NYPD Detective accused of Pimping 13-Year-old

Detective Wayne Taylor, 35, a 14-year veteran of the New York Police Department’s housing bureau had a second job: Pimp. He was arrested along with his girlfriend, 29-year-old Zelika Brown. They are accused of forcing a 13-year-old runaway to work as a prostitute at parties around the city. The criminal charges include: second-degree kidnapping, second- and third-degree promoting prostitution, third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, each could face up to 25 years in prison. They were each being held on $250,000 bail. See the TV report here.

It all began when the 13-year-old ran away from her parent’s Brooklyn home on Jan. 10 and met with a person known as “Drama” who offered to get her into the business of dancing for money at parties. “Drama” introduced the girl to Zelika Brown who told the girl that she had bought her for $500 and that she had to work off the debt. Brown introduced the girl to detective Taylor as her husband. Even though the girl was only 13-years-old, Taylor told her to tell anyone who asked, that she was 19.

Both Taylor and Brown took the girl to a Queens barber shop where various men paid cash to be with her. Taylor instructed the girl on how much to charge the men: $40 for oral sex and $80 for intercourse. Another girl working that party, Krystal Tudy, 18, later told investigators that Brown put her to work and provided security for her and others in Brown’s employ. Tudy and other prostitutes beat her for not making enough money at the barbershop party, with Taylor threatening to put her to work as a streetwalker and warning her that if she tried to flee, she would trip the house alarm. The girl lived at Brown’s home at 173-37 Vaswani Avenue in Queens for about 17 days.

Between Jan 10 and Jan 27 the girl was forced to perform sexual acts with approximately 20 men who had paid Brown and Taylor to have sex with her. The girl eventually escaped to her family, who took her to a police precinct, police said.

“This case is every parent and every child’s worst nightmare, made even more frightening by the fact that one of the defendants is a police officer who swore to uphold the law and the community he serves,” District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement. “The case will be vigorously prosecuted.”

Taylor’s lawyer, Peter Brill, told reporters his client “has a right to have the case proven against him beyond a reasonable doubt.” Randall Unger, an attorney for Brown, said “It may turn out that there is a great deal of exaggeration in this case.”

At the time of her arrest, Zelika Brown allegedly made statements to police that she was running a prostitution business and that the victim, Tudy and other women performed sex with men for money and that Taylor would “watch out” for her while the girls were prostituting themselves. Det. Wayne Taylor, 35, tried to distance himself from the allegations, telling investigators he only drove the teen — and other girls and young women — for his girlfriend’s exotic dancer business, authorities said.

Police say Taylor joined the force in 1994. He was assigned to the Housing Bureau, and worked in the Bronx and in Queens. The detective was reportedly arrested during a police stakeout of his house. Sources say he left with two females, one identified as a prostitute and the other a madame. The three were allegedly en route to a party at a Holiday Inn in Queens. A police source says that the detective had previously been on modified duty after he was accused of using a department car to drive home after work. The same source referred to Taylor as “a bad, bad guy.” The crimes Taylor is accused of occurred off-duty, police said. He likely faces termination and up to 25 years in prison.

 

Cops Shoot and Kill Cop

Off duty Mount Vernon Police Officer Christopher Ridley, 23, was in a desperate struggle with Anthony Jacobs, 39, a homeless man accused of violently assaulting another man. They were fighting for control of Ridley’s 9mm handgun when, as Ridley finally had control of his weapon, four Westchester County police arrived on the scene and shot and killed their fellow police officer. Ten shots were fired, four or five of which hit officer Ridley.

