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Vol. 1 Issue XVI ........ Federal Prison, Ashland ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
To:
U.S. Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Blvd.
Chevy Chase MD 20815-7201
From: Brockhoeft, John A., 01186-017
Subject: Appeal of Notice of Action dated February 1, 1995, per 28 C.F.R. 2.27
Gentlemen:
I have sinned, Indeed, I committed that sin which I most hate, the
one I most
harshly condemn in other Christians. I offered to compromise with
injustice.
I offered to compromise with the ungodly.
I have confessed my sin to Yahweh (sometimes erroneously pronounced
"Jehovah"), to the
Lord my God. I have sought His forgiveness and feel a peace that
He is
still with me and will deliver me, to some extent (if not entirely)
from the totalitarian
political oppression you have aimed at me.
I know you will deny, or be tempted to deny, that your assault on
my constitutional rights
is politically motivated. Go ahead and deny it. Go ahead and destroy
the
last vestige of credibility you may have with the public by denying
your political
motivation while the public sees you hounding me ten times more
relentlessly; nay, a
hundred times; nay, a thousand times more ruthlessly than any other
former arsonist
convicted of "destruction of buildings effecting interstate commerce
by fire or
explosives" but whose targets were not abortion facilities.
Having languished in your dungeons for nearly seven years and feeling
an urgency
to be free, and remain free, so as to lick my wounds and try to
recover my health, I
had quietly resolved, on my own initiative, to subject myself to
house arrest so as to
make sure I did not get in any more trouble during the term of my
federal
probation, not even by inadvertently being in the wrong place at
the wrong
time. This resolution was, perhaps, not a compromise in and of itself.
But when
your agents spoke with me by phone and I deliberately made my personal
resolution
sound like an offer to negotiate the terms of my already mandatory
release, I
compromised.
You may recall (or a review of my records will show) that my impending
release later this
month marks the third time my release will have been legally mandated
without my ever having been released. In a crude attempt to discourage
you from
delaying my release a third time, I offered to waive some of my
rights guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution. Simply to have been allowed to marry my
darling Joanne
Phimester, simply to have been able to keep heartache from her,
I would have
voluntarily surrendered everything else. For this slightest, this
very slightest
"leniency" I would have given you everything.
On the telephone I shamelessly begged your representatives: "Please
don't make
this house arrest SOLITARY CONFINEMENT! Please leave me one or two
friends to talk to! Look at how cooperative I'm trying to be! Please
don't make it
solitary confinement!" This pleading took place during my second
phone
conference with your officers.
At that time I made no direct reference to the circumstance of my
engagement to
marry. In the third phone conference, which occurred on or about
February 9,
1995, I did announce my engagement to Miss Phimester and sought
a guarantee
that I could marry her without being returned to prison for it.
They did not flatly
refuse me the right to marry the woman I love; but, under the political
pressure
everyone feels who must make decisions involving my case, they cited
their lack of
authority to grant such a guarantee, citing their need to first
get approval from higher up.
I would have given up everything to keep Joanne from brokenheartedness
and challenged
nothing on appeal. You never would have heard from me But, by
threatening the happiness of my darling, you have gone too far.
You have thrown down
the gauntlet, gentlemen. Very well, I accept; and I hereby challenge
the
constitutionality of every point of your program of political repression
against
me. And I present your Notice of Action as a testimony, to my fellow
Christians, of
what happens when God's people compromise with injustice. It only
sends people like
you into a feeding frenzy.
Having studied my monthly column, "The Brockhoeft Report", published
by Prayer and
Action Weekly News/137 E. Leach Avenue/Des Moines Iowa 50315, and
seemingly having noticed in the October, 1994 issue that I have
an irregular
heartbeat for which I intended to seek medical attention after my
release, you have
crafted your words in such a way (deliberately or not) that it would
be a "violation"
of my supervised release to receive any kind of medical treatment
whatsoever,
whether emergency or routine. You have written:
"...prohibiting ALL CONTACT with any hospital OR OTHER FACILITY
which includes STAFF presently OR FORMERLY engaged in REPRODUCTIVE
SERVICES OR abortions." (Emphasis added here and throughout this
appeal.)
