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    On March 22nd 2003 I drove from Tucson Arizona to Phoenix Arizona to pick up a friend of mine named Jacob Franks. We had been friends for nearly three years and he had lived with me off and on for half of them. I met Jacob Franks when I was working a telemarketing job during a layoff in aviation. Jake had experienced tremendous difficulty getting a job. At the time I assumed it was due to the fact that in his youth he had acquired a felony conviction for auto theft. Several days prior to this he had sent me an e-mail stating that he was homeless and living on the street. When I picked him up I told him that I was giving him seven days to find a job and that if he was unable to find a job during this time I was going to bring him back to Phoenix. My reason for stating this was to impress upon him the importance of finding a job and at the same time to assuage any fears he might have that I would simply drop him off on a street corner because he had friends in Phoenix that he could rely on. When we arrived in Tucson I told Jake that he could use my GoPed to look for employment as long as he remained within a 4 block area around the RV Park where I was living. I told him that I didn't want him making any long trips on it because I was concerned for his safety.

    On March 31st while I was at work I ran into the aircraft records clerk who was working an airplane in the hangar. We had a short discussion where he revealed to me that he was qualified to work on the aircraft as a mechanic but was unable to do so because the company had to find a person to replace him before that could happen. It was at that moment that I recognized an opportunity for Jake. I immediately went to the director of maintenance to discuss Jake's situation with him. The director of maintenance appeared very interested in Jake and told him to see human resources at 9 AM the following day. At the end of my shift I drove home and was very excited that I had gotten Jake an interview. When I entered my motorhome I found Jake talking on my cell phone. Not wanting to interrupt him I sat down in a chair and waited for him to finish his conversation. As I listened to what he was saying I recognized that he was speaking with an attorney. I then looked to my left and found my GoPed on the floor in pieces. When Jake's conversation was concluded I asked him what was going on. He told me that he was at the intersection of 4th Street and Broadway where he attempted to ride the GoPed through a crosswalk where the traffic lights had not yet been installed. It was then that an automobile came around the corner and hit him, which launched him across the hood of the car. This resulted in a mild sprain of his right ankle. However when the police arrived they requested an ambulance to pick him up and take him to a hospital in the event there were other injuries. In addition the police gave Jake a ticket for riding a GoPed in a crosswalk.

    At the hospital Jake was examined and they found nothing seriously wrong with him. They didn't even x-ray his ankle. Consequently there were no grounds for an injury lawsuit against the man who hit him because he wasn't injured. Yet he had spent most of the day calling attorneys trying to get a false injury lawsuit filed against the man who hit him. I informed Jake that I was not going to become a co-conspirator for insurance fraud and he immediately exploded into an argument with me stating, "How am I supposed to pay for this ticket?" My reply was that he was the one that was riding the GoPed and that this was his problem not the man who hit him and certainly not me. The argument then intensified to the point I had to leave my motorhome. I went next door to visit a friend of mine and cool off. After about an hour I returned to my motorhome and informed Jake that I was returning him back to Phoenix that night. He then said, "That's your answer for everything, you just quit." Realizing that I had been challenged I decided to accept it and told him that I would take him to the interview in the morning in my car, that he was responsible for finding his own way home after the interview because I had to work and that his first paycheck was in mine so that I would be able to repair my GoPed. He agreed and later that night I went to bed around 9 PM because I had to work the next morning. Jake remained up and on my computer till about 3 AM when I insisted that he go to bed because he had an interview in the morning. Grudgingly he agreed and went to bed.

