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Complaint Review: Update June 1, 2015: INVESTIGATION UPDATE – Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Attorney; Charges against Darren Meade dropped! Sac County Attorney Ben Smith dismisses all criminal charges against Darren Meade related to his posts on Ripoff Report. | Sac County Iowa Attorney Ben Smith fails to identify false statements, fails to support his accusations with clarifications. - Sac City Iowa

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Darren M. Meade — Dana Point California United States of America
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Update June 1, 2015: INVESTIGATION UPDATE – Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Attorney; Charges against Darren Meade dropped! Sac County Attorney Ben Smith dismisses all criminal charges against Darren Meade related to his posts on Ripoff Report. | Sac County Iowa Attorney Ben Smith fails to identify false statements, fails to support his accusations with clarifications. Sac County Iowa Sac City, Iowa United States of America

**Update June 1, 2015: INVESTIGATION UPDATE – Charges against Darren Meade dropped!!!**UPDATE January 1, 2015 * Ripoff Report reveals initial findings, while they race to have documents, articles and other evidence removed from the internet. *Notice: Sac County Iowa Prosecutor’s Allegations Warrant Unprecedented Action from Ripoffreport.com regarding Darren Meade Posts......Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Attorney prosecutorial misconduct, improper relationship with star witnesses, allowing witnesses to knowingly lie, seeking fame not justice, Sac county Iowa corruption. Tracey Richter falsely convicted evidence leads to overwhelming evidence to estranged husband Michael Roberts, Rexxfield failed polygraph, witness intimidation, evidence tampering, Prosecutors improper relationship with witnesses & Michael Roberts. Roberts witness protection sham. Exaggerated, misleading information to Dateline NBC. Sac City, Iowa

*Author of original report: Ben Smith Prosecutorial Misconduct Allowing Witnesses To Knowingly Lie \ Tracey Richter Had Several Million Dollars Stolen By Mile2 and Xellex \ Bounty Shared Amongst Prosecution Witnesses

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Michael Roberts of Rexxfield Exhibits Sings of Battering Personality \ Dr. Heidi Roberts of Finland at Risk!

*Consumer Comment: Silenced in Storm Lake \ Storm Lake Pilot Tribune Violating Free Speech

*General Comment: Michael Roberts of Mile2, Lies, and Audiotapes Causes (Alleged) Perjury of Sac County Attorney Ben Smith Case No CDCD002755

*Consumer Comment: Rexxfield.com Michael Roberts Mental Health Diagnosis / Family History Of Mental Illness / Bipolar and ADHD Lead To Sociopath?

*Consumer Comment: FINAL VERDICT

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Explanation of an Appeal vs write of Habeas Corpus: New Evidence Cannot Be Admitted During the Appeal

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Sac County Ben Smith and Michael Roberts continues intimidation, threats and scare tactics to keep evidence and documents from the public

*Consumer Suggestion: To silence my reporting, Ben Smith, filed a Criminal Warrant against me and I potentially faces 25 Years in Prison

*Consumer Comment: ETHICS ALERT TABLOID JOURNALIST MICHAEL USHER; HANNAH BOOCOCK; MARK BRITT - DELIBERATE FACTUAL INACCURACIES & LIES / WARNING TO POTENTIAL INTERVIEWEES of disgraced 60 Minutes Australia, Ninemsn

*Consumer Comment: 'Ka-Pow': Des Moines Register Editorial Board whacks Prosecutor Ben Smith over violating Tracey Richter's civil rights

*Consumer Comment: Seriously ???

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Anatomy of a Murder: A Real-Life Whodunit Corrupt Prosector and His Partner Michael Roberts Rexxfield Authorized Witness Intimidation

*REBUTTAL Individual responds: It has been an age old expression

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Newly discovered facts Michael Roberts Planted The Pink Note Book

*Consumer Comment: Re-investigation Uncovers Evidence of Innocence: Attorney Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Eaves Dropped on Confidential Calls Between Tracey Richter and Defense Counsel

*Consumer Comment: Collateral Murder, there’s something not right about this?

*Consumer Comment: Ben Smith admitted he lied. listened to confidential phone calls and withheld evidence on more than one case. Corruption continues. Michael Roberts learned about dirt on Ben Smith since 2001

*General Comment: I dont understand...

*Consumer Comment: Looks like a typical idiot.

*Consumer Comment: DATELINE NBC POEM...

*Consumer Comment: Finally A Prosecutor Goes To Jail...Ben Smith Next?

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Wrongful Revenge : Ben Smith Send Lovers Wife to Prison

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Federal Drug Task Force in 2002 Blew the Whistle on Mike Roberts 1/2 lb Meth Habit

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: TURNCOAT : Mike Roberts gives up supporters to save himself

*UPDATE Employee: BEN SMITH'S GOOSE IS COOKED

*UPDATE Employee: Ben Smith comes from a long line of corruptors.

*Consumer Comment: Darren,

*Consumer Comment: Jamison White and Orbit Radio

*General Comment: Not her Attorney

*General Comment: Everyone in town called him Crazy Mike Roberts!

*Consumer Comment: How in anyway is this a rip off

*General Comment: Class action lawsuit against Sac County Iowa, Ben Smith

*Consumer Comment: poor little troll

*UPDATE Employee: Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure & DA Ben Smith a*s clown hall of fame

*Consumer Comment: Sac County Board of Supervisors (Dean Stock, Rick Hecht, Ranell Drake, Jack Bensley) corrupt public servants and elected officials? These Types of Issues Never Took Place When Earl Was In Office

*General Comment: New Evidence? Isn't Ben Smith threatening the former Prosecutor to Suppress Evidence For Tracey Richter To Have a Fair Trial Enough?

*Consumer Comment: ROFLMAO

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: The Evidence of Prosecutorial Misconduct and Witness Tampering Cannot Be Introduced Until After The "Direct Appeal" (which mean only evidence from the trial) is exhausted.

*Consumer Comment: Can you explain why none of these issues were raised before the Court of Appeals?

*General Comment: Ok...

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Richter beautiful?

*General Comment: Sex Offender

*General Comment: LOOK

*Consumer Comment: Iowa;s All Male Supreme Court Rules Employors Can Fire "irresistibly Attractive" Female Employee's

*General Comment: Indicators of an wife abuser?

*Consumer Comment: BOMBSHELL EVIDENCE : Sworn Affidavit Proves Sac County Attorney Suppressed Exculpatory Evidence in the Tracey Richter Murder Trial

*Consumer Suggestion: I was groomed by Michael Roberts as was Dustin Wehde to kill Tracey Richter

*UPDATE EX-employee responds: Iowa Supreme Court found prosecutors had committed misconduct \ Sac County Attorney Ben Smith Simply Following Iowa's Protocol Againt Females and Minorities

*Consumer Comment: Response to "Silenced in Storm Lake"

*General Comment: Like mother like daughter

*General Comment: Thank you

*REBUTTAL Individual responds: Darren Meade is a professional reputation hitman working for Ed Magedson *UPDATE .. From the EDitor - Neither Ripoff Report, nor Ed Magedson engaged, hired or requested Darren Meade to write this story.

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June 1, 2015.  Sac County Attorney Ben Smith dismissed all charges against Darren Meade on May 27, 2015, with prejudice.  That means that Smith stopped prosecuting Meade for the things Meade posted on this website, and Smith cannot change his mind again and re-file the charges.  It is not immediately clear what impact this will have on Ripoff Report’s investigation, or whether Ben Smith’s actions simply show that his accusations against Meade for posting reports have no merit. Here is a link to the order dismissing charges against Meade.

In July, 2014, Smith published a vague affidavit claiming that Meade had written false and defamatory things about witnesses in the Tracy Richter Murder trial.  Smith later filed criminal charges against Meade, claiming that Meade’s writings and postings were criminal offenses, making further vague accusations that at least some of the things Meade wrote and posted were false and defamatory. 

Meade’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss, claiming, among other things, that Smith had no evidence to support that what Meade wrote was false or defamatory and that  what Meade wrote is protected by the U.S. Constitution as free speech, and could not be a crime. Meade’s attorney also asked the Court to disqualify Prosecutor Ben Smith from the case for a conflict of interest.  Meade’s attorney argued that Smith was retaliating against Meade with the power of his government office, because Meade had made harsh professional criticisms against Smith in his postings on the Ripoff Report.

When the day came for Prosecutor Ben Smith to face Meade’s defense attorney in court, and present some kind of evidence to show that Meade made false statements, Ben Smith gave up instead of fighting. Smith did not present any evidence to show that Meade did anything wrong. Smith did not identify what statements, if any, were supposedly false. Smith did not present any evidence to show that anything Meade wrote was false.   Instead, on the morning of the hearing, Ben Smith filed a motion to have the Court dismiss all charges against Meade, with prejudice, so that no charges could ever be re-filed.

As explained in a previous update, Ripoff Report has asked Smith to specifically identify what statements posted on the website about trial witnesses are accused as false statements. He has consistently and repeatedly refused to do that.  Now, even after accusing Meade of a crime in court filings, Smith failed to present any proof of false statements, and instead dropped the charges and dismissed the case.

To see this court ruling and other rulings go to out Scribd page:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/267441037/Update-June-1-2015-INVESTIGATION-UPDATE-Charges-against-Darren-Meade-have-been-dropped-Sac-County-Attorney-dismisses-all-criminal-charges-agains

----- End of Update June 1, 2015 -----

January 1, 2015 - INVESTIGATION UPDATE .. Documents, articles and other evidence removed from the internet to hinder investigation..

RipoffReport.com pledged thoroughly investigate allegations presented in a 124 page Application for a search warrant by Sac County Attorney Ben Smith (Sac County, Iowa).  Smith alleged under penalty of perjury that Darren Meade authored and posted false reports on RipoffReport.com about “States witnesses.” But he did not identify what statements he claims to be false statements.

The first question that must be investigated and answered is “What are the false statements?” 

Sac County Attorney Ben Smith will not tell us.  That impedes Ripoff Report’s investigation.

Ripoff Report will investigate allegedly false statements based on the accusations of Sac County Attorney Ben Smith.  However, Ripoff Report cannot start by assuming that every word of every report is in question.  In order to make a sufficient investigation with legitimate findings, the accusations must be specific.

The first project in investigation was to read the 124 page Application for a search warrant, including County Attorney Ben Smith’s affidavit under oath, to try to determine exactly what Smith was accusing as a false statement.  After reading Smith’s affidavit, it is difficult to tell exactly what he is talking about.  The document rambles, and it makes accusatory statements, but it is not clear about the question most basic to the investigation:

What statement that is posted on the RipoffReport.com website is false?  Smith really does not answer that question. 
What report number? 
What sentence or paragraph? 
What is the alleged falsehood? 
Ben Smith does not identify specific statements with an explanation that they are false.  Smith’s affidavit makes general accusations, but avoids making specific identifications of statements that are allegedly not true.

NOTE: Other things that has also impedes our investigation. Smith and or those connected with Ben Smith have gone on a campaign to remove documents, photos, articles and court documents from various websites including Scribd. In some cases using the warrant that was obtained under false pretenses and used  in ways that we think are illegal. We are investigating.

So we asked Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith to be more specific.
We sent him this question through an Iowa attorney:

“ . . . Xcentric [RipoffReport] has been investigating your accusation that Darren Meade posted false and defamatory statements of fact on the Ripoff Report webpage.  Statements found to be false will be redacted.  Xcentric [RipoffReport] has asked me to reach out to you for assistance with this, by helping to identify which statements posted on the Ripoff Report you claim to be factually false. 

If you will identify anyitems described above, soon, that would be a good start, and would prove to be very helpful. Xcentric [RipoffReport] understands that you may be able to identify additional posted statements at a later time.  The request to immediately identify some specific statements of fact is intended to encourage you to give immediate specific input, if the goal is in fact, as you have stated and written, to provide relief to witnesses in the Richter case, if and where it is appropriate to do so.

  Please identify specific statements of fact by providing the number of the report, and if appropriate the identifier of the specific update, comment, or rebuttal, as well as the exact text making the statement you claim is false and defamatory.

My client would like a specific response by the close of business, December 22, 2014. ”

(Quotes from email to Ben Smith. Note: Xcentric Ventures LLC is the company that operates the RipoffReport.com website)

County Attorney Ben Smith did not respond.

Sac County Attorney Ben Smith has also failed to make specific accusations in the criminal charges he personally filed against Darren Meade.  Meade’s attorney has been forced to file a “Bill of Particulars” in court in an attempt to force CA Smith to fix the vague accusations, if he can.  The Bill of Particulars does an excellent job explaining how CA Smith has been vague in the accusations he makes:

Smith makes only conclusory assertions about which “complaints” or statements he alleges were intended to harass the witness. Without specific reference to the exact “complaints” or statements Smith is alleging Meade published to harass the witnesses [. . .]

(emphasis added) Meade’s attorney points out that CA Smith’s paperwork is vague and sloppy:

[. . .] Smith attached well over a thousand pages of exhibits to the Minutes of Testimony in this action, Smith’s avalanche of almost entirely superfluous paperwork (that has almost nothing to do with Darren Meade and even less to do with anything that Darren Meade may or may not have done in Iowa) does not reveal the exact “defamatory” complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published to harass the witnesses.

(emphasis added)  Ripoff Report must agree and note that, in our opinion, the writing of CA Smith’s affidavit in his Application for a search warrant is similarly vague and sloppy. 

In the Bill of Particulars Meade’s attorney also explains why that kind of sloppy vagueness is a problem, and possibly a violation of Constitutional Rights from the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech and Press), the Sixth Amendment (fair trial process) and the Fourteenth Amendment (the right to due process of law). Here are some excerpts from that court document, with emphasis made on those points, as well as detailed specifics about the information that is missing from criminal charges against Meade that are directly on point with Ripoff Report’s investigation of accusations in the Application for search warrant:

COMES NOW Darren Mitchell Meade, by and through undersigned counsel, Glen S. Downey, and hereby moves this Honorable Court for an order requiring the county attorney to furnish a Bill of Particulars setting forth the specific nature of the offenses charged in the Trial Information and Minutes of Testimony. As presently constituted, the State’s charges fail to adequately identify the specific acts upon which his charges are based. As grounds for this Motion, it is stated:

 

1. The September 2, 2014 Trial Information lodged against Meade contains ten counts of general conduct which do not provide Meade under Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.11(6) with the necessary information to prepare an adequate defense.

2. In order for counsel to provide effective representation to Meade, and in order for Meade to adequately prepare a defense by making clear the nature and boundary of the charges against him, and in order to avoid prejudicial surprise at trial, the following information is required:

[. . . ]

r. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Marie Friedman in a purported attempted to retaliate against Ms. Friedman for her testimony in State v. Richter;

s. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Mona Wehde in a purported attempted to retaliate against Wehde for her testimony in State v. Richter;

t. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Michael Roberts in a purported attempted to retaliate against Roberts for his testimony in State v. Richter;

[ . . .]

v. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Sac County Sherriff Ken McClure in a purported attempted to retaliate against McClure for his testimony in State v. Richter;

w. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Iowa DCI Special Agent Trent Vileta in a purported attempted to retaliate against Vileta for his testimony in State v. Richter;

x. The exact RipOff Report complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published about Dr. John Pitman in a purported attempted to retaliate against Pitman for his testimony in State v. Richter;

[. . . ]

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.11(6) provides for a bill of particulars as follows:

When an indictment or information charges an offense in accordance with this rule, but fails to specify the particulars of the offense sufficiently to fairly enable the defendant to prepare a defense, the court may, on written motion of the defendant, require the prosecuting attorney to furnish the defendant with a bill of particulars containing such particulars as may be necessary for the preparation of the defense. A motion for a bill of particulars may be made any time prior to or within ten days after arraignment unless the time be extended by the court for good cause shown.

This rule codifies the due process protections afforded by the Sixth Amendment that require the accused be advised of the crime charged with sufficient certainty to enable him to prepare his defense. See Cole v. Arkansas, 222 U.S. 196, 201 (1948); Rosen v. United States, 161 U.S. 29, 40 (1896). Indeed, the purpose of a bill of particulars is to inform the defendant of the nature of the charges against him and to prevent or minimize the element of surprise at trial. United States v. Garrett, 797 F.2d 656, 665 (8th Cir. 1986). A Defendant’s motion to for a bill of particulars should be granted when the Trial Information and Minutes of Testimony fail to apprise him of the particulars of the offense sufficiently to fairly enable him to prepare his defense. State v. Marti, 290 N.W.2d 570 (Iowa).

[. . . ]

Apparently Smith’s theory is that Meade’s investigative journalism was conducted and published with the intent to harass the states witnesses in the Richter case. Apart from the obvious problem that such journalism is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which shall be asserted separately, along with other issues, in a distinct Motion to Dismiss), Smith makes only conclusory assertions about which “complaints” or statements he alleges were intended to harass the witness. Without specific reference to the exact “complaints” or statements Smith is alleging Meade published to harass the witnesses, Meade has no ability to prepare a defense to such charges.

Although Smith attached well over a thousand pages of exhibits to the Minutes of Testimony in this action, Smith’s avalanche of almost entirely superfluous paperwork (that has almost nothing to do with Darren Meade and even less to do with anything that Darren Meade may or may not have done in Iowa) does not reveal the exact “defamatory” complaints or statements that Meade allegedly published to harass the witnesses. At a bare minimum, Smith and the State have an obligation to provide due process to Meade and inform him of the exact statements that they intend to show were meant to harass the State’s witnesses. Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196, 201 (1948) (holding that the due process guarantees of the fourteenth amendment requires the accused to be advised of the specific charge against him).

WHEREFORE, Defendant Meade moves the court to compel the State to plead the witness tampering, on-going criminal conduct and obstructing prosecution with sufficient particularity as to allow Meade to mount a constitutionally adequate defense.

[Attorney Signature]

(Darren Meade’s Motion to Disqualify County Attorney Smith for conflict of interest, excerpts)

It may be significant that Sac County Attorney Ben Smith did not file any dispute against Meade’s Bill of Particulars.  Perhaps Smith admits, at least tacitly, that the accusations he made in his criminal charge and in the Application for a search warrant are too vague and unspecific to be investigated.  On December 1, 2014, there was a court hearing on both the Bill of Particulars and Meade’s Motion to Disqualify Smith.   There is one paragraph in Sac County Attorney Ben Smith’s Resistance to the Motion to Disqualify that MAY be his answer about what statements specific statements he claims are false.

Defendant’s “complaints” concerning the undersigned and the State’s witnesses are nonsensical and unworthy of belief on any level. It is not the substantive content of Defendant’s “complaints” which are damaging the State’s witnesses beyond repair, but rather the search engine optimization (SEO) techniques Defendant used to cause his “complaints” to appear at the top of the first page of Google-type search results, juxtaposed and associated with reprehensible criminal conduct.

(Sac County Attorney Ben Smith’s Resistance to Meade’s Motion to Disqualify) 

First, let us admit that it is not clear what Smith is talking about.  His phrase “Defendant’s ‘complaints’ concerning the undersigned [Smith] and the State’s witnesses” refers to every posting Meade made about Smith and any State’s witness in the Richter murder trial, without limitation. That is not very specific.  He seems to be saying that it is NOT the substance of the postings that are the problem, but the fact that the posting appear at the top of search engine results “juxtaposed and associated” with other bad things.  Is he actually be saying that Meade’s postings are not factually false, but they are damaging because of outside factors?  To be fair, he does say that they are “nonsensical and unworthy of belief on any level” but it is not clear exactly what that means, and it is certainly not specific or precise.

