Post by Shuftin on Sept 25, 2006 1:41:06 GMT -5
2006-09-24
CLEVELAND, OHIO - CYA can mean a lot of things.
It means "see you" in Internet slang.
Or, it stands for the Canadian Yachting Association or the California Youth Authority. More commonly, such as in Cuyahoga County, it's an acronym for "cover your ass".
Especially in the case of former Oak Harbor bio-tech and patent attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner, currently imprisoned in Erie County Jail since Aug. 21 after retiring visiting judge Richard Knepper found her guilty without trial, without hearing and without formal charges having been brought, for allegedly engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
According to the docket for the Cuyahoga County Court, a hearing for an undisclosed reason has been scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28 at 9 a.m. by Judge Shirley Strickland Safford in Courtroom 21B in the Justice Center in Cleveland. Although it appears the order was issued Sept. 19 and filed on Sept. 20, as of Saturday neither Baumgartner nor her husband was aware of it.
**WARRANT FOR REMOVAL** DEFENDANT TO COURTROOM 21B ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 FOR HEARING SET FOR 09/28/2006 AT 09:00 AM. CLERK ORDERED TO SEND COPY OF THIS ORDER TO THE DEFENDANT IN ERIE COUNTY JAIL AND TO THE WARDEN OF ERIE COUNTY JAIL. SHERIFF ORDERED TO TRANSPORT DEFENDANT ELSEBETH BAUMGARTNER, DOB: 05/12/1955, GENDER: FEMALE, RACE: WHITE. 09/19/2006 CPBXM 09/20/2006 15:38
The assault on Baumgartner and the ongoing denial and violations of her constitutional rights was led on Aug. 18 before Knepper by Kevin Baxter, Erie County prosecutor who has publicly admitted his conflict of interest involving Baumgartner and previously disqualified himself and his office from all matters relating to her.
Despite court rules and statutes that the court will appoint a special prosecutor in such matters, Baxter, not the court, handpicked Daniel Kasaris, his former assistant and currently an assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County.
But that didn't stop Baxter from personally castigating Baumgartner in court on Aug. 18, in response to a motion filed by defendant Elizabeth Ohlemacher who accused Baxter and local police officers of sexual misconduct.
According to Baumgartner, Kasaris was not in the courtroom and he had made no motion on Aug. 21 to revoke her bond, the previous motion having been denied on Aug. 18 by Knepper.
Although Baxter has been removed from involvement in cases involving Baumgartner, he went on the attack of her on Aug. 18 but lost when Judge Richard Knepper denied the motion of the Erie County prosecutor's office to revoke Baumgartner's bond based on informal allegations by the Erie County prosecutors office in response papers to Ohlemacher's motion that Baumgartner had helped her write them. No formal charges have reportedly been brought against Baumgartner for the unauthorized practice of law.
When the issue was raised orally on Aug. 18 by Baxter and his assistant, Sandy Rubino, Knepper said he wasn't going to "go there" and wouldn't hear such allegations. He then recused himself.
On Monday, Aug. 21 at a hearing for Ohlemacher before Knepper, he acted in the Baumgartner case after he had disqualified himself, then revoked her bond without jurisdiction and in the absence of a formal complaint or hearing and then again, recused himself.
Baumgartner said she had been sequestered outside the courtroom, was never called as a witness in the case although she had been subpoenaed, was not represented by counsel and was never served any criminal charges for allegedly practicing law without a license.
Baumgartner's disbarment as an attorney came after she stood up at a Port Clinton city council meeting in 2001 and opposed a proposed contract between the city and the Island Express Boat Lines, a ferry boat company in which Baxter had a financial interest. Five days after the hearing, Baxter used his position and office to charge her with falsification for speaking at a public hearing, criminalizing free speech, and it's been downhill since there.
The motion filed on Aug. 17 in Erie County Common Pleas court and signed by Ohlemacher's mother, Elizabeth Leser, stated that Ohlemacher, an inmate at Erie County Jail, wasn't saying anything in her motions that hadn't been said before concerning Baxter, local police officers and the court's "sad track record of protecting women's, blacks' and children's rights to equal protection".
