Utah’s System of Injustice
And a Call for Justice
3/19/11
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief
that human history is shaped. Each time a
man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes
out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” Robert F. Kennedy
“When we neglect to make others accountable for their
injustices, we are guilty of condoning that injustice.” White Buffalo Woman
Injustice is defined as “unfair or
unjust treatment of somebody.” It’s been
nearly a year and half since my unjust arrest at Heartsong Healing Center in Holladay, Utah and so I thought it was
about time to update everyone on what’s happened since then. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the
details of that event, I will brief you on what happened as part of my
affidavit below.
On January 5, 2010 around 1:30 p.m.
my daughter, Destiny, knocked on the door of my private therapy room telling me
to get dressed as there were cops at Heartsong wanting to arrest me. I was in the middle of a sacred healing
ceremony called Ananda Nirvana which
in Sanskrit means “Blissful Heaven.”
This ceremony is not unlike an advanced form of the “Washing and
Anointing Endowment Ceremony” which I modeled after going through the Mormon
Temple in 1979. Since then I have been excommunicated from the LDS Church
(without a court hearing mind you) because my husband, at the time, had joined
the Mormon Fundamentalists Church.
I was ordained a minister of the
Christian Disciples Church International on March 5, 1999, filed for a 501c3
Church status, and have owned and managed four different holistic healing
centers in Utah. I’ve been called of God
to minister to the holistic health needs of others, especially those who are
trapped in unwholesome or unholy relationships.
As a youth growing up in the Mormon Church I’ve witnessed first-hand
what society and religion has done to suppress the natural needs and tendencies
of humans in an attempt to control them.
This has resulted in imbalances in the chakra and/or energy system of
the body which has caused debilitating and degenerative diseases. I watched my own father suffer and die from
prostate cancer and heart disease because his own sexual needs were neglected
and was forced to express them on others in damaging and unnatural ways. I discovered as an adult that he was a
“closet-case homosexual” (or rather bi-sexual) and raped my two older brothers
when he took them on business trips with him when they were young. My mother, who was a frigid Mormon housewife,
suffered from female problems resulting in a hysterectomy in her early forties
due, in part, to her own suppressed sexual needs. I suppose this has been some of the
incentives which have drawn me to holistic and tantric healing. As an Ordained Minister of my own church The Church of the Gathering of What is Real
which is based on the principles, ordinances, and sacred ceremonies found in
the Gnostic/Essene, Tantric and Shamanic practices which were traditionally
performed in the nude; and also as a practicing Naturist and Tantric
Bodyworker, I prefer to perform my sacred whole body ceremonies au naturel— or as God intended.
The church member I was ministering
to at the time of my arrest had signed all of the necessary legal disclosure
forms, which included disclosing if he/she was a law enforcement officer and
also signing a private membership form which he was informed enrolled him as a
member of “The Church.” These forms had
all been prepared by my attorney (who was a client of mine and wishes to remain
anonymous) as legal protection for administering ordinances to any of my church
members in the nude which ordinances included Watsu/Waterdance (our form of Gnostic Baptism), TanThai (facilitated Tantric Thai yoga
which helps open up energy channels), and the Ananda Nirvana Ceremony (involving sacred Aruvedic/Lomi Lomi
massage, chakra energy work and hot towel washing of the body). These are the sacred ordinances performed by
me as the Minister of my Church and are intended to open up Kundalini and
Tantric energies so that the member can obtain “gnosis” or a direct connection
with God.
Prior to this particular Ananda Nirvana Ceremony, the church
member agreed not to be draped and
also agreed to allow me to practice as I normally practice sacred bodywork au naturel by mutual adult consent. I then asked him if there were any
relationship issues I needed to be aware of and he indicated that there
weren’t. I also verbally explained that
this was not a sexual solicitation,
but the intent was for holistic healing of the body, mind and spirit—and not to create harm or damage to anyone in any way. He agreed to all of
the clearly disclosed terms of agreement while we were both still dressed. I then lit the ceremonial candles, turned out
the lights and selected some engaging Chakra music while he got undressed and
onto the table to lie face down. I then
undressed so I wouldn’t get any of the warmed, organic coconut oil on my
clothing while performing the over and under the body Aruvedic and sacred Lomi
Lomi strokes as the church member lay on the warm, oiled table. This treatment is similar to the sacred
“laying on of hands” ordinance work done in Mormon, Hawaiian, and Hindu
“Tantric” temples and I consider myself
a sacred temple-worker.
About 30 minutes into the ceremony,
just after I’d asked my church member to turn over, there came a knock at the
door from my daughter telling me that the police were there. Before I or my church member could get dressed
so as not to expose ourselves to my daughter (who gets embarrassed around
nudity) or to those who might be outside the door in the waiting area, two male
police officers and one female officer burst through the door and into my
private therapy room in order to arrest me.
I politely asked them to leave and to close the door so that I could get
dressed and so that my church member could also get dressed. But they insisted on leaving the door wide
open to expose us and then stayed in the room gawking at the two of us
naked. I actually had to ask permission
to grab an available bathrobe to hand to the church member and then grabbed
another one for myself.
I sat on the edge of the massage
table in my white bathrobe and was interrogated for over an hour concerning my
“Sacred Ceremony” while my church member (now dressed and handcuffed) was
interrogated in the other room on the couch.
He was then released without being charged. (I found out later he was an undercover
detective in some type of “sting” operation.)
After thoroughly explaining to the officers about our Church’s spiritual
tantric practices, I notice blood running down my legs and onto the wood
floor. I’m in the midst of a very heavy
period as I’m pre-menopausal, and have had eleven children. The tampon I’d been wearing had reached its
maximum absorbency and so I politely asked if I could change into my clothes
and replace it with a sanitary napkin.
I’m met with severe resistance from the male “peace officers,” but
finally the female officer takes pity on me and escorts me into my own bathroom
where I am forced to disrobe in front of her in order to change into my clothes
and take care of my female issues. I was
utterly embarrassed and humiliated!
After I changed, the interrogation
resumed in the sitting room where I submitted all applicable paperwork
including our Church Proclamation information, our “Articles of Faith”, our
private Church Membership forms, and my Kundalini/Tantric
Energy Awakening Class curriculum to the officers. I was more than willing to oblige the police
officers in any way and offered any information they wanted concerning
my therapy work as a Holistic Health Practitioner, Minister and Tantric
Bodyworker. I also offered them a guided
tour of Heartsong Healing Center to
show them all of our facilities because frankly, I had nothing to hide. The ten arresting officers declined the offer
because I found out they had already searched my entire premises (which is also
my residence and spiritual sanctuary) without a search warrant. Later that day my son, Jonathan told me that
one of the officers had brutally kicked him in the shin when he refused to
answer his questions.
After the intense interrogation, I
was asked to surrender my I.D. to arresting officer “Hall” so that he could
issue me a citation for “sexual solicitation.”
I, quite honestly, was dumbfounded to think that I, a 52-year-old mother
of 11 children and grandmother of 15 grandchildren, was capable of “soliciting
sex” in my own home and church sanctuary.
I then asked the officers point-blank if this was simply a case of
harassment because of my outspoken opinions concerning the five women who were
arrested up at Diamond Fork. They gave
me a sideward glance and I then asked them if they were familiar with the articles
in the Deseret News and City Weekly where I’m quoted in defense
of these women fire-fighters:
That
angers naturists like "J Bird," who says she has been going to
Diamond Fork for clothing-optional meetings for years.
They
call it "Church of the Hot Springs," and it has become a meeting
place of spirituality and a way to enjoy the elements with all skin exposed,
she said.
"We've
had meetings up there for years and years and never run into anything quite so
horrid. I am just appalled at the treatment those women got."
She
said getting "skin deep" in the wild has nothing to do with
sexuality.
"We
get close to nature, close to God and are free from the limitations that
society imposes on us."
As
a result of the October encounter, Bird's group is tentatively planning a
"soak-in" as a protest.
(Deseret News, December 9, 2009)
Holladay’s
Heartsong Healing Center spa owner Janae “Jesse” Bird knows one man who
coordinated some of those improvements about a decade ago. Bird’s friend became less active in the
naturist community after receiving a lewdness citation at another of Utah’s hot
springs. Because he works with
juveniles, Bird says, he rarely ventures to the springs anymore.
Bird is
also a minister to about 500 people who attend The Church of the Gathering of
what is Real or, when they gather at Diamond Fork, The Church of the Hot
Springs. She feels the threat of
receiving lewdness citations for nude bathing at Diamond Fork violates her
religious freedom.
“A lot of
times, when Christ spoke, it was out in nature,” she says. “That’s where we feel most close to God, and
close to each other.”
Bird hopes
to organize a “soak-in” to protest the lewdness citations, but no date has been
set.
In a paper
she wrote for her church in 2007, Bird quoted the Gospel of Thomas, a book of Jesus’ teachings thought to be written
about 100 A.D. but not discovered until 1945.
In it, disciples ask Jesus, “When will you appear to us?” Jesus responds, “When you strip without being
ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little
children and trample them, then you will see the son of the living one and you
will not be afraid. (“Naked Zeal” by
Jesse Fruhwirth, page 14 of December 17, 2009 City Weekly)
All of the officers present confirmed
that they were familiar with the two articles exposing the Utah County
Sheriff’s Department for their “illegal arrests” of the female skinny-dippers
up at Diamond Fork. I told them I felt
they were now sexually harassing me and persecuting me for my own religious
beliefs. I refused to surrender my I.D.
in order for Officer Hall to process the citation and told him, “This is like
unto a traffic officer asking a pedestrian to surrender their I.D. in order to
issue a traffic violation when the pedestrian isn’t even in the car traveling
down the highway!”
