The Official Russell Groff Story

I constantly think of the way we were treated during the 3 years of trying to bring our son home for a decent burial. It was unbelievable how we believed the lawyers involved, and the way they scammed us. There was no compassion or desire for them to be loyal to their oath of office by representing us properly.

We believe the court trial was a joke as far as the Judge and our lawyer was concerned; none of the truth counted. We believe the Judge made her decision before the trial began. It is difficult to deal with how much we paid this lawyers, and they blatantly disregarded their job of properly defending the case.

I have talked a lot about this case, but there is much more I haven’t. It is hard to comprehend how anyone can tell you they will represent you; take your money, and lie to you. Most people who have been done wrong by lawyers and Judges won’t or can’t let it be known, we will let this go untold. The truth will stand when a lie will fall.

I spent long hour days and nights, working on finding the truth about what happened to our son. The more we found; the more we were determined to get our son brought home.

All that happened to us in fighting this case, proved it was the homosexual agenda we were fighting. The parents and the love they had for their son in wanting to bring him home, counted for nothing. We know Russell did not want to be buried where he is, and we will fight for him. If the facts counted, we would have our son buried where he should be. 

I would like to see is justice done! Maybe if  the Judge would look at the case again, she would make the right decision based on all the facts and testimony of the expert witness. Her decision; we believe was made through listening to others degrade us….and this is not the way it should be.

Russell was given HIV/AIDS because he trusted the wrong person; and the person who gave it to him has not  being held accountable. It is against the law to knowingly give some one the HIV virus, and until the day I die, I will try to make the person who killed my son, be accountable for his death. The manipulation of a will for material gain; and the control seeing his demise was hastened was not even considered.

I believe the Judge thought I should not try to represent us, when our lawyer walked out on us. I guess it looked like I was trying to be smart or something. If she had taken time to get to know the real facts about us, instead of listening to lies, things would not have turned out as they did. I worked so hard to get evidence of the lies…..but this did not matter. Not one bit of compassion was in this case, none except for the evil that Kevin did.

We needed to get our son’s remains. The Judge believed Russell wanted to be buried there, but we believe different. The facts back this belief up. There was so much reasonable doubt, with the three different burial documents. The Judge believing Russell wanted to be buried there had nothing to do with proving his not being competent to sign that will. This was not what the Judge should have looked at; it was the fact that Russell was not competent to sign the will Kevin had made in the hospital.

Kevin’s mother presented a copy of the burial document in which she had smeared, (we believe through a copy machine) over signatures and dates; and refused to give us a more legible copy through an attorney here in Knoxville. We found in the document she smeared over, she missed covering a line that would help prove this should not have been done. The lawyer would not bring this up. In his not presenting this document, which was so important to us,;shows he did not want to go against Kevin’s mother who is a lawyer. 

We were told we had to prove Russell was not competent to sign the will in order to get our son’s remains. We did not have to prove whether the Judge thought he wanted to be buried there. We believe this was a blaten disregard of the facts in the case. We did prove without a doubt, Russell was in such a state that he could not have possibly signed that document that was conjured up at the hospital. 

Our lawyer did not  present the copy Kevin’s mother sent, in which she had evidently pulled it through a copy machine and smeared over all the signatures. We had specifically told him to enter all three. We went to a lot of trouble and expense to get these documents. Why? These were our key documents in proving what was going on with the will and burial documents. Even if the lawyer did not present these documents, the Judge had seen them because I entered them through the courts filing system when I was carrying the case myself.

Our lawyer did not do anything with any evidence we had worked hard for; evidence that would prove Kevin got the document signed when Russell did not know what was going on. Russell definitely was not even competent to sign this will or burial document when he was purported to have signed them.

Our medical expert testified for two and a half over 1800 pages of medical records; with graphs and charts. I think this was the best medical expert testimony anyone could have presented. We believe this Judge had already made up her mind; she was not going to rule in our favor. The whole episode was such a travesty. 

I don’t know what went on with all the “behind the door meetings,” as one of the previous lawyers had told us always went on with lawyers. This was when we first hired him; and he did not want us to go to a hearing, that turned out to be one of the first betrayals we found out about. This lawyer told us it was not necessary for us to be there. I believe this is when Kevin and his family got to talk to the Judge about us. I don’t think our lawyers should have told us not to come to this meeting. 

Our third attorney who finally went to court, stepped up from a pro bono website, and sucked us into his web. He knew we were desperate…..

