by
William Norman Grigg

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Taking a bold
stand against a non-existent
threat, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed
a measure that would ban judges in that state from making rulings
derived from “Islamic Shariah law.” Presumably this would
protect residents of the Jayhawk State from the prospect of being
punished for committing blasphemy against Mohammed. However, the
measure leaves judges free to inflict draconian punishments for
other forms of public impiety. Witness the case of Michael Gaines.

In July 2008,
Mr. Gaines – who looks and sounds like practically every character
ever played by Samuel L. Jackson – was sentenced to thirteen years
in prison. This was ostensibly for “Battery of a Law Enforcement
Officer” during what was described as a “scuffle”
in the Sedgwick County Jail.

At the time,
Gaines was awaiting trial for the actual crime of robbery. His alleged
act of battery did not involve punching, kicking, or otherwise striking
a jail guard, nor did it involve a weapon of any kind. Instead,
the deputies claimed that he had spit on them – and that because
Gaines was HIV-positive, this act made them fear for their lives.

HIV
cannot be transmitted through spitting, a fact acknowledged
by the prosecutor and by presiding Judge Rebecca Pilshaw. Furthermore,
the only “evidence” presented against Gaines consisted
of the accusations by the supposed victims, who
– as law enforcement officers – were trained to lie and belong
to a professional cohort that is
given official permission to do so.

Gaines was
convicted of battery because his accusers were state-licensed practitioners
of aggressive violence – a
fact he pointed out during his sentencing hearing before Pilshaw.

“You’re
not respecting my authority,” lectured Pilshaw.

“You’re
not respecting me,” Gaines replied without losing his composure.
“Respect goes both ways. You’re just a woman with a robe on
– just a woman, a human being just like I am.”

At that point,
Gaines’s decorum slipped, giving Pilshaw the opportunity to reproach
him for daring to “cuss” in such supposedly hallowed surroundings.

How dare
the infidel defile a room consecrated to the administration of State
coercion!

Gaines compounded
his blasphemy by uttering a barnyard expletive when Pilshaw insisted
that “All the evidence” demonstrated that he “deliberately”
assaulted the deputies when he “hocked up saliva.”

“I didn’t
hock up no saliva … and you’re going to believe those lies,”
Gaines said, his voice heavy with weary disgust. “You’re going
to believe their lies, because they’re wearing uniforms.”

As Pilshaw
taunted him from the bench, Gaines referred to an actual act of
felonious assault – the beating, on the previous February 15, of
an inmate named Richards, who was so severely injured that he was
left on life support in a nearby hospital.

As Gaines looked
contemptuously in the direction of an officer he described as a
“rogue-ass deputy,” Pilshaw snapped at him: “Here!
Look at me! I’m part of this!”

“You ain’t
got to scream at me, b*tch!” Gaines retorted, causing the judge
to gasp in offended surprise.

I must confess
that this gratuitous act of verbal abuse provoked a similar reaction
from me. No matter what injustice had been done to Michael Gaines,
there was no reason to insult an innocent canine by comparing her
to Rebecca Pilshaw.

Actually, Gaines
was trying to make a point:

“You gonna
raise your voice at me? I’m gonna raise my voice at you. You’re
just a b*tch in a robe.”

At that point
Assistant D.A. Kevin O’Connor – who was at least as deserving of
the epithet as Pilshaw – decided to join in the fun.

“I appreciate
Mr. Gaines making my point for me,” whined O’Connor from the
sidelines in a transparent effort to goad the detainee. This had
the predictable effect of provoking Gaines into a foul-mouthed tirade.

As the shackled
detainee was flanked by armed deputies and dragged off to a cell,
O’Connor – displaying the giddy viciousness of a playground bully
tormenting a helpless and outnumbered kid – indulged in some risk-free
tough guy posturing.

“Anytime,
Mr. Gaines,” sneered O’Connor to the handcuffed prisoner’s
back as Gaines was led out of the room.

“I couldn’t
believe it,” commented
Pilshaw in her personal blog the following day. “Here he
was being accused of disrespecting authority and he starts in with
the cussing and the insults.”

This statement
can be considered a confession against interest: Although Pilshaw
insisted that the 13-year prison sentence was justified by the “severity”
of Gaines’s supposed attack on the detention deputies, she characterized
his offense as “disrespecting authority.”

Whatever actual
crimes Michael Haines may have committed, he never stole thirteen
years from the life of another human being.

A few months
after Pilshaw sent Gaines to prison, Sedgwick County voters wisely
threw her off the bench. By the time her career came to an inglorious
end, Pilshaw
had been given three reprimands for ethics violations and judicial
misconduct. She had also earned a reputation as an ill-tempered,
self-dramatizing, frequently abusive figure. As one profile observed,
Pilshaw wielded a “heavy gavel…. [S]he was known for pushing
sentencing guidelines to their limits to give the most prison time
to the toughest offenders.”

When dealing
with offenders in uniform, Pilshaw wielded a gavel made of balsa
wood.

During her
years as a judge, Pilshaw – like most people in that disreputable
profession – displayed a tribal attachment to prosecutors, police,
and others who are part of the government’s punitive apparatus.
Ten years ago, she presided over a suppression hearing dealing with
the Wichita PD’s disagreeably
named SCAT (Special Community Action Team) unit, which carried out
federally subsidized narcotics operations.

In 1999, SCAT
operators arrested a local man named Terry Marck on drug charges
after conducting an illegal search of his home. Merck’s defense
attorney was able to obtain a Wichita PD internal affairs memo documenting
that SCAT had engaged in what was called “a pattern of unlawful
searches, arrests, intimidation, and other abusive practices.”

On August 16,
2002, Pilshaw – acknowledging that at least half of the SCAT-produced
cases she examined involved constitutional violations and serious
misconduct – grudgingly threw out Marck’s conviction. As she did
so, however, she
lauded the offending officers, praising one for his “fine
police instinct” and describing another as “a rising star”
within the department.

Even though
SCAT was an armed menace to the community, Pilshaw praised it for
“getting the baddest of the bad guys off the street” –
meaning, in this instance, “bad guys” who acted without
government sanction.

In announcing
her decision, Pilshaw insisted that she and the police were “on
the same team” and that regardless of the crimes the police
commit under the color of their supposed authority, “Mr. Marck
is the bad guy here.”

During her
disgraceful 15-year career on the bench, cases tried in Rebecca
Pilshaw’s court were frequently reversed on appeal. One particularly
egregious example was provided by the 2008 case of Luther
Kemble, who was convicted of sexual assault on a minor and given
a sentence of 25 years to life.

In September
2010, the
Kansas State Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling
that during the alleged victim’s testimony, Pilshaw had coached
and guided the witness. The trial transcript disclosed several instances
in which the girl, when questioned by the prosecution, had explicitly
recanted the accusation, or said that she “couldn’t remember”
details of the alleged abuse.

Clearly
regarding those answers to be unsuitable, Pilshaw – in the words
of the State Supreme Court – acted as “an advocate for the
prosecution,” overtly encouraging the girl to change her testimony.
At one point she obliquely threatened the witness with a perjury
charge.

After extracting
the desired accusation that Kemble had improperly touched the teenager,
Pilshaw commended her – in nauseatingly condescending terms – for
conforming to the desired script: “I’m glad that you finally
decided to answer like a big girl and I appreciate it very much.”

Kemble was
set free. Michael Gaines disappeared into the labyrinthine prison
system.

Gaines wasn’t
sentenced to more than a decade in a cage because he had stolen
something from another person, or committed a legitimate act of
assault. He was given a sentence worthy of a Shariah law court (at
least as such tribunals are commonly perceived in this country)
because of his defiant refusal to play the assigned role of penitent
in a State-scripted ritual. His tongue had peeled away the pretense
that Rebecca Pilshaw was anything other than an officious, self-absorbed
woman in a cheap robe, or that the deputies who testified against
him were anything other than armed men in unsightly costumes.

Reprinted
with permission from Pro
Libertate.

June
6, 2012

William
Norman Grigg [send him mail]
publishes the Pro
Libertate blog and hosts the Pro
Libertate radio program.

Copyright
© 2012 William Norman Grigg

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