Officer Hall didn’t appreciate my
response and then when I asked him concerning the charges and why I was being
charged with “sexual solicitation,” he got real
belligerent with me and said that it was “none of my business and that would
all come out at my court hearing.” I
asked him if there had been any complaints issued that he was investigating and
he again told me that “all that would be discussed in court”. I then firmly told him that he was in violation
of my constitutional rights as a private, law-abiding citizen to barge into my
private home and church sanctuary without probable cause or a search warrant
and disrupt my privacy and sacred space.
I told him that my hospitality in allowing the “peace officers” into my
home had ended. I then politely but
firmly asked all ten police officers to leave my home unless they could show me
a search warrant and probable cause to arrest me—which they refused to do
.
Officer Hall didn’t like my attitude
so he grabbed my arms, twisting them hard up behind my back, handcuffed me and
dragged me to his police car. I begged
him to release me and informed him that I was now bleeding through to my
clothes and needed to change my pad. He
didn’t have an ounce of compassion for me but simply threw a blanket over his
passenger seat to protect his upholstery and shoved me hard into the front seat
next to him. He then drove me to the
Salt Lake County Jail where I spent the next 6 hours being booked, body
searched, and fingerprinted.
As I sat in the holding tank for
over two hours with my arms uncomfortably pinned behind me, excruciatingly
tight handcuffs digging into my wrists, and blood from my now saturated
sanitary napkin flowing out onto my capris (I’d asked several guards to allow
me to change my pad but they ignored me), I recalled the only other time I was
arrested. It was after I’d escaped my
polygamous relationship and I was arrested for trespassing on my own property
in Montana in order to see my ten children which my polygamist ex-husband had
been holding hostage for six months.
After spending a night in jail, crying my eyes out, the female judge
released me with permission to “go home and horse-whip my husband.”
This time after six hours of being
held against my will, roughly bodily searched, fingerprinted and booked, I was
released on my own recognizance. My
police record was impeccable as I’ve never had even so much as an unpaid
parking ticket in my 52-year history. I
pride myself in being a law-abiding citizen and have attempted to run Heartsong Healing Center in accordance
with all the Utah laws. It has been
difficult but I have never had any complaints from anyone in the nearly two years I’d been in business. As a card-carrying Naturist, I feel I have
the right to practice my profession in the privacy of my own home and sanctuary
the way I feel most comfortable. Heartsong is modeled after Harbin Hot Springs and the Bellagio, where I was one of their lead
therapists. I learned Watsu/Waterdance
(which the Bellagio paid for) and
Aruvedic massage at Harbin which is a
clothing-optional spiritual retreat center in California’s beautiful Napa
Valley where traditionally these therapies are performed in the nude. Nudity there is considered “sacred” and I can
honestly say I have never used my
naked body to solicit sex. I feel our
bodies are “sacred temples” and are where we worship God. Our “church members only” massages are
specifically designed for holistic (holy) healing of the body, mind and spirit
and if I am guilty of anything, it’s being too open about my spiritual beliefs
and practices.
As a youth growing up in the LDS
religion I remember having to memorize the twelve Articles of Faith in order to receive my Duty to God Award in Primary.
One of my favorite Articles of
Faith was number eleven which states: “We claim the privilege of
worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and
allow all men (and women) the same privilege.
Let them worship how, where or what they may.”
I modeled my own Church of the Gathering of What is Real
Articles of Faith after these same Mormon Articles of Faith as I believe they were an excellent structure for
mine. My own Articles of Faith 11-13
state:
11) We believe that our bodies are
our temples and claim the privilege of worshiping God in our own temples
according to the dictates of our own conscience. We believe that whatever happens between
consenting adults is sacred and holy, not subject to interference of other
persons, Church or State. Let us worship
how, where or what we may.
12) We believe in submitting to
Constitutional Law which allows for the pursuit of health, wealth, happiness
and freedom. We also believe that any
law which prevents the full endowment of the Holy Spirit is a corruption of
mankind and a form of unrighteous dominion.
13) We believe that the two greatest
evils are fear and ignorance. We believe
that faith and gnosis (true knowledge) are the remedies for these two evils
(evil meaning opposite of live). We also
believe that God is Love and is the Master of everything that we do. So let us let go and let God.
Two weeks after my arrest I was
summoned by letter to appear before a court hearing at the Holladay Court House
to defend my business license. I tried to
call the court to see if I needed to obtain legal counsel or bring any of the
necessary church paperwork with me but could not get any information from
anyone. Jesse Fruwirth from City Weekly also called to see if he
could attend the hearing as he was interested in covering the story, but again
he could not get any information from anyone.
