Standing Alongside Your Attorney
Fight Your Case! Sue Them! Lawsuit Information on How to Start
Please refer to eBook
Standing InThe Shadow of the Law
by Marilyn Harrison
http://rscraps.com/Shadow/ index.htm
(Available for download)
Parental Rights & the Juvenile Justice System
By Thomas M. Dutkiewicz, President
Special Family Advocate
Connecticut DCF Watch
P.O. Box 9775
Forestville, CT 06011-9775
860-833-4127
Admin@connecticutDCFwatch.com
www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Was your caseworker “new?” Maybe they did not do what they
were supposed to or
went about it the wrong way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Caregivers of Young Children: Preventing and Responding to Child Maltreatment
:
Minimizing the Risk of Maltreatment in Early Childhood Programs
... the candidate's prior work experience and attitudes toward children and, if applicable,
criminal record. Orientation training during a probationary period to help the new
employee adjust to the job ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thought this would be of interest to our members in NFPCAR. Thanks to the Legal Self
Representation group for this info.
Nancee in CA
law_self_help <law_self_help@yahoo.com> wrote: This is for Florida but would be
similar to other States
http://www.flabarap pellate.org/ asp/pro_sehandbo ok.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Words Hurt: Investigating and Proving a Case of Psychological
Maltreatment
Vieth
Reasonable Efforts (American Prosecutors Research Institute), 2(1), 2004
Provides techniques for investigators in cases of psychological maltreatment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Were standards adhered to?
Standards for Caseworker Visits With Children in Foster Care
... to record the frequency of caseworker visits and produce statewide reports is to
implement an automated system, such as the Statewide Automated Child Welfare
Information System (SACWIS), capable of ...
Also:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Take online caseworker test to evaluate which rights cw's violated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe the caseworker or agency was more concerned with documentation
& federal funding eligibility to do a proper job
Preparing an Agency for Disaster... to agency records? Consider whether all critical
documents are in SACWIS, whether documents could be recreated, and how benefits
eligibility would be determined for children if no records were ..
Technologies Enhance Caseworker Capabilities
... Welfare Information System (SACWIS) into the Tablet PC, input new data into the PC while
in the field, and then upload the new information into the primary SACWIS when they return to
their office ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Were You Really One of These?
The following is from “Perpetrators” (below, see “publications from Child
Welfare Information Gateway)
Characteristics of Perpetrators
Most States define perpetrators of child abuse and neglect as parents and other
caretakers (such as relatives, babysitters, and foster parents) who have harmed a child
in their care. It is important to note that States define the term "caretaker" differently.
Harm caused to a child by others (such as acquaintances or strangers) may not be
considered child abuse but rather may be considered a criminal matter.
The following resources provide information on the characteristics of perpetrators of
child abuse and neglect.
Perpetrators
Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2007)
In Child Maltreatment 2005
Data on the characteristics of perpetrators, their relationship to their child
victims, and the types of maltreatment they commit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Legal Information on various topics for each state:
http://www.lawhelp.org/
Take online cw test to evaluate which rights cw's violated:
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/AFRA_ Newshawk/ message/16162
Specific to Canada – but, educates on how to sue:
http://www.cwlc.ca/files/file/events/CW%20and%20Civil%20Liability%20(05).pdf
This is a great site. Here is the edited link:
http://www.fightcpspackets.info/
To compel a government agency or a lower court:
http://www.ailf.org
Statistics & Research:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/statsresearch/index.htm
Incidentally Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations claims have 4 year statute
of limitations:
http://www.law. fsu.edu/journals /lawreview/ downloads/ 311/Rowan. pdf
Represent Yourself In Court (How To Prepare A Winning Case) Has a lot of valuable
information o
how to research the laws, legal websites, etc.
http://www.nolopress.com
Legal Resource Manual for Foster Parents ($15)
http://www.nfpainc. org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those who are not lawyers and are pro se or pro per (state) litigants, these
are some law books
that I highly recommend that purchase if you can afford them.
Federal Laws of Criminal Procedure
Federal Criminal Procedure & (Federal Rules of Court - Can be obtained free if you
pick it up at the Federal Court in your area)
Remedies In A Nutshell - By:William M. Tabb and Elaine W. Shoben (Thompson West)
Collect Your Judgement In 5 Easy Steps - By: Adrienne M. McMillian, ESQ. (Sphinx
Publishing)
Understanding White Collar Crime - By: J. Kelly Strader (LexisNexis)
http://www.barristerbooks.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the books listed below -- includes one for how doctors should determine
if sexual abuse occurred
including 63 pages of photos showing sexual abuse injuries. Is CPS just
saying the child was sexually abused?
Was the child determined as such by a doctor?
New and Noteworthy Publications (from Children’s Bureau of ACF:
http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?issue_id=2001-03&article_id=237
... they are to be able to access and utilize Statewide Automated Child Welfare
Information Systems (SACWIS). The purpose of this trainer's guide is to give
supervisors a chance to learn, practice, and ...
Using Information Management to Support the Goals of Safety, Permanency and
Well Being: Trainer's Guide. University of Southern Maine, Edmund S. Muskie School
of Public Service, Institute for Child and Family Service, Portland, ME. 2000. 249 pp.
Free to download from website. Binder.
Information management skills are critical for child welfare supervisors if they are to be
able to access and utilize Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems
(SACWIS). The purpose of this trainer's guide is to give supervisors a chance to learn,
practice, and enhance these skills, using experiential, active learning methods, in a
competency-based curriculum. The curriculum is designed to complement and integrate
with a State's existing SACWIS and supervisory training, and is organized into eleven
modules, which can be customized to fit the needs of any public child welfare agency.
Topics include:
 The child welfare supervisor's evolving responsibilities
 How to reduce resistance and build commitment to change
 Identifying, locating, and using key data for informed casework supervision
 Data analysis tips, tools, and techniques
 Using information management to achieve agency goals.
After completing this training, participants should be able to apply what they have
learned to their daily supervisory work, and use information from the SACWIS system to
improve accountability in child welfare practice.
A Supervisory Seminar Trainer's Guide and a final report for the project are also
available at the website.
To purchase a copy, contact:
Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service
96 Falmouth Street
P.O. Box 9300
Portland, Maine 04104-9300
Phone: 207-780-4430
Fax: 207-780-4417
TTY: 207-780-5646
Email: skanak@usm.maine.edu
Website: http://www.muskie.usm.maine.edu
Full text online: http://www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/sacwis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Child Welfare Challenge: Policy, Practice, and Research. Modern Applications
of Social Work Series. Second Edition. Pecora, P. J.; Whittaker, J. K.; Maluccio, A. N.;
Barth, R. P.; Plotnick, R. D. Aldine de Gruyter, New York, NY. 2000. 612 pp. $30.95.
Paperback.
Policy, practice, and research issues intertwine to shape today's child welfare practices,
as well as tomorrow's new directions. The authors examine these issues in an historical
context, describing current problems in the field, and reviewing recent innovations that
could be used to solve these problems. The focus is on areas of service to children who
are served by publicly funded agencies:
 Foster care and adoption
 In-home, family-centered services
 Child-protective services
 Residential services.
In each chapter, the authors highlight historical milestones, show how practice has
changed in response to response to research findings and public policy, and describe
how policy initiatives and research data can or should influence program design and
implementation.
To purchase a copy, contact:
Aldine de Gruyter
200 Saw Mill River Rd.
Hawthorne, NY 10532
Phone: 914-747-0110
Fax: 914-747-1326
Email: degruyter.ny@worldnet.att.net
Website: http://www.degruyter.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Family Matters: Interfaces Between Child and Adult Mental Health. Reder, P.;
McClure, M.; Jolley, A. (Editors). Taylor & Francis, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 2000. 359 pp.
$32.95. Paperback.
Rather than focusing on either child or adult mental health, the authors focus on the
complex interactions between parents with mental illness and their children, and how
the parents' mental health affects their children's lives. Topics include:
 The long-term effects of childhood trauma on adults
 How parental mental health problems affect children
 How family interaction affects the mental health of all family members.
Based on research and practical experience, the authors recommend changes,
including the development of new services for the treatment of adolescents, parenting
breakdown, and perinatal psychiatric illness, and liaison initiatives to facilitate treatment
planning between child and adult mental health services.
To purchase a copy, contact:
Taylor & Francis, Inc.
325 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215-625-8900
Fax: 215-625-2940
Email: info@taylorandfrancis.com
Website: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child: A Medical Textbook and Photographic
Atlas. Second Edition. Heger, A.; Emans, S. J.; Muran, D. Oxford University Press,
New York, NY. 2000. 351 pp. $79.50. Hardbound, with CD-ROM.
Physicians examining children for suspected sexual abuse often do not have the
training they need to make a skilled diagnosis. This comprehensive resource provides
step-by-step guidance on interviewing and clinically evaluating possible child sexual
abuse cases, and includes sixty-three pages of color photographs that document sexual
abuse injuries, and offer comparisons to accidental injuries as well as normal
anatomical variations. Also covered:
 Sensitive and practical guidance on the psychological aspects of sexual abuse
 Conducting medical interviews
 Performing physical examinations
 Establishing the diagnosis
 Recognizing sexually transmitted diseases
 The role of the physician in the court room
 Updated laboratory techniques
 Revised protocols for intervention programs
 New data on the lifetime sequelae of sexual abuse.
A CD-ROM offers interactive case studies, an electronic photographic atlas, and
additional readings. Appendixes include several State sexual abuse protocols. An
annotated bibliography and a glossary are also included.
To purchase a copy, contact:
Oxford University Press, Inc.
2001 Evans Rd.
Cary, NC 27513
Phone: 800-451-7556 or 919-677-5202
Fax: 919-677-1714
Email: orders@oup-usa.org
Website: http://www.oup-usa.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Directory II--Legislative Leadership, Committees & Staff 2000. The Council of State
Governments, Lexington, KY 40578. 469 pp. $49.00. Paperback.
This easy-to-use State legislative directory will assist you in locating legislative
organizations, selected officers, selected committees, and selected legislative functions.
Contact names, titles, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, website addresses,
email addresses and office hours are provided. Organized alphabetically by State and
jurisdiction, all 50 States are included in addition to the District of Columbia, American
Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To purchase a copy, contact:
The Council of State Governments
P.O. Box 11910
Lexington, KY 40578-1910
Phone: 800-800-1910
Fax: 859-244-8001
Email: info@csg.org
Website: http://www.csg.org
 End listing of books
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How They Operate
The following are publications from the online catalog of
Child Welfare Information Gateway http://www.childwelfare.gov/
State Liaison Officers (SLO) for Child Abuse and Neglect
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
Each State has a designated State Liaison Officer (SLO) for child abuse and neglect.
The SLO is responsible for ensuring the compliance to State laws and policies
regarding issues such as how and when to investigate allegations of child abuse and
neglect. This resource list provides contact information for each State's SLO.
State Foster Care Program Managers
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
The State Foster Care Manager is the administrator who has oversight responsibility for
all foster care services provided to children in the custody of the State and is the key
point of contact for concerns regarding foster care programs that cannot be resolved by
other existing procedures. This resource list provides contact information for each
State's Foster Care Manager.
State Licensing Specialists
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
This resource listing contains contact information for the State Licensing Specialist for
each State and Territory. The State Licensing Specialist is the person who maintains
the listing of licensed child placing agencies in each State and Territory.
Statutes of Limitations for Offenses Against Children
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 183 KB)
Year Published:2005 - 4 pages
All States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories have statutes of
limitations for criminal offenses and civil suits. A statute of limitations is a provision in
State statutes that establishes a time period within which legal action must be initiated.
In a criminal case, the State prosecutor must file charges within a certain time after the
commission of the crime. In a civil suit, a person has a limited time for filing a claim
alleging that an offense occurred against him or her. Once the time limit prescribed for
an offense in the statute of limitations ...
Statutes of Limitations for Offenses Against Children: Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 288 KB)
Year Published:2005 - 38 pages
All States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories have statutes of
limitations for criminal offenses and civil suits. A statute of limitations is a provision in
State statutes that establishes a time period within which legal action must be initiated.
In a criminal case, the State prosecutor must file charges within a certain time after the
commission of the crime. In a civil suit, a person has a limited time for filing a claim
alleging that an offense occurred against him or her. Once the time limit prescribed for
an offense in the statute of limitations ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Here are what their activities were supposed to be)
Substitute Care Providers: Helping Abused and Neglected Children
Author(s):
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Watson
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 251 KB)
Year Published:1994 - 82 pages
This manual for child welfare personnel provides them with information on serving
abused and neglected children who are in family foster care or who are adopted.
Section 1 presents background information on substitute care and permanency
planning. Section 2 identifies the basic needs of all children and the special needs of
both children in substitute care and maltreated children. Section 3 describes the
systems, networks, and teams with which people who help maltreated children interact,
including the service network and the substitute care team. Section 4 offers guidelines
for meeting the needs of maltreated children, focusing on understanding the
assessment ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Here are what the Caseworker Supervisors are Supposed to Do
Supervising Child Protective Services Caseworkers
Author(s):
Office on Child Abuse and Neglect., Caliber Associates.
Salus
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 4,010 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Order CD (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2004 - 110 pages
This manual provides the foundation for effective supervisory practice in child protective
services (CPS). It describes the roles and responsibilities of the CPS supervisor, and it
provides practice oriented advice on how to carry out supervisory responsibilities
effectively. Best practices and critical issues in supervisory practice are underscored
throughout. Topics include: The nature of CPS supervision; Making the transition from
caseworker to supervisor; Building the foundation for effective unit performance;
Building staff capacity and achieving excellence in performance; Supervisory feedback
and performance recognition; Results-oriented management; Clinical supervision;
Recruitment and retention; Managing from the middle; and Taking care of oneself and
...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Were these guidelines followed with preventing maltreatment with regard to
reunification?)
Reasonable Efforts to Preserve or Reunify Families and Achieve Permanency for
Children
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 182 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 4 pages
Reasonable efforts refer to efforts made by State social services agencies to provide
the assistance and services needed to preserve and reunify families. Laws in all States,
the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico require the provision of services that
will assist families in remedying the conditions that brought the child and family into the
child welfare system. The statutes in most States, however, use a broad definition of
what constitutes reasonable efforts. Some commonly used terms associated with
reasonable efforts include "family reunification," "family preservation," "family support,"
and "preventive services."
Reasonable Efforts to Preserve or Reunify Families and Achieve Permanency for
Children: Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 368 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 45 pages
Reasonable efforts refer to efforts made by State social services agencies to provide
the assistance and services needed to preserve and reunify families. Laws in all States,
the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico require the provision of services that
will assist families in remedying the conditions that brought the child and family into the
child welfare system. The statutes in most States, however, use a broad definition of
what constitutes reasonable efforts. Some commonly used terms associated with
reasonable efforts include "family reunification," "family preservation," "family support,"
and "preventive services." Federal law has long required State agencies to ...
Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community : 2007 Resource Packet
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway, Children's Bureau, FRIENDS
National Resource Center For Community-Based Child Abuse
Prevention
Availability:
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2007 - 66 pages
This information packet was written to support child maltreatment prevention efforts by
describing strategies and activities that promote protective factors. It is written for
service providers, to encourage and support them as they engage and partner with
parents to protect, nurture, and promote the healthy development of children. The
packet includes suggestions for enhancing each of the five protective factors in families;
tip sheets in English and Spanish for providers to use when working with parents and
caregivers on specific parenting challenges; strategies for sharing the message about
child abuse prevention in communities; and information about child abuse and neglect,
...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
CPS Mindset = As usual, everyone is Guilty-No-Matter-What
Reducing Re-referral in Unsubstantiated Child Protective Services Cases:
Research To Practice
Series Title:
Grantee Lessons Learned
Author(s):
Children's Bureau (DHHS)
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 208 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 7 pages
This paper identifies strategies to reduce re-referrals in unsubstantiated child protective
services (CPS) cases. Based on the findings of three Children's Bureau funded
research grants on unsubstantiated CPS cases, it summarizes the studies' key findings
regarding factors influencing CPS decision-making and implications for practice
including suggestions for assessing risk more effectively and creative ways to provide
services to at-risk families in unsubstantiated cases.
The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation: An Evaluation Handbook Series
from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Author(s):
KRA Corporation
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:1997 - 150 pages
This manual provides an overview of the evaluation process, with special considerations
for programs funded by the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF).
The text describes why evaluations are important and explains each step of the
process, whether an outside evaluator is used or the evaluation is being conducted by
in-house staff. Topics include: purpose, cost, types of evaluation teams, selecting and
managing outside contractors, organizational preparation for the evaluation, evaluation
plans, data collection, analysis, and reports. In general, program managers should
determine a purpose for the evaluation, consider evaluation needs when designing the
program, be an involved role ...
Rethinking Child Welfare Practice Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997: A Resource Guide
Author(s):
Children's Bureau (HHS)
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 332 KB)
Year Published:2000 - 62 pages
The provisions of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) intended to promote the
safety, permanency, and well-being of children will have a significant impact on child
welfare practice. ASFA requires state child welfare agencies to engage parents early in
the process, redesign service delivery to achieve permanency goals for children, ensure
sufficient resources for families, and partner with the courts. This guide provides a
framework for redesigning child welfare practice. It includes an analysis of the key
provisions of the Adoption and Safe Families Act and identifies casework practices that
are consistent with the law. It highlights the recommendations ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway: Did your caseworker
follow these guidelines as outlined in the publications below, with regard to
Kinship Care? Did they look for a Relative, first?)
Kinship Care/Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
This resource listing provides the contact information of selected organizations that offer
information on kinship care. Each entry includes a brief description of the function of the
organization, mailing address, telephone and fax number, e-mail address, and web
address.
Kinship Caregivers and the Child Welfare System
Series Title:
Factsheets for Families
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 230 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Availability in Spanish:View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 313 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:
2005 - 15 pages
Informal and formal kinship care arrangements help to ensure stability and protection for
children within their extended family. This fact sheet describes the benefits of kinship
care as a child protection alternative and examines the agency's responsibility for the
placement. The placement decision-making process, what to expect from the child
welfare service and court system, and financial support, available services, and
permanency planning are discussed. Questions for new kin caregivers to ask and a list
of additional references are provided.
Placement of Children With Relatives
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 152 KB)
Year Published:2005 - 2 pages
In order for states to receive Federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance,
Federal law requires that they "consider giving preference to an adult relative over a
non-related caregiver when determining placement for a child, provided that the relative
caregiver meets all relevant state child protection standards." Each state defines
"relative" differently. However, the main requirements for placement are that the relative
be "fit and willing," able to ensure the child's safety, and able to meet the child's needs.
This publication provides an overview of State laws regarding preference to relatives,
financial support, and adoption by relatives.
Placement of Children With Relatives: Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 663 KB)
Year Published:2005 - 32 pages
In order for States to receive Federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance,
Federal law requires that they "consider giving preference to an adult relative over a
non-related caregiver when determining placement for a child, provided that the relative
caregiver meets all relevant State child protection standards." Several States require
relatives to undergo a criminal background check that may include all adult members of
the household, and several States have established "kinship care" or "relative caregiver"
programs by statute to provide relatives with benefits to offset the cost of caring for a
placed child. Current through February 2005, this ...
Raising Your Grandchildren (from Promoting Healthy Families in Your
Community : 2008 Resource Packet)
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway, Children's Bureau, FRIENDS
National Resource Center For Community-Based Child Abuse
Prevention
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 169 KB)
Availability in Spanish:View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 172 KB)
Year Published:
2008 - 1 pages
When children can't be with their parents, a grandparent's home can provide stability
and comfort. This tip sheet helps grandparent caregivers understand how their
grandchildren may be feeling, how to help children feel safe and secure in their home,
and where to find support in their community if needed.
(Inserted Not from Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Who Snitched on You? Were they afraid “not to?”
Did they really believe there was abuse or were they afraid of prosecution
of themselves?)
Penalties for Failure to Report and False Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect:
Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 200 KB)
Year Published:2007 - 23 pages
The Role of Educators in Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect
Author(s):
Office on Child Abuse and Neglect., Caliber Associates.
Crosson-Tower
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 3,890 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Order CD (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 85 pages
This manual, designed to examine the roles that teachers, school counselors, school
social workers, school nurses, special education professionals, administrators, and
other school personnel have in helping maltreated children, provides the basis for the
involvement of educators in combating the problem of child abuse and neglect. It also
may be used by other professionals involved in child abuse and neglect interventions,
such as child protective services, mental health, law enforcement, health care, and early
childhood professionals, to gain a better understanding of the role of educators in child
protection. Specifically, this manual addresses the following topics: Identifying reasons
why educators ...
School-Based Child Maltreatment Programs: Synthesis of Lessons Learned
Series Title:
Grantee Lessons Learned
Author(s):
Children's Bureau (DHHS)
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 200 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 9 pages
The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect awarded several grants during Fiscal Year 1997
to programs that utilized school resources for the prevention and treatment of child
abuse and neglect. The three-year demonstration projects focused on collaboration
between child protection agencies and school systems; education for parents, teachers,
and children about child abuse and neglect; and the involvement of school staff in
prevention and intervention. This report summarizes the service approaches and
lessons learned by 11 demonstration programs as noted in their final reports. The
projects found that training was effective in enhancing knowledge about the signs of
child abuse ...
The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect
Author(s):
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Donna Pence, Charles Wilson
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 212 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:1992 - 78 pages
This manual was designed to train State and local law enforcement officials for
intervention in and investigation of child abuse and neglect cases. It explains the rules
of law enforcement, the nature of team investigations, the investigative process,
relationships with other disciplines, interview techniques, and specialized types of
investigations. Topics include risk assessment, removal from home, interviewing tools,
cross-cultural investigations, foster care, investigation of child deaths, monitoring
telephone or personal conversations, polygraph evaluations, and arrest issues. A
glossary of terms and a selected bibliography are provided. 1 figure and 54 notes.
