Former Supreme Court Justice Sue Bell Cobb

Storm clouds are gathering over Houston county and the District Attorney’s office and how it is has been operated illegally. Doug Valeska and Gary Maxwell are dead center of the storm.

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb has now entered the fray after Valeska and seeks his suspension from the bar and prosecution.

Cobb won the release last year of ReNaul Johnson, a man who had already served more than a decade of a 50-year sentence. Cobb maintains that Doug Valeska made false statements to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles.

In letter to the bar association Cobb stated that,

“At the June parole hearing“, Cobb stated that after presenting evidence of Johnson’s remorse, his model record as an inmate, Valeska argued against his release. “I marveled at his (Valeska’s) comments which at best, were exaggerated and possibly a result of a faulty memory, and, at worst and more likely, were simply false and he knew they were false, which constituted a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility“.

If found guilty, Valeska would likely lose his license to practice law, and if convicted of perjury could face prison time.

Critics and groups such as the NAACP are seeking years of cases that Doug Valeska and his Chief Assistant Gary Maxwell have mishandled to be reopened and examined by federal authorities. Many believe Maxwell and Valeska have hidden exculpatory evidence in death penalty cases, and these should be made the first priority.

Several existing inmates well have been jailed for years without trail in the Houston county system, the most notable Kharon Davis, who arrested with a clean record, has been jailed nearly 10 years awaiting trial.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell

Doug Valeska, as well as Gary Maxwell, may face additional charges filed from Kennth Moffet, a Dothan man who the Supreme Court overturned his conviction and found evidence had been withheld by the prosecutor and that police officer coached by Valeska committed perjury.

Last week a minister named LaTonya Dorsey made federal complaints against Gary Maxwell and Doug Valeska and is requesting the civil rights division of the Department of Justice prosecute both men. They relied on perjured testimony and Maxwell faulted Dorsey for changing hairstyles as a indication of her guilt.

Several former employees of the district attorney’s office, we have learned, have agreed to testify and cooperate with the Department of Justice Department and federal prosecutors in investigating the district attorney’s office.

Last month Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange asked Special Prosecutor Matt Hart to start an investigation linked to leaked internal affairs documents that indicate a Dothan police narcotics squad planted drugs and lost evidence on young men of color in the community. The district attorney and his assistant Maxwell is believed to have withheld this from some of the case that were prosecuted. Some of the men subsequently received lengthy prison sentences.

Maxwell and Valeska were unavailable for comment on the investigations or the complaint filed by the former Supreme Court Chief Justice.

A few years ago a friend of mine, Robbie Pelham and I got into an argument over George W. Bush.

Pelham, a staunch conservative, argued for Bush, the Iraq war, and the whole notion of killing for oil. I further learned that I was damned to hell if I did not profess Jesus as my Lord and savior and place all hope in him. I told Pelham of course to buzz off. I was Jewish, and reminded him that Jesus was a radical social anarchist, as well as a Jewish Rabbi. This made Pelham’s head hurt when I asked him what that meant, how he would have felt about war, and this judgmental stance that all those not evangelicals were going to hell.

Through the arguments, and near fist fights, that followed on weekly visits to the bar, we became friends. Close friends, lifelong friends in fact.

I cannot say that Pelham has yet fully seen the light, but there are glimmers of hope.

Four years ago, at the encouragement of many of the spectators to this verbal brawl that never seemed to end, we published those arguments, and honed the process of asking hard questions on a web site named the Barbour – Henry Report. Like all the best ideas they begin on bar napkins.

It has since evolved to the Henry Report.

Calm, soft spoken, known for our political tact and social skills, we covered the basics of our community. Gardening, tips on pruning azaleas, who’s marrying who, and church softball games.

Parallel to this, I received a grant from the Highlander Foundation that was funded by George Soros. Using documentary photography, and filmed interviews on the site, we created a space for alternative media in south Alabama, and gave a voice to marginalized people.

From Highlander, I learned that when the voices of those oppressed and marginalized are given public access, there is opportunity to build a culture of accountability in your community.

In my opinion the ability to have frank, candid discussions with those in power, by those who are victims of injustice, is the guiding light that Zilphia Horton gave us by the example of her life’s work.

These conversations between oppressor and oppressed are never easy. Nor are the benefits of undertaking the process immediately evident.

My first meeting with Dothan Mayor Mike Schmitz cemented this resistance, in his mind there were no “community leaders ” except those he backed and designated. This mindset in an elected official is a cancer for democracy.

What Highlander did was enable me to forge direct connections to those in the Wiregrass community, while working as community advocate and artist, that are serious about change, and determined to seek justice.

Because of the Highlander Foundation’s grant, I met Ruth Nelson, Keith Gray, Raemonica Carney, Paul Carroll, Chrycynthia Davis, Shylanda Fox, Will Dickerson, Sammy Pas, Velma Jean Humphrey, and  LaTonya Dorsey. These are the authentic leaders of these communities. They are fighting for justice by example, not words.

These men and women are true soldiers for civil rights in Alabama, and the brothers and sisters I never had. God put us in each others lives for a reason and purpose that is beyond each of us individually.

Those connections with these men and women, are based on what they do, not what they say. Countless selfless actions for the benefit of others determine their authenticity. These connections have only strengthened over time. When the status quo attack them, and attempt to discredit them, this is God’s way of defeating the true adversary, those in power’s own actions are turned against them, becoming a bright energy that fuels the cause of righteousness.

When men and women like Quinton Parrish, Kenneth Moffet, and LaTonya Dorsey are able to address those in Congress, and the highest levels of state power with our experiment in alternative media, we have succeeded in fulfilling our promise.

When President Barack Obama listens to the story of LaTonya Dorsey and her struggles in a corrupt racist bigoted court system, we have succeeded.

From those humble beginnings at Highlander, and mentoring by my friend and artist Head Roc, and others I met there who have supported our efforts, we have journeyed into the land of being a community newspaper, analyzed politics, attended church meetings, joined marches and street protests, and even joined the associated press. At all times we have worked relentlessly to give an objective voice to those mainstream media ignores in our communities. Always seeking justice in giving a voice to those we promised to serve in tribute to Zilphia Horton.

Those corrupt and in power have learned one thing, do not underestimate truth. For a voice in the wilderness of social media is one thing, but the ability to drive hundreds of thousands of serious readers and national attention to be breathing down your neck is another.

This time though has drawn to an end, so yes the proverbial fat lady is singing. We each have responsibilities with our family that cannot be ignored. And we say this on top, our readers pushing a 100 k per week. One article alone recently pushing over a million views worldwide.

No local newspaper has ever accomplished that.

But as many of you know my own mother who has recently been stricken with a stroke, she demands my attention and care to heal to become independent once again.  I as well have those in my life I love that deserve my attention, support, and presence to enjoy life. That is more valuable to me than journalism.

At best I will write a weekly column that dwells on my observations on ranching, an unedited political opinion or two along the way, and as always I will check those bastards in power with cold hard facts. Above all I will support all of you stand against corruption and seek to empower those seeking social change and justice.

We want to all thank you for your kind, and at times not so kind, support.

THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE COVERUP OF PLANTING DRUGS ON MINORITIES IN DOTHAN IS MORE SINISTER THAN YOU CAN BELIEVE AS IT INVOLVED PAID INFORMANTS THAT NEVER EXISTED 

WEEKLY OPINION / EDITORIAL

Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish in his Dec 2, 2015 press conference made several memorable statements.

To refresh the Wiregrass’s memory, I have the clip below of the news conference where he questioned my credibility and reporting. I have thought about this for a while, and while working out on a project for RT News sought the advice of those I trust. I as well did not want to immediately react in a defensive manner, but waited to respond in a thoughtful, well researched way to the Dothan Police Chief’s false statements. A badge, even if one is a police chief, does not give you the right to lie about a journalist and mislead the national press without consequences.

US ATTORNEY GEORGE BECK

Three men outside the police department knew the information I am about to share. Only two men however are living, as attorney Brian Dowling is now dead. The files have been moved off site to avoid FBI agents locating them and Dothan City Attorney Len White is on record in a FOIA request stating that no such files exist.

Former Dothan Police Captain Jim Smith and former Captain Keith Gray, have been waiting for years to tell their story to the

right person. Now three such persons, George Beck, US Attorney, along with the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor Matt Hart, and the Dept of Justice’s Rashida Ogletree are listening. Collectively they can prosecute those responsible, and politically they cannot all three ignore such injustice. If all three are equally shared information, then no single agency can cover this up. I am not implying one would, but frankly we now have a scenario where any one agency cannot afford to ignore it and another act.

It is time gentlemen to tell them what you know.

First to clear the air, in my opinion, Chief Steve Parrish lied in his Dec 2, 2015 press conference. He should be held accountable.

Lie number 1:

“While photo-copies of the documents posted online from Mr. Carroll appear to be authentic in nature they are arranged and redacted in a way to promote his agenda”.

• No Mr Parrish. I did not redact the documents in such a way. The documents I posted were given to me in that redacted condition by former Dothan Police officer Wykle Williams. He has at times faxed, or mailed, the same documents to the FBI in Mobile, the state attorney general’s office, and various federal agencies. In the same order, with the same notes, and redactions. Digital records and fax transmission logs prove this. Unfortunately Mr Parrish you never thought I had other sources for unredacted copies of the same documents.

Lie number 2:

“The specific incident he is illustrating involving a former officer was addressed and handled in accordance with applicable laws and department policy when it occurred back in the late 1990’s.”

• No Mr Parrish. If you refer to your sworn statement you made on page 105 and 106 of your deposition you stated that “termination would certainly be a consideration” in response to a question about the “magnitude of evidence found in his (Magrino’s) possession”.

On page 85 and 86 of your deposition you as well admitted that “its a crime for anyone to illegally posses narcotics with intent to use, sell, distribute, and / or manufacture”. You then said at first it was not a crime to simply possess, but then changed that answer.

Further, the applicable policies you refer to above required that you, Stanley Devane, Larry Draughon, and Andy Hughes be reprimanded per PGO #9. Note carefully what the internal affairs investigation finding recommended in your case.

If this had been “handled in accordance with applicable laws and department policy“, Magrino would have been arrested,  you would have been reprimanded per the departmental policy. A fair question can be asked, if this had been done, and you and Andy Hughes found responsible for failing in your supervisory duties, and this was known to the public, would you have ever been hired as Police Chief? Or would have Hughes ever been elected Sheriff, much less appointed assistant director of homeland security for Alabama ?

Lie number 3:

“It is also important to note that the accusations against the officer were for improper storage of evidence and not “planting of evidence.”

No Mr Parrish, this is a false statement. I refer you to the the sworn deposition you gave on May 22, 2001. On page 83 you admitted that officer Mike Magrino was in your narcotics division. You also admitted that you were his direct supervisor. You admitted that it would be a crime for an officer to have what Magrino had in his possession.

To refresh your memory Parrish, and reveal to the public, Im going to leak the document that reveals the actual contents discovered in a search of that officer’s car. After he stated to an internal affairs officer there were no drugs in the car.

In your press conference you stated very clearly to the public, and again in writing, that there were no accusations made against the officer about planting of evidence.

As the supervising officer of a narcotics officer being investigated, are we to actually believe that you did not read the document below? Note carefully the wording in the second sentence where it says, “allegations of planting of drug evidence“.