But while Knepper, on Aug. 21, revoked Baumgartner's $25,000 bond which had been in effect in Erie without having jurisdiction to do so because he had recused himself from her case three days previous, her $25,000 bond in Cuyahoga County remains in effect although she was incarcerated in the Cuyahoga County for three days the mid-September.
Baumgartner faces charges in Erie County of grand theft auto for the alleged stealing of her own corporate vehicle, felony fleeing and resisting arrest. So far, neither administrative judge Roger Binette or Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court has assigned a judge to replace Knepper in the Baumgartner case, thus the case has been left in limbo for over 30 days while Baumgartner remains incarcerated, being denied a bond hearing and other legal options.
Moyer has his own prejudice and conflict of interest involving Baumgartner, as in November, 2002, she attempted to have Moyer federally investigated for allegedly "manipulating the Ohio visiting judge system in order to affect political case outcomes". As a result of her charges of governmental and in particular judicial corruption and whistleblowing activities, Baumgartner was disbarred by the Ohio Supreme Court, described as a "threat to the public safety".
She faces charges in Cuyahoga County on two indictments, one on the complaint of retired visiting judge Richard Markus who says she intimidated him with emails and retaliated against him by criticizing his judicial performance using a criminal tool, a computer to do so.
She has also been charged with intimidation and retaliation on complaint of her former business partner and his wife, Bryan and Mandy DuBois, for posting entries on the blog, Erie Voices, owned by Arbor Group LLC of which she is the general manager.
Those charges are scheduled for trial on Nov. 13. She says Kasaris' motion to join the two Cuyahoga cases together, which she opposed as being too prejudicial, was denied by Saffold. Jamie Dalton, prosecution spokesperson, says it was approved.
So far, none of the transcripts from the Aug. 18, Aug. 21 or Sept. 13 hearings have been made available. The transcript from the June 1 hearing when Knepper found Baumgartner in contempt is available.
www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/070206TroublingIssues.html
Although a warrant was issued to effect Baumgartner's transfer from the Erie County Jail to the Cuyahoga County Jail for the trial which was to have started Sept. 13 was served on Erie County Jail on Sept. 8, she was not transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail until Sept. 12. According to the Cuyahoga County court docket, she had been free on bail in the Cuyahoga County charges until Sept. 12 when it indicates she was jailed. The docket shows that she was "leaving jail" on Sept. 15, the day she was transferred back to the Erie County Jail.
The case involving the complaints against her brought by Judge Markus is marked closed while the case involving the DuBois case is marked open. The DuBois case indicates that she is free on bail which she is not.
On Sept. 13, Saffold had wanted to set a new trial date for two weeks but Kasaris had said that he was unavailable. With a hearing now set for Sept. 28, it appears he has become "available" but so far, the purpose of the hearing is unknown. It appears that it may be a bond hearing for the purposes of revoking Baumgartner's Cuyahoga County bond based on the Erie County incarceration by Knepper.
There has been little press coverage regarding the matter by the Ohio newspapers except for highly prejudicial coverage by the Sandusky Register and Port Clinton News Herald which would warrant the basis for a motion to remove the venue of all hearings and trials to a county other than Erie, Cuyahoga or Ottawa.
The newspaper, its managing editor Cindy Jacoby and Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan, have been sued for libel by Baumgartner after she received permission to do so by Markus. In that Markus has labeled her as a vexatious litigator, she must ask permission in order to file court papers in civil matters.
Mulligan just requested and received an extension to file his response in the matter. It is unknown if he is being represented by private legal counsel retained by himself or if the county is picking up the tab.
