Originally Posted - September 19, 2006

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"AP Photographer In Iraq Held Without Charges For Five Months", screams the headline on an Associated Press article appearing Monday.

"The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing", the article says.

Bilal Hussein is an Iraqi citizen who began to work for the AP in September 2004. According to military officials he's being held for "imperative reasons of security" but AP executives say that a review of his work didn't find anything to indicate that he had inappropriate contact with insurgents.

Tom Curley, AP's president and CEO says that "we want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable".

Ah, the rule of law. Indefinite detention is not acceptable in Iraq nor is it acceptable in northern Ohio, specifically in Erie and Cuyahoga Counties.

Disbarred attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner of Oak Harbor, Ohio, has now been illegally detained for 30 days.

Hussein's lawyer says his client has been unfairly target because his photos have been deemed unwelcome.

Baumgartner has been targeted because her allegations and writing of corruption at Erie Voices were unwelcome.

She's was ordered to jail on Aug. 21 by Judge Richard Knepper sitting in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas.

She has not been charged with a crime.

There was no motion before the court to revoke her bail on Aug. 21.

There was no hearing in her case.

The judge who revoked her bond on pending criminal charges that she stole her own company vehicle had no jurisdiction to do so, having recused himself the previous Friday.

Only vague allegations were made against Baumgartner by an assistant prosecutor from the office of Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter who has disqualified himself and his office from any matter pertaining to Baumgartner because of a well-known conflict of interest.

Daniel Kasaris, the special prosecutor of the grand theft charges against Baumgartner, was not present in the courtroom and had filed no motion on Aug. 21 for the revocation of her bond nor had he filed any charges against her for the alleged unauthorized of practice of law for which recused retired visiting judge Knepper sua sponte, on his own accord, revoked her bond indefinitely and sent her to jail.

This is not Iraq. This is America where there is liberty and justice for all and that includes Elsebeth Baumgartner.

Now 30 days later, Roger Binette, Erie County administrative judge, still hasn't assigned a new judge to Baumgartner's case. Of course we understand, he might be a tad occupied trying to distance himself from his brother Donald's recent arrest for allegedly sexually molesting a 10-year old girl.

So why hasn't Chief Justice Thomas Moyer assigned a new judge to hear the Baumgartner case or haven't they found one yet that will agree to rush Baumgartner past Go, leave her in jail with no charges and make her forfeit the $200, or in her case, her $25,000 bond?

Where's the public outcry? Where's the U.S. Department of Justice? Where's the mainstream media? Why hasn't the court conducted a hearing yet on the petition for a writ of habeas corpus as it's clear that Baumgartner is unconstitutionally and illegally imprisoned in the Gulag of northern Ohio.

On two occasions in the past 10 days, the jail has terminated telephone calls between Baumgartner and the NCG publisher, once when Baumgartner was trying to relate the email address of an attorney to the publisher and again on Monday when the publisher was trying to give Baumgartner the name and phone number of an attorney who is planning to file for declaratory judgment in the federal court to challenge the constitutionally of Ohio's vexatious litigator statute.

Is the jail deliberately interfering with her communications regarding legal counsel?

Meanwhile, the speedy trial clock keeps on ticking and it appears that the time has already run out for the People to prosecute Baumgartner on the original Erie County charges of grand theft and felony fleeing, and most definitely for the Cuyahoga County charges of intimidating a judge.

Why hasn't her petition for a writ of habeas corpus been heard? Why hasn't the warden of the Erie County Jail who has custody of Baumgartner been required to show cause why she shouldn't be released? Habeas corpus, latin for "having the body", is designed to prevent illegal arrests and unlawful imprisonments. "The Great Writ" dates back to the Magna Carta of 1215 and is applicable "in all cases of a wrongful deprivation of personal liberty. Where the detention of an individual is under process for criminal or supposed criminal causes, the jurisdiction of the court and the regularity of the commitment (if there is one) may be inquired into. The purpose of habeas corpus is to test the legality of the detention or imprisonment, not whether the person is guilty or innocent.

So why hasn't the court ruled on Baumgartner's writ?

It appears that Erie County has added that to the laundry list of constitutional violations against Baumgartner, denial of her right to "The Great Writ".

The actions by Knepper, Kasaris and the rest of the players in Erie and Cuyahoga Counties are out of control. Complaints concerning the egregious violations of Baumgartner's civil rights should be filed with the Cleveland office of the FBI and in particular, assistant special agent in charge Jim McTighe at 216-522-1400, fax at 216-622-6717 or e-mail at Cleveland.cv@ic.fbi.gov

Government officials are using Baumgartner as an example, to subdue the populace, keep them submissive, sending the message that if you dare to criticize how your government is being operated, how your tax dollars are being spent, that there will be a price to pay, and that's wrong and must be stopped. The judges and prosecutors of northern Ohio must be held accountable.

For each day that Baumgartner is wrongfully imprisoned, that's your tax dollar.

And ultimately, it will be your tax dollar that compensates her for the egregious violations of her rights and loss of liberty being perpetrated against her by Erie and Cuyahoga Counties.

If you don't speak up to help protect Baumgartner's rights, it'll be her today and you tomorrow. Her rights are your rights.

This isn't Iraq. This is America and our flag to which we have pledged allegiance, to the Republic, for which it stands, with liberty and justice for all.

The Baumgartner case stains our flag, our Constitution and disgraces America just as illegal detentions do in Iraq. 9-19-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette