Ex-Morning Caller Jerry Brahm now censoring DA Jim Martin facts @ LV Patch

[Update: AOL Patch NYC and Lehigh Valley respond, see comments section for their incredible evasions] Readers, as you know, I've been successfully exposing crony-crooked and incompetent Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin for several years now. And by successfully I mean that the crony-colluding local powers that be around here have failed miserably and comprehensively in their concerted efforts to silence me and stop me from exposing DA Jim Martin.

They sure have tried hard though.

They've tried refusing to meet with me 229 times and deleting and blocking my comments online at The Morning Call "newspaper" and throughout the Morning Call-affiliated local blogosphere; they've tried defiling my deceased daughter Sheena, enlisting the participation of outgoing Allentown City Council Vice President and Cedar Crest College "ethics" professor, Michael Donovan; they've tried blatantly spinning and squelching news stories; they've tried trumping up phony/bogus "criminal harassment" charges against me; they've even tried daily cyber stalking harassment of the vilest nature imaginable ... but I always prevail, and kick their asses comprehensively, while this blog's readership keeps growing geometrically.

Will my civic-minded efforts be successful in knocking DA Jim Martin out of office this November? With the November 8 election fast approaching, it appears that that's exactly what the local powers that be are fearing the most these days: Bill Villa and his Inconvenient Facts on DA Jim Martin and The Morning Call "newspaper" getting out. And it's a delicious paranoia, really. I mean, come on, via special favors and fear factors, "Team Martin" has the local lame stream "media" tucked away crony cozily in its back pocket as they nervously "ignore" (wink wink) all of my verifiably factual exposé reporting on DA Jimbo, hoping to God that the regional or national media doesn't stumble across me and my damaging DA Jim Martin facts on a slow Dancing with the Stars or American Idol "news" day. And realistically, the regionals or nationals tapping into my dirty facts on DA Jim Martin is bound to happen, it's only a matter of when. And sadly, "Team Martin" knows this will empower me into reaching most of the voters of Lehigh County quickly and simultaneously in an election year, instead of in bunches of hundreds, and a few thousand here & there, as I'm successfully doing now. The gripping fear of my Inconvenient Facts getting out and straying past South Mountain must be a terrible thing to have figuratively hanging over one's head, ain't that (hiccup) right, Jimbo?

Which brings us to the bug-eyed DA Jim Martin protector pictured above, Jerry Brahm, the current (for now) second in command editor at the Lehigh Valley's typically crony-corrupted version of AOL Patch. Cool concept, Patch. They're allegedly supposed to be covering local issues that mainstream daily newspapers in a death spiral can't/won't cover. But from what I've been observing locally, our 11 Lehigh Valley Patch outlets tend to cover pretty much the same news and hypnotic 'shiny objects' The Morning Call covers and even worse fluff the likes of this crap.

News worthily, 5 of our 11 local Patches are headed up by former Morning Call "newspaper" reporter heartthrobs such as Tom DeMartini and Daryl Nerl (other former Morning Callers now reporting and editing at Patch include Mary Ellen Alu, Mariella Savidge, Tom Coombe, and fill-in editor Margie Peterson). On the surface, having shit-canned former Morning Call "newspaper" um "reporters" on staff at Patch isn't automatically a bad thing. However ...

If these former Morning Callers turned Patchers are still 'pulling their punches' and protecting the same crooked cronies they shielded from scrutiny while they were Morning Callers, say, in the hopes of one day being re-hired by The Morning Call, or hired directly by DA Jim Martin like Morning Call "reporter" Debbie Garlicki incredulously was, then this is a really, really bad thing.

Sadly, I have smoking gun proof that this is exactly what's going on at Patch, based on what former Morning Call editor and current Patch editor Jerry Brahm perpetrated on me recently.

Let me show you ...