    Around 6:30 AM we both got up. I began to get into my uniform and he began to get dressed for the interview. As he was getting dressed he put on a wrinkled shirt as big as a trash bag. I told him that this was a professional interview for an office position and that this kind of clothing was not acceptable. He then walked down the hallway and yelled at me, "It's the only shirt I've got man." I told him he could wear a white shirt and tie of mine, which he did. Afterwards he came back to my bedroom and said, "After the interview I want you to take me to Walgreen's and buy my pain medication." I informed Jake that he was the one who was riding my GoPed where I asked him not to and got injured as a result of it. That he alone was responsible for his own actions and therefore I was not responsible for buying his pain medication. Then Jake exploded into another argument and I told him that I was not going to put up with this. I told him that we were finished and that he should take off my shirt and tie, put on his own clothes and that I was taking him back to Phoenix immediately. He then walked out leaving all his possessions behind. I assumed that he had gone for a walk to blow off steam. Realizing that I still had about an hour and a half before I had to go to work I decided to give Jake some time to come back and that I would deal with him when that happened. Jake then returned and asked me if I was going to take him to the interview and I told him that I wasn't and that if he wanted to go to the interview he would have to make it on his own. He then entered my motorhome and was inside for about 20 minutes. I assumed that he was packing his possessions up and putting them into my car so that I could take him back to Phoenix however this is not what happened.  Instead he changed his clothes and left, leaving all his possessions behind.

    The next thing to occur was the arrival of two police officers one male and the other female. I was in the yard raking debris at the time. They appeared to be lost so I asked them if I could help them. They asked me if this was lot 7 and I told them that it was. They asked me if I knew Jacob Franks and I said that I did. I then asked them, "What has he gotten himself into now?" They replied that Jake was very upset with them for giving him a ticket for riding my GoPed in a crosswalk yesterday. I told them that I was aware of this and informed them that he had no job to pay for the ticket. They asked if they could see my GoPed and I pulled it out of the trunk of my car. They asked if they could discuss this matter inside my motorhome and I told them I had no problem with that. Upon entry into my motorhome they observed my computer and informed me that a complaint had been filed with them stating that I had child pornography that had been stored on CD-ROM. They asked me if I had such materials and I replied that I did not. There were numerous questions that followed this which ultimately led to a crude version of Maranda which was more in reference to certain television shows than an actual reading me of my rights, at which time I refused to answer any further questions until I had an attorney present. I was then informed that questioning was terminated and that I was free to go, but I was not allowed back inside my motorhome as it was a crime scene. I then drove to Phoenix to get my GoPed repaired, while the police obtained a search warrant and confiscated all of my computer equipment.  Months went by and I had heard nothing from the police. In this situation I figured no news was good news. During this time I received better offers for employment in other cities and I took them because as the police had told me I was free to go.  Jake on the other hand hacked and defaced my websites destroying eight years of work and  was arrested for burglary in Phoenix a month later.

    On June 22nd I was arrested by the Lynnwood, WA. Police Department due to the fact that a warrant for my arrest was issued from Arizona. Funny thing is that my horoscope for that day couldn't have been more accurate. Consequently I was expecting their arrival, but not just because of that.  My parents had called me on the phone two weeks before the 22nd to tell me that the Phoenix Police Department had made a visit to inquire where I was. Then a week later the detective who interviewed me in Tucson a year ago contacted my parents to inquire where I was. At both occasions the police refused to tell my parents what the situation was all about so my parents refused to tell them where I was. When I got these phone calls from my parents I knew it was just a matter of time before they found me. All it took them was two weeks.

    On the afternoon of June 22nd there was a knock on my door. I was watching television in the bedroom at the time. When I got to the front door I looked through the window and saw two gentlemen wearing Hawaiian shirts who looked like they had just come from a barbecue. I assumed that they were parked in a motorhome next to mine. I opened the door and stood in the doorway and asked the men if I could help them. One of them asked me are you Jim Coghill? I replied that I was and was immediately yanked by my left arm through the doorway of my motorhome where I nearly fell on the ground. Without any further word from these men I was placed in handcuffs and put into a black unmarked car. As we drove out of the RV Park they asked me what I did for a living and I told them that I was an aircraft mechanic. I then said, "Would you mind telling me who you people are?" It was then that they told me that they were with the Lynnwood Police Department and they were responding to a warrant for my arrest from Arizona. I thought this was all rather strange. They never displayed identification as being police officers. They never asked me for identification. Hell even the KGB asks for identification!

