25 March 2022                                                                                                                                                                                    8:12 pm CST

 

Sometime between 7:30 pm CST and 8:11 pm CST a Stericycle truck drove by the Park Lane stop on Greenville Avenue going south. Stericycle is, among other things, a company that provides disposal for “dirties”...otherwise known as “spikes” or “sharps.” In 2006 through late 2007, we called them “sharps.” I worked for a nonprofit in Chicago that, among other things, provided a “sharps box” to dispose of “dirties.” Later, in another city, I worked at another nonprofit that provided disposal of “dirties” via a “sharps” box. In both places, in one manner or another, I was responsible for seeing to it that the money was available to pay for regular disposal of the “dirties” through collection by Stericycle. 

 

I have remarked in the last two years about how COVID-19 increased the need for disposal of “dirties,” although – presumably – under different circumstances. I am, however, concerned that the reporting on “dirties” because of COVID-19 may obscure accurate reporting on increased demand for disposal of “dirties” for other purposes. It is no small matter to me that my “bridge” from being a member of the National Political Committee (NPC) of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in and around 1997-1999 was the Neuropsychiatric Center (NPC) of the Ben Taub Medical Center in Houston – exactly five years ago today.

 

I contended it was kidnapping as retaliation for attempting to report “fraud” and “child abuse” to mandated reporters in the form of health care professionals – as people at the NPC reported/identified themselves to be – which meant under Texas and federal law they are ALSO mandated reporters of “fraud” and “child abuse.” I was subjected to ten days of forced detention that did not meet legal requirements for determination of a “medical treatment” paradigm while also being subjected to “treatment” that legally constitutes torture. In the course of this, I was subjected to illegal financialization processes that I understood to be a form of speculation on the behaviors of people ALLEGED to be “mentally ill” or “mentally disabled” that legally constitute acts of trafficking. Trafficking is a crime that has been determined in the U.S. as being in legislative legacy to efforts to address violations of the 13th Amendment. 

 

In 1999, as a journalist and newspaper editor, I wrote articles and gave people public presentations on how the then-unfolding legislative, prosecutorial and diplomatic paradigm around accusations of trafficking had to contend with “antiquated” laws regarding peonage. Peonage as a crime is directly addressed by the federal court as a 13th Amendment violation, including in connection with interstate transportation and commerce considerations. Peonage was also legally defined in accordance with legislation regarding “white slavery” via the Mann Act and is a specific crime that as of 2017 – when the forced detention, or “kidnapping,” of concern occured – was a crime under the Texas Organized Crimes Act. Texas does not have civil recourse for RICO as the federal statute determines racketeering, hence, any civil considerations are subsidiary to and dependent upon consideration and determination of the CRIMINAL implications of racketeering. 

 

At the time I first filed a case with the Texas Supreme Court on June 2, 2017 – received on June 6, 2017 and denied for “lack of jurisdiction” on June 8, 2017 – I did not consider the interstate implications of the events of the charges. I contended that the retaliation was connected to me being forced to leave Houston and going to Pasadena, TX because of threats that involved banning me from places that alleged to support homeless women and men and an assault by a police officer in front of more than 100 people prior to him handcuffing me in front of them and taking a picture of me on his personal cell phone. I believed at the time – and only had evidence to substantiate – that this retaliation was for witnessing efforts to recruit homeless people into crimes by a person representing himself as the current Chief of Police for the Houston Police Department (HPD) that I was told by the Internal Affairs Division (IAD) officer I first attempted to report it to had recently retired from the police force.

 

Prior to these events, in addition to other things, I worked in the Compliance unit for the San Francisco Department of Public Health - Community Behavioral Behavioral Services after working in the Operations and Facilities Management department. In these two jobs I learned about and was a part of developing the city/county’s emergency preparedness paradigm; the building’s security system, including employee identification card system; and verification of provider credentials in order to be able to bill for services. The primary billings of concern were to Medicare/Medicaid – or in California, Medical – and required monthly verification through three different databases – including the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) database – in order to assure provider compliance. This was for physicians as well as nurse practitioners – people who would be involved with prescribing or administering medication. I also had to investigate updates/upgrades to the medical diagnostic code system – the ICD-9 to ICD-10 – that was happening in the U.S. following implementation abroad, as well as review HIPPA policy regarding the areas that medical practitioners not only needed to know but to follow to be compliant with the law. HIPPA was NOT just for providers that billed Medicare. 

  

During this time I also reviewed the Medicare exclusions database – which listed providers “excluded” from eligibility to bill based on noncompliance, meaning they also were not permitted to see patients – as well as the CMS OIG site for providers/practitioners who had been convicted of Medicare fraud. At the time I noticed what appeared to me to be racially/ethnically targeting prosecutions of people overwhelmingly disproportionately identified as coming from either the countries of the former USSR – mostly the Ukraine and Georgia – and certain central African countries – including the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. I remarked on this to my supervisor, who was the Director of Compliance, at the time. This was in late 2013 through early 2014. It appeared to cover the previous two to three years in terms of prosecutions/dates of convictions. This information does not appear on the CMS site as recently as 2018, but I contend it is related to what happened in Houston, as well as earlier. 

 

Specifically, the staff at NPC, and later West Oaks Hospital for the seven days after the first three, appeared to be primarily from an African country. This is important because the manner in which the staff from Africa acted/reacted during my detention was markedly different from the way the American staff acted. It is also important because my problems with the HPD involved African-American police officers and there was a similar pattern of African versus African-American security guards at several of the homeless shelters and public facilities in Houston during 2017 and early 2018. I contend this appearance of racialization was intentional and, along with other violations of law by the physicians and others, was part of a program of psychological operations intending to “soften up” people for recruitment into illegal activities at a more escalated or elevated level than the “frand” and “child abuse” I witnessed at the domestic violence shelter that sent me there. 

 

I did not do any “blood draws” while I was detained, but other people did. At West Oaks Hospital, starting around the third of seven days, people were told to get blood draws in order to “check their levels” and as part of the “environmentals.” I refused to ingest medication and I refused the blood draws but was witness to how other people were engaged in efforts to compel them to take medication and get their blood drawn that did not adhere to the law. I reported these matters to the State Auditor’s Office of the State of Texas based on the auditor’s office’s responsibilities under the Texas Health and Human Services Commission in May of 2017 for the first time and was issued a report number that has not been responded to or officially closed out until this time.

 

Attempts to “tare” this to my work at a nonprofit in Chicago, or a nonprofit in San Francisco, that “disposed” of “dirties” through a “sharps” box need to FIRST be reconciled with my efforts to report FRAUD and CHILD ABUSE beginning formally on March 25, 2017. Efforts to “dig up my past” and allude that what happened in March of 2017 is somehow justified based on unfounded spurious accusations of my past history are part of the charges of torture. This would be the SECOND time this happened. I did not allege torturte specifically in my original petition to the Supreme Court of Texas, but DID identify “techniques used on individuals accused of being enemy combatants” that have been “challenged” in the U.S. and internationally for their relationship to acts of torturte in my appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Southern District of Texas US District Court, and the Northern District of Texas US District Court, as well as via reference to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals accepted my case and considered it – including via a “mark up by staff” that I was never permitted to see before “e-storing” my case and removing the original petition document from the site – between its “acceptance” on July 21, 2017 and its “dismissal” on Aug. 23, 2017. I appealed the case and am still pursuing my rights to due process for the implications until today.

 

I am taking the “books” from “outside” [where this is being composed] as evidence.

 

[signed] Charity (Colleen) Crouse

 9:00 pm CST

March 25, 2022

 

12:02 pm CST proofread