Sam Dodson a.k.a. Sam Miller Has Been Released From The State's Cage

Free Stater and journalist Sam Dodson, who also occasionally co-hosts the popular Free Talk Live in Keene, New Hampshire, has been released from jail after he was arrested for videotaping the lobby of the Keene District Court on April 13, 2009. Dodson had been confined to a cage mandated by Judge Burke, the same presiding officer of the Keene District Court who arrested Ian Freeman last November simply for not sitting down fast enough in the courtroom in the beginning of his arraignment on the charge for having a couch on his lawn.

Sam, 33, whose real name is Sam Miller (which was revealed in the Keene Sentinel on May 17* along with information regarding his malnutrition and health), had been languishing away in the Cheshire County Department of Corrections for nearly eight weeks following his arrest. The unexpected news of Dodson's release came out at approximately 2 p.m. EST, thanks to a NHUnderground poster by the name of Silent_Bob who posted on the website's forums that Sam's order "for his release was issued." At 3 p.m. EST, Sam left a message on Porc411, which reads as the following:

Hello free staters! This is SamIam and the jail has just thrown me out. The forced me to agree to PR terms that I’m already in violation of, I told them I did not understand. That I did not agree to them. I did not sign them. I requested my attorney who’s going to be here in 10 minutes. And they pushed me out the door, in the orange close. I guess I get to keep them. And gave me all my stuff. I was escorted out. They would not explain anything or put anything in writing. They were told just to release me and so I’m out of jail. Thank you guys for everybody who’s helped me, sent letters, cards, emails, done all the things you had to do to support me along the way and I’m looking forward to getting back to life and challenging a lot of this in court. Thank you, glad to be out, looking forward to talking all soon. Goodbye.

[*Note: The recorded .wav message that Sam sent was a tad bit shorter than the actual message posted on Bile's jailedactivist.info blog; here's the file.]

After his release, he was picked up by Free Stater Lauren Canario and brought to the Free Minds TV studio for an exclusive interview. Later that night, he appeared on FTL, resuming his duties as an occasional co-host. His preliminary trial is scheduled to commence at 1:30 p.m. EST at the same court where he was arrested -- Keene District Court in Keene, New Hampshire on June 15.

This is outstanding news, considering that the court had previously violated his First Amendment-protected, Fourth Amendment-protected, Sixth Amendment-protected, and Eighth Amendment-protected rights. After all, it was unconstitutional and federally illegal for Burke to arrest him on the bogus, trumped-up charges of disorderly conduct and possesion of property without a serial number. The only charges that are true but are sticking anyway are resisting arrest or detention and refusing to be processed. Moreover, the court decided to throw in a new charge of "common law criminal contempt of court" against him, simply because he refused to cooperate with his vile, repugnant captors.

I, for one, wouldn't want a law enforcement goon putting his hands on me and cuffing me for any charge, especially when the charges for the alleged crimes happen to be nonviolent. Moreover, why would I want to bow down to the state just to give it my legal name in order "to be processed," when the authorities can access my driver's license and other pertinent information if they wanted to identify me really bad? My real name and identity are on record, and therefore, I am under no legal obligation to give them that information. Besides, if what happened to Sam had happened to me simply because I refused to "participate" in the government's process by playing by their rules in order to acknowledge its legitimacy (which is the best way the system is employing simply as a PR scheme), then it would show how thuggish they were to me. However, even if I did play by a court's rules and recognized its legitimacy simply by giving the officials my legal name, it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Would the court really let me go and not throw me in a cage simply because I "participated" in a process that was coerced upon me at gun point? I sincerely doubt it.

The court officials, including Burke, incarcerated Sam because they wanted to make him an example of him and made certain that they wanted to "be right." It looks like they never got their wish.

As I have said before, courts, even the federal ones, are supposed to be open and transparent under the terms of the Sixth Amendment, yet they are breaking their own rules and expect the public at large to follow them at taxpayers' expense. Courts forbidding the videotaping on their own property are, by all means, creating a toxic environment where closed and tyrannical courts reign. Because Americans are not told the truth about the vile actions of the courts (particularly when there are high numbers of abuses and corruption practiced by judges, prosecutors, and police officers on government-owned and government-run property), the court's image from a PR standpoint will more than likely sit well with the public. As I noted in my previous blog entry on the subject:

Considering the courts are mechanisms for public relations, if the American people see through their PR nonsense, and see them for what they really are (I prefer to call them "prison processing centers"), then the American public could revolt against these statist judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement "government" officers and fight the system at all turns.

I can definitely see a very massive civil rights and civil liberties lawsuit aimed at these stooges being filed shortly, if not the not-too distant future.

[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles and the Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity Movement website.]

*This is the link to the Keene Sentinel's reporting on Sam's real identity.

