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Brenda Spencer 2+9 Idaho dogpack vs. exSDPD SWAT | |
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Study finds jump in children taking psychiatric drugs
1.14.03 Erica Goode NY Times
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Number of children & adolescents who take a wide variety of psychiatric drugs more than doubled from 1987
to 1996, researchers are reporting today. Stimulants like Ritalin, prescribed for attention deficit disorder, and antidepressants were the most
commonly prescribed drugs, according to the study, which experts said was the most comprehensive on the
topic.
The study, experts said, further confirms that pediatricians & child psychiatrists are increasingly turning to
pharmacology as the treatment of choice for depression, attention disorder, severe anxiety, obsessive
disorder, manic depression and other conditions. The effects of the trend, or whether it is good or bad, are unclear,
the experts added.
FDA specifically approves just a few psychiatric medications for children, despite their widespread use. This
month, Prozac was approved to treat depression in children ages 7 to 17. The long-term effects of such drugs,
particularly on the brain, are largely unknown. "The studies can't tell you anything at all about the quality of care or
the outcomes of those treatments," said Duke Univ. Med. Ctr child & adolescent psychiatry prof. Dr. James
March.
In the absence of added studies in animals & humans, Dr. Leckman said, "we're doing these experiments
more or less with our own children." Dr. Zito & her colleagues found that of the 900,000 children and
adolescents they studied, 6.2% took at least one psychiatric drug in 1996, compared with 2.5% in 1987.
The participants in the study appearing today in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine were in
Medicaid programs in 2 states and in a large health maintenance organization in the Northwest.
In 1987, children ages 5 to 9 were most likely to be taking Ritalin or another stimulant. In 1996, children ages 10 to
19 took the medications most frequently. The use of stimulants and antidepressants was comparable in the
Medicaid & HMO groups. That was not the case for other classes of drugs.
In an editorial with the study Harvard Med School psychiatry & pediatrics prof. Dr. Michael Jellinek called
findings "an imperfect mirror of the scientific, clinical, financial and systems changes that impacted the mental
health care of children." The study, Dr. Jellinek said, may reflect new understanding and "thoughtful efforts" to use
adult drugs in children "to treat children with serious mental health needs." |
"They use it like candy," said Elnorris Stone, a 25-year-old parolee from Oakland. "Anybody who's considered
hyper, who fights a lot, they prescribe it a lot. The medication fixes it." Stone was paroled earlier this month from
N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, one of four youth prisons in a CYA complex southeast of Stockton. The
Youth Authority houses 7,514 wards ages 12 through 25 in 15 institutions and camps across California.
The scope of psychotropic-drug use is somewhat of a mystery at the Youth Authority, which has no central records
on the total amounts of medications prescribed and the costs.
The Youth Authority, rocked last year by allegations that wards were used as guinea pigs in a drug experiment and
were put in rooms with gang rivals, frequently leading to pitched battles, has come under scrutiny by the Youth and
Adult Correctional Agency Inspector General's Office for its use of psychotropic drugs. The Youth and Adult
Correctional Agency oversees the California Youth Authority, the California Department of Corrections and the
Board of Prison Terms.
Youth Authority policy specifies that psychotropic medications are to be used to treat medical and psychiatric
conditions, not to respond to behavioral problems.
Employees confirmed Osterholt's statements. "It's a legal way of slowing guys down, making them more
compliant," said a Youth Authority employee with knowledge of medical practices who asked not to be identified for
fear of retaliation.
Youth Authority officials are investigating allegations that psychotropic medications have been used for behavior
control, allegations that were raised last year in the inspector general's report, said Brian Rivera, who was deputy
director of institutions and camps until Friday, when his retirement became effective. The inspector general's report
has not been made public.
Rivera said he could not discuss allegations that are the subject of continuing investigations but hastened to add
that all medications, including psychotropics, "are being prescribed for medical reasons by our medical staff." |
Depakote, Depakene syrup & valproic acid, brand and generic anti-convulsants, were the most- prescribed
medication at the Youth Authority in fiscal 1998-99, according to CYA pharmacy records analyzed by The Record.
Depakote was the subject of a controversial experiment that attempted to Document the drug's usefulness in anger
management and involved 61 wards at O.H. Close, some as young as 14.
On a recent visit, Sam Moran noticed that his son's behavior changed suddenly as the two ate lunch in the
Chaderjian visiting room.
"He got quiet, he was in a daze. His legs started shaking, his foot was shaking, he can't keep still. He's eating, he
gets lockjaw, his jaw tightens up. He was eating, then he was not making sense."
Forced medication: Other wards have similar stories.
Travion Chamberlain says he still has memory problems six years after he took Thorazine, a powerful medication
for nervous, mental and emotional disorders. Chamberlain, 22, is a ward at Chaderjian but was then housed at
Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility in Whittier.
After his HIV-infected mother died, Chamberlain was depressed and angry and fought with other wards. Thorazine
made him feel worse.
"I felt like I was retarded. Some people get addicted to it, but I felt stupid. I couldn't read or concentrate. I didn't
want to take it." Chamberlain said the prescription stopped after 60 days.
Wards who speak out or involve their parents are less likely to be forced to take medication, Osterholt said. He
said he was threatened with punishment when he declined sleeping pills after he suffered insomnia but refused
without being disciplined. One of his roommates was not so lucky.
"They threatened to put him in the hole, put him in lock-up, give him (disciplinary) write-ups and everything,"
Osterholt said. "It was a constant battle with him. For a while, he put it under his tongue and spit it out. They made
him take it in front of them."
A new Youth Authority policy requires either parental consent for wards younger than 18 or consent from wards
who are 18 and older, Rivera said. And a new computerized pharmacy system will make it easier for the Youth
Authority to track consents, he said.
Parents who try to remain involved in their children's lives while they are incarcerated in youth prisons must battle
for answers about medical care, said Debora Aubuchon, whose 18-year-old son, Albert, is at O.H. Close.
Aubuchon said her son was prescribed a psychotropic medication, took it for a while but didn't like the side effects
and then was disciplined when he refused to take it. She could never find out what it was.
"The doctors tell me they don't have to tell me anything. You call there, nobody returns your calls, you can't get
through to anybody. I've been trying to get some answers, but it's like a brick wall.
"I don't care if they are incarcerated and if they are minors, most of them, they need to know what they're taking
and why they're taking it. Parents should be advised of it so they can say yea or nay," Aubuchon said.
Youth Authority employees familiar with medical processes at the Stockton complex contend that psychotropic
medications have posed extreme risks for some wards.
Among their allegations:
* Wards at Chaderjian who complain about sleeping problems have been prescribed Dalmane, a
central-nervous-system depressant, on a long-term basis. "It's absolutely creating drug
dependency, and that is a no-no," said one employee who requested anonymity.
* CYA psychiatrists do not consistently use a diagnostic procedure called the "five-axis diagnosis"
recommended by the American Psychiatric Association. Instead, psychiatrists may write "has
difficulty sleeping" in a ward's medical chart before prescribing a mood-altering drug. Once
medications are ordered, renewals may occur for weeks before the psychiatrist sees the ward
again.
* Wards are provided medication by medical technicians, many of whom have not had psychiatric
training, then return to dormitory housing units or cells where they are overseen by parole agents
and youth counselors who are not trained clinicians and are unschooled about potential drug side
effects.
Anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medication may be needed for some youthful offenders, but
only after appropriate diagnoses, said Louis Kraus, director of child and adolescent psychiatry for
Evanston Northwestern Health Care in Evanston, Ill. Kraus, a member of the American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, sits on the board of the National Commission on Correctional
Health Care.
Probably the biggest concern about prescriptions in youth prisons, he said, is the overuse of
Zyprexa, Haldol, Thorazine and Risperdal, all anti-psychotic medications.
All of these drugs are used by the Youth Authority.
Thorazine and its generic equivalent chlorpromazine were one of the top 10 psychotropic
medications dispensed by Youth Authority pharmacies in 1998-99, according to CYA data. A total
of 874,580 milligrams were dispensed last year in doses ranging from 10 to 250 milligrams.
The Youth Authority provided data about the amount of medications dispensed and costs for
1998-99 to The Record, even though the newspaper sought data on the amounts and costs of
psychotropic medications prescribed for the past three years. Earlier records are not available
because the data were not centrally stored, CYA spokesman J.P. Tremblay said.
Medications are purchased as part of each facility's individual budget and are not reported to the
department's headquarters. Oversight of the use of psychotropic drugs went no higher than facility
superintendents.
The Youth Authority could not say how many wards are diagnosed with schizophrenia, manic-
depressive illness, also called bipolar affective disorder, or insomnia or have anger-management
problems. But CYA spokeswoman Sarah Ludeman reported that a one-day report from the
institutions indicated that 411 wards, or 6% of the entire Youth Authority population, are
taking mood-altering drugs.
The lack of central oversight by the Youth Authority was startling to Macallair at the Center for
Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
"It sounds like it's extremely expensive, and to not even have records or be able to account for
how much is dispensed, who is getting it, to me is appalling," he said.
Kraus, director of child and adolescent psychiatry for Evanston Northwestern Health Care in
Evanston, Ill., is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and sits
with Owens on the board of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Owens, who
retired last year as medical director of Washington state's division of youth services, is a
member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Last year, the Youth Authority prescribed more than 16 million milligrams of psychotropic
medications, including:
* Fluphenazine and the equivalent brand drugs Permitil concentrate and Prolixin
Decanoate. It's "a high-potency anti-psychotic," Kraus said. "I can't believe they're giving that to
kids. It's got a lot of side effects, such as permanent movement disorders." Youth Authority
pharmacies dispensed 16,150 milligrams of fluphenazine, Permitil and Prolixin last year.
* Phenobarbital, a barbiturate, "is not used (by psychiatrists) anymore," Owens said. "In
the past it was used for seizure disorders." The drug may permanently lower the intelligence of
younger patients. Last year, Youth Authority pharmacies dispensed 15,000 milligrams.
* Chlorpromazine, an anti-psychotic drug, is sold under the brand name Thorazine that
leaves patients heavily sedated, "would be used for someone who is acutely psychotic. It was
really rare. We used it maybe four times a year out of the whole population, and usually it's one
dose," Owens said. Youth Authority pharmacies dispensed 874,580 milligrams of
chlorpromazine and Thorazine in 1998-99, according to CYA records. Side effects can include
seizures and uncontrolled movements of the tongue, mouth, cheeks, jaw, arms and legs that may
not go away after the medication is discontinued.
Prosecutors revealed that Blondek was not a licensed psychologist and that he had been
awarded bachelor of science, master of science and doctoral degrees in just three years without
attending classes. His graduate school was Newport University, a correspondence school in
Newport Beach.
Blondek, who worked at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, contended that ward Donald
Schmidt was no longer a danger to the public and could be released, even though other mental-
health experts diagnosed Schmidt as a pedophile and sexual sadist. Blondek is no longer
employed by the Youth Authority.
The Youth Authority is addressing the issue, said Brian Rivera, who was deputy director of
institutions and camps until Friday, when his retirement became effective.
Last summer, the Youth Authority instituted new employment requirements for psychologists, who
now must either be licensed or obtain their licenses within two years of employment, Rivera
said.
But psychologists hired before the rule change are not required to obtain licenses, Rivera
acknowledged. They are encouraged to get licensed, he added.
A licensed psychologist must complete 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience,
including 1,500 hours after obtaining a doctoral degree from an accredited or approved college or
university; pass a national written exam; and pass a California oral exam, said Jeffrey Thomas, a
spokesman for the state Board of Psychology.
Youth Authority psychiatrists also often lack credentials. Psychiatrists are medical doctors and thus can prescribe drugs; psychologists cannot. Of 18 staff and contract psychiatrists employed by the Youth Authority, the American Medical Association lists only five as specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry. None is board-certified.
|
Physicians must pass written and sometimes oral examinations before achieving board
certification. Psychiatrists working with youthful offenders need to specialize in that patient
population, said Louis Kraus, director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Evanston
Northwestern Health Care in Evanston, IL. "Many facilities (nationwide) don't use board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists," Kraus said. "Those who are board-certified for adults often don't have experience in treating teens."
The Youth Authority has tried to recruit board-certified psychiatrists but has limited budget
resources, Rivera said. |
DO SOMETHING: toolkit Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) free or low-cost health insurance for children of working parents signup. Community guide to assist local groups Community Health Councils, Inc 323.295.9372 3741 Stocker, Suite 208 Los Angeles, CA 90008 Part of U.S. Dept of Ed Insure Kids Now |
Judge spares 13 yr old killer
1.14.00 David Goodman AP
Nathaniel, who turns 14 next week, said nothing. He turned around and looked at his mother & other relatives
when he entered the courtroom but showed no emotion when the judge passed sentence. "The first 2 words that
Nate said to me were, `What happened?'" said defense atty Daniel Bagdade. After the sentence was explained,
the boy "just sort of looked down and shrugged his shoulders."
Nathaniel was convicted in Nov. 1999 of second-degree murder for shooting 18- year-old Ronnie Greene Jr. from
about 70 yards away outside a Pontiac convenience store in 1997 with a stolen rifle. The sixth-grader was arrested
2 days later, his face painted for Halloween, and has been held in a juvenile facility ever since.
Nathaniel was the first youth charged with first-degree murder under a 1997 state law that allows children of any
age to be prosecuted as adults for serious offenses. His case stirred debate across the country over efforts to
crack down on juvenile crime. Amnesty Intl chose his frightened face to illustrate the cover of a 1998 report
condemning America's justice system as too harsh on juveniles.
Despite the judge's urging, Gov. John Engler and key Republican lawmakers said they won't reconsider the law
that allowed Nathaniel to be tried as an adult.
"The governor feels when the Legislature made this decision,
it gave prosecutors and judges the ability to use this power on a case-by-case basis," Engler spokeswoman
Susan Shafer said. "He thinks it was a good law and it was put there in order to allow prosecutors and judges to
use it as they see fit."
Mayor Walter Moore urged residents to reach out to the boy and to "recognize this young citizen of Pontiac. We
need to in a concerted way make sure we visit him and give him the support that he really needs." The judge may
actually have helped save the law from being overturned on appeal, despite his harsh criticism of it, said UC
Berkeley juvenile justice expert Franklin Zimring.
"That's not the case you'd want to defend before the state Supreme Court," said Zimring, a lawyer and author of
the book "American Youth Violence. The extreme youth of the subject would have cast a terrible shadow," he said.
Defending it would have been "about as tough as it could be."
During the trial, prosecutors said Nathaniel had told a friend he was going to shoot somebody, practiced his aim on
stationary targets, shot Greene in the head and bragged about it the next day.
The defense said Nathaniel was shooting at trees and that Greene was struck by a bullet that ricocheted off a tree.
The defense also said 11-year-old Nathaniel had the mind of a 6- to 8-year-old and could not form the intent to
commit murder or understand the charges against him.
Prosecutors had sought a combination sentence of juvenile detention until age 21, followed by a decision on
whether to send him to an adult prison.
The judge had several options, ranging from life in prison with a chance of parole to a sentence of time served. As
he sentenced the boy, Judge Moore urged the Legislature to lean toward "improving the resources and programs
within the juvenile justice system rather than diverting more youth into an already failed adult system."
The judge said he hoped Greene's family would someday see his death as having served as "a wake-up call for
our community and to the nation that our youth are in trouble, and we need to pay attention."
Prosecutor Lisa Halushka said she was hopeful Moore was right about Nathaniel, "and 8 years can rehabilitate
him."
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5.17.00 John McDonald Orange Cty Register
Criminal street gangs in Orange County saw their membership dip but still managed to recruit 1,136 new members
in 1999, according to a report issued Tuesday by the district attorney. But few have been charged with, or even
suspected of, criminal acts.
