By Donna Westfall – April 16, 2017 – MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE?
Whenever a person of principal sits in jail unwilling to admit guilt or to plea bargain, some might call that person stubborn. Some might call that person steadfast. Some might call that person stupid. How many in our area would call that person good, decent, morally right, virtuous, or upstanding?
Not many. Most would have him convicted before he ever reached the courthouse for a trial. It’s one of those cases where he’s been judged and deemed guilty. Why? Just look at the girl. She’s cute. She’s so innocent looking. She cried “rape.” He must be guilty.
Bryan Ranger has been sitting in jail nearing the four year mark. His daughter, Mercy Ranger (now 21 years old), made allegations in early 2012 that he raped her and committed lewd behavior with her and their eldest six children. She was never examined. She was never given a polygraph test. The court just willy-nilly decided that she was telling the truth because, look, she appeared to be so traumatized. Or was there more to it?
Her allegations of rape against her father, Bryan Ranger, took a dramatic turn in 2014 when Mercy Ranger admitted she was having sex with the next door neighbor, a man nearly three times her age. However, her confession was not shared with the defense until late 2015 or early 2016.
Is Mercy Ranger a compulsive liar? Did Mercy Ranger cry “rape” because she was angry at her father? Did she bribe her brother to support her allegations of rape/lewd conduct so she could get out of a house that preached things like, “Wait until marriage to have sex?”
Has crying “rape” falsely been done before. Yes, of course it has. More often than not and it’s a shame because those who have been legitimately raped deserve every legal consideration. But for those that go outside the law, some have faced the consequences. 22 year old , Elizabeth Jones, was jailed after crying “rape” 11 times, her first one starting at age 13. In 2013, she was sentenced to 16 months in an Australian jail. A Belfast woman was jailed for 9 months for crying rape when a former lover gave her the cold shoulder.
Some of the more common reasons women lie about rape:
- To get sympathy.
- Because they are mentally ill
- When they want attention
- Because they feel guilty
- To hide what they’re doing with someone else
Then what is the responsibility of the public agencies – remember those agencies that spend our taxpayers dollars? Is it their responsibility to get to the truth or to distort the truth?
The public has a perception that agencies like Child Protective Services and Child Welfare Services are there to protect the child and to place the child in a temporary home that is free from abuse and neglect. But what happens when the opposite takes place? Or better still, what happens when it looks like the agencies set up to protect the children have actually created an industry that is tantamount to legally kidnapping children and placing them in homes for the money?
By all outward appearances and based on reports by friends of the family, the Ranger children were happy and healthy. Except that all changed when they moved into their rental home in 2009 at 300 Creekside Lane, Crescent City, California. Their landlord’s son, Marcus Nash, 40 years old, lived in an apartment above the garage. Their oldest daughter, Mercy, took a liking to the him and by all indications it was encouraged by the 40 year old and discouraged by her parents. One might even say, he seduced the girl. By the time she reached the ripe old age of 16, she was ready to marry and move to Texas with the man. But there was one or two little hitches. One, she didn’t disclose the affair until 2014. By that time, her father had been sitting in jail for a year and both her parents had their children snatched out of the house, placed in foster care and adopted out while their parental rights were terminated. Two, she stated her lover, Marcus Nash, cheated on her.
But at age 16, in love, what was this determined young girl going to do? It appears that she threatened her father. Those threats took the form of accusing him with serious allegations that would rip the family he loved so dearly apart IF she didn’t get her way.
Neither parent had a history of violence upon each other or upon their children. Neither parent drank to excess, or encouraged smoking, used drugs or even used profanity in the household.
Yet by innuendo or by design, when Child Welfare Services hired Dr. Tod Roy, his report came back that the mother had an unspecified mental illness., PTSD and depression. This then translated to the prosecution’s, Attorney General’s, Joyce Blair, blowing it out of all proportion by calling her mentally ill and couldn’t get through the day.
Mercy Ranger’s confession was made in November, 2014. Her father, Bryan Ranger, didn’t see a copy of it until about January 2016. He really thought the charges would be dropped and he would be released from jail. He also thought Marcus Nash would be investigated. It didn’t happen. Mercy Ranger has never recanted her allegations against her father even though her brother has.
Why wasn’t Marcus Nash ever investigated for statutory rape? Was Mercy Ranger COACHED to make the allegations by the very people who needed to CONCEAL THE CRIME OF STATUTORY RAPE? If yes, who coached her? Based on phone records, was former DA Jon Alexander involved? Was Marcus Nash’s mother, Sasha Weaver Upton involved? Did the coaching also conveniently serve to give her freedom to date and have sex with Marcus Nash? Also, was Mercy Ranger’s MOTIVATION to get a controlling father out of the way so she could date and have sex with Marcus Nash? When Bryan Ranger refused to give up his parental rights, he was threatened and warned that charges would be filed AGAINST HIM. He refused to be BLACK-MAILED so by all indications, that threat was carried out.
Today is the Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in his victory over death. It is these beliefs that Bryan and Judy Ranger hold onto. I asked Bryan Ranger if he was bitter. His response, “I believe in truth and justice. I wouldn’t exactly call it bitterness because I believe that God has protected me and watched over me all these years. I have led a spotless life; I never imagined that it would go this far. I look forward to being reunited with my wife and children. We love all our children including Mercy and can forgive her.”
I know and have seen how things said and repeated have and do get so’ twisted’no doubt if the Del Norte County legal system has done it once and got away with distorting the truth and fabricated and passed around horrible lies’ among one another in said circle they gonna do it again. What’s horrible is innocent lives have been shattered and handed down through generation’s having a cause and effect’
A new trial date has supposedly been set for June 12th now, but they will likely put it off again because I believe they know my husband, Bryan Ranger, is innocent and want to keep him in jail to cover themselves.
UNBELIEVABLE! My tax dollar pays for social services that use a diagnostic test to create a diagnosis of depression, a mental illness that most people have success with treatment at the local mental health facility. That isn’t happening here in Del Norte County. Why would people be self medicating on ETOH and Drugs when you have access to a psychologist, social workers, our friends at law enforcement, and the justice system to protect all the little children from bad people who kidnap you and never let you see your momma and daddy again, and tell you what you can say or else they will give you psych drugs, just be patient, if Daddy is innocent he can come back home and everything will be normal again. So, oh great social worker, do you think any of those 9 children will have abandonment issues? When you were in training I know you were educated about the different stressors that can lead to all kinds of mental health disturbances. How does it feel to be one of the stressors that can make a child’s life a living nightmare. Sheriff Apperson, we use to tell little children to ask the policeman for help if they were ever lost or afraid. Not any more. They may get you alone, where there are no witnesses and threaten to harm you. I voted for you because I thought there was some sort of decency about you that would protect a child, no matter what it took. I feel no sense of security knowing You and your officers are on duty. Is the Prosecuting atty from the Atty gen. office the same person who made such a big deal about the diagnosis from the test Tod Roy answered saying his answers were Judy Rangers? I think the inmates of the asylum are running the county ( into the ground).
This does sound like Mercy could have been coached. False allegations of sexual abuse are extremely commonly used for collateral advantage. The biggest question now seems to be whether someone else used false allegations to cover their own criminal acts. Four years in jail without a trial is outrageous. Is there a trial set now?