I found out about Diane Fleming when her friend, Betty Rickmond, contacted me about 14 years ago. No one knew how her husband died from methanol poisoning and then she saw the information on aspartame breaking down to free methyl alcohol. There have been quite a few cases. Here is one for understanding: http://www.rense.com/general74/deatjb.htm Finally, Dr. Carol Gebert comes along and helps with the Innocence Program. Diane has a pro-bono attorney, Paul Bohnet, and all asked was to retest the Gatorade that allegedly contained methanol, the reason being he had used three times the amount of creatine and it breaks down to methylamine, similar to methanol. What's the big deal about doing a simple test. Does not the Court in Virginia want to know if an innocent woman has been in prison for 15 years and may have to spend another 15 years wrongly accused?
Dr. Gebert was found not credible because she had had a reaction to creatine herself and wanted a documentary done on the issue and was considered bias. Her work was pro-bono. What has that got to do with anything? Mission Possible World Health Intl has been warning people off aspartame for almost a quarter of a century. As founder I never knowingly used the poison until a recent hospitalization when I was given drugs with it and stopped breathing. Would I be disqualified because I wrote an article about it to warn others so it wouldn't happen to them? How foolish.
I sent the report to Dr. M. Alemany who did the Trocho Study: http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_and_preembalming.htm This showed the formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol embalmed living tissue and damaged DNA. The aspartame industry tried to assassinate his character for getting out the facts. I met Dr. Alemany in Barcelona and he told me aspartame would kill 200 million people. He wrote about the report:
"In my opinion Dr. Gebert testimony was clear and well elaborated. She suggested to carry out a very easy test, and was refused that because she was found "not credible". Her scientific credentials were "tainted" by her right to express an opinion (the US Constitution is valid in the Commonwealth of Virginia?). Her data were also clear and perfectly provable, giving a probable cause for an unbelievable mishap of bad analytical procedures, lack of knowledge and triumph of bureaucracy: "here we do things this way, nobody will change that".
"Dr. Grey's testimony was that, grey, she did not run standards of methylamine. It is as simple as that: repeat the GC (gas chromatography) head-space analysis comparing the time of flame for separate samples of pure methylamine and methanol in water, separately or together. The method used could not distinguish between both compounds, and the idea of concentration in headspace measurements depends on the compound used, thus, standards of methanol would not give the same levels (but may coincide in the time of separation) than methanol. I suggest that this simple test be done using the ancient HS-GC method used in the first run, using pure compounds. No need to look for the preserved proofs. If there is a coincidence, then, a big hole has opened on the narrative of Dr. Gray. Probably she tested methylamine too (probably later, just to know or to gain further kudos. The fact that she didn't mention it may be an indication of coincidence (and a felony). Her assumption that the proofs should be "evaporated" was based on pure speculation (but was immediately considered the Words of Wisdom by the Court), different plastics let some compounds cross them (i.e. oxygen), but to evaporate all the methanol in a glass washing fluid is perhaps too much. Alternatively, why are the proofs stored? if they cannot be accessed for retesting.
"In my opinion, an analysis via GC-MS was available and would have shown clearly a different ionic breakup for methanol and methylamine. This was not used not for lack of precision (this is an insult to those using this technique) but probably because of its higher cost and the possibility of proving the expert no so. The dismissal of the other Scientists opinion was, also, unjustified, since in both cases they declared correctly and what they said made sense to me. I believe that the key is the lot of lies and half truths presented by the Court only person with experience, knowledge and inner understanding of the clogs of the system.
Dr. Mari Alemany
Departament de Nutrici Bromatologia
Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona
Av. Diagonal, 643; 08028 Barcelona. Espanya/ Espa Spain
tel. +34934034606; fax. +34934037064; e-mail: malemany@ub.edu"
As readers of this report I would like to ask for you to be a jury for awhile. When a physician diagnosed methanol poisoning he told Diane to call the police which she did. When the detective arrived she went to the fridge and said, "Here is the last thing he drank, some Gatorade." Keep in mind the Gatorade was taken from the fridge. This particular week their son, Jeff, was graduating from high school and Diane' parents had arrived from another state to join the occasion. If you were going to poison your spouse would you select such a time when anyone wanting something to drink could have also used the Gatorade including Diane and her children and her family?
