NUJ Abuse of Process - Position Paper
Introduction
Seattle mafiosi threatened the Journalist that if he did not stop exposing their crimes they would take court action with intent to jail him. A mafia lawyer checked the Journalist’s credentials with NUJ membership secretary, who authenticated him as in good standing. The lawyer then informed James A Doerty, Washington Superior Court that the press cards had no validity.
The Journalist refused to accept coercion, citing his rights under US First Amendment and EU laws to prevent a negative precedent that affected all journalists. Despite the challenge, the mafiosi suborned perjury in a conspiracy and railroaded him into jail.
Prior to an NUJ National Executive Council (NEC) meeting (26 Oct 01), NUJ duty of care for NUJ member Paul Trummel “the Journalist” complied with NUJ rules and regulations also international human rights conventions. However, as soon as Jeremy Dear took office as General Secretary (01 Feb 02), the negotiations fell apart and have remained that way for nine years.
Instead of complying with Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (the Act), Dear and Claire Susan Kirby, NUJ In-house Solicitor implemented laissez faire policies. Primarily an economic doctrine, laissez faire opposes government regulation or interference so that administrators can operate according to their own rules in violation of law. It unlawfully grants NUJ officials and officers impunity.
Those policies, for which Dear and Kirby have no excuse, allowed them to neglect to request HM Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to intervene in accordance with Vienna Convention Their continued stonewalling allowed HM Consul (David C Broom) posing as a Consul-General, Seattle, Washington to collude with Judge James A Doerty, Washington Superior Court.
Doerty refused to allow the Journalist to file his UK and International press cards with the court as evidence that he held bona fide credentials as a journalist, called him a "poseur" and declared the press cards "bogus", then redefined journalistic investigation as surveillance and harassment. Neither Jeremy Dear nor Aidan White challenged those statements. Instead, they have now arbitrarily cancelled the Journalist’s international press card which puts him at risk when on international assignments and effectively grants Doerty impunity to act the same way with other non-US journalists.
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By not responding to the abuse of process, Dear and Kirby left the Journalist (then approaching 70 years of age) to languish in jail for 111 days (27 Feb 02), arguably under the worst conditions in the State of Washington, USA. He suffered torture and solitary confinement during an indeterminate sentence effectively as “political prisoner incommunicado”. Dear and Kirby did nothing to relieve the situation.
Doerty then “ratcheted up coercion” by moving the Journalist to 25 days incommunicado solitary confinement among murderers and rapists for no reason other than to coerce him to remove constitutionally protected EU web sites from the Internet. Both NUJ and FCO have since evaded their duty of care and abused process also destroyed relevant documents to cover up their dereliction. [Archive]
The Journalist has written hundreds of articles on harassment of senior citizens and homicide by abuse. He founded Contra Cabal, one of the first electronic magazines to appear on the web, for which he develops the site, writes articles, designs pages, and produces graphics. He has published in print since 1944 and on the web since 1992. Published for 66 years, he has not received a single challenge to the authenticity of his investigative reporting.
He has held international press credentials for more than fifty years; spent twenty years as a new media industry CEO and systems designer/consultant; and, twenty years as a post-graduate professor teaching computer industry executives and students of journalism, law, and graphic design working on their masters or doctoral degrees. He has attended hundreds of business, faculty, and trade union committee meetings including national conventions.
The Journalist must now must spend his retirement years trying to mitigate the malicious damage caused by NUJ officials and officers through harassment, dereliction, and a malicious cover-up of criminal activity. In any legal action against NUJ, he will show that he has done everything possible to reduce damage in a way that lessens severity or intensity. That mitigation only proves an effort to contain monetary damages pursuant to law. Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) filings fulfil a mitigative purpose but do not reduce the severity of NUJ neglect to provide a duty of care to its members and its abuse of process.
Dear held the position of General Secretary elect with Claire S Kirby as NUJ Legal Officer and took over as General Secretary (01 Feb 02). He had a four-month transition to work with Kirby (who had held her position as NUJ In-house Solicitor for two years) toward resolution of legal issues that could have prevented the jailing. That issue now rests with Gareth R Thomas MP (Harrow West), former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development to address and make reparations after a public inquiry.
During his term as General Secretary, Dear has supervised two legal officers: Claire Susan Kirby (SRA #21078) 21 Oct 99 through 01 Sep 05 and Roy Martin Mincoff (SRA #112029) 03 Aug 05 through the present time. Both Kirby and Mincoff have allegedly committed gross professional misconduct reported to Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Although SRA required a resolution procedure, neither Mincoff nor Kirby satisfactorily complied with that mandate.
