From Amazon.co.uk:
THE WOMEN OF COURTWATCH: REFORMING A CORRUPT FAMILY COURT SYSTEM
by Carole Bell Ford
Reviewed by Rosalie R. Young, Public Justice Department, State University of New York at Oswego.
Email: ryoung [at] Oswego.edu.
Carole Bell Ford, Professor Emerita of Education and Women’s Studies at SUNY Empire State College, has used interviews and news reports to write an intriguing volume depicting the grass roots battle of a small group of women in Harris County, Texas (Houston) to reform a dysfunctional family court system. Between the spring of 1993 and the elections in November of 1994, their CourtWatch protests, educational efforts, and political activity resulted in the election of new judges, many of whom demonstrated a real interest in both family court and the litigants’ needs.
This very readable book offers undergraduate students, law students, established lawyers and the general public the opportunity to examine the struggles of clients who used the Harris County Family Court, the lawyers who represented them, the judges who sat on the bench and the hazards caused by a political system which selects the judicial candidates. Along the way, Ford describes the gender biases in Harris County Family Court and the prejudices that have plagued female lawyers.
For at least a decade prior to CourtWatch, there were complaints that a “good old boys” network of lawyers and judges resulted in favorable decisions for clients whose lawyers were members of the network. Lawyers with pending cases were asked to make contributions to judicial election campaigns, and claims of racism, sexism, corruption, fraud, and incompetence were voiced. Mothers claimed that custody of their children was awarded to fathers charged with abuse. Divorce decisions in Harris County favored the wealthy and powerful, and those whose lawyers were friends of the judges.
Further, the Harris County Family Court resisted innovations. Even though the Texas legislature passed a law recommending mediation in cases involving children and parents, several judges refused to make referrals to mediation. In addition, the court ignored a 1989 law requiring that judges get training in family violence.
In her description of the CourtWatch effort, Ford offers the reader an understanding of the social and economic backgrounds of the primary participants. She focuses on the movement of Florence Kusnetz, a former family court lawyer, from her Brownsville, New York Jewish roots, through her many moves in response to her husband’s career and her entrance into college and law school as a mature woman. Kusnetz’s efforts were often denigrated due to her age and gender. Ford describes in some detail the gender and ethical conflicts Kusnetz encountered in law school and in her [*529] practice, which were reflected in the attitudes and actions of the Harris County Family Court judges. To a lesser extent, Ford describes other participants and their goals and experiences prior to, during, and following the CourtWatch era.
Ford includes descriptions of mediation and collaborative law, representing efforts to promote settlement of family court issues, rather than leaving the responsibility to the courts and judicial decision makers. She describes the broad discretion of judges, which in the wrong hands, as in Harris County, can result in biased and even dangerous child custody decisions.
The CourtWatch committee became a political action committee (PAC), whose goal became removing five of the nine Family Court judges through the electoral process. They enlisted an inactive advisory board of prominent people who were willing to lend their names to the CourtWatch effort, a brave action in Harris County. Two hundred fund raisers then set about earning the dollars needed, recognizing that although the money provided necessary assets, the donors were also indicating support for CourtWatch activities.
Ford describes CourtWatch’s victories and setbacks, beginning with the decision by four of the five targeted judges not to run for reelection. Eventually there were eight open seats, and seven of eight CourtWatch candidates won in the primaries. While all their nominees did not win judicial seats, seven new judges were elected.
The latter third of the book describes Harris County Family Court after the CourtWatch effort. Politics and partisan elections remain. Though most feel the family court situation is much improved, there were no minorities or Democrats on the bench as the book concluded. Kusnetz feels that family court remains a negative experience for divorcing families, although as Ford describes, reforms and alternatives are currently being promoted.
In six appendices, Ford offers additional information on gender issues, children’s advocacy groups, mediation, CourtWatch and case histories, demonstrating the problems inherent in family dissolution.
This engaging volume offers a variety of benefits to the potential reader. It reinforces an understanding of the way many of our courts function and the biases inherent in our system. Equally as important, this readable volume demonstrates both the victories and frustrations of a grassroots effort, an endeavor that achieved reform because of a determined group of women and their supporters.
THE WOMEN OF COURTWATCH can serve as a welcome addition to undergraduate family law classes and should be considered by those teaching both social movements and judicial process. Ford’s volume can be profitably added to a law school course on family law to demonstrate the impact of family courts on communities.
