When Angela Freiner lost custody of her teen-aged daughter, Dalilah Judy, last year, she sent an email to the presiding judge warning of consequences.
“I demand my custody be put back in place and my daughter be released to me today,” Freiner wrote on March 5. “You're taking her childhood away from her and doing irreversible damage…If she is not returned to me today, there will be consequences for your conduct. You have stepped over the line for any kind of immunity as a judge.”
Dalilah was released to her uncle David Judy’s custody and taken away to Arizona, according to Freiner who hasn’t seen her daughter in more than a year.
“They could have easily went down to Arkansas where Dalilah’s grandfather, Steven Judy, lives,” she said. “He's a level three sex offender. If you look at the registry, you’ll see the description of how he was really abusive to the girl he raped.”
According to the Boone County Sheriff's Website in Arkansas, Steven Scott Judy was convicted of forcible rape, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual battery, and restraint of a 26 to 28-year-old female.
"They took my daughter and the charge against me is an act of retaliation on the part of the judge," Freiner alleges. "My daughter did not deserve what this judge did to her that day. This was a fixed case of child trafficking."
The guardian ad litem involved with the case at the time, attorney Venus Jackson, did not respond to requests for comment.
Within three days of sending the email to Judge Nicole Zellweger warning her of consequences, Freiner was arrested and jailed for tampering with a judicial officer.
“I was referring to legal actions, not violence,” Freiner said. “I thought I should be able to fix this somehow legally. I had been studying about how judges can lose immunity because they don't always have immunity.”
The St. Louis resident was released on her own recognizance by Judge James Sullivan after sitting in jail for two weeks. St. Louis County assistant prosecuting attorney Douglas Sidel, however, filed a motion for reconsideration on March 24, 2021. Neither Joshus Lubatkin in the office of the Circuit Attorney in the City of St. Louis nor Sidel responded to requests for comment.
“They were trying to put me back in jail to say that I was a danger to the community,” Freiner said.
John O'Sullivan, communications director with the 21st Judicial Circuit of the St. Louis County Courts declined to comment.
"Pursuant to Rule 2-2.10 of the Missouri Code of Judicial Conduct, a judge cannot make a public statement concerning a pending case," O'Sullivan told the St. Louis Record.
Although Judge James Sullivan did not detain Freiner a second time, a grand jury subsequently issued an indictment charging her with a Class D felony.
“The defendant with the purpose to harass, intimidate or influence a judicial officer, Nicole Zellweger, in the performance of such officer's official duties used a threat against or towards such judicial officer Nicole Zellweger in that defendant sent a threatening email to Nicole Zellweger in which she threatened the judge by stating there would be consequences for the judge's conduct if the judge did not change her ruling,” April 2021 charging documents state.
A trial scheduled for this week however was postponed due to the unavailability of witnesses.
Christopher King, public information officer for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, declined to comment.
"We have severe limits on pre-trial publicity for good reasons that protect us all, so generally can't say much outside of court or our filings until a case is disposed," King told the St. Louis Record in an email.