The Ohio courts have tried to assert that the vexatious litigator also applies to criminal matters and has consistently refused to hear her criminal appeals because of her label despite her Sixth Amendment right to first appeal in criminal actions.
www.co.lucas.oh.us/Appeals/DecisionsPDF/2804.pdf
Baumgartner had been scheduled to begin trial in the Erie County grand theft charge on June 1 but when she appeared, Knepper removed the hearing to a closed courtroom and found her in contempt, ruling that she had improperly talked with prospective jurors and that she was too obstreperous, or talkative, during the hearing at which she was appearing pro se. She was sentenced to Erie County Jail for 45 days, released on July 15.
She filed her notice of appeal and asked for a bond hearing pending appeal but the Sixth District Court of Appeals refused to render a decision in the matter until July 17, two days after her release date, saying she was precluded from filing a criminal appeal because of being labeled a vexatious litigator by Markus.
The vexatious litigator statute is applicable only to civil actions, not criminal appeals.
Baumgartner says that retired visiting judge Knepper had no jurisdiction in her trial at all in that the law prohibits visiting judges from adjudicating criminal trials. She has filed for an order in the Erie County case suppressing all evidence obtained and for dismissal of the charges on grounds that officers and or agents of the Village of Bay View Police Department, Ottawa County Sheriff's office and Ohio Highway patrol unlawfully detained Baumgartner on May 20, 2005, pursuant to an unlawfully issued bench warrant and without observing any conduct which would lead them to conclude that criminal activity may be afoot or that she may be armed and dangerous. She has requested a suppression hearing prior to trial. So far, there has been no ruling on the suppression motion or hearing held.
www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052906OhioWhistleblower.html
In a conversation recorded by Erie Voices, Ottawa County Sheriff Robert Bratton told Baumgartner's former business partner DuBois in November, 2004 that there had always been questions "floating" regarding the legitimacy of the bench warrant, the pretext under which Baumgartner was arrested for grand theft and fleeing, which contained no charges.
While Baumgartner has vigorously contested the legality of the warrant and has now moved for its suppression and dismissal of all charges due to Fourth Amendment violations of illegal search and seizure, Sheriff Bratton said it won't matter if the warrant stands up in court or not. "It doesn't matter if that was a good warrant or a bad warrant."
Captain Paul Sigsworth of the Erie County Sheriff's Department had terminated the police pursuit of Baumgartner last May 20, citing the totality of the situation did not warrant a vehicular pursuit.
Baumgartner was arrested in Huron County by the Ohio Highway Patrol who said that the "chase" was controlled and Baumgartner was polite but very upset about what was happening to her". She feared mistreatment in Ottawa county by Bratton and nemesis Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan which is why she said she wished to be arrested in Huron County and held in Huron County Jail where she perceived she would receive a fair hearing rather than in Ottawa County. She had opposed Mulligan for the post of Ottawa County prosecutor in a previous election but despite the obvious conflict of interest, Mulligan refused to disqualify himself from prosecuting charges against Baumgartner.
The Sandusky Register has, seemingly intentionally, attempted to taint the Erie County jury pool by slanting its coverage of Baumgartner. In a news story appearing on June 3 and July 19 in the Sandusky Register, it was correctly reported that she was facing charges of resisting arrest, failure to comply with police and motor vehicle theft for a May 2005 low speed chase.
However, a month later, Register reporter Evan Goodenow had escalated the matter to a high speed chase.
Baumgartner has said that Baxter and others in the criminal justice system are using their positions to retaliate against her for her allegations which "included widespread case fixing via manipulation of special prosecutor and/or visiting judge appointments to protect far ranging corrupt activity in Ohio including pay to play and the facilitation of federal grant fraud, insurance fraud and /or thefts of public resources including sensitive biotechnologies by Ohio law firms such as Benesch Friedlander, Coplan and Aronoff; (Cleveland) Baumgartner & O'Toole (Sheffield Lake); Roetzel and Andress (Akron and Toledo); Murray and Murray (Sandusky), Spengler Nathanson, and Eastman and Smith (Toledo). Later reports to the USDOJ included allegations of protection of extortion, drug trafficking, weapons running, and various sex crimes including child pornography and other crimes against women and children by compromised prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers including federal officers, prosecutors and Judges David Katz, Patricia Gaughan and others", Baumgartner says.
