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Pardon Jailed Wisconsin Veteran

PostDateIcon Wed, 12/17/2008 - 6:53pm | mal contends
President-elect Barack Obama has tremendously more on his plate than reinventing government and restoring some semblance of accountability to Americans.

Ensuring that the world does not enter into a second depression, halting a war or two, saving the environment, formulating an industrial policy on alternative energy, one can go on; all are problems of a massive scale.

But readers of Uppity Wisconsin may notice a comment from a veteran posted this week about another veteran who is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison.

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon 1 comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Dr. Sally Satel, Gary Holland, Keith Roberts, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Robert Walsh, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Biskupic Leaving in Disgrace

PostDateIcon Wed, 12/03/2008 - 9:23am | mal contends
Stephen Biskupic, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (2002 - present) has announced that he is resigning in January before the new administration takes office.

Good riddance, though Biskupic allowed that he has amassed a good "track record."

Many Wisconsin Democrats and allies would agree with that positive performance assessment.

But I doubt that Biskupic is sending a Christmas card to the proven-innocent Georgia Thompson this year [see also Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson, and Investigate Biskupic].

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon 2 comments   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Georgia Thompson, Keith Roberts, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, voter fraud lie

Jailed Wisconsin Vet Loses Appeal, VA Claim Still Pending

PostDateIcon Sun, 07/13/2008 - 8:35am | mal contends
via mal contends
In a unanimous opinion (07-1546) a three-member panel for the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has affirmed the controversial conviction on fraud of Wisconsin Navy veteran, Keith Roberts.

The Roberts family is planning on filing a motion for an en banc hearing, a hearing before the full appellate court.

U.S. Atty Stephen Biskupic's office had convinced a jury that Roberts and a deceased Navy airman (Gary Holland) did not have a friendship, and Roberts who was on line duty at a Naval base in Naples, Italy on February 5, 1969 at the time that Holland was crushed to death by a C-54 aircraft, exaggerated his efforts to save Holland, which constituted fraud for which he was convicted in November 2006 by a jury in northern Wisconsin.

Weak grounds for a federal prosecution? These are the grounds on which the government successfully pursued a prosecution against this honorably discharged Navy veteran who served during a combat era.

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Keith Roberts, PTSD, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, veterans for common sense, Wisconsin, Wisconsin veterans

Jailed Wisconsin Veteran Awaits Court Decision, in Fed Prison for Claiming PTSD Benefits

PostDateIcon Mon, 06/02/2008 - 10:01am | mal contends
via mal contends -
Madison, Wisconsin - Keith Roberts awaits the decision of his appeal before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit as he sits in a federal prison in Minnesota because the United States government said he did not tell the truth about his service in the Navy.

Veterans are assumed under the Veterans Judicial Review Act of 1989 to be (as they often are) in an diminished capacity to tell the full truth of the circumstances they encountered that contributed to their suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The many stressors that would lead to the granting of disability benefit payments need to be rigorously documented to the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs' (VA) satisfaction, thus the VA claims process propagated under administrative rules is non-adversarial and paternalistic for the veterans.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, American Enterprise Institute, civil rights, Keith Roberts, PTSD, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. v. Roberts, Wisconsin veterans

Kentucky Paper Runs Piece on Jailed Wisconsin Veteran

PostDateIcon Wed, 04/23/2008 - 5:29pm | mal contends

The Kentucky News-Enterprise has a piece this week on jailed Wisconsin veteran, Keith Roberts.

Sister takes up brother’s fight for freedom

By JOSHUA COFFMAN

RADCLIFF —Sally Harrod is crunching numbers that stretch beyond her job as an accountant. She oversees a legal fund for her brother in two legal cases regarding benefits he sought as a Navy veteran.

Keith Roberts, 60, is in a Minnesota federal prison, convicted of fraudulently receiving electronic funds from the department of Veterans Affairs. ...

Harrod, her family members and other veterans’ advocates ... fear the VA sought retribution against Roberts for seeking decades of back pay for post-traumatic stress disorder and criticizing the agency’s slow response to approve or deny his medical claims. ...

