ReleaseWire Connect

In 2014, federal Judge Christine Arguello, Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh and his underling Assistant United States Attorney Matthew T. Kirsch were publicly criticized by former federal appeals Judge H. Lee Sarokin and other prominent attorneys and justice advocates for allegedly concealing and/or destroying court transcripts to ensure the government did not lose a criminal case against innocent Colorado software executives. The case against IRP Solutions Corporation executives (known as the "IRP6") has been generally characterized by experts as a fraudulent indictment concocted by the government based on an improbable and incoherent theory.

On January 23, 2019, based on a motion filed by the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (view motion online at bit.ly/2Ntk3U9), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered federal judge Christine M. Arguello to unseal and make public, records and transcripts from a criminal proceeding where it was alleged she secretly used her court to conduct religious attacks and persecution against CSFC's highly respected Pastor, Rose Banks who was not the defendant and has no criminal record. After nearly six months of failing to comply with the order, New York Attorney Bernard Kleinman petitioned the 10th Circuit to issue another order directing Judge Arguello "to do what [she] has already been directed to do." Kleinman also asked, that because of Judge Arguello's continuing recalcitrance and "bias" against Pastor Banks that she be recused, and the case be assigned to another judge. "As of September 2019 (eight months after the order), the miscreant Judge Arguello continues her defiance, while a recreant 10th Circuit refuses to hold her accountable or assign the case to another judge," says Cliff Stewart, CSFC's Chairman of the Board.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) authorizes Wardens to approve bereavement furloughs (authorized absence) to non-violent inmates at 'out-custody' federal prisons camps where there are no fences, bars, walls or barbed wire. Many of the prison camps are former military bases. In the last six months numerous 'campers' at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado have experienced the death of immediate family members, including sisters, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers but the Warden has repeatedly denied furlough requests by inmates to grieve and bury their loved ones.

Federal Judge's Alleged Religious Animus Just One of Many Complaints of Misconduct in Colorado Case.

After serving 3 years of an 11-year prison sentence, convicted felon Gary Walker decided he'd had enough of the prison life and filed a motion and affidavit requesting release on the basis that he was not responsible for his actions because he was under a religious spell of his mother-in-law pastor, Rose M. Banks of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC). Walker also claimed that a junior attorney and close friend from CSFC (Gwendolyn Lawson), one of two attorneys on his legal team, was also under the religious control of Pastor Banks which caused a conflict of interest representing him and four other defendants during sentencing.

On average inmates at the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado earn an average slave wage of $10 dollars per month which makes it impossible for them to pay things like court costs and restitution or use commissary, phone or email services, all of which are services the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provides to inmates at a cost.

On July 1, 2018, the federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado hurt families by eliminating three-hour Friday evening visits which has been in existence for decades and has cited no reason for doing so. Now, prison management, who claims they are financially and operationally constrained by staffing shortages, are taking more time from visiting families and children by subjecting them to intrusive and intimidating search procedures.

President Trump recently told NFL players who are deeply-troubled about racial injustice in the criminal justice system to contact him about federal cases where someone was wrongly convicted or done wrong by the system and he will pardon or commute their sentence. Advocacy organization A Just Cause hopes for the sake of those who have been wrongly imprisoned and their suffering families, NFL players will take the President up on his offer.

Advocacy organization A Just Cause praises President Trump for strictly following the Constitution by independently granting clemency without DOJ intervention. When the Constitution was created and gave the President sole pardoning power there was no DOJ and President Trump should not be criticized for granting clemency without DOJ input.

It seems unlikely that President Barack Obama would ignore a personal letter emailed to him from prominent former federal appeals judge H. Lee Sarokin asking him to grant clemency to African-American technology executives (the "IRP6") because DOJ prosecutors and a federal judge engaged in misconduct to obtain an unconstitutional conviction. A former federal judge sending a letter to a sitting U.S. President on behalf of criminal defendants he hasn't met is unprecedented and is not something that happens every day. In fact, it's probably never happened in U.S. history which means Judge Sarokin wouldn't risk his reputation to expose the misconduct if he didn't have proof it occurred. Some of the many congressmen who have reviewed the credible evidence of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct told advocacy organization A Just Cause that Obama couldn't have possibly known, but the fact is, Special Assistant to President Obama and Associate Counsel Joshua Friedman confirmed in a November 11, 2015 email he received Sarokin's letter and forwarded the letter to the DOJ Pardon Attorney (See email at bit.ly/2LoQNxv).