Trial No. 2 for Army Master Sergeant CJ Grisham begins this Monday morning in Temple, Texas. The once smugly confident Master Sergeant has been floundering as his once cozy relationship with his legal team turns cold.
His first attorney quit the case without warning or explanation. His second attorney, Blue Rannefeld, proved awkwardly incompetent in the first trial, to which I and various news outlets were witness.
This odd misdemeanor trial and the Army soldier’s escalating public drama in defiance of UCMJ regulations continues to garner national news at outlets such as the New York Times and Fox News. Only capital murder trials gain this much attention.
Despite the pressing need to prepare for trial quickly, Grisham defense attorney Blue Rannefeld asked for a continuance just last week, days before the trial, because Rannefeld had not paid $1,250 to obtain transcripts from the first trial, which ended in a hung jury, 5:1 in favor of conviction.
How is it that Grisham had raised more than $50,000 in donations for his own defense, and that his legal representation was covered “up to $1,000,000”, nobody produced the $1,250?
Where did the $50,000 go? At least part of it was likely spent by Grisham and his wife Emily at an exclusive bed & breakfast, the Cedar Rock Inn in Tulsa.
Today, Grisham is left publicly panicking before Trial No. 2 as his penchant for provoking arrest has earned the ire of Larry Kleiberg, the director of the National Association For Legal Gun Defense. The NAFLGD footed the bill for the first trial. Grisham is learning the hard way that he should have spent some of his $50,000 on a genuine criminal defense attorney.
Meanwhile, on the eve of Trial No.2, Master Sergeant Grisham was again arrested in Austin, Texas, where he was caught on video cursing and provoking officers as they cuffed him behind his back. He challenged an officer who cuffed him, asking “Do you realize that I am a veteran here!?” To which the officer replied, “Me too.” Video:
Grisham staged his latest arrest on Veterans Day.
Grisham tweeted frantically for his own expert witness just three days before trial, and was informed by Kleiberg that his most recent arrest in Austin on November 11 for “criminal trespass” will not be represented by the NAFLGD.
Instead of standing by Grisham, Kleiberg declined to pay for critical trial witness transcripts from Trial No. 1 and removed Grisham from the NAFLGD website. Grisham supporters have responded with an attack on NAFLGD, that has defended him in the past without charge.
Grisham’s attorney, Blue Rannefeld, will go into trial with at least one hand that he tied behind his own back.
The charge is “interfering with the duties of a public servant”, a charge incurred back on March 16.
I am in Temple, Texas, and will be covering the second trial.
Disruptive, abusive ignorant people such as these that give the worst possible fact to gun ownership and fodder to the anti-gun, anti-second amendment people who would disarm us. I am pleased not to have seen this video otherwise publicized where it could be used to reinforce the prejudices of those who think as these people do.
In order to obtain his Top Secret security clearance, this US Army Counterintelligence type must have bee judged to possess the qualities of loyalty, integrity, discretion, unassailable morals and character. Having followed the story from its inception, I am of the opinion that Mr. Grisham no longer can lay claim to at least three of these qualities. IMHO, he is a nothing more than a trouble maker and a bully. Shut him down.
Apparently getting a TS clearance and keeping it means nothing anymore if this loon can get one and still hold on to same after all the stupid shite I have see about this moron on this website and posted on others.
When I got my TS and the other people I worked with, there were several engineers who had their clearances held up or denied because of things they admitted to doing in college or lied about and got found out!
One of the major stumbling blocks to getting a TS level clearance when I and my fellow employees applied, was past unstable looking behavior and/or illegal drug abuse/use :sad:
This idiot would have not been able to hold onto a clearance just by his actions and behavior alone when I was under my clearance, some of which I am still held to this many years even after leaving the classified programs! (SCI) :-*
This mental midget could not have gotten on or stayed on the programs for which I was cleared and would have been brought up on charges by the military for conduct unbecoming!
The Army must have lost it's collective mind to let this jackass remain on active duty without being locked up in the brig or a mental ward :-?
Texas DPS is running out of patience with idiots. Toy gun or not, these people could ALL have been cuffed and removed for disorderly conduct.
These people are an affront to common sense and as others observed, they do a disservice to resolving the legal issues.
No information about what Grisham was arrested for or the outcome of the first trial - which I think ended with a hung jury (good!). At least one juror recognized a second amendment violation when he saw it.
