The birth of a pop icon

Dunlap versus Sneddon

May 10, 2004

Gary Dunlap, a Santa Barbara, California, attorney who has filed a 10 million dollar lawsuit against the Santa Barbara DA’s office, is ideally qualifies to expose the true nature of Tom Sneddon's character. His 102 page filing alleging 22 counts, is a comprehensive account of substantive allegations, they are not the sort that corrupt DA's pawn of, in front of malleable, Grand Jurors. In the words of Gary Dunlap himself,

"We filed an action against the County of Santa Barbara and the District Attorney, Thomas Sneddon, and a number of his assistants and deputies, including a couple of his investigators, a 22 count civil complaint alleging various violations of 42 USC 1983, which are civil rights violations, and then a number of state tort actions in addition to that, and then three counts of civil RICO violations pursuant to 18 USC 1961 through 1968."

When Mr. Dunlap filed his complaint, the DA's office predictably retalliated by attacking the messenger, but the personal assault failed to deter the pursuit of justice. According to Mr. Dunlap,

"Well, they engaged in a sting operation, which they manufactured and allowed to get out of hand, and it essentially became just a real witch hunt. There were a number of violations of my rights in the investigatory stage as well as during the prosecution stage. And we’ve additionally alleged, because of other cases in which I’ve been involved that in other cases that we have information that he has done the same thing in. We have alleged the civil RICO violations, which are essentially engaging in racketeering conspiracy by public officers."

Mr. Dunlap ought to be very careful because the DA's office may very well claim that he is a kidnapper and an extortionist.

It was supposed to be just a joke, but apparently, it's true. The D.A. charged Dunlap with perjury and witness intimidation, and Dunlap exposed the hot air that motivates Tom Sneddon when he said, "We went to a jury trial and I was acquitted on all counts." One would think that would be the end of a virtual extortionist like Tom Sneddon, but he evidently now thinks that he is so absolutely untouchable, that he can treat Michael Jackson the way he treated Gary Dunlap. Needless to say, Tom Sneddon is turning into the joke of the century.

Incidentally, Mr. Sneddon has firsthand knowledge in the extortion department, and Mr. Dunlap made that quite clear, when he said, "there is a gentleman in Santa Maria who had announced his candidacy for a public office and shortly thereafter he was illegally detained by sheriff’s deputies on what were pretty clearly bogus charges, and instead of the district attorney acknowledging that, the district attorney attempted to cover up the police officers excessive force by filing charges against him and attempted to prosecute him on those charges and essentially ruined his opportunity to run for public office. He ultimately sued the district attorney as well as the law enforcement officers and won a judgment in the federal court for several thousand dollars and several hundred thousand dollars in attorney’s fees. And in other instances, my practice has been, for the last few years, been specializing in excessive authority cases, or exercise of excessive authority by the district attorney’s office because of what I have seen as a practice of engaging in office that I’ve seen over the last few years, and ultimately I think I became such a thorn in his side that they just decided that the easiest way to handle this would be to take me out of the picture." Tom Sneddon is evidently an experienced thug, and that makes the suggestion that Michael Jackson is an extortionist so funny, that the jury prosecuting the Jackson case may overdose, on laughter. Indeed, Tom Sneddon sounds like the sort who was spotted in Longview Washington, with Laci Peterson, no wonder her kidnapping was never investigated.

Kidding aside [i hope], the corruption that Dunlap exposed is extremely serious and absolutely relevant to the Jackson case because it exposes the pattern which is responsible for the current fiasco. In the words of Gary Dunlap, "they got a legitimate complaint. They got a complaint, which they had to investigate. However, rather than looking at that complaint and doing a straightforward and honest investigation, they saw it as an opportunity to prosecute me. And what they did, is they tried to add legitimacy to an illegitimate charge." In the case of Michael Jackson, they got a legitimate complaint when Michael Jackson claimed that he was the victim of extortion,

The illegal bugging and the routine, civil violations that Tom Sneddon's office practices are extreme and extensive, and there is no question that all their targets, including Michael Jackson, have been victimized by their abusive conduct. It hasn't been traced to Sneddon's office yet, but given his history, it would be naive to ignore the probability that Tom Sneddon's office was involved in the illegal videotaping of Michael Jackson and Mark Geragos, in a private jet. After all, Tom Sneddon likes to suggest that Michael Jackson and Mark Geragos are extortionists, and these are the delusions that make illegal bugging palpable, because, the effort to bring extortionists to justice is not disagreeable. The failure to distinguish the difference between bogus and legitimate complaints denies justice and creates an abusive climate of the sort that Gary Dunlap describes, not becaue he is defending Michael Jackson but because he is a victim of the pattern of abuse that Michael Jckson is currently facing.