I literally felt like Daniel
stepping into the lion’s den when I faced my accusers alone and unarmed: the arresting officers, the administrator in
charge of business licensing, and their own attorney. But Brad and my Angel Guides were present
supporting me as I bore witness of what had happened at Heartsong. I was also able
to cross examine two of the arresting officers myself whose testimonies were
recorded by a court reporter. The
undercover detective (who had fraudulently misrepresented himself as “Greg
Stevens” on his paperwork) testified on the stand under oath that he had indeed
been informed that this was not a
massage but a sacred church ceremony and that he had consented as an adult
church member to be unclothed as well as requested me to be nude before the
ceremony began. He also admitted that he
had consented to a “whole body healing” ceremony which included touching every
part of his body. Like I said these
testimonies were recorded by a court reporter and have now been placed as
evidence for my criminal trial.
Nevertheless the business licensing officer after hearing all the
evidence and apologizing to me, remarking that he felt I was truly sincere in
the holistic healing I offered but decided to cancel my business license anyway
as he felt that what I did was “inappropriate for the Holladay Mormon
community.” And then the cops made sure
that I wouldn’t continue doing business under my Church Minister’s license
(which was within my civil rights to do) by posting themselves at all times at
the 7/11 store outside Heartsong and
had a compliance officer drive through our parking lot constantly and
especially on Sundays when I continued with my Sunday Worship Services. A few short months later, I was forced out of
my home, my church and my business which I’d spent over $35,000 in
improvements, including installing my own Watsu
pool and Jacuzzi, as I was unable to
pay the rent.
As for my criminal trial—now that’s
a whole other story! My first
court-appointed attorney was a man named Andrew (I can’t remember his last name
as he was Russian) and since he was also the attorney assigned to my daughter,
Destiny, who was charged with “Performing massage without a license” they
informed me that it was a “conflict of interests” and so I was assigned Tonya Hashimoto as my attorney. On our first appearance in court on September
30, 2010 I was given a plea bargain to plead guilty to “sexual solicitation” so
that the other charges of “prostitution,” “unlawful massage” and “refusing to
show I.D. to a police officer” were dropped.
Tonya counseled me not to
plead guilty to any of the charges as
she felt I was innocent of all charges
and wanted to see this case go to trial before a jury of my peers. She also told me to appeal the business
license court decision as she said they couldn’t legally pull my business
license without due process in convicting me of a crime. She then asked for a continuance so that we
could get all of our witnesses lined up for a jury trial. Then the next court date Tonya informed me
that District Attorney Lohra Miller was “mad as hell” at me because I’d gone public with my case as the cover story
for City Weekly—so they couldn’t just
silently drop all the charges. But
instead of setting up a court date for a jury hearing trial—Tonya asked for
another continuance.
Then the next thing I know Tonya is
dropped as my court-appointed attorney and replaced by another attorney named
Debbie Levi. On my next appearance in
court on December 15, 2010 (which Debbie informed me while I was in Hawaii that
I didn’t need to be present to but
then the day before said I did need
to be there or I would be in contempt) someone from the District Attorney’s office
shows up and Debbie informs me that they absolutely
do not want this case to go to trial
and so she tries to apply serious
pressure on me to take their new plea bargain for “unlawful massage.” She insists that she doesn’t think she can
defend this charge as I was a licensed massage therapist at the time of the
arrest. I then asked her if she had read
any of the transcripts from the
business licensing hearing which details that I was not acting as a massage therapist at the time but as an Ordained Minister of my own church while I was
doing the sacred Ananda Nirvana Ceremony. She replied that she hadn’t read any of the transcripts and actually
laughed at me saying that no jury would take me serious. She was extremely
belligerent with me when I told her that I knew
I was innocent of any wrong-doing and
I felt that many of my constitutional rights had been violated. She then asked for another month’s
continuance for me to reconsider taking the plea bargain. I told her then and again at the next court
hearing that I wasn’t going to change my mind and that I wanted to plead my
innocence and tell my story in front of a jury of my peers. So a court hearing date was finally set for
April 12.
So just last week I called Legal Services to get a hold of my attorney,
Debbie Levi, to ask when we could meet
to organize our defense and to notify all my witnesses. Since my arrest I have been to the Phoenix Goddess Temple in Arizona and
the School of Tantra in Maui to
collaborate with others who are doing Tantra and Goddess work for defense
strategies and special witnesses. While
in Phoenix I ran into Wayne Dyer at the Celebrate
Your Life Conference and offered him an Ananda
Nirvana Ceremony at the Phoenix
Goddess Temple (which he gladly accepted) and then continued with his
tantric bodywork while in Maui. He
expressed that he is totally supportive
of what I do and I believe he might be willing to appear at my court hearing as
a valuable witness in my behalf either by phone or in person if given proper
notification.
