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This is a repost from another BADASS blogger, Randi James…important information for anyone in California that has had to deal with a corrupt whore of the court, Janelle Burill. The intent of the blogging is to expose the corruption of family court everywhere. If we need to take down the corruption one official at a time so be it. Family court and it’s whores have underestimated the power of a woman….that was your first mistake among many that are coming…because payback IS a bitch…and a mother too.
Payback is a Bitch
I’d like to dedicate this to that special person that likes to Google their name and then get gag orders placed on bloggers:
The first step in exposing a corrupt MFT or LCSW is usually the filing of a complaint with BBS –
{ To : Enforcement Analyst Board of Behavioral Sciences 1625 North Market Blvd, Suite S200, Sacramento, CA 95834. Tel 916-574-7830 http://www.bbs.ca.gov Ref : Fraud & Misconduct by Janelle Burrill LCS 16216 }
A small percent of valid complaints are investigated by the Boards enforcement analysts and actions taken. Serious misconduct that justifies revocation of license and requires further criminal investigation is sent to the Division of Consumer Affairs, Division of Investigation – They are tasked to conduct a detailed investigation and their findings with details are given back to the BBS for action. BBS sends the findings with evidence to the Attorney General’s office for prosecution along with either interim or permanent suspension orders.
There are many complaints against Burrill. Her perjury, fraudulent practices are exposed with evidence that she or her lawyer husband cannot hide, suppress any more. It is with law enforcement and the people who are supposed to protect consumers have seen and heard it. The complaint against Burrill is being actively investigated by a small team of senior investigators at the Division of Investigators since April 2009. Its been six months and they have uncovered necessary and sufficient evidence and are in the process of sending in their findings. If you are a victim – You can supplement their case and send your complaint with any factual evidence of Burrills fraud directly to the investigators – address below
{To : Senior Investigator, Department of Consumer Affairs
Division of Investigation, 444 North 3rd Street, Suite 201, Sacramento, CA 95811 Tel : 916-324-1497
Ref : Fraud & Misconduct by Janelle Burrill LCS 16216}
Burrill is exposed and her corrupt ways will end soon (Another couple of months). We are optimistic that her ability to harm California families especially children will end. All her prior reports and recommendations to the courts will be thrown out. Prepare yourself – The AG’s report on Burrill is public content and you can call BBS or DCA and get a copy to go back to the courts on any bull shit, fraud she served the courts in her career.
If you are in Sacramento or Placer County then you can send a letter to the District Attorney for their help as-well.
Jan Scully, Sacramento DA, 901 G Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Bradford R Fenocchio, Placer County DA, 10810 Justice Center Drive, Suite #240, Roseville, CA 95678
Be optimistic, don’t give up – Lets get the facts in to the DCA investigators so we can see Burrill in handcuffs for Christmas
JUST SOME OF THE VICTIMS OF BURILL
Let me count the ways…..
It has now come the stand off between my child and the county putting me in jail.
If my crime is protecting my child when she says she’s scared to go to her fathers because he drinks and so does grandma.
When my child told me that she is made to sleep on grandmas living room floor or if she does not like that, she may chose to sleep in the unfinished basement.
She tells me of both her father and grandmother taking her to the bar, drinking and then when they left the bar, grandma got into the wrong car. There was even a witness, several of them that watched as two drunks left a bar with a worried looking girl.
When the child that wet the bed constantly stopped since she refused to go back to him. The child that tells me she doesn’t believe they will put me in jail, that says she would go instead of me. If I have gotten this far and put in jail by the same county that did nothing to protect my daughter from her drunk driving sexual abusive father in 2006. You know who you are and I know what you are and if you think I have contempt for you, you are correct.
I have NOTHING BUT CONTEMPT, DISDAIN AND DISGUST FOR ALL OF YOU
Hon. Frank M. Calvert, Oconto County Family Court Commissioner
Hon. David G. Miron, Marinette County Circuit Court Judge
Attorney/GAL Aaron Krzewinski, Oconto County
Child Protection Worker, Carrie Silbernagel-Burke Oconto County
Hon. Francis Boyle, Marinette County Family Court Commissioner
Psychologist, Michael Mervilde, Green Bay WI
Counselor, Jennifer Werner, Green Bay WI
and my daughter also feels contempt when she grows up and she will thank you for making her who she will become…..your worst nightmare….a child out for revenge for jailing her mother and not protecting either of us when we needed it most. See the wheels of abuse do go round and round. Our bond will never be broken she and I are the same and you can try but you will never succeed.
