tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32512484750290156662024-02-19T05:19:13.346-05:00The Custody ScamMost 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.)Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comBlogger148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-30182770528867163602015-08-26T15:04:00.002-04:002015-09-24T16:02:15.506-04:00In Honor of Jared J. Dussault (1998 - 2015) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzTNmKxeUIWrmKcv0R07FGbMxZ9LN_nEhqxbRYgekNGozr1Zkwg4k9aWhaQCL_UKz4wAth56qBBQOlS656vcIX0twbGSthucbKIBjT1KhIrFeyZJtQgbbhvQ22OHB44l28FuCksHRXHU/s1600/Jared+Dussault+%2526+Family+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzTNmKxeUIWrmKcv0R07FGbMxZ9LN_nEhqxbRYgekNGozr1Zkwg4k9aWhaQCL_UKz4wAth56qBBQOlS656vcIX0twbGSthucbKIBjT1KhIrFeyZJtQgbbhvQ22OHB44l28FuCksHRXHU/s320/Jared+Dussault+%2526+Family+.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jared, suffering the effects of toxic mold, with <br />
his brother, sister, and mom, Kelli Kellum Dussault.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Last year I researched and wrote this
paragraph about <b>Jared Dussault’s</b> extended family without identifying
them in the <i>Providence Journal</i> (May 3, 2014, p. A-13):</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Brown Professor Ross Cheit’s book, <i>The
Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children,</i>
shows how a widespread belief that children lie led courts and media to
overlook significant evidence of sexual abuse. ….</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">When Jared ended his life on August 16</span><sup><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">
at the age of 17, his mother, <b>Kelli Kellum Dussault</b>, 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.</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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.</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">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 <i>ad litem</i>
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).</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">The clinician’s report concludes: </span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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).</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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. <a href="https://moldymovie.com/index?affiliate=3983"><span style="color: #43749b; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">https://moldymovie.com/index?affiliate=3983</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">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.</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">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.</span></div>
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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.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>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. </i></span></span><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">If I have made any
mistakes in this account, please send corrections and documents to
ParentingProject [at] verizon.net. </span></i></div>
</div>
Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-54978501372261969872015-08-13T10:47:00.000-04:002015-08-13T10:47:11.378-04:00Fix DCYF, Stop Family Law Malpractice<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">It is great to have a sitting governor finally acknowledge the dysfunction at <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), as Governor Gina Raimondo has done. </span>But the executive branch that oversees DCYF is only half the crisis. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">We need the judicial branch to end the kinds of family law malpractice that take financial advantage of this dysfunction. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Here are a few examples we have documented over the years, starting with a current one: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.golocalprov.com/news/guest-mindsetter-anne-grant-fix-dcyf-dysfunction-and-stop-family-law-malpra">http://www.golocalprov.com/news/guest-mindsetter-anne-grant-fix-dcyf-dysfunction-and-stop-family-law-malpra</a><br />
<br />
<div>
<a href="http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-william-holts-disciplinary-hearing.html">http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2014/06/what-william-holts-disciplinary-hearing.html</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-is-norbara-octeau.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-is-norbara-octeau.html</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-lawyers-manipulate-doctors-do-no.html">http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-lawyers-manipulate-doctors-do-no.html</a></div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-79623497932092062722015-06-09T08:58:00.000-04:002015-06-10T07:17:22.235-04:00Testimony on the Racket of "Parental Alienation" in the Rhode Island Family Court<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">Last night I testified before the Judicial Nominating Commission against a lawyer seeking to become a Family Court judge. I am posting that testimony here with linked documents for commissioners, candidates, and the public. (These links do not work from the body of the text, but only from the references given in the footnotes.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>Please notify me, <b>Anne Grant</b>, <b>ParentingProject@verizon.net</b> if you have any concerns or corrections regarding this testimony. Thank you. </i></span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica;">§ 8-16.1-4 Criteria for selection of best qualified nominees.
– The commission shall consider, but is not limited to, the following
factors in selecting the best qualified nominees: intellect,
ability, temperament, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">impartiality</b>,
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">diligence</b>, experience, maturity,
education, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">publications</b>, and record
of public, community, and government service. … The commission shall also
consider the candidate's <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">sensitivity to
historically disadvantaged classes</b>, and may disqualify any candidate with a
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">demonstrated history of bias</b> towards
any of these classes.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn1" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]</a></span></span></span> </blockquote>
Your criteria for selecting nominees includes impartiality, diligence, publications, and sensitivity to historically disadvantaged classes. <b>Barbara Barrow</b> wrote an article for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rhode Island Bar Journal</i> that disqualifies her for the bench on those grounds. I am posting this testimony with linked references so you can examine the sources for yourself.<br />
<br />
Barbara
Barrow’s article, “Parental Alienation Syndrome in Divorce”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn2" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;">[ii]</span></span></a>
is simplistic and ignores factual evidence. What she leaves out is significant.
She says that <b>Richard A. Gardner, M.D.</b>, introduced “Parental Alienation” in the
1980s. She does not mention these facts:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 120%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Dr. Gardner was a psychiatrist on a mission to normalize sex between
adults and children.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn3" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">He was a leading lobbyist against mandatory reporting of child sex
abuse.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn4" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iv]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">He set up his own publishing company in New Jersey called “Creative
Therapeutics.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 120%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">He published his theories without standards of peer review that are essential
to establish scientific claims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 120%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">He falsely identified himself as a Clinical Professor of Child
Psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, a claim
Columbia denied, asserting he was only a volunteer.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn5" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[v]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 120%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Dr. Gardner served as an expert witness in more than 400 custody cases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 120%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">He committed suicide in 2003.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn6" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[vi]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Gardner held that children who claim to be sexually abused by fathers, should not be believed. He hypothesized that the mothers had alienated, brainwashed, coached, and programmed their children. </span>In
one of the last interviews Gardner gave, <b>Garland Waller</b> asked what a mother
should do when her child accuses a father of sexual abuse. Gardner replied the
mother should say: “I don't believe you. I am going to beat you for saying
that. Don't you ever talk that way again about your father.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn7" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;">[vii]</span></span></a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">A Brief Chronology of
Parental Alienation in Rhode Island Family Court<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">1991:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> Gardner publishes <i>Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited.</i>
In his final paragraph, he admits that the “vast majority (probably over 95%)
of sex abuse allegations … are valid,” but he says he wrote the book to give
that 5% whom he considers falsely accused “the sympathy and attention they
deserve.”<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn8" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title="">[viii]<!--[endif]--></a></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">1994:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> Courtroom testimony shows a court-ordered psychologist identifies
Gardner as his source, and <b>Chief Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, Jr.</b> comments that he, too, is reading Gardner.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn9" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ix]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">1996:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> Chief Judge Jeremiah hires <b>David Tassoni</b>, who falsely claims to have college
and law degrees. Tassoni soon becomes Chief Mediator and Case Manager.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2004:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> Tassoni helps to produce a 374-page training manual, <i>Guardian ad Litem Practice in Rhode Island Family Court</i> (Rhode Island Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Sponsored with the Rhode Island Family Court, </span>Center for Advanced Legal Studies, October 4 - 5, 2004). The manual devotes an entire section to “Parental Alienation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
In the high-profile custody case of a
Family Court deputy sheriff accused of domestic violence, Tassoni tells me he
is searching for a psychologist who “understands Parental Alienation.” He finds
one in a tiny suburban office. She moves into an elegant suite downtown as the
court-appointed therapist who does “co-parenting” and “reunification therapy.” These
are catchwords often associated with coercive “parental alienation” defense strategies.
