FOR THE WANDERING JEW...

Please see below: I hope you will take a look at the story of this Jewish mother, innocently imprisoned for a crime committed and admitted to by someone else. The collage is the cover of a brochure I created for Elsa Newman, #921975, Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup. The text is the material from the inside of the brochure.

As an additional note, I want you to know that I have learned that Newman suffers incredible harrassment for being a Jew...an attorney...white...and innocent. I have written to Gary Maynard, head of Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Corrections, and he has been able to reduce some of the harrassment--but not all of it...never all of it.

This is the story of Elsa Newman and her sons, a mother unjustly imprisoned in Maryland, while her two boys live in Tampa, Florida, with a father they have accused of incredible molestation and abuse.
In the early 2000's in Maryland, Newman and her then-estranged husband, Arlen Slobodow, were divorcing when her two small boys began disclosing that they were being molested by their father. Before visitation, the boys clung to furniture and begged their mother not to make them go.
On a night in January, a friend of the Newman family, Margery Landry, broke into the home of Arlen Slobodow while his two sons were visiting. She carried a gun containing two whole bullets--hardly the arsenal of a woman intending murder--possibly the arsenal of a woman afraid of Slobodow because he had assaulted her more than once.
Landry, having heard of the molestation and abuse by the children's father and seeing that neither children's protective services nor law enforcement nor the courts seemed able or willing to do anything about it, entered the home at night to see if she could find evidence of the molestation.
She found no evidence, but before she left, she decided to look in on the two little boys. However, when she reached the bedroom of the younger son she found his bed made and empty.
Landry turned toward the master bedroom and looked in. There she saw Arlen Slobodow, nude from the waist down, in bed with his younger son, who was completely nude.
Question: In January in Maryland, how would she have known about the nudity if the pair had been sleeping and thoroughly covered as one would expect in the NE at that time of year?
Question: Why did Landry testify at trial that she "tried to pull them apart" if they were doing nothing but sleeping?
A struggle followed the attempt. Slobodow forced Landry to the floor and tried to turn the gun on her. It went off. One bullet struck the wall and one struck Slobodow in the thigh. Although his pajama bottoms were covered with blood, there was no bullet hole in the pajamas, verifying the claim that he had, indeed, been half naked when discovered.
Landry broke free and fled. She would be arrested the next morning.
Slobodow called 911 and set up the case for the prosecution in the trial that was to follow: "My wife sent someone to try to kill me."
During this time, Elsa Newman was out of state. When she heard that the police wanted to talk to her, she returned voluntarily, with no idea that authorities would accuse her of involvement. She was arrested and charged with everything Landry had done, plus conspiracy and attempted murder.
Landry pled guilty to other charges, but refused to plead either to conspiracy or attempted murder. Conspiracy and attempted murder were both null prossed for Landry. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Offered a reduced sentence if she would implicate Newman, she refused to do so.
Newman was tried twice. In her first trial one of the witnesses against her was her own divorce attorney, who, some two days after he discovered that she was planning to file a complaint against him, suddenly remembered that she had sat in his office and plotted to kill her estranged husband.
Maryland’s highest court voided the verdict the first trial, saying that her attorney should never have been allowed to testify against her.
Newman was released. In the second trial, the divorce attorney's secretary testified against her. Although Landry had denied conspiracy or murder attempt, those charges were held against Newman, who was offered a reduced sentence if she would apologize. She refused to apologize for something she had not done, and is now in Maryland Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup.
Her two sons, now young teens, continue to live with their father in Tampa. Since molesters do not change, I assume they are still being molested.

I am not alone in my belief that the court system is failing

Scandal Illuminates Troubled Family Court System

By Byron Williams

The family court system has, in theory, operated on the question, "What is in the best interests of the child?"

But the findings articulated at a one-day workshop hosted by Alameda County Supervisor Gail Steele and the Center for Judicial Excellence suggest that question is more theory than practice.
If the statistics are accurate, the frequency with which children are allowed to have unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents after divorce in this country is alarming and worthy of the public's attention.

According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, "Not since the Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the United States seen this level of institutional collusion and corruption harming innocent children."

This may sound like hyperbole, but the comparison holds if, in fact, most family court professionals know the system is broken and are allowing the most vulnerable members of society to potentially suffer lifelong consequences.

It is indeed a broken system that allows 58,000 children each year to be placed in harm's way simply because the abusive parent also possesses the resources to hire a bevy of professionals who plead his/her case to judges, mediators and other family-law professionals.

Heavy caseloads, bad judges and unqualified mediators, who evaluate families sometimes based on no more than a one-hour meeting, can add up to decisions that permanentlyaffect families.

As one parent shared with me, "I wouldn't believe my own story if I didn't live through it. We trust the courts to do the right thing, but it's just not that simple."

Those who are not directly involved trust the system to work — but there was a consistent message at the workshop that it does not work, and children are paying the price.

Are these simply the musing of parents and attorneys who did not get their way? No, there is more than enough data to suggest there is a problem that warrants investigation. The primary charge finds that many judges, for reasons ranging from being overworked to becoming jaded by the system, have placed an inordinate reliance on court appointees such as mediators, evaluators, investigators, and minors' counsel, who may or may not act in the best interest of the children.

This has created a scenario whereby individuals who have no understanding of the law often sway the individual who is appointed to administer justice.

Steele also cites a level of dishonesty that she states is pervasive throughout the system. "It's not just mediators but social workers who are not telling the truth," she said.

The workshop featured experts in the field and parents sharing their gut-wrenching, first-hand testimony and offering solutions to the problem-plagued system in California.

State Sen. Mark Leno and other members of the Legislature are calling for an audit that will evaluate the magnitude of the concerns expressed over a number of years.

A number of participants also made it clear the problems they cite are not emblematic of the whole, maintaining there are indeed a number of good judges within the system. But there are enough bad ones who are not held accountable, causing the system dysfunction.

Steele should be commended for her willingness to bring attention to an issue that has flown under the radar for years. Investigation is long overdue.

Byron Williams has served as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church in Oakland since 2002. As the only pastor/syndicated columnist in the country, Williams writes a column which appears in 10 publications and several progressive web sites across the country.

22 DAYS AND COUNTING DOWN...

...to the FREE-ELSA-NEWMAN trip

The brochures are ready to be printed, as of this morning.

I set aside the flyer and used that material on the outside of the brochure. One less thing to keep track of as I travel.

The paper petition is ready to be printed for me to carry with me on the trip.

I have gathered information from The Innocence Project at Yeshiva University; The Innocence Project has meant exoneration for some 240 people--many on death row. My hope is that this will prove helpful to establish without argument that there actually are innocent people in US prisons.

I have bumper stickers that say "Free Elsa Newman," and they are all ready to go.

The signs are on the motor home. The signs on the metal stayed on well. However, I must make some replacement signs for some that came off the glass. I will put the replacement signs INSIDE the windows, rather than trying to drive in pouring rain with outside signs.

I am beginning to make some media contacts, despite the poor piece of writing I put out at first. I think I will now send copies of the brochure to media, rather than trying to write a "press release" at which it seems I am a dismal failure.

I have twenty-two days to go, leaving three weeks from tomorrow, God willing.

All that remains is to finish the printing...make four replacement signs and have them laminated...and get the MK ready to go. Hmmm. Maybe I'll leave early. The earlier I am on the road, the better my hopes for the weather between here and northern Idaho, which will be my first stop.

DOGGONE...I FIGURED IT OUT!

The two little boys who, according their own disclosures, have suffered for years at the hands of the father they said molested them

Re: Stephen Friedman-- I FIGURED IT OUT!

It’s easy to understand why Arlen Slobodow would lie. He had been accused by his sons of molesting them sexually as well as savaging them physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The accusations never reached a courtroom in Maryland because Margery Landry's crime intervened. If Slobodow lied and his estranged wife went to prison, he was free and clear.

But why on earth would a woman’s former attorney lie about her in court—saying she had sat in his presence and plotted murder?

It’s easy to understand why Doug Gansler, then State’s Attorney for Montgomery Country and now Maryland’s Attorney General, might not care much about the truth of the matter. He was planning a run for state office. The Newman case was high profile. The media coverage was doubtless helpful. And all the more helpful if he could put the defendant away.

