March 22nd, 2022 | by Diego Rodriguez

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chief Tracy Basterrechea and Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford,

On March 11th, my grandson was forcefully kidnapped by Meridian Police Detectives who were aided and abetted by Meridian Police Officers whom you two are protecting and defending.

Chief Tracy Basterrechea, you have published a platitude filled, boiler plate response, that demonstrates you are either willfully ignorant of what took place the night my grandson was illegally kidnapped by your staff, or you are willfully complicit in their actions. There is no third option.

And Sheriff Matt Clifford, you likewise have demonstrated with your response that you either support police officers breaking the law, violating constitutional rights, and altogether acting like belligerent thugs—or you are simply too lazy to look at the facts and make a reasonable determination. To be clear, you stated plainly that you were "…confident in the officer's decision making" and that you "fully support how they handled [the]…situation." You then go on to unbelievably state, "Given the same circumstances, our investigators would have likely arrived at the same conclusion and made the same decisions." Well, thank you Sheriff Clifford for letting us know that you are completely untrustworthy and that your investigators are likewise a bunch of thugs with badges that should never be trusted.

To support my assertions of the both of you, I present the following facts, evidence, and questions for the both of you:

POINT #1 - The premise of the entire kidnapping was the claim that Baby Cyrus was in "imminent danger." This is a medical term expressing that the medical condition of the child is so dire that he is essentially at the point of death. For this reason, the state is authorized to forcefully take a child into its possession to be put in the care of medical professionals to ensure its health and safety. However, medical records obtained from St. Luke's hospital clearly admit that, “[Baby Cyrus] was brought to the Meridian ED for evaluation. Health and welfare identified a foster family but due to the protesters surrounding the hospital regarding this case, it was felt that discharge with the foster family from the ED was unsafe for all involved. For this reason, the patient was transferred to Boise for further care.”

If Baby Cyrus was clearly in "imminent danger" as your officers claim, then why was your planned course of action to dump him off into the hands of strangers immediately, within minutes, on the same night? Clearly the child was not in "imminent danger." If he's not in imminent danger, you have no justification for kidnapping him! So yes, you've been caught, and your fraud has been exposed.

POINT # 2 - What logical reason do your officers have to tear the child away from his nursing mother who clearly posed zero threat to the health and well-being of the child? She could have stayed with her baby in the ambulance and in the hospital, but you ripped that child away from his primary source of nutrition. This is child endangerment. Please explain your justification—thousands of breastfeeding mothers would like to know.

POINT # 3 - What justification do you have for the Meridian police officer who repeatedly lied to Marissa, on camera, and promised her that she would never be separated from Baby Cyrus, and that she would be able to ride with him in the ambulance to the hospital? Does the Meridian Police Department and Ada County Sheriff's department support lying to citizens in order to kidnap children?

POINT # 4 - My daughter, Miranda, was clearly assaulted and both verbally and physically abused by your officers. She was yelled at by a belligerent officer who clearly lacked self-control or the ability to de-escalate a situation—who screamed at my harmless 23 year old daughter to "get your ass out of the car!" Miranda is savvy and knows she can't be arrested for doing no wrong, so she asked, "What crime did I commit?" She asked multiple times and they refused to answer before ripping her arm through the window of the truck—a form of physical assault. Do you support that treatment of innocent citizens? Do you support officers refusing to acknowledge why a citizen is being arrested or detained (which is required by law)? Do you train your officers to de-escalate or to act unhinged and out of control? Please answer.

They then proceeded to tell Miranda, "You are under arrest for felony injury to a child," to which Miranda replied, "That's not my child." Your sardonic and disrespectful police officer, Sergeant Christopher McGilvery, then replied mockingly, "…if that's not your child, then you don't need to be going into handcuffs." The officer then told her she was under arrest for, "falsification to an officer." Your ignorant and incompetent officers arrested my daughter, Miranda, who is not even the mother to the child. And they placed her under arrest for two separate charges: "felony injury to a child," and "falsification to an officer." Neither of which she was guilty of, and again she is not even the child's mother, which she stated at least 3 times.

After your obstinate police officers humiliated themselves by arresting the wrong woman—they then gave her the charge of "resisting and obstruction" which everyone knows is the charge corrupt police officers use to arrest anybody at anytime for any purpose. Do you support these actions by your officers? Do you support false arrests? Do you support this behavior? Remember, everybody can see it because it was all caught on film. (See video below from :00 to :49)

POINT # 5 - After my daughter Marissa was removed from the truck, officers took Cyrus away temporarily and searched her with a pat down to ensure she did not have any weapons on her. This, I understand is standard protocol—yet, she was patted down by a male officer. That is wholly unacceptable. Do you want your daughters groped by male officers?

Finally, after Marissa had Cyrus forcefully ripped out of her hands, she was put in handcuffs and marched out of the ambulance in the cold where another perverted officer, Sean King, patted her down, groped her, and put his hands up her blouse and down her pants—again, all of this was captured on film. Your officers had already patted her down and checked her for weapons, so what reason could you possibly have to do a second and more intrusive and humiliating pat down, other than the fact that your officers had in their custody, a beautiful young lady who was vulnerable and in handcuffs, and your officer took advantage of the moment to molest her? If you truly felt you were in danger, why wasn't a woman officer called in to check her? This again is all on film and the whole world has watched it and judged your department accordingly. (See video above from 7:40 - 8:10)

Do you support physical molestation, groping, and all-around inappropriate touching of innocent female citizens by your male officers? Because remember—you came out in defense of their actions.

You said that you "fully supported how they handled the situation." So, do you support the violation of rights, lying and manipulation, kidnapping based on proven false pretenses, molestation of young girls by male officers, and false arrests? Because that all happened on that night and it can all be seen in the video above (and the above referenced medical record from St. Luke's hospital).

Now, my family is a Christian family and we are prepared to forgive you and your officers for abusing my family, violating our rights, and kidnapping my grandson. But you must first acknowledge your sin, and repent publicly.

The evidence has been presented to a watching world. And much more is forthcoming, as we have evidence of many more blatant falsehoods and law breaking in this case, on behalf of your officers. But the 5 points above will suffice for now.

We await your response. And we are expecting actual answers to the actual 5 points and not just meaningless, boiler plate, platitudinal responses drafted by your public relations department to minimize public fallout.

Until you both are willing to admit your own errors, chastise and punish your officers for violating rights and breaking the law, and publicly apologize to our family, then I ask that the both of you resign your offices in shame, and "go on your merry way."

Diego Rodriguez
Freedom Man Press

P.S. We encourage readers to contact both Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea and Sheriff Matt Clifford and demand a response to this open letter.

Sheriff Matt Clifford:
(208) 577-3000
[email protected]

Meridian Police Chief Tracey Basterrechea:
(208) 888-6678
[email protected]