MrSlickT's blog: "Messed up... need help..."

Click here to visit the Restore Justice Project for more info. On April 28th, 2001, I threw a birthday party at my house. I was turning 25, which was a big deal to me, and it had kind of become a tradition for me to throw a birthday party near the end of April. I issued invitations to my friends, and we had an excellent party. Two people showed up that evening without invitation. We’ll call them JTH and CR. One of my invited guests insisted (and practically begged) that I allow them to come in because he said they were “good people” and “no trouble.” They appeared to be under the influence of some intoxicant and they had driven, so I didn’t want them to drive until the influence of the intoxicant had been mitigated. I let them in and they did stay out of trouble and out of the alcohol that was present at the party. Things wound down abut 3:30 in the morning and everyone either left or crashed out for the night. I went to bed, not to awake until 10AM to clean up the mess. Twenty-two days after the party, Detective Gary S. McLeod of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department contacted me at my place of employment asking me to come talk to him, which I did. He explained to me that CR had alleged rape against the party guest who had asked me to let them come in. Mr. McLeod told me that I was also liable because it was my party and CR was under 21 years of age – and there was alcohol present. He stated that I could be charged with a misdemeanor because it is illegal to possess alcohol in the presence of anyone under the age of 21 unless their parent or guardian is present. He also stated that because of my cooperation, he would not recommend filing a charge against me. I thought all was well at this point. On June 1st, 2001, Deputy Gary McLeod contacted me at work again, this time to inform me that he was at my house to execute a search warrant. He stated that if I didn’t come home and open the house for him, he would just call a locksmith and bill it to me, or break down the door. I stated that I would leave work immediately to allow him in the house. I didn’t know that my mother was home at the time. When I arrived at the house, Deputy Gary McLeod and his posse has broken into the house through my bedroom window, even though my mother was home. They had apparently knocked, but because they DID NOT state their business and they WERE NOT in officers’ uniforms, she did not know who they were and she did not open the door. They broke in armed with their weapons and secured the house. They accosted my mother after scaring the piss out of her by coming up the stairs to where she met them with their hands on their weapons. It was fortunate that, although my mother thought they were daylight burglars, she considered confronting them with her weapon, but thought better of it. Deputy Gary McLeod told her that they were at the house searching for evidence of child pornography. My Dad came home from work, and had just arrived at the house when I got there. I knew nothing of all this until I arrived. Deputy Gary McLeod told us that CR had claimed she was raped by the guy who asked me to let her and JTH in to the party, and that said guy, when interrogated and investigated, had told them that I took nude pictures of CR (who, as it turned out, was 16 at the time). The deputies scoured our house and our computers and seized the computers for further investigation. Six months passed with no further contact or information about this investigation. Finally, being frustrated with the uncooperative attitude on the part of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, my Dad contacted then – Sheriff Daniel J. LaRoche, and soon after that he sent a letter to the sheriff’s department demanding the return of our property. Three days later I was summoned to court to answer charges of possessing child pornography. As proceedings began, I retained an attorney and began to build a defense to the charge. I was not booked into jail, I was released by the court, with conditions of release. In February of 2002, deputies came to my place of employment and arrested me for allegedly violating those conditions of release and booked me into the Chelan County Regional Justice Center, where I sat for nearly six months while proceedings were ongoing. There were court hearings, and bail was set at $50,000. I made a motion to the court to suppress the search warrant because it actually alleged NO CRIME and therefore provided no probable cause. That motion was denied twice. I motioned for a reduction in bail, and that too was denied. Also in one of these hearings, Deputy Gary McLeod threatened my parents with arrest while testifying for the prosecutor to rebut my position that the search warrant was invalid on its face. Further, during these hearings, the prosecutor continually walked up to read the judge’s notes, mouthed off in the court room with his opinions even though most were not pertinent to the case at hand, and conducted himself unprofessionally at every level. Finally, after almost six months, conditions in the jail worsened. I was cut off from using the phone to call my parents, my attorney, and all others that I had called on a regular basis during the time I was incarcerated, so money was scraped up to post bond on my bail. I was released. During this time my Dad arranged to retain a more capable attorney and private