The Actions of Attorney William Johnson

"Of course I've got lawyers. They are like nuclear weapons, I've got em 'cause everyone else has. But as soon as you use them they screw everything up."
- Danny DeVito

"A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats." 

- Benjamin Franklin

As I've gone over previously, I wanted to go over the issues I've had with my former attorney William Johnson during the 2006 case. His actions contributed just as much to the harm inflicted upon me and my family, so it is only fair that he gets a bit of "spotlight" for those actions.

Unlike the other parties, I didn't include a photo of William Johnson in this post, or elsewhere on this blog. I thought about posting it, but to be honest I didn't want to see his face again. While I get very angry seeing the faces of Manweiler, Platania and Chapman - Johnson's face manages to anger me even more than their faces. This guy essentially stole from my family and verbally abused my mother. Somehow he also managed to do more damage to the legal case than even the other parties - despite having noticed the tampering from Ms. Manweiler that could have handed him an easy win and good publicity.

Before I get into the things William Johnson did during my 2006 case, I'll go over the events of my arrest. This helps establish when William Johnson entered the case, and also shows some of the problems that happened which haven't been previously explained on this blog.

As I've said many times before, despite initial media reports I was never in Charlottesville when I was arrested. Instead I was arrested within sight of my apartment. After my release in November of 2006, my landlady mentioned she had seen me being handcuffed from her house. Apparently the local news in Hampton even reported me being arrested in Charlottesville, which I find to be massive incompetence on the part of the station. After all they sent a news crew to film my car being searched by police in Hampton, and I've heard you could even see the Chesapeake Bay in the background of the footage.

Earlier in the day I had been alerted that the Charlottesville police were asking for me at my place of work. Michelle Manweiler (now Michelle Dickerman) had made a ridiculous claim in her victim impact statement of panic at my discovery of the police looking for me. Her claims were like a bad Lifetime movie and it gives an idea into the mindset of Michelle Manweiler. The reality is that I was terrified the entire time, and struggled throughout the work day to keep my coworkers from noticing that anything was wrong. I left an hour early that day for two reasons. The primary reason was because I assumed I'd be arrested in the parking lot, and didn't want my coworkers witnessing that. The second reason is that I was completely exhausted from trying to hide my panic through the day, and if I was to be arrested I just wanted to find out and get it over with (or so I thought at the time).

Having not been arrested in the parking lot at work, I talked to my mother on the phone during the drive back home, though I did not tell her anything of what was going on. She clearly had no idea of anything being wrong, and I didn't want to speak up and mention it because I wasn't sure what the result would be of Charlottesville PD's inquiry. They had plenty of time to camp out and ambush me outside of my work, yet nobody was waiting with handcuffs. When my mother told me that my youngest sister was dropped off to play video games at my apartment, that told me that the police weren't inside my apartment.

We made arrangements for me to drop off my sister at a church function later, and I began having the fleeting hope that maybe things weren't going to be as bad as I thought. That maybe the cops just wanted to talk (they did, but they had intentions beyond that obviously). By the time Manweiler even went to the police I had already decided that the dispute had run its course and was done. Now with the Charlottesville police looking for me, it had caused me to take a further critical look at my life. I had realized that I had too much to lose at the time to have risked it by butting heads with a liar like Manweiler. I had resolved that if by some chance I was allowed to walk away and go back to my life, that I would wash my hands of this entire dispute. Michelle Manweiler ended that when she made the dumb decision to lie to law enforcement and demand that they hammer me. Now this dispute is as permanent as the damages inflicted upon me.

That little bit of hope that things might be okay would instantly evaporate, once two Hampton patrol cars came out of a hiding place on a side street in my neighborhood as I drove past them. I was handcuffed in the pouring rain after they confirmed my ID, and transported to the Hampton police station. I was deliberately left to "stew" in the interrogation room while Rudman talked to my family, and searched my car and apartment.

It still makes me angry to see the unnecessary damage done to my car from the search. All the doors were left wide open in the pouring rain so my car has always had a smell since then. The police also decided to break off the lock of my glove box to search it. They must have used a crowbar or some other tool, because the holes for the screws were stripped when they yanked out the lock. The problem is that the glove box wasn't even locked, and they had my car keys to open it even if it had been locked. Obviously they didn't even care to check first that it was unlocked. The glove box lock is still damaged and falls off often even to this day.

A plain-clothes detective from the Hampton PD gave my youngest sister a scare. First from forcing his way into my apartment where she was playing video games, and then from interrogating her to try getting information on me. Given she was a minor at that time, I'm sure questioning her without parental permission for information he could use against her brother was a violation of law, or at the very least a violation of police procedures.

Another point of anger is some of the items that were taken from my apartment, some items which they legally didn't have the right to take, and certainly in one example can not be replaced.

Two of the firearms in my collection were actually present at the apartment when the search was conducted. No crime was ever committed with them, and they were completely legal regardless of whether anyone liked them or not. Nobody has the right to harm me for exercising a right they don't personally like, but these are all corrupt hypocrites (Manweilers & prosecutors) that we are dealing with. The prosecutor fully admitted in his summation of the case at the guilty plea hearing that I never threatened anyone with a firearm, one of the few factual statements he made.

So firearms actually had nothing to do with this case and thus the police had no legal right to take those two firearms. But police these days don't care what is within their legal right to seize, they just take it. It is annoying but there are bigger problems on my plate than police taking two pieces of property that can be replaced. But unlike Mr. Platania's assertion in his email, a felon can get the right restored. I've already done the research in this regards and have been speaking to a lawyer about it, but as I said this is not the bigger issue - getting something done to clear my name/record and making the guilty parties answer for their actions is the bigger issue.

The police also took my computer and the connected peripheral devices, which obviously they had the legal right to take given the need for evidence. However it was mentioned at the final bond hearing that the police managed to completely screw up the hard drive to the extent that they could not obtain any evidence from it until 9 months of repair work. During the hearing William Johnson brought this issue up. Joseph Platania immediately turned and glared at Johnson. Even with watching the bond hearing through a TV screen at the jail, I was able to see Platania get red in the face and become visibly angry that this claimed hard drive damage was even brought up.

It was almost as if this was secret information that the prosecution did not want to get out - you might even think they were lying about damaging that hard drive in the first place. Johnson was making the case that keeping me in jail for nine months while waiting for the repairs to the drive was ridiculous, and that I should be bonded out rather than sitting around waiting for repairs. Johnson not only records the damage to the drive in his notes, but freely admits to this happening on the tape recordings conducted by my mother. Johnson puts 6-8 months, but his statements to me and in court put this at 9 months.

This computer was working perfectly (I was playing a high graphic MMORPG with friends the day before until midnight) before the police seized it. Since I never anticipated getting arrested for a felony I never even committed, I had made no attempt to hide anything I was doing. A copy of every single email sent to Michelle Manweiler was saved to a Word document with the date and time sent, and placed in a folder labeled "Michelle Stuff". The only way I could have made it easier for police was to have a blinking red arrow above the folder saying "Cops look here". Yet somehow they managed to screw up one of the easiest computer forensic cases they've ever had.