The county cops involved were identified today as Detective Robin Martin, and officers Frank Oliveri, Jose Calero and Christian Gutierrez, who was a classmate of Ridley’s at the county police academy. Westchester County Executive Andy Spano issued the following statement on the death of Christopher Ridley:

“This is a horrible tragedy for everyone. My heartfelt sympathy and prayers go to the family and friends of Officer Chris Ridley and his colleagues in the Mount Vernon Police Department. We are all devastated at the loss of this young police officer who had great potential. Officer Ridley was committed to protecting people in the city where he grew up. Acting in his capacity as a police officer, he was killed in this terrible chain of events. Our own County officers involved have been deeply traumatized and were distraught to learn that it was a fellow officer who was shot. They as well as the entire County Police force are shaken and saddened by this event. This has been particularly painful for the entire law enforcement community. County Police are cooperating in every way with the investigation, and we stand ready to provide any assistance to the family.’’

It all began when Ridley attempted to arrest Anthony Jacobs who had just assaulted another man. Sources told The Journal News that Jacobs fought with Ridley when he realized he was being arrested and that during the struggle Ridley’s gun fell to the ground. Both men grabbed at the weapon, which went off twice before Ridley managed to throw Jacobs to the ground and retrieve the gun. He was pointing the weapon at Jacobs when four county police officers fired 10 shots, hitting Ridley four or five times.

One witness, Robert Connolly, said Ridley “was grappling with the other guy, the gun went off and he was still holding it when the (Westchester County ) cops came and shot him. They had no way to know (Ridley) was a cop.”

There is some confusion as to whether the cops told Ridley to put down his gun before shooting him. Connolly said he did not hear the county officers say anything before they began shooting. Another witness, however, said the county police did yell at Ridley to drop the gun.

“The cops were standing across the street at the time,” said Holly Savage of Port Chester, who was waiting to catch a bus home when the drama unfolded. “They were across from the incident. I don’t think (Ridley) could hear them.”

Daniel Jackson, the city’s deputy public safety commissioner, had little to say about witness accounts or details of what happened, saying that “we’re doing our best to ensure that this is being done objectively and thoroughly and that the integrity of the investigation is not compromised.” Jackson said police have interviewed more than 40 witnesses, are analyzing video from surveillance cameras mounted on buildings in the area and having ballistics tests done on all weapons used in the incident. He said an autopsy has been completed by the county Medical Examiner’s Office, but would not release preliminary findings. He also would not say whether any of the county police involved in the shooting have given statements or been interviewed by White Plains detectives.

Defense attorney John Grant represents Officer Jose Calero, 35, who joined the county’s police department eight months ago. Grant declined to comment on the circumstances leading up to the shooting that killed 23-year-old Officer Christopher Ridley, but said he believed the investigation would not result in any charges against his client or Detective Robin Martin or Officers Frank Oliveri or Christian Gutierrez. Grant said that his client is “very distressed” about Ridley’s death and that all four officers are grieving for their dead colleague.

“When all the information is available and the evidence is present, I think everybody will see that this was just a horrible tragedy and that there’s really no wrongdoing on anybody’s part,” he said. “In time, when everything is laid bare, everyone will understand what took place and why. It’s going to confirm that nobody did anything wrong. There’s no culpability on the part of any of the officers at all.”

F. Hollis Griffin, detective Robin Martin’s lawyer, would not comment on his client’s role in the shooting. He said that he believed the county officers did tell Ridley to drop his gun. “He’s very upset. It was a very disturbing circumstance that he was presented with,” Griffin said of Martin, who lives in Mount Vernon and was an acquaintance of Stanley Ridley, the dead officer’s father.

“I think it was a terrible accident. It was a tragedy,” Griffin said.

Meanwhile, in Mount Vernon, Police Commissioner David Chong announced that Ridley was being posthumously promoted to the rank of detective. Commissioner Chong traced the time from January 2006 to the present at which P.O. Christopher A. Ridley first joined the force receiving Mount Vernon Police Officer Shield # 2174 to today, January 29, 2008, when he would posthumously receive Mount Vernon Detective Shield #11, the shield that would this day be retired, never to be used again “in honor of a man; our brother, our friend.” To wit, Commissioner Chong would add, “Let’s not forget that Detective Christopher A. Ridley died a hero.”

