For the Immediate Release of Andrei Love Spindell from Foster Care and Return to His Natural Biologi

Dear friend,

PLEASE FORWARD THIS LETTER TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO CARES ABOUT FREEDOM!!!

PLEASE HELP US RETURN ANDREI LOVE SPINDELL HOME IN TIME FOR MOTHERS DAY MAY 8TH 2005!!!

My name is Alexandra Spindell, I am wife to Raphael Spindell, and mother to Andrei Love Spindell.

My story is long and detailed please take the time to read it through and do what you can to help us.

We as a family are Seventh Day Adventists, we are Vegan, organic, and health conscious.  My son was born on June 10^th, 2003.  He has never slept away from me a single night since he was born, and has never been away from me for more than a few hours at a time.  He has been breast fed all of his life and still eats from me.  He has never eaten any meat, poultry, or dairy products.  He has never been exposed to genetically engineered, pesticide, herbicide, insecticide, artificial, processed, or preservative laden foods.  He is a wonderful, beautiful, happy, and healthy baby, born from god, through my womb, naturally, without any assistance from doctors, nurses, midwives or anything else of the sort.  We have always used all natural products to treat any kids of ailments he had.  We clothe him in organic cotton and use organic cotton diapers to put on his beautiful, soft little tushie, which has been free from rashes.  This is the child that I have raised for the past year and two months.

About two months ago my son had a fever.  My husband and I tried to break his fever the traditional ways at first, but when it came back the following night we got concerned and took him to the hospital to get a diagnosis to make sure it wasn’t something serious.  When we took him into the hospital at around 2 AM, they immediately wanted to give him Tylenol for the fever, which we refused.  They tried to talk us into giving him the Tylenol for about a half an hour, before they finally gave up.  We told them we just wanted a diagnosis of what virus he has that was causing such a sever fever in Love.  They took a blood sample from Love and when it came back saying he had low blood iron.  We were surprised to hear this since we are very well read in nutrition.  The doctors asked us what he ate.  We told them, and then they asked us what kind of formula we fed him.  They repeated this question four or five times looking very confused when we told him that he doesn’t eat formula.  That’s when our lives started crumbling, like someone’s cookie.

The doctors told us they will have to keep Love for observation and so he can see a nutritionist, and a social worker.  The morning came and went, Love and I slept in an armchair waiting for the doctor to bring us the ingredient list of the children’s Iron supplement he wanted Love to take.  When Raphael and I saw the list which aside from Iron had nothing but processed sugar, and artificial colors and flavors, and preservatives, we told the doctor we would not give it to him.  We assured the doctor we would find another supplement for him that is more natural and give him more iron dense foods to eat.  He still would not let us go telling us we cannot leave until we are seen by the nutritionist and a social worker.

The nutritionist came while I was asleep with Love, sometime in the afternoon.  She left without saying a word or attempting to wake me up and left some information for me, telling the nurse she will be back shortly.  I suppose in hospitals shortly means never because I haven’t seen her to this day.   The social worker came to speak with us an hour or so later, the last I heard from her was that she would be back shortly with Child Health Plus application.  To this day I have also never seen or spoken to her again.   They kept us there until 5PM telling us we can go any minute for about three hours.  I finally got fed up, got all my stuff together and left without signing out.

No less than a half hour later the police showed up on my mother’s front door looking for us.  She wasn’t home but her friend Peter, whom she was living with at the time, was.  They let themselves into my mother’s bedroom to which the door was closed, searched her room, looked in her purse, opened a sealed envelope and took pictures of Love, Raphael and me.  They also looked through her phone book and took our phone numbers.  They did all of this without a warrant or my mothers approval.  They came back again later on that night while my mother was here and forces their way in, pushing my mother aside and searching her room, all without a warrant. 

The police called us and said they wanted to see the baby to make sure he is alright and to take us back to the hospital so I can legally sign Love out.  After hearing from my mother what they did I did not trust them, and was terrified for my family’s wellbeing.

We left the neighborhood for a while to visit some of our friends.  Unfortunately, I don’t keep in touch with my mom on a daily basis, and was unaware of what was going on back in Coney Island where my mother resides.  When I spoke to her, she said that a social worker from the ACS has been coming everyday looking for us and her.  She left copies of a letter stating that we were under investigation by the ACS and needed to call Ms. Woods immediately.  My mother spoke with Ms. Woods over the phone and told her the only thing she could; she was unaware of where we were and hasn’t spoken to us for over a week.

Ms. Woods continued her investigation by taking police officers over to my mothers other apartment which she has been renting out to another family for a year.  She told them that she was looking for Love’s corps and proceeded to force herself in with the police officers and searching the entire apartment including the freezer, all dressers, closets, beds, top to bottom, for Loves corpse.  I do not know what Ms. Woods was thinking when she made this absurd claim, and why she would search a residence that had nothing to do with us.  After the incident the occupants told my mother they will not pay anymore rent, and eventually they ended up moving out 4 months before their agreement.  They were paying my mother $1,200 per month.  This harassment continued on almost a daily basis.

