Sunday, June 22, 2008

Oregon - Washington - Utah Kidnapper Kory Wright Kalls the Kops to Komplain

Talk about irony, the kidnapping bastard Kory Wright went to the Vancouver Police Department to complain about the email I sent to Columbia Ultimate after I found him hiding in plain sight through a Google search.

Here are the links:

http://www.columbiaultimate.com/about/press/112106.aspx

http://www.columbiaultimate.com/about/kory_wright.aspx


A year after Kory Wright and his Washington County associates, David Holiday and Evelyne Taylor, had “taken, enticed and kept” my four children and concealed them in Utah, my son Aaron’s despair was so complete that at the age of 15 he was cutting both of his arms with a knife.

I didn’t see those scars until Aaron was comatose in 2005, and for five days I was at his bedside before they pronounced my son dead, plenty of time to count them and reflect on the pain and hopelessness he suffered—for years.

Kidnapped children lose their access to health care, as the desire of the kidnappers to cover their crimes and escape justice outweighs all else.


Back to the present story, in four parts:


#1—having found the bastard, I wanted him to know, and sent this email to the Columbia Ultimate website:


Kory Wright:

I found you, you bastard.

Sometimes justice never comes, sometimes it takes more than ten years.

A decade after Kory Wright and his associates kidnapped Aaron Cruz and my other three children from their homes in Oregon and sent them out on the road in the middle of the Great Storm of 1996, justice is well on its way.

On April 7 and 8, 2006, the Oregon Judicial Department and the State Family Law Advisory Committee held its 4th annual family law conference in Bend, Oregon.

Co-sponsored by the Oregon State Bar and the Juvenile Court Improvement Project, the conference was attended by judges, court administrators and family law attorneys from across the state.

These conferences are an essential part of the ongoing training and certification programs for the bench, the bar and for administrators. Aaron's Law was featured at this conference, and its 360-page resource guide is now a permanent part of the bar's continuing education program. In short, everyone in the court system is going to see this.

Workshop #6, "Encountering Family Abductions in the Legal Setting", is described in the guide as follows: "This workshop will offer information about family abductions, including international abductions and the Hague convention, prosecution of custodial interference, and statutory approaches to preventing and dealing with abduction cases including the new Aaron's Law (SB 1041, Ch 841, Oregon Laws 2005).

The panel presenting the workshop included a psychologist who testified to the devastating effects abductions have on the child victims (Aaron is proof), a Marion County judge who testified to the fact that virtually all abductors claim that they are fleeing from abuse of some sort, and two family law attorneys who are taking leadership roles in educating the bar and the public to the problem and devising solutions.

The workshop also covered cult abductions. People abduct their own children for any number of reasons, but the most common reason that people abduct other people's children (children that they know personally and exert influence over) is related to membership in some sort of religious group.

All of the people who participated in abducting the Cruz children were members of the same church group. Those people committed Class B and Class C felonies, as the workshop material clarifies.

Aaron's Law is landmark legislation, first in the nation, and many of the people working on the issue are working across state lines.

Coming to a courthouse near you, Evelyne Taylor (Hillsboro, Oregon), David Holliday (Hillsboro), Tony Micheletti (Salem), Cynthia Anderson (Rainier) will be the first application of Aaron's Law.

Since Aaron's Law applies if a minor child is "enticed, taken or kept" out of the state of Oregon, the law will reach to the states where kidnapped children are being held.

So to Chris and Kory Wright, Steve Nielson, and the rest of the Utah abduction team--justice is coming to you bastards too.

You will all have the opportunity to explain in public why you put the Cruz children at risk in that storm, and why you chose to knowingly violate the lawful joint custody order that kept my children safe and their lives orderly and secure.

If only Aaron was alive to see it.

Sean Cruz
Portland, Oregon


#2—shortly thereafter, I received this email from the Vancouver Police Department:

Mr Cruz,

My name is Steve Donahue and I’m a Police Officer with the Vancouver Washington Police Department. I had contact today with a Mr Kory Wright. Mr Wright contacted the Vancouver Police today after received an e-mail from you that was sent to his place of employment. Mr Wright told me that he feels that the e-mail you sent was threatening and possibly harassment.

