Media Suppressed Tennessee Law Enforcement Human Rights (Torture,.) Abuse

One of the most important domestic stories the national media suppressed.

PASS THIS TO YOUR LOCAL MEDIA STATIONS

http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/9797.php

When Tennessee law enforcement officials showed up at the home of Lester Siler, who they suspected of drug use, they asked Lester's wife and son to leave.

They didn't know that Lester's wife had turned on a tape recorder in the kitchen. When Lester exercised his constitutional right not to sign a consent to search his house, these officers spent the next two hours torturing him.

They beat him with bats and guns, held loaded guns to his head, threatened to shoot him, dunked his head in the toilet, burned him with lighters, attached his testicles to a battery charger, threatened to cut off his fingers, and threatened to "go get" his wife and take his child away from him.

Then they arrested him for "evading arrest".

It wasn't until the wife's recording made it to the FBI that all hell broke loose. And go figure, even though these officers have been convicted in federal court, not one national media outlet gave this story the coverage it deserved.

But that's okay. At the time, reporters were busy decrying the immorality of Janet Jackson's Superbowl nipple! These are the same "journalists" who refused to cover the United States Government's secretive medical marijuana program.

I'm warning you now, this is the most disturbing recording I've ever heard in my life. But people need to know about this. Our war on drugs is a failure, and the national media is following a code of silence on related humans rights abuses.

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Link to News Archive

by PirateNews.org Monday, May. 15, 2006 at 5:04 AM

producer@piratenews.org  Knoxville Tennessee

Link to this news archive:
http://piratenews.org/tortured-by-copsters-in-tn.html

Tennessee Copsters Convicted of Torture and Terrorism

100% Accurate $20 Lie Detector is now worth $20-Million

by John Lee, editor
PirateNews.org
July 2005

I've been too lazy and poor to buy this audio tape. Thanks for posting it.

"Drug dealer" [Patriot] files federal lawsuit against Campbell County Sheriff's Office 

Video: Cops torture man in his own home

Mark Schnyder
WBIR TV
July 7, 2005 

Lester Eugene Siler says his constitutional rights were violated when five deputies beat him and threatened to kill him last July.

Attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Siler, his wife Jenny and their child. They're seeking up to $10-million. 

Sheriff Ron McClellan fired all five deputies, and each pleaded guilty to their role in the attack on Siler. 

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of the audio tape Siler's wife Jenny recorded. She planted a hidden recorder when she left the house after the deputies arrived.

Officer David Webber: "Let me tell you something. We're gonna know everybody that's supplying you. We're gonna know everything about your business today. And you're gonna take us and where you got your money, we're gonna take every dime you have today and if we don't walk out of here with every piece of dope you got and every dime you got your (expletive) (expletive) is not going to make it to jail. And if you think we're joking, we're not."

"I made the decision to 'terminate' them over what I heard," says Campbell County Sheriff Ron McClellan. 

And a year later, McClellan says that was the right decision. He says his five deputies, David Webber, Samuel Franklin, Joshua Monday, Shayne Green, and William Carroll did everything wrong that day in trying to get a known drug dealer off the streets.

"If you allow that to go on, you violated every type of oath you've ever taken as a law enforcement officer," says McClellan. 

Here's more from the transcript from the tape on July 8, 2004. 

Officer David Webber: 

"Eugene, let me tell you how this is gonna work, okay? We got here, and guess what you did? You ran out the back door. We chased you, okay? You fought with us, okay? We end up fighting with you. You’ bout whooped all our (expletive), so we had to fight back, okay? So that's where it pretty much stands cause we're not through with you, okay? unless you start cooperating."

Eugene Siler: 

(tries to speak)... that lady... (moaning) 

Officer David Webber: 

You know what this is. You know why your chest is hurting? Cause you've been living wrong. 

Eugene Siler: 

(moaning and groaning) 

"They done many good things," says Sheriff McClellan about the former deputies. "But, a lot of times especially in the law enforcement profession one bad thing will overshadow every good thing you've ever done."

McClellan says this is the worst situation he's had to deal with internally in his 16 years as Campbell County Sheriff. 

He says his current officers have been working every day since to try to regain the public trust and says it hasn't been easy.

 

Audio tape reveals abuse during Campbell Co. officers' interrogation 

WATE TV
July 7, 2005 

JACKSBORO (WATE) -- Friday will be the one year anniversary of when five Campbell County deputies beat and tortured Lester Siler, a convicted drug dealer.

The lawmen were serving an arrest warrant on Lester Eugene Siler in July 2004. Siler ran when officers arrived but was caught.

According to court documents, Siler was beaten, pushed into an overflowing toilet, hooked to a battery charger and hit with a gun to coerce him into signing a consent form to search his home.

McClellan fired the deputies after hearing the recording. 

Former deputies William Carroll, Samuel Franklin, David Webber, Shayne Green and Joshua Monday later pleaded guilty for using excessive force. They will be sentenced next week.

Siler filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal District Court at Knoxville against the five former officers. Sheriff Ron McClellan and Chief Deputy Charles Scott are also named in the suit, which claims they instigated the incident.

