NN-1-II
John Stoen came to Guyana in the fall of 1977, with the written permission of his mother, Grace Stoen. Mrs. Stoen made Maria Katsaris and Joyce Touchette attorneys in fact for John. (The document is with Sir Lionel Luckhoo). This permission has been given prior to Mrs. Stoen’s abandoning John in July of 1976, when she ran off with her lover. She saw John one time after that, in October of 1976. The visit ended with her pushing John into the arms of Jim Jones, saying, “Take him, he’s yours.” This was in the presence of witnesses. John came to Guyana soon after that. His legal father, Tim Stoen did go to Guyana in February of 1977, but left Guyana, without notifying anyone of his plans, and with no explanation to John in June of 1977. He has never written to John. Neither has Grace.
In February of 1977, Mrs. Stoen filed a divorce action in San Francisco County, asking for custody of John. No further action was taken, apparently, because Mr. Stoen was out of the jurisdiction and could not be served. Mr. Stoen was contacted in July of 1977 by Jeffrey Haas, attorney for Mrs. Stoen. Apparently he was served with divorce papers, because in September 1977, Grace was granted temporary custody of John. It should be mentioned, that at no time, throughout this and subsequent proceedings, did any California court have jurisdiction over Jim Jones. Our position has consistently been, and remains, that he is not in contempt of any California court order, as he was never subject to the jurisdiction of any California court.
In September of 1977, Jeffrey Haas came to Guyana with a temporary custody order. He hired Clarence Hughes as Grace’s local attorney, and proceeded to get a writ of habeas corpus, directing Jim Jones to produce the body of John Victor Stoen. This habeas corpus writ was never personally served on Jim Jones. Two attempts were made to serve the writ, and both were unsuccessful because Jim was not at the project at the time Jeffrey Haas came. The second time, the Marshall posted several copies of the court order on buildings on the project, and threw one and Joyce Touchette. When Jim Jones did not appear on the scheduled date, an arrest order was issued. Our position is that the arrest order is illegal, and that Jim was never personally served – and a writ of habeas corpus must be personally served.
In December of 1977, Grace and Tim Stoen came to Guyana for the court hearing. In the meantime, Grace had been granted permanent custody of John by the California court. Sir Lionel Luckhoo had Joyce Touchette joined as a party to the action. At this point, I am afraid, I am quite hazy on just what did or did not happen at the court hearing. You would have to look at Sir Lionel’s notes to Paula Adams for clarification here. In any event, the judge took the matter under decision, and so it remained until just recently when the case was transferred back to the Chief Justice.
I would like to note, that Tim Stoen, although now claiming to be the biological father of John, never made such a claim prior to the Fall of 1977. On the contrary, both he and Grace made it quite clear, on numerous occasions to many different persons that Jim Jones is John’s natural father.
/s/ Sarah Tropp
Sarah Tropp
Legal Staff
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project