A WDOC employee has falsified official documents in its never-
ending commission of illegal activities, and in so doing has committed
a Federal felony.
Michael Singleton was sentenced to prison on three counts, as
follows: Count 1 = 21 months, with a 36 month firearm enhancement;
Count 2 = 84 months; and Count 3 = 54 months. The firearm
enhancement runs consecutive to the base sentence on count 1,
totalling a 57 month sentence there. Counts 1-3 all run concurrent
to each other. His Judgment and Sentence (J&S) clearly states–in 5 separate places–that the 36 month enhancement is affixed to count 1, a second degree assault. When he came into the system, WDOC
calculated his prison release dates based upon the data contained
in his J&S.
Singleton recently went to his case manager and explained that the WDOC was in violation of the Dress decision (Dress v. DOC, 168 Wn. App. 319, 327-28 (2012)) because WDOC was applying the firearm
enhancement to the wrong charges: the enhancement attached to
count 1 was being attached to the 84 month sentence on count 2. WDOC was attempting to alter the terms of the J&S without going to court, resulting in Singleton serving two enhancement terms where only one was imposed. The total sentence ultimately ended up as 120 months (84 months on count 2 + 36 month firearm enhancement from count 1), and Singleton–who was scheduled for release in November of 2016–brought it to WDOC ‘s attention that he was serving too much time by approximately 9 months.
Singleton’s case manager contacted C. Edwards, Correctional
Records Tech 1 (which seems to be a fancy title for “Secretary”),
who then arbitrarily changed Singleton’s sentence more that six years after the J&S became final. That is to say, Edwards decided to run the 36
month firearm enhancement consecutive to the 21 month sentence
on count 1, AND consecutive to the 84 month sentence on count 2.
In order to accomplish this feat, Edwards wrote an official
communication to Singleton, stating that WDOC had just received
an amended J&S dated 2/17/2010 which changed his release date by
putting count 1’s firearm enhancement onto count 2. Edwards’ alteration
changed Singleton’s release date to 2/19/2017.
The problem with this scenario is that there is no amended J&S
dated 2/17/2010. Ostensibly, such a statement was intended to
make the amendent to Singleton’s sentence seem as if it came from
the court. This is so because, in the aforementioned Dress decision,
WDOC was chastised for altering the provisions of a J&S. The Dress
court made it very clear that WDOC does not have the authority to
alter or ignore the provisions of a final J&S–only the courts do. By
telling Singleton that it had just received an amended J&S, it would
appear that it has the authority to change Singleton’s release date.
However, the correspondence that Edwards sent to Singleton was
on official WDOC stationary, bearing an authentic reproduction of the
State seal. Because Edwards lied about having just received an
amendent to the J&S authorizing the amendment to Singleton’s
more onerous term of imprisonment, Edwards has violated 18 U.S.C.
section 1519 (“Whoever knowingly alters, …falsifies, or makes false
entry in any record, document … with the intent to impede, obstruct,
or influence the … proper administration of any matter within the
jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States … shall
be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years or both.”
Society should be concerned when its prison department–an administrative agency–disregards the law and blatantly uses the power of the State seal with bold face lies to cheat Washington citizens out of their life and liberty without any authority to do so, and without fear of reprecussions for such illegal activity. What’s more, WDOC has already been given a political black eye the last time they got caught doing what they are now doing to Singleton: read the Dress decision for yourself.
Apparently, the Courts of this State need to take notice that the WDOC
is the new Judicial branch in Washington, with unlimited independent
discretion to do whatever the fuck it wants despite what the Court has
clearly instructed. If you have friends or loved ones in prison, you
need to open your eyes and see that it’s time to place this rogue
Orwellian agency back under the fetters of public servancy where it
rightfully belongs–before it is too late.
Singleton has lodged an official complaint with the Secretary of
WDOC on this matter, and cc’d a copy to the U.S. Attorney General. To
date, Singleton is still being held illegally. More details will follow as this situation unfolds.
“Kronos”
Anonymous Inmate Blogger