According to Dunlap, "it’s a very bad situation here in the north county, and the general public is very unaware of it because Tom Sneddon and his assistant up here have pretty much dominated the justice system in Santa Barbara County for several years. And he has run several terms without even any opposition and he’s very powerful. His office is very powerful and public officials are intimidated by them, court personnel are intimidated by them, I mean, they just have had it their own way, and they pretty much do whatever they want. And the problem with it is, they do not take any kind of a leadership role with regard to law enforcement in the sense of protecting the public interests against excessive force. Rather, they promote excessive force by the various law enforcement agencies, by their attitude of protection and prosecution of cases that are clearly inappropriate." The horrendous abuse that Dunlap describes in his lawsuit is well documented, and that makes the fact that Tom Sneddon is still in office, absolutely shameful. Needless to say, there is a clear lack of accountability that needs to be sorted out, because Tom Sneddon is making a mockery of the legal system.

Gary Dunlap has gone through everything that Michael Jackson is experiencing, including the ever growing list of bizarre charges that are routinely concocted because "the district attorney in Santa Barbara has a policy that if they throw enough charges against you, the jury is bound to convict you on something." Gary Dunlap when the DA went after him for daring to tell the truth, and the case should have never gone to trial in the first place because "Judge Andreen indicated that there was, in fact, governmental, substantial governmental misconduct. And, in fact, he said that their conduct, the district attorney’s conduct was so bad that it read more like a John Grisham novel than it did a criminal prosecution." Regardless, the case went to trial, not because the charges were substantive but because they were serious, and that is exactly what is happening in the Michael Jackson case. Onw would think that Tom Sneddon would not get more than one chance to abuse his authority the way he has in the past, but that is evidently not the case, unless the American legal system corrects a system that appears to be exceedingly unaccountable. Clearly,no jury will convict Michael Jackson on the bogus charges that Sneddon routinely advances, and if that is not clear, by now, it should be.

Tom Sneddon's has a very bad reputation, and the worst part about it is that the allegations that make him look bad are neither slanderous nor libelous because they have already withstood legal scrutiny. He has survived the wrath of To Sneddon, and his integrity has not been compromised. A thoroughly decent, 62 year old gentleman who has practiced law for 37 years, Gary Dunlap is not financially dependent on his law practice and like any good lawyer, he does not calculate the amount of defense that he gives, based on the size of the fee that he receives. He charged his clients based on what they could afford and preferred to base his decision on the merits of the case. Needless to say, wherever Tom Sneddon was involved, the merits had absolutely nothing to do with the charges. This is what Gary Dunlap said about the Michael Jackson case, and bear in mind that this is before the bizarre, extortion charges that Sneddon has obviously manufactured:

"All right, well, first of all, let me say I have no opinion one way or the other whether or not he is guilty because I don’t know, I don’t really know very much about the facts. I don’t think any of us do. But what I will tell you, the very fact that he’s being prosecuted by Sneddon’s office does not cause me to have any reason to believe that he’s guilty in that, because of what I know about the district attorney’s office, I know that they do vindictive prosecutions on a routine basis. And I know that Sneddon has been, you know, chafing at the bit because he wasn’t able to prosecute him ten years ago. And so I don’t think that there’s any question that he’s being over targeted. Now, you know, whether he did whatever it is that they’ve charged him with, I don’t know. I’m highly suspicious of it. I mean, it does not fit in my experience, and I have defended some cases of similar, you know, of similar nature. And he does not fit the pedophile profile regardless of what Greta Van Susteren and Diane Dimond can talk about on their Court TV program, he does not fit the profile of a pedophile. I know that he has had hundreds and probably thousands, but certainly hundreds of young people at his ranch, and I know personally that scores and scores of those kids have stayed overnight and have had personal relationships with him. And when you take that into account and then you only have two allegations in ten years of this kind of activity, it’s highly suspicious to me. Does that answer anything?"

That's not bad, but the bizarre, absurd, preposterous allegations have changed everything. In the beginning, it was quite alright to question Michael Jackson's guilt or innocence. It is now time to wonder about how long Tom Sneddon will be granted the opportunity to pervert justice?

Next: Tom Sneddon's Strategy.

Plus: Lynching Michael Jackson

  • The Genius of Michael Jackson
  • The Plot to Frame Michael Jackson
  • Tell us what you think

  •  
    Laci's Story

     

     
    NEWSWORLD SHOWDOWN
    nsnews

     

     
     Cosmetics  |  Computers  |  Cameras  |  Music  |  Books  |  Software  |  Travel  |  Toys |  Games  |  Jewellery