This raw unedited post was written in 2009.
JOE DETERS’ CHRONICLE
“ I don’t care if they can split the atom. I don’t care if they are Harvard graduates. I don’t care.” Those 20 words were the most conservative that I’d ever heard.
Those 20 words that were meant for my beloved son Andrew is what started my person Jihad against Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.
It’s the reason I started the grassroots organization Citizens Against Joe Deters along with the blog, to protest the unprofessional conduct of possibly the most dangerous and reckless commenting
Prosecutor in Hamilton County’s history.
There were many people throughout Andrew’s journey into dream deferred that I didn’t like for various reasons.
But I hated Joe Deters. I hate Joe Deters. I hate Joe Deters the Hamilton County Prosecutor. I hate his actions. I hate the brand. I hate the man. I hate that man, and I hate to admit it.
Growing up I was taught to never hate anyone. And I never have hated anyone except Joe Deters. Joe Deters is the only man that I’ve never met, and hated.
I acknowledge that Joe Deters, nor any of the players I found myself disliking during this ordeal, didn’t put the hatchet in my back (put Andrew in jail).
They didn’t put the hatchet in but they turned it a notch or two, and in the case of Joe Deters--several thousand notches, once it was in my back. It hurts. I reacted. I’m still reacting. I’m still in a lot of pain.
I translated Deters ‘atom’ comment to mean this: Your son is a young, black bank robber. He is no difference than any other young, black criminal. I’m not going to consider any factors as it pertains to young, black men who commit crimes. That’s what I heard out of Joe Deters’ mouth.
That’s what I heard him say. That statement that I heard convicted my beloved son Andrew, in the public before he was convicted in the court of law. It felt like a public lynching. It was a reckless comment for Deters to make because it’s impossible to split the fucking atom!
I had read somewhere that a German scientist split the atom. I think he split it. I believe he was the only person to do so.
Wow! Was Joe Deters really not going to take any other factors into consideration when sentencing Andrew?
Was he not going to take into consideration that Andrew had no criminal record?
That he was a community volunteer, and that he took a working spring break in New Orleans to help victims of Hurricane Katrina?
That he took ROTC classes and was considering joining the army to serve his country and to get college tuition assistance?
Was Joe Deters really not going to take any of those factors into consideration?
Deters’ reputation was that he was tough on crime and I found that to be true except when it was in regards to citizens who were white, wealthy, and well-connected. The prerequisite was that you had to have at least two of those traits.
I recognized, as did Andrew, that he would have to pay severely for the crimes that he committed. Still, I believed my beloved Andrew was worthy of having mitigating circumstances taken into consideration. Deters ‘atom’ was a racist conservative statement at its worst.
The statement clearly indicated that he would not take any mitigating circumstances into consideration when sentencing my son. HE CONVICTED MY SON IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION.
As I begin researching other public comments made by Joe Deters as it pertained to minorities and the white poor who commit crimes, people whom Deters considered the ‘least of them’, I found evidence that supported my belief that Deters was unable to be an effective and impartial advocate for justice.
For suspects for whom myself and my cousin jokingly called the ‘bluest eye suspects’ Deters would switch his Prosecutor’s hat with a defense attorney’s hat. In some cases Deters appeared to go out on a limb to prevent a white defendant from being charged.
There are a few cases that I remember as if it were yesterday, in which Deters switched from a Prosecutor’s hat to a defense attorney/s hat. A woman named Victoria Lasita gave birth to two sets of triplets and made national headlines. Later Lasita’s house burned down and she received an outpouring of local support from the community.
Shortly after Lasita was charged with writing several bad checks, and there were allegations, although not substantiated, that she burned down her house.
Prosecutor Deters was quoted in the news as stating that he didn’t want to see a mother with children in jail. I was floored. I did not believe Deters would take that position in regards to a black mother.
I believed Deters gave Lasita a ‘get out of jail free card’ because she’d become a media darling.
Matthew Combs, a white man, was growing a large quantity of weed in his house. His house burned down and sadly two of America’s finest-two fire fighters lost their lives.
Deters did not prosecute Combs for the firefighters death stating that it was not the weed that Combs was growing, but flower plants that caused his house to catch on fire and that caused the firefighters to plummet to their death. What a smoke screen. I contend that if Matthew Combs had been Malik Combs (a black man),
Deters would have charged his black ass with something. He would have connected the flower plants with the weed plants and Combs black ass would be in jail.
The case that blew myself and many in the community away, was the case of Jodi Edwards. Edwards a white mother and professor at a Christian college, left her 11-month old baby in her mini-van for over 8 hours while she worked. She stated that gosh-she forgot. Yep, gosh she forgot her baby in the hot van. Sadly, the baby baked. When the coroner stuck a thermometer up the baby’s butt, the temperature soared way past 100 degrees.
Deters took what seemed like an eternity to decide if he would prosecute Edwards. Many of us knew that he wouldn’t charge Edwards. Especially after Deters wrote an editorial in the paper of record. The editorial seemed to prepare many outraged citizens as to why he couldn’t charge her. A few days later when he held a press conference to announce that he would not charge the mother, it came as no surprise.
The aforementioned are just a few of the many cases that I researched that supported my belief that Deters dishes out double-standard justice.
The incident that started my first feud with Joe Deters was the case of an elderly white woman, Helen Hirsch, who found herself in hot water with Deters. Hirsch met at least two of the qualifications that Deters seems to require for an individual to qualify for a ‘get out of jail free card‘.
However, Deters took issue with Hirsch because she messed with his mama and other family members.
Hirsch lived in the same condominiums as Deters’ mother. The condos were located near a prestigious, predominantly white high school that Deters had attended. When the incident happened with Hirsch, my black cousin was a student at the school.
High school football games at the school are very popular. It’s difficult, if not impossible to find parking in Joe Deters‘ mama’s neighborhood during football games.. Fans park where they can, often to the dismay of residents. According to the story reported in the paper of record, Hirsch was so irritated by people attending the games and parking in her condo’s parking lot, that she often harassed and menaced the football fans..
One evening she became so angry with the fans that she went on a car vandalizing spree, and damaged 17 cars to the tune of 40,000. She was caught after Joe Deters hired a detective and installed a camera to catch whomever was responsible for the vandalism.
In Hirsch’s case Deters played both Prosecutor and Defense attorney when prosecuting her.
He stated that her one woman crime spree was the result of her being diabetic and having low blood sugar. Deters agreed to drop charges provided Hirsch agreed to the following conditions: She had to move away from her condo. She had to pay restitution. She was allowed to enter a diversion program.
I was angry.
Not because I didn’t have empathy for the woman, but because I knew for a fact that Deters did take into consideration if Hirsch could split the atom. I knew that if my black cousin who attended the school, along with my son Phoneix who is the same age as my cousin--had they committed the same offense,
Deters would have thrown their black behinds under the jail. No mitigating circumstances would have been taken into consideration when Prosecuting them. This is was typical Deters. Compassion for people who commit crimes that have the bluest eye.
And what I term “disdain sentences” for people of color who commit crimes.
I was outraged by Hirsch’s slap on the wrist. I wrote Deters a letter and faxed it to his office.
November 7, 2007
To: Joseph T. Deters, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney
Fr: FBK
Re: Double Standards
Mr. Deters in recent news articles to ABC news online, the Cincinnati Enquirer and other outlets you state that you are tough on crime. Yet you appear to use prosecutorial discretion in several cases over the past year.
In an article that appeared on December 6, 2007 in the Cincinnati Enquirer online you had the opportunity to charge Helen Hirsch with Felony vandalism for vandalizing 17 cars. Instead, she was allowed to pay restitution and the 1,100 surveillance cost in exchange for dismissal of charges.
Also, Mrs. Hirsch could have been charged with other crimes as she confronted St. X fans in an hostile manner.
The article states that such a crime is not one you generally take interest in but the damaged cars belong to your son and two brothers and that your mother lived in the condos where Ms. Hirsch resides--so you took an interest.
The article also states that Ms. Hirsch blamed her low blood sugar on her vandalism crime spree.
Well Mr. Deters with all due respect--I don't care if Ms. Hirsch has no prior criminal record. I don't care if she can split the atom. She should be prosecuted.
How dare she vandalize cars and terrorize innocent fans. How dare she.
