Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Of Poker and Plunder: Commissarina Olson Strikes Again






In spite of the fact that he has not committed a criminal act, Boise resident Skinner Anderson faces three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Wendy J. Olson, the Soviet-grade legal functionary who afflicts Idaho as U.S. Attorney, has wrung a guilty plea out of Anderson on a single charge of “misprision of felony” because a home he rented was used for what have been described as illegal poker games. 

The federal statute under which Anderson was charged is obscure and seldom prosecuted. Private gambling is banned in Idaho by state statutes that are rarely enforced: Since 1975, fewer than 300 people have been arrested or cited in Idaho for gambling. No felony charges were filed following a raid carried out by a federally supervised task force last April. Fourteen people were charged with misdemeanors and issued citations by a state court. 

Beware the snitch: Federal informant Kings Santy lines up a shot.
 Anderson’s only role in this affair was to receive rent payments from Kings Santy – the poker and billiards enthusiast who organized the games. Yet the landlord is the only defendant to face the prospect of time in a government cage. 

Under the relevant provision of the Idaho State Code (18-3802), the worst that could be inflicted on him would be a misdemeanor fine for “knowingly” allowing people to play poker on his property. 

Commissarina Olson, displaying the dishonesty and depraved ingenuity for which people in her profession have become notorious, contrived a way to charge him with a federal offense that involves guilty knowledge “of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States” – something he obviously didn’t do, because none of the people arrested last April has been charged with a felony

Tellingly, Santy – who, once again, organized the “illegal” poker games -- was not charged with a crime. In fact, he wasn’t even arrested. Any time the police allow the “ringleader” to get off scot free, they are indisputably protecting an informant. 
 
Commissarina Olson, flanked by flunkies.
Apart from Olson and her band of state-licensed plunderers, Santy is the only individual in this matter who has committed a crime – specifically, an act of deception that injured the rights of another person. When he signed a lease on the home in 2008, Santy told Anderson that he intended to use the property to operate an auto repossession company. He has since admitted that this 
was a lie. 

At some point – most likely immediately after he rented the home from Anderson – Santy became an informant. All of the “evidence” collected by Olson regarding Anderson’s supposed offenses is drawn from Santy’s self-serving conversations with FBI Agent Douglas Hart, who supervised the investigation. 

According to Hart’s probable cause affidavit, “Anderson told Santy that he didn’t care what Santy was doing on his property as long as it didn’t cause Anderson trouble.” Presumably, “trouble” would have resulted – and an eviction most likely would have ensued -- if those games had become a neighborhood nuisance. 

The raids in April were carried out by the valiant badasses of the Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crimes Task Force, who claimed to be responding to unspecified “complaints” about the poker tournaments. Once again, the only source of those “complaints” would be Santy. The ringleader/informant reportedly told Agent Hart that one of his dealers said a woman whose “husband or boyfriend lost their rent money from a poker game called Anderson to complain,” according to the Idaho Statesman.

This hearsay “evidence” offered by an admitted liar (remember, Santy deceived Anderson about his intent in leasing the house) is the only substantive link connecting the landlord to the “illegal” poker games conducted on his property. If Santy had been compelled to testify, he would have been eviscerated on the stand by a reasonably competent attorney. 

Federal juries tend to be terminally credulous, and Olson – once again, following the protocols of her despicable profession – would most likely have multiplied the charges against Anderson and threatened him with decades in prison as punishment for exercising his right to a trial by jury. 

As I’ve noted before, federal attorneys prefer extortion to prosecution.
“How much does the State weigh?” Stalin once asked a Soviet procurator frustrated by an unusually recalcitrant defendant who refused to sign a confession. As a federal prosecutor in the Soviet mold, Olson is adept at using the weight of the State to break innocent men and women. And in this case, as in so many others, Olson’s objective was to steal Anderson’s property through forfeiture: Before filing criminal charges against the beleaguered businessman, Olson filed a “forfeiture” motion to seize the “gambling house” where Santy had held the poker games
 
I guess a lightning-bolt SS insignia would be too obvious.
Anderson was most likely told by his defense attorney that if he fought the charge the Feds – employing a widely used tactic -- would freeze his financial assets, leaving him destitute and unable to pay his legal expenses. Thus he was left with no choice but to submit to the demands of Olson and her comrades

For his part, Santy remains at large to entrap other potential victims. He has plenty of company in Olson’s feculent stable of informants and provocateurs.

Now that a guilty plea has been extracted from Anderson, confiscating his property will be much easier. Olson has been a tireless evangelist on behalf of the gospel of collaborative plunder, and she has built a large and eager congregation among Gem State law enforcement agencies. 

