Archive for Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Governor urged to veto provision that would divert funds from Planned Parenthood

Parkinson urged to veto budget provision cutting $300,000 from organization

By Scott Rothschild

May 19, 2009

Topeka — Gov. Mark Parkinson was urged Tuesday to veto a budget provision that would divert away from Planned Parenthood about $300,000 in federal funds for family planning services.

About 25 people rallied outside the Capitol and then delivered to Parkinson’s office a petition signed by 3,000 Kansans in support of birth control, sex education, family planning and emergency contraception.

Photo by Scott Rothschild

Curt Brungardt, the stepfather of Jana Mackey, who was murdered in 2008 by her ex-boyfriend, speaks Tuesday to a group outside the Capitol in Topeka, urging Gov. Mark Parkinson to veto a provision that would divert approximately $300,000 in federal funds away from Planned Parenthood. The provision was put into the budget by lawmakers who oppose abortion.

Holly Weatherford, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said that without the funding, the organization’s clinic in Hays may have to shut down, and its clinic in Wichita will have to turn away women from getting basic health care services.

Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney, said the de-funding provision was an affront to equal rights for women.

“In order to have freedom, we need people to step up to the plate and say, ‘I’m not indifferent,’” he said.

Curt Brungardt, the stepfather of Jana Mackey, a Lawrence resident and avid women’s rights advocate who was murdered in 2008 by her ex-boyfriend, also spoke at the rally, urging a veto of the provision.

“What Jana taught me is that issues of women are all about equality,” said Brungardt, who is a professor at Fort Hays State University. The National Organization for Women also participated in the rally.

The proposal was put in the budget in the last moments of the legislative session by lawmakers who oppose abortion.

“There is simply no reason in the world why the taxpayer dollars of hundreds of thousands of pro-life Kansans should be used to underwrite abortion providers in this state, particularly those under criminal indictment and investigation,” said state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, one of the authors of the budget provision.

Huelskamp was referring to a case filed by former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline against Planned Parenthood in Overland Park that includes 107 charges of falsifying abortion records and performing illegal late-term abortions. Planned Parenthood denies the accusations.

Those at the rally noted that the federal funding at issue cannot be used for abortions. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park is the only one that does abortions, and it receives no share of those federal funds, Weatherford said.

But Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, urged Parkinson to allow the provision to become law, saying that it would redirect the $300,000 to public clinics and hospitals.

“Especially in an era of drastic funding problems for state hospitals and ‘safety net’ clinics, why in the world should a highly profitable private abortion business gobble up our tax money?” Culp asked.

Jeanne Gawdun, of Kansans for Life, said Planned Parenthood’s distribution of contraceptives encouraged sexual activity, and when the contraception failed, it resulted in more abortions.

“They’re in the business of selling abortions,” she said.

Weatherford, with Planned Parenthood, however, said the organization was a trusted provider of family planning and reproductive services. The group helps more than 10,000 low-income, under-insured and uninsured women per year in Kansas, she said.

Parkinson’s office declined to say what the governor would do about the provision. He received the budget bill on Friday and has until Monday to act on it.

Order Your Book Today! An Incredible Year, 2007-08 KU Jayhawks Season, Officially licensed by the University of Kansas.

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“Exactly two years two the very day “Mothers day”- of the   filing of the Petition at the Inter American Commission Human Rights- Human Rights Violations for the practice and policy of courts routinely placing Battered Mothers children with the abusers. (still pending) however the Jessica Gonzales Case set the precedent (simulcast in 15 languages October 2008) for the upcoming Human Rights Petition” viewed in its entirety on the Stop Family Violence Dombrowski et al v US 2007

May 11, 2009

Dombrowski v. Richardson et al
KS
Lungstrum
Other Civil Rights
Diversity-Personal Injury

Plaintiff: Claudine Dombrowski Defendant: Hal Richardson, Shawnee County District Court

 

Gerow v. Gerow
KS
Murguia
Other Civil Rights
Fed. Question

Plaintiff: Melody L. Gerow Defendant: George D. Gerow

Technorati Tags: Kansas,File,Federal,Petition,Inter,American,Commission,Human,Rights,policy,courts,children,Jessica,

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Plaintiff,Claudine,Defendant,Shawnee,District,Court,Murguia,Question,Melody,George,Violations,languages

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12363628

Tragic Santa Clara County custody case: Dad suspected in girl's death

By Karen de Sá

Mercury News

Posted: 05/13/2009 06:31:55 PM PDT

Updated: 05/13/2009 10:20:15 PM PDT

Powerless and tormented, a Campbell mother awaits the story her daughter's bones will tell.

