Phony P.I. — FBI Mole Or Worse?

by Mark Smiley | May 27, 2016 | Main Articles

All Charges Dismissed

Is Agent Ravenelle Another Schlaff Or Even Connolly?

by Charles C. Bonniwell

Just when people thought the Authentic Persian & Oriental Rug development controversy could not get any stranger, it has. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) demanded that the Office of Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler dismiss all charges and quash all warrants against the phony private investigator from Tennessee, Charles Johnson “for reasons that cannot be disclosed.” (See FBI letter on page 4.)

FBI Viewing Average Citizens As Criminals

Johnson allegedly stalked, harassed and intimidated the City of Glendale City Clerk and anyone who had made comments or sent a letter to the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle critical of Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi or his M.A.K. Investment Group, LLC’s redevelopment of 3.8 acres of land along Colorado Boulevard. Johnson had never registered as a private investigator in Colorado nor in his home state of Tennessee. Failure to obtain a private investigator license in Colorado is a Class 2 misdemeanor. Police found on Johnson current driver’s licenses from three different states — Florida, Hawaii and Tennessee — which is a crime in many jurisdictions.

Bizarrely, after being arrested Johnson called back the arresting officers and taunted them and asserted that he was going to file a civil rights complaint with the FBI. Days later the Glendale Police Department received a call from the FBI saying that a complaint had been filed and they were immediately going to begin an investigation and not even wait to see if Johnson was, in fact, found guilty. The FBI did not say what the complaint was based on and never disputed that Johnson appeared to have engaged in criminal conduct.

Strange FBI Interviews

FBI Special Agent Kimberly Milka then starting contacting persons who filed complaints against Johnson including Glendale City Clerk Sherry Frame and Richard Witholder who wrote a letter modestly critical of Kheirkhahi’s proposed development to the Chronicle. Milka insisted that they provide an interview with the FBI. Apparently the interviews were strange affairs having nothing to do with Johnson but instead the interviewee’s opinion on whether Johnson’s arrest should have been on the front page of the Chronicle and whether the articles concerning the proposed development were fair and balanced.

Milka apparently asked Witholder, did he know who the “secret buyer” Glendale had for the M.A.K. property was, which confused Witholder since his only connection with Glendale was he wrote a letter to the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle in opposition to the proposed development.

Deputy City Manager Chuck Line was shocked to learn from the Chronicle that the FBI was spreading a false claim from the wealthy rug merchants that there was a “secret buyer” associated with Glendale for their land. “There is no secret buyer and never has been,” stated Line, and “we are no longer interested in buying their land and have told them so.”

City Clerk Sherry Frame stated in a telephone interview with Fox31 News that Special Agent Milka said that the FBI was regularly monitoring The Peter Boyles Show on 710 KNUS Radio. The Special Agent wanted to know why the show falsely claimed that Johnson had broken into Frame’s residence. Frame corrected the government agent saying she had recently listened to a podcast of the show and what was said was correct, i.e. that Johnson had repeatedly attempted to gain entry into the apartment complex where she lived by incessantly ringing her apartment complex number that transferred to her cell phone.

Legal experts indicate that both Frame and Witholder were both potential key witnesses in the Arapahoe County case, and if anyone else had engaged in the conduct of Special Agent Milka, that such person would likely be charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering by the D.A.

District Attorney Brauchler Praised

Civil libertarians have praised Brauchler for demanding that the FBI produce a letter from the Denver Special Agent in Charge, Thomas P. Ravenelle, and attach the letter to the Motion to Dismiss to the court which made it public record. A district attorney has almost total discretion in such matters and could have hidden the FBI’s invo

lvement in the matter.

More concerning to some is the fact that apparent FBI informant Charles Johnson and FBI Special Agent Milka were clearly violating the 1st Amendment rights of the citizens like Witholder who simply wrote letters to a newspaper on a matter of public concern. Some of the victims of the FBI’s actions have wondered when it is the FBI violating your rights, who do you get to complain to?

Free To Kill

For experienced Cherry Creek Valley hands the case seemed to have echoes of the Scott Lee Kimball debacle of seven years ago involving the Denver FBI which effectively destroyed its reputation locally. While the Chronicle wrote extensively on the case, perhaps the best full summarization of the case is located on the Boulder Daily Camera website under the title “Scott Lee Kimball — Free to Kill.”

In December 2002 Kimball was released from jail for various crimes, including forgery, to be an active informant on a drug bust. Instead he went on a four year killing spree murdering at least four women and his uncle with the active assistance or criminal negligence of FBI Special Agent Carle Schlaff.

