      PushBack: Tyrannical' drama being played out           

 the  Bureaucracy
 

'Tyrannical' drama being played out

 This guest commentary was originally published in the the Amador  Ledger Dispatch on January 20, 1999, and is reproduced here with its permission.

As a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Womack on Jan. 13, 1999, I again became a victim of Mr. David Irey's tyrannical drama to upset the home and lives of bob and June Womack in Sutter Creek last Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.

While enjoying the morning newspaper (Ledger Dispatch), having a cup of coffee with these wonderful folks, a police force comprised of US EPA, (Environmental Protection Agency), CHP, investigators from Amador County (Hall and Walshaw), and others surrounded the house to execute a guns-drawn, armed raid on the Womack home that day. This armed police invasion lasted over 10 hours.

Gestapo raid

News reporters in Sacramento County learned that a guns-drawn, Gestapo Raid occurred in Mr. Womack's accountant in the City of Fair Oaks. That raid consisted of a Hazardous Materials unit that scared the lives of people in the shopping center where the accountant's office is located.

One account by shop owners was there may have been a bomb and people were running through the parking lot, when Irey's police force arrived wearing flack jackets and storming the office with guns in broad day light.

This is how Irey retrieved documents and tax records of Womack's and seized his accountant's computer and other clients' files.

This is the part where I would like to say, "Gee thanks, Mr. Irey for executing an overwhelming, intrusive surprise raid on honest, upstanding American citizens." What in the hell is going through the mind of this individual using taxpayer dollars to pad his prosecutorial portfolio in the name of saving the environment.

Distressed by sieges

I am very impressed with Irey's ability to take over a community and turn its court system into a three-ring circus. For lack of a proper word I can use in print, I am distressed about the sieges that were initiated one day after Mr. Irey parlayed the charges from the day before and used procedural manipulation to have Judge Richard Tuttle sign a subsequent search warrant after not finding anything in the eight-hour initial raid that took place on Oct. 31, 1998 issued by Judge Susan Harlan.

This attack on Bob and June Womack and their friends has violated every concept of what constitutes reasonable adjudication of a matter in the trial court system. I would like to add that as a concerned citizen involved in the legislative process in Sacramento at the capitol, it is essential for every citizen to pay attention to the onerous antics of Mr. Irey and how he implements the laws of the people. By following this matter it is apparent that the legislative intent of laws concerning the rights of citizens to enjoy the constitutional right to property and personal freedoms does not apply when it pertains to Irey's environmental law prosecution and persecution.

Environmental laws do work when implemented reasonably.

Ethics questioned

Mr. Irey has taken advantage of the lack of knowledge people have about environmental law in Amador County and dragged them into the courtroom to conduct an inquisition of persecution. Not only has he attempted to divide family members, he has strained the emotions of reasonable people to the point when longtime associations of individuals are now being questioned. This manner of conduct is not ethically appropriate and certainly is not acceptable.

My Friday, Nov. 13, 1998 letter brought Lance Hayden, D.A. investigator, to my home on the following Monday morning. After being handed a subpoena because of my printed article, I was commanded to appear before Irey's grand jury with only two hours to get there and not able to find an attorney. It was on the witness stand that Irey attempted to muzzle me.

After invoking the Fifth amendment I was excused. Of 62 witnesses, I was the only person not silenced by Irey during the inquisition. For that, I must be a real target now for Mr. Irey. My family thinks so.

Reasonable people fear the Heavy Hammer of Justice in Amador County by administrative prosecutors who exhibit only the intentions of impugning individuals with the expectations of knowing the reward of winning is more important that dispensing with true justice. The honest and hard working citizens of this county deserve far more than what is currently demonstrated by the likes of environmental prosecutor David J. Irey.

One would think that in order to make sense of the Womack, Mason, and Sherrill case since the beginning of a criminal grand jury, Mr. Irey would at least exhibit some form of integrity and discipline that would resound past the chambers of the courthouse. Apparently that is not the case as a result of contact with people in the community after the gag order was lifted at a recent court proceeding.

Someone asked the other day, "This is crazy. What is going on? Is it going to stop after he (Irey) drags everyone in town into court?

Commends officials with principals

For those officials who have spoken up about the jurisdictional screw up between the County and the City of Jackson over a permit to demolish an old service station, you must be commended for the effort to stand on your principals rather than march in lock step with those who feel that it is more important to inflict errors in policy on the governed.

This is just an opinion. It may be time to contact U.S. Congressman John Doolittle next.