Grasshopper's Appeal 16: More Fallout from the Vandebos Trial
& Phone Conversation w Zadik Shapiro
Greetings my dear readers and listeners. We delve back in time to the writing of 2010, from the trials of 2007, the original and climactic moments of the Grasshopper’s Appeal manuscript, this is the part of the work that the rest of the book has been written to give context to, and thanks to those of you who have been reading along. Bless your soul.
the first of two archival posts above, (which links to the second of two) and the recent post below
then off we go…
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Phone Conversation with Zadik Shapiro
9-7th, 2010 around 5 o’clock pm
C. Zadik Shapiro of 819 Eddy St., SF 94109 represented me upon the Thigpen, for which I was convicted, and also, if you can call it being represented, which i would not, upon the Vandebos, and when the time came, Yaggy decided to kick me off my own defense and place Zadik upon the counsel in my place, instead.
[Zadik has since moved his office location…]
I was then forced to get a half-hearted defense halfway through trial from the man I did NOT want to represent me.
I spoke with Zadik on the phone today about these events specifically, because I thought it was only fair at this time and this point in my story to be sure to get it as accurate and correct as possible.
I was surprised when he told me that he had protested being put upon my case as standby counsel. If he did so, this did not make the transcript, I am fairly sure. Nevertheless,
he told me today that he did protest being assigned as my standby counsel. He said he did not want to do it. He said he thought I had a right to defend myself. I asked him why exactly did he do it,? and he said he was forced into being on standby, and attending that trial,
and then taking over when I was booted. Deemed incompetent to defend my self in front of the jury. I asked Zadik today, would you be willing to put that in to writing , that you had protested, for it did not make the transcript, I am almost certain, and he said he would. He said he wanted to see the transcript.
He said today that he had protested at the time when he was actually assigned to take that case over, that Janet Vandebos criminal terrorism threat, false imprisonment, and some kind of battery. I didn’t recall that- midway through the case, when I was getting kicked off. What he did say was merely a weak comment reserving a right to say more later, but he never did.
Although much that went on in that trial did not make the transcript, I myself can not recall any true protest from Zadik.
I had to laugh to see that Carol Yaggy’s court reporter Joanne Farrell routinely but erroneously spelled his name “Zadick,” reflecting exactly how she felt. She maintained a countenance of open displeasure and disapproval at my attempt to try to save my own ass, which she found to be in poor taste, and its no wonder given her scornful frowning while note-taking (or neglecting to)
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that she made so many mistakes, distortions, and flat—out omissions of the most critical parts of the whole performance that was me being allowed to attend my own funeral, as it were.
So here we have this tribunal whereby I am denied the right to defend my self, in stead , having my defense wrecked and ridiculed by the very judge sworn to uphold justice, a word she loosely defined if at all. Liberties taken to be civil. I guess.
I am then given a lawyer who does not feel the willingness to represent me, whom I specifically was representing my self to avoid, for fear of having Zadik be my sole counsel. I was sure he would lose the case for me. How much more assured when forced mid—trial to pretend and defend the bad guy.
I was glad I had taken the time to have the conversation because i did not have an accurate understanding until that moment, about exactly how Zadik felt about being my defense on the Vandebos. Now I understand he clearly did not want to be, and I was never offered a different lawyer, hence I had tried to defend my self to avoid his counsel, then was forced to take it. What exactly was Carol Yaggy thinking when she went ahead and decided to do all that? {Was she going through menopause and having hot flashes?} Has she read those shredded tatters of our so-called constitution and bill of rights lately? I know , it’s a bit thick, but, well, one does have the right to defend oneself somewhere in there, I’m told. But that’s just hearsay, sort of like Janet Vandebos’ entire testimony, which brought in a conviction with no evidence whatsoever presented.
How could that have occurred?
Perhaps they denied me an adequate counsel, in the Thigpen, and then in the Vandebos I had, really, no counsel at all, not even inadequate. It was only a show of defense, a paper tiger.
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More fallout from the Vandebos trial
In 850 Bryant, upstairs, at the San Francisco jails, they don’t let you have no dental floss. As a direct consequence, my gums and teeth are rotting away. Yes, my gums and my teeth are decaying and rotting away. I’m apparently losing my teeth, as if losing the freedom to speak were not enough. This has already cost me a tooth, and likely several more , soon.
