Probe Confirms Later Findings of Racism in Colorado Criminal Case by Former Federal Appeals Judge

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/11/2020 -- Three years prior to former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin's investigating the suspicious conviction of African-American information technology executives (the "IRP6") and concluding that the IRP6 case was not only racially motivated but also the executives were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay [corporate] bills," Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice had also conducted a six-month investigation in to the IRP6 case and issued a scathing report of racial and religious bias by government officials. "If you put all the connections together, I don't know that there's any other conclusion" except racism, Sarokin told the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/07/05/judge-who-freed-hurricane-carter-now-helping-six-imprisoned-men-but-only-obama-can-save-them/

According to Bean's report titled "Money for Nothing: how racial bias destroyed six lives, stymied a Black owned business and outraged a congregation," "the fingerprints of racial bias were visible to the naked eye." Bean's investigation also found that prosecutors concocted a "bogus business" theory to ultimately win an unconstitutional conviction after first attempting (but failing) to implicate the IRP6 and their predominantly African-American church in a money laundering scheme, which was also concocted by the Colorado U.S. Attorneys Office. Federal prosecutors were Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew T. Kirsch and Suneeta Hazra and the trial judge was Christine Arguello. According to Bean's report Judge Arguello's, "bias was on display throughout the trial."

"What amazed me about the case," Sarokin told the Washington Post, "was the theory of the government, that this [software] program they were developing was a scam. All of the proof in the case goes the opposite way."

Bean's report also discusses how prosecutors subpoenaed only African-American church members who worked for IRP Solutions before the grand jury when the other half of the contract employees were white with no affiliation with the church. Church parishioners faced a barrage of questions about the church where the IRP6 executives attended for 30 years, including being asked was the church a cult. Out of the 18,000 pages of discovery in the case, 9000 were church and parishioner banking records that, according to evidence in court records, were obtained without a subpoena. Bean's report highlights how the IRP executives hired former federal law enforcement and NYPD officials to assist with the development and sale of their criminal investigation software and shows how government officials took deliberate steps to destroy the African-American company's ability to earn revenue to pay bills and compete against its large competitors, including how AUSA Kirsch scuttled IRP Solutions business with Philadelphia's police department and Inspector General's Office.

"The IRP6 case departs from the typical failed-scam scenario for the simplest of reasons: the government's case can't stand up to scrutiny," says Bean. "The fraud alleged in the indictment is a mirage," adds Bean. "The answer is race," contends Bean. "This case is riddled with anomalies, but it keeps coming back to race. American society ignores the obvious because a case like this shakes their confidence in the concept of a "justice" system," concludes Bean in his report (https://friendsofjustice.blog/free-the-irp6/).

The IRP6 case (now IRP5) concerns IRP Solutions Corporation executives David A. Banks, Clinton Stewart, Demetrius K. Harper, David A. Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes, who, after being devastated by the 9/11 tragedy,) developed innovative investigative case management software for federal, state and local law enforcement help them improve information sharing and collaboration which was found by the congressional 9/11 Commission to have contributed to the attacks on our nation. The IRP6 were actively engaged in closing business with major law enforcement agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and New York City Police Department prior the FBI and Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office prior to the government interference with their business.

In the age of rogue police officers taking the life African-Americans such as George Floyd, A Just Cause encourages every American, media outlet, documentary and movie producer to read Dr. Bean's report about the abuses of power and malicious tactics being perpetrated by rogue federal prosecutors and judges to destroy promising African-American businesses and imprison innocent, successful African-American businessmen.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Warden Retaliates To Keep Inmate Imprisoned After Approved for COVID-19 Release

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/14/2020 -- On April 30, 2020, inmate David Banks was told he was being released from the minimum security federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado after being approved under the COVID-19 pandemic, but on the same day, in a fit of retaliatory rage, Acting Warden Holzapfel had Mr. Banks taken from prison camp and thrown in the "hole" at the medium-security prison camp.

Banks was told he was being put in the hole because he was under investigation for allegedly making a 3-way call to his mother about his desire to self-quarantine at home consistent with Attorney General Barr's April 3, 2020 memorandum due to the prison's questionable quarantining practices, including solitary confinement, being transferred to the medium security housing unit where both sick and violent felons are being housed and being exposed to more correctional officers and other staff who transition daily between the prison and the community. Although it only takes five minutes to review the short phone call, a presumably angry Holzapfel kept Mr. Banks languishing in the small cell for four days for having the temerity to question the prison's quarantining practices.

Parishioners from Mr. Banks' church (Colorado Springs Fellowship Church) took to the street outside the prison complex in protest of Warden Holzapfel confining Mr. Banks (a minimum security prisoner) at the medium security FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) and the prison's continuing refusal to release Banks who not only was approved for release under the COVID-19 pandemic but also under the First Step Act which the BOP has failed or refuses to implement. The protests were organized and led by Banks' brother, Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. See videos at (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctj7mivff3wmrm1/Protest%20Final.mov?dl=0)

After four days in the hole, Mr. Banks (who has an exemplary conduct record) was rushed into a disciplinary hearing where he was not only quickly and wrongly found guilty of making a 3-way call but was also immediately sanctioned 27 days of good conduct, 30 days of phone restriction as well as having his COVID-91 release date revoked by the new Warden, Elizabeth Carter, not to mention he should've been released under First Step Act months ago. "Given these facts, it's not surprising President Trump called the BOP a 'criminal enterprise,'" says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. "Mr. Banks simply asked to be quarantined at his release residence given that he lives only an hour away in Colorado Springs and would have no exposure to the public when driving directly home by car," says Stewart.

According to his April 3, 2020 memo, AG Barr directed the BOP to expedite releases, and in 'appropriate' cases such as David Banks', to allow self-quarantining at the residence to which the inmate is being released. "Mr. Banks has a legitimate grievance about the Florence's prison complex's quarantining procedure and it stems from certain safety procedures that were designed and implemented to protect the staff and not the inmates," adds Stewart.

"Complex Warden True and Ms. Himlie, the Complex Health Services Administrator, developed and implemented a COVID-19 safety procedure that prohibits the common practice of staff traveling between or working at the four prison institutions (USP, FCI, ADX Supermax, Camp) on the complex but allows a mean-spirited Warden Holzapfel to retaliate and threaten the life of my brother (David Banks) by retaliating against him and moving him outside of his custody level to the medium security FCI for 4 days under the absurd guise of investigating a 5 minute phone call," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "And now Warden Carter doubles-down on Holzapfel's treacherous disregard for David's life by pulling his home-confinement release date," muses Lamont Banks (AJC). "Wardens Holzapfel and Carter's cruel retaliation tactics are far too common in the BOP and are prime examples of the Florence FCC's continuing disregard for the seriousness of COVID-19 and their indifference to the health, well-being and lives of the inmate population and the public," contends Lamont Banks (AJC).

According to the BOP Incident Report, Banks specifically told his Mother that three-way calls are not permitted but to put her son (Lamont), Banks' brother on her second landline "so she can tell him something that just happened" and could "pass the message to him." Banks' mother put Lamont on the speakerphone of her SECOND LANDLINE to listen in to the conversation her and David were having on the speakerphone of her primary landline.

"With this incontrovertible evidence that Banks took steps not to violate the BOP's 3-way call prohibition and his mother didn't use the 3-way calling feature to connect Lamont into their conversation, Wardens Holzapfel and Carter, with malice and in their hearts, retaliated against Banks to revoke his COVID-19 home-confinement release, risking the health and well-being of Mr. Banks, prison staff, inmate population and the public," concludes Stewart.

Banks' attorney, Bernard Klein has notified Warden Carter, that the vernacular, plain meaning of a three-way call established by the telecommunication industry and recent case law rejects Banks' call to his mother as a 3-way call but Carter has yet to reinstate his release date. If not reinstated very soon, Kleinman will take formal legal action in the courts.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Obama Disregarded Overt Government Misconduct and Clemency Request from Federal Appeals Judge

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/13/2020 -- "Given his failure to defend the innocent and correct egregious prosecutorial and judicial misconduct through clemency, President Obama doesn't have the moral high ground to criticize President Trump," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "It is unprecedented and probably never happened in U.S. history, that a former federal appeals judge sends a personal plea to POTUS requesting clemency on behalf of the wrongly convicted," adds Banks. "Obama was that President and just as he is defending the rogue, malicious actions of FBI officials to obtain a wrongful conviction against General Flynn, he did the same during his administration when he disregarded what former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin described as the worst injustice in the federal justice he's seen in over sixty years in the law," exclaims Banks.

According to CNN, Obama said the Trump administration's dismissal of General Flynn's case put the rule of law "at risk." "Not so," says Banks, "Trump and Barr did justice for General Flynn, while's Obama Justice Department committed numerous acts of violence against the rule of law," asserts Banks. "The prosecutorial and judicial misconduct disregarded by Obama in the case Judge Sarokin referenced in his letter far rivaled that which was done to General Flynn and can be viewed in the following online dossier," concludes Banks.

Online Dossier of Prosecutorial and Judicial Misconduct Ignored by Obama - http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Federal Prison Camp's Refusal to Release Inmates Under First Step Act Increased Coronavirus Threat

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/08/2020 -- The methods being used by the BOP to isolate inmates in cells is sufficient for medium and high institutions but wholly insufficient for the overcrowded Florence Federal Prison Camp (FPC) which only houses non-violent inmates. Social distancing is impossible at FPC Florence. Non-violent CAMPERS(not really inmates) at Florence FPC (which has no bars, cells, walls or fences) have been put at greater risk to contract COVID-19 because its officials have instituted a lockdown of the camp and thereby created a "social crowding" environment, not a social distancing one. Florence officials are not totally at fault because the original design of FPC Florence housing units has created an intractable problem for BOP officials to effectively implement social distancing. The fact that FPC Florence is overcrowded exponentially complicates social distancing solutions which is why home confinement of a reasonable number of campers is critical to successfully implement social distancing. "Since the BOP classifies prison camps as out-custody facilities and permits these non-violent, non-threatening campers to work in the local community and attend job fairs without BOP staff supervision, it should be a no-brainer for the BOP Director to release many of them to home-confinement to effectively implement social distancing," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "Furthermore, Florence, Colorado's high altitude of over 5000 feet means there is less oxygen in the air which puts campers and correctional officers are at greater risk of not be able to breath without a ventilator due to COVID-19's crippling effect on the lungs' ability to oxygenate," adds Banks. "There is absolutely no reason to continue threatening the lives of numerous campers with COVID-19 when they have a home to be released to and are not a danger to the community," exclaims Banks

FPC Florence was originally designed to house 250 campers but currently houses over 400. First, the 400+ inmates at FPC Florence are in housing units with open bay-style ranges comprised of 7ft by 11 ft cubicles with 5ft 8in walls. Each of these small, crowded cubicles houses 2 inmates and is furnished with 2 twin size bunks, 2 lockers (2ft x 18ft x 3ft) and a desk (15in x 2ft 5in x 2ft 5in). Some cubicles actually house three inmates due to overcrowding. FPC Florence inmates share the same restrooms, showers, phones and email computers. FPC Florence is an anathema to social distancing and can easily serve as a fertile breeding and spreading ground for COVID-19. Instead of allowing the inmates time outside to walk the track or exercise, BOP officials lock them inside the crowded housing unit with staff from the outside world and increasing the likelihood of transferring or collecting germs from doorknobs and other hard items being continually touched by staff and others. By being locked 24 hours per day in the housing units, camp inmates are being denied fresh air and forced to continuously inhale germs and cigarette smoke that flows through a recycled air ventilation system. Florence FPC houses inmates with severe lung diseases and partial lungs, some of whom use nebulizers daily to help them breath.

FPC Florence would not be nearly as crowded if the Florence officials had fully complied with the First Step Act (FSA) instead of being apathetic. Numerous Florence FPC inmates have been assessed under the FSA and were found to be a minimum risk of recidivism, entitling them to 10 days per month/two-thirds off their sentence. "Florence officials and other BOP staff around the country chose to be deliberately insubordinate to President Trump, Jared Kushner and members of Congress who worked hard to pass the First Step Act," asserts Banks. "Now, amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, both BOP correctional officers and the inmate population are at a greater risk of sickness and death because officials refused to follow the law," adds Banks. "There are actually inmates with lung diseases and partial lungs at Florence FPC, some of whom use nebulizers daily to help them breath," exclaims Banks.

According to sources at the Florence FPC, case managers have informed numerous inmates that they qualify to be released under the First Step Act but have not been given the go-ahead by the BOP Director to release them. "If there is ever a time for President Trump to issue an executive order for the release of inmates who the BOP is unlawfully detaining in violation of the First Step Act, the time is now," says Banks. "Especially starting with the lawful release of those inmates entitled to relief under the act that have homes in the state where they are incarcerated and can be easily transported by their family to the safety of that home," adds Banks.

Prior to the Coronavirus spread into the U.S., A Just Cause and New York attorney Bernard Kleinman have demanded in both verbal and written communications to the BOP that they abide by the First Step Act and release Florence FPC inmates Demetrius Harper, David Banks and David Zirpolo who are three of five men known as the IRP5 (formerly "IRP6") who, according to a former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin are innocent and were wrongly convicted and harshly imprisoned for 7 to 11 years as a result of government misconduct (See judge's comments in Washington Post at www.wapo.st/29jXqSC). Sarokin said the IRP5 wrongful conviction was the worst injustice he's ever seen in the federal justice system.

The deeply troubled Sarokin sent a personal letter to President Obama requesting clemency for the IRP5. Sarokin wrote to Obama that a "grave injustice" had occurred with respect to conviction and imprisonment of the IRP5 and explained the absurdity of the government's charges and the misconduct used to win a conviction. Obama disregarded Judge Sarokin and did nothing about the grave injustice the IRP5 suffered at the hands of his Justice Department. Other prominent advocates close to Trump are now seeking a pardon on behalf the IRP5.

Clinton Stewart (IRP5) is one of the very few inmates to be released by Florence FPC under the FSA's provision to home confine elderly inmates 60 years of age and older who have served two-thirds of their sentence. The video of Stewart's celebratory release with a large crowd went viral with over 4 million views on the Internet, including a retweet by President Trump (Video at http://bit.ly/2FlNYvR).

"Unlike Harper (46 years-old), Banks (52 years-old) and Zirpolo (56 years-old), Clinton Stewart's health and well-being is not being compromised by the BOP's refusal to fully comply with the First Step Act and its inconsiderate COVID-19 response to the Florence federal prison camp," says Banks. "I am hopeful that President Trump will immediately free these innocent men who have spent the past seven and a half years in prison and who now are facing new threats to their health and well-being at the hands of Florence FPC officials mishandling of the Coronavirus threat," concludes Banks.

For more details about the IRP5 case and Judge Sarokin's writings go to online dossier at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Cruel Judges Knowingly Imprisoned Innocent Woman

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/22/2020 -- "It is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free." U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan (1970)

You would think that if you were wrongly convicted and brought forth evidence of your innocence immediately after trial, judges and prosecutors would be interested in doing justice and would do what's necessary to ensure you aren't wrongly imprisoned. But the truth is, some judges and prosecutors are despots and have no interest in doing justice, as was the case with federal judge Christine M. Arguello and her cruel cohorts from Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office (former Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Kirsch) and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Judges Mary Beck Briscoe, Michael Daly Hawkins and Michael R. Murphy) who sent an innocent woman named Lawanna Clark to prison after receiving indisputable proof of her innocence. Clark was a housewife and church counselor with no criminal record. Every single church member and every person in the community who encountered Clark would vouch for her insatiable loving kindness and her unconscious willingness to give her time and money to help a person in need. Although Lawanna passed away on November 14, 2018 of a massive stroke, her grieving family believes her untimely death was, in part, brought about by the suffering and stress she endured not only from her wrongful imprisonment in 2010, but also years of continuing prosecutorial and judicial abuse and persecution of her family and church perpetrated by Arguello and Kirsch.

Clark was targeted by Kirsch and Arguello as part of their malicious prosecution against the innocent technology executives of the IRP Solutions Corporation (aka the "IRP6"). Kirsch, Arguello and the 10th Circuit's wrongful conviction of the innocent IRP6 was decried by former federal appeals Judge H. Lee Sarokin in the Washington Post (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC) and also discussed in "Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Parts 1, 2, and 3)." Kirsch's malicious prosecution against Clark, her family, and the church her mother pastors began with abusing the grand jury process.

Without a legitimate criminal cause, court records show Kirsch illegally used a 2007 IRP6 federal grand jury not only to criminalize the IRP6's failure to pay business debts, but also as a subterfuge to implicate Lawanna's mother (Pastor Rose Banks of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church) in some crime. It bears mentioning that David Banks, one of the IRP6, is Pastor Banks' son. Although the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office had publicly denied that the church was a target of the investigation, grand jury foreman Cynthia Haid confirmed during Clark's trial that Pastor Banks was a target of the investigation. When Kirsch couldn't get the 2007 grand jury to indict Pastor Banks or the IRP6, her daughter would have to do. Kirsch maliciously indicted Lawanna Clark on three counts of allegedly lying to the grand jury after she truthfully answered 285 questions. After going to trial to defend her innocence, Clark was acquitted on two counts and convicted on a single count of lying to the grand jury.

Kirsch claimed Clark lied when she told the grand jury that her sister (the then wife of the IRP Solutions CEO), not her, made two withdrawals from the IRP bank account. Kirsch should have concluded Clark was an honest person after it was proven she had answered 99.64% of the questions (284 out of 285) truthfully and had no reason to lie about withdrawing money from an account of which she was an authorized signer. As a sadistic despot, Kirsch wasn't concerned with Clark's honesty or innocence--all he wanted was to win-at-any-cost and the pleasure of using his power to imprison her, which is why he didn't use a handwriting expert or subpoena video footage from the bank to check the veracity of Clark's testimony. Kirsch chose to lie to the jury by telling them affirmatively that it was Clark's signature on the two bank withdrawal documents and asked them to do an unscientific visual comparison against the signature card on file at the bank. The jury did just that and erroneously concluded it was Clark's signature; they were not, after all, handwriting experts, nor did Kirsch or Arguello allow them to receive the benefit of testimony from a handwriting expert.