I've been reading about other Charlottesville PD computer cases since the events of 2006 where they were bragging about their prowess, such as one where Detective Rudman was using hashes attached to images to track down child pornography traffickers. Yet somehow the Charlottesville police completely screwed my case up, and in a way that conveniently helped cover for Michelle Manweiler's tampering of evidence. I've talked to people who know more about computer forensics than I, and none of them believe the story that the Charlottesville PD gave to my lawyer. They stated that it was negligence at very least and they hope the person responsible was fired. Of course the person responsible was never fired, because the police and prosecution lied about damaging the computer in the first place.

When Johnson mentioned I should be released on bond rather than wait nine months in jail, Platania began stammering and immediately blurted out "Your honor, we feel that we have enough evidence that we don't need anything off Mr. <Redacted>'s computer!" Johnson's mention in court of the damage to the computer is the only time during the case that I saw Platania get upset and off balance. I intend on making sure he regrets saying that they didn't need anything off of my computer. You have bits and pieces of claimed emails that were printed up and handed to you by the claimed "victim" - and you don't think that maybe you need to actually check that they are legit against what is on my computer? For something as serious as a felony? Especially when she wrote April and May dates on emails with a March 12th printer time stamp? And one email that says "To Rick" when it should have said "From Rick" if it was supposedly in her inbox? You're looking at the end of your career over something like that Platania.

There is one thing that angers me above all others on what the police took from my apartment however. That would actually be four things. Apparently Detective Nicholas Rudman decided that all four of my high school yearbooks were evidence. This is a massively incompetent decision (though not seeing the blatant tampering by Manweiler far exceeds this) and it is a theft of private property by this officer. Because I guarantee there isn't a judge or magistrate stupid enough to claim that high school yearbooks count as evidence for that search warrant. Especially since there wasn't anything written in them.

My high school did not supply the current years yearbook until the following year. The school said it was done to include summer sports and activities. This of course limits getting signatures in your yearbook, a common practice in school. However, by high school I would never pass around my yearbook for signatures once I received the book. I had my sixth grade yearbook stolen in middle school due to getting signatures from people, and after that I became more protective of the books. I kept the books in my backpack and never took them out until I got home. So there were never any signatures in my high school yearbooks, and nothing was ever written around or on Manweiler's photos. I didn't see the point in defacing my books just because I was angry at Michelle Manweiler. I'm betting the same can not be said for Michelle Manweiler's own yearbooks - it would not surprise me in the least if she was petty enough to add graffiti on my photos.

So the books were entirely clean of any writing or personalization with the exception of my name stamped on the cover. There was absolutely nothing of any use in court for those yearbooks, nor did they serve any point in an investigation. Neither I nor Ms. Manweiler denied we went to high school together, and you sure as hell don't need all four of the books to prove that. The mere presence of Michelle Manweiler's photo in a yearbook, along with photos of hundreds of other students I attended the same school with, is NOT legal justification to walk out the door with my yearbooks. The police only have a right to take something that was either used in a crime or has value as evidence of that crime. High school yearbooks do not fall under either category, so Rudman essentially stole private property.

Thanks to William Johnson's worthless efforts as my lawyer, he made no attempt to get back any of my property. Despite being asked repeatedly to recover items like my yearbooks, he completely ignored the requests. I was informed by Detective Rudman that everything related to my case was destroyed in less than a years time. This means that my high school yearbooks, which the police had no right to take in the first place, were destroyed as well. I have yet to find a way to get copies of any high school yearbooks from the years I attended, so it is safe to say that those books will never be recovered. Even writing about this makes me extremely angry, and that anger is directed just as much at Michelle Manweiler as it is at Detective Rudman and the Charlottesville PD. If she hadn't hyped this case up to be something it wasn't, it is likely the police wouldn't have overstepped themselves like this.

Continuing on with the events of my arrest, during the time I spent in the interrogation room I fell asleep. I had been exhausted with trying to hide my panic at work and with fighting to keep it together the entire time. I awoke later to Rudman and his partner barging into the room, shoving paperwork in my face, and telling me to sign it. I was brought out of a sound sleep, completely disoriented and afraid. I have no idea what I ended up signing, could have been my own death warrant for all I would have known at that point. My father was a police officer so I had been brought up to trust cops, now add in being awaken from a sound sleep and completely disoriented and you have a recipe for legal disaster. I'm sure this was entirely calculated on the part of Detective Rudman.

Before you think I'm trying to dump on cops because I'm angry, given my father was a police officer this kind of thing isn't easy for me to admit. I don't like having to say anything bad about police, but I have had to come to the acceptance that there are people in law enforcement who should not be in that profession. I have provided evidence of my father's involvement in law enforcement below for any doubters, coming directly from William Johnson's notes. My dad was a police officer for 21 years total as I recall before he retired. In that time he was an undercover narcotics officer, a SWAT team member and finished as a detective. After retirement he worked for the VA Port Authority as a security guard before returning to police work in various capacities, ending his time in law enforcement for a second time while working as a bailiff in a courthouse. You can probably imagine that my ending up a felon didn't go over too well.

This is a photo of my father during his time as a SWAT team member in the 90s. I have hidden his face and his partner's face to protect their identity.

So understand that I do not make the comments on Charlottesville law enforcement, especially police, lightly. I am angry but I have very good reasons to be angry with the nonsense that went on in 2006. Members of law enforcement, whose job it is to protect and serve the public, decided it was best to throw me under the bus to protect their own asses from the responsibility of their mistakes. Mistakes they could have avoided if they had just paid attention to what they were doing.

Joseph Platania claimed from the start that I'm supposed to have confessed to all charges when talking to Detective Rudman. I never said any such thing, though for all I know that's what that paper I signed could have been (doubtful but possible). During my talk with Rudman I flat out denied threatening harm to Manweiler and I denied ever going to Charlottesville. That doesn't sound like confessing to all charges to me. The statement of confessing to everything was a fiction created by Platania because he knew the evidence against me was weak. He had to lie just to further his case. I never even saw the emails given to police by Manweiler at this time, Rudman never bothered to show them to me.

How convenient for Platania that they managed to "lose" the tape recording of the interview with Rudman after the prosecution listened to it. This is backed up by my lawyer on the tape recordings my mother made. William Johnson freely admits to my mother on her tape recordings that the Charlottesville law enforcement told him they lost the tape, and claims that was a good thing because Platania told him the tapes were greatly in their favor. Well if they were greatly in law enforcement's favor, why didn't they take better care with handling the tape and my computer hard drive? With the loss of that interview tape and the computer hard drive damage, seems a lot of critical evidence in this case managed to get "lost" wouldn't you say? You would almost think all that evidence was misplaced deliberately...