I asked in writing to see a dentist early in my stay in jail, a request not granted. These are the same people who made me see a so-called doctor for an extra blanket in the freezing cold jail cell there at 850 Bryant, and the guy allowed me to have a sheet for only a month, starting the next day. I asked a guard for the extra sheet when they were handing out the blankets, and he said it didn’t take effect until the next day, and denied me. Thanks.
After barely being able to get , occasionally, some hot water to drink, and that after many requests, I saw that it was pointless to pursue the dentist from jail, and in general it was a bad place to have any sort of medical problems, better to avoid or ignore it, for whatever treatment you got might put you into greater peril than the condition itself, sadly.
They didn’t let me have gym for about 6 weeks or more. When they did take me, it was alone, since I was deemed a terrorist, convicted even. One day when they did actually bring me to the gym, a guard ridiculed me first before they’d let me out of the cage. He said i smelled bad. It didn’t seem worth all of that humiliation. But that’s jail. The mantra in jail is, “This is jail.”
That means in practice that it don’t matter that you’re already detained and locked up, but that also, however more they can make you suffer and humiliate you, its open season once they’ve got that court sanctioned conviction.
I eventually found out that it was under orders from Sheriff Michael Hennessy that I was kept in “ad—seg-” solitary confinement. “Administrative “seg”regation , since I’d ran for mayor. “Ad-seg” means nothing, hence the term. Unlike solitary isolation, which is, of course, torture. And routinely administered in our bulging jails.
This trip of denying dental floss, I’m told, is purportedly because dental floss when combined
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with comet or ajax can saw through the bars. [kind of like casecutters and airplanes, it seems improbable to me. ] The very fact of actual bars there at the 850 Bryant jails indicates cruelty and barbarism. My stay there was both, cruel and barbaric, thanks.
the Thigpen conviction was a violation of my civil right to campaign for mayor and must be discarded.
Although the Thigpen trial came first, it was utter nonsense predicated upon the validity of a Vandebos conviction as yet to occur. They shut me down, when , priorly, I had been legal. But once Grasshopper was shut down, I always told everyone that i wasn’t a taxicab. I would say, “I’m not a taxicab, my business has been suspended.” I had been shut down, but I was running for mayor, and campaigning.
The Thigpen conviction amounts to making my constitutionally protected freedom of speech, and thereby, freedom to campaign, suddenly criminal. With the Vandebos and Thigpen jailing, not only have i lost my freedom of speech, but now the freedom of having my very teeth.. oh well. My gums are rotting away and my teeth are falling out. i couldn’t save one that is already gone, more likely to follow before too long in falling out. Ain’t that America.
Judge Wong was unwilling to sentence me without a Vandebos conviction, but as a mayoral candidate, that Thigpen conviction violated my political rights. Ms. Jordana Thigpen had it in for me, but only during the trial itself did that come to light. She had been investigating my business, and leaning on my dispatch to shut my ass down.
Further, as a final consideration about that Thigpen ordeal: After the Thigpen conviction, they were compelled to find me guilty on the Vandebos to validate and justify that Thigpen conviction, which they so desperately needed in order to shut me down for good.
Yaggy delivered up that Vandebos conviction by making it nearly impossible that the jury, whom Yaggy made to be greatly prejudiced against me, would do otherwise.
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She- Yaggy repeatedly conveyed and expressed to the jury her heartfelt belief, that of me being guilty. She treated me like a criminal. But her belief was erroneously held.
Sometimes with her words, and always with her tone and actions , her constantly belittling manner towards me, general harassment, and in many specific instances , Yaggy failed in her duty to be impartial during my trial, most egregiously when she kicked me off my own defense counsel and forced me to take a lawyer I did not want, who was defending me against his own will and wishes. That’s not impartial and fair treatment, nor a fair trial.
Also, in her granting me an excessive and elongated harsh punishment, her disallowal of a stay of sentence pending appeal (still as yet not forthcoming…) her intolerance of my words themselves, and in denying and refusing me an opening statement, Yaggy’s court clearly exhibited prejudice — outright hatred I’m afraid, upon my Grasshopper being.
Judge Carol Yaggy was clearly and totally prejudiced against me.
