Once again, the specter of Orders of Protection and Stalking/No-Contact Orders has reared its ugly and menacing head in the pages of Disclosure…in particular, on the back page, and disguised as something a lot more appealing than ugly.
The big back page story this month originated in White County with one of those sex assault cases that lil Ricky White messed up by his mere presence in: The case of Jeffery David Casillas, which was litigated earlier this summer in a jury trial, and, largely because of ‘Special Agent’ Rick White’s reputation for not quite getting it right, Casillas walked…because he refused an interview with the sawed-off little ISP ‘investigator.’
But it took off quickly from the Casillas angle and devolved into something that Disclosure is very impassioned about: The abuse of Orders of Protection.
As regular readers know, I was the subject of a frivolous OP issued by my late stepfather as a way to create pressure on our guardianship case with our granddaughter Ev in 2011. Across the nightmare ordeal, which ended early this year (February) when Judge Robert Hopkins issued an opinion basically outlining that an individual couldn’t take out an OP against a newspaper simply for what they wrote about that individual, we examined other OPs and found that they were equally as frivolous, and, fortunately, the frivolous ones didn’t stand.
However, when you have a judge who just doesn’t care about the First Amendment—or any other amendments, apparently—you’re going to have a problem.
And that’s our back page story that’s being featured in our noontime Read the Lead, OP: Dangerous case law set by radical judge in Franklin County.
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Yes, that’s a judge. Yes, she still looks like that. Yes, looks can be deceiving.
FRANKLIN/WHITE COs.—Dangerous case law may have been set by an irrational and irresponsible judge in a Franklin County Order of Protection case.
The situation arose after an Enfield woman, Kendra Carter, issued concerns to a board supported in part by public funds about one of their employees, Tina Gaither Casillas, a woman who is also paid in part by public funds, which makes her a public official and thus open to criticism about the performance of her job.
Following the concerns, issued in the form of Facebook messages or other electronic communication, Casillas, who lives in Franklin County, took out a Stalking/No-Contact Order (OP) against Carter, based solely in the exchange of information Carter began with board members, many of whom she was familiar with, as she has been a fundraiser for CASA, the victim’s advocate group for which Casillas works (CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, a group formed in 1985 to be a voice for children who are victims of crimes; it is a national group supported by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and is funded not only on tax dollars in the form of grants, but by fundraisers/donations).
On August 5, the OP was granted Casillas on a technicality…something that never should have gotten past the “emergency” order status it was given when it was filed July 16, as the communication between Carter and the board was limited strictly to on-the-record performance, as well as a documented court case.
That court case, however, is the crux of the matter: It was that of David Casillas, 28, of White County, who was charged last year with a child sex assault count after his young stepdaughter went to an aunt and informed her that Casillas was molesting her.
Tina Casillas
Casillas was arrested and spent eight months in jail awaiting trial, which he won, largely because he refused to be interviewed by the investigator in the case, Rick White.
During the course of that trial, Tina Casillas, his stepmother, was caught lying under oath on his behalf.
It was this action, as well as a 35-page DCFS report which indicated that David Casillas was a “high-risk threat” for child sexual abuse, that prompted Carter to issue her concerns to the CASA board, as a citizen and as a long-time fundraiser for the group.
And yet judge Melissa Morgan (formerly Drew), despite the fact that the OP was filed improperly by Tina Casillas and despite the fact that Carter has a First Amendment right to have taken her concerns up the chain of command through CASA as she did, granted the onerous OP…
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To read the rest of this important article, click the headline link above the excerpt if you have an online membership to the e-Edition; or, if you don’t, simply click this link here to get started on yours! But if you prefer to hold a newspaper in your hands, check out one of our many vendors throughout downstate (and largely across the Second Circuit, where Judge Morgan holds court), including in Franklin County ROC One-Stop in West Frankfort, and in White County, Mimmo’s Pizza in Norris City; Enfield One-Stop; Rock Bottom, East Side Package and Pundrake BP in Carmi; and Shell Mart and Liquor Barn in Grayville. Hurry…this one’s only on stands for a little more than a week, and we’ve sold out and restocked already in some locations!