Father Stripped of Family – Polk County Injustice?

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

Matthew and Michu McDaniel

Polk County, OR – In December of 2017 59-year-old Matthew McDaniel was charged with 4th degree Assault, Menacing, Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Criminal Mistreatment and 2 separate charges of Sexual Assault. His wife Michu was charged with three counts of 2nd Degree Assault (a felony) three counts of 1st Degree Criminal Mistreatment (a felony), one misdemeanor count of assault in the 4th Degree and one count of Tampering with a Witness (a felony).

Since filing these ridiculous, in fact, insane, stacked charges, Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton has not produced one shred of forensic evidence to back up the states charges. There is no corroborating evidence or testimony. In fact, there is only the word of a troubled daughter, who, according to witnesses, is a pathological liar and thief. A search warrant was issued for alleged illegal photos on phones and electronic devices which the daughter accused. None were found.

The backstory on these charges is just as overwhelming as the corrupt and false charges themselves.

This story begins back in 1989 when Matthew’s life took him to Thailand where he found himself fighting corrupted government – government that was abusing the Thai people beyond belief.

During his involvement standing against the Thai abuse, Matthew fell in love with a lady named Michu and they married not long after. Matthew returned to the US in 2006 and brought Michu with him. They ended up starting an “organic” farm in Polk County, Oregon. By this time the couple had four children.

One of the children, their eldest daughter (name withheld) began causing trouble within the family. According to family members and friends, this daughter stole items from family members repeatedly and in mid-2015 she was caught stealing $500.00 from vendors at the local market in Independence.

Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton

By December 2016, they had three more children. The youngest was a six-month-old baby girl. About that time everyone got the flu. Matthew was the last to get it and came home early. He asked his son to move over on the sofa so that he could sit down. His son did and asked his older sister to move over. The sister had the sleeping baby girl tight to her chest in a baby wrap. To get the baby out you must have someone untie the wrap in back. This is when all hell broke loose. The daughter allegedly got angry and jumped up, walked across the room to the crib and grabbing the sleeping baby by the feet, jerked her down and out of the cloth wrap into the crib, the baby girl screaming in shock. Then the daughter ran out the door. Michu tended to the shocked baby and Matthew ran out the door trying to stop his daughter and ask her what she was thinking. Because of the flu he couldn’t stop her, and she ran off down the street to a neighbor’s house.

She returned the next day, hung around all day and then suddenly in the evening began crying and saying that her back hurt really bad and she ran off to the neighbor’s again.

The sheriff shows up and asks him what happened. Matthew told him about the assault on the baby, but he was not interested, and Matthew was arrested for 4th Degree Assault. The deputy said he was being arrested for throwing his daughter up against the car. The daughter lied to the police and they bought her lies. She even taunted her brother’s later saying she could get them in trouble and the police would believe her because she was a girl. She was right.

The false assault charge was dropped in March of 2017, after the daughter recanted to Katie Jones at the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) office. However, Katie Jones allegedly concealed to the court documents that showed the daughter had recanted to her in a private interview at the DHS office before returning home. She allowed the District Attorney to make the accusation that Michu had forced the daughter to recant, thus Michu’s “tampering with a witness” charge.

Before Matthew was allowed to return home by the court, his daughter reportedly dropped the baby girl on the tile floor, face down, bruising her face as if her nose had been broken.

A few weeks after Matthew returned home his daughter allegedly dropped the baby on the bathroom floor, knocking her unconscious and bruising her face. Matthew was a block away and came home and rushed the baby to Dallas Hospital for x-rays.

The daughter’s trouble continued until Matthew McDaniel decided it was in the family’s best interests and to protect the baby from further life-threatening injuries, to remove the older daughter from the household and have her live elsewhere. He tried Catholic Family Services and was reportedly rejected because the local Catholic Service didn’t deal with problem children.

An opportunity came up for her to work for local farmers Dan and Caprice Rosato. She worked there all summer. At the end of the summer Matthew was able to have his daughter stay with a man named John Krenkel, a friend of Dan Rosato’s, where she could work and attend a school that was separate from his other children. The other children refused to attend the same school with her. To accomplish this, Matthew signed a document naming Krenkel as his daughter’s temporary Guardian. According to sources, “this seemed to clear everything up within the family.”

Matthew was still meeting with his daughter occasionally and watching over her, but he soon noticed that Krenkel was making odd excuses and becoming increasingly possessive, keeping her away from him. He was thinking of making different arrangements because of the alleged alienation that was occurring.

Krenkel contacted him after he had not seen or heard anything from his daughter for three weeks and told him that he had bought tickets for his daughter to go to Europe and asked that Matthew sign a new notarized guardianship document and a passport application. Matthew refused. Not long after his refusal, his daughter sent him a threatening letter, telling him that if he continued to refuse, that he would pay for it.

Subsequent to Matthew’s attempt to protect his daughter, he and his wife were charged with multiple false charges and their six other children were all removed from their home without any evidence of harm to the children. DHS has “circled the wagons” with District Attorney Felton, and Matthew McDaniel has been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending himself.

Judge Norman R. Hill ordered Matthew not to have any contact with his wife Michu, so she had to move elsewhere. She was isolated from his support, lost her transportation, was living in someone else’s home who did not speak her language, she did not speak English well and had lost all her children. Their case worker at DHS is Aubrey Haverkost. Michu only sees her babies for one hour per week. After more than four months of being isolated away from her children and husband Michu suffered a complete breakdown.

During a recent hearing, Dr. Stacey Hedlund of Liberty House refused to comply with a legally issued subpoena and Polk County Circuit Court Judge Norman R. Hill failed to do anything about it. Defense Attorney James Leuenberger had subpoenaed Dr. Hedlund to the hearing to prove the daughter didn’t have any scars from abuse as the state has alleged. The defense had all their witnesses subpoenaed, at great cost, and Judge Hill simply ignored this fact – Hill canceled the hearing…

Failing to properly vet a proven liar and destroying a wonderful family in the process is going to cost everyone involved in this case dearly at the end of the day!

Editor’s Note: The US~Observer is digging deep into this case – some of the evidence we have already uncovered is absolutely devastating. Look to our next edition for an update or visit www.usobserver.com.

Anyone with information of wrongdoing of any nature whatsoever, on Judge Norman Hill, Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton, Deputy Marty Watson, Detective John Williams or anyone else involved in this case is urged to contact Edward Snook at 541-474-7885 or by email to editor@usobserver.com.

All involved in this case would be wise to closely examine their actions and change them immediately. If those in authority in Polk County don’t start seeking justice in this case, as opposed to conducting an out and out Witch Hunt, they will be exposed for their actions.