Newly launched Web site backs murder suspect

[TruthBrigade]

Newly launched Web site backs murder suspect

Border-watch figure hassled for views, her supporters say

By Tim Steller
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/306064
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.23.2009


Many members of the Minuteman movement scattered from Shawna Forde after she was accused in the May 30 killing of a dad and his young daughter in Arivaca. But now a handful of hard-liners are rallying to her defense.
They've set up a Web site, justiceforshawnaforde.com, arguing that Forde is being singled because of her race, gender and political views. The site says she's innocent.
"Shawna's become the target of a socialist government's clumsy attempts to marginalize and terrorize America's patriots," a recent posting says.
The woman behind the Web site is Laine Lawless, a longtime anti-illegal-immigrant activist who lived in recent years in Southern Arizona but has left for the Phoenix area. Lawless, 59, founded the local group Border Guardians in 2005 and initiated the burning of Mexican flags in Tucson in 2006.
Local authorities have accused Forde, founder of the group Minutemen American Defense, of masterminding a plan to rob people she suspected of being drug traffickers to fund her group and initiate other activities.
She and two co-defendants are charged with killing 29-year-old Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, and with the attempted slaying of Flores' wife during a home invasion at their Arivaca residence. Forde, 41, Jason E. Bush, 35, and Albert R. Gaxiola, 42, are being held in the Pima County jail. All three have pleaded not guilty.
"I'm tired of women getting screwed over by men in this movement," Lawless said.
"Nobody in the Minuteman movement except for me is willing to talk to her."
Exploitation is claimed
The man serving as the spokesman for the Web effort, John Lyon, said he was motivated by coverage of her case in a recent Phoenix New Times cover story.
"I'm not condoning any kind of criminal behavior, certainly not murder of a child or even of a drug dealer," said Lyon, 51, a member of the Phoenix-area group United for a Sovereign America. "I'm sensitive to the issue of racial exploitation.
"They exploited her for her race, her sex and her political affiliations," said Lyon, who wrote a 2002 master's degree thesis on racial conflict at the Miracle Valley religious compound during the early 1980s near Sierra Vista.
In the news media, he said, "everybody else is protected, but white people are fair game."
Lawless, too, emphasizes a racial theme in her writing about Forde on the Web site.
"What's happened in many parts of the Southwestern states is that illegal immigration has been allowed to go on so long that the MAJORITY of the prison population is Hispanic, as is the Corrections staff. If you are a Caucasian female American, and a patriot, you are seriously outnumbered, and you are treated accordingly. It's 'payback time.' "
Lawless visited all three defendants in jail Aug. 12, according to visitor logs obtained by the Star through a public records request. She visited Forde again on Friday, Lawless said.
Lawless complained that Forde is being mistreated in jail, which she called "The Institute of Misogyny," and that an officer told others Forde is a racist.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, is looking into that allegation, said Deputy Dawn Barkman. However, she said, Forde is not being treated differently from the male defendants, as Lawless alleged.
Racial-hatred allegations
Lawless herself has been the subject of allegations of instigating racial hatred. The Southern Poverty Law Center — which tracks the activities of the border-watch groups, militias and white supremacists, among others — reported in 2006 that Lawless had reached out to the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement with an e-mail suggesting "How to GET RID OF THEM."
The ideas in the e-mail included stealing money from illegal immigrants walking into banks or check-cashing businesses, discouraging Spanish-speaking children from attending public school, and threatening or beating up illegal immigrants.
David Holthouse of the law center said his group came across that e-mail through regular Internet tracking of white supremacists.
"We were monitoring a National Socialist Web site or online forum that they thought was password-protected. All of a sudden, there were messages going across between (Ohio National Socialist ) Mark Martin and Laine Lawless," he said.
In a written response on the Border Guardians Web site — rife with references to the Jewish heritage of some law center leaders — Lawless said the center "tried to frame me for urging Nazis to hurt illegal immigrants."
On Saturday, Lawless said she did not write the e-mail the law center cited and that it must have been a fabrication.
She acknowledged conceiving the idea of burning Mexican flags as part of Tucson demonstrations in April 2006. On April 10 that year, about 15,000 people marched in Tucson as part of a nationwide demonstration against what they called unfair immigration laws. When members of her group, Border Guardians, burned a Mexican flag amid the demonstrators at Armory Park, a scuffle broke out and several arrests were made.
Web site is criticized
The whole concept of the new Web site disturbed two of Forde's biggest critics: her mother, Rena Caudle; and half brother, Merrill Metzger. Both live in Redding, Calif., and say Forde discussed plans to rob drug traffickers in the months before the Arivaca incident occurred.
"Seems to me they spoke before really looking at her record," Caudle said in an e-mail. She and Metzger suspect Forde, Bush and others of committing a burglary at Metzger's house and a home invasion at the home of friends who live nearby in the 12 days between the murders in Arivaca and Forde's arrest.
Even one of Forde's former comrades in Minutemen American Defense disliked the content of Lawless' new Web site. Chuck Stonex, a New Mexico man who was a member of Minutemen American Defense, was dismayed to see that the Web site makes Forde look "pretty innocent." "I don't know," Stonex said. "I think Shawna made her bed."