When I tried to get a hold of Debbie
last week, I was sent to her answering service where I left a message. No call back that entire week. I then tried this week to get a hold of her
and was informed by the front desk that she was no longer my attorney and that
I now had a new attorney (my fourth
BTW) who they are still not sure of his/her name and that he/she would call me
back. I still haven’t been notified by
my “new” attorney and it is now 3/29/2011—only two weeks before my jury trial. I told the receptionist that “this is
absolutely the most incompetent system of injustice I have ever experienced or
would ever want any one else to experience and that I simply need someone to
inform the new judge (yes, I also have a new
judge) that I am firing whatever attorney they have now appointed me and
that I need a few months in order to get enough funds together to hire my own
attorney!”
I have no problem defending myself
in front of a jury of my peers as I believe I have enough evidence to support my
case. First of all, I learned clear back
in a pre-law mini-course in High School that in order for a crime to exist you
must first show that there is a victim who has been damaged. This is the duty of the prosecutor—to present
evidence that a crime has actually been committed and a victim has been
damaged. Yes, we do have many laws and
statues on the law books convicting people of “victimless crimes” which are
totally unconstitutional and may include tax laws, sexual misconduct laws,
marriage regulations, licensing regulations, use of natural entheogens, car
insurance laws, road safety regulations, gambling laws, etc., etc. The list is endless. That is why we have a chance to test these
“unconstitutional laws” which are a violation of our civil and human rights by
having these laws tested by a jury of our peers which have been appropriately
apprised of their right to test the law by means of “jury nullification.” This is defined in Wikipedia as:
Jury nullification occurs in a trial when a jury reaches a verdict contrary to the
weight of the evidence
and contrary to the letter of the law (an official rule, and
especially a legislative enactment).
A jury exercising its power of nullification need not disagree with the judge's instructions
themselves—which concern what the law
is—but may rule contrary to the instruction in light of the actual evidence
admitted in the case.
A jury verdict contrary to the letter
of the law pertains only to the particular case before it; however, if a
pattern of identical verdicts develops in response to repeated attempts to
prosecute a statutory offense; it can have the de facto effect of invalidating the statute. A
pattern of jury nullification may indicate public opposition to an unwanted
legislative enactment.
The jury system was established because
it was felt that a panel of citizens, drawn at random from the community, and
serving for too short a time to be corrupted, would be more likely to render a
just verdict. It was feared that a single judge or panel of government
officials may be unduly influenced to follow established legal practice, even when
that practice had drifted from its origins. However, in most modern Western
legal systems, juries are often instructed to serve only as "finders of
facts", whose role it is to determine the veracity of the
evidence presented, and the weight accorded to the evidence, but not the
application of that evidence to the law. These instructions are criticized by
advocates of jury nullification.
Also, a law or statute of law can only exist if it can be
enforced without violating someone’s
human, constitutional or civil rights.
And yet there are laws that have existed on the law books that are impossible to enforce without violating
someone’s constitutional rights. Take
for instance the laws against sodomy which include oral and anal sex acts. The U.S. government has a long history of
interference with the intimate lives of its citizens, be it in the form of
limiting sexual partners or banning interracial marriages. Sodomy laws, or archaic sex laws that
criminalize private, heterosexual or same-sex intimacy between consenting
adults, were a real threat to same-sex couple families. On June 26, 2003, however, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that all sodomy laws were
unconstitutional in its historic Lawrence v. Texas decision, which also
had an impact on the burgeoning same-sex marriage debate.
When did we give the state permission to interfere with
our intimate sex life and allow them to enact laws regarding how we conduct
ourselves in the privacy of our own bedrooms and/or homes? Without a doubt these laws are absolutely unconstitutional as they
can’t be enforced without violating someone’s rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness—not to mention the right to privacy as a private citizen
of the United States.
I
believe, with all my heart, that many of my Constitutional and Civil Rights
have been unequivocally violated by this whole “ill”legal process. The entire police investigation was based on
entrapment and fraud which are in total violation of the law. Entrapment is defined as “to deceive
somebody, especially to trick somebody into committing or admitting to a crime”
and fraud is defined as “the crime of obtaining something of value by
deliberate deception.” I am looking
forward to testifying in front of a jury of my peers with the evidence
supporting my innocence and file my own charges of 1) Unlawful Entry 2)
Unlawful Search 3) Unlawful Arrest 4) Religious Persecution, 5) Sexual
Harassment 6) Police Brutality 7) Denial of a Speedy Trial 8) Denial of an
adequate attorney for my defense 9) Conspiracy of the Utah Court System to do
harm and injury to an innocent, law-abiding citizen.
I have wanted to resolve all of
these issues peacefully with everyone involved including the arresting
officers, the District Attorney’s office, Holladay City Court, Utah’s Criminal
Court, etc. but since they continue to pursue charges of “Unlawful
Conduct/Massage Practice, Prostitution, Failure to Disclose Identity” I have no
other choice then to respond to these charges with this public appeal.
