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For more
about Steve Erickson's story, go to Free Speech
Steve Erickson
Whistleblower goes to
Prison
August 25, 2003
An open letter to Stafford
Springs, Connecticut asking why young and old criminals are rewarded
and honest property/business owners are punished.
I was a successful bidder at
a CT HUD auction in '94, buying a single family house on Brown
Ave Ext, previously known as 'Cat Alley' in older town records
and not because there were 'cats' in an alley. Moving
into what was one of America's first Spa/Resorts (only in heyday
which lasted until early 1900's) and did not know what I was
getting into and how my life would be adversely impacted.
I had only owned the house
for a matter of a week or so, when I discovered my mail opened
with a child's writing with threats to leave town and a separate
incident on coming home to a pry bar stuck in the door. I called
Troop C State Police in Stafford Springs, the responding officer
told me it was too bad I bought property in a crime/drug area,
that there was nothing he was willing to do or investigate, and
if it was youths, the police did not have time to deal with youth
crime.
I joined the Crime Watch. The
woman who started the Crime Watch could not even walk outside
with her baby, battling teens that would swear at her. These
teens would openly drink, sell drugs, smoke cigarettes. The ones
I became aware of would openly vandalize houses, break into houses,
sell stolen items, sell drugs from drive thru style/open air
drug markets in Stafford.
Hold ups, break-ins, muggings
went somewhat investigated, although most downtown residents
knew the names of perpetrators, but most of them knew they were
wasting their time reporting these individuals to police and
would cause the teens and criminals to retaliate against the
'cop caller' and police would also become hostile to the caller.
A couple that was part of the start of the Crime Watch got sick
of the 24 drug market and teens wilding, could not get police
to remedy the situation, just let the bank foreclose on their
house to escape Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and the rampant
teen, drug, and crime problem.
My wife fell down the stairs
at our home as she had not drank enough fluids and was sick.
I called for an ambulance. I was known to police from being vocal
at crime watch meetings and they had become hostile to me. When
an ambulance arrived with police, I tried to walk over to my
wife to try to cover her up as she was exposed when she was on
a stretcher and a Stafford police officer slammed me into my
house and told me that they were going to arrest me as they thought
I may have pushed my wife down the stairs. Rasa was a former
Lingerie model I had met while in Europe and told police that
I was not near her, so the officer could not concoct anything
then.
 In '95, we finally took our honeymoon
in Hawaii, and took a month vacation to her native Lithuania,
and then to Poland, Latvia, and Estonia for a month. After coming
home I continued my rounds downtown as part of the crime watch.
A 14 year old, Amanda F, propositioned me for sex for money which
I reported. I stumbled on Peter P. and a powdered cocaine drug
deal. Peter P. called me an undercover cop and told me to leave
the area. I did not and Peter (6'3 or so, possibly 280 lbs, I
was 175lbs, 5'9) picked me up by the neck, pummeled me, and tried
to bite my ear off (blood trickled all the way down to my underwear).
Peter took off from the scene after I dialed 911 as his friend
told 'Pete' that he was holding drugs and the police soon would
be there.
Pete's friend told police they
did not see anything. I persisted calling police worrying I may
have contracted a disease from the human bite from the drug dealer.
Police relented and took me to all the bars in town where I found
Pete. I then was arrested at my house in front of my wife six
weeks later, as Peter P.'s friends who had previously told police
they did not see anything and did not know my assailant, wrote
statements saying I had attacked their friend without provocation
and he is in fear of me.
I told the prosecutor my account
and was told it was not whether I was guilty or innocent there
was enough on her plate to collect a fine. I went to the Stafford
LT that I had given information to. He told me I had interfered
with a drug investigation and the police were looking to confiscate
a bar and a house. The officer told me I was not allowed downtown
unless I did drugs. The LT called the prosecutor to get my charges
dropped, thinking I would now keep my mouth shut and stay out
of the downtown in which I lived.
My wife told me I lacked good
judgment locating us to Stafford, and we later divorced. I recovered
from the break up in Paris, then bought a 2 family house in Somersville,
CT, and the 3 and 4 family houses that were boarded up, next
to my former single family house in Stafford Springs, Connecticut
in Summer '98.
