The case of an American whose two children have been legally kidnapped by Swiss authorities has heated up.
On July 25th, 2017, Neal Sutz two children
were taken temporarily by the Switzerland version of Child Protective Services
which is called SPMi.
More than three years later, the two children remain
in the custody of SPMi.
Sutz story has been covered extensively; for instance,
the website, MedicalKidnap, covered their story in July 2019: It was also previously covered by NOQ Report and Northwest Liberty News.
Sutz also wrote a book entitled: “Scream of Silence – A
Father’s Unfathomable Story to Save His Sons”.
The Set Up
Sutz left the State of Arizona in 2017 after receiving
proof of child molestation allegations against the family of Sutz then wife, Cortnie.
Sutz, whose mother was born in Switzerland, was
thereby both American by birth, as well as a Swiss citizen.
He, his wife, and two children moved to Switzerland at
the end of June 2017.
On July 14 or 15, 2017, his wife had an episode and
tried to kill herself and her son.
“It was during the night of July 14 or 15, 2017, that
Cortnie, who suffers from serious psychiatric disorders as a result of the
abuse she suffered throughout her life at the hands of her family and their
associates, made then much worse by her exposure to seeing her nephew being
molested by his step-father (also non-biological grandfather) on video tried to
end her life in our apartment in Geneva, with severe serious threats of
committing a double suicide with our son,” Sutz said in a lawsuit he filed last
year.
Sutz continued that he got the situation under
control, “Fortunately, I was able to retrieve Skyler from Cortnie’s grasp,
place him in safety in a separate room and then talk Cortnie out of killing
herself.”
Though the situation was eventually calmed down, SPMi
came to visit Neal and his two sons less than 24 hours later saying they were
concerned about the well-being of the two boys.
“Just nine days later, on July 25, 2017, completely as
a surprise to me, social workers from Geneva’s Child Protective Services
(further referred to as SPMi), in company with multiple doctors, nurses, social
workers, and two HUG (Geneva University Hospital) hospital security guards,
tore both my sons from my arms, during a physical exam, and placed them
immediately in a small hospital room in the pediatric ward of HUG.” Sutz stated
in the same lawsuit. “The SPMi and HUG Hospital authorities then had me
physically removed from the HUG Hospital, by two security guards, having shown
me no paperwork whatsoever, upon seizure of my sons, and told me only, ‘We are
keeping your sons here at the hospital. Get a lawyer.’”
The nightmare was only beginning
Here is some more from the Medical Kidnap article.
“His
wife is allegedly part of an influential family in the Mormon Church in
Arizona. She claims, and has testified in court, that she and other members of
her family were sexually abused as children, and she feared her own children
were in danger. (
“Both
boys are special needs children needing medical care, and shortly after
arriving in Switzerland, they were allegedly medically kidnapped under the
authority of Swiss child protective services (SPMi) after their mother
experienced a psychotic breakdown in Geneva.
“SPMi
brought in an American psychiatrist living in Geneva, Dr. Daniel Scott Schechter,
to handle the Sutz case.
“One
of Dr. Schechter’s special interests is the effect of mothers with
post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) on their children. He was the
winner of an award for this work shortly after taking on the Sutz boys’ case (link),
and continues to win awards for his work on studying the effects of mothers
with PTSD on their children. (2019 award link.)
“Neal
has been fighting the system for over 2 years (3 years and 3 weeks as of the
publication of this article) to try and get his children back, and even took
out a full page advertisement in the Washington Times to publish a letter
written to President Donald Trump asking him to intervene in
Switzerland. He does not believe President Trump or anyone (high-up loyalists
to President Trump) in his administration ever saw it.”
ISS
(International Social Services)
Recently,
Sutz discovered a shadowy group called the International Social Services (ISS),
which Sutz told me was the “International CPS.”
They
have been involved in the Sutz Family case for about three years according to court-certified
documents, from just days after the boys were first seized.
Sutz
even claims, and offers extensive written documentation, that the US State
Department was in cahoots with ISS and SPMi.
I
reached out to ISS and Swiss CPS but received no response.
The
Bivens Suit
All
these allegations are part of an explosive lawsuit which he filed in April
2020.
It is called a Bivens action and the lawsuit is below.
SUTZ v POWERS ET AL Origina... by mikekvolpe on Scribd
A Bivens action is named after the 1971 US Supreme Court Case Bivens Vs. Six Unnamed Agents. A Bivens action, “generally refers to a lawsuit for damages when a federal officer who is acting in the color of federal authority allegedly violates the U.S. Constitution by federal officers acting,” according to Cornell Law.The U.S. State Department
A
State Department official provided this statement, “The
U.S. Embassy in Switzerland is aware of the case. Due to privacy
considerations, we have no further comment.”
The official continued explaining what services an
American abroad would receive in Neal’s situation, “Regarding support provided by
consular officers, consular officers generally provide all appropriate consular
services to U.S. citizens overseas. Consular assistance may include:
attempting to monitor the legal process and access to legal counsel;
visiting U.S. citizens to ensure that they are receiving humane treatment,
including medical treatment if needed; and with the individual’s permission,
facilitating communications with their families or others as they wish.”
Remarkably, Sutz filed his lawsuit on April 27, 2020,
by April 30, 2020, it was
dismissed.
Judge
Amy Berman Jackson
The
judge who dismissed it is one who has found her way into the news a lot
recently: Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Judge
Jackson presided over the trials of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.
