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How the California Justice System Covers up Crimes Against the Elderly

A Method to the Madness

By Janet C. Phelan

Note: The following report does not constitute what we have come to call “journalism” or “reportage.” Rather, it constitutes witnessing. As defined in our culture, journalism mandates the creation of a fiction, the “objective” reporter. In this paradigm, the reporter would be a camera, devoid of involvement or input in what she reports. As we know from physics, however, the very act of witnessing changes that which is witnessed. To the best of my ability, the following constitutes my witness—that justice in the United States of America is, with calculated and savage indifference, being dismantled by the very parties pledged to protect it.

I first became aware of how the California justice agencies were finessing crime reports against “protected parties,” including the C.A.R.E. conservatorship cabal, a few years back. This group is plundering the life savings of its elderly and disabled clients, as well as delivering a great number of them into a premature grave, through the denial of appropriate medical care. In 2006, Russell East and I had joined our separate reports, alleging criminal misconduct by Melodie Z. Scott (President of C.A.R.E.), her attorney J. David Horspool and others in the cabal, and sent the reports to the California Department of Justice.

The report was received by that agency on March 6, 2006 and put back into the mail to us the very same day. The letter by Senior Assistant Attorney General Mark Geiger (Special Crimes Unit) is attached below. While the Senior Assistant Attorney General of the Great State of California confessed to inadequate “criminal expertise” (didn’t he mean “legal expertise?”) to respond to the reports, he actually violated the procedures of his public office by failing to supply a complaint number.

Complaint numbers are always assigned to incoming reports, for purposes of tracking. If there is no record of the complaint being in the system, the complaint can be considered “disappeared” or put into a shadow file, or into the garbage.

When Geiger was informed of his omission, he stuck to his guns and simply refused to supply one. Presto Chango!! A carefully documented report , which implicated scores of public officials and officers of the court in colluding with the Melodie Scott cabal, was thus rendered non-existent.

I then reported Mark Geiger to his boss, Dane Gillette. Gillette failed to respond to the complaint. One can only assume that the complaint about Geiger went similarly untracked, and was thus removed from the system.

A Public Records Act request was then tendered to the California Attorney General’s office, requesting a copy of the part of the policies and procedures manual which specifies the procedures for recording incoming complaints from the public. This request was responded to by Dane Gillette, who stated that no such manual exists.

Reaction to the Gillette letter by several members of the legal profession revealed that Gillette lied.

Parenthetically, a similar PRA request, for the policies and procedures manual for the Riverside D.A.’s office, produced a similar response—that no such manual existed. The office of the Grand Jury in Riverside, however, has assured me that this manual is on file in that office.

The initial response by Mark Geiger had also stated that other members of the AG’s office had evaluated the situation surrounding my mother, Dr. Amalie Phelan, who had been a conservatee of Melodie Scott, and had found no issue. Paula Seiberlich of the San Diego AG’s office had, in fact, conducted that investigation. However, the AG’s office also had refused to supply a tracking or complaint number to that investigation, as well.

Local police agencies have also apparently adopted the “no number, no report” method of disappearing complaints about the Melodie Scott and her gang, while maintaining the illusion of impartial pursuit of justice. In the Spring of 2008 I contacted the Redlands Police Department and the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office, for the purpose of reporting theft of the William Burke estate by conservator Lawrence Dean, who works out of the C.A.R.E. offices, and by his attorney, Sheri Kastilahn.

Briefly, Dean and Kastilahn had reported to the San Bernardino Probate Court that they had been unable to locate the sole heir to the Burke estate, one Lester Lorge. In fact, two years passed before Kastilahn was able to locate him. In the intervening years, Kastilahn petitioned the court to put a big chunk of the Burke estate into her own bank account. The court approved her request. I was unable to find any documentation in the court file that this money ever left Kastilahn’s account. Lorge then signed for his “full distributive share” of his inheritance. There was, peculiarly, no record in the court file of how much that might be.

I found Lorge within forty-eight hours. He disclosed to me that his “full distributive share” was around $26,000. This constituted a mere fraction of what Dean and Kastilahn had reported to the court as the remainders of the Burke estate.

Lorge, who is elderly, could thus be considered a victim of fiduciary elder abuse. When I contacted the Redlands Police department and the D.A. on his behalf, to report the theft, I was promptly informed that no crime had been committed against Lorge. Amazingly, the police officer assigned to this report reached this conclusion within two hours. When I asked Assistant District Attorney Lynne Poncin for the file number of the complaint I had made, she refused to supply it to me. Another member of that office revealed to me that neither Dean’s, Kastilahn’s or Lorge’s names could be found anywhere in the electronic file system. Once again, we see the method at work: no complaint number, no report.

More police misconduct concerning record keeping occurred when I contacted the Temecula Police Department, back in 2002, surrounding first the attempted murder of my mother at the hands of the Melodie Scott gang, and then concerning check forgery/fraud by my sister, Judith Phelan, now living in Northern California.

Strangely, the two criminal complaints, naming different perpetrators and different crimes, were assigned the same report number. The police report concerning the attempted murder, listing this as a “suspicious circumstance,” states that it has been sent over to the Riverside District Attorney’s office.

But no such complaint was ever received by that office, according to the clerks.

The Riverside D.A.’s office, Special Investigations Unit, also received a complaint from me, in November of 2002. That report alleged misconduct by the Temecula Police in failing to pursue the above mentioned crimes. That report, which has disappeared from the office files in that agency, was also never assigned a number.

The United States Constitution promises equal protection under the law. By removing complaints alleging or documenting crimes by “protected parties,” the justice agencies can maintain the illusion of defending justice, while ensuring that only certain people will ever get investigated or prosecuted for violations of law.

Download Attorney's General Ltr here=>>Ltr.pdf

Fugitive Mother and Son Apprehended in Mexico

thttp://www.protect.org/Newswire/Texas/ICE-apprehends-fugitive-mother-and-son-plans-reunion.html

Monday, 29 December 2008

ICE agents say they have arrested a woman who fled to Mexico with her son a decade ago

In a news release dated December 24th, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that Tamara Kennedy fled from Maryland with her four-year old son a decade ago, "shortly before sole custody of the child was to be awarded to the child's father."

Kennedy and her son were seized by Mexican authorities after seeking passport assistance at the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara. They were then flown to Houston, where the Associated Press reports the boy, now 14, is in CPS custody and "is refusing to see his father."

Kennedy faces criminal charges of obstructing parental rights.
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Before throwing the book at the mother, there are questions that should be asked, did the mother leave the country in order to protect the son from abuse? Is the kid going suffer pshychological damage by seeing the mother prosecuted and being forced to be with father that might have abused the kid is that there more damage than good that could result from this action?

Sleepwalking Kid Held in Custody

MIAMI (AP) - Miami police are asking the Department of Children and Family Services to investigate after a 2-year-old boy was found sleepwalking in the streets.

Police say Tavaris Mack was sleeping with several other children at the home of his paternal uncle in the Liberty City neighborhood Friday. Authorities say the boy apparently got up in the middle of the night and walked out of the apartment. He then wandered nearly a block before a pedestrian called police around 4 a.m.

Family members say they awoke to discover the boy missing, and desperately began to search. The Miami Police Department has not filed any criminal charges in the case. DCF is investigating the incident and will determine if the child can return home.

Source: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com/
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I have sleepwalked myself and I assure you it is not a crime, please allow this child to come home to his parents, they committed no abuse.

In taking this child away from his parents you might be doing more harm than good, please consider giving this family another chance to remain together.

12-30-2008 Update

Wandering Toddler Returned To Family MIAMI (CBS4) ―

A toddler who was found wandering the streets of Miami early Friday morning has been returned to his family after an investigation by the Department of Children and Families.

Another Tale of Elder Financial Abuse"Despicable'

Apple Valley, CA: LawyersandSettlement.Com

Linda F suspected for a while that her father was a victim of financial elder abuse. Unfortunately, she couldn't get her father to see what was going on. Like so many parents who are victims of financial abuse at the hands of a child, Linda's father did not want to believe his daughter, Linda's sister, could treat him so poorly. But she did, and now he is not even allowed in his own home.

"This is just devastating. It [financial elder abuse] is out there, but it's hushed. It's despicable that a child could do this to a parent. She can't get her act together, so she abuses him. He wants to be home. He doesn't want to live like this. He told me once that he is supposed to get a blue pill in the morning. But my sister sometimes gave him 1 in the morning, sometimes 2 in the morning, sometimes 1 in the afternoon, sometimes she didn't give him any pill. She messed with his medication.

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Yes it is despicable that a child could do this and much more to their parents , especially if this child harbors resentments from childhood or if there is money invoved , what is even more despicable is that the elders have no one to turn to as the authorities have decided that elder abuse are 'civil matters' an when approched for help do the 'circle jerk'.

Sadly elders and/or their families have no one to turn to for help.

"The Circle Jerk" What happens when an elder and or their families goes for help.

Scam Alert: Seniors face many threats

December 28, 2008 12:24:57 AM The Modesto Bee

HOW BIG IS THE PROBLEM: Elder abuse, one of the largest growing crimes, is one of the most underreported, according to the California attorney general's office. "The true scope of elder abuse is not truly known.

One of every 20 seniors is a victim of neglect or physical, psychological or financial abuse.
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Elder Abuse will continue to be one of the largest growing crime as long as the authorities do the "Circle Jerk" in order to evade responsibility everytime we attempt to report it.

State Agency Needs Overhaul

In response to the editorial "Michael Brown's Death":

It seems the state responds to ongoing concerns and issues with the Department of Children and Families only after something as tragic as the death of an infant.

It's not a secret: DCF has had problems. It's time the state fully realized that DCF needs more than just some adjustments to the way it provides protection and advocacy for our children.(especially our elders) It's time the state realized DCF needs a complete overhaul.

Do we really need to read again that the death of an infant has influenced the state to look into the problems with DCF? Or that the loss of another innocent child has again raised concerns?

DCF has had plenty of opportunities to fix itself. Someone must now step in and make the changes needed so that the D in DCF no longer stands for Dysfunctional.

Donnie R. Swan

The writer is a counselor for a private provider of mental health services.

How The Florida DCF Wastes Taxpayers Money

by Ray Fernandez

The DCF Can Not/Should Not Allow itself to be used as a Weapon for Intimidation

Because we have chosen to speak out against incidents of neglect and abuse against our elders , our detractors continually call the Florida Department of Children and Families and use the agency in what has become a continual policy of harassment.

In a letter from Robert A. Butterworth as acting secretary for the Florida DCF dated July 16 2007 he states,"I assure you that any allegation reported to the Florida Abuse Hotline is thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken. However if an additional report is received regarding the same allegations, the duplicate report is not re-investigated." Robert A Butterworth, Secretary of Florida Division of Children and Families

Every few months the same people call in complaints against us and we have been investigated six (6) times and every time we have been exonorated and the complaints are deemed unfounded, according to Secretary Buttersworth the same complaint is not to be investigated twice . We have been investigated over and over 'ad naseum'.

The need to investigate the same complaint against the same people is a waste of tax payers funds, furthermore it leads people to believe that if the agency has to investigate the same complaint against the same people 6x that they are incompetent, yet the investigators that have investigated us, Scotty Blevins, Melanie Miller and others were quite competent and left no stone un turned.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind the DCF people behind what can only be construed as a campaign of harrasment that there are laws in the books against allowing DCF to be used as a weapon for personal benefit by a reporting person for personal reasons.

Florida Statutes 415.102 states :(9) "False report" means a report of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult to the central abuse hot line which is not true and is maliciously made for the purpose of:(a) Harassing, embarrassing, or harming another person;(b) Personal financial gain for the reporting person;(c) Acquiring custody of a vulnerable adult; or(d) Personal benefit for the reporting person in any other private dispute involving a vulnerable adult.

Florida DCF Acted in Clara's Best Interest

Ray;

The Florida Department of Children and Families was acting in Clara G. Fernandez's best interest when their attorney recommended to Judge Richard J. Audlin at the hearing on Oct 3rd that the Guardianship Not be terminated.

An Adult Protective Service Investigator
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Dear APS and reader;

Thank you for writing . If you are familiar with Latin culture you know that we like to take care of our own, as do a lot of Americans that we have come to know , for a stranger to come along and say that they know better than us, the elders own family what good for them is a stretch and an insult.

According to Conchy Bretos , a Miami-based housing consultant "Latinos traditionally prefer to care for their older loved ones at home", in a story published by Elizabeth Pope an article on AARP Segunda Juventud.

Why did the DCF not investigate the complaints when Clara who was diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimer's and whose identity was stolen? She was being shuffled around from nursing home to nursing home and from Hotel room to hotel room "like a puppet on a string" Judge Gary L. VonHof.

It most have been very disconcerting of a 87 year old with Alzheimer's with
balancing problems to have been left alone un-protected in hotels rooms! You would not have allowed that for a child, Why did you ignore her then? When we tried to get you to intervene then and save her from injury, then you could have made a difference?

So many questions so much silence.........

In our case the DCF spent a lot of taxpayers money and too much time trying hard to find something wrong with the right people and too little time protecting Clara from the people who were negligent in her care and who saw this as an opportunity to re write her Will and liquidate her Trust thereby denying my children and my grandchildren of their legacy as
Clara had set forth and desired in her pre-planning documents, at what point did we stop being a "Nation of Laws"?

This is a serious oversight that cost our parents their golden years together.
There are plenty of witnesses,Doctors reports, neighbors who know how close Dr. Fernandez and Clara were to their family for the DCF to have condoned their separation and break up which caused Dr. Fernandez untold anguish and ultimately his death deserves a serious investigation.

As far as the DCF acting in Clara's best interest, there is an over abundance of evidence and a lot of questions that for the sake of the ones that come after us SHOULD be asked and NOT swept under the rug, so that we are able to better protect those that need help and those that come later.

Ray Fernandez

The Betrayals of Our Daughters

Help Free Nancy Golin!

LISTEN TO father Jeffrey R. Golin and attorney David J. Beauvais, interviewed live on December 20, 2007, on a one-hour broadcast on BBS radio Channel 2, with Dr. Rebecca Carley, M.D., “What’s Ailing America?” “State Sponsored Kidnapping and Forced Drugging of an Adult Autistic for Profit”. MP3 audio file, 100Mb,

FREE NANCY! PLEASE DONATE TO OUR CAUSE!

Any help to offset some of the expenses associated with freeing Nancy would be most appreciated. Nancy desperately needs to live in her own home, and again have qualified, expert medical care, and round the clock rehab. As it is she is even now being subjected to treatment at the hands of the same ill-qualified general practitioner that caused her 25% bone loss, illegally poisoned her on Risperdal and Zyprexa, ruptured her esophagus then had her dumped all alone in a hospital fighting for her life vomiting blood and chunks of her esophagus.

Please note: Because we is solely focused on saving Nancy’s life and freeing her from State custody at this time.

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Dear Jeff; What would a Father not do to protect his daughter or a son his mother or father? I hope that others will soften their heart and realize that by helping Nancy they are helping themselves as the good that men do does comes back to them.

I am grateful that my mother Clara G. Fernandez was able to break the shackles of tyranny twice, once in her native Cuba and here and is now safe. We must now turn our attention to those that are still being tortured and their families destroyed Not in Guantanamo, Cuba but here in our own gulags at home in any city USA.

I am posting this check in hope that others will help free Nancy , especially those that think that this could not happen to them, those that I get letters from that usually start with " I never thought this could happen in my family." Wake us and educate yourself, this is happening in everystate and every city, USA No one is inmune or safe.

The Betrayal of Clara G. Fernandez by APS

Clara as seen here on December 24th, 2008 enjoying her Christmas Dinner

RE: CLARA FERNANDEZ FILE NO: 44-2005-CP-6l-K during the hearing of a motion to end Guardianship for a less restrictive form of governance as per Florida Statues Least Restrictive Alternative RequirementF.S.§744.331(6)(b).

During this proceedings beginning at 3:30 p.m, and concluding at 4:00 o'clock p.m., on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2008, reported by court reporter Lisa Roeser, RPR, at the Monroe County Courthouse, Courtroom A, 502 Whitehead Street, Key West,

The Florida Department Children and Families sent attorney Michelle Perez

The DCF has investigated Clara's family six (6) times. A criminal can only be tried once, but the DCF can try you time and time again to try to find something, however after going back 5 years of financial records by crack DCF investigator Melanie Miller wheras she found nothing in- appropriate, neither did an audit by CPA firm hired by the Wards's family.

