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Causes for Impeachment: Racism and Corruption in the Federal Judiciary, The United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

April 2003

For public consumption

Causes for Impeachment And Removal:
Racism and Corruption in the Federal Judiciary,
The United States Department of Justice, and
Federal Bureau of Investigation

By, Kwasi Seitu
(202) 682-9056
Kwazakhan@yahoo.com

________________

Causes for Impeachment:
Racism and Corruption in the Federal Judiciary,
The United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

This past January, I presented certain members of this Congress with a report that called for an investigation into the conduct of United States District Court judges, along with the conduct of the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the obstruction of justice and other high-crimes and misdemeanors in aid of shielding continuing racist criminal practices by white officials holding the government of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Section I
In 1999 through 2000, I conducted an investigation into events of black voter intimidation and black vote nullification in Gadsden County, Florida. In the fall of 1999, I provided the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice with a detailed report and supporting documentation showing that Governor Jeb Bush had personally and knowingly participated in a criminal scheme to intimidate and repress the majority black population of Gadsden County in an apparent attempt to maintain white minority rule in that county. Specifically, Bush purportedly “suspended” a black elected official from office based upon a bogus, baseless, irrational, and jurisdictionally inapplicable charges. The DOJ never acted on the information.

A. The Factual Background
Gadsden County is the immediate neighbor county to Leon County, where Tallahassee, the state capital is located. Gadsden County has, since the era of chattel-slavery, been majority black. Blacks currently comprise approximately 70% of the county’s total population, yet at no time have held the power and the government in any segment of the county, but has always been ruled by the white minority. Quincy, a small southern town, is the county seat governed by a five-person city council. It was not until 1975 that a black was allowed onto the council, and later a black would be allowed onto the six-person county council. Not until 1995 were two blacks allowed onto the local councils and by “allowed,” I mean that, although these people were elected, whites decided which blacks would be allowed to run out of the black communities.

U.S. 90 divides Quincy, whites live in the center of town to the north, where all of the streets are paved and have sidewalks, fire hydrants can be found on each corner, the drinking water is filtered and treated. On the south side and in all other parts of town where blacks live the roads are not paved, there are no sidewalks and no fire hydrants, and the drinking water from the contaminated aquifer continues to be delivered simply through a filter that local officials know does not filter out certain contaminants. The sheriff is white and is known in state law enforcement circles as “the Dean” due to the fact that he held the position for more than three-decades. The chief of police has always been white, just as the head of every other county and municipal government department. The Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce’s publication portrays the county as a white county, the few blacks appearing in the publication are shown as field-hands picking tomatoes. Gadsden County public schools, which are 99.9% black, ranked at the very bottom of the state, student failure rates were extreme due to the lack of adequate funding. Unemployment within the black community traditionally hovered above 50%, while blacks comprised 98% of all persons jailed by local law enforcement and persons sent to prison from the county. The housing stock in the black communities is poor, the majority of houses being shacks or small cinder-block buildings, with the dilapidated Gadsden Arms being the only public housing development.

B. The Winds of Change
In 1997, Glendell Russ, a young black man bucked and ran out of his district for the Quincy city commission, Russ’ platform called for “Change” from white minority rule. Russ was elected, giving blacks a three-person majority for the first time, however, due to the fact that the other two blacks were beholding and in fear of the white minority, Russ was not able to bring about much change. Russ raised questions regarding missing city funds, the denial of city services to the black community, the fact that the only jobs that blacks held with the city in significant numbers were trash collectors and that they were paid less than minimum-wage. Russ quickly became the target of a series of frivolous probes by the State Ethics Commission in Tallahassee, wherein Russ was accused of “abuse of public office” for such things as helping an elderly woman remove a dead cat from beneath her home, helping the elderly obtain absentee ballots, and arguing with a police officer.

In 1998, as a result of Russ’ encouragement, a woman named Carolyn Ford ran for the city commission out of the district adjacent to his, with his district being the poorest in the state second only to the district out of which Ford was running. Ford won election and with Russ, backed by the majority of the black community, forced the other black to vote with them for change. Whites who had held positions of power under contract with the city for decades were fired when they refused to comply with the decisions of the commission, or as a result of audits that revealed major long-term thefts of city funds and equipment. These whites ran to Tallahassee and soon an agent of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, a man named Ray Meresse, was skulking around Quincy. Russ pushed for the new police chief to open an investigation of an incident the previous police chief had covered-up, where a former white police official struck another automobile and killed two young black women and eye witnesses reported that he was drunk . In addition to the other actions taken lead by Russ that revealed practices of theft and graft in the city government, Russ’ pushing the investigation into the possible vehicular homicide and cover-up resulted in accelerated harassment out of Tallahassee.
In December 1998, Russ took $600.00 out of his $5,000.00 commission discretionary account to purchase toys for poor children in his district. It was shown that Russ purchased over $1,000.00 in toys, which were all delivered to the children on or before Christmas day. It was a group of the people that Russ had helped to remove from the city government that raised the allegation, filing a complaint with the sheriff, who dismissed the matter as baseless. However, Meresse went to a Leon County judge and swore out a warrant charging Russ with “theft,” which State Attorney Willie Meggs used as a basis to charge Russ with “abuse of office,” which Jeb Bush used as the basis for suspending Russ from office. All of this occurred within a 24-hour period around January 12, 1999. Russ would then remain “suspended” from office until the expiration of his term in office in March of 2000. Russ remained suspended from office until the expiration of his term in March 2000, after which Meggs eventually dropped the “charges.” In the summer of 1999, Jeb Bush appointed the person rejected by the community during the election to fill Russ’ position on the commission