The remains of Alycia Augusta Mesiti-Allen, 14 when she vanished in August 2006, are now in the hands of toxicologists and coroners. Since March, when cadaver-sniffing dogs found her body buried in the unkempt yard of her father's former Central Valley home, detectives have scoured for evidence from the girl's petite frame.

Those detectives say the clues point to her father, Mark Edward Mesiti, as a suspect in her death and say an arrest is imminent. With a lengthy criminal past, the 41-year-old was still granted custody of Alycia and her older brother in Santa Clara County Superior Court less than a year before the girl went missing.

The death of the smiling teen, who loved horses and Shakira, lays bare the intractable choices that family court judges face every day, but the tragic outcome has everyone who worked on Alycia's case looking back wondering what more could have been done.

The family's legal history is a tangle of allegations traded through restraining orders and court filings. A court investigator described Roberta Allen, now 39, as an unfit mother who had battled with depression. But Alycia's father is now being held on $500,000 bail in a Los Angeles County jail on unrelated charges of child endangerment and running a methamphetamine lab.

Ceres police say they no longer believe Mesiti's story that the girl ran away during a camping trip with friends and her pet Chihuahua. "Dad's story was he was getting phone calls periodically" from the missing girl, said Sgt. James Robbins. "But it doesn't appear she ever left the house."

Alycia and her brother, now 19 and in the military, were placed in Mesiti's care by the family court in November 2005. During the previous seven years, court records show, Mesiti had been convicted of state and federal charges, including bank fraud and drunken driving. He also was charged with domestic violence and ordered to attend anger-management classes after pleading guilty to a lesser charge. After failing to comply with court orders to attend drug- and alcohol-treatment programs, he landed in prison for violating probation.

Danger signs

Nonetheless, Roberta Allen described her years-long legal battle as "very angled toward Mark. I couldn't afford an attorney. He had one."

And over the nine months the children lived with their father before Alycia disappeared, police and child welfare workers fielded repeated warnings of danger in their single-family home in a neat, unremarkable Ceres suburb. Beginning in 2005, the children's court-appointed lawyer, Jonnie Herring, reported her concerns, recommending only a supervised, temporary placement with Mesiti due to "sufficient issues and risks to these minors." In 2006, she reported that Mesiti had failed to comply with court orders to enroll his children in school and remain in touch.

"I am deeply concerned about both minors, especially Alycia," Herring wrote in a report to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Vincent Chiarello.

Allen said she also reported that the children were often hungry, subject to abuse, and unable to call their mother despite her court-ordered visitation and contact rights. Local police confirm they made visits to the home.

Clearly, the family court had a complex case on its hands with few ideal options when Judge Chiarello granted Mesiti custody. The legal battle had raged for eight years without resolution. The children had been bounced between aunts and grandparents and, in a reflection of the case's complexity, the judge appointed Herring to grant them an independent voice in court. Their parents had gone through mediation, counseling and psychological evaluations.

"There were a lot of issues with both parents," said Scott Sagaria, a San Jose attorney who represented Mesiti in claims his client made against Allen — including that she'd attempted suicide and once hit her son. Noting attorney-client privilege limited his ability to discuss the case, Sagaria added: "There was a lot of conduct by the mother in the case where, in my opinion, the court had very little alternative."

Calls to Mesiti's public defender in his Los Angeles case have gone unanswered.

'No good options'

Chiarello, too, has declined to comment. But Supervising Family Court Judge Susan Bernardini, who spoke only in generalities and not specifically on the Mesiti case, described the difficulty of serving on her bench. "Cases with no good options are a centerpiece of being a judge in family court," she said. "We have to make a decision no one else will make."

In the case of a tragic outcome, she added, "You wonder and you look back and you always say: Is there anything anyone could have done?"

Allen, a former assembly worker now working for a restaurant, was deemed unfit by the court. She had made a frank admission to feeling depressed after what she described as years of persecution by her children's father. Before Chiarello's decision, records show, Allen told the court she had fled multiple states to get away from Mesiti and even to Canada, where she and the children stayed in battered women's shelters.

But while Mesiti's court filings were formal, typed responses from his private attorney, Allen's pleading letters to judges were handwritten. She reluctantly agreed to sign off on the custody order — in large part, she says, because she could not afford to raise the children without the child-support payments Mesiti had been ordered to make.

"There were plenty of red flags going up all over the place," she said, "but they wouldn't see them."

When Alycia disappeared in 2006, Allen said she never believed the girl had simply run off. "I knew in my heart of hearts that she was gone, but no one would listen to me. I was fighting with police, saying 'She's not a runaway, she's a missing person!' " Allen recalled. "But the police stopped taking my calls. They said, 'She'll come home, she'll come home.' "

And so for 2 1/2 years, Allen went mad with worry. Alycia's disappearance was not elevated to a homicide investigation until the longtime detective on the case retired and Sgt. Robbins, the Ceres investigations supervisor, ordered up a fresh round of interviews.

Robbins declined to give specifics because the case is still pending, but he said those interviews turned up "detailed information we didn't have the first time." Police obtained a search warrant for Mesiti's former home on Alexis Court, which he is said to have abandoned a few months after Alycia vanished.

The case broke open with the discovery of Alycia's remains. Within days, police burst into Mesiti's Los Angeles apartment and say they found evidence of a meth lab. Now, he and the girlfriend he had lived with in Ceres face a series of court hearings on drug and child-endangerment charges; the girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter had been living with the couple when they were arrested March 28.

Girl's memorial

Mesiti was in jail when his daughter's memorial was held last month in a Cupertino chapel. During the service, a lifetime of classic childhood moments beamed from photos spanning her short decade-and-a-half: Alycia mugging in an oversized T-shirt, stirring a pot of macaroni and cheese and hugging a Snoopy doll. In the last photos, she posed for her eighth-grade prom, a fleeting brush with adolescence.

For her part, Allen tosses endlessly most nights. She tries to stay focused on her last day with Alycia, when she and her daughter ate tuna sandwiches and splashed in a downtown San Jose fountain.

Their next encounter would be three years later at the Stanislaus County coroner's office.

"I couldn't even pick up her personal effects," Allen lamented. "There was nothing. There's just nothing left of her."

Contact Karen de Sá at kdesa@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5781.

TIMELINE OF ALYCIA"S DISAPPEARANCE

Nov. 22, 2005: Santa Clara County Superior Court places Alycia Mesiti-Allen with father, Mark Edward Mesiti.
Aug. 15, 2006: Alycia, 14, goes missing; her father reports she ran away after leaving for a camping trip with friends and a pet Chihuahua.
January 2009: Ceres police Sgt. James Robbins takes over the department"s investigative unit and has detectives review their cases. As a result, Alycia"s family members are contacted again and new undisclosed information leads to a search warrant.
March 26, 2009: After police obtain a search warrant, a body is unearthed outside the Ceres home where Alycia had been living with her father at the time she disappeared.
March 28: Mark Mesiti, 41, is arrested in Los Angeles along with his 39-year-old girlfriend on suspicion of running a methamphetamine lab and endangering the girlfriend"s 12-year-old daughter. Mesiti is being held on $500,000 bail.
March 31: Authorities confirm that a body found in Ceres was that of Alycia Mesiti-Allen. Ceres police describe Mesiti as a suspect in his daughter"s death, although he has not been arrested on those charges.

