http://www.youtube.com/user/
Saturday, July 9, 2011
YouTube channel with videos of Carlos and Sage
Since it takes such a long time to upload videos to blogger, I am providing the link to the youtube channel Carlos created with videos pertinent to Justice for Sage. The link is to the right of this page. There are several videos on IPCA not specific to Carlos and Sage's case...you just have to scroll to find Carlos and Sage videos once you get there. Some of the videos are of Sage and Carlos in N.C. before the abduction, but at the top of the list are four recent videos from Mexico. All of the language spoken in these videos is Spanish, but there is a brief description of what's taking place underneath. Take note of the last of the four, where Sage is standing over near his father and Ana pulls him away and starts walking over to the police. In the video where the police are standing around Sage and Carlos, Ana and her father, remember that it was Ana and her dad that called them and allowed Sage to be exposed to what must have been a frightening experience for him.
http://www.youtube.com/user/
http://www.youtube.com/user/
Friday, July 8, 2011
Some Pictures from Wednesday's Visit (before the police arrived...)
Sorry a few of these posted sideways :(. Blogger seems to have that problem randomly when you try to upload a vertically-oriented picture...
--Sonia
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Car decal is up!!
I know it probably would have looked better on the side window, but I didn't think it would get noticed as much.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
And right after saying updates don't always come very quickly...
Not 20 minutes after adding my last post to the blog my phone rang! Yes, you guessed it, my brother calling from Mexico. This phone call was a rare treat, not only in that it happened, but also because the static and echo that is usually on the line when he calls was all but absent this time. The only hindrance that remains ever present in our conversations is our constant attempts to speak over the other one, as he tries to get his stories completely told and I try to get all my questions answered before either his phone stops working or he suddenly has to go. Tonight's call was with a purpose on my brother's part, and ended with me literally verbally numbering my questions, requests and statements to him as quickly as I could to get them all out (1.send pictures, 2.stay safe, etc., etc.), whilst my 2-year-old plead with me, "who are you talking to?" "read me a book," and so forth (in all truthfulness, keeping up with this blog and dropping all else when my brother calls does, at times, make me feel like the opposite of him in terms of parental involvement, but my kids seem to understand to an extent how important this is, and I try to do it mostly after they're in bed).
One thing I wanted to ask Carlos tonight, but forgot, was if he thought Sage would like to receive a package with pictures drawn by his cousins for him as well as some photos. I have to ask because I know there are some complications with trying to send things between countries.
And now, to try to remember the details:
1.) Carlos had a visit with Sage today, which his lawyers attended. The more I hear about this family of attorneys, the less inclined I am to believe all I hear about lawyers in general. Either that, or these particular lawyers are a rare jewel in the profession, as they have been so helpful to my brother during his time there, both in legal terms and in trying to make his time in Mexico a bit less complicated. They attend many evening visits with him, playing with Sage and trying to ensure he gets the time he was awarded to visit without interruption.
Tonight's visit was a notable one. Carlos and his lawyers met Ana, her younger brother, Sage, and Ana's father eventually, at an outdoor location near a cafe'. Towards the beginning of the visit, Sage and his dad played (as they love to do) with some of the toys Carlos had brought along. This time, the new toys were a small 4-wheeled "car," that is powered by pedaling, which Sage could sit in, and a Kung-Fu Panda bear. Sage loved the toys; they played with both and also with the usual foam swords and such that they both get into. When Sage first arrived, Carlos walked over to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the head, telling him he missed him and was happy to see him. Carlos' lawyer, when speaking to Sage, would tell him "go show your dad" or "go tell your dad..." Sage did not appear at all uncomfortable with this.
Now, on all visits, Ana tends to hang close-by the entire time, listening to the entire interaction so that she can "intervene" in case Carlos or Sage might say something they're not supposed to. On this particular visit, she was more vigilant than usual, trying more than she normally does to provoke conflict. At one point she asked Carlos' attorney if he could tell Carlos to speak to him when he had something to say, and have him (the attorney) relay the message so that she didn't have to speak to Carlos. Later in the visit, as Sage and Carlos were playing, she told my brother to stop playing with the "guns" with Sage (these toy guns by the way, shoot out cotton balls, and slowly enough so that they come out at an angle and fall quickly to the floor).