Second, let us make an editorial comment.  It is a complete abuse of government power for a prosecutor to make vague and sloppy accusations in a criminal charge. Imagine if you were charged by a prosecutor for “bank robbery” but you never robbed a bank.  In order to defend yourself you would need to know specific accusations. What bank?  What date? What time?  What evidence suggests that you were the bank robber?  If the prosecutor refused to be specific, you would stand accused and charged of a crime with no ability to defend yourself.  In this case Sac County Attorney Ben Smith has accused Meade of making false statements about “States witnesses” but he will not identify which statement or which witness or what exactly was false. The Constitution forbids exactly the kind of abuse of power.

If Sac County Attorney Smith would identify specific statements that he claims are false, Ripoff Report would investigate those statements. If those statements are false, the Ripoff Report will redact them.  That invitation is open. If Ben Smith is sincere, he should take advantage of that and point out what he claims to be false.

Unfortunately, at present, the most important thing to update this investigation is that the accusations Sac County Attorney Ben Smith made in the Application for Search Warrant are so vague and sloppy that they impede an investigation into whether statements made by Meade are true or false.   As constituted, the accusations in the Warrant Application require Ripoff Report to mostly guess what statements Smith might really think are false.  The Bill of Particular’s filed by Meade’s attorney may force Smith to shed light on this most important preliminary question. Ripoff Report will monitor the outcome of that in court, in hopes that Smith will be forced to make specific accusations.

Read more in a recent Editorial here..


More to come … 

--------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE December 2014 - ED Magedson Victimized by Ben Smith Sac County Iowa County Attorney Prosecutor  The Truth about ED Magedson - what’s really going on in Sac County Iowa? You have heard the hype and read the spin, now here is the truth. Read this.

*NOTICE: July 13, 2014: Ripoff Report Launches Full Investigation!!!  Sac County Iowa Prosecutor’sAllegations Warrant Unprecedented Action from Ripoffreport.com regarding Darren Meade Posts

RipoffReport.com will thoroughly investigate allegations presented in a 124 page affidavit by County Prosecutor Ben Smith of Sac County Iowa.  Smith alleged under penalty of perjury that Darren Meade authored and posted false reports on RipoffReport.com about at least four specific people.  If RipoffReport.com's investigation reveals that any of the allegations made in any post about those witnesses contain false statements of fact, the false facts will be redacted from the postings. "We will get to the bottom of Ben Smith's allegations and publish the evidence and conclusions," states Ripoff Report Editor and Founder Ed Magedson. 

Author Darren Meade's writings (some of which are in this link list) (see email from Darren Meade) challenge the fairness and credibility of the homicide investigation, trial, murder conviction, and subsequent treatment of Iowa mother Tracy Richter at the hands of County Prosecutor Ben Smith and Michael Roberts (Rexxfield), Tracy Richter's former husband. The Previous County Prosecutor had declined to prosecute Richter, who claims to have been acting in defense of herself and her children against multiple attackers when she shot at Dustin Whede during a home invasion in December of 2001.  Ed Magedson had been convinced by Meade that the shooting was morally and legally justified and that an innocent woman was imprisoned.

While County Prosecutor Smith's affidavit contains certain incorrect assertions and many material omissions, it also raises some shocking facts, sufficient to justify a full investigation by  Ripoffreport into Meade's assertions and motivations.  

Ripoff Report's investigation is an unprecedented action for the consumer website.  Ripoff Report accepts reports from authors who certify the honesty of the content of their reports, and encourages rebuttals to provide readers with both sides of a disputed story. Generally, Ripoff Report allows the public, the courts or an independent arbitrator to judge the truth and does not do an investigation to supplement or challenge postings. Gathering evidence and passing judgment on the statements of outside authors departs from its standard practice.

County Prosecutor Smith's aggressive actions justify extraordinary measures.  Smith not only states that Darren Meade's factual allegations are false, he asserts that they violate Iowa's criminal laws and that Ed Magedson knowingly conspired with Meade and others.  Ed Magedson did no such thing.  

County Prosecutor Smith has used the full power of his elected office in attempts to crush criticism of his prosecution and he has relied heavily on advice, information and guidance from Michael Roberts, a known liar and extortionist.   Roberts   was involved in a scheme to illegally hack the Ripoff Report website and Roberts attempted to sell information regarding the hack to Ripoff Report for  €105,000. http://www.ripoffreport.com/lhc/common/files/MichaelRobertsRexxfieldAttemptedExtortion.pdf

As a website dedicated to providing a voice to the common person through open information and free speech rights, Ripoff Report asserts its own voice on these matters of public interest and concern, and pledges full investigation of the issues.

As progress is made with our investigation, it will be posted here as an UPDATE to this statement.

Now to the original report that was posted …

________________________________________

Review: DateLine NBCs Twisted is a Case Study in Prosecutorial Misconduct

Mary Higgens

News Analysis and Opinion

Dateline NBCs episode Twisted is a totally exhaustive, fully encompassing story about dangerous people. Once you digest this, more articles will follow. The Genesis will be the Tracey Richter case but we will cover the several million dollars in business revenues shared between the key prosecution witnesses, how the Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith played into that, and the mastermind they hid away, ingeniously making him impossible to subpoena.

Tracey Richter and fiance
Tracey Richter and her fianc Russell Schertz

Ive been looking into ancillary matters related to this story for nearly a year now, and I can say without question there is far more to this than what appeared on DateLine NBC.

Why would the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Sac County Prosecutor go to such lengths to prosecute an innocent woman? In future articles we will detail how they are protecting a person who can tamper with a jury verdict in ANY trial, but that is for another time.

In this lucid discussion of the significant revelations of systemic wrongdoing in Sac County and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, well uncover how the culture of Iowa is different from that of other states, and that denying the truth is woven into its ethos. Moreover, it perverts justice for purposes that are unique to a cast of characters, and have nothing to do with protecting the public. Perhaps this is why Iowa has had an 80% rise in prosecutorial misconduct appeals in the last decade. Watching the travesty of justice of the Tracey Richter trial crack wide open over the last few weeks has left me puzzled.

We can say things like, Ultimate responsibility goes to the man at the top, meaning Ben Smith, Sac County Attorney and Prosecutor. And that sounds right, but it still doesnt explain how any of it happened. The key people are criminals, liars, or willfully blind. We could say that, but then we would have to explain how so many of them ended up in Iowa. Puzzles like these have led many people to the conclusion that theres a culture inside the prosecutors office that is responsible in some way, and I agree with that. This is not just about one individual, but about the culture of an organization. Prosecutors and investigators do not routinely break the law, tamper with juries, intimidate and mislead witnesses, and generally conduct themselves like thugs unless it is a matter of recognized and understood policy.

Consider the powers of the prosecutor The prosecutor decides:

  1. Whether or not to bring criminal charges
  2. Who to charge
  3. What the charges will be
  4. Whether the charges will be misdemeanor or felony
  5. Whether the person charged will stand trial or plead out
  6. What sentence the judge should give


A prosecutors power to invoke or deny punishment at his discretion is the power to control and destroy peoples lives. Professor Bennett Gershman

A Short and to-the-Point Overview

Hiding the Good Stuff \ Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (IDCI)

Trick #1 - They Avoided Gathering Favorable Evidence IDCI and Sac County law enforcement never interviewed Michael Roberts after his 99% deceptive polygraph about his knowledge or involvement in the home invasion.

Trick #2 - They Avoided Gathering Favorable Evidence IDCI and Sac County law enforcement refused to follow-up February 2011 information that Michael Roberts had manipulated another mentally unstable man he was mentoring to commit murder to protect Roberts business interests.

Trick #3 - They Avoided Gathering Favorable Evidence Prosecutor Ben Smith had documented proof of a Hacking Code that tampered with the jury via the Internet. This included information of an alleged juror admitting he was tampered with. Rather than investigate, Ben Smith sent the confidential information to The Hacker who tampered with the jury.

Trick #4 They Avoided Gathering Favorable Evidence IDCI and Sac County law enforcement had a city employee and her husband Clean the bedroom (murder scene) and then released the murder scene within the initial 24-hours to the primary suspect, Michael Roberts.

Trick #5 They Avoided Gathering Favorable Evidence IDCI and Sac County law enforcement realized the error they made in releasing a crime scene within 24-hours to the primary suspect who then failed his polygraph about the murder. In order to keep him from impugning the prosecutions case, they allowed him to stay in a Witness Protection program where he could not be served a subpoena.

Trick #6 - Someone Had a Favorable Position to the Defense IDCI Special Agent Vileta is alleged to have misled and tampered with primary witness Mona Wehde, who believed Michael Roberts shot her son. Wehde testified Vileta assured Roberts had been interviewed and cleared, yet no interview from Vileta was produced for trial. Vileta claims he never interviewed Michael Roberts.

Trick #7 - When Someone Did Say Something Favorable for the Defense, They Didn't Write It Down. 

Trick #8 Prime Investigator Lost Critical Documents All Special Agent Viletas correspondence with Michael Roberts7 sheets of notes authored by Dustin, 2 post-it notes authored by Dustin, and a 3rd Notebook, were lost by Trent Vileta.

Trick #9 - Permitted Destruction of Evidence and Intimidation of Potential Defense Witnesses


Background

NBC Dateline - Twisted
Click here to watch this segment

Missed Facts

  • Michael Roberts had an arrest and conviction for domestic battery filed under Sac County Domestic and Child Abuse Report # 2000-00407, Trial Notice CASE NO 02811 SMCR008251 (see document here page 2). His plea deal took nearly a year to arrange (see document page 3). He was arrested for Domestic Assault in 2000. He was set for trial over the assault in 2001. DateLine had this material fact in error.
  • Michael Roberts was Founded (Confirmed and Placed) on the Central Abuse Registry by the Iowa Department of Human Services on 3/21/2007 (see report here) for the abuse of Noah Roberts and Mason Roberts. Noah and Mason are the half-brother and sister to Burt Pitman who was featured in the DateLine NBC segment, Twisted.
  • Michael Roberts pled No Contest to the charge, which under Iowa law is a conviction. The conviction forbids him from gun ownership under the Domestic Violence Gun Ban and equally violates the Iowa Domestic Battery Firearm restriction laws.
  • Michael Roberts first known violation of violating the domestic violence gun ban was on July 22, 2002 from Carolina Sporting Arms, 110 East Kingston Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28203 (704) 375-7987

Michael Roberts and his guns

Michael Roberts is photographed with one of many handguns he purchased in violation of Court Orders after his conviction of Spousal and Child Abuse. The photograph is with a sniper rifle. Police reports allege he threatened to kill a Chicago detective with a sniper rifle and that he (Roberts) is a very good shot. Roberts is on an audio recording with another young man he mentors discussing having this young man kill someone to protect the inner sanctum or Roberts new business enterprise with a .50 caliber hollow-point bullet which just explodes his brain, the same as used by the rifle in the photo with Roberts above.



For some prosecutors the risk of losing a criminal trial is unacceptable. Although the evidence of guilt may be sufficient, and a conviction likely, a prosecutor knows he faces an aggressive adversary and an unpredictable jury. A prosecutor also knows that he must present his case consistent with a broad array of constitutional statutory, evidentiary, and ethical proscription designed to minimize unfair prejudice and assure the defendant a fair trial... Some prosecutors find these rules too confining and seek to circumvent them. For such a prosecutor, the risk of losing a trial far outweighs the risk of losing the subsequent appeal.  Prosecutorial Misconduct, Second Edition, by Bennett L. Gershman (Page 10-3)

The Plot Was Engineered & Executed

NBC Dateline - Twisted
Click here to watch this segment

Blatant Untruths of Ben Smith and Mary Higgins

  • February 13th, 2002 Michael Roberts fails his polygraph and is found 99% deceptive on the only questions pertaining too if he knew, planned or took part in the home invasion.
  • Michael Roberts then admits that he told Dustin about John Pitman and didnt paint a very pretty picture. Michael Roberts in an earlier segment with DateLine professes he wanted to kill him speaking of John Pitman.
  • December 26, 2008, Mona Wehde states that Special Agent Vileta changed Mona Wehdes belief that Michael Roberts had killed Dustin by assuring her he had interviewed and cleared Michael Roberts (see document here pages 105 lines 9-25 and page 106 lines 1-15)
  • January 20, 2009, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations on an internal memo still lists Michael Roberts as a suspect (see document here).
  • September 23, 2011, Trent Vileta states he never interviewed Michael Roberts and left him out of what he did (see pages 47 & 48) Michael Roberts fails his polygraph on February 13, 2002. The attack took place on December 13, 2001. The Roberts left on a pre-planned family vacation the following week. Viletas excuse for not investigating Roberts is that Roberts was extensively interviewed in 2001.
  • October 2010, Trent Vileta admits he is biased and has tunnel vision. In an email copied to Sheriff McClure he states he is having a hard time appearing to be neutral.
  • November 2010, Ben Smith is elected and Vileta begins sharing his self-admitted biased information that leads to Tracey Richter being charged with the murder of Dustin Wehde.
  • February 2011, Information is provided that Michael Roberts on information and belief has manipulating another mentally unstable man to commit murder on his behalf, the caller even states he fears this person will become Dustin Wehde #2
  • Mary Higgins helps generously in Ben Smiths election campaign.
  • Ben Smith became romantically involved with Mary Higginss daughter and while having and drinks at the Higginss house, Ben starts to describe the case and secret evidence (Notebook).
  • On December 13, 2001, within the first 24 Hours of the shooting, the crime scene bedroom is cleaned by a city employee and her husband and released to prime suspect Michael Roberts.
  • One-hour after Michael Roberts has the crime scene released, he claimed to have found additional shell casing missed by CSI investigators who processed the bedroom.

Theres so much going on in Twisted, you need more than two hours to dissect it. Its a gritty, edgy, uncomfortable episode in my opinion to watch the prosecutor, lead investigator, and star witness utilize all the tricks #1 9 above.

Mary Higgins claimed to be Traceys best friend and was spooked that her friend continued to change contact information, crossing out and putting down new information. Why? As a best friend, she knew Michael received money from the bank for a home equity loan without telling Tracey, and purchased a home for another woman, in Florida (Andrea Berger). Tracey's husband even married another woman while still married to Tracey, and that he continually violated protective orders. In 2007, Michael Roberts was placed on the Child Abuse Registry for abusing Noah and Mason as he previously did Bert according to Higgins.

Noah and Mason Roberts with Tracey Richter

Noah and Mason Roberts and their mother, Tracey Richter. Michael Roberts was found guilty of Domestic Assault which was performed in front to Tracey and Michael's sons (Bert Pitman and Noah Roberts) Michael Roberts also was found to have physically abused both Noah and Mason Roberts and was placed on the Child Abuse registry.  Despite the children openly being fearful of Michael Roberts, and findings of physical abuse to both children, Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Prosecutor made certain the children were placed solely in the custody of Michael Roberts. Noah Roberts had always been the protector of Mason Roberts, and therefore Michael Roberts in order to assert his dominance and control over.



And Higgins must have known that Michael Roberts through a company called Mile2, stole Traceys identity and that law enforcement advised her she should legally change her name (see document), which she did.

According to a supplemental report filed by Sheriff Ken McClure, Robyn Padgett explained she spoke to Mary Higgins often and that Mary Higgins was always trying to get Padgett to befriend Tracey Roberts, Padgett always felt Higgins was trying to get information from Padgett. If Higgins and Richter were best friends why was she trying to have Padgett befriend Tracey to get information? The supplemental report goes onto say Padgett also told Mary Higgins about the Notebook found in Dustin Wehdes bedroomwith coded writing. Coded writing is important because the writing in the notebook in Dustins car, the secret evidence was also considered bizarre. But this notebook had the name Ilka Pitman; if you change the letters in Ilka you have a phonetic codeKill A Pitman(See Sheriff's Supplemental Report here, notice 2nd page 2nd paragraph) Remember Dustins mentor earlier on DateLine said he wanted to kill John Pitman. Dustins mentor after failing his polygraph confessed he told Dustin about John Pitman and would not have painted a very pretty picture.

Mary claimed she helped clean up Traceys home after the shooting. Yet the police report clearly states within hours they had a city worker and her husband clean the crime scene and release the home to Michael Roberts.

Michael Robert claimed to have then cleaned the home and located shell casings within an hour of taking possession of the home that were missed by CSI investigators. The scene was already cleaned twice as documented by police reports, yet, nowhere in the police reports did it mention the participation of Mary Higgins.

Special Agent Trent Vileta had already confessed he was having a hard time appearing neutral. He was already biased and was building a case to validate his theory versus collecting evidence and investigating the facts. That being said, everything Vileta supplied to Ben Smith was already biased.

In his mentorship of Dustin, Michael Roberts had Dustin work on creative writing exercises that often were violent in nature. Roberts after his failed polygraph admitted he told Dustin details about John Pitman and dont forget in the other notebook, Kill a Pitman. The super-secret evidence, the Pink Notebook was photographed at the crime scene, and listed under section two of the Vehicle Interior.

Dustin Wehde Car Inventory
Dustin Wehde Car Inventory Which List Pink Spiral Notebook (View large version)

Examination Pink Lined Spiral Notebook, the notebook is also mentioned in multiple police reports and even states that the writing in the notebook was bizarre. The crime scene photos were heavily circulated and a civil lawsuit in 2004 put all of this into public record. The crime scene photos were shown to me personally in 2010 by Michael Roberts.

Ben Smith is having dinner and drinks at his girlfriends parents house who were also generous campaign supporters and helped get Ben Smith elected. At some point, Ben starts to describe the case and the secret evidence (notebook) and according to Mary she says you mean that stupid notebook? If the information is supposed to be secret, why is Ben Smith describing it? More to the point, Ben turned white and slid to the floor when he heard stupid notebook but three (3) notebooks had already been a part of evidence, he should not have been shocked over a notebook.

Preposterous Allegations

It is preposterous to think that a solution to losing child support is for Tracey to frame the payer of her child support with a capital offense. If the Pitman went to jail the child support would fall to 0 ZERO! Tracey had already signed off on a Vail condominium in exchange for Berts father (John Pitman) to pay for Berts college. If John went to jail, Tracey would have to pay for Berts college, a daunting task for a single mother with 3 kids.

My heart goes out to Mona Wehde, as I sincerely believe her trust was betrayed by Michael Roberts, Trent Vileta, and Ben Smith. I lost my father to suicide, and I know first-hand the desire to try and cherish and honor their memories.

Mona first trusted Michael Roberts with the mentoring of her son, and he broke that trust. That is what made me call law enforcement in Iowa in February 2011, fear that a new young man was going to become Dustin Wehde #2.

Michael Roberts had convinced another man whom I believe he was manipulating mentally and sexually to plot to kill me, the talk even centered on using a .50 caliber hollow point bullet to explode my brain. This was to be done to protect Michael Robertss business interest. 



If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. In such cases it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it; it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. Therein if the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people who he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. It is in this realm in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political group, being attached to the wrong political views or being personally obnoxious to, or in the way of, the prosecutor himself.

Supreme Court Justice / United States Attorney General / Nuremburg Prosecutor Robert Jackson, 1940

Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Prosecuting Attorney

Ben Smith Sac County Prosecutor, prosecutorial misconduct, wrongful prosecution.



Ben Smith admits to Dateline he would willfully lie as an officer of the court to protect his own mother if roles were reversed. In Twisted, did he lie to protect his potential future mother-in-law who became his star witness, and violate Tracey Richters due process?