C. The White Backlash
The black community was outraged by the suspension of Russ, and blacks, particularly in Gadsden Arms were organizing the community to attend commission meetings in mass. On January 18, 1999, a force of police from the sheriff’s department, the Quincy police department, state police, and Ray Meresse raided Gadsden Arms. Doors were kicked in, guns were held to children’s heads as police threatened to blow them away if their parents did not cease their organizing activities. A second such raid would occur in January 2000, by nine white police officers of the Tallahassee police department. As with the first raid, doors were kicked in, residents were assaulted; the entire complex was subjected to a night of police terror. People suspected of being leaders were arrested and charged with assaulting the police or resisting arrest. These people were subjected to criminal prosecution even though under state law the Tallahassee police department had no legal authority as police outside of Tallahassee, particularly since Quincy is not an adjacent municipality, nor in the same county.

D. The Illegality of the Scheme
1. Under Florida law the FDLE is not authorized to initiate any investigation of an elected official for “abuse of office” unless so ordered by the governor, and the governor cannot order such an investigation in the absence of a formal complaint and action by the local authorities where the alleged abuse took place;
2. Ray Meresse had no legal involvement with Gadsden County or Quincy government concerning Russ, there was no incident of “abuse of office” made against Russ by the local prosecutor, nor any local official in the city or county government;
3. State law not only prohibited Meresse from bringing a charge of “theft” against Russ since Meresse was not an official of the Quincy city government, but also required that prosecution of an offense be commenced in the courts of the county where the offense is alleged to have been committed;
4. State law requires that in order for the FDLE to launch an investigation of an elected official for “abuse of office” it must be ordered or authorized by the governor based on a formal request or other action initiated from within the jurisdiction where the official holds office, Bush had no such predicate when he ordered the suspension of Russ;
5. The nine white Tallahassee police officers had absolutely no police power outside the city of Tallahassee in any municipality not adjacent to Tallahassee, particularly not in Quincy, which is not only not adjacent to Tallahassee, but not in Leon County;
6. Residents in Gadsden Arms that were assaulted and allegedly arrested by the nine white Tallahassee police officers were prosecuted in Gadsden County for resisting police authority, although the local prosecutor and judges knew or should have known that the Tallahassee police had no police authority in Gadsden County;
7. Jeb Bush nullified the vote of the blacks in Russ’ district when he suspended Russ without actual and legal cause, right, and authority, then Bush appointed the very person the voters had rejected during the election.

The apparent objective of the scheme was to maintain white minority rule in majority black Gadsden County, the key to which was the immediate removal of Russ from office and the complete intimidation of the black population. The DOJ never investigated the matter.

Section II
In the case of Seitu v. Blanton, et al, CA No. 4:01-3641-23, a habeas corpus matter filed to the federal court in September 2001, concerning a racial profile stop that escalated into kidnapping, torture, and interstate kidnap by local state officials. The ultimate refusal of the federal judiciary, the DOJ, and FBI aided and abetted the scheme, which is a matter of practice in Cherokee County and South Carolina.

A. The Factual Background
On March 17, 2001, at approximately 4:00 a.m., while traveling due north on Interstate 85, I stopped to get gas near Gaffney, South Carolina. While getting gas I noticed a gold-colored Camaro near the rear of the station, but did not see anyone inside. A few minutes after I was back on the highway a car sped up behind me and threw on emergency police lights, to which I responded by pulling over. A large white officer approached and demanded my driver’s license, but not bothering to inform me as to the reason for the stop. After keeping me waiting for more than five-minutes, the officer returned and commanded that I exit my vehicle, to which I complied. Once at the rear of my vehicle the officer claimed that he stopped me because I had a broken taillight, although my taillight was not broken. Within less than a minute the officer was then demanding that I count, and within three-minutes had me cuffed and in his car, then proceeded to conduct a search of my vehicle and its contents.