The report showed that 321 gang members were sent to state prison. Of those who went on trial in 1999, more
than 90% were convicted, Rackauckas said. Others were removed from the database because there had
been no sign of gang associations for 5 years. Rackauckas denies that there is any prejudice or motive other than proper law enforcement behind the gang enforcement effort in the county. "There are a lot of gangs in Hispanic-Latino areas," he said. "They have been there for a long time; some are third- and fourth-generation gangs that are resistant to law enforcement." He added that the primary victims of ethnic street gangs are members of their own ethnic groups. "We talk about Hispanic-Latino gangs and they terrorize Hispanic-Latino people. We need to stay on top of them." Rackauckas said the recent passage of Prop. 21 will give his gang prosecutors greater ability to fight gang crime. The proposition subjects those convicted of relatively minor gang crimes to life prison terms under the provisions of the "3 strikes, you're out" law. |
Prosecutor misconduct report in state hands 1.17.00 David Hasemyer San Diego UnionTribune pB1
State authorities have been given a secret report alleging misconduct by former district atty's gang unit prosectors
that goes beyond the cases that have been overturned in the last 3 years because of prosecutorial wrongdoing.
The report was sent to the state Atty General's Office last week by a Superior Court judge to determine whether
any of the findings of the report should be turned over to defense lawyers.
At the center of the controversy is a report by Deputy Dist. Atty Stephen Anear that details misconduct in cases
handled by the gang prosecution unit in the mid-1990s, including the slaying of popular high school scholar
Willie Jones.
Anear is a 19-year prosecutor who once was entrusted with handling the most sensitive investigations conducted
by the Dist. Atty's Office. In his capacity as a 7.5 year member of the Special Operations Unit, Anear investigated
organized crime, card rooms and big money waste management.
A glimpse into the substance of Anear's secret report is contained in statements he made under oath in a July
deposition taken as part of a civil lawsuit that his wife former Deputy Dist. Atty Laura Akers had filed against the
District Atty's Office. Akers alleged she was discriminated against because she became pregnant. Along with never-before disclosed allegations that an informant in the highly emotional Jones murder case escaped prosecution for prostitution-related activities, Anear said his investigation showed how the gang prosecution unit blurred ethical & legal bounds. |
Most of the report focused on Deputy Dist. Atty Jim Fitzpatrick & investigator Pat Birse. Thompson noted that
Fitzpatrick was fired by Pfingst, and Birse retired after being transferred out of the gang unit. "Where's
the beef?" Thompson said. "That was always my quarrel with the quality of the report, it didn't establish any causal
connections with the facts."
Thompson further criticized the report because it offered no new information. "When it boils down to it, what you
have is a rehash of events," he said. "To the degree it provides some historical background, that is the extent of
the value of the report."
Anear's investigation included dozens of interviews with police officers, prosecutors, investigators, judges and
informants, along with the review of thousands of pages of records.
Among his findings were that certain
prosecutors & investigators in the gang unit acted without supervision and employed legally questionable
tactics, that the use of informants was improperly documented, and that informants were given benefits
that were not disclosed.
"I felt that we had only uncovered the tip of the iceberg and that there was a lot more out there to be found,"; Anear
said in a deposition.
He said he shared his findings with Pfingst and Thompson. Through the course of his
investigation, Anear says he met reluctantance by his superiors to press for the truth, was nagged by fears that
his efforts were being sabotaged from within his own office and angered because targets of the investigation were
allowed to review the unfinished reports.
When confronted with the information that trusted prosecutors were implicated in wrongdoing, Anear said Pfingst
& Thompson did nothing to address the misconduct he had uncovered. Instead, the investigation was shut
down. Anear was transferred. The report was shelved, and prosecutors sought to keep its contents a secret.
Anear began his investigation with a limited focus on the conduct of Fitzpatrick & Birse in the murder
prosecution of Tyrone Turner. They were subjects of allegations that they withheld information that an informant
had identified Turner as the person who killed a man during a carjacking.
As he went about the investigation, Anear said he understood he was free to follow other leads. It was not long
before his investigation took on a larger focus in the form of an 8 page letter from a law enforcement insider
written to the atty defending the man accused of gunning down Willie Jones, valedictorian at Lincoln Preparatory
High School who was slain in a drive-by shooting in 1994.
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Union-Tribune, questions were raised about the integrity of
prosecutors & investigators, and the use of confidential informants. The letter hinted about cover-ups, of a
failed secret undercover operation, of money spread around the community for informants, of prosecutors &
investigators who broke the rules.
Anear concluded much of it was true. "I told the district atty that apart from the histrionics contained in the letter,
that the allegations of misconduct were parallel if not an absolute mirror of the absolute facts that (we) had
uncovered in our investigation," Anear said in the deposition. "(T)here were serious problems that needed to be
addressed with respect to misconduct on the part of district atty & police employees."
Anear says he then was abruptly taken off the investigation and reassigned from his respected position to a job in
insurance fraud, a position he termed one of "the dreg assignments in the Dist. Atty's Office." When he asked his
boss what provoked his sudden transfer, Anear said he was told: "I knew too much."
Although the gang unit has been reorganized with new leaders & new prosecutors, there remains the question of how many cases of prosecutorial misconduct have not come to light and whether such conduct is continuing. New allegations, such as the informant escaping prosecution for prostitution activities, have left some veteran prosecutors wondering about the extent of the misconduct.
4.12.01 Kenneth Lovett NYPost |
official conditioning by Child Protective Services & medical professionals |
State law restricts the number of hours minors can work. Kids under 18 cannot operate machinery. Kids under 16 cannot work on a factory floor. Twelve Tribes says it considers its businesses to be family-owned cottage industries where the children help their parents - not sweatshops. The group is led by Elbert Eugene Spriggs, whose racist teachings and strict child-discipline policy has brought the group considerable controversy. Members live communally, supporting themselves by making candles, soap, furniture and other products. Al Jayne, an elder with the group, confirmed a state visit to the Buffalo-area commune, the Buffalo News reported yesterday. He said inspectors asked questions about the group's iron forge. Redford's Sundance catalog plans to sever ties with the clan because of the labor issues.
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Politicians target media marketing to kids 6.21.01 Reuters
Wash.D.C. 2 U.S. congressmen introduced a bill on Thursday to stop the entertainment industry
from marketing adult-rated movies, music and video games to children as lawmakers tried to boost support for a
Senate version of the legislation. Rep. Steve Israel D-NY &Rep. Tom Osborne R-NE joined forces to introduce
the legislation which would outlaw the "deceptive marketing" of adult-rated music, films and games to children. A
Senate version of the bill was offered in April by Sen. Joseph Lieberman D-CT and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, who
joined the congressmen in writing to President Bush on Thursday asking him to support the bills. The proposed
legislation follows a scathing report issued last Sept. by the Federal Trade Commission that accused the entire
entertainment sector of "routinely & aggressively" selling sexually explicit films, video games and lewd lyrics to
children.
A follow-up report in April this year found music companies still marketed songs with violent & lewd lyrics to
children but that there had been some improvement in the motion picture & electronic games industries. Like
the Senate bill, the House of Representatives Media Marketing Accountability Act would empower the FTC to
impose civil fines for "false & misleading advertising" against firms that voluntarily label a movie, song or video
game as suitable for adults only and then market it to kids.
Seeking bipartisan support for legislation
He told reporters 4 senators had supported his bill so far but that he hoped more would join their fight. The
Connecticut senator, who ran as the Democrat's vp candidate last year, released a letter sent to
Bush asking for him to support the legislation. "We are not trying to tell the entertainment industry what to produce.
We know it would be unconstitutional to regulate the content of their products," he wrote in the letter, which was
also signed by Kohl, Israel and Osborne. The lawmakers also sent a letter to Senate colleagues in which they addressed concerns over whether the legislation intruded on free speech rights. "This legislation does not in any way intrude on the free speech rights of producers. It does not give the FTC any authority to regulate content," wrote Lieberman and Kohl to their Senate colleagues. |
When a marketing co. builds a Web community to observe the elusive hipster teen, is it girl empowerment or exploitation? 5.13.99 Janelle Brown Salon This information may seem frivolous, but it's a hot commodity. Just ask SmartGirl Internette, online "consumer guide" and ad-free community for teen girls that generated this data. The SmartGirl site doesn't just cater to girls; it does double duty as a trend-research firm, attempting to capitalize on the demand for market research about the teen demographic.
SmartGirl is one of a growing number of companies aiming to move the trend-research industry online. But
because it targets pubescent girls, SmartGirl's activities raise ethical questions. "Youth trend research is growing,
and clearly the Net gives us an even better entry point because so many young people are computer literate," says
Council for Marketing & Opinion Research pres. Diane
Bowers, which lobbies to "protect the integrity of marketing" in the face of privacy-protecting legislation. "Online
market research is growing by leaps and bounds; it's also growing with a lot of concerns that the limitations of that
methodology should be acknowledged."
The offices of SmartGirl Internette, in the SoHo district of Manhattan, are plastered with girlish paraphernalia.
Posters of the latest pro-girl Barbie campaign hang on the walls. Dog-eared teen magazines are piled on the coffee
table. Above the desk of company founder Isabel Walcott, a photo of girls playing soccer hangs beside a
newspaper clipping announcing, "Sleep, the New Status Symbol." SmartGirl isn't much to look at, with girlish motifs of stars, hearts & kisses, glaring spelling errors and a rudimentary design that looks firmly stuck in 1995. But that doesn't seem to matter to the girls who inhabit the site. The pages are filled with commentary from the thousands who visit every day. All of the content, in fact, is written by site members. It consists mostly of reviews of CDs, books and movies (incl sweetly sincere deconstructions of the outfits in each scene of "Clueless"); commentary about teenage concerns such as unrequited crushes; relationship advice columns; and bulletin boards heavy with posts about divorce & snobbish high-school cliques. |
For now, though, the SmartGirl enterprise is supported primarily by another section of the site: Speak Out, brimming with surveys about online
shopping, celebrity crushes, reproductive health and more.
Here, girls answer multiple-choice questions and opine to their hearts' content in open response areas. Their
teenage sentiments are collected, cross-referenced and sold to SmartGirl clients or sent out in press releases for
promotional purposes. (Walcott often serves as a kind of teen spokeswoman, popping up on radio shows to explain
what, for example, young girls think about Valentine's candy or Take Our Daughters to Work Day.)
SmartGirl also undertakes customized research and surveys for clients such as NBC and youth fashion magazine
YM. For a shoe company client, SmartGirl recently surveyed its girls about what kind of footwear ads would appeal
to them. It also launched a line of subscription reports recently, incl the Celebrity Report (chronicling the rising or
waning popularity of teen idols) and the Trend Report (focusing on the vagaries of teen clothing &
lifestyle).
SmartGirl's Celebrity Report, for example, is a dense, analytical, 30-page report peppered with charts, graphs,
appendices and tables tracking "cool" & "hunk" factor of a variety of stars familiar to the teen set. You'd never
imagine that the art of charting celebrity cool would be so mathematical, but apparently it is, and that math is valued
at $10,000 a year for 6 reports. The shorter, monthly Trend Report goes for $2,000 a year.
SmartGirl is far from the first co. to measure & sell teen trend data. Teens are a highly coveted audience,
proto-consumers whose purchasing habits & brand identification are still soft enough to shape. As online
market research firm Cyber Dialogue, research dir.
Kevin Mabley puts it, the teen years are "a great point to reach people at the very beginning of their lifetime value
as a customer." Since teens are characteristically fickle in their pursuit of cool, marketers are eager for any data
they can get.
A whole industry of trend-research firms has evolved to both measure & influence what's popular. If chunky-
heeled platform sneakers are the cool fad then you better not, God forbid, be pushing flat-soled sandals. To avoid
such costly faux pas, marketers have turned to a burgeoning group of trend-analysis companies, sometimes called
cool-hunters, trumpeted in publications ranging from the New Yorker to the L.A.Times.
SmartGirl is one of the first to adapt this methodology to the online world, and to do it with an already-assembled
teen audience to boot. But it won't be long before the thousands of offline trend-reporting companies that conduct
in-person focus groups and phone surveys turn to the Net to track what's hip and what's not.
Response rates for traditional forms of market research are down; phone survey response rates declined 6% in
1998, per Council for Marketing & Opinion Research, while online surveys & focus groups hold the
promise of being cheap & easy to perform.
They are not without weaknesses, however. The industry has concerns about how to properly weight online survey
results, given that computer users still aren't representative of the population at large. And it must decide how to
tackle the problem of verifying demographic information from an online participant.
"The future of online market research is going to be huge, but you have to get around specific problems," says
offline cool-hunting company Youth Intelligence trends dir. Barbara Coulon. "We pride ourselves on getting more in-
depth responses than you might get online, and knowing who we are talking to. We haven't really found a way of
recruiting people off the Internet and knowing who they are." The industry is exploring Net research, but has yet to
hit on the right methodology, she says.
The two biggest areas of concern for online teen market research, says Bowers of the Council for Marketing &
Opinion Research, are those that have been carried over from the traditional market research code of ethics:
parental control and privacy.
With proliferation of inexperienced online research start-ups, these issues could be particularly problematic, she
says. "It's the people who are out there without any credentials that the research industry is concerned about, they
may think they know what they are doing but they may not [follow] the research parameters & professional ethics."
Collecting information that would let someone personally identify survey participants is a violation of the market
research code of ethics and is in some circumstances illegal. Last fall, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (or
COPPA) prohibiting the collection of this kind of information from children under 13.
SmartGirl doesn't collect personal identification information from the teens it polls; Walcott is quick to emphasize
that the surveys don't ask for e-mail addresses, just first names (or pseudonyms) & ages. But this is a recent
change, Walcott used to collect the names & e-mail addresses of her constituents.
She says she stopped when she realized that this practice was problematic. The watchdog group Ctr for Media Education says this change only took place after
SmartGirl was used as an example of misguided online data collection during the COPPA hearings; Walcott denies
this and says the center has long misunderstood SmartGirl's practices.
Another weighty issue is disclosure. When a girl visits SmartGirl, does she know that her opinions are being
collected for market research? Should she be told exactly what the data she provides is to be used for?
Ctr for Media Education sr policy analyst Katharina Kopp points out, "survey sites often don't always disclose fully
how this information will be used ... They need to be more up front about the implications so that a teenager can
really have an informed consent about what they do."
SmartGirl, for example, does not disclose that the site does market research, except in the survey section. There,
in small type & vague terms, the page explains, "We ask you what girls want so companies can make better stuff
for you and really meet your needs. We want your opinion, and we hope to make money from listening to it. If we
can make money without advertising, we can keep our 100% girl-powered site where every opinion you see on
SmartGirl is written by a real girl or young woman."
At the bottom of the long page is a link to SmartGirl's privacy policy.
Walcott asserts that the site is up front about its mission, although it gives a murky description of who will ultimately
use the data and for what purposes. She says the reason the site's market research services are not mentioned on
the front door is because she doesn't want stray visitors who might land on the site to pretend they're teenage girls and participate in the surveys.
There is also the tricky question of parental consent, should teens be required to get permission from their parents every time they fill out a survey? Cyber Dialogue which was founded as a sister company to Yankelovich Partners (known for its groundbreaking youth trend reports with Nickelodeon) and worked extensively with teen-oriented surveys, seems to think so.
Unlike SmartGirl, Cyber Dialogue requires specific parental permission before teens can fill out a survey; it also
pays them a token fee as incentive, something that SmartGirl, in turn, frowns upon as a bribe.
"You do need to get parental permission for anyone under the age of 16 to take part in a survey. To be a best-of-
breed researcher you need to respect the issues of speaking to teens online," says Mabley. "A parent is really the
one who should make a decision about giving that privilege or not; we don't want to be the ones who decide what's in their interest."
|
Students find ring tone adults can't hear 6.12.06 AP
Students are using a new ring tone to receive messages in class many teachers can't even hear the ring. Some students are downloading a ring tone off the Internet that is too high-pitched to be heard by most adults. With it, high schoolers can receive text message alerts on their cell phones without the teacher knowing.
The ring tone is a spin-off of technology that was originally meant to repel teenagers, not help them. A Welsh security company developed the tone to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected. The company called their product the "Mosquito." |
Walcott, however, defends SmartGirl's decision to let girls make their own decisions about filling out surveys. The
law requires only parental consent, she says, when collecting personally identifiable information. Besides, says
Walcott, parents have responded favorably to a place without ads on the Web, where their children are safe from
marketing pitches. "The thing we hear most often from parents and teachers is, 'Thank God there is a place on the Net that doesn't have ads,'" she says. The irony, of course, is that the data that SmartGirl collects instead is used to build better ads elsewhere. As Kopp of the Ctr for Media Education argues, companies will use the survey results "to market to teenagers & kids in a much more sophisticated way; it makes them more vulnerable because the co. has that information and can prey on insecurities or fears."
