There´s so much more behind the curtain than meets the eyes....
A very special thanks to Kittycat10100 for giving me that great information!
About Tom Sneddon, read and think about it....
While it is obvious that District Attorney Tom Sneddon has a vendetta
against Michael Jackson, there are other allegations of abuse on Sneddon's
part that have been ignored by the mainstream media. The following people
have accused Sneddon and his employees of malicious prosecution, conspiracy,
abuse of power and civil rights violations.
And these are just the cases that have been made public...
Gary Dunlap
In November 2003, Santa Barbara defense attorney Gary Dunlap filed a $10
million lawsuit against Tom Sneddon, accusing him of racketeering, witness
tampering, conspiracy and malicious prosecution. Earlier that year, Sneddon
had charged Dunlap with perjury, witness intimidation, filing false
documents and preparing false documents in a case that Dunlap had handled.
Dunlap was acquitted on all charges but claims his reputation has been
irreparably harmed as a result of the proceedings. In an interview with
Online Legal Review's Ron Sweet, Dunlap claimed that Sneddon stacked the
charges against him in order to get a conviction on at least one count;
apparently, this is a common occurrence in Sneddon's office. Dunlap also
discussed Sneddon's frequent abuse of power and claimed that there are other
lawyers who have seen this. A judge recently upheld most of Dunlap's lawsuit
and the case will soon go to trial unless a civil settlement is reached.
In related news, Dunlap's lawyer Joe Freeman recently sent a complaint
asking that federal, state and county officials investigate Tom Sneddon and
members of the Santa Barbara Police Department for misconduct. "In my
opinion, the matters to be investigated are the possible criminal violations
of several felony and misdemeanour statutes, including conspiracy, illegal
taping, deceiving a court and a prosecutor illegally assisting the defense
of a case," Freeman said in his complaint. "I respectfully request that the
U.S. Attorney, the California Attorney General, the Santa Barbara County
Grand Jury and the State Bar open investigations and seek whatever sanctions
are found to be warranted against Sneddon and his staff." In response to the
allegations, the SBPD's attorney Jake Stoddard said that Sneddon and his
employees are immune from legal action because they are prosecutors.
Efren Cruz
In 2001, a man named Efren Cruz filed a federal lawsuit against Santa
Barbara prosecutors accusing them of negligence and conspiracy to keep him
in prison. The lawsuit also accused District Attorney Tom Sneddon of
malicious prosecution. Cruz was incarcerated for four years after being
convicted of murder in 1997. The lawsuit claimed that prosecutors had
evidence favourable to Cruz but failed to hand it over to the defense before
the trial. After Cruz was convicted, the real murderer was caught on tape
confessing to the crime. Regardless, Santa Barbara prosecutors stood by
their conviction until the case was taken to a higher court where Cruz was
exonerated.
Thambiah Sundaram
Thambiah Sundaram's contentious relationship with Santa Barbara authorities
began when he opened a non-profit dental clinic in the county and began to
attain political status as a result. After unsuccessfully trying to have the
clinic shut down, authorities arrested Sundaram for grand theft,
impersonating a doctor and malicious mischief. His wife was also arrested
and an employee at the clinic was later charged with committing a drive-by
shooting. All three were found not guilty. Sundaram sued Sneddon and his
employees for conspiracy, false imprisonment and several civil rights
violations. He was awarded almost $300,000 in damages.
Sundaram also attended a private fundraising dinner in 1994 where Tom
Sneddon and other government officials allegedly discussed their plans to
get rid of certain individuals in Santa Barbara who owned substantial
amounts of land. Michael Jackson's property was allegedly brought up during
this meeting; Sundaram claimed that authorities wanted to acquire Neverland
for vineyards.
Slick Gardner
Slick Gardner is a horse rancher who owns 2,000 acres of land in Santa
Barbara. In 2003, Gardner was investigated for animal abuse after his
neighbours reported that some of his horses looked unhealthy. Around the
same time the allegations hit, Gardner ran for 3rd District Supervisor
against John Buttny, Steve Pappas and Brooks Firestone. Firestone - who owns
a successful winery in Santa Barbara and who also has political ties to Tom
Sneddon and former Sheriff Jim Thomas - won the election by a landslide. As
a result of the bad publicity from the animal abuse allegations, Gardner got
the least amount of votes.
While investigating Gardner for animal abuse, Santa Barbara authorities also
stumbled upon evidence of grand theft. Gardner was charged with 12 felony
counts and hired defense attorney Steve Balash to represent him in the case.
Balash later backed out of the case saying it was too complicated.
According to Gardner, Sneddon has had a grudge against him for 30 years and
is only prosecuting him out of spite. "It just seems like it's almost a
vendetta deal. These guys are going so far out of their way to do things to
me that normally wouldn't be done," Gardner said.
"The same thing that’s happening to Michael Jackson happened to me. One
day Sneddon is going to wake up with a boot up his ass with a white glove in
it, and it will be about time."
Judge Rodney Melville, the same judge who will be presiding over Michael
Jackson's trial, is also involved in Gardner's case.
Adams Bros. Farming, Inc.
In 1997, the Adams brothers purchased 268-acres of land in Orcutt and began
agricultural grading on the site. 95-acres of their land was deemed an
"environmentally sensitive wetland" by Santa Barbara authorities, which
prevented the farmers from using it.
