Posted on 06/24/2008 9:41:49 AM PDT by Alice in Wonderland
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A court-appointed attorney for a 16-year-old FLDS girl caught up in a grand jury investigation will go to court today under armed guard. Natalie Malonis confirmed to the Deseret News she has received death threats since she sought a restraining order against a high-profile member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church to prevent him from contacting her client.
"I've been getting death threats and I am being provided a security detail," she said this morning. "That was not even at my request. Law enforcement recognized the need for it."
Malonis said she did not know who has made the threats. She represents four FLDS members — including Pamela Jeffs, for whom she was praised by FLDS supporters when she managed to secure additional rights in court for the woman once declared by Texas authorities to be a minor.
Malonis' 16-year-old client, meanwhile, has fired off several e-mails asking her to step aside.
In e-mails sent to the Deseret News and posted on pro-FLDS Web sites, Teresa Jeffs accuses her court-appointed lawyer of not acting in her best interest.
"My attorney is going against my wishes. Maybe you need a restraining order that you can absolutely have nothing to do with me and you have to stay 1,000 feet away from me! What do you think of that?" she wrote in an e-mail to Malonis.
Jeffs has been subpoenaed to testify Wednesday before a grand jury investigating crimes involving FLDS members. The Texas Attorney General's Office said it could not find Jeffs to subpoena her, and Malonis went to court seeking a restraining order against FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop. In court papers, she accused Jessop of coercing the girl to avoid the subpoena and interfering with her relationship with her client. Judge Barbara Walther signed a temporary restraining order that technically prevents Jeffs' mother from allowing her daughter to have any contact with Jessop. A hearing on a more permanent restraining order will be held this afternoon.
On Monday, Malonis said she spoke with the attorney for Jeffs' mother, but no agreement could be reached.
"I hoped we could, but no ... ," she told the Deseret News.
Malonis said she is prepared to call witnesses and present evidence to suggest that the girl is being intimidated and pressured by FLDS members. The judge is not expected to consider Jeffs' request for a new lawyer.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS, believes Malonis is not following her court-appointed duties. Because Malonis is Teresa Jeffs' attorney ad litem and not her guardian ad litem, her job is to be an advocate for the child, he said.
"I think that she's really out on a limb in doing what she's doing and injuring her own client in a very public way," Parker said. "This is just a very unhealthy and dysfunctional attorney-client relationship. The court ought to grant Teresa's wish and give her another lawyer. This system of justice does not work appropriately when attorneys and their clients are at odds with each other." When the Texas Supreme Court ordered the hundreds of children taken in the April 3 raid to be returned to their parents, Jeffs was exempted.
Malonis said in court papers it was because the girl was an identified sex-abuse victim who had been "spiritually united" to an older man at 15. A special order was put in place for Jeffs, preventing her from contacting her father — FLDS leader Warren Jeffs — and a man named Raymond Jessop, who was not further identified.
The Deseret News normally does not name sex-abuse victims, but the girl has gone public in media interviews and in an e-mail forwarded to the Deseret News. She insists she is not a victim. In her e-mail, the girl said neither Willie Jessop nor Raymond Jessop has ever threatened her.
"That have treated (sic) so very kindly," she wrote.
Jeffs wrote in the communication with Malonis that she did not want the grand jury subpoena, but acknowledged being served.
"Well, they want me to appear before a grand jury. I do not have confidence in you and how can I get you to help me in such a situation that I am in when it feels like to me all you are doing is going against me," she wrote. "So, that is the reason that I am asking you to step aside and let me do what I need to do to and get me a different attorney."
I don’t see anybody here supporting the FLDS. Sorry you have such a low opinion of your fellow freepers and conservatives.
“I think the key points here are it is labeled false or unorthodox by the religious mantle it falls under, such as the Branch Dividians being considered false by the Christian Church. “
The RCC? That is, after all, the Christian church.
Of course, the Jews Consider the RCC a cult, don’t they?
I will stop now, before I get banned.
;)
LOLOLOL, you would not believe how hard it was to learn not to mix tenses.
I still have to proofread for that.
I’m sorry. We are getting off to a bad start, and It’s my fault.
I apologize for throwing darts at you.
I was acting like a snake, wasn’t I?
I think a doctor can tell whether a young lady has a hymen intact or not.