Forfeiture is a tremendously lucrative racket for Olson’s office, which boasted in an October 28 press release that it has seized $1.7 million in “forfeiture” proceeds, while kicking back $1 million to state and local police agencies “via the equitable sharing program.” Olson’s office reported a total take of $34 million for FY 2013 – an impressive figure, but a dramatic decrease from 2012’s record $84 million haul. This might help explain why Olson’s plunderbund went after Anderson so zealously: Grabbing a $200,000 home would get the new fiscal year off to a good start. 

On the same day that Anderson was arrested and charged with gambling-related felonies, the state’s largest gambling syndicate began its biggest buy-in to date. The state government of Idaho – which will benefit from the seizure of Anderson’s property – announced its Mega Millions lottery jackpot. Tickets cost a dollar each, and are sold at retail outlets state-wide, thereby directly implicating hundreds of business owners – as well as the entire tax victim population -- in an activity that would be regarded as criminal if conducted privately. 

Mr. Anderson, who had no direct involvement in a penny-ante poker tournament, may be sent to prison with the connivance of the same state government that -- in addition to the routine crimes of violence and fraud it perpetrates – maintains a multi-billion-dollar gambling operation

To paraphrase the despondent Danish prince: In our prison society, there is nothing either good or bad, unless the state says so. Thus private poker is a "crime," state-licensed lotteries are a civic blessing, and officially sanctioned theft of an innocent man's property is "justice."







Dum spiro, pugno!

19 comments:

rick said...

This all reminds me of that scene in Jesus of Nazareth when after the Romans came through and trashed the place, a guy looks up, hands in the air, and falls to his knees screaming, "How much longer oh Lord, how long?!!" as a young Jesus looks on.

Mr. Mcgranor said...

Gambling, including lottery and bingo should be illegal.

Unknown said...

You mean being FORCED to gamble should be illegal, right? Since by definition, no one who willingly gambles with his own money has committed a crime.

Mr. Mcgranor said...

Not necessarily on the premise of their own money, but that an empire of illegal billiard games is an arm of organized crime. Could a man's private poker party at his house be a front for a larger problem?

non de guerre said...

The modern securities industry is little more than a casino too, since one can make a fortune merely by betting that a stock (or interest rates, or foreign currencies, or virtually any other speculative instrument that Wall Street invents)will go up or go down, while adding absolutely nothing of value to the real economy. But that is the form of gambling favored by our ruling elite, so it is therefore good and wholesome.

MoT said...

And who defines what is or isn't "legal" but the very theives and liars who've weasled themselves into every facet of our daily lives. When you give them the power to control what you don't like then you've empowered them to bash in your own head should someone else dislike what YOU do. Live and let live doesn't seem to enter into the noggins of slaves.

PaulTheCabDriver said...

Now Will, see, for the first time in quite a while I disagree with you. I rather like the logo of the Violent Crimes Task Force, and think it is very appropriate--an eagle of freedom being run through the heart by a sword.
Wendy Olson may wish to consider what happens to bureaucrats when people get sick enough of them. She should look up Nicolae Ceaușescu on Wikipedia.

Anonymous said...

I often wonder when these vermin go home at the end of the day, how their family can stand to look at them.

Ms. Olson has the look of a demonic death camp commandant. Some people just can't hide the evil that permeates their very being.

I also wonder what they think awaits them the moment after their last breath. I don't think they'll be confusing it for a vacation.

PaulTheCabDriver said...

As to the making of gambling illegal, I shall refer to the comments of Charles D. Lauer in his history book "Tales of Arizona Territory". On page 151, he references JD Rumberg, a man Marshall Trimble pointed out had huge problems gambling on horses.
"JD Rumberg of Maricopa County was a member of the territorial legislature in the session of 1879. He was occasionally inclined to be cranky, so the members of that not overly sedate body were not especially amazed when he introduced a bill to prohibit horse racing in Arizona Territory. On second reading, a member from Pima county offered an amendment exempting Pima County from the provisions of the bill. Other amendments followed fast until Maricopa county alone remained. Then rose up John T. Alsap, prominent Phoenix resident and member of the legislature, Rumberg's colleague. He solemnly moved to amend by striking from the bill all mention of Maricopa County save so much as lay in the Northeast quarter of section 34, township one north, range two east. This passed without opposition, and from that date it became illegal to race horses upon the quarter section owned by JD Rumberg..."

THAT'S the way you handle do-gooders who worm their way into political office.

Anonymous said...

That looks more like a "Wendall" than a "Wendy" to me. That bridge troll needs to be run out of the state.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is in New York State if someone is smoking in a bar, and a bar is fined for that, the bar can sue the smoker for damages. (I remember reading that but am not a lawyer)

So I wonder if Mr Anderson could sue Santy?

Thirsty for Blood said...

