HaLeigh photos doctored?   

06/09/2009

By Timothy Charles Holmseth

Amongst photographs scrolling on the website at haleighbug.com is a photo that appears doctored to create the impression Crystal Sheffield, biological mother of Haleigh Cummings, is lovingly holding her children. In the photo it is clear that the arm seen around the child is a man’s arm.

The photographic anomaly came in as a tip to Write Into Action by Rebecca Thomas, child advocate and investigative reporter, West Palm Beach, FL.

The photograph wherein doctoring is most visibly pronounced appears to be a photo-shopped meeting of two different scenes, constructed to create the appearance that Crystal Sheffield is lovingly holding her children for a photo to be taken. “Why would anyone ever doctor a photo to make it look like she was holding her own children,” Thomas said. “Did she have to go so far as to actually remove the person who was holding the children, just to have a photo?”

Thomas said she is outraged. “It’s on a site they have been making money off,” she said.

Sheffield has been actively pursuing physical custody of her four year-old son, Ronald Cummings Jr. with the assistance of her attorney, Kim Picazio.

The photographic find comes on the heels of the controversial move of the Haleigh Bug center from its original location in Satsuma, FL to another county.

 Ruby Kanger, mother-in-law of Haleigh Cummings’ grandfather, Johnny Sheffield, said the Haleigh Bug is turning a hefty profit on the items they sell.

 Kanger said her family does not approve of what is occurring with the Haleigh Bug Center and shed some unique light on the mystery that has always hovered over the facility and those involved in keeping it. “There has not been one search coordinated out of the Haleigh Bug Center,” she said.  “They were supposed to coordinate searches out of there.”

 According to Mike Picazio, husband of Kim Picazio, attorney for Crystal Sheffield, he helped arrange for the Haleigh Bug website to be created, and personally paid the monthly bills on a few occasion in the past for the center in Satsuma. Kim Picazio said she has personally paid for Haleigh ‘awareness’ items out of her own pocket.

 According to the Florida Department of Corporations, the Haleigh Bug Foundation Inc., filed for Non-Profit status on 5/13/09 and became active on 5/08/09. The purpose of the foundation is to "aid the search for missing child Haleigh Cummings and/or the families of other missing or abducted children.”

 The non-profit status was sought by Kim Picazio and her client after Rebecca Thomas filed a complaint against the Haleigh Bug Foundation to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Thomas said she was notified an investigation was being conducted by that agency and shortly thereafter it filed for legal status.

 The address of Kim Picazio’s law office is listed on the articles of incorporation for the Haleigh Bug Foundation with the State of Florida.

 The language of the Articles appears to leave the possibility open that the money can go straight to Sheffield for whatever she wants.

 “There’s a little girl missing and they are doctoring photos so it looks like she held the missing child,” Thomas said, disgusted. 

 Thomas said she will not rest until she identifies who participated in this abomination and expressed she believes she knows it was.

 Write Into Action is conducting a journalistic investigation into several matters surrounding the Haleigh Cummings disappearance - massive distractions from the search seem to be created deliberately.

 On June 1, 2009 Timothy Charles Homseth filed a detailed complaint to the Attorney General of the State of Florida against Kim Picazio regarding crimes and unethical conduct he alleges the Florida attorney has committed, including a pre-meditated attempt to frame a black man for a crime through the solicitation of a private investigator.

 Write Into Action is in the process of contacting Rev. Al Sharpton.    

Expert analysis of HaLeigh photo shows deceptive re-touching

Photo specialist says Crystal Sheffield was not actually holding HaLeigh Cummings in photo

June 21, 2009

by Timothy Charles Holmseth 

Expert analysis conducted on a haleighbug.com slideshow photo reveals it to be a fake made to create the appearance that Crystal Sheffield, biological mother of HaLeigh Cummings, is posing with the missing child. The doctored photo was originally discovered by Rebecca Thomas, child advocate, West Palm Beach, FL.