The Role of Mental Health Professionals in the Prevention and Treatment of Child
Abuse and Neglect
Author(s):
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Peterson, Urquiza
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 191 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:1993 - 82 pages
This manual provides mental health professionals with a knowledge base about
preventing and treating child abuse and neglect and helps them understand their roles
and responsibilities in this area. Sections provide information on mental health
disciplines and child abuse intervention; identify the roles of the mental health
professional who works with maltreated children and their families, including preventing
abuse on a primary and secondary level, providing tertiary intervention services,
evaluating and treating children and their families, serving as an advocate and source of
information, acting as an educator, helping clients prepare for testifying in court, being a
consultant to county ...
Male Perpetrators of Child Maltreatment: Findings from NCANDS
Author(s):
United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation., Walter R. McDonald
and Associates.
Shusterman, Fluke, Yuan
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 368 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2005 - 39 pages
Using case-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect System (NCANDS) for
2002, analyses of the characteristics of male perpetrators of maltreatment were
conducted. The study utilized an 18-State data set of 192,392 perpetrators identified by
the child protective services system during 2002. The relationship of the perpetrators to
the child victims, as well as whether the perpetrator acted alone or with another person,
was considered along with demographic characteristics of both perpetrators and
victims, and circumstances of the maltreatment. Research questions were: 1) What are
the characteristics of male perpetrators of child maltreatment? 2) What specific patterns
of ...
Characteristics of Perpetrators
Most States define perpetrators of child abuse and neglect as parents and
other caretakers (such as relatives, babysitters, and foster parents) who
have harmed a child in their care. It is important to note that States define
the term "caretaker" differently. Harm caused to a child by others (such as
acquaintances or strangers) may not be considered child abuse but rather
may be considered a criminal matter. The following resources provide
information on the characteristics of perpetrators of child abuse and
neglect.
Perpetrators
Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (2007)
In Child Maltreatment 2005
Data on the characteristics of perpetrators, their relationship to
their child victims, and the types of maltreatment they commit.
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Was this “used” because your child was disabled?)
The Risk and Prevention of Maltreatment of Children with Disabilities
Series Title:
Bulletins for Professionals
Author(s):
Availability:
Child Welfare Information Gateway
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 706 KB)
Year Published:2001 - 8 pages
This In Focus report examines the risk of maltreatment for children with disabilities.
Topics include prevalence of the problem, characteristics of victims and perpetrators,
types of maltreatment, risk factors, and prevention strategies. Emphasis is placed on
societal attitudes about disabilities, program policies and procedures, and familyfocused programming.
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Were you “assumed” to be a drug user when you were not?)
Screening and Assessment for Family Engagement, Retention and Recovery
(SAFERR)
Author(s):
National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Young, Nakashian, Yeh, Amatetti
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 3,510 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2007 - 318 pages
This guidebook presents the SAFERR (Screening and Assessment for Family
Engagement , Retention, and Recovery) model for helping staff of public and private
agencies to families affected by substance use disorders. SAFERR was developed in
response to frequent requests from managers of child welfare agencies for a "tool" that
caseworkers could use to screen parents for potential substance use disorders in order
to make decisions about children's safety. (Author abstract, modified)
Parental Drug Use as Child Abuse
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 180 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 4 pages
Abuse of drugs or alcohol by parents and other caretakers can have a negative impact
on the health , safety, and well-being of children. Approximately 42 States, the District of
Columbia, and Guam currently have laws within their child protection statutes that
address the issue of substance abuse by parents. Two main areas of concern are (1)
the harm caused by prenatal drug exposure and (2) the harm caused to children of any
age by exposure to illegal drug activity in the home. The Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act (CAPTA) requires States to have policies and procedures in place ...
Parental Drug Use as Child Abuse: Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 306 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 28 pages
Abuse of drugs or alcohol by parents and other caretakers can have a negative impact
on the health, safety, and well-being of children. Approximately 42 States, the District of
Columbia, and Guam currently have laws within their child protection statutes that
address the issue of substance abuse by parents. Two main areas of concern are (1)
the harm caused by prenatal drug exposure and (2) the harm caused to children of any
age by exposure to illegal drug activity in the home. The Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act (CAPTA) requires states to have policies and procedures in place to ...
Substance Abuse
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
This resource listing provides the addresses and phone numbers of organizations that
maintain information about the substance abuse in the context of child welfare. Each
entry includes a brief description of the function of the organization.
Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment
Series Title:
Bulletins for Professionals
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 223 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 5 pages
Substance abuse has a major impact on the child welfare system. It is estimated that 9
percent of children in the United States live with at least one parent who abuses alcohol
or other drugs. Research has demonstrated that children of substance abusing parents
are more likely to experience abuse or neglect than children in non-substance abusing
households. This fact sheet addresses the scope of the problem, the impact of parental
substance abuse on children, service delivery issues, and agency practice implications.
Resources for further information also are provided. 12 references.
Understanding Substance Abuse and Facilitating Recovery: A Guide for Child
Welfare Workers
Author(s):
National Center for Substance Abuse and Child Welfare., United States.
Dept. of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.
Breshears, Yeh, Young
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 416 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2004 - 34 pages
This publication is intended for front line child welfare staff. It discusses the relationship
of alcohol and drugs to families in the child welfare system; provides information on the
biological, psychological, and social processes of alcohol and drug addiction to help
staff recognize when substance abuse is a risk factor in their cases; describes
strategies to facilitate and support alcohol and drug treatment and recovery; and
explains the benefits of partnering with substance abuse treatment and dependency
court systems to improve outcomes for children of parents with substance use
disorders. (Author abstract)
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Were you told your child was sexually abused? (includes chapter on “what
is sexual abuse?”)
Parenting the Sexually Abused Child
Series Title:
Factsheets for Families
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 292 KB)
Year Published:1990 - 11 pages
Written for prospective and adoptive parents, this fact sheet describes the effects of
sexual abuse and provides recommendations for caring for sexually abused children.
Topics covered include the physical and behavioral signs of abuse, issues for boys,
contributors to juvenile sex offending, and typical reactions to abuse. Bonding in the
adoptive family also is discussed. The fact sheet provides a list of recommended
publications for parents and professionals.
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Was an “Open Adoption” situation presented to you? Was it a normal open
adoption or a means used to get the birth
parents to agree to TPR? It makes it much easier for the CPS attorney to
get the birth parents to simply give a TPR with
an open adoption as enticement. The attorney doesn’t’ have to work as
hard in having TPR occur through court,
wherein proof is required to terminate parental rights. Were your needs and
wants considered at all in
adopting these children or were you being “used” as a temporary
caregiver? Foster parents know that
children require commitment and give their entire lives and beings to these
children in need.
The ultimate commitment is in the form of adoption, which used to mean for
a Lifetime.)
Postadoption Contact Agreements Between Birth and Adoptive Families:
Summary of State Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 308 KB)
Year Published:2005 - 42 pages
Postadoption contact agreements, sometimes referred to as cooperative adoption or
open adoption agreements, are arrangements that allow some kind of contact between
a child's adoptive family and members of the child's birth family after the child's adoption
has been finalized. These arrangements can range from informal, mutual
understandings between the birth and adoptive families to written, formal contracts.
Agreements for postadoption contact or communication have become more prevalent in
recent years, due to several factors: -- There is wider recognition of the rights of birth
parents to make choices for their children -- Many adoptions involve older children, such
as ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Were these Guidelines in Making Reports followed?)
Making and Screening Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 196 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 4 pages
This publication discusses procedures for making reports of suspected child abuse or
neglect, the required content of reports, and special reporting procedures for reports of
suspicious deaths and substance-exposed newborns. It also discusses criteria for
screening reports by child protective services, timeframes for initiating investigations,
and differing methods of agency response.
Making and Screening Reports of Child Abuse and Neglect : Summary of State
Laws
Series Title:
State Statutes
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 451 KB)
Year Published:2006 - 74 pages
All 50 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana
Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have laws and policies that specify
procedures for making and responding to reports of suspected child abuse or neglect.
All States require mandated reporters to make an immediate report when they suspect
or know of abusive or neglectful situations. In all jurisdictions, the initial report may be
made orally to either the child protective services (CPS) agency or a law enforcement
agency. In addition, the laws and policies in all jurisdictions specify procedures for the
initial response required by ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Was your case handled in an up-to-date manner according to surveys &
findings done on CPS practices?)
National Evaluation of Family Support Programs Volume A: The Meta-Analysis
Author(s):
Layzer, Goodson, Bernstein, Price
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 403 KB)
Year Published:2001 - 99 pages
As part of the national evaluation of family support programs mandated by the Omnibus
Reconciliation Act of 1993, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families
contracted with Abt Associates Inc. to conduct a meta-analysis of existing research
about the effectiveness of different types of programs and the impact of services on
families with a variety of needs and characteristics. The meta-analysis provides a
statistical summary of 665 studies of 260 programs. In general, the findings revealed
that family support services resulted in slight improvements in some outcomes.
However, existing research has not identified one model that is effective for all ...
National Study of Child Protective Services Systems and Reform Efforts: A
Summary Report
Author(s):
Fluke, Harper, Parry, Sedlak, et al.
Availability:
View Publication
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 32 pages
This paper summarizes key findings on practice and policy, as well as changes being
undertaken, which were identified during the 2-year National Study of Child Protective
Services Systems and Reform Efforts. Topics include background, screening and triage,
investigation, collaboration with law enforcement, alternatives to investigation,
collaboration in providing services, and looking toward the future. These findings were
discussed at a symposium of persons knowledgeable about child protective services
policies and practices and their observations are included in this paper. (Author abstract
modified)
National Study of Child Protective Services Systems and Reform Efforts:
Findings on Local CPS Practices
Author(s):
Children's Bureau (DHHS)
Availability:
View Publication
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 161 pages
The Children's Bureau and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and
Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services surveyed local child
protective service agencies in 300 counties during 2002 about their structure and
organization of screening and intake, investigation, and alternative response functions.
Cooperation with other agencies and reform initiatives also were addressed. This report
reviews the findings of the research and analyzes differences between agency
structures. The majority of child protective service agencies received referrals from state
or local hotlines, schools, and individuals. However, few agencies automatically
accepted referrals from identified groups of reporters. ...
National Study of Child Protective Services Systems and Reform Efforts: Review
of State CPS Policy
Author(s):
Fluke, Harper, Parry, Yuan
Availability:
View Publication
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 126 pages
State child protective service policy manuals were reviewed for this report about current
administration, screening, investigation, and child protection response strategies.
Similarities and differences between states are noted, and innovative activities are
highlighted. Policies varied regarding the definition of mandated reporters, criteria for
accepting referrals, notifications of screening decisions, investigation disposition
categories, level of evidence required for substantiation, and timeframes for
investigation. Twenty states indicated that they had an alternative response system
available for families with low risk of harm. Reasons for the creation of the alternative
system ranged from child safety to service flexibility. Overall, the state policies were ...
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW): Local Child
Welfare Agency Survey. Report.
Author(s):
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being Research Group
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 888 KB)
Year Published:2001 - 108 pages
This report summarizes data collected during the first wave of the National Survey of
Child and Adolescent Well-Being about the structure of child welfare agencies and the
services provided to families. Child welfare administrators from 92 localities were
interviewed and asked to complete a questionnaire about staff resources, foster care
resources, service activities, service delivery mechanisms, and service dynamics. The
study found that two-thirds of the participating child welfare agencies were contained
within a larger agency and many collaborated with other programs, such as Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment,
and juvenile justice. More than ...
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: State Child Welfare Agency
Survey. Report.
Author(s):
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being Research Group
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2001 - 74 pages
Forty-six state child welfare administrators were interviewed by telephone from March
2000 to August 2000 for the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being
sponsored by the Children's Bureau. The survey requested information about child
welfare policies and practices and the impact of recent Federal legislation, including the
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), the Multiethnic Placement Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. The
majority of administrators indicated that the ASFA has influenced changes in practices
regarding child safety, permanency, collaboration with the courts, and data collection.
One-third of the administrators noted discrepancies ...
(Inserted Not by Child Welfare Information Gateway:
The following from Child Welfare Information Gateway includes
Caseworker Code of Ethics)
Child Protective Services: A Guide for Caseworkers. 2003
Author(s):
Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (DHHS)
DePanfilis, Salus
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 4,470 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2003 - 141 pages
This manual, in CD-ROM format, examines the roles and responsibilities of child
protective services (CPS) workers. It describes the purposes, key decisions, and issues
of each stage of the CPS process: intake, initial assessment/investigation, family
assessment, case planning, service provision, evaluation of family progress and case
closure. The manual also covers strategies for casework supervision, training, and
support. Appendices include a glossary of terms, resource listings of selected national
organizations, State toll-free telephone numbers for reporting child abuse, and the
National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. 8 tables and 173 references.
Child Sexual Abuse: Intervention and Treatment Issues
Author(s):
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Faller
Availability:
View Publication
Download Publication (PDF - 283 KB)
Year Published:1993 - 126 pages
The manual addresses the needs of professionals regarding child sexual abuse,
describes professional practices, and discusses how to assist sexually abused children
and their families. Treatment techniques for the victim, the nonoffending parent or
mother, and the offending father are offered, and research on reliability and
suggestibility of child witnesses is reviewed briefly. The focus of the manual is on case
management and substantiation and is designed to assist child protection workers, child
abuse investigation and mental health staff, legal professionals, and education and
health care professionals. Child interviewing techniques and sample questions are
included. The document contains a glossary ...
Child Welfare and the Law
Series Title:
Related Organizations Lists
Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Availability:
View Publication
Year Published:2008 - 0 pages
This resource list provides the addresses and phone numbers of organizations that
maintain information for professionals about legal issues regarding child welfare. A short
description of each organization is included. The organizations address children's rights,
the prosecution of child abuse, state court proceedings, child welfare policy analysis,
and advocacy.
Executive Summary of Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child
Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice. Recommendations From
the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence
Department.
Author(s):
Schechter, Edleson
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 66 KB)
Year Published:1999 - 6 pages
This report summarizes the recommendations of the National Council of Juvenile and
Family Court Judges for responding to domestic violence and child abuse within the
same family, available in full at http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/otherpubs/ncjfcj.pdf .
An advisory committee of the Council focused on coordinating interventions provided by
the child protection system, domestic violence programs, and juvenile or trial courts, as
well as law enforcement, child welfare, churches, schools, health care systems, and
extended families. Emphasis was placed onthe need to ensure the safety, well-being,
and stability of children and their families. The foundation principles also recommend
the expansion and reallocation ...
A Framework for Quality Assurance in Child Welfare
Author(s):
National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational
Improvement.
O'Brien, Watson
Availability:
Download Publication (PDF - 212 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published:2002 - 82 pages
This guide outlines a framework for implementing quality assurance programs for child
welfare services. The components are based on federal requirements, national
standards, and child welfare research. Five steps are described: select outcomes and
standards, integrate quality assurance goals and procedures throughout the agency,
collect data about outcomes, analyze data, and improve systems as indicated by
evaluation findings. Specific topics include the role of the quality assurance system in
the Child and Family Services Review process, communication of quality assurance
practices, and staff participation in analysis. The manual describes each step of the
quality assurance system and reviews the tasks ...
Abuse of Children With Disabilities
Cosmos
Today, 8(2), 2001
View Abstract
Explores surveys and studies about abused children with disabilities, perpetrators, and
the effects of abuse and maltreatment.
Child Abuse in America: Prevalence, Costs, Consequences and Intervention
van der Kolk, Crozier, & Hopper (2001)
In The Cost of Child Maltreatment: Who Pays? We All Do
View Abstract
Summarizes findings from research about the incidence of child maltreatment, types of
abuse, characteristics of victims and perpetrators, and the impact of abuse on children's
health and behavior.
Child Abuse and Neglect: Perpetrators
Child Welfare League of America (2003)
Data describing the relationship of perpetrators to victims.
Comparing Different Types of Child Abuse and Spouse Abuse Offenders
Pittman & Lee
Violence and Victims, 19(2), 2004
View Abstract
Examined differences in background characteristics, personal and interpersonal
problems, and family climate among three types of child abuse offenders to determine
the necessity of distinguishing types.
Identifying Child Molesters: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse by Recognizing the
Patterns of the Offenders
Van Dam (2000)
View Abstract
Includes typical characteristics of sex offenders.
Male Perpetrators of Child Maltreatment: Findings from NCANDS
Series Title:
Secondary Analysis On Child Abuse and Neglect Topics of Current
Policy Interest ; no. 1
Author(s):
United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation., Walter R. McDonald
and Associates.
Shusterman, Fluke, Yuan
Availability:
View Publication
Printable Version (PDF - 368 KB)
Order Publication (Free - Add to Cart)
Year Published: 2005 - 39 pages
Using case-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect System (NCANDS) for
2002, analyses of the characteristics of male perpetrators of maltreatment were
conducted. The study utilized an 18-State data set of 192,392 perpetrators identified by
the child protective services system during 2002. The relationship of the perpetrators to
the child victims, as well as whether the perpetrator acted alone or with another person,
was considered along with demographic characteristics of both perpetrators and
victims, and circumstances of the maltreatment. Research questions were: 1) What are
the characteristics of male perpetrators of child maltreatment? 2) What specific patterns
of ...
Psychosocial Factors Associated With Types of Child Maltreatment
DiLauro
Child Welfare, 83(1), 2004
View Abstract
Examines whether a relationship exists between certain parent or caregiver
psychosocial factors or clusters of factors and the type of maltreatment.
The Relative Importance of Wife Abuse as a Risk Factor for Violence Against
Children
Tajima
Child Abuse and Neglect, 24(11), 2000
View Abstract
Study investigating the relative importance of wife abuse as a risk factor for physical
punishment and verbal child abuse.
Who Are the Perpetrators and Why Do They Do It?
Davies & Garwood
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 5(1), 2001
View Abstract
Discusses the social situational model of child abuse and how it can be used to
conceptualize individual and environmental factors that place caregivers at risk for
shaking a child.
(Inserted Not from Child Welfare Information Gateway:
Did CPS itself, cause maltreatment in removal of your child?)
The Following is From: http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/impact/
Impact
Learn how child abuse and neglect affect children, adolescents, adult survivors, and
society. This section examines the impact of abuse and neglect on child development,
as well as long-term consequences for adults with a history of abuse. Impact is explored
by type of abuse, family factors, and the social and economic consequences.
Impact by type of maltreatment
Impact of family factors
Impact on child development
Long-term consequences of abuse and neglect
Social and economic consequences of abuse and neglect
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Selected Resources
Long-Term Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2006)
Overview of some of the most common physical, psychological, behavioral, and societal
consequences of child abuse and neglect. (PDF - 249 KB)
What Are the Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect?
Children’s Bureau (HHS) User Manual Series (2003)
In A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: The Foundation for Practice
A discussion of the physical, developmental, psychological, and societal effects of child
abuse and neglect.
National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
A comprehensive website providing Internet resources and a bibliographic database of
information on the effects of violence exposure on children. The center also provides
training and technical assistance to a variety of collaborative community programs that
respond to children and families exposed to violence.
The Vortex of Violence: How Children Adapt and Survive in a Violent World (PDF 223 KB)
Child Trauma Academy (2002)
Discusses the impact of violence on a child’s development, including effects on
physical, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and social functioning, and the
transgenerational cycle of violence.
Related Information Gateway Topics
Preventing child abuse & neglect
Responding to child abuse & neglect
The following definitions and links of Child Abuse & Neglect is directly from:
Children’s Bureau
Administration for Children & Families (ACF)
US Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS)
From: Child Welfare Information Gateway: http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/index.cfm
Child Abuse & Neglect
Resources about child maltreatment, including definitions, signs and symptoms,
statistics and prevalence, types of child abuse and neglect, risk and protective factors,
the impact on individuals and society, and child fatalities.
Overview
Links to related organizations and state hotlines and answers to frequently asked
questions.
Defining child abuse & neglect
Definitions from Federal and State laws, and resources that distinguish between
discipline and abuse.
Identifying child abuse & neglect
Information and training resources on recognizing signs and symptoms.
Prevalence
National and State statistics on child maltreatment, prevalence of different types of child
abuse and neglect, abuse and neglect in out-of-home care, and recurrence.
Perpetrators
Characteristics of perpetrators, including those who commit certain types of abuse, such
as juvenile sex offenders.
Types
Definitions and signs of different maltreatment types and research on child neglect,
sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.
Risk & protective factors
Characteristics of parents or caretakers, families, children, and communities that
increase risk or promote safe and supportive families and resilience in children.
Impact
How child abuse and neglect affect children, adolescents, adult survivors, and society,
including its impact on child development.
Child fatalities
Perpetrator characteristics and risk factors.
For help with reporting child abuse and neglect or to speak with a counselor, contact
Childhelp® at 800.422.4453.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Group Comment
Exactly Connie...and you can sue them on your own under Title 42 usc 1983 but you
would have to have witnesses who would testify that they bad mouthed u, etc. And you
have to show damages. All kinds of legal stuff but people ARE going after them this
way (as is one attorney in CA but he's only taking open and shut cases).
"Dr. David Harrison" <fplegalsolutions@ gmail.com> wrote:
Connie; It is not legal for them to do half of what they do.....Our Constitutional
Rights fall into play here, along with the Privacy Act. The problem is that no one
ever questions them....Why for the same reason we don't have attorneys to
represent us as foster parents, LADY JUSTICE HAS A PRICE TAG ON HER
SLEEVE. Not fair, and not justice, but fact just the same.
They have all the money in the world to fight us in court, they have our taxes to
use against us. On the other side we have to pay for our justice....our plan helps
but is not effective unless it is in place when something happens, and does not
cover for other things like what is mentioned above. The illegal mentioning of our
names, or dropping information that is no one else's business, ie; being allowed
access to personnel files without a search warrant, speaking to a supervisor in a
derogatory manner about an employee, divulging facts that are private and fall
under the Privacy act.