I have found them in Rhode Island guardian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ad
litem</i> reports and court orders that placed children in the sole custody of
alleged abusers or sent them back and forth between parents, even when one
parent was documented as abusive and the other was protective.<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2006:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges publishes <i>A
Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn10" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[x]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a></i>
and unequivocally states that judges should rule testimony on “parental
alienation” inadmissible and strike it from evaluation reports because the
concept has “no grounding in reality,” and it fails evidentiary standards. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">I
write an op-ed in the Providence Journal about the “Discredited Parental
Alienation Syndrome”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn11" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xi]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> and residents
of a Rhode Island town ask me to research a case in which a 3-year-old
complained about her father’s “sausage games.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn12" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The guardian <i>ad litem</i> was a close friend of the father’s criminal defense
attorney and their “parental alienation” argument persuaded DCYF to give the
father sole custody. He eventually took his daughters out of state and then out of the
country. The neighbors had helped bring to Rhode Island a nationally recognized
out-of-state attorney who specializes in fighting parental alienation cases,
but the father’s lawyers successfully invoked Rhode Island’s <i>pro hoc vice</i>
rules to block his participation. I later testify about the case and write about it online, giving names of lawyers and clinicians, as well as referencing these sources. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2010: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">I document the “sausage games” case in the textbook <i>Domestic
Violence, Legal Abuse, and Child Custody: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn13" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xiii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
</i>Court records in this and other cases show how lawyers and psychologists use “parental
alienation” and coercive “co-parenting” and “reunification therapy” to stretch out
these cases for their own financial profit at great harm to these families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2011:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> The new <b>Chief Judge Hiaganush Bedrosian</b> brings in state police to
examine David Tassoni’s credentials, and Tassoni resigns. He claims to have
mediated over 750 cases, but he is never charged with fraud on the court, and he sets up a mediation business. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Meanwhile,
advocates of “parental alienation” defense strategies try unsuccessfully to pressure the American Psychiatric Association
to add “parental alienation” to its <i>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">DSM-5)<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2012:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> Barbara Barrow’s article appears in the <i>RI Bar Journal, </i>as if
to restore the credibility of “parental alienation” after Tassoni’s downfall.<i> </i>I ask the
editor-in-chief if I may write a response, and he says no, because
I am not a lawyer. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2013:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> The American Psychiatric Association refuses to include “parental alienation” in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">DSM-5. </i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">2015:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"> When I examine the letters for and against Barbara
Barrow, I find one of her most ardent supporters is the guardian <i>ad litem</i>
in the “sausage games” case. A letter in your file opposing Barrow comes from a stepfather
whose stepson has complained about sexual abuse by his birth father. The
stepfather writes that Attorney Barrow is not a neutral guardian <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ad litem</i>. Following Dr. Gardner’s
pattern, Barrow blames the mother for “coaching and/or ‘suggesting’ to the
child…,” but then permits the alleged abuser to coach the child. <s><o:p></o:p></s></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Families
that have been traumatized by coercive control, domestic violence, or sexual
abuse are “a historically disadvantaged class.” Such families need two things
to heal: safety and the rule of law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Commissioners, this is
not about political correctness. The National Council of Juvenile and Family
Court Judges and the American Psychiatric Association have absolutely rejected
“parental alienation” on both legal and scientific grounds. <b>They recognize this
as a racket in which a small group of lawyers and psychologists can enrich themselves for years at the expense of vulnerable children and families, as we have documented over more than two decades in Rhode Island. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><b><br /></b></span>
We need this Commission to become well-informed about the racketeering use of “parental alienation” and to discern which candidates have the personal
integrity not to allow these schemes to persist in their courtrooms. Please ask all candidates
for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Family Court -- and in the future, for appellate
courts -- </b>what their opinions are of “parental alienation.” See if they
understand why coercive strategies for “co-parenting,” and “reunification therapy” can be dangerous for these children and their protective parents. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">We
need you to do three things: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Become well-informed about these abusive rackets by reviewing the sources; <span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn14" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title="">[xiv]</a></span></span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_edn14" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""></a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;">Nominate prospective judges who recognize and will not tolerate strategies
based on the junk science of “parental alienation”; and</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 120%; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin;"></span>3. Do not recommend as “highly
qualified” Barbara Barrow or any candidate willing to compromise the safety of
children and the rigors of the law to permit courtroom strategies based on “parental
alienation.” </blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Thank you. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cochin; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span> <br />
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/title8/8-16.1/8-16.1-4.HTM">http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/title8/8-16.1/8-16.1-4.HTM</a></div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://www.ribar.com/UserFiles/File/Mar-Apr_2012%20Jrnl_d.pdf">https://www.ribar.com/UserFiles/File/Mar-Apr_2012%20Jrnl_d.pdf</a></span>,
pages 31-32.</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/AR_PASUpdate.pdf">http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/AR_PASUpdate.pdf</a></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>, pages 3-4.</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iv]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Gardner,
R.A. (1995). Written testimony on HR3588 – Proposed revision of the child abuse
prevention and treatment act (CAPTA) (Public Law 93-247) and</div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
Dallam, S.J. (1998). Dr. Richard Gardner: A review of
his theories and opinions on atypical sexuality, pedophilia, and treatment
issues. Treating Abuse Today, 8(1), 15-23, as cited in <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/RAG.html">http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/RAG.html</a></span>
</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[v]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/09/nyregion/richard-gardner-72-dies-cast-doubt-on-abuse-claims.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/09/nyregion/richard-gardner-72-dies-cast-doubt-on-abuse-claims.html</a></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[vi]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/09/nyregion/richard-gardner-72-dies-cast-doubt-on-abuse-claims.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/09/nyregion/richard-gardner-72-dies-cast-doubt-on-abuse-claims.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[vii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Garland
Waller videos: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Debating Richard Gardner;
Small Justice: Little Justice in America’s Family Courts <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.intermedia-inc.com/title.asp?sku=DE06&subcatID=25">http://www.intermedia-inc.com/title.asp?sku=DE06&subcatID=25</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.intermedia-inc.com/title.asp?sku=SM03&subcatID=29">http://www.intermedia-inc.com/title.asp?sku=SM03&subcatID=29</a></div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[viii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Richard
A. Gardner, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem
Witch Trials Revisited</i> (Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics, 1991, p. 140.
</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ix]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> P92-4797, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Transcript,</i> April 11, 1994, p. 18.</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[x]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/judicial%20guide_0_0.pdf">http://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/judicial%20guide_0_0.pdf</a></span> pages 12-13. </div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xi]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Anne Grant,
“Family Court Devastation: Discredited Parental Alienation Syndrome,”
Providence Journal, June 27, 2006, B5.</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> I began
writing about the case at “Custodyscam.blogspot.com” to document my testimony
before the RI Senate Health and Human Services Committee when they investigated
complaints against DCYF in 2007. Later I moved the information to a new site:</div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/lies-rumors-and-innuendos_11.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/lies-rumors-and-innuendos_11.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/trying-to-remember.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/trying-to-remember.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/mami-visits.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/05/mami-visits.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/11/966-days-and-nights.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2008/11/966-days-and-nights.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/04/1096-days-nights.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/04/1096-days-nights.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-captives-1144-days-nights.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-captives-1144-days-nights.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2010/04/can-you-believe-it.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2010/04/can-you-believe-it.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2011/04/five-years-ago-today.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2011/04/five-years-ago-today.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/01/eight-years-ago.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/01/eight-years-ago.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-is-norbara-octeau.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2012/02/who-is-norbara-octeau.html</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2013/04/lise-iwon-could-help-to-right-great.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2013/04/lise-iwon-could-help-to-right-great.html</span></a></div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xiii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/dvac.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/dvac.html</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pages 25-14 to 25-30. </div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3251248475029015666#_ednref" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[xiv]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Further
resources are available at The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and
Interpersonal Violence, <a href="http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.html">http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/1.html</a></div>
</div>
</div>
Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-19189108270921196932014-12-07T05:33:00.000-05:002014-12-07T05:35:12.363-05:00Drawing conclusions: Children's drawings during abuse investigations<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #144fae; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403102207.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403102207.htm</a></span><br />
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Date:</div>
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April 3, 2014</div>
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Source:</div>
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American Friends of Tel Aviv University</div>
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Illustrations by children can be a critical tool in forensic investigations of child abuse. A recent study compared the results when child abuse victims were offered the opportunity to draw during questioning with results when victims were not offered this opportunity. "The act of drawing was not only an empowering experience for these children," said the lead investigator. "We had no idea the gap would be so great between those who drew and those who weren't given this option."</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #070809; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Is a picture worth only a thousand words? According to Dr. Carmit Katz of Tel Aviv University's Bob Shapell School of Social Work, illustrations by children can be a critical tool in forensic investigations of child abuse.</span></div>
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Dr. Katz's study, published in <em style="line-height: 1.22em;">Child Abuse and Neglect</em>, compared the results when child abuse victims were offered the opportunity to draw during questioning with victims not offered this opportunity. Her findings saw a significant difference, suggesting a therapeutic value and indicating that children empowered to draw pictures about their abuse provided much fuller and more detailed descriptions.</div>
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"The act of drawing was not only an empowering experience for these children," said Dr. Katz. "We also found it to be forensically more effective in eliciting richer testimonies in child abuse cases. We had no idea the gap would be so great between those who drew and those who weren't given this option."</div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.22em;"><br /></strong></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">A chance to express themselves</strong></div>
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Some 125 alleged child victims of sexual abuse were randomly selected for the field study. The children, aged 5-14, were questioned by nine well-trained forensic interviewers about a single occurrence of alleged sexual abuse. The children were divided into two sets -- a control group, questioned and allowed to rest during the session; and a variable group, offered the opportunity to draw pictures about their experiences for 7-10 minutes instead of resting.</div>
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The interviews in the study were conducted according to standard NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development International Evidence-Based Investigative Interviewing of Children) protocol, which dictates using open-ended questions to elicit more comprehensive testimonies.</div>
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"For example, we asked children to 'tell me again everything that happened to you,' without using any leading terms to steer the discussion," said Dr. Katz. "And we found that if that question was followed by the comment, 'You can use the drawing if you want to,' the child's testimony was substantially more comprehensive and detailed."</div>
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In the study, Dr. Katz worked with professional practitioners from Israel's Investigative Interview Service, which is considering incorporating her strategy into the standing NICHD protocol.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;"><strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">Empowering the victim</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.22em;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">"As a social worker, I'm not only interested in obtaining accurate forensic results," said Dr. Katz. "I'm also interested in empowering the children. Through drawing, children reported regaining some sense of control -- even feeling hopeful. This also has recuperative properties."</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.22em;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">Dr. Katz has focused her research on turning the typically traumatic forensic interview into a first step toward recovery for child abuse victims, who reported feeling understood, successful and in control after drawing during the questioning. "The only thing that counts is the child's narrative and his or her narrative of the respective drawing," she said. "But forensic investigators must be very careful not to attribute meaning where none exists. For example, 'I see a penis in this drawing, please tell me about it,' is a projective strategy which usually garners false results. My strategy is to offer open-ended prompts alongside drawing, which we found to be a great facilitator of communication."</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;"><strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">Story Source:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">The above story is based on <a href="http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=19943" rel="nofollow" style="color: #004276; line-height: 1.22em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a class="blue" href="http://www.aftau.org/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #7e7ea9; line-height: 1.22em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">American Friends of Tel Aviv University</strong></a>. <em style="line-height: 1.22em;">Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;"><strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">Journal Reference</strong>:</span></div>
<ol class="journal" style="line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 18px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">
<li style="line-height: 1.22em; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Carmit Katz, Zion Barnetz, Irit Hershkowitz. <strong style="line-height: 1.22em;">The effect of drawing on children's experiences of investigations following alleged child abuse</strong>. <em style="line-height: 1.22em;">Child Abuse & Neglect</em>, 2014; DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.01.003" rel="nofollow" style="color: #004276; line-height: 1.22em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.01.003</a></li>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">American Friends of Tel Aviv University. "Drawing conclusions: Children's drawings during abuse investigations." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 April 2014</span><br />
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</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-68878000897554194772014-12-01T20:46:00.004-05:002014-12-01T21:06:03.633-05:00A Better Way to Select Judges <div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 16.8pt; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_959850649"><br /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: #386eff; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><span style="border: none;"><a href="http://www.golocalprov.com/news/a-better-way-to-select-judges-guest-mindsetter-anne-grant">http://www.golocalprov.com/news/a-better-way-to-select-judges-guest-mindsetter-anne-grant</a></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<u style="text-underline: #386EFF;"><span style="border: none; color: #386eff; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Monday,
December 01, 2014</span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 24.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Guest MINDSETTER™ Anne Grant</span></i><i><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 22.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<span style="background: white; border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="border: none;">One mother’s riveting, sometimes rambling, testimony at the
Judicial Nominating <span style="border: none;">Commission (JNC) on May 4, 2011,
may have led to the commission’s recent proposal to change its rules. (Katie
Mulvaney, “R.I. judicial nominating panel proposes allowing public to comment
on nominees,” <i>Providence Journal,</i> November 3, 2014.)</span></span></span><span style="border: none; font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<span style="background: white; border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">She
asked commissioners’ patience w<span style="border: none;">ith her “two invisible
disabilities,” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), which, she said, “make it easy for others to deceive and
humiliate me.” Her testimony prompted me to research her three-year-old custody
case an<span style="border: none;">d to attend her next hearings.</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Rhode
Island’s Family Court is a civil court with a criminal demeanor. After I had
become executive director of the Women’s Center of Rhode Island in 1988, I
found that battered mothers who had succeeded in getting their <span style="border: none;">children away from violent homes into our shelter were
often treated as criminals in Family Court.</span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Having
escaped one form of assault, they were stunned by the legal attacks and
bullying in the courtroom, where they were typically called “defendants” inste<span style="border: none;">ad of “respondents” -- the civil court term preferred in
other states. Few mothers had money to hire attorneys. Since this was not a
criminal court, they had no access to public defenders. Legal Services seldom
had enough staff for such interminable cases <span style="border: none;">waged by
terrifying opponents.</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">The
mother at the JNC’s public hearing (I’ll call her “Tracy”) testified against an
attorney who sought nomination to Family Court. He had been the court-ordered
guardian ad litem representing the child’s “best interests”. Sh<span style="border: none;">e told the commission he had laughed at her, refused to
interview her witnesses, failed to complete his reports on time, threatened to
bankrupt her, and colluded with the other side.</span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Trained
as an engineer, Tracy had served with top-secret clearance as an <span style="border: none;">officer in the Air Force, where the military regimen
provided a structure that worked well for her high-functioning autism. I asked
if she could apply her engineering skills to what was happening procedurally in
her case, and she designed a tool that she c<span style="border: none;">alled a
“7/30 chart.”</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Data-driven
and beautiful in its simplicity, this might be the tool needed to evaluate
lawyers and judges by their own docket sheets instead of grandiloquent speeches
and letters from influential friends. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">Here’s
how it works: When <span style="border: none;">a judge makes a verbal order at a
hearing, the winning attorney must render the judge’s words in writing and send
that draft to the opposing attorney within seven days to establish their
agreement on the substance of the order. This written order must be s<span style="border: none;">igned by the judge and entered into the record by the clerk
within 30 days of the hearing. </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Applying these administrative rules as her
algorithm, Tracy set up a track on which a properly administered case should
run. Every hearing should result in one order. All orders should be entered
within the limits set at 7 days and 30 days from the hearing.</span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">An ideal 7/30 track might
look like this: </span></b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCa37fnhzziZqIo_Q_pSj5B5ZGy4PsP9JkhrQD6ZBBjMjYlJY9k09M13YnJkGNcXtVts92KeX_pwu30Lf2-SqNYRsQLyW_DRV_hFzJBw1VM6qPxNfi_wTBahaXfH97DthXFtDurYsY93Q/s1600/Ideal+730-Track.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCa37fnhzziZqIo_Q_pSj5B5ZGy4PsP9JkhrQD6ZBBjMjYlJY9k09M13YnJkGNcXtVts92KeX_pwu30Lf2-SqNYRsQLyW_DRV_hFzJBw1VM6qPxNfi_wTBahaXfH97DthXFtDurYsY93Q/s1600/Ideal+730-Track.jpg" height="386" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tracy’s
7/30 chart of her own case opens with a string of four emergency ex parte
orders against her, four </span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;">continuances, and numerous
orders entered “out of time.” Court orders land far off track, and some never
get entered at all. The case had been running off track for nine months before
Tracy even saw a judge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">While
these administrative abuses do not begin t</span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;">o reveal
the substantive abuse, they show a system gone awry. In Tracy’s case, the
opposing attorneys repeatedly violated court rules. Their legal tactics played
havoc with Tracy’s autism and PTSD, triggering symptoms that worked against her
in court.</span></div>
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<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;">At
t<span style="border: none;">he JNC hearing in 2011, the guardian ad litem who
had a major hand in Tracy’s case heard from other angry parents, and
commissioners declined to nominate him. </span></span></span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial; padding: 0in;">But in February 2014, he appeared once more at
the JNC, again seeking nomination as a Family Court judge. One commissioner
publicly apologized that the attorney had no opportunity to respond to his
critics three years earlier, and they nominated him without ever investigating
those complaints. </span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;">Now
