No Crime But Prejudice by Jon Entine, is the true and frightening story of
the federal government’s investigation of Fischer Homes, in Ohio. The company was wrongly accused of hiring illegal aliens; 6 of the
company’s superintendents were arrested and charged with crimes that could
result in fines of $250,000 each and prison sentences of 10 years; the office
was tossed and all of the employees were held for several hours on the day of
the raid. Fischer eventually found out
that the feds rely on “flippers” – people who are arrested and cooperate to get
out of prosecution – to make their cases, and that 95.5% of all charges brought
by US attorneys are settled with a plea bargain. Often the people and companies charged are
not guilty, but when faced with the unlimited resources of government, feel
that they have no choice.
Fischer and his employees
refused to settle and went to war with the U.S. Justice Department and won. After spending nearly $3 million dollars,
Fischer’s company was intact and the charges were dropped. Fischer has since discovered that there is no
legal recourse against the government or the people involved in his ordeal for
the fees, damage to reputation or any other fallout from the unwarranted
investigation.
I attended a meeting hosted
by The Buckeye Institute at which Fischer, one of his lawyers, Entine, a former
U.S. attorney, a former assistant
U.S. attorney and a professor
from Ohio State University spoke. The reality of this story should frighten everyone, because this type of thing happens every day. Fischer stated, "I used to think that when government investigated people, they must have done something wrong. I now know that this is not true." Even more frightening, he and the others made clear that this can happen to anyone and is a commonplace occurrence. In fact, a much less
serious and less expensive version of this happened to me. I was investigated by the Ohio Board of
Dietetics for the unlicensed practice of dietetics, starting in 1997. This investigation went on for years, and at
one time I was facing incarceration for refusing to comply with the terms of a
subpoena which asked for, among other things, a list of people who had spoken
at The Wellness Forum (the board later admitted to a legislative committee that
they used tactics like this to broaden their investigations and identify other
targets). I refused to cave and both the
company and I survived, but the ordeal took its toll, both financially and
emotionally. It is appalling to me that
government, which is supposed to work for the people, has become so powerful
that it answers to no one. Like Fischer,
I found out that government agencies and their employees are not legally or
financially responsible for the terrible things they do to people and
businesses while they pursue political and often even personal agendas.
They say that what odes not
kill you will make you stronger. I
suppose that’s the case here. I am
stronger, and this series of events is what precipitated my interest in public
affairs and government and convinced me that I had to take action. Since early
2000, when my investigation came to an end, I have invested an increasing
amount of time and resources in working on legislative issues in many states
and policy issues at the federal level in order to change laws that allow for
the types of things that happened to me to happen to others. It’s how I’ve turned a negative experience
into positive energy and action that can make a difference.
I can’t remember where I
saw this haiku, but it seems appropriate:
“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the
moon.”
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