Further, the officers involved in the investigation, had direct communication with you regarding the officer you supervised, and interviewed you concerning the allegations. In my opinion Mr Parrish, this speaks for itself, and is a direct contradiction of what you said to the public and media about my reporting and the nature of the internal affairs investigation into officer Mike Magrino.

Lie number 4:

“To my knowledge, there had never been a single complaint filed against that officer during his entire career for the planting of evidence on anyone.”

No Mr Parrsh, that in my opinion, based on the evidence above, and the statements of officers involved in the investigation, a false statement.

Lie number 5:

“You have absolutely nothing to base it on.”

No Mr Parrish, the evidence above and the statements you made under oath in a sworn deposition linked below prove otherwise.

So why would a police chief of a major Alabama city stand before the media and public, and blatantly lie ?

I am thinking Chief Steve Parrish it is because you didn’t really have a choice.

The whole idea that a police officer can plant drugs on someone and they be falsely arrested is problematic enough. But when an officer can also be paid for an undocumented confidential informant ….that doesn’t really exist in the first place, where information came from, to make the arrest to start with, is just….mindbending. But now it makes sense. It was about the money and your narcotics team preyed upon the weak and the poor to get it while advancing your career. Those without a voice or the ability to defend themselves.

Those who were the victims of your lies and racism. Those you took an oath to protect.

This happened on your watch sir, with those officers proudly holding that rebel flag that were under your direct supervision.

To admit this would be a career ending move for you, as well as open your department up to a much deeper investigation than you, or any of those who know about this sordid scam, can withstand.

The old saying goes that the past has a way of coming back to bite you in the ass. In your Dec 2 press conference, you said about my investigative reporting, that “it really burns my ass“.

Well Chief, now you can say that and be telling the truth for a change.

IF DOTHAN’S CITY COMMISSION WONT LET VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY SPEAK, ATLANTA WILL 

MAYOR MIKE SCHMITZ REFUSES TO LET VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY SPEAK AT COMMISSION MEETINGS

Dothan’s City Commission, and Mayor Mike Schmitz, were given a stern warning and put on notice, the people of Atlanta are prepared to help victims of police brutality in Dothan and protect their civil rights, by prominent City Council member Michael Julian Bond. Bond. He is the late Civil Rights leader Julian Bond’s son and council member at large for the city of Atlanta which represents several million people. He described the Dothan Mayor’s policies as, the next evolution of Jim Crow.

“The world will soon know what you’re doing,
Dothan will not be allowed to violate the federal consent decree and continue to operate like its 1955″.

Many at the meeting were as well outraged that local state representative, Dexter Grimsley (D), has refused to meet with the victims of police brutality.

Grimsley refused to come to the meeting with Julian Bond’s son. He is reportedly “scared” but won’t say who he is “scared” of. Grimsley is closely tied to deputy coroner Rickey Stokes who had the church previously under surveillance, and was observed photographing license plates while wearing a bullet proof vest in an attempt to intimidate victims.

Grimsley feels Stokes helped him get reelected, but Stokes has been linked to a business partner and associate, John Keppy, that FBI and State Bureau of Investigations documents identify as a major white supremacist operating in Houston county. Grimsley accepted money from the group Stokes represents. Click here for a link to those leaked documents. Stokes as well was recently convicted of chaining two young black men to the doors of a Houston county courthouse.

“If Dexter accepted money from white supremacists that are identified in state law enforcememt documents and now refuses to help victims of those police who are members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans then we have a big problem the democratic party needs to immediately address“

ST REP DEXTER GRIMSLEY REFUSED TO MEET WITH A HUNDRED CONSTITUENTS THAT ARE VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY

Members of the group Community Matters, headed by Ruth Page-Nelson, seeking federal intervention, say they are tired of Grimsley being scared of cops who name their son after the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, and accepting money from white supremacists like Stokes. It is time for him to do his job and help those he was elected to represent. Not do what Stokes, Steve Parrish, or Mayor Mike Schmitz orders him to do, to cover all this up and keep it from the public.

“Right now he’s been bought off, we are going to pray for him to change his heart do the right thing and help these victims, and not run scared”

“If he doesn’t, we are going to kick his butt out of office, and the party, plain and simple”.

Local NAACP President AY Cotton is quoted as saying he is in fear of his life and has asked the state NAACP to take over and try to help local residents who are victims of Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish and fellow officers who have targeted minorities.

Embattled Dothan Chief Parrish is believed to be responsible for several incidents of police intimidation of those who are trying to help the group and the victims.

• Former Police officer Raemonica Carney, who has agreed to cooperate with state and federal authotires, has had a bullet placed in her mailbox and been harassed by a Dothan Police Unit’s K 9 team while running in a park and has been followed.
• Another former officer, Keith Gray, has unmarked cars following him and driving repeatedly by his house at night with their lights off.
• Paul Carroll who marched with Dr King and addressed the city commision asking for the police Chief’s termination recently had calls to his home where there was a warning of a gun being fired on the other end of the line.
• Ruth Nelson has been threatened to leave town by a former police chief.
• Former City Fireman Sam Tew had former Police Chief John White threaten to murder him and his entire family if he did not remain silent.

In light of this stories of the victims that have surfaced, along with former city prosecutor Kalia Lane who could not get the FBI to investigate hundreds of cases where drugs were alleged to have bene planted, multiple current law enforcement officers have come forward, and are cooperating with federal investigators. They have as well leaked more documents as they believe the Police Department are trying to hide from the FBI, that directly contradict what the police chief said in a Dec 15 press conference. White and Parrish, they believe, should be prosecuted for what they have covered up.

These documents give further corroboration that a narcotics team all members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a group called “the jump out posse” directly supervised by Steve Parrish, planted drugs and illegal weapons of young Africa American men, and then received payments for informants that never existed was covered up.

They believe that Chief Steve Parrish, and former Chief John White, should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice and the department be taken over by the Us Department of Justice until a management team can be put in place to replace Parrish and the officers loyal to him that are members of the racial extremist group.

“No members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans should qualify to be law enforcement officers in Alabama. We are asking for their immediate removal from the departments as we, the black community, do not feel safe with these men policing us“, said Ruth Nelson.

The NAACP and the National Action Network support their ban from serving as law enforcement officers and made their presence known at Triumph Church in Dothan on Saturday.

The NAACP at the state level is launching a formal investigation into the members of the Dothan Police Department who are members of the organization.

Two local reporters representing national affiliates told us they were not allowed to cover Bond’s meeting and were warned to not speak anymore to victims of police brutality.

None of the local media was present at Bond’s meeting which give credence to Ruth Nelson, and others, allegations that they are being controlled and are biased in their reporting.

My name is Dwight Baker, I am the brother of former Dothan Police Captain Keith Gray who served and put his life on the line for the citizens of this city for over 28 years prior to his termination. I have personal knowledge which includes my attendance in the federal depositions of the cities witnesses, that leads me to conclude that he was targeted by the Dothan Police Department and city government for termination.

The City of Dothan is no stranger to racial discrimination issues. In 1976, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Southern Division case of Wiggins v. Hollis (Case# 75-57-S). This was one of many federal lawsuits stating that there exist pervasive racial discrimination in Dothan city government have been disproportionately bad in the black areas.” Federal Judge Frank Johnson imposed a consent decree on the city, which is still in effect, requiring “an Affirmative Action Plan from the city that confirms their duty to provide blacks with equal opportunities within the City of Dothan employment. It seems that city officials have continued to ignore these court ordered mandates.

I believe that my brother has become a victim of their well thought out conspiracy to terminate his employment because his advanced college degree placed him above other local candidates (Benton and Parrish) regarding the police chiefs job description. My brother was qualified and had aspirations to be the next and the first African-American police chief of Dothan. I have been there over the years to hear and see each challenge that he has faced throughout his career. I spoke up for him during a city commission meeting in 2004 when the city manager Mike West altered the job description for police chief that eliminated Gray from contention. John Powell was recommended by West and became Police Chief. Ironically enough the job description was altered again in 2009 by West, and Greg Benton was selected as the police chief after disqualifying Gray again.

 Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish

Several years into Benton’s tenure as Chief my brother had complained to him that his immediate supervisor Steve Parrish was harassing him and he felt he was also being discriminated against racially? An example of this was in December 2012, Gray complained about the city’s targeting and treatment of minority citizens, specifically an arrest of two young black men. An arrest that Gray believe to be illegal, based on trumped up and discriminatory charges by a White officer. Once Parrish was advised about this he chastised Gray, discouraged him from investigating the matter further and told him to move on.

Gray presented the evidence to Dothan Municipal Court, Judge Rose Evans-Gordon which led to the release of the incarcerated subject. After continued harassment by Parrish, Gray filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint against Parrish, Benton and the City of Dothan. Do you think that Captain Gray, a 28 year veteran of the police department would be terminated without Mayor Smitz knowing anything about the decision? They were going to find a way to get rid of him anyway to keep him from competing a third time for the Chiefs position prior to the job coming vacant.

Three weeks after Gray’s EEOC complaint an investigation began by the police department that spark his termination. The investigation was the perfect opportunity to frame Gray in order to set their plan into motion. The city used an assault incident, which had nothing to do with Gray, that occurred at a motorcycle clubhouse as an opportunity to seek out information on Gray that could justify his termination. Parrish and Benton knew that Gray was a member of a totally different motorcycle club and initiated a witch-hunt into Gray’s activities which would persuade the public against supporting him whenever the police chief vacancy became available.

During Benton’s federal deposition he made several admissions including that he knew on the same day the assault took place that Gray was not present nor involved. However the press releases by Benton eluded that Gray was somehow involve. Additionally Benton admitted having an extra marital affair (Adultery) on his wife which is a crime in the State of Alabama. Benton announced his retirement a few days later and was allowed to retire from the city shortly after his deposition instead of facing termination for violating the law.

To ensure that Gray would not somehow survive an appeal, Benton and Parrish concocted a sure fire policy violation that would ultimately be used to bolster the basis for his termination that he could not recover from. They had internal affairs investigators accuse Gray of viewing pornography on his city issued cell phone which he vehemently denied. Gray called and recorded his conversation with the cell phone companies information technology department and advise them of the allegations. The cell phone company stated that not only his phone has never been logged on to the Internet, their computer system shows NO online website IP addresses have ever exist on his phone. However throughout his personnel board appeal his termination was still upheld by the City Personnel Board even with the recorded evidence.

When Gray’s attorney petitioned the court because the city would not produce the cell phone for independent forensic testing, Judge Thompson was advised by the city’s lawyers that the phone was ,”hopelessly lost.” Benton’s girlfriend was the city’s cell phone representative who delivered the cell phones to the police department.

United States Federal District Court Judge Myron H. Thompson wrote a 74 page opinion (Case No. 1:14-cv-00592) stating, “Gray’s race and his advocacy on behalf of himself and other black officers and community members had been a continual source of conflict throughout his employment.” Gray says that he has been called, Nigger” by his supervisor, and fellow officers. He had been denied training opportunities and promotions because of his race, and he had to fight to advance in his career almost every step of the way.” in addition, Judge Thompson stated “That race discrimination was, at least, in play at the time of his discharge is a reasonable inference.”

On December 2, 2015 Parrish admitted openly in a press conference that he founded and was the commander of a Neo-confederate organization Sons of Confederate Veterans. Further he admitted recruiting members into the organization from within the ranks of the Dothan Police Department. One such member was Andy Hughes who was the former Sheriff of Houston County who has recently returned to work at the sheriffs office after abruptly leaving the Alabama Department of Homeland Security as it’s Assistant Director.

