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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

The Court Faces a Constitutional Challenge


Citizen Ferrel Kelly is pretty much known by one and all in the county.  Sometime in January he will face a jury of his peers in magistrate court.  He has no money.  The court system has recognized that he has no home either.  At best, his home is under the bridge in Marlinton.  Occasionally he finds rooming with a friend.

Ferrel is 54 years old, never married.  His mother abandoned him when he was a little boy leaving his father to raise him.  His father is in the nursing home and unable to help because of his own extreme poverty.  Ferrel walks or hitchhikes wherever he goes.

The folks in the town don't particularly care for him hanging out on their streets.  He has been banned from one or two stores.  Only two or three people have offered to help Ferrel!  He has a local physician who treats him for free.  Another citizens buys his medicine when he is sick.  He walks to Richwood to see his dentist.  A local beautician cuts his hair.

FRN gave him a new coat for the winter.  Ferrel has no job and probably would be incapable of holding a job.  

The local police are not friendly to Ferrel.  Even the courts got mixed up in this situation.  They sent him off to jail for 30 months while he waited for a trial on a burning charge.  He was acquitted on that charge by a jury after exhausting three public defenders.  His current public defender has to arrange ad hoc meeting places with her client.

A lot of people say that he would be better off in jail where he would have "three hots and a cot."  But not with Ferrel.  During the thirty months he was awaiting his speedy trial, the courts tried to commit him  for being incompetent.  They got a doctor to say he was incompetent to stand trial but then another doctor said that the first doctor was wrong.  His mental health records are sealed in the courthouse so that no one can know for sure what happened.

But at any rate, a new judge was appointed--Judge Richardson--and he looked at the case and determined that Ferrel was competent to stand trial.  Ferrel was released from the 30 months confinement and his trial was conducted in which he was found "not guilty" of burning 500 square feet of grass.

Still he wasn't released because he had two other charges against him.  A new judge--Dent- is appointed and she finds that the case should be dismissed but without prejudice.  She explained that 30 months was no out of the ordinary considering that his competency had been challenged in court.  This allowed the courts to intervene in the future and repeat the same 30 month trick on Ferrel.

The jail fees amounted to $43,800 dollars.  This doesn't include the hourly wages of three attorneys, the cost of transportation, and the misc. court costs.  During this time he was unable to make any living for himself.

As a going away present from TVRJ, Ferrel was given a beating by the guards.  They bruised him so badly that he had to go to the emergency room at PM as soon as he got home.  He had two teeth knocked out by the guards.  An infection set into his foot where he was bruised.    He limped around for weeks because of the latter injury.  So he had "three hots and a cot" plus one beating by the guards.  

Ferrel's neighbors in Cloverlick hate his guts.  They never missed a chance to trashmouth him on facebook.  Needless to say he feels more at home in Marlinton.  He occasionally goes back to Clover lick, but not much.

Ferrel has no place to store his stuff except under the bridge or in some other spots in the town.  This has caused him much grief as well as the town officials who hauled three truckloads of his stuff out from under the bridge.

Ferrel is a man of acquisition.  He likes to gather things up that people throw away.  He has become quite proficient at dumpster diving.  Ferrel has a heart of gold--He will share the products of his diving with the immigrants at Joe's place.  He loves to keep them supplied with eggs.  If anyone else is in need,  Ferrel is on the spot.  Occasionally he meets a person of like standing at the Mini-Park and will bum someone out of a meal for his new found friends.  Or in one case a friend was standing under the awning of  an old store building and Ferrel bummed  a neighbor for a ride to keep his new friend out of rain.

Ferrel knows things.  He is quite proficient in international politics.  He reads the Charleston Gazette religiously, missing nothing!!!  He likes to get extra papers out of the free paper box to give to people.  Ferrel reads the news from surrounding county newspapers on a regular basis.  He can tell  you things about what's going on in many counties of WV.

Don't get Ferrel on international stuff.  He keeps up to date on the latest catastrophes in the world.

