Julia Davis is a member of the Academy of Arts & Sciences, Executive member of Women In Film, member of the Independent Film Producers, Screen Actors Guild and the Independent Filmmakers Alliance. During her 15 years in the film industry, Julia Davis served as a stunt double to Angelina Jolie, wrote the screenplay for an award-winning feature film and authored teleplays for TV Series/ documentaries. Her investigative reports and photographs have been prominently featured by various publications and news outlets.
Now Julia Davis' own story is coming to the forefront of public attention, as she recently settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. Her historical case reflects unprecedented acts of reprisal by the Department of Homeland Security, perpetrated in retaliation for Julia's whistleblowing disclosure that embarrassed the corrupt elements within the beleaguered agency. While serving as a Customs and Border Protection Officer, Julia Davis fulfilled her duty to protect American citizens from terrorism by making a report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force (FBI/JTTF). Her report exposed serious shortcomings in the processing of aliens from terrorist countries seeking to enter the United States.
In retaliation for Julia's heroic actions that embarrassed the Department of Homeland Security, the agency dispatched a Blackhawk Attack Helicopter and a Special Response Team to storm the Davis' residence by 27 Agents armed with assault weapons in a commando-style raid. Julia Davis was baselessly declared a "domestic terrorist" and listed as "armed and dangerous" in law enforcement databases. 27 DHS Agents and a US Marshal Andrew Haggerty conducted an extended warrantless search of the property. While in the house, DHS Agents went out of their way to send another message to Julia, by crossing out the date of the raid on her office calendar and writing "Boo!" straight across. In the course of the raid, Julia's parents have been attacked, brutalized and unlawfully detained.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents, Herbert Kaufer and Jeffrey Deal coordinated series of unlawful actions that included throwing Julia's father, Mykola Kot, face down on the cement with such a force that it broke his finger. He was then handcuffed, dragged down the steps away from the house and kept in full sun for an hour, wearing only boxer shorts. Mykola Kot repeatedly asked agents to bring him into the house from the 114 degree desert sun, telling them that he was having a heart attack and needed medical assistance. DHS Agents laughed in response to his pleas for water and heart medications.
Their own reports reflected the extreme heat that was expected that day and advised ICE personnel to carry and drink a lot of water. Their actions towards Mykola Kot were apparently designed to cause serious harm, as the Agents were aware of his prior heart condition before the raid. While Mykola Kot suffered a heart attack, writhing in pain while his hands were still twisted behind his back in handcuffs, agents laughed at him and sent away the ambulance that was stationed across the street on standby. They left the injured couple in the ransacked house with a broken door, without any means of transportation to the hospital.
These and other related actions by DHS personnel contributed to Julia's father untimely death at the age of 61. Having immigrated to the United States just months before the raid, Julia Davis' father had his American dream shattered by the corrupt agents within the Department of Homeland Security. While the agency settled the wrongful death lawsuit, nothing could ever correct Mykola Kot's death, caused by the egregious wrongs to which he was needlessly subjected - an innocent victim in the DHS' plot to destroy his daughter, Julia Davis.
Department of Homeland Security wasted millions of dollars of taxpayers resources in retaliation for Julia Davis' national security reports. The agency targeted and harassed Julia Davis, thereby prompting her involuntary resignation. ICE Agents Kaufer and Deal opened 54 investigations against Julia, conducted warrantless searches of the Davis' residence and office, subjected Julia Davis and her husband, renown filmmaker BJ Davis, to two false imprisonments, two malicious prosecutions, years of warrantless surveillance, wiretaps and other egregious privacy violations. BJ and Julia Davis have been falsely charged with felony crimes and twice imprisoned.
Prior to the raid, Julia and BJ Davis have been subjected to aerial surveillance with the Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Unit (by a Blackhawk helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane), followed by as many as eight ICE agents at each given time, their medical and insurance records have been inappropriately disclosed by the Screen Actors Guild, SAG Producers Health & Welfare Program and Directors Guild of America illegally with voluminous materials seized in a warrantless search of BJ Davis' office.
While Katrina victims were drowning due to the shortage of evacuation resources during that national catastrophe, Department of Homeland Security was wasting helicopters, airplanes and enormous manpower resources on following and harassing Julia Davis and her family. During their admittedy "social" meetings with a porno actress and members of the Bonanno crime family, Agents Kaufer and Deal boasted of abusing Patriot Act provisions that were improperly used for "keeping close tabs" on the Davis family, conducting wiretaps, sneak and peak intrusions. Agents Kaufer and Deal have also illegally disclosed highly privileged TECS printouts and classified details of FBI investigations to third party civilians and the Bonnano Mafia organized crime associates.
Documents produced by the government in discovery outlined daily efforts of Kaufer and Deal to "get" Julia Davis by soliciting as many as nineteen (19) Assistant US Attorneys, State, County and City prosecutors with fifty four (54) investigations, to include the IRS, FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, California Department of Justice, Firearms Divisions, Central and Southern Federal Districts of California, Federal District of Arizona, Arizona Attorney General Terry Stoddard, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino County District Attorney offices. Kaufer and Deal enlisted the San Diego Police Department, Chief William Landsdowne, Lt. Caroline Kendericks, Lt. Shay, Sgt. Steve Webb and others to make an illegal and unconstitutional traffic stop of Julia Davis, in a ploy to make her unable to attend her EEOC hearing.
In the end, federal prosecutor John Lee admitted that the Davises should have never been prosecuted in the first place. Judge Bryan Foster issued a finding of factual innocence, ordering that arrest records be sealed and destroyed. Additionally, Judge Foster ordered the government to return the proceeds of both warrantless searches. The DHS has defied that court order and refused to return the television series "Medal Of Honor" television series hosted by Burt Reynolds and the book, "Confessions Of A Hollywood Stuntman", by former celebrated Stuntman BJ Davis with items unlawfully taken estimated in the millions of dollars.
