Today, January 11, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, aka #WearBlueDay. Blue is the international color of human trafficking awareness, as explained in this informational posting by Homeland Security:

https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/wearblueday

Sex trafficking is not the only form of human trafficking. It also can include forced labor, and victims are found in both legitimate and illegitimate labor industries, including sweatshops, massage parlors, agriculture, restaurants, hotels, and domestic service.

https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/myths-and-misconceptions

Under U.S. federal law, any minor under the age of 18 who is induced to perform commercial sex acts is a victim of human trafficking, regardless of whether he or she is forced or coerced. Id. Family members sometimes traffic their own kids or grandkids. Sadly, it is not uncommon.

Yesterday I toured a child advocacy center (CAC) close to where I live. It was profound and very moving.

The U.S. Department of Justice describes CACs as follows: They coordinate the investigation, treatment, and prosecution of child abuse cases,  utilizing multidisciplinary teams of professionals involved in child protective and victim advocacy services, law enforcement and prosecution, and physical and mental health.

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/programs/childrens-advocacy-centers

Forensic interviews are followed by child therapy. They are two distinct specialties. In an initial forensic interview a child, especially a young child, might not be ready to talk about abuse. They might not understand what abuse is, might not understand what safe touch is, they may lack the vocabulary to describe the abuse, they may believe the lies told by their abuser(s), they may not want to get their abuser(s) “in trouble.”

In therapy, the child may eventually be ready to talk, not because they were coerced or coached, but because they now feel safer or more equipped to discuss what happened. Parents are referred to their own therapists in this model.

It’s not a “one and done,” which officers and deputies and their supervisors would understand if they did more than just view the occasional initial forensic interview, or just go to a gala/fundraiser at a place like CARE House in Oakland County, which is a CAC.

I thought back to something a judge said to me well over thirty years ago. I respected him deeply and although he has died, I still do. He told me we didn’t have to worry much about an appeal in a case from one of the reservations. The child victim was 2 and so the allegations of sexual abuse by the father couldn’t be real, right? I mean, if she was 14, that might be another thing . . . . My response fell on deaf ears. Yesterday I heard about two young two-year-olds being helped at the CAC. That interaction 30-plus years ago still saddens and sickens me.

Then I got to wondering about how a place like the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department would treat one of their own in the face of criminal sexual conduct charges with a minor under 13. I mean, a retired Detroit PD employee got some pretty slick treatment by them in a recent “situation”–what would happen in the case of one of their current or retired sheriffs being arrested for a sex crime with a minor? Would they get special treatment with the bond process? Would the arrest be kept under the radar and out of the news? How would this child be treated or undermined? Law enforcement, current or retired, never commit sex crimes, do they??

Equally sickening thoughts.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is:

1-888-373-7888

or text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733)

https://dnasolves.com/articles/bradley-britton-toronto-ontario

The man will be sentenced in April 2025. My guess is the now 62-year-old Bradley Britton didn’t see an arrest in his future, tearful apology notwithstanding.

https://www.thespec.com/news/crime/genetic-genealogy-used-to-identify-rapist-from-three-decade-old-cold-cases/article_43bf26bb-7682-562e-b687-a6fac6439430.html

This case is the 15th publicly announced case in Ontario where investigators used technology developed by Othram to identify an individual. 

The child custody hearing discussed in my December posts (see end of this post) started on Monday in Florida. Yesterday, the family court judge rendered his decision before the mother was able to put her witnesses/case on the stand. He said this was the worst parental alienation case he’s seen in his career and that the blame lies solely with the mother.

He said he had to follow the “best interest of the child factor”  so would not grant full custody to the father; however, effective immediately the custody would revert back to a 50-50 custody arrangement.

The Florida family court never believed there was any sexual abuse by the father or his step-father. The judge, like retired Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe, was much more comfortable with the immediate idea that the mother was just an angry divorced woman, out to get her ex-husband by any means necessary. We don’t need, nor will we consider, any further information. I’m right, you’re wrong, and there’s quite literally nothing you can do about it.

Much information was just off the table in Florida–just some nonsense that took place in Michigan.

I did not prepare the following documents. I have read the supporting documents (the exhibits are not attached to the first document) and believe that they more than adequately support the facts and conclusions therein.

As soon as I hit “publish” on this post, I am sending a link to the American Bar Association Family Law Quarterly. This whole saga is one that should be written about and discussed in the family law community. Maybe they can make some sense of it. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/family_law/resources/family-law-quarterly/

If you know someone looking for a law review article, this case would make for a good one. It, like many cases that originate in Oakland County, Michigan, is hard to believe and quite twisted.

Mike McCabe is a bullying asshole, and probably worse. He might think he, too, “won” here, but I wouldn’t be so sure. I bet even in retirement he doesn’t stay in his lane. As I posted earlier, if I find out he is working on my brother’s homicide case and not coordinating with, or holding back information from the state police or the state lab, I won’t rest until it becomes national news. Unsolved serial murder cold case (of kids between ages 10 and 12), hampered initially by pathetic jurisdictional pissing matches (and a giant helping of public corruption), still follows the same path some 50 years later in Oakland County, Michigan. Some things never change.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel caved to a bullying asshole. From Oakland County, no less. You had the charges dropped without prejudice and then just walked away. Take on the difficult cases once in a while and quit caving to low-level county officials who abuse their power.

I agree with a Michigander who told me yesterday that Oakland County is essentially unsalvageable. Too many decades of men like L. Brooks Patterson, Richard Thompson, Mike Bouchard and Mike McCabe. They are embedded in the county’s DNA. That is not a good thing.

But imagine if any of Karen McDonald’s predecessors had been prosecuting attorney when student Ethan Crumbley murdered four students at Oxford High School and injured others in the building. Not one of McDonald’s predecessors would have had the horsepower or the guts to handle the cases against Crumbley and his parents the way she did. The surviving family members would have been kept in the dark and treated like shit, of that I have no doubt. It would have been “too bad, so sad,” put the killer away, plenty ‘o press conferences, but the hell with any transparency with the community. Forget about going after the shooter’s parents–too hard, and we kind of like our guns here in northern Oakland County anyway.

I bet the community is looking forward to that independent report on the OHS massacre, including comparing response times with the sheriff’s timeline and explanation. Were there any prior calls to police about what was happening at OHS in the Fall of 2021? Any indications that kids didn’t feel safe there that semester `before the shooting? Or was it more important to focus on ex-cop Sean MacMaster’s situation?

***January 9, 2025–I see that this case was reported in The Detroit News this morning. I cannot bring myself to resubscribe to any Michigan news outlet. Can someone send me a PDF or screenshot?

Ex-Detroit officer gets joint custody of daughter as sex assault claim roils familyThe daughter’s claim of sexual assault was deemed credible by Attorney General Nessel’s office, but had no merit to county deputies and prosecutors.

*********

Previous relevant posts:

“A child who is sexually abused by a parent may be the most vulnerable of all victims, and the legal system’s mechanisms for protecting children from intrafamily sexual abuse are inadequate.”

“It was obvious to us that the wife was out to get the husband by any means necessary.”

I knew this shit smelled bad.

Deposition of Michael McCabe, January 28, 2022

Daddy’s pet snake.

Unbelievable. But also systemic.

At the end of the day