The day of the court case; this lawyer would not speak to us before court. His law clerk was very disrespectful to us. When our lawyer arrived; he went in to have a meeting with the Judge and completely ignored us. We needed to talk to him, and he had an obligation to listen to us. He went on to throw our case in the trash….he did not fight the case at all!

With our forensic expert giving his medical explanation of what happened to Russell when the will was made, the Judge had enough evidence to rule in our favor. I don’t think she ever had a medical expert with his credentials before, but she was not going to listen to anyone, she had made her mind up.

It was so intense having to work on this case day and night; pay lawyers money we did not have, to just disregard all the things we found. The amount of proof we had, that Kevin manipulated everything concerning our son and his horrible death, was overwhelming.

Our attorney led us to believe we would not lose the case with all we had. It is very hard to have put yourself out there emotionally and financially, and have your attorney not even present the evidence he had.

Going on the journey to bring our son’s remains home, we met with some of the most horrific treatment anyone could get from the people involved. We thought we would get a fair trial because we were told the Judge was fair.

The Judge had all the facts, but we believe she did not want to let us win, because of the fact she like Kevin. She had all the facts because of my trying to represent us, when the lawyer who took the case and carried it for a year and a half, before walking out on us. He would not return our money he took to get ready for court. He took this money under false pretenses. We were told the Judge did not like the fact that I tried to represent our case as pro se. I had to try, and she should have seen that if I was not right, I would not have put myself through what I did.

One of our lawyers and his partner who took the money; was going to run for state senate, and failed to inform us of this at the mediation meeting, when they took more money. He gave us an amount of money he needed to get ready for court. They walked out on us because they did not want to be involved in this nasty little case concerning homosexuality. We also saw reasons for both of the lawyers not to go against the Judge. She made some negative comments to us at the mediation. More about these lawyers in next story.

We told our lawyer who went to court; we wanted to be put on the stand, and his law clerk told us they would put Lowell on the stand because, “the Judge liked him.” She was always saying smart things like this. This was just one of the facts that we feel the Judge was bias. This was a statement that was made by the clerk, and one to pay attention to. Evidently there was something our attorney knew; how the Judge felt in order for his clerk to make this statement. Lowell was not put on the stand either.

I believe Kevin had degraded us to the Judge, as he did all over the Internet. These were Kevin’s lies, because we did not uphold the homosexual lifestyle. If the Judge only knew the truth of what kind of person Russell’s mother is…… I try to be good to everyone, but I will stand for the truth because I feel this is the way God leads me.

I have already talked about the statement the Judge made to me before the mediation meeting (in another one of my stories) before the court case started. We still don’t know why she was picked for the mediation meeting; as she was the setting Judge.

The reason they didn’t want to put me on the stand, was because I was the one who did all the work on the case for three years, and I knew all the facts. Lowell went through all this with me, and fully supported the work I did. Lowell read the medical records as I did; suffering as we found the things about our son. We both worked very hard on the case, but our attorney did not let us take the stand to testify about all we knew.

We believe our not getting to take the stand was our attorney’s way of losing the case. As I understand an attorney you hire to help you; has an obligation ethically to work with you on a case. We were led to believe we would be put on the stand and that we had a solid case. We are still very upset with our attorney meeting with the Judge before the hearing. To us this was a conflict of interest for the Judge to even talk to him. Our attorney refused to talk to us before court or let us set beside him in court. He knew we were upset with the way he was handling the case.

Our dignity was trampled by all the slander during this case, from everyone involved with Kevin. Damaging things were put all over the Internet by Kevin and his friends. Our dignity and reputation was so damaged by these people. I value my reputation I have worked so hard for, and I will have to see what can be done about this slander.

We did not have a chance to win this case even though we did prove our case. Russell was not competent to sign the will that was put in front of him two days before he died; that was a proven fact!

Kevin gets what Kevin wants, and he wanted to have control over everything. Kevin’s parents helped him keep Russell from us, going to the doctors and telling them not to notify us. This was so cruel to let this young man die without his parents. Russell wanted to see us, but Kevin told him we would not come. There is a judgement day for everyone, and God will be the Judge. This is the only way I have any peace with all the wrong doings.

Kevin had a lot of insurance on Russell’s life; and we believe there was a lot to this case that has not come out yet. Kevin convinced Russell to take the alternative medication instead of the anti-viral medication; and this hastened his death. It also caused him to have a very painful death. 

When some one has AIDS; and gives it to another intentionally, we know this is murder! We will not stop until justice is done for this evil act against Russell. If homosexuality is so wonderful and normal; (according to the gay activists) then why is it young men and women like Russell are dying from AIDS, in such a horrible way. This was a human being, a beloved son, who did not want to die. He believed the propaganda!