The brothers filed a lawsuit against the County in 2000, alleging that
officials had falsely designated a portion of their land as wetland in an
attempt to jeopardize the company's financial earnings. At the request of
Santa Barbara County officials, Judge Rodney Melville dismissed the
brothers' action. The brothers took their case to an appeals court where
Melville's decision was overturned.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the County had violated the company's
constitutional right to use its land and that the County and a county
consultant had conspired to interfere with the company's income.
Emilio Sutti
Emilio Sutti is a dairyman and farmer who recently filed a $10 million
lawsuit against Santa Barbara County, claiming to have been the target of a
government conspiracy to interfere with his company's profits. Sutti alleged
that Santa Barbara authorities have been targeting his family's land for
years. The battle began when Emilio's brother and business partner Ed was
sued by Santa Barbara County Planning and Development for alleged
environmental and grading ordinance violations.
After winning a partial victory in the lawsuit, Ed Sutti was arrested and
indicted for arson, witness intimidation, making terrorist threats, making
false statements to an insurer, giving false deposition and four counts of
state income tax evasion.
Emilio's Sutti's civil lawsuit was handled by Judge Rodney Melville.
Nuevo Energy Company
According to an article from The Lompoc Record: “Nuevo Energy Company has
a launched a three-pronged legal attack on Santa Barbara County, claiming it
violated state environmental law in using wrong baseline data in an
environmental impact report, wasn't the correct lead agency to prepare the
report and wrongly applied mitigation measures in denying the Tranquillon
Ridge project.� Judge Rodney Melville presided over the case.
Art Montandon
Santa Maria City Attorney Art Montandon recently filed a claim against the
Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office, alleging that they falsely
accused him of bribing a defense attorney in a case that Sneddon was
prosecuting. Montandon had evidence favourable to the defense and
prosecutors tried to stop him from interfering by threatening to bring
bribery charges against him. A judge later ruled that Sneddon's office had
no right to stop Montandon's involvement in the case.
In a letter, Montandon denied any wrongdoing and lashed out at Sneddon and
his employees, saying: "Unlike (Assistant District Attorney Christie)
Stanley and current and former members of her office, I have never had my
license to practice law suspended by the State Bar, have never been
convicted of a crime, and have never been terminated from any attorney job."
At the end of his letter, Montandon said he would reveal in court: "the full
and complete story of not only the District Attorney's unprofessional
conduct, but the inappropriate conduct and motives of others working behind
the scenes to cause community conflict."
Recently, Montandon requested that the State Bar investigate Sneddon and his
office for obstruction of justice.
William Wagener
William Wagener ran for 5th District County Supervisor in 2002 and was
arrested shortly before the election. Because he was a convicted felon,
Wisconsin authorities claimed that he had no right to run for political
office. As a result, Wagener was arrested by Santa Barbara authorities.
In response, Wagener's attorney John Holland said that his client’s prior
conviction should have had no effect on his right to be a political
candidate. He also said that because the terms of Wagener's probation had
been given to the SBPD in 1998, authorities were already aware of his record
when they allowed him to run for office.
The charges against Wagener were dropped and he was released from jail.
Still, his attorney accused Sneddon's office of making sure Wagener was:
"defamed and ridiculed in the local media in order to destroy his campaign
for public office." Wagener filed a lawsuit against the city of Santa Maria,
Santa Barbara County and former Police Chief John Sterling, accusing them of
violating his civil rights.
The lawsuit alleges that Police Chief John Sterling "had actual, advance
knowledge of the plan by other defendants to falsely arrest, inaccurate and
violate (Wagener's) California and Federal civil rights." Wagener claimed
that authorities conspired against him because they wanted his opponent Joe
Centeno to win the election.
Diana Hall
According to Gary Dunlap, when a local judge refused to change her ruling in
Sneddon's favour, Sneddon brought bogus charges against her, ruined her
career and publicly humiliated her by exposing that she was a lesbian. When
it became apparent to Sneddon that this judge would be a witness in the Gary
Dunlap case, he threatened to bring more charges against her. The judge in
question is Diana Hall.
On September 29, 2003, Hall was acquitted on charges of battery but eight
months later found herself accused of violating campaign laws. On January
16th, 2004, she showed up at Michael Jackson's arraignment because she
wanted to see how Judge Rodney S. Melville handled motions. Hall told
reporters: "I'm not being treated well. This has ruined my reputation, and
I'm just not going to take it any longer."
Members of the SBPD
In 2002, Santa Barbara County law enforcement groups filed a lawsuit against
Tom Sneddon for threatening the police officers' right to privacy. The
lawsuit stems from a policy which allows the District Attorney's office to
give information about police misconduct to defense attorneys at its own
discretion. According to Sgt. Mike McGrew, "It's confusing. He's an
aggressive DA. There are actually no files right now on any officers in
Santa Barbara. We really don't know why he did this." Future blackmail
material perhaps?
David Allen Richardson, Carina Richardson and George Beeghly
In a civil lawsuit that was settled out of court, David Allen Richardson,
Carina Richardson George Beeghly sued Sheriff Jim Thomas and several Santa
Barbara police officers for unreasonable search and seizure, false
arrest/false imprisonment, excessive force, retaliation for exercise of
speech and petition rights, conspiracy to violate civil rights, violation of
First Amendment right of association, malicious prosecution, negligence,
battery and conspiracy and other charges.
Surprised? Me neither.... ;)
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