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Judge Orders Former Pastor Arrested For Handing Out Jury Nullification Fliers


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BIG RAPIDS, MI – A 39-year-old former pastor was arrested and jailed in Mecosta County after he handed out fliers informing people about jury nullification in front of the county courthouse. 

Keith Wood said he was handing out pamphlets from the Fully Informed Jury Association on Nov. 24 while standing on the sidewalks along Elm Street. 

Wood said he was inspired by what he read online about the proposition that jurors can follow their conscience if they think a law or prosecution is patently wrong and refuse to find a defendant guilty regardless of instructions from a judge – a concept referred to as jury nullification.

"I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ," said Wood, who explained his decision to hand out the fliers he received from the Montana-based organization. "Jesus said 'the truth will set you free' and I want people to know the truth.

"If you don't use your rights, you lose them," Wood said about why he decided to head down to the sidewalks outside the courthouse. 

The flier is titled "What rights do you have as a juror that the judge won't tell you about?"

As he was handing out the pamphlet to anyone who would take one, Wood, a father of seven, said someone came out of the courthouse and told him to come inside and talk to a judge. Wood said he asked the woman if he was being detained and then said he preferred to stay where he was.

A little while later, a court deputy came outside and told Wood that the judge wanted to talk to him, and if he refused to do so, the Big Rapids police would come and arrest him.

Wood said under threat of arrest he went inside the courthouse where former 20-year county prosecutor and newly-elected Mecosta County District Court Judge Peter Jaklevic told a deputy to "place him in custody for jury tampering."

Wood was walked to the connecting sheriff's department and jail. He was arrested and placed locked up with a $150,000 bond. Wood remained in jail for about 12 hours before he paid 10 percent of the bond using a credit card.

Wood was charged with jury tampering, a one-year misdemeanor and obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

 

Read more Here

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/12/judge_orders_man_arrested_for.html#incart_river_home

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Interesting comments on the milive article (570 comments and counting).

 

Wonder if the results would have been better if they had gone for the right to request jury nullification in mj cases rather than the current initiatives being circulated?

 

If the right to request jury nullification existed.......

 

Or if the civil forfeiture laws required the consent of a jury.......

Edited by outsideinthecold
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Bad situation for sure. I'm wondering why this guy got $150,000 bail? Ridiculous for a non-violent crime. And for people who don't understand bail, if he puts-up $150k and then shows up for court, he gets the money back. But who has $150k to pay? The alternative is that you pay a bonding company 10% and then the bonding company is responsible to pay the court the $150k if the defendant flees. So this poor soul paid $15k to get out of jail, and he has no hope of getting that $15k back. That's the price one pays to a bonding company. Sickening. $15k loss for simply handing out flyers in front of a court house.

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Bad situation for sure. I'm wondering why this guy got $150,000 bail? Ridiculous for a non-violent crime. And for people who don't understand bail, if he puts-up $150k and then shows up for court, he gets the money back. But who has $150k to pay? The alternative is that you pay a bonding company 10% and then the bonding company is responsible to pay the court the $150k if the defendant flees. So this poor soul paid $15k to get out of jail, and he has no hope of getting that $15k back. That's the price one pays to a bonding company. Sickening. $15k loss for simply handing out flyers in front of a court house.

Thank You Kieth Wood you are not alone!

The court and leo are dirty bad in REPUBLICAN RUN  Mecosta/Osceola

I witnessed the Detroit riots and saw the redneck rasicst hate first hand.

I see that same prejudice,  hate and bigotry in the county building today.

Nepotism rules

 

God help minorities,democrats, people of color, gay, cannabis users or outsiders in mecosta/osceola

 

We need help over here in republicanistan. The criminals have occupied the county building and courthouse. 

Edited by beourbud
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Bad situation for sure. I'm wondering why this guy got $150,000 bail? Ridiculous for a non-violent crime. And for people who don't understand bail, if he puts-up $150k and then shows up for court, he gets the money back. But who has $150k to pay? The alternative is that you pay a bonding company 10% and then the bonding company is responsible to pay the court the $150k if the defendant flees. So this poor soul paid $15k to get out of jail, and he has no hope of getting that $15k back. That's the price one pays to a bonding company. Sickening. $15k loss for simply handing out flyers in front of a court house.

