More Updates on Tonya Craft Case: Will Georgia Voters Return Buzz and Outhouse to Office?

[Update]:Today is election day in the LMJC, and while House has no opposition and will be returned to the bench, there is a choice for district attorney. While I don't know Doug Woodruff and have not followed his campaign, nonetheless Buzz Franklin needs to be replaced if for no other reason than to send a message that people like him do not belong in public office.

This is not an official endorsement of Woodruff, but consider it to be an official Non-Endorsement of Buzz Franklin. That man does not deserve a single voter, period. [End Update]

In 1990 I was a jury foreman in a civil case in Walker County. The jury found for the plaintiff and afterward, the defense attorney and I had a long conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of his case.

Likewise, prosecutors often will speak to jurors after a verdict, be it guilty or not guilty. Prosecutors like to know what they did right -- and what they did wrong.

However, following the Craft verdict no prosecutor spoke to a juror. In fact, some of the jurors actually attempted to contact Buzz Franklin's office in order to be able to speak to either Chris "Cruisemaster" Arnt or Len "the man" Gregor. No one in that office was interested in speaking to a juror despite the opportunity.

This is highly suspicious. I have known prosecutors who believed they had a good case and lost, and they wanted to know why. In this case, Franklin even put out a statement after the trial attacking the jury and making a claim that Arnt and Gregor had put on a "compelling case for conviction." Now, if these men really believed Craft was guilty and that they had presented a great case to jurors, then I am sure they would have wanted to know what went wrong.

Instead, they continued to claim jury misconduct and lamented a child molester being set free. In other words, they continued to lie.

Lying is something that both Buzz Franklin and "judge" Brian Outhouse do, and they do it with ease. Outhouse, when confronted about a piddly thing like a campaign sign, lied to Channel 3 News. In other words, he could not even tell the truth about a small thing.

One hopes that the voters of the LMJC have had enough of these two miscreants. Franklin not only lied in his press release after the Tonya Craft acquittal, but he also refused to meet with any Craft jurors to find out just why they disagreed with him and the "compelling case for conviction."

If the LMJC voters do re-elect Franklin and Outhouse, they will be making a statement that they prefer dishonesty to honesty. Also, they had better hope that they don't fall into the system the way that Tonya Craft, James Combs, Brad Wade, and others have done, for they will find out the hard way that there are no honest people employed in the LMJC, or if they are honest, they are quite silent.

Suspicious Indictments in Marion County

There are few people more likely to rush to judgment when criminal charges are made than police officers and prosecutors that regard themselves to be the avengers of wronged victims. A rush to judgment almost always ends in tragedy with innocent people convicted and criminals running free.

What even is worse is when those "crusades" decide that a crime has been committed that in reality is non-existent. Mike Nifong went after the Duke Lacrosse players long after he was told that there was no evidence that anyone had raped Crystal Mangum. Likewise, Tonya Craft was railroaded even though she had molested no one, something that "judge" Brian House and his two henchman, Len "the man" Gregor and Chris "Cruisemaster" Arnt understood from the beginning.

From what I can tell, something similar is happening in Marion County, although I am reluctant to say that the detective involved is fundamentally dishonest like what we see in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. Nevertheless, I am seeing a number of red flags that I believe need a hard and suspicious look from others.

Last month, a Marion County grand jury indicted Glenn Webster on 45 counts of child abuse and molestation, with the investigating detective being Beth Schindel. The story was in the Chattanooga TimesFreePress, and was the standard kind of piece one sees in such cases. The writer, Ben Benton, referred to the accuser, who is related to Webster, as the "victim," and not the "alleged" victim, as he should have done.

(Granted, the media in Chattanooga pretty much rushes to judgment in these kinds of cases. Witness how Channel 9 tried to convict Craft in its broadcasts, and even after the verdict, the WTVC news director told me that Craft very well could be guilty. In other words, according to some local media, the accusations are proof of guilt, a narrative that is not permitted to be disturbed under any circumstances, and certainly cannot and should not be dislodged by the facts.)

Benton's story mentions that Webster is a triple amputee (missing two legs and an arm), and that he has been well-known as a volunteer to the local Boy Scouts. I must admit this is interesting, First, how does a triple amputee do what was alleged, especially given that it should not be difficult for someone to get away from him?

Second, child molesters do not just do it to one kid. No, they almost always leave a trail, and what better place for a real child molester to do so than working as a volunteer with the Boy Scouts? I have not heard anything from other children or their families with whom Webster came into contact, and I would be quite interested to know whether other youngsters are making similar claims.

Unfortunately, the courts and the legislatures of this country have ruled that when it comes to rape, child molestation, and sexual assault, no corroborating evidence is needed for a conviction. The simple word of an accuser is all that is needed. In the Duke Lacrosse Case, a grand jury indicted Reade Seligmann for rape even though he had ironclad proof he was more than a mile away from the venue where the non-rape occurred. And I can guarantee you that a jury in Durham would have convicted Seligmann had the case come to trial, despite the evidence.

There was another story involving Schindel that also has made me highly suspicious of her investigative integrity, one involving the discredited "Shaken Baby Syndrome." The Marion County Sheriff's website says this about Schindel:

Detective Schindel works on a wide range of cases from property crimes to drug cases. While she has been successful in solving and convicting criminals in these situations, bringing justice to child sex crime and rape perpetrators remains a very high priority. Detective Schindel has put many offenders in such cases behind bars. Her goal is to be the voice for the victims in the courtroom and work every case aggressively. (Emphasis mine)

 While the words were written in praise, they also tell me that Schindel almost surely decides that the accusation is "proof" of guilt, and then she simply tries to pound the square evidence peg into the round hole of facts. Single-minded people like this are likely to aggressively put innocent people into prison and not lose sleep over their tactics.

Again, I don't know Schindel, and I don't know if she is a female version of Tim Deal, but I cannot be hopeful about her commitment to due process or the assumption of innocence. And then there is the "shaken baby" case, again from the TFP:

The "suspicious" death of a 3-month-old boy on Saturday triggered an investigation in Marion County, Tenn., and authorities say they're waiting for autopsy results to show whether a criminal act led to Colin Russell's death. 

The baby's father has been named a "person of interest" in the case, but no charges have been filed, according to investigators.

The story goes on:

Detective Beth Schindel spent several days in Nashville while Colin was being treated. She said medical scans and a magnetic resonance imaging scan done last week showed the baby had retinal hemorrhaging and brain trauma.  

Those injuries are similar to those found in cases of shaken-baby syndrome, she said.

Except that so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome might well be yet another medical hoax that activists and the media and courts have foisted upon innocent people. A lengthy New York Times article last year by Emily Bazelon laid out the hard facts that a lot of people in the medical community now reject that diagnosis -- a diagnosis that possibly has sent hundreds and maybe thousands of innocent people to prison. Bazelon writes:

A dozen years ago, the medical profession held that if the triad of subdural and retinal bleeding and brain swelling was present without a fracture or bruise that would indicate, for example, that a baby had accidently fallen, abuse must have occurred through shaking. In the past decade, that consensus has begun to come undone. In 2008, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, after reviewing a shaken-baby case, wrote that there is “fierce disagreement” among doctors about the shaken-baby diagnosis, signaling “a shift in mainstream medical opinion.” In the same year, at the urging of the province’s chief forensic pathologist, the Ontario government began a review of 142 shaken-baby cases, because of “the scientific uncertainty that has come to characterize that diagnosis.”

Before going further, I will add that in the Whitwell investigation, there also is evidence of broken ribs suffered by the child. However, until I know more, the fact still stands that there is considerable question about SBS. Bazelon writes:

 As the diagnosis of shaken-baby syndrome took hold in medicine, and prosecutors began to bring charges based on it, doctors testified that shaking could generate the same terrible force as throwing a child from a second-­story window. It turned out they were wrong. In 1987, a neurosurgeon named Ann-Christine Duhaime published a paper that included the autopsy results of 13 babies with symptoms associated with shaken-baby syndrome. In all of them she found evidence of trauma that was actually caused by impact. She teamed up with biomechanical engineers to create infant-sized dummies equipped with sensors to measure acceleration.“We shook them as hard as we could, and we thought something was wrong, because the accelerations we measured were unexpectedly low,” Duhaime says. Instead, the force level shot up when the testers released the dummies after shaking them, even if they hit a soft surface like a bed or a couch.

Later experiments confirmed this finding and have made some doctors and biomechanical engineers skeptical that shaking alone can cause severe brain damage or death. At the same time, the experiments have not ruled this out, Duhaime says. Among other things, the dummies are not live children, and while their heads and necks can exhibit the effects of acceleration, impact on brain tissue is still hard to model. 

Radley Balko, whose name has been mentioned many times before in this blog, also has taken on this questionable diagnosis:

...in the Washington University Law Review, DePaul University law professor DeborahTeurkheimer argues that the medical research has now shifted to the point where U.S. courts must conduct a major review of most SBS cases from the last 20 years. The problem, Teurkheimer explains, is that the presence of three symptoms in an infant victim—bleeding at the back of the eye, bleeding in the protective area of the brain, and brain swelling—have led doctors and child protective workers to immediately reach a conclusion of SBS. These symptoms have long been considered pathognomic, or exclusive, to SBS. As this line of thinking goes, if those three symptoms are present in the autopsy, then the child could only have been shaken to death.