She was employed by Medlen & Carroll LLP, a patent law firm specializing in biotechnology patents and technology transfer, from 1993 through 1996. The firm had offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Boston/Cambridge Mass and Toledo, Ohio. She ran the Midwest office in Toledo.
"The firm filled an enormous void for these highly specialized services in Ohio and the area. The firm was quickly was hired by the University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine several biotechnology companies and Ohio University's Edison Biotechnology Institute".
Baumgartner had originally been jailed for 234 days on a misdemeanor charge for "basically standing up and speaking at a city council meeting in 2001. Five days later she was arrested on technical charges of falsification.
The charges stemmed from statements she made questioning a ferry boat contract awarded to Erie County prosecutor, citing affidavits from some of her law clients who were alleging the boats were being used for illegal drug running with full knowledge of state politicians, law enforcement and federal officials.
Further, she questioned the legality of awarding the lucrative Lake Erie contract since she said it amounted to nothing more than "a political favor" as another company was overlooked which was more competent and provided the same ferry boat service for less money.
"All I did was speak out and use my right as a citizen to question our government," said Baumgartner, adding that she must have struck a nerve that night, leading to corruption at the highest levels of Washington, as well as Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Thomas Moyer, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Jim Petro, Ohio Attorney General.
Legal observers say the technical law used to arrest Baumgartner for falsification was never intended for mere statements made at open forum city council, but rather the falsification misdemeanor law was intended for official government hearings when witnesses are placed under oath.
"They just twisted the law and I was jailed," said Baumgartner in 2005. "As a lawyer, respected in my community, I never thought this could happen in America, but I am living proof it can and it's not over yet."
As a bio-tech attorney representing influential clients, she says her legal problems intensified when she notified state and federal authorities about sensitive bio-tech information allegedly being hi-jacked, information which she says could have been used to wage bio-tech warfare against the U.S.
But instead of receiving cooperation from federal agencies, she says any serious investigations were stonewalled and instead she became the brunt of harassment and illegal surveillance for reporting the alleged bio-tech misappropriation of information.
In addition to the bio-tech and ferry boat matters, Baumgartner was also involved in what she also tried to save her local school district $1.5 million involved in a contract scam, a scam she said involved top officials and that some of the money may have ended up in the coffers of George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign as a for return on political favors.
GOP fundraiser and Taft appointee Thomas Noe, has been convicted of funneling illegal campaign contributions to the Bush campaign.
"I think they wanted to contain the scandal brewing to the state and local levels and this why they came down hard on me," added Baumgartner.
After serving 234 days and then losing her law license, Baumgartner became involved in Erie Voices, a web site dedicated to reporting on alleged state and federal political corruption.
Upon her indictment earlier this year for her alleged intimidation of her former business partner and his wife, Baumgartner said the charges were related to Erie Voices in Erie County while she resided in Ottawa County. However, she has been indicted in Cuyahoga County which she says has no jurisdiction in that the alleged incidents did not occur in Cuyahoga County.
She said then that "it appears Cuyahoga is trying to boot strap the case to the current case in Cuyahoga (the Markus complaint) in order to keep the case there to complicate my defense and deny me a fair trial. Those of you who have followed the story know that while I was held in the state mental hospital, Bryan and Mandy allegedly stole Erie Voices from my family and turned it in to a Baumgartner bash and disinformation site".
"When I got out and started aggressively publishing the truth of what happened including the fact that over $35,000 had been allegedly misappropriated from us or our company exclusive of equipment and the value of the contents of the website itself (well over $50,000 invested) the DuBois felt the truth intimidated them.
"It was at this point that the site was shut down by the DuBois at the government's urging in order that all the evidence necessary to my defense, the public good and of their own intimidation of my family and me was not available. This was also the reason for the February raid on my home, based on an affidavit signed by the DuBoises, to obtain all my computer records related to pay to play, and my evidence gathered related to the website."
