Seven Times I Asked To See The Evidence Against Me

By Ryan Nichols

Seven times I filed a grievance asking to see the evidence in my own criminal case.

Seven.

Not seven complaints about food. Not seven complaints about a guard. Seven separate written requests, inside a jail, on the jail's own forms, asking for access to the discovery in the case the government was building against me.

Here is what came back.

The record

FACT. The grievance log I kept while detained contains 29 entries. Seven of them are filed under one complaint type: DENIED ACCESS TO DISCOVERY. They run from March 9, 2022 through July 5, 2022. Four months.

FACT. Of those seven, four carry the entry NO IGP# ASSIGNED in the grievance number field. A grievance without a number is a grievance that was never entered into the system.

FACT. All four of those got the same answer in the response column. NO RESPONSE.

FACT. The concerns listed on those seven are: LEGAL COMMUNICATION, DENIED EVIDENCE.COM, and LEGAL MAIL CONFISCATED.

That is the whole story in three phrases. I could not talk to my lawyers. I could not get on the platform where the evidence lived. And my legal mail was taken.

What the answers actually said

Three of the seven did get a written response. Read them in order.

FACT. May 20, 2022. Grievance 20220527-603, Step 2. The official response reads: NON GRIEVABLE.

Not denied. Not investigated. Not "here is why you cannot have it." Non grievable. Meaning: this is not a thing you are permitted to complain about.

FACT. May 28, 2022. Grievance 20220601-693, Step 1 and 2, concern listed as DENIED EVIDENCE.COM. The official response reads: INMATE WILL BE PUT ON DISCOVERY LIST.

That is a promise. In writing. From the facility.

FACT. The same row's own notes record that Step 2 got no response.

FACT. I filed the same complaint again on June 1, and again on July 5, and again on July 5. Two of those three carry NO IGP# ASSIGNED and NO RESPONSE.

So the promise was made on May 28. And I was still filing the identical grievance thirty eight days later.

The one that does not add up

FACT. Grievance 20220527-603 appears twice in the log. Once at Step 2, filed May 20. Once at Step 3, filed June 1.

FACT. The date of response recorded for the Step 3 entry is May 27, 2022.

NEEDS AUTHENTICATION. A response dated five days before the grievance it answers. That may be a clerical carry forward of the Step 2 date onto the Step 3 line. It may be something else. I am not going to tell you which one it is, because I do not know, and I am not in the business of making a record say more than it says.

I am telling you it is in the log, and that a records custodian can settle it in about ten minutes.

FACT. The written response on that Step 3 entry says the issue is addressed in grievance number 20220512-288.

DOCUMENTED INFERENCE. Grievance 20220512-288 does not appear anywhere in my log. My discovery complaint was closed by pointing at a file I do not have.

Why this one matters more than the rest

Every other complaint in that log is about how I was living. This one is about whether I could fight.

You cannot cross examine a rumor.

You cannot defend yourself against evidence you are not allowed to see.

That is not a slogan. That is the mechanism. Discovery is the part of a criminal case where the government has to show you what it says it has. Take that away and a defendant is not participating in his own trial. He is watching it.

RYAN STATEMENT. I spent months trying to prepare for a case I could not read. Every request went on a form. Every form went into a slot. Four of the seven never got a number.

What this proves

It proves I asked. Seven times, on the record, with dates.

It proves the facility answered three times and that one of those answers was a written commitment to fix it.

It proves the complaint kept getting filed for five more weeks after that commitment.

It proves that four requests for access to criminal discovery were never assigned a tracking number and never answered at any step, including one filed at Step 4, the top of the ladder.

What this does not prove

It does not prove anyone acted with intent. I have not seen an internal email, a policy memo, or a deposition that says why.

It does not prove a court has found any of this. No judge has ruled on this log.

It does not prove the four unnumbered grievances were destroyed. Unnumbered and unanswered is what my copies show. What the facility's own system shows is a separate question, and it is a question with a paper answer sitting in a filing cabinet.

I am not asking anyone to take my word for any of it.

What I need next

The grievance log for my detention period, complete, with the intake numbers assigned to every form received.

The disposition file for 20220512-288, the grievance my discovery complaint was closed against.

The tablet and evidence.com access records showing when I was actually added to that discovery list, if I ever was.

If the facility's copy shows numbers on those four forms, produce it and I will publish it next to mine the same day.

If it does not, then the answer to seven written requests for access to criminal evidence was silence, and that is worth knowing too.

Either way, release the record.

The record does not lie.

The ask

Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in my name.

Read it. Share it. If you are an attorney, a journalist, or a former detainee with a grievance log of your own, send it. If you sat in that same building and filed the same forms, I want to see your copies next to mine.

Put eyes on the record.

The full case archive is at realryannichols.com/case. If you want to follow what comes out of it, the signup is on that page.

I build public records like this one for other people too. That is at realryannichols.com/services.