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Senator Danforth – Episcopal Priest – White //// Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett – Episcopal Priest – Black “A democracy for white Americans, but simultaneously a dictatorship over black Americans.”— MLK

Tuesday, January 19th, 2021

Part two of a series: – Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett – black Episcopal priest

You and we have seen the power of one Episcopal priest – white. He was able to subvert the democratic process by using money and power. Not the power inherent in why he was called to the ordained priesthood nor giving a thought to what God was calling him to do.

Using his earthly power and money he did his own thing. Something that would bring him – Senator Danforth – more power and money and earthly prestige rather than something that would help bring in God’s kingdom on this earth.

He brought us one Josh Hawley. A man who did what he thought he was called to do, subverting and attempting to destroy American democracy. Senator Hawley saw himself, with the blessing of his backers, as being the one to lead the charge calling Americans to overturn a legitimate election for president of these United States and put a fascist, authoritarian government in its place. He was, after all, backed by the aristocracy of these United States. He was close to the powers which put Donald Trump into office as United States President.

Hawley has been living an autocrat’s dream and the nightmare of those who choose to live under a democratic government. Backed by One who used the money and power he inherited ( Senator Danforth) to help install a government more in tune to corporate America’s need for an authoritarian government which could subvert, overturn, patronize and so much more the lives of the people it needs to produce and carry to fruition its programs, projects, products and/or services.

Before there was a Josh Hawley to spend time, money and other resources on, for Senator Danforth there was a Clarence Thomas and probably even more. Clarence Thomas is a man who many believe should never have been confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, but who was with the advice, consent, power and money of the Rev. Senator Danforth.

Clarence Thomas, a black man, widely disrespected in the African American community and even more so amongst many white Americans. By manipulating the system the way only one with power and money can manipulate, the objections to Clarence Thomas were cast aside. The people who could have shed more light onto who he was and his character were not allowed to testify in the hearing at which Anita Hill was allowed to testify and then nothing. Senator Danforth’s inability to see those he is moving to a more powerful place in the light of who they are and what they might contribute to or destroy the society over which he is majorly responsible for placing them carries a lot of negative weight for what he has done for and with Hawley and Thomas.

Thomas is a man whose wife recently sent her love to the insurrectionists of January 6, 2021 during their time of uprising against the government her husband serves as a Supreme Court Justice. The insurrectionists who tried to destroy democracy along with its Capitol buildings. Insurrectionists she has been encouraging and supporting for quite some years.

Clarence Thomas cannot be so above board with his actions, but he clearly supports his wife. As a Supreme Court justice, what does it mean when his wife goes the distance and sponsors 80 buses to transport those who were a part of the “Save America” rally on January 6, 2021. The Thomas family aided and abetted those trying to overthrow a legitimate United States election in favor of putting in place a government which was, apparently, not legitimate from its beginnings, but which had philosophies, beliefs, actions of which Virginia Thomas approved and for which she spends a great deal of time publicly backing. I think it can be safely said and by his own admission that Clarence Thomas is now a Supreme Court justice thanks to Senator Danforth – white Episcopal priest.

Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett – black Episcopal priest – is the other American side of that story. The side on which he is vulnerable to white Americans who feel they can obliterate African Americans who step out of their place and have institutionalized ways to establish a dictatorship over even in 2020 and even in places like Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cities which constantly brag about their ‘openness’ and where Black Lives do not matter – especially those of consequence; those that dare criticize white Americans in power positions; those that are not subservient to the autocracy. In fact, many believe Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts are among the most racist cities in these United States.

We recently wrote many Bettina Network articles about what was happening to Dr. Bennett. We wanted everything to be public because we were taken off-guard by the way he and his wife were attacked and having had decades of civil rights experience we knew where those attacks were headed from the day Rev. Dr. Bennett, after brain surgery at MGH, was forced into Sherrill House against his will when he was told places like Spaulding Rehabilitation Center were not open to him and he had no choice.

After his discharge from MGH, Dr. Bennett and his wife were told an ambulance was going to immediately take him to Sherrill House. Neither Rev. Bennett nor his wife, Marceline Donaldson – who was his Health Care Proxy – had a choice in the matter. What was the problem? Two fold -Sherrill House was under quarantine for the flu at the time and they did not know about that and were not told Rev. Bennett was being sent to a rehab center after brain surgery which was under flu quarantine. When, having arrived at Sherrill House and they discovered the quarantine and they complained there was no doctor available. Not physically present nor available via telephone or other communication possibilities. So their choice was to go home where they had a set up which was far superior to what they were exposed to at Sherrill House.

What they discovered through that experience were the racial discrepancies between Sherrill house and Spaulding. Once you turn from Huntington Avenue into Jamaica Plain the medical institutions mostly turn from white to brown to black.

A black man – a black family which did not choose Sherrill House as a place for rehab was forced into that institution and told Spaulding Rehabilitation Center was not where they could go. When they checked, there was space available so what was the problem. No one ever said, however, their investigation showed a clear color problem.

That was not the first nor the last such situation with which Rev. Dr. Bennett and his family had to deal during some very difficult times in their lives. Because Dr. Bennett needed brain surgery, it was as though the society had gone crazy with glee over being able to be the dictators over this African American man and his family. Because Dr. Bennett needed surgery, he was exposed to the worse and discovered there were other elderly African Americans who had and were going through very similar situations with no help and had to face the overwhelming and very racist power of “Protective Services” in Massachusetts. This was supposed to be an organization to aid the elderly in need. In fact, it is an organization which pushed into families that do not need nor want their help.

Actually, elderly and protective services is out of control and their racism, sexism, sins against immigrants virulent and long standing. It is instead becoming the means of making the minority elderly vulnerable to many health care institutions with no choice of any kind as they enter or are pushed into this world. Most often their assets are drained and redistributed into the white community so the minorities die with a life of hard work spent accumulating assets for their children to have better and more comfortable lives taken away and given to the white establishment – the white autocracy/aristocracy with many in the middle to upper classes assisting, most without even realizing the damage being done and not interested.

