Judge gives OKs lawsuit against ex-Hamilton County deputy accused of baptizing woman after traffic stop

 Apr. 9—A U.S. District Court judge gave the go-ahead Thursday to a lawsuit against a former Hamilton County deputy accused of baptizing a woman against her will after a 2019 traffic stop.

In addition to ruling that the suit against Daniel Wilkey, 28, may proceed, Tennessee Eastern District Court Judge Travis R. McDonough ruled that several aspects of the complaint against former deputy Jacob Goforth could not continue. Wilkey allegedly called Goforth to witness the baptism and Goforth recorded the incident on his cellphone.

While excluding Goforth from most complaints in the lawsuit, the judge did say the former deputy had failed to protect the woman from Wilkey's use of excessive force.

"Goforth is qualified for reasonable immunity and summary judgment on this claim," the judgment said. However, the ruling also found that Goforth had ample time to stop Wilkey from committing an unreasonable seizure.

"And, if anything, the truly bizarre nature of these facts should have put Goforth further on notice that the seizure was inappropriate," the judge wrote.

Goforth had said he believed the woman to not be under police custody because she arrived at Soddy Lake in her own vehicle, but the judge stressed in his ruling that the woman might not have thought she was free to go until she was baptized by Wilkey.

McDonough went on to say that "in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave" or "would feel free to decline the officers' requests or otherwise terminate the encounter.

"There are genuine disputes of material fact concerning whether [the woman] was coerced into the baptism, whether she would have faced harsher penalties had she refused to be baptized, and whether Goforth should have known that [the woman] was being coerced," the judgment said.

The lawsuit against Wilkey and Goforth accused both men of excessive force, assault and intimidation, among other charges.

Ultimately "claims against [Goforth] individually for unreasonable search, failure to protect and render aid, negligence, battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress" were dismissed in the judgment.

On Wilkey's baptizing of the woman, McDonough said it violated the woman's choice of religion as well as violating the state's own duty to respect the persons' choice.

"If citizens are subjected to state-sponsored religious exercises, the state disavows its own duty to guard and respect that sphere of inviolable conscience and belief which is the mark of a free people," the ruling said. "Baptism of detainees by law-enforcement officers runs directly counter to the government's substantial interest in guaranteeing the free exercise of religion without government intervention. Any seizure for the purpose of conducting a baptism intruded upon [the woman's] liberty without furthering any government interest and was therefore unreasonable."

On Feb. 6, 2019, shortly after 9 p.m. Wilkey stopped the woman who was driving through the Soddy-Daisy area. After Wilkey asked her what she had in her car, the woman admitted to having a marijuana cigarette in her pack. Wilkey instructed her to exit her car and he searched her twice.

The woman claims Wilkey inappropriately touched her crotch, where he found a "marijuana roach." Wilkey told the woman that if she allowed him to baptize her, he would let her go with just a citation.

It was then that Wilkey called Goforth to witness the baptism.

Wilkey faces numerous lawsuits in several cases involving alleged excessive use of force, including the alleged unlawful body cavity search of a man while performing a traffic stop and the alleged groping of female minors. The requested damages in the lawsuits total around $11 million.

According to Hamilton County Court documents, Wilkey has been indicted on 44 charges, including six counts of sexual battery, two counts of rape, nine counts of official oppression, extortion, stalking and assault, among others.

https://news.yahoo.com/judge-gives-oks-lawsuit-against-080400702.html

MORE:

After being pulled over by a Hamilton County Sheriff's deputy, a woman claims that the officer stripped down to his underwear and forcibly baptized her in a lake. Now, she's suing the county for $11 million.

She claims that Wilkey followed her in his vehicle and pulled her over outside the home of a friend of Riley's on suspicion that she had methamphetamine in her car. He ordered her to leave her vehicle and performed a full body search, including demanding that she "reach under her shirt and pull out her bra and shake the bra and shirt." Riley said she requested a female officer conduct the search, which Wilkey refused.

Riley said that when the body search came up with nothing, the deputy asked if she had any illegal substances in her car. Riley admitted that a single marijuana "roach" was in the vehicle, hidden within a pack of cigarettes.

Wilkey searched the vehicle and, according to the lawsuit, began to verbally abuse Riley. He then asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ and was "saved."

https://www.newsweek.com/woman-claims-deputy-stripped-baptized-lake-1462705

Doesn't he look like a nice wholesome white copper, how could he be guilty of something like this?