I read the e-mail and did not feel there was any direct threat. However if you continue to send other e-mails to Mr Kory, that possibly could fall under RCW 9A.46.020 which is the crime of Harassment in the state of Washington. Mr Kory requested that I try to contact you and advise you that he does not want any more e-mails sent to him or any contact by you. If you would like to talk to me regarding this e-mail, you can respond or call me at 360-xxx-xxxx. This number is my work cell phone. I would be more that happy to talk to you if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Steve Donahue
Vancouver Police Department
West Precinct
Vancouver, Washington
Department Phone # 360-696-8292

#3—my reply to Officer Donahue:

Officer Donahue:

Thank you for your letter. I want to assure you that I have no intention of contacting Mr Wright or his employer beyond the email you are referring to.

There was no intent on my part to make any kind of a threat, but to state the facts as they are and as they have been since Mr. Wright and his associates kidnapped my children in 1996.

During the intervening years I have made no attempt to contact any of the kidnappers directly, have made no threats, and will not do so in the future.

If Mr. Wright believes that anything I have written or published regarding his criminal participation in the kidnapping is untrue, then he is doubtlessly aware of his legal options.

My sole intention is to tell the story of how four children disappeared on February 12, 1996 during a major storm, why their abductors made that happen, and to state the consequences of their actions, which includes the passage of Senate Bill 1041 in 2005.

SB 1041 is otherwise named "Aaron's Law" in memory of my late son.

The joint custody order that Mr. Wright violated was issued in Clark County. You will also find Kory Wright's sworn affidavit, identifying himself as a major player in the kidnapping, in the same file.

Mr. Wright's affidavit was written while my children were being concealed in Utah in locations provided or arranged by Mr. Wright.

In 1997, he appeared as a witness (along with other co-conspirators) in the 1st degree Custodial Interference case heard in Washington County. The jury was not made aware that these witnesses were criminally involved in the kidnapping, and the judge was not made aware that these witnesses made contact with jurors outside of the courtroom.

The jury subornation information was provided to me in 2001 by one of the participants.

Should you have further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Again, I will make no further attempt to contact either Mr. Wright or his employer directly.

Sincerely,

Sean Cruz

#4—Officer Donahue’s reply:

Thank You, I consider this matter closed. S.Donahue

---------------------------------------------
More on this later, believe me, MUCH more….

Kidnapper Kory Wright found via Columbia Ultimate website

The last thing I ever expected to see displayed on my monitor was probably this:

A photograph of Kory Wright, one of the core group of kidnappers who caused my four children to disappear from their homes in Aloha and Hillsboro in Washington County on February 12, 1996.

My children had a home in Hillsboro with their mother and her third husband, and a home a bike ride away in Aloha, with me and my mother, Olive Cruz.

I was my mother’s sole caregiver at the time. She was frail, elderly and had been housebound for years.

But that was another life, other lives, in a faraway place and time.

My mother passed away four years later without seeing or hearing from her grandchildren again.


Back to the present:

A hunch, expand the search from Utah, Google….

And there it was….the face of the Devil himself, aka Beelzebub, Old Stinky, Diabolus….

Thank you, Google, and a hunch….

I never thought Kory Wright would ever want to leave Utah, much less move to the Kidnap Zone, where the crime began.

Some people think, apparently, that once the statute of limitations runs and no criminal prosecution is possible, the crime is forgotten.

But kidnappings stretch out into infinity, take my word for it….

Kory Wright arranged for the housing in Utah used to conceal my children, executing a plan that had been in the making for some months, and later committed perjury in the misdirection campaign the abduction team ran to shield themselves from criminal prosecution.

One crime begets another…and another…

This plan also required the assistance of two of Kory Wright’s associates, whose part in the crime was to help get the kids out of school and on the road: David Holiday and Evelyn Taylor, both of Washington County.

Those who were living anywhere in the Pacific Northwest on February 12, 1996 will recall that day as one of the worst ever, with roads closed and more than 500 mudslides active in the Portland area alone.

On that day, these people had had my children out of school for ten days already, bouncing them from place to place.

My last contact with my children was by phone the evening before.

