This lady needs a lawyer! Any lawyers on DU?

[undergroundpanther]

This was up on Unknown news..This lady was making a plea for help.So I cut and pasted it.
If anyone here on DU can help her..Please do.

My brother is in jail forever for a crime he didn't commit

by Sarah Lewis, Sept. 17, 2005

I found your website and read thru and saw the blurb about you publishing all the details and leaving it online forever for hate mail that didn't follow the rules -- simple and good rules -- but I wanted my details -- name, email addy etc put on so I could maybe get some input from someone that may be able to tell me how to help my brother.

I read thru the hate mails and God I just love it -- those whackos are nuts! They deserve to have to live with their CRAZINESS and have EVERYONE know about how crazy they are!

I like your website and will send you a donation when I can -- it's worth supporting!

It's never about the donations. And I suspect, if you had ample funds, your brother wouldn't be in trouble.

My name is Sarah Lewis and I am so thankful that I found your website! My brother Leonard Vance Lewis is in jail in Leesville, (Vernon Parish) LA accused of a murder that he did not commit. It is YET ANOTHER "bad-Southern- Justice" story.

Leo is a pacifist and has NO record of violent crimes. He is 50 years old and his back and knees are giving out on him. He receives Social Security and 2 & 1/2 years ago he rented a trailer on his property to a young man that talked a good line. Too late Leo came to know the young man had a very LONG and very violent criminal history/record and somehow managed to stay out of jail for it all.

Two months later the young man stopped paying rent and began a 2 year long campaign of abuse and harassment of Leo. He would threaten Leo and hit him. The eviction that my brother attempted for non payment of rent ended when the young man said he would kill Leo. Just to make sure the threat was real, the young man told Leo of a murder that he did as a teen when he killed another teen and cut him up and disposed of the body in a swamp. My brother was under the "control" of this young man just like an abused spouse in a bad relationship.

The young man would beat him up and take his money to buy drugs and alcohol. The young man would steal Leo's car and go off drinking, stealing anything not nailed down, visiting his family, and messing around with his friends. Sometimes Leo would be along (because he was in the car when the young man wanted it) but more often not.

Then my brother says, "One day I came home and there were two bodies in the yard!" Then the young man held a shotgun on my brother and FORCED Leo's cooperation with the disgusting work of "processing" the bodies for disposal. The young man then forced Leo to load the bodies in Leo's car for transporting the bodies and then made Leo go along to help carry the bodies into the boonies. Leo maintains that he was kidnapped.

Then the young man was brilliant enough to brag to his family what he'd done. His family is a "clannish" one and they realized quickly that one of their own was in trouble and they didn't want him to answer for it. So they "closed ranks", and concocted a plausible story and went to the police. The family has friends among the "powerful" in Leesville who then pulled strings on the young man's behalf.

The police refused to gather evidence that Leo said would prove his innocence. They "had their man" and didn't WANT to find any more evidence. They listened to and believed more of what the young co-defendant said which was nothing more than a story carefully constructed by the young man's family to get him off. It doesn't matter that the young man is a "hardened criminal" -- from his teens on. It doesn't matter that the young man has a yard-long history of violent crimes -- some of which that were "smoothed over" and "hushed up" by the family's friends and if that didn't work -- there are reports of the family members threatening the victims of their crimes -- successfully so that the victims kept quiet.

The whole thing has been cast in a "older man leads a young man astray" kind of story. The public is being fed a line of baloney to sway opinion against my brother. He is also being cast as an "outsider" (ie, not "from" there -- a crime in itself) even though we were raised less than 50 miles away. (We lived in California for a while but are "from" Louisiana.)

One of the issues of contention is that the ownership of the shotgun held on my brother is in question. Good lord -- considering the abuse that my brother suffered at the hands of that young man, considering the theft of items belonging to my brother, what does it matter WHO owned the gun? The idiot young man stole it from my brother????!!!!

Now the "Police Jury" (their version of a Grand Jury?) has decided not to pay Leo's attorney -- who has essentially QUIT! -- leaving my brother without legal representation! NOW HOW DO THEY GET AWAY WITH THAT I WONDER!!!!!

Now my brother sits in jail wondering how in the world such a miscarriage could take place? He is just naive enough to think that he is supposed to get "justice". But he is beginning to get the idea of how he is being "railroaded" and how little it matters that he is innocent. He is now being urged to plead "guilty" -- probably by someone wanting to save Vernon Parish the cost of a capital murder trial -- not to mention his attorney's fees. He said that he was told that he could plead guilty and that would take the case out of the hands of the Vernon Parish (local authorities) and he could then get it straightened out in another venue -- on appeals. I think if he does that he will be really "screwed" then. He may never be free again -- no matter how innocent he is. There was another man in the same jail there in Leesville that was held for 8 -- -EIGHT years!!! before his murder case was brought to trial -- that is cruel and unusual -- no matter how you cut it!!!

He has warned me that the authorities there have said they would bring some kind of "charges" against me if I continue to "interfere," I do not even live there, I've lived in Dallas for 8 years -- what charges could they bring against me???? Is it a crime to point out the debacle of a third-rate Parish DA and legal system that is persecuting my brother who is innocent of murder? Let them bring their "charges" -- I haven't done anything wrong -- I'm going to interfere until they all have headaches every night from trying to spin their malfeasance (in my opinion) to make it sound acceptable.

Please tell me if there's something you know of that I can do or someone I can contact to help him. I feel so ineffective and don't know what to do short of getting a degree in Law. If someone can help send me to Law school -- I'll go and defend him myself. (God knows it looks like I'd have time to finish -- 8 stinkin' years!?!?!?) I have a BA with a minor in Political Science and could finish any law school pre-requisites in short order.

Leo I'm here for you brother, Dallas, TX

Sarah Lewis
[e-mail]

[DesEtoiles]

1. David Dow - Project Innocence - University of Houston

[undergroundpanther]

2. Her email is at the end

Thank you for helping her!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Excellent person to mention

I wasn't aware of him until last year at the National Innocence Conference. Great person, strong convictions, a very good recommendation, IMO.