June, 2021 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for June, 2021

Retaliation or Coincidence?

Friday, June 11th, 2021

by: Marceline Donaldson

So much harassment has happened since the last Bettina Network Blog was circulated. That last article was about the $300,000.00 and counting drained from our assets by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. I should add, since our horribilis experience we have discovered several African Americans and Jews who have had similar experiences and wound up the poorer for the experience – by the same state agency.

That does not surprise me. I sent a copy of the $300,000.00 article to the Governor of Massachusetts’ office and received a response back which sent me to the COVID-19 resources available within the state.

That particular Bettina Network blog was released on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, we received a citation brought to the door by a Cambridge City employee, citing us for having growth over the sidewalk, clogged sidewalk gutters, out of control grass that supposedly needed cutting and a lot more. None of the claims were true.

When we went outside to check, we realized we have no lawn and so no overgrown grass. We garden constantly and we love flowers and flowering trees. As a result there were flowers blooming all around the property. The Cambridge City employee was there supposedly because of a neighbor complaint. And we have had neighbor problems. Recently, those problems have escalated with new neighbors on the block who apparently have a real problem with African Americans living so close.

There were leaves on the sidewalk after a memorable weather time. Considering the many trees on the property that was no surprise. Rain for several days followed by a heat wave had many trees dropping leaves. We took pictures because we wanted to document what is clearly harassment.

We called the relevant Cambridge city department and were treated abominably. We called the Cambridge City employee and he was worse. Hope in this picture came from the Cambridge Mayor’s office which we hope is real and there is follow through.

We do have a fairly new neighbor who has, apparently, been shocked and angry about discovering an African American family on their corner.

One person from the fairly new neighbor’s house walked their small dog and brought him to our garden. We watched from the window as he picked up the dog and put it in our garden to crap. I went outside to say that is criminal trespass and I would appreciate him not bringing his dog to have its bowel movements in my garden. In a fit of anger he resorted to calling me the “N” word and stomped on my toes suggesting we move.

After he aggressively came to within an inch on my face he looked fearful, picked up his dog and practically ran away. I was a bit confused. All of that anger turned into fear within a few seconds? I realized why when I turned around and there was my husband coming around the corner. He saw what happened through the window and came out to make sure I would not be further hurt.

It was totally amazing to see the anger on this neighbors’ face turn so quickly into fear and watch him grab his dog and practically run away. Who was he running from? A very slightly built African American man. But then I realized, I saw a slightly built African American man who didn’t look threatening at all. I wondered what my husband looked like through his eyes.

We waited outside until he had gone around the block to make sure he was a neighbor. As he came around, walking from Brattle Street, we saw him with his dog enter the house where we had fairly new neighbors.

Next act of harassment came from the Department of Revenue of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Having filed joint income tax returns since we married several decades ago, imagine our surprise to get threatening notices from the DOR charging Robert for income tax they claimed he had not paid from his individual income tax returns.

Amazingly, Robert does not and did not file an individual income tax return. Someone called us from the DOR with threats. We thought it was a ruse or a scam. It turned out to be the real DOR. He said Robert needed to pay his overdue taxes from his individually filed return. Since Robert did not file an individual tax return ever, that was mystifying. Is there something about Robert that he must file joint returns with his wife and then individually by himself?

This all started happening around the time the SCES and the police started to invade our space. We challenged it for months, but to no avail. That telephone call came right after the $300,000.00 Bettina Network blog was circulated.

We have had enough such experiences that I could go on writing to produce a book. I won’t because as a younger person I read “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and it took me a long time to recover. I don’t want to do that to others. However, I want this publicly known. We have come across too many people in this Cambridge area with similar and worse problems because of age, race, sex, etc. We have seen them ignored and broken. Clearly, the media in the Greater Boston area is totally uninterested in any of this. I have called them and had the reporters hang up on me. Others have had similar experiences, which were brought to us because of shared experiences and our interest in this community not glazing over serious and very long standing bigotry.

I could add the story about the bank which stopped sending statements for a couple years -timed very nicely to what happened to Robert – and restarted only very recently. That is only one such problem with the same bank – there are many more – but that is for another day.

