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To earn extra points the jurist should be on the lookout for subtle nuggets of truth hidden here and there, sort of like Easter eggs.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Bob Keck, Claudia’s Grandpa. Since day one I have, as fate would decree, been a cast member of this drama and now offer to serve as your guide helping you The National Jury, navigate this foggy maze. Before continuing, finder of fact should follow this LINK where they will find some useful information that will be of great help in understanding what this case is all about.
Finder of fact should be aware of just how great an effort Walmart and its local contract law firm exerted to secure Claudia’s conviction and at the same time should be aware of the fact Walmart did not give a tinker’s damn about how this conviction was secured nor how such a conviction would destroy the lives of Claudia’s two, innocent little boys. Consider the following facts. The alleged shoplifting did not come to trial until 20 months after the imaginary incident. After twenty months much of the evidence had gone cold, the witnesses had moved on, etc. The City Prosecutor deliberately sat on the case, after numerous and totally useless hearings, for nearly 11 months before finally being forced to get on with it. See LETTER.
We know a lot of time and effort went into pretrial preparation for the simple reason that from the time notice of prosecution was announced to the trial was only four days. No way all that witness rehearsal, falsification, and manipulation of evidence could have been accomplished in just four days. Walmart surely must have spent a pile of money and a lot of manhours to convict Claudia Sobarzo knowing full-well she was innocent. Now, why would any corporation, stoop so low as to commit what overwhelming circumstantial evidence declares to be four or five felonies in the process of gaining this pennyante conviction? Finder of fact will have to ask Walmart, Walmart Legal, and The City of Phoenix Prosecutor’s Office for the true answer to that one. Our answer as to why this obscenity was prosecuted is simple. Try mindless hatred, retribution, complete disdain for the rule of law, arrogance taken to the nth degree, or utter contempt for the lives of other human beings. Any of these and other epithets will fit quite well.
There’s a good chance Walmart Legal will try to take down our website (wouldn’t you if you were Walmart?) so, will the recipients of this email please counter Walmart’s vicious tactics by forwarding it to as many of your friends and relatives as you believe will be interested, just in case Walmart succeeds? For those so inclined, saving the story to their hard drive will ensure Walmart can’t cover up its crimes. Social networking can offset Walmart’s overwhelming advantage.
So, with the above said we throw caution to the wind and do what we have to do. I’m 80 and at this age have ceased to fear most everything except dying and leaving my grandchildren to live a life of deprivation. And all this damage done to a human being’s life because a handful of Walmart employees told a pack of stupid lies and Phoenix Police Property Crimes Division believed the first liar.
Before anything else is said: we no more believe or mean to imply, the despicable way a handful of local, rogue Walmart store managers, store clerks, and attorneys abused Claudia is typical of Walmart employee behavior than we can rise and fly. We know for a fact millions of decent, hard-working men and women keep the Walmart train on the tracks and rolling and the vast majority of them would never consider ill-treating any human being the way the Walmart locals, Walmart Legal, and upper management treated Claudia.
Before we further proceed, let the jury be assured that not one shred of evidence has ever been presented by Walmart, that even remotely suggests Claudia M. Sobarzo, a fifteen-year employee of Walmart, ever took anything off Walmart shelves without paying for it and she took not one red cent from the millions + dollars of Walmart’s money she counted over the years. Walmart lawyers have repeatedly gone over her 15-year record with a fine-toothed comb looking for something, anything they could exploit and continue to find exactly nothing other than one welfare offense Claudia committed as an orphaned minor. What sinister force, do you suppose, could have brought about Claudia’s strange and sudden Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transmogrification? When all this started years back and had you asked any of those who knew and had worked alongside Claudia if they believed she was a thief, they would have laughed in your face. I know this is so because I met a few of them and a man said when they first heard of Claudia being fired from the Mesa store for theft, they laughed out loud.
Indeed, the days have now dwindled down to the precious few for the old Gringo. I’m 80 now and for the past five + years, with limited legal knowledge and very little money have fought the good fight against Walmart’s and The City of Phoenix’s siege of Claudia and our family. But, as everyone knows, there can come a time in battle when one cannot continue the fight alone and must call for reinforcements. That time has come.
Promise: we won’t forget who helped us when later on down the road we are back on our feet again and are again called upon to help others. We do have a long history of giving. Claudia[8] and her grandparents, that would be my wife Catherine and I, have been helping others, financially, for decades, which probably explains why we don’t have any money; we have spent a large portion of our allotted years and resources looking out for those who cannot look out for themselves. We like to think of ourselves as having been in the salvage business; we’ve tried to salvage lives.[9] Like millions of other families, our salvage operations have, at times, involved alcohol and drug abuse by loved ones, and, sad to say, we recently failed in our efforts to save Claudia’s oldest son Junior. Junior died of a Fentanyl overdose on January 25, 2021. Junior was all of 26 years and 2 days old. Upon learning of my adopted great-grandson’s tragic and lonely death, I was totally devastated. Devastated by the loss of this kind and caring young man and by the fact I had failed him. I will always believe I had a good chance at saving Junior if only I had not been totally engaged in fighting Walmart’s and Phoenix Prosecutor’s evil attacks upon Claudia and her family. Now, we’ll never know if I could have saved Junior but we do know who is responsible for my not having the time and money to try. I leave Walmart’s and Phoenix City Government’s responsibility in this tragedy to be judged by others.
Any Jurist not aware of Walmart’s long history of riding roughshod over basic employee rights and dignity and exploitation of foreign workers etc. should read Wal-Mart’s RAPSHEET. Also, you can copy and paste search words: Walmart employee abuses for more sickening revelations.[10] The RAPSHEET is long and makes for some tedious reading. Scan read all of it if you have the time. After reading instance after instance where Walmart prevailed in court, it should then come as no surprise why we plead our case before the court of public opinion. What chance, do you suppose, one tired old man and his penniless grandchildren would have had against this mega-corporation and our court system as-is?
A fair question: just why does Claudia deserve financial assistance? [11] It seems every time we turn around nowadays someone is asking us to donate to this or that worthy cause and some not so worthy. Why Claudia is deserving is found herein and within the upcoming story itself. From the first abuse to the last, not one, not one single, solitary break did she get. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, every time, right up to the bitter end; Murphy’s Law run amok! Example: no competent detective or ethical prosecutor would have forwarded those patently bogus Walmart shoplifting charges anywhere other than into the wastebasket. Another good reason why she is deserving: at her first store as asst. manager, gung-ho Claudia ignored agonizing pain 12-16 hours a day for months on end before finally passing out on the job from fatigue, a ruptured gall bladder, and liver abscess. She was rushed to the emergency room where she underwent two major surgeries and spent nearly two weeks in the intensive care unit. How could anyone have tried any harder to make good on their first manager’s job or have been more conscientious than did Claudia? Her outstanding work ethic is well-known among her peers and a Walmart store manager did recommend her for an assistant store manager’s position.
After her promotion, for the very first time in her troubled life, Claudia’s star was on the rise. She could, at last, pay her bills and not have to worry 24/7 about where the rent and grocery money would be coming from, and for the very first time in their lives Claudia’s older boys felt happy and secure. Alas, their beautiful dream lasted but a few months before the nightmares returned. The charge that Claudia, after working that long and that hard to better herself, would throw it away for a damned worthless Walmart box cake is not just stupid but beyond; it’s ultra-stupid.
Hopefully, if enough like-minded [12] folk come across this request then maybe the old Gringo can take a breather and take better care of his adopted family and their pain-ridden, arthritis-stricken grandma? And maybe, just maybe, he can leave something behind other than precious memories? Catherine and I dream of the day when we can stop worrying about dying and leaving no one with the means to look after our grandchildren.
In summing up, the national jurist will decide if Walmart has maliciously destroyed an innocent employee’s life up to this point. And jurist will please be reminded that IF the general public does not intervene, Walmart will have gotten away with The Civil Crime of the 21st Century, and this crime, in turn, robbed two little boys of that most precious experience — their childhood.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I close by saying to you I had two choices when all this began. I could have turned my back on my helpless grandchildren and great-grandchildren and left their lives and futures in the hands of the likes of Walmart and others who did not love them or do what I did. Without hesitation, I sucked it up and here I am five years later still working and supporting them at 81 when I really do need to retire for health and other reasons. Maybe this year? Maybe next year!? BTW, I know the vast majority of those who read these words would have done the same for their loved ones were they able.
Answer to an obvious question: yes, I do consider myself lucky to be able to help my children, especially when you consider my age and the high mileage on this old chassis.
Below link to the main presentation will allow Jurist to see, from the very beginning, how this five-year-long nightmare transpired.
Link to the evidentiary report: OLDGringo
[8] Claudia has cast her share of bread upon the waters over the years. Maybe a few crusts will flow back to her this time? return
[9] We like to think we will be remembered as folks who practiced what they preached. return
[10] I counted 19 pages of Walmart’s employee abuse. return
[11] What we’re really talking about is not donations for Claudia so much but for those two, beautiful little boys. Win or lose, investing in a child’s future is always a noble gesture. return
[12] By like-minded, I mean those, like myself, who believe that all people who earn respect, should be respected and no one should be denied fair treatment under the law. If Claudia has not been criminally disrespected by Walmart and The Phoenix City Prosecutor’s Office did not act under color of state law, then I don’t know what these words mean. return