After last week's sentencing, Carol's punishment amounts to "nothing," which is appropriate since the cop "victim" admitted she did not commit the offense

Jerry Harmison Jr.

After fighting a bogus "assault of a law enforcement officer charge" for roughly 17 months, my wife, Carol, has been found guilty of an offense that even the "victim" admits she did not commit. But that is not the nuttiest outcome of State of Missouri v. Carol T. Shuler (1631-CR07731). Not even close.

Judge Jerry A. Harmison Jr. sentenced Carol last week to . . . well, nothing. I'm not kidding. She stands with no lawful punishment against her, and the "sentence" involves provisions that cannot be imposed on her -- under both Missouri law and findings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

As we've covered Carol's case, month after month, we've shown the Missouri "justice" system -- including judges, public defenders, prosecutors, and sheriff' officials -- is an abominable sewer of incompetence and corruption. Nothing tops that off quite like Harmison's sentencing, which would be laughable if it did not involve serious issues of liberty, constitutional violations, Carol's broken arm (courtesy of cops), and an unjust "guilty" finding that, in theory, could hang over Carol's life like a cloud the rest of her days.

That, however, will not happen -- by law -- because a of peculiar provision of Missouri law -- one Judge Harmison apparently has no clue about how to administer. Please follow us for an explanation of the nuttiest outcome we've seen in any legal case, anywhere.

We showed last week that Harmison's punishment, in essence, was a $10 fine. But that's where the zaniness only begins. Let's start by looking at the judge's sentencing notation on the docket at case.net.:

STATE BY APA BERGEON. DEFENDANT IN PERSON FOR SENTENCING HEARING. COURT CONSIDERS DEFENDANT'S SIX POST-TRIAL MOTIONS AND DENIES ALL SIX POST-TRIAL MOTIONS. SENTENCE ON COUNT I: SIS, 2 YEARS UNSUPERVISED PROBATION. DEFENDANT MUST CONTINUE COUNSELING AT BURRELL MENTAL HEALTH DURING PROBATION WHILE RESIDING IN MISSOURI. $10.00 CVCF, SOE TO 29 DAYS. COURT COSTS WAIVED. JAH/mks

What do we learn here?

(1) Carol filed six post-trial motions -- showing there was insufficient evidence for a conviction; the probable cause statement was insufficient for a warrant, much less a prosecution; and cop-witnesses admitted they had no lawful grounds to be on our property, which means their search and seizure violated the Fourth Amendment, and all evidence obtained unlawfully had to be suppressed. (Motion for Acquittal is embedded at the end of this post.) In fact, Harmison had a duty under the law to hear Carol's Motion to Suppress, but there is no indication he even looked at it. The result? Carol was found guilty on illegally obtained "evidence," and even without that reality, there was no evidence to show she assaulted anyone.

X-ray of comminuted fracture
in Carol Shuler's left arm,
courtesy of Missouri cops.

(2) Harmison claimed he read all of Carol's motions, but he clearly did not grasp them, did no legal research to confirm that her findings were correct, and never checked the transcript to find the state's cop-witnesses had, in fact, admitted Carol did not commit the offense (as described under Missouri statute and case law), and they had no lawful grounds to be on our property, much less breaking into our home.

(3) As for punishment, the court imposed:

a. An SIS (Suspended Imposition of Sentence), involving two years of unsupervised probation;

b. She must continue counseling at Burrell Behavioral Health as long as she is residing in Missouri. She's been attending counseling sessions for months at Burrell, long before her encounter with Officer Jeremy Lynn and other thugs from the Greene County Sheriff's Office (GCSO), So, this really is no punishment at all;

c. Pay $10 to the Missouri Crime Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF), which Harmison said cannot be waived. Language in Missouri Sec. 25.9 (Sentence and Judgment) indicates those costs can be waived, so I suspect Harmison either is lying or ill-informed on that point.

d. Court costs were waived.

The Greene County Prosecutor's Office filed charges against Carol in September 2016 -- with her arrest on the last day of January 2017 -- which means they spent 21 months worth of taxpayer funds on an "offense" even the "victim" admits Carol did not commit. The sum punishment -- $10 to a Crime Victim Compensation Fund, and even that probably should have been waived.

Remember that line in the second paragraph above where we said Carol's punishment amounted to "nothing"? Well, we're not joking. And we invite you to join us on a Magical Mystery Tour that will prove our courts are screwed up beyond comprehension -- and not just in Alabama.


(To be continued)