During a scheduled arraignment related hearing Friday, US District Court Judge John H. McBryde dismissed, without any consideration, several motions filed earlier in the week by Simkanin on a “pro se” basis, ruling that they were completely “frivolous.”  One of these motions requested a legal “Bill of Particulars” (which cites the exact statutes violated and circumstances of the alleged crimes) and other required legal documents which verify the indictment process. 

Judge McBryde then proceeded to take notice that the DOJ had filed a “motion to reconsider” federal Magistrate Erma Ramirez’s ruling from Wednesday that had freed Simkanin on his own recognizance.  Over the extensive and repeated objections of Simkanin’s public defender Reuben Gonzales, the judge began to address the DOJ motion for reconsideration during the arraignment hearing.  

Gonzales objected that the motion to reconsider had only been filed on Thursday, and that they had not had any time respond to it, much less be prepared to argue the motion in court.  Gonzales strenuously objected that a hearing on that matter could not take place without prior public notice as is required by law and proper due process.  Judge McBryde ignored Gonzales's objections.

According to reports from witnesses, Simkanin and his attorney were then given several minutes to confer on the side of the courtroom. Simkanin then took the stand, answering questions from his own attorney and then from the US Attorney regarding Simkanin’s beliefs regarding the jurisdiction of the court, the jurisdiction of the US inside Texas, etc. and about a letter he had apparently sent to the US Attorney as part of his earlier grand jury appearances over the last two years.  

(Note: Although apparently not mentioned in Friday’s oral arguments, the DOJ has reportedly asserted that language that appeared briefly on Simkanin’s website some time ago referring to “heavenly fires” that would strike at government agents that illegally moved against him constituted a direct threat justifying incarceration.) 

At some point during the questioning of Simkanin, Judge McBryde simply stopped the discussion and summarily remanded Simkanin to be held by the federal authorities, remarking that a further detention hearing would be scheduled following McBryde’s review of the transcript of the original detention hearing from Wednesday.

According to legal documents, Judge McBryde has a significant history of aberrant and improper behavior from the bench.  Judge McBryde was effectively suspended from the federal court in 2000 for over a year as a result of a special, several year judicial investigation that documented a long history of McBryde’s flagrant abuses of judicial power and courtroom practices that negatively affected the judicial process, i.e., denied due process.  The following quote comes from the 5^th Circuit appellate court decision of the case Judge McBryde brought to challenge the suspension and additional sanctions imposed on him following his refusal to resign from his lifetime appointment to the federal bench: 

Based on all of this evidence, the Report concludes (1) that "many of these individual instances,
together with the patterns demonstrated over the years surveyed," indicate that Judge McBryde 
had "engaged in conduct prejudicial to the effective administration of the business of the courts," 
and (2) that Judge McBryde's "pattern of abusive behavior ...  has brought disrepute upon the 
federal judiciary."  Report at 150.  The Report recommends that the Council ask Judge McBryde
to resign, and if he refused, that it impose the three sanctions--a reprimand and two 
suspensions--described in the court's opinion.  Maj. Op. at 3.  The recommended reprimand 
states that Judge McBryde's "intemperate, abusive and intimidating treatment of lawyers, 
fellow judges, and others ha[d] detrimentally affected the effective administration of 
justice ...  in the Northern District of Texas,"  

Due to the lack of timely public notice regarding the DOJ’s motion to reconsider Simkanin’s detention, WTP was unable to call for observers for the hearing. 

Simkanin is apparently being held at the federal medical detention facility near Fort Worth.  He is allowed no visitors except for licensed attorneys.  

In addition, according to sources working for Arrow Plastic, the IRS on Thursday formally notified the two leading business credit bureaus, Dun & Bradstreet and Experian, that Arrow Custom Plastics, Inc. and another Simkanin corporation had been legally dissolved and that they were involved in a significant tax legal action. 

Vendors of Arrow Plastics (Simkanin’s sole proprietorship -- not Arrow Custom Plastics, Inc.) were immediately notified electronically of the IRS notice by the credit bureaus and deluged the business Friday demanding to be paid in cash for materials and services already on credit with Arrow.  Arrow is working to clear up the vendor situation as Simkanin’s criminal charges relate strictly to the former (now non-existent) incorporated entities, not the sole proprietorship known as “Arrow Plastics” that Simkanin has run for the last several years. 

The Arrow proprietorship does not withhold from wages or salaries and none of the pending legal charges relate to that entity. Simkanin has no criminal record.

Simkanin's website is www.ArrowPlastics.net.

Click Here to read the official posting of Judge McBryde's appeal regarding his suspension.