Northern Michigan Sheriff Department Ignores Wiccans Civil Rights
On October 18, 2006 at approximately 2 am I was stopped by Deputy Justin Revnell. He claimed that I had been weaving as I drove. He approached my vehicle, but refused to tell me why he stopped me. He asked for my driver’s information. I indicated that it was in my purse, which was in the back seat of my car. He told me to get it. I couldn’t reach my purse from the driver’s seat so I attempted to open my door. Revnell angrily slammed it shut. I tried to explain that getting out was the only way to reach my purse. Revnell opened my car door and ordered me to the back of my car. As I complied with his order, he reached in and took my purse out of the back seat. As he walked around, he was riffling through it. I continued to ask why I was stopped and to talk to his supervisor. He asked if there was anything that could hurt or cut him. I told him about my small athame set in the pocket. Without asking for an explanation of why I had them, he hand cuff me and put me in the back seat of his patrol car. I was very confused and very frightened. I didn’t understand why this was happening to me and they refused to give me any information, nor were my right read to me. Revnell and another officer searched my car. I did not consent to search of my purse or car, nor did the deputies give me a breathalyzer test or any other test for driving under the influence. It was quite apparent that I wasn’t impaired, therefore there was no reason for them to detain me.
Neither officer would tell me why I was stopped and subsequently arrested until we were at the jail garage. At that time, Revnell told me that I was stopped for swerving and was charged with Felony concealed weapon. I was taken inside and searched by a male deputy, even though there were female officers available. He then took my information and then searched me again; only this time it was much more personal. When another officer walked around the desk, he immediately stopped and stepped away from me. At all times I was cooperative. I was placed in a hallway. A few minutes later, I started having problems breathing and asked for the prescription inhaler, which was in my purse. The officers denied me access. The asthma attack became increasingly severe and I repeatedly asked for my inhaler; each time I was denied. One deputy stuck his head in the hallway and told me to stop making myself sick. It wasn’t until after I had vomited, urinated on myself, and was to the point of blacking out was I given access to my inhaler. Soon after a deputy who claimed to be a supervisor walked in the hallway, but I still couldn’t breathe well enough to talk. I did the best I could to explain that I couldn’t talk at the moment and asked him to come back. He never did, but Revnell’s supervisor did. I was able to talk and explained that I my athames were not weapons but religious objects and that they were so small that they couldn’t be used for weapons. The supervisor didn’t understand why Revnell arrested me. I told him that I have asthma and hypoglycemia; I was already late eating. He promised me that I would have access to my inhaler and that food would be provided.
I was placed in a holding cell and a sack lunch was given to me with two sandwiches, an apple, a cookie and juice. The bread on the sandwich was dry and stale. The meat was brownish green. The cookie was hard. None of it could be safely eaten. I rationed the juice for the rest of the night to keep my blood sugar from dropping too low. At one point, I sitting with my back against the wall and I got really dizzy. Then, I was waking up face down on the mattress; I don’t know how I got there.
Later, the booking process was finished with the fingerprinting and photographing. Again, I was searched by a male officer. My rights still had not be read to me. Although the deputies allowed me access to my inhaler, it was done reluctantly and only after my repeated requests. However, when breakfast was served, I was excluded.
I went before the magistrate around 9 am. My bond was set at five thousand dollars with ten percent down. I was scheduled to go before the judge at 2 pm. I called my employer for a loan. He agreed and the deputies gave me a contact number to give him. I continued to wait to be released. Lunch was served and I was given food but by that time I was too sick to eat.
The time past and I began to question when I was going before the judge. The deputies told me my paperwork had to be processed. Mid afternoon, access to my inhaler was cut off. One deputy suggested I be taken to the nurse; another one told him to shut up. I kept asking when I was going before the judge and was told my paperwork still wasn’t done.