After trial, Clark's family hired a highly experienced handwriting expert (Judith Housley) who had actually been used in other cases by the U.S. Attorney's Office. After taking handwriting samples from both Clark and her sister Yolanda, the expert determined with a degree of scientific certainty that the signature on the bank withdrawal slips was not Lawanna's handwriting but was indeed, Yolanda's. The handwriting evidence indisputably proved that Lawanna told the truth to the grand jury. With trust in the justice system, Lawanna and her family were excited when they took the evidence to Judge Arguello. Although the federal statute (Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure) gave Judge Arguello the option of vacating Clark's wrongful conviction "if the interest of justice so requires," neither Judge Arguello nor Kirsch showed interest in justice or evidence of Lawanna's innocence. Both Kirsch and Arguello told Clark she should have brought the evidence forward during trial and because she didn't, they were going to send her to prison, innocent or not. Kirsch, a depraved despot, then asked Judge Arguello to sentence Clark to 18 months in prison. Although the U.S. Supreme Court said the "primary constitutional duty of the judicial branch [is] to do justice in criminal prosecutions," Judge Arguello, a despot in her own right, refused to do justice and sentenced Lawanna to six months in prison. Lawanna and her family were devastated.

"With tears in her eyes, Wanna said to me, 'Mama, I can't go to prison,' recalls Pastor Rose Banks. "At that time we had not lost all hope, believing that the appellate court wouldn't send an innocent person to prison, but we soon found out the 10th Circuit judges were just as depraved as Judge Arguello and Kirsch and had no interest in doing justice for Wanna," adds Pastor Banks.

Tenth Circuit judges Briscoe, Hawkins and Murphy disregarded their constitutional duty to do justice and casually dismissed Clark's innocence and allowed her unlawful imprisonment, stating in their opinion that the handwriting evidence should've been brought earlier and claimed that the evidence "was not likely to result in an acquittal (10th Cir. case no. 10-1017, United States v. Lawanna Clark, 377 Fed. Appx. 818, 820 (10th Cir. 2010)). "Any person with barely average intelligence can see that Judge Briscoe's, Murphy's and Hawkins' claim that the handwriting evidence wouldn't result in an acquittal is an outright lie," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "Certainly, a handwriting expert testifying that she determined with scientific certainty that the handwriting on the bank withdrawal slips was Yolanda's, not Lawanna's, would definitely result in an acquittal," says Banks. "Furthermore, if these 10th Circuit judges were interested in doing justice and concerned about the grave possibility of Clark being wrongly imprisoned, they would've remanded the case back to Judge Arguello for an evidentiary hearing where Yolanda would testify that she withdrew the money from the account and corroborated her testimony by actual bank video of the transaction," adds Banks. "Judges Briscoe, Hawkins and Murphy proved to be despots when they shirked their constitutional duty to do justice in criminal prosecutions and allowed the innocent Clark to be imprisoned," says Banks. In the 2009 Supreme Court case of Dist. Attorney's Office v. Osborne, 557 U.S. 52, 99 (2009), Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who was joined by Justices Ginsberg, Breyer and Souter, said there is no justifiable reason to imprison someone who produces actual proof of innocence.

"It seems to me obvious that if a wrongly convicted person were to produce proof of...actual innocence, no [government] interest would be sufficient to justify his continued punitive detention," said Justice Stevens. "An individual's interest in his physical liberty is one of constitutional significance," added Justice Stevens.

It wasn't only the judges and AUSA Kirsch who betrayed Lawanna Clark and their fidelity to the Constitution, but also her double-dealing attorney from Denver named Rick Kornfeld who was a very close friend of Kirsch. During the trial, Lawanna and her family told Kornfeld that they wanted to get a handwriting expert and that Yolanda was at court and willing to testify but Kornfeld strangely told them he didn't think it was necessary to win the case and that the handwriting expert would be a waste of money.

"We had doubts about Mr. Kornfeld's recommendation and wondered why he resisted the handwriting expert and me testifying," says Yolanda Banks. "But with hesitation we deferred to his judgment," adds Yolanda. "Trusting Kornfeld was probably the biggest mistake of our lives," laments Yolanda. "We found out he had teamed up with Kirsch to imprison Wanna," says Yolanda. "While our family was waiting for oral arguments to begin in a 10th Circuit courtroom, Kornfeld walked in, gave our family and evil smirk and went to sit with Kirsch as he argued that Wanna's wrongful conviction should stand and that she be sent to prison," says Yolanda.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (1935), the United States Attorney's interest in a criminal prosecution "is not that it shall win the case, but justice shall be done." "As such, [a federal prosecutor] is a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer," declared the Supreme Court. "It is as much [a prosecutor's] duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one," explained the high court.

"Innocence should always matter to all federal judges!" says Banks. "How sick is it for Judges Arguello, Briscoe, Hawkins and Murphy to casually dismiss proof of Clark's innocence, ignore the constitutional significance of her liberty and allow her to be wrongly convicted and imprisoned?" asks Banks. "The pain these judges caused to Clark and her family is unimaginable, but they obviously didn't care," exclaims Banks. "As an advocacy organization, we must get Americans to understand that while there are really good federal judges who are attached to their humanity, committed to doing justice and deeply concerned about the human consequences of their decisions, there are judges and prosecutors (like the ones in the Lawanna Clark and IRP6 case) that are conscienceless despots who have no interest in justice," adds Banks. "If this can happen to Lawanna Clark and the IRP6 it can happen (and probably has) to any innocent American family, which is why I implore all Americans, including members of Congress and President Trump to read our 'Federal Judges Behaving Badly' series (see links below) and the fact-based dossier we published online that provides much more detail, including more of the Honorable Judge H. Lee Sarokin's writings about the
injustice, as well as court documents," concludes Banks.

Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Part 1) - http://bit.ly/2RYQHmI
Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Part 2) - http://bit.ly/2YUHnBD
Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Part 3) - http://bit.ly/2six9zn
Dossier - http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Obama Left Wrongly Convicted Black Businessmen Behind After Receiving Personal Letter from Federal Judge Requesting Clemency

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/06/2020 -- It's a well-known and accepted fact that the inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system have been a scourge that has disproportionately damaged African American communities and families and impaired the ability of a fair percentage of Black Americans to thrive in America. On January 2, 2020, thanks to President Trump and his administration spearheading the passage of the bipartisan First Step Act (FSA), Clinton Stewart (one of the wrongly-convicted African-American technology executives known as the IRP5 (formerly "IRP6"), was released early from an unlawful 10 year imprisonment received at the hands of the Obama Justice Department. Obama was given an opportunity to grant clemency to the IRP6 after former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin (Retired, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) sent him a personal letter telling him that the IRP6 were not only innocent, but also victims of an unjust conviction and incarceration due to government misconduct.

Judge Sarokin, who exhaustively reviewed the case, including trial records, said the wrongful conviction of the IRP6 was the worst injustice he'd ever witnessed in over 60 years in the law. "The government's contention that their business was a scam defies reality," Sarokin told the Washington Post in 2016 (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC). "All the proof in the case goes the opposite way," added Sarokin. The IRP6 were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay their [corporate] bills," Sarokin exclaimed to the Post. Current IRP5 attorney, Bernard Kleinman says the IRP5 injustice far rivals that of the late Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) whose conviction was overturned and indictment dismissed after Washington, DC district court judge, the Honorable Emmet Sullivan, determined that federal prosecutors from Obama's DOJ systematically concealed evidence that proved Senator Stevens was innocent. Three of the innocent IRP6 (David Banks, Demetrius Harper and David Zirpolo) whose clemency applications (along with Stewart's and Kendrick Barnes) have been pending for nearly two years, remain imprisoned at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado because of (1) judicial negligence/misconduct and (2) the BOP's deliberate insubordination to President Trump in apathetically implementing the FSA.

"Most people probably believed that President Trump didn't really care about criminal justice," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of justice advocacy organization, A Just Cause. "But he did pass the largest, most transformative criminal justice reform bill out of the five past administrations and possibly the largest in history, adds Banks. "And the African-American community is better for it," says Banks. "Whether you like or dislike President Trump or agree or disagree with his politics, he deserves credit for not only aggressively driving the passage of the FSA into law but also for the early release of Clinton Stewart," says Banks. "Obama, however, deserves harsh criticism for playing politics with the IRP5's freedom, leaving the innocent IRP5 behind to rot in prison for 7 to 11 years and disregarding Judge Sarokin, a prolific legal expert who spent 17 years on the federal bench after being nominated by two Democratic Presidents and confirmed twice by the U.S. Senate," adds Banks. "You can't find a more credible whistleblower than Judge Sarokin," exclaims Banks. "After Bradley "Chelsea" Manning admitted guilt to disseminating thousands of pages of classified materials that ultimately resulted in the death of American soldiers, Obama granted Manning clemency, claiming she was having a hard time in prison," says Banks. "I guess innocent African-American businessmen spending 7 to 11 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit were having a great time, so Obama didn't feel like they were worthy of a pardon," muses Banks. "Obama was a swamp politician who was too political to use clemency power to serve the cause of justice for the innocent IRP5," concludes Banks.

According to a dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Dretke v. Haley, 541 U.S. 386, 399 (2004) , "clemency power can correct injustices that the ordinary criminal process seems unable or unwilling to consider." "These mechanisms hold out the promise that mercy is not foreign to our system," added Justice Kennedy. "The law must serve the cause of justice," opined Justice Kennedy.

"I was released early because of the First Step Act, of which I am thankful to President Trump," says Clinton Stewart. "The Washington Post said only Obama could save us, but we now have a President in Trump who did more than pay lip service to criminal justice reform," adds Stewart. "My freedom, however, is bitter-sweet because three of my innocent brothers are still in bonds and were put there because the system was rigged against us," laments Stewart. "Thank you again, President Trump," concludes Stewart.

President Trump, Stewart and the First Step Act were celebrated by a sizeable, emotional and vociferous crowd of people as Stewart walked out of the Florence prison complex. The crowd, many of whom were African-American parishioners from the predominantly African-American Colorado Springs Fellowship Church where Stewart has been a member for nearly four decades, hoisted Trump signs and shouted "Trump! Trump! Trump!" When Stewart stepped onto free ground the crowd encircled him and greeted him with hugs and love. Both Stewart and his daughter Tiffany were interviewed on camera and personally thanked President Trump. One observer said the excitement and praise for Trump was so loud it reminded him of a baseball game. The celebration of Stewart's release and President Trump can be viewed online (Click on http://bit.ly/2FlNYvR)

To read more about the IRP5 injustice and the malicious government misconduct that took their freedom go to the following links:

Comprehensive Online Dossier of IRP6 Case - http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ

Federal Judges Behaving Badly, Part 1 - http://bit.ly/2RYQHmI

Federal Judges Behaving Badly, Part 2 - http://bit.ly/2YUHnBD

Federal Judges Behaving Badly, Part 3 - http://bit.ly/2six9zn

Black and White Justice - http://bit.ly/2D01PXC

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Judge Continues to Conceal Records of Her Religious Bias in Violation of Supreme Court

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/19/2019 -- "Secrecy of judicial action can only breed ignorance and distrust of courts and suspicion concerning the competence and impartiality of judges." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. (1976)

It is no secret that in the United States criminal and civil trials are public.

Federal judges are keenly aware that the U.S. Supreme Court says that "what transpires in a courtroom is public property" and that court proceedings should only be sealed in the rarest of circumstances such as the compelling interest of protecting the privacy of child rape victims, to protect a business' trade secrets or to protect a government confidential informant ("snitch") whose life will be in danger if their identity or testimony is made public. So why does federal judge Christine M.

Arguello continue violating the law by concealing virtually every record from a court proceeding after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated her sealing order on January 23, 2019 and instructed her to properly apply law to ensure the public can view court records? "Because court records will show Judge Arguello improperly used her court to promote her spite (and possibly hatred) against Colorado Springs Pastor Rose Banks, as well as to promote a public scandal against the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC) which Pastor Banks founded and has pastored for 38 years," says Cliff Stewart, President of A Just Cause (AJC).

The court proceeding in question concerns convicted felon Gary L. Walker, who, in 2011, was convicted in Judge Arguello's court of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud for two companies (IRP Solutions Corp. and Leading Team Inc.) where he served as President/CEO. Arguello sentenced Walker to 11 years in prison. According to the government's opposition brief in 2017, Walker (who at that time was Pastor Banks' son-in-law of 30 years) asked Judge Arguello to free him from prison on a new claim that he had only committed crimes because he was under a "religious spell" of Pastor Banks (See government brief online at http://bit.ly/2Oe82Y3 which was filed publicly but subsequently sealed by Judge Arguello after chastising the government). Any self-respecting judge would have sent Walker packing with his hocus-pocus/religious spell claim because it had absolutely nothing to do with Walker's conviction or sentencing, but Judge Arguello apparently harbored too much bias (and possibly hatred) against Pastor Banks to dismiss the golden opportunity Walker provided her to publicly vilify Pastor Banks and damage her and CSFC's reputation. "The cowardly CEO Walker claimed he was just a lowly software developer and blamed his wife and mother-in-law for running his companies and committing crimes of which he was convicted but claimed he was innocent of for 10 years," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "I am absolutely sickened that Gary would engage in such a despicable, cowardly act and disgusted that Judge Arguello used a federal court as her personal star chamber to personally attack this pastor, indict her Christian beliefs and demonize her church," adds Banks.

According to a few court records that haven't been kept secret, Judge Arguello allowed Walker and a dozen or more disgruntled former CSFC parishioners (some of whom had been excommunicated) to defame Pastor Banks' Christian beliefs and scrutinize the biblically backed doctrine being taught at CSFC. After Walker and his cabal of witnesses slandered Pastor Banks in a public proceeding, Judge Arguello, likely realizing she let her intense hatred of Pastor Banks go too far, sealed virtually every record in the proceeding in violation of the well-settled law of the Supreme Court, 10th Circuit and every other court in the land.

Court records show that from her bench in the PUBLIC hearing, Judge Arguello (who has never met Pastor Banks) shockingly claimed that Pastor Banks was a "vindictive" and "mean-spirited" prophet of God who controlled the minds of the 54 year-old Walker, his wife and son, Walker's five codefendants, and all CSFC parishioners. Judge Arguello has never met Pastor Banks, Walker's wife and son or been to the church. Judge Arguello's vitriolic comments and testimony of witnesses was so slanderous, it poisoned the minds of the 10th Circuit panel, prompting them to state in their January 23, 2019 opinion that sealed records showed CSFC "was far from the most upstanding litigant."

Judge Arguello was aware that ten years prior to Walker petitioning her for his freedom, Walker, his brother-in-law, COO David Banks (Pastor Banks' son) and four other decades-long friends who were executives at his companies, proclaimed their innocence and released a number of professionally produced online videos discussing their case (See videos at https://vimeo.com/11935525 - http://bit.ly/2sdCTVA - http://bit.ly/2ubWLKc - http://bit.ly/2szeGIH). "Judge Arguello witnessed Walker and his codefendants aggressively and coherently defend their innocence at trial as pro se defendants, which makes her conclusion that Walker's mind was being controlled absolutely crazy!" adds Cliff Stewart. "The proceeding wasn't about Walker, but Walker was a sword Judge Arguello used to publicly attack Pastor Banks for being the leader of a church where its members protested against her and the government outside the Denver federal courthouse in support of the IRP6 and for their malicious acts against CSFC," contends Stewart. Walker's services were obviously appreciated by Judge Arguello as court records show she immediately released him after telling him that because Pastor Banks had control of his mind and actions she understood "why he did what he did" in committing crimes. "Although Judge Arguello absurdly concluded the other five codefendants who worked under CEO Walker had their minds controlled by Pastor Banks, she obviously didn't free them because they wouldn't help her cause by lying about Pastor Banks controlling them," says Stewart.

During the ten years Walker proclaimed his innocence, hundreds of parishioners from CSFC lent their vocal First Amendment support to the IRP6 which included protesting outside the courthouse against the malicious acts of Judge Arguello and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Kirsch responsible for the malicious acts, including using a 2006/2007 IRP6 grand jury (no. 06-01) as subterfuge to destroy CSFC. Kirsch only subpoenaed church members before the grand jury who worked for IRP Solutions, but instead of focusing on the company, Kirsch peppered parishioners with questions about Pastor Banks, even asking if the church was a "cult." Court records indicate Kirsch privately colluded with banking officials to illegally obtain church and parishioner banking records without a valid subpoena. Parishioners were told by their banks that they had never received a subpoena for their financial records and grand jury transcripts show grand jurors (who would've been responsible for issuing a subpoena) asking the FBI agent where he obtained CSFC's banking records. Kirsch arrogantly proclaimed in court that "even if the [banking] records were improperly obtained" it had nothing to do with the IRP6 case.

A Just Cause believes the protests were likely the beginning of Judge Arguello's intense bias and that was exacerbated when Kirsch further inflamed Arguello's anger when during court he described some of the signs being carried by the protesters that criticized her. Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice conducted a six-month investigation into the IRP6 case said Judge Arguello's bias was on display throughout the trial. Over the years Judge Arguello's bias clearly metastasized due to AJC publishing hundreds of press releases severely critical of Judge Arguello and other government officials who have known for years about the IRP6's innocence and the misconduct responsible for their wrongful conviction but did nothing to correct the injustice.

On November 21, 2019, after ten months of stewing over the 10th Circuit vacating her unlawful sealing order, Judge Arguello responded by issuing an order claiming she "has nothing to hide" but stated she won't unseal records because she's so worried that the slanderous testimony (which she allowed and participated in during a PUBLIC hearing) would have an "adverse impact" on CSFC's ministry (See Arguello's order online at http://bit.ly/2trqpiL). "Give me a break," says Stewart. "If Judge Arguello was truly concerned about the reputation of Pastor Banks and CSFC she wouldn't have slandered them and allowed Walker and his cabal of witnesses to do the same in a PUBLIC hearing," adds Stewart.

Arguello also claimed in her order that she wants to keep testimonial records sealed out of her deep concern for the "safety and welfare" of Walker and his witnesses and wants to protect them from "possible harassment" resulting from the type of so-called harassment she has endured from A Just Cause publishing "scathing" press releases about her conduct in the IRP6 case. Glaring evidence of Judge Arguello's bias is apparent when in her order she blames Pastor Banks and CSFC for AJC press releases, stating "CSFC lashes our unrelentingly towards those whom Pastor Banks perceives to have wronged her or her church" and says records must remained sealed because Pastor Banks and CSFC will do the same to Walker and his witnesses. Having enough of Judge Arguello's incessant bias and continuing failure to follow the law, Constitution and the 10th Circuit's instructions, CSFC attorney Bernard Kleinman filed a motion for Judge Arguello to recuse herself and asked to have the case re-assigned to another judge (online at http://bit.ly/2S1lWNJ ). In his motion, Kleinman addresses Judge Arguello's bias and her bizarre "harassment" characterization of AJC's First Amendment right to publicize press releases critical of her conduct. If Judge Arguello refuses to recuse herself Kleinman will petition the 10th Circuit to remove her.

