I have 2 dogs currently. One is my current service dog and one is my service dog in training. They will be referred to as SD and SDIT for this post.
I (F27) got a standard poodle puppy in February to train for when my current SD retires. My SDIT is only 6 months old currently. I got him on Feb 18th. On Feb 27th he was not acting right. Not eating and salivating and not wanting to move. Just not a puppy. I then noticed his gums were pale so the next day I called and was able to get him in at a vet clinic in my city. The vet assumed he had a stomach issue and gave him a shot for nausea and some antibiotics and sent us home with a few cans of gastric food. That visit was $200. The next day he looked worse.
That night I decided to take him to the emergency vet. They did fecal and blood tests and found out he was severely anemic. Hemoglobin was 4 when it should have been at least 12! While the cause is unknown they suspected parasites. We wormed him for every type of worm under the sun and he got a blood transfusion. In total this visit was $1141.99.
I live alone and don't make a ton I am above poverty but I almost live paycheck to paycheck. I have enough to provide for me and my dogs but this was a expense I wasn't prepared for. His puppy insurance wasn't even valid yet. So my Mom helped. She used money she had set aside for house taxes and helped me. She knows what these dogs do and will do for me so she was so willing to help.
Fast forward to work after this incident. I work in a doctors office so my particular issues that cause me to need my SD can be monitored and if needed helped by the nurses and doctors. My SD does not come to work with me due to me working in a office with surgeons so sterility is a concern.
My coworkers knew about this trouble with my SDIT due to me having to leave work for the vet appointment. They asked me how moose was and what happened and so I told them. Some were supportive but a few were judgmental. "Its just a dog....Why not just surrender him if you couldn't afford the care...Your risking your moms house for a dog..." I told them that while I do plan to pay her back I had started a GoFundMe and make gear (vests, patches, etc) for service dogs to sell. (it hasn't pulled in that much with start up costs)
I got so much judgement for the GoFundMe. This time it was "There are legit people on there who need help...there are people on there losing their houses or dying and you made one for your dog?"
​
So reddit...AITA?

Greetings! I decided to write a bit of a cinematic as a preface for my upcoming Keys adventure. For more context, I am running a combo Waterdeep: Dragon Heist / Keys campaign with the WDH stuff being the sandbox of our game.
Please enjoy, feedback much appreciated.

Doctor Cassee Dannell was a preeminent scholar and professor of archeological anthropology at the University of Waterdeep and was on staff as an advisor to Norafilir Doomfoot in an expedition through the Murkmire. Doctor Dannell was relished the opportunity to study at this particular dig site as her research indicated heavy cultural overlaps and implications with some of the first inhabitants of the Waterdeep region and being appointed by the University was one of the foremost honors she had enjoyed since earning tenure. Thus far, the dig had been indeed fruitful as it seemed to have been a ritualistic site of some sort for the ancient society including cryptic frescos, untranslatable runes, and a broken dais of some sort in a centralized chamber. The possibilities were thrilling and her involvement was well appreciated by the dwarven archeologist team. “Oh, aye doctor,” Norafilir mused as he inspected a set of runes around the central dais over Doctor Dannell’s shoulder. “It sure does look like it pre-dates any findings the University has encountered thus far. Tell me,” he paused while stroking his beard pensively. “Do you think it is valuable?” Doctor Dannell did not even catch the fact that Norafilir meant monetarily in his question as she exuberantly explained. “Cultural association is definitely a valuable knowledge,” she responded quickly. “The more we know about where we came from as a society, even one so egalitarian as Waterdeep, informs where we are going and what we can accomplish.” Thoughts of academic accolade and recognition from Laeral Silverhand herself filled in the vacant thoughts in Doctor Dannell’s consciousness as she was drawn in fully into her work. That is, until they found the stone. Shouts went out across the dig as dwarves clamored and rushed to respond to a eureka moment common in dwarven mines when valuable ore is found. Doctor Dannell couldn’t restrain herself from joining in the excitement and spirited herself towards the call. As she arrived, she saw a mysterious, macabre, and outright mystifying sight there in the Murkmire; an opaque green ovoid gem-like object in the clutch of an armored skeleton amongst a field of other similarly garbed skeletal remains. The site positively transfixed the expedition and the location was immediately cordoned off to preserve the find and allow for undisturbed study. “Well Doctor,” Norafilir mused mirthfully. “It would seem you are up! First find goes to my team, however, you have exclusive access here to tell us just how much that gem is worth.” The band of dwarves celebrated heavily all through the night at their camp, singing tales of massive riches, the majestic beards of their women, and many other less polite things, but Doctor Dannell’s optimism did not allow her to join in the merriment that night as the gravity of the mystery pulled her in. As she began her analysis, she noticed that the markings on the armor of the stone’s seeming defenders strangely matched the furrows on the surface of the mucus-colored gem indicating to her most informed deduction that these warriors were dedicated defenders of the mineral. Amazingly, she had never seen these markings before and the implications were huge if not a miniscule amount of concerning as that meant her task was daunting by nature. Doctor Dannell had packed most of her formidable collection of ancient tomes in a bag of holding for this expedition for convenient reference and she was eager to compare her findings. The more Doctor Dannell looked for reference to the markings, however, the lingering concern began to transform into an overwhelming sense of dread. “According to everything I have ever researched,” Doctor Dannell worriedly explained to Norafilir, “evidence of this stone and its defenders should exist. And yet…” She trailed off as her fatigue addled brain weaved in and out of active conversation and meticulous analysis. “Oh doctor,” Norafilir said gravely to her. “It would seem you could use a good sleep. Also,” he said a tad bit more cheerfully, “could be that you just don’t have the right references!” Doctor Dannell shot him a wounded and maligned look. “Absolutely not,” she defended. “The books I brought with me are among the best in the Sword Coast on the indigeonous and ancient cultures. Frankly, Norafilir, it a little more than concerning that I haven’t found anything.” “Well, I am glad then,” Norafilir responded professionally. “That we have decided to exhume the gem. The Waterdeep Museum of Natural History and an unknown benefactor has made a generous offer to our company for what they are calling the Murkmire Stone.” Norafilir immediately qulled Doctor Dannell’s vehement protests. “Think of it doctor,” he said greedily. “A first-of-its-kind, truly unique find! They will name a library after us!” Doctor Dannell did not take her dismissal from the expedition well, and decided to make manifest her concerns with irrefutable evidence that the Murkmire Stone could be malfeasant in nature and she made for the majestic and legendary library of Candlekeep. While at the Great Library, Doctor Dannell plead her case with an Avowed whom joined her in her quest for cursed knowledge, and despite their combined efforts, they were unable to find more information on the stone. “I have a terrible pit in my stomach,” Doctor Dannell confided to the Avowed. “And I fear that the stone might be something truly terrible.” “For what it is worth,” the kindly elf assured her. “I believe you. We have one more option left: the Chamber of Lost Lore.” The Avowed utilized his rank and position to help Doctor Dannell due to the potential ramifications and they journeyed far beneath Candlekeep proper to the chamber where they contacted the spirit of a long-dead sage. Within the ritual magic circle and pentagram an elderly human emerged, wearing the ceremonial garb symbolic of only the most senior Avowed of Candlekeep. Doctor Dannell pled her case to the spirit, to horrifying results. “I know these markings,” the spirit confirmed. “In fact, I recognize this stone; it is the egg of an infernal eldritch beast that lays dormant for generations, however, when it is unearthed, it begins a catastrophic cascade of events that could lead to massive widespread calamity as the beast continues to grow and feed on everything around it.” 

As you tend to the renovation and improvement of Trollskull Manor, a halfling courier woman enters the Taproom with a small non-descript package in hand. She wordlessly places the package on the counter next to an empty ale keg and as you move to ask who sent the package, she has vanished mysteriously. The package itself is a piece of parchment paper bearing a golden wax seal with a sigil you do not recognize. Upon opening the package, you find a golden key with a gaping maw as a decorative headpiece. Immediately, you know that you need to insert this into the Golden Vault music box and as you do so, the box opens and projects a light blue image of a mythical looking stone. ‘Greetings, operatives. The Golden Vault has learned that the egg of an eldritch horror has been mistaken for a historical object and is about to go on display at the Waterdeep Museum of Natural History. The anthropologist Dr. Cassee Dannell tried to warn officials about this egg, known as the Murkmire Stone, but none believed her. We do, and we know that if this egg hatches, many will die-or worse. This quest, should you choose to undertake it, requires you to infiltrate the museum, steal the egg, and return it to Dr. Dannell, who will neutralize it. There’s no time to waste; the egg could hatch at any moment. Start by meeting with Dr. Dannell. Good Luck, operatives.’ The parchment that enclosed the key reads, ‘Meet me at the Sage’s Quill today as soon as you can. I beg your help in a delicate matter whose importance cannot be overstated. I shall await you in a purple hooded robe.” The note is signed, “Dr. Cassee Dannell.”

I just injected my second shot yesterday and I got an email on the 20th saying: DUPIXENT MyWay® would like to remind you that it is almost time to refill your prescription for DUPIXENT® (dupilumab). Please contact your specialty pharmacy today to ensure timely delivery!
I don't have a specialty pharmacy. I thought it would just auto refill every two weeks.

I need to have my tires changed on my car, was wondering if there’s shops in the area that can usually do same day appointments? Hoping to find a place this weekend but it could be a long shot. I’m going to call around in the AM but wanted to see if anyone had suggestions.

I am 3 lbs from goal and was warned by my MD that the pharmacy is saying no more… but I picked up a box of 12.5 yesterday. I have the original coupon and my insurance has never covered it. I started on semaglutide and have ordered a couple vials anticipating the end of my Mounjaro journey. I am considering replacing my MJ shot on Sunday with a 1.25 mg dose of semaglutide and dosing that 2x in the week. Then back to MJ the next Sunday. My rationale is that if I can stretch my MJ out every other week and continue pick up a box a month through the June cutoff… and then use semaglutide on the alternate weeks… I should be able to get 6 months of maintenance this way. I appreciate feedback and alternatives. (54 yrs, 5’1”, SW 167/CW 128/GW 125?)

I read the CDC website where they suggest to get it around October. Since I never had a flu shot before (I am arriving from India), should I get one now anyways? I am double vaxxed for COVID.