John Morrison, photo specialist, J Ross Video, Colorado Springs, CO, who has professionally worked with Photoshop for nine years, conducted a detailed analysis of the picture and said he believes the photo was originally of an older woman holding the two small children. “The visible chest and arm do not match that of the young women in the second photograph,” he said, referring to a separate photo of Sheffield. “It appears that the head was overlaid in a new layer on top of the original photo, and then, areas surrounding the head were erased, making them transparent so that the old background would show through.”

Morrison said a “cloning tool” could have been used to add the head, or, a photo of Sheffield could have been overlaid and [then] everything but the head [was] erased.

“If you look at the area of the couch, just beside the ear, you will see another area where the area surrounding the head was not properly erased - so some of the added ‘head’ pictures’ background is visible,” Morrison said.

“[A blow-up of the right side of the head shows] the erasure was not complete and didn't completely remove background color. Also, the lighting on the adult forehead does not match the lighting on the children's foreheads. The lighting on the top of the adult head does not match the lighting on the children's forehead – [one can see] light is shining on the children's heads from above while the top of the adult head shows no similar light from above,” he said. 

Ed Butera, founder, ibi Designs Inc., Boca Raton, FL, said his company created haleighbug.com at the request of Sheffield’s attorney, Kim Picazio. “We were just a tool to put the website online - we did not do any photo re-touching,” he said, when asked about the doctored photo. 

The photos Butera used for the website arrived to him in an email dated March 24, 2009 from Donna Marie Wagoner, Director of Licensing and Registration, Xentel Inc., Fort Lauderdale, FL. The company describes itself as a one-stop source for integrated benefit event planning, marketing and production services with digital media expertise.

Wagoner said she received the photos from a man named Don Knop and had nothing to do with any re-touching of the photos.  

Knop is the brother-in-law of Picazio. He said he assisted Picazio sometimes with various tasks as she represented Sheffield. He said pictures were rounded up and given to him for the purpose of distribution, including to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF.) “Everything I touched was already hard-copy, except, at some point there was another disc, and I just copied them off that disc and put them on another disc,” he said.

Knop said he provided photos to Wagoner at the direction of Picazio. He also provided photos to Bonnie Warner, DCF at the direction of Picazio. He said Warner needed them for a special meeting that was going to be held.

Butera said he is disappointed over the entire affair.

“The three of us here in the studio gave our services up for a good cause, we thought,” Butera said, noting they thought it would be a good investment for marketing their web services, all while supporting a good cause. He said he believed his company may get some good exposure because Picazio said she was going to be on the Nancy Grace show. “Now it’s turning out to be a nightmare,” he said.

Butera said his company recently (2008) received a first place International Property Award from CNBC for website design and print media advertising and would never get involved with something nefarious, intentionally.

Butera has removed all of his company information from haleighbug.com.

“HaLeighbug” in question

Butera said shortly after putting haleighbug.com online people began to post messages that were so bad they had to terminate that feature of the site. He said many of the messages written were claims that Sheffield was taking drugs.

The drug-use claims re-surfaced in earnest later when Picazio had a permanent falling out with her one time friend and colleague, Private Investigator William ‘COBRA’ Staubs, Case Closed, Ft. Lauderdale. According to Staubs, he confronted Picazio and told her she needed to encourage her client to get help for her problem. He said Picazio became very angry because that could prevent her client from getting custody of her son.

Haleighbug.com continued to receive negative attention as some believed it had become an international storefront used to promote, market, and sell the “Missing - HaLeigh Cummings” brand for profit.  The website’s domain is registered to a man named Jeremiah Regan, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere when HaLeigh Cummings went missing – to create the center and champion the cause of finding HaLeigh.

“There has not been one search coordinated out of the HaLeigh Bug center,” said Ruby Kanger, mother-in-law of Sheffield’s father, Johnny.  “They were supposed to coordinate searches out of there.”

No known searches were ever coordinated out of the HaLeigh Bug center, Satsuma, (now located in Baker County, Florida on a farm) and there is no known record of how much money was received before non-profit status was requested, where the money really went, or how it was spent.  

Mike Picazio, husband of Kim Picazio, said when he met Regan the 26 year-old wore a shirt buttoned all the way up to the collar and told Mike Picazio he worked for “God.” He said he saw Regan later with a Mohawk and he looked like a “mercenary.”  The man who “worked for God” also filled in the blanks of his bebo.com profile with some interesting information. Under favorite books/magazines Regan said, “The bible is always good for shits and giggles when I need a good laugh.”

