After you read this post, if you want to help obtain Justice for Steven, it would be helpful for you to IMMEDIATEY contact any or all of the following and let them know your feelings about what has happened and needs to be done by them going forward.
The San Mateo County Coroner and San Mateo County has moved in court to dismiss our Desecration of Steven's human remains case. That motion will be heard on February 23, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. (we have only 2 days from now) in the San Mateo County Superior Court. The case is Wolkoff vs. County of San Mateo Coroner’s Office et. al, Case No. CIV503483.
1) E-mail the President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Adrienne Tissier now at atissier@smcgov.org or call her office at (650) 363-4572 and let her know that they should immediately withdraw their legal opposition with the San Mateo Superior Court re-our case being allowed to proceed to a fair trial by citizens of a Jury who will decide the merits of our legal case.
2) E-Mail - ROGER Fielding -Deputy Coroner of San Mateo County at rfielding@co.sanmateo.ca.us
3) Call the San Mateo Coroner-Robert J. Foucrault- (650) 312-5562.
Steven should be alive today but he is now rotting away at the bottom of his grave, instead of enjoying life to its fullest. Death is permanent, forever he will be missed and loved.
What I feel as Steven's father even though is so painfully impossible for me to reduce into words that you can understand the magnitude of what my family and I live with every day, now, for the rest of our lives.
My feelings will never change and I will carry them with me forever in my broken heart as a parent. Steven was an amazing loving son, a talented, skilled craftsman who was working on streaming media projects as the head team supervisor for major tech Company's, a amazing bass guitarist with his band, a voracious reader, writer, who embraced every aspect of life. He was a uniquely gifted young man, patient, kind, humble, caring, and loved by everyone he met. I am so proud of who he was as my son and as a man.
Yet somehow he ended up dead forever at such a young age, before he could experience the many beautiful things that he deserved. He will never be a father, have a family, smell the air, see the sun, feel the rain, talk, hug, kiss and feel love ever again. We buried him against the natural order of life as his parents, instead of his burying us, a true tragedy.
In death, Steven was not even given the basic dignity by those responsible in their sworn responsibilities of taking care of him in a way that is expected and required in a civilized society to recognize the sanctity of a human being who is no longer alive.
How can this be, why Steven, why did he have to suffer so much, why is he not here alive today, we will never know. I will never stop asking those questions.
Instead of San Mateo County officials acting in a humane manner, and being honest by holding themselves accountable for their actions to Steven as an innocent victim, they have disrespected, mutilated, his body, and tried to erase him as if he never existed.
San Mateo County has treated their horrific actions in the desecration of my sons body in death, as if their barbaric behavior is somehow acceptable. For me, this is not about a legal case, fancy legal words, and manipulations of laws by SMC to avoid their taking seriously the violation of their sworn responsibility to respect with dignity to protect, and treat with the utmost sanctity that we all expect for the dead, and of the human soul.
This is about the basic inability of SMC as a government entity that has instead gone out of it's way in treating Steven's body and the grief of my family, in such a disgraceful, cruel, inhuman way. Apparently San Mateo County feels that it is perfectly acceptable legally and morally to defile a human body.
What if this was your innocent child who was killed traveling through my community where I live, and his body allowed to be illegally mutilated by those in charge ? Would you not expect the honesty and dignity from me, my neighbors, to treat every human life in death as precious. Apparently NOT so in San Mateo!
How do the SMC officials live with themselves? How is it possible that there is not at least one brave human being, not one County Official in San Mateo County involved in all of this, who will come forward and recognize that a human life is precious and allow the citizens of San Mateo County to decide through a jury trial, as to whether justice should be given to Steven?
We will see, when the Court rules in the next 2 days on Thursday February 23, 2012 as to whether what was horrifically done to Steven in death is acceptable, has merit to go to a jury trial, or is "frivolous", and the acts of desecration of the dead is an acceptable practice in San Mateo County. We will see how the citizens of San Mateo County feel about the value of a human life.
Instead of San Mateo County officials acting in a humane manner, and being honest by holding themselves accountable for their actions to Steven as an innocent victim, they have disrespected, mutilated, his body, and tried to erase him as if he never existed.
San Mateo County has treated their horrific actions in the desecration of my sons body in death, as if their barbaric behavior is somehow acceptable. For me, this is not about a legal case, fancy legal words, and manipulations of laws by SMC to avoid their taking seriously the violation of their sworn responsibility to respect with dignity to protect, and treat with the utmost sanctity that we all expect for the dead, and of the human soul.
