(This is a third installment of a multi-part series telling the horror that Disclosure Publisher Jack Howser and his family endured when he and his wife Angela became custodial grandparents of Angela’s granddaughter, and an Olney attorney, representing the other side of the cutody battle, called in whatever forces he could muster in an attempt to make the Howsers appear as unfit parents for the baby, born in March 2010 to Angela’s daughter. Attorney Chuck Roberts’ efforts included capitalizing on a rift between Jack Howser and his father Dan after Jack’s mother Judy died, and involved a frivolous Order of Protection that Dan was seeking in order to convince the court that there was something “wrong” with him, all so the baby would be taken from them and given to paternal relatives in Indiana, since the father, Alec Sparks, had already been declared by judge Kim Harrell to be unfit. This installment outlines how the frivolous OP was allowed, by Harrell, to be expounded upon when the original filing in March 2011 was not granted on the basis that there was nothing in the petition that constituted an emergency, nor an order of protection at all).
RICHLAND CO.—Having endured vicious and unfounded accusations from complete strangers as well as his own family, Jack Howser was once again the target of inexplicable judicial decisions when in the summer of 2011, after she had already decided that the baby was in a good home and then was unexpectedly removed from the case on a motion by Chuck Roberts, associate judge Kim Harrell decided to let Dan Howser file an amended complaint for an order of protection.
The initial complaint, filed in March of 2011, had no basis for an emergency order, according to Harrell (who had not been removed from the OP, only from the baby’s probate case). Why she decided to allow it to go forward, instead of being thrown out for having no merit, remains unknown to this day.
However, Dan Howser, who is Jack Howser’s adoptive father, and who lives next door to Jack and Angela Howser after having sold them a decrepit farmhouse for $10,000 and subsequent payments of $300 a month in 2005 so he could purchase a doublewide out in the country, was allowed to amend his frivolous petition (outlined in the October Special Edition 2012) and added his new wife, Alexis Davis (whom he was seeing for years prior to his wife’s death) and his son Tom (who lives in a basement apartment under the doublewide).
And upon being given more time to whine about all the wrongs Dan Howser percieved his adopted son had done to him, he began throwing other things into the OP petition that were even more frivolous, and, by many turns, made no sense whatsoever and didn’t belong in anything like an OP.
In his amended petition, the elder Howser stated he wished to seek an OP based upon the following:
That in early 2008 (bear in mind this was summer of 2011 when the petition was being filed), Jack borrowed a “Troy Bilt” rear-tine tiller and when Tom Howser sought the return of the tiller, the indication from Jack Howser was “what is it of your concern? It’s mine.”
The elder Howser then threw into the petition, likely at the guidance of Roberts, that “the conduct of Jack Howser toward property of the petitioner is intimidating.” The elder Howser also neglected to mention that when the large sum of money was handed over to him by Jack so he could buy his doublewide, the terms of purchase included not just the house and grounds, but also “all contents,” one of those contents being the tiller noted…but apparently, the elder Howser was willing to take his chances in front of a judge, despite the presence of a signed form that stated just that, and dated November 2005.
His second reasoning was “that since the death of the wife of Daniel Howser in 2008, Jack Howser has written items in the Disclosure that make ugly comments toward Daniel Howser, and are done for the purpose of intimidation or vengeance on the part of Jack Howser.”
Judy Howser actually died in 2009. Columns, which are opinion pieces on opinion pages and can at times get and/or be considered “ugly” depending upon who’s being offended, were what the elder Howser was referring to…likely where the term “items” came into play, as the elder Howser, having written as a columnist for years in Disclosure, knew the stark difference between a column and an article…and to have told the truth in the petition—that what was being referenced were columns, in which a writer is allowed First Amendment liberties regarding OPINION—would have distinctly showed Dan Howser’s hand: that he couldn’t stand to be mentioned in Disclosure at all, especially in light of the fact that his wife was deceased, and he was now openly seeing the woman with whom he was cavorting for years prior to her death.
(In upcoming issues, the rest of the amended petition, which included 12 items hung upon the original OP petition like ornaments hanging on a Christmas tree, is examined, as well as why each and every one of the complaints were contrived and frivolous; upcoming issue is on stands January 16, 2013).