investigator. The investigator found that CR had alleged nothing against me, alleged no crime. He also found that the guy who she accused of raping her had made a deal with the prosecutor (through his attorney, Eric Bakke) to testify against me to avoid being charged with rape. We also hired a computer forensics expert, who was able to determine that there were significant errors and omissions in the state’s analysis of the computers, and that there were NO pictures of CR. After a six month battle to even obtain the alleged “evidence” because the prosecutor continued to refuse to release it to him or my attorney, the court finally ordered that copies be made of the hard drives and that those copies be given to my expert. During the trial, Deputy McLeod admitted to destroying evidence, and justified this by claiming the parents gave him permission to do this. Just about the time things were looking pretty hopeless, some new evidence emerged in my favor. My attorney had been pressing me to take a plea bargain of “Contact with a minor for immoral purposes” and serve a year in jail. While I refused to plead to something I didn’t do, it was looking like the best possibility until the new evidence turned up. The morning I was to plead, we walked into the courthouse. My attorney had told the prosecutor the night before that due to the new evidence, I would not be pleading, and the prosecutor had informed the judge – who stormed out of his office and demanded to know what was going on. My attorney told him that we would not be pleading due to new evidence, to which the judge replied “I’ll be God-damned if I will approve a plea deal for your client again…” and stormed off. This was witnessed. During the hearing that day, my attorney cited law in the courtroom, to which the judge snapped “The law in MY courtroom is whatever I say it is…” We went to trial. During voir doir, the jury pool was asked quite frankly if they could be fair and impartial concerning this type of subject matter. EVERY POTENTIAL JUROR said “no.” The jury was selected from this pool anyway. Deputy Gary McLeod again lied on the stand, claiming that one file was identical to another file with a different file name – in reference to the dealing charge. They did not prove the dealing charge at all, and realized that the case was beginning to fall apart. The court recessed while the prosecutor and Deputy McLeod reviewed McLeod’s statements. They came back and asserted that file A and file B were indeed the same. File A did not exist and we showed the jury that they could not have viewed it because it DID NOT EXIST. It was only a reference in a text document. We motioned for dismissal of the dealing charge because they didn’t prove it – at all! This motion was denied. The next day, my attorney walked into the judges’ chambers to find the judge and the prosecutor poring over legal books. They were piled high on the judge’s desk. My attorney asked what was going on. The state had rested its case, we had rested ours, and the jury was set to hear closing statements. The JUDGE told my attorney that he would be granting a motion to amend the dealing charge to possession with intent to distribute. He reasoned, incorrectly, that possession with intent was a lesser-included offense to dealing, which would have made the amendment perfectly legal. We argued strenuously against that motion, but the judge had already made up his mind – and I was arraigned on the spot for possession with intent. Then closing statements were made and the jury was sent to deliberate. About five hours later, the jury was deadlocked. It was the third of July, approaching the end of the day, and they could not reach a verdict, and sent a note to that effect to the judge. He sent a note back that if they could not reach a verdict by 6PM, we would be back “tomorrow” (which just happened to be the 4th of July holiday). Seven minutes later the jury had a verdict. I was acquitted of sexual exploitation of a minor but convicted of dealing and possession of depictions of minors involved in sexually explicit conduct. I was sentenced to two years in prison with credit for time served. We appealed. I served the time. In 2005 the court of appeals, third division, overturned the dealing charge. The possession charge is currently in process of appeal. Meanwhile, Mr. Wesley C. Floyd of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had brought a federal case which was dismissed due to the conviction in Douglas County. Mr. Floyd continues to persecute me. In 2005, he managed to have me charged in Chelan County regarding a file he allegedly found in a public access computer in Leavenworth. He talked to me about it, and I was cooperative – however I did not confess to something that I didn’t do. He claimed that in fact he got a confession. He was subsequently deployed to Iraq, and the case was dismissed without prejudice due to his unavailability. Now it is February 2007, Wes Floyd is back, and they are charging me again. I will defend myself vigorously… I didn’t have the stuff in the first place. **NEW UPDATE** My preliminary hearing was on Feb. 28 and the Court appointed counsel (because I'm stinking broke over all of this) and the prosecutor, by court rules, has 48 hours to forward the case file to the public defender's office. As of Friday, March 9, the file has not been forwarded. Click here to visit the Restore Justice Project for more info.