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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 02:17 PM
Original message
More Info On Legal Schnauzer: Alabama Blogger Who May Lose House For Writing About Siegelman, Etc.
Edited on Fri Mar-28-08 02:58 PM by Hissyspit
Everyone: Roger Shuler needs help with the corruption in Alabama, too. His house apparently is being seized in an intimidation tactic. Although I do not know him in person, and cannot necessarily verify particulars, he writes a well-researched and thorough blog and he has been instrumental in helping Larisa and Scott Horton at Harpers in keeping up with the Siegelman case.

Background: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3056989

Roger emailed me to fill me in on his legal situation up to now, so if you have been wondering about it or want to post here or PM me with other suggestions, please do:

--------:

Thanks for your concern. And thanks so much for what you've done on
Democratic Underground. I can tell from checking my Stat Counter that
you've had a big part in getting this story out.

I've e-mailed a couple of local progressive-minded attorneys, with
experience in civil rights cases, folks who were recommended to me by
a fellow blogger. So far, I've heard nothing from them.

I suspect that's because attorneys are afraid of judges in their own
areas. A corrupt judge has the power to pretty much ruin a lawyer's
business if the lawyer stands up to him.

I have some contacts in a neighboring state who I think might be able
to refer me to a civil-rights lawyer from outside the Birmingham area.
Don't want to say anything public about that until I know some more
about what might happen.

I had to represent myself in the civil case that resulted in the
"judgment" against me, so I can do some things on my own. From
conducting research, I know of a step or two I can take to at least
slow this thing down. By law, it should stop it completely, but the
law never has been much of a factor in my case. Politics has ruled the
day.

On another front, I continue to try to raise awareness in both the
mainstream and alternative press. Alabama media has been worthless.
But a reporter who covers South for NY Times has expressed some
interest, and I sent her a lot of information. Her name is Shaila
Dewan, and her e-mail address is dewan@nytimes.com . If folks want to
encourage her to look at this, that might be helfpul.

I've tried for 3-4 years to get attention of progressive publications
such as Mother Jones and American Prospect, etc. Had no luck. If
anyone has ideas on how to get their attention, I'm all ears.

Thanks for keeping up with me.

Roger


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Greyskye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
1. kick
:kick:
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democrat_patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
2. Wow.

God Bless America.
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PetraPooh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. It sounds like his house is being taken more likely due to the
"judgement against" him than for blogging about Siegelman. Even in Alabama there are lawyers that would jump at a case where a home was being seized for solely political reasons, plus there is the ACLU and others that would jump at it. Something doesn't smell quite right here.
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pacalo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. You're kidding, right? An unpaid thousand-dollar judgement doesn't justify taking his home.
What about Jill Simpson's house being set fire & her experience with being driven off the road? And the Alabama GOP denying that they knew her, when she publicized the fact that she worked on the Riley campaign?

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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. You have to read the whole story.
The person who sued him and got the thousand dollar judgement never contacted him to get the money. That person's lawyer never contacted him to get the money. It's been lying there for years, and now all of a sudden, other people are using that judgement to take away his home. All for a thousand bucks? It sounds fishy, but not from this end.
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PetraPooh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:42 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. What full story are you referring to then; I find nothing in the OP to indicate $1000
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PetraPooh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:48 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. I've also gone to other linked du thread, and still no information.
So I clicked on the links on that thread that were NOT to this guy's blog, and still no information. I'm sorry but I'm not going to take a guy's own blog as accurate. Does anyone have a link to a verifiable source regarding this man or the lady claiming to have been run off the road?
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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:50 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. This is the thread I read.
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 04:12 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. The guy makes the case in his own blog. No, there are no other sources, possibly because no one
Edited on Fri Mar-28-08 04:22 PM by Hissyspit
else cares. You have to go through his blog and read the whole story. Yes, he is the one making his own case and there is nothing else verifying what he is saying. I implied as much in my OP. Neither is there anything NOT supporting his claim and much reason to be suspicious about what is going on in that state. I have not searched Alabama state records or even looked for the newspaper ad online (and it might not appear online). I don't have time. You may feel free to do so.

