POLICE REFUSE EVIDENCE IN MURDER CASE

A BUILDING BLOCK OF FRUSTRATION - Chapter 1 - POLICE REFUSING EVIDENCE - 

Part of my current frustration with the enforcement system started long before the twinkle of becoming an attorney brightened my eye. 

I am currently involved with a scam artist who managed to lever a lot of money, at least a lot to me, from my coffers. The grossly underfunded Linn County Sheriff's office through the investigating officer Trenary has dropped the metaphoric ball. I believe Trenary is at his core a good person and a competent officer of the law. Even so, nothing about my belief in that officer makes a dent in my frustration for the failures I see. But this is NOT about this scam. It is about treatment of evidence.

On a Friday, November 5, 1971 officer Curtis VanDerson, 31, while responding to a bank robbery in Creswell, Oregon was gunned down from behind. He left behind his wife Atha and two young children. Not all irony is by its nature good. Built into the story of officer VanDerson's murder is the fact that Atha radioed her husband to let him know of the robbery after a dispatcher from the Lane County Sheriff's Office called the VanDerson home to notify Officer VanDerson a silent alarm at the bank had been tripped.

Murderer Rodney Charles Maberry served 14 years of his life + 25 years sentence to federal prison for this crime. The other three defendants in the Creswell case, Ronald Casebeer, Vance Naillon and Dicl Lee Maberry pled guilty to state and federal charges initially ending in life sentences to be served in prison. In 2008 accomplice Casebeer was convicted of attempted murder for a plot to murder a Lane County deputy district attorney.

"... The rifle wasn't found at that time [the arrest]. And Jacobs testified that he found a weapon on Jan. 11 near where a getaway car had been abandoned - and two miles from where Maberry had indicated he threw the rifle away." (From a follow up report in the Eugene Register Guard on April 20, 1972.) In my internet search I found nothing that indicated that rifle is the one that killed Officer VanDerson.

Someone my father knew who had used our 100 yard range gave Dad a new Model 300 Savage .308 with a Bushnel (sic) Banner 3X9 V. Scope. In the early spring of 1972 Dad told me he believed it was the gun used to kill Officer Curtis VanDerson a few months earlier. That person said he had been to the police and they wouldn't even talk to him.

My father sent me the picture with his comments you see here. When I moved back to Oregon in the summer of 1972 he took the gun off the rack and I fondled it a little. I started to work the lever and he stopped me. "There are bullets in there. They may have finger prints on them."

"But you said the police weren't interested in the gun. You said they didn't want new evidence, that they had the guy and they didn't want... ."

Dad stopped me right there holding his hand up, palm out in my face. "These are bad guys to get on the wrong side of."

I didn't comprehend what he was saying so started to ask, "but aren't they all captured, in jail?"

The scowl on that face of concern is one I had not encountered before, ever. Even though he lived out in the county on 33 acres with no visible neighbors, Dad actually looked over his shoulder dropping his voice down before looking back. "I mean the police. They got their man and they intend to keep him."

About a month later on another visit to the shop to work out the details of how I was going to buy Dad's rain gutter installation business I noticed the rifle was not on the rack. I pointed. "Where is the gun?" He pointed to the scrap bin. The barrel, action and scope had been oxyacetylene cut to little pieces. I know he would not have tried to burn the ammunition and did not ask about it. He said, "I talked to the neighbor's brother (a county deputy sheriff) who suggested it (the .308) disappear. He was convincing."

For the system to work, it has to be allowed to work. Because the police think they have their man and in this case shape the evidence to prove it only tears down the system they have sworn to uphold.

There is a lot of room for beliefs about our criminal justice system. It works, it does not work, sometimes it is sort of broken, and so on. As a former practicing attorney, I believe in all of those views and even have other beliefs based on my experiences in and out of court. 

Oregon Traitors Propose Gun Control

An open letter from my blogspot to the Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee:

The agenda states that today you meet for consideration of gun control. Thank you for the reminder outlined in SB 1551. I am Don Leach, author of Oregon Concealed. It is a primer on what one needs to know under current Oregon Laws as they are enforced today to successfully carry a concealed handgun in Oregon. It would be what is called "the Bible" for those who have or want to have a concealed license.

I have taught thousands of people the basics for their handgun safety certificate. A surprising number of them have been Ds . They are of a common mindset, they need to be able to defend themselves from the everyday bad guys. Of those they identify as "Bad Guys," right up there at the top with Rapists, Murderers, and Sex Offenders are those legislators who would and do support gun control.

SB1551 is nothing more than an end run around Oregon's Bill of Rights, specifically, Article I, Sections 1 and 27. The standard to burden a constitutional right is much higher than any evidence you all can possibly find here in Oregon to apply the controls you now contemplate.

I don't believe in the apparent irony of the SB1551 designation on this proposed legislation. I incorporate the evidence I provided last session on the then SB1551 and other gun control issues, about 68,000 words, which at their core attack the legislative supporters of that session's gun control measures.

