Underdog Militia Report

One day in June of 2007, I received a summons from a District Magistrate in Dauphin County.

It turned out to be a private criminal complaint filed by the West Hanover Township manager, accusing me of failure to file an earned income tax return. The first thing I found interesting was the fact that I was being accused of failure to file by April 15, 2003, for the tax year 2002. Here’s the problem: I was not a resident nor worked in West Hanover Township at anytime during the year 2002. So they did not have jurisdiction.

Now the average chicken neck American craps his pants when he receives a court summons. I was laughing at the weakness of the case. They had none. Even if I did reside or work in West Hanover Township at any point in 2002, the burden of proof was on the prosecution. So I decided to do some legal research.

Most people don’t understand that the law is written in a set of books called titles. In Pennsylvania, when you get a traffic ticket, you are generally being charged with violating a section of Title 75 (the PA vehicle code). More serious crimes like theft and burglary are usually found in Title 18 (crimes code). So when someone calls the police “the law” or say the law is coming” they are speaking nonsense. The law was written by a small group of people calling themselves the legislature. The police are not the law. Although they do lobby (bribe, and/or threaten) those small group of elected people, so those books are written in such a way that favor police. i. e. gives them a license to push people around.

Anyhow the court rules are generally covered by Title 42 (Judicial Code). The Judicial code contains both the rules of civil and criminal procedure. It also contains the statute of limitations. So I looked up the section on criminal statute of limitations.
Title 42 P. S. Section 5552(a) General rule-Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, a prosecution for an offense must be commenced within two years after it is committed.

So I show up early at the District Magistrate. The reason I did this was to sit in on a case or two and see how things happen in the court. The first few cases were school truancy hearings. Total waste of time, since I don’t believe the government should be in the education business.

Then there was a DUI case.
Now during the DUI case there was the usual police officer testifying. Then the defendant’s lawyer asked to see a piece of evidence. Some sort of documentation. The officer said he didn’t have it with him, that it is at the station. (I’m paraphrasing).
The prosecution asked for a continuance so the officer could return with the evidence. The defendant’s lawyer objected. Of course the police officer impersonating a judge overruled him. He granted a recess so I had to sit there and wait.

Then a bureaucrat who works for the Capital area tax bureau showed up. It was my turn.

He basically sat there and said that I violated the local earned income tax code. He presented no evidence whatsoever. Now remember the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove every element of the crime, beyond a reasonable doubt. Remembering what happened in the previous DUI case, I asked for evidence. The tax collector said the bureau had copy’s of W-2’s showing that I resided in West Hanover Township during the year 2002. And when I asked to see them he said he didn’t have them with him.
OK. So I point out how the two year statue of limitations ran out on April 16, 2005. Now remember the charges weren’t filed until June of 2007. I also point out how no evidence was presented.

Get a load of this: The Magistrate didn’t even call a recess so the bureaucrat could go bring back some evidence like he did with the police officer in the DUI case. He rubber stamped the complaint guilty and then said that if I bring back evidence to prove my innocence he would reverse the ruling! It was at that point I would wished I brought a stenographer. Of course he most likely wouldn’t have said that in the presence of a stenographer.

So I was going to appeal it to the Dauphin County Court of common pleas.

I’ll tell you about the appeal in a future post.

Will my appeal succeed?
Or will I have to go to the supreme court? Bookmark this blog to find out.

Related posts:

1. Appealing to the court of common pleas