All these things are ILLEGAL Connie and against our rights but who has the
money to call them on it. I don't, and I know that most of our group members
don't. Therein lies the problem. One of these days they are going to pick on the
WRONG person and they are gong to be called on the carpet.....we are waiting
for that day. This is why IRS doesn't have the power that they
used to carry....now we need to do the same with GOLIATH. marilyn fpls
junecleaver58 wrote:>
> I'm wondering if CPS has the right to go in to a persons workplace and > let
them know an employess is under investigation. Especially since my > husbands
job has nothing to do with children. He works for the Postal > Service. They are
of course being dipicable, but last summer we had an >incident that was very
strange. A supervisor who was an odd guy you begin with began goading my
husband, trying ot get a rise out of him. Fortunatley a SHop Steward was
present and can verify that Jim stayed quite calm and walked away. The Supv
followed him tormenting him. When Jim asked him to stop, he screamed at Jim
to go home right then. Then wrote a report on how violent Jim was. I smelled a
rat right away and > wondered if CPS had convinced this moron that Jim was a
child abuser. > Lucky for us the Shop Steward went to the head of hte Union who
took > the Supv to task and nothing more was done. But he had written an
> initial report on how violent Jim was. I realize the USPS is as off the wall as
CPS. But how stupid!
>
> Anyone know the legality of manipulating co-workers by CPS?
> Connie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dept of Health & Human Services (DHHS)’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Page:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/
Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) of (DHHS):
http://www.hrsa.gov/servicedelivery/hipaa.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HIPAA
(Health Insurance Portability & Acountability Act
HIPAA complaint: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacyhowtofile.htm
These forms can be filled out right on the screen and then you can just print them
out by right clicking at the top of the page. These links are also located in my
handbook. It's quick and easy, it's just one page. The second page tells you
where to mail it or fax it. You will get release forms back in the mail asking for
your permission to pursue the case.
You need to file a HIPAA separate forms if you have multiple offenders
Remember, you only have 180 days from the time you found out
about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About a CAP
From Marilyn Harrison
Marilyn, this is really good advice, and something that I am keeping in my archives.
Although we weren't asked to sign anything after our incident, knowing that it can be
reopened at anytime doesn't sit well with me. For that reason, I am arciving this in my
email box.
Shannon
On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 5:48 AM, Dr. David Harrison <fplegalsolutions@ gmail.com>
wrote:
Lee Ann It is probably what we talked about, a C.A.P. offer. *Remember that the
incident took place but we all know that it was an accident plain
and simple.
*If they make it look like anything else DO NOT SIGN the C.A.P. Take your time in
reading the agreement, don't them rush you and if they continue talking to you while you
are reading it *politely ask them to remain silent while you are reading it. * They will try
to pressure you into signing it by saying things like, "Chris/LeeAnn, this is a way we can
get you guys back to what you do best, to get your kids back to you. Just sign this and
this allegation will go away" Number one that is a lie. They can re-open this allegation
any time they want too. Normally I do not agree with C.A.P.'s but in this circumstance
because this incident *DID take place* I would recommend that you sign it, IF IT IS
WORDED correctly. Always keep this word in the back of your mind when reading this
agreement, IT IS A CONFESSION so read it carefully. Watch for phrases like; anger
management classes, physc evaluations, parenting classes, etc. You will be required to
pay for these extra trainings sessions.
1. If you disagree with any wording, highlight it, *change the wording*
do not ask them for permission just do it.
2. Initial each change and then have them initial each change.
3. Then make sure they sign the bottom of the document too.
4. Make sure the same person initiating is the person signing it.
If they will not allow you to make the necessary changes tell them you willnot sign it
because it is not a factual statement as to what took place,
*"you will not sign a statement saying you did something that indicates that it was in
**any way a deliberate action intentionally meant to harm your child and they have
refused to allow you make the necessary changes that you have been advised to make
by your advocate".
(You can use my name if you want.Marilyn Harrison of Foster Parents Legal Solutions I
am not an attorney but an advocate on behalf of foster
parents across the country with access to legal counsel in every state on behalf of foster
parents).
Print this off and take it with you in a separate folder, and PRINT the statement above
on the bottom of the C.A.P. as the reason you would not sign it. Your servant and friend
marilyn fpls
Group this was sent through another group that I belong to but wanted to pass it on to
you all. We need to put this in our links too. Under the GOVERNMENT LINK marilyn
fpls
Child Welfare Services are regulated under Federal Law. They are funded
under the Social Security Act/Medicaid. 42 U.S.C 671and 672
http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/42/ chapters/
7/subchapters/ iv/parts/ e/sections/ section_671. html
http://www4. law.cornell. edu/uscode/ 42/672.html
The United States Department of Health and Human Services, often
abbreviated HHS, is a Cabinet department of the United States government
with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing
essential human services
The section of HHS that directly oversees the programs is
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is a division of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It is
headed by the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, which from
2001 to 2007 was Dr. Wade F. Horn. It has a $47 billion budget for 65
programs that target children, youth and families.[1] These programs
include assistance with welfare, child support enforcement, adoption
assistance, foster care, child care, and child abuse.
You can find any and all information regarding the Federal Laws,
Policies and Legislation pertaining to Child Welfare at this site.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs /cb/
The Child Welfare Information Gateway is another site that is loaded
with information
http://www.childwelfare.gov/
The ACF has Regional Offices set up to oversee the operations of the
States within their jurisdiction. http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/ One of the
functions of the Regional Office is to insure that the States are
complying with Federal Regulations.
Each State has a Department of Human Services under various names. In
Georgia it's called the Department of Human Resources. The Department of
Family and Children's Services is one of the sections of DHR and is
responsible for the Child Protection Services Operations among other
programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, ect.
Each County has it's own office that is directly responsible for
administering the actual programs.
I hope this mini-course has been helpful.
For all of the children that have been abused and killed in custody of
CPS or adopted illegally and hurt or killed, maybe this law is a little
bit to late.
Relevant Text From Title I and Title VI of P.L. 109-248—Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act of 2006
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/ laws_policies/ federal/pl109_ 248.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW!!! UPLOADED 16 March 2008
The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit addressed qualified immunity in two March
2008 cases. That court held that there is no qualified immunity for the act of removing a
child from its home without a proper showing
of just cause: the child has a Fourth Amendment tight, too, Click here.
NEW!!! UPLOADED 3 March 2008
DRANO #183 (click) Barb's Petition for Writ of Certiorari filed in the United States
Supreme Court. Issues are unique and are of national importance. A must read
for every lawyer. Caption: In the Matter of Disbarment of Barbara C. Johnson, No. 079625, docketed: March 3, 2008. The Court gave it a different title: Barbara C. Johnson,
Petitioner v. Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. SCOTUS grants cert to only 1
percent of the cert petitions filed. Keep expectations low. If cert is granted, the legal
business will change for both lawyers and the public who truly needs them. It will wipe
away the fear that keeps lawyers from zealously representing you!
NEW!!!UPLOADED 6 March 2008
DRANO #184 (click) Appendices A through G to Barb's Petition for Writ of
Certiorari. Read the Massachusetts High Court's opinion and the Single Justice's
Judgments of Disbarment and of Contempt. AND THEN see Barb's comments
INTERLEAVED into the High Court opinion. Her comments call attention to how the
Massachusetts High Court distorts the facts and invents others. Their conduct is
egregious and unforgivable. We the Public deserve Justice. I am already a Senior
Senior, so the justices' action--while depriving me of a livelihood--deprives the Public of
lawyers who are not intimidated by the fear of losing their licenses if they challenge the
judiciary. The system MUST be reformed. The Public must be PROACTIVE and
RELENTLESS in working to the goal of TRUE Justice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The original files of those which appear in Drano Series ##183 and 184 may now
be seen in .PDF at JD Supra:
Google Web Alert for: Barbara C. Johnson, Barbara Johnson,
falseallegations.com
JD Supra: Legal Documents - Petition for Writ of Certiorari ...
Barbara C. Johnson v. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Petition for Writ of
Certiorari ..
False Allegations: http://www.falseallegations.com ..**
http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=201d9354-7c7f-463b-8881a73c9bff031e
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was doing some research on the Child Welfare Code of Ethics and sitting in a footnote
is a reference to a companion handbook to the
IL code of ethics prepared for the DCFS OIG. 203 pages to explain this ten page
pamphlet which is a summary of all this research in the
handbook. http://www.state. il.us/DCFS/ docs/CodeEthics. pdf
I called DCFS and asked for a copy. I did find it in a ethics library at the Illinois Institute
of Technology but I am not a college student who can do an interlibrary loan to get it.
DCFS had to print a copy just for me, can you believe it? Why is this not on a website or
available in public libraries? Or in the DCFS lending library so foster parents have
access? Oh, get this, there are several volumes of this material and it is used to
formulate caseworker trainings and the licensure exam. My tax dollars paid to have this
book written. Why do I have to haggle to get a copy of it? The state rep sponsoring the
legislation on the OIG and their failure to revoke caseworker licensure didn't even know
it existed. They do now.
BTW, my attorney is delighted I found this in a footnote in a California school of social
work publication and we can use it for the reply brief. All we had available for the main
brief was the ten page pamphlet.
The IL code of ethics is used as a model in several states so this companion handbook
is valuable information. It's the research done
to write the Code of Ethics.
The Code of Ethics is useful when fighting false allegations because if anything
unethical occured, then FP's have a way to fight the allegations. But you have to know
what ethics are to fight back. If your confidentiality rights were violated, the caseworker
engaged in a conflict on interest, all helpful to fight back.
It's not just knowing the rules and procedures. You also have to know the social work
research to determine if a caseworker acted
ethically and used sound practice guidelines in reaching a decision.
Illinois DCFS Code of Ethics: http://www.state. il.us/DCFS/ docs/CodeEthics. pdf
Title: Ethical child welfare practice, a companion handbook to the Code of ethics for
child welfare professionals. Volume I, Clinical issues / created by Ethics Staff, Office of
the Inspector General, Illinois Department of Children & Family Services/University of
Chicago, Martin Leever ... [et al.] ; in conjunction with Eileen Gambrill. Published:
Chicago, Ill. : Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services : the University of Chicago,
School of Social Service Administration, c1999.
Physical Description: ii, 203 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Includes: Includes bibliographical references.
Subject (LCSH): Child welfare workers --Professional ethics.
Child welfare workers --Professional ethics --Illinois.
Child welfare --Moral and ethical aspects.
Social work with children --Moral and ethical aspects.
Social service --Moral and ethical aspects.
Other Name: Leever, Martin.
Gambrill, Eileen.
Illinois. Dept. of Children and Family Services.
Illinois. Dept. of Children and Family Services. Office of Inspector
General.
University of Chicago. School of Social Service Administration.
Other Title: Code of ethics for child welfare professionals
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Legal Resource Manual for Foster Parents ($15)
http://www.nfpainc. org/
Shannon and group, I have a copy of this manual and it is great. I refer to it and
read segments of it all the time. In fact I quoted from it in "Standing in the Shadow of
Law" and also in our Interview with PBS Studios in Bowie, MD. done by Angela Brown
on July 11th, 2008. Also in my letter to the editor in FFT magazine in theSept/Oct. issue
2008. I would recommend that you order a copy of it if you can
afford to do so, I paid $40. so half price is a bargain.
marilyn fpls
Shannon Woodruff wrote:
> *Winter Special! Save 50% of regular price* * * Includes information on:
> · Permanency>
> · Foster parents and the law>
> · Dependency court and removal of children>
> · Court participation by foster parents>
> · Allegation of maltreatment
> *$15 includes shipping. Call or email today for your copy. Limited
> Supply.***
> *Stephanie Guptill*> NFPA Office Manager> 1-800-557-5238> 1-253-853-4000
http://www.NFPAonline.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm a bio parent and not new to this game of false allegations. You have got to start
doing one thing---learn their employment codes as found here in CA is under the CA
Government Codes starting with Section 813. Then go after their supervisor with a civil
suit because they're letting their employee get away with filing false allegations and
doing nothing about it. GO AFTER THEIR POCKET BOOK!!!.
Charles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Advertising - Criminal Prosecution Reform Website: The Worst Federal
Prosecutorial Abuses and Misconduct and What Victims Can Do to Fight Back
and Change the System
Initial Publication: 8/26/01; Last Update: 05/13/07 21:45pm
Advertising - Prosecutorial Misconduct Website - To Expose Prosecutorial
Corruption and Related Loss of Constitutional Rights and Explain What Victims
Can Do to Fight Back and Change the System
Initial Publication: 9/23/98; Last Update: 05/13/07 21:30pm
Here is the website of attorney Carl E. Person Attorney Carl E. Person's Website
Discussing His Legal Representation in Various Types of Legal Matters.
You may note the word "Advertising" being added to the websites of New York
attorneys such as myself. The word "Advertising" is being required for use in the
websites of New York attorneys by new rules effective in early 2007. Incidentally, I was
the first attorney in the United States to sue for the right to advertise as an attorney,
which suit I commenced in 1975. Prior to 1975, it was illegal for a lawyer in most if not
all states to advertise. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that the public is entitled
to obtain information of value to them as consumers and held that there was a
Constitutional right of free "commercial speech", including the right of the public to have
prescription prices advertised and the right to have lawyers advertise what they do and
other information about their profession of value to consumers. Civil rights litigation
obtained this important right for the public to receive to be able to obtain commercial
speech from lawyers, doctors, other professionals, pharmacies and others.
Part I - HOW YOU AS A VICTIM OF PROSECUTORIAL ABUSE, WORKING ALONE,
CAN CHANGE THE ABUSIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
After years of working on the problem of prosecutorial abuse, I have come to the
conclusion that it is very difficult to overcome in a typical case of abuse. Once in a while,
some relief can be obtained, but not often enough. The only way to deal with the
problem, as I see it, is political. You need to run for office with the promise to voters that
if you are elected you will try to appoint a "Town Attorney General" or "City Attorney
General". This is like having a new sheriff in town, not one with a gun, but one with the
money and legal authority to go into court to protect the rights of individuals against the
ever-increasing loss of many of their rights, including the loss of rights through
prosecutorial abuse.
This may be your first time to my website, looking for information to help yourself or a
member of your family who is the victim of prosecutorial abuse. Victims of prosecutorial
abuse not only include the criminal defendant, but includes the defendant's family
members, as well.
What I will ask you to and every other victim of prosecutorial abuse to do is to take the
abusive criminal-justice system away from the abusers by you, the victim, in two distinct
ways:
FIRST: Create an Email List of Residents and Small Businesses in the Community
Before describing the main event, I want to describe a preliminary event that you can
organize, which will help you achieve the primary (SECOND) event described below.
This FIRST event is to create a new medium for your community to provide the
information to residents and local businesses that the local media do not provide, either
because they are owned by the major corporate interests, or because they are afraid of
losing advertising they have (or hope to get) from major corporations such as Wal-Mart,
other top 100 retailers, and other major corporations.
I can't overemphasize how important it is to create a permissive e-mail mailing list for
your community. The list must be "permissive" (i.e., with the explicit permission or
authorization of each member of the list - to avoid charges of illegal "spamming", with a
link put into each communication enabling them to remove themselves from the list with
no hassle). The permissive e-mail mailing list becomes your own newspaper to promote
the interests of the community, which generally are not the interests of the persons or
corporations which own your local commercial media.
The size of your community is obviously a factor. I am not suggesting that you create an
e-mail mailing list for New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Tulsa or other large city.
Instead, I am talking about towns and villages (even small counties) having a total
population of 25,000 or less. I'm currently working with one town of about 12,000
population, and 3,000 homes. If it takes an average of 15 minutes per home, then 3,000
homes would require 750 hours of work. If someone wanted to fund this at a minimum
wage level (say, $6/hour), the cost of creating the list would amount to $4,500, a lot less
than purchasing the local newspaper for $500,000 or $1,000,000 or more.
This new medium for your community would be a permissive e-mail mailing list
consisting of the e-mail addresses for most if not all of the residents and small
businesses in your community. The small business addresses can be obtained from the
local Chamber of Commerce, or by stripping the addresses from its website. Always
remember not to spam, and that you need approval from the business or resident
before adding the e-mail address to your community permissive e-mail mailing list.
Obtaining the e-mail addresses of residents is more difficult. Whereas businesses are
confined to business areas and can be reached by foot or bicycle within 1-5 days for
most communities in the United States, residents are scattered over an area perhaps 20
times the size of the area dedicated to businesses, with much greater time involved in
creating the desired list.
My suggestion is to find groups of interested persons, such as unemployed persons,
seniors, individuals employed only part-time, persons on public assistance, college
students, high-school students, church members (especially churches catering to
minorities and the poor). They can do the needed leg work, if they can be shown how
the permissive e-mail mailing list can and would be used to further their specialized
interests. In other words, try to share the workload by putting together a coalition of
interested local groups to provide the people you will need to put the list together.
Before giving you some pointers on what you can do to create the list most effectively, I
want you to understand how the list would help to cure the problem that brought you to
this website.
Prosecutors are elected through backing by the local press (or a major part of it) and
they have ready access to the press after they are elected, so that the local press prints
almost anything offered by the prosecutor and his/her office. On the other hand, the
victims of prosecutorial abuse are not able to get their story told, for a variety of
reasons, but mainly because the disclosure of prosecutorial abuse would make the
prosecutor and his/her mouthpiece (the local press) look bad, and cause a major
reduction in the ability of the local publications to mislead voters about what is going on
in the community.
A permissive e-mail mailing list including the e-mail addresses of most residents and
small businesses in the town or village would enable the owners of the list (perhaps you
and a coalition of groups discussed above) to create your own "newspaper" or
equivalent (really, a weekly newsletter) to send to the list providing information of value
to them that the local media ignores. What type of information? Well, how about
prosecutorial abuse and the damage that it is causing to your community. You might get
a local college professor of economics to estimate the damage done to the community if
20% of the prosecutions are unjustified, and done solely to enhance the political career
of the prosecutor and/or his/her assistant prosecutors.
What else could you say in the newsletter? How about explaining to your list members
how Wal-Mart's low prices are causing the town and county to see its valuable jobs
being transferred to China and other countries with substantially lower wages. How
about telling residents and small businesses that they could have FREE broadband
service, FREE healthcare coverage, REDUCED real estate taxes (for owners) and
REDUCED rent (for tenants). You have never seen anything like that in any of the local
media, have you?
The purpose of the permissive e-mail mailing list is to have a way to get a sufficient
number of people in your community informed at the same time to be able to get them
to take action that would be of benefit to them and the rest of the community. An
occasional item in the local newspaper (especially when the item is incomplete, and has
no followup) is basically worthless. You need to have control of the medium to be able
to provide repeated information about the problem to be able to educate the local
community members. There is a saying about advertising, "The more you tell the more
you sell!" Also, as to the efficacy of advertising the radio salespersons will tell you that
recency and frequency are important factors. You have to keep repeating the message
because not everyone understands the message the first time they hear or read it. The
first time there may only be 1% of understand the message. The next 2-10 times might
bring the understanding level up to 25%, and thereafter with repetition you can bring the
understanding percentage to much higher levels, to be able to prevail in a contest (such
as election) where those issues are raised.
Also, email will help you identify and motivate candidates for local office; help to market
their candidacy to the local residents and small businesses; and help to motivate local
voters to vote these candidates into office.
Pointers on Creating the Permissive E-Mail List for Your Community
1. Have a written form authorizing the addition of the resident's or businessperson's
e-mail address to the list, including the person's name, address, town, ZIP Code,
date of authorization, signature line for signature; and instructions for returning
the form by email (after being scanned); by mail or given to the person who gave
the form to the signer.
2. Create a war room somewhere to treat this as a battle, with breakdown of
residents and businesses into categories, such as by area, or by being known to
specific people, or by having the email address and only need to get permission,
or by bicycle route or foot route
3. Try to get organizations to use their email list to solicit members for you, which
will give you a head start
4. Consider raising money to pay unemployed, senior, underemployed or students
to gather signatures on the authorization form at so much per signature (after you
verify that the email address works, and that there is no demand to be removed
from the list after you send the first email to the new subscriber; you might want
to pay anywhere between $.25 and $1.00 (perhaps more) per subscriber.
5. Try to meet with organizations and encourage each person in the room to get 10
authorizations (subscriptions) for you
6. After you have a certain number of names on the list, try to get each member of
the list to get 10 additional authorizations (subscriptions) for you
7. Work with the owners or editors of the lesser media in the area, or ones that are
independently owned, if they are willing to risk loss of advertisers by getting
involved with your list-creation efforts
8. Go to unemployment and public assistance offices to try to find interested people
to subscribe
9. Work with local organizations such as churches to have computers, assistance
and email addresses for people in the community who lack a computer, email
adddress or computer skills - and try to market this through signs in stores owned
by persons on your list
10. Get college students and high school students a lesson in practical politics by
getting them involved; they need to understand Part II, perhaps, to motivate them
sufficiently to help out in creating the Part I list.
11. Communicate with me, Carl E. Person, for any insight or help I can give to
creation of your community "permissive e-mail mailing list; you can reach me by
email at carlpers@ix.netcom.com.
12. Look at the first of a series of websites I am creating -- www.myclads.com -which makes use of permissive e-mail mailing lists to achieve similar political
objectives. Myclads.com will keep you abreast of my more recent websites, as
they come online.
With this said, now look at my SECOND point.
SECOND: Run or Get Someone to Run for Local Office
The second thing that you can do is to either run for elective office yourself, or
encourage the right person (such as a friend, relative, associate or neighbor) to run for
local elective office (such as for council, mayor, selectperson or similar office for running
of a town or village) in your own town, village or county (or in a nearby town, village or
county - even if you don't live there - residency requirements can be overcome in many
instances in court).
You should run on the 16 election-issue platform I have set up for this purpose (whether
the candidate is you, me, or someone else you can encourage to run). See my website
and 16 election issues at Website for Candidates for Local Office - 16 Election
Issues.
