Tuesday, October 11, 2011

DA Jim Martin KO'd, pulverized by Bill Villa at West End Youth Center campaign debate














Readers, as you can see by clicking on and enlarging this post's revealing photo, Lehigh County District Attorney (for now) Jim Martin (left) was not pleased to see me in attendance at his Guest Speaker gig at the West End Youth Center on Tuesday evening. Right before I snapped this picture, all-bark no-bite Jim Martin barked at me, "Don't take my picture, Villa!" I told DA Martin that I was actually taking Republican judicial candidate Doug Reichley's photograph (that's Doug Reichley event-crashing and vote-pandering on the right) and that I would crop him (Martin) out of the picture "just like the voters will crop you out on November 8." Pow! The crowd roared. Sort of. Actually, some dizzy duped dunce dame seated to my right motioned to me while saying to Martin, "We can have him thrown out." To which Martin snorted, "We just may do that," and he motioned to a policeman standing guard behind his estimated 500+ pound girth. I counter-punched back at DA Martin, saying, "on what legal grounds would you have me thrown out, Jim?" Bully Martin seemed flustered by my directly in-his-face challenge question, so he socio-pathologically lied, "I didn't say that." "You don't need any grounds, do you Jim," I upper-cutted Martin and snapped his head back in my direction. "You do pretty much anything you want around here, isn't that right, Jim?" Pussy DA Jim Martin back-pedaled, and flailed, wildly,"Villa, I'm not going to debate you at this forum here tonight!" To which I grinned broadly and calmly back at Martin and said, "Oh I know, Jim, you wouldn't debate me anywhere."

And that ended the pre-fight 'trash talk' segment of our debate which was still ringing in Martin's swollen red ears when he was introduced moments later to the crowd of about 25 all white people, and mostly skittish seniors, by the President of "The West Watch Neighborhood Group," Pam Palmer (pamp@thewestwatch.org).

Evoking both Broderick Crawford and Foster Brooks, Martin blustered and staggered his way into an obviously canned, very stale, and bone dull boring recitation of what a district attorney does ("first there's a crime, then there's an arrest," Zzzz) while strongly implying that in Lehigh County, only He can do the job. Foolishly, and recklessly, punch drunk DA Jim Martin did not edit out (on the fly, say for my benefit) this part of his memorized rote speech:

"I don't mind being interrupted by on-topic questions." -DA Jim Martin

Oopsie. My first debate haymaker came flying seconds later when Martin tried to brag about a "97% conviction rate." I told those assembled that after watching DA Martin for the past 5 years, "it's obvious to anyone paying attention that DA Jim Martin routinely takes the easiest (for him) route possible to a conviction, and that easiest route is "Bargain" Plea Deals w/ Criminals, and that his "97%" conviction rate column was filled, mostly, with these kinds of "bargain" plea deals, and as such, "97%" is a highly deceptive "conviction rate" percentage and wouldn't you agree with me on this, Mr. Martin?"Astutely not taking the bait, Martin disagreed w/ me and said, stumblingly,"Sometimes you uh have to settle for uh half a loaf," to which the dizzy duped dunce dame to my right nodded her head up and down enthusiastically (not Parkinson's I don't think) and mouthed to Martin, basically, "good answer."

That we set the bar so (hiccup) shamefully low for our elected officials in Lehigh County should also be sadly obvious to anyone paying attention but I digress.

At this juncture, DA Martin attempted to introduce me to the crowd. Martin brayed that, "Mr. Villa has a vendetta against me for not charging third degree murder against the guy who killed his daughter" and that "Mr. Villa has been libeling me for 5 years."

At this juncture, I stood up .. and told the crowd that DA Jim Martin had "just made an outrageous accusation in claiming libel," and then turning to Martin I said to him,"Jim, you're the District Attorney (for now), if I'm LIBELING you, why don't you file charges against me?" Pusillanimously, so only the hearing aids in row 1 could hear it, Martin muttered,"One day, Villa, civil suit, one day." DA Martin then tried to continue slandering me to the crowd so I started walking toward the front of the room while saying, "Jim, if you're going to tell this crowd about me, I'm going to tell them a few things about you, so I'm coming up there to join you ..."

Well. Allentown's finest was on me faster than an Allentown City Council Facts & Truth about Michael Donovan Muzzling. With The West Watch's President Pam Palmer screeching for my ouster by the policeman, and an attendee behind me hissing "get lost," and nobody in the crowd of 25 sheep protesting or questioning why I was being physically ejected for merely asking questions that DA Jim Martin had just invited ... something quite unexpected, but most welcome, happened next.

One person made a difference.

Paul Krempasky, the President of the West End Youth Center (where I've assistant-coached my rifle arm son Gianni's baseball team the past 2 seasons), spoke up from his perch on a bar stool in the back of the room. Krempasky basically told Martin's goon squad cop that his strong-arm tactics were premature and inappropriate and that I should be allowed to speak, from my seat. As the 25 sheep in the room watched, I released myself from the policeman's grip (and a likely handcuffed and railroaded ride to Lehigh County Prison) and returned to my seat where I continued to mop the fuckin' floor w/ crooked and incompetent DA Jim Martin. Nice work, Chief.  

