Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sentenced to rape

I promised the first blog business if and when I established online service would be a review of the Bearden website. I have been working on that post for more than a year (not full time), and it isn't complete, but I'm getting close. In the meantime, I covered a number of topics found on his website in a series of short posts on the KFOR YourSpace blog. Here is a list of my posts.
I stay home as much as I can. I have much work to do around the house, but practically nothing gets accomplished because minute by minute, strange, unexpected and large catastrophes happen. I can't say I've ever lived anywhere that is like this. I despise it, and attribute it to the fact I live in a really lousy neighborhood. It wasn't that way when I arrived, but it was devolving quickly. I don't mind most days, but two or three days a week are noteworthy in how a little neglect by someone else turns into hours of extra disaster control needed from me.
The story about the rape of inmates on work release at the Oklahoma governor's mansion isn't like that, and I devoted a few days in October to making some notes, sending e-mail and reading a little to understand what the hell this is about.
I've thought about it long and hard, so to speak; yet, understanding eludes me. Something very big is missing. Maybe this isn't Newworldorderism, but it damn sure looks like it. Channel four's follow-up story is here.
This is no love story, it is a fuck story. It has deep roots and long reach. The governor's mansion is the flagship site, yet just another location of a prevalent and common, everyday occurrence for women in prison throughout Oklahoma—nonconsensual fucking, often accompanied by battery—at a time when Oklahoma has become the state that imprisons more women per capita than any other jurisdiction on earth. Director Justin Jones said:
So, do you ever stop and reflect on why this great state of Oklahoma incarcerates more adult females per 100,000 than any other state? As a matter of fact, we incarcerate more females per capita than any other place in the world. What makes this even more note worthy for discussion is that Dr. Jim Austin, a nationally recognized social research and developer of offender risk assessments, etc. has recognized that Oklahoma has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the nation.
But, at least he expresses ingenuine regret:
Unlike sports, having the number one ranking for female incarceration rates should be embarrassing. We should apply every best practice possible in an effort to be last in the nation.
Justin Jones must be about the sorriest, most worthless fuck who ever fucked. It isn't his fault almost all these women were jailed for bounced checks and drug and alcohol offenses, and draw surprisingly long sentences. I'm not for that, and conclude it's derived partially by prison guards' preference of sex with women rather than men. That is Jones' fault. The Department of Corrections (DOC) dismisses them as criminals and offenders, throws out all the rules and encourages guards to fuck all they can, and beat women senseless if it helps these monsters get excited. In their minds and deeply entrenched culture, it's okay because criminal offenders don't fucking matter, except for fucking.
I understand that part. They only employ people who are exhumed, not hired, and sign their applications with an X. But I don't understand Oklahoma's eagerness to jail women in large numbers for nonviolent "crimes" that have poverty and genetic indicators as their driving mechanisms. The point must be to have a large selection of women available for DOC's multitudinous perverts, because it's no coincidence. For this mess to take shape required the long term commitment of lawmakers and law enforcement, and their commitment stinks to high heaven.
I've spent over 80% of my life as an eligible bachelor. In that time, I've met many amazing women who did unexpected, unbelievable things. Some of those things were legal. But, all things considered, I haven't observed that women in Oklahoma should go to jail in greater numbers than women any other place. So, this part loses me, and my conscience says they are jailed in droves because guards want to fuck them. Otherwise, it wouldn't happen, because it causes great discontent and calamity in society, and people don't want it. Of course, people don't have anything to say, and can't fix it. That's puzzling.
So, the complainant asked for Janet's help. She had the guts to scream bloody murder at DOC for being beaten up and raped while entrusted to two central services employees working at the mansion. She is said to be one of eight women who are known and wish to testify. They believe there were at least a few more, and perhaps many more, and that the abuse extended over a period of certainly months, if not years.
DOC didn't call the police, or ask the state bureau to investigate; instead, they turned it over to their lone internal investigator who found that yes, these men had been out of line, and Russell Humphries and Anthony Bobelu were terminated. Janet asked DOC if the investigative report had been turned over to the prosecutor, in this case the Oklahoma county district attorney, David Prater.