The words emphasized above are what has led my publisher (former
publisher,
I should say, since you have stripped me of my constitutional rights
of freedom of
speech and freedom of the press) and other friends to surmise that
you may be trying
to hasten my death.
Since the "special conditions" of your original Notice of Action
[NOA] (dated January
14, 1995) which are reimposed in your most recent NOA (dated February
1,
1995) already prohibited me from protesting outside any abortion
facility (or demonstrating
on behalf of any other cause anywhere, since you mean to place me
under electronically monitored house arrest) what, then, is the
meaning of
"all contact"? A strict interpretation would make it a "violation"
for me to
contact any family doctor's office for an appointment for treatment,
and another
violation to keep that appointment.
Because, indeed, since you make a distinction between hospitals and
any "other facility",
this "other facility" could be defined as any doctor's office.
Because, indeed, since you make a distinction between abortions and
"reproductive services",
these "reproductive services" could be defined as simply as by a
doctor prescribing birth control pills for any woman.
"Presently OR FORMERLY" could mean if a doctor has ever prescribed
the pill,
even if he now refrains from this "reproductive service".
Your words: "...which include STAFF presently OR FORMERLY engaged..."
could mean that even if I found a family doctor who had never prescribed
birth
control pills, performed a vasectomy, etc., yet even if his nurse
had ever worked
for another doctor who did so, I would be in "violation" if I received
any treatment
from him! Furthermore, in the extremely unlikely event that I found
a family doctor
who had never prescribed birth control pills, we all know what THAT
means,
don't we? It would mean he is a hard-core prolifer, so I STILL would
be forbidden
to "communicate in any way" with him (Paragraph #2 of your NOA)!
To anyone who scoffs, saying that the U.S.P.C. will not enforce this
NOA so strictly,
I will comment later, after pointing out some other atrocities.
Gentlemen, you have told me in paragraph #2:
"As a condition of mandatory release you
shall refrain from all associations,
in any manner or form, with persons or groups protesting or campaigning
against
abortion.... You shall engage in no activity,
writing, publication, membership or
speech concerning the subject of abortion while you are under mandatory
release supervision and you shall attend
no meetings or communicate in any
way with any persons who are themselves thus engaged."
I immediately saw the implications here: that "membership" could
be defined as
simply as by having one's name on an organization's mailing list
and receiving a
periodic newsletter. Without my asking, this was confirmed in my
second phone
conference with your agents. Having been advised by the prison officials
here in
Ashland that I receive many newsletters, they just wanted to "strongly
advise" me
to write to all these organizations while I am still in prison and
tell them to strike my
name from their mailing lists; because, it was explained, even if
something was mailed
here to the prison for me after my "release", and it was then forwarded
to my
street address, that would constitute "membership" and I would be
"in violation".
It was explained that, since they could not order me what to do
until I was
"released", they just wanted to "strongly advise" me.
After having languished in the bowels of your dungeons for so many
years,
I was not so greatly grieved by your stripping me, as a "release"
who has
served out his sentence to the point of mandatory release, of every
imaginable civil
right other than my heartbeat and respiration (which I can have
only as long as I require no
medical care to keep them). It's not so much the minute, all encompassing,
totalitarian
list of things which I cannot do which devastates me. After all
these years, I'm
institutionalized. The real gut-wrencher is that the list of things
which I can neither
DO nor "communicate in any way" with anyone who DOES do them is
so
extensive that it includes virtually every friend I have in the
world! I don't have a friend
anywhere who does not to at least one of those things, even if nothing
more
than receiving a quarterly newsletter "membership". I'm a Brockhoeft,
and I'm a
Kentuckian, and we don't forget those to whom we belong. I love
my friends and I'm
sentimental about them. Yet, when I walk out the gate of this prison
a few days hence,
already having been separated from them for seven years, you mean
to divest
me of every friend I have in the world! Without exception, everyone!
[Ed: Johnny's NOA orders him to disobey the following command of
God: "And let us
consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not
forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;
but exhorting one
another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews
10:24-25]
According to a strict interpretation of your second paragraph, I will be forbidden to:
A. Be a member of, or even visit, any Christian church ("groups protesting
or campaigning
against abortion.")!
