Man missing from treatment center

Livermore resident was discharged from facility, dropped off in Oakland

By Roman Gokhman, STAFF WRITER

Article Last Updated: 10/25/2007 08:24:34 AM PDT

Attention All - The Parents of Lindsay Gentry and numerous residents within  the communities of The Antelope Valley in Southern California are requesting your, the people's, assistance.  Please read the above referenced story of this young lady that died "While In The Hands of Kaiser." 

Please see the following page - A letter to the public from Mike and Kathleen Gentry

Two years after her death, the local school district (link to news story) where Lindsey did attend special education classes, pressed charges against the parents.  They claimed that the parents were guilty of murder and child abuse.  Michael and Kathleen Gentry were accused of allowing their physically and mentally disabled daughter to waste away because they did not take proper steps to keep her nourished. 

"One of those teachers, Diane Hogaboam, drew a disturbing picture of Lindsay Gentry for the jury. She described the girl who showed up in her special education classroom every morning as a hungry, dirty and neglected young girl who was fed by teachers and staff who believed her parents did not feed her enough at home." 

She testified that Lindsay Gentry's attendance at Challenger Middle School diminished near the end of the 1993-1994 school year and that her parents eventually requested that she be homeschooled.  The news article paints a disturbing picture, doesn't it?  The fact is that Dr. Nancy McKenzie wrote a letter to the school ordering Lindsay to be home schooled until she was strong enough to be returned.  Lindsay had pneumonia.

The truth is that Muscular Dystrophy means wasting of muscles and that is exactly what happened to Lindsay.  90%+ of the children in Lindsay's birth  condition with this disease do not live beyond 15 years of age EVER! 

Now the following is a brief description that has been relayed by the rest of the community.  This comes from numerous sources that knew Lindsay, worked with her and helped care for her.  Some of these sources are from the family church, some are from within the school district and some are neighbors in the community.  I also personally know this family and am relaying in agreement with the community at large. 

The Gentry's were good parent's to Lindsay.  What Kaiser did not provide for their daughter in the way of medical treatment and care, the parents did.  This disease is never curable and it was expected by medical professionals that eventually Lindsay would die.  That is fact.  However, it would have been nice, we all think, if Kaiser had at least helped a little bit with this child's medical care.  A specialist in her disease would have been a nice touch.  Assistance in helping her feed, such as a feeding tube also would have been a nice touch before it was too late.  But with Kaiser's group ethic program of survival of the fittest by denial of care the family worked with what they had available.  Her Kaiser pediatrician was the former Dr. Jay Tibbles, a convicted child molester. 

The school, or is it really a warehouse for children that need extra attention, was pretty upset when Lindsay became a home school student and they lost all that federal funding.  The parents and several other parents in this community were threatened with retaliatory action unless they brought their children back to school.  Again it all boils down to lost federal funds if they don't do so.  Statements from members of this community that do not know each other have consistently told me that the school administration has advised them that if they don't want to end up like the Gentry's did they better leave them in the school.  Frankly, I personally think that the school could do a lot better considering the amount of federal money they receive per child.  I know that I could do a lot better without any funding from the federal government. 

Mike and Kathleen, who also has muscular dystrophy, did go to prison and they are home now. The expert that the DA used in this case was none other than the famous Dr. Astrid Heger who won The Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching Award for the Basic Science Years. of McMartin trial fame. Oh gosh - it seems like she has a lot of connections with Kaiser Permanente. Hummm - Is there a conflict of interest here?  This is the woman that among others coached children to say what the DA wanted to hear in the McMartin Pre School case. The McMartin's were exonerated from these false accusations and it was shown that Astrid Hager's interrogation methods of children were unethical and dishonest.

Government officials that must remain unidentified for now have stated that they never believed this couple was guilty.  Other government officials that have met with them since their release have said that they don't believe that they harmed their child in any way.  Members of the community that helped with Lindsay's care at her home repeat the same sentiments. 

This sounds a lot to me like this family was picked out of many to present as an example of what will happen if the other families jump ship and provide proper educational care for their children. 

Interesting enough, in the morning, I will probably  have linked to this page a similar story from another family that had a similar experience with a school system that felt threatened by the loss of federal funding when the child was home schooled. 

The Gentry's had two jury trials.  Not guilty 11 to 1 for murder in the first trial.  Second Trial - Found guilty on all charges.  Four (4) local school employees drastically reversed prior testimony to agree with other school employees testimony.  The Judge did nothing to question this reversal of testimony.  Was this a case of perjury?  Also several DA witnesses - all government/school employees were never called in the second trial as they were proven to be untruthful in the first trial.  So here is the reason for this family being on the Kaiser Papers Patient's Requesting Help page.  No one believes they were ever guilty of anything other than loving their daughter.  That isn't a crime.  Let's all please contact Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and ask for a pardon and full exoneration for these people.  All they are asking  is for the right to get on with life and be able to start fresh somewhere else where there are not so many horrible memories.  I think that they deserve this chance. 
Here is how to contact Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: 

Mr. Edward Reyes has Post Polio Syndrome. He now needs long term medical care, special equipment and various therapies which his medical insurance is not willing to provide though he carries full coverage.  To provide for his future medical care his dream home, where he and his wife had planned on retiring to is now for sale. Edward is originally from Los Angeles, California, a veteran and had contracted polio during the epidemic in Los Angeles in the late 1940's.  He survived the iron lung and he will survive this set back as well.  He does wish to sell his home and I hope that someone out there will see the following listing and contact him.

Beachfront home in beautiful Dimiao, Bohol, Philippines.
Approximately 45 minutes from the airport via bus [one hour from
Manila by plane], one hour and 15 minutes from white sandy beach Cebu. 

* 6 bedrooms
* 5 bathrooms
* bonus room upstairs 
* 2 tiled kitchens
* patio
* barbecue
* fenced yard
* 20+ pygmy coconut palms planted around yard. 
* cable t.v.
* 8 ft concrete retaining wall at rear of property [seaside]
Asking $60,000 [U.S] or Best Offer [furnishings negotiable]. 

Contact: edwardcreyes@military.com 

or

Ed at 760 530-0036