Warden F.J. Bowers of the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis did not reply to an inquiry from The Tennessee Star regarding the letter sent to him on Monday by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), which requested unjustly imprisoned J6 defendant Stewart Parks be moved to the prison’s minimum security satellite camp.
As of Friday afternoon, The Star has not received a response to a Tuesday inquiry sent via email to a publicly available address listed for Bowers’ executive assistant, which sought confirmation that Bowers received Ogles’ letter and additionally to ascertain whether Parks will be moved to the prison’s minimum security camp, if there are issues at FCI Memphis preventing the move, and if Bowers intends to reply to the congressman.
Ogles originally gave Bowers until Saturday to respond to his letter but requested a response by Friday.
His letter was in response to a report by The Star, which detailed the conditions at FCI Memphis, as relayed in a phone call by Parks to The Star’s editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy.
Parks (pictured above) told The Star he was not given the required orientation of new prisoners and was relying on information about the facility provided by other inmates.
“There are murderers and child molesters here,” Parks stated, before explaining that his cellmate, a purported member of the Aryan Brotherhood, warned him of the need to prepare for the likely event their cell would flood.
In his letter, Ogles wrote, “Given Mr. Parks’ lack of a criminal record (alongside personal considerations including difficulty hearing and a speech impediment), it is unfortunate to see that he has now been placed in a facility alongside murderers, child molesters, and gangs.”
“While the sentence itself is arguably a result of blatant political retribution by a well-known ‘activist’ masquerading as a district court judge,” wrote Ogles about the judge who convicted and sentenced Parks, “it is at least objectively clear to anyone that Mr. Parks does not represent a threat to himself or others.”
A Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audit of FCI Memphis additionally revealed multiple instances of inmate-on-inmate sexual assault that did not result in criminal charges within the facility, and media reports suggest the prison has suffered from a sustained problem with smuggling for more than a decade.
Parks was unjustly convicted by Washington, D.C. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta in a trial last year, and earlier this month, Mehta refused Parks’ bid to stay his prison sentence while he appealed his case. In his denial, Mehta also accused Parks of lying in court but did not provide evidence of his dishonesty.
A Tennessee entrepreneur and former Republican candidate for the U.S. House, Parks argued that he was only briefly inside the U.S. Capitol, had reason to believe the public was allowed into the building that day, and was shepherded into the building by police officers.
During his final appearance on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy prior to his incarceration, Parks stated his belief that Mehta and the “judicial elites in DC” aimed to use him as an example to keep other defendants from feeling “emboldened or encouraged.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Only in a dictatorship do we have such malfeasance of the law. These judges need to be charged with malicious prosecution and disbarred. They’re either Clinton appointees or Obama judges doing most of the judicial lawfare assaults on the public. NY is going to sink into sewer squalor if the public there doesn’t stand up for the rule of law. This is your defining moment NY.