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Updated. That’s what Jim White is reporting at the Northwest Liberty News today. According to White:
In the audio-video transcript below, you will hear evidence of a police officer who coerced a defendant and his wife to fire his attorney, Tim Baldwin, so the government could get rid of him. Why? Because Tim Baldwin challenged the prosecutor's case against the defendant and forced the prosecutor to comply with the law…
There’s more. The allegations are serious, and Flathead Memo is not in a position to challenge or verify them, so as always keep an open mind and apply the amount of skepticism you think appropriate.
Update. You can read Tim Baldwin’s report on the situation at his website, and download the affidavit of Kristina Franklin, which contains a notarized transcript (pdf) of her cell phone recording of her conversation with McKeag Johns, whom she describes as her “handler” when she was hired as a confidential informant by the Flathead County Sheriff’s office. The entire transcript is pretty interesting, but these passages were especially so:
Baldwin’s father, Pastor Chuck Baldwin, ran for President on the Constitutionalist Party ticket in 2008.
Sons should not be punished for the sins of their fathers, at least in my book. Whether employees of the Sheriff’s office should be urging people to fire their attorneys is a different question, but in general the practice strikes me as dubious and self-serving.
I expect more detailed reports on this story will be published by the mainstream media tomorrow.