Injustice in Delaware – Part III

On January 11, 2010 Gordon Smith met with his ex-wife, Tiffany, at a local fast food restaurant for parenting time with his then 4 and 2 year old sons. Tiffany only brought the two year old and he and his Dad had a great time in the playroom. Gordon left and went out to the parking lot to wait for his ride. After a few minutes in the cold Gordon came back in to wait in the restaurant. Tiffany said to him, “you’d better leave, I just called the Police”. Gordon was astonished and knew he couldn’t leave now when the police were coming. His ride came and he told her that he had to wait and that Tiffany had called the police. Three police cars came and cops interviewed Gordon and the employees at the restaurant. Tiffany had called 911 and told police that Gordon had gone outside and stood by her car and then crouched by her car, and that she was afraid. Tiffany had come in a friend’s car and Gordon didn’t know which one it was and had simply been waiting for his ride. Fortunately for Gordon it was not a mandatory arrest jurisdiction and the police didn’t find any evidence of any crime and told Gordon to leave.  

The next day Gordon and another man conducted a protest at Kent County Family Court, handing out fliers with information on protection from abuse orders (PFAs). They took a break and went inside where Gordon filed for a protection from abuse from Tiffany’s harassment and false allegation. A Commissioner heard it as an ex-parte (only one party/Gordon present), emergency motion and denied the ex-parte provisions and set it for a hearing, where the Respondent, Tiffany would have an opportunity to be present. That night Gordon spoke at the Family Law Commission public hearing. The next morning Gordon was sick. At some point during the morning Gordon got a phone call. Gordon felt too sick to talk on the phone. Gordon called his boys at about 5:30, and left a message on the land line where they lived that he would come to play with them soon.

Thursday Gordon went to Justice of the Peace Court 7 (JP7)  to pay a traffic ticket and a friend chose to wait in the car. The procedure is that a police officer will negotiate a plea and the cost of the ticket. It was when Gordon was negotiating the ticket with a Dover police officer that he was told there was a warrant for him from the Delaware State Police and he was arrested. 

Gordon goes to prison

When asked, Gordon was told by police they didn’t know what the charge was but it was “something domestic” and he would be transferred to Delaware State Police Troop 3, where the warrant originated. At Troop 3, a cash bail was set of $1,000 for an alleged violation of a protection order. In these arraignments, in Delaware, the police represent the state and make recommendations on bail. This was quite high and cash rather than secured was unusual. There are guidelines on bail and at the time that bail exceeded the guidelines, although since then alleged violations of protection orders and domestic violence misdemeanors have been singled out to have higher bail than other crimes of the same level. A violation of a PFA is a misdemeanor A. Cash bond, meant that it would be 1/3 rather than 10% fee to a bail bondsman so practically speaking it was like a bond over $3,000 secured. Gordon was not allowed to make a phone call to try to arrange for bail, but fortunately had a friend present to do it for him. Gordon was taken away. Friends later determined that Gordon was being held at James T. Vaughn state prison, Delaware not having county jails. Friends frantically tried to get Gordon bailed out of prison that night.

Gordon had not been served a protection from abuse order. Gordon had not called or been near Tiffany since Monday night when she made the false police report. He did not place that call to her cell phone at all that day and at that time he was sick in bed, with witnesses present. The bail had been unusually high. The police broke their word and took him to prison when they said they would hold him until 5PM. Gordon had not been allowed a phone call from Troop 3 and now they were not releasing him from prison. Friends feared for his life and safety. Gordon is not just another victim of the Delaware Family Court. He’s not just one of the many people that they grind through their system on a daily basis. He demonstrates, he writes op-ed pieces that have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the local papers, he’s been on local mainstream radio and television and internet radio. He writes emails to elected officials and the media. He is a frequent attendee at the Family Law Commission and other state government meetings and at the capitol, meeting with lawmakers. The powers that be in Delaware know who he is and they do not like him.