That was the first in many steps to drag down and attempt to destroy the end of life of a man who achieved and received a Harvard University Doctorate; had a life of service to the Episcopal Church; taught in its seminaries; taught as an adjunct professor at Princeton University, Atlanta University and several more. A man who served on the National Council of Churches Lectionary Committee using his work and study to help edit scripture to make it more available to both sexes. Well, maybe that wasn’t so good since the FBI had to intervene at that point because the members of that committee received death threats – through the National Council as well as at their homes. The minorities we have heard from or heard about include African Americans, Jews, Latina’s, Immigrants, and more.

We could go on for pages with how Dr. Bennett spent his life, but that is all well documented. We are outlining here the way this society tried to strip him of the quality of his life, making horrible the end of his life, his assets, his reputation and so much more. Who? Which institutions? The Commonwealth of Massachusetts through its Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. Particularly its ‘Protective Services”

Recently, they were dubbed #1 in the state. That was not even surprising to us because we knew the forces which support such institutions would be coming to their assistance to try to drown out what Dr. Bennett and his wife were exposing.

The real “tell” of what was in store for Dr. Bennett happened when 8 white Cambridge police arrived at Dr. Bennett’s home demanding to remove him from his home to put him into the psych ward at Mount Auburn Hospital. Besides the eight white policemen there were TWO ambulances, five or six EMT’s and assorted people. No one knew where all the people were coming from until a neighbor of the Donaldson-Bennett family saw and talked about all the attention the police and their coterie were receiving as people came running from the Charles River to see what was happening with all the police and people and police cars parked and left in the middle of the street around the Bennett/Donaldson home.

The police arrived to force Dr. Bennett into the Mount Auburn Hospital psych ward. He was just a couple days out of MGH after brain surgery and had no relationship to Mount Auburn Hospital. He had a very low opinion of Mount Auburn Hospital, had expressed his concern for the racism he knew about as a minister. His family insisted that if he had to go someplace it be to the hospital he left just days earlier. After some back and forth the police agreed. They did not, however, arrive with any Court papers to back up their demands. After quite awhile and with Marceline Donaldsons’ insistence they produced such a paper which was a Section 12 – used by the police to hospitalize people who have had too much to drink and were a public nuisance; people who overdosed on drugs; people having a psychiatric break of some kind and are endangering the public, etc.

Rev. Dr. Bennett did not fit any of those categories. In fact, once in MGH having been forced into the psych ward after leaving days earlier having been discharged from the Neurology Department and having undergone the indignity of having been examined against his will by one of the MGH psychiatrists, Dr. Bennett was found to be someone who should not have been so treated. They saw no reason for his having been picked up and forced into the hospital in the first place. No medicines prescribed no reason for his having been forced into MGH nor did they find any reason to keep him. So the Section 12 was lifted and Dr. Bennett was sent home.

Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services are the group – the state agency which signed out the Section 12 against Dr. Bennett. No one at that agency knew Dr. Bennett – no one there had ever interviewed him – no one had any kind of relationship with him of any kind. They would not have known him if they passed him on the street.

Dr. Rebecca Warner, the psychiatrist who had Dr. Bennett so “committed” said on the papers she signed to send him to the hospital with which she was affiliated – Mount Auburn Hospital – where several African Americans have complained of their very racist treatment – that she did not know Dr. Bennett, had never met him, had never examined him, had never been to his home – but she claimed his home was ‘not safe’. So much for medical ethics and why does she still have a license to practice?

After Dr. Bennett was released from MGH it is as if enormous anger broke out amongst the people at Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. Who did he think he was, after all. And then the fun started.

Attorney James O’Sullivan, who was given an award by the Archbishop O’Malley for the great work he supposedly does amongst the poor, especially the poor elderly, was in Court the very next day with an “emergency motion.” As we did research on Attorney O’Sullivan and the award he was given we discovered that the last recipient was ex-Attorney General Bill Barr. There is something wrong in the Diocese that this is the case, especially with the elderly because much suffering has happened and been condoned by Archbishop O’Malley with such an award.

O’Sullivan is actually someone known to use and from this experience abuse “emergency motions”. He asked the Court not to notify Dr. Bennett of the hearing, claimed he was not capable of participating, claimed Dr. Bennett was “indigent” and asked for “Protective Orders” so Dr. Bennett would not be further hurt, etc. Attorney O’Sullivan was acting on behalf of his clients, but he had never met Dr. Bennett nor his wife nor his adult children yet he talked knowingly about someone he was asking the Court to forcibly remove from his home and family and put into a psych ward for reasons not even clearly spelled out in Court.

The “Protective Orders’ were against Dr. Bennett’s wife who Attorney O’Sullivan claimed was abusive to Dr. Bennett and because of that Dr. Bennett was in grave danger. The Court refused to give Attorney O’Sullivan the “Protective Orders”.

What Attorney O’Sullivan did not tell the Court that this was not his first move against Dr. Bennett on behalf of Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services. He did not tell the Court that his first move failed because it should not have been filed in the first place. He did not tell the Court the hospital into which Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services tried to force Dr. Bennett dismissed and lifted the Section 12 his clients tried to get against Dr. Bennett. As we further investigated we found Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective services were trying to have Dr. Bennett committed for an extensive time in Mount Auburn Hospital’s psych ward and they had no reason, authority nor anything else to have pushed themselves into this family nor to try such a thing.

Leaving out the most important information when Attorney O’Sullivan went to Court, what he included was the lie which said Dr. Bennett needed to be represented by attorneys, but said Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services – Dr. Bennett was “indigent” and could not afford attorneys. Since O’Sullivan claimed Dr. Bennett could not afford attorneys and asked for a state appointed attorney, the Court appointed Cheri Myette to represent Dr. Bennett without Dr. Bennett’s knowledge – without anyone speaking to Dr. Bennett or his family about all of this and Dr. Bennett still not being notified of any motions filed in Court against him and with Attorney O’Sullivan moving ahead with an ex parte motion to take away Dr. Bennett’s freedom in violation of state law. To circumvent state law, Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of his clients constructed what we have been told has been done many times against elderly black people in Massachusetts and other places – a series of court events which actually did not take place as represented, but put in place to be able to “win” against Dr. Bennett who then had all of his rights taken away from him as though this was a fascist Court system which sets up a case without the defendant knowing anything about the case against him and putting in place what was needed to move against the Defendant giving a public relations set of motions, etc. so the plaintiffs – Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services could gain their ends without going through the democratic process, but coming out with the result they wanted with this very fascist way of functioning. It is common today and many are in great pain because of this allowed way of functioning violating everything this country and its court system stands for.