Kimball was only caught due to the incredible persistence of family members of the women probably tortured and murdered by Kimball and the work of Lafayette Police Officer Gary Thatcher.

“The Cleaner”

Schlaff was replaced on the case by Jonathan Grusing when it became clear that local law enforcement was on to the fact that Kimball was murdering people with the aid and assistance of the FBI. Most of the victims’ families viewed Grusing

Jonathan Grusing, a special agent with the FBI, poses at the Safe Streets Task Force office in Denver.
Photo by Marty Caivano/Camera/Feb. 19, 2010

as a hero, at least as compared to Schlaff, but others dubbed him “The Cleaner” after the Harvey Keitel character in the movie Pulp Fiction. The Cleaner in the movie was sent in to erase all indicia of the crimes and any connection to the Mob. Some viewed Grusing in a similar manner, erasing all evidence of FBI crimes as related to the murders by Scott Lee Kimball.

If that was the role of Grusing, he was very successful as no actions were brought against any person in the Denver FBI office for the murders, unlike the case in Boston where the Whitey Bulger murders resulted in FBI agent John Connolly being sent to prison for 40 years.

Incredibly, Special Agent Grusing is apparently also involved in the Glendale matter with knowledgeable individuals saying that Grusing and Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi are “thick as thieves” and are in regular contact with each other.

The Ribeau Analysis

Some have surmised that Kheirkhahi may be a federal confidential informant himself against the Islamic Republic of Iran where he often travels and has extensive business contacts. In addition, Mike Ribeau, a former Homeland Security agent who heads up ISL Consultants and was at one time embedded with the FBI, believes that the FBI is engaged in a bigger investigation, and that the Johnson affair is causing problems. He surmises that the FBI is attempting to claim that Glendale officials, by not automatically approving the vague and inchoate development suggestions of Kheirkhahi, are violating the civil rights of the rug merchants.

He points to the Obama Administration’s recent effort to override local zoning laws in suburban communities to provide a massive influx of low income individuals and foreign born immigrants. The mere fact that Glendale residents and neighborhood groups throughout Denver are opposed to the massive condo project on Colorado Boulevard is perhaps, for the FBI, proof positive that Glendale officials are engaging in criminal Islamophobia notwithstanding the fact that opposition has nothing to do with religion.

Other experts consulted by the Chronicle found Ribeau’s analysis “highly plausible.” If the Ribeau analysis is correct, then Glendale and surrounding Denver neighborhoods are in for a long, hot summer with the incredibly wealthy rug merchants with potentially unlimited funds coming in from Iran and their expensive, high-powered law firms teaming up with the power of the U.S. federal government to quash any and all local opposition to anything that Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi wishes to impose directly or indirectly. For some, it could be a scary time to be a resident of the Cherry Creek Valley where the normal rights of American citizens may potentially no longer be of very much importance to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Susman’s Secret Emails Revealed In Court

by Mark Smiley | May 27, 2016 | Main Articles

CRL Lobbyist Instructs Her On What To Say

Court Approves Of Rank Public Corruption

by the Staff of the Chronicle

It was the moment that neighborhood groups and families feared might never occur, but it did in open court on April 22, 2016. Greg Kerwin, the attorney for seven everyday citizens opposing the rezoning of the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church property in Crestmoor Park, read out loud secret email after secret email of City Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman proving that the rezoning of the property had been rigged as had always been surmised by the citizens.

Kerwin, as part of the discovery process, had demanded all emails of Susman related to the Mount Gilead rezoning, but the City and County of Denver did not provide certain emails that Kerwin knew existed. He then demanded the emails from her secret, off record gmail account be provided. The City Attorney having been accused of engaging in open record fraud in other cases finally complied and voila, there was a treasure trove of evidence of the corruption of the zoning process.

Kerwin pointed Judge Gilman to an amazing email dated March 20, 2015, from Sean Maley of the powerful lobbying firm CRL Associates, Inc. (CRL). CRL had made major monetary contributions to Susman’s re-election campaign even though she had no opponent. In the email Maley instructed Councilwoman Susman exactly what to say at an upcoming City Council meeting. Apparently, the developer, Metropolitan Homes, did not have the votes or support necessary to carry the day regarding the Mt. Gilead rezoning and therefore wanted a delay. Maley appeared to be telling the councilwoman to lie to the public, declaring she should say that the hearing “will be continued to a later date . . . [to allow the developer] to sort out the modifications to their plan and to better understand the process and timing.”

