex Trafficking Trial Updates

2011-10-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

The case is USA v. Caraiman et. al and the defendants are:

Tatiana Belinschi
Alexandr Postica
Saida Babaeva
KaterynaKrykovlyuk
ElenaShashurova
Vlada Blisciuc
Elena Abushinova
IrinaLuchina
Aleksandra Liubina
Natalia Fedorova
Alina Priadko
RomanCaraiman

I have most documents from the case and trial, but will only post a few online. The most important is the indictment linked below and I will go through the rest and choose a few additional important documents to post. The documents will be listed and uploaded to the Updates page of my website, but I will edit this post to add some here also. When I finish reading through everything, I'll compose a new post with my thoughts.

All documents are PDFs. Originally the case was USA v. Caraiman et. al and when Roman Caraiman left the US, it became USA v. Tatiana Belinschi et. al.

USA v. Caraiman et al. Indictment

USA v. Tatiana Belinschi et al. USA Trial Brief

USA Notice of Supplemental Authority

Proposed Jury Instructions

Proposed Verdict Form

Trial Minutes 17 October 2011

Material Witness Hearing 21 October 2011

Initial reaction after reading the indictment and some of the documents: Good grief! More thoughts coming soon...

Paul Bergrin Trial: Twisting Words and Meaning

2011-10-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

At the root of the case against PaulBergrin is a statement that he allegedly made to associates of clientWilliam Baskerville. That statement has been used in theprosecution's opening statement and thrown-in during testimony bygovernment witnesses. Each time the statement is used it is inquotation marks, so I am going to assume that the reporter writingthe article is quoting from actual trial testimony.

The varied quotes of the statement

In the prosecutor's opening statementit reads, “No Kemo, no case.”

Source: Jason Grant – The StarLedger

Emotional opening arguments in murder trial of high-profile attorney Paul Bergrin

WhenRamon Jimenez testified for the prosecution, his quote of thestatement alters the meaning in favor of Paul Bergrin:

“During two hours of testifying forthe prosecution, Jimenez also said he overheard Bergrin tell Curry if“there had been no witness, there would have been no case.’’”

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Former employee testifies against attorney

Duringcross-examination of Ramon Jimenez, Paul Bergrin quotes the statementas:

“”On all these meetings (you had)with the government, with your attorney present, isn’t it a factthat you never mentioned that statement you say you heard from me,‘If there is no witness, there is no case? ' “”Bergrin also establishes that Jimenez never mentioned this statementto the feds until much later, when he found out he was going to becharged with a serious drug crime.

Source:Jason Grant – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Witness admits lying to FBI investigators

Accordingto the summary of the racketeering count in the actual indictment,the statement is much more involved:

1. Racketeering Act One: In 2003 and 2004, Bergrin, as a partner in PB&V, represented a client with the initials ―W.B.,‖ who was being held on federal drug trafficking charges. W.B. informed Bergrin during a private attorney-client visit that ―K.D.M.‖ was the government's key witness against him. Bergrin relayed that information to W.B.'s drug associates along with his own message that if they killed K.D.M., he could assure that W.B. escaped prison, but if they did not, W.B. would spend the rest of his life in jail. Those associates subsequently murdered K.D.M.

Source: Who is PaulBergrin? The Feds 39 Count Indictment

From #11 of the Certification of DEA Agent Michael Smith:

11.Thereafter, in a telephone conversation and a face to face meeting,BERGRIN

passedthe identity of the informant on to William Baskerville’s drugassociates and told them thatif they didn't kill “Kemo,” William Baskerville would spend therest of his life in jail. After BERGRIN discussed how Baskerville’sdrug associates were going to pay BERGRIN’s legal fee forhis representation of William Baskerville, BERGRIN said that if therewas no “Kemo” to testifyagainst William Baskerville, there would be no case against WilliamBaskerville. BERGRINsaid that if “Kemo” was dead, that William Baskerville woulddefinitely get out of jail.When BERGRIN left the meeting, he said “remember what I said, noKemo, no case.”

Source:Who is Paul Bergrin?

Thissimple statement has seriously evolved, depending on who is repeatingit

Federalprosecutors took that simple statement related by a convicted drugdealer (Ramon Jimenez) long after it was allegedly stated and twistedit into a murder plot to obtain the indictment, and it worked. DEAAgent Michael Smith made a sworn certification about a murder plotderived from a statement that didn't exist, at least not according tothe witness that overheard it, Ramon Jimenez. Prosecutors thenrepeatedly stated to news reporters and in the opening argument attrial a shortened version: “No Kemo, no case.”

Doyou see the serious differences and twists of this statement? Thishas really bothered me – anyone can take any statement out ofcontext, but this is far more than an out of context statement; it isa complete rewrite of the screenplay.

WhenPaul Bergrin supposedly had this conversation that Ramon Jimenezoverheard, the statement, at least according to Jimenez's testimonywas, “if “there had been no witness, there would have been nocase.’’

Itcould easily be interpreted as Paul Bergrin stating a pure fact: Thisis a case that wouldn't exist, but it does because there is a witnessto the act and there isn't anything you can do for your associate. Itsure as hell doesn't translate to an order or even an idea to kill,if it was ever stated to begin with.

Nomotive, no case.

Ofer Lupovitz Retrial?

2011-10-24T22:15:00.001-04:00

As stated in my last post on the Ofer Lupovitz verdicts, due to an error in the jury instructions Ofer's attorneys have filed for a new trial:

Attorneys ask for new trial for man convicted of running prostitution ring

I'll return later (tomorrow) and edit with additional information. I'm happy now!

Paul Bergrin Trial: Where's the Outrage?

2011-10-24T16:45:00.000-04:00

I am trying to limit my posts on thePaul Bergrin trial to the end of week notes with points for theprevailing party, but every time I look at the news on the case adifferent thought comes to mind. This one concerns Bergrin's fellowattorneys – a reference to every attorney in this country. PaulBergrin is a strong defender and a champion attorney that gave anyonehe defended a zealous legal defense. Many could learn from him.

I would love to watch this trial andwould be there if not for personal issues. I have always been anattorney watcher and Paul Bergrin in a courtroom would be downrightexciting to me. He has a commanding presence and when he speaks,everyone is listening and all eyes are focused on him and nothing else.

Consider the idiom: If you lie downwith dogs, you get up with fleas.

What criminal defense attorney doesnot, at one point or another, associate with criminals? Paul made themistake of falling for jezebel, but does he deserve life in prisonfor it? I read the testimony quoted by the reporters from news covering the trial (excellent coverage by the way) andrealize the case for exactly what it is: Criminal defendants andinformants willing to say or do anything, including throw their owndefender under a bus, to knock time off their sentences.

If you practice criminal defense thenyou've met at least one just like the members of this group andprobably many. Be outraged that a fellow attorney has been indictedand is on trial on the word of these losers!

Thus far the list of governmentwitnesses includes an FBI agent that should be held liable for aninformant's death, at least in part, and a bunch of convicted drugtraffickers seeking time off for cooperation with the government. Howmany more drug traffickers will the feds call to the stand? Does itmatter? One is no different than the other, so whether 1 or 20testify, it should result in the same verdict: not guilty on allcounts.

In respect to the government witnesses,this trial reminds me of the Nino Lyons trial in Orlando federalcourt back in 2001. In the Lyons case, federal prosecutors had aparade of criminal “witnesses,” though each resided in prison atthe time of testimony – 31 convicted felons in prison testifiedagainst Nino Lyons to get time off their own sentences . Somehow thejury bought it, hook, line, and sinker, but the convictions wereoverturned by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell and he waseventually exonerated completely in the case. Interested in the NinoLyons fiasco? Read about the USA Today investigation:

Prosecutors' conduct can tip justice scales

Be outraged about what they aredoing to Paul Bergrin and that he is on trial to begin with!

Paul Bergrin Trial: Week 1 Notes

2011-10-22T04:03:00.000-04:00

I have decided to post notes on thePaul Bergrin trial at the conclusion of each trial week. At the endof the post you'll find my assignment of points to the feds and toPaul Bergrin. I have my own personal point system and it is notscientific, but more interpretive and from my perspective and will often be based on belief or disbelief of testimony. Pointswill accrue as the trial moves forward. Any statement in brackets ismine.

Opening statements:

Federal prosecutor John Gay claimedthat Paul Bergrin was a part of a Newark drug ring and disclosed thename of an informant to one of his drug defendant clients. Thatinformant was later gunned down on a Newark street. Gay alleges thatBergrin told the client, “No Kemo, no case,” before Kemo DeshawnMcCray was killed and that McCray was a threat to Bergrin due to hisinvolvement in the drug ring.

Paul Bergrin stated in his openingargument that the prosecutor's opening was pure fiction and the case“relied only on convicted felons who would lie and testify againsthim to get lesser sentences in their own cases”. Paul stated thatprosecutors would be presenting testimony that they knew was false.As one might imagine, Paul's opening statement was emotional. It'snot easy to sit and listen to repeated serious lies about one'sperson.

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Emotional opening arguments in murder trial of high-profile attorney Paul Bergrin

The Trial Begins

Kemo Deshawn McCraybegan his short career as an FBI informant while a member of theGrape Street Crips back in 2002-03 when agents jammed him on a guncharge. He chose to be an informant and in short time was collectingcash for his information. According to the FBI, he was paid a totalof $25K for information during this time.

Source: DavidPorter – Associated Press

NJ lawyer murder trial focuses on slain informant

Once the opening statements were out ofthe way, prosecutors called the FBI agent that pursued Paul Bergrinin this case, Special Agent Shawn Brokos. To make a long story short,Brokos was mixed-up on her facts regarding the fatal shooting of KemoDeshawn McCray. From the getaway car to the pathologist's report andeverything in-between, Brokos didn't seem to know what she wastalking about.

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

In murder trial, Bergrin goes after FBI agent who helped build case against him

During FBI Special Agent Brokostestimony it was revealed that McCray feared for his life and soughthelp from the FBI; however, was refused as he had lied to agents in adifferent investigation, telling them that two people were involvedin a conspiracy when they didn't even know each other. “He was onhis own,” Brokos stated. McCray's family blamed the feds forrefusing to protect him.

[The feds murdered Kemo Deshawn McCraywhen they didn't immediately make an effort to protect him. After allis said and done, he was doing their dirty work.]

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Slain informant in high-profile attorney murder case sought witness protection, FBI agent testifies

OnThursday Yolanda Jauregui's brother Ramon Jimenez (a convicted drugdealer) testified for the government. Jimenez had worked in PaulBergrin's law office back in 2002 after serving 10 years of a 23 yearsentence in prison. “Under cross-examination by Bergrin,Jimenez conceded he had no place to live and no prospects at thetime, and vowed never to do anything that would land him back inprison.”

Of course this was short-lived and soonRamon Jimenez would be connecting with Bergrin's clients, attemptingto set-up major drug deals. Angered when Bergrin cut him off at thepass after discovering his deal to make $25K, Jimenez pursued more ofBergrin's clients trying to set-up even bigger deals. Bergrin easilypoked holes in the fictional account of this drug dealer and Jimenezeven admitted to lying to FBI agents. Jimenez faces years in prisonfor a parole violation in the earlier case and 15 years in a federalcocaine trafficking case.

[This idiot repaid Paul Bergrin withthis current hell for helping him when he had no job prospects andnowhere to live. I hope he rots.]

Source: Peter J. Sampson – TheRecord

Drug dealer details cocaine deal in trial of murder suspect Bergrin

Jimenezwas cross-examined by Paul Bergrin and it was revealed that he wasactually facing over 25 years in prison over his drug dealings.Jimenez explained one deal he had arranged with a Bergrin client andon cross-examination, Paul asked, “Never meeting you before,he (Castro) proposed a $500,000 deal with Ramon Jimenez, correct?”and Jimenez responded, ”Correct.”

[Being familiar with the world of drugtrafficking I can confidently assert that this is pure fantasy onJimenez's part. No way that anyone at this level of the drug worldwould make such an arrangement with a stranger.]

Source: MaryAnn Spoto – The StarLedger

Paul Bergrin murder trial: Former employee testifies against attorney

FBI Special Agent Brokos returned to the stand and cross-examination continued. It is expected that prosecutors will be calling Yolanda Jauregui (Paul's former girlfriend that made a plea deal) to testify next.

POINTS

Paul Bergrin – 4

feds – 0

Ofer Lupovitz Verdicts In

2011-10-20T21:49:00.000-04:00

I am sad and depressed to have to postthis. I spoke with this kind and personable man for the first time acouple of days ago. He was very positive about the trial and thoughtthat it looked good for him, though of course he was concerned at thesame instant. I expected to hear from Ofer a short while ago and whenI did not, I went searching for news and found the worst. Lupovitzwas convicted, but that is the only story at this moment and newsreporters have not expounded on the statement so we do not know ifthe conviction was on all counts or one or why.

I will edit this post as soon as I havemore information.

Edit @10:25pm EST

Ofer was convicted on the conspiracy and pimping counts and found not guilty on the pandering charge. There will be an appeal filed over an actual error, a mistake in the jury instructions, but other problems are involved as the money laundering counts enter the picture if there was a conviction on any charge. Mr. Lupovitz is out on bail pending sentencing and having dinner at this moment. So sad.

Understanding Sex Trafficking

2011-10-20T02:38:00.000-04:00

Many from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,and Russia read this blog and I understand that the 12 defendants inthe current sex trafficking trial have friends and family that areconcerned, very concerned, and they are not finding any informationout there on this case.

My last post: Sex Trafficking or Unlicensed Massage

My last post discussed unlicensedmassage as I believe that is what some of the defendants may beguilty of, not sex trafficking. I have studied many sex traffickingcases from both sides and I can tell you that I have never comeacross a sex trafficking case without clear victims. Where are thevictims here if everyone known is on trial?

I do not believe that any of thesedefendants conspired to do anything or acted in any concerted manner.Two (#3 is not here so we will leave him out) defendants placed adsfor massage on Craigslist and Backpage and arranged for unlicensedbody rub technicians to work in other places and charged some sort offee for this. The wording of “massage” was used as none of themknew any better because they see this everywhere – many advertise“massage” when it is really unlicensed body rubs. This is acommon mistake that is usually dealt with by Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).

The problems arose with the involvementof the MBI investigating massage parlors. The MBI is well-known forcreating cases where there are none. This has been a problem inOrlando since at least the early 1990s. I know nothingabout this prosecutor (the AUSA) and I won't knock him, except to saythat he has perhaps fallen into the belief that the MBI knows whatthey're doing. They do not, at least not on the topic of adultbusiness and certainly not in relation to sex trafficking.Prosecutors do count on investigators for their information.

