PARENTS BE CAREFUL LETTING YOUR TEEN ASSOCIATE WITH AA MEMBERS AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Why should parents be careful about letting their teens associate with AA members from the Santa Clarita Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous?

JR Harris's picture

Courtesy of JR Harris on Mon, 12/31/2012

The Santa Clarita Valley (SVC) Central Office of Alcoholics Anonymous is located at 26951 Ruether Ave., Suite B-6, Santa Clarita, CA 91351 and acts as the central focal point of Alcoholics Anonymous claiming no control over the events they coordinate, promote and advertise in that area of Los Angeles County (http://www.aascv.org/). Alcoholics Anonymous actively recruits from jails and prison for members under their “Correction Committees”, from mental institutions under their “Hospital & Institution” (H&I) committees and from the probation, parole and court systems under their “Cooperation with the Professional Community” (CPC) committees. The members of AA will tell you that the majority of the members do not come from these outlets and through the last survey they published, which only polled around 7,000 members, only 11% of the members came from these outlets. Depending upon outside sources this number is actually between 45-55%.

Why should this be important information for parents to know if they allow their children to go to AA meetings, Al-Anon or Alateen in Santa Clarita Valley (SVC)? The simple reason is because this particular Intergroup co-mingles Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon and Alateen members and if a teen is attacked physically, financially or sexually they will be made to blame for the attack. Use Google and find the physical, financial or sexual attacks in Alcoholics Anonymous and you will find that the Victim is almost always made to be the reason for the attack and the AA Intergroup or group will be called blameless and they will blame your teen. You and your teen will be told repeatedly that your teen was at fault and that you can’t hold the people holding the event responsible for what happened. Here is an example that happens every year that co-mingles all three groups that happened this year, luckily without any incidents that are known and reported. Continue reading

Alcoholics Anonymous Member Niemic Convicted of First Degree Murder

AA Member Jonathan Niemic was mandated to AA while he was on parole, a few days later he stabbed and killed a man outside of the AA meeting he was attending. His own father is also a convicted killer as well. Niemic got life in prison. At least he will not be at anymore outside AA meetings. Many killers do get paroled, and part of it’s requirements is to attend AA or NA meetings. Continue reading

Longtime AA Sponsor Sentenced To Death For Brutal Florida Murders

John Kalisz 57, who had over 20 years of sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, became a sponsor to many. Even after being in the program for so long he is sentenced to death for the brutal murders of his sister, her employee and a police officer. Also prior to this he was convicted of crimes involving his niece where he had to register as a sex offender.
His public defender actually asked the jurors their opinion of Alcoholics Anonymous and if they believed alcoholism was a disease.
‘During much of last week’s jury selection, public defender Alan Fanter focused his questions on alcoholism. He asked jurors for their opinions about Alcoholics Anonymous, if they knew any alcoholics and if they believed alcoholism was curable.’
Then they had a witness that said if his life was spared he would be an asset to the prison because of his AA experience.Are you serious?
‘Ron McAndrews, a former prison warden who advocates for an end to capital punishment, was the last witness called Thursday morning by the defense. He said Kalisz, if sentenced to life, would become an “asset” to a prison’s general population because of his experiences with AA.’
HT0127KALISZSENTENCE01
By TONY HOLT | Hernando Today
Published: January 26, 2012
Updated: January 26, 2012 – 6:04 PM
BROOKSVILLE –Death was the unanimous recommendation by jurors Thursday.John Kalisz, 57, convicted of slaying two women and seriously wounding two more during a Jan. 14, 2010 shooting spree, sat stone-faced when the advisory sentences were read.Jurors were sent shortly before 3 p.m. to the deliberation room to decide on a punishment recommendation for Kalisz. They reached it in less than an hour. The vote was 12-0.Prosecutor Pete Magrino said because of the “evilness” of the killings, the most appropriate punishment for Kalisz was death by lethal injection.Magrino called the slayings “cold, calculated and premeditated with no legal or moral justification.”Kalisz fatally shot his sister, Kathryn Donovan, 61, and her employee, Deborah Tillotson, 59, during a revenge-thirsty rampage. He also shot and wounded his niece, Manessa Donovan, 21, and another woman, Amy Green, 35.All four victims were at the elder Donovan’s home at 15303 Wilhelm Road near Brooksville. Kalisz, who used to live at the house, came in through a backdoor and shot the women 14 times.