And, once it is all settled, she hopes her family can help veterans in similar situations.

“It’s unbelievable to all of them,” she said. “If they can do it to my brother, they can do it to anyone at any time.” 

PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment  | PostCategoryIcon View   | PostTagIcon Tags: Federal Prosecutors, civil rights, innocence, Keith Roberts, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), veterans

House Judiciary Comm Demands Action on Political Prosecutions, Including US Atty Biskupic's

PostDateIcon Fri, 04/18/2008 - 7:40am | mal contends
via MAL Contends

The House Judiciary Committee is proceeding in investigating the Bush administration's political prosecutions.

Press Release from April 17

(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Committee Members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced three critical actions in the Committee's investigation into allegations of selective or poltiically-motivated prosecution in the Justice Department.

The Members today invited Karl Rove to testify before the committee; urged the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate those allegations; and demanded that Attorney General Michael Mukasey provide additional documents on this subject.

Today's actions result from the Committee's majority staff report, also released today, which details the cases, interviews and documents they have reviewed since the Committee began its investigation last year.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon 1 comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Artur Davis, Breaking Wisconsin Politics, Georgia Thompson, John Conyers, Jr., Linda Sánchez, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Department of Justice, Wisconsin

Jailed Wisc Vet out of Solitary, Elderly Parents Pray for Visit with Son Before Their Death

PostDateIcon Sun, 04/13/2008 - 10:02am | mal contends

Today is the innocent and jailed Wisconsin Navy veteran Keith Roberts' birthday.

And Roberts (1968-71) is celebrating it back in the general population in a federal prison in Minnesota, as his wife reports that he has been released from solitary confinement, and is working on a supplemental brief, ordered to be filed with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, while Roberts' parents, who are in their 80s and unable to travel to Minnesota, hope to see their son before they die.

Writes Mrs. Roberts in an e-mail:

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, corruption, Federal Prosecutors, innocence, Keith Roberts, legal injustice, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Wisconsin veteran, Wisconsin veterans

Jailed Wisconsin Veteran Sent to Solitary Confinement, Seeks Help

PostDateIcon Mon, 04/07/2008 - 9:07am | mal contends
An innocent and reportedly depressed Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1968-71) suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and serving a four-year sentence for wire fraud since March 2007, has for reasons unclear been moved and caged in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Minnesota for almost a month, according to the veteran's wife.

Roberts was targeted by the US Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2003-05, and became the central figure in an Alice-in-Wonderland tale, after U.S. Attorney Stephen Biskupic of Wisconsin and top VA officials schemed to convict Roberts’ of fraudulently receiving VA benefits (by wire transfer as the VA requires).

Despite hostility from high quarters of the VA, Roberts may be again granted the benefits for which he is federal prison for receiving.

U.S. Atty Biskupic is the same U.S. Atty who infamously prosecuted an innocent Wisconsin woman in a political prosecution, and several innocent Wisconsin citizens for voter fraud in apparent service to the electoral needs of the national GOP.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon 3 comments   | PostTagIcon Tags: Federal Prosecutors, corruption, innocence, Keith Roberts, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Wisconsin veteran, Wisconsin veterans

Prosecute U.S. Atty Biskupic under Federal Criminal Code?

PostDateIcon Fri, 01/25/2008 - 1:44pm | mal contends
The conduct of Stephen Biskupic, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (2002 - present) has generated two prominent reactions.

As arguably the most controversial U.S. Atty in Wisconsin history, Biskupic has drawn both praise and angry denunciation for his prosecutions of:

- The proven-innocent Georgia Thompson (see also Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson)

- Several overturned “voter fraud” cases (see also Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals)
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon 4 comments   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, corruption, Erwin Chemerinsky, Harper's, Keith Roberts, Margaret Z. Johns, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Public Integrity, Scott Horton, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Innocent Jailed Wisconsin Navy Vet's Plight on Radio

PostDateIcon Sun, 11/11/2007 - 7:53pm | mal contends
- Lee Rayburn for a full hour discussing the Keith Roberts obscenity - [Give the radio show's file some time to load, hour-long show.]

