Letter from Amerika: Criminal charges against pro-life activist Peter …
D’Attilio after beating by police.
Peter D’Attilio was handing out pro-life bookmarks at a Catholic
town fair on August 11, 2011 when police stopped him, arrested him,
and beat him up so badly that he had a large black eye. He was then
charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Peter strongly denies that he resisted arrest or was disorderly in
any way. He was never even told to leave the area, and when he tried
to leave on his own the police illegally detained him.
During the Aug. 11 incident, the police dispatched a total of 9
officers and staff to the scene to help arrest him. This is
consistent, with a common tactic to make the “crime”
appear much more severe. Eventually, if a trial were held, all of
those officers would testify the same way, against Peter’s word.
Basically, as we were told by a veteran of these issues, the police
would lie.
Judge confronted prosecutor over huge problems in police report
At the Feb. 9 hearing, the judge first took a few minutes to read the police report.
Although the police report had numerous inaccuracies and
misstatements in favor of the police, the judge was still able to see
that there were serious problems with the charges against Peter.
What happened then was quite surprising. The judge challenged the
prosecutor about — and rebuked him — on a number of points regarding
the charges, including whether there was actually any “disturbing of
the peace” and whether any “resisting arrest” legally took place. As
the prosecutor attempted to defend the police actions, things just got
worse for him. Finally, the judge dismissed the case, to the visible
dismay of the prosecutor.
(NOTE: Despite numerous inquiries, both the Wrentham District
Court and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s office have refused
to release the name of the prosecutor — a seemingly trivial piece of
information which is clearly part of the public record)
A great victory: Two factors made a difference
This incident is yet another example of the growing hostility by
police against pro-family (and especially pro-life) citizens.
Incidents of illegal harassment and false criminal charges by police
against pro-family people have, sadly, become commonplace. On the
other hand as we all constantly see “Occupy” activists, homosexual
activists, and others on the Left routinely allowed to break laws with
impunity in their public protests, demonstrations, and other
activities. Police are not only cooperative with these people, but are
friendly and supportive.
Two factors made a big difference here. The first is that Peter
D’Attilio is calm, non-aggressive, and completely non-violent — but
fearless and committed to the pro-life cause.
The second is Peter’s defense attorney, Stephen Foley, who is truly
a gem. He often defends brave pro-life activists, including Operation
Rescue. But unlike so many lawyers on our side, he is fearless, very
smart, and passionate — and he understands the big picture regarding
civil liberties in America.
The next step – a Civil Rights lawsuit against the Franklin police?
What happened to Peter D’Attilio was so horribly egregious and
illegal that a true Civil Rights lawsuit against the police is in
order, according to legal experts we’ve talked to. Numerous state and federal laws were violated in this case.
This kind of behavior against innocent citizens needs to stop, and
unfortunately the only way to do it is to send a strong message to
police.
As we’ve mentioned before, the renowned Thomas More Pro-Life Law Center
has indicated that they will sponsor the Civil Rights lawsuit for
Peter. We spoke with them on Thursday and they are very excited about
getting started — now that the criminal charges against him have been
dismissed.
We will keep you informed on the progress!
We were stonewalled several times in our attempt to find out the name of the prosecutor in the Peter D’Attilio case, which would seem to be trivial and is certainly part of the common public record.
Finally, we were told that in order to get that information we were
required to contact the Norfolk County District Attorney’s “press person” — David Traub at 781-830-4800 ext 217.
What an absurd requirement for a simple piece of information! But
even then, after several attempts during the week he does not return
our calls.
Why don’t YOU try him!
This story is almost too strange and frightening to be true. But it is — we saw it for ourselves.
As we’ve reported previously, pro-life activist Peter D’Attilio was told by the Franklin police (and also the Newton police) that he is on the US Department of Homeland Security’s official list of suspected “domestic terrorists.” This is absurd. There is no legal or logical reason this. In 2009 the Obama administration published a document revealing their plans to include pro-life activists and others on “terrorist watch lists.”
Being trailed at the court house
On Thursday morning, Feb. 9, Peter D’Attilio was in his truck
driving to the Wrentham District Courthouse for his hearing. He
noticed a car following him closely. It followed him into the parking
lot and parked near him. It wasn’t an ordinary car. As he walked by it
Peter noticed that there were police lights inside the back windows. A
man came out and followed Peter into the building and continued to
follow him while he was inside.
A bit later a few of us from MassResistance arrived, and Peter
pointed out the man. Inside the hallway, we talked with Peter and his
lawyer waiting for the hearing to begin. We moved to three different
areas. Each time the man followed us and stood several feet away,
usually looking into his cell phone.
When the hearing began, he followed us upstairs into the courtroom
and sat not far away. He was not called up for anything and appeared
to have no business of his own there. After our hearing we walked out of
the courtroom, and he followed us out, and apparently assumed we had
left the building, but we had lingered in the hallway.
We caught up with him and took some photos, but he looked the other
way and did not react. He simply got into his car and drove off. But
it was a pretty chilling experience, even for us.
Source: Federal government tracking Peter D’Attilio!
Later that day we got some startling information. A person we know
with government security connections made some phone calls for us. A
very reliable source who is connected with the Federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), by coincidence, knew about this.
He said that the Department of Homeland Security had recently
assigned Peter’s “case” to the ATF to investigate. He added that
Peter’s phone is also being tapped. Did the ATF send someone to follow him? He didn’t know.
Here are the photos of the man who followed Peter into the
building, through the hallways, into the courtroom, and then left
immediately after he did, without conducting any apparent business
there.
Clockwise from top:
(1) Man who was following Peter walks out of courtroom right after we did.
(2) Looks away while being photographed in parking lot.
(3) Gets into car — navy blue Ford Fusion with police lights
in back. (We are also attempting to run the license plate.)
Serious questions need to be answered
Whatever the story is, something is going on and it’s terribly
wrong in a free society. How many more of us are “suspected
terrorists”? (You can be sure that doesn’t include the Left or Occupy
people.) What kind of police state are we now living in?
There’s no question that when the civil rights part of Peter’s case
begins, this whole things needs to be brought into the light of day and
some serious questions answered.