Manessa Donovan was eight weeks pregnant when she was shot. Her fetus died during emergency surgery.

The defense tried for two days to paint Kalisz as a good-natured, selfless man who snapped under the weight of stress, desperation and emotional turmoil.

“He was always there when I needed him – any time with anything,” said a weeping Melissa Williams, a friend of Kalisz’s who testified Thursday morning via video feed.

She credited him with hiring her when she needed to earn money, comforting her when she needed a shoulder to cry on and counseling her as she toiled through a crumbling marriage.

Kalisz’s life since the early 1990s centered on Alcoholics Anonymous. He grew up in a household where abusive drinking was the norm, said defense attorney Devon Sharkey.

It wasn’t long before he was consumed by his own addictions. He spent much of his life homeless and estranged from his family.

He found sobriety and salvation through AA and he was committed to it, his friends and relatives said. He sponsored recovering alcoholics and guided them through the 12-step program.

“AA held him together pretty well for 20 years,” said Peter Bursten, a mental health expert hired by the defense. “He was viewed by others as a good person.”

Bursten said Kalisz’s life in AA boosted his self-esteem. It made him proud he could help people – even turn around their lives. He gleaned “almost a child-like” joy out of it.

“For many years, he didn’t feel what it was like to be a decent human being,” Bursten said, referring to Kalisz’s dark days of living under bridges and spending endless nights in jail for committing petty crimes.

In October 2009, Kalisz pleaded guilty in Hernando County Circuit Court to charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was accused of exposing himself to Manessa Donovan while she was a juvenile and leaving a CD containing provocative photos under her mattress.

He also was accused of threatening Donovan’s boyfriend at the time with a knife. The confrontation was witnessed by family members.

Following his 2009 conviction, Kalisz was sentenced to probation and was required to register as a sex offender. It kept him away from Colorado, where he had hoped to return so he could resume his roofing career and be with those closest to him.

Two days before the fatal shootings in Brooksville and Cross City, Kalisz’s trailer in Spring Hill went up in flames following a propane explosion. What little he owned was lost.

“Not only did he lose his home in Colorado, he lost his home in Florida,” Bursten said. “He had lost his support system in Florida. At that point, he described to me he had nothing left … He was exceptionally (and) emotionally distraught.”

More than an hour after the Wilhelm Road shootings, Kalisz drove north through several counties along U.S. 19. He pulled into a gas station in Cross City, at which time several Dixie County Sheriff’s deputies surrounded him. Kalisz opened fire.

Capt. Chad Reed was shot and killed. Kalisz also was shot, but survived his injuries.

Last year, Kalisz pleaded guilty to murdering Reed and received a life sentence.

Jurors heard for the first time Wednesday evidence related to Reed’s death.

Magrino reminded jurors during his closing argument Thursday that Reed was gunned down in the line of duty.

He also reminded them the younger Donovan and Green survived their seven gunshot wounds during the Wilhelm Road shooting only after playing dead. Had they not, “we would have had a giant massacre here in Hernando County,” Magrino told jurors.

Both women gave emotional testimony last week. Both of them made a point to stare their attacker in the eyes.

Green’s testimony was especially trying for her. She lives in a neighboring county, but does her best to avoid driving into Hernando because the memories of the Wilhelm Road shootings still affect her, said Magrino.

“I had grave doubts whether she’d be able to testify,” he said.

Kalisz’s formal sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 6.

Relatives of Tillotson and Reed were ushered out of the courtroom moments after the sentencing recommendation was read Thursday. They didn’t speak to the media.

Kalisz’s relatives and friends also declined to comment.

Ron McAndrews, a former prison warden who advocates for an end to capital punishment, was the last witness called Thursday morning by the defense. He said Kalisz, if sentenced to life, would become an “asset” to a prison’s general population because of his experiences with AA.