At your request, I will try to come in to your town (at my own expense) to campaign for
you or other person running on my 16-point platform (or a substantial part of my
platform, including the "Town Attorney General" part).
Once elected, you or other candidate running on my platform should do what you can
with the other members of the town council to have me or another similarly qualified
attorney as "Town Attorney General" for your town, village or county. The Town
Attorney General is to ensure that the rights of the residents and small businesses of
your town are enforced against the major corporations and others that have been
systematically depriving your town of its jobs, its services, its higher-paying jobs, its
standard of living - and sending the assets of your town to foreign countries. There are
legal ways to stop this from occurring and to recover damages for the community for
jobs already stolen. The Town Attorney General knows what to do and should be
appointed to do his/her job, for the benefit of you and the other residents of your
community, including its small businesses.
If this takes places, your town will lose its abusive criminal prosecution system. Abusive
prosecutions are, as you known, very costly to the town and its residents, destroying the
personal and economic lives of the victims, and imposing huge, wholly needless costs
on the community, just to give overzealous prosecutors a win record against victims
who have no money to fight, and who are bound to lose because of the prosecutorial
advantages that, in New York City, enable federal prosecutors to put their criminal
defendant victim (felony defendant) in jail 99.5 to 99.8% of the time. This is not a fair
criminal justice system. It is corrupt, abusive, oppressive and can be stopped at the
local level of government, by the appointment of a civil prosecutor ("town attorney
general") who will sue large corporations for the injuries they have been inflicting upon
the residents and small businesses of your town, and to distribute the lawsuit recoveries
to the residents and small businesses of your town, to the extent of perhaps $5,000 to
$20,000 per year per family on the average or, better yet, to pay for healthcare and
dental care and free broadband service to all residents and small businesses in your
town. With this wholly predictable consequence for a small town or village that appoints
a town attorney general, a criminal prosecutor becomes a relic and had better watch out
or the criminal prosecutor may wind up squaring off against the civil prosecutor in
his/her role of enforcing the civil rights of you and the other members of your
community.
I hope that by now you see the potential of what I'm talking about. The best way for you
to fight prosecutorial abuse is to help me get someone into your town who can do what
you need to have done, which is to have legal representation to enforce the rights of
individuals and small businesses against the illegal conduct of major corporations and
others who disregard the law and hurt your community in their never-ending effort to
strip your community of its jobs and other wealth, and send the jobs to other, low-wage
countries, while asking you to continue buying their high-priced products. This has got
to come to an end. Appoint a town attorney general to show you how to protect your
town or village from losing whatever jobs it still has, and how to bring back many good
jobs to your community. Study my 16 election issues with this in mind. There are things
we can do in your town, but we need to get into politics to accomplish what needs to be
done. This means that YOU need to run for office on my 16-point program and get the
ball rolling.
When we have the first community in the U.S. appointing a town attorney general, and
the residents of the town start seeing better jobs, free healthcare, free dental care and
free broadband service, you and I know that nearby communities will demand the same
thing, and by that time you and I will know that we are on a winning course to taking
back our country.
You can make this happen, and I'm here to help.
Please look at my town attorney general website, at My Town Attorney General
Website and then look at my election issues website, if you haven't done so already, at
My 16-Point Election Issues Website and then look at my website for my first political
race in the real world, for New York Attorney General (Green Party) at Website in
Support of My 2006 Candidacy for New York Attorney General. [Note: The 2nd
Circuit refused to grant an injunction putting me on the ballot.]
Now, I've said what you really need to know, and I invite you to continue reading the
rest of my discussion of what you can do to fight the prosecutorial abuse which brought
you to my website.
Having said all the above, let me introduce myself. I am Carl E. Person, an antitrust and
civil rights litigator in federal and state courts for more than 40 years. I have created the
concept of the Town Attorney General, both in a book, Saving Main Street and Its
Retailers (www.lawmall.com) and in an Off-Broadway performance
(www.townattorneygeneral.com). My picture, in costume for the presentation, is at Carl
E. Person in Costume of U.S. Solicitor General and the SEAL for the Office of Town
Attorney General (designed by Glen Brandt) may be seen at Seal for the Town
Attorney General
Fighting the Prosecutorial Abuse Is Difficult, and Usually Non-Successful
I have outlined in my four related websites (www.lawmall.com/abuse;
www.lawmall.com/criminal; www.lawmall.com/forfeit; and www.lawmall.com/pleabarg)
the various things which a lawyer could try to fight prosecutorial abuse in a specific
case. In actual fact, when tried, the results generally are not favorable, although I
strongly suspect that wealthy defendants with power law firms can get greater mileage
using the techniques I outline than typical criminal defendants, who have no money and
often inadequate or unwilling counsel (burdened with too many cases and the
knowledge that whatever they do will probably be a waste of time, and antagonize the
prosecutor, who in our new criminal justice system has become the judge and jury for
most defendants). But this is not what I want to discuss with you.
How You Can Reduce Prosecutorial Abuse in Your Town
The time you (and your lawyer) spend in trying to overcome prosecutorial abuse is
generally wasted, and I recommend that you spend the time trying to change the
system which encourages prosecutorial abuse. The criminal prosecutors achieve or
expect to achieve fame, fortune and power by racking up criminal-case victories
regardless of the guilt or innocence of the accused under existing principles of law.
They readily learn that the way to become elected or appointed to Congress, the state
or local Legislature, a judgeship, district attorney or U.S. Attorney position or other
governmental office, is to get and publicize convictions, and to maintain that they are
just in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary in too many cases.
The consequences for the overzealous prosecutor is too often the sought-after fame,
fortune, power and political position, but the victims (including virtually everyone in the
community) are left to pay the bill for wrongful incarceration, excessive criminal
proceedings, destroyed families, wrongfully-confiscated property depriving a newlyaccused defendant of the funds to defend himself/herself, wrongfully-impoverished
families requiring governmental assistance, loss of skilled workers, loss of voters
needed to strike a more just political balance in the country, and various other
consequences which need to be explored by the press and book authors.
The way of halting this ever-increasing trend of prosecutorial abuse with resulting evils
(directed against individuals, I might add, not against corporations which are difficult to
put in jail) is to switch the emphasis from criminal to civil, from criminal prosecutor to
civil prosecutor or what I have named a Town Attorney General, or "Little Eliot
Spitzer". As most of you know, Eliot Spitzer was New York's elected State Attorney
General who (until elected and sworn in as New York's newest Governor) was enforcing
laws against major corporations that the federal government chose not to enforce. In
2004, Eliot Spitzer brought or threatened lawsuits against various financial corporations
and others that resulted in payment to Spitzer's Attorney General Office of $2.3 billion in
settlements, or $115 per resident of New York State.
In a small town, a "Town Attorney General", when bringing meritorious lawsuits against
corporations that are injuring the town, should be able to have settlements after
deducting expenses of litigation amounting to about $5,000 to $10,000 per family in the
town, more than enough to provide FREE healthcare and eliminate property taxes for all
residents of the town.
If you, as a prospective voter, heard two candidates in your town running for mayor, and
one of them said he/she has a plan to obtain FREE healthcare and the elimination of
property taxes for all residents in the town, and the opposing Mayor wants to have
another Wal-Mart or two to come into town, who would you vote for?
Why not be the candidate for mayor and make your argument as the main part of your
campaign that you are going to appoint a Town Attorney General, and move the town
into civil law enforcement against invisible corporations rather than criminal enforcement
against hapless residents who wind up victims and represent huge present and deferred
costs to the community to prosecute, incarcerate, feed, clothe, provide medical care,
and take care of the family members who wind up as indigents and problem families for
the town.
I have a ready-made campaign and campaign website for you with my 16 election
issues, at My 16 Election Issues Website for Local Elections. I'm also willing to help
you campaign in your town or village (or even a nearby or distant town or village - we
can go into court to strike down local residency requirements in many cases).
By doing this you would be able to fight back against the prosecutorial abuse, and
actually have a pretty good chance at getting elected to the town's governing body.
Then, you would be in a position to have the town appoint me (or some other antitrust
and civil rights litigator) as town attorney general, to start a program of enforcing the
various rights of the residents and small businesses of your town that are not being
enforced by the federal and state Attorneys General, or any federal or state agency, or
even by your town, village or county (because traditionally the enforcement of such
rights have been through federal or state officials or agencies). Now, with the federal
and state governments being an adjunct to the corporate interests that supply the
campaign funds, protection for the residents of your town has got to come from the town
itself, through a legal officer I have named and described as the "Town Attorney
General".
I can help your candidacy. You can call upon me to come into town and put on my
show, Town Attorney General Meeting (at no cost to you, the town, or the audience)
to explain what I (or another qualified lawyer) could do for the town as Town Attorney
General. I describe this presentation or performance in my Town Attorney General
website.
The Town Attorney General, if appointed, will create an economic revolution for your
town and relegate abusive, over-zealous criminal prosecutors to a minor role, if not
defendants in a civil rights suit to enjoin such conduct. The Town Attorney General will
fight to enforce the rights of the residents and small businesses of your town instead of
trying to put too many of the residents in jail for excessive sentences, and at excessive,
wholly unnecessary costs and injury to the community.
This is what you and I can do to stop prosecutorial abuse.
Carl E. Person, "Town Attorney General" and (unsuccessful) Candidate for NY
Attorney General (2006)
Part II - START OF PROSECUTORIAL ABUSE "/CRIMINAL" WEBSITE [1ST
PUBLISHED IN 2001]
Note: A complaint filed by a businessman, his wife and children against the District
Attorney of Suffolk County, New York (alleging 15 separate counts of unlawful,
prosecutorial abuse) in using New York's ex parte forfeiture statute to strip the
businessman and his family of all of their assets before he learns of the criminal
proceeding, is available for interested persons to study. See Complaint Alleging
Prosecutorial Abuse by District Attorney of Suffolk County New York and Requesting
Declaratory Judgment of Invalidity of New York Forfeiture Statute, CPLR Sections 13101352.
Note: This complaint, filed by a businessman, his wife and children against the District
Attorney of Suffolk County, New York (alleging 15 separate counts of unlawful,
prosecutorial abuse) in using New York's ex parte forfeiture statute to strip the
businessman and his family of all of their assets before he learns of the criminal
proceeding, is available for interested persons to study, together with two related
motions for relief.
A major purpose of this other, new website, the "Forfeiture" website, is to offset the
major, unfair inherent advantages of prosecutors working for profit-driven (as
distinguished from justice-driven) "White Collar Criminal Divisions" and an increasingly
disabled defense bar (who recognize they are unable any longer to conduct an effective
defense) -- by providing a set of pleadings and motions (i.e.,, forms) which an accused
together with his/her/its civil and criminal attorneys can use to help determine the
accused's rights and how to go about enforcing them against a wrongdoing, profitmaking prosecutorial enterprise. These forms are:
1. Civil Rights Complaint against District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney,
Detective and Complainant for Unconstitutional Ex Parte Attachment of All
Assets of Accused and His Family in Support of a Profit-Motivated Criminal
Prosecution - Complaint Requests Declaratory Judgment of Invalidity of New
York Forfeiture Statute, CPLR Sections 1310-1352
2. Pro Se Notice of Motion in Criminal Proceeding to Adjourn Criminal Trial; Permit
Needed Discovery; Recuse District Attorney; Appoint Special Prosecutor; Stop
Destruction by Prosecutor of Evidence of Prosecutorial Wrongdoing; and Require
Evidence to be Turned Over to Court to Preserve for Special Prosecutor Being
Appointed
3. Memorandum of Law in Support of above Pro Se Motion in Criminal Proceeding
4. Affidavit of Pro Se Criminal Defendant in Support of above Pro Se Motion in
Criminal Proceeding
5. Affirmation by Civil Attorney for Pro Se Criminal Defendant in Support of above
Pro Se Motion in Criminal Proceeding [exhibits not included]
6. Notice of Motion in Ex Parte Attachment and Forfeiture Action to Vacate Stay,
Obtain Needed Discovery; Preserve Evidence for Special Prosecutor; Request
Appointment of Special Prosecutor; Request Evidentiary Hearing to Recover
Seized Assets or, Alternatively, to Obtain Partial Return for Living Expenses,
Mortgage Payments for Attached Home, and Reasonable Attorneys' Fees and
Expenses in Attachment Action and Related Criminal Proceeding - Motion
Designed to Oppose an Unconstitutional "White-Collar Crime Division", Really, a
Profit-Making Business, of the District Attorney
7. Memorandum of Law in Support of Criminal Defendant's above Motion in Ex
Parte Attachment and Forfeiture Action
8. Affidavit of Criminal Defendant in above Ex Parte Attachment and Forfeiture
Action
9. Affidavit of Criminal Defendants' Civil Attorney in Ex Parte Attachment and
Forfeiture Action
Another related website on prosecutorial abuse (my "Abuse" website), created by the
same author in 1998, should be reviewed, as well. It contains additional discussions on
prosecutorial abuse and what a victim might be able to do about it. See Prosecutorial
Abuse Website.
Also, see my website on the evils of plea-bargaining, at Plea Bargaining: an
Unconstitutional Delegation of Judicial Power to the Executive Branch of
Government; a Free-Market Solution to Unconstitutional Plea-Bargaining
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Worst Federal Prosecutorial Abuses and Misconduct - Table of Contents
Quick Links to Website Material
1. Introductory Material
2. Summary/Checklist of Possible Remedies and Opposing Actions for
Prosecutorial Misconduct and Abuse
3. Failure to Have Prosecutor Held Accountable for His/Her Wrongdoing
4. Failure to Enforce Professional State and Local Ethics and Disciplinary
Rules against Prosecutors - and [the Ineffective] Remedial 10/98 Statute 28
U.S.C. Section 530B, Citizens Protection Act of 1998
5. The Press Intentionally Fails to Inform Citizens about the Inadequacy of the
Criminal Justice System
6. It is Lawful for Federal Prosecutors to Bribe Witnesses, Which Results in
Countless Convictions Based on Purchased False Testimony
7. Nobody Is Responsible for Providing Justice After a Conviction Takes
Place
8. Defense Attorneys Can't Make Waves by Attacking the Corrupt Criminal
Justice System
9. Inadequate Fees Paid to Lawyers Representing Indigent Defendants Result
in Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
10. Excessive Expenditure by the Overzealous Prosecutor
11. Criminal Defendants Should Have the Same Right to Expert Discovery as Is
Given to Plaintiffs and Defendants in a Civil Action
12. 70 Days to Railroad a Defendant, but 3 Years or More (If at All) to Undo a
Wrongful Conviction
13. 1-Time, 1-Year Rule for Use of 2254 or 2255 Petition Is an Unfortunate,
Unjustified Limitation
14. Exculpatory Evidence Is Routinely Avoided or Disregarded by the
Prosecutor and Not Provided to the Defendant When Inadvertently
Received by the Prosecutor During the Investigative Phase
15. Many Criminal Lawyers Take the Defendant's Money; Do Little Trial
Preparation; and Urge the Defendant to Plea Once He/She Has No More
Money to Turn Over to the Defense Lawyer - A Process Known by Judges
and Attorneys as "Fee and Plea"
16. The Cross-Examination and Impeachment Rules Preventing a Defendant
from Testifying on His/Her Own Behalf Must Be Modified to Permit the
Defendant to be a Witness on His/Her Own Behalf
17. Grand Jury Indictments Have No Oversight by the Court, any Outside
Goverment Agency, or the Justice Department Itself - And Is Purely a
Rubber-Stamp Operation by Unknowing and Disinterested Grand Jurors
18. Prosecutors Pervert Bail Procedure by Demanding Excessive Bail for the
Unlawful Purpose of Preventing a Defendant from Being Released on Bail
19. Prosecutors Provide Misinformation to Congressional Committees to
Prevent Congress from Learning the Truth and Correcting the Federal
Prosecutorial System
20. Individuals Should Be Permitted to Initiate Federal Criminal Proceedings
against Any Violators of Federal Criminal Law, Including Federal
Prosecutors
Changing the Present Prosecutorial System; and Dealing with Prosecutorial
Abuse
1. How to Deal with Prosecutorial Misconduct and Abuse
2. Demand Change by Contacting Elected Representatives, Government
Agencies, Law School Professors, and the Press
3. Communicate with the Author of this Website
Other Websites for Victims and Others Interested in Changing the Present
Prosecutorial System; and Dealing with Prosecutorial Abuse

Prosecutorial Ethics Part of November.Org Website with Major Resource
Material on Enactment of McDade Bill, 28 USC 530B, as the Citizens
Protection Act of 1998 - this is a very important website; contains federal
decisions stating that the prosecutors' practices could constitute bribery;
cites federal anti-bribery statute; lists other important websites

WWW.November.Org Website with Major Resource Material on Enactment
of McDade Bill, 28 USC 530B, as the Citizens Protection Act of 1998 - the
main November.Org website

Related Prosecutorial Abuse Website referred to at top of this website page
- I'm listing this related website to make sure it is included in any list of
prosecutorial-abuse websites being prepared by others

Law Enforcement Abuse & Prosecutorial Misconduct Website of the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers - published by the
NACDL Law Enforcement Misconduct Committee - contains a lengthy and
growing list of public references to prosecutorial-abuse matters

Website of the Association of Americans for Constitutional Laws and
Justice - very important website dealings with recent federal and state
statutes which permit prosecutors to confiscate the assets of persons they
intend to sue, thereby depriving such prospective defendants of the
resources they require to defend themselves; the website starts off with the
following summary:
!Subversion of the American Criminal Justice System. Convicting
Innocents. Abuses of the Laws, Excesses, Unfair Prosecutorial Tactics and
Misconduct in Undercover "Sting" Operations. Coercive, "Plea-Bargaining"
Practices and Collateral Prosecutions. A Wave of Prosecutorial Misconduct
is Subverting Standards of Fairness and Justice. Prosecutorial Misconduct
has Reached Epidemic Proportions in our Country.!
Purpose of Website
Criminal Prosecution Reform Website - An Incomplete but Growing List of the
Most Important Changes Needed in the Process of Indicting and Convicting
Persons Accused of Criminal Conduct in the United States.
Website Purpose: To create a gathering place for individuals and groups
concerned about the injustices being committed by the nation's federal
prosecutors and criminal justice system upon the public, with the accompanying
loss of civil rights for persons unlawfully indicted and convicted, and wrongfully
remaining in prison after it becomes evident of the improper conviction,
continued wrongful incarceration, and continuing injustice. The evils associated
with the imprisonment itself require separate enumeration (for later website
creation). This present list concentrates on the main evils of the process by
which a defendant becomes indicted and then convicted of a crime through a
federal prosecution. Many of the evil practices are undoubtedly found in the
numerous state and local criminal justice systems throughout the United States.
This website puts together relevant information gathered from experience,
interested persons, books, websites and other sources, for dissemination to the
victims and future victims of the system, and their families. The website lists and
discusses some of the most important failures of our criminal justice system in
the process that leads up to a conviction, and what should be done to correct the
problems, for society at large, and for individual victims of the present, shameful
system.
Why the Federal Prosecutorial System Has Deteriorated - A Few Observations.
Here are some of the more obvious explanations for the present state of affairs
with the federal prosecutorial process:
1. Voter Ignorance. The criminal process (as with other areas of law) is highly
technical and beyond the understanding of most persons to make an
informed decision about the well-being or not of the criminal prosecution
system. Thus, a sufficient number of voters do not demand reform from
their elected legislators.
2. Voter Belief that the Innocent Are Not Being Injured by the Present System.
Voters, who are the persons who might be able to demand and achieve the
needed reforms, do not believe that innocent persons are hurt by
"stronger" (i.e., unconstitutional) application of criminal prosecutorial
techniques to alleged criminals, because in such way the alleged criminals
are proven to be as charged, and society has fewer criminals roaming the
streets. Voters do not understand the reason for constitutional safeguards
until they too, as innocent persons, are subjected to the unconstitutional
process, convicted, sentenced to jail for one or more years, and as a result
lose their right to vote forever, in what amounts to a "Catch 22" situation, in
which voters only learn about the evils of the system in a process which
takes away their right to change the system. A remedy for this Catch 22
situation would be to have Congress or the Courts determine (by statute or
decision) that depriving a person of his right to vote because of a
conviction (involving a year or more of incarceration) is as constitutionally
wrong as executions. Incarceration, fines and parole should be sufficient,
but not to take away forever the person's right to vote (after all, a certain
percentage of persons found to be guilty we now find out are probably not
guilty at all, and an even higher percentage are found guilty through
unconstitutional means which cannot be readily corrected).
3. Bias of the Controlling Elite. The persons in charge of the United States (a
controlling elite consisting of such persons as major corporations, their
officers, wealthy landowners and shareholders, the press they own, use
and control, the elected and appointed officials they bribe (in a variety of
ways) and use to further extend their domination and control, find it most
beneficial for their domination and control purposes to point to alleged
criminals as the focal point for political reform, that is to heap more and
more unconstitutional deprivations upon alleged criminals to ensure
everyone goes to jail (whether guilty or not) to prove to the public that the
persons in control are working in the best interests of society (and to avoid
dealing with the issue of how they - the controlling persons - are getting
richer and richer in the process, and creating a lower standard of living for
persons not yet thrown in jail). It's strange, however, that the laws
prohibiting stealing are seldom applied successfully against these super
thieves. What's good for the goose (i.e., the public) is obviously not good
for the gander (the persons who control our country).
4. Controlling Persons When Released from Jail Sing a Different Tune. Of
course, once in a while a controlling person is "justiced" by our shameful
prosecutorial system, and when this happens (and whether the controlling
person is guilty or not), the justiced person comes out of jail saying (not
unexpectedly, which deters most citizens from listening to the message)
that the justice system is shameful and must be reformed. Examples are:
the former Chief Justice (Sol Wachtler) of New York highest court (the
Court of Appeals); junk-bond king and one-time billionaire Michael Milken;
and Nixon aide Charles Colson -- to name a few. But for them (as with
others deprived of their life and liberty by our corrupt criminal prosecution
system) it is too late: they have served time when the law if applied fairly
might not have resulted in a conviction, and they have lost their right to
vote.