Source: Mercury News reporting and Ceres police

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Press Release from Bryan Gregory, A retired North Carolina Trooper

"Heather Thompson may be celebrating her last Mother's Day- if she doesn't receive the help and support that she needs from law enforcement, South and North Carolina Department of Corrections, Public Officials & Domestic Violence Organizations who are paid to serve and protect her"
Of all except her, I probably know her story better than anyone else. I’m a part of it. I’ve written it. But this woman has had to live it.
Although May 29 is not that far away and she has mountains to climb before then, she’s taking time this weekend just as we are, to be with her family & Mother. This may be her last one, so as we celebrate this day, let us remember Heather.
In just a matter of days, her ex-husband and self-described killer will be out of prison. He may be under supervision for awhile, but without GPS monitoring, he’ll be able to go and do as he pleases. There’s no reason we’ve found to believe otherwise … If he carries out the continuous threats that he’s made to her, he’ll kill her.
She’s pounded on all the desks and doors. She’s been run around in circles by all domestic violence organizations and more. When confronted, they’ll tell you they’re doing all that they can and her needs are being met. But the reality is … They’re filling their pockets with our money and doing nothing.
We’ve waited until this late hour assuming they’d act … They have not. All her bills are overdue and basic services are threatened to be cut off. If needed, she has places to flee but no back-up money to even get her and her family there. And what if their cell phones are cut off? It infuriates me that I must beg you now to take up their slack.
Her pretty smile is fading. Heather feels like she’s drowning now with not a life jacket in sight. Although she’s not asked me to do this, I must.

Here’s her mailing address…
Heather Thompson
PO Box 697
Indian Trail, NC 28079

I don’t care if you can only scrape up five dollars. Send it to her and she’ll joyfully take it. Because she’s had so much practice, she’s an expert now … She can turn little’s into a whole lot. Your prayers are always welcomed … But if we’re gonna expect God’s help, I’m sure he’d be much more willing once we’ve stepped up to the plate.
If you’ve not yet read her story, check it out at www.the-babysitter.org

 
And if you can think of anyone else who might care … Feel free to copy & paste and spread this message everywhere.
Bryan Gregory
"Justice will only be achieved when those who are not injured by crime are as angry as those who are."
- King Solomon (635-577 BC)

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“Mary Kay’s Truth About Abuse” Survey Links Economic Downturn to National Increase in Domestic Violence

Mary Kay Launches Philanthropic Initiative Beauty That Counts^TM to Help Fight Domestic Violence

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mary Kay Inc. today announced results from “Mary Kay’s Truth About Abuse” survey of domestic violence shelters across the country. The findings reveal an alarming trend: three out of four domestic violence shelters report an increase in women seeking assistance from abuse since September 2008, a major turning point in the U.S. economy. The survey data directly connects a major reason for the increase in domestic violence to the downturn in the economy.

“Mary Kay’s Truth About Abuse” survey polled more than 600 domestic violence shelters nationwide. Representatives of the shelters surveyed report they have observed an increase in requests for assistance from domestic violence victims because of the following reasons:

• Seventy-three percent attribute the rise in abuse to “financial issues.”
• “Stress” and “job loss” (61 percent and 49 percent, respectively) also proved to be leading contributing factors in the reported increase in domestic violence cases involving women.

“Mary Kay’s survey confirms what we’ve been hearing from domestic violence programs across the country,” said Sue Else, president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “The economic downturn is exacerbating domestic violence. The demand for domestic violence services is growing, and we must increase support for victims during this difficult time. Now more than ever, we urge corporations and other organizations to follow Mary Kay’s lead in the fight to end domestic violence.”

“Mary Kay’s Truth About Abuse” Survey Regional Findings

Mary Kay’s survey compared four U.S. regions, including the Northeast, South, Midwest and West. Survey highlights include:

The number of shelters reporting an increase in women seeking help as a result of domestic violence since September 2008:

• The region with the largest reported increase was the South (78 percent); followed by
• The Midwest region, which reported a 74 percent increase;
• The Northeast takes the No. 3 place with a 72 percent reported increase; and
• The West rounds out the regional list with a 71 percent reported increase in women seeking help as a result of domestic violence.

The survey also inquired about the cause(s) for the increase in domestic violence cases across regions:

• Seventy-five percent of shelters in the West report “financial issues.”
• Approximately 66 percent of respondents in the Midwest note “stress.”
• More than half of respondents (53 percent) in the South report “job loss.”
• The “loss of a home or vehicle” was reported more often in the Midwest than other regions, with 44 percent; the Northeast had the lowest with 35 percent.
• Reasons more commonly associated with domestic violence, such as “substance abuse” and “relationship challenges,” also contributed to the increase in domestic violence shelter assistance in each region, according to the survey.

One Lipstick at a Time: Beauty That Counts™ Initiative

To help combat domestic violence, Mary Kay Inc. is launching a national philanthropic campaign, Beauty That Counts™. In the United States, from May 1, 2009, through Dec. 15, 2009, $1 will be donated from each sale of Beauty That Counts™ Mary Kay^® Creme Lipstick in limited-edition Pink Passion and in Gingerbread. As part of its U.S.-based efforts, Mary Kay Inc. is proud to support the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation in its ongoing commitment to end domestic violence. For the inaugural year of the global Beauty That Counts™ initiative in 2008, Mary Kay is donating just under $2 million (USD) to causes that change the lives of women and children around the world, including domestic violence prevention and education efforts.

Rhonda Shasteen, spokesperson for Mary Kay’s Beauty That Counts™ initiative, added: “Financial issues have affected many families across the country, putting domestic violence survivors at an even greater risk for abuse. That’s one more reason why Mary Kay offers programs such as Beauty That Counts™ to further its commitment to preventing and ending domestic violence.”

For more information on Mary Kay’s Beauty That Counts^TM program or its U.S. philanthropic efforts, please visit www.marykay.com.

About Mary Kay

Mary Kay, one of the largest direct sellers of skin care and color cosmetics, realized another year of record results. In 2008 Mary Kay Inc. and its international subsidiaries achieved $2.6 billion in wholesale sales worldwide. Mary Kay^® products are sold in more than 35 markets worldwide, and the global Mary Kay independent sales force exceeds 1.9 million. To learn more about Mary Kay, log on towww.marykay.com or call 1-800-MARY KAY (1-800-627-9529).

About “Mary Kay’s Truth About Abuse” Survey

The survey polled 634 domestic violence shelters across the United States about domestic violence and the economy. The study was conducted online between April 24, 2009, and May 7, 2009.

About the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation

The Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation was created in 1996, and its mission is twofold: to fund research of cancers affecting women and help prevent domestic violence while raising awareness of the issue. Since the Foundation’s inception, it has awarded nearly $18 million to shelters and programs addressing domestic violence prevention and nearly $12 million to cancer researchers and related causes throughout the United States. To learn more about the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, log on to www.mkacf.org or call 1-877-MKCARES (1-877-652-2737).

Technorati Tags: Mary,Truth,About,Abuse,Survey,Links,Economic,Downturn,National,Increase,Domestic,Violence,Philanthropic,Initiative,Help,DALLAS,WIRE,results,findings,trend,assistance,September,data,requests,victims,cases,Else,president,Network,services,Regional,Northeast,South,Midwest,West,highlights,result,region,vehicle,substance,relationship,Lipstick,Time,sale,Creme,edition,Pink,Passion,Gingerbread,efforts,Charitable,Foundation,commitment,children,world,prevention,education,Rhonda,spokesperson,Financial,cosmetics,products,April,mission,inception,cancer,MKCARES,factors,corporations,organizations,regions,sellers,sales,cancers,three,four,women,respondents,million,marykay

 

• Fixing SRS-Wednesday at 10 p.m.

  http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/44818692.html

• 
  Save Email Print
  

Reporter: Deb Farris
Email Address: deb.farris@kake.com

52 comments

---

 

1.5 billion dollars. That's what Kansas taxpayers kick in each year to run SRS. Meanwhile, abuse of power accusations stack up as cases get outsourced to corporations who rake in millions while keeping kids in the system. Thousands of families are left wondering if they'll ever get their kids back, and if anybody is listening.

Deb Farris show you whose interests are being served, what SRS has to say and who really is listening.

