California Coalition for Families and Children 4891 Pacific Hwy., Ste. 102 San Diego, CA 92110 [email protected] D: 858.504.0171 April 16, 2014 Mr. Eric Holder United States Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Re : Federal Tort Claims Act Claim Against Ms. Laura Duffy, United States Attorney, Southern District of California, by California Coalition for Families and Children, PBC, Colbern C. Stuart, III; United States District Court, Southern District of California, Case No. 13-cv-1944 CAB (BLM) Dear Mr. Holder: I write to alert you of a claim presented yesterday pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b) regarding Ms. Laura Duffy, United States Attorney, Southern District of California. I enclose a copy of the complete claim form and attachments. This claim is premised on violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1986 and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). Ms. Duffy and unknown attorneys and personnel within the United States Attorney’s Office are alleged to maintain policies and practices in violation of Claimants’ rights to equal protection under the Constitution and Laws of the United States. Such policies and practices within the United States Attorney’s Office have and continue to cause, allow, or fail to prevent deprivation of the Claimants’ rights as members of each EQUAL PROTECTION CLASS defined in the Amended Complaint, causing injury therein. I am the individual claimant and President of claimant California Coalition for Families and Children. California Coalition has filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Southern District of California entitled California Coalition for Families and Children et al. v. San Diego County Bar Association et al., United States District Court, Southern District of California Case No. 13-cv-1944 which details the allegations underlying this claim. A copy of the First Amended Complaint in this matter and key exhibits thereto is enclosed. This claim alleges that Ms. Duffy and others within her office maintain policies depriving a class of citizens of violation of Equal Protection of the Laws. Ms. Duffy has enacted, maintained, and enforced these policies by failing to prosecute Family Court judges, attorneys, social workers, and law enforcement who are within the U.S. Attorney’s Office jurisdiction for their violations of civil rights laws protecting families and children. Families are a class—a class that has been identified under federal and California state law as entitled to the highest protection from discriminatory laws, policies, procedures, and customs. But rather than treating families with the special care required under state and federal law, California color of law actors regularly treat them—in the words of California’s former Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George— as “second-class” citizens, depriving families of the rights, privileges, and immunities extended to all other California citizens. See Elkins v. Superior Court, 41 Cal. 4th 1337, 1368, 163 P.3d 160, 177 (2007). Ms. Duffy’s policies in enforcement of the civil rights laws restraining state officials facilitates and illegally tolerates those deprivations. We have observed a distinctive failure of federal authorities to respond to meritorious claims of flagrant illegal activity by state actors such as that detailed in the First Amended Complaint. Prosecution for those crimes are within the jurisdiction of this District’s United States Attorney, yet despite abundant evidence of illegal activity, no prosecutions have been initiated, and those investigations we are aware of or have participated in have not resulted in initiation of formal criminal or civil action by the government. With this failure to enforce the laws protecting families and children, suffering continues unabated. The First Amended Complaint details the expansion of the illegal criminal enterprises that have grown up around this permitted illegal behavior, and the violence those enterprises have resorted to in protecting their commercial markets from competition by healthier alternative service providers such as California Coalition. The fallout is a deplorable and widespread exploitation of the futures and wealth of families and children in the crisis of a domestic dispute—all under the nose of state and federal officials with the power to prevent the same. Our calls for assistance from state and local law enforcement have gone unanswered. We have requested the assistance of federal law enforcement to date without significant response. We are therefore proceeding with the enclosed claim to begin the formal process for redressing the heinous crimes against our most vulnerable citizens occurring undeterred within our District. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Colbern C. Stuart III Colbern C. Stuart, III, J.D., President, California Coalition for Families and Children 2 Enclosures cc: Ms. Laura Duffy, United States Attorney United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of California California Coalition for Families and Children, PBC Members 3