Deliberate Indifference: A Gay Man's Maltreatment by the United States Department of Justice

By J. Jackson Owensby

Mystery, suspense, action and adventure in real life. The spiteful misdeeds of a vengeful police official have far-reaching and long-lasting effects on the life of a young gay man whose liberal lifestyle is seen by the detective as a depraved attack on his own ultra-rigid moral code. The catastrophic results of his misguided actions and malfeasance as a policeman are only the beginning of the flood of tribulations that befall Chris, as he becomes deeply entangled with the powerful Department of Justice of the United States of America. Chris Wehner has become the target of an abusive corrections officer at a Federal prison facility. But the sexual abuse is the least of Chris difficulties. Swelling of his optic nerve, ignored by the medical personnel of the Bureau of Prisons is eroding his vision while he struggles to bring medical maltreatments to the attention of forces outside of the prison system. Proper attention may enable him to recover some of his eyesight, or at least retain the little that remains. Among the sources from which he is seeking help is the United States Senator from Indiana. Chris fate hangs in the balance. As told to J. Jackson Owensby

• Language: English
• Publisher: W & B Publishers
• Release date: May 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311434135

J. Jackson Owensby

J. Jackson Owensby is a veteran of the US Air Force and a veteran investigative writer with several non-fiction novels to his credit. Working together with his son, Owensby has created: Deliberate Indifference: A Gay Man’s Maltreatment by the US Dept of Justice; Tricks of an IRS Cheat and Other Scandals You Should Know About Uncle Sam and Your Money!; My Sister and I: We Are Survivors; and the America The Great Series: The Birth of a Nation: The Revolutionary Era: Volume I-The United States Declaration of Independence (Revisited); Volume II-The United States Constitution (Revisited) and Volume III-The Federalist Papers (Revisited). These titles are by A-Argus Better Book Publishers and available on line and in better book stores.

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Introduction

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

~Preamble to the Constitution

of the United States of America~

The first three Articles to the Constitution of the United States of America divide the powers of the United States government among three separate but equal branches; the Legislative Branch, Congress, composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate; the Executive Branch, the President; and the Judicial Branch, the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower courts. This division, entitled the SEPARATION OF POWERS was intended to prevent any branch of the government from becoming too powerful.

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"The Congress of the United States is pleased to announce the formation of a new department within the government of the United States, an agency that will coordinate the full efforts of the federal government in fighting crime, no matter where it may arise. And the Congress is also pleased that the facility, the Department of Justice of the United States of America, shall be under the auspices of the Attorney General of the United States, the most Honorable Amos T. Akerman. It's certain that under his able leadership, the Department of Justice will be a strong force in the forefront of the fight against crime, while safeguarding the rights of all of the citizens of the United States, and insuring the provisions of the Constitution of the United States of America.

~Congress of the United States of America,

March 1870~

U.S. Department of Justice

2002

Director: Attorney General of the United States

Sub-Departments:

Federal Bureau of Investigations

Drug Enforcement Administration

Immigration and Naturalization

Bureau of Justice Statistics

National Institute of Justice

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Foreword

Before enactment of the Congressional Act of 1870, the investigative departments of the United States operated independently of the U.S. Attorney General and of the Judicial Branch. The investigating officers were required to prove to the Attorney General's office that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction before prosecution would begin. This provided an effective checks and balances control over the legal system to prevent false or malicious persecution. The beneficiaries of those safety precautions were the United States citizens.

The Attorney General did not head up an executive department. Rather, he advised the President, and represented the government in cases before the Supreme Court. Each federal office had some part in enforcing laws. That was about to change.

Following his victory over the 'Confederate South', President Grant scored a victory over the entire nation, when, in March, 1870, he and his politically influential drinking buddies ram-rodded the program through Congress to create a completely new agency under the direction of the Executive Branch—the Department of Justice, to be headed by the United States Attorney General. All of the law enforcement and investigative duties of the other federal agencies were folded into this new department, consolidating all federal prosecutions and all federal investigations into one omnipotent entity. For the first time combining investigation and prosecution along with the constitutional authority to appoint the Judges of the Judicial Branch under one umbrella, that of the Executive Branch, the President of the United States and his hand-picked henchman, Amos Akerman. Now, instead of independent investigations, the direction of all investigations came under the direct control of the prosecution.

