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As I said, I was asked to sign the probation order which is nothing more than a contract. For any contract to be valid it must be enter into voluntarily, I didn't agree with the terms of their 'contract' so I refused to sign it! Over the course of the next 6 months the court kept sending me notices to appear for 'probation meetings', I finally took my mailbox down so they couldn't be delivered any longer. Since that day in 1994 I've never had an 'address', I receive any correspondence at General Delivery, currently I receive correspondence at General Delivery, Dubre, Kentucky 42731. In September of 1994 I was stopped by a Hillsdale City Police officer, Todd Holtz for no plates on my truck. When stopped, officer Holtz asked to see my 'driver's license' and 'registration' and was told to step out of the vehicle. I asked officer Holtz if I was under arrest, he responded, no. I then told officer Holtz that since I was not under arrest that I didn't need to get out of my truck. Officer Holtz then called for back-up. I was then 'questioned' by a SGT with the Hillsdale City Police Department while still setting in my truck, I told him that before I answered any of his questions I needed to know if anything that I said would be used against me in a court of law. The SGT wouldn't answer my question, so there we were at a stalement, lots of questions, but no answers! Finally the SGT told me to get out of my truck, I again asked if I was under arrest, he finally said yes, I exited my truck and was placed under arrest. By the time we got to the Hillsdale County jail it was around 7 pm, they were still attempting to 'question' me, but I still had not been told whether anything that I answered would be used against me in a court of law. They asked me, You know that truck you were driving .... , I responded, I didn't say that I was driving any truck, I didn't say that was my truck. This went on and on until finally they decided to call Michael R. Smith, the Hillsdale County Prosecutor at home to figure out what else to charge me with. He finally came up with the felong charge of 'resisting and obstructing' a police officer, when the SGT made this additional charge he made it quite clear that this was a 'felony' charge, but I only replied, 'now that really scares the hell out of me!' So I was charged with 'no operator's license', 'no registration', 'no insurance', 'fingerprint refusal', and the really big one, 'resisting and obstructing'. I didn't actually refuse to have my fingerprints taken, I just demanded to see the 'law' that allowed them to take my fingerprints, which of course they refused to produce. They knew who I was from the building permit trial! From my 'law office' in the Hillsdale County jail I hand wrote a 27 legal brief, Motion to Dismiss the next day to get the felony charge of 'resisting and obstructing' a police officer dropped. You see even if I had committed a crime I had absolutely no obligation to answer any questions directed at me by the police, and I certainly would have been an idiot to answer any questions if I had not been told whether of not my answers would be used against me in a court of law! I cited many court cases to prove that I in fact had not 'resisted' or 'obstructed' the police, I merely refused to answer their questions, something that I had a perfect right to do! In fact, if I remember correctly I the party of the first part, could not 'obstruct' a police officer, party of the second part, it requires a party of the third part to do the 'obstructing'! I think that's the legal requirement, it's been 9 years since I've had to use this information so I'm not quite sure. Anyway Judge Donald L.Sanderson heard my 'Motion to Dismiss' a couple of days later and the charges of 'resisting and obstructing', and 'fingerprint refusal' were both dropped. This is just another example of how prosecutors and police 'pile on charges' to intimidate the accused! Fortunately for me I had all the information I needed to refute these false charges! When I was charged with the 'resisting and obstructing' count no bond was allowed because it was a felony, once that charge was dropped Judge Sanderson set my bond at 10% of $2,500 , but like I told him there was absolutely no way that I was going to make the mistake of posting bond again! He said that I would not be releasedd unless or until I did. When I was arraigned for the remaining three charges, 'no operator's license', 'no registration' and 'no insurance', Judge Sanderson said, 'Mr. Johnson I see that you do not have a lawyer', I answered 'that's correct', he said, 'will you be having a lawyer today', I answered, 'absolutely not1', he said, 'will you then be representing yourself?', I answered, 'I can't represent myself, I am myself!' Judge Sanderson had a brief moment of levity! I was returned to the custody of Gerald Hicks, Sheriff of Hillsdale County until I either posted bond or went to trial, but the required paperwork to do this was never filled out, it was left blank! I think that this was about the time that my daughter drove 90 miles one-way, bringing a bail bondsman from Elkhart, Indiana to get me bonded out of jail. I of course refused to be bonded out because I didn't want to give the court jurisdiction (if you don't believe this, read the entire bond form, front and back!). Anyway two weeks went by, and I was taken before Judge Sanderson again, he informed me that he had dropped 'my bond' to $0, that's right I said $0, all I needed to do was sign my name on the dotted line and I could go home! I said, no I told you that I will never post bond again (which even just my signature on a bond form means that I've agreed to the terms and conditions of that bond) and so I was again unlawfully returned to the custody of Gerald Hicks with absolutely no required paperwork filled out! Another 2 weeks goes by and one of the jailers comes into the 10 man cell that I was being held in and informs everyone that the cell was being 'cleared', when the cell was cleared I was informed that I was being released, I said but I've already told Judge Sanderson that I'm not going to sign a bond agreement, I was told that I needed to sign nothing, I was being released! The reason that they cleared the 10 man cell was because for the past 4 weeks that I was being unlawfully held I kept telling the other 'cellmates' that they eventually had to let me go, they couldn't hold me indefinitely. I was then told that I would have to sign to get my clothes and personal possession returned to me, I refused to sign and said that I would leave the jail naked if they still refused to give me my clothes and possessions, they gave me my stuff! That was on November 8, 1994, oh how well I remember that day! Oh I forgot to mention that after my arrest they (City Police, County Sheriff's Department and State Police) spent 3 hours trying to get three different tow truck companies to tow my truck, not one of the tow truck companies would touch it! Well they made one last effort to get them to tow it, they tried to call the owner of the business whose parking lot I had pulled into when officer Holtz pulled me over. They wanted the owner to say that he didn't want my truck parked there, thereby giving them authority to tow my truck, they were not able to reach the owner so no one would tow my truck, My wife finally got a friend to take my truck back to our property south of Hillsdale. The reason that none of the 3 tow truck companies would touch my truck is because they were already being sued by Jean Ventura for a similar incident 6 months prior to this and there was no way in hell that they were going down that road again! You see, when I was pulled over I made sure that I was on private property, that way the police couldn't just tow my truck automatically! Needless to say, the police were not too happy with this situation, that's when they came down to the jail and started questioning me about 'driving my truck'! Ah, the games people play now, every night and every day now - I think that was the words from some song in the '60's!
You see there's a reason why Winston has done things the way he has! The police and prosecutors use intimidation (like piling on charges!) and devious means to get what they want! I'm not anti-authority, I'm anti-unlawful authority! There is a difference! Prosecutor Smith knew that he couldn't make the 'resting and obstructing' charge stick, he had the police charge me with that to intimidate me, after all that felony charge was supposed to scare me, but it didn't, I lawfully filed my Motion to Dismiss because their charge was bogus! What's wrong with me defending myself from these unscrupulous people?! Someone who actually has the courage to do this should not be feared, this is the American way! This is seeking the substance of justice, not the illusion of justice!
to be continued
I never got around to ordering that book even tho I kinda know the gist of it.)
Sam's doing that cussing not me!