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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Hirmer/Benson Update In mid February, 2010, I traveled to Florida to attend the criminal pre-trial conference in the Hirmer Case, 3:08-cr-79. I represented Mark and Claudia Hirmer. Pre-trial, two defendants plead guilty. Joseph McPhillips plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS, conspiracy to commit wire fraud against the customers of Pinnicle Quest International, conspiracy to commit money laundering, several counts of wire fraud. Mark Lyon also plead guilty to several counts. Pre-trial, the government moved to dismiss the wire fraud counts against all defendants except Ellen Stubenhaus. She is currently in a Costa Rica jail resisting extradition. She has been in jail there for at least six months now. Pre-trial, Arnold Mansala decided the court lacked jurisdiction and he failed to appear for various court hearings. He was arrested about two months before trial started, deemed a risk of flight, and spent all time since then in custody at a Florida County jail. Defendant Mark Leitner decided to proceed pro se using the redemption theory, filing numerous admiralty pleadings with the Court, all of which pleadings were rejected by the Court. Being pro se he did nothing to preserve the record, and there are no pleadings to be reviewed by the 11th Circuit. Defendants Dover Perry, Michael Leonard, and Arnold Mansala fired their attorneys and filed a series of 30 magic bullet motions authored by a new group, the Gatekeepers. As far as I know, the leader calls himself Dr. Eike (not sure of the spelling). The gist of the motions were 15 supposed substantial motions and for each, a motion for the court to appoint an expert witness who would present testimony regarding the motions to the jury who would have no choice but to immediately dismiss the indictment. A copy of these motions is attached as a .pdf file. The court denied each of the motions. Ellen Stubenhaus also tried to file the motions, but since she had not made an appearance, the motions were returned without filing. As to the other defendants: Art Merino was represented by the public defender's office; Gino Casternovia and Robert Pendell were represented by CJA attorneys. Manansala, Leonard, Perry and Leitner all had CJA court appointed attorneys as standby counsel. They sat in the back of the courtroom and remained silent. During the trial, Leitner, Manansala, Leonard and Perry remained silent and presented no defense whatsoever. Rather than having nine experienced trial attorneys on the defense, our numbers were basically cut in half as the result of the idiots who conviced these people to follow their BS tactics. Let there be no misunderstanding; I hold the Gatekeepers and Redeption people directly responsible for the across the board guilty verdicts returned by the jury after a day and a half deliberations. Government lies were not refuted during the trial because of the standing moot posture the pro se defendants took. During the trial the judge threatened me with contempt on five separate occassions for attempting to defend my clients. Part of this was a threat that if I did anything during the trial to promote the 16th Amendment issue, I would be thrown in jail, despite the fact that the Hirmers were also charged with evasion of the payment of income tax for several years. The only highlight was that after 25 years of effort, we were finally able to at least show the jury the original document from the Kentucky Senate, although it was not admitted into evidence. One of the defendants who plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering testified he engaged in no hidden financial transactions, thereby admitting he did not commit that offense. The IRS agent testified he merely guessed and presumed, from gross receipts using the bank deposit method, whether the Hirmers had any gross income. The IRS custodial witness admitted the certification of the assessment and payments was false, but the judge allowed the documents into evidence anyway. After a two day legal debate as to whether my clients could present a good faith defense as to the various offenses, the judge allowed us to proceed. However, seeing that we actually had a good faith defense resulted in the judge continually interrupting the testimony, and preventing the presentation of the defense. Each time the judge agreed to a procedure for the testimony, she changed her mind. I regrouped to the new procedure, only to have that procedure stopped. This happened three times. Trial started on March 1, 2010 and ended March 31st. Since mid February I worked a minimum of 18 hours a day. My goal was to stay close to the courthouse, but because my clients were not prepared, I ended up staying with them to help them prepare. They lived one and a half hours each way from the courthouse, resulting in 3 hours of lost time and lost sleep, although I spent time working in the car on my laptop computer. At the conclusion of the trial, the judge gave a judgment of acquittal to Robert Pendall. Everyone else was found guilty and immediately taken off to jail. Two days later the Hirmers had a hearing for bail pending sentencing. The judge decided that since they had offshore bank accounts and holdings in Panama, they were a risk of flight. The judge also decided that since they claimed to be "sovereigns" and believed the government was violating the constitution, this made them a danger to the community. This, notwithstanding, the same allegations were made pretrial and they were released on their own recognizance and proved they were neither a risk flight nor a danger to the community. The indictment also charged forfeiture, which is mandatory upon conviction of a conspiracy to commit money laundering. The forfeiture allegations were dismissed as to all defendants except Mark and Claudia Hirmer. The jury entered a verdict to forfeit two parcels of real property in Florida and a little over $3,000,000 in money, although they did not render a verdict to forfeit any particular bank account. All defendants except Robert Pendall and the two who plead guilty are currently in custody in county jails awaiting sentencing. Sentencing is scheduled for the last week in July. The message is perfectly clear. The federal government will absolutely not tolerate American's speaking out against the government, and has no problem ignoring the First, Fifth and Sixteenth Amendments. Dissidents are to receive kangaroo court trials and only the most skilled lawyers will avoid being jailed for representing their clients. The injunction suits against Bill Benson, PQI, and the criminal trial of the PQI people are perfect examples. Another perfectly clear message is that paralegal gurus have no problem selling their clients down the river in exchange for a few pieces of silver to pay for their unadulated, ridiculous, not a chance in hell of winning, "legal advice." These people just might as well be prosecutors and federal employees; they are certainly a huge part of the problem. The jury was given adequate grounds to acquit if they wanted to, thanks to my defense efforts, which amounted to 85% of the defense effort put on by any of the defendants. Yes, the judge helped them to vote for conviction, but it is clear to me that for the average, uninformed person sitting on the jury, to be "patriotic" means to support, not resist, the conduct of government. (During jury selection four people who were anti-tax couldn't help but to tell the judge, thereby eliminating anything close to a jury of the defendant's peers.) I was not paid anything for the six weeks I spent in Florida, and a good portion of my pretrial work was not paid for. As a result of not being paid, I have been evicted from my home/office and have unpaid credit card expenses for money I spent during the trial. I have until the end of April to vacate my home/office. I am in the process of packing. I have already thrown away two dumsters full of my possessions, books, legal work, and other things as I have no place to store them. Assuming I can come up with funds, my intent is to load my belongings into the smallest U-Haul truck I can find and see where destiny has me headed. Right now, it looks bleak. I do not have a forwarding mail address at this time nor phone number, and my current e-mail addresses, jdlaw@wi.rr.com and jdlaw1@wi.rr.com, will be out of service within a week. A back up e-mail address is jdlaw47@yahoo.com. At some point in time I will be able to check e-mail. As you know, both 16th amendment webpages, jeffdickstein.com and fightbacknow.us, are off-line. Anyone inclined to assist financially can do so through paypal using the e-mail address jdlaw47@yahoo.com Take care and good luck to all of you. Hopefully you will be able to discern some wisdom from the Hirmer/Benson civil and criminal litigation experience. Sincerely, Jeffrey A. Dickstein
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