the commission is considering a good rule change to <span style="border: none;">hear
public comments first and investigate any complaints before they interview
applicants. Another positive change would be to secure the most recent decade
of docket sheets from each applicant’s cases and run them through Tracy’s 7/30
algorithm. </span></span></span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;">A
singl<span style="border: none;">e docket will not reveal which lawyer or judge
created problems. But it will show how to investigate case files and focus
better interview questions about troubling patterns in these cases. </span></span></span><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;">If clerks posted a 7/30 chart inside each file, a trial
judge <span style="border: none;">could call lawyers to the bench to ask why a
case has gone off track. When judges seek nomination to higher courts, their
own 7/30 charts would show the JNC how well they manage cases. </span></span></span><span style="border: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;"><span style="border: none;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial; padding: 0in;">Litigants can use 7/30 charts as an objective
standard to complain to the Disciplinary Counsel or the Judicial Tenure and
Discipline Commission. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><span style="border: none;">Moreover,
the JNC could invite the public to submit 7/30 charts on all applicants before
selecting those candidates to be interviewed. The present system raises
suspicion that goo<span style="border: none;">d candidates have been excluded
without public knowledge because some commissioners may be too entrenched in a
highly political system. </span></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Anne Grant (</span></i><a href="mailto:ParentingProject@verizon.net"><i><span style="color: #257d80; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">ParentingProject@verizon.net</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">) has researched and written
about Family Court cases for more than twenty years. </span></i><span style="border: none; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-90689993854867414782014-10-10T21:42:00.001-04:002014-10-10T21:43:04.250-04:00M.C. Moewe: Why police refuse to believe children are in danger<div class="et_lb_module et_lb_column et_lb_2_3 et_lb_first" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; float: left; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 46px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 371.578125px;">
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<h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #303030; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: red; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When Are Police Allowed to Do Nothing After a Child is Abducted?</span></h2>
<h4 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #303030; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
B<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">y M.C. Moewe</span></h4>
<h4 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #303030; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the sixth in a <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/blog/MCMoewe" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: black; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">series of articles</a> about the treatment of abused children in the U.S. family court system.</i></span></h4>
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When Jessica Gonzales’ three daughters disappeared while playing in their Castle Rock, Colorado, front yard in 1999, she knew her estranged husband Simon had taken them and they were in grave danger.</h4>
<h4 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #303030; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 7px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Though Gonzales informed the local police that the courts had issued an order of protection against her husband, the police made no attempt to retrieve the children, despite a 1994 Colorado law that required police to enforce such an order when there’s probable cause of a violation. In a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gonzales-vs-castle-rock/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #804645; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">60 Minutes interview</a> six years later, Castle Rock police chief Tony Lane was asked why they didn’t attempt enforcement. He responded, “What safer place can children be than with one of the parents, the mother or the father?”</h4>
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-68459004597081179222014-09-22T14:09:00.001-04:002014-09-22T14:09:07.378-04:00End the Nightmare at Family Court<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
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Leora N. Rosen, <i>Beyond the Hostage Child: Towards Empowering Protective Parents</i></div>
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This clear, readable, and affordable update to Dr. Rosen’s 1996 text, The Hostage Child, focuses our attention on the lifelong harm done to children by family courts and the remedies needed. She identifies specific federal funding streams that have done great damage (for example, the “Responsible Fatherhood Programs” that inspired the deadly rampage by Beltway Sniper John Muhammad from West Coast to East and another by Joshua Komisarjevsky in Connecticut).<br /><br />This book holds validation for those who have been traumatized when courts removed terrified children from protective parents and gave them to the sole custody of abusers. Dr. Rosen shines a light we need to go forward.<br /><br />She asserts that alleged crimes of domestic violence and child sexual abuse within the family should never be sent to civil courts that are designed for compromise. She briefly describes five proposed models for change and offers more detail on a sixth, composite model, CARCO (Child At Risk Classification Office) that focuses on a public health assessment of the child’s risk of being exposed to violence or abuse. She uses the acronym TRIAL to represent key elements of CARCO: Training, Reporting, Investigation, Adjudication, and Long-term planning – that are woefully absent from the present practice of adversarial litigation in family court.<br /><br />Dr. Rosen has performed a huge service by focusing those of us who feel numbed by our own inability to protect desperate children and non-offending parents from the lies of lawyers and psychologists who have reduced them to a profit center. She concludes by urging Congress to use its authority and enact CARCO for the District of Columbia, creating a model for the nation. Federal funding incentives can be redirected to inspire other states to follow suit and to end the nightmare that breeds child abuse at family court.</div>
Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-48773876396609967652014-08-06T08:48:00.001-04:002014-08-06T08:50:09.821-04:00M. C. Moewe: How government fails sexually abused children<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Even though the sexual abuse of children is a crime, such cases frequently end up in family courts and not criminal courts when the alleged perpetrator is a parent. Experts in child protection say this is a problem, but fixing it would require a broad investigation into how abuse allegations are handled criminally at every level of government.</span></div>
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In the United Kingdom, that’s exactly what is happening now.</div>
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The discovery of a decades-old <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/child-abuse-inquiry/59321/westminster-paedophile-ring-claims-20-top-figures-involved" style="color: #e5721e; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">pedophile ring</a> catering to prominent British politicians and the elite going back as far as the 1960s has prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to order an unprecedented inquiry into all agencies charged with investigating child sexual abuse — including police, courts and child welfare agencies.</div>
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“In recent years we have seen appalling cases of organized and persistent child sex abuse,” Home Secretary Theresa May <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-britain-abuse-inquiry-idUSKBN0FC1M520140707" style="color: #e5721e; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">told Parliament</a>.</div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">If the United States needs a spark for the same kind of self-examination into how allegations of abuse have been tragically ignored, look no further than Omaha, Nebraska, in 1988.</span><br />
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MORE HERE:<br />
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/04/1319089/--If-You-Dare-to-Come-Forward-If-You-Dare-to-Talk-Watch-What-Happens#">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/04/1319089/--If-You-Dare-to-Come-Forward-If-You-Dare-to-Talk-Watch-What-Happens#</a>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-20506679629513339232014-07-09T09:58:00.003-04:002014-07-09T09:58:26.059-04:00M. C. Moewe: If You Want Custody Of Your Kids, It's Better to Be a Criminal<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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They had both lost, one mother in criminal court, the other in family court. But Mary Winkler, convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting her husband, got her children back. The other parent never did.</div>
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When it comes to taking parental rights away from a convicted criminal, courts have checks and balances built into the system. Under <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/reunify.cfm" style="color: #e5721e; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">federal law</a>, criminal courts terminate parental rights only as a last resort and require reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families.</div>
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Family court is another story. ...</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; color: #144fae; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 19px;">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/07/1312248/-If-You-Want-Custody-Of-Your-Kids-It-s-Better-to-Be-a-Criminal-Than-a-Concerned-Parent#</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-56629831567094176272014-07-09T09:49:00.001-04:002014-07-09T09:49:29.475-04:00M. C. Moewe finally gets to report on judges forcing abused children to live with abusers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"><table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<span>U.S. judges routinely force abused children to live with their abusers.</span></div>
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<span>But after nearly a decade of trying, I have given up on the mainstream media doing any significant investigations into this ongoing human rights atrocity. My name is M.C. Moewe. I have worked at several newspapers but my last full-time job was in 2008 as the investigative reporter for the Daytona Beach News-Journal.</span></div>
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<span>My first day on the job, an editor handed me a stack of files asking me to look into a family court custody case. I was surprised, because as anyone who has worked in a newsroom can tell you, there are frequent calls from distraught parents alleging that the other parent is doing something horrible to their child and no one will help.</span></div>
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<span>When that happens ... </span></div>
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<span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><u><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/13/1306657/-Protecting-Abused-Children-from-the-Court-System">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/13/1306657/-Protecting-Abused-Children-from-the-Court-System</a></u></span></span></div>
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</span>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-88879442210323516972014-06-27T13:12:00.001-04:002014-06-27T13:12:11.971-04:00Anne Stevenson does it again, exposing legal abuse in Georgia's child protection industry<strong style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">ATLANTA,</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"> June 26, 2014 — According to court records, throughout 2011-2012, “Jane’s” children (then ages 2 and 7) repeatedly insisted and showed credible evidence to child psychologist Nancy McGarrah, Ph.D and Ann Shannon, LCSW, that that their father made suicidal and homicidal plans with them, that he routinely watched child porn with them and sexually assaulted them during overnight visits.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />Read more at </span><br />
