NOV 4th, 03. My schizy son was almost cured by a five year, roll-up-the-sleeves investment in him by the State of California's penal system. He spent five years in its crown jewel, Civil War era PATTON MAD HOUSE, did so well behind its 40 feet tall unclimbable walls, that he recovered entirely -- some of his shrinks said, --those that wanted him put back in circulation in a half way house. But you want absolute PROOF that he was sane? Thirty days later, he ran away, went on the lam, still a Ward of the State of California just not IN A WARD.
How could this happen? He was the top crazy they had, the top performing, not the nuttiest. He was healed though legally to remain dinky until the Lord Vizier of the Tweaked certified him "untweaked" A sigh for how very untweaked he seemed! He'd learned to parrot their words, "contrite, repentant and transformed."
Five yrs ago, he thought he was sane when he lit a fire in an outdoor shed at his factory to show a lost plane how to find LAX. Delusional PLANE, delusional agenda but unfort. not a delusional FIRE.
At Patton Mental Hospital, he was the leader at Therapy group, at AA meetings. He enjoyed being crazy if he could be King. In the world of the sane he wasn't king. But here, he told the best stories, wry and full of self examination, a combo that AA's chipsters (even captive ones,) enjoy. He was a perky little squirrel, tail high, easily becoming the master of ceremonies at functions, a big hit. In fact, a redheaded girl who'd robbed a dozen banks at gunpoint regularly hit on him. He remained chaste so I knew he was still crazy. But see, the docs didn't. The docs let him out, switched him from the horrific astral plane of a Civil War mad house in SAN $#(%& BERNADINO (I call it,) West to the surf, air, l00 miles west, to a gardeny half way house with DOORS that opened on to real streets in verdant HOLLYWOOD.
At this new loony club, in therapy group, a kid accused
him of drinking beer. Luis flatly denied it.. Maybe he lied --- I
wasn't there. He told the group, (reported to me by his therapist later,)
I only had one sip, then I realized what it was." Bad choice. We know that
"I ONLY TOOK ONE PUFF" dog ate my homework excuse. The kid felt sure
they'd send him back to the ancient madhouse and the next morning he was
gone. For the next, 45 days he was somewhere in the Twilight Zone.
Maybe walking around LA but that's hard to believe as cops ask all men for I.D. after l0 pm and his name would have triggered a warrent. Heck, cops were flashing lights on my garden during those 45 days!
Now, in my diary? I see this startling notation the day he left "He's probably going to Mexico." How well does this momma know him? Wait. 45 days passed. I wondered where he was. Every day I'd look at my front gate. Cops would drive by at midnight and do the same, with a huge flash light.
45 days later, a Latino girl phones me. "Our family goes to Ensenada prison to see our family member. From our relative we hear that your son is also there. The police want $2,000 or they'll give him 3 yrs. " After I scraped myself and a pound of xanax tar off the ceiling, my first thought was to write the boy's father in Mexico, a Spaniard he' s never seen. I quick Googled up some key helper type folks in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato who could get to my ex's posh mansion a copy of the palace of Hernando Cortes. An internet cyber cafe, gave me addies. The owner (way hardened by too much coffee,) wrote back -- go to the CONSULATE in SMA, and gave me head consular guys internet addie and etc. so I tried that. Settled down to wait.
Meanwhile, Pals of mine in Mex DF sent a letter hard copy of email to hubby by post mail. Takes one day from mex city to San Miguel. I meanwhlie am working on finding galleries in this rural artsy fartsy town to find the new wife, Dorothy a painter. My ex is 80 now. 81. Hope he's alive. He was wealthy, a steel factory. He's added tons of ranches so has got to be really loaded now. Piece of cake freeing the kid. Guy spends more on a dinner.
Now, in my internetting around, I find a website http://www.dawnwilson.com. Read of the horrific arrest of a beautiful American girl who's done six months on a 5 year sentence, spent 20k on lawyers and bribes and is still in the calaboose!
Keep going back to Dawn's website, a home away from home now. I READ A poster's words telling of the horrid events that happened to his daughter, kidnapped by cops in Ensenada for nothing! Not even driving a car! Sexual stuff. A KID! Oh, here it is:
"My name is Jorge, I have been going through your Dawn Wilson site,
after seeing the Fox News story. Your site was referred to me through a
friend that is aware of a situation that happened to
my daughter. My daughter and a couple of her girlfriends drove down
to Ensenada for a weekend of fun in the sun. This was on the 3rd of May,
I believe. They met up with some of their colledge friends at a Night Club.
