CHAPTER 1
April 1st, 2012
The day began like any other routine day, with daily chores and a drive to Montclair for special organic puppy food and a few small bones for Emily, Sophia's Hanukkah present from her mother. Her other dog Shadow had to be given away due to uncontrollable behavioral issues.
Shadow thought he was Alpha dog and kept viciously biting and attacking Ali and any strangers who came in contact. Emily is a much sweeter toy poodle who doesn't feel the need to purposely spray on Sophia's toys to mark her territory. Shadow would deliberately and spitefully pee on Sophia's toys. It appeared he was jealous of her. Male dogs can be so disturbing, especially when they haven't been neutered, but Ali didn't feel right cutting his masculinity out of him.
After having him in their lives for nearly four years, Shadow was finally given away to a hard-working, blue-collar man who takes him to work every day. The two males bonded very well and found happiness together.
Good riddance!
As they were leaving the pet supply store, Sophia asked her mother if they could take a walk to the local frozen yogurt shop residing on the renowned Church Street. On such a beautiful sunny day, it was fitting for an afternoon stroll.
Sophia asked her mother if she remembered going there once, with her and Noah (Sophia's father). Ali assured her of the memory, but it wasn't a completely pleasant one for her.
She recalled how Noah had nonchalantly disappeared with Sophia that evening while Ali stood beside them on a sidewalk, engrossed in a local street artist playing his music. When she finally noticed they had vanished, she frantically called out to them with no reply.
She first thought he had taken Sophia to the frozen yogurt shop, but when she peered inside, they were nowhere to be found. Her instincts led her to believe that Noah had just kidnapped Sophia to take to his folks' home out of state. A sudden panic flooded her mind. Her breathing labored as she began to hyperventilate. Trying desperately to remain calm, she kept reassuring herself that it was all in her mind. That realistically it couldn't have happened.
In an attempt to maintain control, she focused on her breathing, taking deep breaths and holding it in. She wanted to scream to the top of her lungs in hopes that someone might help her, but she knew she had to remain calm if she didn't want to be thought of as a mentally ill, out of control, paranoid, crazed maniac to anyone around her.
In a distressed search that seemed an eternity, she ran back to the parking garage where they had parked his car only to find it sitting empty and void of any signs the two had gone back there.
Confused as to how they could have vanished without his vehicle, she continued to scurry through the streets stopping to search inside shops that were still opened to the public.
At one point she stopped to alert the parking garage attendants of her little girls' disappearance, making them aware of her child vanishing with her father. She left her cell phone number to call if they were to return, thinking that perhaps she'd be able to intercept him before he actually got away, if he hadn't already.
After what seemed like a hopeless reality, she suddenly spotted them sitting inside the fairly crowded frozen yogurt shop not far from where they had left her. They were calmly unaware of her deranged plight, peacefully enjoying the moment eating their frozen treats.
Not wanting to give Noah any devious ideas, or ruin her daughter's good time with him by expressing her insanely uncomfortable mistrust of her father, she quietly and calmly went inside the shop to join them. She ordered a cup of granola, layered with fruit and frozen yogurt and sat down beside them as if nothing had happened.
Realizing deep down inside the core of her being how paranoid he made her feel being alone with their daughter, she pondered why she had become that way, thinking the worse of a guy who appeared to be a good father to his daughter at that moment.
For what would seem like no apparent reason at all to others, she almost felt guilty for nearly turning a positively beautiful evening, to be enjoyed as a family outing, into a negative personal nightmare.
She was so relieved to know that her little girl was safe and unharmed and attempted to forget her over reaction to their disappearance by burying her secret intuitive struggle into her subconscious.
But how could she not think the worst about him given his undependable, volatile history with her? Their battles had exacerbated her post-traumatic stress disorder. The only way she would ever feel any peace of mind again was to either keep a closer eye on Sophia or get him out of the equation.
It might have been considerate of him to let her know where he was taking their child instead of suddenly disappearing so abruptly into the night.
She brought that to his attention at some point later in the evening after Sophia was sound asleep, but he absolutely refused to take any responsibility for her paranoid insecurities involving him.
That little misunderstanding caused Ali the realization of how much she distrusted him and how she would never have any harmony in her life as long as he were anywhere near their child. It was the beginning of their end.
After recalling that horrible traumatic memory, Ali chose to take Sophia to a different frozen yogurt place much closer to home where they could create a more pleasurable experience for her, one without so much drama or resentment, closer to home where she felt safe.
