15. Part III The Thigpen & Vandebos Trials
KGRaS delves into the last section of Grasshopper's Appeal while PipelineGate fails to create a ripple of action To Impeach JOE BIDEN for blowing up NORDSTREAM
Hello to all my dear listeners and viewers, i wanted to start by reposting this important talk with, who else, Scott Ritter, who like me has also suffered and gone to jail for some stupid bullshit that probably never happened the way they said it did.
In my case, Vandebos had claimed i was doing like 80 miles an hour on the 101 North around the 5 o clock hour with heavy traffic, which is an impossibility that violates the basic laws of physics as anyone familiar with the local traffic will immediately say when i give this sordid detail…
of course it lends more weight to the chorus when a heavy hitter like Scott Ritter with real credentials gives the opine, that Joe Biden committed the supreme war crime of aggression starting a war, continuing the US war of Arrogant Agresssion against Russia using the bodies and stolen lands now sold out from under the former Ukraine, and wrecking the German economy with PipelineGate like was done for the Harmacide scamdemic of the bioweapon Covid 19. Scott didn’t call it a bioweapon, but he did say, you can’t believe anything your government says, tis all a lie, every word of it , if they say anything tis a lie. They couldn’t say nothing about Biden blowing the Nordstream even with the best of lies now, so they have remained silent. Mums.
I want to give a special honour of gratitude to the paid subscribers out there, all content will always be free, and i guess the city is giving me some ugly choices at this time, SF Killlafornia has done about driven me out, so in an act of despair i hope to finish what i can of the retype of this document, originally from 2010. We’ll hope to finish that over these next few months or sooner. I went to jail over this shit in 2007, including much of the time in solitary.
Ah, if you missed it, please enjoy the ideas of the speech by Scott Ritter he is not gonna give this Sunday, so here tis Valentine’s day, i’m all alone heartbroken, for my country America, and i especially wanted to hightlight the end of the speech where Scott Ritter calls out the Russophobia, as i said to honour MLK, the war is the worst sort of racism, that in a prior post a month ago. But dig this, if you haven’t, for the pre-PipelineGate opine of Scott Ritter, i have no doubts he would write a different speech now…
oKay, now without further todo, we go to Grasshopper’s Appeal…
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Part III The Thigpen and Vandebos Trials
They kept delaying the Vandebos trial, against my will and wishes, but they were ready to go on the Thigpen, and so was I; I wanted to observate and see what all a trial exactly entailed. It was my first one, and it was pretty lousy. I’ve only been able to see the small portion of the Thigpen transcript that was erroneously mixed in with the Vandebos; nevertheless, I hope to appeal both cases, and overturn both false convictions. The Thigpen transcript proper has not been issued. At least Kathleen Page has told me that she has requested that transcript, a generous communique` from her that only required months to secure.
I am not going to get into that Thigpen trial at great length at this time, I really don’t see the point, not merely because I wish to focus on that earth-shattering Vandebos debacle that passed for a trial, but also because the Thigpen conviction is contingent upon the Vandebos, by way of logic, if not law.
At this time, I wish to make a few important notes about that Thigpen trial. Firstly , I did not have adequate counsel in the Thigpen case. My counsel was inadequate, I found out over the course of the trial. Specifically, Mr. Shapiro, who was a friend, so I call him Zadik, is a kind person, but in speech, and representation, perhaps not the strongest advocate one could desire. I do not inend to diparage him by my remarks here, merely to state the facts such as they are.
Zadik Shapiro has a slight speech impediment, and has occasionally been compared to Elmer Fudd for slurring his speech, or you might say mumbling, this from fellow friends who like him. It is just the way he speaks. He stated in both trials that the speech impediment should not interfere with delivering the justice of a fair verdict, before the deliberations of the jury. Did this make the record of the Vandebos case?
Also, importantly, Zadik didn’t follow my frequently and specifically stated request , to tell the jury of the Thigpen that I was only too happy to say to people that my business actually had been shut down, that payment was voluntary and not at all mandatory, that in fact I was not operating as a taxicab, but rather, merely campaigning for Mayor in my Grasshopper for Mayor mobile. I was keeping myself useful as a productive member of society. And trying to eat. Zadik refused to convey this to the jury because he felt me to be guilty, and only provided me with mediocre representation, at best , in the Thigpen.