But Newman’s own divorce attorney?

It’s easy to understand why Slobodow’s attorney might not be interested in truth. She was being paid to defend him, not find out the truth.

But why would Stephen Friedman, Newman’s own attorney, perjure himself on the witness stand?

It’s easy to understand why the prosecuting attorney, Katherine Winfree, would not seek truth. Her emails show her disdain for Newman. In addition, she had a reputation to uphold; her boss, Doug Gansler, has said she is a better prosecutor than even he is.

But dammit…the one thing that I couldn’t figure out for the longest time was why a man like Stephen Friedman would lie about his own client.

And now? I’ve figured it out. At last.

Perhaps, after reading this brief account, you can draw your own conclusion as to why Stephen Friedman would have been motivated to bear false witness.

Friedman, you see, was not Newman’s attorney in any way that had anything to do with the criminal trial. Nope. He was her divorce attorney. And Newman was becoming sick and tired of his behavior as her divorce attorney. She began putting together a list of his misdeeds.

· He made appointments and then kept her waiting interminably with no apparent reason, once when she waited with her elderly mother, now 96 years old.

· He would talk to other clients on the phone while Newman sat in his office—and then he would bill her for the time he was using the phone.

· He would take a “break,” be gone for as much as half an hour or forty-five minutes, leaving her alone in his office—and then bill her for that time.

· He would often seem to fall asleep during time that should have been used for preparing the divorce case. Whether he was really asleep or not, he billed her for the time.

· He left to use the restroom—and billed her for the time.

· Friedman double billed—meaning he would go back and bill again for something he had already included in a bill. One month he billed Newman $40,000. Nor was this a month when he went to trial for her. There was nothing going on but office visits.

· Friedman billed Newman some $300,000 for a year’s work—although he stretched the work out for well over a year.

· According to Newman, Friedman wrote three- and four-page threatening letters.

As a result of these and other equally “obscene practices," Newman was preparing to accuse Friedman of malpractice. This she did not want to do during the divorce hearing. She intended to wait until divorce issues were settled.

Newman never got that chance. Margery Landry broke into Slobodow's house, and the rest is news I've written and rewritten.

Now you need to know that Newman has a habit of planning everything out on paper, and even before the divorce hearing, she made a list, some two or three pages long. At the time of Margery Landry’s crime, officials removed a computer and personal papers from Newman’s home, in search of evidence. Included in the papers was Newman’s list of complaints against Friedman.

Ah-oh! Guess who saw them!

Somehow, it seems, possibly with the assistance of Katherine Winfree in the State’s Attorney’s office, Friedman became aware of the paper and the charges Newman was planning to bring against him.

Two days after he saw the papers, he suddenly remembered that he had heard Elsa Newman sit in his office and plot to kill Arlen Slobodow, and rushed to two different judges to ask advice about what he should do with this horrible knowledge. Two days. And then he testified against her at trial.

Ladies and gentlemen…readers of this blog…I rest my case.

TO THE SONS OF ELSA NEWMAN:

One of my fondest hopes for you is that you will forever--no matter what anybody makes you say to the contrary--be proud of your mother!

I've ever known a mother more proud of her children, more pleased with them, more hopeful for their future; more frightened that the horrible abuses you disclosed might damage you and your bright future.

Of course her heart is broken over her separation from you, but she did nothing to deserve that. All she did was believe you when you disclosed the abuses your said your father was perpetrating on his two very young sons.

Did you know that your mother, when she was offered a reduction in her prison sentence if she would apologize for "conspiracy" and "attempted murder" held her head high and said simply, "I cannot apologize for what I did not do."

It did not matter what the jury said. It did not matter what the judge said. It did not matter what your father had said. The only thing that mattered is what she knows to be the truth. Your mother is a brilliant woman and a woman of integrity. It takes guts to do what she did--face a longer prison sentence, rather than deny that integrity.

Enough said for now.

THE FIRST LEG OF THE COAST-TO-COAST TRIP!

The first leg of the coast-to-coast and border-to-border trip on behalf of Elsa Newman has been completed. On Wednesday last the pugs and I climbed into the motor home, took our places and picked up Lois, a friend who had agreed to accompany me on this part of the journey.
Thanks to Lois, I have pictures for you. I will try not to write much, but just let you look at the pictures and captions.

We drove to Long Beach in Washington, where we picked up a small piece of driftwood, thanks to Lois, who found it. I was about ready to give up on the driftwood and just take a tiny container with a few grains of sand. The idea behind the driftwood is that as I travel I will pick up a small rock or other found item from each state I visit, carrying all of them with me as a symbol of my attempt to unite people in all the states behind Elsa Newman and her sons.

After Long Beach, we drove across the Astoria bridge and back to Vancouver, Washington--and then the pugs and I came home.

It was a good shakedown trip. I learned that I may not be able to drive that far every day. We found that some of the signs came off, so I will have to replace those. The ones on metal were fine. The ones on glass were a lost cause.

Now for the pictures:

The view from the passenger seat. We drove about two miles out of the way to take a look at this historic covered bridge.

Notice the signs. Please notice also my "prison blues,"

which I wore, but which had not yet

been stencilled with the words "PRISON BLUES...

in honor of Elsa Newman...#921975 MCIW...

innocent but imprisoned." I am right now in the process of

doing the stenciling

Me--with some of the pug herd, in their ex pen.

Somebody must have still been inside, because I seem to be informing someone that

it is time to disembark.

If you scrunch up your eyes just right, you can see some of the herd of elk we

saw on the way to the coast.

Plans Proceed Apace

Several things have happened over the last few days. All good, so far.

· The motor home is repaired and ready to travel. Ooops! That reminds me: I’d better start it up and let it run for a while.

· My stencil has arrived, so I can get my prison blues ready—thank you, Johnny Cash for the name. My blue shirts will say “PRISON BLUES…in honor of Elsa Newman…#921975 at MCIW…innocent but in prison.”

· I’m planning to purchase little blue shirts for all the pugs. I need to get fabric paint in tubes, so I can write on their shirts, things like “Free Elsa Newman”…”Elsa Newman-unjustly imprisoned”…and maybe even “Shame on Maryland!”

· The signs for the MH are due on Monday. I can hardly wait to get them on, so I hope the weather accommodates.

· The backup mirror for my MH arrived. I’ve got to get that installed. It helps a lot when I am driving. For example, I will be able to see if some ning-nong, invisible in the side mirrors, is tailgating.

· I even received the little rubber piece I needed for the vacuum cleaner, so I will be able to carry a Dirt Devil and vacuum the carpets, which needs to be done rather often, in view of the fact that statistics show that one pug sheds enough hair every day to make a whole new pug!

· Next week should bring the trip to the coast with a friend. Looking forward to it.

· I’m still working on the press release…finding it difficult to write about myself and mine in the third person.

· Found out I cannot use dried egg whites for my liver shunt puppies, so I will have to carry fresh eggs and/or make frequent stops for fresh eggs. Guess I’ll be eating lots of egg yolks or making lots of puddings—or something.

· Starting to receive word from folks who will welcome my dogs and me—and some even have suggestions for publicity in local news media. Yesssss!

· Received washable pads for the floors, to protect the carpet. Also have lots of homemade “rugs” that I use for the same purpose—mostly old towels sewn together.

Hey! This is really going to happen. I can hardly wait to get on the road.

Journal--day three

Elsa Newman and her sons

with friend of a canine persuasion

Wheee! Count down another day! Thirty-eight days until we leave; and sooooo much still to do!

The signs for the motor home have shipped—due here on the 19th of this month, but that is about all the news for the day.

We had a power outage this morning and into part of the afternoon, which put a crimp in some of my preparation plans. Preparation, of course, includes getting my home ready to leave behind, as well as getting the motor home and the dogs and myself ready for travel. Getting the house ready? Means putting covers over the screens on my screened back porch. Means getting all washing caught up. Means keeping up on dishes. Nothing very exciting.

Most of the preparation for the dogs means being sure I have the right foods with me. I have very young little girls with liver shunts. They have to have a special diet and special meds. They also need filtered water. Gotta be sure I have everything with me.

As to the rest of the herd? I’ve switched them all to Beneful—because I know I can get that anywhere. They are good to go.

Come November 20? We'll all be good to go.

Watch for us in your state or your city!

Journal--day two

Not much to record today on the preparations for the trip. I did begin writing a press release, after looking up a how-to and a guide on the net.

I have signs coming for the motor home. The first one has arrived: a banner which I can attach to the MK at stops. It says, “Elsa Newman and Sons—information here.”
The rest are supposed to arrive on the 19th. I hope the company keeps that commitment. I am looking forward to decking out the MK in her new clothing. Among the signs I am expecting are the following:
1. Coast to coast and border to border for Elsa Newman and sons
2. elsanewmanisinnocent.blogspot.com
3. Free ELSA NEWMAN –unjustly imprisoned in Maryland
4. Elsa Newman—Innocent but in prison
5. Time for justice—Elsa Newman—unjustly imprisoned
6. Time lost in prison is gone FOREVER—missing out while your children grow up—ALSO GONE FOREVER
7. Sign petition: thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman
8. Free Elsa Newman [with two pics of Elsa]
9. Plus a pug sign, since I’m a pug person, in which a pug bewails the fact that “Elsa Newman has been in prison sooooo long!” That one is for the driver’s- side door.

Looking forward to taking this message across the United States. Look for me in your state and your city. I’ll be the obnoxious little, old lady retired school teacher, traveling in a “Jubilee” motor home covered with signs, and accompanied by 11 ½ pugs, ½ Chihuahua, and one pug in a tuxedo—that’s Holly, the Boston Terrorist!

THE TIME HAS COME...

It is October 11, 2009—40 days to departure--and time to begin a journal of my coast-to-coast and border-to-border journey to publicize the plight of Elsa Newman and her sons.
In September, I made a shakedown run to LaGrande, Oregon, with the motor home. I took all 13 small dogs with me, using built-in crates that I had made myself. I have 11 ½ pugs, ½ Chihuahua, and another person who is either a pug in a tuxedo, a penguin, or some relative of the flying nun. We all learned a bit from that trip. I took notes on things I wanted to change or improve. And we headed home.

After that? Boy, howdy! Did things ever shake down! On the way home, as I passed some construction, I remember thinking, “Wow! That stuff is too close to the road.” And before I could even finish the thought, something hit my front awning arm, pulled it loose and created a tremendous racket.

When I finally got to a place where the road was wide enough to allow for pulling over, I clambered out to survey the damage. The awning arm hung loose. The door was scraped and looked pretty bad. Nor would it open. Fortunately, I try to plan for emergencies and had with me a length of clothesline, which I used to secure the battered arm.

After sitting a while in an attempt to calm down from the incident, I drove on home, nearing despair at the thought of what the cost of repairs would be.

When I checked online, it appeared that a new door would cost about $400 and the new arm for the awning would be something over $200. Ahh…then came David.

An online friend of mine speaks often of angels—in various forms, canines, other animals, people. I wonder often if David is not one of mine.

David, you see, lives on my land in a fifth wheel. Why is he here? Well…it’s a long story, but to keep it short, he lives here to help me care for his mother, Alice, who lives in my travel trailer [not to be confused with my motor home; the travel trailer is more-or-less permanently in place, and I consider it an extension of my house]. David’s mother, you see has terminal cancer. Actually, she was not expected to be still living by this time in 2009; in January, the doctors gave her two to five months at best. She is now at the beginning of the tenth month since her diagnosis.

OK…so all that is sort of an aside where this journal thing is concerned, except to explain the presence of David, who is helping me prepare the motor home for the journey. David felt nothing like the despair I had felt. “You know,” he said, “I believe I can fix this.”

The first step was to persuade the door to open and close. Which he did. Then we applied a painted plywood panel to cover the worst of the scratches and hold the door straight.

That left only the front arm of the awning. I ordered parts and David—bless him again—replaced the damaged one. Just today we rolled it up and down and it works fine.

I don’t know exactly how much money this young man has saved me, but I can make a rough guess, starting with the $400 I did NOT have to spend for a replacement door. Plus labor for replacing the door. Plus labor for replacing the awning arm, even if I had bought the parts myself and taken them to a repair shop. I’m appropriately grateful. I rather need the money for the trip, instead of repairs to the vehicle.

So now the repaired motor home—which my friends call the “motor kennel” or “MK”—stands in the yard, waiting for final preparations.

I have signs ordered, which should arrive on the 19th of this month. After that? A trip to the Washington-Oregon coast, accompanied by a friend, so I can say literally and truthfully that I am travelling coast to coast for Elsa Newman.

More later. This will do for a start. I have planned this venture for a long time now. I do hope it will call attention to the unjust imprisonment of Elsa Newman—as well as the abuses her sons have said they live with at the hands of their father.

Quick test about those involved in putting Elsa Newman in prison--despite her innocence

1. What do you call it when a father molests his two sons sexually?
a. Incest
b. Sexual abuse
c. Child abuse
d. All of the above

2. What do you call it when a father is found in bed, nude from the waist down, with a small son who is completely nude?
a. A situation which would suggest child abuse.
b. A situation which would suggest child molestation.
c. A situation which is improper.
d. All of the above

3. What do you call it when a state’s attorney from Montgomery County, Maryland wants to convict a suspect so badly that he decides to retry her case after the state’s highest court has voided the verdict?
a. Political ambition
b. Fear of looking bad when a high-profile case went bad on him
c. Preparation to run for the office of Attorney General of Maryland
d. Deciding ahead of time who was at fault and then accepting only evidence which supports his theory.
e. All of the above.

4. What do you call it when Katherine Winfree, prosecuting attorney in the Newman case is
observed late one night, driving erratically; when stopped by police, she refused a breathalyzer test?
a. DUI
b. Illegal
c. A sign of an individual who cannot be totally trusted within the framework of the law.
d. All of the above

5. What do you call an attorney who lies on the stand about his own client, stating that he has heard said client, while sitting in his office, state that she wanted to kill her estranged husband?
a. An attorney who is testifying in defiance of attorney-client privilege.
b. A man who is willing to lie about a former client
c. A man who believes he will be believed by a jury when he claims that his former client--well-educated, an attorney in her own right and a woman of considerable wisdom--sat in his office and talked about a plan to murder her estranged husband, when her attorney knows she never did this.
d. All of the above.

6. What do you call an estranged husband who sets up the prosecution case against his wife for said prosecutors?
a. A sociopath
b. Someone able to make a good impression when he chooses to do so
c. Someone who has a darker side, which before the trial had taken the form of spousal abuse, physical and sexual abuse of his children, and who, although friendly and believable in public, became at home a surly, sullen man who seldom spoke unless to shout or demean.
d. All of the above.

7. What do you call a court psychologist who sets aside the results of psychological testing in favor of his own personal opinion of Elsa Newman and her estranged husband?
a. A liar
b. A man who will one day recommend that the Castillo children in Maryland be allowed unsupervised visits with their father.
c. A man who will be responsible for the fact that said father drowned all of his children in the bathtub during one of those unsupervised visits.
d. A man who has no integrity.
e. All of the above.

A BLOG FOR AS[S]...

Recognize the hands? Remember when I used them in one of my original blogs, not just on this site, but on several sites? Remember how quickly you removed your picture--which contained those hands--from your Facebook page? Why did you remove that picture? I can only suppose that you removed it in fear that someone who saw both pages might recognize the hands and know of whom I was writing.

That is certainly what I would have done, if I were a pedophile who was molesting my own sons and somebody cropped my hands from MY picture and put those hands on a blog site.

After spending two years and more researching your situation and the case of your ex-wife, Elsa Newman, I have a pretty good idea about some other things I would do if I were a pedophile, abusing my own sons, and some obnoxious little old lady from the state of Washington began exposing me on a blog site. Oh, yes! How about some of this:

1. I would be sure that CPS never interviewed my sons except in my presence.

2. I would lie to my sons about their mother. I would say things like, “Your mom is nothing but a failed lawyer.” It’s balderdash; Elsa Newman was quite a successful lawyer. But that’s what I would tell me sons if I were a pedophile and I were molesting them.

