Illinois Supreme Court Upholds Judge Maddux's Blatant Violation of Law

On November 26, 2008 the Illinois Supreme Court in a Motion for Leave to File Complaint for Mandamus with attached Complaint for Mandamus denied Leave to file without explanation.

This means that the Illinois Supreme Court has publicly condoned Judge Maddux's violation of statutes that require a judge to grant a Petition for indigent status and waive filing fees for a tort (lawsuit) when a Plaintiff is indigent.

See details of the illegal conduct and ruling by Judge Maddux in denying a Petition for Indigent Status. http://illinoiscorruption.blogspot.com/2008/10/crook-county-presiding-law-judge-maddux.html

I will now take this to the U.S. Supreme Court for a supervisory order. They will probably deny review, thus condoning violation of statute and due process rights as well as violation of the First Amendment right to redress of grievances.

Thus another example of [in]justice and the Myth of American Justice!

Torture and Medical Neglect at Cook County Jail - Episode 1

DR. SHELTON ASSAULTED BY SHERIFF, DENIED HER CIVIL RIGHTS, DANGEROUSLY MEDICALLY NEGLECTED AT COOK COUNTY JAIL, AND CHARGED WITH FELONY AGGREVATED BATTERY OF PEACE OFFICER FOR FOLLOWING A COURT ORDER, AND FOR PROTECTING HER HEALTH 10-24-02 – revised 2-24-03 & 11-29-04

County of Cook )
) ss
State of Illinois )

VERIFIED DECLARATION

I, Linda L. Shelton, declares as follows:

I was released 10-22-02 from cook county jail. I was charged with 2 counts of Aggravated Battery to a Peace Officer (class 3 felony – possible sentence 2-5 years) and a Bail Bond Violation (class A misdemeanor – possible sentence 6-12 months – [FOUND NOT GUILTY BY JURY TRIAL FOR TRESPASS AND THIS BAIL BOND VIOLATION ON OCT. 17, 2003]). I am a pediatrician and was a witness against Governor Ryan and DCFS in federal and state courts. I have also testified extensively against vaccine mandates. In addition I have documented illegal conduct of a chief judge, extreme official misconduct of child protection officials, police profiling of my patients, police brutality of my patients and friends, and extreme misconduct of sheriff staff at Bridgeview Courthouse and the Jail. This has been forwarded to the FBI and Illinois Attorney General.

I have severe asthma and a severe allergy to tobacco smoke - within minutes, I can go into respiratory failure. I also had a recently herniated lumbar disc, used a cane to walk due to a weak leg, am a pacifist - never hit back, and have heart trouble. I had 34 pretrial hearings and a four (4) day trial on the misdemeanor trespass charge. I was found not guilty by the jury. I have been defamed and slandered by Christ Hospital administrators (complainant on the criminal trespass charge) who committed perjury in their testimony at trial. During these hearings I collapsed three times at Bridgeview Courthouse due to my medical problems and had to be taken by ambulance to Christ Hospital twice- one time admitted in respiratory failure.

The incident occurred when I went to Bridgeview Courthouse for a hearing on the misdemeanor trespass charge on Oct 22, 2002 around 9-10 a.m. (I was later found not guilty on that charge by a jury). I was using a left hand cane because 2 weeks previous I herniated a disc in my back and then had severe back pain and a weak right leg. I could not lift anything. I also had unsteadiness because of neurosurgery on my neck. (In 2000 I had surgery to correct a congenital defect crushing my spine – all bones broken and reconstructed) I had my bag of papers on a hand-cart.

At the security entrance at Bridgeview, I put my keys and my 2002 Republican Gold Medal (I was going to show the judge as evidence of my good character) in the basket. The guards yelled at me that the medal was a heavy object, I couldn't take in and that they had told me previously not to bring it. I told them it was evidence of my good character and I was showing it to the judge. The guards yelled at me to put my bag on the scanner. I said I couldn’t lift it because of a herniated disc. I told them I could further injure my back and the doctors told me not to lift anything. They said, "well you got it out of your car." I said, "no, someone helped me." They yelled at me that they were not my servants. I politely stated that the Americans with Disabilities Act required them to accommodate me. They would not and kept yelling. I said I would leave my things there and go up to the court and ask the judge to assist me in getting my things through security and walked through the security gate, which did not beep. They knew I had a court hearing, and would be charged with bail jumping and an arrest warrant issued if I didn't show up. The guards ordered me back outside of the gate and yelled to put my bag on the scanner. They pushed me a little to go out the gate and I complied. I went to the desk and asked the guard to call the courtroom and inform the judge I wasn’t coming up because security would not let me through the gate. He said he wouldn’t call. I then knew if I didn’t go up the judge would issue an arrest warrant. I said I have to go up and would proceed through the gate. I said my bag had my court papers that I needed and they were violating a court order for me to be in court by detaining me illegally.

I grabbed my keys and cart handle in one hand and the gold medal and my cane in the other and walked through the security gate. A female guard pushed her body in front of mine and I tried to squeeze past her to the side, and avoid touching her. She moved her body and we gently bumped together, with me trying lightly to walk past her, at which time she began pushing me out through the gate. I lost my balance and my arms went flailing. My right arm bumped against her arm. Then she grabbed at my right arm and tried to hit me with her left arm and I defensively tried to block her with my right arm to protect myself and my back from injury. I suffered a bruise on the mid-right forearm, where she hit me. I don’t remember what she was saying. I felt she was trying to hit me. I was trying to move backwards and regain my balance. I felt disoriented after being hit and being forced backwards, and may have lost consciousness briefly or lost touch with what was going on. I don’t remember being moved or moving from the magnetometer to about 10 feet away near a glass wall. I don’t know if I blacked out from my heart condition and arrhythmia or whether I have amnesia for this time because of acute stress disorder because I had never been attacked by anyone before, especially an officer.

I next found Sheriffs all around me, who twisted my arms behind my back and squeezed my elbows tightly behind my back. I was confused, weak, and only semi-aware of my surroundings for a few moments. I remember hearing someone yell “what do you want to do with her,” but being a bit fuzzy in my vision and not knowing exactly who was around me, except that they were in uniforms. Someone else yelled “press charges,” and they handcuffed me, but I do not remember this well as I believe I blacked out briefly. My back was twisted and strained during the incident and began to hurt more. ”The Deputy states I tried to stab her with a key and claims she has scratches on her arm and was bleeding. The ER report states she had a “2 cm scratch (red mark) at the bend of her left elbow with a 3 X 6 millimeter very superficial abrasion.” Two guards then grabbed my arms and pushed me into the Sheriff's office. I stumbled walking due to my weak leg and back pain and had to ask them to slow down and be gentler. I later found out the deputy who attacked me was Deputy Rebecca Doran and she was also the brute who dragged me into the Sheriff’s office.

In the Sheriff’s office they sat me down on a bench. I was in pain from my back and a little in shock from the ordeal. I had my formal jacket and coat on. I quickly became overheated and felt faint. I laid down on the bench and the female guard yelled at me to sit up. I said please I’m about to faint and then Deputy Wilger came over when I said please take my coat off, I’m feeling sick. Deputy Wilger has seen me become ill and knew I had medical problems. He instructed me to stand up. I said I couldn’t without their help due to my back pain. I said please help quickly or I’ll faint. He and the other Deputy gently and quickly stood me up, removed the cuffs, removed my coat and jacket, re-cuffed me, and sat me down again. Then I laid down on the bench again and began to cool off and feel a little better. At that point it was obvious, they had to put me in a wheelchair. When I turned from my back to my side, because the cuffs were very uncomfortable and my back pain was getting worse, to try to relieve the pain, the female Deputy yelled at me to keep still. I told her please be kind, I was just trying to relieve my pain a little. Then she stopped yelling at me. I was then taken down to the Bridgeview Courthouse lock-up, in the basement, after being held a short while in the Sheriff’s office until they could find a wheelchair, placed in a cell, read my rights, and informed I was under arrest for Aggravated Battery of a Peace Officer. Basic demographic information was requested and I gave it to them.

My property was taken and inventoried. Money was stolen from me by the guards and never returned. I was assisted in standing up, to place my hands against a wall to be searched. I was then placed in a cell and a short time later a female guard helped me up and let me lean on her to walk over to another room to be fingerprinted. I felt dizzy and they let me sit in a chair to be fingerprinted. I told the guards I was freezing and the Deputy who fingerprinted me said I was cold and suggested someone give me a blanket. No one paid any attention to his suggestion. They kept me in a cold cell at Bridgeview for six hours, denying me a coat or blanket until I was shivering and in intense back spasm. I was able to lie down on the cold bench, which helped relieve the pain a little, but at the same time made the spasms worse from the cold. A State’s Attorney and guard came down to talk with me. A female guard kindly let me lean on her to walk to a bench adjacent to the cell. They read me my rights again, stated who they were and said they wanted to question me. I stated I wished to remain silent and they put me back in the cell. They were denying me food or a blanket or my coat to keep warm. I was unable to obtain water, as I was afraid of the dirty water fountain. I was becoming dehydrated as I am on a diuretic like medication. I had not eaten or drank anything since 6:00 a.m. and was put on the bus around 4:30 p.m.

I was put in a wheelchair and handcuffed to the chair. Just prior to the Bond Hearing around 3:30 p.m., a Public Defender came down to a room they put me in to interview me. I kept having to put my head down between my knees to keep from fainting, partially due to increasing dehydration, and was unable to talk much except say I was sick and my medical needs were being neglected and could she please ask the judge to order them to help me. At the Bond Hearing I kept getting faint and didn’t hear everything. Someone said I pushed a guard and injured her. I don’t remember everything. The Public Defender was appointed and said something. I don’t remember what she said. The judge said something and I know he said to take me to Cermak and Bond was set – I wasn’t sure exactly what they said, as I kept feeling faint and losing touch with what was going on. About 4:00 p.m. they finally allowed me to make two phone calls. I had to keep resting my head on the desk to keep from fainting. I kept dialing the wrong numbers because I was a little confused and very weak. A guard dialed them for me after hassling me. They did get my wallet and pulled out the phone number for an attorney as I requested. I called a friend to take care of my son and inform him I was arrested for a felony, being taken to County Jail, and left a message for First Defense that I needed a lawyer. I then was taken back to the holding cell to wait for transport. I felt very faint and at one point laid on the floor with my feet elevated on the bench. At no time did a guard ask if I needed help or express any concern. I did ask several times for something to drink, and they just kept saying drink the water in the cell - the faucet also works as a fountain. No one bothered to take me to an ER or ask about my medical condition.

They refused to transport me by ambulance to Cermak or even lying down in a police car. Because of my severe health problems, I wrote a letter to the Chief Sheriff Lyons at Bridgeview months prior to the incident, if I were again taken into custody that exposing me to tobacco smoke would kill me. When they arrested me on Oct 22 at about 10:00 a.m., I pleaded with them to protect me from tobacco smoke and to be allowed to lie down, as their roughing me up aggravated my back, I was in severe pain and I knew that if I was put on a prison bus I would be exposed to tobacco smoke and could die, as their record of attending to medical needs quickly is poor. I feared for my life.I refused to get on the bus around 4:30, and reminded them I had severe medical problems, but they forced me under threat of "restraining me and forcing me onto the bus and throwing me onto the floor for transport." There were three big guys. A male Sergeant also was yelling to put me on the bus. They said the judge ordered me to be taken to Cermak Hospital – the jail Hospital. They said one of the guards was a paramedic to try to calm my fears. I then got into the wheelchair with assistance under protest, but was terrified that they would ignore my medical needs and allow the other prisoners to smoke. They literally pushed and shoved me up the bus stairs and onto the bus, as my right leg is weak, and dragged me to a seat with their arms around my waist and my arm on a guards shoulder trying to walk. They did let me lie down on a seat without restraints, but with no seat belt. They allowed me to keep the inhaler, but not the Epipen®. They forced me on the prison bus and did not prevent the other prisoners from smoking. In fact, they told about 10 other prisoners to go ahead and smoke!

The guard at the front of the bus did yell at the prisoners to stop smoking, after a few minutes, and he opened a window when he saw I began wheezing and I asked him to protect me from the smoke. I began to wheeze on the bus, and it steadily worsened during the ride, until I was barely breathing at a rapid rate, not moving enough air to wheeze. Just before you stop breathing and die from asthma, you become quiet. I knew I had very little life left, and tried to remain calm, meditate to relieve the pain and keep breathing, and forced myself to breathe (rate of 30 or 40 breaths per minute -imminent respiratory failure, previously when my rate was close to 40, I was hypercarbic and hypoxic). They did allow me to carry my inhaler. I used it ten times on the bus - too much and endangering my heart problem. The paramedic guard did not check on me, but inmates behind me kept asking how I was doing and I said worsening, until I no longer could talk. One inmate behind me started to pray for my safety and another one kept urging me to hang on and breathe. She offered to spray my inhaler for me, but I shook my head because I knew I could no longer breathe deep enough to take in the medicine. The inhaler didn't help and by the time we arrived at County Jail - I was unable to talk, and barely moving air.

They yelled at me to get up and get off the bus, and forced me into a sitting position. They then called for other guards, and took the other prisoners off first. I think because I was not audibly wheezing and unable to talk, they thought I was faking medical problems. The paramedic guard yelled that if I didn’t walk off the bus, I wouldn’t get medical help, and that I was being uncooperative. They called other officers dressed like a SWAT team and verbally threatened me.

A female guard then came on the bus and sat next to me telling me to cooperate and get off the bus. She finally seemed to understand I was unable to comply and very sick. They noticed my cane and that I had difficulty moving. They called for a wheelchair and a medic from the Cermak ER. The paramedic guard grabbed me around the waist and helped and forced me off the bus and put me in a wheel chair, with the assistance of a supervising Sergeant. A medic then noticed I was going into respiratory failure (breathing rapidly with no sound and heaving retractions of neck muscles and chest, and becoming a little incoherent), complained that they should have told him they needed a gurney and that it was an emergency and ran with me into the ER. I slumped over in the wheelchair on the way to the ER and may have lost consciousness for a time.

The doctors and staff worked on me, immediately giving me oxygen and continuous albuterol nebulizer treatments in the wheelchair. After the oxygen revived me a little, they tried to get a history but I couldn't talk well and tried to write it out a little. I was getting very weak. I wrote "history in bag" and they found my medical history in my briefcase. They then put me in a bed and guards processed me in the bed (stripped, searched, numbered on my arm with a magic marker just like at Aushwitz, fingerprinted), while the staff worked on me. They attempted a blood gas unsuccessfully. It was aborted because I began having apneic episodes (stopped breathing multiple times) and they had to irritate me with strong pain, by rubbing my sternum with their knuckles, patting my cheeks and talking loudly to look at them, to keep me breathing. Essentially I went in and out of consciousness several times. Between this stimulation, I am a little unsure of what happened. They had great difficulty starting an IV, as I had multiple puncture marks, where attempts were made, probably because I was cold and dehydrated, and I think besides the asthma attack, I was going into a syncopal attack, with poor circulation and with abnormal heart rhythm. I believe I heard them say my blood pressure was stable and pulse 100+.

They were mistaken as my normal pulse is slow due to digoxin medication and my heart condition - around 60. Rapid pulse is an indication of dehydration, shock, or a reaction to medication. I had shaking chills like a massive epinephrine release a ½ hour or so later, making me think I had been syncopal. After numerous nebulizer treatments, I was able to tell the doctor I needed at least 2-3 liters of fluid rapidly and I needed to lie flat. He gave me 1 liter and sat me up to help me breathe, but laid me flat when I became a little incoherent on and off. I know they took off my clothes and searched me, took Polaroid pictures of me, inked a finger and took a print, and numbered my arm with a marker while the medical staff worked on me. I don’t remember everything because I was becoming incoherent on and off.

Then they called an ambulance for urgent transport to St. Anthony Hospital (It’s the closest hospital – they usually take a prisoner to Cook County Hospital if the jail hospital cannot handle the problem, but they take prisoners to St. Anthony’s if they are critical, or look like they will need urgent intubation). I was shackled to the stretcher in the ambulance and accompanied by a guard. At St. Anthony’s they treated me while my right arm was handcuffed and left leg shackled to the bed with very heavy chains. It was difficult to get comfortable and bend my knee due to the weight of the heavy belly chain the guards attached to the leg shackles in order to chain me to the bed. The liter of fluid, and lots of albuterol nebs was already starting to work, and I was feeling a little better by the time I went to St. Anthony’s. I was no longer having episodes of apnea or episodes of incoherence. I know the doctors were given a copy of my medical summary, which I carry with me in my bag. I felt numerous episodes of extrasystoles/palpitations, but the doctor said the EKG was normal. I don’t believe they noticed the palpitations on the monitor, but I saw a few skipped beats myself after I was a little better. The EKG was actually abnormal both at Cermak and at St. Anthony and suggested an evolving heart attack with ST wave depression (ischemia). I had prominent chest pain, but didn’t complain because it was small compared to my excruciating back pain. I was presyncopal and in mental shock from this ordeal and said very little, so I was unable to adequately express my discomforts – partly out of fear of the guards. The standard of care in this situation is to admit the patient to the hospital for at least 24 hours with continuous EKG monitoring, with total bed rest, aggressive pain control, nitroglycerin to dilate the coronary vessels and serial cardiac enzyme tests to determine if the person had or is having a heart attack.

After another 4 or so hours I was breathing better, but still in need of asthma medications every few hours. They gave me a sandwich and 4 oz orange juice and some water. They said my labs - cardiac enzymes, etc were normal. However they had done only one set of enzymes. They said that I didn't need admission as Cermak Hospital could handle further medication orders and lab orders. I was transported back to County Jail lying down in the back of a police car. At first the guards shackled my legs and were going to handcuff me, but when I said I had a herniated disc, they saw I was in pain and needed their help to get off the bed and into the wheelchair, they took off the shackles and declined to handcuff me. I was dressed only in two gowns and socks.

On arrival at the jail at around 10:00 p.m., they wheeled me to processing for an ID picture, and took me to the clinic. I waited 2 or more hours at the clinic, sitting in a wheelchair feeling faint, before being seen by a nurse and the doctor, who verified I was stable enough to be sent to 3E. It was a very quick check – a few seconds when the doctor listened to my lungs - and I was unable to tell the doctor everything I needed, except fluids. This was a totally inadequate assessment. In the clinic waiting area, after seeing the doctor two hours after arrival, a guard gave me a quart of water, saying “don’t say daddy never gave you anything,” and I guzzled it down. I was still thirsty. Several kind inmates went to the bathroom and got me two small 3 oz cups of water, and covered me with their jackets and blankets as I was shivering intensely to the point of rigors – rattling the wheelchair, in the cold room, after drinking the quart of ice water. I will never forget the genuine kindness of these inmates, many of whom are guilty of serious crimes, and the cruelty of the guards who try hard to intimidate and threaten everyone as a means of control with extremely foul language and constant physical threats and extreme verbal abuse.

It appears the goal of the guards is to make you act as if you had just been beaten to a pulp, with total submission and slave like behavior, with constant acknowledgement of the guards control over you. Cattle are treated with more respect. The guards act like a pack of wolves, and make you feel like you're about to be beaten up every minute. They treat the mentally ill and injured equally badly, if not worse, because they cannot instantly jump to commands and get water themselves. It is obvious that at least a third of the inmates are very mentally ill. There are a few kind and proper guards, particularly the chaplains. I waited another hour in the clinic for a transport guard. I was admitted to Cermak 3E prison infirmary unit around 1:30 a.m., Oct 23. I used the toilet once after slowly walking to the toilet in the room – they gave me a walker. All rooms have single stainless steel toilet, sink units with push buttons for flushing and water. The buttons are hard to push when you are weak. There is no soap. There is a short privacy wall in front of the toilet. The rooms are cold and toilet seats so cold that it is difficult to urinate. I was shivering all night in a hospital gown, one sheet and two blankets - one I half rolled up as a hard pillow, to try to ease my neck spasms. The rooms have no oxygen outlets and are really just cells with hospital beds and a small cabinet for each prisoner. The “hospital” cells at Cermak are cinderblock with a high Plexiglass window next to the hall and a very heavy steal cell door. There is no call button or way to get help except to hit the door or Plexiglas window with your hand, which is difficult if one is sick.

I understand why there are excessive deaths at Cook County Jail. They are due to medical neglect and lack of proper monitoring. I understand why activist Ms. Molina (a diabetic in a wheelchair) and an asthmatic with emphysema (Mr. Bruck) were found dead in their cells in the morning. This was involuntary manslaughter due to willful medical neglect and is inexcusable. It is unbelievable to me that this is not being properly investigated and criminal charges have not been filed. Without medication or monitoring, someone who is sick and ignored at night will die. With insufficient staff suicides are high (60 per year at least). Cermak is not a “hospital”. It is a death trap.
At Cermak 3E they denied me food until the morning, denied me anything to drink except water, which I was unable to get as I was not given a cup (even paper) and was too weak to cup my hands and get water from the small sink faucet, denied me pain medication and my heart medication (Fluorinef and potassium), denied me my pressurized stockings. They had confiscated my cane and gave me a walker and a bed next to the toilet. The were going to isolate me in a single cell, but none was available, so they put me in a five bed cell at the far end of the unit farthest from the nurses station with two other prisoners who were obviously mentally ill.

I feared for my life, but was optimistic, as they seemed sedated. The other five or so prisoners on the units were orthopedic patients with amputations or other medical problems. I asked for pain meds several times during the night, by hitting the window, and they opened the locked cell door twice, yelled at me that I was uncooperative and should stop making noise, and said I would have to see the doctor the next day. My back pain was very intense. They refused to call the doctor, although one is available 24 hours. I told them, that I told the doctor I needed double fluids, not just water, but something with salt, pain meds, fluorinef, potassium, and my pressure hosiery. I go into mild shock if I don’t take fluorinef and push fluids and salt. They ignored me and said the doctor would have ordered it if I needed it. I said he may have forgot, I was a doctor with complicated medical problems, and I knew what I was talking about. I told them I faint easily because of a condition and go into asystole. I pleaded with them to talk with the doctor without success. They laughed and berated me. They didn’t even give me Tylenol.

I told them, I was having increased difficulty breathing, and that my back pain was severe. The third time I tapped on the window to the cell they ignored me. A nurse is present on the ward and a doctor available 24 hours, but the prisoner must come out of the cell to have vital signs checked every morning and the nurse does no regular checks of the patients/prisoners. If my asthma would have worsened, I might have been found dead in the bed in the morning. The bed has a hand crank for the head and foot. I had to raise it myself with great effort by turning the cranks to elevate my head and feet, so I wouldn’t faint and so I could breathe better and relieve my back pain a bit. They do not give out pillows or socks or shoes, even though I said I had had neck surgery and get painful muscle spasms if I sleep without a pillow. They did not check on me at all through the next few hours. I was denied shoes or slippers and only had the socks the hospital gave me to cover my bare, shackled feet, since the guard and nurse at the Cermak emergency room had stripped me of my clothes.

I was unable to sleep due to the pain. I was mildly short of breath. The second time the nurse answered my tap on the window, she threw me an albuterol inhaler, when I asked for asthma medicine. I used it several times during the night. As there is no clock and watches are confiscated, I had no idea how often I was using the inhaler, but I estimated my breathing rate and pulse and tried to use it if I felt increasing air hunger or my respiratory rate was above 25-30. I was shivering intensely, which helped keep me from fainting. My pulse was increasing and my skin and perfusion was poor so I was concerned that I was getting further dehydrated and shocky. If my asthma or condition had worsened, I’m sure they wouldn’t have noticed and I’m sure people die in there of neglect, because of what I saw and experienced.

A prisoner is issued one small towel and told you must use it all week. I rolled up the slightly damp towel I used to wipe my hands and tried to use it as a roll behind my back to ease the pain. Linen is changed once a week. In the infirmary 3E unit, Cermak “hospital”, you are required to wear a hospital gown and change into prison uniform when off the unit. You can take a shower if you are able to by yourself, but I was too weak. The guard didn’t even tell me where to find the shower.

They ordered me to go on the bus to a court hearing the next day at 6:00 am after waking us up at 5:00 a.m. to eat and dress. I knew my condition was not good as I was very shaky, weak, and found it difficult to walk even twenty feet with a walker. They refused to help me with the breakfast tray, or in opening the heavy cell door after they unlocked it in the morning. They refused to help me dress. I refused to dress or go on the bus, and cried and pleaded that I did not want to die, and that I really had a serious fainting problem where my heart stops, that I needed more fluids, not just water, and did not wish to be exposed to tobacco smoke again. They refused me more fluids except water, which I had to get myself.

Eventually after very nasty threats, yelling and screaming at me and threatening bodily harm with military looking SWAT team dressed officers, calling in a number of guards to deal with an uncooperative inmate (me), accusations that I was whining and faking illness, a (God Bless) sensible Sergeant ordered that I be protected from tobacco smoke and transported in a wheelchair van, after verifying my story with the jail doctor. The hall guard and nurse had told the other guards they called in I was faking my weakness, uncooperative, and should be dealt with severely.

They gave me prison garb and I changed slowly from the hospital gown to the prison garb. They made no effort to assist me. My panties were very wet from sweating (due to pain and presyncope, not from the cold) and I took them off. I asked for underwear and was only provided a mesh pair, really just meant to hold a sanitary napkin. I pleaded to be allowed to talk to a doctor. The nurse called the doctor and received an order for a nonsteroidal pain med. I told the nurse I couldn’t take it because it makes me bleed. She became angry when I told him I needed Vicodin and Valium, and called him back and he approved Tylenol with Codeine, but she refused to push for Valium, which I needed to calm my back spasms. After neurosurgery two years ago, the best combination was a half dose of Vicodin and a half dose of Valium – they worked together synergistically very well without sedating me too much. Valium is a potent muscle relaxant used after spinal surgery for muscle spasms. Narcotics and Tylenol do nothing for the spasms. She offered me a full dose of Tylenol with Codeine, but I only took a half dose so I wouldn’t be too sedated at the court hearing. They refused to let me talk with the doctor – as I am a doctor and know what I need very well, that was most appropriate, and I wanted to tell him I didn’t want to be over sedated for the hearing and I was increasingly dehydrated. No one offered to help me, despite my obvious weakness, pale appearance, and back pain. The transport guards were visibly angry that I was walking too slowly with the walker, so they got the wheelchair.

They took me to the jail clinic and said I would see the doctor first because I said I needed my heart medications. There were very few people in the clinic and after a particularly vicious tirade by a guard against an obviously mentally impaired inmate, I related to him that treating the mentally impaired or any human being like that only makes them angry, and that I control people in my clinic with kind respect. I suggested certain responses and language appropriate for a guard. He said he had 16 years experience as a guard and that the only thing that works is verbal abuse to control inmate scum. He thought this was a riot, was amused, but he had a good conversation with me and agreed to try this.

It did work nicely with the inmate – the guard seemed stunned, and I discussed the need for all of us to treat each other with absolute respect with all the other inmates, and they seemed puzzled but agreed when I called them sir and ma'am, shook their hands, and said I respected them all as human beings and hope things go well for them and if they had committed crimes they owned up, paid the price, and went on with their lives in a more productive way. I explained to them, I was a doctor, was charged with Aggravated Battery of a Police Officer, which made them laugh and brought the house down – even the guard, as I’m such an obvious physically impaired wimp, and that my philosophy was nonviolence, equal treatment for all, civil language, open-mindedness, and admitting one’s mistakes. They urged me to run for office and said they would vote for me, unless I ended up in jail. They all seemed to think I was set-up and I don’t disagree. I never did see the doctor, and they transported me by wheelchair van to Bridgeview lock-up at the courthouse. After about an hour the pain medication helped quite a bit and the partial pain relief lasted until about noon.At Bridgeview courthouse, I again was placed in a cold cell from early morning until transport back to County Jail at 6:00 p.m. Most of the time I spend lying down, feeling faint, shivering to the point of intense rigors on the cold bench, with severe pain from about noon to the time I was released from County Jail, went home and took pain meds. I asked several times, but they denied me a prison jacket or a blanket. There were numerous other prisoners also loudly complaining about the cold conditions. The guards just yelled at them to shut up and be patient, that transport was coming soon. I was too weak and incredibly dehydrated, to ask loudly or excessively for relief from the cold. The guards simply ignored me. I was denied food and too weak to drink from the fountain until after the court hearing, when I was given a little lunch. I had not had any sleep because of intense back pain, was very weak from the asthma episode and arguing with the guards and so little food or fluids.

At the hearing, which was postponed from the previous day on my misdemeanor trespass charge, the judge observed that I was confused, pale, and nearly passing out (from dehydration and malignant neurocardiogenic presyncope, as well as my asthma ordeal – essentially early shock). My father and friends at the hearing later told me they were stunned at my appearance (yellow white color, barely able to sit leaning against the IV pole on the wheelchair), and they thought the judge should have called an ambulance.

Judge Smerciak was recklessly negligent in not ordering an immediate medical evaluation in a hospital, when I requested medical assistance. They did allow me to keep my inhaler with me and I used it several times, every few hours. I was able to tell him I had been at St. Anthony's in respiratory failure due to exposure to tobacco smoke. The Sheriff Sergeants said they could not confirm that I spent any time in a hospital, and didn’t know anything. The judge passed the hearing until they could confirm this. There were also fresh needle sticks, bruises from them, and bandages on my arms from the IV site. He postponed the hearing because he stated I it was obvious I couldn't follow what was going on, and ordered me held in custody at Cermak, unless I could Bond out, informed my father and me of the Bail amount of $17,500 ($10,000 for the aggravated battery and $7,500 for violation of bail bond on the trespass charge), and ordered that I have access to my personal court file, while in the jail. The bond judge had approved a charge of violation of felony bond – this is an illegal and unauthorized charge as I has not been previously charged with a felony. The constitution prohibits made-up charges outside of that in state statutes.

While transporting me to the courtroom in a wheelchair, I heard a guard say "We thought she was faking it yesterday (with her back)." The guard that checked me into the lock-up seemed stunned at my weak, pale, appearance and arrival by wheelchair, and asked what happened. I said: "I told you I could die if I went on the bus because of my critical allergy to tobacco smoke and that I was sick. I was exposed to tobacco smoke on the bus, stopped breathing and had to be revived and taken to the hospital. I hadn't been given medicine or fluids that I needed and felt extremely weak as if I was going to faint." After I said that, the Deputies disappeared and I was escorted from that point onwards by Sergeants. The guards from that point onward helped me in and out of the wheelchair.

Another prisoner, Mr. D - also transported in the wheelchair van, was very concerned about me because, on the way to Bridgeview Courthouse, I turned white in the van, became a little incoherent, and had to put my head between my knees, despite the back pain to keep from passing out. On the way back he said my color was better but that he overheard a male guard state how they had "body slammed that woman they arrested the other day so badly she hurt her back and ended up in a wheelchair today." He gave me some advice about surviving at Cermak and County Jail and was very kind. He actually gave me his jacket to keep me warm on the way over, because the County did not give me a jacket to wear and Mr. D said he knew my back would go into spasm if I didn't warm up. At Bridgeview they would not allow the jackets in the holding cell. I believe the inmates who helped me get water, stay warm, urged me to keep breathing, and gave advice about survival, may have saved my life. I will never forget this. I will also never forget the subhuman treatment, with extreme verbal abuse, physical torture with lack of adequate fluids and medicine, cold stress, lack of attention to medical and physical needs, which endangered my life.

I am now still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety (flashbacks where I seem out of touch with things, crying episodes, and anhedonia). I don’t know when this nightmare of defamation, unlawful arrests, and attacks that have ruined me financially, destroyed my career, made me indigent and homeless – except for the charity of others, damaged my health, and severely hurt my son, family, friends, and patients, will end. It is only faith that has sustained me, along with a few loyal friends and family. It is astonishing and troubling how easily people believe defamation, how quickly “friends” believe it and abandon you, how easy it is to defame and destroy someone by falsely stating they are crazy and violent, and how true it is that “evil prospers when good men fail to act.”

I now have a very personal understanding of how the Jewish professionals felt in WWII, how the screenwriters felt during the McCarthy era, and how my uncles felt as they were “disappeared” by Soviet agents during the 1956 revolt in Hungary. Their battle cry to their death was “Topra Magyar” (to your souls Hungarians!). Sadly the false promise by the United States over the radio that they would help the Hungarian revolt was only a lie and thousands died, the people were subjugated for years and the United States was tarnished. I pray people around me will grow to understand the meaning of the word solidarity, and the sacrifice that so many people made, during so many recent times in recent history, to remove corruption and secure freedom. I have sacrificed so much, as has my family, in order to protect the children and their parents, especially the handicapped and abused, in Illinois. I will not run away from this evil, or fear it. I pray that my faith keeps hate from my heart. I believe in truth and justice and the United States Constitution.

Even in our darkest hours, like the McCarthy era, light eventually emerges and the path to truth and justice overwhelms evil. I never just talked the talk. I always walk the walk, and do what I say. I will not abandon the path I have taken to seek justice, or I would dishonor the souls of so many who have sacrificed so much before me. I want to build a better place for my son to prosper in, in the future. I worry, that I may not be able to think straight in the courthouse at future hearings/trial, and may shake uncontrollably as I had done for days after recovering from the dehydration due to flashbacks of suffocating while the guards were yelling at me and flashbacks of shivering to the point of rigors while in excruciating pain. I received psychotherapy for a year for these mental health consequences of torture and defamation, and still have much trouble with depression and trouble with flashbacks and anxiety around police dressed in black or SWAT uniforms.After the hearing they gave me a lunch, I drank the 8 oz of juice (flavored corn syrup) and forced myself to get to the water fountain in great pain, trying not to pass out, and drank about 10 containers of water (88 oz). I am prescribed huge doses of salt each day by my doctor to counteract my extremely low blood pressure and tendency to go unconscious. They wouldn’t let me have the necessary salt. The medicine I take causes me to have low potassium levels if I don't take potassium pills and eat. I forced myself to eat one cold baloney sandwich. I think this was contributing to my extreme weakness. Low potassium levels inhibit muscle activity and cause extreme weakness. I had only had one cold turkey sandwich, 4 oz orange juice, 4 oz water at St. Anthony ER, and 6 oz milk, 2 oz juice (the rest was frozen solid) and a little cold cream of wheat with a piece of bread at Cermak, and the quart of water in the clinic, in 24 hours. The lack of food and salt made it impossible to retain this fluid and I quickly lost it through urination. Cermak ER had pushed 1 liter saline rapidly intravenously at my request at about 5:00 p.m. I kept trying to instruct the doctor, what was wrong with me and how to treat me and he mostly was very kind, but complied only partially, probably due to his ignorance of my unusual conditions and because he’s asked to see too many patients in too short a time. My fluid needs are at least 2-3 liter per day without stress, 4-5 if stressed, with high salt so I can retain the fluid. The drinking and eating gave me some strength and I was able to get back to County Jail without passing out.

The jail was very dry, I was sweating a lot from my ordeal and presyncopal symptoms (losing a lot of salt needed to retain the fluid), which were almost constant, and breathing fast much of the time, so I knew my fluid losses were great and salt deficit mounting. I also had had flu symptoms with diarrhea for the previous four days (a mild virus), which already had mildly dehydrated me. My pulse was rapid around 100 suggesting severe dehydration and my skin turgor remained poor. I remember very little from the previous day's Bond Hearing, as I was nearly passing out, seated in a wheelchair with my head down. My symptoms were largely related to severe dehydration (medical neglect, as a need double the normal fluid requirement daily), lack of salt (medical neglect, as I need a high salt diet) lack of my medications and pressure hosiery (medical neglect), and asthma caused by exposure to tobacco smoke (medical endangerment). I found a piece of paper with a public defender's name on it and a court date in my pocket in the prison garb. The bond slips give a court date of Oct 29 at 9:00 a.m. for ABPO and 9:30 a.m. for VOBB room 103. I was told that my misdemeanor trespass hearing was continued until Oct 29 at 9:30 a.m.
After eating and drinking fluids in the evening at Cermak 3E (a carton of milk and lots of water), and finally receiving my heart medications, I was able to walk a short distance without feeling faint. They continued to deny me salt, and the food had very little. Between returning from Bridgeview Courthouse, until I was released, I stayed in bed as I kept feeling like I might pass out. The nurse and guards were unbelievably cruel, in ignoring my needs - they acted as if they would ignore me if I fell over dead, and I feared for my life. They wouldn’t help me get around, open the heavy cell door – you have to come out to a table to get meals and must clean up and place the tray by the unit door on the floor when finished, kept yelling at me and not believing what I was saying about feeling faint, saying I had an attitude problem or ignoring me. They refused to call the doctor and ask for pain meds, refused me extra fluids, as my condition requires. They refused to allow me to make a phone call to a lawyer or family.

The second day, one of the inmates told me we could use a phone collect, but my friend’s number and several lawyers numbers had answering machines and you can’t get a collect call to an answering machine. I stated that I was entitled to a phone call upon arrival to County Jail and they said if I couldn’t get through they wouldn’t let me use another phone. One of the inmates said the social worker comes by on Thursday and that she would contact my lawyer and family if I asked her to.

When discharged, they told me to come to the clothing storage room to get my clothes. I walked very slowly there and the guard kept yelling at me. I felt very faint and had to sit at the table with my head between my knees. The guard stood over me and yelled at me to move it. I finally was able to dress with great effort. They told me to walk and when I couldn't they got mad yelled at me, but got a wheelchair. The prison is very large and I was not able to walk a long distance. They yelled at me to wheel myself in the wheelchair, until they noticed that there were no large side wheels, and someone had to push me. They took me in a wheelchair to the discharge area, then denied me a wheelchair or my cane.

The other inmates being discharged allowed me to lean on them through the four-hour process of being discharged, waiting in lines and very hot holding cells with almost no ventilation, and walking down long halls, were very concerned because I looked pale and weak, and the guards allowed me to sit down frequently as I was looking pale. I didn’t know if it was day or night or what day. I thought it was the morning of 10-24-02, but an inmate told me it was 8:00 p.m. on 10-23-02 – I had only slept for about an hour when they woke me up to Bond me out – not overnight as I thought. I kept putting water on my arms, face, and neck in the holding cell, and lying on the bench, to keep from passing out. One of the inmates smoked in the discharge locked holding cell despite my protests, but fortunately there was a fan that was blowing the smoke out. It still started an asthma attack, but I was able to control it with four puffs from my inhaler. The guards didn’t check on us for over two hours during waiting in the holding cell, so I knew if I had a severe asthma attack, I could die.

At the last stop, before exiting the jail, you retrieve your property, I only had a receipt for my medicine, but a previous guard had said I had three items. At home, I later found another receipt in my briefcase - they put it there while I was at the hospital. The guards refused to look for them and said I had to come back the next day. I said I couldn't go anywhere without my cane and that all my court papers, which were very important were in my bag. I refused to leave, and after lots of verbal abuse and threats of arrest for disorderly conduct, the guards finally looked for my property and found it my cane, coat, and hand-cart. They insisted I sign a receipt for my property before I checked it. I objected and they took the property back, said I had to retrieve it the next day, and made me wait and argue that I needed it. Eventually, because I sat down patiently stating I wouldn't leave without my property, they gave it to me and also found my briefcase. When I received my property (large bag with court papers, wallet, rings, cane, wheeling cart, coat and jacket, some medicine had disappeared), I had to walk a short distance, outside and through another building, to where my family and friend were waiting and then they assisted me out to the car.

On my way home, I was very weak and took a long time to recover. I kept feeling light-headed and felt frequent extrasystoles to the point I was afraid to drive or I might pass out. My right leg weakness is worse and is being followed by my neurosurgeon. I have a congenital defect in my back and had neurosurgery of the cervical spine in 2000, where they reconstructed C3 to C7 in a very major operation. My whole spinal column has this defect. That, I think, is why the herniated disc is causing a right leg paresis. The battery by the Sheriff made my right leg weaker and my back pain worse. I have followed up with my cardiologist, who feels I did not have a major heart attack, but started me on new medication due to the increase in episodes of chest pain and shortness of breathe since release from the jail. Other cardiologists are reviewing the possibility I may have had a mild heart attack. This cannot be verified as serial enzymes and EKGs were not checked at the time.
Other observations in jail are that it is extremely noisy, the opening and closing of heavy electronic jail doors, particularly at Bridgeview Courthouse lock-up, constantly echoes throughout the building and is burned into your brain – grinding and then a clack, the guards have dirtier mouths than truck drivers and constantly are threatening grievous assault to control people. The holding cells at County are extremely filthy, with years of cigarette smoke residue on the walls, and the toilets and sinks and water fountains are frequently not working in the holding cells – the filth is so atrocious, you don’t want to use it if they are working. Partially eaten lunches, wads of toilet paper clogging the sinks, etc. The guards do not offer to explain anything, and try to make your life as difficult as possible at every turn. They violate the law that states that jails must give prisoners an orientation.

Treating them with respect is not enough – they want the response of a slave – yes master, please master, type stuff. If you disagree with anything, even if you are right, they give you grief with physical threats, shoving, extreme verbal abuse, and say you have an attitude problem. They pick out their favorites among longer-term inmates, who have learned to act like slaves, and give all newcomers hell. Some of these hardened inmates assist the guards in making life difficult. The nurses on the floor act the same way.

The nurses in the clinic are a bit nicer, but some treat you roughly as if you are a violent, foul type of person. Guards and nurses enjoy immensely giving a doctor/inmate/”violent batterer of police” a hard time and putting me down at every opportunity. Intimidation and threats are used, and large numbers of guards are quickly called if you disagree with anything. This “beater squad” (the SORT team [similar to SWAT]) is well known among the inmates for their extreme physical brutality. The food is really extremely bad, cold, and saltless/spiceless, but adequate in volume. Cold crème of wheat without salt (I call it cold crème of wheat on a stick), cold overcooked unsalted, steamed vegetable from a can, and cold stale bread, is hard to swallow. The diet appears to be very low salt. Only milk and juice (mostly colored corn syrup) are given to drink. No tea, coffee, or pop. A small carton of frozen partially real juice is given only in the morning. The availability of fluids is inadequate. During long hours of processing in and out of the jail, a prisoner may not drink fluids because they are not available or the fountain on the sink is too dirty and they are afraid of catching an illness. Stress increases fluid loss and fluid requirements and the jail is very dry which increases fluid losses. Therefore, fluid requirements at the jail are higher than normal. I saw numerous prisoners who were being processed out of the jail who were clearly very dehydrated to the point of profound weakness and pallor. This is a problem that needs correction and is very dangerous for the health of persons with diabetes, neurocardiogenic syncope, or adrenal insufficiency.

I was admitted to hospital 11-15-02 to 12-02-02 for treatment of post-traumatic stress and depression due to the above incident. I shake and get very nervous now around any police officer or driving by police or on entry into the courthouse. I have to partially sedate myself to enter the courthouse in order to go by the guards without suffering a flashback or becoming incapacitated by shaking and anxiety. I had NEVER been violently hit or beaten by anyone before in my life! It is particularly difficult to pass by Deputy Doran or her associates who illegally attacked me, violated my rights, and are maliciously prosecuting me in violation of law. I am undergoing continuing psychiatric treatment to deal with this problem. I also was admitted 2-20-03 to 2-22-03 due to, basilar migraine, chest pain, presyncope, and orthostatic hypotension from neurocardiogenic syncope and a mineralcorticoid deficiency. I seem now to be dependent on supplemental mineralcorticoid or a high load of daily salt and water, to maintain my blood pressure. My right leg has partially recovered its nerve function but I still have motor deficits at the ankle and foot – this may be permanent.

Under penalties as provided by law pursuant to Section 1-109 of the Code of Civil Procedures, the undersigned certifies that the statements set forth in this instrument are true and correct.

November 29, 2004 _______________________________
Linda L. Shelton

It is important to remember the famous research study done some years back at Standfor University about behavior among inmates and guards. A fake jail was made and college students were divided in half – some “guards” and some “inmates”. The study astonishingly had to be stopped after two weeks because the guards became so inhumane and brutal and the inmates were suffering mentally so severely.

This proves that empathy, civility, and reason, disappear in the face of expectations, lack of supervision, and primitive instincts. We must have extreme oversight in prisons, unbreakable rules to protect the inmates, and swift severe punishment for guards whom cross the line into brutality, criminal behavior, abuse (verbal or physical), medical neglect, rape, and torture.

If we want to teach criminal behavior, brutality and crime by the example of the guards, increase the death and injury rates of peace officers because released inmates are so angry and filled with such hate for being tortured, have continued punishment on the outside with lack of jobs, lack of housing, loss of rights, and the difficulties with expunging minor records then we will continue on the present path.

If we want to reduce crime, decrease injuries and deaths among officers, and increase humanity in our society then we will move towards rehabilitation, education, restoration of rights once a sentence is completed, away from the stigma of being an ex-con as long as one has really been rehabilitated, strict oversight of guards, away from supermax prisons that are clearly torture chambers, and increase drastically mental health care and civilian oversight of prisons and jails, as well as post-release assistance with integrating back into society.

COOK COUNTY JAIL IS A TORTURE CHAMBER WITHOUT PROPER OVERSIGHT OF GUARDS, WITHOUT PROPER SCREENING OF GUARDS TO WEED OUT BULLIES AND SOCIOPATHS, AND WITHOUT VIDEO CAMERAS TO DOCUMENT THE PHYSICAL BRUTALITY OF THE GUARDS. THE DOCTORS ARE OFTEN INCOMPETENT TO THE POINT OF ENDANGERING LIVES. THE JAIL NEEDS TO BE PLACED IN RECEIVERSHIP, UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WITH FEDERAL MARSHALLS MONITORING THE PLACE.

Solving the Problem of Pervasive Judicial Arrogance, Incompetence, Political Corruption, and Fecklessness

In Illinois judges are selected by vote or by temporary appointment of the Illinois Supreme Court. To be retained every few years, they must garner 60 % of the vote. There is no requirement for judicial training, no college for judges, and no certification for judges. Its kind of like a physician with a few years experience in family practice being allowed to do brain surgery, open heart surgery, or psychiatry. The result is disaster. Even when all the legal societies evaluate and rate judges it is useless. In 15 years or more, no judge has been removed from office by vote, even if rated as unqualified by all legal societies. It is worse than a joke. It is scary!

The Bill of Rights means NOTHING in Illinois. The Constitution means NOTHING in Illinois. Democracy means NOTHING in Illinois. The innocent are convicted. The guilty are free. The mentally ill are negleted and abused. The abused are kicked when they are down. The poor have no hope and are scapegoats. The rich and powerful are unfettered in their greed and inhumanity. Bullies, thieves, sociopaths infect the ranks of prosecutor’s offices, honorable police departments, and correctional departments.

I offer the following solution:

Judges in Illinois should be appointed by a panel of 9 persons. Five must be law professors who question the candidates as if they were defending a dissertation to make sure they have the fund of knowledge and intellect necessary to be a judge. Three of the panel would be citizens from different walks of life (doctors, accountants, tradesmen [like "Joe the Plumber"] and housewives). One would be a politician. The law school deans would have a rotating responsibility to appoint the law professors. Public interest groups would have a rotating responsibility to appoint the citizens. The Governor would appoint the politician.
There would be developed a College for Judges which awards a diploma or certificate after one year. No judge could take the bench unless he was certified.

