Age Progression Of Aliayah Lunsford

Does anyone remember Aliayah Lunsford, who disappeared at age three in West Virginia in September of 2011? She is still missing, and the FBI has issued an age progressed picture of her, showing how she might look at age five.

Stupid Prosecutor Loses License To Practice Law

Mingo County, West Virginia has a position open for a county prosecutor now that Michael Sparks the law license of Michael Sparks, former Mingo County prosecutor, has been revoked. It seems that Michael Sparks was either acutely aware, or vaguely aware, of the practice employed by a West Virginia judge, the former Judge Thornsbury, of planting evidence and falsely accusing innocent people of crimes, and attempting to initiate prosecution against his victims! It appears that in addition to taking a dim view of false litigation, the Supreme Court in West Virginia takes an equally dim view of looking the other way when elected officials in law enforcement and the court have engaged in corrupt, unlawful behaviors that erode the trust of the general public. What a concept! The Supreme Court also has a problem with prosecutors and judges who try to silence federal witnesses. An element of that also played a role here. In fact, Both Sparks and Thornsbury did something that is often done in Marshall County, Kansas, where a prosecutor named Laura McNish is constitutionally incapable (pun somewhat intended) of winning a jury trial by herself, and intimidates and threatens defendants who hire lawyers, invoke their rights, and insist upon jury trials: they attempted to deprive a defendant of adequate legal counsel in exchange for a lighter sentence. A quote from WOWKTV states this:

"Sparks is accused in a scheme to protect former Sheriff Eugene Crum from revelations he'd bought drugs from a campaign sign-maker.
Prosecutors allege Sparks, a former county commissioner and former Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury offered a lighter sentence if the dealer fired his lawyer and hired one they preferred."

So interfering with a defendant's counsel is also criminally unethical? Who'd have thought?!

On a related note, the Kansas Department of Education is still looking for a way to ensure cooperation of prosecutors in the area of mandatory reporting of all teachers who commit crimes. When teachers who exhibit criminal behavior, such as criminal restraint and kidnapping are prosecuted and reported to the Department of Education AS THE LAW REQUIRES, it is much easier to identify them and deny the renewals of teachers' licenses. Perhaps if Marshall County Kansas had a prosecutor with competence, instead of Laura McNish, court in Marshall County would begin to administer justice and Frankfort High School would be safe enough to get insurance.

 

Federal Conspiracy Charges

Just a short update here, to this post, about His Former Honor, Michael Thornsbury, of Mingo County, West Virginia: he has been charged with three counts of conspiracy. As it turns out, the Supreme Court has a low regard for judges and prosecutors who abuse their positions by charging innocent people with crimes and prosecuting them when no crime was actually committed. Imagine that! It's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW to go to court and file a complaint against another, when that other did no wrong, and it's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW to conspire and make it look as if an innocent person committed a crime when he or she did not. A dim view of such approaches to justice is especially taken when a judge or a prosecuting attorney gets all jealous or angry and misuses criminal court by committing perjury. Thornsbury even insisted that his secretary's husband be arrested several months after an incident during which someone else, unfortunately someone related to the husband, threatened another person with a gun during a dispute. Because the matter had already been disposed, and because Thornsbury's victim was not the defendant in the case, it became a bit of a sticky wicket for Thornsbury in court.

Where's the eye-rolley when I need it? It's almost like paying a random person to take random pictures of houses and scenery on her cell phone, then having the person take her cell phone to police to say that someone else, entirely, took the pictures; then going to court to say the pictures are somehow illegal. The sticky wicket with that, of course, involves the fact that said pictures were never in the possession of "someone else, entirely", but in the cell phone of the person being paid to take them! Right, McFish?

Ethics Complaint About A Judge

 

Amazing. One would expect a circuit court judge to be mature enough to find an eligible bachelorette with whom to spend time after work, or at least be discreet when he has an affair with someone who is not a bachelorette; but not the "Honorable" Michael Thornsbury. What an embarrassment to Mingo County, West Virginia, where he served, until recently. Judge Thornsbury not only had an affair with his married secretary, but apparently was so forlorn and upset when she changed her mind about dating him that he decided to get even with her husband, simply for being her husband! He tried to get a friend to plant drugs in the man's vehicle, but the friend decided against it at the last minute, leaving the unsuspecting man not in possession of illegal drugs, rather than in possession of same, for the planned drug bust, which did not go as planned. Next, His Honor successfully convinced a state trooper to arrest his secretary's husband on bogus theft charges. The charges have since been dismissed, but it is still, always, an unpleasant surprise when a prosecutor or judge has a silly-assed personal problem with an unsuspecting, innocent constituent and abuses his or her position to play a sophomoric game of "get-backs". Is it any wonder that the American people are losing respect for all parts of the judicial system?

