A Taxing Incident
A Good Citizen Pays by Getting Deported
BY MATT DAVIS, Portland Mercury
If you're a Portland Latino, don't walk into the federal building on NW Broadway to file your taxes without photo ID—unless you want to be deported.
That's the chilling message making the rounds of Portland's Latino community following the recent deportation of a woman and two members of her family—a process which began when she simply walked into the federal building to pick up tax forms and was detained on the spot by a security guard last March.
The woman, an illegal immigrant— whose advocates have asked that she not be identified to protect family still in the area—was merely following the advice of Latino community groups like the Latino Network and El Programa Hispano: requesting a tax identification document, available from inside the building, so she could file tax information.
Filing tax identification forms are separate from the US immigration process and allow people to pay taxes in this country without legal residency, making it easier to seek citizenship further down the line. But thanks to the over-zealous actions of a federal building security guard, whose role is to screen people coming into the austere circa-1918 building, many Latinos in Portland are now terrified to go near the place.
"We encourage our community members to file taxes to show they have a history of working and contributing to the US economy," says Maria Lisa Johnson, executive director of the Latino Network, a nonprofit supporting Latino youth. "But when there are barriers to doing that, like getting arrested, it's pretty frightening."
Disturbingly, Johnson thinks the woman was also coerced into giving information about the location of the two family members who were then also arrested, and subsequently deported.
Since the incident, Johnson has been advising people to file their taxes remotely by giving them to a representative of El Programa Hispano—part of Portland's Catholic Charities group—instead of going to the federal building in person.
The security guard may have been enforcing the letter of immigration law, but the way the situation escalated—from a woman trying to pick up paperwork, to a woman being deported—is symptomatic of a wider breakdown of trust and confidence between Portland's Latino community and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement services.
Sean Cruz, legislative aide to Oregon State Senator Avel Gordly, says Latinos are being singled out for sanctions like this and would like to see immigration law enforced more fairly.
"If you or I walk into the federal building without any ID," Cruz says. "Nobody is going to force us to remain there until we can produce some. We already know racial profiling is an issue here [in Portland], but if you get pulled over by the police and you're anything but Latino, you're not worried about the immigration people at all."
Siovhan Sheridan-Ayala is an immigration attorney working with Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services. While she knows of the deportation case last March, and the family involved, she could neither confirm nor deny acting on their behalf, and would not discuss the specifics of the case with the Mercury. However, she would speak on the larger problem of immigration issues disproportionately impacting Latinos.
"The negative consequences for being in the US unlawfully fall more heavily on the Mexican population," Sheridan-Ayala says. "For example, those who are here for one year and leave, and then come back, face a permanent bar on immigration, even if they are married to a US citizen. A lot of people who fall in love and want to build their lives here are denied access."
Sheridan-Ayala adds that there is a common misconception that people just have to wait in line for their chance to immigrate, but the sad fact is that some people have to wait up to 20 years to do so, while others are permanently ineligible—she says such policies are not family friendly and laments the current situation.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could not discuss the specific case without the Mercury naming the family involved. But she responds: "We deport over 100,000 people every year and encounter thousands of people coming into federal buildings. Nobody is deported without due process."
Kice adds, "When we go out seeking somebody, in most cases it is because we have had information, but there are also encounters, in some cases, where we come across people, and we are sworn to enforce our nation's immigration law. It sounds like the Latino community in Portland has found a way to address this."
Friday, July 28, 2006
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Abducted by parents, children become the forgotten victims
from The Oregonian, Margie Boule, June 4, 2006
Abducted by parents, children become the forgotten victims
Even today, 29 years after she was abducted and lived in hiding with her mother, she sometimes can't figure out who she really is.
Is she Liss Hart-Haviv, who lives in Kalama, Wash., and heads up a well-respected national organization for adults who were abducted as children?
Or is she Missy Sokolsky, who grew up in an affluent family on Manhattan's Upper West Side, attending private schools, taking ballet, piano and riding lessons?
Or is she Melissa Hart, who spent part of grade school living in a single room with her mother in a rundown neighborhood in San Diego, surviving on charity food, learning to lie and being afraid of anyone in a uniform?
Liss admits she hasn't yet recovered from the sudden, dramatic disappearing act her mother forced upon her when she was 11 years old. "I spent part of my childhood on the run from a parent," she says. "Then I spent the rest of my life on the run from my childhood."
This story may change the way you look at child abduction. Maybe you see it as a simple child custody issue. Or maybe you remember the devastated parents on TV shows. But almost nobody thinks about what the abducted child is going through, according to Liss and other survivors of abduction who've created Take Root, an organization to provide support and advocacy for abductees.
After what Liss refers to as the "hug and go" reunions in front of cameras, with cheering relatives engulfing the returned child --nobody thinks about what the child goes through after being returned to left-behind family members who've become strangers.
Often when Liss talks about the little girl she was before she was abducted, she uses the third person. She doesn't say "I loved my father." She says, "Missy loved her father." It's as if Missy died the day her mother took her away.
She was born in New York, "the daughter of an attorney and a Southern homecoming queen." Her parents divorced when Missy was 3. She lived with her mother, but her father always was around.
Unfortunately, he was a troubled man. "He was an alcoholic with emotional problems," Liss says. "He was very wealthy and powerful and obsessed with my mother. He really made her life a living hell." Liss says her dad "called the apartment 30 or 40 times a day. When her mom didn't pick up, he'd come and pound on the door in the middle of the night.
"And he'd withhold child support. The courtroom was his playground, a way to see my mother if she was constantly in court over child support or alimony."
When Liss was 9, her mother snatched her and ran to Florida. Liss' father hired detectives, and snatched Liss back. On the way back to New York, her father took a two-week detour to New Orleans. With uncombed hair, wearing the same dress, Liss sat in bars while her dad partied.
"He was not equipped to raise a 9-year-old girl," Liss says.
A few months later, her mother snatched her again.
"That was the end of Venetia and Missy Sokolsky," says Liss. "From that day forward those two people ceased to exist. And on the other side of the country, in San Diego, Sharon and Melissa Hart appeared out of thin air. . . . She changed our identities."
They had no contact with anyone they'd known before. Liss left behind friends, relatives, toys, pets and her father. She was told her father would hurt her mother if he found them. "It was a life of hiding and terror."
Liss believes her mother "really had my best interests at heart." But no matter what the parent's motivation, Liss and other former abductees believe abduction is not the answer. "A child taken into isolation with a distressed caretaker is never in a safe situation, no matter what the parent's intentions," Liss says
Take Root would not exist if Liss hadn't heard the term "child abduction" on a radio show. She went home, did an Internet search and discovered she was far from alone. "Over 200,000 children are abducted by a family member or parent every year," she says. The realization "unlocked the strongbox I had stuffed everything into; all the grief from that moment of abduction, when Missy Sokolsky disappeared. I wept and wept."
