Battling the Govt. | Suite101.com

Top 1. Mar 30, 2000 12:16 PM

» ShkoteMwi - Government Justice?

[Please forward this to any list of attorneys who may be able to help...]

I am looking for an attorney who is not afraid to fight the U.S. Government
and would represent my husband and I on a percentage basis. This person
would also have to be knowledgeable of computer technicalities
and comfortable with the language of Systems Analysts and Network
Administrators - and someone who can stand their ground against our
misinformed and calculating government.

Basics of our nightmare are:

1. My husband, Dave, designed, installed, and implemented the nationwide
network for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Dept. of Interior. He was
selected by head government officials in Washington, D.C. and across the
country.

2. In 1997, after the system was functional across the U.S., Dave took a
transfer to the Arizona State Office of BLM to be the Network Administrator
over the system he put together.

3. One of the job duties of a Systems Analyst or a Network Administrator is
to monitor the system for any potential problems, whether it be with the
system itself or with those using the system. This includes the monitoring
of hundreds of thousands of files that are being pulled down from the
internet by employees. Often these files will include pornography -
information which Dave related to his supervisor and also to BLM Security.
He was told to keep it in a directory where he could find it in case more
was pulled down in the future and it would be needed in the future for
action to be taken against the individual.

4. Dave also notified BLM Security several times about the contents of
files being pulled down and that certain measures needed to be taken to
secure the network and they turned their heads in the other direction,
refusing to give him an answer.

5. Two fellow-employees (and supposed friends) who did not know the scope
of Dave's position, took it upon themselves to bypass the supervisor and ALL
of BLM management, and reported to U.S. Customs that Dave was "publishing
child pornography" on our home computers. That was all it took. (I need to
interject here that we were warned about the office Dave was going into by
two other gentlemen that had tried their luck in that same position and were
driven out - that it was the Don and Steve Show - but Dave had been
acquainted with Don and Steve for a few years and didn't feel threatened.
How could we have been so blind??? Easy - these two were aces at getting
rid of anyone that they felt was a threat. We have witnesses to prove it.)

6. May 28, 1998 - U.S. Customs and other Federal Agents came into our home
and literally raped it. They took ALL of our computer equipment to include
4 CPU's, monitors, 2 scanners, modems, laptop, 3 color printers, and all of
our CD's - not to exclude our Classical Music CD'S. Government Property
included 1 CPU, 1 monitor, 1 color printer, 1 laptop, and a modem. The rest
was what we had purchased when good deals came up at Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.
Dave was immediately put on Administrative Leave With Pay. We do not
believe his supervisor knew what was happening until that morning at the
same time we were being drilled.

7. December 16, 1998 - They couldn't find any proof of anything at all to
do with child pornography in our home, so they managed another way to get
him out of the office. On this date, Dave was indicted on 7 counts of
"possession of depictions of a child under the age of 18..." They found 1
picture had come down on one day, two on another, 1 on another, and 3 on
another. 7 pictures during the whole month of May amongst thousands of
files that were monitored. At this time, Dave lost his paycheck and was put
on Administrative Leave Without Pay. This dropped our income down from
approximately $85K/year to my meager $29K/year.

8. The laws that mandate sentencing regarding the possession of child
pornography accessed by the "internet" were written in the mid- to late
1980s where if you pulled a file down, you literally had to be told where it
would be and then go get it. Nothing like today where files are sent to you
from who knows where and are set up in zip files that open as soon as you
turn your computer on.

9. Dave was forced to plead guilty to one count - Count 2 to be exact - and
he doesn't even know if he has actually ever seen it, let alone KNOW which
file it is. If he did not plead guilty, we were told that as soon as the
jury would see the pictures, they would most likely find him guilty on all 7
charges... and if they only found him guilty on a few, that when he had
served his time for those, the other ones could be brought back before the
court for prosecution, and then if he served time on those, when he got out
the State of Arizona could turn around and prosecute him again.

10. Sentencing is scheduled for April 10th at which time he may be granted
probation or he may be ordered to serve up to 4 years for doing nothing but
his job and doing it well.

11. In a nutshell, because of two jealous coworkers, Dave's career which
included many High Level Top Secret Government ratings and was filled with
nothing less than Outstanding evaluations, has been taken away from him. At
51 years of age and a groundless conviction to boot, his whole life is gone.
Where do we go from here??

The attorney we had, backed off from fighting when he saw the laws that were
"in black and white"!! Well, I don't care what is in black and white.
These laws are wrong, wrong, wrong and they need to be changed. Otherwise,
other innocent people, along with my husband, will be serving time for doing
their job and doing it well. Our Government at work - letting out dangerous
criminals early because prisons are too crowded and locking up innocents all
in the name of politics - and this is where our tax dollars are going!

Knowing that immediately upon sentencing, he would be fired, Dave resigned
from BLM, trying to salvage his Annual and Sick Leave and his retirement.
However, the only thing differently that BLM Personnel has done is they are
no longer sending "zero balance" pay stubs.

The fact that Dave was concerned about this problem years ago and was always
shot down by BLM Management and Security is the reason we need someone to
fight for us. It has been suggested to us by many people in executive
positions that a countersuit could and should be worth millions... and we
don't even care to have the biggest percentage that is won. We just want
our lives back.

This whole nightmare is truly unbelievable. We are both well-educated
people and have always been proud of who we are. We are not the kind of
people who would ever hurt anyone or do anything to break the law. We had a
new
home built and it was finished two months after we moved here. We built it
close to a school area so I could have a clientele of piano students set up
before I retired. Considering the allegations in this case, we do not feel
out of order to say that the prosecution will deem that we moved close to
the school because of a sexual perversion. I've never been so outraged in
my life. I
am a classical pianist and have been giving lessons for over 30 years. We
intended this to be our retirement home and now we are afraid we will lose
it.

My father and mother live do not live here in Arizona. They are 82 and 78
respectively - both have had triple bypass surgery and this has upset them
immensely. They know Dave and are completely disgusted at those behind
this whole situation. Dave's mother, who also does not live in Arizona, is
in her later 70's and has had quadruple bypass surgery. At this time, she
is not aware of our circumstances. She does know, however, that there has
been an ongoing problem in Dave's office and that it has put us both on
antidepressants. We did not tell her as we thought there would be no way
this whole thing could stick and the truth would win out. She is flying
into Phoenix in April, wanting to find a place so she can move down here in
the fall. When she gets here, we plan to sit down with her and explain the
situation. We are concerned about how she will fare after we tell her and
after she gets back to her home where she lives alone.

We are concerned about how Our savings is gone and the credit we had
established is gone, and our car is about to be repossessed . If it is and
they take 25% out of my paycheck, we will barely have enough to even cover
the house payment, not to mention the utilities, medical, groceries, etc.
We have been advised that we should most likely file bankruptcy and the
sooner, the better. I never, ever dreamed that we would ever have to do
anything of the kind.

There is so much more detail to this nightmare. Can someone please help
us??? We have been told this case could be worth millions. Only a good
attorney would know, so I'm asking for someone to just listen to our side of
the story - hear us out. Give us some kind of idea what to do??! I don't
know where else to turn and time is running out...

Julie Dunwoodie
Weekdays 8:00am - 5:pm 1-800- 352-3247
or email me at musetta@access1.net

-- posted by ShkoteMwi

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