For over a week Knoxville News Sentinel Crime “Reporter” Jamie Satterfield relentlessly hammered the lead investigator, Mike Washam, in the Norman Clark Double Homicide case by planting misleading, front-page articles, blog posts, and Tweets. The attacks came without warning and with such viciousness that they took people by surprise. During the nine days of trial, including the final day, Satterfield published numerous front page articles and one blog post (overall 9 articles total over 9 days of trial) highlighting what we believe to be a deliberately fabricated “troubled past”. An extensive search of Knoxville News Sentinel and Jamie Satterfields articles did not produce another case in which she went after an officer so aggressively and maliciously, even officers that had more recent criminal and even violent accusations lodged against them.
Satterfield continued to repeat false, distorted or fabricated information about Washam’s past in all 9 articles.
Given her reputation of anti-police rhetoric and tabloid style reporting, those who know Satterfield and are familiar with her anti-police stance, said they were taken aback at her obsession with Washam. After meticulously reviewing the articles, Tweets, blog posts, and actions of Jamie Satterfield over the course of the trial, it is our belief that she intentionally abused her position with the Knoxville News Sentinel in an effort to sway the Jury in favor of the defense by purposely sensationalizing and headlining a thirteen year old incident that didn’t warrant such extraordinary attention. She made a mockery of the court and perverted the sanctity of the proceedings and in doing so showed no compassion or regard for Brittany and baby Zeke.
It appears Satterfield is surreptitiously tied to the Clark family.
As the trial, which ended with a hung jury, progressed and the prosecution presented its case against Clark, Satterfield became more and more obsessed with destroying Washam as was evident in her sensationalized and profoundly distorted reporting of a minor disciplinary action against Washam in 2002 when he was a Special Agent Supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It was initially thought by many that the attacks on Washam were being orchestrated behind the scenes by defense attorney, Greg Isaacs. That assumption turned out to be wrong. Isaacs, appearing to be disturbed about the non-stop attacks on Washam by Satterfield, told the judge and prosecutor Leslie Nassios that he wasn’t trying to destroy Washam’s career. He even went so far as to apologize to Washam on the last day of trial, in open court, as the officer took the stand to testify about a lost disc containing the recording of a witness who captured Norman Clark proclaiming his innocence – the incident that sparked Satterfield’s attacks.
A bystander who was standing several feet away from Satterfield said the reporter visibly flinched when Isaacs offered the apology to Officer Washam, going on to say “The look on her face when watching Washam was pure hatred. I wish I could have taken a picture. It was pure evil.” Satterfield’s live Tweets reflect this.
Throughout the entire trial, Satterfield continues to Tweet her fabrications as fact, in many cases her tweets are so unprofessional it’s embarrassing as she refers to participants in the proceedings as “peeps” and “dude”. She sounds like a teenager Tweeting her friends instead of a professional journalist following a double homicide trial involving the death of a young-mom-to-be and her unborn baby. Satterfield made a mockery of the proceedings with her unprofessional conduct.
Every day throughout the week and a half of trial, front page headlines on the Knoxville News Sentinel screamed accusations about Washam’s “Troubled Past” and “Scandalous History” and stated he was a “Disgraced Officer.” Articles behind the headlines were riddled with blatant omissions and distortions written to purposely discredit Officer Washam making it obvious that she was getting her information from the Internet and an old article written about Washam when he retired from FDLE in 2003 amid a police corruption investigation against the Rivera beach Police Department.
Satterfeild continues to Tweet throughout the trial about her fabricated “scandalous past” knowing the information is false.
Satterfield initially wrote that Washam had been fired from his job for unethical actions in the police corruption investigation involving his wife then Michele Leahy. It was blatantly obvious that no one at Knoxville News Sentinel was checking Satterfield’s facts, including Satterfield. Two days after she began the barrage of misleading stories she finally made a public records request for Washam’s KPD personnel file, hinting to her followers that more scandalous details were forthcoming. Sattefield didn’t receive Washam’s personnel records until the following week, but that didn’t stop her from recycling and distorting the information she did have.