She realized she needed help. But every agency she could find was created to aid parents of missing children. "The parents were perceived as the victims, not the children. . . . There were no mental health professionals with expertise on long-term impact. No research has been done. Finally, in utter frustration, I called the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. I said, 'With a name like that, how can you have nothing for the missing children?' And their response was, 'You are exactly right.' "
The organization funded a meeting of nine adults who'd been abducted by parents when they were children. They met in Alexandria, Va., in 2001. Before the meeting, "I was somewhat skeptical that we really had common ground," Liss says.
She was wrong. All had felt alone. All had struggled after their "recovery." And all continued to be scarred by the abductions.
Liss' father found Liss and her mother after two years in California. But by then her father had "really gone over the edge." He'd "lost his job, and done nothing but drink and obsessively look for us." He knew he was in no condition to raise her, Liss says. So she stayed in California, occasionally visiting her dad in New York.
The visits were rocky. Liss, who kept the name Melissa Hart, wanted to talk about her new life. Her father wanted back the child who'd left, but she didn't exist anymore. "Conversations with him were all about his devastation and attacks on my mom."
Today Liss' relationship with her mother is "a work in progress," Liss says. When Liss points out there were other ways her mother could have handled her father's obsessive behavior without abducting Liss, "she gets defensive and explodes," Liss says.
Unfortunately, Liss wasn't able to mend her relationship with her father before he died. But she's forgiven him, "because he's not the one who created, for me, the real trauma, which was the loss of Missy Sokolsky."
After difficult teen years, Liss pulled her life together and graduated as valedictorian at University of California, Berkeley. As head of Take Root, she's testified before Congress and appeared in the national media.
Take Root (www.takeroot.org) already has changed a lot of people's perspectives about the world of missing children. Groups that once only created search plans now are considering recovery plans for abducted children.
Take Root has created protocols for police, mental health professionals and reuniting families to help returning children integrate their different identities.
"We want to build something constructive out of our experiences," Liss says. "We want to transform victims to victors."
Contact Margie Boule: 503-221-8450, marboule@aol.com
Abducted by parents, children become the forgotten victims
Even today, 29 years after she was abducted and lived in hiding with her mother, she sometimes can't figure out who she really is.
Is she Liss Hart-Haviv, who lives in Kalama, Wash., and heads up a well-respected national organization for adults who were abducted as children?
Or is she Missy Sokolsky, who grew up in an affluent family on Manhattan's Upper West Side, attending private schools, taking ballet, piano and riding lessons?
Or is she Melissa Hart, who spent part of grade school living in a single room with her mother in a rundown neighborhood in San Diego, surviving on charity food, learning to lie and being afraid of anyone in a uniform?
Liss admits she hasn't yet recovered from the sudden, dramatic disappearing act her mother forced upon her when she was 11 years old. "I spent part of my childhood on the run from a parent," she says. "Then I spent the rest of my life on the run from my childhood."
This story may change the way you look at child abduction. Maybe you see it as a simple child custody issue. Or maybe you remember the devastated parents on TV shows. But almost nobody thinks about what the abducted child is going through, according to Liss and other survivors of abduction who've created Take Root, an organization to provide support and advocacy for abductees.
After what Liss refers to as the "hug and go" reunions in front of cameras, with cheering relatives engulfing the returned child --nobody thinks about what the child goes through after being returned to left-behind family members who've become strangers.
Often when Liss talks about the little girl she was before she was abducted, she uses the third person. She doesn't say "I loved my father." She says, "Missy loved her father." It's as if Missy died the day her mother took her away.
She was born in New York, "the daughter of an attorney and a Southern homecoming queen." Her parents divorced when Missy was 3. She lived with her mother, but her father always was around.
Unfortunately, he was a troubled man. "He was an alcoholic with emotional problems," Liss says. "He was very wealthy and powerful and obsessed with my mother. He really made her life a living hell." Liss says her dad "called the apartment 30 or 40 times a day. When her mom didn't pick up, he'd come and pound on the door in the middle of the night.
"And he'd withhold child support. The courtroom was his playground, a way to see my mother if she was constantly in court over child support or alimony."
When Liss was 9, her mother snatched her and ran to Florida. Liss' father hired detectives, and snatched Liss back. On the way back to New York, her father took a two-week detour to New Orleans. With uncombed hair, wearing the same dress, Liss sat in bars while her dad partied.
"He was not equipped to raise a 9-year-old girl," Liss says.
A few months later, her mother snatched her again.
"That was the end of Venetia and Missy Sokolsky," says Liss. "From that day forward those two people ceased to exist. And on the other side of the country, in San Diego, Sharon and Melissa Hart appeared out of thin air. . . . She changed our identities."
They had no contact with anyone they'd known before. Liss left behind friends, relatives, toys, pets and her father. She was told her father would hurt her mother if he found them. "It was a life of hiding and terror."
Liss believes her mother "really had my best interests at heart." But no matter what the parent's motivation, Liss and other former abductees believe abduction is not the answer. "A child taken into isolation with a distressed caretaker is never in a safe situation, no matter what the parent's intentions," Liss says
Take Root would not exist if Liss hadn't heard the term "child abduction" on a radio show. She went home, did an Internet search and discovered she was far from alone. "Over 200,000 children are abducted by a family member or parent every year," she says. The realization "unlocked the strongbox I had stuffed everything into; all the grief from that moment of abduction, when Missy Sokolsky disappeared. I wept and wept."
She realized she needed help. But every agency she could find was created to aid parents of missing children. "The parents were perceived as the victims, not the children. . . . There were no mental health professionals with expertise on long-term impact. No research has been done. Finally, in utter frustration, I called the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. I said, 'With a name like that, how can you have nothing for the missing children?' And their response was, 'You are exactly right.' "
The organization funded a meeting of nine adults who'd been abducted by parents when they were children. They met in Alexandria, Va., in 2001. Before the meeting, "I was somewhat skeptical that we really had common ground," Liss says.
She was wrong. All had felt alone. All had struggled after their "recovery." And all continued to be scarred by the abductions.
Liss' father found Liss and her mother after two years in California. But by then her father had "really gone over the edge." He'd "lost his job, and done nothing but drink and obsessively look for us." He knew he was in no condition to raise her, Liss says. So she stayed in California, occasionally visiting her dad in New York.
The visits were rocky. Liss, who kept the name Melissa Hart, wanted to talk about her new life. Her father wanted back the child who'd left, but she didn't exist anymore. "Conversations with him were all about his devastation and attacks on my mom."