Attorney Myette immediately filed a motion – in Rev. Dr. Bennett’s name without Rev. Bennett’s knowledge or consent. That motion had Dr. Bennett swearing to the attorneys claims that he was “indigent” and needed the state to pay his bills and that his wife was guilty of elder abuse against him.

Dr. Bennett knew nothing about that motion. In fact, that motion stayed very “secret” for quite some time because it was immediately impounded by the Court as soon as it was filed by Attorney Myette. We found out about it when someone put the papers showing that through the mail slot at the Donaldson/Bennett home with copy of the motion and more papers having to do with the workings of SCES and some of the papers needed for Dr. Bennett which had been withheld.

Because the Court appointed an attorney for Dr. Bennett even though Robert Bennett knew nothing about any of this – the Court moved ahead and gave the attorneys who were clearly conspiring with each other over this the right to have Rev. Bennett picked up by the police, forced out of his home for a second time and forced into the psych ward of MGH.

When the police arrived with this Court order, copy of which they again refused to give to Dr. Bennett or his wife or to anyone else in the house at that time, but insisted on taking him out of his house and if he refused they would carry him out. They said to all present that if anything was broken in the process of chasing all over the house looking for Dr. Bennett to drag him out of his own home, it was not their fault or responsibility and they claimed the Court gave them the authority to go anyplace in the Bennett/Donaldson’s home that they had to go to get Dr. Bennett and drag him out if necessary. They claimed Dr. Bennett was in grave danger because of the abuse they accused his wife of and because he was alone with no one else to care for him.

That was March 6th at 6pm. A Friday. Dr. Bennett’s wife was not allowed to see him from the time he was shoved into MGH for more than a week. She had to have the attorneys they hired go to MGH to negotiate some way for her to see him. When she tried to see him she was told many different things like Dr. Bennett did not want to see her; Dr. Bennett had been to court to get a restraining order against her which said she could not come near him; Dr. Bennett was asked and declined to see her. In actual fact, Dr. Bennett knew nothing about this. He was told his wife had done this to him and didn’t want to see him ever again. All of this time, Dr. Bennett was being drugged apparently by MGH people getting him ready for his “independent Exam” by Dr. Rebecca Warner. When she was finally able to see him he didn’t recognize her, he was so groggy he couldn’t keep his eyes open and more.

What was happening at the Bennett/Donaldson home at the time Attorney O’Sullivan was in court describing Dr. Bennett as being alone, destitute with an abusive wife and no one to care for him or protect him? Dr. Bennett, his wife, his adult daughter, his adult son and his wife were about to sit down to a candlelight dinner. They spent the day cooking and preparing for this celebration meal because Robert’s surgery was a success and they were giving thanks. Robert Bennett did not have dinner that day because the police and hospital were so concerned about him they shoved him in a corner of a room and left him there.

When Dr. Bennett arrived at MGH and was shoved into a room, he was immediately started on anti-psychotics; anti-seizure medications, hallucinatory drugs, blood thinners forced on a man just days from brain surgery, plus 10 more medicines. 10 days later Dr. Rebecca Warner shows up at MGH to do what she called an “Independent Exam” although she is affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital. She – the one who signed out the Section 12 against Dr. Bennett for which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts paid her $2,000 because, after all, Dr. Bennett was “indigent”. So many people and institutions road that “indigent” gravy train that our minds have been twirled around many times trying to nail down all of it.

Dr. Warner appeared 10 days after Dr. Bennett was forced to take all of the above drugs, which he did not want, but did not have a choice. Examining him those 10 days later – a man who did not want to be there and constantly wanted to leave, but was kept on an alarm blanket on his bed so nurses would be notified if he tried to get out of bed; he could move to a chair next to the bed, but that was also alarmed and he could not move without someone moving him; being forced to take medicines which could do serious and long term harm to him was then given an “Independent Exam” – which he already had been given the first time he was taken to MGH, but the circumstances were very different. This time, Dr Warner found him to be “incapacitated”. Those drugs were not put on his medical chart until months after Marceline Donaldson discovered the discrepancy and insisted on an answer as to why. They knew about the drugs because they were sent home with him with MGH insisting that he be required to continue to take them daily or he would be brought back to the hospital for a more “permanent” commitment.

How did would they know if Dr. Bennett was not taking the drugs? Dr. Bennett’s family was forced to accept a Home Health Care Company coming to the house daily – 5 or 6 people each day going in and out of the house during the time of the Pandemic. They were supposed to give him the pills and watch while he swallowed them. And – one thing that resulted from this – Dr. Bennett was sexually abused in the process. His family reported all of this to the Massachusetts District Attorney and the Attorney General’s Office and to the office of Elder Services. None of them paid any attention and in spite of the fact that there were witnesses, none of those institutions bothered to contact and/or interview those witnesses.

Before his transport to the MGH he was walking, talking, in a good state of mind and friends interacted with him – he walked to Harvard Square – sat by the river to soak up the sun and more. When he was sent home from MGH some 5 weeks later he was in horrible shape. He had no shoes on – his feet were swollen and his shoes didn’t fit – he hadn’t been able to get out of bed for five weeks and at Dr. Bennett’s age that could have been a death sentence or one which would have produced an “incapacitated” person for the rest of his life. He looked as though he had been homeless on the street for years. and he could not walk. That is what MGH and SCES contributed to Dr. Bennett’s “health”. It was disgraceful and heartbreaking.

The Court Order said Dr. Bennett was being taken to MGH not for medical reasons, but because of elder abuse and because of that they had to immediately take him from his home. They treated him in a disgraceful way. He spent the five weeks in a space 7 by 9 feet and he shared that space with unused hospital equipment. He shared the room with someone else who had two beautiful picture windows, the sun coming through, a chaise lounge kind of chair he could sit in during the day and a lot more. Dr. Bennett didn’t see the sun because curtains were kept drawn around his bed. If you entered his room you would not know anyone else was in that room.

