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CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO-Although her case has been marked closed on the criminal docket at Cuyahoga County Court, bond for Elsebeth Baumgartner has been reinstated and she has been released pending a trial date now set for March 27.
The disbarred Oak Harbor attorney and pharmacist, charged with allegedly intimidating a judge, was released last week following a competency hearing before Cuyahoga County Court Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold, the judge who had declared Baumgartner incompetent last month without medical diagnosis.
When Saffold ordered that Baumgartner be admitted to the Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare System for evaluation and treatment although no hearing had been held and without Baumgartner having legal counsel, a violation of her Sixth Amendment rights, Baumgartner opened her purse and swallowed an unknown quantity of prescription pills.
Although Saffold had deemed Baumgartner incompetent, instead of Baumgartner being immediately hospitalized, she was held in the Cuyahoga County Jail for nine days before being admitted to Northcoast.
While Saffold "sentenced" her there for 20 days for an evaluation, she was instead held there in violation of Ohio law which dictates are to be conducted on an outpatient basis.
Although prosecutor Daniel Kasaris had publicly stated that Baumgartner had been removed to a hospital from the courtroom in an ambulance, such is not true. Instead she was restrained and taken to the county jail for nine days.
Baumgartner had previously undergone a psychiatric evaluation last year and was found competent as she was this time. Although held at Northcoast for 37 days which is contrary to Ohio law, Baumgartner was not placed on medication.
She had appeared in court on Dec. 12 on charges of alleged intimidation and retaliation on complaint of retired visiting judge Richard Markus who claimed that Baumgartner had intimidated him during the fall of 2004 by sending him emails critical of his judicial performance.
Baumgartner has been a long-time critic of Ohioan government, both local and state, alleging massive federal and state grant fraud as well as abuses of power by public officials, particularly Erie County district attorney Kevin Baxter and numerous judges in northern Ohio. She teamed up with former Marine Bryan DuBois, 28, in the publication of Erie Voices, www.erievoices.com/blog, a website that publishes articles and opinion alleging misconduct by public officials in several northern Ohio counties including Cuyahoga, Erie, Lucas and Ottawa.
Both she and DuBois were arrested this past summer following a secret indictment which alleged that they had intimidated Markus by allegedly sending him emails expressing their opinions about various issues before him.
DuBois disavowed any relationship with Baumgartner after the court appearance on Dec. 12.
When Baumgartner and DuBois appeared in court Dec. 12, Baumgartner produced a note from her personal physician stating that she was not competent to stand trial, being under severe emotional distress, asking for a continuance.
Saffold refused to accept the note and ordered that the trial begin immediately although Baumgartner was not represented by counsel. Baumgartner says that she had not been given any formal notice of trial date. She has never signed a waiver of counsel and is entitled by the Sixth Amendment to legal counsel.
Baumgartner was immediately removed from the courtroom, remanded by Saffold to the Cuyahoga County Jail without holding a hearing, a denial of due process. Saffold also made an uninformed medical diagnosis from the bench.
But what is ironic in this whole scenario, although Saffold refused to grant Baumgartner a continuance of several weeks on Dec. 12, she has now adjourned the case for two months, until March. 27.
Coincidentally March 27 is the same day as the scheduled trial for DuBois. DuBois and his attorney had filed a motion to sever his case from Baumgartner's but it was announced in court last week by Kasaris that DuBois has now withdrawn the severability motion.
However, in that DuBois has reportedly entered into discussions with Kasaris and the prosecution against Baumgartner, legally the cases could not be tried together due to serious legal and ethical considerations. Baumgartner has indicated that her attorney will file to sever her case from DuBois. DuBois is also allegedly trying to negotiate a plea deal on his charges.
The criminal docket indicates that Baumgartner was jailed on Dec. 12, without reason given and on Dec. 20 was released from jail. However, Baumgartner was incarcerated without stating on the record as required the cause for the incarceration and without holding a hearing while at the same time, conducting the proceedings without Baumgartner being represented by legal counsel. There is no indication in the docket of the whereabouts of Baumgartner from Dec. 20 until Jan. 11 although she was at Northcoast. The docket untruthfully indicates that she wasn't "referred for mental treatment until competent" until Jan. 11.
Baumgartner says that according to Ohio law, the competency hearing had to be held first, not last as Saffold has done.
She has retained attorney Jeff Kelleher, an experienced defense attorney.
There have been multiple unconstitutional actions in the case by Saffold against Baumgartner. In November, Saffold had arbitrarily sent Baumgartner to jail for three days, revoking her $25,000 bond but stating no reason on the record for the incarceration.