Twisted is a dangerous segment. I cant remember a time in recent memory when I watched a Dateline and wondered what the prosecutor, star witness, and lead investigator might allegedly lie about next, and you quickly understand this trial was a crude conviction machine versus an instrument of justice.  The Tracey Richter case was nothing more than a sham to protect the business opportunities of key prosecution witnesses and Sac City Attorney Ben Smith, himself.

A Mystifying Break In

In late 2001, to most people in the small town of Early, Iowa, Tracey Richter was a hero. A woman who stood up for her family and did the unthinkable, breaking away from an intruder who had just attempted to garrote her with pantyhose, grabbing a pistol from a bedroom safe, and shooting him nine times until he stopped moving. All of this while her three children huddled in a nearby bedroom, fearing for their lives. In a community of only 600, crimes this grisly are rare. But what added an extra element of mourning to the towns grief and shock was that the break in was led by a local, someone most folks knew, someone the Roberts family knew wellDustin Wehde. His mother, Mona, was a respected real estate agent in the area. And Dustin didnt appear bent on robbery but murder. Why?

A Bizarre Twist

Why would Dustin Wehde seek to harm a family he knew so well? A family who had befriended him? Michael Roberts had reached out to Dustins Mother offering to mentor him, taking him paintballing and to church with the family. He was in every sense a friend of Michael Roberts, someone who had been over to the Roberts house on many occasions. He was the last person Tracey imagined would harm them.  And then there was the case of the second intruder. The only description they had of the man who fled was that he was 6 feet tall, 25 to 35 years old, with a slender build and dark wavy hair. Michael Roberts, in an interview with a local paper, The Register, confirmed he believed the other man was behind the attack and Dustin was under the influence of the other personthe boss. That same week Michael Roberts posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the 2nd intruder, evidently believing strongly in his existence. For the Sac County Sheriff, the circumstances surrounding the break in left too many troubling questions to close it out as robbery attempt gone bad. The Sheriff and his investigators surmised someone had put Dustin up to it, and they theorized that someone had probably paid him to commit the crime. Disturbing pornography was mentioned in police reports and by witnesses causing the speculation that Dustin Wehde and Michael Roberts had a sexual relationship. Could this have been a crime of passion?

An Eye Witness

The night Tracey Richters life changed forever her last name was Roberts. It was early evening on December 13, 2001 and Tracey was upstairs bathing her young daughter Mason. Eleven-year-old Bert was in his bedroom watching Spy Kids with three-year-old Noah.  It was after six and her husband had been out of town on a business trip so when she heard noises downstairs, she went out onto the landing and called downstairs, thinking hed returned a few hours early. No one answered, so she called again. The stairs were dark and two figures ascended the stair case, everything in her body told her they were not friendly. Bert came out of the room, and she handed off the baby to him, telling him to get in his room, close the door.

Before she could escape, the first intruder wrapped a nylon pantyhose around her neck, attempting to garrote her, leaving her neck severely bruised. She broke away and was able to retrieve a gun from her bedroom and she shot at Dustin, stopping a further attack in her bedroom. The second intruder was heard shouting:  the B*tch has a gun, and fled. She was able then to check on the children, and get them safely downstairs to call 9-1-1.

A Cold Case

Investigators eventually honed in on her husband, Michael Roberts, as a suspect. The police knew they had a volatile marital relationship. They had the police reports that proved his physical abuse of Tracey. Iowa Department of Human Services found that Michael Roberts had abused both his young son and daughter. Their family business was either making millions of dollars or struggling financially, depending on who you spoke with. Tracey had a considerable life insurance policy as did the children. Michael had an alleged alibi for his whereabouts that Thursday night, so he was ruled out as the second intruder, but not as the mastermind behind the plot to kill Tracey and her children. What immediately had caught the sheriffs attention were the results of his polygraph test. Four weeks after the incident Michael had flunked a police test. The police asked if he had planned and arranged for Dustin to enter his house on December 13; if he knew the identity of the second intruder. He answered no to these along with two other questions and the tester concluded with a 99% certainty his answers were deceptive. By the time a sheriffs detective sat down across from Michael Roberts in 2003 and asked him point blank how much he had paid Dustin to kill his wife, the Sheriff was pretty certain they had come to right conclusion. But Michael denied it. Continued to deny it, and he never broke from his story. When Sheriff McClures investigators brought the case to Sac County Prosecuting Attorney, Earl Hardisty, he refused to prosecute. There were several factors in his decision, but his refusal centered on the contamination of the crime scene by the paramedics and the police and the poor forensic work by the investigators at the crime scene. The case went cold as far as the cops were concerned. Michael and Tracey went on with their fragile marriage that finally ended in 2008.

New Evidence

Mona Wehde continued to mourn for her dead son; nagged by the belief Dustin could have never done this on his own. She even had a theory about the second intruder but no one ever took her seriously. Her private grief began to turn in 2007 when she received a call from Special Agent Trent Vileta. He had been handed the cold case of the Dustin Wehde shooting and had uncovered some new evidence, evidence that would take the case in an entirely new direction. And if that evidence panned out, it could bring a measure of closure to her pain.

Life in Prison

Special Agent Vileta compiled his facts and bided his time. And when a new Sac County DA took office in January 2011, Vileta laid out his case to the young aggressive prosecutor, Ben Smith. On July 26, 2011 Tracey Richter was arrested on charges of first degree murder in the shooting death of Dustin Wehde, and a year later was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. What had Special Agent Vileta uncovered, and how had he conveyed it to county attorney, Ben Smith who convinced a jury of her peers to find her guilty of first degree murder? How were these new facts so compelling that even an eye witness to the break in and shooting were impugned as lying? How had it come about that the man whom most in town were convinced had committed this crime now had custody of the couples two children, and the mother who had fought to save them, was now a convicted killer serving life in prison? Did the defense attorneys know about the ethical lapses on the part of the prosecutor? Did Ben Smith uphold the ethical duty of his office to seek justice no matter the cost to his case?

These are some of the questions that must be answered in order to understand why Tracey Richter is in jail for life.

Compiling the Evidence

Back when he first received the case, Special Agent Trent Viletas first assignment was to find a motive for the crime. He early discounted the failed polygraph of Michael Roberts, claiming on tape that Michael didnt believe in the second intruder, which in his mind explained the deceptive results of the test. This directly contradicts Michaels own statements to both the press, which is cited earlier, and to the public in offering a cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the second intruder. Why would Special Agent Vileta make such a spurious claim in contradiction to the facts as they were publically known? Had his objective judgment already been so impaired by his determination to see Tracey tried for murder that the facts no longer mattered? Nevertheless, Special Agent Vileta believed he was onto something, and at this point whatever facts didnt fit into his theory had to be in some way recast.

He zeroed in his investigative energy on Tracey. By fleshing out her background and earlier relationship with her first husband John Pitman, he began to develop a profile of a woman who in theory could pull the trigger on a friend. She was a gun owner, as was Michael, and Pitman claimed she had brandished a gun at him in a family argument. But was that the whole truth of that incident? Was Roberts here doing exactly what county prosecutor Smith would later claim Tracey was doing in setting up the murder plotwas Roberts simply taking a situation out of context in order to make himself look good in a child support dispute? But Vileta was on the trail of something and continued digging through her past until he could theorize with confidence that her past behavior proved she could murder Dustin in cold blood.

But why would Vileta so easily dismiss a proven scientific conclusion in favor of flimsy circumstantial evidence against the victim? It must have been something he found in her background because he called her a con from way back. She had never struck anyone. But what about Dustins, documented and erratic and violent behaviour? (see document here) What about Michaels physically abusive relationshiop with his kids and his own wife? By the standards Vileta had set up anyone of these were capable of pulling the trigger. But Vileta was on a mission. Those facts didnt enter into his equation. Vileta showed a distinct pattern in the investigation of discounting any evidence that didnt fit into his theory. Take Mona Wehdes sworn statement in 2002, her adamant assertion she had been manipulated in a love affair by a local con man and Mafia thug in order to gain her confidence, access to her house, her phone, and her real estate office, where she had a key to the Roberts home because of her real estate business. Despite a promise to marry Mona and run away from his wife, the man, Jeremy Collins, disappeared days after the murder. He paid off his car, his house, quit his job, and he and his wife moved away. Mona never saw him again. Heartbroken by the loss of her child and now duplicity of her illicit lover, she was mortified she might have been unwittingly involved in the murder plot of her own son. She said as much in a sworn deposition to the police in February 2002. Mona went on to say that she knew Jeremy was involved in a range of illegal activitiesmoney laundering, drug dealing, murder for hire, and more. Jeremy had even spoken to her son, according to phone records, calling her house when she couldnt have been home, and only Dustin had been. Could this have been the mysterious man Dustins notebook referred to?

Duty bound to follow up on such an auspicious lead, Special Agent Vileta took a plane ride to Germany to interview Jeremy Collins. While he did file a report, it only consisted of the fact that he asked Collins four questions. The alibi Collins gave if followed up by Vileta would have proven false and only a single sheet of paper even showed the interview had taken place.  No need. Collins didnt fit into Viletas theory of why Tracey shot Dustin.

Its impossible to pinpoint what exactly caused Vileta or when he crossed over the line from neutral servant of the law to a biased investigator, intent on proving the guilt of Tracey Richter. But the fact he did came from his own admission to his boss in an e-mail where he reported that he was having trouble appearing to be neutral. He was now a biased investigator, and he wanted Tracey Richter indicted for murder, and in order to do that he had to fake it. He had to keep his bias to himself; he had to appear to be objectively examining the evidence as it came to him. Because thats what the law required of him; because thats what servants of the law are sworn to do.

His only problem was his boss, Sac County Attorney,  Earl Hardisty. He had refused to indict anyone for the charges simply because the evidence as he saw it was flimsy. The crime scene had been too contaminated by emergency responders and police. Then there was the issue of the crime scene itself undergoing a cleaning by city employees and then released to Michael Roberts within 24 hours. Shortly after taking the house back over, Roberts found a shell casing the CSI investigators had missed and brought it to the police. Within weeks Roberts fails a polygraph and becomes the prime suspect. The fact that Michael had failed a police polygraph was an obstacle that none of the investigators could get around in pursuing suspects in the case. In the original investigative reports compiled by Sac County Sheriffs Investigator  in 2002 tell Michael Roberts hes convinced the man knows more about the crime than hes saying. Michael immediately ended the conversation.

Michaels refusal to cooperate and the deceptive results from the polygraph combined with the shoddy police work on the crime scene convinced the veteran prosecutor Hardisty that charges against Richter wouldnt hold up in court. But none of this stymied Special Agent Vileta. He had a theory to prove, and he was determined to explain the truth as he saw it.

Examining the crime scene nearly eight years after the fact, after all the forensic evidence had been wiped clean and long ago disappeared; Vileta determined that innocent Dustin must have been lured to his death. The trajectories of the bullets proved beyond a doubt, Tracey had casually stood by the side of the bed and fired away at a young man who could not have been attacking her. This was a conclusion no other Sac County officer had been able to come to, but Special Agent Vileta could and did. With the crime scene evidence along with his profile on Tracey and his explanation of Michaels failed polygraph, he now had his proof. But what Vileta didnt have was a cooperative prosecutor who would see things his way. Not until January 1, 2011 when the new man moved into the county prosecutors office, one Ben Smith.

The Notebook

What seemed like a mysterious clue with unknown relevance to the previous investigators, to Ben Smith, the new DA, it was the prized last piece of a complicated puzzle, one he had been searching for since he first heard of the case. Ben had a meticulous way about his drive for justice, and he combed through the old case files and found that one piece of evidence that he claimed investigators had never disclosed existeda pink notebooka clue police didnt intend to announce until they understood its relevance. It belonged to Dustin and it was found in the front seat of his car parked outside Traceys house. It was a journal of sorts in Dustins handwriting, one of three notebooks found that mentioned the name Pitman. Among other entries were cryptic references to Traceys child custody struggles with her first husband, Chicago physician, John Pitman. There was also a reference to a mysterious man who had contacted him about killing Tracey. Smith knew the notebook was top secret and so one night when he was at dinner at his girlfriends house, he mentioned to Mary Higgins, his girlfriends mother, that there was more to the Tracey Richter shootings than most people know about. When Mary replied, Oh, you mean that stupid notebook, it was then Smith experienced a moment of epiphany worthy of Sherlock Holmes. It doesnt at all defy imagination to assume that evening and on subsequent times, the new prosecutor Ben Smith and his former campaign worker, Mary Higgins, discussed at length their concerns about the guilt or innocence of Tracey Richter.  But what about that night at dinner? At the very least they discussed how he had just connected the dots in the murder case he intended to file against Tracey.

The connection Smith said he made that night at Marys home was that Tracey could not have known about the notebook and its contents unless she had fed Dustin the incriminating information about John Pitman herself. Tracey must also have wanted the notebook to be discovered, and somehow made sure Dustin carried it around in his car. From there he concluded that all of the physical evidence in the case was a lie created by Tracey to cover up the real facts: at the time of the break in Tracey was in the midst of a nasty child custody dispute with John Pitman. Smith theorized that she had planted the information about Pitman to pin the break in on him. And in order to complete her monstrous scheme, she lured Dustin to the house that night, then upstairs into her bedroom, and then shot him down in cold blood, then injured her own neck with a pair of pantyhose, made up the story about the second intruder, coached her young sons (Bert and Noah) in what to say happened, and then called 911.

But what if Smith didnt mention outright that he thought Tracey was guilty of first degree murder. What if had merely implied that she had done it? Do words have to be spoken in order for a servant of the law to communicate an opinion of guilt or innocence? Every law school student knows that prosecutors are bound by the highest ethical standards to assure every defendant receives a fair trial. Thats there sworn duty. Thats how our justice system works. And therefore they are duty bound not to prejudice a witness or a jury by communicating an opinion about the guilt or innocence of a defendant. Courts recognize the power of prosecutors facial expressions and body language to unfairly influence a jury, and when it is done, intentionally or unintentionally, they consider it prosecutorial misconduct. Mary said in an interview with Dateline that Ben went white at the moment of recognition of Marys knowledge of the notebook. She knew what was going through Bens mind. Why would she remember the incident so vividly if she didnt think Ben was convinced Tracey had committed murder and not an act of self-defense? This is a reasonable assumption; one that is only amplified by Marys other statements regarding the meaning of the multiple identities of Tracey Richter. We dont know exactly when Mary cobbled together the other disparate details she knew regarding Tracey Richter, and turned her friend of many years into a murderess in her mind, but its fair to say it happened about or shortly after that dinner with Ben Smith.  If not why would that night be so central to the memory of both of them?

The question that begs to be asked is would the murder trial of Tracey Richter have had a different outcome if the key prosecutors witness had not been unfairly prejudiced and unduly influenced? Its not unreasonable to doubt that with this kind of behind the scenes influencing of one witness, it would become impossible for Tracey to get a fair trial in the small counties surrounding Early, Iowa.

The prosecutions case turned on two key witnesses. First, was Mary Higgins. Mary, as we will see later, from the beginning had an insatiable interest in digging into Tracey Richters life. Second, was Burt Pittman, who was only 11 at the time of the crime, but ten years later he was even more adamant about his memories of that evening. The trial hinged on who the jury would believe, a town busy-body and friend of the prosecutor, or the only eye-witness to the gruesome event other than the victim herself.

But if Smith was going to convince a jury of his theory hed need to impugn the eye witness testimony of Burt.  At trial he would have to convince a jury Traceys son had never seen what he said he saw or heard what he said he heard. And he would have to convince the jury of Mary Higgins credibility. She became his star witness. Even though she was a longtime friend of Tracey, she was also someone with her ear to ground in Early who seemed to have at her disposal so many details about Tracey Richters life. Details she was more than willing to pass along to Ben Smith. And Ben Smith never fulfilled his duty to the public by disclosing to the defense his full and true relationship with Mary Higgins. It wasnt until after Mary was deposed by the defense counsel that their prior relations came to light. When questioned by the judge, Ben Smith assured him he was merely an acquaintance of Marys, and his real friend was her husband. But if thats the case, why didnt Smith disclose all of this beforehand. He had an ethical duty to do so. Was this ethical lapse on Ben Smiths part intentional? Or is it just part of a larger pattern of deception?

Was Mary Higgins a Reliable Witness?

Mary Higgins    Mary Higgins    Mary Higgins    Mary Higgins
Star witness Mary Higgins of Early Iowa seems to contemplate her facial expression before glancing over to her self proclaimed Best Friend, Tracey Richter.

Mary Higginss testimony helped send Tracey Richter to jail for life. So its fair to ask, was she an impartial witness? Or did her prior relationship with Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith color her sense of the truth? She worked for him during his election campaign. Smith ate at her house, dated her daughter, and Mary became a source of information. Later she told Ben Smith that Tracey had told her the second intruder wore a ski mask. But Tracey had provided a description of the second intruder. Mary said that made her wonder if Tracey was just making everything up. But who was making things up? In a police report June 21, 2011, Cross Roads Caf owner, Robyn Padgett tells a different story about Mary Higgins, one going back to shortly after the shooting. Robyn helped Mona Wehde clean out Dustins room shortly after his death. In his room they found a black notebook, which had cryptic, written in some type of coded writing. Mona turned it over to Lt. Cessford later in the week. Mona and Robyn both knew about a notebook, a black one In an interview with Sheriff McClure in June of 2011, Robyn reported telling Mary Higgins about the notebook. So now Mary Higgins knew about the notebook, not necessarily from Tracey, but from a completely different source and that this notebook also referenced Pitman.

Further, Robyn stated that she spoke often to Mary who was always trying to get Robyn to befriend Tracey Richter. According to the report, Padgett always felt that Higgins was trying to get information from Padgett. And also said Mary Higgins is the one who told her about the ski-mask. Later in the same report, McClure notes that Padgett is mentioned in an e-mail he received from Tracey in March 2005 where she mentioned the notebook that was found in Dustins bedroom. Robyn also reported that she and Mary talked so much that she had taken pages of notes from their conversations. It would be consistent with Marys personality that if she knew about a pink notebook, it would have come up in her any of her numerous conversations. But Mary never mentioned she knew anything about a pink notebook.

So what did Mary know? And what did she make up? And what did she tell Ben Smith?

Theres a question if she even told the truth on the stand. Its common knowledge that Mary Higgins worked on Ben Smiths election campaign, and that Ben openly dated Abigail, Marys daughter during the time between his swearing in January 2011 and Traceys arrest in mid-July. He admits he was at her house the night of his insight into the case, and Marys admission regarding the pink notebook. She knew about the notebook from her friend Robyn Padgett. But in court she said Tracey had told her everything. Mary had talked to her friend Robyn at great length about every aspect of the case that Robyn filled a notebook full of notes. She went to great lengths to prompt Robyn Padgett to befriend Tracey. Why did she have to do this if she and Tracey were best friends? Why did she have this insatiable thirst for information about Tracey? What was her motivation in prying into Traceys life? Well never know, but what we do know is that Mary never told the entire truth under oath. Tracey claimed she never told anyone about a pink notebook, because she wasnt aware of its existence. And Mary claimed Tracey told her about it, all along shed learned about it from Robyn Padgett.

Who had the most to gain from killing Dustin?

Ben Smiths argument for prosecuting Tracey for first degree murder rested on a couple of premises.

  • Tracey was in a battle over child support for her son Burt. John Pitman wanted to cut off the $1000 a month she was receiving.
  • To do this she wanted to frame John Pitman for attempted murder and to keep her plans secret she killed.