Just
on August 10, 2020, Judge Jackson made a significant ruling on executive
privilege. Here is part of a story in Politico.
“A
federal judge has rebuffed the Trump administration’s attempt to invoke
executive privilege to withhold a batch of emails about a hold President Donald
Trump put on U.S. aid to Ukraine in 2019.
“U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Monday
that the government had failed to make a convincing showing that the 21
messages between White House aide Robert Blair and Office of Management and
Budget official Michael Duffey were eligible for protection under legal
privileges protecting the development of presidential advice or decisions made
by other government officials.”
In the
Sutz case, she seemed to have dismissed the case before the lawsuit was even
served to the defendants. She ruled before the defendants themselves had
provided a legal reasoning for the case to be dismissed.
Sutz
insisted to me that her legal reasoning was defective. That is difficult to
assess, but even if Sutz lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is rare a judge
decides to dismiss it before the defendant has had an opportunity to raise an
argument.
I
called her chambers for an explanation but received no response.
Daniel
Scott Schechter, M.D.
Another interesting detail in this case is the
presence of Dr. Daniel Scott Schechter. Dr. Schechter is a world-renowned child
psychiatrist.
In
2019, he received the Sandor Ferenczi Award, which is given yearly “ the
best published psychoanalytically-oriented clinical or research paper on trauma
and/or dissociation in adults or children,” according to the award’s page.
Dr.
Schechter was an American working at the University of Geneva who was summoned
onto the case before the boys were even seized at the Geneva University
Hospital.
Medical
Kidnap had more, “As we stated in the
introduction, SPMi brought in an American psychiatrist living in Geneva,
Dr. Daniel Schechter, to handle the Sutz case.
“The first thing he reportedly did, was to go visit
Cortnie at Belle-Idée, the Psychiatric Hospital of The Canton of Geneva.
“Dr. Schechter’s is world-renowned for
studying the effect of mothers with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD)
on their children. He was the winner of an award for this work shortly
after taking on the Sutz boys’ case (link),
and continues to win awards for his work on studying the effects of mothers
with PTSD on their children. (2019 award link).”
The article continued, “After Cortnie’s 60-day
confinement was over, Dr. Schechter reportedly advised SPMi to allow her
to have almost unlimited visitation rights to the two boys, while advising that
Neal have very limited contact with them, and requiring Neal to get psychiatric
treatment.
“So the mother, who had just spent 60 days in a psych
ward for an attempted double suicide, was granted more visitation rights than
the father, who was previously a successful writer and film producer for mental
health advocacy work.”
It is noteworthy that Cortnie eventually left
Switzerland, have already signed the rights to her children to Neal before the
Sutz family even came to Switzerland. Switzerland’s Family Court never
acknowledged the validity of that American document.
Sutz told me that Dr. Schechter was and continues to
be instrumental in keeping him away from his two sons.
I reached out to Dr. Schechter at the University of
Geneva, but he did not respond to my questions.
Recent
Media
Since the Spring 2020, Neal has been able to get all
sorts of new attention.
He has appeared several times on The Steel Truth with
Ann Vandersteel, with RedPill 78, Jeff Dornik, Eric Matheny, National File, and others.
All that media attention culminated in three Arizona
political candidates coming out publicly in backing Sutz.
Two of the candidates - Steve Robinson and Shelby Busch
- were write-in candidates for the Arizona legislature, but the third - Josh Barnett - recently won his primary for the US Congress in
the 7th District as a Republican.
The three initially put a statement on video on July 25, 2020.
“We are Arizona candidates,” Busch says in the video speaking for the three, “that have been provided extensive files, and videos, and audio footage regarding a case of a father and his two sons. We are here today to make a diplomatic demand.”
Barnett continued, “We are here this evening to
formally and collectively make disclosure demand as a matter of international
humanitarian urgency in support of an American citizen and father, Neal David
Sutz, and his two sons, who have been detained by the Child Protective Services
in Switzerland for three years now.”
The video was put out on the three-year anniversary of
the seizure.
I spoke with Busch and she said Sutz’ case is like
many she’s been exposed to.
“You’re talking to somebody who’s seen a lot of
corruption within the CPS and DCS system,” Busch said, “A lot of people are
under the impression that these organizations are just about protecting
children and that mistakes can sometimes happen. I guess I’ve been looking into
this too long to realize that’s not really the case.”
She said in 95 percent of CPS cases she believes
people are denied due process, “In Neal’s case, he was most definitely denied
any form of due process.”
She continued, “There’s no crime committed here.
Neal’s not being charged with harming his kids, sexually abusing his kids,
doing drugs.”
Busch said one thing which stands out about this case
is the US government’s failure to protect its citizens, “Our government is not
doing its job to protect American citizens from this kind of egregious
intrusion into our lives by foreign governments.”
I had been working on my own article when he sent me an email on
July 31, 2020, stating in part, “If there is anything
else you need re details to finish the article, I have to ask you to do it
yourself. I received one more severe warning this afternoon here in
Switzerland and I am now off social media totally and not doing any more
interviews for the foreseeable future.”
I would speak again
with Sutz, after having contacted the State Department, Dr. Schechter, and
others, and he sounded more hopeful, but he has done only one brief interview
in August.
Conversation with Omar
Agustoni, Swiss Film Maker and Journalist
Introduced the two of
them, this meeting resulting in Sutz translating the film from its original
French/Italian version into English, including both English subtitles and Sutz
doing an English voiceover.
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