CCCP IN THE NEWS

Jun 05, 2008 – San Diego, CA - Citizens Committee For Constitutional Protection (CCCP) announced that recently discovered documents warrant an immediate investigation into activities of the San Diego Police Department officers for stalking and harassment of the former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer Julia Davis. Former CBP Officer Julia Davis made whistleblowing disclosures and won a discrimination suit against the Department of Homeland Security, obtaining a court ruling which declared the Agency’s activities against Davis to have been illegal.

Davis has an ongoing multi-million dollar lawsuit against the agency and the Agents who engaged in a series of illegal acts, warrantless searches, warrantless surveillance, On-Star tracking, warrantless wiretapping, Patriot Act violations and illegal disclosures made by the DHS to members of the Bonanno mafia crime family in order to retaliate against Davis and her family members.

In one of their many acts of harassment, DHS Agents Herbert Kaufer and Jeffrey Deal recruited San Diego Police Department Officer Steve Webb to illegally pull over Officer Davis after one of the discrimination lawsuit hearings in San Diego. Handwritten diary entries by Herbert Kaufer and Jeffrey Deal show that SDPD Officer Steve Webb was contacted on April 15, 2005 and asked to stalk and pull over Davis on the day of her hearing which took place on April 28, 2005.

SDPD Officer Webb stalked Davis on the agreed-upon date and illegally pulled over Davis without any probable cause for such a vehicle stop. After Davis made an official complaint to the Internal Affairs of the San Diego Police Department, Department of Homeland Security and SDPD IA Lieutenant Carolyn Kendrick have conspired to lie that the vehicle was pulled over because of the “missing front plate” to justify the baseless vehicle stop, during which SDPD Officer Webb neither approached the vehicle from the front, nor asked Davis for her registration or insurance information. Formal complaints by Davis were never pursued and her claims were not investigated.

In light of the cover-up, conspiracy, violation of public trust and failure to investigate these actions by the SDPD Internal Affairs, the Citizen's Committee For Constitutional Protection is formally requesting a re-investigation of this matter by filing formal complaints with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, SDPD Chief William Lansdowne, San Diego mayor's office and the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices.

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SANTA MONICA, Calif./EWORLDWIRE/April 24, 2007 --- In a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security, former CBP Officer Julia Davis and her husband, Hollywood Producer/Director BJ Davis, uncover how the Patriot Act is being used to discourage acts of true patriots. A complaint filed in the Central Federal District Court of California (Case EDCV07-0481SGL (OPx)) names the United States of America, Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ICE Agents Jeffrey Deal and Herbert Kaufer as defendants and seeks general damages of twenty million dollars in addition to punitive and exemplary damages, special damages, petition for writ of mandate and attorneys fees. Allegations include civil rights violations, malicious prosecutions, false imprisonment, warrantless surveillance, warrantless searches, privacy violations and withholding of exculpatory evidence.

Julia Davis is a former Customs and Border Protection Officer who made a whistleblowing disclosure to the FBI/JTTF in an attempt to safeguard the nation's borders. In retaliation for the report that exposed serious lapses in processing of applicants for admission from special interest countries, the Department of Homeland Security engaged in unprecedented retaliation against Julia Davis and her family. San Diego Director of Field Operations Adele Fasano wrote that Julia Davis "should be held accountable for what she did, "referring to Julia's report to the FBI. San Ysidro Port Director William Ward sent a high priority Significant Incident Report to the office of former CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, alerting DHS officials of an extremely embarrassing disclosure. ICE Agents Jeffrey Deal and Herbert Kaufer led the charge against Davis and later admitted under oath that the Davis case was declared "top priority" and was to be given "immediate attention."

Julia and BJ Davis have been falsely charged with felony crimes and twice imprisoned; the Davis residence has been raided with a Blackhawk helicopter, stormed by twenty-seven ICE Agents armed with assault weapons and ransacked for an hour without a warrant. Prior to the raid, Julia and BJ Davis have been subjected to aerial surveillance with the Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Unit, followed by as many as eight ICE agents at each given time; their medical and insurance records have been inappropriately disclosed by the Screen Actors Guild and voluminous materials have been seized in a warrantless search of BJ Davis' office. Agents Kaufer and Deal falsely accused Julia Davis of being a "Domestic Terrorist" and a convicted murderer, boasted of abusing Patriot Act provisions in "keeping close tabs" on the family, while disclosing highly privileged TECS records and details of FBI investigations to third party civilians and organized crime associates.

