NEWS BULLETIN - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NOVEMBER 2, 2008
For more information contact: grapskidefense@gmail.com
ACTIVIST CHARLES GRAPKSI HELD WITHOUT BOND IN ALACHUA COUNTY JAIL,
GRAPSKI SAYS HE IS BEING DENIED HIS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND BLACKMAILED INTO CUTTING A DEAL
Gainesville, Florida --- Charles Grapski is being held without bond in the Alachua County Jail, where he has been incarcerated since his arrest on October 12 for two misdemeanor charges. Claiming he has been denied due process and the right to counsel, Grapski says his continued imprisonment constitutes political persecution by the state attorney's office.
"I'm being denied my constitutional rights, and it feels like I'm being blackmailed into cutting a deal," Grapski said, referring to his pending trial on 2007 felony charges. (See Background on 2007 Police Assault and False Arrest, attached below.) ,Grapski says he will not consider pleading guilty to a crime he did not commit, even if it means staying in jail, and he will fight for his right to a jury trial on the 2007 charges. "The misdemeanor charges should be dropped, and my original bond reinstated, since the complainant has told the prosecutor he doesn't wish to press charges, " he said.
Grapski has already spent 2 1/2 weeks behind bars for the trespassing and criminal mischief charges, which resulted from a late night misunderstanding at a friend's house following a home game of the Florida Gators football team.
Grapski's bail on the October 12 misdemeanor charges was originally set for $100 for each charge, but before he could post bail a series of actions by a Circuit Court judge and a hostile prosecutor have kept him locked up, perhaps indefinitely.
Within a week of the October 12 arrest, the person who filed the complaint informed the State Attorney's office that he does not wish to press charges against Grapski. Unfortunately for Grapski, the State Attorney's office appears to be using his continued incarceration without bond as a means of extracting a plea bargain on the 2007 felony charges. The misdemeanor charges, rather than being dropped, were assigned to Geoffrey Fleck, the same prosecutor who is prosecuting Grapski's 2007 felony charges.
Grapski had posted a cash bond in August 2007 and was released pending trial on trumped up felony charges slapped on him by Chief Robert Jernigan of the Alachua Police Department.
Circuit Court Judge Phyllis Rosier, who had originally set a bond of $60,000 for Grapski in the 2007 charges (before the bond was reduced by another judge), raised Grapski's bond on the October 12 misdemeanors from $100 each to $5000 each. This was done without holding a bond hearing and without notifying the defendant. Also without a bond hearing, and without notifying Grapski or his bondholder (a friend had put up the cash), the judge then unilaterally revoked Grapski's cash bond on the 2007 charges, on the grounds that the misdemeanor arrest violated the conditions of his bond.
This means Grapski is now being held without bond on the 2007 charges, just as if he were a dangerous rapist or murderer.
Grapski has been trying to get a bond hearing set, without success. A state-appointed attorney assigned to his defense in the 2007 charges had recently resigned, citing a conflict of interest. After being held virtually incommunicado and without contact with legal counsel for almost two weeks, Grapski finally spoke by telephone with John Stokes, his newly appointed attorney and requested that a bond hearing be set.
Grapski says Stokes told him that he had spoken with prosecutor Geoffrey Fleck, and he informed Grapski that a plea bargain arrangement had been discussed. According to Stokes, Fleck had offered a deal that would get Grapski out of jail and "keep him out of prison." Grapski then told his attorney he was innocent of the charges and wanted his day in court. Grapski says when he told Stokes he would not consider pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit, his court-appointed attorney attorney became angry and hung up on him.
Six days later, a bond hearing has not yet been set, and so far Grapski has not been able to speak again with Stokes, who reportedly is occupied with a murder trial.
Charles Grapski is currently being denied his basic constitutional rights, including his right to due process, his right to a bond hearing, and his right to prepare a competent defense. He is essentially being told that the only way he will get out of jail is to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit, thus sparing the State Attorney's office the embarrassment of prosecuting the Alachua Police Department's trumped up felony charges before a jury of Grapski's peers.
Charles Grapski's friends and family are concerned for his health, and are seeking to expose the violation of his right to counsel and due process and get him released on bond.
To send a message to Grapski in jail, send an email to grapskidefense@gmail.com (It will be read to him over the phone) or mail it to the jail.
Background on 2007 Police Assault and False Arrest
Under the direction of Alachua City Manager/Police Commissioner Clovis Watson, Alachua Police Chief Robert Jernigan and another APD officer assaulted and arrested Charles Grapski when he attempted to file a formal complaint about Jernigan's misconduct at the Alachua Police Department. Watson had been named as a defendant in several lawsuits against the City of Alachua by Grapski, and Grapski had been the victim of two previous false arrests on felony charges by Watson and Jernigan, the first in May 2006 and the second in February 2007.
