[US Patriot]

Guilty Until Proven Innocent...?

Imagine it: You're running a business, legally, and one day you decide to do some stock trading. After three or four attempts to log into your account, you call customer service and they tell you that they are terribly sorry, but....

Your assets have been seized by the United States Government and you should get an attorney...

But how can you retain counsel without access to any funds? Where is the due process?

These are just two of the questions that Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka The Washington Madam) was faced with late last year when the US Government seized every cent she had to her name. When the government wasn't forthcoming with any evidence of wrongdoing in the allegations against her stemming from her legal adult fantasy escort service, they very politely suggested that she make a plea deal to the charges leveled against her. When she refused the initial offer of spending approximately a few years in federal prison and forfeiture of all of her life savings, the government decided on another tack: to file criminal charges against her.

The criminal charges are significant not only because they are based on evidence apparently obtained nearly five years prior, but also because the criminal charges put a freeze on her ability to rectify the civil asset forfeiture process.

Some of the best attorneys in the country, both criminal and civil, have weighed in on Palfrey's case and are absolutely dumbfounded by its set of circumstances. "I've never seen anything like it before," explains Ms. Palfrey's civil attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley. "This isn't what is supposed to happen to people in this country. What the government has essentially done is said to her 'You're guilty and it's up to you to prove us wrong. Oh and by the way, we're going to render your ability to defend yourself nearly impossible."

Palfrey weighs in: "I realize that for the vast majority of Americans, the glaring issue is probably whose names are in the phone records. The fact of the matter is, the 'Who's Who List' is only the tip of the iceberg in my case. The real story here is the fact that any one of us can have our assets seized without any requirement of explanation or due process on the part of our government, and that is just plain un-American in my view. The real story isn't what kind of dress Senator Vitter's wife wears to a press conference. The real story is that our government, in its blind leading the blind style, has reversed practically every tenet of due process our Founding Fathers intended in the name of terrorism. I'm fighting this because if they get away with it in my case, they'll never stop ignoring the Rule of Law."

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka The Washington Madam is available for interviews regarding her case.

Holmes World Media is providing public relations assistance to Ms. Palfrey at absolutely no charge.

Labels: Deborah Jeane Palfrey, government, terrorism, The Washington Madam