These defendants really need an expertin the field to testify and the government should pay for it. Irecommend Dr. Ronald Weitzer, a criminologist at George WashingtonUniversity and an expert on sex trafficking. The defendants'lives depend on it – this is very important. Here is a link tocontact Dr. Weitzer, but I intend to contact him myself – I knowhim (academic and case related): Dr. Ronald Weitzer

To Learn more about Dr. Weitzer's viewpoints:

The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade

Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence

If for some reason Dr. Weitzer isunavailable, I know of other experts. We must wait and see if anydefendant's attorney or family contacts him.

In the meantime, please do read thisjournal article from the National Institute of Justice. The author,Robert Moossy, is a federal prosecutor: Sex Trafficking: Identifying Cases and Victims

Sex Trafficking or Unlicensed Massage?

2011-10-19T16:23:00.000-04:00

I will admit that there isn't much thatirks me more than federal or state prosecutors utilizing the “sextrafficking” statutes to overcharge in prostitution cases, but inthis story it was used as a tool to seriously overcharge (i.e. make amountain from a molehill) women that offered massage without alicense. I am referring to the headline trial underway in a federalcourtroom in Orlando for the Russian, Moldovan, and Ukrainiannationals on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.

The defendants:

Tatiana Belinschi

Alexandr Postica

Saida Babaeva

KaterynaKrykovlyuk

ElenaShashurova
Vlada Blisciuc

Elena Abushinova

IrinaLuchina
Aleksandra Liubina

Natalia Fedorova

Alina Priadko

RomanCaraiman (watching from an unknown location – probably a cafésomewhere in the EU)

In Florida we have a law to charge theunlicensed masseuse. I know this all too well because this was thefirst charge any escort with my former business was charged with - FLStatute 480.047 (1)(a):

Hold himself or herself out as a massage therapist or to practice massage unless duly licensed under this chapter or unless otherwise specifically exempted from licensure under this chapter.

It was the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) that charged “Kendall” with this FL statuteback in 1994. It is a first degree misdemeanor. She took the state totrial and was acquitted on that count. I testified in the case as thestate subpoenaed me and pursued me with a vengeance over the entirebullshit fiasco. My testimony was that I had no advertisement in the“massage” section of the yellow pages and the agent had asked foran escort, so they didn't care much for the testimony. All that“Kendall” did was respond that she could “give a massage”when the agent asked what she could do for him.

We have now established that the MBI isfamiliar with charging the unlicensed masseuse even though they loston it in court. They also charged her with ”Failure to obtain anOccupational License” as she had no license to be an “escort”.She was found guilty on that count, though I attempted to take theblame when I testified. “Kendall” was the first escort evercharged with not having a license and at the time I was not awarethat she needed one. She obtained one the day after her release onbond.

An article in the Orlando Sentinelwritten by Any Pavuk discusses one of the defendants and her defense:

Organized Russian sex-trafficking ring or overcharged federal case? Jurors to decide

According to SaidaBabaeva's attorney, Amanda Jacobson, her client did not evenoffer prostitution. Saida offered massage. The article doesn'tdiscuss the massage vs. prostitution issue specifically concerningany other defendant and that is the thesis of this short post. So far these women are not looking like "sex workers" at all and should be viewed as unlicensed massage therapists.

So have federal prosecutors turned aminor misdemeanor case of unlicensed massage into another sextrafficking fiasco in a witch-hunt for Eastern European defendants?Has this been applied simply because the defendants are from Moldova,Russia, and the Ukraine?

I will be posting much more on thiscase in the coming days and weeks as the trial continues andexploring various aspects and issues involved with cases charged as“sex trafficking” in the US federal courts today.

Ofer Lupovitz Case Goes to Jury Soon

2011-10-18T23:55:00.004-04:00

Today was the final day of testimony inthe case of California vs. Ofer Moses Lupovitz. Tomorrow will bringclosing statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys and by theconclusion of the day, the decision will be in the hands of jurors.There could be a verdict tomorrow or the jury may choose to return onThursday to discuss the case and reach verdicts on each of the threecounts.

I do not imagine that jurors will needto consider any of the counts for long though. If I were a gambler(and I am), I'd say that it is 80% or higher in favor of Lupovitz.Though he did not testify in his own defense, the intricate detailsof his entertainment company operation were made clear for the juryby an attorney and an expert. This man is a personable, well-spokenbusinessman that was deserted by his co-defendants to stand trial byhimself in a far-reaching and downright crazy conspiracy prosecution.

If you were to hear the details of thiscase you'd believe that the State of California is flush with moneyand/or someone has a serious grudge against Ofer Lupovitz. After allthe hoopla, media blitz, and serious charges, the reality is thatthere were independent contractors with clear contracts that detailedevery part of the relationship each had with the company andspecifics on expected behavior. Most important, there is no evidencethat contradicts these contracts. None whatsoever.

For Mr. Lupovitz the lengthy ordealwill finally be over if the jury acquits on all three counts. Thecounts are 1) pimping; 2) pandering; and 3) conspiracy. If by somewild stretch of the imagination he is not acquitted on all counts,then the state could file some or all of the remaining counts (180)that he was charged with – I cannot envision this happening though.

I have made the statement that I am theonly escort business owner to ever be acquitted by a jury onorganized crime charges in relation to the business in any state orfederal court in the United States. I do believe that as of tomorrow,or possibly the following day, I will be sharing that unlikely titlewith Ofer Moses Lupovitz. I cannot think of a better person that I'dlike to share that title with. Perhaps it is a new trend andoverzealous prosecutions in adult business cases won't fly anymore.

My thoughts are with Ofer Lupovitz onthe eve of deliberations. It really will all work out as it issupposed to.

Welcome to the Dark Side

2011-10-18T14:52:00.000-04:00

Today in courtrooms around the US,prosecutors will knowingly present false evidence, law enforcementofficers will proffer false testimony to gain convictions, andinformants will fabricate as directed to gain favor or even cash. Itis the reality that most prefer to forget and participants deny. Itis the US criminal justice system at work in federal and statecourtrooms from Newark to Orlando to Palm Springs and everywherein-between.

Some of us drew the law card in life.Many of you will never see the inside of a courtroom or feel thetension of a trial or the pressure of being the defendant, star andtarget at the same instant and victim of dark side justice.

As the Paul Bergrin trial resumes inNewark following opening statements, the government's case willunravel, piece by piece, bit by bit, one sentence at a time. Bergrinis the lone defendant that didn't take the deal in his case. Hisco-defendants in this racketeering and murder conspiracy case haveeach chosen to testify for the government to gain favor with federalprosecutors and therefore lighter prison sentences. The moreconvincing their testimony the better off each will be at sentencing.They are actors and actresses and the courtroom is the stage.

In Orlando the trial begins for atleast one of the 12 so-called sex traffickers from Russia, theUkraine, and Moldova. Roman Caraiman is absent from the scene,exiting the country before the indictment was handed-down and lateremailing his appeal to the Orlando Sentinel. My own case was on mymind when I read his attempt to explain what really happened and howthe business actually operated, but he was speaking to a deaf ear atthe Sentinel. The only one that we can be sure is actually having atrial is Alexandr Postica. We must watch events unfold in thecourtroom to see who decided to join the feds on the dark side andtestify, if anyone at all.

Postica is young and brave, close to myson's age. He came to the US as an entrepreneur, as his 11co-defendants did, and left behind family, culture, and poverty toseek a better life in the place often referred to as the land of thefree. Instead he found chains and the dark side of a justice systemderailed long ago. Many of the defendants are from Moldova, rich inculture, but one of the poorest economies of all the former Sovietstates. In effect, these defendants jumped from a frying pan into afire, each now blind to what the future holds in what is actually anMBI case, and we all know how I feel about the MBI.

In Palm Springs, California there isthe trial of Ofer Moses Lupovitz, an odd case to say the least.Lupovitz has already spent time in club fed over the case, but is nowon trial with the State of California for the same business. Evenmore weird, there seems to be a news blackout on the trial. The casewas in the news until September 28^th as state witnessestestified in trial and then as quickly as they began, the newsreports ceased. Really weird for such a significant and involvedcase.

As I reflect on my own experience withdark side justice, my heart goes out to each and every defendant thathas opted to stand trial and fight for their lives. What ever happensmay each be able to move-on in life when it's over; something that Ihave been unable to do as the anger permeates my life and leaves mein a constant state of purgatory, unable and unwilling to go forward,seeking justice and vengeance in a dark system that few understandunless they live it. May it never happen to you.

My arrest was on November 20, 2011. Mytrial was over and I was acquitted by the jury on both counts onJanuary 17, 2003. Do I sound angry? Read through this blog and decidefor yourself. What do I want or expect? An apology for the malice,the lies, the mistreatment, the injustice, and perhaps an admissionof guilt from my perps. I am still seeking the elusive lady justice.

Drug Cartel Hitman Friend to DOJ

2011-10-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

Good grief! If I have to read anotherfictional War on Terror story I know I will throw-up. The DEAinformant in this situation is a drug cartel hitman and is used as apatsy for the anti-Iran agenda. Can you imagine any less credibleinformant? I have encountered some real losers in so far asinformants go, but this guy takes the cake with icing.

So now we're mixing the War on Drugswith the War on Terror. I don't even know what else to say about thisabsurd and scandalous plot engineered by our so-calledrepresentatives in government. What I do want to know is whospecifically concocted this crap set-up and what was promised to thehitman for his participation.

Read the full story from TheGuardian reporter Jo Tuckman:

Iran's alleged Mexican hitman was US drugs informant

The story that I am reading from Stephen Lendman's Blog is a bit different:

Iran Falsely Charged with Fake Terror Plot

Since I often read Lendman's articles and consider each well-reasearched, I will go with his version. The DEA informant was some paid and indebted drug dealer that they must have offered a really sweet no prison deal to for his part in this set-up. He weighed his options: 20 years in a US prison on what was probably a drug conspiracy charge vs. settng-up two hapless Iranians that cannot possibly represent Iran to begin with.

Either way this story actually went it serves two goals for its creators: 1) War on Terror is necessary for 10+ more years; and 2) Time to nuke Iran.

What next? Oh and the underwear dude pled guilty. Go figure.

News Blackout on Moses Lupovitz Trial?

2011-10-12T17:13:00.000-04:00

I initially discussed the case andtrial of Ofer Moses Lupovitz in The State of California vs. Ofer Moses Lupovitz et al. I admit to knowing little about the case otherthan the initial arrests and the fact that opening statements in thetrial commenced on September 20, 2011, but I want to know much more.I am cheering for this guy and hope to see him acquitted in thiscase.

There has been nothing whatsoeverreported by anyone since September 28. That is two entire weeks ago.The last witness that testified for prosecutors that was reported inthe news was on September 21. According to the source, the witness clearly describedwhat was independent contractor behavior. She knew that she was notan employee.

For those of you that are unaware ofprosecutorial strategies in such cases, the main line of attack isalways that the escorts are employees and acting on behalf of thebusiness in all that they do during calls booked. In my own trial,prosecutors continuously (non-stop) referred to each escort as anemployee, even when documents and testimony revealed the workarrangements were not at all employer / employee and nothing they didat a call was on my instruction. The feds utilized the very samestrategy in the Deborah Jeane Palfrey (former DC Madam) case. In mytrial, I corrected this intentional and repeated misconception whentestifying in my defense, but Jeane did not testify in her trial.

I truly hope that Moses Lupovitzchooses to testify in his defense. I am a firm believer that if heopts to not testify, it is likely that he will be found guilty on atleast one count. The issue is that the general population is cluelesson the topic of escort business operations and interactions betweenservice and escorts. He must explain it to the jury or they certainlycould accept prosecutor explanations.

I feel that if the trial were over andverdicts announced some news station would have written about it ordiscussed it. It would be really helpful if at least one reporterfrom one news outlet would reveal ongoing details or at least whenprosecutors have completed their presentation and the defense begins.

I have emailed two reporters in thatarea and neither has bothered to respond, though both invite email.One of the reporters wants us all to “follow” her on Twitter forupdates on the Elite trial, but her tweets are all about what she atefor lunch, how much change is in her piggy bank, and balloon ridesfor the last 2 flippin' weeks. WTH?

I am really rooting for Ofer MosesLupovitz in this case and feel it is more than possible that he couldbe acquitted. After this trial he could face another trial as theydid charge him with a total of 180 counts, but prosecutors state thatwhat happens next depends on the outcome here. From all that I haveread about this business and how it was operated, I must concludethat the only big problem issue involves credit cards, and that isrelated to the money laundering counts not included in this trial.

Will some reporter in California pleasereport on this important trial?

Occupy Somewhere and Power to the People

2011-10-12T02:37:00.000-04:00

Okay... I'm not positive that posting on this topic two days in a row is sensible, but I will admit that I am compelled to do it, so here I am. I'll keep it somewhat short and to the point.

So I've been doing my research and I still do not see any identifiable goals for this Occupy (a city near you) movement. Yes, I can grasp the points made as to what the protesters are angry about with serious attention to the bailout $s received by corporate America and the banks and predators / creditors. I agree. Beyond that, there are more important problems that beg for such an orchestrated movement receiving such friendly press. Indulge me as I name some of the many, please...

The US military machine is currently unleashing commando operations in more than 75 countries and before the end of the year that number will probably reach 120, according to the spokesman for US Special Operation Command (SOCOM). Interested in the full rundown? Read US Commando War in 120 Countries by Nick Turse (August 4, 2011)
The US occupation of Iraq. Saddam has not been in power since 2003, and that is when the last excuse of war and occupation could have possibly been valid. Of course the invasion was based on lies, but for the moment I'll get past that problem.
The US occupation of Afghanistan. As we are all aware, the invasion began in October of 2001 and there have been many troop escalations since. Apparently the US foreign policy advisers learned nothing whatsoever from the decade long mistake of the former Soviet Union. There are many schools of thought on what specifically led to the bankruptcy and subsequent dissolution of the USSR, and mine leans toward the Afghanistan debacle. But we knew how to do it so much better, right?
The arrest, psychological torture, and confinement of Bradley Manning for over 500 days without trial at this point. Sure, I read that a few of the Occupy (your city) participants mentioned Brad Manning, but that is not enough. He (if he did it) exposed the truth about this entire War on Terror, yet he's still in a cell and no one is held accountable. We the people had a right to the information released anyway.
US foreign policy. Enough said.

An Occupy movement for the first 4 of the 5 more important issues begging our attention today would have more obvious goals than the anti-banker sit-in that's currently preoccupying the people and the press. Of course without serious changes to US foreign policy (#5), the lasting effects would be minimal anyway.

And that is my viewpoint of the Occupy movement...

Understanding the Occupy Movement

2011-10-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

It is not my intention here to downplayor criticize a well-orchestrated movement of any type, however, Iwould really like to understand what specifically this Occupy WallStreet (insert your city) movement is supposed to accomplish. Themessage is anti-banks and anti-capitalism – okay, neat and validmessage – but the question is, what are the goals or intended endresults here?