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So I was convicted. Specifically, i feel that during the closing argument, he ought to have said that I routinely told people that their payment was optional and voluntary. But he did not. Better yet, he should have questioned me about all of this in front of the jury well before closing. But he did not do so to my satisfaction. Hell, I could have given a deposition.
Instead, they managed to use my covered meter against me; it was a witch hunt. Meanwhile in the Vandebos, she actually claimed (Janet Vandebos herself stated ) that she didn’t think I had a meter (which of course I did—) and therefore thought I was illegal for that reason. Once again, the whole show is backwards.
So, on the Vandebos, a far more important case that was the cause of me purportedly being an illegal thereafter, I absolutely , and emphatically wish to state, then and now, I absolutely did NOT want Zadik to represent me. I wanted to have some actual input upon my own Goddamm defense, and be able to question my accuser, Ms. Vandebos, and inquire about her poor troubled mind, which i learned stemmed from her poor injured horse.
Basically, I felt Zadik was a lousy lawyer, and I didn’t want to give him another chance to get me further into the deepening doo-doo.
Now it turns out, there is indeed an exonerating, albeit uncomplimentary, tid bit upon that ghoulish Yelp site, where peopel had been wont to complain about my Grasshopper Taxi, or occasionally compliment, imagine that~!
You can check out that thing for yourself if you want the full read, and remember, just cause they say it, it ain’t necessarily so. Just cause the guy says it was in the news story, doesn’t mean I am guilty of it, nor does the lousy kangaroo conviction abetted by the Carol Yaggy Yaggstermobile, the last issue from Hummer before they shut down shop.
About Yelp~ these folks say, 10-08-2007 “we get in the cab today…and Grasshopper…hands us a copy of the {Examiner?} newspaper article. In the article it says he was charged with harassing a fare…
“needless to say I was happy when we finally & safely reached our destination.” (Imagine that!)
[written comment 8-4-15 sadly I believe that item was deleted from the Yelp, if there’s even any listing still there at all? for Gh taxi]
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Clearly, by showing the article to these folks, which they themselves state I had done, I am (and also, I am verbally expounding to be ) informing these folks about how my business was shut down.
I also told riders the fare was voluntary, all of which Zadik refused to argue or present, despite my express wishes to have him present this to the jury.
Why wouldn’t he do it?
Because he himself believed I was guilty, and only was willing to make a lackluster and halfhearted show of defense, but not willing to really defend me at all. What a loser, on all that , I gotta say.
Zadik failed me.
[ { I saw my friend today, who is an SFPD officer, and he suggested that I had suffered a terrible injustice. Indeed. }]
As a result of the Thigpen trial, where my wishes regarding my own defense were ignored, I was convicted. I didn’t want to give Zadik another chance to get me any more convictions. Would you?
On the Vandebos, I absolutely did not want Zadik to defend me, or fail to, again.
I was never informed that I could make a Marsden motion to request a different lawyer, so I asked Yaggy to let me represent my self; In fact, I was doing a good job in that Vandebos, so she kicked me off, and forced Zadik back on the case, which he described as a lawyer’s worst nightmare, to have to pick up a case midway through a trial, after just a 5 minute recess. Hardly enough time for me to pee.
When the jury brought back some sort of conviction to Judge Wong on the Thigpen, he knew that it was a joke, that there had been no illegal driving worthy of charge nor conviction, and he was quite well aware of the pending issue of the Vandebos case.
How do I know? How was he aware of that Vandebos crap? Well, he was the presiding judge upon that case as well, until he sent it to Carol Yaggy. He - Judge Wong, kept authorizing delays upon the Vandebos, although he eventually did have to put a $25- dollar bodily attachment or bodily retainer upon Janet Vandebos to get her to stop
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vacationing long enough to come to his esteemed court. [I only heard about that long after I got out. I had not known of it for some time, and didn’t understand the implications for an for even longer time.]
He stated in the transcript regarding that thing that he thought that it was a joke. He didn’t use those words, of course. What he did say was that the dollar amount, it would appear, was indicative of how much merit he placed upon my person, whereby I was barely worth the $25- dollars of Janet Vandebos’ money to get her to come in to court and testify to lock me up.
She clearly hadn’t felt that it was important enough to stop traveling around the country and the globe to do so.
While my business was shut down, Vandebos was in Kentucky, Spain, and all up and down the California and West Coast, vacationing. Perhaps the Mediterranean , too. Her horses were more important to her than the threat she claimed I posed. Of course, there had never been any threat.
I wish to point out to the court that the $25- dollars she would forfeit if missing yet another court date after many months was going to be less than the cost of the taxicab ride she never paid me for, except with 6 months in jail, over half in solitary, and the loss of all my hopes and dreams, my business, and everything I’d ever worked for. Oh well, thank you.
Once the jury decided I had been driving illegally in the Thigpen, that I was not actually a taxicab driver, nor operator, then this false conviction was cause to permanently suspend my business, then to formally revoke my Grasshopper Taxicab Company at the Taxicab Commission. They all but declared my very name to be synonymous with terror. If so, then the name of torture is Janet Vandebos.
Whereas I was at least unlucky enough to have an inadequate defense counsel in or upon the Thigpen trial, upon the Vandebos I had no defense at all. Between myself, and Zadik thereafter, whom I specifically did NOT want, I had no defense counsel at all to even call inadequate. No defense whatsoever in the Vandebos except a lawyer I did not want on the second half of that mistrial, is what it should have been declared.
I was violated.
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~ ~
Judge Wong decided he would put off sentencing me on that Thigpen until after the Vandebos trial. His facial expression of surprise at that verdict seemed to indicate, to me, that he didn’t believe any of that crap at all. Now, Wong sentenced me to 4 months in jail, CONCURRENT with the time Yaggy sentenced me to , only after she had done so. They asked several times, the court reporter, whether it was concurrent or consecutive, and Wong said it was concurrent. In fact, the jail number I was assigned , which was #2333405, was for the Vandebos. That Thigpen sort of disappeared. Like my whole hope for appeal, it seems that there will only be delay and heartbreak, and furlough days, without any actual appeal granted or put in for me. But why ought that be? Ought not I be worthy of judicial review?
At this time, I wish to state that I am innocent of that charge, of driving cab illegally, and the whole thing has been a lousy conspiracy to squash me, to take Grasshopper down. Why I was thought to be such a threat, a danger to public safety, is perhaps because this is something I consider very important, that the public be safe. Sadly , our government doesn’t seem to share this concern.
The Thigpen trial featured all those photos of my ramp van, which Thigpen and the cops themselves had tore up in searching, then photographed. Either Thigpen herself hung around to get those pictures before they towed my “Dragonfly” 9062 away, or else she made a special trip with her boy friend Ron Reynolds down to Pier 70 , to capture that pornography while I was not present.
You would never walk into my cab and find it less than spotless. I frequently had fares tell me they couldn’t believe how clean it was. If you’ve ever actually had to take a few taxicab rides in San Francisco, especially if it was in a De Soto, this issue of a clean cab is something you may appreciate and relate to. People tip better for a clean cab.
After the Thigpen, then finally I was able to bring that Vandebos to trial, but that was like mid November ‘07, by then , a good 4 months after my ill-fated final taxicab ride. The election was actually long over well before that Vandebos trial, but the issue of me running for mayor was a big deal in the voir dire (that means jury selection.) Yaggy kept kicking folks off my
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prospective jury who had heard anything at all about me, like that I had run for mayor, or parked in Ed Jew’s driveway, which made the papers, and put me in the polls, but barely.
I got shy of one percent of the vote. This made for an extended voir dire. She excused one woman who agreed with all of my platform planks but thought that I was totally insane and couldn’t vote for me. She could have still sat upon my jury. She dismissed some guy , whom might vaguely have been something like an actual peer, of which the jury is supposed to be comprised, but I guess that ‘s just one of those pieces of colloquialism you hear, like about having the right to remain silent, supposedly. She dismissed Andrew because I had seen him play a show , guitar, him and this chick. I had told him briefly of how I liked his music, at this bookstore. Really low-key, no big deal stuff, no screaming fans ripping off tank tops. This was some dusty bookstore on 16th street on a Sunday afternoon. Whatever. No peers for me, nor my jury. Not from her Yaggsterness.
During the Vandebos trial, especially as it got more heated in the end, Zadik’s speech impediment manifest, ironically, by him calling me “Hallett,” and her Kaplan. He frequently referred to one of us by the other’s name, at least half a dozen times. Karen Hallett was, of course , the prosecutor. I’m sure the jury was confused by all of this; I know I was, and i know who I am. I do not believe that any indication of this confusion of speech made it into the transcript.
