Fred Koschara's Time Log
January 28, 1998 (excerpt)

This page and its contents are Copyright 1998-1999 by Fred Koschara.
All rights reserved.


01/28/98n04:15:00 Sitting in court, listening to the process, I
01/28/98_04:15:27 could see I had a "hanging" judge in front of me:
01/28/98w04:15:40 No matter what evidence or argument *anyone* put
01/28/98_04:15:56 up in their defense, they *all* were found guilty
01/28/98w04:16:06 and a sentence imposed.  All of the court cases
01/28/98_04:16:34 were done before they called me, except that the
01/28/98_04:16:46 prisoners were being brought in from the station,
01/28/98w04:16:57 according to comments made by the court staff.
01/28/98n04:17:14 The clerk called for "William Koschara" as I
01/28/98_04:17:30 expected they would, and I got up saying I didn't
01/28/98w04:17:39 think it was appropriate for them to be calling
01/28/98_04:17:48 my father in their court.  After I'd made it
01/28/98_04:18:16 clear I thought their attempts to rename me were
01/28/98_04:18:34 wrong, the judge asked the prosecuting attorney
01/28/98_04:18:55 if the state was ready to proceed, and she said
01/28/98_04:19:09 they were.  As the first officer that had stopped
01/28/98w04:19:19 me started to the stand, I interrupted to say I
01/28/98_04:19:28 wanted to know if there were charges against me
01/28/98_04:19:37 in the court, and if so, I wanted to know what
01/28/98_04:19:45 they were.  That slowed them down a bit, and I
01/28/98_04:19:56 was finally presented with tickets citing the
01/28/98_04:20:11 charges against me.  The judge didn't want to
01/28/98_04:20:24 wait, but said I could sit down and read the
01/28/98_04:20:36 tickets and they'd call me back to the stand.
01/28/98_04:20:51 After clearing a couple of the other people from
01/28/98_04:21:08 the room (I guess there might actually have been
01/28/98_04:21:18 two or three people that were still waiting when
01/28/98_04:21:27 I was first called), they brought me back up.  I
01/28/98_04:21:38 said that since I hadn't been informed of the
01/28/98_04:21:46 charges against me prior to that time, I had not
01/28/98_04:21:57 been able to adequately prepare my defense, and
01/28/98_04:22:11 asked for some time to do so.  The judge said I
01/28/98_04:22:23 should have asked, and the prosecuter said I
01/28/98_04:22:35 should have called their office, and the judge
01/28/98_04:22:44 announced they were going ahead anyway.  This, I
01/28/98_04:22:53 was prevented from obtaining the services of an
01/28/98_04:23:03 attorney, even if I wanted to.
01/28/98n04:23:13 Since it was quite clear this court was intending
01/28/98w04:23:30 to railroad a conviction through, no matter what
01/28/98_04:23:47 I said or did - unless I gave the judge a chance
01/28/98_04:24:08 to lock me up for "contempt" as he would probably
01/28/98w04:24:23 liked to have done - I decided to sit down and
01/28/98_04:24:38 let them have their farce.
01/28/98n04:24:51 The woman cop - Ms. June Frechette (as indicated
01/28/98_04:30:00 by the tickets I received) - presented her story,
01/28/98w04:30:23 which, for the most part, was fairly accurate.
01/28/98_04:30:35 Two points of misinformation stand out:  She said
01/28/98w04:30:55 she was following "several" cars when she turned
01/28/98_04:31:11 to follow me when she left her position in front
01/28/98_04:31:25 of the dog track - where I was the only car on
01/28/98_04:31:36 that part of the road, and she said I had first
01/28/98_04:31:55 started to allow them to put me in handcuffs,
01/28/98_04:32:06 then pushed away in an attempt to resist.
01/28/98n04:32:19 The other cop, Officer Decker, or Becker (I don't
01/28/98w04:33:49 recall his name exactly, and I wasn't given any
01/28/98_04:34:12 papers with it on it), said he had been traveling
01/28/98w04:34:36 south on Route 28 when he fell in with the other
01/28/98_04:35:01 officer to follow me.  (I think a transcript of
01/28/98_04:35:28 the radio broadcasts for the night would probably
01/28/98w04:35:41 reveal that to be an inaccurate statement - made
01/28/98_04:35:59 under oath).  He also said I put up my hands to
01/28/98_04:37:16 prevent them from being restrained with their
01/28/98_04:37:29 handcuffs, and that he had to throw me against
01/28/98_04:37:39 the car so Ms. Frechette could put the cuffs on.
01/28/98w04:37:59 He also said I had told him that everybody had to
01/28/98w04:38:29 call me "the wizard" when he was putting me in
01/28/98_04:38:40 the patrol car - which is a _complete_
01/28/98_04:38:55 fabrication:  The only way "wizard" had come up
01/28/98_04:39:15 in relation to me that evening is the business
01/28/98_04:39:23 card I pulled out of my pocket and handed them in
01/28/98w04:39:31 the police station happened to be one that has my
01/28/98w04:39:49 name, phone number, and the title "Wizard" on it.
01/28/98w04:40:02 At _no time_ during the course of the incident
01/28/98_04:40:16 did I ask them, or anyone else, to address me as,
01/28/98w04:40:28 or call me "wizard."
01/28/98n04:40:40 Once this officer got done making his statement,
01/28/98_04:40:48 I asked, in cross examining him, when it was that
01/28/98w04:41:07 I had said I should be called "wizard" - and he
01/28/98_04:41:18 again said it was when he was putting me in the
01/28/98_04:41:26 patrol car.  I asked him if he intended to stick
01/28/98_04:41:42 to that statement, under oath, and if he would be
01/28/98w04:41:50 willing to subject himself to a polygraph test of
01/28/98w04:42:01 his testimony.  The prosecutor announced
01/28/98_04:42:14 "objection" and the judge said "sustained" (I'd
01/28/98_04:42:28 like to know *what* the objection is - which they
01/28/98w04:42:41 never stated - I should have asked at the time),
01/28/98_04:42:57 so I said if the witness is going to be allowed
01/28/98_04:43:06 to lie on the stand, there's nothing more I have
01/28/98_04:43:16 to ask him.
01/28/98n04:43:23 I was then allowed to take the stand.  I said I
01/28/98_04:43:34 had gone home that night, and sat down at my
01/28/98_04:43:52 computer to take notes about the incident, and I
01/28/98_04:44:04 would be reading from those notes.  I summarized
01/28/98_04:44:21 the first few lines by saying I had intended to
01/28/98_04:44:31 go to Applebee's that night, but had ended up at
01/28/98_04:44:42 the Grand China to meet a friend.  I then started
01/28/98w04:44:54 reading, starting with the 2:37 entry.
01/28/98n04:45:07 After I'd read about 2 1/2 pages of my notes, the
01/28/98_04:45:23 judge interrupted me, saying I'd gone beyond the
01/28/98_04:45:39 case at hand in reading my narrative, and asked
01/28/98_04:45:53 if I wanted to say anything about my driving
01/28/98_04:46:07 after suspension, which I hadn't said anything
01/28/98_04:46:21 about in the notes.  I thought about it for a
01/28/98_04:46:31 moment, then said I didn't have anything to say,
01/28/98_04:46:44 so he asked me to step down from the witness
01/28/98_04:46:54 stand.
01/28/98n04:47:17 Once I got back to the "defense" table, he said
01/28/98_04:47:31 that based on the evidence and hearing the
01/28/98_04:47:44 testimony, he was finding me guilty of disobeying
01/28/98w04:47:59 a police officer, $100 fine with a $20 penalty
01/28/98_04:48:11 assessment, guilty of driving after suspension,
01/28/98_04:48:23 $100 fine with a $20 penalty assessment, and
01/28/98_04:48:36 guilty of resisting arrest, with the sentence
01/28/98_04:49:00 suspended.  I was then dismissed to wait for the
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