America’s Judicial System Lies In Rot 

We Need To Hear Directly From The Grand Jurors
And Trial Jurors In The Simkanin Case.
 

When something stinks, it is usually rotten. And, the stench emanating from the indictment, trial and conviction of Dick Simkanin is more than We The People can stomach.  

We recall a few examples of the decay of the system from previous articles posted in this column: 

1. After two failed attempts to indict Dick Simkanin, The Assistant U.S. Attorney, David Jarvis, succeeded in obtaining an indictment from the Grand Jury that was legally insufficient, severely flawed in its construction, and completely devoid of legal facts. The insufficient indictment should have immediately been dismissed by Judge John McBryde.

2,   In June 2003, Judge McBryde imprisoned Dick Simkanin (in isolation) based on unsubstantiated, hearsay information from an IRS agent who said he received information from an “informant” that Simkanin was a threat to society. Note: The “informant” was a disbarred attorney who was apparently under pressure from the IRS for lying on his tax returns. The “informant” never appeared in court and never submitted a sworn affidavit. On the other hand, Judge McBryde did have direct, sworn testimony from two other people - evidence that contradicted the IRS’ hearsay evidence. However, ignoring the direct evidence, McBryde imprisoned Simkanin based on the IRS’ hearsay evidence. Simkanin was denied his Constitutional Right to confront the witnesses and evidence against him. He then had to prepare for his trial and try to keep his business running while caged in a federal prison cell. 

3. The Grand Jury was misled and manipulated by Assistant U.S. Attorney, David Jarvis, in its secret proceedings. The indictment of Dick Simkanin contained no specific charging statute/s (the actual law that he allegedly violated). The indictment contained only penalty statutes, for which Simkanin could not possibly be lawfully indicted, until found guilty of violating the underlying law upon which the penalty statutes were applied.  The indictment of Dick Simkanin was a blatant act of government conspiracy and fraud.
    

4. It is a sickening, but irrefutable fact, that Dick Simkanin did not receive a fair trial in Judge John McBryde’s courtroom.  The Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis, with the highly prejudicial support of Judge McBryde, conspired to deny Simkanin his Constitutional Right to defend himself. McBryde and Jarvis prohibited the jury from hearing the law and the facts that would have conclusively proven Dick Simkanin’s innocence of the charges against him.
    

5. It is no insignificant matter that the same Judge McBryde who disgraced himself and his position of public trust by unlawfully directing the conviction of Dick Simkanin, is the same person who was previously suspended from the federal bench by the U.S. Court of Appeals for flagrant judicial misconduct.  Why was this corrupt judge allowed to sit in judgment of Dick Simkanin? Any reasonable person would have to conclude, given his “truth and justice be damned, I’ve got a verdict to direct” behavior during Simkanin’s trial that Judge McBryde must have been promised an honorable “discharge,” rather than impeachment, in exchange for a directed verdict against Simkanin.

The Perversion and Decay of Justice Continues Unabated 

Pursuant to the United States Constitution, Dick Simkanin is guaranteed a speedy and public trial.  The transcript of his trial is a matter of public record.  NEVER  is the transcript of a public trial sealed, without just cause. NEVER is the selection of the jury done in secret, without just cause. NEVER is the jury bused to the courthouse, without just cause.  NEVER is the jury instructed, after they have rendered their verdict, not to identify themselves and not to identify the names of another juror, without just cause.

However, all this is now part and parcel of the Simkanin matter. This was precisely what Judge McBryde set out to do and what he has accomplished. 

Given these facts, we have reason to believe the “tag team” of Judge McBryde and the Department of Justice have something to hide. We believe it is important for the People to understand what that is. We believe we know what it is.  

We believe the government placed one or more people on the grand jury and the trial jury to influence the other jurors to indict and convict Dick Simkanin.  This is “jury tampering.”  It’s off limits, to the government and everyone else. Stacking the Jury and otherwise tampering with the Jury is strictly prohibited. It is a federal crime. 

Given the importance the government has obviously placed on limiting the freedom of the People to control their own labor and to accumulate private wealth, and the concurrent importance the government places on perpetuating corporate withholding and reporting, there could no other reason for wanting to seal those parts of the trial transcript and to keep the identity of the jurors a secret, but to cover up its illegal actions to control the jury process. 

Volume I of the transcript contains the jury selection process, a process which, without just cause, the press and the public were kept from witnessing (It was conducted behind locked doors at the Courthouse).  Volume 1 also includes Simkanin’s arraignment for the 2^nd superseding indictment, which was issued by the Grand Jury on December 17^th, 2003, following a meeting between Jarvis and the Grand Jury during which Jarvis once again persuaded the Grand Jury not to hear from Simkanin.  Read McBryde’s Order sealing certain sections of the transcript.  Note the lack of any references to the arraignment or pre-trial motions. 

