(** You can go to the website: www.justiceforjohnbuckley.com and read current updates about John, his appeal, see his art and link to his youtube channel for his music. Please share his story so others can know and sign. We so appreciate your interest! Please post notes to John in comment section, and if you would like to write John, let me know in comment section too)
Governor Beshear, our plea is for you to open an investigation into former Army Ranger John Calvin Buckley's assault and near murder in prison—an attack that was allowed by corrections officers—AND to get his original conviction re-opened-- His conviction is unjust!
The truth about the August 29th, 2019 assault upon a decorated veteran must be accounted for, something John was denied by those who came before you. No thorough investigation has been done, and a public radio investigatory journalist was informed--after seeking information from prison authorities--that there were no records of this attack. We have corroborating written evidence from Corrections files that the attack did occur! Governor Beshear, to ignore our pleas may be sentencing John to death, because there is no doubt this decorated combat veteran is being targeted in prison.
How John became incarcerate follows below, but here are the details of this brutal attack:
On August 29th, 2019, John was attacked by inmates in a racially fueled, anti-veteran attack led by a man with an Usama bin Laden tattoo on his body. This attack was aided by two or more corrections officers at Lee County Adjustment Center (a private prison “administered” by Core Civic). One guard opened John’s locked door to the attack team of six, who entered his cell. One or more guards failed to perform their mandatory inspections for at least an hour and a half (2-3 rounds of scheduled inspections). The assailants spent an hour and a half torturing him…burning him, breaking his guitar over his head, stabbing him, swinging a lock attached to a towel or rope and hitting him repeatedly on the head and body, stealing (including his underwear) or breaking everything of value that he owned in that cell, The attack almost killed him. Two days after the attack, his father and aunt came to visit him, and were shocked at his horribly swollen face and the extent of his other injuries. He had not been seen by a doctor to that point. It was only after repeated letters to the warden over the next few weeks, with copies to other high-ranking officials, that John received any medical at all--the first time being taken to an emergency room in the middle of the night on September 4th, a week after his serious injuries and in severe pain. The prison briefed medical personnel and documented in their internal documents that the date of this horrific attack was September 3, 2019, even though documentary evidence shows that it was August 29, 2019. They did this to cover up their inaction. Despite the fact that he has post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury brought on by being blown out of a Humvee in Tora Bora in 2002 looking for Usama bin Ladin, no neurologist has examined him to date, even though he is suffering severe headaches, his vision is going in and out of his right eye-sometimes going completely blank--and his post-combat nightmares and seizures have been triggered. John, the victim, was transferred from the Medical wing of the prison directly into Solitary Confinement for almost 2 months before being transferred to another prison...
Why is John incarcerated?
A former lover’s betrayal resulted in this decorated veteran spending many months locked in solitary confinement. Prison authorities refuse him much-needed veteran medical care, and deny him the human rights he risked his life to defend. John was convicted of sexual assault after his angry lover reported one of their many “50 Shades” encounters as non-consensual – which he vehemently denies. In fact, he passed a polygraph examination, by a retired FBI examiner, which asked very pointed questions about that relationship. In lieu of sufficient corroborating evidence from others, the prosecution’s main strategy was using John’s US Military experience in war to convince the jury to convict. Because of Kentucky’s Rape Shield Law, and the blatant negligence of John’s attorney, most of John’s evidence that could have exonerated him was not allowed in court. The decision to allow that evidence or not was at the sole discretion of the judge. Other judges, in other cases, could rule differently.
Buckley was a member of the U.S. Army’s elite 3rd Ranger Battalion. He saw his first combat 40 days after the 9-11 attacks at the age of 18. He served from August 2000 through December 2005 and earned combat citations and a Purple Heart in deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. His Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) arose from his combat time. Upon his honorable discharge, the VA concluded John was 100% service-connected disabled. Like many returning veterans, John tried to recreate the “excitement” of active duty with an addiction, and when introduced to Bondage Domination Sadism Masochism (BDSM) by his accuser, John felt that he had found his “escape”…his drug.
“In 2009, my son became a victim of Kentucky justice,” said attorney John Calvin Buckley III, the prisoner’s Colorado Springs-based father. Two days after arriving home from Iraq in 2009, John was driving slowly with his girlfriend and infant daughter through a parking lot on a rainy day, and stopped short of hitting a man who suddenly stepped out from between two cars about ten feet from the front of John’s car. The man cursed, shouted, and charged John’s car, banging his hood and moving menacingly to the driver’s window. John’s training kicked into action; thinking his family was at risk from a carjacking, he drew his legal firearm (he had a concealed carry license) and ordered the man to lace his fingers behind his head and go to his knees. At the same time, he told his girlfriend to call 911. It was only after being peacefully subdued that the man identified himself as Lexington (KY) Police Detective Steven Cobb. Mr. Cobb cursed and threatened John and his girlfriend when John holstered his weapon, and told John he was going to have him arrested.
John was brought before a Kentucky Grand Jury for numerous felony charges as a result of this incident. The Grand Jury decided, after only a few minutes of deliberation, to not indict John on any charges. The timing of their decision was startling. Effectively, they called Mr. Cobb a liar, as they did no believe his “story” and instead believed John’s account of events. Within an hour of the result, John’s lawyer was called by a police officer and told, “No one pulls a gun on a cop in Lexington Kentucky and gets away with it.” From that day on, John was followed and harassed by Lexington police.
How that incident became the start of John’s road to prison is described at the family’s website, JusticeForJohnBuckley.com. “We explain this horror story further at the website and show you how you can help set an innocent man free,” his father said. “We have gone to incredible lengths, in vain, to try to get prison officials to back off their inhumane behavior, and to get the State of Kentucky to re-open his case. There is an American hero, my son, being treated horribly in prison where he’ll rot for almost four decades unless the public puts pressure on decision-makers in Kentucky.”
Please, Governor Beshear…consider our plea for justice! Please reopen this case and investigate this attack at Core Civic Correctional Center!