We are finding others who have gone through the same thing. The elderly are particularly vulnerable because most who have gone through this have not fought civil rights battles the way the Donaldson/Bennett’s have nor have they had any other fights so they are ‘taken over’ by people like Nora Al Wet-Aid and Angela Clary with the acquiescence and consent of their superiors.

During the entire time no one talked to Dr. Bennett. They did what they wanted to do and what they felt they needed to do pursuing the goal they have for people like him. Being moved from a psych ward into a nursing home for life with the Court’s permission to feed him and others like him anti-psychotics for life along with others drugs which ruin their health and the quality of their life. Why? Assets!

Dr. Bennett’s wife was told – and a letter to other lawyers attest to the fact – that she would be given a small stipend and could find a room someplace – maybe even with her own bathroom because the family’s assets would be needed and taken over by a Guardianship Corporation – drained down by that Corporation to supposedly pay for Dr. Bennett’s bills.

It gets worse from here so we won’t go through all of the gory details, but as you read this can you imagine Senator Danforth being so treated? Or reaching out to help someone like Rev. Dr. Bennett? And how have others in the Episcopal Church reacted?

As you read this we hope you realize the very authoritarian system in which the health care institutions are functioning and the way it is so much easier to have blacks put out of commission with their assets stripped so their children cannot inherit and therefore lose the edge in this society that assets inherited would bring to them.

Add to that the very aggressive stripping of the vote from minorities which is what Senator Hawley – who was backed by Senator Danforth – is trying to do with his attempted takeover of a democracy turning it into an authoritarian government.

Dr. Bennett, who hired attorneys to represent him was not able to be represented by the attorneys of his choice. The Court appointed an attorney to represent him before he even knew he needed any kind of representation. Dr. Bennett was not “indigent” and paid the retainers requested by those attorneys. Didn’t matter. The attorney appointed by the Court in an “emergency motion” about which Dr. Bennett knew nothing – he was not served or contacted in any way; the attorney so appointed by the Court did not contact him she simply did what others told her to do, resulted in the “dictatorship over” way he was treated during every moment of what must have been a nightmarish experience for him. He was treated as though these United States are a system of “dictatorships over” in the areas necessary for whites to keep control.

There is talk of “defunding the police”. The problem is much more serious than what is happening with the arrest and killings of blacks and other minorities who supposedly have committed some kind of crime. When the police can push their way into your home without your knowledge of why or what for and can forcibly take you out for no reason the ‘police problem’ in this society needs to have its entire structure and what it can do unearthed before any solutions are sought or rendered.

When the people, like Senator Danforth, with the power and money are calling the shots on who is elected; who is appointed to important positions in this society which can bring substantial changes to our individual and collective lives those people need to be highlighted and call out on what they are doing and why they are allowed to wield so much more power and have so much more money than the rest of society.

We are still living in a “slave society” which we inherited from the many generations who went before. Instead of looking at that and making major changes, we are playing games with “riots” and attempting to force those changes in physical ways which will most hurt those making the physical and psychic sacrifices to bring in a new way of being in society, which will simply bring a more concentrated form of wealth and power to the aristocracy at the top calling the shots – manipulating the strings of the puppets who are dancing without any thought to what it is they are doing.

Don’t you think it is time to stop all of this? Don’t you think it is time for us to live in some other kind of community which benefits all? That is such an incredible threat to most we are afraid to even go there. We might encounter people who don’t look like us – talk like us – have our history – etc, etc, etc. and isn’t that the greatest threat of all?

Dr. Rebecca Warner, psychiatrist – Unbelievably irresponsible!

Thursday, July 30th, 2020

With all that is happening with Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett, we received a call asking that we please write about what happened with Dr. Rebecca Warner’s involvement in this attempted destruction of a substantial, well-liked, lovely person as he comes to the end of his life at 87 years old. The person calling saw Dr. Warner’s name on one of the original filings and wanted to know what that was about. She also asked about the possibility of filing against Dr. Warner, but didn’t know if she was a person who could do that since she was not one of the family and if not was there some way she could be involved to see that people like Dr. Warner could not continue practicing their craft when they do such things to people without a thought. There should be responsibility for what Dr. Warner has done.

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What was she talking about?

On March 3, 2020 – as most of you know – 8 white policemen showed up at Rev. Dr. Bennett’s home, very unexpectedly and without cause with court papers to remove Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett from his home citing a “section 12” as the reason.

We say without cause because Dr. Bennett was removed from his home by these 8 policemen, 5 or 6 EMT’s two ambulances and more causing a circus in his neighborhood only to be released by Mass General Hospital where he was taken for this Section 12. He was released with “no medicines prescribed”, “all vitals normal” and no reason for him to have been picked up in the first place.

His family insisted he be taken to MGH instead of Mount Auburn Hospital where the Court papers signed by Dr. Jessica Warner wanted him to go.

That clearly said Dr. Warner was wrong from having signed such a paper and something needs to come out of this so this kind of frivolous , racist, evil stops. To start at the end process by sending the police after someone like Rev. Dr. Bennett is unbelievable – but I think most African Americans would understand that process and many probably have experienced other versions.

How do you deal with an African American man who has achieved much, has no criminal record, has prospered in legitimate ways in his lifetime and can’t be put into the criminal system to experience the things that African American men experience who are picked up from their homes and/or on the street for criminal activity and put into jails? How do you incarcerate an African American man who can’t be touched by the criminal justice system? Put him through what has and is happening to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and to do that you need people willing to step out and take the risks that Dr. Rebecca Warner stepped out to take against Dr. Bennett.

The police were going to take Dr. Bennett to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. His family sternly objected because Dr. Bennett had just returned home on – Sunday March 1, 2020 – from brain surgery at Mass General Hospital and had never been to Mount Auburn Hospital, nor had he ever seen or been seen by a doctor at Mount Auburn Hospital so why this order comes from the Court just two days after his discharge from Mass General Hospital was a mystery.

It was signed by Dr. Rebecca Warner who said she had never met Dr. Bennett, never examined him, knew nothing about him and had never been to his home – and yet – she declared he should be picked up for a sectioning at Mount Auburn Hospital and had additionally declared his house “unsafe”..

That order was taken out by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services who apparently decided to focus on Dr. Bennett – an African American retired Episcopal priest who is lovely, quiet, – someone who is liked by just about everyone he meets, and who has never had even a hint of mental problems at any time in his life.

Well, his wife says he went crazy when he met her, but other than that there was no reason to even attempt to have Dr. Bennett hauled into Mount Auburn Hospital for a “sectioning” under Section 12 which is for those who have had psychotic breaks and caused a public nuisance in the process; or overdosed on drugs, alcohol or some other such substance and caused a public disturbance whereby someone thought he needed to be sent to the hospital to be analyzed and diagnosed by a psychiatrist and more of that kind of thing. Just for a note – Dr. Bennett has never smoked, does not drink, does not take drugs of any kind and is concerned even about medical prescriptions. He wants to know what goes into his system and tries to make sure it is good.

Dr. Warner, signing such a document is, to us, totally irresponsible. What makes it illegal from our perspective is that she could not have gotten any information from anyone else at Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services about Dr. Bennett because no one else had seen him, examined him, been through his house to declare it “unsafe” and all the rest that goes along with this type of sectioning.

This is the strongest action Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services can take against someone. It is usually the last action taken after they are exasperated working with someone who was causing all kinds of problems. This action against Dr. Bennett was taken when SCES did not even know, had never met, never analyzed, never had a discussion with Dr. Bennett on any level and had no business pushing its way into Dr. Bennett’s home and life.

What we discovered in the process of doing this investigation is that people were waiting at Mount Auburn Hospital to send Dr. Bennett to the psychiatric wing of the hospital to begin the process reserved for people being put through this kind of thing that ends up in “Guardianship over” being taken, their assets being drawn upon until they are gone and more. We have discovered many to whom this has happened. All those we discovered were either Black, Latina or Jewish. This seems reserved mostly for Jews, but others are beginning to be pulled in. It is a way to destroy the inheritance of the particular family being targeted. And you don’t have to worry about the press because they are peculiarly uninterested in reporting on such.

For Dr. Rebecca Warner to be so involved with such a scurrilous happening to attempt the physical and financial destruction of a nationally well known biblical scholar, theologian, priest and just all around decent human being, who was still working, doing research, and more at 87 years old. To someone whose family cares about him and is fighting this with all of their resources which should not be happening – says a lot about Dr. Warner – nothing positive.

Isn’t this kind of thing what “Black Lives Matter” is fighting against?

This happening is how to make sure the next generation of minorities cannot survive and will continue in low level jobs which just helps them get by and the generations to come will not benefit from the blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors financial and other accomplishments. What Dr. Warner has done is to help demean, disgrace, establish an undeserved reputation for Dr. Bennett who worked hard all of his life to reach that pinnacle from which African Americans are picked up and thrown into the ugly, vicious abyss for having tried and especially for having thought themselves equal to.

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Another Court Appearance by Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett

Thursday, July 2nd, 2020

PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL THE PEOPLE, ORGANIZATIONS, AND OTHERS WHO YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED. THEY CAN SIGN UP TO RECEIVE BETTINA NETWORK’S BLOG BY FILLING IN THE FORM WHICH APPEARS NINE SECONDS AFTER YOU BRING UP THIS OR OTHER BLOGS.

Thank all of you for your good wishes, your suggestions and so much more.

Robert and Marceline went to court without an attorney because they have not been able to find one. This is a fairly new area and even attorneys are confused as to who best could handle this case.

Most attorneys say – “you need someone in elder law.” However, elder law is about trusts, wills, etc. We feel that this appearance proves that what they need are attorneys who are great litigators because we see medical mal practice, attorney problems, and the Donaldson/Bennett’s should have enormous damages here. We haven’t seen people so poorly treated in all of our time in this work. To have taken away Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett’s freedom the way it was done makes us want to look for another country because it says to us this country is going to put the health industry in control of the police function which will allow picking up and incarcerating people who have done nothing – no criminal activity, not even cross walking in the middle of a block; keeping them incarcerated in hospitals or other institutions; and having the general public through their health insurance pay for the incarceration. We are still trying to heal from the way their rights have been destroyed.

We made a recommendation to the Donaldson/Bennett’s which others should have made from the beginning – especially the lawyer others – however, we also asked them to not make our recommendation public so it will be a few months before that is shared.

They submitted a few documents to the court. The one we will share with you is the MOTION TO DISMISS.

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Motion to Dismiss

Just about every right guaranteed to a United States citizen, through the actions taken by SCES, have been denied to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett.

Attorney James O’Sullivan did a lot of misrepresentation and sometimes outright lies to this court.  It is possible that this happened because Attorney O’Sullivan was misled by his clients who misrepresented “facts” to him which led him to believe he should file certain papers and take certain actions for the protection of an “elder”, but nevertheless the results are the same. 

In the process of doing his work as an attorney, Attorney O’Sullivan should have known he was mis-speaking and misrepresenting to the Court.

It is incumbent upon an attorney who presents misrepresentations to the Court to immediately correct his presentation so that it reflects the facts.  We have no knowledge of this happening with Attorney O’Sullivan.  He has allowed his misrepresentations to stand.

Ms. Nora Al WetAid and Ms. Angela Clary made statements – some under oath – on behalf of Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services –  which could rise to the level of perjury.  Instead of pursuing their job in a professional well researched way, they pursued my family and caused us much grief; large and unnecessary expenditures of money; time; reputation, and so much more.

In that pursuit, they did not have the courtesy, necessity, etc. of contacting us to make an appointment as Protective Service people with Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services to discuss their concerns – to identify the source of their concerns – and all the other things that need to be done in such circumstances.  They just plowed ahead and assumed that whatever ugliness they were being told or thought they dug up and was relevant was totally appropriate considering they were “investigating (even though without cause) an African American family showing their own extreme racism and sexism in the process.

