OFF THE WIRE
The case of Jay Anthony Dobyns v. The United States is scheduled to begin Monday by the United States Court of Federal Claims, an entry yesterday on the ATF agent’s blog announced. “The trial will start in Arizona and end in Washington, D.C. in early August,” Dobyns wrote.
Dobyns is the agent who gained fame after infiltrating the Hells Angels in a “harrowing undercover journey” he wrote about in his New York Times bestseller “No Angel.” He, along with colleague, friend and fellow whistleblower Vince Cefalu, has been the subject of several Gun Rights Examiner reports focused on retaliation they have been subjected to for coming forward with information exposing official wrongdoing.
After his role in the Hells Angels investigation became known, Dobyns and his family received death threats. His house was burned down. The basis of Dobyn’s claims against the government centers on its lack of appropriate actions followed by acts of retaliation for his then coming forward.
“ATF has breached its settlement contract terms ... and has continually failed to approach minimal standards of law enforcement safety practices by failing to properly assess, respond to, investigate, process or document any of these threats and occurrences,” the Synopsis of Facts in Dobyn’s complaint states.
“ATF has refused to adequately protect or defend Dobyns and Family from the threats coming from the very criminals and alleged syndicates that ATF encouraged Dobyns to investigate,” the complaint continues, and then raises chilling allegations.
“In a demonstration of an extreme example of a United States government agency abandoning an employee, Dobyns’s supervisors at ATF have subjected and are subjecting Dobyns to malicious reprisals including, but not limited to, ATF’s refusal to investigate the arson of Dobyns’s home and naming Dobyns as a suspect in the arson of Dobyns family home and in the attempted murder of Plaintiff’s family with no evidence or investigative activity to support the charge.”
The government, amidst a series of denials, in its Defendant’s Answer, Affirmative Defenses, and Counterclaims, had to admit the truth of Dobyn’s self-referencing character and performance claims, namely “that plaintiff has received awards from ATF … that plaintiff has received one ATF Gold Star award, an ATF Distinguished Service Medal, and nine special act awards between 1992 and 2003 … that plaintiff has received the ‘Top Cop’ award [and] that ATF was aware of threats to kill plaintiff.”
For his part, Federal Claims Court Judge Francis M. Allegra, in his 2010 opinion, noted that the case was within the court’s jurisdiction and should proceed, finding Dobyns’ “core breach of contract/covenant claims are plausible.” While other claims related to Office of Inspector General recommendations and Freedom of information Act claims were dismissed, Allegra concluded “the court believes that this case, in the main, should proceed.”
“The last nine years have changed my DNA,” Dobyns wrote on his blog in anticipation of Monday. “These events and the treatment I’ve received have train-wrecked every element of my life.
“Win or lose this trial, succeed or fail in my attempt at justice, I will have persevered against government corruption and restored my view of myself,” he reflected. “The government will know that they messed with the wrong Cat on this. I did not and will not roll over like so many have been forced to do before me. As hard as they tried to break my spirit, it has survived. I will be able to look in the mirror and know I called them out to their faces. That is a victory in itself. I never quit.”
http://www.examiner.com/article/atf-whistleblower-dobyns-case-against-government-to-begin-on-monday