The search produced nothing, however, the officer had apparently called a tow truck prior to having me exit my car. My car was towed away to Blacksburg, while I was taken to the Cherokee County jail. Once at the jail, I was made to give two Breathalyzer tests, both of which gave negative readings for alcohol, and when I refused to submit to a third test, the officer charged me with “DUI by refusal.” At that point I was turned over to two young white jailers who seemed to be excited with anticipation of getting their hands on me, I sensed that I was being subjected to a routine. Within ten-minutes after being turned over to the jailers I was again placed in handcuffs, restraints were also placed on my ankles, and I was strapped into a restraint chair commonly known as a “motorcycle.”
The narrative of the jailer most responsible reflected that I was not acting in any manner that warranted the chains, nor the chair, he merely claimed that I made “a quick move.”
I was kept in the devise for over an hour, with a hood over my head, which the jailers thought was very entertaining, before they rolled me into a cell. Once in the cell and out of their view, I managed to get my hands to, and open the buckles of the straps that held my torso. My legs were held fast to the devise by a wide strap and my ankles were double chained to the steel platform of the devise. I then began to rock the devise until it flipped on its side, the objective of which was to force the jailer to come and release me. When the jailers came, they pounced on my back, grabbed me around the neck in a choke hold as instructed by an older white sergeant, who then grabbed my head and sprayed pepper-spray into the hood. By this time sweat mixed with tears and saliva to saturate the face of the hood, causing it to cling to my face and obstruct my breathing. The jailers did not make any attempt to remove the hood or chains, but instead merely drug me across to another cell and left me in the middle of the floor suffocating. I managed to slide my cuffed hands from behind me to the front and pulled off the hood, then began to run cold water over my face to relieve the burning. After about 10-minutes, I was able to squint.

The cuffs were tight, I had long lost all feeling in my hands and feet, the cuffs had actually cut into my flesh. I was left cuffed until the next shift came on, they refused me medical treatment and kept me in the small windowless cell. At some point a jailer did allow me to make a phone call and some friends of mine posted bond. I was charged with 1) DUI by refusal, 2) “harming” the restraint chair, 3) possession of marijuana, and 4) assaulting a jailer. The black bondsman informed me that the whites in Cherokee County were mostly Klu Klux Klansmen, Neo-Confederates, and Neo-Nazis and that what was done to me is a matter of routine practice to which blacks in the area are subjected. I learned that out approximately 40-positions in the jail, there has never been more than two blacks employed at the jail at any time, an employment practice maintained within the sheriff’s department as a whole. The Cherokee County jail was designed to hold about 150 people, however, it is not only almost always filled way beyond that capacity, but the racial composition of the detained is always around 95% black in an area where blacks comprise only 55% of the total population.

B. Sophisticated Oppression: Apartheid American-Style
I also learned that once seized and jailed, people are not taken before a judge without unreasonable delay, in fact, people are held for several months to more than a year without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. Indigent persons, which is better than 99% of all persons detained, are held the entire time without counsel. The sheriff sends his jailers around the jail with a “guilty plea list,” by signing onto the list a person is guaranteed that they will be taken to court in the next term, but by refusal to sign guarantees the continuation of detention on an indefinite basis. The local prosecutor and his assistants routinely come to the jail to wrangle guilty pleas out of prisoners in an assembly-line manner, subjecting the prisoners to threats of further mistreatment in the jail, which operated as a miniature maximum-security prison. Not only are people held without the assistance of counsel, but there is no law library or any access to law books. And even when counsel is finally appointed, those attorneys work within the scheme of a good old boy network and do not raise the deprivation of civil and constitutional rights, but instead merely work with the local prosecutor in obtaining guilty pleas.
Steve Parker was seized and detained when he was 16-years old in connection with an armed robbery and murder at a truck stop in 1998. The sheriff and prosecutor knew that Parker actually just happened to be in the car with a group of adult men who had committed the offense, that he had nothing to do with planning the crime, nor carrying it out, he was just a kid in the company of the perpetrators. Parker was thereafter detained in the county jail without ever seeing a judge, he was certified to stand trial as an adult, had no attorney, just held in maximum security at the jail and then at a state prison until after his 19th-birthday. Parker was then placed under incredible pressure to plead guilty to 20-years in prison, or otherwise be subjected to the death penalty.

Routinely, usually around elections and holidays, the sheriff goes out into the poor black community and conducts “sweeps,” wherein people are seized on mass under the pretense of an ongoing “buy-bust” drug operation. As many as 50-60 people are seized on the basis that at some point they sold drugs, no one is arrested at the point of the alleged sell, and even though the sheriff allegedly used “marked” money in the purchase, none of the money is ever retrieved, and the drugs allegedly purchased is never kept in evidence. The only purported evidence of the alleged sells are pictures, the person is then required to defend against a picture that shows nothing, taken at some point months before, supported only by the accusation by the police that the picture reflects the person selling drugs. And because most of these people are functionally illiterate, held without counsel, or are strapped with unethical counsel, and are then held for months on end in the repressive jail, most eventually plead guilty as the only way out – even if that means being sent to prison.