This 2^nd superceding indictment contained the counts alleged in the 1^st superseding indictment (covering Simkanin in his capacity as an employer in regard to withholding Subtitle C Employment taxes) and NEW charges of violating 26 USC 7203 (Willful Failure to File Subtitle A individual income taxes).  Under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, when substantially new charges are brought under a superceding indictment, the criminal defendant is guaranteed a minimum of 30 days following arraignment to prepare for trial. Dick Simkanin’s trial on the charges contained in the substantially expanded 2^nd superceding indictment, began just HOURS after his arraignment—a horrible, gross violation of his due process rights.  

Volume 1 of the trial transcript also contains Judge McBryde’s highly prejudicial and sanctionable remarks in open court regarding several pre-trial motions that had been properly and timely filed by Simkanin’s attorney, Arch McColl.  In a courtroom packed with of witnesses, Judge McBryde informed McColl, on the record, “I have your motions before me. I have not read them. They are denied.” The disgustingly arrogant remarks by Judge McBryde, the unlawful arraignment of Simkanin under the 2^nd superceding indictment, and the secret jury voire dire (selection process), all remain sealed under the order of Judge McBryde.  

Volume 5 of the transcript contains McBryde’s comments to the jury AFTER the conclusion of the trial, that is, after the jury rendered its verdict.  Before these comments were made, McBryde ordered the federal Marshall to clear the courtroom.  In his non-public (but recorded) comments to the jury, McBryde issued questionable orders to the jurors to not disclose or reveal the names of their fellow jurors to anyone, and he issued to the jurors a not-so-subtle threat if they fail to follow his orders.  Here is the excerpt from the previously sealed portion from Volume 5 of the Simkanin transcript:  

16 And I've instructed the lawyers and the defendant who, of
17 course, does know your names since he was here when the jury
18 was being selected, I've ordered them not to disclose your
19 names to anyone. And I'm going to order you not to -- if
20 someone were to contact one of you, somehow or other find out
21 one of your names and contact you, I'm ordering you not to
22 disclose the name of any other juror.
23 Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't think anyone
24 will contact you, but if they did they may ask you for the name
25 of someone else on the jury. And I'm ordering you not to
1 disclose -- I'm ordering each of you not to disclose the name
2 of anybody else on this jury. I don't think anything
3 unpleasant can happen, but we want to do whatever we can to
4 avoid any unpleasantness. 
  

When Judge McBryde initially ordered Volumes 1 and 5 of the transcript to be sealed (i.e., not made public along with Volumes 2-4), did he honestly believe that Dick Simkanin and his supporters were going to roll over and not appeal this horribly unjust conviction?

If not to cover up its jury tampering actions, why is the government so concerned about hiding the identity of the jurors? Why is the Judge so intent on keeping out of public view those portions of the trial proceedings? 

Last week, in response to Simkanin’s motion to unseal the transcript, Judge McBryde added further insult to the injury that he has caused, by ordering that only certain parts of the sealed Volumes 1 and 5 could be given to defense attorney McColl, and that McColl could not let ANYONE else see the transcript, except Simkanin, and that Simkanin could only view the transcript in the presence of McColl. In other words, Simkanin is not allowed to take a copy back to his prison cell to study. Dick Simkanin must pay an attorney, by the hour, to sit on the other side of a screen partition while he, Simkanin, studies his “public” trial transcript. 

Just days ago, McBryde finally ordered that Volume 5 of the transcript be released (under the conditions discussed above). However, he has refused to unseal the portions of Volume 1 that contain the arraignment proceedings, the jury selection process and courtroom testimony concerning pre-trial motions, that is, those sections of the transcript that are fraught with judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct. 
 
These decisions by McBryde represent further abuse of Dick Simkanin’s due process Rights, and a sickening display of judicial tyranny.  Not only is there no justifiable reason to hide portions of the transcript and the identity of the jurors from the public and press, but these infringements on the People’s Rights to Due Process and fair, public trials are likewise deterring and preventing Simkanin from effectively pursuing his Right to appeal. 

For example, Simkanin wants to add a specialist to his legal team, an attorney who specializes in appeals to the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals. One candidate is the highly skilled appellate attorney, Peter Goldberger. Goldberger has requested to review all volumes of the transcript before deciding to manage Dick’s appeal. McBryde’s order intentionally prevents Goldberger, or any other potential appellate attorney, from reading the full transcript---and examining the glaring evidence of judicial misconduct and reversible error that occurred throughout the Simkanin prosecution and trial.