3. I would tell other lies about their mother. I would tell them she is “crazy,” despite the fact that Elsa Newman’s psychological testing showed her well within the framework of what is considered normal.

4. I would lie about my own psychological testing. I would never let my sons know that I was the one whose tests showed more-than-questionable tendencies toward mental problems.

5. If I were a child molester, and if I were molesting my own children, I would be delighted at the opportunity to put my sons’ mother in prison. Said mother, after all, is their primary line of defense. I would lie, if I had to, in order to make her look guilty.

6. Hell…I’d even pay other people to lie. I would do most anything to keep my obscene secret a secret.

7. If my children disclosed the truth, I would beat them and/or use any other possible form of intimidation to force them to take back their words of accusation.

8. If I were a child molester who specialized in molesting his own children, and my children disclosed the truth, I would take what those children said and tell authorities that it couldn’t have happened: Nobody could stuff a whole transformer toy into a little boy’s rectum. Ridiculous. Of course the fact would remain that I hadn’t stuffed the whole toy in there--it just felt that way to the kid. But I would make the kid look foolish and unbelievable.

9. If I were a child molester, abusing my own children, I would persuade my children that those things never happened. I would use mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and any other kind of force I could think of to assure that my sons lost track of reality--and wouldn’t even remember the things I had done to them.

10. If I were a child molester, and my own children were the primary objects of my attentions, I would do everything in my power to keep my children from their mother. She’s in prison, after all. She must have done SOMETHING to deserve to be there. And I would lie about my ex-wife until my sons believe me.

How am I doing, AS[S]?

And there’s so much more I would do, isn’t there? But that’s enough for now. Maybe you will write a response to me and continue with further thoughts about the actions of a pedophile who abuses his own children?

The coast-to-coast/border-to-border campaign begins

Finally I have thought of something to do to publicize the case of Elsa Newman and her sons.

On the 20th of November, I will begin a cross-country trip in my recently-purchased motor home. I will travel with my 13 pugs, who now have cages built into the motor home so they can travel safely.

The motor home will bear signs such as "Free Elsa Newman;" "Elsa Newman, Innocent and in prison," "#92197, Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup," "8 years behind bars--but innocent," "Elsa Newman, separated from her sons by Maryland's injustice system."

The motor home will travel through as many states as possible, en route to Maryland. Also posted on the MH will be the website for this blog, as well as the website for the online petition. In addition, I plan to carry a paper petition and find as many signatures as possible to add to that. There will be handouts: a flyer for those who want a quick summary; a brochure for those who want more.

If you read this, please wish me blessing and peace for this journey. And please pray that my audacity will stir interest all across the United States, but especially in Maryland, where Governor McNalley has the power to step into this case and actually DO something, whereas all I can do is make a fool of myself on a cross-country tour.

And if you have not yet signed the online petition, please do so at this site: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

Thank you, friends. And feel free to check around you for others in Newman's situation. Estimates range as high as 1 in 7 prisoners who may be innocent of the crime for which they are imprisoned. A despicable failure in the so-called American justice system.

Peace...blessings...love and light...

Aine

Not Your Usual Elsa Newman Story!!!!

But a story of a whole other kind...and one I cannot resist sharing.



Today I met a man, a grizzled, softhearted and kindly man, a Viet Nam veteran whose eyes and heart still fill with tears when he thinks, reads or writes about things that happened to him as the Viet Nam War was drawing to a close.

May I call him “Bill”? That’s not his real name, but although he gave me permission to write this and to share the story of one particular experience that left him haunted and hurting, he wants to remain anonymous.

Bill was among the last servicemen sworn in at the time of the Viet Nam War. Unable to see himself struggling through steaming jungles, he enlisted in the Navy. The Navy promised him that if he would take and pass certain classes, he could serve as an electrician. He took them. He passed. And he was on his way to the far east, aboard ship.

One thing you should know before you read further: Bill wishes there might be some way men--and now women, too--might learn even a little about what to expect in war--even when that war has ended. He was, he says, totally unprepared for the things he saw.

This is the haunting story that he wrote as he was trying to recover from the horrors of one of his last days in the Navy

As the fall of South Vietnam was taking place in late April, 1975, I was proud to be a crew member aboard the USS Blue Ridge (LCC19) [photo above] and be called upon to take part in “Operation Freedom Wind,” the evacuation of the last Americans and of loyal South Vietnamese civilians. I was in the Navy, on a ship and mostly safe. I was not out in the jungles fighting the Viet Cong, dodging bombs and gunfire, but I nevertheless had experiences that still, to this day, haunt and trouble me greatly.

As the evacuation was going on--escaping and frightened civilians--as they were swimming and floating on almost anything that could float, I had to watch helpless from the deck of the ship, as multitudes of them drowned. There were old people, young people, women with their babies and their other children--all of them fighting to get close to the ship, get to safety.

It was horrible for me that I could do nothing to help them. I know that I was not responsible for them. But the guilt and shame that I have carried for the last 32-plus years have been unbearable.

The ship quickly became filled to capacity with the people we could safely bring on board. Even the helicopters bringing out evacuees had to find alternate landing places--and then the helicopters were ditched, to make room for these fleeing swarms of human beings.

As more and more people were able to climb on board, we were busy throwing overboard weapons, supplies--anything we could find to get rid of--just to make room for more people.

We were about a mile from shore, and as people weakened and fell away from their flotation devices, I had to watch them drown. They were just too exhausted to hang on anymore. There were literally hundreds of people just out of my reach--out of our reach.

This event will stay with me for the rest of my life. I cannot escape it. Sometimes when I hear a helicopter--or even a spinning washing machine--it is like I am right back there on the ship, watching people who desperately needed help, people who were reaching out to us. But they were not within range of help, not by me…not by anyone else.

On that same occasion, one helicopter brought aboard a wounded Marine. He was pretty banged up, and I assisted the team to get him to sick bay. I never knew if he turned out OK, if he died or not. I just knew that I had seen another man in pain. And I realize that watching this guy, all bloody and screaming, created in me the same feelings of watching all those helpless people drown.

After the war I began abusing alcohol, just so I would be able to get to sleep without nightmares--the faces and the screams of those people, both the hundreds in the water and the single Marine I helped to sick bay.

After treatment for alcohol abuse, at the VA in Seattle, I no longer drink. But drinking was the only way I could cope back then.

CHILDHOOD LOST...

Please add your signature to the online petition for Elsa Newman and her sons:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman
[the website above is not clickable; please copy and paste]

TRANSCRIBED: material from flyer

It seems that the material on the flyer I posted previously may be difficult for some of you to read. Here then is a transcription of the material to help you:

"This was a beautiful, loving family. Then mom expected the courts to protect her children from abuse. Everything went topsy-turvy. Now mom is in prison for a crime she did not commit, and the children are stuck with the very person who abused them.

Please sign our petition and ask friends to sign. Your signatures help not only this family but thousands of others whose cries for help--along with the expectations of their concerned mothers--were silenced.

Speak up. Judge righteously. Proverbs 31:9

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-elsa-newman--save-her-kids-from-abuse

The best way to reach these to sites is probably to copy and past the addess into your browser.

Elsa Newman is innocent--please sign the petition

The problem with this petition has been that signatures don't seem to be showing up on the original petition. Over 100 people have told Friends of Elsa Newman that they have signed the petition...yet the number of signatures remains steadfast at 277.

I have written to the petition site. As yet I have heard nothing from the managers of the site.

My suggestion? Sign both of these. The original petition is in black below...the new version is in blue. [An apt color scheme, I suspect, for a woman and children who have been battered, abused and bruised by the Maryland "justice" system, by the prison system, and by the abusive father of the two boys.]

If you wish to sign only one petition, perhaps the new version would be preferable, since it still seems to be accepting signatures. I'll be back with news about why signatures are not posting on the other one.

ORIGINAL: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

NEW VERSION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-elsa-newman--save-her-kids-from-abuse

A LETTER TO ELSA NEWMAN'S SONS...