Moreover, an SBS medical diagnosis has typically served as a legal diagnosis as well. Medical consensus previously held that these symptoms present immediately in the victim. Therefore, a diagnosis of SBS established cause of death (shaking), the identity of the killer (the person who was with the child when it died), and even the intent of the accused (the vigorous nature of the shaking established mens rea). Medical opinion was so uniform that the accused, like Edmunds, often didn't bother questioning the science. Instead, they'd often try to establish the possibility that someone else shook the child.

But now the consensus has shifted. Where the near-unanimous opinion once held that the SBS triad of symptoms could only result from a shaking with the force equivalent of a fall from a three-story to four-story window, or a car moving at 25 mph to 40 mph (depending on the source), research completed in 2003 using lifelike infant dolls suggested that vigorous human shaking produces bleeding similar to that of only a 2-foot to 3-foot fall. Furthermore, the shaking experiments failed to produce symptoms with the severity of those typically seen in SBS deaths. 

The research implies that human beings simply cannot shake a baby to death without an accompanying impact to the head. SBS cases, however, frequently show no external injuries. This suggests that other causes are at work. Additional research has shown babies to be lucid up to 72 hours before classic SBS symptoms set in, casting doubt on the long-held theory that the child's caretaker at the time of death (or loss of consciousness) was the likely killer.

Balko goes on:

Last year, Discover magazine published a provocative article laying out much of this new research. Notably, the magazine found several specialists who have since changed their minds after testifying for the prosecution in multiple SBS cases. (At a post-conviction hearing for Edmunds, all of her defense experts said that when the case was tried in 1995, they would have testified for the prosecution.) One of those specialists is Ronald Uscinski, a student of Ayub Ommaya, the scientist whose research on monkeys in the late 1960s is thought to be the origin of the SBS diagnosis. When Uscinski went back and reexamined the study, he found no support for the way Ommaya’s research is currently being being used in the courtroom. 

"When I put all of this together, I said, my God, this is a sham,” Uscinski told Discover. "Somebody made a mistake right at the very beginning, and look at what’s come out of it."

Now, I doubt seriously that Schindel or any prosecutor in Marion County would care to read any of this literature, since it would mean fewer murder prosecutions for them. Prosecutors love to convict, and from what I have seen from the area where I used to live, few, if any, prosecutors care if the defendant is guilty or innocent. To them, everyone is guilty no matter what the facts might tell us.

Furthermore, I doubt that any attorneys that represent people in Southeast Tennessee or Northwest Georgia who are charged with SBS actually know that the whole diagnosis is under attack by medical professionals and researchers. (And if Brian House's courtroom, I doubt scientific literature even would be permitted to be used by the defense, given House's open hostility to anyone charged with a crime.)

As I said at the beginning, I don't know Glenn Webster or anything about him. I don't know his family, the accuser, or anyone else associated with the case, but I will say up front that I am very, very suspicious. Reading about Schindel does not make me think that there is an investigator who actually cares about getting it right. She seems to be satisfied with a strategy of the ends justifying the means, even if the ends is the conviction of innocent people.

Will Campaign Signs Bring Down the Outhouse?

During Tonya Craft's trial, "judge" Brian House acted according to signals given by prosecutor Chris Arnt, and that was the least of his wrongdoing. In a previous post on this farce of a "judge," I listed a number of things that House did, all in violation of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct that supposedly governs Georgia judges.

At best, House is a dishonest judge. At worst, he is a criminal.

Because the Judicial Qualifications Commission in Georgia is toothless and because, frankly, people at the Georgia State Bar are completely impervious to wrongdoing by judges and prosecutors, House and his friends have figured that they are invulnerable. That is why House, Arnt, and Len Gregor, along with Tim Deal, figured they could get away with shredding the law during the Craft trial and why House figured that Catoosa County jurors were as craven as were he and his friends.

But now, "judge" Brian House is in hot water with the JQC. Why, as Callie Starnes of WRCB-TV says in her story, it seems that not only did "judge" House have campaign signs in his yard in violation of Georgia's ethics code, but then lied about it when she asked him about the signs:

"A judge, or a candidate for judicial election shall not publicly endorse a candidate for political office," said Jeff Davis, Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission's Director.

Channel 3 called the Judicial Qualifications Commission, or JQC, after receiving numerous tips about two local judges.

Pictures provided to Channel 3 show a banner on part-time Juvenile Court Judge Michael Giglio's law office endorsing Michael Caldwell for superior court clerk.

Superior Court Judge Brian House, who serves in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, leases the building to Giglio.

House also currently employees Caldwell as his assistant.

Channel 3 found a similar sign in front of House's Ringgold home.

According the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct, judges are not allowed to publicly endorse a candidate for public office.

 But it gets even better. When Starnes confronted House about the signs, he engaged in what law schools call "Kettle Pleading" in which the person being accused tells three different -- and mutually-exclusive -- stories. Here is House's own version of Kettle Pleading:

Commission Director Jeff Davis says all judges know the rules.

"Every judge in the state is provided a copy of the code of judicial conduct, and is expected to know it, and expected to adhere to it," he told Channel 3 in a phone interview.

Channel 3 took a copy of the code of conduct when we paid a visit to Judge Brian House's home to ask about the signs.

He changed his story three times.

"I didn't put it there," said House, standing on his front porch Monday.

"I guess Mr. Caldwell did, I didn't put the sign up," he said, when asked who placed the sign on his property line.

"I have no idea who put it up there," House then said when asked if he believed Michael Caldwell would take responsibility for the sign's placement.

House then told us the sign was on his neighbor's property.

"I didn't put it there, I assumed Anthony put it there," he said.

Channel 3 talked to Judge House's neighbor, who tells us the sign is not his. He says it belongs to Judge House, and House didn't ask before placing it on the property line.

Granted, this is penny-ante stuff compared to the massive misconduct that "judge" House committed during the Craft trial and his actions that observers have told me occur in other judicial proceedings. In fact, I would say that one would need no more proof than this to declare that the JQC approaches issues in the same manner of which Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing when he told them that they will "strain out a gnat and swallow a camel."

Nonetheless, like Al Capone going down on tax evasion, I would say that anything which calls attention to the fundamental dishonesty and utter lack of integrity that characterizes Brian House is a good thing. Thus, in honor of this latest caper, I would like to present a new symbol for the "judge's" campaign, complete with inside decor:

An Open Letter to "Judge" Brian House, Part II

Well, "judge," I see that you have a new Facebook page, this one dedicated to your re-election. Since no one of which I know is running against you, I guess that makes your re-election about as certain as the "re-election" of Kim Il-Sung back in his day. Perhaps that is fitting, since your view of "justice" is about the same as that of a North Korean dictator.

Your "house" logo with all of your qualifications is cute. No doubt, your membership at Peavine Babdist (as we Southerners pronounce "Baptist") Church goes far and I am sure that the church is proud to have a judge, even a corrupt judge like you, and I am sure that the members of that church all sympathized with you when jurors two years ago acquitted Tonya Craft and then told the media that your obviously being in bed with the prosecutors was one of the reasons for their decision.

However, somehow I doubt that your preacher ever has done a sermon on Matthew 23 with you in the congregation, as it might hit too close to home. Yes, when Jesus accuses the pharisees of being like "whitewashed tombs," he might as well be referring to you and the other judges in the LMJC who parade about in their robes, have the bailiffs give the "Oh, yea" announcement, and enter the courts with the fanfare they don't deserve.

You see, "judge," you really are like one of those whitewashed tombs who is full of "hypocrisy and lawlessness" of which Jesus spoke. You regularly break the very rules that the State of Georgia has set for judges, and you don't even try to hide your actions. You claim to be independent, and then do little more than sit in your chair and perform your duties as Buzz's sock puppet.

And don't tell me that isn't true. People see what is happening and they let me know. No, I doubt you accept money under the table, but corruption isn't necessarily about being bought off. No, corruption is the presence of pre-determined outcomes that are presented as the outcomes that happen after there has been careful deliberation.

As I see it, instead of a house for the campaign symbol, you need to show the clean, white exterior of an ancient tomb, like I am showing below:

And, in order to provide truth-in-campaigning, I think the photo below gives the perfect touch:

Furthermore, you might want the following bullet points to go along with all of those wonderful things you put in your "house" logo:

• Speaks with prosecution witnesses before they testify without notifying the defense, which is a violation of the law and a violation of the judicial ethics that govern judges in the State of Georgia;
• Allows the prosecution to introduce knowingly (and obviously) fabricated "evidence" during a trial in order to fill holes in the case;
• Permits prosecutors to engage in disruptive and obnoxious behavior during trials, another breach of judicial ethics;
• Permits the admission of obvious perjury during a trial, including the admission of "I just remembered" testimony from a prosecution witness already proven to be a liar;
• Makes disparaging statements about the defendant and defendant's attorneys during a trial to others in the courtroom, which also is a violation of judicial ethics;
• Has secret (and even not-so-secret) ex parte meetings with prosecutors before and during a trial without notifying the defense, a violation of judicial ethics and an obvious attempt to work closely with prosecutors to rig a trial;
• Permits and even encourages prosecutorial intimidation of defense witnesses in breach of judicial ethics rules;
• Allows for the admission of obviously-false "jailhouse snitch" testimony in court despite the legal prohibition against testimony that knowingly is perjured;
• Orders bailiffs to seize cell phones and computers from people who say they favor the defendant, but permits supporters of the prosecution to have such things;
• Orders security checks for supporters of the defendant, including defense witnesses, but permits prosecution witnesses to enter the courtroom in another entrance without security, and then provides a room for them where they can have laptop computers and cellphones.