CLEVELAND, OHIO - CYA can mean a lot of things.
It means "see you" in Internet slang.
Or, it stands for the Canadian Yachting Association or the California Youth Authority. More commonly, such as in Cuyahoga County, it's an acronym for "cover your ass".
Especially in the case of former Oak Harbor bio-tech and patent attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner, currently imprisoned in Erie County Jail since Aug. 21 after retiring visiting judge Richard Knepper found her guilty without trial, without hearing and without formal charges having been brought, for allegedly engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.
According to the docket for the Cuyahoga County Court, a hearing for an undisclosed reason has been scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28 at 9 a.m. by Judge Shirley Strickland Safford in Courtroom 21B in the Justice Center in Cleveland. Although it appears the order was issued Sept. 19 and filed on Sept. 20, as of Saturday neither Baumgartner nor her husband was aware of it.
**WARRANT FOR REMOVAL** DEFENDANT TO COURTROOM 21B ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 FOR HEARING SET FOR 09/28/2006 AT 09:00 AM. CLERK ORDERED TO SEND COPY OF THIS ORDER TO THE DEFENDANT IN ERIE COUNTY JAIL AND TO THE WARDEN OF ERIE COUNTY JAIL. SHERIFF ORDERED TO TRANSPORT DEFENDANT ELSEBETH BAUMGARTNER, DOB: 05/12/1955, GENDER: FEMALE, RACE: WHITE. 09/19/2006 CPBXM 09/20/2006 15:38
The assault on Baumgartner and the ongoing denial and violations of her constitutional rights was led on Aug. 18 before Knepper by Kevin Baxter, Erie County prosecutor who has publicly admitted his conflict of interest involving Baumgartner and previously disqualified himself and his office from all matters relating to her.
Despite court rules and statutes that the court will appoint a special prosecutor in such matters, Baxter, not the court, handpicked Daniel Kasaris, his former assistant and currently an assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County.
But that didn't stop Baxter from personally castigating Baumgartner in court on Aug. 18, in response to a motion filed by defendant Elizabeth Ohlemacher who accused Baxter and local police officers of sexual misconduct.
According to Baumgartner, Kasaris was not in the courtroom and he had made no motion on Aug. 21 to revoke her bond, the previous motion having been denied on Aug. 18 by Knepper.
Although Baxter has been removed from involvement in cases involving Baumgartner, he went on the attack of her on Aug. 18 but lost when Judge Richard Knepper denied the motion of the Erie County prosecutor's office to revoke Baumgartner's bond based on informal allegations by the Erie County prosecutors office in response papers to Ohlemacher's motion that Baumgartner had helped her write them. No formal charges have reportedly been brought against Baumgartner for the unauthorized practice of law.
When the issue was raised orally on Aug. 18 by Baxter and his assistant, Sandy Rubino, Knepper said he wasn't going to "go there" and wouldn't hear such allegations. He then recused himself.
On Monday, Aug. 21 at a hearing for Ohlemacher before Knepper, he acted in the Baumgartner case after he had disqualified himself, then revoked her bond without jurisdiction and in the absence of a formal complaint or hearing and then again, recused himself.
Baumgartner said she had been sequestered outside the courtroom, was never called as a witness in the case although she had been subpoenaed, was not represented by counsel and was never served any criminal charges for allegedly practicing law without a license.
Baumgartner's disbarment as an attorney came after she stood up at a Port Clinton city council meeting in 2001 and opposed a proposed contract between the city and the Island Express Boat Lines, a ferry boat company in which Baxter had a financial interest. Five days after the hearing, Baxter used his position and office to charge her with falsification for speaking at a public hearing, criminalizing free speech, and it's been downhill since there.
The motion filed on Aug. 17 in Erie County Common Pleas court and signed by Ohlemacher's mother, Elizabeth Leser, stated that Ohlemacher, an inmate at Erie County Jail, wasn't saying anything in her motions that hadn't been said before concerning Baxter, local police officers and the court's "sad track record of protecting women's, blacks' and children's rights to equal protection".