I don't like most banks anymore thanthe rest of you, though I do like the bank I have used the last fewyears. They don't overcharge for anything and they're alwaysfriendly. What in the hell else does anyone want?

I have always called the creditors“predators” and that's a fact of life. The fuzzy math used by anyI have encountered has you paying 100% + interest, not the 8% theyclaim when you get an auto loan. This is why I no longer have anyauto loans. I found a solution, but I won't be able to publish ithere. *smile* Beyond that, what is to protest? The obvious solution is to not use credit.

This is a request forinformation if any reader is participating in the Occupy movement.Please be specific and list potential goals when you respond.

I am as socialist leaning as theaverage person today, perhaps even more so because of my horrificordeal over my former business. Okay, I'll admit that sometimes Iwant to sign-up for anything and everything the state and feds offerin the way of social programs just so I can stick it to them; my wayof saying screw you all. But then reality hits me and Irealize that I appreciate the capitalist system and though I have metwith far more roadblocks than most, I admire the entrepreneur, theperson that turns an idea into income. I don't admire the wage slavesand I won't ever be one again, but I do empathize with anyone stuck in a low-pay hourly wage job; time to do something about it.

I also do not admire anyone that sucksthe state and government programs for all they're worth instead ofthinking and acting in an entrepreneurial environment. These dayspublic servants (or so they're called) are the worst. In Florida wehave DROP – Deferred Retirement Option Program – which amounts tocops and teachers and prosecutors getting paid their retirementpensions and working at the same job for the same pay or more. Theyare collecting double + the money and doing the same job. Time for each to go ahead and really retire.

There have been changes to DROP thisyear, but nothing like the changes we need. It is one of manyreasons that Florida is broke. Imagine my thoughts when I found outthat prosecutors get to suck the state dry and plot to kill (or so itfeels anyway) people like me and the 12 from Eastern Europe (mostfrom Moldova) charged with sex trafficking that are trying to supportourselves, and they do it all on the taxpayer $s. I am referring to THIS case, and it ain't sex trafficking anymore than most othersimilar recent cases. I may be mentioning the case because it has hadsome recent movement, but more on that later.

I am all for universal healthcare;however, I am also intelligent enough to know that it will neverhappen in the US. Let's not spend another $billion or more pretendingthat it might and we need a plan in case it does, okay? When it comesto healthcare for the poor and the uninsured with pre-existing conditions, the US is no better than any third worldnation and it's probably worse than many. Face it – it is what itis.

I couldn't participate in anything thatclaims an anti-Wall Street agenda with good conscience anyway. Itraded professionally for a few years (as classified by IRS) andloved the hell out of it. It's gambling, you know, and you win someand lose some, but the game is the ride no matter how great yourcalculations or predictions. So now you know that I gamble, but youshould have already known that as a trial is always a gamble.

So what is this anti-banks movementabout? Without a bank account one cannot purchase anything online.Don't even mention PayPal to me because that dumpy outfit is theworst bank around, worse than Bank of America, and that says much. Itcannot possibly be about the big real estate crash, as if anyone withbrains didn't see that coming long before it actually happened.Please feel free to fill me in on the agenda that I have missed here.

Is it about corporate greed? Well, timeto research your economic history because corporate greed has existedfor centuries and the US is not the only culprit. If you can't beat it, explore joining it, beentrepreneurial. As a 51 year-old adult, I have no intention of everliving in a commune and sharing my toothpaste with some dolt that canno longer suck from the state and federal government because all themoney is gone.

What I have experienced is people living on all sorts of government programs or taking every $ they can grab from the state and federal government while knocking me for my attempts to be entrepreneurial. Get real.

Image credit: Stock Market Data2010 © Daniel Haller / 2011 © iStockphoto.com

More on Jason Itzler and Sumnicht's Death

2011-10-10T18:07:00.001-04:00

I have discussed Jason Itzler of NewYork Confidential fame in the last two posts. For the full pictureread both first:

Jason Itzler of NY Confidential Fame: Clown or Killer

Too Many Enemies

Be clear on my viewpoint here thatwhoever drugged Julia Sumnicht with GHB (the date rape drug) back inMarch of 2010, deserves to pay legally for her tragic death. I just donot believe that it was Itzler. I do believe that he was set-upwithin a few weeks of starting a new business as a result ofsomeone's perception that he drugged this girl, so the end result isthat Jason Itzler will pay for her death whether he had anythingwhatsoever to do with it or not.

I do not like Itzler much as is evidentby my last two blog posts. This should give weight to my defense ofthe guy and I do hope that the Sumnicht family's privateinvestigators take notice of my thoughts. I am sure not his friend,though I do not doubt that he has friends, unlike the party thatcommented on the one post. I do read people decently and my take isthat Itzler was also a victim that could have died that day.

The fact is that Itzler has too manyenemies to consider a return to the escort business. He screwed-uproyally with that move. The same could be stated about me having too many enemies, exceptthat I stay a far distance from drugs and anyone involved with themso I have less to fear. Still... Regardless, Itzler should never havemade a return to the business and by the looks of his situationtoday, it has cost him the rest of his life.

I just took a look at Itzler's case inthe New York State Unified Court System and his bond is currently setat $200K in the list of charges from the “promoting prostitution”case that he was arrested in early September on. He is beingrepresented by Legal Aid and his next appearance is on October 18,2011.

The Miami Herald published an articleon Saturday October 8, 2011:

Probe into aspiring model's Miami death links local photographer and NYC pimp

The noted article states much more thanany earlier articles anywhere. Kudos to the reporter, Lomi Kriel, forreally digging around before publishing. It is a two page article andonce you reach the last half of the second page, you'll see that I amnot the only one not ready to throw Itzler under the bus in the case.

I have been drugged in a club before.It happened in June of 1994 in Orlando, but I was lucky as I was witha couple of my cousins that had entered the club before I did andwere playing pool. I sat down at the bar and ordered a Heineken bier.The only one that ever touched that bier was the bartender and myselfand trust me; I didn't drug myself. I was deathly ill for severaldays, but thanks to my cousins I made it home. I only drank twoHeineken biers that night so it wasn't the alcohol that did it.

According to the article in the Herald,Julia Sumnicht was not drugged in any club and this comes from thetimeline given by the medical examiner. The question to consider hereis: Who was not drugged that day? Read the article and you'll get mypoint. Enough said.

Too Many Enemies

2011-10-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago I wrote a postabout Jason Itzler's current problem involving Julia Sumnicht's deathin Miami in March of 2010, and have decided to expound on the issue:Jason Itzler of NY Confidential Fame: Clown or Killer?

After reading the news release from theNew York County District Attorney's Office dated September 9, 2011, Igot to thinking about his situation. According to this press release,the big set-up involving a “client” paying for an escort for 3days and Itzler's alleged sales of $4700 worth of cocaine to thisclient in two separate visits to the hotel room transpired after hehad only been in business for “a few weeks”.

Now I will be the first to tell youthat this is unheard of in relation to escort services. Cops simplydo not set-up and close a business within “a few weeks” of itsopening. Jason Itzler has serious enemies as do many in adultbusiness, but in this situation I would step out on a limb and statethat the evidence gathering by private investigators working forJulia Sumnicht's family and Jason Itzler's September 9, 2011 arrestby the Manhattan D.A. on a list of felony charges are interconnected.

Sumnicht's family believes that JasonItzler slipped GHB (the date rape drug) into their daughter's drinkwithout her having any idea that this was done. In one article I readthat the private investigators could actually prove this. I made itan exercise to list any possible means by which the P.I.s could provethat Itzler slipped GHB into her drink and there is no way that ispossible. There is a possibility that his Miami roommate stated thisto them, but I consider that doubtful and even then, this wouldn't beproof.

So it looks like the privateinvestigators for the family are spreading rumor and innuendo asfact. From where I stand it also looks like they may be the partythat set-up Itzler in relation to his brand new business. I find thisdisturbing for several reasons.

Jason Itzler has made many enemies overthe years because of his incessant rattling to news reporters. Idon't like him because of it. Why? Well he presents himself as beingat the high-end of the escort business, and he is in relation to $she charged for escorts, but then in the same breath he calls himselfthe “king of all pimps” and I find the term denigrating and areflection on the business in its entirety. If this high dollaroperator calls himself a pimp, what would the general population consider everyone else inthe business to be? To me he is a walking conflict: He acts low-endand charges high-end while claiming class.

Still, even though I dislike Itzler, Idislike the thought that renegade adult business haters are quitepossibly stalking him for the purpose of set-up even more. The womenthat worked for him made a lot of money for themselves and did soentirely voluntarily. I do not believe that there was ever any claimthat he coerced anyone into anything. The guy just has a big mouth,but reminds me more of mighty mouse than anything else. I do notbelieve he needs to drug anyone for sex or any other reason. He's apopular guy with lots of friends no matter what I think of him.

Renegade adult business haters comefrom many backgrounds – I have my own, so I know. My angryfollowers are religious zealots. They say things like, “I pray toGod that her telephones and websites are wiretapped” and “Godbless you” all in the same sentence. Newsflash: I have always, asfar back as day 1 in the escort business, talked and acted as if mytelephones were wiretapped and email was monitored. That is why I wasacquitted.

I really do not like the idea thatsomeone other than skilled detectives accountable for their actionshave been allowed to play stalk and set-up with Itzler and there islittle doubt that this is the situation.

Jason Itzler of NY Confidential Fame: Clown or Killer?

2011-10-01T18:26:00.002-04:00

I have never mentioned Jason Itzler onthis blog for a couple of reasons. The main reason that I ignore himis that he sought fame as a result of mismanaging the escort businessknown as New York Confidential for two years (2003-04) and hismismanagement resulted in a plea bargain and prison sentence in 2005.It is so easy to open and operate an escort service the wrong way andend-up in prison so why did he get all of the attention that hedemanded?

The secondary reasoning for neverdiscussing him is that I have always considered him a clown. Whatmoron calls himself the “king of pimps” publicly and to newsreporters in interviews? Itzler does, or rather did. I find theentire concept absurd and would have renamed him the king ofclowns. Beyond that, I have felt for some time that it isentirely possible that Jason Itzler is a confidential informant,though if he is, he sure didn't get a very good deal for whateverinformation he gave. Hell, this idiot is even the clown of CIs, ifhe is one.

I am only writing about Itzler now assomething that I read yesterday was really disturbing. So that we areon the same level of understanding here, the articles that I founddisturbing are:

'King of Pimps' linked to UW-L student's death

Private investigators have evidence to charge “King of Pimps” with student death

Date Rape Drug OD Death of Aspiring Model Julia Sumnicht Linked to “King of All Pimps” Jason Itzler

Jason Itzler was arrested on variouscharges in relation to a new business in New York, a companionservice as he referred to it in court, just a couple of weeks ago(September 9^th I believe). There were drug chargesincluded this round and he has been arrested on drug charges in past;smuggling ecstacy to be specific. This time the charges includeselling cocaine to this alleged client of his new business. I mustimagine that the “client” was a set-up to begin with.

According to the articles noted, JuliaSumnicht's family hired a private investigator that discoveredJulia's last hours before she returned to sleep in her own bed werespent with Itzler and his Miami roommate Zoltan Prepszent, aphotographer. Dumb as he is, Itzler has already been running hismouth to reporters in NY from jail in relation to this girl's deathand the GHB he also ingested, but of course he didn't die, and therewas no mention of whether Prepszent took the crap also, or not.

You'd think that after all of hisprevious arrests and his time in prison, Itzler would have learned toshut the hell up by now. He's so stupid that he apparently doesn'trealize he's probably going to be facing a murder or wrongful deatharrest in the near future.

So is he a clown or a killer? In myopinion he is a clown and as clueless as Julia Sumnicht was. So whodrugged both of them or did they drug themselves? If this girl tookthe drugs of her own free will and Itzler did not provide them, can Itzler still be charged in herdeath? After all, we are all responsible for our own lives andbehavior.

Beyond that, if the feds intended to use Itzler as a witness in Paul Bergrin's trial, well, he has indeed worn-out his usefulness and tanked his credibility forever.

The State of California vs. Ofer Moses Lupovitz et al

2011-09-28T16:22:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting case and as itturns out, Lupovitz is the only one going on trial in this 2006 caseas his co-defendants fled the US. Apparently Elite Entertainmentoperated in four states: California, Nevada, Oregon, and Arizona,though the case was charged by the State of California and not thefeds.

Altogether Lupovitz faces 180 felonycounts, but this trial is only on the pimping and pandering andconspiracy counts. The other charges are on hold pending the outcomeof this case.

The defendants (all of them) may indeedbe not guilty as charged. One escort or entertainer has testifiedthat 90% of the time she was a companion and offered no sexualservices as prosecutors claim. The only catch to this is that creditcards were charged large sums of money referred to as tips, soprosecutors could actually subpoena all of the clients if they hadto. But if the independent contractors acted completely on their own, there is no case.

According to an article written by for mydesert.com, one escort that testified aweek ago today, described what is clearly independent contractorbehavior. Lupovitz's wife, a co-defendant's wife, and an escort havealready pled guilty in the case, but the remaining threeco-defendants are fugitives. The escort testified that she took money forprostitution, but this really has nothing at all to do with the business.

There is plenty of news out there aboutthe arrests back in 2006, but little on the trial currently going on.I will assume that there will be more news as soon as the juryreturns verdicts in the case and will post here accordingly. Be excited - this guy may actually be found not guilty - but no matter how it all concludes, at least he had the guts to take them to trial!

The Good Old Days

2011-09-26T03:41:00.001-04:00

Thinking about the good old days issomething that people my age (51) do often, at least I do anyway. Theworld has changed so much and everything is different, nothing thesame. My son is in his mid-twenties and surprised me yesterday whenhe referred to the “good old days”. The reference was to the1990s.

Think about how different your life wasthroughout the 90s. The future held such promise for me. My sonrecounted the many ways life was better, even in 1999. The 90s was agreat decade. Reflect on the music... yes, that is what my tour ofthe 90s songs is all about on both of my blogs. The Blueprint Blogcurrently has “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 playing. This bloghas “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona playing in the header atthis moment. She is so lively, so in love with life as many of uswere back then.

What were you doing in the 90s?

Anyone remember World Cup Soccer in1994? Orlando was one of the host cities in the US. For every game(before and after) I was partying at Church Street in downtownOrlando. I had various people that had no clue what they were doinganswering my escort lines, which were ringing off the hook day andnight.

