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The photo above is Charlie (my youngest son) + me in November of 2017… around the same time…

• I was illegally arrested…
• … hauled away by two armed officers…
• placed in handcuffs and into the back of a black unmarked SUV…
• … arrested based on false allegations…
• accusations the Oregon Department of Justice knew were false at the time of my arrest (an arrest which they ordered)…
• … accusations the DOJ knew were false because a comprehensive IRS audit had proven them to be false (and they had received the full IRS audit documentation for review prior to ordering my [illegal] arrest)…
• accusations made via a (fraudulent) “anonymous complaint…”
• … an “anonymous complaint,” which was not based on any facts, any sort of evidence, or anything in the real world at all (and whose wild false allegations were proven to be completely false by the comprehsive 3-year IRS audit)… 
• arrested while I was sitting at our kitchen table, home-schooling my youngest son, Charlie.
• Charlie was just 9 years old at the time his mom was randomly, illegally, and falsely arrested by armed officers in our kitchen — an arrest that happened without any prior notice, warning, or explanation.
• Charlie, my other children, and my husband all have major PTSD because of this incident and the circumstances surrounding it.

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For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety (founded in January of 2018.)
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for 5 product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February 2023 (March 2023 print edition) and The Guardian in November 2023.

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I am publishing this piece as ad-free to make it easier for you to read. If you would like to support our independent consumer goods testing by contributing (which will also help us keep our more widely-read articles ad-free!), click here. Thank you!

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Published: December 15, 2023

I have written this piece to give those who have been following my Federal Civil Rights case (for the past 7+ years, and really since everything started to go down in February of 2016 after my presentation with Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan) an update.

Our latest hearing (our appeals hearing with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — San Francisco, California) happened ten days ago on December 5, 2023.

In this hearing on December 5th:

• My Civil Rights attorney was presenting to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges, asking them to overturn the “Qualified Immunity” ruling…
  • a Qualified Immunity ruling made by the Federal Court judge in Oregon
  • a Qualified Immunity ruling that used faulty logic (further violating my Civil Rights)
  • a Qualified Immunity ruling, which “decided” that the investigators with the State of Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) were not responsible for violating my Civil Rights (repeatedly, persistently, across many years) because they were “just doing their job” as employees of the State of Oregon — and therefore covered by  “Qualified Immunity” for their “mistakes” (equaling to egregious, blatant, and well-documented civil rights violations perpetrated against me).

If you are new to hearing about my Federal Civil Rights case (in which I am suing the State of Oregon in Federal Court for multiple counts of Civil Rights violations against me — violations that destroyed my federal-award winning non-profit organization and made a “good faith effort” at destroying my family, my children’s sanity, and my credibility as an environmental activist), you can read an earlier filing (the third amended complaint) outlining all the details of the case at this link.

Before watching the 2-minute video (below) of the December 5th hearing (the latest hearing in our case), I highly recommend reading the paperwork supporting our appeal (paperwork which was submitted to the courts on March 5, 2023 — a full NINE MONTHS before the hearing). Here’s the link to that full filing.

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Important points to highlight (points which are detailed in the above link and some of which are mentioned in the hearing):

• The Oregon Department of Justice investigator knew I was innocent of the allegations prior to (fraudulently and illegally) testifying before the Grand Jury that I was guilty. 
• Nearly two months before they provided false testimony to the Grand Jury, the Oregon DOJ investigators had been given notice of my innocence in the matter via a letter from my attorney dated September 14, 2017 — after the conclusion of the IRS audit, which ruled in my favor (confirming my innocence of the false allegations made via an anonymous complaint).
• The Oregon DOJ investigators also received the letter from the IRS (again, confirming my innocence of the allegations) dated October 3, 2017 — more than a month before they knowingly falsely testified that I was guilty (of crimes I did not commit).
• The Oregon DOJ investigators then requested full documentation of the IRS audit (more documentation that confirmed my innocence of the allegations) from my attorney, which he provided to them (documentation provided PRIOR to them giving false testimony before the Grand Jury, alleging I was guilty of crimes for which they knew I was innocent).
• The OREGON DOJ investigators IGNORED the evidence we provided (that they had requested), ignored the letters sent to them in September and October 2017, and — in November of 2017 (nearly two months after they were informed of the IRS’ finding in my favor) — the Oregon DOJ investigator went ahead with illegally/ fraudulently/ falsely testifying before the Grand Jury. The investigator stated that I was guilty of crimes I did not commit (when he had all of the evidence in his possession required to clearly demonstrate my innocence in this matter).
• I was then (shortly after Thanksgiving 2017) illegally arrested for these crimes I did not commit.
• During the arrest, the arresting officers stated they had no information regarding what I was being arrested for (they were unaware of/ could not tell me about what specific crimes I was being accused of).
• In the hearing below — and with the paperwork (linked above, submitted to the courts in support of this hearing) — we are demanding the right to a jury trial (that the “Qualified Immunity” ruling made by the Oregon-based Federal Judge be overturned so we can proceed to trial in holding the bad actors within the State of Oregon and the Oregon Department of Justice accountable for their illegal/ fraudulent activities that violated my civil rights and destroyed the Lead Safe America Foundation, a federal-award winning non-profit organization for childhood Lead poisoning prevention that I established).

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Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Qualified Immunity (for those who are not familiar with the term):

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Here’s the full video of the 9th Circuit hearing from December 5, 2023. If you are going to bother taking the time to watch (about 21 minutes), please watch to the end when my attorney presents a nice little “zinger” with his closing statement. (Please continue reading below.)

~ End ~

Photo of me with my four sons during happier times,
before all of this started (c. 2009).