Wednesday, November 20, 2013

How you can go to federal prison as a "prohibited person" never having been a "prohibited person."


Over the years, the feds, frustrated at being unable to get directly at me with various set-ups and entrapments, have targeted my friends, associates and even casual acquaintances. Most of these stories I have been unable to share you, my readers, because the targeted always would suffer more from the publicity of their plight than if they suffered in their -- and my -- silence. Indeed, that is why they are chosen, it seems. I have been aware of this unpleasant fact for more than a decade now, and it is the measure of the evil in the hearts of these armed bureaucrats that they stoop to such deadly pettiness just to make a point with me by making miserable, or even destroying, the lives of people I know and care about.
This particular Kafkaesque story of such abuse of federal power began, I believe, on 28 October 4 years ago with a praxis post on ALICE packs wherein I made the statement "I dropped into my favorite surplus store, AA Army Surplus in Leeds, Alabama."
Several months later, in 2010, just about the time I posted this, the proprietor of AA Army Surplus and a veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Darryl Baxter, was approached by a local cop serving on federal-state-local "Joint Task Force" to try to set up a person on a STEN gun purchase. He refused. That, plus his acquaintance with me, was enough to stir the wrath of Mordor, and the great eye of Sauron turned its attention to the case of Darryl Baxter.
In doing so the Feds discovered that Darryl had pled guilty to a state misdemeanor years before, and Darryl was given paperwork reflecting that fact. But when the case was entered into the state data-base it was incorrectly entered as a felony. Indeed, the original state paperwork after the archivist got done showed both "misdemeanor" AND "felony." Worse, and you would think that this wouldn't have met the smell test at the US Attorney's office, the state actually never filed information in lieu of a conviction. So, not only was he never convicted of a felony but the information of the misdemeanor was never filed. But, as Darryl relates, "the Feds said that it was up to someone higher to determine that."
Again, let me repeat, Darryl had pled guilty to a misdemeanor not a felony and had paperwork reflecting that fact. But this clerical error was enough to give them the pretext of raiding Darryl's shop, where he had previously sold firearms from his personal collection, as a "prohibited person" doing business in firearms. As it turns out, they raided him no more than five minutes after I left his shop, and, just minutes into the raid, they began asking him questions about me.
They arrested him, of course, and seized the firearms on the premises. Then they went to his home and seized the rest of his collection, including weapons belonging to his wife and son.
Darryl was advised by his attorney that he was sure the mix-up would be corrected and that "the last thing he needed was publicity." So, at Darryl's request, I remained silent. For three years, as the case wended its way through the courts, state and federal, I remained silent though it was against all my instincts. Until now, when Darryl has finally given me his permission to write about the case. Long story short, Darryl's attorney was unable to get the state to correct its mistake before the federal trial, where -- the fake felony still standing as fact -- Darryl was swiftly convicted. He is currently ordered to surrender to federal custody on 2 December.
The latest update comes from Darryl:
"The State prosecutor tried to get the State Appeals Court to dismiss our case with them. The Appeal Courts told them no, and that the lower judge had to have a ruling by Dec 3. So that is a positive sign. The Appeals Court sees merit in my case. So right now, we are trying to get a Federal extension on turning myself in."
We can only hope that the error is finally corrected at the state level and that the surrender date extension is granted. It is a hope, but given the way this Kafkaesque case has proceeded, it is not the way to bet. This is as bitter as a gall and wormwood cocktail to me. The plain fact is that Darryl would not have received the attention that he got without his business association with me -- that merely of seller and customer. That is enough to bring the American Stasi -- the secret political police -- out of their tax-paid evil dens to destroy other people's lives at a whim.
There is one thing y'all can do for Darryl, though. He is having a going out of business sale at AA. You can reach him at (205) 699-4209 or on Facebook. Get in touch with him and see if you can help him liquidate his stock.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Years ago, I had a similar situation.
Someone fudged the record on a misdemeanor arrest and when Brady Bill was passed I came up a felon.

Fortunately, I had the paperwork from the judge and transcript of the hearing.

You can live or die by the paperwork.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, it appears that what you need to do, is no longer mention any of the businesses you deal with, by name.

Just say the word, the collecting of One Hundreds Heads will begin. It's a target rich environment out there.

B Woodman
III-per

Backwoods Engineer said...

Honest to God, this is the scariest thing I've read all week. We really are in a post-Constitutional age. America, as we knew it, is gone.