Following the August arrest at APD, Grapski was taken to a hospital for medical treatment before being transported to the County Jail. He was charged with trespassing (for going to a police station with a complaint during business hours) and multiple felony counts of resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer. More felony charges were added at the jail when Grapski verbally declined to submit to a strip search by a female guard and was subsequently maced in the face and assaulted by guards while lying on the floor handcuffed.
In protest of his treatment, Grapski launched a hunger strike, and after suffering a collapse in his jail cell he was rushed in an ambulance to a regional hospital, where he remained unconscious for two days in an intensive care unit.
Grapski was eventually released on a cash bond and has been waiting over a year for his day in court on the August 2007 felony charges.
See the High Springs Herald articles below or search the Herald archives online for more background on Grapski's political arrests in Alachua and his mistreatment at the hands of Alachua officials:
First false arrest - May 1, 2006 (charges held open for six months, then prosecuted, resulting in dismissal)
I came across one of your cards that a friend had gotten at Netroots Nation and I noticed that your one site appears in maintenance mode and this one seems to be working. Although you need to put more of what this video is about on it.
This video should go nationwide. Have you tried showing it at any of the conventions or festivals? And what has happened since then? It frightened me and made me sick to watch. What kind of America have we found ourselves stuck in these days. Not the one from my civics books. I guess that dates me since we don't even teach that any longer.
Mr. Grapski I know you will understand that I am not going to put my name here for the obvious reasons. You have done far more than you may realize in the past three years. Tensions are high. Moral is at an all time law. And you know about the most recent controversial firing of Major Reiter just as he would become the Chief upon Jernigan's resignation. There is so much more to this and I really only know what went on in the APD while I was there and what I hear from others about these days. But there is very shady business taking place and you are right that Clovis Watson controls that Department and uses it for his political and other personal uses. I cannot go into some of what I witnessed before leaving as this might help to identify me. I just want you to know that you are on the right track and you need to keep pushing. I am glad to see that you have this web page again as I used to read your Alachua website with regularity and you had a wealth of information posted there that any FDLE or other law enforcement officer could have conducted an investigation from and found serious wrongdoing. I am sure you were sending it to them and I really congratulate you on stripping Watson of his false claims to LEO status and his scamming the retirement system. I hope you are intending on putting all of your site and writings and the public records you had up until last year as I think you have been able to push the matter so far into the public spotlight and have gotten to persons in outside agencies that if this keeps up will have to step in and take a look. I cannot tell you how bad it was getting when Clovis became Manager and it was not all really different before that when he was Deputy Chief. But there are real crimes happening and there are those of us who avoid going into Alachua if we can help it out of very real concern for our safety and more so that of our families. You are in a dangerous position because these are dangerous people. But I think you have enough of a spotlight on you that they have to be careful in how they try to attack you. Right now they are certain that the State Attorney is going to help them put you in jail. Do not trust that office because there are some people there who are very close with what is going on illegally in Alachua. One day I hope you succeed and clean up this mess or at least break the barrier that protects it. I have wanted to come forward for several years but I know they would attack me as they do you and perhaps worse because of things I know first hand. If you can force some kind of real investigation it will shut down the entire town government because it is all crooked. Not that everyone working on the staff or in the APD are crooked but they are all compromised and no one will speak. I have followed your story from the beginning and have posted occasionally on the Herald site recently and a few times on the ALA site but that was useless. When I cam across your page this morning my wife and one of my older children watched the video in horror. I can only imagine what happened to you last summer and apologize for your suffering so much. But seeing this video and the incident with Chief Jernigan leaving and Clovis taking over by appointing his friend after removing Reiter in such a manner which we have seen with other firings before has really gotten me shooken up as well as some of those I speak with who still have relationships with persons in the Department and at City Hall. I never thought it would go this far and with all you proved to the FDLE about Clovis and the pension fraud it worries me what is going to happen before someone really investigates. I hope it doesnt need someone to get killed in all of this before something will get done. I liked Robert Jernigan as a friend but he could not defy the orders of Clovis for fear of what would have happened to him. I know of DeCoursey but not to much but I think he will play the same role now as the head of the Department. Please be careful and watch your back these are dangerous people and there is a lot at stake not just in the money over at City Hall but also in the number of people who have everything to lose if what they have been doing these so many years becomes known and there is an investigation. And people with everything to lose can do many things in desperate times. Please do not stop you are doing a public service but be careful. I wish I could tell you more. Perhaps some day we can meet and if an investigation is going on that looks real I may have some things to share then. But I wanted most of all in writing this to tell you how much you are admired by many in the law enforcement community and among my friends and neighbors who know why you are doing this. So I send my sincerest of appreciations to you and hope that more people will do the same. We all know your critics and what they say and we have heard it all before about anyone who dared get in the middle of this. They are not fooling anyone and your message is spreading to more people every day. So please keep to your bravery in action and I use that word no differently than I do of my brother LEOs.
Charlie you are a hero to so many of us. I know you are suffering incredible hardship in all of this and I dont know how you do it. Thank you for not running away when things got rough. You are one of a kind. And we need you.
How can we help? I have read nothing about much of this in the Sun and I know so many others have no idea this is taking place. We need to do something.
Keep strong. Truth is on your side. But its not easy to be the messenger when no one wants to hear the message.
Comments
11/02/08 - NEWS BULLETIN - Grapski held without bond
NEWS BULLETIN - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NOVEMBER 2, 2008
For more information contact: grapskidefense@gmail.com
ACTIVIST CHARLES GRAPKSI HELD WITHOUT BOND IN ALACHUA COUNTY JAIL,
GRAPSKI SAYS HE IS BEING DENIED HIS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND BLACKMAILED INTO CUTTING A DEAL
Gainesville, Florida --- Charles Grapski is being held without bond in the Alachua County Jail, where he has been incarcerated since his arrest on October 12 for two misdemeanor charges. Claiming he has been denied due process and the right to counsel, Grapski says his continued imprisonment constitutes political persecution by the state attorney's office.
"I'm being denied my constitutional rights, and it feels like I'm being blackmailed into cutting a deal," Grapski said, referring to his pending trial on 2007 felony charges. (See Background on 2007 Police Assault and False Arrest, attached below.) ,Grapski says he will not consider pleading guilty to a crime he did not commit, even if it means staying in jail, and he will fight for his right to a jury trial on the 2007 charges. "The misdemeanor charges should be dropped, and my original bond reinstated, since the complainant has told the prosecutor he doesn't wish to press charges, " he said.
Grapski has already spent 2 1/2 weeks behind bars for the trespassing and criminal mischief charges, which resulted from a late night misunderstanding at a friend's house following a home game of the Florida Gators football team.
Grapski's bail on the October 12 misdemeanor charges was originally set for $100 for each charge, but before he could post bail a series of actions by a Circuit Court judge and a hostile prosecutor have kept him locked up, perhaps indefinitely.
Within a week of the October 12 arrest, the person who filed the complaint informed the State Attorney's office that he does not wish to press charges against Grapski. Unfortunately for Grapski, the State Attorney's office appears to be using his continued incarceration without bond as a means of extracting a plea bargain on the 2007 felony charges. The misdemeanor charges, rather than being dropped, were assigned to Geoffrey Fleck, the same prosecutor who is prosecuting Grapski's 2007 felony charges.
Grapski had posted a cash bond in August 2007 and was released pending trial on trumped up felony charges slapped on him by Chief Robert Jernigan of the Alachua Police Department.
Circuit Court Judge Phyllis Rosier, who had originally set a bond of $60,000 for Grapski in the 2007 charges (before the bond was reduced by another judge), raised Grapski's bond on the October 12 misdemeanors from $100 each to $5000 each. This was done without holding a bond hearing and without notifying the defendant. Also without a bond hearing, and without notifying Grapski or his bondholder (a friend had put up the cash), the judge then unilaterally revoked Grapski's cash bond on the 2007 charges, on the grounds that the misdemeanor arrest violated the conditions of his bond.
This means Grapski is now being held without bond on the 2007 charges, just as if he were a dangerous rapist or murderer.
Grapski has been trying to get a bond hearing set, without success. A state-appointed attorney assigned to his defense in the 2007 charges had recently resigned, citing a conflict of interest. After being held virtually incommunicado and without contact with legal counsel for almost two weeks, Grapski finally spoke by telephone with John Stokes, his newly appointed attorney and requested that a bond hearing be set.
Grapski says Stokes told him that he had spoken with prosecutor Geoffrey Fleck, and he informed Grapski that a plea bargain arrangement had been discussed. According to Stokes, Fleck had offered a deal that would get Grapski out of jail and "keep him out of prison." Grapski then told his attorney he was innocent of the charges and wanted his day in court. Grapski says when he told Stokes he would not consider pleading guilty to a crime he didn't commit, his court-appointed attorney attorney became angry and hung up on him.