I just want people to know that the Sonoma County government is corrupt. They spent 186 million dollars on a "new courthouse" that is 163k square feet, which works out to $1,100 per square foot, which is over double the second most expensive building I could find was, and over four times the average price per square foot of palaces and museums. And it's just going to look like a giant portable. This is to house some of the most corrupt people in this County, who all make $200-350+k per year (I am including their benefits in that, but not their pension). The entire DA's Office has a vendetta against Civil Rights in general, and will literally knowingly commit criminal violations of laws for the purpose of covering up serious criminal misconduct on the part of Sonoma County employees.
Lynda Hopkins took money from the law enforcement unions, and turns a willfully blind eye to it.
The County Office of Legal Counsel is literally a crime syndicate.
In 2015, the Sheriff's Office had a veritable torture ring in the jail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izcHIv5Y4z8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYrGChrW5HM&list=TLPQMzAwMzIwMjMv0QAOPDy1Lw&index=2
This is just the tip of the iceberg. They lied about the existence of these videos, and "lost" the one where they gave one of the inmates internal bleeding, with a knee to their back.
There was a lawsuit about it. It was called the "Yard Counseling Case". There are news articles about it.
There was an official, written policy, called "Yard Counseling", later its name was changed to "Behavior Counseling" which dictated that for arbitrary punitive measures, Sheriff's Office personnel should extract inmates from their cells individually (which meant slamming their heads onto the door frames on the way out and other abuse), and isolate them, and putting them into "pain compliance" techniques (literally, by definition, torture) for extended periods of time while "counseling" them, which meant wearing no name tags, ski masks and riot gear, carrying a shotgun with them, and insulting them in explicit language for over 20 minutes.
This official written policy was acknowledged by Rob Giordano in a video, where he lies that no inmates where injured, uploaded to YouTube in 2018, when they finally addressed this official written policy, and the practice of torturing inmates without reasonable cause (leading exercise routines, for example).
In 2021, they saw one of the victims of this torture ring, who had sued them and had won, at a peaceful protest, and shot him with a grenade launcher while hiding on a rooftop in the face with a crowd control grenade, which exploded on impact and caused horrific injury that I don't care to describe.
In 2017, I was almost killed by application of a "carotid hold" / lateral vascular neck restraint, by a sheriff's deputy, for literally no reason. A knee was placed on my lower back while I was on the ground on my stomach as well, which caused a serious injury to my kidney, which was the worst injury of my life. I have also been diagnosed with an organic brain injury and cognitive impairment. I was tested for the same type of cognitive impairment before the incident and there is a marked difference, and I have about 30 pages describing the differences I've noticed / troubles I've had in my cognitive functioning. There was no probable cause to arrest me, and I was polite and compliant with all the instructions given to me, and this was confirmed by witnesses. I was punished for invoking my right to remain silent, then my arm was grabbed and yanked up behind me, and then a carotid hold was applied because my body pivoted after the deputy grabbed and yanked my arm.
This occurred UNDER A CAMERA and IN FRONT OF WITNESSES. I called the Sheriff's Office the next day said I want to "make an official complaint in writing". I was transferred to Captain of Internal Affairs, Captain Mark Essick. I repeated my request, verbatim. He responded, verbatim: "We don't do that. Why don't you tell me what happened." I did. I told him it happened right under a camera. He said "The camera can't record." I asked for confirmation. He said the cameras "Don't have recording technology installed."
I asked the County for a claim form. They ignored my request, and instructed me to report the incident to IOLERO. IOLERO requested I meet with Internal Affairs, and I said fine.
Sgt. Andy Cash called me and scheduled me for a meeting at the Sheriff's den. I was made to walk first and guided upstairs to a meeting room, and then patted down for weapons, and the interview was recorded. For 75 minutes I was deposed about happened. He asked me repeatedly about my mental state after the incident. I admitted that I was upset after the incident, and he acted like that justified the whole incident. He explicitly promised to interview the 4 deputies who witnessed the event in addition to the 2 deputies who participated, as well as the arresting officer (who I told him would confirm that I was polite and cooperative), which he agreed "would confirm [my] demeanor", and a bystander witness I told him about.
I complained to IOLERO director Jerry Threet. Mr. Threet agreed that that was inappropriate, then resigned without reviewing the investigation.
For about 4 years review of the investigation was put on hold because IOLERO staff quit, and when more staff was hired, they complained of being understaffed. They had a budget of over a million dollars but only had 2 employees. They only reviewed one case per four months. And they put off "backlogged" cases and focused on new cases. My complaint was finally reviewed by Interim Director Garrick Byers who clearly stated that the investigation was not conducted appropriately. I have the letter from him. That still has never been made public.
After the interview with Internal Affairs, I corresponded with Lynda Hopkins, and she refused to give her opinion on the matter. I specifically complained that the carotid hold was being used recklessly, and it is a dangerous technique. This was in 2018. She forwarded me to Janell Crane, who then had me meet with Kristi Schultz.
I contacted the DA's Office and spoke to Richard Celli (who made $346k in 2017, and has gunned down two unarmed people, and was convicted by a jury in one of the civil cases brought against him by one of the victim's family, but the sentence was overturned by a judge, while working for the SRPD). The first time I spoke to Mr. Celli, he told me that another law enforcement agency should take my case. After that first time, him and the rest of the DA's Office openly refused to comply with the Victims' Rights Laws (CA Con Art. 1 S. 28), and the "policies" (which are legally binding under CA Con Art 5 S. 13) of the Attorney General stating clearly that they are to take complaints from victims if it can't be resolved with the department.
After the first talk with Mr. Celli, I called Rohnert Park Police as I was instructed, and they 3-way called the Sheriff's office and then transferred me. I spent about 30 minutes reporting the incident to a deputy, and he asked me questions in a fair manner. The incident report from the 30 minute phone call was "directed" to Andrew Cash, and was then destroyed, which is literally a state and federal crime. I called RPPD back and talked to the arresting officer and he positively clearly confirmed that I was "polite, calm, compliant, and cooperative" (or something nearly verbatim, I can't remember exactly any more).
Andrew Cash called me the next day, at precisely 7:00 AM. He told me he was driving. He was extremely confrontational with me. He said "There were 6 deputies [referring to the two who used excessive force on me, and 4 witness deputies]. You were combative." This was false. He had only interviewed one of the 4 witness deputies, and the other 3 had provided written statements. They said that they had witnessed force being used, that they had not participated in the use of force to the best of their memory, and that I "did not appear to be resisting". But again, he had promised explicitly to interview the 4 deputy witnesses, and the arresting officer
Internal Affairs exonerated the officers. The letter was signed by Eddie Engram, captain of Internal Affairs. I called Mr. Engram, and had an hour long conversation with him, and he told me to contact Sgt. Cash after April 1st.
I filed a federal claim on the last day that it was due.
Mr. Cash referred me to Legal Counselor, Kara Abelson.
Ms. Abelson spent a year and a half refusing to comply with the Public Records Act, the Rules of Procedure, and the Rules of Professional Conduct. She refused to provide me documents that I was entitled to under law, including the incident report written by Deputies Jacquelin Fazzio and Virgil Smith, and the recorded interviews that he promised he would conduct, and stated pretty clearly that he had conducted.
Kara Abelson spent a year and a half trying to claim that my federal complaint was time barred by 1 day when it wasn't. The judge (Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers) entertained this and forced me to respond SEVEN TIMES, before she finally admitted that the "law wouldn't allow [her] to dismiss my complaint".
After a year and a half, Kara Abelson finally withdrew from the case after I started citing the Rules of Professional Conduct to her that require her to resign or withdraw from the case rather than defend a civil case where defense isn't warranted. Nobody had disputed any of the allegations I had made. In fact, Eddie Engram had confirmed that what I said happened was not disputed by the evidence.
At some point around this time, either before or after Ms. Abelson withdrew, the 2 incident reports written by the two deputies, the written statements by 3 of the 4 witness deputies, and the recorded interviews with me, the 2 deputies who assaulted me, and 1 of the eye witness deputies, were provided, along with various other records from the facility. In the recorded interview, and the incident report, the deputies admitted that Virgil Smith had applied the carotid hold.
I had also reported the incident to the State Attorney General Public Inquiry Unite (Lupe Zinzin). She had told me, over and over and over, that the local DA's are required to take complaints from civilians in these situations. She refused to call the DA's Office, though. The DA's Office (Richard Celli, Mark Azzouni, David Kahl) refused to take a complaint from me. They (including the receptionists) hung up on me every time I called after no more than 2 minutes, for no reason, transferred me to dead lines, never returned any voicemails I managed to leave, told me explicitly that if I send a complaint, they will throw it away, and didn't care, at all, what the laws were. The receptionists also refuse to provide their names. The Attorney General's Office told me to send them a complaint, so I did. The DA's Office acknowledged receiving the complaint. But later said that they did not have a record of it, meaning they threw it away.
The Attorney General's Office finally agreed to take a complaint from me. It sat on their desk for a year. I finally called them, concerned that evidence was being destroyed, and left a voicemail for Casey Hallinan requesting that they request copies of the physical evidence from the Sheriff's Office. Literally 2 days after that voicemail, a letter was sent to me signed by Sharon Loughner with Casey Hallinan CC'ed on the letter, stating that they would "take no action", and blamed the incident on me. I had not received the letter though, and called and spoke to Ms. Hallinan, who was extremely rude. After that, the Attorney General's Office hang up on me as soon as they find out it's me, for no reason. There has since been a bystander witness who saw the whole thing, and it has come to light that the cameras did record, that no upgrades were ever performed like Ms. Abelson alleged, the cameras do continuously record (as of 2019), and they just lied through their teeth about the camera for 4 straight years. The Attorney General's Office does not care. They violate the laws, and do not care what the laws are.
Sonoma County Office of Legal Counsel attorney Michael King took over after Ms. Abelson withdrew. Right off the bat, Mr. King told me that my motions were deficient - a contention he has repeated frequently, since then. I asked him how. He changed the subject, and to this day has NEVER given any explanation as to how any of my motions are deficient.
He continued to claim that my claim was time barred, filing frivolous motions, in blatant violation of the rules of professional conduct, after I cited the rules to him, constituting explicit legal misconduct.
As I said, the judge finally agreed to open Discovery after a year and a half of full time work trying to fight for my right to not be nearly murdered for no reason.
Lawyers do not take these cases unless there is undeniable proof of blatant guilt, along with undeniable proof of catastrophic injury. Multiple law firms have confirmed that it takes over a million dollars worth of legal work to get these cases to trial.
The judge also promised me a pro bono attorney "if you make it past summary judgment".
The judge scheduled us for Alternative Dispute Resolution hearing with a magistrate judge. Mr. King elicited an offer from me, which I spent about 2 weeks working on, trying to make it as agreeable as possible. But then for the hearing, his written offer was to waive charging me his attorneys fees. The judge confirmed that there was no legal basis for him to do that - it would be illegal. He had been ordered to participate in this hearing, and there was a legal obligation under the Rules of Procedure to try in good faith to settle the case. He violated the order and the rule of procedure (26 (f)).
All of my motions were completely ignored for no reason.
Mr. King / Defendant Virgil Smith lied about the cameras. They said "Denies the existence of cameras capable of recording in the vicinity", in writing, under oath. They never disputed that he put his knee on top of my back with all his weight on it.
Mr. King refused to comply with his Discovery obligations. I had to file about 4 different motions pertaining to their refusal to comply with the laws regarding disclosure of evidence.
Upon receiving an official Discovery request for records of camera equipment, I received a letter signed under by Mr. King (nearly 4 years after the incident) stating that the cameras CAN RECORD. But stating "tasks must be performed" to start the recording function, and stating that all records pertaining to the equipment that was installed at the time HAD BEEN DESTROYED (literally a federal and state crime, a civil tort violation, and a sanctionable act of legal misconduct).
Mr. King refused to schedule any of the witnesses for deposition, demanded MY deposition BEFORE he would even schedule the two deputies who assaulted me, even though I had been requesting depositions with other witnesses for over a month, and refused to schedule anyone else, he refused to answer interrogatories, he refused to provide copies of the policies from the time of the incident. He tried to pass off a weird spreadsheet with the word camera on it as proof that upgrades had been done to the cameras. He refused to provide complete training records for the deputies. He refused to provide details about the training. He refused to provide blueprints of the facility, refused to provide photos of the cameras at the location, refused to provide still images showing which direction the cameras were pointing, refused to provide photos of the deputies so I could schedule depositions efficiently.
The judge erroneously dismissed my Equal Protection claims, construing them as Due Process and Employment Discrimination claims, which are different types of claims than Equal Protection claims against a government actor. The government cannot arbitrarily treat anyone disparately. The Court also dismissed my "Monell" claim against the municipality for their "policies, customs, or practices", but left me leave to amend that claim. And she waited until Discovery opened over 1.5 years into litigation, to do this, forcing me to amend the complaint DURING DISCOVERY which was only open for a limited amount of time, instead of any point in the 1.5 years prior to that.