The First Amendment to the
Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I stand on this Constitutional Right
and now have posted on my door the official paperwork for The Okeleuveha Native American Church and I carry a “Medicine
Person Card” with me at all times to protect my rights to do “holy anointing
ceremony” and other sacred ceremonies under this Native American Church until I
can set a court precedence for Tantric Ceremony for my own Church of the Gathering of What is Real. I also have a NO TRESPASSING notice posted on
my door which states:
NO TRESSPASS
ALLOWED
LEGAL NOTICE
THIS PROPERTY IS PRIVATE
TO ALL FORBIDDEN PERSONS
WARNING!
YOU ARE HEREBY ADVISED OF THE FOLLOWING FEDERAL CRIMINAL
LAW:
“If two or more persons conspire to
injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any Citizen in the free exercise or
enjoyment or any Right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution of the
laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
if two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of
another, with the intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of
any Right or privilege so secured. They
shall be fined not more than $10,0000.00 or imprisoned not more than ten years
or both; and if death results, they shall be subject to imprisonment for any
term of years or for life.”
U.S.C.: TITLE: 18: Sec: 241
&242, U.S.C. TITLE: 42: Sec: 1983, 1985 & 1986.
Be it known that
the Owners and authorized inhabitants of this land and their travel conveyances
are not members of any body politic, and reserve/preserve all of their
unalienable Rights given them by God the creator, and granting jurisdiction to
no one else. Violations of these Rights
are Accepted for Value in the minimum monetary amount of: $600,000.00 (31
U.S.C. 5112 Gold) or actual damages, whichever is greater, for each act
violative.
Property use fee or any part thereof
(real and/or personal) has a minimum value as per the precedent established by Trezevant
v City of Tampa, 741 F2d 336, (1984); $25,000.00 per 23 minute period,
i.e., per hour; $1,800,000.00 per day) per person, plus punitive damages in the
amount of the decision of the Secured Party or Secured Party’s heirs or
assigns, nonc pro tunc.
Acceptance of these terms shall be
evidenced by the presence of any un-authorized person upon the land or property
(real and/or personal) or the hindrance of the free exercise of travel in
conveyance of choice. Such is deemed a trespass and default actions will be
taken against you (the debtor) in the amount of the above fees and payable
within 30 days from the date of the first notice. Said persons (trespassers) agree that if
payment becomes delinquent, that said amount shall become alien upon all of your
(the debtors) property, personal and public; and Secured Party shall exercise
his/her Rights as Secured Party in collections of the debt against you (the
debtor) in whatever lawful means attainable.
Notice is given that authorization upon the land or property of the
Secured Party shall only be valid if given in writing by the Owner/Secured
Party/Holder in Due Course or authorized agents thereof, and said written
permission is in the possession of the alleged trespasser. Such authorization may be revoked upon
immediate notice, verbal and/or otherwise.
“NOTICE TO THE PRINCIPALS IS NOTICE TO THE AGENTS”
“NOTICE TO THE AGENTS IS NOTICE TO THE PRINCIPALS”
The other day I googled my own name
and saw a recent article in the Phoenix
New Times News entitled: Phoenix Goddess Temple's
"Sacred Sexuality" Is More Like New Age Prostitution where I am mentioned:
Last year,
tantra practitioner Janae Thorne-Bird of Heartsong Healing Center in Salt Lake City was jailed on prostitution
charges. In 2009, three goddess temples in Seattle — all run by Elise's former
student, Rainbow Love — were raided on suspicion of being brothels. Love was
charged with three counts of promoting prostitution and attempting to promote
prostitution. Love claims authorities violated her civil rights; Thorne-Bird
claims freedom of religion — a tricky defense, Hays says.
"The
intersection between government regulation and religious expression is very
complicated," Hays says. "I can't think of a case here where someone
claims to offer sexual favors as part of their spiritual expression. It would
be an interesting case, but I don't think it would work well for the church.
The sex would be ancillary . . . you can do all your religious things without
selling sex acts."
But freedom
of religion has trumped the law before, Hays says, pointing out some Native
Americans are legally protected in their religious use of peyote, an otherwise
illegal substance….
Hays says
there might be some protections for Phoenix Goddess Temple if they claimed to
be a private club, and points out many adult businesses — including theaters,
cabarets, and escort services — are legal in Phoenix "if they operate in
compliance with the law."
But despite
the obvious eyebrow-raisers at the temple, Elise says she's doing nothing
wrong. "The temple is really a church for us," she says. "We
open ourselves with love as an empty channel, and that's the authority by which
I heal. I don't get my credentials on the ground level. I get my calling and I
am under the jurisdiction of the most high."
Although I don’t particularly align
with the way the Phoenix Goddess Temple
dakinis conduct their “sacred
endowment ceremonies” I do align with their right to have “sacred union” among
consenting adults as a way to heal separation.