There still remains members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the Dothan Police Department, Houston County Sheriffs Office, and Dothan Airport Police Department. The mayor of Dothan, city manager, and commissioners have openly voiced their strong support for Parrish even after his admission of forming a local neo-confederate group within the police department even though he named his son Nathan Bedford, after the Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest.

If open membership in a private motorcycle club (one deemed sufficiently legitimate for the police department to accept charitable donations from it) is enough to get the highest-ranking black officer in the history of the Dothan Police Department fired, then what should be said of a group of senior officers displaying Confederate imagery within the police department and openly recruiting for a group that endorses ideas of white superiority? These instances of seemingly unequal application of departmental policy are well worth challenging.

This conspiracy appears criminal in nature and should be thoroughly investigated by the United States Department of Justice. I feel that the City of Dothan Police Chiefs office should have a sign on the door that says, “For Whites Only!”

CITY OF DOTHAN’S MAYOR ATTEMPTS TO FORCE NAACP TO THE SIDEWALK IN RAIN AND GET OFF PUBLIC PROPERTY, BUT THEY STOOD THEIR GROUND

WEEKLY OPINION / EDITORIAL

Amid much controversy, state NAACP leaders announced they are conducting a formal investigation into the Dothan Police Department focusing on victims of police brutality and a history of wrongful prosecutions targeted at Dothan’s black community. The victims of the Dothan Police Department that have come forward, State President Bernard Simelton told the audience,

“ARE EGREGIOUS AND TOO NUMEROUS TO COUNT.”

In a press conference Tuesday evening, the city of Dothan’s, Mayor Mike Schmitz, tried to deny the NAACP the right to be on city property and force them into the street in the rain. But those attending refused to leave and stood their ground. A compassionate Dothan police officer, Sgt. Eggleston, intervened to calm the situation and allowed them to proceed under the shelter of the civic center.

Mayor Mike Schmitz, who stopped victims of police brutality from speaking to the city commission, maintained the NAACP required a special permit to have their press conference.

Earlier in the day, the group presented over a dozen cases they have identified to U.S. Attorney George Beck requesting he prosecute the public officials responsible. These include Police Chief Steve Parrish, Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell and District Attorney Doug Valeska. Beck agreed to investigate them and seek permission from Washington, DC and the Justice Department to proceed.

The cases indicate that Alabama has one of the most corrupt judicial districts in the United States. Below are several incidents presented to the US Attorney.

One case of a local ministry, operated by LaTonya Dorsey, is simply appalling and shocked the US Attorney.

 Click to hear Dorsey’s story

It is best described in her own words here.

LaTonya Dorsey is the clear victim of a misguided prosecution initiated by Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell to financially benefit a friend, and uses the Dothan Police Department in an illegal manner to threaten and then attempt to extort Dorsey for money.  Maxwell then convicted her using perjured testimony with a 20 year sentence, for a crime that technically doesn’t even exist.

At one point, former Wiregrass Judge Denny Holloway pointed out to the court, and Maxwell, what they’re doing violated multiple laws. Maxwell ignored Holloway.

The shirts Dorsey was prosecuted for that were printed to raise money for needy children

Then, a vindictive and angry Maxwell insisted that because a woman changes her hairstyles this indicates guilt. The case involved Obama t-shirts and Maxwell reportedly is adamantly against Obama being president.

U.S. Attorney Nathan Stump stated that it appears to him the case against Dorsey was politically motivated and a clear example of prosecutorial misconduct.  An FBI agent is documented in the case as saying they’re going to use Dorsey’s case to bring down Valeska.

Included in the complaint, as well, is Circuit Judge Kevin Moulton, who ordered a summary judgment to dismiss the case and deny Dorsey a trial by jury. In the complaint, it is alleged that Moulton did this to help protect Gary Maxwell and the police officer Jim Metheny, who the complaint alleges committed perjury. At issue is the immunity law that protects Maxwell, and the police officer, from prosecution if they acted within the scope of their jobs. However, it is believed by Dorsey and her lawyer that the judge knew the conditions under which Maxwell had sought to protect his friends financial interests, and that the case was reliant on perjured testimony. If those willing to testifying to the Justice Department are correct in this and can prove it, then Moulton could face prosecution. Dorsey is seeking to have  the judge removed from the bench and his law license suspended. According to Dorsey and her lawyer, Judge Moulton is alleged to have knowingly assisted Maxwell in a criminal manner to further the prosecution and cover up the fact that she was criminally prosecuted in a manner that violated her constitutional rights. Judicial Inquiry Commission, State Ethics Commission, and Bar complaints against Kevin Moulton are being filed as well. Dorsey told us that,

Judge Kevin Moulton

“He violated his oath and acted in a criminal manner, now he’s going to pay for it.”

A lawyer involved in the case told us “there is just a culture of corruption down there in Dothan that’s unparalleled.”

Multiple cases were presented involving members of the Dothan Police Department and a special narcotics team known as the “jump out posse,” that were supervised by embattled Police Chief Steve Parrish.

Kenneth Moffett’s case was one of the best examples. It dates back to 2000, where he was arrested and accused of having a gun and drugs by the Dothan Police Department. He was convicted and received a 40 year sentence, however key exculpatory evidence was with held from his case by Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell.  There is compelling evidence in sworn testimony by police officers that the prosecution relied on, and encouraged, perjured testimony by members of the Dothan Police Department.

  Click to hear Moffett’s story

Moffett, from within prison, appealed his conviction, and with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, demanded he be given access to his discovery files. He ultimately had his case overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court. Then the state filed with the Supreme Court of the United States which upheld his case being overturned.

The state, at the district attorney’s office insistence, still refused to release Moffett from prison, although he had been cleared of wrongdoing. Unbelievably, Moffett then had to actually sue the State of Alabama’s Pardon and Parole Board to be released. He had been held illegally in prison an additional two years after the Supreme court overturned his case.

The state could not provide any logical explanation for this. The district attorney’s office and Maxwell refused comment on the case.

After Moffett was released, he filed an internal affairs complaint with the Dothan Police Department, which is strange considering Chief Steve Parrish denied having received any complaints in a Dec 2 , 2015 press conference. However, Moffett, and the NAACP, have copies of the complaints. Additionally, officers from the Dothan Police Department have confirmed the complaints, and have agreed to cooperate in testifying against Steve Parrish to federal investigators about the misrepresentations made in his press conference, and subsequent written statements posted on the department’s Facebook page.

After filing the complaint, the Dothan Police Department is alleged to have targeted Moffett and physically assaulted him in his grandmother’s yard, where they threw him into a patrol car, with his hands handcuffed behind his back, while witnesses watched in horror as the car was left running, the heat turned as high as it could go, the windows rolled up, and officers sprayed mace into the car as Moffett nearly choked to death. Members of the community who witnessed this say they fear police entering their community to this day and encourage their children to come inside.

Police Chief Parrish claims he has no complaints

When released, Moffett states he was again assaulted by the jump out posse for filing complaints about the incident. This time it included Steve Parrish and it’s alleged Parrish directly participated with several officers who kicked Moffett to the point he had broken ribs and then had his head held up as officer kicked his teeth out.

Bizarrely, Steve Parrish still publicly insists that he has not had a complaint. However, in Moffett’s internal affairs complaints, and Steve Parrish’s own sworn testimony from previous civil cases, its obvious this is factually untrue.

Multiple lawyers were then documented refusing to take Moffett’s case as they were scared to go up against the police department, District Attorney Doug Valeska, and the two judges involved in Moffett’s wrongful prosecution in civil suits. Moffett describes this in an interview here.

Former Fireman’s family threatened to be murdered by Police Chief

Former city fireman Sam Tew is another case presented where the U.S. Attorney is being asked to prosecute former Dothan Police Chief John White, now a law partner at the Dothan firm Cobb, Boyd White & Cobb, who has played an increasing role in attempting to suppress and intimidate journalists covering victims like Moffet

.

A federal lawsuit is being pursued against one of its partners in Seattle. That filing can be reviewed here.

Tew was witness to hundreds of illegal assault weapons being sold on city property that are believed to have found there way into the hands of drug gangs who used them commit violence in Montgomery and Birmingham.

Tew then had his family’s lives, and his own, directly threatened to be murdered by the Police Chief John White. When Tew filed complaints with current Chief Steve Parrish and the department they refused to investigate or arrest the former chief.

At various times Tew has been harassed by police, falsely arrested and beaten savagely, having spent over 120 days in hospitals as a result of the violence to force his silence. However, Tew has the police chief on tape making threats and multiple witnesses have come forward providing details for the officers instructed to harass and physically assault Tew.

Deputy Coronor and E911 board member Rickey Stokes as well was caught on tape and alleged by Tew to have told him stop talking about the wrongdoing or he would find himself dead and in a ditch. Tew wants White prosecuted for making a terroristic threat and death threats along with Rickey Stokes.

An interview with SamTew that describes the threats as well as sharing the audio recordings is available here.

Demetrius Grace’s case is another that is seeking to be prosecuted that involves Dothan Police Officer Carlton “Bubba” Ott. Ott is identified as being member of Chief Parrish’s Sons of Confederate Veterans group and is pictured prominently with a confederate battle flag. Ott is implicated by witnesses in planting drugs on Grace that resulted in him spending two years in prison.

Grace wants Ott prosecuted and removed from being a law enforcement officer.

Former Police Department Captain Keith Gray‘s case is being looked at as well as the NAACP feels that allegations outlined by his brother in a presentation to the NAACP require the US Attorney to investigate. You can read these in detail here.

Henry County Deputy Coroner and Houston county E911 board member Rickey Stokes is also among those that information was presented to the U.S. Attorney and they are requesting be prosecuted. Stokes was witnessed, and documented in video, wearing a bulletproof vest harassing members of a black church in Dothan on Dec 12, 2015.

Deputy Coronor and Houston County E911 Board member Rickey Stokes

In the complaint Stokes is described as having entered the parking lot of the church and taking photographs of the church members license plates in an attempt to identify victims. Church members had to call the police to have Stokes removed from the property and stop surveilling victims of police brutality and intimidation, Community Matters spokeswoman Ruth Nelson told the US Attorney. Stokes later described these victims he attempted to identify at the church as “thugs and malcontents” on a blog he owns and operates, Rickey Stokes News. Stokes previously has verbally harassed and threatened members of this news site calling us “domestic terrorists” and making antisemitic remarks. Stokes in a taped conversation warned of bloodshed if members of the black community in Dothan continued to speak out and seek national media attention. Alabama has a long history of church bombings and burnings, and Stokes, who has documented links by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and FBI to white supremacist leaders, cannot be allowed to use this type of hate speech or racist intimidation to black church goers.

Most shocking in the complaint to the U.S. Attorney’s office to prosecute Rickey Stokes, in his capacity as a public official, is the allegation he used a cell phone to solicit prostitution from young men. Below are images of cell phone messages turned over to US Attorneys that Stokes was reportedly documented using, where he appears to be soliciting three way homosexual encounters from young men, then offering to pay several hundred dollars by sending text photographs of cash to the men.

