Cook County Sheriff Deputies

A person asked on line about the fights at the jail where inmates stabbed each other. “With todays riot I think all tax payers should call Sheriff Dart and ask why he refuses to hire more staff as federally mandated, why the E.R.T. (emergency response team) doesn’t search or respond to trouble, why doesnt he fire Director Godinez.”

The answer is not wasting tax-payer dollars on more guards. We need to reduce the jail population to less than 6,000 from its previous high of nearly 11,000. Non-violent offenders should be sentenced to alternatives other than jail that actually benefit society. There are lots of things a sentenced criminal can do as community service other than just picking up garbage, including providing free or reduced services as an employee for the state in almost any job category. Mentally ill convicts, including addicts, should be treated not just jailed so jail does not become a revolving door. There is not even 1/4 the mental health services available to probationers or parolees that are needed. Guards should be required to have a higher level of training, not only in terms of judo, but also in recognizing and de-escalating violence due to mental illness, as well as not treating every refusal to do as told as voluntary and requiring force. Mentally ill are often confused and react better and more compliantly with “herding them gently” or backing-off and giving them space, instead of with brute force, which generally will be irrationally resisted. Women who have been raped or assaulted may go into flashbacks and not even realize where they are, as they are reliving in their mind the brutal attack. Guards need to be taught to control without brutality and foul language. This is not a good example. They should be teaching inmates how to resolve conflicts peacefully and civilly not escalate them to violence as the officers often do, because that is what they are trained to do.

Another internet writer stated: “Amen to that, Linda. Why are so many non-violents that could be on house arrest still in jail. And why does the judge get to say “this drug addict is not fit for rehabilitation” without even giving it a try? It baffles me.”

You have to understand Cook Co runs on patronage. You have to have large armies of uneducated workers who vote for you as a candidate, and bring out the vote by acting as poll watchers and bringing people to the polls, especially dead people. Sheriff deputies, Court Clerk staff, DCFS workers, IDOC staff, etc., fullful this role nicely.

To hire such a large army you need to make sure they take long lunches, do only half the job they could so you can hire two for every one employee needed, or campaign on public time. You make your payroll bloated with excess staff. You fire employees who are efficient. You remind employees that if they work to fast they are depriving another person of a job. You promote only those who enforce campaigning and fundraising efforts. You promote incompetents who don’t think for themselves, never questions “authority”, and are loyal to the patronage system.

In order to have lots of guards you need to deny personal recognizance bonds for non-violent (I-Bonds). You need to put people in jail instead of on probation. You need excessive sentences, particularly for drug and non-violent crimes. You need a revolving door of a corrupt parole system and no mental health or drug addiction treatment.

So you need lots of prisoners or you can’t hire lots of guards and keep complaining that you need more guards! That’s the way the machine works to keep the corrupt in office. Guards are used! They are coerced and manipulated and made to think that if they squeal by going to 2111 S. Roosevel FBI office and ask for a duty agent and then provide evidence of corruption, patronage, brutality, medical neglect, excessive force, and fraud, that they will lose their jobs! Guards are fools to cooperate with this corruption. They would have a better job, better working environment, better benefits, if they were trained properly, if they followed the law, and if 10 % of our tax dollars weren’t going into political campaigns, like (“Friends of Madigan) through illegal kickbacks (bribery).

Remember the guards are abused as much as the inmates because they work in crowded unsafe conditions, are improperly trained and encouraged to be sadists, foul-mouthed and vulgar, intolerent, and violent hotheads, and without proper mental health and drug addiction treatment the inmates are dangerous. Guards are simply crazy to keep voting for the same idiots who are USING THEM and demanding 10 % kickbacks (bribes) to their political funds like “Friends of Madigan”. We need a massive grass roots movement, including the guards to vote out of office these criminals including Stroger, Madigan (Lisa & Michael), Dart, the Daleys, Beavers, Burkes, Jones, Steeles, Lipinskys etc., and their puppets. Political office in Illinois needs to stop being an inherited oligarchy. We simply have to help the FBI and U.S. Attorney take down King Richard Thompson, his Lords Madigans, Daleys, Burkes, Beavers, etc., the Sheriff of Nottingham Dart (previously Sheahan), and his high executioner Alvarez (previously Divine).

Anyone who wishes to help me do this – citizens and officers alike – you can even help in anonymous ways – e-mail me at picepil@aol.com.

Vastly under trained and abusive correctional officers need federal oversight and indictments.

The press release from July 2007 announcing that the U.S. Attorney had finished their investigation of civil rights violations at CCDOC:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2008/pr0717_01.pdf

The 98 page letter to the Cook County Commissioners which describes in detail the torture, medical neglect, excessive force, and unsanitary conditions including amputation of an inmates leg because the CCDOC staff withheld antibiotics when his leg was in a cast until pus was oozing from the cast and murder of an inmates by officers who knocked out his teeth, bashed in his head resulting in a skull fracture, and then left him to die without medical care locked in a cell, is contained in the following link:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2008/pr0717_01a.pdf

Why are there no indictments? What is the use of an investigation without teeth? Where are the outraged civil rights activists? Where is the public outrage on this issue? How can we ignore murder of inmates by guards, medical neglect requiring amputations, illegal forced druggings of inmates to shut them up, and this culture of neglect, abuse, and corruption?