When Russell told us the horrible lifestyle he had become involved in, we warned him about AIDS. You know what he said?  “Oh, AIDS comes from monkeys.” We had no idea what he was talking about. He had been brainwashed into thinking he was safe by telling him that AIDS was by having sex with monkeys. Some monkey (literally speaking) did give him AIDS.

If anyone reads this and has been told this lie; then they had better think twice what lies are told to get someone involved in this perverted sin. We parents love our children; we don’t lie to them. We don’t want to see our children destroyed…..we are the ones who love and hurt for them. Young kids today are being sucked into this homosexual lie; they think it is cool to be gay! How sad! How many more are going to die?

Kevin did what he wanted during the trial; he was never cautioned or sanctioned by anything he said or did! Our lawyer let him ramble on and on with his lies, (on the witness stand) instead of answering yes and no like he was told to. Our lawyer just sat there; he knew all the facts and did not use any of them to cross Kevin. It was like he was trying to throw the case. Finally Kevin’s lawyer told him to stop talking, or we would be there all day. When I go back and listen to the CD of the court case, I cannot believe how our lawyer let Kevin go on and on without even saying a word to him.

Kevin was put on the stand both days, and we were not even given a chance to testify. This is because we would have been able to tell our side of the story, and get the facts our there. This was just one of the things our lawyer did to go against us……

We had the best medical expert in the world, but that did not matter. This expert testified for two and a half hours with charts and graphs as to the mental condition of a dying young man. Russell was not competent to sign a will two days before he died. The Judge did not care, she was not going to let us win! We believe Kevin along with his parents can manipulate anyone; just like at the hospital, keeping them from notifying us.

The mortuary should never had buried our son without permission from his next blood kin. I talked in another story about who showed me the folder two weeks after Russell was buried.

The Judge did not call Kevin down for his actions on the stand. The way he was rambling on and on with his lies, was absolutely ridiculous. The Judge did not sanction him for writing stuff about us and linking it to her website either. This was outrageous!

The Judge made it clear at the mediation meeting, she did not like us. I still cannot figure out who determined for her to be the mediator, and why. She was the setting Judge and she should not have been the mediator, but we went ahead and agreed because our lawyer told us we would have a “knock down and drag” out mediation meeting. This is the way we were led on by this attorney. We believe our attorney being an hour late getting to the mediation meeting,  was planned.

When he had promised a knock down, drag out mediation meeting; we thought our best interest was going to be served. He just set there and did not say a word during the mediation meeting; but had a meeting with the Judge afterwards. This was another thing we did not like. Our lawyer was very unethical about this meeting as well as the one right before the trial in the Judge’s chambers. We believe this was a conflict of interest.

When we asked why he was meeting with her before court, he told us  he was just discussing some things with her about another case. He had already told us he had never had a case in orphan’s court. What a lie! We did not get a reasonable answer about anything, but we knew this was wrong on both sides. The Judge should not have met without us being present, after the mediation meeting, or before court.

While we waited for our lawyer to get to the mediation, the Judge said to me, “You’re the boss in your family aren’t you? I was shocked! I told her our relationship was fifty fifty, but Lowell was the head of the household.  At this point, I was really frustrated. She said, ” Hers was too, but she told her husband which leg to put in his pants first.” I found this very degrading to me….and to her husband. I hope he finds out what she said! Who was she; a Judge talking to me like this?     

I knew at this point she did not like me; and I know it was because she was familiar with the previous attorneys we had, and the fact they all stick together.  We had been dealing with fighting this case with these other attorneys, who had the case for a year and a half. 

We should have gotten up and walked out, when she made this statement, as it was very degrading to me. Our attorney’s law clerk told us, she did not like me. I had just brushed it off; as the law clerk was always saying something like that. The law clerk talked of her wanting to be Judge one day; and we had to pay for conversations about what she wanted in life. 

We had a chance to talk to our medical expert at the break; but when we started to set with him at their table, the law clerk made sure the table was arranged for three. I was the one who found the medical expert; and they acted as if we did not exist. We felt we were treated very rudely by our attorney and law clerk.

We didn’t know the present attorney was scamming us too, as he led us to believe we were going to win. We knew we had all the proof we needed to win the case. He kept wanting more and more money, and finally we had to take out Lowell’s retirement fund. He wanted more; so we asked him how much he would need to finish the case. We mortgaged our home, and paid him this amount before going to court. This should have been all we had to pay him, but after his throwing the case, he sent us a bill for $13,000.00 more. We could not borrow anymore money, so we had to appeal the case ourselves.

