Cat Fight!

Kalamazoo has a conundrum: As our little county struggles to right its listing ship, one of our Commissioners has turned on the other. They're both Democrats, mind you, opposite poles of the same planet. This has to do with the recent firing of Corporation Counsel Elizabeth White - or, "Beth", as Commissioner Tracy Hall calls her in an op-ed hit piece published in the local cloud.

For you regulars, yes, this is the same Commissioner Hall with whom I corresponded about poor Charlie's case, and was told that we just needed to let the lawyers handle it. (That was in January 2017.) In her email to me then, Hall wrote:

"I read parts of your blog. I was reminded of my own uncle and the deep love we had for each other."

Whatever. When my sister later asked her for any kind of an update on our demand to correct the erroneous Cause of Death on her son's Death Certificate, a gatekeeper stepped in between them... The Corporation Counsel again, only this time, one named Amber BB.

BB emailed my sister a horrifying cluster of words that intentionally shreds the very parchment upon which is written the social contract of all free people. The county's Corporation Counsel - they're taking applications again, by the way - deliberately contravened the citizen's absolute right to representative government, saying the Commissioner was not at liberty to answer her, uh, constituent.

(And we wonder why three out of the last nine presidents have been impeached... 10 if you count Gerald Ford.)

Anyway, BB got fired. Why is anybody's guess. Her replacement, with whom I had some interesting interactions, also got fired, and that's what prompted Hall's sudden plunge into the icy waters of public discourse. In her op/ed piece ratting out her fellow Commissioner, Julie Rogers (ostensibly for leaving a voice mail having to do with Beth's firing), she at first pats herself on the back amply:

"As an elected official, I listen to people every day sharing their hopes and dreams for the future, but more recently, sharing their fears about our government and the moral clarity of our elected officials."

Don't worry, I'm not going to do this all day. Suffice it to say that Hall gave our grieving family nothing but lip service at first, and then nothing at all. She did nothing to further our hope that Charlie's name not be smeared with the false allegation of Suicide, or to our dream that the Michigan Supreme Court will someday divest this little county of its notions of Total Supremacy.

In her published broadside, she took another deep step into the cranberries, cribbing:

"According to the Pew Research Center’s Public Trust in Government poll, the percent of Americans claiming to trust government to do the right thing always or most of the time has fallen steadily from 73% in 1958 (the first year Pew ran the poll) to 17% in 2019."

YEAH. BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU. People who sit by and do nothing while Kalamazoo County doesn't do the right thing.

In my opinion, Tracy's just smearing her fellow Democrat because, golly, they both have ambitions for a State House of Representatives run. They want to get the f*ck out of Kalamazoo and head on out to Lansing, so as to serve under Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature (a.k.a. Snow White and the 148 Dwarfs). It's understandable.

And let's face it. Out of those two, Julie Rogers is the more attractive candidate, enough said about that. It is Commissioner Rogers who is blamed by the disgruntled ex-employee White in her attempt to deprive the taxpayers of money in an enrichment-seeking lawsuit. Beth is sort of alleging that Mrs. Rogers lorded it over her, and I emailed the Commissioner about that, to thank her if that was indeed the case.

Democrats, in Kalamazoo County and elsewhere, face a steep enough hill as they get ready for the Trump Re-Election Juggernaut next year. Infighting, for whatever opaque motives Tracy Hall may have, is not part of the solution... Especially when ya don't mean it.

pH 12.21.19

***

Living in the Past

Below is a comment my Mom left in April, 2017. Every word of it remains relevant today. It's a shame that she did not live to see justice for Charlie. Rita Heller passed away on November 13, 2019. We wish it were not so.

Take it away, Mum.

***

As Charlie's grandmother I am still very concerned and dismayed at the finding of Charlie's death as SUICIDE. The reasons given were threefold:

Suicide Circumstances
Recent suicide of friend/family
Crisis in past 1 weeks
Other relationship problem

These three things are simply figments of someone’s imagination and are most certainly not true.

