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PART III:
BRAINFREEZE
Chapter 1: Non-Partisan Spring Election 2005
I found out that our Village President had competition from
the Fish family. It was odd as I viewed our Village President as a traditional
Republican like my folks, and he was a good Village President that cares about
community services versus simply taxes. The fact of the matter is that if you
want to reside in a nice place to live, you have to pay for it. So, even
though I knew he was a Republican, my partner and I decided to help him. It was
a surprise election with him winning solidly.
In a nearby town’s election, the residents shocked the
county by kicking anyone off of their board who supported rezoning for a gravel
pit. The anti gravel pit folks swept the election, including removal from the
board of our Assembly Representative’s father. There were a multitude of
events that happened within a couple of weeks.
I vividly remember my drive to the post office the day after
the April Election in 2005. I remember which people hated me by their glares
from those in their yards. Even a post office worker treated me horribly. My
life was getting ready to change for the worse after the spring election. To
examine all noteworthy events in this short time frame that began my current
day nightmare, I present to you this timeline:
April 4
- I sent a multitude of emails endorsing our Republican Village
President.
- I sent out an email to a group of all Democrats of why I
ran for office via a “Reply to All” of Bruce’s distribution list and
caught some slack.
- I received an email from Bruce that another member was
working on a new website for our county’s Democrats. Knowing I did web
design, I was a little surprised.
April 5
- The “non-partisan” spring election occurred.
April 6
- I corresponded with the anti gravel pit folks and
congratulated them on their victory of overthrowing their board. I
eventually got this back: “Buddy, abortion and guns are not a
conservative platform. It's very liberal. If you or the Dems
continue to swim against what appears to be the people's wishes, you're
going to get crunched in conservative pockets.” He also stated I should
run as a Republican or Independent if I went for a second attempt. In
retrospect, I got crunched, but so did the Republicans.
- My partner and I congratulated our Village President for
his victory. He thanked us for our help.
- I began to get very nasty looks from people throughout the
district.
April 7
- I replied to a Bruce distribution email about how to
defeat our marriage amendment in 2006 on the religious level. I followed
this up with several other emails. Several of the emails centered on the
golden rule.
- I invited Doug from a progressive organization and a
gentleman named Steve to play a game of golf as we had just joined a local
golf club. Much to our delight, we were given the couples rate from the
club. Doug had dropped the ball when I ran for office, and I did not hear
back from either of them regarding the golf invite.
- Oddly enough, our mailbox was hit by a white van. As we
shared a mailbox post with Dave and Mary, Dave asked if we got the license
plate with our video surveillance. I did not think much of it at the
time, but it was hit about 5 times in the following two months. Our neighbor’s
Ron and Judy and Sue and Al’s homes sold pretty quickly by the spring of
2005. Dave and Mary’s home sold later in the year, but they had their
extra lot sold off in the spring. Thus, three neighbors directly across
the street all moved in 2005 with an extra home built.
- A woman named Ann, who lives a street over and was friends
with our Assembly Representative before the election, stopped by our house
and asked really weird questions like what would happen if someone broke
into our house, if we dropped one of our phone lines out of concern of it
being bugged, and the capabilities of our outdoor video surveillance
system. She said that she could not tell me more about “what was going on”
until Wednesday or Saturday, and that would mean I would not know “what
was going on” for up to a week.
- Bruce sent out an email of the monthly column written by
our county chair. I replied to all stating what a great job she did
because, well, it was essentially the message of my campaign.
- On my way to an eye doctor’s appointment, a red dodge
intrepid was clearly following me. After I did a multitude of turns
through the neighborhood, with the car still following me, I finally
managed to lose the vehicle. I borrowed the eye doctor’s phone book and
called the Sheriff Department.
- I got a call from one of three neighbors that moved in the
spring of 2005. The first thing Dave said was, “So, you believe in the
golden rule now?” At that time, I rarely gave out my wireless number, and
it was becoming clear that one of the Democrats had sent my marriage and
religion email to quite a few people. This was when Connecticut was
writing their civil union legislation. To the same list I used before
regarding the golden rule, I sent another email and noted that in my
campaign I said I would support a bill that would provide civil unions yet
protects the religious sanctity of marriage. Whether I had anything to do
with it or not, Connecticut’s civil union bill was changed shortly
afterwards to state marriage was between a man and a woman. However, they
were the first state to offer civil unions without being required by a
court ruling.
April 13
- Around 11:00 am I got a call on my wireless phone. The
man asked, “May I speak to the woman of the house please?” I replied, “There
is not a woman of the house.” He then asked, “May I speak to the man of
the house please?” I replied, “There are two men of the house.” He
angrily replied, “Marriage is between a man and a woman” and hung up the
phone. I called the number back as I had it on my phone’s memory, and it
was the Dove Foundation out of Michigan. They said my cell phone was
randomly dialed, but they probably got my “golden rule” email. I also
found out their website was dove.org.
- Due to continued questioning of my credentials, I emailed
Bruce photographs of my college degree, my sales awards, my cub scout hat
(my shirt had somehow disappeared), my fraternity paddle, and some sports
awards to prove I did not lie in my campaign of my life accomplishments.
The email subject was “for my critics” as I clearly had a “non-fan” club.
- On my way home, an unfamiliar car on my street did not
have a stop sign and I did. They would not enter the intersection before
me. I drove around my block to pass them in an opposing direction, and it
was an older woman with a younger woman on a cell phone in the passenger
seat. Her license plate was BALDY 1. I drove around a few other streets
instead of pulling in my driveway, and the car was gone when I returned.
I pulled into our garage and walked up our driveway to see the car sitting
on the side of the road with both passengers remaining in the vehicle.
There was also a car that sat across the street from Ann’s house. It
would get on the county road at the end of our street after me, but I
appeared to startle them when I went on their street to get on the county
road versus my own.
- I called my State Senator as he had spoken of having
problems with voters including a bullet shell on his mailbox. He said not
to worry about the “crazies.”
- I emailed a friend of mine from high school, who has a mom
that works for the FBI, and her mom’s advice was to call the local police
or file a complaint with the local FBI office.
- My partner too had believed that he had been followed. He decided to call the Sheriff Department at about 8:25 pm as we knew we were being followed and it could not be a coincidence considering it was both of us. At this point, I had left two voice mails with a county detective. The sheriff that stopped by our house said there was no detective in the county by the name Sharon Taylor (who I was forwarded to by calling the Sheriff Department). I had also called a regional FBI office, and they were unwilling to escalate the issue. The person said he just answers phones.
- Bruce replied to “for my critics” email and I in turn sent
this: [FYI…I confirmed today I’m being followed…I called the Sheriff’s
office and left a vm for a detective (an FBI agent knows too…but she’s in Romania). I’m going to leave the door open for now regarding the election…those crazy
people…must be Fish related. I have a license plate… BALDY 1.
There isn’t just one person following…there’s a whole group].
- I was invited to a presentation by one of my clients. It was
to be held at the Radisson the next evening, and one of the presenters was
our District Attorney’s wife.
April 14
- I followed my partner to work, and the traffic was very
heavy. It appeared that several cars fled, but I will never know for
sure. There was a traffic accident at a nearby highway and county road intersection,
and my partner and I compared notes later in the day. There was a balding
man in a gold car that followed him to work, and he was behind me until I
turned off on Depot Road.
- I spoke with a county detective named Chris around 10:30
am. I sent him a multitude of emails covering who it could be along with
license plates. Oddly enough, he stated there was no record of a sheriff
stopping by our house the night before. The detective told me the BALDY 1
plate owner lived in a trailer park.
- I called the regional FBI office again and begged for
help. I managed to get an email address from them, and I was to make the
subject to the attention of squad 3. I never heard anything back via
email or phone. However, at random locations and times over later years,
I would have contacts that reached out to me seeking more information or
to offer a cheer of sorts to keep going.
- At the presentation, our District Attorney (DA) had two
seats open by him in the front row. My partner and I sat next to him. I
explained to him what was happening, and he asked who it could be. I told
him that I would forward him the emails that I sent to the FBI.
- In near hysteria, I told several other people beyond Bruce
and our DA that I called the FBI. These people included our neighbor Ann,
my old neighbor Dave, and a Democrat named Jeanne.
April 15
- I forwarded our DA the emails I had sent to the FBI at
around 11:00 am.
- In the morning I sent an email to the county detective
that neither my partner nor I were followed that morning.
- I read the newspaper in the afternoon, and there was a
national sting announced by the US Attorney General called Operation
Falcon. I emailed our District Attorney and the county detective that I
may have been followed due to this. I asked why this would have happened.
I never heard back.
April 16
- Ann stopped by while on one of her walks. Remember she
lived a block and a half away. She said that as long as I did not run for
office again, everything would be ok and there was nothing to worry
about. She told me that it was standard operating procedure for people
who run for office to be investigated by the FBI. From this, I could
assume I was not being investigated, or someone hated me enough to make a
false report. But, in early 2005, it was illegal to investigate someone
without telling them. So, who could have possibly been following us? It
is time to examine the options fellow citizen detectives.
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