WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Documentary producer
sued for $16 million
'Obstruction of Justice' chronicles Arkansas drug deaths
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Copyright 1998, WorldNetDaily.com
By Frank York
worldnetdaily.com
Kevin Ives' skull was crushed and Don Henry had been stabbed repeatedly with a survival knife before their bodies were placed on the railroad tracks near the airport at Mena, Arkansas.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 23, 1987, Ives and Henry were out deer hunting armed with a flashlight and a .22-caliber rifle. From the evidence gathered by investigators and by video journalist Pat Matrisciana (producer of "The Clinton Chronicles"), the boys had stumbled onto a drug deal allegedly involving local law enforcement officials. They were murdered and their bodies were placed on the railroad tracks to cover up the crime.
Matrisciana, founder of Jeremiah Films, a California-based production company, briefly detailed the murder of Ives and Henry in "The Clinton Chronicles." He later produced "Obstruction of Justice" to show the alleged connection between the murder and cover-up by corrupt law enforcement officers, Mena drug traffickers and President Bill Clinton.
Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane, two of the deputy sheriffs mentioned in "Obstruction of Justice," as possible suspects in the case are now suing Matrisciana for $16 million for allegedly libeling them.
M. Darren O'Quinn, an attorney with the Little Rock law firm of Dover & Dixon, is representing Campbell and Lane in the lawsuit. According to O'Quinn, both sides in the case have taken depositions and have filed motions for summary judgment.
"After all of the depositions, I filed a motion for summary judgment, which means that there are no disputed facts in the lawsuit," said O'Quinn. "The judge should be able to decide the lawsuit as a matter of law. In response to my motion, (Matrisciana's lawyers) filed a response, stating that there are disputed facts. They have filed their own summary judgment, meaning they believe they are entitled to a judgment without having to go to a jury."
O'Quinn says he is preparing a response to Matrisciana's lawyers and should have it filed by June 17. Summary judgments are seldom granted when there are factual disputes involved, said O'Quinn. He expects the case to go to trial around November or December.
According to O'Quinn, "Obstruction of Justice" made inaccurate claims that Matrisciana had eyewitnesses who implicated Campbell and Lane in the murder of the two boys.
"When we went to discovery," said O'Quinn, "we found out they didn't have any eyewitnesses. They had double hearsay, but they didn't have any witnesses who had made those statements. We're saying it was reckless to say so in the video." In an interview with WorldNetDaily, Matrisciana describes his experiences in Arkansas dealing with what he calls the "Dixie Mafia."
"One of the things I have discovered is that this isn't fiction," says Matrisciana. "These people react in very violent ways. They use their friends in the media to attack you. They use legal terrorism. The two officers who have sued me have cost me thousands of dollars to defend myself -- over a totally frivolous lawsuit. They don't actually have enough money to do this."
Matrisciana believes that they are being funded by people very close to Bill Clinton, including Dan Lasater, a millionaire who was convicted on cocaine distribution, but served only six months in jail. Jay Campbell is a close friend of Lasater and has done work for him. "They're trying to silence me," says Matrisciana.
Lasater and Bill Clinton are also close friends. In fact, Lasater's former business associate, Patsy Thomasson is currently director of the Office of Administration in the White House. (Thomasson was also one of the individuals seen going through Vince Foster's desk and filing cabinets on the evening of his death.)
When Pat Matrisciana began working on "The Clinton Chronicles" in the early 1990s, he didn't realize what he and his cameraman were getting into.
"I had been contacted by a man named John Hillyer, an NBC cameraman who wanted to tell the real story about what was happening in Arkansas."
When Matrisciana and Hillyer arrived in Arkansas and began interviewing people for the video, the criminality and intrigue were far worse than they had imagined. "It was like going into some sort of banana republic that was run by a dictatorship. We were followed on a regular basis," says the producer.
Matrisciana set up a "safe house" in an apartment complex in Little Rock where he and other journalists and investigators would meet to discuss stories of drug trafficking in Mena, the murder of the two teen-age boys, and whether or not Bill Clinton was involved in any of these activities.
Hillyer and Matrisciana developed a friendship with Gary Parks, the son of Jerry Parks, a former security chief of Clinton's presidential campaign. According to Matrisciana, Jerry Parks had been hired several years ago by Vince Foster on behalf of Hillary Clinton to put Bill Clinton under constant surveillance. Gary would go on surveillance stakeouts with his father as Jerry gathered photographic evidence of Clinton visiting with prostitutes, Gennifer Flowers and other women.
When Vince Foster's body was found in Fort Marcy Park, Jerry became paranoid that he might also be targeted for murder. He was right. When Jerry was assassinated in his car in September 1993, Gary and Jerry's widow believed it was related to his surveillance of Clinton.
Gary Parks regularly stayed at the safe house, but was awakened one night when the door was kicked open by would-be assassins. When he quickly loaded his M-1 carbine, the sound of the bullet being chambered scared off the killers and they fled into the parking lot. Gary went to the window and thought he recognized one of the men as a member of the governor's security staff.
On another occasion, when Matrisciana and others were preparing for a radio talk show at the safe house, an investigator scanned the apartment for "bugs" and discovered eight of them. Pat still has those bugs as sobering reminders of his Arkansas experience.
During the course of their investigation, Matrisciana and Hillyer discovered a trail of unsolved murders of people who knew details about the teen's deaths. Others who died mysteriously had inside information on drug ties to the political establishment in Arkansas. On one occasion, Hillyer was planning to conduct an interview with a former official of the Democratic National Committee, but the man never showed up for the interview. Hillyer learned the next day that the man and his son had died in a plane crash.
Matrisciana and Hillyer were also going to interview a hermit who lived in the mountains near where the teens had been killed. Two days before the scheduled interview, the hermit died.
Hillyer started to fear for his own life, telling Matrisciana that he thought they would kill him by making it look like he had a heart attack. After the film was completed, Hillyer went on to other projects and ended up living in Atlanta. Two years ago, Matrisciana received a phone call from Hillyer. John told him he had uncovered new information that needed to be put on video, but that they couldn't talk on an unsecured phone. They planned on meeting to discuss the new information, but Hillyer died of a heart attack three days later. Did someone get to Hillyer? Matrisciana doesn't know. Were the hermit and DNC official killed for what they knew? Or were these simply coincidences? Again, Matriciana doesn't know, but he does think these deaths are unusual, considering the number of other people who have died under mysterious circumstances in Arkansas.
Matrisciana recommends "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton" by London Telegraph correspondent Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for a detailed analysis of dozens of unexplained deaths associated with the President and the First Lady. Evans-Pritchard also describes the connections between Roger Clinton (the president's brother), Dan Lasater, and the Medellin drug cartel.
Matrisciana's investigation of Clinton's associates and Clinton's activities as governor of Arkansas have convinced him that there is a pattern of sexual impropriety and criminal behavior that must be thoroughly investigated.
Matrisciana notes that he has personally interviewed at least 13 people who have admitted either snorting cocaine with Bill Clinton or have observed Clinton snorting cocaine. He says he has interviewed prostitutes and party girls who have admitted to participation in sex orgies at the governor's mansion when Hillary was out of town.
"If you know the pattern of an individual," says Matrisciana, "he will continue the same pattern" even when he becomes president of the United States.
Matrisciana has no doubt that the sexual allegations against Clinton are accurate -- as are the allegations of criminal misconduct in the Whitewater affair. His fear, however, is that the Republican leadership will not have the courage to impeach Clinton. Why? Because of the fear of what may be in the FBI files illegally obtained by Clinton operatives.
"Some of these Republicans have been compromised and they're not willing to really go after Bill Clinton with the zeal I hoped they would," says Matrisciana.
During the last week of April, Matrisciana was in Washington, D.C., and handed out copies of "The Clinton Chronicles" to every representative and every senator. He is also mailing copies of "Obstruction of Justice" to a select group of legislators to educate them about President Clinton's questionable activities while serving as governor of Arkansas.
"What we need to prove is that no man is above the law," says Matrisciana. "I hope and pray that the American people will say enough is enough. We need to get in there and allow the investigations to move ahead without vilifying the men who are trying to conduct the investigations."
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