But while Knepper, on Aug. 21, revoked Baumgartner's $25,000 bond which had been in effect in Erie without having jurisdiction to do so because he had recused himself from her case three days previous, her $25,000 bond in Cuyahoga County remains in effect although she was incarcerated in the Cuyahoga County for three days the mid-September.
Baumgartner faces charges in Erie County of grand theft auto for the alleged stealing of her own corporate vehicle, felony fleeing and resisting arrest. So far, neither administrative judge Roger Binette or Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court has assigned a judge to replace Knepper in the Baumgartner case, thus the case has been left in limbo for over 30 days while Baumgartner remains incarcerated, being denied a bond hearing and other legal options.
Moyer has his own prejudice and conflict of interest involving Baumgartner, as in November, 2002, she attempted to have Moyer federally investigated for allegedly "manipulating the Ohio visiting judge system in order to affect political case outcomes". As a result of her charges of governmental and in particular judicial corruption and whistleblowing activities, Baumgartner was disbarred by the Ohio Supreme Court, described as a "threat to the public safety".
She faces charges in Cuyahoga County on two indictments, one on the complaint of retired visiting judge Richard Markus who says she intimidated him with emails and retaliated against him by criticizing his judicial performance using a criminal tool, a computer to do so.
She has also been charged with intimidation and retaliation on complaint of her former business partner and his wife, Bryan and Mandy DuBois, for posting entries on the blog, Erie Voices, owned by Arbor Group LLC of which she is the general manager.
Those charges are scheduled for trial on Nov. 13. She says Kasaris' motion to join the two Cuyahoga cases together, which she opposed as being too prejudicial, was denied by Saffold. Jamie Dalton, prosecution spokesperson, says it was approved.
So far, none of the transcripts from the Aug. 18, Aug. 21 or Sept. 13 hearings have been made available. The transcript from the June 1 hearing when Knepper found Baumgartner in contempt is available.
www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/070206TroublingIssues.html
Although a warrant was issued to effect Baumgartner's transfer from the Erie County Jail to the Cuyahoga County Jail for the trial which was to have started Sept. 13 was served on Erie County Jail on Sept. 8, she was not transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail until Sept. 12. According to the Cuyahoga County court docket, she had been free on bail in the Cuyahoga County charges until Sept. 12 when it indicates she was jailed. The docket shows that she was "leaving jail" on Sept. 15, the day she was transferred back to the Erie County Jail.
The case involving the complaints against her brought by Judge Markus is marked closed while the case involving the DuBois case is marked open. The DuBois case indicates that she is free on bail which she is not.
On Sept. 13, Saffold had wanted to set a new trial date for two weeks but Kasaris had said that he was unavailable. With a hearing now set for Sept. 28, it appears he has become "available" but so far, the purpose of the hearing is unknown. It appears that it may be a bond hearing for the purposes of revoking Baumgartner's Cuyahoga County bond based on the Erie County incarceration by Knepper.
There has been little press coverage regarding the matter by the Ohio newspapers except for highly prejudicial coverage by the Sandusky Register and Port Clinton News Herald which would warrant the basis for a motion to remove the venue of all hearings and trials to a county other than Erie, Cuyahoga or Ottawa.
The newspaper, its managing editor Cindy Jacoby and Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan, have been sued for libel by Baumgartner after she received permission to do so by Markus. In that Markus has labeled her as a vexatious litigator, she must ask permission in order to file court papers in civil matters.
Mulligan just requested and received an extension to file his response in the matter. It is unknown if he is being represented by private legal counsel retained by himself or if the county is picking up the tab.
