Senators call for investigation into 'stalking apps'

http://www.echopress.com/event/article/id/89106/group/News/

Today, U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led a bipartisan group of Senators in calling on key federal agencies for an investigation into mobile phone “stalking apps.” The apps are designed to allow domestic abusers and stalkers to secretly track a victim’s movement and location, read a victim’s email and text messages, or listen to a victim’s phone calls – all without the victim’s knowledge or consent.

Sens. Franken and Grassley wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice and urged the agencies to determine whether such apps are legal under current law. The letter was also signed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

“Stalking apps are dangerous,” the senators wrote in the letter. “We ask that you quickly determine if they are also illegal. If so, we ask that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission use their full force to investigate and prosecute those behind the development and marketing of these products for illegal stalking.”

Stalking apps are directly marketed to individuals seeking to secretly track their spouses and intimate partners. “Worried about your spouse cheating?” one apps’ website asked, offering the ability to “Track every text, every call and every move They make Using our easy Cell Phone Spy Software.” Other apps make similar claims, telling users that they can “track her movements throughout the day” or even “tap her actual phone call.” According to 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics data, some 26,000 Americans are victims of GPS stalking annually, including by cell phone – although most advocates believe that number if considerably larger in 2011.

The letter cites an example of a victim from St. Louis County, Minnesota, who was tracked by her abuser through her smartphone during her trips to various county buildings to obtain an Order of Protection against him. This example was drawn from testimony submitted by the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women and the National Network to End Domestic Violence to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which Senator Franken chairs.

Tags:news, updates, politics, technology

Litigation Abuse, Parental Alienation and the Family Court

http://www.ncjfcj.org/images/stories/dept/fvd/pdf/judicial%20guide.pdf


The above link connects you to a free guide entitled  " A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases" prepared by the Family Violence Department of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

C. [§3.3] A Word of Caution about Parental Alienation


Under relevant evidentiary standards, the court should not accept testimony regarding

parental alienation syndrome, or “PAS.” The theory positing the existence of PAS has been

discredited by the scientific community. In Kumho Tire v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137 (1999),

the Supreme Court ruled that even expert testimony based in the “soft sciences” must meet

the standard set in the Daubert case. Daubert, in which the court re-examined the

standard it had earlier articulated in the Frye case, requires application of a multi-factor

test, including peer review, publication, testability, rate of error, and general acceptance.

PAS does not pass this test. Any testimony that a party to a custody case suffers from the

syndrome or “parental alienation” should therefore be ruled inadmissible and stricken from

the evaluation report under both the standard established in Daubert and the earlier Frye

standard.

ABA study urges NJ ethics committees be abolished - August 2011

ABA Panel Suggests Attorney Discipline Be Wrested From District Committees
http://www.law.com/jsp/nj/PubArticleNJ.jsp?id=1202509474397&hubtype=MAIN%20PAGE&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Michael Booth

New Jersey Law Journal

August 3, 2011

An American Bar Association panel is recommending an overhaul of New Jersey's attorney disciplinary system, suggesting first and foremost that the functions now handled by the district ethics committees be assumed by the Office of Attorney Ethics.

The NJ Supreme Court has published the report from the ABA

http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/notices/2011/n110803a.pdf 
and is soliciting comments through Friday, September 30, 2011

Comments on this report may be submitted by Internet e-mail to Comments.Mailbox@judiciary.state.nj.us

My personal experience at an April 2011 district ethics hearing supports this recommendation.   I filed a complaint against an attorney who served a subpoena on the Marlboro Police to obtain all of the police reports that I filed relating to my stalking.  This subpoena was served without any litigation pending.  Judge Michael Guadagno's opinion in the case on the illegal use of subpoena became a published opinion.  This attorney kept the improperly obtained police reports and after Judge Guadagno was transferred to another county, the attorney began filing motions against me using the police reports.  Those motions also termed vexatious litigation lasted for two years and abused me and my family financially and emotionally.   On the morning of the ethics hearing held at Lomurro Davison Eastman and Munoz, the district secretary Kathleen Sheedy barged into a side conference room where i was standing with my attorney and the prosecutor.  The district secretary, who is at least twice my size, began screaming at me while walking towards me causing me to eventually back up against a wall.  District Secretary Kathleen Sheedy was upset about the submission of a victim impact statement.  With my back firmly against a wall, I told the district secretary Kathy Sheedy that her behavior was abusive and if she did not stop screaming at me, I would leave the room.  At that point the district secretary told me that if I left the room, the district hearing would be cancelled.  I had no choice but to endure the abuse.  The attorney brought up on ethics charges was a former member of this panel and as my attorney explained to me likely a friend of the ethics secretary.   This behavior by the ethics secretary was unethical and meant to intimidate me before I testified.    Local  ethics committees need to be abolished. 

Kudos to Assemblyman Peter Barnes for crafting legislation to create a civil stalkng law for NJ

Here is a link to A 4086; 
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2010/Bills/A4500/4086_I1.HTM

NJ stalking victims will soon have a new remedy to resolve their stalking and effectively remove their stalker from their lives.  The civil stalking law will turn the tables on the vengeful bull dog stalker who relentlessly pursues their victim for years causing irreparable harm.

NJ's criminal stalking law is not vague.  The current NJ criminal stalking law was crafted based on my case of third party stalking by the police who were helping me.  The legislation was in place in the summer of 2009 when my stalking escalated.  The Monmouth County Prosecutors office declined my case because I had not been physically harmed.  If I was homicide victim after being stalked and tortured for over a decade, prosecuting the case would have been a slam dunk. While I was still alive, too much effort would have been required and too many valuable resources expended to uphold the law and prosecute the case.  I wasn't murdered because I was fortunate to receive help from the FBI.   In six weeks the FBI identifed the third party stalker.  In 13 years, the Monmouth County Prosecutors office did nothing to stop the stalking.

The problem with the criminal stalking law is the people in place in NJ that are tasked to uphold the criminal stalking law either don't care or are too lazy to mount a case.  No one in Trenton is bothering to hold them responsible. 

A civil stalking law will give victims the necessary tool to fight back. 

NJ bill would allow stalking victims to sue in civil court June 2011

http://www.cliffviewpilot.com/beyond/2475-nj-bill-would-allow-stalking-victims-to-sue-in-civil-court

Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:09 Jerry DeMarco

Lawmakers in Trenton are considering a measure that would give stalking victims the chance to sue in civil court for monetary damages, even if the accused stalker hasn’t been criminally convicted -- or even charged.

Ten other states have already put such civil measures in place, giving stalking victims greater recourse, notes Assemblyman Peter Barnes of Middlesex County, who is sponsoring the New Jersey bill.

In a criminal prosecution, convictions require a judge or jury find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil court, however, all that’s needed is a preponderance of evidence.

“In a prosecution for stalking, elements of the offense can be difficult to establish; for example, evidentiary issues involving physical or corroborating evidence of a stalking may not be readily available,” the measure introduced this week says. “It is the sponsor’s view that this lower standard of proof for civil actions will enable victims of stalking to receive compensation for the damage caused by the unlawful behavior.”

A-4086 would make a civil wrong of conduct prohibited under the state’s criminal stalking statute, "whether or not the individual has been charged or convicted for the alleged violation, for damages incurred by the victim as a result of that conduct, in addition to the costs for bringing the action."

If compensatory damages are awarded, victims could seek punitive damages, as well, the proposed bill says, defining a “victim” as anyone “placed in reasonable fear for his own personal safety or for the safety of a minor child of whom the person is a parent or legal guardian.”

The other states that have created similar laws: California, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming.
The proposed civil measure mimics New Jersey’s criminal statutes, which some critics call vague.

Stalking in New Jersey doesn’t require “Fatal Attraction”-like behavior. The stalker doesn’t even have to make direct contact with a victim to be charged. It could involve “repeatedly maintaining visual or physical proximity to a person (directly or indirectly) or through third parties by any action, including electronic,” as well as “repeated acts of harassment.”

June 19, 1998 scary movie call - AT&T answering machine tape just out of the evidence vault June 17, 2011

Governor Christie - I shouldn't have to learn about Joe's suicide note from the Nordstrom sales associate who sold me a Tory Burch handbag 16 months after Joe committed suicide!! Why did the Monmouth County Prosecutors office fail to use NJ's stalking law A1563?

The Monmouth County Prosecutors office is not upholding the laws of the state of NJ.

We have a law on the books that protects women and men from stalkers.

http://law.njstatelib.org/law_files/njlh/lh2009/L2009c28.pdf

That law took effect March 21, 2009.   That law was sponsored by over 40 of our Senate and Assemblymen and women and unanimously passed.

The legislation A1563 updated the current NJ stalking law to incorporate third party stalking.  My decade long case of third party stalking that began on Christmas Eve in 1997 when someone using the voicechanger from the movie "Scream" called my home to recite dialogue from the movie was the impetus to update the stalking law.  I was stalked to Disney World on my birthday and it was the voice from the movie "Scream" calling my hotel room to sing Happy Birthday to me.  Under the current law written by Marlboro Sgt Yenisey and Manalapan Chief Brown based on my case, the criteria to launch an investigation into a stalking is course of conduct, pattern of behavior.

I have a letter from Michael Cunningham at the Monmouth County Prosecutors office dated May 14, 2009 that alerts me to the fact that the new stalking legislation that took effect in March 2009 based on my case of third party stalking is not retroactive.  However, Mr Cunningham writes that should my case of third party stalking escalate, my new law will be used to help me. 

My stalking escalated into a series of  threats in August of 2009 that occurred 24 hours before and 48 hours after a family court hearing.   In one of the voicemail threats, the third party stalker told me " I've got your cell phone number and that is not all I have - you are going to get yours".  ID Discovery Channel used two of the actual messages in the documentary they filmed on my stalking entitled Stalked Someone's Watching Dangerous Games ( the show is available on itunes).  I attached above the threatening phone call they did not use.  The third party stalker was calling me and hanging up in June 2009, 4 hours before my flight departed Newark airport and 4 hours before my return flight was scheduled to take off.  My itinerary was displayed on my American Express statement.  The day after I began to receive threatening messages, a man on Elizabeth St in NYC began to use my credit card to order food and deliver it to his apartment. 

In August of 2009 the Monmouth County Prosecutors office declined the case because I had not been physically harmed.  Other than taking a police report, the Marlboro Police were prohibited from helping me.  The new stalking law that was in effect when my stalking escalated did not require me to be a homicide victim or the victim of attempted murder.  I reached out to Lynn Rosenthal at the White House Office on Violence Against Women and I drove a copy of  the CD that contained the threats to FBI Agent Gallagher who deemed them credible threats.

Sandy Clark from the NJ Coalition for Battered Women phoned Deputy AG Kristianson who then reached out to AP Brennan to tell him that the AG's office wanted him to use my law to help me.   In Sept of 2009 Brennan sent detectives into NYC to question the man using my Amex card to order food and deliver it to his apartment.  The man in NYC who was subletting an apartment on Elizabeth St that was two doors down from the 5th precinct admitted to the crime however instead of calling for back up from the NYPD to make the arrest, the detectives turned around and went back to NJ .

In six weeks, FBI Agent RJ Gallagher and Marlboro Sgt Yenisey identified the third party stalker when he used his credit card to repurchase minutes to his throw away cell phone.  Assistant US Attorney McKenna was in charge of my federal stalking case.   The third party stalker admitted to stalking and threatening me and then he lawyered up.  The stalker through his attorney was attempting to plead down to a lesser charge but the US Attorneys office was not permitting him to do so.  To avoid facing federal prosecution, the third party stalker committed suicide on Jan 4, 2010. 

On Jan 5, 2010 Governor Christie appointed Assistant US Attorney McKenna to the position of Director of Homeland Security.  McKenna handed down my file to the Monmouth County Prosecutors office who informed me about Joe Pate being identified as the third party stalker and also informed me about identification of the man in NYC who was using my Amex card.  I was told there would be an investigation into the suicide.  Joe was a third party stalker yet somehow he knew every detail about me. 

AP Brennan never answered any of my questions about the suicide.  The MCPO waited 5 months to follow up on the man in NYC fraudulently using my Amex card and by that time according to NYPD Detective Oliver and Bureau Chief Salwen at the Manhattan DA's office the suspect had packed up his sublet and left NYC.   Did the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office really think that this criminal was going sit in his apartment in NYC for five months and wait for them to return with handcuffs?

I never received a reply from AP Brennan about the questions I asked following Pate's suicide.  However, I got answers from the Nordstrom sales associate who sold me a new Tory Burch handbag to take on vacation last month.  This lovely young woman who patiently spent time finding the perfect handbag for me misspelled my name on the delivery tag.  I asked her to correct the spelling of the name because I explained that I had a problem in the past with a stalker and when I check into the hotel I am going to change the name on the room and I did not want the item to get lost.  The next sentence out of her mouth was "Joe Pate stalked you".  When I asked her if she saw the ID Discovery Channel show, she told me that she was a member of the First Aid Squad who was the first responder to the suicide.  I learned about the suicide note from the Nordstrom sales associate.  I learned that this was not his first attempt at suicide.  I learned that Joe was friends with a police officer and called the officer before he lit the fire that killed him.  I should not have to learn specifics about a case where I was a crime victim from a sales associate at Nordstrom.  I would expect that the people paid by my tax dollars to investigate and prosecute the crime would be the people who should have answered my questions that I posed 16 months ago in a series of emails.

I never got any answers from the Monmouth County Prosecutors office but in addition to a lovely new Tory Burch turnlock mini bag in chambray I got details about the case that I never knew but details I later confirmed to be correct with the police.  I am shocked and dismayed that these were details that the Monmouth County Prosecutors office never bothered to look for and are only aware of thanks to me.

Governor Christie - you were the Governor in mid January 2010 when the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office was supposed to be investigating the suicide.  You pulled Charlie McKenna off my case to go to work for the State of NJ and that move dumped my case into the inept and bungling hands of the Monmouth County Prosecutors office.   It is time to fire up the State Helicopter and head on down to the Monmouth County Prosecutors office to begin teaching a course in CrimeFighting 101.   You need to clean house.  I suffered through the stalking for 13 years and I refuse to pay taxes towards the salaries of the "team" who bungled the investigation and prosecution of my crime of stalking.