Mary Maxwell, Sandy Hook: Have Whistleblowers Suffered?

by Mary Maxwell LLB

[Editor’s note: Mary has been doing terrific work on Sandy Hook and the Boston bombing. Featured in the photo (above): (L) William Brandon Shanley, litigant (who was a personal friend of mine); (C) Dr Wayne Carver, Newtown Medical Examiner, Photo: Michael McAndrews, Harford Courant (whom I questioned during his video deposition for the Pozner v. Fetzer lawsuit); and (R) Mary W Maxwell, stickybeak at large (with whom I have submitted an amicus brief in support of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev). It was Patricia Llorda, the First Selectman of Newtown — a position equivalent to Mayor — who acknowledged that DHS had placed the sign, “Everyone must check in!”, which implies it was a drill (which Wolfgang obtained under oath).]

I am a freedom-of-speech maniac. That is to say, I’m American, ever clothed in the Constitution, of which the First Amendment is a part. I am interested in bringing to book anyone who punished any citizen for investigating the Sandy Hook massacre. Can you imagine!

Or, for that matter, anyone who investigated the Brinks robbery. (I think the FBI did it, as I assume all unsolved bank robberies are inside jobs.) Or anyone — such as Alyssa Peterson, US Air Force translator, who attempted to whistleblow the CIA’s torture at Abu Ghraib.

James Fetzer Has Suffered

In regard to Sandy Hook, consider the case of Emeritus Professor of Philosophy James Fetzer of Wisconsin, who attempted, by publishing a book (Nobody Died at Sandy Hook: It Was a FEMA Drill To Support Gun Control ) to air his theory that the whole event was a hoax.

I am interested in punishing, legally, any person who has unfairly attacked Fetzer for exercising his laryngeal muscles to speak, or his finger muscles to write. He is entitled to do so all he likes, even unto causing hurt feelings among the grieving parents. How else can the public ever find out about hoaxes? You have to hear all sides of a story.

As described in Part 2 of this series, Fetzer, and a few other writers, were sued by Leonard Pozner for defamation.  That is OK, too. Pozner has his legal rights. (He said Fetzer called him a liar by saying that the death certificate he provided, for his son Noah, was fake.)

Once Pozner submitted his accusatory brief, Fetzer was entitled to make a reply and get the privilege — oops, the right — of Discovery. This means Fetzer could have employed the authority of the court to subpoena documents from the State of Connecticut, such as the death certificate or anything else he needed to defend himself against Pozner. Roughly, truth is a defense against a civil action for defamation.

If the death certificate was “doctored” (whether or not the child died), Fetzer would have been spared from a judgement against him. Nevertheless, the district judge made a summary judgement (without Discovery) as to Fetzer’s liability and a jury decided the amount: $450,000.  Not exactly chicken feed. He is currently appealing that decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and it could, theoretically, go to SCOTUS.

William Brandon Shanley, RIP, Suffered

It is alleged by conspiracy theorists that several people died because they were critics of, or potential witnesses of, malfeasance related to Sandy Hook.  One was a police dispatcher (reportedly “beaten to death”), one was a 27-year-old mainstream journalist, one was — etc.

As I have not researched any of those allegations of death, I will skip over them.  But there is reason to believe that William Brandon Shanley, a major conspiracy theorist, was “taken out.” That is, I name him here as a person who got punished for investigating Sandy Hook. I claim that the ones who punished him should be brought to book. Note: if he was murdered, there is no statute of limitations.

Shanley, a resident of Connecticut, sued in the US District Court, almost all the heads of media in the English-speaking world. The named defendants are: CBS, Viacom, Disney, CNN, the BBC, and so forth. Shanley also included as defendants some specific persons such as Rupert Murdoch of Newscorp, Anderson Cooper of CNN, and Richard Graziano, publisher of the Hartford Courant.

His case mentions federal law 18 USC 1028, on “Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents” and 18 USC 2339 on “providing material support to terrorists.” But this is not a prosecution case, it is a demand for damages.

The opening words of William Shanley’s December 22, 2014 pleading are:

“Defendants entered in a multi-year conspiracy, separately and together, to commit fraud and terrorism, i.e., to brainwash the public into thinking a lone gunman drill known as the Sandy Hook Massacre was real, when in fact, it was a staged FEMA National Level Exercise Event….” and later “The sine qua non of journalism is the search for truth.”

Many people ridiculed him, including, I’m sorry to say, Mary W Maxwell. I only read the headlines of the case and figured he was planted to file and lose, thus discouraging others from trying.  I also thought he had no standing, the bugaboo of my own efforts to “get” the government in court.