[TruthBrigade]

Website: Accused Nativist Killer Set Up By Hispanic Guards

Posted in Anti-Immigrant by David Holthouse on August 24, 2009
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/08/24/website-accused-nativist-killer-set-up-by-hispanic-guards/#more-3340

Last week, prosecutors in Pima County, Ariz., announced they’re seeking the death penalty for Minuteman American Defense leader Shawna Forde, who allegedly masterminded a May 30 home invasion robbery in which a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter were shot to death.

But those prosecutors have it all wrong.

At least, that is, according to a new website proclaiming Forde’s innocence and portraying the border vigilante leader as the victim of a government conspiracy abetted by a racist, sexist media smear campaign.

“Shawna’s become the target of a socialist government’s clumsy attempts to marginalize and terrorize America’s patriots,” declares a recent post to JusticeForShawnaForde.com. The site also blames “the unholy government/Marxist-media alliance” and Latino corrections officers in almost the same breath: “The evidence is there: Shawna has been set-up to be punished for things she didn’t do by the (mostly Hispanic) Corrections Officers (CO’s) in the women’s side of the prison.” No evidence at all is offered to support this assertion.

The Arizona Daily Star identified the creator of the website as Laine Lawless, a militant feminist and hard-core border vigilante with a history of coordinating with neo-Nazis (although she denies corresponding with leaders of the National Socialist Movement, telling the Star that the E-mail in question was fabricated by unknown persons). “I’m tired of women getting screwed over by men in this movement,” Lawless told reporter Tim Steller. “Nobody in the Minuteman movement except for me is willing to talk to her [Forde].”
The website for Border Guardians, the border vigilante group founded by Lawless in 2005, features a “Free Shawna” banner that links to the JusticeForShawnaForde.com website. “Shawna is being targeted by design simply because she is a Caucasian woman who’s been doing a man’s job,” the site reads. “This case has politics, sexism and racism written all over it.”

Lawless’ site compares Forde to former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, “another white Christian woman [who] has been demonized in the press, just for being a woman who’s pretty and who’s also successful, and the vulnerability of her family has been shamelessly exploited.”

Pro-Forde website spokesman John Lyon is a member of the Phoenix-area nativist extremist group United for a Sovereign America. Members have harassed Latino immigrants outside day labor centers and carried pistols to anti-immigrant demonstrations.

“I’m not condoning any kind of criminal behavior, certainly not murder of a child or even of a drug dealer,” Lyon told The Arizona Daily Star. “I’m sensitive to the issue of racial exploitation. They exploited her [Forde] for her race, her sex and her political affiliations.”

In the news media, Lyon said, “everybody else is protected, but white people are fair game.”

[TruthBrigade]

Witness links Shawna Forde, Jason Bush to California crimes

08/28/2009 04:03 PM
Tim Steller
http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/senorreporter/16285/

One of the subplots of the Arivaca murder case has been that California investigators suspect Jason Bush and Shawna Forde of involvement in a burglary and home invasion near Redding. These crimes occurred nine days after the killings in Arivaca of Raul Junior Flores and his daughter Brisenia.

Previously investigators had established, through credit card records and witness identifications, that Bush and Forde were staying at a motel in Cottonwood, Calif. from June 6 to June 9.

Now, Investigator Rex Berry of the Redding police tells me that a witness who apparently participated in the burglary has pointed to Bush and Forde as perpetrators. The burglary took place at the home of Forde’s half-brother, Merrill Metzger, on June 8, and the home invasion took place later that day at the home of Forde’s mother’s best friends, Peter and Lyn Myers, who live outside Redding.

Here’s how Berry tells the story:

    On June 8, a neighbor called Redding police about a suspicious man on the street near Metzger’s home. Police came and conducted a field interview of the man, then left.

    After Metzger reported the burglary, in which a safe was stolen, police went to the home of the man they had interviewed. He lives in the trailer park next to the motel where Bush and Forde were staying. The man told police that, indeed, Bush and Forde had burglarized Metzger’s home that day. In fact, they were inside when the police interviewed him, he said. But he denied he was taking part in the burglary; that’s why he was outside.

    When police interviewed this man at his home, they found he had a handcuff key and zip-tie flex cuffs. The cuffs were the same sort used to bind the victims in the home invasion.

    The investigation is not over, and the Cottonwood man has not been charged with a crime yet.

The flex-cuffs detail is an interesting one because the Myers have identified Bush and a different man — a man who lives in Tucson — as being the home invaders. But maybe it was the man who lives in the Cottonwood, Calif. trailer park, not the Tucson man, who actually was the companion.

Whoever he is, the man who accompanied Bush (assuming it was really Bush there) said something interesting when he was alone in a room with Peter Myers during the home invasion.

According to Myers, the man said “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of this. I’m being forced into this.”

“That was his exact words,” Peter Myers said. “I don’t know why he said that.”

[TruthBrigade]

More on the Arivaca murder case

08/24/2009 04:59 PM
Tim Steller
http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/senorreporter/16222/

The sad case of the murder of Raul Lopez and his daughter Brisenia is also endlessly intriguing. Here’s some recent info not included in Sunday’s story or other stories:


Flores home in Arivaca / Arizona Daily Star

• I failed to note that the justiceforshawnaforde.com site is actually taking donations for Forde. This money — and none has been donated yet as far as Laine Lawless knows — goes into Forde’s commissary account at the Pima County Jail. There is no legal-defense fund. But Lawless said they’re looking into ways to formalize the “Committee for Justice for Shawna Forde.” She said that for now any money paid on the site via PayPal goes into a committee member’s account then will be passed on to Forde’s commissary account.

• Laine Lawless was one of the original players in the Minuteman movement, actually preceding it through participation in Ranch Rescue. Then she followed a familiar pattern: She had a falling out with Chris Simcox, as so many others have, and ended up forming her own small group, in this case Border Guardians . Sound familiar? Shawna Forde did the same, but a couple of years later.

• After speaking to John Lyon a couple of times by phone from Phoenix, I doubted he was who he said he was. He introduced himself as a 51-year-old security guard who lives with his mom. It’s a stereotypical bio for a border-watch activist, though he later said he takes care of his elderly mother, which is a little different. Then he went on to speak knowledgably about a whole variety of subjects, including comparing the treatment of Shawna Forde by the right to the treatment of Black Panther Huey Newton by the left. He just didn’t fit the Minuteman mold to me, and when I said that to him, his response was “More’s the pity.”

I wondered to myself: Could he be an undercover FBI agent planted in the Minuteman movement? But I started to change my mind when he told me about his master’s thesis in history and I was actually able to find it at ASU’s library. It’s called The Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church: Racial crisis in Arizona, 1980-1982. What really shocked me is that it’s checked out right now. Anyway, having unwittingly encountered an undercover FBI agent running a store while I was working in Douglas in 1999, I always keep my eyes and ears open…

• Talking to Lyon and Lawless, and reading Lawless’ writing, I haven’t heard so much concern with race since I was a student at Oberlin College in the 1980s and 1990 . Here’s a gem from Lyon that I didn’t include in the story: “I feel they’re exploiting her blond hair, which is a racial characteristic, and they’re exploiting her affiliation with this minuteman group.” Maybe he was just trying to say that if the “media” is exploiting her blond hair, that’s racism. But I couldn’t help but feel a shiver when I heard blond hair described as a racial characteristic.

• We put a transcript of our reporter Kim Smith’s interview with Forde’s co-defendant Jason Bush online yesterday. What struck me most about it is that, if he is lying and actually killed Raul and Brisenia Flores as accused, than he is a terrifyingly good liar. Also, he really does seem to have researched the Minuteman groups. He definitely had looked up some background on Jim Gilchrist, Simcox and others. The question is why?

• Laine Lawless registered the trade names The Minuteman Project and Minuteman Headquarters in Arizona on Dec. 2, 2005. The registrations expire on Dec. 2, 2010.

[TruthBrigade]

Laine Lawless Met with Shawna Forde and Accomplice Hours After Arivaca Killings, Says Report

By Stephen Lemons in Feathered BastardWednesday, Sep. 9 2009 @ 10:18AM
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/09/nativist_laine_lawless_met_wit.php


from Lawless' site BorderGuardians.org
Laine Lawless: Can't keep a bad Wiccan down...

Mexican flag-burnin' nativist Laine Lawless may have some 'splainin' to do. According to a report in the Everett, Washington Daily Herald, the newspaper that's been the most dogged in following their hometown minutewoman and accused child-killer Shawna Forde, Lawless may have visited with Forde and an alleged accomplice hours after a deadly home invasion in Arivaca, Arizona that left a father and nine year-old daughter dead.

In the article by Herald writer Scott North, minuteman Chuck Stonex explained how he responded to a phone call for help from Minuteman American Defense founder Forde to assist one of her wounded "scouts." The injured party ended up being Jason Eugene Bush, one of Forde's co-defendants in the May 30 killings. Bush sustained a leg-wound during the shoot-out in Arivaca, which left one survivor amongst the victims.

Stonex said Lawless asked to accompany him on his mission to aide Forde's co-defendant. As he examined Bush's wound in a house he now believes belonged to Forde's lover and cohort Albert Gaxiola, Lawless observed his ministrations and talked with Forde.

"Forde and Lawless spoke together while he patched up Bush," Stonex told the Herald. "Earlier, he said Lawless had stopped to buy note pads. Lawless later told him she hopes to find a way to sell Forde's story, he said."

Recently, Lawless has been involved in the pro-Shawna Forde Web site Justiceforshawnaforde.com. Lawless, whose birth name is Roberta Dill, is an odd one for the minuteman pile: a lesbian pagan who's made her name by burning the Mexican tricolor outside that country's consulates in Tucson and Phoenix. Lawless has attended meetings of ex-KIA-dealer Rusty Childress' Phoenix-based nativist group United for a Sovereign America, and a self-proclaimed USA member is helping her with the pro-Forde site.

I profiled Lawless in the 2007 cover story "Burn, Baby, Burn!" The whip-wielding author of erotic fan-fiction based on the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess apparently changed her name to reflect her obsession with the show's lead actress Lucy Lawless. She still lives in the Phoenix area, I believe. Recently, I saw her attending a lecture/booksigning in Phoenix by Holocaust-denier David Irving. She later begged me not to mention she was at the meeting, which was heavily attended by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Forde was profiled recently for New Times by Seattle Weekly scribe Rick Anderson. Since the Arivaca killings, most minutemen have been running away from any affiliation with Forde and her crew. Lawless, however, is running towards her feckless pal, perhaps with the futile dream of a book deal leading the way, if Stonex is to be believed.

[TruthBrigade]

Minuteman details his contact with Shawna Forde’s ally

By Scott North Herald Writer
Published: Wednesday, September 9, 2009
http://heraldnet.com/article/20090909/NEWS01/709099893

EVERETT — A minuteman who says he helped bind a bullet wound May 30 for a co-defendant of border activist Shawna Forde now says he wasn’t alone when he went to provide medical assistance to the man in Arivaca, Ariz.

Chuck Stonex of Alamagordo, N.M., said Tuesday he was accompanied on the first-aid mission by Laine Lawless of Phoenix.

Lawless, who is known in Arizona for burning Mexican flags, recently made headlines for starting up a Web site claiming that Forde, formerly of Everett, is being railroaded on charges that she was involved in a double murder in Arivaca. Arizona prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Stonex said it’s time for Lawless to publicly acknowledge that she met with Forde, 41, and co-defendant Jason Eugene Bush, 35, within hours of the killings. The meeting occurred at an Arivaca house that Stonex said he now believes was the home of Albert Gaxiola, the third defendant in the murder case.

“She was there, too. She saw everything that I saw,” Stonex said of Lawless. He had earlier decided to leave it up to Lawless to come forward as a witness — something Stonex said he did as soon as he learned that Forde and Bush were suspects in a double murder.

He changed his mind in part because of Lawless’ involvement with the Web site Justiceforshawnaforde.com.

“She’s making too many troubles and I think it is time for the rest of the story,” Stonex said.

Lawless did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Detectives in Pima County, Ariz., already have independently developed some information that Lawless was present when Bush’s wound was treated, deputy Dawn Barkman said.

Stonex knew Forde through a group she called Minutemen American Defense. She billed the organization as a “boots on the ground” branch of a movement that is attempting to thwart drug smuggling and illegal immigration through tougher enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Stonex said he was in Arizona on May 30 for a quick vacation when Forde called him about 8 a.m. and reported that one of her “scouts” had been hit in the leg by a ricochet bullet. She said she was in Arivaca, but made no mention of the killings there just hours earlier, Stonex said.

Stonex said Bush got on the phone and asked him to pick up medical supplies, including sutures to close the wound to his leg. Stonex agreed to do so, but not until later in the day, after he attended a picnic at the Sierra Vista headquarters of American Border Patrol, a group run by Glenn Spencer.

Stonex said Forde called him at the picnic and asked to meet about 9 p.m. in Arivaca. He was talking with Lawless, who he said he’d met for the first time that day, and she asked to accompany him.

