This is a pretty long post. I'd have emailed you, but I don't have your address. : My husband was found guilty of fraud and attempted extortion against McDonalds and Coca Cola! my husband found seamer grease in a can of coke and sent it to cola cola-no problem until 4 years.
F: Did he ask for anything from the coca cola company at that time, beyond a replacement of the soda and incurred expenses like postage? Did he, for instance, take coca-cola to court or threaten to do so? If he did, this would NOT make your case impossible, but their lawyers could make things difficult by using his prior actions to establish motive.
: The only common link is that the president of Mcdonalds sits on the board of Coke and the president of coke sits on the board of Mcdonald
F: Yeah, inbred little beggars aren't they.
: On Dec.15,1996 Our family was eating at Mcdonalds and our son had a RAT TAIL in his french fries!!! It is not that unusual...
F: It Bloody well SHOULD BE unusual! do you have the names and addresses of the people who found the blood and feces in food at the same franchise? If so, they could be of considerable help as corroborating witnesses. Without hearing his reasoning, I can't understand (or even imagine) why the judge would prevent this evidence from being heard. It does establish a pattern of unhygenic and potentially dangerous practices at that store.
: The tail was fried in Mcdonalds own special oil.
F: where was it analyzed? Do you still have it? If you do, keep it. I know it's probably disgusting, but it is evidence. If you don't still have the fried tail, knowing what happened to it is very important. If McD's threw it away, there's a potential destruction of evidence question. Find the employee, get his or her name. S/he is a material witness as well. In fact every employee who was working at the time should be contacted. Your lawyer should have taken care of this before the trial.
: My husband not only took and passed a polygraph but he told the FBI agent that he would take one the minute he asked him to (state of mind)
F: I'm assuming that you sued for damages, and that the FBI were brought into this after Mc.D. and Coke countersued for extortion, right? In that case, you also can call the agents who administered the test as witnesses in your defense.
: Not Guilty!!! not admissable in our case.
F: There are problems with polygraph tests, I'm not sure what the judge's reasoning was. This is something you need to discuss with an attourney.
: ... who cares lets tape him (1st we will get him good and mad) and then we will bring a case of extortion against him!!!
F: Did your husband agree to be taped? There is a constitutional issue involved if he didn't. Who taped him, and for what purpose? If your husband was taped without his consent, and the judge allowed the tape as evidence, there's a very good chance of your case being thrown out.
: My husband was never accused of planting the tail because they knew he did not!!! so what they did was very clever and so like McDonalds, They put this blanket of supision over him saying he had access to Lab rats (he is a scientist) and this was a Lab Rat... This was so far from the truth. But the damage was already done through the media.
F: Every citizen of the US has access to rats at their neighborhood pet store. However, if the jury was tainted by media stories, there is a major problem. You could potentially get the whole case thrown out due to jury tampering if this is true. A mistrial is a high probability.
: I will be more than happy to send transcripts of the trial to anyone that would like to see them. What happened to my family is a crime lets not let it happen to anyone else...
F: If I read the posting history correctly, you're currently located in Florida. The Florida ACLU can be reached at http://www.aclufl.org/help.htm
and you should definitely send the transcripts to them. Their site will let you submit a request for assistance, and their staff should be able to help you contact an attourney. It is _NOT_ in your best interests to go up against Mc.D. or Coke by yourself. You have a right to legal counsel, and it's generally not all that great an idea to get a public defender if you can afford otherwise. In case you can't there are a few excellent PD's out there, and if the ACLU can't help you out, ask politely if they can reccommend one.
Not knowing all the details of your case, I can't tell if it's the kind of case the ACLU can accept. They focus on constitutional law, so they'll probably have to find a Bill of Rights issue in your case in order to help you. As I said, there's some 5th ammendment potential in the taping that might get you some help. Otherwise, they can recommend somebody to press for mistrial over jury contamination, harassment, and...dare I say it...Libel. (Oh the biting irony!). Good luck and don't give up.
-Floyd