I asked my son if he knew if they would be going to school in the morning and where.

He said he didn’t know.

They vanished into the storm that next morning, the storm now commemorated in Portland with the “Worst Day of the Year” bicycling event.

Three weeks later, I still had no information about my children.

But Kory Wright and his associates knew exactly where they were.

Months went by. My children’s former schools in the Hillsboro School District received no requests for records from anywhere.

Later, I received a copy of Kory Wright’s sworn affidavit, dated March 2, 1996, (written at a time when I had no information about my children's whereabouts or condition) which states in part:

“I, Kory Wright declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the State of Utah that the following statements are true and correct….

“In the short period they have lived here the children have increased their circle of friends, been involved in numerous activities and made a home for themselves. The schools they children attend are among the best in the state of Utah…. Clearly, the move here has been a tremendous benefit to both Gina and her children.

“If Shaun (sic) is truly seeking that which is best for his children, then let them live where they are the happiest. The economic boom in Utah would afford Shaun (sic) ample opportunity to provide for him as well as his support obligations. Since he currently has no employment restrictions keeping him in the Northwest, a relocation would not be difficult for him.”

That last paragraph has always had me wondering. I was fired from my job at Vic Alfonso Cadillac two weeks after my children disappeared, a week before Kory Wright wrote this statement.

….And at that moment, 800 miles away, in the mountains east of Ogden, Kory Wright contemplates my employment opportunities in Utah, extends an invitation to relocate via the Clark County Courthouse.

He offered no indication of what the group of kidnappers thought I should do with my invalid mother, other than to swear under oath that "...a relocation would not be difficult for him."

My employer was very explicit about the reason for terminating me: I didn’t have my mind on my job.

No doubt about that point; no argument at all. My mind was on nothing but my missing children and how to care for my mother. My job was definitely not in the top two.

I had told my supervisor, Gil Fuchs, about the disappearance of my children the day it happened.

He said, “Are they with their mother?

I said, “I don’t know. She’s missing, too.”

He told me not to worry about it, that they would be fine.

As a parent, you know with absolute certainty that your children are not “fine.”

You try to get through the grief, the shock, the unbearable pain….

Ten days later, Gil walked into my office and said, “You’re out of here.”

That was it. Someone came over to watch me clean out my desk, make sure I didn’t pocket a stapler on my way to the bus line.

Meanwhile, all of my children’s mail was secretly being forwarded to Evelyn Taylor in Washington County, mere blocks away from the abduction site, instead of wherever they were holding my children.

They tried to think of everything. Months of planning, secret meetings, budgeting, lying, coercing….

In legal terms: taking, enticing, keeping....

Here’s what Oregon law has to say about kidnapping, as should have been applied to every participant in the series of crimes:


163.245 Custodial interference in the second degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the second degree if, knowing or having reason to know that the person has no legal right to do so, the person takes, entices or keeps another person from the other person’s lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order with intent to hold the other person permanently or for a protracted period.

(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.

(3) Custodial interference in the second degree is a Class C felony.

163.257 Custodial interference in the first degree. (1) A person commits the crime of custodial interference in the first degree if the person violates ORS 163.245 and:

(a) Causes the person taken, enticed or kept from the lawful custodian or in violation of a valid joint custody order to be removed from the state; or

(b) Exposes that person to a substantial risk of illness or physical injury.

(2) Expenses incurred by a lawful custodial parent or a parent enforcing a valid joint custody order in locating and regaining physical custody of the person taken, enticed or kept in violation of this section are “economic damages” for purposes of restitution under ORS 137.103 to 137.109.

(3) Custodial interference in the first degree is a Class B felony.


It boils down to this:

[] Take, entice or keep a child in violation of a valid joint custody order: Class “C” felony.

[] Take the child out of the state of Oregon OR expose that child to a substantial risk of illness of physical injury: Class “B” felony.

Guilty on both counts, guilty as Sin itself. All of them, Kory Wright, Evelyn Taylor, David Holiday....

But no law enforcement agency could be motivated to investigate the Cruz abduction, and while these criminals drained the innocence and childhood out of my four children to the last drop, the statutes of limitations expired on the crimes.