Perhaps, then we might move Illinois from [in] justice and the fact that it presently is a totalitarian police state where judges are influenced by politics, corrupt prosecutors, and police, rather than by the Bill of Rights, to the fair and honorable democracy that we all dream of.

Protecting Defendants Charged for Political Reasons

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DOUGLAS IN 1970 - "Does the answer to the problem of political trials involve defining the procedure for conducting political trials or does it involve the designing of constitutional methods for putting an end to them? . . . . It will be time enough to resolve those weighty problems when a political trial reaches this Court for review."

THE TIME MAY BE NOW!

The State of Illinois through first Attorney General Jim Ryan and now Attorney General Lisa Madigan along with incompetent, ignorant, and/or corrupt officials in Illinois Medicaid including Bill Bradley, Investigator Reibel in the State Police, and Patrick Keenan in the State Police Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, with tacit approval by many other corrupt officials in the State of Illinois, have perpetrated a scheme for ten years to deny mental health services for persons on Medicaid in violation of the Federal Medicaid Code. See my other posts on Medicaid on this blog.

In order to falsely advertise that she is "tough on fraud" so that she can advance her personal political ambitions, Lisa Madigan continues to fraudulently and without legal authorization indict outstanding providers of mental health services to Medicaid patients. Judges Schultz, Fox, Pantle, Alonso, and Egan have participated in these void and illegal prosecutions and done great harm to the citizens of Illinois in their illegal acts of violation the United States Constitution, in aiding and abetting this violation of federal law and civil rights.

I have been one of the persons illegally indicted and defamed, presently awaiting trial over a period of four long years. The harm to me, my patients, and my family is immeasurable and painful. I have persistly legally and appropriately through the legal process of at first representing myself and filing scholarly motions proving that higher court precedence (stare decisis) does NOT PERMIT this kind of persecution for political gain, and that my case is null and void ab initio (from the start).

I have been punished for vigorously advocating for my constitutional rights to redress of grievances and due process (including the right not to be tried for something that is not a crime) for four years with four incarcerations for contempt (two thrown out by the Illinois Appellate Court - pepetrated by Dishonorable Judge Pantle), one presently before Hon. Judge Coar in federal district court on a habeas corpus petition (asking the court to vacate and expunge the conviction on the basis of violation of constitutional rights and voidness - pepetrated by Dishonorable Judge Pantle), and one in limbo - dismissed for want of prosecution, but potentially can reinvigorate the appeal later (perpetrated by Dishonorable Judge Alonso).

I have been beaten, tortured, and medically neglected during these incarcerations and when I protested, a correctional officer, Sgt. Anthony Salemi, came into my cell and committed assault and battery against me. He falsified his records and I was charged and convicted of aggravated battery to an officer for allegedly "ramming him with my wheelchair" causing a skinned shin, and "kicking him in the chest with my RIGHT leg" causing soreness. This was impossible for me to do do to a partial RIGHT hemiparesis and extreme weakness secondary to dehydration caused by mendical neglect. I was sentenced to two years despite no criminal record and was released from Dwight penitentiary after being tortured on March 31, 2008. I was punished and placed in solitary confinement for 6 months because I refused to walk (I was unable to due to my disability) and forced to swim in my diarrhea on a 2 inch mattress with no sheets or clothes for days, except for a roughly quilted velcro smock and blanket, without toilet paper, without water (I was too week to get myself up to the water fountain at the sink or the toilet). The United States Attorney has been informed and so far has done NOTHING! My weight dropped from 171 lbs to 127 lbs and by the time I was released I couldn't even sit up because of severe dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance. I was immediately taken to an emergency room and treated. The incompetent and barbaric sadists and psychopaths in Dwight's medical department had insisted I was faking my medical problems.

Due to my protests, all reasonable and responsible and polite, I have been illegally and immoraly denied self-representation by Judges Pantle and now Alonso without legal authority in violation of my constitutional rights. I am being prosecuted for political reasons as a whistle blower. I testified against now convict and ex-Governor George Ryan in a class action suit for illegally denying 73 million dollars in funds for the care of handicapped children. I have won suits against Sheriff Sheahan in C[r]ook County for violating the American with Disabilities Act. I have won suits against the State of Illinois for failing to investigate barbaric and illegal abuse of mental health patients/inmates at Cook County Jail, and I have numerous pro se civil rights, mandamus, and injuctive suits pending in federal and state court against these corrupt officials. I am a target of the corrupt cabal in Illinois and C[r]ook County.

Justice Douglas in Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S.337 wrote the following in a concurring opinion, which is very much on point. My case is ripe for Hon. Juge Coar to address in this manner in the federal district court. It is a political case! This quote, by Justice Douglas in his opinion, about Penn is fascinating and you everyone should enjoy it!.

HOWEVER IT IS SAD THAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY IN ILLINOIS, CITIZENS WHO ARE DOING NOTHING BUT PROVIDING MUCH NEEDED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES TO THE NEEDY, WHO HAVE DEVOTED THEIR LIVES TO SERVICE, AND WHO VALUE OUR CONSTITUTION, ARE STILL THE TARGET OF POLITICAL ATTACKS IN A MOST VICIOUS AND BRUTAL MANNER!

THIS IS WHY I ASK FOR THE HELP OF THE PUBLIC TO FUND MY DEFENSE AND TO HELP ME CONTINUE TO HELP OTHERS DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION. See link at the right on this blog if you wish to help.
________________________________________________________________________
QUOTED FROM CONCURRING OPINTION BY JUSTICE DOUGLAS IN ILLINOIS V. ALLEN, 397 U.S. 337 (1970):

Our real problems of this type lie not with this case, but with other kinds of trials. First are the political trials. They frequently recur in our history, [Footnote 2/2] and, insofar
as they take place in federal courts, we have broad supervisory powers over them. That is one setting where the question arises whether the accused has rights of confrontation that the law invades at its peril.

In Anglo-American law, great injustices have at times been done to unpopular minorities by judges, as well as by prosecutors. I refer to London in 1670, when William Penn, the gentle Quaker, was tried for causing a riot when all that he did was to preach a sermon on Grace Church Street, his church having been closed under the Conventicle Act:

"Penn. I affirm I have broken no law, nor am I Guilty of the indictment that is laid to my charge, and to the end the bench, the jury, and myself, with these that hear us, may have a more direct understanding of this procedure, I desire you would let me know by what law it is you prosecute me, and upon what law you ground my indictment."

"Rec. Upon the common law."

"Penn. Where is that common law?"

"Rec. You must not think that I am able to run up so many years, and over so many adjudged cases, which we call common law, to answer your curiosity."

"Penn. This answer I am sure is very short of my question, for if it be common, it should not be so hard to produce."

"Rec. Sir, will you plead to your indictment?"

"Penn. Shall I plead to an Indictment that hath no foundation in law? If it contain that law you say I have broken, why should you decline to produce that law, since it will be impossible for the jury to determine, or agree to bring in their verdict, who have not the law produced by which they should measure the truth of this indictment, and the guilt, or contrary of my fact? "

"Rec. You are a saucy fellow; speak to the Indictment."

"Penn. I say, it is my place to speak to matter of law; I am arraigned a prisoner; my liberty, which is next to life itself, is now concerned: you are many mouths and ears against me, and if I must not be allowed to make the best of my case, it is hard, I say again, unless you shew me, and the people, the law you ground your indictment upon, I shall take it for granted your proceedings are merely arbitrary."

"Rec. The question is whether you are Guilty of this Indictment?"

"Penn. The question is not whether I am Guilty of this Indictment, but whether this Indictment be legal. It is too general and imperfect an answer, to say it is the common law unless we knew both where and what it is. For where there is no law, there is no transgression, and that law which is not in being is so far from being common that it is no law at all."

"Rec. You are an impertinent fellow, will you teach the court what law is? It is 'Lex non scripta,' that which many have studied 30 or 40 years to know, and would you have me to tell you in a moment?"

"Penn. Certainly, if the common law be so hard to be understood, it is far from being very common; but if the lord Coke in his Institutes be of any consideration, he tells us, That Common Law is common right, and that Common Right is the Great Charter-Privileges"

"Rec. Sir, you are a troublesome fellow, and it is not for the honour of the court to suffer you to go on. "

"Penn. I have asked but one question, and you have not answered me; though the rights and privileges of every Englishman be concerned in it."

"Rec. If I should suffer you to ask questions till tomorrow morning, you would be never the wiser."

"Penn. That is according as the answers are."

"Rec. Sir, we must not stand to hear you talk all night."

"Penn. I design no affront to the court, but to be heard in my just plea: and I must plainly tell you that, if you will deny me Oyer of that law, which you suggest I have broken, you do at once deny me an acknowledged right, and evidence to the whole world your resolution to sacrifice the privileges of Englishmen to your sinister and arbitrary designs."

"Rec. Take him away. My lord, if you take not some course with this pestilent fellow to stop his mouth, we shall not be able to do anything tonight."

"Mayor. Take him away, take him away, turn him into the bale-dock. [Footnote 2/3]"

The Trial of William Penn, 3 How.St.Tr. 951, 958-959.

The panel of judges who tried William Penn were sincere, law-and-order men of their day. Though Penn was acquitted by the jury, he was jailed by the court for his contemptuous conduct. Would we tolerate removal of a defendant from the courtroom during a trial because he was insisting on his constitutional rights, albeit vociferously, no matter how obnoxious his philosophy might have been to the bench that tried him? Would we uphold contempt in that situation?

Problems of political indictments and of political judges raise profound questions going to the heart of the social compact. For that compact is two-sided: majorities undertake to press their grievances within limits of the Constitution and in accord with its procedures; minorities agree to abide by constitutional procedures in resisting those claims.

Does the answer to that problem involve defining the procedure for conducting political trials or does it involve the designing of constitutional methods for putting an end to them? This record is singularly inadequate to answer those questions. It will be time enough to resolve those weighty problems when a political trial reaches this Court for review.
_______________________________________________
[Footnote 2/2]
From Spies v. People, 122 Ill. 1, 12 N.E. 865, involving the Haymarket riot; In re Debs, 158 U. S. 564, involving the Pullman strike; Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U. S. 103, involving the copper strikes of 1917; Commonwealth v. Sacco, 255 Mass. 369, 151 N.E. 839, 259 Mass. 128, 156 N.E. 57, 261 Mass. 12, 158 N.E. 167, involving the Red scare of the 20's; to Dennis v. United States, 341 U. S. 494, involving an agreement to teach Marxism.

As to the Haymarket riot resulting in the Spies case, see 2 J. Commons and Associates, History of Labour in the United States 386 et seq. (1918); W. Swindler, Court and Constitution in the Twentieth Century, cc. 3 and 4 (1969).

As to the Pullman strike and the Debs case, see L. Pfeffer, This Honorable Court 215-216 (1965); A. Lindsey, The Pullman Strike, cc. XII and XIII (1942); Commons, supra, at 502-508.
As to the Mooney case, see the January 18, 1922, issue of The New Republic; R. Frost, The Mooney Case (1968).

As to the Sacco-Vanzetti case, see Fraenkel, The Sacco-Vanzetti Case; F. Frankfurter, The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti (1927).

As to the repression of teaching involved in the Dennis case, see O. Kirchheimer, Political Justice 132-158 (1961).

[Footnote 2/3]
At Old Bailey, where the William Penn trial was held, the baledock (or baildock) was
"a small room taken from one of the corners of the court, and left open at the top, in which, during the trials, are put some of the malefactors."

Oxford Eng. Dict.

Donate to Shelton Legal Fund so she can Continue her Civil Rights Litigation

Due to the siege of wrongful attacks against me, grotesque and painful defamation of my character, and the illegal and unethical destruction of my career, I am now indigent with no funds, no income, no savings, no property and no means of support except charity.

I never made a lot of money as a physician because I DID NOT run a "store front" phoney clinic or limit office visits with Medicaid patients to five minutes. I provided quality care to all equally. I was the ONLY physician in Cook County providing home visits to children who were on ventilators or dying and severely ill. This cost me because the unethically low payments from Medicaid didn't even cover overhead expenses. I lived pretty much paycheck to paycheck. I owe a huge amount of money because of the destruction of my career and the resulting inability to pay loans for education and starting and maintaining my practice.

