A look of dread on the face of a son does not convey the anger and grit in the heart of Dave Albritton, a Tennessee man who today is in Cook County, Ga., court under an attempt to extort a guilty plea in a four-count criminal complaint that includes “obstructing an officer” for citing the 5th amendment right to remain silent.
By David Tulis / NoogaRadio Network
The court is ordering Mr. Albritton, from Cookeville, Tenn., to make two 14-hour roundtrips for hearings and then another trip for his jury trial. The two hearings and trial date are spread over a 10-day period. He has already made two appearances to defend against the charges, prompted by an officer’s suspicion of a dark window tint. Altogether, the three nights in a hotel and the fuel tab pass F$1,000 in costs for the father of two sons, plus the expense of being out of pocket at his business, Homeautolifequote.com/.
“If I’m going to get to the jury trial, that would be the third date,” Mr. Albritton says. “They want me to give up, absolutely. Two counts of child safety seat, and “window tint violation, which was the original reason I was pulled over.”
Dave Albritton stripped naked, searched;
interview starts 23:00
“They pulled me over, I asked why I was pulled over. And she refused to answer until I gave my license. She proceeded to ask me questions I was not comfortable answering. and I proceeded to assert my 5th amendment rights to remain silent, and I was arrested for my troubles.” Failing to answer immediately is obstruction but he says numerous cases indicate that such a response is not the case.
She measured the tint on a rear side window, not either of the front two windows on the side.
“They have a long history of this. *** They’ve been doing this for a long time. They know what they are doing.”
The letter from a person identified as APRIL M. GARRETT, clerk of superior court in Cook County, says, “Failure to appear at any o the above dates and times will result in a bench warrant being issued for your arrest.”
After being stripped and searched, “They put me into a 10 by 10 concrete cell. I noticed there are some cells that have that little square window that you can look out; they put me in one I couldn’t even see out. So I was clearly being punished for not affirming their perceived authority.”
After describing having to squat down naked so an officer could look into his anus, Mr. Albritton says, “They want you to know that if you go against what they are trying to do — what they’re trying to do is extract money — and extort money — that you will be punished in various ways.”
“Yeah, I could’ve paid and been done with it. Absolutely, that was an option for me. This is very spiritual for me. Throughout life there are moments when you gotta make choices, and those choices are voluntary temporary pain and suffering, or involuntary pain and suffering. And I choose temporary voluntary pain and suffering because on the other side of that, every single time, there is always a benefit, whether that be fulfillment, whether it be love, whether it be — some valuable human emotion,” like childbirth. “That’s why I put myself in the fire, for that reason.”
The chief judge is issuing orders that are “necessarily void” due to want of jurisdiction. The case is dead.