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As I write this, my daughter is back in England. I now live with my husband in South Carolina, having returned from England in 2000. I had to try to heal. I felt betrayed by the system in this country.
A wrong has been done, and I will continue to push for the truth.
Someone needs to apologize to my daughter, her two daughters, and my grandson for all that they have been put through.
AND ALTHOUGH 1 AM NO LONGER DEMANDING THAT THE TRUE CULPRIT NEEDS TO BE PUNISHED, I STILL FEEL THE STATE OF FLORIDA NEEDS TO APOLOGISE TO MY DAUGHTER, HER DAUGHTERS AND TO US FOR WHAT THEY PUT US THROUGH!!
In the meantime, I am still trying to get this story out. I have written countless letters to various child abuse agencies, the White house and newspapers, and contacted reporters in the UK to run the story there, so as to give the justice system here a push! Aidan O' Rourke kindly ran an article in "EyeWitness Manchester" back in November 1997. The "Florida Today" gave me a small space on the letters page. To all of these I am truly grateful! I had hoped that some of the other media would choose to help my daughter, but got no response form shows like "60 minutes"or "Dateline".
My daughter accepted a plea bargain which enabled her to leave and went back to live in England. She had to take an anger control class and a parenting class, and after one year the State would drop the charges. It goes against all that is right, in that she will not be proving her innocence, but against the risk of a possible 15 yrs in prison (and losing her children) it came down to being the only viable choice. We will continue to argue for the State to prosecute the actual abuser of my grandson, and are currently trying to get them to prosecute my daughter's harrasser under the stalking/harrassment statutes that Florida has. However, it remains to be seen whether they will do this.Tou my knowledge, as of May 2002, nothing was ever done and we have NEVER received an apology for what they put us through.
ONLY BY CONTINUING TO FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH CAN WE HOPE THAT ONE DAY OUR WORDS WILL BE HEARD AND THE STATE OF FLORIDA WILL ATTEMPT TO PUT RIGHT THE GREAT WRONG THEY HAVE DONE TO GALINA AND THIS FAMILY. THE STRESS WE HAVE ALL BEEN UNDER, FOR SO LONG, HAS TAKEN IT'S TOLL ON US ALL.
It is only RIGHT that they look closely at what they've done. They should feel the shame of covering the very REAL crimes of my daughter-in-law, all of which could be tracked down simply by following the paper trail in their wake, to PERSECUTE an innocent young woman.
I contacted our local tv station, WFTV Channel 9, with regard to their doing a "WhistleBlower Report" on why the State of Florida can choose WHICH of it's laws to uphold, choose TO WHOM they will apply, and WHO will be free to continually break the law and suffer no consequences. Nothing happened though. Whatever happened to "equal justice under the law?"
Although my husband, Galina's stepfather, who is American gets annoyed at me for saying this, I feel the State saw an easy mark with a young foreigner, who they hoped would not know how to defend herself and could be harassed into an easy conviction. I do not feel that my daughter has had equal protection - her accuser has got away with harassing her and the State refused the protection of a restraining order; her accuser filed a false affidavit - a SWORN document - but the State has never prosecuted. Her accuser has wasted police time, and nothing ever happened about it.
for a while, when we were still in Florida, the accuser was having my grandson call the house (and obviously he could not do that without an adult dialling the number!). Technically, my daughter was not allowed contact with him - yet how was she supposed to know who is calling when she answers the phone? The accuser parked at the end of my driveway, one evening, until she realized my daughter was outside smoking a cigarette. As Galina called to me that she was there, she drove off. She continued this silent harassment for more than 6 months now, but we knew it was pointless to ask for help to stop it. In my mind, it DID come down to one thing - SHE IS AMERICAN and the STATE will not prosecute her for doing anything against a FOREIGNER. It annoys my husband that I say such a thing - IT ANNOYS ME FAR MORE THAT IT HAPPENS!
How else can it be explained?
On Friday 13th February we found out by accident, that from the accuser's very first statement, she stated that when she changed this child from his pyjamas the next morning, she saw NO MARKS WHATSOEVER! Around 3.30pm she noticed reddish marks. A 15+ hr injury would not be a reddish mark - a new injury would be. We were told that the investigating officer should have realized this and that it ALONE proves that Galina, the night before, had NOT injured this child. However, having spoken to the investigator that day (March 6th), he truly believed my daughter hurt my grandson. The statement to him, though, totally contradicts the one she made to HRS. If each believes what she told them, what do they call her statement to the other authority?
INNOCENT people are supposed to be accorded protections under the law -NOT persecuted. Our lives have been hell, for half a year - deliberately made so by people who KNEW my daughter had not done this. The lady in charge of the section which was supposed to have investigated this, and who prosecuted my daughter,Meryl Allawas.
Please, we ask you all, write to:
Ms. Meryl Allawas,
at
Child Abuse/Child Sexual Abuse Dept.,
Office Of The States Attorney,
The Harry T. and Harriette Moore Justice Center,
2825 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, VIERA, FL 32940
asking her to look closely at ALL the twists and turns this case has made. My daughter's name is Galina English. If her office truly looks into all the previous false allegations, the harassment and their own departments lack of allowing my daughter protection she was entitled to under their laws, then maybe she will realise there is a nasty taste left in her mouth at how her department was used by someone to continue a "game' against someone else.
Galina was taken to the Brevard County Jail, at Sharpes. It was around 11.00 am. I was in a panic, I didn't know what to do, who to contact. I went to the jail expecting to be able to stay with her, not realising this is not how it's done. A bail bondsman, Jim Chambers, was there and someone introduced me. He told me to go home. These things take time. Her bond was set at $5000, to call him when I'd come up with the $500 (10%).
I contacted friends, I needed to borrow money. Unfortunately, most of my friends are in the same financial boat we are - week to week. In desperation, late afternoon, I called my sister (collect) in England, to see if my mother was in England at the time, and whether she might be able to help. She goes to Rumania a few times a year distributing relief. My sister said she was home, and that she'd get a hold of her for me and have my mum call me back at the payphone. My mum called back and said she'd Western Union me the money to get Galina out of jail. After picking up the money, I called the bondsman and met him back at the jail with the money. It was then 7pm. The bond was paid and I waited for Galina's release. She did not leave the jail until around 2am the next morning. We stopped at a payphone on the way home, to call my mother again (collect) to let her know Galina was free.
The following Tuesday, while I was at work, the bondsman surrendered bond on my daughter, and she was re-arrested. I had to leave work to go home to care for my grandchildren. I tried to contact the bondsman to find out why he'd done this, but was unable to. My friends, who Galina had had the sense to have called to take care of the children until I got home, said there had been a phone call that Galina was fleeing the country. Her passport had expired in 1995, and she was due to start a new job the next morning, so I felt it could be easily proven untrue. WRONG! My daughter spent the night in jail having been forced to strip and allow an anal search, and MADE TO SLEEP ON A MAT ON THE FLOOR. She lost the new job, as she was in jail until around 10pm that next day. I went into my job and explained what was going on and asked them to terminate me, as I wasn't sure what would be going on, and I didn't want to be calling in or be called away from my job all the time. The judge released Galina on Community Control and stated in court, he felt that the bondsman had taken the money and just didn't want to be responsible for it.
It was that day that I discovered what had really happened - my daughter-in-law had made yet another false report, this time in an affidavit to the bondsman claiming Galina was leaving the country. He said she had made numerous calls to England - she in fact had spoken only once to England, the night that she was released the first time. Supposedly, there had been numerous calls to the British Embassy also in that time. I told him, these can be easily proven untrue - talk to the company she's due to start work with, check her passport - it's 2 yrs out of date! Take the damn passport and hold it until court. Call the Embassy, they'll tell you she hasn't made any calls. In fact I had called the Embassy the day before. The bondsman said it did not matter what I did, it was what she did. I asked them to let me have a copy of the affidavit - they wouldn't. I asked them to follow up on what I'd told them - they wouldn't.
The day after that release, the Thursday, we had just returned from trying to get a temporary restraining order(to stop my daughter-in-law from interfering with my daughter - a witness in the same case, according to Florida Statutes regarding interfering with a witness),but which the States Attorneys Office in Titusville refused to grant, when a sheriff's car pulled into the driveway. My daughter went hysterical, crying she was not going back to jail again for something she didn't do. She tried to hide in the bathroom, but I told her to calm down and we'd go see what this was all about this time. It was after the time I usually went to work, so Galina should have been there all by herself. The sheriff asked for me. She said my husband and son were desperately trying to contact me, and had been unable to, and she gave me a contact number. I immediately thought the worst, as I'd spoken to my husband only the night before - I thought there'd been some kind of an accident and someone was trying to contact me on their behalf. I went to the payphone and called, only to find out it was another local police department, in Rockledge. The officer told me that my daughter-in-law had reported my son as a missing person, to which I butted in and told him that this was not what it seemed. He explained that my son was working a dangerous job and had been gone four to six weeks and that my daughter-in-law had had no contact with him; I broke in and told him that my daughter-in-law was a liar, and that I knew she had spoken with my son the previous week. It was only when he spoke to someone that I realized she was there with him. Unfortunately, the report states that she had not had contact with my son since the week before; the information that I had given him.
What is so bad is that nobody has ever prosecuted her for ANY of the false accusations she has levelled at my daughter. I have been told that the States Attorney won't do it, because that would have put his star witness in a bad light when he called her to testify against Galina. Numerous visits to HRS to talk with them about safeguarding my grandson, go unheeded. They do not seem to realize what I am saying - that whoever truly did this IS STILL OUT THERE, since Galina didn't. I have begged them to keep investigating, even though Galina is now safely home in England with all this behind her, if something again happens to my grandson - how will they blame her for it then?
Big Gaps?
I don't understand why neither the teenage girl who had previously neglected my grandson whilst babysitting him, nor my eldest grandson 15/16 yrs old, who were both in the house the next day(and neither of whom supposedly saw any bruises on him prior to when my daughter-in-law claims to have first seen them)were not questioned, or even investigated as possible suspects.
My son asked me why I was wanting to call them as witnesses, since they didn't have anything to do with it. I told him, they were there that Thursday morning when I visited. He said they said they weren't there! To me, it seems highly unlikely that FOUR people (including myself) could fail to see these massive bruises had they been there that day.
Why did the Brevard Sheriffs Department not abide by Florida Statutes regarding the arrest and incarceration of a foreign national?
Why was my daughter subjected to inhuman treatment - embarrassed by the strip and anal exposure, and forced to sleep on a mat on the floor, whilst at the county jail?
Why does the State of Florida choose to ignore any evidence that does not fit in with what they want it to prove?
Why do they not check the medical and background records of my daughter-in-law, and see the kind of person they are dealing with? Or subject all of us to polygraph tests? Neither my daughter nor I have anything to hide and have always been willing to take a lie detector test.
Why cover this all up? My grandson's life is at stake here! This isn't politics, it isn't some game. They've ruined lives by playing this charade that my daughter-in-law set up.
Update
The plea-bargain "contract" initially implied an acceptance of guilt, and we wanted to ensure that this was removed and that a sentence be included to state that this was to be no way construed as an admittance of guilt. Her willingness to sign the contract served two purposes only. First and foremost, to stop the charade and allow her to go home to England, and secondly, to protect my grandson from being further abused by the State who were willing to throw him to the wolves in the hope of convicting an innocent girl.
In early 1998 my daughter-in-law apparently told the States Attorneys she wanted to retract her statement and they were refusing to let her. This may have been an attempt by her, to appease my son, or it may be a lie that she is told him to make him think she was not "out" to "get" his sister. We do not know the truth of the matter, but whichever way it is, doesn't it speak volumes?
