The Wrong Ortiz Retired From Boston

Red Sox slugger David Ortiz retired his bat to great fanfare across the league, and especially in Boston. That Ortiz will always be fondly remembered.

My name is Martin Gottesfeld, and I stand accused of knocking Boston Childrens Hospital off the internet with a massive cyber attack that was neither designed to nor actually hurt any patients. But that is only the surface of a deeper, more sinister, and tragic story. I will now take you with me down that rabbit hole.

On Monday, Newsweek informed my wife that U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortizs office finally responded to a statement I released from prison:

The fact that Ortizs office indicted on debate day, and without a press release, shows they are aware of the unconscionable human rights violations they are attempting to sweep under the rug and the precedence of impunity that would be even more firmly established. They have no compassion for the suffering of Justina Pelletier, a mentally and physically challenged child, ripped from her family, left in agony without her painkillers, and locked in an abusive psych ward. Nor are they concerned with any real semblance of true justice. They hope to pursue this case far from public scrutiny and also without any mention how they caused the death of Aaron Swartz. Now their opponent is an imprisoned human rights activist on the third week of a hunger strike, and they still wont engage in a public debate where they hold every advantage, except the whole truth. This indictment, and the manner in which it was unsealed, were cowardly acts.

Here is what they said:

The U.S. Attorney is aware of Mr. Gottesfelds status in jail, where he has been since fleeing the country to avoid facing charges for launching an attack against the Boston Childrens Hospital computer network, potentially putting patient care and patient records at risk. Ultimately, it will be up to a jury of his peers to determine Mr. Gottesfelds guilt or innocence. Since the case is pending trial, we will not be able to comment any further.

As you may notice, there is no mention of either Aaron Swartz nor Justina Pelletier , in their statement. Aaron Swartz is the widely mourned internet innovator and activist that I and many others blame Ortiz for killing through a dogged political persecution that lasted for over a year. After he died, Ortiz was slammed in Congressional oversight hearings, and the White House called his death a tragic, unthinkable loss for his family and friends. Ortiz tried unsuccessfully to defend her offices actions, and her husbands distasteful comments were so insensitive, he was run off of Twitter in shame .

Justina Pelleter was the teenage subject of what was widely reported to be a custody dispute between her parents and the infamous Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). However, looking deeper, what happened to her was really a human rights issue involving torture in healthcare settings , specifically the otherwise renowned Boston Childrens Hospital. Here is her father telling PBS Boston about just some of the more than year-long constant suffering she endured:

Shes been in severe pain, non-stop, twenty-four hours a day, for thirteen months

Under the U.S.-ratified Convention Against Torture, Ortiz is obligated to investigate this heinous mistreatment of a physically and mentally disabled child, but instead, her office wont even mention her name. In fact, they are so concerned about the appearances of this case, that as mentioned in my statement above, they indicted me on debate day, without issuing a press release. I have no regrets about taking action to defend Justina when Ortiz wouldnt, and the law allows a citizen to defend another human being (at least theoretically.) I am happy to report that Rolling Stone is doing the investigation Ortizs office wouldnt, and interviewed Justinas family last week. I believe their upcoming in-depth feature will knock your socks off.

All Ortiz can do is claim that I was fleeing Justice and highlight that my wife and I were rescued at sea far from home, after we were also tenaciously pursued for by her office for over a year, and mislead people about damage to the hospital network.

There is no such thing as an outage-proof network. Would you go to a hospital where an outage could hurt patients? In fact, if that were actually the case, Boston Childrens would be in even hotter water due to HIPAA and its mitigation requirements. No one can point to one patient that was harmed, and the FBI was even forced to admit this on the stand during my bail hearing. What Ortiz also doesnt mention is that the alleged events took place on the hospitals donation day, and in protest of its mistreatment of Ms. Pelletier. It cost the hospital a lot of money, but they still profited handsomely from abusing Justina.

Further, I can assure you, I wasnt fleeing justice, as that is not what Ortiz is actually pursuing. Just as it wasnt justice that caused her to send Aaron further into a depression she was warned about, indict two of Boston Mayor Walshs aids for union activities , and ruin numerous other lives . Ortiz has so many skeletons in her closet they set up a Secret Santa around this time of year, and if Superman came to Boston, I bet shed have him indicted for violating FAA regulations and then deported in Kryptonite handcuffs for illegal immigration.

Former federal judge Nancy Gertner told The Huffington Post that the indictments in the Mayors office are an abuse of power, and others have speculated that Ortiz is really trying to clear the way for her own mayoral election. One of the founders of Demand Progress, Jason Segal says about her, Carmen Ortiz leads an office run amok, plagued by vindictive, opportunistic prosecutors...Its time for her and Steve Heymann to go. Former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has said, Youd like to think the focus would be on those organizations like human trafficking rings, drug smuggling rings, the kind of organizations that in and of themselves represent a threat to safety, public safety,but with many of Ortizs prosecutions, she said, theres a competing social interest, sort of civil disobedience context. So, again, I guarantee you, I wasnt fleeing justice.

On the contrary, and unlike Ortiz, I am not scared of the truth, and would welcome the opportunity to take the stand and tell the whole story. I think Justina, her family, as well as many other victims of the same abuse at Boston Childrens Hospital would also be relevant witnesses for the jury to hear. Even one of its former nurses , and a former federal prosecutor have blown the whistle on the hospital.

However, her office plans to use very prosecutor-friendly federal rules of evidence to block any mention of the abuse and near death of Ms. Pelletier at my trial. You can ask any practicing federal defense attorney, the courts are almost certain to go along with this whitewashing of history. The jury would have the wool pulled over their eyes and serve as a mere formality, a rubber stamp for Ortizs pursuit to federally indemnify abusers and torturers.

Ortiz knows this, and her statement about me facing my peers is intentionally disingenuous. Her job is not to protect her political allies, pursue elected office, nor is it simply to win. It Is to seek justice, honestly and compassionately, for victims like Justina, and not to protect their abusers and blind juries to human rights violations.

She may be able to stack the deck in federal court in Boston, but she cannot stop the media from exposing all the facts. I look forward to those stories being told publicly as week four of my hunger strike continues.

Martin Gottesfeld wrote this article on day 22 of his prison hunger strike protesting institutionalized child abuse and Carmen Ortizs office. He has lost 22 pounds. His arraignment is scheduled for 2pm today at the John Moakley Courthouse in Boston. This article was published by his wife on his behalf. His family and friends have set up www.FreeMartyG.com , as well as a FreeMartyG Facebook page and Twitter account .