PLEASE READ EVEN IF IT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE. A LIFE IS AT STAKE HERE.
UPDATES TO THIS STORY CAN BE FOUND DOWN BELOW
Alright, let's see what sort of stuff I can warn people about here because there's a LOT.
TRIGGER WARNING: Rape, Sexual Abuse, Psychological Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Police Brutality, Traumatic Stress, Transphobia, Biphobia
Joshuah "Siskmarek" Barney, now a fully-transitioned MtF transgender woman who goes by the name of Farrah Barney (but still uses Sisk as her nickname) was in a relationship with somebody she met online back in '08 (before transitioning, mind you) This person later turned out to be a 16 year old girl, and Sisk attempted to sever communication.
Later, when the girl ran away from home, her father launched an investigation to wrongfully implement Sisk in a child luring scheme. This investigation found no evidence and was allegedly dropped. However, years later, on a routine traffic stop, Sisk was arrested and immediately extradited to Arizona to wait for trial for about a month. During this time, Sisk was forced to take a penile exam in which ones penis is hooked up to a machine to test for an erection while being read stories about sexual abuse of minors. Sisk scored a 0 on this test which showed she had absolutely no sexual arousal from the stories and was the absolute lowest possible risk for any sort of sexual offense.
Despite this, the presiding judge called her a sexual predator before she was even granted a defense, the prosecution came at her with over 300 years worth of prison sentences for false charges, and her public defender made no effort to object to anything. Sisk was completely railroaded and all of her evidence to show she attempted to cease contact and didn't know the girl's age was ignored. All the prosecution had was a set of photographs of Sisk in a nude state (which again, Sisk didn't know the girl's age and the girl is the one who initiated this contact under the lie of being over 18) and hearsay with no factual evidence to back any of it up. In order to minimize her impending sentence, Sisk plead guilty to "attempted sexual exploitation of a minor", a sentence that calls for a maximum of 15 years for offenders that have shown high risk or multiple offenses. Despite this, Sisk was placed on 2 lifetimes of probation that include offender paid therapy, monitoring, random polygraph and blood tests that come with no warning, as well as being banned from computer use and the internet and lifetime sex offender registration.
After the trial, Sisk was rendered homeless in Phoenix, AZ. She attempted to take refuge in a shelter that was listed as okay for offenders to live in by the APO, but because her specific Parole Officer did not personally inspect the residence, Sisk was forced in to a motel and placed under house arrest without access to food, and was left there to starve until her interstate compact was approved and she could go home to Utah.
Over the years, Sisk eventually broke her probation to come back online as she is a very social person and the isolation was causing her extreme distress, as well as to help a person who was suicidal. The person Sisk came on to help betrayed her, however, and reported her to her PO. Sisk was then forced offline and extradited to Arizona to stand trial. At this point, Sisk had finished her transition. She had breasts, feminine features, looked and sounded exactly like a woman. Despite this, Arizona put her in men's jails and as a result was groped repeatedly by inmates and in one instance was cornered alone in her cell and was forced to perform oral sex on another inmate under threat of death if she didn't do what he wanted.
After the trial for her technical violation she was released to Arizona and forced to find residence and attend Sex Offender therapy. While the therapy she attended in Utah went extremely well and she had only 2 months left, Mountain Valley Counseling in Arizona forced her to take a questionnaire that was filled with rigged questions meant to make the person taking it fail every single time, and used Sisk's failing as an excuse to force her to redo more than a year of therapy. Now under the care of one Mindy Effertz, who has a long history of abusing and breaking her patients, Sisk is subjected to what is essentially psychological torture. She is forced to attend group therapy in which every other person in the group must berate and ridicule the person in the middle and make eachother to feel worthless. And it's especially bad in Sisk's case as due to her being Transgender and Bisexual, Effertz sees this as sexual deviancy which must be destroyed for any progress to be made.
Recently, Sisk was pulled in to a meeting with her PO and the therapist to discuss what Sisk thought would be a healthy way to continue her treatment...instead, the PO just sat back and let Effertz scream at Sisk and mock her repeatedly and without sympathy for being raped while in jail, told she deserves it and that she's a horrible person. The PO then made Sisk sign a document swearing to agree to everything the therapist said. That was yesterday morning. Sisk is still in extreme emotional distress, borderline suicidal. And she'll have to return to this therapist to face more ridicule, be told she deserved to be raped and that being trans is wrong and that she's a horrible evil disgusting person for being lied to by a girl about her age nearly a decade ago. Sisk is being psychologically tortured by these people for a crime she is not guilty of.
She is one of the most kind an caring people I have ever known, and despite her internet ban, still manages to reach out to people who need help through other means. She wants to go in to space and learn astronomy, and in fact asked for calculus textbooks for christmas so she could learn how to better understand her space propulsion books. She wants to learn and teach, to make the world a better place, and yet because of a "conviction" by an overzealous court that just wanted to convicted regardless of what actually happened, Sisk's life is now over.
But, we have a chance to get her out. She has to finish therapy and pay off the rest of her restitution, and then go a little less than 2 more years of good behavior and we can Petition for Early Release from Probation, which according to the legal advisers we have talked with, the chances of it succeeding are very high.
The issue then becomes how much damage are they going to do to Sisk before that time is up? From an outside observer it looks like they're trying to drive her to suicide, and there isn't a lot we can do about it by ourselves. So, as a representative of Sisk's support network, I ask that you please, PLEASE reach out if and lend your support.
The fundraiser with contact info is down below, i'm not asking for you to donate, all I'm asking is for people to Read Sisk's story and spread it around. Let people who might be able to help know. Sisk is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and to have her text me first thing in the morning and say "I'm breaking", only to then see texts she sent to her boyfriend which showed she was actually being strong for me...it's heartbreaking. Sisk deserves support, she deserves freedom. Please, if you can, help. In anyway that suits you.
Thank you for your time.
Fundraiser with official information: https://fundrazr.com/Justice4Sisk
Texts showing extreme emotional distress: https://twitter.com/CarcinLoring/status/801479734592798720
Please see #Justice4Sisk on social media, mainly twitter, for even more updates as they come.
UPDATE: Sisk's boyfriend is completely distraught seeing her like this and contacted her PO to explain that Sisk was an emotional wreck and that it wasn't okay to treat her the way she was. As a result, the PO then contacted Sisk to essentially tell her "just give in, it will be easier". (https://twitter.com/CarcinLoring/status/801568059370524673)
The people in Arizona are forcing this woman to submit to torture that is driving her to the brink of suicide as you read this. This is not something that already happened or is going to happen, this is happening RIGHT NOW. Do not let this die, do not let these monsters get away with it. Please, if you have any way to help, do so.
UPDATE: Another twitter thread from Sisk's boyfriend detailing what she is going through right now. (https://twitter.com/CarcinLoring/status/801829686682808325) Essentially, she is being punished for being raped in jail. She's not allowed to take a "victim stance" as "the only victim that matters is HER victim" and so she is then punished with harsher treatment if she seeks help for the trauma she endured, and is mocked and harshly scolded for her friends, her fiance, and even her family for wanting to help her. While we all enjoy Thanksgiving with families today...keep Sisk in your thoughts as she's forbidden from visiting her family today and must suffer while Arizona continues their criminal abuse of her.
Sisk is an amazing friend to many, including me, She has been there for many of us when we were on the bring of suicide and deep in depression. She not only helped us into being better and whole people, she made many of our lives happier and gave us hope.
When many of us discovered the horror she has been suffering for so long, many of us were stricken with terror and shock. Nobody could have imagined her to be in this... nightmare.
To know what she has suffered so much... its completely... its hard to find words to describe such horror is still continuing.
Sisk is very kind and compassionate. The state labels her as this demon from hell. But the reality is that she is a trans woman who was ensnared into this and is clearly not what the state dipicts her as....
Nobody is fully "sin-free" (as the saying goes), we should be respectfull and respect each other. Not like how the Arizona State has been treating her.. The amount of abuse that they have done is heinous and completely inhumane, reguardless how the person was charged either guilty or completely innocent. This state needs to be called out on their corrupt system and be pressed to reform to more humane ways. But Arizona is not alone and neither is this case. We need a full reform on our justice system and how it functions. Too many like Sisk are suffering and their families as well.
Sisk will always be my favorite artist and friend. She has been there for many of us and I will stay by her side till she is free.
Hey. It's great that you're reaching it for support for your friend. What a terrible situation. I just wanted to make sure that you have her permission to put her birth name on the Internet.
We work with her directly to make sure she has a support network. We wouldn't be putting any of this out there if she wasn't okay with it.
So she saw the text of the post before you posted it? I ask because loads of people who have good intentions don't realize the potential harm of releasing someone's birth name and I wanted to double check.
As I said. We work with her directly. We don't release personal information or experiences unless Sisk is okay with it.
Our goal here is to share Sisk's story and everything she has suffered through with the public and get this information spread. Even now, Arizona seeks to use Sisk as leverage to get us to shut down out fundraiser and cease supporting here because they don't want what they do to people being made public. As such, we must work to make sure her story does not die and people are made aware that this is happening right now to an amazing woman who is a victim of a tragic circumstance she doesn't deserve to suffer for. In order to do this, Sisk's name and links to court documents (which can be found in the fundraiser) must be provided so people know that this is legit and not a scam. Sisk understands this and is perfectly fine with her information being provided.
Thank you for your concern, but I assure you, all the information provided here is okayed by Sisk.
Break this up into paragraphs, a lot of people avoid walls of text, even if the subject is important.
If you would like to help then please spread this around where you can. If you have a blog or social media page, then please share the fundraiser with your peers. Remember that we aren't asking for donations although they would be appreciated, all we want is signal boosting. Our hope is that eventually somebody with the power to help Sisk will see this and will be able to take action.
This is one of the most absolutely fucking disgusting things I've ever heard. I'd love to donate, but I'm a minor, and my parents are bit too helicopter-y when it comes to spending money, but I did spread this around a bunch.
Unfortunately, I'm a graduate student down in Tucson, and monetary help isn't something I can quite afford.
I have known Sisk for a while now, and she is one of the kindest and strongest people I have ever known. She has a way of making me laugh, and forget my anxiety. We've spent so many hours texting, and talking, about our families, growing up, space, bad movies, and what she has been going through. I've done what I can to help her, and to comfort her, but many times it hasn't been enough. I've seen her smile, she has a wonderful smile. There just haven't been many of those lately...
The state assigns a probation officer, and a therapist, with the assumption that they will mind both the safety of the people of Arizona and the rehabilitation needs of the people in their charge. Tearing apart patients, and then trying to put what's left back together, does neither. They are failing in every way possible, and Sisk is paying for it.
If you can help spread Sisk's story, please do. Follow the links in the main post, look over the legal documents, and if you have any questions ask @CarcinLoring, @IcarusTheSergal, or @CeresSergal on Twitter.
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