They drove to the meeting place with Forde at a strip mall just off the highway. Forde showed up in a teal minivan, a vehicle that matches police reports of a similar one used hours before in killings.

Stonex said that Forde led them to a small house in Arivaca where he provided some first aid to Bush. He said he was unable to find sutures to close the wound, but it wouldn’t have been possible in any case, because it was more of a large, superficial gouge.

“The bullet took a hunk of hide is what it did,” Stonex said.

Forde and Lawless spoke together while he patched up Bush, Stonex said. Earlier, he said Lawless had stopped to buy note pads. Lawless later told him she hopes to find a way to sell Forde’s story, he said.

Stonex said he left and returned to his hotel. He didn’t see Bush and Forde the next day, but hooked up with them in Tucson the day after. They ate dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Mexican-style seafood, Stonex said.

Stonex said he has taken a lot of heat for acknowledging his contact with Forde after the Arivaca killings, but he said that coming forward was the right thing.

“I would like to see this just be a big, bad nightmare, but I don’t think that is going to happen,” he said.

Scott North: 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com.

[TruthBrigade]

Shawna Forde cohort a 15-time offender

Everett police are examining Thomas Wayne Gibler’s links to the border activist as they investigate several violent incidents.

By Scott North Herald Writer
Published: Sunday, September 6, 2009
http://heraldnet.com/article/20090906/NEWS01/709069909#Shawna.Forde.cohort.a.15-time.offender

EVERETT — A cocaine-addicted criminal who has 15 felony convictions and once nearly lopped off a man’s arm with a sword was the close companion of border activist Shawna Forde this winter during a flurry of violence in Everett.

Thomas Wayne Gibler, 38, has served time behind bars for attempted robbery, burglary, theft, drug trafficking, escape and high-speed police chases.

In recent weeks, Everett police have examined Gibler’s links to Forde as they continue to investigate three violent incidents here, including a Dec. 22 ambush shooting that left Forde’s ex-husband clinging to life with five bullet wounds.

Detectives in early August asked The Herald to delay publication of this story and Gibler’s photo while they pursued investigative leads related to the man.

Gibler is now back in prison serving time on his latest felony conviction. He represents another Forde compatriot whose criminal history apparently proved no bar from association with her group, which she claimed protected American values by targeting drug smugglers and illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Forde, 41, was the self-described executive director of a now-defunct group called Minutemen American Defense. She’s jailed in Tucson, Ariz., accused of a double murder. Prosecutors there say they are seeking the death penalty for the May 30 killings in Arivaca, Ariz., which they allege were part of a scheme to fund Forde’s organization.

Court records show that Forde and her co-defendants in the murder case — Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Gaxiola — all have felony histories. Bush appears to have concocted a bogus military history to hide his years in prison. Gaxiola did time for drug trafficking. Forde’s past included theft, teenage prostitution and her first felony conviction at age 11.

Forde introduced Gibler to several people in Snohomish County this winter, describing him as both a boyfriend and one of “her minutemen,” records show.

Forde’s family and friends have for months said the man they knew only as “Thomas Wayne” or “Wayne” bears a striking resemblance to a police artist’s sketch. The sketch depicts the narrow-faced stranger who Forde’s ex-husband said suddenly appeared in his north Everett house and began shooting.

At the time of the attack, the Fordes were divorcing, and Shawna Forde was unemployed, debt-ridden and essentially homeless.

Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz would not discuss what detectives have learned about Gibler. He said it would be inappropriate to share details in what he described as an active police investigation.

“We still don’t have probable cause to arrest anybody in the case,” Goetz said last week. “We are still waiting for some written statements to be returned from some witnesses that we’ve talked to.”

Gibler is serving a 2 1/2-year sentence for an unrelated police chase in Everett on May 19. So far, he’s not granted an interview about his links to Forde and the events of last winter.

“He does not wish to discuss this further,” said attorney Natalie Tarantino, the public defender in Gibler’s latest case.

Gibler’s mother, who asked that her name not be published to protect her privacy, said her son told her he was gambling in a south Snohomish County casino when Forde’s ex-husband was shot.

Forde, who once ran for Everett City Council, left town in the spring, and police say she refused repeated requests that she submit to close questioning about the attempt on her ex-husband’s life.

Gibler’s mother said Forde earlier this year spent months trying to get her son to join her in Arizona. He ultimately decided to make the trip after Forde offered to pay him, she said. He told his mother he was on his way to meet with Forde on May 19 when he got into the police chase.

In court papers, Gibler said he’s since found God. He described his arrest in Everett, 11 days before the killings in Arivaca, as “a divine intervention.”