Where are the hearings before the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Illinois Reform Committee, the Illinois Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representative’s Judiciary Committees? Where is the outrage from Senators Durbin (Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee), Obama, and McCain? This is an American Abu Ghraib. Where is the press?

Most of the officers are babies with no more than a high school education and two months of training at the Sheriff’s academy at Moraine Valley Community College. That is barely enough to learn how to say “yes sir” to a supervisor, handcuff someone, how to handle a gun, and the bare basics of law, psychology, and self defense. They make up for this by being trained on the job to be loud foul-mouthed and attempt intimidation. They are also trained to act and not think and use pain procedures, mace, etc whenever possible to abuse inmates.

They have jobs at CCDOC because they are unable to obtain jobs anywhere else. They had NO skills when they graduated from High School because our education system stinks and our high school education is no better than grammar school education in other civilized countries. They work there because they obtained their job through connections or because that’s one of the only things they can do that requires so little additional education. They want, immediately after high school good money, a pension, early retirement, and not much effort. They may feel pressured to get a job at the expense of education and long term goals because of acute financial needs.

They need our sympathy, but also they need oversight, better screening, and better training. You can’t learn to be a correctional officer able to handle riots, psychotic inmates, medical emergencies, and irrational aggression, essentially being a psychologist, a paramedic, a self-defense and control expert, and a paralegal in two months with only a high school degree. It is unfair to expect this of the officers and stupid to let them believe they have any degree of qualification to do so.

Society needs to provide treatment for mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, which is presently essentially non-available to the Medicaid population in Illinois. It would be far less costly to spend $5,000 to $10,000 per person per year on this treatment than to incarcerate these people at the cost of $40,000 + cost of welfare for their families and cost of lost taxes because they don’t work, along with the cost of their arrest and court case (I am estimating about $100,000 per year per inmate). I estimate that for each individual that is incarcerated due to non-violent crimes of theft or robbery to support a habit or when they were shoplifting or harassing someone to obtain food when they were mentally ill it would cost no more than about $200,000 for 20 years of treatment, but would cost 2 million in court costs, arrest costs, incarceration costs, welfare for their families, and lost tax revenues over the same 20 years. Our society is penny wise and pound foolish with its policy about being “tough on crime” meaning excessive incarceration from long sentences and total lack of rehabilitation, mental health treatment, or drug addiction and alcoholism treatment before, during, or after incarceration. We incarcerate 40,000 in Illinois prisons and probably an equal number in jails. Even if we are conservative and say only half would not be incarcerated if proper mental health care and drug addiction and alcoholism treatment was provided we could save about 1.8 billion per year in Illinois in court costs, policing costs, jail and prison costs and cost of crime in Illinois.

I don’t think the public or government understands this is a tremendously large part of the problem with our economy right now. The costs of incarcerating more than 40 X more persons per capita than any other civilized country is staggering. President Obama should immediately pardon all non-violent non-dealer drug offenders, provide clemency to those that are mentally ill and committed non-violent crimes, and force the development of a plan for mental health, drug addiction and alcoholism treatment and SUPERVISION of those charged or convicted of such crimes. Inmates could be released in waves in a staged manner as such supervision and medical care are instituted. Do you realize that if Illinois was England we would have only 1,000 persons in prison! (calculated from the per capita rate of incarceration) We must be doing something wrong!

The correctional officers are essentially told they have the power and knowledge to act like all of the trained professionals mentioned above. In this case a little knowledge is worse than none at all because these puffed up, arrogant officers THINK they know what they are doing! The situation is extremely dangerous for both the officers and the inmates.

The “Stanford Prison Experiment” of the early 1970s proved that without extreme oversight a prison degenerates into a situation like in the book “the Lord of the Flies” – total anarchy and lawless brutality.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Laws need to be changed and outside citizens need to provide oversight and continuing education. Extreme oversight needs to be instituted with extreme transparency. The fox cannot watch the hen house. It will take years to transition to a professional well-trained set of officers from the present vastly under trained, horrendously incompetent, and pitifully abusive force that is now in place. Very few young new officers can avoid becoming callous, brutal, and aggressive numskulls under the pressure of their brain-washed and warped senior colleagues. I would estimate 5 % of the officers, 25 % of the sergeants, and 50 % of the higher ranking officers and officials at the CCDOC are malicious, arrogant, bullies, sociopaths, and dangerous criminals who should be removed from the ranks.

The situation is even more dangerous because medical staff at intake (nurses) have ammonia inhalant capsules and illegally use them on inmates to “shock” them out of “faking” their medical problems. Ammonia is a toxic gas and these capsules used 100 yrs ago as smelling salts by ladies with tight girdles who had a tendency to faint are now abused by correctional staff. In Florida a “nurse” and officers shoved ammonia capsules at a teen in a boot camp who was forced as punishment to run around a track. The teen DIED because of laryngospasm caused by the ammonia. This was murder and the Gov. of Florida then CLOSED all the teen boot camps. The nurse and officers stood trial for MURDER, but got off free – a verdict many of us disagree with as this is at least negligent manslaughter.

