Originally Posted - September 13, 2006

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News reports are circulating that a Gambian journalist has reportedly been arrested and is being held at a secret location in South Africa after accusations of biased coverage of an opposition election campaign rally.

"The government's continued violations of press freedom are making a mockery of the democratic process in The Gambia. We call on the authorities to release Dodou Sanneh immediately" Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists said. "It is outrageous that a journalist can be locked up without explanation and held in an undisclosed location".

In India, the Government of Gujarat led by Marendra Modi has arrested a Surat based journalist under the charges of sedition. The AsiaMedia reports that Manoj Shinde, the editor of a Gujarati evening daily, "Surat Saamna", was arrested by the Gujarat Police at the behest of the administration. His bail application was rejected by the Fast Track Court last week.

Shinde had written a editorial in his newspaper in late August criticizing the government's failure in handling the country's flooding situation and alleged negligence in relief work. Then he basted the administration for what he labeled as irresponsibility which led to a mysterious epidemic resulting in the deaths of numerous citizens.

He's been charged with sedition, sale of obscene books (a newspaper), punishment for defamation, circulating defamatory printing or engraving matter, statements conducting to public mischief.

And then there's Zan Aizong, 36, a correspondent to the Beijing-based "China Ocean News". He's been arrested for "spreading rumors to disturb the public" after he posted reports on the Internet criticizing the government's decision to demolish a half constructed church in the district.

Think this couldn't happen in our America?

Think again. It's happening in northern Ohio in the case of Elsebeth Baumgartner, disbarred attorney and Internet journalist, being held as a political prisoner in our United States, the same as these journalists are being held in the Far East, Africa and Third World Countries.

25 days.

Elsebeth Baumgartner has been locked away for 25 days without having been formally charged with a crime or tried in a court of law before a jury of her peers.

In fact, she's now been transferred from Erie County Jail to Cuyahoga County Jail where she had been free on a $25,000 bond. That bond has not been revoked. Elsebeth Baumgartner is falsely imprisoned, a U.S. citizen being held as a political prisoner in her own country, our America.

"All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing", Edmund Burke, British theorist and philosopher said.

Do you remember the acclaimed Broadway play and subsequent 1992 film drama "A Few Good Men" starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore? It told the story of military lawyers at a court martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy in the course of defending their clients, U.S. Marines accused of murder.

All that's needed to stand up and insure that the rights of not only Elsebeth Baumgartner are protected but all of us is a few good men and women who will not be intimidated, who are not afraid to speak out and who will stand up to protect our inalienable rights, guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution.

How ironic that "A Few Good Men" centered around the U.S. Marine Corps. The Baumgartner case also centers around an individual who claims to have been a Marine, who claims to have served our country to protect our rights to exercise freedom of speech, freedom of the press and to guarantee us our right to a fair trial before an impartial magistrate with equal treatment and due process----the rule of law.

Is free speech, the First Amendment, Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution alive in well in northern Ohio?

Depends on who you are and what you've got to say.

If Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter and his counterpart in Cuyahoga County William Mason don't like what you have to say, they'll cause your arrest and claim that you're intimidating them. Then they'll try to shut down your forum for expressing your opinion.

In the case of Elsebeth Baumgartner, they seem to have been working hand in hand for a long time with Bryan DuBois, former Marine and business partner of Baumgartner. In fact, it's conceivable that DuBois and his wife Mandy have been government agents all along and acted in concert with Baxter and others to entrap Baumgartner, to shut her up and lock her away in an effort to protect themselves and stop her from exposing wrongdoing and corruption in government.

Conspiracy theory? No, in this case as Sgt. Joe Friday in "Dragnet" would say, "just the facts, ma'm" or sir, as the case may be. It's not a theory, it's well established by the record.

In 2005, Baumgartner teamed up with DuBois in the publication of Erie Voices, a website that published articles and opinion alleging misconduct by public officials in northern Ohio and in the state.

By mid-2005, Baumgartner and DuBois were both charged with multiple counts of intimidating retired visiting judge Richard Markus by sending him e-mails. They were charged with using a criminal tool to do so----a computer. To levy such a charge is even against the legislative intent of the statute which likely will be determined to be overbroad and vague, unable to pass constitutional muster when it's argued before higher courts. Threatening to kill someone is intimidation---telling them you expect them to do their job and comply with the law as Baumgartner did is common sense and the exercise of protected free speech.

Officials told DuBois they'd make his charges go away if he'd shut down Erie Voices and testify against Baumgartner. Initially, he made a big show of saying no, claiming that he embraced the First Amendment because he was a Marine.

But then by December, he had turned on Baumgartner, cutting a deal with the good ole boys, snatching Erie Voices out from under Baumgartner, denying her access and taking the intellectual property even though it was Baumgartner's money who had financed the operation, bought equipment, reorganized the operation under Arbor Group LLC. DuBois turned on Baumgartner in order to save his own derriere. While Baumgartner was incarcerated over Christmas, 2005, sent to jail by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and ordered to undergo psychiatric testing, DuBois and others used Baumgartner's own publication to attack her, allowing defamatory comments to be posted against her.

Saffold knows all about sending a person to jail without formal charges as she did it to Baumgartner in November, 2005. Court had been adjourned and Saffold had left the bench. She suddenly turned on her heel, came back to the bench and ordered Baumgartner incarcerated----but never stated on the record the reason for the incarceration.

After Baumgartner was, once again, found to be mentally competent and she was released from jail in January, she saw the libelous messages directed at her, posted on her own blog, and attempted to set the record straight. DuBois, the big brave Marine, boo-hooed to the prosecutors. He and his wife signed an affidavit with special prosecutor Daniel Kasaris to cause a search of Baumgartner's residence while she wasn't home. Police and prosecutors seized all of her computers, all of her legal work, all of her attorney-client materials and most importantly, all of the evidence she had garnered against Baxter and other public officials.