B. Speak to my Baptist pastor, Rev. Robert MHCurry or his assistant, Rev. Henry Irby!
C. Communicate with my official attorney of record, Mr. Michael Hirsh,
esq., who paid me
an official attorney/client visit at this prison last month! Although
I have
the constitutional right to the attorney of my own choice even after
my release,
you have even denied me representation by Mr. Hirsh while I am still
in prison and
thus not yet under your authority! U.S.P.C. officers have refused
to talk to him by
phone or return his calls!
D. Communicate in any way with any friend I have!
E. Contact my U.S. Congressmen to ask for help against all this oppression!
As a
Kentuckian, my Congressmen "campaign against abortion"! There would
be no
justice in your pointing out that I will be living in Southern Ohio.
I am a Kentuckian
who is being forcefully relocated against my will! Help, Congressman
Jim
Bunning! Help, Senator Mitch MHConnell! I apologize for not remembering
who my
other Senator is, but please help! If nothing more, tell them they
can't put me
back in prison for refusing to break my darling Joanne's heart,
for that I could never
do! Congressman Bunning and my Senators, I am embarrassed to death
to tell
you that this maiden has written me: "I couldn't have found a better
husband if I tried ))
you're just so lovely and so handsome and so precious, I just can't
sleep at
night 'coz I'm thinking of you and thanking God for you." )) but
how could I break
a heart so tender and noble? Let me die first! What life would be
worth living,
bearing such disgrace? Please save Joanne's heart, and tell them
they can't put
me back in prison for speaking to this one person!
F. Marry the lady described above.
That was your biggest mistake, gentlemen, in dealing with me. I was
willing
to submit to anything you wanted to do to me, until you threatened
to break Joanne's
heart, were I unwilling to do it myself.
The next thing I read in your NOA is that, while you intend to keep
me under
electronically monitored house arrest, unable to go visit any friend,
and while I am
sitting there all alone in my apartment, not even allowed to let
any friend I have
come visit me, nor even allowed to pick up the telephone and call
anyone I love,
while I'm sitting there on my couch like that, you...WHAT? ...you
will forbid me
to let my mind dwell on anti-abortion subjects! You say:
"Your complete non-involvement with the
anti-abortion protest movement,
and complete non-involvement with anti-abortion issues altogether,
is deemed
necessary IN ORDER TO PREVENT YOUR MIND FROM DWELLING ON
SUBJECTS that have a high likelihood of prompting you to violent
behavior"
Thought crimes! Thought police! When you thus set yourselves up as
"thought police" did you not know that even the dullest student
of literature
would immediately recognize this as exactly what George Orwell warned
against
in his novel, 1984?
I sit here and marvel over your NOA and wonder about the mental state
of some government
bureaucrat somewhere who dares to write such words and then dares
to print such words on official U.S government forms so the public
can read it
and see that it's true, that this is really happening! And I wonder
what the public might
think of the mental state of a bureaucrat who can write about "mandatory
release"
and "Home Confinement" all on the same page, all on a document only
one page
long! And then, ironically, I read in the next paragraph your order:
"You shall participate in an in-patient or an out-patient mental
health program as
directed by hour U.S. Probation Officer."
"Uh-huh, and the public will recall that they had just such "programs"
in the old
Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) for political dissidents before it collapsed,
too. Just ask
Alexander Solzhenitzen or thousands of others. Gentlemen, if my
beloved, once
great republic has come to this, if she has truly come to this,
if the republic under
whose flag I fought, under whose flag my father fought, under whose
flag my family's
men have fought in every war since our immigration here in 1841,
if she has
truly come to this, then let her show her native son one final "kindness":
let her
bear the SHAME of allowing me to appeal to FIDEL CASTRO for POLITICAL
ASYLUM in Cuba; because, even though I am an avowed anti-Communist,
in Cuba
I might hope at least to be shown the decency of being allowed to
marry the
woman I love plus have one other friend to talk to besides.
