Grandma's Patterns

On September 29th, 2015, my mother was served with papers from her ex-husband, Kenneth Klein of New Orleans, LA. He is attempting to sue her for defamation of character, along with 1-5 as-of-yet unnamed defendants, claiming that she destroyed his career and livelihood by speaking out about the abuse my family endured at his hands after he had already been arrested for multiple counts child of pornography.

This is the second time he’s taken legal action against her. Three months ago he tried to sue her in Family Court in an attempt to enforce a gag-order that was a condition of the custody battle over my brother (he gave up custody of his only child in exchange for silencing my mother about how he abused us). That case was thrown out due to lack of jurisdiction, and because my brother is now 30 and no conditions of a custody battle can possibly apply now that he’s over 18. Now her ex is attempting almost the exact same thing in civil court; the language is almost identical.

But you cannot sue for defamation if what’s being said is true. Especially not when it’s a matter of public record.

Stranger still is that neither my mom nor the rest of my family are directly involved in his ongoing case in Louisiana (although this may drag some, if not all, of us into it), and none of the things my mother said were anything other than a matter of public record. Furthermore, she did not go out of her way to defame him or block him from gaining employment - no events or venues were contacted, nobody was “warned”. All she did was offer support to a community that was reeling, and she tried to do “the right thing” to help others. To illustrate this point, I leave it to you to look any and all of it up. You will see how difficult it is to find what she said, and should you find it, you will see that she only shared stories relating to old cases, and docket information from the current one.

We can only conclude that these actions are an attempt to torture her one last time before he goes to prison. He will NOT succeed!!

This is not frightening us, if anything it’s only strengthening our resolve to be there during his sentencing. What it IS doing, however, is putting a tremendous financial strain on the family. I am disabled and my mother assists me with my medical expenses when my SSDI falls short…which is unfortunately all the time, as anyone who’s dealt with disability knows. A case like this, even if dismissed, will still cost on the order of $5,000-$10,000, and we simply do not have it. Our savings were depleted two years ago when she spent everything she had to move me across the country to a better climate for my health.

We need help!

To protect the identities of those who contribute to our legal costs (since he’s made it clear he’s not above frivolous lawsuits), and to make sure Mom gets as much of the donations as possible, we are not using a fundraising site. Instead, we have created a Paypal account (moneyforbird AT gmail DOT com), we will be doing online sales and auctions, and we’ve created a fundraising thermometer to track the progress so you can see how it’s going. You can donate using the Paypal button, or check out the auctions/sales linked on the other pages here.

I’ve received some messages from you asking if I’m alright. The short answer is “not really”. Although my surgery went well the doctors are still baffled as to what’s causing my swelling and pain in my legs, so I’ve been mostly on bed rest since August, and I have to walk with a cane now (I’m 34, so it’s not exactly “normal”). In addition, my family is enduring some extremely trying times. I hate to do this...but I am sharing the post from our fundraising page. You don’t have to contribute if you don’t want to, but I am sadly at a place where I must ask for help anywhere I might receive it...including here. I promise I won’t continuously post about it, though! And I also promise to finish scanning this lovely 1972 issue of Woman’s Day Magazine for you all!