At one point, my daughter Cindy, left the Club just to get her purse she
had left in her friends car, just around the corner. She got her purse
from the car, and as she was closing the car door, a police car pulled
up and two police grabbed her. They told her in poor English, that they
saw her smoking Marijuana or motto something, she told me later.Anyway,
they put her in the police car and took her somewhere. It was dark so she
could not tell where they were taking her. She guessed they drove for about
10 minutes or so. They then stopped and took her handcuffed, into a small
building where there were two other police. She was then put in a cell.
Cindy guessed that she was there for a couple of hours then one of the
police came in and told her to take of her cloths. He wanted to check her
for drugs,she refused, so he then decided to just frisk her she said. He
spent some time doing this, and she was by then very scared. This cop then
told her that she would be going to a larger jail, and would be there for
some time, unless she went with him to an ATM machine. He then pulled out
the credit card she had in her purse. He said it would cost to get her
released, and wanted what she could get from the machine. She was driven
to some ATM where she withdrew all she could, $300 dollars, her limit.
The police took the money, and then drove her to a bus station, where they
talked to one of the drivers in a bus and was told to stay on the bus to
the border and not come back. When my daughter got home and told me about
what had happened, you can imagine my anger, but the same friend was with
me and said it could have been much worse and usually is!. The $300 dollars
they took was cheap, compared to what they could have done to her. As far
as I am concerned this was a form of kidnapping for money, and I have been
told by my Mexican friend that this happens often, particularly in Tijuana,
and Ensenada areas, but goes unreported, because like this lady Dawn Wilson,
they can make up whatever they want, and your Guilty, like I suspect in
Mrs. Wilson's acute case, our elected officials do nothing!
My daughter
was innocent, how do I really know, Cindy is asthmatic, and of course cannot
smoke anything! Now since this has happened to her, she has distanced herself
from
people and will not talk about the details of what really happened to her
that night. I am so very glad to see that this Website is now here for
people to see that this kind of thing goes on, all too often. If they are
our neighbors, they sure do not act like it. I think it is time this kind
of abuse of American Tourists, STOPS! In Mrs. Wilson's case,
what happened is all too obvious. Who is there to defend her rights? Whatever
happened to Americans standing up for each other? At least this Website
seems to have people that are sick and tired of being shit on by Mexico.
RELEASE DAWN WILSON...leave our women alone! I spend my money in countries
I respect, and Mexico is NOT one of them any longer!
They need to clean up there act, starting now! Sorry about the soapbox approach, I just get pissed when I think about what my daughter went through, and can only imagine what Dawn Wilson has had to endure! Lets get our Government to start Liberating Americans, for a change. Think in these terms, what if it was you, in her place! Jorge Marino at hotmail. I wrote him back but the email addie was no longer good.
The Mexican lawyer who got 20k to free the Wilson girl posted to that site saying: "If the events you describe had taken place in the US, what would you and your daughter have done? FILE A FORMAL COMPLAINT Right?, well, it works the same down here in México. Of course it sickens me to hear of stories of police misconduct in my country, both as a Mexican and as a father of three, (and as the lawyer for all Americans caught, My notation*) so in that respect I would like to offer my deepest sympathies to your daughter, hoping that she may recover well from such a terrible ordeal and also hoping that neither her nor yourself will judge an entire people based on the wrongful actions of a few. Now then, as an attorney, I can tell you that action in your daughter's case is not an option but a MUST.- If you are of the kind that will not stand for wrongdoing, will not tolerate corruption, will not abide by extorsion, I most cordially invite both you and your family to help us put a stop to incidents like the one that happened to your daughter.- If you so wish, I would be more than happy to advise you on how to place a formal complaint before municipal internal affairs, as well as a criminial complaint against the officers involved.- I can assure you that if you invest the time to initiate such proceedings, there are authorities that will hear you and justice will be brought resulting in the destitution and/or arrest of any officials involved.- However, this will not happen unless you FILE A COMPLAINT, so you must decide, your family and especially your daughter must decide if you are willing to take a stand against these sickenning individuals, the alternative being to remain silent while allowing the possibility of others suffering the same fate. Believe you me, there are a great many mexicans (the majority) who are law abiding citizens, God fearing people who are as repulsed as you are at events like those you describe, so please help us to correct this wrong, to repair in the eyes of both yourself and your family, the image of a country which we hold dear. I remain at your service, Respectfully Fernando Benítez" Wow, a beautiful letter, immaculate English! I see the address, licbenitez@hotmail.com Hey, so what if he did profit from Dawn and the whole damn meat grinder & sausage mill. I write him " I am the mother of an American boy taken by police in ensenada, sign it send it. Hope he's Ensenadan. I need an en situ Ensenada lawyer. Not TJ two hrs away, said "SIR, be my lawyer. tell him the case. I want to call him but need to borrow internat'l fone card. Hear of a 5000 minute card for l7$ but it turns out to be rumor.
