Guest Contributor for "The Legal System and All Things Related Blog"

The authors of the book, "Stack the Legal Odds in Your Favor", Tom Scott and Sara Naheedy, were gracious enough to ask me to be a guest contributor on their blog. The post includes my introduction to arguments appearing in the appellate brief I'm filing with the Indiana Court of Appeals. I am still fighting the good fight against a less than honest Indiana Judicial System.  "Stack the Legal Odds in Your Favor" is available through the book's website, Amazon, Google Books,  etc. Positive reviews of "Stack the Legal Odds in Your Favor" include those written by Dr. Ron Paul, Senator Marco Rubio, and former CIA Officer John Kiriakou.

"This is a must-read for anyone who wants access to a variety of practical and not idealistic tools to help increase his chances of emerging from a run-in with our corrupt legal system with his liberty and/or property intact."		"Not just a book, but a public service. The good guys—the innocent—don't always win. With this book's help, you can learn exactly how to defend yourself and ensure justice prevails despite our system."		"Thank you so much for your book. America is truly blessed with individuals who offer their time and resources to educate others in their community about important issues facing our nation."
Doctor Ron Paul		Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou		Senator Marco Rubio

http://www.stloiyf.com/blog/post/experience-of-someone-in-the-corrupt-indiana-courts/

More Examples of Grand Jury Abuses by Officials under Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill

In addition to changing the official record of grand jury proceedings, Chief Deputy Attorney General F. Aaron Negangard abused the grand jury process by viciously attacking and interrupting a grand jury witness whom Negangard claimed to suffer from psychological problems. That witness happened to be me. During opening arguments in my trial on October 3, 2011, Negangard read from a child custody evaluation released by Dr. Edward J. Connor on August 29, 2007:

“I'm going to read to you some findings about Dan Brewington because I think it's important to note that Dr. Connor hits the nail on the head when it comes to how he describes Dan Brewington…[Brewington] has a severe attention deficit disorder that affects his ability to focus and concentrate. He rambles and forgets, is given to impulsive and incoherent thought. He cannot communicate with the mother with the skills necessary to conduct joint custody. He also gave him a test. The test results said he had a degree of psychological disturbance that is concerning.” Trial transcript pg. 10

First thing to note is Negangard failed to mention the above referenced child custody evaluation recommended that I have near-equal parenting time with my 1 and 3-year-old daughters, which included overnights and weekends. If Negangard really believed I was unable to focus or concentrate and I rambled and forgot what I was saying, Negangard attempted to take advantage of my alleged disability during my voluntary testimony before the grand jury by constantly yelling at and interrupting me. If Negangard believed I was unstable, then Negangard tried his best to light the fuse. When I refused to be baited into Negangard’s trap, his tirades became so abusive that near the end of the below dialogue appearing in the grand jury transcripts, I tried to calmly address the members of the grand jury in an attempt to escape Negangard’s toxic attacks.

MR. NEGANGARD: And you didn't like his opinion either.

DAN: Well because, who?

MR. NEGANGARD: Judge Humphrey.

DAN: Well Judge Humphrey, well the problem was...

MR. NEGANGARD: Yes or no. Did you like Judge Humphrey's...

DAN: Well which opinion are you talking about?

MR. NEGANGARD: His final order.

DAN: The final order?

MR. NEGANGARD: Yes.

DAN: He terminated my parenting time with what Dr. Conner said...

MR. NEGANGARD: Well actually he didn't terminate your parenting time.

DAN: Yes he did.

MR. NEGANGARD: Did he?

DAN: Yes.

MR. NEGANGARD: No, he said, all you have to do, he said you have parenting time pursuant to, all you have to do is get a custody, is get a psychiatric evaluation.

DAN: That's why my case was on appeal. [Humphrey] said that he didn't have jurisdiction any more.

MR. NEGANGARD: [Humphrey] said all you have to do was get a psychiatric evaluation.

