The view of the miscarriage of justice through eyes of an innocent teen: Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence - Part 2
VIRGINIA BEACH (July 30, 2007) - - [Editor's note: I've never felt more sympathetic for the shattered lives of 2 wonderful teens in my life as I did when I learned about Katelin and Sam, daughter and son of Mike and Barbara Agnew.
It broke my heart to know that the core of their family had been ripped from them during the formative years hwen they needed support, guidance, and loving arms of their parents the most. Dad was sitting in prison as Katelin Agnew celebrated her 'sweet 16' party.
But such is injustice: Resource Bank reversed the rules Mike and Barbara's AGM concrete company had operated under for 3 years, when unexpectedly, it shut down their business and putting 200 people out of work.
Evidence was tainted, records of a potentially exculpatory FBI interview were destroyed, the federal judge who convicted them had been in partnership with some of the bank officials and victims who claimed losses, the bank was operating the loan program funding the Agnews illegally, and a senior bank official lied on the witness stand.
Such led to the plight of Mike and Barbara after they were charged with multiple counts of bank fraud among other felonies, convicted and sentenced to 2 years each in federal prison.
Parents ripped from teens, but love remained Even as their parents were ripped out of their lives during their most formative years, Sam, left, and Katelin, didn't feel they'd lost the love despite the prison walls that separated the family for 4 years. Photo Courtesy the Agnew Family collection |
After trying to avoid telling their story for more than 3 years, I finally relented. When I did, I learned about Katelin and Sam. Both have been honor roll students since kindergarten at prestigious Norfolk Academy - even in the face of this family tragedy.
I learned about the decency of Mike and Barbara. They could have walked away in bankruptcy, escaped all charges, and left the bank holding the bag with about $4 MILLION in debt.
They are decent people. They decided instead, with phony assurances from Resource Bank, to work out the problems, pay off the debt and find other financing. The bank reneged on that deal too and swarmed in suddenly late Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 and shut down the business, confiscating everything in the office, including paper clips.
So much for trying to work a deal with a bunch of greed-driven thieves, who in the long run, have already lost more than they would have gained by showing integrity and working with clients after misleading them. One judge told me after reviewing the case, "In my court, the bank would have been charged as the crooks, not the Agnews."
No one was left a winner. Not the bank. Not Mike and Barbara. Not the greatest victims of all: Katelin and Sam who have continued to hold their heads high and work to make their mom and dad proud.
To try to find out what was going through the kids' heads, I asked Katelin a couple years ago, when I started investigating this case, to write me a story, expressing her emotions, and attitudes. This was the story she wrote then while her dad was languishing in a prison, high on a mountain top in southwest Virginia, a 7.5 hour drive every other weekend for Barbara and the kids.
This then is Katelin's story at age 16. I have another story I will run later written this year for a school project. It says a great deal more for the kids than it does for those administering our pathetic justice system.]
Katelin's Story...
My name is Katelin Agnew and I am the sixteen-year-old daughter of Mike and Barbara Agnew.
Since about the age of nine, my life has been a lot different than those of my friends and classmates. That was the moment my parents were wrongly convicted of bank fraud. Life after that moment has not been very easy.
Since day one I have been well aware of my parents innocence. They are two of the best people in the world, and I look up to them so much. They are intelligent people and are so much fun to be around. Throughout this entire ordeal, my mom and dad have held their heads high and have still continued to be great parents to my fourteen-year-old brother, Sam, and me. |
At the sentencing on August 13, 2004, my brother and I decided to accompany our parents, although they gave us the option of not going.
The Virginian-Pilot's bias
A Virginian Pilot reporter, Tom Shean, was standing outside of the courthouse, while his photographer snapped pictures of us. It was as if my parents were some kind of felons, which they are not in any way. When my mom and dad asked him not to take pictures of my brother and me, the photographer finally put down his camera.
Tom Shean has written about seventeen articles about my parents, all written without asking my parents’ opinions or their story. All were written with great insincerity, and of course in the bank’s favor. I have written a couple of emails to Shean expressing my feelings about those articles, which were deleted without being read.
When I confronted Shean at the courthouse about my emails, he didn’t even have the decency to answer me.
After the sentencing, when Judge Friedman gave my parents 24 months each and also staggered the sentences, people thought that we should be happy with the outcome, because it was ‘so much better than the earlier approximate of 130 + months.
Sure, if it’s not your parents going through this ordeal, it seems fair. But try having to drive 7 ½ hours just to sit in hard plastic chairs in a visiting room to see your dad when you know he’s innocent. Maybe then your opinion on the situation will change.
A Helluva start of the school year
I hoped that in some way my dad, who was to go in first, wouldn’t have to report. But on September 8th, 2005, on only the 2nd day of my freshman year and my brother’s first year in middle school, he had to report. Dad drove us to school that morning and promised that our time would come eventually and he would talk to us soon.
That day he was sent to the federal prison camp in Chesapeake. From there, he was moved to Warsaw, Virginia for about a month where he was put in a single cell with about 20 other convicts.
They finally sent him to his final destination, the Lee County Federal Prison in Jonesville, Virginia after that.
"...Prayed he'd be able to come home soon...".
We filed for my dad to get out on bond pending appeal and prayed he’d be able to come home soon. However, justice did not seem to be in our favor.
My brother and I visited my dad for the last time the weekend of January 16, 2006. It was about our fifteenth time making that long drive. My mom visited him the last time the weekend of March 17th.
I loved seeing him, but I knew that in two days we would just have to leave again.
He only had 300 minutes per month for all of his calls, so I don’t get to talk to him that much. We mostly write letters back and forth, but writing letters is nothing compared to being able to talk to him in person.
Judicial Fairness: An oxymoron to Katelin
My dad recently wrote a letter to Judge Friedman, asking him to give my mom home confinement instead of jail time. He denied us, explaining that he had been “fair enough.”
If fair to him is sending two people to jail on untrue and biased convictions, then I would hate to see what he thought was unfair.
If fair enough is my dad being trapped in some hellhole during two Christmases, two Thanksgivings, all of our birthdays, and every other important day, then sure, I guess he has been ‘fair.’
If my mom has to report, she won’t be back until spring of my senior year. These are my high school years, and my brother will be entering high school in about a year and a half.
That’s it…we can never get them back. Lately, our family has started to think that maybe 2006 will be our year. Maybe this year, someone will do the right thing.
It didn't happen.
See previous stories:
- Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence?
- The view of the miscarriage of justice through eyes of an innocent teen: Part 2
- Miscarriage of Justice: Beach couple's American Dream becomes their worst nightmare
Starting today, VNS will start telling you the rest of this incredible story.
From the lowest level to the highest. At some point almost everyone known by officials of Resource Bank and star customer Armada Hoffler touched the Agnew case, all the way through the appeal court where an appellate judge who started X-Gov. Doug Wilder's first law firm with him - way back when - rejected the Agnews' case. (Oh, by the way, Doug Wilder was/is one of Dan Hoffler's best friends - they went through a lot together).
The saga hasn't ended yet. It continues to this very day.
Conspiracy? Coincidence?
What a web the story weaves...Wednesday: The beginning of how it ends...The American Dream becomes a nightmare!