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Most scams, such as sub-prime mortgages and email scams, victimize adults. But custody scams victimize children. When government fails to protect children it throws open the doors to private contractors—lawyers and clinicians—who enrich themselves at the expense of children. (More about this child and the mother who tried to protect her appears below.)


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

In Honor of Jared J. Dussault (1998 - 2015)

Jared, suffering the effects of toxic mold, with
his brother, sister, and mom, Kelli Kellum Dussault.
Last year I researched and wrote this paragraph about Jared Dussault’s extended family without identifying them in the Providence Journal (May 3, 2014, p. A-13):
Brown Professor Ross Cheit’s book, The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children, shows how a widespread belief that children lie led courts and media to overlook significant evidence of sexual abuse. ….  
When a culture of child sex abuse persists within a family over several generations, that family often has its own narrative, such as one I heard recently: ‘If incest was good enough for God to populate the earth from one couple, then it’s good enough for us.’ The judge had no way of knowing the family narrative when he ordered those children to have frequent visits with a father they dread.
When Jared ended his life on August 16th at the age of 17, his mother, Kelli Kellum Dussault, asked me to honor him by telling the truth about his childhood. His “Sexual Abuse Assessment,” done nine years ago by the Shepherd Program at St. Mary’s Home for Children in Rhode Island (June 15, 2006), tells how Kelli, as a child, had reported her own “extensive history of sexual abuse in her family. She stated that she was abused by her maternal grandfather from 4 – 13 years of age” (p. 5). When she revealed this at 13, and the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families got involved, her family condemned her. She said her brother told her to “get over it.” Years later, her son, Jared, reported being sexually abused, along with other children, by that uncle, Kelli’s brother.
Kelli’s maternal grandfather is dead, and to my knowledge, no one in the family has been prosecuted for child sex abuse. But she reports horrifying family “secrets” and stories of foster children trying to run away from her grandparents’ home.
Jared’s 2006 sexual abuse report shows he expressed a death wish by the age of 8, when alleging physical abuse by his father (p. 9). His father and the court’s guardian ad litem stopped the boy from talking with a therapist whom Jared liked and wanted to see (p. 10). His father continued exposing the boy to his uncle and his maternal grandparents, who “are reportedly buying Mr. Dussault and his girlfriend a house” (p. 6), while Mr. Dussault was “assisting Uncle Ricky’s defense against Jared’s allegations of sexual abuse” (p. 11).
The clinician’s report concludes: 
Jared is aware that some people in his family, such as his father and maternal grandparents, have not believed him and even asked him to recant his disclosures…. Jared needs to be believed by everyone in his life, in order to move forward and begin his healing journey. Without the support of family, survivors are often unable to make progress in their sexual abuse treatment. Without individual sexual abuse specific treatment, Jared may continue to keep his memories inside, and internalize the blame and responsibility for his abuse…. (p. 25)
After her divorce, Kelli succeeded in getting her three children away from the extended family that believed incest was “in the Bible” and condoned child sex abuse. But they again encountered severe problems with mold that especially afflicted Jared. He had suffered from mold as an infant in their earliest home in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, “which led to chronic throat and ear infections for Jared” (p. 3).
She moved the children to Florida, where mold exacerbated Jared’s mood swings, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Kelli is now part of a large community of Facebook friends who have spread warnings against toxic mold. Many have shared the new movie “Moldy,” dedicating it to Jared. https://moldymovie.com/index?affiliate=3983
Children who struggle with closeted memories and chronic illness, may see no way out. At least twice, Jared tried to end his life. In 2012, when he was 14, he tried to overdose on Xanax, Tylenol PM, and Benadryl and left a suicide note: “I’m sorry to all of you…. Mom, I am going to miss you the most. After all you’ve done for me.… If I hadn’t had such a great family that loves me this day would have come much sooner….” Kelli told the medical staff that she had “located what looked like a noose” made from shoestrings in Jared’s closet several weeks earlier (Assessment Summary in Jared’s medical report at NCH, Naples, Florida, Dec. 7, 2012). This month, suffering extreme physical distress, he returned to the closet and hung himself.
His father’s reaction to Jared’s death has reprised the earliest years of their relationship. Jared told a clinician at age 8: “I have many problems. My biggest problem is with my Dad” (p. 12). He told another clinician that his father "constantly yells" at him and he longed never to see his father again.
From 1,500 miles away, his father has now blamed Kelli for Jared’s death. He has not seen his children in years, but he refuses to sign the papers for Jared to be buried in Florida, near his mother, brother, and sister -- the family that always loved him. 
Not signing the papers. Kelli says it is exactly what Jared’s father did to stop the St. Mary’s therapist from talking to prosecutors years ago.
State lawmakers, prosecutors, courts, and child protection agencies must finally end the widespread denial of what happened to Jared and others like him. We must stop giving abusers unlimited power over their victims. We must enact and enforce laws to end child sex abuse within the family.


The Shepherd Program maintains strict ethical standards and confidentiality. They will not confirm or deny that Jared was their client. I secured this report from a family member.  If I have made any mistakes in this account, please send corrections and documents to ParentingProject [at] verizon.net. 

About the mother and child pictured at the top

On February 21, 1992, Rhode Island Family Court's Chief Judge Jeremiah Jeremiah gave this two-year-old to the sole custody and possession of her father despite his history of domestic violence and failure to pay child support. The father, a police officer, brought false charges against his ex-wife, first saying she was a drug addict. (Twenty-two random tests proved she was not.) Then he had her arrested for bank fraud, then for filing a false report, then for sexual abuse, then for kidnapping. None of his charges stuck.

The child remained with her father and stepmother until 2003, when, at 14, she finally realized that her mother had not been a drug addict. The teenager persuaded Judge Stephen Capineri to let her return to her mother. There she began working on the painful issues of lifelong coercion and deception--a tangled knot of guilt and rage. Most painful has been her father’s continuing refusal to let her visit two dearly loved half-sisters, whom she has not seen since 2003.

She is one of countless children in Rhode Island subjected to severe emotional and physical trauma by Family Court when it helps abusive parents to maintain control over their families after divorce. When she turned 18 in 2007, she gave the Parenting Project permission to publish her picture on behalf of all children who have been held hostage by Rhode Island custody scams.

We are using this blog to provide links to stories that will help concerned people, including government officials, become aware of this form of child abuse and legal abuse. We must work together to improve the courts' ability to recognize the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in victims of domestic abuse who are trying to protect their children.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are looking for the story of the removal of "Molly and Sara," please visit http://LittleHostages.blogspot.com


About the Author and the Cause

Parenting Project is a volunteer community service begun in 1996 at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence, RI, to focus on the needs of children at risk in Family Court custody cases. Our goal is to make Rhode Island's child protective system more effective, transparent, and accountable.

The Parenting Project coordinator, Anne Grant, a retired minister and former executive director of Rhode Island's largest shelter for battered women and their children, researches and writes about official actions that endanger children and the parents who try to protect them. She wrote a chapter on Rhode Island in Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues, ed. Mo Therese Hannah, PhD, and Barry Goldstein, JD (Civic Research Institute, 2010).

Comments and corrections on anything written here may be sent in an email with no attachments to parentingproject@verizon.net

Find out more about the crisis in custody courts here:

www.centerforjudicialexcellence.org/PhotoExhibit.htm
www.child-justice.org
www.leadershipcouncil.org
www.evawintl.org provides forensic resources to end violence against women

about domestic violence in hague custody cases:
www.haguedv.org

more about domestic violence in law enforcement:
http://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/



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