In the recorded interview with Andrew Cash and one of the witness deputies, she spontaneously states that Mr. Cash instructed her to review the written statements made by the two deputies who assaulted me prior to the interview. Another deputy witness confirmed that Mr. Cash had instructed her to review the written reports by the two deputies who assaulted me prior to her providing Mr. Cash with a written statement as well.
The judge finally retaliated against me, without rational basis, for filing motions, which I had filed because I was being illegally obstructed from preserving evidence, by withdrawing leave to amend regarding the "Monell" claim (I had stated a clear Monell claim to begin with, but the judge literally has an aversion to reading, and relies on guessing, and is biased against pro se litigants; I am summarizing well over 100 pages, if not well over double that, of motions, objections, and replies and the judge's responsive orders).
She did however, finally schedule a hearing with a Discovery referee magistrate. All my motions (and the months of work I was required to do dictated by the various rules) was completely disregarded, and both me and Mr. King were given 2 pages each (double spaced) to go over discovery issues, even though I had filed about 4 different motions about various issues, and he hadn't filed ANY, at that time.
During conference I was required to do in accordance with the Rules, Mr. King repeatedly tried to establish that I had committed crimes during the course of conferring which was my legal obligation, without having any rational basis to believe what he was trying to establish. He demanded evidence that would exist, and he kept repeating every lie he could come up with to the judge. The judge would either get annoyed at me if I addressed any of Mr. King's baseless accusations, or take his statements at face value for being 100% true.
Mr. King finally "compromised" and agreed to schedule depositions with me (as long as Mr. King wanted to) and the two deputies who had assaulted me (for 25 minutes each or something) all simultaneously, but refused to schedule anyone else, even though this was grossly advantageous to him. One of the eye witness deputies later confirmed that he had "consulted" her over 4 times prior to the trial. During this deposition, Mr. King asked me where a family member of mine works. He had spent about 30-40 minutes trying to convince me that I can tell him anything, that the entire record was designated confidential, that I had nothing to worry about - and at a deposition, you are obligated to answer the questions unless they are harassing. Mr. King also requested contact information for counselors from over 10 years ago, and that was the only question I didn't answer - I told him to provide the request in writing. At some point after that, I told Mr. King to not contact my family member at her workplace, and Mr. King responded "unless you fully and completely cooperate" with his request for contact information for counselors from 10 years+ ago.
At the hearing, the Discovery Magistrate (Donna M. Ryu) discussed matters only with Mr. King, without including me. He told her that the 4 eye witness deputies "saw nothing" and "weren't there" (verbatim) trying to get her to deny me my request to take their deposition. She asked him if he would get them to sign fresh "sworn declarations", "under oath" (Judge Ryu's words, verbatim) stating this. Mr. King said yes, absolutely, he would. Judge Ryu asked me "Would that be okay?" I said "No." She started laughing, and asked me why, and I explained that I had explicitly described various interactions with them that had taken place while the carotid hold was still being applied to me, and that they had stated in their written statements that they had witnessed force being used, and that was "not resisting". She confirmed that this was all true with Mr. King and that he already knew all of this, and ordered him to cooperate with scheduling them for deposition.
After that, they went back to discussing matters only with eachother, and I was excluded from discussion. This was an hour long hearing, and at about the 45 minute mark, Mr. King was again lying to the magistrate judge, and when he had finished, I interjected, "That's not true". Judge Ryu shouted "Stop! Stop stop stop stop stop!" And then very assertively explained to me the importance of not interrupting people for the convenience of the court reporter / transcriber. I was excluded from the rest of the hearing.
At some point at either this hearing or the next one, I cited the legal requirement for the parties to disclose contact information for witnesses. I cited the rule of procedure. Judge Ryu responded, "Mr. King is a lawyer!" as if that alone justified his refusal to provide me contact information for witnesses.
Mr. King refused to provide both written statements from the eye witness deputies, and to schedule them for deposition, and stated that if he provided written statements, they would be copied and pasted versions of the same statements previously provided, signed under oath (nowhere saying that they "saw nothing" or "weren't there").
Mr. King kept threatening to go to my family member's workplace unless I provided him contact information for counselors from 10+ years ago, DURING a DEPOSITION, without him providing any written request for the information.
He also interfered with scheduling the witnesses for deposition, with the Court reporter that I had hired, disregarded the schedule that I had set, and set them each for 30 minutes, which raised the cost of deposition from an estimated about $700 to about $4,000, and said this was my one and only chance.
The Federal Pro Bono Project / the Justice & Diversity Center is an organization that receives seven million dollars a year in public funding and is under contract with the Federal District Court to work with the Court to provide legal consultation to pro se litigants. I had about 19 appointments with them, about 18 with Abby Herzberg, and 1 with Rosemarie Maliekel. Ms. Herzberg was precisely 15 minutes late to every single appointment, repeatedly gave me horrible advice ("just wait", do nothing, "don't file this", despite admitting that the entire motion was valid, directly causing excessive delay and the spoliation of crucial evidence). She also yelled at me aggressively on two occasions because I had brought up state laws, which were being currently violated against me, because the Court had dismissed my "state claims" because Sonoma County refused to supply with a state tort claim form when I first asked, reasoning that was not relevant to the state laws being currently violated against me. After Ms. Herzberg yelled at me the second time, I requested an appointment with Ms. Maliekel. Ms. Maliekel spent the entire appointment ranting at me about irrelevant issues, and kept talking over me and interrupting me. I was polite but eventually asked "can I finish what I was saying?" She responded "No!" and kept ranting at me.
I had repeatedly asked about how to properly get medical evidence, and about expert witnesses. Ms. Herzberg ignored my questions and spent nearly the entirety of almost every single appointment reading through the rules, without letting me speak at all, even to summarize the relevant sections of the rules that I had read.
On a video on their webpage (on the Court's website, because they are a "partner project" with the Court), Abby Herzberg explicitly demonstrates a clear understanding of the fact that the Court provides funding for expert witnesses, despite ignoring my questions about and spending nearly the entirety of almost every single appointment either reading rules or pretending to.
Discovery was closed.
Mr. King rehashed the legally baseless and frivolous "time barred" claim in a Motion for Summary Judgment. I was required to respond to it twice. I was required to answer all his "undisputed material facts" under threat of terminating my entire case, but he refused to answer mine. He lied over and over to the judges. As I said, the judge ruled that the laws "wouldn't allow her to" dismiss my entire case and rejected his Motion for Summary Judgement.
The Court ordered the Federal Pro Bono Project (FPBP) to put me on a list for attorneys seeking clients. Ms. Herzberg told me that if I filed any motions, that the FPBP would not cooperate with the Court's order, until 1 month before my trial, instead of 6 months before. She also said that a law firm had reached out to them about my case over a month prior to that, and that the staff at the FPBP had not followed up. My filing privileges were then revoked by the Court.
An attorney, David Ratner, reached out to me, and scheduled an initial consultation, over Zoom, at which he stated he "hates cops", and gave a showing of being enthusiastic. I explicitly told him that I wanted to make sure we were on the same page as far as what to "aim for". I told him that I had been working for FIVE YEARS, that I had almost died, that I had suffered two different extremely serious injuries. I told him that what I asked for was consistent with the most similar case (the Esa Wroth case of 2013) that I knew of (an ask of three million dollars). This was coincidental. I was not aware of the Esa Wroth case when I came up with that number. I agonized over that, and spent a lot of time trying to come up with a fair amount, and described the methods I used to come up with that number in detail in court documents. Mr. Ratner explicitly agreed to aim for that.
Mr. Ratner, and his partner, Shelley Mollineaux, who was set to represent me at trial under Mr. Ratner's supervision, then both went dark for over a month. They ignored my emails, voicemails, and messages that I left with their receptionists. There was a hearing, and then Mr. Ratner emailed me demanding "all the documents" that I had. I had over 50 gb of files across thousands of files, and spent about a month working with his paralegals sending them batches of files, and providing all the information they asked me for. Mr. Ratner forwarded me an email from Mr. King where King accused me of violating a court order regarding providing medical providers and the physical addresses of my entire family and my friends, which was false -- the Court had ordered me to provide him CONTACT information, at a second hearing, which wasn't significant, and I had fully and completely complied in good faith with all the Court's orders. Mr. Ratner accused me of not sending him "anything", after I had spent at least several weeks with his paralegals sending them batches of files and information, and he simultaneously threatened to ask the judge for leave to withdraw.
There had been major delays with medical evaluation due in large part to Covid, as well as delayed discovery of brain injury, which is very common, and other factors.
With trial set, Mr. Ratner forwarded me an offer from Defendants for $5,000. Upon discussion (which was 100% in email because he refused to talk over the phone and Ms. Mollineaux completely ignored me), he accused me of not doing Discovery right. I pointed him to the video I referred to earlier, which I had found since Mr. Ratner took my case, but wasn't aware of when I was interacting with the FPBP, where the FPBP (Abby Herzberg), and various District Judges from the Court I was litigating in, state that it is general policy (and it is official policy under the Court's General Order 25) to REOPEN DISCOVERY when a pro bono attorney comes onto the case, and to FUND DEPOSITION AND EXPERT WITNESS FEES.
Mr. Ratner stated he "won't file any motions" and ultimately elected to withdraw from the case over fulfill his legal obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct. The Court thanked him and granted him permission to withdraw. The FPBP refused to put me back on the list. I was forced into trial BY MYSELF, at 1-2 months prior to trial, after 2-3 months of my time being completely wasted by Mr. Ratner and his law firm.
I went through the appropriate legal process to submit an expert witness. The Court, as usual, completely ignored my motions, but allowed me to use him after I went through the entire legal process, and paid him thousands of dollars without knowing if I would be granted permission or not, and provided the Court a report stating that the carotid hold was ILLEGAL unless the subject exhibited "assaultive behavior" and that Defendants had never alleged any behavior of mine that constituted "assaultive behavior" (under POST Basic). The expert was a Master level instructor at a police academy and former SWAT.
Mr. King provided his pre-trial disclosures, and it contained a document from Rohnert Park police department which had been extensively redacted on the copy that they had provided to me. The new copy contained the contact information for the bystander witness. I called him, and he confirmed that he saw the entire thing, that I had never yelled at the deputies before the first deputy grabbed my arm, and that I was not resisting at any point in time. I told the judge this. She had me call him at a hearing, and both me and Mr. King were allowed a couple of minutes to ask him questions, where he refused to admit that I was even "wiggling" when Mr. King badgered him.
The judge then refused to allow him to appear over Zoom, and refused to summon him to the trial.
At the trial, the Judge accused me falsely of firing my attorney, and explicitly prohibited me from telling the jury that the Defendants had LIED about the camera's ability to record. She explicitly prohibited me from submitting scientific evidence about the carotid hold. She allowed Mr. King to make extremely defamatory false remarks about me and my past which had a huge impact on the jury's perception of things. At a pretrial hearing, we had gone over about 110 documents that I wanted to present at the trial. She vetted about 40 as admissible at the hearing, but at the trial she only let me submit about 5. Defendants were allowed to submit a SECOND expert witness, both of whom worked for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. The first was Andrew Cash. The second was James Naugle who had been disclosed literally a week before trial, without a report, and without allowing me to take his deposition. She refused to allow me to ask Mr. Naugle about case laws, or about information pertaining to the carotid hold. The Court refused to summon any of my treating physicians, whom I had provided the names and contact information for in my disclosures at the end of Discovery and some in my initial disclosures, and I had complied with Mr. King's written requests for information or objected within the boundaries of the law, in good faith, and complied with the Court's orders, in good faith.
I had informed the Court that I was scheduled for medical evaluations for brain injury AFTER THE TRIAL. The Court completely ignored this.
So it was my word against theirs. 5 years, at the time of the mistrial, to get a mockery of a trial, and have the jurors' time completely wasted. The jury wrote me a letter thanking me or something, but awarded me nothing.
I was diagnosed with organic brain injury after the trial. I had a similar test prior to the incident and had absolutely no problems and answered every question with no trouble. I now score in the FOURTH PERCENTILE on those areas.
Despite its length, this has been a short summary of all the events over the past 6 years. Much has been summarized, and much has been left out. I tried my best to balance completeness with leaving out irrelevant details.
There is no record of any misconduct on the part of anyone involved in this that is available to any law enforcement agencies or to the public. Nobody has been disciplined. No investigation was ever conducted. I was almost killed and was seriously injured, under a camera, and in front of witnesses, and spent 6 years working with the government. The government has done precisely NOTHING.
The County now routinely retaliates against me whenever we interact, in blatant violation of various laws.