Yet, the facts remain that Michael Roberts made a secret deal with Mona Wehde, a real estate agent, to sell all of their marital properties without Traceys knowledge. He met secretly with her to discuss the deal just prior to the shooting of Dustin. Michael was planning a move away from the area, and hed bring Tracey up to speed on it later. Thats what he told Mona.

  • With Tracey out of the way, he would become sole owner of Xellex and Mile2 a businesses which recently did $2 million dollars in new sales.
  • With Tracey out of the way Michael would own all of their property and could move the kids where he wanted to. With Tracey out of the way Michael would be the majority shareholder of Mile2, even after he provided Ray Friedman the equity he had previously promised him.
  • With Tracey out of the way he could marry another woman, which he did even before his divorce was final.

But Special Agent Vileta didnt see any connections or any reason to suspect Michael Roberts because hed made up his mind about Traceys guilt and he had no intention of backing down.

Was Justice Upheld?

The duty of a public prosecutor is to uphold justice by seeing that the law is applied fairly. The typical mindset thats attributed to attorneys is that they are out to win their case at any cost. Public defenders, on the other hand, are held to a higher standard. They have a duty to avoid conflict of interests in their relationships with witnesses. They have a duty to disclose any facts or evidence material to the case, even if it tends to exonerate the accused. Under no circumstances are they to threaten, badger, or tamper with witnesses by contaminating them with their own opinion as to the guilt of the accused. They are not to present false or misleading evidence; or to use unreliable or untruthful witnesses and snitches.

Ben Smith got Mary to testify about the pink notebook, the secret piece of evidence that no one could possibly know about. But documents prove Mary Higgins, Robyn Padgett and Mona Wehde knew about such a notebook with cryptic writing, even prior to the 2004 civil trial in which Mona Wehde sued Tracey Richter and the crime scene photos and other evidence became a part of the public record.

The Pink Notebook

In 2004, 7 years prior to the Tracey Richter murder trial the crime scene photo showing the Pink Notebook had been in the public domain. Multiple notebooks with Dustins writing and the name Pitman had been in the possession of Sac County Police.



Smiths theory was that the only one who could know about the contents of that book was Tracey because it contained details about the relationship between her and John Pitman. Yet, Michael Roberts admitted speaking to Dustin Wehde about John Pitman and not painting a very pretty picture of Pitman Dustin was being mentored by Michael and was in and out of their house on many occasions. Michael was so enraged over Traceys struggles with her ex over their step-son that he admits in Twisted to personally wanting to kill John Pitman and another person from Illinois. What if Dustin overheard a conversation? Tracey discussed these details in the family constantly. Michael even threatened John Pitman on the phone that he had deep pockets and that he would lose the child custody fight over his step-son, Bert. In Lt. Cessfords report, the night of the break in when Tracey was in the hospital, Michael called the hospital and the Lieutenant took the call. He asked the deputy to watch out for a car with an Illinois license plate, that the man was dangerous; referring to the very men Michael said he wanted to kill from Chicago. Why would Michael make those statements if he didnt know the whole story about Tracey and Pitmans struggle over custody and child support?

But a more troubling aspect of Ben Smiths ethical standards is his relationship with Michael Roberts? After he was elected, he served as a character witness for Michael Roberts in his efforts to get full custody of his children. This is not only a conflict of interest, but Smith went one step further to assure and made sure Michael Roberts remained in the Victims Witness Protections program so that he could not be subpoenaed to testify in the Tracey Richter trial, nor be reported for the on-going child abuse of Noah and Mason Roberts.

Why Witness Protection for Roberts?

Its common knowledge that witnesses under oath in a courtroom shouldnt not lie. But whats more egregious is when the county prosecutor participates in that lie. One of the forms of prosecutorial misconduct is the presentation of false testimony or evidence. This is an absolute prohibition according to the Supreme Court: The prosecution cannot present evidence it knows is false and must immediately correct any falsity of which it is aware even if the false evidence was not intentionally submitted. Presenting false evidence to the jury harms the defendants right to a fair trial by lying to the jury about the evidence.

So how did Ben Smith commit prosecutorial misconduct? By allowing a prosecution witnesses to knowingly lie, and to make sure his testimony could not be impugned, hid Michael Roberts away in the victims witness protection program. Using this strategy Ray Friedman allegedly could tell his lies about Michael Roberts alibi the night of the shooting and not be questioned by the defenses cross examination of Roberts. Author Note: It is outside the scope of this article but based on information and belief, Part 2 will detail how Michael Roberts and key prosecution witnesses shared in several million dollars in business revenue and were helped by Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith in advance of the Tracey Richter trial.

Ray Friedman Lies to Cover for Roberts?

Shortly after the shooting, Ray and Marie had been interviewed by the police in 2001, and his testimony favored the defense. The police uncovered that Ray Friedman was paid $25,000 by Michael Roberts shortly after the shooting, supposedly for his work done for Roberts Internet security company, which eventually evolved into a company called Mile2.

Marie Friedman

Marie Friedman who was gave both a police interview prior to when her husband was paid $25,000 by Michael Roberts or became the CEO of Michael Roberts founded company Mile2, recants her previous statements to police which would have supported Tracey Richter.



It is alleged that the Friedmans knowingly lied on the witness stand as to how he recollected events leading up to being paid a fee by Roberts, compared to what he told police in interviews back in 2001.  At Traceys trial Ray Friedman said he was paid the $25,000 for work done at Roberts firm, and that he no longer worked for Michael Roberts. Now he was self-employed and performed financial audits. In fact Ray Friedmans testimony was that I left and got a better paying job and its been the same since I left, He then estimated hed been on his new job for 3-4 years, which at the time of a murder trial would be in 2007.

Ray Friedman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Mile2 since 2007.  So who owns Mile2? According to the records Michael Roberts founded Mile2 in 2001. The very same year of the attack. At the time Ray and Marie Friedman testified he knowingly lied claiming he was a self-employed auditor he was in fact an officer of Mile2, which makes him an employee / business partner of Michael Roberts.

Raymond Friedman

Watch Raymond Friedman testimony here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0sCq4l9Hs8&feature=relmfu

Further, Michael Roberts used Mile2 in 2004 to transfer marital assets to Malaysia, hiding them from his wife, Tracey. Mile2 is also the entity which provided Michael Roberts a letter of employment and fraudulent W-2s for Roberts to purchase a home for his then fiance, and the realtor on the transaction was Janet Christenson, Ray Friedmans mother.

More alarming is that Mile2 solicits business for its Penetration Testing or Red Teaming and those government agencies: U.S. Airforce, U.S. Marines, U.S. Army and Federal Aviation Administration (see documents here) are used to solicit business recognizing, Mile2 as the best in what laymans terms would be called hacking.

Mile2 FAA Letter of Recommendation
Michael Roberts soliciting business by showing a letter of recommendation by the Federal Aviation Administration, to his Mile2 email roberts06@mile2.com. The letter states Mile2 has hands-on-experience with attack tools daily and they claim to handle penetration and red teaming training for the red teams of the military.

More Tampering

Eight months prior to the murder trial both Fox News and consumer advocacy website Ripoff Report reported on a hacking code allegedly used by Michael Roberts and called his use of it criminal. I personally wrote a detailed expose that explained how Michael Roberts used this hacking code to cover for a wealthy client physician who was responsible for covering up the death of a patient.

I supplied Prosecutor Ben Smith documentation of how Michael Roberts had tampered with the jury for the murder trial via the Internet. I even provided Attorney Smith with evidence of an alleged juror who went onto the Internet, and was tampered with in the manner I detailed, and claimed they convicted Tracey Richter solely on what they read online, not the evidence presented at trial.

Within 48 hours of the time I submitted this evidence to Ben Smith; he sent all of it directly to Michael Roberts rather than investigate the allegations. Sources have confirmed that after Ben Smith relaying this information Michael Roberts created a ghost of his hard-drive and also reinstalled his operating system.

Conflict of Interests

Ben Smith had a conflict of interest with his star witness, and failed to fully disclose all aspects of that relationship to the Judge. Smith also had a conflict of interest in befriending and supporting Michael in his quest to gain full custody of his children. He did it despite knowing Michael was a child abuser according to the Iowa Childrens Protective Services finding. 

Justice = Just Us

There was no presumption of innocence on the part of Special Agent Vileta. He made up his mind early on that Tracey was a con, and he ignored all of the evidence in front of him that Michael had a history of domestic and child abuse, and had already implicated himself with his failed polygraph test. Instead he focused on an argument Tracey had with John Pitman and other events in her past that in his mind made her a dishonest fraud. Vileta no doubt talked in this manner to the new county prosecutor and Ben caught the bug of biased opinion. And this rigid view of Tracey took root early on in Ben Smiths mind and it came out in his conversation with Mary Higgins. From his reaction to Marys admission she knew about a notebook, it was evident hed lost his perspective on Traceys possible innocence, and could not presume any longer that she could be innocent.  And did Tracey get a fair trial when the prosecution put an alleged liar and town gossip on the stand, Mary Higgins. She lied about who she heard about the notebook from, and her lie overshadowed the eye-witness account of a frightened eleven year old. Because thats how Ben Smith impugned the testimony of a 21-year-old Bert Pitman, by taking his testimony as a frightened kid ten years before and compared it line for line, and parsing words and making him out to be a liar by saying he didnt hear what he heard when he said his mother was attacked and nearly strangled to death. The other eye witness (Noah Roberts) forced to live with his abusive father, ironically placed in witness protection along with his sister Mason with the very person they needed protection from their father. Strategically it was a brilliant move for the young prosecutor because witness protection removed the other eye-witness to the attack and made it impossible for Michael to be served. The hacking code which allows jury tampering was utilized in this trial, but how many others? Is this the very reason for the Prosecutors Office to have allowed all of this to happen? The hacking scandal continues to rock the U.K., but many of the same players are allegedly involved with Mile2 and Michael Roberts. And all this injustice has rolled down on the shoulders of Tracey Richter, and she sits in cement cell, behind bars, for the rest of her life for something she didnt do.

Authors Note: In this lucid discussion we examine significant revelations of systemic wrongdoing in Sac County and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Perhaps the culture of Iowa is different from that of other states in that denial of the truth is deeply woven into its ethos. I was ignored when I called informational / tip-lines in Febru









This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/09/2012 10:01 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/update-june-1-2015-investigation-update-ben-smith-sac-county-iowa-attorney-charges-against-darren-meade-dropped-sac-county-attorney-ben-smith-dismisses-all-criminal-charges-against-darren-meade-related-to-his-posts-on-ripoff-report-sac-county-iowa-attorney-ben-smith-fails-to-identify-false-statements-fails-to-support-his-accusations-with-clarifications/sac-city-iowa-/update-june-1-2015-investigation-update-charges-against-darren-meade-droppedu-938843. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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7Employee/Owner

#53 Consumer Suggestion

To silence my reporting, Ben Smith, filed a Criminal Warrant against me and I potentially faces 25 Years in Prison

AUTHOR: Darren Mitchell Meade - ()

POSTED: Monday, December 01, 2014

NEWS ANALYSIS AND OPINION

 

To silence my advocacy work, and reporting, Ben Smith, filed a Criminal Warrant against me.  I potentially faces 25 Years in Prison due to my articles on his Prosecutorial Misconduct in the Tracey Richter murder trial.

 

Help Fund Independent Reporter Darren Mitchell Meade's Legal Defense.

 

Meade is a freelancer and has no news organization to rely on for support or to help pay his legal bills. His case is expected to drag on for many months. And faces 25 years in prison for his advocacy investigative reporting.

 

We do know, however, that prosecutor Ben Smith, has a notoriously close relationship with the Michael Roberts and his star witness in the murder trial— was his, now, mother in law, Mary Higgins. Smith, has moved aggressively censor and criminalize journalism in support of Tracey Richter.

 

When we deal with the powerful, we have to take a stand.

 

I will continue to advocate open-minded, fact-based journalism without fear or favor.

 

To watch Sac County Iowa Prosecutor Ben Smith commit perjury twice in a single hearing,  please,  watch Part 1 & 2.

PART 1

 

 

PART 2

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#52 Consumer Comment

ETHICS ALERT TABLOID JOURNALIST MICHAEL USHER; HANNAH BOOCOCK; MARK BRITT - DELIBERATE FACTUAL INACCURACIES & LIES / WARNING TO POTENTIAL INTERVIEWEES of disgraced 60 Minutes Australia, Ninemsn

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - ()

POSTED: Thursday, June 26, 2014

WARNING TO POTENTIAL INTERVIEWEES of disgraced 60 Minutes Australia Tabloid Journalist Michael Usher.

More embarrassment for news Ninemsn and Mi9 when up-and-coming journalist for the 60 Minutes Australia tabloid journalist website was caught in a pay-for-placement conspiracy with a murder suspect Michael Roberts / the estanged ex-husband of Tracey Richter. Roberts stole millions of dollars in martial assets wiring them to Malayasia, Aruba and Australia. Usher, then went about smearing the reputation of those trying to help justice prevail.

The motivation for these despicable and unethical actions are still to be determined, and should be uncovered in pending litigation. But the 60 Minutes Australia segment was crucial in Roberts being able to remove his children in violation of a U.S. court order.

This is an incredibly convoluted story, but serves well to warn potential interviewees about the character and ethics of this disgraced journalist who is also linked to Ninemsn and Mi9.

More info:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Ben-Smith-Sac-County-Iowa-Prosecutor-Prosecutorial-Misconduct-Tracey-Richter-Falsely-Convicted-Overwhelming-Evidence-Michael-Roberts-Rexxfield/Sac-City-Iowa-/Ben-Smith-Sac-County-Iowa-Attorney-prosecutorial-misconduct-improper-relationship-with-st-938843

Justice Reform Consortium letter in support of Tracey Richter

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/readers/2014/06/26/richter-prosecutor-goes-far-added-punishment/11385245/

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO UNDERSTAND THE ALLEGED MOTIVATION OF WHY MICHAEL ROBERTS HIRED TWO MEN TO KILL HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN.

The Des Moines Register Editoral / Believes Judge Should Correct Mistake

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/24/judge-correct-mistake-richter-case/11293701/

 

 

 

 

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#51 Consumer Comment

'Ka-Pow': Des Moines Register Editorial Board whacks Prosecutor Ben Smith over violating Tracey Richter's civil rights

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

'Ka-Pow': Des Moines Register Editorial Board whacks Prosecutor Ben Smith

Legal experts told The Des Moines Register that seizure order by Benjamin Smith raised serious concerns about Richter's rights while she is confined by the Department of Corrections.

Holy headlines! Read full story here:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/06/24/judge-correct-mistake-richter-case/11293701/

 ZOINK!

 New evidence, shows, Ben Smith’s star witness at the Tracey Richter trial, was in reality, his fiancées mother.

 It gets stranger, the power of Tracey Richter’s ex-husband Michael Roberts has considerable reach. Roberts’s not only helped Ben Smith get elected but also the County Attorney’s in Buena Vista and Cherokee County, Iowa. Roberts's snubbed his nose at contempt filing and court orders and bragged about his ability to so ( see Report: #829963 on this site rebuttal #1)

Roberts’s transferred large amounts of cash outside the country prior to the deadly home invasion and sloppily, admitted to standing in the blood of Dustin Wehde, and removing his car from the active crime scene.

Holy stupidity

Sources state that Smith’s violation of Richter’s rights were to deprive her of legal document, access to law library and being able to discuss he upcoming appeal.

BAM!

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#50 Consumer Comment

Seriously ???

AUTHOR: Handsome LLC President - ()

POSTED: Saturday, May 03, 2014
Seriously ???
By: Handsome LLC President, Byron

To assert that the facts presented in the prosecutorial misconduct case was inappropriate and out of the scope of this website to address is ludicrous at best and blatant ignorance at worse.

The potential negative, damaging and life~altering impact on an entire county; and this is inclusive of every person living within the county lines, where there is a corrupt prosecutor is tantamount to a local or state government being taken over by a rogue regime. 

As a citizen of that tragic county, knowing that there is no justice to be had within your county borders is about the biggest 'Ripoff' a tax paying and law abiding citizen can endure.  No justice for those falsely accused and no justice for the families of those innocently murdered. 

Please share with me, your thoughts of any greater injustice, provide for us, your thoughts of a bigger ripoff.

Think about and follow the logical conclusion of having a corrupt D.A. or Prosecutor in your county when and if your home is burglarized and law enforcement has apprehended the alleged perps.  Ah, but wait.  Please allow me to add one more variable.  The two alleged perps are the best friends of the county prosecutor.

I'm suspensefully awaiting the final ajudication of your case and if, due to the cozy comraderie of the prosecutor and his old college football mates, evidence is withheld by the prosecutor-pivotal evidence.  Evidence on which the case turned, evidence that ultimately (due to be with held) allows the perps to go free....Think you've been 'rippedoff' yet?

Respectfully,

Byron D. Grays, B.S., MPA, J.D.

Dallas/Ft.Worth TX

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#49 Consumer Comment

Collateral Murder, there’s something not right about this?

AUTHOR: wolf technical in sheeps clothing - ()

POSTED: Sunday, March 09, 2014

Dear Readers,

I am writing to make record of documents Michael Roberts Rexxfield asked me to publish in his behalf. 

I worked with both Michael and Tracey. Michael wrote me often with kind, generous, and quite lengthly biblical quotes, and has called me his "brother" and professed his love for me.

Michael Roberts of Rexxfield, also owns Mile2.

Consequently, the attached sworn testimony of Michael Roberts, shows despite fearful death threats against he and his family has been a terrorist hunter and FBI informant since 2004. Mile2 accommodated Michael Roberts fearful request, and moved all assets to Heidi Roberts of Finland via Sons Limited. 

In light of this evidence and more, I request other refrain from further writing about Michael Roberts and trying to defend his business partner, Tracey Richter.

As you can see, even if he and Ben Smith wrongfully convicted Tracey, how many terrorist have been captured because of is work? I have a trial of correspondence which clearly shows others (not Michael) may have been selling government secrets.


 

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#48 Consumer Comment

Ben Smith admitted he lied. listened to confidential phone calls and withheld evidence on more than one case. Corruption continues. Michael Roberts learned about dirt on Ben Smith since 2001

AUTHOR: Buena Vista University - ()

POSTED: Saturday, March 01, 2014

I work with local government here in Cherokee County, Iowa. When this website first came out many laughed and said, none of this could be true. Like others I see they were at first influenced as I was by my piers and superiors. Today, many others I know believe as I do, there is only some things that are on this site that are a joke and I guess the joke is on us, and well deserved. I have to admit; this site has given much needed pressure to stop those who will take advantage of the less fortunate and many wrongfully convicted inmates in Iowa. Police in both Sac and Cherokee County are not as rambunctious, they even joke about this website. I've heard it with my own ears.

Recently I was privy to conversations where Mr Smith who I respect, or thought I respected. He did not know others were listening at the time and what we heard was outrageous. Mr Smith admitted that he had withheld important information on criminal several cases to get a conviction where they all (he bragged) are still serving time. Mr Smith stated, he never liked anyone of them anyway that they were all scumbags that needed to be put away anyway.

Ben Smith should be punished for his crimes. If I had heard this second had I would have never believed it.