Just a month previous, in February, coin dealer Thomas Noe, GOP fundraiser and longtime friend and ally of Gov. Robert Taft, was indicted in Lucas County, charged with 53 counts in connection with the alleged mishandling of a $50 million investment of the Ohio Workers' Compensation Bureau.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/021406Validation.html

These developments didn't surprise Baumgartner though, instead it validated what she'd been saying since 2001 when she initially made her allegations of massive federal and state grant fraud, allegedly involving prosecutor Baxter, as well as abuses of power and position by public officials, particularly numerous judges in northern Ohio, especially those retired visiting judges like Richard Markus.

But those officials couldn't afford to have Baumgartner gain any credibility so with the help of DuBois and wifey, they engineered yet more charges against Baumgartner. Still facing charges of grand theft for stealing a vehicle financed by herself, the "People" concocted a dozen more charges against her, with the DuBoises claiming that she intimidated them and retaliated against them by responding to their false postings on a blog…..a civil matter at best and maybe not even actionable, depending on who's telling the truth, the DuBoises or Baumgartner.

After all, in a defamation and libel action, the best defense is the truth.

DuBois gets his "deal", escaping prison time and instead is entered into a diversion program in exchange for his testimony against Baumgartner. He and his wife file for bankruptcy but ooops, "forget" to reveal the income Mandy DuBois is receiving from the Erie County Department of Health. When the health commissioner is asked by The North Country Gazette under a public records request if DuBois is employed by the county, he refuses to answer, saying he has to discuss it first with Baxter indicating that Baxter and Erie County officials may themselves be aware the alleged fraud perpetrated on the bankruptcy court by the DuBoises. How come the DuBoises haven't been yet been charged for the alleged federal violations? Who's running interference?

Officials in northern Ohio are out of control, particularly judges like Richard Knepper who incarcerated Baumgartner for unauthorized practice of law when she hadn't been so charged, had not been given a hearing, an arraignment, legal counsel or even allowed a chance to be heard in the matter.

Now it's been stated on the record by Kasaris that after Knepper illegally incarcerated Baumgartner without formal charge, after he had already disqualified himself from the case, that Knepper is going to seek an indictment of Baumgartner for unauthorized practice of law. Knepper is the one who should be indicted and sent for a psychiatric evaluation.

DuBois profited very well by his association with Baumgartner. Now he's taken the business from her, denied her access, controls all the intellectual property. At first he somehow forgot to mention Erie Voices and its equipment in his filings with the bankruptcy court, then filed an amended petition and now claims it has no value. DuBois has told the bankruptcy court that Precursor, a company owned by the Baumgartners, "loaned" him $15,000 to pay for his legal fees. Baumgartner says the $15,000 was no loan but rather a retainer fee paid to attorney Jay Milano to represent Arbor Group's First Amendment interests, not to defend Bryan DuBois.

The rest of $25,000 fee that DuBois paid to retain Milano was borrowed by DuBois on a company credit card for which Baumgartner was making the payments. In essence, Baumgartner and her husband are paying DuBois' attorney to arrange for DuBois to be a government witness against her.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/081606WitnessCredibility.html

According to the filings at PACER, the computers and other equipment purchased by the business hasn't been declared to the bankruptcy court and the filings fail to declare Mandy DuBois' income from Erie County. Failing to disclose income to the bankruptcy court would seem to be a prosecutable offense. So why haven't the DuBoises been so charged?

It's not the "People" that are prosecuting Baumgartner, it's Baxter, Kasaris, Markus, Saffold and others using their power and position to retaliate against Baumgartner for blowing the whistle on them---a misuse and abuse of their positions. If anyone should be prosecuted, it's them----and their star witnesses, the DuBoises who ratted out or maybe it was all just a big entrapment scheme to begin with in order to discredit Baumgartner and tie her up in legal knots, a highly convoluted smoke and mirrors. Just think, the taxpayers are paying for all of this.

Now that DuBois has Baumgartner in jail, has the $25,000, thousands in equipment and has control of the corporate vehicle that Baumgartner financed, he's reactivated Erie Voices-----but exclusively controls any comments and postings. If he doesn't agree with an opinion expressed, it doesn't get posted.

Marines serve to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Bryan DuBois doesn't fit the prototype, he's busy stomping all over the Constitution, the civil rights of Elsebeth Baumgartner's rights as well as yours.

This past week, DuBois opined that "Tom Noe's lawyers are asking for probation. They say that Noe's crimes had no victims. When someone abuses a position of trust, isn't society the victim?"

Why doesn't he ask Daniel Kasaris that question or Kevin Baxter, Richard Markus, Richard Knepper or Shirley Strickland Saffold?

Not only has Baumgartner been victimized by the actions of those in public office who have abused their positions and the public trust, but so have the taxpayers of northern Ohio.

DuBois asks "Does the Constitution guarantee the "inalienable" right to a free education?" and then says, "Just wonderin'"

Since our Constitution was ratified in 1789, thousands---maybe millions of Americans have lost their lives protecting and defending our rights, our Constitution, our America.

The Constitution guarantees our First Amendment right to free expression, free speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, right to petition for redress of grievances. That's what Marines and other members of our Armed Forces are fighting to defend in Iraq.

Bryan DuBois seems to have forgotten that the Constitution guarantees "equal justice for all".

especially for individuals like Elsebeth Baumgartner who has unselfishly put her own safety and welfare on the line for the rights and interests of others, unlike him who took her money, took her trust and engaged in an unconstitutional betrayal.

Does Bryan DuBois believe that the Constitution protects Elsebeth Baumgartner and all of us from government oppression and violation of our constitutional rights?

Just wonderin'. 9-13-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette