Cinderella Gone Wrong

Back when I was in college in another state ("back in the Dark Ages", as my kids like to tease), an all-male organization on campus that I had a lot of friends in asked me to be one of their two "sweethearts". As their way of thanking us for the many duties we performed for the organization throughout the year, it was customary for the sweethearts to be "presented" (honored) at a formal ball near the end of each spring term.

About 2 weeks before I was to be presented at the ball, the other sweetheart for our group called to ask me who my escort would be. I told her I didn't have a date and had planned on just going to the ball by myself, since I was an independent sort. (It was not unusual for me to be the only female in many of my classes, for example, and at the time I was carrying two very different majors despite having been told by the heads of both departments that they couldn't be combined.) The other sweetheart informed me that I had to have an official escort whose name would be printed in the evening's program, and she asked if I minded if she arranged something for me with one of the members who also needed a date. I told her that would be fine, since I was friends with all the guys and knew I'd be hanging around with all of them at the dance anyway.

Soon after this, one of the guys in the organization called and offered to be my escort for the ball. I thanked him for being willing to do this, and we decided on what time he would pick me up.

Because it was an arranged date, I was surprised when my escort presented me with some beautiful flowers. I remember little about the ball itself, other than being presented with a red rose and an engraved silver tray during the program and just having fun hanging out. In fact, my most vivid memory of the entire evening is of something that happened about 20 minutes before midnight, when the dance was scheduled to end: my escort and I were out in the middle of the dance floor when one of the other dancers, a visiting professor from another college, suddenly collapsed from what was later determined to be a massive heart attack. Despite immediate CPR and the quick arrival of emergency personnel, it was very apparent that this man was already gone when he was carried out, which certainly brought what had been a very nice evening to a sudden end. My escort took me straight back to my dorm.

I remained friends with the other sweetheart and all the guys in the organization until graduation, when we each went our separate ways. As the years went by, I pretty much forgot about the one and only time I'd played Cinderella at the ball, but of course I would not have included this story here if there wasn't more to it (and it's probably not what you think!). As has happened to me so often in recent years, one day out of the blue I suddenly obtained additional information about something I'd always taken at face value that caused me to see it in an entirely different light.

My eye-opening occurred well after my husband had left and during my last visit to my father's house in the same state where I'd gone to college. A sibling of mine and I were attending a public performance in a major theater downtown in the large city where my father and stepmother live. We had just taken our seats when I suddenly spotted the guy who'd escorted me to the ball all those years ago taking a seat with a group of what were obviously good friends of his 5 or 6 rows in front of me.

I immediately pointed him out to my sibling, explained who he was and how I knew him, and marveled that I was able to recognize him after so many years. My sibling immediately began looking at me so strangely that I realized something was very wrong, so I asked what was going on and was told, "Don't you know who he is?" I assured my sibling that I did know him and that I even remembered his name. My sibling then proceeded to inform me that my former escort happened to be the son of a major organized crime boss in the city, that my family had been aware he'd escorted me to the dance that evening, and that they'd been chuckling among themselves for years about my not having a clue about having been set up.

As you can imagine, finding out I'd been treated like this was extremely upsetting. It also caused me to realize for the first time that mine was not the loving family I'd always believed they were and that various things I'd often been confused about could have explanations that were very hard for me to believe, much less accept. This slow, painful examination process eventually culminated in the confrontation with my father and stepmother detailed previously here in my 6/29/09 posting entitled "Family Business".

What sort of family would deliberately set up a date for their unknowing daughter/sibling with the son of a known organized crime figure as a secret joke and then laugh about it for years among themselves? The same sort of family who would secretly arrange a marriage for that same daughter/sibling/cousin/niece for the sole purpose of cementing certain secret business arrangements and relationships, all the while concealing the truth from her because they knew her well enough to realize she would never agree to the match if she found out the truth.

It's been unbelievably hard to find out that I've been victimized repeatedly since my marriage ended. It's been even harder to discover that the marriage I believed was loving was a lie from the start. It's been harder still to realize that my own family, the people I've loved and respected the most in my life other than my children, have been blatantly victimizing and using me for years. Hardest of all has been the discovery that every single person, organization, and agency, both public and private, I've turned to for protection and/or help with stopping the victimization of myself and my children has turned me away (including public agencies like the U.S. DOJ that are specifically charged with keeping innocent people safe from organized crime and preventing large-scale civil rights violations).

I'm now wondering if I will ever be able to find out what it's like to be free from being victimized, since my ex- brags about keeping me under illegal surveillance and harassing me wherever I go. It's very clear that my ex-husband and his associates (including my family) are having way too much fun openly and repeatedly victimizing me to ever stop on their own, and as my ex-husband's ugly and false comments all over this blog show, he's not at all worried about anyone making him and his friends stop. Thank heaven for my lifelong strong religious faith, my strength, my perseverance, and my great kids! These, plus my firm belief that there really are good, decent people in the world (yes, even lawyers!) all continue to give me the hope of finding some relief and freedom someday.

At this point, you might find it helpful to go back and read or re-read the very first post on this blog entitled "My Story" and the later post entitled "Illegal Surveillance Summary".

The Unknown Dead

A surprising number of people have turned up dead under suspicious circumstances around here over the years who have, as far as I know, never been publicly identified in the media. Here's a partial list of some (but not all) of these cases that I'm aware of:

Unknown man found next to his Ford pickup in front of the entrance gate to his ranch along Highway 16 south of Llano in the 1980s or 1990s who supposedly died when his truck slipped into reverse from park while he was opening his gate

Unknown woman found in a bathtub in a rented ranch house just south of Llano (see "The Lady In The Bathtub" post below)

Unknown U. of Texas student (25) killed in a car wreck just north of Fredericksburg on Highway 16 and mentioned in a 4/6/03 newspaper article in the local paper

Skeletal remains found in Kerr County and mentioned in a Kerrville Daily Times article on 10/11/03 (Note: My youngest child and I saw a Kerr County K-9 car parked in front of my ex-husband's office around 7 AM on the Monday following the discovery of these remains.)

Fredericksburg man who supposedly shot himself during a police chase, according to a 10/30/03 article in the Fredericksburg Standard (The Fredericksburg police chief, a life-long close friend of my ex-husband's, was apparently involved in this incident according to the article.)

Mason man supposedly found dead while hunting according to a 1/16/05 article in the San Antonio Express-News

Comfort man who was found dead beside the road according to a 9/2/05 article in the Kerrville Daily Times (I asked the San Antonio Express-News to identify this man and they refused to do so.)

Kerrville man who was the subject of a 10/24/05 article in the Kerrville Daily Times

Man found dead beside a road in Kerr County on the same day that another man was also found dead beside a road elsewhere in Kerr County according to the 8/28/06 Kerrville Daily Times; the other man was identified as Richard Gonzales, 47

Boerne man found burned to death in Kerrville, according to a 12/16/06 article in the Kerrville Daily Times

Man found dead near Loop 410 and Vance Jackson in San Antonio according to a small article in the 3/14/09 San Antonio Express-News (As far as I know, there was no other mention of this death in the media, which is unusual because there have been many other homicides/suspicious deaths in that area that have been reported on in more detail. Also, my ex-husband has very close associates in that area.)

Man killed in Kerrville on 4/22/09, supposedly when a gazebo he was helping to build fell on him; he supposedly worked for a Fredericksburg construction company; there was only one article about this in the Kerrville Daily Times and no San Antonio media coverage at all (very unusual)

Skeletal remains found in March 2010 under an I-10 overpass in Kendall County, about 16 miles east of Kerrville; no clothing or personal items found with the bones


As I said, this is only a partial list. I will try to periodically update it, especially if I receive additional information.

If you have any additional information about any of these people, I'd really appreciate your either leaving it as a comment after this post or emailing it to me at kamaudocs@gmail.com.

People Named George

In some of my previous posts I've written about a man whose first name is George. Now it's time for me to write about two people with the last name of George.

On 3/27/03, a woman named Clara Cortez George, 27, died at the Gillespie County jail in Fredericksburg. The official version of her death as reported in the newspapers at the time was that she had been arrested when she made a planned appearance at the county courthouse at 11:30 AM and was found dead in a jail cell at 12:45 PM with her blouse tied around her neck. Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

However, a local insider with ties to law enforcement told me Ms. George had actually been raped and strangled by a jailer. The person who told me this said the police chief didn't want any negative publicity and "ran the jailer out of town" instead of prosecuting him. I was (and still am) shocked to hear this--but not surprised, given many of the other things that go on within local law enforcement.

In February of 2007, I ran across another Ms. George. I'd driven down to San Antonio to meet with my lawyer at the time (whom I later had to fire when I discovered she'd misrepresented me). When I arrived at her office, my attorney asked me to wait in her conference room while she took an important phone call. While I was sitting there waiting, it was impossible not to notice a large number of legal documents that had been left on the conference table in plain sight, but I tried to ignore them because I knew they were probably confidential. However, when my attorney finally came in, she actually pointed them out to me and said they were from the case of a female client of hers whose last name was George. Rather than repeat what my lawyer told me about them, I'm posting an excerpt from a 2/15/07 email I sent to Diop Kamau (whom I also believed to be working for me at the time, although I learned differently later) in which I described what I'd been told in detail shortly after I was told it.

This incident bothered me right from the start for a number of important reasons that had nothing to do with the last name of this woman and the earlier fail victim being the same. For one thing, it was obvious my attorney wanted me to see the documents (by leaving them out and then seating me right next to them). In fact, I later realized that my lawyer may have finally come back into the room only after it became apparent to anyone who might have been watching from nearby that I was not going to examine the documents on my own. For another thing, it did not seem professional or even proper for my attorney to discuss someone else's case with me in such detail. The biggest red flag of all for me, though, was the fact that so many of the same people (lawyers, document expert, and judge), places (Boerne and Kerrville), and circumstances (fraudulently obtaining real estate, wills, and trusts) were involved in both my case and Ms. George's case. My discomfort at having been given all this information about someone else's case without being able to understand why was the reason I emailed Kamau about what had happened. I was hoping he'd be able to explain what was going on, but he didn't.

I do not know either of these women named George personally, and I have no idea whether they or their cases relate to each other. It would certainly be extremely interesting if they do turn out to be related--but it doesn't matter if they're not, since each deserves to be mentioned here in their own right.


Update: Clara Cortez George's sister, Maricela Cortez Rosa (44), died on April 29, 2010 (shortly after I posted this!) in Fredericksburg of unknown causes.



Update: Another sibling has died suddenly and too young.

Lost And Found

Instead of being confined to the classifieds as usual, the "Lost And Found"s seemed to be scattered all over our local newspaper today.

First, one of the missing persons I've written about before was identified as being the body of a white male that was found in eastern Gillespie County at an unidentified location by an unidentified person last Sunday. Trey Allen Noah, 20, of Kendall County had been missing since last November. The Gillespie County Sheriff, a close friend of my ex-husband's, is insisting on heading the investigation and is not giving out any information, which is frankly "business as usual" around here in suspicious death cases and does not bode well as far as the victim's family receiving any kind of real closure or justice. (This is the same sheriff who, in his previous job as a state game warden, happened to find a number of other victims of suspicious deaths.)

Secondly, I spotted a public notice of a zoning change by the city that was hidden at the bottom of a page in the sports section (amid advertisements) rather than being published in the classifieds section with the other public notices as is normal. Sure enough, the property whose zoning has been changed is described only vaguely, and there were no previous notices published previously announcing any hearings on this change. From the little stated in the notice, I have no idea where this property is or what's really going on, other than that the zoning of it was changed from residential to "public facility".

Potential Medical Problems

I've written a little about my father before (see "Family Business" posted here on 6/29/09), but while I'm on the subject of "medical problems", I feel the need to add a short discussion of some I've come to believe my father might have. I'm sure he would disagree with me, but see what you think.

Years ago (when I was still married) while on a visit to see my father (who lives in another state), I remember him telling me he had lost a large sum of money in a financial investment that had gone bad. At some point someone had apparently persuaded him to invest a large chunk of his retirement money in some sort of medical scheme (possibly related to nursing homes??) that involved a major medical corporation which has their national headquarters near where he lives. I remember being very surprised to hear he'd invested in anything to do with this company, because my father was always very much influenced by my husband, and my husband and his close friends were always talking about how much they hated this company. (One of my husband's closest friends even had a letter that railed against this company published in a national news magazine.)

My father refused to tell me much in the way of details about what had happened, but I do remember being shocked to hear him say he'd lost enough to be concerned about his retirement status. He was obviously very angry and upset about it. I told him that one of our children had been rushed to a San Antonio hospital owned by this corporation as a newborn but that my husband had told me it was because it was the only place they could find an open bed in neonatal care the night our infant became critically ill. Recently when my ex-husband finally did provide me with valid health insurance information for one of the children, I was surprised to see that the coverage was through this same company.

After my divorce, I remember my father mentioning to me that he had signed some sort of trust document. I didn't think much about this at the time, but after I had all the problems with fraudulent trust documents discussed in "My Story" at the beginning of this blog and elsewhere here, I began to wonder exactly what sort of trust document my father had signed and who had gotten him to sign it.

I also realized belatedly that my father had once told me one of his doctors had insisted on his taking some sort of a "mental function test", supposedly to check for dementia-related illnesses, and I remembered my father bragging that he'd made a perfect score on this test that the doctor congratulated him on. I was already extremely concerned about the amounts of potentially addictive medication this doctor and others were prescribing for my father, and I tried to talk to him about this to no avail. Given what had happened with my children and me, I'm concerned that this test may have actually been given to try and head off a possible court challenge of my father's mental state relating to the trust document he told me about.

As explained in the earlier post, I was forced to break off all ties with my father in 2004 when I realized he was conspiring against my children and me with my ex-husband and others and after enduring serious threats from him when I told him I'd contacted the FBI. Even then, he seemed to have symptoms of being addicted to prescription medication, but without additional information I don't have access to or being around him since then, it's difficult to know what's going on for sure. In any case, my father has made it very clear that he will never listen to me or believe me because he prefers people with far more money and power than I'll ever have. He doesn't seem to understand the basic tenant of white collar criminals: they don't stop until they have completely cleaned out one victim; then when they have, they move on to the next one.

Serious Medical Problems

Over the years, my children and I have had to face a great many medical problems, and they haven't exactly been routine--or even what you think.

Sometime in the mid-'90s, my husband came home one evening and said he wanted to purchase a "small life insurance policy" on me "to cover the cost of having a nanny" to take my place if anything should happen to me. I was (and am) in excellent health and questioned this expense, but my husband insisted, saying such a policy was also "good for investment purposes". Eventually I gave in and agreed to let him purchase the policy, and he said he was buying it through the brother-in-law of one of his business partners. A few days later, this brother-in-law called and insisted on coming to my house at 7 PM to do a mini-physical for the policy. Most of this physical was routine, but I thought it was odd that the insurance agent insisted on swabbing my cheek for DNA. Later, I was surprised to learn this policy was for far more than my husband had told me (and that there were other policies on my life I hadn't even known about; see earlier post).

There was so much chaos in our lives and so many strange things were happening to my children and me in the months after my husband suddenly left in 1999 that it took a while to realize these strange happenings also extended to our visits to the doctor. One of the first signs something was seriously wrong was when I realized that every time I saw a doctor, they were now insisting on my having either a gynecologic exam, a mammogram, or a colonoscopy. At first I could chalk these up to genuine concern for my having regular preventative health care, but it quickly became excessive. Eventually, I confided my discomfort about all the medical tests being ordered for me by various local doctors to a local "insider" friend (also see my 6/23/09 post below) who shall remain unidentified for obvious reasons. I was seriously shocked to be told that these examinations of me were being filmed and provided to my ex-husband and his associates for their viewing pleasure! My friend also told me that everyone involved (and there were apparently a lot of people involved!) would deny knowing anything about this if asked and that if I tried to file complaints about it, the entire community would label me paranoid and no one would believe me. Upon hearing this, I did recall people around town making snide remarks related to things concerning these exams and realized to my horror that my friend was telling the truth. Needless to say, finding out about this was extremely upsetting and disturbing, and it put me off medical exams to the point where I haven't had any of certain types in years as a result.

My children also began having "medical problems" after their dad left. By the terms of our divorce agreement, my ex-husband was required to provide our children with health insurance, but for some reason he refused to do this, insisting I pay cash for all our children's medical expenses and then reimbursing me when I sent him the receipts. Usually he sent me reimbursement checks for these expenses fairly promptly, but sometimes he would refuse to reimburse me for unknown reasons. I could never discern any kind of a pattern to this; as far as I could tell, he simply reimbursed me when he felt like doing so. Eventually, the problems with receiving reimbursements and problems with our kids' schools and colleges requiring proof of health insurance at various times caused me to send my ex- a certified letter demanding he provide the children with coverage. When he ignored this, I filed a complaint with the Texas OAG. My complaint was ignored, but my ex- suddenly did provide the children with insurance cards for temporary policies that were paid month-to-month. We quickly discovered these policies were not being renewed. My ex- also told our children who were in college to inform their schools that they had health insurance, but the schools checked the policy information my ex- gave them, discovered the policies were not in effect, and billed us for their required coverage instead (which my ex- did pay). Eventually I filed another complaint with the state, and my ex- did finally provide some health insurance for the kids. I continue to be reimbursed for prescription and other expenses for the kids on a sporadic basis.

When one of my children needed a lab test done, we were shocked to discover that their lab slip listed my former brother-in-law (an attorney) at his own address as the person financially responsible for my child's account. I was the only person who'd ever brought any of my children to this doctor, I'd listed myself as the responsible party when we filled out the initial forms with this doctor, I had not listed anyone else on the HIPAA form I signed as having permission to receive information, and my former brother-in-law had/has no legal rights regarding my children or their finances, so I was furious about this. I immediately took the slip back to this doctor's office and confronted them about the matter. The receptionist became extremely agitated and tried to grab the slip from me and destroy it, but I insisted she return it to me; she finally did so only because other patients in the office were taking notice of the fact that I was complaining about possible federal violations, but she insisted on marking through the illegal name and address first.

We've had too many other strange medical-related experiences to list in their entirety, but some of them also bear discussing. For example, when one of the children needed minor surgery in San Antonio, my ex- and his mother showed up, but my ex- was immediately asked to go to the front desk and talk with security guards who then followed him around closely all day--even when he went to the restroom. Also, when the doctor came out to talk to us after the surgery, my ex- was asleep and snoring in his chair, so the doctor talked to me alone while my ex-'s mother tried to rouse him. The doctor told me that in thousands of surgeries over the years, he'd never had anything like that happen before.

Over the years, one of our children has had some potentially serious medical problems that need looking into, but I've found it impossible to have accurate evaluations done. The first time I tried, a San Antonio specialist diagnosed a specific condition, but my ex- immediately contacted a specialist in Dallas on his own and insisted we fly up and meet with him. This doctor saw my child for approximately 10 minutes total in an exam room in a busy ER, did one lab test he claimed was new and definitive, and pronounced my child free of the condition. Eventually (and this took a couple of years), I was able to obtain a referral to a third specialist who pronounced the Dallas text unreliable but then gave me a vague explanation of my child's other test results, said my child didn't have the condition, but then prescribed a medicine to treat it anyway. Recently I heard the San Antonio doctor who first diagnosed my child with the condition is no longer practicing medicine locally for some reason. Also, it's important to note that if my child does have the condition involved, their health insurance costs would probably rise dramatically.

On another occasion, one of the children became quite ill while visiting their father, who called a local doctor-friend. This doctor called in a prescription for antibiotics for my child despite the fact that we'd switched to a different doctor several years earlier and without even examining the child. The medicine he prescribed made my child worse, and I filed a complaint about this with the state medical board--but they refused to do anything.

Then there was the time the school nurse called to say she needed an updated copy of one of my children's immunization records, but when I called the doctor to get them, I was told the records couldn't be given out. I knew this wasn't true but wasn't sure what to do, so I called the school nurse back and asked her about it. She told me the doctor was required to provide me with the records and gave me contact information for the state health department if the doctor refused again, so I called the doctor back. This time I was told my child's records had been lost, so I told them the school had given me information on how to get the state to force them to turn over the records. A few minutes later, the doctor's office called me back with the news that my child's shot records had miraculously turned up.

Our most recent medical problem also happens to be one of the most serious. One of my children has had repeated bouts of pneumonia severe enough that we'd been sent to the local emergency room for immediate treatment straight from the pediatrician's office a number of times. These episodes were very frightening, and I began to wonder why this child was getting so sick so often. I talked to a doctor we've been seeing for a long time and asked for a referral.

Months went by without my hearing anything, and I'd all but given up on getting any help when I suddenly received a letter in the mail from the doctor referring us to a specialist in San Antonio. I immediately phoned the specialist's office to make my child an appointment but was told they couldn't make us one because they required a written referral from a physician and hadn't received one for my child. I faxed them the letter I'd received, and I also left a message at the referring doctor's office. The referring doctor soon called to say he had personally arranged my child's referral with the specialist and had sent her a letter as well and didn't understand what the problem was, so he'd called her back again and was told I could now call back for an appointment, which I did. After all the problems I'd had, I was pleasantly surprised to be given an appointment almost immediately.

This appointment turned out to be very strange indeed. First, we were given a mountain of forms to fill out (more than I'd ever seen before and many that seemed redundant), all of which my child and I filled out together. Next, while an assistant was administering various tests to my child, she yelled at them at the top of her lungs repeatedly (it was almost screaming) for some reason, which was extremely disconcerting and totally unnecessary--unless she was trying to be overheard by someone in another room or outside. Then we were sent downstairs for some additional tests by a different doctor, and when I asked for the forms to fill out, I was told this had already been taken care of and that my child's bill had already been paid. (I hadn't written any checks, so I assumed this meant my child's latest insurance card from their father was actually good for once.)

We ended up spending the entire day there but never saw the doctor until late in the afternoon. When we were finally shown into an exam room, an assistant came in and began asking more questions related to the forms we'd filled out. Finally, the doctor came in and introduced herself. She mentioned that her husband had a doctorate in engineering, and then she proceeded to ask both of us more questions. Gradually it became apparent that many of these questions had nothing whatsoever to do with my child's medical problems or history or their family history and were more the sort of questions my ex-husband would want answers to: did I have a boyfriend, what was I planning to do after my children all left home, would I be remaining in Central Texas, etc. The doctor and her assistant seemed to be taking turns coming and going from the room for no apparent reason as if they were being coached by someone nearby. I also noticed that someone appeared to be communicating with them on a computer in the room.

By the time we left this doctor's office, it was after 5 PM and my child and I were exhausted. As we headed home, we got stuck in rush-hour traffic, and I finally had a chance to reflect on the day's happenings. We were almost home when I suddenly realized that despite all the other forms we'd been asked to fill out, we'd never been given a HIPAA form to sign, which I knew was a clear federal violation.

The more I considered what we'd been through, the more certain I became that my child had been the victim of multiple serious federal privacy violations by this doctor and her staff. At the very least, I knew for certain we'd never been given a HIPAA form to sign and that my child would also back me up on this. I went online, got the information and forms for filing complaints, and noted that my HIPAA complaint was to be sent to an office in Dallas rather than in Washington, D.C.

I then filed complaints against the doctor and her office with both the feds. and the state medical board, and I also sent a copy to the doctor who'd referred her to me, along with a letter stating that we couldn't go back to her and would appreciate another referral. The referring doctor called me right away, was extremely apologetic about what had happened, and promised me another referral. (Later, he gave me one to a completely different type of specialist, for some reason.)

And my complaints? A few days later, I received a letter in the mail from the state medical board saying it had been investigated and thrown out after someone went to the specialist's office and found there was in fact a signed HIPAA form in my child's file. Since my child and I knew we hadn't signed one, we wondered if a form signed by my ex-husband or someone from his family had been placed in the file, so I faxed the HIPAA office copies of my referral letter and my child's school excuse form from the doctor's office that clearly stated I was the one who had brought them, not someone else. Of course I never heard anything else back from them and I never heard anything back at all from Dallas.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention one last thing regarding this incident: the letter closing the medical board complaint was signed by a woman with the same somewhat unusual last name as a close pilot friend of my ex-husband's who also happens to be in real estate and has lost his Texas attorney's license. All of the doctors my children and I see no longer give us HIPAA updates to sign, and we all continue to be unable to obtain proper medical care.

Update: I did eventually hear back from the Dallas office on my federal HIPAA complaint. They said the same thing as the medical board: that the doctor's office did have a signed HIPAA form in my child's file, so they could not substantiate my complaint. We know this has to be a lie or a forgery. Also, the letter I received about this arrived having been illegally opened by someone and then glued back together so crudely that the letter was glued to the inside of the envelope from the excess glue and I had a great deal of trouble extricating it without tearing it. (I still have this if the postal inspectors want to examine it.)

Bank Woes

By the terms of our divorce settlement, my ex-husband is required to pay all of our children's college expenses. When our oldest child went off to college in another state in 2002 at age 17, my ex- insisted on setting up a checking account for them at his family's main bank here in town rather than at a bank near their school. My ex- said this was so he could more easily transfer money into the account when necessary, but our eldest quickly discovered that the bank statements from the account were only going to their dad, and he refused to forward any of them. This made keeping track of the account balance impossible, because even though my eldest kept track of all expenses, they never knew when money was deposited into their account.

Despite being very frugal with expenses, my child received several phone calls from their father saying he'd been notified that the account balance was low, and he was adding money to the account. My eldest told their father the account shouldn't have been low and that they couldn't keep track of the balance without the bank statements. They again asked their dad to either forward the statements or a copy of the statements to them at school, but their father refused to do either.

I was aware that my eldest and their father had not been getting along well for some time, but matters between the two of them reached a critical point in the fall of 2003 shortly after the start of my eldest's sophomore year. As my child explained to me in a series of phone calls (we talked on the phone nearly every night), my former in-laws had notified my eldest that they had put at least two gifts of $10,000 each into the college account. My eldest had scarcely paid for anything out of this account and yet their father had called several times to say the account was low again. My eldest was extremely upset about what was happening to their money, and it was at this point that I realized there was a serious problem.

I knew my ex-, his wife, and his parents were coming to visit my eldest soon, so I advised my child to talk to them about the problems when they came and insist on being provided with copies of the bank statements from the account. At the time I believed this was the right way to handle the situation, but in retrospect it turned out to be a serious mistake, because when my eldest tried to discuss this and some other important issues, they said their father became enraged and began kicking, throwing, and breaking things in their college apartment (which was a garage apartment off-campus). Rather than come to my child's rescue, their grandfather and step-mother left and went out to their car while my former mother-in-law went into the kitchen and started re-washing some dishes. My eldest was terrified at being left alone with their enraged father and started to call the police, but their dad said his wife and parents would all tell the police my child had trashed the apartment instead. Fortunately, my ex- and his family left soon after this.

My child called me right away, and I tried to get them to call the police anyway, but they were too frightened to do this. (My eldest did also discuss what had happened with a close friend on campus the next day and says the friend will back them up on this.) I began urging my child to contact the bank directly about having the bank statements sent to them at school, but my eldest was so shaken by what had happened with their father that they did nothing.

In discussing the situation with my child in detail when they came home for Christmas at the end of 2003 and learning about additional problems with the account regarding missing money, I explained that without the bank statements from the account, nothing could be done, but that with them, it would be possible to compare the account activity with my child's transactions as recorded in their checkbook and figure out what was going on. Accordingly, on 1/8/04, my child sent a letter to the bank formally requesting copies of back statements and instructing that future statements be mailed to them at my house (their permanent home address). My eldest received no response of any kind from the bank and still was not receiving any statements.

Although I was very concerned about the situation and urged my eldest to contact the bank again, my child continued to be very frightened of their father and reluctant to do anything more. The situation remained in a sort of uneasy truce until late in the spring of 2005 when the whole issue of their father and grandfather suddenly trying to force my eldest to sign a trust document giving their father total control of their assets as detailed under my 9/23-24/09 "Trust Issues" post below caused my eldest to decide to end all contact with their father and his family. At that point, my eldest sent the bank a certified letter demanding copies of their bank statements. Again there was no response from the bank and, although this letter was mailed on 5/19/05 in the same town, the receipt card my child received back was not signed until 6/1/05 and not received until considerably later (and shortly after my ex- called and tried to dissuade my eldest from requesting the statements).

After my eldest went back to college in the fall of 2005 still unable to obtain current and back bank statements, they decided to file a complaint with the Federal Reserve. They mailed a letter of complaint against the bank to D.C. but received no response. However, my eldest did suddenly start receiving new bank statements from the account--but these consisted of only the first (summary) page; the pages listing cancelled checks and withdrawals were missing.

When my child came home for Christmas that year, we again discussed the situation. My eldest was upset and frustrated and decided to send an additional letter to the Fed., this time by certified mail. Other than receiving the signed receipt card back (that looks like it never went through the mail?), my child once again never received any kind of response.

When my second child started college (also out-of-state) in 2005, my ex- again insisted on setting up a checking account for them at his family's bank. This child was 18 when they started, so the account was solely in their name. They did receive a mailed monthly statement from their account, but this contained only the summary page that listed the balance and deposits; the withdrawal and check information pages were missing as their sibling's had been. This child had also been very frightened when their dad repeatedly threatened to refuse to pay their college expenses during the trust episode mentioned above, and they elected to ignore the incomplete bank statements until later when they suddenly needed a local account at school and were able to close out the account here.

To this day, we have no idea what happened to the monetary gifts from my child's grandparents and other money that was in my eldest child's college checking account. We also have no idea whether funds were removed without their knowledge from my second child's college account.

Taxing Troubles

Today being "Tax Day" brings to mind my past inabilities to obtain complete and correct copies of my back federal income tax returns from the years I was married and filed jointly with my husband.