In their opinion (online at http://bit.ly/36S0EXp), the 10th Circuit stressed to Judge Arguello that the law strongly supports CSFC and the public's right of access to Walker's habeas proceeding because (1) the proceeding was used to determine Walker's substantive legal rights, (2) the fact that no jury was present, CSFC's and public's right to view records is 'even more significant' and (3) when the information was already disclosed in public, any interest in sealing is diminished. In fact, in 2000, the 10th Circuit said that "those using the courts must be prepared to accept the scrutiny that is an inherent part of public trials." Femedeer v. Haun, 227 F.3d 1244, 1246 (10th Cir. 2000).

A Just Cause has scoured case law of the Supreme Court and every other federal circuit in the country and couldn't find a single case where a federal judge sealed records for information that had already been disclosed in public proceeding. In her order Judge Arguello claims that in the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case of Nixon v. Warner Communications gave her the right to deny every member of the public access to ALL of the records in Walker's case on the false claim that CSFC only wants them to "gratify private spite" against Walker and his witnesses. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals discredits Judge Arguello's rationale for concealing public court records under the "gratify private spite' standard because it does not apply to information "already publicly disclosed...at a public session of court." See In re: Application of National Broadcasting Co., 635 F.2d 945, 950 (2nd Cir. 1980). The U.S. Supreme Court gets the last word for Judge Arguello concerning her unlawful concealment of court records from the public in contravention of their precedent:

"In view of this nation's historic distrust of secret proceedings" and "their inherent dangers to freedom"...we recognize that "public access to court proceedings is one of the numerous 'checks and balances' of our system, because 'contemporaneous review in the forum of public opinion is an effective restraint on possible abuse of judicial power'...Indeed, [this] Court focused with particularity" on public proceedings serving "as a safeguard against any attempt to employ our courts as instruments of persecution" or "for the suppression of political or RELIGIOUS heresies...Open [proceedings] are indispensable to First Amendment political and RELIGIOUS freedoms" and "for reporting truthful information about judicial misconduct..." U.S. Supreme Court, Richmond Newspapers Inc. v. Commonwealth of Virginia 448 U.S. 555 592-93 (1980) (citations omitted).

For more details on the IRP6 case, including additional misconduct by Judge Arguello, including her conspiring to conceal and/or destroy a court transcript to cover her violation of the IRP6 defendants 5th Amendment rights and violation of a federal statute, check out following links:

Federal Judges Behaving Badly, Part 1 - http://bit.ly/2RYQHmI

Federal Judges Behaving Badly, Part 2 - http://bit.ly/2YUHnBD

Comprehensive Dossier of Facts and Documents Complied by A Just

Cause - http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ

Judge Arguello's Racial Bias in IRP6 Case - http://bit.ly/2D01PXC

Washington Post Article - Former Federal Appeals Judge Discusses IRP6's

Innocence and Government's Fraudulent Case - www.wapo.st/29jXqSC

David Banks' (IRP6) Letter to President Trump About Obama

Administration Failure and Wrongful Conviction - http://bit.ly/2wUlqTQ

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Court Records Confirm Allegations That Judges Conspired to Violate the Law in IRP6 Case

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/03/2019 -- "The basic rationale of the law of conspiracy is that a conspiracy may be an evil in itself, independently of any other evil it seeks to accomplish." U.S. Supreme Court, 1951

Americans are aware that in criminal cases prosecutors call witnesses before a jury to prove charges it levied against criminal defendants. To guarantee due process, a fair trial and to ensure that powerful prosecutors don't have an unfair advantage to convict the innocent, the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants defendants the right to call witnesses in their favor to disprove government charges or cast reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors that they committed a crime. In a Colorado federal criminal case (case no. 09-cr-00266-CMA or "IRP6" case), court records prove that federal judges and prosecutors entered into a conspiratorial agreement to deprive pro se criminal defendants of their 6th Amendment rights to call expert witnesses and did so by overtly violating a federal statute.

According to a 1995 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, "an agreement constituting a conspiracy [in violation of U.S. federal criminal code 18 U.S.C. 371] may be inferred from the acts of the [judges] and other circumstantial evidence indicating concert of action for the accomplishment of a common purpose." The trial judge in the IRP6 case was Judge Christine M. Arguello, 10th Circuit judges are Bobby Baldock, Harris Hartz and Jerome Holmes and federal prosecutors were former Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh (an Obama appointee) and his underlings, Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSA) Matthew T. Kirsch and Suneeta Hazra.

The IRP6 case exposes the dark underbelly of the American criminal justice system where secret deals to violate the law are struck between federal judges and prosecutors to determine the outcome of convictions against those who dare to defy them by aggressively defending their innocence--where evidence of innocence doesn't matter--and where you're guilty simply because elite win-at-any-cost prosecutors and crony judges want you to be guilty and are willing to employ a nefarious, ends-justifies-the-means approach to gain a wrongful conviction. After an unfair trial rife with constitutional violations Judge Arguello imprisoned the innocent IRP6 defendants (David A. Banks, Clinton A. Stewart, Demetrius K. Harper, David A. Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes) to harsh sentences of 7 to 11 years.

BACKGROUND

Walsh and Kirsch claimed in their indictment (which was shown to be fraudulent at trial- See http://bit.ly/2r2MX8c) that the IRP6 conspired to violate U.S. mail and wire fraud laws by making false statements about having a current or impending contract with a large law enforcement agency to induce staffing companies into extending them unsecured credit for temporary labor services -- credit which the government's own staffing witnesses testified was based on credit checks, not statements related to a government contract as the indictment falsely alleged. Former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin confirmed the government's case was a fraud, telling the Washington Post the IRP6 were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay their [corporate] bills." "The government's contention that their business was a scam defies reality," added Sarokin, "ALL the proof in the case goes the opposite way," declared Sarokin (Washington Post article online at www.wapo.st/29jXqSC).

Because their defense attorneys were apathetic and continually pressured them to take a plea deal, all of the IRP6 fired them on the same day and chose to represent their innocence against the government, which included calling expert witnesses from the staffing industry to testify at their trial. Prior to trial, two staffing experts who agreed to testify for the IRP6, sent letters to Walsh discussing staffing industry business practices and explaining that the IRP6 had done nothing untoward, that their business dealings with staffing companies were consistent with customary industry practices, and that the staffing companies were not deceived or forced to do business but consciously chose to do business with IRP Solutions based on the potential of their innovative criminal investigations software. One of the experts (Andrew Albarelle) was such as well-respected expert by law enforcement he had been previously called on by the FBI to assist them with staffing fraud cases -- a point Albarelle alluded to in his letter to Walsh. (See expert's letters online at http://bit.ly/2jDm4Uf & http://bit.ly/2f7mFZ3).

Kirsch wasn't going to allow these experts destroy his case so he allegedly initiated an unlawful scheme to disqualify them from testifying but to be successful he would need trial judge Christine Arguello and the 10th Court of Appeals to conspire with him. It can be inferred from evidence in court records that Judge Arguello and 10th Circuit judges Baldock, Hartz and Holmes gave Kirsch their full cooperation.

Kirsch began by falsely arguing to Arguello that Rule 16(b)(1)(C) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure gave him the right to view a written summary of what the IRP6's experts intended to testify about at trial. Kirsch told Arguello that because the IRP6 defendants had not provided him with written summaries, the IRP6's expert witnesses should be disqualified from testifying.

Rule 16(b)(1)(C) staes that "a defendant must, at the government's request, give the government a written summary of any expert testimony that the defendant intends to use...[IF AND ONLY] IF the defendant [first] requests disclosure" of the government's expert witnesses "AND THE GOVERNMENT COMPLIES."

Court records show that government didn't call expert witnesses and that the IRP6 did not request a written summary nor had reason to. With those uncontroverted facts of law in hand Judge Arguello conspired with Kirsch to violated Rule 16(b)(1)(C) and the IRP6's 6th Amendment rights and disqualified the experts from testifying. Shockingly, 10th Circuit judges Baldock, Hartz and Holmes followed suit, but their acts were much more sinister -- they partially quoted Rule 16(b)(1)(C) in their opinion to make it appear as if they were abiding by the law.

The 10th Circuit opinion (United States v. Banks, 761 F.3d 1163, 1198 (10th Cir. 2014)) shows that Judge Holmes cited and quoted Rule 16(b)(1)(C) without the "IF" clause which shows that IRP6 had no obligation to provide Kirsch with written summaries of their experts. "If intentionally excluding a portion of federal statute doesn't prove that Baldock, Hartz and Holmes corruptly conspired with Kirsch and Arguello to violate the constitutional rights of the IRP6, nothing else does," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause and brother of David Banks (IRP6). "Their behavior was despicable and inexcusable in light of Congress giving them very explicit instructions on how to apply Rule 16(b)(1)(C)," adds Lamont Banks (AJC).

According to the 1997 Amendment of Rule 16(b)(1)(C), the Congressional Notes of the Advisory Committee states that "pretrial discovery of...expected testimony of both defense and government expert witnesses...are TRIGGERED BY DEFENSE REQUESTS for information." "If the defense makes such requests and the government complies, the government is [then] entitled to similar reciprocal discovery," the Congressional Advisory Committee noted. Court records show that in 2009 the entire 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which includes judges from the IRP6 case issued a landmark opinion about applying Rule 16 (b)(1)(C) and it included the "IF" clause. That landmark opinion was United States v. Nacchio, 555 F.3d 1234 (10th Cir. 2009).

In Nacchio every judge in the 10th Circuit confirmed that defendants are ONLY obligated to provide a written summary of their expert witnesses "IF they first request the same of the government and the government complies." The 10th Circuit also explained how Rule 16(b)(1)(C) was derived from the "special CONSTITUTIONAL constraints of criminal proceedings." "In criminal proceedings, the defendant is entitled to keep his cards close to vest," said Judge McConnell dissenting, meaning that in criminal cases, the government has no right to know what a defendant's experts are going to testify about unless the defendant surrenders that right by first requesting to see the proposed testimony of the government's expert witnesses.

"Congress mandated in unambiguous language how Rule 16(b)(1)(C) should be applied but Kirsch, Arguello and the 10th Circuit intentionally disregarded it to make it impossible for us to defend our innocence," says David Banks (IRP6). "Prosecutors, like judges are required to know the law and took an oath to uphold the Constitution but throughout this entire fraudulent case, Kirsch, Judge Arguello and the 10th Circuit went to great lengths to ensure we were wrongly convicted, unlawfully imprisoned and continued that unlawful imprisonment, and that included violating Rule 16 and our 6th Amendment rights. We never committed a crime and didn't deserve to be treated this way by our justice system," states Banks (IRP6).

"A Just Cause will continue its aggressive campaign to vindicate the IRP6 by publicizing and disseminating the irrefutable evidence of malicious, intentional misconduct by justice officials that was responsible for their unlawful conviction and imprisonment," says Lamont Banks (AJC).

Be on the lookout for Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Part 3) and expect to be shocked again by more acts of misconduct by justice officials in the IRP6 case.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Court Records Indicate Federal Judges and Prosecutors Conspired to Unconstitutionally Convict and Imprison Defendants

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/22/2019 -- Federal prosecutors boast a 98% conviction rate not because they are that good, but because (1) they cheat, and (2) many federal judges (most of whom are former prosecutors) are their friends and will protect them at any cost, even if that means violating the 5th and 6th Amendments of the Constitution and a federal statute to unconstitutionally convict and imprison innocent defendants as court records show federal judges and prosecutors did in the IRP6 case (Dist. of Colo. no. 09-cr-00266-CMA). The trial judge in the IRP6 case was Christine M. Arguello, the 10th Circuit appellate court judges were Bobby Baldock, Harris Hartz and Jerome Holmes and federal prosecutors were former Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh and his underlings, current Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew T. Kirsch and Suneeta Hazra. The officials didn't just behave badly, their conduct was an abomination in the American justice system.

5th Amendment Violation and Mysterious Disappearance of Transcript to Cover Unlawful Conduct
Background

Trial records show the government rested its case a week and a half early, which left the pro se IRP6 scrambling to get their witnesses (many of whom were out-of-state) scheduled to testify. Judge Arguello became frustrated after a subpoenaed in-state law enforcement witness failed to appear. Instead of assisting the IRP6 to get the witness to the courthouse, Judge Arguello became frustrated and called the IRP6 to a sidebar to chastise them for not having a witness available. The IRP6 assert that during the sidebar where two prosecutors were present, an irascible Judge Arguello compelled them to testify in violation of the 5th Amendment by telling them that "if their witnesses were not immediately available that one of them would have to testify or she would rest their case." The six defendants huddled together in frustration and disillusionment to discuss which one of them would have to testify to keep their defense alive. During cross-examination, the defendants became more frustrated that Judge Arguello had forced them to testify, prompting one of them to object and take the 5th Amendment on behalf of the codefendant on the stand. The angry Judge Arguello immediately dismissed the jury and all six defendants made it known to Judge Arguello that she had forced them to testify during the sidebar.

Judge Arguello immediately denied compelling them to testify while admitting she didn't remember exactly what she said. The IRP6 contemporaneously requested to see the sidebar transcript to resolve the dispute. Judge Arguello refused to tell the court reporter to read back the sidebar and claimed she would give it to the defendants but never did. The IRP6 continued asking for the transcript during and after trial only to receive prevarications from Judge Arguello, the court reporter (Darlene Martinez) and the district court clerk's office. The critical portion of the transcript mysteriously vanished, making it impossible for the IRP6 to appeal the 5th Amendment violation. It bears noting that both prosecutors who were present at the sidebar remained silent when they could've resolved the dispute. It was these events that prompted advocacy organization A Just Cause to file a lawsuit against the court reporter on behalf of the IRP6 to try and obtain the unedited version of transcript which the court reporter is required by law to keep on file in the clerk's office for 10 years.

Both federal judge R. Brooke Jackson (District of Colorado) and former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin (Retired, U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals) reviewed and analyzed the facts and evidence surrounding the 5th Amendment violation and the missing transcript. Each judge issued damning revelations implicating misconduct by Judge Arguello, AUSA's Kirsch and Hazra or all of them. Sarokin also discussed the 10th Circuit's responsibilities under the law based on the facts of the case. Advocacy organization A Just Cause (AJC) also filed judicial complaints against Arguello, Baldock, Hartz and Holmes but because of cronyism they were dismissed irrespective of the irrefutable proof of wrongdoing. AJC also filed a lawsuit against the court reporter to obtain the transcript which resulted in a detailed opinion written by Judge Jackson (A Just Cause v. United States, 45 F. Supp. 3d 1258 (USDC, Dist. Colo., 2014)).

Judge Jackson's Findings

After reviewing the transcripts, Judge Jackson stated, "it is undisputed that Judge Arguello said something that does not appear in the transcript--either the unedited or final version." Judge Arguello "offered no explanation as to why one of her statements were not recorded," added Jackson. As part of an appeal settlement process, the IRP6 asked tJudge Arguello to admit to their version of what she said. But Judge Arguello balked and rejected the request and made an absurd statement that proved she had been untruthful and was covering up about compelling the IRP6 defendants to testify.
"For whatever reason," said Judge Arguello, "whether the parties spoke too far from the microphone or the court reporter took off her headphones, the court reporter did not hear everything that was said at the sidebar and therefore did not transcribe anything besides what is contained in the edited transcript," added Arguello.

"It's obvious from this statement that Judge Arguello is weaving a tangled web of deceit to cover-up her corrupt act," says IRP6 defendant David Banks. "How did the court reporter start recording the sidebar, take off her headphones and stop doing her job of transcribing just long enough to not hear Judge Arguello compel us to testify, then put her headphones back on and continue recording the rest of the sidebar," adds Banks. "Furthermore, if the court reporter couldn't hear Judge Arguello, why didn't she say so as court records show she did numerous times for parties during the trial," says Banks. "Additionally, Judge Arguello asserts that 'the parties' may have spoken too far from the microphone when the only party whose statements are missing from the transcript is hers," says Banks.
The now not so mysterious disappearance of the transcript resulted in: (1) the alleged 5th Amendment violation being unresolved, (2) the government's case undamaged, (3) Judge Arguello's reputation intact, and (4) the IRP6 out in the cold without a sufficient record to prove or appeal the alleged constitutional violation. Kirsch and Arguello unconstitutionally convicted and imprisoned the IRP6 and attempted to cover it up. You would expect that the 10th Circuit would follow the plain, unambiguous language of precedent established in their circuit based on the Constitution and the Supreme Court, but that didn't happen.

The Constitution and Governing Law
1) The Fifth Amendment of the United States, states that: "No person...shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself."
2) In the 1971 case of Mayer v. Chicago, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) states: an "appellant cannot be denied a record of sufficient completeness to permit proper consideration of his claims" and that "prejudicial [prosecutorial or judicial] misconduct cannot be fairly judged without a verbatim transcript."
3) In obeying the Supreme Court, the 10th Circuit stated that a case must be reversed or overturned: "When the unavailability of a transcript makes it impossible for [them] to determine whether or not prejudicial error was committed" by a prosecutor or judge.

On his Huffington Post blog, Judge Sarokin discussed ten (10) "uncontested facts" from the record that showed Judge Arguello violated the IRP6's Fifth Amendment rights (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin/the-case-of-the-missing-t_1_b_5340397.html). "With all the uncontroverted evidence, the [10th Circuit] certainly has enough evidence to conclude the right against self-incrimination indeed was violated by [Judge Arguello]; that defendants reasonably believed that at least one of them was required to testify in order to have their defense remain open; and that they succumbed to that threat, and immediately voiced their objections," Sarokin blogged. The failure of the federal prosecutors Kirsch and Hazra to defend Judge Arguello or the truth by providing an affidavit or testimony of what they recall being said by Judge Arguello "speaks volumes," said Sarokin. Prosecutors are ethically and lawfully bound to seek the truth, not and unfair advantage through silence to win at any cost," says Banks (IRP6).

