One Day at a Time.

Yesterday was my first entire day with Tom gone.  I'm trying to focus on THIS day and not the 500+ days and nights left. I become overwhelmed at the thought. Of course, I've been here by myself for times when Tom has traveled without me.  A few days here and there, sometimes a week. That has never been a problem for me.  Except that, without fail, something always breaks or stops working or goes wrong when he's gone.

True to form, the keypad on the entry gate stopped working yesterday. No surprise there.  I'm sure that won't be the last of it.

So, here's how we landed at this place in our lives.  July 18, 2018:

I had the most terrifying news of my life on this day.  That night, I wrote, "It's 11:30 at night and I know I'm not going to sleep, so I may as well write.  I've already tried praying, cleaning house (it's a family trait of ours to clean when we're upset) and playing on-line games to take my mind off of what's to come.  But my stomach won't stop roiling and my eyes won't stay closed."

That roiling stomach has become my constant companion.

So, here it is.  My husband and I, along with an attorney/friend were indicted that day.

Wow.  That's a shocker, isn't it?  I can't decide if it's worse to see it in black and white, or if it helps me feel better to type it out.

We knew very little at that point and the waiting to find out was difficult.  My husband and I were out to dinner with friends when he got a call from his attorney in Dallas, Mike Gibson, who told him that we had been indicted for "conspiracy to defraud the US government".  We didn't really know why or what they were basing the indictment on.  What we did know is that they lied to get an indictment because there is no truth to it.  We never defrauded anybody, much less the US government.  The attorney told us that we were going to be "allowed" to "self surrender" so there wouldn't be marshalls knocking down our door and taking us away in handcuffs.  Thank the Lord for small favors.  

The why?  Well, since we didn't know what this "conspiracy" was, we could only guess that it had to do with taxes and the IRS.  It's a long story.  I don't remember half of it, but it started many years ago.  Maybe as long as 20 years.  Those readers who know us personally know that we've had a long, long battle with the IRS.  Fear not.  We have paid all of our taxes.  But, anyone who has had a run-in with the IRS knows that they don't take kindly to anyone fighting back.  The first year we were married, we were audited and it ended up that the IRS owed us a refund. Since then, we've had several audits (each time with the result of the IRS owing us) and legal battles with the IRS and found them to be, well, evil to the core.  They lie and cheat and do everything in their power to ruin lives.  They are not subject to the same rules that the common man is.  This huge, all-powerful agency decided that they are going to squash us and that is exactly what they tried to do all of these years.

In addition to our fights with the IRS, Tom and our attorney/friend were politically active and the government does not like what they are saying.  I'll say more on that in another post.

For at least the last 10 years, up until about 2016, the Dallas prosecutors office had been trying to indict Tom.  He had been represented by attorney Mike Gibson, and each time this indictment business cropped up, usually around the same time of year, the attorney was given notice and the effort was unsuccessful.  I don't know if they just hadn't come up with enough manufactured evidence that they thought they could make stick, or if the grand jury just never would take the bait. It had become routine for us, so their threats had lost their bite.  They finally had told Mr. Gibson that they were done trying to indict Tom and we breathed a sigh of relief and thought we could get on with our lives.

Then in 2018, they took the case they had pulled together to a Fort Worth grand jury with no warning to any of us, including Mr. Gibson.  So, when he received an email about the indictment, he was completely gobsmacked and so were we.  Not only had they indicted Tom, they also indicted ME (and our attorney friend) as co-conspirators.  We knew right away that indicting me was a way to get to Tom.

Three items:  (1) they got the indictment in Fort Worth and immediately had the case moved to Dallas. I'm not sure how that works or how they could get it done in one day; (2) if you don't know how indictments work, here's a simplified version:  the prosecutor tells a story to the grand jury and presents "evidence" to convince them that there might be something to that story.  Only the prosecutor gets to present evidence.  Even if we knew about this, they would not allow us to present evidence to prove the prosecutor is lying and that we are innocent.  If the GJ is convinced enough, they indict and an arrest is made; (3) An "indictment" is an accusation. We have found that, in general, people believe that if a person is indicted, he/she must have done something wrong.  It's not true, folks.  In the future, when you hear that someone has been indicted, presume innocence and realize that an indictment is only an accusation.

None of us has ever had to face something like this before, so it was new territory and so uncertain.  Government's God-given duty is to protect the good and punish the evil, but in this, and many other cases, they are doing the exact opposite.  God have mercy on us and our nation.

Romans 13:3-4, "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.  Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?  Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good.  But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.  For his is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."

Start at the beginning of this saga.