June 23, 2010
Dear Senator’s Collins and Snow,
Lack of independently monitored district court systems adversely affects Maine citizens, and citizens of all states. Granted in Maine we have a smaller population and less crime than states such as California, Georgia, Texas, Colorado,…, but our children leave their family support systems in Maine in order to find work in states such as these. Should the stresses of life befall our children it affects all of their family and extended family here in Maine. Herein lies the problem; keeping the thumb on slovenly court practices in Maine is less of an issue but in these larger populous states it is not.
Amy Bach, in her book, Ordinary Injustice; How America Holds Court, says it right; “pinning the problem on any one bad apple fails to indict the tree from which it fell.”
This is my son’s story and my story and all of his family in Maine’s story. This is the story of too many inmates and their families all over the country and it is abhorrent!
My son, Jason Pecci, joined the Air Force during the First Iraq War. Several years into his enlistment he married a woman from Colorado. They moved to England where he was home based. He received a flu shot and came down with Guillian Barre Syndrome. The Air Force wanted him out due to the disability. He fought to stay in where he would have and income. The Air Force would not allow him to continue with his job which was a technician working on computer systems on F111 fighter jets. They put him on the tarmac as a flagger. He soon began to petition for release due to this demotion and with the help of Senators Mitchell and Cohen was released from active duty about 3 years after he started petitioning. He then finished his degree in computer and electrical engineering at Colorado State University while working for A&E, an engineering firm in Fort Collins, CO.
During this ten year period, unbeknownst to me and his family, the woman he was married to was emotionally and physically abusive toward him. On the eve of their divorce my son shot his wife’s boyfriend. The man died almost instantly.
I spent many days at the Maine State Legislative Library studying the ins and outs of the law. He should have had a lawyer who would have pursued self-defense.
At the time I owned a small restaurant in Bath called MaryEllenz Caffe and one of my employees’ sister had just graduated from the University of Colorado Law School after receiving her undergrad from Bowdoin. At that time she was working for the Colorado Public Defenders Office (she quit that job shortly after). When I explained the details of the tragic event to her she said, “that was self defense.”
Jason’s public defender told his father (my x-husband Ken Pecci) that she could defend Jason as well as any criminal defense attorney. Ken truly regrets ever listening to her. For some reason she “dropped the ball.”
Jason was on suicide watch in the Larimer County detention center for 5 months. Several weeks after they took him off suicide watch the prosecutor offered him a plea. Jason’s public defender, Kathryn Hay, attended to the hearing only as an observer letting the head public defender Barb Zollar badger Jason, who was still determined to kill himself. They gave him seven hours to make up his mind. He accepted the plea and Larimer County District Court Judge, Terrance Gilmore sentenced Jason to 48 years and 5 years probation. The original prosecutor on the case was Jolene Blair.
Both Gilmore and Blair covered up evidence in a murder case, and this was not the first time Gilmore had been censored by the state. They pursued an innocent man for 10 years before finally getting a conviction. The man, Tim Masters was finally release after serving another 10 years of a life sentence. The case has cost the county and city of Fort Collins 10 million dollars.
This court system which grew up under the tutorage of D.A. Stu VanMeveren would be a good place for Jim Webb’s committee to place a team for information gathering.
Families are emotionally and financially imprisoned with their loved ones. I remortgaged my post & beam home twice (I built it with my own hands with help from Jason and other family and friends), to pay for appeals lawyers. When the economy went sour in 2008 my business went under and I lost everything material including the house. I took risks that under normal circumstances I never would have taken due to slack and slovenly court practices. For going on 10 years I have been fighting for Jason and am continuing to fight.
In my case I have returned to school and am a junior at UMA, Social Science major, Justice Studies minor with a 3.8 GPA. University of Maine Law School is my objective but at 64 years old, totally bankrupt, and a poor job outlook… and a $625 monthly social security check…
It is with great urgency I ask you both to support Jim Webb’s bill S.714 for Criminal Justice Reform.
Sincerely,
Mary-Ellen Pecci
Cc: Sentator’s Read, McConnell and Durbin
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