Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Here are several interesting “comments” on LTC Lakin’s case.
Mr. Harrington [infra] references and links to Cody Robert Judy;
candidate for U.S. Senate from Utah and former presidential candidate, [who] has filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the U.S. Army on behalf of Lt. Col. Lakin.
It looks like he emailed this to LTC Driscoll.
Mr. Harrington’s own comment as to LTC Driscoll’s Article 32, UCMJ, memorandum is in parts blunt:
The Post & Email: Why has Driscoll issued an opinion which says that Lakin can have certain pieces of the information he requested for his defense but not all of it?
Mr. Harrington: Because he’s an idiot. . . .
A most persuasive argument.
In a comment to a CAAFLog posting I posited, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that LTC Lakin’s perhaps undisclosed strategy was to get in front of a panel of members because they would be sure to acquit him. The “theory” being that all military officers really agree with him but won’t say so publically. While the comments read as drivel, they are interesting looks into the minds of persons supporting LTC Lakin. Now here is a piece in which Sgt Tim Harrington, a former Marine, posits LTC Lakin is right. Note he references JAGHunter.
(JAG Hunter, a little history. ex-LCDR Fitzpatrick began his lengthy tirade about military justice many years ago with various attacks on the Navy JAG establishment because of his own legal problems. In 2003 he described the:
Definition: JAGMIRE
jag · mire (jág-mīre) n. U.S Military Law. Slang 1. Present and past practice of military justice. 2. The collected body of unethical, corrupt, corrupted, or criminally complicit judge advocate generals. 3. A difficult or precarious military justice situation; predicament. 4. A military justice bog. – v. mired, miring. 1. To sink or stick in or as if in a jagmire. 2. To intentionally soil or destroy the military career of another or advance one’s own career through the unethical or criminal practice of military law.
Here on a post is a summary of his complaint:
Zeller, you may remember, was the orchestrator of a fraudulent court-martial against LCDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick III in 1990. As the Staff Judge Advocate under Admiral John Bitoff, Commanding Officer of Combat Logistics Group One, Zeller’s job was to act as Bitoff’ chief legal adviser.
Zeller makes the unequivocal assertion that "LCDR Fitzpatrick is guilty of dereliction of duty by failing to adhere to proper procedures for the expenditure of MWR funds," even though there had been no Article 32, no court-martial, and no verdict. This was simply one man, serving as the accuser in the case, reporting to the convening authority in the case, who just happened to be his boss.
On the JAGMIRE Blog is this piece:
The Navy should reverse course and grant a new trial to Lt. Cmdr. Walter Fitzpatrick, who appears to have been the subject of a vendetta by his superiors.
The Seattle PI has this piece from 1994 about the quest for a new trial.
His current situation is partly described as:
At the same time, across the country in Monroe County Tennessee, another decorated career officer awaits his fate, in the hands of a corrupt Grand Jury which has also declined to accept evidence against Barack Obama for more than a year now.
LCDR Walter Fitzpatrick III began his search for truth and justice more than a year ago, when he attempted to enter evidence against Barack Obama’s legitimacy to hold office, into his local Grand Jury in Monroe County Tennessee.
Fitzpatrick was repeatedly blocked from entering that evidence into court by way of the citizens Grand Jury, which Tennessee code allegedly allows to be entered by any citizen presenting evidence or wrong doing by any elected or appointed official. The Grand Jury is supposed to be the checkpoint between the people and their government, wherein any citizen can present evidence against corrupt government officials.
After months of blocks from local law enforcement officers and court officials, Fitzpatrick filed a criminal complaint against local officials for obstruction of justice and was shortly thereafter arrested on April 1, 2010 – while trying to affect a citizen’s arrest upon members of the local system. Tennessee has some of the strongest citizen arrest laws in the country. But when it comes to Obama, no law seems to be in effect, anywhere in the country.
Fitzpatrick was incarcerated for days without food or water, while denied visitors, and stands charged with “committing actual RIOT””—based upon the four supporters present to video document events on April 1, “resisting arrest” for actually resisting police officers unlawful physical assault, while being frog marched off public property by the local Sheriff’s Department, “interrupting a meeting” by trying to affect a citizen’s arrest upon people in that meeting and “disorderly conduct” by trying to expose corruption and obstruction of justice in his local community.
The posting by J. B. Williams about LTC Lakin’s case is on Citizens Tsunami Blog here.