A law abiding citizen seeks justice in America's corrupt legal system.
All this is here because I obeyed the law. If I had not obeyed the law, none of this would be here.
About a year after the accident, it was still a struggle just to survive. I spent most of my time selling my belongings, trying to raise money to try and recover from this devastating incident. All the insurance companies involved refused to pay for any damages. No attorney would take my case. All my American Veteran supporting elected representatives declined to support a law abiding veteran who had been run over by a semi truck. This was not the first time my life had been destroyed by corrupt politicians and police.
I am hearing impaired. Without hearing aids, I am unable to understand what people are saying, I am unable to carry on a normal conversation. Without hearing aids, there is no way for me to function in a work, business, or any interpersonal environment. To leave me for dead on the side of the road, then be forced to live without hearing or human contact, with no money, in the middle of nowhere, is about the harshest penalty you can get for stopping for a stop sign. If I could not find a way to, at least, get enough money to buy hearing aids, this would be my life until the day I die.
My last resort was Small Claims Court in Klickitat County, Washington, where I live. I was living in my truck, most of my belongings had been sold. The "bleed them out" strategy, that insurance companies use on innocent victims to deplete their resources into helplessness, was taking it's toll.
Nearly a year after the accident, I still did not know anything about the truck driver who hit me, the company he worked for, or the insurance company that supposedly insured the forty ton truck. I would find out that information later, but at this point, I desperately needed money to buy hearing aids. I filed claims against Gallagher Bassett, the company that had stolen my truck from the tow yard using false documents, MB Global Logistics, the supposed operator of the truck and Penske Leasing, the large trucking corporation that owned the truck.
At the trial, the three companies; Gallagher Bassett, MB Global Logistics and Penske Leasing were represented by an attorney. I was represented my me, who could not hear. The following are, what I feel, key points at the trial. They are the recorded court transcripts. As public records, they are available to anyone.
Klickitat County Court is a small courtroom in a large county of small towns. As the trial began, I could not hear what the judge was saying. After several minutes, I was able to make a statement asking the judge to consider that I could not hear what was going on.
Most of the court session consisted of the judge chastising me for my lack of knowledge of the loopholes in American corporate law. I wanted to find out who was responsible for destroying my life and if the law was going to protect me or not.
At this point, the trial and any hope of me returning to my life previous to the accident is over. If people are not responsible for their own actions, how can they be innocent or guilty? Why are the police arresting and killing people if they are not responsible for their actions? "It is your responsibility to know and obey the law", something everyone who has ever encountered a law enforcement officer in America has heard. As many Americans have found out, the law is not the same for everyone, or there is no law at all.
If you are an American citizen and think you will find justice in American courts, unless you are a movie star, or a corrupt politician, you are sadly mistaken. Instead of the Constitution; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and those esteemed American Christian values, there is a system. A corrupt system that protects criminals and punishes law abiding citizens.
And that's how the system works
The judge explains to me how Penske Leasing, who owns the vehicle, has no legal responsibility for renting trucks to unqualified drivers, injuring thousands, more likely tens of thousands, of innocent people every year. I try to explain the basic facts of what happened the day of the accident that seem to have no relevance in this procedure.
Plain and simple; if I would have not stopped for the construction zone flagman and run him over, the semi truck that hit me would have surely run him over again, nobody would have ever known. I would not be here and none of this would have happened. As the judge in the case ruled, I would not be personally responsible for my actions. Stopping for that flagman and placing my life in the hands of the American legal system was a mistake.
An individual American citizen will never achieve justice when the case involves a giant American corporation, no matter how much damage and suffering that corporation has inflicted. The American judicial system will back the big money every time.
At this point, the outcome of the case was already decided. There is nothing I could have done to change the decision. One corporate attorney for the people who wrecked my life and a judge who certainly is not going to rule against a giant corporation, against a homeless veteran living in his truck who can't hear. Certainly close to the pinnacle of American values and jurisprudence.
