The Real Story of Jeanette Runyon and "Human Trafficking"
(why an obsessed ex-felon turned a $10 misdemeanor into such a wild tale)

by J. Remling

Put the name “Jeanette Runyon” into a search engine and you’re likely to come up with several hits to questionable sites containing allegations so ridiculously nasty that they border on the absurd – everything from Satanist, pornographer, racist, child molester and human trafficker, with various "criminal convictions” scattered between. Drill down a little further, however, and you’re certain to find… absolutely nothing!

In fact, a careful investigation of each the most serious criminal and personal accusations made about this ordinary North Carolina woman yields three general conclusions:

1) Regardless of where it appears online, each allegation is without adequate references

2) Each allegation turns out to be false.

3) Each originates from a single source – an ex-felon named James Michael Sutter.

It's true! The real story of Jeanette Runyon isn’t so much about her as it is the lengths to which one determined Cleveland, Ohio man goes to pursue personal grudges. Not surprisingly, she isn't his only character assassination victim. The "Reverend James Sutter”, as he calls himself, habitually defames others to the extent that he was once forced to plead guilty to filing false criminal charges against one of his victims.

Runyon’s story provides a case study in how the Internet lends itself to misuse by nefarious individuals such as Sutter, who are unburdened by integrity. In Sutter’s case, he invents tales so wild about his perceived enemies that even a casual reader might find them less than credible. The fact that he pushes these lies under the guise of a crusade against “hate” and “bigotry” on his "Chasing Evil" website makes it all the more appalling.

In 2007, Sutter began spreading rumors on the Internet that Jeanette Runyon had been arrested for human trafficking in the Ukraine. Human trafficking is, of course, a serious crime. It involves transporting people against their will across international borders for the purpose of exploitation, usually of a sexual nature or another form of slave labor. It is not an issue to be taken lightly, which makes Sutter’s defamation all the more reprehensible.

Originally, he accused his victim of trying to “buy a black market baby”, implying that it was for the purpose of ritual satanic sacrifice. Later, Sutter’s tales became more sophisticated, as he pretended to relay purported criminal proceedings (courtesy of unnamed federal government “insiders”) for the benefit of readers of his Chasing Evil blog.

In fact, a search through the legitimate record turns up no material evidence whatsoever for Sutter’s allegation. Although there was a legal issue – and one criminal plea (to a Class B misdemeanor) according to the U.S. Consulate, there was never any charge of human trafficking and obviously no such conviction.

The truth is that Jeanette Runyon traveled to the Ukraine in 2007 to arrange a surrogate birth and bring home a daughter named Victoria. This was a legal arrangement that was agreed to well in advance of the pregnancy and involved donor sperm and eggs. Surrogate births for couples seeking children are somewhat common in the Ukraine, where the legal system is adapting to the process much faster than in the West.

Far from the Sutter’s “human trafficking” fiction, Runyon’s actual difficulties concerned the claim that she had made on re-entry forms at the US embassy, in which she said that she was Victoria’s mother, thus declaring the baby to be a U.S. citizen. Technically, this was false, since the baby was not a U.S. citizen according to U.S. laws.

However, there is a simple reason why the mistake was made. The baby is a U.S. citizen according to Ukrainian law!

Under Ukrainian law, a child conceived under surrogacy is not necessarily a Ukrainian citizen, but belongs to the country of her surrogate parent. An identical case (involving a British couple) underscores this point:

Moreover, the children had no rights of residence in or citizenship of the Ukraine and there was no obligation owed them by the state other than to accommodate them as an act of basic humanity in a state orphanage. The applicants became the parents for all purposes under Ukrainian law and were registered as such on the birth certificate. The children accordingly took their parents' nationality and were not therefore Ukrainian citizens. (Family Law Week)

Also under Ukrainian law, Jeanette is the child’s mother, as she claimed on the passport form. In fact, this is what the birth certificate plainly says. Although this information was originally misinterpreted by embassy officials to mean that she was claiming to be the child’s biological mother, the facts do not support this.