Family Court in America 
st charles parish in lousiannas so corrupt. i hear the whole state is.lawyers lie to judges and judges become bias. need a protest
I sincerely hope that you have better luck than I. Just dont lose yourself in the fight! Yes – its criminal and morally wrong. But the sad truth is – the peoplr who should care – DONT! The victims voices are SILENCED by tgose behind masks that make them look “benign”… In the end, the only way prople will listen or believe is if you write a fiction book about what you have lived! Best of luck!
I am on the BATTLE FEILD , crooked public servants in Washington, D.C. The CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES is like a “scipt” for a CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE!!! Senator Nancy Shaefer reported the FRAUD,WASTE,ABUSE,TERROR,TRAUMA,ABUSE, ETC.,ETC.,etc., And it is as if this “script” is soooo well rehearsed that their is a DISTINCT PATTERN of how the EMPLOYEES of this KIDNAP FOR CASH operates!!!! Of my five children KIDNAPPED FOR PROFIT/ REMOVED UNNECESSARILY, one is still being held hostage. Three GIVEN to my EXhusband…. With COURT DOCTORED papers…… TWO YEARS ,THREE MONTHS AND COUNTING!!!! I WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT IS MINE, BY DIVINE RIGHTS/LAWS!!! THE DURESS, EGREGIOUS, UNLAWFUL ACTS, ABUSE, ETC.,ETC.,ETC.,ETC., IS A RESULT OF GREED BY A BULLY RING!!! THE APPEALETE COURT MADE IT CLEAR IT WILL NOT SUPPORT THE FACT THAT THE CORRUPTION OF THE FAMILY COURT WAS AGAINST WHAT “JUSTICE” STOOD FOR!!!! …..YET THE TAMPERING WITH DOCUMENTS/RECORDINGS HAVE CONTINUED BY COURT CLERKS AND EMPLOYEES. I HAVE YET TO RECIEVE MY WRITTEN FINDINGS OF THE APPEALS COURT! WE WON AND THEY ARE SORE LOSERS!!! THESE ARE SOCIOPATHS WHO WERE VICTIMS THEMSELVES AND HID THEIR SCARS AND SUNK TO THE LEVEL OF “FRASS”!!! HOW THEY EVER FOUND THEMSELVES IN THE POSITIONS THEY HOLD IS A THREAT TO HUMANITY!!! INQURY!!! DISMANTLE SYSTEMS THAT HARM NOT HEAL!!! THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO KEEP SOCIAL WORKERS AND OTHER FEDERAL AND STATE EMPLOYEESS, ETC.,ETC.,ETC., etc.,etc.,…….WORLDWIDE WITHOUT KIDNAPPING OUR INFANTS AND YOUTHS!!!! TO ALL THE PARENTS, KEEP UP THE FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS AND THAT OF “YOUR” LOVED ONES!!! TOGETHER WE WILL HAVE JUSTICE!!! THE CHANGE IS HERE!!! THE CHANGE IS NOW!!! #OneLove❤
If anyone is having issues with the ouachita parish louisiana family court please join the Facebook group “citizens for Change in the Ouachita parish family courts”
Amen. I agree 100%.
I believe that everyone who has followed this website and/or is otherwise involved with a family court matter can affirmatively state that something needs to change. The only way that will happen is if people continue to fight for what it right! Not their opinion of what is right, but just basic laws of nature. The moral compass of our legal system is broken! I have argued over it, screamed about it, cried about it…but in the end I can either just be thankful when the roller coaster nightmare is OVER and walk away leaving it in my past OR I can continue to fight, be thankful when it is over, walk away with my integrity and my child’s freedom and then do whatever I can, wherever I am with whatever I have to raise awareness and help change what is an epidemic of a system playing God with people’s lives. I can’t say that I have gone through these many year with grace 100% of the time, but I can say that I have learned, I have grown and I have found that which I stand for – that for which I can stand and say I WILL NOT BE MOVED!!!!! My fight will be over on a personal basis when my child is given her voice and her freedom and WE move forward into the future and the life that she deserves; but I will not stop fighting until changes are made and until those that need to be held accountable – are held accountable.