Here is an opportunity for you to prove that this persecution is
not based on hatred
of my anti-abortion political ideology. If you are really afraid
of me, in spite of my
numerous public avowals to my friends in fourty-three states and
four foreign countries
that I will not be a repeat offender, and if you are really concerned
about all the
complex political intricacies surrounding my case, and if you really
are NOT meaning
to hound me to death, and "make an example out of me" for my political
dissidence, then you can solve this whole complicated problem by
sending me into
exile to any country in the world which will accept both Joanne
and me. I have
used the example of Cuba only to shame you. Joanne will follow me
anywhere in the
world. If allowed to leave this ungodly country behind, my first
choice would be
her native New Zealand. Having been a student of the Holy Bible
all her life, and her
life-long dream being to dwell in Jerusalem, Joanne's first choice
would be
Israel. So, since her happiness is of paramount importance to me,
I suppose I should
say that would be my first choice, too,
In Ireland I would be viewed as simply the ordinary kind of guy I
really am. Among
the fighting Irish, a former fighter like me would be considered
not only
genuinely ordinary, but statistically normal as well. I can be seen
as an aberration
only in an ungodly, anti-Christian, left-wing society such as predominates
the
U.S. today.
Let Joanne and me go to Papua New Guinea or war torn Bosnia or anywhere
we
can be together as husband and wife according to the total and irrevocable
commitment we have made to one another. There must be some country,
somewhere in the world, humanitarian enough to let two lovers such
as us marry
and dwell in peace.
As a last resort, send us to the frozen continent of Antarctica where
no nation
exercises sovereignty but several have teams of scientists at permanently
manned
stations. Joanne, being able to read, write, and speak fluently
in English, French,
Spanish, Japanese, and Russian, should be able to translate between
any two teams.
Lest you make a grave miscalculation and a political mistake to the
harm of your own
cause, I should caution you that I have asked Joanne to refrain
from all
anti-abortion activism during the term of my supervision or until
I win back some
relief from this unprecedented repression. In any case, seeing how
abortiphiles'
violence against peaceful prolife demonstrators has escalated in
recent years, I would
not let her go to an abortion facility until and unless I could
be with her to
protect her. You should be aware that she has in fact agreed to
refrain from her former
activism, characterized by leafleting and crisis pregnancy counseling.
Since, in
the first paragraph of your NOA, you seem to understand the meaning
of the words:
"presently or formerly engaged", be it known that Miss Phimester
is henceforth
NOT presently engaged in any form of activism.
Moreover, since the concluding words of your second paragraph only
forbid me to
communicate "with any persons who ARE themselves thus engaged" (as
opposed to WERE engaged), you are left with no excuse, constitutional
or otherwise,
reasonable or otherwise, to forbid us the communication necessary
to arrange
our wedding ceremony, and then to marry, under threat of returning
me to prison for it.
[Ed: the NOA language appears to, in effect, cut off all communication
with anyone
who is pro-life, even if they are inactive, because of the possibility
that they might
become active; and Johnny would violate the NOA by merely bringing
up the subject,
to ask them if they are inactive! And yet a strict reading of the
NOA leaves a
loophole for Johnny to marry Joanne, since she is willing to promise
to become inactive.
Of whom else could Johnny exact such a promise?! And of course now
that
the 17th has come and gone, and Johnny is fully under the NOA's
authority, it would
be a violation to ask anyone!]
Your dismissing my attorney against my will was both a constitutional
mistake
and a tactical mistake. After all, it was he who counseled me, before
anyone ever
dreamed of the level of severity your NOA would carry, to submit
meekly to your
directions, which I was already predisposed to do. I still would
like to be meek,
but I cannot turn my back on the woman who loves me, whom I mutually
love. Even
after your irrationally draconian restrictions were handed down,
but before you
dismissed him as my attorney, he advised me not to defiantly test
anything pending
the outcome of this appeal. I will follow this advice, but I will
not withdraw myself
from my darling fiancee and you will patiently let me remind you
that, as noted above,
this shall not be a violation of your "special conditions". This
lady, having taken
all she had, and her friends having scraped up the remainder of
her air fare, has left
her homeland behind and flown 8,000 miles to be in my arms and marry
me as
soon as the ceremony can be arranged.