This list is partial, and only partial, but it speaks to your corrupt handling of the courtroom and the fundamental dishonesty that is the basis for everything you do. Yet, as I look at the Facebook page, I see "friends" who apparently love corruption.

There is Vickie Scoggins, a belch from a bad onion if ever there were such. (God help that poor horse she is riding in the picture. Enough said.) Scoggins was the "brains" behind the bogus Higgenbottom prosecution in which Alan Norton planned to use testimony from a "snitch" that he knew was outright perjury. Unfortunately for Norton, Scoggins, and you, "judge" House, the defense managed to find a letter that the snitch had written to Higgenbottom claiming that he knew the man was innocent.

Hmmm. You were preparing to put a man on trial knowing that the very "witness" against him already had put into writing that Higgenbottom was innocent. (Mr. Snitch changed his mind, apparently, when the prosecution offered him a nice deal of reduced time, something I am sure that you, "judge" House, knew about.)

As I noted before, I don't think you will have opposition and I'm sure that the good folks at Peavine Babdist and Oakwood Babdist will turn out in droves to vote you another term of corruption on the bench. And I guess a check of the pew Bibles there will find that the pages containing Matthew 23 and similar passages in the Bible have been torn out.

Channel 3, which provided the best coverage of the Tonya Craft case and trial (as opposed to Channel 9, which kissed the posteriors of Chris Arnt, Len Gregor, Tim Deal, Brian House, Sandra Lamb, and Joal Henke and called it "news"), has run an interview with Tonya on the second anniversary of the "not guilty" verdict against her.

As Tonya notes so well, the people who broke the law, committed perjury, and Brian House, who tried to rig the trial, have not been held accountable. Sandra Lamb has enrolled her daughter at Girls Preparatory School, which places every teacher there in danger, given that Lamb and her actress child have no scruples against lying when someone makes them mad.

Joal Henke committed perjury in Judge Marie Williams' court and Hamilton County DA Bill Cox ignored the felony committed in the building where he works. Henke also admited under oath to mortgage fraud, but apparently the U.S. attorney in Chattanooga was too busy pursuing non-crimes to deal with a felon in his midst.

As I see it, the Tonya Craft case presents a perfect picture of "justice" in Northwest Georgia and Hamilton County. The authorities there will move heaven and earth to pursue false charges and to prop up lies and even suborn perjury, but apparently they are incapable of actually going against people who commit real crimes.

By the way, I noticed that that alleged rape at East Ridge Middle School was a hoax, and that was what I thought when I first read the article. Notice that the rape crisis center along with Child Protective Services AND the police were involved. And how much does one wish to bet that the people at the rape crisis center and CPS believed the girl from the beginning?

What we have is a system out of control. Government agencies are full of people who will believe lie after lie and pursue the innocent. It does not just happen in the Chattanooga area, but from what I can tell, Northwest Georgia and Hamilton County are pretty hopeless when it comes to "justice."

Justice for James? Certainly not in the LMJC or Hamilton County

Honest and decent people do live in the United States, but they no longer work in the "justice" system. Instead, we are seeing a system that is populated with liars, criminals, bullies, and people who have no place in a decent society.

If there is any place in the USSA where that especially is true, it is in the heavily-churched and supposedly "Christian" area of Northwest Georgia, the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. On Sundays, many of the players in the LMJC go to church and sing about Jesus, and then the rest of the week, they worship their real god, the Devil.

Why do I wrote so graphically? Let me quote Jesus (whom Brian House and Tim Deal claim to worship) who told the Pharisees in John 8:44:

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (ESV)

 Deal has lied under oath and at least on one occasion, fabricated a document in which he claimed to be somewhere where he was not. House has lied about his ex parte meetings with prosecutors and went along with Chris Arnt when Arnt openly lied to jurors in the closing arguments of the Tonya Craft trial. In other words, both of these men, along with prosecutors like Arnt, Len Gregor, and Alan Norton are all about lies, and according to the Jesus these men claim to follow, Jesus said that people who lie (and lie consistently) have Satan as their father.

All of this leads me to the present situation of James Combs, who agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor in House's court because, to be frank, he could not trust House to run a fair trial, Norton and Deal to tell the truth, and a Catoosa County jury to listen to evidence. That is a damning indictment upon the people of Catoosa County and Northwest Georgia, who have put these people into power.

From what I have been hearing, Deal and Norton have tried to get James listed as a "sex offender" in Tennessee (where he lives and will be under probationary supervision) even though the misdemeanor to which he pleaded guilty does not carry the "sex offender" label. Nonetheless, dishonesty rules not only in Catoosa County and the LMJC, but also in Hamilton County, home of gang warfare, brutal (and dishonest) cops, and prosecutors who look the other way when felonies are committed in front of them.

From what I also understand, local cops are constantly harassing the Combs family. What can I say except that this kind of behavior from those who wear the blue costumes can be expected.

When Joal Henke testified in October 2010 in Hamilton County Circuit Court (Judge Marie Williams), he committed perjury and then admitted to having committed mortgage fraud, which is a federal offense. In fact, today, I just signed a paper in which I acknowledged that mortgage fraud is a felony punishable up to 30 years in prison.

So, Henke committed two felonies in Hamilton County, one a state crime and the other federal. But does Bill Cox or the local U.S. attorney care? Well, of course not! Why pursue criminals when one can harass and imprison innocent people?

If people wonder why I am so cynical about Chattanooga and North Georgia, all I can say is to look at the liars and thugs that inhabit "law enforcement" and "justice." I continue to wonder if there are any decent people left in public life in my old hometown, but I am having my doubts.

Brian House: Sock puppet for the prosecution

Reading comments on my last post, I was not surprised to see someone describe Brian House's courtroom demeanor. The descriptions given me by others who have watched this disgrace of a public official matched the latest I read and tells me that House really is not fit to be a judge.

House, it seems, takes all of his cues and direction from prosecutors, and especially Chris Arnt. What Arnt tells him to do, he does, period, which proves that Brian House is nothing more than the sock puppet for Buzz Franklin and his outlaw gang. That is pathetic, but Brian House is pathetic and is a pathetic excuse for a judge.

Wait a minute! Should I not be showing respect at least for the office? House may be incompetent and even craven, but should judges not receive respect?

My answer is this: Brian House does not respect his office and his place in the "justice" system, so why should I respect House or his office? Each day House purposely seeks to make a mockery of justice, knowing that even if he helps the prosecution frame innocent people, it will be years before the guilty verdict is overturned -- if it is overturned at all. (The Georgia Supreme Court and its appeals allies are notorious for twisting the law to fit whatever prosecutors in that state want.)

When a man or woman puts on the black robes of a judge, that person is under obligation not only from the people but also from God Almighty to do right, not to be a lying prosecutor's sock puppet or ventriloquist's dummy. When the Bible says that "to whom much is given, much is expected," it means just that. Much is expected from House, and he gives very little except what Buzz tells him to give.

He will answer one day for what he is doing, but in the meantime, one hopes he answers to the voters this year. However, I have my doubts that voters in the LMJC even care, and if they return this slice of refuse to the judge's bench, they will get the justice that they deserve -- none.

Way to go, Norton; you "won" a "victory"

The Times-Free Press today is reporting that James Combs has given a guilty plea of "cruelty to children" in exchange for the office of Mr. Perjury (Buzz Franklin) dropping charges against Mr. Combs of "child molestation." James will serve no time and will be on probation for six years.

The article is self-explanatory and I won't add anything to it except to say that it is utterly clear to anyone (besides officers of Perjury Central, LMJC) that Tim "Dirty" Deal manipulated the boys in the taped interviews to make the accusations against Mr. Combs. Dr. Nancy Aldridge, one of the world's best experts in questioning children about molestation and sexual abuse, was going to testify for the defense that Dirty's questioning was coercive and misleading.

That is not how Alan "I Sold My Soul" Norton puts it. According to the TFP, he claims to "believe the children," but did not want to put them through any more trauma. That is rich; the LMJC coached Sandra Lamb's daughter, the McDonald girl, and Tonya Craft's daughter and had no problem with having them lie on the stand.

No, Norton was able to play on Mr. Comb's real fears that he was walking into a courtroom where none other than Brian House sat as a judge (although the man at best is qualified to change sheets at a roach motel). Knowing House's penchant for trying to rig a trial, Mr. Combs decided not to risk the lies and abuse that surely would follow. I can understand what he did, and I believe fully in his innocence.

