Sat, February 20, 2010 8:50:57 AM
To: Erica Brooks
Erica:
AN APPEAL FOR PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ACTION
A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. After having exhausted all legal proceedings and having been refused a pardon by either Presidents Nixon or Clinton, Bolden now seeks executive action from the current president as a last hope to clear his name and reputation from an unlawful conviction that occurred in 1964 in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
After becoming the first African American to serve as an investigator for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in St. Louis, Missouri and serving in the Illinois State Police, Abraham Bolden was asked by JFK to become the first African American Secret Service Agent to be assigned to the White House in Washington, D.C.
Due to the blatant racism exhibited by a few of his fellow agents and conduct that Bolden noted was inconsistent with the maintenance of proper security around President John F. Kennedy, Bolden asked to be relieved of the White House Detail and returned to Chicago. Prior to returning to Chicago, Bolden discussed what he deemed to be conduct by a few of the detail agents that endangered the security of the President with the then Chief of the Secret Service U.E. Baughman.
After the president was assassinated, Bolden sought to contact the Warren Commission for the purpose of relating to them some of the problems with the president’s security that Bolden had previously noted and reported to his supervisors.
While he was in Washington on May 18, 1964, Bolden was escorted back to Chicago, under a pretext concocted by his supervisors, and charged with committing a federal crime by revealing the contents of an official report and conspiring to solicit a bribe.
In July, 1964, Bolden was tried in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois , the Honorable Judge J. Sam Perry presiding. During the deliberation of the jury, the judge offered his opinion that the evidence sustained a verdict of guilty. The judge characterized his statement as an instruction and prompted the jury to take his instruction into consideration as the jury continued to deliberate.
Not withstanding the judge’s opinion, the first trial ended in a hung jury. After denying a motion for a substitution of judge by The Honorable J. Sam Perry, a second trial was concluded on August 12, 1964. During the deliberation of the second jury, the judge, stating that the court would be closed and that the jury would be dismissed for the night, locked all spectators, Bolden, Bolden’s attorney, George Howard, and Bolden’s relatives out of the court building. Contrary to what Bolden and his attorney were told, the jury continued to deliberate during the absence of the defendant Bolden, and found Bolden guilty.
Subsequent to Bolden’s conviction, one of the key witnesses against Bolden admitted, under oath in open court before the Honorable J. Sam Perry, that he committed perjury in both of Bolden’s trials. The witness, Joseph Spagnoli stated that a member of the government attorney’s office instructed him to do so. The recanting witness further produced a writing which the witness testified that he stole from the office of the U.S. Attorney. The witness further testified that the writing was given to him by the office of the United States Attorney for the purpose of remembering the lies that he was to assert in the Bolden trials. When the issue of Spagnoli’s assertions were brought before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals during oral arguments of the case, the accused assistant U.S. Attorney refused to deny Spagnoli’s allegations stating that he was refusing to answer the question of soliciting perjured testimony in a federal criminal trial because his answer would tend to incriminate him. Nevertheless, the conviction was affirmed by the court of appeals.
The United States Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari and Bolden was taken into custody on June 26, 1966.
After having served several months in the Federal Penitentiary at Terre Haute Indiana , Bolden was transferred through Leavenworth Penitentiary to the Federal Medical Center Prison Camp in Springfield , Missouri . During his stay there, Bolden was abruptly removed from the camp and placed in the psychiatric ward for a period of 30 days. Bolden was forced to ingest psychotropic medications without any legal determination that such medications were necessary. The reason given for the abrupt transfer of Bolden to the ward was that Bolden should not have threatened to defend himself with a bucket of scalding water when approached by one of the psychiatric patients who approached and threatened Bolden with a twelve inch butcher knife. The Chief of Classification and Parole was of the opinion that Bolden should have used his previous police experience and wrested the knife away from the patient. The staff psychiatrist, Dr. Kinsel, stated to Bolden that Bolden’s handling of the incident with the patient combined with Bolden’s vehement insistence that he had not received a fair trial and was innocent of the crimes alleged indicated that Bolden was possibly suffering from a persecution complex augmented by a sociopathic personality. On the 29th day of Bolden’s confinement in the psychiatric division of the medical center, the Chief of Classification and Parole committed suicide and Bolden was returned to the prison camp.
Bolden was transferred from Springfield Medical Center to the prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama and was paroled on September 25, 1969.
Bolden spent the next 32 years as quality control coordinator and manager for several machining companies in the Chicago area. He retired on September 11, 2001.
Bolden maintains that 46 years is too long a period to suffer for a crime that he did not commit and there is sufficient evidence, supported by the trial transcripts and records, of extremely serious violations of constitutional guarantees in the treatment of Bolden. He maintains that executive action by the President of These United States is his only recourse of action. He has been a model citizen, father, and law abiding individual both before and after his unlawful arrest by the United States Secret Service.
Abraham W. Bolden, Sr. prays that such executive action will be forthcoming from the President of These United States of America .
Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.
7632 South Sangamon Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
Email:a.bolden@sbcglobal.net
Telephone: 1-773-488-4822
Fax: 1-773-409-0660
Visit website at:www.echofromdealeyplaza.net
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307382016
He may be contacted at www.echofromdealeyplaza.net
An Appeal for Presidential Executive Action
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Contact Information:
Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.
7632 South Sangamon Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
Telephone: (773) 488-4822
Email: a.bolden@sbcglobal.net
Fax: (773) 409-0660
Visit website at:www.echofromdealeyplaza.net
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