Ferrel also knows a lot about local politics.  He is a virtual gold mine of what is going on locally.  Now you are never certain if what he tells you is the truth.  Things may or may not be!   The only thing one can conclude is that Ferrel probably thinks what he says is the truth.  You have to take whatever he says with a "bucket" of salt.

So Herbie Barlow, the local state police is driving down the street in front of Dories and he sees Ferrel going through the ally behind the funeral home.  He sees him traipsing by the tombstones so he zips around an comes up the alley where he now is ahead of Ferrel.  He asks him if he was taking a pee in the alley.  Ferrel swears he isn't so Herbie says I am going to give you a ticket for "indecent exposure."    Now remember Herbie had to ask him if he was peeing.  It would seem that if Ferrel was peeing in the alley that Herbie would have seen "something."  

So regardless of Ferrel's denial, Herbies gives him a citation to magistrate court.  He has nothing more to write on than his traffic pad so he writes him a traffic ticket.  When Ferrel shows up at court for his arraignment hes is required to sign the ticket that he is not guilty of a traffic offense.  Magistrate Kelly arraigns him and gives him a $250 PR bond for the traffic violation.

Now, remember, Ferrel has no driver's license, no car, and has never had either of these.  His daddy had to drive him wherever he wanted to go.  We found out later that Ferrel is afraid to even ride a lawn mower.

Does this ring anybody's bell?  Of course, not!  A court appointed attorney is employed to represent him. She tries to get the ticket dismissed but Kelly is determined to prosecution this "non-traffic" traffic ticket.  

Was this a DUI charge?  Ferrel is allergic to alcohol.  Was this a drug charge?  No Ferrel can't afford food, let alone drugs!  Was this a sex charge?  Not really!  Indecent exposure requires that someone intend to display their private parts in a matter to offend someone else!  There doesn't seem to have been any display of private parts at all,even Herbie had to ask if Ferrel was peeing in the alley.

It is a very short alley--about the length of the funeral home lot which is about as wide as the building.  Unless Herbie is blind he couldn't have missed seeing Ferrel's private parts if he were indeed peeing in the alley.  He could have at least seem the "stream."

Furthermore, if Ferrel were peeing in the alley and not main street could it be said that he was trying to offend anyone.  Wouldn't it make more sense for someone to stand on main and open his coat to the public for all to see.  No,  it only makes sense that Ferrel was in the alley to "avoid" the public gaze.  Marlinton is a small town!! You could spit from one street to the next.  "Indecent exposure" is legally defined as an effort to overtly offend someone.

This is late fall, winter is coming on.  Ferrel was dressed with a hoodie, a hat AND A PAIR OF GLOVES.  

So Miss Kelly is going to play judge!!!  She will enlist a cadre of jurors who are going to have trouble hiding their laughter at this mock trial of Ferrel.  By the time this trial is over and Ferrel is acquited as he will be--Pocahontas will be the laughing stock of the state of West Virginia.



13 comments:

  1. Kelly received a public admonishment from the judicial review committee of the west Virginia supreme court ....she was told to knock off the horse shit and be very careful about locking people up and to watch herself in the future ...the next occurance will result in a fine and much like baseball the third strike and she is out on her rather large ass ...what does she think that no one is watching ???she needs to recuse herself from the case because she dated trooper barlow in the past and can not prove her impartiality she is open to being prejudice ... this case should be taken to another county and put in front of an impartial jury as there is no way this poor guy can get a fair trial .... a county that has charity in their hearts unlike what you can get in this county ...how can a jury even be picked in Pocahontas county ," do you know ferrel Kelly yes, dismissed"i guess these people are going to keep picking on this man who is obviously an idiot savant until a lawyer picks him up on a contingency percentage fee and they both leave court rich men

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    1. I don't disagree with most of what you wrote, but I do take one exception. Farrell had a felony trial in March and 12 good people voted "Not Guilty."

