A fine fighting retreat
North American Samizdat
carl Bussjaeger


"On Friday, August 20, 2004, the state of Ohio finally gave in on Hunter's case. After initially yanking an agreed-to plea bargain in May, Ashland County Prosecutor DeSanto reluctantly bowed to the inevitable and allowed a misdemeanor bargain. All of Hunter's attorneys say this was a very good deal, but in Hunter's own words:
"... I consider this settlement at best a damn fine fighting retreat, not a victory.".... I want to remind you that this is not over yet. Hunter is still out of a job, thanks to the apparently illegal actions of Lorna Deplitch at Verizon Communications. The boycott of Verizon continues until they change their policies and do right by Hunter." (08/22/04)


http://www.gbronline.com/cwb/samizdat/Bargain.html

STATEMENT FROM THE HUNTER

From: "The Hunter"
Subject: Statement - distribute as widely as possible
Date sent: Sun, 22 Aug 2004 12:00:51 -0400


As you may well have heard by now, my lawyers and I concluded a plea
bargain with the Ashland county prosecutor's office Friday 8/21. The
reason that this is the first you have heard of it is complete
secrecy
was part of the deal, for reasons which completely escape me. Be that
as it may, everything went off without a hitch. The settlement
included no jail time (well, technically a suspended sentence), a
year's unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, and $300-odd dollars in
court costs. *All* of my seized property is to be returned;
specifically including my pistols, ammo, rifle, swords, and
electronics.

So that there is no misunderstanding on this, everyone should be
aware that I consider this settlement at best a damn fine fighting retreat,
not a victory. The vitally important philosophical and legal points
involved in the case are going to go unstated. From a personal and
practical standpoint this is a very good result, but from a long-term
viewpoint of preserving freedom this is a far less than optimal
outcome. But I have a pretty strong aversion to ignoring the advice
of people I am paying large sums of money for their expertise, and the
*unanimous* opinion of the legal team was to accept this deal. This
is by no means the end of the legal struggle, but it *does* mark the end
of my own personal jeopardy.

Let me take this opportunity to as publicly as possible thank my
lawyer Jim Brightbill for all his hard work, and congratulate him on
securing such a favorable deal. It has been a long slog through a lot
of twists and turns, but we made it. Let me also thank the other
members of the legal team; I am only going to mention my sister
Brenda by name because I haven't cleared mentioning the other 5 with them.
The thanks are no less heartfelt for being safely anonymous. And she
deserves special mention as the one who was there for me when I had
only 1 phone call to try to begin fighting back in a very bad
situation. She and the rest of my family and close friends have given
me the emotional support that is so essential in a situation like
this, and there is no way I can ever thank them enough.

Carl Bussjaeger deserves special mention for his tireless work in
speaking out when I was muzzled. It's been frustrating at times,
brother knight, but you hung in there and never gave up, even when
the only answer I could give you was "I can't talk about that". Special
thanks to all my friends both old and new, who went out of their way
to offer every sort of support imaginable - from JR & EC who took me
out to dinner, movies, and banana splits more times than you can
believe, to DB & ES who called periodically to make sure I was
holding up and keep me posted on what the activist community was doing, EL,
JL, & SC for all your behind-the-scenes work, Louis James & Sunni
Maravillosa for dropping everything to kick things off back when this
all started, FreeMatt & Charlie for scaring the hell out of me in my
hotel room that night, "Mama" Sue for both publicity and personal
support, all the members of LRT & TCF who jumped in whenever needed,
and Angel Shamaya, Aaron Zelman, and Claire Wolfe for consistent and
principled support and advice throughout this ordeal.

I am going to attempt to individually mention all the fine
organizations that rallied to my side. FMN, JPFO, ISIL, FIJA, KABA,
GO-NH, GOA, AFA, LRT, RRND, TPoL, TCF, the Mental Militia, FSP, FSW,
and likely dozens of others I am forgetting. One of the great
strengths of the freedom movement is that we all pull together when
the chips are down, and my case certainly exemplifies that spirit.

Last, and most especially, I want to thank all those people who
didn't know me before this all started who understood the important
principles involved, and opened their hearts and helped out in every
way imaginable. The financial support has kept me alive, and I even
yet can't talk about just how effective your letters and commentary
has been - keep it up, gang. You deserve the kudos for getting us to
this first important milestone in this particular skirmish of the war
for freedom. I personally promise you that the team that has been
assembled to spearhead the "Free Hunter" effort is only beginning to
produce results. We're not yet finished talking with Verizon, and
there are a lot of other possibilities for action that we're
exploring. Jeffrey L "the Hunter" Jordan