He has blogged about this as well as many other things extensively. Here is where Roger most recently lays out his main case:

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/03/who-is-behind-jack-booted-thugs.html

Saturday, March 22, 2008
Who Is Behind the Jack Booted Thugs?

Who is behind the effort by authorities in Shelby County, Alabama, to unlawfully seize my house, which is jointly owned by my wife and me?

The central Shelby County figures in my legal case are Pelham attorney William E. Swatek (who has an almost 30-year record of unethical activities in the legal profession) and corrupt circuit judges J. Michael Joiner and G. Dan Reeves.

Evidence, however, suggests that efforts by "jack booted thugs" to steal my house are being driven by figures beyond Shelby County. Evidence also suggests that this effort has nothing to do with a desire to take our house or our cars--or otherwise satisfy an alleged "judgment" in the amount of $1,525. This clearly is about the blog you are now reading.

Let's look at what the evidence tells us:

* I started this blog in June 2007, and my first reference, by name, to corrupt Republican judges in Shelby County came on July 9, 2007. You can read the post here. The posts makes references to several potentially sensitive topics among local GOPers--corrupt Pelham lawyer William E. Swatek and his ties to GOP judges; connections that Swatek and Joiner have to Briarwood Presbyterian Church and said church's curious connections to my legal case; and efforts from the outset by The Birmingham News to cover up the story, probably because Briarwood is the home church of longtime News publisher Victor Hanson II. It's quite clear that Joiner, Swatek, and the News have been aware of my blog for some time. But I'm not sure they even knew about it in summer 2007. Even if they did, I'm not sure it bothered them all that much. Joiner, for example, probably didn't like being called a criminal. But I've seen no evidence that he's all that upset about it. One, he knows he's a criminal, so I'm not breaking any news to him. And he knows the local legal and media establishment will protect him, so I'm not sure he, or Swatek, are terribly concerned about Legal Schnauzer.

* What about Alabama Governor Bob Riley? We've thrown daggers his way, almost from the outset of Legal Schnauzer. My first reference to Riley and his connections to my case--through his campaign manager Dax Swatek, who is William E. Swatek's son--came on June 12, 2007. You can read that post here. We've gone on to call Riley's ethics into question on numerous occasions, and we've noted that it appears Alabama's GOP-controlled state courts are protecting Bill Swatek because his son has worked for Riley. I have reason to believe that Riley and his inner circle are aware of Legal Schnauzer and probably are none too pleased with it. But are they behind threats to steal my house? The evidence suggests, to me, that they probably are not--or at least, I don't think they are the primary force.

So who is behind it? Let's follow the evidence trail a little further.

What if we follow the timeline between what was being written on this blog and when threats to seize my property began? Will that tell us who is behind the "jack booted thugs" who have been making our lives quite unpleasant?

I think it will:

* In late July of 2007, I had a most interesting e-mail exchange with Alice Martin, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. This came after I had sent her two lengthy "snail-mail" letters outlining criminal wrongdoing I had witnessed by multiple judges and at least one attorney in her district. Martin did not respond to my second letter, so after several months of waiting, I took a wild stab at e-mailing her. I didn't know what her e-mail address was, and to my knowledge, it isn't published anywhere on the Web. But I apparently guessed right because she responded. I identified myself by name and made reference to my letters and asked for an update about actions that had been taken regarding the information I had sent. As you will see shortly, Martin was quite evasive in answering my questions, and she clearly was not pleased that I wasn't readily accepting her responses.

* You also will notice that I did not inform her that I had a blog about my legal experiences. At the time, I didn't think the fact that I wrote a blog was relevant; I simply wanted to see that something was going to be done about the crimes I had witnessed. When I conducted some research based on what Martin had told me, I realized she was trying to blow me off. Worse than that, she was practicing selective prosecution, covering up clear crimes because the perpetrators were members in good standing of the Republican "home team." That's when I decided I had a story the public needed to know about. The question was: When to write about it?