After the talk with Detective Rudman and his partner, I was transported to the Hampton lockup. The initial plan was that I would remain in the Hampton lockup overnight. I was told by the intake officer that the Hampton magistrate involved just wanted me to spend the night in the lockup as a lesson, and that I'd be out on bond the next day. I would certainly love to tell the magistrate to their face what I think of their decision. Because their decision to "teach a lesson" ended up aiding a corrupt district attorney's office. I should have been released on my own recognizance considering some important conditions - I was not aware of Ms. Manweiler's location in Charlottesville, the evidence was based solely on unverified printouts, I had no criminal record or history of violence, and had never committed an act of violence against the woman involved.

That plan of an overnight stay changed when detective Rudman, halfway into his return trip to Charlottesville, was called by his supervisor and told to turn around and bring me to Charlottesville that night. The intake officer at the Hampton lockup was completely at a loss, stating this this wasn't how things were normally done. Rudman was visibly aggravated with the whole situation. He repeated the story of being called to turn around by his supervisor, and was very clear about his dissatisfaction with the order. During the trip Rudman showed a great deal of fatigue, and nearly caused an accident when he tried to change lanes without looking. A collision was only avoided by his partner in the backseat (I was shackled in the passenger seat) calling out that they were about to hit another car. Rudman's partner had him pull over at a rest stop after that, and he took over the drive to Charlottesville from that point.

There are two very clear reasons for why this late night transfer was done. The first reason was that the Charlottesville law enforcement wanted to ensure I was in their custody, not in Hampton custody. My mother had been attempting to call lawyers after Rudman had interviewed her and my family. She was informed by a family friend that a lawyer could have potentially bailed me out in the morning and prevented a transfer to Charlottesville. Charlottesville law enforcement wanted me in their custody because they planned from the beginning to handle this case in an unwarranted and corrupt manner due to Manweiler's status as a UVA student.

A further reason for the late night transfer was that the police department wanted to falsely report to the news media that I was arrested in Charlottesville, thus taking the credit for the arrest away from Hampton. A Charlottesville arrest would have been difficult to claim if I was in the process of being transferred by the Hampton sheriffs the next morning, or even blocked from being transferred by a lawyer. It was said that I had been arrested attempting to confront Michelle Manweiler on her emergency protective order. It is considerably hard for me to have done that given that it was apparently an emergency order taken out the day of my arrest, and that I had only heard about it after my arrest from Detective Rudman in Hampton. Perhaps someone can explain how a guy living at least a three hour drive from Charlottesville, could have found out about an order done the same day in a hearing he wasn't even notified of let alone allowed to attend? Unless they can prove I have some secret power to see the future, I'd say the claim was rather stupid to make.

Had I been prevented from ending up in the corrupt hands of the Charlottesville law enforcement, it would have made head prosecutor Warner Chapman's job harder and might have prevented this situation from ending up where it did. With me stuck in jail for nearly five months, it caused me to be completely dependent on outside help. If that help was incompetent and/or uninterested in doing their job, as it turned out to be, it makes it easy for the prosecution to pull the stunt that they did.

In comes attorney William Johnson of Matthews County. My mother was absolutely desperate to find some way to help me. I had told her over the phone at the lockup that I didn't want her to get an attorney, that I would go with a public defender because I didn't want anyone blowing money on my mistake. Being my mother however, she did not listen to me. She was informed by a family friend to not go with a public defender on a felony charge. It turns out the public defender might have done a better job, but nobody realized at the time who we were hiring.

Wanting to get me out of jail and save my job, my mother contacted a lot of lawyers immediately. She ended up not having much luck - the attorneys she contacted either had too much of a case load or had no interest in dealing with a case all the way in Charlottesville. My land lady, who witnessed my arrest down the street from my apartment, recommended attorney William Johnson to my mother. She had a family member who had been charged with a crime recently, and William Johnson was handling that case. As it would turn out, my land lady later regretted that decision due to Johnson's handling of her family member's case, and begged my mother to get another attorney (we tried).

William Johnson took advantage of my mother's desperation by telling her over the phone that he would require $15,000 up front to take the case. Without my knowledge my mother and stepfather took out a loan for this, something I did not want them to pay once I found out about it. My mother would later say she felt he was an asshole when talking to him, but she thought that maybe it was a good thing, that it might mean he'd fight hard for me. How wrong we were.

As soon as he was hired, William Johnson was proposing plea deals for me to accept. Without even seeing any evidence, he wanted to conclude the case as quickly as possible with a guilty plea. A former attorney I have spoken to since these events said he's known attorneys like this. They demand large sums up front, then present you with a plea deal and tell you it is your only option. This way they essentially take their money and run.

My mother started getting very suspicious of William Johnson and his actions, so much so that she began carrying a tape recorder on her when meeting with him and while in the courtroom lobbies. While Johnson is an idiot in my opinion, he's an idiot in love with his own voice and this worked to our advantage. He admits to everything that took place during this case, and makes comments that would damage his career if they ever got out. All these recordings are legal under Virginia law. We have the one party law here, so as long as one party involved in the conversation has knowledge and consent the recording is legal. Obviously my mother and I had our own knowledge and consent.

To give you some ideas of what kind of lawyer we are dealing with, I will point out a few issues and problem statements of his. One of the first things that wasn't a good sign, was the first time my mother came to his office. Johnson had a number of Legally Blonde movie posters hanging up in his waiting room. This concerned my mother, but Johnson had already been hired and paid, so she just let that issue go. It's actually pretty obvious why he had such posters hanging up due to his other actions.

One of the first actions by William Johnson that gave me serious concern, was when he met with me at the jail right after the final protective order hearing. As he walked into the interview room, the first words out of Johnson's mouth to me were "Mr. <Redacted>, I just got to say that you have excellent taste in women, I can see why you liked her so much". This guy is defending someone accused of threatening and stalking a woman, and THAT is the first thing he says to me after meeting her? Really? First I absolutely have to disagree, my taste in women is clearly garbage given that she's a nutjob who tampered with evidence and lied to police. Second that is not something that as a professional should have ever left his lips, even when talking to his client. I'd say especially when talking to his client.

He began going over Ms. Manweiler's physical appearance and gushing over her achievements, only stopping when he likely noticed the sheer bewilderment on my face. That was when I first started having misgivings about the man. It was after meeting Ms. Manweiler that things also seemed to change with Johnson. Suddenly he went from being gung-ho and certain of downgrading the felony, to giving excuses for everything and telling me that I shouldn't hold onto any expectations about how things would go.

This is the point he stopped being my attorney, and became the Manweiler family's attorney. Johnson stopped listening to me and continued to make excuses for Ms. Manweiler, even in instances where he acknowledged she did something wrong (like deleting her profile, causing the deletion of evidence). He made it quite clear that he wasn't interested in anything I had to say, no matter what evidence I told him I had. Once you go through the entire account, and keep in mind this is abbreviated and does not include everything he did, you'll see that Johnson was no longer working in my best interests. There are a couple motives I personally believe Johnson had for this, and any one of them is just as likely as the other.