DAN: Yes and I was, I was, I tried to get a hearing for that and my hearing was set for June, June 14th...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...you never got a psychiatric evaluation. Correct?

DAN: It just got approved. It's Dr. [Lawlor] and uh, uh, well, let me back up. I had a hearing set for June 14th, it took a, by the final decree in my divorce, by the way there was no mentioning of terminating my parenting time.

MR. NEGANGARD: There was no mention of terminating your parenting time in the final decree.

DAN: Okay, what's the final decree say? Do I get any parenting time

MR. NEGANGARD: That you're not entitled to visitation. it doesn't say terminating visitation, now does it?

DAN: What's that mean? Did he terminate my visitation?

MR. NEGANGARD: No. Until you undergo a mental health evaluation. What is wrong with that?

DAN: Okay, then he terminated then...

MR. NEGANGARD: If you really cared about your children, why wouldn't you have gotten the evaluation?

DAN: Well because the burden of proof shouldn't be on

MR. NEGANGARD: ...if you really cared...

DAN: ...I did get an evaluation....

MR. NEGANGARD: ...about your children...

DAN: ...here's the problem...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...you didn't get an evaluation.. ,

DAN: Yes I did.

MR. NEGANGARD: No you didn't.

DAN: Because on March 13 th, March 17th, I had an attorney, well up until then, Judge Humphrey said he didn't...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...you represented yourself. Correct?

DAN: Well yes up until then, March 17 th, Judge Humphrey said he didn't have jurisdiction of the case because it was in appeal. I got an attorney. He filed a motion so we had a motion to approve a psychiatrist, a Dr. Henry Waite in Cincinnati where both me and my ex-wife reside and Judge Humphrey set a date, in fact, June 14, 2009 or 2010 Five days before that Judge Humphrey recused himself because of, this investigation I guess because I guess you spoke with him or somebody did.

MR. NEGANGARD: That was a long time after this order was issued.

DAN: Yes because he said that...

MR. NEGANGARD: You had plenty of time to get a psychiatric evaluation but instead you chose to appeal it. Correct?

DAN: Well that's the other thing it was he said I had to pay a hundred and twenty.-two thousand dollars ($122,000.00) for the future interest of a trust in farmland that I'm not entitled to so...

MR. NEGANGARD: But that wouldn't prevent you from getting a psychiatric evaluation so you could get your visitation...

DAN: Well I got a psychiatric evaluation. I got two (2) of them. I got one from a Hamilton County Court. I got one from Dr. Henry Waite. I wasn't allowed to bring those because I couldn't approve it. Here I got that...

MR. NEGANGARD: Isn't it true in your internet writings you said how you would not submit to a psychiatric evaluation?

DAN: That was at the very beginning because I was concerned. Okay, let's back up. The problem was, I wasn't given a copy of Dr. Conner's case file, which is...

MR. NEGANGARD: You got several documents...

DAN: Okay.

MR. NEGANGARD: ...you didn't get what you wanted. You didn't get your wife's stuff that you wanted to post on the....

DAN: I didn't get everything

MR. NEGANGARD: ...internet

DAN: ...I didn't get everything...

MR. NEGANGARD: Correct?

DAN: No. It had...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...so what...

DAN: ...nothing to do with that

MR. NEGANGARD: So what, you had this evaluation, you couldn't do a, you couldn't...

DAN: Mr. Negangard you got...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...no, I want you to try...

DAN: ...your facts wrong...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...and finally wake up. Everybody's at fault -- Judge Humphrey's at fault, Dr. Corner's at fault, Amy Streator's at fault, Tom Blondell's at fault, Mike Kreinhop's at fault...

DAN: ...see this is what he does...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...I'm. at fault, the Court of Appeals is...

DAN: ...that's what he does...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...at fault, the Indiana Supreme Court is at fault...

DAN: ...because that's what people like this do. They...

MR. NEGANGARD: ...is that whose all...

DAN: ...point at the person and say they're crazy.