Speaking of transcript, at this time I wish to iterate how initially I was assigned one Deborah Adams with an office in SF upon Divisidaro street; she was to be handling my appeal, but she never even filed for a transcript of the Vandebos trial at all. She told me , upon query at least a year after she’d been assigned to deal with my goddamm appeal, that she did not feel it was the duty of the appellate attorney to file for a transcript upon appeal. How nice of her. I went one day to the SF Bar at 301 Battery to complain; they refused to let me speak with anyone there. Bureaucracy. {Lawfare}
I had to beg the appellate oversight panel to get me a different lawyer. Now, Kathleen has indeed procured some of the transcript of the Vandebos loose from the jaws of the saber-toothed legal tiger; apparently , however, my appeal will not be processing any time soon, because there are portions of the transcript that are incorrect, or possibly incomplete? This one cover sheet has the Thigpen case number on it, but it is a Vandebos transcript. She’d asked for that to be corrected, but for at least 6 months that correction was not forthcoming, has that ever finally been fixed?
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Interestingly, this I believe was the part where Judge Wong stated that the matter of the $25- dollars bodily attachment upon Vandebos was just not that important of an issue to him— what exactly were his actual words?
By what he actually said, Judge Wong implied that I myself am not worth even $25- dollars to the esteemed court that had no problem arresting me how many times in how many different holding cells and dozen jail cages have I served , now? The Vandebos issue was just not that important to Judge Wong, he had no problem with endless continuances to avoid a speedy trial and fair due process. His esteemed court had no problem showing me torture, terror, kidnapping, rendition, false imprisonment, solitary naked isolation, constant light to ensure sleep deprivation, no , no problem at all with any of that stuff. He had no problem that I forfeited all the bail, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars over all those arrests and tow-jobs. Not to even get into the value of my time, my teeth, nor the loss of my business, and the smearing of my very good name of Grasshopper to now be synonymous with terrorism, I’ve become the bad guy, all fine by Judge Wong.
In sum total, my cumulative being , could not fetch $19.99 at Guitar Center, as far as Wong was concerned, let alone $25- bucks at the City and County of San Francisco Junkyard auction on my ass. Not e-bay, but G-bay; that Garrett Wong administered a total travesty of justice on G-hop.
Oh well, I got dear Zadik who was often mumbling and slightly incomprehensible as the balding icon of these bald eagle freedoms we hold slightly dear. In calm times, Zadik sounds a bit drunk. That’s his speech impediment, or , it could be alcohol, I don’t know. It gets worse under pressure, so the jury may have had difficulty understanding him, as his enunciation often got garbled. When Zadik speaks, I often have to ask him to repeat himself, as many of his words are unintelligible rolling off his tongue.
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So there are continuing problems over the transcript at this time, I presume, which, I guess, have forestalled any entry of request to appeal upon the Vandebos, after 3 years. Of course, that restraining order against her person, Bob Naify {since died, i heard} and 2636 Green were still in force and effect, I heard upon the police radio the other day after Acerot *268 rebuked my name Grasshopper in disbelief. [Perhaps it has finally expired now?]
In December ‘09, I spoke with Carlos Murillo at the McAllister/Polk courthouse, and he told me Kathleen had these two cases , the Thigpen and Vandebos, “married,” so that they would have to be appealed together. Due to the extreme delay for any Thigpen transcript that was guaranteed, I felt that this was going to only prolong the duration of the limbo until some appeal would be forthcoming. The marriage of these cases was a direct violation of my stated wishes.
I asked Carlos to separate these cases, in the hopes of expediting some sort of action , meaning an actual request to appeal , upon the Vandebos. That way the delay in securing a Thigpen transcript wouldn’t hold up the far more important case. Sadly , these two cases are now still I believe hopelessly mixed up in the transcript issuance process from the court reporter Wendy Pun, or some such issue, is what I believe to currently be delaying the initial request to appeal the Vandebos. To reiterate, I believe at this time my lawyer has asked for an augmentation of the transcript, and the judges after 3 months have yet to “yea’ or ‘nay’ some signatory not forthcoming. The thing ain’t moving. That Vandebos appeal is stuck in the marshes, sinking my heart in quicksand, ain’t no deadlines for filing, ain’t nothing happening as I write. That’s why I’m writing, Yo.
