SO MUCH FOR THE ACLU

On November 3, 2014, I sent a letter to Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, Executive Director of the ACLU in Richmond, Virginia, asking if her organization would help me with my complaint against Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleo E. Powell.

I met Ms. Gastanaga in White Stone, Virginia where I asked her to look at my argument the Virginia Supreme Court had broken the law in its decision to throw out the jury verdict in the Pryde and Peterson lawsuit against Virginia Tech. Her body language clearly indicated she did not welcome my request, but because I asked in the presence of others, she agreed to look at it. She also said she is a personal friend of Justice Cleo Powell, the Virginia Supreme Court justice who broke the law by introducing false evidence into the court’s unanimous decision to overturn the jury’s decision to hold Virginia Tech accountable for not warning the campus on April 16, 2007.  I naively hoped that if she could not help, but saw merits in my case, she would refer the complaint to someone else in the ACLU.

It is now over three years since I wrote Ms. Gastanaga. She has not responded and apparently does not intend to acknowledge my letter. In this case it is especially disappointing because of the ACLU’s high professional standards.

“ACLU MISSION STATEMENT. Since its founding in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been the guardian of liberty, working in the nation's courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve individual working rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

My only conclusion is that Ms. Gastanaga’s personal friendship with Virginia Supreme Court Justice Powell, outweighs not only her word, but the law itself. (To be continued)