In 2005, the two private investigators (one ex-FBI and the other ex-DEA) from the Boerne area I'd hired to help me gather evidence against Ed Hodges and others regarding a fraudulent trust document began insisting that I needed to obtain copies of my back tax returns from the IRS but would not explain why. The former DEA agent said he had a good friend who worked for the IRS in Austin and that he'd get his friend to expedite my requests, so I went online as the p.i.s had instructed me, printed out the proper forms, filled them out, and mailed then to the IRS in Austin on 5/15/05, along with my check for $468.00 to pay for copies of the returns from the years the p.i.s had asked me to obtain ($39.00 each).

On 6/21/05, I received a check from the IRS for $351.00 with no explanation. Then on 6/29/05, I received copies of my federal tax returns from 1998, 1999, and 2000 (which happen to be the same ones handed to me by my divorce lawyer and accountant during my divorce negotiations that they said they'd been furnished by my husband and his accountant, except that these new copies had some unusual markings on them) plus a letter from the IRS dated 2/27/05 saying my returns from the other years I'd requested were not available, which explained the refund check I'd received.

I noticed that this packet had been mailed from zip code 78741 instead of 73301 where the IRS office was located, but no one would tell me whether this was significant or not. When I told the two p.i.s I was unable to obtain the documents they'd asked for and requested contact information for the one p.i.'s IRS friend so I could try to find out why I'd been denied copies of my records, the p.i. told me there was nothing more I could do and refused to give me his friend's information.

I have never been able to obtain complete and correct copies of my back tax returns from the government. In retrospect, I never actually saw any of these completed returns while I was married, either; my husband always brought home the signature page only for me to sign, and I did so because he insisted on having his father, his office manager, and their family's accountant handle all our finances and at the time, I had no reason not to trust them completely. In fact, on one especially memorable "Tax Day", I remember my husband suddenly bursting into an all-female fashion show being held to raise money for a local charity, running up to me while I was on the runway, asking me to sign our tax return, and then madly dashing out to howls of laughter from the audience which, as I told him later, was extremely embarrassing for me. (In retrospect, this incident has taken on an entirely different significance.)

Letter To The Editor

This Letter To The Editor was published recently by the Kerrville Daily Times. Dr. E. C. Thorton's words are clear and eloquent and need no further explanation.

The Layer Cake

My previous post seems to have resulted in a significant increase in the harassment directed at us, so I believe now might be the right time to continue my discussion of community-wide participation in crime and domestic abuse.

This time of year, the Texas Hill Country is a beautiful place to be, with the scenic hills covered in wildflowers, the temperatures moderate, and the weather generally dry. The local chambers of commerce market the area as a cheap and fun vacation destination that's a day's drive or less from most major Texas cities. The large bed and breakfast industry promotes intimate, personal experiences in hospitality. Life here seems wonderful, so perhaps after visiting, you decide to move here. The "welcome lady" calls on you with a basket of freebies and interviews you for her column in the local newspaper entitled "Newcomers".

Then, if you are a more worldly person than I am (in retrospect, I'd led a very sheltered life), you begin to notice the drug dealers on every street corner downtown and in the parking lots after school. You see free beer being generously dispensed to tourists waiting in lines (and the results when they try to drive off!) and the handbills advertising parties with live music being held in unusual places that are placed under windshields and into people's hands. You start realizing that some of those "little old German ranchers" in their pickup trucks are speaking German slang into sophisticated cell phones and radios. You discover that many of your neighbors take lots of long driving trips of various kinds. You notice heavy security in unusual places around town. You realize there are a lot of small airstrips, warehouses, greenhouses, and semi-truck facilities on the ranches of way too many people who explain their wealth to you by claiming to have "won the lottery".

At this point, you probably start asking questions. You find out about the local ties to former presidents, high-level national politicians and judicial figures, prominent celebrities and musicians, and military leaders in sensitive positions. You learn about the Austin music producer who seems to own half of the county, never goes anywhere without bodyguards, and whose wife was murdered. You hear about local ties to major media corporations. You are told about (and see for yourself) the small plane that files in from Dallas around the same time every evening. You realize that the questions the "welcome lady" asked you were designed to find out details about who you are and what you're doing here. Local ties to the military, the government, and the security industry begin to take on whole new meanings. You start seeing public employees acting suspiciously, and you begin having run-ins with public officials who are acting improperly. You also realize there are too many suspicious deaths locally and that news in general isn't being fully or accurately reported here.

By this point, local "insiders" have usually determined that you've figured out way too much and are no longer welcome here. Your name comes up at one of the many secretive meetings held around town under the guise of other things (church, school, hospital, bank, utilities, conservation, organizations, etc.). The word is put out (undoubtedly also through the Internet) that you're now targeted for harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance. (The latter two of these, which each facilitate the other, are considered necessary because of concerns about what you now know and who you are telling about it.)

You will now find that most of your personal (i.e., non-junk) mail and packages will arrive open, late, and/or with visible signs of tampering. (We often see unauthorized persons coming and going from employees-only areas at the local post offices.) Your phone lines will be filled with static. You will receive prank phone calls and faxes at all hours. Parades of 50-100 or more vehicles will drive by your house repeatedly. Stuff will be thrown in your yard, some of it bizarre. (Someone once wadded up their children's baptismal certificates from the local
Catholic church into balls and tossed them onto our front porch early on a Sunday morning.) You will be followed everywhere you go, have your private conversations repeated back to you in public, be aggressively tailgated by persons who pull in behind you and turn on their headlights, and be slandered and libeled outrageously. Local businesses and merchants will all suddenly start cheating you outrageously.

Because I led a very sheltered life growing up and was prevented from learning about my husband's various indiscretions by the fact that entire communities, his entire family, and my own entire family were all covering up for him, I did not realize what was going on until after my husband suddenly left me for another woman in 1999, I began to find suspicious items in my husband's things, and my children and I began to be the victims of the severe harassment, stalking, and illegal surveillance touched on above. When some of these incidents involved threatening situations, got overtly physical, or involved what appeared to be drug trafficking and it became clear the local police were involved, I wasted no time in going to federal law enforcement, the press, and other outsiders. This only increased the illegal and paranoid behaviours directed at us, but it also probably saved our lives, since the people behind all this could not afford the close personal or financial scrutiny of their affairs that would have resulted if anything had happened to us after I'd made so many complaints and requests for help.

