Question: What kind of man sues a 95-year-old woman and sends his attorney to threaten her?


Answer: That would be the kind of man who sued Rose Newman for $120,000. Just in case you question the numbers, here is the sum in letters: one hundred twenty thousand dollars.

Let me explain a thing or two here about Rose Newman. She has led a difficult life. Her mother died when Rose was born. She lost a son in a freak accident that took his life when the boy was a pre-teen. As most women who have lost children in death can attest, the death of a child is one of the most difficult and emotionally crushing of events any mother can experience.

Newman’s husband died before her, leaving her a widow.

But life was not done with Rose Newman. Events that she has called “even worse” were yet to come. The first of these were disclosures by her two precious grandsons, Elsa’s sons, who insisted that their father was abusing them sexually, as well as physically, mentally, emotionally, verbally and spiritually. The abuses disclosed by the two boys at that time were literally unspeakable. The boys’ treating psychiatrist, Dr. Jill Scharff, not only heard their disclosures, but put enough stock in their veracity that she reported the abuse. The boys also disclosed to family friends, to physicians, to police officers and to others. Nobody was able—or willing--to help them. The abuses apparently continued, worse than ever. When the boys were taken for visits to their father, they would leave screaming and begging their mother not to force them to make the visit.

Enough already! Someone finally listened and came to the assistance of these boys, right?

Wrong!

Living with the knowledge that her grandsons had revealed unspeakable abuses should have been enough torment for Rose Newman. But life was still not finished with her.

Newman’s daughter, Elsa, the younger of her two daughters, was arrested. Eventually, this daughter would be unjustly incarcerated for a crime that did not even exist: there was no murder attempt, although Elsa was convicted of attempted murder. Elsa was also convicted of “conspiracy to commit murder,” despite the fact that the “conspiracy” charge had no co-conspirator.

Huh? How could that be?

The woman who committed the actual crime, Margery Landry, although she plead guilty to other aspects of that crime--such as breaking and entering and use of a gun in commission of a crime—refused to plead guilty to crimes she insisted she had not committed, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. These latter two charges were null prossed in the case of Landry.

In the case of Elsa Newman, however, these charges were brought full force against the defendant. She was tried in Montgomery County Maryland, with Katherine Winfree prosecuting.

Rose Newman searched franticaly for a means to help her innocent daughter stay out of prison and free to raise her sons.. Said frantic search took her to an account she had established for these two grandsons.

I do not know precisely. how much this account contained at the time. I do know that all the monies in this account had been placed there either by Rose Newman or her daughter, Elsa. In the first year of each boy’s life, Rose placed $10,000 in the account for the child. In addition, she added $10,000 for each of the following three years of the child’s life. Thus, each child started life with a sum of $40,000. Her daughter Elsa added some monies of her own and, in addition, made some wise investments on behalf of her sons.

As I said before, I do not know the exact amount in this fund at the time of Elsa’s arrest. What I do know is that Rose Newman, believing that justice for and the welfare of her grandsons depended in part on their mother’s having a solid defense team that could return her to her sons, looked to this fund as one source of defense for Elsa. She followed appropriate procedures…she checked every possible legal avenue…and she was informed that the fund was, in fact, available for use to pay attorney’s for the children’s mother. And this is what Rose Newman did.

She used about $70,000 an a vain attempt to help her grandsons keep their mother.

To no avail: Elsa Newman was tried and convicted of the very crimes that Margery Landry said did not exist, the very crimes that were null prossed in Landry’s case.

Upon appeal to Maryland’s highest court, Rose Newman’s daughter was released and the verdict in her case was vacated. The court opined in their majority opinion that there was nothing to connect Elsa Newman to the crime committed by Margery Landry.

And yet...again Rose Newman’s daughter was arrested. Again she was tried. Again she was convicted. She now resides, unjustly imprisoned, at Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup.

Her children reside in Tampa, Florida, in the custody—by default—of the father they had said abused them so horribly.

And now may we return to the first question that began this story: What kind of man sues a 95-year-old woman and sends his attorney to threaten her?

Answer: that would be the same kind of man who abuses his children…who assaults family friends…who batters his wife to the point she needs to take out protective orders against him…a man who ignores those protective orders and shoves his wife to the sidewalk, stepping over her prone body to enter her house and take whatever he wants.

Holding that this elderly woman had no right to take money from a fund she, herself, had established for her grandsons, in an attempt to protect their mother for them, this man filed a lawsuit against Rose Newman for $120,000.

Hey! Wait a minute! What’s up with that, Aine? You said she used $70,000 for her daughter’s attorney’s fees. Don’t you mean he sued her for $70,000?

Nope…nope…and nope!

Apparently this man and his attorney—one Stacey Blondes Talbott, practicing in Maryland—decided that this 95-year-old woman not only needed to repay what she had used from the fund, but needed to be punished as well. So they set the amount of their lawsuit at $120,000. And they won.

Rose Newman realized she was going to have to come with considerably more money than she had expended. She went right to work on it, realizing, possibly, from her daughter’s experience what happens to people who dare to say the court is wrong.

And that, at last, was the whole story, right? Rose Newman raised the money, and there was an end to it?

Nope…nope…and nope!

Rose Newman didn’t move quite fast enough for “the man” and his attorney. So said attorney proceeded to threaten Mrs. Newman—if she didn’t hurry…if she didn’t come up with the $70,000, plus, of course, the $50, 000 added by the court for a total of $120,000…rapidly enough to suit the plaintiff and his attorney, then the plaintiff and his attorney would “take everything she had.”

Frightened, Mrs. Newman awaited contact from her unjustly incarcerated daughter, to help her understand what had happened. [You may already know that placing a phone call to a prisoner is impossible. You must wait and hope and pray for the prisoner to call you.] Eventually, the phone call came. There is not, however, a lot that an unjustly incarcerated daughter can do for her frightened, 95-year-old mother.

So, Rose Newman has set about putting together enough of her assets to satisfy the judgement against her. Meanwhile, she lives with the fear that she won’t move fast enough to suit the man’s attorney, and she will lose everything she has—and possibly even be forced into the streets.

And we are back to the question which with which I began: What kind of man does this to a 95-year-old woman?