In the past calling Prozanski, Burdick, Courtney and their ilk "political prostitutes, whores, and murders", I may have left some things out. Did I call them "treasonous traitors?" In reflection, I think I did. Name calling sometimes takes away from the core messages but I think not in this instance.

I think you all should look at the "why" of name calling. When people cannot be heard, they try by shouting louder, and name calling to get attention, to be heard. In this case some of you just don't get it. The Ds think they can make these meaningless gestures a platform for future political gain. I think they misjudge their constituency.

If the recent political history surrounding Ds and their gun control effort repeats, here in Oregon they too will be voted out. Absent the voters box, then the other side of history will most probably repeat. It will be a radical D that takes them out with the cartridge box, that works to stomp out the tyranny of government the legislative gun control advocates represent when the metaphoric fecal matter hits the proverbial fan, so-to-speak. Whether by firing squad or as the attack on Ronald Regan, a D will probably do the job.

Which ever day comes first, I hope I get to sit on the jury, whether in the voter's box (another metaphoric thing here in Oregon) or the jury box of the D that pulls that trigger or those triggers. Either way, here is what I know at my core: The supporters of this bill declare themselves enemies of the Oregon Constitution and enemies of the people of Oregon.

I was thinking about sending you all a copy of my book but you are not worth it. You can go to my website to purchase one if you desire. http://www.thinkingwrite.org  For those who find this open letter on other social media I invite you to my blog spot. donthinkingwrite.blogspot.com.

ThinkingWrite on Facebook

DO THEY PLAY TAPS FOR FALLEN SUPERBOWL HEROES?

While watching the combatants on the field of the Super Bowl today I was almost forcefully taken down a different path after the end of the game.

From my era some served. Vietnam, Germany, Turkey, Japan, etc. In our memories of today we share a commonality of experience coming out of our past. Basic and advanced training, assignments, and the military mind with the imbedded oxymoron projected to military intelligence. Those of us who served generally do not talk about our experiences to "outsiders."

When I hear the term "band of brothers" it has real meaning. I am reminded of the classic question, "what does salt taste like?" For those of us who have experienced salt, we understand. Likewise, for those of us who have experienced the military, we understand as well.

The empathy we hold one for another who have served creates a bond sometimes greater than the friendships shared with our classmates from yesteryear and our loves of today. Again, we do not generally talk about it. When a fallen hero is brought home underneath a draped American flag, we do not cry. We stand at attention, head bowed, understanding.

We do curse the bees that sting us in the eye. We do not apologize for the bleeding tears. Our hearts are torn by the loss of those who served Liberty for Freedom paying the ultimate price.  There are those who in their political activity and special interest agenda violate those who morn. We are angered. As the last trumpet note rings out over an  army of the past we again raise our heads, trying to wipe our eyes for the last time. At least the last time for that day.

Sometimes before the burial, sometimes after, the media in their haste to be the first compound the building travesty, shoving the microphone in the face of family, loved ones, and others who morn asking "how do you feel?" "How do you feel?" Reminds me of the question, "What does salt taste like?"

For those of you who have served I speak in sophisticated military terms: To those with the microphones I think, "#uck you. Serve and find out!" We all relate to the tragedy, the emotional pain. But to lose one of our comrades who has served for Liberty in the name of Freedom, the pain of the loss belongs to the family of the fallen and our band of brothers.  Media personalities cannot ask the real meaningful questions because they have not paid the real price in commitment to fundamental and inalienable rights already bought and paid for in the blood of patriots. If they were the exception in having paid that price they would not ask the question.

To close the circle I turn back to the Super Bowl. Not one woman today was seen robed in the uniform of a combatant. I am offended by a media in its political correctness fostering upon we the viewers people who at their core have not paid any price for the right to blither and blather. But then, it is just a game. And in this game we can see projected the real American value system. 

To Carry A Concealed Handgun In Oregon

PROZANSKI - A MODERN SLAVE TRADER

Here in Oregon we yet again face issues of slavery. The former slaves of the late 18th century banded together to keep and caused to be enforced their Federal Second Amendment rights. Who knew the NRA with its roots deeply embedded in the anti-slavery issues of that period would be facing new slavery issues in these modern times?

In his State of the Union address your President announced in substance he is going to ignore your constitutional rights, my constitutional rights, and the constitutional rights of everyone else. By enacting Executive Orders he is intending to circumvent the very protections intended to keep us from being slaves to government, to keep us from the tyranny of the federal government.

The glaring iconic irony represented by a black skin takes us back to the 1700s when the black people gathered up the black people of their continent and sold them to the white slave traders. Now, today, a black president sells the people of his continent into slavery through his Obama Care - the Affordable Care Act. AND he wants to make sure the people of this continent can not defend themselves by taking their inalienable and fundamental right to own protection away. His latest endeavor - ammunition bans.

