Good ex-cop fighting bad faith PFA

The Pennsylvania PFA law as written is Unconsitutional. 

It is destroying innocent lives. 

Please help me pay my attorney fees, save my house and pay my fathers burial costs.  I cannot find a job in my field of work because of this bad faith PFA and I am losing everything.

We need to get legislative changes to protect the innocent as well as the REAL victims of domestic violence!! 

Please help me get my good name and my life back, to set precedent and create positive case law changes in PA.

Here is my story......

I used to be a cop, a GOOD cop, a GOOD K9 cop. One day my father in Erie, PA called me in Sept 2012 and told me his only grandson, my 28 yr old nephew had assaulted him. My nephew was drunk and he threw a beer bottle at my 70 yr old handicap father's face. My father wanted my help because my sister, his caretaker at the time had refused to help him arrest her only son. I  told my employers about the problem and then drove 4 hours from where I lived in Central PA and helped my elderly father into a PFA office. and then a police station. My life of hell began that day because my sister decided since we had both gotten PFAs against her son for threatening to kill both of us that she would get her own revenge.

Within a week my sister started a campaign of stalking and harassment that started with a false complaint to my workplace saying I hated her son, I had lied on official PFA affidavits, and I had been abusing my power as a police officer to get her son arrested. She alleged I had used police computers to investigate her, her son and her boyfriend as well. My father and I were victims of a crime as my nephew was threatening to kill both of us, but we were the ones investigated. Almost everything was on my father's word and he was so stressed he broke out in shingles for the winter. I was completely exonerated after a 2 month investigation and full audit of my computer usage, but my dept refused to arrest my sister for unsworn falsification like I asked them to.  They said they would leave it up to the DA and still nothing was done.

Work became tense because they were keeping this very personal UNFOUNDED Internal Affairs Investigation paperwork permanently in my personnel file. They switched me to days making it more difficult to get off and help my father. Meanwhile I was being stalked and harassed by my sister. One week when I was in Erie for a court date for my father a car was seen stalking our vehicles three times then speeding off. My sister then sent the Erie Police to my father's apartment when we weren't home telling them there had been a break in and dogs (my dogs) were inside that didn't belong there. The responding officer told me he would have shot the dogs because it was a report of a break in and the resident was not reachable by phone. Then my sister showed up at a local sporting event at an arena that accommodates over 110,000 people and somehow my sister found me there. She walked within 8 feet of me glaring at me with rage. Then she attacked me relentlessly on facebook, twitter and even my own LinkedIn page. She used my full name on facebook calling me a psychotic cop who shouldn't be carrying a gun, trash, villain, stink from the sewer below her, violent killer, etc...

In the Spring my nephew went to trial because he didn't want to accept a year on probation and get a mental health evaluation. He and his mother took the stand and lied about my father to make him into the villain. They claimed he had an awful temper, pulled a gun on everyone and threatened to kill my nephew repeatedly (ALL LIES). They even claimed he didn't need the wheelchair he used and that was just for sympathy. Well the lies won and my nephew got off. We figured that would be the end of it.

Then the attacks continued on facebook and twitter using my father and my full names. My father had already written both of them out of his will and withdrew my sister's power of attorney. He told many family members he did not want them at his funeral. The stress was overwhelming and my father was hospitalized within 6 days of the trial. Online they asked if I was happy sitting next to my father in an ICU bed and we were both villains and deserved what we got. Then they talked about spitting and doing other things on my father's grave.

Six weeks after the trial ended my father DIED. I was his executor and although his last wishes were not to have them at his funeral I knew that was mostly to protect me and my job. I offered through a middle party that my sister and nephew could come in for their last respects on the second day when I would not be there. Instead my sister came in on the first day swearing as she entered. She attacked me right in front of my father's casket and I did not fight back. I knew she wanted my job so I called 911. She used to date the mayor so within minutes of my 911 call (the only one) a patrol officer and the Chief of Erie Police showed up. They refused to make my sister leave even though family members were trying to explain that their uncle didn't even want her there. The police refused to cite her and she would not leave on her own so our family had to deal with her for the following 2 days. We also later learned she snuck her son into see him too after hours.

On the first day back to work after burying my father I was called up to my Chief's office to be served with a PFA based on lies. My sister claimed I attacked her the second she entered the room and that I scratched her arms. She brought 3 people to court to lie with her so it didn't matter that I had family witnesses that I was the one attacked and didn't even fight back.   My sister also fraudulently checked the "weapons involved" box and said she heard me say to someone else at the funeral home that she ought to know what a great shooter I am and all the awards I've won from my shooting ability.  At the PFA hearing my sister actually forgot to testify to this huge lie and she had to be reminded of that part of her affidavit in court!!  Oh yes, she forgot the supposed gun threat then unlike the affidavit where she claimed I said it to her, she testified that she overheard me say that to someone else.  Of course she couldn't name the person this was supposedly said to or bring them or any witnesses to this statement to court because it never happened.  But the Erie County Judge who used to be my sister's attorney and is friends with her at a local social club believed her and gave my sister a 3 year PFA with gun restriction against me effectively ending my job and career.

