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CONTACT: Christopher Yavelow 410-252-3620 Christopher@yavelow.com http://www.StolenChildren.net MARYLAND TRIES TO SAVE FACE AFTER SELLING OUT THREE U.S. CITIZENS Baltimore -- February 6, 2000 -- The State of Maryland claimed they had both valid civil and valid criminal charges of parental child abduction against composer/author Christopher Yavelow . On Friday, January 14, 2000, all civil charges against Christopher Yavelow were dismissed. Yesterday all criminal charges against Christopher Yavelow were placed on a “Stet Docket” for a period of one year. The “Stet Docket” is an inactive court docket used by prosecutors to save face in cases for which they have little or no chance of conviction. And Maryland gravely needs to save face. Through gross judicial misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, violation of due process, violation of Hague Convention procedures, and pandering to a foreign government with no respect for the laws of the United States, the state of Maryland has completely ruined the lives of three American citizens. Yavelow describes it, “For the sake of garnering some headlines, Maryland judges, federal and state prosecutors and attorneys, the FBI, and the Department of State, acted in concert to cause a police riot of abuse of power that resulted in the kidnapping of my children, both native-born American citizens, by a foreign government. At no time, were any of us afforded due process or even notified that the State of Maryland had claimed the right to destroy our lives.” “I have two biological children, Celina (14) and Stephanie (11). Both were born in the United States. Both are American citizens who have spent more than half their lives in the United States. The three of us desperately desire to return to the United States.” On October 21 in Houston, Texas, when the FBI, sent by the state of Maryland, arrived to seize Celina and Stephanie the girls shielded their father in a heart-wrenching 15-minute standoff pleading, " Please don't take our father away. He has not kidnapped us. We are here of our own free will! We want to be in America. We are Americans!" According to the Hague Convention Treaty, children of their age must be listened to and their wishes honored. This did not take place. At that time no one informed the Yavelow family that the charges stemmed from the Hague Convention Treaty. In fact, during almost seven days in jail, no one ever informed Christopher Yavelow of what he was charged with. The Yavelow family was traveling with a well-researched article 13b and article 20 Hague Convention exceptions document that would have negated any claims the state of Maryland imagined they had upon them but they were never given their rightful opportunity to present it. Fasel (a Swiss citizen) had been ordered by the State of Maryland to attend a hearing in Maryland and also to turn over all passports (hers and the children’s) to prevent them from leaving the country. The FBI had promised in writing to put the children in the custody of Yavelow’s mother while waiting for this hearing. However, they turned the children over to Fasel, “forgetting” to request her passports as required by the Maryland court order. Fasel pretended to return to Maryland but when she got to Baltimore Washington International Airport, she fled to the Netherlands on the first available flight, violating the same item in the Maryland court order that had been used to justify the massive manhunt for Yavelow. One wonders why Fasel would flee if there were any merit to her charges? Yavelow and his daughters believe that it is because Yavelow has official evidence that she has been committing incest with one of his children. That particular child was prepared to testify in America about Fasel's repeated abuse. Fasel didn’t stand a chance under such circumstances. She had to get that witness out of the country as quickly as possible. The Netherlands is a country that condones such abuse. Further, she was aware of the fact that Yavelow was traveling with a complete copy of all the evidence of her multi-cultic involvements. Fasel is a member of three cults that have been ruled dangerous for children in Europe due to child deaths and molestations. Finally, Fasel knew beyond any doubts that the so-called "Dutch custody" documents she had submitted to the Maryland courts would easily be proven bogus in a trial: With one six minute call to the Dutch embassy in Washington Yavelow was able to verify the uselessness of Fasel’s documents in a court of law -- Yavelow had requested authentication of Fasel’s documents by the FBI, the USA Attorney White, Deputy State’s Prosecutor Merker, the Baltimore Sun, and CBS, all of whom acknowledged his request yet none of whom took the six minutes required to telephone the Dutch embassy. On the contrary, Maryland was more interested in selling out three American citizens during the same month that there were two Congressional Hearings