Source: https://vaethforgov.com/us-doj-complaint-22518/
Timestamp: 2018-10-23 20:16:33
Document Index: 4414358

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 241', '§ 242', '§ 402', '§ 1001', '§ 1519', '§ 1621', '§ 1622', '§ 207']

US DOJ Complaint 22518
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CITY OF BALTIMORE, THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE., THE OFFICE OF THE CITY SOLICITOR, AND THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
BEFORE THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION, SPECIAL LITIGATION SECTION
Attn: John M. Gore (acting)
Office of the Attorney General, Main
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, PHB
Trial Attorney, Special Litigation Section
United States Attorney Maryland
Attn: Stephen Schenning (acting)
36 S. Charles St, 4th Floor
18 U.S.C. § 241 [Conspiracy Against Rights]
18 U.S.C. § 242 [Deprivation of Rights]
18 U.S.C. § 402 [Contempts Constituting Crimes]
18 U.S.C. § 1001 [Fraud and False Statements]
18 U.S.C. § 1519 [Obstruction]
18 U.S.C. § 1621 [Perjury]
18 U.S.C. § 1622 [Subornation of Perjury]
18 U.S.C. § 207 [Concealment, Removal, Or Mutilation Generally]
REQUEST FOR AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE
DEPARTMENTS OF THE CITY OF BALTIMORE
Petitioner respectfully requests that the United States Department of Justice, acting pursuant to its authority, commence an investigation into the Executive and Legislative Departments of the City of Baltimore that are comprised of the Mayor, the City Council, the City Solicitor, and the Inspector General. The City of Baltimore is the largest jurisdiction in the State of Maryland with a population of 617,734 citizens wherein the crime is primarily concentrated in areas of high poverty. The murder rate is one of the highest in the nation. Respectfully, the need for the assistance of the United States Department of Justice to accommodate this request is past due. As has been demonstrated by findings of an investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice already, the Baltimore Police Department has engaged in a pattern and practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. This pattern is manifested through the examples of police misconduct and the excessive use of force detailed in that report. The People are of the opinion that the Division of Civil Rights for the United States Department of Justice, has stopped short of assigning blame to all officials responsible for the current climate of distrust with the Baltimore Police Department. While the department does bear the shame of their irreprehensible and illegal behavior, much of it is the blame of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, with the City Solicitor and Inspector General acting in supporting roles.
The high offices of the accused, the manner in which these allegations are presented, the gravity of those allegations, and the importance of the questions presented for your review demands this manner of relief. Criminal misconduct by elected officials has become a recurring issue in Baltimore and the citizens, as well as municipal employees deserve and expect city officials to act in the public’s best interest. Yet contrary to this, we have been subjected to one story after another about corrupt officials using positions of influence to benefit only them, while diminishing the complaints of the people that make substantial contributions to the public health and welfare of the City. There have been countless allegations of this sort of conduct being demonstrated in the media, on postings on the internet, and complaints filed before agencies charged with investigating them, yet these occurrences rarely get the level of attention that is required to uncover the criminal conduct involved. There is a culture of corruption that trumps the rights of the citizen in Baltimore and as a result it has shaken the public’s trust in those government officials.
On behalf of the people who reside, work, and visit the city of Baltimore and its surrounding areas, we implore the Department of Justice to investigate the Executive and Legislative Departments of the City of Baltimore, including the offices of the City Solicitor and the Inspector General, for the conduct described herein which has left citizens dead, permanently injured and otherwise damaged. The citizens of Baltimore are turning to the Department of Justice as a last resort to obtain the relief that we have been unable to obtain locally for quite some time. The FBI recognizes that, as is demonstrated on their website, public corruption is its top investigative priority because it poses a fundamental threat to our way of life and siphons off billions of tax dollars every year. Baltimore City has done more than its part in siphoning off those tax dollars.
On many occasions throughout the past decade, citizens of Baltimore City have contacted the United States Attorney for Maryland and the FBI to report allegations of corruption against elected and appointed officials of Baltimore City. These citizens provided information related to their allegations, evidence of the same, and details of the injury they received due to the criminal acts committed by those officials.