If intact it is a sign of virginity.
However, if not intact, it does not prove the young lady had sex. A young lady starts using things like tampons, as soon as she starts her first menstruation.
So you think Judge Walther is right in imposing and allowing to be extended, the Restraining Order?
It is an easy thing to do.
Most do it unknowingly, but a pattern of it indicates the writer does not give any consideration to the reader.
A wirter can jump from past to present in their head, while composing their thoughts, but doing it on paper, where the reader cannot ‘read your mind’, is a communication mistake.
A good writer always reads over their comments, and tries to put themself in the reader’s shoes. They ‘want’ the reader to understand precisely what they meant, and take responsibility for it if they fail to communicate well, and precisely.
Many of the articles about the FLDS, by various media, are good examples of poor communication.
Past and present facts are mixed in alternating patterns, to attempt to keep the reader from getting an A-Z story.
Key information is left until the bottom of the story, or even left out.
Most people in the media know that a large percentage of the public only reads the headline, and the first sentence.
Then they will scan to see if they notice anything unusual, missing most of the details.
The Media doesn’t care, as long it sells soap.
And the more outrageous, and confusing the story, the more people read it.
The stories are only there to get you to notice the ads.
Who cares if they are ‘factual’.
Tja, heretofore I shall not write. You are depressing me. What profit a man to gain perspective, should he lose his soul?
Okay—I hope I’m not being too clinical, but as a nurse, I can’t help it! Many girls will tear their hymen while participating in sports like bicycling or gymnastics, or even by inserting tampons (I remember when I was that age, it was always horseback riding!) Whether or not a hymen is present in no way indicates whether or not a girl is a virgin. In fact, some girls have hymens that are elastic enough to allow intercourse without tearing, or they tear only partially, with no bleeding. It’s actually possible (though not likely) to have had sex for years, and still have an intact hymen.
So, to summarize-—ya cain’t tell by lookin’!
(And I promise, no more yucky anatomical stuff.. :) )
I’ve never had any problem with the ‘way’ you communicate in your posts. You are very clear, and don’t go rambling all over the place, or backpedal making excuses.
*henceforth?
“What profit a man to gain perspective, should he lose his soul?”
I think if a person loses one, they lose the other.
Do you think Teresa will testify, and incriminate anyone?
I pretty much don’t have any excuses, my friend. I broke all the rules already, and now just do the best I can.
;)
Having said all that, let us return to the topic at hand -
THERE IS NO LAW that allows the state to claim a 36-yo woman is a minor, and take her into CPS protective custody, as a minor.
Since no legal scenario would allow CPS to do that, CPS broke the law.
Anyone who would gainsay me, cite the law allowing CPS to come into your house, claim your wife is a minor child, and haul her off to jail (My wife is 42 - good luck - she would shoot you.)
Or admit CPS broke the law.
This is so simple - they detained a 36-yo as a minor.
NO LAW allows them to do that.
THUS, they broke the law.
Which one is teresa? I lost my program. The mother, or the daughter?
If it is the daughter of Warren Jeffs, I predict she won’t testify to anything.
Actually, that is true of the mother of the daughter of Warren Jeffs, too.
Has anybody got a topology of these relationships, yet?
Can we see the map? I am lost, who is who?
Thanks. I am a nurse too. I agree there are some exceptions where tearing can occur outside of sexual activity. I was just waiting for that particular poster to explain why he thinks this topic is so laughable.
The difference is your wife can prove her age with a driver's license and a birth certificate. The people in this cult have neither and refused to cooperative with CPS. Until they could determine age, they had to act on good faith.
There would be a problem if they knew she was an adult and took her anyway.
1) She provided both a DL and BC before they took her away, as CPS has admitted in court.
2) UT has said TX NEVER BOTHERED to attempt to verify either, while the adult was in custody.
3) TX CPS later admitted in court, based on nothing more that the initial documents offered before the woman in question was detained, that the woman was in fact, 36 years old.
4) There is no TX law that allows CPS to claim a 36-year old woman is 17, and take her in to custody.
5) Therefore, the woman was kidnapped by TX.
This legal case is such a slam dunk, I don’t get why people don’t get it.
Can you really argue that you mistook a 36-yo for a 17-yo?
That would be - different.
Based on many of the posts here on FR I think you are correct.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.