I had trouble getting teens
and drug dealers to stay off my Stafford property as they told
me they were there first and continued to have drug and alcohol
parties breaking into my properties. 'Jaybone' D. pulled a gun
on my and chased me into my house when I told him to not sell
drugs off my yard. Jaybone would have drug/alcohol/sex parties
with underage girls at his Brown Ave Ext apartment. John T. slammed
my head into my house when I asked him not to sell drugs off
my yard. As far as I know police did not do anything about either
situation.
I started renting out the 9
apartments as I fixed them up. Stafford Police and Connecticut
State Police would refuse to do anything when my property was
destroyed, broken into, when I was attacked and threatened, when
teens and tenants fought, had out of control drug/alcohol parties,
sold drugs and stolen items to no avail. Police told me that
they did not serve downtown property owners, especially landlords.
I got fed up and started writing
letters to the editor describing the rampant drugs and crime
in Stafford Springs and the lack of police help. I proposed civilian
oversight of police to legislators. I wrote Bush September 15,
2001, about the teens drinking/fighting/selling drugs off my
front yard all hours, how frauds flourished, and how all this
hurt small downtown business and property investors. I got a
response from that letter from the SBA and HUD. I had finally
gotten all the apartments rented and had only one problem tenant
I was in the process of evicting. I finally felt I turned the
corner as I was finally having money coming in after years of
hard work. I was happy that I had cleaned up my little corner
of the world and had with my own efforts stemmed the tide of
the drug trade myself on my end of the main drag of Stafford.
I would own about $500,000 in real estate and could retire on
the $6500 gross monthly rents in as little as 12 years when the
mortgages were paid off.
Stafford Officers and Connecticut
State Police began to tell me I was to leave town. An alleged
police informant, Brian C., began to harass and threaten me.
I would have to get to my vehicle quickly as he would chase me
to my back door. He disturbed my neighbors after midnight banging
on my door telling me he would cut my penis off if he caught
me outside.
10-11-01, Brian C, told my
tenant Don L. that he would not have a landlord as he (Brian
C) was going to kill me when I got home. Brian C. left me a voicemail
at 1PM telling me he would 'hurt' me when I got home. Brian C.
left a threatening message on tenant, Sue J's answering machine.
Brian C finally caught me on my yard at almost midnight. I had
worked a double shift and was too tired to notice him when he
beat me severely from behind demanding money or he said he would
kill me.
I pepper sprayed Brian C. and
police were right there to arrest me and refused to take my complaint
against Brian C. The arresting officers committed perjury at
trial and I was sent to prison losing everything. Police had
allowed Brian C to harass, threaten, and attack me all the way
up to trial. From my personal experience I can say hard work
and property investment is punished with prison and being run
out of Connecticut, and teen delinquency, alcoholism, vandalism,
drug use, and their older criminal career parasites are also
welcome and encouraged in Stafford Springs. I have lost my family,
pets, and everything I have ever worked and saved for.
I was treated with the maximum
harshness by the legal system after being declared the victim
of a robbery/beating on my own property. I think the downtown
drug and crime problem is the fault of the police and policy
makers. Crime cannot be curbed by targeting the wallets and purses
of honest taxpayers while almost ignoring criminal activity.
Steven G. Erickson
Reprinted by permission of
the author from freespeech.com
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Publisher : Sheila
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Got something
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- Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
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Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Index
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This is not
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Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Gary
wells: Faulty eye-witness
testimony
- Tulia,
Texas
- Gilmer,
Texas
- Willie
Upshaw
- Wrongfully convicted in Canada
- Foster Parent false accusations
- Martensville
- Don
Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction
- James
Lockyer
- Hurricane
Carter
- Johnny Cochran speaks up for
Bill Sampson
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
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The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
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- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
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- Brandon Morin:
- Convicted in Oregon
- of rapes which did not happen
- This website has good information
about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements
which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how
the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors
who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful
convictions.
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A
round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
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