Recent suicide of friend/family - there has been no suicide of any family member, no suicide of any known friend or acquaintance of either Charlie or anyone else that we know. This is simply not true.

Crisis in the past 1 weeks – there was no crisis in Charlie’s life, no crisis in either Charlie’s maternal or paternal family, or for any of his friends or acquaintances. This is simply not true.

Other relationship problem – what on earth does this statement even mean? If there was any relationship problem in this 12 year old's life he most certainly would have shared that with his mother, father, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends or grandparents. This is simply not true.


http://legalbeagle.com/8787355-mean-cause-death-undetermined.html

Problems in Possible Suicide Cases

In the same article, Dr. Panella also explains that for a ruling of suicide, the medical examiner must conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the person intentionally meant to kill himself. This can prove tricky for a medical examiner, because once again he does not know the intent if there are not other reports available to help him make that determination. If a person dies after drinking a large amount of alcohol and ingesting a large amount of sleeping pills, it might appear as suicide, but there is reasonable doubt. The person might not have realized how many pills he was taking or meant to take something else, not sleeping pills. According to Dr. M.J. Breiding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many suicides end up as undetermined classification due to the lack of knowledge surrounding intent.

Meaning of Undetermined

Most states recognize five causes of death: undetermined, natural, homicide, suicide and accidental. The main problem for medical examiners in classifying death is that homicide, suicide and accidental all involve intent. A medical examiner may classify the cause of death as undetermined if the intent is not understood at the conclusion of an autopsy, due to legal consequences attached to such cases. For legal purposes an undetermined cause of death simply means the medical examiner cannot say for sure what caused the death of the person. For example, if a person with severe heart problems dies of a heart attack and is found to have a large dose of cocaine in his system during autopsy, it may not be clear if the heart attack was natural or cocaine caused it. If the medical examiner cannot conclude, he might list the death as undetermined.

Our family wants the Death Certificate changed to Accidental - not UNDETERMINED as that means they don't know how it happened (ligature marks and witness statements say that he was found hanging so that ought to be obvious) and of course not say SUICIDE because there was no indication of intent whatsoever either by word or written.

Our family would like to be able to grieve Charlie and not constantly have to struggle with this death certificate finding - it is almost two years now and we pray daily that the coroner will change the finding as was offered in a recent letter from Thom Canny.

***

RVH 12.o5.19

Yerrrrr OUT!

Hey, check this out. More turnover in Kalamazoo County, specifically, in the Corporations Counsel's office. Seems like the taxpayers just can't be pleased in this regard:

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2018/05/kalamazoo_county_legal_rep_say.html

Hah? Oh, sorry. Wrong one. Try again:

https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2019/11/kalamazoo-county-says-federal-lawsuit-from-fired-lawyer-has-no-merit.html

There it is. I'll call her "Ms. White", because that's her name; this is the same public servant who, on August 2nd of 2018, sent the following to my sister's attorney in what many people would call a hideous display of authoritarianism:

"Per our phone conversation just now, I am forwarding the following online post to your attention. This involves the Heller matter that was the subject of the hearing yesterday before Judge Lipsey. I have copied the Undersheriff as well. We have perceived this as a threat against the Medical Examiner among others and have forwarded it to law enforcement."

Yeah. And, honey, you can perceive this as a victory lap.

Covered in something other than glory, White was placed on leave, appropriately enough on Halloween. And to think, she probably left a pretty promising job for this gig, for this little place that really is.

Um, as far as taking Kalamazoo County to court goes, based on our own experience: Good luck!

Well... Bye.

pH 11.23.19

***

Second Thing First

I was buying a gun a few weeks ago at [PRODUCT PLACEMENT REDACTED] when something small and important occurred to me. It was a .22 rifle, good for plinking. Charlie wasn't my only nephew, I have several as well as other relatives, and target shooting is an occasional family event for us.