Kim Picazio said Regan is a “good buddy” of hers.

The “HaLeigh Bug Foundation” filed for non-profit status with the Florida Department of Corporations on May 13, 2009 after a complaint was filed by Thomas. She filed a complaint to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services because the foundation was soliciting funds to help Sheffield have spending money.

At one point Regan told the media that HaLeigh Bug may serve as Crystal Sheffield’s “career path” which was alarming to many.

The Foundation became active (retro) on May 8, 2009 and is supposed to use funds gathered to "aid the search for missing child HaLeigh Cummings and/or the families of other missing or abducted children.” The language used does not appear to rule out the money being used for Sheffield’s family.

The law office of Kim Picazio is listed as the registered agent of the Foundation on the Articles of Incorporation.

Staubs said he has launched an intense investigation into friends and associates of anyone involved in matters regarding any facet of the HaLeigh Cummings case, including the attorney for Crystal Sheffield. He said he is concerned about manufactured evidence such as the faked photo and wonders what other evidence may exist that has been tainted or created in the HaLeigh Cummings case.

Staubs would not discuss the details of his investigation but did confirm he knew of a relationship between Picazio and Wagoner. “Their children share birthday parties,” he said. “They are long time friends.”

As information for this story was being gathered by WIA its owner/publisher (Timothy Charles Holmseth) received a telephone call from the East Grand Forks Police Department in Minnesota. The detective said he had received two separate attempts to file formal complaints against this reporter. According to the detective the calls were made by Picazio and Wagoner, respectively. Both were advised by said detective they had no basis for a complaint.

Kim Picazio, by her own admission (to WIA,) also made a flurry of phone calls to law enforcement and a state’s attorney in Putnam County, Florida right around the time of the sudden arrest of Staubs for a felony. Prior to the arrest of Staubs, Kim Picazio called Staubs’ girlfriend, Paula Andrews, and left ominous messages that bad things may happen to Staubs’ career. She also left a message on Andrews’ answering machine instructing Andrews to tell Staubs that he needed to tell that “reporter” to “fuck off.”

WIA is presently gathering and assimilating information for an investigative piece into the apparent practice and pattern of Kim Picazio having an unusual amount of contact with law enforcement agencies in regards to anyone who speaks out against her practices.

Attempts to reach Sheffield have been unsuccessful. Picazio and Regan have no comment.

A second opinion

Photo of Crystal Sheffield is a fake

June 24, 2009

by Timothy Charles Holmseth

Write Into Action (WIA) has obtained several photographs from which the haleighbug.com photo that shows crystal Sheffield holding HaLeigh Cummings and Ronald Cummings Jr. was created.

In a previous article, WIA reported that John Morrison, photo specialist, J Ross Video, Colorado Springs, CO, conducted a review of the photo and stated he believed it had been photo shopped. Morrison's review was only of the final product photo that was captured in a screenshot from haleighbug.com.

Today, June 24, 2009 WIA interviewed Elvin Thomas, Florida, an 18 year veteran of Photoshop who has instructed courses in the program's application  for 15 years. He said there is no doubt the photo has been doctored extensively to create the appearance that Crystal Sheffield is holding her children.

During a telephone conference call with Timothy Charles Holmseth, owner, Write Into Action, and Rebecca Thomas, child advocate (who originally discovered photo/no relation to Elvin Thomas) Elvin Thomas began rattling off various points of forgery. "Look behind her shoulder," he said, pointing out that what appears to be a lump in the couch cushion is actually flesh - probably a man's shoulder or head.

Thomas said the moment he looked at it he began to see anomalies and signs of photo shopping everywhere. "They sampled the child's clothes for color," he said, pointing out that whoever created the forgery tried to make it look like mom and daughter wore the same color clothes.

 "If I took my time I'd probably find more," he said, noting he had only done a cursory review.

This is a preliminary report and Write Into Action will be pursuing this matter in further detail and will update when more information is assimilated.