I was attacked by a nurse at CCDOC at intake with an ammonia capsule. I have chemically induced asthma from an environmental accident where I was overcome by gasoline fumes and this has sensitized my lungs. I fought off the toxic ammonia being forced before my face. The physician’s assistant had listened to my lungs and proclaimed I was faking an asthma attack because he didn’t hear wheezes. Unfortunately he was incompetent. I have “silent chest” type severe asthma where I don’t wheeze but my lungs slowly collapse and nerve injury that weakens my muscles of expiration due to a spinal cord injury. This makes me NOT wheeze during asthma attacks, especially when I already have an element of laryngospasm. Fortunately the amount of exposure to the ammonia I received was small and I only went unconscious for a short period and turned blue. Sgt. Queen, who recognized I was having an asthma attack and went back to the nurse and told her I was turning blue. The medical staff just laughed as I was waking up and has perpetuated the false rumors that I fake my medical disorders. Ammonia capsules should be BANNED at CCDOC and these medical staff should be severely disciplined. They covered their misconduct by failing to document this in my medical record.

As I have posted on this site, I have been wrongfully incarcerated at CCDOC several times, an officer attacked me (Sgt. Anthony Salemi), falsified his records, and claimed I attacked him. I was convicted wrongfully and imprisoned when the court (Dishonorable Judge Kazmierski) and Nifong-like prosecutors (Andrew Dalkin and John Maher) gave false information to the jury and Sgt. Salemi committed perjury. The judge interfered with or forbid my attorney from giving evidence that proved my innocence. I have requested meetings with SA Richard Divine and now Anita Alvarez and Sheriff Sheahan and now Dart to provide them evidence of my innocence, my wrongful conviction and the perjury and official misconduct of their staff. So far they have REFUSED to meet with me. SOOO much for justice!

Federal Judge David Coar recently ruled that the Illinois Appellate Court has WAIVED the State’s right to hear my appeal first and force me to exhaust state remedies (appeals) before coming to the federal court with a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (request to overturn conviction due to actual innocence and unfair trial that violated due process as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights – including right to present evidence and defend oneself.

I have given Judge Coar the evidence of my innocence not allowed at trial. I expect within the next few months for him to overturn the conviction. Then I am hopeful Sgt. Salemi will be arrested for falsification of records, perjury, aggravated battery of a handicapped person, official misconduct and federal felony violation of civil rights under color of law along with his colleague Sgt. Molevetti who told me “We got you on one made charge so I can write anything I want [in the jail log books] and get you on another,” and the officers who falsified records, improperly investigated the incident ignoring my information, or covered up this criminal act. Also I am hopeful Andrew Dalkin and John Maher will be disbarred and punished like former State’s Attorney, now disbarred attorney and convict Mr. Nifong. Finally, I am prayerful that Judge Kazmierski will be disciplined and removed from the bench.

Now the potential injuries to inmates are even higher due to the authorization of the use of O.C. pepper spray and stun guns by jail supervisors and “specially trained” officers.

Unfortunately the officers who have the O.C. pepper spray are putting themselves at great risk of legal liability because the stuff can be deadly to a person like me with uncontrolled chemically induced asthma. This kind of chemical can induce a fatal asthma attack. The officers are so under trained and the medical screening at the jail is so deficient (done by incompetent staff) that they would not be knowledgeable if the inmate had a potential to have a fatal reaction. Other conditions where it should never be used are ANY type of respiratory problem or certain heart conditions. Unfortunately the officers are not trained to humanely control psychotic or violent inmates. They are trained to damage and kill. They should be trained by mental health professionals and their teams at mental health facilities where psychology, environment, proper restraint procedures, and rational behavior are used instead of dangerous vicious and gratuitous intentional violence meant to mame and kill.

Stun guns should be banned also as they have caused many fatalities around the world and in the U.S. Anyone with a heart condition, particularly wild drug addicts and obese individuals, and particularly individuals like me with a history of serious cardiac arrhythmia and invasive heart procedures is at great risk of death if stunned. Again the officers are so aggressive, malicious, careless, and untrained that they don’t know or don’t care about an inmates physical condition. Lt. Pan even said to the female inmates on 3E “We don’t care if you’re alive or dead in your cells, we just have to count you.”

CCDOC is a death chamber. They take a body out every 2-4 days. Most do not die of natural causes, despite the fraudulent claims of the medical examiner. They die of abuse, battery, and medical neglect. The fact that the United States Attorney knows about this and has indicted no one is atrocious. It’s like telling a notorious gang “We investigated you and found you engage in murder, extortion, prostitution, gambling, and massive illegal drug dealing, so we are asking you to review this and make a plan to stop.” How bizarre! How outrageous! How illegal!

