“Grandmother!” cried the little one. “Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!” And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety–they were with God.- Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
I know the Lorri Galloway camp is going to stomp their feet and whistle at the fact that someone other than them even mentions baby
Samantha, but I am going to do it anyways, because it is time to end the exploiting of this poor child and let her rest in peace! A little background on the case can be read HERE. Samantha was a poor abused child who was born to people who had no business being parents. They essentially neglected her to death and she slowly died from a lack of food, nourishment and love. Somehow, despite all the warning signs, she fell through the cracks of the social service system. Lorri Galloway’s Eli Home did raise some alarms, but in the end, also failed to follow through until that fateful day in May 2002 when the Lord took Samantha to be in a better place.
But the political exploitation of this poor soul has not allowed her to rest in peace. Instead of making her a symbol of change for our social service system, Lorri Galloway and her supporters have chosen instead to turn this poor child into a political tool which they throw out whenever it is convenient to attack and berate their political opponents. The first time was in 2006, when Lorri decided to exploit Baby Samantha to justify her betrayal of the Democratic party when she endorsed Republican Lynn Daucher. She claimed Lou refused to step in to save Baby Samantha during a trip to Sacramento. My question is why would you go to Sacramento to save a child who is being abused? THis explanation came out after a month of silence on her endorsement and was followed up by a hit piece paid for by the Daucher campaign with Lorri accusing Correa of the murder of Samantha.
Then there is this picture, where Lorri is at the cemetery mourning Samantha. I honestly hope she does visit whenever a OC Register photographer isn’t present. WHich leads to this question, how often is a OC Register photographer at a cemetery waiting for random politicians to show up? Or did she actually take them there for a photo op? Once again disturbing.
Now poor Samantha has been exploited again by former Anaheim Councilman Richard Chavez, which you can find HEREÂ where is all but claims because the death happened while he was Mayor, he was responsible.
“In fact, a child starved to death in Anaheim while he served as Mayor. Tom Daly never spoke up once – not once – for her”Â
Why won’t the Galloway camp just let the Baby Samantha rest in peace. Why won’t they use her memory in a more positive light to make her a symbol for a better social services system, a symbol for ending child abuse? Why do they use her memory instead to trash elected officials they don’t like? Lou Correa and Tom Daly are both fathers who must be horrified at such an accusation and both were very disgusted at the horrific treatment Samantha’s parents gave her. I know Correa took Lorri’s accusations very personally, especially as a father who has done everything possible to be there for his own children.
So my challenge to Lorri is to stop using Baby Samantha as a political pawn. Stop using her to take swipes at Correa or Daly or whoever it is your opponent is. I am asking Dan and Chris to start deleting comments in future posts where Lorri’s camp tried to exploit her death for their political gain. We should not be party to such trash. Lorri, if you want to use Samantha’s memory to bring attention to a broken social services system, GO AHEAD. That is relevant, but stop trashing your opponents using her memory. That demeans her and you and everyone around you.
Claudio,
We do not delete comments because we disagreee. No matter how rediculous their premise is. The only comments we do not allow are those that violate our terms of use and those from people no longer welcome to comment here.
Using the memory of a dead child to attack politicians who were in a position to do something to help but chose to do nothing because of a political calculation is the right thing to do.
Tom Daly and Lou Correa chose to ignore a problem that eventually led to a child being starved to death in the wake of being severely abused and brought to the attention of authorities.
They must be held accountable for the system’s failure and their own terrible judgment. To do so will force more leaders to take seriously the problem of domestic abuse.
It is troubling that your politics leave you so disconnected with humans concerns.
Excuse me? There is no evidence that Tom Daly or Lou Correa knew anything about Baby Samantha! The Eli Home knew about Baby Samantha, but they failed to follow up to ensure that Social Services had acted on the complaints. It is Lorri Galloway and Richard Chavez that directly failed that little girl. It appears to me that Lorri Galloway has put more time into being photographed at that child’s grave than she put into following up to be sure she did not slip through the cracks. To use that poor child as a political pawn is disgusting.
NO Ms. Ward,
Tom Daly and Lou Correa had the power to act and did nothing. The Eli Home did everything they could to save her life.
What you are saying about the Eli Home is a lie. In fact, it a lie that could get you in a lot of trouble.
You are maliciously* defaming an organization, in a manner, that would would put their primary operations at risk.
Hopefully, The Eli Home has the balls to sue you. Good luck trying to explain to a jury why you were trying to keep abused woman and children outside a safe refuge…
*(You have stated comments contrary in that past indicating your are incorrectly stating the facts now, thus you are being malicious or at least grossly negligent and still liable)
APOLOGIST ALERT! APOLOGIST ALERT! Maybe Lou did blow off Lorri way back when, but if this was an Eli Home case, why is it that Richard and Lorri are trying to shirk their responsibility for this tragedy and blame others?
TRUTH,
There is nothing in Ms. Ward’s comments that can remotely be construded as libel. If one were to buy into your premise, then you would have to agree that your assertion that “Tom Daly and Lou Correa had the power to act and did nothing” would meet the standard for libel.
Claudio has a good point but for a different reason than he asserts. The issues surrounding the tragic death of Samantha, and Ms. Galloway’s callous self promotion of that death, has little to do with the Fourth District Supervisor’s race.
Drop it, and move on to why you think Lorri is the best candidate for the job of Supervisor.
Let Samantha rest in peace.
WOW Chris,
Funny when you decide to call for a constructive debate… Your calls for mediation ring incredibly shallow with self interest.
I am not talking about libel, I am talking about defamation. Read my comment again, and try to understand how your parallel is not accurate.
Why can you not understand how “promoting” the death of a child can be a good thing? Understanding what our mayor, Tom Daly, did terribly wrong will help to prevent future tragedies. But first you need to let it be known. Over and over and over again till people understand that Tom Daly is just not the person you want to be in charge.
“Why can you not understand how “promoting†the death of a child can be a good thing?”
Wow, did you actually mean to admit that Lorri is shamelessly using the tragic death of a child for political gain?
You have yet to show how Tom Daly did anything that would cause such future tragedies. Talk about your defamation. Please, explain how promoting the death af a child for political gain demopnstrates that Ms. Galloway is fit for any elected position.
Yes Chris, “Promoting” the death of a child who suffered from domestic abuse.
Like Mothers Against Drunk Drinker “Promote” the deaths of children who suffered from drunk driving.
Is MADD just out to get publicity?
Lorri works in the field of domestic abuse, spreading awareness is her job. This is kind of an obvious point…
As for the misgivings of Mr. Daly, it is completely reasonable to hold the mayor of a city responsible for a failure in the police force. AND It is completely reasonable to say the police force failed in not doing enough to save baby’s life after being warned multiple times.
Or why Tom Daly is best for the job? An awful lot of teardown of the Democratic canddiates here…shouldn’t we be going after Shawn Nelson and Harry S instead?
Did Galloway and Chavez tell Daly and Correa that Baby Samantha was slipping through the cracks of the system before she was dead? Nope. They whined after the fact, for political mileage. In fact, did Galloway and Chavez go to the press and scream that this child is in danger and the system is failing her? Nope, they only did their press interviews after that poor child was gone. So how did the Eli Home do “everything they could” to save the poor child’s life? What did they do beyond a few phone calls? Add up the time they have put into press interviews and photos opps at that poor child’s grave, and compare it to the time it took to make a few phone calls, because it looks like they may have put more time into milking this tragedy after the fact than preventing it in the first place. As a law student you do understand that in a lawsuit, unlike blogging, she would be forced to actually produce evidence that I have said something untrue, as opposed to having her sock puppet respond with emotion and venom, but no actual facts. You show me one thing I have said that is untrue Daniel!
The press will simply call the police and ask if the charges being made by the Eli Home are true; the police investigated and found this wasn’t the case.
Lorri Galloway and Eli Home are not responsible for the death of this child. Tom Daly and Lou Correa are not responsible either. Nor are the Anaheim Police. Those responsible were those entrusted to raise the child.
It seems everyone is pointing the fingers at everyone but those most responsible.
*(You have stated comments contrary in that past indicating your are incorrectly stating the facts now, thus you are being malicious or at least grossly negligent and still liable)
Huh? I hope that they teach English-language argumentation at that law school you go to before you graduate, Daniel.
I wondered how long it would take before we returned to the spittle-flecked Daniel of election cycles past — full of bluster and indignation at the thought that anyone would say a word against your precious, precious Lorri. For someone who is supposedly so concerned about bullying and slander, you seem awfully free and easy about throwing out nastiness yourself.
“Drop it, and move on to why you think Lorri is the best candidate for the job of Supervisor.”
To Chris: The fact that she and her team continue their “callous self promotion of that death” is precisely why Galloway is unfit for service in the 4th District, or any elected office at this point.
“The Eli Home knew about Baby Samantha, but they failed to follow up to ensure that Social Services had acted on the complaints.”
-Cynthia Ward
This is disgusting mudslinging and irresponsible behavior.
The statement was said with unambiguous certainty and with intent to mislead OR with malicious disregard to its truth. Under the circumstances.
Be careful Cynthia, words like that can cause a lot of innocent people serious harm and you may be held liable.
AND NO YOU DROP IT
What has been going on here that last few days is terrible, someone needs to stand up to Tom Daly and the bullies he has sent out into the blogoshere to spread lies and attempt to destroy people’s lives.
There has been ZERO talk of issues, just rumors and lies. There is no excuse for it, its just plain wrong.
Again, you give me an example of a rumor or lie. Did Lorri Galloway, Richard Chavez, or Eli Home follow up and turn up the heat on anyone outside of Social Services to ensure that Baby Samantha did not slip through the cracks of the system? Who contacted Lou Correa or Tom Daly while that child was alive? If so, on what date? What was the outcome? Did anyone contact the press while that child was alive? If so, whom and on what date? I am addressing the issues, it is your side that is dodging the facts!
Cynthia,
You flat out LIED when you said..
“The Eli Home knew about Baby Samantha, but they failed to follow up to ensure that Social Services had acted on the complaints.â€
Your questions are irrelevant. That is a LIE, you have nothing to back it up. Worse its a lie against an organization regarding thier primary operation.
The law protects organizations from being subject to groundless lies that can undercut their purpose. One can not write in the paper, “Wells Fargo takes deposits and never gives them back.” Assuming it is a lie, it is not protected speech. It is an intentional act that can get someone in a lot of trouble.
Further, the operation in question is rescuing abused mothers and children from violence…
What you are doing is easily recognizable as wrong and you need to stop.
Don’t talk to me about it, talk to Lorri. This is a direct quote from her in LA Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/may/01/local/me-abused1
“We waited for someone to protect her,” said Galloway, flanked by other activists at a news conference at an Anaheim restaurant.
“We waited for someone to take her away from the abusive environment. But the wait proved fatal for Samantha, and we are waiting still.”
And again LA Times herehttp://articles.latimes.com/2002/mar/30/local/me-girl30
“Eli Home called the Social Services Agency, which asked police to investigate, Galloway said.
Police officials confirm that they visited the house Jan. 17, but said the officers found no evidence of abuse.
Still concerned about Samantha’s well-being, Eli Home counselors went to the house a few days later to talk to the parents, Galloway said. The counselors observed a bruise and a scratch under Samantha’s eye and bruises on her left arm, she said. Galloway said she also made a second call to Social Services, where officials told her they were investigating the case.”
She made TWO calls. That’s it? When did she call Daly or Correa or the press? When you see a child bruised and scratched you call the POLICE.
THE (a)POSTING PROVES YOU LIED, (b) that the information was easy to find, and (c)it should not be hard to prove that you are out to hurt the Eli Home. Now I REALLY hope they sue you.
Further, you are a terrible researcher and reader. No where in the article does it limit Lorri or Eli’s involvement too two calls. You either can read OR you are continuing to lie about the Eli Home.
You should lose all credibility, once a liar always a liar.
“The Eli Home knew about Baby Samantha, but they failed to follow up to ensure that Social Services had acted on the complaints.â€
-Cynthia Ward
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/may/01/local/me-abused1
Think long and hard about all the ways an attorney can convince a jury how much in fund-raising comments like that take away…
… from abused children and their mothers.
DISGRACEFUL
Then stop posting about it!
Now your just being ridiculous DuploJohn.
Truth To Power:
(1) You are obviously a political operative, and not a very good one at that;
(2) Your mop spill in the kitchen deep analysis of the law of libel and slander is pathetic, and ignores the most obvious of all points: Lorri is a public figure who has injected herself into the public debate on this issue (actually much worse, she has repeatedly used it as a political issue in political campaigns, thus essentially immunizing anyone commenting upon Eli House (as she is it’s principal, and uses Eli House in her political campaigns and in her comments about Samantha from the stump)
(3) Lorri would sooner be sodomized by a rhinocerous than file a slander lawsuit knowing she would lose it due to the public figure defense and the SLAPP motion she would be hit with the second she did, AND the fact that she would lose that lawsuit 100 out of 100 times;
(4) She would rather have a political shills like you spend their weekend posting faux-intelligent threats about lawsuits and spread lies about Tom Daly than be embarrassed by filing the bogus lawsuit you posture about;
(5) you are just trying to distract from the obvious:
(a) Lorri is shamelessly trying to capitalize on the sad death of a child when the people she tries to smear and use to justify defending her promotion of horrific “carpetbaggers” like Lynn Daucher (and, wow Lorri herself);
(b)divert attention from the fact that she cannot figure out the zoning in her own city when she seeks to set up her carpetbagger address in a property owned by a developer that she carries water for as a council member, in return for political donations and a deal on her present rental propert(ies) residences;
(c) The shameful fact that she posed for a photo op at the grave of this poor child;
(d) The shameful manner in which she blames every political opponent she has for baby Samantha’s death when the advocacy of her own Eli House was as less than stellar on behalf of the poor little girl as the Orange County Child Protective services (yeah, Tom Daly as Mayor of Anaheim had a lot of control over Orange County child protective services);
(e) The fact that she is marching out felon Richard Chavez as a hit man for her campaign;
(f) The fact that she uses Eli house as a way to employ her family rather than hire the most effective and sophisticated advocates non-profit tax dollars and donations can buy.
I am not a Lou Correa fan, and do not have anything against Tom Daly; I used to think a lot more of Lorri, but the more you look, the more she is a self-centered, vindictive, and dishonest politician rather than principled advocate for justice.
Your post is not worth reading after the second point, Ms. Ward Defamed a business entity, not Lorri Galloway.
He words can make her liable for the cost of lost donations to the Eli Home Thrift Store.
And… SHE LIED. Regardless of the points of law. Cynthia Ward holds herself out as a researcher, yet she lies. People need to disregard her opinion.
Further,
Its Tom Daly’s thugs who capitalized on a dead baby. One trip to this blog or redcounty make that painfully clear. Tom Daly’s camp is seeking political gain from a dead child he failed to protect as Mayor. It is sad.
The Daly camp has zero to do with the comments made on this blog. That unfortunately cannot be said of those that you have made.
Well, try to take that claim to court you brain dead little twit. There was no libel. If anything damaging to Eli Home comes from Galloway’s shameless self promotion upon the bones of a dead little girl, that damage is her fault, or yours.
In claiming that either Tom Daly or Lou Correa are responsible for the death of Samantha, you and by extension Lorri, have defamed the reputations of both men. You have done so, knowing that your statements are factually incorrect and misleading.
If anyone is guilty of libel here it is you.
Libel is defined as follows:
A written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel.
A bitter, anger driven rant ending in petty name calling. All this from an administrator of the TheLiberalOC.com blog. Very nice Mr. Prevatt…
I should stop because I fear what will come next. But I must point out a few things.
First) I, alas, can not bring the suit against Ms. Ward. I have no actual connection to the Eli Home or Lorri Galloway. But I believe there is a suit… When people lie, they are held accountable.
Second) I NEVER said Tom Daly, and certainly not Correa, is responsible for the Death of a child.
At most, I said they dropped the ball, which I stand by. Go and read my comments again. I think you are confused. Try reading period to period.
DO NOT MISREPRESENT MY WORDS, PLEASE.
Third) Claudio, Republican Cynthia Ward and yourself shamelessly engineered this “Let Samantha Rest in Peace” campaign. After seeing an opening with Richard’s isolated comments. All three of you are BIG Daly supporters. Claudio posted it on this cite. Cynthia Ward posted it on Redcounty. And now you are attacking me, providing cover. It is all obvious and morally reprehensible. This is the sort of thing that goes beyond politics and into one’s character.
Forth) Your comments about libel are honestly ludicrous, both with respect to my actions and the actual law. Try not to depend so much on a google search.
