My Quest for Justice in America and what I found Instead: Corvallis Police Brett Roach shot Dean Townsend in the back

I stood right next to Joan Fujii as she slipped the subpoena for the deposition of Brett Roach under the new bullet proof shield in the Corvallis Police Department. I watched the look on her face as I introduced her to Captain Sassaman who had just accepted the subpoena and six others. I asked Jon Sassman if he knew Joan and he said "No." She called him "Mr. Sassaman" and reminded him that he had provided her with police reports once and he said he didn't remember and assured her that he had provided quite a few in the past. Joan left it at that.

She had shown me the letter that Jon Sassaman wrote to her in 2007 that was cold and informed her that she would have to pay close to thirty dollars for the police reports about her son's killing.

I have read the reports and studied the x-rays and the autopsy report.

Brett Roach went out looking for Dean Townsend that night after the Christmas parade. Joan had asked the police to always call her if they had concerns about her mentally ill son who soothed his pain with alcohol. Another police had warned Brett Roach that evening that Dean Townsend could be difficult to deal with when drunk so discussion had taken place before the shooting yet Joan was not called.

Brett Roach should have called Joan Fujii before going out to look for her son - and he didn't.

Joan stood tall for the death of her son who was shot in the back through his heart and died on November 25, 2005. Brett Roach admitted in those police reports to shooting three more shots to his front.

I believe Brett Roach murdered Richard Dean Townsend.

Joan and I walked in the warm September sunshine - the first day of fall - to Evergreen, a wonderful Indian restaurant on 3rd Street and she ordered me a mango smoothie to go with my lunch. She drank spiced Indian coffee and shared stories of her younger years and the hopes she once had for her son whom she said was "intelligent" and "sensitive."

Once she showed me a lovely little silver spoon that he bought her as a gift from an antique shop. It is one of very few things that she has that he touched, apart from her soul.