I request a meeting with Sheriff Dart, Mental Health Professionals, Drug Addiction Professionals, Drug legalization advocates, Prison reform advocates, Prison and Jail Experts from other countries who do this better and from in the U.S., along with officials in Gov. Quinn’s administration and President Obama’s administration to sit down and come up with a plan.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

EXCERPTS FROM: http://www.cookcojail.com/questions.php

GUARD CCDOC June 10, 2009

Ive been reading article about the stabbing in div 9 on nbc5 the comment section was very interesting as to how people think about the jail system over all.people think the jail is there for re-hab and that it harden the criminals.The majority of the inmates lived in a sub standard life prior to coming to the jail.They only know violence as a tool to express themselfs.How is a jail responsible for getting people to live a normal.the problem start with the parent raising their child to have no regard for other people.the parent dont live normal to begin with.people think that when the parents fail the government to kick in.sorry to say this but having respect begins at a early age and blossums as the child gets older.just reading that article here about the store owner getting robbed and his son being cut and the store owner going to court only to find out that instead of being a victim he is considered a villian.the person who robbed him is only interested in going for a hair cut,the dentist,phone calls etc etc and the judge grants his wishes.so it shows that the system is soft on offenders and shows the public how insentive they are to the victims

Dr SHELTON June 10, 2009

Guard:
You have a warped point of view. Tell me how swearing at and degrading inmates, beating them until they die, denying them medication until their leg is amputated, being more violent and brutal than the inmates, passing contraband, and falsifying records will help rehabilitate anyone! The officers and staff need to clean up their act and stop covering up for the corrupt. The system is not soft on offenders. We incarcerate 40 X more people than any civilized country. Does this mean people in America are so much more dangerous and evil than people in the rest of the world, or does this mean we need major education, social, and prison reforms? I’d like to start with increasing educational requirements for officers and increasing civilian oversight at the jail, as well as putting incentives in society for education, jobs, and marriage.

GUARD CCDOC June 11, 2009

Your right linda what was i thinking i forgot most of the inmates coming into cook county jail are kind ,caring humans that are just misguided.Lets forget the the inmates living in cook county jail are responsible for some of the 800 killings in chicago.Lets forget the 28000 assaults committed by the cook county inmates.Lets forget the 2800 rapes committed in cook county.lets forget the 15000 robberies in cook county.see linda when you add it all up were does the victims come into play here linda.linda tell the mothers whos child was killed .she needs to have compassion for the suspect.the suspect was uneducated,he needs therapy.he doesnt know whats right or wrong.its not his fault.its the governments fault.Tell that shop owner he deserved to get robbed and his son deserved to be stabbed by that suspect.tell that guy the suspect is just misguided.how about we train the inmates to not swear,hit, kick and any other assault against staff with cook county jail we have 40 times more crime because this government allows it in other countrys then lock people up and forget them.i bet we have the best treatment when it comes to abuse look up north korea see how they run there prison system then come leave a comment until they shut up

DR SHELTON June 11, 2009

Guard – You make my point in your lack of understanding. What about the murder of inmates by guards, rape of inmates by guards, 90 % of inmates being charged with NON-VIOLENT crimes, 5 times more mentally ill people being in jails/prisons than in all the mental facilities in the country added together, lack of prevention/treatment programs for addiction, lack of rehabilitation in prison (leading to a revolving door), more than 1/3 of inmates having serious UNTREATED mental illness, abuse of inmates with illegal drugging with Haldol and Ativan. I turned over affidavits from 40 inmates to the U.S. Attorney, documenting rape by guards, battery of a handcuffed 8 mo pregnant inmate by a guard, medical neglect so that an inmate is seizing on the floor for hours before being treated, death in cells because inmate was denied asthma meds. The vast majority of inmates are NOT violent in any way, just uneducated, mentally ill, addicted, or ACTUALLY INNOCENT (at least 7 % per national studies). You are a malicious sociopath if you think inmates are NOT human beings and should be treated worse than animals. Even the guilty should be treated humanely – there is no excuse to batter, abuse, drug, rape, denigrate, violate, or demean ANY inmate. If they are guilty they will be sentenced. Pre-trial summary sentencing and inhumane brutal punishment by corrupt guards must STOP!

GUARD CCDOC June 11, 2009

Linda what do you consider non-violent inmates.I never said inmates are not human.Inmates are treated as how they treat the staff and each other.Since when is it the jails responsiblity to re-hab inmates for pysch inmates.Since when is it the jails responsiblity to make a thug /drug pusher/rapist/murderer a law.lawyer and liberal people like you only look at it as a money maker.Ive never seen a protest outside the jail pretaining to inmate welfare.The community is only relieved that they are locked up and not outside thier homes killing /raping/robbing there neighbors.Linda you must live in a good area and arent subjected to thugs running around stealing ,robbing,and killing law abidding citizens.

DR SHELTON June 11, 2009

There is something called the United States Constitution. Any patriot will defend it, including defending a criminal’s right to access the courts (law library), right to humane medical care, right to food (including special diets when prescribed by a physician), including clothing appropriate for the weather, including protection against violence by inmates or guards. The constitution doesn’t say that if an inmates swears at the guard or tries to hit a guard that the guard has a right to swear back, hit, degrade, deny medication, etc. Guards are supposed to be professionals. I agree we shouldn’t be housing the mentally ill in jails or prisons unless they are dangerous. They should get treatment and not by uneducated guards hitting them and degrading them. I have lived and worked in all sorts of neighborhoods. I have done autopsies as a graduate student in forensic pathology on all sorts of horrendous cases. I have pronounced babies dead that were burned, boiled, beaten, and abused. My family has buried members from war and lost others to totalitarianism. You don’t know me at all. You make a lot of false assumptions. As long as you are not willing to come and sit and talk, you won’t understand what I am trying to do. My nephew is a State trooper. Another is a guard in a prison. I am trying to improve their working conditions and respect in the community. Corrupt, untrained, sociopathic, or brutal foul-mouthed officers harm their image, degrade their working environment, and sink our society into a black hole. This trend must be reversed.

