Posted on 01/08/2002 12:17:03 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
Man accused of threatening Gov. Bush, Collier judge in letter acts as his own lawyer
Tuesday, January 8, 2002
By CHRIS W. COLBY, cwcolby@naplesnews.com
Unlike what happens with most people in the bright orange Collier County Jail uniform, Larry Parks' day in court Monday didn't go half bad.
Parks insisted on wearing the jumpsuit instead of dress clothes and turned down a judge's advice that an attorney be appointed to his case. Instead, he acted as his own lawyer, despite the risk of facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of threatening Florida's governor and a Collier judge.
Monday in court, the 49-year-old Fort Myers man, who has no training in law, held his own as he cross-examined witnesses, questioned potential jurors and made objections.
Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Miller halted the trial during the mid-afternoon to allow both sides time to research whether a recorded conversation between Parks and a Collier sheriff's deputy should be admitted into evidence. In the conversation, Parks can be heard describing how it's possible to blow up the Collier County Courthouse, according to court records.
The deputy, Cpl. Rich Heersema, testified he had pulled over Parks on Immokalee Road and asked him to remain there as investigators came to question him about a threatening letter sent Sept. 20 to Gov. Jeb Bush.
Parks' property at 1200 Mingo Drive off Immokalee Road in Golden Gate Estates was scheduled to be seized and sold Oct. 2 at a tax sale because of $1 million in liens on it. The author of the handwritten letter, signed with Parks' name and Mingo Drive address, contended there was corruption in Collier County government and asked the governor to step in.
The letter indicated "the state militia" would defend the Parks family and "punish the corrupt public servants in this case on an individual basis" using frontier justice. And it referred to Collier County Circuit Judge Ted Brousseau getting "shot and killed over this mess because he was the presiding judge in this case."
Parks was arrested the same day as his property sold to county government for $100. Parks, who gave police the address 8519 Irwin St. in Fort Myers, is being held at the Collier County Jail on $1 million bond on two felony charges. Prosecutors say Parks hand-delivered a second letter, this one to Brousseau, that ends, "If they want a gunfight, so be it."
But in court, Parks asked jurors if they understood the First Amendment and the right to "redress our grievances to the government." He denied threatening harm to either public official.
"Airing displeasure with the corruption in Collier County isn't against the law. Nor is trying to expose that corruption," Parks said in his opening statement.
Parks did virtually everything in the trial himself. Assistant Public Defender Gina Marie Braten was appointed standby attorney but helped Parks only when he asked for it.
As onlookers from throughout the courthouse and citizens watched, Parks handled his case well, making two significant objections to evidence elicited from witnesses by Assistant State Attorney Anne Gibson.
He objected when Deborah McDaniels, of Citizens Services in the governor's office, said the threatening letter she read was sent by Parks.
"She can't prove I sent the letter. She assumes I wrote the letter, but she can't prove that either," Parks told the judge, who upheld his objection.
Parks also objected when Gibson tried to introduce into evidence an audio tape of Parks' conversation on Immokalee Road with Heersema. As Parks sat on the trunk of his car talking with the deputy, Parks spoke about the situation with his property. Heersema began tape-recording the conversation without Parks' knowledge.
"He said he had sent a letter to a judge. At that point we didn't know which judge, but we knew it was a judge in Collier County," Heersema testified.
Parks said he hadn't been advised of his Miranda rights. That means the deputy didn't tell him about a suspect's right to remain silent and have a lawyer present when questioned by police.
Miller stopped the trial, ushered out the jury of four men, two women and two alternates, and called a recess. She asked if the prosecutor could provide case law about when a person can legally be recorded by police without knowing about it and when a suspect can be questioned without being given a Miranda warning.
Gibson said police use secret recording devices during drug buys. While citizens can't legally record someone without consent, a law enforcement officer can, she argued. And Parks hadn't been arrested and wasn't in custody, so a Miranda warning was unnecessary.
Miller postponed the trial until Wednesday so Gibson and Parks, with help from Braten, can research the issue. Miller is busy with unrelated court matters today and had expected the trial to spill into Wednesday and possibly Thursday.
Even if Miller rules the tape can't be used, Gibson has other evidence. Parks was recorded in another statement he agreed to give deputies after his arrest in which he admitted to writing the letters, according to court records. He was spotted at the courthouse dropping off the letter addressed to Brousseau, who is expected to testify Wednesday. And jurors already heard from lab technicians about a fingerprint taken from the letter to Bush and matched to Parks.
Also, whoever wrote this piece (the reporter, not the FReeper) is an ill-trained idiot.
Is'nt that the S.W. section of the state, around Naples? If so, there is plenty of room for mischief.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.