I will stand alone if I have to at first – but I don’t believe that I will be standing alone for long! We should not be afraid of our government of justice system. They should be afraid of us! We all have a voice! We must use it even when it has been rendered mute by whatever influences exist in our cases! At some point, someone will hear my/our voices!
God Bless
Please help me bring my kids home safely by signing this petition. They’re being drugged and neglected! Every signature is one step closer. Also, have it in your heart to share this petition. Thank you!
https://www.change.org/p/call-for-investigation-into-the-ouachita-parish-family-court-system
I have not found anywhere – and believe me, I have done my research – any law or rule of procedure in WV that says that the only evidence a Family Court Judge needs to make a decision that determines a child’s future is that made by proffer from opposing counsel – coupled with the word of people who serve (and get paid) to be a child’s guardian – which is laughable because they are not guarding anything to do with the child! Two years into a divorce and not a single witness contacted by any attorney or guardian or called to the witness stand. There have been two guardian ad litem’s appointed – laughable (by the way, is there even an agency that governs what/how guardian ad litems do their jobs?) Also, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all those agencies who pretend they care or are set up to assist or put an end to domestic violence – COULD CARE LESS – actually, I believe the one’s that bothered to respond said, “I’m sorry but there is nothing we can do.” Anyone in this “justice” system is out for the money – you and your child are just a number and most importantly – don’t think for one minute that anyone controlling this system will believe that PSYCHOLOGICAL, EMOTIONAL, VERBAL abuse do exist (go ahead, when you finally get the strength to leave try to explain the TRUTH of what your life was like and I guarantee you will be the ONLY one on the witness stand who is defending the following question, “If it was so bad, then why didn’t you leave? ” Don’t waste your money on attorneys – they line their pockets and in the end your life and that of your child is determined by people who could care less, know nothing about what you have been through, don’t bother to take the time to make contact with up to 25 independent witnesses who KNOW the truth and simply put in their report “unable to establish contact with any of the witnesses”…..it’s a SHAM. You have therapists, psychiatrists, independent psychological evaluations to support your case – forget it, you will be lucky if you are one of the few who even get a judge to listen to what those people have to say, read their letters or let them anywhere near the stand. Justice and Law are NOT the same things. There is NOTHING that any of you can do. There is NOTHING that THOSE WHO CAN DO SOMETHING will do! Mark Plants was pretty much crucified, arrested and publically humiliated for allegedly “spanking his child” and oh, what a public outcry that was – I don’t know what was the truth and I don’t care…but, I can name at a number of children who would consider themselves EXTREMELY lucky if they had only been spanked! It is a “boys’ club” – it goes beyond unfair (and we all agree that life isn’t fair) – what happens every day in Family Court (at least in Kanawha County) goes far beyond unfair – it is criminal, violates every code of ethics and judicial responsibility that I have found in writing and THERE IS NOTHING THAT ANYONE CAN AND WILL DO TO STOP IT!
Are you thinking maybe you should write to the WV Supreme Court, the Governor of WV, your Congressman, your Senator. I have and the response from the one that even bothered to respond was “this is out of my jurisdiction and there is nothing I can do to help you.” – lovingly signed with a stamp of Senator Manchin’s signature. Interesting, since the opposing attorney is or was very big into politics in WV. So, you might think how about going to the WV Bar Association or the Judicial Investigation Committee? Why? Who makes up those agencies/committees? You got it – the boys club! Maybe now you are thinking change attorneys – go ahead, and try it. Even with a rock solid case to fire your attorney – by the time you come up with money to retain another one (having already spent almost 6,000 on the first), the “boys club” strikes again and a letter addressed to you mysteriously has shown up on a number alternate attorney’s desks. It doesn’t matter that you can successfully counter the allegations in that letter because you keep VERY GOOD records and have the documentation to prove that they are lying but they also know you don’t have the money or energy left to fight a losing battle so you just drop it – you will be lucky to get an appointment with another attorney and even then, they will just question you on the firing of the first attorney, basically tell you that you are crazy because “they have know ____ (the former attorney) for years and he/she is a just and honorable attorney”. Hm – I think someone said that about Dusty Phalen at one point – wasn’t his license revoked?
Honestly – you ARE MUCH BETTER OFF to stay with the abuser, step in the middle of him/her and the kids as much as possible and hope they die before you do, than to try and get away!!!!!!!
