Saturday, February 28, 2009

Rob Forrest From CASA Defends State & CPS

Rob Forrest, the CASA guy, wanted to talk to me. From the first, I never liked him and saw him nodding his head and going along with every single thing the state wanted or did.

He has done very little to "advocate" for my son's right to see his mother, or continue telephone visitation.

Rob Forrest is not a typical CASA volunteer. He's a lawyer. He is now retired, but he's a lawyer and he knows very well what kind of impact he has with the court, and how the right words can affect the proceeding.

For the last hearing, Rob Forrest prepared a document which I've not seen to this day. CASA claimed they mailed it to me, but THEY admitted they had not mailed it with the proper time allowance. Forrest was against me and for the Avilas.

So now Forrest calls and told me it is too late for me to appeal. I told him I'd had medical issues and that I'd also been requesting the discovery and a copy of my case file so I knew how, or another lawyer knew how, to file for appeal. I didn't receive this until a month and a half late, after the hearing, and when it is usually, technically, too late to appeal.

I told Forrest the state had constantly refused to give me discovery. He tried to say I didn't need it and that the reason I lost Fact Finding was because I wasn't visiting my son. That had nothing to do with it. The entire case, presented by the state, was about my medical records and their belief I was delusional or mentally ill and that I had none of the actual physical problems I had said I had. And this is what was used against me, and I was not given discovery prior to trial. Forrest tried to say I didn't need it.

Then I reminded Forrest how the judge hung up on me at the beginning of the Contested Sheltercare hearing, after telling me I had to be pro se, knowing I had NO notice and NO copy of my case file, even though I repeatedly requested it from Cassel and Wellbaum. Forrest claims nothing wrong was done. As a lawyer, he KNOWS this is wrong and he dares to claim I'm wrong and that we have a simple disagreement?!

All Forrest did was happily try to tell me I had no chance of appealing this case and that it didn't matter if I was sick or injured, or if I didn't get a copy of my case file or discovery from the state. He said it was moving forward, and what was I going to do about it, because they were filing for termination of my parental rights next month?

He said nothing about my son, and all talked about, was how the state was right and he couldn't even come up with an excuse for not mailing me his own statement for the court with timely notice, as required by law. CASA didn't allow enough days for me to receive this statement or memorandum by Forrest and they all know it.

After he vigorously defended the state, for every illegal action taken, and for his and CASA's own failure to follow the rules, he wanted to know what my plans were.

I hung up on him.

All he was doing was defending the state, and as a lawyer, it sounded to me like he just wanted to know if I had a legal angle and what my legal plans were.

He has never once been impartial and has constantly done things that have harmed my relationship with my son. He went in, as a lawyer, and a friend to people in Wenatchee, and constructed his own testimony and evidence to favor the state and my aunt's family, the Avilas.

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