F**** YOU CPS
EVEN IF CPS HASN’T PROTECTED YOU DEAR DAUGHTER….THERE IS HOPE
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2130034
B.C. incest victim awarded $600,000 judgment
Keith Fraser, Canwest News Service
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A 19-year-old Victoria woman who suffered horrific sex assaults at the hands of her father has been awarded nearly $600,000 in damages.
The girl, identified only as C.C.B. in a B.C. Supreme Court ruling, sued her father, identified only as I.B., over sex assaults that occurred while she was between the ages of about five and nine years old.
The crimes were reported to police in 1999 and after a 19-day criminal trial, I.B. was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released from prison in 2008, but for the civil lawsuit he chose not to appear or be represented by a lawyer.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Victoria Gray concluded that the victim suffers from an anxiety disorder, depression and intrusive thoughts about the abuse, lack of trust in others and low self-esteem and educational underachievement.
The judge said the plaintiff was entitled to a “significant” award of damages because of the severity of the abuse and the many aggravating factors.
“The defendant was the plaintiff’s natural father and sole custodial parent, and in a relationship of trust,” said the judge. “The plaintiff had little support from anyone else, because the defendant kept her from school and insisted that she spend time with him, and as a result the plaintiff was extremely vulnerable.”
The plaintiff was awarded $250,000 for pain and suffering, $300,000 for future earning capacity and $41,800 for cost of future care. Though the defendant did not appear at trial, his father recently passed away and the judge said the inheritance is available to be applied to the judgment.
Canwest News Service
Who am I? I’m a Mother and I’m the most deadliest woman on the face of the earth
After years of abuse, threats, coercion and colluding with my abuser one woman is taking on a county (two actually) who have tried very hard to break her and her child. What they don’t know is that the Mother that they decided to use their underhanded tactics on isn’t from around these parts. She’s a warrior…and just like Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill…her enemies made her stronger.
So thank you Oconto County for giving me the strength, courage and tenacity to fight for my child and for what is right. Thank you Marinette County for helping me realize that you will never stop colluding with my abuser and for that I will never shut up, give up or go away. My child also has learned from your tactics and you will NEVER break the bonds between us…you have made us stronger….to face our abuser that you allow to stalk us in family court. The days of the corruption, collusion and cronyism is numbered for your ilk. Soon my daughter WILL be of age and I hope she sues ALL of your asses for failing to protect her when you had the chance….but for now….you should all remember that……
YOU NEVER GET BETWEEN A LIONESS AND HER CUB
I stopped watching “The View” years ago…before the obnoxious Elizabeth Hasselbeck. I almost started watching it when Rosie came on board but then again was too painful to watch a grown woman be bullied by the annoying, right wing, baby making machine that they still pay to be on that show…ugh.
It wasn’t just that person in particular that annoyed me it was their whole “View” on everything…which is not the “VIEW” of all women as they seem to tout themselves as being. After the Rosie O’Donnell debacle and spectacle that Barbara Wawa took NO ownership over…she brought in “Whoopi”.
The one an only “Sister Act” that came into America’s heart as a maverick…speaker of the truth..that is until last week when my heart stopped as I watched her say that Roman Polanski didn’t commit “Rape Rape”.
HUH? Not only were her words and verbiage dangerous to women but to 13 year old girls that may go through the same situation as the Polanski victim and think..well..it wasn’t “Rape Rape”.
This has only solidified my VIEW that Ms. Walters and her crew need to get another view. They do no justice for women or children for that matter.
Their VIEWS are slanted, tainted and just as fucked up as a man forcing himself upon a 13 year old in any shape of form.
It’s unfortunate that Ms. Goldberg doesn’t realize that Polanski is a pedophile “poster boy” and has been for years. He never did any time, he went on the lam…still made movies, won awards, and now he’s caught and Hollywood is in an uproar? The real VIEW of women is that if he did nothing wrong, no rape rape then why run? Why not “man up” and face your “alleged” crime?
Fuck you Whoopi…and your little view too.
Anyone that doubts that women get treated like shit in court will have their eyes opened to this. It appears that Judge Jerkoff is as reprehensible as any Family/Divorce Court Judge I’ve had the “pleasure” of meeting.