For one thing, Jeanette plainly stated that she arrived in the country two days after the child was born. For another, it simply makes no sense that a post-menopausal 56-year-old would claim to have been pregnant or donated eggs. As Runyon herself puts it: “If I was going to lie, then I would have said that [my husband] Larry was the father.”

Although the original misunderstanding found its way into the first draft of the indictment (the term "admitted" in a legal document often means that the defendant simply agreed to a previous statement or volunteered information, not necessarily that they were admitting to a lie), the government had no evidence to support the claim that Jeanette had lied about the child being hers and this claim was quickly dropped (see the superseded indictment). In fact, the special agent who originally testified to this apparently lost his job over the mishandling.

Runyon was briefly detained for providing incorrect information to the embassy concerning the child’s citizenship status. Although Sutter assured his audience in April of 2008 that his personal adversary returned home to the States "in shackles and handcuffs" and in the custody of a U.S. marshal to serve a 10-year sentence in federal prison, the truth is that she flew home alone after purchasing her own ticket and later pled guilty only to a Class B misdemeanor – “Concealment of Facts about Reentry.” She was fined all of ten dollars.

Jeanette's second mistake during her time in the Ukraine was to tell others about her situation. The baby had a congenital heart defect, and the would-be mother was attempting to solicit prayer and support in an effort to keep the infant from being lost in the system. Not only was she ultimately unsuccessful in keeping track of her new daughter, but the plea for support alerted James Sutter to her plight.

Even if his actions were shameful, it is understandable why Sutter harbored such an intense desire to hurt Runyon. The two were already into a long-running feud which began earlier in the year as an Internet message board squabble over a political issue. This inspired Jeanette to research just who this “reverend” really was.

At the time, James Sutter was claiming not only to be a church minister, but also a highly decorated, disabled combat veteran with three PhDs. He had told many other tales about how he was dying from cancer and other serious disease. In fact, he even got members of a People with Disabilities group to write letters to a judge on his behalf in 1995 – ostensibly for a civil lawsuit against his home community on behalf of ADA compliance.

Runyon quickly discovered that none of Sutter’s claims were true. Far from the illustrious 26-year military career described on his website, the Ohio man’s actual time in the Navy was a humiliating eight-month failure. He was not an officer, not a Navy Seal, never decorated, and was never in combat. Neither was he even a college graduate. Stories of his physical disabilities were also faked and forged. And, although he was involved in a civil suit in the early 90’s, the judge to whom he solicited letters of sympathy a few years later was actually presiding over his trial for felony credit card fraud (for which he was convicted)!

In fact, despite calling himself a “reverend,” “pastor emeritus,” and, at one point, even a catholic priest, James Micahal Sutter is not a real pastor. He has neither a seminary degree nor a church. In his entire life, he has never held any position of authority at any church.

Making these discoveries public, as Jeanette did, was disastrous for the ex-con, who was apparently just on the cusp of acceptance by legitimate organizations (such as the Council on American Islamic Relations). As another victim of his defamation, “GR”, once put it, “At 400 pounds and no hope of true accomplishment in his life, the false persona of bogus military and academic achievement that Sutter spent years creating was extremely important to him. Once it was stripped away, his only remaining power became the ability to hurt others by wrongfully damaging their reputations.”

Naturally, Sutter attempted to exact revenge against Jeanette Runyon. He began by doing his own “research” in an effort to embarrass her. Not finding anything of authenticity, Sutter began making up exaggerated stories - claiming, for example, that she had been involved in Satanism and the ritual sacrifice of children (she is actually a dedicated Anglican). He posted the slander on his “Chasing Evil” blog (known then as “Hate Watch Hall of Shame”).

Sutter also falsely stated that Runyon had been “institutionalized” at a California mental hospital. In fact, she merely worked there as a relief medication nurse. Later, he stumbled across raunchy letters from a “Jennifer M.” in one of his pornography forums and pretended that they were from Runyon (obviously, they weren’t). Abusing the definition of "racist", Sutter began declaring this about his (Hispanic) adversary as well.