While partying at the now defunct (yes,it is defunct no matter what anyone in Orlando claims or how muchthey attempt to revive it) Church Street, I met a wonderful group ofguys from Ireland and Australia. These visitors were victim of a scamtravel agency booking and had no hotel rooms so I offered to loanthem my beach house for the week and they accepted. The house wassmack on the beach in Cape Canaveral... One could step from thejacuzzi on its deck into the sand.

Each sent me a card to say hello andthanks when they returned to Ireland and Australia, and perhaps onewas from the UK. I have those cards in a box in my storage, but ifthey're by chance reading this blog, contact me. We all had a fallingout of sorts after the game – the Mexico vs. Ireland game inOrlando – but all was forgotten later. My cousins from Mexico werein town for the games too, and well, it was a competition thing thatturned into a light brawl downtown. Hell, I don't even remember whowon that game now. Cheers! and Salud!

That house was wonderful. A former loveleased it for a year for me, but I spent less time there than anyone.My friends and family had barbecues regularly though. The last weekthat I had the house, I loaned it to a Jamaican friend to hold hisbirthday party and he had family from Jamaica and South Florida comein for a huge beach party. It was crazy during, but they left thehouse in perfect condition. What a house and what a time...

Moving forward... Remember all thehoopla over the 1999 to 2000 issue? Well on New Year's Eve 1999, Iwas in Times Square with my son and his sister Ruby. We stayed at theMarriott Marquis for the week, shopping till we dropped, and then NewYear's Eve was the grand finale. One thing about Times Square on thatparticular night is that there are no bathrooms to use. We ended-upgoing back to the room for this reason and by then cops had theblockades up and we couldn't get back in so we had the balcony view.

The 1990s are filled with wonderfulmemories for me. This was before the War era. I think that the 2000sand 2010s should be called the War Era. From the moment Bush steppedinto office, war was imminent. Life changed so much so quickly andhas only gotten worse since.

My son remembers those years fondly.For this reason I am not sorry that I went into the escort business –we had lots of fun and a great life! But should a young man in hismid-twenties have to look back on the good old days?

Julian Assange and Burger King

2011-09-22T17:01:00.000-04:00

I have read enough over the last weekconcerning the dispute that Julian Assange is having with Canongate,the publisher of his memoirs, to conclude that he must recognize thatthe publisher that paid the hefty advance to cover his legal fees isnot Burger King and he cannot have it his way.

When I was seeking to file a lawsuit (a42 USC 1983 action) against former Orange County, Florida sheriffKevin Beary, former MBI director William Lutz, and main case agentBrant Rose, I spoke to several interested attorneys. One inparticular said something that stuck:

“Vicky, this isn't Burger King andyou can't have it your way. If you want me to represent you in thecivil suit then we will do it my way.”

I was seeking an attorney to file it oncontingency, meaning that he would invest filing fees and time andand hopefully be repaid with a percentage of the settlement amount. Ihad no money to invest in it. It was easy to understand why he tookthe position that he did – he knew he could file the suit aspecific way and actually get them to pay-up and settle. He thoughtthat the way I wanted to file would fail (it did), so why would heinvest time and money in something he thought would result in afailure and a cash loss for him?

I chose not to do it his way. I filedit myself my way. Am I sorry? I don't think so, no. If there had beena settlement and agreement chances are great that I wouldn't bewriting about the MBI or the case today and Memoirs wouldnever have been written. Most civil suit settlements require theparty receiving the money to not discuss amounts or the situation ofthe suit. Still, that was not my reasoning in refusing to do it hisway.

His way involved only a personal suitagainst the main case agent, Brant Rose. He said that the countyfinancial would pick it up and settle for Rose and we would get about$200K. I would get what remained after costs and his percentage,amounting to somewhere between $80K and $100K. It wasn't the lowmoney issue that stopped me from doing it his way; it was the factthat I would be stating in legal documents that Agent Rose did it alland he was a rogue cop. The problem for me was that he was not arogue cop and he did what he had permission to do and was ordered todo. They are all to blame and they all knew (know) and there was noway in hell that I was going to let it fall to the stupid soldier inthe equation. Make sense?

Julian Assange received a large sum ofcash to work with a ghostwriter on his memoirs. He needed that moneyto pay attorneys in his criminal case. He gave-up the option to haveit his way. He could still rectify the situation and hand Canongateback that hefty advance, write the memoirs his way, and publish it onhis own.

When I made the decision to write andpublish my memoir book I wanted to do it my way. I knew that anypublisher would make substantial changes to the story and turn itinto fiction so I never sent it to a publisher for review. Ipublished through Amazon. I also received no advance and have madevery little from sales. Do I regret this? I don't think so, no, butthen I didn't have to pay an attorney a large sum of money in acriminal case; this is all after my criminal case.

A variety of news sources quote Julianas stating, “All memoir is prostitution.”

No buddy, not mine, but then I didn'treceive a hefty advance for it. Yes, you have prostituted yourselffor cash to pay attorneys. I did not prostitute myself and did it myway. Don't beat yourself up over it though – many people prostitutethemselves because they really have few other viable options. Thinkabout it. Smile

EDIT @650pm to add:

This book was released in the UK today, but it is not available on B&N website or Amazon.com. I realize that this is due to Knopf backing out of the deal for US rights, which was not intelligent at all in my opinion. Canongate should consider publishing in the Amazon Kindle store and Barnes and Noble Nook store. If they priced it at $9.99 it would sell like hotcakes and be #1 overnight. Consider it...

I would rather read the unauthorized copy. The Orlando Sentinel taught me (articles during and after my trial) that when a statement is in quotations it is attributable to the speaker, but when no quotations are used the party may or may not have stated it. Example: Gallas said, "Blah blah blah." Now this means that it is something I actually stated. Gallas stated blah blah blah - this means that the reporter or editor state it. On that note it will be easy to distinguish words that poured from Julian's mouth from words someone else felt like claiming he stated.

Injustice for All: The Troy Davis Case

2011-09-21T15:20:00.000-04:00

Most that come across this blog arealready aware of the extreme injustice suffered by Troy Davis at thehands of the actors and agents of the State of Georgia. They intendto murder Mr. Davis at 7pm EST today and it doesn't look like anyonein a position to stop this murder will do so.

I have done all that I know how to doand the state pays no more attention to the many petitions sentthrough Amnesty International than it does to the lengthy list ofgovernment officials and celebrities (including former PresidentJimmy Carter) demanding a stay of execution for Troy Davis. There ismuch to be ironed out in this extremely questionable case, but theydo not give a flying crap and want to murder Davis today; they cannotwait. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has no reason to careabout innocence or public perception.

The case was based entirely on falsetestimony as 7 of the 9 alleged witnesses have recanted thattestimony. Police coercion resulted in false statements and there wasno physical evidence at all. Cops pushed harder than usual becausethe victim in the case was Mark MacPhail, an off-duty cop. I hopethat these bad cops and weak idiots can live with themselves knowingthat their actions resulted in the murder of an innocent man, but Idoubt it and consider the potential domino effect. Their lives willchange once Davis is executed.

The real killer of Mark MacPhail willwalk at the very second that Troy Davis is murdered by the State ofGeorgia. His worries will be over.

EDIT @730PM EST: The US Supreme Court is reviewing a last minute plea for a stay and the execution has been delayed!

Edit @1220am: The US Supreme Court denied the appeal and the State of Georgia killed Troy Davis just after 11pm. So sad. They all suck.

Confidential Informants: The Paul Bergrin Case

2011-09-21T02:17:00.000-04:00

From all that I have read in the courtdocuments, I know that there are at least 6 confidential informantsinvolved in the Paul Bergrin case. This must be the only way that thegovernment had to create a case to begin with.

I have discussed informants at lengthon this blog; however, have never discussed confidentialinformants (CI) and they are a different animal for variousreasons. I am not referring to what is called the citizenconfidential informant here as there is no doubt whatsoever that theCIs involved in the Bergrin case are only involved to gain favor withprosecutors for their own criminal conduct and prosecutions.

I will assume that each remainsconfidential as the DOJ isclaiming that Paul Bergrin, a top-level attorney and former federalprosecutor, has participated in witness tampering and havingwitnesses killed for clients as a major part of the case. I will alsoassume that Bergrin knows what person is referred to as CI-1, CI-2etc... and if he has no clue then the government prosecutors reallydid pull people out of thin air and solicit their testimony.

The fact is that Iam also sure that the identities of these CIs have not been disclosedby prosecutors at this point. I am just as sure that inevitablythey'll have to produce the names as Paul Bergrin is entitled to afair trial and could not possibly have one without the identities ofhis accusers. In reality he needs the names now so that these peoplecan be investigated before trial.

I had noconfidential informants listed in my own case, but the state's mainwitness, an informant that went along with the create-a-case plan toweasel out of her actual criminal conduct, tried desperately to avoidbeing deposed by my attorney prior to trial. In fact, Steve Wolvertonwas deposing Theresa Isaacs just 3 days before trial. But because Iknew her name and who she was (another escort service owner), I hadalready investigated her. Note: She actually had the audacity toplead the Fifth repeatedly when being deposed, but this gave a clueas to what she was hiding, so all was good. Pleading the Fifth as awitness in trial did not work for her and she was ordered to leavethe courtroom.

Anothermajor issue in Bergrin's case is that prosecutors have their CIsclaiming that he had large sums of money hidden in accounts outsideof the US. Well, they always claim that crap and they did in my casetoo. Of course my main question was, Where? What bankaccount? (they neverresponded) At that point they made the absurd claim that I “buriedgarbage bags full of money in my backyard”. LOL This was stated bythe main prosecutor at a hearing when I was stuck defending myselfand I followed that statement with my own statement giving thempermission to “go dig it up” provided that they left the backyardas they found it.

One of the CIs inthe case is also claiming that Paul Bergrin had 5 false US passportswith his photo and aliases. This is stated by CI-4. Another CI (CI-6)claims knowledge of Bergrin's plan to open a casino in the DominicanRepublic and all of the dirty money details involved. Personally, Iwould make the government prove it with documentation, and I'd betthat this particular CI pushed Bergrin into opening a corporationthere, as someone attempted to do to me long before my arrest.

According to courtdocuments posted on Who is Paul Bergrin? There is no agent tocorroborate these wild allegations by the list of CIs. I'd bet mylast $ that I know who one of them is and as a clue, he used to havemajor ties to the escort business in NY. I hope that he is publiclynamed because he deserves it more than most.

In cases like this,the prosecutors absolutely count on a defendant making a deal and thetrial never happening. I would really like to see some attorney come forward and really help Paul Bergrin pro bono as Paul helped so many others.

Important Issues in the Upcoming Trial of Paul Bergrin

2011-09-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

I have done a thorough read of thewebsite that someone published for Paul Bergrin:

Who is Paul Bergrin

A main point that must be made is thatthe website is all about why thegovernment has pursued him with malice and created this case. I dounderstand why some believe public perception to be important and Iam clear on why theywent after Paul Bergrin; however, the whypart is somewhat immaterial at this point. The fact is that they didand he is facing the trial of his life on charges created mostly fromthin air.

The website isinformative and if you are in the majority in the US that actuallybelieve the news spin that they read in mainstream newspapers, youwill at least think about the case by the time that you exit thesite. The problem is that your perception (and mine) is somewhatimmaterial, though someone needed to counter the bullshit publishedby New York Magazine about the case.

Perhaps thewebsite publisher will consider adding more pages, one with a witnesslist, and inviting investigation from journalists, bloggers, andanyone skilled in investigation. I consider myself skilled and Iwould be happy to pick a name and start digging for dirt. If the manyinterested journalists would do the same, well, it would help andPaul Bergrin needs all the help he can get at this point. The writerfrom New York Magazine should be invited to pick a name.

Inmany ways it reminded me of my own attempts to explain the whypart to various people (several attorneys included) shortly after myarrest on Racketeering and RICO Conspiracy charges. Hell, they askedand I answered. Hint: Theanswer involved telephone line blocks in resorts all over touristtown (Orlando), my pursuit of the issue, helicopter chases on I-95through South Florida, a helicopter frequently hovering over my eastOrange County home, an agent that threatened multiple escorts andother escort service owners with 30 years in prison if they didn'tsay what he wanted them to say etc...

Tellingthe lengthy story was rarely avoidable as any attorney that looked atmy arrest affidavit (120+ pages of pure bullshit) would look at me andsay, “What did you do to who? You must have reallyangered someone in a high position in government.” Whenthey finished reading through all the documents they always said,“This case is bullshit!” Theproblem is that it was not going to go away and still had to be dealtwith, piece by piece, witness by witness. The case had to be guttedand it was a serious undertaking as the State of Florida named 40+witnesses, many of which I did not even know in any way.

Paul Bergrin'scase is the same in this respect: It must be gutted, statement bystatement, witness by witness, and line by line. Each and everyindividual has a reason for being there (on the witness list) and itis the defendant's job to figure it out. Sometimes an investigatorcan help, but as with questions for witnesses to be deposed, thereare some things that only the defendant knows. I did compose thequestions for my attorney (Steve Wolverton) to ask each witness andSteve added some of his own.

I was not allowedto be present when my attorney deposed any witness, so I am concernedin relation to this issue about Paul Bergrin representing himself. Ashort time before my trial I was almost back at the starting gatewhen agents threatened and attempted to set-up my attorney and a mainquestion in my mind was, how will I be able to testify? Hell, Icouldn't question myself and neither can Paul Bergrin. He, of allpeople, should know that he must testify in his defense so this is aserious issue.

For now I am justthrowing out thoughts on the upcoming Paul Bergrin trial. As morecomes to mind I will post on it again. It is really important and ifyou do not already know that, I implore you to read Who is Paul Bergrin thoroughly.

The Upcoming Racketeering Trial of Paul Bergrin

2011-09-18T19:38:00.000-04:00

I have written about the case ofhigh-profile attorney Paul Bergrin on this blog in past. If you'dlike to read my take on the case almost 2 years ago, read:

Blind Justice

Government Informants

To learn all about Paul Bergrin and the truth about why the government has pursued him with vengeance visit Who is Paul Bergrin.

One day about a year ago a friend ofBergrin's contacted me after reading those articles. She was tryingto help Paul Bergrin by writing a book for him to raise money for thedefense investigation and to continue feeding his attorney, LawrenceLustberg, more money. There was a dispute of some sort with Bergrin'sex-wife as he had signed over all rights to his story to her andapparently she was not willing to donate to his cause. We reallycan't blame her though: He had a mistress for the last years of hismarriage and that mistress was a major part of the case.

Shortly after the contact by Bergrin'sfriend, he added me to his email list. Some federal prisons allowinmates to email, but of course it is all monitored to extremes,especially in his case. I must imagine that any email correspondencethat I could have with any inmate would be heavily monitored withsomeone (the DOJ in this case) looking for anything to charge. Weonly exchanged correspondence once and most of what I wrote reflectedmy thoughts in the aforementioned blog posts. Paul Bergrin and Ididn't have much to say to each other anyway because he did not getit at that point. I must imagine that now, almost 2 years later,he gets it.