In the background would stir the gut-wrenching sorrowful notes only bagpipes could evoke at times of such solemnity. The process of the bagpipe players, flanked by the honor guard who would present the gold Detective’s Shield unleashed a torrent of tears that welled from the heart, rushing down cheeks as Reverend Dixon blessed the badge, and then presented it to the Ridley Family. Reverend Dixon was able to gather all in the chamber together by asking everyone to hold hands as he spoke.

He would first “thank the Ridley family for giving us a son, who would become a man, who would bring the City of Mount Vernon together as never before. Christopher Ridley is a symbol,” the Reverend Ridley said, “a torch of guidance for better things to come.”

Shortly after the shooting, Anthony Jacobs, 39, who lives at a county homeless shelter in Mount Pleasant, was arrested on felony charges of second-degree assault and second-degree possession of a weapon. Court papers released after his arraignment in White Plains City Court today say that he’s accused of punching and kicking an unidentified 58-year-old man, “causing serious physical injury, including two broken wrists and two broken ribs,” along with multiple bruises. The complaint also notes that he “forcefully wrestled control” of Ridley’s loaded gun while he was trying to arrest Jacobs. Police have not identified the victim of Jacobs’ alleged assault, but said he lives in the Bronx and was on his way home from work when he was attacked.

Jacobs, his hand bandaged, did not speak or enter a plea during his brief arraignment in White Plains City Court today. He is being held without bail at the county jail and is due back in court Monday. His lawyer, Arlene Popkin, said Jacobs gave police two videotaped statements about the incident. She had no comment after his court appearance.

According to the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, Christopher Ridley served as a youth mentor at Grace Baptist. In Mount Vernon, where drugs, gangs and violence have claimed many young lives, Officer Ridley would spend time telling teenage boys that “there are rewards to those who make the right decisions,” one of the church’s ushers said.

“He was concerned about our young in the community and he wanted to get together to talk about his ideas of what could be done to help them,” said Mount Vernon’s mayor, Clinton I. Young.

Officer Ridley was born in Mount Vernon and moved to Voorhees, N.J., with his mother, Felita Bouché, after she and his father divorced when he was 5. Twelve years later, he returned to Mount Vernon and enrolled at Westchester Community College. His dream “was always to be a police officer,” a cousin, Danielle Scholar, said. On the day Officer Ridley graduated from the Police Academy, he visited the church to show off his new uniform.

“He was so proud,” Mr. Richardson recalled in an interview. “He was a role model.”

**Detective Christopher Ridley was the first police officer in Mount Vernon killed in the line of duty since 1974.**

 

Man Wakes Up — At His Own Wake!

I guess the moral of the story below could be: Don’t rush to judgment. Feliberto Carrasco was given up for dead before his miraculous recovery……..

An 81-year old man in the small Chilean village of Angol shocked his grieving relatives by waking up in his coffin at his own wake, local media said on Sunday. When Feliberto Carrasco’s family members discovered his body limp and cold, they were convinced that the octogenarian’s hour had come, so they immediately called a funeral home, not a doctor.

Carrasco was dressed in his finest suit for the wake, and his relatives gathered to bid him a final farewell.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought I must be mistaken, and I shut my eyes,” Carrasco’s nephew Pedro told the daily Ultimas Noticias.

“When I opened them again, my uncle was looking at me. I started to cry and ran to get something to open up the coffin to get him out.”

The man who “rose from the dead” said he was not in any pain, and only asked for a glass of water. Local radio also surprised listeners by announcing a correction to Carrasco’s death announcement, saying the news had been premature.

