On Demonizing and Other Such Activities

As readers know, I take no prisoners on my blog. This is not exactly a tack taken to win friends and make people happy, and I remember one faculty member from Covenant College wrote that the tone of my blog "saddened" him. Well, I guess he will have to be sad when he reads my stuff.

Nonetheless, every once in a while I believe I need to step back and take a hard look at what I am doing and saying, as the perspective of things when one is in the middle of things. As always, there are the regrets, but there also comes the realization that I don't regret what I have been doing.

I have seen a lot of dishonest, abusive prosecutions in my life, but I never thought I would see something on the level of what occurred in the trial of Tonya Craft. Usually, prosecutors and police try to be somewhat discreet when they try to frame someone, judges at least want to give the impression that they are being fair, and witnesses generally will try to hide their perjury.

None of that was the case during the Craft trial. In fact, I don't think I ever have seen a trial in which the prosecution's dishonesty was more blatant and such that prosecutors did not even try to hide what they were doing. They appealed to what they hoped would be the lowest instincts of jurors -- racism, resentment against "outsiders," and homophobia (although Ms. Craft clearly is not a lesbian, no matter what French Smith and his daughter, Sandra Lamb, along with the Stinky Henkes might have to say) -- and the reluctance to take a hard look at evidence.

More important, they not only lied to jurors (and a number of jurors pointed out that Chris "Alberto-Facebook" Arnt lied during his closing arguments), but they also encouraged their witnesses to lie, and especially Joal and Sarah Henke. Arnt and Len "The Racist-Misogynist-The Man" Gregor really made no bones about the fact that the Henkes were making up new stuff out of whole cloth, and I don't think they cared.

As I can see it, there is a real entitlement mentality with the LMJC crowd. First, they believe that they are entitled to do whatever they please, the law be damned. If it takes suborning perjury, forging documents, bullying witnesses, lying, or anything else that is dishonest and sleazy, they will do it. People like that should be given no quarter because as people in positions of authority, they are expected to maintain at least a MINIMAL level of integrity. However, when they decide that truth is whatever they wish to make of it, then I feel no obligation to hold back whatever it is that should be said about them.

If there was a "they will stop at nothing" moment, I think it was when Tim "Dirty" Deal insisted that the document that he and his friends obviously had just fabricated was authentic and had been in his files for nearly two years. That was not true and Deal knew it, and so did Gregor, who had the audacity to ask Deal if the "defense is lying." When that occurred, I knew that we were dealing with people who simply have no shred whatsoever of integrity or even human decency.

Yes, I am making a serious charge, one that if prosecuted could send people to prison, and I further believe that had "judge" Outhouse permitted the defense to have "Dirty's" computer checked and have the document's ink checked for when it was produced, the results would have demonstrated that the document was fabricated. However, I also believe that "judge" Outhouse knew that was to be the case as well and did what he could to protect his people. In other words, I am saying I believe that a judge was in on this whole caper, which is a serious, serious charge.

However, since prosecutors don't investigate themselves and the Georgia authorities and the feds refuse to get involved, nothing will happen to any of this band of criminals. And, yes, I believe that these people are as dishonest and venal as the worst set of lawbreakers that might be hauled into an LMJC courtroom. There really is no difference between someone who is charged with attempted murder and Chris Arnt, in my view, except I do believe that the person charged with attempted murder has a slim chance at being rehabilitated, while I believe Arnt is hopeless.

Furthermore, by putting an attack on the defense in his Facebook page -- something that Arnt KNEW violated the codes of ethics of his profession -- Arnt was letting it be known that he was above the law and had the right to do whatever he pleased. As for Len "Racist-Misogynist-The Man" Gregor, here is a guy who was screaming about a picture of a woman in an evening dress (claiming that made her a "narcissist"), but proudly had a picture of himself on his Facebook page standing next to a woman (who was not his wife) who was in a sexually-provocative pose. Again, we had a prosecutor saying that everyone else had to live to standards that he did not have to meet -- because he is a prosecutor, and prosecutors get to be "the man."

So, I have no problem at all making the statements I do about "judge" Outhouse, Arnt, Gregor, Deal, Steven Keith, and Alan Norton. None of them believe the law applies to them, they are willing to commit felonies, suborn perjury, lie, and generally piss on the law, all while claiming to be doing it "for the people."

As for the witnesses, I don't believe it is possible to demonize people like Sandra Lamb, Sherry Wilson, or the Henkes. Their words and deeds speak for themselves, and they knew exactly what they were doing when they lied under oath on the witness stand. Furthermore, all of them knew that "judge" Outhouse, Arnt, and Gregor had their backs, so they were free to lie, which they did.

This leaves the CAC witnesses. Readers already know the utter contempt I have for Ione Sells and her arrogant, eye-rolling crew. True, I am sure that Holly Kittle's husband, family, and friends have not appreciated my take on her performance either as an interviewer or as a prosecution witness.

Now, even though I believe that Kittle is a mediocre photographer, nonetheless I would prefer she do that job full-time and leave the CAC employment altogether. She has no business interviewing children, especially since she cannot tell the difference between legitimate statements and outright babbling nonsense. From what I can tell, she sees herself as someone whose job it is to help the prosecution make its case, no matter how dishonest or ridiculous it might be. Kittle is a good soldier, but that only puts her in the category of the Waffen SS, as those men also were very good soldiers for the Reich.

So, while I might be called out for "demonizing" certain people in the LMJC, nonetheless I believe my characterizations are not wrong. Yes, I am sure there are people who think Len Gregor is a great guy, but if they had to be on the receiving end of his dishonest and bullying tactics, I'm sure that their opinion of him would be much different.

Likewise, I am sure that there are people who believe Holly Kittle is a wonderful person and a good friend. However, they have never experienced Kittle interviewing their child or being in a situation in which Kittle was trying to get a child to say something against them that clearly was not true. Furthermore, no matter what one might say about her, eye-rolling, laughing rudely, and generally acting contemptuous is not behavior one expects from a real professional on a witness stand.

(Observers have told me that the difference between the CAC witnesses and the experts brought in by the defense, such as Nancy Aldridge, was night and day. Of course, Sells told me that those experts were a bunch of liars and her interviewers were superior. Yeah, in her dreams.)

In short, I will continue to take no prisoners. When the prosecutors, police, judges, and CAC personnel of the LMJC begin to act like professionals and honest, law-abiding citizens, I will look elsewhere on my blog. Until then, however, I am not going to back off an inch.

However, I have advice for all of the aforementioned people: just act in a manner that you demand from the rest of us, and then I won't have any reason to write the things I do. That is the deal I am offering to you, and it is much more fair than anything you have offered to others.