Cursing out the cops!? Oh, how terrible, that he might not like blue uniformed thugs violating his rights! Seems that the cops and Yon may just be out to harrass Grisham into jail. Am I wrong? Then post the information to prove it, instead of unsupportive BS like this article, Michael!
Have you lost your mind and/or just another Grisham butt kisser?
What is your problem with law enforcement, are you a borderline criminal yourself :-?
Getting confrontational with TX cops and cursing at them?
Are you completely nuts?
If you have that kinda attitude I advise you to stay the hell out of Texas because you are headed to jail or worse, being shot for being a dumbass :o
Mr Grisham has not had his rights violated, instead he has provoked and taunted law enforcement to point they had to do something in order to get this maniac under control :-?
When you confront a police officer the way this jerk is doing, he or she has no idea where the confrontation is going, so for their own safety and that of others, the officer will take whatever actions the officer feels necessary to control the perpetrator and bring the situation under control :-?
Mr Grisham is NOT a friend of gun owners but is rather a bane to us all and a poster boy for all the gun haters to put up as a solid reason why they want more "reasonable gun control" :eek:
As we all know "reasonable gun control" to gun haters means registration of all guns AND gun owners, then followed by confiscation, just like they have done already in California, with SB23, the CA so called "assault weapons ban" :eek:
Grisham is a dangerous mental case, not a patriot!!
Grisham is obviously nuts and /or just gaming the system to squeeze the maximum dollar from the situation.
Michael, you are the last one that should report on this with your antagonistic history in past years with Grisham. Leave it alone. You can only get it on you when you change unnecessary diapers.
Choctaw Bob, I must respectfully call bullshit on your post. Ignoring this problem will NOT make it go away. Mental illness causes our nation trillions of dollars each decade. Sometimes the ill person picks up a gun and tries for "Suicide by cop with bystanders" Sometimes they simply destroy their own lives. Michael Y has history with this fellow and that gives him extra license to shine a light on Grisham's antics.
I have lived in TX now for long enough to realize that TX law enforcement has one of the toughest jobs in the nation, especially in places like the Houston metro area where I currently reside :eek:
It makes their job even more tenuous when they have to confront armed nutbags like this Grisham character on a regular basis. :-?
Through my brothers past partnership in a gun store, I have had the opportunity to meet many of the local cops and have I come to have deep appreciation and sympathy for their jobs. :-|
Yes some cops are assholes and the good cops will tell you they know some of their fellow officers are assholes, but to paint the whole of LE with a negative brush as some commentators have done here, shows the ignorance of the commentators and unfairly labels honest LE officers who would normally go out of their way to help you if you needed help 8)
Law enforcement in this border state has a thankless job of trying to enforce the laws and protect citizens against a back drop of MS-13, Hoover Street Crips, Asian gangs, Mexican drug cartels, and idiot citizens like this Grisham character!!
I am so sick of supporting sycophants coming in here and defending this retard mental midget CJ Grisham!
CJ Grisham needs to be locked up until he "gets his mind right", for his own safety and that of others, that being you and me :-?
As an side, I wish to inform all LE haters in this forum that if I where on the scene when an LE officer is confronting an asshole like CJ Grisham, I would be backing up the officer with my weapon, NOT this nutbag Grisham 8)
I'll answer your question Mr. Grisham. "Failure to comply." When an officer instructs you to do something, you don't have the "right" to debate. For example, you can't tell a cop you're not speeding and for him to prove on the side of the road his radar is operational. You comply, and then proof and issues are debated in court. Anyone with a brain knows this. So, when he clearly said, "Please leave the grounds," you then walk off the grounds.
You show this video in court where I'm a juror deciding if he's guilty of willful misconduct related charges (e.g. resisting arrest, failure to comply, etc) and it's the shortest deliberation I've ever been a part.
All of this could of been avoided some time ago, the police were in violation of his rights, they could of taken 5 min, checked his paperwork, and sent him on his way. The Police never have the power/right, to violate the law or consitutition. Tho I may not like the way he did all this, I will defend his right to do it. Our rights are not subject to debate, nore do the police get a free pass. No law, be it local, county, state, or fed, is allowed to violate the consitutition. If CJG was, under the law, allowed to open carry his firearm, and the police took action to dis arm him, then THEY were in the wrong.
Can U please tell me how you feel you have the right to terrorize other citizens with your presumed rights?
Can you please show me where in the Constitution it gives you such a right?
Can you please show me where in the Constitution it gives you a right to be confrontational with Law Enforcement trying to ascertain whether or not a gun toting loon is a threat to those around him or her?
Can you please show me where you have rights over the right of others to be frightened and concerned in todays media sensationalist mega anti-gun hyperbole that paints everyone with a gun as a possible nut-case and to call the cops immediately? (CJ Grisham is a certified nut-case, BTW)
What part of the Constitution do you think gives you or anyone else these kind of rights?
I am a pretty thorough disciple of the Constitution and it's RIGHTS, but no where, no way, no how, am I going to go marching around my neighborhood or anywhere else, other than the woods or remote private property with my AR-15, loaded or otherwise, just to stupidly and ignorantly demonstrate my RIGHT to openly carry a long gun Texas :-?
That kind of potentially deadly confrontational behavior is asinine and does nothing to promote our 2nd Amendment position in the gun rights debate, it only makes the person doing it look like a complete imbecile, i.e. enter CJ Grisham and company :eek:
CJ Grisham and his tactics are a throwback to the Neanderthal tactics of the leftist loons in this country and do nothing but give the gun haters more "see that there" ammunition to further legislate away our gun rights into the hands of the criminals and corrupt government officials !!
CJ Grisham and his ignorant ilk need to be institutionalized until they get their angst abated with medication, hypnotherapy, meditation, or whatever it takes, so they become productive citizens of fellowship and goodwill rather than confrontational, mean spirited spoiled brats :-?
I can address many of your points since you seem to be aware of the statement you are trying to make.
As for 'terrorizing' other citizens with his 'presumed' rights, Mr. Grisham is allowed to do so by simultaneously exercising his 1st amendment right to free speech and his 2nd amendment right to bear arms.
Furthermore open carry appears to be legal in TX, especially in rural areas, so it appears he is complying with both state law and federal.
Your next point about getting confrontational with law enforcement is just silly. If a man puts a gun to your head to aid in violating your constitutional rights, what does it say about an individual who just allows it.
It is one thing to be committing a crime and try to cop an attitude about it. It is a completely different scenario when a cop has no legal authority to interfere with your actions. Last time I checked, it wasn't a crime to use your big boy words as you see fit. In fact I'm pretty sure it's a cornerstone of democracy.
Your next point is an ad-hominem attack on Mr. Grisham which is an argumentative tactic best left on the playground with the children.
Which part of the constitution again gives us these rights? It's the Bill of Rights specifically, so to answer your question, it is the first part of the constitution that does so.
If you are a pretty thorough disciple of the 'Constitution and it's RIGHTS' I would recommend actually reading it, because your 'knowledge' seems laughable at best.
I'm not CJ. I live in Denver and don't own a gun. I did however find this thread by following events surrounding CJ and was just trying to figure out if you were a troll for the sake of trolling, or if your opinions are genuinely as ignorant as I think your argument is.
If you'd like to try the proper approach, tell me why I am wrong with my assessment that CJ shouldn't have been handled in the manner he was.
I believe it's irrelevant that he had an agressive attitude towards the police officer and I soundly and logically stated why I believed so.
Tell me why I am wrong and why I am apparantly misinterpreting the legal authority of what is written in the constitution, or continue to insult people.
Well they must do things a lot different in Denver, RIGHT :-?
I supposed U could just march yourself up the State Captial with what LOOKS like a real firearm and then POLITELY ASKED by Colorado State Police to leave the premises you gonna refuse to follow the CSP offices order and get confrontational all the while still wearing said "firearm", REALLY?
If so you are just as crazy as Grisham is and I seriously doubt the CSP would be as polite and restrained as these TX State Troopers :-*
BTW Please post the video so we can all have a good laugh while your being slammed to the ground and cuffed :-?
I guess I'm done trying to civilly dispute your blatantly biased arguments since your only tactic is to make personal attacks backed only by personal opinions rather than codified laws and statutes.
Has anyone ever considered that maybe the cop was checking the rifle to see if it was legal? At that point he would be performing an investigation. It is illegal to interfere with an official police investigation.
I don't know what you saw on the video but I saw the cop attempt to take the weapon without any request. Now if you think that is OK, fine, but grabbing for the weapon was inherently dangerous and in doing so he forced the escalation of the situation and any action after that was his fault.