Late afternoon there was an altercation with another inmate. He was brought in earlier. Both he and the officers had a verbal exchange that including insulting each other mothers. However, once the deputies stopped tormenting him, the inmate sat quietly in the cell with several others. Late in the afternoon, two officers from Cadillac came to transfer him. Once again, they verbally assaulted him. He offered to pay the eighty dollars that he owed; the money was at his home. He offered to have someone bring it to them. They said that was fine as long as they could be at the jail in the next two minute and he couldn’t use the phone to call anyone. He begged to talk to his social worker many times. They laughed at them. He was handcuff and his legs chained. Flanked by four officers who greatly out weighted him, he was taken outside. Moments later, there was shouting and the sounds of a struggle. Three or four more officers ran out. Some of the deputies came back in a few minutes later. One of them was laughing and bragging that he would have beaten his face bloody. After the inmates in the cell next to mine were moved, three deputies carried him back inside and dumped him on the mattress. One of them had his gun pulled with one hand and held the inmate down with the other. The gun was pointed at me in the next cell. I heard that he was no longer going to be transferred but charged with felony destruction of property for breaking a patrol car windshield. I don’t understand how he could have being shackled and surrounded. After the offices left him alone in the cell, he took off his t-shirt. His arms and upper torso were covered in red marks that were rapidly turning into bruises; they badly beat him. He put his shirt back on and unsteadily walked to the mattress. He laid down. I’d never seen anyone fall asleep that fast. I was worried that he was severely hurt.
When things calmed down, I once again asked when I was going before the judge. They still hadn’t done my paperwork but that another inmate and myself would be going before the judge before 5pm. Shortly after I was told that it was too late for the judge to see me but that my bond had been paid. Dinner was served. A short time after I was taken out of my cell and processed. I was able to use the phone to call my employer. He told me that he attempted to pay my bond before noon, but was told that I would be arranged at 2pm and the bond would be lowered. When he hadn’t heard from me by 2:30, he called again and in spite of the deputies assurance that I would be arranged, he paid my bond before 3pm. I was allowed to call a cab. I asked where my car had been towed. Originally, the deputy insisted that my car was exactly where I left it; I knew that to be false. Eventually, he told me the name of the towing service. However, instead of the cash I had, I was given a check that the cab driver wouldn’t accept. I had to use my credit card. The towing company was closed but there was a number to call. The cab driver allowed me to use his cell then left me there. Eventually the owner of the towing company arrived. It cost me $111.00 to get my car back. He wouldn’t take a check and again I had to use my credit card; it put me over my limit. My care was returned with a damaged exhausted system. I didn’t get home until almost eight o’clock.
I went before the judge the next morning. While I was waiting I met two others who had been in the jail the day before. One of them I had worked with briefly. He told me that he heard the deputies laughing how they were teaching me a lesson by withholding my paperwork and keeping me in custody longer than necessary. I went before Judge Thomas Phillips. He was the one and only person who read me my rights. My bond was changed to PR. I asked for a court appointed attorney.
On Friday, I was having difficulty breathing and my fingertips were numb. I went into Urgent care: I was diagnosis with Pleurisy. The doctor thought the numbness was due to breathing problems and should go away when the Pleurisy did. Since then I have been having panic attacks that have lead to asthma attacks and I’m afraid to leave my home.
Also on Friday, I called the District Attorney’s office. I simply didn’t understand why I was arrested. I told the man I talked to that the athames were ceremonial and never meant to be weapons. They were bought for 99 cents on Ebay and didn’t really have a true edge; technically, they were more decorative than anything else. He agreed that my First Amendment rights of freedom of religion would be a good defense. He promised to look into my case and get back to me; but he never did. I also called the Michigan Attorney General. The man I spoke to told me the AG office couldn’t get involved until I filed complains locally with the Sheriff Department and the District Attorney.
