Cyberstalking Case Update: The Randolph County DA's Office And Habitual Intemperance

As I blogged yesterday, we've got "a bit of a problem" with the next scheduled hearing of the cyberstalking case against Jeff Martin, aka "Fecund Stench".

Of course, I'm not really sure why we need a hearing . . . or what's to contest . . . given that Martin confessed online and on TV, but (of course) it is Randolph County.

Anyway, as I blogged earlier, I was subpoenaed by phone a few weeks back and told that I needed to be in Court on May 4th.

Prior to getting that subpoena, no one from the Randolph County DA's office had contacted me AT ALL . . . even after getting the letter I sent to Garland Yates by certified mail on February 15th (alluding the the special circumstances of a call schedule more or less carved in stone) . . . AND after the case had already been continued TWICE at the convenience of Mr. Martin and/or his attorney.

Let's review. From my letter to the DA:

As the only Pediatrician covering call at a small-town hospital in Eastern N.C., 24/7, 3 weeks a month, my absence during scheduled coverage time would inconvenience a lot of people - patients and doctors alike. If/when this case goes to trial, I hope that your office and Mr. Martin’s attorney can work within the constraints of my call schedule with regards to my appearance at any hearing.

My call schedule is already rolled out for the year. It's especially tight this spring and summer. In May, I will only have four days off/home the entire month because I am already covering extra time off (a relatively new development) for the only Pediatric colleague who covers for me the week I am not working down East (four hours away).

Moreover, I've had ZERO follow-up from the Randolph County Sheriff's Department on the anonymous commenter who occasionally drops a creepy and/or threatening jab on the blog (the reason comments here on Housecalls are currently closed). Is it Fec or is it not Fec? That is the question.

Very late this afternoon, I got a call from the DA's office that automatically went to voice mail (I'm home this week and was enjoying the end of a rare family day with my Mom and my brother). In the message, ADA Peter Rosentrader very curtly informed me that he had met with the judge, and they had decided to schedule a "special session" for this case on May 3rd. A subpoena would be issued for my appearance.

I did NOT ask for a special session . . . only that my call schedule be taken into consideration when a hearing was scheduled. I generally have one week a month to work with. And I was previously told (by the Randolph County "victim's advocate") that it would "not be a problem at all".

When I got the message, I muttered a few unprintables, and promptly phoned the DA's office back as soon as I got home. I was put to voice mail. Once again, I explained my circumstances . . . advising Mr. Rosentrader that May 3rd was going to be very difficult for me to accommodate. I gave him the dates I would be home in May . . . and told him I could give him my dates in June and July (another tight month in terms of call), if that was necessary.

Mr. Rosentrader called me back (it felt/sounded like I was on speaker phone - which I HATE), and I just got off the phone with him before composing this post. It was a contentious conversation. The ADA offered no explanation or apology for scheduling the date without contacting me first . . . in fact, that's apparently my fault because I did not give him specific dates in the letter his office never responded to.

(Of course, not responding to correspondence and putting people on speaker phones without asking permission to do so has been a bit of a problem before.)

The "reason" Mr Rosentrader gave for moving the date up was that he wanted me to get my day in Court, and to make sure I didn't have to sit through an entire session/day without the case being heard (very honestly, if the case were scheduled for a week that I was off, I would not mind having to come back the next day - indeed, I half-way expected that to happen anyway, and that is why I wanted the date scheduled for a week when I am home).

Indeed, while conversing with Mr. Rosentrader, all I could do was think back to the days when I actually worked in Asheboro and testified pro-bono for DSS . . . answering every phone call . . . saying "yes" to everything . . . literally scheduling and re-scheduling precious office time around the Courts . . . only to sit, wait, and be told to come back the next day (and the lawyers all wonder why they can't get doctors to do child abuse exams for them).

NONE of the judges or DA's gave treating a doctor/her scheduled patients & parents like dirt a second thought back then.

Why now?

As the victim in this case, it's the DA's position that I have six weeks until the date to adjust my call schedule (and the call schedule of another doctor) to that of the judge (on the pretense he's doing me a favor) - not to mention the perpetrator (who, despite his online bravado and stated intent to destroy Mary Johnson, has needed two continuances thus far to get his legal strategy in order).