All criminal charges in prosecutions against Julia and BJ Davis have been dismissed. California State court declared Julia and BJ Davis factually innocent, ordered their arrest records sealed and destroyed and ordered the government to return all proceeds of both warrantless searches. DHS, Kaufer and Deal refused to comply with this court order. Although the DHS Office of Professional Responsibility acknowledged in writing that misconduct by Kaufer and Deal had risen well above the administrative level, their actions have not been formally investigated. The DHS Office of Special Investigations canceled their appointments to interview Julia and BJ Davis, where the evidence of criminal misconduct was to have been formally presented.

Julia Davis won a discrimination lawsuit against the DHS, with a final court order issued in 2005 that found the Agency engaged in illegal conduct and that the DHS betrayal of Julia Davis caused her to involuntarily resign from the Agency. Daniel Sutherland, the DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties issued a written refusal to comply with the court order.

The current lawsuit, filed by the law firm of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, points out that while the DHS refused to honor an award of $225,000 dollars and failed to comply with valid court orders, it expended enormous taxpayer resources to unlawfully pursue, harass, maliciously prosecute and falsely imprison Julia and BJ Davis.

David B. Casselman, Esq. has been selected by Super Lawyer Magazine from among the lawyers of the State of California as 2006 SUPER LAWYER. The law firm of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman obtained some of the largest verdicts in history for their clients. Thomas V. Girardi, Esq. of Girardi & Keese today announced he'll be joining the legal team of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman as plaintiff's counsel. Mr. Girardi served as a co-counsel in the Erin Brockovich case and is one of the most influential and acclaimed attorneys in the United States. The law firm of Girardi & Keese has been involved in a number of landmark cases and obtained more than one billion in recoveries on behalf of their clients. Visit http://www.wcclaw.com and http://www.girardikeese.net for more information.

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Los Angeles, CA - March 19, 2007 Justice Department audit recently concluded that the FBI abused the Patriot Act, improperly and, in some cases, illegally using it to secretly obtain highly personal information about people in the United States. The audit found that for the last three years, the the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ordered a further investigation and did not exclude the possibility of future criminal charges, stating to reporters: "There is no excuse for the mistakes that have been made".

The 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization and improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances, while using "national security letters", a power outlined in the Patriot Act that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, were meant to be used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases and allow federal agencies to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers - without judicial oversight.

The audit found that the number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law. The audit also identified 26 possible violations in the way national security letters were misused, including making improper requests, failing to get proper authorization and unauthorized collection of telephone and Internet e-mail records.

A host of violations uncovered by the audit are similar to outrageous government misconduct in the case of former Customs and Border Protection Officer Julia Davis. In that case, Department of Homeland Security falsely declared Julia Davis to be a "domestic terrorist" and a murderer in order to retaliate for her whistleblowing disclosures involving serious breaches of national security by the DHS. The Davis' residence was raided with a Blackhawk helicopter with a Special Response Team, the former CBP Officer and her spouse were subjected to warrantless surveillance, warrantless searches and seizures, two malicious prosecutions, two false imprisonments and countless constitutional rights violations. All charges against Julia and BJ Davis were eventually dismissed, and the court declared them factually innocent of charges brought forth by the government, ordering their arrest records sealed and destroyed and all property and information obtained in two warrantless searches to be returned by the government.

Further investigation recently revealed additional violations, when it was uncovered that the Screen Actors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Pension and Health Plans disclosed protected health information pertaining to Julia and BJ Davis, their relatives and dependents to the Department of Homeland Security. Under the guise of protecting homeland security, San Diego Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents, Jeffrey J. Deal and Herbert P. Kaufer have requested and obtained medical, insurance and identification information pertaining to BJ and Julia Davis and their family members, whereby SAG/SAG PHP disclosed to Kaufer and Deal protected medical information pertaining to a total of eleven (11) persons.