Gone were the checks and balances. Now, only one single focus of developing only such facts as would prove guilt, without being concerned with any that may have proven innocence. The losers to this new powerful Czar were not only Congress, but also, most of all, the citizens.

Today the breadth and scope of the Department of Justice is beyond imagining. Little wonder then that, within the Department exists enclaves of power wherein a few can act, either alone or in concert with others, to consolidate their own positions, their personal power fiefdoms where these miscreants can make their own rules. And ignore rules that they either don't like or don't accept. There no longer exist three separate but equal branches of Government. The Executive Branch rules supreme, and through the Attorney General and the appointed judges of the courts of the land, is able to circumvent any effort of congress to maintain an equal footing; and any effort to insure that the citizens benefit from their constitutional rights.

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The story of Chris Wehner is based on true, verifiable facts taken from the official records of the United States Bureau of Prisons and from conversations with Chris Wehner.

These facts are not gleaned from several different cases to make a bad situation appear worse, but are drawn from the records of just one individual, a homosexual man who has been subjected to the misuse of the power vested in the law enforcement agencies.

While there certainly are other instances of abuses of power, those are best left for another day and another time.

As the Courts of Justice must hold criminals accountable for their actions, so must the Court of Public Opinion hold officials, elected or otherwise, accountable for their actions. Even as criminals conceal their misdeeds behind a shield of lies and false witnesses, so do the wrongdoers in office shield their misdeeds behind half-truths, misleading information, fabrications (out-and-out lies) and secrecy.

The Courts of Justice are charged with considering the evidence presented. If the evidence is false or incomplete, incorrect conclusions may lead to miscarriages of justice.

The Court of Public Opinion is swayed by the information it receives. If that information is either false or intentionally blurred, the Court of Public Opinion may never have the true facts, and thus can frequently be easily led down the primrose path to a false sense of security and well-being.

In a human body, a few cancer cells can alter every function of the body, the blood cells, and the life span. Cancer is often silent, secretive and undetectable. The cancer cells grow and expand, contaminating healthy cell after healthy cell until the cancer is so rampant that it is eventually discovered. Successful treatment requires that the cancer be exorcized or destroyed. Still, in many cases, especially when detection occurs too late, or when the total cancer is not removed, the patient dies.

In a government body the size of the Department of Justice and its sister law enforcement agencies of fifty states and thousands of cities, a single canker has the same effect. From one single iniquitous law enforcement officer, poison spreads to fellow officers. Just as some healthy human cells resist the spread of cancer, so do some of the moral officers resist the spread of the poison from the canker. But others don't. Some just look the other way while others eagerly participate in the evil misdeeds.

When the veil of secrecy is rent and the fog clears, oft times the truth is not a ‘beauty to behold.’ In the Wehner saga, the actions by law enforcement employees and contractors were concealed behind such a veil, and the truth is not pretty. However, it is the truth, just the plain, unvarnished truth.

The facts, ma'am. Just the facts. Sgt. Joe Friday, Dragnet, 1951-1970

Prologue

He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's going to find out who's naughty…. Sound familiar? Most of us believed in Santa Claus at one time or another. Even after we saw Mom and Dad in action, deep in our secret hearts we still wanted to believe in the jolly, fat man in the red suit and white beard. He represented something that was good.

Were you disappointed to find out that the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny were also just entertaining tales for kids?

What about fairy tales for grown-ups? Don't know any? Have you heard the one about the law enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice safeguarding your constitutional rights and standing between you and the Evil Doers; the criminals who prey on society? Has the Department of Justice and all of the spin experts persuaded you that all law enforcement agents are loyal, upstanding bastions of purity, defending the innocent and punishing only the guilty? Of course, punishing the guilty firmly but fairly, and in an even-handed manner; and certainly without discrimination of any kind. Right!

Do you want the truth?

In the real world, it is eventually revealed that the presents under the decorated tree were not created by elves; that the Easter eggs were not laid by a mystical rabbit; and that a tooth that loosened really had no value except in an attempt to help a child get over the pain of a lost tooth.

In the world of reality, other truths emerge as well, as we often discover that our heroes have feet of clay, and that not every one of the fine line of dedicated men and women in blue are actually committed to fairly enforcing the law and protecting the rights of each citizen. There are a few bad apples in the group.