Today Liss' relationship with her mother is "a work in progress," Liss says. When Liss points out there were other ways her mother could have handled her father's obsessive behavior without abducting Liss, "she gets defensive and explodes," Liss says.
Unfortunately, Liss wasn't able to mend her relationship with her father before he died. But she's forgiven him, "because he's not the one who created, for me, the real trauma, which was the loss of Missy Sokolsky."
After difficult teen years, Liss pulled her life together and graduated as valedictorian at University of California, Berkeley. As head of Take Root, she's testified before Congress and appeared in the national media.
Take Root (www.takeroot.org) already has changed a lot of people's perspectives about the world of missing children. Groups that once only created search plans now are considering recovery plans for abducted children.
Take Root has created protocols for police, mental health professionals and reuniting families to help returning children integrate their different identities.
"We want to build something constructive out of our experiences," Liss says. "We want to transform victims to victors."
Contact Margie Boule: 503-221-8450, marboule@aol.com
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Oregon non-stranger kidnapping law explained
I can tell you from personal experience that one of the many barriers one encounters in getting law enforcement, the courts, the lawyers and the general public to understand the seriousness of these crimes lies in the term itself, “custodial interference.”
Custodial interference just doesn’t sound like a serious crime, and people in general mentally lump these offenses into a broad category of custody issues.
But child abduction by any person is a felony in this state. It is a crime with irreversible consequences, and the children and other victims suffer irreparable harm. These are known facts, beyond what common sense and simple human decency call for.
It is also important to distinguish kidnapping offenses from most other crimes in that they are continuing crimes; that is, the crime does not occur as a discrete event. Your children are just as kidnapped on the last day of the abduction as they were on the first, maybe even more so when you consider the damage to their lives.
Under the section titled “KIDNAPPING AND RELATED OFFENSES,’ Oregon statutes classify non-stranger abductions as “custodial interference in the first degree” or “custodial interference in the second degree.”
Here is the text of the statue, further explanation appearing below (emphasis added for clarity):
163.245 Custodial interference in the second degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the second degree if, knowing or having reason to know that the person has no legal right to do so, the person takes, entices or keeps another person from the other person’s lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order with intent to hold the other person permanently or for a protracted period.
(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.
(3) Custodial interference in the second degree is a Class C felony.
163.257 Custodial interference in the first degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the first degree if the person violates ORS 163.245 and:
(a) Causes the person taken, enticed or kept from the lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order to be removed from the state; or
(b) Exposes that person to a substantial risk of illness or physical injury.
(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.
(3) Custodial interference in the first degree is a Class B felony.
In the case of the Cruz family abduction, my children were in fact enticed, taken and kept in violation of a valid joint custody order that had been in effect for five years. My children were also exposed “to a substantial risk of illness or physical injury.”
The state of Oregon, through the work of the 2003 Senate President’s Task Force on Parental and Family Abductions, is rapidly gaining awareness that the statutory language is inadequate to describe the actual harm that abductions, even if committed by a parent and even if for a short duration, do to all such children.
These crimes cannot be unwound without additional, continuing harm to the children, and therefore the best solution is to prevent non-stranger abductions from occurring in the first place. That is the intent of Aaron’s Law, to act as an effective deterrent.
For more information on the harm family abduction inflicts on children, please see http://www.takeroot.org/. No one can explain this better than members of Take Root, all adults who were abducted as children by family members.
My former wife entrusted the care of my children to members of her church congregation, and it was these people who violated that trust relationship and enticed, took and kept my children in violation of the valid joint custody order.
More specifically, they took my children out of their schools in Hillsboro, Oregon and caused them to disappear on February 12, 1996 when the entire Northwest was in the middle of the Great Storm of 1996. By any definition, that act alone exposed my children “to a substantial risk of illness or injury.”
And you can bet that they kept their own children safe at home while they sent mine out on the road, bouncing from place to place, out of school.
The participants in the abduction were all members of the same church, from congregations in Oregon, Washington and Utah.
In Hillsboro, the chief culprits were David Holliday, a Mormon bishop, and Evelyn Taylor, the female equivalent of a Mormon bishop. Both used their church offices to commit or facilitate these crimes. Neither were ever charged or disciplined or investigated.
Two members of my former wife’s family, Tony Micheletti (Salem) and Cindy Anderson (Rainer), both participated in the abduction. Both also committed crimes of perjury and making false sworn statements. Neither were ever charged or investigated.
In Washington, Donald Taylor, a Mormon bishop in Battle Ground, used his church office to facilitate the kidnapping, and two church associates, Barry and Connie Dunford, also of Battle Ground, participated. None were charged or investigated.
In Utah, the central figures were Kory and Chris Wright, both Mormon officials who made the arrangements to hide the children in rural areas of the state. Neither were charged or investigated.
Steve Nielson, stepdad #2, also of Utah, played an unknown role in the early stages of the abduction, but clearly and actively “kept” my children in violation of the valid joint custody order. He also committed multiple acts of assault against my former wife, two of my children and even one of their friends (these crimes, including aggravated assault, were described in affidavits entered into the subsequent divorce proceeding), but no one ever called the police. He also committed the crimes of perjury and making false sworn statements. He also was never charged or investigated.
The valid joint custody order that protected my children, that kept their lives orderly and secure vanished in an instant, a worthless piece of paper.
Aaron’s Law is designed to act as a deterrent to non-stranger child abduction in several ways:
Aaron’s Law puts the interest of the child victim(s) first and foremost, and among the first things that need to happen in an abduction is for the abduction to end now!
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to assign a qualified mental health professional and a guardian ad litem to act in the interest of the child victim at the very outset of the case, before any other findings or procedures. This element is intended to protect the children from manipulation by any party.
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to charge the cost of these professional child advocates to the parties as the court sees fit. If you create the problem, you can expect to pay for it, starting here.
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to send the parties (separately) to counseling directed at educating the parties to the harm their conduct is causing the children, and assess the cost of said counseling as the court sees fit. The court is authorized to do so at the outset of the case, again, to protect the children from manipulation.
These clauses are also designed to discourage frivolous suits or cases filed to harass another party.
Aaron’s Law creates civil liability for all parties to an abduction. If you want to abduct a child you are related to or otherwise acquainted with, be prepared to forfeit your house and other property. In other words, it had better be worth the risk.
None of the people who participated in the Cruz family abduction would have done so if it would have cost them some money.
The statute of limitations on criminal custodial interference, believe it or not, is only three years. The statute does not take into account either the continuing nature of the offense or the fact that many abductions last longer—much longer—than three years.
Aaron’s Law addresses both of these weaknesses, although only in civil cases filed under Aaron’s Law. The criminal statute is unchanged.