Lawyer Says Judge Masturbated at Hearing, Carried Out Vendetta When She
Complained
By JOE HARRISKANSAS CITY, Kan. (CN) – A district court judge appeared to be
masturbating and used foul language during a divorce mediation, an attorney
claims in Federal Court. The attorney claims Judge Kevin P. Moriarty’s
actions were so offensive even her estranged husband complained about it
during their divorce trial.
Kimberly Ireland claims that while mediating, Judge Kevin P. Moriarty
tried to discuss her underwear and her sex life, though neither was relevant
to the divorce matter. And she claims that “Moriarty appeared to be
masturbating during the mediation..”
Ireland says that Moriarty’s actions were so outrageous that her
estranged husband Kevin testified about them at the divorce trial.
Ireland says she filed a complaint about Moriarty’s behavior on Oct. 3,
2007 with the Kansas Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
In response to her complaint, she says, Moriarty launched his own
investigation into her private life and discussed her with the judge
presiding over her divorce case and with the opposing counsel.
Ireland claims Moriarty used his power to influence her divorce
proceeding, to start an ethical investigation of her and to have court
personnel write false letters to the commission attacking her and claiming
that Moriarty did nothing wrong.
On Nov. 15, 2007, the Kansas Commission on Judicial Qualifications
filed an ethical complaint against Ireland, claiming she made false
accusations about Moriarty, though it never conducted an investigation into
her claims, according to her complaint.
Ireland said Attorney Edward Byrne, at Moriarty’s request, filed a
complaint with the commission against her on Dec. 12, 2007.
Moriarty served as an investigator for the Kansas Disciplinary
Administrator for 15 years and serves on the Tenth Judicial District
Judicial Nominating Commission that appoints Johnson County District Court
judges. The Johnson County Board of Commissioners is named as a defendant
because it was put on notice of Moriarty’s actions, but allegedly took no
action.
Ireland says she suffered loss of income, reputation, inconvenience,
insult, mental distress, embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety and emotional
pain and suffering as a result of Moriarty’s actions. She seeks punitive
damages.
http://www.kctv5.com/news/21165277/detail.html
“Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.” St. Joan of Arc
“I AM NOT AFRAID, I WAS BORN TO DO THIS”
St. Joan of Arc & Mama Liberty
“My child and I have been threatened and intimidated by the possibility that I may go to jail and be held in contempt due to my child refusing to have visitation with her abusive father and she may go to foster care.” Her father has told her this over and over again, as well as Judge David Miron.
This is not the first time that this mother has had to protect her child from the father. Oconto County CPS did substantiate sexual abuse allegations against the the father, he found a loop hole and had the recused Family Court Commissioner, Frank M. Calvert unsubstantiated the sexual abuse allegations.
The system has failed my child, from Oconto County and its CPS worker, Carrie Silbernagel-Burke to Marinette County Circuit Court Judge, David Miron.
This father does not have the means to care for her. She has no bed or a bedroom due to the fact he lives with his mother who only has two bedrooms.
The 11 yr old child is given the choice to sleep either on the floor in the living room or down in the basement. She has no privacy or space to call her own while she is in her fathers care. She is continually tormented and tortured by both her paternal grandmother and father, this is nothing new.
This child has been exposed to domestic violence by her father towards her mother several times. She was also a passenger in his car when he was arrested for driving drunk in the middle of the day. The CPS worker, Carrie Silbernagel-Burke told the mother:
“drinking and driving with his daughter did not make him a bad father, he made a bad choice.”
This was nothing compared to the sexual abuse my child endured and other court ordered abuse.
My child has taken her stand against her abuser, the court ordered abuse and threats of foster care by Judge David Miron.
My child is not an empty vessel, she KNOWS where she is safe. She has not lied to social workers, even with her father prodding her to.
All her needs are provided by her loving Mother and she knows that
“I am not going to shut up, give up or go away!”
“My only wish is for my daughter to be safe and sane.”
If this mother is jailed for doing what any mother would do for her child
the consequences to my accusers and judges will be as follows.
There will be a hunger strike (Troscadh), and all the battles up until now were training for we intend to win the war and expose the dirty little secrets of family court and the criminals that run it.
