Prison Truth

1. Otis Finley - I, Otis Finley, hereby attest that while crossing a parking lot in my wheelchair to avoid having to cross traffic in the roadway, I was arrested by the Arlington P.D. and charged with criminal trespass, assumably because the store owner at the location had asked me to stay off of the property. For this alleged crime, I spent eight days in the Arlington jail and roughly another week in Tarrant County Jail.

2. Roger Wesala - Around 4 1/2 years ago I was getting classified for probation which I supposedly violated. While I was there I was arrested on a probable cause warrant and I ended up in state jail (prison). When I was released I was told that I did not have to report anywhere to anyone. I had to start from scratch and use my knowledge and skills in the electrical trade to rebuild my life as a productive member of society.

To my complete surprise in May of 2016, 4 years after my release from prison and my last contact with any part of our judicial system, police showed up to my door on a Friday night and took me to jail for an alleged probation violation. My attorney says she's never heard of a case this bizarre and suspects that a big mistake was made in the accounting of the court. I believe we'll get to the bottom of it soon but I certainly feel that I've been wrongfully arrested and harassed due to gross incompetence in our judicial system, causing me to languish in Tarrant County Jail for the better part of the last month.

Despite my lawyer's reasoning and logical solution to run my (forgotten) sentencing concurrent with my previous term, the judge decided to sentence me to seven additional months in the state pen. When my lawyer tried to appeal to the judge's logic, she was chastised and belittled and the judge told me that if I dared open my mouth, I'd be sentenced to two years. I was made to sign a statement that I will not appeal the case and then I was returned to jail.

3. Henry Dunham - I, Henry Dunham, live homeless in North Richland Hills. Being harassed by cops is nothing new to me but the charges I now face are on another level, altogether. Another homeless man that lives in the same area recently told a mutual friend that he wished I wasn't constantly spending time with my girlfriend because he wanted an opportunity to tell her how he feels about her. Suddenly, the police began to stop me nearly every day and accuse me of random things. Each time, I had no idea what they were talking about until they explained enough about my alleged actions that I could refute their crazy accusations.

But the last time they pulled me over, they accused me of threatening a man with a knife. Not only was there no knife; there was no man. The police searched me and I was able to get them to describe the "ghost knife" and the "ghost victim". They claimed I had threatened a red haired man along Highway 26 with a black-handled, folding pocket knife. But I wasn't carrying a knife so they went through my girlfriend's purse and at the very bottom of her purse they found a silver-handled Smith and Wesson knife that they confiscated as "evidence" against me.

I asked the police where the red haired man was at and they would not answer me. I asked to see his statement and they said he does not know how to write, but that he had made a verbal statement that they had recorded. I asked to hear the recording and they ignored me. I told them I had multiple witnesses they could interview who would attest they had been with me all that day and that I didn't have any confrontation with a red haired man or anyone else, but the police weren't interested in speaking with real people that were actually with me.

With no weapon, not witness and no victim, I'm charged with aggravated assault and I face 2-20 years in prison. I expect to beat the charges because their story is complete fiction, but who will take responsibility and be held accountable for the time I spent / am spending in jail while my life is coming to pieces because I can't meet my responsibilities? Is this what passes for "justice" in today's system?

4. Johnny Gilmore - I, Johnny Gilmore, hereby attest that I was attacked and physically injured by a member of the Fort Worth P.D. on September 19, 2015. I had recently returned home from following my wife to the auto parts store down the street in her truck during one of her drug-induced delusional rampages. Unable to reason with her, I came home and was sitting on my front porch when the officer approached with his hand on his weapon, ordering me to get down. He kept coming at me, now with his gun drawn. I notified him that I'm disabled and I demanded an explanation but he wouldn't answer. He came up on my porch and grabbed me, then shoved me down on the concrete, breaking something inside my body with a loud cracking noise and causing me to bleed from my rectum. I told him that he had injured me and I demanded that he call an ambulance. He would not answer me but instead kept me pinned down while on top of the injuries he had caused me until other officers arrived.

Two more police arrived, one in plain clothes. I also let them know that I'm disabled and had been injured. Then the plain clothes officer looked up a satellite picture or something on his phone and claimed that I'm not disabled based on a photo he pulled up, overlooking my cane which was laying in the flower bed. I continued to tell them that I needed an ambulance while they continued to tell me that I'm not disabled. After a half hour or longer, an ambulance showed up. The officer that had attacked me and pinned me down then walked into my house without permission as the EMTs prepared to load me into the ambulance. I told him that I did not consent to him entering my house but he ignored me and went right inside.

I was taken to J.P.S. Hospital where the X-ray technician accidentally rolled me off of a bed, causing me to fall to the floor from about four feet high. Then the third officer told the technician to put me back on the bed stating, "He's not hurt". Once I was back in the bed and suffering immense pain, he told me to sign some kind of form and to give him my keys. Under duress, I complied and was then handcuffed. The whole time, I was asking him what in the world was going on but he wouldn't answer. Then he asked, "Where's the gun?" I said, "What Gun", and then I described the only firearm inside my house which was a 100 year old German pistol which does not work. Then the officer left the room, chuckling and joking with the other officers about all that had just happened. I later found out that the police had cohearsed my wife into pressing charges against me while she was out of her mind on Zanex.