The Onset of Darkness

Urgent ALERT – Ongoing Judicial Crime

Sometimes injustices by men in power are so egregious they demand action from anyone who believes in freedom and the rule of law.

Here is such a story unfolding in Pierce County Washington in what remains of this very week. You might be one of those called to respond by merely showing up to witness.

From: Paul Hiatt

Please share this with anyone you think might be interested in attending as a witness to my hearing this coming Friday August 3rd at Pierce County Superior Court Department 13, Judge Nelson, fifth floor, at 9 AM which is supposed to

be hearing on my Motion For Relief From Judgment in the criminal conviction appeal, to which the prosecution has failed to respond, and I have reason to believe may be denied hearing yet again.  I sorely need to show public/ electorate interest in this matter, and to have as many witnesses present as possible. 

If you can and will attend, please bring a legal pad and make a show of taking notes.

As most of you know, for the past four years I have been fighting Pierce County for having performed basic WAC 222 Small Forest Practices exempted maintenance, with DNR approval, on my 3 acre parcel to restore pasture, access road and drainage from man-caused problems including surface water diverted into my land from other properties.  No “wetland” ever existed – (mapped, delineated, designated or otherwise) until it was illegally imposed by PALS (Pierce County’s “Planning And Land Services”) upon the maps of the property AFTER my “conviction” in 2006.

After the complaint (by the neighbor from hell) file was closed by PALS for “no impact to neighboring properties – minor problem” upon intitial inspection by code enforcement in September 2003, (and that “engineer” referred me to DNR, which explained my work was exempt, with cites), I was repeatedly threatened by a PALS “wetlands biologist” and the prosecutor; and the prosecutor advised PALS not to respond to my Public Disclosure Requests. In response, they went silent [illegally – ed.] in January 2004.

In early November of 2004, after more than one year had expired since their threats with no further response, (the statute of limitations for the misdemeanor charges they had threatened me with in their attempt to extort property and property rights by contract), I burned my slash and stumps with a burn permit, and completed some ditching necessary to divert water away from the complaining neighbor, (who had insisted, but was working with the county in “sting” mode, and had been trespassing on my posted land taking pictures from the outset).

In January 2005, the wetlands biologist, in collusion with the prosecutor, obtained an otherwise illegal search warrant in the wrong jurisdiction by perjured probable cause affidavit claiming I had never responded to the county; in February 2005 the same neighbor submitted a patently false complaint that I was “logging” the “wetland”, (no work whatever was done since the burning permit of 11/04, and their own photos prove that); and in March 2005 I was summoned to appear for arraignment in early April.

I submitted proof timely in April 2005 the District Court lacked jurisdiction, that the probable cause was perjured, etc., and then fought the county for over one year in pre-trial proceedings, being denied Prohibition in the Superior Court during that time, denied hearing for that Writ in the state Supreme Court, and having my verified Citizen Criminal Complaints against: PALS agents & officials & the deputy prosecutor illegally buried absent probable cause hearings, with the Attorney General refusing to step in. The District Court Judge Kenworthy and the Prosecutor proved absolutely lawless by every known measure, and worked in concert and collusion to subvert my rights at every turn.

After a three day jury “trial” in April 2006 where I was basically bound and gagged, threatened and interrupted mercilessly for trying to get anything meaningful in the record, having state’s witnesses arbitrarily dismissed during my impeachment of them, and having all of my witnesses barred from testifying; only because the criminal complaint was unlawfully “amended” for the fifth time at the end of trial to include elements I was never charged with, and then elements never included in any version of the complaint were placed in the “to convict” instructions, after more than two days, the jury acquitted me on the “illegal clearing” charge under Development code, but convicted on the “illegal wetlands activity” misdemeanor duplicating that charge under different code (prohibited double jeopardy).

Judge Kenworthy then proceeded, (referring to the land as a living entity I had committed “deprivations” against), absent all due process requirements and stating directly I had “no right of appeal”, to have me arrested, sentencing me to 150 days on five counts of completely bogus, (patently unlawful), “contempt of court”, ordering my property “studied” by PALS, and threatening me again to contract with them to waive my deed rights or else, setting sentencing on the conviction for September of 2005, and setting bail for a misdemeanor at $100,000.

After over 60 days in jail in which I was denied all hearing on Habeas Corpus, through intervention of counsel retained by family, I was released on $20,000 bail pending appeal of the contempt, three of five counts of which have now been reversed, and the other two (every bit as bogus and required by law to be reversed) having been denied all further review to date in the appellate courts.

On October 18, 2006, with 20K bail already posted on that specific misdemeanor count, and with all required pleadings before the court for stay pending appeal, I was again arrested by Judge Kenworthy, denied stay, denied hearing on Habeas Corpus by the Clerk refusing to file my Petition just after it was served on the prosecutor and sheriff, and charged another 5K bail for release pending appeal.  Since that time, the prosecutor and PALS, (because I have refused to contract away my property and other rights, despite repeated blatant threat and coercion by the court and prosecutor post trial, and a completely fraudulent post trial “report” having been submitted by PALS, PALS illegally slandering the title by recorded instrument, and unlawfully mapping “wetlands” over my historic access road and pasture), have been in stall and delay mode, apparently to keep me in “convict” status with a 90 day bogus sentence hanging over my head.  My appeal has been assigned to no less than four different departments to date, and I have had no semblance of fair play or adherence to procedural law, with the Superior Court refusing to transfer this to the Court of Appeals on jurisdictional grounds, (see attachment).

Now the prosecution, in violation of the court’s ordered timetable for response brief, is making untimely motion for yet another stall and delay, without responding to my motion set for hearing August 3rd, and once again, I have no idea what to expect, even though the court is duty bound to dismiss with prejudice, by every measure of law and fact.

If you have any interest in the rule of law, our fundamental constitutional rights inclusive of our property rights (substance), rampant official corruption in our courts, and restoration of our guaranteed Republican form of government, I invite you to attend, and make your presence known to those who would be our masters and not our servants.

Yours for Liberty

Paul Hiatt