* One of the goals for this blog has been to show that the wrongdoing I've experienced in Alabama state courts has connections to larger, national issues involving our U.S. Justice Department. So through fall 2007, Legal Schnauzer focused largely on honest-services mail fraud and how that issued weaved its way through three cases--the Don Siegelman prosecution in Alabama, the Paul Minor prosecution in Mississippi, and my own case in Alabama state courts. My research indicated that defendants in the Siegelman and Minor cases, all Democrats, were in federal prison for honest-services mail fraud that they did not commit. Meanwhile, judges and at least one attorney, all Republicans, clearly had committed honest-services mail fraud in my case. And they were not even being investigated.

* The failure of the Justice Department to investigate my case is a classic example of selective prosecution, the topic of an ongoing Congressional inquiry. And that is where Alice Martin enters the picture on our blog. It's also where my wife and I start receiving threats to unlawfully seize our property.

* Alice Martin was not the only character to enter the picture at about the time my wife and I started receiving threats regarding our property. The Paul Minor case in Mississippi also became a major topic on Legal Schnauzer. My first reference to the Minor case came on August 2, 2007, in a post titled "Another Republican Witch Hunt." You can read the post here, and to my knowledge, it is the first post on the Web about the Minor case and its connections to the Siegelman prosecution. The Minor case received national attention when Scott Horton, of Harper's, first wrote about it on Sept. 18, 2007, and I had a series of posts on Sept. 19, 2007. My posts on the Minor case from September 2007 can be read here.

* Why is September 2007 important? Follow on me on this timeline:

August 2, 2007--I first write about the Paul Minor case in Mississippi.

August 22, 2007--I first write about my e-mail exchange with Alice Martin.

September 18, 2007--Scott Horton, of Harper's, first writes about the Minor case.

September 19, 2007--I write a series of posts about the Minor case.

September 21, 2007--My wife and I receive a writ of execution, listing our house and two cars as property to be seized to satisfy a "judgment" against me in the amount of $1,525. The writ is not served as required by Alabama law.

November 12, 2007--I make a second, more detailed, reference to my e-mail exchange with Alice Martin.

November 20, 2007--I write the 25th installment in the "Mississippi Churning" series about the Minor case.

December 20, 2007--Shelby County deputy Bubba Caldwell (or Caldell, I'm not sure which) leaves a message on my wife's cell phone, saying that he is about to come and get one of our cars.

February 8, 2008--My wife and I receive a notice of levy, saying Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry will sell our house to satisfy an alleged "judgment" of $1,525. Like the earlier writ of execution, the notice of levy is not served as required by Alabama law.

February 29, 2008--My wife and I receive notice from Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry that our house will be auctioned off on the courthouse steps at noon on April 7, 2008. Like almost everything else we receive from county authorities, this is not done lawfully.

Do you see a pattern here? I sure do. Not long after I started writing about an e-mail exchange I had with Alice Martin, one that shows her pattern of selective prosecution, I started receiving threats about my property being seized. And those threats increase when I started writing in a detailed way about the Paul Minor case in Mississippi.

Any connections between Alice Martin, Mississippi, and my legal woes? We'll examine that question next.

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sicksicksick_N_tired Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Pretty damned outrageous! He should contact the state BAR for a pro bono referral.
Most state BARS offer that service.

I sure hope he gets some legal help, immediately!

He needs to have a hearing on those notices. Otherwise, they may very well go through with the seizures, legal or NOT.
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PetraPooh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. I'm not saying his IS misrepresenting, but without some kind of confirmation, it seems suspicious
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 08:04 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. I understand. If you find any other information - suspicious or confirmational - I
would be interested to hear about it.
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pacalo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-28-08 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
4. I'll write to Ms. Dewan, along with Conyers.
The Justice Department's misuse of the law to avenge a partisan dispute has everything to do with the reason Conyers would like to hear Siegelman's testimony. The harassment Roger has experienced supports Siegelman's case & his testimony before the House Judiciary would likely resolve his own persecutory legal woes.
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