What Do Joaquin Rams And Russel Morris Have In Common?

Slow investigations, multiple deaths, judicial harassment of victims and family members of victims, and perpetrators....whoever they may be....are left to repeat their crimes and continue to prey on others. That seems par for the course when a crime victim is too young to testify on his own behalf. A new angry troll has discovered this site, and has made his presence known because he did not like what I wrote about the untimely death of little Caleb Stewart, the baby who died in the home daycare of Tara Johnson, near Topeka, Kansas, this past February. Caleb was dropped off for daycare one morning, when Tara Johnson didn't feel like  providing daycare. She left Caleb with a male "friend" of hers, Russel Morris, after Caleb's mother went to work. Over the course of the day, and after conflictingly related events which have not been properly investigated, Caleb died. His parents have yet to hear the explanation. Chad Taylor, prosecutor of Topeka, Kansas, is not interested in the case. Caleb's mother works to provide for her family and needs daycare in order to work every day, and that puts her in a class that is obviously is not the type a Kansas prosecutor would even worry about. Right, Johnson-McNish? This case seems to compare to the Northern Virginia case of Joaquin Rams, who has been charged in the drowning death of his infant son, Prince.

Before I continue musing out loud about the two cases, let me just say that Joaquin Rams has not been found guilty, and Russel Morris has not been charged with anything and is not a suspect. The only reason he attracted my attention was his angry dialogue on my site, and his outrageous demeanor toward a mother who just lost her child.

Caleb's case already reminded me a bit of the case against Joaquin Rams in Northern Virginia, where
he awaits trial for the drowning death of his fifteen month old son, Prince. Prince's mom, Hera Mcleod, begged Judge Michael Algeo, of Montgomery County, Maryland, to keep Joaquin's visits with Prince supervised. Algeo didn't care. In fact, he demonized Hera. Joaquin lied about everything from his intentions to his financial situation. Prince mysteriously ended up drowning on the third unsupervised visit. Because Prince did not die immediately, but died later on, in a hospital, Joaquin got away with smoke-screening all the facts and circumstances and blaming Hera; creating as much confusion as possible in the hospital. He did not get charged with murder immediately, and it took over two months for Hera to even get a complete report from the medical examiner. The other day, when I heard that there was no actual cause of death reported by the medical examiner in Caleb's death, I was not surprised. But I was surprised to hear about another detail that has not been publicized: the boyfriend of Caleb's daycare provider, Russel Morris, had a death in his family the very day before little Caleb died. His former wife died, "mysteriously". Undetermined causes. No one thinks this warrants further investigation, and when the mother of Joaquin Rams's oldest son, (Prince's older brother) Shawn Mason, died in March of 2003, her death was not initially connected to Rams. His own mother's 2008 death was ruled a suicide. After Prince died, it took the medical examiner at least two months to rule on a cause of death and also determine that the death was an homicide, but after law enforcement determined that Rams had bought insurance on all three of the victims, the Commonwealth of Virginia took a closer look at the three deaths. Joaquin has now been formally charged in Shawn Mason's death, and in Prince Mcleod Rams's death, and awaits trial behind bars. What an unusual parallel!

Another trait these two men have in common is the use of bullying tactics and intimidation against family members of victims. Both men were obviously witnesses in the subsequent cases, and the family members initially only wanted answers. When Joaquin refused, Hera persisted. He not only lied about his son's cause of death, (a possible reason the medical examiner kept quiet) but trolled Hera on the internet, almost to the point of harassment, in an attempt to dissuade others from believing her or from encouraging her to seek justice for Prince, and in a pathetic attempt to make her feel as badly as possible. Russel Morris, has treated Misty Durham, Caleb's mother, in much the same way. He not only acts in a trollish manner online, but has appeared on television, specifically the Steve Wilkos show, forcefully trying his best to intimidate Misty and stop her from any further efforts to determine why her son died. He is also on a campaign to blurt out anything he can remember about Misty's past, in an ongoing effort to dissuade the general public from caring about what happened to Caleb. It's a little like what Joaquin Rams did to Hera Mcloed. Bullies often do this to keep their victims from snitching on them. This behavior is curious in Russel Morris's case, however; why is it so important to him that Misty hurry up and find closure and move on with her life? And why is he so ready to disparage Misty? Most of us do not express sympathy for grieving mothers by intimidating them or insulting them.

 

Joaquin Rams Indicted For Capital Murder

Joaquin Rams, of Virginia, was indicted earlier this week for capital murder, which means that the state of Virginia can seek the death penalty if he is found guilty. In October of last year, his fifteen month old son, Prince, died during an overnight visit. After a lengthy investigation and examination of two other cases, those being the death of Rams's former girlfriend and the death of his mother, Rams was finally arrested in December for Prince's death. The recurring theme in all of the deaths was life insurance policies. A disturbing national recurring theme is poorly thought out family law court decisions.  Judge Algeo, of Montgomery County, Maryland, presided over the custody case that cost fifteen month old Prince his life.

