AUG 13th 2004 Friday
Hi Shannon,
Serena aka contact on IAM, has sent me copies of your article + people�s discussion of our situation. I�m writing, hoping that you will clarify certain discrepancies + bother to post this. It is unfortunate I do not have spell check or e-mail, but I will do my best.
Before I explain the how + why, I would 1st like to make this statement. Bruce Cambell, I, myself NEVER told you or anyone else I prefer or even like 13 year old girls. However, over the many years sine BME chat has been around, 1997, there have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of people going into BME chat, pretending to be me, + saying such things. Perhaps you talked to one of them. MCat, Cathy, who has been on chat almost as long as myself can verify. This problem of Todd Impostors. Unfortunately, it is people like yourself, Bruce, making false accusations about me, that has us in this �FIX�.
Now, about �Everything Else�� the federal court has precedence over a state court, what this means is that someone can be tried + found innocent in state court only to find the feds� charge you with the same charges, or, unless a federal judge stops it. You can be tried 1st by the feds + then by the state or by both at the same time! A federal judge can deny the state their right to separate try you. In our case, this has been done in my 1st arrest, Dec 19th 2002, I had the FBI + around 30 SWAT team members with automatic silenced machine guns bust down my door. They were there at the request of the California Medical Board.
They also had the Los Angeles Police Department (which where I live was not their jurisdiction) + the Los Angeles stolen vehicle squad C-CATS, (which were also out of their jurisdiction), at the time, stupid me, talked with some FBI investigators. I was asked how many female circumcisions I had done, now, this is 7 AM, doors open, cold + freezing + little sleep.
I laughed at them + said I�d done more female circs in the western world then anyone else (they cut the tape here + left off) that I knew of + I had only done 4! + those were all adults who wanted this! Now, notice I said cut the tape, this is important. I fully realized the Egyptian couple might be Feds. For years BME + RAB people had threated to turn me into the FBI, even if they had to make stuff up. However, what I was stupid enough or naive enough to not realize is that they didn�t want truth. They wanted + did, whatever it would take to put us in jail, at the time of this 1st arrest, the FBI investigators told us they could not allow our lifestyle to run rampant + they were going to do �whatever� it took to put us in jail.
During the investigation/sting for FGM. The �husband� asks me to help him talk his wife out of doing a FGM on their daughters. He professed to be a wealthy investor in business�s + would be happy to invest 20 million in my motorcycle business. Did I have a nice house + cars? Yes, by borrowing money to pay the bills! I owe over 1.2 million to people right now, thanks to my arrest unfortunately, the FBI played dirty, people can almost never get good legal help simply be being accused of child porn. Your friends hate you, people won�t support you � won�t lend you money. When I was arrested I had exactly $100 to my name. Not exactly enough for an attorney.
The 1st charges of my 1st arrest were for practicing medicine without a license. I bailed out + the state agreed to not press charges + the Feds continued their investigation. Now, from the time of this 1st arrest to the 2nd Jan 9th 04, the Feds were taping our phones. In only 1-2 weeks after my 2nd arrest I had qualified for a personal line of credit of 1 million + a business line of 20 million. The Feds KNEW this. IE my phone tap. Unfortunately, these credit lines were from a private investor. I had to call him to get them. I could not do this from jail. Problem, end of credit line. End of income = subsequent loss of everything I had.
Now, this is how the Federal system works. NO ONE gets bail without $ and a damn good attorney. All they have to say is you�re a flight risk = bail denied. Does this deny civil right? Yes, of course, but without $ to hire lawyers you do not have civil rights!
Now, lets say we went to trial � problem, in federal court, judge + jury�s ASSUME you�re guilty because the FBI investigated! You have to walk into federal court, prove why you should be found innocent + why you should get bail + offer them how much in cash + $ you have to put up. In federal court they do not accept bail bonds, or just cash or any house with less then 80% equity! IE only the very lucky or rich get bail!
One thing I forgot to mention early, during my 1st arrest the Feds also said �they planned to make an example of me.� Now, when they 1st arrest you, they try + play you off one another. Offering �deals� if you �say what they want.� Also you have only a couple of weeks for your attorney to prepare for your speedy trial or you have to sign away you�re right to a speedy trial. No attorney is going to be able to prepare for trial in a couple of weeks. Also in my case, I was under court order to hire an attorney because, according to the FBI, �there was evidence of money�. However, right before this, they asked my bail be denied because there was evidence of no money�, to the same judge only 5 minutes or so before!
