Special Report: Brutality Of Diane White, Associate, Managing Writer & Editor, Webmaster, Philadelphia Front Page News
Even though I have been ready to go to trial since January 2008 and have never authorized any continuances on behalf of my defense, on February 10, Judge Klienfelter granted the Commonwealth's motion to continue my case until September 14, 2009, a full 2 years and 12 days after the alleged charges were brought against me stemming from an ACORN supported "Back to School Block Party" in my neighborhood in September 2007. This ruling comes after the Commonwealth had been trying to threaten and intimidate me into a plea agreement and continuing the case for over a year for no other reason than abusing their power and attempting to intimidate me into copping a plea to bogus charges. The prosecutor to date has never had to justify any of their continuances, they just continued and blamed it on the defense. At times I was wondering whose side my attorney was on when he failed to speak up.
I had made it perfectly clear to my attorney from the door that I wanted no parts of any deal. Yet he just let the DA keep blaming the continuances on us without saying a word or demanding any justification for a year. Isn't that an ethics violation? In fact my attorney was hired under the condition that he defend me, not play let's make a deal. That's another chapter, not only is it unethical he forfeited my civil rights in the process and billed me for it.
The officer filed a false police report and lied under oath twice. I am willing to bet that we did not go to court because the officer did not want to continue to perjury himself or take the fall for a mistake that he had already admitted to making. The officer filed a false report and he perjured himself during the so-called internal affairs investigation(Another thing that disappeared along with Officer Bailey who conducted the investigation. Rumor has it that she has been demoted to security at the high school.) and again at the preliminary hearing. He casually stated that he had been on the Harrisburg Police force for 6 years and had responded to many calls and made many arrests. Then he actually said under oath that he had never encountered anyone in the community during that time who was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He just assumed the same about me. He even went on to say that he sprayed me in the face while I was on the ground trying to run while holding onto a fence, what sense does that make? To top it all off, the officer admitted under oath that I had not spit on him as previously reported in the Patriot News. When he made that statement under oath, the DA jump up out of his seat and immediately asked that the felony assault charge against me be dismissed. Yet, I was still bound over for trial by District Justice LaVon A Postelle, a black man, even though no evidence whatsoever was presented against me regarding any of the charges and no other police officers or witnesses testified for the prosecution, just Officer Chance and he was getting so caught up in all the lies that he broke down and told the truth.
In September 2008, after a year of continuance after continuance by the DA's office and blaming it on the defense and trying to intimidate me into a plea agreement knowing full well that I wanted no parts of it, (I was ready to go to trial. My witnesses had been subpoenaed to testify at least 3 times in addition to testifying the preliminary hearing.) Officer Chance was ordered to Iraq on active duty a year after the incident occurred. The transcript from the preliminary hearing has mysteriously disappeared. According to the Public Defender who was initially assigned to my case by Dauphin County, the transcript was destroyed in the flooded basement of the court reporter in December 2007, yet I received a message in January 2008 that I needed to send the Court Reporter $200 for a copy of the transcript. I had been told in February 2008 by the public defender's not to pay the $200 because he could get it for free. In March 2008 the same Public Defender told me that the transcript had been destroyed and that the police officer who assualted me was going on active duty to in Iraq, but he didn't say when. I assumed he would be leaving in April or May. He didn't leave until September 2008. If the DA's office wanted the Officer's s testimony they could have brought the case forward before he left. Now that the Officer has been deploy and we have filed a "Motion to Dismiss "under Rule 600, the DA files for a Continuance claiming that the state's key witness has has been ordered to active duty in Iraq. Our motion to dismissed is denied and the DA's continuance is granted for no particular reason. What's up with that? Inquiring minds want to know. Rumor has it that a certain Ass't DA is running for a vacant Commonwealth Judge seat in the upcoming election. Could it be that someone is looking for a notch on her gun?
Even though I have been ready to go to trial since January 2008 and have never authorized any continuances on behalf of my defense, on February 10, Judge Klienfelter granted the Commonwealth's motion to continue my case until September 14, 2009, a full 2 years and 12 days after the alleged charges were brought against me stemming from an ACORN supported "Back to School Block Party" in my neighborhood in September 2007. This ruling comes after the Commonwealth had been trying to threaten and intimidate me into a plea agreement and continuing the case for over a year for no other reason than abusing their power and attempting to intimidate me into copping a plea to bogus charges. The prosecutor to date has never had to justify any of their continuances, they just continued and blamed it on the defense. At times I was wondering whose side my attorney was on when he failed to speak up.
I had made it perfectly clear to my attorney from the door that I wanted no parts of any deal. Yet he just let the DA keep blaming the continuances on us without saying a word or demanding any justification for a year. Isn't that an ethics violation? In fact my attorney was hired under the condition that he defend me, not play let's make a deal. That's another chapter, not only is it unethical he forfeited my civil rights in the process and billed me for it.
The officer filed a false police report and lied under oath twice. I am willing to bet that we did not go to court because the officer did not want to continue to perjury himself or take the fall for a mistake that he had already admitted to making. The officer filed a false report and he perjured himself during the so-called internal affairs investigation(Another thing that disappeared along with Officer Bailey who conducted the investigation. Rumor has it that she has been demoted to security at the high school.) and again at the preliminary hearing. He casually stated that he had been on the Harrisburg Police force for 6 years and had responded to many calls and made many arrests. Then he actually said under oath that he had never encountered anyone in the community during that time who was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He just assumed the same about me. He even went on to say that he sprayed me in the face while I was on the ground trying to run while holding onto a fence, what sense does that make? To top it all off, the officer admitted under oath that I had not spit on him as previously reported in the Patriot News. When he made that statement under oath, the DA jump up out of his seat and immediately asked that the felony assault charge against me be dismissed. Yet, I was still bound over for trial by District Justice LaVon A Postelle, a black man, even though no evidence whatsoever was presented against me regarding any of the charges and no other police officers or witnesses testified for the prosecution, just Officer Chance and he was getting so caught up in all the lies that he broke down and told the truth.
In September 2008, after a year of continuance after continuance by the DA's office and blaming it on the defense and trying to intimidate me into a plea agreement knowing full well that I wanted no parts of it, (I was ready to go to trial. My witnesses had been subpoenaed to testify at least 3 times in addition to testifying the preliminary hearing.) Officer Chance was ordered to Iraq on active duty a year after the incident occurred. The transcript from the preliminary hearing has mysteriously disappeared. According to the Public Defender who was initially assigned to my case by Dauphin County, the transcript was destroyed in the flooded basement of the court reporter in December 2007, yet I received a message in January 2008 that I needed to send the Court Reporter $200 for a copy of the transcript. I had been told in February 2008 by the public defender's not to pay the $200 because he could get it for free. In March 2008 the same Public Defender told me that the transcript had been destroyed and that the police officer who assualted me was going on active duty to in Iraq, but he didn't say when. I assumed he would be leaving in April or May. He didn't leave until September 2008. If the DA's office wanted the Officer's s testimony they could have brought the case forward before he left. Now that the Officer has been deploy and we have filed a "Motion to Dismiss "under Rule 600, the DA files for a Continuance claiming that the state's key witness has has been ordered to active duty in Iraq. Our motion to dismissed is denied and the DA's continuance is granted for no particular reason. What's up with that? Inquiring minds want to know. Rumor has it that a certain Ass't DA is running for a vacant Commonwealth Judge seat in the upcoming election. Could it be that someone is looking for a notch on her gun?
I pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial at my arraignment in January, 2008. Looking back over the sequence of events I recall coincidentally it was DA Marsico I ran into in the hallway when I walked into the courthouse after leaving city hall two days after being assaulted and five minutes after Harrisburg Police Captain Ritter, who had referred me to the DA's office when I tried to file charges against Officer Chance with the Harrisburg Police Department. Captain Ritter told me that he could accept my complaint however he was unable to process charges, so he referred me to the DA's Office. When I initially spoke to Captain Ritter, he was not even aware that an incident had taken place over the weekend. He checked the system, and there was no record of the incident or my arrest. Nothing, all the paperwork came a week later, as Officer Chance had been sent home the night of the incident and would not be returning for 3 days. Captain Ritter told me that as soon as Chance came back in they were going to sit him down and make him write the report. And that is eactly what they did. The whole report was manufactured and Chance signed it. Now they don't want to go to court.
Needless to say I was given misleading information in the DA's office by someone that Marsico had referred me to. I was told that the Harrisburg Police Department had to conduct an internal investigation first and at the conclusion of that investigation the DA's office would be called in by the police department if warranted. Well, I filed the complaint with the Harrisburg Police Department and the investigation was started but never concluded, It was sweep under the rug. For some strange reason DA Marsico took a special interest in my case after the preliminary hearing and the transcript disappeared. The decision was made in the DA Office that I would be denied a fair and speedy trial in a court before a jury of my peers. Instead my attorney relayed a message to me from the DA that before they allow a jury trial the DA would drop all the charges and take me before Judge Klienfelter on the drug charges and make sure I get time in jail. If I don't accept the ARD (ARD is an admission of guilt and the paying of thousands of dollars to be in a drug program even though my drug test have all been negative, and forfeiting my right to file a 1983 Federal Civil Rights suit. ARD however would not prevent me from filing a charge of Excessive Force. I'm definitely not trusting them and I am not guilty. The fact of the matter is they are the one engaging in criminal behavior and nothing that has come off the police department or the DA office so far is not where close to resembling any truth. As far as they are concerned nothing ever happened. So I have no choice but to go to trial so they can perjury themselves and document the truth. Without the truth they will get away with the cover-up. If they get away with the cover-up there will be no record of anything that has happened. Judge Klienfelter is due to retire December 31, 2009. If he choose to go out with his decisions facing appeals and scrutiny on a petty possession charge that took 2 years to bring to court, then so be it.
Never mind the fact that Officer Chance admitted during the preliminary hearing among other things, that he responded to me the way he did because he assumed that I was drunk when I walked over to him. The fact is I was only walking over to where Officer Chance was to find out what was going on. The music had been lowered because the DJ had blown a speaker earlier, it was 9:00pm and although we had a permit to continue until 10:00pm were winding down; cleaning up and showing video's on the wall for the little kids to keep them out of the street while we finished cleaning up. We weren't doing anything to warrant Officer Chances actions or behavior. He just walked up out of no where and started snapping out.
Officer Chance was not responding to a complaint about me or any activities that were taking place at the block party, he was responding to a traffic call from a lady who wanted to turn the corner a block away from where we were. She could have easily backed up and went around the corner or parked where she was and walked to her house. Either Officer Chance took it upon himself to shut us down or someone from downtown told him to do it. All I know is he was standing in the middle of the street yelling obscenities at the children or nobody in particular until I walked up at which point he turned all unwarrarented hostilities on me. (He also admitted to using profanity under oath at the preliminary hearing, but they lost the transcript?!?) The kids started calling me and I went to see what was going on, after all I was the responsible party and I had the permit. When I asked Officer Chance what was going on and why he was talking to the kids like that he said...
