Now everybody knows you have no money...

Warsaw, Poland

The only reasonable condition could be a bail, however now everybody knows you have no money. Therefore I do not predict any conditions.

That quote came from a letter from Marcin Boris, my second attorney during my "monkey" trial in Poland. The letter that it came from was written on Mon, 27 January 2003 and was part of an "explanation" about whether I would get my passport back or not. Of course I wouldn't. Mr Boris knew this. But he was amidst a charade and had to say such things as if there were weight in them.

This single quote has been going through my mind lately. Why was this question such a part of the legal process? Why did Boris even mention such a thing? By the time that this letter was written, we had already heard from Zaremba's two non-witnesses and from his daughter's rather professional though oblique (I do not remember, my parents told me what to say) testimony. For sure everyone knew that Zaremba had lied, that he had added onto my check damages that had come from another accident some six weeks after our incident and that he had collected on a previous accident from January in which the sign off damages were pretty much identical to what was on his car on the day we met. Everyone had known from day one that there was no case. Why were they still counting the money at this late date?

I think the real answer is simple enough: It was an insult. I was too small a fish to have wasted their talents on. I was not really a worthy prize of such interesting and artistic manipulation of the legal system. It was a blow to their egos not to have been able to capitalize on such a shrewd little con and Boris wanted me to understand this: I might be an American, but to them I wasn't even small potatoes.

And as for why Boris would allow himself the pleasure of letting out a little personal disgust, well, perhaps it was only a personal issue to him. He wasn't making any money off of me per se and it is possible that he had grown tired of having to put in such hours pretending to defend me for so little money. Or perhaps he had been feeling let down that I had never offered him any extra to actually do the job he was supposed to have been doing anyway. Or maybe he had simply been shocked to discover that Zaremba's side was the only one offering bribes. I do not know that this last point is real or not, but I can speculate. But for sure it was an insult.

But by insulting me, Borus did in fact show not only his own mindset but that of all of the players of this little farce. By this time, certainly there wasn't any fear of repercussions or scandal. By working together, they had managed to suppress Peter Molga's story for the Warsaw Gazette. They knew the US embassy was not going to do anything for me. And also they had kept the court documents from me long enough to insure that I couldn't come back and ask Zaremba any real questions that might have to be entered into the court's record. It was in other words a laugh by this time; they had gotten away with it. And because they all felt free and clear, their only real emotions left were feelings of mild irritation that they had not been able to drain me for more than they got.

In law, there are crimes and there are torts. A crime is when there is an action, damage as a result of this action and a mindset that intended the harm beforehand.

A tort on the other hand has an action and damage, but lacks that malice aforethought, that criminal mind. It is said that in the case of a true tort, a more reasonable and prudent man would have avoided the action.

To me, my case as a whole allowed for only two options: Either the Polish judicial system was made up of complete idiots, or absolute criminals. I say this quote from my second so-called attorney says it all. I mean, semantically I could say they were idiots and criminals, but in any case they were crooks. But the thing that really gets me is that they took pleasure in it. They not only knew they were committing criminal acts, they did it with zeal and, I don't want to say professionalism, but for sure it was done with the sort of detachment that comes with real experience. Like fisherman who can tell at a glance whether a fish is any good or not, they were simply cursing at a lousy catch.

Maybe this is where the phrase adding insult to injury comes from. But in any case, this is what they did. It was all an insult.

This is why I am fighting this case to the end. I have been asked and advised as to how I might have proceeded legally. There have been many people who have told me that there are issues involved and procedures that I could have followed before now. I have also been advised of certain legal groups out there who say that there actually is legal recourse for such things. I know we like to believe in such things and that there are laws. But I say in the case of the Polish system, there hasn't been a single episode that tells me this is true. And this is why I am fighting this publicly first and foremost. I want this story very, very, very public before I even begin to enter into any kind of dealings which even smack of agreeing to have respect for the system.

Can you see the irony I am getting at? I have never been allowed to complain in any real way because THE PEOPLE I WOULD HAVE TO COMPLAIN TO ARE THE ONES I WOULD COMPLAIN AGAINST.

And this is really what this fight is all about and why I think it should be interesting for a lot of people.

Do you think we should have such under-the-table dealings in our lives? Do you wish to live in a world in which you haven't really any such thing as human rights? I am not speaking here of America or not America, I am speaking simply in general terms; do you think your life deserves any respect and is this idea worth? I do.

So this is why I am fighting this case. I will break things open. It will happen and the people who did what they did to me almost five years ago, and of course have obviously done similar things to many, many others, will see their names in newspapers and on television as being exactly what they are: criminals. This was corruption on a deep administrative level and therefore, simply to make things better for everyone, everywhere, justice must be done.

Please, I ask you all: help me fight this fight. It is a just fight, it is a worthy cause. It is a needed fight and much, much good will come from a real victory. Please give generously to the being had fund drive. Your donation dollars will go towards making this case public and allowing for some good light to be finally shined on a very, very dark and disturbing place.