Hours later, in an effort to poke holes into McAndrews’ testimony, Magrino told jurors during his closing arguments Kalisz was arrested in August 2011 for “bartering to get drugs” while in jail.

http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/hernando-news/2012/jan/26/1/friend-psychologist-describe-convicted-murderer-ar-351731/

Another Article-

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/two-dramatic-u-turns-for-john-kalisz-accused-in-deadly-hernando-county/1071556

Cocaine Anonymous Treasurer Sentenced To Death In Petit Connecticut Murders

Condemned: Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death today for the brutal murder and rape of a wife and her daughters in Connecticut

Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky first crossed paths at a Hartford, Connecticut, drug treatment center in the summer of 2006, according to police.

Both men, career criminals, had been in and out of jail for similar non-violent crimes. Twice they had overlapping stays at the same halfway house or drug center, and the two attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings together and became friends, according to a detective’s report. NA Daytona Meetings in Holly Hill Florida.

They shared similar interests — often the downfall that led them into the criminal justice system — but nobody knew at the time that their friendship would result in what police and prosecutors say was one of the most brutal crimes in memory in the prosperous town of Cheshire, Connecticut.

Connecticut killer sentenced to die for “unimaginable horror”

Mary Ellen GodinReuters2:14 p.m. CST, January 27, 2012
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (Reuters) – A judge ordered Joshua Komisarjevsky to be executed this summer for the 2007 murders of a mother and her two daughters during a brutal home invasion in Connecticut, saying on Friday that he committed a crime of “unimaginable horror.”Judge Jon Blue told Komisarjevsky, 31, that he alone was to blame for his new address on death row after the triple murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley Petit, 17, and Michaela Petit, 11, and beating of husband and father Dr. William Petit Jr.”This is a terrible sentence but one you have written for yourself,” Blue told Komisarjevsky in New Haven Superior Court.”Your crime was one of unimaginable horror and sadness,” the judge said. “Your fate is now in the hands of others. May God have mercy on your soul.”He set an execution date of July 20 pending an appeal, which could drag out the matter for years.Before the judge spoke, Komisarjevsky, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, denied he killed or raped anyone and blamed “the hurt I caused” on being a victim himself of sex abuse as a child, drug addiction, and his accomplice Steven Hayes, 48, already sentenced to death row.Hawke-Petit was strangled and the girls died of smoke inhalation after the home was set afire. Hawke-Petit was raped and Michaela Petit was sexually assaulted.Dr. Petit, who had been tied up and beaten unconscious, escaped as the home went up in flames.http://www.wqad.com/topic/sns-rt-us-crime-homeinvasiontre80q1iy-20120127,0,2603124.story

New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) — A judge in New Haven sentenced a 31-year-old man to death Friday for his role in a deadly home invasion that killed a woman and her two daughters in 2007.

Jurors convicted Joshua Komisarjevsky in October on six capital felony charges. The 12-member jury had recommended death by lethal injection on each of the counts.

“The task of sentencing another human being to death is the most sober and somber experience a judge can have,” said Superior Court Judge Jon Blue.

Komisarjevsky responded Friday, saying that he “came into this trial angry and defiant.”

It’s a “surreal experience to be condemned to die,” he said. “Our apathetic pursuits trampled the innocent.”

He said, “I did not rape. I did not pour that gas or light that fire.”

“I will never find peace again and my soul is torn,” Komisarjevsky added.

The family of his victims left the courtroom before Komisarjevsky spoke.

Richard Hawke, in a victim’s statement prior to the sentencing, said the killings of his daughter and granddaughters had left him “half-past dead.”

“They offered to give you everything you asked for, you didn’t have to take their lives,” he told Komisarjevsky. “You will from now on be known as a prison number in the book of death. You are now in God’s hands.”

The man convicted of being Komisarjevsky’s accomplice, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death in 2010. Juries convicted the pair on charges that they beat and tied up Dr. William Petit Jr., raped and strangled his wife, molested one of their daughters and set the house on fire before trying to flee.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/justice/connecticut-home-invasion-sentencing/index.html?iref=allsearch

Photos of Petit Crime Scene-

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/slideshow/evidence-photos-petit-murder-trial-11658978

July 18th 2013 Katie Couric Show with Mathew West and the Cheshire Murders-

http://www.katiecouric.com/on-the-show/2013/07/18/cheshire-murders-matthew-west/