Just a little bit to let you know what its like to be African American in the City of Cambridge and to be African American living in Harvard Square. Within our little historical district I have not found another African American buying into the neighborhood in 38 years. Is that by choice – there aren’t any qualified? Blockage by realtors? – goodness knows we have referred several moving to this area who seemed to be steered someplace else? Something in the air that pushed African American home buyers away? Something else?

$300,000.00 – and climbing! The amount spent to destroy the marriage, business, life and health of an African American family!

Sunday, June 6th, 2021

Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and his family are still trying to recover from the anti-psychotic drugs given to him daily in Mass General Hospital when he clearly did not want to be in the hospital and did not want all of the drugs forced down his system.

Dr. Bennett was forced to take many drugs which he did not want and had no idea what they were or why he was having to take them. Hallucinatory drugs and many more were given to Dr. Bennett on a daily basis for five weeks at MGH when he was forced into the hospital a second time after having been discharged at MGH from the police enforced incarceration after a psychiatric exam determined there was no reason for him to be kept. That discharge on March 4th was with all vitals normal, including blood pressure. One of the drugs he was given less than two days later was blood pressure medications. From his discharge from MGH until today, he has not been prescribed blood pressure medications because they are not necessary.

Dr. Bennett was forced into MGH, not for medical reasons. We think it was because of the greed of those pushing him into a horrible space so the generational wealth of an African American family would not be passed on to the heirs, but would be drained off by those who forced Dr. Bennett into the psych ward and police ward of MGH.

Dr. Bennett was forced into the hospital on March 3rd by a psychiatrist, a Dr. Warner, who was affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital. Dr. Bennett had no relationship with either Mount Auburn Hospital or the psychiatrist. He was never at Mount Auburn Hospital even for a checkup.

The people behind the psychiatrist who forced Dr. Bennett into the hospital on a Section 12 – psychiatric charge – also had no relationship with him. They had never talked to him, never interviewed him for any reason and he is one of several African Americans so treated. The end result? The Jews, Blacks and other minorities so treated had their assets taken along with their reputation and their family destroyed fighting abuse and other such charges. What a way to rid this society of its successful minority citizens.

How did we know of the drugs he was forced to take? MGH sent bottles of drugs home with him demanding that a Home Health Care Service monitor his continued intake of these drugs on a daily basis or Dr. Bennett would be forced back into the hospital. The drugs made him ill after taking them and as he began to recover it was time to take the drugs again. This was not the Home Health Care Service attached to MGH. This was the group put in place by SCES.

At this point we started to read the Bettina Network Blog – with which Dr. Bennett is affiliated and it gave answers to our most basic question – why?

The psychiatrists at MGH sent Dr. Bennett home from that first forced incarceration. All vitals normal including blood pressure and no mental health issues.

The very next day Cambridge Somerville Elder and Protective Services with their attorney O’Sullivan were back in Court having the police pick him up again and force him into the hospital. They had no proof . They had a sworn statement by the head of Cambridge’s Protective Services – Nora Al Wetaid. Ms. Al Wetaid has had no conversation with Dr. Bennett. She claimed his wife abused him and he had to be removed from his home immediately because the abuse was so horrendous and he had no one to turn to or to care for him. SCES also claimed he was alone with no place to go so he was brought to MGH. THE TRUTH? In Dr. Bennett’s home at the time were his adult children, and his daughter-in-law. The family is also surrounded by many other family and friends to whom either one could have turned for help. Ms. Al Wetaid did not know that because her job, apparently, was to have Dr. Bennett demeaned, disgraced, destroyed financially so she could benefit.

What is most amazing SCES and the attorney supporting them along with others along the way did not know Dr. Bennett or his wife. They had never met him – never had a conversation of any kind with him, knew nothing about him and yet they gathered together to have him incarcerated in a psych ward – their hospital of choice was Mount Auburn Hospital.

Dr. Bennett did not go to Mount Auburn Hospital because his wife was going to throw herself under the ambulance if they tried to take him there. It is not a hospital either one would choose. Since both knew quite a bit about local hospitals – Dr. Bennett’s wife having served for a time as chaplain at Deaconness, among others and Dr. Bennett, as an ordained priest who responded to requests from people needing help as priests are expected to do – they have quite an in-depth knowledge about local hospitals.

