…was desperately compelled to acquire a conviction — ANY CONVICTION WHATSOEVER — in order to avoid enormous future legal costs and medical liabilities.
SOTN Editor’s Note: This Alt Media platform has watched this particular “Gadolinium Poisoning Case” for quite some time because one of the editors is a practicing healthcare professional who has numerous clients that have been seriously injured by that extremely toxic MRI contrast agent. Furthermore, the SOTN team has never seen any state Criminal Justice System (CJS) completely cross every line of legal propriety in order to secure a false conviction.
You name it: prosecutorial misconduct and judicial misconduct, malicious prosecution and litigation abuse, denial of due process and abuse of process, purposeful ineffective assistance of counsel and taking advantage of a pro se defendant—all of the various players within the Nevada CJS acted like they were agents of Big Pharma first, second and third.
But why would the entire system risk collapse and being thusly exposed?
Because every key officer of the court was guilty of flouting the law in order to get any conviction whatsoever (a misdemeanor in this case) for a very specific reason—THAT’S WHY!
The Big Pharma-Big Medical-Big Govt Complex knew that if they lost this particular case, they would all face immense legal costs and even larger personal injury liabilities (both compensatory and punitive) for all past, present and future cases of medically-induced gadolinium poisoning … because they are all criminally culpable for these conspiratorial medical crimes (chemical assault) as well as for the subsequent criminal cover-ups. Therefore, the real perpetrators had to win this case by any means necessary and every way possible. Which is exactly what the perps did.
Incidentally, it’s cannot be a mere coincidence that this case has been running on a parallel track with the malicious prosecution of the innocent Texas Robert Robeson who has been falsely accused of killing his young daughter via Shaken Baby Syndrome…by the very same multi-institutional crime syndicate sometimes known as The Healthcare Complex.
“Since my last visit to Texas this fall, our reporting has found an alarming number of adults convicted of child abuse based on questionable shaken baby diagnoses.” — CBS News Anchor Lester Holt
State of the Nation
December 20, 2025
N.B. What follows is the searing personal testimony — of the one of the most courageous defendants ever — of this landmark gadolinium poisoning case.
WHEN MEDICAL TRUTH COLLIDES WITH THE CRIMINAL INJUSTICE SYSTEM
A Chronological Account of How a Child’s Iatrogenic Gadolinium Injury Became a Coerced Plea
By Austin Sachs
I write this as a stepfather and as a former co defendant in a Nevada criminal case that began in 2019 and concluded in early December 2025. What follows is a factual chronology of events showing how a prosecution that persisted for more than six years, and ultimately collapsed on the medical evidence, was nevertheless converted into a coercive outcome through procedural maneuvering, judicial action taken without statutory foundation, and the failure of court appointed defense counsel to raise controlling law.
This account is limited to observable actions, filings, and statements made on the record. It does not ask the reader to accept conclusions beyond those facts. The events described are drawn from court filings, hearing transcripts, and contemporaneous records and have been documented under penalty of perjury.
This document is not a motion or request for relief. It does not seek action by any court. It is a factual chronology compiled from the record and published for accuracy and preservation only.
Background
In January 2019, my minor stepson, then an eight year old child, suffered a sudden and severe neurological event. He was taken to University Medical Center Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he underwent an MRI with gadolinium based contrast. Following that MRI, his condition worsened markedly, with visible neurological distress.
Hospital discharge documentation from that same encounter stated that he was in good condition, alert, in no distress, and moving all four limbs. Hospital surveillance video from the same time period contradicts those statements, showing him in clear neurological distress and undermining the accuracy of the discharge record.
Despite the absence of evidence of intentional or negligent parental conduct, felony child abuse and neglect charges were initiated against my wife and me in the Eighth Judicial District Court of Nevada. From the outset, the prosecution adopted the position that we were dangerous parents and should not have contact with our child, even though no lawful court order imposing such a restriction existed.
Years of litigation followed. During that time, our son continued to receive medical care, and we remained his primary caregivers.
The Medical Evidence
In January 2025, Dr Richard Semelka, a world renowned expert in MRI safety and gadolinium toxicity, submitted a detailed expert report to the court. Dr Semelka concluded that my son’s injuries were consistent with gadolinium toxicity and not abuse or neglect. His report explained why the original investigation was medically flawed and why the prosecution’s theory could not be sustained.
On September 5, 2025, Dr Semelka testified in open court remotely. He confirmed that my son had been brought to him by his parents and that we had acted responsibly in seeking medical care. This testimony dismantled the factual foundation of the criminal case. From that point forward, the State’s ability to prevail on the merits was effectively eliminated.
The Procedural Ambush
Immediately following Dr Semelka’s testimony, the prosecutor requested an oral stay of proceedings, claiming an intent to seek extraordinary relief from the Nevada Supreme Court to strike or block the expert testimony. No written motion was filed, and no statutory basis for such relief was identified. The stay was nevertheless granted.
Dr Semelka’s testimony was not limited to expert opinion. He had direct, firsthand knowledge of my son’s condition based on his own clinical evaluation, making him a percipient witness whose testimony could not be retroactively nullified by motion. Court appointed counsel did not object, did not distinguish between expert and lay testimony, and did not seek clarification or limits on the duration of the stay. As a result, the trial was placed on an open ended hold without a pending filing or defined procedural endpoint.
On September 8, 2025, my wife and I appeared remotely in the same court for what we were told was a routine status check hearing. Within minutes, the prosecutor abruptly alleged that we had violated a supposed no contact order and demanded the issuance of bench warrants. No advance notice was given. No written motion had been filed. No lawful no contact order existed.