Galina's accuser was accepted to start work as a corrections officer somewhere close to Port St. Lucie, Florida. Did they not do background checks? Psychological tests? If someone cannot cope with life without the help of Prozac, how could she deal with the stresses of life as a prison guard? It didn't last long - within a couple of months, she'd had enough and moved on. Again.
5th February 1998 - apparently my grandson was in a car accident; his older brother,16, was driving their mother's car and ran into a tree. Both were treated at the local hospital and released, and are doing fine now. So, another question. What mother would allow a 3 yr old in a car with an unlicensed 16 yr old? Is that not child endangerment? This little boy could have been killed - luckily all he received were scrapes and grazes. my teenage step-grandson is nursing a gash that needed stitches and his bottom front teeth were pushed backwards. They went to the hospital, apparently, in an ambulance so I'm assuming the police have a report. Will HRS become involved now? Probably not! Will anything happen to her, for allowing this? Why do I feel that nothing will? How often must this child get injured before someone realises something is wrong?
By 12th March 1998 various things had been occurring, and I believed that we were annoying enough people that something MIGHT eventually have come out of this. Senator Bob Graham responded to me, and apologized for what my family had been through. Ed Feaver, the Secretary to the Department of Children and Families, and Governor Lawton Chiles, have both asked the local district administrator of the Department of Children and Families in Orlando, Florida, to look into what happened to Galina and my grandson, and to the investigation made by their "investigator", including all the worrying aspects of her not looking into things that we informed them about. Also, I found out the first name of the child who had attempted to "hang" my grandson, and have given this information both to the District Administrator, and to the Sheriff's Department. If they do not prosecute this teenager, then that will prove they truly DO NOT care about my grandson's welfare.
The Brevard County Sheriff, Phil Williams, appointed someone to investigate what happened in the Major Crimes investigation - why the invvestigator there did not look into things he was told about, etc. We notified the States Attorney, who prosecuted Galina, of these developments. Unfortunately, as of August 1999 we have heard nothing positive by way of results.
A petition was circulated on the internet, and by snail mail, which went to Bill Clinton asking him to look into this. We have no idea if anything was ever done, we heard nothing. Only by keeping up the annoyance, can we hope they will eventually say, "look - we screwed up, let's get this over and done with, pardon Galina, prosecute the real abuser, apologise to these people for all we put them through, and get rid of all this hassle. I will not rest until this is put right.
Meantime, my son went to work in Louisiana, his wife moved her new boyfriend in, he hit my grandson (the mother said he's lying), and as things hotted up, she quit her job as a corrections officer and moved away from the area.
Running scared?
AUGUST 1999, UPDATE!
We are in England, and away from my ex-daughter-in-law. She, and her new husband, moved about five times this past year, each time to a different State. She had the boyfriend/husband arrested TWICE claiming he was abusing her - something she'd tried to pull on my son once before. My son has managed to have my grandson for a few weeks, who wants to live with him permanently. At one time he also had his stepson with him as well. We worry about my grandson all the while, we know it's just a matter of time until his mother does something else. I have written to the Brevard County Sheriff's Department, and to the States Attorney asking for an update on whether they are looking into this further - neither have offered me the courtesy of a reply. They may think my grandson isn't worth the effort - WE DO. I would ask all of you to please keep writing letters, on HIS behalf. Galina is innocent and we know that, we also know my grandson remains in danger of mental and physical abuse within the family home. We all have to do our bit to protect this little boy - it will be no good if something fatal happens and people say "oh, she was right". By then it will be too late.
UPDATE 2002
I returned to the USA in September of 2000. My ex-daughter-in-law and I have been in contact since my older grandson was found to have cancer, and passed away in November 2000. My younger grandson has contact with me and my son. I am no longer actively pursuing justice, but I leave the pages up as a reminder, and because this story should not be hidden under the carpet.
It is yet another blemish on the face of the legal system here and must be acknowledged.
Thank you for caring.