RIP Lunsford Foundation

www.jmlfoundation.com -- Foundation page closed with announcement
www.jmlfoundation.org -- Jessie's Rider's page down

Well, it's official! The Jessica Lunsford Foundation is off the air. As a side effect, Lunsford's thuggish posse, "Jessie's Riders," is disbanded as well. I guess the money train dried up with the foundation, so he'll have to find other ways to milk his daughter's death.

In case you're relatively new to this site and you wonder why I'm speaking about Lunsford on an anti-anti site, its because they're connected through Tracy Golden of WASP Ohio [since JML Foundation is gone, I had to use that Web Archive machine but luckily it is still accessible through them]:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060805120100/jmlfoundation.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/archive/JMLFoundation/20060709133402/

WASP "Women Against Sexual Predators" A new and vibrant proactive subcommittee called WASP has been added to the Jessica Marie Lunsford Foundation. For more information. Please contact Penny Verde at usa4jmllaw@yahoo.com or call 1.888.4jmllaw

Sorry Lungsfull you can't get away THAT easily!

In no particular order, I'm giving a very brief rundown of the controversy surrounding Lunsford:

1. The US Congressional SORNA committee hearing
http://reformsexoffenderlaws.org/digest.php#0019

This gave me the opportunity to approach Mark Lunsford. Explaining that my husband was on the registry for life for consensual sex as a teen. An ‘offense’ similar to the ‘offense’ his son would have faced if it were not for his intervention. Mr. Lunsford said that his son served ten days, on a plea to a felony offense. He said that he told the prosecuting attorney that he would “expose every sex offense case where they gave a lenient sentence to a true sex offender if they treated his son like one of those predators”. Thus, his son avoided registration. (Let us be clear, this is a good thing. No person should be forced to register for situations such as these.) I told him that I did not begrudge him his advocacy, that I was not sure I could live had one of my children suffered the same fate Jessica suffered...

I approached Mark Lunsford again about a comment I heard him make during his testimony that sounded as if he suggested that it was Okay for the wrong person to register if it meant saving the life of a child. I wanted him to know that it was most certainly not Okay, that my husband had lost his dignity and self worth because of wrongful registration and that it would never be Okay to register someone as a 'small sacrifice' for the greater good of potentially saving one child. He indicated that he did not believe that he had said something to that effect and that he did not mean for that to be my understanding. I know that others around me heard the same thing. -- see also http://operationawareness.com/whats_new_28.html

2. http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2007/03/couey-trial.html
Mark Lunsford's computer had child porn on it, but thanks to his connections to John Walsh, got away with it. They used the Clinton defense, remember "I smoked but I never inhaled?" They said child porn was on the computer but not downloaded. Really? Well how did they get in the RECYCLE BIN? I'm a wiz enough at PCs to know you don't get files in the recycle bin from just looking at something, or you'd have a full recycle bin in an hour--trust me. But its all about who you know and who you blow. And John Walsh is a powerful man to blow. Which brings me back to his son's sex case:

2. Lunsford Jr. Gets off for a sex crime!

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2007/5/29/254812.html?title=Mark+Lunsford%27s+son+faces+charges+in+Ohio

http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/comments/lunsfords-son-sentenced



Note the "Please Find Jessica" T-shirt he's wearing IN COURT! Like father like son...
Anyways, as much as I'm an advocate of keeping Romeo and Juliet offenders off the registry, in this case, it was Lunsford's connections that got Joshua off the hook. In addition to the comment noted above, he told reporters it was not "some 37 year old pervert following a 10 year old kid around." But what's a small sacrifice to protect the children now, Lungsfull?

4. Misuse of Jessica Lunsford Foundation Funds

Lunsford used funds for plastic surgery; where else could he have gotten the money? Dirt druck drivers don't make that kind of money -- http://tripatlas.com/Mark_Lunsford

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/article435712.ece

Initially, the money came easy. Lunsford received $50,000 in the 24 days after his daughter disappeared. Supporters held motorcycle rallies, races and festivals in Jessica's name.

But financial documents filed by the foundation show it remains a relatively small operation. In its first two years ending July 2007, the foundation received about $285,000 in donations. The organization's most recent assets were reported at $102,000.

The Internal Revenue Service records show growing signs of financial trouble. In the 2006 fiscal year, the latest figures available, contributions grew 10 percent while fundraising costs grew 170 percent. The bulk of the foundation's money went to pay salary and travel costs for Lunsford.

In the 2006 fiscal year, he earned $54,800, which is more than double his salary the previous year, records show. In addition, he received health insurance and charged the foundation for most of his expenses. In a recent interview at his parents' home in Homosassa, Lunsford deflected criticism, saying the board sets his salary.

It's not uncommon for foundation leaders to earn salaries — some make much more — but many smaller organizations often don't pay staff.

Lunsford couldn't clarify other questionable expenses in the documents without going through receipts, including a two-year travel bill totaling more than $40,000 and a one-year expense of nearly $14,000 for "entertainment." Amid this recent scrutiny, he acknowledged that he fired his treasurer and hired a professional accounting firm from Jacksonville.

The bookkeeping change meant Lunsford also couldn't explain why a number of big-ticket items weren't shown in the foundation's public tax forms. Among the known transactions missing:

• The $15,000 in early donations Lunsford used to buy a 2002 Chevy truck.

• The custom motorcycle with Jessica's image, worth an estimated $80,000, that was made by Santiago Chopper and donated to the foundation. (Lunsford said it was never donated, but Santiago owner Alan Bernard said the opposite.)

• A tour bus of undetermined value donated by a California company that now rests behind the home of Lunsford's parents in Homosassa.

By contrast, the financial records show relatively few dollars — about $10,000 in two years — provided direct assistance to child support groups, which is another tenet of the foundation's mission.

"We don't like a lot of the things (Lunsford's) doing," said Claudine Ryce, who manages a Florida nonprofit in the memory of her son Jimmy Ryce. "We don't think that's the way to fund the nonprofit."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lunsford

Wrongful death / negligence lawsuit

On February 19, 2008, almost three years to the day after her kidnapping and murder, Jessica's father was represented by Jacksonville, Florida lawyers in a pre-trial brief filed against the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.^[19] After receiving notice of the pending suit, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy stated that he believed the case to be "baseless... There is only one person in the world that should be held responsible for Jessica Lunsford's death and that's John Couey."^[20]

Following complaints and suggestions from Citrus County residents that the pending litigation was being pursued out of greed and that had he been a better father his child may still be alive^[21], Mark Lunsford and Jacksonville-based attorneys Eric Block and Mark Gelman held a news conference in Jacksonville, where it was stated that the pending litigation was "not for the money... but for change." Lunsford stated that changes were needed in procedures and policies. It is alleged that Couey had Jessica Lunsford alive in the trailer while Citrus County officials visited the trailer, that police dogs indicated Jessica was being held in the direction of the trailer and were ignored, that Citrus County officials actively pursued Mark Lunsford's father as their prime suspect while evidence pointed elsewhere, and that had Citrus County officials followed up on an outstanding warrant issued by Georgia, that Citrus County officials could have entered Couey's residence and possibly saved the child. Such inactions or lack of follow-up is believed to have led to her death.^[21][22][23]

On February 28th, 2008, Mark Lunsford made a phone appearance on the Bubba The Love Sponge Show to defend his viewpoints.

Controvery follows Lunsford everywhere! Sadly, she's just gone on to other ways of milking his dead kid for cash. And to think THIS is who AZU calls a "hero?" But then again, AZI gets off on child exploitation, so long as it involves their own exploitation.

And finally, his harassment of an ex-gf leads to a restraining order:

http://www.geocities.com/voicism/index-052.html [extrapolated from the Citrus County Chronicle]

7-2-2006 Florida: Woman seeks restraining order against [Mark] Lunsford: Mark Lunsford’s ex-girlfriend is seeking to get an order of protection against him, after she said in her petition he has made threats to her. .Mechelle D. Willis, 35, of Homosassa, signed a petition Monday seeking a protection order against Lunsford, 42, of Homosassa. In her injunction petition for protection against domestic violence, Willis says he has called her cell phone and left threats, and on Sunday, drove by her “cussing” at her and a friend. Lunsford was the father of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was murdered last year; the man accused of killing her has pleaded not guilty to charges. “He has come by my house with about 15 bikers trying to scare me,” Willis wrote in the petition.

Willis states in the petition Lunsford drives by her home “all hours of the night,” flashing the lights of his truck, and that he has also appeared at a hair salon where she works. On Mother’s Day, she said she had to call the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office “because he was throwing my stuff outside.” When contacted about the incident, sheriff’s spokeswoman Gail Tierney said she could not find a report from May 14, though there was a follow-up report filed four days later for a traffic stop. No further information was available about that incident. [snip]

According to the petition, along with showing up at her home, Willis said on another occasion Lunsford, “tried to wreck me all the way down 44” when she was driving to work. And she said there was another confrontation when she met with a friend about “job information,” and Lunsford flashed his lights across the road. “My friend asked him what he wanted,” she stated in the petition. “Then a car pulled up, everyone was out of their cars, and they hit my friend with a board that had nails in it. He still has the marks on his back.”

Willis is seeking a protection order that would prohibit Lunsford from coming within 500 feet of her home or work. She also wants him to participate in treatment and counseling services. Willis, a mother of a 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, said the girl witnessed some of the incidents. ..more.. : by Dave Pieklik

Need I say more?