MR. NEGANGARD: ...is that whose all at fault?

DAN: Well hold on.

MR. NEGANGARD: I mean because you've stated in your testimony that all those people are wrong and you're the only one that's right. Correct?

DAN: Let me just read this stuff real quick. Here's the history...

MR. NEGANGARD: Well answer the question. Are all those people wrong and you're the only one that's right? 

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill was aware of the above conduct but instead of taking action to protect the public from abuses of the grand jury process, Attorney General Hill rewarded Negangard’s conduct with a promotion. If Hill did address my case with Negangard, Negangard probably just brushed it off as Brewington being crazy; however, if Negangard believed that I suffered from psychological disorders, then Negangard sought to take full advantage of my disability behind closed doors. If Chief Deputy Attorney General F. Aaron Negangard did not believe I suffered from the psychological dysfunction mentioned in Connor’s report, then Negangard knew I was correct in criticizing Dr. Edward J. Connor and Judge James D. Humphrey but made me a target of a grand jury investigation for doing so.

Therefore Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill does not want the Dearborn Superior Court II to release the full audio record from my grand jury proceedings. If the above is part of what Negangard allowed to be included in the record of the proceedings, there is no telling what information Negangard kept out of the record.

 Here is a link to more information regarding two separate court cases pertaining to the grand jury abuses committed by the right hand man of Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill. 

Judge Sally McLaughlin's Court Altered Grand Jury Audio

Part 1 of a two blog series on tampering grand jury audio.

Judge Sally A. McLaughlin
Superior Court IIDearborn County Indiana

The recent release of grand jury audio by the Dearborn Superior Court II (“Court”), under Judge Sally A. McLaughlin, provides conclusive evidence that the Court altered grand jury records, renamed audio files, while billing Dan Brewington for expenses incurred by the Court in altering grand jury audio. The Office of the Dearborn County Prosecutor, under Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard, made Brewington the target of a grand jury investigation just five days after the Indiana Supreme Court dismissed a complaint against Negangard that was filed by Brewington. Brewington became the target of a grand jury investigation for making “unsubstantiated statements” on the internet about Dearborn County Court Officials filed by Brewington. During Brewington’s trial, the Court and Prosecution provided Brewington with only the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings to determine what aspects of Brewington’s conduct that the Prosecution alleged to be unlawful while knowing the Court altered the records of the grand jury proceedings.

It is important to note that the grand jury audio begins at witness testimony as Judge McLaughlin’s Court omitted Negangard’s introduction to the grand jury from the audio record. The following excerpt from the grand jury transcripts by Prosecutor Negangard is just one example of where the Court altered the record of the grand jury proceedings. The statements in question allegedly occurred on March 1, 2011, in the closing moments of the second day of the grand jury investigation of Brewington. Page 336, lines 23-25 of the grand jury transcripts represent Negangard stating,

“I don't have any further questions at this time. Okay one of the Grand Jurors has a question for Sheriff Krieinhop.”

At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary; however, the transcripts fail to show that Negangard’s second statement comes from a later point in the proceedings. The following visual provides insight into one section of the altered record:

The box in the lower left hand corner shows Negangard’s statements as they appear in the transcripts but Negangard’s second statement exists in a separate audio file later in time. The green audio frequency wave represents a real time account of Negangard’s statements, with one exception. For the purpose of this demonstration, the two separate audio files received from the Court were spliced “as-is” to match Negangard’s dialogue in the transcripts. The placement of Negangard’s spoken words is where the individual words appear in the appropriate digital wavelength. As shown in the diagram, approximately 19 seconds of ambient noise occupy the space between Negangard’s statements. The circled point represents the point where the two audio files are spliced. The transcripts give no indication of the 19-second gap in the audio demonstrated in the wavelength above. Neither the transcripts nor the digital representation of the audio give any indication that the Court secretly removed at least one entire audio file existing in the 19-seconds of silence between Negangard’s two statements. 

