Top left, Christopher Fiedler has been jailed since Nov. 19, 2024, while obeying an order to make appearance in Henry County general sessions court Nov. 18, 2024, in a pattern of abuse in Henry County, Tenn., wherein Paris city police are accusing him of traveling in a motorbike.The Henry County jail is at 210 Forrest Heights Road in Paris. Mr. Fiedler, who says a deputy named Wade inside threatens him with confinement to “the chair” or “the hole” if he keeps demanding his petition for writ of habeas corpus be taken to Judge Bruce Griffey, top right, in criminal court.
This page is the first of three pages supplied to imprisoned Chris Fiedler by his wife, Nicole, Beale, demanding a hearing for false imprisonment, false arrest.
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2024 — A sheriff’s deputy in the Henry County, Tenn., jail is blocking delivery of a petition for writ of habeas corpus to a judge.
A deputy identified as Wade told Christopher Fiedler, jailed on a “NO BOND” order in a right to travel criminal case topped off by an “FTA” charge (failure to appear), that he had to stop asking for a hearing.
“There’s a deputy there named Wade, and he told Chris that they are not going to give that to the sheriff, they — it’s out of their control. He will not see the judge. He will not get a hearing. He’s sitting there ‘til January,” she says. “If he doesn’t shut up, he’s going in the chair or the hole.”
Josh Frey, Henry County, Tenn., sheriff
Deputy Wade, according to Nicole Beale, Mr. Fiedler’s wife, said that if he didn’t stop demanding every hour on his right to a hearing that he “would be put into the chair or into the hole.” Mr. Fiedler, who is defying continuing harassment to assert his right to travel, is jailed a second time for, as charges allege, “driving on suspended.”
Sheriff Josh Frey has the chair and the hole as punitive restraints on prisoners alleged to be troublesome, which instruments serve for retribution by deputies.
“This is THE great writ,” says Chris Sapp, midstate bureau chief of Eagle Radio Network. “There’s no greater writ than habeas corpus.” Habeas is bedrock in American jurisprudence, an ancient common law writ that powerfully commands a prisoner held without reason to stand before a judge for a “show cause” as to why he is behind bars. State and federal constitutions hold the habeas untouchable except in time of insurrection or war.
“If a judge finds out they’re not giving this over,” Mr. Sapp says, “the judge can jail those sheriff’s deputies. He can put them in jail for contempt of court. They need to sit their ass in jail ‘til January to see what it feels like.”
‘NO BOND’ vs. constitutional guarantee
Henry County tells Mr. Fiedler he is confined without hearing and no chance for bond until Jan. 13, 2025. The state constitution, he states in his habeas petition, allows bail be set “unless for capital offences, when the proof is evident, or the presumption great.”
Efforts to reach Sheriff Frey, and chief deputy Walter Akers, who oversees corrections, do not result in return call. Kim Hollingsworth, a clerk in the courts, attempts to field inquiries in efforts to reach Mike Wilson, clerk of courts. She says she is unable to confirm the report about the threat to Mr. Fiedler. “No, I cannot. I’ve nothing to do with the jail, sir,” she says.
Quick take ————————
— Travel rights advocate jailed illegally 2nd time
— ‘Failure to appear’ charged, but Fiedler shows up at general sessions as directed by a form
— Malicious prosecution grinds down man apart from law
Judge Bruce Griffey is the circuit court judge in Henry County. In absence of Pam Wade, his assistant, Kim Hollingsworth asked for details from Mr. Sapp and this reporter.
She said she would indicate to Judge Griffey that we are pressing for a just outcome and getting the story, indicating that for Eagle Radio a petition for habeas is a huge deal, and a blockade put up by a deputy in a jail is a scandal of highest order.
At Judge Griffey’s office, Angela Bannister indicates she will speak with him about the Fiedler situation
“Who has to pick up the phone and call the sheriff to make sure he gets that habeas,” Mr. Sapp says as the phone rings in Judge Griffey’s office. Mrs. Beale listens in on the conference call.
Paris, Tenn., in Henry County, is at the left side of this map, with Nashville at right. (Map Google)
“He’s actively thwarting that process by threatening to take this inmate by putting him in a restraint chair and/or put him in ‘the hole.’ The hole is a punitive portion of the jail. I’ve been there before. I can tell you from firsthand experience, it’s not a place you’d want to go. You certainly don’t want to be put in a restraint chair where you can’t scratch your nose or move. Or stop pissin’ on yourself. We can’t get a hold of the sheriff; he’s out. The undersheriff is out. Everybody just wants to go to voicemail.”
This form directed Christopher Fiedler to go to sessions court Nov. 18, 2024, which Mr. Fiedler did, waiting most of the morning. He was arrested the next day and charged criminally with “FTA,” or failure to appear.
The story of Mr. Fiedler’s treatment is “especially egregious, going beyond the pale.” Mr. Sapp tells Mrs. Bannister, saying the reporting team is calling Judge Griffey “so you can put a bug in the judge’s ear to let him know what’s going on, not that we want an ex parte communication. But if the judge finds out these deputies are treating an inmate like that, the judge is gonna — I promise you — gonna be pissed about that. If there’s a habeas that’s not been delivered, that judge is gonna wanna know that.”
Judge Griffey is known as a constitutionalist, and is a former state representative. Mrs. Bannister gets some of the backstory from Mr. Sapp.
Christopher Sapp, midstate bureau chief, reviews court files online at the Tennessee supreme court. (Photo David Tulis)
City cop Ramos has ‘hard on’ for traveler
Mr. Fiedler “was cited on a minor traffic violation, went to sessions court. General sessions gave him a return court date. In obedience to the court, he returns on the date at the place and time that the court told him to return to” on Nov. 18. “And then as a result of that got picked up on a failure to appear for not going to the right courtroom” on Nov. 19.
“The general sessions court is giving him bad information resulted in his incarceration and now there are deputies in there saying, ‘You’re gonna be in there ’til after middle of January until you’re even gonna see a judge. That’s why he’s trying to get his habeas petition so he can be brought before a judge.” Mr. Sapp says we are reporting that the court rules appear to open to challenge because, on an FTA (failure to appear), there seems to be no way for a hearing “when mistakes like this happen. And this cannot be the case.”
We are reporting a “major defect in the form” that “creates abuse,” we tell Mrs. Bannister. “It’s a serious problem.”
Mr. Sapp.says the press has “done [its] due diligence on this thing” and Mrs. Bannister promises to convey the news with Eagle Radio’s request for comment.
“I will give him the message — OK?”
Paris police officer Lt. Mike Ramos persists in stalking and harassing Mr. Fiedler in exercise of constitutionally guaranteed ingress-egress rights, aka “right to travel,” which a key 1997 case, State v. Booher, 78 S.W.2d 953 (1997), says are not implicated or abrogated by transportation regulation law in Tenn. Code Ann. §§ Titles 55 and 65, chapter 15. The city has seized from Mr. Fiedler two motor scooters, which prosecutors say he is not free to use on the public streets unless he enters the state commercial privilege of licensure and registrtion.
Mr. Fiedler put the city under administrative notice following his first arrest, and has the option of suing for damages and aggravated damages because of bad faith arrest and imprisonment, done knowingly and intentionally despite being put on awares about the disabilities in the statute.
Thanks for the map, I would hate to arrive in Paris Tennessee only to be murdered by the sheriff for thinking that I am the citizen of a Constitutional Republic.
If there are people still alive in Henry county, Tennessee, they might want to send the Sheriff a “thank you for not killing me” affidavit.