Procedures for Preparing Documentation for Criminal Prosecutions

(Updated January 25, 2012)

(Readers - please provide constructive comments and additional items to Fisher@WeThePeopleNow.org)

Following are key steps to prepare the documents for criminal prosecutions:

  1. Collect the information needed to establish probable cause and support a request that investigative authorities investigate and prosecutorial authorities arrest or summons, indict and prosecute specific individuals alleged to have committed a crime or crimes. Please note that hearsay can be used to establish “probable cause”.

    Following lists what the FBI web site previously requested the below be included in a request for the investigation of an alleged crime if available (It is expected that other investigative authorities would ask for similar information.)

    1. The "Subject(s)" of the requested investigation/prosecution with his/her identifying information including full name, address, phone numbers, and job/position as appropriate and available. Once an investigation is started on a subject he becomes a “target” of an investigation and once indicted by a grand jury a “defendant.”
    2. A chronology of events including date(s), time(s), and location(s) of incident(s). normally in numbered paragraphs with numbered exhibits and descriptions of other evidence as appropriate.
    3. "Victim(s)" of the crime(s) with identifying information as appropriate and available.
    4. "Witness(es)" to the crime(s) and those with knowledge of the crime(s) with identifying information as appropriate and available.
    5. "Attorney(s)" for victims of the crimes with identifying information as appropriate and available.
    6. Any “report numbers and charges” with respect to the incident.

    7. Crimes, from the list of applicable crimes, that the subject of the investigation has allegedly committed. The FBI does not normally ask that criminal offenses be provided with such requests. However, by providing them, investigators and prosecutors are more likely to act. Indefensible: A Reference for Prosecuting Torture and Other Felonies Committed by U.S. Officials Following September 11th list additional applicable crimes.

  2. Prepare as appropriate:

    1. Letters Requesting Investigations & Prosecutions by Federal Authorities (click here for a sample letter) to be addressed to an FBI field office and a United States Attorney; and/or,
    2. Letters Requesting Investigations & Prosecutions by Local Authorities will be the same as the one requesting the same by Federal Authorities (item a above) except they are to be addressed to a county chief of police and a county district attorney. Similar letters can be addressed to other local, state, federal investigators and prosecutors as well as the International Criminal Court and investigators and prosecutors in other countries whose people’s rights have been violated.
    3. Combination Multi-Count Criminal Complaints, Affidavits in Support of Criminal Complaints and Applications for Warrants. Rules 3 and 4 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure require that a complaint, which is a written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged, must be made under oath before a magistrate judge or, if none is reasonably available, before a state or local judicial officer. ... If the complaint or one or more affidavits filed with the complaint establish probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and that the defendant committed it, the judge must issue an arrest warrant to an officer authorized to execute it. Normally FBI agents investigate and prepare criminal complaints and affidavits in support of a criminal complaint. However, if drafts of these documents are prepared for the FBI agents there is a better chance that they will go forward with the complaint. These should speed up the process.

      Click here for a sample complaint (this document is modeled after the Criminal Complaint, Affidavit and Warrant used against Former Governor Blagojevich.), this particular format combines the criminal complaint, affidavit and warrant into one document. It is proposed as a sample for preparing similar documents for other individuals.

      Additional, separate affidavits may be prepared in support of the criminal complaint

    4. Grand Jury Indictments. Rule 7 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure requires that Felony offenses, which are offenses punishable by death or by imprisonment for more than one year, must be prosecuted by an indictment [which is presented to a grand jury]. In General. The indictment or information must be a plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and must be signed by an attorney for the government. It need not contain a formal introduction or conclusion. A count may incorporate by reference an allegation made in another count. A count may allege that the means by which the defendant committed the offense are unknown or that the defendant committed it by one or more specified means. For each count, the indictment or information must give the official or customary citation of the statute, rule, regulation, or other provision of law that the defendant is alleged to have violated.

      Normally prosecutors assisted by investigators prepare proposed indictments to be used to go before a grand jury. However, if draft proposed indictments are prepared for the prosecutors, there is a better chance that they will go forward with indictments.

      1. A one-count Sample Proposed Indictment for a Grand Jury that could be refined and presented to a grand jury is from the outstanding book the United States v Bush et al. by Elizabeth de la Vega a former U. S. attorney.

      2. The actual multi-count indictment used to have former Governor Blagojevich is at: Indictment of Former Governor Blagojevich et al.

    5. Tort Claims. Examples such as wrongful death lawsuits against U.S. civil and military officials for service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, emotional distress lawsuits for service member suffering post-traumatic stress disorders, etc. and other similar law suits. (If these are filed without a criminal complaint, they will probably go nowhere.)