Promising more dirt on Washam once she received the records, Satterfield was unable to deliver.
Officer Washam’s nine-year tenure with KPD has resulted in an impeccable service record without so much as an oral reprimand. Incidentally, Washam is one of the most well-liked and highly respected members of the department. Satterfield came up empty handed with her search for things that would show that Washam had a “troubled past”. Surely she could show a history of undesirable actions, even a few, in the twenty-seven years prior to the minor incident she focused on. She needed more to justify her attacks and with 37 years in law enforcement there had to be at least a few skeletons in Washam’s closet.
She found nothing.
Aside from the minor incident Jamie was now blowing spectacularly out of proportion, Washam has had an impeccable 37-year career in law enforcement without so much as a traffic violation. Satterfield purposely omitted that fact and continued her attacks on Washam. Purposely misleading the public to believe the officer had a history of scandalous behavior and a troubled past as a law enforcement officer.
Satterfield stated in her numerous articles that first, Washam was fired. After finally receiving the records, she switched tactics and stated he was forced to resign. Again, she had her facts wrong. Michael Washam voluntarily, with no pressure, but instead objections from his supervisors, retired from FDLE with full pension and credentials (which he still carries with him).
The incident Jamie had now blown remarkably out of proportion, didn’t even include termination as one of the disciplinary actions available to the agency. Another fact Satterfield failed to mention, once again purposely omitting pertinent information in her quest to discredit Washam and destroy his character and career. Satterfield also failed to mention in her numerous, tabloid style articles that Washam had never, in his thirty-seven year career been accused of tampering with or destroying evidence. Her Live Tweets during the trial show her veiled hints that that was the case with the disc that was missing which everyone agreed sometimes happens in cases with such a huge amount of evidence (according to the judge). She continued to plant headlines stating Washam had a history of bad things, knowing it wasn’t true.
Satterfeild Tweets that the judge is making a ruling based on the information she provided in her articles KNOWING it was false. She never informs the judge of the fact that her information was not factual and allows a legal decision in the double homicide trial to proceed without setting the record straight.
She couldn’t Find a Scandal So She Created One
Satterfield had to produce a scandal somehow so she took aim at Washam’s wife, a completely innocent bystander in the scheme of things. Satterfield went after Michele Washam with such hatred and venom that courthouse employees and officers commented that she was acting like a woman scorned.
Michele (Leahy) Washam
Michele Washam makes no bones about her troubled distant past, but unlike many she used it to re-create herself and help others. Not just a few others, thousands. From 1995 – 1999 Michele, a single mother of three young children and a self-taught website designer made her living building and operating adult oriented websites. To clarify, that means she built the framework and loaded the content needed to sell online memberships to said websites. She never posed for or participated in these websites in any other capacity other than a technical one.
Michele is the first to admit that prior to August of 1999 she didn’t always do the right thing or make the best choices and those missteps and bad choices resulted in some arrests and a subsequent criminal record.
In August of 1999 after a life-changing and devastating broken engagement and in unbearable emotional pain, Michele made the decision to turn her life over to God.
“I knew it was time to make some major changes for myself and my children.” She says, recalling her moment of clarity and the decision to surrender her life to her Higher Power. “I just couldn’t keep doing things that ended in heartbreak and I didn’t want this to be the example I set for my kids. I was desperate for a new beginning”
Determined to recreate herself and begin anew, she took the first step towards that change and in late August of 1999 on a new path, Michele shut down all of her adult oriented website’s including one of the most popular, Just4Ladies.com. (This was verified via Internet archive records which were available to Satterfield.) She was determined to stay on the right path. She believed her actions would show God she was sincere about this new journey.
“I wanted a miracle so bad, I felt I needed to show God that all of my actions going forward were going to reflect my faith and words.” Michele recalls. “I promised God I would go about His business as He went about mine.”