It is through the abuse of law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial apparatus that white segregationist continue to hold power in most areas of the South, since felony conviction renders one ineligible to vote, convicting large segments of the local black population keeps whites in power. A felony conviction also disqualifies a person from working in law enforcement and other areas of government, along with barring the holding of public office. Additionally, it is common practice for the sheriff to make “sweeps” of the black community around elections to prevent the opportunity to vote, and to intimidate others from voting. The DOJ was informed of all this, the patterns of which are easily seen when one looks, and are nothing more than a continuation of the same old policies and practices of the segregationist South outlawed decades ago.

C. The Denial and Punishment of the Free Exercise of Civil Rights
Upon my release after posting bond, I immediately began to document the denial of process, and made contact with the Department of Justice regarding what I learned. I was already in touch with the DOJ regarding a similar situation I encountered and discovered in cook County, Georgia. Using the purported criminal charges and proceeding against me, representing myself, I contacted the court in Cherokee County. However, rather than answer any of my questions the clerk would refer me to the local prosecutor, I never received any communication from the court of any type, so I had no evidence of a formal prosecution. The clerk refused to provide me with a case number, refused to take notice of my pleadings, refused to respond to my inquiries. I did contact the prosecutor a number of times, talking with Trey Gowdy, who is the chief prosecutor, and at least twice with his assistant Donnie Willingham. What I encountered from these men was an utter contempt, both men would refuse to discuss my request for the production of evidence and my inquiry about the absence of process, both were belligerent and would simply demand that I return on their command. I informed them that I would return once I was instructed to do so by a court of law, once I was given due notice in the form prescribed by law, which always prompted threats of warrants for my arrest.

After more than a year of going through attempting to communicate with the officials in Cherokee County, I did return after Gowdy sent me a copy of a motion for estreatment of the bond, which would cause the bondsman to pay $10,000.00 due to my alleged failure to appear. On July 23, 2001, I went to testify on behalf of the bondsman, however, knowing that there had been no failure on my part to appear and that I had documented the fact, the proceeding was aborted upon my appearing. Instead, when I arrived at the courthouse and as I proceeded into the courtroom, Gowdy appeared from a side room with a small army of deputies. Gowdy had the deputies to surround and seize me, at which point I was removed from the courthouse and taken to the Cherokee County jail, where I was again strapped into the “motorcycle.” After about three-hours of torture, I was taken to the maximum-security isolation wing of the jail and held there until being turned over to the sheriff from Cook County, Georgia, on November 17, 2001.

D. Racist and Criminal Complicity of the DOJ and FBI
Within a week after being seized I had friends to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but was told by James Lannamann, an agent of the Spartanburg office, that nothing would be done unless I was “beaten worse than Rodney King.” In the second week, I told a jailer that I knew something about the Chandra Levy case, but that I would talk only to the FBI. By the end of the week James Lannamann and another white agent showed up to the jail to question me about the Levy case, but quickly realized that I had tricked them into coming to the jail. Lannamann confirmed that it was he who had made the “beaten worse than Rodney King” statement and refused to ask the sheriff and jailers to show lawful right to be holding me. I also contacted the Attorney General for South Carolina, Charles Condon, who Willingham had identified as a “brethren” and would not do anything, which proved to be absolutely true. I also contacted the United States Attorney in south Carolina, Scott Schools, who referred my matter to Robert Jendron, the director of the criminal division for the DOJ in South Carolina. Jendron did nothing other than send Condon a short note and a copy of my correspondence to Schools, that merely stated that Condon could take action “if” he felt it appropriate. Neither Schools or Jendron did anything more than that, refusing to respond to my continuing complaint.

E. The Continued Application of the Fugitive Slave Act
In early October, I received a “report and recommendation” from Magistrate Terry Wooten of the federal district court. Wooten began the report by referring to me as a “pretrial detainee,” a designation that ran contrary to the facts set forth in my application for the writ. Wooten even cited the instruction of Fine v. City of New York, 529 F.2d 70 (2nd Cir. 1975), where the court instructed that “When a federal court is evaluating a pro se complaint or petition, the plaintiff’s or petitioner’s allegations are assumed to be true.” There was nothing in my allegations that could have led Wooten to assume or conclude that I was a “pretrial detainee,” nor that I was ever “awaiting trial,” particularly not at the point that I filed for the writ. Wooten even mentioned within his recital the fact that I had pled guilty and was sentenced to “30-days time served,” but maintained that I was a “pretrial detainee.” Wooten also claimed that I was being held as “a fugitive” from Georgia, yet I had never stated such, but to the contrary, informed the court that although the officials in Cherokee County were claiming to hold me as a fugitive, they were continuing to refuse to accord judicial process. Wooten’s recital was entirely aimed at supporting his “recommendation” that my application be summarily dismissed. I rebutted Wooten’s report, pointing out the series of factual misrepresentations and misapplications of legal principles, but got no response from Judge Patrick Duffy.