I also told Paul Bergrin a short storyof my own encounter with an attorney after my first and longtimeattorney exited my case, but before I found Steve Wolverton to defendme. It was during a four month period that I had no choice except torepresent myself in the RICO case, not an easy undertaking for anattorney and certainly not for me at the time. Today I could dobetter, but I didn't do bad at all back then. It was what it was.Anyway, my short story was a pep talk of sorts, as the attorney thatI encountered gave me. It was a GET UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE typeof story. Apparently he now is – good for him!

According to an August 30, 2011 storywritten by Martha Neil for the ABA Journal, Paul Bergrin filedthe necessary motions to do exactly that. Neil's next story statesthat the judge on the case did grant Bergrin's wish (motion) and heis representing himself in the case. The two stories are here:

High-Profile Defense Attorney Accused of Practicing Law in RICO Enterprise May Represent Himself

Attorney Paul Bergrin's Biggest Trial is About to Begin: His Own Racketeering Case

The judge on the case didn't wantBergrin to represent himself and gave him no choice except to thinkabout it for a while. While I get the cliché that a man thatrepresents himself has a fool for a client and it was stated to me inmy own RICO case, my thought at the time was better me than noone. That is my same thought inrelation to Bergrin going prose.Lawrence Lustberg is a money-sucker and no matter how much PaulBergrin gave (and it is an extremely high figure), he was bound towant more, more, more. (see Youtube in blog header)

Myonly knowledge of Lawrence Lustberg is in relation to the LevTrakhtenberg case and Lev's wife Viktoriya I'lina. AllI know is that Viktoriya was not at all guilty as charged and somehowended-up with Lustberg representing her after a serious falling-outwith her original attorney. The only time that we ever spoke, shestated that she absolutely intended to go to trial. Somehow sheended-up pleading and doing a sentence in federal prison followed byfederal probation. Knowing the situation for what it was, I had nochoice except to conclude that Lustberg is not into trials when adefendant is low on funds, even though he was paid – the same more,more, and more situation. This is not the type of attorney that Iwould ever go to. Big names are not the way to go in many situations including this one.

It looks like the judge in Bergrin'scase will be appointing Lustberg as stand-by counsel to Bergrin. Inmy opinion, Paul Bergrin had better watch his every step in the caseas the goal is to force him to the sideline and make Lustberg takeover, and there is no way I would want an attorney not willing tofight for me to be forced to represent me in a trial. It is indeed atouchy situation.

In my one correspondence with Bergrin Iurged him to find out the facts and truth in reference to hisgirlfriend, Yolanda Jauregui, and when she became a governmentinformant. At that point he could not even believe that she wasworking with the government and so I ended the correspondence. I feltsorry for him; however, was limited in my ability to communicate as Ibelieved it inevitable that he would be pleading to charges as wellwith the refusal to acknowledge reality at such a late date in thecase. Months later Martha Neil wrote an article that reflected mythoughts and fears:

Is Ex-Prosecutor Accused of Trying toArrange Witness Murders Now Cooperating with Feds?

My apologies (with a conditional note) to PaulBergrin. I tend to jump-ship quickly when I get the feeling that adeal could be in the works. Lev Trakhtenberg could testify to that.However, Paul Bergrin should know better than most people that he hasnothing to lose by going to trial in this case as I didn't in my own.He knows how to control information in the courtroom and has theadvantage in this respect.

Representing himself won't be easy forPaul Bergrin – the government will make damn sure of that – butit is the only way. Hopefully he knows that the DOJ is hidingexculpatory evidence in the case and intends to pursue that avenue(Brady violations) in court prior to trial. Setting that trap withconflicting testimony among the informant witnesses is the firststep. Even when informants are repeatedly coached in what to say andwhat not to say they can be backed into a corner with no way outexcept tears to a lone juror in a bathroom with the intent to provokea mistrial for prosecutors. Been there and fought that.

More on the Paul Bergrin case in thenear future. Consider me really happy that this guy decided to get-upand fight for his life!

The Southwest Companions Case Mystery

2011-09-03T00:28:00.002-04:00

The Southwest Companions case hasbecome the mystery of the year. Albuquerque PD created a huge splashwith the news of the arrests of David Flory and Chris F Garcia, twoprofessors caught in a website fiasco back in late June. There werenumerous other arrests, though most were not announced to the news.Today the only one still charged in the case is Cara Garrett, chargedwith “bribing / intimidation / retaliation of witness,” as far asI can see. I'm not clear on how she intimidated a witness in a casethat no longer exists.

I'm also not clear on why no one isquestioning the Albuquerque PD on this case, but there are no newsreports of anything related since the initial arrests broadcast tothe world. I know it didn't all go away because of my Gutting the Albuquerque PD Case post. Was ist los?

Are the feds involved?

This is a distinct possibility. I haveread that the Department of Justice is looking at Albuquerque PD oncivil rights violations. I have also read that there is another casethat touches this one that involves cocaine. However, it only touchesthe Southwest Companions case, and possibly only because the partysaw escorts via the website. Nothing is clear so no names will beincluded herein.

It could also be that many involved inthe case have turned informant. Who are the many? Certainly more thanone of the escorts, but beyond that I do not know for sure. I wastold that there was a vice cop involved in the investigation seeingescorts as a side fiasco, but the source wants to remain private. Theinformation that I have also reveals that there are several escortsthat turned informant, prior to the arrests of Flory and Garcia.

As it shows today, all charges againstboth Flory and Garcia have been nolle prossed and no one involved inany aspect of this case is talking. Scary stuff. We went from mediacircus to silence in a short period of time.

EDIT on 09/29 @8pm: Thank you to "Alias Undercover" for sending a link to an article published early this morning in the New Mexico Daily Lobo: Prosecution puts F. Chris Garcia Case on Hold

I am still puzzled after reading the article. For one thing, New Mexico law is sure different from Florida law in relation to filing time limits. Really the article (and the District Attorney) does not address the mystery at all and concludes by stating that there is much to sort through and they need to investigate and get the evidence in order. Isn't that "investigating" and "evidence sorting" usually done prior to making the arrests? Hell, the Albuquerque P.D. blasted this huge story all over the news worldwide, ruining the reputations and careers of anyone involved.

Sorry "Alias Undercover," but mystery not at all solved. What the hell is going on in Albuquerque, New Mexico?

EDIT on 10/01 @4pm: This is a response to the one comment below - I have tried to post it in comments four different ways, but Blogger won't let me, which is why I had started that now defunct forum:

Okay, so there are a bunch ofincompetent morons in charge of the justice system in Albuquerque(cops, prosecutors, judges). I suppose that I gathered that muchafter reading through the many news releases by various APD actorsincluding the chief of police.

But who in the hell arrests someone on40 counts of promoting prostitution without ALREADY having completedan investigation? They sure didn't need to arrest to get access topertinent forensic info and the only additional info that should be apart of any investigation after the loudly announced arrest would berelating to additional arrests.

That is great that they've nolleprossed all counts. Where I stand, mainly due to the heavy publicitythey secured throughout with worldwide news releases, is that itwould be time to file a false arrest suit. They ruined lives andcareers in the name of publicity and overzealous cops and now do noteven bother to say a flippin' word? Sorry, but this is not how thesystem works, not even in New Mexico, and no matter how incompetentthe participants may be.

Nope – there are many pieces of thispuzzle still missing. Are a few of their own involved? Majorcorruption in Albuquerque? What happened to investigative reportingand who in the hell needs news organizations that simply repeat whattalking heads state? Sorry, but the big mystery is far from solved.

Online Anonymity and Google Plus

2011-08-30T02:26:00.000-04:00

I do appreciate that sometimes there isa reason to be anonymous online; really, I do. However, I find thatonline anonymity is often used to abuse others while hiding trueidentity. I find that people on forums using their actual names areusually polite, cordial, and argue a point without name-calling,attacking, and abusive behavior.

My reasoning for posting here andanywhere using my real (legal) name has to do with a prior badexperience on an Orlando Sentinel Topix board; this was back in late2007, when the sales reps from the Orlando Weekly were arrested bythe MBI while conducting a job fair in downtown Orlando hotel. Iposted a variety of negative, and true, statements about the MBI. Iwas posting under a pseudonym and I was attacked and ridiculed byseveral anonymous posters. From that point forward I decided that Iwould use my real name. Why? Because calling “forever Laura” apimp is not libelous. The person doesn't exist. Calling Vicky Gallassuch a term is indeed libelous.

This practice of using my real name haskept my attackers in line to an extent, until the obnoxious few fromAmazon's forums came along and just didn't give a rat's ass. Theyfigured that I wouldn't bother to file a libel suit, and they may becorrect. It is time consuming and an energy waster, though Icertainly know how.

When I have been attacked on this blogit has always been from “Anonymous”. You see, these scum of theearth do not dare put a name and a face to their attacks. Sure,people will be sarcastic or “snarky” as they refer to themselveson Amazon forums when posting with a real name, but rarely do the“snarky” cross the line to libelous. I certainly did not.

So I will admit that I appreciateGoogle's plan for Google+ although their reasoning differs from myown. I always give a person posting with their real name a highercredibility factor. Why? That person is definitely identifiable andfindable. They have something to lose and it is a rare occasion thatthe line is crossed. We can all be sarcastic, but vile lies and gangattacks in forums are not the norm for a group of people using theiractual names. I believe that Google's plan is based on implementing acredible advertising platform and this is understandable; it is abusiness.

I admit that I have other Googleaccounts and won't be using Google+ in any. Simple solution: You wantto hide, you lose credibility at the same time. I like it. Read moreabout the plan:

Google Confirms It Aims to Own YourOnline ID

Southwest Companions Case: All Charges Dropped for David Flory

2011-08-29T18:00:00.000-04:00

I last discussed the SouthwestCompanions case in Southwest Companions: Gutting the Albuquerque PDCase on June 27, 2011. Today an interested party contacted me to askif I had heard anything about the case being dismissed, so I lookedit up and lo and behold: All charges were Nolle Prosequi – thismeans dropped or dismissed!

So where are the mainstream media andthe loudmouths from Albuquerque Police Department now?

Unless former professor F. Chis Garciawas charged elsewhere, as in a different county or area, which I seriously doubt, there is nocase showing against him at all. All I could find in search was acouple of parking ticket cases (not even his) even when entering the case number.The link to search for yourself is:

http://www.metrocourt.state.nm.us/casemanagement/

Congratulations to David Flory! If youhave any information concerning Garcia, please contact me. I haven'tlooked around yet and wanted to post this immediately, but no doubt Iwill be posting on this case with more info in the near future. Loveit!!!!

EDIT to note: This may not exactly be a victory. When charges are nolle prossed they can be refiled or different charges filed. I need to do a bit of digging around and will post more when I have something.

Reflections on the Aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

2011-08-27T20:24:00.001-04:00

I read the Wikipedia article relatingto Hurricane Andrew facts and it is accurate for the most part, butexcludes some important issues. Really sorry I didn't try harder toput that new and complicated model printer with a scanner together soI could post the images here, but it was too much for me and I threwits many parts back in its box and returned it to Walmart. So here weare...

Driving south on the Florida Turnpikehours after it all hit was the easiest drive ever – few vehiclesheaded south, all tolls were open, and no state troopers or copsanywhere. Yes, I confess to driving 100 mph, but no worry as I knowhow to drive; I learned in Germany where they have an actual test of skill. At some point right after BirdRoad exit (S.W. 40^th Street), all of the signsdisappeared. So if one didn't know where they were going they wereout of luck. I knew where I was going.

I exited on S.W. 186 Street (QuailRoost Drive). I just knew the exit, though there were no signs. Iknew to drive east towards the bay, though there were no street signsor traffic lights anywhere. This area is known as Perrine. There wasnothing green. All the trees were stripped bare and looked likesticks and all of the foliage and vegetation was gone... really gone.Shocking mainly because Miami is better known for its greenery, orwas.

Driving east towards Cutler Ridge, thebay, it only got worse. There were still no signs, not even stopsigns or any means available to identify location, so I just droveeast and eventually made it to Old Cutler Road. Most houses werestill standing, but windows were now shredded glass and and vehicleslittered the streets, twisted beyond recognition. Power poles andlines were all over the place, blocking roadways, on top of houses.Shreds of glass and twisted metal everywhere is the prevailingmemory.

Driving through the devastation Ifinally made it to my friend's home. They had holes in what was leftof the roof, no windows, mud all over the floors and walls... Weunloaded the car and were soon consuming barbeque and beer – neverforget the charcoal; I didn't. Their daughter and her husband arrivedin short time – their trailer in Homestead was gone – and weheard the stories of massive devastation in Homestead (South DadeCounty). They had driven there in a vehicle with shreds of glass allover the place. Of course they cleaned off what they could beforeembarking on that journey, but shredded glass can almost never becleared completely, and certainly not in an hour and they had cuts all over.

My friends and the children had spentthe worst part of the hurricane in the bathroom and in a bedroomcloset. And then all was quiet, too quiet, they knew something waswrong, and the real damage began. Tornadoes took anything standing,with the exception of a coffee table and an eggshell hanging from theembroidered Easter decoration; both were intact in the exact locationthey were in when it all started. They were working to cover whatremained of the roof with plastic sheeting. It started to rain andthe sky turned dark, like icing on a devastation cake.

I left before sundown with a list ofitems to bring back on my next trip, the day after. The area wasunder martial law and anyone on the streets after dark would bearrested. It was day 3 after Andrew hit when I returned. Odd enough,my friend's Bellsouth landline worked through it all so we were incontact. Back in Orlando the Red Cross was begging for donations forvictims: cash and other items. It was day 3 and then day 4 after, butstill no one came to help. The Red Cross had a truck sitting on S.W.40^th Street (Bird Road) and S.W. 87^th Avenue(Galloway), miles before any of the devastation.

The looting had started full force andthe Red Cross feared driving into the area, at least that is whatthey stated to me on the phone when I called the Orlando officedemanding answers. They stated that their trucks were beingoverturned and even hijacked.

On day 6 after I made my third tripdown. Still no Red Cross, but Burger King and Arby's were out therein trucks passing out food. I was informed that they arrived on day 5after and were constantly refilling and returning. Burger KingCorporation took the place of Red Cross, the state and federalgovernment, and anyone else that should have been there. Meanwhilethe USAF was landing jets with necessities and supplies to pass outin Homestead, but other soldiers (don't know if they were NationalGuard or Army) were holding off the people with AK-47s. Riots ensueduntil they finally started passing the stuff out.

Around a hundred monkeys escaped from alaboratory at Monkey Jungle and many escaped from a lab at theUniversity of Miami. Exotic birds and animals escaped from thedevastated Metro Zoo. The people were not the only ones to lose theirhomes.

