FSP Members' Daughter kidnapped by Manchester Police

[ancapagency]

Steve and CJ Maxey, and CJ's daughter from a previous marriage Ally Haystead, moved from Michigan to New Hampshire in July 2010. Steve and CJ have been married for about 10 years, and Ally is going on 16 (in September 2011). In the divorce from her previous husband, Ernie Haystead, CJ received physical Custody of Ally, and Ernie was required to pay child support, and had visitation rights.

Ernie Haystead is (based on my judgment, having looked at his records and statements online and such other sources as I could find) almost your stereotypical ignorant, uneducated, sleazy, welfare-bum. He has a rather extensive police record, a number of DUIs, and has been in and out of jail a fair bit. He also seems to be (or has been) the "Go-To Guy" for drugs and tattoos among the corrupt cops in SE Michigan. I suspect he's also an informant for the Police--that's usually the way it goes.

Haystead's wife, Tammy, has a similar history, as well as a history of child abuse. When Ally was 9, Tammy stabbed Ally in the face with a fork during a visitation, because Ally didn't eat what she was told to.

When CJ and Haystead divorced, CJ was awarded physical custody, with Haystead having visitation rights. Ally has expressed her desire NOT to visit Haystead, and CJ did not force her to visit him.

In July 2010, CJ was offered a job in NH, and she and Steve decided to move with Ally to NH. CJ consulted an attorney, who told her all she had to do was to fill out change of address forms for the court. CJ did so, and they moved to NH.

When they got to NH, CJ's job fell through, and she and Steve started working temp jobs, until CJ was recently hired on full-time by her temp agency. She and Steve and Ally have been active in the community, going to church on Sundays, Ally has been involved in activities at the public library, and they've all made a lot of new friends since they moved to NH. Steve is slated to build a forge and teach blacksmith classes, CJ's new job is working out, and they were finally beginning to get their feet under them after long difficulties in MI.

Thursday morning, while CJ was at work, 5 Manchester NH Police Officers knocked on their door, and Steve answered. He was informed that they were there to take Ally into protective custody, as she was reported as a victim of kidnapping. They showed Steve a print out from a web page which had an old photo of Ally on it, and which claimed she had been kidnapped by her mother and "an adult male." They also flashed some document signed by a judge in MI, and told him Ally would be put into foster care in NH, until there was an extradition hearing. Steve, not wanting to make things worse for Ally, didn't resist them in any way, and answered all their questions.

Steve called CJ at work to tell her what had happened, and CJ called me. I put them in contact with Attorney Seth Hipple, who proceeded to call the Manchester Police Department in an attempt to find out what was going on, and where Ally was. He was stonewalled, and told no one could answer his questions until the next day.

Friday morning, Seth again began attempting to determine Ally's location and the disposition of the case. He was constantly stonewalled, questioned as to whether or not he actually was an attorney, and even repeatedly hung up on. On the way to a meeting with Attorney Hipple, CJ was informed that Ally had been turned over to Haystead by the Manchester Police, and had transported her out of state, and was flying her to MI.

Attorney Hipple was able to determine what happened to Ally only after the Manchester Police knew she was out of NH—at which time he was no longer able to assist Steve and CJ. He did manage to put them in contact with an attorney in MI, and to brief in that attorney. Attorney Hipple generously did not charge CJ and Steve for this assistance.

SO, as things stand now, Ally is in the custody of Haystead in MI. She was seen by her older sister when she got into MI, who says she was scared and unhappy and had an upset stomach and hives, but was otherwise "safe" at present.  Haystead is essentially holding her incommunicado, and has posted on Ally's Facebook wall his (extremely badly written and misspelled) refutation of CJ & Steve's account.

It turns out that the advice CJ received from the attorney when she was moving was incorrect or incomplete, and under MI law, she was required to beg for permission from the court to be allowed to move out of state.

Sometime in January, Haystead pulled some sort of legal maneuvers, and managed to start legal custody procedings and the court did not inform CJ via the address she had sent in on the change of address forms, but rather sent the notices to an old address which did not forward mail. Then, when CJ did not appear, they awarded full custody of Ally to Haystead (despite his readily apparent lack of fitness and the patently unsafe environment). Then, Haystead reported Ally as kidnapped to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and some of his police friends pushed it through on their end.

Somehow, Haystead managed to enlist the cooperation of the Manchester Police Department, apparently without going through any other NH Authorities. They also did not consult (again, as far as we can tell) any NH Authorities.  They didn't ask Haystead for any identification, nor did they bother to call any authorities in MI to check the veracity of his story--they simply took his word for it, along with a printout from the NCMEC website and a piece of paper with a MI judge's name on it.

CJ and Steve are consulting with an attorney in MI, who has his work cut out for him. As of the last we've heard, the prosecutor in MI has not yet decided whether or not to bring charges of kidnapping against CJ and possibly Steve. The hope is that the custody ruling can be reversed, or at least appealed and thus achieve a change of venue. The MI attorney needs a retainer of $2500 to get things started, and wants another $1500 in 30 days, and projects the ultimate expenses to be approximately $5000.

Please help us raise the money to pay the attorney, so CJ and Steve can get Ally back safe.

http://ancapagency.chipin.com/rescue-ally-fund

[Russell Kanning]

yawza

[KBCraig]

I have a recent experience of my own of lawyers and judges and parties with questionable motives deciding where a teenager should live. When judges and lawyers and cops get involved, everyone loses.

This is a particularly crazy story. My best wishes to the Maxey family.