On November 17, 2001, I was turned over to deputies of the Cook County sheriff and transported into Georgia. As it turned out, on September 11, 2001, the prosecutor in Cook County made out a sworn statement in support of a request for extradition to be made by then Georgia Governor Roy Barnes to South Carolina Governor James Hodges. In Georgia, I was stopped on Interstate 75 on January 29, 2001 at about 10:00 p.m., allegedly for “speeding.” In fact, a Cook County deputy for a number of miles tailgated me with his high-beam lights on, forcing me to gradually increase my speed from around 69-71 mph, to 81 mph in an attempt to keep a safe distance between the vehicles. After I signed the ticket, I was forced to give two Breathalyzer tests, both of which read .04 for blood alcohol. Then my car was searched without my consent, producing nothing, so the deputy claimed that a bag of empty plastic and glass bottles destined for a recycle center in Atlanta, where I stayed at the time, constituted “open containers” because some of them were beer bottles. Having nothing to arrest me for, the two white deputies decided to seize me on the basis that I obstructed them by allegedly then telling the passenger not to answer their questions.

I was roughed-up, taken to the cook County jail, and made to post a bond, which I did within 30-hours. Upon my release I began to attempt to engage the court there with regard to the purported prosecution, but what I encountered was exactly the same practice and conduct I would encounter in Cherokee County. The clerk of the court would not provide me with any information, but would refer me to the local prosecutor, a man named Bob Ellis. When I contacted Ellis, either he or his assistant Tim Edison would be belligerent, not forthcoming with any information, and threaten me if I did not return to the county merely upon their demand. As in South Carolina, no court ever sent no notice or other communication to me and the clerk would refuse to explain why, or provide any information.

In August 2001, in order to protect the interest of the person who had bonded me out, I returned to cook County when Ellis claimed that he had an “indictment” against me. When I arrived I found Ellis and his assistants “arraigning” people on purported indictments, there was no judge in the courtroom, no defense attorneys. The majority people in the courtroom were black, Ellis and his assistants would call them forward and have them enter pleas to them. When I was called, I asked about the absence of a judge and was told that I would not be seeing a judge, so when I told them that I was not going to plead guilty, this was noted on the face of the indictment. I then signed where instructed in order to make a record of my actual physical appearance. Even though state law prohibits the treatment of traffic citations as misdemeanors, not only had Ellis made them misdemeanors, but indicted them as if felonies. The only actual criminal charge against me in Georgia was the “obstruction” charge, which was a misdemeanor under state law since there was no violence alleged in the obstruction, however, Ellis also indicted that charge as if a felony. In fact, in his sworn statement to Governor Barnes, Ellis stated that I was charged with “felony” obstruction, even though he related allegations in support that did not mention any violence, and attached a copy of his indictment that listed the charge as a “misdemeanor.”

Thus, there was no legal basis for extradition, so there was no extradition proceedings, no one in South Carolina had lawful right to be holding me, and no one in Georgia had a lawful right to demand that I be seized and turned over to them. It was inexcusable for Roy Barnes not to have determined such, particularly with the prima facie illegal showing of Bob Ellis’ claims. It was equally inexcusable for James Hodges not to have determined first, if indeed South Carolina had lawful custody, particularly since there had been no judicial proceedings in South Carolina and no evidence of such behind the demand being made by Georgia. However, under the Fugitive Salve Act, none of this was required since I am black and so, have no rights that whites holding the power and government are bound to respect.

F. The Racist and Criminal Complicity of Wooten and Duffy
Judge Patrick Duffy never responded to my application and objections, even though I informed him of the plan to illegally transport me into Georgia. Just recently, I obtained a copy of the order Patrick Duffy eventually entered regarding my habeas corpus petition. On January 10, 2002, Judge Duffy entered an order summarily dismissing my petition as recommended by Terry Wooten, claiming that because I had been illegally taken into Georgia, that his court was no longer the court of proper jurisdiction. In his belated order, although Duffy conceded that I was not a pretrial detainee as Wooten had claimed, but only because I had allegedly pled guilty in September. Duffy wholly failed to mention why I initially sought the writ, which was unlawful seizure and false imprisonment, repeating the same tact engaged in by Wooten, which was to claim that the “guilty plea” coerced out me rendered the actions legitimate. Duffy stated that “Any challenges to the Petitioner’s pretrial detention in south Carolina, which constitute the gravamen of his claims, became moot after he plead guilty.”