Aaron’s Law creates a civil action that is effective for up to six years after the child victim reaches the age of 18. This clause recognizes that children who suffer abduction are harmed in ways similar to that of sexual abuse, and it may take some time after the child victim reaches the age of 18 to understand and personally deal with what has happened in the child’s life. Again, see http://takeroot.org/ for information on the extent of harm.
In other words, if you abduct a 4-year-old child, under Aaron’s Law, you own a civil liability until that child is 21 years old. It had better be worth it to you.
Aaron’s Law, finally, is designed to ensure that the courts, the bar, law enforcement and the general public are better informed and better able to handle these cases. That may be the most effective deterrent of all.
Custodial interference just doesn’t sound like a serious crime, and people in general mentally lump these offenses into a broad category of custody issues.
But child abduction by any person is a felony in this state. It is a crime with irreversible consequences, and the children and other victims suffer irreparable harm. These are known facts, beyond what common sense and simple human decency call for.
It is also important to distinguish kidnapping offenses from most other crimes in that they are continuing crimes; that is, the crime does not occur as a discrete event. Your children are just as kidnapped on the last day of the abduction as they were on the first, maybe even more so when you consider the damage to their lives.
Under the section titled “KIDNAPPING AND RELATED OFFENSES,’ Oregon statutes classify non-stranger abductions as “custodial interference in the first degree” or “custodial interference in the second degree.”
Here is the text of the statue, further explanation appearing below (emphasis added for clarity):
163.245 Custodial interference in the second degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the second degree if, knowing or having reason to know that the person has no legal right to do so, the person takes, entices or keeps another person from the other person’s lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order with intent to hold the other person permanently or for a protracted period.
(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.
(3) Custodial interference in the second degree is a Class C felony.
163.257 Custodial interference in the first degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the first degree if the person violates ORS 163.245 and:
(a) Causes the person taken, enticed or kept from the lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order to be removed from the state; or
(b) Exposes that person to a substantial risk of illness or physical injury.
(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.
(3) Custodial interference in the first degree is a Class B felony.
In the case of the Cruz family abduction, my children were in fact enticed, taken and kept in violation of a valid joint custody order that had been in effect for five years. My children were also exposed “to a substantial risk of illness or physical injury.”
The state of Oregon, through the work of the 2003 Senate President’s Task Force on Parental and Family Abductions, is rapidly gaining awareness that the statutory language is inadequate to describe the actual harm that abductions, even if committed by a parent and even if for a short duration, do to all such children.
These crimes cannot be unwound without additional, continuing harm to the children, and therefore the best solution is to prevent non-stranger abductions from occurring in the first place. That is the intent of Aaron’s Law, to act as an effective deterrent.
For more information on the harm family abduction inflicts on children, please see http://www.takeroot.org/. No one can explain this better than members of Take Root, all adults who were abducted as children by family members.
My former wife entrusted the care of my children to members of her church congregation, and it was these people who violated that trust relationship and enticed, took and kept my children in violation of the valid joint custody order.
More specifically, they took my children out of their schools in Hillsboro, Oregon and caused them to disappear on February 12, 1996 when the entire Northwest was in the middle of the Great Storm of 1996. By any definition, that act alone exposed my children “to a substantial risk of illness or injury.”
And you can bet that they kept their own children safe at home while they sent mine out on the road, bouncing from place to place, out of school.
The participants in the abduction were all members of the same church, from congregations in Oregon, Washington and Utah.
In Hillsboro, the chief culprits were David Holliday, a Mormon bishop, and Evelyn Taylor, the female equivalent of a Mormon bishop. Both used their church offices to commit or facilitate these crimes. Neither were ever charged or disciplined or investigated.
Two members of my former wife’s family, Tony Micheletti (Salem) and Cindy Anderson (Rainer), both participated in the abduction. Both also committed crimes of perjury and making false sworn statements. Neither were ever charged or investigated.
In Washington, Donald Taylor, a Mormon bishop in Battle Ground, used his church office to facilitate the kidnapping, and two church associates, Barry and Connie Dunford, also of Battle Ground, participated. None were charged or investigated.
In Utah, the central figures were Kory and Chris Wright, both Mormon officials who made the arrangements to hide the children in rural areas of the state. Neither were charged or investigated.
Steve Nielson, stepdad #2, also of Utah, played an unknown role in the early stages of the abduction, but clearly and actively “kept” my children in violation of the valid joint custody order. He also committed multiple acts of assault against my former wife, two of my children and even one of their friends (these crimes, including aggravated assault, were described in affidavits entered into the subsequent divorce proceeding), but no one ever called the police. He also committed the crimes of perjury and making false sworn statements. He also was never charged or investigated.
The valid joint custody order that protected my children, that kept their lives orderly and secure vanished in an instant, a worthless piece of paper.
Aaron’s Law is designed to act as a deterrent to non-stranger child abduction in several ways:
Aaron’s Law puts the interest of the child victim(s) first and foremost, and among the first things that need to happen in an abduction is for the abduction to end now!
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to assign a qualified mental health professional and a guardian ad litem to act in the interest of the child victim at the very outset of the case, before any other findings or procedures. This element is intended to protect the children from manipulation by any party.
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to charge the cost of these professional child advocates to the parties as the court sees fit. If you create the problem, you can expect to pay for it, starting here.
Aaron’s Law authorizes the court to send the parties (separately) to counseling directed at educating the parties to the harm their conduct is causing the children, and assess the cost of said counseling as the court sees fit. The court is authorized to do so at the outset of the case, again, to protect the children from manipulation.
These clauses are also designed to discourage frivolous suits or cases filed to harass another party.
Aaron’s Law creates civil liability for all parties to an abduction. If you want to abduct a child you are related to or otherwise acquainted with, be prepared to forfeit your house and other property. In other words, it had better be worth the risk.
None of the people who participated in the Cruz family abduction would have done so if it would have cost them some money.
The statute of limitations on criminal custodial interference, believe it or not, is only three years. The statute does not take into account either the continuing nature of the offense or the fact that many abductions last longer—much longer—than three years.
Aaron’s Law addresses both of these weaknesses, although only in civil cases filed under Aaron’s Law. The criminal statute is unchanged.
Aaron’s Law creates a civil action that is effective for up to six years after the child victim reaches the age of 18. This clause recognizes that children who suffer abduction are harmed in ways similar to that of sexual abuse, and it may take some time after the child victim reaches the age of 18 to understand and personally deal with what has happened in the child’s life. Again, see http://takeroot.org/ for information on the extent of harm.
In other words, if you abduct a 4-year-old child, under Aaron’s Law, you own a civil liability until that child is 21 years old. It had better be worth it to you.
Aaron’s Law, finally, is designed to ensure that the courts, the bar, law enforcement and the general public are better informed and better able to handle these cases. That may be the most effective deterrent of all.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Jim Pepper--The Flying Eagle Honored
Senate Joint Resolution 31, Honoring Jim Pepper
Sponsored by Senator Avel Louise Gordly (at the request of Suzie Pepper
Henry):
Whereas the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival paid tribute to the musical legacy of Jim Pepper, a true son of Oregon, with a concert dedicated to the late Native American saxophonist and jazz legend; and
Whereas workshops, panel discussions, performers and audiences at the festival recalled how Jim Pepper, born to Gilbert and Floy Pepper in Salem on June 18, 1941, blazed a unique trail across the musical horizon with his innovative synthesis of Native American song, the harmonic structures of modern jazz and the rhythms of Africa, South America and the Caribbean; and
Whereas Jim Pepper performed throughout the United States, Europe and Africa, played with such jazz giants as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Colin Wolcott, Larry Coryell and Mal Waldron; and
Whereas Jim Pepper also collaborated with many Oregon musicians, including Gordon Lee, Tom Grant, Leroy Vinnegar, Nancy King, Caren Knight-Pepper, Obo Addy, David Friesen, Dan Balmer, Glenn Moore, Ron Steen, Sonny King, Dennis Springer, Mel Brown, Nick Gefroh, Marianne Mayfield, Ralph Black, Lee Reinoehl, Carlton Jackson and many others; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's 1971 crossover hit 'Witchi Tai To, ' based on a Native American Church peyote chant taught to him by his grandfather, earned him a spot on both the jazz and Top 40 radio charts and continues to be widely popular among national and international performers and recording artists to this day; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's remarkable career was marked by more than 50 recordings as bandleader, featured artist and composer, including 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' 'Comin' and Goin'' and ' Remembrance'; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's symphony 'Four Winds' was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra in New York and by the Cologne Symphony Orchestra in Germany; and
Whereas Jim Pepper served as musical director for 'Night of the First Americans,' a Native American self-awareness benefit concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1980; and
Whereas Jim Pepper toured Africa with Don Cherry as part of a United States-Africa cultural exchange program; and
Whereas Jim Pepper succumbed to lymphoid cancer in February 1992 in Portland, Oregon, at age 50; and
Whereas Jim Pepper was honored posthumously in 1999 with the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by the First Americans in the Arts and was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2000; and
Whereas 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' the 1996 award-winning documentary of his life produced and directed by Sandra Osawa and Yasu Osawa, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS in 1997 and 1999 and has since been presented to enthusiastic audiences at the Amiens Film Festival, the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the Native American Film and Video Festival, the Red Earth Film and Video Festival and the Portland Jazz Festival; and
Whereas the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute and the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named Jim Pepper 'Jazz Artist of the Year' and presented the Bill McClendon Award for Excellence in Jazz to his mother at the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's music continues to be performed and recorded in countries throughout the world, including Germany, where a performance of 'Witchi Tai To' by the WDR Radio Orchestra and the Remembrance Band, arranged and conducted by Gunther Schuller, was recorded; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's life and music harmonized distinct cultures and served as a poetic example for all indigenous people, ' walking in three worlds with one spirit'; and
Whereas Jim Pepper is survived by his mother, Floy Pepper, his sister, Suzanne Henry of Portland, his nephews, Jim Pepper Henry and Jesse Laird Henry, and his grandnephew, Jackson Laird Henry; and
Whereas Floy Pepper said during her acceptance of her son's First Americans in the Arts award in 1999, 'Jim Pepper was a member of the Kaw Indian Nation known as 'The Wind People' from his father. From me, his mother, he was a member of the Creek Indian Nation known as 'The People of the Waters.' It's no wonder his music was so strong and powerful--with the wind to carry his music to the four directions of the Earth. And as long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow--which is forever--may his spirit remain alive for time immemorial'; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
(1) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly honor the extraordinary accomplishments and musical legacy of Oregon native son Jim Pepper and direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society for inclusion in its permanent collection.
(2) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for inclusion in its permanent collection.
(3) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute at Portland State University for inclusion in its permanent collection and encourage the creation
and endowment of a Jim Pepper (hUnga-che-eda 'Flying Eagle') Chair at the university to further the study of Native American music and its relationship to jazz.
Adopted by Senate May 19, 2005
Adopted by House June 7, 2005
Sponsored by Senator Avel Louise Gordly (at the request of Suzie Pepper
Henry):
Whereas the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival paid tribute to the musical legacy of Jim Pepper, a true son of Oregon, with a concert dedicated to the late Native American saxophonist and jazz legend; and
Whereas workshops, panel discussions, performers and audiences at the festival recalled how Jim Pepper, born to Gilbert and Floy Pepper in Salem on June 18, 1941, blazed a unique trail across the musical horizon with his innovative synthesis of Native American song, the harmonic structures of modern jazz and the rhythms of Africa, South America and the Caribbean; and
Whereas Jim Pepper performed throughout the United States, Europe and Africa, played with such jazz giants as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Colin Wolcott, Larry Coryell and Mal Waldron; and
Whereas Jim Pepper also collaborated with many Oregon musicians, including Gordon Lee, Tom Grant, Leroy Vinnegar, Nancy King, Caren Knight-Pepper, Obo Addy, David Friesen, Dan Balmer, Glenn Moore, Ron Steen, Sonny King, Dennis Springer, Mel Brown, Nick Gefroh, Marianne Mayfield, Ralph Black, Lee Reinoehl, Carlton Jackson and many others; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's 1971 crossover hit 'Witchi Tai To, ' based on a Native American Church peyote chant taught to him by his grandfather, earned him a spot on both the jazz and Top 40 radio charts and continues to be widely popular among national and international performers and recording artists to this day; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's remarkable career was marked by more than 50 recordings as bandleader, featured artist and composer, including 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' 'Comin' and Goin'' and ' Remembrance'; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's symphony 'Four Winds' was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra in New York and by the Cologne Symphony Orchestra in Germany; and
Whereas Jim Pepper served as musical director for 'Night of the First Americans,' a Native American self-awareness benefit concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1980; and
Whereas Jim Pepper toured Africa with Don Cherry as part of a United States-Africa cultural exchange program; and
Whereas Jim Pepper succumbed to lymphoid cancer in February 1992 in Portland, Oregon, at age 50; and
Whereas Jim Pepper was honored posthumously in 1999 with the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by the First Americans in the Arts and was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2000; and
Whereas 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' the 1996 award-winning documentary of his life produced and directed by Sandra Osawa and Yasu Osawa, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS in 1997 and 1999 and has since been presented to enthusiastic audiences at the Amiens Film Festival, the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the Native American Film and Video Festival, the Red Earth Film and Video Festival and the Portland Jazz Festival; and
Whereas the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute and the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named Jim Pepper 'Jazz Artist of the Year' and presented the Bill McClendon Award for Excellence in Jazz to his mother at the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's music continues to be performed and recorded in countries throughout the world, including Germany, where a performance of 'Witchi Tai To' by the WDR Radio Orchestra and the Remembrance Band, arranged and conducted by Gunther Schuller, was recorded; and
Whereas Jim Pepper's life and music harmonized distinct cultures and served as a poetic example for all indigenous people, ' walking in three worlds with one spirit'; and
Whereas Jim Pepper is survived by his mother, Floy Pepper, his sister, Suzanne Henry of Portland, his nephews, Jim Pepper Henry and Jesse Laird Henry, and his grandnephew, Jackson Laird Henry; and
Whereas Floy Pepper said during her acceptance of her son's First Americans in the Arts award in 1999, 'Jim Pepper was a member of the Kaw Indian Nation known as 'The Wind People' from his father. From me, his mother, he was a member of the Creek Indian Nation known as 'The People of the Waters.' It's no wonder his music was so strong and powerful--with the wind to carry his music to the four directions of the Earth. And as long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow--which is forever--may his spirit remain alive for time immemorial'; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
(1) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly honor the extraordinary accomplishments and musical legacy of Oregon native son Jim Pepper and direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society for inclusion in its permanent collection.