taking place in Washington DC at the United States Senate about cases just like these. And during the same month (September) Reader's Digest's lead story, “American’s Stolen Children” by Daniel Levine, recounted this exact same scenario taking place in 13,000 cases over the past five years. To add insult to injury, midway through these proceedings, the US Government showed that it would bend over backwards to help a Cuban child, Elian Gonzales, while ignoring the rights of three American citizens. It’s as if they let Fasel call all the shots from beginning to end. In summary: • Yavelow's checks with three Dutch lawyers and 6 American lawyers confirmed that he and his children were completely within their rights to relocate to their home country the United States because Yavelow and Fasel had "shared custody" according to Dutch law because no custody hearing had taken place in the Netherlands at that time, although they had had four “temporary access arrangements” hearings to set up the 50-50 access schedule throughout the period while they were waiting for a custody hearing. There is no concept of “temporary custody” in the Netherlands. Further, keeping the children past an agreed return date by either party, is not a crime in the Netherlands, a country which has no “contempt of court” laws and thus it is impossible to be in contempt of any court order, particularly a simple temporary access arrangement agreement. • Fasel submitted uncertified (and bogus) English translations of the temporary access arrangements agreements (none of which mentioned "custody") to a Maryland judge. She also submitted a Hague Convention proceeding (in English) which clearly stated that custody had not been determined yet (second to the last paragraph on the last page). In January, representatives from the United States Department of State determined that Fasel had convinced the Hague Convention representatives in the Netherlands that she and the girls were Dutch (Fasel is Swiss while the girls are as American as apple pie). Fasel has attempted to do this before by falsifying the girls' official identity papers in the Netherlands for the purpose of "erasing" their American citizenship. • Apparently, judge Hennegan did not read these documents but rather, relied on demonstrably false statements presented by Susan Elgin, Fasel’s Towson attorney. Based upon this false testimony and unauthenthicated documents and without notifying Yavelow or his children of the proceedings, Hennegan awarded temporary custody to Fasel, illegally assuming jurisdiction for the state of Maryland in the process: None of the parties were in Maryland at the time and none of the parties are residents of Maryland, nor has the family ever been a resident of Maryland. Further, the Parental Kidnapping Act prohibits him from assuming emergency jurisdiction when custody proceedings are underway in another state or country. The Hague documents clearly stated that custody proceedings were underway in the Netherlands, and an email from Yavelow to Fasel submitted as evidence by Elgin stated that custody proceedings had been arranged in another state in the Pacific Northwest. • Almost half the documents that Fasel promised to submit to the National Center for Missing Children and law enforcement agencies never showed up and none of the ones that did show up were ever authenticated. Although, the mere fact that she claimed she would submit them later was enough to help start a manhunt that cost a fortune and ruined the lives of two American children and one American adult. • Maryland’s leading newspaper, the Baltimore Sun’s writer, Jean Jacobsen, cooperated fully in this farce, publishing almost a dozen articles in which an average of 70% of the statements were false and purposefully intended to inflame the situation. As recently as February 5th, the Baltimore Sun continued to attempt to commit against Yavelow atrocities far worse than those to which Richard Jewell was subjected. Running another 70% fictitious article and sending the inflammatory lies out on the AP wire, by Sunday, the Sun had major networks claiming that "Yavelow is forbidden to contact his ex-wife and children." In reality, there are no rulings or documents in any country forbidding Yavelow to contact his children. The state of Maryland reserved the right to move the case from the inactive docket to the active docket if Yavelow has unlawful conduct with his wife or children in the state of Maryland, yet unlawful contact with anyone, child or adult, is illegal in most countries so that rather goes without saying. Yavelow explains, "I've never had unlawful contact with my children and I don't intend to. I don't suppose that there are many parents that have unlawful contact with their children. The phrase in question simply states the obvious." • Maryland television network affiliates cooperated by purposely finding the most threatening picture of Yavelow to display during news items about the case, some of which were