This document is part of a series about Randall "Duke" Cunningham's attempted murder / suicide on November 25th, 2005

Home page for "Cunningham's Last Battle" web site / Contact the author / victim / witness Russell 'Ace' Hoffman

Subject: Carol Lam; Randall Cunningham (resend with two corrections and added note)

To: <inspector.general@usdoj.gov>

March 15th, 2007

To Whom It May Concern,

On November 25th, 2005 Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunnningham tried to commit suicide by smashing the car he was driving as very high speed into the one I was driving.  It almost worked.

However, because of a driver training class given by Carlsbad resident Steve Verret on local television, I knew precisely how to handle this situation, and was able to evade him, but just barely.  Our cars collided, and the police, later, were able to identify the other car by a piece of it (a wheel well liner) which was left at the scene.

We believe the police (San Marcos Sheriff's Department) actually caught him moments after we called 911 about a suicidal and homicidal driver, but gave him preferential treatment that night, and let him go.

I contacted Ms Lam about the incident within a few weeks.  My wife, who was also in the car and thus also a victim of his assault, and I also started in "Internal Affairs" investigation with the San Diego Sheriff's Department, which we have not heard the results from (yet?).  We also contacted the presiding judge in Cunningham's other cases, to warn him that the man has exhibited extremely dangerous anti-social behavior.

I never heard back from Carol Lam's office, and I now believe that stopping an investigation into this incident, or failing to initiate one, may have been a self-serving act on her part because she would have been at least partially responsible for his actions that night, in part because she had made arrangements with him to plead guilty to bribery charges, and resign his office, a few days prior to his suicide attempt.

I recognized the other driver conclusively when he appeared on television the following Monday and resigned from Congress.  It was absolutely shocking to realize who the assailant was.

The Capital psychiatrist had secured a promise from Mr. Cunningham not to act on his "suicidal ideations" prior to the events just described, and I believe that Carol Lam would have had access to that report (it was made public a few months later, which is how I know about it).  The Capital psychiatrist also needs to accept some degree of responsibility for this incident, since he was fooled into thinking he had a promise from Cunningham which was adequate to protect the public (and Cunningham himself) from harm.

I believe that justice demands that Ms Lam explain her actions by which she allowed this dangerous man to be out on the streets where he could do what he did to us on Friday, November 25th, 2005.  I believe, even more strongly, that she should also be required to explain what actions she did or did not take upon learning about his suicide / homicide attempt, and should provide her justification for those actions.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you in advance and please feel free to contact me any time, preferably by phone or email.  I'm in my home office most days, where I am a computer programmer, although this afternoon (Thursday, March 15th, 2007) I have to go to the dentist.

This letter was prompted directly by a call to the local office of the DOJ this morning.  The employee there (whose name I did not get) suggested that I should contact the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.  There was no way to do that by phone, hence this email.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

Note: This note was not included previously.  In this resend, the spelling of Mr. Verret's name has been corrected.  (Recently, I thanked him for saving three lives, and told him about the incident (he talks about it in his driving classes now) but I have not told him who the assailant was.)  Also, the tense of my "contact" with the judge has been corrected ("ed" has been added to make it past tense).  Both the presiding judge and Lam were sent letters describing Cunningham's actions in detail, via documented mail services.   Please let me know if emailing this document to the IG of the USDOJ qualifies as submitting an "affidavit," which is what the local DOJ employee told me I needed to do.  Please note that I have worked very hard to figure out who in the U.S. Government, elected or otherwise, has the authority to right the many wrongs that have been committed regarding this case, and that have been described -- briefly -- in this letter.  I believe the correct place -- the only one that can handle the initial assault AND the cover-up AND the fact that a Congressional Representative under direct care of the Capital Psychiatrist was the assailant, making it unquestionably a Federal matter -- IS the IG's office of the USDOJ.  Thank you in advance for your attention in this matter.