Dear young men who have asked me not to use your names any longer,

Please notice that I respect your wishes, even though I must continue to write about the abomination your father has made of your lives, and the hell on earth he has created for your mother.

Her hell has more than one part, you know: one part, of course, is the imprisonment itself, unjust as it is, and the way she is treated in prison. Another part is her separation from you. And still another is her knowledge of the disclosures you made when you were much younger; your mother has to live every day of her life with the belief that your father abuses and molests you in every way he can think of.

And one more part of your mother's hell on earth is the certain knowledge that your father lies to you about her. Yes. He lies.

LIE: Your father told you that your mother planned to kill her older son, in order to save the younger one. LIE!

LIE: Your father told you that your mother pushed you down the stairs. LIE! In reality, your father pushed your mother down the stairs while she was holding a baby...the older of the two of you.

LIE: Your father told you that Margery Landry tried to kill him. LIE! If she was even remotely thinking of murder, why did she have only two bullets in the gun?

LIE: Your father told you that it was crazy for you to call Margery Landry "Aunt Margie." LIE! Lots of kids call their mom's best friend aunt...or other friends of the family aunt or uncle. It is actually quite common in the very finest of families.

LIE: Your father tells you that your mother is crazy. LIE! Your mother is a woman unjustly imprisoned. She is a mother who loves her children far beyond what anyone who has not had children can understand. She is a mother who suffers the tortures of the damned as guards, officers and other inmates turn their anti-Semitism on her. She suffers abuse at the hands of guards, officers and other inmates who resent her because she is educated...because she is an attorney...because she is gentle and kind...perhaps even because some of them actually believe in her innocence.

LIE: Your father tells you that your mother tested as borderline--or some such psychological drivvel--when she was tested by a court-appointed psychologist. LIE! Actually, your mother tests well within the normal range; any statement to the contrary is based on a whim...just something the psychologist felt like saying. [Incidentally, do you know that this is the same psychologist who said that Mr. Castillo, the father who drowned his children in a bathtub, was normal and sent the children off to him on unsupervised visits--and to their death?]

LIE: Your father tells people--and perhaps you as well--that he has your welfare at heart. Pardon my Spanish, but nierde! nierde! nierde! LIE!

LIE: Your father tells you that HE is the one who tests normal. LIE!

LIE: Your father tells you that your mother and Margery Landry had an unhealthy relationship, in which Landry was manipulated by your mother to do your mother's dirty work. LIE! Your father is the one who manipulates others to do HIS dirty work.
Just like he got you to write all that horrible stuff online about your mother.

LIE: Your father tells you that there were other things abnormal about the relationship between your mother and Landry. LIE! Margery Landry was a friend of your family. She was also a long-time friend of your mother; the two, as I understand it, were like sisters.

So what am I saying here? Bluntly, I am saying that your father is an immense liar...a mammoth, continuous liar...a remorseless liar. And that is in addition to the fact that you and I and your brother and your mother all know: he is a living lie, because he is a pedophile.

Time to end. I could say a lot more. I will refrain for now.

QUESTION: WHAT KIND OF PARENT...

...allows his children to "ramble" around the back of a Jeep Cherokee and without seat belts...in heavy traffic...or on the highway...and all the time?

ANSWERS:

• A parent who virtually always neglects to watch for his children's safety.
• A parent who watches them closely otherwise--every word...every gesture...every thought they share with their unjustly imprisoned mother.
• A father who molests, beats, exploits and otherwise debases his children, in order to satisfy his dark urges.
• A father who is not "raising" his children but using them.
• A "man" who lied on the witness stand to take these children's mother away from them.
• A father who has been heard to say, "I don't give a damn if the kids grow up fucked up."

This is the kind of parent who lets his children ride without seat belts...who abuses their mother...and who abuses those children in every way he can think of.

ATTENTION TAMPA AND THE MAN WITH THE INITIALS A.S.

She's back! You know who I'm talking about: the little, old lady from Amboy, Washington who thinks you're a pervert of the grow-your-own-victims persuasion. That is to say, a so-called "father" who molests his sons.

Yes...that little, old lady would be me.

And I have a few questions for you:

1. You took your sons to visit their mother--Elsa Newman, #921975, Maryland Correctional Institute for Women at Jessup--in prison just over a week ago, did you not?
2. Why is their mother in prison? All she did was try to protect her sons from you, the perpetrator they accused of all kinds of abuse--including sexual, physical, mental, emotional and anything else you could think of.
3. Could it be that you lied on the witness stand?
4. Could it be that other witnesses also lied?
5. Why do you cut visits short? Your kids are supposed to see their mother for two hours each time you take them to the prison. Yet you cut the visits to an hour and a half--or sometimes just an hour and a few minutes. I'm sure you understand the importance of every second to a mother who sees her children only once a year. I'm sure you understand that. Cutting the visits short...insisting that the boys leave at your whim, when they are hanging back, trying to get another word or two with their mother...sounds to me like sheer vindictiveness. Well, duh...what else would I expect from a man who molests his own sons?
   
6. Why do your sons look so tired when you take them there? Your elder son has bags under his eyes from weariness. And the bags under his eyes were worse on the second day.
   
7. Why do the boys behave differently on the second day of visits? Do you coach them overnight? Do you threaten? Do you abuse again? What is it that you do to break them in preparation for the second day of visitation?
   
8. Your younger son was far more solemn and careful on the second day. What did you do to change his aspect that way?
9. Surely you do something to keep them from drawing closer to their mom. I wonder what horrors would thus change children overnight.
10. And what about the older boy's taking your side against his little brother? That's what seems to be going on. Is the older boy trying to curry favor with his father? Is he trying to earn points for himself, so that he is less frequently and less viciously abused? What is going on here?

Someday, the truth will out. And what will you do then, AS? Whatever will you do then, when all the people you have abused, threatened, humiliated, cheated, intimidated and used let the world know what you are? And I include, of course, your own sons, who know better than any of the rest of us that the first four letters of your last name describe you to perfection.

Take careful note, Mr. S--THE TRUTH WILL OUT!

HOW DO I MAKE THIS ADD UP?

WHY? WHY? WHY? AND WHY? AGAIN!--PLUS A COUPLE OF HOW?S OR SO


Elsa Newman sees her sons twice yearly, by court order. Their father testified against their mother. His testimony, despite the fact that it was composed of smiling, bald-faced lies and a sociopathic bent, apparently was a huge factor in sending their mother to prison for a crime which she had not committed. The crime, in fact, did not even exist. She was accused of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

In the first place there was no murder attempt--there was only an attempt by a family friend to search for evidence of the molestation the boys had disclosed. True, this search ended with shots being fired. Why? Because Margery Landry found Slobodow, nearly naked, in bed with his younger son, who was completely naked. Apparently Landry found Slobodow in the process of molesting the child. When she tried to pull him off the boy, Slobodow attacked her, knocked her to the floor, and tried to turn her gun and its two whole bullets on Landry. When the gun went off, one bullet struck Slobodow in the thigh.

In the second place, there was no conspiracy. Margery Landry acted on her own and undertook the search on her own initiative--while Newman was out of the state--and despite the fact that Newman had told Landry to keep away from Slobodow and the boys.

Thus it is that Elsa Newman sees her sons only twice a year. She is unjustly imprisoned at Maryland's Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup. Technically, she was given a life sentence for these two non-existent crimes. All but 20 years, however, were suspended.

With that background, I come to my list of why and how questions:

1. During divorce proceedings, and when Newman's elder son was still a small boy, Newman discovered a tiny toy clutched in one sweaty palm when his father returned him from a visit. Why did the boy look at her, terrified, as if begging her not to mention what she had noticed? Why such fear? It was a toy his mother had given him, and he could not afford to have his father know that he had been carrying it--perhaps during the entire length of the visit. I have wondered if he carried it, perhaps, as some kind of charm to ward off his father's sexual assaults?

2. Another time Newman found this same son wearing two t-shirts. When she started to ask about that, the same look of terror appeared. The second t-shirt, under the one his father could see, was an old, worn and cherished shirt his mother had given him. He dared not allow his father to know how he loved it. Was there, perhaps, a huge price to pay for loving a gift from his mother.

3. When their father picked them up for a visit with him, the boys would sometimes cling to furniture and scream and beg not to have to go. They were more than frightened of visits with their father...they were terrified. At that time, they preferred their mother--who tried to protect them--to their father, from whom they so desperately needed protection, considering the unspeakable sexual, physical and other abuses he heaped upon them.

4. Both boys, when very young, obviously loved and respected their mother. Don't these examples--only three of many I have at hand--demonstrate their deep love for their mother and their preference for her? Do they not also demonstrate a deep-seated fear of their father?

5. Why, when these boys have not lived with their mother for over five years, has the elder one now apparently turned against her?

6. Why does the older boy write filth and vulgarity when he writes to me about his mother? Is the father forcing him to write like that? Is he writing like that in order to get on his father's good side? Is he afraid? Perhaps even for his life?

7. Newman is seldom permitted to talk to her younger son. When she calls, she usually hears, "He's visiting friends." Why isn't she allowed to talk to him?

8. In a recent call, when she was finally allowed to speak briefly with the younger boy, he virtually whispered into the phone, "I love you, Mom." Why did he have to whisper?

9. In that same call and in that same whisper, Newman's younger son added, "[My brother] loves you, too." The abusive father is permitted by the courts to monitor all phone calls. Was the boy hoping he could keep his father from hearing? Was he trying to save himself from abuse at the hands of a father psychiatrists have called "a sadist"?

9. When the boys visit their mother in prison, why is the younger son friendly and wanting to touch his mother on their first day of their visit...and yet on the second day, he seems distant and afraid to get too close to her?

10. When the boys make their semi-annual trek to Maryland to visit their mother, why does their father cut the visits short? When you only have eight hours a year to see your sons in person, why would any decent human being leave before the time was up?

10. Why doesn't any of this add up? When they were younger, both boys loved Newman and preferred being with her to being with their father. But now that they haven't lived with her for years, have lived, instead, in their father's house his physical custody and under threat of his constant abuse, at least one of them has learned to spout crude, vile and vulgar messages about his mother and has even declared, "Until this is over, I don't have a mother."

They both loved her, but now, living with their father, one of them says, "She's crazy," and the other is mostly not allowed to talk to her.

They both loved her, but now, under their father's influence, the older boy--or someone pretending to be him--started a petition on Care2, stating that his mother is mentally unbalanced and should not be allowed out of prison. He even got a few signers--very few--before someone shut the petition down.

They both loved her. So why has at least one of them seemed to turn against her?

Gotta say it again: it simply doesn't add up.

Maryland's Shame--Children in Custody of Abuser

[Just in case you have a hard time reading the web address for the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman]

Once upon a time...

...there was a happy family: a mother who loved her two sons and tried to protect them from the father they said was molesting them; the two sons; and a grandmother who also adored them.

Then disaster struck. Please see the flyer below:

WHERE ARE THE ETHICS IN THE COURTS OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND?

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

And what about Maryland’s prisons?
Are prisoners treated according to some code of demoralization or what?

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here. I guess I got discouraged. For that an apology is due, and I duly apologize.

The reality is that my discouragement and lack of blogging may well have contributed to the dismal situation Elsa Newman continues to endure at Maryland’s Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup.

People who have previously read here probably remember the name of Elsa Newman. Please allow me to refresh your memory as to said “dismal situation.”

First let me remind you how firmly I believe Elsa Newman’s imprisonment is unjust. As far as I can tell from extensive research into the Newman case, Newman did nothing to deserve prison. Back in the days when Doug Gansler, now Maryland’s Attorney General, was a mere state’s attorney in Montgomery County, Elsa Newman was incarcerated. I have long believed that Gansler rode to political success in Maryland partly on the back of the case he made against Newman. If you disagree? Well…that’s OK…but you might want to take a trip back through some of the things I wrote earlier before you make a final judgment.

At that time of the Newman trial, Doug Gansler’s chief assistant was a woman named Katherine Winfree. Make no mistake, Winfree is probably one of the best prosecutors in the United States. She is so good that she can make a case out of lies and partial truth, witnesses who look good on the stand but are willing to lie through their teeth, and suspicions she created by well-placed questions and her own creative ideas.

In my opinion, Stephen Friendman lied. He was Newman’s former attorney.
Maryland’s highest court said his testimony should never have been allowed at all. But he testified against Newman, saying she had sat in his presence and plotted to kill her estranged husband. Pardon the expression, but that’s bullshit. I wonder sometimes how Friedman manages to eat, using a mouth that spouted such infamy. Again: BULLSHIT! Elsa Newman is an extremely intelligent woman. Had she wanted to kill Arlen Slobodow, she would never have sat in the presence of an attorney she despised and for whom she had literally no respect, an attorney she accused of overbilling [an attorney who, for example, would “step out for a moment to get a Coke” and then bill her for the 45 minutes or so she sat in his office waiting for his return], and attorney she wanted to fire because she did not trust him…Newman would never have sat in the presence of such a man and plot ANYTHING, let alone murder.

Another witness was the aforementioned estranged husband, Arlen Slobodow, now of Tampa, Florida. If you’ve read any of what I said before, you know that I firmly believe Slobodow is a sociopath as well as a child molester who has repeatedly assaulted his own children sexually and in every other way possible. And you know what it is that a sociopath can do best? Lie! And be personable in his lying. He made, I am sure, a fantastic witness for the prosecution. Eloquent. Charming. Apparently candid. Said anything he wanted and made it believable. And he somehow made the jury believe that his estranged wife had plotted with a family friend to kill him.

More bullshit.

There would come a day when the family friend, Margery Landry, would testify also. According to her testimony, Newman knew nothing of what would happen that night in January. No plot. No conspiracy. No attempt to murder, for that matter.

Landry broke into Slobodow’s house, looking for evidence of child abuse. She found it. Oh, boy, did she find it! Slobodow was in bed--nearly naked--with the younger of his two sons, and the boy was completely naked. It sounds to me like Landry stumbled across a scene of abuse-in-progress. She was the child’s godmother. She loved the boy as she would have loved a child of her own. And she found him there in bed with his father, both nude, and apparently in the middle of a sexual assault upon the child. What would you have done? Crept quietly away? I doubt it. Nor did Landry. She lost it. This government employee, highly intelligent, and with the highest security clearance possible in the US foreign service, scheduled for an ambassadorial post at her next promotion…she completely lost it. She saw her godchild under attack. She entered the bedroom and try to pull the molesting father away from his son. The father struggled, shoved Landry to the floor, tried to turn on her the gun she carried for protection…and it went off. One bullet struck him in the thigh. The other, I understand, struck a wall. And she had no more bullets. Only two. Hardly the arsenal of a woman intending to kill.

After than, Landry fled. Slobodow called 911 and set up the prosecution case for them with his first words: “My wife sent someone to kill me.”

And it was there that the prosecution took its stand. As if the words that Arlen Slobodow spoke had been true, the prosecution set about the convict Elsa Newman of conspiracy and attempted murder, when she was guilty of neither one.

Elsa Newman is guilty of only one thing: she tried to protect her two sons from an abusive father. They had disclosed abuse to their mother, to family friends, to doctors, to psychiatrists, to law officers. All these people had seen signs of abuse. Some of them reported the abuse.

Margery Landry, unbeknownst to Newman, went in search of evidence in Slobodow’s own house. And the result? Elsa Newman was tried and sentenced to prison for a crime of which she was innocent. Furthermore, she had known nothing of this crime until police informed her what had happened and she was arrested…tried…convicted…sent to prison.

And this is what passes for justice in the state of Maryland?!? If so, Maryland has no justice…nothing but injustice. Shame on the state of Maryland. Shame on Montgomery County. Shame on Doug Gansler and Katherine Winfree and Stephen Friedman and Arlen Slobodow who wanted things their way and happily dissembled to get their way.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

ANTI-SEMITISM? In Maryland's Correctional Institution at Jessup?

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

Elsa Newman is a Jew. She is white. She is above average intelligence. She is an attorney. She was a US government employee. She was very good at what she did.