If the "supporter", we wearing an Oathkeeper T-Shirt was really an OK, it gives me even more reason to think poorly of that organization. JG is an idiot and as a veteran I cannot believe that the military has not used the UCMJ to get rid of the jerk. Crickets from the military blogs that were all big supporters of JG and belittled Yon. Regardless of Yon, JG is an affront to the military and all veterans. Thank you LE for arresting Grisham.
This just shows that there are some doofus' in the military,
These idiots are aping Occupy Wall St.
I've never seen this type of actions occur in a Tea Party or other Conservative event. It has happened, of course, but it was always the Leftists and Occupiers that were causing the disturbance
Once again Lawrence pumps in the fiction. She's good at inventing facts. I'm represented in my second case by Texas Law Shield. That is why NALGD isn't covering this other false charge. But, I told you to your face you're a fraud, so I guess you deserve to write for Michael Yon.
Remember, Sgt Grisham, that wasn't my question. I'm aware that TLS is representing you in the Austin charge for "criminal trespass". I asked you and your wife Emily why the NAFLGD was not covering the expense of the critical first trial transcripts and locating an expert witness for you. Both are SOP for a defense team. Neither of you were able to answer me satisfactorily.
If I were you Barbara I would NOT show up at any more of these Grisham events or his trial without an armed escort. :-*
It's not CJ I am concerend about, it's the obvious loons he has attracted that would worry me the most. I have been around these kind of nuts in the biker community and I warn you they can snap in an instant and wreak harm on you when you least expect it :sad:
I would also be aware of anyone following you on foot or in your car. CJ is crazy enough, but the loons he has attracted maybe even more crazy than you or he realize!
All it takes it one nut out of the group to go Postal and then where will your story be :-?
According to Texas Law Shield's website their program covers "use of your firearm as a weapon" and explains "any time our member displays a firearm for the purpose of using the firearm as a weapon to stop a threat, whether the member has to pull the trigger and discharge the firearm or not."
Exactly how does trespassing constitute using a firearm as a weapon to stop a threat? Is TLS making an exception for Grisham?
You raised more than $50,000 on Indiegogo for this defense and have not had to pay a penny of it. Where is the money? Did you steal it? This is looking like fraud. You need to account for that money.
Did an Army doctor ever recommend that you should not have a weapon? Careful with your answer.
If there is anything that will get you in big trouble with the government, it is misappropriating, MO NEY, especially the IRS :-?
Maybe the IRS should be asking MSgt. Grisham, "Show me the Money?" :-*
Maybe his Command and his Command JAG ought to be asking, "Show me the Money?" :-*
Maybe MSgt Grisham should come clean about this now before the government starts an investigation and spends MONEY needlessly on a man who should, by his rank, be living and acting to the highest standards of honor, duty, and country, yet is engaged in an embarrassing and despicable display as shown in a YouTube video that HE, PROUDLY posted :-x
On top of that associating himself with what looks like to the casual observer a gang of armed hooligans, getting all rowdy and confrontational with Texas State Troopers, REALLY, that in and of itself is a BIG dumbass move and shows his incompetence and questions his right to wear the uniform and receive the taxpayers benefits :-?
What has our military devolved into, that it allows it's senior NCO's to run around acting like complete idiots :-x
Well well, didn't think you'd be dumb enough to come in here and show everyone just how much of a nut you really are :-*
You sir are an insult and and an embarrassment to all active duty military and veterans! For you to pull that shite in the video on Veterans Day along with your gaggle of mental midgets is a slap in the face to all REAL veterans who gave their lives and limbs so you and your ignorant ilk could act like assholes on a sacred day and spit on the Constitution by your disrespectful actions to LE who are trying to do their jobs and control what looks like a bunch of armed nuts. :-?
Nuts who think they have a right to be armed and confrontational with LE :-?
Are ya'll really that deluded and mentally challenged
You sir need to get help and soon before you or you idiot followers get shot and I am warning you that is what is fixing to happen if you keep pushing LE's buttons. You morons are going run across the wrong cop and he or she is going to blow your dumbass away :eek:
Stop your asinine actions, get help and learn the right way to change laws is not through confrontation with LE and the citizens, but through legal legislative action and the voting booth. Any other way is doomed to failure as you and your followers will be remembered as nuts and loons, not as Patriots :-?