Benitez answers: "SEND ME the boy's DATA". I did. Then no answer. I puzzled what was wrong about the kid's data? Maybe the court extradition being possible from an L.A Public Defender meant I had too many other recourses? I'd obviously be less panicked, pay him less if I had another way to skin the cat handy.
NOV 8th. My l2 yr old PC with cheap server is slow. Two min to boot. One to find google, I need to get on someone's pc who has DSL. My chore was to long distance call MEXICAN AUTHORITIES to get my son back. Doing it With a borrowed phone card. I couldn't do it as I didn't have permission of the guy, my sometime boss, Charles Miller. His card. I got the idea of using these cards which I NEVER have used in my life, from Michael my son who called from Hawaii, only guess what, he calls at 5 pm Friday. Kinda of starting at the WRONG END OF THE 5 day WEEK! So not able to fone, instead, I sit down cross reference on GOOGLE the theme of BRIBES in MEX. American prisioners. Found it time consuming. My pc loads slow. Took me two hrs. to research this one thing Cross referencing ENSENADA with BRIBES.
I go back to the DAWN WILSON-IS-LOCKED-UP-DOT COM. Poor but beautiful gal who thought Mex was where you went for cheap prescriptions. She bought the most ordinary TYPE A NARCOTIC pills, (gals just wanna have fun) and the cops were waiting outside PHARM and seized her. She's been behind bars most of 2003!
NOV 7th, Open the morning mail. My ritzy Gal pal sent me a phone card.
Instructions so complex, don't understand a word of them.Meanwhile I'm
facing a long weekend I want to research , googling up catchwords or subjects.
You in fact could help Always use + sign between words. IF TWO WORDS go
together must go together then you use quotes. bribes + "Mexican cops"
"americans in jail in mexico"
"Imprisioned in Mexico" + mordida or SHAKEDOWN plus "MEXICAN
COPS"
See how it's done? PLEASE HELP me, cross reference words of all kinds.
Mexican authorities, phones, addresses. American authorities in Mexico.
Email me what you come up with.
I start to think that I could offer journalists in USA and maybe Mexico too, an interesting story, try to get these reporters on CINDY's story? Dawn's too. Did the press handle it yet? And then of course on mine, too, which I JUST posted at the Dawn Wilson site. You can see it: "I am the mother of an American boy taken by police in Ensenada, just a week ago. My name is Anita Sands. Luis my son was born of a Mexican father, Luis Felix Hernandez a Resident of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Where I lived for 7 yrs. My son has spent 5 yrs in a mental hospital, as he has been schizoid for nearly a decade. Just got out of PATTON STATE mental hospital, was deemed well enuf to be put back in circulation, was at a half way house, in L.A. and after an accusation and threat, by another patient, scaring him, he walked out, left on foot. No cash, no nothing. Did not come home. It took him 45 days to walk to Ensenada. He had no money, no food, no roof in this time, left L.A. in mid SEPT and got there in late October. He fell asleep in a boat in the harbor. The police found him accused him of trying to steal it. They want 2 thousand bucks from me if I want him back. They are keeping a boy who is insane, especially without medication, for a threatened three years. OR I come up with two thousand dollars he goes free. THIS IS A MONEY RACKET! Another poster, a Mex lawyer said that ONE could register a complaint. YEAH WITH WHOM? With the authorities? THEY ARE THE ONES WITH THE RACKET!
I found another poster who goes down there every week to visit DAWN. I wrote him, Sir, are you a relative of Dawn? Is that how you visit her? The prisioner who got word out to me about my son (via his LA family) told me you need 2 photo ids and the birth certificate of the prisioner so that implies being related. Know any good lawyers in Ensenada although those two words are at odds. Lawyer and good. Signed, Grieving mother, who barely makes her rent each month, some months does not."