If you are not ready for the truth, if reality is too scary or offensive and if you prefer to live your life without considering that everything may not be exactly perfect, then you should stop here, and ask for your money back. If you had rather not be made aware that deep in the entrails of the Department of Justice, the all-powerful department of the most powerful government ever in existence, a few cankerous, cancerous cells exist, enabling warped officers of the law to ply their vitriolic hatred in an evil quest to destroy a single human being because of his sexual inclinations, then don't read further. You will be offended by the truisms that follow.

If, on the other hand, you are a bit skeptical, not swallowing every line handed out by government media, or perhaps you just like a little scandal, a little dirt based on true-life experiences, you may find that the disclosures of how your government turns a blind eye to the spreading cancer that is alive and well in its bowels to be entertaining. Entertaining, but not amusing. Instead, perhaps just a little frightening, as you see that blind eye enables the canker to spread and destroy a young man's life because he is different. He is a homosexual.

Ready? Fasten your seat belt, put on your hard hat and safety gear and take a tight grip on your emotions, as you find yourself on a roller-coaster ride through the diabolically convoluted contortions caused by the unbridled use of deliberate indifference and calculated intentional contributory negligence by a cadre of employees of this all-powerful agency of the law enforcement community. Witness as miscreants effectively destroy the life and future of one hapless individual. Only because he is what he is.

While the following, related in Chris Wehner's own words may be self-justifying, nonetheless, this is a recitation of true, unadulterated facts. Understand that the grievous events described in these pages could happen to anyone, even the most innocent, who incurs the wrath of a vindictive, malicious officer of the law.

It could even happen to you.

Chapter One

There he is, standing right there before you—a man. Not an unusual man, maybe a little shorter than average, and maybe a little pudgy, but still, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, you notice something just a little different, something in the way he is peering at you. There’s something just not quite right.

Have you ever seen the life of a promising young person destroyed? Deliberately, maliciously destroyed? Were you forced to stand there, helpless; aware, knowing something needed to be done to stop the madness, but unable to cause anything to take place?

Have you had the occasion to witness minions of our powerful governmental organization use their self-created power seats to viciously, through intentional and deliberate indifference and negligence, punish a person simply because of his or her sexual inclinations? Even in your worst nightmares?

No? Well, I was such a witness.

The situation that greeted me in late November 2005 could not possibly occur in my America, could it? A plot that could only exist in a Stephen King or Dan Brown novel. It would take such a great author of fiction to dream up a script for the events that had been unfolding for a number of years and continue to unfold to this date, some eleven months later.

Absent any such master, the happenings still shout for an airing. The truth was so frighteningly bizarre, the facts must, in all its punctilios, be revealed. The complete details must be divulged of how this most trusted Department of Justice willfully assisted in the destruction of the eyesight of a forty-two year old citizen while he was, and is, an inmate in the Bureau of Prisons.

The vile actions were not taken because he was any great criminal mastermind or drug lord. Not even because he was a threat to the fabric of society. Nor were these actions caused because of his inmate status. The beginning happened before he was imprisoned, merely because he was ‘gay,’ a homosexual who ran afoul of a malicious, vindictive member of the law enforcement community.

I said ‘was a homosexual.’ I should say he is. Chris isn’t at all bashful about his sexual inclinations. While he doesn't flaunt the fact that he is gay he doesn't hide it under a basket. Nor does he hide in a closet.

A word of explanation. This is not a blanket indictment of the United States Department of Justice, nor of the Bureau of Prisons or of the Government of the United States of America. Even with all of its flaws, this is still the best Government ever created by man. And this is not an indictment of the millions of honorable law enforcement agencies and agents that do indeed execute their duties in a proper, professional manner. These fine men and women do indeed protect all of us. While I have personally had an encounter or two with the Department of Justice, at the end of November 2005, I still had respect for their attempts to do an impossible job.

Subsequent to that date, shortly after Thanksgiving Day, I realized that yet another illusion of mine had been irrevocably destroyed. Having been born in the 1930s , I had developed many illustrious perceptions in my mind. Unfortunately, many of them turned out to be only illusions. I had long since learned that women don't perspire, they actually sweat just like men. And when I heard Chris Evert and others of the great and lovely female tennis stars grunt just as loudly as males when striking a hapless yellow – or white – or green tennis ball, I was completely shocked. Then when I learned that girls weren't made out of 'sugar and spice and everything nice' and that they don’t just pass wind, but actually fart, again just like boys who supposedly were made out of 'snakes and snails and puppy dog tails,’ my last childhood fable had come crashing down.

Now I stood face to face with another such calamity. The Department of Justice, the department that had placed my partners and me (along with more than a million other convicted felons including that most horrendous criminal, Martha Stewart) in federal prisons in order to protect the oh-so innocent public from such dangerous individuals, had developed a putrid smell of its own. And in the process was successfully destroying a young man's life.

Was it only because he was an admitted homosexual that the Department of Justice allowed a few sadistic individuals to not only slow the wheels of justice, but to halt the wheels completely? The judgment is not mine to make; it is yours.

And the story is not mine to tell; it belongs to Chris Wehner, an inmate of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice, United States of America. An inmate whose eyesight and life have literally been destroyed by wrong doing individuals hiding behind the shields of the Department of Justice and the Police Department of the City of Louisville, Kentucky.

When you first meet Chris, there's something you notice, even at first appearance, something just a little different. You might think it's his remarkable resemblance to a slightly undersized Robin Williams, with the same effervescent personality; a seemingly new, fresh, anticipatory outlook at life. After a few minutes in his presence, you begin to think it could be the way Chris stares at you in a fixed manner. Something isn't quite right with his eyes, and his gaze is not unlike Mr. McGoo without his eyeglasses. Then you realize that Chris is peering at you because he has great difficulty seeing you as anything other than a fuzzy blur. His eyesight has been drastically affected.

Spend a little time with Chris. He is a fascinating conversationalist, wide-read and knowledgeable about a great variety of subjects. He's bubbling over with vibrancy, full of facts and information about many topics. His mood is invariably cheerful, with the expectation that something new, great and exciting is about to happen. When you watch Chris, you're struck with two immediate impressions. First, he is a human dynamo. Never ever stopping, not even slowing down; operating at warp speed even when walking, and more amazing, even when sitting down. You can only watch as he tries to keep his body in time with his racing mind. The only time he pauses is when a muscle spasm in his injured neck or back strikes, virtually paralyzing him as Chris was the victim of two separate accidents involving head-on collisions. Or when the medicine that he must take for chronic pain takes effect. Then, he's out like a light, but only for a short time. Almost at once, he is up and going again, even to all hours of the night.

The second impression is that he is a workaholic, always ready, even eager to help someone, or to do something for someone, inmate or staff. You begin to understand that he has been this way since childhood. In a facility of the B.O.P. (Bureau of Prisons), where everyone and everything operates at the speed of a snail's crawl, or even at a dead stop, Chris's bustling activities stand out from the crowd.

While Chris will share almost everything, and most of all enjoys sharing his knowledge and his experience, he has little patience for those who won't try to do things on their own, the lazy ones. A stickler for punctuality, he frets over delays caused by others, including the staff of the B.O.P.

This is the individual that has become a victim of a warped manipulation of the law enforcement system that had its genesis in one vindictive, malicious officer with the Louisville, Kentucky Police Department. And, like cancer, the poisonous information fed into the system by that twisted individual has spread to affect other officers of the law enforcement family, including the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons.

In these pages, you will come to know Chris, his thoughts, his concerns and even his fears. You will develop a feeling about him. Perhaps he is too egotistical. You may conclude that he deserves all of the abuse that he has been subject to and is still receiving, although a stray dog may be treated better. Or, perhaps you will believe that he is indeed the victim of a vicious conspiracy of deliberate indifference and contributory negligence that discriminates against homosexuals. There certainly are valid reasons for feeling either way. You will not remain neutral.

As to Chris Wehner personally, while you are dissecting him, consider a theory that has strong possibilities. Perhaps the compulsive urge that has kept Chris running since childhood while trying to be everything to everyone, doing anything for any one, is in reality a plea for acceptance, for approval. Hard as it may be to believe, forty-two year old Chris has a child-like naivety about him. Although how any forty-two year person, either male or female, gay or straight, could have any semblance of naivety after living Chris's experiences is another of the unexplainable mysteries that we encounter in life. Chris appears to believe that people will approve of him and accept him since he is doing so much for them. And that they will respect him for the depth of this knowledge, if he puts it on display.

Is it a deep feeling of insecurity; a fear of rejection; a search for a father figure that has been missing from his life for a long time; or, perhaps a combination of all of these needs?

Either way, you will not be without emotions as you put Chris under your microscope. You will find yourself immersed. Unwillingly, perhaps, but you will become involved. You'll meet Chris in a moment, but first, a few details.