In the end, though, survival on the Web seems to mean subjecting visitors to the lesser of 2 evils: surveys & market
research or advertisements & product pitches. Walcott is emphatic that girls prefer the surveys. After all, she says,
girls who completed surveys on the site, admittedly a self-selected group, said they would rather have more
surveys than ads. |
Or, according to logic preferred by many luminaries, ALL modern adolescents are violent alienated
weirdoes and therefore to blame. "This isn't the first generation that has been bullied, taunted and
tormented, but this is the first that has resorted to mass homicide as a response," declared
Josephson Institute on Ethics chief Michael Josephson (whose idea of ethics is to stamp all youths
as "serial liars" and "a hole in the moral ozone"). "Kids today shoot people when they're angry and
think nothing of it," railed Judge Judy (whose idea of humanitarianism is to kill heroin users). Self-
flattering generationalist drivel. Numerous school shootings occurred in the 1980s & 1970s. 2
gradeschoolers were murdered and 9 wounded by a 16 year-old girl in 1979, seven Fullerton CA
university students slain by student gunman in 1976, and a 1974 barrage by a rural New York
honor student left 3 dead, 9 wounded. Further back in time, records get too vague to assess. No
matter. "Teenagers today should have no rights at all," fumed Naderite & self-styled
"politically incorrect" Bill Maher (whose idea of adulthood is to berate the mere existence of kids for
interfering with adult pleasures). …
|
Prop. 21 challenge rejected, teen suspect pleads
innocent 4.27.01 Seth Hettena AP El Cajon Williams, 15, pleads innocent to charges from 3.5.01 Santana HS shooting 2 dead 13 wounded. Judge rejects defense's challenge of California law that sent case automatically to adult court. |
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Other than low attendance, there were few reported problems at county schools yesterday.
However, 3 18yr old nonstudents, including one carrying a fake gun, were arrested at University
City High School, said Tom Hall, San Diego Unified police chief. He knew of no campus violence
that may have occurred. 2 will be charged with displaying a weapon in a threatening manner, and
a third will be charged with conspiracy. Many local schools had tried to assuage parents & students' fears surrounding Columbine anniversary by adding security & assuring them every precaution. Many students stayed away anyway. At La Jolla High, 1200+ of 1640 students were absent, others apparently left after finding nearly empty classrooms. Friday was also an unofficial senior "ditch day," which may have compounded student absences. Some rumors fueled spring-break vandalism that left nearly every building of the campus covered in graffiti that included racial slurs, swastikas and pornographic images. A memo read to students Thursday acknowledged safety concerns and said the recent shootings at Santana in Santee & Granite Hills in El Cajon and the vandalism contributed to "an atmosphere of fear that has been enhanced by unfortunate rumors." The memo said there was no evidence substantiating any threats and said student had been disciplined earlier in the week for spreading rumors.
Some students, like senior Rachel Gordon, didn't want to give in to rumors by missing school. Many others passed the day relaxing & sunbathing at Windansea Beach 5 blocks from campus. "I didn't go to school today because it's a good day not to go," said junior Sabrina Schulman, wearing
a bikini and enjoying a day at the beach with 35 other LJHS students. "If I did go, I would have just
hid in classrooms and not gone to the bathroom all day.
Rumors at the high school touched off fears at neighboring Muirlands Middle School, where about a third of students were absent yesterday. 75% to 80% of students missed classes at Serra HS in Tierrasanta yesterday, Principal Leserik Saunders said. He said students' reasons for staying home ran the gamut from those genuinely concerned to those taking advantage of the situation.
"I have to believe many families were just being cautious & not taking a chance," he said.
"They don't think anything will happen, but they say, 'Why take the chance.' " Attendance at most
other SD Unified schools appeared normal yesterday, and instruction went on as usual on every
campus, district spokesman David Smollar said.
"There were a lot of parents calling wondering if the kids were going to be safe," said Nancy Peterson, principal of
El Capitan in Lakeside. 3 deputies, 2 more than most days, were on campus yesterday because of the anniversary & recent shootings, but the day was very quiet, she said. Oceanside Unified, which sent letters to parents this week informing them that there would be extra security because of the Columbine anniversary, had increased absences across the district.
Security patrols were increased on each Oceanside campus, including an additional police officer at each middle & high school. Oceanside's King Middle School was hit hardest. 1655 student campus typically has about 80 absences a day, but yesterday, the school had 599 absent students, said front office clerk Susan Degrafft.
Jamie Horwitz, spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers union, said its members have not requested
such a benefit, but the AFT's benefits historically have mirrored those offered by the NEA. Horwitz said the union
probably would consider the homicide benefit. While recent high-profile school shootings have focused media
attention on school violence, few teachers or staff have been slain on the job over the past decade. According to
the National School Safety Center, which keeps statistics on school violence for the federal government, 29 school staff members, teachers, administrators, custodians, nurses, school police officers, have died violently at work since 1992. |
1979 school shootings inspired boy to teach 10.6.07 Peter Rowe SD UT
Santee At 6 a.m. on a recent Friday, every classroom at Carlton Hills School was dark – except Room 15, where Chris Stanley was preparing his English and social studies lessons. Stanley has been an early riser since childhood, when he attended school in San Carlos. But one morning in 1979, when he was standing outside Cleveland Elementary School, where he was a student, he heard a sharp crack-crack.
Tonight, Stanley will arrive, early no doubt, at the San Diego Civic Theatre for the Salute to Teachers gala. The 49 nominees for Teacher of the Year come from San Diego County's elementary, middle and high schools, each traveling a separate path to the classroom. Stanley's journey began on the morning of 1.29.79
The district closed the school for a day, then deployed psychologists to meet with students in small groups. The children who seemed most troubled were referred to individual counseling sessions. Stanley wasn't in this second group, perhaps because as a self-described “rascal, full of p and v as my mom would say,” he seemed tough enough. That was a facade.
That morning, events unfolded with baffling speed. After Wragg was shot, Stanley ran into the school. He dashed toward the playground, which could have been a fatal mistake because Spencer was shooting from her home and had the ability to cover that open field. But once more, an educator saved him.
A SWAT team captured Spencer after a six-hour standoff. Today, she's in the California Institution for Women in Corona, serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life. Over the years, Stanley lost touch with his classmates. But he has no doubt that they all carry scars: “Each one of us, everybody, was impacted by that day.”
He worked three different jobs by day, unloading trucks, installing ceilings, cooking in a restaurant, and pursued an education degree at National University by night. Now in his 13th year as a teacher, Stanley insists on being treated with respect and responds in kind, working to develop good relationships with his students.
“Teaching is like fishing,” he said. “There are no bad days, just days that are more challenging, days that test your limits more than others.”
After his p-and v-infused adolescence, Stanley squeezed the lemons of his life and made something sweet. He married the mother of his child; they remain husband and wife, and have three children. They share a life and a career; she's a teacher, too.
[ true spawn of the South:
A 1998 report on an arson fire at Shorehaven Elementary School in Garland hinted at trouble ahead for the 2
siblings accused of killing their younger brother in Denton County. At the time of the fire, the children were living
with their mother, Rita Jean Carr. Michael Wayne Carr, their father, had separated from Mrs. Carr and filed for
divorce a year earlier. The oldest child, a daughter, was 11. She seemed the most distraught about her parents'
marital difficulties, family friends said. The middle child, a son, was 6. And Jackson Carr was a Carr was a
toddler.
The two older children confessed to setting the school fire on Nov. 25, 1998, the day before Thanksgiving. The
arson report, generated by Garland Fire Dept's juvenile fire-setter program, recommended psychotherapy for the
11-year-old girl. "The focus of this therapy needs to be on learning how to control anger and presenting
constructive ways to express hurt," the report said. Garland Fire Dept spokesman Merrill Balanciere said no
charges were filed against the children in the arson case.
But investigators recommended that the Carrs resolve their marital situation as soon as possible, and the couple
finally dropped their divorce case. Although the family reunited in 1999, the daughter, 15, and her 10-year-old
brother now are involved in much more than arson. Police say they confessed Monday to killing 6-year-old Jackson and burying him in a shallow grave behind their home in Lewisville. |
The Carr family lived in Highland Acres mobile home park before they bought the 1,500-square-foot brick home,
complete with backyard swimming pool, in September. Gene Caughran, who lives in the mobile home park, said
Tuesday that he had stayed in touch with Mr. Carr although they are no longer neighbors.
"Jackson? They killed Jackson?" he said Tuesday when told of the death & arrests. Mr. Caughran said the
Carrs' daughter was a troublemaker who had recently spent several weeks in an alternative school for students
with discipline problems. Mr. Caughran said the daughter & older son shot out one of his windows, apparently
with a BB gun, about a year ago. "The police came, and she said she just wanted to know what was in my house,"
Mr. Caughran said. He didn't file a complaint.
But Michael Carr asked Lewisville police to take his daughter to juvenile authorities for a few hours to teach her a
lesson. The parents were strict with the children and went to counseling with their daughter, Mr. Caughran said.
"They weren't allowed to watch anything but Disney movies. They wouldn't let her read the Harry Potter books, but
she got hold of them anyway," he said. He said he never saw animosity among the children. "The daughter told me
several times her life was a living hell. She just didn't like having to do what her parents wanted her to do. She had
to follow rules." When the older brother wasn't around, Mr. Caughran said, the daughter was sometimes helpful to
neighbors and wanted to please people.
The older boy, Mr. Caughran said, suffers from Tourette's syndrome and attention-deficit disorder and doesn't
attend regular public school. As for Jackson, "He was the only one who was normal," Mr. Caughran said. "He was
some kid, very friendly and outgoing." Doug Hubbs, who lived across from the family in the trailer park, said he
wouldn't let his 4-year-old son play with the Carr children. They were "kind of wild," he said. They set fire to an
inhabited home in the park and would throw rocks at cars & homes, he said. "When they were separated, they were pretty decent kids. But put them together and it was like a chemical reaction. They were just bad," Mr. Hubbs said.
Michael & Rita Carr's life together was rocky from the beginning, according to court records. They married in a Carrollton church in September 1984, county records show. The couple's first child, a girl, was born in Garland in January 1987. A month later, Michael & Rita Carr filed for personal bankruptcy. They listed their address as Mrs. Carr's mother's home in Garland. A second child, a boy, was born on New Year's Eve 1991 in Norfolk, VA. Jackson Carr was born in Richardson in 1995, records show.
The Carrs lived in Cook's Creek Apartments in Farmers Branch before their marriage soured they separated. Apt
manager Alicia Garcia checked her records and recalled the Carr family lived in the complex 9.23.95 until 11.4.97.
"She [Rita Carr] told me that she was going to leave the apartment because she & her husband were getting a divorce and that he had already moved out. "She was pregnant when she was here, and I remember her carrying him [Jackson] when he was just born. They looked like a nice couple who took care of their kids. The husband was a very kind man but the wife, I never saw her smiling." Ms. Garcia said the couple kept a close eye on their children and didn't socialize with neighbors. The children, to the best of her recollection, didn't cause any trouble. The family paid the rent on time each month, she said. "We never had any problems with the older kids. They never went out without their parents."
Rita Carr & her children were living with her mother in Garland in 1998. The arson report said her 2 older
children walked to Shorehaven Elementary School about 3:30 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving. School was
out. No one was there. Investigators said the boy threw a rock through a classroom window. Then his sister used a fireplace starter to ignite construction paper near the window. Damage was light, est. $400 to $600, authorities
said. Witnesses identified the children, who quickly confessed. Investigators recommended that someone conduct a study of the Carr family dynamics, communication patterns, conflict-resolution skills and parenting skills.
"The outcome of this study would reveal the relationship between the children's behavior and the dysfunctional
dynamics of the family," investigators said. Garland Fire Dept spokesman Balanciere, said Tuesday that he did not know whether anyone conducted that study.
Cho had vendetta against society, federal agents suggest 6.18.07 Sari Horwitz Wash. Post
Wash. D.C. Federal agents investigating the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech think Seung Hui Cho displayed many of the same characteristics of a criminal behavioral profile called the "Collector of Injustice," or someone who considers any misfortune against him the fault or responsibility of others. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also think Cho mentally and physically tried to transform himself into an alter ego he called "Ax Ishmael" before his rampage.
In the days and weeks leading up to the massacre of 32 students and faculty members, Cho changed his personality from passive to active. On the morning of the shootings, which the agents say were motivated by a vendetta against society, he tried to further erase his identity by deleting his Hotmail account from his computer. In addition, he removed the hard drive, and investigators have not been able to find it, the agents say.
When police found Cho's body inside a Norris Hall classroom, the words "Ax Ishmael" were scrawled in red on his left arm, and notes & tapes he left also referred to them. Investigators think "Ax Ishmael" is based on the biblical figure Ishmael, the son of Hagar, a maidservant to Sarah, and the prophet Abraham.
This working theory is part of the preliminary findings of an enormous law enforcement investigation. Over the past 2 months, state police and federal agents have documented and tracked more than 700 leads and conducted thousands of interviews. They do not think Cho targeted anyone individually. Police have also looked for Cho's hard drive, including a search of the Virginia Tech duck pond, where someone saw Cho early on the morning of the shootings.
ATF agents have assembled a sketch of Cho that they say fits the "Collector of Injustice" profile.
The manifesto that Cho left in his dorm room, with other writings that investigators have studied, indicate that Cho believed that people had no respect for him or others he perceived were like him, and that he planned to do something about it.
Cho, 23, of Centreville, whose family was religious and had sought help for him from a Woodbridge church, repeatedly made religious references. He said that he had been "crucified" and that, as with Jesus, his actions would set people free. He called himself a "martyr" who would "sacrifice" his life. He wrote that he would go down in history as the "Jesus Christ of the Weak and Defenseless".
As part of his physical transformation, investigators have said, he methodically bought weapons and clothes for his killing spree. They have documented his purchases in detail, from the cargo pants he wore in Norris Hall to the hundreds of rounds of ammunition he carried and his visits to a nearby firing range.
According to some religious scholars, Ishmael held his brothers in contempt, despised the rituals of society and considered himself to be free of social control.
State police officials would not comment on the ATF's theory about Cho. They said investigators do not now why Cho chose his particular victims or the locations of his killings.
Causes of pariah backlash |
Scare tactics
8.1.03 Mark Scheffler Slate ë Why are Liberian soldiers wearing fright wigs?
Between 1989 and 1997, 150,000 Liberians were murdered, countless others were mutilated, and 25,000 women and girls were raped. The NPFL's shock-and-awe antics were apparent from the very start of the conflict. In an essay in Liberian Studies Journal, an administrator at Cuttington University College tells a story of Taylor's forces storming the rural campus during the initial stages of the war in
Battle alter egos do NOT protect the wearer per se.
Instead, it is a desperate attempt to divorce the combat identity from the conscript's native self identity in futile hope, albeit the only hope available, that the assumed identity will do the dying since it's the one doing the killing.
According to the soldiers themselves, cross-dressing is a military mind game, a tactic that instills fear in their rivals. It also makes the soldiers feel more invincible. This belief is founded on a regional superstition which holds that soldiers can "confuse the enemy's bullets" by assuming two identities simultaneously.
Since flak jackets or infrared goggles aren't available to the destitute Liberian fighters, they opt for evening gowns and frilly blouses.
In common Liberian initiation rituals, which exist in memory throughout the country, if not always in practice, a boy's passage to adulthood is symbolically represented by the donning of female garb. He must first pass through a dangerous indeterminate zone between male & female identity before finally becoming a man.
[ Although permutated to this motive, the original intent was literally to deceive death by disguise and thereby escape fatality. ]
Liberia's adult warlords appropriated and updated these rites-of-passage rituals in order to form tight-knit proxy fighting forces. The strongmen persuaded impoverished youths to join their battalion by offering them the chance to be part of a secret society and attain supernatural powers.
After Charles Taylor's Cuttington University attack, other offshoot Liberian militias vying to control the country embarked upon similar gender-bending rampages. One of the more notorious henchmen of the era was Joshua Milton Blahyi, a commander whose nom de guerre was "General Butt Naked".