Also a known fact, he is has had a relationship with Michael Roberts since 2001 when they met at Buena Vista University. Ben Smith was at Buena Vista University - Michael had some embarassing information about Ben Smith deleted. He did this as Michael's company did work at Buena Vista University and sparks flew between the two. My girlfriend worked in administration for Buena Vista University and said she forwarded the attached documents to prove the relationship between Michael and Ben but she was then threatened if she told anyone else. Michael Roberts company name was Xellex here is a copy of the contract my girlfriend sent along with other documents to prove Michael and Ben's relationship.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 10/02/2004

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#47 General Comment

I dont understand...

AUTHOR: someonesmother - ()

POSTED: Saturday, March 01, 2014

....because I am a nurse that after 25 yrs plus years of experience has found late in life that I have an interest in the US legal system. Iam an avid reader as well. Since 2009 I have read many court documents includening sworn testimony of more murder cases in US history than I can count. The cases since the 60s have taken an interesting swing. Especially cases since the late 70s. More and more you can google about any given case during those time periods and will see nearly identical complaints across the board across this nation. Complaints of complete innocence,  to prosecutorial misconduct. But rarely are defendants willing to accept responsibility for their actions. They want a deal, to blame others, anything but accept responsibility.  The syndrome then snow balls out of control. Beginning often with the parents and family of the defendant . The claims grow and grow until you find great claims of all kinds of wrong doing other than any responsibility taking! The claims all sound alike! They begin to sound so much alike that I find myself nauseated in fact.

I am the mother of 6. I buried 1 child and sent another to wars that I dont agree with 4 times! He isnt the same despite returning but he served well, proud and for honorable reasons. But when those experiences brought him to where he chose to break the law rather than seek the help I desperately sought and pointed him towards I turned him in to law enforcement myself! Because it was right, because others could get hurt, because he could get hurt because if he was to ever be ok again thats what it was going to take! I didnt bury my head in the sand, I didnt make excuses and I forbid him to make excuses! He is angry and I I die with him still angry then so be it! Parents,  we are always a parent if our chikd is in crisis yes! But if we continue on this path we are flushing this country down the toilet and our children and grandchildren have their hands on the handle....do we continue and let them flush us into the sewers and into a hell we may never return from? Or is it time for responsibility in this country for actions taken? I submit to YOU its time to stop with this nonsense!  Not one of you really care about this women or her children. The Jodi Arias is Innocent types dont really care about her either. They were Casey Anthony freaks b4 that! You are all making it worse in one way or another with articles like those here! Its time to stop! ..... someones mother....

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#46 Consumer Comment

Looks like a typical idiot.

AUTHOR: diamondback - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, February 25, 2014

This Ben Smith jerk looks like a typical jack@$$. Somehow, these clowns all have a certain "look" to them. That "look", just screams "I am a thieving, lying, backstabbing piece of garbage".

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#45 Consumer Comment

Re-investigation Uncovers Evidence of Innocence: Attorney Ben Smith Sac County Iowa Eaves Dropped on Confidential Calls Between Tracey Richter and Defense Counsel

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, February 18, 2014

WARNING!...CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS IN NORTH DAKOTA, SOUTH DAKOTA, MINNESOTA, WISONSIN AND IOWA.

POSSIBLE CASES CAN BE OVERTURNED / PROSECUTOR BEN SMITH SWORN TESTIMONY PROSECUTORS LISTENING TO 'OCCASIONAL' CONFIDENTIAL CALLS NOT DELETED BY RELIANCE TELEPHONE SYSTEMS.

NEWS ANALYSIS AND OPINION

Sac County Attorney Ben Smith—in his zealous pursuit to bring criminal charges against his business associates estranged ex-wife failed to disclose he attempted to help Tracey Richter’s ex-husband get a business loan and when that attempt failed 4 months later he charged Tracey Richter for murder.

Ben Smith's business associate, Michaael Roberts has  openly confessed that he was at the witnessed the body, blood and brain matter of Dustin Wehde at the crime scene.

The stretch and improper conduct of prosecutor Ben Smith according to his sworn testimony also included listening to privelaged calls between Tracey Richter and her defense counsel recorded by the Reliance Inmate Telephone system which 'occasionally' does not delete all confidential calls. It was egregious and intentional because he then reviewed the recorded calls.

See video below.

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#44 Consumer Comment

DATELINE NBC POEM...

AUTHOR: Karl - ()

POSTED: Monday, January 27, 2014

is available at this site. Just type in 529757 and it appears in the consumer comments section at Ripoff Report #529757. The poem currently appears at Consumer Comment #72.

WELCOME TO DATELINE NBC- WE SERVE AND PROTECT THE CARTEL OF CORRUPT AND GREEDY INDIVIDUALS WHO ULTIMATELY CONTROL THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MUCH OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM, THE PRICE OF OIL, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, THE U.S. MILITARY, THE NSA, WALL STREET, AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS CORRUPT AND EVIL COUNTRY THAT IS FALLING APART RIGHT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE'S EYES

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#43 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Newly discovered facts Michael Roberts Planted The Pink Note Book

AUTHOR: DCI / INSIDER - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Pink Notebook wasn’t fingerprinted until 2009 when it was found to have 13 readable fingerprints.  Ten were Dustin’s, none were Tracey Richter Roberts, but Jeremy Collins’ and my ex-husband Michael Roberts’s fingerprints were never compared to the unknown prints. 

In addition, the former county attorney Earl Hardisty made multiple requests to have DCI put Jeremy Collins in a photo line-up for Tracey to see if she could identify him as the second intruder and they refused.  Trent Vileta wrote in an email to Sheriff McClure in 2010 that he was “having a very hard time appearing to be neutral.”  Trent Vileta misled Mona Wehde and changed the tone of her testimony by telling her that Michael Roberts had been cleared of any wrong-doing in the death of Dustin Wehde.  However, in fact there is no record in the discovery of any interviews with Michael Roberts after his failed polygraph in 2002 when he ws found to be deceptive with 99% certainty when he gave the following responses:

• Did you arrange for Dustin Wehde to be in your house December 13th?  No.

• Did you plan in advance for Dustin to be in your home December 13th? No.

• Do you know the identity of the 2nd intruder in your home on Dec. 13th?  No.

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#42 REBUTTAL Individual responds

It has been an age old expression

AUTHOR: Ida Grove - ()

POSTED: Saturday, December 14, 2013

Michael Roberts ("The Swinger") is famous for his kinky lifestyle and epic failures. Sucking up as Ben Smith's "Right Hand" man, sources at Sac County Attorney Office verify Michael was a specialist in ORAL argument. Michael Roberts and Ben Smith known for switch-hitting, later moved on to play pimp for other team members. In fact, Michael got caught on tape telling tales about Smith's dark past. What will be revealed?

It has been an age old expression "It's who you know and who you blow!". And is continuing on here in our hole in the earth Storm Lake. Another issue on which Ben advocates is Domestic Violence. He supports the abuser's who hurt their victims. Like Michael Roberts again.

Of course at some point during Michael's  criminal activities and Ben's brushing it under the rug. Michael needed to put on the wire and turn on one of the two sides he's been playing for quite some time. But what kind of example does this set for the local youth?

 The next time people want to shake their finger at the youth gone wild or their parents they should take a better look at the people who are supposed to be role models. Lets hope we can have a nice farewell to Ben and hopefully, we can actually clean up the streets of drug scum and other criminals! Will we ever really see justice served across the board to all in our small town?

 

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#41 Consumer Comment

Finally A Prosecutor Goes To Jail...Ben Smith Next?

AUTHOR: Civil Rights - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, November 19, 2013

In Texas, a former D.A. has made history by becoming the first prosecutor in U.S. to suffer criminal punishment for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence.

Former Williamson County D.A. who was named the 1995 Prosecutor of the Year by the State Bar of Texas -- was sentenced to 10 days in jail for a criminal contempt charge.  His crime was evidence tampering, hiding evidence that was favorable to Michael Morton, who was on trial for the 1986 murder of his wife.  Morton was innocent, to be sure, and Anderson violated a court order when the judge asked him whether he had any evidence that was favorable to Morton, and Anderson said no. 

As a result of then-prosecutor Anderson's blatant misconduct, Morton languished in prison for nearly 25 years -- all for a crime he did not commit.  DNA testing made him a free man in 2011.  And yet, a little over a week in jail seems like an insult of a punishment, given the damage done to an innocent man.

Nevertheless, no other prosecutor in this country has seen even a single day in jail for evidence tampering, and yet we know that many others certainly have committed the same offense.

While there are many honest prosecutors out there who are doing their job, some D.A.s game the system for the purposes of adding another notch to their belt, to enable them to climb the ladder and fulfill their political ambition.  For them, winning in the adversarial system of justice, apparently, is far more important than ensuring justice is served, and that only the truly guilty are punished. 

 John Thompson, spent 18 years in prison -- 14 of them on death row -- for a robbery-murder someone else committed.  He was housed in Louisiana's infamous Angola State Penitentiary, the former slave plantation, in solitary confinement. As his seventh execution date approached, an investigator uncovered evidence of his innocence which the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office had hidden for 15 years -- a crime lab report. 

A jury awarded Thompson $11 million for each year he had spent on death row.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the award.  Writing the coldblooded opinion of the court, Justice Clarence Thomas concluded that the D.A.'s office was not liable for the Brady violation committed by one of its prosecutors, a lone actor, based on Thompson's failure-to-train theory.

There are many other victims of prosecutorial misconduct, and they are not rare exceptions.  For example, Joe D'Ambrosio spent 20 years on death row in Ohio, although there was no evidence he was at the crime scene.  A federal judge threw out his conviction after finding that prosecutors failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.

Tracey Richter is going to be a rich women!!

 

 

 

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#40 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Wrongful Revenge : Ben Smith Send Lovers Wife to Prison

AUTHOR: Co-Worker of Benjamin Smith - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, November 06, 2013

I never thought I would be writing this, especially here on this website Rip-off Report. I guess I am just like others I read about here.

  • I work with local government here in Iowa.  When this website first came out many laughed and said, none of this could be true. Like others I see they were at first influenced as I was by my piers and superiors. Today, many others I know believe as I do, there is only some things that are on this site that are a joke and I guess the joke is on us, and well deserved. I have to admit; this site has given much needed pressure to stop those who will take advantage of the less fortunate and many employees in the SAC and Buena Vista Counties, mistreatment of employees is not as blatant, police are not as rambunctious, they even joke about this website. I've heard it with my own ears.


Recently I was privy to conversations by Mr Smith who I respect, or thought I respected. He did not know others were listening at the time and what we heard was outrageous. Mr Smit admitted that he had withheld important information on several criminal cases to get a conviction where they all (he bragged) are still serving time. Mr Smith stated, he never liked anyone of them anyway that they were all scumbags that needed to be put away anyway.

Ben Smith should be punished for his crimes. If I had heard this second had I would have never believed it.

Also a known fact, he is having a bisexual relationship with Michael Roberts Nothing-new there.

JL Early, Iowa
U.S.A

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#39 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Federal Drug Task Force in 2002 Blew the Whistle on Mike Roberts 1/2 lb Meth Habit

AUTHOR: Eyes for Lies - ()

POSTED: Monday, October 28, 2013

Ben Smith, hooked up with another shady character, Michael Roberts.  Birds of a feather… What follows is nothing less than a battle between right and wrong the Federal Drug Task Force provided eye witness testimony of Mike Roberts having 1/2 lb of Meth delievered to his house in Early, Iowa.

Ben Smith crossed the line. In all fairness he had been given plenty of chances to withdraw remarks and cease what he was doing, which in essence was hiding his financial relationship with Roberts and ignoring interviews claiming the home invasion was caused by Mike not paying his drug dealers. He (Roberts) promised to be home and instead left his wife and three young children to pay his debt.

At this point I think any normal person would have just disappeared and called it a day without getting into any more hot water.  But Ben Smith just couldn't quit helping his close personal friend.

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#38 REBUTTAL Owner of company

TURNCOAT : Mike Roberts gives up supporters to save himself

AUTHOR: Authorized Squealer - ()

POSTED: Thursday, October 24, 2013

2013-10-24

Somehow the Feds got Michael 'Canary' Roberts to cooperate and that is a good thing. Perhaps it a teachable moment that someone else should take note of and QUICK!

 

 

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#37 UPDATE Employee

BEN SMITH'S GOOSE IS COOKED

AUTHOR: Who-dun-it - ()

POSTED: Saturday, October 12, 2013

If Smith had one firing synapse, he would purge himself of this sordid case and admit he was duped by Michael and Heidi Roberts. Why prolong this pain...perhaps the financial loan he tried to help Michael Roberts Rexxfield obtain (SEE HERE) has something to do with it?

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#36 UPDATE Employee

Ben Smith comes from a long line of corruptors.

AUTHOR: Who-dun-it - ()

POSTED: Thursday, October 10, 2013

This sort of prosecutorial misconduct occurs very frequently, aided and abetted by incompetent criminal defense work.  I currently have a case of a juvenile convicted of felony murder (life without parole) where the district attorney, now a judge, deliberately refused to investigate, resulting in a innocent boy spending more than a decade in prison. 

A couple years ago, another juvenile direct filed murder defendant, had his conviction thrown out after more than 10 years behind bars.  The two prosecutors had both become judges.  The hearings showed they and the police hid a remarkable amount of exculpatory evidence from the defense.  The hearings never went that far, but if they had raised ineffective assistance of counsel, they would have won that, too.

We have one of the worst criminal justice systems in the world, with rampant prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense lawyers, a politician judges.  America has more people in prison than any country in the world, and has more people embroiled in prison or probation or parole than Joseph Stalin had in his gulags during WWII.  Yes, Americans love to demonize Stalin, but he looks like a big softie compared to the vicious people who rune America’s justice system.

 

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#35 Consumer Comment

Darren,

AUTHOR: Karl - ()

POSTED: Friday, October 04, 2013

I believe that the legal system and the mainstream media in this country are nothing but a BIG joke! They both protect the greedy and corrupt individuals, along with the greedy and corrupt corporations, who have destroyed the lives of millions upon millions of innocent people that live in this country and in other countries all over the world. 

Our nation is collapsing. It cannot be denied. Even our so-called 'leaders' in Washington DC protect the cartel of corrupt individuals who ultimately control our corrupt and diseased system. Feel free to 'Google' the following videos and documentaries and watch them on the web for proof-

1) EX-SALT LAKE MAYOR ROCKY ANDERSON FORMER DEMOCRACY NOW

2) AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM

3) WHO OWNS THE FED BANK WHO CONTROLS WHO VIDEO

4) FRONTLINE: INSIDE THE MELTDOWN

5) FRONTLINE: THE WARNING

6) YOUTUBE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC

7) WHO CONTROLS THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY BY MAJORITY 2010

8) LEGALIZED PLUNDER OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE G EDWARD GRIFFIN

9) RON PAUL'S BROTHER ON FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

Good luck to you, and make sure to spread your Ripoff Report all over the web at sites like Twitter and Facebook!

WELCOME TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM & THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN AMERICA- WE ARE ULTIMATELY BEING CONTROLLED BY A CARTEL OF CORRUPT AND GREEDY INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE DESTROYED THE LIVES OF MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE THAT LIVE HERE AND ALL OVER THE WORLD

 

 

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#34 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Anatomy of a Murder: A Real-Life Whodunit Corrupt Prosector and His Partner Michael Roberts Rexxfield Authorized Witness Intimidation

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - ()

POSTED: Thursday, October 03, 2013

This Video is my news analysis and opinion.

Documents in the video are available for law enforcement and news media.

The murder of Dustin Whede is sad, but the conviction of Tracy Richter Roberts is a travesty of Justice – and is going to be very costly to Sac County if they don’t act soon.

Dear Pubic officials of Sac County ..

your county imprisoned wrongfully Tracy Richter – Please view this video. You will kick yourself later for not watching this.

You will understand why Michael Roberts Rexxfield and SAC County Prosecutor Ben Smith will likely be desperate to get this video removed from the Internet, just like they have with other incriminating documents, videos and articles they successfully had removed from other forums and search engines, even documents from county offices / agencies are now gone. Documents in the video were all part of discovery but never used and not lost by the defendant. (The attorney for Tracy Richter Roberts had most but never used any of the featured evidence at trial.) Threats from Roberts to remove evidence and letters from a County Prosecutor have worked on other forums and or search engines, they will not work with Ripoff Report.  

Every government office, like every bank and every police department, trusts its employees to uphold central principles, Sac County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Smith, repeatedly violated the cardinal tenet, which is simply truth. His tools of deceit even included witness intimidation, lost evidence and a long relationship with Michael Ross Roberts Rexxfield.
 

The systematic prosecutorial misconduct cannot be explained within a single video.

It took 32 video's, this is only Part 2.  

This Video is my news analysis and opinion.

I published this because I believe in doing what is right. Others featured in the video will claim otherwise. My name is Darren M. Meade and I am an advocate for victims of injustice. I will not relent until the truth has been documented. Read more about this.
Documents in the video are available for law enforcement and news media.

 

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#33 Consumer Comment

Jamison White and Orbit Radio

AUTHOR: Psiborg - ()

POSTED: Sunday, May 12, 2013

Wow...so sorry to hear you got taken by such a Pro scammer...a little research beforehand may have tipped you off. He stole the Business name of a now defunct Jamison White Productions in Washington State, they were directly associated with...you guessed it Orbit 7 Radio...you need to speak to the FBI about this clown as well as get a lawyer and file suit against him and his ( I am guessing ) non-existent "Insurance man"

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#32 General Comment

Not her Attorney

AUTHOR: Psiborg - ()

POSTED: Sunday, May 12, 2013

So I take it you re a Child Beater as well ?...based on your anger about the comment you are either "Crazy Mike" himself or you condone / are a Child Beater.

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#31 General Comment

Everyone in town called him Crazy Mike Roberts!

AUTHOR: Bethany - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Roberts, beat his 4 year old son Noah till he quivered like a beaten dog every time his Dad came near him. And he had it the best of all the Roberts children. Those kids lost all their friends because parents would not allow their kids around Crazy Mike because they would come home with welts on their bodies. Mary Higgins even testified under oath (pages 14, 20-21) into failing Mason, Noah and Burt because she stopped reporting the abuse see:

http://cyberbountyhuntersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Higgins-In-Defense-of-Tracey-Richter-2005.pdf


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#30 Consumer Comment

How in anyway is this a rip off

AUTHOR: Mark - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 05, 2013

First of all, this was not YOUR lawyer. You did not hire him, therefore it is not a rip off to YOU! Secondly, this isn't even about you.

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#29 General Comment

Class action lawsuit against Sac County Iowa, Ben Smith

AUTHOR: Light Be - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, February 08, 2013

Check out this announcement by Sac County citizens, and more victims of Ben Smith.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/dean-stock-rick-hech/city-officials/sac-city-iowa-fef15.htm

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#28 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Sac County Ben Smith and Michael Roberts continues intimidation, threats and scare tactics to keep evidence and documents from the public

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, February 01, 2013

From Investigative Reporter Darren M Meade: Thank you to the post by "ToXiCoFfEnDeR" for further proving the contents of my story.

You'll note that in the story, I specifically report that Tracey Richter was falsely convicted that overwhelming evidence leads to estranged husband Michael Roberts, Rexxfield with his failed polygraph, witness intimidation, evidence tampering, Prosecutors improper relationship with start witnesses & Michael Roberts.

In some cases, extortion; threats and intimidation were used against the prosecutorial misconduct victims.

True to form, as soon as my story is posted documenting the threats and intimidation by Ben Smith to suppress evidence and documents showing Michael Roberts attempted extortion against Ripoff Report and its founder Ed Magedson, someone named "ToXiCoFfEnDeR" appears on Ripoff Report to try and prevent people from learning seeing the document by making scandalous allegations of a virus in the PDF files -- all false -- and of course, all anonymous.