By filing false and misleading information, Mincoff has consistently abused SRA processes. He issued outrageous statements which Dear parroted and Kirby (now at Thompsons Solicitors, Cardiff Office) has remained incommunicative. Both legal officers have coerced low-echelon proxies (straws) and used email aliases to handle their correspondence in attempts to distance themselves from the issues and evade responsibility for their actions.
Philip Sutcliffe (now London Freelance Branch (LFB), National Executive Council (NEC) officer) received a summary of issues and a list of 14 items (17 Oct 01) that he had requested for presentation to an LFB committee. The committee discussed that information at some length and appointed Sutcliffe as liaison officer. It adopted a broad view that the branch should insure all the support available, appropriate, and feasible (22 Oct 01).
Clarification of that statement emphasized: That the issues related to deprivation of freelance employment, something that any union should address; and that prior restraint impacts upon the global issues of web site content and the employment contracts that relate to all journalists which must have a basis in international law (23 Oct 01).
Prior to Dear taking office, John Foster, then NUJ General Secretary and John Toner, National Freelance Organiser, discussed the issues and Aidan White, General Secretary, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) (visiting London at the time) agreed to look into the threatened jailing of the Journalist (26 Oct 01).
Philip Sutcliffe met with White that same evening who asked him to forward details which Sutcliffe claims that he sent. Sutcliffe reported that Foster/Toner/White had not yet made a decision but that he felt that they had given the issues serious consideration (29 Oct 01).
Jeremy Dear attended the NUJ National Executive Council (NEC) meeting (26 Oct 01) at which NEC announced his election as General Secretary (01 Feb 02). Constituents returned 6,402 papers out of 24,872 issued and Dear received 3,427 votes. NUJ reelected Dear in 2006 unopposed for an additional five-year term: the first time that unopposed reelection occurred in over a century. Dear will remain as General Secretary until (31 Jan 12) unless impeached in the meantime.
After the jailing, Sutcliffe who had a duty of care to the Journalist as his branch officer did not follow union rules and legal procedures or Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Instead, in an unofficial “cry for mercy” he tried to intervene with the Seattle mafia that had jailed the Journalist. By that, Sutcliffe exacerbated the situation and added strength to the mafiosi argument which allowed them to send him to solitary confinement without advice of counsel or consular support.
Friends in Seattle contacted the UK Seattle consulate in an attempt to persuade him to intervene. Members of the National Writers Union attended court, filed supportive affidavits, and visited the Journalist in jail; however, the judge would not allow them to give evidence. Aidan White (IFJ General Secretary) and Jonathan Tasini (NWU President) mounted media campaigns in solidarity. Dear and Kirby did absolutely nothing.
That cover-up of his dereliction and abrogation of his duty of care imposed an absolute NUJ media blackout and did nothing to address the issues. That blackout prevented NUJ members from knowing about dire circumstances affecting the Journalist in Seattle which precluded them from offering their solidarity - union of interests, purposes, and sympathies.
The media blackout has lasted for the entire nine years of Dear’s tenure as General Secretary and continues at this writing (30 Sep 10). A reasonable person can only classify his inaction as blatant discrimination when one considers the age of the Journalist and the derogation that NUJ elected officers and officials have since heaped upon him to evade their responsibility to mitigate the illegal acts by NUJ officials and officers.
Dear has received a string of informal and formal opportunities that requested him to reply with a reasoned proposal that addressed the issues. He replied with a parroted version of a general denial that Mincoff wrote to SRA. Ongoing independent investigations by law enforcement agencies involve unethical and illegal activities by NUJ officials and officers.
Dear claimed that he is not "...in a constitutional position to instruct lay members (branch officials) to provide information" despite provisions in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 to the contrary. By that, Dear started a merry-go-round that effectively transferred his executive responsibilities back to branch officials who have since either harassed the Journalist to try to silence him or referred the issues back to Dear.
Despite his ultimate responsibility for everything that occurs in NUJ, Dear has effectively abdicated. Moreover, he has instructed his staff to withhold member documents, obstructed his attendance at an annual delegate meeting and arbitrarily removed his international press card.