First, I told the crowd that a charge of third degree murder for my daughter Sheena's killer would have been appropriate. Then, I insisted that Martin tell the crowd who the father of the guy who killed my daughter is (Gross McGinley attorney Don LaBarre) and what law firm Martin chose recently (Gross McGinley) to defend him in a court action, out of all the law firms in Allentown he could have chosen. Reluctantly, but obediently, Big Bad Jim owned up to the glaringly obvious crony connection. The room got so quiet the guy behind me stopped hissing at me to "get lost."

Side Note: DA Martin developed a noticeable facial tic when I referred to The Morning Call "newspaper" as "your press agent."

FYI: The Morning Call's longtime law firm is Gross McGinley and if a Gross McGinley lawyer's son kills your daughter, please be advised that DA Jim Martin will let him leave the country and go on vacation to Belize, Central America, while out on bail for homicide and helpful Gross McGinley client, The Morning Call "newspaper," won't ever report that. And if you ask them why, they won't answer you, 229 times.

From here on ott, the debate beating only got worser & worser for Dumbo Jumbo Jimbo (left) pictured w/ his much obliged lapdog Democrat, Don Cunning-Ham.

On Martin's topic of "prudent use of taxpayer resources," I figuratively pounded a wobbly Martin senseless all over the ring regarding why he insisted on appealing his "outrageous" Shiatsu Massage Parlor Sex Case all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (they rejected it too), after having been rejected in Lehigh County Court and Pennsylvania Superior Court.

"Jim, was this a prudent use of taxpayer resources?"

Martin's answer: "Yes, it was."

On Martin's topic of "our good Lehigh County judges, and having a good working relationship with them," to the now mounting interest of the sheep crowd, I noted that "in addition to showing up Judge Steinberg by appealing his rightful rejection of your 'outrageous' sex case all the way to the PA Supreme Court, now you're appealing and showing up Lehigh County Judge Michele Varricchio's ruling against you that Mayor Rick Hoffman, and not you, is the chief law enforcement officer in Macungie. Jim, does this kind of petty and vendetta-driven head butting of our good Lehigh County judges foster having a good working relationship with them?"

Martin, visibly sweating, guffawed nervously at the notion he has a vendetta against any Lehigh County judges but the inconvenient facts indicate otherwise. Read between the lines of Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony's recent, rare, and very public bitch slapping of DA Jim Martin for Martin's lazy, "bargain" plea deals with criminals. Judge Anthony voiced his incredulousness a second time during his sentencing of one of DA Jim Martin's "bargain" plea deal recipients on April 25, 2011.

I closed in (and knocked Martin out cold) with Michael Eric Ballard, the guy who slit an Allentown man's throat in 1991, killing him, and who DA Jim Martin enabled to knife, and slaughter to death, 4 more innocent people in Northampton last year by failing to respond to a letter from the parole board requesting DA Jim Martin's opinion on whether murderer Michael Eric Ballard was a risk to society or not. Turns out he was. But DA Jim Martin never opened or responded to the memo from the parole board ... so they set Michael Eric Ballard free and he murdered 4 more people.

Trapped like a 500-pound rat, Martin admitted to the crowd that, "Mr. Villa is completely correct about this, there was a breakdown in my office, and we regret that, but we've fixed it, and ... bla bla bla."

I then noted that, time line-wise, while 5-time murderer Michael Eric Ballard was falling through the cracks at DA Jim Martin's office, Martin himself was "cracking up," laughing, while listening to audio recordings of the State Police's paid informant who was "wearing a wire" while enjoying a "smorgasbord of sex" (Judge Steinberg's quote) on 4 different "outrageous" occasions (again, Judge Steinberg's quote) at a Whitehall Shiatsu Sex Massage Parlor, as was reported in The Morning Call. Here's my knockout punch in slo-mo ...

"Ladies and gentlemen, DA Jim Martin was too busy laughing at sex tapes to open and answer his 'Ballard' mail."

By now, the vibe in the room felt like some of the 25 sheep had possibly meandered over to my side.

When nobody had any more questions about gang crime that DA Jim Martin could not answer to anyone's satisfaction, The West Watch President/Moderator Pam Palmer actually, and politely, asked me if I had any additional questions.


After the debate was over, quite unlike unrepentant and remorseless DA Jim Martin sycophants Michael Donovan, and attorney (for now) Dave Najarian, both the guy who had hissed "get lost" at me and the cop who had tried unsuccessfully to muzzle and eject me ... apologized to me.

I appreciated that.

Ditto Paul Krempasky for doing the right thing and making a difference.

Following DA Jim Martin and his gargantuan and gaudy, black & silver Cadillac SUV [PA Lic. Plate # FMN7795] out of the parking lot in my Honda Fit Sport, I noticed that, when turning left or right, Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin does not use his turn signals.


VILLAS: WHY WE FIGHT

2017 UpDate: The Allentown Policeman who tried, unsuccessfully, to arrest & muzzle me during Q & A and shield DA Jim Martin from me was then APD Captain, and now Chief, Keith Morris.  Some things never change in crooked, colluding-crony-connected & complicit Lehigh County. See Related Story. And another Related Story. And another Related Story. And one more. And a bunch more.