The sole document relied upon was a 2019 criminal summons containing a handwritten notation. A summons is not a no contact order. It commands appearance. It expires upon appearance. It does not impose behavioral restrictions and cannot be violated. None of the statutory requirements of NRS 178.4845 (Nevada statute for no contact orders) or NRS 178.4851 (Nevada statute for pre-trial release conditions) had been met. Despite this, bench warrants were issued.
For the next nine days, my wife and I lived under the threat of immediate arrest based on that premise. This period materially affected our daily lives, our ability to care for our child, and our freedom of movement, despite the absence of any lawful basis for restraint.
Counsel Silence and Controlling Law
Before the September 17, 2025 hearing on the motion to quash the bench warrants, my wife specifically requested in writing that her court appointed counsel raise the controlling statute, NRS 178.4845. Subsection 4 of that statute limits any no contact order to a maximum of 120 calendar days. Even if a lawful order had existed, which it did not, it could not have remained in effect beyond that statutory limit.
During the September 17 hearing, court appointed counsel did not raise the statute, did not object to the absence of a lawful written order, and did not correct the premise underlying the warrants, despite having been alerted to the statutory defect in advance. The prosecutor’s argument likewise ignored the statute.
Because counsel did not act, I typed into the court’s Zoom chat feature during the hearing, referencing the statutory time limit. The presiding judge acknowledged my statement on the record. The bench warrants were ultimately quashed.
However, no correction was made to the foundational premise. The record was left reflecting that a no contact order had existed and had merely expired, rather than that no lawful order had ever been entered.
The Role of Appointed Counsel
My wife was represented by court appointed counsel, Travis Shetler, throughout these events. He did not insist on statutory compliance before warrants issued. He did not demand production of a valid written order. He did not object when the court acted on a legal impossibility. These omissions allowed an incorrect premise to persist beyond its initial exposure.
On October 27, 2025, Mr Shetler filed an omnibus joinder expressly adopting and joining in every motion I had filed as co-defendant. In practical terms, this meant that whatever motions I filed were deemed filed on my wife’s behalf as well. That joinder carried binding procedural consequences, including the automatic application of later jurisdictional motions to her case as a matter of law.
Expansion Beyond the Courtroom
On November 12, 2025, I took my son, then a teenager, to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for a scheduled 24 hour EEG study. During the appointment, hospital staff informed me that their legal department had placed a medical hold on my son. Hospital personnel stated that this action followed communication from Nevada prosecutor Dena Rinetti, who asserted outside of any court proceeding that a no contact order existed. I was escorted out of the hospital, and Arkansas child protective services assumed custody.
At that time, no lawful Nevada court order existed that restricted parental contact or authorized interference with our son’s medical care.
November 13, 2025, The Remand Pivot
On November 13, 2025, one day after the hospital incident, the Nevada prosecutor filed a motion to remand my wife and me into custody, alleging violations of pretrial release conditions. The motion relied on the same assertion that a lawful no contact order existed and had been violated, despite the absence of statutory compliance under NRS 178.4845 and NRS 178.4851.
Court appointed counsel did not file a timely written opposition that required the court to confront the controlling statutes before acting on the motion.
Jurisdictional Breakdown
On November 18, 2025, I filed a motion and affidavit to disqualify the presiding judge under NRS 1.235. By operation of the previously filed omnibus joinder, that disqualification applied to my wife’s case as well. Under Nevada law, the filing immediately divested the judge of authority pending resolution of the challenge. In practical terms, this meant the judge was required to take no further substantive action in the case until the disqualification issue was decided.
Despite this divestiture, on November 24, 2025, judge Jessica Peterson proceeded to grant the prosecution’s motion to remand, again relying on the same defective premise. No objection was raised on jurisdictional grounds.
On November 25, 2025, my wife filed her own judicial disqualification motion. On November 26, 2025, after jurisdiction had been divested twice, judge Peterson issued void written orders remanding my wife and striking her pro se filings. A void order has no legal effect because it was issued after the judge had been stripped of authority by the disqualification filings and therefore lacked power to issue it.
Suppression of Remedy
In response to the remand order entered after judicial authority had been challenged, my wife filed pro se motions seeking disqualification of appointed counsel and review of the jurisdictional defects. Those filings were summarily struck by the court.
Court appointed counsel did not join those filings, did not supplement them, and did not object to their being struck. When the issue of counsel’s continued representation was raised, he stated only that he did not believe a basis existed to disqualify himself. No argument was made addressing the jurisdictional consequences of the pending disqualification motions or the statutory limits on the court’s authority.
As a result, the filings raising the jurisdictional defects were removed from consideration, and the case proceeded as though no challenge had been made.
The Coercive Endgame
By late November 2025, my wife faced imminent incarceration under orders entered while judicial authority was in dispute. Emergency efforts to obtain replacement counsel were unsuccessful. The procedural posture of the case left no practical avenue for immediate relief.
On December 2, 2025, the State conveyed an ultimatum through a defense attorney I located at the eleventh hour. If I accepted a gross misdemeanor conviction, all charges against my wife would be dismissed and she would not be jailed. If I refused, enforcement of the remand order would proceed.
On December 3, 2025, while that order remained outstanding, I accepted the plea. It was not an admission of guilt on the merits. It was a compelled act taken under threat of immediate harm to a third party, my wife.
Conclusion
This case illustrates how a criminal prosecution can persist after its factual foundation collapses. When medical evidence eliminated the State’s theory, the system did not correct itself. Instead, procedural fictions were enforced, judicial authority was exercised after statutory divestiture, and appointed counsel did not raise controlling law at critical moments. The record shows how quickly a defense can fail when court appointed counsel does not act to protect the client’s legal position or meaningfully challenge unlawful premises as they arise.
This account is published so that the factual sequence exists in one place and can be examined against the record. It is necessarily a condensed overview of events whose full documentary history extends far beyond the scope of a single article.