Anyone who knows me knows that this silliness posted by "ToXiCoFfEnDeR" is vile, lying anger posted by a very disturbed person.

More importantly, though, it proves that my story is true.

On 1-14-2013 I reported and provided third party documents proving the attempted extortion of Ripoff Report and its founder Ed Magedson by Michael Roberts of Rexxfield / Mile2

On 1-16-2013 I reported and uploaded the PDF file of a - sworn affidavit which states Ben Smith became belligerent and tried to intimidate and threaten Former Prosecutor to Suppress Exculpatory evidence in Tracey Richter Trial.

All I can guess is that by using the scare tactic of the an virus in the PDF files along with them turning me into the FBI, they  are hoping to use the legal system to intimidate me, cause me harm and to keep you dear reader from seeing these documents and setting an innocent woman free while exposing the corruption of Sac County,Iowa.

Could it be a stretch that "ToXiCoFfEnDeR" is Michael Roberts? That he panicked in my last report in which I placed the PDF files documenting his attempted extortion against Ripoff Report and its founder Ed Magedson? Once again, here are the documents proving Michael Roberts extortion of Ripoff Report.

Also for the record, I wasn't paid to write this story. I wrote it for one reason, and that is to protect the public. Judging by the contents of the posts by "ToXiCoFfEnDeR," my instincts -- as well as my reporting -- are obviously correct.

Sadly, lost on "ToXiCoFfEnDeR" is the fact that innocent, hard-working people have been victimized time and again by the corruption in Sac County, Iowa. Extreme cruelty has been inflicted on good,

honest people, and none of the corrupt elected and public servants have an ounce of remorse about it. Just take a look at the other victims in Sac County

http://www.ripoffreport.com/dean-stock-rick-hech/city-officials/sac-city-iowa-fef15.htm

Very troubling and further proof that law enforcement in this case is failing the residents of Sac County.

I'm sure I'll be further libeled and defamed because I'm willing to stand up to this wickedness,

but in the end, doing what's right always triumphs.

And unlike many of the victims, I can't be intimidated by online defamation, lawyers, or anyone else.

Sincerely (and not anonymously),

Darren M Meade

PS

Here again are the PDF files which frightened are anonymous ToXiCoFfEnDeR

1) Michael Roberts attempted extortion of Ripoff Report and its founder Ed Magedson

2) Diagram Michael Roberts enclosed with his extortion of Ripoff Report

3) Rexxfield and Michael Roberts planning session on extorting Ripoff Report and search engine Google.

4) Sworn affidavit states Ben Smith became belligerent and tried to intimidate and threaten Former Prosecutor to Suppress Exculpatory evidence in Tracey Richter Trial

5) Mona and Brett Wehde seeking to place Dustin Wehde into due to his violent outburts against Mona.



http://www.ripoffreport.com/common/files/Michael_Roberts_Polygraph_Results.pdf







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#27 Consumer Comment

poor little troll

AUTHOR: ToXiCoFfEnDeR - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, January 18, 2013

I called that news station and mentioned you and this site, they cracked up laughing.

Oh by the way, the PDF you uploaded has a trojan, we made sure to report it of course, but wow, using the site to spread viruses, I think we'll need the feds to look at that. I'll send them a copy of the infected file and the contact info for you.

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#26 UPDATE Employee

Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure & DA Ben Smith a*s clown hall of fame

AUTHOR: Black Hawk Lake - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, January 17, 2013

Sheriff, and DA, warned about murder suspects behavior in jail, and ignore it. They do not even warn the  criminals mother who they new he would be staying with upon his release about his new violent fantasies. Within 2 days of being released he  murders his mom in Early and kidnaps a girl from storm lake to rape. He must of learned time management skills in prison, because he sure made the most of his 48 hours of freedom.

Sac County officials aka dumasses, have been blinded by the Hollywood lights, TV interviews, and forgotten about us. The local toilet rag papers, play along as everyone is star struck with being on TV. To busy to warn a mother in Early or simply watch this person upon release. It seems like I am simply like most others on this site, trying to find a voice to be heard. And to think, this Tracey Richter case will soon be overturned and what happens when she gets a new trial? How much will that cost us? The whole case was on a 'secret' pink notebook? LOL anyone else notice the car inventory of that kids car it lists the pink notebook, people knew about the notebook in 2001.

Here''s a link to another new agency see how the locals are sickened by all of this?

http://www.kwwl.com/story/20546507/2013/01/09/sheriff-was-warned-about-murder-suspects-behavior-in-jail

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#25 Consumer Comment

Sac County Board of Supervisors (Dean Stock, Rick Hecht, Ranell Drake, Jack Bensley) corrupt public servants and elected officials? These Types of Issues Never Took Place When Earl Was In Office

AUTHOR: WE_MISS_EARL - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Ben Smith and Sheriff McClure not only are going to cause the tax payers to pay for a new trial in the Tracey Richter case, and court settlements for victims Trevino and the undisclosed kidnap victim mentioned here:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/dean-stock-rick-hech/city-officials/sac-city-iowa-fef15.htm 

Ben Smith is now a murderer. He, is responsible for Marilyn's death. Iowa Department of

Corrections were powerless to keep a violent predator behind bars or put him under supervision. Iowa Department of Corrections warned the Sheriff but Sac County Attorney Ben Smith denied the Sheriff to warn Marilyn of the Mt. Pleasant prison concerns. THATS HIS JOB AS SAC COUNTY ATTORNEY!

He blew his responsibility, something Earl Hardisty never did. We are in trouble, the lawsuits are going to be crippling, lets cut or losses with Ben Smith.

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#24 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Explanation of an Appeal vs write of Habeas Corpus: New Evidence Cannot Be Admitted During the Appeal

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Monday, January 14, 2013

Dear Toxic Offender:

May I explain what the differences between an Appeal vs writ of Habeas Corpus?

What is an Appeal?

An appeal is basically a review of the trial to determine whether it was fair. Generally, the court reviews the actions of the trial judge. That means they review any rulings made either before or during trial to determine they were correct. Except in rare cases, the court does not review the jury verdict to determine whether it thinks it is correct.

Will the Court of Appeals Address Guilt?

The court can address guilt in very limited manner. They will review a verdict to determine whether there is any evidence to support, which there almost always is. In some cases, the court can review the verdict to determine whether it is "manifestly unjust." It is important to realize that the court assumes the jury resolved any conflicts in the evidence in favor of the state. This means that they will not determine for themselves whether certain witnesses were truthful. If your claim is based on proving the witnesses lied, you are not going to be successful.

Are there any limitations on what can be raised?

Since the court reviews what the trial court did, they generally are limited to reviewing trial court rulings. This means that if there was some error which was not objected to, there is nothing to review. The court also is limited to the written record of the trial. New evidence cannot be admitted during the appeal.

What is a writ of Habeas Corpus?

Habeas corpus is a legal proceeding through which you can challenge a final conviction.

When can a writ be filed?

Because habeas corpus involves an attack on a final conviction, it cannot be filed until all the appeals have been decided. As long as an appeal is pending, the conviction is not final. The appeal process has to be completed before the new evidence can be introduced.

What relief can be obtained? 

The relief a defendant can obtain through a writ of habeas corpus is to have the conviction set aside. That means the case will sent back to the trial court. The trial court then must decide the case by either a trial, or some other disposition. Despite what many people think, the Court has no authority to do anything other than reverse the conviction. This is why it is only a matter of time before Tracey Richter will be granted a new 'fair' trial.

This bizarre case with former prosecutors being threatened and intimidated to suppress exculpatory evidence, improper relationship with star witnesses, allowing witnesses to knowingly lie, absurd assumptions, witness intimidation, incompetent forensic work and disregarded evidence that not only attest to Tracey Richters innocence but points toward another suspect who has a history of violence, bipolar II diagnosis and a personal relationship with the Sac County Attorney, Ben Smith.

Sac County Attorney Ben Smith has relations with Michael Roberts, Rexxfield whom is the estranged ex-husband of Tracey Richter. In October of 2011 a joint email baring both Roberts and Smiths email addresses is sent to Googles Legal Department. The letter is a Cease and Desist claiming jury and witness tampering will take place unless Google de-indexes web pages implicating Michael Roberts admitting to the attempted murder of his wife (Tracey Richter). The majority of that content, and any positive content was removed or pushed back into Google oblivion.

Many journalists then accepted this censored characterization of events and some embellished it. Emotions were perilously high when the Tracey Richter was found guilty as she was convicted in the press.

The evidence against Tracey Richter began to wither immediately.  

Ripoff Report became a crowd source investigation platform and people began to contact me through Cyber Bounty Hunters and provide new evidence and copies of emails such as the October 2011 email to Googles legal department.
Michael Roberts, Paul Portelli and the other partners in Rexxfield conspired on a plan to create a systematic smear campaign against Ripoff Report and Google, and then extort them to cease the campaign.

Exhibits

1-28-2011 Michael Roberts Rexxfield Planning Session against Ripoff Report and Google

1-28-2011 Unedited Audio of Rexxfield discussing Google-Cide

3-11-2011 Michael Roberts Attempted Extortion Letters to Ripoff Report

3-11-2011 Michael Roberts Flow Chart Utilized In Alleged Extortion

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#23 General Comment

New Evidence? Isn't Ben Smith threatening the former Prosecutor to Suppress Evidence For Tracey Richter To Have a Fair Trial Enough?

AUTHOR: Cross Roads Cafe - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Prosecution in the Tracey Richter trial sounds more like the remake of 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. Folks a sworn affidavit documenting that Sac County Attorney Ben Smith became "belligerent" and tried to "intimidate" and "threaten" the Former Prosecutor to Suppress Exculpatory evidence in the Tracey Richter Trial, should warrant a new trial. Especially since after the threats, Ben Smith claims all that evidence disappeared as in 'Presto Changeo'.

Are we ready to now be unable to protect ourselves and children the next time two men break into your home during a violent home invasion?

And I did a little research on the Michael Roberts and his mentoring of young mentally challenged young boys:

As part of this report, the documents have been presented which proves Michael Roberts for Domestic Assault against Tracey Richter and was FOUNDED to have beaten his children. His good friend Ben Smith was able to make the case disappear from the DHS files in Iowa, but that is another story. The arrest reports, plea agreements and FOUNDED child abuse report, along with the DateLine NBC colonoscopy on Roberts is presented in the main story. I did not yet see an analysis of the comparison between Dustin Wehde and the other young men whom were victimized by Michael Roberts.

Victim #1 story

Victim #2 story

As noted in the other response, Michael Roberts was mentoring the mother of Dustin Wehde who was diagnosed with 'Obsessive Difficult Syndrome' and placed Dusting into Foster Care after chasing his mother from the house during an argument. The Foster Parents decided Dustin was even more seriously ill after Dustin tortured a pet in the Foster house and sent him back home in hopes he would get more serious medication. As you can tell by victim stories #1 and #2, they also were forced into a mentorship by their mothers with Michael Roberts. It seems Michael Roberts forces these young men to watch child torture porn, Notice any similarities? Perhaps you should research the lawsuit filed against Roberts and his company MILE2 and READ! You just can't make this kind of stuff up. Evidently, shucking corn, to law enforcement in Iowa, has a different definition to the rest of the country.

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#22 Consumer Comment

ROFLMAO

AUTHOR: ToXiCoFfEnDeR - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, January 11, 2013

Because he could have appealled on the new evidence first, apparently he didn't think your facts were proveable in court, imagine that.

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#21 REBUTTAL Owner of company

The Evidence of Prosecutorial Misconduct and Witness Tampering Cannot Be Introduced Until After The "Direct Appeal" (which mean only evidence from the trial) is exhausted.

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Richter's fiance, Russell Schertz, stated that the family is "disappointed" in the court's decision.  He says the family has "faith in God and the justice system that eventually this wrong will be set right."But, Schertz admits the decision will cost Richter, and her family, "years that they cannot get back."Richter's appeal was what's called a "direct appeal", which means it could only include evidence in the court record from the trial.  But, Schertz says he's uncovering new information about "prosecutorial misconduct and witness tampering" that he thinks should allow for a new trial in the future.For now, Schertz says the family will file an appeal with the Iowa Supreme Court in the next 20 days.

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#20 Consumer Comment

Can you explain why none of these issues were raised before the Court of Appeals?

AUTHOR: ToXiCoFfEnDeR - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Can you explain why none of these issues were raised before the Court of Appeals? That same Court just upheld the conviction, none of these issues were raised, how is it you have all this onformation but yet her defense doesn;t consider it worthy of addressing in appeals court?

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#19 Consumer Comment

FINAL VERDICT

AUTHOR: Social Forensics - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2012

OK.  I have read this entire thread, and its obvious that Michael Roberts, Ben Smith, Mona Wehde and Ray and Marie Friedman are a bunch of d**n criminals. 

Especially this Michael Roberts guy! This cat is all over the internet for screwing people over. I find him guilty, and no one should do ANY type of business with him, or his stooge followers (Mile2, Rexxfield, Paul Portelli, Dr. Connelly) As far as the talk of Ben Smith threatening people...isn't the sworn affidavit of the former prosecutor that the fix was in against Richter from the start (see details here)

C'mon folks... failed polygraphs confession by Michael Roberts explaining how he and other key prosecution witness Ray Friedman planned to steal the company Tracey Richter owned from her (see details here) , then he (Roberts) gave the pimp hand smack to not only his wife (see details here) but includes his young children Noah and Mason (see details here) and who can forget this video from DateLine NBC (see video here). He must of b***h slapped that retarded kid Dustin, perhaps that is why he had anger issues (see details here)?  The young tards Mom,  Mona Wehde, besides cheating on her husband with Jeremy Collins (intruder #2) had a secret deal criminal deal to see all of the substantial Real Estate holding without Tracey knowledge or consent on October 8, 2001 only 5 weeks before the attempted murder of Tracey (see details here).

Dont let these country goobers full ya.

   As far as the original poster... you are probly telling the truth, but d**n dude, you owe me a couple dollars for the time it took to read the books you keep posting on here.

    Verdict:

                  1.  Smith, and Roberts are guilty criminals, but please keep posting your little elementary school name calling back and forth fight on here! I get a laugh out of them. 



      THANKS!

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#18 General Comment

Ok...

AUTHOR: DrQuality - (USA)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2012

Ok...this all seems like b.s. Why would she want to contact some guy in prison, period?? No matter what you throw out there, it just all sounds far-fetched and fabricated. Look, I get it...you're either a loved one of Tracey, or a paid advocate. If I were in your shoes, I would do the same thing. However, I was interested in this case as an unbiased observer, and all I can say is I came to a conclusion based on factual evidence, multiple articles- some biased, some not. Anyone who reads through all this will most likely come to the same conclusion...SHE IS GUILTY. She murdered someone. Period. The city, state, or who the h**l ever has nothing to gain by lying and throwing a mother in prison. (I know you'll say something like "but, but... they want to win cases", or "but, but...this person is friends with this person", etc...) But seriously, come on. Believe it or not, most things are pretty cut and dry, not everything is some big conspiracy. Look at this woman...multiple husbands, contacting inmates, big fake b***s, feuding with her exes, leaving the state after the crime, not to mention her actions, her stories, and everything else she has done. Sure, you can throw things out there like "Oh, he said he was gonna kill her this one time..." but, this is probably being over-exaggerated. I'm sure most people have said things to their spouse that weren't so nice during an argument. Get over it...GUILTY. Case closed.

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#17 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Richter beautiful?

AUTHOR: Lucy - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2012

It seems women all over the country have this misinformed idea of what beauty is. Have most of these women looked in the mirror lately? You're fat,out of shape and couldn't land a real man if your Bon Bon laden a*s depended on it. For those of us who are beautiful,we're given a bad name because of the ones who try to use thier beauty as a tool for our dubious personal agendas. If the boss fired his employee because she was "irresistable" it's more than likely that she tried to throw herself on him with designs on his marriage and his business. It's not a new idea that women use what they sit on to ruin many a man. You're just pissed that one of them was caught in the act and stopped before she could ruin another life. Jealous,no. It's awesome to me that this murdering hag was put away for her evil plot. If this country would pay more attention to who the real victims are hear there wouldn't be so many men being thrown in jail on the woman's whim. There's a reason why muslim men keep thier wives covered and silent. It's because they know the potential for her inherent evil through her sex and voice. So be quiet and cover your ugly face woman.

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#16 General Comment

Sex Offender

AUTHOR: guardian - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2012

According to Sheriff McClure the only information Tracey had on the man in the Wisconsin jail was that he was in jail due to a drug arrest. According to Sheriff McClure there was no way for Tracey to know that he was a sex offender. It took the DCI to investigate him and they found this information out. The information given on Michael was where he lived in 2001, the type of car he drive in 2001, what he looked like in 2001, if his friend knew Michael in 2001. The papers fail to mention that the man in jail has a friend who was very interested in the case. Why? Did he know something? Why wouldn't she want to find out. Remember she also gave info on Dustin Wehde and Jeremy Collins. Again the facts were twisted by Ben Smith.  Michael needs to put on his big boy pants and quit accusing people of trying to harm him. If anyone has to fear for their safety it's Tracey's family. You don't see them hiding in a protection program.  He tells people he has to be on the run because his ex-mother-in-law is trying to harm him. Why because she yelled at him 8 YEARS AGO?  Remember he  screamed at Tracey saying he was going to kill her.(he admitted this in court but said it was an old Australian saying). Maybe people need to find out the real reason why he keeps moving around. I doubt it has anything to do with the Richters.

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#15 General Comment

LOOK

AUTHOR: DrQuality - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, December 26, 2012

...at what this "innocent" woman did...

"Roberts then moved with the children to a California city he will not disclose, saying he fears for their safety. Days after her conviction, Richter was caught sending letters containing Roberts Social Security number and other information that could be used to find him to an incarcerated Wisconsin sex offender."


NICE!

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#14 Consumer Comment

Iowa;s All Male Supreme Court Rules Employors Can Fire "irresistibly Attractive" Female Employee's

AUTHOR: Rocky Balboa - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, December 23, 2012

Hey Lucy,

You sound a little bit jealous that Tracey Richter is beautiful?

Don't worry, Iowa besides leading the country in Prosecutorial Misconduct, Horndog bosses  in Iowa have a new way to abuse women and claim they are saving marriages they can  fire employees who are too hot for the workplace. The states all-male Supreme Court ruled 7-0 Friday that an Iowa City dentist  legally fired his female assistant because she was irresistibly attractive and a threat to his marriage. Is it any wonder another 'attractive' women is then placed in jail for life by the same Court system?









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#13 Consumer Comment

Rexxfield.com Michael Roberts Mental Health Diagnosis / Family History Of Mental Illness / Bipolar and ADHD Lead To Sociopath?

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, December 23, 2012

Dear Victim of Michael Roberts; Xellex and Mile2

I believe you. Your personal story was both moving and poignant. Your honesty about your own abuse at the hands of Michael Roberts, Xellex and Mile2 and that you survived shows your own strength.

308, 935, 581 is the Population of the United States

113, 758,036 number of adult males over 18

18,959,673   ADULT MALES WHO HAD UNWANTED OR ABUSIVE SEXUAL EXPERIENCES AS A CHILD THATS ONE IN SIX.