The grifter fleeces the murdering kleptocrat?

Murdering kleptocrat Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) of 

Saudi Arabia with grifters Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump

Sometimes reality is just too strange for anyone to make it up. This one is a total hoot, but with one serious lesson in American politics for all to absorb. The lesson is that the Republican Party is not just neo-fascist, morally rotted and corrupt. It is incompetent to its core. Kushner could not even set up a reasonable-sounding investment vehicle to hide a $2 billion political payback in.

Dessert second. The New York Times writes about a business deal where MBS puts his political payback into a sham investment run by the grifter Kushner:

Before committing $2 billion to Mr. Kushner’s fledgling firm, officials at a fund led by the Saudi crown prince questioned taking such a big risk.

Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration, despite objections from the fund’s advisers about the merits of the deal.

A panel that screens investments for the main Saudi sovereign wealth fund cited concerns about the proposed deal with Mr. Kushner’s newly formed private equity firm, Affinity Partners, previously undisclosed documents show.

Those objections included: “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk”; due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations that found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; a proposed asset management fee that “seems excessive”; and “public relations risks” from Mr. Kushner’s prior role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former President Donald J. Trump, according to minutes of the panel’s meeting last June 30.

But days later the full board of the $620 billion Public Investment Fund — led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and a beneficiary of Mr. Kushner’s support when he worked as a White House adviser — overruled the panel.  

Mr. Kushner played a leading role inside the Trump administration defending Crown Prince Mohammed after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that he had approved the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post and resident of Virginia who had criticized the kingdom’s rulers.  

The Saudi fund agreed to invest twice as much and on more generous terms with Mr. Kushner than it did at about the same time with former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — who was also starting a new fund — even though Mr. Mnuchin had a record as a successful investor before entering government, the documents show. The amount of the investment in his firm, Liberty Strategic Capital — $1 billion — has not been previously disclosed.

This is how Republicans routinely do their business, as quietly and opaquely as possible to always maintain plausible deniability for their crimes and ethics sleaze. The NYT article points out that ethics experts say that Kushner's investment deal creates the appearance of a possible political payback. It looks like a $2 billion political payback because that's what it is. 

Fortunately for corrupt grifters like Jared and Ivanka, the Democratic Party and the Biden administration has mostly or completely given up on applying the rule of law to elite criminals, especially Republicans. That leaves ethics rules, which are mostly non-existent or toothless mirages. Republican Party elites do not care one iota about the rule of law or their own ethics, so their own crooks and thugs get to run free and wild with impunity. Republicans, elites and rank and file, are complicit by their stone cold silence about the crimes of the Republican ex-president, his criminal family and other elite Republican Party crooks.

Not surprisingly, the GOP cares a whole lot about the ethics and crimes of Democrats. They are happily expressing hypocritical partisan outrage at Hunter Biden and all the horrors he committed doing whatever it was that he did (allegedly, tax fraud, money laundering, unregistered foreign agent). Who knows, maybe the Democrats will prosecute their own criminals, which they should, while letting Republican criminals off the hook, which they should not. 

Maybe Jared and Ivanka should be investigated for tax fraud, money laundering and being unregistered foreign agents while in the White House, which is what they actually were. Of course, that is just a pipe dream. Republican elite's crimes are immune from prosecution. Ethics for elite's sleaze is a cynical joke. Case closed, the people and the rule of law lose, while the crooks win.

Why aren’t there any significant institutional investors from the US?

The Affinity principal would like to avoid media attention at this time. Accordingly, Affinity has approached international institutional investors on a very discreet basis (especially PIF as Affinity’s cornerstone LP) to anchor the launch of their inaugural fund.

Saudi staff wrote that Mr. Kushner was trying to avoid public attention by initially courting only international institutions like the Saudi Public Investment Fund for his new venture.

Source: Minutes of the Board Investment Committee of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, June 30, 2021

Quick update on American fascism and abortion

My post yesterday referred to Don T**** Jr and T****’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows as neo-fascist traitors because they plotted a coup. Today, it appears that some other people are starting to see the same thing. Newsweek writes:

Trump Jr. Accused of ‘Treason’ After Pre-Jan. 6 Texts to Meadows Revealed

Legal experts are calling for Donald Trump Jr. to face criminal proceedings after newly revealed text messages obtained by the January 6 House committee show he sought to prevent certification of the 2020 election and install his father to a second term.

While votes for the 2020 election were being counted, Trump Jr. texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows laying out a strategy to keep President Donald Trump in power by throwing out election results of key swing states, CNN reported Friday. The disclosed texts shed further light on recent revelations of Trump and his inner circle's efforts to block the certification of the 2020 election.

“It's very simple,” Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, according to CNN. “We have multiple paths We control them all.”

Fortunately for the morally rotted traitor DTJ, his treasonous father and the traitorous Republican Party thugs in congress, the administration and elsewhere who supported the coup attempt, Democratic Attorney General Merrick Garland is on duty. He’s doing his best to defend rich and powerful criminals and traitors from prosecution. It’s that good old plausible deniability thing. Plausible deniability is the white collar criminal’s tippy-top best friend.

Meanwhile, Dissident Politics has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in Peace. The nomination is prompted by yesterday’s brilliant post, A quick reminder: Neo-fascism is alive and aggressive in the US.

And, don’t forget. Our Christian nationalist Supreme Court will be handing down its anti-abortion decision in coming weeks. The decision will probably mostly or completely wipe out Roe v. Wade and most abortion rights. It will probably drop into the punch bowl in mid- to late-June. 

Some parting thoughts on what is happening and will happen once the Amwerican fascists rise to the full power they lust for. 

Thought 1: This has almost nothing to do with inconvenient facts or inconvenient logic. It has almost everything to do with tribe and cult loyalty. 

Thought 2: Texas Public Radio reports in a piece, Texas woman charged with murder for ‘self-induced abortion’:

Police in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico border arrested and charged a woman last week with murder for allegedly performing what they called a “self-induced abortion.”

The Starr County Sheriff's Office arrested 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera on Thursday. TPR confirmed Friday night that Herrera was in the custody of the Starr County Sheriff’s Office with bond set at $500,000. By Saturday night, Herrera was released from custody. Her arraignment was scheduled for next week.

The Starr County grand jury's indictment, dated March 30, stated that Herrera "did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual J.A.H. by a self-induced abortion."

Thought 3: The most likely outcome, the court mostly or completely obliterates Roe and leaves abortion law to the states. The less likely, but most Christian nationalist outcome, the court makes all abortions in all states murder and makes anyone helping in any abortion an accomplice to murder and just as criminally liable.

Thought 4: American fascists are mostly Republicans and most of them are radical Christian nationalists. They oppose civil liberties that God says are bad. That includes (i) abortions, (ii) voting rights, (iii) free and fair elections, and (iv) protections for non-heterosexual people and non-White people. 

There is an American fascist apocalypse underway right now. It's comes in the form of Republican Party politics. Abe Lincoln warned us what was coming. He was right.

A quick reminder: Neo-fascism is alive and aggressive in the US

This is just a quick reminder of the neo-fascist mindset of Republican Party elites. There is nothing pro-democracy about these people. CNN writes: 

Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still being tallied, Donald Trump's eldest son texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that "we have operational control" to ensure his father would get a second term, with Republican majorities in the US Senate and swing state legislatures, CNN has learned. 

In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021. 

"It's very simple," Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same missive: "We have multiple paths We control them all."

There is not one shred of concern about the actual election outcome or what the American people wanted. Not one shred of concern. These people are neo-fascist traitors. Their only concern is power and wealth concealed by as much deceit, lies and crackpot excuses as they can dream up, no matter how ridiculous.[1]

Question: Are most Republican Party elites (~97% ?) mostly neo-fascists, some or most of whom are traitors, or mostly democrats?

Footnote: 

1. The New York Times writes:

In a statement, the younger Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, confirmed that the text message was sent but suggested it was someone else’s idea that Donald Trump Jr. was passing along.

“After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others,” Mr. Futerfas said. “Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded.”

That blithering drivel, someone else done it, ranks right up there with classics like “But the dog ate my homework!”, “But I didn’t do it, honest, I’m a good boy!”, “I’m just a Capricorn, so I just can’t help it.” and “It’s not my fault, I didn’t think you’d find out.”

Actually, I bet DTJ really didn’t think we’d find out. But we did.

🙃

The neo-fascist, traitor Don Trump Jr. with the 

The neo-fascist, radical Christian nationalist traitor

Mark Meadows

DTJ texted this to MM:

“We have multiple paths  We control them all.”