 

The Library of Congress Needs Your Help

Have you ever looked at some old family album and wondered who are these people? Maybe a long-lost cousin or a forgotten family friend. Did you ever wonder how old is this picture anyway? If you are lucky there may be some information scribbled on the back. If not maybe you could ask grandma or uncle. Old analog cameras were incapable of recording time/date stamps and sometimes people would write on the back of old photographs the particulars…..but often there would be no information. Just recently my mother sent me an old black and white picture (remember those??) of my dad and his brothers when he was a boy. I had to ask her to identify each person in the picture…even my own Dad!!

Today most cameras are capable of record meta data, detailing the time, date and even location of a picture. We have online services like FLICKR where photos can be uploaded and shared. Tagging is a common feature where anyone can add information to a photo. We have come a long way since the early days of photography.

However there are literally millions of unidentified photos, whose information has been lost with the passage of time. The Library of Congress has thousands of historical photos that it needs help with. It is appealing to FLICKR users to help identify, tag and make pertinent comments. It is hoping that people will add valuable information that might otherwise be impossible for it to find. The pictures, which are stunning in their quality, were taken from the early to mid 1900s, and the subjects range from baseball players to Rosie the Riveter types during World War II.

These photos can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress.

Even if you can’t help identify or provide more information about these pictures, take a look anyway. It is a window on a past era that reminds us of what it was like back then.

 

5 Year-Old Boy Handcuffed

Dennis Rivera, 5, a kindergartener at a PS 81 in Queens was handcuffed by a school safety agent and taken to Elmhurst Hospital by EMS, for a psychiatric evaluation. His mother, Jasmina Vazquez, was livid. She is demanding answers for the brutal way the school handled her child.

“I think it was excessive force. It was unnecessary what they did to my son,” she said.

5 year-old Dennis suffers from asthma, has speech problems, and may have attention deficit disorder. The incident happened on Jan. 17 around 11 a.m., when the boy allegedly threw a tantrum:

The police report says the child was “punching his teacher and swinging wildly at school aides, that he smacked the assistant principal in the face, ran into a corner, and began to throw things on the floor.”

He was taken to the principal’s office and while there he apparently knocked items off of a desk. Rather than calling the boy’s parents, a school safety agent cuffed the boy’s small hands behind his back using metal restraints, the school source said. The agent and school officials then called an ambulance to take the tot to Elmhurst Hospital Center for a mental evaluation.

Vasquez was stunned when a guidance counselor called her at work to say her son was being taken to the psych ward. She rushed to the school from her job as a patient representative at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. On the way, she called Dennis’ baby-sitter, who was closer to PS 81, and asked her to hurry over to the school. When baby-sitter Sandy Ortiz arrived, Dennis was still handcuffed, she said. School safety agents also were holding his elbows even though the boy was calm, Ortiz said. Dennis is about 4-feet-3 and weighs 68 pounds.

“I hugged him. I said, ‘OK, release the cuffs, I’m taking him,’” she recalled. “They told me, ‘No, Miss. You’re not taking him anywhere.’ I was so upset. There’s no reason to handcuff a baby of 5 years old, traumatize him that way,” she said.

The handcuffs were removed before Dennis was walked out of the school and driven by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital Center. He was evaluated at the hospital and released about four hours later. Vasquez immediately withdrew Dennis from PS 81 and enrolled him in a private school, Grand Street Settlement.

The Department of Education is investigating, as are the police who are responsible for school safety agents.

“The reality is something had to be done,” said Gregory Floyd of the City Employees Union, which represents the school safety officer. Floyd said cuffing the child was the last resort.

New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein said cases like Rivera’s involve judgment calls.

“I find it troubling when you see a young kid in handcuffs, it’s got to bother you,” he said.

As troubling as this story is, it is not the first time a 5 year-old had been handcuffed at school.

“The situation with school discipline is out of control,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Lieberman said the incident is another example of what the union calls the “criminalization of the classroom.”

“There’s something fundamentally wrong when school safety agents are handcuffing a kid who is 5-years-old for having a tantrum,” she said.

