Witness:  Mr. Roger Morton, Father, Springfield, Missouri

     DOUGHERTY: Excuse me. I need you to move closer to the mike.

     MORTON: My name is Roger D. Morton. I'm a board member of Parents United as One, from Jasper County, Missouri, and I also.....

     CASKEY: Sir, we're having difficulty understanding you.

     DOUGHERTY: You're going to try a little bit closer on the mike, unlike the other gentleman.

     MORTON: Okay, I have a hearing problem. My name is Roger D. Morton. I'm a board member of Parents United as One. I'm from Jasper County, Missouri. I'm also a pro se attorney. I fired my first attorney. He cost me an arm and a leg. He wasn't doing what I wanted. I walked in the court and beat the assistant prosecuting attorney of Jasper County, Missouri. She was my wife's attorney.

     What I'd like to complain about is there's also another assistant prosecuting attorney in this civil matter. His name is Dean Dankelson. I believe there is conflict of interest, since they were both assistant prosecutors for the county. I attempted to prove this, okay? When I went to court, I had a meeting for disqualification. There is a transcript of my trial of that over there. There are portions of this transcript missing, because it's detrimental to the county, and I'm attempted on filing nunc tunc  pro or pro nunc tunc, something like that, anyway, to correct the record.

     CASKEY: Nunc pro tunc, meaning that there was a mistake.

     MORTON: Yes, there is a mistake, Sir. Guarantee there's a mistake.

     I've got them in appellate court now. They will not allow me to do my pro se work in Jasper County. I have a court order to stay out of Jasper County, because I've been a little vocal down there about this right, in Foretta v. California gives me the right to represent myself. I have a $25,000 bond against me right now, that can be revoked anytime, and I'll have to leave here and go straight to Jasper County because I have a hearing. I've been accused of felony stalking from Jane Wyman, my wife's attorney. I have done nothing.

     When you let assistant prosecuting attorneys into civil matters, such as divorce, if they want to make out wills, anything besides dissolution of marriage is fine, but when children are involved, they use the sheriff's department to harass you. I have had well being checks constantly. I took my boy and went to Florida where I had custody of him. When I came back, they said I did it to avoid going to court. I did do that, because they were going to take my children away. I had two of my children for almost nine months. I received no child support from my wife, whatsoever, none. When I lost custody of my children, I pay $667.00 a month. The after trial statements of December 27th, in a hearing, are erased from my transcripts. They're gone. The judge sat there, Joseph Schoeberl, and said, well, he's almost 12, and allowed my wife to say, we're going to keep these kids away from you. You'll never see them again. Those comments are gone. I have fought to retain these comments. I have fought to retain my tapes. I've got them in appellate court now. These people will not give me my record of appeal. I need my files. I have applied for it. I have paperwork to prove this. I've got a ton of paperwork. I want you to look at it, please look at it. The man turned around, I got, when I was in court, Mr. Dankelson was the guardian ad litem. What's missing out of those transcripts is, they accuse me of associating with Merrill Faust, which is a very good friend of mine, and they accuse me of associating with this convicted felon. Probably an eighth of the population in the state of Missouri, are convicted felons. If you've paid your debt to society, what's wrong with associating with a convicted felon? The problem of this is, Merrill Faust was never a convicted felon to begin with. Their information was wrong. I've been persecuted. I will probably go to jail for something this evening. Every time they schedule me at four o'clock, I go to jail, and I need some help. I'd like to know how - well, I do know how they correct these tapes. I talked to Ronald Larkin, head of the Court Administrator's Office. He said, yes, these are old machines that they use down there. Yes, Roger, they can be taped over. They can be recorded over, and these tapes are recorded over, okay? I have not functioned right since they did this to me, on December 27th. I'm just now getting to where I can start to go back to work. I'm way behind on child support, and I'm going back to work as a laborer, and I will - you know, I'll give them my check, whatever it takes to get caught back up, but I went through a period of time where I couldn't think, and I started reading law books then, and I have them in appellate court and I wish to complete my field, and I can't get the records out of Jasper County, Missouri, to do this, because it's going to make them look terrible for what they did, and I object to this, and I'll seek any help that you can give me on this, because I've had every danged door slammed in my face. I've offered to cooperate with Child Enforcement. They've offered my no hope, no plan of action, nothing. This is in Springfield, Missouri. I have disqualification, I have complaints to the bar, and which I will drop off at the disciplinary division over here on American Avenue today on these attorneys.

     My attorney, Dan Wentworth, while I was going after Mrs. Wyman for being, of trying to disqualify, told me, said, you can't get another man, another attorney to go after an attorney, even if she's dirty, and believe me, it's the case. I've won. I've won every time I've went to court. I've never been beat pro se. I've went twice. I've won twice. Now, they won't even allow me to represent myself in a felony kidnapping. I took the change of judge, change of venue with me, the motion. They will not allow to file it so I can get rid of Schoeberl as my judge in this. I'm being railroaded, is what this amounts to, and I want this in the record, and I want it to be known. I'm sick and tired of it.

