MCB 29 Palms – On Friday, a Court-martial Convening Authority (CMCA) dismissed all charges against a US Marine accused of exposing a sexual partner to HIV.
His freedom almost didn’t happen.
The United States v. Corporal RL
Until these charges were filed, Corporal RL had maintained an unblemished military record during his four years of service as a United States Marine. Investigators accused him of violating Articles 92 (failure to obey order or regulation), 107 (false official statement), 125 (sodomy), and 128 (assault) under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). His military career, livelihood and freedom was in jeopardy.
When OMSJ learned of the charges against Cpl. RL in February, 2011, its founder and director, Clark Baker, met with Marine Corps officials at the Headquarter’s Marine Corps Naval Annex (Arlington VA) to discuss the case. With their support, Baker assembled a team that included civilian counsel, a medical doctor and a biotechnology scientist. His team coordinated their efforts with Inv. Carolyn Martin, three military attorneys and one civilian attorney at MCB 29 Palms.
But before they secured RL’s complete medical record, prosecutors scheduled a preliminary hearing (called an Article 32), which was heard in May 2011 without OMSJ’s team. At that hearing, prosecutors produced a printout of RL’s alleged HIV test results and a doctor’s consultation statement to “verbally advise any prospective sexual partner that (he is) HIV positive.” The medical consultation was signed and provided to Cpl. RL by a military doctor, a Navy Lieutenant Commander.
Based upon the evidence, the Article 32 Investigation Officer (IO) recommended to the Convening Authority that charges should be referred at a general court-martial. These charges included numerous HIV-related offenses that included sexual assault likely to produce great bodily injury. If convicted at a general court-martial, Cpl RL faced a felony conviction of life in prison, reduction to the lowest rank, a dishonorable discharge, required registration as a sex offender, revocation of his immigrant status and deportation.
Because of the seriousness of the charges, Cpl. RL’s defense team reached out to OMSJ and a military judge granted a motion to re-open the Article 32 Investigation.
HIV Innocence Group
Because of Congress’ failure to clean up the widespread corruption that permeates the Pharmaceutical Industry and Health and Human Services’ (HHS), OMSJ’s HIV Innocence Group (HIG) was established to assist attorneys and those accused of HIV-related criminal offenses. OMSJ’s involvement compels prosecution “HIV experts” (usually incompetent clinicians and university professors who receive pharmaceutical kickbacks) to answer questions that HHS agencies like the CDC, FDA and NIH refuse to answer.
Since 2009, OMSJ has helped defense attorneys secure dismissals and plea bargains in 30 cases throughout the US. Defense attorneys who have accepted assistance have not lost a single case.
OMSJ is currently involved in about 50 active criminal, civil and military HIV cases – including the appeal of USAF Sgt. David Gutierrez, who was convicted of similar charges in January 2011. In that case, Gutierrez’ defense team deliberately compromised the case by refusing to challenge the prosecution expert witness, who could not clear her client without exposing herself and her clinic to millions of dollars in potential malpractice liability.
Weeks after she testified against him, she received a $2.9 million “grant” from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) – the maker of a highly-addictive psychotropic HIV drug that, according to Gutierrez’ own medical records, was unnecessarily prescribed to him. When the prescription is interrupted, the drug produces severe withdrawal symptoms that clinicians use to identify the onset of “full-blown AIDS.”
A multi-state lawsuit now alleges that BMS paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribe BMS medications – one of many illegal marketing practices that has resulted in thousands of fatalities and more than $9 billion in fines to the pharmaceutical industry since 2004. Anderson Cooper recently explained how drug companies get away with murder.
HIV Clinic Incompetence
One month after Gutierrez’ conviction, OMSJ learned that military prosecutors planned to use the case as an example of how to conduct HIV prosecutions throughout the military – including the charges against Cpl. RL.
As RL’s medical records trickled in, OMSJ found many of the same failures they found in Sgt. Gutierrez’ medical record. Like Gutierrez, RL had no symptoms of HIV infection, nor was there any verifiable evidence that anyone had ever competently diagnosed RL. Although the ten vaccinations RL received since 2005 contain toxins that are known to compromise immune function, injure, cripple, and kill patients – and cause false-positive HIV results – none of RL’s physicians made any attempt to ascertain whether the vaccinations had caused the various health complaints that RL suffered during his career. Instead, they ignored the known adverse reactions to the vaccines and treated him with 21 different drugs that cause their own adverse reactions. In a sworn affidavit, OMSJ’s medical expert summarized:
“There was a general lack of organization in the records. There is no correlation between laboratory reports and patient visits and there seems to have been no attempt made by his practitioners to enter into their notes or follow-up on any tests ordered. There was a profound and disturbing lack of continuity between visits… At one point, Cpl. RL had a 40-pound weight gain that went unnoticed. He had persistently elevated blood pressure and tachycardia. The blood pressure was noted but never acted on and the tachycardia was not even noted. He was seen multiple times for various somatic complaints… (His) history demonstrates obvious classic chronic stress symptoms (persistent elevated blood pressure and tachycardia, rapid weight gain and multiple somatic complaints) that remained oblivious to his pantheon of treating professionals.