One possible motive is that Michelle Manweiler's father, Gregory Manweiler, influenced William Johnson through financial means. Obviously I have no evidence of this, because otherwise I would have definitely acted on it by now. However, I strongly believe this might have happened, and I wouldn't put it past Johnson or the Manweilers to do something like this.

Why else would a defense attorney ignore evidence that could clear his client? When my mother points out the March 12th printer time stamp on emails Manweiler dated as being sent to her in April and May, Johnson has what sounds like panic and fear in his voice as he begins rapidly blurting out things to get off the subject. He would later contradict some of the things he blurted out, but he clearly got upset and wanted to stop talking about this piece of evidence my mother asked about. My mother said he got so upset that she was worried he'd tell her to leave, and she needed him to admit to more things.

In the end Johnson admits on tape that one of the emails says "To Rick" instead of "From Rick", that the claimed April and May emails have a March 12th printer time stamp - and that he has no explanation for why these oddities exist on Manweiler's evidence. Johnson attempts to get my mother to stop asking about it by claiming he'd look into these discrepancies, but of course he would never actually look into it. Why would a defense attorney not want to discuss evidence that could get his client cleared and win him his case? Financial influence could cause something like this. Does this mean Johnson had to have accepted money in order to "take a dive"? Of course not. But I also honestly don't put such behavior past Johnson or the Manweiler family.

An alternative explanation is that Johnson was so enamored with Ms. Manweiler that he was willing to nose dive his own case to cover up for a fellow lawyer - "professional courtesy". Obviously he wouldn't want to ruin that impressive career of her's that he kept gushing about. Another possible motive is that Johnson acted out of laziness. It was clear to me he wanted to wrap the case up quickly, so he could take his $15,000 and run. The less effort he expends, the more of his money he gets to pocket. This would also explain why he was trying to find things for me to plead guilty on before he even looked as a single piece of evidence. Johnson even writes in his notes that he felt he was in the case too long. I'll post this piece of evidence further in at the appropriate part of the account.

Whether Johnson was working on his own to screw up the case, or actively cooperating with the prosecution, isn't known to me. But I personally suspect cooperation with the prosecution, and some of the evidence and actions point in that direction. In my opinion the email threat from prosecutor Joseph Platania suggests some minor cooperation, intended for the protection of Michelle Manweiler's career at the expense of my future.

Continuing on with the account, the comments Johnson made about Manweiler after meeting her was not the only such he would make. He constantly brought up Ms. Manweiler and what he thought about her appearance to my mother during his meetings and talks with her. He kept asking my mother if she had seen Manweiler yet, and he would gush and say how proud and impressed he was with her. Thankfully we have tape recordings to back this up.

I can only cringe at the impression he must have made with Ms. Manweiler at the protective order hearing given the next issues I'll bring up. During one court hearing, my mother was sitting near William Johnson. She said there was a woman nearby that Johnson began blatantly ogling the entire time as they sat there waiting for the case to come up. He wasn't being casual about it or even trying to hide it from anyone. In addition, when my sisters were present at the hearings, Johnson would blatantly ogle the both of them. He was even glancing at their chests while talking with my mother about the case, with no shame apparently in doing this. Both my sisters said they felt incredibly uncomfortable around him.

I wish I could say that William Johnson was the only lawyer in this case that acted like a teenage boy discovering girls for the first time when it came to Michelle Manweiler. But it was very apparent that then assistant prosecutor Joseph Platania had personal feelings that were definitely unprofessional. Interestingly enough, despite William Johnson's behavior, he once mocked Platania over something that made even Johnson question what was going on.

During one of our meetings at the jail, William Johnson told me about a phone conversation he had with prosecutor Joseph Platania where they began discussing Michelle Manweiler. While much of this conversation seemed to focus on talking about how wonderful they thought Ms. Manweiler was, it was apparent to me from Johnson's comments that some locker room style talk about Ms. Manweiler was exchanged between the prosecutor and my attorney. During this talk Johnson tells me that Joseph Platania excitedly blurted out "So you want to go talk to her again?!" Unfortunately typing this statement out can not properly relay the mocking performance by William Johnson, as he imitated Platania during the retelling of that comment. The way Johnson pantomimed and excitedly exclaimed it in his mockery of Platania, it sounded like the prosecutor thought that talking to Michelle Manweiler was the most wonderful thing in the world.

William Johnson said that he was a little put off by Joseph Platania when this occurred. Given Johnson's comments to me and my mother about Manweiler throughout the case, it certainly stands out that even he was concerned by Joseph Platania's sudden outburst. Johnson replied to Platania that Matthews County was quite a drive from Charlottesville, and that he didn't see what the point would be to drive that distance for something that wasn't going to affect the case at all. Platania acknowledged the distance involved and the discussion moved on.

While such behavior and potential locker room talk is unprofessional for a prosecutor towards the claimed victim of a case, this was not the only incident where assistant prosecutor Joseph Platania was observed displaying some less than professional interest in Ms. Manweiler. A neighbor and close family friend was attending the hearings with my mother, due to seeing the negative and draining effects the case was having. She has stated to both my mother and I that she observed Joseph Platania's actions towards Michelle Manweiler during one of the hearings. Apparently Ms. Manweiler was walking through the courthouse, and our neighbor observed Joseph Platania staring at Ms. Manweiler the entire time. Platania watched Manweiler until she was out of sight, and as my neighbor described it "He had this big stupid grin across his face the whole time he stared at her".

It certainly appears that prosecutor Joseph Platania held strong personal feeling towards the claimed "victim" Michelle Annette Manweiler, feelings which certainly seem to be unprofessional for a prosecutor to have in a case he is handling. I believe these feelings of his influenced his behavior during this case, and that he should have recused himself immediately. I don't know what prior history there may be between Joseph Platania and Michelle Manweiler, but it was very clear that he was swooning over her.

Perhaps a female prosecutor should have been made available, since it appears that none of the male lawyers in this case were able to control themselves. I do not know former head prosecutor Warner Chapman's opinions about Michelle Manweiler, as neither I nor my family personally observed Chapman during this case. However, given his behavior and severe acting out during the case, I'd say he was probably just as enamored with Ms. Manweiler as Johnson and Platania.

At its core this entire case is based on four lawyers (Manweiler, Platania, Chapman and Johnson) behaving badly and unprofessionally, with three appearing to have deliberately covered for the criminal actions of one of those lawyers. William Johnson and Joseph Platania behaved like two frat boys, and acted as though Michelle Manweiler were the only female attorney in existence.

