One sup­port­er has asked if this is a “hit list.” Melis­sa Diegel has until Mon­day (May 18th) to turn over all the con­tact infor­ma­tion, includ­ing phone num­bers and emails, of every sin­gle per­son that she has com­mu­ni­cat­ed with about her daugh­ters, or an Ari­zona judge says she will go to jail.

The Face­book page set up by sup­port­ers to fol­low the Diegel sis­ters’ sto­ry has more than 9,000 fol­low­ers, many of whom have been active­ly involved in advo­cat­ing for the release of Han­nah and Kay­la from CPS custody.

Health Impact News was one of the first news orga­ni­za­tions to report on the Diegel fam­i­ly sto­ry in 2014:

10 and 12 Year Old Sisters Seized from Family by Hospital in Phoenix

A judge ordered us, via Melis­sa Diegel, to take down our sto­ry back in 2014. The sto­ry is still up.

Accord­ing to their page, A Mir­a­cle for Two Sis­ters, Melis­sa faces a judge on Mon­day on con­tempt of court charges. Supe­ri­or Court Judge Colleen McNal­ly report­ed­ly ordered her to turn over a list of all of the peo­ple that she con­tact­ed about her children’s sto­ry. Melis­sa com­plied, turn­ing over a list of enti­ties and orga­ni­za­tions that she had been in con­tact with.

Alleged­ly, this was not enough. It was report­ed­ly not “com­plete com­pli­ance.” Only com­plete com­pli­ance with the order will be enough to keep this mom out of jail.

IS MELISSA DIEGEL FACING A TOTALITARIAN DICTATOR?

“Not only does Melis­sa Diegel have to cope with the harm to her chil­dren she must also cope with a Supe­ri­or Court Judge who has threat­ened her with jail for speak­ing out about her chil­dren and for asso­ci­at­ing with oth­er par­ents and fam­i­lies vic­tim­ized by the same cor­rupt sys­tem. The judge (a woman) has DEMANDED that Melis­sa HAND OVER the NAMES, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE NUMBERS and EMAILS of ALL HER FRIENDS and FAMILY and ANYONE she has com­mu­ni­cat­ed with regard­ing her chil­dren OR go to jail on Mon­day the 18th of May, 2015!”

A sup­port­er writes on the Face­book page:

On Mon­day, May 18th at 2:00 pm Melis­sa Diegel will be appear­ing in the Duran­go cour­t­house for con­tempt charges. The judge has instruct­ed her that if she is not in com­plete com­pli­ance with the order that she will be incarcerated.

We sup­port Melissa’s first amend­ment right to free speech and to hold her in con­tempt for that very rea­son is unconstitutional.

If you live in Ari­zona we urge you to attend this hear­ing to stand in sup­port of the prin­ci­ples she believes in and the rights she and every Amer­i­can are enti­tled to.

A great num­ber of par­ents around the coun­try have faced uncon­sti­tu­tion­al gag orders, which would pre­vent them from speak­ing out about what is hap­pen­ing to their chil­dren, and pos­si­bly expose cor­rupt actions by social work­ers, lawyers, and judges. Many par­ents have been coerced into silence, but increas­ing­ly, par­ents are speak­ing out and telling their side of the sto­ry, expos­ing their tales of injus­tice to the media and the pub­lic. How­ev­er, the order by Judge McNal­ly appears to be unprecedented.

Does an Ari­zona court have a right to your name, address, phone num­ber, and email, if you com­mu­ni­cat­ed with Melis­sa Diegel? If you are one of the many par­ents going through a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion, and you reached out to Mrs. Diegel as an under­stand­ing ear, are you will­ing for her to give all of your con­tact infor­ma­tion to a judge? Will this order have a chill­ing effect on the public’s Con­sti­tu­tion­al Free­dom of Speech?

If the judge can order such a list to be turned over, what are the impli­ca­tions for pri­va­cy? Has the judge crossed a line? Advo­cates for the Diegel fam­i­ly believe that it has.

Do we as a soci­ety want to have judges wear­ing jack boots under their black robes act­ing like third world total­i­tar­i­an dic­ta­tors? Melis­sa Diegle’s case is more like a Stal­in­ist purge than a US judi­cial pro­ceed­ing. She has yet to receive a tri­al… the Judge refus­es to acknowl­edge the motions Melis­sa has pre­sent­ed to her… strange that the cut off date to hear these motions or the case is closed falls on Mon­day the 18.. Please join the Court Watch of this case Mon­day, May 18th at 2:00 PM at the Court­room of Judge McNal­ly to wit­ness this mis­car­riage of jus­tice and per­se­cu­tion of this Amer­i­can woman and her children.”

—Malin­da Sherwin

Sup­port­ers are invit­ing every­one who can to show up at the cour­t­house at 3131 West Duran­go, Phoenix, Ari­zona, at 2 p.m. Moun­tain Time Mon­day, May 18, to be a wit­ness to the pro­ceed­ings in the court hear­ing. (“Court Watch­ers Need­ed” event infor­ma­tion here.)

Melis­sa Diegel has issued the fol­low­ing state­ment on the event page:

It is impor­tant to express that I do not feel that I am above the law, but rather I expect that the Ari­zona courts should uphold the Con­sti­tu­tion. I have been denied a jury tri­al. I have been denied a tri­al with­in 90 days. I have been denied the right to see my daugh­ters and I have been denied the right to prove my inno­cence in the court of law as “I have been accused” and stripped of my pre­cious daughters.

I do not under­stand the Ari­zona sys­tem. Exact­ly what rules they going by? Are they fol­low­ing their own judi­cial pol­i­cy or the statues?

Please stand togeth­er now fam­i­lies of Ari­zona. There is pow­er in num­bers. Rights will con­tin­ue to be stripped if we do not stand up and say enough is enough!

I hope to see you on Mon­day You can make a dif­fer­ence. ….Just like Mar­tin Luther King changed a nation we can too and it starts now and con­tin­ues even after I get arrested.

Judge Colleen McNal­ly can be reached here, at 602–506-5961.

See Also:

Arizona Mother of Two Girls Medically Kidnapped Breaks Gag Order and Speaks Out