Stacking The Deck

This fall MTV has aired a series “Unlocking The Truth”, highlighting several unrelated wrongful convictions. Hosted by Ryan Ferguson, who spent 10 years in prison for a crime he was later exonerated for, and Eva Nagao, they examine a growing trend to lock up innocent people when a crime can not be solved in order to get a “win”. They estimate about 5% of the current population incarcerated are innocent. That may seem like a small number to keep us safe from the bad guys, but it literally amounts to over 65,000 humans. The link in nearly every case that was broadcast was the police are willing to cheat in order to win. Winning at any cost seems to be their main goal and “win” they do. It was no different in the case of Ken Andersen. On Monday I presented the beginning of the lies manufactured by the Becker County authorities to get such a “win” at any cost, the truth be damned. The first one was that media saturation, fueled by the police, showered the entire community of what a dangerous criminal Ken was. His first lawyer was Will Bulmer, who recognized there was absolutely no way to find 12 jurors who had not heard Ken was already guilty.

You may need to enlarge the pdf to read it but Mr. Bulmer pointed out that the media had well informed all 32,000 citizens of Becker County of Ken’s criminal record, and arrest for arson (which he was completely acquitted). In order for Ken to get a fair and impartial trial, they would need to move the venue. The Judge rejected the idea. Why? Polluting the jury gave the DA a definite advantage and damned be the US Constitution swearing to give anyone a fair trial. STACKING THE DECK.

Also in the above document you will find that Kenneth Swedberg (Chad’s brother), and Josh Bogatz have told investigators they were both advised by law enforcement not to talk to anyone connected with Ken Andersen’s defense team including his investigator. The bogus reason given was that Ken’s team would try and change what they said. I wonder how that might be possible. No matter, many potential witness clammed up and hog tied Ken’s defense team from getting much help from those who knew the truth. STACKING THE DECK.

Ken was told by one of the Becker County jailers his privileged phone calls were being recorded violating attorney client privileges. Becker County and BCA’s Dan Baumann vigorously denied this, and explained that they were doing this at first but stopped when they got caught. A later civil lawsuit by Ken proved this to be a lie as well. This was a growing trend of cheating to win a weak case that should have never come to trial. The real murderer got away with this. STACKING THE DECK.

Come back Friday for more.