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Several thousand documents archived over a decade support all contentions made about people named on this Roll of Dishonour. Linked articles provide a general description of malfeasance by NUJ officials and officers related to referral of criminal complaints against them to law enforcement agencies. NUJ officials and officers, also law enforcement and government executives, have not addressed many issues although they have had ample opportunity to do so. Instead, they have resorted to ad hominem (insolent appeal to personal considerations rather than to fact or reason using lies, misrepresentation and stonewalling). Updates of assertions and dereliction by successive In-house Solicitors now under investigation by Solicitors Regulation Authority for gross professional misconduct will soon parallel new criminal referrals to law enforcement agencies against Jeremy Dear, Roy M Mincoff and several other NUJ officials. The following perpetrators have colluded in a massive cover-up of alleged criminal activity by NUJ/IFJ officials and officers: Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary. Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ Head of Publishing. Reginald [Tim] Gopsill, former Editor, Journalist Magazine. Claire S Kirby, former In-house Solicitor (SRA #21078) Roy M Mincoff, NUJ In-house Solicitor (SRA #112029). Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ Deputy General Secretary. John Toner, UK Freelances National Organiser. Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. Stephen Brookes, Disabled Members Council. Donnacha Delong, New Media. James Doherty, Scotland. Peter Murray, President. Nick Serpell, Broadcasting. Philip Sutcliffe, London. Christopher Wheal, Chair, Professional Training also Chair, NUJ Extra. Angus Batey, Member Humphrey Evans, Member Pat Healy, Vice-Chair Larry Herman, Member Jim Humphries, former Secretary David Rotchelle, Chair Elizabeth Adderley, Detective Inspector (#000) David Cockburn, Certification Officer and Solicitor (SRA # No Record) Thomas C James, Police Constable Arlene McCarthy, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Anthony O'Donnell, Chief Inspector Scott R Parsons, Trainee Detective Constable John Pollock, Chief Superintendent (#000) Jeremy Burton, Chief Superintendent, Borough Commander |
Washington Supreme Court
The Journalist instructed his own legal counsel who pursued the case through the courts to Washington State Supreme Court. Nine supreme court judges unanimously reversed trial court decisions that imposed prior restraint on the Journalist and jailed him in King County Jail, Seattle for an indeterminate sentence without legal counsel or due process of law contrary to Vienna Convention. As a Washington State Delegate, National Writers Union (NWU) and member of National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Journalist had challenged court decisions that violated constitutional and journalism rights.
Washington Supreme Court (30 Mar 06) handed down a unanimous reversal of Superior Court findings by Judge James A Doerty (WSBA #4937) and Washington Court of Appeals Judge Mary Kay Becker (WSBA #13027) et al. Seattle Municipal Court dismissed frivolous criminal charges filed by Seattle mafia and Seattle City Attorney Thomas A Carr (WSBA #19845). After four years of litigation, the reversals and dismissals completely vindicated the Journalist of any wrongdoing. During that four years Dear did nothing to support the Journalist although he falsely claimed to have contacted FCO.
The supreme court findings prohibited future censorship, prior restraint, and Internet denial-of-service attacks upon printed and electronic publications. However, NUJ officials and officers continue to harass the Journalist. They bring malicious claims of violation of NUJ rules; interfere with his rights as a journalist; file false and misleading criminal charges; and commit Internet denial-of-service attacks. Meanwhile, the prior restraint and media blackouts continue.
The supreme court action cost NUJ nothing. NUJ did not participate or provide any legal, moral, or ethical support. The Journalist arranged for pro bono lawyers in US to handle five amici curiae filings. Both NUJ and IFJ received plaudits as a result. More important, the supreme court reversed legal findings that restricted traditional and new media journalists from publishing their work by unlawful censorship and prior restraint: precisely the course followed by NUJ officials and officers since that finding.
Despite those findings, Seattle mafia and its associates have extended their Internet harassment by destruction of web sites and computer applications causing losses of more than £500,000.00 during the first half of 2008 which Dear and Mincoff effectively condoned through laissez faire. That amount does not include inestimable collateral damage through subscriber and newsletter losses that resulted from Internet denial-of-service attacks and other computer crimes now under investigation by law enforcement agencies.
Dear, Kirby, and Mincoff received notice of those events but evaded their responsibility to act; instead, they put into effect a series of unlawful delaying tactics and prior restraint now subject to SRA complaints which involve both NUJ and Thompsons Solicitors.
Dear, Kirby, and Mincoff, aware of all the maneuvers by Seattle mafia, UK Consul (Seattle), and FCO, have done nothing about them over a nine-year period. They neglected to act in accordance with Vienna Convention and other international laws. Reginald (Tim) Gopsill, Editor, Journalist (NUJ magazine) orchestrated a UK media blackout to cover up their neglect which prevented NUJ members from knowing about the case and providing support.
Dear and Mincoff covered up FCO dereliction by negotiating a £262,000.00 quid pro quo between NUJ and Gareth R Thomas MP (Harrow West), former Minister of State in a distinct conflict of interest.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Dereliction
FCO appointed David C Broom, Consul, British Consulate, Seattle during December 1999 and removed him during July 2004 prior to the consulate closing (30 Sep 05) when it transferred all documents to British Consulate-General, San Francisco.
During early 2002, Judge James A. Doerty, Washington Superior Court and former Seattle British Consul David C Broom conspired to increase the coercion of the Journalist, a British national jailed without benefit of legal counsel. Doerty moved him to incommunicado solitary confinement among murderers and rapists in King County Jail, Seattle where guards tortured him.
The generic term "consul" defines a diplomat or official representative of a government in one state who resides in the territory of another. Most nations maintain consulates in major foreign cities with the primary purpose of safeguarding their resident and traveling citizens while on foreign soil. A secondary duty relates to maintaining commercial interests.
Broom claimed in Seattle Times: "Britain and Washington state are major trading partners; as British consul general, I am vested in the state's recovery and continued competitiveness and economic success". In several other articles he also signed himself "Consul General"; however, Robin Newmann, Vice Consul Political, Press and Public Affairs, British Consulate-General, San Francisco refutes Broom's claim to that title.
Heads of British consulates classify as consuls not consuls general. The British government reserves the term "consul general" for heads of consulates-general and does not permit people of lower rank to use it. This misnomer represents only one of a series of misrepresentations and lies propagated by Broom during his term in Seattle. A diplomatic source who worked with Broom during a previous foreign assignment verified repugnant, undiplomatic behavior by Broom.
During Broom's tenure, Judge James A. Doerty committed judicial misconduct, perverted the course of justice, and violated constitutional and human rights of a British subject. Doerty issued a series of contempt orders effectively to silence investigative reporting. He misapplied law by granting a restraining order which deprived the journalist of his constitutional rights to free speech and liberty then imprisoned him indefinitely.
Broom claimed to represent UK government and British interests in Washington state and promised to provide services to British nationals. Requested several times to visit the Journalist in jail by his friends and colleagues, Broom neglected to do so. Instead, he accepted at face value the perjured testimony that Doerty sent to him attached to a letter after two unlawful ex parte (in secret with bias) discussions. Doerty recorded those conversations and the documents that he sent to him in both a letter and in his court findings.
Although aware of the circumstances, Broom did nothing to relieve the situation. Instead, he consorted with the judge apparently to protect commercial interests allied to Seattle mafia for whom Doerty acted as straw judge. Broom lied in writing about his ex parte involvement with Doerty and withheld official documents. Consulate-General, San Francisco has admitted to destroying those records probably in an attempt to cover up Broom's dereliction. Like any fox that hears the sound of barking, Broom has since gone to ground in Seattle.
Now, a cover-up allows a powerful political and criminal element in Seattle to harass the journalist whenever he enters the US despite a the Washington supreme court finding in his favor. That unanimous finding by nine judges reversed Doerty's decisions made in consort with straw judges, city officials, and Broom posing as a British Consul-General.
Perversion of the Course of Justice
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) et alia, and successive rogue In-house Solicitors Claire Susan Kirby (Thompsons Solicitors, Cardiff) and Roy Martin Mincoff repeatedly conspired with others to pervert the course of justice through railroading, anarchistic arbitrage and use of kangaroo courts, thereby establishing malicious intent.
Peter Murray, President, NUJ National Executive Council has now tried to intimidate a witness by arbitrarily expelling him from NUJ membership. He cited NUJ Rule 24 Disciplinary Proceedings, a rule not in evidence, as his authority.
Murray ignored the fact that five police divisions and other law enforcement agencies have NUJ officials and officers under investigation for alleged criminal activity which makes the issues effectively sub judice pending action by Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and a court ruling.
Murray has joined Dear and Mincoff in a conspiracy to commit serious criminal offences in UK and Irish jurisdictions. A common law offence, perverting the course of justice carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. It can include any of three acts: fabricating or disposing of evidence; intimidating or threatening a witness or juror; and intimidating or threatening a judge.