Some of the items presented to the US Attorney regarding Deputy Coronor Rickey Stokes

Some of the items presented to the US Attorney regarding Deputy Coronor Rickey Stoke

The Dothan group has asked the U.S. Attorney to intervene and protect the victims of the black community from Stokes by prosecuting him, and to investigate the victims of the homosexual prostitution he appears to be participating in. The young men he is soliciting sex from are victims as well, especially if they are minors. No one is criticizing a homosexual lifestyle, soliciting someone for sex and paying them is illegal period, regardless of anyone’s sexual orientation. But as a public official, this makes it a grave concern if young men are being paid for sex.

At this point, frankly, I am at loss for words. This is a disgusting abuse of power all funded by our  taxpayer’s money, it is time for the people responsible for all of this to be held accountable.

Hopefully, U.S. Attorney George Beck, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, can bring a transparent and accountable system to Houston and Henry county’s judicial system and prosecute those in the Dothan Police Department responsible for this abuse.

Just my opinion, but if the information contained in these complaints by the state’s NAACP and members of Dothan’s community movement for justice are true, then Gary Maxwell and Doug Valeska need to be prosecuted and immediately removed from office.

Judge Kevin Moulton if you knowingly were involved in a criminal prosecution or hiding of evidence in LaTonya Dorsey’s case you should be removed from the bench, prosecuted, your law license suspended, and you should personally pay Dorsey’s ministry every penny you have to your name.

Steve Parrish, time for truth, sir, you should resign and attempt to redeem yourself by fully cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department. Do the right thing, sir, and testify against those who have committed wrongdoing, and try to repair the damage you have done to the black community of Dothan and innocent victims like Kenneth Moffett. You took an oath, sir, and its time you honor it.

None of these men need to be in public office, and under no circumstances is it acceptable for a public official of Henry and Houston County, who at times was responsible for and involved in death scene investigations, to be out terrorizing our community and soliciting young men for sex.

This is that place where you wish you just didn’t know the things you do. In high school, I remember I would carry my weekend date to Dothan, we would watch a movie, have dinner, and then if I was lucky, we would go parking over at the lake, listen to music and get a kiss or two.

I always felt safe and never had fear of those trusted to protect us. Never in a million years did I ever think that drugs could be planted on me, or that I would be harassed by police officers, and illegally drug through a court system for years. If there ever was trouble, I knew the police were right there, and in a moment would help us without question, and make sure we got home safe to our families.

But knowing what I know today, this all seems a myth, and I realize that was experiencing our community from a position of white privilege, for if I had been a young black man, I would have likely had a completely different experience. One of fear and police harassment by the very ones I naively trusted. Two disturbingly different realities that are tied to race and one’s economic class.

All of our police officers are not like this and we have amazing public servants that put there life on the lines daily for us. Many have stepped forward and leaked documents and provided information to help resolve this crisis in Dothan, and I suspect more will follow. These men and woman are who need to lead the way out of this cesspool of embedded corruption.

But the fact remains until we are all treated equally in Alabama, and can have trust in our police departments and court systems, none of us are safe.

Those of us in a position of white and economic privilege must somehow realize our reality is not shared by those less fortunate. We can no longer ignore those who have abused and terrorized those who simply have a darker skin color. The men responsible are the real terrorists, and it is time to remove them from power and bring their ugly “good ole boy” reign to a bitter end.

In that struggle for justice I’m reminded of only one thing, truth needs no ally.

THROWBACK MOMENT OF THE WEEK – INTERESTING GIVEN THE CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE

OPINION / EDITORIAL

The Mayor refuses to let those like Paul Carroll who marched with Dr King speak to the city council

Car salesman come politician, Mayor Mike Schmitz, faces an interesting moment today at the city commision meeting in Dothan.

Schmitz has taken away the right of black citizens to address the city commission- a tradition in place for over 50 years – stating “he did not want to hear any more complaints about the police department from victims of drug planting and police brutality“.

Last week the NAACP state’s president Bernard Simelton and legal counsel Carolyn Shields met with Schmitz and his handpicked representatives of the black community. Kenny Glasgow and Anthony Williams- two convicted drug dealers.

               ANTHONY WILLIAMS

Outrage ensued that convicted drug dealing felons like Glasgow and Williams were chosen by the Mayor to represent the community. It was pointed out that the Dothan community, with nearly 40 thousand people of color, has many retired military officers, a former high ranking NASA official, schoolteachers, various public servants and those who worked and marched with Dr Martin Luther King.

“Why choose a convicted drug dealer with multiple convictions to represent us?” One of them (Williams) doesn’t even live in Dothan!”

“We do not need drug felons and people like Glasgow who was convicted of armed robbery speaking for us, thats a slap in the face to all members on the city of Dothan”, Ruth Nelson of the group Community Matters stated.

Nelson referred to a recent FBI surveillance tape leaked that revealed Glasgow bragging about how he sold crack cocaine back into the black community and profited with a corrupt Dothan police officer that Chief Steve Parrish supervised on a narcotics team for years.

“We need responsible, EMPLOYED,  educated and morally intact people to represent us and the Dothan community is blessed with many black people like this. To choose these fools gives us all a bad name. Schmitz did this on purpose to discredit the black community”.

                  KENNETH GLASGOW

Today Schmitz has a choice, he can let democracy exist and treat people fairly, letting the community express its concerns over re-appointing City Mike West, who wants to keep embattled Police Chief Steve Parrish. Or he can stick to his guns allowing only privileged white males to speak, or those he picks that agree with him.

City Manager Mike West stubbornly insists that Steve Parrish has to be  police chief over tens of thousands objections of  the black community and the NAACP concerns

Commission members are scheduled to vote on West’s contract to be renewed today. West has been part of a process of spending over a million dollars of the city’s money defending the decision to keep and hire Steve Parrish and defense the multiple lawsuits related to the hiring. State NAACP leaders and the black community say they do not feel safe with a man like Parrish as police chief and insists he be fired.

Chief Parrish is an admitted “rebel commander in the Sons of Confederate Veterans“, an extremist organization that has supported Blacks being sent back to Africa and the belief that the Civil Rights movement was a Jewish conspiracy. In 2015 federal Judge Myron Thompson stated that the “chief had named his son after the founder of the Ku Klux Klan” in a federal case pending before the court.

Despite this, City Manager Mike West refuses to consider hiring a new police chief, and refuses to meet with hundreds of victims of Police brutality and drug planting.

City Commissioner and retired Lt Col Amos Newsome, who has come to the conclusion they (Schmitz and West) are just nuts

City commissioner, and retired Lt Colonel Amos Newsome, told me that “Steve Parrish was not legally hired in the first place and he tried to explain this to West but he refused to listen“. He claims that West as well violated state ethics laws and refused to give certain commission members the background information on Parrish that would have proven he was disqualified before he was ever hired.

“He knew the man wasn’t qualified plain and simple. Schmitz just wanted to force his choice. Now its backfired, we should have followed the process by the letter of the law and we wouldn’t have this problem.”

Furthermore the way Mike West insisted he be hired is a flagrant violation of the Federal Consent decree the city is mandated by federal court to follow. Theres simply no choice in it.

“The appropriate thing to do is fire Mike West, and then fire Steve Parrish, and start the whole damn process over, and hire a qualified police chief in an honest and transparent manner, that is in accordance with the federal law not some behind closed doors slick Mike Schmitz scheme“, Ruth Paige-Nelson told me.

“What Schmitz doesn’t get is this isn’t some wacko scheme to sell a few cars to your buddies, this is running a city government of some 80 thousand citizens where you have to be honest and transparent and do the will of the people. Oh and by the way…you have to follow the damn law!”

Schmitz has refused to discuss firing the police chief and has declined to meet with victims of police brutality and drug planting denying there have even been any complaints. However the Police department’s own internal affairs files prove differently.

The State NAACP has decided to investigate the city and seek civil suits against Chief Steve Parrish and the officers involved in planting the drugs, and are calling for both men’s resignation.

Stay tuned.

Dear Friends and Subscribers:

Please be advised that Jon has taken legal action against Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish this afternoon.  Attached below is a letter he was served.

We believe in the December 2, 2015 press conference linked below, Chief Steve Parrish, with malice, purposely lied to the media and public regarding Mr Carroll’s reporting on the Dothan Police Department. This was to further cover up an investigation that revealed drugs and weapons being planted on young men in the African American community.

Chief Parrish, you challenged us to “put up or shut up” and we chose the former. Now we are going to drive that point home.

With diligence, research, and patience, we have disproved, point by point, the statements Mr Parrish knowingly made that were false in the past month.

Now we intend to hold Mr Parrish accountable in the courtroom and the public for committing slander and libel.

I remind you that Mr Parrish took an oath to the people of the State of Alabama, and on Dec 2, 2015 he failed us and attacked a man fighting for truth and justice.
Mr Parrish has an opportunity to apologize and do the right thing, or face a jury. What we will not let him do is assault the press and suppress the voices of those who are victims of police brutality in Dothan with lies and mistruths.
We ask your prayers and continued support in this fight to protect free speech.

WE SEEK TRUTH AND JUSTICE!

Thank you,

Robbie Pelham

SHOCKING DOCUMENTS INDICATE MAXWELL & VALESKA HID EVIDENCE AND KNOWINGLY PROSECUTED AN INNOCENT MAN AND HENRY COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT PLANTED DRUGS TO OBTAIN ILLEGAL SEARCH WARRANT TO MAKE ARREST 

OPINION / EDITORIAL

Leaked internal documents from the District Attorney’s office and Henry County Sheriff’s Department reveal a conspiracy that implicates the planting of drugs, and the conviction of an innocent man for muder. This directly contradicts what the District Attorney and Dothan Police Chief have represented to the public regarding recent drug planting allegations.

                        JAMES BAILEY

The man wrongfully convicted, James Bailey, has maintained his innocence since day one, is now revealed by internal documents in the Henry County Sheriff’s office to have been known to be innocent the whole time.

        DEPUTY ALLEN HENDRICKSON

In the document below, an official transcription of the tape from the sheriff’s dept files, Hendrickson asked Brown to have methamphetamine cooked and planted in Bailey’s residence and instructed her on what else she can plant that will enable the Henry County Sheriff’s office to get an illegal search warrant.  BASED ON PLANTED DRUGS AT THE DIRECTION OF THE SHERIFF’S DEPT !

After getting the illegal warrant, they then falsely arrested Bailey, and ended up prosecuting him for murder. Result LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE !

I spoke to Silva briefly on Friday in Dothan seeking comment on why he remained silent, but he declined to comment. In 2005 then Sheriff Lawton Ed Armstrong stated that ” we had a body that was found in western Henry County and we had to start from scratch. But we were able to continue getting information in the case and had enough to charge them with capital murder.” Armstrong has avoided multiple attempts to contact him and answer the key question what exactly did he know about Bailey’s whereabouts when he made that statement to Mark Randal at the Dothan Eagle.

   C.J. HATFIELD MURDER VICTIM 

Current District Attorney candidate Gary Maxwell (R) prosecuted the case, and appears to have lied to a jury stating that “he was present at the time of the murder”.

Bailey was drugged at one point while he was in jail, and in a drug induced state (Prozac and Vistirol) gave what is interpreted by the Sheriff’s Dept as a confession. The problem is one of the former attorney’s on the case is…. we (defense lawyers), and they (prosecutors), knew for a fact Bailey was in Pensacola Florida at the time. When asked why was this not revealed he said , the Judge, Larry Anderson, would not do several things, he kept Bailey in chains and shackles in front of the jurors, we were given no money to hire a private investigator to simply verify the multiple alibis, nothing. We were scared, they wanted this guy guilty and we have to live here.