This is about the basic inability of SMC as a government entity that has instead gone out of it's way in treating Steven's body and the grief of my family, in such a disgraceful, cruel, inhuman way. Apparently San Mateo County feels that it is perfectly acceptable legally and morally to defile a human body.
What if this was your innocent child who was killed traveling through my community where I live, and his body allowed to be illegally mutilated by those in charge ? Would you not expect the honesty and dignity from me, my neighbors, to treat every human life in death as precious. Apparently NOT so in San Mateo!
How do the SMC officials live with themselves? How is it possible that there is not at least one brave human being, not one County Official in San Mateo County involved in all of this, who will come forward and recognize that a human life is precious and allow the citizens of San Mateo County to decide through a jury trial, as to whether justice should be given to Steven?
We will see, when the Court rules in the next 2 days on Thursday February 23, 2012 as to whether what was horrifically done to Steven in death is acceptable, has merit to go to a jury trial, or is "frivolous", and the acts of desecration of the dead is an acceptable practice in San Mateo County. We will see how the citizens of San Mateo County feel about the value of a human life.
Below is a press release appearing in the media over the next 2 days and we will get to see whether a human life is worth being respected while living and in death. I guess I expect that that the answer will be my worst fears that the corrupt legal system will continue to ignore Steven's human rights but I will hope for the best, that they are still capable of recognizing the value of a human life. We will see.
PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release: February 21, 2012
SAN MATEO COUNTY Coroner Sued Again Over Mishandling Remains
Jerald and Sandy Wolkoff attended a deposition for the wrongful death of their 30 year old son Steven Wolkoff. They were shocked to learn that the office of Robert Foucrault, the San Mateo County Coroner, had retained parts of their son’s brain. The Wolkoffs were not informed by the Coroner’s office that parts of Steven Wolkoff’s brain had been retained at the time he was released to their custody for burial. After having buried their son Steven, to learn about the mishandling of their son’s remains was devastating and in violation of their faith. Moreover, the Coroner’s office had released Steven Wolkoff’s brain to the Defendant’s third party lab and allowed it to be desecrated, cut into 20 pieces, all without the consent or permission of the Wolkoffs.
The Wolkoffs then discovered this was not the first time the San Mateo County Coroner had acted with such disregard for the deceased and the surviving next of kin. In 2006, San Mateo County resident Selina Picon learned that the Coroner had returned her son’s body for burial without his heart. She was outraged. Her lawsuit prompted the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution recommending the Coroner put in place a policy of informing the next of kin when body parts of the deceased are retained. That policy was carelessly disregarded in the Wolkoffs’ case.
The Wolkoffs are suing the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office and San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault to prevent this trauma from happening to other grieving parents. The overpowering issue is that families of all faiths would desire their loved one’s remains be treated with dignity and not indifference. Sandy Wolkoff said, “This is a very big issue for me, maybe because there are so few chances left for me to fight for my son. I can't have him back, but I want all of him. I, as his mother, felt dismissed by the people involved in his death. They also seem to have forgotten that they have a moral and legal mandate to be respectful of him, and us, after his death."
Jerald Wolkoff said, “Despite the allegations of the SMC Coroner as to their change in protocol after the Picon Case, NO ONE from the SMC Coroner’s Office ever notified me or Sandy, post autopsy that they were returning Steven’s body to us without the various human remains that they kept. Furthermore, no one from the SMC Coroner’s office ever informed us, or sought our permission to have the Defendant in the wrongful death suit, dissect new slides of Steven's brain, over 2 years after his cause of death was determined by their Office.”
The San Mateo County Coroner has moved in court to dismiss the Wolkoffs’ Complaint. That motion will be heard on February 23, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. in the San Mateo County Superior Court. The case is Wolkoff vs. County of San Mateo Coroner’s Office et. al, Case No. CIV503483. The Wolkoffs are represented by longtime Oakland Plaintiffs’ lawyers J. Gary Gwilliam and Steven J. Brewer. For questions please contact: J. Gary Gwilliam, Steven J. Brewer, Jayme Burns at 510-832-5411,or Jerry Wolkoff at 516-697-4804.
Now we will learn just how much my sons life is worth in the the "justice System". I Don't expect very much but I am hoping for the best, a chance to exercise our rights to have the truth told, be decided at a Jury Trial and not have our case ruled on randomly by an indifferent Judge.
Now we will learn just how much my sons life is worth in the the "justice System". I Don't expect very much but I am hoping for the best, a chance to exercise our rights to have the truth told, be decided at a Jury Trial and not have our case ruled on randomly by an indifferent Judge.
