There is another fact regarding this “wellness check” gone wrong that I am compelled to explain and share.

GETTING ON THE ROAD

On August 11^th, 2024, a little after 0100hrs Sunday morning we (with Liz my 10 year old long hair GSD -German Shepherd Dog) were starting our 10^th trip to the Nevada high desert. The trailer is usually parked at a slight angle in the driveway in front of the garage to facilitate easier loading and unloading. Unfortunately, even at that slight angle (to permit passing the rig when truck not hitched), has proven to be quite tricky and on this particular morning I hit the left fence gate post (I think) with the rear right trailer brake light assembly while backing out towards the street.

CAN’T SEE MY REAR!

Backing up with a 16’ trailer is difficult enough for me, but uphill when I couldn’t even see the rear of the trailer in relation to the posts (without side mirror glances) is a big pain in the….. neck and shoulders, in addition to the ASS! Lol Didn’t take much time to get squared away and on the road for the 430 mile drive that usually takes between 8-1/2 to 9 hours.

PLEASE BE QUIET! I’M DOING THE DEPARTURE CHECK LIST

While driving I perform a little LAST CHANCE TO TURN AROUND CHECK LIST in my head with two of the last items being: setting the house alarm and closing the big garage door. I realized just before Waterford I couldn’t precisely remember closing the garage door and considering the difficulty in backing uphill with the trailer and having that little accident with the fence post, wondered….. was the garage door indeed closed?

ANNOYING LITTLE VOICE OFTEN CORRECT

I lightly hit the brakes and started to slow the rig down looking for a good turn around spot….. “naw, I’m sure it was closed – I would have noticed”, and resumed pressing the accelerator. ‘Are you sure – absolutely positive it was closed?” (Don’t you hate that nagging inner voice that’s always right?) …… slowing down with the brakes again…. “Pretty sure…I mean, I would have noticed while locking the main gate” …..back on the accelerator….… then that pain in the ass internal voice whispered like creepy Joe: “Maybe you were distracted with the fender bender and forgot to close it, but if you want to spend the entire trip second guessing whether or not it was indeed closed and secure, go ahead be my guest.”

LITTLE FUCKER!

Slowed, turned around at the first available spot and headed back to Lake Don Pedro. What did I find? Garage door was wide open. I mean to the top of the header which I never open to that point which indicated something impeded the normal closing causing it to open to the fullest extent or something activated the motor.. Little fucker was right. Hit the remote, watched as the door closed all the way to the floor and stopped, and was thankful I listened to that little smart ass voice residing deep in the gray matter. Resumed the trip happy that I had made the right choice in turning back.

OCTOBER 20^th 2024 RETURN HOME

When I saw the garage door wide open I was extremely perplexed, what the hell happened? Approaching the main gate I saw a white Mariposa County Sheriff business card stuck on top of the anti-theft lock sleeve. On the back was hand written:

“Stopped by for a welfare check. Cut the chain on the gate facing Espuela. Your garage door was unlocked so I locked it before leaving”

Walking into the garage everything look fine but my kitchen/garage door was locked and I couldn’t open it to go in to the kitchen. (Something I will never do again is occasionally leaving that door unlocked for convenience when coming back with groceries and such incorrectly believing the closed roll up garage door, cameras, audible burglar alarm and over 13 years of peace should be enough security.)

I looked at the Deputy’s card again “….garage door was unlocked so I locked it before leaving”

Had I misunderstood the card’s message walking up to the house believing the deputy had closed the roll up door before leaving….and somehow it had opened again? Thought to myself, OK, there is a problem with the garage door outside stationary controller, car remote or the motor itself.

(Have heard it is extremely unlikely, but sometimes another remote can activate another similar system. I do know that someone in this area has a remote that controls one of my ceiling fans sometimes. I’ll be watching TV and all of a sudden the fan will either come on or go off (never the lights-just the fan). I would imagine I’ve probably done the same thing to the other fan users some where. Also people have been known to drive off with another vehicle believing it to be theirs with an ignition key that indeed was the same as the other vehicle. Extremely rare, but it does happen.)

At 1047hrs

I put the key in the door lock (I do lock it sometimes) and opened the door but entering the kitchen (there was no “beep beep beep” count down before the alarm went off) so I approached the alarm control pad to check the status but it had a blank screen and apparently no power.

“Fucking PG&E power outages!” I mumbled to myself as similar things have happened in the past. They kill the power and backup batteries could eventually deplete and alarm monitor goes out. Looked up at the electric stove LED and it was also flashing a power loss code.

