Here is one of many follow-up articles that came out about this case:

http://www.newsfeedunlimited.com/newsfeedunlimited_011.htm

Beverly Hills Film Studios Seeks Return of the “Medal of Honor” TV Series Seized In Warrantless Search By The Department of Homeland Security

Department of Homeland Security continues to defy CA Superior Court order to return TV Series “Medal of Honor” honoring American heroes, hosted by Burt Reynolds.

September 11, 2009 – Beverly Hills Film Studios and its President, Producer/Director BJ Davis are going public with their efforts to secure the return of the TV Series “Medal of Honor” and other film properties, unlawfully seized by the Department of Homeland Security during its warrantless searches of the company’s offices and the Davis residence. This is the latest development in a series of events that are truly stranger than fiction and could only be described as a bizarre mix of “Burn After Reading” and “Enemy of the State”.

One of the precipitating events for this Kafka-esque saga was a whistleblowing disclosure pertaining to the suspected breach of national security at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on 4th of July, 2004. This report was made to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) by Julia Davis, former officer of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). When the news broke and the Los Angeles Times reporter asked former CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner about Julia Davis’ report to the FBI, agency officials assumed that she was responsible for the leak to the press. To the contrary, Julia declined to be interviewed by the Lou Dobbs show and other news reporters that approached her, not wishing to embarrass her agency. However, since she previously filed a report of discrimination against the DHS, the agency saw her as a direct cause of the impending public scrutiny. This assumption led to the unprecedented acts of retaliation against Julia Davis and her family.

In preparation for the upcoming press conference pertaining to this matter, Commissioner Bonner and his staff started to make inquiries about Julia Davis to the local Port management. The attack was launched by the former Director of field operations Adele Fasano, who was working with Bonner at the DHS headquarters in Washington, DC. As Adele Fasano testified in her sworn deposition, “The commissioner had been approached by a Los Angeles Times reporter when he was conducting a badge ceremony in San Diego a couple of weeks ago, and the Los Angeles Times reporter had a copy of a letter Ms. Davis authored making serious allegations about us not detecting terrorists at the border.”

Bonner’s office wanted to know if there were any ongoing investigations against Davis that the agency could use to discredit her, thereby attempting to invalidate her whistleblowing disclosure. Fasano was informed that there were no investigations against Julia Davis, which didn’t suit the Department of Homeland Security’s agenda. Following Fasano’s conversation with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s San Diego Office of Professional Responsibility (ICE OPR), sixteen (16) investigations against Julia Davis were launched in rapid succession. These cases were opened and investigated by ICE Agents Herbert P. Kaufer and Jeffrey J. Deal. They dealt with petty, non consequential allegations – for example, investigating whether Julia’s cell phone was broken, who took Gummi Bear candies out of her locker and what she did during her unpaid leave.

Interestingly enough, Deal was readily familiar with Julia Davis, having received her complaint of being stalked and sexually harassed by her Supervisor in 2003. Deal closed that case without any investigation, stating that “there was no action required”, since in his opinion sexual harassment didn’t rise “to the criminal level”. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General later investigated and substantiated Julia’s report, as did the courts, granting her petition for a permanent restraining order and issuing rulings that she was, in fact, severely harassed. Deal’s approach to Julia’s report was notably different from the way he later handled numerous investigations against her.

Jeffrey Deal testified under oath that these cases were initiated “directly from Washington” with a “priority” designation. Cases against Julia Davis were “to be given immediate attention” and “to go to the top of the workload”. In one instance, Deal interrogated Julia for over eight (8) hours straight, with the zeal of a homicide detective. After all, Commissioner Bonner was waiting, Adele Fasano was asking for the investigation “to be completed and referred back to management for action” and Deal was ordered “to get it done as quickly as possible”.

Kaufer and Deal rushed to finalize the menial case involving a broken cell phone, preparing a memorandum that was signed by their Supervisor, former Associate Special Agent In Charge James Wong. In this memorandum authored by Herbert Kaufer, Julia Davis was alleged to pose “a serious breach to security”. Adele Fasano admitted under oath that in her conversations with the San Diego office of ICE she expressed how “glad” she was “to hear that it’s coming to conclusion”, since “the time line was short in order to provide the requested information” “in response to an interview, a media request.”

Julia was harassed and terrorized to such an extent that she involuntarily resigned from the Department of Homeland Security. Immediately after her resignation she sent a certified letter to the investigating agents, volunteering to continue cooperating with any ongoing investigations and even offering to undergo a polygraph examination. Julia eventually prevailed in a discrimination lawsuit against the DHS. The Judge determined that her resignation was involuntary and was caused by the agency’s “illegal conduct”, its “betrayal” of Julia and “unnecessary harassment” to which she was subjected.

In spite of what should have been the end of the ordeal, Kaufer and Deal didn’t stop. After Julia left the Agency, Kaufer and Deal opened an additional of thirty-eight (38) cases against her, for a total of fifty-four (54) investigations. They referred to Julia as a “domestic terrorist” and abused their authority by subjecting her to years of warrantless surveillance and unlawfully obtaining access to private documents and information, under the guise of a never-ending “criminal investigations”.

A multi-agency Task force was formed and tirelessly labored day and night, following, wiretapping, photographing and investigating Julia Davis, BJ Davis and Julia’s parents at taxpayers expense. There was absolutely no valid reason for the two filmmakers to be investigated, aside from the Agency’s retaliatory motives. BJ Davis has been in the film industry for over 35 years, he is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild of America and other prestigious entertainment-industry unions.

BJ Davis is a premier producer and director who has worked with Academy Award-winning feature film directors Clint Eastwood, Oliver Stone and John McTiernan. He has also worked in close collaboration with four-time Emmy Award winner Arthur Allan Seidelman. BJ Davis has worked as a stuntman in over 180 films and television shows and as a second unit director/stunt coordinator in over 250 films and television series. As a stuntman in the beginning of his career, BJ Davis stunt doubled Academy Award winners Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Tommy Lee Jones, Michael Caine and Art Carney. Julia Davis stunt-doubled Angelina Jolie and authored produced screenplays for award-winning feature films, TV series and documentaries.

BJ Davis holds two world stunt records: a high fall from a helicopter into the ocean from 180 feet and an aerial neck suspension beneath a helicopter at 70 mph, at 1,000 feet for a period of 20 minutes of flight. For his spectacular stunts and unbeatable world records, BJ was accepted into the Hollywood Stuntman Hall of Fame (other members include movie superstar Kirk Douglas and an American icon John Wayne). BJ produced and directed award-winning films, TV series and music videos.

The Task force had quietly questioned anyone and everyone who crossed paths with Julia and BJ Davis, from politicians to mobsters. Agent Jeffrey Deal admitted under oath that he was encouraging civilians to file criminal charges against BJ and Julia Davis. They even paid BJ’s ex-wife in exchange for providing false testimony against the couple. In addition to their sneak-and-peak intrusions into the Davis residences and office, Kaufer and Deal conducted a warrantless search of BJ Davis’ office and unlawfully removed films, screenplays, tax and financial documents, medical records and numerous other items.

BJ and Julia have recently discovered that Kaufer and Deal managed to obtain their medical and insurance records from the Screen Actors Guild of America, in violation of various federal and state medical Privacy Act regulations, under the guise of the Patriot Act. Egregious abuses of the Patriot Act by the federal government have been recently exposed by the Justice Department audit, which recently concluded that the FBI abused the Patriot Act, improperly and, in some cases, illegally using it to secretly obtain highly personal information about people in the United States. The audit found that for the last three years, the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over their customer data. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ordered a further investigation and did not exclude the possibility of future criminal charges, stating to reporters: “There is no excuse for the mistakes that have been made”.

The 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization and improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances, while using “national security letters”, a power outlined in the Patriot Act that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, were meant to be used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases and allow federal agencies to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers – without judicial oversight.

The audit found that the number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law. The audit also identified 26 possible violations in the way national security letters were misused, including making improper requests, failing to get proper authorization and unauthorized collection of telephone and Internet e-mail records.

A host of violations uncovered by the audit are similar to outrageous government misconduct in the Julia Davis case, since the Screen Actors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Pension and Health Plans disclosed protected health information pertaining to Julia and BJ Davis, their relatives and dependents to the Department of Homeland Security. Under the guise of protecting homeland security, San Diego Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents, Jeffrey J. Deal and Herbert P. Kaufer have requested and obtained medical, insurance and identification information pertaining to BJ and Julia Davis and their family members, whereby SAG/SAG PHP disclosed to Kaufer and Deal protected medical information pertaining to a total of eleven (11) persons.

Since the information obtained did not fit their agenda, Kaufer and Deal and the prosecutors involved withheld these records and concealed even the fact that such records had been obtained. While in possession of documents and information contrary to the allegations against Julia and BJ Davis, OPR/ICE Agents Kaufer and Deal continued their vindictive prosecutorial efforts and, by providing knowingly false testimony to the Grand Jury, obtained the later-dismissed indictment against them.

While the Department of Homeland Security bemoaned of its lack of helicopters to rescue Katrina victims, a Blackhawk helicopter was dispatched to conduct “flyovers” and aerial surveillance of the Davis residence, located in the Palm Springs area, hours away from San Diego. It’s truly astonishing that the Agency invested with safeguarding our country’s national security wasn’t sophisticated enough to use Google Earth or a similar Internet program that offers maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches.

At the same time, Deal and Kaufer were urging prosecutors across four (4) different jurisdictions to charge the couple with various felonies. Instead of fighting the War on Terror, DHS spent government funds on its tireless attempts to discredit a whistleblower. When Kaufer and Deal finally convinced US Attorney Steven Cazares to indict Julia and BJ Davis for immigration violations that allegedly took place over ten (10) years ago, no expense was spared on the agency’s overblown show of force.

On August 10, 2005, Kaufer and Deal led the Department of Homeland Security’s raid of the Davis residence with a Blackhawk attack helicopter and 27 armed ICE agents. Special Response Team stormed the house commando-style, assaulted and severely mistreated Julia’s elderly parents who were the only people present at the house. The raid was videotaped by the one of the neighbors, many of whom later wrote statements about what they witnessed. One of these declarations stated that the agents were observed exiting the helicopter, kneeling down and pointing assault weapons toward the house and then running up the stairs to enter the residence.

The neighbor wrote, “I could not believe what I was seeing. I thought I was seeing a scene from a Rambo movie”. Another neighbor observed, “This seemed crazy…neighbor at Rock Ranch was a very nice person and this whole affair seemed so far out of character”. ICE Agents were described acting like “Gestapo agents” and being offensive. They attacked and threw down Julia’s elderly father with a heart condition, then sat him in full sun (114 degrees) for an hour, wearing only his underwear, denying him access to water and medication.

When he asked Deal what was the reason for the raid, Deal told him that the raid was being conducted because “Julia Davis is a domestic terrorist”. The neighbors were appalled at the way Julia’s father was mistreated and described him as “a kind, honest and civil-minded man…he represents no threat to anyone…The display and degree of force used against him was, in my opinion, appalling and excessive… I believe that Homeland Security has clearly usurped its authority in this case”.

The Agency’s claim that the Blackhawk was necessary since there were no roads close to the house are contradicted by the aerial shots taken from the helicopter – as well as by the fact that numerous vehicles drove up to the house simultaneously with the helicopter landing. The landing had to be attempted three times, and the helicopter almost crashed. The Blackhawk maneuvered and landed dangerously close to electrical wires, residences and local population. Collateral damage was not considered, given the magnitude of this operation.

Blackhawk helicopters are primarily used as a troop carrier, electronic warfare and other high-tech attack missions and cost $8.6 million dollars per unit. The Blackhawk’s maximum endurance of only 2 hours and 18 minutes necessitated special arrangements, refueling and hiding the Blackhawk at a local airport until Jeffrey Deal called for the beginning of the aerial assault.

At the end, Department of Homeland Security’s expensive war games against the Davises came to absolutely nothing. Both prosecutions they managed to initiate against the couple were dismissed, to include a finding of factual innocence, an order to seal and destroy arrest files court case files and an order to return all property unlawfully taken during two (2) warrantless searches. As of the date of this investigative report, the government is still in contempt of the court order and defies the law in keeping all of the items taken in two warrantless searches.

Federal Judge A. Howard Matz reviewed the materials taken in the warrantless searches, comprised of personal, financial, tax, business, intellectual properties and film footage library of tiles that included a television pilot and series, “Medal Of Honor” hosted by Academy Award nominee Burt Reynolds. Matz determined that they were not entitled to any protection and yet failed to make any order as to their return to BJ and Julia Davis. This is not surprising, in light of Matz’ longstanding relationship with former CBP Commissoner Robert Bonner. The two served side-by-side as Assistant US Attorneys in the same court where Matz is now presiding and impermissibly colored Matz’ decisions in the Davis’ cases. Such misuse of a legal system to punish whistleblowers and to discourage a critical view of a government agency is a dangerous concept.

To date, there has been no investigation of Kaufer, Deal and their associates who participated in a SWAT raid, warrantless surveillance, warrantless searches and other illegal activities against BJ and Julia Davis – although the Office of Inspector General officially reported to the Office of Special Counsel that investigations against Kaufer, Deal, Broyles, Wong and others involved have been taken over by the OIG after it was determined that the OPR could not ethically investigate themselves.

Producer/Director BJ Davis declared his intent to take this matter public and to seek Department of Homeland Security’s compliance with standing court orders for return of his and his company’s materials, literary and visual works, even if it means filing another lawsuit to ensure that justice finally prevails.

Big government keeps growing, while our civil rights continue to be diminished. One of our founding fathers Benjamin Franklin wrote, “He who would sacrifice freedom for security, deserves neither”.

Julia’s upcoming book, “Until It Happens To You”, will tell the tale of this gross government misconduct and national cover-up, financed with taxpayers dollars, to deceive the American public while putting the entire country in harm’s way. Julia Davis is a true American hero and a staunch patriot. When asked if she would do the same today, knowing what happened as the consequence of her whistleblowing disclosure, Julia said “Yes”.

Julie and BJ had a pending lawsuit against the government and/or the agents. Is that still in the works?