Key Files Motion to Stay in April Jones Case

Mitchell,

Just a reminder that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on April's case on Friday. This is just an application to stay the competency hearing and get her case back on course to getting resolved. The Supreme Court doesn't grant these very often, so although her case is strong, I am going to have to remain pessimistic about the ruling. 

Here is the link to the docket: http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/13a654.htm

(I uploaded this via Scribd.--ML)

About a week ago, I filed a supplement to that application. It is attached. 

I'm also concurrently dealing with a nursing home director who is removing the people who have assisted April the most. So she is now isolated even further. Of course this is a violation of federal law, but fighting a nursing home where someone is confined by a hostile guardian is about the most difficult situation imaginable. It is beyond words.

Thanks always for listening,

Earl

 2-20 Motion to Supplement Supreme Court Application for Stay by langbert

Earl Key Calls for April Jones's Freedom, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt's Impeachment

I previously wrote about April Jones's battle with authoritarian public health officials in Indiana.  Earl Key has filed for a stay in federal court.  He sent me the following email:

Due to the drugging and injuries, April's capabilities have declined significantly since she spoke to you on the phone, but now the U.S. Court of Appeals has ordered her to prove she is competent to continue to proceed. Back in front of the same federal judge who took 8 months to rule on her case and would not stop the drugging when she could. This is so unfair, so wrong, that I simply had to take a long shot at getting Justice Kagan to stop it.

I have attached the Application for Stay. It's not perfect, and I understand that you may not understand some of the legal jargon, but the first 12 pages are primarily factual, so I hope you get an opportunity to read it.

Thank you for listening and for your writings on April.

This is Key's pro se motion:              

Three weeks ago Key had sent this message:

What a long struggle this has been. April's case has now been thrown back to the district court, to determine April's"capacity". This is grotesquely unfair to her because her capacity is deteriorating due to her disease, the length of the proceedings, and the drugging and injuries incurred during her captivity. So I am preparing to ask the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay and writ of mandamus to force the lower courts to follow the law. This case will not remain under the public's radar much longer.

Additionally, I will send a letter tomorrow to the U.S. Congress asking for the impeachment of federal district court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt. That letter is attached and should explain why I feel so strongly about how the federal courts have abused April's right to liberty. Feel free to use it as you see fit.

The Honorable Mitch McConnell

317 Russell Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Cc: Representative Eric Cantor, House Republican Leader

House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

(202) 224-3121

November 30th, 2013

Dear Senator McConnell:

This letter is to ask for impeachment proceedings against U.S. District Court Judge

Tanya Walton Pratt.

Judge Pratt, an appointee of President Obama, sits on the bench of the Southern District of Indiana. This request is being made due to Judge Pratt’s violations of Indiana state law and federal law, and because she has usurped the will of the U.S.Congress and the common law of the U.S. Supreme Court. This request is pursuant to Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

On January 20th and January 27th, 2012, Judge Pratt, a citizen and resident of the State of Indiana, was notified of injuries due to the drugging and neglect of a disabled adult, April Dawn Jones. Ms. Jones is in the custody of an unlawful guardianship mill being run by one of Judge Pratt’s Democratic colleagues on the state bench of Indiana. The state judge has openly admitted to a reporter that he is running a “team” of Democrats that ensnare disabled persons and hand them off to a so-called guardian. Although this clearly violates separation of powers, Judge Pratt has gone out of her way to “validate” this unlawful and unholy team of actors.Included within the verified reports submitted to Judge Pratt were photos of the injuries to Ms. Jones (a 38-year old woman who I had been assisting for many years across State lines before she was “granny-napped” by the Indiana guardianship team).  

Instead of taking injunctive action or notifying Indiana authorities as required by Indiana state law, Ind. Code 12-10-3-9, Judge Pratt sat on the reports for another 4months then attempted to cover up the scheme and the neglect by dismissing the case containing the verified facts and exhibits. Within the dismissal opinion, Judge Pratt attempted to intimidate me from assisting Ms. Jones by disparaging me to the public and the higher courts with the language “whether well-intentioned or not.” The willful delay, cover up, and the disparagement are all contrary to the will of  Congress in passing 42 U.S.C. § 12203 (part of the ADA), which protects those who assist disabled persons in defending their rights, by providing that:It shall be unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any individual... on account of his or her having aided or encouraged any other individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, any right granted or protected by this chapter.