Truth and Justice were denied in Judge John McBryde’s courtroom. It is now abundantly clear that McBryde, and the Assistant U.S. Attorney, David Jarvis will stop at nothing to hide the truth behind a black robe of deceit and injustice.  In violation of the separate powers doctrine McBryde and the Department of Justice (all the way to the top), have obviously been cooperating in a collective decision to deny Simkanin his Rights. To them, the ends justify the means.  

The Simkanin tragedy is but the latest evidence of the failure of the judicial branch of the government to uphold judicial doctrines, authoritative case law, the principles of United States law, and the United States Constitution when ruling in matters where the Internal Revenue Service and the Internal Revenue Code are involved. 

We now have overwhelming evidence that the Grand Jury in the Simkanin case was manipulated by the prosecuting attorney, and that the Trial Jury was intentionally misled and unlawfully instructed by a federal judge, all in a desperate effort by the IRS and Department of Justice to indict and convict an innocent man -- an honest and honorable man who followed the law and had the rare courage to stand for the truth. 

It is now certain that Judge McBryde and David Jarvis, the prosecuting attorney for the United States, conspired to convict Mr. Simkanin by refusing to give the Trial Jury the chance to review the law and the facts that would have proven conclusively that Mr. Simkanin was innocent. 

In America’s system of justice, every man has the Right to defend himself and to present witnesses and evidence in support of his defense theories, no matter how irrational.

In Dick Simkanin’s case, his defense was the Law itself – taken directly from the United States Constitution’s taxing clauses, from relevant Supreme Court decisions, from the Internal Revenue Code, from the Code of Federal Regulations, and from the IRS’ own internal publications and documents.  The tag team of Judge McBryde and Assistant U. S. Attorney David Jarvis, conspired to prevent the Grand Jury from hearing Simkanin’s exculpatory/vindicatory evidence and they conspired to prevent the Trial Jury from hearing Simkanin’s theory in his defense and evidence in support thereof.  Ultimately, they conspired to prevent the juries from hearing the truth.

Like many other American patriots who have been falsely accused, prosecuted and convicted by dishonest federal prosecutors and corrupt judges, Dick Simkanin was not allowed to defend himself before a jury of his peers.  

It’s now clear.  Unlike the 2001 and 2002 Grand Jury proceedings when Simkanin’s requests to testify were granted and he had the opportunity to present his defense and his supporting evidence, Simkanin’s request to appear before the 2003 Grand Jury was denied. Why?  U.S. Assistant Attorney Jarvis was obviously ordered to persuade the members of the Grand Jury not to allow Simkanin to appear. Obviously, one or more members of the Jury were easily persuaded by Jarvis and they were successful in persuading the other members not to honor Simkanin’s request (if, in fact, they were even told that Simkanin had submitted a request to testify before the 2003 Grand Jury).  

During the trial, McBryde and Jarvis, obviously performing together as a tag team that was out to defeat the law, prevented Simkanin’s attorney from defending Simkanin. They would not allow the jury to hear any reference to the Constitution and the law that Simkanin had studied and relied on.  

Over and over, Jarvis would object to any mention of the law and McBryde would sustain the objection.  Whenever Simkanin’s attorney attempted to bring the Constitution or the details of the law into the record, over and over again McBryde would say, “We’re not going there, I’ll decide what the law is – let’s move on to a new subject.” 

In the end, the only section of the law the jury was allowed to examine was what was written on the actual indictment.  Incredibly, the indictment never specified any specific legal statute that Simkanin had actually violated – it only cited the “penalty” statutes, the willful failure to withhold and willful failure to file statutes that generally apply to any number of internal revenue taxes (excise, duties, etc.).  Those penalty statutes say in effect, “IF ONE IS REQUIRED…,” to withhold a tax or file and one does not do so, it is a crime. Again, NO specific crimes were cited on the indictment, only the “penalty” statutes.” McBryde and the Department of Justice managed to persuade the Grand Jury and the Trial Jury to indict and convict Dick Simkanin for violating nothing more than a penalty statute.  

Dick Simkanin was prosecuted and convicted by an “indictment” that failed to specify any law that had been violated.  Not only did Judge McBryde dismiss or rule against all the Defense motions requesting such specification of the alleged crimes, but during the trial, (and the transcripts clearly bear this out), the government witnesses themselves NEVER, under oath or otherwise, specifically accused Dick Simkanin of violating any specific federal law.  