“I was actually on my way to the home of a person who’s facing a life sentence for murder, Shawna Ford (sic),” Gibler is quoted in a corrections department sentencing report. “This made me open my eyes to see that God really does have a purpose for me in this world.”

In December and January, Forde got national attention for her claims that she and her family were being targeted for violence in Everett by Mexican drug cartels. First her ex-husband was shot. A week later, Forde called police to report that she was raped. On Jan. 15, she turned up in a north Everett alley with bullet wounds to one arm.

Police closed their investigation into Forde’s rape claim, citing a lack of evidence. They recently reactivated their investigation into Forde’s alleyway shooting after The Herald found new witnesses.

The witnesses told the newspaper about receiving separate phone calls — at different times — in which Forde described being chased by a gunman into an alley, where police found her with bullet wounds.

Both women are suspicious that Forde somehow staged the shooting in a bid to confuse the police investigation into her ex-husband’s shooting.

People who know Forde say that last winter she often was in Gibler’s company. The rail-thin man is described in court papers as having long waged losing battles with both drug addiction and the law.

Gibler’s been in trouble on and off since he was a boy. He’s been locked up after being accused of armed robberies, was charged with allegedly shooting at a former girlfriend and repeatedly has been caught by police with illegal drugs, sometimes in large quantities, including crack cocaine, PCP, LSD and marijuana.

In 1999, Gibler was the victim of a home-invasion robbery by a group of young men who wanted to take at gunpoint the marijuana crop he was tending in his home. The robbers got what they wanted, but not before Gibler grabbed a Japanese-style sword and badly cut one of the robber’s arms, court papers show.

When not in prison, Gibler supports himself with disability payments he receives because of health problems related to drug abuse, court papers show.

Last winter, he was on active supervision by state corrections department officials, listed as a high-risk violent offender. Although he’s previously received state-supervised drug offender treatment, Gibler abandoned a wife and stepchildren to chase his addictions, court papers said.

“Mr. Gibler has made no known contributions to the community and does not provide for the welfare of his family,” community corrections officer Christopher Glans wrote in a report to the sentencing judge.

The Herald learned Gibler’s identity and his link to Forde in late July, after gaining access to some Everett police case reports under state public records laws. Before Forde’s arrest in mid-June, police gave no hint that the records were no longer part of ongoing investigations and thus open to public scrutiny.

Gibler was with Forde on the days her ex-husband was shot and also when she reported being raped, the documents show. He turned up at the hospital the night Forde said she’d been raped.

Forde told officers that Gibler was her boyfriend and a member of her minutemen group, but she also claimed not to know his last name, documents show.

It was Gibler who broke the news of Forde’s reported rape to the woman’s family, friends and others.

Shannon Naughton of Granite Falls said she was among those whom Gibler called.

She knew Forde growing up in Everett’s Lowell neighborhood and sometimes allowed her childhood friend to stay for extended periods at her home.

Naughton said Forde told her she met Gibler on an Internet dating site. Forde introduced Gibler as “Wayne,” but never gave his full name, Naughton said.

The pair sometimes stayed overnight at her house, she said, but left to live at Forde’s ex-husband’s Everett home in late December while he was hospitalized after the shooting.

Forde was open with Naughton that police had voiced suspicions that Forde somehow could be involved in the attempt on her ex-husband’s life. Forde denied any involvement, and told Naughton she was drinking alone at a south Snohomish County restaurant when the shooting occurred.

Naughton said Forde told her she sometimes engaged in criminal activity with Gibler.

“Her and ‘Wayne’ would go shoplifting,” Naughton said. “She’d bring him along. She called him her wing man.”

Since before Forde’s arrest, her half brother, Merrill Metzger of Redding, Calif., has told of an encounter in Everett with a man he knew as “Thomas Wayne.” It happened in early January, when Forde asked for Metzger’s help to get her teenage daughter out of Washington, arguing it was for the girl’s safety.

Forde introduced “Thomas” as “her new beau,” Metzger said. He described the man as scrawny with sharp features and a close-cropped moustache.

Forde also showed her half-brother a newspaper article about her ex-husband’s shooting, including a police sketch of the gunman.

“Shawna says ‘It kinda looks like you,’” and began laughing, Metzger said.

He wasn’t amused.

“ ‘As a matter of fact,’ I said, “It doesn’t look like me at all. It looks like you, Thomas.’ And the laughing was all over, and the subject was changed,” Metzger said.

Metzger said he privately told Everett detectives about the encounter with “Thomas” months ago.

Prior to Gibler’s arrest in the May pursuit, state corrections officials were monitoring him, requiring Gibler to show up for regular interviews and to submit to drug screening tests. Gibler was wanted on a warrant for failing to keep an appointment six days earlier with his community corrections officer, said Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

Everett police never told corrections officials about Gibler’s connections to Forde, although they wouldn’t necessarily expect to have been notified, Lewis said.

On the other hand, had police presented evidence that Gibler was actively involved in Forde’s Minuteman American Defense group, “then we likely would have investigated it as part of his supervision, just like we investigate offenders’ involvement in street gangs,” Lewis said.

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com.

[TruthBrigade]

Web supporter met with Arivaca slaying suspect prior to arrest

By Tim Steller
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.09.2009
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/308349.php

The leading Internet supporter of Arivaca murder suspect Shawna Forde met with Forde soon after the killings occurred May 30, according to a key witness in the case.
Laine Lawless, founder of the Web site Justiceforshawnaforde.com, traveled with one of the members of Forde’s group, Chuck Stonex, when Stonex went to patch up a bullet wound suffered by Jason Bush, now one of Forde’s co-defendants, Stonex said Wednesday.
Stonex had previously acknowledged, in comments to detectives and the press, that Forde had called him early on May 30, asking him to come to Arivaca to help treat a “scout” who had been struck by a bullet while patrolling the border. Now Stonex says that Lawless was with him when he went.
Lawless has visited Forde several times in the Pima County jail and has argued that Forde is innocent of murder charges.
Contacted Wednesday by the Star, Lawless declined to comment on the story, repeating a comment she has made earlier: That she doesn’t want to try Forde’s case in the press.
Forde, Bush and Gaxiola have been indicted on two counts of first degree murder, one of attempted murder and other charges. Authorities accuse them of carrying out a home invasion at the home of an Arivaca man, Raul Junior Flores, whom they suspected of drug trafficking.
All three have pleaded not guilty and Bush has denied involvement in an interview with the Star, while Gaxiola claimed innocence in letters to the Star.
Pima County Sheriff’s department investigators said Forde had planned a series of home invasions against suspected drug traffickers in order to fund her border-watch group and other activities. They accuse Bush of firing the shots that killed Flores and his daughter Brisenia, and wounded Flores’ wife.
The wife survived and called 911. While on the phone with the dispatcher, the group of attackers returned and started firing shots, and the surviving victim fired back.
Stonex said Wednesday that he had never met Lawless before making her acquaintance that day during a barbeque at the Sierra Vista area home of Glenn Spencer, founder of the group American Border Patrol.
Stonex invited Lawless to accompany him while he drove to Arivaca, he said Wednesday. They drove in separate vehicles up to the Arivaca Road exit off Interstate 19, then drove in Stonex’s truck to Arivaca, where they met Forde at the Mercantile, the town’s grocery store.
During the trip, Lawless bought some notebooks, but Stonex convinced her not to take notes while they were meeting with Forde, he said.
When they met, Forde was driving a teal minivan, Stonex said. It’s the same model and color that investigators now suspect was the escape vehicle, he said.
When they got to the home where Bush was — a house that Stonex now suspects belonged to co-defendant Gaxiola — Bush was resting in a bedroom, Stonex said.
“Laine was sitting on the foot of the bed. He was sitting on the side,” Stonex said. “Shawna ran around and got me some gloves, got me some scissors.”
“Towards the end there, when Bush and I were finishing up, Laine and Shawna went out into the other room. I have no idea what they were talking about,” he said.

[TruthBrigade]

Jason Bush's letter to the Star

09/03/2009 10:21 AM
Tim Steller
http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/senorreporter/16339/jason-bushs-letter-to-the-star

Jason Bush in court last month. Arizona Daily Star photo

In late July (while I was on vacation), murder suspect Jason Bush wrote the Star a letter requesting that we interview him. Eventually, reporter Kim Smith did and put together a story based on the interview.

I thought some of you might be interested to see what prompted the interview — a letter from Bush. I’d like to have posted a jpeg of the letter, but it’s written in pencil (because he’s in jail) and the copy I have right now is a faxed copy, so it wouldn’t scan well.

(In case you’re not up-to-date on this case, Jason Bush is accused by Pima County authorities of being the triggerman in the May 30 home invasion murders of an Arivaca father, Raul Junior Flores, and his nine-year-old daughter, Brisenia. Investigators say he executed the two and tried to kill Brisenia’s mother as well, but she survived and managed to shoot Bush in the leg. Bush has pleaded not guilty to the Pima County charges, but he has since been charged with two 1997 murders in Washington state.)

Here’s the text of Bush’s July 27 letter as he wrote it:

    Dear Sirs,

    First let me say that I do apologize for denying any interviews in the past. I have been overwhelmed with requests; not to mention, my attorney has advised me to not do interviews. I have been “slammed” pretty hard by the media and wanted to find the most non-biased and reputable agency that I could. Please let me extend my gratitude for your patience.

    I do have quite a story to tell. It starts in 2005 and is not quite over yet. It involves several branches of government, federal agencies, past and current intelligence operations (foreign and domestic). It is a long, arduous and at times, superlative story. One would have difficulty grasping the big picture regarding current events without having the whole story, that includes the beginning of it all in 2005.

    I am willing to tell my story. However, you must know that I am camera shy, and I don’t really like the “Good cop-Bad cop” method of obtaining a story or “sleaze reporting.” No sound bites or cut and paste to skew or spin the message.

    I would prefer to deal with one person as opposed to a room full of people. There will be a lot of sensitive information being discussed and a lot of personal information as well: I can not afford leaks or an individual going of half cocked with only a portion of the story. I am educated and well mannered; I would like to assume that the individual with whom I will be speaking would be the same.

    If you choose to send someone to speak with me, please have them inform the jail that he/she is from the Star and regarding my letter. Otherwise I will not be able to tell you from the rest and will be denied outright.

    Thank you for your time and patience.
    Sincerely, Jason E. Bush.

To put Bush’s comments in a little context, he was arrested in 1997 in Wenatchee, Wash., on charges unrelated to the Washington murder charges he now faces. In 1998, he went to prison in Washington, where he was held until 2003. Co-defendant Shawna Forde bragged of his military accomplishments in her online writing, and a day planner that belonged to Bush (and was obtained by the Star) contained a copy of the “Special Forces Creed.” The Army, Marine Corps and Navy had no record of Bush, and the Air Force could not conduct a complete search.

[TruthBrigade]

Shawna Forde: Motel receipts and missing days

08/31/2009 12:58 PM
Tim Steller
http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/senorreporter/16305/


Detectives coax a dog out of hiding at the Flores home. Arizona Daily Star photo

A comment on my Friday blog item about the California burglary possibly involving Shawna Forde caused me quite a bit of consternation over the weekend, but now I’ve resolved my doubts and put some interesting old evidence in a new context.

A reader questioned how Forde could have gone from Southern Arizona on May 30, when she is accused of killlng Raul Flores and his daughter Brisenia, to northern California on June 6-9, where she is accused of taking part in a burglary and a home invasion, and back to Southern Arizona on June 12, when she was arrested here.

My fear was that I had in my files evidence that proves that timeline wrong, but I didn’t have my file with me to figure it out. So today, I checked out the file, and actually what I have is evidence that maintains this possible timeline.

Motel receipts I’ve obtained show that Shawna Forde rented a room in a Tucson motel, near the newspaper office where I’m sitting now, the nights of June 1, June 2 and June 3. Then she rented a room at the same motel, the America’s Best Value Inn, on June 10. She listed her Everett, Wash. address and the orange Honda Element that she was driving on her motel registration. (One tiny detail worth mentioning: On June 1 she listed her car as being registered in Washington; on June 10 she listed it as being registered in Arizona.)

Forde used a Mastercard to pay for the first two nights at $41.33 including tax, and for the night of June 3 she paid $35 on the credit card and $6.33 in cash. Why the split? Not sure. Credit limit? I don’t know. On June 10, Forde paid $52.58 in cash for the same room at the same motel.

In between, as I mentioned in the previous blog item and a story, she and Jason Bush — also a co-defendant in the Arivaca murder case — are suspected by California police of carrying out a home invasion and burglary on June 8 in and near Redding, Calif. In the home invasion, the perpetrators got away with thousands of dollars in cash that the victims had kept in their home because they were afraid of using banks in the current economic crisis. This woman, Lynette Myers, told Forde about her money while getting her hair cut by Forde earlier in the year, according to Rena Caudle, Forde’s mother.

So here’s the timeline of Forde’s whereabouts, alleged or documented, as I know it:
• May 30: Police say Forde led a home invasion and double murder in Arivaca
• June 1, 2, 3: Receipts say she rented a room in a Tucson motel
• June 6-9: Police say credit card activity shows she stayed in a room in the Alamo Motel in Cottonwood, Calif. during that time.
• June 10: Receipts say she rented a room in the same Tucson motel
• June 12: Forde is arrested after visiting the home office of Glenn Spencer near Sierra Vista

So, the biggest gaps in my knowledge of Forde’s whereabouts after the murders occurred are June 4, June 5 and June 11.

[ghosthunter]

I am Shawna Fordes brother if you would like to talk to me I would like to talk to you. Please email me at the following address. Shastaparanormal@gmail.com       Thank You, M. Metzger