5. Most Politicians Believe There Is No Political Advantage in Advocating
Prosecutorial or Other Criminal Reform. Politicians understand there are no
votes for them among the 2,000,00 or more Americans who have been
deprived of their right to vote forever through a largely corrupt and political
system of prosecution. Any "reform" would be the wrong way, to find more
unconstitutional things you can do to ensure that anyone selected by
politically-appointed prosecutors for prosecution is convicted, whether
guilty or not. One of the more recent techniques is to permit the
prosecutors to seize, attach, restrain or confiscate all of an accused's
assets during the start of criminal and even civil proceedings, to ensure
that the defendant has no funds to protect himself/herself, thereby
infringing the constitutional doctrine that a person is considered innocent
until proven guilty. For substantial information about this pre-trial seizure
of assets to prevent an accused from defending himself/herself, see
>Website of the Association of Americans for Constitutional Laws and
Justice
6. No Specific Legitimate Groups Profit from Criminal-Prosecution and
Criminal-Justice Reform Except the Public At Large. There are no specific
groups of legitimate (i.e., innocent) persons who would profit from the
needed reforms, which deprives society of the financial and other
assistance required to mount a successful attack on the corrupt process.
Of course, there are criminal groups which would benefit from the reform,
but they cannot be expected to identify themselves and work for change.
There are, however, many specific groups interested in criminalizing
everything, because it holds out expectations of more profits and more
power. These interested groups include: many (although far from all)
criminal defense lawyers; perhaps legal aid organizations (whose funding
would be cut and jobs eliminated if wrongful prosecutions were cut back);
prosecutors; police; private prison owners, managers and employees,
builders of private prisons; probation personnel; employers who hire
prisoners (to do their telemarketing, for example, at low rates of
compensation, depriving non-imprisoned persons of work at higher
compensation); politicians who base their campaigns on "Law and Order";
the nation's press (including radio and television talk shows), which thrive
on prosecutions, whether wrongful or not; unions representing prison
workers; unions representing police, detectives and others; and more
groups if you want to spend a few more minutes thinking about it. How can
anyone fight all these groups interested in putting all of us in jail? One
answer is to fight the specific instances in court, one by one, to be able to
curtail or eliminate as many abuses as possible. Each lawyer for a
defendant should pick on one or more of the justice-denying issues and
seek to change the law through judicial decision. The advantage in that
approach is that you only have to convince one person: the judge who
hears the case.
7. Ever-Increasing, Wholly Prohibitive Costs of a Proper Legal Defense.; How
much do you think it costs to defend someone properly in a lawsuit,
especially one brought by plaintiff (i.e., prosecutor) financed by the federal
government (your taxes)? Do you think in the neighborhood of $5,000 or
$10,000? This is what some persons pay for a defense on a driving while
intoxicated charge. No, think in terms of $500,000 or so for defending
charges based on business records, profits, alleged fraud and
misrepresentation. The American Booksellers Association in a civil action
(where it was functioning as a private attorney general to enforce the
federal Robinson-Patman Act against several major bookselling chains
spent $18,000,000 according to its own press release, and settled the
action without any injunctive relief for its 5,000 members for a mere
$4,700,000. The defendants spent an estimated $75,000,000 in defending
themselves against the ABA action; when faced with legal expenses such
as these, who can afford to hire an attorney and try to offset the major
prosecutorial abuse which takes place. The answer is that few people can,
and those persons generally don't get indicted in the first place.
Prosecutors select the weak to attack, not the wealthy (i.e., the persons
who finance their political system). Thus, the mere indictment of a person
without significant assets other than a home or co-op and $50,000 in the
bank or in other savings is unable to pay for the legal services needed, and
takes the only way out, which is to plead guilty to an alleged crime which
he/she probably could have beaten with sufficient money available for legal
fees and related expenses.
8. The Disparity in Resources between the Prosecution and the Typical
Defendant. The prosecutor can spend millions of dollars to pursue an
individual. The independent counsel pursuing President Clinton had a
budget of something like $20 or $30 million. The local car dealer accused of
not paying off auto loans on cars sold by him, or other persons accused of
misrepresenting facts to a bank when applying for a loan, cannot afford to
pay even a small fraction of what the government can and often does spent
in a prosecution. The remedy, of course, is to require prosecutors to report
how much they spend in a prosecution, and what these expenses
purchased, including the value of time spent. The government should be
required to fund the defendant to the same extent, if he/she is unable to
pay such amounts. Also, the reporting process would provide leads to
exculpatory evidence which the prosecutor failed to produce to the
defendant.
The creator of this website is a lawyer with more than 40 years of civil litigation
exerience, who recently has been involved in both criminal and civil litigation of
essentially the same issues and witnesses, giving a rare opportunity to compare
the federal prosecutorial process with the federal and state civil litigation
process.
The bottom line is that the criminal process has been streamlined by the
politicians to the extent that (i) the vast majority of all federal criminal trials
resulting in a conviction are probably conducted through illegal and unethical
conduct by the prosecutors (if the facts were known and set forth to an
independent panel of experienced attorneys and/or law professors with no ax to
grind), and (ii) the vast majority of all federal guilty pleas are the result of the
defendants and their attorneys being aware that federal criminal trials result too
frequently in unjust convictions, contrary to the rule of law, which forces
innocent persons into pleading guilty. These guilty pleas result because (i) the
defendant has insufficient funds to pay for a proper defense; (ii) the criminal
defense attorneys available to indigent defendants are incompetent and/or
insufficiently paid to enable them to defend the client properly; and (iii) the
unlawful activities of the prosecutors are substantial, continuing, determinative of
the outcome, and cannot be properly offset without adequate funds and
competent counsel.
In other words, we have a federal criminal prosecution system in which the mere
accusation of criminal wrongdoing is sufficient to force about 95% of the
accuseds to plead guilty, even though most of such persons would have been
found innocent by a jury if there had been a fair trial under law.
What are these abuses which must be corrected? First of all, there are many more
than the listed problems. The problems listed below are the most important
problems which I, as the author of this website, have identified as most important
from my point of view, but there are undoubtedly other problems which should be
on the list, if the list were prepared by someone else.
Nevertheless, with this in mind, let's start looking at the top problems, not in any
necessary order of importance.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Summary/Checklist of Possible Remedies and Opposing Actions for
Prosecutorial Misconduct and Abuse
For persons not having time to review this entire website, I have put together
many of the remedies and suggestions which an attorney and his/her client
should consider when trying to offset prosecutorial wrongdoing. The list is not
exhaustive, and to some extent contains ideas which are somewhat novel and
without significant or even any precedent. Yet, the relative novelty of the
opposition makes it more effective, in some cases. These possible remedies for
consideration (without any elaboration, and in no particular order) are:
1. Givens direct constitutional action against federal prosecutor and
conspiring witness;
2. Raising issues at all levels in state criminal proceedings (trial court and all
available appellate courts) to be able to make 2254 habeas corpus petition
in federal court without dismissal for failure to exhaust remedies;
3. Filing 2254 or 2255 petition in federal court within 1 year after conviction
becomes final raising any issues of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse
and any issues of ineffective assistance of counsel;
4. Demand pre-trial expert discovery equivalent to expert discovery permitted
in federal civil actions, to obtain such discovery, if possible, and to
preserve such issue on any appeal;
5. Demand that prosecutor and/or court or appropriate agency provide funds
to defendant equivalent to the amount being spent by the prosecutor
(including the market value of the prosecutor's time), if the defendant is
unable to afford to pay such amounts himself/herself;
6. File a civil action, as soon as possible, against complaining witnesses for
any wrongdoing by them, to ensure that you bring your claim on a timely
basis (because if you waited until the criminal proceeding ends you might
be precluded by the statute of limitations) and to obtain discovery useful in
the civil and criminal actions; and to make the overall litigation more easily
resolved through global settlement (including the defendant, prosecutor
and complaining witness);
7. File a criminal complaint against the federal prosecutor and/or complaining
witness if you have grounds, using the Givens rationale (direct
constitutional action);
8. File a motion demanding that the prosecutor recuse himself/herself due to
a conflict of interest, if appropriate (note: a meritorious civil or criminal
action by the defendant against the prosecutor would seem to be grounds
for recusal, as well as the filing of a meritorious 2255 petition alleging
prosecutorial misconduct);
9. Demand and file a motion for the taking of pre-trial depositions of bribed
prosecutorial witnesses as a constitutional right, or demand an evidentiary
hearing in the alternative, to enable the defendant to get all relevant facts in
the record; this will be useful during any appeal and during a 2255 or 2254
habeas corpus petition;
10. File charges against the prosecutor with the appropriate state organization
(usually a part of the state court system) which regulates the conduct of
attorneys in the state and can order or recommend sanctions against
errant attorneys, including suspension or disbarment; but make doubly
sure that you have appropriate grounds;
11. Establish a record that the bail being sought is excessive, without
justification, far more than is being requested or imposed in other, similar
matters, would have the effect of precluding you from defending yourself
(by taking funds needed for your defense, or worse, would preclude you
from getting out of prison and make you less able to defend yourself
against the charges as a result), and that this is the prosecutor's intent;
also, request an evidentiary hearing on the bail issue to establish an
appropriate record; and go up on appeal on these bail issues, as an
interlocutory appeal, if and to the extent possible under law;
12. Demand an evidentiary hearing on the bail issue (as stated within the prior
point);
13. Move to stay the criminal proceeding as unconstitutional selective,
arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement of law (which stay would require
holding up the prosecution until the prosecutor commenced criminal
proceedings against all others similarly situated);
14. Seek a jury charge to let the jury be told that it is lawful for a jury to nullify
the court's instructions to the jury by finding in favor of the defendant if the
jury wishes, under whatever standards for upholding jury nullification exist
under law; in other words, request a charge on the law which governs the
extent to which a jury may find for the defendant in spite of the governing
substance law as charged to the jury; and do this with an eye toward
raising this issue on appeal if and when the defendant's request to charge
is denied by the judge;
15. Demand the right of defendant to appear before the federal grand jury to
explain his/her side of the issues;
16. When making a 2254 or 2255 petition, demand that any hearing on the
matter be commenced within 70 days from the date of filing the petition
(under the Speedy Trial Act of 1974, as amended), and upon failure to
obtain the commencement of such a hearing within the 70-day period,
move to have your criminal proceeding dismissed under the Speedy Trial
Act of 1974, as amended;
17. Encourage co-defendants to make some of these motions, and join in with
their motion, if applicable;
18. Demand that the prosecutor's report to the court monthly the amount of
time and money they are spending in their prosecution of the defendant
(which is necessary for the defendant to be able to know how much
funding he/she should be able to get, similar to "matching funds" to
oppose the prosecution);
19. Make a motion to require the prosecution to answer under oath that he/she
has turned over all listed categories of exculpatory evidence set forth in
your motion, as a way of forcing the prosecutor to turn over more
exculpatory evidence than he/she normally would, and prepare for the 2254
or 2255 motion based on prosecutorial wrongdoing (of not providing the
defendant with all exculpatory evidence the prosecutor did in fact receive,
or had failed to accept when he/she was obtaining evidence from various
persons);
20. Make a motion to request the judge to permit the defendant to testify at the
trial with substantial restrictions on the prosecutor's right to cross-examine
the defendant as to the defendant's background, prior convictions, other
matters -- on the grounds that such testimony is too prejudicial and the
jury's need to hear the defendant's side of the story far outweighs the
prejudice which the extraneous cross-examination would create for the
defendant (and thereby make the defendant unable to testify in his/her own
behalf); and do this for purposes of using any denial of the motion as a
basis for appeal, and for possible 2255 prosecutorial abuse in denying a
reasonable request;
21. Review the complete website and the related website Prosecutorial Abuse
Website for other matters to add to this list;
22. Make a motion to have the judge hold that expert witness reports and all
documents upon which the reports are based is not covered by the grand
jury secrecy provisions for various reasons, including that experts are not
fact witnesses; their testimony is purchased and revealing of the whole
relationship is required to limit expert-witness abuse; experts were not
envisioned or used when the grand-jury secrecy doctrine was first
established, and it was judicial oversight by which expert testimony was
swept within the grand-jury secrecy provisions;
23. File a motion to preclude the prosecutor from using testimony of prisoners
who have been promised mitigation of sentence as violative of the Citizen's
Protection Act of 1998, 28 U.S.C. Section 530B; and take this issue up on
appeal and in a 2255 or 2254 petition
.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Failure to Have Prosecutor Held Accountable for His/Her Wrongdoing
Prosecutors and prosecutions are political (expressed by the term "prosecutorial
discretion"), meaning that there is no law requiring that a prosecution be commenced
against a specific person; whether to prosecute or not is generally within the unfettered
discretion of the prosecutor. Also, the prosecutor is not required to prosecute all
persons who violate the law. The prosecutor is free (under the doctrine of "prosecutorial
discretion") to prosecute only such persons as selected by the prosecutor, which
generally means that the rich and powerful are not prosecuted. For example, how many
times during the past 50 years has the Justice Department brought an antitrust case
against a large company? I can think of Microsoft recently; AT&T about 25 years ago;
the Rockefeller oil companies back during 1900 or so; and a few other prosecutions, but
nothing much since the Nixon era.
The basis upon which a prosecutor selects a person for prosecution is "privileged",
meaning that the basis does not have to be disclosed. Frequently, the basis is pressure
from a prominent person, such as a county political leader, or from the editor or
publisher of a major daily newspaper, or a television or radio station, or from a friend of
the prosecutor. The reason why a prosecutor selected one matter over 500 others is not
considered a legitimate matter for discovery by the defendant's attorney. This secrecy
should be ended, perhaps by requiring the prosecutor to keep a record of all events
leading up to a prosecution, which would be available for review by defendant's counsel
after the the criminal process has ended, after all appeals and motions, with a
conviction. At such time, the defendant's attorney would have access to the prosecutor's
record and determine if there was any basis for overturning the conviction.
The reason that prosecutors are able to convict innocent people is that there are great
rewards for successful prosecutions (such as increased compensation, higher positions
within the prosecuting organization, public fame leading to major political appointments,
including nomination to a federal judgeship, and also fame leading to nomination and
election to high political office -- all based on wrongful convictions.
Of course, any admission of wrongdoing would hurt the prosecutor's career, which is
why we see such a reluctance by prosecutors and elected officials to admit that they
participated in the conviction and execution of innocent persons.
There has to be a system of penalties for prosecutorial wrongdoing, but none now
exists.
What kind of penalties could there be?
Various Types of Possible Penalties
1. Removal from Prosecutorial Office - an aggrieved person (person wrongfully
convicted, wrongfully incarcerated, wrongfully executed, or a member of his/her
family) should be given the statutory authority to commence an action to remove
a prosecutor from office upon establishing appropriate grounds, with the right to
have discovery relating to the matter before having the case decided by judge or
jury.
2. Action against Prosecutor for Monetary Damages, during or after the
Criminal Proceeding, to be paid personally by the prosecutor, and not to be
paid by any insurance or any governmental agency or non-governmental
organization or other person seeking to subvert the economic impact on
wrongdoing prosecutors; already there exists case law which enables
prosecutors to be sued to the extent that they participated in investigative
wrongdoing, but under current law there is an immunity for prosecutors to the
extent that they exercise "prosecutorial discretion". The real wrongdoing by the
prosecutor is generally covered by the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion, and
this immunity must be overcome by statute, or on a case by case basis showing
that the prosecutor wilfully committed violations of the defendant's civil rights to
be able to overcome the doctrine of prosecutorial immunity.
3. Publicity for the Wrongdoing and Charges of Wrongdoing. When a
defendant is charged with wrongdoing (i.e., named in a criminal complaint or
indictment), the prosecutor issues a press release to tell the world that the
accused is a criminal. What is more fitting than to turn the tables and let the world
know that the prosecutor himself/herself is a criminal, by having an agency or
non-governmental organization publicize this alleged wrongdoing by the
prosecutor, both at the time of the accusation of wrongdoing, and at the time the
alleged criminal is vindicated (and the wrongdoing by the prosecutor is
established). It would be helpful for other victims of prosecutorial excesses to
have a place where they go to find out how a specific prosecutor is violating the
rights of various accused persons. Having this potential of adverse publicity
should make every prosecutor be more careful when exercising their
prosecutorial discretion.
4. Loss of Civil Rights for a Specific Period - a prosecutor found to have violated
the civil rights of a defendant should have his/her own civil rights curtailed for a
specific period of time, depending on the number and types of violations which
the prosecutor has committed.
5. Loss of Right to Practice Law for a Specific Period - Wrongdoing prosecutors
should lose their right to practice law for a limited period of time. See the section
below on the problem that for years federal prosecutors were not required to
obey the state Code of Professional Responsibility which governed all other
practicing lawyers.
6. Supervisors of the Errant Prosecutor Should Also Have Liability Supervisors of prosecutors know about the illegal practices being committed and
fail to do anything to stop such conduct. The supervisors should have a similar
exposure to penalty as the prosecutor.
7. Wrongdoing Prosecutors' Website - A website should be maintained with a
copy of all charges levelled against prosecutors anywhere in the United States,
conveniently broken down by state, county, court, and prosecutor, to enable
interested persons (meaning victims of prosecutorial excesses) to find others
similarly situated and sources of evidence and financial support for remedial
litigation against the prosecutor. Charges against medical doctors are published
by the New York State agency regulation medical doctors in New York State.
There would seem to be no reason why charges against prosecutors should not
be posted as well.
8. Oversight Panel within Prosecutorial Agency - Probably the main reason that
prosecutorial misconduct and abuse exist is that there is nobody reviewing the
work of prosecutors to determine if the work is being done illegally. The judge on
the criminal case is not privy to the misconduct. The defendant's attorney does
not see sufficient evidence of most of the misconduct. The misconduct is carried
out by the prosecutor and his/her investigators without anyone coming in to audit
the prosecutorial function. A bank has auditors; the federal government generally
has auditors (Government Accounting Office), but this specific part of the federal
government (the criminal prosecutors) has no external or internal auditors, and
instead have the three protective rules of grand jury secrecy, prosecutorial
discretion, and prosecutorial immunity -- all working to prevent prosecutorial
victims or their attorneys from finding out about the misconduct and abuse, and
from doing anything about it once the misconduct or abuse is discovered.
9. Lack of Proper Incentives to Perform Justly. Another way to state the problem
is that federal prosecutors lack proper incentives to perform justly. The existing
incentives drive the prosecutors to convict unfairly, for the fame, publicity, added
income, political appointments, power and other corrupting incentives which now
exist. Instead, there should be a system of rewards and penalties based on the
prosecutor's conduct, which might include a total audit of every 10th prosecution
to determine compliance with law and proper exercise of discretion, and lack of
improper influence, with the prosecutor's future as a prosecutor, lawyer and
politician, and the status of the prosecutor's own bank account and other assets,
dependent on the outcome of the audit. If the audit turns up prosecutorial
misconduct, appropriate sanctions should be applied (as they are against
lawyers in civil actions), and if the audit is favorable, the prosecutor should be
rewarded with increased income, publicity, assignments, promotions and the like.
An article "Institutions of Accountability to Control Endemic Corruption" by Dr. Larry
Diamond, Senior Research Fellow of a United States "think tank" (Hoover Institution, at
Stanford University) discusses ways to stop corruption in the institutions of foreign
countries and has many good points which should be adopted as to the federal and
state prosecutorial institutions in the United States. See 12/4/00 Article: Institutions of
Accountability to Control Endemic Corruption
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Failure to Enforce Professional State and Local Ethics and Disciplinary Rules
against Prosecutors - and the [Ineffective] Remedial 10/98 Statute 28 U.S.C.
Section 530B, Citizen's Protection Act of 1998
All lawyers except prosecutors are bound by the Code of Professional Responsibility
promulgated by the American Bar Association, and adopted by each state in precise or
altered language as rules of professional conduct to be followed by lawyers practicing
law in that state.
Until recently, the U.S. Justice Department (the same persons who no longer enforce
the nation's antitrust laws) had a rule which prohibited enforcement of these
professional rules as to federal prosecutors. Recently, by Congressional enactment of
the McDade Bill during October, 1998 (as the Citizen's Protection Act of 1998), such
Justice Department rule and practice were supposedly eliminated, but the damage has
been done [and continues because the Citizen's Protection Act of 1998 is being violated
by the persons who choose which people to prosecute and which people not to
prosecute].
Prosecutors for years have been free to, and did, violate the professional standards for
lawyers which violations by defendants' attorneys routinely caused defendants'
attorneys and other attorneys to be disbarred or punished otherwise. Instead, federal
prosecutors are given higher positions and higher earnings when they deprive persons
of their life and liberty by wrongfully taking away their civil rights and obtaining illegal
convictions against them.
Actually, it seems that the Citizen's Protection Act made no difference, and business
goes on as usual, with federal prosecutors doing anything that comes to mind without
fear of being disciplined. This was pointed out to me by email from a reader who
revealed his personal experience to me, with valuable correspondence and websites to
prove his point. The websites and correspondence are as follows:

House Judiciary Committee 2/20/01 News Advisory - GAO Report Finds
Significant Problems with Justice Department's Office of Professional
Responsibility

>National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys Release - Save the
McDade-Murtha Law! - Indispensable Checks and Balances in Era of Expanded
Law Enforcement Powers [released sometime between 10/11/01 and 02/28/02]

>GAO Report to Congressional Requesters - August 2000 - Department of
Justice - Information on the Office of Professional Responsibility's Operations 1.7 MBytes PDF File

>10/23/00 Form Letter from DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility Denying
Relief to Victim of Prosecutorial Abuse
The text of the new [but ineffective] statute, 28 U.S.C. Section 530B, is available at:
Text of 1998 Statute 28 USC 530B .