As the day of the preliminary hearing approached, Johnson would truly show how bad of an attorney he was. The preliminary hearing as I understand it is an opportunity for a district court judge to "certify" a complaint and decide if there is enough evidence to justify a trial. William Johnson was completely unprepared for this hearing, and it was his own fault. Despite being paid $15,000 up front, he would refuse to drive down the Charlottesville to look at any evidence until the afternoon prior to the hearing.

Though Johnson filed a motion of discovery in court, prosecutor Joseph Platania completely ignored this motion and refused to provide any evidence to Johnson until the day prior to the hearing. I have here a snip from a letter William Johnson sent to Joseph Platania a week prior to the preliminary hearing. Not only did Joseph Platania refuse to comply with a motion of discovery until the last minute (and still didn't provide all evidence), keep in mind my arrest was in the middle of June and Johnson is asking to be provided evidence in the middle of July. Johnson had all that time to not only force Platania to cooperate with the motion filed in court, but he had all that time to actually drive down and retrieve the evidence himself - neither of which was done.

William Johnson had the opportunity to retrieve all evidence against me, and he never lifted a finger until the afternoon before the hearing. That right there is more than enough to prove incompetence in his handling of the case. Johnson was completely unprepared for the preliminary hearing and admitted as much to me just before we were to walk into the courtroom.

The day before the hearing Johnson goes over his notes on the emails printed out by Manweiler, notes that I showed in the post on the evidence against her. Johnson stated to me that he had a plan for the preliminary hearing. He was planning on losing in district court and for me to receive the misdemeanor convictions, then the felony would be pushed to circuit court for trial. Johnson stated that the computer harassment misdemeanor and the felony written threats charge had the same wording for both. He claimed that he was going to use that wording to argue it was double jeopardy in circuit court, because of the previous computer harassment misdemeanor conviction, and get the felony thrown out. I have no idea whether any of what he was claiming was complete nonsense or not, but it was pretty clear later on that he was blowing smoke. Because it was too convenient and coincidental that it was derailed by the prosecutor so precisely.

I've posted the prosecutor's threat email before, and I'll re-post it again in this write-up. But Platania said he would be direct indicting the misdemeanors to circuit court. This meant that I wouldn't receive a trial and potential conviction on the misdemeanors in district court, instead if they were certified by the judge they would go up to circuit - where I could be tried all at once on the felony and misdemeanors. So the double jeopardy plan Johnson had laid out was completely blocked. Johnson said this completely circumvented his plan and so he couldn't do anything else. Very odd how it was blocked like that. Almost like Johnson knew what the prosecution was threatening to do beforehand and then made up some plan that would appear to have been expertly blocked.

Given that Joseph Platania wasn't smart enough to avoid being tricked by a newly minted lawyer (Manweiler), I find it hard to believe he actually predicted what William Johnson was planning. It's pretty clear that Johnson knew what the prosecution's threat was ahead of time, and was lying to me to make it look like he wasn't a complete failure of a lawyer. My mother even confronted him in the courthouse lobby well after the hearing (after his F-word laced tantrum over having a losing case had settled down), and demanded to know if he knew head of time that the prosecution was going to do this. Johnson refused to answer her, instead he kept looking around avoiding eye contact with her.

On the day of the hearing, I was transported to the courthouse and had to sit in what I can only describe as a dungeon under the courthouse. Not even exaggerating here. It appeared to be the basement level, with multiple cells only big enough for two people. There were no windows and the lighting was for some reason quite dim, making it very dark inside the cells. The only furniture I recall seeing were metal beds with of course no mattresses on them since we were there temporarily. A couple minutes before I was to walk out for the hearing, Johnson came to the holding cells and handed me a note with comments like this:



Johnson threw up his hands and said he couldn't do anything anymore. He told me that he wanted me to waive the hearing since he had nothing planned now, and that he would try to continue talking to the prosecution to get them to change their minds. I was absolutely in shock at that moment, which was likely Johnson's plan the whole time. Johnson wrote down a "Y" and an "N" on his notepad above his notes he took (which I have due to having copies of his notes), and told me that I was to answer whatever he pointed to with his pen.

Before going out, I was made to wear not only shackles on my wrists, but around my ankles as well with a chain running between the two. The ankle shackles resulted in having to take very small steps to walk. The claim was that this would keep inmates from attacking the judge, but that is an absolute lie. The judge was behind a substantially large bench structure with multiple bailiffs standing guard. I'm 6'6" and I wouldn't have been able to reach the judge even if I had wanted to, so there was no way your average person was getting at a judge. It was blindingly apparent that Charlottesville does this merely as a way to embarrass and dehumanize inmates, a way of showing how they have power over you.

Upon approaching the bench, I was still in shock and my mind was racing on what possible future I'd have after all this. As the judge began asking certain questions required for someone waiving a hearing, Johnson would point with his pen to either the "Y" or "N" on his notepad for what I was to answer. The only question Johnson did not point to was whether I felt my lawyer was doing his job. However, in the holding cells Johnson told me that if I answered that I was not happy with the job he was doing, then the prosecution would carry out the threat and I would go to prison. He made it very clear what he expected me to answer.

The entire time the district court judge glared at my lawyer. He had repeatedly argued with Joseph Platania over the emails at the bond hearings, saying he saw no evidence in any of the emails of a threat of violence against Ms. Manweiler. I believe firmly that the judge would have stated there was no evidence for the felony charge and dismissed it. I think this was exactly why Platania wanted me to waive the hearing (his email appears to show this was prearranged with my lawyer, despite Johnson's attempts prior to sound like it was a sudden surprise to him). Michelle Manweiler of course knew why this prearrangement was being done - the prosecution was covering for her manipulation of the emails. Her parents, who attended the hearings, probably knew about all this as well.

The email below is what Joseph Platania would send my lawyer after the hearing, and it clearly states the threat made against me. This threat was a violation of my civil right to a fair trial, and done to deliberately cover-up for Michelle Manweiler's tampering of evidence. This threat would also be repeated by head prosecutor Warner Chapman when I attempted to replace William Johnson with another lawyer by the name of Katherine Peters, though this is getting ahead of myself now.

There is no way Joseph Platania honestly thought Johnson was really being an excellent advocate, not unless Platania is massively incompetent. William Johnson waited until the afternoon before a hearing to look at evidence and was completely unprepared because of this - tell me how that's being an excellent advocate? Given that Johnson went to get the evidence from Platania that day, the prosecutor was well aware of Johnson's last minute viewing of evidence. This more than anything else furthers the theory that my lawyer was working with the prosecution to benefit Michelle Manweiler. Why else would he compliment a clearly lazy attorney?

The events that follow up to the guilty plea hearing are much more sparse. This is due to the fact that William Johnson cut off a majority of contact with me, content to let me sit in jail without lifting a finger to do anything. I was unable to do anything to help myself from within a cell, as was the plan by the Charlottesville law enforcement. This caused me to be completely dependent upon a lawyer who refused to do his job.