MGH knew better. Their psychiatrists had examined Dr. Bennett the first time SCES forced him into the hospital against his wishes and found no reason to keep him. They did nothing except accept a patient who would bring lots of money into the hospital because of this incarceration.

Involved in this, we believe, was the fight amongst hospitals as they push to gain patients. This started, after all, by the police pushing into Dr. Bennett’s home to force him into Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. There has been quite a bit circulating about such competitiveness amongst hospitals which comes at the expense of a patients health. Here is a clear cut example.

If we had to give a verdict about all of this it would be that this is how the generational wealth of minorities is being drained so that White Supremacist have an easier time maintaining the oppression and more that they have traditionally practiced against minorities. From our investigation this has been practiced particularly against Jews. It is now being practiced against Blacks and other minorities. Much wealth has changed hands from minority to white quickly without notice using the guardianship laws in these United States. Even those minorities with small estates find themselves destitute and indigent. Not before this happened to them, but at the end of the process.

Dr. Bennett had just been discharged – two days earlier – from Mass General Hospital after what appears to have been successful brain surgery.

Dr. Bennett had been in MGH for brain surgery. He was there for a week and recovered beautifully. During that entire week not one doctor involved in the surgery talked to Dr. Bennett’s wife in spite of her asking to speak to them each day she arrived to visit. They ignored this African American woman who had been married to this African American man for 38 years. In talking to him and her they had a very happy and solid 38 year marriage with no hint of anything negative – especially not abuse. Here, we believe, the negative stereotype of African American women comes into play. In addition, the racism we found through all of this was extreme and horrendous.

In fact, the Protective Services at MGH finally decided there had been no abuse. They decided that after some $200,000 was spent on medical services at MGH.

Rehab was another issue that caused horrendous suffering to the Bennett family. Without either Dr. Bennett or his wife (who was his HCP) had any discussions with anyone as to rehab and the choice of a place. Dr. Bennett was not in favor of rehab. He had expressed a choice of Spaulding as did his wife. Instead, with no discussion of any kind, Dr. Bennett was forced into rehab at Sherrill House.

Interesting to note that when one enters Sherrill House the color is brown to black. When one enters Spaulding the color is white with very little of any other color. Is this how those places are maintained as segregated? It happens at the hospital before the patient leaves?

Without any discussion, Dr. Bennett was forced into Sherrill House. His wife arrived at MGH to visit and was told Dr. Bennett had been sent by ambulance to Sherrill House. What neither one knew, but what MGH and Sherrill House knew was that Sherrill House was going under quarantine because of the flu in their midst. They knew that before MGH sent Dr. Bennett to Sherrill House and Sherrill House knew that before accepting him. Sherrill House, however, waited until Dr. Bennett arrived to declare their quarantine and so subjected Dr. Bennett to the flu for their own profit related reasons. When the quarantine became clear, Dr. Bennett decided he wanted to go home where it was much safer and his wife took him home.

Next day, in Court, Dr. Bennett is declared “indigent” – destitute and not able to pay for an attorney to defend himself against actions filed against him by Nora Al Wetaid and Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services ordering the police to take him out of his home to Mount Auburn Hospital.

Interesting to us is the fact that Dr. Bennett was not so destitute that Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services – who brought this action – saw to it that Dr. Bennett was charged for just about everything. Bills have poured into the Bennett home having been created for them by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. None of the bills were authorized nor agreed to by the Bennetts. Amazing that Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services did not think he was destitute when it came to charging the bills they created. It is also interesting that the bills SCES found some other way to get paid – ie by the state – are those that paid for the people they wanted involved so they would be able to control both sides of this issue.

Dr. Bennett has been personally charged as well as through his insurance for bills he did not create and for services he neither needed nor wanted. His right to choose who would supply whatever services he did need and want was completely taken away from him by SCES.

Dr. Warner, the psychiatrist, who signed the Court Documents to commit Dr. Bennett to the police ward and psych ward of Mount Auburn Hospital and who knew Dr. Bennett had been sent to MGH instead and discharged from MGH countering her claim, showed up at MGH later to be the “Independent Examiner” paid for by the state to give Dr. Bennett anti-psychotics amongst other medicines to be able to declare Dr. Bennett ‘incapacitated” and Attorney Cheri Myette, appointed as Dr. Bennett’s attorney by the opposing attorney – O’Sullivan, was also paid by the state. Attorney Myette was paid by the state after Dr. Bennett’s wife hired and paid attorneys to represent Dr. Bennett. An entire system conspiring to take away basic rights from an African American citizen of these United States. The people needed to be a part of this incredible criminal conspiracy were state of Massachusetts funded. Everything else was billed to Dr. Bennett.

From other such situations we have investigated, the state is usually repaid after the person so attacked is shoved into a nursing home for life with the claim that they are totally unable to care for themselves with no one around to care for them.

One African American escaped the nursing home he was shoved into and constrained in bed after he was declared to have no “Executive Functioning” and no ability to either provide or care for himself. He had to escape being constrained in a bed in a nursing home to have a life of freedom instead of incarceration on psychiatric drugs. He had a family who cared for him and they were charged with abuse. He also had to escape because while in the nursing home, the state was in the process of taking all of his assets. Somehow, this does not meet the SCES criteria for a person having no Executive Functioning, no ability to either provide or care for himself, etc.

So the attempt to incapacitate Dr. Bennett and claim that his wife abused him was not the first African Americans have had to fight. Unfortunately, this is happening to the elderly who mostly don’t have the experience, or circle of supporters to be able to fight such. They are shoved into the nursing home after an agency takes guardianship over the person, including their assets. Those assets are drained down and the state reimbursed. The elderly person dies and causes no distress to anyone. No need to account for anything and that ends that story. The whites are richer and the minorities dead.

In the case of Dr. Bennett, SCES went to Probate Court. They asked that Dr. Bennett not be notified of the hearing. They described Dr. Bennett as very old, indigent, alone with no one to care for him and he was a psychiatric threat to the community.

The Court knew Dr. Bennett knew nothing about that hearing because SCES asked that he not be informed. The Court objected to Dr. Bennett not being informed about the hearing and appointed an attorney. Not a named attorney, but just an attorney.

Attorney O’Sullivan, who was representing SCES decided that attorney would be Attorney Cheri Myette. So , in effect, the opposing attorney appointed the attorney who would be appearing in Dr. Bennett’s name.

The Court, with a new judge now in place, said to Attorney Myette that she should contact her “client”. She did not, but she did file a motion in his name including a claim – under oath by the attorney – in which Dr. Bennett was supposed to be swearing to the fact that he was “indigent.” Dr. Bennett knew nothing about this. Attorney Myette apparently felt she could make such claims in a motion all on her own without her “client” knowing anything about the motion – have the motion impounded so no one would be able to read it or know of the charges – and the case then goes on from there with no one knowing how it got started. Common with the cases we have investigated is the confusion the people so pushed around have, not knowing nor understanding where all of the mess and upheaval came from because there is nothing showing that answers any of those origination questions. The answers to those questions have been hidden in the bowels of the Court.

There is a blog in this Bettina collection of blogs which replicates the statement Dr. Bennett made denying that he made such a statement and saying clearly he knew nothing about the motion – nothing about an attorney being appointed to represent him – etc. That statement is notarized.

Attorney Myette was appointed and filed the motion accusing his wife of abusing him – knowing full well that was not true. She wrote the motion as though it was being written by Dr. Bennett in which he claimed and ‘swore’ to being “indigent” and in need of state funds – knowing full well that was also not true. Attorney Myette did all of this within an hour or two of her being named Attorney for Dr. Bennett by the attorney representing SCES – Attorney O’Sullivan. The one thing Attorney Myette did not do was to contact her supposed client. No one saw any need to notify Dr. Bennett of any of this. Why would one bother to confuse everything by getting an African American man involved – his stereotype and the stereotype of his African American wife was enough. Winning usually means dealing with the stereotype instead of the real person.

How many elderly have lost their lives, their estates, their family because of this kind of attack?