The investigator lied to her. Assuming Janet was a dumb girl fresh out of law school, and being a lying liar, he said a grand jury had reviewed the evidence and would in one day hand down indictments for these men, and their arrests were imminent. She thought these lies were facts, and felt the community should take part in this historically significant, important event. She did not call the media. She did not ask anyone to call the media.
People hearing the story through the wall were surprised, and wanted to share it. By then, the DOC investigator figured out Janet was an experienced attorney with decades of experience in law enforcement, and redacted the report to the point its pages were all nearly blank. Then, he lied to the media.
Then, this pathetic liar lied to Prater. There's some cutting-edge crime fighting. Rape and cover-up lies are always so much sweeter when they're done on state property by people on the state payroll. Janet pointed out the report had been revised and was misleading, and Prater's office told the DOC investigator to conduct all the interviews again, review the evidence and make a new report, which is ongoing. That seems nice and thorough, except it's really just lolligagging and foot-dragging—delay so as to deny due process and the chance for justice.
I felt a bit indignant. According to the brilliant news analysts at Associated Press, if women were beaten and raped at the governor's mansion, a security threat to the precious, helpless chief executive is revealed. Even in Oklahoma, AP writers are fawning, world-class servant typists for little tin god, self-appointed, big shot dickfaces like Brad Henry.
I'm not sure what AP was trying to tell us. I think, but I'm not sure, that they believe the Taliban wants to take Brad Henry out to the shed and fuck him. For four decades, I've been a stalwart, stand up, state party democrat, and voted for Henry twice. I have earned my place at the front of the line of those qualified to criticize—and I never made a bigger mistake than to vote for this pathetic and infected, wreaking sewage, this wretched effluent, this stupid poison that calls itself Brad Henry. Yeah, there might be security issues, as in someone might swat him across the chops, even though he wouldn't notice, know what happened or where or who he is.
I find it puzzling how one person could come to stink so much, and become so morally defective in one lifetime. It must have taken monumental effort and much support, encouragement and assistance from many, many people, and so it did. You know what happens at your house, and I know what happens at mine. If you are away, you may be unaware if a woman is beaten and raped at your house. But you won't be unaware for long, and everyone who is home knows. Anyone could have picked up a phone and called 911. State troopers come and go at the mansion all day. No one did anything. Could it be Gov. Henry approves?
Yes, it could be he does and in fact he does. Throughout his tenure, Henry has been silent about inmate rape, ignoring the pleas of victims and their families to act. The DOC director reports to the governor, and the governor's office runs DOC. Regarding inmate rape, the DOC director is the governor's little bitch—and the guards have their orders.
Pamela Smith has been fighting DOC in court 11 long years, yet her lawsuits are swept away. In a letter, two state troopers assert that influence of Brad's cousin, Tenth Circuit Judge Robert Henry, caused her suit and others to disappear, because Brad didn't think the state should be financially obligated to compensate rape victims. You might say they reasoned, "that'll teach the fucking fuckers."
This abhorrent and breathtaking conundrum, that justice and people's lives are a break-even opportunity for governors, makes strawmen of the Henry boys. Smith has gone up the ladder requesting help at the national level. The silence is deafening. Could it be the Henrys are enacting an unwritten edict from the Department of Justice? We don't know—appearances can be deceiving, and we can't assume DoJ wants things this way, but DoJ does nothing and gives this appearance absolutely.
It is only my opinion, but I think Brad and Robert Henry are a couple of perverts. Hearing them speak makes my skin crawl. It always did. I voted for Brad because he seemed a better choice than his opponent, and he proved I am no judge of people. Brad and Robert Henry's deliberate actions and inactions in these matters prove they're perverts, and criminals as well, having defied their sworn duties to uphold the law with dignity, integrity and honor.
