Judge Has Man Arrested, Charged With Felony For Handing Out Fliers On Public Sidewalk

MECOSTA COUNTY, MICHIGAN — Keith Wood, was arrested and charged with felony obstruction of justice, with a misdemeanor jury tampering charge thrown in as well. His “Crime”? Handing out pieces of paper to anyone who wanted one, the fliers were simply to educate the public on their jury rights that the justice system makes unaware to the people they serve.

Dave Kallman, Mr. Wood’s Attorney told FOX 17 that these charges are “outrageous,” Wood posted the ridiculous $150,000 bond that was set last Tuesday. Obstruction of justice is a felony worth five-years locked-up in a cold cage and around $10,000 of your income to be forfeited to the state, and the when you use your right to free speech to educate potential jurors about their rights you get slapped with a misdemeanor worth another year and $1,000 more of your money stolen from you.
Wood exclaimed “When the Judge told me the bond, again I was speechless, $150,000 bond for handing out a piece of paper on a public sidewalk? Speechless.”

Mr. Wood had to put the $15,000 bond on his credit card to get out of jail so he could return to his family. Kallman said he will fight tooth and nail to get all of Wood’s bond money t reimbursed as soon as possible, and labeled these unjust charges an obvious attack on free speech.

Kallman stated “It’s just a blatant illegal improper use of government power to squelch a person’s Constitutional rights of free speech, that’s what this is. There has to be push-back, and judges and prosecutors and people need to know: you cannot squelch people’s free speech rights and get away with it.”

Wood said he was just trying to educate the public on jury rights because of a Mecosta County trial that was coming up.

“It’s not illegal to fully inform jurors, it’s just that judges don’t do it anymore, to me, I just feel like the justice system would be much better off, and we the people would be much better off if jurors were fully informed again.” – Keith Wood

The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) educational fliers that Wood was passing out simply explains the right of the jurors’ to use their conscience, and stick to what is right. Jury nullification is when a jury acquits a defendant, because the law is unjust, unconstitutional or infringes on a person’s Human Rights. The justice system has kept this age-old thorn in their side under wraps for decades but it’s still implied.

Kallman said with emotion “It’s implied, it’s not overt, this is more overt, and I understand why the judge doesn’t like it okay, but isn’t that part of free speech? You allow speech you don’t like. It’s free speech for goodness sake, The Judge directly ordered him to be arrested for jury tampering, for tampering with a jury that didn’t exist, now wrap your head around that.”

The story of events back on Nov. 24, was that Wood said the magistrate, along with a deputy and several other court officials came outside on 3 separate occasions. They repeatedly asked him to go into go into the courthouse and that the judge wanted to question him. Mr. Wood stated, that the third time they came outside to confront him, the deputy threatened to get the police involved and he would be arrested. Then, Wood entered the courthouse to talk to the judge, and was specifically told that  he was not being detained.

Wood remembered that “She (courthouse personnel) wasn’t being rough but she was kind of corralling me and she was touching my jacket, and so I asked her again, I said, “Am I being detained?” And she goes, ‘No”.

“Judge Jaklevic came out of his chambers, he looked at me, he looked down the hall, I didn’t know who he was looking at, and then he looked back towards me and the deputy and he said, ‘Arrest him for jury tampering,'” said Wood.

Mr. Wood blatantly refused to accept a plea deal on Tuesday morning and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday. He and Kallman demand all his charges to be dropped and are considering the idea of filing a federal lawsuit.

Judge Jaklevic

“I truly believe in my heart of hearts I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t break the law, so they need to drop all of the charges against me,” said Wood.   Here is the contact information for this corrupt judge.
400 Elm Street, Big Rapids, MI 49307
room 118
(231) 592-0794 – Criminal/Traffic
(231) 592-0799 – Civil
Fax (231) 796-2180