Everyone was armed, but then it isMiami. I have photos of National Guard handcuffing looters to bars ona convenience store directly behind my friend's house. There was aclear view without the trees and bushes present. The helicopters were outfull force and enforcing the sundown curfew. After my third trip Ididn't return for a month as my friends had the basics under control.The lasting memory on that last trip was all of the U-Hauls liningthe streets. The people were leaving Miami with what they had left.Many moved to Broward County and many to Orlando to start a new life.The Miami that I knew would never be again.

My son's father worked with our frienddoing contractor work and eventually AC repair work for the nextmonths. He lived in an RV in their driveway. The main point that Irecall him making is that it was hot, seriously hot, and they weretaking cold water showers. They did have beer and barbeque on a dailybasis though. Eventually my friends were able to buy the house they'drented for pennies on the $, and of course had to deal with all therepairs.

Don't forget that no one came. I recallPresident Bush (H.W.) flying over the devastated areas in ahelicopter and people were waving from their rooftops. Everyonepainted their insurance info (company and policy #) on the roofand/or on the sides of the house so that insurance adjusters couldidentify policy holders. The areas hit the worst were not warned orordered to evacuate and no one came until Burger King arrived on day5 after, but by day 7 after a variety of organizations and peoplemade their way in. It was 25+ heavily populated miles of solid devastation in SouthDade.

Hurricanes and Mandatory Evacuations: The Hype

2011-08-27T08:05:00.000-04:00

Someone needs to say it, so I will. Iam reading about mandatory evacuations in wait of Hurricane Irenethat cover much of the East coast from Virginia to New England,including parts of Manhattan. The subway system in NYC is being shutdown for the first time ever!

Here in Cape Canaveral, I barely felt abreeze when I was out earlier. Anyway, I have experienced the heavyhype in past – it was particularly heavy in 2004 and 2005 when afew major hurricanes actually did hit the Cocoa Beach area. I went tomy mom's, on a barrier island, in each situation as she wouldn'tleave, but I did send my son to Orlando, 45 miles inland.

This area had mandatory evacuations forat least 3 out of 5 hurricanes. In one situation, a friend in Orlandocalled me concerned for my safety – he said that in Orlando theywere showing the particular area of the island as being underwaterand he feared I was dead. Hmmm – I was unable to find coffeeanywhere and the electricity had gone out in the middle of thehurricane, but that was the worst of it. I believe that power was outfor five days during that one and there were large puddles and downedpower lines, but mandatory evacuations and 20-30 foot water surges?Nope – it was a trick of the cameras.

The winds were really high in each caseand lots of trees blown all over the place, but a state of emergency?This is usually something that is declared for the state to getfederal funds. Of course there are exceptions, like Andrew in Augustof 1992. Andrew was predicted to hit Broward County and North DadeCounty and the beach areas of both, but instead it really hit southDade County, from S.W. 160th street all the way to south Homestead.Andrew was the disaster they buried and the areas hit – 25 miles ofsolid devastation – were not even warned.

I have close friends in Miami, actuallyin Cutler Ridge where Andrew really hit. I was on my way south tohelp them by 8am. Andrew hit around 5am. I still have plenty ofphotos from the many trips down there – if I had a scanner I wouldadd a few here. They declared martial law down there and the NationalGuard was in control for several months. My son's father went down towork with our friends in Cutler Ridge and they had no electricity formonths – I believe it was 4 months to be as precise as possible. Itwas a true disaster like Katrina was, but both for different reasonsand issues.

The problems with Katrina were actuallyafter Katrina when the levees failed. Hurricane Andrew problems werereally all about multiple tornadoes. I was told that it wasn't somuch the hurricane, but it was the 50+ embedded tornadoes at thecenter. I know this for fact, no matter how many want to dispute it.My friend's house was a perfect example: The couch in the living roomwas pulled through the window. An Easter decoration that his daughtermade, a wooden circle with embroidered cloth clamped with a paintedeggshell hanging from it, revealed the eggshell to be perfectlyintact, yet the cloth had a huge hole ripped through the center. Doyou know how hard, if not impossible, it is to rip cloth? This istornado damage. The mud all over the living room walls and floors ishurricane related.

So what happens with mandatoryevacuations?

Well, really it is just the emergencyservices people saying that if there is a problem, there will not beany assistance available. Don't bother to dial 911 if the forecastersare correct and there really are 20 to 30 foot water surges. Thankgoodness they are usually incorrect, which could be the main reasonthey claim a target area that spans 700+ miles, right?

I have plenty of hurricane stories totell. One that I won't forget from 2004 and 2005 is that they blockedany roads and stopped drivers from entering the barrier islands andCape Canaveral / Cocoa Beach. My son was unable to drive over hereand was told the area was a disaster by cops at roadblocks while Iwas on the phone with him stating the truth, and he did have anisland address on his driver's license. When you leave during amandatory evacuation they do not let you return until they feel likeit, days later in this situation. I had dropped my vehicle off at a safe parking garage so I had no transportation.

Evacuating all of coastal New Jerseyand New York is different. In my opinion, you may want to analyze thesituation for yourself. Really the major issue with hurricanes arethe power outages and trust me, it gets hot. Just make sure that youdo not evacuate directly into its path as so many did duringHurricane Charley in August of 2004.

Edit August 27, 2011 @ 830pm to add link to my latest post that is related: Reflections on the Aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

The False Arrest of Strauss-Kahn

2011-08-23T16:34:00.000-04:00

New York prosecutors ruined a man'scareer, reputation, and cost him a small fortune. Lucky for him thathe has an understanding, intelligent wife or she would have desertedhim too. The high profile arrest of former IMF chief DominiqueStrauss-Kahn and the perp walk that he was subjected to for US mediawill not be forgotten by him or most of the rest of the world anytime soon. They held Strauss-Kahn without bail in Rikers Island andthen the media pursued him relentlessly from the moment he wasfinally granted bail and released.

I discussed this high profile arrest inMost in the US Convict on Charges Alone. Anyone in their right mindwould assume that there was enough evidence to charge this man whenprosecutors made the decision to do so, but they are worse than evenI believed. This says more about the US criminal justice system thanI could ever explain on this blog. It is truly one of the worst inthe world and these particular prosecutors should be fired.

Cops and prosecutors are supposed toinvestigate before they arrest, with emphasis on before. What in thehell happened here? Why were they all so eager to jump the gun andput this man through living hell? In my opinion, Strauss-Kahn'sattorneys should consider a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action for false arrest.

In my own 42 U.S.C. 1983 case filedagainst former sheriff Kevin Beary, former MBI director William Lutz,and former MBI agent Brant Rose, the federal judge ruled that whilethere was not enough evidence to convict, there was probable causefor arrest and therefore dismissal of my suit was granted. I appealedthis decision to the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals andlost. It is common knowledge (to most attorneys anyway) that the 11^thCircuit is unfriendly to adult business plaintiffs in civil suits.

I have discussed the state's mainwitness in my case too often on this blog to bother again here, butsuffice it to say that she was a real piece of work and notbelievable to anyone in their right mind. Between her (TheresaIsaacs) and the mere existence of a business account with Bank ofAmerica wherein escorts deposited fees, that federal judge (AnneConway) decided that there was indeed probable cause. I must notethat Conway made this decision less than a week after a lunch withformer Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary, top cop in the US at thattime. I will also note that Conway was appointed by a Bush – GeorgeH.W. Bush in 1991.

At the time of my prosecution by theOffice of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP), Jeb Bush was the Floridagovernor. Incidentally, the OSP works directly under the FloridaAttorney General (AG); Bob Butterworth at the time that I was arrested. Ofcourse the AG works directly with the governor. No one has even caredto investigate the implications involved in this chain of events. Ihave said it before and I will say it again: I was not arrestedbecause of anything an escort did. I was arrested because ofsomething an escort did not do. Quite frankly, and as I stated to the jury in testimony, I ain't their mommy, I wasn't present at the call, and I do not know or care what they did or didn't do - that would fall in the category of none of my damn business.

My main point here is that if suchflimsy nothing evidence was considered “probable cause” in mycase, New York prosecutors must have arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahnon nothing whatsoever except the word of one woman that theyneglected to investigate. Now tell me what makes such a system “thebest in the world” as so many Americans claim repeatedly... Cananyone explain that absurd distortion of reality?

The West Memphis 3 and Random Thoughts

2011-08-21T00:59:00.000-04:00

I have around eight posts that wereonly half finished awaiting my attention; however, I haven't beenwell... flu-like symptoms. No big deal except that it is causing mymind to fog. In the meantime, I will offer some random thoughts onseveral situations in the news. I also decided that I will change theYouTube in the blog header at least a couple of times a week.Hopefully you will look forward to that as I am selective when itcomes to what I watch.

At this moment the YouTube shows a newsconference with the West Memphis Three: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin,and Jessie Misskelley Jr. They were all teens (two were juveniles)when convicted of murdering three eight year-old boys in WestMemphis, Arkansas. Echols was sentenced to death in the case andBaldwin and Misskelley Jr. were both given life sentences. They werearrested, tried, and convicted with no evidence. Investigators, aprosecutor, the judge, and the jury all convicted these teens becausethey listened to heavy metal music and wore black often. Theprosecutor painted a fictional picture of a satanic cult and the jurybought it because they wanted to.

I will summarize my thoughts on thiscase, which I also stated in comments on an Orlando Sentinel articleon the topic:

I am really happy to hear that the WestMemphis 3 have finally been released. I am really unhappy to hearthat the state closed the case and the real killer(s) will never beprosecuted.

This case represents all that is wrongwith the US criminal justice system, from the interrogations andcoerced confession to the Alford pleas that releases the state fromcriminal misconduct and financial liability. And then, of course, isthe fact that there is a brutal child killer (or 2) running loose.How many more have died because of bad cops and a bad prosecutor? Wehave no clue how many - what about other missing children cases? Thesadistic murders of the three young boys didn't take place in avacuum - not much doubt that the killer(s) went on in life to killagain.

Damien Echols wrote a book while inprison, though it is about his life before the case and not the caseitself: Almost Home: My Life Story Vol 1. I admit that I am holdingout for the Kindle edition to be released, and no, it isn't anelitist thing; it is an eyesight issue (with reading). So Damien,Jason, and Jessie – please do get a deal going for a ghost writerto write each book, or write it yourself, but make sure it isreleased for Kindle and Nook readers at the same time the hardcoveris released. Thank you.

In other less important news...

Clearly Michele Bachmann is anotherPalin. Sure, they're both cute in a dress, but what the hell else arethey good for in politics? Bachmann actually stated that, “Americansare nervous about the rise of the Soviet Union”. First we mustwonder what Americans she is referring to. Newsflash baby: It haslong been the former Soviet Union, with emphasis on former. Really –since dissolution in 1991. I think Bachmann would benefit from areturn to college, but we sure as hell do not need her representingthe country anymore than we need Palin, who eyes Russia from herporch. Good grief!

I am torn as to whether I will vote inthe 2012 presidential election or not. I admit that I like Ron Pauland anyone else is out, so if I do decide to vote... I really do likeRon Paul, but the rest of them are all like talking heads and cutiepies. What in the hell is up with politics in this country? Ourpoliticians are supposed to be some of the best in our society, butinstead they're often some of the worst.

Okay, back to sleep for me. I'll tacklethose half-finished posts in the coming week.

Justice American Style: The Release of Charles Graner

2011-08-10T00:32:00.000-04:00

Though Charles Graner's release fromthe US military prison in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas made the news, theevent passed without much fanfare in the US. It was big news in Iraq,understandably. Iraqi citizens are quoted in various news sources andthe general consensus is disgust with a system that releases thistorturer and abuser after just over 6 years in prison. Graner wassentenced to 10 years, but received time off for his good behavior inprison.

What could we expect? Ft. Leavenworthis a military prison and it is likely that Graner was a privilegedand loved inmate there. Many are unaware that Charles Graner workedin corrections as a guard in Pennsylvania prior to heading to Iraq asan Army reservist. According to Mumia Abu Jamal, Graner was anabusive prison guard and he would know as Graner was a correctionsofficer in the maximum security prison that Jamal is incarcerated at.

If you read the Wikipedia bio ofCharles Graner Jr. you will see the entry regarding his conduct as aprison guard. A couple of quotes from that bio:

“In 1998, a prisoner accused Granerand three other guards of planting a razor blade in his food, causinghis mouth to bleed when he ate it.”

“Graner and four other guards werealso accused of beating another prisoner who had deliberately floodedhis cell, taunting anti-capital punishment protesters, using racialepithets and telling a Muslim inmate he had rubbed pork all over histray of food."

And there is much more – those twoincidents were far from the only ones. He also served in the USMCduring Desert Storm. No telling what this sadist did to his victims back thenas there's probably no one left to discuss it. Oh, and he alsophysically abused his now ex wife and threatened to kill her, lateradmitting to it all.

Can you see how this abusive piece oftrash would be respected and loved by military personnel at Ft.Leavenworth? I'd bet he received special treatment, extra privileges,and was almost idolized by guards and prisoners alike. I would bewilling to bet that he was allowed conjugal visits, off the record ofcourse. So it should be easy to understand how he received almost 4years off of his sentence for “good behavior”.

Next thing we know someone will beoffering him a corrections position in a prison somewhere in thiscountry or he may be allowed to re-enter the military – yes, thishappens and I know that for fact. He could actually end-up back inthe Middle East somewhere as a soldier.

We live in a sick place and we have oneof the worst criminal justice systems in the world.

Police Shootings and Life without Cops

2011-08-08T17:59:00.001-04:00

I am sorry to read that the riots inTottenham escalated and have spread to other areas of London. Whatbegan as a protest and a demand for correct information has nowevolved into a free-for-all for thieves and anarchists bent ondestroying the property of others and violently objecting to thesocial status they've been assigned in life. It is an inner angerwith the system for many and just open season for others.

I have that anger with the systembecause of all that was done to me between 1994 and 2008. That is along spread of time and the fact that few acknowledge what was doneover such a length of time doesn't make it any better.

When arrested I was financially set forlife. Today I live in poverty compared to most in this country and Iam forever watched and unable to step beyond that condition. Thisreally angers me for a few reasons, the main one being that I shouldbe able to give my adult child a decent financial start in life, buyhim a car etc... but thanks to a bunch of bad cops, a bad policeagency, and a bad prosecutor, I cannot.

Beyond helping my son, I do not give arat's ass about money and I will never buy a house in this countryagain, even if I one day manage to pull myself out of the hole theyput me in. You see, they taught me that one never actually ownsanything and it can all easily vanish overnight. A hard lesson, butone I will carry to the grave. My trust in the system is long gone.