Keep in mind that Norton was going to claim that almost as soon as Mr. Combs walked into the classroom as a substitute teacher almost two years ago, he openly began molesting children. Right. And, no, the kids did not get the story straight, but stuff like that does not matter when Mr. Perjury is the DA.

I wish the Combs family well, and I wish nothing but ill for Alan Norton and his career as a professional liar. The LMJC is nothing but a cesspool, a repository for liars, sex perverts, and outright criminals wearing suits, blue costumes, and judges' robes. But, as long as voters in Northwest Georgia are happy with the status quo, nothing is going to change.

So, I guess Norton has "made his bones." Given that the LMJC makes the worst Third World dictatorships look good, I guess it is not hard to win "the big one."

An open letter to Alan Norton

This week, the child molestation trial of James Combs is set to begin in Catoosa County, and if what I have seen of the interviews that Tim "Dirty" Deal did with the accusing children, we have another farce on the dishonesty magnitude of Tonya Craft. If there is anything we CAN know before the trial begins, it is that Combs is innocent of the charges and that if you, Mr. Alan Norton, prosecute this case, you will have to suborn perjury to do it.

So, I ask you, sir, the following question: Is it worth it to sell your soul in order to follow Buzz Franklin's orders? Before I go into the Combs case, let me remind you that Buzz already demanded that you suborn perjury in the failed Higgenbottom case in which you were supposed to depend upon a "jailhouse snitch" that you knew from the start was lying.

Do you remember Eric Echols? Yes, you were supposed to lead that trial, too, and you had video evidence of his being assaulted by "Mommie Dearest" Sandra Lamb, who called him a "black bastard" on camera. Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, you were going to try him for felonies you knew he had not committed.

Mr. Norton, what is it about the LMJC that leads someone to sell his soul? What is it about the influence of Buzz Franklin and Chris Arnt and Len Gregor and Tim Deal and Phil Summers and Brian House that would lead a man to knowingly suborn perjured testimony?

I have no idea of you believe in God, Mr. Norton, but prosecutors who lie to juries and coach witnesses to lie are not going to be entering the Pearly Gates, sir. I hate to tell you, but the Georgia State Bar does not control the entry roster for Heaven, and while they have your back in Atlanta when it comes to committing felonies while acting as an officer of the court, God is not particularly impressed with the state of "justice" in Georgia and is likely to mete out some justice of His own.

Is it really worth it to work for these people, sir? I can tell you that they would sell you down the river with smiles on their faces if they thought they could get away with it. I also know enough about one of your LMJC colleagues to know that you don't want to leave him alone with either your wife or your daughter (should you have either or both). True, those who are employed by the LMJC are permitted to commit sexual assault and worse and not face any prosecution or even arrest, but nonetheless I doubt you would be much pleased if one of those LMJC employees were to do such a number on one of your family members.

You really do have a choice; you can get out, resign, leave the LMJC altogether. I have no idea if you have a conscience or even one shred of decency in you, but if the answer to either is "yes," then you cannot afford to stay a minute longer in that employ unless you want your final dwelling place to be Hell itself.

Even if you have a conscience, the people who are your LMJC colleagues do not. When Len Gregor managed to bamboozle a jury to convict Brad Wade -- whom all of you know was and is innocent of the charges against him -- do you think the man lost a minute of sleep? When Chris Arnt, Gregor, and House were having secret (and illegal) meetings to plan how they would try to railroad Tonya Craft into prison, do you think any of them were concerned that they were breaking the law and engaging in the worst kind of unethical conduct?

When Arnt lied to jurors in the Tonya Craft closing arguments in which he made an open and obvious dishonest statement about the testimony of Dr. Nancy Fajman, do you think it bothered him even a whit that he was lying? When Brian House desperately was trying to keep Craft's lawyers at bay by granting 90 percent of the prosecution's objections during the trial, do you think he worried that maybe the appellate courts would criticize him?

Let me be honest (since no one else in the LMJC seems to want to tell the truth). You can work in this job for a long as you want, and you can lie, coach others to lie under oath, help convict innocent people, and generally live a life of crime, and nothing will happen to you. That's right, nothing. No one from the State of Georgia will intervene, and the U.S. Department of Justice will whistle right past you, no matter how egregious your conduct.

But if you stay in that office as a prosecutor, you will be selling your soul and destroying whatever conscience you might have, and a man without a conscience is nothing more than a psychopath. I hate to say it, but you already work with sociopaths and their influence upon you only can make things worse.

Let me ask you this question: If you had a relative or loved one on trial, would you want to see Chris Arnt and the prosecutor, Brian House in the judge's seat, and Tim Deal testifying on the stand? Could you trust any of them? If the answer to any of these questions is "no," then you also have to understand that every day you work among these people brings you one step closer to Hell.

Yes, leaving a job and one's home is difficult, especially in this time of an uncertain economy. Having to earn a living as a private attorney can be unsettling and there is no guarantee of a regular paycheck as there is when you are in Buzz's employ.

However, if you continue to stay, you will be destroyed from within. You will have to sell your soul and one day the Devil himself will come to collect.

It is too late for Arnt, Gregor, Buzz, Deal, and House. They are beyond hope and beyond redemption. Pharaoh after the Ninth Plague had a softer heart than do these men. I hope it is not too later for you, but you need to ask yourself if you spent all of those tough years in law school so that you could take orders from some of the most unethical and dishonest people on this planet.

Gregor once wrote on a blog that he went to law school so that he could be a prosecutor and be (in his words) "the man." I have no idea if the guy is a "man" at all; I do know he is a bully, a coward, and a liar, and while he apparently thought his bombast and bullying during the Craft trial was impressing the jurors, it turned out that they thought he was a bully and a creep.

Why would you work with someone like that? You don't have to do it, and you do not have to hang around so that you can share a condo in Hell with "the man."

Indeed, if you resign and leave the employ of the LMJC, you really will be a man because you will have done something that people like Buzz, Gregor, Deal, House, and Arnt are not capable of doing: engage in an act of real integrity.

Virginia DA sets example for Franklin, Arnt, Gregor, and Norton: He resigns

Every once in a while, water flows uphill, Hell freezes over, and the Falcons make it to the Super Bowl. Yes, a prosecutor in Virginia resigned after a federal judge overturned a murder conviction his office won by using the ubiquitous "jailhouse snitch" for "key testimony."

There really is nothing more insidious in a court of law than a prosecutor using testimony that he or she knows is perjured. Granted, this is something that prosecutors in the LMJC use all the time, which is why I believe they are utterly despicable people.

During Tonya Craft's trial, Chris Arnt suborned perjury right and left, with the crowning act being the subornation of Joal Henke's "I just remembered" claim that Tonya and Jennifer Sullivan had engaged in sexual acts together. Interestingly, Judge Brian House would not permit Sullivan to appear as a defense witness in order to deny the allegations. (House was trying to rig the proceedings, and I guess he figured that one more lie would not hurt anything.)

Likewise, Alan Norton was going to use a "jailhouse snitch" in trying to get a wrongful conviction against Dale Higgenbottom, only to find out that the "snitch" had written a letter contradicting everything Norton was going to have him say on the stand. You see, once Norton realized that such a letter existed and once House realized that he could not keep that letter from being entered as evidence without placing his own judgeship in danger, Norton had no choice but to drop the charges.

Now, was Norton aware that his beloved "snitch" had made such comments? Probably, but there just is something about the printed word that will put the fear of God into someone who is trying to pretend such words don't exist.

I know nothing about Gary Close, the prosecutor who resigned, but at least the man is stepping down after being excoriated by a judge. However, in the LMJC, which makes the worst Third World "justice" systems look good by comparison, judges and prosecutors are incapable of shame and even when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they scream, shout, and claim that there isn't a cookie jar in sight.

The LMJC Perjury Machine

It supposedly is a crime in the State of Georgia for a prosecutor to knowingly suborn perjured testimony, but laws don't matter in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, especially when one it its prosecutors is committing the crime. And while the latest news from the LMJC -- that Buzz Franklin's office is dropping charges against Dale Higgenbottom for an alleged 19-year-old murder.

I never thought the charges made sense, but the kicker is seen in the following paragraph:

Prosecutors' key witness was William Morgan, an inmate who had told investigators that Higgenbottom had confessed to the murder while in jail. But the evidence filed in court on Feb. 28 showed Morgan had written a letter to Higgenbottom's family in 2007, saying he could "clear [Higgenbottom] of the [murder] charges" if they would pay his bail money to free him from jail.

Understand that Morgan was going to give the classic "jailhouse snitch" testimony, and I can guarantee you -- gurantee you -- that Higgenbottom never "confessed" anything to Morgan. What was going on was that Morgan was playing the "jumping on the bus" game in which he was offered something if he gave the testimony that prosecutor Alan Norton wanted to hear.

Now, Norton was slick enough to know that the letter utterly discredited his beloved witness and he was not stupid enough to put Morgan on the stand, where he would have been shredded on cross-examination. Wrote Norton:

"If the letters had come to light prior to the indictment in this case, it is unlikely this case would have been presented to the Catoosa County grand jury."

