Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A criminal record doesn't matter if you work in the domestic violence industry

Carey Roberts

Domestic Violence Industry: Criminal
2008-12-07 at 1:36 pm · Filed under Vox Populi

The domestic violence industry has a habit of attracting unsavory characters into its ranks. And now three former operatives are doing hard time.

Take Barbara Dehl of Nampa, Idaho. Ten years ago Dehl single-handedly lobbied for passage of Cassie’s Law, a bill aimed at stopping dating violence. That achievement landed her on the Montel Williams Show, and Sen. Mike Crapo hailed Dehl as the “Spirit of Idaho.” Her crowning moment came in 2002 when she was invited to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women.

But then Dehl got caught up in drug trafficking charges and a murder case. Two years ago Dehl was sentenced to 15 years in the slammer for the kidnapping and macabre torturing of a 20-year-old man and his girlfriend.

About the same time Cindy Lou Shores, director of the South Central Region Tribal Nations and Friends Domestic Violence Coalition in Oklahoma, was pilfering $106,000 from the coalition’s cookie jar. This past March, Shores was sentenced to 17 months in federal prison.

And two months ago the former head of Domestic Violence Emergency Services, John Scott, was sentenced to a year behind bars for stealing money from the Roanoke, Va. abuse shelter. After Scott leaves jail, he will serve another year of probation and pay $48,000 in restitution.

But the problem isn’t limited to shelter officials who enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers. Shelter managers condone and even encourage a broad range of illegal activities within their own facilities.

Mistreatment of children appears to be widespread. Last October the life of toddler Myliak Dale was snuffed out when a woman backed out her car at the SafeSpace shelter in Stuart, Fla.: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080722 . Incidents of child abuse often go unreported to local officials, in violation of state law.

There’s the problem of harassment and sexual assaults. At Bethany House in Falls Church, Va., two house managers were forced to resign following sexual advances of shelter residents: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080902 .

Drug abuse is rampant at some shelters. A former employee at Another Way of Lake City, Fla. revealed, “I, on numerous occasions reported illegal drug use that I had witnessed take place on Shelter property and often my complaints were ignored…We always knew not to call the law unless you were prepared to be unemployed.”

Some shelters forego background checks on job applicants. That policy helped Another Way land former shelter manager Wendy Pittman (four criminal charges of passing bad checks); Brenda Collins (one charge of aggravated assault and two counts of cocaine possession); and Gloria Taylor (nine misdemeanor convictions and three felonies): www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081009 .

Many shelters have lawyers who coach women to embellish their stories or even dream up incidents that can never be refuted (“Don’t worry, he’ll never be able to prove he didn’t threaten you with the knife”). Then they file a series of baseless allegations that are designed to make the man’s life miserable.

That’s what they did to James Hall of McIntosh Co., Oklahoma: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080923 Convincing a person to commit perjury is called subornation of perjury — and that’s a crime.

Then there’s the slick shelter shake-down routine: Arrest the man on phony abuse charges and then plunder his house while he’s stuck in jail. That’s what happened to Bob Hartzog of Glendale, Ariz: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081117 .

Some managers believe their shelter is protected by a form of sovereign immunity — after all, our society is steeped in patriarchal privilege so women need to have a safe place.

So when 26-year-old Veronica Bullock sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy at the Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services, shelter workers not only barred the Tucson police from entering the facility, they even refused to disclose the rapist’s name.

And when the police arrest a woman for assaulting her husband or boyfriend, the shelter girls scoot over to the police station and have the woman released to their custody. Once ensconced at the shelter, the assailant is free to come and go as she wishes.

For illegal immigrants, sovereign immunity means a neon-flashing “Bienvenidos” sign. Just spend a night at the local domestic violence shelter — all you need to do is scream, “Abuse!” That will entitle you to a free pass with the immigration people – amazing but true: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/070912 .

Discrimination on the basis of sex is also illegal, but who cares about abused men?: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080817 . Racial bias has been documented as well: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/081124 .

Rounding out the picture are uncounted incidents of embezzlement, record falsification, financial irregularities, and garden-variety malfeasance: www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARreport-DV-Programs-Misuse-1-Billion-Tax-Dollars-Per-Year.pdf

One asks, Where are all the state attorney generals and federal inspectors who are supposed to be enforcing our laws?


Source:here

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A word from Roy

Here's a word from men's rights attorney Roy Den Hollander:

Men just don't count in the Federal District Court of New York.


In a December 3, 2008 decision, Federal Judge William Pauley III approved the U.S. Government's use of secret proceedings to find U.S. citizen husbands of alien wives guilty of battery. The proceedings are kept secret from only the husband, not the alien wives, various government officials or various Feminist groups.

In a slip-shod opinion that reflects Judge Pauley III's effort to give men's rights the bums rush out of his court, he ignored the law and invented facts because of the ever present bureaucratic zeal to curry favor with the Feminists.

The case challenged the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Violence Against Women Act ("VAWA") that allow alien females to fraudulently gain U.S. citizenship by falsely accusing their U.S. husbands of battery. Under VAWA, the husband has no notice nor opportunity to refute the charges against him, the so-called evidence used for finding him guilty comes from his ex-wife, her immigration lawyer and feminist counselors. If by chance, the American man somehow gets evidence to the Government that shows his alien wife is lying, the evidence ends up in the garbage.

Judge Pauley III disdainfully brushed aside any concern for the rights of the husbands, which is common in the misandrist court of the Southern District of New York, to rule that such Nazi-like proceedings don't injure the husband. Think a minute—would you want the U.S. Government, listening only to your ex-wife, her lawyer and various feminists, to decide whether you committed felonies and misdemeanors against her. You know they are going to find you guilty because you're not there. The Government then promises that no harm will come to you because all its findings will be kept secret, except from your ex-wife, her lawyer, various feminists, and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Oh, and by the way, if any of the Government's decisions about you committing crimes leaks to the general public, there is not a damn thing you can do—legally. There are no lawsuits or administrative proceedings you can bring to correct the false record or keep it from being published. To judges like William Pauley III, such are not injuries because they are injuries to males not females.

But there's something more important than Judge Pauley III's spinning of the law to favor feminists—ask yourself, does this Government process seem fair to you. "The heart of the matter is that democracy implies respect for the elementary rights of men, however suspect or unworthy those men may be; a democratic government must therefore practice fairness; and fairness can rarely be obtained by secret, one-sided determination of facts decisive of rights." Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 170 (Frankfurter J., concurring)(1951).

Where's Felix Frankfurter when justice needs him?



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Roy Den Hollander
Attorney at Law
New York, N.Y.
rdhhh@yahoo.com
(917) 687-0652


Season's Greetings Everyone, I've started the appeals process of the VAWA case to the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals. If successful, I will try to add three more plaintiffs as class representatives. The Ladies' Nights case is also in the appeals process at the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, the Second Circuit is as demeaning (good feminist word) of guys' rights as the US Sourthern District Court in NY. The difficulty with constitutional law cases is that the Federal courts often decide based on the politics of the day. Somethimes that's good, but sometimes bad. In these days for guys--it's bad. The Columbia Women's Studies case is still pending in the US Sourthern District Court in NY. BestRoy
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Roy Den Hollander
Attorney at Law
New York, N.Y.
rdhhh@yahoo.com
(917) 687-0652