merrily, merrily keep in mind that life is far from what it seems.
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The desk-top publishing business that my
daughter, Francesca, and I, Claudia Ann Montelione,
operate offers secretarial help and notary public
services. Acting as a witness to private administrative
processes is part of lawful notary functions that
apparently some attorneys feel is a threat to their power
and control. In the fall of 2007, I received a couple of very abusive and threatening letters from Joseph Little, attorney for Dresser Inc. in Houston, Texas, regarding witness work I was providing for John Petruzzo, a Canadian national who had a claim of constructive discharge against his former employer, D.I. Canada, a subdivision of Dresser Inc. Attorney Little threatened to "come after" me if Mr. Petruzzo and I didn't sign an agreement not to file a commercial lien against Dresser upon conclusion of Petruzzo’s private admin. process. I wondered what Little thought he could sue me for since I wasn't doing anything illegal nor had I harmed anyone. It would not be my place to file my client's lien and neither Petruzzo nor I wanted to sign anything under threat so I sent Little’s letters on to the Pennsylvania Attorney General asking him to contact the A.G. in Texas to discipline the rogue attorney there (Little) who threatened a citizen of Pennsylvania. Several weeks later, I was legally attacked from 3 sides: the Penna Secretary of State wanted to investigate my notary practices; Dresser Inc. brought an illegal action against me in Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas; and A.G. Tom Corbett's Bureau of Consumer Protection ("Bureau") demanded all of my business records. I sent an affidavit to the Bureau swearing to give them the records if they would comply with the law and give me their probable cause. Bureau agent Terrance Green served me with a Notice from Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas ("DC Court") which is located 130 miles from my Scranton home. The Notice was issued by Judge Lawrence F. Clark, Jr., and served to me without the knowledge of the Lackawanna County sheriff. It threatened me with arrest if I did not appear in his court. There was no Complaint or suspicion of statutory violation stated. At DC Court on March 4, 2008, the Bureau failed to establish jurisdiction over me or over the subject matter, though they were both challenged. Judge Clark failed to protect my God-given, Constitutionally protected rights and finally gave me the choice of complying with the Bureau's demands within 10 days or go to Dauphin County Prison ("DCP"). There was no due process of law and I was not expected to defend myself. However, my research revealed that DC Court is a private corporation doing business as a court. As a corporate entity, their function is purely commercial so, having been trained as a law merchant, I drew up a private payment instrument and through pre-arrangement with Henry Paulson, the then Secretary of U.S. Dep't of Treasury, served a private Bonded Promissory Note ("BPN") upon the four fiduciaries named thereon, Judge Clark being one of them, in order to peaceably settle and close the case. By law, the BPN was to have been sent to the U.S. Treasury and I enclosed a pre-addressed, certified mailing envelope for their convenience but instead of following lawful instructions, the BPN was misappropriated and off-handedly declared 'bogus'. Clark called in state trooper Denny Grimm to write out an Affidavit of Probable Cause against me. When it was discovered that my BPN was valid, Grimm then referred to it as a "judgment". The recent federal case of Enterprise Bank of Commerce, Alabama v. Josie Parks Broadcasting Inc. conclusively demonstrates that rejection of a privately issued BPN (payment instrument) is a violation of federal bankruptcy laws. Even though the Secretary of State's investigator found no wrong-doing in my notary practices, the attorney there, Douglas Casell, held a hearing on March 10, 2008. Hearing examiner Joyce McKeever also found nothing wrong with my notary practices but Casell said he wanted to “send a message” so that no notary public will do as I had done, even though he never articulated exactly what it was I had done that was so offensive. A year later, my notary commission was revoked. Ms. McKeever apparently refused to lie in her hearing report so the revocation was based upon nothing. Judge Clark charged me with criminal contempt of court and jailed me in Dauphin County Prison (“DCP”) for 6 months. It was appealed to Commonwealth Court in April 2008. While in DCP, an Affidavit was put together which listed sections of the federal criminal code that were violated by Judge Clark, A.G. Corbett and Dominick DeRose, Warden of DCP, by their jailing me without due process of law. It enumerated their improper actions and stated the amount of damages I'd expect if I wasn't released from illegal incarceration within 72 hours. They were duty-bound to respond but not only did they fail to do so, Judge Clark had State Trooper Denny Grimm charge me criminally with ‘retaliation’ for putting a ‘judgment’ against Clark, AG Corbett and Warden DeRose. That whole action was unlawful because only a victim can swear out an Affidavit of Probable Cause. To Trooper Grimm, the whole thing was only hearsay, even if he did hear it from a judge. But lawfulness does not matter to DC Court since they are a criminal enterprise operating under color of law. A second retaliation charge was put against me because of Francesca's filing of my Affidavit in Luzerne County while I was imprisoned in DCP. I was never arraigned on the Affidavit charge since District Justice Barbara Pianka of Harrisburg, before