My name is David W. Korsen and I am the natural father of Bryce and Stephanie and Korsen, whom I love very much. I was just recently released from a medium security Idaho prison, south of Boise Idaho. I was put there 2 1/2 years ago on child custody interference charges; stemming from my trying to protect my little ones from their mother, who had been beating, burning and mentally abusing the children and I for 9 years. The children's mother, Ms. Paulsen, made many false accusations; all of which were proven to be malicious and false. I protected my kids but I never violated any custody order. My lawyer had given me a book called Profane Justice, which contained the story of a Colorado father who had been treated unjustly. He explained how the System is often unfair and and said the book showed the reader how to protect his family. I followed the books advice and I obeyed every Idaho state and federal law to the letter in seeking protection for the children. However, just prior to Ada County Magistrate Judge Comstock's award of Bryce and Stephanie's custody to me, the children's mother had apparently begun having an affair with her lawyer, Mr. Dane DeVeau and Mr. DeVeau somehow had the custody case switched to Ada County Magistrate Judge Dennard, a judge who, it became immediately apparent, was completely biased in favor of Mr. DeVeau and his associate Mr. Strother.

Judge Dennard then began undoing the orders of the Judge Comstock by denying motions asking for the legal right to mediate a custody settlement; denying my motion to have Ms. Paulsen drug tested ( I submitted to a voluntary drug test which was clean, she could not have passed); Judge Dennard violated Idaho law by failing to order CPS to do a thorough investigation of the mother's ongoing child abuse; he completely refused, on the record, to look at Ms. Paulsen's recent criminal record of abuse; then he reversed custody from myself to Ms. Paulsen, violating his legal jurisdiction and authority under Idaho Statute 32-717. Judge Dennard then had me arrested and held in Ada County Jail for 22 days without bail while he repeatedly denied me the right to have legal counsel represent me.

I filed a pro se habeas corpus in Ada County Judge Bail's court and subpoenaed Judge Dennard to testify as to why he had illegally arrested me in a civil court ( Idaho law strictly prohibits Judge Dennard's action). Judge Dennard refused to testify and dropped the custody interference charges, but Judge Bail said that Judge Dennard had illegally arrested me, yet Judge Dennard was not charged. Judge Dennard then personally went to Ada County Prosecutor Roger Bourne's office and persuaded him to file Kidnapping charges against me; charges that don't even apply to a biological parent (Mr. Bourne stated this on the record). Judge Dennard got his friend, Judge McLaughlin, to take the kidnapping case even though charging me twice was double jeopardy. I motioned the court in writing for a speedy trial but Judge McLaughlin ordered the trial to be delayed for 10 months. My lawyers assured me that I was completely innocent and said they would win my case at trial, so I declined all plea bargains believing that I would get a fair trial.

I could not get out on bond because after the 22 days without bail, Judge McLaughlin set my bail at $250,000 ( $240,000 more than the $10,000 standard bail for custody interference). The entire time that I was there in jail, the prosecutor told me that I could go home any day, if I would just take the plea bargain ( the deal he was offering included 10 years intensive probation and signing away my rights as Bryce and Steph's father). Judge McLaughlin was so upset that I would not take the plea bargain, that he made a ruling before my trial, in which he denied all 14 of my eye witnesses ( violating my 6th amendment right to have witnesses testify in my defense); his denial of witnesses included 4 police officers who had previously seen and arrested the mother on 7 different battery charges that she had committed against the kids and I over the previous 5 year period. Idaho law 18-1501 forces parents to zealously protect their children from abuse or face felony charges and up to 10 years in prison ( even if the abuse is from a parent, the other parent is responsible to protect the children). Judge McLaughlin would not allow my lawyer to present law 18-1501 to the jury for consideration; nor was the jury ever allowed to see any of her criminal records, eyewitness statements, police reports or her drug and alcohol history, audio and video tapes of her beating and abusing the children and I ( records which included her attempted murder of my son and I, as well as, other batteries and crimes she had recently committed against other adults and children).

I was the only defense witness allowed to testify on my own behalf ( I could only testify about 10 minutes); because prior to testifying, the judge had said that if I mentioned even one word about the mother's criminal conduct or her abuse of the children, he would declare a mistrial and put me back in lockdown for another 8 months waiting for another trial. The jury persons never heard a word about the violent outbursts, drug and alcohol induced rage and mental terror that the children's mother had continuously perpetrated against us over a 9 year period. The jurors were given a set of instructions which, my lawyer later told me that Judge McLaughlin and Roger Bourne had altered to make it possible for the jury to convict because the state could not prove any felony or misdemeanor crime had occurred by using the actual jury instruction's wording of the law; the altered jury instructions did not even state the actual words of law (18-4506) or any other Idaho law, they were made up. The judge had also removed the entire 2nd part of 18-4506, section (b), which contains an affirmative defense clause; that states a parent cannot be guilty of child custody interference if he is trying to protect his children from abuse.

The jury was told by Judge McLaughlin; that they were to assume that I had violated a custody order which he himself knew was not valid at the time I was arrested in civil divorce court ( and in fact, I did have full legal custody of the children with a protection order issued by the Judge Comstock, but the jury never saw that order ( a protection order that the mother had violated more than 20 times and had two arrest warrants pending for her violations). The jury found me guilty of violating this invalid order because they had no choice; Judge McLaughlin illegally excluded any and all evidence of the mother's abuse and negligence; and he refused to let my lawyer argue that the custody order I was accused of violating was illegally issued by Judge Dennard; who he knew did not have lawful jurisdiction to modify custody while the mother was pending trial on 5 current battery charges committed within the previous 6 months. He excluded an audio tape conversation where Ms. Paulsen and her lawyer make statements irrefutably proving that both Ms. Paulsen and her lawyer had committed perjury while testifying against me, taped evidence which would have proved that the key elements of the State's case were developed from completely false testimony.

Judge McLaughlin gave me 15 years, 5 more than the maximum sentence for custody interference which is 10 years (his sentence; 2.5 to 15 years in state prison); far more than any person has ever been given in the history of Idaho ( in fact it is against federal law to charge a parent with kidnapping his or her own child, especially if the child is never taken or hidden). My children were never taken or hidden. I am now appealing. The pre-sentence court investigator told me that the judge had wrongfully convicted me and she refused to recommend that I be sentenced to prison, based on my previous clean record and efforts to protect the kids, she recommended probation. But Judge McLaughlin overruled her findings and put me away. I've lost everything meaningful in my life now and all that I had saved for my kids is gone. That wouldn't be so bad if I could see that someone had somehow gained from this, but no one has gained; every one is losing and hurting, especially our kids. The mother has since alienated the children from everyone including her own father.

I tried to help lots of guys while I was in prison and I never caused any trouble while there. The parole board agreed that I was innocent and let me out after 2.5 years, but I now face a mountain of debt, huge legal bills, parole supervision fees, jail fees, restitution and child support adding up to more than $60,000( any failure to pay any of these is a violation of parole and grounds to re-imprison me for the remaining 12.5 years left on my sentence). I lost both of my companies while I was in jail because I could not raise enough for bail; and as a result I am now completely bankrupt and without legal representation and facing the same judge, Dennard, who continues to preside over the children's custody.

My cases are on direct appeal in the Idaho Supreme Court, but my public defender says he can't do much for us because the state doesn't allow him the time or money he needs to correctly appeal criminal cases. In fact, the public defender has completely omitted, from my appeal, 15 constitutional right violation claims committed by Judge McLaughlin before and during my trial; all 15 claims were filed by my private trial attorney in his Notice of Appeal. The appellate public defender, Paul Sonnenberg, says that his boss told him not to include these claims of serious right violations, but she will not explain why. He has told me that critical trial transcripts and tapes have been destroyed, possibly by Judge McLaughlin. Because the missing transcripts contain critically important entries which include Judge McLaughlin's statements regarding his reasons for unlawful denial of the affirmative defense and testimony of the 14 eye-witnesses that would have proven my innocence. The court's audio tape transcript and clerk's notes are also apparently missing. I'm told that the appellate brief is very weak and I am worried I won't get a new fair trial.

I get so depressed trying not to give up and be strong for my little ones, but this never ending cycle of injustice is overwhelming and I'm so worn out that I've begun to think there is no hope left. This is not the kind of America I was taught about in school and I fear that our children are going to be robbed of any future ability to prosper and enjoy life when they inherit the kinds of social debt that we are allowing to accrue on our watch. I'm just an ordinary person who tried to do what any loving parent would do, what the law and society require a father to do; I really don't know how this can happen in a country like ours. I ask you, on behalf of all our families, how many more children will needlessly suffer in the wake of our apathy and fear of political incorrectness. I want to be able to tell my kid's to believe in our country and our government but I can't lie to them.

Neither my parents, other family members or I are allowed to see the children at all now. We miss them very much and my heart never stops aching. The mother lost custody of her oldest child ( my step-daughter) do to abuse and negligence, while I was awaiting trial; and at the time, the state health and welfare workers were threatening to take Bryce and Steph away from her too; and put them in foster care, also because of her abuse and neglect. She was even arrested and jailed while I was awaiting trial but all her charges, including 5 pending battery charges she was facing, were ordered to be dropped by Roger Bourne in order to avoid a conflict of interest in his prosecuting me. Now Judge Dennard refuses to look into what the mother is doing to the children and his rulings continue to put them at risk; his orders are in complete violation of Idaho law, but I can't find anyone locally who is willing to stand up to him. I have called and written to every one I can think of in the government and media, but this is not a situation that they want to address because they think it will have a negative affect on them if they expose it.

Look up the Fred Leas custody case ( it is almost identical to mine and it illustrates how prevalent judicial abuse of power is in Idaho family and criminal courts). I am desperate, I don't know where else to turn. If you are reading this and you know someone who could help, you have my express permission to forward any and all of this information to those interested parties.

I am not a very good writer but everything I've said here is all documented and true. This is a very complex case, and as such, I have had to leave out many important details in order to be concise. If you would like more info or need a copy of the appellate documents, supporting court records and other evidence, I can mail it to you. I promise you won't regret having taken the time to investigate our claims and I know there are many people who would applaud your efforts to shed light on this very important subject. I know that you are all very busy helping people out there and you have your own problems, but please give serious consideration to our plea because the next person this affects may be someone very dear to you!!!