Not surprisingly, these troops became poster children for the war. Dressed in gowns and shower caps and "fortified by amphetamines, marijuana and palm wine [they] sashayed irresistibly for photographers," writes Bill Berkely in The Graves are not yet Full, "Race, tribe and power in the heart of Africa". "Liberia's 15 minutes of infamy seemed to spring full-blown out of the most sensational Western images of Darkest Africa."
Today, some 14 years after Taylor's troops first began their march toward Monrovia, Blahyi has put his clothes back on and supposedly found God.
The battle for childhood Sierra Leone
It is nine in the morning and hot in the Sierra Leone jungle on patrol with British soldiers, marching to the village of Jotown. 9 year long civil war that tore the country apart started again last May; now there is a fragile ceasefire which the British Army is helping to maintain.
Commander Snake, probably about age 28, stands in the centre of the village, hand outstretched. He wears a bright red woollen wig. His patchwork sleeveless top is sewn together with emblems of US flags and interwoven with mirrors. He believes the mirrors save him from being killed in battle as they deflect the bullets. |
Has he fought on the frontline?
"Of course", replies Snake.
Has he killed?
"Of course. He is the bravest. A very brave boy."
Is it right that children are fighting? Snake pauses for the first time, stares off into the distance.
"Of course it is not right, but he has to defend himself. He has to be able to fight and defend the ordinary people. When we win, and when this war is over, he will go to school again, and I will make sure he gets himself a good job".
In this country, war & fighting have almost become a way of life. Children have become a way of prolonging that way of life. All over the world, children fight in wars. Here, their participation has been turned into a powerful instrument of domination.
Dawda is not the only child soldier we meet. Children as young as 10 have been abducted, and forced to fight.
Many of those we speak to watched the rebels rape and kill their parents. Others were forced to do just that to family members. Captured girls are sometimes raped too. Still children themselves, they now look after their own babies in a small enclosure to the edge of the camp.
The govt's election slogan had been "Vote with your hands".
The rebels, not exactly great believers in democracy, developed their own electioneering strategy and started a program of amputation. Thousands had their hands and legs cut off.
One boy, 12-year-old Osman, has a scar deep into his forehead. The rebels often use a machete to cut into the skull. They then fill the wound with drugs and tape it over. High for days, the children are sent to the front and fight, little knowing, understanding or caring what they are doing.
Evil does not get close to describing it.
Deputies returned to the home to get the children and put them in the state custody, but one of the boys ran to the
house and yelled, "'Get the guns,'" the sheriff said. He said the children then let the dogs out of the basement.
Raised in such an environment, Peters said it's understandable the children would not trust police.
"They probably think they took their mom away from them," Peters said. "They have been taught to defend themselves."
They are skilled in the arts of survival and know how to use the guns at their disposal, authorities say. "We know there are 6 children in there and guns in the house. The kids are trained to use the guns," Jarvis said. While the children are said to be well-armed and proficient with guns, Steele ¹ noted that no weapons have been seen.
The children were given food & water during Friday's "long period'' of contact, Powell said. Until Friday, the
remaining children had not talked to anyone. On that day, people the children know visited the house, but the
children stayed in a back room and would not talk to them face-to-face. "They got within the threshold of the house
and were able to communicate with the children orally," said Bryce Powell. "They brought in food & water and
were able to deliver a message from my client to the children which stated, 'I love you. I hope you are okay and
please cooperate with this man, Mr. Powell.'"
5 children left their north Idaho home Sat. evening after 5 day stalemate with sheriff's deputies. The children
were seen being driven past barricades erected by the Bonner County Sheriff's office in a large sport-utility vehicle
at about 6 p.m. Saturday. The children had been speaking to 2 negotiators for several hours Saturday, Sheriff's
Sgt. Rob Rahn said. He identified the two only as family members & close friends of the children.
The children will be placed in state custody. At least 3 people have offered to take in all 6 children so they can stay
together. "I gave my word and would attempt to assure that the children would stay together," Bonner County
Sheriff Phil Jarvis said after the children were reunited. "If I have anything to say about it, they will." Idaho Health
& Welfare Dept spokesman Bill Walker said the children must be thoroughly evaluated before authorities
decide what will happen to them. "We don't know yet if they are all physically or mentally ready to take the next
step,'' he said.
They were taken to a hospital in nearby Sandpoint, where officials said they were in good condition and had no
injuries. "They're in very good shape,'' said Susan Montgomery, director of nursing. She said she didn't know
whether they would be hospitalized overnight.
[ Discrepancy between "very good shape" even after police siege & felony injury to a
child indictment of parent ]
|
"Sheriff brings wealth of experience to case": Phil Jarvis has handled other high-profile cases in his long career. At the San Diego Police Dept, the homicide division handles its own press releases and public statements. That meant Jarvis constantly dealt with reporters and television cameras. In addition to homicides & handling media attention, Jarvis is also a SWAT-trained officer, said dept spokesman Bill Robinson, who worked with him for 26 years. "Phil has a lot of experience; when he puts on that Jarvis demeanor, you know he means what he says." |
Most folks know one another here. Neighbor Susan MacLeod, former county commissioner, tried to get McGuckin
to fill out county hardship exemption forms that could have waived all her property taxes. But McGuckin had
deeded the property to a friend in an attempt to get out from under the debt. "I tried to help, but I was too late,"
MacLeod said. The sheriff said he didn't know about the property issue until Thursday. Sheriff's officials say they only received 2 complaints about the dogs in past 7 years. |
|
Bonner County Sheriff Phil Jarvis remembers what a British colleague once told him in assessing U.S. law
enforcement. "He said, `You Americans try to do things too damn fast.' And he was right,'' Jarvis said Sunday. "One
of the things you learn in a job like this is patience is probably the greatest quality you can develop. "You cannot
acquiesce to their artificial deadlines to the point where you allow their 'News at 5' to dictate your timeline &
your tactics,'' he said.'' He took office in January. Jarvis' patience, developed during more than three decades as a police officer in San Diego, CA. "As a SWAT commander in San Diego, I found out violence is the end result of moving too rapidly,'' he said. [ Sagon Penn ]
The sheriff and former captain, coaxed back to police work 10 years after his retirement, is credited with setting the
low-key, nonconfrontational tone that led to the McGuckin children being taken safely into protective custody, five
days after their mother was arrested on a felony child neglect charge. Jarvis, 64, and his wife, Patricia, moved to
the Lake Pend Oreille area in 1993 to retire. But local law enforcement officers persuaded him to help bring a new
level of professionalism to the sheriff's office.
The impasse at Garfield Bay
ended peacefully on Saturday. | |
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ID standoff ends
Children reportedly in good condition after leaving home 6.3.01 Neal Karlinsky & Steve Fudderman ABC News
… "They're in very good shape," hospital nursing dir. Susan Montgomery in nearby Sandpoint told Associated
Press. …
Staying together?
Officials say standoff kids will not be split up in foster homes
6.5.01 ABC News
… After the standoff ended Sat., the 5 McGuckin children were taken to a hospital, where they were reported
to be in good condition w/ no visible injuries. …
All 6 McGuckin children with foster family
The 6 children of jailed JoAnn McGuckin were placed Wed. with a temporary foster family through Health &
Welfare. "A promise made is a promise kept," said H&W Region 1 dir. Michelle Britton, referring to the promise
of keeping the children together, in a press conference Wed.. "The delay underscores the shortage of foster homes
that we have. There simply are not enough foster homes for us in Idaho."
Bonner County sheriff's deputies conducted a 3 day search warrant to inspect the McGuckin home for evidence of
abuse this week. …
Panel kills bill giving land sale money to tax delinquents
Hart says state unfairly takes private property
Boise Rep. Phil Hart, of Athol, lost a 10-8 vote Monday on his bill to try to give some of the proceeds from land sales for delinquent taxes back to the property owners.
The bill was prompted in part by the McGuckin case in Bonner County several years ago. JoAnn McGuckin's 40 acres on Garfield Bay were sold at auction for unpaid taxes after a standoff in 2001. Her children and pack of dogs held off law enforcement for 5 days. The past-due taxes added up to just a fraction of the home's value.
Counties assn exec. dir. Dan Chadwick told lawmakers the current system works. Payette County treasurer Donna Peterson said delinquent property taxpayers receive at least 9 notices before their property is taken, after it's three years past due on taxes, and even then they can pay the taxes and redeem it for a year before it's sold.
Hart said counties and other taxing districts keep the full proceeds when they sell a piece of property for past-due taxes. He maintained that they should instead cover the delinquency and costs of sale, then refund the rest to the delinquent owner. But finding a way to make that work proved complicated, and Hart offered extensive amendments to his bill Monday based on input from bankers and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Hart said property sold for back taxes usually sells for only about half its market value, and owners wouldn't choose that over selling it themselves. "You'd be a fool to do that if you're going to lose half the value of your property," he said. |
Although there was some indication that he was suffering from malnutrition, the boy did not need to be hospitalized
and was in the custody of the state Department of Health and Welfare, Robinson said. Robinson said he believed
the boy was staying at a juvenile facility in Sandpoint pending more long- term arrangements. A boy who appeared
to be a teen-ager was seen in a vehicle crossing the officers' barricade in the company of sheriff's deputies Friday
afternoon. A Bonner County sheriff's sergeant declined to identify the boy. A Verizon telephone truck also entered
the property. Sources said the crew was called in to string a telephone line to the house.
A family friend said he was angry that the news described Benjamin as reading survivalist magazines and being
fascinated with guns. "The closest thing to a survivalist magazine was Zane Grey," the friend said. Benjamin only
cleaned the guns that were in the house, he said. Rahn said the boy confirmed that there are weapons in the house
and that the children know how to use them. He was not armed when taken into custody.
Inside the house are Kathryn, 16; Mary, 13; James, 11; Frederick, 9; and Jane, 8. The children,who have been
home- schooled, have been caring for themselves for the past year, and for months have lived on soup made of
lake water and lily pads, Jarvis said. Earlier this month, the children were reported to be staying in tents, sick and
on the verge of starvation, according to prosecutor Robinson.
Older McGuckin sister, Erina, 19, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in April for medical reasons
because of stress fractures brought on by malnutrition, Wallace said. The fractures also are mentioned in the court
file, which also includes the prosecutor's allegation that JoAnn McGuckin spent most of the family's money on
alcohol. Prosecutors say the children's endangerment continued through at least all of 2000 and into April of this
year.
"We're prohibited from discussing any history with this family," Walker said. But he did say the department will help
place the children when they are taken into state custody. "We want to be ready as soon as the sheriff is able to get
the children safely out of that home," Walker said. If a neighbor complains of neglect or abuse, Health & Welfare workers will go to the
house and conduct an interview. If the problems are not life-threatening, if the children are dirty, lacking clothing or
perhaps not eating enough, the department will offer the family assistance. "But at that point, it is the family's
decision whether or not to accept the help we offer," Walker said. "We cannot require them to do anything."
"Once, when the power was shut off, Health and Welfare made them turn the power back on," said
Virginia Campbell, a neighbor. One neighbor, Sagle Elementary School Principal Don Moore, said he heard that
someone at the ID Health & Welfare Dept tried to get involved years ago, but that they may not
have had the grounds to ask for the children's removal. Neighbors don't blame the Health and Welfare Department
for what's happening in Sagle. The state Health & Welfare dept said Friday that it has found a family
willing to take all six children. Spokesman Bill Walker would not say where that family lives.
If there are more serious concerns, like physical or sexual abuse or neglect, the department decides whether the
children are in immediate danger. If there's no immediate danger but allegations of abuse or neglect, social workers
are required to notify law enforcement within 24 hours, Walker said. If social workers determine that children are in
immediate danger, they make a recommendation to law enforcement that children be removed from the home.
Then it's up to law enforcement to act. If officers decide not to remove the children, Health and Welfare can appeal
to a judge to order that the children be removed from the home.
At last week's funeral, the children, who law enforcement officials were told wouldn't talk to anyone, gathered
around the Rev. Timothy O'Donovan, the former pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. "They fell at his feet and
talked with him and talked and talked," said Coffelt, coroner and funeral director. O'Donovan was at the house
Wednesday with Erina McGuckin, the oldest sister. |
"They're beautiful, loving children," Woller said. "They all give the hardest hugs I've ever felt in my life. They're
sweet, innocent kids who have been told the wrong things," Woller said. "Everybody's against them. It's like Big
Brother." Those who know the family say the children were told by their mother that the outside world was out to
get them. Steele said the high bond is keeping McGuckin from providing care for her children. "Friends and family
stand ready to accept responsibility for the children while Mrs. McGuckin puts her life in order," Steele said.
Also on Thursday, the situation at the home did not appear as dire as was reported initially. Authorities first said the
children were on the verge of starvation. However, the family had a delivery of food from the local food bank this
week. Sheriff Phil Jarvis initially said the children had been subsisting on lake water and lily pads. But Alice
Wallace, Bonner Community Food Ctr pgm dir. in Sandpoint, said a friend picked up a 200 lb box of food for the
family last Friday. In addition, she said, the friend has been delivering 50 lb boxes of bread & other perishables
every 2 weeks.
Garfield Bay resident Lloyd Wyatt, 84, said the children were sometimes seen around town dressed in ragged
clothing. The kids used to visit the C & R Grocery in Garfield Bay, where Lloyd Wyatt goes every day for
coffee.
"The kids were always raggedy and barefoot," he said. "The guy at the store gave the kids treats because they
looked so poor". Christi Paulsen said her son Gunnar, 11, used to play with the McGuckin kids. The families had a
falling out about 5 years ago when a dog attacked Gunnar, who was 6 at the time. That was last Paulsen saw of a
family she described as "a wonderful, affectionate family. They were just like any other family. The parents' lives
were devoted to their kids."
|
McGuckin puppies euthanized at Kootenai shelter pre11.18.01 Brent Andrews Daily Bee
Coeur d'Alene 14 puppies from the McGuckin pack rescued from Sagle in June were euthanized this
week at the Kootenai Humane Society Animal Shelter, leaving workers there depressed. "Most of the staff was in
tears over losing those dogs," said shelter Manager John Davis Thursday. "But there are tears of joy & tears
of sadness every day over there."
The puppies were kept with their mothers in a room isolated from the main shelter population of strays &
castoffs. "The dogs were treated with the best possible care & facilities that we had," Hartson said. But she
said they seemed to be growing "lethargic" lately and showed signs of upper-respiratory problems. Early this week
it became apparent they would not recover, and the puppies were put down Tuesday. "In light of this, we're upping our 'Spread the Word'; encourage your friends, colleagues and family members to spay & neuter their pets," Hartson said. Meanwhile at the shelter, "Life goes on," said Davis. "We concentrate on our living dogs, not the dead ones." To offer assistance, contact the shelter at 772.4019.
7.19.01 Brent Andrews Daily Bee He said the shelter has 6 or 7 adult dogs & 14 puppies, some born since the dogs were taken there by KHS officials in early June. KHS had hoped to have the animals spayed or neutered before returning them, but that cannot be done without the family's consent. It's possible the dogs will go home unaltered. "Tonight is going to be kind of a pinnacle point on how things go and what happens," said KHS public relations coordinator Barb Hartson. "The ball's starting to roll," she said. Hartson expected to make an announcement as soon as today.
McGuckin dogs available for adoption
… The 2 males they want back, Chester & Skip, were both wounded by gunfire during the standoff. The
children might also want a third adult dog back. Shelter manager John Davis met w/ the children in their foster
home in Bonner Cty Thu. night. He described the children as polite and willing to part with most, but not all, of their
dogs.
Chester was shot through the mouth and despite efforts to catch him stayed on the property until his capture last
week and treatment at a veterinarian's office. The $800 bill was picked up by the KHS. "Chester had sat at the
house since everything went down," said Davis. "They had hunted for him and could not find him. He had been
shot in the mouth." Both of the males have now been neutered, also at the expense of KHS. |
Media The children remained inside their home, which lacks power and running water, with several
firearms and a pack of as many as 30 vicious dogs.
Local storekeeper Schoopman said JoAnn McGuckin came in one time and told her that the
children had lost their dog, and she was looking to replace it.
Deputies returned to the home to get the children and put them in the state custody, but one of the boys ran to the
house and yelled, "'Get the guns,'" the sheriff said. He said the children then let the dogs out of the basement.