whom I was brought, refused to have any involvement with the matter after reading Trooper Grimm's paperwork. But of course, that didn’t matter to DC Court either. The case went forward with a preliminary hearing anyway. In the words of DC District Attorney, “It’s like a train. It just keeps on rolling.” Yes, indeed! Right over the law and right over the People. Both my BPN and my Affidavit had been served upon the Respondents by Massachusetts notary public, Kevin Mahoney so I would have a public official witness my actions. Mahoney was also charged with ‘retaliation’ as well as ‘conspiracy’ and immediately extradited from Mass. right into DCP by Trooper Grimm threatening to mace him if he didn’t sign waiver of extradition papers. Francesca was also charged with ‘retaliation’ and ‘conspiracy’. Grimm and another trooper, Jeffrey Dunkle, duped a Scranton magistrate into signing an search and seizure order by detailing in an Affidavit of Probable Cause how they needed to investigate our computers for criminal activity. They and a couple of other thugs with badges invaded my home while I was imprisoned, arrested Francesca and took our computers, all the privately issued bonds they could find, files, etc. A year later, Grimm testified that they never investigated our computers. Of course not! They knew we weren’t doing anything criminal. In all fairness, however, they did allow time for a family friend to arrive to care for Lisa, my younger daughter who was born with Down Syndrome, so they were not totally without compassion. After completing the 6 month contempt sentence, I had to be bailed out of DCP due to the criminal charges. A trial date of January 12, 2009 was set which violated Rule 1701 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure which says that jurisdiction of a case moves to the higher court on appeal. DC Court had no jurisdiction of the matter since April 2008. I petitioned Commonwealth Court to rein in the activities of the DC Court and asked them to enforce their Rule 1701. Not wanting to voluntarily give DC Court the jurisdiction it absolutely didn't possess, I did not attend the hearing on January 12 and was subsequently arrested. My petition to Commonwealth Court was never answered. Months later, after all papers and briefs had been reviewed, Commonwealth Court divested itself of all integrity and quashed the appeal rather than rule in my favor. Bail was set at $650,000 for each of the 2 counts against me. The law librarian and a counselor at DCP blocked my access to subpoena forms so I made one up myself. I found out too late that it was the wrong form so, at the July 28, 2009 trial hearing, I asked for a continuance (postponement). It was refused. I couldn't prepare a proper defense from prison since I didn't have any of the case's paperwork or evidence of my innocence so I planned to rely on whatever resources and knowledge my assistance of counsel, Eugene ("Gene") Wrona, had. The trial judge, Charles C. Brown, Jr., then allowed the Deputy D.A., who had entered the court room with others, to arrest Mr. Wrona on the false charge of practicing law without a license. I was devastated. Even though my defense was completely obstructed, I had to go through with the bogus prosecution since they would have gone ahead without me if I had left the courtroom. No matter how feeble my defense, at least I would be able to put a few things on the record. Of all the assumptions, presumptions and outright lies the prosecution used to manipulate the minds of the jurors, the worst was the perjured testimony given by A. Taylor Williams, Judge Clark's attorney who is employed at the Penna Supreme Court. Ms. Williams had represented Clark in a personal lawsuit he brought against me, Francesca and James O'Brien, the Recorder of Deeds of Luzerne County, to have my Affidavit expunged from the public record there. Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas still retains jurisdiction of that case because I had been in DCP when it was filed and had never been served with the Complaint. Judge Lokuta did the right thing to preserve my rights. Williams, on the other hand, convinced the jury that my affidavit was really a lien. Though I explained how it could not possibly be a lien, Francesca, who knew the details of its filing, and Mr. O'Brien who had accepted it as an affidavit, were not there to testify since I was blocked from issuing subpoenas, and the jury believed Ms. Williams. I was found guilty of retaliation and conspiracy and sentenced to 5 years in state prison. I served 2 of them and in preparing for my release, the Dep’t of Parole examined my case. The parole agent found that I was in prison on a civil matter and I had actually paid the case off. However, because there is a court order in place, parole still stands. The criminal case judgments were appealed to Penna Superior Court. My substantial claims of lack of jurisdiction and the unconstitutionality of the statute used against me were ignored. Even though the plaintiff did not object to anything I said in my brief, the Court took it upon itself to rule against me. Presently, Penna Supreme Court has granted my Petition to hear my appeal but I still haven’t received any kind of scheduling order. I’m not holding my breath. Prior to the July 28, 2009 trial, I was continually offered a plea bargain. I felt that if I had accepted it, I would not only be agreeing that I had committed crimes that never happened but I'd also be helping to engender fear in notaries public for doing their lawful duties as well as being complicit in criminalizing freedom of speech since the "felonies" in the case consisted of privately written documents. They could only be crimes if freedom of speech was illegal. |
