India Post News Service
LOS ANGELES: The crowd inside the courtroom went beyond just friends and family. The Anand Jon bail hearing on Wednesday, Nov 7 included community leaders, celebrities, activists, fashion and entertainment insiders, and of course journalists.
The air was heavy with anticipation. The judge seemed in a decent mood. He acknowledged receipt of all the motions filed by prosecution and defense. [Note: At the last hearing on the 25th of Oct the defense gave the DDA 6 days to respond to its motion and the DDA complained about lack of time. This hearing, Nov 7, the DDA gave the defense the response on Nov 5th – 1 day to write it up and submit to the judge.
If the defense requested additional time it would just mean more time in jail for Anand Jon. Notice this "strategy" by the prosecution to keep the defendant incarcerated.] Again, the DDA claims to not have seen the defense response briefing. The judge gives her time to review. The defense makes a statement. The prosecution makes a statement.
The prosecution is pushing for over $5MM bail in this case. The prosecution made statements such as "he is a sexual predator. He is a serial rapist." What happened to alleged and accused? Earlier this year, a judge in Nebraska refused to let the prosecution use the terms sexual assault, rape, victim, etc. during the course of events and trial because "that was what we are here to decide."
Well, isn’t that what we are here to decide? Think of it personally. If your child is up on even a simple charge of stealing from a store, should the DDA stand up and brand him or her a thief in and out of the courtroom? What is the result if later surveillance tapes show that a shelf was bumped into and something fell into your kid’s bag accidentally?
In this example, it was clearly a mistake, but what if the prosecution had already branded the child a thief, burglar, robber, degenerate, delinquent, etc. Innocent until proven otherwise. That is supposed to be the law of the land. Let’s face it; this is not a perfect society. But for the prosecution to call him a serial rapist and a sexual predator is an obvious tactic of brainwashing the public into accepting those statements as the gospel truth - a serious miscarriage of justice.
It appears that the prosecution is trying to influence the future jury even before the trial has begun…of course, the mainstream media is gullibly lapping up all that is fed to them by the prosecution and this in turn plays a major role in this drama of misinformation misguidance.
An important point during the proceedings - The judge asked the prosecution several questions: were there any weapons used? No. Was there any physical force? No. Were there any bodily injuries? No. The judge also asked if he had made all court appearances and ever refused appearance. Again, the answer was "no". So, Anand Jon had made all court appearances fully knowing the additional counts and charges; he never refused to appear and only wants a chance to prove his innocence.
This is a simple case of he-said / she-said (although I notice (as reported by TMZ) that there were witnesses present when some of these alleged assaults occurred). There is no smoking gun from what we’ve heard so far. And there’s been a civil suit filed already. This is clearly suspicious. Not only is it suspicious it is almost hilarious!
This so-called ‘victim’ goes public on prime time TV with a media attention-hungry attorney and tries to cut a sorry figure wailing and whining about what happened to her. Their appearance on Channel 13 news featured her trying to "cry" without shedding a single tear! The judge said that he will only rule on the "new" counts that were added to the grand jury indictment and not touch what the previous court kept level.
What surprised many in the courtroom was a realization that the prosecution can pad charges. In other words, if I’m alleged of assaulting you by touched your left and right arm, those can be considered two charges, not just one charge of assault. This is indicative to what some of the charges are in this case. A prosecutorial trick that serves to increase bail higher than it probably should be. The other court saw this happening and refused to let the DDA succeed.
That’s why the prosecution rushed to grand jury, skipping over preliminary hearing that would have allowed defense cross-examination and possibly dismissed counts. There was disappointment that this court didn’t notice the same. Consequently the judge increased bail to $2.095MM. This should outrage the community. As Anand Jon sits in jail, the family works hard to come up with money and collateral. They have amassed some, but much more is now needed.
The family wouldn’t (or couldn’t on advice of counsel) go into details on the financing. But $2 million is a lot for anyone in this country, especially a first generation family. And this is where the community comes in. First of all, the fact that the bail amount is so high has outraged the community. "Even the most hardened and vicious killers don’t end up with this kind of bail," says a clearly frustrated and angry Saab Singh Bhullar, President of the Walnut gurdwara committee.
And this is where the community comes in…folks this is the same Anand Jon that made you proud and yes the very same Anand Jon that you never tired of praising and claiming him as your own. Today he needs you…he needs your help to get out of jail and prove his innocence.
We all sign checks for mainstream politicians at fundraisers to help them in their election bid….it’s a different matter that its money down the drain because once the politician pockets your check, he’s gone….he does not even remember your name or your face; and neither does he want to. Well it’s a different matter that some of us are naïve and stupid enough to actually believe that our contribution is going to help us in any way.
This is the time that we all need to rally together for Anand. There are many issues related to the bail that have to be addressed on a war footing ….please remember that Anand cannot prove his innocence sitting behind bars. We have to get him out and that can only be done if we all come together and bail him out. As for the skeptics and the naysayers…Anand Jon does not appear to be a flight risk. The judges in multiple courts have agreed.
In fact, in order to keep the bail as low as possible the defense requested a monitoring bracelet. However, bail was still raised. "He could have taken off the first time he was bailed out. He was free and had his passport with him but to him the honorable way was to face the allegations and prove his innocence," said a lady who declined to identify herself. "
First of all this is a case involving a high profile celebrity and this time when he is bailed out he will probably be fitted with a monitoring device to keep track of his whereabouts," she added. SupportAnandJon@gmail.com is monitored by the family and can be contacted to help. There is a support Anand Jon petition on www.epetition.com – search for Anand Jon. Everyone reading this should at the very least sign that petition.
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