Cops are another story entirely. Myperspective on cops did not begin with the MBI. This should beobvious to anyone as if the bad experience started with the MBI, Imay have trusted them, or at least one of them, and may have made aplea deal instead of going to trial. In fact I never trusted any ofthem, the liar prosecutor, or any of the escorts for that matter. Ihave always been guarded in who I trust, and for good reason.

I commented on a post on the Duchess of Hackney's blog. She's a nice lady and I like her, but I don't thinkshe understands how serious I am when I state that I'd never trust acop or call one for help. I have called cops a few times over theyears, but only to document a situation and get a case number; notfor help. I stated in the comment that I wouldn't call the police ifmy next door neighbor was a serial killer and I meant exactly that.She responded:

“...There is a reason we have apolice force and I’m glad we do. You can’t tell me the cops inFlorida don’t help people. If someone was breaking into your homewhile you were in there, who would you call?”

No Duchess, I cannot tell you that copsin Florida do not help people. I can tell you that the idea ofhelping people is a minimal part of the job description, say 1% atmost. Some cops never help anyone and other cops help people oftenand make-up for some of the unhelpful cops. I can also tell you thatif someone were breaking into my apartment, I wouldn't call thepolice. What would I do? Well, I am not a convicted felon and I canown a gun, but beyond that I will not state what I would do on thisblog.

I wrote about a good cop, sort of, inThe Good Cop. I don't hate or despise all cops and in past, a few ofmy best friends were cops. I had a long relationship with a cop. ButI do not trust cops and I never will. I didn't trust cops long beforemy arrest on November 20, 2001. Now I will tell you why...

The only time I ever called the policefor help was in Jackson County, Oklahoma. You might be curious whatever brought me to Oklahoma to begin with so I will give you theshort version: My son's father had (he is now deceased) family inthat area and within a few months of giving birth to my son we choseto move there and buy a house. Houses are cheap out there – theywere back then and they still are now, but for good reasons.

I didn't want to raise my child incrime-ridden Miami – this was back in the mid to late 1980s andMiami was the land of cocaine cowboys. I told my son's father that wecould stay in Miami, but neither of us had family there and I wouldnever be leaving my child with anyone, therefore we could never goout together again, at least not to the clubs. Probably the mainreason for this was the Country Walk case – we lived close toCountry Walk subdivision. For those of you that are unaware it was aritual abuse case involving the Fusters, a couple that watchedchildren for many residents in the subdivision. Read about it on PBS Frontline.

So back to the only time I ever calledpolice for help...

Having never been to Oklahoma, I wasclueless how anything worked there. Going from Miami to JacksonCounty, OK was a culture shock for sure. My first surprise came whenmy son's father asked me to go pick-up some beer at a store down theroad. I was in the middle of something (like unpacking) and asked himwhy didn't he go. He explained that he'd have to change clothes anddidn't know where they were at the moment, but couldn't go in his OPshorts. I asked why not and he asked me if I had seen any malewearing shorts anywhere in the two weeks that we had been in thearea. We had found a bargain house (or so we thought) in a small town(less than 400 people) called Duke and our new house was actually amile outside of Duke. Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that he wasright – men didn't wear shorts in Jackson County. Hopefully thearea has since changed.

What a weird fucking place this was,but I was still clueless as to how weird or the level or weirdness.(smile – yeh, I can smile now that I'm long out of there). We hadbeen there for well over a year when the fights really started. Itwas everything, but mainly money. He was stuck working for the mayorof little Duke for really low wages and no health insurance oranything else. The guy was a rancher and my son's father had to dothings like put up fencing, plow wheat and cotton, cut off bulls'nuts (yes, really), shoot bulls with steroids, and anything else doneon a working ranch for that super low (under minimum) wage. Therereally was no other work around, and that rancher made sure of that.

After we had been in Duke for a yearand a half it wore us down and we fought each other. The place justsucked. Nice house though – it had a large (2 to 3 car) garage, ahuge party room above the garage where we placed a pool table, 3bedrooms, a couple of bathrooms, a chicken coop, and it was on 5acres. During our last major argument there, I stated that I wantedto go to my dad's in Florida. He stated that I wouldn't be bringingmy son and if I tried, he would take him to Mexico and I'd never seehim again. One day while he was at work I packed a few suitcases andmoved to a dumpy little house in the nearby city of Altus, about 7miles away.

At the time I was working on the AFbase in Altus in the youth center, so I figured that I could survivewithout moving to my dad's in Florida and no major custody battlewould ensue. I would just live with it until my son was older. Incase any readers are wondering why I never returned to Europe, nowyou know – from the moment my son was born I was stuck in thiscountry. My son didn't turn 18 until several years after my arrest.

So one day I went to drop my son offwith his regular babysitter, an AF colonel's wife, (she was Russian)and she said that she could not watch him anymore because he didn'tlisten to her and would just go in the refrigerator and get a drinkwhen he wanted. What? I recall calling her a stupid bitch andexiting. Now I had no babysitter. As timing would have it, my son'sfather called to say hello and was actually being normal, or at leastsounded that way at the moment. He stated that his mother would loveto watch our son until I found a more permanent arrangement.

Naïve as I was at the time, I droppedmy son off at his grandmother's house. We had a skate night at theyouth center that night and it was around 11pm when I arrived to pickmy son up. I was greeted by his seriously intoxicated father – hehad been drinking tequila all night. I was attempting to place my sonin his car seat when his father grabbed him. It isn't as if I couldhave hung onto him. He struggled to get my son in the car seat in histruck while I ripped at his back – a physical fight ensued andended with him throwing me to the ground, jumping in the truck, anddriving off. I jumped in my car and chased him briefly, but hisdriving was erratic and he was actually driving into ditches.

Realizing that chasing a drunk driverintent on getting away with my child in the truck was notintelligent, I went home and dialed the Jackson County Sheriff'sOffice. About 20 minutes later, they called me back and stated thatthey found my son's father walking down the road carrying my son andthe truck had run out of gas on the road to Duke. The cop told methat other cops were bringing them to the station and that I couldcome and pick-up my son. Relieved, I jumped in the car and arrivedthere in about 3 minutes.

On arrival, I was instructed to sit ina chair and told that they were on the way with my son. Well, about20 minutes went by... this made no sense to me. I asked where my sonwas and a cop asked me, “Is that there his father?” I respondedthat yes, he was his father. The cop stated: “This here is a civilmatter. We can't help you and you need to go to court.” I askedwhat about the fact that his father was driving drunk as a skunk, butthat was immaterial. I got up and stated, “Thanks for wasting mytime. I'll take care of it by myself.”

The next thing I knew I was beingthrown to the floor by this cop and they were removing my shoelacesand telling me I was under arrest. “For what?” I asked.“Obstruction of justice” was the answer. I asked to make mytelephone call and dialed my father. Dad asked me what the bond wasand I turned and asked the deputy. He started laughing and stated,“That's a non-bondable offense. There is no bond.”

When I repeated the no bond statementto my dad, I admit to saying, “this hick cop says...”. Thestupid cop ripped the phone-line from the wall. That was the lastoutside communication that I would have for several days. Theysnapped a Polaroid picture of me (that's how backwoods this placewas) and took me to a cell, telling me I'd be going to prison andwouldn't see my son for a long time. I paced for two nights and threedays with no sleep as I considered it possible that my son's fatherwas already in Mexico with him. A nice woman gave me a pack ofcigarettes, and I later repaid her a carton.

On day three a nice guard came andopened my cell door, telling me, “I don't know what is going on,but they are releasing you and you have to call your father rightaway.” I would later find out that a variety of people from the AFbase, including the commander, attempted to rescue me. My boss and acouple of co-workers demanded they give me a bond, but were literallythrown out of the sheriff's office and told they'd be arrested ifthey returned.

The one that got through to thesecorrupt scumbag cops was my father. He finally got ahold of theSheriff of Jackson County at home and informed him that he hadexactly one hour to either release me on my own recognizance or onbond and if he did not hear from me within one hour, outside of thatjail, that he would be on the next flight out of Orlando to OklahomaCity and taking it directly to the US Attorney.

So they released me and instructed meto dial my father immediately from the payphone across the street. Istill had a problem though, so I wasn't exactly running out the door.I asked the deputy releasing me if they intended to lock-up my son'sfather when I went and took my son back from him as they did to me.The nice guard kept trying to shush me, whispering that something wasweird and I just needed to get out of there for the moment.

What was weird? Well, recall that Istated my son's father worked for the mayor of Duke. When deputiesfound him walking down the road carrying my son he informed them heworked for R. B. Masters and they made a call to ole R.B. who neededhis underpaid worker more than we knew.

That part of the story ended with anappalled judge – he just shook his head in disbelief at what thesebad cops did to me and dismissed the case. His exact words were, “Ido not even believe this!” The judges last name was Darby – blesshis heart.

To give you an idea of what R.B.Masters was like, I will tell you that he owned the house we werebuying and we did what they call a "contract for deed". Part of thatcontract was that he had to approve any transfer of the property. Wehad it half (over 50%) paid for and attempted to sell it and retrieveour money, but when a black couple came to look at the house and R.B.met us there, he pulled me aside and said, “It will be a cold dayin hell before we have any watermelon pickers living in Duke.”

And yes, I did get my son back severaldays later, all by myself. (smile)

I think that about summarizes mythoughts on cops and my viewpoint of rural Oklahoma. So no Duchess, Iwould not call cops if someone was breaking-in – I would rathertake my chances with the intruder.

Executions in Orlando and Riots in London

2011-08-07T21:14:00.002-04:00

In January 2010, nine Orange County,Florida sheriff's deputies executed 27 year-old Torey Breedlove in ahail of bullets. Over 130 rounds were fired at the unarmed manbecause he attempted to drive away and didn't stop and exit hisvehicle when ordered. Breedlove was allegedly a car thief. Within ayear all deputies were cleared by the Florida Department of LawEnforcement (FDLE) and the shooting determined to be justified by theagency and a grand jury.

How in the hell can they justify executingan alleged car thief that was unarmed? The way it works here, thedeputies probably received commendations. Read more about theexecution of Torey Breedlove HERE.

Back in January of 2004, Orange CountyDeputy Richard Mankewich shot and murdered 26 year-old MarvinWilliams when Williams took off running during a traffic stop.Mankewich chased the unarmed Williams through a populatedneighborhood near downtown Orlando, firing repeatedly, and allbecause he fled during a traffic stop. Sure Marvin Williams had arecord and his driver's license wasn't exactly in order, but is thata valid reason to execute the man? Read more about the murder ofMarvin Williams HERE.

Mankewichis better known for his 1997 traffic stop of a Miami police majortraveling on the turnpike through Central Florida. Campbell is blackand the case had major racial overtones since there was no validreason for the traffic stop to begin with. Before the stop was over,and Campbell was arrested on a list of false charges, I am sure thathe considered it more than possible that the good old boy copsintended to kill him.

DeputyMankewich was promoted not long after he shot and murdered MarvinWilliams. He also has an extensive record of complaints and at thetime he killed Williams, there were 27 complaints of excessive use offorce. Our lousy former sheriff, Kevin Beary, never bothered toinvestigate any of the complaints against his prize deputy. My mainquestions would be were all of Mankewich's victims black? If not,then what percentage were? Mankewich is more recently known for hisodd and false arrest of a black juvenile that was later tossed out bythe state attorney's office – read about that in Government Accountability.

Therehave been many more murders committed by Florida deputies duringtraffic stops in the last decade than anyone would care to admit andfar too many in Orange County. When I was researching for a civilsuit against Sheriff Beary et al. back in 2003, I found a lengthylist of cases in federal court files. In one particular case, a 16year-old was electrocuted with 19 jolts from taser guns by 7 “JohnDoe” deputies. The deputies were referred to as John Does in thesuit because Sheriff Beary ditched the police reports and allpaperwork and the mother and her attorney could not even get thenames of the deputies that murdered this unarmed teen. A lousyfederal judge dismissed the suit; the same lousy judge that dismissedmy own, if I recall correctly.

Stateand federal files here are full of dismissed cases against formerSheriff Beary for abuse, excessive force, and murder committed by hisunruly deputies, though the Torey Breedlove case occurred on currentSheriff Demings watch as many more have also. These people dowhatever the hell they want to do to the citizens, and they get awaywith it. They literally get away with murder.

Inother news, rioters burned stores and attacked police over theshooting death of a motorist in Tottenham, a socially disadvantagedarea in north London. Hey – at least the people in this area reactto bad cops and police abuse, as they should. The police aresupposed to be working for the citizens, not killing them. I haven'tseen any normal reactions here since the riots after the cops thatbeat Rodney King were acquitted in trial back in 1992. What happenedhere? Perhaps it is exactly what I have been saying: Somewherebetween 65% and 75% of the population is drugged and with thesemind-numbing psychotropic drugs, fighting back is not an option;they'd rather watch trash on television.

AmI condoning rioting and looting? I don't know and if there is abetter solution, please do inform me on the specifics. Filingcomplaints results in nothing whatsoever here and the complaints areignored and tossed in the garbage. Filing lawsuits does absolutelynothing either – bad judges that work in a corrupt system simplydismiss the lawsuits for the bad cops. Grand juries manage to findjustification for cops executing unarmed motorists. Been there anddone that. You see, that is why I wrote Memoirs – to keep theinformation out there. Serious police misconduct and abuse involvedin my case, but few even care to read about it and many more buy myBlueprint books – thanks, but totally beside the point.

Inthe US, police are rarely held accountable for their actions so theyabuse the general population at will. Why not, right? Cops decide that actions by other cops are justified, even when it amounts to murder. Judges and courts give cops and the state a pass regularly in Florida. The FL Department of Corrections regularly sanctions any abusive actions by its own guards. We have the fox guarding the henhouse here - it is totally absurd!

Federalprosecutors in New Orleans are different today. They went after badcops that murdered and covered-up murder and the people answered:Five cops all found guilty and facing decades in prison where theybelong. Kudos to federal prosecutors in New Orleans for pursuingthese bad cops that execute citizens! Read more about the New Orleanscase in Danziger Bridge guilty verdicts are another strike against New Orleans police.

So,any thoughts on how we can hold them accountable for policemisconduct, abuse, and murder of citizens?

Iwas arguing on a message board yesterday – something I do oftenthese days – and the topic was a 17 year-old that supposedlycommitted suicide in a Florida Department of Corrections (DOC)hospital facility. Demetrius Jordan was found hanging in a cell. Hisfamily believes that it was not suicide and that he was beaten todeath and the hanging a part of the cover-up. This may indeed be thecase, but this was his 4^thtrip to the hospital facility, they were about to send him back tothe DOC facility, and maybe he saw no hope and couldn't fathom areturn to a facility wherein he has been beaten and abused sofrequently.

