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In October 2003, the British High Court in London ordered that Florida had jurisdiction over Emily. We were all ordered to go to Florida for custody proceedings and Emily was sent there in the care of her mother, Sheila Fuith.
I packed my bags and prepared to try my luck at proceedings in the 4th court venue - the third in the United States.
Now as a British citizen, I am normally allowed to travel freely to the US under the visa waiver scheme. I was then advised by Glen Keiser of the State Department that my visa waiver privileges had been revoked and I needed a visa to travel to the US - we had a court hearing set up for February 2004 so I applied for a visa to attend and start the legal process in Florida.
My visa was denied as the State Department claimed I was travelling for unlawful activity - the basis for this was the mothers allegations that she was being stalked and harassed by me in the US - now bear in mind I was in the UK 4,000 miles away and have no criminal record nor an arrest record for anything anywhere.
It became apparent that despite various undertakings to the British High Court (the English Supreme Court) that Sheila would not file any criminal complaints, as soon as her feet hit Florida she commenced filing complaints...some of them very serious, one of which was that I was sexually abusing my children in the UK and was using my eldest daughter for making child pornography.
Nevertheless the British police had investigated and concluded their investigation in January 2004 - they found Sheila was making false allegations to evade the legal process in the US and to deny contact between Emily and I - this didn't cut any ice with the State Department, they were not letting me onto the US for the court hearings.
The hearing was rescheduled for April 2004, and with the help of the British government a visa was issued but it was restricted so I could only attend the court hearing - I had to be out of the US by the 20th April....or else !
I arrived in the US on 4th April 2004 - missing my eldest daughters birthday and it was not to be the first - during depositions it became apparent that Sheila and her attorney, Teresa Anderson, had been given my visa information and that the only source for this information was the State Department
I was denied contact with Emily until on 16th April (the day before my flight home) my attorney was told that I could see Emily the following day - my day to fly home....a nice coincidence indeed. Nicer still, on 17th April after over 6 months I got to see Emily again...supervised by an off duty prison guard, Emily and I could not leave the house or be further than 10 feet from the supervisor (who I had to pay for the privilege of guarding me)...all conditions laid down by Sheila.
I had also been summonsed to attend court on 20th April to defend myself against a domestic violence injunction petition being brought by Sheila.
My attorney,
David Ferguson, advised me to stay and extend my visa, so on Friday 16th April we contacted Orlando Border Patrol and asked them what we needed to do - I was told to file a visa extension and have it in the mail with a postmark not later than midnight 19th April 2004.
We did this - the application being mailed from my attorney's offices in Ormond Beach.
On Monday, 19th April, my attorney received a phone call from Teresa Anderson, Sheila's attorney - if Mr Hindle gets on a plane and goes home we will drop the domestic violence hearing - I said no, we'll defend this...and we did....and we won - Judge Doyle ruled..."it is clear to me these proceedings are being brought to gain adantage under the custody proceedings.." - His Honor ruled I was no threat, and I was also awarded unsupervised access with Emily three times a week.
I was enjoying this - seeing Emily again, but it was difficult too - I could not work and I was a world away from home and I had married Yulia, in January 2004 - all in all I just wanted to get the court process finished and get Emily medical treatment for her blindness.
On May 28th 2004, I waited for Emily to be dropped off in the morning for my contact - instead I was approached by two men from immigration...and was arrested for overstaying my visa. I protested I had applied for it to be extended and that I was legal as far as that was concerned. No I wasn't advised Agent Wayne Buehre - as nice a guy as you'd ever wish to be arrested by - and I was handcuffed, belly chained and shackled and taken to Orlando where I was booked into Orange County jail and did not see daylight for 2 weeks.
I was transferred to Bradenton Immigration Detention Facility just outside Tampa where deportation hearings were held - it became clear that I was not being held because I had overstayed my visa - that was a technicality - I was being held because BARBARA GREIG of OFFICE OF CHILDRENS ISSUES, DEPARTMENT OF STATE had represented to immigration that I was a threat and a menace to my daughter, her mother and to American society.
The immigration attorneys acting for the US Government were Attorneys Grimm and Maingott - Grimm was business like and professional while Maingott appeared to me to be a sh*t - in either case, they had been ordered by Washington DC to appeal my release - this meant I would be held incarcerated for 6 months awaiting the Governments appeal and by then I would be deported anyway.
Jail was horrendous - in Orlando I had an attack of scyatica - excruciating back pain - which I had suffered with for 20 years after an accident in the British Army where I had seriously injured myself and my back in particular - they left me on my cot for 2 days without food or drink and without a doctor...unable to move I pissed myself and relied on my cell mates to give me food.
Eventually a doctor came - he performed a nerve test my tickling my feet with a pencil - my right foot jerked but my left foot was dead as a door nail - he observed I had neurological damage and moved me to a medical observation cell (aka solitary in a windowless room) and gave me pain relief....thank you God for ibuprofen !
I stayed in that cell for 4 days - no books, no radio, no TV and no company - I staged a mini protest ripping my identification bracelet off and flushing it down the toilet because they wouldn't let me shower....I stank of piss and body odour ! Immediately 4 guards arrived at this "rebellion" - one told me that I could be punished for destroying government property (i.e. my bracelet) to which I replied what are you going to do, give me extra jail !
I got my shower and a change of bedding and a fresh prison issue jumpsuit.
While at Bradenton, I was in a general holding cell - about 30 guys half Haitian half Hispanic - English was spoken by a minority and the Haitians scared even the guards - one night they ganged up on an Egyptian and kicked the proverbial out of him, dragging him to the telephone so they could beat him with the receiver. I wanted out of there in the worst way !
Chris Keizer was a Canadian being held in the same cell - he'd served several years in a federal prison for some misbehaviour and had been arrested by immigration for deportation on his release. He just wanted to get home too and we played chess all the time - being the only two white guys in this zoo it was natural we would gravitate to each other, not least as him being a bodybuilder it served to keep the Haitians at arms length. He got the idea we could be trustees, so we put in the request form and two days later we were in the trustees cell - fewer people, cleaner kit and more food for not doing very much but at least you were doing something aside from rotting and protecting your arse in the open plan showers and toilets.
Finally, after a month in prison, I took voluntary deportation and returned to the UK - being in prison, I had little contact with the outside world - only being able to contact my lawyer but the experience had a positive side...it showed the hand of Sheila and the people who were helping her......
Why was I arrested ?Barbara Greig at the State Department gave Sheila and her lawyer, Teresa Anderson my visa information - this allowed them to entrap me in a technical violation of my visa by using access with Emily at the eleventh hour...I was one working day late in filing the extension...and once that happened Barbara Greig went to immigration with a mass of police reports filed by Sheila....but didn't let on that Judge Doyle had dismissed them in April 2004, nor that the British police had found Sheila's allegations were false....hmmmmm !
A fax was sent from Greig to Agent Buehre, who had also made statements to my lawyers, notably David Vedder, a board certified immigration attorney in Ormond Beach....all of this showed that Greig was making out that I was a major threat that needed to be taken care of.....but when David Ferguson contacted her about why I had been arrested, Greig denied any knowledge or involvement....double hmmmm !
The paper trail that has been uncovered indicates Greig, Sheila, Teresa Anderson and a local police officer,
Captain Osowski, worked together to rid themselves of big bad me.....they variously lied, misrepresented and acted in a thoroughly unlawful manner including in the case of Captain Osowski, falsifying his police reports (but more of that later).
It turns out that my arrest is unique - no one has been arrested in these circumstances before according to David Vedder and the government attorney, James Grimm - while the State Department has continued to deny any involvement in arranging, instigating or orchestrating my arrest....John Ballif, former director of Office of Childrens Issues wrote to me on this twice categorically denying involvement, while Assistant Secretary of State Harty advised the British Government of no involvement.....yet the immigration arrest report tells a different story....the immigration investigation was predicated on information received from Barabara Greig, Office of Children's Issues, Department of State.
