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On March 2, 2019, I received a letter from The California Department of Justice with my DOJ criminal background check in order to renew my California teaching credential (this is a standard procedure offered to anyone who holds any type of license in the state of California). When I opened the letter, I started jumping up and down in my living room because it said that I never had been convicted of any crime and that I had never been charged with drunk driving. It proved to me that several years earlier, I really had been a victim of fraud in San Diego County, that I was only made to look like a drunk driver by The San Diego Police Department and The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office in what they call “America’s Finest City” where every police car has that phrase written on its doors.
I now understood that although I had been arrested in August 2014 for Driving Under the Influence of an Alcoholic Beverage (the lesser offense—.07 or less—also known as 23152A VC) by the police officer that night after leaving The Del Mar Races, that charge by itself was not enough to get me convicted of a crime so he charged me with 273A PC “Willful Cruelty to Child” which also caused San Diego County Child Welfare Services to charge me with “Severe Neglect” of my daughter. Then the social worker left me a message on October 14, 2014 and said she tried been trying to contact me. Although I called her the next day, and three days later, she closed the referral and wrote she had been looking for me and my ex-husband David for over a month and that we both failed to respond to her (David had never even heard from her before she closed the referral).
I would have fought the Child Welfare allegations harder but my lawyer told me not to challenge them or CWS might take my child away and my AT&T phone records had been erased on October 8, 2014, the day the social worker claimed to have contacted me by telephone in her referral. My AT&T phone were erased that very day and throughout the rest of my criminal case so I could not prove that I acted in good faith and that the social worker was lying.
On March 5, 2019, I discovered through the San Diego Unified School District Police Department (the same school district where I work and where my daughter goes to school) that neither I nor my child had ever been the subject of a San Diego County Child Welfare Services investigation. The investigation was false. But during my criminal case, I did not know this.
On October 1, 2014, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office charged me with 23152A VC Driving Under the Influence of an Alcoholic Beverage, 23152B VC Driving With a Measurable Amount of Alcohol in the Amount of .08 or Greater, and 23572A VC, the added allegation of a minor being present in the vehicle. I first saw these charges on October 14, 2014 when my attorney presented them to me.
Because my lawyer told me I was facing a separate count of Child Endangerment (even though the DA’s Office did not charge me with this) and that if I lost at trial, I may lose my job and CWS could take my child, I signed a blank plea. My lawyer also showed me a blood alcohol certificate from the SDPD that said I was a .08. Even though I did not believe I was, I signed the plea because he told me just in case he needed it in the future. Then he wrote “drove a vehicle recklessly with alcohol in my system” on the plea after I signed it. I later learned that the top of the plea said I was drunk in legal language---VC23103A (reckless driving—the plea) per VC23103.5 (drunk reckless driving—the thing I supposedly did). It said nothing about Child Endangerment but because it was written in number code, I did not understand what I was signing. I made the mistake of trusting what he told me.
On March 5, 2019, my DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) record showed that I had never been arrested or had my driver’s license suspended or revoked even though I was convicted of reckless driving by San Diego Superior Court on January 16, 2015 and forced into a 3 month drunk driving school and threatened with incarceration if I did not complete it. I was also put on probation for 3 years and fined over one thousand dollars.
On November 1, 2019, I took the matter back to Court and the judge ruled that the “Willful Cruelty to Child” arrest be sealed (basically buried because it was an arrest that I was never charged with by the Court) but I still had a conviction for “reckless driving” stemming from a plea that stated I was originally drunk. So many people, including lawyers, told me this was an excellent “deal,” but I knew it was not a deal because I knew I was not drunk.
In February 2020, I sent a California Public Record Act request to The San Diego Police Department to obtain a duplicate copy of my blood alcohol certificate. The 2020 police department blood alcohol certificate did not match the 2014 certificate used to convict me so I sought an independent investigation from ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), the agency that oversees The San Diego Police Department Crime Lab.
In April, 2020, that investigation showed that “the prosecution redacted the uncertainty of measurement statement” on the blood alcohol certificate changing it from inconclusive (uncertain to be a .08) to conclusive (certain to be a .08). So I basically signed a plea based on false evidence.
In May, 2020, I filed a motion to take the matter back to Court and I am seeking not only a withdraw of my plea, I am seeking a dismissal of the entire case because it was based on prosecutorial misconduct and fraud. I was never supposed to be prosecuted because I had not committed a crime and my Department of Justice record supports this. I am still awaiting a court date to have the matter heard.
In May, 2020, I sued the City of San Diego—America’s Finest City—and members of the San Diego Police Department for conspiracy, fraud, and other Civil Rights violations. I intend to sue the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and San Diego County Child Welfare Services as well because I have filed recent claims with The County of San Diego. But I need help with these lawsuits in the form of lawyers and the money to pay for them.
My rap tells the story in rhyme because I really could not tell you the details of the story here and the rhyme contains--well rhyme! so I hope you won’t get bored. Maybe I can leave you feeling like you have been entertained through the rap so it may feel worth it for you to donate to my legal campaign but if you cannot, I understand. Just pass on my story please. I want the world to know because there are so many others like me who have experienced wrongful persecution by government officials who face no consequences and it has to stop!
I also wrote a letter to my daughter to apologize to her for all of the hours it has cost me to fight; it has cost many years of her childhood and all of our extra household money. She has had to make so many sacrifices because I have chosen to fight but may she learn through this experience to fight for what she knows is right in life; that is my prayer.
We all have our own struggles and our own opinions. If you don’t believe in my plight, that’s okay. I only ask that you not be nasty or cruel. I have tried my best to be dignified throughout the prosecution process. I have learned that even when I was being portrayed wrongly, I could still act with integrity because I was seeking the truth. Above all, my faith in God saw me through over and over when I was down. Thank you for allowing me this gracious opportunity to seek your assistance through my Go Fund Me Page and thank you anyway just for reading this if you cannot or do not wish to donate. But please, PASS IT ON! Peace be with you. americasfinestdrunkdriver.com