Railroading denies due process of law by forcing rapid litigation to prevent careful consideration and criticism. It allows conviction of an accused person without a fair trial on trumped-up charges. That procedure dragoons or compels, subjugates, and persecutes by coercion, threats, and imprisonment. Railroading forms an essential part of most kangaroo court procedures.
Both Dear and his FOC Barry Fitzpatrick, NUJ Officials Chapel completely ignored NUJ Rules then fabricated evidence to support a kangaroo court. They consistently referred to Appendix C without citing a specific rule. By that, they arguably broadened the scope of the appendices to allow use of them by members in a general context.
If an NUJ official has a disciplinary complaint against a member for alleged conduct detrimental to the interests of the union, then he must follow NUJ procedures. Before the current hearing, Dear did not file a complaint with NUJ Ethics Council (EC) within six months of the alleged occurrence. Instead, he filed a malicious complaint directly with NUJ National Executive Council (NEC) which he controls politically although NUJ rules call for hearings by neutral parties. By that, he denied natural justice.
If a member files a complaint directly with EC or NEC, then those bodies must try to settle the issues by conciliation Should attempts at conciliation fail, then NEC may decide to hold a formal hearing. Dear’s refusal or neglect to conciliate shows a deliberate attempt to harass an elderly member by using railroading techniques and convening kangaroo courts. By that, Dear perverted the course of justice. He has repeatedly evaded conciliation processes and frustrated a public inquiry; therefore, the alleged offences can only receive due process in a criminal court.
Conclusion
Justice relies upon principles and procedures founded in law and precedent; otherwise, a state of anarchy exists which has no place in a democracy. NUJ member apathy and anarchy has resulted in illegal actions by an extreme left splinter group (NUJ-Left). NUJ officials and officers use railroading techniques and kangaroo courts with a total disregard for rules, law, and mandated procedures. They have prevented resolution of complaints through conciliation processes and denied due process of law.
Seattle mafiosi forged documents to try to force the Journalist to take down his web site which exposed their criminal activities. They knew that the content contained truthful statements and that they could not claim defamation or libel so they claimed harassment. They stretched anti-harassment definitions to claim that news gathering constituted "surveillance" and reporting crimes defined as "harassment".
NUJ prior restraint and a media blackout has lasted for more than nine years due to procrastination by judges in an ex parte consort which allowed Seattle mafia and others outside the ambit, anonymously to commit perjury, subornation, and racism on a grand scale challenged in a plethora of law suits not connected with the Journalist. That litigation showed a pattern or practice of malicious criminal intent, ostensibly to cover up crimes and racism, identical to, and in parallel with, the Journalist’s experience.
Washington supreme court found that constitutionally protected content did not by any stretch of imagination warrant Draconian measures that included eviction and indeterminate imprisonment of journalists with solitary confinement. Those findings vindicated the Journalist for publishing newsletters and web sites. Seattle Municipal Court dismissed six frivolous criminal charges (21 Apr 06) filed by Seattle mafia in a consort with Seattle Police Department and Thomas A Carr, Seattle City Attorney. Carr prosecuted them with malicious intent to send the Journalist back to jail to preempt the supreme court decision.
Dear has spent the last three years since the supreme court finding harassing the Journalist to prevent him obtaining reparations from Seattle mafia and for gross neglect by NUJ officials and officers. That cover-up has resulted in the filing of a frivolous and vexatious disciplinary complaint by Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Security and Michelle Stanistreet against the Journalist which now effectively classifies as sub judice. The NUJ complaint retaliated for the Journalist demanding his member and human rights.
Referrals to several UK police divisions presently await investigation of Dear, Stanistreet and other NUJ employees for criminal activity. Dear and Stanistreet exacerbated the situation by trying to preempt criminal proceedings. They have orchestrated a string of sycophants who have convened a National Executive Council committee hearing using jurisdictional arbitrage in violation of NUJ rules and UK laws. [A Patent Stitch-up] [NUJ Abuse of Process]
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They have unlawfully used international arbitrage in an abuse of process by ignoring the fact that the issues effectively became sub judice after police referral. Those referrals will now involve investigation by Independent Police Complaints Commission (UK) and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (Scotland) due to dereliction by, and alleged collusion among, NUJ officials and UK police officers.
[Law Enforcement Railroading]
See Portable Document File (PDF) for citations.
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© Copyright 2010 by Paul Trummel |
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