I just want people to know that the Sonoma County government is corrupt. They spent 186 million dollars on a "new courthouse" that is 163k square feet, which works out to $1,100 per square foot, which is over double the second most expensive building I could find was, and over four times the average price per square foot of palaces and museums. And it's just going to look like a giant portable. This is to house some of the most corrupt people in this County, who all make $200-350+k per year (I am including their benefits in that, but not their pension). The entire DA's Office has a vendetta against Civil Rights in general, and will literally knowingly commit criminal violations of laws for the purpose of covering up serious criminal misconduct on the part of Sonoma County employees.
Lynda Hopkins took money from the law enforcement unions, and turns a willfully blind eye to it.
The County Office of Legal Counsel is literally a crime syndicate.
In 2015, the Sheriff's Office had a veritable torture ring in the jail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izcHIv5Y4z8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYrGChrW5HM&list=TLPQMzAwMzIwMjMv0QAOPDy1Lw&index=2
This is just the tip of the iceberg. They lied about the existence of these videos, and "lost" the one where they gave one of the inmates internal bleeding, with a knee to their back.
There was a lawsuit about it. It was called the "Yard Counseling Case". There are news articles about it.
There was an official, written policy, called "Yard Counseling", later its name was changed to "Behavior Counseling" which dictated that for arbitrary punitive measures, Sheriff's Office personnel should extract inmates from their cells individually (which meant slamming their heads onto the door frames on the way out and other abuse), and isolate them, and putting them into "pain compliance" techniques (literally, by definition, torture) for extended periods of time while "counseling" them, which meant wearing no name tags, ski masks and riot gear, carrying a shotgun with them, and insulting them in explicit language for over 20 minutes.
This official written policy was acknowledged by Rob Giordano in a video, where he lies that no inmates where injured, uploaded to YouTube in 2018, when they finally addressed this official written policy, and the practice of torturing inmates without reasonable cause (leading exercise routines, for example).
In 2021, they saw one of the victims of this torture ring, who had sued them and had won, at a peaceful protest, and shot him with a grenade launcher while hiding on a rooftop in the face with a crowd control grenade, which exploded on impact and caused horrific injury that I don't care to describe.
In 2017, I was almost killed by application of a "carotid hold" / lateral vascular neck restraint, by a sheriff's deputy, for literally no reason. A knee was placed on my lower back while I was on the ground on my stomach as well, which caused a serious injury to my kidney, which was the worst injury of my life. I have also been diagnosed with an organic brain injury and cognitive impairment. I was tested for the same type of cognitive impairment before the incident and there is a marked difference, and I have about 30 pages describing the differences I've noticed / troubles I've had in my cognitive functioning. There was no probable cause to arrest me, and I was polite and compliant with all the instructions given to me, and this was confirmed by witnesses. I was punished for invoking my right to remain silent, then my arm was grabbed and yanked up behind me, and then a carotid hold was applied because my body pivoted after the deputy grabbed and yanked my arm.
This occurred UNDER A CAMERA and IN FRONT OF WITNESSES. I called the Sheriff's Office the next day said I want to "make an official complaint in writing". I was transferred to Captain of Internal Affairs, Captain Mark Essick. I repeated my request, verbatim. He responded, verbatim: "We don't do that. Why don't you tell me what happened." I did. I told him it happened right under a camera. He said "The camera can't record." I asked for confirmation. He said the cameras "Don't have recording technology installed."
I asked the County for a claim form. They ignored my request, and instructed me to report the incident to IOLERO. IOLERO requested I meet with Internal Affairs, and I said fine.
Sgt. Andy Cash called me and scheduled me for a meeting at the Sheriff's den. I was made to walk first and guided upstairs to a meeting room, and then patted down for weapons, and the interview was recorded. For 75 minutes I was deposed about happened. He asked me repeatedly about my mental state after the incident. I admitted that I was upset after the incident, and he acted like that justified the whole incident. He explicitly promised to interview the 4 deputies who witnessed the event in addition to the 2 deputies who participated, as well as the arresting officer (who I told him would confirm that I was polite and cooperative), which he agreed "would confirm [my] demeanor", and a bystander witness I told him about.
I complained to IOLERO director Jerry Threet. Mr. Threet agreed that that was inappropriate, then resigned without reviewing the investigation.
For about 4 years review of the investigation was put on hold because IOLERO staff quit, and when more staff was hired, they complained of being understaffed. They had a budget of over a million dollars but only had 2 employees. They only reviewed one case per four months. And they put off "backlogged" cases and focused on new cases. My complaint was finally reviewed by Interim Director Garrick Byers who clearly stated that the investigation was not conducted appropriately. I have the letter from him. That still has never been made public.
After the interview with Internal Affairs, I corresponded with Lynda Hopkins, and she refused to give her opinion on the matter. I specifically complained that the carotid hold was being used recklessly, and it is a dangerous technique. This was in 2018. She forwarded me to Janell Crane, who then had me meet with Kristi Schultz.
I contacted the DA's Office and spoke to Richard Celli (who made $346k in 2017, and has gunned down two unarmed people, and was convicted by a jury in one of the civil cases brought against him by one of the victim's family, but the sentence was overturned by a judge, while working for the SRPD). The first time I spoke to Mr. Celli, he told me that another law enforcement agency should take my case. After that first time, him and the rest of the DA's Office openly refused to comply with the Victims' Rights Laws (CA Con Art. 1 S. 28), and the "policies" (which are legally binding under CA Con Art 5 S. 13) of the Attorney General stating clearly that they are to take complaints from victims if it can't be resolved with the department.
After the first talk with Mr. Celli, I called Rohnert Park Police as I was instructed, and they 3-way called the Sheriff's office and then transferred me. I spent about 30 minutes reporting the incident to a deputy, and he asked me questions in a fair manner. I called RPPD back and talked to the arresting officer and he positively clearly confirmed that I was "polite, calm, compliant, and cooperative" (or something nearly verbatim, I can't remember exactly any more).
Andrew Cash called me the next day, at precisely 7:00 AM. He told me he was driving. He was extremely confrontational with me. He said "There were 6 deputies [referring to the two who used excessive force on me, and 4 witness deputies]. You were combative." This was false. He had only interviewed one of the 4 witness deputies, and the other 3 had provided written statements. They said that they had witnessed force being used, that they had not participated in the use of force to the best of their memory, and that I "did not appear to be resisting". But again, he had promised explicitly to interview the 4 deputy witnesses, and the arresting officer
Internal Affairs exonerated the officers. The letter was signed by Eddie Engram, captain of Internal Affairs. I called Mr. Engram, and had an hour long conversation with him, and he told me to contact Sgt. Cash after April 1st.
I filed a federal claim on the last day that it was due.
Mr. Cash referred me to Legal Counselor, Kara Abelson.
Ms. Abelson spent a year and a half refusing to comply with the Public Records Act, the Rules of Procedure, and the Rules of Professional Conduct. She refused to provide me documents that I was entitled to under law, including the incident report written by Deputies Jacquelin Fazzio and Virgil Smith, and the recorded interviews that he promised he would conduct, and stated pretty clearly that he had conducted.
Kara Abelson spent a year and a half trying to claim that my federal complaint was time barred by 1 day when it wasn't. The judge (Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers) entertained this and forced me to respond SEVEN TIMES, before she finally admitted that the "law wouldn't allow [her] to dismiss my complaint".
After a year and a half, Kara Abelson finally withdrew from the case after I started citing the Rules of Professional Conduct to her that require her to resign or withdraw from the case rather than defend a civil case where defense isn't warranted. Nobody had disputed any of the allegations I had made. In fact, Eddie Engram had confirmed that what I said happened was not disputed by the evidence.
At some point around this time, either before or after Ms. Abelson withdrew, the 2 incident reports written by the two deputies, the written statements by 3 of the 4 witness deputies, and the recorded interviews with me, the 2 deputies who assaulted me, and 1 of the eye witness deputies, were provided, along with various other records from the facility. In the recorded interview, and the incident report, the deputies admitted that Virgil Smith had applied the carotid hold.
I had also reported the incident to the State Attorney General Public Inquiry Unite (Lupe Zinzin). She had told me, over and over and over, that the local DA's are required to take complaints from civilians in these situations. She refused to call the DA's Office, though. The DA's Office (Richard Celli, Mark Azzouni, David Kahl) refused to take a complaint from me. They (including the receptionists) hung up on me every time I called after no more than 2 minutes, for no reason, transferred me to dead lines, never returned any voicemails I managed to leave, told me explicitly that if I send a complaint, they will throw it away, and didn't care, at all, what the laws were. The receptionists also refuse to provide their names. The Attorney General's Office told me to send them a complaint, so I did. The DA's Office acknowledged receiving the complaint. But later said that they did not have a record of it, meaning they threw it away.
The Attorney General's Office finally agreed to take a complaint from me. It sat on their desk for a year. I finally called them, concerned that evidence was being destroyed, and left a voicemail for Casey Hallinan requesting that they request copies of the physical evidence from the Sheriff's Office. Literally 2 days after that voicemail, a letter was sent to me signed by Sharon Loughner with Casey Hallinan CC'ed on the letter, stating that they would "take no action", and blamed the incident on me. I had not received the letter though, and called and spoke to Ms. Hallinan, who was extremely rude. After that, the Attorney General's Office hang up on me as soon as they find out it's me, for no reason. There has since been a bystander witness who saw the whole thing, and it has come to light that the cameras did record, that no upgrades were ever performed like Ms. Abelson alleged, the cameras do continuously record (as of 2019), and they just lied through their teeth about the camera for 4 straight years. The Attorney General's Office does not care. They violate the laws, and do not care what the laws are.
Sonoma County Office of Legal Counsel attorney Michael King took over after Ms. Abelson withdrew. Right off the bat, Mr. King told me that my motions were deficient - a contention he has repeated frequently, since then. I asked him how. He changed the subject, and to this day has NEVER given any explanation as to how any of my motions are deficient.
He continued to claim that my claim was time barred, filing frivolous motions, in blatant violation of the rules of professional conduct, after I cited the rules to him, constituting explicit legal misconduct.
As I said, the judge finally agreed to open Discovery after a year and a half of full time work trying to fight for my right to not be nearly murdered for no reason.
Lawyers do not take these cases unless there is undeniable proof of blatant guilt, along with undeniable proof of catastrophic injury. Multiple law firms have confirmed that it takes over a million dollars worth of legal work to get these cases to trial.
The judge also promised me a pro bono attorney "if you make it past summary judgment".
The judge scheduled us for Alternative Dispute Resolution hearing with a magistrate judge. Mr. King elicited an offer from me, which I spent about 2 weeks working on, trying to make it as agreeable as possible. But then for the hearing, his written offer was to waive charging me his attorneys fees. The judge confirmed that there was no legal basis for him to do that - it would be illegal. He had been ordered to participate in this hearing, and there was a legal obligation under the Rules of Procedure to try in good faith to settle the case. He violated the order and the rule of procedure (26 (f)).
All of my motions were completely ignored for no reason.
Mr. King / Defendant Virgil Smith lied about the cameras. They said "Denies the existence of cameras capable of recording in the vicinity", in writing, under oath. They never disputed that he put his knee on top of my back with all his weight on it.
Mr. King refused to comply with his Discovery obligations. I had to file about 4 different motions pertaining to their refusal to comply with the laws regarding disclosure of evidence.
Upon receiving an official Discovery request for records of camera equipment, I received a letter signed under by Mr. King (nearly 4 years after the incident) stating that the cameras CAN RECORD. But stating "tasks must be performed" to start the recording function, and stating that all records pertaining to the equipment that was installed at the time HAD BEEN DESTROYED (literally a federal and state crime, a civil tort violation, and a sanctionable act of legal misconduct).
Mr. King refused to schedule any of the witnesses for deposition, demanded MY deposition BEFORE he would even schedule the two deputies who assaulted me, even though I had been requesting depositions with other witnesses for over a month, and refused to schedule anyone else, he refused to answer interrogatories, he refused to provide copies of the policies from the time of the incident. He tried to pass off a weird spreadsheet with the word camera on it as proof that upgrades had been done to the cameras. He refused to provide complete training records for the deputies. He refused to provide details about the training. He refused to provide blueprints of the facility, refused to provide photos of the cameras at the location, refused to provide still images showing which direction the cameras were pointing, refused to provide photos of the deputies so I could schedule depositions efficiently.
The judge erroneously dismissed my Equal Protection claims, construing them as Due Process and Employment Discrimination claims, which are different types of claims than Equal Protection claims against a government actor. The government cannot arbitrarily treat anyone disparately. The Court also dismissed my "Monell" claim against the municipality for their "policies, customs, or practices", but left me leave to amend that claim. And she waited until Discovery opened over 1.5 years into litigation, to do this, forcing me to amend the complaint DURING DISCOVERY which was only open for a limited amount of time, instead of any point in the 1.5 years prior to that.