The question here is: When did
the government or state first get involved with regulating what someone can or
cannot do with their own bodies in
their own home or church among
consenting adults? This seems to be not only
a violation of our constitutional and civil
rights but an absolute violation of our inalienable human rights. If so-called
“prostitution” is a crime then why is it legal just across the border in
Nevada? If it was indeed a “criminal act”
or “threatening behavior” then why does the state of Nevada regulate it as
legitimate form of commerce? In fact
that’s one of the reasons why Las Vegas has become the world-class vacation
destination it is today. Men and women
don’t have to worry about getting arrested for enjoying the pleasures of their
own bodies—or in tantric terms—worshiping the God/Goddess within their own
temples.
But I’m not the only one who has
been or is still being prosecuted and/or persecuted for standing up for their
inalienable human rights. Below are two
other cases in point which I am personally aware of:
Brad and I spent dinner and a long
evening of conversation with an intriguing couple this past Saturday
evening. It was Jeffrey and Lorraine
Jenks—a Cedar Hills couple who were arrested December 19, 2008 on prostitution
charges. (You can goggle what the
reporters from the Herald Journal
wrote about “their” story—but I wanted to get it straight from the horse’s
mouth.)
Lori (the name she goes by) is an
attractive, soft-spoken, petite gal from Ireland who met her husband, Jeff (the
name he goes by) while on his LDS mission in Ireland. According to Lori and Jeff, Lori started
doing massage out of her own home in Cedar Hills at Jeff’s suggestion as he
says “she has a real knack for massage.”
She started out offering it to friends and family and then Jeff assisted
her in posting an ad on a “social networking Web site”
to advertise her “great massages.”
Lori, coming from Ireland, didn’t
know the U.S. laws concerning “prostitution” (you can’t touch a man’s Willie)
and so she got drawn into doing “happy endings” for a few of her “regular
clients.” It was all totally innocent
and innocuous in my opinion. But then the neighbors got suspicious as each day
they saw several cars coming and going from the Jenks resident in Cedar
Hills. Instead of confronting the couple
(who had four children) directly and asking them what was going on (which
really was none of their business in the first place) they got one of the ward
members who was a police officer to investigate their so-called “suspicious
behavior.” Because Jeff and Lorraine had
left the LDS Church years earlier before moving to Cedar Hills, they were
automatically placed on the “suspicious list.”
After a 3-week investigation, the two
of them were arrested and charged with not only prostitution, but “racketeering
and money-laundering” when they discovered a large amount of cash in a home
safe which they confiscated as “state’s evidence” (which they still haven’t
returned to the Jenks BTW). Jeff was
also charged with “tampering with a witness” when he flipped off the neighbor
who had first filed the complaint which initiated the investigation. Jeff finally plea-bargained and pled guilty
to the felony charge of “aiding a prostitute” (pimping) in order for Lori to not get charged with a felony charge of
prostitution so she could keep her job at Delta Airlines. Unfortunately, Delta broke their promise and
fired her anyway as she now had a “tainted reputation.” The two are still recovering from this “bad
rap” and struggle to save face with the neighbors as they refuse to give up
their home and move. Kudos to them for
their perseverance in the face of religious persecution!
And then there’s the continuing saga
of my ex-sister-wife, Christy’s, brother Kody Brown and his four wives who
appeared on the reality T.V. Show “Sister Wives.” I googled their latest episode and here’s
what I found from Good Morning America:
The members
of the polygamist
Brown family, featured on the TLC show "Sister Wives," spoke
out for the first time Thursday about potential felony bigamy charges that
could land the parents in jail.
"I
don't even want to think about that at all," Christine Brown, one of Kody
Brown's four wives, said on "The
Oprah Winfrey Show". "We never asked for the state to give us
any sort of acknowledgement or anything for our family."
In Utah,
where Kody Brown and his four wives raise their 16 children, bigamy is a
third-degree felony and those convicted could see up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors haven't decided whether to criminally charge the Browns, but a new,
high-octane attorney for the family has already launched a preemptive strike,
declaring any potential charges "unconstitutional."
Police in
Lehi, Utah, reportedly launched the investigation in September after fielding
complaints from locals who were unhappy about "Sister Wives."
Recently,
the police handed the results of their investigation over to prosecutors, who
now are weighing whether to file charges.
The Browns'
new attorney, Jonathan Turley, is already arguing that previous prosecutions of
polygamists involved charges of child abuse or child brides, charges that don't
apply to the Browns' case.
Before the
investigation, Kody Brown and his wives told ABC News the family was aware of
potential legal troubles, but thought starring in the show was worth it to help
their lifestyle gain acceptance.
"But
what we'd rather say is, 'Raising children in a closed society could cause a
lot more damage than any kind of legal process,'" Christine said.
Kody echoed
that motivation on Oprah.
"We
figured that by showing our lives, we'd actually help the society be more
transparent, have other people in the lifestyle feel safer about being
transparent," Kody said.
But the risks
have gone beyond the purely legal. Kody Brown claimed in the new edition of
People magazine that the show has hurt his career as an ad salesman when
clients chose not to give him accounts because of his controversial fame.
And on
"Oprah," one of Brown's wives revealed that she'd been fired from her
job in mental health as a result of the show.
