Deloris Roberts is asking folks to contact Se. Leahy's office and him a short note on Keith Roberts.
Form's at: http://leahy.senate.gov/contact.cfm
--- On Fri, 1/30/09, maleon@charter.net
From: maleon@charter.net
Subject: Fwd: Keith A. Roberts, VA Injustice, and Criminal Punishment without a Crime
To: maleon64@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, January 30, 2009, 10:41 AM
--
Michael Leon
Marketing and Public Relations Consultant
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/
maleon@charter.net
maleon64@yahoo.com
(608) 270 9995 (home)
(608) 658 4891 (cell)
=============
From: "Delores Roberts"
To:
Cc: "Michael A Leon"
"Eleanor Ingstrup"
"Karen Ruyle"
"Robert P. Walsh"
"Jim Vincent"
"Tom Vincent"
"Dale Hettmansperger"
"Jenni Meyer"
"Brian C. DeYoung"
"Donald Foster"
"Erik Peterson"
Subject: Keith A. Roberts, VA Injustice, and Criminal Punishment without a
Crime
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:45:09 -0600
Dear Senator Leahy:
I am writing this email because I understand that you are interested in my
husbands predicatment with hopes that you may be able to help my husband, Keith
A. Roberts, who is currently serving a 4 year federal prison sentence for
"allegedly" making false statements to the VA to obtain VA benefits
for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
This is a simple case complicated by thousands of pages of information, a US
Attorney with a closed mind, a federal Judge with a closed mind, a court
appointed criminal defense attorney that did nothing whatsoever to help his
client, a veteran with a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Major Depression,
Dsythymia as well as several other physical disabilities and a complete lack of
finances to fight such a mess, an over zealous VA Office of Inspector General
Investigator and a VA Regional Office with no "conscious" or
"heart".
Please allow me to point out some pertinent information:
1. VA is not allowed to grant service connected benefits based upon what the
Veteran says, instead there must be credible evidence in the Veteran's
service medical and/or service personnel records indicating an injury or disease
was incurred in service. On one VA document the VA says Keith provided false
statements, on another document the VA says he did not commit fraud, on another
document the VA says what the Veteran says is not sufficient as a matter of law
to grant benefits. (Obviously this is what caused some of the confusion.)
Unfortunately for my husband, some of the truths from the VA were obscured and
not presented to the Court and others were issued by VA after he was found
guilty of Wire Fraud - for receiving his benefits by means of Electronic Funds
Transfers - the mandatory method of receiving benefits from the VA. One such
document was issued in April of 2008 which states that Keith did not commit
fraud upon the VA.
2. Keith's service medical and service personnel records provide the
information that something happened to him while on active duty in the Navy and
that he was in a psychiatric hospital in bed restrains, a straightjacket and
twice injected with 75 mg of IM Thorazine. His service medical records also
indicate that he was twice given prescriptions for Librium six months after the
hospitalization.
3. Roberts was honorably discharged on December 23, 1971.
4. The statement the VA and the Court says is fraudulent was made by my
husband in early 1994 as part of a Vietnam Stress Inventory and Mississippi
Scale for PTSD test issued by VA. This statement was about an incident that
occurred at NAF Naples, Italy on February 4, 1969.
5. In this statement Keith says that he was left in charge of the line shack
(he was a Navy Lineman) and during lunch an accident occurred in which a young
man lost his life and Keith goes on to tell what happened.
6. The government used this statement to prove that he lied to the VA, because
the Official JAG Manual Report of the Investigation does not mention my
husband's name. Yet this report is not who was at the accident, but it was
about what should be done so this does not happen again. (An improper safety
pin was used and said pin slipped out causing the accident.) Not everyone there
gave statements, or if they did those statements were not included in the
report. Even the government's own witnesses stated under oath at trial that
there were many more personnel at the scene of the accident than what were
mentioned in the report.
7. I can provide a copy of Keith's statement if needed, but basically
Keith told everything that happened as corroborated by those witnesses that
testified at trial. Those that testified however did not know Keith Roberts or
did not remember him. The government did not call to testify those that said
they remembered the name or knew Keith, however the statements given by those
individuals are part of the governments complete evidence. There were some
differences but most major points corroborated. Remember this accident happened
in 1969 and Keith wrote his statement in 1994. The government tried to say that
Keith somehow had access to the JAG Manual Report, but he did not. Senator Herb
Kohel obtained a copy of the report years after Keith gave his statement to the
VA. As corrobation of the death of a fellow shipmate, Keith provided to VA a
Navy Death Certificate and a report indicating the accident occured and Gary D.
Holland had died.
8. When Keith applied for service connected benefits on his application (VA
Form 21-526) he stated his problems began on "13 Dec 69" which was the
date of his in-service psychiatric hospitalization. At trial Ms. Barbara Nehls
testified that this application was not for PTSD benefits. However, VA did
nothing with this information until March 28, 2003 when they granted a
retroactive effective date back from his original date for service connection of
August 4, 1993 to July 16, 1992. This retroactive date was based upon a
Congressional Inquiry from then Congressman Toby Roth and a letter my husband
wrote to Congressman Roth about having been diagnosed with having delayed stress
and his in-service psychiatric hospitalization in 1969. VA had originally
received Keith's private psychiatric records in December 1990 with this
diagnosis, during what VA calls his non-service connected claim, but like I said
did nothing about granting any benefits for the in-service psychiatric
hospitalization until 2003. The claim forms filed in 2002 was written by a
local county veteran's service officer on Keith's behalf after review of
Keith's VA C-file.