In another court order, Judge Daniel Leach ruled that Julia's resignation was "involuntary" and was caused by the Department of Homeland Security's "illegal conduct", "unnecessary harassment" and "impermissible discrimination" against her.
CA Superior Court Judge Margaret Woods issued a restraining order to protect Julia Davis against unlawful harassment and stalking by DHS personnel. Former Department of Homeland Security, Acting Inspector General Elizabeth Redman ordered an investigation that affirmed allegations in Julia Davis report to the OIG. The DHS hid the report until ordered to release it in a legal proceeding. To date, no one was disciplined, in spite of court orders that the perpetrators be held accountable.
Central Federal District Court of California, federal Judge Stephen Larson commented, "I am amazed at what the government is not denying in this case." (Emphasis added).
Perhaps the most damning commentary was issued in the court order by federal Judge Virginia Phillips, who ruled as follows on January 28, 2010: "On August 10, 2005, ten DHS Internal Affairs Agents, a United States Marshal, seventeen SRT members, eight unmarked cars and a Blackhawk helicopter arrived at the Davises' residence in Yucca Valley to execute warrants for the Davises' arrests...Plaintiffs [BJ and Julia Davis] have produced significant evidence about the August 2005 raid and search of their residence... This evidence is sufficient to create a factual question as to whether federal agents committed an abuse of process when they conducted that search pursuant to the arrest warrant... In light of the substantial evidence presented by Plaintiffs as to the magnitude of the search, and the Government's failure to identify undisputed facts in support of a contrary finding, the Court holds that a reasonable fact finder could find the extreme nature of the search and raid of the Davises' Yucca Valley home was "not proper in the regular conduct of the proceedings." Throughout their opposition, Plaintiffs have identified evidence that suggests the degree of force used in the search was severe, particularly in light of the nonviolent nature of the charges against the Davises. The reports of the Agents involved suggest no attempt to arrest the Davises in a more peaceable manner was ever even considered. According to Julia Davis's parents, in the course of the search, Agent Deal told them that Mrs. Davis was a "domestic terrorist," a statement without any support... At some point on the day of the raid, someone scrawled the word "Boo!" and crossed out the date on Julia Davis's calendar, located in her home... As discussed above, several witnesses have testified that documents and other items were seized from the home, though no receipt was given. The search of the home continued long after it was determined the persons named in the arrest warrant were not present. Together, this evidence creates a question of material fact as to whether the manner in which the arrest warrants were executed was proper. There is also sufficient evidence for a reasonable fact finder to conclude the OPR Agents had an ulterior, improper motive: retaliation for Julia Davis's successful EEOC complaint... In addition to the unusual degree of force used in executing the arrests, the arrest warrants were executed two months after the EEOC ALJ issued his initial decision in Julia Davis's sexual harassment case, which was in her favor and highly critical of CBP, ICE, and their internal investigators. Agents Deal, Kaufer, and Wong had all been involved in Julia Davis's EEOC and MSPB proceedings. One week after the search, CBP moved to hold the ALJ's decision in abeyance based on the federal criminal charges. The sum total of these facts is sufficient to allow a fact finder to infer a retaliatory or malicious motive in the execution of the search... Plaintiffs have therefore produced sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable fact finder to conclude the August 2005 search was an abuse of process."
Julia Davis' husband, filmmaker BJ Davis stated with the regards to the settlement, "Due to the criminal actions of Agents Kaufer and Deal, lives were lost, careers destroyed and other irreparable damages were inflicted. The TV Series and the upcoming feature film will tell all, to ensure that such egregious acts don't happen to anyone else. We will continue to lobby in DC with Congress to have these individuals, terminated from federal service and prosecuted. We are also seeking permanent amendment of the Whistleblower Protection Act, which is toothless at the present and completely incapable of protecting whistleblowers. Julia Davis prevailed in her legal battles without any assistance from the agencies and organizations purportedly created to provide support to whistleblowers."
In addition, Julia Davis revealed that the agency had lied to Congress in its reports filed under the "NO FEAR" Act, forcing Department of Homeland Security to correct its fraudulent report and re-submit corrected information to Congress.
Government corruption and the use of a Blackhawk helicopter are immortalized as well as the untimely deaths surrounding the case... Julia Davis stated, "Things like these should never happen in America. We intend to hold corrupt government elements and individuals accountable, as the American public will be the ultimate judge and jury in this case. By holding the perpetrators accountable, together we can eradicate corruption from the ranks of those sworn to protect us."
Government and elected officials with personal, direct and legal knowledge of the events declined to participate in on-camera interviews or to answer any questions about this matter. Julia Davis recently held extended discussions with head of the DHS Committee Chairman Benny G. Thompson and will return to Washington, DC to testify before Congress.
A book, documentary and feature film are in the works in addition to the ongoing episodic television series as Julia Davis' heroic deeds in the performance of her duties is far more than just whistleblowing. Davis aspired to these monumental achievements without any support from any organization or advocacy groups.
Davis was asked recently during two broadcast interviews, if she would report the national security breaches again - knowing what she knows now. Without hesitation, Davis responded, "I swore an oath to protect the United States in the performance of my duties as a federal law enforcement officer and as a citizen of this great country. Instead I had to protect myself from the government corruption, Kaufer and Deal. My answer is "yes". I would still make that report, as it was the only right thing to do. I would still protect and serve my country with the same zeal and determination. I will continue to do so by educating, entertaining and enlightening people with these true stories that should be of concern for every American citizen.
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Julia Davis, Los Angeles Homeland Security Examiner
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