Watch "Fixing SRS"-Wednesday at 10 p.m. on KAKE.

Technorati Tags: Senator,Julia,Lynn,Kathy,Winters,Reporter,Farris,KAKE,Save,Email,Print,comments,Kansas,cases,kids,system,Thousands,interests,Watch,accusations,corporations

 

False Allegations are a small factor in the Family Courts

Even one of the strongest family violence critics admitted that in a majority of child abuse cases had substance in it.

anonymums

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – May 12, 2009 – DR Richard A Gardner, the man who coined the term Parent Alienation Syndrome stated, “The vast majority ("probably over 95%") of all sex abuse allegations are valid”.  Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics (pp. 7, 140). 
Like the recent report about St John’s Ambulances “Hush Money for sex abuse victims” fathers rights will have us all believe that most mothers and children are liars when it comes to allegations in the Family Court.  

This was not true for Cassandra Hasanovic who died at the hands of her ex partner.  The Family Court ignored her pleas and ordered her to return resulting in her death.  The Founder of the Anonymums Collective Stated, ”The falsely accused are among the privileged in the family courts, they can obtain costs and are not required to provide much evidence as the court rules upon the level of substantiation”.  

In the National Plan to reduce Violence against Women and Their Children it was stated, “The Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006, however, represents a potential obstruction to a just and integrated response to family violence in Australia”. 
Members of Anonymums not only agree to this statement, they understand the grave consequences that surround this lucrative bill.

Even the Prime Minister said, “As a nation, the time has well and truly come to have a national conversation – a public national conversation, not a private one – about how it could still be the case that in 2008 so many Australian women could have experienced violence from their partner… 
It is my gender – it is our gender – Australian men – that are responsible.

And so the question is: what are we going to do about it? 
…There are no circumstances in which the threat of violence against women is acceptable. There are no circumstances in which the thought of violence against women is acceptable. 
That on violence against women, we have simple, clear policy in two words: zero tolerance.” 
“It’s a move in the right direction and will save the government compensation money in the long run” a spokesperson for Anonymums stated.

The Founder of Anonymums added, “When Diana Bryant said “Family Violence is the Core Business of the Family Court”, many victims have begun to wonder why such force was imposed upon them in a system that is meant to protect them from such things.  Take “Family Violence” and “Core Business” out of this phrase and it becomes clear what she meant when she said this.  Family Violence Victims held captive by the court and perpetrator means that the protective parent will guarantee a great deal of money.  The message becomes clear, “To protect your children, save your life – We will need the children’s home, life savings and anything else you have”.   Either way, the victim is cornered by a bunch of legal clauses and unless they can produce more than what is required for a homicide, the child or the intimate partner violence victim is at the abusers mercy”.  

The Australian Human Rights Commission made the Following Statement about False Allegations, 
“HREOC is well aware of the concerns of some individuals and community organizations that false allegations of family violence are regularly made.  For example, i n its submission to a review of legislation regarding protection orders, the Lone Fathers’ Association states that protection orders “are employed as a routine separation procedure” by women to force their husbands out of their homes, without any violence having occurred, “and/or as a vindictive retaliatory act”.

HREOC would caution against accepting this contention uncritically. There is no doubt that Family Court proceedings often are accompanied by allegations of domestic violence and the use of protection orders. However, this may reflect the fact that domestic violence often escalates when couples separate. Australian data demonstrate that women are as likely to experience violence by previous partners as by current partners and that it is the time around and after separation which is most dangerous for women.” 
This was in 2005.   It’s been four years since this was noted and many lives at stake, some are embedded upon gravestones, a remembrance of a time when children were once again seen and not heard.

# # #

Anonymums are: 
A collective dedicated to creating awareness and action towards improving the family court system. 
We seek integrity in uphold of the law without discrimination, humiliation, degradation or oppression. 
We seek to expose those who would continue to lobby for systematic abuse. 
We will not tolerate oppression, nor will we tolerate trivialized child abuse or corruption. 
We will not tolerate violence towards anyone

# # # + Share This Article

Email to a Friend Previous News

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