Lastly, what is going on here at Liberaloc.com is officially more akin to Orange Juice Blog. Its not politics, it’s just hate.
“I NEVER said Tom Daly, and certainly not Correa, is responsible for the Death of a child.”
Really?
So what’s this?
TRUTH TO POWER on February 12, 2010 at 2:55 pm
“NO Ms. Ward,
Tom Daly and Lou Correa had the power to act and did nothing.”
And with this one you have just left the real world into a fantasy land.
“Claudio, Republican Cynthia Ward and yourself shamelessly engineered this “Let Samantha Rest in Peace†campaign.”
First, Cynthia Ward has nothing to do with the content of this blog other than what she writes in the comments section of this blog. I did not discuss or consult with Claudio about this post. He wrote it in response to Richard Chavez’s comments.
Taking what an advocate for Lorri says on a public blog to defame one of her opponents and pointing out the stupidity of said comment does not require any engineering. It is frankly like shooting fish in a barrel.
Chavez drug Samantha out of her grave to shamelessly promote the candidacy of Lorri Galloway. We did not do that.
Chavez took the dump on Lorri’s behalf. Claudio simply scooped up that crap and tossed it in a fan directed toward Lorri.
And for the record, I do not Hate Lorri Galloway. If she wins the primary over Daly I will fully support her. It is better she address the crticism now, as opposed to later. It will give her more time to recover if need be.
UGH..
So lets break it down Chris,
Did Tom and Lou have the power to act? Yes, of course.
In Lou’s case the power would have had to be soft, like putting media attention on the case.
In Tom’s case, he was the Mayor and oversaw the police force. He could have put considerable pressure on a police chief who requires confirmation for his job and the budget.
Did they do anything? NO
Does this make them responsible for the death of a child? No
Does it cast Tom Daly in a less than favorable light because as mayor he knew or should have known something like this was going on? Yes
My main objective in posting has been to defend Lorri, not attack.
What you are saying about Lorri, accusing her of “shameless self promotion upon the bones of a dead little girl” is terrible. She founded the Eli Home a decade before even thinking for running for office. To say that about a person who as devoted thier life to children suffering from domestic abuse is a horrible insult, beyond any sense of decency.
Richard was obviously acting on his own, if you can’t see that then you should be doing something different.
I am sorry, but what is wrong is wrong… and you are wrong.
Truth,
I’m going to go with Dan C.’s point on this.
Lorri Galloway and Eli Home are not responsible for the death of this child. Tom Daly and Lou Correa are not responsible either. Nor are the Anaheim Police. Those responsible were those entrusted to raise the child.
It seems everyone is pointing the fingers at everyone but those most responsible.
Strangely, that was the whole point of Claudio’s post. Leave baby Samantha out of the Fourth District Supervisor’s contest.
I would really love to hear a good reason why Lorri thinks she is the best for the job. An if she really cares so much for those kids and mothers served by Eli Home, what would they do with out her if she became a Supervisor?
Well I am happy you have started to come down off the ledge.
But, you are right. Parents are entrusted with children. Sadly however, the reality is that the system breaks down all to often. Lorri Galloway, built a successful expansive operation that enabled mother and children who were suffering from abuse to escape into a safe environment. The idea being to break the cycle of abuse and provide opportunities.
As a council member she pushed to open the very forward thinking and state-of-the-art family justice center.
More important, and this is where it gets good. Lorri advocates for affordable housing for working families. It is clear, that a stressful crowded home environment tends to create and exacerbate domestic abuse along with other problems like graffiti and gang violence.
I would imagine that as an OC supervisor she would continue this work and do different things… talk to her campaign manager. I think the idea of leaving Eli makes her sad, but that is life. I believe, one must go where they are needed most.
Now, I understand that a Daly supporter might read this and have a very confused look on his face. Sure, Daly has done big things: built another recorders office in Fullerton, gave Disney something like a 100 million dollars of tax payer money to build a parking lot you can see from outer-space, and I am sure there is more please enlighten me.
Daly is a career politician, Lorri is a fighter. Daly has been useful here in Orange County, because hes practically a republican. But demographics are changing everywhere in the county and we need no longer rely on politicians known to be best at avoiding tough issues.
So there ya go kiddo, Sorry in advance for any typos, im tired!