On the 25th of January 2007, I was held down and beaten by Detective Derek Cruff of the West Fargo Police Department and Officer Robert Merlin Stanger of the Fargo Police Department in fruition to the threat made to me the previous day by Cruff. The I.C.R. composed by Stanger is full of inaccuracies and half-truths. A much more accurate depiction is as follows:

1-22-07; After attending a funeral and leaving early to pick my two (2) children up from school, I was met instead by Detective Cruff and a social worker Donnette Torgerson, where they informed me that a teacher at Westside Elementary, felt that my method of discipline with Marcus was too harsh and that they were there to take both children as wards of the state. Understandably, I was beside myself with emotion as it had already been a harrowing day (week actually) and I begged and pleaded with them to reconsider. After a very tearful 15 to 20 minutes, I called my wife (away from the funeral of which she was still in attendance) and informed her of the situation. 10 to 15 minutes later we were both pleading for Cruff and Torgerson to listen to reason and reconsider, as their actions would cause much more mental and emotional anguish than four (4) swats on my sons backside ever could, and they would not. We asked if we could have access to legal counsel (as surely this could not be legal) and we were told by both that we could not. We asked if we could speak to our children and the person making the allegations and again we could not. They were judge, jury, and executioner and apparently the persons best qualified to raise our two children. It became quite apparent that the only way to ensure our children’s safe return home to family was to agree to whatever their list of demands were, and seek legal counsel After our kids were safe. Among their list of demands were:
I was forbidden to speak to the children about anything that had transpired (this demand concerned me the most and I would find out later why Cruff had insisted upon it), I could not discipline my children for a month, and (because apparently anyone daring to practice decent conservative parenting methods is in need of therapy) agree to seek counseling. We signed their list of demands, and after enduring the humiliation of watching as our children were tutored on how to dial 911 if I (their father) attempted to question or discipline them in any way {essentially stripping us of our rights expressly authorized under N.D.C.C. 12.1-05-05(1)} were we allowed to take our own beloved children home. Cruff in the presence of my wife and Ms Torgerson stated that he would hurt me if I mentioned or did anything about what happened to the children. His words verbatim were “You will feel my wrath like you can not imagine. He made clear in no uncertain terms that he could and would physically harm me if I deviated in anyway from their list of demands.
After leaving the school, I thought that we would lighten the mood, so we went out for dinner, at the end of which my daughter (8) asked me if her uncle Lionel was a bad person and if he was in trouble. Concerned, I asked “why”. She informed me that “The Police Officer (alone) asked her a lot of questions about her uncle, ie: social habits, living arrangements, friends he may have had over, his girlfriends name and address etc. None of which she would know as Lionel is not allowed, when he visit’s, to bring anyone over including his girlfriend as they are not married and her mannerisms are not what we want our daughter to emulate. And when he is visiting, he has to unconditionally adhere to the very conservative rules of our household, which is for his own good as well as our children (Lexi has actually taught him how to play chess and they play quite frequently). Cruff had failed to mention that he had used this “opportunity” to pump “interrogate” my minor daughter, which is in my opinion one of the main reasons that he did not want me to question her. This concerned me greatly and we wondered what else he failed to tell us. In light of this, with very minimal prompting, we encouraged the children to re-count the day’s events, which they did, and painted a very different picture from the one Torgerson and Cruff presented.
In light of this, we were absolutely convinced that we were in dire need of legal counsel, as we had nothing to go on save the interpretation of the events according to a six (6) and eight (8) year old, which can give you a basic picture, but in no way is a substitute for factual information. {See IPT report, Wakefield and Underwager Vol1; [http://www.iptforensics.com/journal/vol1/j1_1_3.htm]} And in light of the fact that we were forbidden to speak to any adult involved, and Torgerson and Cruff were not honest or forthcoming with us, we started planning a course of action to assure that our parental rights were not infringed upon, and to properly dispel any notions that our children are now or ever have been victim's of abuse. I contacted some friends of mine who have some knowledge of legal proceedings of this nature, and after expressing absolute shock that this was happening to us, we unanimously concluded that a doctors evaluation and pictures confirming the children's physical fitness were top order.
The following morning my wife and I got to work. She called the children's school, and informed them of the situation and that we would pick up any schoolwork that was pertinent. After seeing Nichole off to work, I groomed and fed the children (as is my daily routine) and started making the necessary phone calls.
01-25-07;
At about 10:30am, I received a call from Donnette Torgerson of Cass County Social Services in regards to scheduling an appointment time that would be mutually agreeable to both parties, (parties meaning, my family, Ms Torgerson and the provider). Ms Torgerson set a 1:00pm time which I explained would not be possible as I was in the process of getting the children assessed by their doctor, and was at the time she called on the phone obtaining the proper insurance information, and that my wife would not be available until after 5:30pm. Ms Torgerson seemed to be very upset that I felt it necessary to have the children assessed (particularly Marcus) and was absolutely livid that 1:00 was not going to work for us. She exclaimed, "Well you know where this leaves us" where I asked,"back to square one" she menacingly replied and hung up the phone. At this time I was very afraid, given the threat made by Cruff the previous night and the thinly veiled one I had just received from Torgerson, I moved my priorities around and now legal counsel moved from 2nd to 1st. About 15Min's later, Torgerson called back. My initial response was relief thinking that she had calmed down and would be reasonable. My relief turned quickly to dread as I heard the menacingly taunting tone of her voice. "So what doctor are you taking them to" Borwitz if I can get them in today, if not the emergency room, was my reply. "So have you left yet,” she asked. Not yet, I am waiting...and she hung up again. Now I am totally baffled and have no clue as to what's going on. About 10 to 15mins later my worst fears were confirmed.