Deputies had to shoot at the dogs in self-defense, and they scattered in the woods.
The family gradually collected more & more dogs, which roamed the rural area as a pack, hunting wild game
and sometimes attacking domestic animals and people.
The McGuckins started blocking their driveway by parking a pickup with a snowplow blade cross-ways on the road.
They also placed a sign there that reads: "PLEASE HONK DOGS BITE." Neighbors stopped walking by the house.
"If my wife ever ran up there, I would go with a big stick or a baseball bat," said Sagle Elementary School Principal
Don Moore. "Once I had to get off my bike, hold my bike in between me and the dogs."
One mother wouldn't let her daughter walk that way to catch the school bus. "It's really scary living here," one
neighbor said. "It's been scary for 5 years." One neighbor moved after his dog was attacked and killed by the
McGuckins' dogs. He feared one of his own five children might be next. A farmer down the road lost a calf.
Sheriff's officials say they only received 2 complaints about the dogs in past 7 years. And state wildlife officials say
they've never had a complaint, even though neighbors knew the dogs had attacked moose & other animals.
People living near the McGuckin's 40-acre home site blame the Bonner County Sheriff's Office for not ridding the
area of the vicious animals, which number more than two dozen. Former neighbor Ronald Campbell filed a written
complaint with the Sheriff's Office about 4 years ago, after his dog was killed by the McGuckins' dogs.
"They talked with him about it, but essentially said there was nothing they could do," said Virginia Campbell,
Ronald's mother, whose other son, Roger, still lives in the area. Ronald Campbell moved away because he feared
for the safety of his 5 children, she said. According to Bonner County sheriff's clerks, there have been five
complaints registered at the McGuckins' address in the past seven years. Only two of those involved the dogs.
So why did the dog situation escalate to the point that the McGuckins' neighbor Stephanie Almy was attacked last
week? "Beats me," former Sheriff Chip Roos said Friday. "If people don't have a complaint against a number of
dogs running as a pack, there's not much we can do." Roos, who stepped down as sheriff last year, said as soon
as his office was alerted to a dog complaint, his officers investigated. "Essentially, with all the dogs running at large,
best-case scenario is you can cite the person on the spot," Roos said. "In the worst conditions you don't see
nothing or you don't have a neighbor willing to sign. With that, you send it to the prosecutor and see if the
prosecutor is interested enough to go for a probable cause warrant."
Officials at the Panhandle Animal Shelter said animal control officers have never brought any of the dogs to their
shelter. Idaho Dept of Fish & Game officers have jurisdiction if dogs attack game animals, said regional
conservation officer Steve Agte. Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the dogs had recently killed a small moose.
"We were totally shocked" by the reports, Agte said. "They've got to tell us before we know it," he said. If officers
actually see the dogs chasing game animals, state law allows them to shoot the dogs, Agte said.
6.5.01 Daily Bee "They are all in reasonably good heath," she said. "I would have thought that dogs from a pack of 27 might have been in poor shape. But, they've been fed or feed themselves." Ingwerson said the Kootenai Humane Society is expecting to receive 4 more dogs sometime today, however the remaining dogs will be sent to other area animal shelters. |
|
Clark Fork council bogs down in legalities 10.3.01 Mike Gearlds Daily Bee
Clark Fork ID The city council considered issues ranging from proposed state legislative redistricting
to an amended garbage ordinance at their regular meeting Monday night. The result was little or no action on most
items, with council stymied by hanging legal questions and lack of financial or enforcement resources.
Clark Fork took in the dogs to help other agencies hard-pressed to deal with so many animals at once. Harp said
he did not consider the dogs dangerous, although they did not like strangers. Using donated food, Clark Fork
spends about 90 minutes a day to care for the dogs. Reed said she has been unable to get permission from
Kootenai Cty officials to adopt-out or euthanize the animals. Most of the pack of more than 20 dogs already have
been euthanized in various north Idaho animal shelters. |
A deputy blocked the road on Wednesday and would not let reporters up to the house. Deputies allowed Steele to
drive to the house Thursday with a family friend, but the dogs prevented them from exiting the vehicle. Garfield Bay
Cut Off Road to the McGuckin home is blocked on either end by police tape. The home lacks power, water and
heat. The power to the remote home was cut off about 5 years ago, which is when neighbors started calling
authorities to voice their concerns for the children, Robinson said. Before the McGuckins shut off their phone and
took down their mailbox five years ago, JoAnn McGuckin spoke to neighbors and friends about her fears of people
coming to harm the family.
The family has no heat and cooks over a campfire in the yard. The family also may not have potable water. The
family supplemented its diet with lake water and "lily pad soup," Jarvis said. Also on Thursday, the situation at the
home did not appear as dire as was reported initially. Authorities first said the children were on the verge of
starvation. However, the family had a delivery of food from the local food bank this week. The home has had power
for some time, according to Northern Lights utility, but it has been lacking water because of a broken water pump.
The family has been drawing water from Beaver Lake, a small lake near the family's home. Phone service may
soon be established to the house, so negotiators won't have to use a loudspeaker, said Sgt. Rob Rahn, the media
liaison for the Sheriff's Department.
|
Dive! Dive! Top secret subs in north Idaho N.K.Geranios AP … The Acoustic Research Detachment facility at Lake Pend Oreille meanders 43 miles through the timbered slopes of the Selkirk Mountains. … Most of the surrounding land is govt owned, so there is little development along its forested shoreline to create distracting noise. "There is no lake like this anywhere in the world,'' said USN Lt. Cmdr. David Pierce , referring to the combined attributes that make this an ideal place to test submarine design. … Top-secret testing has little impact on public enjoyment of the lake. "We test at night because there are fewer boats and the winds die down,'' said base's senior civilian engineer Henry Netzer. Much of the testing is done in a 26-square-mile area in the middle of the lake, far from most people, he said. Occasionally, researchers have asked boaters to leave the area because noise from their craft was ruining the tests.
It's the only active-duty portion remaining of the former Farragut Naval Training Center, established during WW2
to train 293,000 sailors. Most of the 4,000-acre center was shut down in 1946 and made into Farragut State
Park.The remaining base covers just 22 acres along the south end of the lake, near
Bayview resort community of 300 people.
Small subs provide big payoff for sub stealth
… deeper than 1,000 ft over an area exceeding 26 sq miles, and its flat mud bottom minimizes sound
reflection. A low
level of particulates in the water results in minimal reverberation & scattering, and its ambient sound level is
less than the
ocean at Sea State Zero more than one fourth of the time. Moreover, the lake's water temp. remains at 39.5
degrees
Fahrenheit below 300 ft all year, maximizing the repeatability of test results over time. Finally, at 8 miles long by 3
to 6 miles
wide, the testing volume is more than adequate. …
Differing accounts of McGuckin tax hearing emerge
pre11.18.01 K.Kinnaird Daily Bee
Sandpoint Former Bonner
Cty Commissioner Bud Mueller stands by his contention that he tried to waive the McGuckin family's back property
taxes even though he voted to sell the land at a tax deed hearing. Mueller, according to July Bonner Cnty
Observer, tried to "forgive" the McGuckin's $8,444 tax debt, but was outvoted by former Commissioner Dale Van
Stone & Commissioner Brian Orr.
But Mueller said he was not fully aware of the McGuckin family's circumstances at the time of the tax deed hearing.
"I knew who they were, but I didn't know much about them," he said. Only after the hearing did he learn Michael
McGuckin was dying of multiple sclerosis & wife JoAnn was struggling to make ends meet for her 6 children,
Mueller said. That's when he said he approached Van Stone & Orr about the possibility of waiving the family's
tax debt. "It was too late then to pay the taxes, but that didn't mean we had to sell it," Mueller said.
… The McGuckins deeded the land in 1996 to James Stewart of Eugene, OR., said
to be JoAnn McGuckin's former boyfriend. Taxes on the parcel were delinquent 1995 to 1999. Efforts to contact
Stewart were never successful so the county continued to send notices to the McGuckins even though they were
no longer the title owner.
Leading up to the hearing, the McGuckins apparently offered to give the county a 1.5-acre parcel the family still
owns farther down Garfield Bay Cutoff to settle the tax debt. But there is no mechanism in place that enables the
county to accept land to pay for back taxes, according to Shannon Syth, the county's treasurer.
Living on borrowed land
County says ID standoff family could have kept home by signing a form
… quit deeded the land to Oregon man named James Stewart in 1996 after the family first started to fall
behind in their taxes. Some payments were made after the name on the property changed, but by May 1999 the bill
was about $5,000, and the county tax deeded the property, country treasurer Shannon Syth. According to current
& former county officials, the McGuckins had refused to take advantage of offers of help that could have
allowed them to keep the land.
The McGuckins could have had the tax debt forgiven if they filled out an indigent request, but the family refused
repeated efforts from county officials and from some of their neighbors to get them to fill out the form, according to
commissioner Tom Suttmeier. "They wouldn't accept assistance from anyone," he said. "I think what
you're dealing with here is just an extreme case of paranoia. There's just a resident distrust of govt in any
form."
Mueller said part of his argument to let the McGuckins keep the land was that there were a lot of properties on the
county books that had gone unsold and the county didn't need any more. "We've got one that's been there since
1946 and hasn't been sold. We have a whole book full of them," he said.
With 5 acre rural zoning, the property could be cut into as many as 8 lots. "I haven't appraised it, but probably one
of the reasons it went so quick was that is was a good deal," said Cindy Derr-Janek Co. Claudia Crosthwaite. "It
could have been split and probably will be split."
6.14.01 Rense … Many who have been involved in child-snatching by the state, lawyers on both sides, (now adult) children & parents, have told me repeatedly that this is how it is done. They get the parent to disavow those who have them on the run, saying it is the only way they will ever get the kids back. While I have no evidence of that occurring in this case, … For what it is worth, I filed Bar Complaints against both Powell and Robinson on Monday afternoon.
… Many asked why we can't simply pay the back taxes and cure the default. Because the redemption period
is passed, is why. After a year, if the house is sold by the county, there is no longer a right of redemption. The 3
year Idaho redemption rule applies only if the county doesn't sell it, else there is only a 1 year right of redemption.
That's why the county held it for 15 months before moving in like this. The sale last October cut off the right of
redemption. The difference goes to the county, per state law. However, I have identified a number of things that I
think allow JoAnn to file suit to recover the property, incl defects in the notice of sale …
McGuckin arrest ongoing due process violation
… the county has routinely "forgiven" past due property taxes for Schweitzer Mtn Ski Resort, Bonner Cty Mall
and other personal & commercial properties.
Mueller also said that, prior to the property being sold at auction, the McGuckins' neighbors took up a collection and
offered to save the family's 40 acres from foreclosure by paying a year's worth of back taxes. Mueller said that the
county refused to accept the payment as being "too late." |
"Once, when the power was shut off, Health and Welfare made them turn the power back on," said Virginia
Campbell, a neighbor." And then they still didn't pay their bill, and it was shut off again." That was as many as 5
years ago. For the last 5 years, the family stayed isolated, their fears building as they struggled to hold onto their
40-acre property, with its one-story ranch house, outbuildings and lake front on Beaver Lake. "Up until last fall,
they'd come in every 2 weeks to get salvage bakery & dairy goods," Wallace said.
The change coincides roughly with the time acquaintances say Michael McGuckin's disease entered its final stage
and the family lost ownership of its home. "I know that they had lost their property because of the taxes," Wallace
said. "Evidently, there's some real sourness with the govt, and then the paranoia comes in." The sheriff said he
didn't know about the property issue until Thursday.
Last fall, Bonner County sold the 40 acre property in Garfield Bay at auction to pay back taxes, according
to county records. The McGuckins owed $8,400 for 3 years of unpaid taxes. "Why did Bonner County choose to
deed to the county 40 acres with a quarter mile of private lake frontage to pay off $5,487 worth of taxes?"
McGuckin asked, in a April 2000 letter to the county treasurer's office. The property was sold 9.1.01 to Schmuel
¹
²
& Amy Korengut ¹
²
³
ª
º, whose hometown is unknown, for $53,000, county records show.
When the house was sold by the govt last year, public records show that workers in the county treasurer's office
warned each other about JoAnn McGuckin's verbal assaults. They would alert courthouse guards when she
entered.
The McGuckin property is described as a 1½ acre parcel at the county assessor's office, but Steele contends the property is
40 acres. The McGuckin family deeded the land to a third party in the mid-1990s, but the county took over the
property because that person defaulted on back property taxes. No taxes on the property had been paid from 1995
to 1999, so the county sold the land at auction in September, according to Belinda Best, a county deputy
treasurer.
The McGuckins stayed on under arrangements that remain unclear, officials said. Steele suggested that the events
over the past week are related to the govt's attempts to get the McGuckins off the property. They still own a
triangular sliver of property off Garfield Bay Cut Off Road, behind which are private forests, small lakes, National
Forest and Lake Pend Oreille.
7.6.01 Dean Schabner ABC News Steele, who gained notoriety as atty who defended Aryan Nation in civil suit that cost the group its north Idaho compound, said he & investigators looking at the case have turned up alleged irregularities in the way Bonner Cty officials proceeded in seizing the McGuckin land … He said one early irregularity soon after the first time the McGuckins fell behind in their taxes in 1996 happened in response to quit-claim to family friend James Stewart from Oregon, and the taxes were paid. They kept an 1.5 acre.
Steele said his investigators found after McGuckins quit-claimed, the county was unable to locate Stewart, so it
continued to send notices of appraisals and tax bills to the McGuckins, but not to the house. The correspondence
was sent to a post office box. "We never were able to run to ground who took out that P.O. box," Steele said.
… on a small lake and is rumored to have a spring that could supply enough water for a small housing
development. … Steele estimated the land was worth anywhere from $250,000 to $800,000.
… Bonner Cty officials seemed to deal w/ McGuckin as though she were competent when it came to her
land, even though prosecuting atty Robinson said county officials long felt she was too mentally ill to raise her
children.
… new owners never made any effort to get her off, and county officials said once the land was sold it no
longer was their concern who lived on it. "The county would in all probability have done nothing to move them, and
as far as I know did nothing to move them," Suttmeier said. "It's not in the county's interest to make people homeless."
Case sparks threats against officials
Some say it was elaborate land grab
6.6.01 K.Kinnaird Daily Bee
… County officials, as required by state law, began proceedings in 1999 to tax deed the property so the
county could recover the overdue property taxes. County treasurer Shannon Syth mailed required notices and had
them published as a legal ad. They only had a Eugene OR phone no. for Stewart and no mailing address. After
phone messages went unreturned, Syth said her dept then tried to contact Stewart through the McGuckins, but had
no luck.
Meantime, former county commissioners Bud Mueller & Susan MacLeod encouraged the McGuckins to take
advantage of hardship tax exemptions. The paperwork was never filled out, according to Syth. The property was
sold at public auction Sept. 2000. Schmuel and Amy Korengut were the highest bidders, offering $53,000 for the
land. Tax debt = $8,444. After debt was settled, $44,556 balance of proceeds was distributed evenly among
taxing districts such as Sagle Fire Dist., East Bonner Cty Library Dist. and Lake Pend Oreille School Dist.
Idaho official questions family's loss
Sandpoint Lying awake at night, thinking about the impoverished McGuckin family, Tom Suttmeier
had an idea. What if the money the county made from selling the McGuckins' home had gone back to the family?
Maybe it could have purchased a small mobile home and turned their lives around, avoiding the predicament
they're in now, he thought. |
… some have described as prime waterfront, worth half a million dollars. "It's a beaver pond, c'mon," said
Bonner County assessor Jim Boatwright. Current assessed value of the property, with timber exemptions, is
$66,000. "The theory is just more right-wing garbage," Suttmeier said.
Suttmeier is not comfortable with the fact that the county had a hand in taking property from a family living in abject
poverty. When the county sold the property last Sept., it didn't even belong to the McGuckins. After 3 years of
nonpayment of property taxes, Idaho statute calls for the county to take possession of the property and auction it
off in a tax sale.
Bonner County sold 8 properties last year in tax sales, 18 the year before, and 5 the year before that. In 1997, the
county started a tax deeding process against the McGuckins. After numerous reminders & attempts to get the
taxes paid, "at the last minute" the treasurer's office was able to contact McGuckin Family Trust atty Jonathan
Cottrell, for the who paid the 1994 taxes, according to Shannon Syth, Bonner County treasurer.
In 1997, the McGuckins deeded their property to James Stewart of Eugene, OR. But Stewart never paid any
property taxes. In 1998, the tax deed process started again. 1.9.99 a neighbor brought JoAnn McGuckin forms to
apply for an exemption from property taxes because of financial hardship. But because they had transferred
ownership of the property to Stewart, the McGuckins weren't eligible for the hardship exemption.
Syth said she would have fought for the hardship exemption if they'd filled out the forms. "We all knew she was
living on the property," Syth said. "With that (financial) information, we could have canceled the taxes." The
treasurer's office didn't have any way of contacting Stewart, the legal owner, except for a phone number. He never
called back, so the office sent several certified letters to the McGuckins.
The original tax deed hearing on the property was scheduled Feb. 2000, but the county extended it until May to
give former Commissioner Bud Mueller time to talk to neighbors to see if they could help head off the tax sale.
"Bud didn't want to tax deed it," Syth said. JoAnn McGuckin offered to deed a separate 1.5 acre parcel, assessed
at $10,000, to the county to cover the taxes. But the county had no legal mechanism that allowed it to do that, Syth
said.
Nothing changed, and in May 2000, the county assumed ownership of the land. The treasurer's office called St.
Joseph's Catholic Church, McGuckin's aunt, anyone they could to try to get the taxes paid and avoid the tax sale.
It's highly unusual to have a tax sale due to a property owner's inability to pay taxes, said Syth and Carlyne Reed,
Ada County treasurer and president of the Idaho Association of Counties. Most people who can't pay come up with
a payment plan or file for a hardship exemption.
"It was a salvageable situation," Syth said.
In Sept., the property was sold to the highest bidder in a public auction. Schmuel and Amy Korengut of New Jersey,
through their Sandpoint atty, purchased the 40 acres & 1,748 sq ft home for $53,000. The $8,444 due in taxes
went to the county, and the rest of the $44,555 was disbursed to all taxing districts in the county, as is required by
law.
"That's wrong," Suttmeier said Thursday. "It should have gone back to that family." The property is now assessed
by the county at $66,000, with a timber exemption. A previous assessment conducted without a timber
exemption pegged the value at $177,000. Timber exemptions lower the value for tax purposes to encourage
owners to grow & manage timber on their properties.
A county appraiser who visited the home in February was warned by the McGuckin children to stay inside the car
because of the dogs. "She observed the house from her car, and it looked like it was not worth what it was before,"
said county assessor Boatwright.
The house was assessed in 1995 at $80,833. Now, having aged and fallen into disrepair, the home is assessed at
$31,222. Suttmeier estimates that the cost of the McGuckin case to the county & state from sheriff's overtime
during the stalemate last week to counseling services for the children could eventually be a half-million dollars.
"First of all, it's not morally right," he said of the tax deed sale disbursement. "Secondarily, from an economic
standpoint, it's a failed strategy for the state." As he explained his idea to Syth on Thursday, Suttmeier
said, "We can't go back and change what happened, but we may be able to prevent similar situations in the
future."
Idaho Association of Counties president Reed was noncommittal about Suttmeier's proposal. "I'm not going to be
really quick to jump on that bandwagon as a treasurer," Reed said. "There are so many provisions under Idaho law
to let people make monthly payments, indigency claims, hardship exemptions, all of those things that come into
play to determine whether or not it's really equitable. That's going to take a lot more study on my part."
McGuckin's court-appointed atty Bryce Powell, said he's been approached by an anonymous benefactor from Florida, who's interested in purchasing the property for the McGuckins. In the meantime, members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church are considering paying the $115.80 the McGuckins owe for taxes on the 1.5-acre parcel, Syth said. Without that payment, the McGuckins will likely lose their last acre of land, too.
6.28.01 N.K.Geranios AP McGuckin had refused another judge's earlier offer to leave jail on condition that visits with her children be supervised. The children visited McGuckin in jail only once. As McGuckin left jail, she said she would spend the night in a motel. ''It's one step in the right direction,'' she told reporters. ''We'll see where we go from here. I'm almost bewildered. I've been in jail so long it feels like home.''
The misdemeanor charge carries max. sentence of 6 months in jail and a $3,000 fine. McGuckin pleaded innocent
Thursday to the reduced charge. First Dist. Court Magistrate Judge Debra Heise ruled there was insufficient
evidence to support the felony neglect charge. ''I find the state failed to sustain its burden that the conditions were
likely to cause death or great bodily injury,'' the judge said. ''The state has proven that their health may have been
in danger.''
Wed. she said the family ate bread that had been gnawed by rodents and had
to remove animal feces from their food as it was cooking. But conflicting account was given Thursday by Kathryn
McGuckin, 16, who said the family had been under extreme stress for several years because both parents were
sick.
The teen-ager said she was prepared to shoot anyone who attacked her brothers & sisters. She said she test-
fired 2 weapons in the house to make sure they worked. ''If someone started shooting, we had the right to shoot
back,'' she said
McGuckin leaves jail after charge reduced
Custody hearing today
6.29.01 K.Kinnaird Daily Bee … Robinson, meanwhile, drew out testimony from Kathryn McGuckin about her mother's drinking habits and her theory that electrical devices in the home were used by the government for eavesdropping. … |
Eldest daughter, Erina, now 19, virtually raised the
younger children until she had a falling out with her parents and left about a year ago to live in Rathdrum about 50
miles south of Sandpoint, Day said. She has been assisting sheriff's officers in negotiating with her siblings, one of
the department's key negotiators in getting the children out. She's not having much luck. She couldn't get into the
Navy because of stress fractures caused by malnutrition, authorities say.
She was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in April for stress fractures due to malnutrition, Wallace said.
The fractures also are mentioned in the court file. The children "are angry at her," said Bonner County food center
employee Joan Woller who visited regularly with Erina McGuckin, "because she left, and everything was put on the
other kids."
Following their father's funeral services, "the children fell at his feet and talked with him and talked and talked," said
coroner & funeral director Coffelt, of Rev. Timothy O'Donovan, former pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
O'Donovan was at the house Wednesday with the oldest sister Erina . They talked to the children through a
loudspeaker and heard a small female voice respond. They couldn't quite make out the words, Jarvis said.
The incident was triggered by Tuesday's arrest of the children's mother, Joann McGuckin, on a warrant
charging felony injury to a child. Jarvis declined to elaborate on the charge. Deputies lured McGuckin from the
house Tuesday with grocery money. She was taken into custody after going to a store with a deputy who had
brought the cash. Tilson brought her some money
Tuesday and gave her a ride to Garfield Bay to make a phone call. McGuckin was arrested at Garfield Bay Resort
to avoid frightening the children into a confrontation.
Yet people who know the kids say they're friendly & intelligent. "They're beautiful, loving children," Woller said.
One source, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the children were not allowed to enter their house
without permission from their mother. Others said they were never allowed to leave the property or talk to
strangers.
"For years, Mrs. McGuckin has been fearful of the govt taking her property & her kids," Steele said. "Today,
that fear is realized." Those who know the family say the children were told by their mother that the outside world
was out to get them. The 6 children holed up Thursday in a ramshackle house were raised to fear govt, a feeling
reinforced by this week's arrest of their mother and the September sale of their home for delinquent taxes.
Authorities believe McGuckin, 46, is mentally ill.
Her husband, Michael McGuckin, died 3 weeks ago. JoAnn McGuckin said her husband, whose illness she blamed
on chemicals sprayed on area roads, had been poisoned and that the govt was going to take her children,
according to acquaintances who spoke to AP. [ MS is an auto-immune disease; the immune system targets only the central nervous system. It is generally genetic, but can be caused or aggravated by chemicals & toxins. ] |
|
McGuckin standoff featured on 'Primetime Thu.' JoAnn, Erina say little love lost between each other 11.11.01 Keith Kinnaird Daily Bee
Sandpoint ID JoAnn McGuckin's eldest daughter has no regrets about turning her mother in to
authorities to spare her siblings from having to live in squalid conditions. "I know I did the right thing, and I'd have
done it again," Erina McGuckin told ABC news anchor Connie Chung in an episode of "Primetime Thursday". |
2 months after the stalemate, Erina McGuckin gave a camera crew a tour of the McGuckin home. The 5-gallon
buckets used as toilets still remained in the home, as did rotting food, broken glass, animal feces, and JoAnn
McGuckin's liquor bottles.
The death of the family's patriarch was apparently the catalyst for Erina McGuckin's actions. 2 days after Michael
McGuckin died, she sought Robinson's help in lifting her siblings from abject poverty. "Her comment to me that day
was that she just would not, now that her father was dead, allow her brothers and sisters to go on living like this,"
Robinson told Primetime.
JoAnn McGuckin admitted the death of her husband was a key factor in the deterioration of the household. While
she concedes the house was a mess, JoAnn McGuckin insists her children's hygiene was not an issue. Even
though Erina went to authorities, JoAnn McGuckin said she still loves her daughter.
"She's my own flesh and blood. The love is unquestioned; that can never be compromised. The discipline is
another issue. That we have to deal with," JoAnn McGuckin said.
Erina McGuckin, meanwhile, expressed disappointment in her mother's actions, but said she still loves her.
"Deep down inside I love her very, very much. I just do not like her right now," she said.
|
Idaho mom won't leave jail until kids are returned 6.4.01 CNN
… the woman has refused to leave jail until her children are returned. Judge Barbara Buchanan said JoAnn
McGuckin could be released on her own recognizance with certain conditions Monday, but McGuckin's lawyer said
she had some conditions of her own.
6 months after standoff with deputies, McGuckin family still apart at Xmas
12.17.01 N.County Times
JoAnn McGuckin, instantly recognizable with her thick, red hair, spends her days praying, writing and meeting with
lawyers and doctors. She sees her children during Sunday services at a Catholic church. Sometimes they visit her
motel and they talk on the phone. … McGuckin acknowledged she could not properly care for her family as
her ill husband required constant care. The decision was made to defer housework and other home maintenance.
"We did the minimum we needed to do just to function," she said. "I made sure the children kept up their personal
sanitation."
Criminal charges eventually dropped, the case evolved into a child custody dispute. A videotape played in court
showed the home littered with garbage, broken furniture and maggots, among other things. McGuckin contended
the tape does not reflect conditions when the family lived there and said she believes law enforcement officers
planted garbage & human waste before the videotape was made.
McGuckin is aware that many people would disapprove of her refusal to cooperate with state officials in reuniting
the family. "If I don't follow through on my stance against the state, then all of our families are in danger of being
ripped as mine has been," McGuckin said.
McGuckin family not alone
Sandpoint Former Bonner Cty sheriff Chip Roos said the McGuckins are not unique. "There's at
least a dozen households in the county in similar conditions, maybe more. Who knows?," Roos said Tue. Roos,
echoing other county officials, said the McGuckin situation didn't have to happen. Roos said his deputies, as well as
family, friends, neighbors and community and church groups offered to help the family
for years. "If anybody said that the Sheriff's Office or the neighbors, or the community didn't extend a hand, that's
bull," Roos said. "Those hands were burned."
The case "hasn't been ignored, or other people in this condition have been ignored," he said. Help from many
quarters, public and private, is available, he said. The trick, he said, is getting those too proud, or too scared, to
accept that help.
"One deputy asked me if it was OK to give them referral numbers," Roos said. "I said sure." Like the others, the
deputy's efforts fell on barren soil. "People tried to do something for them, but they were just rebuffed," Roos said.
"You just can't make somebody do it if they don't want to."
… Roos said it didn't have to happen that way. "The county gives hardship exemptions all the time," he said.
"It was like burying (her husband). All JoAnn had to do was 'sign here" and the county would pay to bury him." As it
was, Michael was dead for nearly 2 weeks before he was given a burial, paid for by county indigency funds.
Roos' administration was also blamed for not doing more to control the McGuckins' pet population. But according to
Roos, except for a couple of official complaints, the dogs didn't seem to be much of a problem, at least on the
surface. "On the animal complaints we did come," he said. But little could be done. "If no one signs a complaint, it
doesn't go very far."
Roos said little could be done to help the family until enough evidence was compiled by prosecutors and Health
& Welfare. 'This is America. You just can't haul them down and force them to take help," he said. Roos said
his successor handled the situation the same way he would have, and was happy the children are now getting the
care they need. Roos said while he was not contacted for advice by the sheriff's office, "I got calls from the press. I told them they were right on the button and were doing exactly what I would have done." Roos agrees that people should be able to live their lives the way they want. "I think people have a right to starve themselves and live in squaller if they want to do that," he said. "But nobody has the right to do that to children." |
Mother JoAnn McGuckin delivered her husband's body to the coroner in the back of the family Suburban.
The family had a small graveside service Friday, and the burial was paid by the county indigent fund, Coffelt
said. Jarvis had considered arresting McGuckin following the service, but rejected that plan as too distasteful. McGuckin was arrested at Garfield Bay Resort, but taken to Bonner General Hospital after complaining of chest pains. She agreed to meet the deputy at Garfield Bay Resort for the purposes of making a phone call. McGuckin was arrested there to avoid a confrontation at the home.
JoAnn McGuckin is accused of putting her children in a "circumstance that could cause great bodily harm or death,"
according to court records, put at risk because their living conditions included malnutrition, unsanitary living
conditions and a lack of heat, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say the children's endangerment continued through at least all of 2000 and into April of this year. Older
McGuckin sister, Erina, 19, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in April for medical reasons because of
stress fractures brought on by malnutrition, Wallace said. The fractures also are mentioned in the court file, which
also includes the prosecutor's allegation that JoAnn McGuckin spent most of the family's money on alcohol.
A county judge set bail at $100,000 for JoAnn McGuckin on Wed. McGuckin appeared on a video feed from jail
during her court hearing Wed., Spokane WA Spokesman-Review reported. Bonner Cty Sheriff's Dept denied a
request by Spokesman-Review to conduct a jailhouse interview with JoAnn McGuckin. Asked if she wanted a
court-appointed atty, she said she had options, but "at this time it would be prudent to be conservative, and please
appoint an atty."
Bail-reduction hearing scheduled Friday afternoon was postponed when JoAnn McGuckin's court-appointed
atty Bryce Powell failed to appear. A bail reduction hearing for the mother was postponed Friday after a storm
knocked out power to the court. County Magistrate Debra Heise said Powell's office would not even
disclose his whereabouts.
The children's mother, who remains in jail on $100,000 bond on a charge of felonious injury to children, was "not
cooperative" and would not be taken to the home to talk to the children, Rahn said. Prosecutor Phil Robinson said
she had been spending the family's meager resources on alcohol. McGuckin brought the tragedy upon herself,
Robinson said. She refused govt help incl food stamps, Medicare and tax relief because her deep distrust of the
system prevented her from signing govt forms or accepting help.
"We didn't file criminal charges against her because she was poor," Robinson said. Instead, charges were
filed "when it became obvious to us that they were living in grossly substandard conditions because she chose
to."
Sandpoint ¹ ² ³ lawyer Edgar Steele met with McGuckin on Wed. and
said he would demand that her bail be reduced. He also said he had gone to the house Thursday to try to talk with
the children, but failed. Steele said he would be one of McGuckin's attys and represent the children's interests.
Regarding Steele's involvement in the matter, Bonner Cty Commissioner Tom Suttmeier welcomed any effort to
help the children. "This is not the home of the Aryan Nations," Suttmeier said. "Anyone who can assist the sheriff in
a successful conclusion to the incident … their help would be appreciated."
Not many of the residents had seen the McGuckins as the family drew into itself. Rusty Schoopman, 68, who ran
C&R Grocery at Garfield Bay, was an exception. "I've seen her in town, driving her old car, maybe twice" in the past
5 years, Schoopman said. Before that, JoAnn McGuckin would come to the Schoopman store. "She would buy
bread and milk," Schoopman said. "Toward the end, she was buying wine." Schoopman said she gave candy to the
kids, and JoAnn McGuckin never objected. Schoopman's husband said he stopped handing out candy after the
children's father complained. "She never said a word to me," Schoopman said. Schoopman said JoAnn McGuckin
came in one time and told her that the children had lost their dog, and she was looking to replace it. |
Neighbors & friends say JoAnn McGuckin cut off contact with neighbors and society about 5 years ago.