    I spent a few hours in the Lynnwood Police Department jail and was then transferred to Snohomish County jail where I was arraigned on video court and asked if I intended to contest extradition. Not wanting to make anything easy for them and realizing the fact that my parents were on a two-week vacation and out-of-town I decided to contest extradition. Not once did I expect that my family would intervene on my behalf, yet they did. I simply wanted to be able tell them that I was in jail and explain how this had come to pass. For two weeks I sat in the Snohomish County jail waiting for my parents to return home. Due to the fact that I was denied access to my cell phone the only phone number that I could remember was that of my parents. Initially I was placed on the second floor with nearly 100 other people. Due to the fact that I was arraigned in front of 25 other people who were waiting for their case to come up on video court, they announced to all who were present exactly what my charge was. Now you have to remember that I told you that the title of the law bares no resemblance to what I am charged with and that this is due to the fact that this law was created in haste. As a result it sounds worse than it is when you hear it and it led everyone in that room to assume that I was a child molester. Needless to say within about an hour everyone in the jail was under this assumption. Due to overcrowding I was forced to sleep on the floor outside the doors to the jail cells. They kept the lights on 24 hours a day which forced to everyone to blindfold themselves to avoid staring into the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. I must confess that I was seriously contemplating suicide. Being up on the second floor it would have been very easy for me to do a swan dive to the concrete floor below with my head tucked under so when I hit the floor it would snap my neck. I thought about this for days and each time that I did a little voice inside my head repeatedly told me not to. It told me that everything was going to be OK. Although even now I have no real reason to believe that it's true.

    After about a week I was transferred to a cell. When this happened I thought I was screwed. I thought this was when I was going to get it, but a very strange thing happened. My roommate in this cell was a young man named Justin. I scanned him and I could sense that he was very religious, but I couldn't tell in exactly what way, although I did detect a strong element of Christianity. Realizing the brainwashing of our time I decided to leave religion off the topic of discussion. Yet on the second day it came up, mostly due to the fact that you have a tremendous amount of time to talk. I asked Justin if he was a Christian and he replied that he was and added that he was more spiritual than just Christian. When I heard that I was very pleased and opened up the floodgates of discussion. I became his teacher, I spent nearly a week with him and we would stay up till three o'clock in the morning talking about religion. Everything I said to him he sucked up like a sponge. I have never seen anybody literally adsorb information the way he did. After about 5 days I pointed out to him that the odds of two people like us meeting each other in a place like this were astronomical. It was then that he told me that I was an answer to his prayers. I was totally stunned by what he said. About two days later I was standing outside my cell looking at the large open area of the module my cell was part of when something odd happened and I recognized it from a similar event in my past. It looked as if the entire room had lost its color. Everything appeared black and white and there was a strange sensation of distance and I got the feeling that I would never see this building again. I told Justin about this and later that night I was transferred to the third-floor. I was in tears as we were separated and I told him to get out of this place and go make a life for himself.

    News of my arrival evidently had preceded me on the third-floor because I was only there a few days. They had to remove me because they were concerned for my safety. As a result of this I was placed into protective custody on the fifth floor. It was here that I met a young Wiccan. When I first met him I looked into his eyes and saw a human being at the end of his rope. Due to the fact that he was a pagan I had no problems discussing the subject of religion with him from the beginning. As a result of our discussions I discovered that he was very interested in Buddhism. This was especially evident when he asked me to teach him everything I knew. At the time I was practicing Ngalso on a daily basis. Ngalso was taught to me by Lama Kadag in the year 2000 and I had been performing it daily as a method of lowering my stress factor. It had become the glue that was holding me together. (For more info see my web site (http://ngalsotantra.tripod.com) I suggested that I teach Ngalso to him and he became very excited about it. We would get up early in the morning and go out to the recreation area where we wouldn’t disturb anybody and practice daily. As time went on some of the inmates discovered what we were doing and complained, but there wasn't anything they could do about it. During this time I managed to contact my parents who passed the information on to my brother-in-law, who contacted a friend of his who is a criminal attorney. My brother-in-law also made arrangements to have my motorhome and my car returned to Phoenix. Another odd coincidence to this is that my motorhome arrived in Arizona the same day I did. I find this to be truly bizarre. My family saved my motorhome and car. It is now back at my parents house but I know they hate the fact that its here. Yet my family came to my aid in ways I never expected. I now have 2 attorneys, my father who has decided to come out of retirement for this and Jim Lagatutta who is my primary attorney. Something I never expected would happen. As a result of all of this I am $15,000 in debt, but that’s better than a public defender. Jim Lagatutta told me that there was nothing further he could do for me until I returned back to Arizona where he would then request for full disclosure of the evidence against me. I asked him if he was ready for this and he said that he was. I then asked him what the next step was and he told me that I had to waive extradition and that he would take care of it for me if I was ready to go. I told him I was.