The same court groups which administer the bar association disciplinary rules against
attorneys generally should set up a procedure for administering these rules against
prosecutors working within the state, both federal and state prosecutors.
There should be vigorous enforcement of these rules against prosecutors to discourage
prosecutors from committing career-enhancing prosecutions by violating the civil rights
of the defendants.
A most important application of the new statute, 28 U.S.C. Section 530B, would be to
have it construed to stop federal prosecutors (who are employees of the so-called
Justice Department) from bribing prosecution witnesses. The federal anti-bribery
statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 201, has been construed by the federal courts not to prohibit
such prosecutorial bribery. Federal Anti-Bribery Statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 201
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
The Press Intentionally Fails to Inform Citizens about the Inadequacy of the
Criminal Justice System
To a great extent, the nation's press is responsible for allowing the criminal justice
system to routinely convict innocent persons. The term "innocent persons" refers to
persons who, if they received competent legal representation and if the prosecution did
not violate their rights, would not be found guilty by the trier of fact. This means that
some accuseds will not be convicted because of the inability of the prosecutor to convict
them fairly, under the rules of law now existing (but in some cases not being enforced to
protect innocent persons from wrongful convictions).
The public as a whole knows little which is not disseminated to them by the press. To
the extent that the press advocates convictions, without regard to due process, the
public then adopts the same view (without realizing what they are adopting), and there
is no pressure on prosecutors to be just; instead, there is this pressure by the press to
convict.
When the press states that someone is convicted, most persons in the United States
believe that the convicted person is guilty of the crime charged, because if he was
innocent (the public reasons) he would not have been convicted. Whether a person is
guilty or not of a charged crime is highly debatable, judging from the evidence given at
trial, and the evidence which is not given (because of judicial mistakes in excluding the
testimony, incompetence of defense counsel for not finding or offering the evidence,
lack of funds for the defendant to obtain the exculatory evidence).
The public is only now coming to believe (as to capital offenses, punishable by death)
that the criminal justice system is far from perfect, and that a comparatively high
percentage of persons being executed is probably innocent (in the sense that the crime
was not proven without prosecutorial wrongdoing).
The public has not yet come to grips with an even bigger problem, perhaps 1,000 times
as large, that convictions for the lesser crimes (punishable anywhere from 1 day to life)
do not have the safeguards which surround capital crimes, and that the convictions for
these non-capital crimes are riddled throughout with injustices and wrongful convictions,
and to a much higher extent that wrongful convictions and executions in capital cases.
Once this filters down to the public, which is now just beginning to realize that capital
cases don't result in reliable convictions, the public will also realize that to a much
greater extent that the vast majority of criminal convictions are probably illegal, and the
whole criminal system needs a major overhaul.
The press should make this connection and delve into criminal cases of all types to
show how the cases are tainted. The press can get this information from the defendant's
attorney in many instances, who can tell the press some of the wrongdoing which is
taking place. Of course, a lot of the misconduct goes unnoticed or is not provable, or the
defendant's attorney feels unable to challenge the prosecutor's wrongdoing for fear of
reprisal in other criminal cases he/she now has or will get in the future. To challenge the
prosecutor might result in the attorney's future inability to cut a favorable deal with the
prosecutors for other alleged criminals the attorney is representing. In other words, the
corrupt process is so bad that lawyers are afraid to challenge it for fear of losing the
opportunity to negotiate a plea of guilty for their innocent clients.
The press publishes virtually all of the press releases it receives from the prosecutor,
and probably very little of the press releases is receives from the prosecutor's victims,
even when a current prosecution is a hot, front-page story. The fact that someone is
being accused of wrongdoing and is probably heading for jail (whether guilty or not) is
the story, not the fact that the person may be innocent and that the prosecutors are
violating the defendant's civil rights in a variety of ways. The press knows that its role is
to publish truth as it is defined by the persons who speak for the government, and not to
look behind the truth as announced by the prosecutor and other governmental officials.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
It is Lawful for Federal Prosecutors to Bribe Witnesses, Which Results in
Countless Convictions Based on Purchased False Testimony
Although the criminal defendant's attorney is not permitted to bribe witnesses (see
Federal Anti-Bribery Statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 201 18 USC 201), and would be
disbarred quickly if he/she did bribe a witness and was caught doing so, the same is not
true for the prosecution. They are permitted and encouraged to bribe witnesses and
they do this all the time.
The way it works is this.
A newly-arrested person (whether innocent or guilty) winds up in prison before the start
of his/her criminal trial, and a more experienced prisoner (probably innocent, but that
makes no difference) is selected as the lucky cellmate. (This selection process can be
done with the connivance of the prosecutor, to achieve the result described below.)
The oldtimer, wanting to get an early release, calls up his attorney and states (falsely)
that the new prisoner just confessed to him that he committed the crime for which he is
charged. (It is entirely possible that the oldtimer didn't even have a conversation with the
new prisoner; all the oldtimer has to say is that he did have a conversation with the new
prisoner.) The oldtimer also asks his attorney to pass that bit of information on to the
prosecutor, and that the oldtimer is willing to testify at the forthcoming trial in favor of the
prosecution, in exchange for a reduced sentence and early release from prison for the
oldtimer.
The prosecution then puts on this witness as the key witness against the defendant,
fully realizing that the oldtimer is lying in order to get out of prison. The jury knows less
about this early-release program for lying oldtimers (than the oldtimers, prosecutors and
judges) and fails to understand that the oldtimer witness is lying to get out of jail. The
oldtimer lies, the prosecutor knows the testimony is a lie, and the bribe is the early
release for the oldtimer.
Testimony of this sort should be excluded. The oldtimer should be barred from getting
any shortened sentence by reason of any testimony he should give, which would give
little or no incentive to provide perjured testimony. In a civil case, a fact witness for the
plaintiff or defense has a duty to testify without compensation (other than certain
expense reimbursement). Why should a defendant in a criminal case be subjected to
fact witnesses being paid with 20 years off of their sentence?
In a civil case, a lawyer would normally avoid using paid, perjured testimony for fear of
being accused of bribery and having to defend himself/herself against professional
charges which could lead to the loss of the attorney's license to practice law. On the
other hand, federal prosecutors win their cases by bribing witnesses, with no fear of any
loss of license or other sanctions; in fact, the more cases which a prosecutor can win by
bribery the more successful the prosecutor becomes, and with enough successful
bribes can expect to become a candidate for high political office.
A rule (part of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, perhaps) or a statute should be
passed which prohibits such bribery. As things stand now, various cases under federal
law permit this bribery, but only when it is done by a federal prosecutor. If the same
technique is used by defense counsel, he/she could be disbarred and sent to jail.
Hopefully, one or more federal judges will have the issue presented to them under the
October, 1998 statute 28 U.S.C. 530B, which prohibits U.S. Attorneys from doing things
which defense counsel are not permitted to do (such as bribe witnesses). See
discussion above, at Failure to Enforce Professional State and Local Ethics and
Disciplinary Rules against Prosecutors.
This difference between the prosecutor and defense lawyer is unjustified, and results in
tens of thousands of unjust convictions each year.
An Ohio Court of Appeals decision, in State of Ohio v. Berry, 1999 Ohio App. LEXIS
2983 **15-16 (10th App. Distr., Frankl. Co. 1999), without reference to and apparently
without knowledge of 28 U.S.C. 530B, upholds the bribery practice by (state)
prosecutors, with the following rationale (based on 1937 and 1970 U.S. Supreme Court
decisions):
We have previously rejected the claim that government officials violate R.C. 2921.02(C)
and DR 7-109(C) when they offer plea bargains in exchange for testimony. State v.
Drake, 1998 Ohio App. LEXIS 6224 (Dec. 17, 1998), Franklin App. No. 98AP-448,
unreported (1998 Opinions 5698, 5705).
Courts have long recognized that statutes do not apply to the government and do not
affect government rights unless the text expressly includes the government. See
Nardone v. United States (1937), 302 U.S. 379, 383, 58 S. Ct. 275, 277, 82 L. Ed. 314;
Ware, at 419. This rule applies where a statute would deprive the government of a
recognized or established prerogative or interest, or where applying the statute against
the government would lead to an absurdity. Nardone, at 277.
We conclude that the use of a witness's testimony on behalf of the prosecution in
exchange for a plea agreement is an established prerogative of the state. In so
concluding, we recognize the rationale set forth by the United States Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit in Ware. According to the court in Ware, no practice is more
ingrained in our criminal justice system than the practice of the government,
represented by a prosecutor, calling a witness who is an accessory to the crime for
which the defendant is charged and having that witness testify under a plea agreement.
161 F.3d at 421. The court in Ware also noted that the United States Supreme Court
has repeatedly upheld the plea agreement practices historically utilized in our criminal
justice system. Ware, at 419, citing Brady v. United States (1970), 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.
Ct. 1463, 25 L. Ed. 2d 747.
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Nobody Is Responsible for Providing Justice After a Conviction Takes Place
In the administration of criminal law, there is an army of prosecutors, assistant
prosecutors, investigators, paralegals, law clerks, secretaries, researchers and others
devoted to the task of convicting persons (whether they are guilty or not), having
millions of dollars of public funds available to them for their prodigious effort.
Not a single person or dollar is available within the same prosecutorial juggernaut to
supervise the convictions and attempt to undo them if it is perceived, subsequent to the
conviction, that a person was unjustly convicted. Instead, the juggernaut is used to
continue the fight and prevent the prosecutor's mistakes and wrongdoing from being
discovered.
Each prosecutor's office should have a department, adequately staffed and funded, to
try to detect and reverse wrongful convictions. Or, there should be an independent
office to which the prosecutor's records are sent, which would review such records and
determine whether there are grounds for a reversal, based upon prosecutorial abuse
and misconduct.
One way to start would be to take responsibility for habeas corpus petitions away from
the prosecutor and investigate charges of prosecutorial wrongdoing, instead of letting
the wrongdoing prosecutor tell the same court and judge that the prosecutor did no
wrong.
These habeas corpus petitions, knows as 2254 or 2255 petitions, under 28 U.S.C.
Section 2254 Text of 28 USC 2254 and 28 U.S.C. Section 2255 Text of 28 USC 2255 ,
should not be defended by the prosecutor who prosecuted the case, at least when the
petition alleges prosecutorial misconduct. The court rules under Sections 2254 and
2255 are found at: Text of Court Rules under 28 USC 2254 and Text of Court Rules
under 28 USC 2255 .
There is an obvious conflict requiring reassignment. The prosecutor charged with
wrongdoing has every reason in the world to cover up the wrongdoing and to tell the
court that he/she committed no wrongdoing. The conflict is that the prosecutor is
required to render justice (which he/she cannot do once he/she is trying to save his/her
own professional life) and the prosecutor is also required to be truthful with the court,
which the prosecutor cannot do, for the same reason.
Yet, all of these 2254 and 2255 petitions (to the extent claiming prosecutorial
misconduct) are routinely defended by the wrongdoing prosecutor, who always claims
there was no wrongdoing.
There is no better time to detect prosecutorial wrongdoing than this time, when the
convicted defendant, sitting in jail for a crime for which he was wrongfully convicted,
takes the time to spell out to the convicting judge the details (as far as the defendant
can determine) of how he/she was unjustly convicted.
It is a miscarriage of justice and against the Code of Professional Responsibility to have
the wrongdoing prosecutor fail to recuse himself/herself and let some other person in
the office look into the charges of wrongdoing.
What is worse, there appears to be no review of 2254 and 2255 petitions by any group
within the United States Justice Department (the employer of the federal prosecutors) to
determine whether the state (2254) or federal (2255) prosecutors were committing
prosecutorial crimes against the criminal defendant, and to try to stop such crimes from
being committed against others.
The reason for this failure is obvious: without such prosecutorial crimes, the convictions
would not be taking place, and the high rate of guilty pleas would be dramatically
reduced, and the number of incarcerations, prisons and jailers would be dramatically
reduced, which politicians believe would reflect adversely on their "Law and Order"
political agendas.
Because it is clear that the prosecutors do not adequately or fairly supervise
themselves, there is an urgent need for an organization to undertake this vital task, as
part of the needed overhaul of the federal criminal prosecution system.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Defense Attorneys Can't Make Waves by Attacking the Corrupt Criminal Justice
System
You would think that the defense attorneys are in a position to demand change. The
truth is that they are prevented from doing this by the nature of the corrupt system.
If a defense attorney brought a prosecutor's corruption to the attention of the court, the
defense attorney could expect that he would not be able to make "Fee and Plea" deals
with the same prosecutor (or others in the office) as to any of the other clients he/she is
defending.
This result would bankrupt the attorney, who is used to taking large sums of money from
most of his clients without having to defend the client at trial. More than 95% of the
federal convictions are based on guilty pleas, so that only 1 case out of 20 convictions is
tried. If a criminal lawyer trying to challenge the system had to try 20 times as many
cases, he/she would not have the time, and would lose substantial revenues by being
unable to take any more cases. Reprisals like this are known to lawyers. For example,
insurance companies which routinely refuse to settle cases will have a judge calling for
immediate trial of all (meaning, hundreds) of their non-settled cases; and in union
arbitration agreements, a union which threatens to appeal a decision on behalf of its
"represented" union member learns quickly that the corporation, with a much larger
bank account (on the order of 100,000 times as large) will retaliate by appealing every
adverse arbitration decision, which would bankrupt the union.
This reasonable fear of reprisal prevents the defendant's lawyer from complaining about
prosecutorial wrongdoing. What he/she would get is no cooperation from the
prosecutors and extra motions and trials until the defense lawyer understood what was
expected of him: Take your fee, and plead your client guilty when you cannot get any
more money from your client. [This, I hope is an exaggeration; some criminal lawyers
probably fail to challenge the prosecutor because they are not able to put the whole
picture together and understand what illegal conduct is taking place, or that the conduct
constitutes violations of various civil rights of their criminal clients.]
How can this problem be corrected?
The first thing which comes to mind is the form offered by the federal court clerk to
prisoners who are preparing their own 2254 or 2255 petitions. About 90% to 95% of all
2254 and 2255 petitions are prepared by the convicted/incarcerated defendants
themselves, with no help from any attorney (because in most instances the defendant is
complaining about the ineffective assistance of the attorney).
The 2254/2255 form lists 10 of the most frequently-raised grounds for the prisoners to
consider, including the generalized ground of ineffective assistance of counsel. But
the form does not include excessive sentencing (based on facts not pleaded, or tried
to the jury, or found by the jury - see the U.S. Supreme Court's recent landmark
decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 120 S. Ct. 2348 (2000)) or the broad category of
prosecutorial misconduct or abuse. To read this decision, go to Apprendi v. New
Jersey, 120 S. Ct. 2348 (2000). The 2254/2255 form does list some specific types of
prosecutorial misconduct or abuse (such as a coerced confession, unconstitutional
search and seizure, evidence obtained pursuant to an unlawful arrest, violation of
privilege against self-incrimination, and failure to disclose exculpatory evidence). But the
prisoner is not told that these five listed items are only specific instances of the overall,
non-mentioned, general category of prosecutorial misconduct and/or abuse. The
form should be revised to list perhaps 10 to 20 additional examples of prosecutorial
misconduct and abuse, and the general category of prosecutorial misconduct and
abuse, for factual development by the prisoner (while sitting in prison and usually
unable to obtain competent legal advice or adequate legal research facilities) in his/her
2254 or 2255 petition.
Also, the form should advise the defendant to be very specific in describing all activity
by the prosecutor which makes up the alleged prosecutorial misconduct or abuse, and
to include affidavits or declarations from the defendant, the defendant's trial attorney
and other witnesses as support for the charges. The purpose in having evidentiary
support accompanying the petition is to ensure that there is evidence in the record on
which the prisoner could base an appeal if the petition is summarily denied (which
occurs quite frequently) without any discovery or evidentiary hearing to put evidence
into the record.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Inadequate Fees Paid to Lawyers Representing Indigent Defendants Result in
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Lawyers representing The New York Times and IBM receive about $500 per hour for
their work in a federal action, often with 3-4 lawyers working on the same matter at the
same time together with other support personnel. Lawyers representing indigent
criminal defendants in a federal criminal action are paid about $35 per hour, which is
obviously and deliberately insufficient to obtain competent representation.
Even when the criminal attorney is competent, the low hourly rate is competing with
other work the lawyer has which pays much higher, and the lawyer often has to decide
whether to sell his/her available time to the client paying the most per hour, to to work
for the low hourly rate for the indigent and turn away more profitable legal business.
Until the rate is high enough to attract competent counsel, so that they are anxious and
willing to work for the rate being offered (which should be a minimum of $150 per hour,
approximately), the representation of indigent defendants will be substandard, and
many innocent defendants will be wrongfully convicted.
The cost of incarcerating convicted defendants is so high that it would probably be a
profit center for the government to pay high fees to indigent's counsel to be able to
reduce the number of convictions, and therefore the number of prisons, jailers, and the
costs of food, medical, dental, clothing, transportation, health supplies, books,
programs, and other items provided by the prison.
If it costs $30,000 per year to maintain a prisoner (including an allocation for the cost of
building the prison cell and shared facilities), $150 per hour in legal fees for attorneys
defending indigent defendants would probably result in far less of an expense to have a
defendant found innocent than the cost of imprisonment if convicted, at least when the
sentence is, say, 5 years or more.
The present system of preventing adequate legal representation is designed to
maximize convictions and create a prison bureaucracy. What is needed instead is a
level playing field, which undoubtedly would reduce the prison population by 70% to
90% over a 20-year period, and more than pay for the higher legal fees.
Also, it should be noted, that the prosecutors have been getting a free ride, being able
to bring prosecutions without sufficient evidence and without merit, knowing that the
defendant would be unable to probably defend against the charges. If defendants were
able to get competent counsel, the prosecutor's free ride would be over, and there
would be a reduction in the number of prosecutions, and a lowering of the legal fees
needed to be paid to counsel for indigent defendants.
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Excessive Expenditure by the Overzealous Prosecutor
All businesses and government organizations have limiting budgets, except federal
prosecutors. They have amounts available to them in direct proportion to the number of
persons they accuse (since most accusations result in a conviction). When accusing a
person of wrongdoing, the prosecutors are often able to seize all assets of the individual
and use those assets in prosecuting the same defendant, and other defendants. A
prosecutor who does not bring in this funding through prosecutions is probably not
going to last as a prosecutor.
This should be corrected.
Federal prosecutors and their staff are a prepaid expense, with the prosecutors and
staff working on an annual basis. Thus, there is no real outlay of money to prosecute
someone. The labor is without cost, having been paid in advance. And whatever extra
funds are required for prosecutions are obtained by seizures and forfeitures. What a
racket! See Federal and State Forfeiture Statutes; Prosecutorial Abuse; and
Discussion of What a Prosecutor's Victim Can Do to Fight Back.
To the extent they work extraordinary hours on one case to get a conviction, there is no
additional expenditure of money, and review by supervisors is less able to take place.
Also, there is the problem of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the prosecutor for such
things as a grand jury proceeding, and expert witnesses.
In some cases, the prosecutor can spend $1 or more million in a prosecution, and do so
against an indigent defendant, whose attorney may hope to get about $20,000 or so for
the entire case.
This disproportionate expense should not be permitted.
Every prosecution should be required to report each month to the federal court the
dollar value of the time spent on the case by all federal employees, including a
breakdown of the types of employees involved, as well as the amount of expert fees
and other expenses, so that the cost of an investigation and prosecution can be
followed, and the defendant appropriately alerted and funded by the government (even
out of the funds seized and confiscated, as long as that practice continues) to have a
level playing field.
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Criminal Defendants Should Have the Same Right to Expert Discovery as Is Given
to Plaintiffs and Defendants in a Civil Action
It is shocking to find out, but true, that a defendant on trial for his life is not given any of
the discovery provided in the same courtroom when a plaintiff is suing a defendant for a
broken leg or for a breach of an agreement to paint a house.
Rules 26(a)(2) and 26(b)(4) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Federal Rules
26(a)(2) and 26(b)(4) Permitting Discovery of Experts in Civil Action require each
party in a civil action to provide the other side with a substantial amount of information
about each expert witness who is going to testify at trial, including all publications
authored by the expert during the past ten years, and a list of all matters in which the
expert has testified at trial or by deposition during the past four years. Also, the parties
have the right to demand documents from the expert witness showing all
communications between the retaining attorney and the expert witness, all documents
upon which the expert relied in coming up with his opinion, all drafts of the opinion, and
other relevant matters that the opposing counsel would like to see. Then, the expert has
to submit to a deposition, to enable the opposing attorney to determine all the facts
surrounding this expert's opinion.
By the time of trial, the opposing counsel should fully understand the basis for the
expert's opinion, to be able to raise issues about the expert and his opinion at trial.
The same is not true in the criminal justice system. This disclosure through discovery
initiated by the opposing counsel is not permitted. The defendant is given, shortly prior
to trial, a brief summary of the expert's opinion, and is unable to find out from the expert
(except at trial) how the expert came to such conclusion.
By not knowing how the expert arrived at his/her opinion, the defense attorney is often
forced to plead the client guilty, because the defense lawyer does not know what the
expert would answer at trial, and many lawyers say that a lawyer should not ask a
question at trial to which he does not already know the answer. Accordingly, without
discovery in advance of trial, the lawyer is not in a very good position to cross examine
the government's expert, and the government is in too good a position, a wholly unlevel
playing field. Also, bear in mind that the government through the grand jury process is
able to obtain all of this information from the defendant and the defendant's experts
without the defendant having the right to do the same as to the government's experts.
To make things even worse, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure specifically
prohibit any discovery from being given when the prosecution's expert is a government
employee (such as an employee of the FBI Laboratory, who is often an expert witness
for the federal prosecutor).