Guard – Most of the officers would puke or pass out if they saw what I have seen, touched, and smelled. Several did when they came into the autopsy room. You are awful naive.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
M. Ghandhi

GUARD CCDOC June 11, 2009

Then the world shall go blind

GUARD CCDOC June 12, 2009

LINDA YOU HAVE YOUR BELIEVES AND OPINIONS AND I HAVE MINE.

Officers arent suppose to perform re-hab on inmates that isnt thier job.I never said i wanted to be a doctor nor do i wish to know anything about being a doctor.However i know how to jail and believe that you havent even seen what goes on.You never been in a full blown riot were your stepping in 1 inch of blood on the floor knifes all over inmate still trying to kill each other.You never seen a officer get his head cracked open by the inmates.inmates putting officers on total disablity ending their career.No linda if a inmate comes at me and i fear for my life im going to do whatever i have to end his life.we all have families here.i have 23 years on this job,and i can assure you that if a inmate is hitting me im not going to think that he/she is just a pysch inmate or a poor person with issues and ill be his punching bag.its not happening sorry.linda you said you seen everything in a morgue.then you seen the end results of what inmates and criminals are able to do.thoses bodies in the morgue arent a threat to you they are dead.The inmates in cook county jail are alive and well and have no problem causing each other great bodily harm as well as harming staff.

DR SHELTON June 12, 2009

Guard – Sounds like you are one of the criminal sociopaths who should be retired. You don’t have a clue how to be a guard or how to handle violent or psychotic people other than to act like a maniac yourself. I feel sorry for you as a product of a corrupt and inadequate system that fails to educate you, train you in proper self defense techniques (both mental and physical) and fails to provide sufficient staff numbers, as well as jails too many people who should have gotten help up front with mental illness and addictions.

GUARD CCDOC June 12, 2009

Clearly you dont have a clue about my job either im still in my career.Are you in your career.arent you a CONVICTED FELON.i never took a penny from anyone . You know word ‘Fraud’ mean anything to you.You had such a rough life daddy pays for college.has a ease life becomes a doctor but still fails and becomes a ‘CONVICTED FELON’.Im sure mom and dad are very proud of you

DR SHELTON June 12, 2009

Guard – You know perfectly well I am a wrongfully convicted felon (conviction about to be overturned) because Sgt. Anthony Salemi Attacked me, falsified his records, committed perjury, and his “friends” like you are covering it up. Sgt. Salemi is going to jail – in due time. The FBI are already involved! You also know I was found NOT GUILTY of fraud, after corrupt AG Lisa Madigan brought fraudlent charges in retaliation for my whistle blower activities. She will be arrested too -in due time. The FBI has been provided all the necessary info including the list of properties she allegedly uses to launder the money from her criminal activities. You can’t win a debate with ad hominis attacks. It just shows how desperate you are to keep covering up Sgt. Salemi’s crimes.

GUARD CCDOC June 12, 2009

I think the FBI already has its hands full with their own prison system.Lisa Madigan is our next governor.Hey maybe she could use you as a poster child for why we need to improve our mental health issues.we could name you ‘doctors gone mad and bad’ .staring Linda

DR SHELTON June 12, 2009

Guard – Since you have nothing to say except for total false statements and defamation, you have revealed yourself as who you really are – an ignorant officer who needs to retire. Just remember that everything on this blog written about me in defamation is forwarded to the FBI. Conspiracy to violate rights under color of law is a crime and defamation is a tort (means you can be sued.)

GUARD CCODC June 14, 2009

Boy i could tell you are a ex inmate You all want to do is sue.Ok linda how much money do you want from me.How about i give you two choke sandwichs when you come in on the new again.Can we settle on that.Because we all know you will be back.

DR SHELTON June 12, 2009

Guard – You don’t have the guts to meet me face to face. You don’t have the nerve to stand up to corruption and turn in your fellow officers who are violating the law. Suits are useful. They force change when the corupt refuse to follow the law – like Sgt. Salemi and the criminals who are protecting him. Perhaps you are Sgt. Salemi!

GUARD CCDOC June 14, 2009

Linda i never started this with you i responded to ‘alledged victim’comment.you called me untrained/uneducated/sociopath.Isnt that deflamation.You dont know me.Ive worked hard and long in the jail to understand what goes on.this jail is a big fat paycheck to the lawyer a and a small paycheck to the inmates.the liberals think that they did something good when i fact all they did was make some lawyer richer.the inmate get peanuts compare to what the lawyers make.i dont have and respect to lawyers or judges.the staff at cook county jail work hard and at the end of the day just want to go home to our families.Ive saved many inmates over the years and talked with many inmate to correct thier ways of living.I dont think its funnu when a 18 yr inmate comes from court and the judge sentences him to 100 yrs for murder.But on the flip side what about the person he killed and thier family.heres another thing you should know about me ive work with inner city kids that are headed in the wrong direction.The program has worked well many kids have been helped the to program that im with.it tough talk and hard work to make them believe that there is a better life than gangbanging.ive lived in the getto and still live in the getto so when you make liberal rude comments to me your going to get in right back.when you lived in my shoes you would have a better outlook as i do i think about the inmate along with the victims.

