 |
|
|
|
|
Jeffrey D. Bigger
The Madison County Drug Task Force Team of Madison County committed the following act in the city of Huntsville, Alabama On August 21 1997, the actual events that you are about to read are true.
On August 21 1997 at approximately 12:15 a.m., someone knocked at the front door of our home.
My wife woke me up and said "Jeff there is someone at the door."
I looked at the clock and said, " They can go away it is after midnight".
We were already in bed and about to fall asleep. The knock came again, very loud and forceful. I got up and out of the bed and threw on some shorts. I headed for the door, and as I was reaching for the doorknob, the door came open with nine screaming men coming through it.
I raised my hands, and said, "I surrender and I have nothing to say until I have legal council."
I was then thrown to the floor, handcuffed, hit, and kicked from all sides. This happened repeatedly. each time I asked for legal council, or when I asked whom they were. This torture continued for over thirty minutes.
At the same time these nine men hit my wife Tammy and used extreme sexual and abusive language toward her. Tammy repeatedly asked, "Who are you?" "Who do you work for?" "Why are you here?" "Can I put some clothes on?" There reply was (paraphrased, it changed in vulgarity each time) "Shut your whoring mouth you do not need f------ clothes." You stupid whore it is none of your business who the f--- we are." She got the same reply each time, as filthy, mean, and degrading as I have ever heard.
This action went on for over two hours with her in her nightgown. After hours of the torture and extortion, I just started telling them anything I thought that they wanted to know or to hear. I have been in fear for our physical safety, mainly my wife.
I was also in fear of what these men are going to do to us when they couldn't find the eight to eighteen pounds of marijuana, and the thousands of dollars they claimed I had. (As told by their paid informant)
I repeatedly asked to be taken to jail and was hit in the face each time I asked. I began to believe that the men were not officers of any sort, and only after money, guns, vehicles and drugs for their own profit.
They told me that if I would go out and get more marijuana in my truck, that my wife would not go to jail. I was told that if I gave them all the money I had, that I would be able to "sleep in my own bed tonight."
This is just two of the many offers and bribes made by the Task Force Team that night. The theme was same throughout, "Do this for us and we will not do this to you." (Extortion)
After producing a small amount of marijuana, they kept on saying to me "Where is the rest?"
They weighed what they claimed they found and told us, "This is not enough."
Then the apparent team leader went outside of our home, and away from our property and came back inside the house with a big plastic bag containing several small plastic bags. He told us he went out to our detached garage and found it in a car that was parked inside there. A few minutes later, when filling out the police report he stated he found it in a cabinet in the garage.
After two hours they arrested us, and booked us into the filmy, dangerous Madison County Jail. Just before leaving our home they let my wife get dressed - in front of one of the men.
When they took us outside in handcuffs they put her in another car and I was not sure if I would ever see her again. When we finally made it to the Courthouse, I saw my wife and I was so glad and relieved. Until I saw here, I was still not sure if these were officers or men robbing us.
We made bail. Several days later the authorities at several places where I had construction contracts. I owned my own business at the time (it is now abolished and my wife is stuck with all the financial debt). We were approached by the same men who tortured and arrested us and asked for my badge and papers. Is it legal for officers of the law to personally persecute and harass those they have arrested?
After enduring these interrogations and interviewing several (for the purpose of legal defense) attorneys in the area of Huntsville, I believe that this type of behavior is a standard operating procedure with this particular group of officers. We are not the only victims of the Madison County Drug Task Force Team.
These men are not funded by any elected organization. They pay their salaries from what they seize and what their paid informants or "snitches" raise by selling the illegal substances.
These are men with the motta of "Seizure of assets as their primary motivation" tear at the very fabric of freedom and liberty.
|
|
 |