Documentary About Our Autistic Son's Entrapment - and Heads Have Started to Roll

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Friday November 07, 2014 · 7:08 AM PST

2014/11/07 · 07:08

For background, read the Rolling Stone magazine article, The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass.

As we're preparing for the upcoming lawsuit, (trial likely be scheduled for June or July of 2015), I realize that it's been nearly six months since I last provided an update. Much has happened during that time, and more details will be coming. We have some great news to report (further down the page), but first, here's something we'd like to bring to bring to your attention that you may or may not have already seen.

THE DOCUMENTARY

VICE releeased a 24 minute documentary about Jesse, titled, "The War on Kids".

This is the story of Jesse Snodgrass, a kid with Asperger's syndrome who was arrested by an undercover cop posing as a student at Jesse's high school. This is the story of how the war on drugs preys on the most vulnerable.

A short while after VICE published it on their site, they posted it on YouTube (embedded below), and it went past the million views mark after about three weeks. We feel that VICE did a good job with this, and it's a great companion piece to the Rolling Stone article.

Here are some personal bullet points.

- Footage of the Jesse's interrogation is included. The interrogation video is something that has always been very difficult for us to watch, but it's important for the public to know the truth about what happened.

- Nine Inch Nails...you'll understand once you watch the video.

- Other students who were arrested in the sting are interviewed here. They have our heartfelt thanks for agreeing to go public.

- We were able to reveal that 9 of the 22 students arrested in the sting were special education students.

- VICE follows the money, and shows how lucrative these stings can be for law enforcement.

- This is something we've been sitting on for some time. When we first went public about this, we did it initially here on Daily Kos (Our Autistic Son was Handcuffed and Arrested in School, We Were Not Notified), and that was immediately followed with an interview in the Press Enterprise newspaper. The day after the Press Enterprise interview appeared, we received a voicemail on our home phone from Blaine Hopp, Riverside County Senior Deputy District Attorney, who was directly involved in the sting. The voicemail is aired in the documentary. Here's the transcript of his voicemail:

Yes, this message is for Mr and Mrs. Snodgrass. This is Senior Deputy District Attorney Blaine Hopp, Riverside County DA’s office calling. Mr and Mrs. Snodgrass, I read what it is you had to say about Operation Glasshouse to the newspaper Press Enterprise, Sarah Burge reporting, and I’m just contacting you to make sure that the information you provided her was true and accurate and correct, because I think it will affect the way the District Attorney’s Office deals with your son’s return date to court.
If there are anything that you were misquoted, I would truly appreciate a phone call back, otherwise I look forward to seeing you and your son on July 16th, 2003 in court. Thank you.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript of this documentary here.

GREAT NEWS

In Tuesday's election, three seats for the Temecula Valley Unified School District Governing Board were in play, and we were able to oust all three incumbents, and the three candidates that we publicly endorsed got elected (results here). It has been our opinion that the people who currently serve on the school board were not fit to be working with children, and we made it our mission to see that each of them were replaced.

We made sure that the entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass, plus 21 other students - 9 who special education kids in total - was the major issue in this election.

There are a total of five board members, so the newly elected members are an immediate majority. The new members are Sandy Hinkson (retired teacher), Julie Farnbach (mother of a special needs student), and Kevin S. Hill (special education teacher).

Here are the incumbents that the citizens of Temecula forcibly removed:

Robert Brown - first elected in 1995
Brown is one of three people within the TVUSD who were aware of "Operation Glass House" while it was happening. the 21 Jump Street style undercover police operation that occurred for several months on Temecula school campuses. It resulted in the arrest of 22 students, 9 who were special education. At the time the operation was authorized, Mr. Brown was the TVUSD School Board President, and it has been reported to us by district officials that Mr. Brown did not notify any of the other TVUSD board members.
Brown finished 6th in the field of 7.

Richard Shafer - first elected in 1993
In 2010, Shafer told the San Diego Union Tribune that the 2010 election would be his last, and was quoted as saying, "I make decisions through a Christian world view."

Shafer finished 4th in the field of 7.

Vincent O'Neal - first elected in 2006
Three months ago, O'Neal announced that he would not be seeking re-election.

In May 2013, less than two months after the California State Office of Administration Hearings (OAH) ordered TVUSD to halt their attempted expulsion of our son, Jesse, and that he be returned to his school. All five school board members were involved in a closed door vote in which they authorized an appeal of the OAH Judge's decision, still hoping to expel Jesse, even though the appeal would not have been heard until after his graduation, which wasted thousands of tax dollars and ultimately had to be dropped, when Jesse did graduate.

Our out-of-pocket legal expenses are significant, and we do need to continue to raise funds. We appreciate any donations to the Jesse Snodgrass Legal Fund.

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Documentary About Our Autistic Son's Entrapment - and Heads Have Started to Roll

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