As part of her opinion, Judge Pratt falsified the parties involved in the suit, by revising the caption to make me the real party in interest and then by relabeling the respondent as “Lamar”. Were these two issues taken separately from the opinion as a whole, one might see them as mere typographical mistakes.Regardless, this is a specific violation of 18 U.S.C. 2071 (b): (b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map,book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.

Also within the dismissal opinion, Judge Pratt usurped the common law of the U.S.Supreme Court by steering around significant Supreme Court case law, all in an obvious but misguided attempt to cover up for the malfeasance of a fellow state judge in Indiana (Judge Pratt is also a 20-year veteran of the Indiana state trial court bench).

Upon seeing the convoluted manner in which Judge Pratt’s opinion misstates theparties and steers around controlling law, one who was familiar with the applicablefederal statutory and common law in this case would come only to the conclusionthat she is not qualified to sit on the federal bench, neither by temperament norability. I cannot prove but do believe that Judge Pratt initiated or used ex parte communications with other Democratic members of Indiana’s legal community to make her decision, all in violation of the Code of Conduct for federal judges.From the research of all of Judge Pratt’s cases over a 2-year span, Judge Pratt’s writings show a particular interest and bias in cases involving abortion rights cases(of which she favors), with bias against white persons, males, and against disabled persons, all contrary to federal law and the U.S. Constitution. (While Ms. Jones was dying awaiting Judge Pratt’s decision, Judge Pratt was instead working to approvemore of Planned Parenthood’s agenda, e.g., Planned Parenthood of Ind., Inc. v. Comm'r of Ind. State Dep't of Health, 794 F. Supp. 2d 892 (S.D. Ind. 2011).)

One might draw the conclusion that Judge Pratt favors the death of the unborn and the disabled. Judge Pratt’s techniques in implementing her agenda is not the “good behavior” required of an Article III judge, particularly one whose obsequious writings in finance cases appears to point to higher aspirations.The guardian and judge in control of Ms. Jones have allowed fraud to be committed against the United States by allowing the nursing home to bill the Medicaid and Medicare programs for Ms. Jones care and rehabilitation, when that care and rehabilitation had not been provided to Ms. Jones. Judge Pratt, herself an attorney as well as judge, could not have been unaware that her failure to report the injuriesto Ms. Jones might be aiding and abetting a fraud being perpetrated against the United States of America, contrary to the will of Congress in passing the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733.

Due to Judge Pratt’s incompetent, unlawful, and neglectful handling, Ms. Jones’ case has been drawn out for more than two years and she now faces an accelerated death while being drugged and injured at the hands of an unlawful guardianship team.

This request is not in any way to ask the U.S. Congress to intervene in the legal proceedings of the underlying case but rather to take action against Judge Pratt for her violations of Indiana law, federal law, and for usurping the will of the U.S.Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ms. Jones case is now pending before the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, case no. 12-2094, and may be used to independently verify the lower court documents, exhibits, and chronology of events discussed in this letter.From discussing this case with my fellow coworkers and neighbors, I can assure you that reasonable Americans are aghast at this behavior by a federal judge. I I thankyou for your assistance in this matter.

April Jones Battles Huntington's and Indiana's Oppression

April Jones

                Earl Key, an Indiana systems programmer, has seen his children suffer from the same disease that afflicted his late wife: Huntington's.  Huntington's affects 250,000 Americans. It reduces mobility and muscular function.  At first, it causes twitching called chorea.  At a later stage those afflicted become unable to care for themselves.   Its most famous victim was Woody Guthrie, author of "This Land is Your Land."

            April Jones, Key's stepdaughter when she was growing up, reunited with him 12 years ago.  Although Key is not her legal guardian, he has provided her financial support and regularly drives 200 miles from Illinois to Indiana to visit her.  But he was not consulted when Jones was seized against her will in 2011. Taken away from her apartment in handcuffs, she was forced into a police car and taken to a hearing in the court of Judge G. Thomas Gray in Martinsville, Indiana, forced to reside in a hospital behavioral ward, and then confined to a nursing home--all against her will.   Lumar Griggs, whom, Jones told me, she hates, was appointed her guardian and given the authority to agree to forcible administration of Haldol, powerful psychotropic medication that Jones does not want to take.  

            Jeffrey Schaler, an American University public affairs professor who has written on the rights of the disabled and mentally ill, says that he gets so many letters from citizens who have been troubled by this issue that he "finds it overwhelming."  He says:  "Adult Protective Services (APS) and Social Services generally are horrible in the way they engage in taking people away from families.  It's frightening.  I just hear the stories and people asking for help."  

            David Smith is interim legal services director of Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services.  He says that in Indiana the guardianship process depends on a physician's report to the court that indicates incapacity and inability to make decisions.   Also, the court needs to determine who, in the ward's interest, should be appointed guardian.  In Jones's case, Judge Gray automatically assigned her guardianship to someone with whom he has a relationship:  Griggs.  In virtually all cases the guardian is given total authority over the person's decision making.  This is so even if the individual, like Jones, is competent.  Indiana's legal system gives Jones fewer rights than New York's mental patients.  In New York, unless they pose a danger, mental patients can refuse drugs.  In Indiana the government has assigned a guardian who dictates to Jones that she take powerful anti-psychotic medication--even though she is not psychotic--that she thinks is killing her.  

History

            In January 2011, Jones's landlord accused her of dropping cigarette ashes on her bed. It is unknown whether the landlord contacted APS.  APS's Cindy Jones filed an emergency petition with Morgan Superior Court in Martinsville.     

            Three years earlier, in 2008, Judge Gray had appointed the same guardian, Griggs, when Jones had been living in a Martinsville woman's shelter.  Subsequently, Jones moved to Illinois, and Indiana dismissed the guardianship after the Illinois courts made a determination that Jones did not need a guardian.  Jones then returned to Indiana to be closer to her family.

             According to Key, APS encouraged Jones's physician to write a report based on six-month-old information; the report recommended involuntary confinement.   Judge Gray did not allow Jones to speak at the emergency hearing; her next friend Key was not present.  The US Supreme Court has held that, in cases of involuntary treatment of a mental patient, there must be due process.  

            Jones told me that after forcing her to stay in the hospital, Griggs improperly changed the status on her forms to "voluntary."  Jones told me that she believes that the stress from these events has shortened her life. 

            Griggs, Judge Gray and Bloomington, Indiana APS have not responded to my requests for statements.

Key Petitions Federal Court

             Key petitioned the federal district court in 2011. Key's petition says that Jones has been "drugged into submission."  He accuses Griggs of manipulating the nursing home staff; although they stopped giving Jones Haldol in April, 2011, they resumed giving it to her in July 2011 because, Key alleges, Griggs encouraged it. 

            Although Jones did not fall prior to her forced residency in the Parkview nursing home, since being forced to take Haldol she has suffered many bruises and repeatedly has fallen on her head.  Key writes: "April walked into that nursing home fully cognitive, living a life not unlike anyone else's. The past 19 months have literally destroyed her."  Key sent me photos, submitted to federal court as part of his petition, of wounds and bruises that Jones has incurred under Griggs's guardianship.

             Key's petition also states that Jones so fears Griggs and the Parkview Nursing Home that she has expressed concern that they will isolate her in retaliation for the petition. 

            It also states that after issuing the decree to put Jones under Griggs's guardianship, Judge Gray stepped into the gallery and smilingly asked Griggs, “Are we keeping you filled up?”

            When I questioned Smith about the appeal process for guardianships, he told me that in Indiana appeals must be made to the same court that authorized the guardianship.  When I questioned whether there might be psychological bias on the part of a court that has already made a decision, he told me that Indiana does not recognize the possibility of bias on a court's part.

            While driving with Key, Jones said over the telephone that she did not want to stay at the Parkview Nursing Home.  She said that she dislikes Griggs, whom she called a mean, controlling person.  She began to cry when she said that she wanted to be with her "dad," Key.  

             

            On August 16, 2012 Key signed a Reply Brief for the US Court of Appeals in Muncie on Jones's behalf. He is now waiting for a reply from a three-judge panel as to the constitutionality of Jones's treatment at the hands of Adult Protective Services.  Key, who is not a lawyer and has been handling the case himself, has asked The Lincoln Eagle to make a public appeal for an attorney who can help him with the case, even if the attorney is not a member of the Indiana bar. 

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D. is political editor of The Lincoln Eagle.  Since 2008, when he first blogged about this issue, he has received several requests for assistance from victims of Adult Protective Services actions around the country.