Susman meekly replied to the email back eight minutes later, “Okay. You don’t want me to say anything like ‘changes in response to community feedback?”

To the shock and amazement of the crowd of families and supporters of Crestmoor Park in the courtroom, Denver District Court Judge Shelley I. Gilman appeared to luxuriate and wallow with glee in the utter corruption of the rezoning process in Denver, totally dismissing the clear evidence of the rigging.

Next Kerwin brought to the attention of the court the incredible fact that Denver literally refused to consider the parking and traffic/transportation impacts in the rezoning as a matter of city policy and that fact was so stated by one of the council members at the meeting. Deputy City Attorney Lucero conceded that what Kerwin had stated was absolutely true.

Judge Gilman then refused to allow the concession and ordered the Deputy City Attorney to argue that the fact that the citizens voiced disbelief at the city’s refusal to consider these issues somehow constituted the Denver City Council hearing the issues.

One attendee noted, “She literally was acting as the Deputy City Attorney in charge of the case. She should have simply left the bench, gone to the defense table and had a soliloquy with herself.”

Kerwin then pointed out to the Court that Planning Board Member Jim Bershof actually signed the rezoning application himself for the Mt. Gilead property and argued to his fellow Board members that they approve the rezoning. Once again, to the dismay of the courtroom attendees, Judge Gilman had no problem with this clearly unethical conduct, indicating as long as the person doesn’t vote nothing else matters no matter how outrageous.

An observer of the planning process noted that her opinion is great news for 11 members of the Planning Board all of whom were appointed by Mayor Hancock and includes numerous developers. The observer pointed out that if you want to get your project through Denver Planning you hire one or more of the Planning Board members to sign the application and argue in front of staff and the remaining members for its approval. The Planning Board members just need to take turns getting paid from developers and they should all become very rich in a relatively short period. If Judge Gilman’s ruling is upheld in the appellate process developers can simply hire the mayor or council members in a town to argue for approval of their project as long as they do not vote in the end.

Virtually every argument made for the citizens by Kerwin was denigrated by Judge Gilman. Conversely she appeared to smile and nod in approval regarding every argument made by the Deputy City Attorney only interrupting him to provide her own defenses when he did not make a defense.

In theory a judge is supposed to act in a neutral manner in the open courtroom, treating both sides equally so as to at least give the façade of impartiality. In the 2012 report by the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation which recommended she be retained, it declared that she had received high marks for “treating all parties equally” and “conducts an efficient and neutral courtroom.” For anyone attending the hearing either the report was simply another judicial whitewash or her judicial demeanor has suffered a precipitous demise over the last four years.

A highly disappointed neighborhood advocate declared “our seven neighborhood plaintiffs might as well have been the Scottsboro Boys in front of the infamous Judge William Washington Callahan down in Alabama in the 1930s. We knew they were dead from the first few minutes of the hearing.”

When the Court’s decision came down on May 17 absolutely no one was surprised by Judge Gilman finding for the city in each and every argument with never a single indication of hesitancy or even legal nuance.

In a telephone interview with Councilwoman Susman following the issuance of Judge Gilman’s ruling, she stated regarding the secret email account, that “she gets emails from all avenues including social media — Facebook and Twitter.” She did not recall the March 20 email from Sean Maley but that she would have been “just receiving information.” Councilwoman Susman indicated she was pleased that “the judge ruled that I was impartial in my dealings with both sides.”

One attendee at the hearing could not understand why Judge Gilman had bothered to have a hearing. “She absolutely knew how she was going to rule before she walked into that courtroom and did not bother to listen to anything the plaintiffs had to say. Perhaps she wanted to embarrass the neighborhood groups by showing them that the courts are also a farce in the City and County of Denver. If that was her goal she succeeded. I will never again believe in our legal system after the display she put on at

that hearing.”

For the neighborhood groups, Judge Gilman’s behavior was all the more dismaying due to the fact they will perhaps never have such clear and convincing proof of corruption and rigging of the process. Attorney Kerwin noted that city councilpersons will never again use secret emails that might be discovered. Instead all the rigging will be done verbally.

The plaintiffs, pursuant to Colorado Appellate Rule 50, will ask the Colorado Supreme Court to hear an expedited appeal on the matter because important, statewide precedents were established. However, for many of the citizens who attended Judge Gilman’s hearing, any faith in the legal system as a fair and impartial arbiter of cases brought before it has effectively been destroyed by her conduct on the 22nd of April 2016.