As they were driving, Sophia must have been pondering the times she spent with her father, because ... out of the blue ... she said to her mother, "Mommy? Do you want to know what daddy used to do to me when he lived with his parents in Pequannock?"
Ali's first response was "Hold that thought!"
She immediately reached inside her purse for her cell-phone, quickly fumbling with it at a red light, set it to video record mode, turning it to face Sophia as she continued driving and said, "Ok ... go on ... you can tell me now whatever it is you want to tell me."
Ali knew that whatever Sophia would share with her that day in confidence was not going to be repeated that easily to any other person in the entire world no matter whom it was. Sophia didn't like to talk to anyone other than a select few close friends and her mother, but she did allow her mother to video record her.
It was the way Sophia said it that made Ali realize whatever it was she wanted to share with her was not going to be something pleasant.
She had no idea what her child would say, but she wasn't expecting or even surprised to hear what Sophia divulged next.
Three years after dealing with Noah and his asshole parents fighting her in court for custody and being accused of everything from physical and emotional abuse, isolation, drug use, molestation, whatever they could conjure up in their warped imaginations to accuse her of, and finally, now that it's all over and they've moved far enough away to hopefully never get to see her again and out of the blue, a repressed memory surfaced and Ali now had it recorded on video as evidence.
"What a sick, disturbed, perverted, son of a bitch!!!!" she thought to herself.
Finally, some peace and quiet with Sophia safely away from her drug addicted father and his lying, enabling parents. Finally they could begin to heal from the trauma caused by those evil nefarious people who chose to fight her instead of protecting their only biological granddaughter and getting help for their mentally disturbed, screwed up son. Ali was finally collecting child support from him after a year of waiting for the courts to intervene. And NOW Sophia chooses to say something?
Well....
"Better late than never!" she thought to herself.
Sophia had finally felt safe enough to share her dark secret because she knew that no matter how much she kicked and screamed at her mother about missing her father and wanting to visit with him, he wasn't coming back to do anything more with her, good or bad.
Sophia said calmly ... "Mommy, you ARE psychic, because you knew!"
But sensing something was going on without Sophia confiding in her or any of the Child Protective Services investigators (DYFS), who attempted to speak with her in the past and being able to stop it, when no one in authority was going to side with a woman who has absolutely no credibility what-so-ever due to her unfairly appointed past criminal history, are two different things in this screwed up world of injustice for all.
It actually came as no surprise, but the anger still raged inside her like a bubbling volcano waiting for just the right amount of pressurized molten rock and gases to blast out of the earth's surface and Destroy.
That's what she wanted to do to all of them three years ago, when he was abusing her little girl right in front of the DYFS organization and all the Judges. What blew her mind was that no one did anything to end his visitations with her or even supervise them. They all warned her that they would give him custody if she continued to fight with them. He walked away scot-free leaving behind an emotionally troubled little victim and a mother once again dumbfounded at the justice system.
She was so disturbed at how the courts could even consider handing custody over to a man like that, a drug addict/ child abuser to allow him to continue the cycle of abuse.
She had even protested in front of the Passaic County Court House on May 6th 2011 with a large group of other women claiming the same thing. Children being abused by their fathers and when the mother's went to find justice, they were denied it and the children were being handed over custody to those same abusive fathers.
How insane is that?
Sandra Ramose was the organizer of the protest. She was the very first person in the United States to open a shelter for battered women back in the 1970's. "Strengthen Our Sisters."
Although she has done a lot for the victims of abuse, there is still so much more that needs to be done to stop the cycle of abuse in the courtrooms across America. Battered women are not being cared for properly and their children are suffering the consequences.
Ali had made center photo on the front page of the local newspaper that day with her sign held up high. "A Mother's Cry For Justice. Women and children first! MOTHER AND CHILD! HEAR THEIR CRIES OF INJUSTICE!" JADEDATRUESTORY. COM was the website created for Ali's traumatic life story.
They all chanted as they walked back and forth while Sandra shook her tambourine and her girlfriend Anne beat a drum ...
"THE COURTS ARE THE CASH REGISTER AND CHILDREN PAY THE PRICE!"
"CHILDREN SHOULD BE SEEN, HEARD, BELIEVED AND PROTECTED!"
"WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IN AMERICA?"
Those were the words chanted as they marched around in protest.
A couple days after the protest at the courthouse, on Mother's Day, Ali drove a van to Washington DC filled with that same group of women, to protest in front of the White House. Ali led the march that year with Sophia by her side. As a proactive mother, she was hoping to turn her six-year-old daughter into an activist for the rights of women and children.