Phillip Settles was my court appointed attorney. He took my statement but didn’t want to hear about the religious aspects of the case. He told me the District Attorney offered a plea to the lesser charge of misdemeanor. I refused. During the preliminary hearing, Mr. Settles was able to get Deputy Revnell to contract facts in the police report and to admit that he wasn’t afraid of me. However, he never did go view the actual athames; if he had, he could have proven Revnell lied about the sizes. In the police report, Revnell photocopied my athames, but he didn’t put anything in to give scale or perspective so he was able to enlarge their appearance in the report. Mr. Settles said the size of the athames or their purpose didn’t factor in; they were double-edged and thereby illegal. After the Preliminary Hearing, I asked Mr. Settles how I could file a complaint about Revnell. He told me that it wouldn’t do any good and implied it wouldn’t be safe. Revnell is the Sheriff’s nephew and has a history of getting away with make witnesses disappear. He told me to Google “Justin Revnell” to see what kind of person I was dealing with. Reading the newspapers articles, I realized how lucky I was to have the second deputy arrive.
Eventually Mr. Settles filed two motions. One to dismiss the evidence on the grounds of an illegal search of my purse and on violations of First Amendment Right of freedom of religion. Chief Assistant District Attorney James Pappas answered the motions claiming that I told Revnell they were there without him asking and afterwards I claimed they were for protection. Neither which was true. Just on the common sense level, why would I tell just tell him something like that and if I had wanted them for protection, they wouldn’t have been buried in the bottom of my purse, which was buried in the back seat of my car. In addition, I wear my pentacle openly. I have appeared in the local media on TV 9 & !0, several times in the Record Eagle and on WTCM. It is common knowledge that I am Wiccan. However, Mr. Settles told me that because of Revnell’s family connections, he would automatically be believed and I would be considered a liar.
During the process, the Grand Traverse Sheriff Department has continued to harass me. I have been followed many times for no reason. I have turned off on to side streets just to get away from the main traffic, only to have the patrol car do the same. Several times, I pulled into parking lots and gone into the stores just to make them go away. On November 30, 2006, I was pulled over for illegally beeping my horn. January 4, as I pulled out of the driveway of the small factory I worked at, I noticed headlight further down Park Drive; they were stationary. It was 2 am. On one side of the road is apartments; the rest of the road has businesses, which were closed except for where I worked. As I pulled out, the headlights started to move. Since I have been afraid to drive alone, a coworker, Linda, who lives in the same area, agreed to follow me most of the way home. She pulled out behind me. The headlight sped up and caught up to us at the stop light at South Airport and Park. It kept close behind us all the way to Chums Corners and beyond. I pulled into Glens and watch the GT Sheriff patrol car continue to follow Linda. The next day I called her and learned that he stayed behind her for another couple of miles.
On the day of the motions were to be heard, Mr. Settles spoke to the District Attorney and arranged for the charged to be dropped to a misdemeanor with a delayed sentencing before James Pappas arrived. It was the agreement that instead of daggers the charge would be possession of a switchblade. However, if the judge refused to accept the delayed sentencing than the charges would continue to be dropped until it was accepted. Mr. Settles told me that it was the best I could hope for and if I didn’t I risked receiving the maximum. Although I thought it was wrong, I accepted. Mr. Pappas arrived after the deal was done; he became angry and seemed to take it personal that I was no longer charged with a felony.
I have been sentenced to 180 days probation, five days community service and 490.00 in fines. Overall, it has cost me close to a thousand dollars in fees, lost wages, medical expenses and fines. I’m 48 years old and have never been even accused of a crime before. My record was totally clean. Yet I was guilty until proven innocent. My civil, religious and medical rights have been violated. I still have problems breathing and am afraid to leave my home for more than a short period of time.
The system that was supposed to protect me, victimized me instead. The system no longer works because the police no longer service and protect, but intimidate and harass. They do so with immunity from criminal and civil prosecution. They can do life threatening harm to the public and not be held responsible. This needs to change. I’m looking for an attorney, who will not only help me get financial compensation for the harm they did to me, but to change the law as well. The abusive officers and those that protect them need to be held accountable both civilly and criminally. Until they are, the abuse will only increase in frequency and severity.
