Okay, Now This Is Just Getting Stupid: What Can Very Easily Be Perceived As A Death Threat In The Inbox

So much for my birthday break.

When what Sam Spagnola dubbed "the Fec & Mary show" began several months back, I resolved not to give into threats or intimidation tactics . . . or cut Jeff Martin any slack.

I also decided not to participate as a clown in Fec's circus and give interviews (the confession Martin made on TV should ultimately make for good Courtroom entertainment).

Keeping it real and on the blog, I've posted updates on the case periodically . . . so far a series of continuances requested by Martin's lawyer. Martin is being represented by Asheboro City Council member, Clark Bell.

I'm not the only one scratching my head over Bell's decision. Clearly, in North Carolina everybody needs a good defense. But, as with other cases recently in the news, perhaps accepting this case was not exactly the best example for someone in Asheboro city government (especially someone new to it) to set . . . or the right message to send (never mind that I'm sure "the right people" on Asheboro's lawyers' row . . . and holding post-Council meetings at "The Pig" . . . are all getting a really big kick out of this).

The nasty e-mails stopped the night they started (as soon as Martin realized that what he was doing was illegal and that I was not going to let it slide). But afterwards, in typical "Fec" style, Martin put up a number of very ugly posts at Via de Malchance . . . apparently designed to embarrass me into silence and force me to beat a humiliated retreat.

[I think that's what frightens so many of our more prominent local bloggers about this case. It turns out that "free speech" does not allow for some of the things they've been dishing out to so many so liberally (not a pun) for so long.]

Now "Fec" likes his head games. I've got some very sore spots on the psyche (which I do not hide) and at times in the past, "Fec" clearly enjoyed jabbing them. But the online relationship (such as it was) slowly changed (or at least I thought it had), and before Martin's keyboard meltdown, he was even fancying himself some kind of online white knight where I was concerned.

His "logic", apparently, was that a physician who has twelve years of fighting lying-scumbags-in-suits under her belt is psychologically fragile and unable to cope with bullies.

Once a regular reader/commenter at Via de Malchance, I have not been back in quite a while (translation: no more "pings" for Martin). Recently, I was told that his blog was down - infected by some kind of virus that the We 101 Wizard had "diagnosed" (very convenient for an accused cyberstalker who doesn't want anyone closely examining his posts/history).

But I continue to get very nasty/ugly comments in the Inbox here at Housecalls (as most folks know, I moderate the incoming) . . . all from the same IP address in Greensboro (cpe 174-098-172-113.triad.res.rr.com; Browser Safari 4.0, Operating System Mac OSX).

The last one (very predictably and more-or-less on cue) came in right after I posted this update on the case . . . offering the text of a letter I sent to the Randolph County DA (one more time) asking that he refer my case against Randolph Hospital executives to a Special Prosecutor at the North Carolina Attorney General's office . . . and informing Mr. Yates that I stand ready to testify against Mr. Martin.

[I took a call from the DA's office this morning informing me that they had gotten my letter and the case has been continued because Clark Bell will be out-of-town. The young woman who called me didn't have any answers for the rest of what was in the letter. And that, friends & neighbors, is CLASSIC Garland Yates.]

As I said in the letter, I believe that, as he blows the smoke, Martin has felt empowered by the DA's inaction in the case against Randolph execs . . . and my inability to do anything about it (well, short of suing somebody soon).

I digress. The comment to be moderated this morning said, "The only thing that must stop is you."

[Insert pause for reader to be completely creeped out.]

Now, I suppose there might be more than one way for "crazy"old-me to take that. Maybe the courageous anon wants me to lay off the more-or-less daily online rip of the lying Morrison and oily Eblin, to get over their perjury and contempt and and theft, and move right on along with that life he/she doesn't think I have. I would suggest that he/she allow Morrison & Eblin to answer these charges and defend themselves. If these two were innocent (and I have sworn original discovery documents that says they're not), I expect they would want the Attorney General to investigate and clear their names. I know I would if I were in their pricey shoes. Instead, they've let Garland Yates (not to mention David Renfro/John Robinson) cover their tails for six years.

On the other hand, maybe our anon wants me to let our poor, pitiful, horribly misunderstood "Fec" off the hook for crossing lines that the law says you don't cross. That's not going to happen either. You see, I just think that we have to sometimes do more than just talk about "civility" in the blogosphere.

