CELEBRATING LAURA SILSBY

This is cross-posted from my End Child Exportation and Trafficking in Haiti blog, a complete collection of my work on Haiti.

Laura Silsby neared the three month mark this weekend, and the Central Valley Baptist Church wants to make sure you know it.

Saturday afternoon they threw a We-heart-Laura rally at the Idaho Statehouse. About 100 attended, including her local gang of electric Kool-Aid (minus the acid, we think) testers. A Northwest Cable News-KBTV video of the event is posted at the bottom of this entry. Be sure to watch Nichole Lankford prostrate herself in prayer. Fellow pranksters Paul Thompson and Charisa Coulter are seen or interviewed and more TeamSilsbys were spotted. Coulter, ever loyal to her boss, declared:

She is always on mind. It’s a roller coaster. You have highs and lows but our hope is not in government and officials. It is in God.

But so far, God seems perfectly happy to keep Silsby in her own private Haiti Hilton.

“We want people to know that there still is support for her, organizer.'”Randy Jackson said. “If you pay attention to the media, sometimes it seems like there’s a lack of support for her. There’s still la lot of people who support her and want this whole ordeal to be done and for her to be home with her family. (NOTE TO RANDY: Supporters are not posting many supportive comments in the Statesman.)

Charisa Coulter’s best friend and avid Silsby fan Sue Pearce gave us the QOTD:

Laura is a mother. She has three children. She needs to come home and I can’t wait to go meet her at the airport when she does.”

We have no memory of Silsby evincing concern for her children since her arrest. If she had, she might have come across a tad more sympathetic. Silsby, in fact, didn’t show much concern for her children before her arrest either as reflected in her financial and business shenanigans and her dream trip to Haiti.

Speaking of Silsby’s children…another Silsby lawyer has thrown in the towel.

The Idaho Statesman reports that Robert Williams, who’s been representing her in “child custody issues” filed a motion to withdraw. He joins Gerald Husch, Silsby’s Personal Shopper attorney who bolted in March. Williams says he has been unable to communicate with his client. He probably wouldn’t have gotten paid anyway.

Silsby’s ex-husband Terry Silsby (right) has sued for custody of their two children, living with him since the ex’s trip south. She has an adult son who is married.

There are few details, but the Statesman reports that Judge David E. Day ruled on several custody-related issue brought by Terry Silsby. Mr. Silsby asked that the court hold the children’s passports out of concern that Laura would take the children out of the country if and when she ever makes it back to Idaho. Day ruled that Mr. Silsby’s lawyer Matthew Bohm should hold the passports for now. He also granted Terry authority to register the children for school in his own school district.