To those of us here in Oregon, this is noting new. Our elected officials such as Burdick and Prozanski have led the attack on us in the form of legislated gun controls. Even with the attack thwarted in the last legislature we are again under attack.

Obama - Prozanski

Prozanski has done so in violation of his constitutional oath of office to uphold the Oregon Constitution (OC). He has done so in violation of OC Article I, Section 27 which guarantee our rights to self protection. Our actual rights in our Bill of Rights here in Oregon are better than those at the federal level and he knows that. We have not needed court decisions such as Heller and McDonald to tell us what we know we already have, the right to Keep and Bare Arms!

Before those acts of Prozanski can be constitutional in Oregon, he has to work to change the Oregon Constitution. He refuses to enter that process because he knows that at his core he will fail.  By his attempted acts Prozanski shows he is one of the lowest forms of political life, a political prostitute, a political whore.

Whether the reader of this blog is a Democrat, Republican, or belongs to some other party; if the thoughts of Liberty and Freedom are your guide, if you are opposed to slavery, then as surely as you live and breath you owe it to yourself and to your posterity to make your vote count. The ballot box, the jury box, the cartridge box. I pray for liberty and freedom through the ballot box. I am willing to exercise my constitutional right to again vote on the law in the jury box. If compelled to preserve the liberty and freedoms of our forefathers I will turn to the cartridge box.

Don Leach, author
Oregon Concealed

LIVING IN THE MOMENT

In reflection on the overworked phrase "to live is to be in the moment" I thought of those moments as a child and brought this musing forward to the "now" of my moment driving to a writer's group. Babies if they think at all, live in their moment. From feeding to feeding.

As their world expands, the moments expand. Youth often have moments that consume five or ten minutes. Young adults have moments that can stretch to fifteen or more minutes. This line of thought continued through to now at the age of 66. I plan and look forward to months down the road. Yet I live today. At the same time I live for tomorrow, next week, month, and even years. 

An enlightenment some would call a "Zen moment" at the age of 26 brings this line of thought to a crashing end where one would expect I would have had my world expanded. That is exactly what happened, over time. It wasn't until I had gained enough life's experience I finally came to embrace that understanding.  

Would Martin Luther King support Obama Care?

Credited to MLK:  "Of all of the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane."

     The lynch-pin of freedom is liberty. At the core of liberty is my (and your) ability to be in control ourselves and the fruits of what we do. When the government (or anyone or any other thing) can steal our fruits and put them in other people's baskets under the color of law, we are no longer free. There are those who would and do argue that "law" makes it OK to do so for the betterment of society. History is replete with the error of that kind of thinking. At its core is the path to slavery. 

     It is not rocket science and it does not need a Mensa graduate to figure this one out. MLK bought into the social equality thing. He was the right person at the right time and place. With a simplex understanding of the whole race thing, I think he probably meant by "injustice" was how the negro race was being treated at that time in the health care system and he was NOT projecting for the future. 

     Notwithstanding that view point, in poking fun in a more serious way at Obama Care and the foundation upon which those laws are built, which are bull shit or in perhaps a less offensive way would be to say they are without meaningful substance: We go the next step from the obvious slavery of Obama Care and find the Rs now engaging the same rhetoric which in substance is to say they now have their own plan to steal from me and others. 

     I believe in Liberty so we can have freedom. Those who would steal my ability to have liberty are nothing more than thieves. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Being somewhat of an Old Testament kind of guy, I think we should stone them and I would cast the first stone. Maybe this is that stone. Who knows?

     The answer to the question posed in the heading is: Martin Luther King Jr. would NOT support Obama Care.

He would stand in objection to it. MLK knew and understood slavery. He lived in the aftermath of it and experienced the evils inherent in slavery. It is what he fought against and rallied a nation against. 

I invite you to view my website, ThinkingWrite.Org for your personal pleasure. It is currently being populated but there is enough for your enjoyment. If you like what is happening here, please friend and share this site using the link to the right; and a FB request to your friends with reference to my "blog" would also be appreciated.

Last, Oregon Concealed is available from that website. Please review and consider your needs. I suggest a current NRA clip for your review as well. 

I have no idea if what I am doing is the process for social media. I feel like a dinosaur of sorts, technologically deficient. Any directive or supportive comments would be appreciated as well. My email address is don@thinkingwrite.org.

NRA finally gets one right!

The NRA is often believed to be the mainstay of the bastion of defense against the onslaught of gun control advocates. I believe something different which is for another blog another day. In my law practice I have represented the good guy who shot the bad guy. In one instance it was the good guy the prosecuting District Attorney in Klamath County, Oregon that tried to put my client away on criminal charges for defending his life, wife, and home. I didn't make a movie of it, but then, I don't have the resources of the NRA.

Regardless of what I otherwise think of the NRA, they recently did something well, really well. I recommend for accuracy and truth: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/143b121ff71c2e19?projector=1

Of course I recommend my book as well, Oregon Concealed where under the "books" tab and clicking on Oregon Concealed one can find basic information for review and purchase.