"The only time I met JoAnn was when I first came here, 5 years ago," said the Rev. Dennis Day of St. Joseph's
Catholic Church in Sandpoint. "We had a little confrontation." McGuckin wanted to take the Eucharist, but Day
didn't know her because he was new. "I asked to see her after Mass," Day said. "She said, `No Father, I will never
set foot in this church again.' "She never did. There was this collar of paranoia that settled over them," Day said.
"They get crazy after a while. After isolation, they lose touch with reality."
[ As with the calumny "only lily pad soup to eat", first attributed to Sheriff Jarvis, there are any
number of falsehoods echoed in these news reports. It is a mystery how JoAnn McGuckin "took down her mailbox"
when a mailbox with her address was a frequent closeup in television news coverage. ]
Parishioners tried to help, too. "People would reach out, try and help them, and they would rebuffed …
sometimes threatened," Day said. "One lady was told if she ever came back, she'd be met with a shotgun. At that
point, I tell them, 'Leave it alone."' The McGuckin family is shown in this copy of a 1990 photograph included in the
St. Joseph's Catholic Church directory in Sandpoint.
Deputies, who have been working on the case for some time, developed a plan to take some money to JoAnn
McGuckin, thinking she might leave the house to get groceries. A deputy delivered the cash Tuesday. McGuckin
went with him to a store and was taken into custody shortly after that. Once a week, JoAnn McGuckin came to the
food center for bread. Beyond the bread, the family got an emergency food box every 3 months, said food ctr
employee Joan Woller. "They certainly don't last for 3 months," Woller said of the boxes.
Through the food center, Woller & Wallace got to know most of the McGuckin family. Wallace said she hadn't
seen JoAnn McGuckin for months. Wallace has known JoAnn McGuckin for years and said she has noticed a
deterioration in the woman's behavior. In recent weeks, the family stopped coming for food pickups. "Up until last
fall, they'd come in every 2 weeks to get salvage bakery & dairy goods," Wallace said. "She couldn't afford the
gas to come in," Wallace said. "So she would have someone pick up the stuff she needed."
The change coincides roughly with the time acquaintances say Michael McGuckin's disease entered its final stage
and the family lost ownership of its home. The family home was sold at auction last year to satisfy unpaid back
taxes, but the McGuckins stayed on under arrangements that remain unclear, officials said. JoAnn McGuckin
offered to deed a smaller piece of property to the county to cover the debts, but that didn't stop the county from
selling her property last fall.
"Why did Bonner County choose to deed to the county 40 acres with a quarter mile of private lake frontage to pay
off $5,487 worth of taxes?" McGuckin asked, in a April 2000 letter to the county treasurer's office. The sheriff said
he didn't know about the property issue until Thursday. "For years, Mrs. McGuckin has been fearful of the govt
taking her property and her kids," Steele said. "Today, that fear is realized."
Last week, Stephanie Almy, in her 20's, was attacked by the dogs as she walked her own dog past the house. 2 deputies were at the house making a welfare check and saved her. Almy escaped with a laceration requiring 17 stitches. "These people have been terrorizing the neighborhood for years," said Almy's husband, Bob Almy. After that dog attack, JoAnn McGuckin retreated into the house and refused to come out.
|
Michael Criss McGuckin, 61, passed away near Sagle, Idaho 5.12.01. Graveside funeral services will be conducted in Pinecrest Memorial Park 1pm on Friday 5.25.01. Rev. Dennis C. Day, St. Joseph's Catholic Church, will officiate. He was bedridden from multiple sclerosis. County Coroner Dale Coffelt listed the cause of death as dehydration & malnutrition, with multiple sclerosis listed as a contributing factor he had suffered for the past seven years. JoAnn McGuckin said her husband had been poisoned. She delivered her husband's body to the coroner in the back of the family Suburban. The family had a small graveside service Friday, and the burial was paid by the county indigent fund, Coffelt said. McGuckin used to own Idaho Hardwoods, a sawmill, but lost it some years ago, according to a neighbor. After that, he worked odd jobs. The family fell on hard times in the mid 1980s, when they filed for bankruptcy and lost some property through foreclosure. The change coincides roughly with the time acquaintances say Michael McGuckin's disease entered its final stage and the family lost ownership of its home. Mary Peters of Garfield Bay said the McGuckins were a fine family before Michael became ill with multiple sclerosis. She said the children used to be in 4-H and he would drive everybody to meetings. His illness took a mental toll on JoAnn, and the parents cut themselves off from society. For the last five years, the family stayed isolated, their fears building as they struggled to hold onto their 40-acre property, with its one-story ranch house, outbuildings and lake front on Beaver Lake. They transferred ownership of the property to a friend, who failed to pay the taxes. The family home was sold at auction last year to satisfy unpaid back taxes, but the McGuckins stayed on under arrangements that remain unclear, officials said.
Rev. Dennis Day, who officiated at the father's funeral, said the family rebuffed help and seemed beset with anti-
govt paranoia, Day said. "Everybody saw this coming. They were dirt poor. The kids didn't have the right things to
eat," he said. "They really alienated themselves from the world." The family refused offers of help from neighbors,
social service agencies and their church. The family is "absolutely stone broke" and owns 27 dogs, which have
been running free and hunting as a pack in the area, Jarvis said. The kids used to visit the C & R Grocery in
Garfield Bay, where Lloyd Wyatt goes every day for coffee. "The kids were always raggedy and barefoot," he said.
"The guy at the store gave the kids treats because they looked so poor. "The father came to the store and told him,
'Don't give my children anything,' " Wyatt said. |
Michael McGuckin was buried wearing a borrowed suit, in a pauper's grave in Idaho, a long way from his native
Massachusetts, where he was born into a wealthy family that moved in society circles. McGuckin, who died last
month from multiple sclerosis, began his life in privilege. But after a tangle of somewhat mysterious circumstances,
it ended in paranoia & poverty. … His father was Harvard educated. His mother's family ran a prestigious jewelry store. McGuckin attended exclusive private Groton boarding school outside Boston. Former classmate Dr. Timothy Rivinus, now a clinical psychiatrist at Brown Univ., lived across the hall. "He was an outsider. I don't think he saw himself as a socialite or anyone who was vying for any standing socially," Rivinus said.
Everyone thought Michael McGuckin would go to Harvard University, like his father. He went instead to the Univ. of
North Carolina where he studied engineering and made the dean's list. In the college yearbook, Sigma Phi Epsilon
fraternity remembers him as a hunter who liked guns. His prep school charm reportedly made him popular with the
ladies.
Rivinus met up with his former classmate at a Groton reunion. "He was living in the West. working with a lumber
co.; he was doing things very different than the rest of us," Rivinus said. "It was very different from what one would
have expected."
"He was completely cut off by the end of his life," Rivinus said. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and as
his condition worsened, so did his mental state. When McGuckin died in May, it had been 5 years since he had
been seen outside the home, let alone in any social circles.
After 5 day standoff, the children surrendered peacefully and have been in foster care since. McGuckin remains in
the county jail in Sandpoint, even though she is free to leave, because she refused to abide by a condition of her
release that barred her from visiting the children.
Who would raise kids to 'fear' govt?
… classmate of Wash.Post book editor & columnist Jonathan Yardley first at Groton prep (MA) then at
Univ.N.Carolina. …
Idaho dad refused to budge
Boston Although his children, with rifles & vicious dogs, kept sheriff's deputies at bay for days
outside their ramshackle ID house, Michael C. McGuckin was no mountain man. McGuckin's name is etched on a
wall of the prestigious Groton prep school, as a member of the class of 1957. His father, an Army major, was a
Harvard graduate and a Cambridge Fox Club member. His mother was Jane Shreve, of the distinguished Boston
jewelry firm, Shreve Crump & Low Co.
McGuckin, 61, died of dehydration & malnutrition 2 weeks ago in his isolated home after reportedly rebuffing
offers of help to the impoverished family for years. On May 29, authorities arrested his wife, JoAnn, who allegedly
suffers from mental illness, on charges related to child neglect. … "The abject poverty & degradation and
everything else; that was not Michael at all," said Laidlaw. "It's just astonishing."
His marriage to a South Dakota beauty queen ended in divorce that set him back financially and sent him to Idaho,
where he planned to invest in a sawmill and perhaps set up a home for underprivileged children, friends said. "The
last time I saw him was 19 years ago, probably at Groton's 25th reunion," said former classmate Richard R.
Porteus. "He was discussing the sawmill in Idaho at the time." He added, "You never know where people end
up." Last time Laidlaw spoke to McGuckin was 3 years ago, when multiple sclerosis had just started to cripple the hands of the avid outdoorsman. "He sounded the same as he always had," recalled Laidlaw, who said McGuckin had asked him to look for a certain kind of filing system that could help him home-school his children. "He was very upbeat. He had beautiful manners. The only sad point in our conversation was when I said, 'I always loved the way that you played the guitar,' and he said, 'I can't even hold one any more.' " |
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McGuckin lived in fear, ex-wife says
She tells of husband's paranoia beginning as early as 1978 6.9.01 Spokesman Review T.Clouse, B.Shors & S.Drumheller
Sandpoint Michael McGuckin believed as early as 1978 that someone was tapping his phones
and following him home, his ex-wife said Friday. Randy Sue Latimer, 58, told Spokesman-Review that
McGuckin became paranoid before he met second wife JoAnn Dunn, who authorities have characterized as
mentally ill.
McGuckin, trained as an Army intelligence officer, never expressed any fear of the govt before moving to
Idaho in 1976, Latimer said. McGuckin, Latimer and their son, William, lived from 1976 to 1980 in the same one-
story farmhouse that was the focus of intl attention last week.
McGuckin, 61, died 5.12.01 after lengthy battle w/ multiple sclerosis. 3 weeks later, authorities arrested JoAnn
McGuckin for felony injury to a child. A deputy returned to the farmhouse to collect the children but they then loosed
the family dogs on a deputy and retreated into the home. They refused to come out, sparking 5 day standoff that
ended peacefully last Saturday.
JoAnn McGuckin, 45, will appear Wednesday for her preliminary hearing. Authorities say she and her 6 children
were living in a house filled with dog feces, rotting food, dead mice and garbage. McGuckin's court-appointed atty
Bryce Powell said those conditions resulted, in part, from the standoff.
She moved to St. Paul Feb. 1980, and they were divorced in 1981. She hadn't seen him or been to the farmhouse
for more 20 years, and lost contact with McGuckin. She received his obituary in the mail, but chose not to attend
the 5.25.01 funeral. |
Latimer met JoAnn in Sandpoint where both served on the local arts council. Michael & JoAnn married in the
fall of 1981. Latimer believes JoAnn eventually began to share her husband's fears as his health deteriorated.
"When I knew JoAnn, she seemed like a pleasant young woman, outgoing, interested in people," Latimer said. "As
far as I'm concerned, it began with Michael."
all unattributed text except [ italics in brackets ] from following sources
|
To Byrd, the media are the issue. "The money the media will spend covering just this one story will be many times
what the state is spending on the effort to improve its image," he said. "We don't have the resources to compete
with that. … What do people think of when they think of Waco? What do they think of when they think of
Oklahoma City? It's human nature to jump to conclusions and create images that are just a slice of who we are.
Somehow, we need to weave the true image of Idaho into everything we do."
Clyde Bentley, adjunct Univ. of Oregon journalism professor in Eugene, said N. Idaho is a natural
magnet for those types of portrayals. "A lot of it is demographics," said Bentley, who spent 7 years as Coeur
d'Alene Press managing editor. "You have an area that is sparsely populated, political news is generally
dependent on population, and when you don't have that, you're left with the unusual.
Les Bock, Idaho Anne Frank HRts Memorial exec. dir., said Thursday he was "afraid something like that was going
to happen. It's bad news, and it's one of those things that, unfortunately for N. Idaho, has spiraled out of control. I
talk with people all over the country, and it's a common response to hear from people that Idaho is known for these
kinds of things. It's frustrating to see something like this come up again. We've made progress, but things like this
mean we'll have to work harder."
Militia of Montana leader John Trochmann in nearby Noxon MT arrived in the area Saturday and said he was
acting as an observer for similar anti-govt groups across the country in communication about the situation to decide
whether people needed to come to the area to demonstrate. He also said the treatment of the family was
"extremely unAmerican. For the govt to attack this family as they have has substantiated fear of the govt." Powell
said intervention by militia groups would not help. On 10.11.01 at 9 am, I was going to finally have my chance to participate in justice prevailing. A court hearing had been set up for JoAnn McGuckin to sit & listen while I tell her, the judge and the court why she should be prosecuted for her actions of knowingly owning vicious, dangerous dogs. You see, on 5.21.01 I was walking my dog, Bella, on a leash down a public road near my home. It was a beautiful day and I was thankful to get the time to enjoy a walk. I had just passed JoAnn's home when suddenly 8 to l 0 dogs came out from her driveway charging Bella & I. They viciously growled, barked and attacked us from every angle, we had nowhere to run.
I did the best I could to hold onto Bella because they had their jaws clamped down on her legs, tail and back trying
to pull her away from me. I was terrified! I then noticed the blood, I wasn't sure where it was coming from but it was
everywhere. I prayed and continued to pull Bella with all my strength, embedding my bare knees in the gravel road
for more leverage. I knew that if I gave up my grip on Bella they would kill her right in front of me and they had
already started by ripping at her skin.
After spending 4 hours in the emergency room having my skinless knees scrubbed to get all of the embedded
rocks out, X-ray's for broken bones, 19 (wide for infection drainage) stitches for 5 deep tears in my arm, and
bandages for all 11 scratches & claw marks. I was ready to go home. I had pulled every muscle in my body
and I cried out in pain every time I had to move the slightest little bit. I was unable to move my arms, only my right
hand for over two weeks. I was told that JoAnn's wild dogs never received vaccinations and that they still had not
been properly quarantined and looked at by a professional. So I had no choice but to have the 5 rabies injections
because it possibly could have been a matter of life or death.
Bella spent her first night in a veterinary hospital receiving drugs to put her out while the doctor put 21 stitches in
her little 20 lb body. Since that terrifying day she is still afraid of all dogs, she shakes and cries at the site of one. I
am also afraid of strange dogs, I carry pepper spray with me every time I walk.
Flannery told authorities that Jarvis never hit her or Foord, though she admitted she attacked & hit Jarvis when the 2 men faced off. Jarvis had earlier gone looking for Flannery, and found her at home with Foord.
Because the sheriff has no prior record, Kootenai County deputy prosecutor Marty Rapp, who was called in as
special prosecutor, did not ask for jail time or a fine, instead recommending Jarvis perform community service and
pay court costs. Jarvis bristled at the recommendation, telling Judge Justin Julian that he sees what he does every
day as full-time community service.
Sheriff to plead to charge, special prosecutor says 3.30.03 K.Kinnaird Daily Bee Flannery was rescued by 2 deputies who happened to be investigating longstanding allegations of child neglect at the McGuckin home. About a week later, deputies tricked JoAnn McGuckin out of her home and attempted to take the woman's children into protective custody because of the neglect allegations. … McGuckin on the road to recovery … works to regain her health & family 2.9.02 Susan Drumheller Spokesman- Review
Sandpoint JoAnn McGuckin calls her children at 7:15 every night. Then she waits for the weekend,
when she can see them again. McGuckin recently rented a second-floor room in an alcohol-free Sandpoint home.
Across the hall from her room is another with 2 double beds for her children. 5 of the McGuckin children slept under
the same roof as their mother last weekend for the first time since May, when sheriff's deputies arrested her on
child injury charges. The court now is allowing McGuckin weekend visitations with her kids.
… Since they've been in foster care, first with their godparents, and now with a foster family that has 4 other
children at home. "They have a clean, warm, healthy place to live," said godfather Fred Omodt. "They appreciate
that." After 5 years of living in isolation, the children now attend public school, church and participate in
extracurricular activities. "They're just normal, average sorts of kids. You'd have a hard time picking them out of a
classroom," Omodt said.
Recent developments indicate that the state Health & Welfare Dept is moving toward reunification of the
family. Under Idaho law, if children have been in foster care 15 out of 22 months, the state has to either reunify the
family or, if they're not on track for reunification, terminate parental rights and find the children a permanent home.