Now I've finally made it to the innermost layer of life here, my own. The harassment here over the last few days is pretty typical as to types of incidents, but they're generally spread out over longer periods of time. Last Thursday morning (our one weekday morning to sleep a little later), one of my adult children and I were jolted awake around 9 AM by a prank phone call; later, I was followed while running errands, and a woman with green fingernails tried to cheat me at a local business, laughed about doing it, and got mad when I politely insisted she fix the problem. When I went out several times, my ex- and/or his wife turned up nearby on bicycles or in various vehicles; they clearly knew I was coming and were waiting for me. Saturday morning the kids and I were suddenly awakened at 8:30 AM by our dog barking and growling at a tall man in a dark jogging suit who was standing in front of our house; as soon as I reached the window to try and see who it was, he turned and jobbed off (heading east) so I couldn't see his face. Then when I drove off 30 minutes later to run an errand I'd only just decided to run, someone posted a bright red sign reading "Garage Sale" with an arrow pointing towards our house on the hospital's property next door just long enough to make certain I'd seen it before taking it down and speeding off. A heavy-set German local I recognized then tailgated me on a motorcycle. Our house was buzzed by a low-flying plane, and another flew overhead circles above me when I walked later.

Yesterday afternoon, two young women pulled in behind me at a stop light and made exaggerated hand movements simulating hair-brushing and makeup application, then sped off when the light changed. (This was done to let me know they'd had access to illegal surveillance of me in my bathroom getting ready to leave a few minutes earlier.) On the way home, my youngest offspring and I were passed by a group of at least 50 motorcycles and a parade of approximately 30 vehicles on a normally deserted country road.

This morning I was awakened around 7 AM by approximately 5-8 people just east of our house and 2-4 people along the street in front of our house who were all loudly yelling out owl-hooting noises. Later, we picked up and removed the objects shown below that had been thrown into our front yard (probably by city workers). We also picked up and removed 5 golf balls that had been laid out in a trail in our pasture in locations they could not possibly have been hit into that were left by a trespasser/s who wanted us to know they'd been there.

Just move away, you say, which is clearly what the people doing all this to us want. Unfortunately, however, moving won't solve any of our problems and may actually make some of them worse. For example, because of the fraudulent trust document Ed Hodges manipulated and forged my initials on that the county clerk's office filed despite its not being properly notarized, I currently do not have clear title to my house and land (my only significant assets) according to county documents, and there are serious legal and financial consequences if I abandon the property and leave as many of the DV organizations are advising. Further, I've been told by many different people over the years that my ex-husband openly brags about continuing to stalk, harass, and share illegal surveillance of me wherever I go, and knowing what I do about his national, international, and high-level government, military, and law enforcement contacts plus the fact that the kids and I have previously experienced stalking and harassment on trips lead me to believe he absolutely does have the capabilities and the mindset to do this. Meanwhile, we continue to be forced to keep our house attended at all times in order to try and prevent the constant break-ins that in the past have resulted in stolen documents and other items, vandalism (all of the pulls were once removed from the dresser in my bedroom and one of them was broken, for example), and the leaving of threatening notes and bizarre items in strange places, which means my kids and I can't do anything away from home together as a family and not all of us will be able to attend my youngest's upcoming high school graduation ceremony.

The few people and organizations who've actually looked into helping us have had some pretty terrible experiences: threats, computer hacking, and much more. I'm followed everywhere by local law enforcement, both to see who I'm talking to and meeting with and also so they can run the license numbers of anyone else monitoring us, stop them, and confiscate any recording or photographic equipment they find. It doesn't take many incidents like these before potential rescuers with the noblest of intentions are forced to give up.

Meanwhile, my financial situation and that of my children who are still dependant on me is becoming quite desperate, as my ex-husband is well aware (and doesn't hesitate to show by some of his comments here). My alimony ends in February of 2011, and I've been told my ex- vows he'll order harassment of anyone who hires me. One of my adult children who lives with me since breaking off all ties with their dad in 2005 when he "got scary" while trying to force them to sign a trust document like the one posted here earlier, has already had numerous job applications stolen out of the mail over the years, had job applications interfered with, etc. When law enforcement at all levels and the entire legal and justice system refuse to protect you, what in the world are you supposed to do? (Blog about it to make people aware we are a lot closer to a national situation like Mexico's than you think and that the pretty icing on top isn't going to be able to cover up the layers of the cake for much longer.)

From the top to the bottom and the inside to the outside, the flavor of the layer cake that is life here is "Control". I'm still not sure about who's actually running the bakery.

The Brush-Off

I have collected lots of letters like this one over the years that I've received in response to my requests for help for myself and my children. I can to some extent understand getting the brush-off from private individuals and smaller organizations, since it's clear we're up against very powerful people with unlimited legal and financial resources.

This letter, however, is from a national organization whose specificly stated purpose, as they freely admit here, is to help victims like my children and me. Although this letter is a bit more curt (and rude?) than most, I have received similar correspondence from numerous government agencies (both state and federal) that are also supposed to be helping victims of crime and/or domestic violence and abuse.

Now I'm learning from national victims' advocates that the problem of victims desperately turning to various agencies that are supposed to be helping them but instead give them the run-around or turn them away altogether is not only widespread but actually more common than not. Government agencies are in fact some of the worst offenders in this regard. (One of my own examples of a response from a government agency is posted below under "Response From DOJ".) Worse, I'm also learning that major corporations, private organizations, and individuals (including celebrities) are donating large amounts of money to these same agencies that are turning away desperate victims. I've been shocked to learn of countless victims wanting to leave critically dangerous situations being turned away from the very shelters that are supposed to protect them.

While it's an important and necessary resource in crisis situations, fleeing from an abuser these days often doesn't even result in significant relief for victims, given the prevalence of identify theft, stalking, harassment, computer hacking, illegal surveillance, cyberbullying and slander, private documents and information for sale openly, etc. Here in Central Texas, we victims also have to contend with the appalling corruption in law enforcement--see "Illegal Surveillance Summary", "What's The Buzz?", and "What's The Buzz Revisited" below for more information about this.

If you examine the comments my ex-husband has made all over this blog, you will quickly see that he is completely unafraid of being prosecuted or sued for any of his actions, slander/defamation, or abuse. I'm in contact with other ex-wives who are in similar situations and are also unable to get the help and support they desperately need from the same agencies that are accepting government funds and large private donations but continue to turn needy victims away. How many innocent lives have been wrecked or lost because victims couldn't get help from agencies that were supposed to protect them? (Do you even care?--when entire communities are actively involved together in stalking, harassment, slander, libel, and other criminal acts against innocent victims as is happening here, this question has to be asked.)

National victims' advocates are now using our case and others that are similar to try to educate donors about how to make better use of their money for assisting victims. Savvy, well-connected abusers who, in this age of easy information sharing and great wealth made from criminal enterprises (who therefore cross all socio-economic lines) are aware of the lack of help for victims, and they exploit this situation by deliberately and systematically overwhelming their victims. The violence and other abuse then escalate because abusers aren't facing any negative consequences of their actions. The experts say, and I concur, that there's already plenty of information and resources available for identifying abusive behaviors and convincing victims to leave. What's needed far more is individual, one-on-one advocacy for victims that will actively assist them in dealing with these overwhelming situations and enable them to obtain real, lasting relief from the abuse.

I'm requesting that those who do seriously care about helping victims prove it by going to http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/201?m=a3ecbdfa and signing the online Domestic Violence (DV) Reform petition there. Doing this won't take more than just a few seconds, and you'll be taking part in a critical effort to effect much-needed change. Texans in particular should welcome the provisions in this petition for insisting on detailed public audits of government agencies that are turning victims away in order to find out what their funds are being used for and holding them accountable. You can also contact National White House Advisor on Violence Against Women (aka Domestic Violence Czar) Lynn Rosenthal at lrosenthal@ovp.eop.gov and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden through the contact form on his website and insist that they support one-on-one advocacy for victims.

Finally, I'm also asking you to carefully examine your own behaviours and those of your family members, close friends, and associates in an effort to make sure you're part of the solution to domestic abuse, violence, and crime and not part of the problem. To paraphrase Mother Theresa, before you go to India to work for good, try looking for opportunities within a 2-mile radius of your own front door. Let's all work together to make the U.S. in general and Texas in particular a leader in real advocacy, assistance, and support for innocent victims instead of the national embarrassment the entire DV program currently is.

Possible Hate Crime

Today, Easter Sunday, my children and I enjoyed a very nice, quiet day together. This was in stark contrast to what happened to us on Easter morning last year as documented in this entry from one of our logbooks. We had all been up late having fun together the night before Easter last year, and it was very disturbing and frightening to have been suddenly jolted awake by loud noises being broadcast from downstairs in our house.

Since we are well known to be practicing Christians, it was Easter morning, and the loud noise that was somehow broadcast in our house was definitely the sound of a nail gun being fired repeatedly, I wondered if this incident of harassment qualified as a hate crime. I asked the FBI this question when I filed a complaint with them about the use of sophisticated federal equipment (some of which is manufactured here by the same companies that make equipment my ex-husband uses in his business) for purposes of harassment, stalking, and domestic abuse when I filed a complaint with them, but of course I never received any kind of response.

We have had many, many similar disconcerting, startling, and extremely obnoxious incidents involving various broadcast harassing noises directed at us over the years, both inside our home, outside our home, and even in other locations around town over the years; I will be glad to provide additional information on this to the proper authorities. These noises are a great deal louder than normal, so there's no question of them being real. My children and others have heard them many times at the same time I hear them, and certain people around town later make specific mention of them or even joke about them. (I can name many of these people that have knowledge of what's been done.) The DOJ, DHS, and other high-level federal agencies are aware this is being done to us, but instead of protecting us and prosecuting the perpetrators, all they do is cover the situation up.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner--Not

Because I'm a committed Christian (a real one, not a fake one), as soon as I realized the kids and I were having very serious problems finding proper legal representation, I began requesting help from various Christian organizations that claimed to handle women's and children's issues because I felt sure one of them would be appalled at our situation and would assist us.

I contacted the Christian Legal Society and received a very nice emailed response that contained referrals from them to one attorney in Austin and another in San Antonio. I called the one in Austin, but his secretary called me back and said he couldn't help us, so I tried the one in San Antonio. This San Antonio lawyer had me fax some sample documentation to his office and then was kind enough to actually call me back himself to tell me he couldn't help us because of the people he'd be up against. (Note: This attorney's call was the closest thing I've had to a truly Christian response from a lawyer so far, and I was impressed by his honesty, although of course I was disappointed that he couldn't help us.) When I went back and emailed the CLS that their referrals had turned us down and asked for another, they sent me the numbers for the Texas State Bar's referral service, even though I'd told them originally that I was asking for their help because the referral service wasn't working out.

I also contacted Focus On The Family to ask for legal assistance, and I mailed them a packet of sample documentation to show them how serious our situation was. They mailed my documents back to me along with a cover letter that was addressed to me at my ex-husband's office address (which he uses as his home address)--which I hadn't even given them! This letter also contained an alternate address for their organization that the letter said I should use, but when I did, my correspondence was returned to me with a notation that the new address was actually an old one that was no longer in service.

More recently, I read somewhere that the Pacific Justice Institute, with offices in California and Washington, D.C. provided Christian legal support for women's and children's issues, so I contacted them and asked for assistance, but they responded with an email refusing to help us. They also began mailing me repeated solicitation letters asking me to contribute to their organization. (I didn't.)

Then a few days ago, I received the invitation to a fancy, expensive dinner in California from them that is posted here. Notice that Focus On The Family founder Dr. James Dobson is one of the persons being honored at this event for "exceptional contributions to upholding faith and family". The guest speaker is none other than Karl Rove, whose stated residence for voting purposes happens to be here in Central Texas and about 30 minutes from our house.

I won't be attending this event; I guess the PJI will have to use this post as my RSVP. So far, I personally haven't seen any Christianity, justice, or defense of faith or family from this organization--just harassment. (I would love for them to prove me wrong!) Oh, and FOF continues to send me spam emails almost daily.