Then she was unjustly arrested…unjustly accused…unjustly tried…unjustly convicted…and unjustly imprisoned, despite her innocence.

And now? I believe her to be the victim of anti-Semitism, racial prejudice, intellectual prejudice, status prejudice, professional and perhaps any other kinds of prejudice you can think of.

Humor me while I present a few examples:

Another inmate, head down, walks by Newman muttering, “Kill all Jews!”

Her cell is searched, frequently and repeatedly and left in a mess by the officials who search. She seems to be under far greater scrutiny than other prisoners.

Medications that are to be issued to her from the prison pharmacy in a blister pack containing a full months supply--meds which are a matter of life-and-death for Newman--sometimes appear in a blister pack containing only three or four pills, rather than the month’s supply.

Newman lost her job. She could not seem to get another.

A roommate--much larger than Newman, who is small and appears somewhat frail after her years of fighting for her sons and for the justice which has, thus far, eluded her--stands in a doorway so Newman cannot leave the cell.

Another time the same roommate is on her top bunk, watching TV. As Newman attempts to walk past her, the roommate reaches out to adjust her TV, and the movement effectively “clotheslines” Newman.

Same roommate, seemingly a lesbian, makes a pass at Newman. When Newman does not respond as the roommate desires, since the roommate apparently wants her to become something she is not, the roommate begins urging her to fight. “Come on girl. Let’s fight. Let’s go down!” You should know that this roommate is a woman who sent one of her previous roommates to the infirmary.

Same roommate leaves bloody sanitary napkins on the sink. When Newman reports this to guards and requests assistance, she is ignored.

Same roomate is in her top bunk when Newman fixes herself a cup of tea and sits on her bed, preparing to drink it. The roommate throws her legs over the edge of her top bunk and begins to swing them--kicking the cup and spilling scalding hot tea all over Newman.

Newman requests another cell. There is another woman who has a cell to herself and is willing for Newman to move into that cell with her. Officers and guards tell Newman there is no cell available.

Newman repeats her request to move--or to have the offensive roommate moved. Newman is informed that any roommate problems are obviously her own fault, since she has had six roommates and they all left. Hmmmmm.

Two of those roommates were released. Two were injured and had to be moved to a cell where they could have lower bunks. One stole her blind.
And then there was the most recent roommate, of whom I have been speaking, the one who said to her, “You should have been burned when all the other Jews were!” [I wonder if the woman knows when the Holocaust occurred. Probably not, if she thinks Newman is old enough to have lived through it!]

Oh, my, yes! Clearly all the roommate problems were caused by Elsa Newman! Mmmmmm-hmmmmm! NOT!

Anyhow, as the story continued, Newman was finally moved…to an older part of the prison where the rooms are smaller and darker, and where, in her cell, the hot water did not work.

About this same time, a problem appeared when Newman went for her kosher breakfast. Now with this kosher breakfast, Newman is supposed to get two hard-boiled eggs. Her previous roommate--the one who wanted her to fight--works in the kitchen. Lo and behold, on the day after Newman moved, she received, instead, two raw eggs for her breakfast. You figure it out.

In the process of the move, some of Newman’s things were stolen. Logically enough, she complained. The Lieutenant to whom she spoke ignored her. When she complained again, the Lieutenant told her “If you complain once more that you had things stolen, I’ll put you on lock.” [Newman would be locked into her cell and not be able to leave.]


It begins to look to me like one finds the same kind of “justice” in Maryland prisons as one finds in Maryland’s courts. I’ve heard it said--I’d never say it myself, of course--but I’ve heard it said that Maryland has one of the most corrupt systems in the country. However, as I have researched the case of Elsa Newman, I begin to entertain just the teensiest bit of suspicion.

Now things change slightly. Enter the picture, but from the opposite side of the country, a little, old lady by the name of Aine O’Brocken, from the state of Washington. O’Brocken [yes, that would be me] writes to Gary Maynard, head of Maryland’s Department of Corrections and Public Safety, and…OMG…at last…someone in the state of Maryland who will take me seriously--and reply! At last, someone in the state of Maryland I can respect!

His email was to the effect that he would send someone to investigate my allegations.

And you know what? The day he sent someone to investigate, Elsa Newman got hot water in her cell! It was still the crummy, frumpy cell in the old part of the prison. But it had hot water! Wow!

Shortly thereafter, she was moved again. This time she had lots of volunteer help from other prisoners and from guards. Nobody stole anything. And nobody threatened lockdown. Hmmm. A great improvement, I must admit. And, what was unusal, perhaps, she had no new roommate.

Lack of a roommate was unusual, however, and shortly thereafter, other prisoners took up a spiteful cry: “Oooooh, Elsa! You have your own condo!”

And then came further harrassment: one of the guards manipulated a situation and issued Newman a ticket. Understand now, Newman tries her best, both to be a cooperative prisoner and not to make waves or draw attention to herself. She tries to follow all the rules. She does not get tickets.

This time, however, she did. The guard claimed she had disappeared from the area where she was supposed to be, the area for which she had been issued a pass. There were, however, cameras in that area, which showed that Newman had NOT disappeared. Nevertheless, the guard issued the ticket. Oh…and I must add, that the guard waited until the following day to issue it, and it was authorized by a Lieutenant who had not even been on duty when the supposed “disappearance” occurred. Tickets, you see, are supposed to be issued on the day of a supposed infraction. And the authorizing/signing officer is supposed to be one who was on staff and working at the time of the supposed infraction.

Enter O’Brocken again. What a nuisance this obnoxious little, old lady can be!

Another letter to Gary Maynard. No word back this time, but the ticket was disappeared. And as to the “condo”? Newman shortly had a roommate.

Not a perfect outcome, perhaps…but something.

And I repeat, I am gratified that I have found one man to respect in the Maryland system--one man who would take action on behalf of an abused prisoner and try to insert some degree of fairness and justice into an unfair and unjust situation.

Thank you, Mr. Maynard.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Free-Elsa-Newman

WHAT IS A MOTHER TO DO?

...when she is in prison, by the dictates of the American "justice" system...when she is--by the dictates of that same system--deprived of any but minimal contact with her children, and that only through the custodial parent... when she has heard the children disclose terrible sexual abuse by their father, the custodial parent mentioned previously...when the children are so frightened of their father that they will no longer attempt disclosure to anyone...when no one in the legal system will acknowledge the possibility that she might be right...when all she can do for her herself is try to hold her head up and deal with the realities of her imprisoned life.. when all she knows in the deep places of her spirit that her children are in a prison that is, if anything, worse than her own...when all she can do for those children is weep.

Besides begging authorities to listen to her and take her seriously, what on earth is this mother to do???

Courageous Kids....a message for ******** and ****

COURAGEOUS KIDS NETWORK P.O. Box 1903, Davis, CA 95617 www.courageouskids.net

We, the Courageous Kids Network, are a growing group of young people whose childhood was shattered by biased and inhumane court rulings, which forced us to live with our abusive parent, while restricting or sometimes completely eliminating contact with our loving and protective parent. We know how horrible it is to be forced into the arms of an abuser. We have been there. We are now free.

We have some suggestions for you who have to live with a batterer or molester because an attorney, an evaluator, a mediator, or a judge did not believe you.

1. Contact us at www.courageouskids.net from a safe computer (your friend, school, library) and post a blog on our messageboard with your name, age, school, and what you have suffered.
   
   
2. Mail pictures of your bruises or other pictures to P. O. Box 1903, Davis, CA 95617.
   
   
3. Keep telling people about the abuse. Don�t stop, no matter what. Tell someone new at least once a month. Tell your teacher. Tell your principal. Tell your school counselor. Tell your coach. Tell your therapist. Tell your friends� parents. Tell the police. Call 911. Keep on telling. Ask for advice and protection.
   
   
4. File a complaint against your court-appointed attorney if your were not protected by the attorney. Just write what the attorney did or did not do and fill out the form at www.calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=10179
   
   
5. Call a good attorney and tell him or her exactly what is happening to you � when, where and how often you are abused. Ask that the attorney replace your court-appointed attorney.
   