Six days later, a bond hearing has not yet been set, and so far Grapski has not been able to speak again with Stokes, who reportedly is occupied with a murder trial.
Charles Grapski is currently being denied his basic constitutional rights, including his right to due process, his right to a bond hearing, and his right to prepare a competent defense. He is essentially being told that the only way he will get out of jail is to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit, thus sparing the State Attorney's office the embarrassment of prosecuting the Alachua Police Department's trumped up felony charges before a jury of Grapski's peers.
Charles Grapski's friends and family are concerned for his health, and are seeking to expose the violation of his right to counsel and due process and get him released on bond.
To send a message to Grapski in jail, send an email to grapskidefense@gmail.com (It will be read to him over the phone) or mail it to the jail.
Important numbers:
Alachua County Jail 352-491-4460 http://www.alachuasheriff.org/
State Attorney's Office: 352-374-3670 http://sawww.co.alachua.fl.us/
Background on 2007 Police Assault and False Arrest
Under the direction of Alachua City Manager/Police Commissioner Clovis Watson, Alachua Police Chief Robert Jernigan and another APD officer assaulted and arrested Charles Grapski when he attempted to file a formal complaint about Jernigan's misconduct at the Alachua Police Department. Watson had been named as a defendant in several lawsuits against the City of Alachua by Grapski, and Grapski had been the victim of two previous false arrests on felony charges by Watson and Jernigan, the first in May 2006 and the second in February 2007.
Following the August arrest at APD, Grapski was taken to a hospital for medical treatment before being transported to the County Jail. He was charged with trespassing (for going to a police station with a complaint during business hours) and multiple felony counts of resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer. More felony charges were added at the jail when Grapski verbally declined to submit to a strip search by a female guard and was subsequently maced in the face and assaulted by guards while lying on the floor handcuffed.
In protest of his treatment, Grapski launched a hunger strike, and after suffering a collapse in his jail cell he was rushed in an ambulance to a regional hospital, where he remained unconscious for two days in an intensive care unit.
Grapski was eventually released on a cash bond and has been waiting over a year for his day in court on the August 2007 felony charges.
See the High Springs Herald articles below or search the Herald archives online for more background on Grapski's political arrests in Alachua and his mistreatment at the hands of Alachua officials:
First false arrest - May 1, 2006 (charges held open for six months, then prosecuted, resulting in dismissal)
High Springs Herald | May 4, 2006
State House candidate arrested in Alachua City Hall
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/05/04/news/news01.txt
High Springs Herald | May 18, 2006
With county official now involved, situation heats up in city of Alachua
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/05/18/news/news04.txt
High Springs Herald | June 15, 2006
Alachua accuses Grapski of again illegally taping a city employee
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/06/15/heraldftp_061506/te...
High Springs Herald | June 22, 2006
Alachua needs to investigate its elections, drop charges against me, Grapski
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/06/22/heraldftp_062206/te...
High Springs Herald | July 6, 2006
Except for his home, Grapski now banned from Alachua
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/07/06/news/news02.txt
High Springs Herald | October 12, 2006
State Attorney's Office decides to officially charge Grapski in incident involving Alachua city manager
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/10/12/news/news11.txt
High Springs Herald | November 22, 2006
Judge dismisses criminal wiretap charges against Grapski
By Ronald Dupont Jr., Herald Editor
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/11/22/news/news01.txt
Second false arrest - February 12, 2007(charges held open for six months, never prosecuted)
High Springs Herald | February 15, 2007
Grapski arrested yet again, this time carried out of Alachua city meeting
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/02/15/news/news07.txt
High Springs Herald | September 6, 2007
State Attorney's Office drops some charges against Grapski
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/09/06/news/news07.txt
Third false arrest - August 13, 2007 (charges still pending, Grapski's defense being compromised by denial of right to counsel and due process)
High Springs Herald | August 16, 2007
Grapski in jail on police battery charges
By Ronald Dupont Jr., Herald Editor
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/08/16/news/news04.txt
High Springs Herald | August 17, 2007
Grapski not eating, says he is being mistreated in jail
By Ronald Dupont Jr., Herald Editor
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/08/17/breaking_news/break...
High Springs Herald | August 23, 2007
Ending a hunger strike: Grapski in hospital after second arrest
By Ronald Dupont Jr., Herald Editor
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/08/23/news/news01.txt
High Springs Herald | August 30, 2007
Alachua answers questions posed in lawsuits over city elections, issue of Watson having two titles
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/08/30/news/news08.txt
October 12, 2008 misdemeanor arrest
High Springs Herald | October 13, 2007
Grapski in jail after early morning incident
http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2008/10/13/breaking_news/break...