That deadline is approaching at the end of August.
Until last week, McGuckin had been unable to get regular visitation with her children because she refused to
cooperate with the state's case plan. From her point of view, when the state dropped the criminal charges against
her in Sept., it no longer had any custodial right to her children. But the 2 cases legally are separate, experts say.
Prosecutor Phil Robinson indicated early on that he would consider dropping criminal charges against McGuckin as
long as he knew her children were safe. Even McGuckin's attorney sees the process as appropriate.
One of the sticking points has been alcohol treatment. McGuckin denies having an alcohol problem despite the
evidence: discarded beer & wine bottles in the garbage-strewn home, statements from her estranged eldest
daughter and statements McGuckin made to jailers. She explains her alcohol use as a remedy for arthritis &
poor circulation. In December, McGuckin said, she started receiving Medicaid and now takes prescription
medication that provides the relief that alcohol did.
When McGuckin discusses the alcohol allegations, her voice & blue eyes harden in anger. She also turns
bitter remembering the way she was arrested and separated from her children. "I asked them (police) to bring in Dr.
(Thomas) Lawrence," she said. "Instead of bringing a doctor, they brought handcuffs."
By all accounts, the children are flourishing in their foster home, in the schools and within the supportive shelter of
the parish community. "When I see them, they have big smiles on their faces," Day said. Omodt, whose family
housed the children when they initially were in the state's care, said the kids have socialized well. After 5 years of
playing with one another and their dozen or so dogs, they now know what others expect from them, he said.
"They're much quicker or able to work with their peers than initially," he said.
When JoAnn McGuckin goes out in public, she's widely recognized and often approached by strangers.
At The Hoot Owl Restaurant in Ponderay this week, a waitress couldn't resist asking McGuckin how her family is
doing. "Every time I go out, I'm honored by people, the warmth of their hearts," McGuckin said.
McGuckin met her landlady through her children. The woman is a housekeeper for the children's foster parents.
As an empty-nester, the woman opened her home to recovering alcoholics and others with a need for safe shelter.
When the children visited last weekend, "I could tell they missed the closeness of their mom," said the woman.
"They were very much within her embrace."
One year later, JoAnn McGuckin is hoping to get her kids back
Garfield Bay … In December, McGuckin started receiving Medicaid and now takes prescription
medication. She is living on $545 a month in disability benefits. |
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Judge dismisses McGuckin child neglect charge Misdemeanor dog charge stands ¹ ² ³ 9.7.01 K.Kinnaird Bonner Cty Daily Bee
Sandpoint 1st Dist. Court judge dismissed misdemeanor child neglect charge against JoAnn
McGuckin, but a charge for harboring a vicious dog stands. Bonner Cty prosecutor Robinson submitted a motion Friday to dismiss
an injury to child charge against McGuckin based on the results of an underlying child-protection case. The move to
dismiss also is based on the "observed & evident medical, emotional and personality deficits evidenced by the
defendant," according to the motion.
McGuckin, 46, is pleading not guilty. A tentative trial date on the dog charge was set for 10.11.01. If convicted,
McGuckin faces up to 6 months in jail and/or a $300 fine. The pending charge stems from a pack of dogs the
McGuckin family raised at their Garfield Bay Cutoff Road home. Days before McGuckin was arrested on the
neglect charge and subsequent standoff involving her 6 children, as many as 9 dogs set upon neighbor Stephanie
Almy walking by with her own dog.
McDaniel was bitten on each hand and Almy's bite wounds required 17 stitches. The dogs were quarantined in
McGuckin's basement. When deputies showed up a few days later to arrest McGuckin on the child endangerment
charge, the dogs were loosed on deputies by her kids as they fled into the home.
McGuckin's court-appointed legal counsel Bryce Powell said the facts in the child-neglect case spoke for
themselves. He said the family was doing the best it could given financial hardships and the recent multiple
sclerosis-related death of McGuckin's husband, Michael. "When all the circumstances came together, at least in
my mind, it became readily apparent JoAnn is not a criminal," he said outside the courtroom.
Last criminal charge against woman dropped
Spokane The last criminal charge has been dropped against JoAnn McGuckin
¹
… originally arrested on a felony child-neglect charge that was later reduced to a misdemeanor, and
dismissed last month. McGuckin's scheduled trial Thu. in Sandpoint ID on misdemeanor vicious-dog charge was
canceled when Bonner Cty prosecutor Robinson agreed to drop that charge, too. "It's a relief to take this out of the
criminal realm," McGuckin's attorney, Bryce Powell, said yesterday.
Robinson did not return a telephone message yesterday. … Powell said she is living in a motel and surviving
off a few thousand dollars in donations sent after the standoff. "It's a pretty meager existence right now," Powell
said, adding McGuckin is trying to get Social Security disability and survivor benefits.
McGuckin has said that she does not recognize the authority of the state over her parental rights and has refused
to cooperate. McGuckin talks frequently with her children by phone, and visits them occasionally, Powell said.
Last week, daughter Kathryn visited her mother to show off her high school prom dress, Powell said.
McGuckin seeks proceeds from sale
JoAnn McGuckin can't do anything to recover her home & property, sold at a tax deed sale 9.1.00, but she is
suing Bonner County to obtain a share of the proceeds of that sale. Her Coeur d'Alene atty Art Bistline said Bonner County broke Idaho law when it sold the McGuckin home & 40 acres for $53,000, deducted the $8,444.74 owed in back taxes, and distributed the remainder to the 29 different taxing districts in the county. The county contends it followed Idaho Code to the letter.
Even though the property had been sold, the McGuckins remained in the home until shortly after JoAnn's husband, Michael, died on 5.12.01. Shortly after his funeral, JoAnn was arrested on charges of felony injury to children due to the filthy condition of the home, and when Sheriff's deputies attempted to take her 6 children into protective custody, the children turned their dogs loose on them and holed up inside the home for 5 days.
The county says they followed proper procedure in both the conduct of the sale & in distribution of the funds,
and contend they tried everything possible to assist the McGuckins' in resolving the issue short of sale. The county produced documentation showing that they tried to help the family get a tax exemption on the property, but in 1996, the family had quit-claimed ownership to JoAnn's former boyfriend, James Stewart, whom no one, not even JoAnn, has been able to contact.
According to Bistline, Stewart was never even aware of the transaction. JoAnne later attempted to quit claim
another piece of property to the county to settle their tax bill, but the question of ownership prevented that and the
county finally proceeded to sale.
Bonner County Commissioner Tom Suttmeier was distressed by the plight of the McGuckin family so he
approached the Idaho Association of Counties in an attempt to have the law rewritten, saying that the economic
impact to counties as a result of tax-deed sales is very small, but to the families involved the results could be
devastating. His attempt got nowhere.
McGuckin wants cash from home auctioned by county
5.9.02 Idaho Statesman
Sandpoint JoAnn McGuckin … has gone to court to get the cash county authorities raised when
they auctioned off the family´s home for taxes. McGuckin´s atty Arthur Bistline contends she is entitled to what was
left after back taxes were paid even though the title to the 40 acres & house is uncertain. … Bistline
conceded that Stewart was the owner of record at the time of the auction, but he contends that Stewart has no
legal interest in the property.
Bonner Cty, McGuckin fail to agree on property sale proceeds
6.5.02 Thos Clouse Spokesman-Review
Sandpoint Attorneys for JoAnn McGuckin and Bonner County were not able to settle a lawsuit
Tuesday over the auction of the land where her children held authorities at bay for five days last year. Sept. 2000,
Bonner County auctioned off McGuckin's property along Garfield Bay Cut-off Road to pay off about $8,400 in back
taxes. A New Jersey couple purchased the property at the auction for $53,000.
After paying the McGuckin tax bill, the rest of the money was split between the county's taxing districts. Atty Art
Bistline is arguing in the lawsuit that Bonner County should have given the remainder of the money to the
McGuckin family. Bistline met Tuesday with Bonner County officials.They weren't able to reach an agreement.
Courts still mopping up
Conditions inside McGuckin home were an issue at trial; profits from tax sale challenged
5.30.02 S.Drumheller Spokesman-Review
Sandpoint A beaver slaps its tail on the lake surface, warning of intruders. A flock of noisy Canada
geese splashes down on the lake against the backdrop of the Cabinet Mountains. Up a well-worn path from this
pristine scene is a darkened home with a combination lock hanging from the front door. Weeds grow through rusty
bikes lying in the overgrown yard next to 2 flattened camp tents. Chicken wire covers the windows, some of which
are open.
Wednesday was the one year anniversary of JoAnn McGuckin's arrest on child-injury charges that led to the
standoff with her children. Much has changed in the lives of the family, but the property appears to be untouched.
The McGuckins lost their home in a county tax-deed auction Sept. 2000. A New Jersey couple purchased the
property for $53,000 to cover the McGuckins' tax debt of $8,444.74. The excess money was distributed to all the
taxing districts within Bonner County.
After the property was sold, the McGuckins didn't leave, but instead sequestered themselves there another 8
months before their sanctuary was deemed hazardous to their health by local authorities. McGuckin was charged
with felony injury to children, based on the unkempt condition of the home. JoAnn McGuckin quickly became
infamous as a housekeeper as the incident drew intl media attention.
He stopped the tour with a judge's order banning access to the media. But Powell knew as soon as the sheriff
released the crime scene, he couldn't control where the media went. On June 5th, Powell's investigator and 2
helpers arrived at the McGuckin property. The deputy on scene Mike McDaniel let them through, because that
evening the Sheriff's Dept planned to release the scene. But then McDaniel got a call from sheriff's Detective Sgt.
Howard Burke, telling him to get the men off the property.
When they returned to the house, Burke found 3 large scoop shovels & 3 trash cans. It looked as if there had
been an attempt to clean the living room & sun room, he reported. Powell said he was concerned that if the
media showed up at the house, their photographs & descriptions of the messy condition of the home could
influence potential jurors in the case. He believed that the home's condition was made worse during the course of 5
day stalemate.
McGuckin seeks proceeds from sale of property where standoff occurred County
vows to fight suit
Sandpoint … The suit was filed in 1st Dist. Court Tue. … McGuckin and her husband
deeded the parcel to James Stewart of Eugene OR Feb. 1996, according to county treasurer's records. …
Stewart was said to be a former boyfriend of JoAnn McGuckin. McGuckin deeded the property in an apparent
attempt to keep it from being seized by the county for unpaid taxes.
Suit aims to solidify ownership of standoff site
New owners of McGuckin property try to head off any ownership disputes
Sandpoint, ID Atty for Schmuel & Amy Korengut filed papers in 1st Dist. Court Thursday asking
judge to declare them undisputed owner of the 40-acre parcel along Garfield Bay Cut-off Road. The couple also
wants the court to prevent anyone else from asserting claims to the parcel. Specifically, suit seeks to block Wells
Fargo Bank, Bonner County, McGuckin Trust and its heirs, McGuckin family friend James Stewart, and anybody
else who might try to claim ownership of the property.
… Korenguts purchased the parcel Sept. 2000 for $53,000 after submitting the high bid at a public auction.
Bonner County put the parcel on the block for non-payment of property taxes. … The county says Stewart
defaulted on the back taxes. … Earlier this month, McGuckin filed suit against the county to obtain the
proceeds from the tax sale. That case is pending.
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"Things seem to have taken a better turn," said Sandpoint atty Brent Featherston representing the children's
interests. McGuckin declined an extensive interview, on her lawyer's advice, but in her brief comments, she was
clear she wants full custody. "That would be wonderful," she said.
… As the child-welfare case moved through the courts, it became clear the McGuckin family had been
sundered by medical, emotional and financial hardships. … Michael McGuckin died May 12, 2001. Erina
came home from the Navy for the funeral, saw the condition of the house and alerted authorities. The McGuckin
children now spend part of the week with a foster family and part with their mother.
The children, who used to be home-schooled, attend public school and appear to be doing well, said Bryce Powell,
the attorney who represented McGuckin on criminal matters. "JoAnn's attitude has changed dramatically since the
first time I met her," Powell said. "I think she's become very remorseful about some of the decisions she made
while she was ill and Michael was dying and how those affected her children."
One of the sticking points in reuniting the family has been McGuckin's drinking. She denies having an alcohol
problem, saying she drank as a remedy for arthritis and poor circulation. But Erina, who is now a student at North
Idaho College, testified in court that her mother often was drunk. In December, McGuckin started receiving
Medicaid and now takes prescription medication. She is living on $545 a month in disability benefits.
Under Idaho law, Dept of Health & Welfare has until August to decide whether it will reunite the family or terminate parental rights and find the children a permanent home. "The department has to look at reunification first," Featherston said. "That's the goal."
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Kids left in Africa begged for change 8.19.04 AP Ibadan, Nigeria Allegedly abandoned by their American mother in Africa, 7 children from Texas begged small change to buy food and shuttled from a neglectful stranger's care to a concrete-block orphanage, Nigerians said Thursday. … |
… U.S. authorities believe the 7 American children arrived in Nigeria Oct. 2003 with their mother,
whose fiance has a relative here. The mother, Mercury Liggins, 47, left within weeks. She later took a
job as a food-service worker in U.S. military mess halls in Iraq, but quit in July, U.S. officials said. She is
believed to be back in Houston, but couldn't be located for comment.
Govt workers & others who knew the children said she left them in the care of a businessman, Obiora
Nwankwo, who has a well-tended, 2 story house in an affluent neighborhood of Ibadan. The nature of the
relationship between Liggins & Nwankwo wasn't known. Nwankwo couldn't be found when an AP reporter
visited the home.Nwankwo drove up to the gates of an Ibadan Montessori School on Oct. 16, school officials said.
He enrolled the children in classes with what officials here said was benefit money from the children's mother.
"He claimed he was their guardian", principal Johnson Akintayo said. "They were put up in the boarding school."
Their new school was clean, fronted by a row of tall palm trees, and the children seemed happy at first.
But when the children returned from Nwankwo's home after Christmas break, they appeared underfed &
neglected, said girls' boarding quarters matron Victoria Mustafa. "They were very pale and had lost weight," she
said. The children began begging classmates and staff for money, using it to buy food.
The matron also remembered Brandy, the eldest at 16, talking longingly about America, her Houston high school,
and home. "Brandy would talk about the school where she was, how she loved it." Nwankwo began missing
payments to the school, and he complained that staff were being too nosey about the children, Akintayo said.
By 7.22.04, all seven children had stopped attending. 6 days later, Ibadan's Association of Women Lawyers alerted
local immigration authorities about the children, a social welfare official said, and Nwankwo's home was raided the
same day.
The seven were all malnourished. "Some of them were sick, critically ill", with typhoid and malaria, said the official,
who agreed to talk about the case only on condition of anonymity. 4 were sick enough to be hospitalized, but
eventually joined their siblings at the orphanage, the official said. It wasn't revealed which children went to the
hospital. Nigerian officials did not notify the U.S. Embassy, the official added, saying that was because the case
was a sensitive matter diplomatically. Some people speculated the govt wanted to get the children healthy first.
The Texan children were fed better than the Nigerian wards at the orphanage, said another adult student living at
the orphanage who gave his name as Brahim. "Some of them do not eat well", he said of the Nigerian orphans.
At the orphanage, the 7 passed their time playing board games or cadging a staff member's mobile phone to play
the games on it. … Their extraordinary ordeal ended only with the chance visit of an American missionary to
the orphanage on 8.5.04.
Swarmed by children claiming to be from Texas, too, missionary Warren Beemer quizzed the brothers and sisters
about the roster of the Houston Rockets basketball team as a test, according to an account from his church in San
Antonio. Ultimately, Beemer launched into the American national anthem. Placing their hands on their hearts, the
children joined in, singing out "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the grass-and-dirt yard of the orphanage. Convinced,
Beemer contacted officials in U.S., and the children were returned home last Friday and put in the care of 2 foster
families in Houston. …
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OCIAL JUSTICE |
Few things exemplify the chaos of Liberia more than the sight of doped-up, AK-47-wielding 15-year-olds roaming the streets decked out in fright wigs and tattered wedding gowns. Indeed, some of the more fully accessorized soldiers in Charles Taylor's militia even tote dainty purses and don feather boas. 
