http://www.fileden.com/getfile.php?file_path=http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/25/2521596/OfficialOppressionComplaint_KCSOHoskins.rtfAugust 26, 2009
Dear Sheriff Byrnes,
Please accept this letter as an official complaint on/against Combine Police Department Det. John Allen "Jay" Hoskins.
I am filing this complaint due to recent actions in which he in his official capacity as a detective for Combine PD have caused a detriment both to myself and my business.
Before he was hired by Combine PD, I hired Hoskins in Calendar Year 2007 to write articles for The Ellis County Press, a conservative/independent newspaper based in Ferris, Texas. I was the news editor at the time. He was not a commissioned peace officer at the time with any department, but he was and still is a private investigator (despite his on-again-off-again statements that he was not one.)
I originally hired him due to the fact he operated and published both The Bardwell Intruder Web blog ("blog") and MichaelMeissner.com, to which he still operates to this day.
It was his "investigations" while as a private citizen/private investigator that prompted me to offer him a position as a freelance reporter covering the City of Bardwell, which is located southwest of the City of Ennis in neighboring Ellis County.
After authoring several "high-profile" articles about current and former Bardwell officials, Hoskins was given permission by me to "blog" about those same cases, officials and investigations, for my news blog that I launched in October of 2005, The Ellis County Observer. Hoskins was later granted, per my permission, "administrative privileges" that allowed for full access to The Ellis County Observer blog, its comments, its Web traffic statistics, etc. Under an "admin" access, Hoskins or anyone else I designated could alter, edit, write, delete, censor or otherwise utilize my blog.
Sheriff, I must reiterate that both The Ellis County Press and The Ellis County Observer are "separate but equal" entities. We are wholly separate corporately, but share the same goal: to expose political corruption in and around Ellis County, Texas.
Around the time of the ECP articles and the blog posts about police corruption, I became suspect of Hoskins' behavior and patterns. One more than one instance, he admitted that he was in fact a private investigator. On other instances, he admitted that he was not. This was my first "red flag." On or about this time, I began receiving phone calls from a former Bardwell Police Department chief, Michael Chase Meissner, who began to explain to me that Hoskins had been investigating him for 18 months. Meissner was the subject of numerous Hoskins articles, including but not limited to the coverage on The Bardwell Intruder and Hoskins' Web site, MichaelMeissner.com. Hoskins later admitted that he had been pursuing Meissner for a period of 18-plus months due to both being former co-workers in Caney City, Texas, in neighboring Henderson County.
Meissner told me at the time that Hoskins had an "obsession" with him due to his role as a - to quote Hoskins directly at the time - "gypsy cop."
It wasn't just the private investigator statements that caused me to suspect Hoskins, but rather a series of events, two of which were highly publicized on various media Web sites, including that of D Magazine editor Trey Garrison.
A Red Oak, Texas resident, Keith Johnson, who also works as an officer for the Dallas Police Department, advertised a Web site he owns and runs, CorruptRedOakISD.com, on my blog's sidebar on or about Calendar Year 2007/2008. I wrote several articles about Keith Johnson's story involving his daughter and treatment she received in the Red Oak school district.
A series of public "spats" between Johnson and Hoskins on my blog's comments section culminated in an early-2009 controversy: on or about 7 a.m. earlier this calendar year, one of Keith Johnson's comments on my blog (ECO) was edited and altered to include the statement, "I like little boys." I was in Austin, Texas at the time at the radio studio of Alex Jones, who operates Infowars.com. A friend had been invited to be on the show and I was in Jones' Austin studio for the live airing. Ellis County Press reporter Megan Gray accompanied me to Austin.
I received numerous e-mails from Johnson and his wife about the altered blog comments and almost immediately pinpointed Hoskins as the culprit behind the editing. I called Hoskins via cellphone and relayed the information, at which he proceeded to tell me that he was in Houston at the time of the comment alteration. I became very suspect as Hoskins and myself were the only ECO bloggers/writers to have access to the "admin" account.
D Magazine's Garrison, mentioned several paragraphs above, syndicated the story that the ECO had deliberately edited the statements. Now, during my time working with and alongside Hoskins, he had developed a catch-phrase that former Chief Meissner "liked little boys." This was an often-repeated inside joke that I heard repeatedly. When the Johnson comments were edited and I was notified about them, my first instict was that it was Hoskins' doing, despite his denial to the contrary.
At this point (2009), it had become public knowledge through numerous blog posts on my site, as well as in my news column for The Ellis County Press that Hoskins and I had a "falling out." It was because of what happened earlier this year involving several instances in which anonymous screen names began attacking myself and former Kaufman County assistant DA Rodney Pat Ramsey on The Ellis County Observer blog. They were from anonymous "screen names," meaning that a person's identity was concealed behind a fictitious name.
However, after several weeks of anonymous attacks, Hoskins confided with a licensed peace officer friend of mine via Yahoo Instant Messenger, in which he "laughed" at "pissing Joey off." Though not directly implicating himself in the anonymous attacks on the ECO against myself or Ramsey, my licensed peace officer friend, who now works for the Ellis County Sheriff's Office and formerly the DeSoto (TX) Police Department, admitted to me that a "tracing" system was placed on the Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses of those anonymous attacks.
