After downloading a few more parts of Exhibit A to the Government’s “tour guide” of the River Birch offices, I’m amazed the search team left with only 25 boxes of files. The “wall of files” in the photograph below was clearly visible to anyone “entering the office suites” after stepping off the elevator to the building’s third floor:
The Heebe-River Birch plaintiffs claim the “numerous boxes labeled ‘scanned leases’…[are]…an immediate indication of the presence of Shadowlake Management”, in other words, a different company from River Birch. Not so, says SLABBED and every parent with teenage children! Labeled boxes are an “immediate indication” of – drumroll – labeled boxes!
However, the search team didn’t enter from the lobby. The government’s “tour guide” noted “Special Agent Bezet stated in his Affidavit that he…used the stairway to the third floor…and photographs…were taken contemporaneously with the search”. If so, by the time Bezet reached the wall of files and labeled boxes pictured above (photograph #131), he’d seen:
this (photograph #15)
and this (photograph #111)
and this (Photograph #113)
and a lot more – but nothing that would “preclude the agents from searching the third floor of 2000 Belle Chasse Highway”, according to the government’s tour guide .
I’m told, reliably IMHO, that the FBI knew exactly what they were looking for upon entering the premisis. The unexpected stuff they found is a bonus.
Our legal team has told us in no uncertain terms the FBI did not overstep given the circumstances and that Berrigan’s first ruling was more the result of the crappy brief written by George Kennedy than anything done wrong in the conduct of the search by the G men.
I’m personally not counting on Berrigan to follow the law here.
sop
Personally, Sop, I hold out hope. True enough, the brief was crap but so was the RB Plaintiffs’ “kiss up” response.
Berrigan has the “tunnel vision” common to those I know who were actively involved in the civil rights movement. Hopefully, she also shares their suspicion of people who lack such credentials and try to slip in the “tunnel” to their personal benefit.
The RB Plaintiffs’ brief was loaded with “buzz words” intended to appeal to her sense of justice – so much so, in fact, that I believe it got her attention and she decided to visit the office and see for herself.
I also believe that, by the time she visits, she will have noticed what I did; i.e., the embedded number in the photographs that show the order the pictures were taken – providing documentation of where the search team entered the third floor, as well as the path the team took on its way to the elevator entrance and office area beyond.
If I’m wrong, it won’t be the 1st time or the last. However, it’s really painful for me when Berrigan makes decisions that are clearly beneath her ability to reason and contrary to “justice for all” – but I’ve got a new bottle of Aleve on hand, just in case.
I cannot help but wonder why anyone would believe for a moment that
1. River Birch was going to play fair and open
2. Judge Ginger was not going to help out the son of a collegue if she thinks she can get away with it
3. Files labeled by River Birch held only what was on the labels
4. The fix is not in for the US attornettes to grease the skids for THEIR retirement to the private sector Major Law Firms
5. There isn’t a huge block of icy garbage under the tip of this iceberg.
Garbage is big business, as is gaming, and the same folks tend to be involved in both.
Interesting stuff all this garbage jockeying.