As the visit progressed and she again saw Sage enjoying himself, she became increasingly agitated, and would try to distract Sage from his dad. As Sage was playing with his little car, in response to another perceived (or more likely, entirely fabricated) infraction, Ana got mad and wanted to end the visit early. She walked over and tried to take Sage out of the car to leave. Carlos held onto the car and both he and his attorney informed her that the visit wasn't over, and to let Sage play for the rest of the visit. When she told Sage it was time to go, he said "I don't want to go." Not long after, Ana's father showed up and began to provoke Carlos. He kept telling him not to be rude to his daughter (which, by his definition, apparently meant refuting her negative remarks or outright lies and trying to see his son). When both Carlos and his attorney told him to stop interfering with the visit (Ana's dad was actually court-ordered not to attend visits because he likes to create conflict), he announced, "I'm going to call the police," to which they responded, "go ahead." He left, and a bit later (around 50 minutes before the scheduled end of the visit) as Carlos was standing at the counter of the cafe' paying for his drinks, he turned around to see several swat team looking police officers, one of whom, at least, was carrying a machine gun. He realized they were there for him when one asked him if there was a problem here. All the while, the attorney had been recording much of what was taking place. Carlos asked the police officer to talk to his attorney, to which the officer responded, "I'm talking to you." Carlos said, "okay," and began to explain that he was visiting his son who had been abducted from the U.S., on court order from the local courts, that Ana's dad wasn't supposed to be there, etc. All the while Ana's dad was trying to butt into the conversation (despite having already given a lengthy "testimony" to the officers when he called them), and the officer kept telling him to be quiet until he heard Carlos and his attorney. The lawyer showed the officers the court order. Ana's dad tried again to make a case that "see, Carlos is being aggressive." The officer stated that in fact, he (Ana's dad) was the only one who was trying to cause problems. At some point while all of this was happening, Carlos was able to sneak over to Sage and told him, "no matter what they tell you, I love you very, very much, and I miss you everyday." When the visit was about over, Sage wanted to take his new "car" with him, and at first didn't understand why his dad wanted to take it back with him. His dad asked him, "do you ever play with your new bike?" Sage said "no." Carlos then explained to him, "if you take it with you, you might not get to play with it either, but I promise I'll bring it back next time." Sage was disappointed, but seemed to understand.
As you can imagine, my heart just about jumped out of my throat when my brother started to talk about the swat team cops with the machine guns, but even they ended up seeing the reality of the situation and did the right thing. Sage is no longer as shielded from the reality of what is happening as he has been, and I'm afraid to think of what's going on in his little head, but I truly believe that he knows his father, whom he has seen only a handful of times in the last three years, loves him deeply, and is not the "stranger" Ana makes him out to be. I so want to hold that sweet little boy in my arms soon.
Back to court on Friday, and Carlos PROMISED me some photos and videos soon!! Videos tend to take forever to maybe upload onto blogger, so I may end up just providing a link here to youtube when I get them.
Good night everyone!!
--Sonia
One thing I wanted to ask Carlos tonight, but forgot, was if he thought Sage would like to receive a package with pictures drawn by his cousins for him as well as some photos. I have to ask because I know there are some complications with trying to send things between countries.
And now, to try to remember the details:
1.) Carlos had a visit with Sage today, which his lawyers attended. The more I hear about this family of attorneys, the less inclined I am to believe all I hear about lawyers in general. Either that, or these particular lawyers are a rare jewel in the profession, as they have been so helpful to my brother during his time there, both in legal terms and in trying to make his time in Mexico a bit less complicated. They attend many evening visits with him, playing with Sage and trying to ensure he gets the time he was awarded to visit without interruption.
Tonight's visit was a notable one. Carlos and his lawyers met Ana, her younger brother, Sage, and Ana's father eventually, at an outdoor location near a cafe'. Towards the beginning of the visit, Sage and his dad played (as they love to do) with some of the toys Carlos had brought along. This time, the new toys were a small 4-wheeled "car," that is powered by pedaling, which Sage could sit in, and a Kung-Fu Panda bear. Sage loved the toys; they played with both and also with the usual foam swords and such that they both get into. When Sage first arrived, Carlos walked over to him and gave him a hug and a kiss on the head, telling him he missed him and was happy to see him. Carlos' lawyer, when speaking to Sage, would tell him "go show your dad" or "go tell your dad..." Sage did not appear at all uncomfortable with this.
Now, on all visits, Ana tends to hang close-by the entire time, listening to the entire interaction so that she can "intervene" in case Carlos or Sage might say something they're not supposed to. On this particular visit, she was more vigilant than usual, trying more than she normally does to provoke conflict. At one point she asked Carlos' attorney if he could tell Carlos to speak to him when he had something to say, and have him (the attorney) relay the message so that she didn't have to speak to Carlos. Later in the visit, as Sage and Carlos were playing, she told my brother to stop playing with the "guns" with Sage (these toy guns by the way, shoot out cotton balls, and slowly enough so that they come out at an angle and fall quickly to the floor).
As the visit progressed and she again saw Sage enjoying himself, she became increasingly agitated, and would try to distract Sage from his dad. As Sage was playing with his little car, in response to another perceived (or more likely, entirely fabricated) infraction, Ana got mad and wanted to end the visit early. She walked over and tried to take Sage out of the car to leave. Carlos held onto the car and both he and his attorney informed her that the visit wasn't over, and to let Sage play for the rest of the visit. When she told Sage it was time to go, he said "I don't want to go." Not long after, Ana's father showed up and began to provoke Carlos. He kept telling him not to be rude to his daughter (which, by his definition, apparently meant refuting her negative remarks or outright lies and trying to see his son). When both Carlos and his attorney told him to stop interfering with the visit (Ana's dad was actually court-ordered not to attend visits because he likes to create conflict), he announced, "I'm going to call the police," to which they responded, "go ahead." He left, and a bit later (around 50 minutes before the scheduled end of the visit) as Carlos was standing at the counter of the cafe' paying for his drinks, he turned around to see several swat team looking police officers, one of whom, at least, was carrying a machine gun. He realized they were there for him when one asked him if there was a problem here. All the while, the attorney had been recording much of what was taking place. Carlos asked the police officer to talk to his attorney, to which the officer responded, "I'm talking to you." Carlos said, "okay," and began to explain that he was visiting his son who had been abducted from the U.S., on court order from the local courts, that Ana's dad wasn't supposed to be there, etc. All the while Ana's dad was trying to butt into the conversation (despite having already given a lengthy "testimony" to the officers when he called them), and the officer kept telling him to be quiet until he heard Carlos and his attorney. The lawyer showed the officers the court order. Ana's dad tried again to make a case that "see, Carlos is being aggressive." The officer stated that in fact, he (Ana's dad) was the only one who was trying to cause problems. At some point while all of this was happening, Carlos was able to sneak over to Sage and told him, "no matter what they tell you, I love you very, very much, and I miss you everyday." When the visit was about over, Sage wanted to take his new "car" with him, and at first didn't understand why his dad wanted to take it back with him. His dad asked him, "do you ever play with your new bike?" Sage said "no." Carlos then explained to him, "if you take it with you, you might not get to play with it either, but I promise I'll bring it back next time." Sage was disappointed, but seemed to understand.
As you can imagine, my heart just about jumped out of my throat when my brother started to talk about the swat team cops with the machine guns, but even they ended up seeing the reality of the situation and did the right thing. Sage is no longer as shielded from the reality of what is happening as he has been, and I'm afraid to think of what's going on in his little head, but I truly believe that he knows his father, whom he has seen only a handful of times in the last three years, loves him deeply, and is not the "stranger" Ana makes him out to be. I so want to hold that sweet little boy in my arms soon.
Back to court on Friday, and Carlos PROMISED me some photos and videos soon!! Videos tend to take forever to maybe upload onto blogger, so I may end up just providing a link here to youtube when I get them.
Good night everyone!!
--Sonia
The good, the bad, and the ugly....