Madison, Wisconsin — Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1969-71) sits in a federal penitentiary in Minnesota, serving a 48-month sentence since March, awaiting news from the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit of his appeal for his conviction on federal wire fraud.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, DOJ, Keith Roberts, Political Prosecution, PTSD, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Vietnam, Wisconsin veterans

DoJ Memo Conflicts with U.S. Atty Biskupic Address at Oral Arguments for Jailed Wisconsin Vet

PostDateIcon Tue, 10/30/2007 - 12:45pm | mal contends

Via Mal Contends - A U.S. Department of Justice memo (Prosecution Version of the Offense, Nov, 16, 2006) contradicts U.S. Attorney's Stephen's Biskupic's statements made at oral arguments in the case of the United States v. Keith A. Roberts ( 07-1546) before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last week.

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, DOJ, Keith Roberts, PTSD, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Wisconsin, Wisconsin veterans

Oral Arguments Today for Jailed Wisconsin Veteran

PostDateIcon Thu, 10/25/2007 - 1:28pm | mal contends

Access oral arguments. [ Check back for more updates as I hear from observers.]

Via MAL Contends - Update VI: Walsh attacked the “lack of intent” by Roberts. Intent is needed to prove fraud.

Walsh also pointed out that Roberts was diagnosed by numerous medical professionals with PTSD.

Walsh attacked the prosecution’s relying on the statements of the veterans when VA procedure stresses documentation and not personal recollection as the dispositive factor in deciding cases.

The VA needs a medical diagnosis and verifiable stressor and not a recollection, and a recollection is virtually irrelevant in the VA's deciding PTSD cases.

Thus personal recollection, often imperfect, ought not cause a veteran to be accused of fraud, asserted Walsh.

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Keith Roberts, oral arguments, Public Corruption, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. v. Roberts, Wisconsin veterans

Jailed Wisconsin Vet's Appeal to be Heard October 25

PostDateIcon Sun, 10/21/2007 - 6:26am | mal contends
An innocent Gillett, Wisconsin veteran, Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1968-71), sits in federal prison serving a four-year sentence for wire fraud since March, on appeal.

Roberts' criminal appeal will be heard on Oct. 25 before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Roberts simultaneously awaits the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims’ (CAVC) decision on his VA disability case, litigating the same set of facts before two judicial forums.
If Roberts’ criminal conviction and denial and reduction of benefits stand, every veteran who has a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)  disability case pending in the VA is theoretically in legal jeopardy, as PTSD claims skyrocket.

Roberts’ VA claim for his diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is related to his trying to save his buddy, Florida native Airman Gary Holland, from being crushed to death by a C-54 airplane while stationed at a Naval air base in Naples, Italy in 1969.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Keith Roberts, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA, Wisconsin veterans

Scott Horton: DoJ Schemed Against John Edwards and Hilary Clinton

PostDateIcon Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:01am | mal contends

Updated: John Edwards fundraiser acquitted on all counts, DOJ political prosecution goes up in flames

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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Bush corruption, DOJ, Hilary Clinton, John Edwards, Political Prosecution, Public Integrity, U.S. Department of Justice

Biskupic Says He’ll Testify Under Oath in Thompson Affair

PostDateIcon Thu, 09/13/2007 - 4:58pm | mal contends
Via Mal Contends - Even as the U.S. Justice Department arrogantly stonewalls requests by the House Committee on the Judiciary for documents pertaining to politically-charged prosecutions in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (the Georgia Thompson affair), Wisconsin’s U.S. Atty. Stephen Biskupic volunteered to offer transcribed testimony under oath before the Judiciary Committee.

From Dan Bice in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"If they (the House Judiciary Committee) want to hear from me, I'm happy to do it."
Even if the testimony is transcribed and under oath?
"It really doesn't matter to me," said Biskupic.
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PostCategoryIcon mal contends's blog  | PostCommentsIcon Add new comment   | PostTagIcon Tags: Civil Rights, Bush corruption, DOJ, Don Siegelman, Eastern District of Wisconsin, Georgia Thompson, Public Integrity, Stephen Biskupic, U.S. Department of Justice, Wisconsin legal issues, Wisconsin politics

 


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