broadcast nationally. They further purposely inflamed the situation by repeatedly broadcasting six-year-old videos of the children when 4 and 7 years old. The juxtaposition of the grotesque picture of Yavelow with the long-outdated videos of the tiny children were clearly intended to mislead the public and portray Yavelow and his children in a completely deceitful manner. The children are 14 and 11 years old and the 14-year-old is almost as tall as Yavelow himself. • At no time were Yavelow or his children given due process of law. In fact, at no time was Yavelow ever allowed to confront his accusers. He has never faced Howard Merker in court or anywhere else (to his knowledge). He's never even spoken to him on the phone. Nor has he ever met the Maryland FBI people involved or the NCMEC officials. • Not until a week after his release from a Texas jail (on bail) was Yavelow ever even verbally notified of the charges and it was seven weeks later before he was served with any papers having to do with his case. • All rulings in this case have so far been “ex parte.” That includes the ruling on February 4, 2000. That means he has not been present at any of the trials. In fact, Fasel learned the power of an “ex parte” hearing from the State of Maryland. When she returned to the Netherlands she had an ex parte custody hearing while Yavelow was wrongly held in a Houston jail. At that hearing, the children were not allowed to testify (as is their right in Holland). The children are old enough that according to Netherlands law, their testimony is required to be considered. It is mandatory in the case of Celina who is over 12. The girls had written seven letters to the judge, demanding to be heard, expressing their desire to live with their father at his house, or if that could not be arranged, that at the very least they be allowed to live with their father half the time which is what the Dutch law officially proscribes in custody cases. The Dutch judge dismissed their letters with the ridiculous remark, "these do not relate to the requested arrangement concerning parental access" (presumably, "requested arrangement" in this pronouncement refers to Fasel's request that Yavelow be stripped of all parental rights). Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising in a country like the Netherlands where it wasn't until 1990 that fathers were even granted any parental visitation rights at all, and shockingly, is was not until 1998 that the joint custody policy was incoporated into the laws! (It is a little-known fact that the Netherlands legal system is such that many of the judges are also practicing lawyers and some are even members of parliament. It is even possible to be a parliament member, lawyer, and judge simultaneously.) On November 2, 1999, the decision from the October "ex parte" hearing was made. The Dutch courts gave Fasel full custody of Celina and Stephanie. Fasel requested that Yavelow lose all his rights of parental access to the children and the court granted that request, removing the children's father from their lives forever. She was also provisionally awarded his house, his office, and all his possessions including about $250,000 worth of computers and computer music equipment and all his music, his writings, books, master recordings of his works, his curricula, and paintings by his parents who are both artists. Although Yavelow had provided the court with bank statements from Fasel's secret Swiss accounts (which he discovered after she left and which are of suspicious origin and very possibly Nazi money) the courts awarded Fasel 100% of Yavelow's income, citing, as justification for this, a savings account that had been depleted for legal expenses a year ago. No one seems to notice that if Fasel only received custody in November, how could she possibly have had it at the beginning of September when she came over to the United States waving translations of Dutch language documents that she claimed were custody papers -- translations that were never authenticated and have still not been authenticated and do not, themselves in either form mention the word "custody." This particular form of blindness is typical in Richard Jewell-like media circuses. • With the state of Maryland’s help Fasel accomplished more destruction along the way: Through legal fees she has bankrupted Yavelow and his 82-year-old mother. By lying to his best friends from childhood and working with a California-based anti-Christian group she has turned many of Yavelow's closest friends and relatives against him including his father and one of his brothers. She lied on nationwide TV and to the newspapers in an attempt to ruin his career (Yavelow is a composer, author, and multimedia producer whose works have received national and international awards in all three fields). Fasel continues to harass Yavelow. With practically daily emails during the last week of November and first week of December and also in January, Fasel threatened to sell