So when Diane was to be interviewed for the documentary, "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World"’ http://www.sweetremedyradio.com I decided to call the detective Diane helped trying to find the reason for his death. He said, "Diane is innocent. I would have stopped the indictment but at that time I was promoted and couldn't. I have sent people even to death row but I couldn't live with myself if an innocent woman went to prison." The police refused to indict her and she was indicted by a grand jury. Why? Diane says during the trial her mother-in-law who rarely ever saw her son because they were far from close had told the court she saw him frequently which was not true. Then she kept calling asking for Diane's indictment because she wanted her only grandchild and the insurance. Diane was indicted by a grand jury. There is an old lawyer's joke, that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.
The prosecution had heard from their toxicologist about the Gatorade and said "there wasn't enough methanol in all four bottles to kill Fleming." He also said one-third of one bottle at the concentrations determined could not have been the cause of the man's death, yet Fleming had methanol poisoning. If that report had been read in court Diane would never have been convicted. There was such a cover-up.
The police had found in the garage a bottle of windshield wiper fluid but it was sealed and never had been opened. The only fingerprints were those of the police.
Also, Diane was so upset about being indicted her physician had put her on Zoloft and she, too, was using aspartame. This would make her like a zombie. Since there was no evidence at the trial the jury was re-polled and asked why they found her guilty. They said because she could show no emotion, so they were asked if they had known Diane was drugged would they have come to the same conclusion. The answer was "probably not".
Diane was also using Talwin for back pain as she is disabled. Psychiatrist Ralph Walton, M.D. wrote about all these drugs and said: Talwin is a potent narcotic analgesic, with significant potential for adverse central nervous system effects. Zoloft is a so called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor, increasing the availability of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Aspartame has an impact on the synthesis of both indoleamines and catacholamines. We thus have 3 agents all with the potential to substantially alter brain chemistry. Although not specifically contraindicated, co-administration in my opinion substantially increases the risks of adverse effects as compared to the risks of any of the agents alone.
Diane for years had warned her husband about using all these dangerous products. He used creatine and at three times the amount. She told him so and he said, "more is better". It was the first time he used it and many times you can get what is called a creatine blast. In fact, Dr. Al-Bayati, a toxicologist, did research and thought it was the creatine. On national TV Dr. Al-Bayati said "Nobody killed Charles Fleming, he killed himself."
So, jury at this point do you believe this Sunday School teacher who took 3 lie detector tests and passed, called the police and gave them the drink he used last, and who the detective said was innocent, was guilty? Of course not!
As the years passed more and more information became available. For instance, I checked out the GNC patent on creatine and found aspartame in it. So, I put the info on my lists. One day a man from GNC called me upset that I had told the public about aspartame being in the creatine. He said, "Aspartame has been in creatine from the beginning, but you didn't have to tell anyone." He insisted it was in a small amount but remember Charles Fleming used 3 times the amount of creatine. Naturally the aspartame breaks down to free methyl alcohol but as the prosecution's toxicologist said, it was not enough to kill Charles Fleming. Or, was it the methylamine that broke down from the creatine. How will we know if we are not allowed to have it tested?
Charles Fleming also drank 8 or 10 diet drinks a day with aspartame. He used Metrex and other products also with the toxin in it. According to the late Dr. H. J. Roberts who wrote the medical text, "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic”. http://www.amazon.com free methyl alcohol in aspartame is classified as a narcotic, causes chronic methanol poisoning, affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes the addiction. Fleming was very addicted. The autopsy report showed chronic and acute methanol poisoning.
Dr. James Bowen explained how methanol levels in the blood rise. He said:
"Only after longer aspartame usage does liver damage cause blood methanol levels to measurably rise because the liver mitochondria are so damaged that the liver no longer quickly processes either methyl or ethyl (drink) alcohol. Then the acute methanol poisoning is directly measurable from lab results, as the blood methanol level elevates. This entire sequence or "toxic axis" begins with your very first dose of aspartame. Both acute and chronic poisonings from this methanol toxic axis, and other additive and synergistic aspartame poisonings, steadily accumulate in the aspartame consumer.
The FDA did no NOAEL on methanol. Without it you cannot set an ADI, allowable daily intake. It’s 44% too high. Charles Fleming had been using aspartame for at least the 10 years he was married to Diane. He also drank 2 to 4 drinks of alcohol with diet pop.
I sent the autopsy that showed acute and chronic methanol poisoning to aspartame experts and several said they believed it was aspartame. Dr. Roberts wrote this affidavit:
By H. J. Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P.
E-Mail: HJrobertsmd@aol.com
(c)2004 by H. J. Roberts, M.D.
Posted: 25 April 2004
This was redone by a legal format given by Legal Research but its about the same
.
Charles Fleming Died From Aspartame Poisoning, Not Murder - MD7-8-3
Affidavit From H. J. Roberts, M.D.
Regarding Charles And Diane Fleming, And Death From Aspartame
H. J. Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P.
West Palm Beach, Florida 33405
AFFIDAVIT OF JULY 7, 2003:
Re: Charles & Diane Fleming
Mrs. Betty Martini
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Dear Mrs. Martini,
I have read both the details you have supplied about the death of Charles Fleming and the imprisonment of his wife Diane for alleged methyl alcohol (methanol) poisoning, and the autopsy report signed by the pathologist and toxicologist involved in the case.
On the basis of the prodigious amounts of aspartame products he consumed and the finding of a severe fatal metabolic acidosis, coupled with a high concentration of methanol in the blood and no other reasonable explanation, I concur with the cause of death as methanol poisoning - in this case due to considerable methanol consumption in the form of aspartame products. I have devoted more than two decades to the study of aspartame disease, which I so named, and have published extensively thereon in the form of more than two dozen published articles and letters, and five books. I detailed the free methanol content of such products and the considerable pharmacologic and clinical consequences thereof - including addiction and probable death. An extensive chapter is devoted to this subject in my recent 1000 page text, ASPARTAME DISEASE: AN IGNORED EPIDEMIC. (A brochure is enclosed; bibliography furnished on request.) If the facts about this case that have been reviewed are correct, it is my firm opinion that Diane Fleming should be immediately freed from wrongful imprisonment to rejoin her family. Furthermore, the FDA should be so advised by the court, and recommend that aspartame products be labeled as an imminent health threat, and either so labeled or removed from the market.
Yours truly,
Hyman J. Roberts, M.D., FACP,FCCP
NOTARIZED
State of Florida
County of Palm Beach
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 7th day of July, 2003 by Hyman J. Roberts, M.D., FACP, FCCP who is personally known to me.
Cari L. Presnal
My Commission CC902681 Expires January 17, 2004
Dr. Roberts was so emphatic about getting Diane released he offered the medical examiner, Dr. Marcella Fierro, a conference call at her convenience to prove it. She continued to cancel appointments until the main meeting was set up with Diane's attorney and the prosecutor. Dr. Fierro appeared but again refused to speak to Dr. Roberts saying no peer reviewed report existed on aspartame and methanol, yet was holding the report by Dr. Monte in her hands. Since this time Dr. Woodrow Monte has written a book on the methanol in aspartame titled: "While Science Sleeps: A Sweetener Kills", http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com You can read the last chapter free on his web site having to do with aspartame and autism.
In Chapter 3 he writes: "In the last fifty years I have witnessed the science of toxicology devolve from a noble endeavor dedicated to helping save lives to a to a tool of industry used to facilitate and justify the proliferation of poisons for profit. Nowhere in the literature is this better portrayed than in the vanity publication "Aspartame", a book funded and distributed by Searle. Lewis Stegink and L. J. Filer from the University of Iowa College of Medicine were remunerated by Searle to edit and contribute to the treatise, which featured chapters authored, for pay, by many of the professional members of the Iowa State toxicological team they headed. This was the very same group of scientists noted above who significantly changed the way the world thought about the formaldehyde produced from methanol poisoning. After being subpoenaed by a congressional committee chaired by Senator Howard Metzenbaum investigating approval of aspartame, Filer admitted during questioning that he had helped Searle win FDA approval for the methanol-containing sweetener. Most damning of all, University of Iowa records show that Lewis Stegink had received well over a million dollars in grants and gifts from Searle beginning in the early 1970s."
Dr. Monte writes about infant deaths from a touch of methanol and says, "A child's scream locked forever in time is the legacy of man's encouraged ignorance about his only true chemical nemesis - methanol."
I highly recommend the book - you can't put it down. Dr. Monte has done the world a favor exposing methanol in aspartame and the disaster it causes in human disability and death. Others besides Diane Fleming have been imprisoned because of the methanol in aspartame.
The late Don Harkins who owned the Idaho Observer wrote: "Sadly, Fleming's attorney did not challenge the credibility of the medical examiner, nor her opinions. Fierro once authorized a revised autopsy report in the death of Vince Foster in 1993. Foster was President Clinton's Chief of Counsel. Fierro's alteration allowed Foster's apparent murder to appear as a suicide. Had the original entry location stood, the suicide conclusion would have been hard to explain since few suicides shoot themselves in the back of the head.
