Hello, my name is Tabitha and I want to tell my friend's story. It's not your typical series of events that you'll find on here, but it definitely holds the title of upsetting. My friend was wrongfully convicted of a few misdemeanors against a couple of teenagers after they broke into her home while she was on vacation for her birthday. The teenagers caused over $15,000 in damage to her home; they literally set the kitchen on fire, made holes in the walls, and stole everything of value (nearly $20,000). When she returned home and was able to figure out what happened and who was to blame (a couple of high school kids that went to school with her stepson), she decided to give them the opportunity to right their wrong by finding all the stolen goods and cleaning the house the best they could, or alternatively, let the police handle it and each of them get multiple felonies at a very young age. They agreed willingly to help clean and recover. After contacting her rental insurance company, she was informed she'd need a police report in order to be compensated and have the damages covered. Although she told the kids that she wouldn't contact the police if they helped, she had no choice. She did not give names (there were over 50 kids at the house party according to neighbors). When they discovered that the police had been involved, they panicked, and a couple of days after cleaning the house, they went to the hospital claiming my friend had assaulted them, held them against their will, and threatened them. She was arrested without an investigation; the police took the side of the teenagers who had just admitted to the break-in, theft, and property damage, over a 32-year-old mother of 2 with not so much as a speeding ticket. Long story short, she was forced to get a public defender, and after a year of back and forth and what later was discovered as ineffective assistance of counsel, vindictive prosecution, and a handful of civil and constitutional violations, she was forced into accepting a plea deal to a couple of misdemeanors. Although she always maintained her innocence and the court allowed an Alford plea, she was also given 6 years probation. At the height of the COVID pandemic, she gave birth to her youngest son, now 6 years old. Her probation officer all of a sudden demanded she take drug tests, sometimes three to four times a week, costing $27 each time. She explained many times that she couldn't afford this and asked for alternatives; none were given. She was unable to work, her business shut down, and there was no childcare for newborns during the pandemic shutdown. She was about to lose her home and was running out of options. She was able to find housing and employment about two hours away in another state, but her PO denied her requests and demanded she continue drug testing. Unable to pay for them, she was put in jail again and again, taken away from her two young boys to whom she had sole legal custody. She made the decision to take her kids and leave the state where they would have a home and stability; it was that or stay where she was and lose her home, and most likely her children, and certainly her freedom. Warrants were issued and word got to her middle son's father who had lost to her in a custody battle a year or so prior. On one of his weekend visits with their son, he took him and never brought him back. He took him to Idaho where the warrants were. She did everything she could: the police, the courts, numerous attorneys, nobody helped. The courts allowed her son to remain in Idaho illegally with his dad even though she had custody. Because of her warrants, the courts did everything her son's dad asked of them. She is no longer able to talk to her son that she raised and was never apart from due to these warrants. She's never stopped fighting; she's currently in the appeals process and has begun lawsuit actions against the state, but they are making it very difficult. Ignoring her pro se arguments, making her jump through hoops, she's been her own attorney for a long time now and is finally making some progress, but time is now running out and the process is becoming far more legally complex than what she's capable of taking on alone. She's enrolled in college and is obtaining her bachelor's in paralegal science and has mastered the art of drafting paperwork, but it's still not enough. She's in need of help from an experienced attorney. She has never stopped trying to get back everything she's lost. Her only goal is to have her son returned to her. Watching this journey and not being able to help is gut-wrenching. I know that with a little help she will get what she's fought so hard for. I am asking for just a little miracle for her and her kids. I've heard of the miracles that can happen; I'm hoping now to get to witness one myself. She needs help getting an attorney and putting this to an end.