By letter dated June 16, 2001 6/16/01 Letter to Reporter, Criminal Rules Advisory
Committee, I complained about this disparity in treatment to the persons who make
proposed revisions to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (for adoption by others)
and am hoping that a change will result, to create a more level playing field in this
increasingly-important area of testimony (the expert witness). On July 1, 2001, I wrote a
similar letter to U.S. Senator Leahy, with copies of the precise rules involved, hoping
that he and his Senate Committee can support the needed changes. 7/1/01 Letter to
U.S. Senator Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee.
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70 Days to Railroad a Criminal Defendant, but 3 Years or More (If at All) to Undo a
Wrongful Conviction
The federal Speedy Trial Act of 1974, as amended, 18 U.S.C. Section 1631, requires
that the trial for a criminal defendant be commenced within 70 days of the date of the
indictment or (published) complaint, otherwise the alleged criminal is to be released.
Yet, once the defendant is convicted, there is no same urgency to determine whether
the conviction was unlawful, when challenged.
After the conviction, the appeal often takes 1.5 years to decide, usually by the Court of
Appeals affirming the conviction below. The wrongdoing (or should I say, any
wrongdoing by the prosecutor) is seldom contained in the trial record, and the higher
court has no awareness of what really happened (when wrongdoing is involved).
The wrongdoing is revealed to the court, usually, only when the incarcerated defendant
files a habeas corpus petition under 2254 or 2255, and the whole procedure can take
about 3 years from date of conviction to date of release from prison (if the prisoner is
successful), or about 1-2 years from the date of conviction if the prisoner is
unsuccessful with his/her petition.
Why can't the time for determination of this petition also be set for 70 days, from the
date of filing of the petition? If the preparation for the criminal trial is limited to 70 days,
why isn't the preparation to oppose the petition (of wrongdoing by the prosecutor) also
set for a 70-day period. There really is no reason except that the Speedy Trial Act of
1974, as amended, fails to state that a petition to undo a criminal conviction is also a
criminal proceeding, and that it should be handled within 70 days, as well.
Thus, by statute or court rule, or even the individual practice policy of a federal judge,
should give similar (70-day) priority to a proceeding to undo a criminal conviction. In
other words, the evidentiary hearing on the defendant's motion should be commenced
within 70 days from the date of filing of the 2254 or 2255 petition.
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1-Time, 1-Year Rule for Use of 2254 or 2255 Petition Is an Unfortunate, Unjustified
Limitation
The Antiterrorism and Effect Death Penalty Act of 1996, 28 U.S.C. Section 2244, placed
a limitation on the federal habeau corpus prisoner's petition (28 U.S.C. Section 2254
and 28 U.S.C. Section 2255). Prior to enactment of the Act, prisoners could file a 2254
or 2255 petition anytime they had grounds, and some did so even when they had no
grounds.
To limit prisoners from making application to the court for relief, the Act was passed
which states that a prisoner must make any 2254 or 2255 petition within one year from
the date of final judgment in the criminal case (which means after all appeals have
expired, or the right to appeal has expired). Furthermore, a prisoner is limited to one
such petition, even if a second or third petition could be made within that 1-year period.
There are some exceptions, however, which should be researched before deciding not
to try a second petition. Also, you could consider making a motion to request the
opportunity to amend an outstanding 2255 or 2254 petition, if it has not yet been
decided.
The text of this limiting statute (called the Antiterrorism and Effect Death Penalty Act of
1996 to create public support for the statute which applied to all prisoners, whether
terrorists or not), is at: Text of 28 USC 2244 Which Limits All Prisoners to 1-Time Use of
2254/2255
The net result is that prisoners who fail to include grounds within their first filing are
forever precluded from raising the forgotten issue, no matter how important the issue
would have been. Also, the prisoner is precluded from raising newly-discovered grounds
in a second or third petition.
Clearly, this seems to be an unconstitutional limitation on the habeas corpus petition,
which according to the U.S. Constitution can only be suspended in time of war.
Otherwise, the U.S. Constitution says that a person is free to petition the court to be
released from custody by asserting in a petition (called a habeas corpus petition) that
he/she is being held unlawfully, and the jailer is required to explain to the court why the
person is being detained. Yet, because of the Anti-Terrorist Act, we have deprived nonterrorists from being able to petition the court under the U.S. Constitution and stop what
amounts to terrorist activity from being perpetrated upon them. [It should be noted that
prior to enactment of the statute a judicial doctrine had already developed which
precluded repeated use of the habeas corpus petition.]
Congress should amend the Anti-Terrorist Act so that the foregoing limitations (of 1Time and 1-Year) do not apply to anyone except alleged terrorists, or some federal
judges should make this determination and hold that the Act is unconstitutional, by
limiting habeas corpus petitions when there is no declared war.
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Exculpatory Evidence Is Routinely Avoided or Disregarded by the Prosecutor and
Not Provided to the Defendant When Inadvertently Received by the Prosecutor
During the Investigative Phase
"Exculpatory Evidence" is any piece of paper or any statement or any physical evidence
which tends to show that the defendant is not guilty of one or more of the crimes for
which the defendant is charged. Exculpatory evidence can be discovered at the crime
scene by investigators (such as footprints or tire prints not belonging to the victim or
someone residing at the victim's place of residence); or can be obtained through
statements made to investigators or to the prosecutors by witnesses or prospective
witnesses, or by prospective defendants; or in the form of one or more documents
subpoenaed by the prosecution from various persons or agencies.
All too often the prosecutor fails to provide the defendant's counsel with documents or
statements which would tend to show that the defendant is innocent.
Some statements are only provided minutes before a prosecution witness testifies,
preventing the defense from following up on the exculpatory statements contained in the
belated statement.
A major problem with prosecutors intent on winning is that when following the rules
governing prosecutors, such as (i) to look for the truth and prosecute only when the
evidence on both sides of the issue is carefully weighed, (ii) to provide all exculpatory
evidence to the defendant's counsel, (iii) to provide all such evidence on a timely basis,
and (iv) not to refuse to record exculpatory statements made by witnesses knowing that
such statements would have to be turned over to the defendant's attorney is recorded
on paper -- the prosecutor would probably lose his case, because of the reasonable
doubt that such exculpatory evidence could have in the minds of one or more of the
jurors.
If nothing else, the random audit suggested in another point should focus on whether all
exculpatory evidence had been accepted, and turned over to the defendant's attorney,
and if only one aspect of the prosecutor's work on a case could be audited, I would urge
that this is the aspect to audit. Prosecutors hide exculpatory evidence because they
know that in providing such evidence to the defendant's counsel, as the prosecutor is
required to do, the defendant would have a much greater chance of proving himself
innocent. Prosecutors are apparently taught that they are there to win at any cost, even
though they are depriving citizens and other residents of the United States the
constitutional protections which the prosecutors have sworn to uphold.
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Many Criminal Lawyers Take the Defendant's Money; Do Little Trial Preparation;
and Urge the Defendant to Plea Once He/She Has No More Money to Turn Over to
the Defense Lawyer - A Process Known by Judges and Attorneys as "Fee and
Plea"
"Fee and Plea" is a practice which is swamping the Federal Courts. What this means is
that the defense lawyer keeps asking for more and more money from the defendant or
the defendant's family, prior to trial (and possibly during the occasional trial which is
started), and as soon as the defendant and his family run out of money, urge the
defendant to plead guilty. Meanwhile, the defense lawyer, knowing that 19 out of 20 of
his/her criminal cases are going to result in a conviction by a "Guilty Plea", even though
the client may not be guilty, does not do all that needs to be done to prepare for trial,
because the vast majority of his cases wind up with his/her client pleading guilty. The
lawyer who gets the most and does the least for the client becomes the most financially
successful criminal lawyer, because he/she retains a large part of the legal fee without
doing the promised work or getting the needed experts, or conducting the needed
investigation.
From the criminal lawyer's standpoint, it can be said that as long as the prosecutors are
corrupt and abusive, there is very little the criminal lawyer can do without large sums of
money to try to overcome the corruption and abuse, so why not take as much as you
can get, and do as little as possible. How do you fight a corrupt prosecution, which
refuses to accept or turn over exculpatory evidence. The defendant is not allowed
discovery rights as a general matter, and the prosecution is permitted to obtain millions
of dollars of discovery over a period of several years or more. How can you fight this,
the criminal defense lawyer would probably say.
The criminal lawyers probably believe that to fight the system is too costly and could
impact adversely on the other 18 criminal cases which he/she needs to settle through
as favorable a plea arrangement as possible.
Another factor is that federal judges are appointed in far fewer numbers than the
matters which are presented to them for handling, and it is generally known that federal
judges tend to hand out harsh sentences for those who dare to go to trial and lose, as
most of the defendants are bound to do because of the abusive and corrupt practices of
the prosecutors.
In any event, regardless of the cause, what can be done about this Fee and Plea
method of convicting 95% of the persons who are accused of criminal conduct, many of
whom would not be convicted if the criminal system were just?
Defendants should discuss this problem with their attorney before committing to the
attorney (because by giving the attorney the money requested, the defendant is
preventing himself from hiring another attorney, due to lack of funds).
Defendants and their attorney should prepare a game plan with various goals, and the
attorney should report every week or two on the accomplishment of the goals, or lack of
accomplishment, and the defendant should be involved, to keep the lawyer on track.
The defendant has got to assume responsibility in this regard because of the prevalent
practice among defense attorneys not to do what needs to be done to obtain a just
result. The attorneys know more than the clients, and are not telling the clients how bad
the system really is, until the money supply runs out, and then the attorney can't act fast
enough to convince the client to plead guilty.
Why doesn't the lawyer start off the first interview with a statement that the indictment is
tantamount to your conviction because of the corruption and abuse in the criminal
system, and you might as well plead guilty right away, and save yourself and your family
a lot of money. By pleading guilty today you can probably get a much lower sentence,
and get it over with more quickly.
The result is that we have the largest prison population, per capita, of all civilized
countries, which undoubtedly is because the accusation is the conviction, without due
process and without any trial. At the same time, the prosecutor's fame, compensation,
power and importance shoot up, and the last thing the prosecutor wants to hear is that
he/she did anything wrong, or that he has convicted hundreds of innocent persons
(meaning, convicted persons who would not have been convicted under the rules of the
game if the prosecutor had stayed within the rules).
Remember, the rules are designed to prevent innocent persons from going to jail, and
we purposely permit some guilty persons to go free in order to ensure that innocent
people are not convicted, and jailed or executed. We are obviously failing in this
respect, and not only with hundreds of innocent persons being convicted or murder and
being executed, for a crime they did not permit. The situation is much worse when it
comes to non-capital crimes, where the press is not focussed on the illegality of the
system, and in fact is a major cause of the abuses taking place through their editorial
policy of advocating more heavy-handed enforcement against alleged criminals
(whether they committed the crime or not).
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The Cross-Examination and Impeachment Rules Preventing a Defendant from
Testifying on His/Her Own Behalf Must Be Modified to Permit the Defendant to be
a Witness on His/Her Own Behalf
Virtually every defense lawyer will tell you that the defendant should not testify on
his/her own behalf. The reason generally given is that the prosecution will inevitably
make it seem, from the defendant's own testimony, that he/she is guilty, and that the
defendant should not assist the prosecutor in proving the prosecutor's case against the
defendant.
Much of this advice to defendants is based upon the ability of the prosecution to go into
other matters unrelated to the crime charged, and make it appear that because the
defendant was convicted of bigamy, for example, for obtaining an invalid divorce and
then marrying again, that the defendant is guilty of bank robbery, for example.
These rules permitting extensive cross examination of the defendant should be changed
to permit testimony as to the conduct at issue, and not whether the defendant might
have committed unrelated crimes or made untrue statements as to other matters. The
jury should be able to hear what the defendant has to say with appropriate instructions
from the judge that the defendant is an interested person (balanced by statements that
you cannot necessarily trust the prosecution's witnesses whose financial success in life
may well depend upon having this defendant found guilty).
In other words, there should be a new formula found to allow defendants to say what
happened without subjecting them to revealing anything they ever did, or allegedly did,
in life. By doing this, the jury can hear more about what happened and have more
relevant information on which to base their decision.
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Grand Jury Indictments Have No Oversight by the Court, any Outside Goverment
Agency, or the Justice Department Itself - And Is Purely a Rubber-Stamp
Operation by Unknowing and Disinterested Grand Jurors
The federal grand jury process has many faults, and needs to be overhauled to
eliminate these faults, some of the importants ones of which are:
1. a grand jury target (or person who is probably going to be indicted) has no
right to appear before the grand jury and tell the jurors, under oath, the
events which took place from the target's standpoint. If a grand jury were
allowed to hear the story from the target's standpoint, the grand jury might be
less willing to indict. Under New York law, a target has the right to testify before
the grand jury. Under federal law, the prosecutor has the right to determine
whether he will permit a willing target to testify to try to persuade the grand jury
not to indict him or her. Giving this option to targets would not be too drastic a
change from present practice because many defense lawyers would probably
direct their client not to testify even if they had the right to do so. [The fear in part
is that the testimony would be distorted by the prosecutor and used against the
defendant at trial.]
2. the grand jury process is not supervised by the court, any governmental
organization, or by the prosecutor's own employer, the Justice Department.
Many federal judges have told me that they have no control over what takes
place before the grand jury. The federal judges only become involved, as a
practical matter, after an indictment has been returned by a grand jury. The
prosecutor uses the grand jury as he/she would deal with an array of mannikins.
The prosecutor creates a paper record by making statements to the court
reporter (which are overheard by such members of the grand jury who happened
to show up for the session), and introduces documentary or physical exhibits into
the same record, and finally presents a piece of paper (the form for an
indictment) to be signed by the grand jury foreperson so the grand jury can go
back to their jobs or homes. Because the grand-jury system is so one-sided, it is
a no-brainer for the members - what else can they do? For one thing, there
should be some type of reading of rights to the grand jury members when first
convened, that they have a right to demand that there be a sufficient basis for
any indictment, in their opinion, which might deter some indictments from being
returned.
3. The grand-jury proceedings are held in secret, in accordance with a federal
rule which requires each grand-jury investigation to be conducted in
secret. The grand jury secrecy requirement is imposed by Federal Rule of
Criminal Procedure 6(e)(2), which states:
(2) General rule of secrecy. A grand juror, an interpreter, a stenographer,
an operator of a recording device, a typist who transcribes recorded
testimony, an attorney for the government, or any person to whom
disclosure is made under paragraph (3)(A)(ii) of this subdivision shall not
disclose matters occurring before the grand jury, except as otherwise
provided for in these rules. No obligation of secrecy may be imposed on
any person except in accordance with this rule. A knowing violation of
Rule 6 may be punished as a contempt of court.
.
This requirement enables the prosecutors to act in secret and leave no
discoverable trail for aggrieved persons and the public to hold federal
prosecutors accountable for wrongdoing, unless they can somehow break the
secrecy requirement. Of course, the secrecy requirement never stops
prosecutors from leaking secret information to the press, particularly through
formal press releases, to be able to publicize their secret proceedings and poison
the jury pool. They do this all the time, which leads one to believe that there is
really no need for such secrecy, because it is not kept by the prosecutors
themselves, and that the secret information and proceedings should be
converted into public information no later than at the end of the prosecution, to
enable others (such as the courts, aggrieved persons, and the public) to audit the
grand-jury process.
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Prosecutors Pervert Bail Procedure by Demanding Excessive Bail for the
Unlawful Purpose of Preventing a Defendant from Being Released on Bail
The purpose of bail is to ensure that a defendant appears in court, from time to time, as
required by the judge. The amount of bail should be set with this in mind, not to make
the bail so high that the defendant is unable to raise the money and be released on bail.
Prosecutors routinely seek excessive bail for the specific purpose of preventing the
defendant from getting released from jail prior to trial, which makes it more difficult for
the defendant to defend himself, and for the purpose of tying up the defendant's assets
and loan sources, which makes it more difficult if not impossible for the defendant to
hire an attorney.
Thus, prosecutors try to win their case by preventing the defendant from having the
time, freedom and resources needed by them to defend themselves against the
prosecutors' criminal charges.
This is unconstitutional and should be fought (as should many of the other
unconstitutional wrongdoings directed by prosecutors against defendants and their
counsel). Perhaps every prosecutor and prosecuting office should be required to
maintain public records as to the name of the case and prosecutor, the amount of bail
sought, the amount granted, whether bail was actually given, and if given whether the
defendant failed to appear when required. These statistics would be quite useful for
other defendants and their counsel to show how bail is routinely demanded and often
set at excessive amounts, with the effect of depriving the defendants of their
constitutional right to a fair trial through due process of law.
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Prosecutors Provide Misinformation to Congressional Committees to Prevent
Congress from Learning the Truth and Correcting the Constitutionally Abusive
Federal Prosecutorial System
If you ask someone who is violating the law whether he or she is violating the law, the
answer not unexpectedly is "No!" When asking policepersons and police officials
whether they or any other persons in their police department are violating the rights of
any citizens, you will almost always get the same answer. We expect denials, and hear
them repeated in the newspapers and other news media reporting on events of possible
violations of the rights of citizens.
The Justice Department lies no less than others when asked to provide testimony about
the constitutionality of the prosecutorial practices of their organization. During 2000, the
United States Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York (representing the
largest population of all U.S. Attorneys' Offices in the United States, including the
populations of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Long Island), jointly with the
Criminal Division of the Justice Department, testified before the House Judiciary
Committee (looking into charges that the grand jury system needed reform) that the
federal grand jury system was acting properly and not denying accuseds of any of their
constitutional rights. This testimony is available with critical comments by the author of
this website at House Committee on Grand Jury Reform - 2000 Testimony of U.S.
Attorney's Office, EDNY.
The testimony swears to the House Judiciary Committee that the 90% rate of
convictions of persons who are indicted is that indictments take place only when
justified, so that a high rate of convictions is to be expected. Also, the testimony states
that only 2% of the persons sought to be indicted are not indicted by the grand jury. The
abuses listed in this website (which was not available at the time of such testimony) are
not addressed, quite understandably.
The testimony enables "Law and Order" to conclude, as they are anxious to conclude,
that the restrictions upon civil rights already approved by them are working and that
more restrictions are even possible, to make sure that every criminal winds up in jail
(except themselves, of course).
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Individuals Should Be Permitted to Initiate Federal Criminal Proceedings against
Any Violators of Federal Criminal Law, Including Federal Prosecutors
Unless you are a politically-pointed federal prosecutor, you have no right to initiate any
federal criminal proceedings against persons who violate violate your rights or cause
you other injury in violation of federal criminal law. Instead, you have to go to the office
of the federal prosecutor and complain that one of their staff is violating the criminal law,
which of course would cause rounds of laughter within such office, as your are being
invited to leave.
There are doctrines permitting a citizen's arrest (although there is no immunity for
liability to the arrested person if you are held to have wrongfully arrested such person).
There should be a similar right for anyone to commence a federal criminal proceeding
against anyone who is violating your rights and federal criminal law. Such a right would
put a significant damper on the willingness of federal prosecutors to use unlawful tactics
to win their cases.
It seems possible that a non-prosecutor with a substantial case of criminal prosecutorial
conduct could file a criminal complaint against such person in the federal court for the
district in which the person is a prosecutor and establish a right to commence criminal
proceedings under a criminal-law equivalent to the constitutional doctrine which permits
a person to file a civil action for violation of certain civil rights against federal officials
without having any federal statute permitting such filing. The U.S. Supreme Court
decision which permits civil rights actions (as direct constitutional actions where there is
no statutory remedy) against wrongdoing federal officials is Bivens v. Six Unknown
Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388, 416 (1971). A copy of the decision is available
(without fee) at FindLaw.Com, Bivens v. Six Unknown Fedeal Narcotics Agents, 403
U.S. 388 (1971).
Two recent cases are relevant: On page 1, New York Law Journal, 9/11/01 edition, in
an article entitled "No Private Right to Begin Prosecution Found", the NYLJ reports that
an upstate town justice (in a very minor New York court) held People v. Kavanagh, "in
what appears to be a first-impression ruling", that no such private right existed under
New York law. However, this ruling does appear to be highly questionable. The NYLJ
article cited several decisions from the highest New York Court, holding to the contrary:
People v. Czajka, 11 N.Y.2d 253 and < v.>, 13 N.Y. 61; and People v. Soddano, 86
N.Y.2d 727 (1995), which held that a N.Y. State Troooper could prosecute a traffic
offense. The Kavanagh decision held that ordinary citizens did not have the right to
institute criminal proceedings, only persons having some type of public office (such as a
state trooper, "or other designated public servant", because to hold otherwise would
mean that ordinary citizens would have the right to greater input in the conduct of
criminal proceedings in which they have been the victims.
The other recent relevant case is in California, involving Congressman Condit. On
8/30/01, CNBC News Transcript from Rivera Live, Rivera referred to the "admittedly
extraordinary attempt to use the kind of archaic law in California that allows a private
citizen to initiate a grand jury action". I have looked at some California cases and found
some interesting language in one of them. This decision, United States v. Smyth, 104 F.
