The United States Supreme Court refused to accept Jami's petition for writ of certiorari against Hood by claming that it was untimely filed. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court dismissing the suit against the county prosecutor about his threats before trial which became a reality after the verdict was rendered. A petition for writ of certiorari was submitted to the United States Supreme Court, but Jami is not holding her breath.
The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Jami's criminal extortion conviction. The three judge panel, according to her appellate attorney, asked very few questions. They were more interested in Jami's status within the prisons rather than the legal issues and arguments presented. An application for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court was timely filed (Docket No. 127910). Will the Michigan Supreme Court do what the trail court and court of appeals have failed to do and administer justice rather than continuing to protect Hood and others? Time will tell......
The situation started when Jami entered into a legal agreement with Prisoner Ronald Kamppainen November 1999. Kamppaien's sentencing judge, being one Garfield W. Hood, objected to Jami helping Ron with his legal work.
First, Hood contacted the State Bar of Michigan and the Prison Warden. He encouraged them to take steps to make Jami quit helping other prisoners with their legal work. Ron in particular. There was nothing the State Bar or Prison Warden could do about it because Michigan prisoners have a federal and state constitutional right to help each other with their legal work.
Second, Hood objected to receiving correspondence from Jami when she tried to enlighten Hood that prisoners, by policy, can help each other with their legal work. Prison officials restricted Jami's correspondence to Hood himself, along with the 12th Circuit Court, the Baraga County Court, and anyone else concerning another prisoner's legal work.
When Hood discovered that Jami was still helping Kamppainen with his legal work by facilitating a February 15-16, 2000, letter to Terrence R. Flannagan, then administrator at the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System, Hood contacted prison officials again. Then Deputy Warden Bouchard told Jami to quit doing whatever she was doing or else Jami would find herself in a higher level of confinement.
When Hood discovered that Jami was still helping prisoners with their legal work, Hood contacted the State Police based on the above letter and leveled a criminal extortion complaint against Jami. The next day, Jami was placed in administrative segregation-- a much higher level of confinement.
April 1, 2000, Jami filed a federal civil rights suit against Hood for violating her civil rights. Four months later, the Chippewa County Prosecutor brought criminal extortion charges against Jami.
February 13, 2001, the trial judge argued three times with Ron's defense attorney that he could not see where criminal extortion happened as alleged by the prosecutor, but the trial judge allowed the case to proceed anyway. 02/13/2001 trans at 10-15.
About three weeks before the July 2003 criminal extortion case trial, the prosecutor demanded that Jami accept his plea bargain or else the prosecutor would do everything in his power to make Jami's time in prison the most difficult that it could be; including placement in maximum security and kept far away from her mother. Jami rejected the plea bargain and pursued the inmate grievance process regarding the prosecutor's threats.
Four days after convicted by a jury, Jami found herself transferred to Baraga Maximum Correctional Facility. The same facility where Hood holds criminal court proceedings inside the prison. Within a few hours, Baraga prison staff transferred Jami to Marquette Branch Prison. Jami filed a number of grievances and even a lawsuit against the county prosecutor because of the above threats. October 27, 2004 Jami was transferred to G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility, which is about six miles from her mother.
Late October 2004 the United States Supreme Court refused to file Jami's petition for writ of certiorari involving the chief judge by claiming that it was two (2) days late. Since Chief Judge Garfield W. Hood has continued to interfere with Jami's correspondence to the 12th Circuit Court, another lawsuit may be filed against Hood in the near future (correcting errors and oversights made in the first suit).
December 2004 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal of Jami's suit against the county prosecutor and his threats shortly before the July 2003 criminal trial. A petition for writ of certiorari was timely filed with the United States Supreme Court.
Also in December, the Michigan court of appeals, within six days after the December 8th oral argument, entered a decision affirming Jami's criminal extortion conviction in the 50th Circuit Court. Then again, Jami did not have much confidence in that appeal since the appellate attorney assigned to the case (Patrick K. Ehlmann, East Lansing) was a former law clerk to the trial judge (Lambros).
The panel of judges in the Michigan court of appeals (Hoekstra, Griffin, and Borrello), along with Ehlmann, District Clerk Hannah J. Watson, and Chief Judge Whitbeck all thwarted and foreclosed Jami from filing her supplemental pro se brief in the court of the appeals before the panel entered its decision. When Jami sent a letter and moved for reconsideration, Watson stated that the court could not act based on correspondence. That excuse is invalid because state and federal courts readily act upon correspondence by prisoners. A point Jami made in the opening paragraph of that letter.
January 26, 2005, Jami submitted her criminal application for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. Like Martha Stewart, we hope to add to this site the application for leave to appeal that Jami submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court.
There is more to the criminal extortion case nightmare that Jami and her mother have wrongly had to deal with for the past five years. Gradually, we will make more information available on this site (about every two months or so).
After you review the above principal instruments, we are interested to know what you think about such events. More information can be obtained by writing the 50th Circuit Court Clerk, by writing Jami directly, or by sending email.
Thank you for checking out this site.
Jami has another site concerning how prisoner are seen and treated by the world at large. Click here to check out this site.
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