It took my sister a year to get a place where she could find me, and even though she was given an option to avoid me if she was "afraid" of me, she didn't. She came in for what she wanted, my job, and she got it.  Along with it she got my livelihood (because I can't get another job in my field), my non-profit, my health insurance, my life insurance, a good chunk of my retirement, and soon my house.  I can't find work that pays even a quarter what I used to make and unemployment has run out.

I hired an attorney for $7000 to fight the PFA and lost. I hired another attorney for $5000 to negotiate with her and she wouldn't. That attorney failed to file my appeal in a timely manner so I had to hire a third attorney for $5000 to get my appeal and to file a new evidence motion on my behalf. When the judge found out I lost my job though she became worried about her losing hers I guess so she put pressure on the attorneys to force us to deal. My sister of course wouldn't. I had nothing to deal for anymore. I had been forced to resign on Sept. 20, 2013, almost a year after I agreed to help my elderly father into a police station and a PFA office. My sister said she would have my job and she was right.  Now I needed to be kept safe and to keep fighting for my good name and a right to my career because she could do this again and again. She had already attacked my job twice in 8 months before she succeeded in ending my career.  There was nothing to stop her from doing it again.

This unconstitutional law isn't just hurting me though. It hurts more people than it helps. It throws people out of their homes, it takes their kids away in child custody battles, they lose their jobs, their healthcare, their life insurance, and even their ability to work again as in my case. It destroys lives. I have a scarlet letter that is not expungable. I had a 17 year impeccable law enforcement career. Now without any proof being provided my chances of getting any job where a background check will be done will be impossible even after the PFA is expired. No proof is needed for a PFA. All the person has to say is that they are afraid. My sister said I was a cop who carried a gun and she was afraid.  End of job.  End of story.  End of everything I worked the last 20 years for.

The local Fraternal Order of Police is supporting me and they paid to bring the officers to Centre County (PA) to testify there were no marks. We also are getting the attention of several local legislators. I will keep trying to get my sister's lies proven. and I am making progress  Meanwhile I also want to hire a third circuit attorney to contest the Pennsylvania PFA law's constitutionality. If it has the power to end a person's job and livelihood,  If it has the power to take away your home and your kids, then there had to be a level of proof in court equal to that of a criminal court. You have to show AUTHENTICATED photos.  You need to have a police report on file.  There must be due process as afforded by the constitution so a defendant has a chance to defend themselves against FACTS and EVIDENCE other than just someone's word on it. They cannot take away your right to bear arms in your own home to defend yourself without due process. If a person is subject to a PFA then they should not lose their job if a gun is required for their job. I was a police officer, but there are gun smiths, firearms instructors, security officers, bodyguards, etc... who need a gun to work their job.

The Federal Firearms Act 18 US 922 (g)(8) allows for law enforcement personnel subject to a protective restraining order to be given a gun in the scope of their duties, but not off duty. There is no such section in the Pennsylvania Firearms Act or the Pennsylvania PFA law that allows for this and this is why I lost my job.  My employer would not accept this federal law provision when my guns were taken away by the State PFA law.

This needs to change!!! My case is the one to do it, but I will need to sue the Commonwealth to make it happen and I am OUT OF MONEY. We were two sisters who live half a state away from each other! We had not co-habitated since we were 15 and 16 years old!! We had not seen each other in over a year and it took a funeral for her to know where to find me!! A day after my sister filed her bad faith PFA against me she sent me the first written correspondence in a year hoping I would respond and violate the PFA and end up in jail!!!  I have begged judges and others to look at her actions not her words.  She has enacted her revenge and she has used the justice system I have faithfully served for over 17 years to do it, and there was nothing my employer, my family or I could do about it.  Not even my father's last dying wishes were honored...to protect me.  Now my sister has ripped the flowers I plant on my father's grave out of the ground twice now.  This will never end.

PFA's are just a piece of paper. They do not PROTECT a person. They do more harm than good. If someone is assaulted or stalked and the suspect is arrested a bail provision can be mandated by a judge that the defendant stay away from the victim. PFA's do not require that the person prove they were a victim or the defendant actually committed a crime, but defendants are subjected to losing their homes, jobs and kids without due process and are suffering consequences worse than most criminals.

We need change and I would like my case to help do that!!! PLEASE HELP ME. I need to pay for a federal attorney and private detectives up in Erie, PA and I am asking that you support my cause.  This case is a strong one with a good story, but I have run out of money and only have 2 years to lodge my fight before the statute of limitations runs out.  We have the legislators ready to back us to make some changes already to help law enforcement once I prove my innocence, but this law hurts more than just law enforcement.  It needs to be fair.  It needs to protect everyone.  It needs to be constitutional.

Thank you so much if you read all of this.

Thank you especially if there is anything you can do to help me in my legal fight.  My father would not want me to give up.  He did everything to protect me and I did everything to protect him.  As long as I can do something to change this I will not give up.

Kris

(In Memory of my father Bruce).



Bruce L. Hopkins (1942-2013)