Instead of following well-settled law and reversing the wrongful conviction on 5th Amendment grounds, 10th Circuit judges Baldock, Hartz and Holmes decided to protect Arguello and Kirsch and cheat the IRP6. Without a transcript, and proceeding upon the assumption that Judge Arguello made the coercive statement alleged by the IRP6, Baldock, Hartz and Holmes miraculously read the mind of Judge Arguello and determined exactly what she meant by the coercive statement she denied making--that being that Judge Arguello meant for the defendants to call the FBI agent sitting at the government's table to testify and that the IRP6's failure to do so meant they voluntarily testified. There is nothing in the trial record where Judge Arguello tells the defendants to call the FBI agent.
"How could the 10th Circuit possibly know what Judge Arguello was thinking from a statement she denied making? And how did they read our minds to determine how we perceived and reacted to a statement Judge Arguello denied making but we said she made," adds Banks (IRP6). "If Judge Arguello wanted us to call the FBI agent, wouldn't she have communicated that to us?" asks Banks (IRP6). "After our repeated complaints about being forced to testify, AUSA Kirsch implicitly admitted Judge Arguello compelled us to testify when he did some Monday morning quarterbacking by suggesting to Judge Arguello that we could've called the FBI agent instead testifying," says Banks. Judge Sarokin also blogged that trial records showed Kirsch implicitly admitted he'd heard Judge Arguello make coercive statements during the sidebar when he "wanted clarification that the defendants were going to testify in any event despite the problem producing witnesses." "The 10th Circuit cheated us by disregarding the law and Constitution and using clairvoyance to read minds and Kirsch's self-serving suggestion to affirm our unconstitutional conviction and continue our unlawful imprisonment. These are cruel people," concludes Banks (IRP6).

The duplicitous acts surrounding the disappearance of the transcript saddened and disturbed Judge Sarokin, who, after digging deeper into the case, found that the IRP6 were innocent. Sarokin told the Washington Post that the IRP6 (some of whom are military veterans) were "indicted and imprisoned for not paying their [corporate] bills" associated with developing criminal investigations software after 9/11 to aid law enforcement with information sharing and collaboration (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC). "The government's contention that their business was a scam defies reality," Sarokin told the Post. "All the proof in the case goes the opposite way," added Sarokin.

Trial records show Judge Arguello refused to dismiss the case when the government's own witnesses exposed the charges in the indictment as fraudulent and proved the IRP6 were innocent (Details at http://bit.ly/2D01PXC

Be on the lookout for "Federal Judges Behaving Badly (Part 2)" to see how court records expose these officials' blatant violation of a federal statute and the IRP6's 6th Amendment rights.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Black Executives Harshly Imprisoned While White Executives' Case Dismissed

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/19/2019 -- Denver federal judge Christine M. Arguello applies a different standard of justice for black businessmen then she does for white ones. According to an October 2, 2013 Law360 article, Judge Arguello dismissed a case against top white Delta Petroleum executives who were accused of defrauding investors by misrepresenting Delta's financial position to artificially inflate stock prices. (Dist. Colo. nos. 1:12-cv-01038 & 1:12-cv-01521). But just a year earlier Judge Arguello imposed harsh prison sentences of 7 to 11 years to corporate executives of the IRP Solutions Corporation (known as the "IRP6") who were accused of misrepresenting their contract status with staffing companies to receive unsecured credit for hourly wages paid to temporary contract employees to work on law enforcement-related software projects (Dist. of Colo. case no. 09-CR-00266-CMA). Bear in mind that the staffing companies provided their own staffing services contract (with their payment terms) to IRP executives who signed the contract to receive services.

"I don't know if race played a part but if you put all the connections together I don't know that there's any other conclusion," prominent former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin told the Washington Post about the IRP6 case and the harsh sentences (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC). One of those connections comes directly from trial records where Judge Arguello used racially coded language with the only white executive of the IRP6 (David Zirpolo) to reference his five black codefendant executives.
"And instead of using your God-given talents to advance yourself legally...you got involved with THIS GROUP, [choosing] to use those talents in a way that was fraudulent and criminal," said federal judge Christine M. Arguello in addressing David Zirpolo during his sentencing hearing. Arguello didn't use the THIS GROUP reference during the sentencing of the five black codefendants. "I have to be blunt," says Zirpolo. "Judge Arguello was clearly telling me that if I hadn't got involved with this group of blacks/n-word's I wouldn't be a criminal," adds Zirpolo. "I wasn't even a target of the investigation until I brought a binder of evidentiary documents proving our innocence to the grand jury," adds Zirpolo. "During the grand jury, prosecutors were incensed when I raised a binder of evidentiary documentation of our innocence and grand jurors asked to see it," says Zirpolo. "Subsequently, I was indicted, wrongly convicted in a fraudulent trial and imprisoned for 10 years by Judge Arguello--all for supporting the truth and standing by my decades-long friends who just happened to be black," adds Zirpolo.

Judge Arguello said that the case against Delta failed to specifically identify how statements made by Delta executives were false or could have misled a reasonable investor. "A corporation's self-praise about its business strategy plays no serious role in market participants' evaluation of potential investments," said Arguello. "Reasonable investors do not normally rely on vague, optimistic statements in making investment decisions," added Arguello.

How would optimistic statements by IRP executives about believing they're on the verge of gaining government contract mislead a reasonable creditor? Certainly, reasonable creditors wouldn't rely on optimistic statements to make credit or investment decisions. Creditors check credit reports and bank references to determine creditworthiness prior to extending credit. Prior to trial two staffing experts willing to testify for the IRP6 at trial sent letters to then Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh discussing staffing industry business practices, making it clear that the staffing companies were not forced to do business with IRP and that the IRP executives had done nothing untoward. One expert pointed out that he had previously worked closely with the FBI to help assist them in investigations of staffing related fraud (See letters at http://bit.ly/33PuSbV & http://bit.ly/2f7mFZ3 ).
Trial transcripts repeatedly show staffing company witnesses confirming what the experts told Walsh in their letters, admitting that they were not induced into doing business, but relied on customary credit checks. Some high-level staffing executives stated they considered doing business with IRP as an investment and took risks for potential future business and revenue. Irrespective of these admissions by virtually ALL the government's twenty (20) staffing company witnesses, Judge Arguello refused to dismiss the case against the African American company and the government plowed ahead to win a wrongful conviction.

To show the public, members of Congress, and other legal professionals that the government's entire case was a complete fraud, and Arguello was a dishonest, racially-biased judge in the IRP6 case, A Just Cause has posted on the Internet actual trial transcripts of testimony from seventeen (17) of the government's twenty (20) staffing witnesses--all of which totally disprove the government's charges of criminal conduct. Here are a few:
Cross Examination of Vice President Scott Tait from (Adecco North America) about his interaction with COO David Banks (IRP6):

Q. What factors came into play when your group was discussing whether to enter into this relationship [with IRP6 company]?
A. Mr. Banks...put on a good show. He made a believer out of me.
Q. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "he put on a good show"?
A. He is very good at articulating where he was going to go, what was going to happen, and the possibility of us all making money.
Q. What was part of the good show as you call it?
A. Produced Magazine Articles. Threw names around; Mayor Webb at the time. And said he had contacts within the FBI, within state and local governments.
Q. And so the statement that he had contacts with the people, was made. Did he infer that that somehow constituted a contract with the agency?
A No.
Q. And in considering the proposition that Mr. Banks was making to you, what thought -- did you get into the risks in a company you knew very little about?
A. Everything is a risk. This was a little riskier. But I felt at the time, the information given, and the ending payout, that was worth the risk.

Donald Crockett with CTG said he treated doing business with IRP as an "investment" and expected the relationship would "lead to more profitable business." Crockett also said IRP Vice President Clinton Stewart talked about IRP "supporting applications for criminal justice systems," "didn't mention companies in specific" but said they were "PURSUING" business with New York.
Ms. Stephens from Spherion said they "strongly rely" on "Dun & Bradstreet" credit reports in determining whether to do business with IRP and confirmed that she told the FBI that Banks told her that IRP is "TRYING TO SECURE A CONTRACT WITH THE NYPD."
Transcripts show other staffing companies testified that other statements made by the IRP6 were that "they had a great project with the NYPD," "they anticipated closing business any day," "working with the NYPD," and "did software stuff with the NYPD." Inducement was impossible given that virtually every staffing company witness admitted they were not involved or personally responsible for approving credit for IRP but that was left up to their credit/accounting departments who made those decisions strictly based on Dun & Bradstreet credit reports and bank references, yet the government still put them on the stand to promote its false inducement allegation (View transcripts online at (http://bit.ly/2q7Kpmy ).
"As the transcripts clearly show, the government presented zero evidence we made false statements about having a 'current or impending contract' which was the central charge in the indictment," says David Banks (IRP6). "Furthermore, if we had actually made those statements, they couldn't possibly induce a staffing company to extend doing business because as the transcripts show and common business practices dictate, those decisions are based on creditworthiness," adds Banks. "We did not commit a crime. These charges were manufactured by the government as part of the New Jim Crow," contends Banks. The IRP6 were "indicted and imprisoned for not paying their bills," Sarokin told the Post. "The government's contention that their business was a scam defies reality. All the proof in the case goes the opposite way," asserted Sarokin.

Judge Sarokin did everything he could to get justice for the IRP6, including sending President Obama a letter seeking clemency, sending letters to the DOJ (AG Loretta Lynch) and Senator Corey Booker (now a presidential candidate). "President Obama, Booker and other officials totally disregarded Judge Sarokin and left us in prison because we provided no political benefit to them," says Banks (IRP6). "Their inaction in our case shows that their talk about implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system was nothing but lip service," adds Banks (IRP6). "When will someone from our government or media take our horrible injustice serious and hold these government officials accountable for maliciously depriving us of our freedom for over 7 years and counting, bringing pain and suffering to our families and for the destruction of our business and livelihood," concludes Banks (IRP6).
For more detailed facts and documents about the IRP6 case, view the online dossier (http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ) compiled by A Just Cause.

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Disturbing History of Colorado Justice Officials Concealing Misconduct in Wrongful Conviction

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/22/2019 -- In 2014, federal Judge Christine Arguello, Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh and his underling Assistant United States Attorney Matthew T. Kirsch were publicly criticized by former federal appeals Judge H. Lee Sarokin and other prominent attorneys and justice advocates for allegedly concealing and/or destroying court transcripts to ensure the government did not lose a criminal case against innocent Colorado software executives. The case against IRP Solutions Corporation executives (known as the "IRP6") has been generally characterized by experts as a fraudulent indictment concocted by the government based on an improbable and incoherent theory.

After exhaustively reviewing the IRP6 case (District of Colorado case no. 09-cr-00266-CMA) former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin told the Washington Post in 2016 that the evidence showed the IRP6 were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay corporate bills" incurred from temporary labor provided by staffing companies for law enforcement software projects (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC ). Prior to trial, staffing experts sent letters to Walsh explaining that staffing companies were not forced or duped into doing business with IRP but choose to do business (as they routinely do) with the more risky technology start-ups because of their promising software (letters online at http://bit.ly/2jDm4Uf and http://bit.ly/2f7mFZ3 ).

Deeply troubled by the wrongful conviction and an unfair trial rife with constitutional violations and questionable conduct by the Kirsch, Arguello and the 10th Circuit, Judge Sarokin sent a letter to President Obama requesting a pardon for the IRP6. Sarokin told Obama that "the prosecution argued to the jury...two wholly inconsistent theories," the first of which was "that the petitioners lied about their prospects for business in order to get staffing companies to work on the [software], and second, that the [software] was a scam." Sarokin went on explaining to Obama that "any reasonable analysis of the two theories side-by-side would and should have led to the inevitable conclusion that there was no evidence of criminal intent on the part of the [IRP6]." Sarokin asked Obama to consider that even if one were to assume "the IRP6 exaggerated or even lied about their business prospects (which they denied doing)" all he would have to do is to ask the following series of questions to render the government's "inconsistent charges absurd."

1. How would they make money, if the staffing companies hired and paid the workers directly?
2. Why would the petitioners continue to engage staffing companies to work on a [software] program if it were a phony scam?
3. If it were a scam:
a. Why spend years working on it?
b. Why invest money with friends and family?
c. Why hire former FBI agents and law enforcement officers to work on the project?
d. Why focus as your only target [of the scam]--law enforcement, FBI, Homeland Security, Congress, etc.
e. Why hire two law firms to guide and assist you?
f. Why lease expensive space and invite local law enforcement to the opening?
g. Why personally guarantee the obligations to the staffing companies?
h. Why fly around the country and incur the expenses of demonstrating it?

"There can only be one logical conclusion from all of this," wrote Sarokin to Obama, "the petitioners continued to engage staffing companies because they believed in their program; expected it to be successful and be able to pay their debts."

Court records also show the lead FBI agent on two occasions actually saying in open court that if the IRP executives had paid their "debts" there would have been no criminal case. Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice, conducted a six-month investigation into the IRP6 case and concluded the government's case "can't stand up to scrutiny" because Kirsch concocted a "bogus business theory" to wrongly-convict and imprison the men. "And that is why both the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office and Judge Arguello continue to go to great lengths to deny access to court records or conceal or destroy critical court transcripts," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause.

Court records show that at one time Judge Arguello's court reporter admitted to omitting 200 pages of the trial transcript, part of which was related to allegations by the IRP6 that during a sidebar Judge Arguello violated their 5th Amendment rights by threatening to terminate their defense if they, as pro se defendants, didn't agree to testify against the government's bogus charges. Judge Arguello admitted she couldn't remember exactly what she said but denied the request by the IRP6 defendants to see the transcript before it mysteriously disappeared. Judge Sarokin was not only shocked at Arguello's refusal to provide the transcript, but also at two federal prosecutors' silence about Judge Arguello statements and the failure of the 10th Circuit to follow the law by reversing the conviction and ordering a new trial (www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin/the-case-of-the-missing-t_1_b_5340397.html). On AJC's radio program Judge Sarokin discussed the two options the 10th Circuit had under the law.

"The [10th Circuit] would...either order that the transcript be produced or they'd have to reverse, because the unavailability of the transcript makes it impossible for the appellate court to determine whether or not prejudicial error or not has been committed," said Sarokin ("A Just Cause Coast to Coast," Blog Talk Radio, 4/15/2014). "How are they going to decide if they don't have the information," added Sarokin. During the same radio broadcast, prominent attorney Darren Kavinoky said the suspicious disappearance of the transcript "would feed concerns and conspiracy theorists alike and frankly that is a disconcerting notion." "I think there is a reasonable inference that can be drawn...that the missing piece would therefore be favorable to the defense," added Kavinoky. Although the law clearly required reversal of the conviction, the 10th Circuit, presumably to protect Arguello and Kirsch, refused to free the IRP6 and allowed their wrongful imprisonment to continue.

In 2019, Judge Arguello took her concealment of misconduct to another level, this time sealing an entire IRP6 related proceeding from public view where it is alleged she secretly used her court to conduct personal attacks against the IRP6's Pastor (Rose Banks) and Church (Colorado Springs Fellowship Church). The proceeding concerned the unusual release of IRP Solutions CEO Gary Walker from prison who Judge Arguello harshly sentenced to 11 years for being a leader of the alleged conspiracy against staffing companies. Judge Arguello released Walker after he claimed he committed crimes because he was under a "religious spell" of Pastor Banks (Govt. Opposition Brief, Dist. Colo. no. 1:15-CV-02223-CMA, Doc. 922). Although Kirsch opposed, Judge Arguello held an evidentiary hearing on Walker's "hocus-pocus" claims and when it ended, she made the highly respected Pastor Banks the leader of criminal conspiracy. In an unprecedented move that wreaks of collusion between the government and Arguello, AUSA Kirsch silently abandoned his opposition and allowed Judge Arguello to immediately release Walker while leaving the other five codefendants in prison. "I believe Kirsch and Judge Arguello agreed to release Walker as part of a backroom deal in an effort to absolve themselves of their misconduct and cover-up," says Cliff Stewart, President of A Just Cause. "They thought the other defendants would be desperate enough to tell the same lying story as Gary and admit guilt to get out of prison, but they told the truth. The evidence shows they never committed a crime. Judge Sarokin saw it and Judge Arguello and Kirsch also knew it," concludes Stewart. "The government's contention that their business was a scam defies reality...ALL the proof in the case goes the opposite way," said Sarokin.

The 10th Circuit vacated Judge Arguello's unprecedented broad sealing of the hocus-pocus hearing on January 23, 2019. As of October 2019, Judge Arguello continues to give the appellate court the proverbial "middle finger" by refusing to comply with their mandate. Details of some of Judge Arguello's actions during the public hearing were exposed online in an AJC press release (http://bit.ly/2MmcEJ8). For even more disturbing details and documents from the IRP5 case, click on this link (http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ) to view a dossier compiled by A Just Cause.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

10th Circuit Does Nothing About Judge's Rebellion

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/19/2019 -- On January 23, 2019, based on a motion filed by the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (view motion online at http://bit.ly/2Ntk3U9), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered federal judge Christine M. Arguello to unseal and make public, records and transcripts from a criminal proceeding where it was alleged she secretly used her court to conduct religious attacks and persecution against CSFC's highly respected Pastor, Rose Banks who was not the defendant and has no criminal record. After nearly six months of failing to comply with the order, New York Attorney Bernard Kleinman petitioned the 10th Circuit to issue another order directing Judge Arguello "to do what [she] has already been directed to do." Kleinman also asked, that because of Judge Arguello's continuing recalcitrance and "bias" against Pastor Banks that she be recused, and the case be assigned to another judge. "As of September 2019 (eight months after the order), the miscreant Judge Arguello continues her defiance, while a recreant 10th Circuit refuses to hold her accountable or assign the case to another judge," says Cliff Stewart, CSFC's Chairman of the Board.

The criminal case concerns Gary L. Walker, who, as CEO of his Colorado Springs software company (IRP Solutions Corp.), was convicted of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud charges in 2011. The government claimed that Walker and five codefendant executives made false statements about having a current or impending contract with a large law enforcement agency to induce staffing companies into extending credit to their company for temporary employee labor. Walker was sentenced in 2012 to 11 years in prison by Judge Arguello. Walker and his codefendants (known widely as the "IRP6") vigorously and publicly proclaimed their innocence for nearly a decade. But after spending a few years in prison, Walker filed a motion with Judge Arguello asking to be freed based on having his mind controlled by Pastor Banks, his mother-in-law of 30 years. According to an opposing brief filed by the Colorado U.S. Attorney, the "self-serving" Walker was absurdly claiming he should be freed because he was under a "religious spell" of Pastor Banks in committing crime of which he and his codefendants publicly said they were innocent of both on the Internet and during trial when they represented themselves (View gov't brief online at http://bit.ly/2Oe82Y3). Walker also claimed that the junior attorney (Gwendolyn Lawson, a CSFC parishioner) on his sentencing legal team was operating under a conflict of interest because she too was under the religious spell of Pastor Banks. The government, however, noted in their brief that the senior attorney represented Walker during the sentencing hearing and that Lawson didn't say a word.

