AFFIDAVIT OF TRUTH
by Gypsy Taub
I, Oxane Taub, declare under the penalty of perjury, that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
EXHIBITS:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wx6EQVfRNuGR5YYJtCxqTN_pF8DvYoOE?usp=sharin
The story of my case began on Christmas of 2019. My son Daniel who was about to turn 14 had
a friend, John Doe, who was just a week older than Daniel.
John was living with his mother, Raven Thrasher and her partner Angie Brandt, three blocks
away from us, on the corner of a big intersection (Ashby and Sacramento) in Berkeley.
John, Raven and Angie came to our house on Christmas Eve to get a puppy from us. They
ended up leaving with one of our puppies, but not the one we originally wanted to give away.
The next day we decided to take the puppy back. We asked for it very politely, but got a very
hostile response from Raven, John’s mother. That’s how our conflicts began.
After 2 days of conflict we managed to get our puppy back. But ever since that incident Raven
has absolutely hated me. She dedicated her life to destroying me and my children.
When the puppy was returned, it got really sick and nearly died. About 2 weeks later he started
having violent fits of rage that he has never had before. He started attacking us and other
puppies. It took him about a year to stop being violent.
It was clear that the puppy was very deeply traumatized when it was with Raven. We could
conclude that Raven had tortured our dog. John’s friend Leo said that Raven had gone
through three dogs in one year. Since then Raven has lost another dog.
We became really concerned not only for the dog Raven had at the time, but for John as
well. Daniel had told me many times that John was always really depressed, that John
was on the verge of suicide and that John was cutting himself on regular basis and showing
his cuts to Daniel and his other friends. After we saw what happened to our puppy in Raven’s
custody it became clear to us who was abusing John and causing him to cut himself.
John’s friends already knew that his mother Raven was very controlling and had no respect
for his privacy. She hardly ever let him see his friends. She spied on him day and night and
extorted information out of him on a regular basis.
When Daniel had a sleepover at John’s house Raven went into a fit of rage in the morning
because Daniel and his friends ate there eggs without waiting for her.
Having lost my husband and a very close friend to suicide, I became very concerned about
John. I care a lot about people, especially children and teens. I had my own youth shelter
and a compassionate drug rehab for street kids in Mexico before I was incarcerated. I helped 16
street kids quit hard drugs. Here is a 5-minute documentary about my work with the street kids
in Mexico:
http://www.jerrygarciafamilyclinic.org
I only saw John about 5 or 6 times in my entire life. I only saw him briefly and have never
been alone with him. John and I Became Friends. He gave me his
email address.
I sent him healing meditations and a lot of music. Most of my emails did not contain any text. A
few emails were romantic but never sexually explicit.
In late May of 2019 John Ran up to me at Willard Park and said: “I love you”
In early 2019 (way before the restraining order) I had two phone conversations with John
and Daniel (all three of us) on Daniel’s phone. I actually never knew and to this day don’t know
John’s phone number. I never texted him and never called him myself.
Daniel had told me that John showed up to school with bruises on a few occasions. One time
he had a huge Purple bruise on his forehead. He was trying to hide it from his friends. He
refused to discuss where it came from.
I told John on the phone and and emails that the way his mother was treating him was
unacceptable. It turned out later that Raven was reading all my emails, since she spies on
John all the time. Raven saw me as a threat. She called the police in early June of 2019 and
told them that I was sending John sexual emails which was a lie.
The Berkeley police reviewed the emails and wrote in their report that none of the emails were
sexual.
Exhibit P1
Page1, Lines 3-4
Page 2, lines 5-6
Nevertheless, on June 27th, 2019 Raven managed to get a restraining order against me based
entirely on false accusations.
Commissioner Tamiza Hockenhull issued a four-year restraining order out of retaliation. I had
another hearing with her a month prior. I was trying to get a restraining order for myself and my
three children against violent neighbors whose violence was documented in video footage.
Tamiza Hockenhull refused to give us a restraining order. I called her a disgrace. I told her that
she was racist and dishonest.
Exhibit T7
Page 28, Lines 14-23
The only evidence that Raven had was non-violent, non-sexual emails that could have easily
been blocked. Yet commissioner Tamiza Hockenhull issued a restraining order in retaliation
based on me saying “I love you” in an email and based on another email that was written by my
son Daniel, not by me. She was fully aware that the email was not from me.
Exhibit T8-
Page27, Lines 8-28
Page28, Lines 1-11
Exhibit E5
When the first temporary restraining order was issued in early June of 2019, John put four
cuts on his arm because the restraining order was obtained against his will. We called the
police. Daniel told the officer about the four cuts that he saw on John’s arm that day.
Unfortunately, the officer did not say a word about his conversation with Daniel in his police
report, but luckily we have a video:
Exhibit V5
When the police officer went to John’s house to check on his cuts his mother Raven refused
to show him to the police.
