Okay I made it to DC. Up at 4. Nashville. Atlanta. One hour to get a coffeee at the airport. Second leg of flight sat by the baby. I always chose the baby. After all I am a grandma. Her daddy is a lobbyist. That was convenient. Got a grumpy flight attendant who told me he did not have time for me. I was rescued by the man across the aisle. I try to stay invisible when I fly. I don’t want to be the person that the crew talks about later…”there was that one woman…”. Rescue stranger also has vitiligo so we engaged in a brief exchange while unloading the plane. Reagan in its usual packed noisy chaotically organized frame of mind. Waiting for our Alabama warrior Terri LaPoint before we head across the bridge. Let’s see what this week holds.
MONDAY APRIL 7
It has been a busy and energetic day. We had eight meetings with both Republicans and Democrats.
We have families from Family Forward Project from Alabama Illinois Tennessee Alabama Connecticut Florida Washington Texas and Pennsylvania.
And we need you too. Here are a few of today’s pictures.
We will end the day with dinner and getting by ready for another day.
Tuesday April 9. 2025
We started at Tennessee Tuesday with Sen Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty with a huge crowd.
And rallied later in the day.
Evening was fun as well
Wednesday and Thursday April 9 and 10
Time has moved so fast that I forgot to upload the adventure in Wednesday night.
Here are a few examples f the highlights over the last two days
Congressman Mark Messmer – Indiana
Friday April 11 2025
Winding down with a few weeping and casual time at the Anatole Hotel.
Last year, the Tenn. Gen. Assembly passed the “Parental Rights Bill”.
Connie Reguli, J.D. lobbied against this bill. She argued that parents already had protected parental rights under the 14th Amendment. These rights were confirmed by the United States Supreme Court. Reguli further warned, ‘if you let the state legislators put parental rights in the state code, they can revise them at any time. They can slice away at your rights.’
…AND THEY HAVE. This year Faison (HB 0826) and Haile (SB 0895) filed a new bill changing the parental rights law of 2024.
This bill was filed as a ‘caption bill’ initially. This means the bill was filed with one simple sentence. It asked the courts to report on how many parental rights bills were filed. Then the bill was secretly ‘amended’ to slice away parental rights. The bill added:
1 – A parent can remove a child for religious purposes. If it’s more than 20 days in a school year, the school can force the parent to meet “to discuss the child’s educational future”.
2 – The school no longer needs parental consent to audio record a child. It also doesn’t require consent to video record a child at school or during activities.
3 – A healthcare provider does not need parental consent to examine a child. This is applicable under ‘reasonable suspicion’ of neglect or abuse.
You might not be moved by these new limitations to parental rights. Still, it is just a matter of time. The amendments to this bill will continue to limit the rights of parents. For instance ‘reasonable suspicion’ is not the legal standard under our Fourth Amendment protections, it is exigent circumstances. That means an immediate emergency.
This bill has passed committees and is headed to the floor on April 7th.
When Connie Reguli turned herself in to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department in August 2022 on a felony indictment for aggravated perjury, she was already litigation weary. She had already been put through a three day jury trial for accessory to a felony, a sentencing hearing, and a motion for a new trial. The convictions for accessory to a felony were the result of Judge Joseph A. Woodruff manipulating the jury instructions, removing an essential element of the crime, and causing a fake conviction. Although Reguli (and most likely Judge Woodruff) knew that the fake felonies would not stand scrutiny on review, she instantly lost her law license, her entire business model law practice, three employees, dozens of clients, and a juvenile Court judicial election. Nevertheless, she was never required to serve a sentence of incarceration or probation.
Just days after the motion for a new trial in August 2022, Reguli was called by her attorney and told that Williamson County DA Kim Helper had a new indictment on her for aggravated perjury.
The new felony echoed from the chambers of Judge Joseph A. Woodruff as well. While Reguli was in the midst of the first round of fake felonies, Woodruff was shutting Reguli down from obtaining her public records request in another courtroom. After this hearing concluded, Woodruff fined Reguli $5,000 and shut down her request for records. Woodruff would then order that Reguli was prohibited from filing anything pro se without hiring another attorney, and threatened Reguli not to file an appeal. Reguli appealed.
Judge Joseph A. Woodruff, Franklin, TN
What Reguli did not know is that Woodruff initiated his own little private investigation just days after that hearing, sending a private letter to CASA director Emily Layton and Attorney Dana McLendon stating that he was attempting to determine if Reguli made a false statement in the courtroom and asked Layton to respond if Reguli had paid an eight-year-old sanction. Reguli knew none of this, Judge Woodruff’s secret investigation would result in the indictment for aggravated perjury in August 2022.
Reguli represented herself in that case. Although the battleground for justice includes alot more detail and demonstrates a very focused Reguli, the result was that the district attorney dropped the case ten months later.
The case against Reguli had been brought on a false affidavit and withholding exculpatory evidence by CASA director Layton and Attorney McLendon.
EMILY LAYTON – CASA DIRECTOR
Reguli filed a lawsuit against all of the bad actors: Judge Joseph A. Woodruff, DA Kim Helper, DA John Stevens, Atty Dana McLendon, Emily Layton, and CASA. She alleged civil rights violations for malicious prosecution and fabricated evidence and stated claims for abuse of process, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy.
McLendon’s social media post.