Instead of denying Walker's frivolous petition, Judge Arguello, apparently motivated by personal bias against Pastor Banks and CSFC, granted an evidentiary hearing where she permitted testimony of more than a dozen disgruntled former CSFC parishioners for the obvious purpose of slandering Pastor Banks. After sealing virtually all court records (including Walker's petition and associated affidavit) in defiance of both federal law and the Constitution, the 10th Circuit ordered Judge Arguello make Walker's proceedings public (View 10th Cir. order online at http://bit.ly/2kFssfb). In his brief, Kleinman referenced the 10th Circuit's discussion of Judge Arguello's immediate release of Walker from prison based on her disdain of Pastor Banks' and bias against her Christian beliefs, including how Judge Arguello claimed Pastor Banks was responsible for Walker committing the alleged crime and how Arguello "praised Mr. Walker for divorcing himself from the beliefs of CSFC (View Kleinman/CSFC brief online at http://2krmwpU). The 10th Circuit also noted how Judge Arguello questioned whether Pastor Banks espoused values consistent with Christianity."

A sparse number of court records made public show Judge Arguello stating that Pastor Banks was a "vindictive" and "mean-spirited" "Christian" and "prophet of God" that not only controlled the minds of Walker's wife (Yolanda) and son (Kyle) but also the minds of codefendants David Banks, Ken Barnes, Demetrius Harper, Clinton Stewart and David Zirpolo. Codefendant David Banks (son of Pastor Banks) who worked side-by-side with Walker (his brother-in-law) as COO of IRP Solutions spoke to A Just Cause about Judge Arguello's bizarre behavior and irrational conclusions about his Mother, sister, nephew and other codefendants.

"First, the indictment centered around whether or not we made material false statements about having a current or impending contract with a large law enforcement agency to induce them into extending us credit for temporary labor, not around my mother," says David Banks. "What does that have to do with my 74-year old Mother (Pastor Banks) who was not mentioned in the indictment nor was she part of our business in any capacity whatsoever," adds David Banks. "I am incredulous that Judge Arguello harbors such deep hatred and bias against my Mother (who she's never met) that it perverted her judgment to the point she stated that my sister, Yolanda and my nephew, Kyle (both of whom Judge Arguello has never met), and us codefendants' minds and actions were and are being fantastically controlled by my Mother," says David Banks. "If Judge Arguello was convinced that we were all being controlled by my mother, why didn't she release us from prison as she did Walker?" asks Banks. "Judge Arguello knew Gary's claims of religious spells were absurd but she abused her power by using her court for the sole purpose of conducting a religious inquisition of my Mother, Pastor Rose Banks," concludes David Banks.

A Just Cause believes Judge Arguello is stonewalling to hide her alleged misconduct and bias that has existed throughout trial that resulted in the wrongful conviction of these men. CSFC also believes the 10th Circuit's refusal to enforce their order may be to continue protecting Arguello as they did in 2017 by dismissing a judicial complaint about the exact same religious bias and misconduct discussed in their order. The 2017 judicial complaint was filed by A Just Cause on behalf of Pastor Banks and members of CSFC, Yolanda and Kyle Walker and codefendants Banks, Harper, Stewart, Barnes and Zirpolo (View judicial complaint online at http://bit.ly/2vmk73J). Experts, including a former federal appeals judge have publicly discussed Judge Arguello's misconduct and/or bias during the trial.

Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice, conducted a six-month investigation into the entire case and issued a final report in 2013 titled "Money for Nothing: how racial bias destroyed six lives, stymied a black-owned business and outraged a congregation (View report online at http://bit.ly/2gGWGue)." Bean concluded that Judge Arguello's "bias was on display throughout the trial." After reviewing trial documents, former federal appeals Judge H. Lee Sarokin found that the IRP6 were not only innocent but also received an unfair trial at the hands of Judge Arguello and the government. Sarokin found "uncontroverted evidence" showing Judge Arguello violated the IRP6's "right against self-incrimination." Sarokin's writings about the IRP6 case can be seen online at http://'bit.ly2ykEsVh and in an interview with the Washington Post at www.wapo.st/29jXqSC

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Federal Prison Camp in Colorado Accused of Cruelly Applying Furlough Policy

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/26/2019 -- The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) authorizes Wardens to approve bereavement furloughs (authorized absence) to non-violent inmates at 'out-custody' federal prisons camps where there are no fences, bars, walls or barbed wire. Many of the prison camps are former military bases. In the last six months numerous 'campers' at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado have experienced the death of immediate family members, including sisters, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers but the Warden has repeatedly denied furlough requests by inmates to grieve and bury their loved ones. The reason camp inmates are housed at minimum security, out-custody facilities where they can simply walk away into the local community is because they present no danger to the community. Many camp inmates were trusted by the courts and probation to self-report. The Florence Warden overseeing the camp can't provide a single penological reason or security justification for arbitrarily denying or severely limiting bereavement furloughs to campers, especially when the BOP authorizes up to 30 days.

David Banks, one of six men (the "IRP6") widely known on the Internet and in the Washington Post (http://wapo.st/29jXqSC) to be wrongly convicted and imprisoned, is housed at the Florence camp. In November 2018, Banks was denied a six-day furlough after his sister suffered a massive stroke and suddenly passed away.

"If not for experiencing a wrongful conviction, I would have no idea of just how cruel federal justice officials are or would have become aware that prison camps are nothing more than a front for a slave plantation," says Banks. "From my experience, Wardens couldn't care less if I live or die and the death of my sister had no more value than the death of one of the prairie dogs that roam outside our housing units. My heart broke when I was denied an opportunity to grieve and bury my sister, and it breaks further as I watch the pain and suffering in the eyes of these men who have lost a loved one as they hopelessly apply for a furlough from a Warden that is going to deny them just because he has the power to do so," laments Banks. "It doesn't matter if you're a model inmate, you are still treated as undeserving scum and never given a reason why your furlough request is denied, but the Warden and staff don't mind enslaving you for pennies per hour and granting daily furloughs for inmates to serve other masters in the local community," muses Banks. "On the rare occasions the Warden approves a furlough, it only amounts to a few hours," adds Banks.

The new Florence FCI Warden overseeing the camp has started approving 24-hour bereavement furloughs for inmates traveling out of state. Two inmates were recently granted overnight, 24-hour furloughs. One inmate requires 18 hours of travel time, which leaves no time to sleep and just enough time to walk by the casket before heading back to the prison. The other inmate needed 12 hours of travel time and 8 hours to sleep, which left only and 4 hours to attend the funeral and spend time with the family before expending time to get back to either an airport or bus terminal for the return to prison. According to a Florence official, the Warden overseeing the camp is "conservative" and "concerned about the big picture" of him setting a precedent for approving furloughs.

"Trying to put together a travel itinerary with such a small window is a nightmare for a person and family grieving the devastating loss of a child, parent or sibling," says Lisa Stewart of A Just Cause. "It appears the Warden approves 24-hour furloughs to make it so difficult on the inmate that it will discourage others from requesting furloughs. Such a sad, inhumane state of affairs," says Stewart.

A Just Cause is reaching out to the Trump Administration, specifically Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner and concerned members of Congress to ask for their compassion and a legislative change to BOP policy or an executive order to mandate a minimum of 7 days furlough for camp inmates to bury and grieve an immediate family member.

In the 1984 case of Hudson v. Palmer, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the way a society treats its prisoners "is evidence of the essential character of that society." "What's happening at the Florence federal prison camp doesn't speak very highly of the character of this nation or the character of a Warden who doesn't want to set a precedent for being humane," says Stewart. "What's happening at Florence is microcosm of the behavior that occurs with prosecutors and the courts in the federal justice system as evidenced by the horrendous injustice done to David Banks and his codefendants. That is why A Just Cause and former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin continues fighting for the release of Banks and his IRP6 codefendants by publicly exposing the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in an online dossier at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ ," concludes Stewart.

A Just Cause continues to ask the Trump Administration to confine camp-level inmates at home and to close the 76 expensive, useless and wasteful federal prison camps as a part of prison reform. See info in press releases at:

http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/house-judiciary-committee-and-trump-asked-to-close-wasteful-federal-prison-camps-783729.html

http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases//defunding-camps-will-help-solve-crisis-at-federal-bureau-of-prisons-says-a-just-cause-806068.html

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/01/2019 -- On January 23, 2019, based on a legal brief filed by the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (online at http://bit.ly/2Ntk3U9), three judges from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (Briscoe, Murphy & McHugh) confirmed in a unanimous opinion (case no. 18-1273, doc. # 010110115512) that Judge Christine M. Arguello abused her discretion when she deprived the public access to court records where it is alleged in a judicial complaint she displayed religious animus, made hostile and slanderous comments about Pastor Rose Banks of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC), and used her court to conduct a religious inquisition into Pastor Banks' Christianity and CSFC. This is the second judicial complaint in the Colorado federal criminal case that is widely known on the Internet as the "IRP6" case where violations of the Constitution and alleged prosecutorial and judicial misconduct have been confirmed by a former federal appeals judge. Based on a dossier compiled and published online by justice advocacy organization A Just Cause, members of Congress are now seeking answers about the government's actions against Pastor Banks (who was not and never has been a criminal defendant) and questioning why the men in the case from her church (one of whom is Pastor Banks' son) remain imprisoned when former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin told the Washington Post the facts and evidence in the case show the software executives of the IRP Solutions Corporation are innocent, had their constitutional rights violated and were "indicted and imprisoned for not paying their bills."

"For some strange reason, the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office and Judge Arguello were allegedly secretly targeting Pastor Banks and CSFC from the very beginning," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause and son of Pastor Banks. "And they used IRP Solutions where her son David was the chief operating officer as a subterfuge to bring down my mother and the church," adds Lamont Banks. "The IRP executives were collateral damage and a consolation prize for the government," contends Lamont Banks. Court records substantiate A Just Cause's claims.

Transcripts from the 2007 grand jury (No. 06-01) shows the government only selected CSFC members (including Pastor Banks' daughter) who worked at IRP to testify before the grand jury when dozens of other employees unaffiliated with the church were not called. Church members say they were peppered with questions about Pastor Banks and asked whether the church was a cult. Court records show that when Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Kirsch asked grand jury foreman Cynthia Haid who was the target of the criminal investigation, the first words Haid uttered were Rose Banks (View court transcript online at http://bit.ly/2flpma2)."

According to court records the government allegedly illegally seized church and parishioner banking records without a warrant and wrongly-imprisoned Pastor Banks' daughter (Lawanna Clark) for six months after post-trial evidence surfaced showing she was innocent of making a single false statement to the grand jury after being asked 285 questions by the prosecutor.

Court records shows Kirsch was unrepentant about unlawfully seizing church records, stating in open court that "even if the records were improperly obtained, how would it be relevant in this case." Kirsch was also hell-bent on imprisoning the innocent Clark, requesting she be locked up for 18 months. Clark never fully recovered from the stress of being wrongly-imprisoned and the wrongful imprisonment of her innocent brother the other IRP executives who were decades-long close friends of hers from church. Clark died of a massive stroke on November 14, 2018.

"Wanna called me on the phone when she didn't know she was having a stroke and said "Mama! Mama! My head! Something's wrong with my head! Please pray for me," says Rose Banks. "We prayed intensely together, and I told her to put a cold cloth on her head and call me back," adds Rose. "When she didn't call me back a short time later, I sent a close friend of hers from the church to the house, after which she was taken to the hospital and later died," laments Rose Banks. "Wanna's only other complaint about intense head pain was after the unnecessary stress she experienced at the grand jury," recalls Rose Banks. "Kirsch and Judge Arguello's violent abuse of the law wrongly-imprisoned my son David and the men he worked with at IRP and greatly contributed to my precious daughter's untimely death," laments Rose Banks. "I pray every day that God will put it on the hearts of someone in our government to hold these officials accountable and give us justice for the horrible wrong done to us," says Rose Banks.

After failing to allegedly implicate Pastor Banks in a money laundering scheme with the 2007 grand jury, AUSA Kirsch then attempted to gain an indictment by criminalizing the IRP executives for failing to pay their corporate debts. But the 2007 grand jury rejected Kirsch with one grand juror pointing out: "But if I don't pay somebody for the work they've done, that's not a federal crime." Court records show that in 2009, Kirsch went to another grand jury (no. 09-01) where he only called a single FBI agent (Robert Moen) to testify and did not present any evidence/testimony from the first grand jury.

"The 2009 grand jury unknowingly gave Kirsch and his boss (U.S. Attorney John Walsh) an ill-gotten indictment," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. "What followed was an unfair trial poisoned by alleged prosecutorial and judicial misconduct where Judge Arguello and AUSA Kirsch imprisoned the IRP6 for 7 to 11 years while continuing their persecution of Pastor Banks and CSFC in post-conviction proceedings," adds Stewart. "AJC will not relent until we get justice for these men and their families who continue to suffer immense pain from the loss of their loved ones to prison and the death of their beloved Lawanna Clark," concludes Stewart.

Based on the comprehensive dossier compiled by A Just Cause (which is online at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ), four Democrats from Congress sent a letter to the DOJ seeking answers about the alleged prosecutorial and judicial misconduct (viewed online at http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc). The dossier includes both judicial complaints filed against Judge Arguello, the Washington Post interview with Judge Sarokin, and a report published by Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice who conducted a six-month investigation into the IRP6 case that included interviews with the IRP6 and CSFC members and dozens of court records.

For more information or to schedule interviews with parties in the IRP6 case, contact A Just Cause.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Church To File Complaint With Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Religious Liberty Task Force

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/15/2018 -- After serving 3 years of an 11-year prison sentence, convicted felon Gary Walker decided he'd had enough of the prison life and filed a motion and affidavit requesting release on the basis that he was not responsible for his actions because he was under a religious spell of his mother-in-law pastor, Rose M. Banks of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC). Walker also claimed that a junior attorney and close friend from CSFC (Gwendolyn Lawson), one of two attorneys on his legal team, was also under the religious control of Pastor Banks which caused a conflict of interest representing him and four other defendants during sentencing.

All the executives, known on the Internet as the IRP6, faithfully worshipped together at CSFC for 30 years and mounted a very vigorous and public campaign proclaiming their innocence from the very beginning in several online videos (http://bit.ly/2sdCTVA - http://bit.ly/2szeGIH - https://www.denveropenmedia.org/shows/just-cause-episode-3-irp-solutions-foundercto-gary-walker ). The government was aghast at Walker's religious coercion claims and discussed the absurdity of them in its answer brief (Dist. Colo. no. 09-cr-00266-CMA-3, Doc. #922, online at http://bit.ly/2Oe82Y3 ).

"Mr. Walker claims that when he made the decision to [represent himself], he was operating under the spell of Rose Banks, his mother-in-law," said the government. "According to Mr. Walker, when he waived his right to appointed counsel at trial he was convinced that Pastor Rose spoke 'with the voice of God,' and that God wanted him to waive his right to counsel," added the government. "Having time to reflect further upon the matter in the Bureau of Prisons, Mr. Walker has seemingly concluded that God did not want him to [represent himself] after all. Mr. Walker "provides no evidence of this other than his own self-serving affidavit, which asserts little more than that Sister Rose told him to fire his lawyer and that he viewed Sister Rose as the voice of God," wrote the government. (See full Government answer brief online at http://bit.ly/2Oe82Y3 ).

The government admits on pages 18 to 19 of its response brief (http://bit.ly/2E5rW2Y ) to CSFC's 10th Circuit motion to unseal, that Walker, as part of a (secret & sealed) settlement agreement, "abandoned" both his claim that Pastor Banks coerced him into representing himself and the collateral attack on his conviction. Court records show, however, Judge Arguello, violating the separation of church and state, continued using her court as a vehicle of religious persecution where she personally attacked Pastor Banks on religious grounds and applied a religious test to Lawson's representation of Walker during sentencing even though the government admitted Lawson did not "play any role" in sentencing. (See page 27 of Government Answer Brief at http://bit.ly/2Oe82Y3 )

Irrespective of Lawson not playing any role in Walker's sentencing, Judge Arguello, applying her own biased religious analysis, stated Lawson "was prevented...by her allegiance to Pastor Banks...from presenting argument and evidence that would have affected the Court's" determination that Mr. Walker was a leader in the conspiracy. Judge Arguello not only permitted former disgruntled church members to testify about how they felt about Pastor Banks' spiritual leadership at the church, but also allowed Bureau of Prisons Chaplain Henderson from the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado to testify about Pastor Banks', someone he has never met. After conducting her religious inquisition, Judge Arguello made Pastor Banks the leader of the alleged conspiracy, absolved Walker of the leadership role she assigned to him and released him from prison and left his codefendants in prison who worked under him at his companies, four of whom were NOT assessed as leaders of a conspiracy by Judge Arguello.

"You have to question Judge Arguello's motives and judgment when she first concludes from what she heard at trial that Walker was the leader of an alleged conspiracy of close friends and family who were executives at his small business only to later conclude that he was not a leader and release him from prison based on his self-serving claims that he and his attorney were under the religious control and coercion of his mother-in-law pastor," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. Here's what Judge Arguello had to say https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c392f0_b1c7c3a59ec3480d86aeb1c77d1b8587.pdf :

"Now during the evidentiary hearing there was evidence demonstrating the extent of coercion that you and others were subjected to by Pastor Banks, and your inability to challenge or evade directions received from her as a result of the duress that was imposed," Arguello said to Walker in his June 28, 2017 re-sentencing hearing. "But after your hearing, I have a better understanding of why you did what you did," added Arguello. "I could see the hold Pastor Banks had on you," Arguello expressed to Walker. Next, Judge Arguello viciously and publicly attacked Pastor Banks from the bench, calling her a "vindictive and mean-spirited" Christian and prophet of God. At the end of Walker's public proceeding, Judge Arguello restricted public access to virtually every document and transcript from the proceeding, violating the public's First Amendment and common law right of access to judicial records. CSFC, concerned about its clearing its name from alleged slanderous public remarks from Walker and former CSFC witnesses during an open proceeding, appealed to the 10th Circuit to unseal.

In its appellate brief (10th Cir. case no. 18-1273, Doc. #010110031010, online at https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c392f0_e6d1c0d0d34b436eb606eba04401f13a.pdf), CSFC discusses how Judge Arguello ignored a litany of constitutional law from the Supreme Court, 10th Circuit and every other U.S. federal circuit that says judicial records should be sealed in only the rarest of circumstances such as under-age rape victims and confidential informants. In its order denying CSFC and the public access to court records (http://bit.ly/2pKUqoA), however, Judge Arguello in citing cases justifying its denial compared Walker and his adult witnesses to vulnerable 16 year-old rape victims and prison confidential informants/snitch's and claimed she needed to protect them from potential serious injuries they could suffer from harassment from Pastor Banks, Walker's wife and CSFC members, none of whom have any history of such conduct. CSFC believes Judge Arguello was poisoned by Walker's affidavit and sealed proceedings to conceal the use of its court to conduct a religious attack against Pastor Banks and the improper release of Walker. Walker's five codefendants say he is a fraud who manufactured religious coercion and cowardly threw his wife and her mother under the bus to get out of prison.

