© WOIO-TVJordan Wiser
Enrolled in an Ohio vocational-technical school, Wiser was taking Firefighter 2 and EMT courses to bolster his dream of future public service.
"Last year, I completed the law enforcement course," the 18-year-old told
The Huffington Post. "I received several certifications, including the National Terror Defense certification from FEMA, the Terror Recognition certification and (certification as an) Emergency Vehicle Operator."
Wiser also joined the Army, enrolling the Future Soldiers program, and was scheduled to ship out in August. After his planned military service, he figured he'd embark on a career as a police officer or firefighter.
But Wiser's big dreams of public service are on hold. In fact, he's now enduring a nightmare.
It all started Dec. 12 when administrators at Ashtabula County Technical and Career Campus (A-Tech) in Jefferson, Ohio - about 60 miles northeast of Cleveland - questioned Wiser after an alleged tip regarding videos uploaded to Wiser's
YouTube account. Among the clips are reviews of video games and merchandise, home defense tactics, and an interview with a local police officer.
"The principal said he had reason to believe I had weapons in my vehicle and needed to search it," Wiser told the Huffington Post. "He made me empty out all my pockets, and the vice principal grabbed me and patted me down very forcibly. It was somewhat awkward. Then they took my car keys. I told them what was in my car and said, 'Don't be alarmed.'"
Wiser added that he didn't give school officials permission to search his vehicle, nor was there a warrant to perform the search. But they cited the school handbook as their warrant, he said, adding that they denied his request to call an attorney.
And what did they find inside Wiser's vehicle? A folding blade pocketknife, a stun gun and two Airsoft guns.
Airsoft is a game akin to paintball in which participants shoot each other with round non-metallic pellets, and Wiser said he had plans for an Airsoft game after school. The stun gun was for self-defense, he said, adding that the pocketknife was part of his EMT kit.
"My stun gun was locked in the glove box," Wiser told the Huffington Post, "and the knife was in my EMT medical vest. I bought it at K-Mart and have it as part of my first responder kit for cutting seatbelts."
Wiser was arrested and jailed for illegal conveyance of a weapon onto a school ground, a Class 5 felony.
Harold Specht, the chief assistant prosecutor at the Ashtabula County prosecutor's office, said the charge is related only to the pocketknife.
"I was in jail for almost 13 days," Wiser told the Huffington Post. "The first bond hearing I went to was on December 15. The judge
ordered me [to be] held on a half million-dollar bond, pending a psychological evaluation. I did that and passed. They found I was not suicidal, homicidal or a threat to anybody. My attorney brought it up in front of a different judge, who let me out on a $50,000 bond and an ankle monitor. I was released from jail on Christmas Eve."
© WOIO-TV
Given his school's locale, Wiser doesn't understand all the hubub over his pocketknife - nor the wide-ranging fallout from its discovery.
"There are kids at my school all the time who get caught with knives and are suspended," he told the Huffington Post. "My school is very rural, and people carry knives. I can accept the fact that there was a lapse in judgment, and I can accept a punishment, but I have already been expelled from both the tech school and my home school." Jerome Brockway, the A-Tech superintendent, declined to discuss the case.
And since Wiser's felony charge, he said the Army discharged him pending a not-guilty verdict or dropped charges without prejudice.
That's not all. If the felony charge sticks, things could get way worse.
"If I am convicted of a felony, I'm never going to be a police officer. I'm never going to be a fireman. I'm never going to be in the military," he added. "I won't even be able to be a janitor. I'm 18 years old, and this is going to ruin my entire life."
If all of the knocks against Wiser weren't enough, he added that the conditions of his bond prohibit him from contact with his grandfather, who is dying from cancer.
"The one judge I went in front of told me to remove any firearms from my parents' house and put them at my grandpa's house," Wiser said. "The next judge freaked out about me even knowing what a gun is and put a no-contact order against me and my grandparents. My grandfather is dying right now, and I am not allowed within 500 feet of him."
There was a petition on
change.org that demanded Wiser's charges be reduced to a misdemeanor, and within 48 hours, it attracted 1,349 signatures. But Wiser said he asked that the petition be closed, which it was.
"The court threatened to hold sanctions against me and my lawyer," Wiser told the Huffington Post. "I guess the prosecutor was upset because his inbox had been flooded with emails as a result of the petition."
Specht said he's aware "there's a load of people out here that just think we're the devil because we're allegedly ruining this young kid's life," but he insisted that's not the case and that the felony charge is justified and there are no plans to reduce the charge.
"There are all these school occurrences where people are shot, people are killed by other students," Specht said. "We see it every day ... so we don't take these things lightly. ... We have to be sure that we don't have a potential for something like that to happen here."
Wiser said he's offended by Specht's characterization.
"I was enlisted in the Army and went to school to be [a] police officer and fireman," he said. "Why are they trying to paint me as a potential school shooter? I never had any intentions of hurting a soul."
Wiser's attorney, William Bobulsky, did not return calls for comment from the Huffington Post.
Wiser is scheduled to appear in court again on April 1 for a pretrial hearing. A jury trial is tentatively scheduled for June 11.
"Never in my life did I think this would happen," Wiser said. "I dedicated my life to public service, and now a four-inch pocketknife could ruin everything."
Reader Comments
The only real enemy in life is the ego.
They had no right to do this to J. Wiser under our true law--common law.
Unless he (or anyone else) are a public servant of any type, or a corporate officer, the laws they used against Wiser didn't apply to him (or you).
Those laws were “statutes” & only applies to public servants or corporate officers. Therefore, the judicial system perpetrated fraud against Wiser & violated many, many of his unalienable rights.
Under common law with sovereign rights, which the Bill of Rights to our Constitution is, there are no statute of limitations against these violations. So, Wiser can sue the entire circle of people involved in doing to him what was done.
He could get 25,000 to 50,000 dollars (up to him) from each perpetrator for each rights violation done against him. Wiser can, if he wants to, end up with millions of dollars suing everyone involved. He “can” sue as a people (people are Bill of Rights sovereign (& “people” can be used plurally or singularly)), in a common law court as a sovereign (if you proclaim it, you're a Bill of Rights sovereign—so too in any common law country, which the USA is).
We've been lied to that common law was replaced; it hasn't been. It's been only forgotten about via dumbing us down starting in the 1800's instigated by the British BAR assoc on up
For more info, read the home page of National Liberty Alliance dot Org webpage & sign up as a common law grand jurist.
There's nothing more powerful or quicker for defeating this corruption & gaining back peace, health & freedom, through justice, honor & mercy than by common law grand juries throughout the nation.
This common law grand jury effort aligns with every other noble effort out there for world peace, & it's the quickest way for peaceful succession in today's corrupt world, with the least amount of people needed & the least amount of time expended per person.
[Link]
Read home page & watch video, then you decide.
Its obvious you griffin have done ZERO research into Common Law, judging from your derogatory remark.
Suggest reading US Supreme Court case "US v. Williams" to start your edification.
Also, visit National Liberty Alliance dot Org here to learn more:
[Link]
Learn, instead of making remarks you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
After all: “Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.”
--Albert Einstein
One cannot be sovereign and a citizen; you're either one or the other.
Either a sovereign or a 14th Amendment citizen.
A 14th Amendment citizen is a statutory person or rather a 'subject' of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CORPORATION.
Oh yeah, the US of A is a corporation for profit (as well as everything else), with stockholders, etc. Don't believe this, look it up on Dunn & Bradstreet for yourself.