Even when the jury asked Judge McBryde for the section of the law that required Simkanin to withhold, McBryde merely recited the penalty statute, “IF ONE IS REQUIRED to withhold….”Note: the transcript also shows that even though McBryde told the jury he was quoting the exact language of the law he, in fact, misquoted the statute. We believe he did so deliberately. See the link below for  excerpts and analysis of the transcript.  

The jury sent another note (Juror note #4) to McBryde, asking, in effect, “Since no proof has been presented to us of a law that required Simkanin to withhold, do we have to wade through all 7,000 pages of the Internal Revenue Code to find it?“ 

McBryde, still refusing to let the jury know what law Simkanin violated, simply instructed the jury, “The court has determined the legal fact that Dick Simkanin is required by law to withhold.  Do not concern yourself with this.”  

This grossly improper statement by McBryde, essentially directed the jury to find Simkanin guilty. It completely removed from the jury members their Right to see the evidence the government was relying on to convict Simkanin.  McBryde directed a guilty verdict by specifically telling the jury they could not possibly have a reasonable doubt about Simkanin’s innocence and they were not capable of judging the law and the facts.  

In short, McBryde, working in close coordination with the Department of Justice, severely restricted Simkanin’s Right to defend himself, to present evidence and witnesses that would have certainly been the source of substantial reasonable doubt.  Dick Simkanin was not allowed to enter a single piece of documentary evidence in the trial. 

The transcript documents the extent of the abuse. It reveals some of the methods employed by the Judge and DOJ to control the outcome of the trial, to manipulate the jury and to insure the conviction of Dick Simkanin. To substantiate these claims, we have selected a number of excerpts from the trial transcripts (that have finally been unsealed.) Appropriate commentary is provided.  

The full transcript, all the pleadings by both sides and all the orders by McBryde can also be found at that link. What this record shows is that from the beginning of their hunt for Dick Simkanin, neither Judge McBryde nor the Department of Justice had any interest in searching for truth or justice.  Instead, the record reveals an ungodly attempt to conceal the truth – the truth about Simkanin’s good-faith effort to understand what the tax law actually required and his good-faith effort to get the government to answer his legitimate questions about the obvious conflict between what the tax law required and what the IRS was requiring from companies and individuals.  

An innocent man has been in prison for eight months because of the government’s false allegations and flagrant judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.  

The courts of America belong to the People, not overzealous government prosecutors and dishonest judges.  Our Grand Juries and Trial Juries must be protected from this type of manipulation and unlawful interference if we hope to live in a free country and reclaim Constitutional Order for our Republic.   

There is no more important task currently facing the We The People organization than freeing Dick Simkanin and exposing the tyranny and corruption of the judiciary and DOJ officials that wrongfully prosecuted and convicted him. 
 

The Jurors Hold the Keys to the Truth 

We need to get to the Truth.  

We need to talk to the jurors.  

Under the weight of the evidence of unlawful jury tampering by the government, we believe it is now necessary to do what NBC and other major news organizations often do following a verdict in an important trial – assemble as many willing jurors as possible for a recorded, public discussion with a journalist who attended the trial, to discuss the factors that influenced those jurors to vote the way they did. 

A meeting with the jurors is the “appropriate next step” and should go a long way toward the education of the People.  Unfortunately, as was explained previously, as of this date, the judge has sealed all records containing the identity of the Simkanin jurors.   

With that in mind, we intend to run advertisements in the Fort Worth newspaper and on the local radio, requesting the jurors in the Simkanin matter to participate in such a discussion. Click here to view a draft of the ad we intend to use. 

The full-page ad will cost approximately $15,000 to run in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Everyone is encouraged, no urged, to donate to help the Foundation pay for the cost of the ad.  We would like to run more than one if possible and to run radio spots in the area as well. 

We also need volunteers to travel to Fort Worth to help post flyers all over Fort Worth.  (The flyers will track the newspaper ads and will be released soon.)

The We The People Congress state coordinator for Texas, Hank Goltz will coordinate these local tasks. Keep up to date and get contact information for Hank by visiting the state of Texas WTP Congress home page.
 

Click here to access selected excerpts from the trial transcript and read the analysis. 

Please donate to help run the newspaper Ads to find the Simkanin jurors.

Click here to read the draft Fort Worth Ad to contact the jurors 

Click here to access audio archives of two 45-minute Kansas City radio shows that succinctly expose
the improprieties in the prosecution of Dick Simkanin.
Now Active!

Click here to access ALL the court documents and orders filed in the Simkanin case   

We urge everyone to directly write Simkanin and convey your support...
Simkanin’s mailing address:

Dick Simkanin, Number 30383-177
Federal Medical Center
P.O. Box 15330, Fort Worth, Texas 76119-5905