All of your answers will be deleted until you answer the questions.
1) Account for the $50,000. This is looking like fraud. Account for it, or be apprised the IRS and FBI will be alerted. (That money you raised is taxable, by the way.)
2) Has an Army doctor ever recommended that you be disarmed. (Hint: the answer is YES.)
You are not talking to the various law officers around Texas who handcuffed you.
You can scare a bunch of ladies in Alabama by jumping on a chair and acting like a monkey, and you can confront four ladies in Texas with all your people and guns, but you were a coward in Afghanistan. You quit and went home.
Last year, an Army doctor recommended you not carry any weapons.
I keep hearing the Texas Troopers being called thugs when the only thugs on display are the ignorant Grisham sycophants and the jail house lawyers I hear spouting meaningless tripe about the Constitution when they are idiots who have no clue as to how the Constitution and present decided case law work together. :-?
This kinda imbecile behavior does nothing but give the anti-gunners more ammunition to legislate our gun rights into the dustbin of history :eek:
It makes perfect sense that the NAFLGD wouldn't provide legal assistance for his latest antics. He keeps getting arrested on purpose, and he knows that he won't have to pay his own legal bills. Texas Law Shield is going to soon learn that they are on the financial hook for his foolishness. Extending legal coverage to Grisham is like writing a homeowners' insurance policy for someone who purposely catches their own house on fire. I wondered why NAFLGD took down Grisham's picture and testimonial. Guess if your business plan involves catering to the paranoid gun-toting rube demographic, you shouldn't be surprised to have nuts for clients.
I see the Grisham trolls are responding in force, go ahead vote the truth down, prostrate yourselves before your fearless leader, but get ready to join him in a cell or worse if ya'll keep acting like a bunch of inbred retards getting confrontational with Texas Law Enforcement and the Courts. :-?
I caution all you CJ sycophants, this going to end up bad for you if you keep listening to his twisted rhetorical hyperbole and you'd better realize it now before it's too late :eek:
Learn how to work the legislative system the way the bikers did in getting the forced helmet laws overturned in almost every state 8)
Work within the system or the system will work without you :eek:
The jury just returned. Grisham is now a convicted criminal. Sentencing tomorrow. Barbara Lawrence was in the courtroom. Well done, Barbara. Looking forward to your dispatch.
Let's give Barbara some time to write her dispatch. I'm sure she's not going to want to pull an all-nighter after spending the last couple days in that circus. Get some sleep Barbara!!!! :zzz
Thank you Laurie, but I still have some interviews to do today (Wednesday), but I can give you a little teaser. I know who the Lady in Black is, finally. And she has a great story to tell.
I am curious to know how the Army is going to react to this new attempt by the master of victim perception to once again invoke the claim he's being "victimized", this time by TX LEOs and TX Courts :-x
This guy needs serious help for a mental health condition I suspect he had WAY before he went to the Middle East! The stresses of that environment, however large or small, is probably what brought his Mr Hyde to the surface and he is not able or willing to control same :eek:
Let hope he gets help and does not suffer the fate of Dr Jekyll :-?
Wonder if he could spend some time in the pokey or if it's just a fine. They should have him reimburse the city for all the court costs, since he's got $1,050,000 in spare change to throw around.
Anyway, his military career is totally fubar-ed.
What the hell is a grown man doing wearing a toy gun in a holster?
Answer: Making a public nuisance of himself.
Rather than being a toy gun, it looks more like a theatre prop or replica. Those are made to look real, and an officer cannot be completely certain until the suspect is disarmed. This was just another one of Grisham's hairbrained stunts. The police have better things to do than have to deal with his ridiculous antics.
Soon to be ex-MSgt Grisham is on a one way trip to obscurity by several means, the least of which would be jail, the worst, being blown away by some overzealous young cop with a complex similar to Grisham's :sad:
The best thing for him is for the military to clamp down on him and FORCE him into a program to get his head right, but in my estimation judging by past and recent history of the DOD's handling of these issues, he'll chaptered out with no benefits and no where to turn other than the neurosis he is currently orchestrating or is orchestrating him, as the case maybe :eek:
If Grisham doesn't change his behavior either voluntarily or forced on him by the Army, this is only gonna get somebody hurt real bad
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