The Human Impact Shown in Stone's Emergency Filing
The human impact is demonstrated in the emergency motion filed by Reverend John W. Stone and Shirley D. Stone in the Federal Court. The emergency motion was filled with an urgent, emotional language that brings the human cost of this case into sharp focus.
The Stones allege that their grandchildren were unlawfully abducted on January 9, 2024, by a non-relative babysitter, with the assistance of the children’s estranged mother, and her sister. The children, two of whom are autistic and especially vulnerable, have been held in violation of multiple valid court orders and state and federal laws. Their father, Timothy Paul Stone, was the children’s full custodial parent and died tragically while trying to rescue them.
The complaint details a series of alarming events, including threats, ignored protection orders, and alleged failures by law enforcement and judicial officials to intervene, despite repeated pleas and clear evidence of danger showing the human impact involved. The Stones argue that these failures not only facilitated the ongoing kidnapping but also contributed to the wrongful death of their son. The filings describe the children’s ongoing trauma, the loss of their father, and the frustration of being denied access to justice and protection.
Here are a few direct quotes that illustrate the trauma and desperation experienced by the family:
- “This emergency arises from the ongoing and unlawful kidnapping of three minor children, two of whom are autistic and especially vulnerable.”
- “False imprisonment for even one second is a grave civil rights violation, and continued detention is a direct affront to their constitutional rights to liberty and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
- “The emergency remains as acute today as it was on the day of their abduction, and the Court’s intervention is both justified and required to halt the ongoing crime and restore the children’s rights.”
- “The children’s ongoing detention is a direct violation of their constitutional rights to liberty and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment: ‘No State shall... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’”
- “It is a profound and tragic irony that, while the law recognizes the children as primary beneficiaries of the wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit, these same children are being actively obstructed from participating in or benefiting from the proceedings by their continued false imprisonment.”