Now, since Robyn saw I signed my right to a speedy trial away she did likewise. Meanwhile, the FBI + her attorney (hired by the Feds) were telling Robyn that I turned evidence against her + they were offering her 10 years on a plea bargained + I had already plea bargained for 6 years! Oh, but they could help her out if shed say what they wanted to hear against me! Another lie of the FBI, among many.
What I have found out during this experience is this, the Federal Government does not allow concurrent sentencing of any convictions unless you plea bargain! If you start trial, you can no longer plea bargain in federal court, the charge is not the only charge. How, why, where, what you intended by the �crime� are all �enhancements�. Each enhancement carry another 1 to 10 YEARS plus the actual charges! If someone is found innocent in federal court, they have 60 more days to release you if you�re being held with out bail. During those 60 days, the government can appeal your case. If released, they have another 4 years to appeal + they can + will add charge after charge + enhancement after enhancement it costs money to defend yourself, a lot, also, the government can appeal you're acquittal 3 TIMES! If you�re being held without bail, you can easily be held for an indefinite period, 5-10-15 years or more, no limit at all, as they go + postpone trial after trial.
I�ve met people in here who have been held for 7 years, without bail, on their 1st or 2nd trial, all because someone �said� they might, only MIGHT, do something. Welcome to the rico act. It�s called a �conspiracy�. Free speech in this country is a myth. It does not exist unless you�re rich. Now, how this works is, �if� convicted of the original charges, we could have faced 40 or more years, they don�t torture confessions in America, they just say confess or we�ll take your life away. This is why you read about so + so getting 30-40-50 years but his/her �co-conspirators� plea bargained + got 3-5! The law also makes it a crime where if you talk to the FBI + do not tell them what they want to hear, even if you forgot something, when asked it�s �Lying to the Feds� + a Federal crime, of course �they� ALWAYS say you intended to lie. This is what happened to Martha Stewart they were going to do the same to me!
Now, the original charges we faced were conspiring to do FGM on minor girls, possession of child porn, sending child porn over the internet, manufacturing child porn + in my case, felon in possession of a firearm. I didn�t know I was a felon. I had a perjury conviction from 1994. Both the judge + my lawyer told me that if I successfully completed probation, then after my 3 year probation my felony would automatically become a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, they lied, I would have had to pay an attorney (more money) to file a motion to do so + have the judge grant it. Also, my 1st attorney found numerous cases where this has been reversed in federal court when someone who �was� a felon but had it reduced to a misdemeanor had a fire arm, now in trial, that�s an automatic 5 or more years. But in a plea bargain, it can be as little as 6 months! In a Federal plea bargain, you have to sign a written statement of apology to the US Government + get up in front of the judge, with the judge asking question, as to just why he should accept your plea bargain or not. Coincidently, my perjury conviction was for �not remembering� or �failing� to X the box where it asked me if I had had a drivers license before or not. If you plea bargain wisely, your attorney does a global motion in the plea which stops them from adding more + more charges + enhancements, we did this of course.
Now, in the plea bargain, it got rid of the production of child porn charge. Now, think about it, if we really had produced child porn, there is no way they would have let us plea out of it! I was forced to plea to conspiracy to commit FGM, possession of 7 images of child porn on my pc�s HD, sending one image of child porn over the net + felon in possession of a fire arm. Robyn plead to the FGM charge, sending one child porn pic over the net + sending an obscene picture over the net. This obscene picture was a picture of her genital mod! Hello, how many of you are not guilty of this?
Now, the way the child porn law works is, if �they� think the picture looks like someone 17, + you cannot prove otherwise, even if the girl is 30! It�s �CHILD PORN.� If she has small or no breasts it�s chargeable as �child porn�! If, say, your roommate has such a picture on their pc + you are living in the home, you will be charged too as having child porn! It�s a medical fact that some women never develop breasts + some do not come into puberty �until�, �as late as� 25 years old! But, anything resembling a minor can be charged as child porn. The picture I was charged with sending via the net, 1st, the highly doubt I even sent it, #1, I never sent people pics of naked women except in very rare cases, #2, this picture is of a girl very similar to Robyn�s shape on her hands + knees you cannot see her face, her tits, her pussy, nothing! But, since I had no proof of age, it is �to them� child porn!
They tried to charge me with pictures of Robyn too, until they found out she is 24! Robyn had to plea to a similar picture, I highly doubt they were minors, but we could not prove it via an I.D. of someone the pictures on my hard drive came from an e-mail spammed me. It �said� it was a porn site of 18+. I had been collecting pictures of small breasted women. As some of you might have noticed, Robyn has small boobs. Liking small boobs is not against the law, until you get into federal court. Again, if you cannot PROOVE their age, even semi nudes are now �child porn�, thanks to Ashcroft, Bush, + the way the Law is written! Before the Patriot act, the original warrant they used to raid my house would have been invalid. It says on it that my piercings + body mods are practicing medicine without a license. Thanks to Bush all they need to say now is, �Oh we thought it was illegal�!!
This spam had 8 small itty bitty images on it along with a lot of regular porn. I, mistakenly, assumed someone didn�t load the page right. Dummy hope saved the images in an attempt to enlarge them. The enlargement was not much better but I could BARELY make out they were of women, except the last, that one was an FBI badge! Another mistake, I thought it was a joke � wrong. These images were later presented to me as off my PC + the prosecutor told me they were of known child porn. All but one did not even remotely even look underage! I was set up, once again, my house was raided a few days after this the �production� pictures were of Robyn�s daughter. 2 1/2 + running around the house naked, at the time Robyn did not live with me. I had lent her my other laptop + camera, she told me she had personal pics of Linden that she did not want me to see. I never even saw them. But sine they were in my house at the time of the raid, I was charged also, now you ask, how can the government do this.
Let me enlighten you, it�s easier to create a criminal then find a real one. Thomas Jefferson, in his infinite wisdom, put a clause in the US constitution allowing those convicted of crimes to become a slave of the government + put to work making money for the Government! Yes, he uses the slave word! We have 90% more �criminals� in the US then any other western culture, now you know why, legalize drugs? Are you kidding? People get FREE drugs in jail, anything you want. They are given drugs and alcohol here. Keeps �em addicted so they go out, commit more crimes + go back to jail. Making those in power money.
This is not about any crime we committed, it�s about those in power not liking mine + Robyn�s lifestyle. It�s also about people in BME + RAB being so full of hate they would do or say anything to put me in jail. Most seem to think I�m a �Loud Mouth� I guess I deserved this for being �Loud� about new piecing techniques I had developed + the herbs I was using. If I had kept my mouth shut I�d not be here. Years ago, the Gauntlet crowd called me a butcher for using 8 gauge! Hoe many today pierce with 8 gauge? The piercing community is full of people, some piercers, some pretending to be, who will say anything about another in an attempt to make themselves look good.
I have become a pariah of the industry in this attempt. I hope those who have caused this feel real proud + sleep well. Just remember KARMA my friends. What you do comes back to you.
Anyhow, to ensure we might have a life to have at all, we plea bargained. We had no choice. Left without money, I cannot defend myself + I�m not willing to risk a straight jury who cannot handle a nose ring looking at my piercings + mods whom the piercing community itself reviles as �too extreme� + risk being found guilty without them even seeing the evidence. Remember, in this case, our life would rest on the OPINION of 12 people, only their opinion, and, even if found innocent, we�d still be here far longer, trial after trial until they made something stick. I�m not willing to risk what life I have left on this country�s version of �justice�! I turn 42 in September, I�ve lost everything I�ve ever worked for. I hope you�re all really happy.
P.S. Yes, please write me or Robyn. If you write her I will forward your letters.
Todd Bertrang
P.S. Ophie, unfortunately got your address wrong. So, because of the time importance, I�m having her one day this to you. It does allow me to explain the $8000 though.
PSS. I forgot to explain where the $8000 came from. The �father� called me in November. I had been EXTREMELY ill with the flue + was still quite sick. When you�re delirious with fever, you do not know truly what you�re saying, I�ve heard, the tape recording. Until I heard it, I didn�t even recall the phone call, in it you can hear me saying how sick I had been. You can also hear the laughter in the FBI agent voice. During this phone call he persuaded me to name a price for doing his two daughters, if I was actually going to do it. If I wasn�t so sick with delirium, I would have recognized �the trap�. When you�re sick enough you can be made to say anything + I wall that sick. Doing this was not something I ever intended. -- Todd