In the recorded interview with Andrew Cash and one of the witness deputies, she spontaneously states that Mr. Cash instructed her to review the written statements made by the two deputies who assaulted me prior to the interview. Another deputy witness confirmed that Mr. Cash had instructed her to review the written reports by the two deputies who assaulted me prior to her providing Mr. Cash with a written statement as well.
The judge finally retaliated against me, without rational basis, for filing motions, which I had filed because I was being illegally obstructed from preserving evidence, by withdrawing leave to amend regarding the "Monell" claim (I had stated a clear Monell claim to begin with, but the judge literally has an aversion to reading, and relies on guessing, and is biased against pro se litigants; I am summarizing well over 100 pages, if not well over double that, of motions, objections, and replies and the judge's responsive orders).
She did however, finally schedule a hearing with a Discovery referee magistrate. All my motions (and the months of work I was required to do dictated by the various rules) was completely disregarded, and both me and Mr. King were given 2 pages each (double spaced) to go over discovery issues, even though I had filed about 4 different motions about various issues, and he hadn't filed ANY, at that time.
During conference I was required to do in accordance with the Rules, Mr. King repeatedly tried to establish that I had committed crimes during the course of conferring which was my legal obligation, without having any rational basis to believe what he was trying to establish. He demanded evidence that would exist, and he kept repeating every lie he could come up with to the judge. The judge would either get annoyed at me if I addressed any of Mr. King's baseless accusations, or take his statements at face value for being 100% true.
Mr. King finally "compromised" and agreed to schedule depositions with me (as long as Mr. King wanted to) and the two deputies who had assaulted me (for 25 minutes each or something) all simultaneously, but refused to schedule anyone else, even though this was grossly advantageous to him. One of the eye witness deputies later confirmed that he had "consulted" her over 4 times prior to the trial. During this deposition, Mr. King asked me where a family member of mine works. He had spent about 30-40 minutes trying to convince me that I can tell him anything, that the entire record was designated confidential, that I had nothing to worry about - and at a deposition, you are obligated to answer the questions unless they are harassing. Mr. King also requested contact information for counselors from over 10 years ago, and that was the only question I didn't answer - I told him to provide the request in writing. At some point after that, I told Mr. King to not contact my family member at her workplace, and Mr. King responded "unless you fully and completely cooperate" with his request for contact information for counselors from 10 years+ ago.
At the hearing, the Discovery Magistrate (Donna M. Ryu) discussed matters only with Mr. King, without including me. He told her that the 4 eye witness deputies "saw nothing" and "weren't there" (verbatim) trying to get her to deny me my request to take their deposition. She asked him if he would get them to sign fresh "sworn declarations", "under oath" (Judge Ryu's words, verbatim) stating this. Mr. King said yes, absolutely, he would. Judge Ryu asked me "Would that be okay?" I said "No." She started laughing, and asked me why, and I explained that I had explicitly described various interactions with them that had taken place while the carotid hold was still being applied to me, and that they had stated in their written statements that they had witnessed force being used, and that was "not resisting". She confirmed that this was all true with Mr. King and that he already knew all of this, and ordered him to cooperate with scheduling them for deposition.
After that, they went back to discussing matters only with eachother, and I was excluded from discussion. This was an hour long hearing, and at about the 45 minute mark, Mr. King was again lying to the magistrate judge, and when he had finished, I interjected, "That's not true". Judge Ryu shouted "Stop! Stop stop stop stop stop!" And then very assertively explained to me the importance of not interrupting people for the convenience of the court reporter / transcriber. I was excluded from the rest of the hearing.
At some point at either this hearing or the next one, I cited the legal requirement for the parties to disclose contact information for witnesses. I cited the rule of procedure. Judge Ryu responded, "Mr. King is a lawyer!" as if that alone justified his refusal to provide me contact information for witnesses.
Mr. King refused to provide both written statements from the eye witness deputies, and to schedule them for deposition, and stated that if he provided written statements, they would be copied and pasted versions of the same statements previously provided, signed under oath (nowhere saying that they "saw nothing" or "weren't there").
Mr. King kept threatening to go to my family member's workplace unless I provided him contact information for counselors from 10+ years ago, DURING a DEPOSITION, without him providing any written request for the information.
He also interfered with scheduling the witnesses for deposition, with the Court reporter that I had hired, disregarded the schedule that I had set, and set them each for 30 minutes, which raised the cost of deposition from an estimated about $700 to about $4,000, and said this was my one and only chance.
The Federal Pro Bono Project / the Justice & Diversity Center is an organization that receives seven million dollars a year in public funding and is under contract with the Federal District Court to work with the Court to provide legal consultation to pro se litigants. I had about 19 appointments with them, about 18 with Abby Herzberg, and 1 with Rosemarie Maliekel. Ms. Herzberg was precisely 15 minutes late to every single appointment, repeatedly gave me horrible advice ("just wait", do nothing, "don't file this", despite admitting that the entire motion was valid, directly causing excessive delay and the spoliation of crucial evidence). She also yelled at me aggressively on two occasions because I had brought up state laws, which were being currently violated against me, because the Court had dismissed my "state claims" because Sonoma County refused to supply with a state tort claim form when I first asked, reasoning that was not relevant to the state laws being currently violated against me. After Ms. Herzberg yelled at me the second time, I requested an appointment with Ms. Maliekel. Ms. Maliekel spent the entire appointment ranting at me about irrelevant issues, and kept talking over me and interrupting me. I was polite but eventually asked "can I finish what I was saying?" She responded "No!" and kept ranting at me.
I had repeatedly asked about how to properly get medical evidence, and about expert witnesses. Ms. Herzberg ignored my questions and spent nearly the entirety of almost every single appointment reading through the rules, without letting me speak at all, even to summarize the relevant sections of the rules that I had read.
On a video on their webpage (on the Court's website, because they are a "partner project" with the Court), Abby Herzberg explicitly demonstrates a clear understanding of the fact that the Court provides funding for expert witnesses, despite ignoring my questions about and spending nearly the entirety of almost every single appointment either reading rules or pretending to.
Discovery was closed.
Mr. King rehashed the legally baseless and frivolous "time barred" claim in a Motion for Summary Judgment. I was required to respond to it twice. I was required to answer all his "undisputed material facts" under threat of terminating my entire case, but he refused to answer mine. He lied over and over to the judges. As I said, the judge ruled that the laws "wouldn't allow her to" dismiss my entire case and rejected his Motion for Summary Judgement.
The Court ordered the Federal Pro Bono Project (FPBP) to put me on a list for attorneys seeking clients. Ms. Herzberg told me that if I filed any motions, that the FPBP would not cooperate with the Court's order, until 1 month before my trial, instead of 6 months before. She also said that a law firm had reached out to them about my case over a month prior to that, and that the staff at the FPBP had not followed up. My filing privileges were then revoked by the Court.
An attorney, David Ratner, reached out to me, and scheduled an initial consultation, over Zoom, at which he stated he "hates cops", and gave a showing of being enthusiastic. I explicitly told him that I wanted to make sure we were on the same page as far as what to "aim for". I told him that I had been working for FIVE YEARS, that I had almost died, that I had suffered two different extremely serious injuries. I told him that what I asked for was consistent with the most similar case (the Esa Wroth case of 2013) that I knew of (an ask of three million dollars). This was coincidental. I was not aware of the Esa Wroth case when I came up with that number. I agonized over that, and spent a lot of time trying to come up with a fair amount, and described the methods I used to come up with that number in detail in court documents. Mr. Ratner explicitly agreed to aim for that.
Mr. Ratner, and his partner, Shelley Mollineaux, who was set to represent me at trial under Mr. Ratner's supervision, then both went dark for over a month. They ignored my emails, voicemails, and messages that I left with their receptionists. There was a hearing, and then Mr. Ratner emailed me demanding "all the documents" that I had. I had over 50 gb of files across thousands of files, and spent about a month working with his paralegals sending them batches of files, and providing all the information they asked me for. Mr. Ratner forwarded me an email from Mr. King where King accused me of violating a court order regarding providing medical providers and the physical addresses of my entire family and my friends, which was false -- the Court had ordered me to provide him CONTACT information, at a second hearing, which wasn't significant, and I had fully and completely complied in good faith with all the Court's orders. Mr. Ratner accused me of not sending him "anything", after I had spent at least several weeks with his paralegals sending them batches of files and information, and he simultaneously threatened to ask the judge for leave to withdraw.
There had been major delays with medical evaluation due in large part to Covid, as well as delayed discovery of brain injury, which is very common, and other factors.
With trial set, Mr. Ratner forwarded me an offer from Defendants for $5,000. Upon discussion (which was 100% in email because he refused to talk over the phone and Ms. Mollineaux completely ignored me), he accused me of not doing Discovery right. I pointed him to the video I referred to earlier, which I had found since Mr. Ratner took my case, but wasn't aware of when I was interacting with the FPBP, where the FPBP (Abby Herzberg), and various District Judges from the Court I was litigating in, state that it is general policy (and it is official policy under the Court's General Order 25) to REOPEN DISCOVERY when a pro bono attorney comes onto the case, and to FUND DEPOSITION AND EXPERT WITNESS FEES.
Mr. Ratner stated he "won't file any motions" and ultimately elected to withdraw from the case over fulfill his legal obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct. The Court thanked him and granted him permission to withdraw. The FPBP refused to put me back on the list. I was forced into trial BY MYSELF, at 1-2 months prior to trial, after 2-3 months of my time being completely wasted by Mr. Ratner and his law firm.
I went through the appropriate legal process to submit an expert witness. The Court, as usual, completely ignored my motions, but allowed me to use him after I went through the entire legal process, and paid him thousands of dollars without knowing if I would be granted permission or not, and provided the Court a report stating that the carotid hold was ILLEGAL unless the subject exhibited "assaultive behavior" and that Defendants had never alleged any behavior of mine that constituted "assaultive behavior" (under POST Basic). The expert was a Master level instructor at a police academy and former SWAT.
Mr. King provided his pre-trial disclosures, and it contained a document from Rohnert Park police department which had been extensively redacted on the copy that they had provided to me. The new copy contained the contact information for the bystander witness. I called him, and he confirmed that he saw the entire thing, that I had never yelled at the deputies before the first deputy grabbed my arm, and that I was not resisting at any point in time. I told the judge this. She had me call him at a hearing, and both me and Mr. King were allowed a couple of minutes to ask him questions, where he refused to admit that I was even "wiggling" when Mr. King badgered him.
The judge then refused to allow him to appear over Zoom, and refused to summon him to the trial.
At the trial, the Judge accused me falsely of firing my attorney, and explicitly prohibited me from telling the jury that the Defendants had LIED about the camera's ability to record. She explicitly prohibited me from submitting scientific evidence about the carotid hold. She allowed Mr. King to make extremely defamatory false remarks about me and my past which had a huge impact on the jury's perception of things. At a pretrial hearing, we had gone over about 110 documents that I wanted to present at the trial. She vetted about 40 as admissible at the hearing, but at the trial she only let me submit about 5. Defendants were allowed to submit a SECOND expert witness, both of whom worked for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. The first was Andrew Cash. The second was James Naugle who had been disclosed literally a week before trial, without a report, and without allowing me to take his deposition. She refused to allow me to ask Mr. Naugle about case laws, or about information pertaining to the carotid hold. The Court refused to summon any of my treating physicians, whom I had provided the names and contact information for in my disclosures at the end of Discovery and some in my initial disclosures, and I had complied with Mr. King's written requests for information or objected within the boundaries of the law, in good faith, and complied with the Court's orders, in good faith.
I had informed the Court that I was scheduled for medical evaluations for brain injury AFTER THE TRIAL. The Court completely ignored this.
So it was my word against theirs. 5 years, at the time of the mistrial, to get a mockery of a trial, and have the jurors' time completely wasted. The jury wrote me a letter thanking me or something, but awarded me nothing.
I was diagnosed with organic brain injury after the trial. I had a similar test prior to the incident and had absolutely no problems and answered every question with no trouble. I now score in the FOURTH PERCENTILE on those areas.
Despite its length, this has been a short summary of all the events over the past 6 years. Much has been summarized, and much has been left out. I tried my best to balance completeness with leaving out irrelevant details.
There is no record of any misconduct on the part of anyone involved in this that is available to any law enforcement agencies or to the public. Nobody has been disciplined. No investigation was ever conducted. I was almost killed and was seriously injured, under a camera, and in front of witnesses, and spent 6 years working with the government. The government has done precisely NOTHING.
The County now routinely retaliates against me whenever we interact, in blatant violation of various laws.