Since the semi truck accident left me homeless and bankrupt, the only medical care available to me, since I an a veteran, is from the Veterans Administration. That medical care is paid for by American taxpayers. I pointed this out to the judge.
The judge suggested the VA is able to recoup these expenses through yet more legal procedures. The VA does not have the resources to do this, especially in this part of rural America. This type of legal action would cost taxpayers more money and veterans would still be denied treatment, but would create more work for lawyers.
One again, without response, I ask the question; "When you obey the law and you are punished more than not obeying the law, how do you expect people to act?"
The judge wants people to obey the law, but bends over backwards to protect those who don't. Since this day in 2019, America has certainly become more "disassembled" and chaos is just around the corner.
Gallagher Bassett stole my truck using falsified documents, towed it to where I had no access to my vehicle and was charging me $100/month to store the stolen vehicle. When I asked them to replace the hearing aids I needed so badly, they refused.
Gallagher Bassett stole my truck using falsified documents which I presented to the court. The judge dismissed this as if it were nothing. The attorney for Gallagher Bassett/Penske Leasing/MB Global Logistics made several false and/or incorrect statements during this proceeding and was not required to provide any evidence or documentation.
I had witnessed this kind of insurance fraud as a tow truck driver. Whatever documentation insurance companies needed would appear. I knew I was being ripped off, scam victim, whatever, and there was nothing I could do about it. Do you think you could walk onto a car lot with a fake title and drive away with a car? Insurance companies can.
I never tried to sue anybody, scam anybody or take advantage of being an accident victim. After the accident and at this Small Claims court hearing, all I asked is that the people responsible for the accident replace the things that were destroyed, replace my hearing aids and pay for medical expenses. I was on my way to start a business. If they would have paid me, I would have been on my way. I did not know at the time, but there was a lot more to the operators of the semi truck that hit me.
For those who are not American, or are an American who gets their information about the insurance "business" from television commercials, here is a short history of American insurance.
The attorney for Gallagher Bassett had all my evidence while providing none on their client's behalf. They stole my truck using falsified documents to remove the only bargaining chip I had. Once they had the truck, I never heard from them again.
I sued MB Global Logistics, Penske Leasing and Gallagher Bassett because I did not know who was legally responsible for the accident. As it turned out, none of them were responsible. The case against Penske Leasing was thrown out immediately. Penske Leasing is one of the biggest corporations in America. The trucking industry is controlled by organized crime, I never had a chance.
The judge awarded me $5000 and change, the maximum for a single small claims case. The accident cost me between $25-30,000, I'm homeless and had to sell most of my stuff. Not to mention the permanent injuries from the accident, so it was not a win for me in any respect. The insurance companies paid the least amount they could possibly pay, even though they destroyed an innocent persons life. The $5000 "award" was already spent. There would be no hearing aids and no hope of returning to a normal life. It was a life sentence.
It would be more than two years before I would be able to get hearing aids and work through corrupted court transcript audio files, to finally hear what was said at my own trial.
Long before I heard what was said in my own trial, I was summoned by Klickitat County to serve on jury duty. I informed them that since I could not hear and was homeless, I would make a poor juror. What I did not tell them was, that as a decent human being that has respect for human life, I would not participate in the system that had bent over backwards to protect drug traffickers and destroyed my life. The Klickitat County judge in my case ruled people are not responsible for their own actions, I should not have any responsibility to serve on a jury or anything else. Even if I was to serve on a jury, nobody is responsible for their actions, everybody go home. On top of all that, there is the little matter of my "veteran suicide" at the hands of the police. Being in a building full of cops makes me nervous.
The Klickitat County clerk informed me that if I did not show up to serve on jury duty, she would refuse to issue registration tags for my truck. Since I live in my truck, that would put me on the street. Klickitat County, Washington USA would intentionally and deliberately put a law abiding veteran on the street. All because I stopped for that stop sign in Chiloquin, OR.
All this is here because I obeyed the law. If I had not obeyed the law, none of this would be here.