“I’M TRYING TO PROTECT MY CHILDREN”
by Sharon Rondeau
Beginning on September 10, the father and his fiancée have spoken with The Post & Email at length, sharing recordings of the children as well as their communications with Madison County officials they have notified about the alleged abuse but from whom they have received no details of any investigation into the children’s welfare.
In November of last year, the father and his fiancée believed the children’s allegations, which included what the adults believed to be allegations of sexual abuse verbalized for the first time, warranted the filing of a report with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS). In Tennessee, child abuse and neglect reports are directed to local DCS branches and quickly deemed credible or “screened out” for no further action.
Having relayed the information over the DCS hotline, the father and his fiancée were stunned later that evening when they received an email from the children’s mother indicating that their report, which is guaranteed to be maintained anonymously, was supplied to her and her husband. They have a theory as to how and why the leak might have occurred.
Communications between the father and mother deteriorated rapidly from there, with the mother in one phone call screaming at the father never to report her to authorities again. Based on the children’s reports of EMS visits to the home, the father and his fiancée believe that the children’s mother has an ongoing drug problem which confines her to a bedroom for long periods each day, which they believe gives rise to the mother’s claim that she is unable to work and that their father should pay her child support.
Although the father has what the court considers to be “joint custody,” he has twice-monthly weekend visits with the four children, along with some holidays, and must be notified if the children are to be taken out-of-state in accordance with the 2014 divorce decree.
On August 5, the father and his fiancée went in person to the MCSO to file a report of alleged physical and sexual abuse based on statements the children made over their weekend visit of August 3 and 4, 2019. “We’ve been recording the four children, who are minors, for the past three-and-a-half or four years with them discussing different physical abuses, drugs in the home, fear of their mother dying based on the fact that she is constantly sick in her room,” the father told us last month with his fiancée in a recorded interview. “EMS has been called multiple times to the house, etc. Toward the end of last year, one of the children started saying that he is ‘afraid to have XXXXXXX’s hair in his mouth,’ ‘spitting in XXXXXXX’s face’ and talking about things like ‘kissing like you’re married.’ In addition to that, the children described physical assaults.”
One child appears to have been “singled out” for the majority of the abuse, the father’s fiancée told us, based on what the child has described over time, including being “thrown” into bed. According to both the father and his fiancée, the children have said they have been told not to discuss with others what transpires in their home. To hide or cover up child abuse is a federal crime.
An issue which has recurred since 2017 in official documents is that of the frequent incorrect spellings of last names, including his, the father told us and demonstrated through numerous case documents he provided us. Similarly, those formerly or currently working in the Madison County District Attorney General’s office have had their names represented in different ways as acknowledged by the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. The father offered as another example the arbitrary use of a middle initial by current Madison County District Attorney General Jody S. Pickens and variants of the name of former Assistant District Attorney General Rolf Hazlehurst.
Former 26th Judicial District District Attorney General James G. Woodall, which includes Madison County, is also known as “Jerry” on official documents, although at times his name appears without the nickname.
The practice yields multiple files which prevents their connection in computerized systems as evidenced by MCSO Sgt. TJ King’s failure to include the August 5, 2019 abuse report in his subsequent investigatory write-up, the father said. Neither he nor his fiancée has been interviewed as part of any investigation which might be ongoing, they said.
On Monday, August 16, a third protective order was issued on behalf of the children against the father, after which all communication with them ceased. On August 22, the father left town, he said, believing that the protective orders were part of a strategy to see him arrested or worse.
The father requested that King recuse himself from any investigation since he is acquainted with one of the accused abuse perpetrators. King is still the investigator for the MCSO report of child sexual abuse to date even though he will not provide any updates to the father and his fiancée, the father told us.
The father also requested that King’s direct report, Sgt. Andrew Smith, assigned to a parental kidnapping report the father filed with the MCSO on August 26, 2019, be removed after confirming that his 8/26/19 report was “falsified” by MCSO by omitting the 8/5/19 child/sex/drug abuse report, the father said. The MCSO has provided no response to the father to date.
