The Biden-Harris U.S. Bureau of Prisons is destroying the personal property of January 6 Defendants and inmates. This appears to be a systemic approach across the board. This is going to be a growing problem as more and more January 6 demonstrators with shorter sentences will soon be released.
J6ers leaving prison are going to have no way to get on a plane, bus, or train, apply for an apartment, check into hotels, cash a check, or re-open a bank account, receive funds, etc.
Most people have seen movies or television shows in which an inmate is released after doing their time, and the officer at the counter pulls their personal property held all that time out of storage, calls out every item one at a time, delivers them to the now-free individual and asks him or her to sign a receipt.
Well, that’s not how Merrick Garland rolls.
Starting on August 17, The Gateway Pundit community responded generously to help Darrell Neely who had been dumped on the street in Greensboro, North Carolina and was living under a bridge.
We were all especially blessed by the many messages of prayers and support (which GiveSendGo does accommodate very well) from The Gateway Pundit community. I suspect that people saw this as a do-able, manage-able solution that they could take to easily fix a problem.
But when we tried to take the next steps, we found that the prison had destroyed Darrell’s driver’s license and other identification. When I took $1,000 of my own money (ordering a reimbursement check from the Fund’s bank) and sent it by MoneyGram to Darrell Neely in North Carolina, he could not receive the money. The only ID he had was a prison ID. (Of course the money wasn’t lost, but it took enormous work to redirect it.)
Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice which runs the Bureau of Prisons did not return his driver’s license, any other ID, or any of his personal property.
So the Walmart financial desk nearby refused to release the money to him. At the time he was still homeless with no cell phone. But he managed to get the Walmart to call me. I personally argued with the financial desk clerk (whose hands were tied by Walmart policy, though sympathetic). They would not accept a prisoner ID card.
The Fund was able to find an inexpensive hotel nearby and a cell phone, paying for them with the Fund’s credit card out of the donations generously provided. I had to fast-talk the hotel and bury them with documentation from the Fund so they wouldn’t refuse to let him check in with only a prison ID. Darrell has been staying there since August 17 until September 4, by the generosity of supporters.
As I write this, Darrell Neely is on a trip from Greensboro to Washington, D.C., the last place he had a valid driver’s license. We figure it will be easier to get a replacement card there than to start from scratch in a different state. Because Washington DC is expensive for hotels and such the trip will probably cost at least $1,000 or more.
Last week, hisr Fund paid for a trip to the county of his birth to get a replacement birth certificate. Over the phone, they said his prison ID wouldn’t work but he actually knew someone working there since school. So we got that far. If anyone would like to help further with this process and these trips, it would be appreciated:
I demanded to know from the prosecutors, and he asked his probation officer what happened to Darrell’s photo identification. I got no answer from the prosecutors. His probation officer, who has generally been helpful, responded that the Bureau of Prisons destroys personal property like IDs when people are arrested. (It is not clear if the officer confirmed this in relation to Darrell in particular, but he strongly believed that this was the general practice. Rather than puzzling over what happened to them, the officer just spit out the response that his IDs were probably destroyed.)
Since then, checking around with January 6 attorneys and advocates, I have been told of similar experiences with other January 6 defendants finishing the shorter range of sentences. No one has reported getting their personal property back upon being released. Unfortunately, Darrell’s family had disowned him and he had no support.
Technically, Merrick Garland’s DOJ is stealing. Notice that when we see the outrageous misbehavior of the federal judges in the District of Columbia, Merrick Garland was one of them. When we read federal court decisions filled with double-talk, changing the subject, answering the wrong question, misstating the facts, speculating, and changing the law on the fly, don’t forget that Garland was a federal judge in that same swamp. His ethical standards are the same. Worse: When the DOJ is asking those federal judges to do something, it is a former member of their club asking. Worse still: Garland can’t shut up. No prosecutor should be giving speeches about pending criminal trials.
We are considering filing a lawsuit to stop these abuses. When the FBI seizes property and arrests people, property falls into two categories: (1) personal property like credit cards, driver’s licenses, cell phones, etc. (2) anything that could be evidence. The first should be immediately returned. The second, when the evidence is no longer needed, should be returned but that requires red tape. There is no excuse to simply throw it all away.
Former radio broadcaster Darrell Neely served a relatively short prison term for minor, non-violent charges concerning January 6, 2021. But he spent nearly two years pre-trial incarcerated pending trial. He was dumped out on the street with nothing. He was locked up for three years.
Since people helped, Darell was able to get cleaned up, buy some clothes, and apply for several jobs. He got a home improvement temporary job already, and had a restaurant job in the wings. Unfortunately, his boss then had a heart attack but is expected to recover so that’s not going to stop Darrell from having a job. Darrell applied to about 10 apartments but each of those has an application fee, one as much as $175. Because he is just out of prison and hasn’t worked for the three years he was locked up, he is going to have to apply to a lot of places to find one sympathetic.
The Patriot’s Legal Defense Fund was approached by activist Alicia Powe to help January 6 defendant Darrell Neely as well as inmates being denied medical treatment such as Ryan Samsel. I originally created the Fund to help January 6 Defendants afford criminal defense attorneys.
So those without bank accounts to receive funds through GiveSendGo persuaded us to help them deposit donations with the Fund and get help that way. GiveSendGo allows us to precisely identify what donations are intended for which person. But we have no other fund-raising happening right now, and we can’t use any funds donated to a particular person for our general expenses.
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