By Donna Westfall – October 19, 2017 – In Wednesday’s October 18th sentencing saga set to start at 9 am in Courtroom 3, (Traffic Court), it didn’t convene until 10:30 am. At that point, Bryan Ranger submitted a Marsden Motion to get his attorney fired for doing a very, very, very poor, inadequate job. Long story short, the public was escorted out of the room so that they could not listen to the Marsden Motion. By noon, several of us left for lunch only to learn that the motion was denied by Judge Spinetta.
Court reconvened at 2 pm. Four of the children were allowed to read their letters. When they couldn’t because they were sobbing, a woman named, Elizabeth, read them. Essentially, they wanted the court to know the impact of this on their lives.
Copies of the letters should be forthcoming since the Probation Department holds these things open to the public for the next 60 days, then the file is sealed.
To backtrack, Bryan Ranger, was arrested, held in jail for four years, went to trial on multiple counts of rape and lewd behavior without one shred of forensic evidence. He was found guilty in short order. It was pretty reminiscent of the McMartin Preschool sex scandal.
Before all of this happened, the Ranger parents thought they had a nice, strict, fundamentalist Christian family. But, their oldest daughter, Mercy, wanted a different type of life. Threats were made by Mercy, Marcus Nash and Walter Throop to Bryan and Judy Ranger to sign over parental rights of Mercy to Sasha Upton or face the loss of their family and Bryan’s imprisonment.
Randall South, raised in Del Norte County and a frequent visitor made these first hand observations:
“Several red flags went up in both the trial and sentencing which raised concerns if it was a fair trial.
If I had been on the jury, there is no question in my mind that I would have freed Bryan just for having to sit in a jail for four years without a trial.
His public defender vigorously suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Bryan.
A Judge is supposed to be neutral, impartial, not take sides and I found Judge Spinetta to be very biased. He didn’t seem to know the laws on sentencing and kept conferring with the Prosecutor, which made me think he was incompetent. The constitution states you are entitled to an elected Judge to preside over your case. Judge Spinetta was appointed to this case from the assigned judges pool. Typically people end up in the pool if they are not electable. I’ve learned firsthand that in California there is no oversight on assigned Judges and for that reason more effort needs to be made to insure the state doesn’t stick people with a non-elected judge. I really believe that the California state legislature is allowing unqualified people to be assigned as Judge.
Finally, I say may God have mercy on your soul if you have to appear in a California court and in particular in Del Norte County. They’re out to get Bryan Ranger. They looking to kill this guy.”
As far as the Marsden Motion to fire his Public Defender, Bryan had that right to ask, but the Judge felt the trial evidence was presented fairly on both sides and his motion to fire Attorney Cater was denied. Bryan asked for a continuance. That was denied.
Bottom line, Bryan faces over 100 years to life in prison, no possibility of parole and will be on the sex offenders list. However, Bryan’s Motion for an Appeal is automatic and a new attorney will be provided if he cannot afford one.
After court Bryan was able to relate in a phone call to his wife, Judy, that he will be taken to San Quentin and can only correspond by mail for the first few months. As of Thursday, October 19th 11 am, he is no longer in Del Norte County Jail. He will not have phone calls for a couple of months. Then, he will probably be sent to another facility. He encouraged his wife, Judy, to continue to pray for their enemies, for their children and for everyone’s safety.
The Dr. Phil show has expressed an interest in this case, and the producer wanted to know if they could bring their film crews up and interview Bryan. Commander Bill Steven said the producer had not called him yet and wondered if they were still interested. I told him that they are still interested. Back on October 2nd, Commander Steven said he would run the subject by County Counsel to find out if any modifications on the time allowed for visits/interviews would be made for the film crew since they would be coming up from the Los Angeles area. There was no feedback from either Cmdr. Steven or County Counsel Cable. The subject of interviewing Bryan at the Del Norte County Jail is a moot point since he is no longer in the county.
I found out yesterday why Linda Sutter continually and repeatedly ignores the fact that evidence was suppressed at trial that may exonerate Mr Ranger. It turns out Sutter is friends with Sasha and Earl Upton. Sasha Upton is the mother of Marcus Nash, the 40+ year old man who had sex with 14 year old Mercy Ranger. Turns out all of Sutter’s hogwash argument over the last few weeks is actually motivated by her friendship with the Uptons.
I am a huge advocate for fair trials. I have said repeatedly Mr. Ranger did not get a fair trial because exculpatory evidence was suppressed, which means he was deprived a fair trial. If the appellate court finds the evidence sufficient for conviction, I will fully accept that. Sutter comes back with meritless, bullshit claims, going as far as to accuse me of loving child molesters. Now, having learned of her friendship with the Uptons, and that this may all be her way of protecting Marcus Nash, I consider Linda Sutter as scum.
To back up a little, the real evidence that was suppressed at trial shows that Marcus Nash orchestrated the illegal threat of bringing allegations of sexual misconduct to cover his own crime of statutory rape. This is what Sutter refuses to address. When Mr. Ranger refused to sign guardianship papers giving up his parental rights, then and only then were the threats made. When Mr. Ranger continued to refuse to give up his rights, then and only then were charges brought. A recorded phone conversation indicates that Marcus Nash admitted he knew the allegations were bogus.
The ploy worked. Marcus Nash escaped prosecution for statutory rape of 14 year old Mercy Ranger.
Now you know why Linda Sutter is on the warpath against Mr. Ranger and is perfectly OK with Marcus Nash’s statutory rape. Now you know why Linda Sutter continually and repeatedly refuses to address the evidence that was suppressed at trial.
Regarding Sutter’s ‘legal’ arguments, they are entirely off as usual. For one, if a Marsden motion can only be heard before trial, why did the Court hear the motion after trial? Sutter will barf up any meritless argument when motivated by her personal ulterior motives. Small wonder she tied for last place in the supervisor’s election, against a person who withdrew from the election the first week.
Wow, what a conflict of interest! It certainly explains a lot, though.
In order for a Marsden Motion to be granted you need to file the motion prior to the beginning of a trial not after the jury reached a verdict you don’t like. Mr. Ranger must of thought his attorney was doing fine until the guilty verdict arrived. So now after Brian Ranger is found guilty he files a Marsden Motion for sentencing. It was denied based on inefficient evidence to warrant a new attorney for sentencing. However, Mr. Cater does not do appellant work and informed the judge Mr. Ranger would need another attorney for that.
As far as Randall South’s opinion, he wasn’t there to hear the evidence either, so his opinion is biased based upon what he was fed by Donna Westfall and Wes Nunn. The only thing I agree with in regards to civil rights violation was the fact he sat in jail four years without a trial. I don’t know if he had waived his right to a speedy trial or not. I don’t want to go look into his disgusting file to find out.
After working as a correction officer at pelican bay state prison which included a one year training and development stint as a correctional counselor, the file I read on Brian Ranger was so bad I couldn’t stomach it. I had read many files and conducted a lot of case work as a Correctional Counselor and never read anything as bad as Brian Ranger’s file.