An Aside

    Last week during a meeting with my probation officer, he expressed to me that he felt it was not perhaps in good taste to name [*] as the person who accused me of sexual assault. Primarily, his reasoning was based upon the fact that [*] had been a minor at the time she made the allegation and that, if the accusation is presumed to be true, that she is a victim deserving privacy. Though I certainly can see his point of view, I cannot say that I agree with it. But I felt that an aside might be appropriate to discuss this issue.
     First, I want to point out that, had this accusation been true, had I actually committed a crime against [*], there would certainly be a privacy issue to consider. Had [*] been actually molested, raped or otherwise assaulted, it could be considered unfair to publicize her identity, regardless of her age, and subject her to further emotional duress. Had there not been the underlying elements behind her charge, had the initial investigation had stayed closed, or she had not so blatantly contradicted herself between versions of her stories, it might never have been necessary to even discuss this issue. Any of these scenarios could have provided [*] the privacy that some might suggest she would thereby entitled to.
     However, this is not the case. [*] was not molested or otherwise assaulted by me and the only consistency in her story has been its inconsistency. The local authorities exceeded their authority and used [*] as a weapon against me and in so doing made her a primary element to discussion of their improprieties. And though this position is admittedly my own, and these same officials have manipulated the legal arena to convict me of an offense that makes the allegation legally true and the circumstances legally irrelevant, none of this changes the true facts. I have maintained now for over five years, in spite of being deprived of my liberty and freedom as consequence, that I did not do what [*] accused me of and, simply put, the actual facts support my position. That the Kalispell authorities have succeeded in keeping these factual elements out of court in order to railroad me into a false conviction is what is genuinely irrelevant. No matter how much these corrupt officials like to play at being gods, the truth is they cannot change reality. They can certainly control the perception of reality, but they cannot change the actual events as the really happened.
     I have said upon many occasions throughout this ongoing oration that I do not hold [*] entirely accountable for what has happened. I recognize that she had been placed under extreme duress and that others had exerted undue influence over her to gain their desired goals. That [*] was easily manipulated is inconsequential to the larger scheme of things. That she has had a history of lies and deceptions is not at issue either. These are just the means by which those truly to blame exerted their control over her, not the underlying cause of her actions.
     I raised [*] for over two years as my own daughter. To this day, I still have a special place in my heart for the young woman that I took under my wing, just as I hold a special place for her sister, [*], as well. I am deeply hurt by her betrayal and disappointed that she could be manipulated in this way against me, since I had thought she had returned my affections, but the truth is she is her own person, and she made her own decisions. I do not agree with them, and I have been hurt far worse than a simple betrayal of confidence alone could be responsible for, but I know the ideas were not hers alone – there were others pulling her strings. But it does not make the pain of that betrayal any less.
     All this being said, [*] has made some serious mistakes, and in making those mistakes, regardless of whether she acted alone or at the direction of others, she has nevertheless caused great harm to others. And not just to me – to her mother, her sister, my son, John, and to our mutual friends and families. Her actions led, indirectly, to the loss of our business and way of life. Regardless of whether I hold a personal grudge against her or not (which I do not, by the way), the fact is that [*]’s actions have had consequences, and I do not believe that she should be completely sheltered from those consequences by some pretense that claiming to be a victim of a faux crime somehow provides her immunity from the fallout of her misdeeds. There are repercussions to what [*] has done and I do not feel that she should be entitled to shelter from her own sins while everyone else around her has suffered.
     This girl sent her own mother to jail – and could have had her sent to prison. All because she did not have the moral fortitude to stand up to people who were making her do things that she knew were wrong. She destroyed lives, and I do not feel that she should be sheltered from the consequences of her actions.
     However, none of this is the reason that I have continued to use [*]’s name in these posts. The real reason, and it has nothing to do with morality, is that as far as I was concerned, the cat was already out of the bag by the time the charges were filed against me and [*] became an “official” victim. I posted the original “Another Case of Gov Abuse” in December, 2003. I was not charged and arrested until February, 2004. At the time I wrote the original public plea for help, there was no need to shelter [*]’s identity.
     The original allegation had not only been investigated and dismissed by that time, but [*] herself had recanted her false accusation. Though she had been abducted by CFS, she had maintained the truth when Kori Taylor insisted she reassert the lie. I had no reason to believe at that time that [*] would reassert the false allegation nor that it could be used to bring a charge against me in light of all the overwhelming evidence at that point in time exonerating me. I did not believe that my support structure could be so critically undermined or that [*] could be compelled to place her own mother in jeopardy of harm.
     In a nutshell, I had absolutely no reason to believe that I would be faced again with [*]’s false accusation and therefore had no reason to withhold [*]’s name from my original posting in 2003. At that point, I had believed that my sole fight was against [*]’s kidnapping by state authorities and in the possibility that the local authorities might manufacture a new false charge to arrest me under. There had been no reason to consider withholding [*]’s identity as a victim of assault and so I did not. But as a consequence of openly discussing an allegation I had thought dead and buried, I openly spoke of [*] by name. And in doing so, any future posting that omitted her name would be pointless.
     In other words, I did not name [*] to cause harm to her nor to redirect some kind of hostility her way. I am not attempting to villify her nor am I attempting to shift blame to her for anything that she is not accountable for. On the contrary – I believe I have gone out of my way to divert unnecessary hostility toward her by defending her on more than one occasion, including within this very post. I named [*] at a time when such issues as whether she was an alleged victim of a crime were not at issue, and as such there had been no need to consider omitting her name.
     [*] is now eighteen years old, by the way, and reportedly in the US military. She is no longer a minor and is no longer under the undue influence of state agents, at least she should not be. As a legal adult, [*] could now step forward and tell the truth, tell her side of the story, tell about how her and her sister were kidnapped and how she was coerced into making false statements under the fear of never being returned home. She could take a major step in righting the wrongs that she was forced to commit. But personally, I have little hope in such an event occurring.
     It would require an act of great courage and integrity to step forward at this juncture and admit to all she has done. Likely, she feels a great deal of inner pain and anxiety over what she has done. I know the authorities did their level best to convince her that I would hurt her if given the chance. This could not be further from the truth, of course, but these people are empowered by these kinds of lies, and I fear that their having over five years to imbed these fears in [*] has made hope of this kind of thing impossible. And I cannot seek her out in any way to ask if she would even consider this because I am compelled by court order to have no contact with her directly or indirectly.
     In the end, all I can say is that [*] will never have anything to fear from me. Regardless of whether the truth ever comes out, regardless of whether I ever clear my name or not, I recognize that [*] has been made as much of a victim of the cruel machinations of corrupt officials as much as I have. Perhaps she was not the victim of a sexual assault, but being torn from your family and be made responsible for all that has happened must have a profound impact upon her. My heart goes out to all that she has suffered through the years, just so she could be used as a weapon against me. But none of this makes [*] a target of my indemnity. She was used as a tool, as a means to an end that was not her own. And I cannot bring myself to hold any anger toward her for that…
     At any rate, I hope this post answers any underlying concerns about my using [*]’s name so publicly. As always, I welcome any comments…
     Ciao for now…

Ron Glick
Political Prisoner since 2004