I would call William Johnson's office from the jail in attempts to communicate with him, but his secretary would screen my phone calls to avoid contact. This didn't happen after a few phone calls, he started screening my calls with the very first call. Given that the jail identifies who I am when calling, and I was Johnson's only client in Charlottesville, there isn't any possibility of confusion. However, during certain instances where I really needed to speak to Johnson, I let my mother know and she would call Johnson's office to tell his secretary that I was about to call. The secretary would not only continue screening my call even after having been told I was calling, but she began screening my mother's calls as well after this.

During this time we also received warnings about William Johnson from other people. I already mentioned how my landlady who recommended him to us said she regretted it and apologized, as Johnson was sinking that case as well. In addition, my stepfather knew a man from Matthews county that served on that school board and knew William Johnson (it is my understanding that Johnson served on the school board for Matthews county). When my stepfather asked him about Johnson since they were both from Matthews county, this man knew who he was immediately and said to get Johnson away from my case. Since 2006 we've spoken to other people who had Johnson as a lawyer, and none of them had anything good to say about him.

Things finally hit a breaking point and my mother and I decided we needed someone else to help, since Johnson was refusing to do his job. We initially contacted a very well known attorney in Charlottesville, but unfortunately her case load was too large to take our case. However, she was very sympathetic when hearing of our issues, so she gave my mother a list of attorneys she trusted. The only attorney from that list that was able to take on this case was Katherine Peters of Charlottesville.

We made it clear to her that we did not want to risk William Johnson getting wind that he was being fired, due to our fears that he would attempt to harm the case out of spite (believe me he would have). So we had Peters present herself as just giving a second opinion on things when she contacted Johnson. Peters was just as sympathetic to the issue as the attorney who recommended her, not understanding why Johnson was behaving the way he was. She also said that she didn't understand the prosecution going after a guy with no criminal record on a felony bumped up from a misdemeanor charge. Peters said this was "ridiculously harsh".

As evidence of attempting to hire another attorney to replace Johnson, I had written a letter to William Johnson asking for materials from my file since he was still screening phone calls. He didn't send everything so I was forced to see him in person with a surprise visit to the office (hard to schedule an appointment when the secretary is screening your calls). Below is his response in one of his letter replies to me (prior to the in-person visit):

The guilty plea hearing was coming up (it was to be held on a Monday), and we needed to move quickly. The week before the guilty plea hearing, Katherine Peters would contact Joseph Platania at the courthouse on a Thursday. This was to let Platania know she was going to be taking over the case, and to get some background on what has happened so far. After speaking with Ms. Peters, Joseph Platania immediately ran to his boss Warner Chapman, and let him know that I was planning on firing my attorney.

Head prosecutor Warner Chapman called William Johnson himself to warn him that he was being fired, as well as to deliver a threat to me. Johnson would arrive in Charlottesville on Friday, angry and red in the face. In the interview room he throws his notepads and other items across the room, and begins swearing at me quite loudly. He admitted flat out that Warner Chapman warned him, stating angrily "If you want to fucking fire me, say it to my fucking face! I had to find out from the fucking prosecutor!" By warning Johnson that he was being fired, Warner Chapman crossed a line as a prosecutor by interfering with a defendant's counsel.

Johnson informs me that Warner Chapman claimed that I and my mother were "playing games" with him (we weren't but this just shows what a jackass the man is) and that if I attempted to fire William Johnson, he would immediately carry out the threat made against me previously by Joseph Platania. In addition, Johnson claimed that Chapman was so angry that I dared try to fire my attorney, that come Monday (the guilty plea hearing) he might just file the multiple felony counts anyway and force me to plead guilty to all felony counts. Johnson did not elaborate on how Chapman intended to force me to plead to multiple felony counts.

This is another violation of civil rights, as threatening me out of firing my attorney violates my right to counsel. In addition, I would later discover that after my case, Katherine Peters began working for the district attorneys office of Charlottesville, an assistant prosecutor to the man who threatened me out of hiring her in the first place. I made this discovery right around the time Michelle Manweiler contacted Charlottesville law enforcement again to point them to my blog and cause trouble.

I've laid out proof that Rudman was visiting this blog at the time, and it is very clear the prosecution was visiting as well. When I pointed out how I saw Katherine Peters' name on the Charlottesville district attorney website during this time period, it didn't take long for Ms. Peters' name to be removed from the website. Rather interesting don't you think? Almost as if Chapman didn't want anyone seeing that. Thankfully I saved evidence of her name on the website, and city records will show that she was working under Chapman. Understand that I am not suggesting any improper behavior on the part of Ms. Peters, she likely never knew about any potential motives Chapman had.

Thankfully during a meeting with Johnson after this case was resolved (a meeting I had to force), Johnson admitted that this conversation and Chapman's threat took place. I was recording him at the time, just like my mother had done previously. I deliberately misquoted something Johnson said from that discussion in 2006 to make him correct my quote - which is exactly what he does. So Johnson admitted that this threat came from Chapman and that this conversation from 2006 took place. And because he happily corrected my misquote, again all on tape, Johnson can't deny that conversation took place.

In addition to Chapman's threat, Johnson backed it up with a threat of his own. William Johnson told me that if I refused to plead guilty that he would not defend me in court any further. He didn't say he'd quit as my attorney (my understanding is he can't quit because of a refusal to accept a plea without getting himself disbarred), he said he wouldn't do anything to defend me at a trial because he would not "be party to that madness" in fighting what he said was a losing battle. It was also quite clear that Johnson had hoped the case would be resolved by now, so he could run off to count his money. Comments in his notes show that he thought he was in the case too long. He was hired in the middle of June, it is now middle of August, he got paid $15,000 up front - and he thinks that's too long of a case? Johnson says that if I'm out of the plea deal - he's been in the case too long. It is pretty easy to tell what he's threatening here with this comment:



I've been told that Johnson's threat to me is actually pretty serious, and something that could have potential repercussions for him. However, despite telling the Virginia State Bar about all these actions I've listed in this post (and even actions I haven't listed here), they decided to ignore my inquiry against William Johnson. Lawyers investigated other lawyers and decided nothing was wrong, what a surprise.

So with no ability to hire another attorney without risking the threats made by the prosecutor, and William Johnson flatly stating that he would not defend me if I refused to plead guilty, I felt I didn't have any other recourse. In addition there is no chance Johnson would have returned any of the $15,000 he was paid, and I honestly don't know how my mother was planning to pay a second attorney. At this point I felt my only choice was to plead guilty, get out of jail, and hope I can track down the evidence to prove what took place.

Had I refused to plead guilty, things likely wouldn't have gone my way and all the evidence would have been destroyed by the time I got out of prison. Not to mention that once I had set foot in prison there wouldn't have been any way back from the edge Ms. Manweiler seemed keen to drive the both of us over. My belief that the trial would not have gone well is thanks to a number of factors. Primary among them is Manweiler's tampering and deletion of evidence, and the prosecutors stacking the deck through their cover-up ("losing" important evidence that held the only exculpatory material available for example). William Johnson had also already damaged the case beyond repair. The final reason is that Charlottesville is a town that gave a rich UVA student a slap on the wrist for stabbing a volunteer firefighter to death. I held no illusions that this would be a fair trial for a guy falsely accused of making death threats to a rich UVA law school student.

I was also told that firing Johnson or not accepting the plea deal would also mean that another Judge would be assigned to the case. Another threat made by Joseph Platania and Warner Chapman was that they would ensure I was sent to one of the most violent prisons in the area as punishment for not going along with the plea deal. As an addition to that threat, they told Johnson that the next judge in line was known as a "hanging judge", which would help the prosecution cause as much damage to me as possible. Johnson mentions this part of the threat below in a letter he wrote to me, though he also records the "hanging judge" threat in his notes. So refusing the plea deal would have meant that my situation would have become even more dire and harmful, with my chances of successfully defending myself in court going down considerably.

Monday came and I was transported to the circuit courthouse for the guilty plea hearing. While Michelle Manweiler was taking her trip around Europe (probably a graduation gift paid for by her banker father), I had to sit in a courtroom with an NBC 29 anchorman staring and smirking at me, and an unidentified man next to the judge glaring the entire time like he wanted to set me on fire.

I listened as Joseph Platania went over his rendition of the supposed history of the dispute. I thought only weathermen could get paid to get things so wrong. There were moments I was honestly wondering if he was even talking about my case still, because the comments from him were just so far out in fantasy land for all their accuracy. Allow me to pass on a piece of advice - if you ever serve on a jury never buy what the prosecutor, or even the defense attorney, are selling. Both try to twist the narrative to their advantage, and aren't above adding in some fiction. Pay attention solely to the evidence, and hope the prosecutor isn't hiding some of it from you. Because it was amazing the level of ignorance on the part of the prosecutor as he explained the whole case to the judge.

The judge of course asked several questions that are required of a plea deal, questions that apparently people are stupid enough to believe prevent the very thing that actually happened to me. Again Johnson wrote on his notepad a "Y" and "N", and told me I was to only answer what he pointed at. The only question he did not point to was whether I was satisfied with my attorney. However, he made it clear during his Friday screaming session at the jail, and in the holding cells on Monday, that if I answered anything other than "Yes" I'd end up in prison for years. Again, he made it quite clear that he expected a "Yes" answer to that question.

The agreement was signed and I was back on my way to the jail cell, to sit around waiting for sentencing in November where the judge would decide to accept it or not. Keep in mind the guilty plea hearing was in August, and the prosecution and the Manweilers claimed that I needed to remain in jail until November. There was no real purpose behind delaying the sentencing that long, other than just pure spite. Ms. Manweiler would have already been on her way to her job in Washington DC, so it isn't like she was hanging around Charlottesville.

The prosecution claimed they needed to have a pre-sentencing investigation done before the judge would accept the agreement. This was actually a complete lie. There were inmates in the cell block with me who had Judge Hogshire accept plea deals without a PSI before. Not to mention that the PSI was deliberately delayed longer than necessary - they could have done it much sooner. Apparently I had to wait until November for a PSI that told the judge what any background check would have told him - I didn't have a criminal record prior to all this. My lawyer and the prosecution could have told him that. So this PSI excuse was just that - an excuse to keep me in jail longer than necessary.

I wasn't willing however to play the game that the prosecution and Manweilers were playing. My former boss was still in touch with my mom, asking if I was out yet so he could get me back into my old position - but time was running out. I was informed that my lawyer could still have me bonded out, and that Hogshire would likely grant bond. The prosecution couldn't throw out the plea deal just because I refused to sit in jail until November, and their desperation to have me sign the agreement shows they didn't want to risk a trial.

But Johnson was still refusing my calls. A primary reason that my mother and I began taking actions behind Johnson's back is due to this refusal to communicate. It also caused my mother to have to take other steps to contact Johnson for me. I had a feeling that it would be only a matter of time before John came up with an excuse to not hear from her either. This did occur as I predicted, with Johnson informing me via letter that I was his client and that he was not required to speak to my mother anymore. In the end I had to start writing letters to William Johnson just to communicate with my own attorney. I made requests of Johnson that he hold another bond hearing, and despite his confirmation that this could be done, he continued to ignore my requests for one. I ended up having to wait until November, and by then my former boss had to replace me due to the influx of work that came in.

On the day of the sentencing hearing we had to go into a small meeting room, due to the main court being filled with evidence displays from another trial. The Judge sat at the head of the table, William Johnson and I were on one side, and the prosecutor and probation office (who did the PSI) were across from us. In the room also was my mother, our neighbor, Daily Progress reporter Liesel Nowak, and another woman who I believe was the court reporter.

Joseph Platania was as weaselly as ever, doing his best to try to convince everyone else in the room that he wasn't the bad guy. During the hearing Platania insisted on reading an excerpt from Michelle Manweiler's victim impact statement (called the "Chicken Little" statement by inmates in my cell block). Judge Hogshire stared at Platania for a moment, and told him that he didn't see the purpose because he's already read it. Platania seemed put off by this, but insisted with the judge that he be allowed to read the excerpt out loud. The judge reluctantly allowed Platania to read out loud. I think everyone sitting at that table knew why the scumbag wanted to do this - there was a newspaper reporter in the room that he had been feeding information to for quite awhile.

What isn't known by the parties is that I showed up with a few bits of information that I was debating on revealing when it came time for me to speak. I had expected a reporter in the room the same as Platania had. I had Joseph Platania's threat email, along with copies of Michelle Manweiler's emails from my lawyer that had the discrepancies I've described in earlier posts. I still didn't know what Manweiler had done to them, but I really wanted to expose what was going on. I was debating on not only refusing the plea deal, but of bringing up the threat email from the prosecution (and handing it to the reporter) and pointing out that the prosecution knew of tampering with the emails. Judge Hogshire looks at me and asks if I was ready to precede further.

I was quite torn and afraid however. I didn't know what would happen if I made the decision to do what I was planning. I didn't know if I would be allowed to speak or if the Judge would have me immediately removed from the room. And given that Liesel Nowak was printing false information and even putting words in my mouth, I had no idea if she'd actually print anything that contradicted her earlier reports.

There was a pause in the room long enough to cause everyone at the table to stare at me, especially William Johnson, as I tried making up my mind. I needed more time to decide, so I pretended I didn't hear the judge due to being nervous and apologized. The judge replied that this was understandable given the seriousness of the situation and repeated his statements. In the end I felt the risk was too great - I had no idea whether I'd be allowed to say what I needed to say (I likely wouldn't have). So I went along with it all instead of speaking out. I still don't know if it was the right call or not.

One thing I observed during the hearing was Platania turning to the probation officer and making a request. He said he wanted to know who my probation officer in Hampton would be and his contact information. Platania wanted to have a personal chat with the probation officer in Hampton. The Charlottesville probation officer nodded, but I noticed she rolled her eyes after Platania turned away.