Here is where it gets a little technical. Though the file structure is not rocket science, it is impossible to prove Judge McLaughlin’s Court altered the audio without figuring out the file naming structure of the court recording system. In reviewing audio files from public court proceedings, the audio recording systems in place for court reporting in Dearborn County Courts automatically store audio from court proceedings in individual five-minute files. In addition, the date and time are included in the automated file naming process. If an hour-long hearing occurs in the Superior Court II on July 4, 2016 at 10:00am, the first audio file name would include “Superior 2_20160704_1000”. In five minutes, the recording system automatically creates a new audio file, which would include “Superior 2_20160704_1005” in the following new file name. Every five minutes the name changes with the time: 1010, 1015, 1020 and so on. If you request public trial audio from a specific date, the court will provide a CD-R with similarly named five-minute files. When the Indiana Public Access Counsel issued his opinion (April 14, 2016) in favor of releasing the grand jury audio, the Court filed an order to release an edited version of the grand jury audio. The Court’s April 20, 2016 order made a new allegation that the audio of “four to five” other grand jury proceedings were intertwined with Brewington’s proceedings. Due to the new claim of confidential grand jury audio allegedly intertwined with Brewington’s grand jury proceedings, the Court’s order directed McLaughlin’s court reporter to edit the grand jury audio to include only portions of audio pertaining to Brewington. The Court changed the file format of the audio to an editable .wav file and combined the individual audio files. When the Court combined audio files, it retained the file name of the first audio file in the compilation. When the Court cut out segments of the audio, it began a new compilation of audio files and retained the name of the next audio segment that the Court decided to include in the "official" record. Negangard's statement on line 23 is the last statement appearing on the file named “Superior 2_20110301-1606_01cbd82ab1003d00”. Negangard's statement appearing on line 24 is located in the file named “Superior 2_20110301-1622_01cbd82cedc39690”. The first file began at 16:06 (4:06 pm) and the second at 16:22 (4:22 pm). The length of the audio in the first file is 10 minutes and 36, which would end at roughly 16:17. The earliest point that Negangard's statement on line 24 could have occurred is at 16:22. The audio is void of Negangard making any verbal recognition of the beginning or end of the record. Because a gap of over five minutes exists between the two audio files, the Court deleted at least an entire audio file from the grand jury audio released to Brewington. A problem arises if Judge McLaughlin claims the audio files from the grand jury proceedings do not adhere to the five-minute file structure employed by normal record keeping by the Court. If McLaughlin contends that the Court has the ability to control the length of time by which files are stored simply by switching the recording on and off, any confidentiality concerns about intertwining grand jury investigations are rendered moot, because the audio from the other proceedings would be stored in their own individual files. The argument would completely debunk the Court’s rationalization for altering grand jury audio. The fact Judge McLaughlin’s Court did not physically splice the audio does not make the crime any less egregious. Not splicing the audio is far more insidious as only altering the grand jury transcripts requires a joint effort by the prosecutor and the court. The release of grand jury transcripts is extremely rare and the release of audio is almost unheard of. If not for the release of the grand jury audio and an understanding of the file structure produced by Dearborn County Court reporting, Negangard and McLaughlin could continue to abuse the grand jury process.

Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard
Dearborn County, Indiana

There should be little doubt as to whether Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard and Judge Sally A. McLaughlin are aware of the procedures involved with recording grand jury proceeding. For several years, Negangard served as Chief Deputy Prosecutor under McLaughlin until McLaughlin’s 2006 appointment to her current position of Superior Court II Judge, where Negangard was subsequently appointed take over McLaughlin’s position of Dearborn County Prosecutor. According to Negangard’s recent endorsement of Indiana Attorney General Candidate Curtis Hill, Negangard served as Chairman and President of both the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s Council and the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s Council. In early 2016, McLaughlin went through the interview process as an applicant for a vacancy on the Indiana Supreme Court. Any claim of ignorance about simple court reporting procedure is not a defense in this case.