Anonymous said...

I kept waiting for the part "and then the case was dismissed." As a former prosecutor this is the most terrifying thing I have read in recent memory.

If you came into my office and told me this story, I'd do my best to stifle a laugh and then politely explain to you that you must be mistaken. I'd say that you must have misunderstood the facts of the case and that your friend cannot be awaiting his surrender to a federal detention center due to a paperwork error.

"Why" you'd ask and I'd say what you just described cannot happen in our system of justice. It is basically impossible and on par with our sun becoming a red giant as we meet: possible, but it's just not going to happen. As jacked up as the process is, (here I'd talk about the Reese Family) there are just too many avenues of relief built into the system to allow a person to actually be convicted under Baxter's scenario.

For one thing, no prosecutor in the US would risk their rep on such a horrendous case of open and obvious reasonable doubt.

Moreover, no judge would let the case survive either at the pre-trial stage or a Rule 29 motion

Finally, no jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt when the government's own evidence shows misdo and felony on the same record.

If you continued to insist the facts are true, then I'd tell you either Baxter's attorney must be summarily disbarred and investigated for taking a bribe from the government to throw this case, or this country is currently operating Roland Freisler-style People's Courts and all hope is lost.

So Mr. Vanderboegh, please tell me you forgot to mention Baxter's attorney was arrested by the FBI for taking a bribe to throw this case so we don't have to absorb the idea that we can be arrested without a legitimate basis and then subjected to prosecution within a court that intentionally disregards all notions of justice and fair play.

Please.

Anonymous said...

Mike there is a harsh reality that Americans need to understand; “The rule of law no longer exists in the USA”

When you can have (so-called) government officials grabbing your private parts at airports and taking your blood at check points, the rule of law does not exist.

How many gun owners gun dealers are in prison for victimless or NO crimes?

Far to many! Just look at the Reese Family

What about the father that was arrested for picking up his children after to school?

Debra (Baxter) Stewart said...

Darryl is my youngest brother and I honestly wish this were all fabricated in some fairyland. Sadly, it isn't.

Anonymous said...

This is genuinely scary, and could easily happen. An inattentive docket clerk makes a mistake, and your friend is railroaded worse than the Penn Central. I try not to use names when posting. If they are following you around looking for trouble, we are in serious times.

Off Topic: Anybody else having problems with the "Captcha" system when posting? The boxes with letters and numbers in them are often unreadable. Takes 3-4 tries before getting something I can read. Please prove you're not a robot.

Anonymous said...

We should know as much about the Stasi and their surveillance arm as they know about those that they monitor. Which agency do they work for? Where do they fit in the organizational structure? Who are they? What are their names? Where do they live? Are they good neighbors? What clubs and organizations do they belong to? How big are their families? Where do there kids go to school? Where do they go to church. Are there any stories about them in the media for anything? Have they ever got a traffic ticket in high school? Have they ever used the "n word" in the past 30 years? What kind of car do they drive? What grocery store do they shop at? How much porn is on their home and office computers? What is the most commonly called number from their phone? What magazines do they subscribe to? Where do they spend their last vacation? How many times have they left the country? Which one's are having affairs? Are they in debt? Do they have a gambling problem? This information can be found. Isn't it important to know everything about those who are trying to find out about you? Especially when they are trying yo use it against you? If they are going to act like your enemy, then you need to know everything about them. This info then needs to be stored in a neatly compiled, yet well protected, database and available to those who could benefit from it.
Now some may say that having this kind of information so readily available is dangerous, but I disagree. This info available to good Americans can not be bad. It creates a two way street in dealing with our government - you know, the government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Also, true American patriots are all basically good people who would never use this information for any kind of nefarious purposes, so I would trust them with our government's employees' personal information.

Anonymous said...

as William L Anderson wrote, there are
few if any "honest brokers" anymore
among prosecutors, etc.

Anonymous said...

Mike, I always love your writing and its why I come here so much, and I love to listen to you speak in public, but do you really want us all to believe that EVERYBODY just got this wrong from judge to jury?

So Mike, you would just have us all believe this on the word of a man that we all do not know, Darryl Baxter?

How about a little proof from Mr. Baxter?

Let's start out with a link to a PDF of the documents showing on his record to show us it is a misdemeanor. That's a good start.

Then next maybe a link to the description of the charges, followed by a a few links to court papers.

