Howard
Dean, Extortion, Bribes and other problems
Released on
= March 17, 2005, 12:20 pm
Press Release
Author = Vermont Justice Coalition
Industry = Government
Press Release
Summary = DNC Chair Howard Dean’s problems with the Bill of
Rights, the Law and Ethics.
Press Release
Body = In 1997 Howard Dean announced his desire to appoint judges
willing to subvert the Bill of Rights or in Howard Dean lingo “legal
technicalities”. Two judges appointed within months of Dean
infamous 1997 statement have been found guilty of civil rights violations
by a federal court in Manhattan. (fn1) Dean’s top appointee
and lawyer, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, was defense
counsel for the corrupt government employees in this case where
Sorrell has expended vast public funds to forward the goal of undermining
the First Amendment in Vermont.
To get a true
feeling of the judicial and law enforcement climate fostered by
Dean in Vermont, it is instructional to look at his # 1 Vermont
appointee and life-long friend, William Sorrell. Dean owed a great
debt to the Sorrell family for mentoring his ascent in Vermont politics.
Dean’s first notable gubernatorial appointment in Vermont
was to install Sorrell as Secretary of Administration in 1992. In
1997, it
became time to thank the Sorrell family again and Dean attempted
to appoint Sorrell as the chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.
As Sorrell had no judicial experience, Dean’s zeal to appoint
his favorite crony was met with a legislative roadblock. Dean had
a backup plan, appoint the Attorney General to the Supreme Court
and then appoint Sorrell to fill the Attorney General vacancy. All
was well with Vermont Cronies. (fn2)
In describing
Sorrell, Dean was quite generous with his praise of his friend’s
character and abilities, illustrating the nature of their relationship:
“I have an enormous amount of respect for Sorrell as a human
being and as a really smart lawyer.”
A subordinate
of Sorrell’s issued the following prosecutorial written threat
in a Vermont state court proceeding,
"The last
claim involves a statement made to attorney Capriola warning that
the defendant would be charged with additional crimes if he did
not clam down. The statement is a reference to the defendant's continued
harassment of the victim and the investigating officer in this case
through the court process. The defendant has filed a civil action
against the victim because of his participation in this criminal
case. The State is currently reviewing a contempt charge against
the defendants because of this activity. The statement was a proper
warning made through the defendant's representative."
Sorrell approvingly
has stood behind and defended the above threat which now has become
part of a prosecutor’s toolbox in Vermont. The above threat
is the epitome of the government’s coercive use of the power
of criminal prosecution to influence and manipulate civil court
proceedings tantamount to extortion and obstruction of justice concerning
a matter before a federal court. Dean’s “really smart
lawyer”
and top appointee at work.
Sorrell’s
conduct doesn’t stop there, his subordinates followed up the
above threat with a plea agreement that specified the dismissal
and non-pursuit of civil lawsuits against the prosecutors themselves.
The dismissal of a lawsuit is an item of monetary value benefiting
Sorrell’s underlings – or to put it bluntly this conduct
is tantamount to acceptance of a bribe by state prosecutors. Dean’s
“really smart
lawyer” strongly approved and defended the conduct. One can’t
assign full responsibility concerning this government corruption
to Dean’s friend alone because two of Dean’s hand-picked
anti-“legal technicality” judicial appointees presided
over and approved the government misconduct.
Then there was
the police shooting of Robert (“Woody”) Woodward in
Brattleboro, Vermont in 2001. The massacre involved 7 shots from
police revolvers fatally wounding Mr. Woodward – with some
of the shots fired into his body while he was bleeding on the ground
in the fetal position. Dean and Sorrell, both irrationally obsessive
police advocates, put the cover-up machine into gear. Sorrell authored
a
biased report overlooking much of the testimony and evidence. When
Dean was asked to appoint a special independent investigator he
backed up his old crony and stated that Sorrell was a “really
smart lawyer”. One of Dean’s so-called “legal
technicalities”, the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits a biased
decision-maker. Something as trivial as the Constitution didn’t
stop Dean from deciding not to usurp his friend’s report by
refusing to appoint an independent investigator regardless of
his very public conflict-of-interest with Sorrell. Pursuant to the
constitution, Dean should have disqualified himself. (fn3)
Sorrell has
lately kept busy in the courts fighting to keep Howard Dean’s
gubernatorial records sealed. In light of the foregoing, one can
only imagine what vile government conduct Sorrell and Dean are covering
up in the sealed records lawsuit. Sorrell’s friendship with
Dean is still costing the Vermont taxpayers thousands of litigation
dollars and Dean’s “really smart lawyer” friend
apparently flunked attorney ethics which prohibit Sorrell’s
representation of Dean under attorney conflict-of-interest principles.
(fn4)
In Sorrell’s
possession is a sworn transcript and audio tape of a major U.S.
corporation’s quite illegal conduct constituting extortion
and other crimes. To date, the reason is unknown for Sorrell’s
cover-up of the criminal enterprise set forth in the audio tape
aside from the fact that any such reason would be incompatible with
law enforcement. Also in this questionable category is Sorrell’s
cover-up of an alcoholic beverage retailer’s activities who
operated without federal or state licenses for 8 years during the
Dean/Sorrell decade in Vermont despite a report from Vermont’s
own liquor investigator that the illegal conduct existed.
Dean’s appointee response – cover up.
It appears that
neither Dean nor his lawyer crony have any respect for the Bill
of Rights, ethical considerations or the rule of law when it doesn’t
fit into their dubious agendas. Recently, Dean has labeled the members
of an entire political party as “evil”. Perhaps Dean
should look in the mirror and look at the condition he left Vermont
in after a decade of his appointments prior to disparaging others.
The man who said 95 percent of people charged with crimes are guilty
anyway so why should the state spend money on providing them with
lawyers should indeed criticize very carefully from his anti-constitutional
corrupt glass house. (fn5)
Scott Huminski
111-2c Killam Court
Cary, NC 27513
S_huminski@hotmail.com
(fn1)
http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,535358,00.html
http://chapelhill.indymedia.org/news/2005/02/13685.php
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/Frank_Dean-Sorrell-Corruption.htm
http://toughenough.org/huminski.html
http://victimsoflaw.net/Scott_Huminski.htm
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/543.php
(fn2) http://yconservatives.com/Guest-54c.html
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/8836.php
(fn3)
http://www.justiceforwoody.org/
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/12/277164.shtml
http://la.indymedia.org/print.php?id
Web Site = http://
Contact Details
= 111 Killam Court, # 2C
Cary, NC 27513
s_huminski@hotmail.com
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