Court officials later tried to claim it was because Baumgartner had "disrespected" the court but the court record fails to support that claim, especially since Saffold had adjourned court and left the bench.
Saffold's action against Baumgartner was particularly significant as the Ohio Supreme Court had imposed a stay in the Baumgartner case pending their ruling on Baumgartner's motion to disqualify Safford and other Ohio judges from hearing the charges against her saying that the extreme bias harbored against her by Saffold and the other judges denied her fair trial rights.
Saffold gave no cause on the record for revocation of the bond and incarceration, DuBois and Baumgartner say. One cannot legally be jailed without cause.
The case of Baumgartner and DuBois evolves around the free speech right to criticize public officials. The duo have been charged for allegedly intimidating and threatening visiting retired judge Richard Markus in the fall of 2004, based on a complaint made by Markus, albeit not until months after the alleged incident and after Markus had ruled against Baumgartner in a civil case, imposed a $175,000 judgment against her and then cited her for 34 counts of contempt for criticizing him.
In an exclusive interview with The North Country Gazette, Baumgartner said that she was "dumbstruck and terror-filled" by the events of Dec. 12.
"I'd filed a Motion for a Continuance of trial date to obtain counsel because my doctor said mental duress rendered me incapable of representing myself", Baumgartner said. "Keep in mind, Judge Saffold had set a Monday, Dec. 12 trial date on Wednesday Dec. 7, (less than 3 business days) and never provided me with written notice and was refusing to give me time to obtain counsel. There was no chance to serve subpoenas to obtain witnesses and documents to mount a defense to charges which could place me in prison for 66 years 6 months for sending emails criticizing Judge Markus' handling of my civil cases.
"Unbeknownst to me, Judge Saffold, Prosecutor Kasaris, Attorney Jay Milano representing Bryan DuBois, and Public Defender Kathy Moore whom Judge Saffold had illegally appointed to act as my stand-by counsel after an another attorney rejected her overtures, claiming it unethical, all met in chambers prior to the start of trial on that date without me present even though I was representing myself. They came out from chambers with Mandy DuBois following shortly thereafter through the front entrance (Bryan, my husband and I were waiting in the court room) In a clearly orchestrated and rehearsed scheme, Prosecutor Kasaris made an oral motion to have me jailed, falsely claiming I was not competent to stand trial which even if true would not provide a basis under Ohio law to incarcerate somebody.
"Without being given a chance to respond or holding the hearing required by law, Judge Saffold granted the motion and ordered me jailed in violation of Ohio statutory law. The judge, without any medical proof claimed I needed to be restored to competency. Attorney Milano was delighted with this unlawful action because it guaranteed his client an indefinite continuance of trial , a continuance he would not have obtained otherwise. Mandy DuBois had apparently discussed issues with attorneys just prior to the start and obviously knew in advance that I was going to be incarcerated.
"Already deeply despondent due the knowledge that this was a fixed court proceeding, I chose to document a record which would irrefutably demonstrate the inhumanity of the court officers involved. I undertook an act of civil disobedience by taking some pills and announced on the record that I had taken an overdose in the hopes it would provoke external inquiry into the criminal civil rights violations occurring in the case.
"Nobody in that courtroom knew with any certainty the nature of the medical emergency. For all they knew I might have taken strychnine and could fall over dead within minutes. Yet nobody moved to call 911 and get an ambulance.
"Instead I was arrested, handcuffed and verbally abused by law enforcement personnel in a holding cell adjacent to the court. Those same personnel unlawfully seized my purse from my husband and the judge publicly and falsely accused him of assisting with my "suicide attempt". When a deputy searched my purse he stuck himself on an insulin needle I carry for my dog which has diabetes. I was then grilled about the nature of the needle while handcuffed in a holding area because the court cared more about a finger stick on a male deputy then an alleged overdose by a female defendant. The deputy was sent to a hospital. I was force marched, though unsteady on my feet due my plummeting blood pressure, into the jail and eventually taken to the jail's dispensary, not a hospital as falsely reported by Dan Kasaris.
"I was held in the jail for nine days. I tried calling Bryan on Dec. 13 in order to relate my side of the situation. I reasoned this was the type of story that would force national attention on our case. Mandy DuBois blocked those calls. In other words, the state really wasn't trying to get me help for some alleged mental illness that compromised my competency not in evidence but appeared determined to abuse me in order to exacerbate my depression and post traumatic stress disorder. The civilized world considers jailing mentally compromised people to be torture and it is typically only done in despotic and tyrannical regimes.
