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Help pay my disabled mother's legal fees

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My name is Steven Larkin, and I am organizing this fundraiser on behalf of my mother, Danneel Larkin.  On June 10th, 2020, she was arrested by Jefferson Parish Narcotics Department SWAT team. Prior to this, a neighbor of ours has caused my family problems because I am transgender.  She has gone so far as to accuse my mother of selling drugs.  My mother ran a small house cleaning business with other women that assisted the elderly. My home was the base of the business where the cleaners would come to pick up supplies.  When the police arrested my mother, they pulled her over a block away from our house, pulled her out of her car, slammed her against the back of it, and handcuffed her so tightly her hands turned purple. In the process of cuffing her, my mother lost her favorite sapphire ring, a gift she received from a former patient nearly ten years ago. My mother has Lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes severe pain and impairs her movement, and yet they still pushed her around and insisted she move faster, marching her down the street in front of everyone in the neighborhood.    When the police arrived at our house, they went inside without a search warrant and completely trashed our house in search of drugs or paraphernalia. They pulled high caliber guns on my 14 year old brother and pulled my father half naked out of the restroom at gunpoint. Their search dog not finding a single trace of heroin or other narcotics, they upturned every surface in our home and left without any remorse. They performed a cavity search on my mother despite no signal from the dog that there was anything on her and then arrested her and kept her overnight in jail.    I was incredibly lucky to have been out of the house that day, but the rest of my family was not, and when I got home, I had to deal with the mess the police left behind. My mother was let out after a night, but she has lasting pain and emotional scars from the incident. In order to defend her, return her phone and money, and possibly sue the police and our neighbor in a civil rights case, we need several thousand dollars. Because of what happened, my mother is unwilling to continue her cleaning business out of fear of raising suspicion, so she has lost a major source of income. Right after this incident, our landlord informed us that he is selling our house and we are being evicted by the end of August.  We cannot afford to move and pay my mother's legal fees at this time. We need help. During this time of heightened awareness of police brutality and it's impacts on marginalized communities, it would mean the world if you all could help share my mother's story. Thank you so much.  TLDR: my disabled mother was brutalized by a SWAT team who trashed our house.  Her arrest has ruined our business. My family is being evicted in a month and we can't afford to pay her legal fees on our own.
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $5
    • 4 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $25
    • 4 yrs
  • Erin Roussel
    • $20
    • 4 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $15
    • 4 yrs
  • Madeline Kolker
    • $10
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Steven Larkin
Organizer
Metairie, LA
Danneel Larkin
Beneficiary

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