Here's a recent article and comment thread at Patch on DA Jim Martin. As you can see (after enlarging it), it didn't take long for my signed and verifiably factual comments to be countered by the usual anonymous cyber stalker suspects spewing personal attacks, libel, and misdirection. Because I felt this comment thread dramatically exposed not only my case against DA Jim Martin but also the ilk of the "anonymous" cyber stalking sabotage I've been enduring and out-maneuvering for several years, I phoned Patch Lehigh Valley Regional Editor Susan Koomar (left, pictured w/ LVS cyber stalker Bill White) and persuaded her to keep the comment thread up there intact, which she did. Susan and I "agreed" that as an elected official in an election year, DA Jim Martin is fair game; that my inconvenient facts on DA Jim Martin posted in comments at Patch were not repetitive, nor were they spam; and that the anonymous cyber stalker's strategy was to muddy the Patch comment waters w/ off-topic personal attack misdirection so that Patch would delete all the comments in the thread and the anonymous cyber stalker would then achieve his goal of sabotaging and silencing me. At one point during our cordial phone conversation, Susan Koomar suggested that a good way for my comments to not be deleted at Patch would be for me to "buy some ads at Patch." Yep. But when I broke the stony silence after her suggestion by asking, "Are you serious," Susan retreated, giggled, and said, "Just kidding!"

The next day, most of my signed and factual comments had been deleted, while the personal attacks, libel, and misdirection posted by "anonymous Tony" were deemed A-OK to stay up there, have a jaw-dropping look, click here, and thank you "Easton Eddie" for trying to defend me, FYI Eddie's comment was later deleted too.

I of course cried foul to Susan Koomar, requesting that my comments be restored, but still not offering to buy any ads at Patch. Susan handed it off to Jerry Brahm who sent me an email that read in part ...

Bill,
Susan sent me your note and asked me to check on the comments you mentioned were taken off the site. Indeed, I do see that several of your comments, and several others, were removed, but they were removed by other users. Any user can flag a comment on the site as inappropriate, and after three users flag a comment, it is automatically removed from the page. This is a consistent web standard. [BV Note: Really? Where?] I noticed, too, that you also flagged a few comments. I will not return those [i.e., your] comments because they do not add to the discussion of the article ...

Jerry Brahm then left the personal attack, libelous, and misdirecting comments by "anonymous Tony" up there for 2 days, apparently believing those comments were valid and added to the discussion.

I emailed Jerry Brahm ...

Jerry. You cannot be serious. Or expect me to believe your explanation. So let me get this straight ... a block of Patch readers (say for example [Redacted], Bill White, Chris Casey, Jim Martin, Tom De Martini, etc.) can "gang flag" as inappropriate a verifiably factual Patch comment ... and it will be deleted?

Q. What about the libelous personal attack (and now also completely out of context) comments against me that Patch has chosen to keep up there? I'm flagging them as inappropriate but they're still up there. I suppose you'll tell me it's not enough that only the victim finds the comments inappropriate?

Jerry Brahm responds ...

Hi Bill,
Yes, if for some reason people want to go to the trouble to coordinate an effort to flag someone's comments, they can do that. I can't imagine why anyone would [BV Note: "wink wink"] but it's possible. Of course, we can also re-post those [i.e., your] comments if we find they are acceptable. That is not the case here ... If you persist ... we will be forced to suspend your account.

In an email to me dated June 17, 2011, Jerry Brahm admitted to deleting all the remaining comments from the thread except one, effectively giving the Team Martin cyber stalkers a crony-cooperatively rigged win. I was muzzled and silenced. For now.

Lehigh Valley Patch. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Read > Follow-Up Post

Read > Another Follow-Up Post

[Update] In an email dated October 24, 2011, Patch's VP of "Communications" (for now) Janine Iamunno wrote: "Mr. Villa, we've suspended [i.e., comment-muzzled] your Patch account." Editor's Note: Not surprising, I guess, that Lehigh Valley Patch's mostly ex-Morning Call editors would borrow a page from the Morning Call's truth-muzzling playbook to shut me up and protect DA Jim Martin.

[Update] In an email dated February 8, 2012, Patch's VP of "Communications" (for now) Janine Iamunno wrote: "Mr. Villa, please remove my photo and the associated false claim of 'censorship' from your site immediately."