Art Harris publishes fake photographs of HaLeigh Cummings

CNN correspondent ignores warning to cease and desist exploiting the missing five year-old

July 1, 2009

by Timothy Charles Holmseth

Art Harris, who sometimes appears on CNN, has published a photo on his website that has been deemed fake by a Photoshop expert. Also published by Harris are new photos that reveal the source used for portions of another fake photo.

Elvin Thomas, a Photoshop expert and instructor with 18 years of experience with the program said an earlier photo of Crystal Sheffield and her two children was fake.

On June 30, 2009, Harris published a new photo that shows only Sheffield and Ronald Cummings Jr. without HaLeigh Cummings in the picture.  Another new photo he also published shows just HaLeigh and Ronald Jr.

The cutline describing the new photo of Sheffield with just her son says the photo was taken by Crystal Sheffield’s mother, Marie Griffis. The caption below the photo of Sheffield with both children reads: “A photo of Crystal Sheffield with Haleigh and Ronald she says was taken moments before the one below.” The one "below" refers to the photo of Sheffield with just the little boy.

This information published by Harris cannot be true.

Rebecca Thomas, child advocate, West Palm Peach, Fl reviewed the photo with Timothy Holmseth, owner, Write Into Action, shortly after Harris published it. Thomas said if you look close at the side of the little boy’s head in the photo showing just the two children, you can see it appears doctored around the little boy’s ears and eye. Holmseth then realized that was the 'source' of the boy in the other new photo published by Harris. 

Harris had recently personally vouched for the integrity of the photo that shows Crystal Sheffield with her arm around missing child HaLeigh Cummings. The photo was posted on Harris’ website, artharris.com with a note assuring his readers and viewers that the picture is not a fake. 

On June 30, Holmseth issued a stern warning by email to various networks and people covering the HaLeigh Cummings disappearance. “There are some people who are now coming very close to flat-out exploiting HaLeigh Cummings to advance their lives and businesses financially - as so many have already done. It is appearing that some have no real Mission Statement and are playing piggy-in-the-middle games with a little girls’ life,” he said. 

He continued. 

“I am going to be paying very close attention to anyone who deliberately attempts to keep the HaLeigh Bug money-making scam under wraps. There is a myriad of subjects and areas of interest any of us can invest our time into, so if anyone feels they cannot address matters regarding HaLeigh truthfully, I politely ask you now to remove her from your agenda.”

In Holmseth's email to professional colleagues he said, "One more time, just for HaLeigh: If HaLeigh is found, dead or alive, the money STOPS pouring in to the HaLeigh Bug Foundation (designed to aid searches/never one conducted.) If the money is traced, the child just MIGHT be found because you will find the people BENEFTING from her being “gone.”

Harris ignored the request.

Harris prints his own name across photos of HaLeigh Cummings, which typically calls out ownership and copyright, indicating some kind of business relationship with the owner of the photographs. Harris has also published other photos of HaLeigh Cummings that bear his name as if he owns her.

The only known place the ‘Sheffield and two children’ photo ever appeared was on haleighbug.com, a site that solicits money for the Haleigh Bug foundation. The foundation has raked in un-told thousands of dollars that the administrators and officers will not account for.

The Haleigh Bug center/foundation collected money for approximately two months under the radar until a formal complaint was filed to the state. No member of HaLeigh Bug will open the books for the public to view.

HaLeigh Bug Center

Administrator: Jeremiah Regan

Domain Owner (haleighbug.com): Jeremiah Regan

The HaLeigh Bug Foundation

President: Marie Griffis

Vice President: Crystal Sheffield

Registering Agent: Kim Picazio  

It is not yet clear if Harris is a legal agent of Picazio for her media affairs. His actions and behaviors, however, have caused suspicion that Harris is publishing fake material to advance the wishes and desires of Picazio and to enrich himself financially.

Harris recently published a story that quoted an un-identified woman in matters involving a very large sum of money. In the story, a woman alleged to be named “Barbara” spoke with Harris and told him she paid Sheffield’s $12,000 child support arrears. The money was allegedly sent from “Barbara” in "Texas" to Kim Picazio, who then gave it to the state to satisfy Sheffield’s giant child support debt.

When Harris does not use a last name or show documentation to prove things he says, he often simply vouches for things, using his name as evidence that it legitimate and true.   

The un-identified woman was quoted and given forum by Harris to make disparaging comments about Ronald Cummings and his wife Misty, who is Picazio’s legal adversary in a custody battle Sheffield is attempting to create.

Write Into Action has been and continues to investigate Harris, Picazio, and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and State’s Attorneys office.

Write Into Action will be contacting high profile media figures who protect the rights of missing and exploited children.

Art Harris defends integrity of HaLeigh Cummings photos

Tele-journalist advances solicitation of money and gifts to Crystal Sheffield 

July 3, 2009 

By Timothy Charles Holmseth

Art Harris, who sometimes appears on CNN, is defending the integrity of the photos of missing five year-old HaLeigh Cummings that he published on his website called “The Bald Truth” (artharris.com.) The two time Emmy award winning journalist insists the photos are not Photoshopped.

Elvin Thomas, a Photoshop expert with 18 years experience, 15 of those years as an instructor, analyzed the photo and said there is no doubt it has been extremely altered to create the appearance Sheffield his holding her children.  

Harris personally vouched for the originality and authenticity of the questionable photo on June 24, 2009, after the integrity of the photo had been publicly challenged by Write Into Action. He instructed his forum moderator to post a message on his behalf.  “Art asked me to post the below photo, and let everyone know this was, indeed, scanned from an original, un-retouched photo,” the moderator stated.

Harris stamped his website’s name across the photos of HaLeigh Cummings and her family members, indicating user rights had been secured

Although Harris has not reported to have had the photo analyzed independently, he again took publishing action with the questionable photo when he included it along with a story he wrote about a recent search of the property owned by Marie Griffis, Crystal Sheffield’s mother, in Baker County, FL.

Although the story was about a search that found drug residue and paraphernalia on the property of Sheffield, the photo’s caption strayed into un-related facts about the timing between the camera shots of the photo – what kind of camera was used, and the date the photo was taken – all points that had nothing to do with the search story.

The caption below the photo depicting Sheffield with HaLeigh Cummings and Ronald Cummings Jr., previously deemed fake by Elvin Thomas, said, “A photo of Crystal Sheffield with Haleigh and Ronald she says was taken moments before the one below.”

The photo below was a picture of Sheffield with only her son, Ronald Cummings Jr. The caption read, “Crystal Sheffield with son, Ronald, Jr. on the same couch. According to embedded info, Marie Griffis, Crystal’s mother, used her Kodak Easyshare digital camera to take it at 12:40 pm Jan. 25, 2009.”

The photo of Sheffield with the little boy, although supposedly taken at the same time as the photo of Sheffield with both the children, was considerably smaller in dimensional size when published by Harris, for seemingly no reason. The picture quality was also poorer than the quality of a photo that has come straight out of a camera, which makes photo analysis difficult but not impossible to do.

Holmseth juxtaposed the photo that shows the little boy with his sister, to the photo of the little boy with Sheffield, and realized the child’s facial expression was exactly the same, and the area on the child’s face that appeared tampered with and flawed in the two-child photo, was the exact same area where the little boy’s face was touching against Sheffield in the other photo.

It is clear the image of the little boy was simply moved onto another photo with some re-touching.

Rebecca Thomas said she is outraged that someone would actually tamper with the photographic images of children. “It is a travesty to all children when anyone would take photos and fake them so adults can make a profit. How dare they cut the ear off of a little boy, or a thumb off of a missing little girl,” she said.

In his analysis conducted on the photo of Sheffield appearing to be with both children, Elvin Thomas stated un-equivocally that color samplings were deliberately done so the shirts of HaLeigh Cummings and Sheffield would match in the color of pink.

On July 2, 2009, Write Into Action received an email from Harris’ website’s forum moderator (who would not provide their real name when asked.) The moderator (whoever it was) said, “I also had one expert, two photographers, and one college professor look at the so-called chop-shopped photos.  The result?  They merely laughed at you, as do those across the boards that comment on you.”