Interesting that the people doing the filing knew 1) Dr. Bennett was not destitute nor indigent at the time and 2) they knew Dr. Bennett had just left MGH so why the push to immediately take him to Mount Auburn Hospital just a day or two after he left MGH where his records, etc. were?

Dr. Bennett’s wife turned to a friend to recommend an attorney. Caroline Tribe recommended Shippen Page. Ms. Donaldson hired Shippen Page who in turn hired Lisa Cukier with Burns & Levinson. Ms. Cukier to represent Dr. Bennett. Attorney Page to represent Ms. Donaldson.

That didn’t quite happen the way it was planned. Ms. Cukier decided to represent Ms. Donaldson, without Ms. Donaldson’s knowledge or consent. In the process of that representation it was clear Ms. Cukier’s respect for her client was non-existent. One condition Ms. Donaldson had before hiring Ms. Cukier was that she agrees to file an emergency motion to have Dr. Bennett released from the prison of the hospital (MGH) where he was being held in a locked ward with guards outside the ward and being fed medicines without his knowledge or consent with no one knowing what he was being fed when he was supposedly not in the hospital for medical reasons, but according to the papers filed, because of the claimed abuse and the claim that Dr. Bennett was alone in a house with his wife who was abusing him. In actual fact, in the house were Dr. Bennett’s two adult children and a daughter-in-law. All black so they could be discarded as irrelevant.

Once hired, Ms. Cukier did not file the emergency motion, but decided to wait until the hearing date for the motion – which was a bit into the future giving everyone time to do what was necessary to attempt to incapacitate Dr. Bennett, create a medical record which is spurious along with a number of other activities which our investigation shows were meant to drain Dr. Bennett’s assets along with the assets of his wife, which is apparently the reason they had to accuse her of abuse – to open the door to opening the door to their home to be able to use it to line their pockets. We have talked about in the past because we have talked to several people – African Americans and Jews who were subjected to the same and whose assets were drained and they were left much poorer after what turned out to be trumped up charges.

When Ms. Cukier was hired she asked for a retainer and her terms were that once the retainer was paid Ms. Donaldson would receive monthly bills every 30 days which she would be expected to pay within 30 days.

Things didn’t quite work out that way.

The retainer was paid promptly. The day of the hearing, much less than 30 days into Ms. Cukier being hired, Ms. Cukier called Ms. Donaldson to say she should bring to her home $9,000 because this is what was needed. She changed the terms of her hiring. In addition, she said she would not appear at the 4pm hearing that was to happen that day unless Ms. Donaldson showed up at her home with the $9,000. This was just a few hours before the hearing took place. She also was very clear that Ms. Donaldson was not to go to her front door, but she ordered this African American woman to take the money and go to the back door to deliver it.

Those of you who know Ms. Donaldson, know that did not happen. Ms. Cukier and her assistant called several times about the money and the abusive telephone calls so unnerved Ms. Donaldson she could not function for several few days.

At the same time, there was an email from Attorney Page asking about the motion response Ms. Cukier intended to file because it left out very important and relevant information and he didn’t understand why.

The motion papers did not make the Court aware of the fact that Dr. Bennett had been discharged from MGH less than two days before he was forced out of his home on a Section 12 (psychiatric charges) and the papers said he was fine. They noted his vital signs were normal including his blood pressure.

Ms. Cukier did not change her filing to include that fact. Reading what she submitted it is clear to us those submissions were to keep Dr. Bennett in MGH. Ms. Cukier ignored Attorney Page’s concerns as well as the concerns of others.

This was clearly shaping up to look exactly like a criminal conspiracy which has happened to other minority elders who have suffered much in the process – and some died.

We won’t outline everything that happened, however, this resulted in Attorney Page resigning – Ms. Donaldson discovering much that had been kept from her – Ms. Donaldson firing Ms. Cukier – Ms. Cukier continuing on in spite of the fact that she had been fired for some really strange actions which appear to be those meant to work with Attorney O’Sullivan to attain his and Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services’ goals. They have some serious problems which clearly are not going to be addressed. From what we have seen they are allowed to very irresponsibly destroy the quality and life of others.