We argued with him about his charging us more than agreed, and he said he did not tell us that.  We told him we would have to make payments, and he said we could pay as we could. We paid him the extra we had borrowed on the house for our other expenses, and then we had to cut the payments down. He then started charging us interest, which was very upsetting, and unethical for him to do. At this point I did not want to pay him the money, but we were afraid he would take a lean on our home. We both were so upset with all of this, and didn’t realize he could not do this.

We tried to talk to him; he would never answer the phone, nor call us back. We keep track of our payments to him, and deduct the interest he kept charging us. We did not agree to the extra money or any interest, which shows what a crooked lawyer we believe he is.

This lawyer stepped up form a pro bono website. We should not have let him take the case, when he asked if we could afford $5,000. At that point we did not know where we would get $5,000; but we borrowed it. Then there was more and more money as he got us sucked in. He knew we were desperate, so he kept right on wanting more and more. He was so persuasive with the fact we would win. He kept wanting us to supply him with all the facts, and he did nothing with them, just like the other attorneys.

He would want us to send things to him; then he would get them from anther source. Like us giving him the medical records; then he would get another copy from the other lawyer, plus subpoena them again. 

He and his law clerk went to the previous attorneys office and copied the records. They should have turned them over to the new attorney. This is something we think was unethical for both parties. We were charged an astronomical amount for this trip to the previous attorney’s office, for both the law clerk and the lawyer.

There was many occasions they extorted expensive ways of getting more money; like the morning of the trial when the law clerk wheeled in on a cart, five big boxes of records from Kinko’s. We did not know what was going on; but when we learned they were copies of the medical records, we could not believe it. She had gone to Kinko’s to get five big boxes of records copied and put into binders. We were shocked!

Everyone had copies of these records; why get more copies? It was only for show! They had to make it look like they had done something. They had;wasted more of our money! Kevin’s attorney had copies, and even a CD, the Judge had copies, our lawyer had several copies and a CD. Why do this? This was a blaten misuse of our money; this is not ethical. No one wanted or looked at these copies!

Kevin’s attorney did not even look at this three big books of the records that were given to him, and afterwards, Kevin and his parents did not want the records. Some stranger took the three books of medical records. She looked like one of the Friends (Religous Society of Friends). I want to get these records out of the hands of this woman, as they were supposed to be private.

The Judge got three big books; as did Kevin’s lawyer,  and our lawyer laid three big books on his table. This was horrible! He had many copies of these records. What a waste of our money!

I don’t think this strange woman should have been allowed to take our son’s medical records! These were gotten through subpoenas! We had to spend a lot of money to get them, and she got them not even being involved with the trial. This was something I feel should be looked into! These records are private records; and we  are extremely shocked that a stranger has these records. I believe this is a violation of the Hippa Act! We had to sign papers of confidentially.

I now feel we can tell any confidential thing in these records as they have been given to strangers by Kevin, his mother and his lawyer. This was a big mistake to let this girl have these records.

The previous attorney refused to give us our records when they took our money to go on to court, and then walked out on us. They were the ones who told us the first attorney had to turn over our records as requested. These attorneys were a real piece of work. They spent many hours degrading us as they did not like the fact we worked so hard on this case, and were determined to win. They kept postponing the case, and we believe it was to get more money. We kept telling them it was urgent we get this case to court.

They knew they were not going to court; they took our money to go to court, walked out on us,  and refused to give it back. This information is mind boggling, but I intend to let everyone know about this travisty. I just hope they know this; I will not let it go what they did to us and Russell. Just because you are an attorney and Judge; you do not have the right to disobey the law.

The horrible way Russell died and was buried still hurts us. We were determined to do everything we could to insure he was buried our family plot, and buried in a casket and a vault. Russell did not deserve to be buried where he is, like he was a pauper. It was all about control, to hurt us.

There are so many things the lawyers did to hurt our cases, and we believe the Judge knowingly ignored the facts that were presented before her. There was a reasonable doubt………. and if a jury had been judging this case, we would have won.

Our attorney did not even want to use our medical expert, he wanted to use someone he knew. He did not get a medical expert, and when I found one he did not want to use him. I insisted he use our expert, and our attorney did not like this. We believe our attorney was not going to go against Kevin, and in order not to irritate the Judge because he knew she did not like us. He knew how she felt about this case, which we believe she judged before the case even went to court. I will elaborate on this more as I go on.  