They also intimated their concerns that the potential for those officials to continue the corrupt acts, and to even escalate them, would result if no action was taken on the allegations contained in those complaints, which include but are not exclusive to the following:
Under established protocols, the information provided by these citizens to the United States Attorney for Maryland should have been assessed, as a threat against the public trust. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Baltimore field office, where appropriate investigative steps should have been taken. Unfortunately, they were not. This is due to the absolute inaction of the United States Attorney for Maryland and the FBI that only empowered these officials to increase their criminal schemes. The charges of perjury and fraud on the court demonstrated that municipal lawyers offered false testimony on official reports and in oral pleadings with the intent to deceive the justice system. It also demonstrates that these officers of the court submitted fraudulent affidavits, manufactured evidence that they didn’t have, and withheld evidence essential to the cases of plaintiffs in lawsuits filed in the United States District Court, all in an effort to evade justice and prevail despite the negative effects their actions imposed upon the justice system.
Brian Charles Vaeth is a retired firefighter for the City of Baltimore. Petitioner suffered a career ending injury while in the performance of his duties. Due to the corrupt actions of Baltimore City officials, and supported by the Baltimore City Solicitor, the City of Baltimore withheld vital evidence related to Petitioner’s injury from a hearing examiner who ruled in error and denied Petitioner disability retirement benefits. When Petitioner sought to redress this error, the City of Baltimore forwarded their fraud on the United States District Court by submitting fabricated evidence, in the form of a fraudulent affidavit that had the effect of having Petitioner’s case dismissed before discovery could be accommodated. The allegations detailed in Petitioner’s complaint demonstrates that the fraud committed on the court has never been investigated, nor has Petitioner’s allegations of misconduct that lead to the Baltimore City Solicitor’s fraud. Petitioner does not seek to relitigate the denial of those retirement benefits in this action, but to submit the circumstances surrounding it, as evidence of the corruption alleged in the complaint.
As a result of this corruption, Petitioner has campaigned for public office, to expose the level of misconduct that is demonstrated that is beyond the public’s immediate knowledge or understanding. During this time, Petitioner has met many citizens who have experienced the same criminal misconduct alleged throughout the complaint submitted.
Petitioner submits this demand for an investigation into the discriminatory actions of the City of Baltimore to ultimately have the United States Attorney for Maryland bring a complaint before a federal grand jury for an indictment for the alleged charges contained in this complaint including but not limited to fraud, obstruction of justice, collusion, tortious interference, negligence, perjury, and malfeasance of office, among others, and respectfully invokes the protections found under provisions the Whistleblower’s
Act. Petitioner, upon personal knowledge as to the accused and their acts, and the contents of the documents referred to herein, and upon information and belief as to all matters, hereby brings this request due the serious nature of the allegations made against those officials. Further, as the above-named officials and affiliates have been shown, by prior investigations of unlawful conduct, to have engaged in intentional and malicious acts in retaliation against citizens for reporting the unlawful behavior of officials, Petitioner intends to seek the appropriate justice relative to these retaliatory acts.
OVERVIEW OF PETITIONER’S INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS AND FINDINGS
Petitioner’s investigatory process involved that which is aforementioned, his own experience and that of others who had similar experiences when attempting to report their allegations to authorities. These experiences all resulted in denials of requests for investigations to be conducted. In addition to Petitioner’s own personal knowledge of the corrupt acts alleged, Petitioner relied on media reports relating to the pattern and practice investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and the findings therein. Evidence was also gleaned from the prosecution of the Baltimore police officers in an unrelated corruption case. The factual information presented in those reports articulates a factual basis that reasonably indicates the existence of federal criminal activity carried out by government officials operating both within and beyond the limits of their lawful authority.
The repeated complaints known to Petitioner about the City of Baltimore officials named in those complaints led to the commencement of this investigation into whether those officials engaged in criminal misconduct, fraud on the court, and other crimes. Using sources such as records of criminal charges against officers, settled and filed litigation, administrative proceedings, news accounts and Petitioner’s own database of citizen complaints, Petitioner has conducted an exhaustive evaluation of reported acts of misconduct by the City of Baltimore.