I had to meet with her before getting the probation transferred to Hampton, and she was extremely bothered by what was done to me. She told me that she suspected I would get off probation early. I was told that as soon as I was off probation, she wanted me to get a lawyer to drop that good behavior sentence from 20 years to time served, and that I should be able to get a pardon after that without a problem. The officer told me that I just had bad luck in my case coming up during a bad time, and that it wasn't right that it went as far as it did.

I've asked other legal professionals about Platania asking for my probation officer's contact info, and I've been told that such a thing is extremely unusual. This is clear evidence that Joseph Platania had a far more personal interest in this case than would be considered proper for an official of the court. It is also quite clear that he did indeed call the Hampton probation officer - when I first met him the officer seemed a bit angry and aggressive with me. This changed very quickly over time, to the point where the officer admitted I was the person he was least concerned about having a problem with.

I was eventually switched to an automated call system rather than having to appear in person. While I was released from probation early, this automated setup is actually what led me to not be released much sooner. When I finally called him personally to bring it up, the officer admitted he forgot about me because "you aren't one of the people in my charge that I'm worried about". Whatever Platania had planned by contacting the probation officer, probably to tell him not to release me early, it didn't succeed once the officer actually got to know me.

As I mentioned, there was difficulty in getting William Johnson to provide me with materials from my file, especially with his secretary screening calls. He initially provided some documents to me via the mail after I wrote two letters requesting items from my file, but it was clear he deliberately left out some materials. Most notable was the email evidence from Michelle Manweiler. I wanted him to actually send these emails to me, because having them mailed from my lawyer helped to give further legitimacy to the copies in my possession. Instead I had to make a surprise visit to his office just to get them, which thankfully enabled me to get some important things admitted to by Johnson on tape recording.

This would conclude my business with William Johnson, though I would go on to file an inquiry with the Virginia State Bar against him once I was off probation. The VSB ignored my complaints on William Johnson however, despite other lawyers telling me his actions were very serious. What I gave them wasn't the single form they have you fill out, I gave a large binder full of evidence and an account of what took place. The intake officer said she has never seen anyone turn in something so extensive before, for all the good that did however. There is nothing in this account that I didn't relay to the VSB in my inquiry, and there are things I told the VSB that I haven't discussed in this post due to the length of it already. This post you are reading is actually a brief summary, and I didn't include everything this man did during his time as my lawyer. The VSB got more detail than what you received here. They still ignored it all however, which isn't surprising given that they are lawyers - it's like having the fox watch the hen house.

In addition to my account of William Johnson's actions, I wanted to include another piece of evidence from his notes on his meeting with Michelle Manweiler at the final protective order hearing. I had completely forgotten about this piece of evidence, but it is something to further show a lie made by Michelle Manweiler - one that was relayed to my father at the bond hearings. My father was told that Michelle Manweiler claimed I had sat outside her residence in Charlottesville in my car, and that I called her on her personal phone to say I was supposedly outside waiting to kill her. Not only is this accusation an absolute fairy tale, but as I told my father it doesn't make sense that Manweiler wouldn't have called the police immediately to have me arrested.

I already showed in a previous post that my former attorney recorded that Manweiler claimed that I made in-person contact with her in Charlottesville, an act which never took place despite her claim. Michelle Manweiler forgot her lie months later and inadvertently admitted in her victim impact statement (previously posted) that she was aware I never knew where she lived and worked in Charlottesville. But the below snip from my attorney's notes shows that Michelle Manweiler told him at the protective order hearing that I contacted her over the phone. He writes the question "Contacting you how?" and Michelle Manweiler's responses are on the other side of the margin.

Considering she admitted months later that I never knew her address in Charlottesville, I wonder how she would explain how I could have known her personal cell phone number if I didn't even know her address? Finding a person's cell number back in 2006 would be far harder than finding their address. Even these days finding an unlisted address would be considerably easier than finding a private cell phone number.

I have no idea where the hell she came up with this lie of me calling her phone. As I said there was never a time where I knew her personal phone number, let alone called her on it. My only contact with Michelle Manweiler in 2006 was via Myspace, and once through her email address at UVA when I heard the Charlottesville police were looking for me on the day of my arrest.

Thankfully I CC'd that email to my personal email address of the time period, so I have a copy to this day showing proof of what I actually said to her. In that email I actually flat out said she probably lied to the police to get this arrest to happen, and guess what all my evidence posted on the blog shows? This email address is no longer in use by me as I moved to another email service, but I still maintain it even to this day to safeguard this email message, and some of my evidence involving the past William and Mary dispute.

As you can see from the evidence I've been posting here on this blog, I not only have my lawyer recording that Manweiler claimed I made personal contact with her in Charlottesville, but right here is proof that backs up what my father was told - that Manweiler claimed I called her phone during a time that I was never even aware of her number.

I know that I never set foot in Charlottesville, and I know I never even had a clue what her address up there was let alone know her personal phone number. Yet I have plenty of proof staring me in the face that says Michelle Manweiler accused me of things that I know never happened. Did Manweiler really think that these lies would never get back to me? Did she really think I would ever let something like that go once I learned of it?

Thanks to the court case of 2006 I now have evidence in my hands that shows Michelle Manweiler lied about a lot of things, some of it written herself. I even have evidence, again in her own hand, that confirms all the things third parties told me she was doing for years. I wonder if it has sunken in yet for Michelle Manweiler (Dickerman) that what she did in 2006 was the biggest mistake of her life?

Initially this was just a minor dispute between the two of us, one which could have been solved back then by simple communication. During much of this dispute prior to the summer of 2006, I mainly had the unsubstantiated word of third parties and some bad behavior I observed from Michelle Manweiler. I was angry and hurt, but admittedly had nothing in my possession at the time that had ever confirmed Manweiler to have been making rumors and false statements about me in the past. While some of her behavior of the past affected me years later in how I associate with people, she had done nothing in the way of permanent damage to me yet. But now?

I have more evidence than I could ever want to justify every bit of my hatred towards her, some of it written by her own hand. And now I have permanent damage to my life, mental and physical trauma inflicted on me in her name, and years of my life down the drain that I'll never get back. Good job by Manweiler (Dickerman) for making this situation so much worse for everyone involved, herself included. She seems to have a true talent for screwing things up even worse.

So this concludes my post on my former attorney. I would recommend that if you ever get in legal trouble in Matthews county VA, you avoid that lawyer like the plague. I'm hoping to one day see William Johnson's law practice ended, so he can never hurt anyone else again.

For the time being I have no plans on further posts. If something does come up in my life related to this case or the damages caused by it, or something interesting with legal news pops up, I might make a post about it. But for the moment there is nothing planned, as the decision I've reached about where things are headed has already been made, and talking about this case any further isn't part of the plan.