"Judge Arguello and the government's religious bias against CSFC in Mr. Walker's habeas proceedings is nothing new and is just the latest malfeasance in a continuing pattern of partiality and misconduct that has permeated the IRP6 case and resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of these men," says Stewart of A Just Cause. "We are in the process of contacting Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the Colorado U.S. Attorneys religious bias, illegal seizure of church banking records, use of the grand jury as a subterfuge to persecute the church, and the attack on Pastor Banks, CSFC and its parishioners, all which are discussed in a dossier (online at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ) that was sent to the DOJ over a year ago seeking dismissal of the indictment," adds Stewart. "Aside from CSFC's motion to unseal, there is also a pending judicial complaint appeal against Judge Arguello concerning religious bias that was filed in July 2017 which has not been answered by the 10th Circuit Judicial Council (http://bit.ly/2vmk73J), and a letter from four members of Congress sent to the DOJ seeking answers about the allegations of misconduct in the dossier (http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc )," concludes Stewart.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Florence Federal Prison Camp Administrator Sends Memo to Seize More of Families Money

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/28/2018 -- On average inmates at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado earn an average slave wage of $10 dollars per month which makes it impossible for them to pay things like court costs and restitution or use commissary, phone or email services, all of which are services the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provides to inmates at a cost.

The BOP permits an inmate to spend a maximum of $360 per month on commissary items, and a maximum of about $75 dollars per month for 300 minutes of phone calls. The BOP also charges an inmate 5 cents per minute using email. To print a black and white document for printing legal research for instance, the BOP charges the inmate 15 cents per page. Additionally, using the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP), the BOP extorts the inmate into paying a minimum of $25 dollars per quarter ($8.33 per month) towards court costs/restitution. If the inmate tells the case manager he can't afford to pay or refuses, the BOP punishes or sanctions the inmate further under (e.g., making their living conditions more miserable by putting them into a more crowded cell).

Although the inmate has already suffered the grave loss of their freedom, the BOP's mission is to 'pile on' or kick the inmate while he/she is down by making their life as hard as possible, and IFRP is just one of the many swords of oppression used to bring additional pain and misery to the inmate. "The BOP knows that inmates on slave wages can't afford to pay court costs or restitution and certainly can't pay for phone, email, commissary and printing services and would rely on financial assistance from their family to use them," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "When the inmate contacts his family for money to use the BOP services, the BOP seizes the family's money through IFRP and deposits it into BOP coffers," adds Banks."

Once a month the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado provides the inmate with a small motel-style bar of soap, travel size tube of toothpaste, a miniature toothbrush and an ineffective razor. The fact that no deodorant or shaving cream is provided, the razor does not work, and that little bar of soap won't last a month, the BOP knew a deprived inmate would be forced to use commissary services to buy these items and would receive financial assistance from concerned family members.

"First, It is wrong for the BOP to steal this money and deposit it into BOP coffers," says Banks "I'm sure the BOP would argue that they're not stealing money, but only using it to pay court costs and restitution. Second, the families did not authorize the BOP to seize their money and misappropriate it for purposes they never intended and deprive their loved ones the use of BOP services they sent it for," add Banks, "and third, if the family wanted to pay court costs and restitution on behalf of their incarcerated loved one they could send the money directly to the courts and don't need the BOP to serve as a middleman. If the BOP wants the inmate to pay court costs and restitution then stop enslaving them and pay them a sensible wage where they can be personally responsible and pay these obligations," adds Banks. "Clearly, IFRP was established for the sole purpose of stealing hard-earned money from innocent families to support BOP and larger government and special interests," contends Banks.

A Just Cause reviewed four real-world IFRP cases at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado where the Camp Administrator, Ms. Morse, recently sent a memo to case managers, telling them, in essence, to steal more money from their families through IFRP. Inmate David Banks who earns $12.00 per month ($72.00 per year) and whose family's money was seized each month over the past three years at the tune of $90.00 per month (total of $3240.00), was called into his case manager's office after the Morse memo and told that his new monthly IFRP cost would be $575 dollars per month ($6900 per year).

"Obviously, an inmate earning $72 dollars per year can't possibly pay $6900.00 so the BOP will seize his family's money when or if it is sent to use for commissary, phone, email, and printing services," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. "If the inmate tells the case manager he can't afford to pay, it is considered an IFRP refusal and the case manager punishes him under IFRP guidelines by decreasing his $12.00 per month slave wage, limiting his commissary spending to $25 per month and worsening his living conditions. Inmates either agree to allow the BOP to seize their family's money or suffer the consequences," says Stewart.

Inmate Banks relies heavily on email to work on legal matters related to his case because the BOP only has typewriters and doesn't provide Microsoft Word or any other word processing capability. The email system is so basic it doesn't even have the copy and paste function. Unfortunately, the BOP charges 5 cents per minute for using email and when inmate Banks' family sends money for him to use for email to support legal work, the BOP increases the IFPR amount and seizes money from them.

Commissary and 300-minute phone call spending are respectively capped at $360 and $75 per month for a total of $435. Any other money sent by family would be for the inmate's use of email and printing services which cost 5 cents per minute for email and 15 cents per page. Under IFRP, the more the inmate receives financial help for the use of these services, the more money the BOP seizes to put into its coffers. "You have to question why the BOP is charging inmates to read and write emails?" ponders Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. "Email is the absolute cheapest, ubiquitous and unsophisticated communications technology on the planet and the BOP is charging for it. There's absolutely no reason the BOP should care how much an inmate emails or calls his family and friends or how many documents they print or how much money a family sends for the use of these paid services," says Stewart. "To seize a family's money sent to their incarcerated loved one to pay for these services depositing it into the BOP's coffers for any reason whatsoever is improper and quite possibly illegal. Someone must be profiting from this," suspects Stewart.

Florence inmates Demetrius Harper and Clinton Stewart earn $1.40 per month and their family's money is seized by the BOP to pay $95 per month for Harper and $55 per month for Stewart. Inmate David Zirpolo is paid $3.50 per month with an IFRP amount of $25 per quarter. None of them can afford to pay a dime of alleged restitution but the BOP also seizes the money of their family and friends. "My family deserted me," says Zirpolo, "and I am fortunate enough to have friends from my church to sacrifice and send me money, so I can communicate with people who love and care about me." "For the BOP to take their money for any reason is wrong," adds Zirpolo. IFRP seizure amounts for Zirpolo, Harper, and Stewart are certain to drastically increase under the Morse policy change.

"IFRP appears to be a racket set-up by the BOP to steal money from my family and friends of inmates and there's no telling how many millions of dollars have been seized over decades," says Banks. "Camp Administrator Morse is looking to take even more money from the families of inmates at Florence," adds Banks. "A Just Cause will be contacting members of Congress and discussing with law firms whether there is potential to file class-action law suit against the BOP," concludes Banks.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Intrusive Searches & Elimination of Visiting Days Hurts Innocent Families of Inmates

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/07/2018 -- On July 1, 2018, the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado hurt families by eliminating three-hour Friday evening visits which has been in existence for decades and has cited no reason for doing so. Now, prison management, who claims they are financially and operationally constrained by staffing shortages, are taking more time from visiting families and children by subjecting them to intrusive and intimidating search procedures.

About 25 correctional officers along with local police stationed outside the Florence prison complex, mobilized outside the federal prison camp visiting room equipped with a mobile command center and drug-sniffing dogs to conduct intensive searches of vehicles, wallets, and purses of visiting families. The dogs are even permitted to walk on the seats inside of the vehicles and it has been reported the dogs have left scratches on or in vehicles. Correctional officers remove visitors from their cars, telling them to leave their purses, wallets, and cell phones inside the car while they rummage through their personal belongings that include money, jewelry and other valuables that could potentially be stolen by BOP staff. The elderly and disabled are forced to stand outside, sometimes in oppressive heat, while indifferent correctional officers violate them and their Fourth Amendment rights.

"These types of searches at both federal and local prisons are unprecedented and to the best of my knowledge have never occurred, especially at a minimum security, out-custody federal prison camp housing non-violent offenders," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "It's disgraceful of Florence Warden's Matevousian, Stancil, and Goetz to abuse visiting families and their children by treating them like common criminals," add Banks.

A Just Cause would like to understand the Florence Wardens' decision to suddenly eliminate Friday evening visits when BOP visiting regulation policy (Program Statement 5267.09, section 540.40) says it "encourages visiting by family, friends, and community groups to maintain the morale of the inmate and develop closer relationships between the inmate and family members and others in the community."

"Eliminating Friday evening visits shows a lack of humanity and compassion by the Wardens towards the many innocent wives and children who have to make great financial sacrifices and travel great distances just to see their husbands and fathers for a single weekend," says Banks. "The Florence Wardens certainly can't say that staffing shortages or financial issues are the reasons they canceled Friday visits when they're spending thousands of dollars to pay overtime to 20 plus correctional officers and administrative staff to shakedown and conduct intrusive searched of visiting families. Unfortunately, the BOP has a colorful history of abusing both inmates and their families," contends Banks.

In the summer of 2015 a non-violent inmate at the Florence federal prison camp named Anthony Anderson was thrown into solitary confinement and allegedly killed by Florence correctional officers after being accused of receiving tobacco in the visiting room, which was never found. Florence officials claimed that Mr. Anderson committed suicide and soon cremated his body after the coroner examination. But according to Anderson's mother who recently appeared on A Just Cause's Blog Talk radio program, the coroner told her to hire an attorney because her son did not take his own life.

In the early 2000s a three-year government investigation found that there was a vast conspiracy by correctional officers and management to abuse inmates and falsify records to cover up that abuse at the Florence federal prison complex. More than a dozen Florence correctional officers and their supervisors (infamously known as "the Cowboys") were indicted and convicted for conspiring to physically assault inmates as a form of vigilante discipline. "The arbitrary canceling of Friday visits and bullying of visiting families is symptomatic of an ingrained abusive culture that has existed for many years at the Florence federal prison," says Banks. I have addressed these concerns with Warden Goetz and Matevousian but, not surprisingly, they don't appear concerned at all about these abuses. The matter has been escalated to the BOP Director's office and we are in the process of notifying members of Congress in hopes of putting a stop to these abuses," concludes Banks.

In recent weeks on its internet radio show that reaches an audience of up to 30 million people, A Just Cause launched a new series called "Behind the Wall" that is dedicated to discussing the horrible abuses of inmates and visitors at American prisons and invites everyone to listen in and join the discussion every Tuesday and Thursday at 8PM EST http://www.AJCRadio.com.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Advocacy Organization Asks NFL Players to Join with Famed Federal Judge to Help Free Wrongly-Imprisoned African American Technology Executives

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/22/2018 -- President Trump recently told NFL players who are deeply-troubled about racial injustice in the criminal justice system to contact him about federal cases where someone was wrongly convicted or done wrong by the system and he will pardon or commute their sentence. Advocacy organization A Just Cause hopes for the sake of those who have been wrongly imprisoned and their suffering families, NFL players will take the President up on his offer.

"This is an opportunity for NFL players to make a real difference in the lives of children who have lost their father or mother, mothers and fathers who have lost their sons or daughters and wives who have lost their husbands," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "I also ask NFL athletes to join with the former federal judge who freed African-American middleweight boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter in his fight to pardon innocent African-American technology executives from Colorado known as the IRP5," adds Banks.

"I don't know if race played a part," former federal judge H. Lee Sarokin told the Washington Post about the IRP executives (www.wapo.st/29jXqSC). "But if you put all the connections together, I don't know that there's any other conclusion," added Sarokin. "You read every day about horrendous crimes committed by corporations, who are getting fined," said Sarokin. "I thought it was rare for corporate executives to be indicted and imprisoned for not paying their bills," added Sarokin.

After 9/11, the IRP5 launched a company (IRP Solutions Corporation) and developed innovative criminal investigations software to help federal, state and local law enforcement agencies improve information sharing and collaboration capabilities. The company's software (CILC, pronounced "silk), which is an acronym for Case Investigative Life Cycle, was featured prominently in national law enforcement publications and received high praise from major law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Denver Police Department, NYPD, and Department of Homeland Security who requested and received a quote for $100 million for the anticipated purchase of two modules. With full knowledge of CILC's prowess in the law enforcement community and the legitimacy of their company, Denver federal prosecutors claimed that IRP an CILC were a scam and criminalized unpaid debts to staffing companies accumulated from temporary labor services provided for work on the software. According to Judge Sarokin, the FBI investigation and raid on IRP's corporate office ruined IRP's sales efforts with its law enforcement agencies and made it impossible for the execs to pay their bills. After destroying IRP's reputation with law enforcement, Denver federal prosecutor Matthew T. Kirsch claimed CILC was a scam used by the IRP execs to defraud staffing companies out of free labor. Kirsch told the jury that the IRP executives had a better chance of winning the lottery than selling CILC to a large law enforcement agency. Judge Sarokin also spoke about the absurd theory of the government to the Washington Post.

"What amazed me about the case," Sarokin told the Post, "was the theory of the government that this program they were developing was a scam." "All the proof in the case goes the opposite way," exclaimed Sarokin. "The men left their jobs to create the software, hired former FBI and immigration agents as consultants and MADE NO PROFIT from the scheme," explained Sarokin. Judge Sarokin also noted that law enforcement agencies, IRP's sole customers, seem an unlikely target for an alleged scam. Sarokin was so disturbed by the horrible injustice and harsh sentences of 7 to 11 years, he, as a playwright in his retirement, wrote a short dramatic play where professional actors portrayed the men as they discussed the facts of the case and government misconduct from prison. Judge Sarokin's play, "The Race Card Face Up", is a must see by everyone and can be viewed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y94O5mMJqHU).

A Just Cause says Judge Sarokin has advanced the ball down the field to win justice for the IRP5 but believes NFL players advocating for a pardon may result in the winning touchdown.

"Although many NFL players and Americans as a whole are rightly upset about the questionable killing of unarmed black men by some police officers, injustice comes in many forms, including racially-motivated convictions and unfair sentences like the IRP5," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause. "NFL players shouldn't miss an opportunity to personally help end the pain and suffering of those whose federal criminal convictions or sentences may have been a result of implicit or explicit racial bias simply because President Trump made the offer to pardon," adds Stewart. "President Trump showed his willingness to grant clemency to Alice Johnson, a black woman, from the advocacy of Kim Kardashian and I urge NFL players to do the same," says Stewart. We must all be flexible and work together to fight against injustice wherever it occurs in our justice system," concludes Stewart.

Four members of Congress have joined the fight for the IRP5 by sending a letter to the DOJ seeking answers about prosecutorial and judicial misconduct outlined in a comprehensive dossier compiled by A Just Cause (See congressional letter at http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc and dossier at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ).

The IRP5 (David A. Banks, Clinton A. Stewart, Demetrius K. Harper, David A. Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes) have been wrongly imprisoned at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado for nearly six years.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Obama Says DOJ Conflicted About Pardons & Former Federal Judge Says Institutional Deceit in DOJ Clemency Process

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/12/2018 -- Advocacy organization A Just Cause praises President Trump for strictly following the Constitution by independently granting clemency without DOJ intervention. When the Constitution was created and gave the President sole pardoning power there was no DOJ and President Trump should not be criticized for granting clemency without DOJ input.

The federal courts confirm this:

"The President has the exclusive authority to make final decisions in clemency cases" and "is free to disregard the [DOJ] to act without any involvement from the [pardon attorney] whatsoever," said the DC Circuit Court of Appeals (Case no. 08-1398-CKK).

Although President Obama publicly stated the DOJ was conflicted about the clemency process, he delegated his power and authority to the DOJ and allowed them to hand-pick the applicants they felt were most-deserving under his criteria. This explains how Alice Johnson, a first-time 18-year-old non-violent drug offender whose life sentence was recently commuted by President Trump got passed over by the DOJ.

"It's no secret DOJ prosecutors routinely oppose and are conflicted about presidential pardons because they feel it cast aspersions on the legitimacy of them and their prosecutions," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "The DOJ wants to control the clemency process to protect the finality of their convictions even if there's credible evidence of innocence or prosecutorial misconduct to obtain the conviction. Furthermore, those who are innocent or wrongly-convicted as result of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct have no chance to receive a pardon or commutation under a DOJ-driven clemency process," says Banks.

In his article titled "The Guilty Have a Better Chance for Parole or Pardon Than the Innocent", former federal appeals Judge H. Lee Sarokin (3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) says "institutionalized deceit" is a driving force behind the DOJ's clemency process because it requires the innocent to lie about their guilt to be considered or recommended for a pardon. "Stories abound of those wrongly convicted being denied release because of their insistence on their innocence," said Sarokin. (See Sarokin's full article at http://bit.ly/2LAGaHR).

Sarokin says he became aware of the institutional deceit in the DOJ pardon process after realizing that a group of innocent Colorado defendants he was supporting for clemency would be forced to lie and admit guilt to receive a pardon. Sarokin told the Washington Post that these men were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay corporate bills" and had their constitutional rights violated by the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office and the federal trial judge (See Washington Post article at http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC).

"Not only are the five men (the "IRP5") innocent but the amount of misconduct by the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office and federal Judge Christine Arguello to obtain the unconstitutional conviction is staggering," says Banks. "For the IRP5 to receive a pardon through the DOJ pardon attorney, they would have to lie and admit guilt and express remorse about a crime they never committed, and in doing so they would absolve the U.S. Attorney and Judge Arguello of their wrongdoing," adds Banks. "The IRP5 can't possibly receive fair consideration of their pardon application from a DOJ clemency process that has built-in institutionalized deceit and absolution for government misconduct. If the DOJ refuses to answer a letter from members of Congress concerning a dossier showing innocence and irrefutable misconduct in the IRP5 case they certainly won't take responsibility for their malfeasance and recommend a pardon," says Banks. (See congressional letter at http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc and dossier at http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ)."

Because of the DOJ's conflict of interest regarding a pardon for the IRP5 (David A. Banks, Demetrius K. Harper, Clinton A. Stewart, David A. Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes) A Just Cause is appealing directly to President Trump who has absolute pardoning power granted to him by the Constitution. Details of IRP5 pardon information sent to Trump can be viewed online (http://bit.ly/2JImAZp). David Banks also sent a personal letter to President Trump which also can be viewed online (http://bit.ly/2wUlqTQ).

For more information about the IRP5 contact A Just Cause.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Daughters of Wrongly-Imprisoned African-American Executives Say They're Sorry They Ever Voted for Obama

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/06/2018 -- It seems unlikely that President Barack Obama would ignore a personal letter emailed to him from prominent former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin asking him to grant clemency to African-American technology executives (the "IRP6") because DOJ prosecutors and a federal judge engaged in misconduct to obtain an unconstitutional conviction. A former federal judge sending a letter to a sitting U.S. President on behalf of criminal defendants he hasn't met is unprecedented and is not something that happens every day. In fact, it's probably never happened in U.S. history which means Judge Sarokin wouldn't risk his reputation to expose the misconduct if he didn't have proof it occurred. Some of the many congressmen who have reviewed the credible evidence of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct told advocacy organization A Just Cause that Obama couldn't have possibly known, but the fact is, Special Assistant to President Obama and Associate Counsel Joshua Friedman confirmed in a November 11, 2015 email he received Sarokin's letter and forwarded the letter to the DOJ Pardon Attorney (See email at http://bit.ly/2LoQNxv).

The letter was addressed to President Obama, not the pardon attorney and it would be highly-unlikely Obama's own White House counsel didn't give him a very personal letter from a former federal appeals judge blowing the whistle on DOJ misconduct that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of African-American technology executives. Furthermore, seven months later on July 5, 2016, Sarokin's letter and the wrongful imprisonment of the IRP6 was discussed in a July 5, 2016 Washington Post article titled "Judge who freed 'Hurricane' Carter now helping six imprisoned men, but only Obama can save them."

Washington Post article - http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC

All U.S. presidents are aware of everything the Washington Post reports about them so it's relatively safe to assume that Obama got Sarokin's letter and was aware of the horrible injustice. The question is, however, why did Obama refuse to grant clemency when he was presented with evidence of innocence and confirmation from an independent federal appellate judge that DOJ and the courts engaged in misconduct and indicted and imprisoned businessmen for "failing to pay corporate debts?" Why did Obama proverbially spit in the face of a concerned federal judge who alerted him about DOJ misconduct that resulted in innocent men losing their freedom? Was Obama a crony who was trying to protect the reputation of the DOJ and career of Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh, an Obama appointee who engaged in misconduct to wrongly imprison these men? Walsh certainly was Obama's boy or Obama wouldn't have assigned him to be the chairman of the DOJ's Attorney General's Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys (AGAC), co-chair of AGAC's White Collar Crime Subcommittee and co-chair of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Fraud Working Group?

The families of these men, who all voted for Obama, feel he betrayed them and protected Walsh and the DOJ at the expense of justice and the freedom of their loved ones. Although all the IRP6 family members sent letters to Obama prior to leaving office, he only responded to Tiffany Stewart, the daughter of IRP executive Clinton Stewart but he did so months after he left office. In her letter, Tiffany explained to Obama how as a freshman in high school her heart was filled with so much joy and hope after his election and how proud she was to vote for him for a second term after she turned 18. Tiffany also discussed the injustice done to her Dad and how it has damaged her view of the U.S. justice system.

"I admire what you did for prisoners that were given harsh sentences for crimes they enacted. But, what about those who didn't do anything wrong and have evidence backing their innocence?" Tiffany wrote to Obama. "I didn't know judges and prosecutors could fabricate a case to make a person guilty before proven innocent," said Tiffany. "I never thought I'd see the day my father (a hard-working African-American man) would be sentenced for crimes he never committed," lamented Tiffany. "To see him in prison for trying to help our government has altered my view of the justice system," said Tiffany. "I now see police officers as criminals with badges, prosecutors as malefactors with degrees and judges as transgressing hierarchies," added Tiffany. "My vision was once clouded by the fantasy of the Justice System, but now it's clear, justice means corruption," Stewart told Obama.

Tiffany Stewart was hurt and disappointed that Obama showed no empathy and sympathy for her father's wrongful imprisonment and didn't even acknowledge him. "President Obama slapped me in the face in a backhanded kind of way by suggesting my father deserved to be in prison and that he should atone for his mistakes, so he can be a positive role model for me," says Tiffany Stewart. "The evidence shows he never committed a crime and a former federal judge sent a personal letter showing he was innocent and exposing government misconduct and he still didn't care!" adds Tiffany. "I'm sorry I ever voted for him," says Tiffany.

On November 1, 2017, four concerned members of Congress sent a letter (http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc) to the DOJ requesting answers about Judge Sarokin's allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that was part of a comprehensive dossier of facts and evidence complied by A Just Cause (http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ) but the DOJ has yet to answer after 8 months.

"Many people think President Trump's harsh criticism of FBI and DOJ corruption is unfair but Tiffany Stewart and the children, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of the IRP6 will tell you Trump is telling the truth because they are living it right now and have done so for the past 10 years because Obama refused to do justice and hold his DOJ accountable," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "The DOJ may have hidden the letter from Obama because they are conflicted about clemency and too corrupt to do the right thing when they are implicated in misconduct," adds Banks. "This is why these families are personally seeking help from President Trump who is not required to consult with the DOJ on clemency decisions," adds Banks.

As the U.S. DC Circuit Court of Appeals said in case no. 08-1398 (CKK): "The President has the exclusive authority to make final decisions in clemency cases" and "is free to disregard [Office of the Pardon Attorney's] recommendation or to act without any involvement from the OPA whatsoever." According to the Congressional Research Service, the President can grant a pardon "to any individual he deems fit, irrespective whether an application has been filed with the Office of the Pardon Attorney," and at any time after the commission of an offense.

"Some may ask why Tiffany and I as Black Americans are seeking pardons from President Trump," says Kea Banks, Daughter of wrongly-imprisoned IRP executive David Banks. "Because he's our current President and Mr. Obama was obviously more concerned with protecting Mr. Walsh, the reputation of the DOJ and his legacy than about our fathers being wrongly-imprisoned," exclaims Kea Banks who will be attending law school this fall. "We know President Trump is telling the truth about corruption in our justice system because of the immense heartache it has caused and continues to cause in our lives. "Hopefully, President Trump will hear our cries for justice," concludes Kea Banks.

Kea's Letter to Obama - http://bit.ly/2JwL23j
Tiffany's Letter to Obama - http://bit.ly/2JnmN4w
President Obama's Response to Tiffany - http://bit.ly/2JvJKpi
Details of Information Sent to President Trump for Clemency - http://bit.ly/2JImAZp

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Investigation by Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel Exposes Misconduct by Federal Judge Christine Arguello

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/04/2018 -- When Colorado federal judge Christine M. Arguello retaliated and filed a vindictive complaint against a Colorado attorney she had no idea the results of the investigation would implicate her in violating federal laws in a Colorado criminal case she presided over (Dist. Colo. case nos. 09-cr-00266-CMA and 09-cr-00266-CMA-3).

The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (ARC) investigated a frivolous complaint where Judge Arguello accused an attorney of intentionally seizing a court exhibit notebook and surreptitiously recording a sealed habeas proceeding. The improperly sealed proceeding is subject of a pending judicial complaint (http://bit.ly/2vmk73J) filed by advocacy organization A Just Cause. Although the ARC dismissed Judge Arguello's complaint because it had no merit and lacked evidence to support her claims, the investigation exposed clear violations of law by Judge Arguello alleged in the pending judicial complaint. "Judge Arguello sealed these proceedings to conceal misconduct by her and her clerks," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "And this is just one of her many transgressions in this case," adds Banks.

In a letter to the 10th Circuit Judicial Council which copies members of Congress A Just Cause discusses Judge Arguello's recent violations of law and many other acts of gross misconduct by her that resulted in the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of five Colorado Springs technology executives. "AJC implores you to end this horrible injustice and hold Judge Arguello and the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office accountable," the letter concluded.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Timeline Released in IRP6 Case Supports Allegations that Mueller's FBI Raided Colorado Company to Steal Software

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/21/2018 -- Advocacy organization A Just Cause (AJC) has released a timeline of events showing that a February 9, 2005 FBI raid on Colorado Springs company IRP Solutions (and subsequent wrongful prosecution and conviction its executives) was possibly done for the sole purpose of stealing their innovative "Case Investigative Life Cycle or CILC (pronounced "silk") software.

AJC says the FBI fraudulently obtained a search warrant by blatantly lying in an affidavit to Denver federal magistrate judge Craig Schaffer that IRP was a "purported software development company." Former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin agrees, telling the Washington Post that the IRP executives were "indicted and imprisoned for not paying their bills" and was "amazed" that the government claimed CILC was a "scam" when "all the proof in the case goes the opposite way."

Washington Post Article - http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC

Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice, who conducted a six-month investigation into the case, described in a 2013 report how the FBI and Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office concocted a bizarre "bogus business theory" to fraudulently gain an indictment that was ultimately used to wrongly convict and imprison the IRP executives.

"The IRP case departs from the typical failed-scam scenario for the simplest of reasons: the government's case can't stand up to scrutiny," said Bean. "The fraud alleged in the federal indictments is a mirage," added Bean. "The bogus business theory is bogus," exclaimed Bean.

"What would motivate the FBI falsify a search warrant affidavit and lie to a federal judge to raid IRP Solutions, " asks Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "Why did the FBI spend 13 hours at IRP offices on the day of the raid imaging every single hard drive in the business when the warrant authorized them to only seize financial records?" questions Banks. "Because they were trying to steal CILC," answers Banks. "The FBI was found culpable in 9/11 terror attacks because of their outdated case management software led to information sharing failures and wanted CILC," contends Banks.

Prior to raiding IRP in 2005, the FBI was reeling from controversy and congressional scrutiny for information sharing and operational failures caused by their antiquated case management software -- failures that the 9/11 Commission found contributed to the deaths of 3000 Americans from the 9/11 Al Qaeda terror attacks.

Between 2001 and 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller was failing miserably at modernizing the Bureau's archaic Automated Case Support (ACS) system and was being excoriated by members of Congress for wasting nearly $400 million dollars on the failed Virtual Case Files (VCF) project that was paid to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to replace ACS.

In December 2002, Mueller asked and received an additional $123 million dollars from Congress for the failing VCF project. By March 2004 Mueller told Congress in a hearing that VCF would be operational by the summer but did not deliver. In May 2004, however, a desperate Mueller agreed to pay SAIC another $16 million to help salvage the project while simultaneously discussing scrapping VCF in favor of another solution.

By June 2004 Mueller paid the Aerospace Corporation $2 million to review VCF. Aerospace concluded that VCF was incomplete, inadequate and so poorly designed that it would be unusable under real world conditions. Aerospace Corp. also found that in rudimentary tests, VCF did not comply with basic requirements. VCF was an utter failure and Mueller was desperate for answers. Mueller would soon learn from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) how CILC could help solve the FBI's case management woes when they joined with DHS as part of the Federal Investigative Case Management System (FICMS) initiative to acquire a single, commercially available case management solution that could be used by all federal law enforcement agencies to improve information sharing and collaboration between them and other local agencies.

According to court documents, the FBI and Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office was aware that throughout 2003 and 2004 IRP was actively engaged with the Department of Homeland Security and New York City Police Department and traveling the country to conduct CILC demonstrations to DHS, NYPD, Denver Police Department and many other agencies. CILC was the rage among U.S. law enforcement agencies and was featured in Law Enforcement Technology magazine in 2003 (http://bit.ly/2xspI9D) as well as Police Magazine in 2004 (http://bit.ly/2JwdCPm).

DHS information technology expert Paul Tran testified at the IRP trial that DHS was "interested" in CILC because "the software had a lot of features that law enforcement and case agents can really use." CILC is "powerful enough to become your agency's primary computerized investigative case management tool," said Police Magazine Reporter Sergeant Bob Davis of the San Diego Police Department who received a CILC demonstration. "We unite in praise to the IRP staff and their software product," said the Chief of Detectives for Denver Police Department in an email to IRP after a CILC demonstration. Sergeant John Shannon of the NYPD testified at the IRP trial that CILC was "cutting edge", "did a fantastic job of rationalizing the investigative process" and "was the best software he'd ever seen."

Mueller and the FBI were aware that on October 28, 2004, IRP was called to Washington, DC to demonstrate CILC to the joint DOJ/DHS FICMS working group where four senior FBI officials, including Supervisory Special Agent Melissa McRae, were in attendance with others from the Secret Service, U.S. Marshals, ICE, and Border Patrol. According to imprisoned IRP Chief Operating Officer David Banks who demonstrated the software to the FICMS group, Steven W. Cooper, who set-up the joint meeting, told him the FBI was "very impressed" with CILC.

Ten days later, on December 7, 2004, DHS requested and received a combined quote for two CILC modules totaling over $100 million dollars for DHS' 2005 budget exercise.

In a January 2005 hearing before Congress, Mueller addresses the failure of VCF.

On January 18, 2005, the FBI received an affidavit from Gary Hillberry, the retired head (Special-Agent-In-Charge) of the Denver division of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement who had been working as an independent consultant for IRP providing subject matter expertise on federal investigations with two other retired FBI supervisory special agents, sent an affidavit to the FBI stating: "IRP Solutions had a viable law enforcement product and appeared to be moving forward to acquire state and federal law enforcement contracts."

February 2005, Inspector General Glenn Fine releases a devastating 81-page audit describing the factors that contributed to the failure of VCF.

On February 3, 2005, the lead FBI agent overseeing the IRP case (John W. Smith), interviewed FBI Supervisory Special Agent Melissa McRae who was assigned to the Office of the Chief Information Officer located at FBI headquarters. ***Remember McRae was one of the FBI agents who attended the IRP FICMS demonstration on October 28, 2004. ***** McRae told Smith that CILC appeared to be "suitable for use" in an FBI field office.

Also, on February 3, 2005, Mueller goes on the record stating that the FBI will have a working product within a year and will be looking to purchase a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software product.

"The only COTS investigative case management product available in the market that was, as McRae described it, 'suitable' for FBI use, was CILC," says Cliff Stewart of A Just Cause.

On February 9, 2005, just six days after Mueller stated he would have a working product within a year and three weeks after Hillberry notified the FBI that IRP had a viable product, the FBI, armed with a fraudulently obtained search warrant stating IRP was a "purported software development company", raided IRP Solutions and spent 13 hours imaging every single hard drive in their company.

On February 25, IRP executives were contacted by Advocate Business Consultants inquiring about purchasing IRP Solutions on behalf of a mysterious third party.

On March 9, 2005, Mueller once again addressed Congress about the failed VCF, telling them the FBI would have something available soon.

"This isn't complicated," adds Stewart. "The timeline clearly shows the FBI was fully aware that IRP was a legitimate company, and by their own words, CILC was viable product," says Stewart. "There is no doubt the FBI obtained a search warrant under false pretenses to gain access to IRP Solutions for the purpose of stealing CILC and there is no competent evidence of a crime committed by the executives to rebut such a claim," concludes Stewart.

"I cannot shake my belief that an injustice has occurred with respect to their guilt," Judge Sarokin wrote in the Huffington Post. "The government's contention that their business was nothing but a scam defies reality," said Sarokin.

"This instance of wrongful prosecution didn't just damage individuals, families and businesses, it partially explains why after more than a decade of effort and the fruitless expenditure of more than a billion tax dollars, the security issues that left America vulnerable on 9-11 remain unsolved," wrote Dr. Bean. "IRP (The Investigative Resource Planning Company...had the answers," exclaimed Bean.

A Just Cause continues its fight for the release of five IRP executives from prison and vows to release other timelines in the near future, which will show the continuing misconduct by government officials occurring after 2005 to indict and imprison these men. For those who want more specific actions of government officials, A Just Cause recently published a comprehensive dossier of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that can be viewed online (http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ). Both Judge Sarokin's writings and Dr. Bean's report are included as Internet links in the dossier.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

President Trump Asked to Investigate Malicious Actions of Denver FBI and DOJ Prosecutors and Pardon Wrongly-Imprisoned Tech Execs

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/16/2018 -- Many people may not want to believe the FBI is capable of violating the law, but there is plenty of evidence showing Denver FBI agents and the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office conspired together (likely on behalf of a competitor) to take down a small Colorado technology company and its executives to steal its valuable criminal investigations software, which threatened to disrupt the status quo of billion dollar defense contractors and system integrators winning post-9/11 federal law enforcement technology modernization contracts. The Denver FBI and Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office would be called upon to manufacture a criminal case to ruin the company and/or steal its software for a competitor who would then sell it to the FBI. The software was called CILC (pronounced "silk"), an acronym for Case Investigative Life Cycle, which was developed by the Colorado Springs-based IRP Solutions Corporation.

After 9/11, FBI Director Robert Mueller was under pressure to replace the FBI's outdated case management system, which the congressional 9/11 commission found contributed to information sharing failures that allowed Al Qaeda to carry out the 9/11 attacks that killed 3000 Americans. Congress gave the FBI $400 million dollars for the Virtual Case Files (VCF) case management modernization project which failed and was declared "unfit for use" in the summer of 2004. By the fall of 2004, Mueller was made aware of CILC by the Department of Homeland Security who had been vetting CILC for nearly a year and half and found it was the only case management software that could support the modernization needs of the FBI and DHS.

On October 28, 2004, at the request of DHS, four senior FBI technology officials attended a demonstration of CILC as part of the joint DHS/DOJ Federal Investigative Case Management System (FICMS) initiative whose goal was to find a single commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) case management solution that could be used by all federal agencies to modernize their case management systems, thereby making it easier to share information and collaborate on a common technology platform.

After the demonstration FBI officials expressed satisfaction and interest in CILC. DHS was so impressed, that on December 1, 2004, they requested and received a $100 million quote from IRP for two CILC modules. On February 3, 2005, one of those FBI attendees, supervisory special agent Melissa McRae, is documented saying CILC was "suitable" to support investigative operations in an FBI field office. Coincidentally (or maybe not), on the same day, Mueller told Congress the FBI was going to purchase a COTS case management software product and would have that product working within a year. Just six days later, on February 9, 2005, twenty-two FBI agents armed with guns and a search warrant conducted a SWAT-style raid on IRP Solutions offices and spent 13 hours imaging every single desktop, laptop and server computer in the building.

Why were they there and how was the FBI able to obtain a search warrant at a company where there was no criminal activity and where former FBI agents from the Denver field office were on staff for a year? Certainly, IRP executives wouldn't be involved in criminal activity with federal agents working for them. The government decided they would take down the small, minority-owned IRP using their unpaid debts to staffing companies. Since having corporate debt is not a crime, Denver officials lied about IRP being a bogus business whose African-American executives were not only incapable of developing world-class case management software but were pretending to have software to defraud staffing companies out of money. The government scheme started with an FBI agent lying on an affidavit to fraudulently obtained a search warrant to gain access to IRP computers.