Doing research we find Ms. Cukier involved in other places – similar – where she made legal moves which we think are questionable.

This, plus everything else involved in the attack on Dr. Bennett has a price tag going over $300,000.00. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts with its agencies which were involved bears some of the blame for this and allowed its agencies to spend tax payers money to engage in extreme bigotry – among other things. Since what happened and is continuing to happen to Dr. Bennett has also happened to other minorities – we seriously question what is going on within Massachusetts Government which is clearly encouraging such by doing nothing about it except supplying money needed to gain a law-breaking result.

For example – Dr. Bennett was sexually abused through this process. That was reported to Maura Healey, who did nothing about it. There were witnesses who were neither questioned about this nor contacted in any way. Ms. Healey is today running for political office. Needless to say, we will be there calling attention to some of these horrendous occurrences.

Dr. Bennett was removed from his home forcibly by the police without a Court Hearing, in spite of Massachusetts laws which forbids such – so laws were broken and the people involved not called up for this.

Dr. Bennett was forced to take anti-psychotics, which he did not want, but had no choice in the locked police ward of MGH. The Courts have just verified that this is definitely a violation of the law.

Every right that Dr. Bennett and his family have under the federal laws and the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were violated. His medical record also does not accurately reflect what happened to him.

To our knowledge, this has happened to African Americans and Jews and we suspect also to other minorities. It totally violates both federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

It is interesting to us to bring into this picture what happened to Dr. Gates from Harvard University. He was ‘arrested’ by the police for breaking and entering his own home. They tried to put him in jail on a criminal charge that was bogus.

The attempt was to what – demean? embarrass? destroy his reputation? At least put into the public mind the picture the media took of him being arrested in his own home.

By the time they tried to do the same thing to Dr. Bennett their tactics changed. It was not a “criminal” charge. Dr. Bennett was picked up at his home on a Section 12 – a psychiatric charge. He was not the first. The way the media has steadfastly ignored all of this from the several people so treated it is clear there will be more of this happening in Massachusetts. It appears to have someone’s support for its continuation.

Others – particularly African Americans and Jews have been so treated with no restitution and no investigation into what this was all about. Ignore them. Let them struggle. The goal will be to reduce the achievements of minorities because their generational wealth will be eliminated. What they could do with such a backing will not now be possible.

The court papers documenting the Court part of these actions are being impounded in an action led by Attorney Lisa Cukier. Those papers need to be available to the public so others can see and know what has happened in the past. The impoundment is not because the families want those papers impounded. Several attorneys are consistently involved in such and their names need to be known – the actions they have taken need to be known, etc.

We appreciate your feedback and your experiences with such. Please don’t hesitate to email us at bettina-network@comcast.net

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Historically Speaking –

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021

We need to become more knowledgeable about history. What is happening today will make a lot of sense if you know your personal history – the history of your country – the history of your family, etc.

Let’s take a look at what is happening in Texas and put it in a historical context:

What is the history that seems to almost shout at us to – PAY ATTENTION. This is not new what is happening in the Texas Legislature and other places. For example take a look at one of the roles Texas played during the war against Nazi Germany.

Nazi Prisoners of War were held in prison camps in Texas. One reason was because so many Texans spoke German. Their state was settled by Germans.

One result of that, especially because there were many Texans who were “soft” on the Nazi’s – was the fact that on Sundays, some Texas families would go to the prison camps, get a Nazi prisoner out for the afternoon and take them to dinner at a local restaurant.

In those same areas, African American soldiers – either on leave, or home, or passing through to their next assignment – needed to eat. Almost all of the restaurants in Texas were segregated and refused to serve African Americans and other minorities. If they stopped at those same restaurants where Nazi prisoners of war were treated to Sunday dinner by some Texans, those African American soldiers would not be allowed into the restaurant. They would be served the same meals, at the same cost, but they would have to go around to the back door where the trash and other undesirables were kept and that is where they would have to eat their meal.

In that historical context, does what is happening today in Texas and in the Texas Legislature as it attempts to change our democracy into a more controlled, fascist one make any more sense to you? That attempt does not come ‘out of the blue’. IT HAS A HISTORICAL CONTEXT.


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