Judge Brian Hill; Another Black Eye for the Indiana Judicial System

Judge Brian Hill; Another Black Eye for the Indiana Judicial System.

My family and I breathed a small sigh of relief when Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard appointed Rush County Superior Court Judge Brian Hill to preside over my criminal trial. The appointment of Judge Hill seemed to be much better than the previous appointment of Decatur County Circuit Judge John Westhafer, who admitted to being a good friend of Judge Humphrey’s for 25 years. A little internet research demonstrated that Judge Hill was a relatively young family man that still worked the family farm who also took an interest in history. It appeared that I finally had a judge that possessed the constitutional intellectualism necessary to handle my case. It turned out Judge Brian Hill had the constitutional intellectualism of a turnip.
When Judge Hill handed me a five year sentence for my non-violent blogging about public officials, he said I was not a good candidate for probation because I would blog about the probation department as well. Judge Brian Hill denied my ability to serve any of my five year sentence on probation because he felt I would exercise my First Amendment right and blog about another government agency. He didn’t deny probation to protect the alleged victims in the case or to ensure the safety of the general public; Judge Brian Hill denied probation to protect a government agency from any potential, fair or unfair, public criticism. Judge Hill deprived me of many constitutional rights during my trial because he was afraid I would continue to exercise my right to free speech. He denied me a reasonable bond based partly on the likelihood of me continuing to exercise my First Amendment rights. Judge Hill ordered the jurors’ names in my case to remain confidential because he worried I would exercise my right to free speech to comment on the jury. (To put this in perspective, jurors’ names in the Casey Anthony murder trial were kept confidential during the trial to protect the integrity of the criminal proceedings but were released at the conclusion of the trial). The benefit of the jurors’ names remaining anonymous in the nation’s most publicized and controversial murder trial of 2011 did not outweigh the rights of the prosecution or the defense to be able to determine if there was any jury misconduct. All of the jury members on my case realized who the powerful people in their community were and what they were asking the jurors to do. The prosecutor’s office used the case of to defend their request for a confidential jury. In that case the appellate court had ruled that having a confidential jury in a 3 count murder trial was wrong but was considered harmless error and the guilty party’s sentence of 175 years was appropriate. The only way I can find out who was on the jury is by initiating another legal action, from prison, to have the identities of the jurors revealed. During my sentencing hearing, Judge Hill was upset that I continued to write about public officials while I was in jail even though the writings, in Judge Hill’s words, were “not criminal.” So why didn’t Judge Hill issue a gag order preventing me from writing about these things? Because it would be considered prior restraint to free speech and would be in violation of the First Amendment of the United State Constitution. Judge Brian Hill could not order me to stop writing about the same subjects that led to my conviction because the writings are protected by the Constitution of the United States of America. So how in the hell did I get convicted of engaging in constitutionally protected activity?
Judge Brian Hill’s actions have less to do with constitutional intellectualism and more to do with having the integrity and morality of an Illinois Nazi. (and as Jake Blues said in the Blues Brothers,”I hate Illinois Nazis.”) Judge Hill maliciously disregarded my constitutional rights, not to protect the public but to protect the “integrity” of public and government officials. One of the reasons Judge Humphrey gave for terminating my parenting time was I suffered from severe ADHD. During the course of my criminal trial I was accused of being delusional and psychologically disturbed. Rather than question my ability to stand trial, Judge Hill refused to ensure that I was given my proper medication for ADHD so my mind would operate normally at trial. Judge Hill’s only concern was to assist Dearborn County Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard protect the reputation of Judge James D. Humphrey.
Rush County Circuit Judge Brian Hill deprived me of my right to competent counsel as he was aware that my public defender, Rush County public defender Bryan Barrett (appointed by Judge Hill) never met with me nor spoke with me about trial preparation. Barrett never subpoenaed any witnesses or evidence and never took the depositions of any of the alleged victims or state witnesses. Judge Hill knew I did not receive a copy of the 350+ pages of grand jury transcripts until less than two weeks before trial and he was also aware that I never received some of the prosecution’s evidence at all. Before the trial, I tried to explain how I did not know what actions led to my charges. Judge Hill said if I didn’t like it, I could represent myself. During my sentencing hearing I questioned the validity of the indictments as Prosecutor Negangard was never able to produce any evidence during trial that I ever released information from the grand jury proceedings. I questioned how a grand jury could indict me for releasing grand jury information in the absence of ANY supporting evidence. Judge Brian Hill simply told me that I had a remarkable ability to manipulate information to make me appear to be a victim. No Judge Hill, I just have a tendency to challenge government officials who fail to follow the provisions set forth in the Bill of Right s of the U.S. Constitution.
If I am truly guilty of the crimes alleged by Prosecutor Negangard, I now run the risk of being convicted of the same crimes in Rush County if I criticize Judge Hill too much. Dearborn County had jurisdiction to prosecute me for criticizing Judge Humphrey as a special judge for a Ripley County Court so Rush County has the same ability to prosecute me for criticizing Rush County Superior Court Judge Brian Hill while he was serving as a special judge for a Dearborn County court.
Judge Brian Hill doesn’t lack intelligence; he lacks honesty and moral fortitude. He chose the good ol’ boys over the founding fathers. He thought Judge Humphrey’s reputation was more important than the blood of the fallen soldier who made it possible to ink the Constitution of the United States of America. This is exactly why it is crucial to fight to protect First Amendment rights; so we have the ability to speak out against the Nazi-esque approach of officials like Prosecutor Negangard, Judge Humphrey, and Judge Hill, who seek to squash the voices of people that have the nerve to question authority.
Thanks for the support.
You can contact the family at contactdanbrewington@gmail.com