Prison warden avoids media contact with Black men arrested for seriously questionable reasons
By Victor Trammell
Beginning in October of 2012, I began investigating the federal convictions of the so-called IRP 6 on behalf of YourBlackWorld.net.
The IRP 6 is a group of men (five Black and one white) who were convicted in October 2011 on multiple federal counts of fraud. One of the men, Gary Walker is the founder of the company that the six men ran called IRP Solutions.
IRP Solutions was a software development company, which opened its doors for business in 2003 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The primary goal of the company was to develop software that would help law enforcement agencies engage in more effective processes of investigative resource planning.
On November 5, 2012, I wrote an article about the incident. The article gave a summary of the events (which transpired from 2002 to 2011) surrounding IRP Solutions and its senior management team. A portion of my original article on this case reads as follows:
“In 2005, IRP Solutions’ offices in Colorado Springs were raided by the F.B.I. They confiscated software codes and other sensitive information. For reasons unclear, the agency also probed into the bank records of the executives’ family members. Agents then probed into the personal records of members of the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church, which is where the IRP executives attended service regularly.
Why would such an extreme action be carried out by what most people believe is a responsible federal law enforcement agency? In 2009, all six executives were indicted on multiple federal counts of fraud. In October 2011, Gary Walker and his business partners were found guilty. They are all serving sentences around 10 years and are working on appealing their convictions.” (BlackBlueDog.com)
The IRP 6 were accused of defrauding some staffing companies, who claimed IRP Solutions owed them money for labor they performed to build the designed software. IRP Solutions never denied owing the staffing companies money. IRP simply told the staffing companies that they needed additional time to sell the software. It is worth noting that these kind disputes are usually litigated in civil court, not in a criminal proceeding.
Since my original article on the IRP 6 was published, I have been regularly corresponding with members of a social advocacy group called A Just Cause, which is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A Just Cause has been instrumental in helping the IRP 6 gain the legal representation needed to appeal their convictions. Sam Thurman, the president of A Just Cause is one of the chief representatives that I have been in contact with since last October.
For the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the case, I told Mr. Thurman and members of A Just Cause that I was interested in conducting an in-person prison interview with Mr. Walker and other members of the IRP 6. The purpose of my interview was to question the IRP 6 separately (with their attorneys present) about details surrounding their appeals. I was also interested in hearing an explanation about the alleged violation of their 5th Amendment rights during the trials.
