You want to know why I call the DV Restraining order process “certifiably insane?”   Whether granted, or NOT granted?  Here’s why.

• Local News in Victorville, CA

Pinon Hills man plans murder of infant son, suicide on Facebook

Comments 55 | Recommend 8

February 01, 2010 11:19 PM

Beatriz Valenzuela

In a chilling letter posted on Facebook for anyone to see, Stephen Garcia, 25, of Pinon Hills appears to detail how he planned his suicide and the murder of his 9-month-old son.

…..

Thinking that it is going to help us is grasping at straws.  Instead, make a safety plan.

However, this mother had a choice of possibly going to jail for contempt if she decided to disobey a court order that overrode her mother’s instincts.

“I led everyone on my side of the family to believe I wouldn’t of done this because I did not want them to know…” the letter reads. “I had been thinking about doing this for months.”

 In other words, the guy was deceitful, deceiving even his own family.  However, the mother of his son, who apparently knew him more “intimately” saw the danger, and tried to stop it.  She tried with the usual tools that women in this position are given:  Seek a restraining order.

She didn’t even GET one, because there had been no prior criminal record..  Therefore, he could not have possibly been a danger.  Sure…

The post may help San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Homicide investigators piece together what led to the Sunday morning tragedy, when Garcia took his infant son during a court-ordered visitation, drove to a dirt road in Twin Peaks and ended both of their lives.
In the letter posted to his Facebook profile, Garcia claimed the deaths were an attempt to save his son from a difficult life — and to punish the baby’s mother, Katie Tagle, for refusing to come back to him.
“Our deaths are a lot for her,” the post continues. “It will have to suffice as her punishment. But that is not the reason I did it. It was the only way we could be happy without Katie. I did this out of love for our son, to protect him and myself.”
Saved letters, text messages and massive files containing e-mails and other correspondence give a glimpse into Garcia’s obsession, cursing Tagle and her family in some posts and asking her to return to him in others.
Court documents tell more of the story, with Tagle filing a request for a domestic violence restraining order on Dec. 11, 2009. On Jan. 12 that order was denied, as it was found Garcia was not a “threat to petitioner or the minor child.”
A search of his criminal record showed no history of domestic violence, battery or similar offenses in San Bernardino County. However, in one of a slew of other online letters attributed to Garcia, it states, “I’m sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for hitting you. I’m sorry I made the wrong choices.”
On Jan. 17, shortly after the final visit with Judge David Mazurek, Garcia joined a Facebook group called “Organ Donor.”
In the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Garcia posted a half-dozen videos and dozens of photos of Wyatt with cryptic captions such as, “Please, it’s not too late.”
On his MySpace page, his mood over the last week was listed as “tested,” “bummed” and “scared,” with “one more day :(” his final post.
Hours before officials got a call Saturday night that Wyatt was missing and Garcia had threatened to kill him, he made his final online post: “We love you all.”
The suicide note was posted on Garcia’s Facebook profile Sunday, about eight hours after Hesperia Sheriff’s deputies found the bodies in Garcia’s car. It appears Garcia left directions for someone to post the letter and make it public for everyone to see.
The lengthy post also reads as a will, with directions for how to distribute his possessions and personal notes to family members and friends. It also states that Garcia left a signed letter in his truck, confessing to the killings and explaining why he did them.
Though Garcia mentions using a gun, investigators have not released information on how he killed Wyatt and himself, stating only that they both died from “traumatic injuries.”
Anyone who may have information about this case is asked to call Detective Ryan Ford or Sgt. Frank Montanez at the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail at (909) 387-3589 or call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.

Brooke Edwards and Natasha Lindstrom contributed to this report.

Beatriz E. Valenzuela may be reached at 951-6276 or at BValenzuela@VVDailyPress.com.

Here’s the SFGate Report on this:

SoCal man mentioned son’s killing on Facebook

 Tuesday, February 2, 2010

(02-02) 09:04 PST HESPERIA, Calif. (AP) —

 A newspaper says a San Bernardino County man who killed his 9-month-old son and himself left a Facebook message saying he did it out of love.Sheriff’s officials say 25-year-old Stephen Garcia of Pinon Hills was on a court-ordered visit with his son Sunday when he drove to a dirt road in Twin Peaks, killed the boy and committed suicide.

The Daily Press in Victorville says Garcia left a message on his Facebook profile about eight hours after his body was found. The note, apparently posted on his behalf by someone else, says Garcia had been thinking of the crime for months and wanted to punish the baby’s mother for leaving him.

Garcia says the deaths are the only way he and his son can be happy without her and says he did it out of love to protect the boy.

Information from: Daily Press, www.vvdailypress.com (the first article, above).

He did it for “love.”  Some kind of love….

Here’s a fellow-blogger’s reaction. 

http://justice4mothers.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/california-judge-denies-protective-order-to-mother-bam-father-murders-young-son-and-kills-himself/

And a site worth spending time on. . . . 

See the heartbreaking MySpace page that belongs to the father and the bizzare RIP on it.
Judge J. David Mazurek needs to held accountable on this, and charged as an accomplice in this murder.  This needs to happen to every judge that allows abusers to take children, and then hurt or murder them.  Maybe then judges will start taking domestic violence seriously.  Thanks to the father’s rights advocates and their “false allegations” drivel, they have turned America’s judges into a bunch of pussies who absolutely have no clue.  Just get the child to the father….doesn’t matter if he is violent or not.  It is time to stop listening to the mantra from these groups and start taking these violent guys seriously, and start putting judges in prison that don’t.

We Moms are NOT de-sensitized to this insane callousness to who lives, or who’s going to die.  But if a Mom goes to jail in protest, what good is that to her children?  If she doesn’t go, then the risk goes to the children.  And/or her, and/or innocent bystanders, in some cases.

THIS overentitled, disillusioned, and unable to have a vital purpose in life other than punishing the mother of his child (how perverted is THAT?) was only 25.  Bet he attended a public school system, possibly in this great state.  Did he do college too?  If so, to what point?  Whether or not, there is clearly an attitude problem, a spiritual problem, and a moral problem.  I don’t think the millions upon millions (literally) going to the California Healthy Marriage Coalition are going to stop troubles this entrenched.  This guy was narcissistic, period.  And to a point, he was a product of a system that encourages — and does not DIScourage — this.  It’s a system where women have to fight uphill to get away from ground zero in their own lives.

I wonder how well we (well, people) are also reading characters before having babies.  Makes you think, right?

BUT: Apparently the courts are, and clearly the judges are callous.  Or, they are bound by the requirement to keep an ongoing stream of unwilling clients to their cronies.  Excuse me, colleagues. 

Well, no, I don’t think the judges are not clueless, and they are not pussies, I believe.  They just don’t care!  Why?  What’s at stake if they do? . . . .   An entire system.

A bribe perverts justice.   I’m not accusing this particular judge of taking a bribe, but the court docket below tells clearly that they passed the buck to family court because there were custody and visitation orders.  That’s how it goes. 

And family court was SET UP from the start, at least per some sites (CANOW.org family law page, NAFCJ.net, and some others) to be abuser-friendly, and father-friendly (despite allegations to the contrary). 

It was just business as usual.  And if you want “business as usual” to change, friends, you have to change who is paying for the “business as usual,” and in the bottom line, this is the taxpayers.   The Dept. of HHS in combo with some DOJ (Office of Violence Against Women) sources are conferencing together, educating together, declaring together, but the ONE thing they are NOT doing is confronting t he mandated mediation or custody evaluation where there’s conflict.  And that “required outcome” model of the court process.

The judge is not going to be charged as an accomplice to murder.  With luck, and persistence, he MIGHT be held accountable if this becomes a pattern.  The people most highly motivated to do this are probably already victims of the court system, and are still in the process of trying to stay housed, alive, and their kids alive also. 

However, what we MIGHT do for the next batch of innocent young mothers who show up thinking that family court is something you can walk into, and then also walk OUT of with a restraining order, is warn them…

HERE’s the Docket:

12/11/2009  – She requests ex parte DV restraining order. 

12/15/2009 8:29 AM DEPT. M3 EX-PARTE MOTION RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – Minutes Pre-D Complete

WOW, lots of “Tagles” in this jurisdiction.  This appears to be Katie Tagle in a previous relationship, or another Katie Tagle.  In this one, she was charged with domestic violence.

Either way, the KNEE-JERK reaction of the court is to:

1.  Consolidate with a family law (dissolution, I guess case).

2.  Make a really STUPID order as to where violence has been alleged.  THIS one has a daughter, “Dakota” and they are to alternate every other DAY, and — of course — go to mediation, or else. 

Here:  2007 DOCKET, different couple (or at least, father)….

It might be that she filed for divorce, and he quickly filed for DV.  I don’t know without further research.

Here’s the minutes of the order, the next day.  As you can see, the court called the DV “mutual combat” (Sure, right….) and ordered them to a “Strengthening Families Class.”

Here it is.  We are talking, now 2 YEARS (almost) before another infant son died:

EX-PARTE HEARING RE:TEMPORARY ORDERS (DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION)REQUEST FILED BY RICARDO TAGLE JR (==link here)
04/04/2007 – 8:29 AM DEPT. M3

There are “Strengthening Families” programs across the nation.  A search found one from San Bernadino, UTAH (not this case, obviously), but this is probably typical of how it’s organized and got started:

(see original link, above for visuals.  This is, naturally, an “Evidence-based” practice.  The evidence in the Tagle case, out of San Bernadino, CAL is still that something ain’t getting that job done.  ….  No matter, the court-ordered parenting classes continue…)

The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is a parenting and family skills training program that consists of 14 consecutive weekly skill-building sessions. Parents and children work separately in training sessions and then participate together in a session practicing the skills they learned earlier. Two booster sessions are used at 6 months to 1 year after the primary course. Children’s skills training sessions concentrate on setting goals, dealing with stress and emotions, communication skills, responsible behavior, and how to deal with peer pressure. Topics in the parental section include setting rules, nurturing, monitoring compliance, and applying appropriate discipline.

SFP was developed and tested in 1983 with 6- to 12-year-old children of parents in substance abuse treatment. Since then, culturally modified versions and age-adapted versions (for 3- to 5-, 10- to 14-, and 13- to 17-year-olds) with new manuals have been evaluated and found effective for families with diverse backgrounds: African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, American Indian, Australian, and Canadian.

 

WHICH (to me) JUST GOES TO PROVE, THERE’S NO “FREE” LUNCH.  YOU GO TO A NONPROFIT (POSSIBLY FUNDED B Y THE US GOV’T OR A STATE, OR BOTH) OR THE GOV’T (VIA AN AGENCY) FOR HELP — OR FOR THAT MATTER, ENROLL A CHILD IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR EDUCATION– AND YOUR CHILDREN, AND PROBABLY YOU, will, (read my lips), will BE “AT RISK” of becoming the subject of a demonstration, or randomized trial of some behavioral management theory. 

in this case, Ms. Tagle went to a judge seeking protection for her (new) infant son, and lost.  Again, I do not know that this is the same Tagle.  Possibly, possibly not.  Different man, though.  Last names not changed.  Was this a rebound relationship?

Oh yes, the 2009 docket, in reverse chronologic order.  No dissolution in this one:

• Case FAMMS900840 – KATIE TAGLE -N- STEPHEN GARCIA
  Viewed Date Action Text Disposition Image
  01/26/2010 FEE PAYMENT Not Applicable
  01/26/2010 FEE PAYMENT Not Applicable
  01/12/2010 9:00 AM DEPT. M3 OSC RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FILED BY KATIE TAGLE – Minutes Pre-D Complete
  01/11/2010 ANDREW H. LUND IS REMOVED AS ATTORNEY FOR STEPHEN GARCIA, AND PRO/PER IS ADDED AS ATTORNEY OF RECORD. Not Applicable
  01/08/2010 PROOF OF SERVICE OF SUPP DECL BY KATIE TAGLE BY MAIL ON 01/07/10 AS TO ATTORNEY ANDREW LUND, FILED. Not Applicable
  01/08/2010 DECLARATION OF KATIE M TAGLE FILED Not Applicable
  01/05/2010 PROOF OF SERVICE OF ANSWER TO TRO/IE BY MAIL ON 01/05/10 AS TO KATIE TAGLE, FILED. Not Applicable
  01/05/2010 INCOME AND EXPENSE DECLARATION FILED BY STEPHEN GARCIA Not Applicable
  01/05/2010 ANSWER TO TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER FILED BY STEPHEN GARCIA, PARTY REPRESENTED BY ANDREW H. LUND. Not Applicable
  12/15/2009 8:29 AM DEPT. M3 EX-PARTE MOTION RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – Minutes Pre-D Complete
  12/11/2009 CERTIFICATE OF ASSIGNMENT RECEIVED. Not Applicable
  12/11/2009 EX PARTE RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FILED BY KATIE TAGLE
  12/11/2009 REQUEST FOR ORDER DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION Not Applicable
  12/11/2009 REQUEST AND PARTY INFORMATION ENTERED.(DV) Not Applicable

 

Case FAMMS900840 – KATIE TAGLE -N- STEPHEN GARCIA
Action:   (Choose)02/01/2010 – ORDER FOR TRANSCRIPT02/01/2010 – ORDER FOR TRANSCRIPT01/26/2010 – FEE PAYMENT01/26/2010 – FEE PAYMENT01/12/2010 – OSC RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FI…12/15/2009 – EX-PARTE MOTION RE: DOMESTIC…
EX-PARTE MOTION RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
12/15/2009 – 8:29 AM DEPT. M3

 

DEBRA HARRIS PRESIDING.

CLERK: KIMBERLEY HATCH

COURT REPORTER GARY RAGLE GARY RAGLE

–

PETITIONER KATIE TAGLE PRESENT

RESPONDENT STEPHEN GARCIA PRESENT

SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY LORI SMITH FOR ANDREW EUND FOR RESPONDENT.

–

PROCEEDINGS:

OSC/MOTION HELD.

BOTH PARTIES ARE SWORN AND EXAMINED.

DECLARATION REGARDING EXPARTE NOTICE FILED.

EX-PARTE HEARING IS HELD.

EX PARTE ORDERS DENIED.

–

HEARINGS:

OSC RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FILED BY KATIE TAGLE IS SET FOR 01/12/10AT 09:00 IN DEPARTMENT M3.

ACTION – COMPLETE

=== MINUTE ORDER END ===

 

For those unfamiliar with the process, let me narrate:

• She asks for ex parte protection (12/11/09) which starts a process, and gives the respondent time to go get an attorney, which he does.  The request for protection stands, it’s just not ex parte — a requirement which is for safety purposes, because of potential for retaliation.
• 12/15/09 the OSC for EX PARTE (immediate, without telling the other party) protection is apparently denied and the request for protection is continued to 01/11/10.  NOTE:  Christmas seasons, holiday seasons, can be very dangerous for the parties when there’s been a breakup; as it highlights “family” and a family is breaking apart…
• On 01/05/10 the man, who by now has an attorney (WONDER WHO PAID FOR HIM…  ACCESS / Vistation FUNDING?), Mr. Lund, and files an answer.
• The parties exchange income and expense reports (if family law is going to make some money off this, it’s important to know which side has the money…. If not, they’ll be sent quickly through mediation, not evaluations….).
• On 01/07-08/10 the woman files and serves (by mail) a supplemental declaration to the man’s attorney, properly (Proof of service).
• On 01/11/10, the man’s attorney QUITS.  (not enough money in it for him?  Or, the case has already been, basically, decided).
• On 01/12/10, the OCS for a normal domestic violence protection order occurs, as follows:

OSC RE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FILED BY KATIE TAGLE
01/12/2010 – 9:00 AM DEPT. M3

• This (civil, I presume) venue tosses the ball back to the FAMILY law venue, and reminds them to be good little girls and boys, and go to Family Court Services.
• 01/26/2010 (LAST week, folks), something regarding fees is filed.
• 01/30/2010 — Father kills son on court-ordered visitation, and then himself.  (NOT ON DOCKET).
• 01/31/2010 — Sheriff’s Dept. reports to press (see top of post):

01-31, 18:38 PST HESPERIA, Calif. (AP) —

Authorities in San Bernardino County say a 25-year-old father and his 9-month-old son have died in what investigators believe is a murder-suicide.  A sheriff’s news release says deputies found Stephen Garcia and son Wyatt Garcia dead in a vehicle on a rural dirt road in the Twin Peaks area early Sunday.
The release says the Hesperia Sheriff’s Station had received a report Saturday night that Garcia took his son during a court-ordered visitation and threatened to kill the child and himself.  The department did not say how the pair died, only that they “sustained traumatic injuries.”  The county coroner will conduct an autopsy on both father and son this week.
Stephen Garcia was from the Pinon (pin-YONE) Hills area and his son was from Yucca Valley.

• 02/01/2010 Someone requests a Court Transcript.

I had not meant to spend so long on this case, After all, EVERY WEEK, even in my own Golden State, it seems someone ground up by this system, dies.  If not a child also.  I can’t keep up.

But it does illustrate the futility of (I think– make your own decision, and this is NOT legal advice) seeking a civil restraining order, versus criminal, versus, better yet, some kind of safety plan.  Then again, for women with kids leaving abuse in the family law, there does not appear to be any safety.  Congressmen (Danny Davis was active in a case) will help fathers haul kids back from overseas (China, Brazil, come to mind recently), but good luck getting yours back from your own state, or a next door state.  

And again, a word to the wse — not that it’s an excuse — but cool it on the rebound relationships, if this was one.

AND — whoever posted on Facebook, and whoever SAW what was posted on facebook (i.e., a cry to have his threats taken seriously, as they should’ve been), YOU are responsible if you knew this couple, and did nothing.  Sorry, but you are. 

AND all of us need to get on the stick about this family law system.  The AFCC and all their experts that PROFIT from these situations leading to, basically, more deaths, is convening in February — this month.  Do research, people!  It’s not rocket science, just an investment of time!

I think that if marriage, and relationships are continuing to be this dangerous to have, and leave, it is a testament to the strength of testosterone (and other hormones) that people continue to engage in sex, let alone ongoing relationships.  Good grief!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A task force or a committee is not going to stop this stuff.  A good audit, ongoing, by someone with courage (and other source of income) MIGHT make a dent….

Wish I had time to say more, but I don’t.