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Knights
in Dirty
Armour
"Innocent... or
Guilty..
Tyranny Decides"
When Shelly Young testified for the State, she had no
knowledge that there were no marks, no bruises, no sign of injury to
Ben. She had been so
shocked at the photographs taken of Ben by George Klatt, and by the
“explanation” given by deputies Eddie Griffith and George Klatt of
what “John had done” to Ben (“beat his head against the bedpost”),
that, when asked by the prosecutor at the second trial, “Are you
afraid of John?”, Shelly harpooned, “I’m terrified of both of these
people.”
Such theatrics have no place in a court of law according to
one Supreme Court Justice.
November 16, 1999:
“Good afternoon, I’m Charles Ely, and this is the Channel 8
news:”
John and Gilda Marie Schoonover were arrested this morning by
Nowata County Sheriffs Deputies at the home of James and Nora
Stanart,
parents of Gilda Marie Schoonover. The couple were taken to
Mayes
County, where they are charged with First Degree Murder in
the death
of their two-year old son, Benjamin
Michael.
Authorities report that Gilda held her son while John
tortured
him with a pitchfork and beat him to death with a baseball
bat. John
reportedly confessed to brutally murdering his son to
employees at
St Francis Hospital, where Benjamin died from the massive
injuries.
John and Gilda
Schoonover are being held in the Mayes County Jail.
District Judge Terry McBride refused bail for the couple,
stating,
“This was the most heinous crime” he’d ever
seen.
The so-called “authorities” who reported this to the media,
as well as the arresting officer, were one and the same. This one individual was
George Klatt, the Chief Investigator for prosecutor Charles Ramsey,
and bidder of Jim Stanart.
The front page headlines and graphic stories in five area
newspapers were worse.
John and Marie Schoonover had been publicly lynched by the
media.
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Mayes
County Regional Medical Center admitting physicians Dr. DeLong and
Dr. Gietzen would testify at both trials that they … “examined Ben
from head to toe and could find no visible signs of any injury. Attending nurses Childers
and Lewis’s testimony corroborated those of Dr. DeLong and Dr.
Gietzen. Dr. Fell, of
St Francis Hospital in Tulsa, logged in his record, “No surface
injuries”. Dr. Barton,
also of St Francis, also recorded, “No visible injuries”, and would
testify he did not make a note of the barely visible half-inch
hairline fracture on the initial MRI on the back of Ben’s skull
because “it was insignificant”. Texas Medical Examiner, Dr.
Krouse, testified “No broken bones, no old fractures, no puncture
wound or abrasions, and no bruising to indicate child abuse. Only a single 12mm
(half-inch) fracture on the back of Ben’s head, and that it is
likely that a fall from a piano bench on the cement surface is what
led to this child’s death”.
Supreme Court Justice Levanthal of the 9th Circuit
in a 1988 ruling; “If the government police and prosecutors could
always be trusted to do the right thing, there would have never been
a need for the ‘Bill of Rights’”.
Attorney Gary Madison would not defend John at trial, but he
would defend Marie. As
it was now public knowledge that John had “confessed to killing
Ben”, it was justification for a second bond hearing, as there was
nothing presented to show any cause for even arresting Marie in the
first place.
Despite
documentation of John’s extensive coronary artery disease, John was
put in a cell with convicted violent felons with “little to lose”,
who physically retaliated against John for his alleged charges of
murdering a child.
The
beatings stopped when inmate Fame Lee recognized that John was
having a heart attack, and if John were to be beaten to death, at
least one of the assailant inmates would get life without the
possibility of parole.
Fame Lee would later succumb to a fatal heart attack in the
same cell.
John asked
to see a physician, preferably a cardiologist. “Fill out this request and
sign it.” John quickly
filled out “severe angina pectoris with cheyne stokes respiration”
and continued eating nitroglycerine while laying on the
floor.
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Four
Supreme Court Justices from 1976 to 2000 have ruled “Elementary
principles of the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth
Amendment (clearly) establishes the government’s obligation to
provide medical care for those whom it is punishing by
incarceration”, and “prison official’s knowledge of deliberate
indifference to prisoner’s serious medical needs may be established
by circumstantial evidence”.
Withholding all cardiac medication except for the
nitroglycerine is considerably more than “circumstantial evidence”,
and “finding of deliberate indifference by prison officials to
serious medical needs of inmate, in violation of Eighth or
Fourteenth Amendments necessarily precludes finding of qualified
immunity”.
And,
“Pretrial detainee’s constitutional rights are distinct from a
prisoners rights, because states cannot punish a pretrial
detainee”.
Janelle
Buckskin, the Mayes County Jail Administrator, would twice more deny
medical attention.
First, when John suffered a stroke and requested (in writing)
a physician, and second, when a steel door was slammed on Marie’s
hand, crushing her knuckles.
Marie was secreted to an isolation room so that she would not
be able to show her injury to a visiting state prison health
inspector.
Janelle
Buckskin refused John Schoonover’s requested medical attention. She would state her reason
to the court, “He didn’t complain of any
pain”.
Had John
expired in the Mayes County Jail, it would have ended there. The commitment at the
hospital to Jim Stanart to “nail John to the wall” would have been
fulfilled with one coffin nail, and the news media (catering to
George Klatt) would print his authorization: “A deserving end to a child
murderer; justice has been served”, and Marie would be set free as
there was no probable cause; nothing to connect her with the death
of her great-nephew.
“Trust me”.
Gary
Madison had one surprise for the court and possibly for prosecutor
Charles Ramsey when he said, “I’d like to call a witness, your
Honor. I’d like to call
Carol Frye to testify”.
Prosecutor
Charles Ramsey objected.
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“Mrs.
Frye, I’m reading a statement on the Probable Cause Affidavit
written and sworn to under oath by George Klatt, the State’s Chief
Investigator, that, and I’m quoting, ‘John Schoonover confessed to
you (Carol Frye) at St Francis Hospital, that he killed Benjamin and
that he told you to tell the rest of the family’. Is that true, Mrs
Frye?”
“No. I was never in the same room
with John, and he never spoke to me.”
“I’d like
to call Mrs Judy Girdner.”
Again prosecutor Ramsey objected.
“Mrs.
Girdner, I’m reading a statement on the Probable Cause Affidavit
written by and sworn to under oath by Gorge Klatt, that, and I’m
quoting, ‘John Schoonover confessed to Carol Frye at St Francis
Hospital, that he killed Benjamin, and for her to tell the rest of
the family, and this confession was overheard by Judy Girdner.’ Is that true, Mrs
Girdner?”
“No. I was not at the hospital
and could not overhear anything, nor was I told anything about this
before you told me about it yesterday.”
The entire
case should have been dismissed at the revelation of the perjured
Probable Cause Affidavit composed by and sworn to under oath by
George Klatt. This
Probable Cause Affidavit was submitted by prosecutor Charles Ramsey
to Judge Terry McBride.
When discovery of the proof that it was perjured was made,
Judge McBride should have then and there held an investigation and
allowed John and Marie the audience they had requested. No competent Judge would
continue a case on the foundation of a proven perjured Probable
Cause Affidavit.11,12
Bond was
set at $15,000 each by Judge Gary Dean. John and Gilda Marie
Schoonover posted bail and were released pending their first
trial.
Knight
George Klatt was compelled to resign after his web of deceit was
unraveled, though Knight Charles Ramsey would remain entangled to
unwittingly reveal one, more heinous atrocity committed by George
Klatt.
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