by Bill Barnwell

Almost two years ago my family directly felt the wrath of the U.S. Department of Justice. You see my dad was a bad guy. He was a high ranking union official and a city councilman in Michigan’s third-largest city. Basically he was high-profile and belonged to two entities that the feds do not like. In the eyes of the feds that made him a juicy target. And after years of harassment, surveillance, and multiple fishing expeditions, they finally managed to destroy his life and almost destroy our whole family.

Not so conveniently for dad, the feds had been poking around both the union and the city for years. In the city, the Justice Department has been running investigations for decades, trying to hang any high-profile scalp on the wall that they could (usually with very little success but a whole lot of money spent). Organized labor, of course, has never been high on the favorite list of federal prosecutors. Many times the scrutiny is deserved. Other times it’s just a typical case of the feds acting like their totalitarian selves using and abusing power and persecuting innocent people.

I grew up paranoid because our telephones were always tapped. Outside the house, down the street, there were always suspicious cars sitting on the side of the road for hours at a time. The message was always clear: we’re watching you and we’re coming to get you. This was not a fun way to grow up.

Dad worked his way up the union and became one of its strongest leaders by the mid-’90s. In 1999, in his first bid for public office (and after I literally knocked on over 9,000 doors campaigning for him) he just barely won election to sit on the city council. On election day, I knew the next four years were going to be a headache, but I had no idea how bad it would be.

Almost immediately after he was elected he started getting subpoenas to various grand juries being convened by aggressive federal prosecutors in Detroit. We also experienced the joy of all this splashed in the newspapers. Almost immediately his and others’ reputations were being sullied by federal prosecutors for the sole crime of being high-profile juicy targets. In his particular case, he belonged to two hated entities of the feds: the union and a high-profile city government where the feds had previously failed to see their multimillion-dollar investigations gain much legitimacy.

But in January 2003 everything changed for us when the feds came to my parents’ door to deliver an indictment. I went down to visit them that day because it was my day off. My life was already stressful. Two weeks after graduating college I went to my first pastorate where I was virtually alone. Plus I was starting graduate school already. But anyway the doorbell rang and I went to see who was there. It was two feds telling me to get my dad. When I went and got him they informed him that he was being indicted for "conspiracy" and "embezzlement." We were shocked.

Well, not really. After years of harassment and who knows how much money spent, it wasn’t completely surprising what was happening. The next day the indictment was on the front page of the local news and covered by both TV and radio. It was absolutely miserable.

The feds wanted the scalp of my dad’s union boss so they first attempted to go at some of his subordinates to see if they could get them to roll over. Working up the food chain and trying to scare people and broker plea deals are common tactics of the feds. Their case against my dad boiled down to this: In late 1997 and early 1998 he supposedly "forced" three business agents to go help build the frame of the house for the boss’ secretary and allowed these guys to get paid for the work. Since they were there on "business" time they shouldn’t have got paid for their labor according to the feds, hence the embezzlement charge. Since they supposedly cooperatively tried to keep this dirty deed a secret the feds tacked on a "conspiracy" charge as well (charges of "conspiracy" are almost always examples of prosecutorial padding of indictments. Just about anything these days can be called a "conspiracy" by the feds).

Well there was a big problem with all this. First of all, union business agents don’t work on a 9–5 time clock and they didn’t miss any of their "legitimate" work (I’m a minister, I try to typically keep a normal day’s schedule, but I’m "on the clock" 24 hours a day. Just because one typically works those hours does not mean you are confined to them). Everything else these workers were supposed to accomplish was accomplished. The union wasn’t cheated out of any labor. Secondly, these guys weren’t "forced" and never claimed they were until they were indicted and then given the offer of immunity if they’d snitch on higher-ups (another famous fed ploy). Third, my dad had never even been to this home, wasn’t overseeing the project, and had nothing to do with it. Forth, the conspiracy charge, like almost all other federal conspiracy charges, was nonsense and to this day I’m having a hard time understanding what their definition of a "conspiracy" is. Fifth, my dad never made a dime from this "crime against the United States." Sixth, it was obvious the case was just the build up to a parallel investigation against the union boss who was the main target.

None of this mattered to the public though. All they knew was "embezzlement" and the tons of negative press articles that were beginning to pump out. In the minds of the uneducated public, they thought the case centered on my dad lining his pockets with union money and stealing from other people when in reality the whole case just revolved around a federal vendetta and phony federal crimes. We knew the case was a joke but most people who didn’t bother to check the facts just assumed dad was a terrible union thug who was stealing from people and receiving justice from the brave and noble feds.

With an indictment swirling over him, dad decided not to run for reelection. He also completely lost his reputation. If convicted, he knew he’d probably lose his freedom. This left the stability of my family in jeopardy since he was the sole financial provider (my mother stayed at home and raised her kids her whole adult life). The private stress, the embarrassing public scrutiny led to all kinds of internal problems in the home. Right before the trial my younger brother attempted suicide. Things seemed they couldn’t get any worse.

Eight months following the indictment, the case went to trial. The trial lasted five weeks. Five weeks! I did not simplify the central facts of the case above. There’s no hidden information. The whole case resulted around a few guys working on a pole barn and frame of a house. The feds’ presented their seemingly never-ending case against my dad, the couple who owned the house, and two other business agents who refused to bow down and capitulate. To just about everyone in the courtroom, the case was a dull joke.

The jury came back with an 11-1 verdict in favor of the defendants. But since the verdict was not unanimous, the judge declared a mistrial. We found out the jury vote breakdown after the trial. Apparently the one holdout just insisted the whole time in deliberations that "If they are here, then they are guilty" and expressed hatred for organized labor. The rest of the jury was apparently ready to acquit almost immediately. This other juror, however, would not back down. Thanks to this one person, the nightmare continued on.