Our family has been turned into the most negative of African American stereotypes.  We stopped being humans to “Protective Services” quite some time ago, if we ever were seen as such.  

This started within the Court by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services filing a section 12 against Robert Bennett causing him to be picked up by 8 white Cambridge police, along with 5 or 6 EMT’s, two ambulances, the commotion of many police cars all over the street providing the neighborhood with a very negative bit of theatre around an African American family – on very bogus charges and for reasons that were not valid with a misuse and abuse of the psychiatric areas of the Court, the Cambridge police, and the Donaldson/Bennett family.

That is proven by the fact that the section 12 was lifted immediately by MGH because it did not apply to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett.

That should have been the end of all of this, however, Attorney O’Sullivan, Ms. Nora Al-Wetaid, Ms. Angela Clary and others pushed on making a bad situation much worse.  

It is also becoming clear that what has happened with Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and his family has also happened to others in Massachusetts with their assets, families, work and more destroyed by  “Protective Services” around the state and the way they have gone about their “work.”

Rev. Dr. Bennett and his family are well  known in their neighborhood.  It is also well known that they have recently been attacked by new neighbors who were appalled to discover they had African Americans living on their block. There are neighbors who have gone so far as to stomping on Marceline Donaldson’s toes in a fit of pique and running away when Rev. Dr. Bennett appeared from around the corner. We have wondered if this was intertwined in this action.

Who is this person being so destroyed:

Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett finished his institutional education with a PhD in Near Eastern studies. Prior to that he received a Masters of Divinity from General Theological Seminary in New York; an Undergraduate Degree from Kenyon College in Ohio with a major in philosophy – which he enhanced by spending time in Denmark where he learned the language and studied the works of the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

He has written several books; serves the Episcopal Church as an ordained priest; taught  as a full professor at Episcopal Divinity School, adjunct professor at Harvard University, Princeton University, and Atlanta University.

Rev. Dr. Bennett also served the wider Christian Church by working on Committees for the National Council of Churches – particularly the Inclusive Language Lectionary Committee which produced an Inclusive Language Lectionary still used today – whose goal was “to help shape a more inclusive church reflecting the unity and universality of God.”

Well respected by all those who know him and still today sought out for his counsel and comment and research, SCES  felt free enough to portray Rev. Dr. Robert A. Bennett, Jr. as a mentally and physically incapacitated lump who you could move around, push around, treat in ways to further their individual and collective career goals instead of realizing they made a substantial mistake in all that they did against him.

Rev. Dr. Bennett very  specifically said he did not want the SCES presence or attention or services all of which were forced on him.  He was put in the position by SCES of being address as “hi, handsome” along with many other such “cute’ interactions which he abhorred and was forced to tolerate because he was being incarcerated in a hospital against his will and without having anything which would have had the police arrive to carry out that incarceration.

The arrogance with which SCES did this has been overwhelming to everyone who has seen some of what is happening to this family.

On information and belief, Rev. Dr. Bennett is not the only person who has been so treated byh Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services and other such groups around Massachusetts.  They have been so blatant about all of what they are doing that it has become apparent that this is how and who this pseudo state organization has set itself up to destroy.

SCES and its family of “Protective Services” is beginning to look like a place where, on information and belief, words like ‘criminal conspiracy’, RICO and other such words can be used..

The first court action against Dr. Bennett was the filing of the section 12 and its immediate removal and ‘lifting’ by MGH because it did not apply to Rev. Dr. Bennett. When Rev. Dr. Bennett left MGH after being discharged from this attempt to take away his freedom, reputation, ability to function, he and his wife were warned to be careful because people were all over the hospital investigating them for reasons no one knew why.  

The section 12- is used to protect the public and sometimes the person who has had a psychotic break and has had to be restrained; has had alcoholic problems which  became public and negatively affected that public; had overdosed on drugs and caused a public problem and more in that vein.  None of this applied to Rev. Dr. Bennett who had not even a hint of mental problems before SCES and its friends and family intervened in his life attempting to take away his freedom, does not smoke, drink, take drugs, pills or anything even remotely related.

The section 12 was signed, as it must be, by a psychiatrist who added, in writing, on the charging document, that she had never met Robert Bennett, never examined him, never visited his home, but she also felt free enough not just to send out this document to have him incarcerated but also called his home ‘unsafe”.  

What the psychiatrist, who took out the papers to “section” Dr. Bennett did, was a very questionable if not outright malpractice.

SCES, by sending police out to “arrest” Rev. Dr. Bennett using the section 12 did something they have done against many others, especially many minorities whose lives and families have been destroyed by their actions  misusing a part of the “health law” which is there to be used carefully and appropriately.  SCES used it because it was a quick and dirty way to get someone into their custody to begin the pattern they have put down and regularly practiced against others destroying many families in the process.

Before SCES used the section 12 against Rev. Dr. Bennett,  SCES called the Cambridge Police and asked that a wellness check happen.  A policeman was sent to check out their claims and returned with a report which said all was well at the Bennett home and they found nothing amiss.

Dr. Bennett went to Sherrill House after he was discharged from MGH for rehab.  Both Rev. Dr. Bennett and his wife, Marceline Donaldson, were very positive about this move to Sherrill House because of its Episcopal foundations and what they heard via Episcopal circles about Sherrill House.  They looked at it as a time of spiritual retreat along with the rehab possibilities.  Instead, they found it to be a house of horrors and even polite, culturally dictated ways to act were violated.

When he arrived – by ambulance from MGH – no one welcomed him. No one even acknowledged his human presence with a smile or a hello or any other kind of human to human greeting.

The ambulance driver deposited him to the room he was shown and left.  No one sat with him to outline the program of rehab he would be experiencing.   No one said – we are busy at the moment, but will orient you to our program as soon as possible.   In fact, he was told to stay in bed and call the nurse if he needed to relieve himself.  He was also told he should not get out of the bed under any circumstances.  Since his wife was in the room with him, that was rather strange, especially since he was accustomed to going to the bathroom on his own at MGH, but they followed directions.

He did call the nurse during that evening because he needed to go to the bathroom.  The nurse did not show up for some 45 minutes and by that time Dr. Bennett was quite embarrassed because he followed what he was told about not going to the bathroom, but call the nurse.  

