August 19, 2003
Kemper Brinkley
1654 Westover Avenue
Petersburg, VA
Allan P. Benghen
1515 Westover Avenue
Petersburg, VA
Doris Adkins
912 Shield Street
Petersburg, VA
PERSONAL
AND CONFIDENTIAL
James Beck
1917 Vesonder Road
Petersburg, VA
Gwendolyn B. Carter
1723 Brandon Avenue
Petersburg, VA
Herman Burgess
2490 Poe Lane
Petersburg, VA
Maurice H. Bowles
1308 E. Valor Drive
Petersburg, VA
Kay Carwile
250 S. Sycamore Street
Petersburg, VA
RE: REQUEST
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PETERSBURG GRAND JURY TO
CALL
WITNESSES, CONSIDER EVIDENCE, AND DETERMINE WHETHER
THERE
SHOULD BE FURTHER INVESTIGATION AND REPORTS
Dear Members of the Grand Jury:
I
am a private attorney in the City of Colonial Heights,
Members of the Grand Jury
August 19, 2003
Page Two
Virginia, and I am writing to you on
behalf of several persons who wish to provide the Grand Jury with evidence
which they claim involves or tends to promote criminal activity and which
involves governmental authorities, agencies and officials.
I. WHAT CAN YOUR GRAND JURY DO ABOUT THESE
ALLEGATIONS, IF IT WANTS TO DO SOMETHING?
I
have attached copies of a number of sections from the Virginia Code which speak
to the rights and powers of your Grand Jury; and I have highlighted sections
you may find to be relevant. Without
advising you as to what you should do I can tell you, as a matter of
information, what you can do if you so desire:
A) You can call the witnesses named below into
the Grand Jury room after you have finished the regular witness portion of your
Grand Jury meeting (they will be waiting in the courtroom);
B) You can ask them each, individually and under
oath, what evidence or information they have regarding conditions that involve
or tend promote criminal activity in the community or by any governmental
authority agency or official;
C) You can then vote as to whether a special
Grand Jury should be appointed to investigate these issues and issues of local
government corruption in general, or decide to further investigate these matters
yourself as a Grand Jury; and you can advise the court whether you, as a group,
desire to be impaneled as a Special Grand Jury (note that no individual Grand
Juror would have to serve on the Special Grand Jury if he or she did not want
to).
Please
note that your Grand Jury is NOT required to take the advice of the
Commonwealth's Attorney or any other person to the effect that you should not
look in these matters because some other person or agency is investigating, or
should be allowed to investigate. It is
the perception of those who wish to come before you that neither the
Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, nor the Attorney General's Office is properly
pursuing these matters because of their various friendships, conflicts of
interest, and political considerations.
As
Grand Jurors, you may be the last line of defense for the citizens in a
governmental and legal system that would appear to prefer that these areas not
be explored. It could be important for a
Grand Jury to assert itself and its legal rights in the face of those who would
seek to block it from doing its duty; it could be important for the Grand Jury
to note its objections to any official or legal authority who attempts to
interfere with or block a Grand Jury's intended investigation.
Members of the Grand Jury
August 19, 2003
Page Three
The
names of the individuals who would seek to testify before, and the general
nature of their testimony, are as follows:
1.
Mrs. Laureta Matthews, 20408 Loyal Avenue, Petersburg, VA 23803.
Laureta
Matthews is expected to testify before you (if have her called back to the
Grand Jury room), regarding certain forgeries upon Deeds and other documents
which have taken place in the City of Petersburg and elsewhere. Fenton Bland is a "public official",and
Ms. Matthews will testify that she did not authorize him, nor anyone else, to
place her signature upon certain Deeds and a Stock Power (copies of which are
enclosed herein, along with a copy of a Disciplinary Order against Mr. Bland,
so that you may consider similarities and differences between the signatures of
Mr. Bland and others).
2. Mr. Robert Zemp is expected to testify
(if you call him into the Grand Jury room from the courtroom), that he is
familiar with and personally witnessed what he claims to be improper behavior
involving the Petersburg Zoning Office and the Zoning Appeals Board. More specifically, he will advise you that
certain "minutes" of proceedings have been improperly taken so as to
create a false and misleading record that would affect the ability of parties
to appeal to the Circuit Court. Mr. Zemp
is also expected to testify that he is aware of the existence of a tape
recording of the same meeting for which minutes were kept, which he has been
unable to obtain despite his best efforts, and in which he believes will
demonstrate the fraudulent nature of the minutes created.
While
I am not expecting to be called as a witness, I am also including a copy of a
Petition I filed on behalf of other clients nearly a month ago. Although I have called the Petersburg Court
several times since the filing of this Petition to determine which Judge this
case has been assigned to, I have been told only that the case file sitting in
Judge Baskervill's office; that no Judge has been assigned to it. Perhaps the Grand Jury could inquire as to
why such a case would sit dormant without a judge even being assigned to it so
that it might be argued. It may be that
if the Grand Jury merely asks the question, a Judge will be
assigned to the matter.
Members of the Grand Jury
August 19, 2003
Page Four
Your
Grand Jury may also wish to consider asking the court to assign it counsel that
is not associated with the Petersburg Commonwealth's Attorney's Office or even
the Virginia Attorney General's Office.
You might even wish to consider whether the Grand Jury should ask to
work with a judge who does not have conflicts of interest with the subject
matter it chooses to address (such as former law partners)..
I
hope that you will take the time to review what I have provided here carefully,
so that you may make a wise decision as to whether or not a Special Grand Jury
should empaneled. Finally, I should note
that both the individuals who I have named and myself are deeply concerned
about the potential for personal or governmental retaliation of one sort or
another against ourselves; therefore, we would hope that the Grand Jurors would
help protect us by maintaining secrecy regarding the testimony of the
witnesses, and by taking notice when it hears of retaliation against any of us.
NOTHING I HAVE WRITTEN HEREIN SHOULD BE
CONSIDERED TO BE "LEGAL ADVICE" TO THE GRAND JURY.
NOTHING I HAVE ENCLOSED WITH THIS LETTER SHOULD
BE CONSIDERED "EVIDENCE"; YOU SHOULD OBTAIN EVIDENCE FROM THE NAMED
WITNESSES AND OTHER WITNESSES YOU MAY CHOOSE TO CALL, OR DOCUMENTS YOU MAY
CHOOSE TO SUBPOENAE.