When the house alarm went off (1047 hrs) while I was unloading the truck/trailer and bringing stuff in the house it actually scared the heck out of me (lol) so I went through the process of getting that all squared away and everything appeared it was going to be fine. I was still honestly appreciative for what I understood at the time and actually thrilled with the prospect this was like an Olive Branch from the Sheriff’s Office in putting past differences behind us and they actually did me a favor! so at 1109 hrs 22 minutes after arriving home I sent the following email to the Deputy’s email address on the card:

Thank you – thank you – so much!  When did this occur?  You know, when I first left in August, I was almost to Waterford but couldn’t remember closing the large roll up garage door so I returned and sure enough it was open.  Closed it with the remote and re-started the trip.  Not sure what happened this second time.  Would appreciate a call  at your convenience.  Again, thank you!  Lew

October 20^th, 2024 1109hrs

Not receiving a response by Tuesday I called the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office and briefly explained the situation but was told the Deputy was off duty and would be backer by Wednesday and would probably notify me then. OK, thanks.

On Friday still not hearing anything I called the Mariposa County dispatch and tried to explain what was going on – but received a completely different response from the dispatcher who seemed uncooperative and wanted to pick a verbal fight.

You see, I normally talk loud anyway, I’m not mad just talk loud (maybe from all the gun range shooting I don’t know), but when this dispatcher told me the deputy was off duty, I tried to explain that I had been told twice already that the Deputy was off duty but before I had finished the dispatcher sternly said “DON’T GET MAD AT ME”, I laughed and said I’m not mad but I’ve been told – she cut me off as I recall to say it was my volume or tone of voice …..

At that very moment, although I still had many unanswered questions about what had happened at my home on October 4^th, and wasn’t mad when I called dispatch I was just frustrated with an apparent run around…. I now knew SOMETHING WAS WRONG – VERY WRONG and told her something like never mind I’ll call the sheriff or under sheriff and hung up. NOW I was beginning to get real concern about what was really going on with this incident.

(I honestly believe that dispatcher was purposefully trying to get me to say something on that recorded line that would be inappropriate and could be used against me (WHAT ?) — I felt like she was trying to hide something, but without a transcript or audio recording to go over like they have, it’s just memory, and my memory was she was uncooperative and defensive about something but I didn’t know what.

Why would I be getting the run around for wanting more information about a matter I had already emailed the responsible deputy that I was appreciative?

Called the number for the Sheriff/Under sheriff and administration personnel but lost the connection somehow while waiting for them to pick up. Tried again (you know the phone listing hell), spoke with a nice woman and explained the situation, she said she would put me through to the Captain, rang,rang…. Message machine….left the message. Spoke with the Captain later, nice conversation and I told him that I felt something was actually wrong after the dispatcher accused me of being mad. I laughed and told him I wasn’t mad before but only frustrated that I couldn’t get answers to pertinent questions. I told him I was pleased with how the deputy removed the chain without cutting the lock itself, but he could have left the card somewhere else where people on the street could read it and know my property was unsecured. I told him about the alarm going off and scaring me, and was charging the batteries to get it back on line, he was cordial and all that, but I had the feeling he new more than he was relaying.

I told him I didn’t even know when this occurred and he told me October 4^th 2024. I asked if the check was made from my calling the SO for a house check or what. He said my postal carrier requested a well fare check because of the circumstances of the mail not being picked up and the garage door being opened. I explained my position on both. Told him my postal carriers are all aware of my extended trips to Nevada because even though I purchased a very large locking mailbox, it still gets full with mail. I said she was a sweetheart and very much aware of my traveling situation. I told him my truck and trailer were usually in front of the garage, my dog was with me in Nevada…. I told him things were not making sense. He said he wouldn’t want to comment on anything without speaking to the deputy involved, I apologized and agreed that I wasn’t trying to put him in a bad situation but that was precisely why I was getting frustrated and concerned because the deputy hadn’t contacted me in the last five days. The Captain said he would check into the matter.

After talking with the Captain, a horrible feeling started in my stomach but was connected to my brain which had been churning on this since I came home and saw the garage door open. That horrible connection between my brain and stomach was VERY FUCKING FAMILIAR…..I WAS BEING DECEIVED AGAIN BY PEOPLE WHO WERE CONCEALING IMPORTANT FACTS AS TO WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AT MY HOME WHILE I WAS OUT OF STATE.

FLASHBACK TO MERCED PROBLEM

Back in 1986 I also spoke with a Captain at the Merced Sheriff’s Office who told me he understood my situation and was investigating my allegations but I had to give him enough time to clear things up and to remain at my house for a few more hours while he got things taken care of for me. My Father was still alive and present when that call came in and was leaning over listening to the conversation.

When I hung up from talking with the Captain, I looked at my Father and said “HE IS LYING TO ME AND I DO NOT TRUST HIM”. I called an attorney and followed his advice and would not have been granted a service connected disability retirement from law enforcement had I waited for the captain’s proclaimed “help is on the way” talk.