Needless to say I was given misleading information in the DA's office by someone that Marsico had referred me to. I was told that the Harrisburg Police Department had to conduct an internal investigation first and at the conclusion of that investigation the DA's office would be called in by the police department if warranted. Well, I filed the complaint with the Harrisburg Police Department and the investigation was started but never concluded, It was sweep under the rug. For some strange reason DA Marsico took a special interest in my case after the preliminary hearing and the transcript disappeared. The decision was made in the DA Office that I would be denied a fair and speedy trial in a court before a jury of my peers. Instead my attorney relayed a message to me from the DA that before they allow a jury trial the DA would drop all the charges and take me before Judge Klienfelter on the drug charges and make sure I get time in jail. If I don't accept the ARD (ARD is an admission of guilt and the paying of thousands of dollars to be in a drug program even though my drug test have all been negative, and forfeiting my right to file a 1983 Federal Civil Rights suit. ARD however would not prevent me from filing a charge of Excessive Force. I'm definitely not trusting them and I am not guilty. The fact of the matter is they are the one engaging in criminal behavior and nothing that has come off the police department or the DA office so far is not where close to resembling any truth. As far as they are concerned nothing ever happened. So I have no choice but to go to trial so they can perjury themselves and document the truth. Without the truth they will get away with the cover-up. If they get away with the cover-up there will be no record of anything that has happened. Judge Klienfelter is due to retire December 31, 2009. If he choose to go out with his decisions facing appeals and scrutiny on a petty possession charge that took 2 years to bring to court, then so be it.
Never mind the fact that Officer Chance admitted during the preliminary hearing among other things, that he responded to me the way he did because he assumed that I was drunk when I walked over to him. The fact is I was only walking over to where Officer Chance was to find out what was going on. The music had been lowered because the DJ had blown a speaker earlier, it was 9:00pm and although we had a permit to continue until 10:00pm were winding down; cleaning up and showing video's on the wall for the little kids to keep them out of the street while we finished cleaning up. We weren't doing anything to warrant Officer Chances actions or behavior. He just walked up out of no where and started snapping out.
"Shut it down, shut this shit down now, I'm tired of this shit. This is the 4th time I have been out here, I could be somewhere else doing something important and I am out here for this shit, shut it down, shut this shit down right now goddammit."
Officer Chance was not responding to a complaint about me or any activities that were taking place at the block party, he was responding to a traffic call from a lady who wanted to turn the corner a block away from where we were. She could have easily backed up and went around the corner or parked where she was and walked to her house. Either Officer Chance took it upon himself to shut us down or someone from downtown told him to do it. All I know is he was standing in the middle of the street yelling obscenities at the children or nobody in particular until I walked up at which point he turned all unwarrarented hostilities on me. (He also admitted to using profanity under oath at the preliminary hearing, but they lost the transcript?!?) The kids started calling me and I went to see what was going on, after all I was the responsible party and I had the permit. When I asked Officer Chance what was going on and why he was talking to the kids like that he said...
"Shut the f@#k up right now before I take you downtown for "Drunk and Disorderly"
I don't know what Officer Chance found or where he found it because he never searched me. So the threat that the DA is hanging over me is the best they could come up with to justify Chances actions. What I do know is that he did verbally and physically assault me for no reason what so ever aside from his stated prejudices, spray pepper spray directly into my eyes, choke me, slammed me into a fence and then a car and he drop kicked his knee into my back three consecutive times before finally sitting on on my back and calling in a 10-78 "Officer needs assistance", while I was doing everything I could do to maintain my breathing. I thought I was going to die. I was totally shocked and amazed by his comment. I was exhausted and I told Officer Chance that. I told him that I had been out with the kids all day and that I had not had anything to drink all day and asked him what his problem was. He asked me to walk to the corner with him so we could talk. So I walked over to the corner with him, away from where the main activity was taking place. That was it, he snapped. As soon as we got to the corner by ourselves,