Please note this fact I wish to enter into the record at this time. Janet Vandebos stated in court how I had asked , “was she friends with” Gavin Newsom. This when I was questioning her, acting as my own defense counsel. Really , that day in my taxicab, I had asked , “Did she support” Gavin Newsom. When she affirmed that she did, I thought it would be better not to bother asking her for a vote for Grasshoper, so I never told her that I was running for mayor. Would she have considered this a threat, if I’d suggested to her possibly to consider voting for me?
For the record at this time I wish to state that I absolutely never spoke the words that Janet Vandebos claims I stated. I never threatened her nor myself at any time , and her contention that I committed some sort of crime is a totally baseless allegation. I never threatened suicide, nor did I suggest harm in any way to anybody. Vandebos contends that I stated that I would kill myself and take her with me, but this is a flat-out lie. This statement of hers , regarding these words she falsely claims I uttered as a threat against her is totally and unequivocally false and without merit, and the court ought to proceed to review this gross miscarriage of justice without any further delay at this time, please.
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Over the course of my increasingly failing attempts at verbal interaction, I did state that, “I am homeless,” and she responded by stating that she sometimes gives the homeless a dollar or two. I said to her,
“yeah, well, I’m still homeless.” Although she seemed to grow more disturbed by this response, please rest assured that this was not a threat. It was not intended as a threat. I never intended to threaten Janet Vandebos in any way at any time, and I did not.
To say that I am homeless, which in fact was indeed all too true at the time, was not a threat. It was not intended to be taken as intimidation in any way whatsoever.
Please note, it is possible or probable that she likely couldn’t have heard me all too well, as i was facing forward in a noisy vehicle moving along the highway. Perhaps she heard words that had not come out of my mouth. I should not be tortured for her faulty hearing. I had to be facing forward on the freeway, but nevertheless, I think she wasn’t really too grounded in her seat there, as it were. In fact, the ramp vans are called rattlewagons for all the noise they make, and most drivers don’t want to drive them. Perhaps it would have been better to not have driven myself, that day.
Janet Vandebos was already so distraught over Lady Nydia’s tragedy in Santa Barbara that she likely had emotions blocking her ears, or her mind. I certainly had no intention of antagonizing her. In any case, she lied. I lost everything on the strength of that lie. Her false claim of an intention I never held, of a statement I never uttered, her allegation presented without any factual physical evidence, in a court of emotional breakdown by the impartial torture machine, this collusion of conspirers ruined my taxicab business, and was made possible only upon the central tenet of her lie, upon which the whole house of cards hesitatingly rests that was the structurally unsound architecture of my destruction.
In fact, Janet Vandebos herself knows that I never threatened her in any way nor did I intend her any harm. Neither do I at this time. I submit now, had Janet Vandebos really , truly, felt threatened , she would have been only too eager to lock me away, without any need for any continuances nor $25- bodily restraint / attachments.
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Now, nothing about the Vandebos changed after I parked in Ed Jew’s driveway at 2450 on 28th avenue there in the sunset. Except, the prosecution’s desire to convict me for something - anythign for christ sake to get that grasss outta the Greasy Gavin’s hair, -
Vandebos herself had initially been unwilling to testify against me; there was no evidence, then, nor now, and they were forced to drop the charges.
(Kamala Harris did initially drop those charges, until i parked in Ed Jew’s driveway…Gh 3-1-23)
This is because I am innocent. You know it, I know it, and she knows it. Janet Vandebos can fool anybody, except herself.
They wanted me to apologize and get anger management—, short of bearing false witness against myself, short of confession to a crime I didn’t commit, they brought the system down to bear upon me with its full and terrible weight. They brought the full force of justice, they call it, upon me, and Grasshopper Taxicab Company. Now, not so much Janet Vandebos alone, the star of the shadiness, - the shady lady herself, but also , that star acting in concert with the entire judicial and executive powers of the City and County of San Francisco were called upon to crush my Grasshopper self.
To this end , they stacked every card in their deck against me, “the cards were all the same.” [ Robert Hunter/Dire Wolf]
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The Vandebos trial exists in two parts; before, and after. What defines the change was getting kicked off my own counsel, so I shall be obliged to discuss that sad event at this painful juncture of time, like the lovely Dali, a persistent Memory which, second only to the Haunted House ride that was the nightmare of transporting Janet Vandebos herself while she shrieked at the top of her lungs as if I had been physically assaulting her while I drove, which she actually claimed, — the moment of being removed from my own defense was not only earth-shattering to my being, but painful to the point of being unbelievable. When Yaggy told me I could no longer defend myself, then I knew with absolute certainty that I would be going to jail and suffering profusely. Sure enough, this insight was prescient and accurate.