(2) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for inclusion in its permanent collection.
(3) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute at Portland State University for inclusion in its permanent collection and encourage the creation
and endowment of a Jim Pepper (hUnga-che-eda 'Flying Eagle') Chair at the university to further the study of Native American music and its relationship to jazz.
Adopted by Senate May 19, 2005
Adopted by House June 7, 2005
Justice is Coming to a Courthouse Near YOU!
Sometimes justice never comes, sometimes it takes ten years.
A decade after Aaron and my other three children were abducted from their homes in Oregon and sent out on the road in the middle of the Great Storm of 1996, justice is well on its way.
On April 7 and 8, 2006, the Oregon Judicial Department and the State Family Law Advisory Committee held its 4th annual family law conference in Bend, Oregon.
Co-sponsored by the Oregon State Bar and the Juvenile Court Improvement Project, the conference was attended by judges, court administrators and family law attorneys from across the state.
These conferences are an essential part of the ongoing training and certification programs for the bench, the bar and for administrators. Aaron's Law was featured at this conference, and its 360-page resource guide is now a permanent part of the bar's continuing education program. In short, everyone in the court system is going to see this.
Workshop #6, "Encountering Family Abductions in the Legal Setting", is described in the guide as follows: "This workshop will offer information about family abductions, including international abductions and the Hague convention, prosecution of custodial interference, and statutory approaches to preventing and dealing with abduction cases including the new Aaron's Law (SB 1041, Ch 841, Oregon Laws 2005).
The panel presenting the workshop included a psychologist who testified to the devastating effects abductions have on the child victims (Aaron is proof), a Marion County judge who testified to the fact that virtually all abductors claim that they are fleeing from abuse of some sort, and two family law attorneys who are taking leadership roles in educating the bar and the public to the problem and devising solutions.
The workshop also covered cult abductions. People abduct their own children for any number of reasons, but the most common reason that people abduct other people's children (children that they know personally and exert influence over) is related to membership in some sort of religious group.
All of the people who participated in abducting the Cruz children were members of the same church group. Those people committed Class B and Class C felonies, as the workshop material clarifies.
Aaron's Law is landmark legislation, first in the nation, and many of the people working on the issue are working across state lines.
Coming to a courthouse near you, Evelyn Taylor (Hillsboro, Oregon), David Holliday (Hillsboro), Tony Micheletti (Salem), Cynthia Anderson (Rainier) will be the first application of Aaron's Law.
Since Aaron's Law applies if a minor child is "enticed, taken or kept" out of the state of Oregon, the law will reach to the states where kidnapped children are being held.
So to Chris and Kory Wright, Steve Nielson, and the rest of the Utah abduction team--justice is coming to you bastards too.
You will all have the opportunity to explain in public why you put the Cruz children at risk in that storm, and why you chose to knowingly violate the lawful joint custody order that kept my children safe and their lives orderly and secure.
If only Aaron was alive to see it.
A decade after Aaron and my other three children were abducted from their homes in Oregon and sent out on the road in the middle of the Great Storm of 1996, justice is well on its way.
On April 7 and 8, 2006, the Oregon Judicial Department and the State Family Law Advisory Committee held its 4th annual family law conference in Bend, Oregon.
Co-sponsored by the Oregon State Bar and the Juvenile Court Improvement Project, the conference was attended by judges, court administrators and family law attorneys from across the state.
These conferences are an essential part of the ongoing training and certification programs for the bench, the bar and for administrators. Aaron's Law was featured at this conference, and its 360-page resource guide is now a permanent part of the bar's continuing education program. In short, everyone in the court system is going to see this.
Workshop #6, "Encountering Family Abductions in the Legal Setting", is described in the guide as follows: "This workshop will offer information about family abductions, including international abductions and the Hague convention, prosecution of custodial interference, and statutory approaches to preventing and dealing with abduction cases including the new Aaron's Law (SB 1041, Ch 841, Oregon Laws 2005).
The panel presenting the workshop included a psychologist who testified to the devastating effects abductions have on the child victims (Aaron is proof), a Marion County judge who testified to the fact that virtually all abductors claim that they are fleeing from abuse of some sort, and two family law attorneys who are taking leadership roles in educating the bar and the public to the problem and devising solutions.
The workshop also covered cult abductions. People abduct their own children for any number of reasons, but the most common reason that people abduct other people's children (children that they know personally and exert influence over) is related to membership in some sort of religious group.
All of the people who participated in abducting the Cruz children were members of the same church group. Those people committed Class B and Class C felonies, as the workshop material clarifies.
Aaron's Law is landmark legislation, first in the nation, and many of the people working on the issue are working across state lines.
Coming to a courthouse near you, Evelyn Taylor (Hillsboro, Oregon), David Holliday (Hillsboro), Tony Micheletti (Salem), Cynthia Anderson (Rainier) will be the first application of Aaron's Law.
Since Aaron's Law applies if a minor child is "enticed, taken or kept" out of the state of Oregon, the law will reach to the states where kidnapped children are being held.
So to Chris and Kory Wright, Steve Nielson, and the rest of the Utah abduction team--justice is coming to you bastards too.
You will all have the opportunity to explain in public why you put the Cruz children at risk in that storm, and why you chose to knowingly violate the lawful joint custody order that kept my children safe and their lives orderly and secure.
If only Aaron was alive to see it.
