Okay, now that the election season is behind us, and in light of the fact that tomorrow is the next court date, let me turn my attention back to the court case against John McGowan.

As you know, the former mayoral candidate, former Vice President of Elise Marciano's racist hate group, and anti-immigrant activist was arrested and charged with first degree sexual assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

DAY THREE:

Well, day three was rather fast and I missed most of it. Basically, during that day, if I'm correct, the prosecutor was successful in getting a protective order that will stop McGowan from naming the victim in any paper work he presents to the court. Afterwards, another date was set in which the results from McGowan's psychiatric exam would be presented to the court.

DAY FOUR:

As always, when called upon by the Judge James Ginocchio, McGowan utters his now infamous line while entering the chambers...

I enter of my own free will. I do not agree to grant jurisdiction.

"sigh!"

The judge started by granting McGowan an opportunity to argue why he feels that the state has no jurisdiction over him but only to the limit of the competency hearing.

McGowan starts his diatribe by stating that he already submitted a series of "papers" into the record. Here's how John Pirro described McGowan's "papers" back in September…

If his courtroom demeanor was low-key, that same description couldn't be applied to the sheaves of bizarre papers he has filed in connection with the case.

The thick stack of documents claim to be "powers of attorney" and attachments on various land records, but according to a court clerk are comprised of "legal terms that are strung together but have no legal meaning."

As you'll read later, the prosecutor for the case will expand on the term "no legal meaning" with the greatest of ease, but for now, lets continue with McGowan's monologue.

After being instructed by the judge that he's not going to get into a question and answer session with McGowan regarding "jurisdiction" and that he would only hear his argument (again to the limit of the competency hearing), McGowan continues his bizarre behavior by going on a rant about the court not having jurisdiction over him, which made absolutely no sense to anyone in the court but McGowan and his "supporters."

From how the court had to prove jurisdiction before the case could proceed, to rambling off a series of court cases which, in his mind, back his argument that the state has no jurisdiction over him, when it comes to McGowan representing himself, lets just say that McGowan isn't helping his case.…and remember, McGowan is on trial for FIRST DEGREE SEXUAL ASSAULT which carries up to 20 year in jail YET he still has no attorney AND he's still digging a hole for himself EVER time he opens his mouth.

While McGowan continues to make himself look like an ass, I can't help but think of the hypocrisy of this moron who has made a habit of citing the "rule of law" when it came to his twisted views of undocumented immigrants and how they should be removed because they are here "illegally." Now, here's the same guy trying to say that the same "rule of law" doesn't apply to him when he’s charged with raping someone.

Ah, the irony!

After his incoherent rambling came to a merciful end, Dawn Gallo pretty much sliced McGowan's rant to shreds in what seemed to be less than 60 seconds…I'll try to summarize.

After the prosecutor correctly pointed out that the manner in which McGowan is trying to argue jurisdiction, at the sake of making him look even more foolish (in my opinion of course) prosecutor Gallo basically rips him to shreds by properly stating that McGowan is attempting to use a some federal law that applies to CIVIL cases that have absolutely ZERO meaning in terms of a CRIMINAL matter (such as being charged with raping a person anally). Since a warrant was valid and properly served, McGowan "claim" of jurisdiction doesn't hold water.

Lather, wash, rinse, done.

After the prosecutor made his very easy case against McGowan's jurisdiction nonsense, the judge took about a millisecond to deny McGowan's motion.

Onto the competency report…well that's what we all thought.

Now, the competency hearing should take about a couple of minutes BUT we're talking about McGowan so anything can happen. Before things even got underway, McGowan objected stating that he didn't have a chance to view the report and he wanted an opportunity to view it and see if it's accurate. At this point, I'm shaking my head again thinking to myself "let me get this straight, you want to "view" and possibly challenge a report that states that you're competent to stand trial?)

The judge granted McGowan time to read the report, which meant the case had to go into recess.

…then the real circus begins.

Proving to the public again that he’s a raving asshole, McGowan's sidekick Tom Big(O)T Bennett couldn’t resist pissing off the court. When the bailiff announces the gallery to rise, our local hate-monger decides not to rise, which really pissed off the bailiffs who gave Big(O)T a piece of his mind.

From my scribbles, here's what was said:

BAILIFF: All rise.

Big(O)T: refuses to rise

BAILIFF: ALL RISE PLEASE!!!

Big(O)T; while rising, utters this under his breath "Yeah right."

BAILIFF: Keep you comments to yourself!

Big(O)T: What comment...I grunted

BAILIFF: You said "yeah right"

YOURS TRULY: shaking my head in disbelief

Remember, the judge IS STILL IN THE CHAMBERS while Big(O)T is insulting the court with his antics. Know this moron’s history, I'm not shocked with his antics in court, I'm just shocked that he wasn't thrown out of court.

After a break that took almost 2 hours (due to the face that there were multiple court cases going on at the same time and getting a court room would take a while, after having lunch and transcribing my notes and thoughts into my computer, I went back to the court where the case was already underway.

Michael Genovese, head of the competency unit at the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, takes the stand and basically stated that he and his evaluation interviewed McGowan (about 2 hours) and deemed that although he possess "unusual beliefs," that McGowan was competent to stand trial. A report of McGowan's psychiatric evaluation was submitted into the record.

Seemed rather straight forward…but again, we're talking about McGowan and as expected, he (and his Big(O)T sidekick made things rather "interesting."

Remember when I talked about Big(O)T making a scene in the courtroom when he wouldn't rise as the judge exited the chamber? Well, his bullshit didn't stop there.

As I sat down, the bailiff already walked over to Big(O)T and gave him a few words for something. It couldn't have been but a few minutes when, while the prosecution was asking questions regarding McGowan's competency exam, that the judge yelled at Big(O)T

JUDGE: I've been patient…if I hear one more word out of you!

Big(O)T: I apologize.

unreal...

Now seeing that he was found competent, you would think McGowan wouldn't have any questions to Genovese right?

Wrong.

McGowan questioned Genovese regarding the notion of his "unusual beliefs" with a series of bizarre questions. Basically, he asked Genovese if he ever stated when he talked to him about his conspiracy theories, whether or not he said that those were his personal beliefs.

Now follow me on this. If I heard things right, McGowan brought in a bunch of whacked-out group conspiracy theories to his competency interview AND talked about his group conspiracy nonsense, YET he's questioning the very person he talked to about his conspiracy theories and asking him whether or not he ever said those were his "beliefs."

Yeah, you could image the look on every one's faces while McGowan is spewing this stuff…all of which has NOTHING to do with whether or not he's competent to stand trial.

After admitting that he didn't recall McGowan saying that the conspiracy theories HE presented to the competency evaluation team were his "beliefs" and a clerical error on the report (they had his age wrong on the report, McGowan ended his ramblings.

Finally, the court set a date for the next court date (Nov 6) where the prosecution will start rolling out their case against McGowan.

All in all, now that the competency nonsense is out of the way, the real case begins and things get very serious. Whether or not McGowan takes the case seriously and hires an attorney is yet to be seen.

…to be continued.

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RELATED POSTS/NEWS ARTICLES:

LITCHFIELD REGISTER-CITIZEN: Local man accused of rape is competent for trial

NEWS-TIMES: McGowan found competent to stand trial in New Milford rape case

McGowan arrested, charged with first-degree sexual assault

Court trial day one: Strange behavior, disturbing arrest warrant affidavit

Court trial day two: Excuses, excuses