9. He had been given a "Special Psychiatric Examination" on March
13, 1991 (during what VA calls a non-service connected claim) at which time he
told the VA psychologist that he witnessed the death of his friend at NAF
Naples, the doctor said there was nothing in his records to verify this. Keith
also told the psychologist about the psychiatric hospitalization and the VA Dr
says "This is corroborated in his records in a report of a brief
psychiatric hospitalization". I feel it was VA's responsibility to
look into this in 1991, however like I stated in the above paragraph did nothing
until March 2003.
10. VA then has ever since verbally denied adding the December 1969 claim date
for benefits. The US Attorney never presented the March 28, 2003 VA Rating
Decision at Trial, his court appointed attorney did not enter it at trial. The
US Attorney says that Keith never said anything about the December 1969 claim
until after he was severed by the VA in 2004. Yet in VA documents it is shown
that Keith told them personally about the December 1969 in-service psychiatric
hospitalization in the November 1, 1989 private psychiatric records given to VA
in December 1990 and in his "Special VA Psychiatric Examination" on
March 13,1991 and in his VA benefits claim for in 1972 when VA received his
service medical records for a service connected dental claim, when VA again
reviewed his service medical records for his "Non-Service Connected
Claims", and again when VA recieved his service connected claim and stated
that there was no evidence of a neurosis or psychosis while in service.
11. I knew Keith before he entered the Navy in 1968. I met Keith again in
briefy in 1972. I married Keith in 1982. He had self-medicated himself with
alcohol for many years, yet under the influence or not, he has told me many
times the story of what happened in Naples, Italy the day the young man, Gary D.
Holland had died. In all that time he has never faltered or waivered from what
he said happened.
12. One of our local FBI Agents spoke with Keith prior to indictments and said
that the FBI were not going to investigate as there was nothing to investigate,
nor criminal activity. I know his name and can provide it if you want it.
13. Keith went before the Board of Veteran's Appeals for a hearing in June
2005, after he was indicted by the U.S. Attorney for mail fraud. After the
decision of the BVA in August 2005 saying that he gave false statements, he
immediately appealed this matter to the Court of Appeals for Veteran's
claims. A superceding indictment was then issued in September 2005 for Wire
Fraud because he gave fraudulent statements to get his VA benefits. Yet the BVA
said a Veteran's Statements can not be used to grant service connected
benefits as a matter of Law, so why was he indicted for saying he witnessed the
death of fellow shipmate and friend. VA law says that there must be some type
of corroborating evidence of an injury or disease occuring while in service,
there is ample evidence in Keith's VA C-file to indicate that some kind of
injury or disease occurred to Keith while in service.
14. He was imprisoned at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago,
Illinois for a Court Ordered psychiatric examination. He was in prison for 89
days for this examination. Dr. Jason Dana, PhD, who had been already twice
certified by the VA National Center for PTSD to diagnose PTSD was the examiner.
His report indicated that there was nothing in the Government's Complete
record to say that Keith was not exposed to the death of Gary Holland and that
the Dr. believes that Keith suffers from PTSD from in-service occurrences. This
report was sealed and not presented to the Court. The Court refused Keith to
bring Dr. Dana in as a witness. The court refused to allow Keith to discuss VA
Law. The VA representative that testified at trial alluded to VA Law but no law
was ever actually cited that anyone could research to see if this was the truth
or a lie. The VA representative was the one that granted Keith 100% service
connection in 1999. She also testified that all VA needs is something to
indicate that the "stressor" occurred, ie: the death of Gary D.
Holland, and that Keith Roberts was exposed to it.
15. It was proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that Gary D. Holland died
as a result of his injuries incurred on February 4, 1969. It was proven beyond
a reasonable doubt that Keith Roberts and Gary D. Holland were stationed at NAF
Naples, Italy when the accident occurred. Therefore this stressor should have
been sufficient as a second stressor that caused Keith Roberts to suffer from
PTSD.
16. However, Keith was found guilty of Wire Fraud in November 2006, March 2,
2007 was sentenced to 4 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution to the VA
in excess of $262,000.00 even though there was no restitution order from the
Secretary of the VA. He has been in prison ever since that day. He was placed
at Waseca, MN until October of last year then was sent to Englewood FCI in
Colorado. We can no longer visit him, as we live near Green Bay, Wisconsin. We
have children that need their father, and I need my husband.
15. The VA Court had oral arguments on October 23, 2008 and still has not
issued a decision. The only decision that can be properly issued is to
reinstate his service connected benefits. Obviously this case is a can of worms
for everyone, as through the documents in Keith's VA C-file, he is not
guilty of anything except as he puts it "Enlisting in the US Navy"
however, he says he would "Do it all over again".
So if there is anything you can do to help, it would be greatly appreciated.
Mr. Robert P. Walsh, his VA benefits attorney is available at 269-962-9693. Mr.
Walsh also took it upon himself to help with criminal appeals as they was no one
we could afford to help him. Keith has issued me Power of Attorney in order to
help him seek justice.
Thank you for your time, I apologize for the length of this and possibly having
repeated myself more than once, but this is what happened in the smallest nut
shell I could squeeze it into. I am also going to be sending this letter to as
many people as possible, also asking for their help and support.
Sincerely,
Delores J. Vigue-Roberts=============
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Please take the time to contact Senator Leahy and let him know that this needs another look. The US Attorney should not have prosecuted Keith Roberts until the appeals process had been completed on the revocation of his PTSD benefits. He is doing time for having PTSD his main problem was wanting the VA to pay him back to the time of his discharge and that made the VA mad, but this is not how to get even with a veteran that is a nuisance.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Please help Keith Roberts get out of jail