All the pharmacy’s in my local area have been put on back order for T.
I’ve gone two weeks without my shot and it’s starting to get really annoying. Anyone else going through this?

I (23) started T 2 years ago yesterday. I was on it for around 16 months and then moved states (MI->WV) for grad school. My appointment in my new state in August 2022 got canceled and moved to April 2023 (next week), so I basically had to medically detransition. It’s been hell.
I am very desperate to get back on, as I’ve had a really long wait of feeling even worse than I did pre-T. How many visits, labs, weeks, etc. did it take for you all to get on T (for those of you on it)? Have any of you started, stopped, and started again? How did it go?
My first time, it took a first appointment, bloodwork, and a second appointment and then I took my first shot, so it was around a week. I’m just really worried that it’ll be another month of waiting or something. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I can hold out for. It’s been a long, miserable 8 (almost 9) months.

F26, 4'10", 95lbs, GERD, hormonal acne/imbalance
Medications/supplements: MSM for inflammation, inositol for hormones/acne; i was on spironolactone at the time of the incident for the same
I got my first COVID shots in April of 2021, the Pfizer one. The first part was ok, just some soreness; the second shot, however, was really rough, and now I'm afriad to ever get one again. I got the normal extreme arm soreness & flu-like symptoms, but I also had these really weird symptoms that I can barely explain.
First, my entire body itched head to toe for about a week straight. Like a deep, burning itch that nothing could satisfy, on every single inch of my body. I'd take the hottest possible showers I could day & night bc that was the only thing that helped even a little bit. I could barely sleep bc I was just so itchy. I never had a rash either, so I really don't understand what that was.
After that, I broke out into itchy ant bite-like sores all over my lips, mouth, throat, and a few on my hands and the tops of my feet. This occurred about every two weeks after that for several months. Possibly herpes? I still get them now but it's way milder and every couple of months.
My period also acted wonky, but I know that's common.
I'm terrified of getting a booster bc my reaction was just so strange and idk anyone else who experienced something similar. But I do want to get one bc I finally got COVID in July 2022 and I'm only just now recovering from the extreme fatigue and exercise intolerance...I just want to protect myself, but I don't know if I can handle being that itchy again, especially because I don't know why I reacted that way. ;__;

We had been trying for over a year for our second. I had given up all hope last year, stopped tracking, and scheduled an appointment for b.c. I found out last week I’m pregnant and about 5 weeks along. I don’t remember being this worried last time. I feel like a ball of anxious energy just waiting for something bad to happen. Every twinge, every tiny cramp, and my head takes off and I start panicking. I know this isn’t healthy but I don’t know what to do. Im so worried something is going to happen. Im 35, so this is our only shot at another.

Weird (and embarrasing) post here, but I bought some 1mg guanfacine extended release (made by Actavis) from a company in the US called International Pharmacy (their based in California I think to be precise) where I had the pills shipped off to the UK which is where I am.
The issue is I have taken two pills so far for each day, but I'm not feeling much in side effects. I felt fatigue for a little bit and little bit of down mood for like half an hour but besides that I am fine and conversely I'm not feeling much for any positive effects.
I'm saying all of this because I wonder did I buy some meds online that are either fake or watered down and I wanna check whether this is a normal effect in this subbreddit instead of a clinician because my appointment with them will be a long time away.

Basically the title, where do o go ti find out more regarding the donefirst class action lawsuit?
I started documenting my correspondence with them especially because their response consistency was so poosub par. I understand there’s multiple counts at least in California according to the state medical board against them. Where do I go to give information and find out more? I’m really fed up/frustrated. They’ve severely disrupted my life. I do understand there’s a nationwide med shortage going on. My pharmacy required some information via fax….it took done 4.5 weeks with daily calls to fax back. I e documented this. They have failed to show up for scheduled appointments. I heard about the lawsuit last week and am looking to find out more. Does anyone have any information about this?

Don't mean for this to be long. I stopped smoking cigarettes 2 years ago and have been in a terrible flare ever since. The first year I started seeing a new doctor out of a local office. We tried mesalamine (oral and liquid enemas) prednisone and eventually started humira when the bleeding didn't cease. I had painful side effects to humira and instead of having me stop, my doctor told me to go see a primary care doc, knowing I didn't have one. He also refused fmla paperwork. I stopped using humira at the advise of the humira rep and stopped seeing this doctor. It took 3 months to get an appointment with a new one. In that time I lost 40lbs, became very anemic, fasted most days to avoid pain, and used all of the PTO I had for the year.
I say all that to say that so far I'm loving my new doctor! My first question to him was "I'm really afraid of trying a new biologic after the humira. Can we try a method in thinking of first?" He replied "We can do whatever you want, it's your treatment." So today I'm starting 'My Method'. I asked to try prednisone, these older mesalamine enemas that are solid instead of liquid called Canasa 1000mg (they seemed hard to get in stock at the pharmacy, but I can hold them in a lot better than the liquid ones), and Lialda. We did the tests and he prescribed the meds. He randomly calls to give test results and check on my status and we're giving my method a 6 week trial before looking into Remicade. Super hopeful for the first time in a long time!

I’ve been selected for funded IVF and quoted $5000-$7000 for medications. I’m wondering how to plan for this. Is it in one shot? Or throughout your cycle? Are the meds covered by insurance (ie. Sunlife)? Are they sent to a pharmacy when they can do direct pay through insurance or would we have to pay up front and then submit a claim.
This may be silly, but I’ve always known IVF to cost around $10k privately. Between the meds and the testing, we’re around that number anyway. How much does the funded really cover?
Thanks in advance!

At my latest Derm appointment I asked if she could prescribe me the sodium sulfacetamide sulfur wash and when I went to pick up at the pharmacy she prescribed just sodium sulfacetamide 10% wash. Has anyone used the wash with no sulfur? Or maybe I could add in some sulfur by using a little De La Cruz Sulfur at the same time when I wash? I had to accept the incorrect medication because my insurance is going to term April 1 and if I had requested the new prescription it probably would have taken a few more days.

any contraindication for the yearly flu shot in a 40 year old.

I was diagnosed in 2017 and the fatigue has been kicking my ass lately. I go through the VA and the amount of fuck fuck games my previous provider does is astounding.

1. She is an NP that insists on being called Doctor. I understand she has the requisite schooling and earned the title but MD and ARNP are different. Simply from a patient standpoint the majority of the negative experiences I have had are from ARNPs.
   
2. She fucks up simple refills that she suggested! I take Ritalin for my fatigue. I went through years of trying different doses/other medications.
   
3. She’s an old fuddy duddy that lost connection on one of our video visits because she sucks at technology. I had 0 lost packets and am pretty up on my internet connection. I know it wasn’t me but yet she wanted to play the “technology” card.
   

I switched providers but my appointment with them isn’t until Tuesday the 4th of April. She wrote my last 30 day supply as needing to be refilled on the April 04 when it was filled on March 02. The VA pharmacy is only open weekdays. I also got sternly talked to because I needed to request a refill 6 weeks in advance of a medication that is controlled (WTF the pharmacy tech was obviously new).
I usually only secure message with my team because I get riled up trying to talk to someone. There was a whole mess trying to get my catheter supplies.
I really appreciate the good VA workers but it really is a nightmare when you deal with shitty ones. So….any advice on fatigue management? I already do exercise, diet, and energy conservation. This is mostly a rant but any and all advice is appreciated.
TLDR; I hate everyone.

