FAC Sheet, April 26, 2004

ANTI-FAMILY ADVOCATE INTIMIDATION BY CPS, ATTORNEYS AND COURTS

This is Suzanne with her trusty baseball bat to knock some information into the harder heads out there while shouting a great big "I TOLD YOU SO!" regarding the issue presented in the following post. AFAC recognized this problem in 1997. I gathered the evidence from around the country, analyzed it, defined the method to their madness and devised the solution. AFAC is currently engaged in implementing the solution to this problem, and has been for well over a year. AFAC is the ONLY family rights organization who has taken a pro-active posture on this issue, and is doing so without the support or assistance of any other family rights organization or individual. I have asked for help. . .it has not been forthcoming. Now, these very violations of rights are hitting other groups and advocates and their families who wring their hands and moan about how unfair it is, but do nothing to correct or prevent these violations. You will excuse me if I appear to be somewhat callous about your problem. . .my posture is largely due to the indifference, and even scoffing, with which my predictions and recommendations were met.

AFRA, American Family Advocacy Center and all the other groups out there are being marginalized and rendered impotent. Our information and services are being discredited and ignored. Our families are being harmed through CPS, court, and attorney retaliation due solely to their association with any of us. They are being forced to terminate those associations, because the child savers and minions object to the information and support these families receive from us. It makes their job too hard when parents know their rights and grow the backbone to demand those rights. The child savers know we are right, but they can't win on the merits, so they must escalate their abuse and win by lying, cheating and stealing. They tell the families that we are hurting their cases. That their children are harmed because the parents accesses one of our websites or posts on an email list. Because they request the services of a family advocate, or demand their rights. For these specious reasons, their children are held hostage in foster incarceration until the parents repent and admit the error of their ways.

As family rights advocates - we are supposed to prevent them from or expose their lying, cheating and stealing, aren't we? We're supposed to not only teach these parents and children what their rights are, but help them enforce those rights, aren't we? Instead, we are being used as the excuse for increasing harm to the children and family. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have an extreme distaste for this brand of defamation and abuse of power. I have not been content to sit back and take it.

It is imperative that you, dear reader, understand that the child savers have brought the battle to us, now. This isn't just about family rights. It's about our right to exist, to be advocates, to join together in associations in order to empower families, to have others join in our associations in order to further our cause more effectively. This association is protected because we share a common interest - an issue of great societal importance. The fundamental human right of family association. If we cannot get others to join our associations, we will not be heard. We can be marginalized and discredited and discarded.That is why the child savers must prevent respondent parents with open cases from associating with us.

Let me briefly describe the escalation of actions which will ultimately lead to our demise. A family advocacy group forms in a community. They share their experiences and discover, gasp, their accounts of abuses and violations of rights are so similar as to be identical. They grow, and they advocate. The CPS agency, seeing no threat, allows the parent to have an advocate at staffings, meetings, etc. But, the competent advocate asks too many hard questions and brings in tape recorders, and CPS gets uncomfortable. The incompetent advocate misses the point and merely introduces confusion and mayhem into an already complicated process. CPS latches on to that and hencforth bans all advocates as being 'disruptive' or cites confidentiality. Advocate gets necessary releases. CPS claims they're forged and denies access to meetings and file. Advocate gets notarized power of attorney for access to meetings and files. CPS & courts say no way. THIS MUST BE TAKEN TO COURT AND FOUGHT BY THE ADVOCATE under right to contract and authority of power of attorney. If not, CPS wins and advocacy is blocked.

Advocate then requires parent to gain access to their own file and provide copies to advocate. Parent files administrative request for records. CPS and courts deny parent access to files, citing discovery requests must be made by attorney. THIS IS A DIVERSION - parent must argue that administrative access is not discovery and MUST TAKE IT TO ANOTHER COURT UNDER OPEN RECORDS LAWS or CPS wins.

Parent seeks more information from books, internet, etc. Begins to use it in his case. Advocate continues to provide guidance and support, or maybe parent is just using help online. CPS finds out about this. Prints emails or pages from suspect websites in violation of copyright notices, to use against the parent in court. Accuses the parent of 'focusing on the wrong issues' and 'having the wrong attitude' and 'being in denial.' The fact that the parent's associations or political beliefs are irrelevant to the merits of the case or the parent's compliance with a treatment plan completely escapes the case worker, the county attorney, the court and the parent's attorney! The parent is ordered, either by court or CPS, to cease this dangerous association with these radical, politically motivated, and ignorant advocates, to take down websites, to stop reading or accessing information. And our worthy family advocates sigh and say, that's too bad.