My catastrophic health problems have added to my personal misery. I am now disabled. I have applied for food stamps, Medicaid, and supplemental social security and so far have been granted food stamps. I should qualify for the rest.

Family members have been assisting me and allowing me to live with them. There have been some other small donations from as far away as New Zealand. I can not be sure I can continue with my litigation without more assistance.

Please consider contributing to my legal fund to help pay for criminal defense expenses and for litigation defenses as I sue corrupt officials in civil rights actions that will benefit society. You can send a check to:

Shelton Legal Fund, C/O Albukerk and Associates, 3025 W. 26th Street 2nd Flr, Chicago, IL 60623.

NONE of the donations are tax deductible at the moment. I hope to form a foundation where the donations can be deemed tax deductible.

I am trying to raise $250,000 and I am trying to attract a celebrity or philanthropist to donate a million dollars or more to start a fund to pay for civil rights litigation for people who can't afford it.

Anyone willing to donate will be greatly appreciated and if you have computer skills to manage a web site, or are an attorney willing to donate your services pro bono, I would be greatful either for one of my cases where I am litigating on my own (pro se) or for one of many people I have and continually run into who are unable to litigate to obtain redress of grievances or unable to defend themselves as whistle blowers due to lack of funds, against criminal charges.

Federal Court Throws Out Murder Conviction Evan Griffith over Extreme Nifong-like Prosecutorial Misconduct and Blatant Judicial Errors

I ask the United States Attorney, now do you not see the continued denial of civil rights in the Circuit Court of Cook County that amounts to a RICO violation as the Circuit Court of Cook County sure appears to act as a criminal enterprise, not only stealing money with constitutionally excessive bails where the Clerk keeps 10%, setting bail without due process, but also with judges that are encouraged to continue to ignore the Constitution and violate the Bill of Rights in a blatant and intentional manner as a matter of policy and procedure!

Judge John Moran exhibited Gross Judicial Error/Misconduct bordering on felony violation of civil rights under color of law .

Prosecutorial Misconduct of Asst. State’s Attorney Laura Morask clearly amounts to her now legendary and continued disdain for the Constitution and Due Process and intentional felony violation of civil rights under color of law. She has a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct noted by higher courts and Cook County State's Attorney Richard Divine seems to have made this a policy and practice of his office in blatant and intential disregard of the Bill of Rights!

Evan Griffith was 16 years old in 1985 when he had run away from home because of constant extreme physical, emotional, and sexual abuse since age eight. He was subject to intense symptoms of post-traumatic-stress disorder where he would essentially relieve these horrible instances of abuse in an altered state of consciousness. He was also subject, as a result, to extreme symptoms of acute stress disorder where he would even have memory lapses (amnesia) as to what he was doing, along with “dissociative reaction” in which behavior can become automatic and repetitive, which was triggered by similar circumstances to the threatening situations he suffered at home (including men who looked like his father and were sexually abusing him or who threatened his life.)

In 1985 after being sexually abused and threatened with death by his abuser, who was allowing this homeless, abused, and hopeless youth to sleep in his home, Evan decided to get back at the abuse by stealing money from his safe. He used a hammer to try and break in while the abuse was gone. The abuser suddenly interrupted Evan and because the abuser looked like Evan’s father and threatened his life, Evan hit him with a hammer to try to subdue this abuser who was 220 lbs compared to Evan’s 120 lb frame. Evan went into a dissociative amnesic state and doesn’t remember much of the event except hitting him with a hammer and “waking up” with blood on his hand and a knife in his hand and then stealing $124 out of the unconscious abuser’s pocket.

Evan was tried twice, first after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 35 years, but the conviction overturned because the guilty plea was not voluntary. Then he was convicted at a new trial after pleading not guilty and sentenced to life without parole by Dishonorable Judge John Moran. The Honorable Federal District Court Judge Elaine E. Bucklo, in an act of proper judicial conduct that upholds the constitution, granted Evan’s Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus on November 12, 2008, thus vacating the conviction.

The reason she vacated the conviction which means that Evan cannot be retried is because the extreme prosecutorial misconduct where the prosecutor (and she specifically stated that these following examples were illustrative not exhaustive and therefore only represent a portion of the unethical venom that permeated the trial):

· lied to the court,
· consistently and repeatedly disobeyed court orders,
· misused evidence,
· denigrated the defense witnesses without basis by saying the psychiatrist who described the above was “ridiculous” and that he “couldn’t answer a straight yes or no in 50 words . . ; He couldn’t answer a straight yes or no in 50 words . . . . Because he is getting paid by the word,”
· denigrated other witnesses as “ridiculous,” “a joke,” “a slime ball,” and “pathetic,” and
· emotionally inflamed the jury with false statements such as that Evan was a “walking barbecue tong”, a “grenade in a baby carriage,” a “deranged Energizer bunny,” and “oh my God, look at the cute little baby. Goochi, goochi, goochi, goochi.” And he goes “boom” and explodes in your face, as well as claiming –
· repeatedly during closing that acquittal would give Evan a “license to kill.”

Hon. Judge Bucklo rightfully stated that the prosecutor’s unprofessional conduct “called into question the State’s commitment to fair and just enforcement of the law.” She said that:

[T]he prosecutor’s dehumanizing litany during rebuttal, which compared Evan to “a deranged energizer bunny,” a “walking barbecue tongs,” and finally, a “grenade in a baby carriage,” was leveraged by the misuse of the 1990 crime evidence, the admission of which she had obtained on false premises, and her use of which far exceeded even those premises. Moreover, her repeated closing references to a “license to kill,” coupled with her exaggerated speculation about the violent acts Mr. Griffith would commit in the future (such as killing car mechanics), smack of the suggestion that the jury would be to blame for future crimes if it credited Mr. Griffith’s defense and decline to convict him of first degree murder.

She also said:

[T]he prosecutor’s toxic rebuttal argument fed off of the misuse of improper propensity evidence. The effect was inherently prejudicial, since it posed ‘an unacceptable risk . . . of impermissible factors coming into play.’ U.S. v. Mannie 509 F.3d 851, 857 (7th Cir. 2007) (indirectly quoting Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 505 (1976), and citing, inter alia, Sheppard v. Maxwell, U.S. 333 (1966)).

Then she said: “The trial court’s general cautionary instruction reminding the jurors that attorney argument is not evidence was insufficient to defuse this prejudice.”

Finally, Hon. Judge Bucklo said that:

The prosecution’s dogged focus on the improper theme of Mr. Griffith’s “propensity to kill with a knife,” . . . shaped the course of the proceedings and permeated the entire atmosphere of the trial. Such a climate is inherently and fundamentally unfair. “It is axiomatic in our system of justice that an individual is entitled to a fair trial-not a perfect one. Nevertheless, the distance between the concepts of fair and perfect cannot be so great as to render the former meaningless.” Mannie, 509 F.3d at 85.

Hon. Judge Bucklo’s final conclusion, in addition to the fact that there was deliberate and repeated prosecutorial misconduct was:

For these reasons, I find that the prosecutor’s misconduct, including at least her improper closing arguments, her deliberate deception to win the admission of highly prejudicial evidence, and her subsequent misuse of that evidence during the trial “so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process.” Darden, 477 U.S. at 181. [Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168 (1986)]

I applaud the ruling of Hon. Judge Bucklo for upholding the principles of the Bill of Rights and calling the kettle black. Now I only wish that Dishonorable Judge Moran would be disciplined by the dysfunctional land useless black hole covering up judicial misconduct known as the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, and removed from the bench for his now pattern of gross abuse of judicial discretion and misconduct in violating his oath of office and blatantly and openly failing to uphold the constitution and citizen’s rights to due process. I also hope that the rabid, dishonorable, and unethical Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Morask suffers the same fate as Mr. Nifong in North Carolina in losing her law license for extreme and unethical behavior that jeopardizes the justice system.

It is particularly sad and outrageous to note that in June 2001 State’s Attorney Richard Divine personally argued before the Illinois Appellate Court First District that there is not a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in his office. This is despite the fact that the Appellate Court ruled that there was an extreme pattern of prosecutorial misconduct by ASA Morask in the case, despite the fact they unethically and illegally upheld the conviction because they ruled this misconduct to be harmless. ASA Morask has been repeatedly cited by higher courts as committing prosecutorial misconduct.

One has to conclude that the Attorney Regulatory Commission in Illinois (ARDC) is such an ineffective black hole that circular files complaints about prosecutors that they can be regarded as a joke, a bad one as they actively engage in cover-up and failure to prosecute blatant and repeated prosecutorial misconduct.

Of NOTE: the appeal pending in my conviction for battery of an officer (despite the fact that my physicians testified that my physical disabilities prevented me from committing this alleged crime of which I am innocent) illustrates abundantly another example of a dishonest judge who refuses to follow the Bill of Rights due process requirements (Dishonorable Judge Joseph Kazmierski) and other Nifong-like prosecutor (ASAs Anthony Dalkin and John Maher) who feel they are above the law and can denigrate witnesses without basis, misstate the law to the jury, misuse evidence, withhold exculpatory evidence, and improperly inflame the passions of the jury with false statements, innuendo, and defamation of the defendant without basis based on the lies that they make by illegally testifying in closing arguments.

Corrupt Blagojevic Considers Corrupt Lisa Madigan to Replace Obama in Senate

News media are reporting that Gov. Rod Blagojevic is considering appointing Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a United States Senator from Illinois to replace President-Elect Obama who must now resign his Senate seat.

This makes perfect sense for Blagojevic. Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan has been constantly challenging and impeding the Governor's agenda so that Blagojevic looks bad to the voters. His agenda is to replace Blagojevic with his daughter, the least qualified and most imcompetent Attorney General in the history of Illinois.

Ask yourself who controls the political fund "Friends of Madigan" which rumor has it is used to launder the 10% kickback (bribe) needed to obtain contracts in C[r]ook County and Illinois. Perhaps US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has traced the money trail from contractors to this fund, but I doubt it as the US Attorney's office and FBI work SOOOOO slow!

AG Madigan hasn't even been able to handle a simple matter that is her responsibility - providing parking spaces for the handicapped. Look at downtown Chicago as well as the Daley Center courthouse. It is impossible to find handicapped parking. Look at the new Domestic Violence courthouse at 555 W. Harrison - 4 handicapped spaces that are always filled by 7:30 by employees. A handicapped person has to pay for parking next door at a high fee and the lot is probably owned or invested in by some friend of the cabal of corruption in Illinois, C[r]ook County, and Chicago politicians. Everything in Illinois is handled by nepotism or patronage. We generally don't go with the most qualified person - that would not permit bloating the payroll with unnecessary patronage jobs so that the politicians have an army of supporters at their beck and call. The only other option is parking 3-4 blocks away.

I wrote her office a letter asking her to deal with this issue and despite the fact that is one of her responsibilities as AG her staff concluded they could not get involved. I have referred this issue to the disabilities rights section of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. I don't expect action however, as the U.S. Attorney's office is pretty dysfunctional and slow.

Look at AG Madigan's handling of sex offenders. All hot air! She has done nothing to improve safety in the community by helping them find places to live where they are not concentrated in poor inner city communities, or ways to decrease recitivism by helping ex-cons find jobs. It doesn't prevent sex crimes to harass 95 % of sex offenders who really are low risk to the community (Johns who were serviced by unknowing to them underage prostitutes, 19 year olds having sex with 17 year olds, etc.). We need to focus on the 5 % or so sex offenders who are truly dangerous and find ways to monitor them and supervise them better. All we are doing is teaching 95 % of sex offenders to be thieves or commit other crimes as they now have no place to live and no means of support.