Up until the Ukrainian surrogacy incident, Sutter’s most relished discovery was that Jeanette had lost her only child in a tragic automobile accident in 2001. He took advantage of her grief to taunt her, both publicly and privately. The man masquerading as a “reverend” even accused her of molesting her daughter and being responsible for her death (which she was not, of course).

In October of 2007, for example, Sutter posted a public comment on her blog in which he stated, “I've held back quite a bit in the report on you, such as what you did to your daughter, the rituals you and Poke engaged in, and what you're doing with newborns in NC. He really hates you now, he blames you for her death.”

Jeanette Runyon’s legal predicament in 2007 thus became a perfect opportunity for exploitation by James Michael Sutter. Although very much aware of the fact that she had gone to the Ukraine to bring home a daughter to try and fill the void of her loss, he immediately began using the phrase "human trafficking" and reposting slanderous misinformation about Runyon on his blog, including a fictitious criminal and psychiatric “history.”

As mentioned, Sutter also feigned details of the legal process for his Internet audience, pretending to have sources inside the State and Justice departments. On May 6th, 2008, he posted an entirely imaginary list of nineteen criminal counts against Runyon on his website, ChasingEvil.org (and also to a Yahoo forum). Sutter perniciously added forgery, money laundering and kidnapping to the fictitious human trafficking charge. He even wrote his own name into the phony indictment, claiming (with no small bit of irony) that she was being charged with “cyberstalking” him.

In 2008, when Runyon was still in the Ukraine, Sutter confidently declared to his gullible readership that she was actually in Butner federal prison in North Carolina awaiting trial. Apparently he didn’t do his Google research all that thoroughly, since Butner is a male-only facility!

Amazingly, there is some reason to believe that Sutter’s efforts may have influenced the situation in the Ukraine, at least judging by the reaction of Matt McGuire, the 27-year-old agent in charge. The sequence of events and harshness of the official investigation by this young man were hardly justified by the eventual conclusion that Runyon was guilty of a simple misdemeanor. Even her home in North Carolina was searched and, according to her husband, questions were asked about James Sutter.

At the time, Sutter was tenaciously misrepresenting events in the Ukraine to make it appear as if Jeanette had tried to "buy a black-market baby." Since there was no truth or substance to what he was presenting as fact, if this did have an effect, then it speaks quite poorly of the State and Justice Departments. As mentioned, it appears that the botching of this incident may have cost Matt Maguire his job - although the Runyon case was not the only one in which allegations of misconduct were raised against him.

Sutter never identified his State and Justice Department “sources,” of course. Nor did he post copies of any documents, hyperlinks or snapshots to support his allegations of a human trafficking conviction. Given that his only known roles with the federal government have been as a tax evader, criminal defendant in two felony trials, and a prison inmate at FMC Lexington, it is highly unlikely that anyone working there would have anything to do with him. That his “version” of events is disproved by the public record should dispel any lingering doubt.

Jeanette lives quietly in her same community, where she is very active in her local church. Sadly, her daughter wound up lost in the system, apparently a victim of genuine human trafficking. Sutter, who was aware of the baby’s heart defect, seems to have anticipated the negative fallout and created a phony story about an adoption by the town’s mayor. This is not true. The baby's fate is unknown, although it is doubtful that this girl, who would have had a wonderful life in the United States, is still alive.

So, in the end, the true story about Jeanette Runyon is really the story of James Michael Sutter, the man who mocked and taunted her over her dead daughter, and who did his best to deny her an opportunity for another. Men do not normally treat women this way, but for those who know the details of Sutter’s wasted life, it is doubtful that he was ever much of a man to begin with.

Victoria

J. Remling is an Atlanta-based author. Many of the snapshots
referenced in this article were provided by the Internet blogger, “GR”.