Both Duffy and Wooten, as purported learned jurist, decided that a seizure that lacked lawful authority, right, or basis of any kind constituted a “pretrial detention.” No one in South Carolina was ever directed to respond to my application for the writ, so there was never anything to rebut or refute my allegations, which certainly could not have led anyone to conclude that I was “a pretrial detainee,” particularly not a judge and magistrate evaluating a habeas corpus petition (see, Fine v. N.Y. City, supra). At the same time, the positions of Duffy and Wooten fly in the face of well-settled constitutional principles of due process, according to these men, it matters not whether a person is legally seized, is charged with an actual crime, or proceeded against in a manner that entirely violates the law, a guilty plea justifies it all.

G. Impeachment
At the time that Terry Wooten was engaging in the denial of my rights by obstructing a judicial investigation and thus, helping to cover-up the broad racist criminal practices of state officials in South Carolina, he was under consideration for appointment as a federal district court judge. At the same time that I was being kidnapped to Georgia, the Senate Judiciary Committee were approving George Bush’s nomination of Wooten as an Article III judge. Whether due to corrupt character, racist inclinations, plain incompetence, or any combination thereof, Terry Wooten should not have been affirmed as an judge. Had the Department of Justice not engaged in the suppression of this critical information, perhaps Wooten would not have been, but there is no excuse for his remaining as such.
To the same extent, there is no lawful and ethical basis for the Senate to refuse to consider the impeachment of Patrick Duffy as well, these men have knowing acted with others to violate various provisions of federal and state law.

Since Wooten and Duffy withheld judicial process and allowed me to be subjected to absolutely criminal detention, I was not able to file an appeal or take other such action to the Fourth circuit court of Appeals. Last fall I did file a formal complaint to the Judicial Council of the Fourth Circuit relating the information provided above, however, it first claimed not to have received the complaint. I sent a second complaint, but that court has refused to acknowledge receipt and refuses to respond to my inquiries. However, similar complaints were made to the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit with regard to identical corrupt practices of federal judges and magistrates of the district courts in Georgia, and each was quickly and summarily dismissed. Empty and legally baseless denials is a practice intended to send a complainant on a meaningless and ever complex paper chase, which the poor cannot pursue. Only due to my extensive knowledge of law was I able to pursue matters as far I have, and even with that, I have still come up against a wall where my rights and the law become non-existent under the controlling considerations of race, class, and fraternity.

There is no doubt that Wooten and Duffy violated the law directly, and did so in aid of the broader criminal scheme where blacks are routinely illegally seized, held, and interned in the bulging penal colonies that have become the second leading industry in the region, no different from chattel-slavery. The doctrine expounded in the case of Dred Scott v. John Sanford (1857), where the United States Supreme Court stated that blacks had no rights that whites who hold the power and the government in America were bound to respect, is a doctrine that is criminal under today’s domestic and international laws. The retention of the doctrine beyond the enactment of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution was upheld by the United states supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), where the court upheld the imposition of apartheid. And although the United States Supreme Court would later strike down “the language” of Plessy in the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the practices and the institutions of racism remained in tact.

Although the United States is quick to boast that it addressed its “race problem” in education, public facilities, and other areas, it has never addressed the problem of racism within the judiciary. By failing to address the problem of the judiciary as an institution of racism, the United States has failed to address the problem of institutional racism at its core and thus, blacks and other people of color continue to suffer the deprivation and violation of their human rights by white men in black robes. The conduct and actions of both Terry Wooten and Patrick Duffy, as well as those whites in the DOJ and FBI, not only violated numerous domestic laws, but constitute serious violations of human rights. However, they are shielded from prosecution for their crimes because they are embedded in the scheme of American hypocrisy

The federal writ of habeas corpus may be granted by any supreme court, any justice thereof, or any judge of an appellate or district court upon petition by or on behalf of any person restrained of his liberty in the state. When so issued it may be made returnable before the court or any court or judge authorized to grant the writ to whom a petition is presented. And when it appears that the writ ought to issue, the court or judge must grant the same without delay. When taken in conjunction with the rule set forth in Fine, supra, and the fact that neither Wooten nor Duffy ever directed anyone in South Carolina to file a rebuttal to my application, there is no valid or legitimate basis for their action. There was no evidence to refute my claim that I had been seized without warrant or lawful cause, nor that I had been seized upon the order of the prosecutor in the absence of judicial process. There was no evidence to refute that I was thereafter held by the sheriff without a warrant, without a charge, and through the denial of access to a court of law. There was nothing on which Wooten or Duffy could conclude that I was a “pretrial detainee,” nor that my pleading guilty was the result of anything less than being illegally held with the threat of indefinitely.

