#FREEBRITTANY Update — We Need You NOW

Jennifer Van Laar
5 min readApr 1, 2022

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Thank you to everyone following Brittany Sheehan’s case and travails. I thought we were good to go two days ago with getting her out, but because of inept jail staff and a bail bond agent who keeps moving the goalposts on what we need, we’re still working on it.

Despite what her former indemnitor is saying about people not being willing to get her out or not being able to “work the magic” he has (not his quote, but my interpretation of his despicable attitude), it’s one thing to get someone bailed out when they don’t have a bail surrender on their record, and it’s one thing to get someone bailed out when there isn’t a sworn affidavit in the file from a former indemnitor saying that she’s a flight risk and threatened to flee. Now, we all know that’s bunk, and that Nephi Oliva is taking one comment from a text conversation where he was discussing his willingness to pay the remainder of her bond premium if she would have $5,000 worth of sex with him and using his status as indemnitor to threaten her, and Brittany’s response that she wouldn’t be anywhere he could find her, as his basis for saying she was a flight risk. But the only thing a surety company sees is the affidavit and the bond exoneration.

As to Nephi’s allegation that a court validated his claims by exonerating the bond, well, that’s bullshit. The court saw the affidavit and exonerated the bond. The court did not hold a hearing and have evidence presented under oath and then decide that all of Nephi’s allegations were proven.

On Wednesday we were told that if we had two signers (one of whom would have to have a house or some kind of collateral like that) and $1,000 we could get Brittany out that day. So I signed and another person signed and we had the money. I called around 6:30 PM to confirm that the bail people had everything they needed and that they were on the way to get Brittany. I was then told that because the jail put $50,000 bail amount next to each charge they needed to confirm with the jail that it was simply one $50,000 bond and not three separate $50,000 bonds. And since they waited until after 5 PM to call they weren’t getting a response.

Thursday morning we get texts from the bail guy saying that even with the two signers, the $1,000 down, and a payment plan for the remainder of the $5,000 fee, that wasn’t good enough and they wanted the whole $5,000 up front, because the surety company was spooked by the whole “surrender b/c she’s a flight risk” thing. We’ve been battling that all day yesterday and trying to go another route but now it looks like that is what we have to come up with.

Brittany has a new, very good job where they wanted her to start yesterday. She has rent due at her apartment and she hasn’t worked in three weeks. So, getting her out is the highest priority of the day. Thank you to all who have donated but we need this message shared far and wide and about $3,000 really fast. You can donate through Venmo, PayPal, or to the PAC. I will provide documentation of all of that money going to the bail bond company, and if there’s more than we need it’ll be used to get her from Madera to Las Vegas and for her legal fees.

HELP US #FREEBRITTANY TODAY!

On a happy note, during Brittany’s hearing on Wednesday the DA’s office publicly showed how weak their case is. A new attorney was appointed to take the place of the MIA attorney while we are still working to secure private counsel, and the DA asked if he was aware of their current plea offer. He was not, so asked her to state it. So in open court she said they’d offered for her to plead to one misdemeanor charge with the condition that she take parenting classes and that protective orders keeping her from Tesla stay in place. Of course, there’s no way Brittany will accept that, nor should she. THEN, the DA said they were even willing to basically do a deferred prosecution, meaning that Brittany would plead to one misdemeanor charge and those conditions, but after doing that for a period of time (maybe six months?) the misdemeanor charge would be DISMISSED entirely so there would be no record of that either. If all she wanted was to have no criminal record, that would be great. But that plea deal would further separate her from her child and work against her in family court — AND she didn’t break any law to start with!

What that exchange told the judge is that the State has a terribly weak case and they know it.

This case is about the State and the public schools attempting to trample a parent’s rights, and it’s about the State harming a little girl by placing her back in an abusive environment despite the existence of an emergency protective order. This case is about a little girl named Tesla who needs her mom. This case is NOT about Brittany’s politics, or about the fact that Brittany has worked as a dancer in Las Vegas before. This case is not even about Nephi Oliva or other people who want to use it for their own political/professional ends or even about the terrible, slanderous, and obviously untrue things Nephi has said about Brittany.

PLEASE give as much as you can right away. If you have any questions (and you’re not simply an abusive troll) please email me: jenredstate at protonmail. I do not have FB messenger on my phone so you won’t be able to quickly get me that way.

READ some of Brittany’s work here.

Watch Brittany speak at a press conference on accountability for contractors affected by AB5, something she organized.

Watch Brittany speak at a “Take America Back” rally in Nevada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cp-0m_DRMU

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