"Also, I'm fairly sure Attorney Milano advised Bryan to exploit this turn of events by not reporting on the case in order to obtain the continuance. (I would do the same for my client if him) Attorney Milano had filed a motion to sever our trials and for a continuance on Dec. 8 which he never bothered to serve me. Since the events of Dec. 12 he's now happy to have Bryan and me tried together because if we severed they would be going to trial first. Indeed, Judge Saffold appeared stunned and sat wide eyed at the hearing on Jan. 19 upon hearing from Dan Kasaris that Bryan and I would now be tried together on March 27, the same day as Bryan's Ottawa County case. After all. it's common knowledge that Dan Kasaris interviewed Bryan DuBois for four hours and that Bryan will likely be turning state's evidence against me before trial as the result of a plea deal. The record from the hearing will reflect that my attorney commented that it ought to be interesting seeing how Dan Kasaris will call Bryan as a state's witness when he's being tried with me. I was transported to North Coast on Dec. 20 and falsely told upon arrival that I was there for a 20-day evaluation of my competency to stand trial. Under Ohio law, a person on bail is entitled to be evaluated on an outpatient basis and is entitled to have their own psychiatrist and access to Christian counseling, both of which I requested yet were denied.
"A competency evaluation in a case like mine takes no more than an hour. It consists of interviewing a person to discover whether they know and understand the nature of the charges against them and courtroom proceedings, and whether they are capable of assisting in preparing their defense. Over the next 20 days there was little or no attempt to evaluate my competency because it was obvious I was competent. Instead there was a concerted effort to create a diagnosis of some psychological problem so the state could justify billing my insurance. When 20 days passed, I was informed that the court changed its mind and that I was there to be restored to competency which allowed them to hold me indefinitely even though there had never been a finding after a court hearing that I was incompetent.
"Northcoast doctors sent their report to the court finding me competent on or about Jan. 10 after meeting with my attorney on Jan. 9 and learning that we would file a habeas corpus action due their lack of legal right to detain me. My attorney filed a motion to readmit me to bail which had never been revoked. I sat for 10 more days until Jan. 19.
"At the hearing, Judge Saffold opined that the prosecution had evidence that I intended to flee to Canada, thus proving she's engaging in ex parte communciations with Dan Kasaris. Even though this "evidence" was never entered, and I deny it, I agreed to the additional bail condition of not leaving the state of Ohio without court permission. Ironically the court insisted I continue mental health treatment with my personal doctor which constituted the basis of my original motion for continuance of trial date back on Dec. 12. Upon arrival at home I discovered a notice from my insurer dated Dec. 29 that they were refusing to pay for my time at Northcoast because it was medically unnecessary and if necessary should have been provided on an outpatient basis, thus proving my point that Dan Kasaris and Judge Saffold had no right to incarcerate me on Dec. 12 and hold me through Christmas and New Years.
Northcoast and jail staff consistently report that my behavior is impeccable. I am polite and follow rules. I was asked to serve as an advocate for other patients and was thanked more than once by staff for defusing difficult situations. Many of them including high ranking officers urge me to pursue justice and hope that Judge Saffold and Dan Kasaris are at a minimum disbarred for their actions in this case.
"I make no apologies for my actions of Dec. 12. My actions were consistent with Christian values and I view my family, me and others as long suffering victims of a self-serving judicial system that is determined to protect itself and has abandoned any pretense that it exists to serve the ends of justice. 1-25-06
EXCLUSIVE - Court Marks Baumgartner Free Speech Case Closed Without Trial Or Plea
Baumgartner Judge Recuses Self, She's Charged With Stealing Her Own Car
Judge Jails Ohio Blogger Baumgartner Without Stating Reason
Judicial Tyranny Continues In Ohio Free Speech Case
Ohio Bloggers Charge Prosecutorial Misconduct, Seek Dismissal
Baumgartner Released; Prosecutor Serving as Judge's Attorney
Ohio Rent-A-Judge Markus Continues Black Robed-Tyranny
Judicial Tyranny, Misconduct Continue In Ohio Courts
EXCLUSIVE - Prosecutor Acting As Judge's Attorney In Ohio Case---But "No Bias"
Fair Trial Rights An Issue In Ohio Free Speech Case
Reversal, Sanctions Asked In Ohio Free Speech Case
Motion
Ohio Judge Files To Block Rent-A-Judges
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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