Michael Ross Roberts whom is married to Heidi Forsbacka Roberts and had a formal intake at the SIOUXLAND Mental Health Center by Ronald W. Brinck, M.D. Psychiatrist on March 12, 2004 during his time alone with Michael Roberts, the report stated: "I'm a suspect for an attempted murder." The patient had rapid speech. He was restless and fidgety and had a manic quality as he described how his wife was attacked and she killed one of her attackers last year and the patient believes he is a suspect with allegations that he hired someone to try and kill his wife...he (michael roberts) admits that he recently took a box cutter to his throat. He says this was only to get (Tracey Richter's) attention. The patient describes that he has been diagnosed with ADHD. FAMILY HISTORY: There is ADHD in his son. His father has Bipolar Disorder. There is depression in his mother...He is hyperactive, hyper talkative, paranoid, but not delusional, but at the same time dysphoric. I reviewed the criteria for mania and Bipolar Disorder and Bipolar II Disorder with the patients and his wife and gave them criteria for the illnesses. Mr. Roberts read the criteria for Bipolar Disorder II and is quite emphathic when he describes that he felt that was him. He would seem to have a chronic history of hypomania. DIAGNOSTIC IMPRESSION: Bipolar II Disorder current episodes mixed with depression and hypomania ADHD by History."

Is the Internet Bounty Hunter Michael Roberts the text book example of a sociopath according to latest research and his own mental health diagnosis which is published online, you decide :

http://www.lovefraud.com/blog/2008/06/20/the-relationship-between-sociopathypsychopathy-and-bipolar-disorder/

There are at minimum three other children who were victims of Michael Roberts and several adults. I am attaching a link which will take about 2 minutes to download but it is a young man recounting his physical and mental abuse at the hands Michael Roberts.

(click here to watch video )   

Michael Roberts physically abused his own children. The FOUNDED child abuse report stated:

Michael Roberts is the biological father of both children and was a caretaker for the children at the time of the abuseBoth these children sustained physical injuryThe injuries to the children were not accidental as they were inflicted on the children by their father, Michael RobertsThe injuries to the children resulted from the acts of Michael Roberts. He struck the children with objects causing injury. Any reasonable and prudent person would know that hitting a child with an object will likely cause an injury to the child.

In my opinion, your abuse was more horrific, I only hope in sharing my findings and patterns of Michael Roberts it gives some solace to know you were not alone.

May I offer some advice?

Your report states you are from Iowa, therefore I believe Michael Roberts is setting a trap by telling you to report what happened in your jurisdiction. Allow me to explain, Michael Roberts is friends and has business dealings with Sac County Attorney Ben Smith.

Ben Smith is Michael Robertss personal bull dog attorney. I was personally threatened with arrest if I set foot in Iowa, fortunately I live in California. The point being, Michael Roberts was going to have Sac County Attorney Ben Smith arrest me.

One of Michael Roberts other victims Bert Pitman, he has been threatened with perjury charges because he previously stepped forward to share his truth.

Michael Roberts friend and business associate Ben Smith threatened and intimidated the former Prosecutor to suppress evidence to prevent Tracey Richter from having a fair trial. (see sworn affidavit here page 36 item #15

I have started to assemble a victims group which is based in California. I would be willing to fly you out all expenses paid in order for you to meet with our counsel and decided a safe way for you to proffer your story in the event that would be best for you. I do not know how to share contact detail via the site, I do have a website which has a contact form, that website is  http://google-cide.com/googlecide/killing-children-for-profit/

Even if you decide against filing charges, I am here to talk, listen or be supportive.  It is humbling to witness your courage and you are lighting the way for other men to begin their healing journey.

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#12 General Comment

Indicators of an wife abuser?

AUTHOR: Lucy - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, December 23, 2012

Are you retarded? This list could put anyone on the planet in the catagory of a "violent abuser". Get a life and look at the nature of all people. Everyone is capa le of murder. Why can't you just accept that Tracey Richter is a murderer? Quit playing the loopholes because none are there. A beautiful woman goes to prison for murder and you can't handle it.

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#11 Consumer Comment

BOMBSHELL EVIDENCE : Sworn Affidavit Proves Sac County Attorney Suppressed Exculpatory Evidence in the Tracey Richter Murder Trial

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, December 14, 2012

Sac County Attorney Ben Smith - sworn affidavit states Ben Smith became belligerent and tried to intimidate and threaten Former Prosecutor to Suppress Exculpatory evidence in Tracey Richter Trial - falsely imprisoned.

Friend and business associate of Michael Roberts (ex-husband of Tracey Richter) became belligerent with the intention of intimidating and threatened former prosecutor to prevent exculpatory information being given to the defense so Tracey Richter could have a fair trial. The bulldog who was doing the threatening and intimidating was Sac County Attorney Ben Smith. See sworn affidavit and additional details here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/sac-county-attorney/government-corruption/sac-city-iowa-00607.htm

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#10 Consumer Suggestion

I was groomed by Michael Roberts as was Dustin Wehde to kill Tracey Richter

AUTHOR: Victim of Michael Roberts Xellex Mile2 - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, November 25, 2012

This report is not under any circumstances meant to be used as a reprisal or to be vindictive, but rather to serve a purpose of setting an innocent woman free and to share what happened to me.

To me Michael Roberts wasnt a bad man, I believed he began using drugs as a way to escape his family life and wife Tracey. I justified that Traceys actions caused him to take drugs and become angry and abuse mehis abuse of me was his only outlet for dealing with his own family life. What if Michaels drug addiction began as his way to escape all the hell at home, maybe because I did not offer to help with the his home invasion plan before the Christmas holiday, I was the reason for his drug problem? I felt sick and my body shuddered with humiliation. I went between intense guilt because of not helping with killing his wife, and wanting Michael to find the determination to simply leave his marriage and start life anew.

Michael told  I was responsible for his family devestation and also my own. That my own fathers downfall (my parents were divorced) was because I was not a good son, and did not help my father be 'get put his poison' and to be stress free. That I was cursed and poisoned not only Michael's family devestation condition, but the reason my Mom could not find a new husband was because of me.

The wave of shame was so overwhelming that I began to weep uncontrollably.

He started his normal routine of  pushing me over the desk at his office, pulled down my pants and told me to understand that because I was the bad seed, he needed to deposit his good seed deep within me. That biblically this is what it means to be a true disciple.  Afterwards, he made me smell his arm pits and then I had to give him a tongue bath. He made me begin my licking his chest which was very-very hairy and to this day I can remember the putrid nearly chemical smell which seemed woven into his hairy chest.

Michael told me because I was not being a true disciple as he was hopeful that he had taken to mentoring another new disciple named Dustin Wehde. Michael again told me that because I was a bad seed who made everyone I come into contact with miserable, that if I truly cared for him, that I woud follow through on his plan to have my invade his home in December. If not, he had a new disciple. He asked if I realized how much pain I caused him and my mother because I did not follow his guidance.

Even though I was only 15, this all seems surreal to me, how could my new father figure turn his hatred against me. The worse times were at Vacation Bible School. He would meet me there when everyone else had gone home and he began to bring Dustin who was a just a little older than myself with him. When Dustin would arrive I would cringe as he walked into the classroom as if he were entering a mindfield. With every step Michael could, without warning, detonate speading his shrapnel like fury in every direction.

Weeks prior to Dustins death, I became so cold inside. I was nearly obsessed with hatred toward Tracey and her children and grew jealous of Dustin who was Michael little brainwashed n**i willing to follow Michaels plan for that night in December --- but at the same time Id still pray for their safety.

I could not imagine the hellish nightmare Dustin must have experienced in trying to follow Michaels plan to kill Tracey and the children. All I could pray know is being thankful that Michael chose Dustin as his hitman, and I was fortunate enough to be rescued.

Im sorry about everything. I believed Michael Roberts would kill me if I spoke up. Michael had promised me that we would run off and have a new beginning as father and son the moment I followed his plan. He made the same offer to Dustin and promised they would leave town together that evening.

Michael told me that the adults in my life knew what was going on, and that because I was bad seed, the adults allowed all of this to happen. He told me, that the only way I could matter in life and redeem myself could be to do as I was told.

Remember, he was a friend of my Moms a counselor at Vacation Bible School. That is why when I read this article and saw he was placed on the child abuse registry, plus watched the video of his son Bert describing his beatings at the hand of Michael that I realized, it wasnt my fault. Vacation Bible School and the Churches that allow him around young men are to blame.

Then my own Mother, why did she allow sleep over and late night with this man? How did they miss the warning signs of my troubles with School and not wanting to hug anyone?

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#9 General Comment

Michael Roberts of Mile2, Lies, and Audiotapes Causes (Alleged) Perjury of Sac County Attorney Ben Smith Case No CDCD002755

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (USA)

POSTED: Thursday, November 22, 2012

"The truth shall set you free," so the Bible teaches. But does SAC County Prosecutor Ben Smith understand it will cost him the guilty verdict in the Tracey Richter trial?

Ben Smith has been making good on the threats of Michael Roberts to have me arrested because I dared to publish my last expose. He has spewed lies, half truths and anything else his puppeteer (Michael Roberts) tell him to say.

Ben Smith lied to the court in filing an affidavit to the court in Case No CDCD002755.

The affidavit contained so many intentionally false and misleading accusations, that (Smith) has been blocking the transcripts from being disseminated.

WHY?

Roberts and Smith lied to the Judge over claims of a child molester and once the transcript is released, this will all be proven.

In the interim, let's address Attorney Smith's description of Michael Roberts in his affidavit which states "your affiant believed Michael Roberts to be completely and unabashedly honest in the aforementioned dealings / matters."

ANOTHER BIG LIE



    1. Ben Smith is aware of the witness tampering detailed in the above article and my personal witness intimidation by being threatened with arrest if I set foot in Iowa during the trial.



    1. Ben Smith is aware of Michael Roberts FOUNDED child abuse report that was published in my expose. Magically the month following my article, Roberts now claims to have the report removed without any of the hearings or procedures to have a FOUNDED child abuse report reversed. Must be good to have the SAC County DA as a friend and former business associate.



    1. Ben Smith is aware that the pattern of fraud and secret dealings which led to the death of Dustin Wehde had again began in California with another young man Michael Roberts was mentoring.



  1. Tracey Richter provide the seed capital and was the majority owner of a company (Mile2 \ Xellex) which according to Roberts and Ray Friedman made over several million dollars, of which she did not see a penny. Further, Roberts has a secret deal to sell their home without her knowledge.

Michael Roberts along with his employees Adam Zuckerman and Paul Portelli planned to not only defraud me, but discussed having me killed if I threatened their 'inner sanctum'.

The hitman was going to be Paul Portelli who was being mentored by Michael Roberts.

Portelli and Roberts at the time were had not place to live and were sleeping at the office for which I was the CEO, I took them into my home during the time they were planning on defrauding and killing me.

Click here to read the transcript  page 36-37 & page 48 Line 9 & 16

Click here to read volume 2

Ben Smith knows of not only the abusive background of Michael Roberts, but his criminal conduct and recurring pattern of manipulating young men he mentors to willing commit crimes on his behalf.

Did Ben Smith make Michael Roberts FOUNDED child abuse report leave the system after it was published in my article?

Why would anyone lie and protect a known child abuser?

We will delve into that in my next update.

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#8 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Iowa Supreme Court found prosecutors had committed misconduct \ Sac County Attorney Ben Smith Simply Following Iowa's Protocol Againt Females and Minorities

AUTHOR: IowaCorruption - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 01, 2012

The author of the expose bravely raised the following points:

  1. Why would the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Sac County Prosecutor go to such length to prosecute an innocent woman?

  2. Is the 80% rise in prosecutorial misconduct appeals in the last decade an indication of systematic wrong doing in Iowa?

  3. We can say that "ultimate resposnsibility goes to the man at the top" and that sounds right, but it still doesn't explain how any of it happened. "The key people are criminals, liars or willfully blind convicting the innocent." We could say that, but then we would have to explain how so many of them ended up in Iowa.

Puzzles like these have led many people to the conclusion that there's a culture inside the prosecutors office that is responsible.

Imagine...your best friend works for the Prosecutors office in Iowa. She shares with you that Prosecutors and investigators routinely break the law, tamper with juries, intimidate and mislead witnesses, and generally conduct themselves like thugs because that is the recognized and understood policy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My best friend sent me another example of the corruption and innocent people being sent to jail at an abnormal rate.

Iowa Supreme Court had found prosecutors committed misconduct and free two men after serving 25 years for a crime they never committed.

Detectives coerced other witnesses into implicating the two innocent men. The prosecutors office was aware of what took place with the states star witnesses, but they went forward prosecution anyway.

BEWARE: If you are a minority or female in the State of Iowa, you could wind up like Tracey Richter or Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee.

Iowa Supreme Court had found prosecutors committed misconduct


 



 

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#7 Consumer Comment

Response to "Silenced in Storm Lake"

AUTHOR: Louis - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, October 13, 2012
Silenced in Storm Lake said:
"Praise the Lord for this consumer advocacy website."

Response:
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
Isaiah 5:20
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#6 Consumer Comment

Silenced in Storm Lake \ Storm Lake Pilot Tribune Violating Free Speech

AUTHOR: Silenced in Storm Lake - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, October 06, 2012

It is unacceptable to not cover the specifics of the alleged corruption in the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune. I was born and raised in the Early area. The family and the general public have the right to know what is going on here!

We knew all about Michael Roberts 10 years ago. 

The Storm Lake Pilot Tribune has refused to allow my comments to be posted, or even cover what has been detailed on Ripoff Report. Praise the Lord for this consumer advocacy website.

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#5 General Comment

Like mother like daughter

AUTHOR: EOPC - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 03, 2012
"We have never met either one of you yet you believed in my daughter's innocence and did something about it"

Guardian - if someone does that - it is because they have an AGENDA.  And not a good one.

Stop and think impartially about what that AGENDA could be.
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#4 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Michael Roberts of Rexxfield Exhibits Sings of Battering Personality \ Dr. Heidi Roberts of Finland at Risk!

AUTHOR: Light Be - (USA)

POSTED: Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Wake-Up, this guy Michael Roberts of Rexxfield / Mile2, exhibits 12 out of 17 Signs of a Battering personality. If you have 3 or more you

From:  Walker, L.D., Getting a Firm Foundation Training,SIGNS OF A BATTERING PERSONALITY

Many women are interested in knowing if there are any warning signs that someone is an abuser.  There is no typical victim or perpetrator.  Any woman can be battered regardless of age, race, nationality, sexual orientation, educational background, or income.  Battering almost always occurs with a man abusing a woman.  However, violence can exist in other domestic relationships as well; l*****n battering and older parents beaten by their adult children are examples.*

Below is a list of behaviors seen in people who beat their partners.  If the person has three or more of these behaviors, theres indeed a strong potential for physical violence.  In some cases, a batterer might have only a couple of behaviors that are quite strong (e.g., extreme jealousy).  In the beginning of a relationship, the batterer will try to explain these behaviors as love and concern.  However, as time goes on, these behaviors become more extreme and serve to establish, keep, and strengthen power and control over the victim.

*The use of he for the abuser and she for the victim is used to facilitate reading and to emphasize the circumstances of most battering.  This wording is not meant to discount the various situations in which domestic violence occurs.


1.      JEALOUSY:  At the beginning of a relationship, an abuser will say jealousy is a sign of love; jealousy has nothing to do with love, its a sign of possessiveness and lack of trust.   The abuser will question the woman about to whom she talks, accuse her of flirting, or be jealous of the time she spends with family, friends, and/or children.  As the jealous behavior progresses, the abuser may call her frequently or unexpectedly drop by her home/workplace.  The abuser may refuse to let her work saying hes afraid shell meet someone else, or he may do strange things such as checking her car mileage or askingfriends to watch her.

2.      CONTROLLING BEHAVIOR:  At first, the batterer may say this behavior is because of concern for the womans safety and well being.  The abuser will be angry if the woman is late coming back from somewhere and will closely question her about where she went, to whom she spoke, etc.  As this behavior gets worse, the abuser may not let the woman make personal decisions about the house, her clothing, or going to church/temple; he may keep all the money or even make her ask permission to leave the house or the room.

3.      QUICK INVOLVEMENT:  Most battered women dated or knew the abuser for less than six

months (many for less than three months) before they were married, living together, or engaged.  An abuser comes on like a whirlwind claiming youre the only person Ive ever been able to talk to, Ive never felt loved like this by anyone.  The abuser will pressure the woman to commit to the relationship in such a way that later she may feel very guilty or feel she is letting him down if she wants to slow down involvement or break off the relationship.

4.      UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS:  Abusive people will expect their partner to meet all of their needs; the abuser expects the woman to be the perfect wife, mother, lover, and friend; abusers will say things like if you love me, Im all you needyoure all I need.  She is supposed to take care of everything for the abuser emotionally and in the home.  No matter how efficient/good she is, however, she is never good enough.

5.      ISOLATION:  The abusive person tries to cut the woman off from all resources and supports.  If she has men friends, shes a w***e; if she has women friends, shes a  l*****n; if shes close to her family, shes tied to the apron strings.  The abuser accuses people who are the womans supports of causing trouble.  The abuser may want to live in the country without a phone, may not let the woman use the car or have one that is reliable, or may try to keep the woman from working, going to school, or going to spiritual/religious meetings.

6.      BLAMES OTHERS FOR PROBLEMS:  If the abuser is chronically unemployed, someone is out to get him, someone is always trying to do him wrong.  The abuser may make mistakes and then blame the woman for upsetting him or keeping him from concentrating.  The abuser will tell the woman she is at fault for almost anything that goes wrong. 

7.      BLAMES OTHERS FOR FEELINGS:  The abuser will tell the woman you make me mad,

youre hurting me by not doing what I tell you, I cant help being angry.  The abuser really makes the decision about what he thinks and feels, but will use feelings to manipulate the woman.  Less obvious are claims such as only you can make me happy, and you control how I feel.

8.      HYPERSENSITIVITY:  An abuser is easily insulted, claming his feelings are hurt when he is really mad, or taking the slightest setbacks as personal attacks.  The abuser will rant and rave about the injustice of things that happenthings that are really just a part of life, like being asked to work overtime, getting a traffic ticket, being told a behavior is annoying, being expected/asked to help with chores.

9.      CRUELTY TO ANIMALS AND/OR CHILDREN:  An abuser often brutally punishes animals, is insensitive to their pain and suffering, and/or may kill them.  The abuser may expect children to do things beyond their ability (spanks a two year old  for wetting their diaper).  The abuser may not want children to eat at the table or will  expect them to stay in their room all evening when hes at home.

10.      PLAYFUL USE OF FORCE IN SEX:  An abuser may like to throw the woman  down or hold her down during sex.  He may want to act out fantasies during sex in which the woman is helpless and will let the woman know the idea of rape is exciting.  The abuser may show little concern about whether the woman wants to have sex and will use sulking behavior to manipulate her or anger to pressure her into compliance.  The abuser may start having sex with the woman while she is sleeping or demand sex when she is ill or tired.

11.      VERBAL ABUSE:  In addition to saying things meant to be cruel and hurtful, this can be seen when the abuser degrades the woman, curses her, and/or runs down her accomplishments.  The abuser will tell the woman she is stupid and unable to function without him.  This may involve waking the woman up to verbally abuse her or not letting her sleep.

12.     RIGID SEX ROLES:  The abuser may expect the woman to serve him, perhaps saying the woman must stay at home or saying she must obey in all things---even things criminal in nature.  The abuser will see women as inferior, responsible for menial tasks, stupid, and unable to be a whole person without a relationship.