When Raphael and I heard about this we were horrified.  Ms. Woods seemed like a complete nutcase, and we were terrified to high heaven.  Raphael decided t call her and talk to her himself, in hope of talking some sense into her.  We were to scared to meet with her because she seemed to eager to jump to absurd conclusions, and we felt that she would not give us a chance and would rather take Love away from us.  Raphael went over every option.  He told her that we would get him checked out by a private doctor have him write her a letter of Love’s condition, notarize it, and send it to her along with pictures and a video of him to her.  To talk to her through a webcam so she can see that Love is fine. Finally, he said that he would like to meet with her alone, so that she can discuss the case in more detail with him.  She told him she would not be able to discuss the case in more detail with him unless he has Love with him.  We got even more suspicious once she said that, and that was pretty much the extent of our contact with her.

After that conversation we went camping upstate, once again being out of touch with my mother.  Meanwhile she had three court orders served to her, one for each of us.  Since we weren’t around, my mother went to court by herself.  The judge told her that she was not called to come to court and was confused about why she was there.  My mother told the judge what Ms. Woods has been doing to her, and the judge reprimanded her saying that she had no right to visit the other apartment that she has not been residing in, and search it without a warrant.  The judge told my mother to let us know that she wants us to visit her in court and show her that the baby is alright.  But by the time we found this out we were in a complicated situation that we felt should be taken care of first, since it has a time limit on it.  We needed to get our storage moved out by the first of September, and to pick up a trailer that we purchased in Virginia by the same time.  We were also strapped for cash and needed to finish a project we had taken on so we could get paid.

On Friday, August 27^th, 2004 in the afternoon, Ms. Woods once again made a visit to both of the apartments my mother resided in with police officers.  She was asked where we were and told them she didn’t know.  Ms. Woods assured my mom that Love would not be taken from us, and that she only wanted to take us to court to see the judge.  I coincidentally called her at this time.  They left when two of the officers recognized us from photos, and said they knew where we were.

Love, Raphael and I were just leaving to go to the beach, from our vehicle, when four police officers approached us.  Raphael had Love in his arms and was standing several feet away from me.  Three of the officers approached him (one male, two female) and asked him if this was our vehicle, and telling him that it’s not suppose to be parked there.  The female officer that approached me asked me my name and if I had ID.  She then told me that she needs to take me to family court to see the judge.  Just as I said OK, she pulled out her hand cuffs.  A cloud of fear and panic took me over.  I didn’t know what was going on.  I told her “no, wait, you don’t need to cuff me.  You don’t understand, you can’t take him away from me.  He’s still breastfeeding, he needs me, and I need him.  You can’t do this to me!”  I kept pleading with her, while keeping my arms out of her reach.  She grabbed me by my shirt and continued to tackle me down to the ground, where I continued to plead with her and beg her not to do this to my innocent child.  I kept trying to get my hand away from her.  She threatened me with mace, saying “the mace is going to come out if you don’t stop resisting, do you want that?” A few minutes later more cops showed up to help her, at which point I surrendered.  There must have been 5 cops on top of me.

Meanwhile, Raphael had a very different experience.  He had the baby in his arms and after they questioned him about the vehicle, they told him to give them the baby.  Of course a father is not just going to hand over a complete stranger his child just because he/she is wearing a blue shirt.  He told them, that he will not give them Love.  Instead of explaining anything to Raphael they chose to wrestle with him having the baby in his arms.  While I was being wrestled with on the ground I saw the male officer grabbing Loves arm and leg and yanking him away from Raphael forcefully.  What I didn’t see was the officers pushing Raphael and Love into a parked vehicle crushing Love between the car and Raphael.  They did this several times, until Raphael had the chance to gave him to one of the officers for fear of him getting more hurt if he held onto him.  Then he walked over to Ms. Woods and yelled out to her “is this what you wanted?” just as he was tackled to the ground by about 7 officers.  I heard him yell out to them “I’m not resisting anymore!  Please don’t hurt me!  I’m not resisting anymore!”  One of the female police officers told him “Too late for you, you fuck”, and twisted his wrist with intent to break it.

This all happened with many witnesses watching what was going on.  They did not show us any warrants, they didn’t explain anything to us.  They had no court order to take the child from us.  They had no RIGHT to take our child from us.

Once I was cuffed and they had Love I kept telling all of the police officers that he had a very special diet.  That he’s vegan and he can’t eat any processed foods, and he only ate organic foods.  Ms. Woods didn’t say a word to me or Raphael when all of this was happening.  Raphael and I were taken in separate police vehicles to the 60^th Precinct.  We were held there without any explanation for what just happened and why we were there for at least two hours.  We were kept in separate cells from 1:30PM to 9:30PM with no food, water, or phone calls.  Our charges were resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child, and interfering with state procedures.  We were told that Love was taken to a Hospital to get checked out.  I gave one of the officers my mothers contact information and told him to please give Ms. Woods the information so she could leave Love with his grandmother.  I also asked him to call her and let her know what had happened.  None of these things were adhered to.  We kept asking the officers to call a friend of ours who was close with the police, Pastor Thomas Rodriguez, and everyone humored us by saying yeah, sure, in a minute.  I begged them to drop their bogus charges against us, but they kept telling us it was not up to them, which was just a lie because it was their own charges and they could have just as well dropped them so we could go directly o family court.  Raphael thought that his wrist was broken and asked for medical assistance only to be told that if he goes to a hospital now he will only delay getting us out of here.  So Raphael decided to wait for medical care.  They kept us there for hours telling us they’re doing the paperwork, and not to worry, that they’ll make sure we’re out before the night is over.  I was old I couldn’t cry or our release would be delayed as well.  At some point they came and told us that Love is now out of the hospital and was checked out fine.  We asked them if they put him with my mother, they told me that the ACS was still in custody of him.

When we got to central booking finally, we were told that there is no way we’ll make night court, and we ended up sleeping in jail over night.  In the morning around 11AM they finally called us.  The lawyer that was assigned to me was not the same one that was assigned to Raphael, because our charges were different, and supposedly our rights might have split off at some point because of the circumstances.  My lawyer took note of all of the injuries I incurred during my arrest, and had a fellow lawyer sign as a witness.  Raphael’s lawyer on the other hand was not cooperative at all and was very negative towards him being released.

All the while we were under the impression that the whole family court issue the same day, which was Saturday.  All the officers at the 60 Precinct had guaranteed us that family court would be opened on Saturday and we would be able to get Love back the same day.  You can only imagine our surprise when in court we were told that we a free to go, but we would have to wait until Monday to go to family court to see the judge.  I left the court in tears.  When we got back we called every ACS number we could find.  We pleaded with them to give Love back to us, we begged them, I cried and cried until my tears dried up and I couldn’t cry no more.

Raphael and I then went to the hospital to get his wrist checked out.  When he told the doctor what happened the doctor told him that they lied to us.  He said that if anything like this ever happens again, he should wait to be fingerprinted and then ask to go to the hospital because at that point all of his paperwork is already being processed and it won’t delay him a bit.  Luckily, his hand was not broken, but his bone was badly bruised.  We got a disposable camera and took pictures of all of our sustained injuries.  We also took pictures of my mothers apartment so the judge could see the living space Love would be in.

We continued trying to talk to ACS about sending Love some of my milk, and his dietary regulations.  We asked them if we could fax them a letter of his dietary regulations, and have them sign it and fax it back to us, so we felt more confident that he was being treated appropriately, the refused.  The supervisor told us that they would not accept my milk because it might be poisoned.  I have never felt so criminalized before!  Here are these people, who have taken my only child away from me, who is in perfect health, and they are telling me that I would poison my own child!  I felt like the fires of hell were burning my heart when Raphael told me this.  We found out that they were not being adhered to at all.  Love was being fed GE Soy based Formula, and other inorganic, GE products.  We told them that he has never been exposed to these toxins before and his health will suffer greatly if they feed him this way.  They said they are giving him the best care, and when we told them that their best isn’t even close to being good, they hung up on us.  We called them back and told them that when we get him back we will have a professional lab examine his poop and pee, and if we found anything that is not of his regular diet, we will sue the entire ACS with their names on top.

They told us that Love was fine and in perfect health.  Raphael and I do not believe this.  We strongly believe that He sustained injuries during the struggle, and they are trying to cover it up, by keeping him away from us for as long as possible so we do not see these injuries.  We also believe that they are trying to wean him from my breast on purpose.  They are keeping my baby away from me because my beliefs are too radical and they want him to be weaned because of that very reason.

We are asking everyone who can spare the time this upcoming Monday morning to come to family court to support us in a quiet and peaceful protest.  We don’t want any noise or boisterousness.  All we want is for people to come a sit quietly with signs that say Free Love and whatever other peaceful slogans you can come up with.

If you can’t come to family court call Ms. Woods directly and ask her to give Love back to us. She can be reached at: 718-221-4064 or 718-221-6040

Also you can call the ASC Main Office at 1-877-KIDSNYC

ACS Office of Advocacy: 212-676-9421

We want to have a big presence with these people.  Please flood them with phone calls, and come tomorrow to protest for us.  We love our son more than life itself.  If anyone can bring media attention to the court hearing tomorrow it would be highly appreciated as well.  Thanks to everyone in advance for whatever you are able to do to help.

Peace, Love, and Unity

Alexandra, Raphael, and Andrei Love Spindell