One last thing – don’t quote to Mr. or Mrs. Obama on what they have said in their speeches about domestic violence or the “task force” that Mrs. Obama has a “passion” for – they didn’t write those speeches, have no clue what they said and could CARE LESS. I do wonder if the “straw that broke the camels back” for former Attorney General Eric Holder was a very lengthy letter (with supporting documentation) sent by a woman who began the letter as follows:
***I have read your prepared comments to the National Summit on the Intersection of Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment dated June 2, 2009. What would you do to back up your statements? More specifically, what “solutions that will have a lasting impact on the lives of mothers and children traumatized by family violence” did you or the attendees at the June 2009 National Summit come up with?”
Not so surprisingly – she received no response whatsoever – not even a form letter with a stamp of his signature. I wonder who will BUY their way into his open position and what forum they will use fancy words to pretend that they support?
I will give one positive note – the ONLY attorney’s that “seem” to care and actually do their jobs are the ones who are working pro bono. Just remember, they are all young, still have a passion for the legal system, still think they can change something for the better, still think they can make a difference and WILL drop you like a hot potato once their illusions are smashed and they get offered a job that puts the almighty dollar over what happens to other people’s lives – after all, remember WE ARE ALL JUST A NUMBER TO THEM!
I am not a genius, but I am an educated woman. I know right from wrong. I can recognize abuse and I can tell you that physical/emotional and verbal abuse leave much deeper and longer lasting scars than physical abuse. I have also worked in the legal field for a very long time – well, formerly, because I will never work in that field AGAIN – unfortunate, all those years of college, Dean’s List, Gamma Beta Phi, Phi Theta Kappa – for nothing! I will NEVER stop fighting for my child as long as their is breath left in this body. I WILL NOT be silenced and I will use every single forum I can find to DEMAND justice – if only to save one person, one child from having to go through what we have been through!!
“What goes around comes around.” “We all reap what we sow.” “Karma has no deadline.” I could go on and on with these sayings – but they are all so very true. Mark my words – this battle is FAR FROM OVER! My case was bifurcated. I have my freedom on paper, but I will not be free until my child is. I have regained my integrity and the respect that my father’s name deserved – I will not walk away without my child’s freedom from someone who is not even her birth father!!!!!
If even one competent and licensed person would actually investigate this case and talk to the witnesses – the truth would be make know and my child could move on!!!!!
I was wondering if anyone would be able to help my situation. I have a recent court ordered psyche evaluation that is good for me and for my ex says she is a negative influence on the children’s development and will continue to affect the children to their detriment. I have never broken one court order and my ex regularly goes to the school and takes the kids out without the schools knowledge so they aren’t there on holidays they’re supposed to be with me. We javelin 50/50 time share. My ex also holds yhe children’s backpacks hostage so they can’t have their school supplies on my week unless i buy new each week which my ex then takes away the next week even though court orders say to stop that because the kids clothes and school stuff is theirs, not mine or my ex’s. My ex has stated on record in the past that she will never stop until I’m dead or disappear. The last just said he could justify switching sole custody to me for the best interest of the children and for the court appointed children’s attorney to make it so then recuse herself since it will no longer be 50/50 high conflict. The lawyer then made final orders of 50/50, recused herself and somehow magically on the minute orders there are no notes at all which i have never seen before and there was no court recorder that day.
My issue right now besides all that is we now have a new judge and when the judge reviewed the info.. or actually didn’t.. she constantly made mistakes like saying the texts between my ex and our daughter were texts between myself and my ex.. the judge also said she will never believe that the problems could be one sided despite every conversation between my ex and i being submitted because my ex won’t talk to me in person because to her I’m “filthy.” The judge was asked twice by myself and an attorney to please show anywhere where I have not worked with my ex and also review the emails that clearly sjow my ex talking down about the children and also telling me to f off and much more. Along with that my ex refuses to share the children’s doctor info, her emergency contact info or anything else and when the issue of the parenting schedule comes up the judge clearly stated on record that my ex never has to work with me in any way which is completely against what is taught when the courts forced us to go to kids turn, parents turn, co parenting, high conflict resolution, anger management.. and some of these programs even write letters to the court expressing their concern for my ex’s outbursts and behavior toward the children and myself as well as the school has had to write two letters including one saying my ex can’t strip the children in front of the school because she doesn’t want my clothes in her car… Please help. This judge says being with a parent that two professional reports say is a detriment to their upbringing is not concerning in any way.
Robert
(760)420-5212
Robert0769d@Yahoo.com
I lost custody of my daughter when she was 6 years old. The judges, the Dcf discriminated against me. I was mentally, physically abused by my ex-husband to be, by the way I filed for the divorce on 06/24/2008. So far the court has taken every rights I have as a human being.
Family Court in America is all who fight the good fight. Fortunately, there are more of us than them. Family Court Review is a beautiful website. Is there an RSS feed?
I live in Atlanta, Georgia and the stories here are exactly the same as what I’ve read above. There needs to be nationwide reform. The judges don’t care … 99.9% of the lawyers don’t either. It’s money w a NIMBY attitude. A few men and women, previously subjected to the system and/or currently engaged in battle, have formed a union to define, identify, institute and facilitate change in Georgia’s legislation. We are inclusive and invite others to join United Coalition for Judicial Reform. Information can be found on the FCR website. The Women of Courtwatch is “must read” material for us. My thanks to Family Court in America!
Some people have problems with other people’s gender, age, income levels, nationalities or whatever. Most of the problems we’re all seeing in too many family courts is corruption, ignorance, greed, lack of oversight, lack of accountability, lack of state funds and lack of conscience etc. If gender is an issue for any judge, it wouldn’t be an issue if there weren’t corruption involved because discrimination of any kind wouldn’t be tolerated. Most decent men and women probably would think that $200,000 is a ridiculous amount of money for any parent to have to pay for any custody case. That’s more than most people have in their bank accounts and it’s apparently gone to attorneys instead of your son’s college fund. That’s just plain wrong – no matter what the case was about.
I cannot imagine the problem of sex discrimination on woman touching the real nationwide sex discrimination men face every day with sex discriminate treatment I’ve spent $200,000 in Aiken South Carolina fighting for my 13 year old boy and all the courts did was abused my child worse all completely based on sex discrimination 2 years everything I own virtually gone all to protect my child from an adulteress drug addict mother who cares for nothing and yet that cult your working with dss and family court judges can legal destroy men and children daily all in the name of woman. Like your tender years laws that immediately in the eyes of the law make a woman the better parent that is the biggest bunch of b******* this country’s ever heard if you’re truly being discriminated against if you’re truly the better parent I’m sorry for you and I wish you the best but there’s no question percentage wise nationwide this country is against men being parents. This country gives women 10 times the rights mens get
My child and I are victims of court abuse also, my not even 5 yr old was ripped from my arms and given to the father, then they gave me supervised visitation and now continue that due to the fathers lies etc…now allowing him to take her to India without any restrictions or safeguards in place. I have put myself through every evaluation possible and I am a normal good and nurturing mother, the system is corrupt, judges follow old judgement, lies are prevailing, meanwhile children are getting destroyed and craving for their mothers…what can we do?
Please join us in MOTHERS WHO WANT OUR CHILDREN BACK… friend me and i will find you..
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN… THEY TAKE OUR BABIES FROM US, PUT THEM IN HARMS WAY, ACCUSE US OF CRIMES WE DID NOT COMMIT AND LEAVE US WITH NO RECOURSE IN ANY COURT OF LAW ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, TO GET OUR CHILDREN BACK.
THEY HAVE NO REGARD FOR THE HAPPINESS, WELL-BEING AND LIVES OR OUR PRECIOUS BABIES. THEY LOSE THEM, ABUSE THEM, MOLEST THEM, RAPE THEM AND KILL THEM AND BLAME US FOR FAILURE TO PROTECT, AFTER THEY HAVE DESTROYED OUR MOTHERHOODS AND OUR BABIES CHILDHOODS, THEY LEAVE US DESTITUTE, WITH NOTHING, AND NO HOPE FOR A FUTURE WITH OUT CHILDREN. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
CPS AND SOCIAL SERVICES AND CORRUPT FAMILY COURT ARE ALL INVOLVED IN THIS CHILD TRAFFICKING WORLD-WIDE, OBSCENE GRANDE CONSPIRACY OF ORGANIZED CRIME, WHICH STEALS AND SELLS OUR CHILDREN, AND ARE PAID TO BOTH TAKE THEM, AND PLACE THEM IN FOSTER CARE OR ADOPTIVE HOMES, USING GOVERNMENT DOLLARS FROM OUR TAXES!