DR SHELTON June 14, 2009

Guard – If you give a d** you will call me and work with me to change the system. Guards must participate in forcing change. Let’s go to the County Commissioners, the Governor, and the FBI together with a plan. You know how to get hold of me as your system has my phone number. You are anonymous on this blog so obviously I can’t get hold of you.

________________________

I think this conversation illustrates why hearings need to be made before a commission in the Congress regarding  prison/jail reform. The attitude that a person in jail or prison is a scumbag who should be squashed like a bug, has no human rights, no dignity, no civil rights, and should be thrown in the trash and a punching bag for every bully guard who has a beef – along with tortured and medically neglected at whim is now so entrenched in American culture that it will take a major re-education effort to train officers, improve our culture so that addicts and mentally ill are treated up front and don’t end up in jail/prison.

The religious concept of loving thine enemy, treating enemies with dignity and compassion, will replace our culture of brutality, hatred, torture, retaliation, and defamation only with great effort. Most inmates are released and brutality they experience in jail/prison will be magnified and used against society. Guards who degrade, defame, beat-up inmates, and treat inmates with disrespect as well as violate their civil rights contribute to violence in society as these now angry and vengful inmates are released.

We will not advance as a society. We will continue to destroy our economy as a prison society instead of putting our resources to better use (including the resource of human intellect and productivity – both guards and inmates) until the federal government takes on this issue in a big way.

I applaud Senator Webb in this task: See -

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040105/tuhusdubrow

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FactSheeti.pdf

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FS_CrimJust_3-26-09.pdf

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040105/tuhusdubrow

I have now filed my Illinois Appellate Court appeal of my wrongful conviction for aggravated battery of a correctional officer. Sgt. Anthony Salemi had attacked me, falsified his records, committed perjury, and with the help of Nifong-like prosecutorial misconduct of ASAs Andrew Dalkin and John Maher and extreme judicial misconduct by Judge Joseph Kazmierski, I was convicted and sentenced to two years in the Illinois Dept. of Corrections plus one year of mandatory supervised release.

I served the minimum 6 months and the full supervised release and was not able to appeal due to illegal conduct of staff at the Cook County Dept. of Corrections and Illinois Dept. of Corrections where I was held and due to damage to my health requiring several hospitalizations within the last year since my release on March 27, 2008 from prison. The damage to my health was a result of torture at the CCDOC and IDOC by ignorant, sociopathic, poorly trained officers and incompetent medical staff (with the exception of Dr. Baker). The social workers even told me they purposely were told not to allow me to use the law library. My medications were withheld in illegal acts of willful indifference to medical needs.

I have informed the FBI and asked them to prosecute for felony conspiracy to violate rights under color of law, etc.

I will never forget the comment to me at CCDOC by Sgt. Molevetti “We got you on one made charge so I can write anything I want and get you on another.” Officer Levy said the same thing. It appears that falsification of records is common practice at CCDOC. We need to take him down and jail him too!

As soon as I win this one, the mother of all civil rights suits will be filed against these creeps. Any officer who has aided and abetted this wrongful conviction is a target in my book to be arrested, removed as an officer, and jailed for felony conspiracy to violate rights under color of law under federal law.

I strongly suggest that ANY officer or CCDOC staff who has knowledge about this wrongful conviction march over to the FBI on Roosevelt Road, ask for a duty agent and confess and turn in the corupt officers and sergeants. The time is NOW to clean up the CCDOC and get rid of decayed and dead wood! If you don’t turn them in, you are part of the corruption and are condoning it! I have no sympathy for you!

You can read my appeal and the evidence of innocence and Sgt. Salemi’s guilt along with the incomptence of Inv. Sofus, as well as the prosecutorial misconduct at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16301520/Appeal-of-Wrongful-Conviction-Battery-Shelton-Illinois-2009

Deputy Cook County Sheriffs Rebecca Doran and Maureen Caliendo falsely alleged I battered deputy Doran when she actually battered me, falsely arrested me, and was maliciously prosecuting me from 2002-2005. Assistant States Attorneys Jaime Smith and Jaime Voigt on behalf of then Cook County States Attorney Richard Divine suborned their perjury when they flat out lied on the witness stand at trial.

Judge James L. Rhodes, on August 23, 2005, at trial at the Markham courthouse fortunately saw through their lies and made a finding of not guilty in response to my motion to dismiss for failing to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt at the end of the State’s case in chief and before I put on any witnesses. I had asked for a bench trial [no jury].

Then SA Devine was informed of their perjury, given the evidence, and refused to prosecute them. I have now, in March 2009 informed the new SA Alvarez of their  perjury and she probably won’t do anything because the three year statute of limitations for prosecuting them has passed and there is no evidence that she won’t continue to cover-up criminal conduct of deputies who commit perjury.

I am hopeful the U.S. Attorney will indict them as the federal statute of limitations for felony violationn of civil rights under color of law is five years. I have told the FBI recently of this incident.