Unfortunately, the Yahoo IM conversation between this peace officer friend of mine and Hoskins was not saved (side note: I find it highly ironic that Hoskins did not request in his search warrant affidavit any Yahoo IM conversations, for if he did, evidence might be turned over that shows/showed his involvement) or recorded, but the results of the IP trace came back to show that dozens of different Internet routers were "bounced" off various servers -- and that the origin of the IP address from which the Ramsey/Dauben attacks came from stemmed from an Internet company called Embarq, located in Henderson County, Texas. Hoskins resides in Henderson County, Texas and formerly or currently works for Embarq. Hoskins at the time of his writing of articles for the newspaper and blog worked for Embarq.
It was at this time that Ramsey and I both began to publicly question Hoskins' whereabouts and his knowledge of the IP attacks. I originally reported on my blog and in my newspaper column that Hoskins "reportedly" admitted to being the culprit, but I had reneged on that report after my licensed peace officer friend clarified Hoskins' role (Hoskins didn't admit directly to being behind it, only that he really "pissed Joey off" and laughed at my reactions to the attacks.)
Last but not least, during the middle of this tit-for-tat public spectacle of sorts, I had obtained a photograph of Hoskins via e-mail. I published that photo on my blog, and began to promote the useage of it in connection with the now-public information I had on Hoskins. Hoskins threatened me more than once with a state investigation and even arrest for having the driver's license photo online.
Please keep in mind that every sentence written in this complaint thus far had occurred before Hoskins took a job at Combine PD. The driver's license photo was taken down after my peace officer friend (the same one who had the IP trace conducted on the anonymous IP attacks) and I discussed the situation as having no real "point." I agreed to take the driver's license photo down, but I kept it on a public photo-sharing Web site called Photobucket.com for a short period of time.
It is my belief that Hoskins contacted Photobucket.com to shut down my account, though I cannot prove this.
However, I did obtain a saved copy I found on the Internet and hired a graphic designer to create a logo for a new Web site I had bought, "GypsyCopJay.com," a "spoof" Web site that contains current information and career history about Hoskins. The "GypsyCopJay.com" Web site currently has the altered driver's license photograph in a graphic designed logo.
Sheriff, it was after GypsyCopJay.com became active that I received an anonymous e-mail containing the photograph of Combine PD reserve officer (reported; have not confirmed his employment or commission) William "Bill" Achey -- who had reportedly been arrested for impersonating an officer. The photograph in question was believed to be a publicly available mug shot taken when he was booked in. I then published the photo on both The Ellis County Observer and my sister site, The Kaufman County Observer, or KaufSyrup.com.
At this point, I knew Hoskins had taken a job with Combine PD. What I didn't know was that after submitting (via e-mail) a Texas Open Records Act request to Combine PD requesting a myriad of Internet searches, Web site visits on city/police computers and payroll information for officers and Hoskins, that I was under an investigation by state and federal authorities for ties to the Aryan Brotherhood. Sheriff, this can only be summed up as either one cruel joke or totally impossible: I am Jewish, and several close friends of mine are African-American. I cannot in good conscience be tied with a hate group given these facts.
And just last week (August 18), Hoskins repeatedly called me on my cellphone as I was visiting West Los Angeles, California for business purposes. At the time of the call, however, I was with a Jewish friend touring West Hollywood. Unfortunately, the phone conversation was not recorded, but Hoskins repeatedly threatened me with arrest and extradition back from New Hampshire (where I currently reside) on third-degree felony charges. He repeated that if I did not cooperate with his investigation within 30 calendar days, I would be faced with jail and prison. His exact statements, witnessed by my friend in the car with me, were, "you can't run for office while being a convicted felon." He repeated this at least three times via cellphone. He also proceeded to inform me that he had obtained search warrants for various e-mail accounts and cellphone records of mine, and that I obtained Officer Achey's mug shot photograph illegally. He read aloud a section of the Texas Penal Code to give credence to his accusation that I was committing a third-degree felony.
I told him that I would be in contact with my lawyers and cooperate with whoever I needed to cooperate with.
Sheriff, I believe Hoskins has used his sworn, commissioned law enforcement license to "seek revenge" on me and others, and if I am not mistaken, "official oppression" is against the law. Abusing someone's sworn duty and their badge to "get even" for past occurrences, to me, is not the American way. It is, however, what KGB agents performed routinely in Soviet Russia.
I plead with the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office that you accept this letter and the attached documents as an official complaint against Hoskins for abuse of power and official oppression, among other things.
If I can be of any assistance, please contact my legal counsel, Mark Griffith, at mgdlegal@hotmail.com, or by calling 972-937-9555.
Thank you.
/s/
Joey G. Dauben
Publisher
The Ellis County Observer
The Kaufman County Observer
The Free Talk Live BBS
Author
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