Besides the bruises and the cuts there were other very disturbing things happening in John’s
life. Raven forced him to go on mysterious camping trips with boy scouts on a regular basis. I
talked about this in detail in my email to John’s father.
On September 6th, 2019 I was arrested because I stopped at the traffic light in front of 1509
Ashby, we’re John used to live. His house was right on the corner of Ashby and Sacramento.
The nearest big intersection to my house. There’s a stoplight at that intersection.
1509 Ashby wasn’t even on the restraining order. Instead a San Francisco address was listed
there.
Exhibit: Prelim 2
On September 11th, 2019 Judge Sandra Bean gave me permission to use the Ashby/
Sacramento intersection as long as I don’t park and don’t get out of my vehicle.
Exhibit M2
In the meantime, I was really concerned about John’s mental and emotional health.
According to John, his mother practically kidnapped him from his father. She moved to
California to separate him from his friends and his father about a year or two before I met
John. John really missed his father.
In July of 2019 I reached out to his father, William Forest Pitts, who was living in Alabama. I
asked him to move to California so that he could be with John and so that he could protect
him from Raven. I offered to let him stay at our house for free until he gets on his feet, gets a job
and gets his own place to live where he could take care of John and hopefully get full
custody. Forest was friendly in response at first, but then turned against me. I reached out to
him again in October of 2019. Here’s the email I sent him:
Exhibit E4
I did my own investigation of Raven and found a lot of satanic images on Ravens Instagram and
Facebook pages. Among other things, she glorified the satanic temple and 30 of her friends
liked her praise of the satanic temple.
In July of 2019 I reached out to his father, William Forest Pitts, who was living in Alabama. I
asked him to move to California so that he could be with John and so that he could protect
him from Raven. I offered to let him stay at our house for free until he gets on his feet, gets a job
and gets his own place to live where he could take care of John and hopefully get full
custody. Forest was friendly in response at first, but then turned against me. I reached out to
him again in October of 2019. Here’s the email I sent him:
Exhibit E4
I did my own investigation of Raven and found a lot of satanic images on Ravens Instagram and
Facebook pages. Among other things, she glorified the satanic temple and 30 of her friends
liked her praise of the satanic temple.
Exhibit I2 (letter “I” and number 2)
(The above Exhibit is located in a folder on the very top of the list of Exhibits)
In my attempt to help John I reached out to the vice principal of Willard Middle School, Mr
Albeck. He did absolutely nothing. He never reported John’s cuts to anybody.
I reached out to the CPS, to Berkeley Police a few times, to John’s father Forest Pits and to
DA Roisman. Here’s my correspondence with DA royseman.
Exhibit E2
No one was willing to help John. No one was taking his situation seriously .
I did some research of my own. My daughter Inti introduced me to her friend Grayson who had
grown up in a group home. Grayson told me about an Oakland youth shelter called
Dreamcatcher. Grayson said that Dreamcatcher was the only place that did not returned abused
teens back to their abusive parents and did not surrender them to the police.
I went to Dreamcatcher and met with The general manager Dwayne Chenevert. Dwayne
confirmed that neither parents nor police were allowed to enter Dreamcatcher. He told me that
John would be safe there and would be able to get a CPS referral and get into foster care. I
was told that if John doesn’t like his foster parents he would be able to return to dream
catcher and get new foster parents.
Daniel really wanted to help John too. He was really happy that I finally found a place where
John could be safe from abuse and where he could get into foster care.
Daniel and I posted information about dream catcher on blogs called “friends for life” and “help
for teens”. We posted the address, photos of the shelter and to the mural near it. We posted
detailed descriptions of the building and all its entrances.
In November of 2019 Daniel sent John his old phone through their mutual friend Leo. He
sent John his phone so that John could communicate with his friends without being spied
on by his mother and so that John could order a lift or call a cab so that he could go to
Dreamcatcher.
In the meantime, I appealed my restraining order. And the appeal was due to go through by
January or February of 2020. Daniel and I became concerned that If I win my appeal Raven
would kidnap John and take him out of the Bay area where none of us would be able to find
him, nor help him. Since she had kidnapped him from his father before we knew she was fully
capable of that.
Exhibit: Prelim 8
We realized that the easiest way for Raven to permanently take John away was to take him
out of town during Christmas break and to simply never come back. That way he would be
caught by surprise and wouldn’t try to run away to Dreamcatcher to avoid getting permanently
taken away. Daniel and I realized that we were almost out of time. Christmas break was about to start in a few days.
(That Christmas Raven actually did take John out of town, but since i was arrested on new charges, it was safe for her to bring John back)
On December 15th, 2020 Daniel sent John a note through his friend Leo. In that note he told
John that he wanted to meet him at Target near Berkeley high.
“She is going to take you away from this area forever very soon. This is our last chance to help you.
Meet at Target near the entrance at lunch tomorrow. Leave your bag and your regular phone in the locker.