I'm not sure that's the way it works.  I have a friend who's a bail bondsman back in NYS and he looked into it because he was thinking of moving here.  from what I remember it was similar to NY where the bondman get's 10% of the 10% required for bond.

I think it's a $1500 loss but I think he also paid the 10% bond with his credit card as per the article so I don't think he's out anything if he shows up.  I'm going back to read it now.

edit

Ya, he just wants the money charged back because the case should be dismissed and he shouldn't have to wait till a trial to get his money back, from the way I read it.

Edited by Norby
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Great turnout for Mr Wood in court today.

Folk from all over the state and media were there.

It is very encouraging to see such passionate support .

 

 

Thank You to all who came.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2015/12/pamphlet_handed_out_by_former.html

 

BIG RAPIDS, MI – The Mecosta County Prosecutor says if people followed the instructions in pamphlets handed out in front of the courthouse by Keith Wood, it would create a lawless nation where jihadists and clinic bombers could be set free.

 

"We could have a juror that thinks jihad is righteous," Brian Thiede said during a hearing Thursday, Dec. 10.

 

The prosecutor spoke about the pamphlets handed out by 39-year-old Wood on Nov. 24 to people going into the courthouse that explained a disputed legal notion known as jury nullification. It argues that members of a jury can vote their conscience regardless of the instructions given by judge.

 

"There are some consciences out there I don't want voting that way," Theide told Mecosta Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Booher, adding that jurors with anti-abortion leanings could find the Colorado Planned Parenthood bomber not guilty using jury nullification.

 

"We would have a lawless nation," Thiede said in claiming the pamphlet misstates the law.

 

As Thiede spoke, some in the packed courtroom gallery snickered, booed and clapped – leading to an admonition from Booher to refrain.

 

My client is handing out a pamphlet saying vote your conscience and Thiede is trying to criminalize it. -- Kallman

Wood's attorney, David Kallman, argued that the pamphlet contained legal and proper information – and even if it did not, Wood's actions were Constitutionally protected speech.

 

"Our defense is a First Amendment defense," Kallman said. "My client is handing out a pamphlet saying vote your conscience and Mr. Thiede is trying to criminalize it."

 

But Thiede argues that this case is not about the First Amendment but about the fact that Wood knew that a land use case against an Amish man was scheduled for jury pick the day he handed out the fliers and he was trying to tamper with that jury – a felony punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

 

The attorneys argued about whether Thiede and his assistant, Nathan Hull, should be called as witnesses, forcing the Michigan Attorney General's Office to appoint a special prosecutor.

 

Thiede said the subpoenas are a tactical move by Kallman to keep him from prosecuting his own case and would waste taxpayer money by forcing the appointment of a prosecutor from another county.

 

Thiede said the illegal actions happened outside the courthouse and he never left it during the time of the incident.

 

Kallman said that Thiede was working in concert with Mecosta County District Court Judge Peter Jaklevic, who ordered Deputy Jeff Roberts to arrest Wood, a father of seven who was jailed for about 12 hours until he could pay 10 percent of a $150,000 bond on his credit card.

 

 

 

 

Watch: Prosecuting attorney argues in Keith Wood hearing

Mecosta County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Thiede lays out argument against the pamphlet that Keith Wood was passing out during Wood's probable cause hearing in Big Rapids on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.

"It's clear that Thiede was directing people to act outside the courthouse," Kallman said. "This was all going on at the very moment Mr. Wood was handing out those pamphlets."

 

The prosecution did concede that Jaklevic was a proper witness in the case.

Judge Booher said she will take the matter under advisement and make a decision about whether the prosecutor will have to serve as a witness.

 

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5

Edited by beourbud
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https://popehat.com/2015/12/02/heroic-judge-peter-jaklevic-defends-justice-system-from-anarchy-of-jurors-maybe-not-convicting-everybody/

 

Heroic Judge Peter Jaklevic Defends Justice System From Anarchy of Jurors Maybe Not Convicting Everybody

DECEMBER 2, 2015 BY KEN WHITE 131 COMMENTS

 

Mecosta County District Court Judge Peter Jaklevic is a former career prosecutor, like all righteous judges, and knows the purpose of jurors: to convict like they're told.

 

Judge Peter Jaklevic, pictured here with his draft campaign speech. Image courtesy of http://www.cadillacnews.com/story/?contId=101636.