Change
Everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights, battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best
You’ve got to be the best
You’ve got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is nowChange
Everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles ‘ve begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best
You’ve got to be the best
You’ve got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Don’t
Let yourself down
Don’t let yourself go
Your last chance has arrived
Best
You’ve got to be the best
You’ve got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
What the “Father Rights” Joke about? Below is a joke found on FR group…..how appropos….since they’re always complaining about how much child support they have to pay.
Tired of constantly being broke & stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young husband decided to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy on his wife with himself as the beneficiary, and then arranging to have her killed.
A ‘friend of a friend’ put him in touch with a nefarious dark-side underworld figure who went by the name of ‘Artie.’ Artie then explained to the husband that his going price for snuffing out a spouse was $5,000. The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but that he wouldn’t have any cash on hand until he could collect his wife’s insurance money.
Artie insisted on being paid at least something up front, so the man opened his wallet, displaying the single dollar bill that rested inside. Artie sighed, rolled his eyes, & reluctantly agreed to accept the dollar as down payment for the dirty deed.
A few days later, Artie followed the man’s wife to the local Super Wal-Mart store. There, he surprised her in the produce department & proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands. As the poor unsuspecting woman drew her last breath & slumped to
the floor ……. The manager of the produce department stumbled unexpectedly onto the murder scene Unwilling to leave any living witnesses behind, ol’ Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce manager as well.
However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were captured by the hidden security cameras & observed by the store’s security guard, who immediately called the police. Artie was caught and arrested before he could even leave the store.
Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole sordid plan, including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless husband who was also quickly arrested.
The next day in the newspaper, the headline declared…
*’ARTIE CHOKES 2 for $1.00 @ WAL-MART!’*
Why doesn’t Family Court get “it” that there is no such thing as joint/shared parenting when mothers have to deal with this type of a man?
Then this today…
Northfield man gets 15 years for killing mother of his five children
MAYS LANDING – Friday used to be the day Louis Ceresa took his five children out for pizza.
But this Friday, instead of picking them up, the Northfield man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing their mother.
Ceresa admitted in July that he strangled Amanda Carmen, 34, while the two sat in her minivan outside his Revere Avenue home during a scheduled custody exchange Jan. 11.
Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury called the plea agreement’s recommended 15-year sentence “lenient,” but said that Ceresa’s willingness to admit his guilt spared his children from a painful trial and his eldest from having to testify in court.
The couple’s 11-year-old son witnessed the killing.
“I can’t tell you what I did that night or why I did it,” Ceresa, 33, told the judge Friday. “I don’t know what happened.”
When he pleaded to aggravated manslaughter in July, Ceresa said “I exploded” after Carmen told him she was moving away with their children.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said at the time.
“To lose a child, at any age, from illness or accident is horrific,” Carmen’s mother, Margaret, said in a statement read in court by victim counselor Trisha Hayek. “But to lose her because someone was angry and just ‘didn’t mean to kill her’ is unbearable.”
Now, Carmen’s children will not have their mother with them for all the important things in life, she said: “What Louis did will have an effect on our family not just now, but also for generations to come.”
“I have no excuse for what I did,” Ceresa said.
He apologized to his children – who were not in court – as well as the dozen family members there to support him. He also apologized to the Carmens, explaining, “they were my family for many years.”
And once again, as he had when he pleaded, Ceresa professed his love for Carmen.
“Louis claims he loved Amanda,” Margaret Carmen wrote. “How do you put your hands around the throat of someone you love and watch them take their last breath of life? How is his defense, ‘I didn’t mean to’?”
But defense attorney Anthony Previti said the killing was an anomaly, and Ceresa is a good man who has shown consistent remorse since the killing.
Previti said Ceresa asked that nothing positive be said about him in court, “but I am compelled to say it.”
“I don’t feel like a good person,” Ceresa said. “I do feel rotten. I do feel like crap, and I should. I’ll make sure I come down on myself for the rest of my life.”
For at least the next 12 years, that life will be in prison. He must serve 85 percent of the imposed sentence before he is eligible for parole.
By that time, the victim’s mother said, the children “will have the time to grow up and understand the situation and how they feel about it.”
She said she would like to see Ceresa spend the rest of his life in jail, but the family accepted the plea deal to spare her 11-year-old grandson “the agony of having seen his mother strangled to death by his father and then have to testify and put his father in prison.”
