Legal Officials Respond

by Cal Bryant - August 15th, 2007 - Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald

The State of North Carolina vs. Terry Britton, that single line written across the top of a court document has generated more opinion that even the staunchest presidential debate.

The child abuse charges against Britton were dropped just prior to the case going to court last month in Northampton County, thus backing the defendant’s repeated proclamations of his innocence throughout the four-year ordeal.

Now with that legal freedom in hand, Britton lashed out against those he felt led him to experience the worst time in his life.

But, as they say, there are two sides to every story. With that in mind, the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, in all fairness, decided to give those to which Britton made allegations against a chance to respond.

The accusations made by Britton were in the article By Amanda VanDerBroek titled Britton wants peace of mind .

The sad reality is that both of these articles are talking about the ongoing incompetence of our criminal justice system. This incompetence is caused by the arrogance of a judiciary that seeks PERFECT JUSTICE in situations where accusations are made by people with questionable motivations. Please note, this situation has been dragging on for four years. How can anyone think it takes that long to resolve something like this?

At its base though the problem is related to the question, who is not outraged by the possibility that a child has been harmed? Are you? Of course not. The problem arises because our court system grinds so slowly and so incompetently that false allegations take on a life of their own and innocent until proven guilty is lost in the confusion. I would like to point out a quote that Cal used as the closing for his article. One of the defendant's attorneys said “. . . . I felt comfortable about our chances of winning this case if it went to trial.”

This should frighten everyone who expects our system to work. All of the participants in our court system are geared to litigate everything. EVERYTHING. No matter how unreasonable or irrational. Issues no sane person would believe should be litigated still go to trial. How about the case of the "Judge" who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million for misplacing his pants for a couple of weeks? How did that ever go to trial?

There is a simple explanation. Read on.

The American Court System is the most corrupt and most incompetent system of idiocy and abuse that has ever been invented. Our nation, with a small percentage of the world's population, has over half the lawyers . Many of them are decent people outside of court. The system they are a part of is the most evil system ever invented.

This case against Terry Britton is typical of the McMartin Preschool case of twenty years ago. In that case a woman made a charge of child abuse where even the most cursory investigation would indicate credibility problems that should have given pause and ended the investigation. Before it was over, 7 innocent defendants were financially ruined for life. 3 senior citizens who had lived lives of exemplary dedication to children were driven into their graves by charges that were simply bizarre. Even after it was clear that no abuse had ever existed and Ray McMartin had been cleared of 39 of 52 charges, the District Attorney in that case insisted on a second trial to get a conviction on charges that were not credible. Nothing could stop the judicial meat grinder after it was started. As in the first trial Ray McMartin was not found guilty again. Incredible though, the reason he was retried was that a couple of jurors in the first trial insisted he be found guilty because "it might have happened". This happened in the second trial too. Our system calls this a "hung jury". Even though the majority of both juries found McMartin "not guilty", a couple of people on both juries were ready to send this man to jail because the supposed victims were children and "it might be true".

A prefect example of how stupid and incompetent our court system is came up in the McMartin case. The major accusation by many of the children in that case was that there was a hidden room under the McMartin Preschool where the abuse took place. The importance of this claim was that the McMartin Preschool was on a main street. It was a single large room with curtain less huge windows open to the street. Unless there was a secret room none of the accusations of abuse could have taken place. The Judge would not allow the concrete slab, which had clearly been there for years, to be dug up to settle the claim. After two years they dug up the slab. There was no possibility any hidden room could have ever existed. Hundreds of people watched the concrete slab being dug up. The evidence that no room had ever existed was proven beyond any doubt. The Judge would not allow this clear false testimony to be used to impeach the children on the claims of what happened in the room. Outlandish and ridiculous charges were allowed to be made by the same children whose testimony had been impeached by this charge being proved false. There was no place the abuse could have occurred.

Such idiocy is standard practice for our court buffoons.

District Attorneys will not clear people who are obviously not guilty. They move forward with arrogant disdain for the premise of innocent until proven guilty. They are unaccountable. That is why our system does not work. There are situations where the issues are not black and white. Where innocence or guilt cannot be determined by our courts. And yet no one in our court system will ever allow for the clear injustice that is resulting in these situations to stop the process. Judges and attorneys who are involved in such situations should not be immune from accountability.

This immunity does not lead to justice. It leads to the arrogance we see in this case. A man was financially destroyed by our court system. His outrage at that may mean he is not careful with his anger at the people who are beyond his reach. He is innocent but still financially ruined. I will bet he asked to meet with the D.A. and his attorney, knowing how the system worked, simply ignored his request. Seeing that the D.A. had lots of evidence that he was innocent, and still pursued him, should be reason enough for his rage.

However the representatives of the press, needing access to these government officials, still imply his rage is not justifiable. I guess you have to despise the court system as I do to have sympathy for the outrageous lack of justice in this case.

The Judge, the D.A., the prosecutor, the woman who filed the false charges and Britton's attorneys, in a decent system, would be accountable. Our system does not lead to justice. It grinds justice into dust.