...this update has a bit of all three. I know it's been a few days since my last post, and unfortunately that may often be the case, as there are frequently long periods of no activity in Hague cases. My brother has been fighting this battle for over three years, and there have been several occasions where there was no new information for months...just seemingly endless waiting. Ironically, it is often during these periods of no news to report that my brother is running himself ragged, physically and emotionally, trying to cover all possible bases and to stay one step ahead of what's happening. He said it best in an email to me earlier today..."I'm behind on everything, including sleep, bills, work, and emails to basically everyone..."
Much of this post will be quotes from my brother's own description of what is happening, but I want to put some of it in perspective by providing a quick summary of his situation. Carlos lives in a city about 1 1/2--2 hours away from both the court and the city where Sage is residing with his mother's family. He is driving an old vehicle back and forth on Mexican highways that aren't all that well maintained or necessarily safe. He is only now becoming somewhat familiar with his surroundings and how to get around. He is frequently having to appear in court, either for all day hearings or for brief submissions of evidence, and the visits he has been awarded with Sage do not necessarily coincide with these appearances. All of this means that each time he drives the 1 1/2 hours to see his son for what is supposed to be only an hour anyway, and then his mother doesn't show up, he ends up waiting around to see if they'll show late, then longer to collect evidence of the missed visit, and then drive all the way back. While this is frustrating at best, it also serves to benefit him in court by proving without a doubt that Ana's true intention is and always has been to completely eliminate Carlos from Sage's life. The good in these disturbing recent events is ultimately the potential fallout for Ana's case, and the benefit to Carlos'; the bad is the missed work, the long drives, and the disappointment when he doesn't get to see his son; and the ugly here seems to be a constant--a mother's cruel vendetta against her own son's loving father, and the abuse towards her child inherent in her actions.
Carlos will be back in court on Friday to discuss the visitation issues; until then, here are some of his recent emails:
2.) "We submitted another complaint to the court with the evidence that we were there for the Sunday visit and she didn't bring Sage. In the complaint we requested that the judge follow through with his warning and order a change of provisional custody to me here. We also requested that the judge order that electronic tracking bracelets be placed on me and my son and that the judge hold my passport to prevent me from leaving the country with Sage or, should the judge decide not to change custody at this time, that he order that my wife and son have electronic bracelets placed on them to prevent further abductions by my wife.
We also requested that Sage not be allowed to leave the city of Salamanca without the express permission of the court. I think this will be extremely inconvenient for her since we believe she has been lying about living there in the first place (one of just so many massive and ridiculous lies.)
She has Sage enrolled in a school in Celaya, which is about 45 minutes away, and claims she drives there from Salamanca every day where she lives with her parents and siblings. We believe she lives in Celaya with her boyfriend. Since she claims to live in Salamanca anyway, is a flight risk, there are schools there that are as good or better than in Celaya, and the highways in Mexico are dangerous we also requested that, since school is currently on vacation, she have Sage transferred to a school in Salamanca immediately.
I have been avoiding mentioning it on the forums but the cat is pretty much out of the bag here anyway. Besides the local prosecutor "representing the child," we also filed a criminal complaint against my wife, her father and a witness who testified for her in the first trial. I plan to add three other witnesses who testified for her in this trial and will file a separate complaint against the psychologists who provided "expert testimony" which was completely one-sided, biased, unprofessional and criminally negligent (and as such will have no probatory value in court, but they should be held accountable anyway,) and the social worker who did the "home visit" to study the living situation of Sage even though she went to the wrong house and city! Hopefully the circus of idiots who have illegally lined up to help my wife continue to illegally retain my son will be held accountable for doing so.
I have another visit scheduled for Wed and Thursday before the Friday hearing.
She never shows up for Thursday visits and says she took Sage out of the Soccer practices where the visit was supposed to take place so I haven't even tried to attend those for a few weeks.
Wednesday is supposed to be just me and Sage visiting for two hours and, besides Sunday, is the best visit I have. I'm expecting to drive two hours, sit there by myself for two hours, spend an hour preparing the new evidence and formal request for its admission before turning them in to the courts secretary, and then another two hours driving back.
My lawyers were with me for yesterdays visit too. Before she left once Sage's class ended we tried to pay for Sage's swimming lessons for July and she came out and said to the secretary not to accept any money from us or give any information to "strange" people for "security reasons with all the kidnappings that are happening" -- all of which I have on video for the judge on Friday.
I believe at this point the judge is ready to rule against her with extreme prejudice, but he can't issue a decision until other witnesses from Celaya are allowed to give testimony in a court in that city as requested by the prosecutor with the hopes that it would cause delays and, we would not find out which court and would not be able to attend in person and cross-examine the witnesses testimony (by virtue of our previous cross-examinations all of her new witnesses have done her more harm than good... we did find out which court though and will be there for the testimony.)
I have fantastic attorneys here and we are doing everything we can at this point. I wish things would move faster but, in the meantime, we have made enormous progress over the past few months. Not long ago my wife felt secure enough in the success of her abduction that she tried to erase any knowledge or memories of me from my son's life. Now she is being called out on everything by me and my lawyers and is facing a Hague trial that couldn't possibly be going any worse for her and serious criminal charges against her and many of those who have tried to help her.
Even more to the point, my son is always excited and happy to see me and seems to understand that his mom is lying about me. He's a very bright young boy and seems to like to think for himself (a quality I hoped he would inherit since I knew he had a mother who would try to manipulate him.) My wife claimed in court that my son asked her if it was true that she had taken him away from me and fled the country. She implied that I must have told Sage that. I never told Sage anything of the sort, but I suspect that someone else in her family may have. I worked very hard in the beginning to make sure the people in her family knew my side of the story before they helped her in anyway. Now three years later they have seen how she tried to erase me from Sage's life and how I have never given up. It would not surprise me at all if there were some of them who are not willing to help her lie to him about his father.
Although my wife is the one who needs to prove that Sage would face a "grave risk of physical or psychological harm" if he were returned to the US, I know all to well how nationalistic and sexist biases can cloud people's judgement. As such, I was very quick to point out, on several occasions during their questioning of me, that my wife's actions and my son's continued illegal retention in Mexico were, themselves, exposing my son to a grave risk of psychological harm and violating a wide array of my son's rights. When this trial ends, not only will she have failed to prove that my son faces a "grave risk" if he is sent home, but I will have proven that he, in fact, faces a "grave risk" if he is not sent home.
The case goes so very badly for her at this point that I could probably sue for custody here and win with little trouble (although getting permission to return to the US with him might not be so easy.) It is precisely because of this that I fear she will now try to flee and hide with Sage".
If you've gotten this far...as always, thank you so much for your support :)
--Sonia
Much of this post will be quotes from my brother's own description of what is happening, but I want to put some of it in perspective by providing a quick summary of his situation. Carlos lives in a city about 1 1/2--2 hours away from both the court and the city where Sage is residing with his mother's family. He is driving an old vehicle back and forth on Mexican highways that aren't all that well maintained or necessarily safe. He is only now becoming somewhat familiar with his surroundings and how to get around. He is frequently having to appear in court, either for all day hearings or for brief submissions of evidence, and the visits he has been awarded with Sage do not necessarily coincide with these appearances. All of this means that each time he drives the 1 1/2 hours to see his son for what is supposed to be only an hour anyway, and then his mother doesn't show up, he ends up waiting around to see if they'll show late, then longer to collect evidence of the missed visit, and then drive all the way back. While this is frustrating at best, it also serves to benefit him in court by proving without a doubt that Ana's true intention is and always has been to completely eliminate Carlos from Sage's life. The good in these disturbing recent events is ultimately the potential fallout for Ana's case, and the benefit to Carlos'; the bad is the missed work, the long drives, and the disappointment when he doesn't get to see his son; and the ugly here seems to be a constant--a mother's cruel vendetta against her own son's loving father, and the abuse towards her child inherent in her actions.
Carlos will be back in court on Friday to discuss the visitation issues; until then, here are some of his recent emails:
1.) "I think she has gotten the family court judge pretty angry and embarrassed by her behavior. During their questioning of me I went out of my way to say she was making a mockery of this court and making them look like fools with her constant, ridiculous and obvious lying, going on to point out how my son had said, in front of the judge, that his last names were "Rayon Garcia Gonzales" but under questioning she denied teaching him that.
This judge also knows that I'm a fierce advocate for my son and that I know the relevant Mexican laws that apply to my case better than most Mexican attorneys and the relevant international laws, and their interpretation in Mexico, better than any one involved with this case. He also knows that I have testified before members of US Congress and have contacts in Congress, the US State Dept, US Embassy and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations. He knows I already litigated this case through all levels of appeals once and has no reason to doubt I'll do it again. He's also personally seen me with my son and that my son enjoyed being with me.
I thought I had court yesterday but I didn't. The court hearing to review visitation is on Friday. Yesterday I had an appointment to ratify a criminal complaint against the prosecutor involved in my case as "my son's representative." I had visitation scheduled with my son again yesterday during his swimming lesson and for an hour afterward. She appeared for the lesson and left immediately after and I didn't get any time to see Sage.
The judge warned her after she skipped last Wed. visit that he could change custody if she did not comply with the visitation schedule. Since then she skipped the Sunday visit completely and left in the middle of the Monday one before the real visit could start."
This judge also knows that I'm a fierce advocate for my son and that I know the relevant Mexican laws that apply to my case better than most Mexican attorneys and the relevant international laws, and their interpretation in Mexico, better than any one involved with this case. He also knows that I have testified before members of US Congress and have contacts in Congress, the US State Dept, US Embassy and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations. He knows I already litigated this case through all levels of appeals once and has no reason to doubt I'll do it again. He's also personally seen me with my son and that my son enjoyed being with me.
I thought I had court yesterday but I didn't. The court hearing to review visitation is on Friday. Yesterday I had an appointment to ratify a criminal complaint against the prosecutor involved in my case as "my son's representative." I had visitation scheduled with my son again yesterday during his swimming lesson and for an hour afterward. She appeared for the lesson and left immediately after and I didn't get any time to see Sage.
The judge warned her after she skipped last Wed. visit that he could change custody if she did not comply with the visitation schedule. Since then she skipped the Sunday visit completely and left in the middle of the Monday one before the real visit could start."
We also requested that Sage not be allowed to leave the city of Salamanca without the express permission of the court. I think this will be extremely inconvenient for her since we believe she has been lying about living there in the first place (one of just so many massive and ridiculous lies.)
She has Sage enrolled in a school in Celaya, which is about 45 minutes away, and claims she drives there from Salamanca every day where she lives with her parents and siblings. We believe she lives in Celaya with her boyfriend. Since she claims to live in Salamanca anyway, is a flight risk, there are schools there that are as good or better than in Celaya, and the highways in Mexico are dangerous we also requested that, since school is currently on vacation, she have Sage transferred to a school in Salamanca immediately.
I have been avoiding mentioning it on the forums but the cat is pretty much out of the bag here anyway. Besides the local prosecutor "representing the child," we also filed a criminal complaint against my wife, her father and a witness who testified for her in the first trial. I plan to add three other witnesses who testified for her in this trial and will file a separate complaint against the psychologists who provided "expert testimony" which was completely one-sided, biased, unprofessional and criminally negligent (and as such will have no probatory value in court, but they should be held accountable anyway,) and the social worker who did the "home visit" to study the living situation of Sage even though she went to the wrong house and city! Hopefully the circus of idiots who have illegally lined up to help my wife continue to illegally retain my son will be held accountable for doing so.
I have another visit scheduled for Wed and Thursday before the Friday hearing.
She never shows up for Thursday visits and says she took Sage out of the Soccer practices where the visit was supposed to take place so I haven't even tried to attend those for a few weeks.
Wednesday is supposed to be just me and Sage visiting for two hours and, besides Sunday, is the best visit I have. I'm expecting to drive two hours, sit there by myself for two hours, spend an hour preparing the new evidence and formal request for its admission before turning them in to the courts secretary, and then another two hours driving back.
My lawyers were with me for yesterdays visit too. Before she left once Sage's class ended we tried to pay for Sage's swimming lessons for July and she came out and said to the secretary not to accept any money from us or give any information to "strange" people for "security reasons with all the kidnappings that are happening" -- all of which I have on video for the judge on Friday.
I believe at this point the judge is ready to rule against her with extreme prejudice, but he can't issue a decision until other witnesses from Celaya are allowed to give testimony in a court in that city as requested by the prosecutor with the hopes that it would cause delays and, we would not find out which court and would not be able to attend in person and cross-examine the witnesses testimony (by virtue of our previous cross-examinations all of her new witnesses have done her more harm than good... we did find out which court though and will be there for the testimony.)
I have fantastic attorneys here and we are doing everything we can at this point. I wish things would move faster but, in the meantime, we have made enormous progress over the past few months. Not long ago my wife felt secure enough in the success of her abduction that she tried to erase any knowledge or memories of me from my son's life. Now she is being called out on everything by me and my lawyers and is facing a Hague trial that couldn't possibly be going any worse for her and serious criminal charges against her and many of those who have tried to help her.
Even more to the point, my son is always excited and happy to see me and seems to understand that his mom is lying about me. He's a very bright young boy and seems to like to think for himself (a quality I hoped he would inherit since I knew he had a mother who would try to manipulate him.) My wife claimed in court that my son asked her if it was true that she had taken him away from me and fled the country. She implied that I must have told Sage that. I never told Sage anything of the sort, but I suspect that someone else in her family may have. I worked very hard in the beginning to make sure the people in her family knew my side of the story before they helped her in anyway. Now three years later they have seen how she tried to erase me from Sage's life and how I have never given up. It would not surprise me at all if there were some of them who are not willing to help her lie to him about his father.
Although my wife is the one who needs to prove that Sage would face a "grave risk of physical or psychological harm" if he were returned to the US, I know all to well how nationalistic and sexist biases can cloud people's judgement. As such, I was very quick to point out, on several occasions during their questioning of me, that my wife's actions and my son's continued illegal retention in Mexico were, themselves, exposing my son to a grave risk of psychological harm and violating a wide array of my son's rights. When this trial ends, not only will she have failed to prove that my son faces a "grave risk" if he is sent home, but I will have proven that he, in fact, faces a "grave risk" if he is not sent home.
The case goes so very badly for her at this point that I could probably sue for custody here and win with little trouble (although getting permission to return to the US with him might not be so easy.) It is precisely because of this that I fear she will now try to flee and hide with Sage".
If you've gotten this far...as always, thank you so much for your support :)
--Sonia
Friday, July 1, 2011
Update written by Carlos...7/1/11...kind of a response to my last blog post
They are very sincerely wishing they had never put me under questioning right now.
I know every aspect of this case, the applicable international and domestic laws and the way Mexican courts evaluate these things in practice in minute detail.
After three years of obsessive study on the social, psychological, legal, political and practical aspects of international child abduction and how they play into my particular case they really could not have picked a worse person to put on the stand where I am free to speak at length in response to any of their questions. Every answer I gave was detrimental to their case. While they clumsily tried to trick me on several occasions with questions whose intent was immediately transparent to me, it always back-fired against them very badly.
It is second nature to me now to understand how every statement I make plays into my case and every answer I gave was devastating to them.
In some four hours of questioning not one of their questions, or my answers to them, will be of any value to them. On the contrary, by giving me a platform to say anything I want and have it entered into the court record, I was able to add numerous details of our family history never made available to the court before and make clear why each and every one of them was of great importance to this case.
In forming her own questions for me the Prosecutor in the case showed what has long been clear to me and my attorneys, that she is really representing my wife and not Sage or the public interest. When she basically accused me of lying in her questioning, I pointed out in great detail how the lies I was telling were supported by basically every piece of real evidence and how her biased unwillingness to accept that, along with every other action she's taken, proved that she was dishonestly claiming to represent my son while actively making the same unfounded arguments that my wife was making and which had been thoroughly dis-proven. I also pointed out how, in three years of litigation in which she was supposedly representing my son, she had never once bothered to have a conversation with me to hear out my side of the history or the case and reminded her and the court how she had presented herself at the court at the start of the proceedings in 2008 and declared that Sage should stay in Mexico before any evidence had been submitted and years before she ever set eyes on me. Furthermore, I very correctly insisted, her blatant unwillingness to acknowledge incontrovertible facts in order to act as an echo chamber for my wife's arguments constituted a criminal act of procedural fraud.
My lawyer, who was not allowed to attend my questioning, agreed with my assessment of the Prosecutors behavior and subsequently submitted a motion for her to confess to the court that she believed in good faith the things that she accused me of (when accusations are made in these hearings the accusing party is implicitly and legally claiming the accusation is true.)
The prosecutor's performance during my testimony combined with everything else she's done in this case, is more than enough evidence to move forward against her with a criminal complaint and I intend to do so and may do the same against all the other witnesses my wife has brought forth to give, thankfully inept, fraudulent testimony.
Also after three years of participating in these proceedings I've gotten pretty familiar with Mexican law and legal language. When she skipped out on my two hour visit with Sage on Wed. after I drove an hour and half to be there, I took pictures and gathered various pieces of evidence that proved I was there at the time and place agreed to in court and wrote a petition to the court that my testimony relating to her skipping the visit, as well as my evidence of it, be submitted into the court file and accepted as "new evidence" that didn't exist at the time the evidentiary proceedings ended.
The court accepted my motion and evidence and ordered that my wife be personally notified that she had no discretion to deny visitation and continuing to do so could result in an order that custody be changed before the proceedings finish.
I know every aspect of this case, the applicable international and domestic laws and the way Mexican courts evaluate these things in practice in minute detail.
After three years of obsessive study on the social, psychological, legal, political and practical aspects of international child abduction and how they play into my particular case they really could not have picked a worse person to put on the stand where I am free to speak at length in response to any of their questions. Every answer I gave was detrimental to their case. While they clumsily tried to trick me on several occasions with questions whose intent was immediately transparent to me, it always back-fired against them very badly.
It is second nature to me now to understand how every statement I make plays into my case and every answer I gave was devastating to them.
In some four hours of questioning not one of their questions, or my answers to them, will be of any value to them. On the contrary, by giving me a platform to say anything I want and have it entered into the court record, I was able to add numerous details of our family history never made available to the court before and make clear why each and every one of them was of great importance to this case.
In forming her own questions for me the Prosecutor in the case showed what has long been clear to me and my attorneys, that she is really representing my wife and not Sage or the public interest. When she basically accused me of lying in her questioning, I pointed out in great detail how the lies I was telling were supported by basically every piece of real evidence and how her biased unwillingness to accept that, along with every other action she's taken, proved that she was dishonestly claiming to represent my son while actively making the same unfounded arguments that my wife was making and which had been thoroughly dis-proven. I also pointed out how, in three years of litigation in which she was supposedly representing my son, she had never once bothered to have a conversation with me to hear out my side of the history or the case and reminded her and the court how she had presented herself at the court at the start of the proceedings in 2008 and declared that Sage should stay in Mexico before any evidence had been submitted and years before she ever set eyes on me. Furthermore, I very correctly insisted, her blatant unwillingness to acknowledge incontrovertible facts in order to act as an echo chamber for my wife's arguments constituted a criminal act of procedural fraud.
My lawyer, who was not allowed to attend my questioning, agreed with my assessment of the Prosecutors behavior and subsequently submitted a motion for her to confess to the court that she believed in good faith the things that she accused me of (when accusations are made in these hearings the accusing party is implicitly and legally claiming the accusation is true.)
The prosecutor's performance during my testimony combined with everything else she's done in this case, is more than enough evidence to move forward against her with a criminal complaint and I intend to do so and may do the same against all the other witnesses my wife has brought forth to give, thankfully inept, fraudulent testimony.
Also after three years of participating in these proceedings I've gotten pretty familiar with Mexican law and legal language. When she skipped out on my two hour visit with Sage on Wed. after I drove an hour and half to be there, I took pictures and gathered various pieces of evidence that proved I was there at the time and place agreed to in court and wrote a petition to the court that my testimony relating to her skipping the visit, as well as my evidence of it, be submitted into the court file and accepted as "new evidence" that didn't exist at the time the evidentiary proceedings ended.
The court accepted my motion and evidence and ordered that my wife be personally notified that she had no discretion to deny visitation and continuing to do so could result in an order that custody be changed before the proceedings finish.
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