In subsequent appeals by Bailey, it appears prosecutor Maxwell under oath, lied again.

A document leaked from the District Attorney’s office, reveals that Doug Valeska and Gary Maxwell clearly knew otherwise.

Assistant District Attorney Nereida Bundy advised Valeksa she could not be a part of this and alluded to the notes that prove what the deputies did be removed from the file. In the document leaked below Bundy appears to be instructing Hendrickson to purposely remove the notes and interview from the file which would clearly be exculpatory evidence that was denied to Bailey at the time of his trial. Maxwell and Valeska decided it was not “untenable” as Bundy stated, they decided to prosecute Bailey anyway.

Bundy, Maxwell, and Valeska can face prosecution for prosecutorial misconduct and knowingly using perjured testimony as well as being complicit in a conspiracy to frame Bailey for a murder he didn’t commit. If deputies Troy Silva, Allen Hendrickson and former Sheriff Lawton Ed Armstrong all knew this, then they as well could face prosecution.

HOUSTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT. IMPLICATED

It gets worse. In 2005 documents that were part of a secret case settled with Bailey indicate that while Bailey was in the Houston county jail he was brutally tortured, and then evidence of the torture was altered by the lawyers representing the Sheriff’s deputies and / or the district attorney’s office to mislead the federal court.

On Feb 20 of 2005, Bailey was handcuffed to a restraint chair where he was tortured by being beaten with metal pipes for up to 12 hours and left to urinate and defecate on himself. When Bailey sued the county for the the abuse, which he barely survived with brain damage; it was covered up, and denied.

Here is a copy below of his handwritten complaint.

The county was represented by the law firm of Sherrer and Jones, which is disturbingly the firm where the other district attorney candidate Pat Jones is a partner. No one could explain how the evidence was tampered with, and the county is reported to have reached a settlement with Bailey. Even more incriminating, is the defendants represented in court this was a true and accurate copy of the log book.

But it was not.

In 2009 a motion for the sanction of those involved was filed in federal court but kept from the public as the case was settled. At no time was this reported to the public, although our understanding is the Dothan Eagle newspaper was aware of it.

DOTHAN POLICE DEPT IMPLICATED IN PLANTING DRUGS

CHIEF STEVE PARRISH DENIES ALL COMPLAINTS OF DRUG PLANTING

In the interview with Brown former Henry County and current Houston County Deputy Hendrickson indicated he could do the same that the Dothan team did and provide “favors” (i.e. drugs) for a similar set up of Bailey.

At this point Bailey’s attorney has applied for a special request for a Dept of Justice Special Prosecutor to be appointed to prosecute those involved in the conspiracy as well as a Rule 32 motion for the court to review these new documents.

If a federal prosecutor intervenes then several could face prosecution, including District Attorney Doug Valeska, Chief Assistant District Attorney Gary Maxwell, Investigator Allen Hendrickson, former Sheriff Lawton Ed Armstrong, and Deputy Troy Silva, and possibly Judge Larry Anderson for their roles in the conspiracy to frame James Bailey and prosecute him.

The gravity of this case cannot be underestimated because of the attorneys and the district attorney’s office, in collusion with the Henry County Sheriff’s office, and the Houston County Sheriff’s office, all willing to plant drugs, lie under oath, withheld exculpatory evidence, and even forge documents to use in a federal court to convict a man they knew was innocent the whole time.

In my opinion this should bring all their other cases into question, and demand an immediate US Dept of Justice Investigation.

How may other cases has this occurred in, and the most grave of all questions has to now be asked.

HOW MANY CASES HAVE VALESKA AND MAXWELL SOUGHT THE DEATH PENALTY WHEN THEY KNEW THE DEFENDANT WAS INNOCENT? HOW MANY INNOCENT MEN HAVE DIED?

View below the original complaint handwritten by James Bailey about the torture he was subjected to in the Houston County jail in an attempt to force his silence.

OPINION / EDITORIAL

JAMES BAILEY PICTURED ABOVE, in addition to being set up on drug charges by Henry County Deputy Allen Hendrickson, was handcuffed to a chair reportedly make him stop complaining, beaten with metal pipe, which resulted in brain and permanent nerve damage.  This done while his wrists and ankles were handcuffed to a chair for nearly 12 hours, forcing him to urinate and defecate on himself as a way to torture him into submission.

        ATTORNEY GARY SHERRER

Community leaders in the Black community, pushing for a Dept. of Justice Investigation into the Dothan Police Dept. and the District Attorney’s office, claim this is all part of hundreds of cases have been handled in such a manner that has resulted in the conviction of innocent men and women.

Ruth Paige-Nelson of Community Matters and Dothan for Justice Now points out,

“this case aligns with the case of Kenneth Moffet, Sam Tew, LaTonya Dorsey, and Kharon Davis, where all allege torture and retaliation for fighting being forced into plea deals for crimes they did not commit.

All the victims  have identified have a common complaint that public defenders refuse to represent them adequately and actually assist the prosecution by withholding exculpatory evidence. This is all on top of law enforcement officers, who by their own admission are targeting individuals and planting drugs, as well as getting fake search warrants. There is a clear pattern and practice of these attorneys, and police officers, working with the DA’s office to obtain wrongful convictions. Its hopeless if you are poor and expect to be treated fairly in Dothan.”

Former 28 year veteran of the Dothan Police Dept,  Internal Affairs Investigator Capt. Keith Gray told me,

that if you just look at the law enforcement documents that are now in the public record, you could extrapolate hundreds of potential wrongful convictions. At this point if its not concrete and on video, then all the cases the DA’s office has prosecuted need to be re-investigated.

The state NAACP’s legal redress group have investigated Dothan and found hundreds of victims in recent months. Bernard Simpleton stated that what was done to victims were “egregious and they too numerous to count” at a recent press conference.

In a confidential 2009 letter we have obtained, Gary Sherrer appears to have discussed not redacting jail documents, even though he admits there is a statute requiring him to legally redact them. The documents then appear to have not only been “redacted” but forged to mislead a federal court.

At issue are documents that were submitted in the 2009 case where James Bailey sued because of the jailhouse torture he endured.

Sheerer reportedly has profited from lucrative work to represent the county in recent years such as the Country Crossings debacle, and many others. He is known, we are told to “play ball” with Valeska and county officials.

Hard question – did Gary Sherrer alter these documents ? Maybe… the only rational excuse that I can see, is he then has to admit he was to stupid to read what he felt was so important that he should redact. This stretches ones imagination to say a document is so important that I have to carefully read it, and  want to follow the law and redact parts of it, but somehow then you missing a part, that mysteriously doesn’t match the book, he scanned it from in the first place.

That doesn’t make sense to me. Sheerer is on record saying he will will have his staff redact certain documents – the question then to that staff member should be, who told them what to redact? And further why are you redacting part of the book the law doesn’t require you to?

One thing for sure and certain, if Sherrer didn’t alter this file, he damn sure likely knows who did. Which brings up the age old question, what did he know and when did he know it?

What is irrefutable and not in contention by the attorneys, is the documents were altered to try to shield the county from liability to Bailey. The hardest question is why has no one held accountable for it and who ordered it all kept secret?

Its a fair question to ask at this point are there other cases where documents were altered? Did the District Attorney’s office know about this? Did Judge Larry Anderson know about this? Did federal magistrate Terry Moore know about this? Why was the FBI not clued in and the Attorney general’s office notified? Who exactly is there to hold these clowns accountable when they are stealing a innocent man’s life?

THE FORGED DOCUMENTS

We have obtained a copy of the log book from Houston County Sheriff’s office pictured in high resolution below that we believe is the original unaltered book. Note carefully the area circled.

Now look very carefully at what Gary Sherrer, acting as the attorney defending the Houston County Sheriff’s office, submitted to the federal court. The area circled above is missing from the evidence submitted to the court.

THE “PASS ON LOG BOOK” FROM THE HOUSTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT.

The first image is a close up image of the copy of the pass on log book from the jail that Gary Sherrer submitted as evidence for the county.

CLOSE UP OF THE AREA IN QUESTION

                       CLOSE UP WITH LINE OVERLAYED IN ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR THAT REVEALS DIGITAL TAMPERING

In Sherrer’s May 5, 2009 letter he states that his office is scanning the documents.  This proves he, and those in his office, including Pat Jones, had a digital copy of the documents above.

Hard truth, someone then appears to have done something to that digital file.

Motive ?

Obvious, help defend the Houston County Sheriff’s Dept, against James Bailey in his lawsuit for being tortured.

All of this underscores why the 20th Judicial district is known as one of the nation’s most corrupt, and questions why the Justice Department is not taking over the Houston and Henry County Sheriff’s office, overseeing the jail and removing both Gary Maxwell and Doug Valeska, and the lawyers who cooperate with them.

Note: Gary Sherrer did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment.

ALABAMA NAACP CONTINUES ITS INVESTIGATION INTO DOTHAN POLICE PRACTICES

The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP will be on site at the Triumph the Church & Kingdom of God in Christ Friday, March 18^th, 2016 from 10 am until 5 pm to take statements and to talk with victims who have experienced injustices from the Dothan Police and/or the Houston County Sheriff’s Department. Triumph the Church & Kingdom of God in Christ Church is located at 1100 Montana Street Dothan, Al 36303.

The Alabama NAACP opened and launched an investigation against Dothan Police practices last month, after receiving hundreds of complaints from the citizens in Dothan, Alabama. Since that time, more complaints have surfaced.

The Alabama NAACP legal team of the NAACP will be taking affidavits from those who have experienced police misconduct from the Dothan Police and/or the Houston County Sheriff’s Department. We have received reports and a number of cases involving racial profiling, illegal arrests, unfair sentencing, and the planting of guns and drugs on innocent citizens.

“The NAACP is concerned about the long time systematic bias and unfair treatment of the citizens in Dothan Alabama. We will continue our investigation process until all who suffered systematic bias have a voice and have been heard” said Benard Simelton, President of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP.

If you have been a victim of any injustice from the Dothan Police Department and/or the Houston County Sheriff’s Department, please come by the Triumph the Church & Kingdom of God in Christ Friday, March 18, 2016 between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm to express your concerns and talk with the legal staff of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP.  For questions or comments, please contact the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP at 256.444.1300.

Below is what Dothan Eagle’s Lance Griffin printed in an article today after requesting a comment from me regarding the federal case. A key part of the case is evidence that Detective Robert Jackson’s murderer was protected, information withheld from the public, and the Jackson family denied justice.

Griffin, a reporter at the Dothan Eagle, broke Associated Press standards and purposely altered / edited a quote I emailed him, per his request.

A formal request is being sent to Berkshire Hathaway’s board of directors asking for Griffin’s removal and a formal apology as well as a request by the NAACP.

Griffin’s actions, that violate AP journalism standards, further confirm complaints by the black community on how he has protected the police department from criticism.

Griffin came under sharp criticism earlier this year by University law professor Darren Hutchinson on his blog “Dissenting Justice”for biased reporting that did not represent both sides of the issues regarding police brutality and drug planting in Dothan.

The bias of Griffin seems clearly aimed at the black community, and anyone that criticizes the police department,  City  or the district attorney’s office.

