COUP DE GRÂCE:DON CLARK’S AFFIDAVIT SAYS IT ALL

Don Clark

COUP DE GRÂCE:

DON CLARK’S AFFIDAVIT SAYS IT ALL

Summary: Former FBI special agent Don Clark has submitted into the record an affidavit in which he reveals his findings at the conclusion of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel. He concludes that Howard K. Stern was “intimately involved” in their deaths. His affidavit and its contents are now part of the legal record, which has been the objective of many, including this writer, who have believed Mr. Stern may have been responsible for the deaths of 39-year-old Smith and her 20-year-old son.

A day of reckoning

After two years of waiting, someone official has finally said what many have suspected to be true:

“(A)s an FBI investigator, I came to believe that Howard (K.) Stern was intimately involved in the death of both Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel.” (Clark Affidavit 2008, p. 4).

The words are those of Don Clark, former FBI Special Agent-in-Charge and current Investigative Strategist and Jury Consultant for the O’Quinn Law Firm in Houston, TX. John O’Quinn, attorney for Virgie Arthur, mother of Anna Nicole Smith and grandmother of Smith’s son Daniel, asked Mr. Clark to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Ms. Smith and her son. After a long and exhaustive search for the facts, Clark concluded his investigation by finding Howard K. Stern, Smith’s attorney, companion, self-proclaimed lover/husband and one-time father of Smith’s daughter, “intimately involved” in the deaths of both Anna Nicole and her son. On October 3, 2008, Mr. Clark signed a sworn affidavit containing his findings.

Who is Don Clark?

Mr. Clark was born in 1942 in Texas. He grew up in a modest household and was an excellent student by all accounts. In high school, he was class valedictorian. He went on to college and graduated from Prairie View A&M University with a Bachelors Degree in Engineering, completed course work for a Masters Degree in Public Administration at Long Island University, New York, and graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University. After college, he served ten years in the U.S. Army where he was awarded the U.S. Army Air Medal for Combat Assaults and two Bronze Stars for Bravery while serving in Vietnam. He was selected by the Chief of Staff of the Army to command an Airborne/Ranger Company in the First Ranger Battalion.

In 1975, Mr. Clark joined the Federal Bureau of Investigations. He attended the FBI’s Executive Development Institute, was a trained SWAT member, bombing instructor, and police-training instructor. Among the high profile FBI cases Mr. Clark participated in, in 1979 he supervised the movement of the Shah of Iran from New York City to San Antonio, TX during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. In 1985, he supervised the investigation of the Palestine Liberation Front terrorist attack aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship. In 1993, he managed the investigation of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. In 1996, he was in charge of tactical operations during the Freeman crisis in Jordan, Montana.

In 1998, Don Clark coordinated and managed the investigation and prosecution of the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. His involvement in the Byrd case earned him the U.S. Attorney General’s highest Award for Excellence for his efforts in the investigation and prosecution of those involved in the murder. Also in 1998, he was in charge of the investigation to locate FBI’s top-10 fugitive Rafael Resendes Ramirez, the “Railcar Killer”.

Mr. Clark served as a Special Agent of the FBI in Miami, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Newark, San Antonio and Houston. His assignments as an investigative agent and manager in the FBI included foreign counterintelligence, counter-terrorism, violent crimes, organized crime, drugs and other FBI investigative programs. Mr. Clark retired from the federal government on February 3, 2000 after 35 years of service (Business Wire 2003).

Some background

Mr. Clark, in his capacity of Investigative Strategist and Jury Consultant for the O’Quinn Law Firm, was asked by John O’Quinn to investigate Stern’s relationship with Anna Nicole Smith and Stern’s potential involvement in the deaths of Ms. Smith and her son. O’Quinn is the attorney for Virgie Arthur, Anna Nicole’s mother. Ms. Arthur believes Stern is responsible for her daughter and grandson’s deaths.

O’Quinn took Ms. Arthur on as a client when she fought Stern in Florida court in order to obtain possession of her daughter’s remains for burial in Texas. Ms. Arthur did not prevail in her bid to take her daughter home; instead Ms. Arthur was forced to attend her daughter’s funeral and burial in the Bahamas where the events were extensively covered by Entertainment Tonight, a tabloid-TV program with contractual ties exclusively with Stern and, prior to her death, with Anna Nicole and Stern.

Virgie Arthur made it clear to her Texas attorney that she believed Stern intentionally caused the death of her daughter and grandson in order to take custody of Ms. Smith’s newborn daughter Dannielynn, who stood to inherit millions of dollars if Stern prevailed in a lawsuit Ms. Smith was embroiled in with the Estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall, Texas oil tycoon. Upon hearing the accusations, O’Quinn enlisted the investigative services of Don Clark.

Over the course of Clark’s investigation, O’Quinn was apprised of the findings, which appeared to concur with Ms. Arthur’s suspicions of Howard K. Stern. During televised interviews of various sensational tabloid news programs, Mr. O’Quinn asserted Ms. Arthur’s beliefs. Stern’s reaction to O’Quinn’s televised utterances was to sue Mr. O’Quinn and the O’Quinn Law Firm for defamation.

It is in this context that Don Clark has written and submitted a sworn affidavit to show the court in the defamation matter that O’Quinn said on television only that which he honestly believed to be true and that his utterances were not made with malice.

The affidavit

For those who have always suspected Howard K. Stern played a role in the deaths of Anna Nicole and her son Daniel, Clark’s affidavit serves as a long awaited and welcomed affirmation. Until Mr. Clark’s legally entered affidavit outlining the crimes Stern allegedly committed, no legal institution had formally and officially acknowledged Stern’s involvement. Stern has never been formally accused by any official law enforcement agency. The Seminole Police Department found no indications of foul play and the Medical Examiner deemed Anna Nicole’s death an accidental overdose. An Inquest into the death of Daniel Wayne Smith, held in the Bahamas, came to the same conclusion.

Mr. Clark’s affidavit has changed all that. Those who suspect Stern of committing the ultimate crime can finally say their suspicions have finally been acknowledged in the arena of the Law. Allegorically, the charges have finally entered the halls of Justice. For Virgie Arthur’s supporters, this is a major coup. For this writer in particular, it is exactly what he has been waiting for. Approximately

100308_Stern_vs_OQuinn_203-28_ExhibitD.pdf

By: Anonymous, California

Related: All approximately 85 Summary Judgment documents.

Tagged as: Achille Lauro, Anna Nicole Smith, attorney for Virgie Arthur, Daniel Wayne Smith, Dannielynn, Don Clark, Entertainment Tonight Anna Nicole Smith and Daniel Smit, FBI, Former FBI special agent Don Clark, Howard K Stern, Investigative Strategist and Jury Consultant for the O’, J. Howard Marshall, John O’Quinn, Mr. Clark’s legally entered affidavit outlining the cri, Railcar Killer, Seminole Police Department, Texas oil tycoon, Virgie Arthur, Virgie Arthur’s supporters