Finally, at about two o’clock, some twenty-five hours after he had been at JP 7 where he was arrested, Gordon was released from custody on bond. Friends picked him up, at the state prison, in Smyrna Delaware. Gordon called family court. They were very apologetic. Gordon was told that they knew he hadn’t been served the PFA and had been arrested for violating it anyway. They told him that they stayed until an hour after closing the day before trying to get him released. He was told other things that can’t be disclosed and are part of his lawsuit Gordon Smith vs. Delaware State Police et al. How is it that the Court couldn’t get him released immediately?! Something might not be rotten in Denmark but something is rotten in Delaware. The family court refunded Gordon’s bond money and expunged the record of that arrest but they can’t expunge the horrible experience of the state prison from his mind.          

When Gordon was in custody in Troop 3 a Trooper said to him “wait until you get to Vaughn” prior to the arraignment. Gordon would not have gone to Judge Vaughn if the bail had been the usual unsecured or up to $1,000 secured, not cash, or if they had held him at the Troop until the bail bondsman got there like they said they would. That Trooper also told a Corrections Officer, when he transferred custody of Gordon to the prison “he’s a trouble maker.” Gordon was forcibly given an injection against his wishes after a strip search, and not put into any protective custody despite telling them he had been in loss prevention and been a part of breaking up organized retail theft rings, in Delaware, in conjunction with police or that he was himself a former Probation Officer. Gordon had been threatened by two inmates, while in custody. Was it that lax safety procedures or because he labeled a “was a trouble maker” by the Delaware State Police when he was transferred to prison custody? 

The Chief Court Administrator called it a “clerical error” that Gordon had been entered into DELJIS, the criminal justice information system, as having been served the protection order at midnight, hours after it was issued. Who is served at midnight? As a rule, when served subpoenas or injunctions, such as protection orders, the papers are given to a clerk, they take the information off the document, the name, case number and document title, and enter it into the computer. If you don’t have a document in front of you how do you make a clerical error? Let’s wait and see how that’s explained in court, in the lawsuit that Gordon filed. 

You might wonder why the police or the Department of Justice haven’t arrested Tiffany for the false reports and put a stop to her harassment of Gordon. So do we. Gordon made them aware of it at the time and asked police officials, the Attorney General’s (AG’s) office and legislators for help. He is the victim of crimes. Just because some of them don’t like him is no reason to not afford him the same protection as any other citizen. They have the same evidence that is on the website for the false reports. The information that proves false reports are police documents from the Delaware State Police. They had them first, way before our third party sources got them. Is there not one moral decent person in the law enforcement agencies involved or in the Department of Justice that will step up and arrest Tiffany or have her arrested and hold her accountable for the crimes she has committed? The false report of August 9, 2010 is well documented, as is the felony perjury. They can read it here tiffanymariesmithperjuryfalsepolicereports.yolasite.com/ just like everyone else can. 

Gordon is still fighting the most recent false arrest. The one from July 28 where Tiffany claimed that on the phone he threatened to kill her. No evidence. How can the Beau Biden’s office continue with that prosecution when they have nothing but the word of one person against another and one is proven to lie in police reports and under oath? Yet they haven’ t dropped the charge. Then the arrest from three weeks later when Tiffany Marie Smith fabricated letters, like she did in the attempted frameup in July 22, 2010 which only failed because the police knew Gordon was out of state for several weeks at the time. The preliminary hearing on that case was continued until next Friday. Gordon, who has never been convicted of any crime, is now nevertheless on “probation,” reporting weekly. He is being treated worse than many convicted criminals. For updates on his situation see  the Family Law Advocates Initiating Reform Facebook page. As a consequence of the previous false arrest, caused by his ex-wife Gordon has been financially crippled and can’t get employment in his field of retail management, loss prevention or corporate undercover security.

If you can, please donate to Gordon Smith’s legal defense fund.

Read  Injustice In Delaware Part I and  Part II if you missed them. Next in the series will be the first proven false report, and further updates.            

A note to MRAs. Gordon Smith is not just another blue pill man in trouble. He is one of us. He is also one of the founders of FLAIR and has worked diligently to reform family law as well as being an activist supporting reform to VAWA. He has a legal defense fund to acquire counsel for his upcoming trial, since at this point all the police action against him has destroyed his professional life and drained him financially. If you can, please drop something into his fund so that he has a chance at qualified representation for his trial.Give here.  Thanks PE  

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