I have bad news for the governor, Judge Robert, DOC and all of Oklahoma's taxpayer-supported jail sluts: this is NOT how the law reads. Furthermore, for all the ways Oklahomans screw up, Oklahoma juries do NOT look the other way when it comes time to decide the fate of officials who can't keep their pants fastened:
A former western Oklahoma sheriff was sentenced to 79 years in prison Tuesday for using his power over female drug court defendants to force them to have sex with him. [...]
A jury in Major County—where the case was moved because of pretrial publicity—found Burgess guilty in January of 13 felony counts, including five counts of second-degree rape. But jurors acquitted him of 23 other counts, including second-degree rape, forcible sodomy and rape by instrumentation. [...]
The jury that convicted Burgess had recommended a sentence of 94 years. [...]
Besides the rape counts, Burgess was convicted of three counts of bribery by a public official, two counts of forcible sodomy and one count each of kidnapping, sexual battery and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses. The sexual battery conviction involved a female former sheriff's deputy he was accused of groping.
Burgess also was fined $15,000.
Bobelu and Humphries hired the same great legal team that delivered this mammoth sentence for Custer county Sheriff Mike Burgess to defend them in what can only be described as the greatest leap of faith in history. The lawyers, Henderson and Huddleston, plan to use the same arguments to defend their clients in the governor's mansion rapefest as with Burgess, if the DA files charges—and Prater has not decided to charge them:
Oklahoma City attorney Tim Henderson said Wednesday neither Russell Humphries, former executive chef at the mansion, and Anthony Bobelu, the former groundskeeper supervisor, has been charged. Henderson says they lost their jobs over a mere allegation.
Henderson says there is no physical evidence to support the accusations. He says all of the women are convicted felons and claim they were assaulted in hopes of collecting monetary damages from the state through a civil lawsuit.
In these cases, the state does not collect and preserve incriminating forensic evidence. The victim is unable to collect and preserve forensic evidence. But, in such cases, this evidence, which the defense lawyers insist is imperative, IS NOT REQUIRED ANYWAY.
Their approach hopes to disqualify the plaintiffs, or at least establish reasonable doubt in the minds of jury members. You see how well that strategy worked for Mike Burgess. It was a disaster, and it always will be, even in Oklahoma. The jury didn't buy it, not even a little. These arguments are another way of saying, "we have no defense, just smoke and mirrors. We are much more than incompetent, even more than derelict. Our clients' defense is nonexistent."
In this case, Janet, the complainant's attorney, works pro bono—her client is her stepson's wife, and they are both practically destitute. The complainant had a heart attack while in custody of Delaware county. She was taken to the hospital, and a stent was installed in one of her coronary arteries. DOC was to take custody, but when they learned she had a stent, they refused to take her. To resolve it, she was sent back to the hospital and they took out the stent. Since then she has had extreme health issues, and has at times been in a fight for her life.
She would be happy to put distance between herself and her prison stay, and get out of it with her ass. She felt losing their jobs was not punishment enough for being beaten and raped by these freaks, and at the governor's mansion, no less. What would happen to you or me if that went on at our house? Everything bad is what would happen. A guilty verdict in a criminal case isn't a necessary prerequisite for successful civil litigation—and the lawyers for the accused know it. But, there is no talk of a civil suit; indeed, how far could a civil case proceed in this environment? They know all that, too. The defense attorneys' whithering, old saw arguments are invisible.
Bouncing checks, drinking or possessing drugs may be illegal, but beating and raping inmates is perfectly all right because prosecutors refuse to bring charges; so, good defense arguments and the lawyers themselves thusfar aren't even needed.
I just don't get it.
DOC sycophants loudly proclaim inmates deserve no better treatment. Citizens are complacent. Prison takes away all of a person's freedom; however, that is all inmates sacrifice. Their civil liberties remain. The express law states it, and juries demand it. Oklahoma's Department of Corrections has forgotten inmates are not simply criminals or offenders, and their personal lab rats: THEY ARE ALSO CITIZENS. They are our sisters, wives, girlfriends and mothers, and they are entitled to the utmost care and protection from harm. Rape is never right or legal. That is not less but more true for those behind bars, people who are among the most helpless of the helpless.