Hey everyone! I'm back, this time with another Leader Guide, for Croatia, covering the Croatia submod by u/AdriaticTzar that was integrated into the mod. I have to thank him for not only creating it almost singlehandedly the first place but also making himself available for questions over the last couple weeks. I really could not have done it without him!
The Guide will be over a couple parts, owing to Reddit's limit on images and characters, but also the amount of content Croatia now has. Also because of the limits the slides might seem a little cramped or cluttered, but as always please let me know what you think. Questions, comments, and corrections are always welcome! If you'd like to see just the leaders, check out my updated Leader Tree here.
You can find many historic parallels to OTL which are noted throughout, but also take note of the cool Ending Event each path has. They are a great additions.
As Croatia is constantly being worked on, any changes that may come from future updates/patches will be updated here as well.
---

Starting Situation

Starting Situation
Starting Focus Trees
Econ./Mil./Tourism Trees Which Load AFTER the Uprising/Civil War Completes
Croatia is in a state of perpetual darkness, having been under the rule of the Ustaše for almost a decade. Led by Poglavnik (loosely translated as Chief) Ante Pavelić, the Ustaše, officially the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Organization (UHRO), is ideologically a blend of Roman Catholicism, extreme Croat nationalism, and Fascism, whose goal of a Greater Croatia includes cleansing the country of religious and ethnic minorities (such as the Serbs, Jews, and Roma). The Ustaša are so ruthless and brutal, even Heinrich Himmler once remarked that the state was ‘ridiculous.’ Not included in their campaigns are the Bosnians who the Ustaše see as Muslim Croats, who live in an Autonomous Region in the center of the country. Economically, the Ustaša promotes a version of a planned economy called Croatian Socialism, which strives to create a non-Marxist Socialist system.
The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, and was set up as a condominium between Germany and Italy, splitting the country roughly in half along a line of demarcation. As such the economy of Croatia was tied to that of Germany and Italy, and with the economic stagnation in Germany, the economic collapse of Italy, and the high cost and toll of both cleansing the populace and hunting Partisans, the dawn of 1952 sees a Croatian economy in shambles. Pavelić and the Ustaša need to make major changes to keep Croatia afloat, and they might not necessarily be the ones to do it…
Homeguard/NDH Admin. UIs
Croatia is ruled over by Poglavnik Ante Pavelić, and is assisted by his Second-in-Command Andrija Artuković (widely seen as Pavelić’s successor). Artuković was responsible for enforcing the Racial Laws against the populace and so has been given the moniker the Architect of Terror. Along with Artuković, there is Jure Francetić, founder and leader of the 1st Standing Active Brigade, (originally known as the 1st Ustaša Regiment), nicknamed the ‘Black Legion’ after its use of black uniforms. Both he and the Legion are known for their fanatical loyalty to the Ustaša, and for brutality against the resistance. The last member of Pavelić’s inner circle is Mladen Lorković. Lorković is more moderate compared to the other members of the Ustaša in that he seeks to end the enforced Nazi policies, and reform the country along the lines of Italian Fascism. This is done behind the scenes, and with the help of Homeguard leader Ante Vokić, and Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader August Košutić.

• You can see The NDH Administration UI by clicking on the Croatian Coat of Arms, or šahovnica (chessboard), next to the Cabinet in the Country’s Political Tab.

Alongside the government, there is the Croatian Homeguard, the country’s military. It is led by Minister of Defence Ante Vokić. The Homeguard is currently divided, and its loyalty to the Ustaša is tenuous at best. Even Vokić is said to be conspiring with the Ustaša’s enemies, and will strike at the government if the Homeguard’s Influence is high while the Stability of the country is too low. But he will not move against Pavelić while he is still Poglavnik.

• If Stability is at zero or below and Influence is 50% or more, if Stability is below 30% or below and Influence is 60% or more, or if Stability is at 50% or below and Influence is 70% or more, Vokić will coup the government. This is checked every week.
• You can see The Croatian Homeguard UI by clicking on the Croatian Trefoil, next to the Cabinet in the Country’s Political Tab.

Pre-Uprisings

Pre-Uprisings
From game start, Croatia is trying to pull itself out of the economic hole created by Germany and Italy and regain some standing. To do that it will work to end German and Italian influence by abolishing the Demarcation Line, removing Italian garrisons in Italy’s zone, rebuilding its navy (whose size was limited by treaty on Italy’s order), giving the German concessions to leave, and removing SS units stationed in the German zone.
Concurrently, Croatia is still trying to rid itself of the Partisans, and with hopeful supplies from Germany, it will show no restraint. (The right side of the tree here has a few flavor events about the Ustaša attempt to stamp out dissent, told from the perspective of everyday people.) But Pavelić is not as safe as he thinks in Zagreb, and the Partisans will try for an assassination attempt. It will fail, but will only worsen the government’s pacification attempts.
Once the Demarcation Line has been abolished, and the pacification stepped up, internal matters can be taken care of: Purging the HSS, or uniting the Homeguard.

• For the last 10 years the HSS has been allowed to operate, and even holds an electoral alliance with the Ustaša in Parliament (Sabor). This can end, and Lorković’s ties with them outed and he tried for sedition. If put on trial, there will be a 60% chance he will be found guilty of undermining the state, and promptly executed. That also means there is a 40% chance he will be found not guilty by having the case against him dismissed… somehow. (At release, the percentages were 90 for not guilty, and 10 for guilty!)
• If the Homeguard are instead to be united, its members, mostly conscripts of different backgrounds and beliefs, will be educated in devotion to the Ustaša and Poglavnik. This will remove the ‘Divided Home Guard’ national spirit, and allow the training and editing of units.

With the internal issue dealt with, Croatia can look outward to Hungary-occupied Vojvodina. Wanting to unite all Croats beyond its border, Croatia can choose to initiate a border war to get it back.
Winning will see the state of Vojvodina being transferred over. Hungary will get the option to declare war to fight for it back. Croatia must keep the Hungarians at bay for 50 days and it will white peace. But, if Croatia manages to take Budapest, and get Hungary’s surrender rate over 50%, it will white peace and transfer the state of Prekmurje.
Losing the border war will see the state of Srem transferred to Hungary. Similar to Hungary, Croatia will get an option to declare war for the return of Srem, and will have the same peace conditions as if Hungary instigated the war.
A little over a week after the Border War was initiated or not, Partisans will conduct a brazen attack in the very heart of Zagreb at the Poglavnik’s Palace, with the intent of killing Pavelić. Their attack will be successful, but all involved will be killed by government reinforcement. Regardless, the decapitation of NDH leadership (not literally) will send Zagreb in chaos, and spur riots in Bosnian areas.

Chaos in Zagreb

Chaos in Zagreb
Before a new Poglavnik can be decided upon, the Supreme Ustaša Council will take over temporarily while a plan of action is drawn up. The Sabor, though only advisory, will be summoned and will pass measures to stamp out the little legal opposition left. Due to economic constraints, only one resistance group can be focused on, either:

• The Partisans
• The (Bosnian) Nationalists

Meanwhile, the inner-circle of the now deceased Pavelić, the three who have the best chance of being elected the new Poglavnik, will use the opportunity of the Sabor session to make their case and attack the other two. Each will raise his influence with the speech. Shortly thereafter the funeral arrangement will need to be tended too. Supporting Lorković’s plan of a small funeral will see his influence rise while Artuković’s and Francetić’s will fall. If the original plan of a grandiose funeral is approved, Artuković’s and Francetić’s influence will rise while Lorković’s will fall.

• If the Partisans were focused on and Serbia is Communist, the Generals will flee there and offer their services to the Serbian government. Their headquarters in Crikvenica will be destroyed.
• If it was the Bosnians, their autonomy will be revoked, and the leader of the Bosnian Autonomous Region, Mehmed Handžić, will be removed from office.

With one group decimated, an uneasy calm will fall across Zagreb. With the Ustaša Surveillance Service (UNS) working on leads on the other group, Zagreb will lose contact with units stationed around the county. Taking advantage of still existing, the Bosnians led by Handžić, or the Partisans led by Vladimir Bakarić will rise up against the government.

Uprising and/or Civil War

Uprising/Civil War Starting Situations
The Bosnians Uprising is treated like a revolt, but can not be tag switched to. The Republic of Bosnia has a small tree, but once completed will load a generic.
The Partisans rising up is treated like a civil war, and can be tag switched to by event. The Croatian Partisan Revolt has a small tree for rising units and guns to help it win. (See the Partisan Victory Section in Part 2)
​
Uprising/Civil War Events
The government will also get a small tree for rising units and guns to help it win. It will also get an event, ‘Deploying the Reserves.’ Of the three choices, each will help one of the three main Poglavnik contenders, raising their influence and lowering the others:

• the Homeguard for Lorković
• the Vojnica for Artuković
• the Black Legion for Francetić

Each will also rise units as well: two, three, and four respectively.
If the Legion was chosen, Francetić will ask for more autonomy. Denying his request will see his influence drop, while increasing the others. If accepted, it will raise his while lowering just Artuković’s. With more autonomy he will then request to lead the Legion personally. Denying his request will drop his influence and raise Artuković’s. If accepted, it will raise his while lowering Artuković’s. But letting him command will have dire consequences: his plane will be shot down, attacked by local Serbs, and die in hospital (This was his OTL death).
If the Bosnians rose up, the government will have only 60 days to defeat them, or risk defeat. In that case, Lorković will gain influence while Francetić’s and Artuković’s will fall.

• If Lorković is alive and has more influence than Francetić and Artuković, he will lead the Peasants’ Plot with Vokić, and Košutić and oust the Ustaša government. (See Lorković’s Section below).
• If Lorković is dead, whoever has more influence will be blamed for the defeat and arrested on trumped up charges. The Supreme Ustaša Council, acting as judge, juror, and executioner will find him guilty on all charges and sentenced to death, which will be immediately carried out. Artuković will be shot by the Legion, and Francetić hanged.

A new Poglavnik will be voted on shortly after.
Even if in a Civil War with the Partisans, the Bosnians may still rise up against both combatants. Weeks into the Civil War, reports will reach the government about Chetnik activities in Bosnia. Only if previously the Vojnica were called up as reserves, Artuković will press the need to send them in to quell any possible revolt. It will work, but in a joint Partisan-Chetnik operation Artuković will be assassinated when the bridge his train is on is blown up.
If the Vojnica were not called up, they cannot be sent in and so Bosnian Chetniks will rise up against the government and Partisans. The 60-day counter will start and lead to the same result as if it was against the Republic of Bosnia. The event that spawns the Chetnik Revolt allows for a tag switch to play as it, but currently has very little content.
With the Bosnians pacified and/or the Partisans destroyed, Croatia can declare victory, which will see Lorković’s influence drop a bit, while raising the others. The Poglavnik election can now finally be held. The Supreme Ustaša Council will, in the presence of the Sabor, announce the winner: he who has the most influence. Each leader is covered in his own section below.

• Lorković will have Branimir Jelić as his Second-in-Command, while Artuković or Francetić will have whoever has the second most influence as his Second, but if both are dead then will install Jelić

If it so happens that none of the three main contenders are left alive (the HSS was purged and Lorković found guilty, Francetić having died through the ‘Deploying the Reserves’ event chain, and Artuković blamed for the defeat in Bosnia) or all their influence is below 20%, Vokić and the Homeguard will coup the government. (See the Homeguard Coup’s Section below).
---

General Notes

(The Agency icons created for Fascist and National Socialist government currently uses an incorrect icon, but will be fixed in an upcoming patch)
In the event that the Ustaša are ousted, whether from the Homeguard path, from Lorković (which will be explained below) or a victory for the Communists in the Civil War, the Ustaša Resistance national spirit will be added. About 20 days later the Crusader Revolt event and decision timer will trigger. This must not reach zero or the Crusaders (leftover Ustaša guerilla fighters) will launch a revolt that must be put down, or event switched to and played as. (See the Crusaders Section in Part 2)
When at war with Italy for Croatian Reunification, if Croatia can hold out for 50 days, it will prompt Italy to consider a peace proposal. But Croatia must have full control of its starting states (besides Srem and Slavonia) to ask. If so, Italy will always accept the peace, (but a Player led Italy may decline if Croatia does not control Zara, Fiume, and Istria) and will transfer Zara, Fiume, and Istria to Croatia.
---

Lorković

Lorković Takes Control
With Mladen Lorković at the helm of the government, he wastes no time plotting behind the scenes, making deals with the Homeguard and the HSS. Once the deals are finalized, Lorković can strike at the Ustaša and overthrow it in the aptly named ‘Peasants’ Plot’ (named after the HSS). The Armed Forces will take over in a transitional role until the upcoming power struggle ends. The democratic HSS does not wholly trust the Homeguard under Lorković and Vokić, and their commitment to democracy for a future Croatia. This sets up a power struggle between the two groups.