Chris's personality is striking, extraordinarily charming in its perpetual exuberance, but that's only part of the story. The rest is not so pleasant. Nor is the fact that when I met Chris Wehner for the first time, he was not only losing his vision, but was almost completely blind.

His story, or rather this recitation of facts, for that is what it is, a report of validated and verifiable facts, is derived from the records that are on file with the Bureau of Prisons, the United States Marshal's office, the United States Department of Justice, the Louisville, Kentucky Police Department and the various medical offices named, as well as from the hours and hours that this author spent examining in every detail all of the facets of the life, troubles and aspirations of Chris Wehner.

There will be as little profanity as possible in these pages. Although it is not expected that this manuscript will ever grace the shelves at your public library, and most likely not your coffee table at your home, a respect for decency dictates that the language be cleaned up as much as possible.

Even so, for the most part, these actions occurred in one prison or another, and if the precise language used by the inmates to communicate with one another was to be put into print, if the pages didn't burst into spontaneous flame, you would likely burn this book yourself before you finished reading it. You certainly would not use excerpts in mixed company or around children.

Mockery of the inmate's profanity is likely in order; the terms used are comparable to those used by the Drill Sergeants at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where I underwent basic training a long time ago. A lot of Mother Fuckers, S.O.B.s, Bastards, Bitches, Cunts and a lot of other similarly cute terminologies. The most acceptable were cretin, wart on a frog's behind (spelled with three letters), lout and a few other kind names. Oh, by the way, I forgot Scum.

The places described herein are as described, the people you will meet are real, true, flesh and blood people with all their graces and all their flaws. In order to avoid the retaliation that would certainly be laid on Chris and some of the other inmates involved, the names of the individuals have been slightly altered. However, the personalities and descriptions of those people and of the events that have occurred are as stated. If your interest is such, you may well seek out the full identities of those involved yourself. The Freedom of Information Act will allow you do dig out this information, if you wish.

Even if, through horror or disbelief, you reject the truth of the actions these people have taken, these facts will, at the least, reveal to you the petty infighting, scandalous behavior and personal power-grabbing operations that go on, and has been going on behind the scenes for years. These grasping, greedy individuals are more concerned with feathering their own nest than in performing their duties in the manner that all United States Citizens, even the gay ones have the right to expect.

These dastardly acts continue even to this day in the Bureau of Prisons. And in the Department of Justice, an agency of such magnitude and power that, unnoticed in its bowels, are warped individuals who, shielded from the public scrutiny by the sheer scope of their operations, are free to behave or misbehave as they wish, including the act of ignoring the need for action. These miscreants, protected by those above them because the evil doers know too much dirt about those in power and by those below them who are looking for favoritism or who fear retaliation. A clique, if you will. Sort of, You cover my ass and I'll cover yours. For the good of the profession, of course. Right!

This is a factual story of how the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice, the model of equal treatment under the laws of the United States of America with no discrimination of any sort, stood by and even assisted during the intentional blinding of a known homosexual inmate.

Let me introduce you to Chris Wehner, homosexual, inmate in the United States Bureau of Prisons Federal Correctional Institute-Beckley, located in Beaver, West Virginia.

Chapter Two

Hello. I'm Chris Wehner. And, yes, I'm a forty-two year old white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male from Middle America—Jefferson County, Indiana, in fact; Hoosier Country; the heartland of America. And, yes, I'm an inmate, a convicted felon, serving my sentence in the Bureau of Prisons facility known as Federal Correctional Institution-Beckley, located in Beaver, West Virginia. I suppose they call it Beckley because Beaver is only a small, unincorporated community in the scenic mountains of Senator Robert C. Byrd's state. Beckley is not only a larger town, but has many more registered voters. All in all, while quite picturesque as is much of West Virginia, it's not my favorite place in the world.

And, yes, I'm gay, a homosexual, and I have been gay as long as I can remember. Not that it's any big deal, at least not to me. In fact, it has never been anything important, not something that I push at with other people. But since it's a fact of life and a part of me, it's best to address the matter early on. My sexual preferences have always been, and still are, a major problem for some people and they develop a sense of hatred, as if I was offending them personally. I've heard all of the snide remarks, the whispers and the innuendos. And I've been asked all of the inane questions. The one that really gets my goat is, "When did you