Calvin Harris :  guilty for being rich

It’s early yet for a full accounting of the legal damage Tioga County has done to itself with its no sense District Attorney’s actions.

Lunatics, Tea Party People and Wall Street Protesters are taking over our cities and courts.

A business man, Calvin Harris, was denied a fair trial due to the Tioga County Courts. The District Attorney often exceeded the bounds of permissible advocacy during summation, thereby depriving Mr. Harris of a fair trial.

Tioga County had been tainted against Mr. Harris by trial publicity. The prosecution’s case has several puzzling flaws. Mr. Harris family owned several car dealerships. However, many Tioga County residents are experiencing financial problems, and they cannot keep current on their mortgages and their cars payments. They are angry enough about the economy to blame the “Harris Family” for their woes. “ I cannot have a nice car, but the rich man is behind bars,’ they think.

Mr. Harris’ conviction is not supported by legally sufficient evidence and is against the weight of the evidence. His wife had a long history of drug abuse and she was romantically involved with two men during the months prior to her disappearance. She had a wild life and weird friends. Other people had motives to cause Mrs. Harris to disappear.

At the time, Mr. Harris’ unfitted wife disappeared, the couple was involved in a divorce action that she had commenced in January 2001.

Neither the victim’s body nor any murder weapon has ever been found.

Practically every New Yorker has a bitter divorce story, even if it’s not his or her own.

Prosecutor stated that Mr. Harris murdered his wife as a means to end their divorce action —a business appraisal was pending — and to avoid paying her a substantial sum of money in a settlement. “However, evidence of motive “does not establish any element of the crime, and cannot take the place of proof of [a defendant's] actual commission of the crime” (People v Marin, 65 NY2d 741, 745 1985); see People v Giuliano, 65 NY2d 766, 767-72 [1985]).

A few months ago, a state appellate court denied Mr. Harris’ appeal (In a 3-1 decision) of a 2009 guilty verdict for second-degree murder of his unfaithful wife, Michele Harris, who was last seen the evening of Sept. 11, 2001.

Mr. Harris always cooperated with the investigators.

Justice Bernard J. Malone Jr., the lone vote dissident, said that Mr. Harris’ indictment should be reversed and dismissed, and at the least, Mr. Harris should get a new trial due to insufficient evidence.

“The evidence is legally insufficient to prove that defendant killed Harris, and that it is also insufficient to prove that he did so intentionally, both of which the People were required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” wrote the brave Judge.

But there is a ray of hope to Calvin Harris, an innocent man, who is serving out his sentence of 25 years to life at the Auburn Correctional Facility. The Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the case sometime next month.

I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and for Mr. Harris soon to be a free man.

By Freddy de Freitas freddydefreitas(at)dcweeklynews.com

www.freecalvinharris.com

The society is judging people not on their character but on their bank account.

Barack Obama is leading the United States to the new path. Americans believe all rich people are evil, and we have to change that.

I’ve become more distrustful about the integrity of prosecutors. I think some of these politically ambitious jackals would deliberately send an innocent man to life in prison if it advanced their political careers.

It is easier to believe that Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the United States House of Representatives, had an affair with Barney Frank, U.S. representative for Massachusetts’s 4th Congressional district, than to believe Calvin Harris killed his wife.

It is a nonsense script.

Can you imagine Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Frank doing a “one-legged kangaroo” position ?

I’ve repeatedly tried to expose pervasive judicial dishonesty in Tioga County.

I have explained that the officials in Tioga County have created a judicial system that allows them to claim they’re executing the law when the violation of civil rights actually is rising.

There is nothing more horrifying to our sense of justice than a “wrong conviction” destroying innocent lives.

Calvin Harris’ situation is the worst case of wrong conviction in the history New York State.

No evidence. No body. No weapon.

There is a failure of our justice system and the media.

If we are living in a free society, one needs to be skeptical of all institutions. They don’t do their jobs: Journalists, cops, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Truth, reality and justice are not part of Calvin Harris’ case.

Cops, prosecutors and media jumped to the wrong conviction.

The real unfortunate thing in this case is that a lot of people jumped to conclusions. The police jumped to conclusions, the prosecutor jumped to conclusions, and the media jumped to conclusions. Mr. Harris has been pilloried in the press since 2001. He never was able to express his side of the story.

This case was widely reported in the national and international media. Everyone got it wrong.

Here, the State denies Mr. Harris basic rights because the media decided he is guilty. Everyone thinks he is a murderer because we live in society controlled by the media. They make heroes, they make villains. Villains give better ratings.

I do not know how Mr. Harris is surviving with so much public humiliation.

Now his personal fate for the next several decades will be sealed with a new trial in few weeks.

Inconsistency is the principal theme of this story.

Sixty two years ago, Albert Camus, Nobel Prize winner, said about the media, “There is a lack of dignity, they like gossip, the press is without values and they are cynical and hypocrite professionals. The media is what its professionals are.”

Malicious prosecution

Detectives in Tioga County used confidential informants who they knew were lying to fabricate a case.

Malicious Tioga County prosecutors knew how damaging a false accusation of criminal activity could be for Mr. Harris’ family and his business.

This baseless prosecution already has ruined Mr. Harris’ life, destroyed his career, and it is costing thousands of dollars just to prove his innocence. This malicious prosecution is causing immense emotional and mental suffering for Mr. Harris’ relatives. His four kids are suffering anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

According to New York law, to establish a malicious prosecution claim, a plaintiff must prove (1) the initiation or continuation of a criminal proceeding against plaintiff, (2) termination of the proceeding in plaintiff’s favor, (3) lack of probable cause for commencing the proceeding, and (4) actual malice as a motivation for defendant’s actions.

Probable cause to arrest exists when police have knowledge, or reasonably trustworthy information, of facts and circumstances that are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed by the person to be arrested. Generally, a lack of probable cause can be proven where police officers fabricate evidence, fail to make a full and accurate statement of facts to a prosecutor, misrepresent evidence or there is a showing that probable cause was only secured through bad faith or perjury.

Mr. Harris’ arrest and prosecution deprived him of his federal constitutional rights. Mr. Harris will claim malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and wrongful termination.

The U.S. and New York Constitutions guarantee rights to all citizens — even wealthy businessmen. When those rights are violated through act or intimidation by government officials, this is considered a civil rights violation and the law allows a claim to be made against the government.

Among our civil rights are freedoms from false arrest or false prosecution. Our civil rights include due process in any court, equal non-discriminating protection under any laws, and liberty.

In practical terms, government employees are forbidden from using their power intentionally to prosecute a person for whom there is not probable cause to believe that person committed a crime.

The law applies to all government, including towns, villages, cities, counties, states, the federal government and all agencies, departments and employees of each.

When I was finishing this article, The Golden Girls were on.

(Dorothy, Sophia and Blanche are falsely arrested for prostitution…Sophia shows up to bail them out.)

DOROTHY: Oh ma! Thank god you’re here!

SOPHIA: Arrested for prostitution, I can’t believe it!

BLANCHE: Sophia, we’re innocent!

SOPHIA: I know that, I can’t believe these dumb cops would think anyone would pay money to sleep with you!

I am laughing .

I can’t believe Tioga County cops think Calvin Harris killed his wife.

When Mr. Harris gets out of this mess, I suspect he will continue to repair his life by pursuing the good acts that he never, in fact, abandoned. Without calling attention to himself, he may well put to shame others who now sit in judgment of him.