WasJordan's abuse at the hands of corrections staff or just on theirwatch? Either way it reveals negligence on the part of the staff andonly to different degrees. He was a 17 year-old, a child, that thesestate minions claim to be protecting in so many other ways. How inthe hell can a healthy teen require hospitalization on four separateoccasions in the course of just over a year and someone in authoritydoes not question and investigate it? Tell me how, please, because Iwill never get it. No one else posting in this discussion even caredand several thought that it was good that Jordan was dead. The article is HERE. My discussion is under the Orlando Sentinel article HERE.

Florida'sjuvenile facilities are some of the worst in the country and now manyare run by G4S, formerly known as Wackenhut. Allow your child toend-up in a Florida juvenile facility and that child may never makeit out of there. If by chance your child makes it out alive, thedamage sustained will last a lifetime. Doubt what I'm saying? Readabout The White House Boys Survivor's Organization. And yes, I knowseveral people that were sent there too many years ago.

Getoff the flippin' drugs people or get your heads out of the state'sass and start holding them accountable for their actions.

The End of the First Amendment

2011-07-27T01:06:00.000-04:00

You may as well toss the Bill of Rightsin the trash because it isn't worth the paper it is printed on thesedays. The opposition (i.e the state and federal government) willattempt to feed you a line of crap that police or judicialdesignated free speech zones are constitutional, but it is exactlythat: a line of crap, especially in the context used in the case ofMark Schmidter of Orlando. Schmidter dared to pass out pamphlets onpublic property.

The only connection of Schmidter's caseto the Casey Anthony fiasco is that an administrative order fromJudge Belvin Perry in the Anthony case regarding a free speech zonewas applied to anyone in or around the courthouse. The pamphlets that Mark Schmidter handed outoutside of the Orange County courthouse had nothing whatsoever to dowith Anthony's case and he had previously passed out the samepamphlets at the same location long before her trial. Don't believeit when they tell you this is related to the Anthony fiasco in anyway, shape, or form.

So what are these pamphlets about? Jurynullification.

The pamphlets advised possible orpotential jurors of their rights as jurors. The corrupt systemrepresentatives do not want jurors to know that they have any rightsat all, but indeed they do. Mark Schmidter is actively involved in anorganization called Florida Fully Informed Jury Association andfrequently spends his own time passing out these pamphlets atcourthouses across the State of Florida. Read the actual pamphlet(PDF) HERE.

The truth is that judges like Perry donot want jurors to know that they have any rights at all and in thisrespect, Schmidter was a disruption to the corrupt system in place.Jury nullification is termthat describes a juror's right to refuse to enforce bad laws and badprosecutions. The pamphlets explain the juror's right to judge thefacts of the case and the law itself. Many have stated that I was abeneficiary of jury nullification, though only the jurors in my trialcould know for sure.

Today Judge BelvinPerry held a trial without jurors, commonly referred to as trial byjudge. The defendant was Mark Schmidter and Judge Perry convicted himon both counts of “indirect criminal contempt” for violating twoadministrative orders that he issued pertaining to the Casey Anthonycase. Injustice was swift in this case – Schmidter was onlyarrested on June 29, 2011, and he sure didn't get his right to trialby jury. He lost (go figure) and was sentenced to 151 days on onecount and 141 days on the other, to be served concurrently(simultaneously or at the same time).

So this man willspend around 151 days in the lousy Orange County jail for handing outpamphlets on the Orange County courthouse steps – something he andmany have done for years at courthouses across the State of Florida.Schmidter's attorney, Adam Sudbury, will be filing the appeal on hisbehalf and working to get him an appeal bond so that he can get outof the Orange County hellhole.

One significantdifference between this case and any that have passed judicialscrutiny in regards to free speech zones is that this was not acaptive audience, though there is caselaw to back-up cases in whichthe recipients of the “speech” were indeed a captive audience. Ibelieve that Schmidter will find justice outside of Orange County,either in the appeals court or if not then in US Supreme Court, as hedid have the right to be heard by his desired audience: Schmidter waswithin his First Amendment right to persuade possible or potentialjurors to know their rights as jurors.

WhileBelvin Perry somehow managed to give Casey Anthony a fair trial, healso managed to stomp on the Bill of Rights for anyone that wasanywhere near the fiasco. Read the Orlando Sentinelarticle: Judge Perry sends man with pamphlets to jail

Initial Look at High Class NY Escort Case

2011-07-22T17:51:00.002-04:00

Although the actual indictment by theNew York Grand Jury is not yet available online, I took a closer lookat the entire situation. Sometimes it is complicated to extract whatis real and what is not from articles in mainstream media and oftenbloggers just copy parts of articles. We all know that frequentlysituations are twisted and misrepresented in media and I am guilty ofhaving little trust in the system of injustice in the US, whether itis a state or federal case.

So far I find one major issue thatstands out in the High Class NY case. Jonathan Yampolskaya, thestep-son of Mikhail Yampolsky, was charged with “criminalpossession of a controlled substance,” charged as a misdemeanor onJune 3, 2011, by NYPD. In this case his attorney is listed as LegalAid, but as of today no motions have been filed in the case. In thecurrent indictment his “top charge” is a B Felony, stated as“Cscs-3rd: narcotic drug – cocaine”.

One of the investors, YaklovMaystrovich, has the low bond of $5000, yet he is also charged withthe B Felony “enterprise corruption” 10 counts of “moneylaundering,” a E Felony, and 1 count of “promoting prostitution,”a D Felony. I am somewhat puzzled as defendants with the same charges(like Bronislava Yampolsky) have a $75,000 bond.

Others charged in the case are ValeriiLoboda, Oleg Lechko, Alexey Senenov, Pinia Ashkinadze, Yury Gorelik,Boris Ratovsky, Meredith Harford, Angelo Pascacello, IrinaPobukovsky, and Ilya Olshansky. Loboda also has that $5K bond, Lechkowas released on his own recognizance even though he has a list ofcharges that include the B Felony “enterprise corruption,”Senenov doesn't show as having a filed case, Ashkinadze has the $5Kbond as does Gorelik. Ratovsky also has the $5K bond, but is chargedwith more counts than most including drug charges. Harford has a $10Kbond and a longer list of charges too. Pascacello has a lengthy listof counts and the $5K bond, Pobukovsky has a really lengthy list ofcharges and was released on her own recognizance, and Olshansky has a$5K bond.

According to the system, no one with abond has posted it yet. This could be due to a delay in updates orthey may all still be in jail and unable to post bond because offrozen funds. Really with the exception of the main four familymembers charged, all the bonds are low by any standard.

As to the clients involved in thiscase, I would bet that many will later be contacted by investigators.None should have been so ignorant as to use a credit card to pay foran escort, and especially after knowing that “discrete billing”was in place. There's no such thing as “discrete billing,” by theway, and this is a euphemism for credit card factoring in Florida,which is often charged as “money laundering,” as in this case.

The reason that I believe at least someof the clients may later be contacted is that I do not foresee quickguilty pleas for the main four family members in this case, or atleast not three of them. That is not saying that I feel all or anywill take it to trial, but I do feel that it will be some time anddiscovery later if there are plea deals. This case is not as plain asmost articles paint it to be.

I also feel, from reading whatis available, that there was an initial arrest or two that escalatedthis case. Yep – you read my mind – there is an informant or twoinvolved.

I have also had time to reflect on thelong ago argument / debate with some member of this group. I have noway of knowing who specifically chose to email and post anonymouscomments on this blog back then, but they were not kind comments atall. In fact they were so rude, in a personal way, that I chose todelete them later. My final comment remains as posted under a March2010 article. Maybe someone took heed and opted not to cross statelines, but clearly the credit card issues didn't stick. Regardless, Ido not hold it against the person.

Even all other escort businessinformation out there for sale advocates the acceptance of creditcards. I only know what I know from listening to my father (nowdeceased) back in 1995, and from watching what happened to others.Many disagree with me, but then I am the only escort service owner inthe US to ever be acquitted on organized crime charges by a jury so Ifigure that I must know something about it all and leave it at that.

We shall see how this case unravels, but don't be surprised if it is more complicated than media has made it at this time.

NY Escort Service Operators Indicted

2011-07-21T19:35:00.003-04:00

It is thanks to a criminal law blogthat I am aware of the big escort service bust in NYC yesterday.Appelman Law Firm posted the article: $7 Million NYC Prostitution &Drug Ring Busted. I then searched and found articles in the WallStreet Journal, CNN etc... but I admit to rarely readingmainstream news if not for specific reasoning.

The escort service has additionalwebsites, but the main one mentioned is High Class NY, and as you cansee it is still up at this point. It is a NY State prosecution andnot a federal case and there are 144 counts in the indictment.Apparently there were drugs involved somewhere, though no articleanywhere discusses who specifically did what with drugs except thenotation that a couple of escorts were charged with “criminal saleof a controlled substance” and “attempted criminal sale of acontrolled substance”.

Criminal defense attorney AveryAppelman mentions the fact that the businesses had independentcontractor agreements with the escorts and models:

“It’s interesting that this companyhas independent contracts with its ‘models’ that prohibit sexualcontact,” says criminal defense attorney, Avery Appelman. “Thismay insulate them from liability. It’s also interesting that thiscase is being prosecuted by the state, not the feds. Perhaps the fedsdidn’t think the evidence was strong enough to obtain aconviction.”

The existence of a contract alone willnot insulate anyone from liability in such a case. If no one with thebusinesses made any compromising statements during the supposed 3years that they operated, then the contracts do help to insulate fromliability. It all comes down to what the state prosecutors have onaudio or video to prove their case. Just saying they knewor they had to knowdoesn't cut it if there's a trial, especially with the contractsavailable for jurors to view. In other words, as long as no defendantcontradicted their own contract they should be safe on that part.

I do not haveaccess to the indictment at this point, but according to Brooklyn DACharles Hynes, this is the story – the article is HERE, but youmust scroll to see it:

Seventeenindividuals and five corporations were named in the indictment,including High Class NY’sowners Mikhail Yampolsky; his wife, Bronislava; his son, Alexander;and his step-son, Jonathan Yampolskaya. Also indicted are eleven oftheir managers and supervisors, as well as two of their largestinvestors, Efim Gorelik and Yakov Maystrovich. Charges against thedefendants include Enterprise Corruption, Promoting Prostitution,Money Laundering, and Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance. Ifconvicted, they face up to 25 years in prison. In separateindictments, two escorts are charged with Prostitution, Criminal Saleof a Controlled Substance and Attempted Criminal Sale of a ControlledSubstance.

I hateto say it, but over a year ago and closer to 2 years ago, I hadan argument / debate with someone connected to this operation. Itwasn't really an argument as I really do not care what anyone elsedoes with their business, but was one in relation to what theintelligent way to go is in reference to credit cards. The party read my statements against accepting credit cards and contacted me. Only an idiot uses a credit card to book an escort, and Iknew that before Operation Out Call (IRS) began, and who wants to book idiots?

Beyondthat, the party I interacted with in email seemed like a normalbusinessman and had been in business for over a year when we had thediscussion. Yes, I know that there is much more money to be made ifyou accept credit cards, but... and I am sorry to say that I imaginethey now get my point. The state will squeeze any or all of the clients involved,and they've got the friggin' client list (credit card transactions).Squeezed clients will say absolutely anything to get out of aproblem - I have seen it happen in any case where credit cards are involved. Read more about Operation Out Call (IRS) by scrolling to the foot of this blog and reading the article in New York Magazine or viewing it directly from Google.

As forthe drugs, it is hard to tell if this was a couple of random escortstrying to make more money or what. The DA really doesn't elaborate onthat part and I will not be making a guess on the topic. My viewpointon escorts involved with drugs is that I get the hell away from themquickly.

I willsay that it might be a good idea for any of the defendants' attorneysto contact me.If you want to see who is charged with what specific counts, you can go to New York State Unified Court System's WebCrims and search by "Defendant Name". Click on the case that shows, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the links for charges, appearances, motions etc...

Open an Escort Service in Baghdad

2011-07-20T22:49:00.005-04:00

My Blueprint book could indeedbe used to open and operate an escort business anywhere in the world,including Baghdad, Erbil, Islamabad, Kabul, Kuwait City, Mosul,Basrah, Kandahar, Peshawar, Lahore etc... Why let the war profiteersbeat you to it? Oh I'm sure that the listed cities already have someform of an escort service already going, but why not professionalizeit?

You may need to license it as anentertainment company and in some areas you may not need to licenseit at all. I'd bet that a party stripper company would go over ratherwell in Baghdad. Make sure to offer Strip-o-gram style costumed showsand escorts that offer social companionship for the Baghdad Embassyand Green Zone crowd. Where Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels, andStarwood go is where your escort business should be. Hell, even BestWestern is in on the party.

I posted on the topic of escortbusinesses anywhere on the Blueprint Blog back in May, so I won't betoo repetitious here. The post is: Open an Escort Business Anywhere

A quote from that post: “Really itall comes down to the level of acceptance for adult business on anoutcall basis. It is the level of acceptance in any geographical areathat will ultimately determine how you operate and the type oflicense that you will want.”

If you Google the phrase, “Baghdadescorts” you will see listings for convoy and security escorts, butno escort services of this type yet. However, if you Google thephrase “Islamabad escorts” a company called VIP Dubai Escorts islisted, but they list cities all over the Middle East and beyond ascities of operation. And check those rates: 1 Hour = 3500 A.E.D. = $953 today!

By the way, VIP Dubai has a great website, buthow viewable is it on an arrangement of smartphones? I'd have to testit to tell you (smile). Reaching users searching on a variety ofwireless devices is really important these days, and probably moreimportant in Baghdad than here.

It is time to jump-in if this interestsyou. You must view it as Marriott did, with the exception of the 2008Islamabad bombing, and understand that it is all about business. Youcertainly would have a built-in market with the many contractors andhigh-ranking US military in the region. Trust me – this crowdcalls, and they've got the $$$s these days. Isn't that what anybusiness is about? Making money and doing business where the moneyis?

To get started with your plan youshould first check out Iraq Business News. You will see a “Leisureand Tourism” category among many others. I couldn't find anythingabout adult business of any sort, but I consider it time to be apioneer on this venture. Before you know it they will have such acategory, or maybe not. I did note that Karbala will soon have amonorail system, which is more than we have here in Orlando.

I am amazed that only the one escortbusiness shows in a variety of searches. I advise you to specializein one location, like Baghdad for example, and beyond that toseparate the party stripper business from the escort service. I amavailable for consultations for $45 an hour, with better packagesavailable for 20+ hours – don't ask how I arrived at that specificfigure (smile). For a bit more, I'd come over and run it for you, orat least get it going, but you can't pay me via PayPal.

If you don't do it, you could bet thatsomeone else will be soon.

Is this satire? Not really.