I was falsely charged with aggravated battery of an officer, when on October 22, 2002, I went to Bridgeview courthouse and was attacked by Deputy Doran when I walked through the security entrance. I had gone to the courthouse to appear in a courtroom with a large briefcase carrying heavy papers on a luggage cart. The deputies knew that I had pending accusations against other Sheriff deputies for misconduct and that I had evidence of corruption against other county officials. They knew I had serious medical problems as I walked with a cane and collapsed twice previously at the entrance, causing them to call an ambulance.

I am disabled due to spinal cord injury and other medical  problems and walk with a cane. A week before this incident I had herniated a disc and was told by the doctor not to lift anything more than 5 or so lbs.

When attempting to enter the courthouse I complied with security procedures, but told Deputy Doran and her partner Deputy Caliendo, that I was disabled and unable to lift my briefcase up on the table to be scanned throught the X-ray machine. Deputy Doran said “I’m not your slave,” and “you can’t come in unless you put your bag on the table.”  Everybody standing in line backed off a bit because they talked loud and hostile, so I didn’t want to ask anyone to assist me and put the wrath of the deputies against anyone assisting me.

I simply, firmly, and politely, at least three times, told the deputies that the Americans with Disabilities Act REQUIRES them to assist the disabled and modify their procedures. They firmly refused to assist. I was required to be in court, so I had no choice but to try to come in. I did not have my cell phone with me so I could not call my standby public defender or the judge to assist me. Therefore, I told the deputies I would leave my bag at the entrance and go up and ask the judge to order the bag be brought up to the courtroom. The deputies would not allow me to leave my bag at the entrance. So, I told them I was coming through the magnetometer and they could then assist in lifting the bag up closer to the X-ray machine.

When I walked throught he magnetometer, Deputy Doran pushed both my shoulders firmly causing me to lose my balance while starting to fall backwards. [This was an aggravated battery of a handicapped person and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act] At that point my arms started to flail a bit to get my balance and I saw Deputy Doran raise her right arm as if she was going to hit me so I raised my right arm to block the blow. I had my keys in my right hand that I had removed from the basket I put them in and when she hit my arm she scrapped her inner arm on my keys and received a 2 mm X 3 mm abrasion and a 1 ” red mark on her arm (per ER report).

Then I felt dizzy and blacked out for a few moments. This is not unusual for me as I suffer from some medical problems and this has happened before. (I suffer from a heart condition called malignant neurocardiogenic syncope which causes me to briefly lose consciousness and go into a brief 20-60 sec cardiac arrest,or when stressed to briefly gray out – CPR has been started on me five times including by a State Trooper in the Thompson Center who received an award for saving my life in 2007) The next thing I remember is being about 10 ‘ away from the magnetometer next to a glass wall with deputies surrounding me, my elbows painfully squeezed together firmly behind my back and someone yelling “do you want to charge her,” and then hearing “yes,” and “cuff her.”

At trial on August 23,2005 Deputy Doran and Deputy Caliendo committed perjury as follows quoted directly from the trial transcript:

Q What happened”

DORAN … I asked her to remove her keys and cell phone out of her bag and empty out her pockets into the basket and then to place her bag on the table so it could be screened.

Q And did she do that?

DORAN No.

Q Tell the Court what happened.

DORAN She said that she wanted me to come around and pick up her bag to put on the x-ray machine.

Q … what did you do next?

DORAN I said that’s not our policy, that she needed to do that….

Q After you had that conversation with her, what happened next?

DORAN She became very irate. She started screaming that she wasn’t — that I had to come and do it or she wasn’t — uhm, or she was not going to put her bag on the table herself….I told her that –she said she wasn’t going to get her bag, I said: Then you can’t come in the building….

Q And after she told you she was going to come in anyway, what did she do?

DORAN I said that she could not. And she started, proceeded to grab her cart and to start walking towards the magnetometer….I just stood in the entryway….I just placed myself to block that area so that she would not illegally gain access to the court house….

Q Did you make physical contact with her at any time?

DORAN I did. After she initially made contact with me by trying to push past me.

Q Explain to the Court exactly how she did that?

DORAN She proceeded to insist that she was coming through. I kept telling her: Back up, and she was not coming through until she was searched, and blocked her way through; and she was pushing me.

Q How many times would you say she pushed you?

DORAN It was for at least a minute….I placed my arms up [indicating folding her arms in front of her like a football player] ….

Q What happented next?

DORAN …. Finally, I was able to remove her or just push her backwards, I guess to so to speak, to get her out of the magnetometer by starting to walk while I was blocking, I guess, to walk her backwards to get her out of the magnetometer….I was on the public side….I had her backed onto the glass partition….I got her out and I had taken a step back, and she started swinging….flailing her arms at me with an open fist, making contact with me….

Q Where did she strike you?

DORAN In the arm. Both arms….five or six times….

Q Up to this point, did she ever complain about any physical problems that she may have had?

DORAN No….

Photographs introduced in evidence with a grinning and nearly laughing Deputy Doran showing the inside of her arms, which revealed a pin point red area near the elbow. [ER report said there was a 2 mm X 3 mm abrasion.  The judge took off his glasses and said he had difficulty seeing any injury in the picture.