With our failed 40 year experient on being "tough on crime" where we have incarcerated 40 times the number of people as any other civilized country, where we have eliminated rehabilitation in prison (no education available other than high school equivilency, cooking, training dogs, a little furniture assembly, and beautician school), have made parole and re-integration into society a joke with a parole call-in number that is busy even after calling it 30 times, with parole agents that are the poorest trained in the nation, with almost no programs for job -training in prison or after prison, no health care when a person is released, no place to live and no help getting a place to live, and no job opportunities or drug treatment (except for a new but have you effective pilot program at Sheridan) we now are reaping the benefits of this failed program. There is a huge increase in new releases from prison (> 600,000 per year in U.S.). All these ex-cons who have been denied rehabilitative training in prison and given long prison sentences are now being released, without drug addiction treatment or mental health care. I expect a rapid increase in the crime rate over the next decade. Has AG Madigan shown ANY leadership in this area? We have only punished and destroyed potentially useful lives (and their families), as well as added to our economic crisis (10 % of population is employed in prison-industrial complex, all those prisoners are not contributing to the tax base, and their families end up on welfare and are a burden to taxpayers), including many who are innocent with our runaway [in]justice system. This only leads to anger which will spill over on the streets.

Why would we want a Senator who hasn't even shown leadership in her present job?

Perhaps the Press will look into several Federal Habeas Petitions pending before Hon. Judge Coar that reveal that Lisa Madigan has violated her oath of office and is without legal authority maliciously prosecuting providers of mental health care to persons on Medicaid in a scheme to deny payment for mental health care for persons on Medicaid. This will save the State plenty of money, increase the crime rate because those with mental illness may not obtain treatment and end up on the streets or committing crimes [I do NOT want to imply that mental illness necessarily means a person will commit a crime, but it is true that those that are seriously mentally ill with psychosis and drug addiction are disproportionately represented in the prison population in Illinois]. I believe that if our society did provide adequate mental health treatment for all that thousands would benefit by being able to be productive members of society and the many crimes resulting from their psychosis or drug addiction would vastly decrease.

She should be helping providers service Medicaid patients instead of decimating mental health care in Illinois!

The federal case numbers and name of both cases, where the pleadings can be obtained on line through PACER are: Shelton v. Cook County Circuit Court; 08 C 4627 and 08 C 6216. I also have a federal civil rights suit against Lisa Madigan for violation of civil rights under color of law, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, etc. See: Shelton v. Madigan 06 C 4259.

Look also at my other posts on this blog concerning Cook County Jail and the civil rights violations, abuse of prisoners, illegal drugging of prisoners, and murder of prisoners by guards, as well as the post about the scheme of Illinois Medicaid to deny mental health care to those on Medicaid. Has AG Madigan done anything about these crimes? No! - she just covers it up and is part of it. Read my federal suits!

If Blagojevic appoints Lisa Madigan Senator to replace Obama, then he will do what all good politicians do to get rid of an unwanted rival - promote her to a position where she is out of the picture. Typical Illinois politics! I await the day when both Blagojevic and Lisa Madigan are indicted and put away. Illinois doesn't deserve these criminals. I just wish that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't so slow about indictments. Justice delayed is justice denied and it costs lives!

Letter to U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald Detailing Corruption in Illinois and Fraudulent Indictment of Dr. Linda Shelton for Medicaid Vendor Fraud

Linda Lorincz Shelton, Ph.D., M.D.

June 6, 2008
AUSA Kozlowski and
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
United States Attorney’s Office
Dirksen Federal Building
219 South Dearborn Street, Fifth Floor
Chicago IL 60604

Dear US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald:

I am writing to inform you of extensive Medicaid/Medicare fraud, criminal violations of the ADA, fabrication of evidence by a member of the IL MFCU [Medicaid Fraud Control Unit], illegal conduct of the IL AG [Attorney General] in acts of retaliation against witnesses and possible money laundering, as well as kickbacks, even involving a chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County. I have, over more than five years, with the help of numerous other whistle blowers, uncovered much of this information and wish to share it with you at this time. I will help find the other whistle blowers and witnesses, if you request my assistance. Some are in hiding, as they have been viciously attacked or retaliated against by corrupt officials. They however, would need assurances concerning their safety.

1. I have recently been given Power of Attorney to have custody of and store records from a psychiatry/psychology group practice where I was one of a number of medical directors for a couple of years. The sole proprietor of this business is dying of liver failure and to ensure other's access to these records he gave me POA [power of attorney].

2. I have reviewed a lot of the records and I have found that two women who were previous employees, Itadel Shalabi and Nareman Taha, sent in fraudulent patient encounter forms to the outside billing agent for hundreds of bills. I knew nothing about this as that year I had only agreed with the business owner verbally to start this group practice and review charts, make medical policy, and see patients - after I recovered from extensive neurosurgical spinal surgery to correct a progressive paralysis, etc.

3. I also have discovered that the outside billing agent naively thought that since she had a contract with the owner to send in bills electronically to IL Medicaid through the 3rd party adjudicator, BC/BS that she thought she could sign my name as a physician on ANYTHING. She therefore forged my name on a POA form, a BC/BS electronic partner trading agreement, and on an alternate payee agreement so that invoices through BC/BS to IL Medicaid could be sent in under my name and the checks would come to the business instead of under my name. This occurred in summer 2000. I did not sign a POA form to allow the company to bill under my name until summer 2001!

4. At the time I thought that IL Medicaid allowed qualified psychiatric counselors and psychologist to bill under their own names. I was not involved in billing during this time when the contract biller handled the bills. I have found out that although most states allow this and IL licenses non-physicians (social workers, MS degreed psychologists, specially trained nurses, drug addiction counselors), that IL Medicaid did not allow non-physicians to be Medicaid providers of medical or psychiatric/psychological services. Instead invoices must be sent in for services under a physician’s name. Also, IL has a (hidden patronage) system where statutes allow groups to be licensed as community mental health centers and bill under the center name, for services of non-physicians. This is in a separate statute, not in the IL Medicaid Code and not described in the Medicaid Physician Handbook. I and the sole proprietor were only aware of fee-for-service billing (in my pediatric office, I billed under my name for all services such as blood draws and immunizations). Most physicians, most psychiatrists, and most psychologists do not have a clue about these billing issues. As >80% of psychiatric/psychological care is provided by non-physicians it is fraudulent for IL Medicaid to hide information about CMHCs [community mental health centers] from physicians, etc. Most physicians are only aware of fee-for-service billing and the fact that they can bill for services of their employees.

5. I have since discovered that most of these CMHCs were licensed through “connections” (patronage). I have also discovered that nearly ALL contracts in IL and Cook County require the groups to pay a 10% kickback to political funds such as “Friends of Madigan.” When are you going to obtain bank records for these “political funds” [funds to launder money from kickbacks], cross reference them with the owners and employees of firms contracting with the State, County and City of Chicago, compare the “donations” with the amount paid to these companies and persons under government contracts and then arrest IL AG Lisa Madigan and her partners in crime such as Chief Cook County Circuit Court Judge Evans, and other judges who have manipulated cases against whistle blowers such as me and Dr. Hamilton? Then you MIGHT start to breakdown corruption in IL. I believe this will never be done however, until there is a “truth commission” like in S. Africa, that ended apartheid and the strife between the blacks and the white Afrikaners. There are SOOO many people in bloated IL, C[r]ook County, and Chicago government that depend on patronage for their jobs that they keep their mouths shut about corruption. I know many of them, including a large family, many of whom are employed by the IL Secr of State, where corruption, same as under George Ryan, continues! You still can’t get promoted unless you “campaign” in certain ways. If you gave immunity to those that confess, bring transparency to the system, then corruption will stop. You can arrest all you want, but until the corrupt are enticed en masse to confess their crimes of patronage fraud and kickbacks, nothing will change, and others will simply replace the corrupt with more corruption and incompetence which endangers and harms the citizens of this State!

6. I have also discovered that IL statutes, federal Medicaid Code, and IL adm rules allow physicians to bill fee for service under their name for services by qualified counselors and psychologists. IL recently passed a law that social workers can bill for provision of psychological services. I have also discovered that IL Medicaid until 1998 did allow psychologists to register as providers and only one person did, Dr. Maisha Hamilton.

7. However, I have researched case law over the past four years and discovered that a fed court in IL, erroneously ruled that physicians cannot bill for psychological services provided by their employees. The 7th Circuit even sustained this false ruling through negligence in that its decision just mentioned it in passing and did not really look at the IL Adm Code.

8. The ruling was blatantly FALSE! I intend to challenge it as an intervenor because it is technically null and void, because it is based on misquoting of the code and ignoring Federal EPSTD guidelines. It is a tragedy that Dr. Mitrione was indicted and convicted in federal court. The AUSA and the Court ignored the illegal conduct of the IL Medicaid and IL AG in denying mental health services to people on Medicaid. From what I read, Dr. Mitrione was the ONLY doctor providing mental health services to persons on Medicaid in Springfield. He is apparently very talented. His conviction was a grotesque wrong! The USA and the IL AG are and have gone after the wrong people. Hamilton, Mitrione, XXXX, XXXXXX and I (in 4 separate cases 1 by USA and 3 by IL AG as prosecutor) are some of the most talented and dedicated provider of health and mental health services to the Medicaid population. We didn’t make big profits! Even Federal Judge Lefkow ruled that “Illinois Medicaid policies and procedures are in violation of the Federal Medicaid Code in denying access to care”. Please review Memisovski v. Maram. We were not storefront mills! It is a gross disservice to the community to have shut us down. Crime increases (look at Virg Tech, NIU, the number of murders in Chicago, the amount of drug crimes in Chicago) when mental health is ignored. To destroy mental health services in IL because of patronage, kickbacks, etc. with the cabal of corruption and to defame, destroy and put out of business some of the most dedicated and talented providers in IL, by the criminal and impeachable, as well as retaliatory actions of the IL AG, who has NO LEGAL AUTHORITY to prosecute criminal Medicaid Fraud without the invitation, consent, and participation, at least to a minimal degree of the county State’s Attorney, is beyond the twilight zone. The IL AG is violating the law, committing fraud upon the court, and acting unethically in these three prosecutions. Isn’t this felony obstruction of justice? Aren’t these void prosecutions?

9. If you read the IL Adm Code, it is flawed because there is no “definitions” section. A section defines physician services to include services of non-physicians under supervision. A few sections later it uses the term “physician services” without redefining that they include services of non-physicians. Later the code continues to use the general term “physician services” and clearly includes non-physician services. Yet, the court ruled that “statutory construction” rules must conclude that physician services do NOT include non-physician services for ONLY psychological/psychiatric services including psychological testing! You can’t say “physician services” excludes non-physician services in one section without saying so and before and after this section define physician services as INCLUDING non-physicians! How can IL be allowed under the ADA to discriminate against those ill persons ONLY with mental illness and deny a mandate of the Federal Medicaid Code to provide services equivalent to services provided to the community by other private insurers?

10. This is ludicrous as I don’t believe quality services can be provided without psychological testing, without a team approach, without psychologists, and ONLY by CMHCs! More than 80% of psychological and psychiatric services are provided by non-physicians. We need more than 30,000 child psychiatrists in this country and only have <5,000. If services of non-physicians are denied Medicaid patients then they would essentially be denied access to care – this would clearly violate Federal Medicaid code – especially under EPSTD guidelines and under the ruling in Memivoski v. Maram by Judge Lefkow, in around 2004. I am an EPSTD (early periodic screening, treatment, and diagnostic services) provider. As you know, federal code requires that states pay for these services (even psychological services) even if their rules forbid payment for it.

11. I have evidence, a trial transcript from another case in IL where this biller testified that the IL Medicaid Service provider unit told her to change the names on the bills to doctor's names even though the patient encounter forms stated that psychiatric/psychologic therapist provided the services. That trial was a wrongful conviction of Dr. Maisha Hamilton, the first female black psychologist in IL, who was running an INPATIENT alcohol and drug treatment program. I have discovered she was a registered provider, but IL Medicaid gave the IL AG altered registration forms. I personally saw her form where she was licensed and had a provider number and the adulterated form given to AG had the number whited out! Isn’t this felony obstruction of justice?