In my opinion the reason Griffin and the Dothan Eagle changed the quote is to keep its readers from knowing about the documents attached below that are entered as evidence in a federal case that reveal the FBI and US Attorney believed that former Dothan businessman Wykle Williams hired several individuals to kill Jackson because of an active narcotics investigation he was working. The murder officially remains unsolved despite leaked documents that show the Police department knew who killed Jackson.

BELOW IS THE REASON LANCE GRIFFIN CHANGED THE QUOTE TO MISLEAD THE DOTHAN EAGLE’S READERS

                             Section of the federal suit that includes the documents below as an exhibit

A WOMAN SHARES HER EXPERIENCES WITH A EUFAULA MAN THAT MYSTERIOUSLY FINDS DEAD BODIES AND A FAKE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

WEEKLY OPINION / EDITORIAL

           MATTHEW SCOTT MOSS

When I first met Scott Moss, he had a badge on his jacket.
It looked like one of those old school badges, much like what you see in western movies, a generic five pointed star that said “investigator.”

Moss told me he was a “licensed private investigator” and an “expert in locating dead bodies.”

How one becomes a expert at finding dead bodies was not explainable.

Moss has located, or tipped others, to nearly a dozen, and bragged about wanting to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for “finding the most dead bodies.”

Working for the state of Alabama as an investigator assigned to a capital murder case, I researched Moss because he had located the body of the victim Willie Pugh and did not have an alibi for the night Pugh went missing.

The area where the body had been located had been searched by multiple search teams and search dogs. To find a body wrapped in a bright baby blue blanket easily visible from the roadway a week after an extensive two-week search, seemed, well, inexplicable.

The accused man, Will Dickerson, maintained his innocence and offered to take a polygraph test. One of my tasks was to carefully examine all those who might have been a person of interest, but were overlooked, and see if there was any evidence that indicated they had the wrong man. If so, who could have killed Willie Pugh, and was there any evidence?

Amusingly, Moss thought he was on the job playing investigator that day. But I had been taught one of the best ways to investigate someone is lure them into investigating you. This often enables you to learn more about them than any background report on paper would ever reveal. When you ask 10 questions, you already know the answer to 8. The truth, and who they really are, can often be exposed in those two questions, and what they want to know from you.

To accomplish this, I had called the local newspaper, the Clayton Record, and offered my number to a reporter who was covering the story of a missing girl named Lisa Wallace. I was interested and might be willing to help. Then I asked her specifically to not to give my number out to those investigating the case and waited. Knowing the reporter’s reputation I knew I would not have to wait long.

Kathy Johnston called me with five minutes, and Moss called me within ten minutes. The two self proclaimed private investigators, “Scott Moss,” and the woman known as “Kathy Johnston,” I had already been told had inserted themselves into the missing person case, and were blaming the Eufaula Police Department for a massive cover up. They both claimed to know the woman had been murdered by her husband.

Here is a link to the state licensing board’s website. Neither of the two have ever even applied to become investigators, nor do they qualify to be.   http://www.apib.alabama.gov/Search.aspx

My main interest at the time was Moss, and how living in a small cabin near Blue Springs Alabama, just a few miles away from where Pugh’s body was found, did what dozens of others, including trained law enforcement officers and the FBI, could not.

Was it remotely possible he could be involved in the murder, or had someone tipped him as to where he could find the body?

Moss met me at Hagler’s BBQ in Blue Springs and invited me to his small cabin. I went, armed, and with someone watching from a distance. With a hidden tape recorder whirring, I listened to Moss explain how he had a knack for finding dead people.

“They speak to me,” he said.

He then opened up files on a computer where he showed me hundreds of pictures of dead people and details of human cadavers.

In great detail he went through photos of his most recent “find,” a young man named Poli Perez, found dismembered, decapitated, and put in a refrigerator behind a church in Henry County Alabama. This is what Moss spent his days studying, dead people and forensic science books.

Moss explained how the dead bodies speak to him as actual voices inside his head, “they want to be found,” he told me, “I hear them and go retrieve them.”

Not much you can say about that. I have had a lot of weird encounters through the years but that remains at the top of my list.

Research would later reveal that Moss had a profile on the Psychic Detective Network. Over the years he had made hundreds of bizarre comments on various forums and sites, mostly blaming law enforcement officers for being serial killers, and weaving vast drug cartel conspiracies. At times he would claim his brother was a FBI agent, a Secret Service Agent , or a covert intelligence agent that kept him abreast of what was really going on beneath the surface. Moss alleged he had top secret access to what was really going on with local police departments.

His brother, I later verified, is in the Air Force. There is no record of him being a Secret Service Agent, or in the FBI, much less working for the CIA. Moss, I also learned, had a background in the military and served in Iraq. Returning home, he had a series of psychological problems, and was put on medication.

There is evidence that Scott Moss worked as a confidential informant for the FBI. What type of disinformation and fantasies Moss fed the FBI God only knows, presumably things similar to what he shared on forums, cops are all bad, hired killers for a Central American drug cartel, that for some unknown reason are abducting and killing young women.

The Geneva Police Dept, Clio Police Department, Holmes County Sheriff’s Department, Henry County Sheriff’s Department, the Ozark Police Department, and the Eufaula Police Department according to Scott Moss were all connected by some secret plot to be ruthless enforcers for a drug cartel from central America.

Elements within the CIA, per Moss’s observations, routinely give them instructions.

All very strange behavior. But Scott Moss and his partner Kathy Johnston are performing in-depth, and I believe illegal, background checks on the police officers they suspect and are representing them as potential murderers to victims’ families. Johnston then performs what she claims are psychological profiles on the officers and puts them under surveillance. All very damn weird.

But you say what you want about Scott Moss, the math of him finding nearly a dozen bodies does not lie. No one can explain that.

The deeper we looked into Moss’ background I learned he was a person of interest in a homicide, and currently is in a missing girl’s case in Geneva, Alabama.

Police there have looked at Moss repeatedly in the disappearance of 18 year old Shana Peoples. He as well was suspected in being involved in the murder of Mia Brown from the same area while he lived in Geneva with a girlfriend. No hard evidence could be found linking him to the disappearances, but he was nearby and had a pattern of inserting himself into the investigations in both cases. In both of the cases he blamed a victim’s significant other, and then alleges the police are orchestrating a cover up.

Brown was later found to be murdered by Johnny Sketo Calhoun who now sits on death row in Florida. He maintains he is innocent and the evidence used to convict him planted. Some law enforcement officers will quietly will tell you they believe somehow Moss is tied to the girl’s death but they could never prove it.

This is further echoed by a Clayton lawyer who told me that Moss claimed he witnessed a girl being burned alive in a car several years ago as being the reason his house suddenly burned in Louisville. Moss’ home was determined to be a likely incident of arson, and the insurance company reportedly refused to pay.

“They” he said, were trying to get him because of what he knew, “they” being who, he could not say. One Police officer looking at Moss speculated, “what better way to destroy DNA evidence than burn a house down, I find it unlikely that a drug cartel came to Louisville, Alabama to burn a house down.”

Weeks later, Mia Brown’s body was located by an anonymous tip, believed to be from Moss. She was burned alive in the trunk of a car, just as he had described it to the lawyer.

How Moss could have known where Mia Brown’s body was, and the manner of her death, is a question that remains unanswered.

What is clear, is after the Geneva Police essentially ran Moss out of town, (his girlfriend felt threatened and Moss was arrested on DUI charges) he comes back to Barbour County. For over a year, though, Moss rode around with a child’s car seat in his truck and claimed he was engaged to a former girlfriend and had a picture of them together across the top of his Facebook page.

One thing follows him, the death and disappearance of people. Most of them have a pre-existing connection to Moss, most are drug users, in some cases, Moss alleges to have used drugs with them. In all but one case, the murder of Clio Police chief’s father, Eugene Johnston, there is a pre-existing connection uncovered.

In all the cases where bodies have been recovered, there is the use of a knife and a violent death. In each case he then inserts himself into investigating and locating these people, and finds two of their bodies in areas that have been previously searched.

In the cases there is a pattern where he often claims the husband, or partner, murdered them, and then alleges the police are covering it up. In each case, he alleges a complicated police or drug cartel conspiracy being responsible.

Moss then self-appoints himself, along at times with Johnston, to investigate the person he determines is the murderer and the police who are covering it up. He then will share this with anyone that will listen as evidenced on the forum comments he has made though the years, and our own interview with him below.

In Lisa Wallace’s case, however, this presents a serious problem for law enforcement. Moss and Johnston advise the victim’s families they cannot trust the police and warn against talking to them. They then “discover” evidence and remove it from the counties and claim they had to get it away from the police who are responsible for covering up the crime in the first place.

Scott Moss disturbingly now claims to know the location of the third victim, Lisa Wallace. Same MO, he claims the husband killed Lisa, and the local police are involved in a cover up, and were directed by some drug cartel headquartered in Central America. Zero evidence exists to back any of these claims up.

But in this case we have discovered that Moss had a pre-existing connection to Lisa and claims to have drank and done drugs with her. That’s a huge problem, because at other times, he claims he never knew her before she went missing.

To date, there have been 4 murders and two missing people in a geographic cluster around Scott Moss since he left Geneva, Alabama. No more girls have gone missing in the Geneva area since he left.

Nothing in my opinion about this is normal when a cluster of violent murders and missing people follow one man, who is a self proclaimed psychic body finder.

                     SCOTT MOSS WITH KNIFE

Stranger still, and working closely with him to investigate the missing and murdered victims, is a woman known as Kathy Johnston, AKA Kathy Sullivan, who impersonates a private investigator, claims to have worked for the FBI, and at times the state of Alabama. She is pictured here in a photo where Moss raised a knife and threatened Jacqui Hollander and then later told someone she would be found dead on the news.

Now if all this is not weird enough for you, let me illustrate just how serious and grave of an issue this is. Three years later, we now learn that Kathy Johnston, AKA “Sullivan,” was witnessed as being with Moss when he found the body of Willie Pugh near Clio. Moss and Johnston have recently bragged about finding Pugh and tampering with his corpse, and then laughing about it. This is highly disturbing when there is a man who maintains his innocence is being charged for Pugh’s murder and their is physical evidence he didn’t commit the crime.

In this particular case, physical evidence has been found to have been planted at as well. The lead investigator for the Sheriff’s Dept, Lt David Morris, now deceased, admitted to me, and former Louisville Police Chief Ronnie Benefield, that evidence was planted in the case, by whom he could not determine. “None of it makes any sense, it appears to be set up that way.”

In this case, Moss and Johnston have, as in previous cases, woven a conspiracy theory that the police are responsible for this murder. Moss has stated “ he (Pugh)  was on a list,” but would not elaborate as to who had a list that Pugh was on and how he knew this.

                               KATHY JOHNSTON

His sidekick, Kathy Johnston, (pictured at left posing as a corpse) represents herself to victims’ families as a “licensed private investigator” that has previously worked for the FBI in Quantico, Va. The FBI has no record of her employment, nor does the state licensing board of her ever even applying to be a private investigator, much less being one.

Johnston lives in Dothan, in a large nice expensive home, and works out of an office where she has an impressive library filled with books about criminology, forensic science, and psychology. Huge binders on “case information” is on the shelves and she shares her expertise in locating missing people and solving murders. Per her careful presentation of herself, she deals in the world of sources, informants, and analyzing the backgrounds of members of law enforcement that are involved in murders.

She often wears a FBI baseball cap, carries a gun and has a badge. The “bureau” she says, “has called me in to be a profiler on several cases and to solve them. I help them when I can and communicate with them often. The BAU (Behavoral Analysis Unit) are the boys I work with, direct out of Quantico.”