The store is closing up so all of their stuff went on sale, and sometimes you just have to buy something because it's cheap and you'd feel like you left money on the table if you didn't bring it home. This is universal human behavior.

The small, unimportant thing that occurred to me did so while I was filling out the computerized background check. (That, too, is universal in American retail.) Some of the questions had to do with my citizenship. One of them, though, seemed different than it was a few years ago.

In 1996, mind you, the Clinton administration took a bite out of the Second Amendment when it made domestic violence a "qualifying misdemeanor" which would make it legal for the government to take away a citizen's right to own a gun. I wrote about it then; make domestic violence a felony, I said. What's so wrong with that?

So that question didn't surprise me.

Another one did... Something to the effect of, "Are you currently under any restraining order that forbids you from harassing, threatening or stalking any other person?" My answer was 'No'. And the artificial intelligence verified that, and they printed out my paperwork and sent me on my way with a box under my arm. That would not have been possible from August 2017 through August 2018.

I would have had to answer 'Yes' in that time period, when a certain neighborhood plaintiff was fruitlessly suing me for a post on this here blog. I caught said plaintiff in a big fat lie, showed them my cards and asked for dismissal, to which they stipulated immediately. That stipulation ended the unconstitutional Preliminary Injunction that Kalamazoo County's 9th Circuit Court had imposed upon me until then, and which is millstoned to my sister (and to Charlie's Dad) PERMANENTLY (pending appeal).

It doesn't matter who the plaintiff was. Most loyal readers may already know. What matters is that Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong's Pathology Department, which is also the Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine that is housed on Western Michigan University's campus, sent a fax to the plaintiff (that I knew about), and was the document around which the plaintiff's big fat lie was centered.

I sent a complaint about WMed to the Federal Trade Commission, because the evidence strongly suggests that Joyce deJong provided information to the person who sued me, and the person who sued me denied receiving it. (The FTC's response was to provide me with a link to a website that doles out advice on how not be defrauded, so at least in their eyes, I'm a victim of fraud.)

I also notified my state Senator of the fact that the Medical Examiner had essentially conspired with a plaintiff who sued me, for whatever reason. He, my state Senator, didn't do anything about it at all. Looking at his campaign contributors, I notice a check from the judge in my case, and a much bigger donation from "Friends of WMU". So, reasons.

When I filed a FOIA request specifically requesting communications between the Medical Examiner and the plaintiff's business, since the document was faxed from WMed Pathology to [PRODUCT PLACEMENT REDACTED], the County responded by saying that only communications which were sent across County servers would be available for release, and that no such communications existed on County servers.

When we filed an earlier FOIA with WMed, asking for all documents related to Charlie's case, that very document was provided to my sister's attorney - only without the information that my copy has on it, as applied by the receiving party's fax machine. So they had it, their fax number sent it to the plaintiff who sued me, the plaintiff lied about receiving it until I proved it, at which time the suit against me was voluntarily dismissed.

For an entire year, my First Amendment rights were infringed upon, fraudulently as far as this former defendant is concerned. And, come to find out, so were my Second Amendment rights. Had I tried to purchase a firearm through a licensed dealer during that year, I would have been turned down on a background check, because I was under an Injunction that was enforced ex parte (that means they didn't ask me first) by a court that still refuses to address whether or not the plaintiff is a big fat liar.

You want the details? I'd be happy to share them, but you'd have to email me for that stuff, since my sister remains gagged and these litigious bastards would no doubt file a 4th Motion to Show Cause, saying that I published information about them as her confederate or some dumb shit like that. Oh, yes, Pilgrim: They mean to deprive her of her liberty, right here in America.

There's more. On August 2nd, 2018, while the bogus gag order was still around my throat, Kalamazoo County's Corporations Counsel sent an email to the Sheriff's Department accusing me of threatening the Medical Examiner. They obviously considered it and found the complaint to be without merit (it was over a blog post, funny how that works) because, well, I passed the background check, eh?

Even so, my government took its best shot, because it didn't like what I said about them. That should send a chill down every American's spine.