 

 

Petition Calling For Resignation Of Judge Michael Algeo

This is a petition calling for Judge Michael Algeo, of Montgomery County, Maryland, to resign. In October of last year, he heard a family law court case involving a little boy by the name of Prince Mcleod Rams, and allowed unsupervised visitation  with a sperm donor who was under investigation for two murders in a neighboring state. On Prince's first visit, he was murdered. The sperm donor, Joaquin Rams, is now in jail with no bond, after the Commonwealth of Virginia gathered the evidence necessary to complete their investigations and arrest him. Nice going, Algeo. Creep.

Please sign the petition. Petitions, in and of themselves, are not necessarily tools that force change, but they are methods of making the public aware that change is needed.

 

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.

More About Joaquin Rams And His Arrest

Here is more about Joaquin Rams, of Virginia, who was recently arrested for the murder of his infant son, Prince. It seems, that while Judge Michael Algeo, of Montgomery County, Maryland, was mocking Prince's mother, Hera Mcleod, for wanting more caution and fewer risks with her son's safety, Joaquin Rams was out buying insurance policies on his son.....giving the false information that his son's mother was dead! She looks very much alive to me in this video. So much for Judge Algeo's notion that Rams's dishonestly was overstated by Mcleod....
 

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Joaquin Rams Arrested For Murder Of Baby

Joaquin Rams, charged with first degree murder.

Joaquin Rams, of Virginia, has finally been arrested for the October, 2012 murder of his own infant son, one year old Prince Mcleod Rams. Over the aptly presented objections of Prince's mom, Hera Mcleod, Montgomery County Maryland Judge Michael Algeo, of this post, insisted upon unsupervised visitation for Rams, and on the first visit, little Prince was fatally injured. Looking through some of the court records from  Montgomery County, Judge Algeo was actually quoted in official records as having told Hera Mcleod that in order for Prince's visits with Rams to be supervised, Prince would have to be returned home with "cigarette burns"! Since there were no cigarette burns, Rams was given ample opportunity to commit murder. Nice going, Judge Algeo!

According to The Washington Post, Joaquin Rams has taken out "multiple" insurance policies on Prince. This is exactly the type of thing Prince's mom wanted Judge Algeo to understand, while Judge Algeo continued to mock her. Since the medical examiner ruled that death was caused by drowning, there were no cigarette burns, so Algeo was not in the slightest bit concerned. Now that the cause of death has finally been established, (why the hell did that take so long, anyway?) Rams has been charged with first degree murder. Once again, nice going, Judge Algeo!

Why is it so hard, in family law court, to protect one's children? When I got my divorce in Jefferson County, West Virginia, I had a family law court judge who decided, despite the fact that my then-husband had been found guilty of domestic violence in criminal court, that he was not guilty. She also decided, despite his criminal record in Maryland for everything from child abuse to theft, that he was completely innocent of any wrongdoing, and that the other who had held him accountable in court for his crimes were only doing so at my behest! She ordered him to pay fifty dollars a month in child support for three children, and warned me not to contact child protective services about any abuses the children suffered while in his care. Eventually, my ex-husband lost interest in the children, or so I thought, and stopped exercising his visitation completely. A couple of months after the last time he saw any of our children, my son, who was then four years old, told me that his father had pulled a knife on him because of a potty accident! I was still under orders from a family law court judge not to tell child protective services!

 Later on, when I remarried and moved out of the area, I did not know where my former spouse lived, as his family protected him from bill collectors, process servers, the Bureau of Child Support, the sheriff of any given locale, and any attempts to repossess his vehicle. One of his brothers, a youth pastor at Aspen Hill Christian Church in Montgomery County, Maryland, actually helped him hide all of his income from the court and the Bureau of Child Support so he could not be charged any more than fifty dollars a month. The fact that I had medical problems and required periodic blood transfusions for awhile did not matter to anyone.....it was as if "Jesus" had won some sort of a battle, inasmuch as my ex-husband's family was concerned, when my ex got to keep his money instead of paying child support. When he finally discovered, through the grapevine, that I had opted to move, he surfaced and challenged it. I had to reschedule a blood transfusion for the emergency court hearing too. Yes; we had an emergency court hearing because my former spouse suddenly wanted to stop me from moving after hiding himself and his income from me for several years. Threatening a four year old with a kitchen utility knife does not merit any emergent attention, but moving away after several years of no contact does! Gotta love the way these family law court judges think!

The fact that Joaquin Rams had bought insurance policies on his son should have been a giant red flag for any family law court judge. While Hera Mcleod probably did not have the paperwork in hand to wave in the judge's face, it is abundantly clear that she tried to tell the judge about two other open cases involving insurance policies, Joaquin Rams, and unexplained deaths. The state of Virginia had not completed their investigations at that time, so Rams had not been charged. That has changed now. Why couldn't Michael Algeo give the situation just a little more time for investigation, rather than taking chances with a child's life?