It is more time than the nine years Millville police Sgt. Robert Vanaman received after admitting during jury selection for his murder trial in March that he killed his wife and tried to cover up the crime in 2006.
In August, DeLury sentenced Rosina McKinnie to nine years in prison under a plea agreement in which she admitted to fatally stabbing her live-in boyfriend Aramis Smith during a 2008 party at the couple’s Pleasantville home. There was a history of domestic violence against McKinnie in that case.
Previti told DeLury on Friday how the judge often said domestic violence cases are one step away from homicide. But in this case, “there was no warning,” Previti said.
Police had not broken up fights between the two. Ceresa had no criminal background.
“I don’t believe he’s even had a parking ticket,” Previti said.
But there was daily alcohol consumption and a history of cocaine use, DeLury pointed out.
“This defendant was not entirely a law-abiding person, as evidence by his frequent (drug) abuse.”
Ceresa relinquished his parental rights. The children, ages 5 to 11, now live with their maternal grandmother in Egg Harbor Township.
“I lost my children. I lost Amanda. I lost everything over something stupid,” Ceresa told the judge. “When I die, I’ll pay for this again. I’ll be judged again.”
Straight From The U.S. Department of Health & Human Service’s Mouth: Children are More at Risk With Fathers
As she says…this is straight from the government statistics. The blogger Dastardly Dads did a great job on this by combing through all the statistics in the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (also known as NIS-3), put out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Why then does HHS give all these grants to father’s organizations to take custody of children from moms???
Fathers rights people often remind us that married couple families do better than single-parent households in nearly every measure of child abuse and neglect, which on the face of it is true. I suppose the public policy implication is keep everybody married with a man in the house (how we will do this is never made entirely clear–outlaw divorce?), and child abuse will lessen.
This is basically a variation of the BMW fallacy, or confusing correlation with causation. Here’s how it goes. BMW owners are nearly uniformly well-to-do successful professionals with six figure incomes who own their own homes. So–if somebody who’s low-income manages to buy a BMW, will they be financially successful?
No, they will be broke. Saddled with more car can they afford and with more financial troubles than ever.
So it is with marriage. People who are happily married tend to stay married and tend not to have families plagued with abuse, drug or alcohol issues, mental health problems, and other stuff like that. Married people who do have these problems in their relationships will tend to split up over time and form single parent households.
So the question is not comparing single parents with married households, but comparing the relative safety of father-headed households and mother-headed households, even though the numbers of these households are not the same. (And not because of the family courts. Most mother-headed families are that way by default, not by design or legal proceedings.) Hence, we convert the child abuse data from each type of household type into incident rates per 1,000 children.
So what do we have then? Let’s start by taking a peek at maltreatment (i.e. abuse and neglect) under what’s called the “harm standard.” Under the “harm standard,” children were considered to be maltreated only if they had already experienced harm from abuse or neglect. (The other standard is the “endangerment standard,” which is children who experience abuse or neglect that puts them at risk of harm, combined with kids who are alreadly harmed by abuse or neglect.)
Let’s start with overall maltreatment (abuse and neglect combined). Children living with their only their mothers experienced maltreatment under the Harm Standard at a rate of 26.1 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their dads? 36.6 per 1,000. As NIS-3 notes, “This rate is more than two and one-third times higher than that of children in two-parent families.”
Oops. So much for the theory that keeping a dad–any dad–in the family somehow confers protection from that nasty abusive mommy.
What about abuse as such? Children living with only their moms: 10.5 per 1,000. Children living with only their dads: 17.7 per 1,000. Here’s what NIS-3 says about that: “Children in father-only families had more than twice the risk of abuse as defined by the harm standard compared to children living in both-parent families. Their risk was more than one and two-thirds that of children in mother-only families, a marginal difference in this maltreatment category. Thus, the pattern in connection with abuse essentially reflects the higher risk of children who live with only their fathers.”
Physical abuse is a subcategory under abuse. Children living with only their moms: 6.4 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their dads: 10.5 per 1,000 children. Here’s what NIS-3 states: “When specific types of abuse under the Harm Standard are examined, it is apparent that the findings described in the previous paragraph stem from the disproportionate incidence of physical abuse among children in father-only households….An estimated 10.5 per 1,000 children living with only their fathers were harmed by physical abuse in 1993, which is more than two and two-thirds higher than the incidence rate of 3.9 per 1,000 for children living with both their parents. Children in mother-only families were not statistically different from those in both-parent households in their risk of physical abuse under the Harm Standard.”
Let’s turn to neglect now. Children living with only their moms: 16.7 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their dads: 21.9 per 1,000 children.
Emotional neglect is one of the subcategories under neglect. What do the numbers say now? Frankly, I figured moms would get nailed on something as nebulous as emotional neglect, but I was wrong. Children living with only their moms: 3.4 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their fathers: 8.8 per 1,000 children.
How about severity of injury? The data was said to be statisically unreliable for Fatalities, so let’s turn to Serious Injuries. Children living with only their moms: 10.0 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their dads: 14.0 per 1,000. And Moderate Injuries? Children living with only their moms: 14.7 per 1,000 children. Children living with only their dads: 20.5 per 1,000.
I’m not sure if there’s enough data geeks among you to go into maltreatment under the “endangerment standard” (see definition above), but I will go into it briefly anyway. Suffice it to say that the pattern is very much the same, except with bigger numbers.
All maltreatment (abuse and neglect) for children living with only their moms: 50.1 per 1,000 children. For children living with only their dads: 65.6 per 1,000.
All abuse for children living with only their moms: 18.1 per 1,000 children. For children living only with their dads: 31.0 per 1,000.
Physical abuse for children living with only their moms: 9.8 per 1,000 children. For children living with only their dads: 16.5 per 1,000. As NIS-3 concludes, “Similar to the pattern described above in relation to Harm standard physical abuse, children who live with only their fathers are at a marginally higher risk of physical abuse than those who live with two parents. (The father-only household is associated with two and one-third times greater risk.)”
To read the whole post, please visit Dastardly Dads.
Note: Cross posted from [wp ridezstormz] Silent No More!.
“Domestic violence is about control, not anger. Once a victim says ‘I’m leaving you,’ the last thing the batterer has over the victim is the children“.
Advocates of domestic violence victims say a growing number of batterers are using the tactic in court to gain custody of their children.
“In cases where domestic violence is alleged, the perpetrator’s attorney can put in this alleged parental alienation syndrome,” said Dallas psychologist Jane Toler, who will give a presentation on the issue at the conference. “Then, all of a sudden, it takes the focus off the perpetrator and puts it back onto the victim.”
Dr. Toler, who has a private practice and also works for The Family Place for victims of domestic abuse, said lack of awareness about the complex concept can lead to a violent parent gaining custody. That can raise questions about the safety of the children involved, she said.
The one-day family violence conference also will include presentations about women who use violence, elder abuse, the clergy’s response to victims, and domestic violence in the gay community. The keynote speaker is Carolyn Thomas, a Waco woman whose ex-boyfriend shot her in the face and caused extensive injuries in December 2003.
The conference, which is expected to draw about 200 people, is sponsored by the Dallas County district attorney’s office and the Dallas County Domestic Violence Awareness, Child Abuse Awareness and Elder Abuse coalitions.
Parental alienation syndrome recently has become a leading defense in custody cases – and a controversial topic among family violence experts.
Casey Alexander, president of Texas Fathers for Equal Rights in Fort Worth, said the defense should not be discounted.
“I tend to believe there are far more cases of legitimate alienation than there are guys beating their wives who are using this to get their children,” Mr. Alexander said, adding that he experienced parental alienation syndrome during his divorce.
Paige Flink, executive director of The Family Place, said parental alienation syndrome has increasingly been used against her clients.
“A lot of it is rooted in blaming the victim,” she said. “We’ve seen the judges taking the kids from the mother and giving them to the abuser.”
State law prohibits family court judges from awarding full or joint custody to an abusive parent if there is a finding of family violence. However, advocates say such evidence is not always presented in court, sometimes because the victim cannot afford legal representation.
Some abusers have gone so far as to accuse victims of domestic violence of going to a shelter just to keep the children away from them, said Katie Foster, regional training coordinator for the family violence division of the Dallas County district attorney’s office.
“Domestic violence is about control, not anger. Once a victim says ‘I’m leaving you,’ the last thing the batterer has over the victim is the children,” she said.
The division also conducted training on the issue in February, Ms. Foster said.
“There is a need for more awareness about this issue. There’s a need for more education about it,” she said.
