by Sean Aaron Cruz
July 29, 2012
Portland, Oregon--
The recent civil court motions in Multnomah
County in the Kyron Horman
kidnapping case are the first filings under Aaron’s Law since the statute was
enacted in 2005, when Oregon
became the first and only state in the nation to create a civil cause of action
for the crime of Custodial Interference in the First Degree.
The number one reason that it has taken so long for a case
to be brought forward under Aaron’s Law is because so few people know it
exists. That is about to change, is
already changing now.
There are a lot of people close to the Kyron Horman case
looking at a completely new application of law right now, intruding at a time
when both the criminal and family law systems are failing and time is marching
on, and yet a child is still missing, and note the use of the word “intruding.”
Fewer still understand how Aaron’s Law works. The Kyron
Horman case is the first of its kind in the nation, and there will be a great
many legal precedents set here as the process outlined under Aaron's Law unfolds.
Attention is about to go nationwide. Believe it!
There is a presidential election at stake, with a Mormon candidate. This
is gonna be good! God does move in mysterious ways, and in this presidential election, He is gonna punish the wicked!
You bet Aaron’s Law is an intrusion!
Aaron’s Law was written for times like these!
Aaron’s Law gives a parent the power to intrude, the power
to assert some control into a system that is failing to produce a missing child
and that forces a parent to sit on the sidelines and wait, to wait perhaps forever.
Nothing works in a kidnapper’s favor more than delaying
proceedings, two years so far in the Kyron Horman case.
This is a good time to explain the law:
Oregon’s
landmark anti-kidnapping statute, Senate Bill 1041 “Aaron’s Law”, is triggered when “a person” commits the crime of Custodial
Interference in the First Degree.
1. Who: Note that the statute applies to “a person,” making
no exceptions.
“A person”…”any person”…”each person”…”every person”…all the
same. This reaches to all of those religious zealots and hypocrites out there...a church shunning can very well be a kidnapping.
2. What: DO NOT take, entice, keep (or conceal) a child in
violation of these criminal statutes.
“A person commits the crime of custodial interference…if,
knowing or having reason to know that the person has no legal right to do so,
the person takes, entices or keeps another person from the other person’s
lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order with intent to
hold the other person permanently or for a protracted period.”
3. Where: DO NOT remove the child(ren) from the state of Oregon.
4. Why not: DO NOT expose the child(ren) “to a substantial risk
of illness or physical injury.”
Abduction by any person—including a parent—is known to be as
abusive to the child as any other form of abuse, and is often the gateway to
other forms of child abuse.
If Aaron’s Law had been on the books in 1995, then my son
would still be alive today, and my family unbroken.
Here are the key elements of Oregon’s
Custodial Interference laws:
ORS 163.257 Custodial
interference in the first degree.
(1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in
the first degree if the person violates ORS 163.245 (Custodial Interference in
the second degree) and:
(a) Causes the person taken, enticed or kept from the lawful
custodian or inviolation of a valid joint custody order to be removed from
the state; or
(b) Exposes that person to a substantial risk of illness or
physical injury.
(3) Custodial interference in the first degree is a Class B
felony.
ORS 163.245 Custodial
interference in the second degree.
(1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in
the second degree if, knowing or having reason to know that the person has no
legal right to do so, the person takes, entices or keeps another person from
the other person’s lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody
order with intent to hold the other person permanently or for a protracted
period.
(3) Custodial interference in the second degree is a Class C
felony.
~~~~~
Sean Cruz is the father of four children who disappeared
from their Oregon homes into Utah
in a Mormon abduction in 1996.
He led the legislative work group on Senate Bill 1041 in
2005, which provides the statutory basis for the civil action filed by Kyron
Horman's family.
The bill followed on the work of the Senate President's 2004
Interim Task Force on Parental and Family Abductions, and was informed by his
personal experiences as the father of four children who disappeared from Oregon
in a Mormon abduction that began in 1996.
SB 1041 became known as "Aaron's Law" in memory of
his late son Aaron Cruz (who died in the course of his abduction) at the same
time that it passed the House on a unanimous vote, and Governor Kulongoski signed
the bill into law with Aaron's photograph on his desk.
Having fought through four jurisdictions in three states
against a phalanx of Mormon lawyers who used every trick in the book to delay
proceedings in the case of the Cruz kidnappings, Aaron's Law anticipated where
the Kyron Horman case would be today.
They are going to remember you now, son....
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