In the typical course of events in federal litigation, all defendants filed motions to dismiss the case. On March 28, 2025, Middle District Judge Traugher entered an order. This order gave Judge Woodruff, DA Helper, and DA Stephens immunity on civil rights claims. The district court permitted the civil rights claims to continue on McLendon and Layton. Afterall, they conspired with state actor Woodruff to conjure up the fake crimes.
In 2024, Reguli’s first round of fake felonies were reversed, and Woodruff’s $5,000 fine against Reguli was also vacated.
This chart shows the claims that will move ahead in the United States District Court.
Brother and Sister Laid to Rest in Graveside Service on Sunday – Brothers, family and friends and others attend with many people to thanks for their role in the service.
On Sunday afternoon, two sweet children – a boy and a girl – were laid to rest in a graveside service attended by their two surviving brothers. These children, the two that are deceased and the two that are surviving, are part of at least five children who were adopted by an evil woman and her husband for the financial benefit they received from the State for adopting them.
The two surviving brothers are now, thankfully, in the care of a wonderful, loving, and caring adoptive mother. The mother’s family members and their friends give the two brothers love that their deceased brother and sister certainly never received.
Early in their lives five children were allowed by the State to be placed ‘in the care’ of a Mr. and Mrs. Gray where the children were forced to endure horrendous circumstances of starvation and torturous confinement.
The two children who were laid to rest Sunday, obviously did not survive these conditions.
Thankfully, during Covid, an alert Roane County Sheriff’s Office deputy was able to recognize a child in need and discovered the house where he and his brother were being confined in makeshift ‘cages’ in the basement. An older sister lived upstairs. As a result of this discovery and further investigation, two bodies were discovered, one buried in the barn behind this house in Roane County and then one in a backyard behind a house in Knox County.
The three surviving children were ‘saved’, and the road to their ‘recovery’ began.
Long story shortened, the biggest hurdle was overcome in May 2024 with the final conviction of both Grays, the ‘adoptive parents’, on life without parole sentences in Roane Couty and additional life sentences in Knox County on top of the Roane County Life Without Parole sentences. The revelations of the shortfalls in the system of adoption, state ‘assistance’ for adopting, and parental responsibility for accountability and reporting, all came into sharp focus as a result of this prosecution and received attention and scrutiny in the state legislation which brought about changes in the law and the system with the Department of Children’s Services.
What is hopefully the final chapter was the closure that was brought about at the graveside on Sunday with the peaceful service that laid to rest two souls that never had peace here on Earth.
This would not have been possible without the generous, volunteer spirit of so many people, so I would like to publicly thank these folks in this manner:
When we concluded the case convicting the two co-defendants, I immediately turned to some friends for help to do something for the remains of the deceased victims. Without hesitation the three ‘angels’ that are to me, The McGill Sisters, came to help. They are Rene’ McGill Shultz, Rebecca McGill Willis and Amy McGill Millsaps, who follow in the community service tradition of their deceased father, Terry McGill. They operate McGill Click Funerals and Cremations in Loudon, and they own Loudon County Memorial Gardens. They are responsible for volunteering their time, their services, and their money to bring to fruition the wonderful service that was held on Sunday. Three of their associates are: Beth Brakebill who sang and led the attendees in singing, as well as Rev. Brian Courtney who participated in the service and Roberto Catota who assisted with the procession and graveside. Loudon Police Department and Loudon County Sheriff’s Office, TN. both provided the escort from McGill-Click Funeral Home to Loudon County Memorial Gardens.
The McGill sisters also donated the plot in a special “Angels” section of their cemetery and partnered with Matthews International, who provided the casket for both sets of cremains. Both the McGill Sisters and Matthews International covered the cost of the memorial plague. Lee-Heights Monument provided the service of opening and closing of the grave. Simerly Vault Company donated the vault. West End Florist in Loudon donated floral arrangements.
So many people contributed to making this day special by attending, including Dr. Darinka Milusenic, Chief Medical Examiner of the Knox County Regional Forensic Center, and her staff, along with anthropologist Dr. Murry Marks. Their work upon the discovery of the bodies of the two children and their expert analysis was instrumental in providing evidence to prosecute the criminal case.
The Kids First Child Advocacy Center of the 9th Judicial District of Tennessee in Lenoir City provided forensic interviews of the surviving children during the initial investigation, and the CAC Director Chris Evans-Longmire and staff were present at the service.
Charme Allen, District Attorney General – Knoxville, TN was present as well, and her office coordinated with our office with both of us prosecuting the two cases in our respective counties.
Members of our office were present at the service including the prosecution team for this case: Assistant District Attorneys Bob Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, Jason Collver and Kristin Curtis, along with Victim/Witness Coordinator Tami Bailey. ADA Jonathan Edwards spoke on behalf of both the Knox County office and our office about the courage of both boys and their victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing last year.
It was a blessed day for closure. Rest in Peace, children.
Russell Johnson, 9th District Attorney General (Loudon, Roane, Morgan & Meigs)
EPILOGUE
by Connie Reguli.
This is not the first time “adoption gone wrong story” in Tennessee. Another family in Knox County adopted children that they buried in the back yard.
The story has one thing right for sure that should be an alarm and call for the complete overhaul of child welfare. They did is for money. Yes the adoptive parents took in five kids and would receive a monthly stipend check every month even after the adoption is final. This money comes from the federal funds which is of course still tax payer money.
Gods rest their souls and help me share this tragedy.
Radical Tennessee - Radically Accountable and Radically Free 