Readers expecting a straightforward nonfiction account better hold on to their seats because Nordloh pens a tale that reads like fiction, a novel straight from John Grisham’s oeuvre. Can it really be true that in Colorado, a judge can steal a child from his legal parent or guardian and whisk him away to the Sungate Facility in Denver, where he can be interrogated without a parent present? The answer is, “Yes.” By meticulously detailing a case study in Colorado, Nordloh shows how Generic Acquisition Protocol (GAP) gives the state an excuse to take custody of a child to support an investigation. Analogies from TV shows like The Wire and The Shield help clarify how skirting the law opens a “Pandora’s Box of illegal activity by law enforcement.” Does the end justify the means? Nordloh thinks not because no judge has the right to employ moral realism, defined as “claiming the ability to divine motive based on a person’s actions without interacting with the person involved.”

Nordloh’s stated purposes are to expose failure in leadership in the 18th district of the State of Colorado (and in the entire state), illuminate judicial corruption, and provide parents who fall victim to GAP a defensible position. He parses statutes, original hearings, petitions, and phone transcripts. Questions rattle the pages, like arguments before a jury. Repetition drives home key points. Legal catch-22s are prised open like the skin of a pea pod. You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand this (Nordloh isn’t), but legal students will probably love it. Nordloh successfully exposes and explains a confusing Colorado protocol that skirts a child’s constitutional rights by allowing law enforcement agencies unmonitored access to a parent’s child against the parent’s consent. His bone-chilling tale of a potentially criminal conspiracy within the Colorado judicial system is frightening.

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