No one believed me when I told them that I would be going to jail, but I knew it. Once I couldn’t speak for myself, it was, or seemed, inevitable to lose my freedom entirely.
There was already that Thigpen conviction, that unlovely pile of poo, thank you, and the very fact of getting kicked off my own defense counsel IN FRONT OF THEM biased the Vandebos jury against me. In fact, i believe that is exactly why Yaggy did it. Until she did that to me, I was feeling a tiny bit optimistic about my prospects, whenupon the fog and clouds brought about the icy arctic winds then ensuing enshadowed my countenance. It was like getting out of the warm water where the baby sea lions frolic and shivering and cramping as the cold collects and settles quickly upon your skin in gusting gales.
So , how and why, exactly , did I get kicked off my own team? Gosh, sort of like, say, needing a parent or guardian to read David Ray Griffin’s The Mysterious Collapse of Building 7 , or any of his fine work. I haven’t read that one myself, maybe if you can bring me a copy… As the court painted me, I am not really old enough to buy my own fake beer, for which I get carded and refused, thanks. Clausthaler is too strong for ol’ G, apparently. I’m on the water wagon, still as yet, tears and fears are the sirens screaming in my ears.
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My friend Steve was called up to the stand in the middle of the trial. He likely stated his name for the record. Then I walked over to him with Karen Hallett’s lousy exhibit of my Grasshopper Taxicab, and asked him to identify what exactly was being pictured.
“What is this?” I asked , referring to the Grasshopper Taxicab.
[This is what it is supposed to look like, below, but the actual color presented was more like my clothing…Gh 3-1-23]
But that lousy exhibit portrayed a glaring reddish hue that did not reveal the lovely fuchsia subleties of my Grasshopper Taxicab Official Color Scheme as approved by the City and County of San Francisco, which was not at all red, but a fabulous wild orchid purple or you might say dark pink background for the green grasshopper on either side. All of the glory and majesty of the chirping grasshopper mascot and badge which I had worked so hard to achieve and share with the world, all of my efforts and sacrifice, it was all grossly miscolored.
What they brought the jury with that lousy exhibit only manifest a washed out TV on the wrong tint of hue, revealing nothing of the fruit of my vision and labor.
Every time I saw that lousy exhibit I felt the wind knocked out of me. Before Steve could answer my question for the jury, I groaned , “oh my god,” out loud as a mutterance to myself. They just couldn’t get my poor color correct. It was too different.
Well , you’d’ve thought i’d committed treason. Yaggy said, in front of the jury, that she had warned me about my repeated “outbursts,” and she was cancelling my permission to represent my self and putting Zadik upon my case. The trial would resume after a 5 minute recess.
My friends Steve and Zadik both stated that I shouldn’t have been kicked off my own counsel, and certainly that she shouldn’ have kicked me off for saying , “Oh my God.” I mean, oh my god. Good grief. She should have just thrown her fucking shoes at me while she was at it. Oh my god.
It was totally unreasonable that she should’ve gotten so upset for that comment. Granted she had threatened me from her pulpit about my poor emotional exasperations and exhortations; I submit that indeed she had warned me to avoid gratuitous extemporaneous extraneousness, but golly, I surely didn’t mean no harm by it, officer.
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Did her- judge Carol Yaggy’s repeated warning and threats make the transcript? Is that a criminal threat with intent to terrorize? That was the effect, and perhaps, the cause , which , you shall note, did not emanate from my self. Only sorrow.
In the Thigpen , I had inadequate defense counsel. For the Janet Vandebos trial, I had no defense counsel whatsoever. It was merely a tribunal whereby the terrorist, as they so painted me, like Cezanne’s apple, was memorialized and transformed from a piece of fruit into a work of art. Until my transformation into a mere defendant, no longer my own acting counsel, it had been interesting, for example, when I was questioning Ivan Estrada, to refer to myself in both the third and first person, as both “the defendant” and “me,” the acting counsel.
~ , ~ ~ , ~ ~ , ~
When the trial resumed, Zadik was questioning Steve.
To be continued…