"The laboriously documented investigation of Foster's controversial death is detailed by British journalist Ambrose Evans Pritchard in The Secret Lives of Bill Clinton. X-rays of Foster's skull, noted in the original autopsy report, would verify the actual location of the wound, but they mysteriously disappeared.
"Knowing in advance that Dr. Fierro was to appear at the meeting and hear testimony by Dr. H. J. Roberts, but not knowing about her role in the Vince Foster cover-up, Martini forwarded a 14-page, peer-reviewed article by Dr. Woodrow Monte of the Arizona University Food and Science Laboratory that had been published in The Journal of Applied Nutrition http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_methanol_and_public_health.pdf
"Dr. Fierro acknowledged she had received the material and agreed to consult with Dr. Roberts.
"However, at the actual meeting, Dr. Fierro told Diane's attorney no peer reviewed medical evidence exists supporting Dr. Robert's theory that Chuck Fleming's chronic methanol toxicity was caused by his long-term consumption of aspartame.
"Martini is convinced Fierro's history of complicity in the Foster cover-up clarified her actions in the Fleming case.
"Both Martini and Roberts have filed formal complaints regarding Fierro's conduct with the State of Virginia. Martini's complaint cited events leading up to the hearing and the scientific qualifications of the evidence supporting the innocence of Fleming.
Martini asserted, Dr. Fierro's unprofessional and arbitrary conduct requires a full and open examination of the mechanisms of aspartame/methanol toxicity as they relate to the death of Charles Fleming. There are literally volumes documenting how aspartame triggers methanol poisoning. It is obvious by refusing to look at the evidence, Dr. Fierro doesn't want it on the record. The question is, 'Why?' ... end
Subsequently Dr. Fierro retired, but prior to this I found other cases where she was involved in what was told to me as "change in forensics". She had a close association with Senator Orrin Hatch who was given money by Monsanto who at one time owned the aspartame industry bought from G. D. Searle. Hatch was involved in delaying congressional hearings on aspartame. A press release dated Feb 11, 1986 titled: "Hatch Says No To Committee Hearings on Aspartame". There was one congressional hearing in 1985 and eventually they finally did another in 1987. They were never able to get a moratorium on aspartame until they could have NIH do independent studies on the problems being seen in the population.
I know that if the court searched Dr. Gebert's web site on the web they had to have searched Diane Fleming and known about the aspartame. I don't think she had a chance.
Since I've taken the case histories on aspartame for almost 25 years here is my opinion.
For about a month prior to his death, Fleming had complained to his wife about shortness of breath and intermittent nausea. Respiratory disease is the dying process. I think at that time he was dying from aspartame. He was into body building products and played basketball, the most aerobic exercise. Dr. Russell Blaylock wrote an athlete alert since aspartame can cause sudden cardiac death: http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm When aspartame victims use a lot of aspartame they sometimes get rosacea from the methanol. Fleming was on two drugs for rosacea. So he had methanol in his system long before using the creatine. His autopsy showed the fatty liver and cardiomegaly or enlarged heart for no apparent reason and metabolic acidosis. We see this with aspartame.
I believe the creatine was the straw that broke the camel's back. Furthermore, as Dr. James Bowen wrote, creatine and aspartame interact. http://www.wnho.net/aspartameandathletics.htm
The one thing we emphatically know is Diane Fleming did not kill her husband and Charles died from a chemical reaction. Will we ever know if a court refuses to allow testing. Why do they show such bias when a simple test might prove what we already know. Charles Fleming killed himself. As Don Harkins once wrote, "We live in a time when money rules: products that maim and kill are approved by the government and the injuries and deaths they cause are blamed on something or someone else."
I hope there is such outrage by the public that we are able to free this innocent woman from prison, and free the public from the same assault.
If you wish to write Diane this is her address:
Mrs. Diane Fleming, #1127555
FCCW 1A 113B
P. O. Box 1000
Troy, Virginia 22974-1000
You can only send 5 pages which will go on one 49 cent stamp.
You can only send her money through J-Pay.
This is a woman who taught the Holy Scriptures in Sunday School and felt her life was so blessed she used her spare time to help the homeless. She is the scapegoat of the aspartame industry and the coverup is despicable.
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.wnho.net
http://www.dorway.com
Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame