Time Machine Dossier
I. Executive Snapshot
This page summarizes, in one place, the damages and a draft demand letter structure for the chain of events that took me from:
- a young man already carrying stigma from earlier generations,
- to being specifically targeted by authority figures,
- to wrongful imprisonment and the destruction of my role as husband, son, brother, and father,
- to the moment I walked out and discovered that my “Penny” had already been turned against me.
Legally, this is about wrongful acts and measurable harm. Personally, it’s about a father who never stopped trying to get back to his kid.
II. Origin & Timeline (Condensed)
1. Generational Targeting
The story does not begin with my arrest. It begins decades earlier, when a prior generation was accused and the family name was effectively flagged. In a small system, a mark like that never really disappears.
- Family reputation damaged early; surname treated as “high risk.”
- Informal whispers + formal notes create a long memory inside institutions.
- Every later incident is viewed through that old lens.
2. The Catalyst – Authority, Not Random Neighbors
The first major escalation came not from a random citizen, but from someone in a position of power — the local Chief of Police (name omitted here). From that point forward, I was not just “Dean Snow,” I was a pre-labeled problem in law-enforcement and agency systems.
3. 2003, 2008, and the “Kidnapping” Storyline
Over the years, allegations stacked. The most devastating: both Trinity’s mother and I were, at different points, accused and incarcerated for “kidnapping” our own child. In reality, those charges were built on fear, bias, and prior stigma — not on me harming my daughter.
- Both parents removed from Trinity’s life under a false narrative.
- Child conditioned to see the parents who loved her as “dangerous.”
- System wrote a script that reality did not justify.
III. Damages – What Was Actually Taken
- Loss of Liberty: Years incarcerated for an allegation I maintain was false.
- Lost Time With Family: Irreplaceable time away from my daughter, my wife, my mother, my brother, and my father.
- Lost Income & Career Trajectory: Employment opportunities, seniority, and stability erased by the conviction.
- Reputational Destruction: Being labeled something I am not, impacting every future application, relationship, and interaction.
- Psychological Harm: Chronic stress, depression, hypervigilance, and a permanent change in how I view safety and trust.
- Relational Losses: Marriage collapse, breakdown of father–daughter relationship, disrupted extended family bonds.
- Loss of Both Parents: Mother and father both imprisoned on the same false narrative — “kidnapping” their own child.
- Emotional Development Harm: Growing up under a story that “Dad is dangerous,” then having to rebuild reality later.
- Identity Confusion: Trying to make sense of who she is when the people who made her were turned into villains.
- Bullying & Social Damage: Peer treatment and gossip linked to the false narrative and family reputation.
- Long-Term Trust Issues: Learning early that systems and adults can lie about the people she loves.
- Fairy-Tale Damages: Losing the childhood where Bolt and Penny sit on the couch together instead of one being behind glass.
IV. Categories of Legal Damages (High-Level)
- Compensatory – Economic: past and future income, lost earning capacity, legal costs, housing instability, medical/therapy expenses.
- Compensatory – Non-Economic: emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of parental and marital consortium.
- Relational / Family Damages: alienation, estrangement, destroyed family unit, lost holidays and milestones.
- Reputational: ongoing harm from being falsely labeled and treated as a danger.
- Punitive (Where Law Allows): to address malicious prosecution, abuse of process, or reckless disregard for truth.
IV. The Bolt Question – “Why Didn’t You Just Break Out?”
In the movie, Bolt breaks out of his cage and will stop at nothing to get back to Penny. It’s natural for a child to see that and think:
And then years go by. Dad doesn’t break out. He stays in the cell. So the question hangs in the air:
“Dad… why didn’t you escape and come for me?”
Answer, in plain reality:
- An escape wouldn’t have brought us together. It would have ensured we never saw each other again.
- Every agency would have hunted me; you would have been locked down even tighter, used as “proof” I was dangerous.
- I would have traded years for decades more, with zero chance to clear my name or ever win legal contact.
- You would have blamed yourself more, not less, thinking my “choice” to run was about you.
So I did the hardest thing a father can do: I stayed in the cell, took the hits, and played the long game so there would still be a legal path back to you.
V. Legal Damages Brief (Structural Outline)
This section is written in a way an attorney or advocacy group can understand quickly. It is not legal advice; it is a structured summary of what happened and what was lost.
1. Theory of the Case
- Early stigma attached to the family name influenced later discretionary decisions by officials.
- Key actors relied on prior narratives rather than current facts when making removal, charging, and sentencing decisions.
- Both parents were, at different times, incarcerated for allegedly “kidnapping” their own child, despite evidence of parental care rather than harm.
- The cumulative effect was to wrongfully remove a father from his daughter’s life and to destroy his reputation, liberty, and family.
2. Potential Legal Issues (To Be Refined by Counsel)
- Wrongful imprisonment / wrongful conviction (where statutes and procedural posture allow).
- Malicious prosecution and/or abuse of process.
- Negligent or reckless investigation by law enforcement / child welfare agencies.
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress on both parent and child.
- Violation of due process and parental rights (constitutional dimensions, jurisdiction-dependent).
- Defamation / ongoing reputational harm via records and narratives that are demonstrably false.
3. Evidence Tracks
- Criminal case files, transcripts, and appeal records.
- CPS / child welfare notes, safety plans, removal justifications, and supervisor approvals.
- Dispatch logs, officer reports, internal emails or memos referencing “known family” or similar language.
- Prison records documenting behavior, program completion, and risk assessments contradicting the “dangerous” label.
- Letters, art, and communication attempts from prison showing consistent, non-threatening desire to parent.
- Witness statements (friends, family, teachers, clergy) who can testify to the actual relationship and my character.
VI. Demand Letter – Draft Template
Below is a template structure for a formal demand letter. An attorney should adapt language, add statutes, and set specific dollar amounts.
VII. Time Machine Logic – Why Damages Matter
I used to dream of a literal time machine: go back, fix the moments, hold my daughter, stop the lies before they landed.
The reality is harsher: there is no way to rewind 12+ years of lost time, no way to un-ring the bell of “Dad is dangerous,” no way to re-run the holidays and the ordinary Tuesdays we never got.
What the law has, instead of time travel, is damages. Money doesn’t fix it. But it does three things:
- It acknowledges: “We were wrong, and harm was done.”
- It funds the work of rebuilding what’s left of a life.
- It warns the system not to do this to the next family.