Chance grabbed my left arm and started screaming "Stop resisting, stop resisting while putting my arm in a chicken wing and slapping a handcuff on. He just keep squeezing the cuff until I screamed, even then he kept squeezing the cuff while he put me in a choke hold with my arm behind my back and still squeezing the hand cuff on my arm and choking me at the same time until I started gagging, then he move his arm from my throat and tried to turn me around by my left shoulder, while my left arm was still behind my back and while he was still squeezing the handcuffs. I grabbed the fence with my right hand to keep from falling. With my left arm still twisted behind my back, he tried to pull my right arm me keep when from grabbing on to the fence with my right hand. At that, point he decided to pull out the pepper spray an spray it directly into my eyes, one long bust that blinded me immediately. At that point I was in a blinded semi-conscious state. I just just went with the darkness and allowed him to sling me back and forth, kicking me first in my left ankle to take my feet from under me then kneeing me in my back as I was going down and then finally one last knee in the back before coming to rest on by dropping down with the weight of his body on my back. My left hand was still behind my back, with the cuff on it and my right hand was under my body across my chest, as I had landed on my arm, which luckily prevented my face from smashing full force into the concrete sidewalk. The force of being thrown down and him coming down on my back shattered a pin I had on my chest and I could barely breathe. At that point I just laid there in the darkness trying to maintain my breathing while Officer Chance sat on my back and radioed for assistance. I think he called in a 10-78. There we were, me laying on the ground face first, blinded by pepper-spray, struggling to breathe and and Chance sitting on my back in complete silence. I wasn't moving and neither was Chance, he was just sitting on me. Another officer arrived a few minutes later maybe 5-7 minutes later maybe 3-5 minutes, I really couldn't tell, it seemed like forever, I was focusing on breathing with him on my back.
I could tell by the sound of the other Officer's voice that someone else had arrived. This person was different. He was calm. He asked me for my other arm and I gave it to him. He cuffed my other arm behind my back and he picked me up off the ground. I was begging him to make sure that the other officer didn't touch me again. He told me the other Officer was not there and he helped me up off the ground and carefully guided me to the police car. I kept asking him what his name was, I knew he was not the officer who had assaulted me. He told me his name was Bates. "My name is Bates, Officer Bates", he said. "I am going to have to search you before I put you in the car", said Bates before he asked me if I have anything in my pockets. Before I could answer him, to my amazement I heard the voice of the Officer who had just assaulted me, Chance. He said something about paraphernalia. I had no idea what he was talking about. All I wanted was for him to stay away from me. I don't know what he was talking about and I did not see anything, because I been blinded by the pepper spray early on. Officer Bates patted me down, he may have went in my pockets I'm not sure, I just wanted him to get me away from that Chance. My face was burning really bad and I was in pain. Officer Bate put me into the me in the car and they took me to the station where I sat blindly in what I was told was a wet spot with my face on fire, my head throbbing and barely able to move my arm or stand up straight. My left shoulder was bleeding, my right arm around my wrist was bleeding and the nail was pulled back off of my pinky finger bleeding, my ankle was swollen, and I had cuts and scrapes on my back and I had a fierce head-ache. Someone came out and took a picture of my pinky finger, but they did not take pictures of anything else. I was complaining about my head, but everyone ignored me.
Chance grabbed my left arm and started screaming "Stop resisting, stop resisting while putting my arm in a chicken wing and slapping a handcuff on. He just keep squeezing the cuff until I screamed, even then he kept squeezing the cuff while he put me in a choke hold with my arm behind my back and still squeezing the hand cuff on my arm and choking me at the same time until I started gagging, then he move his arm from my throat and tried to turn me around by my left shoulder, while my left arm was still behind my back and while he was still squeezing the handcuffs. I grabbed the fence with my right hand to keep from falling. With my left arm still twisted behind my back, he tried to pull my right arm me keep when from grabbing on to the fence with my right hand. At that, point he decided to pull out the pepper spray an spray it directly into my eyes, one long bust that blinded me immediately. At that point I was in a blinded semi-conscious state. I just just went with the darkness and allowed him to sling me back and forth, kicking me first in my left ankle to take my feet from under me then kneeing me in my back as I was going down and then finally one last knee in the back before coming to rest on by dropping down with the weight of his body on my back. My left hand was still behind my back, with the cuff on it and my right hand was under my body across my chest, as I had landed on my arm, which luckily prevented my face from smashing full force into the concrete sidewalk. The force of being thrown down and him coming down on my back shattered a pin I had on my chest and I could barely breathe. At that point I just laid there in the darkness trying to maintain my breathing while Officer Chance sat on my back and radioed for assistance. I think he called in a 10-78. There we were, me laying on the ground face first, blinded by pepper-spray, struggling to breathe and and Chance sitting on my back in complete silence. I wasn't moving and neither was Chance, he was just sitting on me. Another officer arrived a few minutes later maybe 5-7 minutes later maybe 3-5 minutes, I really couldn't tell, it seemed like forever, I was focusing on breathing with him on my back.
I could tell by the sound of the other Officer's voice that someone else had arrived. This person was different. He was calm. He asked me for my other arm and I gave it to him. He cuffed my other arm behind my back and he picked me up off the ground. I was begging him to make sure that the other officer didn't touch me again. He told me the other Officer was not there and he helped me up off the ground and carefully guided me to the police car. I kept asking him what his name was, I knew he was not the officer who had assaulted me. He told me his name was Bates. "My name is Bates, Officer Bates", he said. "I am going to have to search you before I put you in the car", said Bates before he asked me if I have anything in my pockets. Before I could answer him, to my amazement I heard the voice of the Officer who had just assaulted me, Chance. He said something about paraphernalia. I had no idea what he was talking about. All I wanted was for him to stay away from me. I don't know what he was talking about and I did not see anything, because I been blinded by the pepper spray early on. Officer Bates patted me down, he may have went in my pockets I'm not sure, I just wanted him to get me away from that Chance. My face was burning really bad and I was in pain. Officer Bate put me into the me in the car and they took me to the station where I sat blindly in what I was told was a wet spot with my face on fire, my head throbbing and barely able to move my arm or stand up straight. My left shoulder was bleeding, my right arm around my wrist was bleeding and the nail was pulled back off of my pinky finger bleeding, my ankle was swollen, and I had cuts and scrapes on my back and I had a fierce head-ache. Someone came out and took a picture of my pinky finger, but they did not take pictures of anything else. I was complaining about my head, but everyone ignored me.
As is typical in most police abuse cases, the department and the DA is attempting a full and complete cover up of the entire incident, and they want me of all people, former Captain in the AG Corp and Adjutant General (In charge of MP's) in the Army, former state police, former Affirmative Action Officer, former Civil Rights Compliance II Office, former Airport Security, former Hospital Security, and current elected official and public servant to play this game. How little regard for the institution of justice. What ever happened to integrity. I have 5 eyewitnesses who have responded to each and every subpeona. They by the time we go to trial I will have 3 more, who may have been too young to testify at the time, but its been 2 years and there is a big difference between a 10 year old and a 12 year old, and 12 years old who are now 14.
It's obvious that the DA is attempting to drag this whole thing out so that the statute of limitation runs out on me, thwarting any planned civil suit. The DA and unfortunately my attorney are trying to convince me that I don't need to bring in the Feds, on an unlawful arrest and gross civil rights violations. I disagree, I know the deck is stacked against me and I am not dealing with honorable people, but there is always a higher power. They do what they want to do, but sooner or later the chicken will come home to roost, whether Officer Chance comes back from Iraq or not, what's in the dark will always come to the light.
Officer Chance is not exempt from the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) or Federal Civil Rights Statutes. When Chance assaulted me he assaulted a law abiding citizen, a superior officer, an elected public official and a minister. The judge may have granted the DA's continuance but all is not lost. This whole thing may end up right where it was supposed to be in the first place, outside of the Police Department, District Attorney's Office and the Commonwealth's jurisdiction.
Officer Chance is not exempt from the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) or Federal Civil Rights Statutes. When Chance assaulted me he assaulted a law abiding citizen, a superior officer, an elected public official and a minister. The judge may have granted the DA's continuance but all is not lost. This whole thing may end up right where it was supposed to be in the first place, outside of the Police Department, District Attorney's Office and the Commonwealth's jurisdiction.
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