by Adrienne Rockenhaus
To the Honorable Judge Andre B. Mathis (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals):
I am writing to you publicly because the administrative wall erected by the Clerk’s Office in Cincinnati has made it impossible for the truth to reach your desk through normal channels.
I am appealing to you specifically because your legal career has been defined by a refusal to let the “system” use technicalities to bury the truth. You have spent years fighting for people who were ignored by the powerful. Now, I am asking you to fight for a disabled veteran who is being silenced by one of your own colleagues.
1. You Wrote the Book on Stopping “Procedural Loopholes” In your 2006 article for the University of Memphis Law Review (36 U. Mem. L. Rev. 1171), you praised the court for stopping police from using “affidavit readings” as a loophole to bypass Miranda rights. You argued then that the government should not be allowed to use a procedural trick to strip a citizen of their constitutional protections.
Today, your colleague in Detroit, District Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey, is doing exactly what you warned against.
On December 18, 2025, Judge Grey dismissed my husband’s Habeas Corpus petition (Case 2:25-cv-12913) using a procedural loophole so absurd it mocks the law. He ruled that because my husband, a disabled veteran with a documented Traumatic Brain Injury could email his wife, he was “competent” to act as his own attorney. Judge Grey also failed to acknowledge that my husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, was given a fresh (still fully) untreated head injury caused by the illegal raid by U.S. Marshals. This footage can be seen in my home security camera footage here:
Judge Grey is not a doctor. He has no qualifications to make such a lethally flawed medical decision. Because of Grey’s decision, my husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, is now seizing to death, slowly and painfully, inside the SHU at FCI Milan, under the orders of Warden Eric Rardin.
2. The Evidence Judge Grey Buried By using this “Email = Competency” loophole to dismiss the Habeas petition without a hearing, Judge Grey successfully buried the sworn declarations attached to it.
He refused to look at:
- The USMS “Use of Force” Log: Government records admitting a “Tactical Breach” against a disabled vet.
- The “Kill Tags”: Verified reports of staff placing “snitch” tags on Conrad to incite violence (page 2).
- The Neo-Nazi Infiltration: Identification of guards at FCI Milan displaying Reichsadler (Nazi Eagle) tattoos while on duty (these court-filed sword declarations can be found here (8th declaration) and here (9th declaration).
It is a profound moral failure that Judge Grey would look at evidence of Antisemitic, White Supremacist gangs operating inside a federal prison and choose to look away. He had a choice: protect a veteran from torture, or protect the “clean docket” of new U.S. Attorney, Jerome Gorgon. He picked the docket.
3. You Fought for the Wrongfully Convicted When you worked with the Tennessee Innocence Project, you fought for men like Darron Price, who were buried by a system that refused to look at the evidence. You didn’t accept the state’s narrative; you demanded the truth.
We are asking you to do the same now. Judge Grey has refused to look at the evidence of torture. He has refused to acknowledge the government’s own admission of violence.
The Ask
Judge Mathis, the Clerk in Cincinnati is trying to block our “Next Friend” filings from reaching you. She wants this case to die in the “unfiled” pile, and because of that, my husband, Conrad Rockenhaus, will die seizing in the SHU.
But the record is public. The “Tactical Breach” is public. The “Nazi Eagles” are public.
If Judge Grey won’t protect a veteran from Neo-Nazis because it’s politically inconvenient, then the Appellate Court must.
We are asking you to review the Habeas petition that Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey threw out.
Respectfully,
Adrienne Rockenhaus Wife and Next Friend of Conrad Rockenhaus