“With regard to the mismanagement of his medications and possible creation of iatrogenic diseases, Cpl. RL was given zolmitriptan for headaches on March 19, 2010. One side effect of this drug is a fast pounding or irregular heartbeat. RL’s heart rate recorded that day was 96 but had been as high as 132 during a subsequent visit on Dec. 2, 2009. No consideration was given to the possible aggravation of this long standing but unrecognized problem. He was then prescribed zofran and fiorocet on August 16, 2010. One of the side effects of zofran is headaches, even though his presenting complaint had been headache and stomach pains. One of the side effects of fiorocet is tachycardia, again with the possible aggravation of this untreated symptom. On August 30, 2010, Cpl. RL was still complaining of a headache and he was given sumatriptan.
“The question was never raised that he might be having a reaction to the zofran. Instead he was diagnosed with migraines and referred to a neurologist.”
Because of these and other questions issues raised about the May hearing, a new Investigation Officer (IO) re-examined the case – this time with OMSJ as part of the defense team.
Having reviewed RL’s complete medical record, OMSJ’s team was now ready. Because the multiple charges relied on the competent diagnosis of his alleged infection, prosecutors called Cpl. RL’s doctor as their first witness.
The prosecution’s case began to unravel when RL’s physycian – the Department Head of the HIV section at Naval Medical Center, San Diego – admitted that his order for RL to sign this admission of HIV infection was not actually a military order.
Under OMSJ’s cross examination, the HIV expert admitted:
- He never tested the Marine;
- He was unsure about CDC testing guidelines;
- He didn’t follow CDC guidelines that he disagreed with;
- He failed to rule out more than fifty factors that he acknowledged are known to cause false positive HIV test reactions, and;
- That the Marine’s alleged victim never tested positive.
The HIV expert admittedly had no idea who or how blood samples were collected in his Department; how they were packaged, stored, transported, received or tested when delivered to the testing facility. Although prosecutors and courts require proof regarding this kind of “continuity of evidence,” the HIV expert acknowledge that he had no information about it – basic facts that most prosecutors require for simple urine and blood tests.
After hearing testimony from the witnesses that included the investigating NCIS Agent, the IO recommended to the Convening Authority to dismiss all charges.
One week later, the Convening Authority concurred.
The HIV Scam
Since 1987, the pharmaceutical industry has paid politicians, academics and activists to promote the HIV-related conviction of men like Willie Campbell, Philippe Padieu, Christopher Gray, Nushawn Williams and Andre Parenzee.
Since 2009, OMSJ has consistently demonstrated that these convictions require 1) an irrational faith that clinicians like RL’s doctor know how to diagnose HIV in patients, and 2) defense attorneys who don’t know how to question doctors and academics.
Defendants who can afford a medical doctor to testify on their behalf are forced to rely on experts who are unwilling to risk their careers by telling the truth. Because unreliable HIV testing and diagnosis has become the medical “standard of care,” clinicians who expose the incompetence are routinely threatened by universities and hospitals that profit from preventable errors and complication. To protect their profits, they empanel “medical peer review boards” comprised of complicit doctors who discredit and destroy offending physicians (see Waite, Chalifoux, Kirby).
Whether or not OMSJ’s success has anything to do with recent Obama Administration and Congressional demands to end the prosecution of HIV patients for “humanitarian reasons,” it’s hard to ignore the timing of requests that began within months of OMSJ’s first depositions of “HIV experts” like RL’s doctor.
Regardless, OMSJ has demonstrated that HIV doctors, clinics and hospitals pose a much greater public danger than HIV ever did.
UPDATE: Of OMSJ’s success, USMC Capt. Eldon Beck wrote:
“Our success in challenging the HIV issues in our case is largely due to Clark Baker (a former Marine, retired LAPD investigator, and licensed CA PI), Baron Coleman (a young civilian lawyer with expertise challenging HIV prosecutions), and other members of Clark’s team at the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice (OMSJ). Without them, we would not have been able to effectively challenge the HIV testing, chain of custody, and alleged diagnosis of our client… You should contact (OMSJ) immediately if you are detailed to an HIV-related case.”
UPDATE: OMSJ also prevailed in the Jason Young Case, bringing OMSJ’s record to 34-0. OMSJ Director Clark Baker discusses both cases (audio MP3) during the second hour of the Robert Scott Bell Show.
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Tags: 29 Palms, adverse drug reactions, AIDS, Aiken, Bristol-Myers Squibb, criminal hiv defense, David Gutierrez, HIV, Jason Young, USAF, USMC, USN, Vaccines