Don’t worry; the heroic feds did not give up. Their almost six-year long and extremely expensive publicly funded investigation would be vindicated (by the way, by the feds’ own estimate, the case involved about 35,000 dollars in loss. But don’t ask how much they spent of your tax money to fund this phony crusade). The case went back to trial six months later in the spring of this year. After another five weeks with virtually the same case presented a different jury came back with their verdict. However, this one did not resemble the previous verdict. This time the jury came back with a unanimous decision in favor of the prosecution. The thugs had won their conviction.

The difference this time was that the boss’ secretary and her husband stood trial with my dad (in the first trial their lawyer got severely ill so the judge declared an early mistrial for them and removed them from the case). The feds cluttered this case with sexual allegations between the union boss (who was not on trial but was mentioned more than all of the defendants) and his secretary. Whether all that is true or not I don’t know and don’t particularly care, but my dad had virtually no chance winning alongside with these other two. Plus, this jury was much different from the first one. This jury seemed to take a lot more notes and pay a lot better attention when it was the prosecution’s turn to speak. Hmmm.

After the conviction, the next several months were emotional preparation for prison. Plus my family had no idea how they were going to make it financially. When it was time for sentencing the feds were trying to get between one to two and a half years of prison for my father. The judge, amazingly, imposed a sentence of six months home confinement, a $19,000 fine, 350 hours of community service, and barred my dad from ever holding a leadership position again in his union. The judge also determined that the amount of loss in the case was not $35,000 as the feds claimed, but rather just under $10,000. By this time, it had been a six year investigation with two five-week federal trials. That’s a whopping amount of federal dollars spent to prosecute a case involving under $9,000 of questionable loss. A case that the first jury decided by an 11-1 margin that no illegal activity had even occurred.

The prosecutor tried to argue with the judge that the sentence was not harsh enough, but the judge did not buy it. This is no liberal judge either. This is a conservative Reagan appointee who seemed to side with the prosecution the whole trial and who has a reputation for being tough during sentencing. Apparently, even the judge recognized the case as being fairly ridiculous.

Dad went home grateful but began serving his six months home confinement. He was put on a tether and had to answer to a rude federal busybody who came to check on him occasionally. A couple weeks ago the judge ruled a stay on his sentencing. Dad had already paid the fine, but he was allowed off of his tether until the matter is resolved in the Court of Appeals. That could take up to two years. In any event, at least he can move around and at least he can get back to doing some other forms of work and bring in more income. The best-case scenario is he wins his appeal and has this crime against humanity cleared from his record. Worst-case scenario is that he just has to finish his sentence.

We are very grateful. This whole thing could have been much worse. He could be sitting in a federal prison somewhere. But this should have never happened to begin with. My dad is not a perfect guy but in this instance he did nothing wrong. The federal government used their brute power, bullying and unlimited funds to ruin his life and that is disgusting.

Two weeks ago I went down to visit my parents and was going through some old home movies. I found a tape of one of dad’s campaign events from late ’99. On the tape, the main snitch government witness who my dad helped mentor is shown embracing my dad, laughing with him, and kissing him on the cheek. I couldn’t help but think of Judas when I saw this. Mind you, this was well over a year and a half after the supposedly illegal activity occurred where this guy was "forced" to do horrible things that supposedly violated his conscious. This guy got off smelling like a rose because he decided to do business with the feds and save himself. My dad nobly tried to stand his ground but was destroyed in the process. Few people escape the clutches of the feds when the feds decide they want to destroy someone. Remember that.

My spiritual convictions will not allow me to hate anybody. As the title of this column suggests I think the feds and their cowardly government informants and enablers are disgusting weasels, but I honestly wish no harm on them. If anything, I want to see them change their ways and lead honest lives instead. I’m certainly still dealing with some anger as you can tell, and I am working on that, but I don’t want to see bad things happen to anyone involved. And yes, I even pray for these individuals.

These words I’m using are strong not because I am consumed by bitterness and want to see bad things happen to these government officials, but because I am fed up with the injustice system and the prosecutorial thuggery run amuck in our country. Many of these prosecutors are liars, thugs and bullies. I’m not speaking out of spite here, that’s just a fact. "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matt. 7:16a). Their actions speak for their character. They can destroy whoever they want to and they have all the time and money in the world to do it.

Oh, I know what some of you are thinking. "Good for that union thug, he got what he deserved." To you guys I say, open your eyes and take a look at the injustice that’s going on in almost every U.S Attorney’s office in the country. These outlandish incidents are not isolated. Also, just because you don’t agree or like someone who is politically or ideologically different than you doesn’t mean its right for the feds to destroy these people and harm their families. I’m not an enthusiastic unionist and I’m well aware of the excesses of unionism, but that doesn’t mean its OK or noble for the feds to do devious things to persecute these people.

It’s wrong for the feds to prosecute people on the basis of phony made up federal crimes. It’s wrong for the feds to go after people for personal and political reasons or to advance their own shady careers. It’s wrong to cheer on the federally funded persecution and unfair destruction of people like Michael Milken, Jim Traficant, and Martha Stewart because you don’t personally like them or what they stand for. It’s wrong to excuse federal thuggery against someone because he or she has faulty political or economic beliefs. It’s wrong to give the feds a free pass for this kind of totalitarian behavior. And if you can’t agree with that then there is something wrong with you.

December 18, 2004

Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor in Flushing, Michigan. He spent most of his undergraduate college career studying politics and government before feeling called to the ministry. He has completed a Master of Ministries degree and is currently working towards a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree at Bethel College in Mishawka, Indiana.

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