Blackwood Sentences CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III to Three Years in Jail

by Sharon Rondeau, ©2014, The Post & Email

(Aug. 19, 2014) — Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood has sentenced CDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret.) to three years in jail for his convictions on “extortion” and “aggravated perjury” at a hearing which began at 10:00 a.m. EDT and ended at approximately 11:35 a.m.

An eyewitness who lives in the Athens, TN community said that Blackwood’s performance in the courtroom was the “most corrupt judiciary I’ve ever seen.”

Character statements were taken from Fitzpatrick’s attorney, Van Irion, and Lt. Col. Field McConnell, USMC (Ret.), who came from his home state of Wisconsin to stand beside Fitzpatrick, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy four years after McConnell did.

Fitzpatrick was led away in handcuffs by McMinn County Sheriff’s deputies, whose patrol cars say on the back, “Keeping the Oath.”

On March 18, Fitzpatrick tried to submit evidence of criminality on the part of judges, prosecutors, the grand jury foreman and the sheriff’s department to the McMinn County grand jury but instead was himself arrested after waiting quietly on a bench outside of the courtroom for a decision on his petition.

On June 24, a jury found Fitzpatrick guilty of the two felonies, despite a lack of evidence, prosecutorial misconduct and no accuser or victim in the case.

The eyewitness reported that Blackwood disparaged Fitzpatrick’s character viciously, just as Judge Roland Freisler did in The People’s Court hearings of 1944 of participants in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  At one point, Blackwood was heard to say, “I’m tired of these people who say they’re keeping their oath.”

Prior to Tuesday, Blackwood’s office received dozens, if not hundreds, of phone calls asking that the verdicts be vacated.  On Monday, Blackwood’s secretary told a caller that she was not keeping track of the calls or relaying the information they contained to Blackwood.

The observer said that her understanding is that Fitzpatrick must serve 30% of the sentence, which will run concurrently with a conviction from Monroe County suspended by Judge Walter C. Kurtz pending appeal.  That case has now been appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

For the last five years, Fitzpatrick has referred to the corrupt Tennessee court system as a “dictatorship of the judiciary.”

When Fitzpatrick was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, several attendees applauded to show support.

Two mainstream media stations were there with cameras.  Channel 12′s Jason Mahon tweeted, then removed, a comment addressed to filmmaker William Fain which incorrectly identified Fitzpatrick as “William:”

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