12. The IL AG state police inv., Reibel, fabricated false invoices for the case of Dr. Hamilton by cutting out handwriting exemplars made by Dr. Hamilton and putting them on invoices that he sent to the crime lab. The chain of custody documents prove that Reibel had a continuous custody of these documents, so this proves only he could have fabricated them! The crime lab would not analyze them because Reibel would not provide originals, just faxes – guess why! I personally saw these documents several years ago and a high school student would say my conclusion is obvious. Isn’t this felony obstruction of justice, perjury, official misconduct, and retaliation against a federal witness? Dr. Hamilton has proof of kickbacks, bribery, fraud, and corruption by judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and other Chicago and Cook County officials. Why have you not interviewed her and indicted these people?

13. Hamilton’s billing agent was the same as ours. XXXXX, the biller, forged signatures on necessary forms to bill for Hamilton, the same way she did with us. She charged fraudulently by percentage, just like she did with us. She failed to register the group as a CMHC or Alcohol and Drug Addiction treatment center, despite Hamilton’s group being licensed as such. Hamilton thought when the checks came in under the group name that the bills had been sent in as a center and not fee-for-service. The biller sent the bills in under a medical director’s name, fee-for-service. Why haven’t you gone after XXXXX and her company XXXXXXXXXX for fraud in billing providers by percentage? How many other contracts does she have like this? How many other providers has she committed fraud against in claiming she knows what she is doing? Why did the Cook Co SA along with the IL AG not indict her long ago for fraud, and prevent her from misleading so many people?

14. The biller, XXXXXXXX, held herself out to be an expert at setting up groups to bill electronically and in providing billing services. This was fraud, as she failed to tell us about the CMHC statutes and help us register as such. She failed to sign Dr. Hamilton’s group up an ADATC [alcohol, drug addiction, and treatment center] and instead signed her up as a fee-for-service provider, forged names for POA, etc., and changed the service provider, without her knowledge from the actual providers, to the medical director. I can blame her for fraudulently holding herself out to be an expert at setting up groups for billing purposes. She apparently didn’t know about CMHCs or ADATCs at that time too. I cannot really blame her for changing the names on the bills to doctors because the Medicaid Service Provider Unit told her to do so, according to her testimony in Hamilton’s trial. Isn’t this the affirmative defense of following the orders of a government agent? However, if she had sent in bills for Hamilton and for us under the counselor’s names, then they would have been rejected and we would have known that something was wrong. Then we could have learned about CMHCs and registered as such. Then Hamilton would have corrected the registration as a center provider instead of as a physician provider. Then there would be no phony excuse to indict anyone. This is grotesque government incompetence.

14. This is a wrongful conviction and was done because Dr. Hamilton is a whistle blower and target of the corrupt cabal in Illinois. She was appointed Asst Dir of the Chicago Board of Health under the Washington Adm 20 years ago. A Daley operative came in on her first day and told her she was a “figure head” and he was running things. She kicked him out of her office and this began 20 years of attacks against her. She asked Chief Cook County Court Judge Evans for a contract to provide mental health services at the jail and he said yes, but only if she paid a 10% kickback to the fund “friends of Madigan” so she refused the contract! She was wrongfully convicted in 2003 of billing fee-for-service under the medical director’s name for services not provided. This is false. The services were provided appropriately as a center. She is VERY talented and at the time was also chief mediator for the postal service. The community has lost one of its best providers of services because of this bogus conviction, and Reibel remains free!

15. The biller apparently forged my name on multiple documents and sent in fraudulent bills with my name on them generated from patient encounter forms listing the counselor (Shalabi and Taha) as provider. She received these forms by mail after they were faxed to XXXXX, the business owner and a master degreed psychologist, as well as one of the most talented at psychological testing and providing services to the poor, and mailed to her. She apparently did this during the time I was in surgery and recuperating.

16. The owner of the business, XXXXXX, had added these women onto his business as owners in a partnership agreement, because they were supposed to run the business and interview and counsel patients out of a branch office in SANAD, an Arab American Community Organization. I believe XXXXXX DID NOT know that the invoices were fraudulent. He supervised the main office in Harvey IL and only mailed the invoices to the biller after they were faxed to him from SANAD. I do believe he was negligent and ignorant in not checking what the biller was doing more clearly and in not supervising the services at SANAD. I also believe this was a case of the blind leading the blind with Shalabi and Taha taking advantage of this.

17. After about a year, the business moved billing in house. These two women were pushed out of the company because the sole proprietor found their records too meager and their verbal statements offensive. He had witnesses to their bad behavior, including the Dir of SANAD and the Sheik at the Bridgeview mosque.

18. I am unable to clearly determine, yet - although I'm trying to figure out whose handwriting is involved, but after billing came in house, despite legitimate psychiatric and psychological services, I have found numerous instances of ghost billing for children of patients.

19. I have discovered that the wife of the sole proprietor was throwing away about $40,000+ dollars per year on gambling at boats and the sole proprietor did not know this as she handled their income tax - I think, or they were somehow keeping this stuff separate. He became furious a year ago or so when he found out and was going to divorce her, but didn't because of his liver disease and need for health insurance. I have discovered that this wife was heavily involved in the in house billing.

20. There is much more to talk about - I am very upset. My attorneys have interviewed several witnesses and the results are disturbing. My Medicaid number was used for much of this fraudulent billing, although I never saw the money. More than $900,000 was billed, more than $300,000 was received by the business, and I was paid about $1800.

21. We are trying to obtain the business bank records to find out where the money went. I believe much of it went for salaries for employees (all quite small), but I had no idea so much was billed under my name. Each doctor was supposed to have a panel of no more than 200 patients (a policy stated by me to XXXXXX) to supervise counseling and see the patients periodically and screen for medical disorders, treat with medication as necessary, and approve and determine treatment plans from the team (psychologist, physician, therapist, psychiatric consultants).

22. I told the owner I had no trouble treating patients for psychiatric conditions as a board certified pediatrician IF they were properly diagnosed and a treatment plan made in conjunction with a psychologist and psychiatrist (for complex patients). I made it very clear that I believed a psychologist with proper psychological testing (if necessary) and myself were qualified to determine diagnosis and treatment plans (of non-complex patients) and a board certified psychiatrist must consult on ALL complex patients or any patient I was uncomfortable in making initial diagnosis. Pediatricians are certified to treat most basic psychiatric/psychological conditions and routinely treat such disorders as ADHD. When I started reviewing charts (a few in Oct 2000 and then many in Feb 2001) I told XXXXXX that the quality of the notes was poor and he needed to find better qualified counselors. He had begun to replace some with more qualified persons. I personally discussed cases with several of the Arabic counselors and found them to be quite talented, but poor in the written English abilities, so I trained them to write proper notes. A psychiatrist in the group also developed forms to use for notes that assisted them in writing proper notes.

23. I was under the impression everyone was legally qualified with at least a bachelors degree in social work, nursing, psychology, but find this was not the case. I was not involved in hiring of counselors and I had thought that XXXXXX, who had worked for Dr. Hamilton and the PhD psychologist XXXXX, were running this business owned by XXXXXX appropriately. I now, after studying the law and case law for over four years, understand that XXXXX and XXXXX were clueless. I am trying to obtain the employment records to clarify training received by counselors and reasons for hiring them and what they were supposed to be doing. I am trying to discuss this with XXXXX, but he is very ill, has gone from denial to anger psychologically due to his impending death, and it is very hard to investigate this myself. He has yet to produce the employee records, bank records, and patient sign in books/scheduling books.

24. You will see that I and XXXXX were indicted illegally by the IL AG without the consent, participation, or approval of the Cook County State's Attorney, for Medicaid fraud in 2004. The incompetent and corrupt IL AG has illegally withheld all of the electronic invoices for the first time period from my defense attorney. The billing agent stated she does not retain them after three years. We have still not been tried on the charges. I am very upset because I am innocent and the AG is prosecuting me (as I have discovered by reading law – statutes, codes, handbooks, case law, etc) without jurisdiction. The AG in IL has fraudulently received certification to have a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit because she informed DHHS that the IL AG can investigate and prosecute without the invitation, consent, participation, or agreement of the County State’s Atty. This is FALSE. Therefore, ALL Medicaid fraud prosecution in IL by the IL AG has been and is fraudulent without jurisdiction of the sham prosecutor or the courts.

25. I have asked for the IL AG application for a MFCU from both DHHS and the IL State Police and have not received it, so I can prove the IL AG committed fraud upon the DHHS. Both agencies, in violation of law have not provided this to me.

26. I should think the FBI and US Atty would want to prosecute Medicaid fraud. Instead, you are letting the IL AG muck up the prosecutions, which all will eventually have to be overturned as void. I would like you to carefully look at this situation and prosecute those that are truly committing Medicaid fraud, as well as prosecute corrupt state officials who have developed this scheme to deny mental health care to those on Medicaid by writing Codes and Statutes that are so confusing and then implementing them with wrongful interpretation of them ONLY through patronage.

27. I have found the handwritten invoices and computer generated invoices from in house billing and I am reviewing them slowly, and comparing them to the patient charts.

28. Bills were also sent in under other medical director's names until 2004, but none of them were indicted! It appears the IL AG is only prosecuting those who are whistle blowers against corruption in IL or who fight wrongful accusations of child abuse (in their pt population) or challenge the IL government in other ways. This includes Hamilton, myself, XXXXX, and XXXX who ran a group and she was also indicted. She had vigorously spoken out against corruption at the child protection agency – DCFS. Isn’t this felony retaliation against a Federal Witness (or potential witness)?

29. I told my attorney, I was going to get to the bottom of this, but it is too convoluted for me to do this without assistance and I don't have the resources to pay my attorneys to do it. They are doing the best they can.

30. I have discovered that the contract the business owner signed with the billing agent is for an 8.5% percentage of billings. I believe that billing the business by % is fraudulent under Medicaid and Medicare. XXXXXX apparently has been and still is billing many many providers this way for years. Isn’t this is a federal crime called Medicaid/Medicare fraud?

31. I have given the US Atty and your agents evidence of many federal crimes, including patronage hiring, etc., by Orlando Jones, who they indicted, but he shot himself in the head - I had opened the Cook County Provident Hospital pediatric dept with a contract group and witnessed corruption by Jones, the Godson of the President of the Cook County Board [John Stroger Sr.]. I have also witnessed corruption in the child protection department - false allegations of child abuse, etc. I have also witnessed abuse and fraud in the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. Finally I have been retaliated against in CCDOC and IDOC for my vigorous and outspoken attacks on corruption in these agencies. Please note that I am physically challenged and this torture included gross violations of the ADA.

32. I have sent your federal agencies a lot of information. AUSA Laser has indicated to my attorney that what I sent about CCDOC civil rights violations and corruption is helpful. Former State legislator XXXXX also has reams of evidence of corruption in IL. Why don’t you interview him too? Why won’t you more vigorously use what I sent you, use Hamilton as a witness, and protect Hamilton, XXXX, myself, and XXXXX against this corruption? I am stunned, astonished, heartbroken, and despondent. The abuse and torture I have endured is as great as in any third world country. Gross systemic violations of the ADA, medical abuse, torture, and routine retaliation against witnesses to corruption occurs at CCDOC and IDOC. It is a disgrace – especially as I am innocent. My life’s work that means so much to me of helping the poor and providing quality medical services has been destroyed. I am destitute and dismayed.

33. I am requesting a long meeting with the AUSA in Chicago, in charge of Medicaid fraud, and with USA Patrick Fitzgerald to discuss all of the above and show him evidence. I have nothing to hide. AG Lisa Madigan, Reibel, and many corrupt officials in Illinois and Cook County have a lot to hide. I also strongly believe it would be appropriate for the USA to take over all Medicaid and Medicare fraud prosecutions in Illinois and move them into the Federal Court, as well as investigate the applications to DHHS of the IL MFCU for fraud upon DHHS.


Thank you for your attention to these matters. I await justice.

Sincerely,


Linda Lorincz Shelton, Ph.D.,M.D.