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January 18, 2008

On Thursday January 10th, Alla was indicted on two counts. Refusal to return and larceny of. Both felonies. Alla's mother had been in the hospital since Dec 17th and was discharged on the day after the indictment only to be readmitted on Jan. 13th. The arraignment was on the morning of Jan. 15th and her mother was released from the hospital that afternoon. It has been hectic getting her mother set up with home nursing, etc. so the information has been slow in coming in.

Of course if Alla had allowed us to come to the arraignment like we all wanted and were making plans to, the information would have come in so much faster. Since the time between the indictment and the arraignment was so close it was difficult for all of us who immediately volunteered to try to take time off, so she asked that we did not come this time.

What will be occurring now is the prosecutor has to provide the defense whatever they have to base the charges on. The defense will be making different 'motions'. The pre-trial is set for April 2nd at 9 am. The trial date will be set at that time. Alla is and always has been very firm on a jury trial. Alla has never believed that the prosecutor would do anything but indict eventually. Alla has no way of returning Stella and all the prosecutor and his investigator were interested in was giving Stella back to DAR&E. Per the prosecutor, the adoption to Kim Danoff was supposed to be reversed; Athy was supposed to promise that Kim Danoff would not get Stella, etc.

Then to make things REALLY weird, again, Alla received an e-mail with a letter attached from Kim Danoff the morning of the 15th. (Remember the box addressed to Stella that Alla received the day of the meeting in Sept. with the prosecutor and DAR&E?) She was asking Alla to return Stella to her. The letter was immediately forwarded to Alla's attorneys who found it quite strange but interesting.

The fact that Alla does not have any knowledge of Stella's whereabouts doesn't seem to sink with anyone. But be that as it may, obviously someone forgot to tell Kim Danoff that for Stella's return, her adoption had to be reversed and that Athy was to promise that Stella would not be returned to Kim Danoff? Gee, was that all a feint?

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DECEMBER 13, 2007

Again we are late with an update. Alla's 8 year old Dobergirl, Kira, recently had two surgeries and is now recuperating nicely. It kept Alla playing constant nurse maid and Alla is now recuperating from 2 weeks of sleeping on the den sofa while keeping Ms. Kira company as she was confined in her x-pen (after sharing the sofa with her doberboy, Sasha, and two of her cats, she feels like a 60 year old pretzel). This update will not go into detail as there was correspondence between her attorney and the Commonwealth's prior to the Grand Jury meeting date of December 6th that has to remain confidential for now. The discussion centered around reasons why an indictment should not be sought and was centered around four strong points.

The prosecutor just had to ask, AGAIN, if she would return Stella if he had DAR&E promise not to give her back to Kim Danoff under any circumstances in which case he would drop everything. I will not repeat Alla's comments other than to say she very strongly reminded everyone that SHE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE THE DOG IS AND THEREFORE COULD NOT RETURN HER.

The prosecutor stated that he was not going to submit an indictment against Alla to the December grand jury. He was vague about his future intentions. Alla's attorney reiterated that she is requesting a jury trial. It was left there for the time being.

The DA refuses to believe that Alla cannot return Stella and it does not matter whether it's DAR&E or Kim Danoff, neither is an acceptable placement. Plus how is the DA going to enforce Athy's word?????

Thanks for your patience and we apologize for being late with this update.

Wanda

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NOVEMBER 19, 2007

We're a little late with the update on the happenings with the Stella/Alla case because letters had to be finalized and sent. So to bring you up to date…

As you know, on Oct. 10th there was a meeting between Alla and her Attorney, with the prosecutor, Athy and the DAR&E BoD. The prosecutor proposed that all parties agree to use an arbitrator, and that the decision of the arbitrator would be final as to the disposition of Stella. As a (very interesting) condition of the agreement, the DAR&E BoD would retract its approval of Dr. Danoff as adopter of Stella and agree that "certain information" on Dr. Danoff would be provided to the arbitrator.

Just prior to this meeting, the priority package (from Dr. Danoff) addressed to Stella (mentioned in previous postings) arrived at Alla's house.

This arbitration proposal offered by the prosecutor totally ignored the fact that Alla does NOT know where Stella is located and, therefore, there is NO possibility that Alla can get Stella back. To agree to the prosecutor’s proposal would have required Alla to lie.