The Ohio courts have tried to assert that the vexatious litigator also applies to criminal matters and has consistently refused to hear her criminal appeals because of her label despite her Sixth Amendment right to first appeal in criminal actions.
www.co.lucas.oh.us/Appeals/DecisionsPDF/2804.pdf
Baumgartner had been scheduled to begin trial in the Erie County grand theft charge on June 1 but when she appeared, Knepper removed the hearing to a closed courtroom and found her in contempt, ruling that she had improperly talked with prospective jurors and that she was too obstreperous, or talkative, during the hearing at which she was appearing pro se. She was sentenced to Erie County Jail for 45 days, released on July 15.
She filed her notice of appeal and asked for a bond hearing pending appeal but the Sixth District Court of Appeals refused to render a decision in the matter until July 17, two days after her release date, saying she was precluded from filing a criminal appeal because of being labeled a vexatious litigator by Markus.
The vexatious litigator statute is applicable only to civil actions, not criminal appeals.
Baumgartner says that retired visiting judge Knepper had no jurisdiction in her trial at all in that the law prohibits visiting judges from adjudicating criminal trials. She has filed for an order in the Erie County case suppressing all evidence obtained and for dismissal of the charges on grounds that officers and or agents of the Village of Bay View Police Department, Ottawa County Sheriff's office and Ohio Highway patrol unlawfully detained Baumgartner on May 20, 2005, pursuant to an unlawfully issued bench warrant and without observing any conduct which would lead them to conclude that criminal activity may be afoot or that she may be armed and dangerous. She has requested a suppression hearing prior to trial. So far, there has been no ruling on the suppression motion or hearing held.
www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052906OhioWhistleblower.html
In a conversation recorded by Erie Voices, Ottawa County Sheriff Robert Bratton told Baumgartner's former business partner DuBois in November, 2004 that there had always been questions "floating" regarding the legitimacy of the bench warrant, the pretext under which Baumgartner was arrested for grand theft and fleeing, which contained no charges.
While Baumgartner has vigorously contested the legality of the warrant and has now moved for its suppression and dismissal of all charges due to Fourth Amendment violations of illegal search and seizure, Sheriff Bratton said it won't matter if the warrant stands up in court or not. "It doesn't matter if that was a good warrant or a bad warrant."
Captain Paul Sigsworth of the Erie County Sheriff's Department had terminated the police pursuit of Baumgartner last May 20, citing the totality of the situation did not warrant a vehicular pursuit.
Baumgartner was arrested in Huron County by the Ohio Highway Patrol who said that the "chase" was controlled and Baumgartner was polite but very upset about what was happening to her". She feared mistreatment in Ottawa county by Bratton and nemesis Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan which is why she said she wished to be arrested in Huron County and held in Huron County Jail where she perceived she would receive a fair hearing rather than in Ottawa County. She had opposed Mulligan for the post of Ottawa County prosecutor in a previous election but despite the obvious conflict of interest, Mulligan refused to disqualify himself from prosecuting charges against Baumgartner.
The Sandusky Register has, seemingly intentionally, attempted to taint the Erie County jury pool by slanting its coverage of Baumgartner. In a news story appearing on June 3 and July 19 in the Sandusky Register, it was correctly reported that she was facing charges of resisting arrest, failure to comply with police and motor vehicle theft for a May 2005 low speed chase.
However, a month later, Register reporter Evan Goodenow had escalated the matter to a high speed chase.
Baumgartner has said that Baxter and others in the criminal justice system are using their positions to retaliate against her for her allegations which "included widespread case fixing via manipulation of special prosecutor and/or visiting judge appointments to protect far ranging corrupt activity in Ohio including pay to play and the facilitation of federal grant fraud, insurance fraud and /or thefts of public resources including sensitive biotechnologies by Ohio law firms such as Benesch Friedlander, Coplan and Aronoff; (Cleveland) Baumgartner & O'Toole (Sheffield Lake); Roetzel and Andress (Akron and Toledo); Murray and Murray (Sandusky), Spengler Nathanson, and Eastman and Smith (Toledo). Later reports to the USDOJ included allegations of protection of extortion, drug trafficking, weapons running, and various sex crimes including child pornography and other crimes against women and children by compromised prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers including federal officers, prosecutors and Judges David Katz, Patricia Gaughan and others", Baumgartner says.