But given that the source is thus far still anonymous (for all that it looks and smells like "The Stench", I'm not 100% certain it's Martin), it would be very foolish not to take the comment seriously . . . along the lines of I am a "thing" and I need to "stop" (breathing).

I have friends and family in state and Federal law enforcement. When this "spectacle" first got started back in November, I asked them what to do. They all told me to give it to the locals and let them handle it . . . and that the locals should be able to handle it without any problem or fuss.

(Yeah, like the Sherrif's Department "handled" my mailbox. Perps have all the rights in Randolph County . . . even to the point of a Deputy negotiating down their damages for them.)

Everyone told me, "We know they have a horrible track record with you, but you've got to give them a chance . . . "

The problem with that theory is that the locals have not really handled anything. It took two weeks to exercise an arrest warrant (based on the original e-mails and limply worded by the investigating officer . . . Martin was simply "annoying" me) . . . and there has been no follow-up whatsoever on the on-going online abuse . . . initially in the form of the posts at Via de Malchance (as far as I am concerned a manifestation and extension of the threats/insults Martin hurled in his e-mails) . . . and now taking the form of very ugly "anonymous" comments that pop into my Inbox every time I post an update on the case.

I've saved all the comments and their StatCounter data to give to the Sheriff's department. The DA can use the IP address to subpoena the server/webhost for more specific identifying information. That's how things are supposed to work - at least in theory.

But a lot of these theories just don't work in Randolph County - especially if you're Mary Johnson. So far, it's been a repeat of the silent treatment I've gotten in previous go-arounds with the District Attorney's office (most notably, the allegations I first lodged against Randolph Hospital's top dawgs for perjury, contempt and fraud in 2003). If doesn't have anything to do with murder, drugs, guns or liquor-they-cannot-tax, these guys don't do it.

And if one of the mill-town GOB set is involved, forget it. White collars are untouchable in Asheboro.

Of course, right now Jeff Martin is "right people" in all of the right peoples' eyes. And it's because he's taken local blogging to the dirtiest gutter under the lowest curb . . . for bullying a woman already horribly battered by North Carolina's beyond-broken justice system . . . a doctor who (in this era of healthcare reform) came to the blogosphere for help. The supreme irony here is that (although he denies it now) Martin was a fan of Housecalls before he got called on the carpet for taking his own blogging bad-boy act way too far.

It was actually kind of poetic (in a sick/warped way) for my anonymous "fan" (Fec or not Fec) to drop this latest comment on a post about a man wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years.

(OBTW, speaking of North Carolina's warped justice system, did you hear the latest about Crystal Gail Magnum?)

All of this is getting very old, and in terms of law enforcement, I will be looking into other avenues/options this week.

As we close, I'm wondering. In terms of the bigger blogging picture . . . in terms of someone who first came to this ether looking for those elusive societal virtues called accountability and transparency . . . someone who bought into the promise and relevancy of "citizen journalism" . . . do Ed Cone-of-the-Cones and Roch Smith, Jr. and John Robinson and Sue Polinsky all still think this show down in Randolph County is a hoot . . . or that Mary Johnson deserves all that has been dished out?

Is Ed Cone (of the Cones-whose-names-adorn-the-hospital-that-Randolph's-Executives-were-trying-to-sheild-&-serve-all-those-years-ago) really weeping?

Or is he doing more than just "watching" . . . is he egging "the Stench" on?

Wait. I know. Ed wishes me well.

Now, we're gonna try this again. I'm going on a short break. Comments are closed.

2/19 Afterthought:

Greensboro blogger, Sam Spagnola, announced yesterday that he may announce a candidacy for Guilford County Commissioner next week. He's going to think about it over the weekend. He said he wants to know what people think.

I don't live in Guilford County, so what I think probably does not count for much. But unlike other conservatives and pseudo-conservatives in the blogosphere, I'm afraid I will not be able to jump on this particular bandwagon. Based on what I've seen of Sam in the blogs (presenting a wealth of material for any opponent), I honestly don't think our Spag has the temperament for public office.

I also have a really big problem with any politician at any level of office (particularly a lawyer) who condones, excuses, minimizes or dismisses perjury in our (as we've established, beyond-corrupt) Court system . . . or hurling threats and insults into someone's personal Inbox.

Quite frankly, telling the victims of crime to, "Shut up about it", does not jive at all with change from the status quo.

I also think Sam has real issues with women who tell him he's wrong.

All that, and I just don't think we need another lawyer helping to run anything anywhere.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.