Supp. 283, 295-299; 1952 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4310 (N.D. Cal., South. Div. 1952), stated in
part:
This power of the grand jury springs from inherent qualities. The jurors are instruments
of the people of the community. They reflect the sentiment of the particular locale- the
fama publica. n49 In their character as representatives, they may call for witnesses and
documents which may verify or negative the suspicions n50 or rumors of crime which
affect the neighborhood. n51 In his character as witness, each may speak of those
things which he himself has observed. n52 In England the private person who
claimed a crime has been committed could lay an indictment before the grand
jury. n53 Although private prosecutions as such have been abandoned in the
country. n54 the grand jurors retain enough of this tradition that they may initiate
prosecutions based on information received from persons who have no
connection officially with them. n55 [emphasis added]
Under the Federal Constitution, a grand jury may either present or indict. n56 The word
'presentment' technically characterizes the process whereby a grand jury initiates an
independent investigation and asks that a charge be drawn to cover the facts should
they constitute a crime. n57 The authority to initiate independent investigations n58
cannot be taken away without erasing the word 'Resentment' from the
fundamental law of the land. [Emphasis added]
There is in the motion to dismiss a series of specifications criticizing the receipt of
'unauthorized communications,' oral and written, by this grand jury. It is alleged with
positiveness that O'Gara, a duly qualified and acting Assistant United States Attorney,
who was not presently assigned to the investigation, gave to one of the grand jurors the
Kefauver Committee Report, the specification prepared by Thomas Doolan, an
accountant of the Income Tax Department, and notes made by the Assistant United
Stated Attorney himself. It is stated O'Gara and Doolan conferred with one member of
the sitting grand jury, where the Doolan specifications were turned over and the case
fully discussed and notes were made by the grand juror. Other instances of
communications outside of the grand jury room between the Assistant United States
Attorney and members of another grand jury are mentioned. It is said these
communications are unauthorized and illegal.
The sources of grand jury information are almost unlimited. n59 The grand jury are
constituted for the express purpose of inquiring into and making indictment or
presentment of all crimes against the United States committed in the district for which
they were drawn, n60 namely, the Northern District of California. They were sworn to do
just that. n61 It cannot be held that any investigation made by them for that express
purpose and in accordance with that oath is or was unauthorized. n62 It has always
been said that they can act of their own knowledge or on testimony which comes to
them through witnesses. n63 Attempts have been made to limit that language. n64
While an indictment should not be returned based upon hearsay alone, and the courts
so instruct, the calling of witnesses may be initiated in a general investigation which has
no particular defendant or charge involved. n65 But, when charges were made in the
press and on the sidewalks of San Francisco, can it be said to be without the knowledge
of the grand jurors? Any communication to a grand juror would be unauthorized unless
made by the United States Attorney according to that argument. Everyone should know
that is not true. The grand jurors had a right to use rumors, hearsay, reports and even
suspicion n66 in initiating an investigation, and it made no difference whether these
were oral or written or whether acquired inside or outside grand jury hearings, and the
persons who gave information need not have been grand jurors or witnesses or under
prescribed or other oath. n67
It is true, courts often caution the grand jurors not to act upon rumor or hearsay and not
to allow anyone to seek them out through malice to get an indictment. n68 The purpose
of 18 U.S.C.A. Section 1504 was to prevent anyone from attempting to bring pressure
upon or intimidate a grand juror by a written communication with that intent. But that
section does not prohibit a grand juror from receiving a communication, written or oral.
The grand jury could indict anyone for a violation of that section if the requisite elements
were present. But not if they solicited a communication or indicated a willingness to
receive one; then the requisite intent would not be present and there would be no crime.
The foregoing quoted language seems to provide some authority for direct complaint by
a citizen to an existing grand jury, and grand jury's right to consider and act upon such
information if the information has some relevance and basis.
If the District Judge dismisses the criminal action, you would then have to appeal to the
appropriate Circuit Court of Appeals, and if the Court of Appeals denied your appeal,
you would then have to apply to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari,
which is a request by written motion for permission to appeal certain issues to the
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court might well take jurisdiction of such an issue.
During March, 1997, Gary Ruskin, Director of the Congressional Accountability Project,
testified before the House Ethics Reform Task Force (a House Committee investigating
corruption, euphemistically called "ethics violations", among members of the House of
Representatives. He concluded (see Reforms Recommended by the Congressional
Accountability Project during 1997:
In general, four principal reforms are needed to restore public confidence in the ethics
process: Send ethics complaints routinely to outside counsel for investigation; Eliminate
unnecessary delays in the initial phases of the ethics process; Eliminate barriers that
prevent citizens from directly filing ethics complaints; [emphasis added] and,
Punish members who break House ethics rules.
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How to Deal with Prosecutorial Misconduct and Abuse
If you believe you or a member of your family (or a friend or associate) have/has
become a victim of prosecutorial abuse or misconduct (which two words are pretty
much interchangeable, you should consider consulting with a different criminal attorney
(because of the probable unwillingness of your present attorney to deal with the
problems) or perhaps a civil rights attorney (because we are dealing with possible
violations of your constitutionally-protected rights) and then review these and other
possible matters with such attorney:
1. Applicability of 28 USC 2254 or 28 USC 2255 or other state or federal habeas
corpus motions, or other motions for a new trial, or to dismiss criminal
proceedings (grounds for which may include one or more points listed below);
2. All complaints which your criminal attorney voiced to you about the activities of
the prosecutor;
3. All complaints which you have, if any, about your criminal attorney, whether
voiced to such attorney or not;
4. Any pre-trial publicity which may have been generated by the prosecutor;
5. Any possible bribery of prosecution witnesses;
6. Any possible failure to ask for exculpatory evidence when the prosecution was
investigating the matter;
7. Any possible failure by the prosecutor to turn over exculpatory evidence to your
criminal attorney (evidence which would tend to help prove innocence of the
defendant, or cast doubt on the accuracy or veracity of any of the prosecution's
witnesses);
8. Any possibilities for obtaining discovery which might have been overlooked, even
if such discovery requires an application to the court for permission to obtain;
9. Any possibilities for obtaining government-provided additional funding of the
costs of your investigation or retention of expert witnesses;
10. Any possible use of civil litigation at this time to preserve your right to relief for
the infringement of your constitutional rights (bearing in mind that such action
might expose you to discovery yourself, unless you apply for and obtain a court
order in the civil case protecting your from discovery until resolution of the
criminal matter);
11. Possibility of a motion to disqualify the prosecutor for the alleged misconduct,
and because of any civil action you might have or have brought against the
prosecutor;
12. Motion in the criminal case to demand expert discovery comparable to that which
is provided in civil litigation under Rule 26(b)(4) of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure, the denial of which would be an excellent ground for appeal (the
issue being the unconstitutionality of Rules 16(a)(1)(E) and 16(a)(2) of the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and 18 U.S.C. Section 3500 7/1/01 Letter
to Sen. Leahy, with rule and statute quoted at end of letter which prohibit
expert discovery, and particularly expert discovery of government employees
who are used as expert witnesses (such as FBI laboratory experts);
13. Possibility of application of doctrine prohibiting arbitrary, selective and
discriminatory enforcement of law, which means that under constitutional law you
are not allowed to be selected for prosecution while others known to have done
the same thing are not also being prosecuted (which gives grounds to stay, but
not to dismiss, the discriminatory criminal proceedings);
14. Failure to present felony to grand jury under New York law is grounds for a
dismissal, whether or not the defendant is incarcerated (there is a constitutional
right under New York law to have a felony alleged in a complaint brought before
a grand jury for indictment, unless this is waived by the defendant, and this is so
even if the defendant is out on bail); you should determine whether this right
exists in any other states;
15. And other matters which come to mind. This list is far from exhaustive. Read this
entire website and add more points to your list, and do the same for the
companion website on Prosecutorial Abuse, at: Prosecutorial Abuse Website.
16. Call the author of this website for any help he might give to you and your attorney
- see below.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Demand Change by Contacting Elected Representatives, Government Agencies,
Law School Professors, and the Press
Clearly, we have a growing crisis in the United States caused by the inequality of our
criminal justice system, including the unlimited funding of prosecutors in comparison to
the lack of funding to the impoverished defendants caught in the prosecutorial morass,
who cannot afford or find competent counsel to try to offset even part of the
constitutional violations which to which defendants are routinely subjected by
prosecutors, and because of which prosecutors are putting away a higher percentage of
the country's population than any other civilized country.
The press cannot be expected to be of much help because, upon analysis, they are the
cause of many of our problems, advocating Law and Order instead of Bread and Butter,
to give the public readership issues to take their minds off of their declining standard of
living, and to let them focus instead on the petty wrongdoing (or alleged wrongdoing) of
persons selected for prosecution by the political appointees put in charge of
prosecutions, and not to focus on the corporate monopolies, conspiracies, mergers,
restraints of trade, tax fraud and other devices used to separate the public from their
money, which winds up making the rich richer, and the middle class poorer.
Although this is not to say that you should not waste your time trying to get the press to
listen to the prosecutorial nightmare which is being visited upon guilty and non-guilty
persons alike, the members of the press with whom you might be in contact do not have
any First Amendment freedom to report. They could write a favorable story, find that the
story will not be published (by the editors who know better than to print such material),
and find themselves ready for some other type of employment.
I think that the approach would be to reach as many law professors and instructors as
possible, to be able to get more directly to the "talking heads" on television who help to
shape public opinion. They might be in a better position to understand the legal
problems and might be able to discuss some of them in their periodic opportunities to
comment on matters which television shows tend to focus on, such as the O.J. Simpson
trials, or other trials. Such a milieu in fact might provide an excellent opportunity for law
professors to slip in some helpful observations about the criminal prosecution system,
and raise some interesting questions.
Perhaps the best approach would be to identify the committees and subcommittees of
the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, and the state legislative bodies, to try to
have a public investigation started into these problems, similar to the one chaired by
Sen. Leahy during July, 2000. See 7/1/01 Letter to U.S. Senator Leahy, Senate
Judiciary Committee.
Also, you should consider going to various government agencies responsible for some
oversight over the judicial system, including the group which suggested revision of the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the group dealing with a larger judicial picture.
See 6/16/01 Letter to Reporter, Criminal Rules Advisory Committee.
One of the best opportunities to change the rules would be to become active in bar
association committees (which often permit members of the community who are not
lawyers to be members and participate in the activities, even through voting on
measures). The types of committees include: Committee on the Federal Courts;
Committee on the State Courts; Committee on the Judiciary; Committee on Criminal
Procedure; and Committee on Federal or State Rules (Civil or Criminal). There are
undoubtedly many other committees where some of these issues would be given a
hearing.
You also might want to let me know what you are doing and how effective your activities
have been.
Finally, you might consider helping me market this website, as discussed immediately
below.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
PAID OR VOLUNTEER HELP WANTED to Market this Website
Important Qualification: The term "Marketing" is used in the sense of bringing useful
information to the attention of persons having a need for, or desiring such, information,
and not with any view to commercialization of or making money from this website.
I need PAID OR VOLUNTEER HELP for carrying out my marketing plan below. I invite
you to submit an indication of your interest in doing one or more of the items listed
below, and an estimate of the cost (hourly rate and estimated total cost) for each.
1. create list of the country's disciplinary committees regulating attorneys' conduct
(usually part of the local or state court system), and send an email to each
2. create a list of attorneys who are authorized by the nation's 100+ federal district
courts, and 13 or so federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, to receive compensation
for representing indigent defendants in their 2254 and 2255 proceedings brought
in the district court, or appealed to the Courts of Appeals, and send an email to
each of them
3. create a list of paid, volunteer, and law-school legal aid groups which provide
representation to indigent defendants in criminal matters, and send an email to
each of them
4. create list of U.S. law schools [see www.megalaw.com], then list of criminal law
professors, then email list of such professors, then email (or snailmail) letter to
each
5. create a list of law reviews (published by law schools), then create a list of law
review editors and their email addresses, then email a letter to each of them
6. create a list of daily and weekly law journals and their email addresses, then
email a letter to each of them
7. create a list of the nation's bar associations [see www.megalaw.com] and
committees thereof having an interest in the criminal justice system, and email a
letter to each committee with a request that a copy be provided to each member,
as a source of possible projects for committee members and sub-committees
8. create a list of associations representing different interested groups (such as
state judges, federal judges, criminal attorneys, defense attorneys, state courts,
federal courts, state court administrators (including the newsletter sent to The
association of State and Local Court Administrators), and federal court
administrators, then email a letter to each
9. create a list of the highest court (generally called Supreme Court, except in some
states including Massachusetts [Supreme Judicial Court] and New York [Court of
Appeals], and a list of the judges in such courts, and then email [or snail mail] a
letter to each of the courts, judges and the clerks thereof
10. create list of U.S. colleges and universities, then a list of political science or
government professors, then email (or snailmail) letter to each
11. create email list of U.S. Senators and Representatives, then email letter to each
12. create email list of appropriate Congressional Committees potentially interested
in prosecutorial abuse, and the members and staff members thereof, with email
addresses, then email letter to each
13. create email list of appropriate judicial agencies and other governmental
agencies with interest in prosecutorial abuse, then email letter to each
14. create a list with email addresses of independent and alternative media which
would probably be interested in this website, then email a letter to each
15. create a list of National Public Radio reporters and editors, and email a letter to
each of them
16. create email list of magazines interested in reporting on prosecutorial abuse,
then email letter to each
17. create email list of radio shows potentially interested in discussing prosecutorial
abuses, then email letter to each
18. create email list of television shows potentially interested in discussing
prosecutorial abuses, then email letter to each
19. create list of frequent guests of television talk shows, create email list of such
persons, then email letter to each
20. follow daily events in which prosecutorial abuse may exist, obtain email or
snailmail addresses of victims and their attorneys and put into growing database,
and then email a letter to each
21. create email list of law-school organizations which might be interested in having
someone speak to their group about prosecutorial abuse, and email a letter
which solicits an invitation to speak
22. create email list of college organizations which might be interested in having
someone speak to their group about prosecutorial abuse, and email a letter
which solicits an invitation to speak
23. create email list of community organizations (such as Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club,
other civil organizations which might be interested in having someone speak to
their group about prosecutorial abuse), and email a letter which solicits an
invitation to speak
24. create a list of offices of prosecuting attorneys in the United States, and then a
list of their email addresses, and then email a letter to each of them
25. create a list of relevant websites dealing with prosecutorial abuse, and email a
letter to each of them advising them of this website and asking them to add a link
to this website and that we will do the same for their website
26. Have Lexis-Nexis report daily to you each new article or decision which involves
certain key words (to reflect possible prosecutorial abuse), create a database of
such matters and the persons adversely affected and their attorneys, and then
send an email letter to each such person informing them about this website
27. Plan other ways to market this website, including priorities for expenditure of time
and money in the marketing effort
28. Check out these websites: National Center for State Courts (www.ncsc.dni.us; tel
757-253-2000; webmaster@ncsc.dni.us) [probably a new name for the
Association of State and Local Court Administrators];
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
HELP WANTED to Improve this Website
I am looking for someone to improve the functionality and appearance of this website,
and to make it interactive as to some features, and invite persons to make proposals
(including the cost involved). Please communicate with me to discuss the desired
additional features.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Send an Email to an Interested Person
If you know someone who could use any of the information in this website, or should
know about the website, please let him/her know. An email form is included for your
convenience. [OCS please create email form here.]
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Researcher Wanted for Website Articles
I would like to have some articles researched and prepared for publication on this
website. The research requires access to Lexis (or Westlaw) and Nexis (or equivalent).
Law students would be in a good position to do this type of research and authorship. If
you are interested, please let me know.
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Communicate with the Author of this Website
E-Mail to Website Author (Carl Person) for Comments or Suggestions
carlpers@ix.netcom.com
RETURN TO: Index and Quick Links to Website Material
Additional Matters - Other Lawmall Website Links
1. Go to Lawmall Website - Main Menu for All Related Websites
2. Go to RPAMall Website
3. Go to Wal-Mart/Superstores Website
4. Go to Related (Earlier) Website on Prosecutorial Abuse
Carl E. Person, Director, LawMall, carlpers@ix.netcom.com
Criminal Prosecution Reform Website Copyright © 2001-2007 by Carl E. Person
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Group a friend sent these to me this morning. Discovered in the United States Codes.
Very interesting reading. **Especially under Title 18, U.S.C., Section 245 Federally
Protected Activities.. ...
1) This statute prohibits willful injury, intimidation, or interference,
or attempt to do so, by force or threat of force of any person or class
of persons because of their activity as:
**e) a participant in any program or activity receiving Federal
financial assistance.
**marilyn fpls
Title 18, U.S.C., Section 245 Federally Protected Activities
**
Laws: Cases and Codes <http://www.findlaw. com/casecode/> : U.S. Code
<http://www.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscode.html/> : Title 18
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/18/ toc.html> : Section 245
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/18/ parts/i/chapters /13/sections/
section_245. html>*
*1) This statute prohibits willful injury, intimidation, or interference, or attempt to do so,
by force or threat of force of any person or class of persons because of their activity as:
a) A voter, or person qualifying to vote...;
b) a participant in any benefit, service, privilege, program, facility, or activity provided or
administered by the United States;
c) an applicant for federal employment or an employee by the federal government;
d) a juror or prospective juror in federal court; and
e) a participant in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
2) Prohibits willful injury, intimidation, or interference or attempt to do so, by force or
threat of force of any person because of race, color,
religion, or national origin and because of his/her activity as:
a) A student or applicant for admission to any public school or public College;
b) a participant in any benefit, service, privilege, program, facility, or activity provided or
administered by a state or local government;
c) an applicant for private or state employment, private or state employee; a member or
applicant for membership in any labor organization
or hiring hall; or an applicant for employment through any employment agency, labor
organization or hiring hall;
d) a juror or prospective juror in state court;
e) a traveler or user of any facility of interstate commerce or common carrier; or
f) a patron of any public accommodation, including hotels, motels, restaurants,
lunchrooms, bars, gas stations, theaters...or any other
establishment which serves the public and which is principally engaged in selling food
or beverages for consumption on the premises.
3) Prohibits interference by force or threat of force against any person because he/she
is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or
any other person or class of persons from participating or affording others the
opportunity or protection to so participate, or lawfully
aiding or encouraging other persons to participate in any of the benefits or activities
listed in items (1) and (2), above without discrimination as to race, color, religion, or
national origin.
Punishment varies from a fine or imprisonment of up to one year, or both, and if bodily
injury results or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a
dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire shall be fined or imprisoned up to ten years or
both, and if death results or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap,
aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse,
or an attempt to kill, shall be subject to imprisonment for any term of years or for life or
may be sentenced to death.*
*Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1001*
*Fraud and False Statements *
* *United States Code*
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/toc. html>
o *TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE*
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/18/ toc.html>
+ *PART I - CRIMES*
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/18/ parts/i/toc. html>
# *CHAPTER 47 - FRAUD AND FALSE STATEMENTS*
<http://caselaw. lp.findlaw. com/casecode/ uscodes/18/ parts/i/chapters /47/toc.html>
/*U.S. Code as of: 01/02/01*/
*Section 1001. Statements or entries generally*
* (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the
jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the
United States, knowingly and willfully
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material
fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or
representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain
any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or
entry; shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is what I've been after in the many years I've been in this fight. We need to get
educated as to how we can defend our "ownselves" in court, to be able to prepare our
own court documents. Is there anyone in the Houston TX area that can do some
research on a Federal Action case? All I have is the "case number" if the information I
have is true, this case will be "nitro" for the group. All I have is what the Federal Court
Judge had to say about what the role of the prosecutor is.
Charles

Cecile <gemini_cecile@ comcast.net> wrote:
PRO SE HANDBOOK
The Manual for the Litigant Filing Without Counsel
GUIDELINES TO FILING YOUR OWN CASE IN FEDERAL COURT

I. Introduction
II. The Five Required Elements of a Lawsuit
A. Real Injury or Wrong
B. Jurisdiction
C. Statute of Limitations
D. Immunity
E. Facts and Evidence
III. Representation by an Attorney: It's Important.
A. Alternatives to Going to Court
1. Arbitration
2. Mediation
3. Settlement Conference
B. Necessity of Exhausting Available Remedies
1. Administrative Grievance Procedures
2. Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus
C. Attorney Fee Sanctions and How They Apply to the Pro Se Litigant
IV. The Structure of the Courts: Should This Case be Filed in State or
Federal Court?
V. Rules and Procedures for Filing a Case in District Court.
A. Procedures Found in the Local Rules
B. Procedures on Filing and Time Lines
C. Forms Index
-- Forms to be used by Pro Se Litigants
--Forms to be used by Prisoner Pro Se Litigants
VI. Trial Procedures:
A. Pretrial Conference and Order
B. The Trial -- The Role of the Judge and Jury
C. Selection of the Jury
D. Opening Statements
E. Testimony of Witnesses
F. Motions During the Course of the Trial
1. Motion in Limine
2. Motion for Instructed or Directed Verdict
3. Motion for Mistrial
4. Objections
G. Rebuttal Testimony
H. Closing Arguments
I. Charge to the Jury
J. Mistrial
K. Preparation of Judgment
L. Costs
M. Satisfaction of Judgment
VII. Legal Research -- An Overview
VIII. Glossary Glossary
A. Common Legal Terminology Glossary
B. Commonly Used Foreign Terminology Glossary

This might be some information to use when filing a case...especially if you
file "Pro Se". If it fits we might even store it in our NFPCAR files for future
use.


Nancee in CA.


paraflyer4 <paraflyer4@yahoo.com> wrote:
sue on behalf of yourself and "all those similarly situated" find
examples with that clause
--- In Legal_Self_Represen tation@yahoogrou ps.com, "paraflyer4"
<paraflyer4@ ...> wrote:
>
> You need to approach this very carefully; who formed a racketeering
> enterprise - some caseworkers? , psychologist? police or the local
> office of CPS and the Juvenile Court? What were the predicate
offenses > mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud(use of mail, telephone/internet
or
> bank system in connection with the ongoing Fraud). What were the
> proceeds of this Fraud - Federal Funds? Read up on what was
recently
> posted on RICO here and in Links. Keep the Group informed of your
> progress. Here are your samples from findlaw.com
> http://writ. news.findlaw. com/dorf/ alacoushabr71206 cmp.pdf
> http://news. lp.findlaw. com/hdocs/ docs/tobacco/ complaint. pdf
> --- In Legal_Self_Represen tation@yahoogrou ps.com, "chowchowkathi"
> <chowchowkathi@ > wrote:
>>
> > Does anyone know if there is a copy of a lawsuit filed under RICO
> > online anywhere? Preferably against CPS but any will do...have
been
> > searching and can't find one but maybe I'm doing something wrong.
> > Thanks for any help!!
>>