This is Part 1 of a two-blog series on the analysis of the release of the grand jury audio. Part 2 takes aim at the conflicting orders and letters in the Court’s attempts to obstruct access to the tampered records. There are many other examples where the transcripts and audio do not match up. As the Dearborn County Superior Court II threatened to hold Brewington in contempt for sharing the grand jury audio (altered by the Superior Court II), the audio is not available online but may be shared with individuals who express interest via email. Feel free to contact Dan Brewington at contactdanbrewington@gmail.com with any questions or comments. Feel free to share with others, especially law enforcement. 

Prosecutorial Misconduct in Dearborn County

Many people visit this blog understanding that Dan Brewington was sent to prison for his web writings, but often raise the question, "What is the other side of the story?"  This is a common question asked by individuals who think there is no way someone in the United States could be convicted for simply speaking their mind and challenging the court system. The following may provide some insight into the motivation for the prosecution of Dan Brewington. Here is the Target Notification Dan received from Dearborn County, Indiana Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard, dated February 15, 2011, stating Dan was a target of a grand jury investigation concerning allegations of "Intimidation and Harassment that allegedly occurred in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 in Dearborn County, Indiana." Testimony from the grand jury transcripts document Dr. Edward J. Connor and Judge James D. Humphrey claiming they were afraid Dan might abduct or murder their family as early as 2008 and 2009.  An investigation was started in August 2009 after Dan's ex-wife's divorce attorney, Angela G. Loechel, went to Prosecutor Negangard with her own concerns about the safety of Judge Humphrey.  (Note: This was after Judge James D. Humphrey took away Dan's parenting time and ruled in favor of her client on every single measure except for a stained glass window, which was part of the house.)  Prosecutor Negangard, who also serves as the head of the federally funded Dearborn County Special Crimes Unit, initiated an investigation of Dan Brewington's web writings. It is important to make clear that all of the alleged victims claimed they did not make initial contact with Prosecutor Negangard or Dearborn County law enforcement, despite later testifying that they feared for the lives of their families. With all of the claims of Connor and Humphrey's fear from Dan's "intimidation" and "harassment," despite making no reports to Dearborn County law enforcement, Prosecutor Negangard waited until February 15, 2011 to initiate a grand jury investigation of the actions of Dan Brewington.  Many ask why Prosecutor Negangard would wait so long to convene a grand jury against Dan Brewington and what act(s) prompted him to do so.  This is a letter from, then, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T Shepard stating Dan's complaint against Dearborn Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard was dismissed, 239 days after Brewington filed the complaint.  Dan's complaint against Negangard was dismissed on Thursday February 10, 2011.  By the following Tuesday, Negangard made Dan a target of a grand jury investigation.

If these people were truly fearful, they would have reported it to the police and/or Prosecutor Negangard.  (Actually Dr. Edward J. Connor did testify he contacted the Erlanger, Kentucky police and the FBI.  They told Dr. Connor to ignore Dan.  If there was a crime, they would have investigated it.)  During Dan's arraignment on March 11, 2011, the prosecution offered restraining orders to "protect" the alleged victims from Dan.  If Dan was truly a danger or committed a crime, Negangard allowed a dangerous criminal to run free while he waited for a ruling on the complaint Dan filed against the prosecutor.  This should help shed light on the fact that this is nothing less than an horrific case of prosecutorial misconduct.  This isn't a case where a prosecutor convicted an innocent person of a crime they did not commit; this is Dearborn County Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard making up a crime in an effort to convict a man in retaliation for speaking out against the government.

If you find this to be unbelievable infringement of constitutional rights, please contact Executive Secretary G. Michael Witte of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission at the below contact information and encourage them to investigate Dearborn County Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard. Please note that Mr. Witte is a former judge in Dearborn County, Indiana.

Executive Secretary

G. Michael Witte

Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission

30 S. Meridian St., Suite 850

Indianapolis, IN 46204

317.232.1807  phone

317.233.0261  fax