H. Laws Broken by South Carolina Officials
1. Although “racial profiling” per se, is not a crime, the elements of racial profiling are indeed criminal, it is the stopping and detaining of people based on nothing more than race, gender, and/or assumed nationality. This violates a number of federal civil rights laws.
2. Kidnapping, where the white South Carolina patrol officer physically seized me on the highway and removed me to Gaffney without lawful right, cause, and authority, and then a second time by the prosecutor.
3. False imprisonment, where I was taken to and held in the Cherokee County jail without lawful right, cause, and authority.
4. Torture, where I was physically assaulted and strapped into a devise, left for hours, gassed, left to suffocate, and denied medical treatment.
5. Filing false police reports and false charges, where, in an attempt to cover-up their criminal conduct, the patrolman and jailers made arbitrary and false charges.
6. Extortion and theft, where I was required to pay a ransom/bond on knowingly false and non-existent charges, three of which simply vanished along with the so-called “bond” money.
7. Obstruction of Justice and denial of civil rights.
8. Obstruction of process.
9. False imprisonment and illegal detention.
10. Conspiracy to violate civil, constitutional, and human rights.
11. Conspiracy to commit interstate kidnap.

Laws Violated by Wooten, Duffy, the DOJ and FBI
The tenure of judges is based on competence, good health, and “good conduct.” The violation and disregard of the law certainly does not qualify as “good behavior.” Whether those violations occurred as the result of gross incompetence or ill will, they still constitute grounds for prosecution and impeachment, which must take place under the constitutional guarantees of due process and equal application of the laws. Every criminal act committed by South Carolina officials were aided and abetted by the failures, refusals, fallacies, and other abuses of office by Wooten, Duffy, the DOJ and FBI.

Section III
Continuing from the incident related in Section II, the DOJ and FBI field office in Georgia was contacted and alerted to the unlawful seizure and transport across state lines, but refused to act, resulting in the filing of an application for the writ of manadamus (Seitu v. Ratley, et al. C.A. No. 5:02-cv-50-1(HL), and the filing of an application for the writ of habeas corpus to the federal court ( Seitu v. Bryant, et al. C.A. No. &:02-cv-23 (CAR).

A. Factual Background
As related in the previous section, the matter in Cook County began with a late night racial profile stop on January 29, 2000. The pretense of the stop was “speeding,” and led to my being illegally seized, taken to jail, then being subjected to a wholly false prosecution. Immediately upon my release after posting bond, I prepared and attempted to file for the writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the prisoners I met during the 30-hour period I was in the Cook County jail. The application was obstructed by federal judge, G. Ernest Tidwell, who appears to have contacted the sheriff and prosecutor in cook County while holding the application from being sent to the proper court. As would be the case with the officials in Cherokee County, the officials in Cook County were very upset and concerned about the fact that I was contacting federal officials about what I found. As would be the case with the conduct of the prosecutor in South Carolina, there was an attempt to lure me back into the county under the pretext of a criminal prosecution, however, which was frustrated by the fact that I knew the law and legal process.

B. Mandamus Nullified
When the FBI field office in Georgia failed to initiate an investigation, I again contacted the United States Attorney’s office, specifically Sharon Ratley, Chief of the criminal Division, who had claimed that she referred the matter to Thomasville field office of the FBI for action. However, Ms. Ratley did not call the field office into account, which led to my filing for the issuance of mandamus by the federal court directing both agencies to comply with their statutory law enforcement duty to at least initiate an investigation. The application was assigned to federal judge Hugh Lawson, who almost immediately entered a summary denial of the application Lawson claimed that mandamus did not lie where the United States Attorney had “prosecutorial” discretion and inferred the same to the FBI, since he made no mention about the FBI’s failure and refusal to initiate an investigation. However, clearly, in order for there to be prosecutorial discretion there must be an actual case in which that discretion may be exercised, there is no such discretion when it comes to the duty of law enforcement to enforce the law.

C. Habeas Corpus Nullified
Around the same time that I filed for mandamus, I filed to the federal court for the writ of habeas corpus, that application was assigned to federal judge Richard Hodge. Eventually, Hodge would receive nearly a dozen habeas corpus petitions from person detained in Cook County, every one of them alleging identical practices of illegal detention in the form of 1) never being taken before a judge after months of being held; 2) being seized on fabricated and arbitrary charges; 3) being held without counsel; 4) being “arraigned” by the prosecutor; 5) excessive bonds, and bonds being set by the prosecutor and sheriff rather than by judges.