The FBI search warrant affidavit shows that Colorado Springs FBI agent John W. Smith falsely claimed that IRP was a "purported" software development company and suggested CILC was sham law enforcement software being used by IRP executives to misrepresent their contractual relationships with large law enforcement agencies (DHS, NYPD) for the purpose of wooing staffing companies into entering into agreements to providing temporary labor to work on the fake CILC software.

Smith's suggestion is absurd not only given McRae's statement received six days before the raid, but also because Smith had received a January 18, 2005 letter (http://bit.ly/2hS2JNX) from retired ICE agent Gary Hillberry, who, speaking on behalf of himself and two other retired FBI agents who were working as independent contractors at IRP, said "We decided IRP Solutions had a viable product and appeared to be moving forward to acquire state and federal law enforcement contracts." Furthermore, Smith had knowledge that CILC had been nationally featured in 2003 and 2004 in Law Enforcement Technology magazine (http://bit.ly/2xspI9D) and Police magazine (http://bit.ly/2JwdCPm) and received high praise from many other law enforcement agencies around the country.

"The warrant cited the seizure of financial records, but the real intention seemed to be the imaging of the IRP computers that contained anything related to IRP's CILC software," said Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of Friends of Justice, who conducted a six-month investigation into the case. Two weeks after the raid, a business consulting firm contacted IRP executives seeking to purchase the company on behalf of an undisclosed third-party. When the execs persisted in knowing who the third party was, the consulting firm wouldn't divulge and finally backed off.

Former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin, who reviewed the facts and evidence of the case, including trial records, told the Washington Post that the FBI's claims about IRP and CILC being a scam "defies reality" and that "all the proof in the case goes the other way." Furthermore, "attempting to scam law enforcement agencies as their sole customer, seems an unlikely target," noted Sarokin, especially when the men "left their jobs to create the software, hired former FBI and immigration agents as consultants and made no profit from the [alleged] scheme," added Sarokin. The IRP executives were "indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay corporate bills," said Sarokin.

Washington Post article - http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC

By 2009, there was no indictment and IRP's COO David Banks was successful in winning two contracts from Philadelphia's Police Department (PPD) and Inspector General's office. "Establishing the viability of their product would immediately catch the attention of other jurisdictions and lead to additional orders, cash flow and the ability to discharge the company's debt," said Dr. Bean. Furthermore it "would have derailed the government's case," added Bean. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Kirsch wasn't going to let that happen and scuttled the deal by making a phone call to Philly officials to tell them an indictment was coming. Director of Information Technology for PPD told the FBI "PPD was very close to having the (CILC) product installed prior to discovery of the IRP investigation." (See email communications between IRP and Philly officials at (http://bit.ly/2fOxbEJ)

What did Mueller know about CILC and was he aware of the Denver FBI office's rogue actions? Could he have been involved? It's certainly reasonable to conclude that Mueller was briefed on CILC by his chief information officer after four officials from his office expressed satisfaction with CILC's capabilities. The timing of McRae's statement, Mueller's promise to have COTS software within a year and the offer to buy IRP certainly indicates the conspiracy to takedown IRP may have been planned at a higher level even if Mueller was unaware. It appears the head of the Denver field office was in the dark about the IRP case when he sent a letter to a staffing company six months after the raid, stating the matter would "best be handled civilly." (See letter at http://bit.ly/2ibF7Qp)

Judge Sarokin sent a letter to President Obama asking him to grant clemency for the IRP executives, but Obama refused to give justice to these men. Obama can't claim he didn't know because Sarokin's letter was emailed to his senior aide Roy Austin. In the past weeks, A Just Cause sent a request for a pardon to President Trump at the White House for five IRP executives who remain imprisoned at a Florence, Colorado federal prison camp for six years and counting. (See http://bit.ly/2JImAZp). Four congressmen also sent a letter to the DOJ asking for an investigation into the government misconduct on November 1, 2017 but have not received a response. (See letter at http://bit.ly/2HuvgTc)

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Trump May Be the Only One Courageous Enough Stand Against Justice System Misconduct Resulting in Wrongful Conviction

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/30/2018 -- A Just Cause believes President Donald Trump may be the only U.S. president courageous enough to pardon five innocent Colorado software executives (4 black, one white) who were unconstitutionally convicted and imprisoned as a result of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. President Obama denied clemency to these businessmen after receiving a letter from a former federal appeals judge asking him to grant clemency based on evidence that the businessmen were indicted and imprisoned for "failing to pay corporate debts" and had their constitutional rights violated by the trial judge and prosecutor. In November 2017, four concerned members of Congress sent a joint letter to the Justice Department seeking answers about the civil case being criminalized and "serious" allegations of misconduct and violations of the law by the prosecutor and trial judge. The DOJ has yet to respond, presumably because it's taboo to challenge misconduct by federal judges and prosecutors. According to prominent federal appeals judge Alex Kozinski, it takes a brave and courageous person in the Justice Department or courts to report misconduct or take action to hold them accountable. Another federal appeals judge says federal judges are stubborn and refuse to acknowledge their wrongdoing.

In his 2015 article titled "Criminal Law 2.0", Judge Kozinski described the FBI agent who reported prosecutorial misconduct in the wrongful conviction of U.S. Senator Stevens as "brave" and said the federal judge who had those DOJ prosecutors investigated and forced them to admit wrongdoing as "courageous." In 2014, 9th Circuit federal appeals judge Andrew Hurwitz said the following in criticism of the federal judiciary: "To err is human" but "to make a mistake and stubbornly refuse acknowledge it -- that's judicial." Kozinski also chided that even after the Stevens prosecutors got caught, they "argued strenuously that their ill-gotten conviction should stand because boys will be boys."

"These five innocent Colorado software executives were denied a fair trial and have languished in prison for nearly six years because establishment federal judges and prosecutors are too stubborn to admit wrongdoing and take responsibility for their actions," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "It's shameful that reporting misconduct, protecting the constitutional rights of defendants and holding prosecutors and judges accountable for misconduct are so rare that a federal judge characterizes those who do as brave and courageous," adds Banks. "These IRP executives are patriots, had no criminal records and were developing software to help protect our nation from another 9/11 terrorist attack," says Banks. "A Just Cause hopes that President Trump as a businessman will not only see the horrible injustice of imprisoning business executives for failing to pay contractors, but has the courage to do what the Obama administration refused to do; confront prosecutorial and judicial misconduct head-on by granting clemency to five innocent men who were trying to help our country," adds Banks.

A Just Cause is asking President Trump to review the following in consideration of granting clemency:

The five software executives of the Colorado Springs-based IRP Solutions Corporation (David A. Banks, Demetrius K. Harper, Kendrick Barnes, David A. Zirpolo and Clinton A. Stewart) developed innovative criminal investigations software after 9/11 to help improve our nation's law enforcement information sharing and collaboration capabilities. IRP's CILC software (pronounced "silk"), which is an acronym for Case Investigative Life Cycle, was highly-touted by law enforcement at all levels.

CILC is "powerful enough to become your agency's primary computerized investigative case management tool," said Police Magazine in 2004. CILC "was the best software I'd ever seen," said a senior official responsible for evaluating and recommending case management software for the NYPD Detective Division. We "unite in praise to the IRP staff and their software product," said the Chief of Detectives for the Denver Police Department. IRP Solutions "developed an innovative and timely solution for law enforcement agencies," said the former Chief of Police for the Colorado Springs Police Department, who was previously an LAPD commander. CILC "looked exactly like what...PPD was looking to purchase," the Director of Information Technology for the Philadelphia Police Department told the FBI. CILC "had a lot of features that law enforcement and case agents can really use," said a senior Department of Homeland Security technology official. "We decided IRP Solutions had a viable product and appeared to be moving forward to acquire state and federal law enforcement contracts," said retired Immigration and Customs official Gary Hillberry in an affidavit to the FBI. Hillberry and two other FBI supervisory special agents worked as independent contractors at IRP providing subject matter expertise for CILC.

With full knowledge of IRP's substantial sales activities and law enforcement's serious interest in CILC, FBI agent John Smith, on February 7, 2005, fraudulently obtained a search warrant by swearing in an affidavit that IRP Solutions was a "purported" software development company and raided IRP Solutions on February 9th. As a matter of fact, the FBI was aware of the following IRP business activities that occurred six months prior to the raid:

1) On October 28, 2004 four senior FBI technology officials attended a joint DOJ/DHS presentation of CILC along with a dozen or more representatives from ICE, Secret Service, Border Patrol, U.S. Marshals and more.

2) On December 1, 2004, DHS requested and received a $100 million quote for two CILC modules to use for their 2005 budget exercise.

3) On January 18, 2005, Hillberry sent the affidavit to the lead FBI agent stating IRP had a "viable" product.

The local paper reported that IRP was suspected of stealing money from staffing companies. There was no theft. IRP signed staffing company contracts for temporary workers to support modifications being made to CILC on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and NYPD. Staffing company credit departments conducted credit checks, approved credit limits for IRP, paid their employees for work done at IRP, billed IRP and didn't receive payment. IRP execs were optimistic about generating revenue with DHS or NYPD to pay its debts but many months of hard work to sell CILC was destroyed by Denver FBI agents poisoning DHS, NYPD and other law enforcement agencies from purchasing software from a company under criminal investigation.

"FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors never saw this as a civil matter, a case of well-intentioned businessmen incurring business debt," said Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director of the Friends of Justice. "Instead, scores of federal officials concluded, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that a Colorado software development company had no prospects of success, no interest in success, and existed for the sole purpose of defrauding business partners," exclaimed Bean. "Until you realize that...the men at the heart of this story, the public face of the company, are African American, nothing else makes sense," said Bean.

A 2007 grand jury also saw IRP's business activities as a civil matter and refused to return an indictment based on a wild theory manufactured by the government that the IRP execs were laundering money through the church through kickbacks they were receiving from some church friends who worked at IRP through staffing companies. "But if I don't pay somebody for the work they've done, that's not a federal crime," one grand juror pointed out.

"No one questioned the staffing company's obligation to seek civil remedies, but so long as IRP executives were making good faith effort to secure a contract, where was the fraud?" asked Dr. Bean.

In 2009 the federal prosecutor pursued a dishonest prosecution by going to a second grand jury with a new "contract theory, alleging that staffing company representatives who personally interacted with IRP execs were duped into providing services to IRP based on false statements made by them about a having a "large current or impending contract" with the DHS or NYPD. But those same representatives, when testifying for the government at trial, said they were not duped because they didn't make the decision to do business with IRP, it was their credit departments who did so based on Dun & Bradstreet credit reports and other credit checks. Unlike the 2007 grand jury that included testimony from numerous witnesses who worked at the company including IRP Vice President David Zirpolo, only a single FBI agent was called to testify before the 2009 grand jury, thereby depriving the grand jury of other witnesses to guarantee an indictment.

According to Dr. Bean, AUSA Matt Kirsch dishonestly presented the IRP defendants as "slick opportunists who had learned to game the American dream", not as "real entrepreneurs developing a viable product in response to consumer demand." Kirsch told the jury that the IRP execs had a better chance winning the lottery than selling their software to DHS or NYPD. "The IRP6 case departs from the typical failed-scam scenario for the simplest of reasons: the government's case can't stand up to scrutiny," said Bean. "The fraud alleged in the indictment is a mirage," concluded Bean. A former federal appeal judge who is reviewed the case agrees.

Former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin (Retired, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals) immersed himself into the facts of the case after learning from A Just Cause about the suspicious disappearance or destruction of a critical portion of the trial transcript related to alleged judicial misconduct by the trial judge. After reviewing facts of the case and trial transcripts, Sarokin was not only convinced the IRP executives were innocent and were prosecuted for failing to pay corporate debt, but found the case was mishandled by both the government and the courts, which included violations of the defendants 5th Amendment rights and a violation of a federal discovery statute. Sarokin spoke to the Washington Post about this case in July 2016 (http://www.wapo.st/29jXqSC).

"I thought it was rare for corporate executives to be indicted and imprisoned for not paying their corporate bills," Sarokin told the Washington Post. "What amazed me about the case was theory of the government that this program they were developing was a scam," added Sarokin. "All the proof in the case goes the opposite way," said Sarokin. He also blogged about the 5th Amendment violation and the disappearance of the transcript on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judge-h-lee-sarokin/the-case-of-the-missing-t_1_b_5340397.html).

In his letter to Obama, Judge Sarokin exposed the inconsistent theories of the prosecutor that rendered the prosecution of the IRP executives absurd. Here is an excerpt from Sarokin's letter:

"The prosecution argued to the jury what I consider two wholly inconsistent theories. First, that the petitioners lied about their prospects for business in order to get staffing companies to work on the program, and second, that the program was a scam. Any reasonable analysis of the two theories sided-by-side would and should have led to the evitable conclusion that there was no evidence of criminal intent on the part of the petitioners. All one must do is ask a series of questions that renders the inconsistent charges absurd.

Assuming the petitioners exaggerated or even lied about their business prospects (which they denied doing):

1. How would they make money, if the staffing companies hired and paid the workers directly?

2. Why would the petitioners continue to engage staffing companies to work on a program if it were a phony scam?

3. If it were a scam:

a. Why spend years working on it?

b. Why invest money with friends and family?

c. Why hire former FBI agents and law enforcement officers to work on the project?

d. Why focus as your only target--law enforcement, FBI, Homeland Security, Congress, etc.

e. Why hire two law firms to guide and assist you?

f. Why lease expensive space and invite local law enforcement to the opening?

g. Why personally guarantee the obligations to the staffing companies?

h. Why fly around the country and incur the expenses of demonstrating it?

There can be only one logical conclusion from all of this. The petitioners continued to engage staffing companies because they believed in their program; expected it to be successful and be able to pay their debts. Totally lacking--contrary to any credible evidence, is proof of criminal intent. Petitioners never denied owing the money, but insisted they always intended to pay. There is no evidence that they incurred the obligations not intending to pay or knowing that they could not. The bottom line is that they were indicted, convicted and received long sentences for not paying their corporate bills."

IRP COO David Banks also sent a letter (http://bit.ly/2wUlqTQ) to President Trump around February 2017 [prior to four members of Congress sending the letter to the DOJ], where he stated in part:

"The lead FBI agent in the case publicly admitted on two occasions during court proceedings that if we had PAID OUR DEBTS there would not have been a criminal case. So why are we in a debtor's prison? Why did officials ignore our innocence, ignore gross violations of our constitutional rights and ignore official misconduct? The answer is simple--to protect the image of the establishment at the expense of our freedom, our constitutional rights and pain to our families."

It is inarguable that the five IRP executives who are currently imprisoned at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado are innocent and were prosecuted by an over-zealous prosecutor for failing to pay corporate debt and it is undeniable that federal justice officials were unwilling and did not properly exercise their power or perform their duty under the law to vindicate the wrongly convicted men because they weren't brave or courageous enough to hold fellow judges and prosecutors accountable for their malfeasance.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's said "clemency power can correct injustices that the ordinary criminal process seems unable or unwilling to consider" and based on that, we ask President Trump to do what the Obama administration was unwilling to do, grant a pardon to David A. Banks (Reg. no. 36319-013), Kendrick Barnes (Reg. no. 36324-013), David A. Zirpolo (Reg. no. 36323-013), Clinton A. Stewart (Reg. no. 36322-013) and Demetrius K. Harper (Reg. no. 36320-013).

For more information contact A Just Cause.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Constituents Say Lamborn Refuses to Demand Answers About Prosecutorial and Judicial Misconduct Resulting in Wrongful Imprisonment of Colorado Businessmen

Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/13/2018 -- According to a February 2, 2018 report by Colorado Springs' KKTV 11 News, Congressmen Doug Lamborn, in discussing FBI and DOJ abuses said that "citizens must have their constitutional rights protected" and "any agency and anyone who steps outside that boundary must answer for it, and it must not be permitted to happen again." But numerous constituents who Lamborn represents in Colorado Springs, says those statements are nothing more than empty words because Lamborn did nothing for five Colorado businessmen known as the IRP5 (previously IRP6) who are wrongly imprisoned on sentences of 7 to 11 years as a result of gross prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

"The malicious misconduct of the Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office and federal judge Christine M. Arguello that destroyed a small business, hurt children, brought pain and suffering to numerous families and cost Colorado Springs hundreds of jobs," says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. "When we provided Mr. Lamborn with documented evidence of that misconduct and asked for his help, he did absolutely nothing," adds Banks. "When we provided Mr. Lamborn with documents and a Washington Post article from a highly-respected federal appeals judge confirming that misconduct occurred, the IRP6 were indicted and imprisoned for failing to pay corporate bills and Judge Arguello had violated the IRP6's 5th Amendment rights, he did nothing," adds Banks. When AJC made Lamborn aware that a former House and Senate judiciary committee lawyer, who was also a former federal prosecutor, confirmed that the IRP6 case was a civil case, not criminal, he once again did nothing," says Banks." "When we went outside of Colorado and provided the same information to other congressmen, they took it seriously," says Banks, "and four of them took action and sent a joint letter to the DOJ requesting answers to the alleged prosecutorial and judicial abuses," adds Banks. "Before and after the letter was sent, A Just Cause contacted Mr. Lamborn again and asked him to join with the other four congressmen but he turned his back on his constituents again," says Banks. "It appears that Representative Lamborn may be trying to protect these high-level justice officials' reputations at the cost of allowing the wrongful imprisonment of these businessmen, pain and suffering of Colorado families and at the expense of jobs for Coloradans," adds Banks.

According to A Just Cause, Lamborn was provided with a comprehensive dossier of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct that presents irrefutable documented evidence of these officials' misconduct. A Just Cause has published the dossier on the Internet for all Coloradans to see which includes documents from the former federal appeals judge and other experts as well as court documents and corporate emails.

A Just Cause encourages all Colorado voters, especially those in the 5th District of Colorado, to read the dossier(http://bit.ly/2wBaCyJ) for themselves and see the tragic injustice and government misconduct being ignored Lamborn. "I am not sure Coloradans can continue to trust Mr. Lamborn to represent their interests when he's not willing to hold justice officials accountable for gross misconduct that lead to the wrongful imprisonment of Coloradans.

A Just Cause also invites Coloradans and others around the country to tune into their two-hour Internet radio program (http://www.ajcradio.com) that airs every Tuesday and Thursday night at 8pm Eastern Standard Time (6pm Mountain Time in Colorado).

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm