Melissa Balin was an
internationally recognized member of the media and mildly successful
independent filmmaker with no criminal record or prior arrests, whose credits
included working with Paris Hilton, Beyonce and Shepard Fairey, when she began
filming Occupy LA on October 1, 2011 and joined the peaceful protest, through
its unconstitutional tactical eviction on November 30, 2011. Balin became the Official Media Liasion
for the Repatriated Sovereign Nation of Freedom & Peace (the NorthEast
quadrant of the South Lawn of LA City Hall) on October 10, 2011 and declared
her formal change of address on October 12, 2011 to LA City Council in support
of Resolution 33 (passed unanimously as complicit understanding of the landlord
per California Tenant Rights).
In spite or because of
community outreach and communications between Melissa Balin and members of LA
City Council, Chief Beck's Office, and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich's Office;
Melissa Balin was the target of harassment by the LAPD, LBPD, and LA Sheriff's
Department including but not limited to THREE UNCONSTITUTIONAL ARRESTS FOR HER
KNOWN ASSOCIATION WITH OCCUPY, OVER A THIRTY DAY PERIOD (11/14/2011 &
11/30/2011 & 12/15/2011), TORTURE & WITHHOLDING OF MEDICAL ATTENTION WHILE
PREGNANT and MALICIOUS PROSECUTION OF FALSIFIED CHARGES resulting in the
MISCARRIAGE OF HER FIRST PREGNANCY on 12/23/2011.
In an effort to discredit
Melissa Balin's excessive force claims and cover up the City and County's
involvement in civil rights violations of Balin's due process, including but
not limited to the right to be free from excessive force resulting in the
unlawful termination of pregnancy; Balin was maliciously prosecuted by the City
Attorney's Office FOR MORE THAN FIFTEEN MONTHS FOR FALSIFIED CONTEMPT OF COURT
CHARGES (#1CA16847-02) even though Judge Rene Korn stated December 8, 2011 that
she “never found the female in Contempt”.
The court removed Balin’s court-appointed counsel of almost one year,
Johnny Lai, over and against Balin’s objections and left her WITHOUT ANY LEGAL
COUNSEL WHATSOEVER FOR MORE THAN TWO WEEKS, incidentally failing to notify her
of her right to appeal the decision.
After thirteen months of
withholding exculpatory evidence without a trial, when Balin still refused to
cop a plea for a falsified crime she did not commit, the court questioned her
"Competency To Stand Trial" at the not-so-sua sponte behest of Judge
Henry Barela and Anthony Tahan, her own court-appointed defense attorney newly
assigned her by the Executive Director of the ICDA (Indigent Criminal Defense
Appointments Program) himself, Zeke Perlo, in a Kafka-esque series of Kangaroo
hearings (#ZM020322) without cause or review of the case whatsoever, let alone
collateral data beginning December
5, 2012 and resulting in a Competency To Stand Trial Hearing in Department 95
of the State’s only dedicated Mental Health Court by Judge Samantha Jessner
(parenthetically the daughter of the first female president of the LA County
Bar Association) on December 20, 2012 until January 30, 2013. To this date the LA Superior Court
refuses to correct public record that shows Balin to be involuntarily committed
and force medicated from December 20, 2012 until June 16, 2013 through
falsified medical and court documents on December 5 & December 20, 2012,
causing continued emotional and financial hardship to the Balin family.
When Balin appealed
decisions, she was "accidentally" given the designation
"Sexually Violent Predator" by clerk Abraham Torres while he was impersonating
clerk Daniel Potter to whom he bears no physical resemblance whatsoever. Whenever “unexplainable errors” such as
these were "discovered" they would be corrected and any evidence of
them mysteriously erased from the files.
Some files would disappear completely, or public documents would be
"accidentally" sealed as "Confidential". Melissa Balin was denied due process
and endured Malfeasances of Justice amounting to a byzantine #ReignOfErrors and
ex parte tea partays from November 16, 2011 until February 25, 2013, when the
charges were finally dropped In The Interest of Justice (1385).
On July 17, 2012, Melissa
Balin was physically attacked outside of her family home by an unidentified
assailant, who stole only her phone and no other belongings she had on her
person, punching her in the face and escaping on the passenger side of a
getaway car. The LAPD failed to
investigate the matter.
In an effort to observe the
State statute of limitations on personal injury, and avoid any further
misappropriation of limited taxpayer resources, Balin filed against the City of
Los Angeles in Small Claims Court on January 16, 2013 for their wanton
destruction of civilian property and curated art on November 30, 2011. The Small Claims Case (#LAM-13M00544)
was dragged along by City and County Attorneys (even though ATTORNEYS ARE NOT
EVEN ALLOWED TO FILE IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT) and even REASSIGNED JUDGES AFTER
TAKEN UNDER SUBMISSION WITHOUT CAUSE OR RECUSAL until $250 of the $9k claim was
awarded Melissa Balin, The Plaintiff, by Judge Alan Rosenfield on November 8,
2013, without any explanation of the amount designated. Although the ruling was never signed,
it was exemplified by Presiding Justice, Judge David Wesley, on November 14,
2013.
It is worth noting, that the
City of LA never appealed Judge Rosenfield’s decision NOR did they satisfy the
judgement, forcing Balin to file an Abstract with the County of Los Angeles,
and obtain a Court Order for the City to pay. When the City finally brought a check to court in February
2014, they tried to feign it off as a “settlement” when in fact it is painfully
worth noting that the City of LA refused to even discuss settlement with Balin
since their receipt of claim letter dated June 1, 2012, their subsequent denial
of claim letter dated July 16, 2012, and in full public view on April 30, 2013.
To this date, in spite of
multiple allegations of heinous criminal conduct against innocent people; no
investigation has ever been conducted into the treatment of pregnant women incarcerated
in Los Angeles County (including the documented and involuntary sterilization
of at least 150 women), nor the unconstitutional Mental Health Court of Los
Angeles County, nor the continued practice of obstruction of justice and
subornation of perjury within the LA Superior Court’s “back-dating” filing
system. Melissa Balin continues to
file complaints (viewable at http://www.scribd.com/StayOccupied) with every possible avenue on a local and federal
level, no longer with the hopes of Justice ever being served, but in a dogmatic
and therapeutic quest to have truly exhausted all administrative remedies and
thereby have proven their ineffectualness, including, but not limited to:
Ø the California Commission on Judicial
Performance
Ø the California State Bar
Ø LA Sheriff’s Department & LAPD Internal Affairs Divisions
Ø Department of the Ombudsman
Ø Long Beach & Los Angeles City Attorney’s Offices
Ø Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Justice
System Integrity Division
Ø the Executive Director of the Department of Mental Health Marvin
Southard
Ø Department of Mental Health Patients’ Rights
Division
Ø the Indigent Criminal Defense Appointments
Program (ICDA)
Ø the Attorney Generals’ Public Inquiry Unit
Ø the FBI Civil Rights Unit
Ø and the Department of Justice Special Litigation
Unit;
all of whom have closed the
matter WITHOUT ANY REVIEW OR INVESTIGATION WHATSOEVER.
Balin’s family residence was
burglarized on April 13, 2014, while her parents were home and asleep in their
bed. Only Melissa Balin’s camera,
case evidence and prescription medications were stolen, by a man the District
Attorney’s Office and LAPD deny as being an informant, Scott Matthew Washburn,
even though he shows up in the DOJ records as a Witness in a 2007 case they
claim is “unrelated”. It is worth
noting that in spite of video surveillance evidence of at least two hours on
the property, a confession by the suspect himself, and a 26-second video clip
of the suspect and two female accomplices captured on the stolen property
itself, stating, “I’m thinking about keeping that camera”; charges of Burglary
were dismissed at the Preliminary Hearing on May 2, 2014 by Judge Leslie A.
Dunn, without allowing Balin to make a statement as was her right according to
Marsy’s Law and without reviewing ANY of the evidence. The suspect’s two female accomplices
remain at large while the suspect, Scott Matthew Washburn, ironically awaits a
plea bargain, for one count of “Trespassing” and one count of “Possession of
Narcotics” in spite of repeated convictions and a current probation violation
and existing bench warrant for Washburn in the City of Burbank.
Balin says she feels “Lucky
To Be Alive To Tell The Tale” and is currently working on a short documentary
on behalf of those not as lucky; Rest In Peace Aaron Swartz, Charlie Castle,
Raymond Horspool, Kelly Thomas, Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant III, Ernest Duenez
Jr., Michael Hastings and countless others awaiting Justice; to be presented to
the Senate Judiciary Committee, entitled Miscarriage of Justice, that illustrates how her unconstitutional treatment
is indicative of a pattern of discriminatory policies designed not only to
favor corporate sponsors of the Court, but to actually commit harm to the
indigent and unpopular defendants of Los Angeles County in an effort to mitigate
“Risk Management” of Claims for Damages by the People. Balin hopes to effect drastic reforms
in the abuse of Judicial Immunity that include cameras in the courtrooms and
civilian oversight to eradicate selective enforcement bought through political
endorsement.
Melissa Balin asks people to
share their own stories and evidence of #MalfeasanceOfJustice as either a
Defendant or a Victim of the System, throughout their social media networks
under the hashtag campaign: #ReignOfErrors.