However, there is no record of her solving any case we can find, and the badge appears to be something she ordered off the internet. She recently flashed the badge and gun at a Dothan hotel using it to forcibly enter rooms to search for a missing woman. The badge, upon very close scrutiny by those who have examined it, says “little angels” on it, and is plastic.

The gun is real.

Just weeks after Lisa Wallace went missing, both inserted themselves into the case blaming local law enforcement. Johnston made surveillance tapes of the mayor and police officers, and dispatched a man with a mullet driving a Camaro, believed to be her husband, to wander around town and question people. Mullet man followed and made several efforts to talk to Chris Wallace who finally spoke to him so he would quit bothering him, and explained over a beer he had nothing to hide.

A police officer told me they knew about mullet man and had watched him, “he seemed innocent enough he just kept following people and wanting to talk to them. All of his interest seemed to be tied to people Lisa Wallace knew, we never saw him act aggressively.”

Mullet man, AKA “Shawn” later proved to be Johnston’s husband. The talk he had with Chris was later represented to be “a formal interview with the subject” by Johnston. Mullet man then got shipped overseas by the Army.

In the past two years Johnston and Moss have obsessively tried to blame Lisa’s husband Chris Wallace. The lengths to which they have gone to do this are astounding and may very well include planting evidence and creating evidence to mislead law enforcement. This, if true, is very serious.

Moss claims to have recovered evidence of Lisa’s murder that now is missing, and claims to know a secret witness who saw her body being thrown into the lake. Moss then represented that he has found a series of notes beside the road in Henry county that are describing how Lisa was abducted and hidden.

Law enforcement officials think he found trash beside the road, which he has been observed wandering at all hours.

Recently, it is alleged, Johnston was involved in charging the missing woman’s mother seven thousand dollars for a search dog to spend one hour on a dirt road in rural Henry county where Moss allegedly found a bloody mattress that came from Lisa’s home.

The dog hit on a human cadaver according to Kathy Johnston. “She was here at some point”, Johnston said, “and we are getting close to finding her.” Lisa’s mother shelled out seven thousand bucks and the dog named Quincy wagged his tail. The whole escapade we witnessed took about an hour. Video of the search below.

A law enforcement officer with Henry County told me privately that they believe Moss planted the mattress and could have put part of a ground human tooth on the scene, which made the dog behave the way he did. “It looks like some sort of scam to us.”

The other problem with all this is the  missing girl’s mother, Barbara Davis reportedly paid nearly $ 7 thousand dollars for the search dog. I called the the director of the VK 9 Search and Recovery Unit organization in that sent the dog and asked what the cost for the search dog was, and Ms Platt told me “they do not charge for their dogs and search teams. At best we accept donations for travel”. She had no knowledge of why anyone would pay for their organization’s dog to search for a missing person.

The woman who has illegally represented herself as a licensed private investigator, Kathy Johnston, cannot explain where this money went. No one can explain why a victim’s family member was charged thousands of dollars for a search dog that didn’t charge for a search.

Recently and even more bizarre, Moss represented he knew where Lisa’s bones were, and had one in his possession tied to a fishing line in Lake Eufaula that was represented to be part of her corpse to Lisa’s distraught mother. Johnston instructed Moss to be quiet, as if he recovered Lisa he would be arrested for murder. But she instructed him to bring her one of Lisa’s rib bones. Moss claims he has lots of her bones. The bone was later determined to have come from a deer.

I interviewed songwriter and music producer Jacqui Hollander, who witnessed these strange events, that she experienced while being around these two and Lisa’s mother. It’s best heard in her own words, and is disturbing to say the very least.

We have chosen to publish this in the hope that those in law enforcement can determine what really happened to Lisa Wallace. It is my opinion that people like Scott Moss and Kathy Johnston make their job even harder.

I think, as well, its reasonable question that those murdered and missing, like Willie Pugh, Poli Perez, Shanna Peoples, Mia Brown, Recita Kennedy, Eugene Johnson, and the woman found in her houseboat that sank near Moss’ on Lake Eufaula recently all be re-examined. Because there is one common thread, the man who has to have his “body fix” is always nearby.

The best I can describe all this is like being in a episode of the twilight zone, but the problem is, it’s real.

WYKLE WILLIAMS CLAIMS HE SPENT YEARS INVESTIGATING AND BELIEVES THE GIRLS HAD TAPES REVEALING DRUG TRAFFICKING AND HIS FRIEND ATTORNEY BRIAN DOWLING WAS MURDERED

WEEKLY OPINION / EDITORIAL

Wykle Williams certainly has his critics and has been amusingly referred to as the man who wears a tin-foil hat. But he is a former police officer, and best I can tell, doesn’t ride around with a scanner propositioning young men for sex like one of those saying Williams wears a tin foil hat.

More than once he has been banned from city council meetings and the Dothan Eagle newspaper’s office. Through the years he has passionately written letters, starting with District Attorney Doug Valeska, the FBI’s regional office, the Governor, and all the way to the US Attorney General’s office, about the depth of corruption present in Dothan. All have failed to do anything about it.

According to Williams, powerful politicians are blocking federal investigations. Whether one is a believer in Williams theories, I don’t think anyone can doubt his passion discussing his friend Brian Dowling’s untimely death. Nor can they doubt much of Williams’ long complained about corruption in Dothan now coming to light.

Williams is important because he was a key member of CLARA (Council for Legal Reform in Alabama). An organization formed in the late 90’s to fight corruption in the police department when it was managed by John White. The organization that led to the NAACP demanding White be removed over allegations of brutality in the black community in 1990’s. All of that seems conveniently forgotten when the current police chief claims he never had any complaints.

But here we are again in the same place we were 20 years ago with the NAACP again investigating Dothan, and preparing to file a class action lawsuit after receiving hundreds of affidavits and leaked police documents that reveal widespread drug planting. The issue, and former police officers who have witnessed this, will not go away until it is openly, and publicly addressed.

C.L.A.R.A had as founding members in addition to Williams,  Brian Dowling and  Shirley Dahl. They spent years fighting what they believed was a corrupt police department that protected drug trafficking, and that targeted minorities for arrests.

All are now deceased, except Williams, and he feels the time has come to tell this story.

THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF DOTHAN ATTORNEY BRIAN DOWLING

Williams is a firm believer that attorney Brian Dowling was murdered to stop C.L.A.R.A, and was not killed by a drunk driver. His death came just a week after several letters had been sent to the district attorney, attorney general, and governor outlining corruption in the Dothan Police department that involved planting drugs, and a scam of paying confidential informants, that did not exist, stealing money from the city that the narcotics team used.

Williams alleges Dowling found out the truth about the 1999 Beasley Hawlett murders in Ozark and who was really behind it, this he believes got him killed, not a drunk driver.

Williams refers in the interview to two blood vials that were taken from Flowers hospital by a Dale county deputy to Auburn’s Dept of Forensic Science lab as missing blood when they arrived. Williams though, if one listens carefully, is unclear on how vials of Harp’s blood plays a role in evidence being tampered with in assessing responsibility for Dowling’s death. Unless I am missing something, the value of Harp’s blood would be to determine the blood alcohol content.

The car Harp drove, a Pontiac Grand Am, was completely submerged in water in a wreck after hitting Dowling a few miles away. The DNA evidence used from the molding of the car, he alleges, was contaminated, and the Dept of Forensics never notified.

The only hard evidence, according to Williams, was a “white card” from within the submerged car, with Dowling’s blood drops on it. How that could have come from a wrecked and submerged car, much less got inside it, he claims, indicates a conspiracy.

Williams maintains that he had a copy of Harp’s written confession that actually was (in his opinion) not a confession, but this was stolen from him, and that the Dale County Sheriff’s department and District Attorney Kirke Adams have refused to give him a copy after even after he asked for it through freedom of information  act request.

Interestingly Harp has, is our understanding, never had a memory to this day of actually hitting Dowling that night. This however does not mean he did not.

What is indisputable is that Anthony Ray Harp plead guilty to a murder charge of killing Dowling with his car while driving drunk in Sept of 2000. Harp had two previous arrests for DUI’s on his record. A Houston county jury returned a $25 million verdict in Dowling’s estate’s favor as a result of the incident later that year.

According to Williams though, Dowling was intending on issuing subpoenas and depositions in a federal suit they had filed, that would have included all the officers of the narcotics team supervised by Steve Parrish and former Police Chief John White.

Williams maintains he was working as an investigator for Dowling at the time.

Former Police Chief John White, now an attorney at Cobb, Boyd, White and Cobb. White has threatened to kill a former Dothan whistleblower and fireman Sam Tew, along with members of his family, in an attempt (according to Tew) to keep him silent about assault weapons being illegally sold on city property. White as well has threatened to sue me, and anyone else, who publishes the leaked internal affairs documents that reveal the planting of drugs that occurred while he was chief.

Former internal affairs investigator Keith Gray, believes White is capable of anything, and believes Tew’s allegations have merit. There is no statute of limitations for threatening to murder someone and their family. Gray has recently been appointed the legal redress chair for the NAACP and Tew’s case is one of several aimed at holding White accountable for his previous actions, that seek to put him in prison and have his license to practice law revoked.

MURDERS OF TRACIE HAWLETT AND J.B. BEASLEY

           JB BEASLEY AND TRACIE HAWLETT

Wykle Williams firmly believes that JB Beasley, and Tracie Hawlett, had cassette tapes in their possession the night they were murdered that had incriminating information on some of the region’s leading public officials. What those tapes reveal (according to Williams) is a closely guarded secret in federal law enforcement circles.

He references two separate FBI 301 files (field reports ) that indicate a large scale cocaine trafficking ring being operated and protected in the Wiregrass area. The tapes reportedly have the voices of some of area’s most prominent men involved. According to Williams, FBI agents in two separate locations, were aware of individuals in police departments in the cities of Ozark and Dothan, that were involved in protecting this operation. Williams would not allow us to make copies, or photograph the documents, so we have no way of verifying their authenticity.

For whatever reason Williams believes that the FBI cannot be trusted. This is problematic, for in my opinion, if we cannot trust Special Agent Robert Lasky, the SAC (Special Agent in Charge) of the Mobile regional office, then we all have a huge fucking problem and should evacuate to Cuba. Thats just not a rational belief to hold. Not that a FBI agent is incorruptible, but the odds of this for a SAC of a regional office is astronomically small I suspect. For this to be the case over multiple SAC’s responsible for Dothan is just not possible. Whitey Bulger’s case in Boston illustrates this. Thus we enter tin-foil hat land.

In fairness to Williams though his allegations echo what others have claimed in recent months that worked for the Ozark Police department who witnessed flights in and out of Ozark for years, believed to be containing drugs. But how Williams makes the jump to people bringing in cocaine 20 years ago, to the girl’s death, is a bit of a leap. People that I have known in the past that were involved in trafficking cocaine were not the type of people to let two young high school girls just hang around multiple kilos of cocaine. This seems very unlikely.

But Williams specifically references a federal court case that was pending the week after the girls were killed that would have brought out the tapes in the record as evidence. Witnesses saw a delivery of 60 plus kilos of cocaine, “this is what got them killed”, according to Williams. On the heavily redacted documents that Williams offered to show us, the only conclusive thing I could tell is that it appears that Ashton Holmes Ott was an attorney involved in the case.