As I was on the phone speaking to a representative from the Rutherford Institute, there came a very loud banging on my front door. This concerned me greatly as we live in a very quiet community and the resident’s living there are mostly elderly. I apologized to my rep and told him that I would have to call him back. As I hung up the phone (and this took all of 5 to maybe 10 second's) there was an even louder banging at my door this time accompanied by a very loud shout "OPEN UP LIONEL (short pause) LEON WE KNOW YOU IN THERE BECAUSE WE JUST SPOKE TO YOU (this was Stanger) followed by louder banging. Now the tone and nature of Torgerson's voice and comment's made sense. Apparently after our first conversation she called Cruff and they headed to my place of residence to carry out the threats made. Instead, (I found out later) they had in fact gone to my mother-by-law's home in west Fargo {In their statement and in statement's made in my presence's Torgerson and Cruff both lied to Stanger, who was very surprised when he asked me "why did you give them (Torgerson and Cruff) a false address?" and my response was "We never gave them any address they never asked for it as it did not come up in our conversation yesterday or today." Cruff had obtained the address from a 10yr old record, not from my wife or myself as he stated to Stanger} the second phone call was made in-route to my home and it's sole purpose was to ensure my presence there.
After inviting them into my home, I instructed my daughter to continue to read to her brothers in the living room, and I took Stanger,Cruff and Torgerson into my bedroom.
Cruff, Stanger, and Torgerson accompanied me into my bedroom. I sat on my bed, crossed my legs and placed my hands, palms down on top of each other, on top of my left knee. My phone was in my right hand (between my right palm and the top of my left hand). I purposely sat in this manner so as to avoid what happened later. Stanger asked me to tell him what was going on, so I started explaining the events of the past three (3) days. Cruff and Torgerson made it a point to continuously interrupt me, especially whenever I pointed out pointed out inaccuracies in their stories, and many times I never had the opportunity to offer a suitable reply to Stangers question. After they had their fun with me (one would ask me a question and before I could reply or in mid-reply the other would ask me a question completely off topic, leaving me mostly confused and exasperated which is the desired effect of this tactic) and is the precise reason I repeatedly asked for and required an attorney. The last question Stanger asked me was, did I own a thick brown belt with a cowboy style buckle. My response was, verbatim, “No, the only brown belt I own is a thin reversible Pierre Cardine that is worn with slacks” I had it on the previous day and it was in my closet still in my slacks. I was very much apprehensive about standing up, because given the way I had been treated up and until now, I felt the safest place for me was sitting down, legs crossed and hands in full sight,(So as to avoid any resisting arrest or assaulting an officer charges) but Stanger purposely asked me to get up and show it to him. So I stood up, phone still in hand, and walked about four (4) steps to my closet, picked up the slacks and removed the belt. I noticed that while I was doing this, he instructed the uniformed officer and Ms Torgerson to leave the room. Alarm bells went off in my head, as now I was alone in the room with Cruff and Stanger. As I stepped out of the closet, Cruff grabbed my left wrist with one hand and with his other hand, my upper arm right above my elbow and said “Leon you know why we are here, let’s do this easily” I turned around and Stanger was advancing towards me. My exact word’s were “This cannot be legal, there is no way, in America , this is legal .I am calling my attorney”. My laptop was opened to the Rutherford ’s Rep website, so I started to dial the number. As I did this, Stanger kicked over the ottoman that my laptop was on and grabbed my right wrist with his left hand and attempted to pry my phone from my hands to prevent me from dialing, and they are both forcing me face down on the bed. By this time I am terrified and yelling for someone to help me and crying profusely. Cruff put his knee in my lower back and twisted the arm he had until it almost touched the bottom of my shoulder blade, telling me to “shut-up and quit resisting”. I cannot believe that this is happening and I say so numerous times. Now all thoughts of contacting the Rutherford were gone. I yelled to my brother to call 911 and as soon as I said those word the first punch landed on the back of my head. I could not believe this and said so. I turned my head so that I could see who hit me. It was Stanger and he had his fist drawn back for another blow. I turned my head back downward as the blow landed directly behind my right ear. By this time my tears are flowing freely and I am screaming “I am an AMERICAN citizen, I have rights, this is illegal, you CAN-NOT do this” Stanger hit me four(4) to five(5) more times and very loudly saying “Lionel, quit resisting ,Shut up Lionel and quit resisting!”(Cruff corrected him at least three times and told him that my name was Leon .) As Stanger continued to hit me, I was vaguely aware of three (3) things: 1,Torgerson had re-entered the room briefly and ran out exclaiming “This is horrible I cannot watch” She looked terrified.
That my eight (8) year old daughter had run into the room crying and begging for them to stop, she briefly witnessed Stanger punching me before she was dragged out by Torgerson.( I later found out that my brother Lionel had to assist Torgerson in keeping Alexis out of the room as her father was being beaten by these officers. Lionel also, despite threats made by another officer there, called 911, who in turn told him he had to deal with the officers there (the ones beating me) and
3. Now there was another officer (so three (3)) Stanger still hitting me with his knee between my shoulder-blades near the base of my neck, Cruff with his knee in the small of my back and had by this time handcuffed me and remarked several times in a mocking tone “Come on Leon quit crying you are scaring the kids”, and another officer whom I didn’t know had his knees on my thighs. A combined weight of over 900lbs. I weigh 150lbs, yet in his report and as I later found out he explained to my wife, “Your husband is as strong as an ox, I HAD to hit him to get him to stop resisting” He said this in the presence of my wife, Torgerson and Cruff. Apparently crying, calling for help and reminding the officers that you are an AMERICAN and are entitled to GOD and COUNTRY given rights constitutes combative hostility and sanctions the use of these horrible GESTAPO tactics. After they were done with me, Cruff and the other officer left the room and Stanger remained. He took his knee out of my back and very slowly, very deliberately placed his foot on my neck (the heel of his shoe was on my neck and the toe on my bottom jaw and chin” and smiled at me. The look on his face was one of complete authority and satisfaction, as if he had somehow done something noble. This was the ultimate insult to add to the injury I had already endured.

