came all this way, why wait?" She hands me one of the packets, two pages stapled together.
In inch-high letters across the Cop the words--press release-- so everybody knows what it is. Contact: Zolanda Suade, and her phone number.
Vanishing Victims, a self-help organization for abused women and their children, today announced that it is bringing charges of child molestation and rape against a man who won one of the largest payouts in the history of the state lottery.
"I want the taxpayers to know what they're supporting," she says.
I continue reading: Jonah S. Hale, a resident of the wealthy seaside community of Del Mar in San Diego County, has been charged by the organization with the forcible rape of his daughter, Jessica. On at least three separate occasions. Hale is alleged to have sexually assaulted his daughter, who at the time was a minor. In addition, Hale is charged with having molested his granddaughter, a minor who had been placed in his care under a formal custody order entered by the San Diego Superior Court more than a year ago. The child's name is being withheld.
In her all-knowing arrogance Suade has written it not in the style of a press release but with the tone of a news story, an accomplished fact, as if Vanishing Victims were a public agency and her libel of Jonah were a grand jury indictment.
"You've got to be kidding."
"Hardly," she says.
"What evidence have you got?"
"Jessica's testimony in a sworn affidavit."
"A pack of lies from a jealous and vindictive daughter," I tell her.
"You know she tried to get money from her father and that he turned her down. Jessica's engaged in extortion and now you're helping her."
"What I would expect from you," she says. "A mouthpiece for the male establishment. How much is your client paying you?"
"And I could call you a self-appointed vigilante. We can call each other names, but it doesn't address the issue of evidence."
"It's the truth," says Suade. She raises one hand as if in a mock oath.
"Though I wouldn't expect someone like you to believe it.
Read on. It gets better," she says.
"Besides the rantings of a convicted felon, a drug addict, what else have you got?"
"Former drug addict," she says. "She's rehabilitated herself."
"She tell you that? Fine, for the moment, former drug addict who wants money. Did she tell you that she offered to leave Amanda with her grandparents if they paid her enough?" Suade doesn't answer, but her eyes don't lie.
"She didn't, did she?"
"That's an easy thing to say."
"Just like allegations of rape and child molestation. Put it this way, I'd believe Jonah and Mary Hale before I believed their daughter on virtually any subject."
"I know the woman's background," she says. "I'll tell you what else I know. I know that agencies in this county have been carrying water and providing cover for people like Jonah Hale for years.
Men of influence with money," she says. "The old boys' club."
"You don't know anything about Jonah Hale other than the fact that he won the lottery and that his daughter likes to tell lies."
"I know that the authorities wouldn't have listened to Jessica Hale if she'd gone to the cops with a videotape of the evidence.
Well, it's all going to come out now. Read it," she says. "Go ahead." I look down at the sheet again.
"No, not there," she says. "The next page." She rips it from my hand and flips the sheet over. "There. Read right there." The pressure of her fingernail on the paper actually leaves an impression under the words.
Charges against Hale were known to county officials and a number of public agencies, including the Department of Children's Protective Services, which did nothing in response.
Instead, they assisted Hale in his attempts to obtain formal custody of the child in question. The failure to act on the part of the county is part of a much larger and more serious scandal, involving public corruption and criminal wrongdoing on the part of county officials.
These officials will be
In inch-high letters across the Cop the words--press release-- so everybody knows what it is. Contact: Zolanda Suade, and her phone number.
Vanishing Victims, a self-help organization for abused women and their children, today announced that it is bringing charges of child molestation and rape against a man who won one of the largest payouts in the history of the state lottery.
"I want the taxpayers to know what they're supporting," she says.
I continue reading: Jonah S. Hale, a resident of the wealthy seaside community of Del Mar in San Diego County, has been charged by the organization with the forcible rape of his daughter, Jessica. On at least three separate occasions. Hale is alleged to have sexually assaulted his daughter, who at the time was a minor. In addition, Hale is charged with having molested his granddaughter, a minor who had been placed in his care under a formal custody order entered by the San Diego Superior Court more than a year ago. The child's name is being withheld.
In her all-knowing arrogance Suade has written it not in the style of a press release but with the tone of a news story, an accomplished fact, as if Vanishing Victims were a public agency and her libel of Jonah were a grand jury indictment.
"You've got to be kidding."
"Hardly," she says.
"What evidence have you got?"
"Jessica's testimony in a sworn affidavit."
"A pack of lies from a jealous and vindictive daughter," I tell her.
"You know she tried to get money from her father and that he turned her down. Jessica's engaged in extortion and now you're helping her."
"What I would expect from you," she says. "A mouthpiece for the male establishment. How much is your client paying you?"
"And I could call you a self-appointed vigilante. We can call each other names, but it doesn't address the issue of evidence."
"It's the truth," says Suade. She raises one hand as if in a mock oath.
"Though I wouldn't expect someone like you to believe it.
Read on. It gets better," she says.
"Besides the rantings of a convicted felon, a drug addict, what else have you got?"
"Former drug addict," she says. "She's rehabilitated herself."
"She tell you that? Fine, for the moment, former drug addict who wants money. Did she tell you that she offered to leave Amanda with her grandparents if they paid her enough?" Suade doesn't answer, but her eyes don't lie.
"She didn't, did she?"
"That's an easy thing to say."
"Just like allegations of rape and child molestation. Put it this way, I'd believe Jonah and Mary Hale before I believed their daughter on virtually any subject."
"I know the woman's background," she says. "I'll tell you what else I know. I know that agencies in this county have been carrying water and providing cover for people like Jonah Hale for years.
Men of influence with money," she says. "The old boys' club."
"You don't know anything about Jonah Hale other than the fact that he won the lottery and that his daughter likes to tell lies."
"I know that the authorities wouldn't have listened to Jessica Hale if she'd gone to the cops with a videotape of the evidence.
Well, it's all going to come out now. Read it," she says. "Go ahead." I look down at the sheet again.
"No, not there," she says. "The next page." She rips it from my hand and flips the sheet over. "There. Read right there." The pressure of her fingernail on the paper actually leaves an impression under the words.
Charges against Hale were known to county officials and a number of public agencies, including the Department of Children's Protective Services, which did nothing in response.
Instead, they assisted Hale in his attempts to obtain formal custody of the child in question. The failure to act on the part of the county is part of a much larger and more serious scandal, involving public corruption and criminal wrongdoing on the part of county officials.
These officials will be
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