That was the second attempted blight upon my Second Amendment rights. The court's sacking of my free speech rights was worse, but that's twice that Kalamazoo County has rolled me around in the dust. It's not fun being under that magnifying glass. These are supposed to be unalienable rights, but look, I was found guilty and had to prove my innocence.

That's bullshit. At the risk of sounding grandiose, it can fairly be said that the Constitution did not protect me, but the other way around. And it didn't protect my sister or her son's father, who watched their free speech rights get suffocated, like they needed that.

Maybe you see it differently. Maybe you think I'm all wrong, that I've gone too far... Well, there's a Report Abuse link on the very bottom of the -- see it down there? Yeah, I put that there. No sweat.

I hope you feel free to leave comments, because they have always been welcome on this blog.

But mostly I just hope you feel free.

pH 11.07.19

***

Trick, treat.

How's about a reprint for ya, from just over two years ago... And still nothing has changed.

(It's easier on me. Happy Halloween.)

***

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Hollows Eve

What's to - hang on. (Hey, what's today's date, is this the 26th? Hah? Technically, the 27th... Okay, great.)

Alright. Upon sunrise of the morrow, there will be scantily four days until Halloween, a popular holiday in America and around the world. The prospect of receiving free candy has, apparently, universal appeal.

By now, you know what this is about, so I won't bother beating you over the head with stories of Trick-or-Treat Past. I won't festoon cyberspace with tales of the price that must be paid to get that candy, the horrors that have to be endured.

It's too late for that. That was last year. And last year my sister's house was done up in the spirit of the Season of the Witch. Enough young socialists-in-training showed up to make it all worthwhile - the Jacks O'Lantern, the scary music, the blood-soaked ax buried in the block of wood, the anti-dental goodies...

It went over. Sure it did. Fright Night. But none of those young socialists-in-training was Charlie.

This year could be the same, if she felt like it, but four days out, not a sign of the holiday is evident. No knives or candles have invaded the pristine bodies of pumpkins, spilling their guts and carving crude faces out of their agony.

There are no clattering glow-in-the-dark plastic skeletons. No dangling rubber bats. No fake spiderwebs. No spooky music or creepy lights. All that stuff remains in the basement.

There isn't even any candy in the cupboards this week, and there normally is, year round.

Tomorrow will come and go, and nothing will get done about this, and then it will be three days away from Halloween. The house will be no closer to where it should be to properly honor the dark hours of the event.

But at least tomorrow will have come and gone.

pH 1o.27.17

***

Just Wondering...

Looks like the last of the good weather. Any day now, it will be Raking Season, and the world will lose most of its color for a while, then it will go completely white. We shrug, and bundle up.

I wonder what I'm going to write about next week...

pH 1o.o9.19

***

Songs for Charlie Today

Dead leaves and the dirty ground
when I know you're not around  - The White Stripes, "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"

***

I reach to the sky
and call out your name
If I could trade
I would  - The Offspring, "Gone Away"

***

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life  - Green Day, "Good Riddance"

***

Yes, no tellin' what you do
I done everything I could,
just to try and get along with you.  - Son House, "Death Letter"

***

pH 1o.o7.19

Exhibition Day

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

***

***

pH

The Stress was Too Much

We often wondered if the stress would kill Theresa. If she might literally die of a broken heart after the loss of her young son... Close. She is in a hospital on the other side of the state. So if she dies the local Medical Examiner, Joyce "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" deJong, won't get to do to her what she did to Charlie.

It is too much. My sister's antagonists, the ones who have the power to simply not torment her, will not stop until she is dead, obviously. Isn't that what monsters do?

This Penny Dreadful is brought to you by:

Kalamazoo County Corporations Counsel Elizabeth White and her predecessors Amber Beebe and Thom Canny. They treated my sibling like a pest and not a citizen whose taxes provide the silk pillows upon which these pigs have been carried throughout their illustrious "careers".