But it continues to escalate. The advocates won't go away. Some parents are not frightened into terminating their associations with them. So, CPS, the courts and attorneys must attack the advocates. What will they do? When advocates attend court hearings, CPS request the advocates be named as witnesses, swear them in and sequester them from the hearings - but never call them as witnesses. If the advocates don't fight this, CPS wins. (I'll bet these 'advocates' don't even know how to fight this tactic. . . but I do). Parents' attorneys withdraw or 'throw' their cases because parents associate with advocates and demand effective representation. CPS terminate the parental rights (TPR) of those stubborn parents who continue to associate with the advocate and blame that TPR on the advocate. They threaten seizure of your kids, if you really are an advocate, you know exactly how to prevent that from happening. If you can't protect your children from this false seizure, you should probably re-evalute your claims to being an effective family advocate. My kids are adults and no longer vulnerable, but I can tell you what they do to me. . .When I speak, they have spies attending and taking erroneous notes to pass on to the Supreme Court and whoever else - I know, I've seen these notes in prosecutor files. They tap your phone lines without a warrant - I know, my lines have been tapped and when I demand the warrant, they say there are no warrants and the taps are magically removed. They surveil you, noisy or covert - one day I was tailed by 12 tag team law enforcement officers for 25 miles from my home in the country to my destination at the courthouse. They defame you, verbally and with actions. When I arrive at any public meeting, they assign 2 security personnel to hover over me - this is called defamation through negative police contact. They tell everyone that I harm the cases I'm on, by virtue of the fact that they retaliate against the parent for no reason other than our association together. They publish defamatory and false claims about me in public and court documents, especially if I merely sit in the courtroom gallery. They obstruct all my legal access to records, courts and public meetings. They forcibly remove me from buildings but won't arrest me because I never give them cause. They have literally shut down a committee hearing at the state capitol because I refused to be forcibly removed and demanded they leave me alone or arrest me. They find some way to drag you into court to prevent you from having access to a parent or family member. I've been added to cases as special respondent and ordered to stay away from the parent. They find some way to charge you with somenthing. I've been charged with the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) and am now facing contempt of court charges because I filmed some parents in Fremont County and they say that defied the court order from the UPL case. After the UPL case - I had to change what I did. So I required the parents and their attorney to hire me as a consultant and I began producing my documentary video project. If I wasn't hired by the attorney, I would only film the parents' and children's stories, I conduct interviews with experts, judges, lawyers, etc. That pissed them off even more. They issues threats of harm and death and jail. I never travel anywhere in my advocacy work without a bodyguard/witness and my tiny digital video recorder. I advise the county sheriff in writing of my presence and business whenever I enter a hostile county, and request a security escort for my safety in courthouses. I generally get it. The child savers steal my intellectual property and refuse to pay me for it. They trespass onto my land, and refuse to pay the land use fee posted at the entrance to my property.

I must add a caveat to this scenario - if you, the advocate, back down under any of this pressure, they will leave you alone - but you have been rendered impotent AND you have harmed those of us who won't back down. You are no threat to them or their practices, and therefore, not worthy of their notice or efforts. You will not win this war by playing it safe or backing down. If you are vulnerable to CPS attack, I suggest to re-evalute your contribution to this movement and find something less public. Make your contribution behind the scenes. There's plenty to do in that respect.

So now where is this advocate? I refused to back down, to shut up, or go away. I've been forcibly arrested and injured. I'm facing jail for contempt of court based on false accusation. I have opened multiple lawsuits. I have two copyright infringement suits being prepared and one tort trespass/breach of contract case just starting. I have an attorney for only the lawsuit relating to the arrest - I'm on my own for the rest of them. Why on earth all this legal action?

To answer this, we need to examine how laws are changed. After all, that is what we ultimately intend to do. . .change the child welfare laws, isn't it? Legislation is merely one route to changing laws. We all know how unreceptive legislators are to this issue. To make them more receptive, we need to change public opinion. The mainstream media will not help us, so I became the media. This provoked the child savers to escalate against me - the violent, false arrest in Walworth County, adding me to April Fields' Dependency & Neglect (D&N) case to order me not to see her (film her) and invalidating her power of attorney to me, and the contempt of court charges for allegedly violating the UPL order. Trust me, I anticipated this kind of response because of my refusal to 'go away' when they attacked me. Why would I provoke such a response?

This comes directly from my seminar folks. . .it boils down to 'TAKE THE HIT, AND GIVE IT BACK TO THEM.'

Laws are sometimes changed when someone is injured (legal term of art) by the action of another, usually the government. As family rights advocates and activists, we know our position is unpopular with the government. We also believe we are on the right side of this issue and the government and their hired guns are on the wrong side of this issue. It is illogical to believe we can appeal to reason to resolve this issue in our favor. Neither can we credibly resort to force, as that will undermine our efforts in the public eye. Our only other option is to provoke them into using illegal force against us.

History abounds with examples of massive societal change which are the result of abusive government force applied against a person or associations of persons. What is happening to me, and what is slowly emerging with other family rights advocacy groups has already been played out, almost verbatim, during the Civil Rights movement. I suggest you read the NAACP cases in the U.S. Supreme Court for starters, so you can understand the historical and legal background. The court clearly established in law the 1st amendment protected right to freedom of association for the purposes of issue advocacy. These rulings addressed UPL and exchange of information, retaliation for the exercise of that right and more.

The key point here is - this right is clearly established in law. . .which breaks the qualified immunity of any government agent who violates the right to freedom of association. Being that most acts by caseworkers which infringe on this right are administrative rather than prosecutorial acts, they have no immunity. Add to that lack of jurisdiction (the advocate is usually not subject to CPS jurisdiction on someone else's case) - you may have grounds to nail the county attorney/AG, and maybe even the court.

But I digress. . .Let's to back to 'TAKE THE HIT.' It is reasonable to anticipate that, lacking legal remedies to use against the advocate, they will begin to pursue illegal remedies. This tendency is fueled by their prevasive arrogance and reliance upon their 'immunity.' The advocate must be prepared for the government to use force - either legal or phsyical force - against them. When that force is employed against them, the advocate must protest and resist peacefully and within the bounds of the law governing the right in which the force is being exerted for infringing that right. EXAMPLE: my arrest in Walworth County. I obtained permission to film inside the courthouse. I did not enter any courtrooms or private areas of offices. My conduct was quite, unobtrusive and legal. When the deputy demanded I surrender my film (force of authority), I refused (resist). He threatened to seize the film forcibly (escalation of legal and phsycial force) - I reminded him of my right to sue if he did (resist - protest the seizure). He ordered me to surrender the tape or leave the building (escalation of force of authority and legal force). I complied and filmed him as I requested him to identify himself (protest the use of force to compel my expulsion from the building.) He forcibly seized my camera (escalation of legal and physical force) and I turned my back (resist). He arrested me using excessive force (escalation of physical and legal force) - he won this conflict. While I was in the holding cell, he refused to release me unless I gave my birthdate and address (escalation of legal force) which I was not legally required to do and refused to do (resist). After over 1 1/2 hours I finally gave my birthdate and address under protest and I was released.

If you stand on a public sidewalk and hand out pamphlets and an officer tells you to move on, and you move on, have your rights been violated? This is a resounding NO. You WAIVED your rights when you complied with his illegal demand, without so much as an objection or protest. YOU must compel the government to use legal or physical force to either force your involuntary compliance with their demand (threat) or to use physical or legal force to overcome your resistance and thereby violate your rights before the law can be changed in that respect. Then, having established grounds to sue, you must follow up with a lawsuit or that violation and injury has been a wasted effort. That is what "GIVING IT BACK' means. It's not sufficient to take the hit, you must also give it back if you want to win on the issue.

I took the hit. When threatened with legal and physical force, I refused to back down or capitulate - that's what it means to take the hit. This forced the officer to either drop the issue or escalate into illegal conduct. He chose to escalate. Bad move on his part. The law is clearly established regarding use of force, freedom of the press, and illegal seizure. Because I stood up for my rights, I won a dismissal of my criminal charges and can sue him for violating those clearly established rights. If I had waived my rights by complying with his illegal demands, my ability to sue him would diminish or disappear. It is unlikely that I will ever be challenged on this issue ever again. . .which is the real victory regarding this battle. If I am challenged, I will be in a position to prevail more easily until they finally get it through their arrogant thick heads. Ultimately, we have to make the child savers more scared of crossing us than crossing the other child savers.

That requires that for every offense and violation they heap on advocates and parents who associate with advocates, we must respond with appropriate legal action. That is why I have so many legal actions pending. We are not going to win this battle as long as we (or affected parents) continue to be doormats and punching bags for illegal CPS and court action against us. When they hit any of us on the issues that we must enforce in order to further our cause, we must hit back.

Freedom of association is one such issue. I took a hit and I must give it back. That is why I have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver. My co-plaintiff is April Fields (she took the hit, too), whose case they added me to in order to prevent me from having any contact with her. Many of you know her mom - Christine Korn - who is staunchly standing by April, a virtual mother bear about protecting family advocacy and freedom of association. As I state on my web page about this case - http://www.profane-justice.org/html/1983suit.html - the outcome of this case will affect whether or not you can continue as advocates. It will decide whether or not CPS can retaliate against you and parents for merely associating. The District Court summarily dismissed our complaint. I have filed my notice of appeal, and my appeal brief is due next month. April's appeal is on hold, pending the ruling of certain motions. But she will appeal. Appeals court decisions usually BECOME CASE LAW, ladies and gentlemen. The very existance of family advocacy will be decided with this case.

That's right, April and I will be making law that will affect every parent and advocacy organization or individual out there.Good law, bad law - who knows? What is the outcome of this case worth to you?

This is where the rubber meets the road, folks. I have given a tremendous amount to this movement without expecting anyone to reciprocate on my personal behalf. I've seen 'advocates' recycle and publish my work and not give me the credit due and others who seek and obtain permission to post, respecting my copyright terms. I've seen out and out plagiarism of my work for profit. I been maligned and defamed and praised by advocates and activists. When you find yourself facing a problem and you ask me for help, I'm there with a solution. I've continued to fight for this issue on behalf all of you, regardless of how I was treated or whether you felt you needed or wanted it. My training is free, my expert consultation is free, my website is free to family rights groups. Do the math - where's the money going to come from to win this lawsuit? Not from my fees, that's for damn sure. And not from book sales unless Profane Justice magically jumps to the best seller list.

I will be frank. . . if April and I must continue this litigation without the help or support of every single family rights advocate or activist out there, then I don't care if it makes bad case law. If this movement wants to leave us to stand alone during this important, ground breaking lawsuit, I am content to reciprocate if we lose. If ALL family advocates/activists don't care enough to pony up whatever it takes to fight for this issue on behalf of this movement as well as for the protection of families, then why should I? I don't need to leave a 'legacy,' I have no destiny to fulfill. I have built this momentum for 13 years and I have a job to do. A job that I am free to walk away from or alter any time I see my effort is wasted. It is no shame on me to admit that my singular and unsupported effort was not sufficient to win this battle.

 If you think the CPS retalition is bad now, wait until the 10th Circuit hands down a ruling adverse to our rights to associate. Your child savers will be contacting Fremont County to learn how to do to you what they do to me and parents there.

Neither one of us has an attorney. I've been told by the magistrate judge that pro se litigants never win. If they did win, I'd stand a better chance than April. There is no way she can fight this case without an attorney. She is condemned to lose.

Support - someone take the bull by the horns and get April one bad-ass, junkyard dog attorney. I've tried Gerry Spence gerry@gerryspence.com, who declined. I'm just one person - maybe if everyone hammered him about the importance of this case. . .? I don't have time to do this for her while I'm fighting my own cases and they are really trying to nail me for helping her. Someone - take the initiative and organize the effort - and don't let it drop until she gets him or someone just as good. I'm dead serious about this, if this national association of advocates and activists can't get her the best representation available, then how effective can this association be?

Money - if you can't find pro-bono representation for April, then you'd better accumulate some serious donations to hire a good attorney for her. As it is, we need money for filing fees (I've paid for all of these out of my own pocket), and hopefully depositions and expert witnesses if we prevail on the appeal. You wouldn't believe how much is costs just to copy and mail all the necessary copies of pleadings! If we can't get this money, then we won't have what we need to win. For good or bad, with an attorney or not - I will see this lawsuit through the very last appeal. This can be a joint effort, or it will be my singular effort.

