ACEVEDO COMPLAINT

Alanna Krause  ("Letting Children Speak for Themselves", July 17, 2000)
1287 Meiners Road or 0011 Chapin Hall
Ojai, CA 93023 726 University Place
(805) 640-7612 Evanston, Illinois 60201
chronosyn@northwestern.edu

Office of Chief Trial Counsel/Intake
California State Bar
1149 South Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-2299 January 7, 2002

COMPLAINT AGAINST MS. SANDRA M. ACEVEDO- State Bar # 129188

Court Appointed Attorney for the Minor Child- 1993-1994 in Marin County Superior Court case FL 4889

This complaint alleges that Ms. Sandra M. Acevedo conspired with my father, Marshall Krause, his girlfriend, Lana Clark, LCSW, and others to:

                    4) commit child abuse, neglect and endangerment

In 1994, Ms. Acevedo was appointed by Commissioner Sylvia K. Shapiro-Pritchard to represent my "best interests" in Marin County California Superior Court case FL 4889 – the divorce/custody case of my parents, Marshall W. Krause v. Lauren Krause (Simone-Smith). I was nine years old at the time.

Instead of representing my best interests, Ms. Acevedo knowingly and willfully colluded with my father, a nationally renowned attorney and past president of the Marin Bar Assoc., and his girlfriend, Lana Clark, to cover up his child abuse of me.

Throughout Family Court FL 4889 proceedings, I repeatedly told Ms. Acevedo about my father’s abuse and mistreatment of me and asked her directly to make these facts known to the court.

Ms. Acevedo had extensive contact with my teachers and doctors and attended my meetings with Child Protective Services. I told all of them about my father’s abuse. Ms. Acevedo misled them to believe my abuse was being handled by the court, when, in fact, she acted to keep the truth and the issue out of court.

Ms. Acevedo threatened my mother and me when we tried to bring the truth to the court’s attention ourselves. She repeatedly attempted to convince me to stop trying to communicate these important facts about my father to the court. She ignored medical records of my injuries. She perjured herself in declarations to the court.

Furthermore, Ms. Acevedo maintained intimate constant contact with my father’s girlfriend, Lana Clark, and intruded Clark’s fabrications and false opinions into the case, which heralded my father, blamed my mother, and undermined and destroyed my credibility, despite the fact that I was a child with no motive other than my own safety. (Services for which Clark received approx. $15,000).

Ms. Acevedo billed nearly $17,000 for her services. Though the court clearly stated it did not have jurisdiction to legally assign my mother’s family support to legal fees, Ms. Acevedo received payment from my mother’s family support anyway.

If Ms. Acevedo had done her job, the abuse would have been investigated, facts would have been brought into evidence, court rulings might have accorded with evidence, justice might have been done and I might not have had to endure years of my father’s abuse in his full custody. Because Ms. Acevedo willfully did not act in my best interests, I suffered years of abuse, neglect and endangerment.

In September, 1997, at the age of thirteen, I ran away from my father and Marin to Los Angeles where I sought and obtained protection, adequate legal representation and justice. In the hand of a capable attorney, the court was aware of the abuse from the first hearing and chose to protect me from my father, in contrast to the results of Acevedo’s representation.

After several months of investigation, on January 12, 1998, the LA Department of Child and Family Services Investigation Report was adopted by Los Angeles Juvenile Court. On this day my father, Marshall W. Krause pled No Contest to WIC Section 300; subdivisions a) & b). The charges that he was a current and future danger to me were sustained. I was then made a Ward of the Court. My Juvenile Court case stayed open for almost 18 months to protect me from the actions of the Marin Court and it’s appointees for as long as possible. In August 1999 I was placed in my mother’s full custody, where I belonged.

My attached editorial, "Letting Children Speak For themselves- Youth in Court Need Attorneys Who Represent their Interests Fairly, Strongly" published statewide in the Daily Journal in July, 2000, describes Ms. Acevedo’s failure to represent my best interests and the effect that failure had on events.

I am sending you documentation and supporting evidence of Ms. Acevedo’s professional misconduct. This complaint should be cross referenced with the current State Bar investigation of my father, Marshall W. Krause, Esq. in State Bar case # 98-0-01507, which is being handled by Mr. Jeff Dal-Cerro, Assistant to the Chief Trial Counsel, and Ms. Lisa Edwards, CA State Bar Investigator.

I believe there is sufficient clear and convincing evidence for State Bar disciplinary action against Ms. Acevedo. Upon investigation of the facts, you may also find other infractions of your Code of Ethics, etc. that I, as a layperson, have not cited. I have just turned 18 years of age; therefore, there should be no statute of limitations problems with regards to this complaint. I presume you will proceed with an investigation of this complaint immediately. My case illustrates that Ms. Acevedo is a danger to children whose safety is compromised, as she cannot be trusted to represent the facts to the court.

If you have questions, need to interview me or need additional material, please email me at chronosyn@northwestern.edu  reach my mother at our home at (805) 640-7612. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours truly,

Alanna Krause
 

Enclosed:

1. KCAL TV three part investigation "Crimes of Custody" which aired in LA in November 2000 which features me and my mother in the third part.

2. "Letting Children Speak for Themselves-Youth in Court Need Attorneys Who Represent Their Interests Fairly, Strongly" by Alanna Krause, published in the SF and LA Daily Journal in July 2000.

3. Pertinent sections of "Findings on Judge Michael Dufficy, Commissioner Sylvia Shapiro & Court Appointees in Marin County’s Superior Court in California" by Karin Winner, published by The Justice Seekers, Inc. in February 2000.

4. LA Children’s Social Worker’s Judicial Review Report and LA Juvenile Court rulings

5. A complete history of the several Krause v. Krause cases in Marin, Ventura and LA County courts with "Attachments" of supporting evidentiary documents. (This material also helped initiate the FBI’s current investigation of officers of the Marin Courts.)

6. Ms. Acevedo’s itemized bills revealing the extent of her involvement and influence in my plight and every attempt to have the truth revealed.