Q BY SHELTON You stated that I was not walking with a cane.

DORAN Not that I'm aware of, no....

Q BY SHELTON Deputy Doran, could you identify what kind of form this is?

DORAN It's a Court Services Department property inventory sheet....[pertaining to prisoner Shelton dated 10/22/02]….

Q BY SHELTON Can you state what it says uinder “miscellaneous” is the first item inventoried?

DORAN Cane….

Q BY SHELTON Did I tell you that it was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act not to assist a handicapped person?

DORAN No.

Q BY SHELTON Did I tell you that it could be a criminal act of your not to assist a person?

DORAN No, you didn’t….

Q BY SHELTON Deputy, did I place my keys and gold medal in the basket after you requested me to put objects in the basket?

DORAN Yes.

Q BY SHELTON Deputy, would you say that was an attempt to comply with your order to participate in screening?

DORAN It started off to be….

QUESTIONS TO DEPUTY CALIENDO:

Q [As she was coming through the front door] Did the defendant have anything with her when you saw her coming through the door?

CALIENDO Yes, she did….a carrier with a brief case….pulled along with her….Becky advised her that we do not put any type of cases on the table, that she would have do it herself.

Q Did the defendant then comply with the deputy’s request?

CALIENDO No….She got very aggravated, refused to put it on the table….she told Deputy Doran that she was coming in no matter what….

Q What did the defendant do when Deputy Doran stepped inside the magnetomer?

CALIENDO ….she began pushing Deputy Doran….leaning up against her….After a minute or so, then she started swinging her arms at her and striking Deputy Doran….

Q ….was the defendant placed under arrest?

CALIENDO Yes….

Q BY SHELTON Deputy Caliendo, were you aware of any medical problems that I had at the time?

CALIENDO No, I was not.

Q BY SHELTON ….did you notice a cane?

CALIENDO No, I did not….

Q BY SHELTON Under “miscellaneous,” [on the prisoner inventory form] could you pleas read the first possession that was inventoried?

CALIENDO Cane….

Q BY SHELTON Deputy, when I came to the security entrance, Deputy Doran asked me to put things in the basket. Did I put anything in the basket?

CALIENDO I don’t recall….

Q BY SHELTON You recall me telling you that I have back injuries and I cannot or I would permanently injury myself?

CALIENDO No.

Q BY SHELTON Do you recall me telling you that it’s a violation of the American with Disabilities Act not to help a handicapped person?

CALIENDO No, I do not….

Q BY SHELTON On previous occasions where I collapsed at the security entrance and — several previous occasions I think there were two, where an ambulance were called, were you involved in those incidents?….

CALIENDO Yes, I was….I believe I was present at one of them.

ARGUMENT BY SHELTON FOR A DIRECTED FINDING OF NOT GUILTY

I would ask or a directed finding of not guilty. Both of these deputies don’t remember a cane when – - I mean, they’re not credible witnesses. The inventory report shows a cane.

Both these deputies, one of them said, I believe Doran, that I put my keys, my gold medal, in the basket. The other one doesn’t remember it….

Both deputies said they were unaware of any problems. Then Deputy Caliendo said, oh, she was there when I had an asthma attack and an ambulance had to be called. They both seemed to have selective memories. I believe they have not proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt. I think that alone is enough to show that the testimony may not be completely credible….I am clearly handicapped….

JUDGE JAMES RHODES

Well, taking this case in the light most favorable to the State, the Officer says she stood like this, with her arms [indicating folded arms in front of her]. One photo shows no injury to the arm. Now, whether it was this way or this way; but the point being, that the other one said she was doing something with her hands and that it looked like she was swinging; but the photographs and the testimony seem inconsistent.

If the cut is over here, [indicating inside elbow]….standing like this with her arms, and that’s the testimony [arms folded in front of her].

One thing is clear, that if you can wave a wand on a shoe and tell that there’s metal, then you can wave it at a brief case and tell if there’s metal in there. So if you could walk to the metal detector that detects metal, that’s kind of hard to understand why they didn’t just say; Well, walk in here and then we’ll be able to search this bag without exposing our weapons to the public or anything else. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do this with somebody walking with a cane.

Further, they were thoroughly impeached on the cane issue. They have an inventory for a cane. And they’re saying she just walked normally and perfectly fine, she didn’t have a cane. Ant they inventoried the cane.

So , in the light most favorable to the State,  the witnesses were thoroughly impeached, and there will be a finding of not guilty.

_________________

Deputies Doran and Caliendo were supervised by Sgt. Patricia McCollum. They were all supervised by Assistant Chief Kevin Lyons. I believe that Sgt. McCollum and A/C Lyons helped devise the lies told on the stand by Deputies Doran and Caliendo.

I believe Deputies Doran and Caliendo, Sgt. McCollum, and A/C Lyons, along with ASAs Smith and Jamie Voigt should all be charged and convicted of subornation of perjury, falsification of records, official misconduct, conspiracy to violate federal civil rights under color of law, and violation of federal civil rights under color of law. If it is beyond the State statute of limitations of three years for felonies, then the U.S. Attorney should prosecute this case as the federal statute of limitations, I believe, is five years.