 

Last Full-Blooded Native Eyak Dies

“When a language dies, a whole world dies. It takes millennia to develop, and is an artifact that contains within it a whole culture. This is a tragedy.” said Steven Levinson, of the Max Planck institute for psycholinguists in the Netherlands.

Chief Marie Smith Jones, 89, the last full-blooded member of Alaska’s Eyak Indians has died. She was not only the last of her tribe but also the last fluent speaker of the Eyak language. Born Udach’ Kuqax*a’a'ch, which means “a sound that calls people from afar”, on May 14, 1918 in Cordova, Alaska, Chief Marie Smith Jones grew up on Eyak Lake, where her family had a homestead. She died Jan. 21, 2008 at her home in Anchorage.

Udach’ Kuqax*a’a'ch had a passion. She wanted to preserve the Eyak language. As the last fluent speaker of Eyak she collaborated with Michael Krauss, a linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her goal was to create a written record of the language that future generations could learn from and maybe even resurrect. She helped Krauss compile an Eyak dictionary and grammar. Along with her sister and a cousin she told Krauss stories, Eyak tales, that were made into a book.

“With her death, the Eyak language becomes extinct,” Krauss said. In all, he said, nearly 20 native Alaskan languages are at risk of the same fate. He called them “the intellectual heritage of this part of the world. It is unique to us and if we lose them, we lose what is unique to Alaska.”

According to her daughter, Bernice Galloway, her mother was a traditional Indian in many ways. She was the youngest of the children and waited until her last older sister, Sophie, died in 1992 before taking on the responsibility that comes with being the oldest child. It was at that time that Jones pursued her interest in preserving the Eyak language and the environment, Galloway said.

To the best of our knowledge she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive,” Galloway said. She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life and overcame it, she was about as tenacious as you can get.”

Many of her siblings died young when smallpox and influenza tore through the Eyaks, her daughter said. In 1948, she married William F. Smith, a white Oregon fisherman who met Jones while working his way up the coastline. The couple had nine children, seven of whom are still alive. None of them learned Eyak because they grew up at a time when it was considered wrong to speak anything but English.

Wary of the press, Mrs Smith-Jones nevertheless gained a global reputation for activism. She fought against logging on the Eyaks’ ancestral lands – which run 300 miles along the Gulf of Alaska – oversaw the repatriation of Eyak bones, and twice addressed the United Nations on the subject of peace and the preservation of indigenous languages.

According to Michael Krauss, “she was very much alone as the last speaker of Eyak for the last 15 years. She understood as only someone in her unique position could, what it meant to be the last of her kind.”

“It’s the first, but probably not the last, at the rate things are going, of the Alaska Native languages to go extinct. She understood what was at stake and its significance, and bore that tragic mantle with grace and dignity.”

 

Mom Charged with Sex, Booze and Drugs

Beth Modica, 44, was a former Prosecutor and PTA president. She has four children and her husband is the Spring Valley Police Chief. She now finds herself on the other side of the law. Beth Modica was indicted on 35 counts alleging statutory rape, criminal sex acts, sex abuse and endangering children.

The Rockland County District Attorney, Thomas Zugibe requested that bail be set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond. Beth Modica’s attorney, Gerard Damiani asked for her to be released without bail. He cited Modica’s ties to the community. Damiani said Modica’s character and morality had never been questioned before the current charges were filed. County Court Judge Catherine Bartlett was not impressed; she set Beth Modica’s bail at $75,000 cash or bond. She also issued orders of protection for the 2 boys involved. Damiani objected that the judge had set the bail higher than the DA had requested.

“Your honor,” he said, “The DA recommended bail at $25,000.”

County Court Judge Catherine Bartlett, noting the seriousness of the charges, defended her decision by saying:

“I heard it. These are serious charges involving children in her community,”

The charges are indeed quite serious. They could land Beth Modica in prison for up to 4 years:

She was charged with 5 felonies: 1 count of third-degree rape; and 4 counts of third-degree criminal sexual assault. She also faces 30 misdemeanor charges: 4 counts of third-degree sexual abuse and 26 counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Ramapo Police Chief Peter Brower said the investigation began Dec. 31, when his department received a complaint in the mail. He said the students involved go to Suffern High School, which is also attended by Beth Modica’s 16-year-old son.