To this day, I have no information as to how long Kory Wright and his associates kept my children out of school or the route they took in removing my children from the state.

I do know that my children never recovered academically from the abduction, that they were denied access to competent health care while they were on the run in Utah, and I learned earlier this year (2007) that both of my sons dropped out of high school five years after arriving in Utah.

Kory Wright identifies himself in the affidavit as functioning in the capacity of a counselor or mediator, using both words to suggest to the Court some form of professional capacity or relationship.

But according to the Columbia Ultimate website, the company’s mainstay is “collecting money.”

And it looks to me that Kory Wright’s job at the time the abduction of the Cruz children began had more to do with scraping chewing gum from the undersides of movie theater seats in a highly economical and successful fashion than anything remotely resembling counseling or mediation.

But you be the judge. Here’s the link:


http://www.columbiaultimate.com/about/press/112106.aspx


More on this later.

Count on it.

Cruz children kidnapper Kory Wright located in Vancouver

Portland--Years, long years after the statutes of limitations have expired on the crimes Kory Wright, Evelyn Taylor, David Holiday and others committed in the course of kidnapping my four children from Oregon and hiding them in Utah, a simple Google search has turned up one of the kidnappers.

Nearly 13 years later, the Cruz family remains shattered and my son Aaron is dead.

The kidnapper’s name is Kory Wright. He is employed at Columbia Ultimate, according to the company website, right across the river in Vancouver.

Kory Wright committed a Class “B” felony under Oregon law when he and his wife Chris participated materially in the abduction, violating a valid joint custody order.

Later, he committed perjury along with the others.

Their motive in the beginning was a good, old-fashioned shunning, but once they started the scheme in motion, once they crossed that line into felonyville, they had both their criminal behinds and their reputations to protect, and my children to use as weapons.

"When you set in motion a chain of events, a perpetrator of a crime is responsible for every single thing that follows from that chain of events no matter how distant." (said a Philadelphia District Attorney in a recent case where a police officer died from his wounds 40 years after they were inflicted, and now its a murder case)

No statute of limitations on murder cases.

But in Oregon the statute of limitations for child abduction, in cases where one or more of the abductors are known to the child victims, expires three years after the crime first occured.

This is the law even if the kidnappers keep the children longer than three years. All they have to do is make it through the first three years without getting caught.

Even if the police never bother to follow up and investigate the crime, after three years the kidnappers are home free.

A kidnapping is not like a holdup. A kidnapping runs 24-7, and it runs forever.

Kory Wright made the Utah arrangements. He was in charge of where my children were taken to.

Evelyn Taylor and David Holliday used their postions through their church offices and through their church seminary program in the Hillsboro School District to influence my children directly.

And they definitely knew about the joint custody order.

They played their roles in the taking of my children from the state.

I later learned that all of the children's mail was forwarded from their former home in Hillsboro to Evelyn Taylor, and not to where they were holding the children in Utah.

My children disappeared on February 12, 1996. Aaron's birthday was March 21. I had no firm information where my children were, who had them, or where they might be headed next, not even an address to mail my son a birthday card.

I mailed Aaron a card to his last known Hillsboro address, but the card went to Evelyn Taylor instead.

Class "B" felonies.

More on this later.

In my next post on this issue, thanks to scan technology and the internet, I will post Kory Wright’s sworn affidavit along with some explanation for the benefit of the reader.

This is what he looks like now, according to the Columbia Ultimate website:

http://www.columbiaultimate.com/about/kory_wright.aspx

Kory Wright Vice President of Associate Excellence

As vice president of associate excellence, Kory oversees recruitment and human resources as well as internal training and learning initiatives for the company. He also served as a new business development manager in early 2006.

Bringing over 20 years of sales management and operations experience, Kory was previously the chief operations officer for Simply Right, a movie theater cleaning business in which he was responsible for revenue and expenses for a $6 million business with operations in eight states with over 300 sub-contractors. He has served as president for Wright Angle Ventures, Inc., and Healthware, Inc. He also served as a consultant for The Intelitech Group and was previously with Columbia Ultimate in the mid-1980’s spearheading sales.

Kory has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Brigham Young University.