13.      DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE:  Many women are confused by their abusers sudden mood changes---they may think the abuser has some mental problem because one minute the abuser is really nice and the next minute hes exploding.  Explosiveness and moodiness are typical of people who abuse their partners; these behaviors serve to intimidate and frighten the victim and are reflections of the abusers alternate use of threat and manipulation to establish and maintain power and control.

14.      PAST BATTERING:  An abuser may say hes hit women in the past, but it was the womans fault or it was only one time.  The woman may hear from relatives or ex-partners the person is abusive.  A batterer will beat any woman he is with if the woman is with him long enough for control to be established and violence to begin;  situational circumstances do not make a person abusive.

15.      THREATS OF VIOLENCE:  This includes any threat of physical force meant to control the woman:  Ill slap your mouth off, Ill break your neck, Ill make you sorry you were ever born, Ill kill you.  Non-violent people do not talk like this to their partners, but batterers will try to excuse these kinds of threats by saying everybody talks like that.

16.      STRIKING OR BREAKING OBJECTS:  This behavior can be used as punishment (breaking

loved possessions), but mostly it is used to terrorize the woman into submission.  The abuser may beat on tables with his fist, throw objects around or near the woman, or put his hand through the wall.  Again, this is very remarkable behavior and should never be minimized---there is great danger when someone thinks they have the right to punish or frighten a partner.

17.      ANY FORCE DURING AN ARGUMENT:  This may involve a batterer holding a woman down, physically restraining her from leaving a room, or pushing/shoving her.  The abuser may hold the woman against the wall and say youre going to stand here and listen to me!  Many batterers in an attempt to deny or minimize past abuse will tell stories in which they had to sit on a woman or hold her down for her own good.  These behaviors are found in the second level of the progression of abuse in domestic violence.

Exhibits -

Michael Ross Roberts Exposed on DateLine NBC

FOUNDED CHILD ABUSE REPORT ON MICHAEL ROBERTS OTHER CHILDREN NOT MENTIONED IN DATELINE NBC STORY

Michael Ross Roberts of Mile2 Violating Protective Order

Michael Roberts 99% Deceptive Polygraph

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#3 General Comment

Thank you

AUTHOR: guardian - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, October 02, 2012

This is a personal thank you from the Richter family for all the information you have put out there regarding Tracey Richter's conviction You are the only one's who are not afraid to put out the truth. I also want to thank Darren Meade who took the time to investigate and did not back down to threats and intimidation. We have never met either one of you yet you believed in my daughter's innocence and did something about it.  Again thank you.

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#2 Author of original report

Ben Smith Prosecutorial Misconduct Allowing Witnesses To Knowingly Lie \ Tracey Richter Had Several Million Dollars Stolen By Mile2 and Xellex \ Bounty Shared Amongst Prosecution Witnesses

AUTHOR: Darren M. Meade - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, September 21, 2012

IMPORTANT TRACEY RICHTER UPDATE

Though Tracey Richters trial is ancient history, its important for every American interested in justice to know why shes in jail. The Tracey Richter story really centers on the power of the prosecutor and the havoc one corrupt public servant can sow when that power is abused. What Tracey Richter suffered, a life term for a crime she didnt commit, is an example of a flaw in our justice system one that jeopardizes the right of every American to a fair trial. Its not too radical to assert that what happened to Tracey Richter could happen to any one of us. And the unfortunate reality is its happening every day in America, the land of the free, the home of the brave.  No one is immune if corruption in the system isnt weeded out.

Conflict of Interest

To recap the situation as it happened: Ben Smith, the Sac County prosecutor, had a conflict of interest with his star witness, and failed to fully disclose all aspects of that relationship to the Judge. An ethical lapse that is inexcusable. Smith also had a conflict of interest in befriending and supporting Michael  Roberts in his quest to gain sole custody of his children. He did it despite knowing Michael  Roberts was a child abuser and that his children feared and hid from him when he was angry according to Iowa Childrens Protective Services finding.

Perjury on the Stand

Further, Ben Smith allowed key prosecution witnesses, Ray Friedman and his wife Marie Friedman, to knowingly lie on the witness stand. To understand the effect Maries testimony had in wrongfully convicting Tracey, we need to look closely at Ben Smiths theory of how and why Tracey set up Dustins murder.

The prosecutions theory asserted that Tracey forced Dustin  on the afternoon of December 13, to write the contents in the pink notebook incriminating her ex-John Pittman in a conspiracy to kill her. He further claimed that during this forced episode, she was interrupted by Marie Friedman who came over for a visit. When Tracey took awhile getting to the door, Smith further theorized she had Dustin secretly leave. After Marie left, Tracey had Dustin return that evening and play-act strangling her in front of her kids, and then she shot him in cold blood. And what was her motivation? Tracey at the time was in a custody battle with John Pittman over her $1000 a month child support. And, Smith asserted, that she intended to use the pink notebook as leverage to induce Pittman to keep paying her. So this whole elaborate scheme of holding Dustin at gunpoint, forcing him write in a notebook at gunpoint, then somehow convincing Dustin to return and beat her in front of the kids, was unsupportable without a cooperative witness. 

The lying game

We dont know what motivated Marie Friedman to change her testimony, but we do know she did. When did Marie tell the truth? I think she told the truth in the first interview with police, prior to her family being paid $25,000 from Michael Roberts. Initially, when Marie was interviewed shortly after the shooting she testified that she went to Traceys house and enjoyed an afternoon chat over tea and cookies. There was talk between them about Marie staying over, but their husbands, Marie said, were expected home that evening, and she wanted to be home when Ray arrived. She left in the late afternoon and there is no indication in the interview that she ever saw Dustins car at Traceys house. She certainly would have mentioned this fact if she had. 

At the trial she changed her testimony in significant points, points that proved instrumental in convicting Tracey of murder. On the witness stand she told the jury she saw Dustins car in the driveway, and that her husband wasnt expected home that evening, and critically that Tracey had rushed to the door that afternoon after Marie had waited a long while for her. Long enough, Ben Smith asserted, to have Dustin run out the front door with instructions to return that evening for their play acted assault.      

All of this is circumstantial evidence and if Marie had not changed her testimony, Ben Smiths theory wouldnt stand any chance of convincing a jury. One of the lies Ray Friedman told centered on his testimony regarding his employment. When asked under oath about his employment, he stated he was a self-employed auditor. A simple Google search would have told anyone who took the time to look that Friedman had a Linkdln profile that listed him as the CEO of Mile2. A corporation formed and controlled by Michael Roberts. With this information readily available on the Web, did Ben Smith and his investigators do a simple Google search to verify a key witnesss testimony? If he had, the veracity of Friedmans testimony would have been easy to establish. Yet its unreasonable to think that in a capital murder trial, a thoroughly prepared prosecutor like Ben Smith would let a detail like this slip. 

Identity Crisis

And what about Mile2? Where did it come from? Its a fact that previous to December 13 shooting, Tracey owned 51% of Xellex, having put up the startup funds. Ray Friedman was an employee of Xellex during this time, and was purportedly responsible for marketing the companys services. Sometime before the shooting occurred, Roberts formed a new corporation, Mile2, which provided the same services as Xellex. Michael Roberts failed a polygraph on February 13, 2002, he did more than fail,  he was found to be 99% deceptive on the relevant questions about the attempted murder of his wife. That is when Michael Roberts made a startling confession (see Roberts failed polygraph here... page 10 -2nd paragraph) his plan was to own 100% of Xellex / Mile2.  And that Ray Friedman would receive 10% equity per year. Also it came out during the trial that Friedman had been paid a lump sum of $25,000 in the first part of 2002, shortly after the shooting. He justified the payment in court by stating that he gave up his equity in Xellex for the payout because the company was so chaotic and difficult to work for he wanted out. He cited the difficult environment working with Michael and Tracey. He also asserted in testimony that the company was worthless, and larded down with IRS liens and other debts.

Xellex = Mile2

Why was Mile2 formed when it provided the exact same services as Xellex? Its primary function was to transfer the assets of Xellex by taking over the customer base. When a person transfers sources of income from one entity he partially owns to an entity he wholly owns in most civilized countries thats called stealing. So Roberts secretly laid down a plan to defraud Tracey of profits she well deserved as a stock holder and investor. And he planned this before the December 13 shooting. Was he preempting a possible estate settlement if Tracey had been killed? We cant plumb the depths of Michaels mind. But we can observe his actions, and there exists a pattern of deceit that should have raised the suspicions of honest investigators.

Thats sick

So when the Prosecution asked Friedman, under oath on the witness stand in front of the jury, what he did for a living, and he answered a self-employed auditor, it is my view that not only did Ray perjure himself, but Ben Smith committed prosuctorial misconduct by allowing the lie to stand as testimony. Knowingly presenting facts to the jury a prosecutor knows is not true constitutes is an ethical lapse that should warrant Tracey a new triala fair trial. One that would take into consideration the true facts, not trumped up ones based on witnesses coached to support a flimsy theory. 

Further there comes the evidence that Michael Roberts could not have been in another state that day. Sheriffs investigator Lt. Cessford reported interviewing Dr. Elvin Hopkins in February 2002. Hopkins is certain he saw Roberts in the bank the morning of December 13, in Early. It would have been impossible for Roberts to be an 8 to 10 hour drive away where his cell phone was recorded as pinging a cell tower later in the day. But no further investigation was undertaken, such as collecting surveillance tapes from the bank.

Murder Inc.

Mona Wehde was certain Roberts was the second intruder. She had felt certain all along that Roberts or Friedman fit the description of the second intruder, and had set up her son to get killed. So what did Roberts have to say for himself at the trial.

Not much as it turned out. Ben Smith adroitly arranged it so none of this testimony could be impugned by hiding Michael Roberts away in the victims witness protection program. Using this strategy Michael Roberts alibi the night of the shooting, and accomplice in the theft of Xellex / Mile2 from Tracey Richter.  Roberts could not be questioned in cross examination by defense attorneys.

This conflict of interest is the root of prosecutorial misconduct. My contention all along is that prosecutorial misconduct by Ben Smith not only comprised the conflict of interest outlined above, but runs deeper. So exactly what is prosecutorial misconduct? 

Prosecutorial misconduct takes place when a prosecutor  

Keeps potential witnesses (the people who dealt with Michael Roberts and had first-hand knowledge about events) from talking to the defendants lawyers

Search Gagging the Witnesses

Engages in a strategy to indict or sue people on vague charges (in one case, more than 300 charges) and then group these charges into an overriding conspiracy charge. This is done because in a conspiracy case, hearsay evidence is admissible.

Search Conspiracy and Abuse of Charging Function

Purposefully avoids gathering evidence that could be favorable to the defendants (called exculpatory evidence)

Search Evidence Exculpatory

Hides and permits the destruction of evidence favorable to defendants

Search Evidence Exculpatory and Spoliation

Fails to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defendants

Search Evidence Exculpatory

Manipulates the notes they took during witness interviews, excluding all exculpatory material

Withholds exculpatory evidence until its too late to be useful to the defendants

Search Evidence Withheld

Fails to reveal or to admit that their witnesses lied on the stand

Search Perjured Testimony

Purposefully manipulates the media in order to poison the jury pool

All of these tactics are unconstitutional and supposedly prohibited, yet Sac County Attorney Ben Smith used them and was permitted to use them in the Tracey Richter murder trial.

Tracing the evidence

To show the depth of the involvement Michael Roberts had tampering with the jury and Ben Smiths collusion in that activity, lets concentrate on the email Roberts and the Sac County Prosecutor sent to Google alleging witness and jury tampering unless certain incriminating content was removed. The indexed articles in question alleged that Michael Roberts was responsible for the home invasion. These posts also asserted that Roberts had another inappropriate relationship with a man he mentored, and his employees in Mile2 had perjured themselves in an effort to help Michael Roberts from paying child support.

Why would Smith and Roberts want these posts erased from Google if they werent incriminating. Ben Smith read these posts, since he helped Roberts push Google to de-index them. He knew what was in them. He had a responsibility to follow up on them and check their veracity.

The e-mail correspondence follows:

"October 2011

Subject Line:  Jury and Witness Tampering Websites Through Google Search Urgent Takedown Request [Iowa vs. Tracey Richter [Murder in the 1st Degree]

Dear Chris and Legal Support Team,

For transparency I have ccd the Sac County Attorney who prosecuting the Iowa murder trial this week, as well as BCCing some objective 3rd parties.

(grammar error Michael Roberts, emphasis mine)

Cease and Desist demand

This is a formal request for the immediate de-indexing of the web pages / sites numbers A, B, C, D & E here in below.

I understand that it is Googles position that you do not remove defamatory material from your search index without a court order, but I am hoping that a cursory assessment of this case will show that such a requirement is not needed.



    • Roberts then claims he is to be a witness for the upcoming sentencing for  Adam Zuckerman who masterminded a $20 million dollar fraud the FBI called Operation Lease Fleece in Santa Ana, California.



  • Roberts then claims he will be a witness in the Tracey Richter murder trial in Iowa and that his ex-wife and Zuckerman are conspiring to tamper with witnesses  or their families by muddying the waters in the hope the jury will not obey the Judges instructions not to do research outside of the court room.

Roberts did not testify at either trial, and is a business partner of violent convicted felon Adam Zuckerman, based on a fear based marketing program called Google-Cide and deemed criminal by Fox News.

What was Michael Roberts trying to accomplish by utilizing the Prosecutor in the Tracey Richter murder trial demanding Google de-index in items A, B, C, D & E?

http://forum.vpxsports.com/18272/RE-Tracey-Richter-Roberts-woman-shoots-home-invader-is-tried-for-murder-11-years-later  It should be noted Roberts claimed he embedded a trackable image in the forum so I can receive independent visitor stats, and it has been hundreds this week alone.  The content is no longer located via a Google search.Michael Roberts was most concerned about the following headline Michael Roberts Suspect AND Did Roberts Admit to Attempted Murder of His Wife? This site also raised the question In Meades email above, he references that he believes that Roberts may have tried to take out his wife, and also that this explains Paul, Roberts fall guy, alluding to suspicions that Roberts may be having a similar inappropriate relationship with Portelli, which has been alleged between Roberts the other young man Roberts mentored, Dustin Wehde, who Tracy Richter Roberts shot when two men broke into her home and tried to kill her. Did Roberts put Wehde up to taking out his wife? Was Roberts the other assailant?  (SEE THIS ) when you click the link to the website to see if Roberts may have been the other assailant the content has been removed but this was the link   http://www.dps.state.ia.us/commis/pib/Releases/2009/02-16-2009_WehdeCase.htm Why would the State of Iowa be removing content from its own web servers? And why did the Prosecutor and Michael Roberts pressure Google to de-index prior to the trial believing it would influence the jury to find Tracey innocent (refer to my original Ripoff Report about Jury and Witness Tampering)? Another person had alerted the public about Roberts issues and inappropriate relationship with the young men he mentors.The website requested by Michael Roberts to be de-indexed no longer exists.This website no longer appears within the first 20 search result pages of Google. It is essentially in Google oblivion, and while Michael Roberts once feared its content, someone or something made sure its content no longer could be located. So what was erased from the search results?

HISTORY LESSON Tracey Richter from her premarital assets provided the capital to start a company called Xellex, which became Mile2. The company according to Michael Roberts and Raymond Friedman did multi-millions in sales. The details of Raymond Friedman the CEO of Mile2 and his wife are in the original article on the Prosecutorial Misconduct by Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith.

This is why item D is imperative on the list. If the jurors or anyone else was able to piece together Mile2 Michael Roberts Ray Friedman Marie Friedmanall benefitted from millions of dollars in sales from a company Tracey Richter had provided the original seed capital for. Tracey was the majority share holder yet never saw these profits. And worse, the employees had provided perjured testimony to aid Michael Roberts for his non-payment of child support against the very children he is now in sole custody of and has been FOUNDED to have abused. Again this shows a clear pattern of fraud and injustice just as his inappropriate relationships with young adults hes purportedly mentoring do.

So lets look further at what actually existed on these sites:

Mr. Roberts altered Mile2 payroll tax filings and his own personal tax returns to change his INCOME to loan repayments in an attempt to avoid paying child support.

This change in status of his INCOME to loan repayments contradicts the discovery documents provided by Mile2 to the court, court testimony of various Mile2 employees including Mr. Roberts, deposition testimonies, and financial affidavits along with loan applications that stated Michael made significant income at that time. It also contradicts testimony from Duane Anderson and discovery from Mr. Kolpin.


As with the B, the links which use to attach to the site are no longer active.

Michael Roberts utilizes the name and title of the Sac County Prosecutor in an  email to Googles legal team to try and de-index content ahead of the trial which could influence jury members to believe Tracey Richter is innocent.

Michael Roberts alerts Sac County Prosecutor to a conspiracy to tamper with witnesses or their families. Michael Roberts tries to imply that he is a witness on behalf of the FBI and Sac County Prosecutor. The truth is, he is business partners with Adam Zuckerman. During the Tracey Richter trial he was allowed to stay in Victims Witness Protection.Michael Roberts then uses the professional titles of Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith and Sheriff Ken McClure to allow him to edit content on the internet which would impugn the prosecution witnesses by stating they unambiguously denied by authorities and is a matter of record.

The original expose caused many investigators and others to reach out to me directly. I am honored that my writing and this platform has opened the possibility to set an innocent woman FREE. I know we have a long way to go.

Equally, I have had phone calls from people speaking highly of Sac County Prosecutor Ben Smith. Ive been told that Mr. Smith had an ethical code instilled within him by his mother and another from the Army.

Please understand that I know what its like to be used and manipulated by Michael Roberts. At one point I rented him a home for his family in Balboa, California 100 yards from the beach. On another occasion when the young man he was mentoring claimed to be out of money, I opened my home and allowed them to each live at my home and eat my food. Later I discovered that during this time they were planning to kill me.

Ben if you truly have this code your mother instilled, I implore you not to allow your laptop to crash as Special Agent Vileta and Michael Roberts have, so incriminating and exculpatory evidence is lost. I ask you Ben to review the emails, and look at the depositions and previous legal filings on Mile2. According to Raymond Friedman and Michael Roberts the company Tracey Richter capitalized made over $7 million dollars and the only people who shared in that were Michael Roberts and his employeesnot Tracey Richter or her children.

I understand why prosecutors work for convictions and not justice. Its human nature to want to win a case. But your duty to your ethical standards, Ben, is to uphold justice, wherever that leads you. I implore you this one timestop Michael Roberts. He has a long list of his victims hes manipulated. And, Ben, from what people told me about you the last few days, I believe you may be a victim as well

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#1 REBUTTAL Individual responds

Darren Meade is a professional reputation hitman working for Ed Magedson *UPDATE .. From the EDitor - Neither Ripoff Report, nor Ed Magedson engaged, hired or requested Darren Meade to write this story.

AUTHOR: Michael Roberts of Rexxfield - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, September 14, 2012
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

Readers please note. Darren Meade is a professional smear campaigner, this 30 second video reveals the gleeful pleasure he derives from tormenting his previous smear-campaign target:

(((REDACTED)))

(((REDACTED)))

AND

He works for or with Ed Magedson, owner of RipOffReport.com. Magedson engaged Meade to discredit my research and exposes on RipOffReport's appalling and anti-social business practices here:

(((REDACTED)))

I challenge Darren Meade to find any current criminal record, or child abuse register record on me that has not been ruled as unfounded, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. All reports were made by a now convicted murderer who was also convicted of perjury by a jury in 2009, and welfare fraud in 2010.
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