Between July 20 and 22, Beth Modica is accused of having had intercourse with a 16-year-old and oral sex with a 15-year-old (friends of her son) in her home. She is alleged to have served alcohol to both of them. On other dates during a two-month period, Modica is accused of having had oral sex with the two boys in cars or at their homes, while drinking alcohol or smoking marijuana with them. It is also alleged that on several occasions she served and shared alcohol and marijuana with “many” other teens from Suffern High School at her Sloatsburg home or in her car.

Rockland County DA Thomas Zugibe took pains to state that Beth Modica’s husband, Spring Valley Police Chief Paul Modica was in no way connected to any of the charges, saying he was “not implicated whatsoever” and had no knowledge of any of the incidents. The couple are now separated. Paul Modica has taken custody of their children. Beth has moved out of their house and has gone to live with her mother. Paul Modica’s lawyer, John Edwards, said:

“Paul’s sole interest at this point is protecting his children. … He’s trying to make sure the kids are impacted as little as possible.”

Check out previous post here

 

Boys, Booze, Bongs and Beth

Beth Modica, 44, mother of four, married to the Spring Valley Police Chief, Paul Modica, is accused of providing alcohol and marijuana to, and having sexual relations with, four of her 16-year-old son’s friends on the Suffern Mounties ice hockey team. Beth worked as an assistant village attorney in Sloatsburg, where she lives, and as deputy town attorney in nearby Ramapo, will be arraigned Tuesday when an indictment is unsealed.

“I’m not going to talk to you,” Paul Modica told a Post reporter last night at the family’s large, two-story house in Sloatsburg, about 45 miles from New York City.

Beth Modica allegedly threw wild pool parties in her Sloatsburg backyard, offering high-school students beer and marijuana, looked away and refused to answer questions outside a relative’s home yesterday. Sources said she also engaged in sexual activity with teens as young as 16.

Beth Modica, who went to law school at St. Johns University, was dismissed from her Sloatsburg job last month – which her boss, Joel Grossbarth, said was due to “budget concerns.” Carl Wright, the mayor of Sloatsburg, said Beth Modica “is a very capable person who served the community well.

“We’re very disappointed and saddened if these charges are indeed true,” he said.

It is reported that Beth and her husband Paul Modica, the police chief have separated. Neighbors also question how much he knew about what was going on. One neighbor, who requested anonymity, said there were at least three pool parties over the summer. He said that when the revelers cleared out, beer cans covered the street and even turned up in his mailbox.

“I knew there was alcohol,” he said. “Over the summer she just changed. She wasn’t the same old Beth anymore. I just feel bad for the kids.”

 

Paulk Pleads Guilty to Perjury

Archbishop Earl Paulk, 80, co-founder of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, a megachurch based in Atlanta, pled guilty to the felony charge that he lied under oath. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Frank Cox, sentenced Paulk to 10 years probation and a fine of $1,000. Cox said the sentence was not unusual for someone like Paulk who, facing as much as 10 years in prison, has no prior record and whose health is “frail.”

There seemed to be unanimous agreement that the sentence was a fair one. Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head said the sentence was “certainly adequate” for Paulk, who had never been charged criminally before and added:

“There are a lot of allegations about things he has done over the past 15 or 20 years,” Head said. “In trying to determine what is a fair sentence, I can’t look at what he’s been alleged to have done in other counties.”

Paulk’s attorney, Joel Pugh, said he had been working with Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head for weeks on negotiating a deal.

“It was a fair and just resolution of the case for a man who has lived his whole life and done wonderful things but made a mistake,” Pugh said. “He’s ready to move on.”

The charges stem from a 2006 deposition Paulk gave in a lawsuit against him by former church employee Mona Brewer, who said she was coerced into an affair. In the deposition Paulk swore that the only other woman that he had sex with, outside of his marriage, was Mona Brewer. However, a court-ordered paternity test revealed that Paulk’s nephew (his brother’s son) was actually Paulk’s biological son, meaning of course, that he had had sexual relations with his brother’s wife. The son, D.E. Paulk, is now the head pastor of the church Paulk founded with his brother in 1960. In addition, 8 other women gave sworn testimony that Paulk had coerced them into having sex with him.

Paulk has also been accused by his granddaughter, Penielle “Penie” White, of child sexual abuse. She gave a supporting deposition in the case brought against him by Mona Brewer. According to Penielle White the abuse happened when she was about 8-years-old. Penielle and her friend, Jessica Battle, both spent the night at her grandfather’s house. She says he touched both of them in “inappropriate areas”.

“He started out playful, tickling and sort of fondling,” White said in a phone interview. “But as a child, you don’t know that’s what he’s doing.”

Matt Wilkins, one of Paulk’s attorneys, denied White’s allegations.

“They surprised him,” Wilkins said of the on-air interviews given by White and her mother – Paulk’s daughter, Beth Bonner. “He spent Thanksgiving at Beth Bonner’s house, and Penie was there. They had a loving family Thanksgiving.”

Bonner, however, said that the family had a meal together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving so that they could be with Paulk’s wife, Norma.

I wonder if Paulk has ever heard of the 10 Commandments? I can think of at least three of them he has violated:

1. You shall not commit adultery
2. You shall not bear false witness
3. You shall not covet your neighbor’s possessions

I couldn’t find anything about child molestation but I am sure the bible has something to say on that subject. It seems as if no-one was safe around this man; not his brother wife; not his own granddaughter and none of the women who accused him of sexual abuse. Paulk allowed his brother to raise a child that Paulk knew was really his son and said nothing about it until a paternity test exposed him. He has created havoc in so many lives and what is his punishment? – 10 years probation and a fine of $1,000!!

 

SWAT Team Removes Boy from House

Tom Shiflett, 62, of Apple Tree Park, Co. is hopping mad. His 11-year-old son, Jon, was abducted from his home – by the The Garfield County All Hazards Response Team. No – the child was not in imminent danger. No – he was not being abused. No – he was not being held hostage. The raid resulted from Tom refusing to allow his son to be taken to hospital for minor injuries that could easily be treated at home. Tom should know; he was a medic in Vietnam and was more than qualified to treat the bruises his son received from falling down.

It all began when Jon tried to grab at the door handle of the car that his sister was driving. He slipped and fell on the pavement, hitting his head. Jon’s father, Tom, was first on the scene. He checked his son out, took him home and applied ice to the bump on his head. He said that Jon’s eyes were not dilated, and that the child appeared to be okay except for some cuts, the bump on his head and a developing black eye. As noted before Tom had medical training from his medic days in Vietnam. He was quite capable of assessing a whole host of injuries and properly monitoring an injured patient.

Someone who had seen the accident called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived Tom told them that everything was under control. They however examined the boy and suggested that he go to the hospital. Tom told them that it was not necessary and refused to let them take the boy. The paramedics left but reported the incident to social services. The next day two social workers visited the Shiflett home. They were allowed to see the boy but again Tom refused to let them take him. The social workers were not satisfied and vowed to return with a court order. This was not an idle threat as the Shiflett’s were about to find out.

Nearly 36 hours later, SWAT team members broke into the family home in western Colorado near New Castle and took Jon to a hospital, where a doctor said the family should keep ice on his bruise, exactly the treatment the family already had been providing. Tina Shiflett, Jon’s mother, recounts what happened that night:

“A fully armed SWAT team broke into our home, slammed my children to the floor face down with their hands behind their backs and shoved a gun in my daughter’s face and handcuffed her.” In a separate letter to World Net Daily (WND), she elaborated a little more fully.

During the attack, she wrote, “One (officer) grabbed my daughter Beth (18 years), who also had a gun to her face, slammed her down and kneed her in the back and held her in that position… My sons Adam (14) and Noah (only 7) lay down willingly, yet they were still forced to put their hands behind their backs and were yelled at to keep their heads down.“My daughter Jeanette was coming out from the back bedroom when she was grabbed, drug down the hallway, across a couch and slammed to the ground,” she said. “The officers then began throwing scissors and screwdrivers across the room (out of our reach, I suppose) and going through our cupboards.

“I asked if I could make a phone call and was told, ‘no.’ My daughter asked if that wasn’t one of our rights. The reply was made, ‘That’s only in the movies,’” she told WND.

Tina says that when the SWAT team arrived at their house about 11:00pm they cooperated fully with the sheriff who asked to see Jon.

“Between 10 and 11 … a sheriff came to the door. My husband met him at the window and he began to question my husband. My husband spoke with him and answered all his questions. The sheriff then said if Tom would just let him speak with Jonathan (our 11 yr. old son) this whole matter (story following) would be closed,” she documented.“Tom said, ‘You are saying, ‘If I let you speak to Jonathan this whole matter will be closed.?’ Then Tom called for Jonathan to come to the window,” she said.

“As soon as Jonathan was visible to the sheriff, a SWAT team appeared shining lights on Jon’s face and others were bashing at the door with a ramming device. My daughter resisted and pushed against the door to stop them as she didn’t know who they were. I told her to back up and not try to fight them. They then entered our home, held a gun to my daughter’s face and others of them, five or more, rushed into the living room and physically forced my other children to the ground.”

“We were told Jonathan would be taken to a hospital near us for evaluation, and then questioned by the human resources. At this point Jonathan was scared, crying and shaking. We asked if we could accompany him, or follow them to the hospital. We were warned not to try to follow him or come to the hospital or criminal charges would be pressed against us.

“Our son was returned to us at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning. In all this was not one shred of evidence found that we had done anything wrong or that Jon had not been properly cared for at home,” she said.

According to Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario he was just following the orders of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.

“I was given a court order by the magistrate to seize the child, and arrange for medical evaluation, and that’s what we did,” he said.

To Ross Talbot, the witness and owner of the mobile home park, the attack — for that is what it was — on the Shiflett family was an abuse of power:

I thought it was an incredibly stupid power move by people who went in there misinformed and ill-informed. I think they violated their personal rights, their constitutional rights and their rights to family. I’ve been (Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario’s) longtime supporter, but I tell you what, to send a SWAT team down there was just absolutely over the hill…. Inappropriate is not nearly strong enough a word. It was gross irresponsibility and stupidity. … Is this Russia? I don’t know what we’re coming to when they think your kid needs medical help and they send a SWAT team.

Tom Shiflett cannot understand how something like this could happen. He is very upset with the system that allowed this kind of abuse on his family.

“When American law allows federal and state agencies to come in a home and confiscate family, there is something wrong with our system,” Shiflett said. “If I can find a law firm or lawyer that can take this pro bono, because I have no money, I’m going to sue everyone on that warrant.”

Tina Shiflett summed up the family’s experience like this:

“To the SWAT Team members … how far will you go in ‘just doing your job?’ If you feel no guilt busting into an innocent family’s home, traumatizing young children and stomping the security found therein, will you follow more horrific orders?” she wrote.“May I remind you that in Nazi Germany, outrageous, monstrous crimes were committed by soldiers ‘just doing their job?’ What will be next? Where will this stop?” she wrote.

“Fathers, mothers, families and countrymen, I challenge you to consider our story and ask yourself the question, ‘If this were my family, what would I do?’ For it very well could be you … next!”