Since the information obtained did not fit their agenda, Kaufer and Deal and the prosecutors involved withheld these records and the fact that such records had been obtained. While in possession of documents and information contrary to the allegations against Julia and BJ Davis, OPR/ICE Agents Kaufer and Deal continued their vindictive prosecutorial efforts and, by providing knowingly false testimony to the Grand Jury, obtained the later-dismissed indictment against them.

BJ Davis is a thirty-year member of the Screen Actors Guild, who recently produced and directed an award-winning comedy starring Academy Award nominees Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, Charles Durning and Robert Loggia. In addition to releasing protected medical records to the Department of Homeland Security, SAG unlawfully released payroll, tax, medical, insurance and other information pertaining to BJ and Julia Davis to a group of actors formerly employed by Producer/Director BJ Davis in his latest award-winning film. SAG also illegally released the financial bond on the same film to unauthorized parties, prior to the film's completion - in spite of the fact that BJ Davis, as the film's SAG signator, was the only entity empowered to authorize or request such a release. To date, SAG officials have failed to provide information pertaining to their release of the film bond and refused to comment on the disclosures of highly private information to the DHS.

Julia Davis won a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, which the agency is still refusing to honor. On August 24, 2005 Daniel W. Sutherland, Department of Homeland Security's Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

received a Decision in the Julia Davis case (EEOC No. 340-04-00317X, Agency No. I-03-W121) that stated in part: Indeed, the complainant established agency culpability of an egregious sort and has been awarded a significant sum in damages because of the effects of the agency's unlawful discrimination". On September 30, 2005 Sutherland authored a response, stating: "After careful review, it is the decision of DHS not to implement the AJ's decision...This is DHS' final action in this matter".

Whistleblowing disclosures by Julia Davis and unprecedented retaliation that followed have been outlined in the recently published book "Unsafe At Any Altitude" by Pulitzer Prize nominated investigative journalists Joe and Susan Trento, which was featured on "60 Minutes", "Hannity and Colmes", CNN and other media outlets.

DHS spokesperson Dean Boyd discouraged media coverage of the story by faxing the later-dismissed indictment to journalists making inquiries into the case, while confirming that all actions of corrupt ICE/OPR Agents Kaufer and Deal have been approved by the Department of Homeland Security's top level officials . Dean Boyd, on behalf of the agency, praised Agents Kaufer and Deal as the best examples of what the DHS has to offer.

On March 9, 2007, Dean Boyd issued a public statement on FBI's use of Section 215 orders, stating in part: "We are pleased with the Office of Inspector General's (OIG) report...We are also pleased that the OIG found it unnecessary to make any recommendations for changes to Justice Department or FBI procedures and practices for use of this authority... In reviewing all the Section 215 orders issued in the years 2002 through 2005, the OIG found only two instances of "improper use" of this authority, a characterization that the Justice Department believes is not apt".

Boyd's claims are contrary to the findings within the latest Justice Department audit, which uncovered illegalities in the government's abuses of authority granted by the Patriot Act, identifying 26 possible violations. The audit found that over a three-year period, the FBI reported issuing 143,074 national security letters requesting customer data from businesses - which did not include an additional 8,850 requests that were never recorded in the FBI's database. In many instances, national security letters were signed by officials who were not authorized to authorize such requests. In at least 700 cases, these letters were sent to three telephone companies to get toll billing records and subscriber information. The audit concluded that "In many cases, there was no pending investigation associated with the request at the time the exigent letters were sent". Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated: "To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report would be an enormous understatement...Failure to adequately protect information privacy simply is a failure to do our jobs."

These abuses mirror outrageous government misconduct in the Julia Davis case, where OPR/ICE Agents Kaufer and Deal obtained information and questioned witnesses without any official investigation in place, after Officer Davis' separation from the Agency. While questioning witnesses, Kaufer and Deal referred to Julia Davis as the "Domestic Terrorist", made all-inclusive, overly broad requests for privileged information and stated they were simply looking for "any criminal activity". Sworn witness statement recounts that Agents Kaufer and Deal bragged of their unlimited authority to obtain information, granted by the Patriot Act. San Diego office of ICE/OPR wasted its resources by reportedly creating a counter-terrorism Task Force to investigate former Officer Davis and assigning as many as 8 Agents on each given day to conduct warrantless surveillance of Julia Davis and her family members, meticulously recording such useless information as the family's landscaping and grocery shopping habits.

The integrity and the track record of one of the leaders of ICE counter-terrorism task force has long been questioned by several law-enforcement sources, but related investigation into alleged violations has been hampered by interference from Headquarters officials, as reported by Mark Conrad, former Resident Agent in Charge of Customs' Internal Affairs. With consistent candor, Dean Boyd made another one of interchangeably cheerful statements on behalf of the Agency, claiming that individual involved was of "great integrity" and the Task Force program "continues to be very successful." The same individual, praised by Boyd,, was previously involved in a botched undercover operation that cost the government about $600,000, sources indicate. The Houston agent at the center of the controversy was put on a promotion fast-track, according to agency sources. He is now stationed in Washington, D.C., where he holds a supervisory position with a DHS-sponsored task force called Green Quest, which is charged with disrupting illegal financial schemes used by terrorists groups.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. stated: "The report indicates abuse of the authority" Congress gave the FBI, "You cannot have people act as free agents on something where they're going to be delving into your privacy." The committee's top Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, said the FBI appears to have "badly misused national security letters." The senator said, "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the federal authorities are not really sensitive to privacy and go far beyond what we have authorized." Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., another member on the panel that oversees the FBI, said the report "proves that 'trust us' doesn't cut it.

Citizens Committee For Constitutional Protection spokesperson B. Harris stated, "We will be contacting the DHS Committees, sub-committees, Senate and Congressional representatives to take action on these constitutional violations while working independently to bring this to the public's awareness. IN our fight against terrorism it is our duty to stop this kind of internal terror perpetrated against US citizens under any circumstance".

Screen Actors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Pension and Health Plans have been implicated in disclosing protected health information pertaining to Producer/Director BJ Davis, Screenwriter Julia Davis, their relatives and dependents to the Department of Homeland Security. Under the guise of protecting homeland security, Internal Affairs Agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Jeffrey J. Deal and Herbert P. Kaufer have requested and obtained medical, insurance and identification information pertaining to BJ and Julia Davis and their family members, whereby SAG/SAG PHP disclosed to Kaufer and Deal medical information pertaining to a total of eleven (11) persons.

Julia Davis is a former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer, who made serious whistleblowing disclosures involving national security. Agents Kaufer and Deal have been instrumental in the series of unprecedented actions by the Department of Homeland Security, designed to discredit Julia Davis in an attempt to invalidate her terrorism-related protected disclosures, as reflected in the recently published book "Unsafe At Any Altitude" by Pulitzer Prize nominated investigative journalists Joe and Susan Trento.

The disclosure of highly private medical and insurance records by the Screen Actors Guild is the latest in the already long list of unconstitutional actions against BJ and Julia Davis by the Department of Homeland Security. In 2005, ICE and CBP misused government's anti-terrorism funding to conduct a Blackhawk helicopter raid of the Davis' residence, complete with twenty seven (27) Special Response Team (SRT) Agents armed with assault weapons, after subjecting BJ and Julia Davis to two years of warrantless surveillance, conducting warrantless searches and falsely declaring Julia Davis to be a "domestic terrorist" and a "murderer." The DHS was instrumental in organizing two malicious prosecutions and two false imprisonments of BJ and Julia Davis, although all charges against them were subsequently dismissed, BJ and Julia Davis were declared factually innocent, their arrest records were ordered sealed and destroyed and the government was ordered to return proceeds of both warrantless searches. Julia Davis won a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, which the agency is still refusing to honor.

Producer/Director BJ Davis is a thirty year signatory member with the Screen Actors Guild. In addition to releasing protected medical records to the DHS, SAG unlawfully released payroll, tax, medical, insurance and other information pertaining to BJ and Julia Davis to a group of actors formerly employed by Producer/Director BJ Davis in his latest award-winning film.

These and other related events are currently being investigated by the Citizens Committee for Constitutional Protection (CCCP), with a recent request for an official congressional inquiry. In an official statement, CCCP Chairman B. Harris stated: "There is a growing concern amongst American citizens as to the Law enforcement officials' misuse of the tools designed for fighting terrorism that are instead being utilized to compromise the constitutional rights and violate the right to privacy of all Americans."

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

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