Conspiracy or Coincidence: The injustice of what some call 'justice' - in the Agnews' case

[Editor's note: Katelin Agnew will be 18 in October. She is the daughter of Mike and Barbara Agnew of Alanton, convicted of bank fraud when Resource Bank changed the credit plan rules underwhich they had been operating for almost 4 years and an overly ambitious FBI agent, who has refused to reveal her real motivations initiated a criminal investigation.

Katelin wrote her first story for VNS from a breaking heart about this injustice when she was 15. Read that story, if you haven't, then read this one. This should not happen to any family. One local judge has said if this case had come to his court, he would have put the bank on trial for defrauding the Agnews. Many powerful people benefited from the Agnews taking the fall in this case and they were connected to the justice officials responsible for their convictions. Katelin is a straight honors senior at Norfolk Academy]

by Katelin Agnew

Although we would all love to believe that we live in a just society, unfortunately we do not.

Every day an act of injustice is inflicted upon someone, whether we are aware of it or not.

Honestly, if I had not endured my family’s hardships over the past eight years, I would fall into the category of those who remain unaware. This is understandable, considering most of us cannot comprehend a terrible situation unless we become the victims of any kind of social injustice.

J.D. Salinger’s Mr. Antonio in The Catcher in the Rye explains:

"Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll
be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now.

"Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them - if you want to." (189)

At the age of nine, I began to experience just some of the injustices experienced by so many innocent civilians.

To me, our hardships began the day my mom came home from work and tearfully explained that her and my dad’s business had been taken over by a bank. The bank in question claimed that my parents embezzled funds and involved in bank fraud; however, the bank wrongly accused my parents.

A judge who had prior partnerships with the bank convicted them of bank fraud. Atticus Finch believed that, "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box" (Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 120).

Although this would be true in a perfect world, we do not have the good fortune to live in that world. At my parents’ sentencing, it was possible that my parents could have received nine years in prison for a mistake that the bank did not want to admit they made.

The judge sentenced my parents to one year and seven months each in prison for a crime they did not commit.

So many people told my parents how lucky they should feel to have received such light sentences. In reality, it was not fair at all to receive any prison time at all for a crime you did not commit. My dad was first to report to prison in Jonesville, Virginia, an eight-and-a-half hour drive that we made quite often to visit him.

Strangely enough, some of the stories I heard from Jonesville made me appreciate the opportunities I have had in life compared to some unfortunate ones who received unjust treatment.

Men at the young age of nineteen were spending ten years of their lives in prison for substance abuse. How can you tell me we live in a just world when those who need rehabilitation treatment are instead granted jail time? How can you tell me this world is fair when innocent men are wasting ten to twelve years of their lives in prison? How can you say that those men’s two-year-old children will still remember their fathers twelve years later when they meet them for the first time?

During the countless visits I took to see my dad, and later my mom, I watched men and women who could have had so many opportunities simply begin to fade away. They no longer lived for things such as amazing career opportunities; instead, they wasted their weeks just to make it until the next visiting day, just so they could see the ones that still believed in them, if only just for a weekend.

I myself loved to see my dad for the whopping eleven hours on visiting weekends, but all there was to look forward to afterwards was returning back home without him.

The worst part continues to be that my parents do not deserve this life. They worked so hard to get where they were, only to have to start from scratch again.

As those who have courageously suffered through injustices of any kind, my parents continue to remain strong and fight as hard as they can to right the wrongs inflicted upon them.

Harper Lee believes this to be the best type of courage: "Real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

"You rarely win, but sometimes you do" (Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 112).

My parents will see this fight through no matter what, and none of us will quit until we get justice.

Previous stories:

• A Tale of Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence?
• The view of the miscarriage of justice through eyes of an innocent teen: Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence - Part 2
• Miscarriage of Justice: Beach couple's American Dream becomes their worst nightmare
• Family helps daddy have a merry Christmas - even in prison
• Miscarriage of Justice: Death throes begin for AGM as Resource Bank reneges on deal and pulls financial plug
• When the FBI goes bad: SOMETHING STINKS ABOUT THE AGNEW CASE: FBI refuses to answer legitimate questions
• Miscarriage of Justice: The trial ends with a 'Hallelujah' shout from the federal judge
• Miscarriage of Justice: Barbara Agnew is more than Inmate No. 54498083
• Who are these people? What role did they play in Agnew Saga? Any?
• The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals: Did Judge Friedman have a conflict of interest because of Hoffler? Did the Agnews deserve a new trial?
• Conspiracy or Coincidence? Have we got a deal for you Resource Bank tells the Agnews after they've stewed in prison for 2 years