Still reeling from the broken engagement, Michele needed an outlet for the pain she was feeling, turning back to her love for web-design she used the gift to create her first of many Christian websites. RequestAMiracle was an online community dedicated to sharing her new journey with others. Built as a place where people could come to submit prayer requests, offer prayer to others, and fellowship with people who shared similar beliefs and were going through heartbreak too. The website became an instant hit and within a year, her daily devotional focusing on overcoming a broken heart through prayer, faith, and action was received by over thirty thousand subscribers.
Michele’s new beginning was off to a pretty good start.
Over the next eleven months, as her ministry grew, Michele began writing her first book, A Course in Heartbreak, 7-Steps to Restoring Self, Soul, and Love which sold hundreds of copies within the first few months.
Michele (Leahy) Washam’s first book wirtten in 200 after giving up a career in adult website design.
Then, in February 2000, months before she met her now husband Michael, Michele Washam re-launched the Just4Ladies.com formerly adult website as one of the first online Christian communities dedicated to helping people overcome the pain of a broken heart. She was literally empowering thousands of people to look to God for healing of their broken relationships and lives. By the end of 2000, over 180,000 people were subscribing to her mailing list and daily devotionals. She went on to train as a relationship coach and to this day, still successfully coaches hundreds of men and women through the devastation of a broken heart.
Michele Washam’s second book published in 2007 after giving up a career in adult website design.
In 2007, taking the negatives from her time in the online adult industry, Michele wrote and published her second book, Protecting Those you Love in an X-Rated World (Bridge Logos 2007). The book was written to help men, women, and couples overcome the devastating effects of porn-addiction. For the next three years, Michele specifically coached pastors and clergymen through their porn addictions, empowering them to overcome and move forward with their lives.
Her books are still available online at Amazon and pop up in any Google search for her, squashing any attempts by Satterfield to lie about her research on Michele Washam.
Jamie Satterfield purposely omitted these readily and abundantly available details about Michele in her articles and blog updates where she went after Michele Washam with such hatred, it took peoples breath away, even going to far as to sarcastically mock the Washams’ for being Baptist “now”, yet another un-researched statement as Michael was born and raised Baptist and Michele is Catholic, but attended Baptist church with her husband and also wrote her second book with the Baptist pastor of their church. The entire paragraph is riddled with libelous statements.
Screen shot taken from Jamie Satterfield’s “Lady Justice Unmasked” blog on August 12, 2015
The fact is, you simply can’t do a Google search on Michele Washam without her books, client feedback, and testimony appearing. Her sole intention, we believe, was to discredit Officer Washam using his wife’s past, in hopes of swaying the jury’s opinion in favor of the defense. Her actions leave little doubt about her motives.
She purposely dug up information from Michele’s past arrest record that was almost 20 years old, incidents that happened prior to her meeting Officer Washam and purposely misled the public to believe that Officer Mike Washam was involved with her during the bad times in her life. Satterfield now had her “scandalous past” and she ran with it with glee even suggesting that Greg Isaacs would be gleefully flinging the mud she had dug up around the courtroom all week. Satterfield went so far as to predict a possible acquittal for Clark based on the information she managed to find and publish about Washam, further validating our beliefs that she intended to use her position to sway the jury.
Screen shot taken from Jamie Satterfield’s “Lady Justice Unmasked” blog on August 12, 2015
Satterfield was on a roll! Why should she stop now? Surely she could find more!
Satterfield Lies About Washam’s Initiating of Police Corruption Investigation
Rivera Beach, Florida is a small town that sits on the Atlantic coast and is home to about thirty thousand people. The town has a decades long history of corruption issues within its police department and city government. Over the years, many people as well as former employees of the Riviera Beach Police Department and Municipality have tried, to no avail, to make changes by exposing the corruption.
A google search using the terms: “Riviera beach eminent domain” turns up hundreds upon hundreds of articles referring to the city’s ongoing battle with residents over the taking of private property. (Something Satterfield could have done when it was brought to her attention that her details were wrong)
The city made national news in late 1999 when it made yet another failed attempt at what would have been the largest imminent domain takeover of low income houses and commercial property in U.S. history for a commercial development project that was rumored to be financially lucrative for several city council members.
The Institute for Justice published an excellent article about the the situation in 2000 that can be found by clicking here.