Harris’ moderator did not provide a name for any of the experts or prestigious institutions whom they claimed had conducted analysis on the photo. This is appears to be an accepted practice of Harris.

The un-identified moderator claimed to be a child advocate who did volunteer work for Harris. When the person was questioned why they would not provide their name (which all legitimate advocates do) they said all the organizations they worked with know their name. “Those organizations I work with on a daily basis know my name...they'd have to in order to engrave all the plaques I've been awarded for my work.  I'd be willing to bet you don't have any of these, so I can see where you'd have difficulty understanding.  I'm unafraid to deal with “real” professionals,” the email author said.

 Photos and Money

The photo of Sheffield with the two children was used on the haleighbug.com website to solicit money from the American public. The question of money in large amounts being made off the name of little HaLeigh Cummings through the HaLeigh Bug Foundation has been an area of concern for many who are interested in protecting the rights of missing and exploited children.

On June 30, 2009, Harris allowed his website to be used as a forum to solicit money for Crystal Sheffield, in a way that the money and gifts would not pass through the Haleigh Bug Foundation or be subject to applicable laws. On his website he allowed Sheffield’s entire name and address to be posted along with a solicitation to send her gift cards.

Harris appears to have developed a fan-base using the name of a little missing five year-old girl, and the theme of his site appears to be support Crystal Sheffield.

This is not the first time Harris connected himself to Sheffield’s financial situation in a fashion that would advance it.

On June 21, 2009, Harris published an article about a mystery donor who paid Sheffield’s $12,000 in un-paid child support.

Harris alerted visitors to his site with the following headline: Haleigh Exclusive: Mystery Donor Revealed!

The article had absolutely nothing to do with HaLeigh Cummings, yet the first word in the headline was the missing five year-old’s name.

The actual substance of the article was emphasized with an explanation point for no known reason. It was also notable that because the “mystery donor” was not given a last name, nothing was truly revealed at all.

In the article, Harris purports to personally speak to a woman named “Barbara” from “Texas.” He did not provide her last name. He said the woman told him she satisfied Sheffield’s entire $12,000 child-support debt by routing the money, in three separate payments, to the state of Florida, via Kim Picazio, Sheffield’s attorney.

The payments were made in erratic amounts, which could be viewed as odd for someone who supposedly has enough money lying around to pay $12,000 in a stranger’s child support arrears. 

Thomas said she is very concerned that someone can dodge their child support obligation if their child "disappears."

Kim Picazio was also quoted during the “Mystery Donor Revealed” article. Although the subject was about the extremely large amount of child support Sheffield owed, a fact that does not lend itself to personal or parental responsibility, the anonymous interviewee was allowed by Harris to provide her personal opinion of the other parent of HaLeigh Cummings, whom she does not know. Statements using family law terms such as “un-safe environment” and “un-safe situation” were attributed to the un-identified mystery person.   

Harris also discussed his mystery news source on Simon Barrett’s internet talk-show on the Blogger News Network, Sunday. He said he talked to “Barbara” for about an hour on the telephone.

Harris was also sure to give shout-outs from "Barbara" to Nancy Grace and Jane Valez Mitchell of the HLN cable news network. It is not known whether or not Grace and/or Mitchell endorse or approve of Harris' use of their names, considering the photographs he continues to publish and defend. The names Nancy Grace and Jane Valez Mitchell are synonymous with vigorous child advocacy and their programs often feature guests such as Marc Klaas.

Rebecca Thomas said she fears such partnering of writers, attorneys, family members, and novices in Photoshop, who come together to profit from missing and murdered children, could become the next trend across our country. “What are they going to do next to our children? Are they going to become the next commodity in America? Now people go into business to make money off of the name of missing children? It’s blood money,” she said.

“Why would someone take the focus off a five year-old child to write stories that are not related to the child,” she continued. “It makes me wonder if they have an agenda for personal gain at a later time for books and movies and documentaries.”

“The fact that a five year-old child was taken from her bed in the night has nothing to do with prostitutes, drug dealers, and crack houses in Putnam County,” she said.

Art Harris did not respond to prepared questions.

Kim Picazio referred all questions to her attorney.