Without Notice
Oregon judge signs order stripping father of his rights based on false certification of attorney
The “case of the stolen baby” took an outrageous turn this week: Linn County Judge Brendan Kane signed an order that effectively stripped the boy’s father of his right to directly access his son’s medical and school records — a right guaranteed under Oregon law.
It’s shocking because that father, Kyle Janssen, has never been served anything in the case. He particularly has not been served any motions or notices that the court was considering taking such drastic measures. He learned of it first, unfortunately, from me.
Because he received no notice, Janssen was denied the opportunity to be heard. That is, his due process rights were completely violated.
Janssen told me via email, “Nobody served me any paperwork” affecting his parental rights; and he “wouldn’t sign them if they did.”
So just how did this happen? Why was Judge Kane so eager to ignore due process and wipe out the rights of a man who is not even a named party in the case, and who had never even been served?
The answer appears to be, because Corvallis attorney Lorena Reynolds asked him to. She put the order on Judge Kane’s desk, certified that “each party affected by” it had “stipulated to or approved” it by “written confirmation,” and that it was ready for him to sign.
We now know that Lorena Reynolds’ certification was absolutely false.
And if she thought she was being slick with her certification because Janssen is not actually a named party in the case, she failed: In the order — which she herself authored — she referred to him as one of “the parties to the litigation.”
To put it plainly, Reynolds perjured herself, and did so in regard to a material issue. Reynold’s fraudulently obtained order is therefore voidable — if not outright void — and should be vacated immediately.
But it won’t be, of course — because while the truth is busy lacing up its sneakers, the liars have already made the rounds, pressing the bullshit order into the palms of all of the child’s caregivers and recordholders, making sure they know that there is some vague danger against which they must be vigilant.
That the normally diligent Judge Kane disregarded all signs that Janssen was never notified of the proceeding is troubling, and it raises concerns that something happened off the record to affect his judgment, or more accurately, to prejudice it.
All of this is made exponentially worse by the fact that as of Wednesday afternoon, the record is now sealed, and the case number no longer even comes up in the system.¹
These are precisely the conditions under which medical child abusers survive and thrive: total secrecy; diversion of suspicion and blame; and a badly, badly confused, negligent, or outwitted judge. One who must certainly be convinced he is acting in the child’s best interest.
Reynolds did not return a request for comment or a request to provide proof of service of any of the documents, or proof of Mr. Janssen’s “written confirmation” that he approved her order. But, we already know she cannot provide those things… I mean, unless she wants to forge them.
Unlike her predecessor, Reynolds is not the forging kind.
¹ It’s a good thing I already downloaded the entire case file. And since Reynold’s lopsided order doesn’t protect the mother’s medical records, that’s what I’ll be writing about next.