Now, I do intend to get into the specifics of the Vandebos trial in a bit of detail as this does, this affects my appeal, its why I ought to be able to appeal, and hey, how come there hasn’t been no appeal filed yet? How come? How long I gotta wait? Forever? That ain’t no judicial review.
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See, this Vandebos trial, whereby I was representing myself as the best counsel I could hope for, at least for good enunciation if nothing else , I was doing a decent job upon until Yaggy kicked me off. But at this time, I need to describe this incident that occurred the day after the election, in the interest of full disclosure, or partial nudity, as it were. Mostly my legs and stomach, deemd to have been vulgar. Imagine that!
On November 6th, 2007, I received at least a thousand votes in support of my candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco. Really , it was hardly any at all. But i was hoping to have raised awareness of this issue of all this vacant commercial space in the city where people could live, not just the rich. I hoped people who work here could live here. Instead, the city drives people out and away.
I was really hoping to get the ball rolling towards eviction protection for commercial space dwellers, where so many folks already are forced to reside without any. In fact, my eviction, being pressured outta the ladies’ room after 5 years of paying rent there, this was what instigated my run. (Also, e.g., I wanted separate pathways for bicycles so you didn’t have to compete with dangerous cars on the same limited roadways . ) I wanted to improve conditions for the homeless, such as myself, and I failed utterly.
11-7th-2007
On November 7th, 2007, I had a court date in the morning, and I thought it might be a good time to make a political statement about how the election had really not left me with much at all. Perhaps I was mistaken. ? I showed up to 850 Bryant wearing a nice zebra-striped tie and black underwear. It was cool enough for a jacket as well. They refused to let me into the courthouse. I argue this was a direct violation of my freedom of speech. But these pansies also refused to arrest me, I guess they didn’t want to write down “850 Bryant” as the scene of a crime. But it is, although nothing emanating from my committing.
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I tried to show up for court and express my freedom of speech with my freedom to dress as I saw fit; there wasn’t nothing hanging out that would be considered private. I frequently had had folks in the cab who really were showing it all off, and I was doing nothing of the sort, just attempting to express my poor state of attire after the mayoral race. It was really sort of a joke, which some found humorous. Ironically, although they wouldn’t let me up to the court room, they didn’t want to arrest me there upon the front step.
I was insistent, because I had a court date, on trying to get into that building; I was trying to abide by the law and make the date. Plus I didn’t want to just get picked up off the street and deported. So I really tried to make my court date. But i got two sheriff’s deputies on my ass instead. One is holding my right wrist and bending my hand inward, causing me to cry out in anquish and pain, as he causes me physical injury. That’s Castelagno, *1546 , and he really did injure my right wrist . I filed a complaint later with Stephanie Calmanero at 25 Van Ness room 350; she never gave me a copy, I’m pretty sure she just threw it away.
They refused to arrest me, but them deputies asked the SFPD cops at 850 to borrow their holding cell there on the first floor. It seemed like the same room they had me in at first after the Vandebos arrest, before putting me in jail holding proper. They kept me there, in my black underwear and zebra-striped tie, for at least 20 minutes, and I became sort of a side show for the cops to come by and ridicule. Most found some humor in the scene, which had eluded Castelagno, * 1546. I guess that’s why he felt okay to injure me. The rest of the SFPD, which Castelagno ain’t [he’s a sheriff’s deputy], seemed happy to comment, “Nice tie.” It was , but I won’t wear it again.
The first amendment guarantees the freedom to speak, to practice your religion or lack thereof, the right to a free press (we ain’t got none, no mo) and freedom of expression. Oh well, so much for that.
The sanctity of the court notwithstanding, I oughtta be able to wear what I want, where I want, including court, thank you very much. And , to not wear what I don’t want. Thanks. You know, I was highly offended by Carol Yaggy’s choice of ties, not merely the fact that she felt compelled to wear one tied tightly. I felt myself choking because she wore a tie, but there’s that first amendment that gave her the right to wear what she wanted. But not I.
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So I sort of count that date, 11-07-07, as an arrest, although they only detained and injured me, but did not actually arrest me, or charge me. What would have been beautiful is if they had charged me with trespassing upon my own court date, but they didn’t.
I ended up having to come back to court that afternoon anyway. Perhaps this was the date my records got mixed up ? Or the two cases, both due to have been heard by Wong, as I recall.? Or , the case numbers? Who knows, who is to say? Not I, not Grasshopper.
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to be continued…
Z