     My guardian ad litem has done nothing to put me back in contact with this girl right here. This is my daughter, right here. I coached her in a state championship in 1994. I have not seen her in two and a half years. I've done nothing. It's a flimsy, psychological survey through the Lafayette House, is what this is. They assigned a little girl to her, name of Paula Pierce, went to the ball games with her, and followed my little girl around and said your father abused you, your father abused you, over and over and over. My son, Greg, can testify to this, but I have no rights because I have - she has full custody. I can't check at the school for their records. Full custody has to go. You have to have joint custody. I need to have some say so in my children's lives, and because I spoke up against the system, I don't know, I mean, I fear for my life, because I threatened to sue them, and they deserve to be sued. I don't want the money for myself. I want my children, my daughter has - she was gifted. I was gifted at one time. I was student council president of Webb City High School in 1970. I made very good grades at Missouri Southern. I've been trying to go back to college to be an attorney, because a licensed attorney has a fighting chance.

     When I was in college at Missouri Southern, they scheduled a court date so I couldn't go to school, and this went on and on and on, and I can look anyone of you in the eyes and tell you this because this is absolute positively truth. I'm sick of it. I need help.

     DOUGHERTY: Mr. Morton, let me ask of the committee, if there are any questions at this time with your statement. Representative Ridgeway.

     RIDGEWAY: I have a question about this order that you handed out. It's dated November 15th, 1996.

     MORTON: Yes.

     RIDGEWAY: Did your ex-wife's attorney draw this up, or who drew this order up? Who drafted this? Do you know?

     MORTON: I don't know. Mrs. Wyman's attorney did draft some of the orders up.

     RIDGEWAY: You did not draft it?

     MORTON: No. This is from the court.

     RIDGEWAY: I just noticed in here that it just indicated respondent shall right of reasonable visitation with Melissa Diane Morton, and that's all that it says.

     MORTON: Yeah. I've never seen Melissa until I went to her graduation. They've poisoned my children's mind. She went and filed an exparte order against me, is which one of the cases I won, because I scraped up the $6.50 and bought her some candleholders.

     RIDGEWAY: I've got one other thing down here, too, that the order says that you cannot have any visitation with your son, but then they say you can have visitation with your son. I'm just - the order is very unusual.

     MORTON: Okay, that's fine. I hired an attorney. My attorney failed to even make the motion.

     RIDGEWAY: Those are the only questions I have.

     MORTON: No, that's okay. I just want you to know I hired another attorney. He cost me $5.000. He didn't do a dang thing for me, because I was trying to prove conflict of interest. There is a statute in the state of Missouri which allows assistant prosecuting attorneys to be in civil matters, and if there's one thing you people need to do, you need to remove that from the statutes of the state of Missouri, because the sheriff's department has harassed me. I'm still being harassed, and I will probably go to jail this evening at four o'clock, for something, but this is the truth.

     DOUGHERTY: Representative Hollingsworth.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: We also have an order appointing a GAL.

     MORTON: Yes.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: In July of ‘97, well your decree, apparently, was modified in November, ‘96.

     MORTON: Right.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: Why do we have a GAL? What's opened right now that's......

     MORTON: I filed a motion for a modification again to get my children back and I did it myself.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: To reinstate visitation?

     MORTON: To get my children back, my son, at least, to live with me. He wants to live with me more than anything in the world.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: Well, the order also - your decree, or modification order also indicates that you would have visitation with your son pending return of the child.

     MORTON: I went to Florida to escape this. I knew it was coming.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: And how old was the boy?

     MORTON: He was 11 then. I was across the Florida state line before we went to court, I had custody of my child at that time. In the state of Missouri, I have 90 days. I was not prosecuted because they had no grounds. I have been punished for a crime that I didn't commit in a civil matter, is what this amounts to.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: So, in November, ‘96, you weren't even in the state?

     MORTON: No, I left the day before court. I asked Greg, I said, Greg, do you want to stay here and go to court or do you want to go to Florida, and he's very intelligent for his age, and he said, dad, let's go to Florida. Court's not going to do us any good, and we left, and I wish I had never came back.

     HOLLINGSWORTH: Thank you.

     DOUGHERTY: Are there any further questions? Mr. Morton, we appreciate your story, and the documents you gave us. Thank you, very much.

     MORTON: Yeah, if you can help me in any way. I'll be back, because I come up here often, knocking on people's door, trying to get help in this, and I'll be back and if you can help me in any way, I will appreciate it, and Parents United as One, is something must be done, and something else I'd like to say. Lafayette House is a well meaningful organization and I believe in them. There are women that need protection. I was battered. My wife beat me. I'm a great big guy. I could have whipped my wife. I don't hit women. Okay? I was accused of it. I didn't do it. We need to have a men's battered facility, as well as women. I called Lafayette House. I said, can I come there, I was battered too. They said, well, you can't come here. I said, well, where do I go? Why, I don't know. There is no battered facility. Now, I'm not saying, I'm just proving a point. There's nothing for a man, and the current statistics in the United States, there's about 19 percent of the people that are battered are men by women, and that's not counting the verbal. This is physical, and this needs to be addressed.

     DOUGHERTY: Appreciate your statement.

     MORTON: Thank you, very much.

     DOUGHERTY: Thank you.

     Chris Golden. Thank you, very much. Welcome, and please introduce yourself, and tell us where you're from.