I was told most Judges and lawyers resent it when they think you are trying to represent yourself. I worked so hard to get the facts; and give them to the attorneys. It was very frustrating to deal with the attorneys not wanting to do what they were hired for. I studied many long hours to file papers, and I know I did most of them right. I know I did what should have been seen as a parent’s effort to get her son brought home; instead I was made feel like I had no right to be doing an attorney’s job.

You would not believe what I went through. My papers would “get lost” and I would have to do them again. There is such a process when you file something, wait to hear, and have to find they have gotten lost, (intentionally, I believe).

I know some lawyers are used to just doing what they want, (there are some good lawyers, very fine men who lived in other states who tried to help me). I tried to dig up facts; and was successful in doing so, through stength from God. The lawyers we hired put me down every time Lowell and I found something. I know they violated their ethical bounds by not listening to us.

Two weeks after Russell died, I found the mortuary did not have papers in Russell’s folder to prove they could bury him. I went to discuss what happened with my son’s burial, I asked the mortuary director about what I found when one of his volunteers showed me Russell’s folder the day before. He said, ” they just assumed”. Meaning they went by what Kevin and his mother told them. She had given them one of her business cards, (which was stapled inside the folder, at the top, on the left hand side).

Kevin’s mother used her position as an attorney to get Russell buried so we would not find out what happened to him. We were never told he died of AIDS, we were told he had a heart attack, and died of Sepsis from his gall bladder. Russell’s burial was carried out by telling the mortuary we had disowned our son. It was so heartbreaking for us to find what happened at the mortuary, and all the lies to get Russell buried. 

We could have stopped this burial if we had not been lied to about his having prepaid plans and we could not do anything about this. We are the legal next of kin and we know in our hearts, all this was instigated to keep control of Russell and his burial. We were told we could not know where he was being buried until after his burial. This was horrible to lose Russell and not even know where he was being buried. Yes, no one would even tell us where he was being buried…this was heartless.

We found in the newspaper what mortuary our son was at. Lowell and I went there in so much pain, and they had to drag his wooden box out of a dark room. They would not open his wood box and let us see him; because he was not prepared for viewing. He was just crammed in a box and no one wanted to see him, but us. I hope his face haunts the Olives the rest of their lives.

We went there with so much grief and we were not treated very well. We got to spend about five minutes with our son. He was in a primitive wooden box. I told the director I wanted him buried in a casket and a vault. He told  it was legal to bury him in a wooden coffin. In other words we didn’t have any rights. We did not know we had any rights, because we were told he had prepaid prearranged funeral plans. This was all a lie!

We were hurting so bad, we did not know what to do. To think he was in a dark roon with no one even caring he was there. They had to bring him out of a dark room. If we had not been in such grief, we could have buried him right.

When we started digging into what happened to our son, and we found (three months after his death) he had died of AIDS. We were devastated! So many people were involved in this cover up. I believe Kevin’s mother over stepped her bounds as an attorney to use her position to get our son buried, and keep the doctors from letting us as next of kin know our son was dying.

It takes a cold heart to take a son away from his parents and destroy him. We loved our son as no one could even imagine…… I can’t fathom anyone doing such a evil thing that was done to our son, and to us. I wonder how much other stuff happened to Russell that we did not find out about. I know from medical records, he was not taken proper care of when he got sick.

Going back to when we first went to Baltimore to hire an attorney, and see what we could find out about getting our son’s remains. The attorney was nice and seemed interested in the case. We talked to him and paid him a $3500 retainer to look into the case. His senior partner did not seem to want him involved in the case. Later he told us we would have to give him a $20,000 retainer and maybe more. We were not financially able to pay him this retainer, so we told him we would have to seek other representation.

We were so naive to think we could get this done, and not have to lose what we had worked hard for. We were going to go down a road to fight the gay agenda, and we didn’t know how evil it was going to be. We went on to lose a lot in this case, money we had to borrow because we were so desperate to get our son’s remains. We knew there had been so much wrong done.

This first attorney did write up a caveat to be filed. We requested our files; he gave them to us, along with the caveat he had written but no yet filed. We probably should have kept this attorney, and borrowed the money at that time. Who knows? It was stressful what we had to go through to get to this attorney who was recommended by someone we came in contact with. I don’t think his senior partner wanted him to fight this case because of what it was.

To be continued as Part 2…… Attorney # 2

Lowell and Carolyn Groff

Psalms  141:9  Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

Psalms 141:10  Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape