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| Jeremy Lynn, his wife, and a hay bale |
We now know the answer to that question: Carol did not "assault" Jeremy Lynn by pushing him as he entered our apartment. In his own incident report, Lynn makes no mention of Carol pushing him. In fact, Lynn admits that he caused contact with Carol, not the other way around. And under Missouri law, the central question in an alleged case of "assault of a law enforcement officer" is: Who caused contact with whom, without that person's consent? In this case, Jeremy Lynn admits he was the one who caused contact, and that means Carol is innocent of the assault charge against her -- according to the alleged "victim's" own words.
That leads to a related perplexing question: Why did officers wait until near the end of the eviction to arrest Carol and claim she had committed a crime? Well, we now know the answer to that question, too. It wasn't until the end of the eviction, as Carol was trying to gather some of our personal belongings (which cops had given her permission to do), that they brutalized her -- slamming her butt-first to the ground and yanking on her arms in an upward and backward motion. She had not threatened them, she had not violated any directives -- but three cops surrounded her and participated in a group beat-down, with an unknown cop coming from behind (we call him "Mr. Blue Shirt" because that's what he wore, while others generally wore black) and doing most of the damage.
Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott saw all this from a few feet away and immediately pointed a finger at Carol and said, "She assaulted a law enforcement officer." Arnott likely knew this was a blatant case of police brutality, so he on-the-spot concocted a "cover charge," in a brazen attempt to place blame on Carol and deflect it from his officers. That's how the mind of a corrupt sheriff operates.
But it creates a problem for Arnott. Greene County Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Dan Patterson did not bring any charges against Carol from the end of the eviction. She is charged only with the alleged push of Jeremy Lynn -- and incident reports from four officers claim that took place near the beginning of the eviction. Never mind that Jeremy Lynn himself makes no mention of it, admitting that he "caused contact" with Carol. (Incident reports are embedded at the end of this post.)
Officer Debi Wade, in her Probable Cause (PC) Statement, claims Carol "barreled into [her] head first." But PA Patterson must not have thought too much of that claim, which purely is a product of Wade's vivid imagination, because he did not charge Carol with it in his Misdemeanor Information (MI). (The PC Statement and MI are embedded at the end of this post.)
What are the MI and PC Statement, and how do they work together under Missouri law? The MI is the charging document in misdemeanor cases, providing the defendant with notice of what he allegedly did. The PC Statement is evidentiary in nature. It, in theory, is to provide evidence to support the charges in the MI.
An attorney connected to Carol's case recently advised us, in so many words, that charges involving the alleged Debi Wade incident did not have to be in the MI because Wade wrote the PC Statement -- and that means her allegations are automatically incorporated into the MI.
This, like much of what attorneys say, is horse manure -- and it raises serious questions about this attorney's integrity, competence or both. We will explain why that contention is horse manure in an upcoming post.
But first, let's revisit Jeremy Lynn's own words about what happened as he entered our apartment, owned by landlord Trent Cowherd. Lynn describes using a key to open the door and seeing me sitting calmly in a chair. He then states the following:
There was a female, however, that had been trying to force the door closed and she was standing just behind the door and trying again to force it closed. She was very aggressive and fighting against the door. She was grabbed by her arms and restrained to stop her from harming one of us or herself. During this process she was pulling her arms away from me and tried to push me back with her arms and body. She was told to calm down repeatedly and ignored those commands. She was eventually handcuffed and taken outside.
The female in question was Carol, and we learn two key points here:
(1) Lynn admits he "caused contact" with Carol by grabbing her arms and restraining her;
(2) Lynn admits that Carol reacted by "pulling away" from him. How could Carol push him as she was trying to pull way. As a matter of common sense, she couldn't.
So, what is the reality here? Carol knew, because we had timely filed a Notice of Appeal (with appropriate fees) the day before, that the eviction was stayed, by law. In fact, we recently published a post that included multiple documents -- our Notice of Appeal, a document showing the Notice had been filed electronically filed and was available for attorneys via secure case.net, plus a letter that the Missouri Court of Appeals had received our notice.
There was a mountain of evidence in the docket, showing the eviction had been stayed. And yet, Carol has a strange man -- with no lawful grounds for being there -- entering her home and grabbing her. Did she push him? The strange man admits she did not. Did she instinctively try to pull away. Yes, she did, but that's not a crime under Missouri law.
So why did PA Dan Patterson bring the charges? Why has a clearly baseless case been hanging over our heads for roughly eight months? Why does Carol face another court appearance, on September 20, when she has filed multiple pro se documents that show there is no probable cause to support the one remaining charge against her -- that she pushed Jeremy Lynn, even though his own words show it didn't happen? Why has Judge Margaret Holden Palmietto apparently refused to read or consider Carol's filings, which should have brought this sham case to a close months ago?
We will examine those questions, and more, in upcoming posts.
(To be continued)
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