    I was picked up for transport at 4:30pm on Aug 11th at the Snohomish County Jail by a company called TransCor out of Nashville, TN. I had been incarcerated 3.5 weeks by then. I was transported in a van from the jail to Eugene, OR where we stopped for the night. We had picked up 4 other people along the way. I was unable to sleep on the concrete bench and it was very cold. From there we spent another 3 days non-stop, no sleep, 4 days with no bath, making our way down the length of CA. The van reeked. Then we stopped in El Centro, CA. where I was so exhausted I could have slept standing up. I woke up the next morning and was assaulted by two inmates. I was struck two times in my right ear while 25 men stood in a line preventing me from getting to the guards. I never struck back or attempted to defend myself. I did it Gandhi style, and I am grateful to learn I have that amount of self-control. I managed to break through the line and was put into solitary confinement for 4 days, only being let out for showers and to sneak in a phone call. I did allot of meditating during all of this, sometimes 4 times a day. On Wednesday I was picked up with the other guys I was traveling with, one of which was the second guy to hit me. About 30 miles from the CA / AZ border the bus driver ran the bus out of gas in the middle of the desert. The gas gauge didn't work. All of the windows on the bus were locked in place with screws and covered over with Plexiglas so you couldn't get to them. The guards began disassembling the bus to get the windows open before we all died. Gas arrived 1.5 hrs. later and we began to move again. I arrived in Tucson at 4:30pm that day. As I was being booked I requested protective custody and was immediately whisked away to a holding cell where I was denied access to a phone to call my attorney. I was then put in solitary confinement again and spent one night in the Tucson jail. At 1:30pm the following day I was arraigned where I was released on my own recognizance to the supervision of my family without bail. My trial is slated for Oct 7th for jury selection and then to begin in earnest on the 17th.

    For the first time I have been able to read my accusers testimony and the evidence that the police have arrayed against me. As to my accusers testimony I will say this; I have never read in my life a larger collection of lies. In numerous instances in his testimony to the police he undeniably contradicts himself. In addition to that his testimony reveals himself as the source of the computer data I am charged with and that his motivation in notifying the police is based purely on revenge due to the fact that I was throwing him out of my motorhome. I have never read a testimony so self-incriminating. The man is a complete and total idiot. The only thing that the police have are my fingerprints on the disks, at least as far as we can tell at this moment. However fingerprints on disks as you know are no indication that I knew what was on them. So unless the police have information that they have not revealed yet, which is highly unlikely, their case against me is very weak. My father has reviewed the law that I am charged with in detail. This has revealed information concerning my sentencing that I was not aware of before. It is my hope that the charges will either be completely dropped and the case dismissed, which is a distinct possibility, or I will be given the offer to plead guilty to a misdemeanor which would result in some probation time, but no jail time.  This is quite different from the 255 years I was told I could get. The Snohomish County jail is like a Boy Scout Camp compared to the Pima County jail. The Pima County jail is a much more violent place.

    For information concerning the legal aspects of this crime in regard to Arizona Law and sentencing click the law button on the left.

 

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