To this young woman who has told me, "I can't wait to hear your voice",
and "How I long
to be by your side, to dwell together with you, and to work out
Proverbs
31, to be a wife that brings you honor and strength and comfort"
)) to this young woman
I will not say: "I will not speak to you for several weeks while
the U.S.
government is deciding whether to let me speak to you." Already,
it is impossible for
me to count myself worthy to have a wife such as Joanne, but if
I were so
cowardly and unmanly as to refrain from telling her I love her for
the several weeks it
will take for this appeal to be decided, then I could not disgrace
her by
marrying her. I would offer my blood to be shed, and die, before
I would break her
heart, because a life of such dishonor would not be worth living.
And
however
dishonorable you may regard my federal offenses, you should have
the decency not to
lock me up for showing her this minimal honor.
You must let me marry Miss Phimester, with immunity; because it is
the right thing
for you to do; and you are human beings with at least a microgram
of heart.
You must let me marry my betrothed, with immunity, because I have
proven that, even in
accordance with your NOA, it will not be a violation.
You must let me marry her, because it is the tactically smart and
the politically smart
thing for you to do in support of your own agenda. I would never
do anything to
risk causing her to be left alone, bereft, and brokenhearted. She
needs me.
I've paid more than my share for the sake of preborn human life.
Only four living persons
have sacrificed and suffered more for this cause; and of those four,
only
three are semper fidelis. Others who have come after, or may come
after, may eventually
suffer and sacrifice more, but it will take them years to do it.
Now I am
broken and tired and want only to be left alone with the lady I
love.
Previously having given up everything and lost everything, now I
have been rewarded
with the love of a noble woman's heart; and that is all I have left;
and I am not
willing to sacrifice this too.
As a matter of principle, in order not to allow myself to be used
to set a precedent for
depriving other Americans of their constitutional rights, I do not
offer up as
compromise any of my constitutional rights as an American citizen,
but, hereby, with
this appeal, challenge the constitutionality of every point in your
NOA.
As, I say, I appeal these things only on principle, too tired to
actually fight for them any more.
I fight only to protect my lady's heart from being broken. If my
fellow
Americans will not raise an outcry in my defense in this most absolute
attack on the
Constitution then you can oppress them, too, as far as I'm concerned.
I want only
to be left alone with my soon-to-be wife. Thus, should I win back
little or nothing on
appeal, or in court, by letting me marry Joanne you will be able
to hold her heart
hostage against me, since I would never do anything to risk her
being left alone and
brokenhearted.
You must let me marry my betrothed, because if you do not, no one
among the
public will understand or support you; and you will be held in universal
scorn.
Upon my first reading of your NOA I immediately discerned that something
bizarre
and unnatural was going on. But it was only after speaking with
your agents, and
reading of these things in the newspapers, and seeing how fiercely
you really mean
to interpret and carry out this thing that I was reminded of the
Latin proverb: quos
deus oult perdere prius dementat. "Those whom a god wishes to destroy
he first drives mad."
Of course, since you have already targeted me for a "mental health
program", I should
point out that I pose no personal threat to you, in any manner or
form, by
citing this proverb. Yet, your NOA does seem so strange as to be
a miracle. It doesn't
seem quite possible that such a document could be drawn up due to
any
natural stupidity or organic mental illness on your part. Lest you
be tempted to use
even THAT comment to call into question MY mental state, you should
understand that my pastor and all my friends suspect the same thing:
that your
NOA is so crazy that you could not have devised such a thing all
by yourself: that the
Lord our God must have inflamed you (without your awareness) to
launch such a crazy
and unsustainable attack on me in order to defeat your cause and
deliver me
from your oppressiveness.
You must understand that most people do not look at my case the way
your establishment
controlled news media tells them they are SUPPOSED to look at it,
but
that...
...people all over the country and overseas are watching this case
in the expectation that
God is about to glorify Himself by delivering me from your assault
on my
rights. I will tell you what you will not read in the newspaper:
that your megalomaniacal
severity has already sparked an outcry in my defense even among
liberals,
even among my ideological opponents. They cry: "This is no longer
about abortion,
this is about fundamental civil liberties!" (
Gentlemen, I hope you will not dig a hole any deeper for yourselves.