Yavelow's house at "60% of market value" so that he would realize no profit from the equity. Technically, at least half the equity and possibly all of it should go to Yavelow. According to the law, possibly all of it. Fasel has worked around the clock to try to have Yavelow jailed for a year. He has done nothing that could conceivably deserve this persecution. She has now been granted the freedom and opportunity to continue to use the children as "sex toys" in her cult activities as she has done in the past. And she is in a position to carry out her vows to remove from Celina's and Stephanie's lives forever, their father, their American Citizenship, and their Christianity. Regarding Fasel's vow to remove Celina and Stephanie's father from their lives forever: Yavelow has not seen his daughters since October 21, 1999. That is days as of today. Fasel changed their phone number, will not allow Celina or Stephanie to use their email accounts (Yavelow emails them every day), and held a meeting with all the parents at their school at which she requested that everyone hang up the phone if Yavelow ever called. She forces the children to attend a New Age anti-Christian cult school and the Anthroposophic cult that runs the school is more than willing to gather around and shield the children at the request of one of their cult-members. Many of the parents are also practicing Wicca "witches" and members of Luong Minh Dang's anti-Christian doomsday cult called "Spiritual Human Yoga" (AKA Human Universal Energy), two other cults of which Fasel is a dedicated and “card-carrying” member. Regarding Fasel's vow to remove Celina and Stephanie's American citizenship: She will carry through her attempts to erase Celina's and Stephanie's American Citizenship as she did earlier this year. Fasel also refuses to allow the children to see any of their American friends. Regarding Fasel's vow to remove Christianity from Celina and Stephanie's lives: Despite pleas from Celina and Stephanie, both devout Christians, Fasel refuses to allow them to attend the English-speaking Baptist church they are a member of in the Netherlands. Further, she refuses to allow them to see any of their Christian friends. They now have a virtual army of people telling them that Jesus is not important. That the Bible is a book of fairy tales and Christianity is a ancient religion that has long since been disproved. Every day their teachers at the Anthroposophic school reinforce this as do the Anthroposophic parents of the children's classmates and all of Fasel's cult friends. Everyone is cooperating to "liberate" Yavelow's daughters from their chosen faith of Christianity and indoctrinate them with New Age rituals and beliefs. Finally, due to Fasel’s schemes the United States and the Netherlands are both in gross violation of the Hague Convention Treaty as well as the United Nations Treaty on the Rights of the Child (8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, and 19). Yavelow, when asked why, with all the overwhelming evidence on his side, did he accept the “Stet Docket” agreement stated: “The state of Maryland backed me into a corner which left me no choice. On December 18, 1999, and also on January 3, 2000, I appealed the Dutch ruling of November 2, 1999 (see above), and I must return to the Netherlands soon to fight that appeal. I was told that if I didn’t accept the Stet Docket, I would have to stay in Maryland for up to six months (remember, even though the request for my passport was illegal, I turned my passport over to the state of Maryland so I couldn’t leave the country to fight my case in the Netherlands). At this time, it is much more important for me to rescue my daughters and make their dreams of returning to their home country, the United States, come true, rather than playing Maryland’s silly games. However, the moment the appeal is over in the Netherlands, I will be back and I will demand that the Stet Docket case be move to the Active Docket (that is my right under Maryland law for one year) and at that time, the truth will prevail.” In the meantime, check the following two websites for information: http://www.yavelow.com/children.html In closing, Celina and Stephanie Yavelow are native-born American citizens who have spent more than half their lives in America. They desperately want to return to their own country, the United States. In the meantime, they anxiously want to be allowed to attend the English-speaking church they attended all last year and they want the freedom to associate with their American friends and to have communication with their father. They are being held incommunicado in the Netherlands against their will where they continue to be abused by Monique Fasel (a Swiss citizen) and the cults of which she is a member. Misuse of the American judicial system to accomplish such reprehensible goals as those of Monique Fasel cannot be allowed to continue. If this is not exposed, Fasel's behavior will surely be imitated by others. ### |