A Terroristic Divorce

Officer Gerry Dougherty

11:10 AM Officer Dougherty arrives ‘unexpectedly’ and indicates the he is following up on the computer issue. I invite him in and we sit in my kitchen and discuss the way the computer software has destroyed my business, how it further has messed up my banking and finances, how I had proof of the programs installation yet the software company is still denying it., how my son disappeared about a month prior and I hadn’t heard from him at all and his calls were being blocked by my wife, how his mother was using him to make me feel bad, how the day before was his 16th birthday and he hadn’t returned any phone calls, how I had just returned from the bank where I found that some electronic payment transactions are processed in a way that could erase any trace of their existence by simply entering a reversing entry within the same period which explained my bill payments seemed to be un-done somehow and activity had disappeared without any trace, and how I had written on my computer at 10:30 AM regarding my hard disk which was being crashed yet again that “It is time for her to die. thank you for the software that made it possible.”

I then indicated that I assumed the message was the likely reason that he had shown up, but was curious as to how he knew. The computer was old. It had no network card. It had no modem. It was not connected to any network.  It wasn’t capable of transmitting the message anywhere.  Yet, he arrived 40 minutes after I typed the entry.

I further indicated that I selected the words carefully when I wrote the message knowing that the person who was spying on me may become alarmed and reveal themselves.  The file was never saved, printed, emailed, stored or transmitted in any way.   I had used multiple fonts sizes and a resized window so that the screen would have subtle identifying characteristics that likely wouldn’t be duplicated if the file was re-created to set me up.  Truth be told, I really didn’t expect the ‘test’ to produce any result for all those reasons.  Yet, Officer Dougherty arrived and we had just talked for hours about an issue which Montgomery Township Police had told me they could do little about. 

I offered to show him the screen. I had already been accused of enough ridiculous things through the summer. I realized that the message on the screen could be misinterpreted and twisted. While I didn’t mind that Officer Dougherty would see it, he had misrepresented the reason for his visit. Though I have known him since high school, he wasn’t being completely honest with me. That didn’t make sense. I also had nothing to hide. I had done nothing wrong. If it was to be interpreted as a threat, wouldn’t it have had to have been spoken, delivered, executed or presented to the ‘threatened’ in some form in order to make it a valid threat?

As Gerry and I went into the office we walked around to the back of the desk. I sat down and turned on the screen. As soon as the desktop came up, I immediately shut the window which contained the message.  I didn’t save it.  I was going to show it to him. His split second peek would be corroborative data which would allow him to connect the computer with whatever reason he had for stopping by that morning. His peek would be enough for him to identify that he indeed had seen the reason he had been sent to my home. It would be enough for him to connect with what the person showed or described for him that prompted the visit.  Since March I had been dealing with all of the hassles caused by this program and the people using it, the situation was going to be resolved.  I could get back to my life.

Gerry and I then went back to the kitchen, where he told me that he was concerned because he noticed how emotional I was when speaking about the divorce.  I told him I appreciated that and would likely find someone to talk through the betrayal and damage with once the divorce was resolved.  We were married for 20 years and she had alienated my oldest son away from me.  The last time Gerry had seen Colin was at a hearing the year before for underage drinking.  When Colin turned 18, he suddenly needed stricter guidance and parenting, his mother was undermining any parenting effort. 

Gerry offered to take me to find some ‘help’.  I responded telling him that I’m good, and I was looking forward to having this finally resolved.  I told him I really appreciated his concern, would handle seeking assistance in dealing with the emotional issues myself.  At that point he called or radio’d into the station and the tone changed.  He was now insisting I go with him.  I didn’t want to be unreasonable, but that wasn’t quite on my plan for the afternoon.  No matter how politely I turned down his offer, he wasn’t having it.   It was at this point that I realized that it wasn’t over.  It was about to become much much worse.

At his insistence, and under threat of being taken forcibly, I conceded to go with him.  I needed to go to the bathroom and wanted to change into long pants as I expected any office would be cold.  He said no.  I then indicated that he was being very unreasonable and I went up to change.  He insisted on following me, watching me pee, and change clothes and close up the house for the dog.  I gathered the hard discs from the computers as I didn’t want them left behind for the person who was now aware that they were caught to come and take.  A backup officer arrived?  What was going on here?

Gerry left immediately with my backpack with the discs inside and I went on to the police station with the other officer. I had called my brother to let him know what was going on and asked him to run over to the township building to pick up my backpack.

At the police station Gerry put me in an interrogation room, and indicated it was a courtesy as opposed to having me in a cell.  Holy shit.  This was not feeling right, the feeling of being set up was overwhelming.  I had my cell phone and I made a few calls to people, including Ed Weideman.  In my message to Ed, I was asking him to run over and straighten them out.  Let them know what Sonya was doing to intentionally stress me out.  I imagine I was in the interrogation room for about a half-hour or more waiting for Gerry to return.

The truth was on my side.  They completely revealed themselves to the police.  They turned themselves in.  

Gerry presented the 302 paperwork and read it aloud.  I disagreed with several of the lines he used but was alarmed at his mis-quoting a metaphor which I had told him I used the day before in a conversation with my lawyer.  I pointed to it on the page and told him it was completely misrepresented in the paragraph. 

We were then off to MCES.  Stopped at Burger king en route.  I was confident that I’d have no reason to be kept in Norristown.   I’d go and tell them what was happening and that it was now resolved because the persons responsible had called the police to report me, and thus indicated their involvement directly to the police.  Gerry and I went inside, he handed them some paperwork, they told me to have a seat in the lobby.  And Gerry left. 

I met with a woman who was rather rude.  She didn’t introduce herself.  She did a few memory type tests.  She asked why I was there.  It lasted about 15 minutes then she left without a word.   Her exit was odd, but so was her entrance.  She was the least cordial doctor I had ever encountered.  I waited for close to an hour for some indication that I could call my brother John and get a ride back home.  But that was not what happened.  When I asked the attendant/receptionist about calling my brother, she casually indicated that the doctor indicated I should be kept there.  When I told her that it was a mistake she indicated the doctor had already left, there was no possible way for me to go home that night. 

I only remember dropping to the floor sobbing.  It was a level of frustration and despair that I had never imagined.  There was no explanation of how this could be happening.  Yet it was.  And there was nothing that could be done about it.  It was uncontrollable.  You were just involuntarily committed… and you don’t even know why.  

I don’t mean that in the psychological sense.  I didn’t know why because they had informed the doctor that I intended to blow up the local mall. You were locked up on that mis-quoted metaphor which was made into a single statement.

Within the next hour you would talk to your brother on the phone and additionally find out they had shown him the screen shot of your computer with the message on it. This was done while you were waiting in the interrogation room at the police station. As they neglected to indicate who had provided it to them. He thought I had provided it.  He said when they showed it to him it was done to demonstrate to him that his brother needed help. “Look what he wrote.”

My brother John returned to the police station where the picture was no longer available.  The screen shot existence was denied.  And another picture of my office was shown to him.  He described that picture as having a strangeness to it. 

THE POLICE HAVE REFUSED TO PROVIDE A POLICE REPORT ON THIS MATTER AND STILL REFUSE TO DISCUSS IT.