The land grab would have displaced over 6000 minority families. Included in the properties the city targeted was then Michele Leahy’s (Washam) fathers business. When he refused to sell out, the city put pressure on him via police harassment, code violations, arrests of himself and employees during an illegal raid and seizure of his business assets (minus bank accounts) which put him on the brink of going out of business.
William Louberti fought back and eventually joined forces with numerous members of the community creating the group, Concerned Citizens of Riviera Beach (CCRB) who were determined not to give into the pressure. With his daughter Michele recently relocated from Delaware State after her broken engagement, the group enlisted her services as a web designer to build a website exposing the police corruption and harassment.
Several members of the police department were secretly helping the group by feeding them information and documents showing a history of corruption that went as high up the chain of command as the assistant chief of police. Michele Leahy’s job was to publish this information to the website and drive traffic to it. Upon launching the site, Leahy began receiving death threats from anonymous sources against herself and her three young kids. Fearing for the safety of herself and her children, Washam began reaching out to other law enforcement agencies for help.
The FBI told her it was out of their jurisdiction and suggested she call Florida Department of Law Enforcement (We confirmed that the FBI indexed this call validating Washam’s claims). With many people claiming other local agencies had ties to the bad guys in Riviera Beach, Leahy bypassed the local office and contacted the FLDE Headquarters in Tallahassee. Her initial contact was with Special Agent Dallas Johnson, NOT Agent Washam as Satterfield hinted in her articles.
After two weeks of back and forth calls between Michele and Agent Johnson, he finally convinced her that the local FDLE Supervisor, Michael Washam, was new to the area and had no connections to Riviera Beach, so on May 4th 2000 Michele contacted the Palm Beach County Field Office for FDLE and spoke to Special Agent Supervisor Michael Washam for the first time. This was almost six months after the Riviera Beach incident began and contrary to Satterfield’s claims that “Washam started the investigation at the urging of his porn site queen lover”, a profoundly libelous statement, as the Riviera Beach Police Corruption investigation was initiated by then Governor Jeb Bush after citizens organized a phone campaign that involved over 300 Riviera Beach residents calling his office in 2 days, to demand action, once and for all, against the city and the police department.
The Governor ordered FDLE to open the investigation and based on the evidence the CCRB produced, FDLE’s Tallahassee Headquarters assigned the case to Special Agent Supervisor Michael Washam in the Palm Beach field office. Agent Washam had no part in initiating the investigation as Satterfield continued to knowingly and falsely state in her articles. Michele’s father was a victim in the investigation with his complaint for wrongful arrest and illegal seizure being part of it. Again, inept reporting or malicious intent on the part of Satterfield? ALL of this information can be obtained by making a few phone calls, searching the Internet, and requesting public and personnel records from the time period.
In 2002, during the course of the Riviera Beach Police Corruption investigation it was discovered that two agents in SAS Washam’s office possibly had unacceptable ties to the target of the investigation. One of them being the wife of the lead investigator and also an employee of FDLE. The other being the president of the PBA state police union at the time. SAS Washam, to no avail, made repeated requests to his superiors to have the investigation removed from his office due to the rising conflict. When the agents in question learned of SAS Washam’s knowledge of their connections to the suspect under investigation, they went on the attack and used his relationship with the victim’s daughter against him. SAS Washam had enough of the turmoil and voluntarily retired. He did speak with the FDLE IA Investigator rather than just leave with the allegations up in the air. The investigator told him during the interview that he hoped he was not leaving just because of this incident as it was not anything that would terminate him, especially with his record of achievements. The final report showed only two departmental policy violations for conduct unbecoming and substandard work, all related to the relationship he had with Leahy and its perception. Washam’s retirement (against his supervisors wishes) was with full pension, credentials, and he was awarded his service weapon (something they do not do for those forced to resign). In 2003, Washam married Leahy and they moved to Tennessee.
Jamie Satterfield knowingly made Officer Washam’s departure from FDLE look scandalous as she distorted or omitted every fact available to her especially the ones that conflicted with her pro-defense agenda. She intentionally distorted the information about Michele Washam and her family by omitting the fact that although her father was convicted, the court overturned his conviction with prejudice. Knowing the information she was presenting was false, she posted the question as to why KPD would hire a “dude” who would “put an entire police department under probe at the behest of his porn site queen lover” insinuating that Washam should not be employed as a police officer based on her discovery.
According to dictionary.com the definition for Malicious Intent is as follows: “desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness”
There is no doubt that Satterfields actions fit that description.
Speculation about Satterfield’s motives started to circulate as she began to viciously obsess over the scandal she created in her head and then on paper. She made up a story, started believing it, and then attacked the main character in real life based on make believe story she created in her mind. Her sociopath-like actions and lack of remorse cause her to see herself as the victim. She acts under the assumption that no one would hold her accountable or check to see if she was lying and if they do “oh well.” in her eyes she’s the “queen” and can get away with it because people think she is great and she’ll win. Win what? The opportunity to destroy a life or career with lies?
The blame can not be placed solely on Satterfield. The Knoxville News Sentinel knows what is being published in its paper and is accountable for the content and any damage done.
Our articles have now been viewed over 43,000 times by local residents and a handful of out of areas residents. We’re willing to bet that we’re reaching more Knoxville residents than the News Sentinel is. Our mission is to inform as many people as possible as to what the News Sentinel has allowed. Business owners beware.
In a recent posting on Satterfields Facebook page she writes:
Apparently she still needs work on the “questioning and testing” part and her obvious rage has now left many concerned that she is not able to positively contribute as a reporter in our community regarding law enforcement or the justice system issues.
What were her real motives? Why did Satterfield:
- Over exaggerate a 13 year old incident in Washam’s past?
- Why did she feel it was necessary to write 9 front page articles in the 11 days of the trial and deliberation. (Why did the last article come out earlier than the others considering the jury started deliberating at 8:45 AM the last day).
- Omit information about the lack of issues in Washam’s work history before and after the 2003 incident she exaggerated?
- Not pull public or personnel files and records until after she published articles and continue to publish false information after she had the records showing the truth?
- Lie and then continue to lie about Washam’s retirement?
- Lie about Washam’s involvement in initiating the RBPD Corruption Investigation?
- Omit the fact that RBPD Corruption Investigation was initiated by then Gov. Jeb Bush at the urging of RB citizens?
- Omit the fact and misrepresent when Washam met his wife in order to make it look like he consorted with criminals?
- Omit the fact that Washam didn’t meet his wife until 6 months after RBPD situation began.
- Target Washam’s wife and wife’s family?
- Purposely Omit the past 16-years of Michele Washam’s life and actions which contradicted the story she was telling.
- Viciously attack Washam’s wife based on purposely omitted and false information?
- Stop her attacks the day Normal Clark was released from jail?
It is our position that Jamie Satterfield intentionally used Officer Michael Washam’s issue and his wife’s twenty year old arrest record, by planting repeatedly false headlines in hopes that the jury would catch a glimpse and they would cast doubt on Norman Clark’s potential guilt.
Only she knows.
Either way, based on the data that was available to Jamie at any given time during her rampage, she will have to either admit to grossly inept reporting or, a malicious personal agenda intended to cause harm to Officer Washam and his wife. Jamie Satterfield and the Knoxville News Sentinel should be held accountable for the blatant and irreparable damage!
The Washam family has informed us that they are in the process of retaining an attorney for the libelous statements repeatedly made by the News Sentinel.
This is the last article in regards to the Washams’ as this article was to summarily set the record straight. What has happened, is that numerous people, both police officers and the public have started contributing details of Satterfield’s biased, unfair, and unethical articles over the past several years with the Knox News Sentinel’s total lack of scrutiny. Over the past week a consolidated large group has formed that is going to put forward to the public Satterfield’s numerous transgressions toward law enforcement and the judicial system; holding her and the paper accountable, bringing each issue up in detail as proof.
The Washams’ have asked us to thank all of you who have supported them through this ordeal.
Towonda 