And Buzz followed with:

"Clearly, we couldn't rely on his credibility."

Uh, no sh*t, Sherlock.

Here is the problem, dear readers. Norton and Franklin knew all along that Morgan was unreliable and that his testimony would be total perjury, but until they saw the letter, they figured that a jury just might believe him. Unfortunately, that was not the only aspect of the prosecution that was questionable, but it clearly was the most illegal.

Morgan was someone whose testimony was for sale, and throughout the country, prosecutors every day use the proverbial "jailhouse snitch" to gain wrongful convictions. While I cannot vouch for the details of what happened in Catoosa County, I can tell readers what often happens.

Police put someone in a cell with a person who just has been arrested (and the police don't have any good evidence but want SOMETHING). The "snitch" has been fed details of the crime (or alleged crime), details that only someone close to the action can know.

In return for either money or a reduced sentence, the "snitch" then testifies that the accused "confessed" the crime to him in great detail. The noted attorney Harvey Silverglate told me that when one of his clients is arrested, he tries to get him out of jail immediately because of the "jailhouse snitch" problem.

I don't know if this happened in the Higgenbottom case, but I can tell you that the whole thing reeks of it. I have my doubts that Morgan is regarded as truthful by anyone, and especially the LMJC officers of the court. However, a guy like Morgan is USEFUL because he can deliver goods for prosecutors who might have no evidence or, worse, actually have someone charged who is innocent.

Norton and Franklin knew exactly what they had in Morgan. I don't know the details of the letter, but I cannot imagine that they were unaware of it before going to the grand jury. Maybe they were and maybe they really believed Higgenbottom murdered a baby, but when they have to rely on forensic evidence that conveniently was changed along with a "jailhouse snitch," one has to wonder if these people have any integrity at all.

The LMJC and the Culture of Legal Corruption

When my family moved to Lookout Mountain in 1964, I must admit that parts of the region known as Northwest Georgia were reminiscent of places I have seen in Third World countries. Until moving there, I never had seen tarpaper shacks, children at school with what seemed to be permanently dirty faces, and general, grinding poverty.

Much has changed in that region since then. While there still are poor people, the poverty I saw hardly is widespread anymore, and in many ways, the region can be a pleasant place in which to live. Unfortunately, its legal climate is still stuck in 1964, a time when it was de facto legal in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit for a white man to murder a black man.

My father brought us down to the LMJC when Covenant College moved from St. Louis to the old Castle in the Clouds, and at Covenant, which is located in Dade County, black students were told in no uncertain terms that they were NOT to be seen walking south of the college's property, and especially along Highway 157. In fact, over the years, a number of black students did receive death threats from the good people residing in the LMJC, but no one was killed. I'm sure that had someone killed one of Covenant's black students, he would not have been charged or prosecuted.

This was a time when the Dade County portion of Sand Mountain had a sign that declared: "N*gger, don't let the sun set on you here." The people there meant every word, and I still would caution any black person from venturing up there without an armed escort. That was the kind of place the LMJC was then, and while I don't see the same overt racism that once characterized the place, the area's "justice" system is racist, as Len Gregor proved during the Tonya Craft trial, when he lied to jurors, telling them that Ms. Craft has slept with a black man.

Now, for the most part, I do consider many of the people living in the LMJC to be honest, or at least decently honest. Unfortunately, they put up with a culture of corruption that exists with police, prosecutors, and, yes, judges.

To be fair, the LMJC hardly stands alone. My friends from Texas tell me horror tales of Williamson County police, courts, and prosecutors, and K.C. Johnson has a great post on his blog about the legal corruption that permeates Durham County, North Carolina. Interestingly, in many ways, the corruption of the LMCJ and Durham County seems to be similar.

What makes this point even more interesting is that demographically and politically, the two places hardly could be more different. The LMJC is overwhelmingly white and politically conservative. The most prominent college in that district, Covenant College, is both theologically and socially conservative. The region abounds with "Bible-believing" churches and I would venture to say that a large portion of the population claims to be "saved."

Durham County, on the other hand, is dominated by the hard left, including a coalition of blacks and activists associated with Duke University. Duke would be the antithesis of Covenant, its student body dominated by "hookup" culture, and the university does everything it can to promote gratuitous sex by handing out condoms everywhere and promoting disgusting things like the "Sex Workers Show" on campus. The university there is not "liberal" by any means; no, it is hard left, and though it is tied to the United Methodist Church, the university itself is virulently hostile to anything that might smack of Christianity.

Yet, when it comes to issues of justice, these communities are mirror images of each other. Durham was made infamous by its attempt to railroad three Duke University lacrosse players into prison for allegedly raping a black stripper, Crystal Mangum. As the case wore on, it became clear that the prosecutor, Michael Nifong, was lying and hiding exculpatory evidence, even while he rode the case to electoral victory, as the black voters of that county demanded a trial (and one person told Newsweek that it did not matter if the players were guilty, as they should be convicted solely because they were white).

The North Carolina State Bar intervened, and ultimately the charges were investigated by special prosecutors employed by North Carolina's attorney general. After a thorough investigation, the AG declared the players to be "innocent" and told the media that Nifong was a "rogue prosecutor." Later in 2007, the State Bar stripped Nifong of his law license, and he was removed as Durham County's AD.

Just five years later, Nifong's successor, Tracey Cline, a black woman who was second chair in the lacrosse case (and who lied about her involvement in it -- lying is part of the legal culture in that county), was removed from her office because of inflammatory statements she made in publicly attacking the senior judge in that county. (The judge also is black.) So, twice in five years, Durham County has seen its top prosecutors removed forcibly from office for misconduct.

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So, why would I compare the LMJC to Durham, despite all of its cultural and racial differences? Like Durham, the prosecutors in the LMJC have a sorry history of withholding evidence and fabricating documents. Unlike Durham, there is no state bar and apparently no judicial or legal apparatus at all in the State of Georgia that effectively deals with prosecutorial misconduct.

However, like Durham, the LMJC has a policy of taking sex cases to trial no matter what the evidence might be. And like Durham, prosecutors in the LMJC always take the side of an accuser in a sex crime, no matter how specious the evidence actually might be, and like Nifong, LMJC prosecutors, once they latch onto a sex case, take a "win at all costs" mentality that throws justice out the window.

It was not just the Craft case. Brad Wade sits in prison and the case that Len Gregor brought against him was so dishonest and so bogus that it is hard to believe he was convicted of child molestation. The reason is one more strike against the LMJC: defense attorneys in that district know that their job is to offer up defendants to the altar of conviction.

Now, when someone is charged with a crime in the LMJC, that person faces a terrible dilemma: hire a local attorney (which prosecutors and judges prefer) and automatically get convicted, or hire someone outside the LMJC who will be roundly attacked by prosecutors, sneered at by judges, yet might be willing to put up a real defense. In the Craft case, prosecutors Chris Arnt and Len Gregor routinely launched verbal attacks against Tonya's defense team, made snide remarks, tried to disrupt defense attorneys while they were questioning witnesses, yet "judge" Brian House not only ignored the misconduct of the prosecutors, but actually teamed up with them in an attempt to rig a conviction.

(While I know there are some attorneys in the LMJC who have integrity, nonetheless the judges and Buzz Franklin and his minions have made it absolutely clear that an aggressive defense is not permitted -- even while prosecutors are permitted to run wild. The one exception is Bobby Lee Cook, who is permitted to win once in a while.)

The jurors in the Craft case did something that neither House nor the prosecutors ever could imagine them doing: demonstrate integrity. The shocked, ashen look on House's face when the verdict was being read spoke volumes to the integrity or the lack thereof of the people in the LMJC who are in positions of authority.

You see, if there is one thing that I believe characterizes the LMJC is the belief of the principals in that district who really seem to believe that they ARE the law, and that they are entitled to do whatever they damn well please. Anyone who followed the Duke Lacrosse Case can attest to the arrogance of prosecutor Mike Nifong and everyone else in the Durham "justice" system. Like Buzz Franklin, Arnt and Gregor, Nifong knew that his authority alone could force a bogus case to trial, and he also believed that a Durham jury would be craven enough to convict the players despite the fact that Nifong had no evidence -- and he knew he had no evidence, which is why he continuously lied to judges throughout the proceedings.

Likewise, House teamed with Arnt, Gregor, and Tim Deal not only to help Deal commit a felony (fabricating a document during the trial in order to fill a huge hole in the evidence), but also meeting secretly with the prosecutors in order to further their strategy. Observers at the hearings before the trial began told me that House was utterly hostile to ANY attorney for Craft that did not come from the LMJC and that he routinely and automatically ruled against the defense no matter how ridiculous the prosecution's position might have been.

The trial itself was a farce, but the difference -- and this was a huge difference -- was that the jurors did not take the bait from House and the prosecutors and act in a hostile manner toward the defense. House, Arnt, and Gregor believed that the jurors automatically would discount EVERYTHING the defense did because neither they nor their expert witnesses were from the LMJC, but that is not what happened. Instead, the jurors acted like people who wanted to do justice, and did not act like House, Arnt, and Gregor.

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All of this raises a question as to why this kind of legal corruption exists in the LMJC. Why are police and prosecutors permitted to literally commit felonies in broad daylight, yet nothing is done? Why the silence from the media and the other gatekeepers, and especially the churches and the largest and most influential "gatekeeper" in the LMJC, Covenant College?

Other than one pastor, no one in a position of influence has spoken out about the massive lawbreaking, lying, and misconduct that has become the very trademark of the LMJC. During the Craft trial, no one from Covenant demonstrated a whit of concern as to what was happening, and at least one administrator there is friends with Holly Kittle, who to me represents everything that is wrong with the LMJC.

(Covenant says that it is "reclaiming the world for Jesus Christ," but the one part of the world that matters -- its own backyard -- apparently is off-limits when it comes to "reclaiming" for Christ. As I see it, the people there believe that legal trouble is for "other people," and if by chance someone from Covenant were to be falsely accused, most likely the administration and faculty there would do what evangelical Christians usually seem to do when one of their own is in crisis: shoot their wounded and move along.)

In the end, we see small, dishonest people gaining enormous amounts of power and authority, and they use it like a club against the innocent. Tonya Craft, Brad Wade, and James Combs can tell you that when it comes to dishonesty, no one does it better than the police, judges and prosecutors of the LMJC. Perhaps in my lifetime, someone, somewhere in a position of authority in Northwest Georgia will do what is right, but I have my doubts.

Will Buzz prosecute REAL child molesters? Probably not.

The LMJC is a study in the worst kind of "justice" there is: the innocent are prosecuted and convicted, while people who obviously are guilty get a free pass. We see yet another example in the following story in which a Catoosa County deputy was fired for having a "relationship" with an underage female:

A Catoosa County deputy has been fired for having relations with a juvenile girl.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the matter, did not return phone calls seeking more information.

District attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin said the deputy had a relationship with a juvenile female.

"Subsequent to the completion of the investigation the case ... a decision will be made as to whether or not charges will be filed," the district attorney said. "(GBI) special agent James Harris is the case agent for the investigation."

“Deputy Stephen Crossen was terminated yesterday for violating departmental policy,” sheriff Phil Summers said in a news release Thursday. “Mr. Crossen has been employed by the Sheriff’s Office for approximately 5½ years.

Well, it sounds serious, right? Except read the following line:

“Apparently misinformation has been provided to news sources and I felt it was important to correct this information,” the sheriff said. “Mr. Crossen was not arrested and to my knowledge, an arrest is not imminent."

There you have it, folks. A deputy in the LMJC engages in the very least a technical form of "child molestation" and who knows what else, and there is no arrest, nothing. To be honest, I am even surprised the Sheriff Phil Summers fired him, given that one of his employees, Det. Tim Deal, fabricated a document during a trial, something that everyone, including Summers, knew was happening.

During the Tonya Craft trial, lawbreaking at every official level occurred, and now we see official lawbreaking continuing. Yet, if you are in the "right" group in the LMJC, you can break the law and get away with it. And this is not the first time a deputy in the LMJC has been able to get away with acts that result in prison for those not wearing the proper LMJC costumes.

So, my advice to men who have a fetish for young girls is that they first get hired in the LMJC, and then what previously was against the law suddenly will become legal. That is the law in Northwest Georgia, unfortunately.

The lawless LMJC

Two years ago this blog went all-out during the Tonya Craft trial and aftermath because it was clear that cops like Tim Deal, prosecutors like Buzz Franklin, Chris Arnt, and Len Gregor, along with "judge" brian outhouse were knowingly trying to railroad an innocent person into prison. The not-guilty verdict and jurors' comments afterward about the outright crookedness of that trial apparently have had no effect on the LMJC crowd except to make them even more determined to get away with lawlessness.

Today, it is Joe Mowish, who has been arrested again on "gambling" charges when, in fact, that Franklin knows that Mowish's activities are legal. This is not a situation of a prosecutor and police misreading the law or misunderstanding it. No, this is a pure power play that is illegal and in a place where the law was respected would lead to disbarment of Buzz Franklin and his staff.

Because the Georgia State Bar does not consider prosecutorial misconduct to be something worth investigating, any actions to deal with the dishonesty and outright lawbreaking of Franklin, outhouse, and Deal are going to have to come from the citizens at large. That means that jurors should be hyper-careful when prosecutors lie, when Deal and others in "law enforcement" testify, and when people like outhouse make outrageous ruling.

There are a number of cases in the LMJC that have come to my attention and I will be looking into them. From what I can see, as long as the people who live in Dade, Chattooga, Walker, and Catoosa counties are happy with the kind of people who are in public office, we also can expect the kind of dishonest and illegal behavior we saw with the Craft case and everything else that these people foist upon the innocent.

Why do things like this make me suspicious?

A recent death at the Dade County Jail, ostensibly by suicide, is one of those things that makes me suspicious. According to the Times-Free Press:

A Dade County, Ga., inmate was found dead in his cell 14 minutes after being jailed for driving under the influence of alcohol, authorities said.

A detention officer found Joseph Cochran, 29, dead at 4:40 Tuesday morning, Sheriff Patrick Cannon said. Authorities believe Cochran used his thermal underwear to hang himself, Cannon said.

Cochran had been arrested earlier in the morning and charged with DUI. He was in the holding cell when he was found, Cannon said.

“It’s a sad situation,” the sheriff said.

At least that is the story readers are told. And maybe it is true. Perhaps Cochran was so depressed about many things, including his arrest, that he just snapped and killed himself. We never will know.

Yet, this is Dade County, the place where Brad Wade was convicted after what essentially was a crooked trial in which Len "The Man" Gregor withheld evidence, lied to jurors, suborned perjury and gave the world a look at how he later would act in the Tonya Craft trial, which was just as crooked. This is Dade County, where "judge" brian outhouse resides in the judge's chair, and his exploits of operating his office outside of the bounds of the law already have been laid out in this blog.

Again, maybe the story that Dade County officials are telling is the truth and things transpired just as they claim. However, given that the "law enforcement" mechanism in that county -- and in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit in general -- operates almost completely outside the law, I reserve the right to be skeptical, very skeptical.

New evidence for murder? Why do I have my doubts?

It seems as though the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit is gearing up for yet another trial in which prosecutors try to "prove" what they cannot prove honestly. They did it with Tonya Craft in 2010, they want to do it with James Combs, and now Dale Higgenbottom is in the dock.

The December 11 story in the Times-Free Press lays out the actual case in which Catoosa County authorities now are claiming that Higgenbottom murdered an infant named Christopher Breazeale in 1992. While I cannot claim to know if the charges are true, nonetheless the fact that Buzz Franklin's office is bringing them without revealing any new evidence is beyond troubling.

The first question I have, however, is this: Why does Vickie Scoggins have any say in this at all? This is the same Vickie Scoggins who swore up and down that the charges against Tonya Craft absolutely were true, the same Vickie Scoggins who worked closely with prosecutors Chris Arnt and Len Gregor and helped them to suborn perjury and went along with their lies.

Given the reprehensible and utterly dishonest conduct of Franklin's office all during the Craft case -- from before and during the trial -- one should question ANYTHING that these people do. Arnt could not even keep himself from lying to jurors in closing arguments, telling the Craft jury that Dr. Nancy Fajman had diagnosed injuries to one of the girls that had been caused by sexual abuse.

That Dr. Fajman had said exactly the opposite -- something that Arnt knew -- should tell us what we need to know about Buzz Franklin and people who work for him. Arnt and Gregor should have been disbarred for what they did during that trial and criminal charges filed against both of them. However, given that the "justice" system in the State of Georgia is run by, well, criminals, I guess that the Criminals In Charge decided to let criminal activity of their own get a free pass out of professional courtesy.

Now, neither Arnt nor Gregor will be prosecuting the Higgenbottom case. No, that has fallen to Alan Norton, who also is prosecuting the bogus case against James Combs. Because Norton works for Franklin and because he was the prosecutor against Eric Echols in which Norton was prepared to lie to jurors about what actually had occurred when Mr. Echols delivered some court papers to Sandra "Mommie Dearest" Lamb, I am not prepared to give him any benefit of the doubt. Which leads to my second question: Just what is this "new evidence" that Norton claims to have?

Let us keep some things in perspective here. First, "new evidence" with Franklin's people generally consists of those things the ancients once called lies. Remember the "new evidence" that Joal and Sarah Henke brought to the Craft trial? Yeah, both of them "just remembered" stuff that was 180 degrees from testimony they had given under oath a year before.

Gregor and Arnt were quick to use this "I just remembered" and "judge" brian outhouse was quick to give it his stamp of approval, even though all of them knew that the Henkes were lying. Observers in the courtroom were able to witness Arnt, Gregor, and outhouse commit a number of felonies by their bringing in the Henkes and their transparently dishonest testimony. Yes, suborning perjury in Georgia is a crime, although the authorities don't pursue it because if they did, there would be no prosecutors left to bring cases to trial in Georgia. Furthermore, because Gregor, Arnt, and outhouse had a number of illegal secret meetings before and during the trial to plan strategy, they participated in criminal conspiracy.