If you miss tomorrow, meet at lunch at Target the next day and the next.”
(“She” refers to John’s mother. “Our last chance to help you” refers to Daniel and myself.)
Daniel wanted to ask John if John wanted him to order a lift so that John could go to
Dreamcatcher.
On December 17th, 2019 Daniel went to the Berkeley high area and waited for John in front
of Target during lunch break. Clearly, there was a lot of surveillance there and a lot of Berkeley
high students. Daniel waited for a few minutes. He saw John on the other side of the street
but John did not come to meet Daniel. He just kept walking. Daniel figured that John
wasn’t ready to go to Dreamcatcher and left the area.
While Daniel was waiting for John in front of Target I was at the bank. Then Daniel and I met
up and started walking home. My vehicles were both broken so we were on foot.
On our way home we looked around the neighborhood for at least an hour looking for my
sweater that I had lost there two days prior. We did find my sweater (orange and black). I also
found a stack of magazines. I looked at them for a while. Daniel was getting tired of waiting for
me. I caught up with him and we headed home on foot on MLK (Martin Luther King Jr way), One of the biggest streets in Berkeley.
I was wearing a long bright pink wrap around skirt, clearly not trying to hide.
Exhibit I8 (letter “I” and number 8)
It was obvious that we were not hiding from anybody.
i was arrested about eight blocks away from Target at least an hour after Daniel tried to meet
John. I was charged with attempted child abduction, contributing to the delinquency of a
minor and a few restraining order violations. I was given $345,000 Bail that the court refused to
lower. One of the supporters of my healing work and my activism put his house on collateral and bailed me out.
When I got out of jail on January 10th 2020 Daniel told me that Leo had a message for me from
John. John said that he was sick of living with his mother, that he wanted to get away
from her on his own and that he wanted me to stay out of it because he didn’t want me to get in
trouble.
We should have stayed out of it and let John deal with his situation on his own. He knew
where to go, that was the main thing. But we wanted to make sure that John had the money
to pay for a cab and a phone to call a cab or to order a Lyft.
We made multiple posts on the friends for life blog telling John where we hid money for him.
Daniel also hide a phone and $50 for John in a locker at Berkeley high.
Exhibit P11
Page 1 Lines 18-27
P 2 l 1-25
P 5 l11-15
Exhibit P12
Whole page 1
P2 l 1-12’
Exhibit P15
All our posts were discovered by Raven, then the police. All the money and the phone were
confiscated by the BPD. Not only did the police refuse to help John, but they made sure to
sabotage all the help that we tried to give him. They made sure that he had no way out of his
abusive situation.
After the restraining order was issued I was worried that John would commit suicide or go off
the deep and in some way or another because I knew that he had feelings for me. I
created a blog called “Lemurian dreamers” where I posted music, healing meditations and
letters for him. I didn’t want to violate the restraining order.
None of my posts contained any threats or any sexually explicit content.
I never stalked John Doe. I never physically followed him and never made any threats. No one is alleging that I did any of those things.
I never tried to kidnap nor conceal him from his family either. My son and I were trying to help him get to a youth shelter called Dreamcatcher.
My DAs offered me 3 plea bargains letting me go home with time served, starting just a couple of weeks after I got arrested. I declined because I wanted to go to trial instead to prove that I was innocent.
My case is under appeal due to the fact that my charges are unsupported by evidence and due to many other violations of my rights by the court.
I never intended any harm to John Doe nor anyone else, ever. I have no prior criminal record and no disciplinary violations in prison besides being late for class on a day when I was sick.
I am convinced that all my false charges and my $2-million bail were given to me in retaliation for political reasons.
In February of 2020 I was given $2 million bail that the court refused to lower in gross violation of my constitutional rights and in gross violation of the mandate by the Supreme Court of California that prohibits unaffordable bail. Because of my low income, I should have been either given no bail or released on my own recognizance. $2M bail equals “no bail”. ” No bail” is only justified by the law in cases where there is “clear and convincing evidence” that the release of the detainee would cause “great bodily harm” which was clearly not my case, since there were never any allegations of violence in my case, and since I had no prior criminal record.
I was given $2 million bail as if I was a very dangerous criminal. My bail was twice the amount given to cop Derek Chauvin who killed George Floyd. And at the same time, I was given a “time served” offer that is only given to people who are considered safe and not a threat to the community. The DA wanted me to plead guilty to stalking and go home. I refused because all my charges were false.
More than anything, the DA wanted me to shut up because I kept raising hell in court. I kept talking about the illegal court system. I told them that they have no jurisdiction, that they don’t have proper performance bonds, that their summons are fake. Real summons are supposed to have an elevated seal of California, and theirs didn’t even have a stamp.
I didn’t just say those things in court. I recorded them and posted them on the internet. I told the DAs that I am an activist and promised to expose every single one of them.
That’s why I spent 3 years and 3 months in prison for crimes that I did not commit. I consider myself a political prisoner.