MuD & PHuD

This is absolutely sickening (via Libercontrarian):

Former Ohio attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner and the editor of a news blog, Bryan DuBois of Sandusky, Ohio, have been charged with intimidation and retaliation because a judge filed a complaint against them, claiming that he was intimidated by them and their charges of judicial corruption.
[...]
We don’t think it was any coincidence that they were arrested on a secret indictment the day after they served a federal lawsuit against Robert Taft, Governor of Ohio and other Ohio officials.

The two bring alleged judicial and other public corruption to the public’s view, supporting their allegations with documents and other substantiation. They have now been deemed “paper terrorists” by the special prosecutor in the case, Daniel Kasaris who regularly serves as an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, because they had the audacity to legally challenge the public officials by legal court filings, trying to exercise the rule of law.

However, the appointment of Kasaris appears to be yet another conflict of interest in this convoluted case which has constitutional rights as its nucleus. With DA Baxter at the forefront of the controversy, case law, court and professional conduct rules would certainly prohibit him from handpicking the special district attorney to prosecute his critics but yet that is exactly what happened. Baxter personally selected Kasaris, a former employee of Baxter when he served as an assistant district attorney in the Erie County prosecutor’s office.
[...]
According to published reports, both Baumgartner and DuBois have been kept incommunicado from the outside world, with Baumgartner in particular being denied mail, phone use and visitors. A call by Erie Voices to the Cuyahoga County Jail produced this published recorded conversation:


EV: Hello. I’m calling to find out if Elsebeth Baumgartner is able to have visitors.

Officer: Pardon me?

EV: I’m wondering if Elsebeth Baumgartner is able to have visitors.

Officer: Ok….I’ll check.

Officer: Let me see……(long pause)……huh!

EV: “Huh!” what?

Officer: Well, there’s a note here. It says that she is not permitted to have visitors, phone calls, or mail.

EV: Hmmm. Is that standard? I mean, is that typical? Is this what usually happens?

Officer: No, m’am, I’ve never seen anything like this before.

EV: I mean, I could understand MAYBE if she were a serial rapist or something!

Officer: Yeah, I know. This is unusual.

EV: Can you tell who made the note? Was it Dan Kasaris?

Officer: No, it just says that it is ordered by the court that she is not permitted to have visitors, phone calls, or mail.

EV: Well, thank you very much.

Woa. While there could be more lurking under the surface to undermine Baumgartner's and DuBois' cases, it would take quite a bit to convince me that they should be held in isolation. If it turns out that the Officers of the Court are guilty as charged by this article, they absolutely need to be removed from office and given a nice new one, complete with bars and a toilet.
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