ConspiracyPenPal Newsletter

First, the fund report: My wife, who opens the envelopes, photocopies everything, endorses the checks to the trust fund and prepares the deposit receipts, reports that we just went over $14,000 with Saturday's mail. You know, we might just end up buying them a new place to live. Of course, if things go right, the county will end up buying them a pretty nice place to live (as it should!).

I continue to have my heart rent every time she shows me a $25 check from someone living on social security or a couple of dollar bills sent by someone with even less. The letters sent by those with nothing, who can include only heartfelt best wishes, are perhaps my favorites, however. Cyndi remarked again tonight how this experience is renewing her faith in humanity and America, as she sees strangers from every state in the union opening their hearts and their purses to share what they have with others. I remarked how I wished that we could someday have a huge picnic somewhere, with everyone coming and spending the day together. Maybe we can do something like that on a more limited scale when this is all over.....we'll see.

Yes, you noticed getting emails from me from different addresses and ISP's. My main one was a little sick night before last and hiccuped a few extra copies of some emails and didn't send others. I switched to a backup. Anything from steele@pop.net or steele@nidlink.com or (anyone)@plainlawtalk.com is me.

Tomorrow morning is the "shelter hearing" for the kids. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with the nicest lady, a close family friend of the McGuckins with whom I have been in contact from the very beginning, and we think we have it set for her to take all the kids as a unit until we can get them put back together with JoAnn and start the healing process. We're keeping her name and location a secret, so the kids can start out with her without any media intrusions. She is the perfect choice and was JoAnn's suggestion the night I first met with her.

Those who have sent me that dreadful article of Dave Turner's from yesterday's Bonner County Daily Bee will be interested to know that this lady also signed an affidavit for me, confirming that JoAnn told her early on that she had asked me to represent her and her kids for their civil interests in connection with this case. I have faxed a pointed letter to the Sheriff, asking him to have that Lieutenant Valdez of his confirm or deny each and every statement attributed to him in the article.

What you don't know, of course, is that Turner is a defendant in a pending libel suit that I filed against the Bee for calling me a Nazi back when I handled the Aryan Nations case.

This affidavit also puts the lie to the representations put out at the same time by the Prosecuting Attorney's office (our ol' buddy Phil) and the public pretender, Bryce Powell. Gee, the same baldface lie mouthed by all those people at precisely the same time - what are the odds of that, do you suppose? I must be doing something right, to have all these members of the establishment gunning for me, so I suppose I should be flattered. In fact, I am royally pissed off right now and in no mood to "just get over it." Glad I'm not going to have to produce the notes of my two-hour meeting with JoAnn the night of May 30 (rationale: If she didn't ask me to represent her and her kids, why did she tell me her life's story and dump all the details I need to run with the civil aspects of the case?)

What I find really annoying is how nobody seems particularly concerned about the best interests of the kids and putting this family back together again. Nobody but us, that is. There was a second public defender just appointed, by the name of Sara Seaborg. She seems genuinely interested in helping the McGuckins and seems a genuinely nice person, too boot. I'm hopeful that Sara's addition will finally get the case on the right track, but first we've got to get Powell off center. Powell felt so caught up that he took four or five days off last week to take an "R&R" trip into Canada....while JoAnn still languished in jail, of course. I have learned to regret not offering to represent JoAnn for everything when I first met her. Ah, well - hindsight, donchaknow.

Tomorrow might see some interesting developments, aside from the picketing planned by some politically-incorrect sorts. JJ Johnson is in town to help out. I'm hoping they arrest him and the lady in the wheelchair. Make for a great photo spread, don't you think? (JJ is this big, strapping black guy with a nonstop smile and the editor of The Sierra Times, a great alternative internet news site.) The Sandpoint police chief stopped by Pizza Hut to deliver a copy of the ordinance governing demonstrations, just for intimidation value. I think it is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, of course. We might just get a chance to test my opinion.