You would think that people who are so practiced in criminal shenanigans would sooner or later get good at it.
Apparently not.
With a civil action pending against them, prison officials repeatedly and provably delayed the processing of Sean Swain’s outgoing legal mail– not just for a day or two, but for a whole week –while Sean’s non-legal mail, SOMETIMES MAILED THE VERY SAME DAY, was processed without any delay at all. The only explanation is that prison officials specifically sought to disrupt Sean’s communications to the Court… right after blocking his effort to transmit an open letter attempting to persuade whomever posted Judge Benita Pearson’s home address online to delete the posting.
Sean suggests that prison officials obstructed his mail to an effort to prevent him from potentially revealing the real source of that anonymous posting: Prison officials.
“They wanted to get a liberal democrat removed from the case so they threw Judge Pearson under the bus,” Sean said. “And they didn’t know how much I know. So, to avoid exposure, they delayed and illegally steamed open my mail to federal court– to see what I was saying.”
At the same time, as Sean can prove, his non-legal mail was processed without delay, shown by the prison’s own documents.
“Non-legal mail took one day to process. Legal mail to court mailed the same day took eight,” Swain said. “To quote Dylan, ‘It don’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.'”
To get investigators to search the hard drives of prison officials’ home computers for evidence that they anonymously posted Judge Pearson’s address, contact the FBI:
Cleveland Field Office: (216) 522-1400
Columbus Field Office: (614) 224-1183

The content of Sean Swain’s sworn statement sent to the federal court follows…

SWORN STATEMENT OF PLAINTIFF
I, Sean Swain, being duly sworn according to law, hereby depose to state:
1. I am the Plaintiff in the above-captioned case and I am competent to testify to the facts related herein, to which I have direct knowledge.
2. On 11 June 2015 and again on 5 July 2015, during a period when my communications mediums were irregularly blocked and I was unaware if my regular mail was leaving the prison, I fashioned sworn statements for mailing to the U.S. District Court. Those mailings, due to the bulk of pages, required additional postage.
3. As per practice, I attached a DRC Form 1004 to those mailings in order to consent to removal of funds from my account to pay for the additional postage.
4. I attach hereto copies of DRC Form 1004. These are marked as Exhibits A, B, C, and D. These documents are true and accurate copies of the originals.
5. On 6 June 2015, I submitted two DRC Form 1004s for extra postage. Those documents are Exhibit A, attached. As indicated by the mailroom stamp in the bottom right corners of those forms, those items of mail were processed on 9 June 2015, a delay of just three days.
6. Exhibit B is a copy of my DRC 1004 for postage to the Clerk of the U.S. District Court. It was submitted as indicated on 11 June 2015 and was processed according to the mailroom stamp on 19 June 2015, a delay of eight days. It therefore took the mailroom five additional days to process legal mail than it took to process non-legal mail which was mailed in the same general period of time.
7. On 5 July 2015, the same date that I submitted my second mailing to the U.S. District Court, I submitted non-legal mail to Ben Turk and others. The non-legal mailings’ DRC 1004s appear as Exhibit C. As indicated by the mailroom stamp on those forms mailings were processed the following day, 6 July 2015.
8. Exhibit D is the DRC 1004 for the legal mail to the U.S. District Court. It was submitted 5 July 2015 and was not processed until 13 July 2015, eight days later. It took the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution mailroom an additional week to process legal mail than it took to process non-legal mail submitted the same day.
9. It would seem, given the inexplicable and specific harassment of legal mail, I could faster convey my communications to the Court if I directed them to my friend in France and had her re-mail my communications to the Court in Cleveland than if I mail legal mail to the Court directly.
10. I am reasonably certain that defendants, with a straight face, will assert that this is not harassment.
I sign this declaration pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 1746.

Sean Swain, Plaintif

In late May, Luke Romano of the kick-ass radical band Ramshackle Glory ordered two CDs online and had them sent to me. He did this while gearing up to record a new album and head out on tour, so he was working some shit jobs washing dishes and bussing tables– and he took the time and money to get me two CDs.
When they arrived here in Shitville, the mailroom monkeys sent me a Notice of Withholding. I didn’t receive the CDs that Luke bussed tables to send me.
Normally, music is gigged due to content. Some prisons, even a passing reference to drug use is enough to get music banned. I’ve seen where mailroom Nazis have banned music that plays regularly on the radio. Most recently, since 2012, they often target music for exclusion that JPay offers on their MP3, forcing prisoners to get JPay rich if we want to listen to music.
But, with these two CDs from Luke, it wasn’t the content, but where the CDs were purchased. The mailroom monkeys said the CDs did not come from “an approved vendor.”
Now, a quick civics lesson for context: The Ohio Constitution empowers the Ohio General Assembly to pass laws. Included in those laws are statutes called THE OHIO ADMINISTRATIVE CODE (OAC). This OAC governs how Ohio’s agencies operate. OAC section 5120-9-19 governs compact discs and printed materials.
Know what that section says about “approved vendors”? It doesn’t say dick. There IS no “approved vendor” requirement. The Shitville mailroom just made it up.
So, in a kite exchange with these shitheads, I tried to explain that there is no LEGAL provision for withholding and imposing an “approved vendor” requirement. They can’t just create their own standards.
They responded that they only accept CDs from 5 distributors of their choosing.
I asked them BY WHAT AUTHORITY they are fabricating a list of approved and unapproved vendors when the statute they must follow says nothing about giving them that latitude.
Their response was that they do not allow CDs from Amazon. And that response really doesn’t answer my question. Not only that, but only one of the two CDs came from Amazon anyway.
So, to avoid the destruction of the CDs, I opted to send the CDs out at my own expense– one of the options I can check on the form. I signed the cash slip to pay for postage. I included a letter. And I filled out the address on the envelope– Central Office Screening Committee.
See, the Screening Committee oversees printed materials and compact discs. The Chief Inspector, Roger Wilson, runs the committee.
What I was essentially doing, I was blowing the whistle on the Shitville mailroom. I was letting central office know that the procedure being followed was totally bogus. That was early June.
So, late June, early July, the mailroom returns the paperwork and cash slip to me. My outgoing mail, sitting in the mailroom for weeks, still had not gone out. So, I sent the paperwork to them again.
Essentially, the situation is this: Aaron Satterfield, the Shitville mail clerk, is simply holding my mail hostage. I properly designated the CDs for mailing out, I signed a cash slip to pay for postage, and I addressed an envelope for the CDs to be mailed in. So, what’s the fuckin’ problem? Apparently, this Satterfield shithead believes HE can decide where my property is allowed to go or not go, and what postage I can or cannot buy with my own funds.
Not only does he assume authority to amend the statutes regarding the source of my music, but he also assumes the authority to decide who I may or may not send mail to. Apparently, they have to change their forms to reflect the option, “mail out to anyone that Aaron Satterfield wants you to send mail to…”
Satterfield can be reached at (740) 259-5544. Ask what his demands are for releasing the outgoing mail of mine that he’s illegally holding hostage…
* * *

NOTICE TO ANYONE SENDING COMPACT DISCS TO SEAN SWAIN
Mailroom fascists reserve the right to create their own laws regarding the allowable sources for the music you purchase. Without the authority of the Ohio legislature, the mailroom fascists have declared that you have a duty to get one or more of the following five distributors rich. You are ONLY permitted to buy music from the following, even though those who write the rules for the mailroom monkeys know absolutely NOTHING about such restrictions:
1. WalMart
2. Music by Mail
3. Best Buy
4. Access
5. Union Supply
So, when sending CDs, they should appear to come from those sources, with a return address from those companies, and should have an invoice from one of the above. This is necessary until Representative Sandra Williams is informed that mailroom monkeys have assumed the powers reserved for the legislature and puts these geniuses in their place.