 

 

West Virginia Bags A Disgusting Creep

Bully for law enforcement in West Virginia! A woman complained to police in Berkeley County that someone she had recently dated pestered her for indecent photos of her six year old daughter and they actually tracked him to Colorado via his cell phone records. Now he's in Eastern Regional Jail on a $10,000 bond. It should really be more, but at least it's unlawful to target children in West Virginia. That's him on the left. His name is Christopher Lee Brown. Hopefully, the folks at the jail will remember to tell the other inmates why Mr. Brown is incarcerated.

 

Violence Against Women Act Passes

The Violence Against Women Act passed today. This is good news for all of the police training, shelters, counseling programs, funding for legal representation for victims, (and that is an HUGE problem!!) and laws connected to the Violence Against Women Act. Sadly, the subject of children caught in custody battles wherein the issue of domestic violence has manifested is still not properly addressed. Judges still seem to think that a violent thug will only have one victim over the course of his violent career, and thereby almost blame the victim! A family law court judge in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia actually tried to "overlook" the issue of domestic violence in rulings in a certain case, but since the thug involved had already been found guilty of domestic violence in criminal court, this judge was unable to ignore the guilty verdict when rulings were made. Without the Violence Against Women Act, she might have gotton away with it.

One hundred and thirty-eight Republicans did not think that protection under the law in all phases of defusing an ongoing domestic violence situation was "fiscally responsible", and those same Republicans also did not think that those most likely to become victims of domestic violence in their states would have any value as votors, and probably not as human beings, either. Kansas lawmakers, of course, voted against it. Their position on this is probably that it's more cost effective from an economic standpoint to bury a domestic violence victim than it is to help her.
 

Watch Congress Extends Violence Against Women Act on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

About Joaquin Rams; Maybe The Doctor Will Think Twice Next Time

Hera Mcleod, the mother of Prince Mcleod Rams, the toddler who died during his first unsupervised visit to his father, is now suing Dr. Margaret Wang, of Virginia, for twenty million dollars. This does not surprise me, and I think it is good that "Dr." Wang is being called to account for her part in this little boy's death. The Maryland judge in this case, while rude, unprofessional, and completely disinterested in Prince's best interest, did order Joaquin Rams, Prince's father, to present the court with the opinion of a professional mental health expert prior to his custody order. And Rams proceeded to the office of Margaret Wang, Phd., and paid for her services on his own. This is probably where one of the misunderstandings about Rams's mental fitness for unsupervised visitation began; Rams hired Wang and paid her fee; she was therefore biased in Rams's favor. It is a shame that Rams had not simply been sent to a generic court psychologist (Montgomery County Maryland DOES have them) who would not have been inclined toward a bias, but Rams was given the opportunity to pay someone to write a recommendation for him, and Wang did exactly that. She was unconcerned about Rams's history of domestic violence, not worried about the multiple insurance policies he bought on his son, (not FOR his son, ON his son) and obviously determined not to let such trivial matters as two murder investigations deter her creative muse.

No one in court was the slightest bit supportive of Hera Mcleod when she tried to protect her son. Judge Michael Algeo told Ms. Mcleod she was in the wrong to try to protect her son, and refused to look at Mr. Rams's criminal record and the murder investigations. Mcleod presented the facts....it is all in the transcripts. Dr. Wang minimized the problems of domestic violence and sexual violence. She helped to convince Judge Algeo that the concerns of Prince's mother were baseless. Was she expecting some sort of payout from one of the insurance policies? Only the shadow knows.......the idea that a psychologist is willing to recommend a man who wielded a handgun at someone during a domestic violence incident should be unthinkable. But she did it. And shortly thereafter, Prince was pronounced dead because of an excess of water in his lungs. The person Margaret Wang recommended for unsupervised visitation is now in jail with no bond. I think it is very, very good that Hera Mcleod is suing her, even if the whole matter moves very slowly through court for years to come, as these things often do; just to draw public attention to the dangerous practices of this psychologist before another life is needlessly lost.

What should Hera Mcleod have done? I know what I would have done. I went through similar experiences in divorce court. I got divorced in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The judge there had a grudge against any woman who separated from her husband because of domestic violence, and when she heard that I had testified against my husband in court, and that he had been found guilty of domestic violence, she reduced my child support to fifty dollars a month, for three children. She also ordered me to drive my children from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to Frederick, Maryland during a blizzard. This was in February of 2003. Later on, during a court hearing, my husband's lawyer told the judge he had no idea why I had not taken the children to Frederick, as ordered. When I told the judge that the governors of Maryland and West Virginia had both declared a state of emergency because of the storm, and that police in both states were giving one thousand dollar traffic tickets to anyone who drove in that storm, (do you think my fifty dollars a month in child support would have covered such a fine?) she pretended that she did not know about the blizzard and threatened to hold me in contempt of court. When I told her about the fifty-eight people who had died of carbon monoxide poisoning (see above link) as a result of sitting in their cars in traffic during that storm, she told me that carbon monoxide is not dangerous. At that point, I realized that reasoning with this judge was a waste of time, and I waited for the hearing to end. It ended with the judge reminding me not to go to the police in West Virginia or anywhere should I incur further violence through my husband, and also not to report any maltreatment of the children. Such complaints would be interpreted as custodial interference and treated accordingly. My spouse finally became my former spouse, and also finally ceased any attempts to contact the children or yours truly. Except once: I moved away from the area when I married again, and my former spouse took me to court to contest this move. I was forced to reschedule a blood transfusion for the hearing! Subsequent hearings came and went with no attendance from my former spouse, and he went on to cause three more head-on collisions in Maryland and Virginia traffic and garner at least two more DWI's before his death in 2010. Oh; the judge also told me that my former spouse did NOT have a problem with alcohol. Did not. Worrying about my childrens' safety while riding as passengers as he drove was completely unreasonable of me......where's the eye-rolley when I need it? But Hera Mcleod was young, and had not lost her faith in the judicial system. No mother should be faced with the choice of becoming a "criminal" by defying court orders and getting jailed for contempt of court because she loves her children. Judge Algeo did not leave her any other choice.

This is a picture taken in Frederick, Maryland, in 2003, during the blizzard in which I was ordered by a family law court judge to drive with my children.

Storm Relief: Romney's A Bigger Liar Than I Thought

 

Last night, I posted about Mitt Romney's misguided photo-op involving donated food for victims of Hurricane Sandy. But I was unaware that a Mormon bishop would actually stoop low enough to send his aides to Walmart with 5,000 dollars for goods to use as props for pictures, even after the Red Cross specifically asked for cash and blood! Then, when the Red Cross told the Romney campaign that the food donations could not be used at this time, they threw them away. Instead of washing clean dishes and posing with goods that will never make it through West Virginia during a blizzard warning, the Red Cross suggested grocery store gift cards......but it is harder to pose with grocery store gift cards. If the Mormon Church is really all about sweetness and goodness, they will excommunicate Mitt Romney after this stunt. If Mitt Really wants to help, why doesn't he just help? Quietly? Without telling anyone? He certainly has enough money to just make a quiet donation, and then move forward with whatever pandering he still intends to do, while pushing to dismantle FEMA.

Things A Mother Never Wants To Hear

This story, luckily, had a happy ending. It seems that a little girl was abandoned at a bus stop, while spending time with her dad in Detriot the other day. Someone found this little girl and took her to a local church and called authorities, who photographed her and aired her picture on the local news. That's when the mom found out about the whole thing. This is the kind of stuff that takes years off of a mother's life. It's always a joy to read a story that has a happy ending, but geesh.....there just might be a mom out there who owes a dad a whack upside the head with a frying pan! I hope a certain family law court judge in Jefferson County, West Virginia understands why some mothers are nervous about leaving small children alone with some noncustodial fathers! No....that isn't a sexist statement; we all know that can go both ways.

Isn't she adorable?

I Will Miss You, Barkley

Jane Barkley...yours was the closest friendship I had while I lived in West Virginia. You taught me so much, you taught my children so much. You listened to all of my craziest sounding dreams, never once asking me to believe they were finite or impossible, then you rejoiced with me when they came true. You were more like a sister than just a friend. I wish there had been more time for us.

I'll never forget you.