I admit: it is
only because I do not want Joanne's and my union delayed one day
longer than
necessary. We (she and I) both feel that for these next three years
our personal
ministries are meant to be for one another. I urge you to soften
from your
relentlessness so as to avert political turmoil. But I promise that
if you continue to
pursue this course, unable to hear the voice of reason, justice
and decency, you will
see the Lord my God deliver me from you with a mighty hand and with
an outstretched
arm; and my people will believe a prophet has been among them; and
the
nations will know that the Lord, He alone is God, and beside Him
is no other.
Go ahead and scoff if you are so inclined. You can believe me now
or you can believe
me later, but you will believe.
I have been told by your agents on the phone to spread the word around
for no
movement people to call me; because, it was explained, if someone
contacts me I
would be just as guilty as if I contacted them. I have arranged
for my phone number
to be unlisted. But a strict interpretation of your NOA, together
with what I've
been told by your officers on the phone, would indicate that, in
many ways, I could be
accounted in violation for things OTHER people do.
I shall leave word with the prison to return all mail to senders.
If some abortiphile
discovers my address and puts me on a mailing list, I have no control
over that.
Since I am forbidden to have any involvement in publishing, and since
"The Brockhoeft
Report" has sometimes carried notice that it could be reproduced
without
permission, and since persons unknown to me might reprint it without
my knowledge,
I hereby release all rights to everything that has previously been
published.
While I am still here in prison, and not yet affected by the NOA,
I hereby allow all my
writings, including this appeal, to fall into the public domain
while I still have
the legal right to do so. If, after my release on February 17, 1995,
anyone should
reprint any previous issues of "The Brockhoeft Report", or of this
appeal, they will
be doing so without my consent, cooperation, knowledge, or involvement.
Please refer to 28 CFR 551.80-83 and also to Bureau of Prisons Program
Statement
#5350.7, dated July 16, 1979: "It is the policy of the Bureau of
Prisons to
encourage inmates to use their leisure time for creative writing
and to permit
the direct mailing of manuscripts as in the case of ordinary
correspondence.... As used in this rule, 'manuscript' means fiction,
nonfiction....
An inmate may prepare a manuscript for private use or for publication
without staff approval...."
Thus, while I am still in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons I
mail this manuscript
far and wide and forsake all rights to it at once. If anyone publishes
it they do so
without my consent, cooperation, knowledge, or involvement; but
in such case I say
to my friends: This is it! Farewell and God bless! You will see
no more issues of
the Brockhoeft Report until the Lord delivers me from this oppression...
...or unless the USPC returns me to prison for some pretended sham
"violation",
in which case I would once again have the right to write for publication.
Anyone has the right to receive a copy of the USPC's disposition
and decision of this
appeal with my permission for its release. I hereby grant that release
and am
willing to sign the release form. (To friends and other observers:)
Make no attempt
to contact me personally. Contact the USPC. Since I will not be
allowed to
contact any friends, and since they will be concerned with what
is being done to me,
I request that copies of the USPC's response to this appeal be sent
to:
Mr. & Mrs. David Leach 137 E. Leach Des Moines IA 50315
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Hirsh 7494 Stiles Road Howardstown, KY 40028
Mr. & Mrs. Roger Huddleston PO Box 739 Mahomet IL 61853
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Scheidler Pro Life Action League 6160 N. Cicero Avenue Chicago IL 60636
Mr. & Mrs. Paul deParrie Advocates for Life Ministries PO Box 13656 Portland OR 97213
Rev. & Mrs. Robert MHCurry Heritage Baptist Church 3613 Hwy. 34 E Sharpsburg GA 30277
Sincerely,
John Alan Brockhoeft, 01866-017
Back to John Brockhoeft Select Page.
Genesis 9:6
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made he
man.
Numbers
35:33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are:
for blood it defileth the land:
and the land cannot be cleansed of the
blood that is shed therein, but
by the blood of him that shed it.
E-mail:
Glory2Jesus@ArmyofGod.com
Telephone 1-757-204-4454
Or write to: Rev. Donald Spitz
Pro-Life Virginia
P.O. Box 2876
Chesapeake VA 23327