In all of the six (6) investigations the family's handling of the financing was cleared of any wrongdoing.

In spite of this fact the DCF sent their attorney to vehemently argue against the termination of the Guardianship that kept Clara from receiving much needed Dental care because "It was too expensive."

click to enlarge document


"here in line 4 MS. PEREZ: Judge, just briefly. It`s DCF's concern that now that the guardianship has been dissolved that Mr. Raul Fernandez will now be in control of the entire estate of his mother."

God forbid that the family be in control of the Estate and of the "WARD's " due legacy and NOT the State of Florida and their legions of attorneys even though they had been cleared of any wrongdoing during six (6) separate investigations)


The DCF attorney paid by our tax funds argued vehemently against the ending of the Guardianship despite Florida Statutes of Least Restrictive Alternative Requirement F.S.§744.331(6)(b) that says that a guardianship is to be used as a last resort when the "Ward " has NO family!

One of the major substantive changes to Florida Guardianship Law which was brought about by the October 1989 legislative revisions, was the requirement that there be no least restrictive available alternative to guardianship, before the court could appoint a guardian.


Laws in place to protect victims and their families are loosely enforced and subject to arbitrary interpretation and abuse, that why we think that additional laws are a waste of time if current laws are continued to be ignored with impunity despite the alleged requirement that Guardianship statutes and the rules related thereto must be strictly construed. See In re Keene, 343 So. 2d 916 (Fla. 4" DCA 1977).

The Betrayal of Our Children

Lying Lawyers Paid Tax Dollars to Officially Abduct Your Children

Diary Entry by Steven G. Erickson

Connecticut,USA

Connecticut DCF Attorney Maureen Duggan file photo

Lawyers on Ethics Commissions, such as Maureen Duggan, can be caught lying, committing perjury, manufacturing evidence, using false identities, obstructing justice, getting involved in complex plots and schemes, acting unethically, and while being paid tax dollars to safeguard families and children, harm families and children, defrauding tax payers, and not be fired! Is this proper use of your federal tax dollars we ALL PAY?

Maureen Duggan, an official of Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, DCF, is paid $105,000. Her punishment for possibly committing a number of felonies is to take 9 hours of ethics classes over 3 years. [story]
Lawyers oversee lawyers. Lawyers can be 2/3 of a Judiciary Committee in the legislative branch making laws for further attorney abuse of the public. A high percentage of law students, paralegals, and even lawyers are legislative aids. There is undo influence, backroom deals, and public corruption with the current system.

Former Governor John G. Rowland was bragging that child abuse went down 45% on his official webpage, and the response was to take 445% more children. His alleged mistress, the former head of DCF, Kristine Regaglia, also received freebies and bribes from organized crime figures for mobsters to build, supply, and run “Kiddie Max” prisons for kids. [more information in this post]

Abuse [like this] occurs across America.

We need a “People’s Grand Jury System”, We the People should be able to bring evidence of wrongdoing, public corruption, police, judicial, attorney, official, and prosecutorial misconduct to any courthouse where an independent grand jury, with term limits, votes to privately investigate, prosecute, indict, etc.

[Information on Grand Juries and why we need them]

From John Q. Public all the way up to the US President, everyone should be accountable to the same laws and receive just punishments, with consistency, fairness, and incentives to best serve the public while not wasting hard earned tax dollars.

Those receiving tax dollars should act in the best interest of the public, not their interests.

“Silence signifies acceptance.”

-Steven G. Erickson

My thoughts on the “legal” system revolving as many citizens into prison as is possible [click here]

Steven G. Erickson is a freelance cameraman, blogger, photographer, documentary producer, screenwriter, sometimes journalist, and can and will travel anywhere if the terms are right. His objective is to reform America's courts, creating a "People's Grand Jury" system, exposing and fixing public corruption, corporate abuse of the public, and punishing police, official, prosecutorial, judicial, and attorney misconduct.