Second, what follows is a lengthy note over-viewing my present state of mind about all that has transpired since March of 2007, the facts about which are complex and from my point of view this is the most difficult part of the problem I as Chairwoman of The Committee seek to resolve: That most everyone gives the whole matter involving Michael C. Kelley a cursory glance, zeros in on the fact that Mike has 'plead guilty' to cultivating marijuana and concludes that there is nothing more to it than that.

Respectfully, I hope you will invest the time and thot necessary to gather sufficient background information to see what has become self-evident to me over the course of the last 22 months: that Mike is incarcerated ONLY because he took vigorous action to expose injustice and corruption in the practices of local law enforcement and that because of that he has been prosecuted for 'political motives' and is now facing 5 years in federal prison, resultant of a relatively 'minor' violation of the law which - had he kept his mouth shut about what has been going on - should have likely resulted in a fine and probation or might have even gone completely away if only he'd been willing to become a 'snitch' (or perhaps, as rumor has it, paid a bribe).

Which is, quite frankly, at the core of what has incensed him and I and all of us about all of this all along, yet I feel that for those of you who my be new to all this that I am getting ahead of myself, because this whole mess is a lot to digest, let alone accept at face value from a virtual stranger.

Heck, it is even been a  big gulp to swallow for some of my dearest friends. But truth is truth and right is right and all we need to is let the facts speak for themselves. So please let me start by explaining I am soon to be 60 years of age,  a 'single mom' -- mother of Patty (39), Adam (22), Shalom (20), Josh (17) and Shawna (15). Also of Gerald who would have been 42 but died of SIDS when he was a month and 3 days of age -- and an employed professional who works 40 hours a week in an office that is in no way related to law enforcement.

I am also the co-founder of The Committee with Michael C. Kelley (age 64) and I have known Mike for 8 years. He came to me as a client when I was doing freelance website development. He contracted me to post a manuscript he'd written (which was all about 'accountability') on the Internet. Over that time we've become good friends.

When my children's father, Daniel Weiss, and I divorced (2005), Mike helped my children and I tremendously. He helped my boys find jobs (when they were old enough) and he was 'backup' for me (ie: chauffeuring kids) when duties required that I be 'two places at once'.

Throughout that entire time the Mike Kelley I have witnessed has always treated everyone with kindness and respect, tho at the same time he has always been outspoken about the
principle of 'accountability'.

That is, he has a religious 'work ethic' and deeply believes in 'doing the right thing', ie: being responsible, being true to one's word, taking one's duties and obligations seriously. And when he observes injustice, he is outspoken and takes whatever LEGAL action is available to him to right the situation.

At the same time, Mike is the first to admit that he is 'no saint'. His 'past' (prior to moving to Arkansas about 10 years ago) is stained with a (non-violent) felony conviction (counterfeiting). However, when he relocated to Arkansas (to care for his aging and recently bereaved father who was then
in his 90s), of his own assertion he 'left all that behind him' and determined to make a new life on the right side of the law from then on.

Which, from all that I have personally observed, he did in every instance save one which is what Mike is currently awaiting sentencing for (cultivation of marijuana for his own personal use) but is NOT 'honest & truly' why he is really in jail.

To understand this you must first know that Mike has always cared deeply about my children. His jaded past resulted in his estrangement from his own daughters and in some ways over the years my children became surrogates for
his fatherly affection.

Thus after he was arrested in March of 2007 on allegations of cultivating marijuana and he learned that my daughter Shalom's ex-boyfriend, Joseph Daniel Watts (who we now know to be a drug-dealer and twice convicted domestic violence offender who is routinely shielded from full prosecution by local law enforcement because he serves them as a Confidential Informant) had (unbeknownst to my daughter) used his relationship with my daughter to
gain Mike's trust and learn enough of his 'secret' to have him arrested.

All this as an act of 'proving' how powerful the ex-boyfriend's connections were with the police so that my daughter, who had broken-off their relationship, would take him seriously when he threatened her that unless she moved in with him he would kill her and burn our house down with all of
us in it AND GET AWAY WITH IT because he (the ex-boyfriend) had insider connections with the local cops.

Thus Mike was outraged but not on his own account. That is, he accepts full responsibility for his own actions, including for the 'crime' of marijuana cultivation - tho I must confess a personal bias here in that it is impossible for me to comprehend how 'growing a plant' constitutes the
'commission of a crime', but I digress.

Mike was distraught that local law enforcement had enabled the ex-boyfriend to utilize the power and authority of law enforcement to carry out a personal vendetta and as facts have come to light it has become self-evident that local law enforcement did in fact knowingly do this, does not care that
their actions have enabled and emboldened a real criminal to further terrorize innocent victims and is willing to go to any lengths to keep this whole ugly mess under wraps.

At which point I fear I have probably lost you as usually by now most folks eyes glaze over, they nod appreciatively (seeing that I am deeply troubled by all this and not wanting  to offend me, they extend a sort of condolences as one would to a bereaved friend but still, really 'not getting it' in terms of what is truly at the core of this mess.

Which is the purpose of this backgroound: to supply a full dimension of context and thus enable thotful deliberation so that each reader is empowered to decide for his or her self just exactly what is actually going on.

Thus it must be noted that all I've written so far has, of course, been condensed by virtue of hindsight. And so it must be acknowledged that when Mike was arrested in March
of 2007, none these facts were understood to the degree that when the idea was first proposed to me that Joseph Daniel Watts was a drug dealer and an undercover agent for local law enforcement, I laughed in disbelief.

Yet the events which have unfolded since that time prove conclusively that this is true and made such a believer of me that I co-founded The Committee for Honest Law Enforcement with Mike in August of 2007 and have served as Chairwoman ever since.

One of tne of several things we then started looking into as The Committee at that time revolved around a report conveyed to us (by a concerned citizen who was 'too afraid'
to speak up on their own) that our Sheriff's office was in violation of the law regarding serious fiduciary matters, a fact which is confirmed by state legislative audits (see newspaper clipping, below, published by the VBCDemocrat, January 1, 2009, Top 10 news stories from 2008).

Also noteworthy, by the time we jumped into this issue (early 2008), we had already written letters and made personal appeals to numerous public officials calling for the arrest of Joseph Daniel Watts as a drug dealer (details and proofs of which are documented at The Committee).

Also we raised serious questions about law enforcement making greatly exaggerated claims about the size of a widely publicized marijuana bust (unrelated to Mike's case) so that they (law enforcement) might reap significant financial rewards (from the DEA) which are based on the 'number
of plants' seized in any given interdiction and which we allege is the 'end justifies the means' motive to 'stretch the truth' to benefit law enforcement at the expense of the person accused - who then pays a more serious penalty for a crime NOT factually committed.

As Mike became more aggressive in bringing public attention to the very real chicanery that has been and is taking place locally under the guise of law and order, the 'penalties' (threatened and imposed) upon him for his alleged crime (and it was 'alleged' at that time, he was by law 'innocent until proven guilty', but you'd never have known this by an objective look at what was going on) increased exponentially in direct proportion to his outspoken public stand for accountability and honesty in law enforcement.

For example, when the charges against Mike for cultivation were initially filed, they were STATE charges. But by March of 2008, our local prosecutor -- after first denying that Watts was an informant and then filing to quash the defense subpoena of Watts so that Mike could face his accuser in open court (which is a Constitutionally guaranteed civil right)  -- had persuaded the federal government to take over the case because (we were told by a highly credible source) local officials feared that Mike would 'get off too easy' if the case was tried locally and since Mike had become 'an 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the courtroom' who was calling public
attention to things (like exaggerated drug busts and financial
mismanagement) that they could not risk his being free 'in an election year'.  (continued at top of right column)

THE COMMITTEE FOR HONEST LAW ENFORCEMENT will meet Saturday, January 17, 11:30am / 1:30pm at the Community Room of the Petit Jean Electric Cooperative in Clinton. An agenda for 2009 will be planned. All are welcome. Contact Christine, 501-745-4153, for details.

Thus the State dropped all charges against Mike and he was indicted at federal level. And at this point, quite frankly, we were all very hopeful that finally the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would come to light. Yet still to this day, that has not happened and in fact from that time until
now things have actually gotten more intense, which is admittedly a direct result of Mike's continued activism.

That is because during April of 2008 - after 13 months of being respectful of due process, meeting with local officials, writing letters to the editor and picketing twice at our county courthouse in the interest of getting Joseph Daniel Watts arrested for having SOLD marijuana to Mike (which is
factually what happened) Mike - in the interest of bringing Watts to justice - took it upon himself to attempt a PERFECTLY LEGAL 'citizen's arrest' of Watts.

Now I won't go into here whether, given Mike's personal/legal circumstances, this was a prudent thing do to. Probably, looking strictly at his own self-interest, many would say it was not. Still, however, you must understand that to Mike's mind it was as if his own daughter's life had been
threatened by this miscreant Watts; that he had taken every action available to an honest and law abiding citizen to bring this criminal to justice; that law enforcement was ignoring their duty to arrest Watts and was instead shielding and protecting him while allowing and enabling him to commit
crimes. And that the next reasonable step for Mike to take in the course of due process was to attempt a perfectly legal citizen's arrest of Joseph Daniel Watts.

Which is precisely what Mike did: He went to Watts' house, knocked on his door and, when Watts opened it, announced that he was there to arrest Watts for the sale of marijuana. Watts, on hearing Mike's announcement, retreated into his house and closed the door. Mike went home and - knowing that his/our(anybody's) only 'real power' in the this type of whistleblowing situation is 'public exposure' by virtue of 'media attention' -- Mike wrote a news release about it.

At the same time, Watts delivered himself to local law enforcement with spurious claims that Mike had threatened his life. The police, of course, took Watts' word as gospel and on Friday, May 9, 2008, Mike was arrested on charges of 'witness intimidation' - which is unbelievably absurd!!!

Still, Mike was hauled into jail and when he was arraigned on these new charges his attorney was (we now know by hindsight) completely blindsided by the prosecutorial agenda which - I was told - was aimed at implicating me as
having colluded in this new crime that Mike was charged with. I was dumbfounded and demanded to testify. but Mike's attorney refused to put me or either of my daughters on the stand.

Which I must point out was not the first time we have been denied the opportunity to testify, nor would it be the last, but still I am doing my best to timeline only sufficient information for a reader to make his or her own judgment about what has truly been going so that you may reasonably decide what, if any, action you wish to take for yourself.

In this interest I must interject that Mike, a Navy veteran of
the Viet Nam War, is an adamantly NON-violent person.

He is also an accomplished musician, which is of little consequence here except to mention that before all this ugly mess burst into our quiet lives, I personally chided him about being a cross between Mahatma Gandhi, George Carlin and Billy Joel.

At the time he responded that he was not that fond of Carlin who had, as Mike saw it, 'gotten too cynical in his old age,' but that he was pleased and flattered to be associated with Gandhi who was one of his all time heroes. All of which I reference to help substantiate that Mike is a peaceable man.

On the other hand, I know Joseph Daniel Watts to be a liar. I found out, belatedly, that he began lying to me the day we met when I inquired about his age and was told that he was 'only nineteen' (he was actually 25) and 'liked hanging out with my sixteen-year-old son, Adam' all the while he was
actually stalking my fourteen year old daughter, Shalom. who he had convinced (by the time she was sweet sixteen) that he was the only man in the world for her; that she was the love of his life; that she was the only person on the face of the earth who 'really understood him' and that he would die without her.

All of which is potent stuff to lay on a pubescent girl whose
disabled/abusive father has recently (to her dazed, innocent and heartbroken eyes) abandoned her and her siblings and her mom.

But of course, as soon as her allegiance was won this psychopath's true colors began to show. He became aggressively possessive and within a year Shalom broke off with him because he had physically assaulted her and for a time Watts was evicted from her life.

Sadly, by time Shalom turned eighteen, he had wormed his way back in with pledges of reform and over my
persistent protests she again took up with him, imbuing me with the uncomfortable knowledge that if I put my foot down
too severely she would likely move out of our house and in with him which I was by then convinced would lead to the worst imaginable outcome.

By mid-March of 2007 (and unbeknownst to me at that time) Shalom was struggling to break free from Watts. There had again been physical altercations between them and he was
again being manipulative of her feelings and had started threatening to harm her and her siblings if she broke-up with him.

On Thursday, March 22, things between them came to a head in my presence as a bitter argument which resulted in me telling Watts to leave my home (which after some argument and threatening conduct he did) and I told Shalom that he must never come back.

She agreed. Then he started harassing her on the phone, stalking her at work and threatening her that she (and all of us) 'owed him' and that if she didn't move in with him he would kill her and burn our house down with our whole
family in it. and that he would get away with it because he had 'insider connections' with the cops.

On Monday, March 26, Mike was arrested and events as told here began to unfold. Also, Shalom did file charges against Watts, which were (minimally) prosecuted and tho this proved to be Watts' second conviction as a domestic abuser, his 'punishment' was 'plea bargained' (over my daughter's strong objections) to a 'misdemeanor' and a small ($500) fine.

And I ask you to earnestly consider that for as involved and complex as all of this is, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Not yet considered, for example, is how easy it was for those who wanted to cover-up their own dirty dealings to 'criminalize' Mike's every move because of his prior conviction, regardless the fact that he had fully and honorably paid his former debt to society, had not been in any trouble whatsoever since moving to Arkansas, had nursed his aged father thru chemotherapy only to watch him die a couple
years later from a resurgence of leukemia, and that resultant of his father's illness and death, Mike found himself penniless and homeless. Yet still, throughout this time he maintained his full-time employment as a dishwasher, paid his bills on time and always found the means to help out folks who needed a hand.

Now please consider in light of all this: Between Michael C. Kelley and Joseph Daniel Watts, who is the peaceable person and which man's word is good to trust? Because that, in a nutshell, is wholly and totally what all of this is fundamentally all about: Justice - real justice - is supposed to determine accountability by discovering who is telling the truth.

Yet the facts in Mike Kelley's case have never been put to that test. If they had been, by virtue of the law, the first 'crime' in the series of events that led to Mike's initial arrest took place when law enforcement officers became aware that Joseph Daniel Watts was using his 'insider connections' with them to carry out a personal vendetta and failed to call off a 'bad
bust'.

The second crime was that law enforcement not only illegally utilized this 'fruit of the poison tree' to interdict a man whose behavior (rightfully or wrongfully) might have otherwise gone unnoticed, but that law enforcement officials further violated the law by refusing to interdict the actions of a de facto law breaker --- Joseph Daniel Watts -- because Watts was 'useful' to them.

Respectfully, this type of abuse of power is itself the highest form of criminality as it violates our Constitution: The Highest Law of the Land.

And this is the scariest part of the whole thing to me, having witnessed it and having had my eyes opened to the mild-mannered 'socially acceptable' corruption, bigotry and deceit that has been and is continually going on all around us,
every day in the namesake of law and order...

Which is emphatically NOT to say that all cops are bad or to vilify every law.

But it is to strongly assert that some things about our overall justice system have gotten way out of whack, a fact which is blatantly self-evident when we look at what has transpired on Wall Street among real criminals like Bernard Madoff who, upon confessing to stealing BILLIONS of dollars (which
has absolutely caused 'real harm' to an untold number of people), is being 'detained' in his multi-million dollar penthouse apartment while Mike Kelley does hard time in a real jail for having committed the cardinal sins of telling the truth and growing plants.

And it is this sanctimonious 'above the law' brand of hypocritical corruption that Mike Kelley has, since the day I met him, worked diligently to expose.

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Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
~ Albert Einstein ~