It is clear from this and many similar events that The State does not dispense justice, but is rather a criminal enterprise run by thieves and murderers-for-hire, and thus it is incumbent upon We The People to take up the cause of righteousness.

Perhaps the day will come soon when some form of primitive justice will prevail, and these leeches and vampires will be sent to spend eternity in the bosom of their master, Satan.

I propose the adoption by We The People of Sharia Law, under which Mistress Olson and all her assistant thieves would have their hands chopped off in a public spectacle. I would gladly buy a plane ticket to Idaho to watch the event. Olson herself, for the crime of Blasphemy when she swore a false oath of office on the Bible, would be sentenced to have her head excised from her torso by a scimitar.

Ms. Olson is such a lovely specimen of the feminine gender, her head would look really fine atop a fence post, don't you think? Probably would look better there than where it is now.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

Anonymous @ 10:16 pm:

Sure, Mr. Anderson could waste more of his money suing Santy, but do you really think he would find justice in the Idaho court system? Santy is one of THEM, and they look after each other. He would be better off retaining the services of the renowned law practice of Smith & Wesson.

Because, if he is ever allowed to leave jail other than in a pine box, he will be too old and too poor to live any kind of life. Meanwhile, Ms. Olson's children will probably be State Senators, distinguished members of the Chamber of Commerce, and elders of their Church.

Welcome to America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Or rather, the land where everything is on a grand scale, including the bullshit.

- LG.

LMJ said...

Mr. Mcgranor,

It's very difficult to tell if your comments are made tongue-in-cheek or if you are, for some reason, serious.

Surely, tongue-in-cheek, because in what universe could playing billiards be considered illegal? Maybe the same universe where sodomy is called "marriage," I suppose. If billiards be illegal, why not football games, spelling bees, solitaire and tiddly winks to name just a few?

As for the game possibly being an arm of organized crime, plainly put, let's have some organized crime, shall we? This present iteration of the world will always host entrepeneurs suited to provide the means and venues for men to pursue their vices. You can make everything that is commonly considered a vice illegal, but if there is no coercion or aggression involved, it really ain't none of your business, and people free to choose or deny temptation should be left alone. Let God punish and reward as He alone sees fit. Because when you aim to be your brother's conscience, you must become a government to enforce your will against him. And all government, by all historical and empirical proof, is the biggest organized crime family of all. But when you aim to live and let live, organized crime is an oxymoron. Crime consists only of first-strike aggression, force and fraud.

Before one eschews gambling and strip clubs, first one ought to eschew hypocrisy, as Our Lord's admonishment about slivers and beams points out.

It is by this same scriptural admonishment that we come to know this truth: Even God hates a snitch.

Mad as hell said...

Hey, anyone hear about the female Indian diplomat in New York who was strip-searched and "cavity-searched" (as in vagina and anus) for the "vicious crime" of underpaying her Indian housekeeper? There is now a humongous diplomatic row between India and the US over this abuse of a woman diplomat.

Don't you love it? The Einsatzgruppen-Gestapo thugs overstepped, and thought they could treat a foreign diplomat as they have become used to treating we dumb Mundanes on a daily basis. She should be glad they did not slam her against the wall and send her to the hospital with a broken skull, Taser her 26 times, or wose, just blow her away and claim they were "afraid for their lives" of a small woman in a sari.

The Indian Government should also be glad the NYPD did not seize their Embassy building and sell it, splitting the proceeds with the US Department of Labor. Hey, that should have been worth a cool million or two, far more than Skinner Anderson's pathetic little home.

After 9-11, we all sang "Proud to be an American." No more. America is fast becoming the most hated nation in the world, a close second only to Mother Israel.

(Did you hear recently that the House in DC voted 399-0 (!) to TRIPLE the aid we give to Israel for missile procurement? At the same time they want to cut food stamps for hungry American children? Go figure.... I have, and I am not exactly happy about that race of people - yes, race - that is how Israel officially defines itself.)

Our masters have learned from how the Israelis treat Palestinians, and they figure they can treat us the same way - beat us, steal our land, make us grovel to them, and murder us at will.

God bless Amurrka.

Anonymous said...

MadasHell - I never liked "Proud to be an American."
I once had the misfortune of being next to a jingo and said "that song is not true."

He said "What part's not true? God shouldn't bless the YuSA?"

I should have asked him his name so I could tell everybody who was the stupidest person in the world.

~lava~

kirk said...

we live in an upside down, psychotic world removed from any sense of reality because we accept it. this world would implode in a day if that acceptance was withdrawn.

too bad the sheep do not realize that a collective charge at the wolf would result in the death of the wolf.

Winter Patriot said...

Merry Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your family.

Keith said...

Happy Christmas to You and your Family will. Many thanks for your meticulous work over the years.

Keith.