   
6. Write a letter to the judge asking the judge to get rid of the attorney.
   
   
7. Get evidence. If you get raped, don�t wash. Go right to the emergency ward of a hospital with a rape trauma unit so they can do a DNA test on the sperm. If you can get pornographic computer pictures with you in the pictures, give them to the police right away and let us know who you gave the pictures to.
   
   
8. Always tell the truth about the abuse, even if you are threatened or hurt, or if there are threats against people you love. This is really important, especially when you talk to court people.
   
   
9. Don�t hurt yourself! You will one day be free. We care about you and need you to join us.
   
   
10. This needs to come from you. The court always blames things on our mothers, so be careful not to tell the perpetrators about the Courageous Kids. We are counting on you.
    
    

With honor and respect for all your courage,

The Courageous Kids

HOW MANY CHILDREN MUST DIE?

How many dead children will it take? Courts need to start listening when children say they don't want to go with their father. Courts need to start listening when mothers say their children are not safe with their father.

Remember the Castillo case in Maryland? Three children drowned in a bathtub--because the court refused to listen when a mother said the children were not safe in unsupervised visits with their father.

And what about the two Slobodow boys--who accused their father of virtually unspeakable sexual molestation...of all kinds of other abuses...and of child pornography? Well...what about them? They now live in Tampa, Florida, with their father--who gained custody of the boys by default when he and his attorney, in cahoots with the Montgomery County prosecutor, managed to convince two juries that their mother had tried to have their father killed. This, despite the fact that Maryland's highest court opined that there was absolutely nothing to connect their mother, Elsa Newman, with the breaking-and-entering crime of family friend, Margery Landry.

There was no murder attempt. There was no conspiracy. Landry acted on her own, and in fact, acted behind Newman's back while Newman was out of the state, attending a wedding.

And now we have another case in Illinois. Once again, a mother said to law enforcement, "I don't want to send my children to him. They are not safe with him!" And the courts and law enforcement laughed her to scorn.

Now her sons Duncan and Jack are dead. Their father has apparently committed suicide.

The mother has blamed the courts and the legal system.

McLean County State's Attorney Bill Yoder said at Monday's news conference that he was not exactly sure what Leichtenberg referred to.

Perhaps Mr. Yoder had to take some kind of IQ test before he became State's Attorney in order to prove that he is sufficiently inept and lacking in intelligence to provide such an answer when an agonized mother says the judicial system failed her. She means, Mr. Yoder, that the American system of "justice"...the Illinois legal system...the prosecutor's office...ALL OF YOU failed to listen to her when she did not want her sons to spend time with their father, her former husband.

Read on for more of the story.


Sheriff: Ill. boys, father died in murder-suicide
By DAVID MERCER Associated Press Writers
7:12 PM CDT, March 30, 2009

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Two young central Illinois boys missing for three weeks were found dead in the back seat of their father's car, apparently killed by their dad before he took his own life, authorities said Monday.

A 911 call led authorities in rural Putnam County to a remote spot Sunday night where they found 9-year-old Duncan Connolly and his 7-year-old brother, Jack. They discovered the body of 40-year-old Michael Connolly about 60 yards away. The boys, from the small town of Leroy, were the subject of a national search after their father failed to return them to their mother on March 8 after a weekend custody visit. The couple divorced in 2006 and Connolly had only recently been allowed to keep his sons overnight. Autopsies were being conducted Monday afternoon, but McLean County Sheriff Mike Emery, whose agency investigated the boys' disappearance, and Putnam County Sheriff Kevin Doyle said the case was being investigated as a double homicide-suicide.

Neither would discuss many details of the case at a news conference Monday, including how the boys and their father died, how long they had been dead or why they ended up in a rural location about 60 miles north of the area where the lived. The sheriffs said they would respect the family's wishes in withholding details. "Our hearts and prayers now are with Jack, Duncan and (their mother) Amy Leichtenberg," an emotional Emery said, his voice wavering.

Leichtenberg issued a statement expressing her own heartbreak. "No parent should have to bury their babies," she said. "Duncan and Jack, Mommy loves you to the heavens and back." Leichtenberg also blamed the courts. I feel that the judicial system failed me," Leichtenberg said, without elaboration. "I pray that the courts listen to the warnings from other parents like me."

McLean County State's Attorney Bill Yoder said at Monday's news conference that he was not exactly sure what Leichtenberg referred to, but his office had recently filed four "criminal actions" against Connolly and that his continued visitation rights had been under discussion.

Connolly was to have dropped the boys off at the police department in Leroy after picking them up there March 6, Emery said. A court order had barred Connolly from contact with Leichtenberg, according to Bloomington attorney Helen Ogar, who represented her.

The order also initially prevented Connolly from seeing his sons. Connolly was only allowed to start keeping his children overnight without supervision last December, Ogar said. Connolly had never hurt Leichtenberg or their sons, but scared her because he called often, sometimes threatening suicide and at other times trying to intimidate her or convince her to come back to him, Ogar said. Police investigating the boys' disappearance said Connolly had threatened to kill himself, and had a history of gambling problems and been treated for depression. He worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative, making a "good living," Ogar said.

Before the weekend the boys disappeared, Leichtenberg did not want to turn the boys over to their father, Ogar said. "She was contacted by the Leroy police and told that she had to send them, that it was an arrestable offense (if she did not)," she said. Ogar said she told Leichtenberg that failure to give the boys to their father was a civil matter, not criminal, and told her not to turn them over if she didn't want to.

Authorities did not issue an Amber Alert in the case until the evening of March 8, roughly a day after they were due back to their mother. Leroy police did not issue the alert -- eventually issued by the McLean County Sheriff's Department -- because the agency did not believe the boys were in danger, Ogar said. An officer who answered the telephone at the Leroy Police Department Monday directed questions to police Chief Gordon Beck, whom he said was out of town.

Todd Roseberry, who represented Connolly over violations of the court order barring contact with Leichtenberg, said he was stunned by three deaths. "The Michael Connolly I knew was very affectionate and loved his kids," Roseberry said, adding that he hadn't spoken with Connolly since late last summer.

On Monday in Leroy, counselors came to schools to talk with friends of Duncan and Jack and other kids upset by the news. A lighted sign outside a hardware store in town read "Forever in our Prayers." A spokesman for Leichtenberg said Monday that if she ever doubted her sons would come home, she didn't show it. "I spoke to her last evening. She was in downtown Davenport, Iowa, handing out fliers and putting up posters," said family friend Brad MacAfee. "Every interaction I had with her, she had all the hope in the world she was going to see those boys."

Oh, my dear young man!

"Checkmate
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/marylandstatecases/coa/2004/31a04.pdfThis is an official document directly from the trial of the trials websiteThis document proves not only is she mentally unstable as i said before............but that she has thought of killing her own children.....my brother. Her lawyer accidently told it to the prosecution in the trial.......Im not proud of this at all, i may have proven that i am not lying about my mother........but some thing i really wish i never found.I can now say im apathetic about whatever happens to my mom, i really dont care any more, after what she said about my brother, my mom can die of heart failure in prison and it wouldnt bother me.she is no longer my mom and i wont ever want to talk to her again"

For some reason young Mr. ******* Slobodow seems to believe that the material I have cited from his blog--please see above--is proof positive and final that his mother is insane and he has never been molested by his father.

On the other hand, the legal paper which HE cites, states quite clearly, in the majority opinion of Maryland's highest court, the court which heard the Newman case on appeal, that they could find absolutely nothing to connect Newman to the crimes committed by Margery Landry.

I fail to understand why this young man uses the term "checkmate." I was not aware that we were playing a game here. This is deadly serious: his mother is unjustly imprisoned. And ****** has turned against her. Now ****** is writing about his younger brother as though the boy were joining him in his anti-mother-proclaim-the-innocence-of-the-father campaign.

Give it up, *******. Your mother is innocent. Your father is a child molester. And I believe you either know it or you have dissociated.

Congratulations on opening the world up to your father, Arlen Slobodow, so that he can now venture out into the world and prey on other children--because you so vehemently defend him as a good and decent human being, when he is in fact quite the opposite.

Sheesh!