From what I can tell, Norton is going to have to fabricate something in the Higgenbottom case or suborn perjury. However, given that he works with Arnt and Gregor, I am sure that they have given him plenty of pointers on how to lie and break the law -- and not indict himself. According to the article in the TFP:

Alan Norton, a prosecutor from the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, said prosecutors are going to have to build their case by explaining what new evidence justifies bringing charges 19 years after the fact.

But he wouldn't say what new evidence they have.

Court documents filed by Higgenbottom's attorney say the state didn't preserve vital evidence -- X-ray photographs, original autopsy photographs and physical specimens -- and that the case is too cold to prosecute.

They also want to know why, if a caseworker had such strong suspicions about Christopher's death, the state waited 192 months to do anything about it.

Indeed, I also am suspicious. First, there are no "Perry Mason moments" in criminal court, even though outhouse tried to pull off something by letting in Joal Henke's "I just remembered" testimony and also allowing an obviously-fabricated document to be entered into evidence. If the prosecution has something, by law it MUST be shared with the defense, and that includes "new evidence."

Second, we are dealing with prosecutors and judges in North Georgia that long ago decided that they could make up the law as they go along, and that they had absolute power. Grand juries in that circuit will indict anything, as I doubt that anyone serving on those bodies actually has a clue about the law.

I have no idea what happened in the death of Christopher Breazeale -- and neither do Vickie Scoggins nor Alan Norton. That is why I have no doubt that unless there really is "new evidence" and a real-live smoking gun, Norton and his people will make it up as they go along and hope that jurors in the case are not as wise to their tactics as were the Tonya Craft jurors.

Nancy Grace: Flashing with the "stars"

Last August, I had some commentary about the execrable Nasty Nancy Grace being part of "Dancing with the Stars," and while I mused about someone "dancing with the Devil," no doubt, I had no idea that Her Nastiness also would engage in exhibitionism.

Despite the protestations that she "was not flashing anybody," the photo below (from the UK Daily Mail) shows that Grace was exposing more than just some cleavage.

I include this post not to show off any of the endowment of Her Nastiness, but rather to point out the obvious: despite being cited by appeals courts for lying in court, Grace is one of the most insufferable self-righteous characters on the tube. Had a female accused of a crime ever worn such a low-cut dress in public, Nasty Nancy (or maybe "Nansty") would have been all over her, claiming that the woman's wardrobe was "proof" that she was a criminal.

So, here we have Nansty wearing a dress that shows, well, a lot of stuff, claiming that what we are seeing is not what we are seeing and that she did not "flash" anyone when, clearly, this is the very definition of "flashing." Gee, Nasty Nancy Grace is lying again. Just shocking. Hoodathunkitt?!?!? (By the way, is it just me, or does Nasty Grace look like Miss Piggy -- with no insult intended toward Miss Piggy and the Muppets?)

This reminds me of the "fundraiser" that the LMJC had for the Children's Advocacy Center -- you know, the place that hires high school grads to do fake interviews of children and then claims they have "discovered evidence of child molestation" when, in fact, they have helped fabricate lies? Yeah, that place.

You will remember that prosecutors Chris "Cruisemaster" Arnt and Len "The Thong Man" Gregor and the rest of the Children's Advocacy Center crowd was claiming that a tasteful photo of Tonya Craft in an evening dress was "proof" that she was "narcissistic" and, therefore, a child molester. During the trial, the announcement was made and the sponsors proudly put out a promotion photo of an Elvis impersonator and two "Vegas" women -- wearing thongs. It was the ultimate example of how the LMJC gives everyone else the middle finger.

(After I pointed out that the LMJC was using half-naked women in thongs to promote a fundraiser, the photo was quickly changed and the women suddenly were wearing pink leotards. Yeah, you can't make up this stuff.)

As I see it, this is more of the double standard that those involved with "law enforcement" are promoting. One set of rules for us, and another set of rules for them.

By the way, I doubt that Arnt, Gregor, Tim "Dirty" Deal, and Alan Norton will tell the attendees at the conference this week about those double standards. No, they will pose as people who "care" about the law, all the while crossing their fingers.

NOTE: If any readers attend the conference, please contact me so that I can prepare a report. Unfortunately, I am 600 miles away and cannot attend and listen to these "dynamic" speakers too people how to lie and get away with it.

The Northwest Georgia Conference on How to Commit Perjury (and get away with it)

Despite the fact that Northwest Georgia is one of the most heavily-churched areas in the nation (and it even features a Christian college, Covenant College), it also is a place where the police and judicial systems are so utterly corrupt that they are beyond any repair. And when dishonest people get together for a conference, well, things happen that fall into the category of "You Can't Make Up This Stuff."

On October 3 and 4, the Northwest Georgia Child Abuse Conference will be held at The Colonnade in Ringgold. Not surprisingly, the Usual Suspects will be there and three men who are experienced in suborning perjury and lying to juries will be featured speakers. If you love perjury, then you don't want to miss this conference that will tell you how to lie in court, make up outlandish stories, and pretend you are "saving children."

In fact, this conference is aptly named, for people who coach children to lie under oath and to give false testimony against their mothers and fathers and teachers indeed are child abusers. So, if you want a career in legal child abuse, then this is the place to start.

Because this conference is one big howler, featuring child abusers from all over the State of Georgia, I will concentrate upon just one session, and it is self-explanatory: Overcoming Defenses in Child Molestation Cases. The presenters? Chris Arnt, Len Gregor, and Alan Norton. (I guess Buzz Franklin could not make it, as he must be engaged in something else, like writing stupid press releases.)

I will include the conference blurb on this session, which you don't want to miss:

Child molestation cases are outside the norm for the average citizen. Defense attorneys often will take advantage of the general public’s misperceptions concerning such cases. The presentation will to teach those who investigate child molestations cases to be cognizant of such defenses and properly prepare with such defenses in mind.

In case one does not understand the language of these "professionals," here is an interpretation:

Prosecutors are desperate to keep exculpatory evidence out of child molestation trials, and they also are desperate to keep the defense from exposing prosecution lies. Given that fact, this session will teach budding prosecutors how to lie to jurors, how to get judges to make outrageous rulings in order to deny the defendant a fair trial, and it will give demonstrations on how to bully witnesses. Of extreme importance in this session will be a segment on how to employ the non sequitur when the defense starts blasting holes in your case, in hopes that jurors will buy into your diversion tactics.

This session also will include interview techniques if you lose so that when you are interviewed by the media, you can continue to lie, blame jurors, and try to push your view that no accused ever should be allowed any kind of defense. The prosecutors also will show you how to lie about the credentials, testimony, and qualifications of the defense expert witnesses, and of special importance is the segment on trying to convince jurors that your own "experts," most of whom have no credentials or field of relevant study (except for taking a five-day course), really are more qualified than the other experts who have spent their entire careers studying this material, and who have doctorates and often have engaged in extensive post-graduate study.

The final part of the session will involve how to make false comments to jurors, how to lie about the testimony of expert witnesses, and how to disrupt the work of the defense, all with help from friendly judges. The sum total of this session will be teaching attendees how to make sure that truth never enters the courtroom so that you can get wrongful convictions and boost your careers. Len Gregor also will give conferees a demonstration on how to run to one's car following a verdict of "not guilty" and hide one's face from the media by using a notebook.

Lest anyone think I am exaggerating, do the following comparison:

On the prosecution side, we had Suzi Thorne, who at the time was studying for an on-line college degree with Kaplan University, a for-profit diploma mill. According to Arnt, Gregor, and Norton, Thorne (who did attend a five-day training class) was eminently qualified to testify as an "expert" in child sexual abuse. Furthermore, despite the fact that Thorne never has written about child sexual abuse in any publication, and despite the fact that she never has read any publications in any reputable journal, professional or academic, on this subject, Arnt, Gregor, and Norton believe she is eminently qualified to testify.

Furthermore, despite the fact that Thorne clearly committed perjury during the Tonya Craft trial (and there is no doubt about this), Arnt, Gregor, and Norton want people to believe that her testimony ALWAYS is true and perfect. Compare Thorne to a witness that Arnt, Gregor, and Norton claim is a "liar" and a "whore of the court," Dr. William Bernet of Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Bernet has his medical doctorate from Harvard University Medical School (which tends to have higher academic standards than Kaplan University's undergraduate program) and is widely published and widely respected in his profession. This is a man who has published in top journals and is asked to speak at conferences and sessions all over the world. (Yeah, he is not good enough to speak at the Northwest Georgia conference, but everyone knows that the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit is a world-class example of honest police, prosecutors, and judges.)

Lest one think I am exaggerating, let me remind readers of what Arnt and Gregor did during the Tonya Craft trial:

• Arnt lied to jurors about the testimony of Dr. Nancy Fajman of Emory University, telling jurors that Fajman said she saw evidence of sexual abuse when, in fact, Fajman said she saw NO physical evidence of sexual abuse. All of the jurors caught this lie, and maybe Arnt will tell conferees how to do a better job of covering up lies;

• Arnt and Gregor desperately tried to keep Dr. Fajman, Dr. Ann Hazard, Dr. Nancy Aldridge, and Dr. Bernet from testifying, and after their testimony, they told jurors that these were unqualified witnesses and that they were nothing but "liars" and "whores of the court" who lied for money. I am not kidding. They actually said that;

• They regularly had ex parte meetings with "judge" brian house before and during the trial, and reported none of them to the defense, despite the requirement by the Code of Ethics of the Georgia State Bar, which means that these are people who believe they are not bound either by law or ethics.

When Tonya Craft came into the courtroom for the verdict, Arnt and Gregor stood to the side snickering at her and making snide remarks. (No doubt, their presentation also will include how act professionally during a trial while at the same time trying to emulate the members of Delta House from the movie "Animal House.") There is a reason that "judge" brian house turned ashen when he read the verdict and Arnt and Gregor ran from the courthouse instead of acting like mature adults and talking to the media.

No doubt, these men will share with conferees why it is important for prosecutors to act like spoiled children, and why it is so important that the courts of the LMJC perform like the courts of bastions of freedom and liberty like North Korea. They also will stress the importance of teaming with the judge in order to have a rigged trial, although they might claim afterward that the judge was a "pointy-headed liberal" who was too lax toward the defense. They will give techniques in making improper and prejudicial pre-trial statements to the media and maybe they might REALLY go to the Dark Side and give tips on how to contact jurors during the trial in order to intimidate them into voting guilty. (I'm just imagining the last point, but given that these men already have demonstrated that they have no problem in suborning perjury and openly violating the Rules of Ethics that supposedly govern their behavior, I doubt seriously that Chris Arnt and Len Gregor would frown upon anyone on the prosecution side illegally contacting jurors. Prosecutors elsewhere have done it and, if anything, these men have demonstrated that they are willing to engage in extreme prosecutorial misconduct.

Will they answer questions about the Tonya Craft trial? If they do, I'm sure they will spout the line that they have been giving everyone:

• Craft was guilty and got away with it;

•  Defense objections were frivolous, as all defense attorneys really should expect prosecutors to scream in the face of witnesses, yell about someone's "boobs," throw books down on the table while the defense is making its case;

• The jurors were fooled by the idiot expert witnesses like Dr. Bernet and should have been impressed by experts like Holly "Roll Your Eyes and Make Noises" Kittle and Suzy "Perjury" Thorne;

•  The jurors were too stupid to recognize that Arnt and Gregor are brilliant prosecutors and that when jurors all caught Arnt lying about Dr. Fajman's testimony (and all of the caught it), well, they were so stupid that they could not recognize that Dr. Fajman was speaking in code that only a brilliant guy like Arnt could understand;

• The defense shamelessly carried on a campaign in the media and the blogosphere that prejudiced the case and "deprived the state of a 'fair trial'." This despite the fact that the defense operated under a gag order and the defense had NO contact with the "blogosphere," and that Tonya Craft was on trial, not the state, which is under the legal obligation to present a fair trial. (So much for the State of Georgia performing its obligations.)

What Arnt and Gregor and Norton won't tell the conferees is that some of the prosecution witnesses have admitted privately that they were lying, and that in the case of Sarah and Joal Henke, their testimony in trial conflicted 180 degrees from what they had testified under oath in depositions a year before. In other words, these men will tell conferees everything -- but the truth.

As an added attraction, Chris Arnt will give pointers on how to have fun on a cruise! Enjoy the conference!

Brian House and the moral bankruptcy of judges

Brian House and I read the same Bible (I guess they read the Bible at Peavine Baptist Church, where House attends), but I don't think we find the same meaning in it. Where the Holy Scriptures admonish judges to act honestly, show integrity, and not to "pervert justice," House must interpret those passages to mean that judges are supposed to rig convictions and destroy the lives of innocent people.

As the child molestation trial of James Combs approaches, I still am thinking back to House's performance in the Tonya Craft trial. There is good reason that House had an ashen expression when he discovered the jury's verdict, as the jurors were openly declaring that House's best efforts to rig an illegal conviction were wrong, unjust, and his actions demonstrated that his judgeship is fraudulent.

Why do I write about House more than a year after the Craft trial? I do it because he still is on the bench, bilking Georgia taxpayers for six-figures, and tag teaming with dishonest prosecutors like Chris Arnt to screw over innocent people. Let us revisit some of the things he did in that case that demonstrate beyond any doubt at all that he tried to rig a conviction.

• He consistently refused to permit Tonya Craft's defense to admit exculpatory evidence even though the evidence was legitimate and documented. For example, after Sandra Lamb told the court that her daughter had not received acting lessons, House refused to let the defense enter the online IMDb resume of the child, despite the fact that it was a public link that anyone could look up on the web.

• He permitted the admission of a forged document that Tim Deal created during the trial, a document that was not in his or any other files before the trial began. The prosecution had created a huge hole with the "hand rape" allegations and Deal had to cover for them. Do I believe that House knew the document was forged? Absolutely. I have no doubt at all.

• He permitted Joal and Sarah Henke to give "I just remembered" testimony that was perjury on its face, and the testimony directly contradicted earlier sworn testimony that both had given a year before.

• According to media representatives who were keeping count, he sustained 90 percent of the prosecution's objections and only 10 percent of the objections from the defense. 

• He permitted prosecutors Arnt and Len Gregor to yell, make catcalls, throw books down on the table, scream at defense witnesses, verbally attack the defense team, and harass Craft all during the trial. Any attempt by the defense to protest this action was met with a personal attack from House himself who refused to discharge the ethical duties of his office.*

• He had a long conversation with Sandra Lamb a few days before she testified, yet he did not report this illegal ex parte conversation to the defense. During the trial, a number of people contacted me to say that they saw House meeting with prosecutors on several occasions after court had ended for the day. One observer told me about seeing House and the prosecutors leave the courtroom together and enter a room adjacent to the courtroom. I have no doubt that he, Arnt and Gregor had illegal strategy sessions together, none of which were reported to the defense as required by Georgia's rules of ethics for judges.

• All during the trial, he and the prosecutors (especially Arnt) had pre-worked signals in which House would look at Arnt, who then would signal to House what his next move should be. (More than one observer told this to me.)

• Jurors after the trial said that one thing that really bothered them was the obvious prejudice that House showed against the defense and in favor of the prosecution. 

• During a break in the trial, House spoke to a court employee and vilified both Craft and the defense in private conversation, not knowing that it was being recorded. While that recording has not been released, nonetheless, the incident demonstrated House's lack of integrity.

This is only the tip of the crimes against justice that House committed during the trial, and it was clear that Arnt, Gregor, and Sandra Lamb were running the show and pulling his puppet strings. I wish that House were the only offender, but as I hear from people around the country, and I watch the performance of judges like the one who helped the prosecution railroad Brad Cooper into prison, I have come to see the situation in this country as being pretty hopeless.

Yes, there are good judges out there, but the number of honest men and women wearing the black robes is dwindling. Furthermore, when the good ones retire, they are replaced by people like Brian House.

As the conflagration known as World War I began, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey declared, "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time." I must admit to believing the same about this country and our system of "justice." Americans once prized justice, but like so many things that have been good about this country, that also is in our past, not our present and certainly not our future.

*Here are some things that the Georgia Judicial Code of Ethics includes. Compare this code with House's conduct and you will see that no one in authority in Georgia actually believes in these things, as those in power hold that living by the rules does not apply to them.

Canon 1
Judges Shall Uphold the Integrity and Independence of the Judiciary.
An independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable to justice in our society. Judges shall participate in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing high standards of conduct, and shall personally observe such standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary may be preserved. The provisions of this Code should be construed and applied to further that objective.

Canon 2
Judges Shall Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in All Their Activities.

A. Judges shall respect and comply with the law* and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

B. Judges shall not allow their family, social, political or other relationships to influence their judicial conduct or judgment. Judges shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others; nor should they convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence them. Judges should not testify voluntarily as character witnesses. (House also has done that in a recent divorce/custody case)

Canon 3
Judges Shall Perform the Duties of Their Office Impartially and Diligently

On ex parte meetings, the Georgia code declares:

Judges shall accord to every person who has a legal interest in a proceeding, or that person's lawyer, the right to be heard according to law*. Judges shall not initiate or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to them outside the presence of the parties concerning a pending or impending proceeding, except that:

(a) where circumstances require, ex parte communications for scheduling, where administrative purposes or emergencies that do not deal with substantive matters or issues on the merits are authorized; provided:

(i) the judge reasonably believes that no party will gain a procedural or tactical advantage as a result of the ex parte communication, and

(ii) the judge makes provision promptly to notify all other parties of the substance of the ex parte communication and allows an opportunity to respond.

None of those things held during the trial. Instead, House was engaged in strategy sessions and his personal conversation with Lamb before her testimony demonstrated beyond a doubt that not only was he Lamb's sock puppet, but that he has absolutely NO RESPECT for the law and for the codes that supposedly are to govern his conduct.

Yet, Brian House will continue as a judge, and I would not be surprised if the voters of the LMJC were to return this sorry person back to office for another four years in the 2012 elections. One hopes otherwise, but I cannot say I have much confidence in the political choices that Americans make.