• (The Peasants’ Plot was an OTL plot named the Lorković-Vokić Plot, hatched towards the end of WWII to switch sides and join the allies, like many other smaller Axis nations did. But it was uncovered and both Lorković and Vokić imprisoned and eventually executed.)

Homguard/HSS Power Struggle
The power struggle plays out through six events, and a pair of mutually exclusive foci. Choices made will increase the influence of the HSS, or the Homeguard. One such event ‘Dreams of a Free Bosnia,’ will either restore the Bosnian Autonomy, or puppet Bosnia, elevating it the national level.
By the end of the focus tree, the HSS will demand an immediate return to democracy and the resignation of Lorković. Lorković will call a meeting at his villa outside Zagreb, which can end in two ways:

1. If the HSS has more, or equal influence, Lorković will agree to the terms and both he and Vokić will retire from politics but will be appointed Chiefs in the new Armed Forces of Croatia. August Košutić and the HSS will be put into office. (See the Democracy Section in Part 2)
2. If the Homeguard has more influence, Vokić will barge into the meeting and arrest the HSS leadership and ban the party. Denouncing them as foreign agents, Lorković and Vokić will rule together in a Duumvirate. (For the Duumvirate, see the next Section)

Duumvirate

Lorković and Vokić's Duumvirate
Having pushed out the other Peasants’ Plot member, Lorković and Vokić will rule over Croatia equally, as Prime Minister and President, respectively. Wanting to embrace Italian Fascism, Lorković will almost immediately make enemies of the Homeguard. Unrest in its ranks will soar, and if not placated with concessions, the Homeguard will launch a coup and remove Lorković. (See the Homeguard Coup Section below)
But if the Homeguard was placated, Lorković can start to enact his vision for Croatia. The first one of which should be to completely ‘destroy the Ustaša’ (also a focus of the same name, which removes the Crusader Revolt timer). He will also move the economy away from ‘Croatian Socialism’ to ‘Croatian Corporatism,’ once again modeled on Italy’s.
With the groundwork set, Lorković will declare the Croatian State the Croatian Social Republic, and reform what’s left of the Ustaša into the Croatian National-Fascist Party. He will also ask for membership into Italy’s Mediterranean Pact, which will be accepted. As Croatia is now allied to Italy, when the focus ‘Ask for Zara and Rijeka’ is completed Italy will agree to the request.
The Croatian Social Republic will also get decisions to help Italy expand the Mediterranean Pact into the Balkans and Anatolia. Note that Albania, Greece, and Turkey, once annexed and puppeted, will be returned to Italy and become its puppets.
At the end of the focus tree, with Italy returning states via the ‘Ask for…’ focus, and taking Hungarian states through either the much earlier (border) war or Pact expansion, Croatia will have secured Lorković’s ideal borders, and can proclaim Reunification, which will lead to the World News Event and Ending Event for the Croatian Social Republic.

Homeguard Coup

Homeguard Coup
Ante Vokić of the Homeguard will coup the government if the weekly Stability Homeguard Influence check fails, if the three main contenders for Poglavnik are dead or influence is below 20% at the time of the election, or the military was not placated when Lorković turned to Italy.
If the coup occurred during the election, he will storm the Sabor and strongarm the Council to vote him in as Poglavnik. He will immediately use his powers to dissolve the government and abolish the whole system (including his minutes old office) and declare a Junta. If it was from any other case, he will storm the Sabor but it will make him the Military Dictator, and he’ll use his new powers to abolish the whole system.
The focus tree is short, for Vokić has two choices: to restore democracy (See the Democracy Section in Part 2), or continue to rule as a Junta.

Junta

Vokić Keeps the Junta
Declaring a state of emergency, Vokić will declare war on radicalism (whether on the right or left of the political spectrum). The first thing he will do is create an intelligence agency to deal with internal enemies, for ‘a healthy state needs a healthy security apparatus.’ One of the first groups he can go after are the Ustaša remnants, by taking ‘Purge the Ustaša’ which should be taken as soon as possible to remove the Crusader Revolt timer. He will then go after everyone else ( his interpretation of radicalism is a big tent): the Partisans, Bosnians, Chetniks, democrats, and socialists. On the bright side he will abolish the draconian Racial Laws of the old Ustaša.
Vokić has not just a political tree but an expansion tree as well. To start taking expansion foci, the entire military tree must be completed, and about the first third of the economic tree as well. The expansion tree focuses on three counties, Hungary, Italy, and Serbia. The first row of foci will prepare for the coming wars by building forts on the border, the second row will declare war, and the third will Croatianize the lands by changing names and removing foreign cores.
With his victory over the Italians, Hungarians, and Serbs, Vokić will gain the nickname, the Croatian Caesar, and can finally declare Croatia Reunified, which will lead to the World News Event and Ending Event for the Croatian State.

Artuković

Artuković Takes Power
Artuković Events
With Andrija Artuković having been elected Poglavnik, things will continue mostly business as usual. He must first though secure his position, which means the purging of suspected enemies. One of the first is the Homeguard. He can conduct a light purge, or a heavy one which will both remove any Homeguard Generals, but also the threat of a Homeguard Coup (as the Croatian Homeguard UI will be disabled).
Having also purged the government, Artuković can move to secure his position through the ‘Secure the Poglavnik’s Position’ focus. It unlocks a number of decisions to finally secure his rule, and will disable the NDH Administration UI. Once Serbia is puppeted, this category will give a unique decision that lets Croatia ‘take revenge’ on Serbia, more specifically, rampaging unrestricted through Belgrade.
After securing his rule, Artuković will look outward. As Lorković looked to Italy, Artuković will look to Germany, and will ask to join the Neue Ordnung. But there is only a 30% chance Germany will accept. If it does not, Artuković may choose to form his own faction, The Greater Croatian League.
The dream of a united Greater Croatia is not lost on Artuković. To ‘Claim Greater Croatia,’ which unlocks the expansion tree, the top third of both the economic and military trees must be completed. But farther down the political tree there is the focus ‘Integrate Greater Croatia.’ This unlocks decisions to core (and change the names) of the states included in Greater Croatia once they are owned. To do that, the expansion tree will give wargoals on Italy, and the owners of Banat, and Vojvodina and Srem.
The war with Italy will follow the normal path, except that in the peace deal Montenegro will also be transferred. Artuković can press his luck and ask for Slovenian lands as well, which Italy will accept if Croatia controls those states (Northern Trieste, Southern Trieste, Slovenia, Littoral, and Lubiana). If they are not controlled, there is still a chance Italy will peace out and transfer them, but it’s only 20%.
In addition to the decisions shown, there are also ones to declare war for certain states, like on Serbia if it owns Montenegro (and is not a Croatian puppet), or Italy if it owns the state of Slovenia, but Croatia owns Rejika and Zara, or lastly Hungary over the state of Prekmurje. Slovenia itself is not needed as part of Greater Croatia, but can be cored if owned.
Once the Slovenian states are owned and if the Republic of Slovenia does not exist, a Transitional Region will be created in owned Slovenian states and after a year will be cored.
Once the expansion tree is completed, Artuković can declare Greater Croatia, stretching from Trieste to Banat, from Prekmurje to Montenegro, complete with a new flag. This will give the World News Event. For the Ending Event, the rest of the other focus trees must be completed which will unlock the last focus in the political tree. With its completion the event will show; as a homage to the introduction event, Croatia’s dark night will get a lot darker.

Francetić

Francetić's Takes Power
Francetić Events
With Jure Francetić having been elected Poglavnik, he will get to work immediately to model Croatia after Romania’s Iron Guard, having a much greater emphasis on the Church than other leaders. But before he can do anything, there is the issue of Vjekoslav Luburić. Luburić was head of the concentration camps in Croatia and a cleanser during the war, and was known to be especially brutal, even by Ustaše standards. From the moment Francetić takes power, Luburić has been planning his coup and will execute it in 150 days. Before that time is up, Francetić must have Luburić executed, or set him up with his own little fiefdom in Srem. In either case it gets rid of him. (For his Coup, see the next Section)
With the Luburić issue settled, Francetić will start bringing Legionarism to Croatia, getting a Legionarism national spirit which will improve as more foci are completed. Like Artuković, he may purge the Homeguard as well. He can conduct a light purge, or a heavy one which will both remove any Homeguard Generals, but also the threat of a Homeguard Coup (as the Croatian Homeguard UI will be disabled).
Halfway through his political tree, Francetić will be made a Field Marshal and elevated to the position he deserves, and be known as the Conqueror of Drina. It will unlock numerous decisions to help secure not only his rule but Legionarism as well. One of the decisions can see him reach out to the US and offer a non-aggression pact, but with only a 20% success rate. Once unified, Francetić can declare Croatia officially neutral.
To begin the reclamation of Croatian lands, which unlocks the expansion tree, the top third of both the economic and military trees must be completed. The last focus in the political tree will reorganize the NDH into the Reorganized Croatian State, but observers will note the new state’s similarities to the Croatia of Ante Pavelić.
As for the expansion tree, Croatia will get wargoals on Italy, and the owner of Vojvodina, if not already owned. The war with Italy and its peace proposal will follow the normal route. At the end of the tree, Francetić will be able to proclaim Croatia reunified which will lead to the World News Event and Ending Event for the Reorganized Croatian State.

Luburić Coup

Luburić's and Filipović's Coups
Once Vjekoslav Luburić overthrows Francetić, it will send any stability left in the country into a tailspin. (It is advised that before the coup triggers, to conduct a heavy purge on the Homeguard so it will not coup once stability gets too low compared to its influence). In Luburić’s mind there is one thing and one thing only, to literally kill any and all dissent.
By the end of his short tree, Luburić will himself be overthrown by Miroslav Filipović (a once Franciscan friar and Ustaše military chaplain who headed concentration camps). After conducting his own round of purging, Filipović will declare that Croatians are not Slavs, but actually descendants of the Goths, and style Croatia as the Veliki Ostrogotski Rajh (the Great Ostrogothic Reich).
While concurrently planning and executing wars against Serbia and Italy, being the good Catholic he is, Filipović will write to the Vatican to report on the successful cleansing of the country. The Vatican will write back, excommunicating him from the Church. This will send him over the edge and lose what little sanity he has left. Spinning a story the Vatican invited him to Rome, Filipović will travel by boat… alone… to Rome via the Adriatic Sea. The war with Italy aside, he needs no protection for God will take care of him. Once an Italian ship spots him, he will be fired upon and drown as his boat sinks. With his body washing ashore days later, the government, now led by the collective Supreme Ustaša Council, will be left in a state of panic as society breaks down around it
Croatia will not last long and will implode. Bandits fight bandits, opposing Ustaše militias fight it out in the streets, the Chetniks and Partisans both rise up, and neighboring countries will conduct land grabs. Croatia is no more. “Croatia heard the beast say, come and see. And Croatia beheld…”
Croatian Collapse
---
Link to Part 2