ODRC Legal Counsel Trevor Clark has been a thorn in Sean’s side since torture cell row at ManCI.  Back then, Sean was being tormented for leading the Army of the 12 Monkeys’ guerrilla sabotage campaign, based on no evidence other than an “ideological match.” Basically: prisoners got rowdy and the investigator, Angela Hunsinger decided, well, must be because of that anarchist and threw Sean and a few other guys in the hole. Unfortunately for Angela, the law requires some kind of pretext before even anarchist prisoners can be subject to starvation, solitary confinement, and torture. Basing your repression on “ideological match” doesn’t leave you any wiggle room around the constitution’s defense of “free speech”.

Sean fought back, of course, and in the process of defending himself before the Rules Infraction Board, he exposed how rabidly authoritarian and out of line the prison authorities are, even by their own very low standards. He also drove Hunsinger up the wall and got her transferred to a new position at central office where she won’t be able to fuck up like this again. Meanwhile outside supporters found a left-leaning lawyer who said he’d represent Sean in the matter at a steep discount.

A few letters from that lawyer convinced the ODRC they were about to get their pants sued off because of how terribly Hunsinger had botched the investigation. Central Office sent in their clean up man: Trevor Clark. Fortunately for Sean, Trevor is just as inept as Hunsinger was. First thing Trevor did was admit that the RIB acted inappropriately by targeting Sean’s statements and beliefs, so he was going to personally redo the conduct report. Second thing he did was write a new conduct report that inappropriately targeted not only Sean’s statements and beliefs, but also cited other prisoner’s statements as evidence against Sean, and based a September 2012 conviction on May 2013 “evidence”. This redo conduct report was so terrible that both Hunsinger and Clark refused to take ownership of it, and Sean ended up hastily transferred to the supermax on the original “ideological match” conduct report after a day of violent protests and cell extractions in the seg wing at ManCI- recounted hilariously by Sean in “Days of Teargas, Blood and Vomit“.

During this time Clark was showing signs of stress similar to Hunsinger’s. The guy was trying to get the State Highway Patrol and the FBI to go after Sean for no reason on what seemed like a daily basis. Meanwhile, the Warden at ManCI, Terry Tibbals was exposed for corruption and ineptitude, and forced to retire. We like to think that some of the noise and stress Sean was making contributed to Tibbals’ exposure and expulsion, but there’s no evidence of a direct connection. Which brings us to the fourth thing Clark did. This is where Clark’s behavior gets really bizarre, and can only be explained in terms of a Hunsinger-esque nervous breakdown. He showed Sean a list of home addresses of Ohio Sentators and Representatives. Claiming he found the list in Sean’s cell, he demanded Sean explain where it came from. Sean had never seen the list before, but he quickly committed a few of the addresses to memory and wrote the lawmakers and the institutional inspection committee, telling them that ODRC legal counsel Trevor Clark was sharing home addresses with convicted murderers.

So, Sean went to supermax on a conduct report that the ODRC legal counsel had already said in writing was inappropriate. That same investigator was showing signs of mental and emotional instability and having a clear vendetta against Sean.  Unfortunately, the lawyer we had found for Sean was swamped in a lawsuit against the Columbus Police Department for being brutal assholes, so we went looking for another. Rick Kerger out of Toledo, who we knew from organizing efforts around the Lucasville Uprising, took an interest. He said he’d help Sean out pro-bono, and that he knew the situation going on in Erie county at the time of Sean’s original conviction, and believed he could overturn the conviction and Sean would walk away free.

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The day after Kerger talked to Sean, Trevor Clark orchestrated to shut down his access to communication with outside supporters. They took away phone and email access for over a month, and also messed with his mail extensively. Fortunately, Sean was still able to smuggle out messages to the Final Straw to keep up his “You are the Resistance” radio essays, with guest readers like John Zerzan and The Stimulator. We have since unravelled the pretext Clark used to shut down these communications. This letter signed by Stephen Gray, Trevor Clark’s boss- but we suspect written by Clark- described three justifications:

1. Filed a false disciplinary complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court against Staff Counsel Clark which was found to have no merit.
2. Made a false claim of sexual abuse against Staff Counsel Clark which prompted a federally mandated Prison Rape Elimination Act investigation into the claim; and
3. Utilized his JPay communication privileges to attempt to obtain the home addresses of Staff Counsel Clark.

The disciplinary complaint was the letter Sean wrote informing officials that Clark was sharing home addresses with him. The sexual abuse claim was a joke Sean wrote in private letter to supporters. He would write inflammatory things about Clark in the margins to test whether or not they were illegally opening his outgoing mail (in Ohio incoming mail is suspect to inspection, but legal and outgoing mail is supposed to be protected. Officials have completely discarded these protections relative to Sean for the last few years, and the fact that they saw this “false claim of sexual abuse” proves it.)

Sean never used JPay to search for Clark’s home address. Sean’s lawyer did some research into who the guy who was going after his client is, and found out he’s from Moundsville WV, not an Ohio resident. He shared this with Sean, and when Sean shared it with outside supporters, Clark turned that into an attempt to find his home address.

It seems like Clark has entered a war of attrition against Sean. When Kerger and Swain sue the ODRC for the ridiculous shenanigans with the A12M repression, the brunt of the blame within the Department is going to come down on Trevor Clark. Once the lawsuit goes through, these shenanigans will cost the man his job, his pay check, his gym membership, and who knows what else. We think he knows it, and he’s desperate to prevent that from happening. We believe Trevor Clark will do everything he can to cover his ass, to interfere with Sean’s communication, make Sean’s life even more difficult, and to keep Sean’s lawyer busy with frivolous investigations and new salvos of repression. Sean’s friends don’t want that to happen. So, we’re going to cut to the chase and do what we can to remove the obstacle. The time has come to get Trevor Clark fired.

Of course, the ODRC doesn’t care about Clark being a fascist fuckweasel (until the lawsuit goes through and they lose) so we can’t argue that he’s harassing and targeting our friend for special treatment and retribution. The one thing the ODRC and the State of Ohio might care about is Clark sharing home addresses of State officials with prisoners willy-nilly. So, that’s what we’ve got to focus on… Sean has written up the official hierarchy about this, but it’s easy to ignore the claims of one “crackpot” prisoner. What if it becomes clear that Sean has gained the attention of the general public, and that everyone knows about the ineptitude of ODRC Legal Staff Members? That just might be embarrassing enough to get results.

So lets start with calling Trevor’s boss, Stephen Gray. Ask him (or his secretary) if Trevor Clark still works there. If they say “yes,” then ask “why?”  The number is 614-752-1765. Then call the Governor’s hotline 614-466-9354 and let them know you’re concerned about the ODRC employing this guy.
If you’re living in Ohio, print out and hang this poster up everywhere you can. Take it to Tea Party rallies and fax it to republican lawmakers. Inform everyone who cares about the sanctity and security of the State of Ohio, that an evil West Virginian named Trevor Clark is endangering their precious democratically elected government officials.