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  2. how many passes did Kenny peck get for pushing poison and breaking and entering beating women up manufacturing poison jumping bail from Virginia and carrying a 9 mm pistol like he was a big time gangster but bring the court house down on a poor soul living under a bridge in below zero weather for a fake charge of taking a piss .... magistrate Kelly would be a better human being if she would take ferrel to her house for thanksgiving day dinner and then drive him down to beckly w.v. so he could get lodgings and help in a homeless shelter ..after all he wouldn`t be homeless if he would not have spent almost three years in jail over nothing...I think the real plan is to get that land off of him so some one can get rich on it ...that is the oldest story in this county stealing poor peoples assets....she should then be the chair of a charity that would collect funds to get ferrels house made livable and the electric power put back on and help him get social security, medicare,medicaid ,and an advocate .... instead she thinks because she got elected to a new term that she does not have to answer for her heartlessness well maybe not in this life perhaps she will answer in her next life by winding up in a part of hell that is much hotter then other parts of hell

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  3. It's not about the mock trial, it's about Ferrel. What will happen to him after the lighter it over? Will he continue to laughed at and ridiculed the same way it is happening now. Will people continue to turn a blind eye to his needs? He is one of God's children the same as you and I. God doesn't make junk, there is a plan for all of us. Maybe God's plan for Ferrel is to show each and every one that is laughing just how much we are wrong in God's eyes. So when you read this, stop and ask yourself the question. Why do I laugh, ridicule and look down on a man that has more than anyone of you have. And that my friend is simply love and compation for his fellow man and will go out of his way to give. Think about this as you celebrate the Birth of Jesus this year. Who am I really.

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  4. boy here is another notch in the belt of the former store clerk she is all out for picking all the low hanging fruit the soft target it enough to make a person sick I am to the point of almost wishing the magistrate gets the same thing I am wishing on our out going sheriff asshole cancer the kind that rots you from the outside in real pain full kind just lay in bed and scream ....to the out going disaster of a sheriff a pox on you and your family as nothing good can come of such degusting excuses for human beings like these

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  5. magistrate Kelly was banging barlow who says that has stopped can she prove shes not doing him now sounds like something is up

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  6. Then start a recall. Because everyone knows the Magistrates Courts in Pocahontas County as fraudulent courts. They do not follow Federal or State procedure, code. It is well documented that Cynthia Kelly is corrupt, incompetent, and malicious. End it. This must start soon. There are more victims when ever these fraudulent courts are in session. This ties into the very corrupt, and incompetent Prosecuting Attorney's office. Drain the Swamp!

    Has anyone contact the WV ACLU about Ferrel or many other matters in this hell hole of "color of law" fraudulent courts? File complaints against Kelly, the Prosecutors, and the WV SP & Barlow.

    If you all don't come together and put an end to this, then even those many citizens who turn a blind eye will find they themselves, their loved ones, neighbors and friends will soon be another victim to these criminals taking public funds to run their public services fraud and abusing everyone's civil rights with the atrocities that come out of that court house. It is worse than some 3rd or 4th world County. This county is a stain on the State of West Virginia and a disgusting mark upon this Nation.

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  7. 30 months determine if someone is incompetent. No I dont think that is normal.
    If it is its wrong.
    A month a best sounds right.

    The Road Runner...

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    1. it is not about incompetent rather it is about the land that ferrels family has on river road .. as more people get tired of the crap at snow shoe more people are looking at land and development along the greenbrier river ... I hear oak hall is the Ethiopian in the fuel supply ....

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  8. If you people want to show Farrell some respect, you can start will spelling his name correctly.

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    1. O no the spelling police run run for the flat land.

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    2. That poster has a point. This isn't a matter of grammar police. This is a simple matter of respect, and correction on THE subjects proper name. If that name needs to be corrected it is a simple matter that take seconds to edit and correct through out this whole blog.

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  9. O no more spelling police respect has nothing to do with a person ability to spell.
    Kelly's not a subject he's a human being.
    Maybe thats why you do not know what respect is.

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About Me

A local archivist who specializes in all things Pocahontas County