I'm not going to run this show - I'm too busy doing the legal work. It's your choice whether or not there even is a show to get what we need. You will be voting with your dollars and your participation in getting April an attorney. You will be voting on whether or not you want family advocacy to be shut down or to thrive without retaliation. You will be voting on whether or not parents can associate with family rights advocates and activists. My vote - to the tune of over $700 in fees and expenses (and a contempt citation for filing the lawsuit - who knows what that will cost, including jail time) has already gone toward the protection of family advocacy and freedom of association. If you don't donate - you vote against family advocacy and association. Harsh? Sure - but that's reality and I don't have the option to sugar-coat it for the more delicate souls. Whoever handles the donations - I would like a record of those who donate and the amounts. If this is a joint effort, I will see that credit is given where credit is due. If it's not a joint effort, that will also be noted for public consumption.

Leonard says there are how many thousands of AFRA members? Pick a dollar amount and everyone donate it for April's defense and our litigation expenses. Give up a few smokes or beers, a movie or a pay per view event. Or don't give, and then don't complain when we make bad case law. If anyone comments about the way the case is being handled or its outcome, trust me, my first question will be "how much did you give to the effort?" If you only contributed a bunch of hot air or some hand wringing online bytes, if you didn't give the maximum availble, expect me to be rude and tell you to put up and shut up. . .you got what you invested.

I am also litigating the issue of CPS taking our copyrighted web sites into court to use against parents. . .this needs funding, too. It's no less important than the other one, but this funding could just be a loan if I win. Same rules apply to this one, except this one is easier to litigate. My website is registered with the copyright office, which pretty much makes it an open and shut case.

Not anybody can sue CPS on behalf of family advocacy, freedom of association, etc. A person must first be an injured party - I qualify. The case must be clean as a whistle, I've set all of mine up that way. The injured party must be articulate and knowledgeable so that when testifying, she will not hurt the case - anyone who has seen me speak knows I am qualified in this regard. The injured party must be in it for the long haul. . .a lawsuit is will be a terrible ordeal - I rely on my record of perseverance to speak for itself. Is the case and the party (parties) credible? You judge. . .and cast your vote accordingly.

IN REF:

Email to AFRA webguy on April 26, 2004

Please remove my posting (membership) immediately. We have had our two little girls basically kidnapped (they say it was a voluntary agreement), to which we were no part, never asked and naturally would never had agreed to. We reported possible abuse and asked for help, instead they may never return our babies. What does one do with this?

The social worker stated that she read my posting on this website.

They have our kids for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Except that we currently a pending civil rights lawsuit against the county.

The AFRA webguy says:

Yanno, I am getting really, REALLY sick and tired of this. We are trying to help people try to receive due process and justice when they come to us for help.

Are we merely running a compilation of people who won't lay down and die on command of the system- Cardassian Style? Are we merely maintaining a list to make it handy for the evil system to attack the few people who try to stand up for their American Constitutional Rights?

We have plainly posted the Notice to CPS Agencies and their Colluding Actors on AFRA (much of the time on the front page) for the past two years.

We are dumbfounded that the system actors apparently do not see it as UNETHICAL to use their victim's information listed at AFRA to portray their victim in a bad light in court.

AFRA stands for American Constitutional Rights- which has not been a popular position to take lately. But standing up for American Constitutional Rights is good, correct, and right.

The Child Abuse Industry is WRONG, and it is EVIL. The Child Abuse Industry is running roughshod over parent's (and children's) American Constitutional Rights.

Citing a CPS victim's association with American Family Rights Association as a PROBLEM for the victim- defies and denies the very substance of American Liberty.

The officers of the court and many of the people involved in these CPS tribunals have taken an oath to "uphold, support, and defend the Constitution of the United States". So theoretically AFRA and the courts are supposed to be on the same side.

CPS people on the other hand, have taken no oath, and consequently have become America's foremost Terrorists. I invite you to visit http://www.ready.gov/ and consider how unlikely it is that YOU will PERSONALLY be threatened by an Islamic Jihad terrorist. And then consider that the CPS terrorists strike 3000 American families a DAY.

What will it take to stop the War Against America's Families?

Promoting the Fundamental Liberty, Rights, and Privileges of Families.

The family is the basic unit of social structure. Families define and shape the individuals that are a part of the family unit. Parents teach their children their values, and teach them a moral value of what is right and what is wrong. Parents set boundaries as to what is acceptable behavior and what will not be tolerated. These are basic and fundamental rights given to parents. They are recognized by the highest court in America to be the responsibility of the parents, not the job of the government. - Dawn Michelle Irons, BSW

Copyright © 2004 Suzanne Shell. Copyright terms published at www.profanejustice.org