I heard from a mutual friend that
Kody and his family were “forced” to relocate to Las Vegas in the middle of the
night last month in order to avoid prosecution from the Lehi police
authorities. I think this whole
“religious persecution” issue has done an “about-face” for the Mormons who were
first persecuted because of their
religious beliefs in polygamy to where they are now persecuting those who are
practicing this so-called “sacred religious belief” called “Celestial Plural
Marriage.” What an absolute hypocrisy
and dichotomy!
So I’ve decided that instead of
wasting any more of mine or yours, the tax-payer’s, money in the pursuit of
persecuting and prosecuting “innocent victims who are simply standing up for
their religious beliefs,” that I’m going to stand trial as witness to my own
innocence and testify to the undeniable violation of my human, constitutional
and civil rights without hiring an attorney or involving any more
“court-appointed attorneys” as I have way
more important things to do with my time and money than to “fight city
hall.”
If you would like to support me in
this stand for human rights, please notify the new District Attorney’s Office
listed below and let them know that you want them to stop spending your hard-earned tax money on persecuting innocent,
law-abiding citizens and start using
it to investigate, arrest and prosecute real criminals. I appreciate your prayers and support in this
stand for human, constitutional and civil rights. Please feel free to forward this to others.
You can reach the District
Attorney’s Office at the following phone numbers or via email at districtattorney@slco.org.
Justice Division Broadway
111 E Broadway Suite 400
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Tel: (801) 363-7900
Fax: (801) 366-7891
111 E Broadway Suite 400
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Tel: (801) 363-7900
Fax: (801) 366-7891
Afterward
I hesitated sending this out to “my
beloveds” as originally I’d entitled this Heartsong
Newsletter “Utah’s System of Injustice” and focused on telling my story of
being a “victim of a system of injustice.”
Yes, I can easily go into the “victim-mode-mentality” and recreate the
same type of scenarios that we’ve created as mankind’s history of persecuting
and prosecuting the divine feminine or “Goddess” throughout the ages. Or I can take a second look at the way I
project my victim-mentality on others and attempt to change that and recreate a
new paradigm by reminding myself that I am a powerful creator and can create
whatever it is that I have in my mind, heart and imagination to manifest.
And so after watching a hysterical,
darling and emotionally “too close to home” movie last night entitled “The
Client List” staring Jennifer Love-Hewitt (a must-see movie for those who want
the “real” story behind massage parlors)
I’ve come to the following conclusions:
1)
None of us are victims but simply
manifestations of our choices.
2)
We make laws to protect us from
ourselves.
3)
The most harmful thing we can do in
our personal relationships is to hide who we truly are.
4)
When we accept the fact that we are
inherently polyamorous, having the capacity to “love many” and actually enjoy
sex with a variety of partners, then we don’t have to guilt, blame or shame
ourselves or others for needing and wanting to express those desires.
5)
We assign governments and other
social/religious institutions to “police” what we have determined as “bad
behavior” when in actuality if we could learn to take responsibility and
accountability for our own behavior, these systems of government control and
domination would quietly disappear.
I also noticed a “Dangerous Beauty”
theme when Jennifer Love-Hewitt pulled out a banana in an attempt to instruct
her new-found female “fans” ways in which to satisfy a man’s “kinky” sexual
desires. As a final note to this Heartsong Newsletter I leave you with
some of my favorite quotes to one of my favorite movie, Dangerous Beauty:
I confess I find more ecstasy in passion than in
prayer. Such passion is prayer. I confess . . . I pray still to feel the
touch of my lover’s lips, his hands upon me, his arms enfolding me. Such surrender has been mine. I confess I hunger still to be filled and
enflamed, to melt into the dream of us, beyond this troubled place, to where we
are not ourselves, to know that always, always this is mine. If this had not been mine, if I had lived
another way, a child to a husband’s whim, my soul hardened from lack of touch
and lack of love, I confess such endless days and nights would be punishment
far greater than any you would meter out.
You, all of you, who hunger so for what I give, but cannot bear to see
such power in a woman. You call god’s
greatest gift – ourselves—our yearning, our need for love, you call it filth,
and sin and heresy. I repent there was
no other way open to me. I do not repent
my life.
May peace, joy, love and bliss
(rapture) fill every waking and sleeping moment of your life. LOLLA (Lulla was one of the few known female
Buddha’s who spent her entire life naked and
I use her as my end signature for Lots of Love, Light and Laugher Always)
J. Bird (still naked as a and always will be!)
P.S. I called Legal Services this morning to find out why my new attorney, Maren
Larsen hadn’t contacted me for a consultation with my preliminary trial coming
up in a few short days. I was directed
to her secretary who informed me that I had now been given another new attorney (number 5) named Lacey
Singleton who would simply meet me at my preliminary trial on Tuesday, April 12
at 9 a.m. “Is this some kind of joke?” I
asked. “This is my life and my future
we’re talking about!”
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