I cried during the entire trip to the police station.


When I arrived at the station, I was taken to a small rubber lined cell, where as I knelt with my head against the wall the officers began to strip me. When they got down to my underwear, I asked, “Is this really necessary?” The officer replied that they wouldn’t want me to hang myself. I don’t know if this was meant to be hurtful or he was simply stating a fact, but the comment drew laughter from a male and female behind the desk. I asked them if they would find it so comical if their family and dignity were taken from them in plain view of their family, children and neighbors. They apologized and the officer took my undergarments and left me with what appeared to be a very large fishing vest. I don’t know how long I stayed in that cell, but the whole time was spent crying.


There is an inherent belief in the Fargo and West Fargo Police department that any non-white male they encounter is sub-human, a second-class citizen and thus beneath the dignity and respect afforded his white counterpart. This gives them carte-blanc to use Gestapo style tactics to beat him into submission. If he wants access to legal counsel or in anyway asserts any his god or country given rights, he is deemed combative. God forbid he cries out for help or for some witness to the atrocities being committed against him. The officers then utilize an any means necessary policy to shut him up,(choking, knee in abdomen or punching with closed fist to the back of the head) And then cover their actions with a resisting arrest charge or he was going for a weapon allegation.

This is wrong.

A citizen is a citizen, irregardless of skin tone or class status. Afforded the same rights any citizen of these United States is privileged to. These rights do not diminish once you cross the border into North Dakota . They are not suspended when you enter Fargo or West Fargo, yet these departments not only condone the use of these tactics, they actively cover the actions of these officers by using Greoble-esque propaganda (to lie, distort, and misrepresent the facts) to smear the victim. Many times charging him with a crime instead, leaving the aforementioned victim, beaten, humiliated and in many cases incarcerated without the financial means to seek legal retribution. These departments count on that fact. These officers count on that fact. Without funding for proper legal counsel, it is the officers’ word against a minority, who many times has been denied his legal rights for so long that he doesn’t realize that he has any. This has to and will change and I fully plan on being instrumental in bringing about that change.