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I have been asked by friends for a copy of the letter in which I expressed my
feelings to the judge and prosecutor in the Christine trial. I have also
been asked for permission to resend the letter to others. The letter is
below and send it to whoever you want.
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September 11, 2002
Circuit Court Judge William Lasswell
District Attorney Rick Wesenberg
Douglas County Court House
Roseburg, OR 97470
Dear Sirs:
This is an open letter to you from someone who grew up in the Pacific Northwest
and had plans on moving back in the near future. Oregon has been one of
our family's favorite vacation spots; the last vacation was a week spent in and
around Lincoln City last year. My biographical synopsis can be found in
your local library and I would like to present that as my bona fides. I am a
successful professional who has been an asset to my community, a veteran who
served my country honorably, and one who has volunteered my services to the
community through the Civil Air Patrol as well as a pilot to fly State Police
detectives in their anti drug efforts. I believe in my country and for the
principles it stands on and have never been involved in any organizations that
could be, even remotely, considered anti-government. In fact, the US
Government has cleared me for a Secret Clearance three different times.
Both of you, Judge Lasswell and Prosecutor Wesenberg, prevented me from making a
serious mistake. As a parent and grandfather I have become very interested
in preventing child abuse and when the Christine story was aired on the Today
Show I watched with interest.
I just couldn't believe that the story told could be true.
An American institution just couldn't be that cavalier to a young family, there had to be a reason. So I started following the story on Northwest News Channel 8 on kgw.com and other Oregon newspapers that I could access on the Internet. Investigating both sides of the story the best I could, the evidence looked like the Christine family was being victimized by a state agency that was running amok. But there was room for doubt for those of us who weren't actually there.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, there was one part of the trial which forever proved beyond any shadow of doubt which side occupied the moral high ground. When you, Prosecutor Wesenberg, insisted on putting that little girl on the stand, even after the parents said that they would admit to what you were using her to prove, and when you, Judge Lasswell, allowed it to happen knowing full well that it would be something that would haunt that little girl, when she got old enough to understand, for the rest of her life, there was no question any longer that the state of Oregon, through its judicial agents, really wasn't concerned with protecting children from abuse.
Instead, what comes across is a mean streak of wanting to get even with a couple of kids who successfully rescued their children. If they hadn't bravely done what they did, risk all for the freedom of their children, those little girls would not be with their family now. They were successful and that made the people representing the state of Oregon angry and just simply mean bullies, spending millions of dollars where those poor kids had nothing with which to defend themselves, and in the process tarnishing the honor of Oregon.
At that point I knew that it would be a terrible mistake to move my family to a state where they, and especially my grandchildren, could be subjected to the despotic system that Oregon has allowed itself to be cursed with. At that point I realized that the fear that I also could be victimized if I vacationed again in Oregon meant that we would never be comfortable visiting Oregon again.
It is even scary to express my opinion on what took place in that courtroom
for fear of retaliation, but I am an American and as an American I mustn't give
into fear of terrorism even if it might come from a domestic source. But, I also
think it is important that you know exactly how your actions are affecting other
Americans, especially the effect it has on the way they trust or fear
governmental institutions.
I know it is impossible for you to experience the horror that is felt by others
as they learn what has happened to the Christine's in Oregon and how their
children have been so severely abused by a state that seems to have gone rogue,
and its agencies. Too bad that you can't feel the deep gut-wrenching fear
as parents and grandparents realize that the state agencies that should be
helping and assisting are instead predators after our children and
grandchildren.
The horror that is felt by learning that the leadership of Oregon believes that 40% of our children are at risk, implying that we should have 40% of them taken from us by the state. The horror felt that an Oregon judge, Judge Guimond in Salem, says that, "since the young single mothers are the most likely to put their children at risk it would be a great idea to write an initiative to take all children from all young single mothers, that being a major risk factor." Too bad you can't experience the fear, the horror, the deep revulsion that many of us in America are feeling as we learn about what has happened to the Christine family, and others in Oregon that have found themselves in the position of having to risk all in order to 'kidnap' their children back.
Doesn't anyone in position of power in Oregon realize that child abusers do
not try to 'steal' their children back? Can't any of you feel the pain a parent
would have if their children were stolen from them by a despotic state agency?
Is there any empathy left in the Oregon power and judicial structures? If
you could feel it, there is no doubt in my mind that you would be fighting this
despotism with all the effort and power you could muster.
It is so hard to believe all that happened to the Christine family and the
implications that result. The following list is some of the facts that have
become apparent to me and many other Americans that have followed the Oregon vs.
the Christine Family trial and what those observations mean to us "little
people" who are not a part of the power structure.
Events Learned:
1. That a family was abused by an Oregon state agency based on an anonymous
complaint and terrorized by Oregon law enforcement when the parents tried to
protect their children, a duty given to them by God.
2. That three little girls were abused by an Oregon state agency by separating
them from their parents, an abuse far greater than any their parents were
suspected of.
3. That the little girls were sexually assaulted by the state of Oregon when
they were forced to endure invasive, painful vaginal examinations. There
was not the slightest hint of sexual abuse by the parents on their children and
no justification for the state's sexual assault on the little girls.
4. That an Oregon state agency took unnecessary photographs of the little girl's
naked bodies and genitalia, which a judge later declared to be pornographic.
Agents, representing the state of Oregon, are involved in what is essentially
child pornography. (I doubt very much if those photos were kept private and
wouldn't be surprised to read later that they have found their way on the
Internet or worse. I have seen other allegations where Oregon child
protection agents along with judicial officers have used foster children for
pornographic pictures. At first I couldn't believe it, now I believe it to
be possible.)
5. That an American court would dare to put its authority above God and anything
decent by destroying good American functional families and forcing the
dissolution of good American successful marriages. If one court is doing it,
than it means that most other American courts are doing the same. America
is no longer "One nation under God." Instead, America is evidently
"One nation under a despotic judicial system."
Lessons Learned:
1. That judges, who are supposed to protect the weak and innocent, can't be
trusted. That judges seem to have lost the essence in human morality.
They are dishonest in that they will allow people to be charged and convicted
more than once for the same crime. They will allow the prosecutor to charge
people with a more serious crime than they factually did. As Judges are
placed in position of power and responsibility they can do wrong with impunity
which means Judges can be, and evidently very often are, very evil. A
lesson to be remembered when serving on a jury.
2. That prosecutors do not care about truth or innocence. They will do
anything, including lying, obtaining witnesses that will perjure themselves in
order to prove a case, coaching a little girl on what to say when the child is
too young to understand what it means or how it will affect them, and anything
else they think they can get by with in order to win a case and forward their
career. It makes no difference to them that this is at the expense of innocent
victims. And our judges allow it. Another important lesson to be
remembered when serving on a jury.
3. That police officers are not to be trusted, especially in a nonresidential
state. Children dare not go to them as what the children say can and will
be misconstrued and used against their parents. Parents can no longer tell
their children to turn to a police officer or teacher if they need help, because
if they do their children will be taken from them.
4. That children are not safe anywhere and it is difficult or impossible for
parents to protect them from despotic state agents and agencies. Instead
of providing a countercheck, judges and prosecutors enable and cooperate with
those agencies without regard to fairness or justice. Parents must worry
and be aware of the danger that their children can be taken by the state from
school, the library, and any public place, as well as from the safety of their
own home.
5. That in Oregon, all a mean neighbor who is angry with a family has to do is
to make an untruthful anonymous phone call and parents will have their children
taken by the state.
6. That once the children are taken, child welfare will distort truths and make
up lies in order to justify the taking of the children. They will use dishonest
and/or incompetent professionals to back them up. Again, the judges and
prosecutors enable, encourage, and assist in this behavior rather than
protecting the innocent.
7. The saddest lesson learned of them all is that one cannot go to Child
Protective Services if they see a child in need or being abused unless that
abuse is more severe than the abuse the state will give that child. Child
Protective Services cannot be trusted anymore.
The defense, I imagine, for what happened in that trial is that it "was
legal." The assumption being that 'legal' is the equivalent of
'moral.' In Nigeria, a court legally sentenced a sixteen-year-old girl to
137 lashes because she got pregnant out of wedlock after her father forced her
to have sex with three business associates. Was it moral? In
Afghanistan a young mother was legally shot as she ran out of her house on the
way to the hospital with a sick infant in her arms because she was not with a
male of her family. Was that moral? It is just as moral as the state
of Oregon taking children from loving parents on the anonymous report of someone
who is sanctimoniously and self-righteously trying to enforce their ideas on
others. The spirit of the Taliban is alive and well in Oregon. Would
it be immoral to try to protect or rescue either of those two young women?
Neither is it immoral for a young American family to try to hold itself together
from state sponsored and state protected terrorists working under the front of
child protection services no matter what they had to do to accomplish that
purpose. Oregon legally put those young parents in prison, but it wasn't a
moral action; on the contrary, it was as immoral as what the Taliban did in
Afghanistan. The wrong people were incarcerated. Moral and legal
just is not the same thing. The biggest 'bully' on the block determines
legal, while moral is found within one's soul.
It has been my experience that bullies never show any remorse for their actions,
or even have the ability to understand the immorality of their actions. I
imagine that is true in this case also. It has been with great sadness
that I have had to give up Oregon visits and dreams. It has been sad to
receive travel advisories warning against taking children into Oregon. It
has been sad to have to send those travel advisories to friends and to warn them
of the dangers of an Oregon visit and vacation. It has been especially
hard after telling friends about our visit to Oregon, that it is such a
beautiful place, and to encourage them to vacation in Oregon and then having to
turn around and warn them against visiting. If they hadn't changed their
plans and something had happened to any of them during their visits I would have
felt guilty.
I have tried in all honesty to let you know how your trial and actions has
affected many of us throughout America. Fortunately for me, this is still
America, so I don't expect to be shot or stoned for writing this letter. I
wish that the wrongs that have been done could be corrected, but I doubt there
is any hope in that. This is America where hope springs eternal, so who
knows. At least we know the dangers and have the opportunity to make sure
our state agencies don't take the same road that Oregon has. You, and the
state of Oregon, have taught us lessons we shall not forget.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Tims
Jonesboro, Arkansas
cc: Governor John Kitzhaber
All my Friends, both on and off the Internet
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I am only one,
but I am one.
I cannot do everything,
but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
What I can do,
I should do.
And what I should do,
by the grace of God, I will do
- Edward Everett Hale.