[Update (5:51 p.m. EST): Here's Sam's full recording of his cell phone call to Porc411 he made yesterday at 3 p.m. EST]

The Vile Incarceration and Civil Rights Violations of Sam Dodson

Free Stater Sam Dodson, who is the founder of the Obscured Truth Network and OTN Productions, is a board member for CD Evolution, and originally hails from Texas, has been languishing in a jail cell for videotaping in the lobby of the Keene, New New Hampshire District Court. He was arrested on April 13, 2009 in the same court where Free Stater Dave Ridley of the Ridley Report was being arraigned for committing the politically blasphemous act of civil disobedience in the same court room -- refusing to stop videotaping civil disobedience on March 3, 2009. Since April 13, he's been incarcerated without having a court trial date set for him. Although initially he didn't have a defense attorney, he's now retaining the services of an attorney and Free Stater named Ivy Walker at no cost. (Walker is accepting PayPal donations at ivy@ivysspiceoflife.com from Free Staters and pro-freedom activists who are not Free Staters in order to offset her legal expenses.)

Sam has been slapped with the following litany of charges: disorderly conduct, resisting arrest or detention, possession of personal property without a serial number*, and refusing to be processed. Currently, he's being officially detained in the Cheshire County Department of Corrections in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. The long and short of it is that the court has trumped up these charges because Dodson refuses to participate in the judicial process that involves eliminating his freedom and surrendering his alleged right to remain silent. Judge Burke, the same one who had Ian Freeman of Free Talk Live jailed for not sitting down fast enough in his court room (especially when he yelled "Have a seat!" at him), has ordered the jail to keep Sam behind bars until he bows down to him and the state and gives his legal name.

Shortly after Dodson's arrest, six other peaceful pro-liberty activists were arrested and thrown into the county jail for not leaving the public "government" property after the court's prosecutor (also a cop) demanded that they do so. According to JailedActivist.Info's account of the incident:

In the audio clip made available by Ian Bernard he can be heard saying that Sgt. Rivera had called for backup only seconds after instructing them to leave. Some decide to leave while a few stand around in disobedience and/or considering what to do next. Richard T. Onley, Nicholas Ryder, Patrick S. Shields, Nicholas D. Krouse, Kurt W. Hoffman, and Timothy Danforth stayed around long enough for Rivera to decide to have them arrested. Onley and Ryder gave the officers their names resulting in them only receive a summons. Shields went limp and was carried to a squad car by three officers. The others did not comply completely and therefore were arrested and brought to other squad cars and taken to be booked.

(More information on Sam's incarceration can be found at JailedActivist.Info, including a timeline of the events and latest updates as well.)

Dodson has been engaging in a very long and dangerous hunger strike since he was jailed on April 13, which has been affecting his health. The only liquid he has been drinking is milk. However, he has been bartering food for stamps and has been refusing food. Lately, the guards have told him that he will not be given food, considering he's been indicating to the statist establishment that he has no intention of eating their meals.

The state's vile incarceration of Dodson is unforgivable and unconscionable. The courts, as paid by our tax dollars, are supposed to be open and transparent, yet the courts, as epitomized in this case, are violating their rules in order to "prove" that they are "right" and want to be "right." Courts that prohibit videotaping on their property are essentially creating closed, tyrannical court systems where, if the American people are kept in the dark about the abuses and practices by judges, prosecutors, and police officers on the government property, then the court's PR appearance would be viewed very much positive. Considering the courts are mechanisms for public relations, if the American people see through their PR nonsense, and see them for what they really are (I prefer to call them "prison processing centers"), then the American public could revolt against these statist judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement "government" officers and fight the system at all turns.

Dodson has asked activists to contact state senator Molly Kelly and ask her the following questions:

• Do you know there are district courts writing their own rules?
  
• Do you know many of these rules are unconstitutional and against several Supreme Court rulings?
  
• Did you know Keene District Court is arresting political prisoners? You may remember Sam, you’ve met him a few times. He is one of these political prisoners currently incarcerated.
  
• Do you support the taking of these political prisoners?
  

The civil rights violations of this man are unbecoming of the system. The state refuses to fingerprint him and photo I.D. him after Sam refused to give his legal name. Don't they know that they can get his identity from his fingerprints, his Social Security number, and all other pertinent legal information that are on file? They know who he is, even though they have dubbed him "John Sam Doe." On April 20, although he had requested to use the law library to do research for his defense, he was denied permission to gain access to the jail's computers. Fortunately, a couple of days later, he was granted access to those computers.

Other civil rights violations were dragging him to the county jail while he was screaming in pain, considering that it was subsequently discovered that the reason he was in pain because, according to JailedActivist.Info, "a large metal bracelet on his right wrist which got caught under the hand cuffs and was digging into his skin and bone. The cuffs had not been locked so they continued to ratchet tighter causing the bracelet to further dig and bruise his wrist."

Moreover, the toilet in his jail cell had been backing up and overflowing three times, resulting in feces-laced water coming out of it. Even the guards, who were aware of that incident, refuse to sanitize the toilet or provide the prisoners with chemicals to sanitize it.

If this isn't indicative of a vile incarceration and civil rights violation, I don't know what it is.

[Cross-posted at the Freeman Chronicles.]

*This charge against Dodson was subsequently dropped.