On May 7th, 2011 the door bell rang at my home at 0510. The sun was barely rising so it was still fairly dark out. I thought it was Kyle as he had gone out with a buddy and I knew he'd be out late. I thought he had forgotten his key. I was groggy as I had not slept well through the night. I was walking to the front door going down the hallway and I called out, "Kyle?" His bedroom window was open and it was adjacent to the front door. He would have heard me and responded but there was silence.
I turned the porch light on and looked through our beveled glass window in the front door. The figure of who was at the door was ambiguous. It could have been Kyle and frankly I just assumed it was. I looked more closely and saw 2 figures and thought he had a friend with him.
I opened the door and was slightly stunned by the two men who stood there. They immediately stated they were from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department and that they wanted to speak to DM. I saw the shorter officer pull his badge out and let it hang on his chest. The 2nd officer followed suit.
I told them that he was not here. They repeated exactly what I just stated, "He's not here?" Again I told them that he was not here and that he was in Canada. I informed them that the courts here knew that because D had appeared telephonically for a hearing on April 19th. They proceeded to tell me that they had an arrest warrant for D. I concurred. They stated that they would need to come in to take a look. I responded, "You can't come into my house." They stated that they had a warrant for DM's arrest and that they needed to search the house. I asked, "So you can just come into my house?" They replied, "Yes we can. We have a warrant for Mr. M's arrest. They asked me if they could come in and my thoughts were racing. I had a second or two to answer.
Why engage in a scene when I knew that there was an arrest warrant out for him and that he was not here anyway. I had nothing to hide. No points needed to be proven to anyone including myself. I thought I'd just get this over with so that they could satisfy their search. I told them that they could come in and look.
Flashlights and all...from room to room as the two of them split up. I stayed with one of them and turned on lights in each room. I pointed to my bed. I said, "As you can see he has not been here. My bed has been like this for over a month now." D's side stayed perfectly made up every night. Once the officer saw the bed I felt as though he was satisfied and believed me that D was not here. He apologized and let me know that they were just doing their job. I let him know that I understood that. We stopped and spoke for a bit in the kitchen.
They did not continue to look in the garage or the laundry room. They were confused. They asked me several questions. Often the same question in a different format. I ended up explaining to them the reciprocity that existed with family court orders between Canada and the USA. I expounded that all of this was initiated in Canada and that the courts here were honoring what orders were being enforced from there. It was that simple. That was the reason that D was in Canada and not here. He was there to try to change the orders. They were very attentive when I was speaking. I concluded that they were hearing something completely brand new for the very first time ever! They vocalized that they did not know that this was even possible. They cautioned me to be sure that when the changes were made in Canada that I file these changes with the courts here in AZ. This would prevent D from being arrested as he deplaned or entered the country. Now they were trying to help and I recognized this. They expressed that they would write all of this information in their report so as not to have this occur again.
As they were leaving they turned back and one of them said, "Sounds like a mess." I added, "Yes it is a mess and D hasn't seen his kids in 11 years. That's why he's there taking care of this."
They left and apologized again. I wished them a good day.
Their car drove off after they walked to it parked several houses down the street.
It all seemd so surreal. I walked around the house for a few minutes absorbing what had just transpired.
I texted D that Sheriff Joe's boys had just searched our house. I think D's response text was the quickest one I'd ever received! Texting was not his forte AND D was very well aware of Sheriff Joe's Posse!
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