LESSON: Extreme adversity brings what seems like a never-ending flow of crisis after crisis, each with seemingly more intense ramifications. Compartmentalization, the ability to shift this list of traumatic problems to one side and use the other side of the brain to refocus on the new dramas right in front of us, is a critical skill for survival.
The below lesson is an excerpt from my recently released Amazon #1 Best Seller, When Not If: A CEO's Guide to Overcoming Adversity, Forbes Books.
Following my countless hours in the prison law library and extremely rare victory to reverse my sentence, the government would not accept defeat and filed a second bizarre indictment. Yet I was unaware of the new danger because it was sealed while I was imprisoned in FCI Fort Dix, New Jersey.
But I have a story about this indictment, which the records state, “was illegally sealed, illegally re-sealed as presented before four Magistrate Judges after having expired, and that included Count One which expired past the applicable statute of limitations” [USCA Appeal, 4:15cr50, Doc. 9-1, 9/17/2018].
My later research in the prison law library found the government based its July 15, 2015, motion to seal this indictment on the upcoming expiration of the mail fraud count (sending a letter) that it alleged occurred on July 30, 2010, all based on Statute §3282, which has a statute of limitations of five years.
First, it should not have been sealed and held as a backup plan because tolling (holding) is only permissible if there is a primary reason for keeping it secret, such as “apprehending dangerous defendants, stopping defendants from fleeing, (or for) protecting cooperating witnesses” [Rule 6(e) (4)].
Second, it expired, and when it expired any tolling expired, and so the statute of limitations most definitely expired.
Third, the record shows the attempt to reseal this indictment, and keep it hidden longer while my appeal was being decided, was presented “before Judge Douglas E. Miller, then before Judge Robert J. Krask, then before Judge Lawrence R. Leonard, and then finally…resealed with a signature by Judge Douglas E. Miller” [Doc. 9-1].
Once I put all this on the record with my pro se defense, the new replacement District Court judge, the Honorable Wanda Allen Wright, (because the trial judge had already been removed) chose post hoc (after the event) to change the actual federal statute used by the government to seal the indictment to a “separate code of statute of limitations, §3293,” which holds a ten-year statute of limitations.
I couldn’t understand how, in this great country of separation of powers, the Judicial Branch could change the Executive Branch’s submission.
Don't crumble like most humans when the barrage never stops. Compartmentalize your trauma to one side and allow the other half of your brain to keep fighting the good fight. You have no other choice!
Have a great week!
Order Amazon #1 Best Seller When Not If (Hardback, Kindle, Audio): https://www.amazon.com/When-Not-If-Overcoming-Adversity/dp/B0CKWTYSFF/r and Chirp Audio When Not If by John Kador & Jeff Martinovich - Audiobook (chirpbooks.com).