A 40-minute audio tape was released Thursday of a recording that captured the violence of that incident. Siler's wife secretly made the recording before she was ordered to leave their home by deputies.

Repeatedly, officers are heard asking Siler to sign a consent-to-search form so they can search his house for drugs. 

Edited portions of the transcript detail constant badgering, crude language and indicate Siler was in pain during the interrogation.

Officer Webber: You hear what I told you? I told you not to be talking. Didn't I tell you not to talk? That's just the (bleep) beginning. This (bleep - bleep) right here, he loves seeing blood.

Siler: (moans) 

Officer Webber: He loves it. He loves seeing blood. You're talking too much. You're talking too much. He (bleep) loves seeing blood. He'll beat your (bleep) and lick it off you.

Officer Webber: I don't want your help. I don't want your help. I want you to sign that form because you're the one we want. We got you. If you don't sign it, you probably won't walk out of here. We'll have to call a (bleep) ambulance to haul your (bleep) out of here. Is there any part of that you don't understand?

Officer Carroll: Sign the (bleep) paper and we'll leave you alone. 

Siler: (moaning) 

Officer Webber: Why don't you want to sign the form, Eugene? You got a bunch of dope here, buddy? Huh? 

Officer: You won't sign it. 

Siler: (mumbles) Ahhhh! 

Officer: You won't sign it? You won't sign it? Yes or no? Do you want to sign it? 

Siler: Don't! 

Officer: Yes or no? 

Siler's attorney says his client was hit several times on his face and body during the incident. 

The tape was released as the deputies head to court for their sentencing hearings next week. 

As for the civil suit filed in Siler's name, it's against the deputies, Campbell County itself, and Sheriff Ron McClellan for more than $19 million.

Cover-up: Secret recording shot holes in officers' stories 

By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield@knews.com 
July 11, 2005 

The denials were unequivocal. 

"If Eugene Siler or Jenny Siler say we mistreated them, they are liars," said Shayne Green, then a Campbell County Sheriff's Department reserve deputy.

"We used the proper amount of force to effect the arrest and made no threats of any kind to Eugene or his family," said Gerald David Webber, then narcotics chief for Campbell County.

"To the best of my knowledge, no one beat, mistreated, threatened, pressured or hooked Mr. Siler to any type of (battery) cables," said then-veteran detective Samuel Franklin.

Those were their stories to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, probing Lester Eugene Siler's complaint that five Campbell County lawmen beat and tortured him in July 2004, and they were sticking to them.

Until a secret audiotape showed their statements "were all lies," Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Atchley wrote in court documents.

Green, Webber, Franklin and former lawmen Joshua Monday and William Carroll are to be sentenced this week in U.S. District Court for violating the civil rights of convicted drug dealer Eugene Siler by beating him, holding his head underwater, threatening to electrocute and shoot him.

All five have pleaded guilty. All five were captured on an audiotape made after Jenny Siler secretly stashed a recorder in her kitchen.

But on July 19, 2004 - 11 days after the five showed up on the Silers' doorstep - the five former lawmen apparently had no idea their attack on Siler had been recorded.

It was on that date that the lawmen gave statements to the TBI about Siler's allegations of brutality. Three of those statements have now been filed in federal court.

Atchley argues the statements show that the lawmen plotted to cover up their crimes and, because of that, do not deserve sentencing breaks the five seek.

TBI statements from Monday and Carroll have not been filed publicly yet. 

Webber told the TBI that Siler ran when the deputies arrived and "was still resisting arrest when I came around the corner." Webber said he "helped get Eugene handcuffed" and brought him back inside his house.

As Webber told it, he calmly sat down with Siler and asked for his permission to search the house. He refused, and the deputies ultimately arrested him, Webber told the TBI.

"I do not think anyone hit Eugene with anything," Webber said. 

The secret recording reveals that Webber cursed Siler and told him the deputies would kill him if he did not sign the form giving permission to search. The tape also shows that Webber directed much of the attack, including the clipping of wires attached to a battery to Siler's genitals.

In Green's account to the TBI, he said Siler was "never mistreated." 

Franklin gave two statements to the TBI. In the first one, he denied any brutality and even claimed that Siler's young son was allowed to go into the house to see his father.

"He came back out and told his mother that Eugene looked fine and that he was not beaten up," Franklin said. 

Five hours later, he gave a second statement after learning an audiotape existed. He still denied personally mistreating Siler and instead insisted the other officers may have slapped and threatened Siler. He downplayed the extent of the attack on Siler.

In testimony to a state grand jury, Franklin added another twist, recalling how Siler's son "had a handful of wildflowers" so he let the boy go inside and give them to his dad.

"The boy came back out with a soda pop," Franklin testified. "The boy tells his momma, 'They've not hurt him. He's OK.' " 

All but Carroll were indicted by that grand jury for lying to the TBI. Those charges, however, are expected to be dropped in lieu of the federal convictions.

Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308.

___

Cryptome:

A writes:

American cops taped torturing of drug suspect - LISTEN!

http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/9797.php

File and transcript.

http://www.plunder.com/US-Police-Torture-Suspect-download-3113.htm

http://www.thelibertypapers.org/files/silertranscript.pdf

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