In each case, including my own, Hodge treated the matters as if they were petitions filed by persons making collateral attacks on state court convictions, rather than people seized and being held illegally by a local sheriff. In each instance, Hodge allowed the sheriff to file a written “answer” within 30-days, rather than ordering the sheriff to produce the person in court in three days as prescribed by federal habeas corpus law. Then, once the sheriff filed what he purported was an answer, Hodge sat on the matters for months, eventually summarily denying each application. Not a single answer filed by the sheriff and prosecutor ever addressed the issues raised in the petitions, their only response was to assert that they had lawfully arrested each person and that they believed that they were guilty of the offenses charged. There was never any response to the alleged practice of detaining without ever taking persons before a judge, detention without process, detention without benefit of counsel, arraignment by the prosecutor, the imposition of excessive bonds, bonds being set by persons other than judges and magistrates, prolonged illegal detention as a means of coercing guilty pleas. The sheriff and prosecutors then went after the people who filed for the writ.

When I filed for the writ initially in 2000 on behalf of the people I met in the jail at that time (Seitu In re: Judge v. Bryant, C.A.No. 1:00-cv-441(GET) ), G. Ernest Tidwell intervened and summarily dismissed the application. Tidwell is a senior judge of the federal court serving the northern district of Georgia, Cook county is in the southern district. I did not file the writ to the northern district, but merely sent it to the clerk of the court asking that he please send it to the southern district, for which I could not find an address. Tidwell’s intervention was wholly illegal and unethical, a fact buoyed by the claimed basis for his dismissal of the application. First Tidwell claimed that I could not file the application since “it does not appear that (I) was authorized to practice law in the state of Georgia,” when habeas corpus allows for a friend or interested person to file on behalf of another incapable of filing on their own behalf. In the application I clearly informed the court that not only were the named persons functionally illiterate and poor, but were being held without access to attorneys. Tidwell “dismissed” the named persons from the application because “they had not been granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis,“ but I had and I was the one filing omn their behalf. Next, Tidwell claimed “proper venue” for the application was with the southern district/, but twice intervened and refused to allow the clerk to forward the matter to that court, choosing instead to rule in a matter in which he claimed that he had no authority.

C. The Right to Sue Nullified
When the sheriff and prosecutor began to threaten and try intimidating the people I had helped to file to the federal court for the writ, with it being apparent to me that Judge Hodge was committed to obstructing process and that this fact had not escaped the sheriff and prosecutor, I agreed to enter a plea of guilty so that I could get out and work on the matter as I am now. I was sentenced to “time-served” and put on one-year probation for each offense pursuant to my paying the sheriff $3,300.00. Upon the payment of this money to the sheriff, the probation would terminate, to which I agreed, knowing that if I in any way indicated an intent to stand on my rights, that I would continue to be held illegally indefinitely.

I eventually filed a civil rights damages complaint in the federal court against the state officials in Georgia, which seemed to disappear for months. One day I called the clerk and learned that G. Ernest Tidwell had taken the matter, technically, to which he was a party. Had Tidwell not interfered with and obstructed the first habeas corpus petition, then most certainly I would not have been subjected to the same problem more than a year later. I informed the clerk, the chief judge of the court, and the administrator for the judicial council of the Eleventh Circuit of these facts. Suddenly, on the same day, Tidwell recused himself without explanation, but had already referred the matter to a magistrate for a “frivolity” determination. Tidwell was replaced by Robert Vining and within two-weeks, entered an order dismissing my action as “frivolous.” According to Vining, my allegations of illegal detention meant nothing as long as they resulted in a guilty plea, which somehow made everything legal. Of course, Vining made no mention of the federal habeas petitions, thus, I was denied the right to sue for illegal detention.

Section IV
I filed a complaint with the Office of Professional Conduct of the FBI in July 2002, the director of that office, a man named John Roberts, that he would investigate the failure and refusal of the field offices. Roberts never conducted any such investigation, at least not to address the problem I raised. Roberts refused to respond and so eventually I had Eleanor Holmes Norton contact the DOJ, which responded by claiming that it did not “appear” that what was done to me constituted a prosecutable offense. However, since the FBI conducted no investigation and therefore, there was nothing to refute my allegations, then on what basis could the DOJ conclude that nothing illegal was done? Besides, the first problem that the FBI and DOJ had to address was the failure and refusal of their agencies to perform their duties so that they would have real information on which to act.

Conclusion
The essential elements of “Democracy” are transparency, accountability, and free participation by the society. The only thing that is transparent in the actions and conduct of federal judges, the DOJ, and FBI is that America is not a democracy. It is transparent that there is no accountability for certain people in the government based on considerations of race, class, and fraternity. What is transparent is that slavery is alive, well, and thoroughly entrenched in the make-up and operation of the United States government. It is transparent that America cannot “bring democracy” to Iraq or any other part of the world, when it has never established and has never been interested in establishing itself based on principles of democracy.