slander/libel and officials lying to us

[roman_Slayer]

What is the name of your state? VA

The board of directors of a local recreational center sent us a letter stating that our three children have committed several acts of vandalism on that recreational center, and so they are barred from the property. This is false. Our children NEVER did any such thing. They sent two other copies of this same letter to two different police officers as well. I have sent them a certified letter asking them to rescind this letter and they never replied. I asked the town hall and one of those police officers about it, and they both told me that since the recreational center is private property, the owner can allow or forbid whoever they wished on their property. I tried to get the police to give me a printout from their computer to show that my children don't have any criminal records or reports on them, so that I could show it to the recreational center's board of directors, and point out to them that they are wrong, and get them to rescind the letter, and clear our children's reputations. The police acknowledged the fact that there aren't any reports of that nature about our children, but absolutely refuse to give me a printout showing that fact, as if they want to PRESERVE these lies. I then checked with the bigger town hall in the county seat, and found out that the recreational center is NOT private property, but PUBLIC property, owned by the town, and therefor supported by our local town taxes. So, the board of directors of this recreational center have sent us and two police officers a letter telling lies about our children, the town officials lied to us, telling us it is private property when it's really public property, and the police officer stated this same lie to us as well. Is there anything I can legally do about this?

 

[stephenk]

what do your kids say happened to get them kicked out?

 

[roman_Slayer]

Nothing. We were totally surprised.

 

[stephenk]

go to the rec center with your kids and speak with the director.

 

[GKris]

That may work, also write to the local paper in the editorial section. Chill out on the conspiracy theories though, it makes you sound foolish. These people obviously do not beieve they are lying and may surprise you so be prepared. As far as getting a printout of your child's non-criminal history, I have never heard of such a thing. Police do not keep track of crimes people do not commit and if the kis have had no contact with the police they would not even know they exsist let alone have a file on them. I am sure you feel your children have been wronged by this, but just be prepared for bad news in the event someone else knows a little more about your kids than you do. I say confront the officials at the rec center about it, bring your kids too. See who squirms first

 

[roman_Slayer]

Thank you Stevenk and GKris for your advice.

I agree with you that I'd better be prepaired for them knowing something I don't. I should have also pointed out the fact that we already did go to the local newspaper with this story, asking them to watch the story, but they always say that they don't consider it worthy of print. Yet another example of these people "circling the wagons" whenever we talk to them.

No, I don't expect the police to track people who don't commit crimes, I just wanted them to run a criminal check on our kids in their computer, and when it shows nothing has ever been reported about them, print it out and give it to us. Or, alternatively, sign a statement attesting to that fact. I don't see anything unreasonable about that, asking for a printout of facts. Since they always resist doing that for us, we can't help but be suspicious of them. We will consider confronting them about this with our children there, but, may I ask again, isn't there something wrong with these officials lying to us, who's salleries are paid by our taxes? Don't they have to answer to us? And, isn't there some sort of lawsuit we can file against them?

roman_Slayer

 

[GKris]

I dont see that you are being lied to. It does seem unreasonable for you to expect the police to print out a non exsistant record of your kids. I would refuse to sign any statement about your kids as well. It is very unreasonable, your taxes that you are concerned with should not be wasted on that sort of stuff. They should be spent on real crimes with real criminals. The papers refuse to listen to you, the rec center management refuses to listen to you, the police refuse to listen to you and the city officials as well. Its all one big conspiracy against your kids? You dont see this as possibly maybe could be something the kids may have possibly done to warrant it???? You do not make it easy to be taken serious.

 

[roman_Slayer]

This place is called Rural Retreat, VA. The county's seat is called Wytheville. Have you ever heard of either of these places? No, of course not. No one has. Why? Because they are insignificant places in the middle of nowhere, with rarely anything newsworthy such as crimes occuring. And, not only that, there's nothing entertaining to do here. For example, the only thing teenagers can find to do here is hang around grocery store parking lots all evening. Because of that, the local newspaper often resorts to filling up space with non-newsworthy things such as interviews with elderly people reminiscing about how they had no electricity when they went to school. So, considering that, why wouldn't the newpaper consider public officials slandering innocent children, with no criminal record newsworthy? Also, why wouldn't the police sign a statement that merely states a fact; the fact that they don't have any criminal reports on someone? And, once again, why wouldn't the newspaper consider THAT newsworthy?

But, this is not the point. I'm not trying to prove any conspiracies, such as pointing out these facts to everyone here. I don't go around stating these facts to everyone. I know it would make anyone look foolish. The only reason I mentioned these facts is to answer your suggestion that we contact the local newspaper about it. You suggested that we should do that, so I told you how we already did, and what happened.

My question was; Isn't there something wrong with public officials, who's salleries are paid with our taxes, lying about us. And my second question, once again is; Is there anything we can legally do about it, such as filing a lawsuit or cival suit?

roman_Slayer

 

[stephenk]

So what happened when you took your kids to the rec center to speak with the director of the facility?

 

[GKris]

In this wonderful country people can sue anyone for anything. I recently saw a segment of Real Sports where parents are suing coaches for cutting their children from school teams. The coaches were being sued because the parents believed the children had wings and halos, thought they were meant to be proffesional atheletes and make big money. They refused to see that they may have been just ordinary kids and that no one was out to get them. There were actually lawyers that took these cases, as ridiculous as it sounds, you ought to find one of those guys and sue sue sue.