Mr. Rosentrader does not want to "challenge" the judge on the date (???Challenge??? How can this very reasonable request possibly be construed as a "challenge"???).

In fact, he compared my scheduling conflict to that of a long-distance trucker . . . after I told him that he just didn't get it (and he clearly doesn't . . . just like King Dozier didn't get it when he threatened to have me arrested in Virginia and brought back by deputies in order to testify in the rape case that wasn't . . . back then, I was covering for a physician dying of cancer . . . but hey, NO BIGGIE). Telling the ADA that he didn't get it was, "a personal attack".

Who is this guy trying to kid?

OBTW, the judge that Mr. Rosentrader apparently cannot challenge or approach about a schedule change is The Honorable Michael Sabiston.

Now, in stark contrast, Asheboro City Council member, Clark Bell, representing Mr. Martin, can write a letter, tell the Court he will be out of town, and the Court automatically re-schedules the date.

It wasn't a "challenge" at all.

There is something seriously smelly (as in smells like a railroad yard) about this picture, folks.

Here's the thing chickadees. I don't think this scheduling hard-ball is about me getting my date in Court AT ALL. I think this is about the Randolph County District Attorney's office wanting to get this done as quietly and under-cover as is possible . . . or to get me to drop it.

You see, the last thing in this world Garland Yates wants to do is own up to the reason why I'm in the blogosphere in the first place . . . being called every vile nasty name under the sun by people going by monikers like "Fecund Stench" - people who post their libelous bile as "satire". And that reason is because if you look up "habitual intemperance" in the dictionary, you will find the lawyers of the Randolph County DA's office.

THE FACT IS THAT IF THIS DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE HAD DONE ITS JOB SEVEN YEARS AGO, AND REFERRED MY CASE FOR PERJURY, CONTMEPT & FRAUD AGAINST "NON-PROFIT" RANDOLPH HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES TO THE NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, I WOULD NOT BE IN THIS BLOGOSPHERE FOR JEFF MARTIN TO INSULT, THREATEN AND LIBEL.

As a mere "ordinary" citizen and as a physician bound by professional obligation and duty, I am so sick of being treated like dirt by the North Carolina legal system . . . particularly the North Carolina legal system as it is manifested in Randolph County.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do about this Court date. There is no good/easy way I can make it work. And I'm not clear at all on why I'm the one being forced to make it work.

Patients come first. Period. They came first that fateful night twelve years ago (when the bullies were not lawyers, but Randolph Hospital executives), and they come first now. And right now, 3/4 of the time, I'm "it" in that far-Eastern county for in-patient hospital care. I honestly cannot fathom what about that is so hard for a lawyer . . . be they an ADA, an Asheboro City Council member, or a District judge . . . to understand.

I'm being treated like "the perp", instead of the victim of a crime.

To top things off, I opened my e-mail this evening to find a message from Linnea's in my Inbox. Linnea's is a clothing store in Greensboro that caters to plus-sized women and is run by Jeff Martin's wife, Jody. Regular readers know that, as a "big girl" (5-10/size 18), I used to be a customer . . . a fairly good customer (for someone who lived OOT).

I literally put money in the man's pocket.

The store moved from one location to another a while back, and is moving again . . . this time to State Street. I sincerely wish Jody good luck. But really, after everything her husband has done, am I EVER going to set foot in her store again . . . and should I need to ask to be taken off her mailing list?

This mess all got started when I challenged "Fec" in the thread of the horrible hatchet-job post his did on Mike Baron (of Dam-Scam) back in November . . . and chided him about how some of the things he said and did (especially the riffs on "fat people") in the ether might not reflect very well on his wife . . . who, as I have REPEATEDLY said, is a nice lady (who loves him very much) and a smart businesswoman.

But Martin took the mere mention of his wife as an "attack" and banned me from commenting on the thread. So I did what the blogging big-guns in Greensboro (Hi Sue!) call "top-leveling" and challenged what he had done in a post here at Housecalls. He didn't like what other bloggers said about his behavior on that thread (I was supposed to somehow stop them . . . like his hero Cone stops Conings) . . . he was "provoked" (apparently beyond all reason) to jump from blogging to cyber-stalking . . . and the rest is history.

I'm gonna admit. I've written this thing while I'm angry and disgusted.

But really people, at this point in the law enforcement and blogging games, wouldn't you be too?