The next day there was still no program outlined with Dr. Bennett as to what his rehab would consist and in addition to that disaster of a first day and night at Sherrill House, he and his wife discovered that Sherrill House was going under quarantine because several people on his floor had the flu. 

When asked if the people with the flu were moved away from the rest of the patients in the rehab he and his wife were told that was not necessary.  

When asked what kind of flu because stories of CovID-19 were circulating, they were told no one knew what kind of flu.

After checking, they discovered this was not a first at Sherrill House, it had been quarantined just months earlier. 

The SCES response to this was anger, arrogance and retaliation against Robert Bennett who dared put his own well being above that of the institution in question.

Given the beginnings of information circulating about COVID-19, Dr. Bennett did not want to stay at Sherrill House and after conveying that information to his wife, who was his Health Care Proxy, Marceline Donaldson took her husband home where he would not be surrounded by the flu of any kind.

Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services called the police for a wellness check.  On information and belief, SCES were the people running all over MGH and the Greater Boston area “investigating” Rev. Dr. Bennett.  

Before that incident, Rev. Dr. Bennett had never shown  even the smallest  possibility that he had mental problems.  However, Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services moved ahead without any contact with Dr. Bennett, without ever having met him or talked to his family as their policies require before making such a move and  sent the police to take him out of his home to be sent to Mount Auburn Hospital. Prior to that if they met Rev. Dr. Bennett on the street, no one at SCES would have even recognized him or known who he was.

It was beyond curious that having just left MGH, SCES did not send him back to MGH, but to Mount Auburn Hospital where he was not known and where he was just three days out of MGH.

He was discharged from MGH within hours with the section 12 lifted and people at MGH saying he should not have been picked up in the first place.  He was discharged without medicines prescribed and with all of his vitals in the normal range including his blood pressure.

Copy of his discharge paper in attached.

This all happened on March 3rd, a voting day and he planned to vote – as he always does.  He was put into MGH from the morning of March 3rd through to about 3:30am on Wednesday March 4th.  Rev. Dr. Bennett said he needed to leave in time to vote, he was told that was not possible, there were many people ahead of him needing to interview with the psychiatrist – so Rev. Dr. Bennett lost his right to vote because of the irresponsible actions of SCES.

Two days later, the police arrived at Dr. Bennett’s house on Friday March 6th about 6pm.  This time only two policemen, EMT’s, ambulance, etc. to once again take him to MGH – this time on a section 19.

The section 12 didn’t work so SCES with its Attorney James O’Sullivan would use the “emergency hearing” route which Attorney O’Sullivan has a reputation for using and on information and belief, abusing.  

There was no reason on any level for such an emergency hearing which included substantial requests.

On information and belief the Emergency Hearing was abused and the items and actions it allowed are not legal because the hearing was not legal in its elimination of notice to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett.  We ask that everything from that point on be reversed and wiped from the court record.

Clearly, the resolve of Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services was not about what was needed, but what they were going to force through to keep their program going.  The services of Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services were available and if you didn’t use them you would be forced to.  That is their reputation.  

Many people in the Harvard Square area and on information and belief, in other areas also use their and their related state funded services for things like – house cleaning, baby sitting, dog walking and so much more charged under health care insurance and/or paid for by state taxes and individual contributions intended to be used for other more needed uses and for people more seriously in need of such basic health services.  

These ‘extra” services are charged to the patient – or ex-patients health insurance through the  Home Healthcare Service working with the patient or ex-patient, making the huge increase in the cost of health services so exorbitant and becoming even more exorbitant exponentially that all are suffering from this increase.

Also part of their(SCES) reputation is the fact that serious complaints against them are useless because the people against whom the complaints are aimed investigate themselves. If the complaints come in through the elder hotline against SCES – the people talked about do the investigation;  if the complaint comes in through other areas in the state having to do with Elder Affairs the complaint is self-investigated.  If it is a substantial complaint it is “lost”.  If the complaint goes to the Executive office of Elder Affairs headed by Paul Hollings,  Mr. Hollings simply sends any complaints to SCES and the people against whom the complaint is directed for them to investigate themselves and make their own findings.

On March 6th, since the Section 12 didn’t work to incarcerate Dr. Bennett, the Section 19 was activated and the police came to take Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett out of his house with the claim that he was the subject of “Medical Abuse” by his wife and he would suffer serious injuries and harm if he were not immediately removed.

The court hearing which produced that result was heard ex parte without Dr. Bennett being notified.  It was also a hearing in which Dr. Bennett was claimed to be “indigent” and with no one to look out for him and take care of him so SCES was stepping into the breach.

The Section 19 made CLAIMS OF MEDICAL ABUSE BY MARCELINE DONALDSON OF ROBERT BENNETT – HER HUSBAND OF 37 YEARS.  A man who is 87 years old and except for the recent hospital stay has been very healthy all of those 87 years, particularly the 37 he spent married to Marceline Donaldson.

Marceline Donaldson did not know until recently that this was the reason Robert Bennett was taken from his home by the police.  The policeman who came refused to give her any court papers as to why they were there and why he was being removed so dramatically.  She discovered this when told by a Cambridge Policeman just last week.

She knew there were charges of abuse, but thought those were part of the Protective Order.

This section 19 was backed up by an affidavit by Ms. Nora Al WetAid which is full of lies, misstatements and more.  I think if it is investigated by law enforcement it will be found in many places to rise to the level of perjury.

Robert Bennett fell in February, 2020.  His wife called their PCP – Dr.Kehlman to ask if they should come to his office or go to the hospital, or etc. because she was concerned.

Dr Kehlmann said neither – he was going on vacation and he would see Robert after he returned.

Ms. Donaldson asked if there was someone else in his practice they could see. He said no one was available.  

She asked if she should see a neurologist and if he could recommend someone because Beth Israel suggested they see a neurologist for a cat scan in about six weeks.  She said they could do both things at once when he returned.  He said he was busy getting ready to leave on this vacation and had too many patients to see ahead of them.

