{"id":516,"date":"2008-06-27T18:48:27","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T22:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=516"},"modified":"2008-06-30T19:31:58","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T23:31:58","slug":"leviathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=516","title":{"rendered":"Leviathan…"},"content":{"rendered":"

photo-2-small.JPG<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cNo oppression is so heavy or lasting
\nas that which is inflicted by the perversion
\nand exorbitance of legal authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

—Joseph Addison
\n___________________________________<\/p>\n

I have watched the local newspapers these last six weeks. Letters to the editor and such. For a reaction, any reaction, from Lancaster County citizens about the Levi Stoltzfoos conviction. <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t claim to have seen every opinion essay or letter to the editor, and so may have missed such a reaction, or reactions, if indeed there were any. There was a sneering, utterly tasteless cartoon in the morning paper, the Intelligencer Journal, on May 12th. (The Intel should retract that cartoon and apologize.) Such a cartoon would not have been published about any other ethnic or religious group. But the Amish are fair game, because they are the silent in the land. <\/p>\n

They are not silent to me. My Amish friends in the county have politely urged me again and again to write a blog or guest editorial about Levi Stoltzfoos. I have always brush-ed off their inquires, telling them someone else surely will, so I won\u2019t have to. But someone else has not. So here it is.<\/p>\n

Levi Stoltzfoos, as I mentioned before in a previous blog, is the ex-Amishman who was convicted in early May of money laundering. Because he deposited numerous separate deposits of around $10,000.00 in cash in various banks, he was flagged. And charged. Brought to trial. And convicted. He faces up to one thousand years in prison. <\/p>\n

The local Amish community is quietly and deeply upset about the matter. And well they should be. Ex-Amishman or not, Levi Stoltzfoos is still of their blood. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m upset too. The stark plain injustice of his conviction simply takes my breath away. And that\u2019s one reason I’ve resisted writing about it in more detail, because of the deep seething latent rage that always bubbles up inside when I stop and really think about what went down.<\/p>\n

From my Amish friends I learned some insider details. According to them (and this may be hearsay), Levi Stoltzfoos, like many others, was concerned about Y2K. When computers would supposedly quit working and all the world would collapse. In prepar-ation of the looming disaster, he removed all his money from various banks. In cash. The total amount: Five Hundred Thousand-plus dollars.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a chunk of change, any way you look at it.<\/p>\n

Y2K came and went, and the world did not collapse. A few years passed. It seemed safe. So Levi decided to re-deposit his money in various banks. Because he didn\u2019t want the government to know what he was doing, and because he was afraid the money would be taken from him, he submitted deposits in amounts under $10,000.00.<\/p>\n

Which was fine. But he made one fateful mistake. One, and only one, deposit totaled exactly $10,000.00. This triggered the bank\u2019s report requirements. Bank officials dutifully reported Levi, as the law required. Investigators found his paper trail and all the previous deposits he had made.<\/p>\n

And so his nightmare began.<\/p>\n

The law is the law, whether justified or not. At this point, it seems to me, a simple investigation would have revealed the facts. Levi could have been told that what he\u2019d done broke the law. Not to do it again. And that\u2019s as far as it would have needed to go. <\/p>\n

But no. Couldn\u2019t have anything that simple, or follow such basic common sense. The Feds swooped in. Confiscated Levi\u2019s money. All of it. But after investigating, the Feds decided they could not prosecute him because they couldn\u2019t prove he got the money through illegal drug dealing. Because he hadn\u2019t. So they turned it over to the State, which has no such requirements. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, State officials were all too eager to take up the cudgel. They publicized accusations that Levi had gained the money illicitly, dealing drugs. When they knew it wasn\u2019t true. All the local papers ran the story on bold front page headlines. Levi was a bad guy, who didn\u2019t deserve any sympathy.<\/p>\n

At trial, it became starkly clear that the money was legitimately Levi\u2019s. That fact is not even in dispute. So the issue became: the law is the law. It was broken, he is guilty, and the money is forfeited. Oh, and because he broke the law, he may well serve jail time. <\/p>\n

The jury of my fellow Lancaster County citizens took their job seriously. They followed the letter of the law. And found Levi guilty. Some members of the jury wept as the verdict was read. They knew a terrible injustice was unfolding before them. And they knew they were a part of it.<\/p>\n

They could simply have found Levi \u201cNot Guilty.\u201d With no explanation. And that would have been that. But they didn\u2019t. They have to live with that. And now it is what it is.<\/p>\n

For the record, I appreciate and value all that law enforcement does in Lancaster County. The local District Attorney\u2019s office overall does a good job prosecuting and jailing common criminals. Decent guys, most of them, working hard at their jobs. For low pay and scant appreciation. And to be fair to them, this case was prosecuted from the State Attorney General Tom Corbett\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

But still, I hold the local DA responsible as well, for not speaking out. Any person with common sense can know that the money laundering laws that ensnared Levi Stoltzfoos were not intended for people like him. I am amazed that no one in the state AG or local DA\u2019s office can recognize that fact. And react accordingly.<\/p>\n

I am disappointed that not one attorney in those offices could dredge up enough cour-age and integrity to stand up and proclaim: \u201cThis is wrong. This man is innocent. We can choose not to prosecute. And we shouldn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

No one did that publicly. Not one man. Not one woman. Not one. And that\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n

Because they are people, men and women, like you and me. They live among us in the community. They have homes, families, children. Hopes, dreams, aspirations. <\/p>\n

Theoretically, I\u2019m sure, they would claim to champion justice. That\u2019s why they\u2019re prosecutors. But in this case, at least, they are not dispensing it. Quite the contrary.<\/p>\n

I wonder, is this what they envisioned when they were eager students in law school, setting out on a course to \u201cchange the world?\u201d Could they have imagined they would ever be involved in such ruthless injustice? Such senseless legal overreach?<\/p>\n

I doubt it.<\/p>\n

What public policy can possibly justify confiscating Levi’s money? I can think of only one: tyranny.<\/p>\n

Somehow, they have lost sight of their mission. The law, every jot and tittle, must be upheld. No room for common sense, or mercy. They are caught up in the idea that because they can, they should. And if a guy like Levi Stoltzfoos gets entangled and ground to bits in the cogs of their machine of justice, too bad. That\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

But they are wrong. And they are less human because of it. And because of their actions in this case, we are less secure. In our property and our rights. As a result, we will view those in authority with deepening suspicion and increasing distrust. <\/p>\n

Their job is to prosecute criminals, not harass the innocent. <\/p>\n

They have become official State oppressors of ordinary civilians who wish only to be left alone. They are Leviathan. A governmental monster, with a thousand clutching tentacles, grasping greedily what is not theirs to take. Concerned not with justice, but only that the letter of the law was broken. Not the spirit, the letter. Willing to confiscate all a man owns and render him destitute, deprived of his rightful gains. The penalty for making an honest mistake, for inadvertantly breaking a stupid, silly law. <\/p>\n

As Leviathan, they make a mockery of the \u201cjustice\u201d they are sworn to uphold.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know Levi Stoltzfoos. Never met the guy. I don’t know his age or the choices he’s made in his life. Don’t particularly care to. It’s none of my business. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s been portrayed as paranoid. Anyone who does what he did probably is a little bit paranoid. In retrospect though, his fears were justified. So who, I wonder, is actually paranoid? Maybe we\u2019d all be well advised to view those in power over us with a lot more suspicion. Demand real justice, not a legalistic charade. And hold them strictly accountable.<\/p>\n

Levi’s frame of mind is beside the point anyway. Even an unsympathetic defendant deserves justice. Especially so. <\/p>\n

The Lord, I believe, hears the cry of the wronged and the oppressed. And brings His judgment in His time. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too late to cancel that judgment. The State Attorney General, Tom Corbett, can still do the right thing. Be a man. Admit he made a bad call. Drop the charges. Apolo-gize. Return Levi\u2019s money. Even then, the nightmare of what Levi has experienced will be with him always. He can never quite be made whole. <\/p>\n

Should Mr. Corbett persist in his present course of action, and insist on actually jailing Levi and permanently confiscating his money, the stain of shame against his office and against this state will never be wiped away. <\/p>\n

And the Amish community will stand in silent witness to that truth.
\n________________________________________<\/p>\n

Post Note: I have learned that Levi Stoltzfoos was prosecuted by the State Attorney General Tom Corbett, not the local county DA’s office and Craig Stedman as originally written. I have corrected the errors and apologize that they were made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.\u201d —Joseph Addison ___________________________________ I have watched the local newspapers these last six weeks. Letters to the editor and such. For a reaction, any reaction, from Lancaster County citizens about the Levi Stoltzfoos conviction. I can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9248,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/9248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}