TTSOML #244: Ignored By All P.D.s and Judge

I need to get up to what happened and how I had been trying to secure counsel, before the Judge hung up on me and I took off for D.C.

After the Judge pressured me, on the spot, to withdraw any intent to file Bar complaints against Cassel and Wellbaum, I gave in. I panicked and didn't know what else to do. So I agreed to take these lawyers back, and the Judge first ensured I would not be reporting Cassel or Wellbaum. After I hung up, I felt sick to my stomach.

It hit me what had just happened. I had been coerced to quit a complaint or report. And these lawyers had not changed. Nothing good would come of it. I had been wrong to agree, but it had been wrong of Judge Hotchkiss to pressure and intimidate me to go along, on the spot.

I considered what to do.

I sent an email letting them know I didn't think what had happened was right and I was going ahead with my complaints, but I needed to know how to let the Judge know before the next trial, because I didn't even know if the Judge had been trying to reassign one of the P.D.s or the other. In telling me not to report Wellbaum or Cassel, was he then assigning one of them or both to my case? I didn't know and I sent email after email trying to find out who had my file and who was allegedly responsible and where the hell it was.

I got no answer, from anyone.

Cassel didn't respond. Wellbaum didn't respond. The Judge didn't respond. They all ignored me.

I became desperate, because I didn't know who I was even supposed to fire because I didn't know who was supposedly representing me. Also, if I was making complaints against either of them, or intended to, one of them had already told me it was unethical for them to represent me. They told me this after I'd already tried to fire them. I also asked the court, repeatedly, for new counsel before the next hearing, and the court refused to answer me.

All of them ignored me, for one whole month, until the day of the hearing for Contested Sheltercare and Preliminary Fact Finding.

Not only did they ignore my requests to know who had been allegedly representing me, they ignored my request to send me ANY and ALL discovery to my mailing address, so I was able to defend myself, knowing what they were trying to say.

I didn't have any discovery, and I'd asked for my case file as well, in case I needed it, prior to hearing, and no one answered my email.

I appeared at the teleconference and the Judge already knew what my situation was. But he hadn't told me what he was planning to do, one way or the other. No one had answered my emails, so it was the first when I heard the Judge say I had to go pro se, right then and there.

I had ZERO discovery before me, and none of the P.D.s had mailed me this info. I told the Judge I wanted REASONABLE PUBLIC DEFENSE and said I had looked up the statutes and laws and it was not good enough to have "any" public defense. It was required to be "reasonable defense" and there were certain criteria which had to be met. I had also reviewed under which grounds it could be argued "reasonable defense" had not been obtained or received. It was very easy for me to argue, given the provisions, that I had not received reasonable defense. I had grounds to argue for another P.D.

But the Judge snapped that I was "Pro Se", and it was on the spot that he said this. I was very distressed. I told the Judge I "objected" and that I did not want to go pro se and was not prepared to do so, and I said I wanted counsel, reasonable defense. The Judge kept saying I had to be pro se and I kept saying I objected. Then the phone went dead. The Judge had hung up on me.

I called back, wondering if it had been a mistake, or if, in fact, the Judge had hung up on me. When I called back, the clerk was very snotty to me and said the Judge HAD hung up on me because I wouldn't proceed and when I asked if I could be let back into the hearing, she said she'd check. She put me on hold and when she got back to me, after saying she'd sent the Judge an email to ask him, he had written back or told her the hearing was proceeding without me.

I had been coerced to take defense the Judge knew I already planned to report. Then when I announced I'd been wrong to give in to intimidation, I was ignored for a month. Then, without any discovery for my case, I was told, on the spot, to go pro se for an important hearing. One that laid the groundwork for everything else.

The judge hung up on me and then wouldn't let me back into the hearing, even after I called back. They were proceeding, without any defense for me and my son. They were railroading me all along the way. It was wrong. It was illegal and it was morally wrong.

After that, I knew I was leaving. I had to get out of Washington State and see if someone could help me somewhere else. I wanted to get blood analysis done too, and it could only be done in the D.C. area, I thought, at a particular place that did this. I didn't have money, but I hoped maybe someone would help me.

Things didn't turn out as planned, but they are not, now, as bad as they could be either. I feel there is still a chance to turn this around, but it is only by getting others involved at this point.

I can't do it alone. I also cannot rely on Wenatchee or Washington justice. I have to file complaints and see who might be able to assist.

But after the Judge hung up on me, I thought that was pretty much as good as saying I didn't matter, or exist, and that my voice carried no weight. Next thing I knew, for all I knew, they could try to involuntarily commit me, and I wasn't going to stick around to see that happen.

I was also out of a computer prior to the hearing, but I ended up having good luck, by meeting up with someone who was kind and generous enough to loan their laptop to me for several months. I would have never been able to get this truth out, which may be read by some of the "right" people, somewhere, if it wasn't for him, and I won't say his name because I'd rather protect my sources.

Some other things happened in Whatcom County too, which I'll write about briefly. Then I'll describe how I got to D.C. and managed to survive here.