Medical Examiner Joyce deJong and her pit bull, JoAnn Catania, who violated practically every word of their own code of conduct in being so stupid and cruel to a grieving mother, whose frantic, frightened attempts at CPR failed to bring Charlie back. They were wrong, they knew it, and they made her take them to court anyway.

WMed Stryker School of Medicine, and its host campus Western Michigan University - her alma mater for fuck's sake - which gives WMed aid and cover and employs this coven of witches, knowing all along what they've done.

A former neighborhood kid named Ellery, who claims to have filmed my nephew's hanging death as part of some sick, twisted, grotesque "challenge", and further claims to have posted such a video online. I published her texts. We called the police; they don't care.

Those are the conspirators in the killing of my sister. If they achieve their goals Theresa will be reunited with her dear son Charlie in the only way that she ever can be.

There will be surgery. Double aneurysm. Again, lucky for her, she's out Detroit way. In a big hospital that isn't staffed by the 'C' students of the world, which is what you'll find in Kalamazoo on a good day.

Coming home from the Court of Appeals two weeks ago, from dealing with the coroner's endless bullshit, we got T-boned by a van. Maybe the force of the collision, which totalled both vehicles, was causative... But so is the stress. And it needn't be.

Tired of writing about it.

pH

Far, Far Away

Well, here we all are, Dear Readers, my cousins of the world. Entrenched. Really, it's a miracle we got this far. Right up until the point where I started blogging about my nephew's non-suicide, my sister had been bandied about from the Medical Examiner's Office to county officials to blah blah blah. We have the email chains to prove it. Joyce deJong - aka Morticia, if I can still say that - literally typed, "her lawyer can talk to our lawyer, and we are DONE."

They weren't done. As soon as the pressure was applied, they started making silly mistakes. And committing allegedly nefarious acts. And spending money to defend themselves against the issue. Colluding with those who sued us. Calling the cops. That's all scary stuff, meant to be so, which is how they would (s)tamp down any mere person who had the temerity to stand up to them.

Everyone knows what's going on here. The court system knows. The media knows. You know - and it wasn't heat from me that brought out their spikes, but from you, the eyeballs that see what I am saying here. As soon as their pissy sheets were hung out for the world to see, it was like Holy Water, Batman, people know the truth.

Not many citizens would take on such a leviathan opponent. It's not just a heavy lift; powerful entities like these ones have no doubt that they can crush any little challenger, whether they have legal representation or not. Why would they ever think otherwise? They own the world after all...

Unless you've ever taken any courses in Government, or Political Science, or Journalism, or History, even Shakespeare. Then you know what I know, that any tree can be chopped down by a single ax. In fact,  just about every tree that ever lived has been. I use metaphors like that one at my own risk, actually. Now they'll say I'm a potential lumberjack (Paul Bunyan perhaps), or worse.

Do you know why I have this unshakable belief in the power of the individual in society? Do you want to know? Not because of my education or my work, Lord, no. It's this:

When I was a little kid, my parents took me to see a movie where, at the end, a single pilot in an X-wing fighter blew up the Death Star. So I've seen it done, okay? Moreover, they made a video arcade game based on the movie, basically a Death Star Flight Simulator, and I myself have flown in an X-wing fighter and blown up the Death Star... Many times.

Now, watch, as petty as the Medical Examiner's Office has been, they'll rat me out to George Lucas and claim that I've just committed a copyright violation, or some other Mickey Mouse shit like that. Nothing would surprise me by this time.

Even WMed, the quasi-private school that houses this Little Shop of Horrors, has disabled comments on all of their YouTube videos. They want you to see the outer epidermal layer, not the shitty truth about them, which you will ONLY find in this space.

Stay tuned. The appeal hearing is scheduled for May 2nd. That's two days before Star Wars Day, May the 4th, which is coming right up... May the 4th be with you.

pH 4.o8.19

***

He was a little kid. Playing. In his front yard.

I speak for my nephew, who no longer has a voice of his own.