During the October 10^th meeting the prosecutor (Glenn Williamson) acknowledged the fact that he had “certain negative information” on Dr. Danoff. However, he totally ignored the fact that he must have found as much unsavory information on Athy and DAR&E. While the prosecutor may not have been aware that Dr. Danoff continues to be a periodic foster for DAR&E (although at least one dog with medical issues was soon moved to another foster where he picked up weight and thrived), this was not something that Alla could ignore. In addition, the prosecutor must have assumed that Alla would ignore the fact that Stella could be returned to DAR&E (as was possible under arbitration), and that there would be NOTHING to stop DAR&E from handing Stella back to Dr. Danoff. Since this whole issue stemmed from the fact that Dr. Danoff had been deemed unacceptable as an adopter to begin with, ignoring this possibility was impossible.

The end result was that the prosecutor (Glenn Williamson) was notified by Alla's attorney that:

Alla could not agree to the arbitration proposal because Alla does NOT know where Stella is located.
Alla parted with Stella in a manner which would assure the dog's safety, yet not inform Alla of Stella's whereabouts, therefore...
Alla also could not ETHICALLY agree to a proposal that could result in the return of Stella to either Dr. Danoff or DAR&E.

The prosecutor continues to hound Alla about returning Stella, while he continues to align himself to an organization that has:

Stolen dogs from their owners.
Returned rescue dogs to shelters because it was more convenient than for DAR&E to try to get them adopted.
Wanted to offer debarking at a health clinic (run by Buckeystown Veterinary...remember them?).
Continued to kennel dogs at Buckeystown where the dogs continued to lose weight and the BoD would not acknowledge the reports and pictures until it was obvious they were to be made public. (BTW, this was in keeping with usual policy. A few years ago volunteers complained about another kennel because dogs were being fed only 2 cups of food per day and were losing weight. At that time, the BoD told the volunteers to mind their own business and that the dogs would be fattened up when they went to their foster homes).
Immediately placed newly acquired dogs in foster homes while kenneled dogs were allowed to languish for months on end. The list can go on and on.

Proof and witnesses exist to back up every statement if this gets dragged into court.

Three guesses who led the opposition to a great many of these 'indiscretions' and 'attempted indiscretions' by DAR&E. Yes it was Alla, the same person who is now facing charges for rescuing Stella. Can you spell “VENDETTA”?

Coupled with all these issues is the fact that the prosecutor's office continues to hold Alla's two personal computers (her work computer was returned after more than 5 weeks in their possession). The prosecutor is also keeping picture discs of Alla's personal animals (many of whom have gone to the Bridge). Some of these discs hold pictures taken LONG before Stella was even born. The prosecutor is holding work related back up discs. Strangely, the prosecutor is also holding a box of floppies discs (mostly blank) that Alla had set aside to throw out as unnecessary. Is there any logical reason to do so? Other than to aggravate and intimidate?

Keep in mind folks that this is also costing taxpayers a pretty penny. To their "credit", DAR&E (Athy) figured out a way to harass and harangue Alla on the public dime. This whole situation is shameful in ways too numerous to count.

We think it is time for flyers, telling the story, to be distributed in the local areas affected by this injustice. What about stuffers for newspapers, flyers placed on vehicles, etc. We’d love to have help from those willing to design the flyers, and investigate the cost for stuffing in newspapers. Is there anyone who would like to check into the laws regarding placing flyers on vehicles? Who is in the targeted areas and willing to place the flyers on cars and in public places?

Generally, the first focus areas are Winchester and Frederick County immediately followed by Fairfax County, VA and Baltimore, MD (the main areas where DAR&E is known). The goal is to start prior to the weekend of the probable indictment (December 6^th), but no later than the weekend after and go through the trial period (whenever that is set). The aim is to have all of MD and VA covered with the complete story and web links.

Also, if anyone is able to attend the anticipated grand jury indictment in Winchester, VA which should be held Thursday, December 6^th, please pencil this in on your calendar. While we are not allowed in the room, we can be at the courthouse to show our continued support of Alla/Stella. (More information on this will be posted as the date nears).

A large group of individuals have constantly asked how they could help. Here are several tasks that can be done by those living both near and far. And the impact will be significant. Please e-mail me privately with your information.

We would like to express our heartfelt “THANKS” to everyone for their continued support.

Wanda

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October 5, 2007

This morning after more than 5 weeks, the investigator from the DA's office returned Alla's work computer which they have had since August 29, 2007. Nothing else was returned even though they have had all that time to notice that almost all of the picture cd's of animals were taken long before Stella was even born. The old floppy discs were business, even older and quite often blank. Are they even looking at these things or just sitting on them to cause intimidation and distress?