Ott however at the time was working for the US Attorney’s office. Williams refuses to provide a case number, or the defendant’s name in the case. This case, he claims, was scheduled to have the tapes entered as evidence two days after the girls were found murdered. If this is so, big IF,  and if the tapes have what Williams claims is on them – second big IF, then that potentially could establish a motive to kill Beasley and Hawlett.

But heres the problem, Williams admits he hasn’t listened to the tapes, nor does he know where they are. When I ask Williams if he knows anyone at all, anywhere, and at any time, that has heard the mythical Beasley-Hawlet tapes, he just stares at you. “No” is the answer you finally get from Dick Tracy.

This where the absurdity sets in. If you question Williams, he angrily holds up a blank sheet of paper that has the entirety of it redacted, except for a trial date at the bottom, and just enough information to identify Ott’s name.

Picture this while you are staring at a blank piece of paper….

He then says “ahaa…. this is it, this is hard proof of what “they” were facing”.

You are caught looking at a blank piece of paper that could be from… well, anywhere.

This is the “ahaaa” moment? You are of course staring at…nothing but a blank piece of paper. Williams will not tell you the case number of defendant, he cant, he claims because “they” will kill him. This, in my book, makes this all a little too weird. People will kill you for having what is part of a federal court document that is public record ? That is the excuse for not giving someone the information of said public record? I remind myself this does not mean some of what he has is not valuable, nor are all his insights wrong. Tinfoil hat land is very a trippy place.

But then Williams will passionately tell you how he believes now is the best chance there has been in years to get federal assistance from outside Alabama to help solve these crimes, and bring down two of the state’s leading politicians that are complicit in covering it up.

But here is the problem with that claim, if Wykle Williams really has documents that prove all this, then why is he not making them available to the national press and the Department of Justice? If one believes the government might cover it up, then sharing evidence of a gross injustice with the press, and the DOJ, simultaneously could prevent this.

Recently Williams was presented with the opportunity of them being given directly to CBS News and RT News, he declined to do both. Why, if he truly seeks justice ?

William’s behavior makes anyone who is serious about all of this suspicious. If Williams is sane, then he deserves to be listened to carefully by those investigating the city of Dothan. The boxes of documents CLARA and Brian Dowling gathered for years in his possession, revealing corruption, should be carefully examined by the FBI agents that are tasked with investigating the allegations of police brutality and drug planting.

Williams, as Chief Steve Parrish is fond of saying to those who criticize him, “needs to put up or shut up” and stop wasting people’s time.

Williams cannot spend his days calling people like Ruth Nelson, and other activists,  and attorneys, that are seeking reform, claiming to have proof, without offering them to federal agents.

And Ill go a step further, if Williams stole these files from the Dothan Police Department,  while he was employed as police officer, or asked another officer do so, then in all fairness to the department, that should be investigated.

What we do know for absolute certainty is two high school girls were brutally murdered. Whoever murdered them got away with it, and that horrific crime deserves to be solved. In my opinion Mr. Williams can be part of the problem, or part of the solution, in either case the time for his playing Dick Tracy has to come to  an end. He needs to share what he has in his possession with Special Agent Lasky.

Last night after the interview I published with Wykle Williams,  a confidential state law enforcement document was given to me (via PGP encrypted email),  from whom I believe is a former member of state law enforcement.

They believe this document – a forensic inventory of J.B. Beasley’s car – could corroborate former Dothan Police officer Wykle William’s theory, that two cassette tapes were removed from J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett the night of their death. I have been asked to publish it so the public has full access to it.

At this point they believe there is pressure for the case to not be solved and being fully open and transparent with the public is the best way to prevent this from continuing.

Documents are posted individually below.

 “ I don’t know whats going on, I don’t know why its taken 9 years.”     

      Douglas Albert Valeska, District Attorney 20th Judicial Circuit of Alabama

“ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense”.

      Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress September 25, 1789.

When Doug Valeska took the oath of office for district attorney he swore to uphold the constitution. The phone conversation recorded with District Attorney Doug Valeska published below reveals just how far he will go to make excuses and blame others for his own perverted sense of justice that targets minorities.

The one question I ask, would this happen if Kharon Davis was white?

I am publishing the tape in the hopes of holding the prosecutor’s office more accountable and that the governor and attorney general will intervene and remove him from office (others will follow of Valeska’s private conversations ).

It is presumed in the United States that a defendant is denied a speedy trial if there is a delay of a year or more from the date of arrest. The government may overcome this presumption by giving a good reason for the delay, if not, and a court decides a defendant’s right to a speedy trial was denied, no further prosecution takes place. The government, in this case Doug Valeska, is now on the record saying he does not know why its taken so long.

When a public official such as Valeska fails in his ability to uphold his oath and honor our constitution what are our responsibilities as citizens?

How are we the public supposed to hold him accountable when he disregards our constitutional rights?

The facts of this case are straightforward. Kharon Davis, was arrested with a clean record and has been held in a south Alabama jail, often in solitary confinement, and denied bond for nine years. During that time he has been denied access to the evidence the district attorney purports to have against him, and access to his discovery files. No one, neither Judge Kevin Moulton, nor District Attorney Doug Valeska can explain why this is so.

Again in the prosecutors own words captured on tape – “I do not know why”.

This is unacceptable and undermines trust in our legal system.

District Attorney Doug Valeska discussing how he does not know why Kharon Davis has been denied a trial for 9 years although it is his responsibility 

ISSUES IDENTIFIED IN THE TAPE THAT ARE DISTURBING:

1. GUNSHOT RESIDUE TEST: Valeska states that he knows nothing about this evidence that Kharon Davis attorneys refused to get for him.

But the trial records firmly contradict Valeska. In a November 2013 hearing he states to the judge that “ your honor I can tell you the Gunshot residue test is negative, so he must have had on a jacket or something, I don’t know.”

The only conclusion you can draw from this is Valeska is now lying about the case on the tape, or he was lying to the judge then.

The disappearing gunshot residue test that Valeska is, on record saying is negative, has been withheld from Kharon Davis for 9 years. Word now is the prosecutor’s office has lost the file, and the police department cannot find it. Are we to believe that a  key piece of physical evidence, exculpatory in nature, in a capital murder case, that the District attorney has lost it? My guess, if the result had been positive there would be no problem finding it.

Prosecutorial misconduct plain and simple.

2. PLEA DEALS OFFERED: Valeska says he made an offer for a plea of murder but Kharon turned it down. Kharon, and others who witnessed this, have stated that the prosecutor has repeatedly tried to threaten him into taking plea deal. Valeska claims Kharon is the one who went into an apartment and robbed and shot a drug dealer. He acknowledges though that in two previous trials one was acquitted and another man plead guilty of the murder. Kharon maintains his innocence and from day one has simply requested he have his constitutionally allowed access to the evidence the state has against him and access to his legal discovery documents.

His lawyers and Valeska have denied him that right for 9 years.

Kharon’s position is simple, he has been denied this constitutional right and Valeska has attempted to coerce him into a plea deal. Valeska has punished him for not accepting the plea by keeping him in solitary confinement.

Prosecutorial misconduct plain and simple.

3. THE MISSING LETTER: The codefendant in the case that has been convicted of murder wrote a letter ( at the advice of his attorney) after  Valeska threatened to take his his life, if he did not say what Valeska specifically wanted him to in the trial against Kharon, which would be perjury. It appears that in this case, like many others documented by the NAACP, Valeska threatened him to commit perjury to obtain conviction.

Valeska has a pattern and practice of threatening people with life in prison, or the death penalty, if they wont say what he wants them to say. Why is this not attempted murder? Who is responsible for prosecuting the prosecutor in such a case? Why can the attorney general not remove Valeska from the case in light of a strong of such allegations?

The letter in question that was part of the defense attorney’s files strangely went missing. The previous attorney, Derek Yarborough, represented to Kharon’s mother it did not exist. However Kharon’s family believes he removed it from the files on order of Valeska and is pursuing a state bar complaint for this, and for denying Kharon access to his discovery files as well.

Additionally Yarborough, is on record, making statements to the court of why he wanted to withdraw from the case that appear to be factually inaccurate. A separate bar complaint is being filed on that issue by the parties involved.

The letter that Yarborough and Valeska denied existing of course was eventually found.

More evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and attempts by Kharon Davis’s own defense attorney, Derek Yarborough, to hide exculpatory evidence.

4. THE INVESTIGATOR THAT REPORTEDLY TARGETS BLACK PEOPLE:

INVESTIGATOR MICHAEL MAGRINO

Former Dothan police officer Michael Magrino was the investigator working for the state who was assigned the case per Derek Yarborough’s request.  For months  Magrino could not answer where he was with the case and explain what he had found out to Kharon Davis’ mother when she met with the attorney.

The whole time he was allegedly being paid by the state of Alabama’s indigent defense fund for work he was not doing.

At one point Kharon’s mother became insistent, and with a tape recorder on, caught the investigator who worked with Derek Yarborough confessing, that after years on the case…he had actually done absolutely nothing on her son’s case.

A inquiry is being made with the state’s indigent defense fund to get records of all payments made to Magrino. The family including Kharon are suing Magrino and Yarborough for their role in alleged fraud against the state and legal malpractice.

Magrino was identifed in  leaked internal affairs files in December of having police officers file complaints that they witnessed him planting drugs on African Americans. Magrino subsequently was ordered to take a polygraph test which the result indicate he had targeted African Americans while working on a narcotics team that were members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Magrino was forced out of the police dept.  after nearly 40 packages of illegal drugs and weapons were found in his possession in a search and its believed by the lead internal affairs investigator he was planting drugs on men in the black community.

Members of the Dothan narcotics team and Police Chief Steve Parrish at a secret meeting holding the confederate battle flag

The NAACP has recently taken hundred of affidavits of drug planting from victims in Dothan and many are linked to Michael Magrino. Magrino’s web site can be viewed here where he boasts that he “directed hundreds of undercover operations. Victims and former internal affairs investigators for Dothan have told us many were cases where the drugs were planted by Magrino. Former city prosecutor Kalia Lane told us she referred over hundred cases where drug planting occurred to the FBI.

Why Derek Yarborough and the state of Alabama would trust this man to investigate a capital murder case, when Kharon is of African descent, and the grandson of a prominent civil rights leader, cannot be explained. The family believes that racism was the motivation behind Magrino’s inaction, and it was in the form of purposeful inaction so that Kharon would be found guilty.

5. THE JUDGE WHO REFUSES TO GIVE HIM A TRIAL:

Judge Kevin Moulton placed his hand on the Bible and took an oath to uphold our Constitution. It is clear he has violated that oath and denied Kharon Davis his sixth amendment rights as well as the right to access evidence and discovery documents. There is no excuse for this and whoever his excuse is this cannot be tolerated.

In the tape Valeska states that Judge Kevin Moulton is to blame for not setting a trial. Valeska hints that its because Moulton is inexperienced in murder trials.

Facts are Judge Kevin Moulton has refused to give Kharon Davis a bond, no reason given, and no precedent for such an action.  Despite the fact that the judge is aware that exculpatory evidence exists.

Judicial misconduct plain and simple. Inexcusable Kevin Moulton and an embarrassment to the court.

RESULT OF YOUR INCOMPETANCE- THE LONGEST WAIT FOR A TRIAL IN AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE !

Again, ask yourself would this happen if Kharon Davis was white?