(Posting On Website due to email correspondence being blocked by the entire MS AGO Office)
Mr Geiger,
This is Matt Reardon. On multiple occasions I have informed Lafayette County and State of MS Officials that I am an independent investigative journalist & reporter and have provided a copy of my press credentials to the proper authorities. On December 6th, 2021, I had discovered a key court record in Lafayette County Circuit Court that was fraudulently altered from one assigned circuit court judge’s queue to another. This just so happened to be the second time this has happened over the past year on the two currently active filed matters of mine in Circuit Court. When pressing in for answers as to how this could have happened, the Circuit Clerk, Jeff Busby, got highly defensive and told the other clerks not to answer any of my questions and even acknowledged he had never seen or heard of this happening.
Busby then communicated out to the Lafayette County Sheriff Joey East in order to try to get rid of me due to the newest significant issue discovered and undoubtable issues that would come from the discovery. East’s motive in the matter is very clear to see when taking into consideration key facts based upon numerous erroneous and concerning findings have more recently surfaced regarding the Lafayette County Sheriff’s alleged involvement in a matter dating back to 2017. Even more alarming is the fact that the latest record fraudulently altered in Circuit Court that was discovered by me just so happened to be a matter I was appealing from Lafayette County Justice Court where East’s Deputies and even he himself gave false sworn testimony in order to contrive a conviction based upon lies. The very next day, December 7th, 2021, Lafayette County Sheriff Joey East rose to the occasion once again in passing obnoxious lies and complaints centered around constitutionally protected activity as a journalist, reporter, and credentialed member of the press to an employee of Communicare by the name of Rachel Alcorn with a predisposed plan to exploit the State’s mental health laws by cutting corners, ignoring required procedure under state law, and seeking to separate a husband and father of four from his family in a grueling, sickening act that undoubtedly would align with not only the feeling, but the legal definition of human trafficking. And this they were successful in doing at the expense of both me and my family when no crimes were ever committed and the entire procedure was botched through and through.
At approximately 5pm on December 7th, 2021 upon returning home from a Doctors Appointment for one of my children, I was taken into custody at my residence in front of my wife and child based upon false claims in a sinister, cowardly attack on an independent journalist in order to suppress the reporting of fraud to not only the public, but the proper authorities for the dishonesty which took place on open legal matters stemming from the Lafayette County Circuit Court/Circuit Clerks Office.
After discharge from a two-and-a-half-week involuntary stay based upon lies and cover-up, I immediately condemned the ruthless attack and labeled it for what it was: a fraudulent commitment coming about as a result of completely erroneous lies spewed by the sheriff, Joey East, and completely botched procedure by Communicare and its Employees. After voicing my complete disgust with the matter to a Communicare employee, I was informed that I needed to submit any complaint in writing to the director of the Facility including any demand for preservation of evidence. Early on in the afternoon on February 8th, 2022 at the conclusion of speaking with chancery court clerk Sherry Wall, I filed and served an 8-page shocking letter with Chancery Judge Lawrence Little’s chambers and Communicare’s executive director Dr. Sandy Rogers. The very next day, February 9th, 2022, another Communicare Employee proceeded to file another affidavit for commitment of me claiming I had refused to attend a scheduled appointment, however, recorded phone calls with Communicare paint an entirely different picture and in combination with the Complaint filed just 1-day prior almost certainly show that this latest move by Communicare and its employees was ill-brought once again and done to retaliate against me and once again try to dodge a situation that the county and Communicare brought on themselves. All that aside, an agency of the state incarcerating and committing a non-dangerous citizen for the simple reason of not attending a scheduled appointment is an unconstitutional overreach by the State Government no matter what way that is viewed and sets a dangerous precedent which must be addressed and curbed.
On February 10th, 2022, upon returning home close to midnight from my wife being hospitalized due to pregnancy complications, Lafayette County Sheriffs Deputies light up the yard with blue lights and take me once again into custody for the affidavit for commitment filed in front of my wife, Madelyn. I was held for 6-days without any rights afforded to me at the Lafayette County Detention Center and then shipped 2.5 hours across the state to the East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian MS on February 16th, 2022. There I would stay, deprived of my liberty among other rights, for 30 days. All of this put Madelyn into preterm labor and she gave birth via emergency c-section on February 17, 2022 to a 2lb 11oz extremely premature baby boy without me by her side.
I now take the position that this latest move constitutes violations of the false claims act along with violations of the whistleblower act, while leaving me feeling like a victim of human trafficking by county officials and a Quasi-Governmental entity, Communicare through the exploitation of Mississippi’s outdated mental health laws in a conspiracy involving local Government officials and private citizens. I fully believe this latest move chills the Constitutional Rights of other citizens, particularly journalists and reporters if left unchecked. Particularly when these individuals could be poised to pull this very bold move again on me, or anyone else whom advertently or inadvertently holds any information disfavoring to them. There is accountability issues galore within the ranks of the State Government that is in bad need of addressing and fixing.
It is my goal to pose a direct legal challenge to the mental health laws in the State of Mississippi in an effort to have them struck down as unconstitutional and to seek new refined legislation/laws regarding mental health and particularly commitment of private citizens. I would like some type of assurance that the State AGO is going to open its own investigation into the matters which occurred on December 7, 2021 and February 10th, 2022. I have done my part in providing the information surrounding it. In conclusion, had the State taken action any of the multiple times I brought serious issues to the State’s attention and knowledge, many of the events that have taken place very likely could have been prevented. However Lafayette County Officials have seemingly taken and run with the free run and very limited accountability which they have been given. Something must change.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email and confirm it’s content will be forwarded to the proper authorities to include the public integrity division
All My Best,