At DAWN site, I read of FOX TV reporter PETE FUENTES who did much to cover the girl Dawn's story, the girl who was given 5 yrs! I'm facing a long weekend so I start research on these catchwords or subjects. "BRIBES + MEX COPS. I Always use + sign between words. IF TWO WORDS go together must go together then you use quotes. bribes + "Mexican cops" "americans in jail in mexico" + bribes "Imprisioned in Mexico" + mordida. Single words just get a + in front of them. See how it's done? Wanna help? Feel free.
HOMEWORK TONIGHT: READ an online ARTICLE about cops cutting off ears to get extortion money out of kidnapped people, a Mexico City cop racket. I found the details online.
WROTE my first letter TO TURISMO MEX and mailed it out. Mi hijo Luis es eschizophrenico. Despues de 5 anos en un hospital mental, El Estado de California, le metio en un HALF WAY HOUSE CORRECTIONAL, GATEWAYS. Despues de un lio con otro paciente, y amenazas, mi hijo huyo. 45 dias despues, la infamosa policia Ensenadense le tenia preso. Su crimen? Haber se dormido en una lancha en el puerto. Agotado, loco, 45 dias sin comida ni techo, TENIAN ellos, (creyeron al menos) un PESCADO GORDO. Demandan 2 mil dolores para que me lo entreguen. Yo soy escritora con website, Escribo para revistas Americanas y websites de turismo en Los E.U. La fama de BAJA CALIFORNIA se va a hacer. firmado, Anita Sands De Hernandez.
I decided that this writing was all I can do so maybe I should do a novel on all this. I'd start as Dickens, my great great granduncle did, with his childhood. I'd call it "GETTING OUT OF VENICE" Turn it into A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN only the tree is in an L.A. Barrio garden. A tender memoir of a white girl, mother of four infants, on welfare. I started the book in present time, with the crazy son walking to Mexico. I posted it at my site and showed the chapter to a few pals. My childhood pal's hubby said "I'll help you sell it. Give me 4 chapters and an outline I'll give it to an agent." So I started. http://home.earthlink.net/~anitaastrologer/goov1.htm
A.) THE PAGE YOU JUST READ IS "SON DISAPPEARS IN
MEXICO! Then she finds out that MEX COPS
NAILED this SCHIZY KID, are HOLDING HIM FOR HUGE
AMTS of BRIBE MONEY -- DRAMA
QUEEN MOTHER
BEREFT!
B.)
COUNSEL on FOREIGN RELATIONS,
i.e. Advice on HOW TO GET A RELATION OUT of a FOREIGN JAIL without a LAWYER! Where
in the AMERICAN STATE DEPARTMENT FLUNKS the
FIRST TEST! RIGID, LINEAR, HOPELESSLY OUT OF TOUCH WITH MORAL LAW!
C.) MAGICAL HOLLYWOOD YOGI does ACTUAL PSYCHIC READINGS on PEOPLE IN JAIL CELLS, -- REAL OR VIRTUAL, METAPHORIC or just IMAGINED.
D.) MOTHER GOES TO THE RESCUE, MONEY IN HAND. WILL THE SOAP NEVER STOP?
E.) WHY POLICE ABROAD DO THIS KINDA STUFF.
F.)
LUCY AND ETHYL GO TO MEXICO PART
I of "The RESCUE"
(The
Fantasy of what it might be like)
AND THEN….
I.)THE
ACTUAL RESCUE
in Cinerama and TechnicolorAND WHY STATE
DEPARTMENT/ CONSULATE did not FAIL THE SECOND TEST, THEY CAUSED KID TO
GET RESCUED! An actual
map of what rescuing a family member in a Mex Prision entails.
II.)MOM writes novel about this episode, READ “GETTING OUT OF VENICE”
J.)
DEC 2003, Associated PRESS finally prints
the DAWN WILSON Imprisionment
in Mexico STORY in newspapers across America!! And after a year in jail,
cops stole all her money, she gets out! HOORAY!
ADDENDUM. A few years later, Summer 05, Young California Beauty, (tourist,)
Veronica Baeza was arrested for being asleep in her vehicle. She was about
to drive home to her So Cal home. Thought she'd catch some winks. They
got her to the police station and next thing we know, her head was split
in
two she was dead. Ya wanna go with strong sober men if you tour Ensenada, Baja, Tijuana!