And then Ms. Donaldson was charged by SCES for “medical abuse” with information from Rev. Dr. Bennett’s PCP added to that which Ms. Al-Wet Aid and Ms. Clary created.

Dr. Kehlman is no longer Rev. Dr. Bennett’s PCP.  The letter of a new PCP arrangement is included with this package to the court.

Actually, this was said through the person on the telephone in his office who put Ms. Donaldson on hold a few times while he conveyed the messages to Dr. Kehlman.

All during the trials and tribulations that the Donaldson/Bennett’s went through,  Dr. Kehlman, according to Ms. Al WetAid’s affidavit, characterized Ms. Donaldson in the most negative terms.  In fact, they both did.  Since none of them knew Ms. Donaldson that was an amazing piece of fiction.

Ms. Donaldson and Rev. Dr. Bennett spent a few days trying to find a doctor. Ms. Donaldson talked back and forth to several friends looking for a recommendation of a doctor who they could see.   

Ms. Ivey’s statement is included on a separate page.

About February 20th Ms. Ivey called Ms. Donaldson to say her friend – Dr. David Pilgrim, chief neurologist at Brigham and Women’s had called her back and advised that Ms. Donaldson call 911 and take Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett to MGH by ambulance and Dr. Pilgrim would keep an eye out over them.

Ms. Donaldson and Rev. Dr. Bennett did not want to call 911 to go to a hospital because they knew the experience of blacks doing such a thing and it was mostly negative.  Being told that Dr. Pilgrim would stay in the background they called 911 and went to MGH where Rev. Dr. Bennett had successful brain surgery.

All of the above was negatively characterized and distorted by Ms. Angela Clary, Ms. Nora Al-Wetaid and others as they misused and distorted actual facts to create a case they could work to justify their existence within SCES and the entire elder care area.

Rev. Dr. Bennett’s experience at MGH began to turn negative when Ms. Angela Clary showed up and started seriously interrogating Rev. Dr. Bennett for over an hour when he had just recovered from the surgery and was less than an hour out from under oxygen.  It was a horrible thing to do and a horrendous experience for Rev. Dr. Bennett.  Not something a caring person would have attempted – especially since neither Dr. Bennett nor his Health Care Proxy gave permission for this to happen, especially in the time frame ms. Clary chose.

We have received over 40 letters of support from people who know Rev. Dr. Bennett and Ms. Donaldson – some of whom have lived with them for fairly long periods of time and who can speak about the fact that they have a loving relationship and no abuse of any kind between them.  We are not sending those with this document because we are not sure of their relevance, but will make them available to the court if the court wants to take these letters into consideration.

We ask that this section 19 be removed and the Donaldson/Bennett’s be left in peace.  They have a large community of friends and family with whom they are very close and have no need of intervention from groups like SCES.  SCES with its related organizations and supporting people – both employees, consultants and others needs to be thoroughly investigated and the state resources better used.

Rev. Dr. Bennett has said he has never been so intruded upon and certainly in his life time never sexually abused until the intervention of SCES who demanded he follow all of their “requests” or be sent to a nursing home as “incapacitated”.

Some of those constant demands were that he and his wife apply for Mass Health even though they did not qualify and had more than adequate insurance; they demanded that he would be let out of MGH only if he and his wife allowed one and only one Home Health Care Company who they wanted them to use into their home on the agencies schedule with the people they sent – the Blissful Agency; that Dr. Bennett’s son come from Washington D. C. to pick him up from MGH and bring him home to his wife even though that meant the son breaking the quarantine and having to cross state borders risking a lot because of this demand.

Rev. Dr. Bennett has friends who live across the street from him who could and would have picked him up from the hospital to bring him home.  That was denied by SCES and the demand again made that only if his son from Washington D. C. come to Cambridge – which meant drive, considering other avenues were not open to them – to pick up his father from MGH to bring him home or he would be put under the guardianship of Jewish Center for Family and Children and sent to a Hebrew Nursing Home immediately.

Threats have been common with SCES people – mostly sent through Attorney O’Sullivan, other demands sent more directly.

Given the above we ask that Rev. Dr. Bennett and Marceline Donaldson be relieved from this intervention and left alone.”

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If you have comments about this document – please let us know. The case has been postponed until August 3rd so they need attorneys before then. They think they can move ahead themselves, but we convinced them they really need professional legal help. We know how disappointing it can be when those you put in place to work with don’t produce what you need and then you discover what they could have done and your stomach drops out.

We are looking for your comments, differences, enlargements, whatever you have to say about this Motion to Dismiss. Put it in a different form? More legalese conforming to what a court would expect? Your turn!

Sadly, we are finding there is a serious abuse of emergency motions in this probate and family court which has insured that the Bennett Donaldsons were not in a court of law in the United States, but the abuse of the emergency motion concept, we feel, put them in a court in a fascist country where courts are really only a window dressing to set up a window display giving the perception of something that came out of a U. S. Court of Law, but in actual fact set up the result so the person or persons on the other side would be seriously handicapped if they could ever come out of what was done to them by an emergency motion hearing about which they were not served and did not know.

At some point, there should be a review of past emergency motions in other cases to restore those who were so hurt back to some kind of making them whole.

Our number one recommendation to the Donaldson/Bennett’s is that they use Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to help others in the same place who are at the weakest point of their lives and need help from those interested in helping and not exploiting for reasons of greed, career advancement, bigotry and more. Hopefully, that will happen because Guardianship as a profit making area is moving quite fast and the elderly are being exploited in major ways.

To spend your life working and near its end all of the assets you managed to save so your last years would be comfortable and sometimes even fun and then find there are those in the weeds waiting to rip off every penny you have put aside is totally destructive of the human psyche and everything else.

We saw Health Care Proxies, so carefully and thoughtfully put in place invalidated by the court and replaced by Health Care Proxies you explicitly did not want – your rights destroyed. We saw Durable Powers of Attorney put in place with the same care, invalidated so your estate could be ripped off – and it destroyed our thoughts about planning for those end times.

The Health Industry has its enormously good side. What we are seeing here is the evil incorporated in this Health Industry which will destroy our lives and turn this republic into a Nazi-type country if we don’t deal with where it could go now.

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