Text of Aaron's Law
Senate Bill 1041 (AARON’S LAW)
Sponsored by Senator Avel Louise Gordly
(now Chapter 841 Oregon Revised Statutes)
(note: ORS 163.257(1)(a) is the crime of Custodial Interference in the First Degree, a Class B felony)
AN ACT Relating to custodial interference; and declaring an emergency.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. (1) Any of the following persons may bring a civil action to secure damages against any and all persons whose actions are unlawful under ORS 163.257 (1)(a):
(a) A person who is 18 years of age or older and who has been taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a); or
(b) A person whose custodial rights have been interfered with if, by reason of the interference: (A) The person has reasonably and in good faith reported a person missing to any city, county or state police agency; or (B) A defendant in the action has been charged with a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(2) An entry of judgment or a certified copy of a judgment against the defendant for a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is prima facie evidence of liability if the plaintiff was injured by the defendant¢s unlawful action under the conviction.
(3)(a) For purposes of this section, a public or private entity that provides counseling and shelter services to victims of domestic violence is not considered to have violated ORS 163.257 (1)(a) if the entity provides counseling or shelter services to a person who violates ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(b) As used in this subsection, “victim of domestic violence” means an individual against whom domestic violence, as defined in ORS 135.230, 181.610, 411.117 or 657.176, has been committed.
(4) Bringing an action under this section does not prevent the prosecution of any criminal action under ORS 163.257.
(5) A person bringing an action under this section must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) has occurred.
(6) It is an affirmative defense to civil liability for an action under this section that the defendant reasonably and in good faith believed that the defendant¢s violation of ORS 163.257(1)(a) was necessary to preserve the physical safety of: (a) The defendant; (b) The person who was taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a); or (c) The parent or guardian of the person who was taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(7)(a) If the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is under 18 years of age at the time an action is brought under this section, the court may: (A) Appoint an attorney who is licensed to practice law in Oregon to act as guardian ad litem for the person; and (B) Appoint one of the following persons to provide counseling services to the person:
(i) A psychiatrist.
(ii) A psychologist licensed under ORS 675.010 to 675.150.
(iii) A clinical social worker licensed under ORS 675.510 to 675.600.
(iv) A professional counselor or marriage and family therapist licensed under ORS 675.715.
(b) The court may assess against the parties all costs of the attorney or person providing counseling services appointed under this subsection.
(8) If an action is brought under this section by a person described under subsection (1)(b) of this section and a party shows good cause that it is appropriate to do so, the court may order the parties to obtain counseling directed toward educating the parties on the impact that the parties' conflict has on the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a). The court may assess against the parties all costs of obtaining counseling ordered under this subsection.
(9) Upon prevailing in an action under this section, the plaintiff may recover: (a) Special and general damages, including damages for emotional distress; and (b) Punitive damages.
(10) The court may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in an action under this section.
(11)(a) Notwithstanding ORS 12.110, 12.115, 12.117 or 12.160, an action under this section must be commenced within six years after the violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a). An action under this section accruing while the person who is entitled to bring the action is under 18 years of age must be commenced not more than six years after that person attains 18 years of age.
(b) The period of limitation does not run during any time when the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is removed from this state as a result of the defendant's actions in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
SECTION 2. Section 1 of this 2005 Act applies to causes of action arising on or after the effective date of this 2005 Act.
SECTION 3. This 2005 Act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is declared to exist, and this 2005 Act takes effect on its passage.
Passed by Senate August 1, 2005
Passed by House August 3, 2005
Approved by Governor: October 13, 2005
Filed in Office of Secretary of State:
Aaron’s Law may apply to any Oregon child abduction occurring after the date the Governor signed the bill into law.
Sponsored by Senator Avel Louise Gordly
(now Chapter 841 Oregon Revised Statutes)
(note: ORS 163.257(1)(a) is the crime of Custodial Interference in the First Degree, a Class B felony)
AN ACT Relating to custodial interference; and declaring an emergency.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. (1) Any of the following persons may bring a civil action to secure damages against any and all persons whose actions are unlawful under ORS 163.257 (1)(a):
(a) A person who is 18 years of age or older and who has been taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a); or
(b) A person whose custodial rights have been interfered with if, by reason of the interference: (A) The person has reasonably and in good faith reported a person missing to any city, county or state police agency; or (B) A defendant in the action has been charged with a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(2) An entry of judgment or a certified copy of a judgment against the defendant for a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is prima facie evidence of liability if the plaintiff was injured by the defendant¢s unlawful action under the conviction.
(3)(a) For purposes of this section, a public or private entity that provides counseling and shelter services to victims of domestic violence is not considered to have violated ORS 163.257 (1)(a) if the entity provides counseling or shelter services to a person who violates ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(b) As used in this subsection, “victim of domestic violence” means an individual against whom domestic violence, as defined in ORS 135.230, 181.610, 411.117 or 657.176, has been committed.
(4) Bringing an action under this section does not prevent the prosecution of any criminal action under ORS 163.257.
(5) A person bringing an action under this section must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that a violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) has occurred.
(6) It is an affirmative defense to civil liability for an action under this section that the defendant reasonably and in good faith believed that the defendant¢s violation of ORS 163.257(1)(a) was necessary to preserve the physical safety of: (a) The defendant; (b) The person who was taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a); or (c) The parent or guardian of the person who was taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
(7)(a) If the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is under 18 years of age at the time an action is brought under this section, the court may: (A) Appoint an attorney who is licensed to practice law in Oregon to act as guardian ad litem for the person; and (B) Appoint one of the following persons to provide counseling services to the person:
(i) A psychiatrist.
(ii) A psychologist licensed under ORS 675.010 to 675.150.
(iii) A clinical social worker licensed under ORS 675.510 to 675.600.
(iv) A professional counselor or marriage and family therapist licensed under ORS 675.715.
(b) The court may assess against the parties all costs of the attorney or person providing counseling services appointed under this subsection.
(8) If an action is brought under this section by a person described under subsection (1)(b) of this section and a party shows good cause that it is appropriate to do so, the court may order the parties to obtain counseling directed toward educating the parties on the impact that the parties' conflict has on the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a). The court may assess against the parties all costs of obtaining counseling ordered under this subsection.
(9) Upon prevailing in an action under this section, the plaintiff may recover: (a) Special and general damages, including damages for emotional distress; and (b) Punitive damages.
(10) The court may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in an action under this section.
(11)(a) Notwithstanding ORS 12.110, 12.115, 12.117 or 12.160, an action under this section must be commenced within six years after the violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a). An action under this section accruing while the person who is entitled to bring the action is under 18 years of age must be commenced not more than six years after that person attains 18 years of age.