What was that captain really doing when he asked me to wait at home while he helped clear my name so I could return to work? Assisting County Counsel prepare an immediate termination of employment letter. There is so so so much more to all of that past stuff, and I’m digressing and upsetting myself again already. You see, that sort of painful shit never leaves your heart or mind, you just try to ignore it and move on, but when something similar happens……

You know, they fired me for doing exactly what I was supposed to do – enforce the law, but if you enforce it against a friend of the THEN sheriff, you had big serious problems.

There are so many things they did to me in order to cover up and conceal what they had and were doing in Merced. I even had a lieutenant tell me confidentially they were hoping to put enough stress on me that I would commit suicide. Had them before.

Easy to say, but when those criminal law enforcement officers had things printed in the paper about me they claimed were true that had ALREADY BEEN PROVEN FALSE the questioning of whether I might be better off dead was a reoccurring argument with myself for a long time. Should I just be done with this? I know I’m right, but the pain was getting to the point that almost anything would be better, even hurting my Mom, Dad, brother……maybe briefly just to get away from the constant pain, might be better for them to not watching me suffer? Yeah, maybe it would be better for them too if I just ended everything?

The county painted me as a bad officer and the reason for the illegal termination of my job and violation of my Peace officer bill or rights….my US Constitutional Rights, they didn’t care, they just wanted me gone and if I would do it myself….PERFECT FOR THEM.

When I did file for retirement the county then tried everything they could to stop that by saying I was a fine, intelligent hard working officer who could still do the job and should return to work.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME?

So, even though it is not a lot, that honorable service connected disability retirement has assisted greatly in my (our -that suffering child inside) decision to stay in this world as a living breathing, thinking, caring……. creation of God, and the longer I stay, the more they will pay for a retirement that should never have been required in the first place if they obeyed the laws they were supposed to be enforcing.

They hit and attacked me unscrupulously with everything in their government positions of power would permit, and believe me, a county sheriff has a lot of authority.

First administrative hearing – I WON. County Supervisors – lost (some were badge carrying special deputies of the then sheriff) Superior Court – visiting judge (all Merced County Judges voluntarily disqualified themselves) – I WON! Then the sheriff appealed to the California State Appellate Court – I WON! But the sheriff wanted to appeal to the state supreme court but eventually retired under a 21 count accusation by the County Grand Jury. Gosh, I could sit here for several hours going over this which might explain why it is difficult to talk with some folks. Lol

So what was I doing during all this? Hanging on to a roller coaster ride that is truly hard to even imagine for anyone unless they had been there on the ride. I still feel like it was another person’s life that I look back on, and I guess in some ways that is true as that personality is dead and gone, and all I have now is what’s left and what I can augment too it in the future.

Check it out…..those bad actors did EVERYTHING THEY COULD TO COMPLETELY DESTROY ME AND MY LIFE but failed – when the truth finally made it into court and guilty parties causing the trouble were no longer in control. But there’s another court, another judgment we will all face one day, for those of you trapped right now and feel there’s no way out, hold on, there is.

Although only a minuscule amount as compared to WHAT OUR TRUE PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP as suffered, I know very well what it is like to have weaponized government wrongly used against you. It’s a process without feeling, sympathy, concern, or fear – it’s like a massive mechanical monster but operated by people, and if the wrong people are in control that monster can be unleashed on innocent citizens to punish, control or completely erase. TRUMP WOULD UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT I AM FEELING RIGHT NOW AND WHY. I WANT A PRESIDENT WHO KNOWS THE DANGERS OF ALLOWING OUR COUNTRY TO BE RUN BY EVIL DOERS.

And for those who couldn’t hold on against such evil attacks by spineless cowards, liars and cheats, well, I understand why because I almost joined them. I only pray it worked for them somehow, and that GOD UNDERSTOOD. Unfortunately, if an honest good person did collapse under the weight of evil those evil responsibles will only use that suicide as evidence they (the bad guys) were really the good guys….”see, they killed themselves because of the guilt” over their crime, when in actuality they were innocent people that just couldn’t withstand the pain these FUCKING MONSTERS IN GOVERNMENT PUT ON THEM ONLY TO CONCEAL THEIR OWN MISDEEDS!

OK, that’s it for now, I’ve got a headache now – lol

My best to you and yours, Lew

PS: Sorry about the blah blah blah and major diversions from the point – which was that after talking with the Captain and feeling that sickening feeling developing between my brain and stomach (about the previous captain just wanting me to wait at home while being set up with an immediate termination letter), my priority became to get my systems back on line and figure out what happened. (aka last photos posted) I am still learning some details but sick and tired of being deceived and lied to by people who only want to cover up truth to “protect the county”. Really? The county is not a living breathing human being with feelings but something created to serve citizens with feelings and make their lives better. Something, or someone, sure needs to straighten you folks out because for all the hard work I’ve been doing for the last 3-1/2 years to save what I have left for a happy life ending, you’ve thrown me into another ugly prison with next year’s date being 1987. God have mercy on you for what you do to innocent people.

People who can not obey the law themselves certainly should not be enforcing it against others.