Coincidentally, the judge hearing Ali's active case against Noah, recused himself a couple weeks later on the grounds that "his son worked for the prosecutor's office handling Megan's Law cases and Ali was a registered sex offender on the Megan's Law so there was a conflict of interest." Well that's a stretch!
Why didn't he recuse himself, back when Ali went in front of him with a TRO (temporary restraining order) against Noah, to get it finalized? She was on the Megan's Law then. He chose to believe Noah's perjured mother over her and he dismissed her case? Ali blames him for the continued abuse of her daughter.
Twenty-five years earlier, Ali had been accused of keeping silent, when her oldest daughter Amanda, who was seven at that time, was being molested by her sister Jessica's friend Fenton Noor. They claimed she knew what was happening, but didn't do anything to stop it. And worse than being accused of neglect, she was accused of extortion as the pedophile himself claimed she had been blackmailing him after finding out about the molestation. Although she was found innocent of the extortion at trial, they still insisted she had been paid to keep silent about the sexual abuse.
Ali was the one who finally exposed him for what he was and she was sentenced to eighteen years in maximum security because of it. Nearly two decades later, she was screaming to everyone in authority about her youngest daughter possibly experiencing the same issues with her own father, but no one would listen to her?
"What the hell is wrong with the G*d damned people on this insane planet?" She wondered in amazement.
"Daddy used to play ants in the pants with me mommy. He would take his fingers and make them act like ants, he would make them talk, and then he'd put his fingers down my pants and inside my butt. Sometimes it would hurt. I didn't like it and I would push him away. I didn't like playing that game with him. Sometimes he would touch me like that when I was sleeping and it would wake me up."
Ali asked her how many times he did this to her and she replied, "I don't know, maybe he only did it a few times." Little Sophia calmly told her mother as she recorded her.
"Where were his parents while he was doing this to you?" she asked.
"They were downstairs." Sophia replied.
Ali wondered what else he had done to her, if she had any other repressed memories buried deep inside her subconscious mind.
"Now what do I do? What can I do? The damage is already done and he's been out of her life for over a year now. I can't believe I was forced to let him live in my home just to supervise that asshole for a year and a half after he lost his fight for FULL custody.
First he loses his job, and then he leaves his parents to stay with me, just so I could get him under a doctor's care for his drug addiction. I only allowed it to keep Sophia safe from him. He would have been able to be alone with her on his court appointed weekends if I didn't let him live with us. Of course that's going to sound insane to anyone who hears it." She thought to herself.
"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
It's no wonder Sophia used to call him names and acted abusive towards him while he was staying with them. She had no respect for him.
Ali knew exactly why he did what he did, because he knew he could get away with it. Abuse is all about control. He had no control over his addiction. He had no control over his parents forcing him to be a responsible father when he wanted nothing to do with fatherhood. He took it out on the one person he could, his innocent little daughter, whom he had resented from day one.
"Paybacks a bitch!" she thought to herself as Sophia sat there quietly in the back seat of their mini-van.
Ali had pulled over to the side of the road and tried to hide her raging emotions from Sophia. She didn't want Sophia to think that she had said something she shouldn't have. She didn't want Sophia to think that she should have continued to keep this disturbing news a secret. Period!
"He'll get his Karma. I wish I could pray to the goddess Nemesis or Jehovah or Allah, or even Michael and every other spiritual being out there to avenge my sweet baby girl, but unfortunately my faith is as deteriorated as the truth is in the perceptions of those idiots who allowed it to happen!"
Tears!
She wanted to cry, but it just didn't happen. She wondered if the sweet tears of justice would ever stream down her face in a world whose living g*d seems to be the DEVIL himself these days!
The first thing Ali did after she recorded her daughters memory, was call her attorney friend Anthony Ranazzo, who advised her to immediately contact the local police and get a police report, then contact the prosecutor's office.
Unfortunately, since it happened three years prior and Sophia was not in any immediate danger, Ali was asked to bring her daughter to the Morris County Prosecutor's office a couple days later so Sophia could give them a statement.
She suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of doom that nauseated her soul as she realized she was about to be opening Pandora's box ... again. Her instincts warned her that no good would come from attempting to seek justice ... again. They had warned her time and time ... again to leave him alone. It was as if he were a demon being protected by Satan himself. It reminded her of the movie "Omen." He, being Damian and his parents, (the two Rottweiler's) protecting him.