Search the High Springs Herald archives at www.highspringsherald.com for "grapski alachua" for more...
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You need to tell this story beyond your little town
I came across one of your cards that a friend had gotten at Netroots Nation and I noticed that your one site appears in maintenance mode and this one seems to be working. Although you need to put more of what this video is about on it.
This video should go nationwide. Have you tried showing it at any of the conventions or festivals? And what has happened since then? It frightened me and made me sick to watch. What kind of America have we found ourselves stuck in these days. Not the one from my civics books. I guess that dates me since we don't even teach that any longer.
You are on the right track, stay on it
Mr. Grapski I know you will understand that I am not going to put my name here for the obvious reasons. You have done far more than you may realize in the past three years. Tensions are high. Moral is at an all time law. And you know about the most recent controversial firing of Major Reiter just as he would become the Chief upon Jernigan's resignation. There is so much more to this and I really only know what went on in the APD while I was there and what I hear from others about these days. But there is very shady business taking place and you are right that Clovis Watson controls that Department and uses it for his political and other personal uses. I cannot go into some of what I witnessed before leaving as this might help to identify me. I just want you to know that you are on the right track and you need to keep pushing. I am glad to see that you have this web page again as I used to read your Alachua website with regularity and you had a wealth of information posted there that any FDLE or other law enforcement officer could have conducted an investigation from and found serious wrongdoing. I am sure you were sending it to them and I really congratulate you on stripping Watson of his false claims to LEO status and his scamming the retirement system. I hope you are intending on putting all of your site and writings and the public records you had up until last year as I think you have been able to push the matter so far into the public spotlight and have gotten to persons in outside agencies that if this keeps up will have to step in and take a look. I cannot tell you how bad it was getting when Clovis became Manager and it was not all really different before that when he was Deputy Chief. But there are real crimes happening and there are those of us who avoid going into Alachua if we can help it out of very real concern for our safety and more so that of our families. You are in a dangerous position because these are dangerous people. But I think you have enough of a spotlight on you that they have to be careful in how they try to attack you. Right now they are certain that the State Attorney is going to help them put you in jail. Do not trust that office because there are some people there who are very close with what is going on illegally in Alachua. One day I hope you succeed and clean up this mess or at least break the barrier that protects it. I have wanted to come forward for several years but I know they would attack me as they do you and perhaps worse because of things I know first hand. If you can force some kind of real investigation it will shut down the entire town government because it is all crooked. Not that everyone working on the staff or in the APD are crooked but they are all compromised and no one will speak. I have followed your story from the beginning and have posted occasionally on the Herald site recently and a few times on the ALA site but that was useless. When I cam across your page this morning my wife and one of my older children watched the video in horror. I can only imagine what happened to you last summer and apologize for your suffering so much. But seeing this video and the incident with Chief Jernigan leaving and Clovis taking over by appointing his friend after removing Reiter in such a manner which we have seen with other firings before has really gotten me shooken up as well as some of those I speak with who still have relationships with persons in the Department and at City Hall. I never thought it would go this far and with all you proved to the FDLE about Clovis and the pension fraud it worries me what is going to happen before someone really investigates. I hope it doesnt need someone to get killed in all of this before something will get done. I liked Robert Jernigan as a friend but he could not defy the orders of Clovis for fear of what would have happened to him. I know of DeCoursey but not to much but I think he will play the same role now as the head of the Department. Please be careful and watch your back these are dangerous people and there is a lot at stake not just in the money over at City Hall but also in the number of people who have everything to lose if what they have been doing these so many years becomes known and there is an investigation. And people with everything to lose can do many things in desperate times. Please do not stop you are doing a public service but be careful. I wish I could tell you more. Perhaps some day we can meet and if an investigation is going on that looks real I may have some things to share then. But I wanted most of all in writing this to tell you how much you are admired by many in the law enforcement community and among my friends and neighbors who know why you are doing this. So I send my sincerest of appreciations to you and hope that more people will do the same. We all know your critics and what they say and we have heard it all before about anyone who dared get in the middle of this. They are not fooling anyone and your message is spreading to more people every day. So please keep to your bravery in action and I use that word no differently than I do of my brother LEOs.
Bless you and thank you
Charlie you are a hero to so many of us. I know you are suffering incredible hardship in all of this and I dont know how you do it. Thank you for not running away when things got rough. You are one of a kind. And we need you.
How can we help? I have read nothing about much of this in the Sun and I know so many others have no idea this is taking place. We need to do something.
Keep strong. Truth is on your side. But its not easy to be the messenger when no one wants to hear the message.
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