Coerced Plea Agreement Part 3 of 4
1996 Freeman Montana Standoff. I entered the Freeman Ranch during the standoff. Subsequently the FBI arrested me and charged me with accessory to 4 Billion dollars in Bank Fraud. I was held without Bail and the FBI obtained a sealed court order prohibiting my lawyer from discussing my case with me.
I was never given a trial date. The FBI often does not put political dissidents on trial. Instead coercion is used to force a plea deal. And if coercion fails then torture is used.
Initially I shared a cell in Billings with pretrial codefendant LeRoy Schweitzer. The FBI took LeRoy and tied him to a velcro restraint chair. Bright strobe lights of various colors were then aimed at his face. With his arms tied down he could not cover his eyes. The bright strobe easily penetrating his eye lids. He was subjected to this torture for 3 days and nights without food or bathroom break. After 3 days he had a vision and saw a white owl appear to him on the opposite wall which gave him strength and hope to endure. This made him so debilitated the FBI then removed him from the chair and flew him to a prison hospital in Missouri where he was fed through tubes placed up his nose for 2 weeks. He was then returned to my prison cell where he told me of his ordeal. His appearance had drastically changed from youthful to that of an old man. One of the prison guards took me aside and questioned me if this was really LeRoy that it couldn’t be the same man. I assured him it was. The guard began to cry and said he would testify for us should we ever be able to sue. I never saw that guard again. The experience, terrified and left me distraught as well.
I was then moved to a different federal contract facility to isolate me. There I was placed in equivalent to solitary confinement. I say equivalent because I don’t know if I was designated solitary or just kept isolated. I was put in a cell by myself where I was kept for a little over 1 year. I only got out of the cell for 15 minutes per week when a Baptist Minister visited me. I owe that Baptist minister for helping me hold it together. He faithfully visited every week never missing a visit.
My cell had a small window to the outside. I couldn’t see out because it was so dirty. But it did create a shaft of light which ever so slowly traveled across the floor. That light was my TV. The gradual movement on my floor the only thing to occupy my mind. A sun dial of sorts which I sat on the corner of my cot riveted to watching the time go by. I knew the mealtime based on which tile the light lit up. Eventually I realized the light was also moving in another direction too which marked off the seasons. I am certain I could detect and see the hourly movement. But l imagined I could see the seasonal movement of the light across the floor too.
Eventually my mind broke! I tore my Bible into little pieces into a pile. Then lay face up in the corner of my cell where a water drip was. And watched the drip of the water splat after splat hit the bridge of my nose. Barely aware that guards had tried to put food through my cell door at mealtime. Aware of nothing except the drip coming down down until splat and then the next droplet pursuing the first. I don’t know how long I lay there, 6 hours, 24 hours, 3 days? I was no longer watching the light shaft on the floor. I was fixated on nothing just drip splat so how could I know passage of time?
One of the guards, who was actually a decent fellow, unlocked my cell and stood in the middle of the floor with all the energy the guard could muster he spoke my name. Not sure how many times he called out to me. Gradually I became aware of his presence. I turned my head and saw him standing there. He was trembling. I couldn’t understand why he shook looking at me. It was as if his knees were going to collapse. He summoned enough courage to demand I get up and follow him. He walked me in the hall then gave me a book to read and put me back in my cell.
The guard must have then written a report because this is what the FBI was waiting for. After a year in solitary, a fellow who had recently been arrested for hunting without a permit was put in my cell. His wife arrested as an accessory was put in the cell next to us. She was then taken every couple hours throughout the day and night for questioning. Each time she was told that because she was in jail her children would be given to some one else by Child Protective Service and she would never see them again. After 3 days she despaired and hung herself in her cell. Her husband in the cell with me powerless to do anything for her. Lay on the floor trying to catch a glimpse of her from under the cell door as the paramedics carried her stretcher past. After this they took him and interrogated him telling him that he had to cooperate with them to save his wife’s life. They told him they knew that I had made a jail house confession to him in my cell (a lie).
The Secret Service then came to interrogate me. I repeatedly demand my lawyer to be present for questioning. The agent repeatedly told me I no longer had a right to a lawyer. He then showed me a notarized statement from the fellow that had been placed in my cell. The statement falsely accused me of conspiracy to assassinate then President Clinton. It stated that I was directing the assassination plot in privileged communication through my lawyer. And so this is why I no longer had a right to a lawyer during interrogation.
I was put back alone in my cell. My mental condition was so fragile that the interrogation upset me so much that I had a stroke, or series of 3 Transient Ischemic Attacks. The left side of my face went numb with no feeling. Further the center of my vision went blank so that I was blind for about 2 hours during each episode. The facility took me to the hospital which did diagnostic tests. I was never told the results of the medical tests and never given treatment.
-Stewart Waterhouse