From the South Bend, Indiana, Tribune: http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2002/11/28/local.20021128-sbt-MICH-B2-Toogood_to_visit.sto

November 28, 2002

Toogood to visit daughter for Thanksgiving holiday
Tribune Staff Report

SOUTH BEND -- Madelyne Toogood received permission Wednesday from St. Joseph Probate Judge Peter J. Nemeth to have a four-hour visit today with her 4-year-old daughter, Martha.

Normally, Toogood's visits must be supervised, but no one was scheduled to work today [Thanksgiving day] who could supervise the visit. So a request was made to Nemeth to allow Toogood's mother to supervise. The grandmother currently has custody of the 4-year-old.

Nemeth approved the plan so Toogood can see her daughter on the holiday. Toogood's husband, John, is not restricted in his visits with the girl.

...Toogood is next due in court Dec. 6, the cutoff date for a plea agreement on her criminal charges of child battery and false informing.

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Doesn't sound like harassment or criminalization of a culture to me. Sounds like a gesture of trust on the part of the authorities, to have a member of the Traveller culture supervise the court-approved visit before Madelyne had completed her required parenting classes, anger management classes and counseling. Seems that the trust in Toogood's mother is well-placed.

It also doesn't sound like criminalization of a culture to have allowed Madelyn'e sister to move out of state while awaiting her trial on charges relating to Madelyne's felony battery charge. Nor does it sound like criminalization of a culture to allow John Toogood, who has the same false address on his driver's license in addition to a false social security number, unrestricted visits with his daughter; he's even being allowed to drive the children using that falsified license without being arrested. Seems to me that the Indiana authorities are more concerned with making sure that the children maintain contact with at least one parental figure than with prosecuting every Traveller who is known to be breaking the law. As Madelyne herself says, "So far the judges have been unbiased, pretty fair."

Her complaint seems to be with one out-of-line police officer and with those in the media who have sensationalized her story, but the generalization she makes from this – that she and her entire culture are being racially profiled and harassed – is just too far-fetched. Her assertion that police in other states are investigating her criminal activities because of what's been said in some editorials not credible.

Her statement that "lots of folks have driver's licenses under their maiden names and use post office boxes" may or may not be true, but the question here is whether such practices are legal. As I said before, I use a US Post Office box myself but the law still requires that I submit a residential address to my state's Department of Motor Vehicles in addition to that post office box. As far as I've been able to tell from news reports, the address that Toogood submitted in Michigan was a street address only, with no mailbox number and no indication that it was not a residential address. Despite her assertions, "lots" of law-abiding citizens do not knowingly do that (nor do they knowingly drive cars with invalid license plates). Madelyne claims she didn't know that the mailbox business had closed, but she did know that it wasn't a residential address. Also, I find it difficult to believe that her cousin, who supposedly rented the box, would not have told her that the business had closed down before she gave that same address to her probation officer in September.

Something else that I find disturbing is Madelyne's statement to the press – and Larry's statement to Mudcat – that she couldn't possibly have "been took for a Mexican" because her hair color was blonde. Certainly there are women of Hispanic ethnicity who dye their hair different colors (look at Jennifer Lopez, for example, and the changes she makes to her hair color!). Isn't it racial profiling to assume that all Latino women must have dark hair, and to assume that anyone describing someone as "looking Mexican" must be describing a person with dark hair??? For a couple of people who are complaining so vociferously about racial profiling, they seem to be awfully comfortable with using racial profiling as a defense when it suits them.