strength and character; pushed right by the actions of
liberal Judge Terry J. Hatter (pictured here)
We are shaped by our experiences… Jimmy Carter was my Commander-in-Chief when I spent four years on active duty in the Marine Corps. I was never very political, just raised with traditional Christian values and patriotic. I voted in every election but based my decisions more upon sound bites than philosophy. I even accepted the president’s long odd/even gas lines and his calls for “living with less.” But with the Iranian hostage crisis I saw how weak Jimmy Carter was as a president. By the November election I was a special agent in the FBI. I voted for Ronald Reagan because I saw his strength not necessarily because I studied his principles. I was still not “political.” I was more concerned with staying alive on the street than following the political process and studying doctrine.
Soon after joining the FBI I began my undercover career, spending many years in various undercover roles. After one of my early UC assignments, I found myself in front of U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter, a Carter appointee. Judge Hatter did everything in his power to toss the case of an international heroin trafficking ring I spent nine months infiltrating. Among other things the judge accused me of violating the multiple defendants’ 5th Amendment Rights. He was overturned twice by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (not an easy feat) and eventually the Supreme Court upheld the Ninth Circuit claiming my actions were legal. The case was returned to Judge Hatter’s courtroom. Our main target died in the lengthy interim and his two co-defendants, in essentially a plea agreement negotiated without the prosecutor’s input, received sentences of months in federal prison rather than the years they deserved. Judge Hatter and his judicial philosophy got my attention. I began to study judicial appointees and solidified my political beliefs. I found I was aligned to much of what Ronald Reagan said about individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, faith, and national security. Several years ago I was on Michael Reagan’s radio show and told Michael thanks to his father and Judge Terry Hatter, “I’m a conservative.”