Judge Peter Jaklevic, pictured here with his draft campaign speech. Image courtesy of http://www.cadillacnews.com/story/?contId=101636.

So when Keith Wood — a wild-eyed former pastor and current lawless anarchist — began distributing seditious incitement to destroy the judicial system, Judge Peter Jaklevic knew just what to do: arrest him.

 

A 39-year-old former pastor was arrested and jailed in Mecosta County after he handed out fliers informing people about jury nullification in front of the county courthouse.

 

Keith Wood said he was handing out pamphlets from the Fully Informed Jury Association on Nov. 24 while standing on the sidewalks along Elm Street.

 

The Fully Informed Jury Association, and idea-terrorists of its ilk, promote the dangerous notion that Americans selected for jurors have a right — even an obligation — not just to follow the orders of judges, but to exercise their conscience and judgment in evaluating the state's exercise of power over individuals. Such incendiary nonsense threatens the very premise of our justice system, which is that jurors will act as obedient foot soldiers in the government's glorious and righteous efforts like the Great War on Drugs.

 

So Woods had to be stopped. But let nobody say that Judge Peter Jaklevic lacks proportion and mercy. He repeatedly sent intermediaries to Woods to bring him unto Jaklevic's presence.

 

A little while later, a court deputy came outside and told Wood that the judge wanted to talk to him, and if he refused to do so, the Big Rapids police would come and arrest him.

 

Woods refused Jaklevic's summons three times, just as Peter denied Christ three times. The hubris!

 

So Jaklevic ordered Woods arrested. Woods spent 12 hours in jail until he met the $150,000 bond — which he did by putting $15,000 on a credit card to pay a bail bondsman. Even if he's acquitted or the charges are dismissed he won't get that money back. Freedom is expensive.

 

Now, just as Woods denied Judge Jaklevic three times, Pharisee lawyers might deny Judge Jaklevic's right to rule. They might say that courts have only upheld restrictions on distribution of jury nullification information inside courthouses or in other fora where the government has a right to restrict speech. See, e.g., Braun v. Baldwin, 346 F.3d 761, 763 (7th Cir. 2003). They might insist that multiple courts have struck down purported limits on distribution of jury nullification information in public places like streets, and have narrowed restrictions on "jury tampering" to situations where defendants targeted people they knew to be on particular juries. See, e.g., United States v. Heicklen, 858 F. Supp. 2d 256, 275 (S.D.N.Y. 2012); Verlo v. City & Cty. of Denver, Colorado, No. 15-CV-1775-WJM-MJW, 2015 WL 5012919 (D. Colo. Aug. 25, 2015). They might say that a citizen standing on a public street handing out literature arguing about a core civic function, not directed at any particular judicial proceeding, is core free speech protected by the First Amendment.

 

But this legalism obstructs justice. We all know what justice is: it's when jurors convict the person the government has accused of a crime. That's the proper function of a jury in America. Everything else is dross. Woods threatened to disrupt that function. How could Jaklevic let that pass?

 

Let's all take a moment to thank Judge Peter Jaklevic for reminding us what the justice system is about: doing what he and other prosecutors say we should.

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Courts give bond money back after cases all the time.

 

I don't understand.  I thought a bond could either be posted by the person charged, or a bondsman can pledge to pay the bond if  the defendant fails to show up.

 

So, for example, I'm given $100,000 bond, if I post a cash bond with the court in the amount of $100,000, I can get all of that money back once I satisfy all court appearances and conditions of the bond.  If I go to a bondsman, he is going to charge me $10,000 for the service of pledging a surety bond to the court, so if I flee, he has to pay the court the money.  And once I'm out of the system, the bondsman is no longer on the hook to the court for $100,000.

 

I've never heard of a bondsman giving money back to the defendant.  In this specific case, the defendant gave $15,000 to a bondsman to satisfy the $150,000 bond.  I don't believe that this defendant can expect any of that $15,000 back.  If I'm wrong about that, I'd like to learn something here.

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Courts give 10% bonds, where you give the court 10% of the bond amount to hold during the case, ensuring you show up to your court dates. Unless it was a cash/surety bond, a bondsman would not have to get involved. A bondsman will not give back money, ever.

 

Thanks.  I didn't know a court would give a 10% bond.  Seems kinda pointless to set bail at one level and then take 10% instead.

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