The father said it was not until after he began reporting the alleged abuse of his children that he came to realize that Madison County, and Tennessee government in general, is rife with corruption. The individuals and entities he has contacted who have failed to take action on his complaints, which broadened as the matter became more complex, include the Jackson-Madison County School System (JMCSS); the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TCCY) Office of the Ombudsman, Gerald Papica; numerous individuals in the office of Gov. Bill Lee; Tennessee Director of Human Resources Juan Williams; Assistant Director of State Audit Deborah Loveless; the MCSO and its 911 line; DCS; Pickens’s office, and District Attorney General Danny Goodman, to whom the father was referred by Pickens approximately two weeks ago.
As to the corruption evidenced in his case, the father told us:
The misspellings become very minimized when we mention them, but it’s a deliberate attempt to defraud with a different last name.
I sent Sgt. Smith an email and asked him to recuse himself because he reports to King and asked both of them to let me know who would be taking over the case. I still have not heard back from either one.
My fiancée has sent different audios of the children to Smith asking him to report the abuse as a mandated reporter. To this day, he has not confirmed that he has done it. Within five days, he said he listened to “three-fourths” of the audios. In his response, he said that DCS was closing the investigation that day. My fiancée and I note that King called the stepfather/one of the alleged abusers in the case within 24 hours of the 8/5/19 report and shared ALL of my children’s statements and allegations with the “abuser” and taking “his denial of allegations” King admits to in a recorded call. When I asked King, “Is that the way it’s supposed to happen? You give the abusers all of the allegations of the abused?” King replied, “That’s the way it happened this time.”
“He hasn’t even listened to the children talking about their own abuse and said that DCS was going to close the case that day and he did nothing to intervene even though he stated clearly on the email that he wasn’t done listening to the audios,” the fiancée added.
Tying this back into the fraudulent last names that the sheriffs are perpetrating and covering up, King and others have been using incorrect last names on the reports since 2017. In the protective order affidavit, they’re spelling one of the names incorrectly. The circuit court clerk, Kathy Blount, and her staff, did not notarize the protection orders which have the same aliases used by the sheriff’s office. Blount does not verify people making application for protective orders with IDs, as she says on the recording, which is protocol. Fred Birmingham, the county clerk, confirmed in an audio that Kathy should use her seal, print name, and sign with full signature and that any notary should use the seal and put the expiration date on the documents.
When we had a conversation with Kathy Bount and she was made aware that there was an 8/5 criminal investigation opened and an 8/6 DCS investigation opened, she said she didn’t know if she would have signed off on the protection orders and that she would have conferenced with the judge but that she never had that situation before. Kathy Blount is saying she was not made aware of it when the protective orders were applied for.
In general, the use of aliases is such a rampant issue today that it’s backlogging the courts and costing taxpayers a lot of money. Sheriffs’ departments are aware of this, as they are basically arresting criminals who want to remain anonymous. So they have a due diligence procedure in the field to clarify real names while a person is in the process.
“He made them aware,” the father’s fiancée added as to the use of an alias in one of the protective orders. “He made Kathy Blount and the assistant to the judge aware so as not to put the court in jeopardy. They did not even acknowledge it.”
Despite the father’s concerns about the protective orders’ anomalies, Blount informed the father in an email that he was obligated to go to court on September 4 for a hearing on the orders. “She said I was trying to put words in her mouth,” the father said while forwarding to us an email between Blount and him over the incorrectly-spelled last names in the documents. He continued:
The protective orders were hand-delivered to me with the name of the officer appearing as “Deputy Sisco,” and it was printed and signed, “Deputy Sisco.” Sisco’s first name is not “Deputy.”
Either Deputy Hamilton or Smith changed the report where Smith did not file the 8/5 report, and either Sisco or King changed the last-name spelling on the 8/5 report used for DCS because it’s all verified on audio that it’s spelled correctly, but it was changed for the DCS report and 8/26/19 Smith report. In addition to that, on the second report with Hamilton and Smith, as Smith was reading the report to me, said that the 8/5/19 report was not part of his investigation. So that’s the false filing of government documents and manipulation.
The DCS referral was originally a drug case, but King later told us it was a “general assessment” and that the children’s mother was not part of the report that Sisco took, so either Sisco or King removed her from the report. I’m saying that King changed our affidavit to take the children’s mother out of the report, manipulated their last name, and that Smith pulled information out of Hamilton’s report, which was changing my affidavit.
I’ve had a deputy tell me that “the district attorney general and the assistant district attorneys general are like our bosses.”
“We also found out that they did not file a kidnapping report,” the fiancée added, referring to the four-day period of August 23-26 when the father received email notifications that his children were not in school on that Friday and Monday.
I’ve made Sheriff Mehr aware of all of this information and he has never responded. He’s never once reached out to say, “What’s going on here?”
We found out that Sheriff Mehr has sued the Madison County mayor over $2.8 million for his budget. Sheriff’s Mehr’s wife is the sixth-highest-paid official in his department. Her original task was to clean up the evidence room. When that was done, he took her on full-time. The person who is under him suggested “this might not look good,” but Mehr did it anyway. His wife continues to increase the budget every year when all the other budgets in the county have decreased. Mehr has grown the department at a very high rate over the last three years.
What’s interesting is that the Jackson mayor’s wife was recently in the news for being accused of shoplifting from Walmart 28 items worth about $85.
“That might be a setup,” the father’s fiancée said. “There’s just so much corruption in Tennessee that the Comptroller had charged 28 people on 85 fraud charges.”
The city and county make money off the people because there is no commerce in this part of Tennessee. But there is a brand-new courthouse, brand-new sheriff’s office; they’re at capacity in their jails. Other areas of the state have commerce, but when you get to Jackson, which is two hours west of Nashville, there is absolutely no commerce. You have the haves and have-nots, and the haves are older money from families, and they’re all connected.
There is a huge rate of increase in DCS children in custody over the last three years statewide.
I’ve sent emails to Juan Williams, who was hired in January as the director of human resources for the State of Tennessee by Gov. Bill Lee; I’ve sent him emails with all this information. I’ve left messages for Deborah Loveless, who is head of comptroller investigations and fraud. In a recorded conversation, I’ve given her all of this information. She has not followed up. I’ve been in touch with Lang Wiseman, deputy to the governor and chief counsel; Blake Harris, who is the chief of staff; Butch Eley, chief operating officer; Chris Devaney, special assistant to the governor; Randy Justman, special advisor; Chris Walker, director of communications; they’ve all been on multiple emails that I’ve sent. The code of conduct for the state of Tennessee requires that if they see or know of information of violations that they report it to “his or her supervisor or the agency’s auditor.” I’ve asked them if they’ve reported it, and they don’t answer.
The same goes for Madison County. They have their own code of ethics; I’ve asked Mehr if he’s reported the violations and he doesn’t respond. There’s a lack of response on all levels which is alarming.
The father and fiancée shared what they said they believed to be “a very interesting point” provided to them from leadership at a much higher level than that of Madison County and the state of Tennessee, which is that anyone holding a government job must be sworn (or affirmed) to support the Constitution. “That Constitution enabled the Congress to enact laws necessary and proper to control the powers vested in these people.” the father said. “Those laws would establish their duties. Should such an official fail to perform his lawful duties, that would be evidence that his oath was false. To swear a false oath is an ACTION. Thus, the punishments for failures would exist under the concept of perjury.”
As for the arrest warrant, what did I do? I’m trying to protect my children. There is a tremendous wave of obstruction of my children’s voices. I’m reporting what my children are saying; wouldn’t all of these adults who are parents not do the same thing in that situation? I believe if I had been in court on September 4 I would be incarcerated right now, but I think there’s a greater possibility that I would be dead. Why? What did I do?
I’ve given everyone the information; I’ve been truthful and honest. All I’m trying to do is get my children out of a bad situation, and the official who I thought would help have ignored all of my children’s rights. The suppression, obstruction…I’m dumbfounded at what is happening here, but we are also very BLESSED and GRATEFUL to GOD ALMIGHTY that we are still able to advocate for our children’s welfare.
EVERY CONDUIT and STRAW CONTRIBUTOR of this scheme must be charged, arrested, and imprisoned swiftly and fiercely to restore the free republic’s faith in the government — that STANDS under us.
“But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt.” — Ezekiel 47:11
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New information will be forthcoming in Part 4.