<a href="http://www.commdiginews.com/life/georgia-court-may-have-given-sex-predator-custody-of-child-victims-19453/">http://www.commdiginews.com/life/georgia-court-may-have-given-sex-predator-custody-of-child-victims-19453/</a>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-80779077870226952662014-06-25T10:57:00.000-04:002014-06-25T10:57:28.734-04:00In Memory of Anthony, Austin and Athena Castillo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><i>by Eileen King, Executive Director, Child Justice, Inc. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Congratulations to Cheryl C. Kagan (D) who won the Maryland Primary Election for District 17, defeating Del. Luiz Simmons (D) who was also running for Sen. Jennie Forehand's seat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Karmic Justice has been served.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Local Marylanders may remember that on February 25, 2010, before the Md. House Judiciary Committee, Del. Simmons "re-tried" Dr. Amy Castillo's credibility after she testified in support of a bill that proposed changing the burden of proof from "clear and convincing" to "preponderance of the evidence". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">I was stunned and horrified that anyone would try to destroy the credibility of a mother whose fears were absolutely justified and who had suffered the unimaginable loss of her three children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">This material gives you an idea of why this was a very important primary race for Maryland's victims of domestic violence/child abuse and for the state laws that protect them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Here is Dr. Amy Castillo's testimony on Feb. 25, 2010:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/pdf/HB_700_Testimony_Amy_Castillo.pdf" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/pdf/HB_700_Testimony_Amy_Castillo.pdf</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">You can watch Del. Simmons' questioning here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovz6e1B5EwQ" style="line-height: 1.22em;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovz6e1B5EwQ</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">The Washington Post Editorial Board wrote about HB 700's death here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/06/AR2010030601948.html" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/06/AR2010030601948.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">My March 13, 2010 Op Ed in the Washington Post: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/13/AR2010031301846.html" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/13/AR2010031301846.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Del. Simmon's justification for his behavior as well as his characterization of advocates as "zealots": </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031904328.html" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031904328.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">You can hear Del. Simmons attempt to justify his position here: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-03-11/domestic-violence-and-protective-orders-maryland" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-03-11/domestic-violence-and-protective-orders-maryland</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">Another good article from the Ms. Magazine blog:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/05/19/abused-women-in-maryland-arent-lying/" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/05/19/abused-women-in-maryland-arent-lying/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><br style="line-height: 1.22em;" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">And don't forget this blog:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><a href="http://dumpluizsimmons.blogspot.com/2010/03/attention-maryland-you-have-some-pigs.html" style="line-height: 1.22em;">http://dumpluizsimmons.blogspot.com/2010/03/attention-maryland-you-have-some-pigs.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><br style="line-height: 1.22em;" /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.22em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">There's more of course...but as I said above, this material gives you an idea of why this was a very important primary race for Maryland's victims of domestic violence and child abuse and the laws that protect them. </span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.22em;"><br style="line-height: 1.22em;" /></span></span></span>
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<div class="p1" style="line-height: 1.22em;">
Eileen King</div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 1.22em;">
Executive Director</div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 1.22em;">
Child Justice, Inc. </div>
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<span class="s1" style="line-height: 1.22em;">301-283-1762</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 1.22em;"> cell</span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 1.22em;">Ignorance Is This Campaign </b></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfK1xr_rLIYS_1uMOlB4SAw" style="line-height: 1.22em;"><b style="line-height: 1.22em;">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfK1xr_rLIYS_1uMOlB4SAw</b></a></div>
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<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-86905832839486844912014-06-23T15:39:00.003-04:002014-06-24T09:09:20.906-04:00The Silent Scandal of Courts Putting Children With Their Abusers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;"><i>from Small Justice,</i> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNXqDgSAOt4" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 1.22em;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNXqDgSAOt4</a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Sitting on a flowery couch, a 10-year-old girl recalls the first time her father raped her. She was three years old and tried to roll away, but there was little she could do when he pulled her towards him and took off her nightgown.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">“I often wonder what would have happened if I had either cut, or at least moved that scene,” said the filmmaker who shot and edited <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNXqDgSAOt4" style="color: #7c470c; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Small Justice: Little Justice in America’s Court</a>, a 2001 documentary that followed three parents through the U.S. family court system as they tried to protect their children from abuse.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">A PBS executive had told Garland Waller that the opening scene was just too much and if she’d change it, the documentary might have a chance to air. “I wish I had been more flexible about changing the content,” said Waller, an assistant professor of communications at Boston University ...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Continued here: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #242424; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">
</span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/23/1308970/-The-Silent-Scandal-of-Courts-Putting-Children-With-Their-Abusers">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/23/1308970/-The-Silent-Scandal-of-Courts-Putting-Children-With-Their-Abusers</a>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-13340577018076354322014-06-22T07:14:00.000-04:002014-06-22T07:14:21.854-04:00Two-Parent Households Can Be Lethal… and the lethality can keep occurring in future generations. <br />
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Here's the problem when civil court judges ignore the history of crime in families, because lawyers want to keep the case "civil":<br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/domestic-violence-and-two-parent-households.html?_r=1" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/domestic-violence-and-two-parent-households.html?_r=1 </a>Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-25976770039566077962014-06-18T07:56:00.002-04:002014-06-18T07:56:51.071-04:00A Hostage Child Goes Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">AFCC Judge Johnston issued orders releasing Justina Pelletier from DCF custody and putting her into her parent's care. She goes home tomorrow!</span></div>
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<strong>BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, June 17, 2014 – Communities Digital News has from the family that </strong>Jennifer Pelletier had planned to spend the next three days in front of the Suffolk County Juvenile Court with hundreds of child welfare advocates protesting for her younger sister’s release from State care, but now it appears that those efforts may not be needed.</div>
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After over 18 brutal months in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, Jennifer says the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will return Justina to the family tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18, 2014.</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />Read more at </span><br />
<a href="http://www.commdiginews.com/life/exclusive-breaking-news-justina-pelletier-finally-going-home-19739/" style="font-family: Helvetica;">http://www.commdiginews.com/life/exclusive-breaking-news-justina-pelletier-finally-going-home-19739/</a><br />
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-51451772948979466372014-06-17T13:56:00.003-04:002014-06-17T14:21:09.315-04:00Finally… Authorities take action against company run by NY family court judges, attorneys<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYnEJLYBiovt62EsDmtQDkEbiw7fNQry9__BJ1_UJ0TKmAEH5nPR4WcD4StKCeFZ27p_6kY4lJ-_PsAaWcMIR6CMQ_Tx0DpMrc0S8du2r_77NYC7SfyTC7UkqwPvT2I2068Xx9yML4t0/s1600/afcc2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYnEJLYBiovt62EsDmtQDkEbiw7fNQry9__BJ1_UJ0TKmAEH5nPR4WcD4StKCeFZ27p_6kY4lJ-_PsAaWcMIR6CMQ_Tx0DpMrc0S8du2r_77NYC7SfyTC7UkqwPvT2I2068Xx9yML4t0/s1600/afcc2.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>NEW YORK</strong>, June 17, 2014 — The IRS has revoked the tax exempt status of a New York corporation founded and operated by sitting family court judges and the professionals who appear before them for failure to comply with federal tax laws.</div>
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This is just the latest string of punitive actions authorities have taken over the years against the national trade association whose members oversee cases involving the State’s most vulnerable children and families. Legal industry professionals are now asking questions about whether the authorities should do more to protect families from sub-regulatory corporations, and whether or not a bigger cover up is afoot? <br />
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Read more at:</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.commdiginews.com/life/authorities-take-action-against-company-run-by-ny-family-court-judges-attorneys-19646/">http://www.commdiginews.com/life/authorities-take-action-against-company-run-by-ny-family-court-judges-attorneys-19646/</a></span><br />
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See more of Anne Stevenson's revelations on the AFCC's operation in Connecticut:<br />
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<a href="http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/speaking-family/2013/may/20/ct-judicial-branch-vendors-operated-court-employee/">http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/speaking-family/2013/may/20/ct-judicial-branch-vendors-operated-court-employee/</a><br />
<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-38515415677498687572014-06-02T12:09:00.000-04:002016-05-14T08:30:31.362-04:00What William Holt’s Disciplinary Hearing Shows About Rhode Island<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXX8QkQaCl5zX3cSPo7NT6pqUYxjZFf9SfpR4ZV-Vbo_v_UjZNuTFCeVOHHxjDqEwBidlh3aYXTdlXS94v-6nDc9daWvZzc5YIYzIa2WO38nwvmGXeq6fWL4KpmTaN6EUDyfOAog3Lpmw/s1600/IMG_2098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXX8QkQaCl5zX3cSPo7NT6pqUYxjZFf9SfpR4ZV-Vbo_v_UjZNuTFCeVOHHxjDqEwBidlh3aYXTdlXS94v-6nDc9daWvZzc5YIYzIa2WO38nwvmGXeq6fWL4KpmTaN6EUDyfOAog3Lpmw/s1600/IMG_2098.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On May 30th, attorney <b>William F. Holt</b> admitted violating the
Rhode Island Supreme Court’s <i>Disciplinary
Rules of Professional Conduct.</i> His hearing before a 3-member panel of the
Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board summarized the violations: <i>ex parte</i> communications with a judge;
removing divorce documents from the clerk’s office; filing a motion that misrepresented
an order of the court; compounding litigation in multiple courts; and endangering
a litigant by enabling her estranged husband to enter her home despite his
psychiatric history and guns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These kinds of offenses are all too common in Family Court. The
uncommon aspects of Holt’s hearing were that a judge finally censured him for
fraud on the court and referred him to the Disciplinary Counsel and that the
Disciplinary Counsel followed through with charges and negotiated a settlement –
the equivalent of a plea bargain. The panel may now recommend to the Supreme
Court that Holt’s license to practice law be suspended. <s><o:p></o:p></s></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1993, when I was executive director of the Women’s Center
of Rhode Island, we examined our successes and failures in order to improve our
effectiveness helping families escape domestic violence. We gathered a group of
mothers who had succeeded in protecting their children from violence at home
only to find that Family Court exposed them to greater danger. Their complaints
frequently focused on Bill Holt, a protégé of the Chief Judge of Family Court,
<b>Jeremiah S. Jeremiah, Jr.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Holt and Jeremiah belonged to a group we called “the
Cranston Cabal” from their years in the administration of Mayor <b>Edward DiPrete</b>, who
became governor and then promoted the man he called his “closest friend,” Jeremiah,
his executive counsel, to the top position at Family Court. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">DiPrete later pled guilty to eighteen felonies, avoiding
a trial that would have implicated others in his circle, and went to prison.
Jeremiah faced his own ethical issues relating to his Cranston office building
and business dealings with his tenants, including Holt, whose favored status
with the Chief of Family Court made him a force to be feared. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Among the conflicts in cases I documented, Holt and
Attorneys <b>John Tarrantino</b> and <b>Patricia Rocha</b>—the same two who represented Holt at
his disciplinary hearing—hammered out a questionable insurance scheme to
benefit their clients. They persuaded Rocha’s father, the late Judge <b>Gilbert
Rocha</b>, to block the insurance investigators’ access to court records. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Holt’s conduct in that case displayed the same “zealousness”
he described to the disciplinary panel on Friday. He called it his “passion for
the law.” He described his thrill at strategizing and mental gymnastics. “I had
the world by the tail,” he said, before this “tragedy” struck when he was
finally censured. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His colleague of eight years, <b>Catherine E. Graziano</b>, offered
a revealing memory at the hearing. She and Holt had met on opposite sides of a
divorce case. Later he called out of the blue asking her to join the firm he planned
to start. She agreed to think about it, but was astonished when Holt called back
to say he had put up his sign on Reservoir Avenue, and it already had her name
on it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">His style of coercive control over colleagues and clients
apparently affected judges, too. The disciplinary panel heard of a judge who
could have censured Holt but merely scolded: “I’m not going to sanction you,
but don’t let this happen again.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In one case, not part of Friday’s hearing, a mother had planned
to sue Holt for malpractice after he had let her divorce order go through despite
its reference to a settlement agreement that did not exist. When she
complained, Chief Judge Jeremiah would not let her leave court until she had signed
that agreement. The court never dealt with the real problems she and her child
faced. Her street was shut down for the bomb squad to remove chemical explosives
her husband had stored in their basement. Another state later suspended her ex-husband's medical license after his felony convictions for sexually abusive
child pornography. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The real tragedy is not Holt’s brush with justice but that Rhode
Island’s Family Court functions largely as a patronage mill, rewarding
political insiders with appointments as judges, magistrates, and court
personnel. The Court seldom gets to the issues that endanger families, and
William Holt’s hearing illustrates why. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For years I was told that the Disciplinary Counsel would not
charge attorneys for ethics violations like Holt’s unless there was clear financial
malfeasance. At Holt’s hearing, Deputy Disciplinary Counsel <b>Barbara Margolis</b>
said, “I can’t figure out why he did these things,” because it was “not for
personal profit.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course it was. Family Court lawyers in Rhode
Island have a limited number of families to charge their billable hours. These
common methods of dragging out cases are tools for holding the world by the
tail and winning by attrition, not rule of law. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><b>UPDATE: </b>The Disciplinary Counsel
suggested a one-year suspension of Holt’s license, but the Supreme Court
imposed a three-year suspension in November 2014, saying he “showed a
persistent pattern of deceiving judges.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After studying Rhode Island divorce cases that cost families
hundreds of thousands of dollars, I was astonished when a Florida attorney told
me she charges a flat $4,000 plus court fees for divorce and custody cases, and
they are usually done within a year. Rhode Island is long overdue for its judges
and Disciplinary Counsel to censure and charge the flagrant ethical violations
in Family Court. </span><br />
<br /></div>
Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-74694109985155064692014-02-02T12:35:00.000-05:002014-02-02T12:41:57.355-05:00What Woody Allen and DCYF have in common: Children Who Remember<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxh5Jwgi7j3dxxnLsep6jJjk_WclKaCVNES_f4YhRYwmBliJq0k-7JcL4yTVZl1LvE4Wirn12xVw_5mRyv61hGAbpVoHhPgNNyTNiw-arzPChNOvco-71z1uL5ERI1Xv_Mz0_uTa4bNE/s1600/dylan-farrow-blog480-v3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxxh5Jwgi7j3dxxnLsep6jJjk_WclKaCVNES_f4YhRYwmBliJq0k-7JcL4yTVZl1LvE4Wirn12xVw_5mRyv61hGAbpVoHhPgNNyTNiw-arzPChNOvco-71z1uL5ERI1Xv_Mz0_uTa4bNE/s1600/dylan-farrow-blog480-v3.jpg" height="298" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Thanks to Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times for publishing an open letter from Dylan Farrow about her famous adoptive father, Woody Allen, and the sexual abuse she remembers from more than two decades ago, when she was 7:</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both;">
<a href="http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/">http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/</a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) washed their hands of two sisters, "Sara" and "Molly," after taking them from a devoted mother when they were 9 and 5. DCYF held them in foster homes and separated them in a state shelter for more than a year, before giving them to their father -- even though the girls had accused him of kicking their mother down the stairs and playing "sausage games." </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
I have seen the huge red erect penis the older child drew years ago. It was unforgettable and too graphic to post. I have posted the younger girl's portrait of their father grinning as he ejaculated. It is hard to imagine how their mother could have brainwashed these images into her daughters as their father's lawyer argued. A cabal of women lawyers and mental health experts earned tens of thousands of dollars in their campaign to take these girls from their mother. The father had money; the mother did not.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
It's too bad the case now being heard in federal court against DCYF </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/news/courts/20140201-rhode-island-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-against-department-of-children-youth-and-families.ece">http://www.providencejournal.com/news/courts/20140201-rhode-island-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit-against-department-of-children-youth-and-families.ece</a> could not have included Sara and Molly and the case documents referenced throughout our LittleHostages blog, including</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html">http://littlehostages.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-did-lise-iwon-do-it.html</a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
DCYF worked hard to rid its system of this case and these children. I believe the girls now live in France with their father. I do not know whether they see their mother at all. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
But I know this: they are growing up. "Sara" will turn 18 this year. I hope that she and "Molly," like Dylan Farrow, will know how many of us always believed they were telling the truth. From my interviews, police believed them. I have scores of letters written by neighbors who knew and believed them. The relatives of their child care provider believed them. Some staff at DCYF believed them, but feared for their jobs. </div>
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<br /></div>
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We will keep confronting the system that failed Sara, Molly, and countless children as well as the parents who tried to protect them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
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<div>
<br /></div>
Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-7288278034752526282014-01-29T09:22:00.000-05:002014-01-29T09:22:09.650-05:00An important letter sets an example for retired state workers to help children and youth<h2 class="storyHeadline" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: 100; margin: 0px 5px; padding: 2px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Delaware's Family Law Commission encouraged formation of the Blue Ribbon Task Force that is reviewing state policies to make recommendations regarding Family Court. A long-time social worker wrote this letter. </i><i>We need more retirees to promote specific reforms of state agencies and court systems. Along with our concerns about Rhode Island's Family Court and Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), we are interested in hearing confidentially from those with experience inside the Training School. </i></span></h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2 class="storyHeadline" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 100; margin: 0px 5px; padding: 2px; position: relative;">
<a href="http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/family-court-from-social-workers-perspective/1099790" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.22em;">http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/family-court-from-social-workers-perspective/1099790</a></h2>
<h2 class="storyHeadline" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 100; margin: 0px 5px; padding: 2px; position: relative;">
Family Court from social worker's perspective</h2>
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By Brendan Buschi | Jan 21, 2014<div class="addthis_default_style right" style="float: right; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The following letter was sent to the Family Court task force with a copy submitted to the Cape Gazette for publication.</em></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
My name is Brendan Buschi. I have lived in Delaware since 1996. I am semi-retired and currently reside in Milton. I have been continuously licensed as an independent social work practitioner since 1975. I have had clinical licenses in New York, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland and Delaware. At various times I have testified in family court proceedings in all of the above mentioned states plus New Hampshire.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
I have received a mental health advocate award in New York State and the distinguished alumni award from my graduate school. I have served as an advisor to the Suffolk County Health Committee in New York and was appointed by Gov. Minner to Delaware’s Child Placement Review Board.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
I am no stranger to Family Court. My perspective has been formed by my experiences in six states. Whether Family Court proceedings should be “open” or held behind “closed doors” should depend upon what is most likely to benefit the children whose lives are severely impacted by what happens in Family Court.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
The most common outcome I have observed over the years I have functioned as both an active and expert witness at these proceedings is the further, long term abuse of the children involved.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Children are the victims of their parents’ actions in regards to family court matters. They are not the only victims, but they are the most vulnerable victims. Providing an advocate for the child does not seem to change the distress heaped upon the children as a result of Family Court proceedings.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
The issues of child support and child custody are the overriding issues at Family Court. Regardless of how the lawyers spin their clients’ cases, money and property are the underlying concerns. Children are the cannon fodder. Children are just part of the property to be settled.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Once in New Hampshire, I advised a Family Court judge that a particular child was at risk. I testified that what was going on in the court was only making matters worse. The judge was none too happy with my assessment and dismissed my recommendations.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Three years later when the child committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in a parking lot the judge and attorneys and advocate and other contributors to this tragedy were nowhere to be found.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
This certainly was the worst outcome I personally observed from any Family Court hearing I attended. Other outcomes resulted in physical and sexual abuse of children. I’ve seen children lose their extended families, friends and neighbors. It is not uncommon for children to become estranged from one parent or one set of grandparents and assorted uncles and aunts, cousins and even siblings.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
I cannot help but feel that opening up family court proceeding to the light of day would be a significant inhibitor to the disturbing things that go on in those courts. That is certainly not the only thing that needs to be done, but it is the single thing that will set the stage for how the various Family Court actors behave.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Most muggings take place on dark streets and alleyways.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Finally, I would like to say that I have had decades of experience with the issue of client “confidentiality.” While I agree that this is an important issue, I regret to say that I have most often seen the issue raised by practitioners who seek to avoid accountability for the various malpractices they themselves have been guilty of.</div>
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Make no mistake, what takes place in Family Court reverberates in the households, schools and communities throughout Delaware. Poor school performance, poor work performance, crime, substance abuse, and severe, incapacitating emotional distress are just some of the Family Court byproducts.</div>
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Ask yourself “who always gains from Family Court proceedings?” The judges, the lawyers, the therapists, and the advocates always come away with a financial benefit. You can’t say the same for the children.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Brendan Buschi, MSW, LCSW (retired)<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Milton, DE</strong></div>
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-9610768068188843142014-01-10T15:18:00.002-05:002014-01-10T15:20:28.231-05:00The Disciplinary Counsel seeks Supreme Court action against Attorney William Holt <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140108-disciplinary-counsel-accuses-r.i.-lawyer-of-misconduct-in-divorce-cases.ece">http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140108-disciplinary-counsel-accuses-r.i.-lawyer-of-misconduct-in-divorce-cases.ece</a><br />
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Disciplinary counsel accuses R.I. lawyer of misconduct in divorce cases</h1>
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PROVIDENCE — The Supreme Court disciplinary counsel accuses well-known Family Court lawyer William F. Holt of professional misconduct over his handling of four divorce cases.</div>
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Chief Disciplinary Counsel David D. Curtin last week petitioned the Supreme Court disciplinary board to consider taking action against Holt. He asks that the disciplinary board hear testimony on the allegations.</div>
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The petition outlines instances in which Holt is accused of misleading Family Court judges by submitting orders that had not been agreed to by the parties. In one case, Holt is alleged to have removed a divorce filing from the clerk’s office, thus delaying his client from being served and allowing the client the opportunity to remove items from the home.</div>
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Holt’s lawyer, John A. Tarantino, said Holt “is going to contest each of the allegations and present his side of the story.”</div>
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If the board finds Holt committed violations, it could recommend that sanctions ranging from censure to disbarment be imposed. It could also dismiss the complaint.</div>
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In the case of Brian and Lynn Auclair, Holt is alleged in June to have presented Magistrate John J. O’Brien with a proposed “consent order” to sign that authorized Brian to enter their home and remove any items he chose. Holt represented Brian, who had filed for divorce a year earlier after Lynn obtained an order granting her exclusive use of the home and barring Brian from contacting her. Brian was given a date, in July 2012, to retrieve his belongings.</div>
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The petition states that Holt failed to notify Lynn’s lawyer about the proposed order allowing Brian access to the home. Lynn became aware of the order when Brian was found in her house.</div>
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In the case of Michelle and Dennis Bonnollo, Holt is accused of removing Michelle’s divorce filing from the clerk’s office, and, as a result, disrupting the distribution of the couple’s assets.</div>
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Michelle’s lawyer, Lois Iannone, filed for divorce on her client’s behalf in late June. On July 8, Michelle told Iannone that Dennis had assaulted her and removed 95 percent of the belongings from their house.</div>
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Iannone obtained a protective order on Michelle’s behalf, the petition states. Iannone learned from Holt, Dennis’ lawyer, at the courthouse that he had taken the divorce filings from the clerk’s office. That meant that Dennis was not served with the papers. As a result, Michelle was denied court protections with regard to their possessions, the petition says.</div>
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In Melissa and Anthony Pallini’s divorce, Holt is accused of presenting Judge Laureen A. D’Ambra in September 2012 with an order to sign that was significantly different from the divorce terms finalized 11 years earlier.</div>
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Holt, Melissa’s lawyer, did not notify Anthony about any proposed changes, the petition states. Anthony learned of the revisions when the Town of Johnston altered the pension he had been receiving as a retired assistant fire chief.</div>
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Holt then, according to the petition, failed to inform Melissa about court action Anthony took to have that order vacated. Judge John E. McCann III vacated the order after finding that Holt had committed fraud upon the court.</div>
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The final case involves Gregory and Jessyca Colembowski’s divorce. Holt is alleged to have misrepresented D’Ambra’s June ruling that Jessyca “may stay” with her parents in Florida pending a hearing once school for her three children let out. Instead, Holt is accused of preparing an order that his client, Jessyca, “shall be allowed to relocate to the state of Florida” with the three minor children.</div>
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D’Ambra in July reaffirmed that she had not authorized the relocation of the children after Gregory’s lawyer, Arthur Read, raised objections. D’Ambra found that Holt had misrepresented her earlier bench decision.</div>
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-54068060584553670032013-12-07T12:23:00.003-05:002016-03-21T14:02:14.501-04:00Gift of the Mommies, A True Story<br />
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A military mom discovers her 2-year-old son has been sexually abused while she was gone.<br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Gift of the Mommies<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
by
Anne Grant</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Christmas always makes
it worse. Pictures of Mary embracing her baby Jesus remind mothers like “Grace”
in Rhode Island and “Claire” in Massachusetts of the children they lost to abusers
in America’s failed family courts. Their sons were nine in 2009, when they met
in a support group I ran. Claire noticed Grace sitting silently across the room
in rumpled blue scrubs with dark circles under her eyes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
That December, for
the first time in five years, a judge let Grace keep her son, “Benjamin,” overnight
on Christmas Eve. The boy wanted to spend Christmas day with her, too, but the
judge said he must return to his father, a troubled man with influential
connections who often left the boy home alone. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace blew kisses
and waved goodbye, then went home in tears to spend Christmas in bed with
full-blown symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Her phone rang. It was Claire
inviting her to Massachusetts. If they could not be with their sons that day,
at least they could be together. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace climbed out
of bed with a bold idea. She looked through Benjamin’s toys and found a brand
new one for Claire’s son. What 9-year-old would not adore an archeologist’s
tool kit for digging up dinosaurs?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Claire, a veteran
of three wars since 1990, flew in Panama, the Persian Gulf, and Iraq. Though she
holds a medal for meritorious service, she could not protect her two-year-old
son, “Connor,” from the sexual abuse he described in agitated baby talk when
she got home from Iraq. Family court resists mothers who introduce evidence of
child sex abuse. Claire’s husband and his sister won custody of Connor. Claire had
not seen the boy for three years. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
It took Grace ninety
minutes to drive to Claire’s home and another half hour to convince her it was
time to see her son. Claire knew Connor would love the archaeologist tools. She
wrapped the present carefully, adding Connor’s favorite stickers and a
Christmas card. She included the birthday card she had not been allowed to give
him. She put on her prettiest mommy clothes--a red and black fleece jacket,
warm pants, and snow boots. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Bundled into Grace’s
car, Claire asked quietly: "How are we going to do this?” Grace wasn't
sure. Claire had no restraining order against her, just years of legal abuse
and abiding fear that if she got close to her son’s father and aunt, she would
kill them for what they were doing to her son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The father’s house
was dark when they got there. Grace drove around it and saw no sign that a
child lived inside. They discovered the father’s car parked at his sister’s
home. Grace knew they needed a police officer, or they would get blamed for
something they did not do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The mommies
searched for a squad car. Grace pulled out her business card and told the
officer she was a psychologist. She had tried to contact the father, but he was
not home. She wanted the boy to see his mother on Christmas. Shouldn’t every
child have that right? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The officer
quizzed them and finally agreed to go along. Grace asked him not to stand nearby
for fear of alarming the child. He watched from just beyond the next house. By
then streetlights were coming on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Instead of going
to the door, Claire stood by Grace’s car under the streetlight looking
radiantly beautiful in her mommy clothes. Her prematurely white hair flared out
like luminescent angel wings. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace took
Claire’s present to the back door. She rang the bell and held her breath. A
scurry of young feet sounded inside. The door opened, and Connor stood before
her. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace smiled and handed
him the present: "Connor, this is from your mommy. If you look over my
shoulder, she is standing there under the light." He leaned forward, his
eyes searching. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
"That’s my
mommy!" Connor exclaimed, and Grace replied: "Yes, that’s your mommy."
He waved frantically, and Claire waved back laughing and weeping. No matter
what scary things they had told him about her, he was not afraid. Grace felt the
enormity of their love and thought of her own son.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
"Nooooo!"
A screech erupted as the boy’s aunt barreled toward the door. She snatched the box
from his hands. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace spoke firmly
to the woman: "Look over my right shoulder. A police officer is there for
us, and I will call him if I need to.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Pulling the boy
away, the aunt retreated into the house. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grace reached her
car and turned to see an unnerving sight. Connor had squeezed behind the
Christmas tree by the big window in the living room and pressed his fingers to
the glass as if drowning in a submerged car against an unyielding weight of
water. He pressed so hard she could see the whites of his hands. He leaned in,
pushing his face and his entire body against the window for one last look. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Claire stood under
the streetlight waving and weeping. Suddenly the house went dark; the boy
disappeared. Claire got into Grace’s car and they pulled away. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The mommies had
delivered their gift. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
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<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-9196964405335113072013-08-18T17:22:00.000-04:002013-08-18T17:26:00.403-04:00John E. McCann III, William F. Holt, John A. Tarantino, and Fraud on the Court<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130807-r.i.-family-court-judge-finds-lawyer-abused-process-in-handling-of-divorce-case.ece">http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130807-r.i.-family-court-judge-finds-lawyer-abused-process-in-handling-of-divorce-case.ece</a><br />
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My last post applauded Associate Justice <b>John E. McCann III </b>for finding Attorney <b>William F. Holt</b> had committed fraud on the court. Those of us who have tracked fraud on the court in other cases often notice the "cabals of court" -- those officers who keep showing up together as thick as thieves.<br />
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Holt and his attorney, <b>John A. Tarantino</b>, were featured in another case, along with Attorney <b>Patricia K. Rocha</b>, whose father Associate Justice <b>Gilbert T. Rocha</b> ruled on a case (K01-0521M), in which his daughter and Tarantino, representing Textron, persuaded the judge to scare off investigators. On July 13, 2004, a woman stood in the courtroom to denounce them all for insurance fraud, and Holt sent a ream of papers flying into the air -- one of the finest performances of judicial distraction I have ever seen. </div>
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I wrote more about that case, along with another one (K01-0503), here: </div>
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<a href="http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2012/03/cabals-of-court-part-2-cranston-cabal.html">http://custodyscam.blogspot.com/2012/03/cabals-of-court-part-2-cranston-cabal.html</a></div>
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If you want more details (since your tax money is paying for this interminable fraud on the court), check these links: </div>
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<a href="http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3a-case-study.html">http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3a-case-study.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3b-case-study.html">http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3b-case-study.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3c-case-study.html">http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3c-case-study.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3d-case-study.html">http://trophychild.blogspot.com/2010/08/3d-case-study.html</a></div>
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As always, I am writing in hope that other judges will use their authority to stop the widespread abuses of Family Court. If I have made any mistakes, I will gladly correct them. Let me know at ParentingProject @ verizon.net </div>
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-54339598320046838852013-08-07T17:13:00.000-04:002013-08-07T17:13:23.143-04:00Bill Holt finally gets caught committing fraud on the court<a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130807-r.i.-family-court-judge-finds-lawyer-abused-process-in-handling-of-divorce-case.ece" target="_blank">http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130807-r.i.-family-court-judge-finds-lawyer-abused-process-in-handling-of-divorce-case.ece</a><br />
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Thank you, Judge McCann. (This reminds me of the Textron Case a dozen years ago and the glaring areas of dysfunction in Rhode Island's Family Court. More to come.) <br />
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<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-18492470601722425352013-07-13T07:59:00.000-04:002013-07-16T14:10:00.554-04:00CBS Atlanta gets the story: child sexual abuse ignored by family court<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jeff Chirico at CBS Atlanta makes the connection between money paid to court officials and the state's legal abuse of children.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22820142/investigation-custody-expert-charges-133000-recommends-girl-live-with-alleged-abuser" target="_blank">http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22820142/investigation-custody-expert-charges-133000-recommends-girl-live-with-alleged-abuser</a><br />
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<br />Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3251248475029015666.post-3871370225549284142013-07-09T20:46:00.000-04:002013-07-09T20:46:12.820-04:00Shame on the judges who fail to look at the evidence of child abuse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22786860/protestors-judges-are-putting-children-back-with-abusers" target="_blank">http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/22786860/protestors-judges-are-putting-children-back-with-abusers</a><br />
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<span id="WNStoryDateline" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;">ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -</span><br />
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About two dozen protestors held signs and wore neon green shirts that read "Shame on you, Judge Goger" and "Shame on you, Judge Lane" as they marched outside the Fulton County Courthouse Monday.</div>
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge John Goger came under fire because of a recent order requiring a 10-year-old girl to live with her father, who was twice arrested for abusing her in a recent custody hearing.</div>
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CBS Atlanta News is not using the names of the parties to protect the child.</div>
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The mother of the girl told CBS Atlanta News reporter Jeff Chirico that she believes the judge did not consider the evidence and was influenced by her ex-husband's attorney.</div>
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Criminal charges against the girl's father were dropped for lack of evidence, but according to court records and the mother, five independent assessments supported the girl's story of repeated abuse.</div>
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Despite the allegations, the custody evaluator and court-appointed guardian ad litem, recommended the child be placed in the father's home because the mother was subconsciously "re victimizing" the child.</div>
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Deb Beacham, executive director of My Advocate Center, a resource group on child custody issues, said this isn't the only case in which a judge has placed a child back with his or her alleged abuser.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">She said she believes judges sometimes consider their relationships with attorneys rather than what is in the best interest of the child.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"The judges are loyal to the relationships they have with attorneys and custody experts rather than heeding the evidence of the case and the needs of the children," said Beacham.</span></div>
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According to Beacham, the guardian ad litem in the case of the 10-year-old girl has charged the family $150,000 for his services.</div>
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"Why would a guardian ad litem make $150,000 suppressing evidence? Why would a custody evaluator make $65,000 on a case where the evidence is overwhelming?" asked Beacham.</div>
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"They don't need to make that kind of money, when they're preventing a child from being protected."</div>
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Goger's judicial assistant told CBS Atlanta News that he has no comment.</div>
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Protestors also railed Goger's fellow family court judge, Bensonetta Lane, for recent rulings that they said put children in danger and hurt relationships between children and a parent.</div>
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One father, who wanted to remain anonymous, said Lane drastically slashed his custodial time given by a judge in another state "to zero. For no reason. I didn't see my children for a whole month."</div>
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"It is strictly politics, hidden influence, backroom dealings," said Beacham.</div>
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She said she is asking Goger to sit down with the evidence and the experts that did the forensic evaluations. </div>
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"We can't hide evidence. We can't hide damage to children," said Beacham. </div>
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<em>Copyright 2013 <a href="http://www.cbsatlanta.com/" style="color: #005795; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">WGCL-TV</a> (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.</em></div>
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Anne Granthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00027601171660269956noreply@blogger.com