She was employed by Medlen & Carroll LLP, a patent law firm specializing in biotechnology patents and technology transfer, from 1993 through 1996. The firm had offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Boston/Cambridge Mass and Toledo, Ohio. She ran the Midwest office in Toledo.
"The firm filled an enormous void for these highly specialized services in Ohio and the area. The firm was quickly was hired by the University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine several biotechnology companies and Ohio University's Edison Biotechnology Institute".
Baumgartner had originally been jailed for 234 days on a misdemeanor charge for "basically standing up and speaking at a city council meeting in 2001. Five days later she was arrested on technical charges of falsification.
The charges stemmed from statements she made questioning a ferry boat contract awarded to Erie County prosecutor, citing affidavits from some of her law clients who were alleging the boats were being used for illegal drug running with full knowledge of state politicians, law enforcement and federal officials.
Further, she questioned the legality of awarding the lucrative Lake Erie contract since she said it amounted to nothing more than "a political favor" as another company was overlooked which was more competent and provided the same ferry boat service for less money.
"All I did was speak out and use my right as a citizen to question our government," said Baumgartner, adding that she must have struck a nerve that night, leading to corruption at the highest levels of Washington, as well as Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Thomas Moyer, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Jim Petro, Ohio Attorney General.
Legal observers say the technical law used to arrest Baumgartner for falsification was never intended for mere statements made at open forum city council, but rather the falsification misdemeanor law was intended for official government hearings when witnesses are placed under oath.
"They just twisted the law and I was jailed," said Baumgartner in 2005. "As a lawyer, respected in my community, I never thought this could happen in America, but I am living proof it can and it's not over yet."
As a bio-tech attorney representing influential clients, she says her legal problems intensified when she notified state and federal authorities about sensitive bio-tech information allegedly being hi-jacked, information which she says could have been used to wage bio-tech warfare against the U.S.
But instead of receiving cooperation from federal agencies, she says any serious investigations were stonewalled and instead she became the brunt of harassment and illegal surveillance for reporting the alleged bio-tech misappropriation of information.
In addition to the bio-tech and ferry boat matters, Baumgartner was also involved in what she also tried to save her local school district $1.5 million involved in a contract scam, a scam she said involved top officials and that some of the money may have ended up in the coffers of George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign as a for return on political favors.
GOP fundraiser and Taft appointee Thomas Noe, has been convicted of funneling illegal campaign contributions to the Bush campaign.
"I think they wanted to contain the scandal brewing to the state and local levels and this why they came down hard on me," added Baumgartner.
After serving 234 days and then losing her law license, Baumgartner became involved in Erie Voices, a web site dedicated to reporting on alleged state and federal political corruption.
Upon her indictment earlier this year for her alleged intimidation of her former business partner and his wife, Baumgartner said the charges were related to Erie Voices in Erie County while she resided in Ottawa County. However, she has been indicted in Cuyahoga County which she says has no jurisdiction in that the alleged incidents did not occur in Cuyahoga County.
She said then that "it appears Cuyahoga is trying to boot strap the case to the current case in Cuyahoga (the Markus complaint) in order to keep the case there to complicate my defense and deny me a fair trial. Those of you who have followed the story know that while I was held in the state mental hospital, Bryan and Mandy allegedly stole Erie Voices from my family and turned it in to a Baumgartner bash and disinformation site".
"When I got out and started aggressively publishing the truth of what happened including the fact that over $35,000 had been allegedly misappropriated from us or our company exclusive of equipment and the value of the contents of the website itself (well over $50,000 invested) the DuBois felt the truth intimidated them.
"It was at this point that the site was shut down by the DuBois at the government's urging in order that all the evidence necessary to my defense, the public good and of their own intimidation of my family and me was not available. This was also the reason for the February raid on my home, based on an affidavit signed by the DuBoises, to obtain all my computer records related to pay to play, and my evidence gathered related to the website."