Do you all really expect all of us just to buy this because Mr. Baxter told you all this?

For all we know, he could have pleaded guilty to a felony.

Maybe he misunderstood at his trial because he had a terrible attorney.

Give us some fact, Mike. Some proof.

Otherwise there are going to be quite a few people doubting this entire story as being 100% the truth.

J

Anonymous said...

J, I have not seen any articles that the moderator has posted here for us to be untruthful. He knows the man involved personally. You know what people you can take at their word. Often times docket sheets contain a lot of personal information that would need to be redacted. There may be restrictions from the state or hosting site on posting such documents. I am sure someone better informed than I will weigh in here. They say seeing is believing. I leave it up to the moderator to research and post it; generally I believe it. No one has proven him wrong since I have been reading the site.

Anonymous said...

ag42b, I trust Mr. Vanderboegh completely with my life.

I don't know this Darryl Baxter fellow, and neither do you. I also question how much Mike Vanderbeogh knows him.

Another question.

Has Mike Vanderbeogh laid eyes on the sheet that states the disposition of the case to be a Misdemeanor instead of a Felony?

I'll take that much.

Also, nothing that you said invalidated any of my legitimate questions.

With PDF or with a digital copy, do you know how easy it is to edit out PERSONAL information? Only an idiot could not figure it out. Any 5th grader with a smart phone could do it.

If they need me to host and redact personal information and to get a link to anything, just let me know. I'll send Mike my email and he can send me the document. I'll host them, put them on on the internet, for everybody to see.

Do you know what the best thing you can do to this cochroaches that we're dealing with?

SHOW THEM TO THE LIGHT.

Put this out for the light of day for all Pro-Firearm people to see. Show us that this guy is telling the truth so that we may help in any way possible.

At least help me to believe this incredulous story.

Because if its true, then this country is no longer America.

I have a heard time we've fallen THIS far.

If it is, then we need to start taking actions right now. Not later as mentioned above.

If they can do this to this man, then they can do it to any one of us.

All I'm asking is for a tiny bit of proof, and I will host and have links to all the documents redacted for security reasons of course if that's his wish.

If you're about to go to prison for something you didn't do, why would you care about security of your name and address anyway?

Also, we know what his name and his business is, what more information could there be in court documents?

They don't put your Social Security Number and Birthday in court documents last time I check.

This is just not adding up until I see some proof. I remain skeptical.

Dutchman6 said...

Anon,

I have been living this along with Darryl for three years now. I believe his narrative and he has buttressed it with proof at key points. I forwarded your critique to him and here is his reply:

"If you want I'll try to get the paperwork from my attorney. Which shows misdemeanors. But I wanted you to post this, not to get me freed, but to put out the word, that these things can and do happen.

"Like the the guy with Motion 29 rule. Been there and done that. . .
"The original pleas of mine were guilty to misdemeanors. The paperwork that was filed showed both misdemeanor and felony on each case -- which is legally
impossible. Also, I was never convicted by a jury. We pleaded to the misdemeanors. And we and the attorney still have the original paperwork given to us
that shows them as misdemeanors.

"As my attorney even stated, even if I had intended to plead guilty to felonies, the State never filed the information required by the 5th Amendment. He states that my case is a anomaly. But that really doesn't help me. We are
still waiting for the State to fix that error.

"I mean, hell, the State has been on this for 2 years now. 1st time, the lower court did not do the paperwork right. so the appeal correct sent it back down
after 8 months to start over.
2nd time it went back up. The Clerk of Court lost all of our paperwork, yet still cashed our check. Another 8 month delay.

"Sorry to ramble. But just trying to relay info to you."

-- Darryl Baxter.

Anonymous said...

"If you want I'll try to get the paperwork from my attorney. Which shows misdemeanors. But I wanted you to post this, not to get me freed, but to put out the word, that these things can and do happen."

Thank you, Mike. I trust you emphatically.

It would be nice to post the papers up to a hosting webssite so that those who remain questioning of this have some proof to sink our teeth into.

I guess its tough to believe that this could happen in this country once known as America.

Anyway, let me know if he gets the paperwork from his attorney, just a copy would do, and then let me know and I'll host it for him and give him an URL where everybody can go see the paperwork to make sure this is all correct.

Thank you Mike! I hope you're doing better with the Chemo and I pray for your safety and your health every night in my prayers to our almighty God.