I await your response.
fbk
Shortly after I faxed the letter to Deters’ office, I received a call from Andrew’s “Criminal” criminal attorney, Tom Heekin, per the request of Joe Deters. It was the longest conservation that I’d ever had with Heekin to date.
Heekin was going bonkers on the phone. He told me that Deters was angry about the letter that I faxed to him. He questioned my sanity, since I had questioned Deters’ prosecutorial integrity. He questioned my letter writing capabilities.
He asked me who taught me how to write that letter. We all know that black folks can’t right, write? Can’t write, right? He asked me who wrote that letter for me.
He questioned my connections. What organization are you working for? Whose behind your attack on Joe Deters?
He told me that Deters had insulted my son and asked, “How can she compare her bank robber son with an old lady who banged up a few cars with a screw driver?
Again Deters had displayed his bluest eye sympathy card.
Heekin told me that if I held out any hope for my son to get a lighter sentence, that was different from the 20 year plea deal that they were offering, that I should write a letter to Joe Deters and apologize. Heekin gave me two hours to write Deters an apology letter.
The letter that I wrote and faxed Deters was nothing special. I didn’t understand why Deters the chief legal representative of Hamilton County would pout about a letter of criticism. Surely, he’d gotten letters of criticism before.
When I hung up the phone with Tom Heekin, I cried. What I’d been asked to do reminded me of what slaves were asked to do during slavery.
Slaves were ask to apologize to the “Master” when they had done nothing wrong.
After my weep fest, I had a moment in which I felt empowered that Joe Deters had taken my faxed letter personally, and that my letter at the very least caused him to have a bad day.
I made a mental note to see to it that Deters has many more bad days. Furthermore his reaction to my letter confirmed my belief that the pen is a powerful weapon. I felt like Oz, in the Wizard of Oz.
Remember how everybody in that movie was terrified of Oz? That is until the tiny man emerged from behind that curtain and the microphone.
Once Oz’s identify was revealed everybody felt silly that they had been afraid of the tiny person who did not appear to be anywhere near powerful.
I had two hours to write an apology letter to the Massa (Master) Joe Deters.
The agreement was that if I wrote the letter to Joe-the-Master, he would meet with beloved Drew's attorney and together they would agree on a lighter sentence. That was the Deal.
Here is the letter I wrote in less than 2 hours.
Dear Mr. Deters;
I wish to apologize to you for my earlier faxed letter in which I attacked your prosecutorial integrity. As a loving mother with a beloved son facing twenty or more years in prison for an inconceivable crime; I feel desperate, overwhelmed, heart broken, defeated, deflated, blameful, and shameful.
As I have spent the last couple of hours speaking to my son's attorney,
Mr. Tom Heekin, whose advice I trust and under his legal guidance and compassionate spirit; I now realize that attacking your creditability, which I cannot reliably comment on, will not gamer the results that I so desperately desire.
While Mr. Heekin has explained that I may be hoping for too much it is my desire to have my remorseful son be given a hybrid sentence of five years and fifteen years of monitored probation. The four and Yz months that my son has spent in jail has lead him to rededicate his life to Christ, and reflect on his terrible mistake. Being in jail has given him more real life education than his two years of college.
Andrew told me that he now realizes that desperate circumstances lead to severe consequences.
Andrew is an extremely bright kid with lot's of book sense but little common sense. Because the jail is merely a warehouse for criminals and affords inmates an enormous amount of idol time to perfect their criminal behavior;
Andrew uses his time in jail to mentor to misguided criminals and to reflect on his memoir tentatively titled-If, if was for sale. I chuckled when Andrew told me that if he had a penny towards his college tuition for every time the word 'IF' was: used in regards to his fate (IF you hadn't committed the robbery ... IF, IF, IF) he could pay off his tuition and my student loans too. Sadly, it's one of few laughs we have shared since his incarceration.
Mr. Deters once again I would like to sincerely apologize to you. Please do not allow my letter to cause you to not reconsider a recommendation to lower Andrew's sentence.
I wish you peace and blessing during this holiday season.
Sincerely, fbk
After this letter came the deal.
Here’s the letter (Decided not to post)
The letter was different from my verbal agreement with the Heekin. During Heekin’s conversation with me, he told me that the judge would state publicly, and that it would be reported in the media that Andrew would receive 20 years.
However, he told me that Andrew would serve 12 years.
I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the 12-year agreement letter to arrive. The letter never arrived. The letter that did arrive was a poorly written letter that Heekin dictated to his secretary because he was out of the country. The secretary mailed the letter.
The letter was different from what Heekin discussed with me.
I tried to contact the “Criminal” criminal attorney Heekin to dispute the letter. He never returned my phone calls. I made plans to confront Heekin at his office regarding the letter.
Finally his incompetent secretary confirmed to me that Heekin was out of the country. Shortly after, I took the letter to an appeals attorney. The attorney told me that the letter could be used as toilet paper. He stated that in Andrew’s official paperwork, it stated that he was given 20 years. It was the Deal that was not.
Realizing that the deal was non-existent. I felt betrayed by all parties involved that brokered the deal. My mind could not escape the Deters ‘atom’ comment. I made several copies of the letter for safe keeping. I sent a letter to Andrew and several other people. One copy of the letter I took to the bathroom with me and wiped my behind as I wept.
Wiping my behind with a copy of the letter may be funny to some and pathetic to others, but for me it was another way to start the healing process.
The healing and the hoping process. I hoped that even though the deal agreement wasn’t in Andrew’s official record, I still clung to the belief that Heekin and Deters, and the other players that brokered the deal, would keep their word.
A plethora of unanswered questions bounced in my head. What if Deters wasn’t the Prosecutor in 12 years? What if he died? Who would see to it that the deal was honored? Why wasn’t Heekin returning my phone calls? Were would Heekin be in 12 years?
Were would the Judge be in 12 years? I was an emotional wreck.
I concluded that Deters needed to be punished but because I still clung to hope I had to punish Deters secretly. I started sending Joe Deters anonymous mail.
Whenever I would read something unfavorable about Deters, and there was a lot of unfavorable information about him, I would print the information (usually an article), along with comments made by other readers of the article, and mail it to Deters. I did this for several months without putting a return address on the mail.
As time passed so did the sobering reality that the deal was not to be. Slowly I became less anonymous in sending mail to Deters. I started putting my PO box address on the mail. Still I was making up names of groups such as Citizens for Fair Prosecution and Citizens for Equal Treatment.
After some time I came out closet so to speak.
That is to say I begin to openly criticize Deters because the more time that passed, the more I believed it was the deal that was not.
I believed that if I put public pressure on Deters he would have no choice but to keep his agreement.
Thus the birth of the group
Citizens Against Joe Deters. At first I was just a one woman show, but than my cousin and other family members came on board. We made poster boards, postcards, held protest, and sent out mail.
My cousin even made me a t-shirt in which she drew Joe Deters face on it. As time moved forward we were able to get some media play and folks came out of the woodwork, in support of our group. Most just wanted to join the group and learn more about our activities.
The second or 3rd protest I held against Joe Deters I put myself in danger.
Through a news article I became aware that 2008 Presidential candidate/team McCain and Palin would be at a rally in Lebanon, Ohio. The same town where Andrew is in prison. I figured since Joe Deters was McCain’s S.W. Ohio chair at the time, he’d be there. I bought a display board which is significantly bigger than poster board and it can stand without holding it.
I wrote the words Citizens Against Joe Deter Against John McCain’s S.W. Ohio chair pick. It was raining hard that day when I drove into the Mayberry town of Lebanon. When I got there-in the middle of no where I saw long, long, really long lines, of white people. Most wore wearing some variation of red, white, and blue. They were sporting cowboy hats and buckles. That was the look of the majority of the crowd. Then there were some who looked ultra conservative.
Driving around to find a parking space I became a little nervous. I had to park, far, far and away. I was nervous walking through ‘Mayberry’ from my car to the location of the rally. Along the way I met some interesting characters. Nobody who looked like me.
It was a tough crowd at the rally, I would say 99% white.
In fact I only saw four or five people of color. Most of the thousands of rally goers left me along. Most read my sign and some asked if they could take pictures with me. Still, I was heckled by some, argued with some, questioned by some. That was kind of my big coming out. Some said they liked Joe Deters. Some said they hated him.
I was in the predominantly white town of Lebanon, Ohio McCain/Palin Republican supporters, it was raining and I wasn’t from those parts.
But my son was also in the Prison in that town, so I found courage in knowing that I was fighting for justice for my son. I worked the crowd and it made me stronger. I was empowered and there was no stopping me from that day forward. I had official Citizens Against Joe Deters t-shirts made. I started a CAJD blog, created an email, opened a bank account, found more supporters for my cause, and garnered more media attention.
I created the groups mission, “
Citizens against Joe Deters is a grass roots organization of citizens who are frustrated by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters double standard of justice and public insults against people of color, people who aren't wealthy, and people who aren't well-connected. Our organization's mission is simple--pressure Joe Deters to resign from his position as Hamilton County Prosecutor.”
While our group was not a media darling, we knew how to kick up dust and our protest made it on the local nightly news and in the newspapers.
Soon after Joe Deters tried to SLAPP me. A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation ("SLAPP") is a lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. Winning the lawsuit is not necessarily the intent of the person filing the SLAPP. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism.
A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate.
One day after one of our protest, Deters had a detective call me up. I felt like I was being threatened. The detective of all people was a former resource officer at the high school where I attended. I had seen the detective at a few of our smaller protest when he and a staffer from Deters’ office would come out and take our pictures as if they were collecting evidence.
Given the nature of the protest and that I was always in the zone I didn’t recognize the detective, nor he me, until one hot summer day after a protest we were headed back to our cars. The detective and another staffer followed us. We stopped after we noticed we were being followed by the detective and the staffer. That’s when the detective called me by my first name. I instantly recognized that it was him, the nice officer from my high school.
The detective said to me, fbk, why are you doing this?” “You were always one of my best students at Woodward high school.
Was your son one of the bank robbers, is this about your son, fbk?” Tears formed in my eyes. I admitted that it was me and instantly my thoughts went back to fond memories of Detective Brown the high school resource office that had been summoned on a many occasion to run me out of the hallway for loitering or whatever juvenile act myself and my friends were up to.
But this appeared to be a different Detective Brown. He told me to take up another crime such as black on black crime. Imagine that a black detective telling a black mother to leave a white corrupt prosecutor alone. Sensing my pain he changed the subject yet again he repeated,
fbk you were one of my best students at Woodward high school. No I wasn’t. While it is true I never caused havoc in the classroom I would raise hell in the hallways and around the school. I was notorious and Detective B knew it. As he was speaking to me the darndest thing popped in my head. I couldn’t get my mind off the fact of how good he still looked. He was still fine. I just kept thinking, he’s so cute, but he’s different now.
Not the detective, former resource office who wore a police uniform. The kind of cop that would give a kid a break. whenever he was summoned to get me and my girl-group for being in some type of trouble, he’d always treated us with respect. He would hear the facts, or at least the facts as we told them to him, he’d dish out the appropriate punishment, it was always fair, and breathe a sigh of relief knowing that soon he’d be summoned to get our group again. Now he had moved on up Weezy Jefferson style. He was wearing nice suits and was the chief detective who was known by some as the HNIC for Joe Deters. Something in him had changed. It appeared Joe had worn off on him.
I no longer like Detective Brown.
Again there were a lot of people that I was angry with during Andrew’s journey into dream deferred. In my opinion and in my pain, if you didn’t support Andrew you were against him. And then there were really people who were against Andrew. Still the more I researched Deters past, his behavior, his past remarks, the more it made me angry. I didn’t think it was fair that a crook had prosecuted my son.
As time passes on time really does heal all wounds. I realize Joe-the-Prosecutor to some degree
was doing his job, but he also stepped out of bounds and went into the zone.
That so many go to in the legal system. They fail to realize that longer prison sentences and harsher penalties come at the expense of taxpayer dollars, inmates and their families. That there is something fundamentally wrong when one considers that America has more people in prison than any country in the world.
That there is something wrong in the way America treats first-time offenders. That there is something wrong with a prison system that offers little, if any rehabilitation opportunities. There is something fundamentally wrong when one considers the fact that young men of color are sentenced more harshly and for longer periods of times than other young men.
Someone sent me a text the other day and it read, “Never made someone your priority, when you are merely their option.”
Yes Joe Deters, possibly the most dangerous Prosecutor in Hamilton County history is my priority. No justice. No peace.
FBK is an unapologetic
black writer.
