In a ghastly news report even for these corrupt times, an Assistant US Attorney in Florida’s northern district, John David Roy Atchison, has been arrested on charges that he traveled to Detroit to have sex with a five-year-old girl. Reportedly Atchison was caught in a wide-ranging sting operation involving an undercover officer posing as a mother offering her child for bids.

Speaking of helpless people and their children, this might be a good time to take a look at the federal cases Mr. Atchison has prosecuted.

He’s been a busy prosecutor by any standard. There are 95 published rulings from cases in which he appeared, from just the past few years – 95 published rulings from federal cases in Florida.

The overwhelming majority of these cases have been criminal: Defendants turned plaintiffs – inmates – being denied writs of habeas corpus; plaintiffs – prisoners – being denied cert. (prevented from appealing to the Supreme Court); appeals being denied. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, in fact, the outcome was rebuff by the powers that be – petitions, usually by pro se prisoners, dismissed.

The prisoners included immigrants, undoubtedly including undocumented aliens subject to deportation. All of them, native-born or not, guilty or not, have been basically helpless people under the control of other people on whom we rely to make the wheels of justice turn, including Atchison and the officials he cooperated with in investigations and prosecutions – working with prison wardens, working with the US attorney in the northern district of Florida, working with local sheriffs – and, yep, in at least one case generating several petitions over the past few years, working with Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Atchison has also worked jointly on prosecutions with Immigration & Naturalization Services and with the dept of ‘homeland security’.

In a slight change of pace, he has also defended the US govt in malpractice lawsuits and other lawsuits arising from medical treatment, or lack thereof, at military bases and in military hospitals in FL. (The outcome for plaintiffs in these civil cases, arising from alleged negligence in military medical treatment of service personnel and their spouses, or denial of medical benefits, has been some up some down.)

Some of the inmates petitioning are women:

• CAROL ELISE MOTES, Plaintiff, Pro se, MARIANNA, FL
• For RUTH MCQUADE, Plaintiff, Pro se, PENSACOLA, FL.
  
  For STATE OF FLORIDA, LUCY HADI SECRETARY OF FL DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, JEB BUSH GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, KATHLEEN A KEARNEY, JERRY REGIER, Defendants: LEAH LASSEIGNE MARINO, ATTORNEY GENERAL - PL-01 - TALLAHASSEE FL, TALLAHASSEE, FL.
  
  For SHERIFF RON MCNESBY, CHRISTINA SUDDETH, Defendants: BARBARA C FROMM, JOLLY & PETERSON PA - TALLAHASSEE FL, TALLAHASSEE, FL.
  
  For J D LEE, Defendant: JD ROY ATCHISON, US ATTORNEY - PENSACOLA FL NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA, PENSACOLA, FL.
  
  For JOHN HUGHES, J R TOMASOVIC, Defendants: JD ROY ATCHISON, US ATTORNEY - PENSACOLA FL, PENSACOLA, FL.
• Debbie Humphreys, Fort Worth TX
• YRAIDA LEONIDES GUANIPA, Petitioner, Pro se, FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX COLEMAN - CAMP, COLEMAN, FL. [this went repeatedly to the Supreme Court, turned down without published opinion each time]
  
  For YRAIDA LEONIDES GUANIPA, Petitioner: RANDOLPH P MURRELL, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER OFFICE - TALLAHASSEE FL, TALLAHASSEE, FL.
• WANDA DIAZ-PEREZ, Petitioner, Pro se, FCI MARIANNA, MARIANNA, FL.
• LORI D BLAKELY, Petitioner, Pro se, FEDERAL PRISON CAMP, MARIANNA, FL.

These, be it noted, are just the published cases.

Surely it would be a stretch and a nightmarish fantasy to hypothesize that any of the women directly or indirectly in Mr. Atchison’s control had small children, who factored into their situation in any way whatsoever. Many of the defendants and prisoners in the process did have young children; let’s hope that no improper deals have been made at any point in this man’s career.

But with these allegations, to hypothesize that such a situation could arise in future is not mere fantasy. It is not somehow impossible that a desperate prisoner could tender his/her own children to a pederast. Deportations already generate problems resembling those arising from human smuggling.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?