(b) The period of limitation does not run during any time when the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a) is removed from this state as a result of the defendant's actions in violation of ORS 163.257 (1)(a).
SECTION 2. Section 1 of this 2005 Act applies to causes of action arising on or after the effective date of this 2005 Act.
SECTION 3. This 2005 Act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is declared to exist, and this 2005 Act takes effect on its passage.
Passed by Senate August 1, 2005
Passed by House August 3, 2005
Approved by Governor: October 13, 2005
Filed in Office of Secretary of State:
Aaron’s Law may apply to any Oregon child abduction occurring after the date the Governor signed the bill into law.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Jim Pepper Resolution--SJR31 (2005)
Jazz musician honored posthumously
Oregon Senate approves a resolution to honor Jim Pepper, who died in 1992
BY TARA MCLAINStatesman Journal May 20, 2005
The house had the kind of good medicine left by a larger-than-life spirit. Sean Cruz moved into his newly purchased Portland home a few years ago and thought it needed to be filled with music. Indian music.
Weeks later, he still was playing American Indian songs and buying dream catchers. A neighbor told him that it was the childhood home of Jim Pepper, the late Oregon-born jazz musician.
Himself fond of jazz, Cruz knew of Pepper's saxophone music.
Cruz began exploring Pepper's life, from his birth in Salem to the height of his career playing with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell and many others.
The circle of Cruz's discovery closed Thursday when the Oregon Senate approved a resolution honoring Pepper. Pepper's mother, Floy, was there to see a history of her son's achievements recorded in the state's record.
"He always felt unloved and unwanted in the United States," Floy Pepper said after the vote. "He found peace and success in Europe."
He finally is being recognized in his native land.
Jim Pepper recently was honored at the Portland Jazz Festival. On Thursday, a recording of his music was played to the four corners of the Senate chamber.
"I was sitting there thinking, he's come a long way," Floy Pepper said. "I'm so proud."
Floy and James Gilbert Pepper moved to Salem before World War II to work at Chemawa Indian School. They resettled in Portland, where Floy taught in public schools for several decades.
The family often would return to their native Oklahoma to visit family; Floy is Creek and her husband Kaw. That's where Jim Pepper learned the traditional songs of the Native American Church, said James Pepper Henry, the musician's nephew. Henry works at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
The song "Witchi-tai-to" features Pepper swinging the vocables of a sacred peyote song like a scat singer. The hit made the jazz and Top 40 charts in 1971.
The demo for Pepper's 1971 album, "Pepper's Powwow," was recorded in what now is Cruz's house.
"That house was a gathering place for lots of jazz musicians," Cruz said. "Now Jim's music is played all the time in the house."
Pepper died of lymphoid cancer in Portland in 1992. He was 50.
He has been posthumously honored by First Americans in the Arts and was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame and Native American Music Hall of Fame.
At this year's Portland Jazz Festival, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named him "Jazz Artist of the Year." He also received the Bill McClendon Award for Excellence in Jazz, which was presented to his mother. Pepper's former bandmates convened to play his music.
"I was in the balcony," Cruz said, "and everyone was applauding during that long standing ovation. And the thought occurred to me that there ought to be a resolution about Jim's music."
Cruz works for Sen. Avel Gordly, a Portland Democrat who has served in the Legislature for 14 years.
As it turned out, she also was a Jim Pepper fan.
Here's the link: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dil/article?AID=2005505200311
Oregon Senate approves a resolution to honor Jim Pepper, who died in 1992
BY TARA MCLAINStatesman Journal May 20, 2005
The house had the kind of good medicine left by a larger-than-life spirit. Sean Cruz moved into his newly purchased Portland home a few years ago and thought it needed to be filled with music. Indian music.
Weeks later, he still was playing American Indian songs and buying dream catchers. A neighbor told him that it was the childhood home of Jim Pepper, the late Oregon-born jazz musician.
Himself fond of jazz, Cruz knew of Pepper's saxophone music.
Cruz began exploring Pepper's life, from his birth in Salem to the height of his career playing with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell and many others.
The circle of Cruz's discovery closed Thursday when the Oregon Senate approved a resolution honoring Pepper. Pepper's mother, Floy, was there to see a history of her son's achievements recorded in the state's record.
"He always felt unloved and unwanted in the United States," Floy Pepper said after the vote. "He found peace and success in Europe."
He finally is being recognized in his native land.
Jim Pepper recently was honored at the Portland Jazz Festival. On Thursday, a recording of his music was played to the four corners of the Senate chamber.
"I was sitting there thinking, he's come a long way," Floy Pepper said. "I'm so proud."
Floy and James Gilbert Pepper moved to Salem before World War II to work at Chemawa Indian School. They resettled in Portland, where Floy taught in public schools for several decades.
The family often would return to their native Oklahoma to visit family; Floy is Creek and her husband Kaw. That's where Jim Pepper learned the traditional songs of the Native American Church, said James Pepper Henry, the musician's nephew. Henry works at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
The song "Witchi-tai-to" features Pepper swinging the vocables of a sacred peyote song like a scat singer. The hit made the jazz and Top 40 charts in 1971.
The demo for Pepper's 1971 album, "Pepper's Powwow," was recorded in what now is Cruz's house.
"That house was a gathering place for lots of jazz musicians," Cruz said. "Now Jim's music is played all the time in the house."
Pepper died of lymphoid cancer in Portland in 1992. He was 50.
He has been posthumously honored by First Americans in the Arts and was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame and Native American Music Hall of Fame.
At this year's Portland Jazz Festival, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named him "Jazz Artist of the Year." He also received the Bill McClendon Award for Excellence in Jazz, which was presented to his mother. Pepper's former bandmates convened to play his music.
"I was in the balcony," Cruz said, "and everyone was applauding during that long standing ovation. And the thought occurred to me that there ought to be a resolution about Jim's music."
Cruz works for Sen. Avel Gordly, a Portland Democrat who has served in the Legislature for 14 years.
As it turned out, she also was a Jim Pepper fan.
Here's the link: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dil/article?AID=2005505200311
How Can You Buy or Sell the Sky?
How can you buy or sell the sky—the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?... We know that the white man does not understand our way. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten….
There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect’s wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of a whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, and the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with a pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man. For all things share the same breath—the beasts, the trees, the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench….
When the last red man has vanished from the earth, and the memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people, for they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat…. One thing we know—our God is the same. This earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
--Sealth, a Duwamish chief, 1865
There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect’s wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of a whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, and the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with a pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man. For all things share the same breath—the beasts, the trees, the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench….
When the last red man has vanished from the earth, and the memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people, for they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat…. One thing we know—our God is the same. This earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
--Sealth, a Duwamish chief, 1865
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