Petitioner’s evaluation has revealed that the City of Baltimore is an organization which lacks the ability to refrain from systematic and ongoing violations of constitutional and legal rights of the people for whom they serve. More importantly, the City of Baltimore has remained unable to detect, deter or punish these violations, given its reliance upon impotent internal review procedures, and the abuse of power by the State’s Attorney in refusing to pursue criminal charges against officials involved in the corruption. In sum, there is little to no evidence that officials who commit offenses against citizens are meaningfully disciplined for their conduct. Even with multiple complaints, or substantiated criminal indictments, they are allowed to continue their pattern of criminality. The operation of the Maryland civil and criminal justice system has not been enough to remedy this pattern. The situation warrants prompt federal intervention.
CIVIL LITIGATION AGAINST THE CITY: CITIZENS COMPLAINTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS, RELIANCE UPON BOTCHED INVESTIGATION AND MANUFACTURED EVIDENCE, OTHER EVIDENCE WITHHELD
The sheer number of federal lawsuits filed against the City of Baltimore indicates that dozens of people have been mistreated at the hands of City officials, had difficulty in obtaining the representation of counsel, but cleared procedural prerequisites to filing suit, such as the statute of limitations. Given the hurdles to bringing litigation, it is manifest there are far more actual incidents of misconduct that occurred against citizens than the number of lawsuits filed. Petitioner has reviewed the United States District Court’s
Public Access Court Administered Records docketing system, ("PACER") filings against the City of Baltimore for the period between 2007 through the present and has discovered a range of citizen complaints detailing constitutional violations of the law committed by City officials. All of the lawsuit documents Petitioner used in conjunction with this request are readily available through the federal electronic docket system.
To give a complete view of the culture of corruption in Baltimore City would far exceed the limits of this introduction and to trace the effects to their causes would be exhausting for everyone involved. Petitioner respectfully request the commencement of a process wherein the evidence justifying this request can be submitted for a proper review by the United States Department of Justice and the matter forwarded on to the appropriate law enforcement agency for further investigation and prompt prosecution of the officials named. If the volumes of complaints that have been filed against the City of Baltimore were used to gauge the sentiments of the complainants who have suffered serious injury under the arbitrary and capricious culture of the corruption that is the administration of Baltimore City, it would show that public officials are above the law and as a consequence of participating in public corruption and abusing their positions of trust they should be subject to the same laws as the public, but they are not.
The multitude of alleged known and unknown fraudulent schemes and the active participation by these attorneys, appointed officials, and agents conspired together in furtherance of their scheme to defraud not only the citizens of Baltimore, but the United States of America. The attorneys employed by the Baltimore City Solicitor’s Office are licensed by the Maryland Bar and practice in both the federal courts and Maryland State courts. These officers of the court represent a cross section of the highest level federal law enforcement attorneys, the highest-level state law enforcement attorneys, and attorneys of the most powerful and politically connected law firms in the State of Maryland. Whenever any officer of the court commits fraud during a proceeding in the court, he/she is engaged in "fraud upon the court.” In Bulloch v. United States, 763 F.2d 1115, 1121 (10th Cir. 1985), the court stated, "Fraud upon the court is fraud which is directed to the judicial machinery itself and is not fraud between the parties or fraudulent documents, false statements or perjury. It is where the court or a member is corrupted or influenced or influence is attempted or where the judge has not performed his judicial function --- thus where the impartial functions of the court have been directly corrupted. Fraud upon the court has been defined by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to "embrace that species of fraud which does, or attempts to, defile the court itself, or is a fraud perpetrated by officers of the court so that the judicial machinery cannot perform in the usual manner its impartial task of adjudging cases that are presented for adjudication." Kenner v. C.I.R., 387 F.3d 689 (1968); 7 Moore's Federal Practice, 2d ed., p. 512, ¶60.23. The 7th Circuit further stated, "a decision produced by fraud upon the court is not in essence a decision at all, and never becomes final."