His case was dismissed with prejudice (which means he cannot file it again). He also asked for a recusal of Judge Jeffrey Myers, to which that judge replied:

“[No] because plaintiff has not established bias or an appearance of impropriety or other grounds for my disqualification under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a). Although my father used to serve as a legislator in Connecticut and supported gun control legislation, there is no basis to attribute my father’s views to me or to support plaintiff’s contention that the dismissal of plaintiff’s cases would somehow have the effect of “shielding [my] father from future prosecution.”  Signed, June 15, 2017.

I note that Shanley had attached to his complaint a copy of “the FEMA Sandy Hook Call-Down Drill Exercise Plan (Mass Casualty Drill)”. I must also mention that in reply to one of Wolfgang’s Freedom of Information requests, the Department of Homeland Security admits that it had erected the electronic sign “Everyone must sign in” outside the school on the day of the massacre, thus implying that it was a drill.

Mr Shanley died on November 5, 2017. His followers say he was in good health, and they consider it a murder.  This matter wants investigation, does it not?

I think any person who has obviously done some whistleblowing and then dies unexpectedly should be an automatic candidate for a Special Coroner to look at.  I will gladly admit that no matter how suspicious the case looks, the death could have been by natural causes.  Or, if he/she were in a car crash, it could have been a genuinely accidental accident. Nevertheless, the matter should be aired.

James Tracy Suffered

In Part 4 of this series, we discussed the firing of tenured professor James Tracy at Florida Atlantic University. Other academics should have come to his aid, but they didn’t.  In the old days, there would have been an immediate, unqualified uproar.

The problem here was both the university staff and the court.  The dean had sent an email to fellow staff with a picture of a champagne glass, implying celebration of Tracy’s fate. There is no question that he was kicked out because of his blogging about Sandy Hook. The court let him down by not allowing him to submit the minutes of a university senate meeting which would have made clear the cause of his firing.

Instead, the prosecutor was able to paint the case as one of Tracy’s insubordination. He had failed to fill out a form about outside interests.  There was no requirement for professors to hand in the form if they had no outside interests to report.

In the book by Fetzer, Tracy contributed a meticulous Timeline of the Sandy Hook events.  He has also done the same for the Boston Marathon bombing case (in which I am an amicus curiae). In any case, he lost his livelihood.

Dr Wayne Carver Possibly Suffered

According to his obit at Brown University:

“H. Wayne Carver II ’74 MD’77, 67, died December 26. Wayne discovered a passion for science and music at an early age. He received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown, where he was the drum major of the marching band and played in three orchestras. It was at Brown that he met the love of his life and wife of 44 years, Deborah DeHertogh ’74 MD’77, in anatomy class.”

One wonders if Carver was made to do things at autopsy that he did not want to do, in regard to the children that died at Sandy Hook on December 14, 2012. He famously gave a press conference at which he claimed not to know much about the gunshot wounds.

Dr Wayne Carver, was the state medical examiner. He said “I hope this doesn’t all come crashing down on our heads” — whatever that means.

But his may have been a natural death.

Wolfgang Halbig Is Suffering

In Parts 2 and 4 of this series, I mentioned Wolfgang Halbig.  His day job had been as s School safety expert.  He offered his services in a non-dissident way, as he did not initially think the massacre was fake. Later when he did think so, he settled into fulltime research on the subject.

He found that the Sandy Hook school had not been in use at least in the three months prior to the massacre. He was able to deduce that from such things as no Internet service to that address, no compliance with Americans with Disability Act protocols for ramps and handicapped parking. He acted like he had acted professionally, checking ion safety aspects.

For this he got harassed by police and by officials whom he visited in Connecticut. As far as I am aware, he did not treat anyone rudely.  Halbig’s legal bills have impoverished him. His Florida home got raided in the night.  Moreover, the state legislature “fixed him good” by criminalizing the act of investigating the Sandy Hook case.

Mary Maxwell Has Not Suffered

I have not suffered despite being in perfect opposition to the Boston Marathon conviction of Jahar Tsarnaev, the Port Arthur conviction of Martin Bryant, and the Sydney siege coroner’s report. I have not delved into Sandy Hook and maintain my neutrality as to whether it was a drill or an actual shootout.

Having heard, however, that Connecticut has legislated against investigation (and that the FBI’s report is classified — what is the point of having a report if we can’t see it?), I would like to go to Newtown and do a bit of research and then turn myself in, at the local police station.  The point would be to get Judicial Review of the new law.

I would be prosecuted at and could easily show the unconstitutionality of the criminalization of investigative work. What will they think of next?

The jury should beat me to the punch by using nullification, but if they don’t I am willing to reside in the lockup until we get it all straightened out.

I mean, really, Folks.