The money trail is there. In every country, it comes from the people, for the people, and it is used against the people. The government arm which reaches out and snatches our children as we walk casually by, is financed by the people themselves, and is a vicious cycle beginning with money for juvenile support and children’s services. The way that it has become imbalanced leaves the youth at risk and the children being stolen from good parents for money and with the power held by this organization, even over judges and law enforcement, it is a criminal activity, legalized by government prostitutes caught up in their own profit from this conspiracy.
What we don’t know, is WHO IS RUNNING THE SHOW? WHO IS PUSHING ON THE WORKERS TO STEAL MORE CHILDREN???
This is not just a process out of control and random people all deciding to make money… this is organized crime, as there ever was any organized crime, and whomever is in charge of it needs to be identified and removed from power. AND if it IS several, or several hundred, or several thousand people who are involved in this highly profitable money-making scheme, using OUR CHILDREN AS THEIR PRODUCT – then they all need to BE REMOVED! none of them need to remain in their positions of authority, judgement or power. The money needs to be frozen and re-authorized for mothers and children who have been devastated by the disruption of their lives by these evil, power forces of government parasites.
There is a beginning, and an end to everything. This needs to be the end of this. AND THE BEGINNING OF A SYSTEM OF FAMILY SERVICES RUN BY MOTHERS WHO ARE PAID WELL TO RUN THIS SOCIAL SYSTEM FOR MOTHERS, AND WHO ARE ALLOWED TO SET THEIR OWN SCHEDULES AND THEIR OWN HOURS AND WILL BE PAID FOR BEING MOTHERS AS WELL AS FOR THEIR TIME WORKING FOR THIS SERVICE… there are a million things mothers can do, fighting for our children should not be one of them. BUT, WE KNOW WHAT MOTHERS NEED, AND WE WOULD DEFINITELY RUN SOCIAL SERVICES AND CPS BETTER THAN WHOEVER IS RUNNING IT RIGHT NOW, AND THOSE WHO SHOULD BENEFIT, MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, WILL BE BENEFITING WORLDWIDE, LIKE THEY SHOULD!
We are asking everyone, worldwide to join us, worldwide, to PUT A STOP TO THE KIDNAPPING AND CHILD TRAFFICKING OF OUR CHILDREN, NOW, and support our demands to have our children returned by SOCIAL SERVICES WORLDWIDE whether they have been in foster care, adopted out, medicated or incarcerated – IF WE COME FORWARD FOR OUR CHILDREN, THEY SHALL BE RETURNED! no questions, no arguments. give them back. If they are two weeks old, or two months old or two, or six, or twelve, or fifteen!!! give them back to us now! and we will negotiate the rest tomorrow.
THIS IS WRONG, AND IT IS A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY, AND IT NEEDS TO STOP NOW!!!.
I too have been raped by family court. Many women discount me in the community because I do not have children, my pain could not be so bad. The issue is not if you have children or don’t the psychopath ex will use any means to hurt you after you have gone.
I hope this site will also reach out to men who have experienced divorce from a psychopath. i use the term psychopath collectively to include, narcissists, boderline, obsessive compulsive,etc. those high functioning individuals who have not been officially diagnosed with a personality disorder.
So many who have left these disordered individuals want to believe in the delusion that you are free and they will leave you alone. This is not reality. They will use any means available to them to continue to cause harm. If you have children with them, then you are an easier target. What is sad is that they have so many allies in other people who jump on the band wagon and do evil acts with them.
We are doomed in family court. It is not a court of equity where there is a jury who will debate the facts, it is one judge who will not bother with the facts of the case or learning about personality disorders. The child has no voice, the woman has no voice. Your attorney has an obligation only to the court, the bar, the state. You are being put into another abusive situation when you hire an attorney and enter this system. the abusive system knows how to shut you up, take your kids, hurt you.
Where are the authorities to assist, in bed with the judges, attorneys, etc. This is planned. A way to transfer wealth and power.
In 2005, my grandchild, S., at nine years old confided in her mother that her father had been touching her inappropriately. My daughter, a nurse by profession, alerted the proper authorities, which included the Dorchester County Sheriff’s office and the Child Protective Services in South Carolina.
S. was interviewed by the police and a forensic specialists. They believed she had indeed suffered molestation from her father. The DSS (State Child Protective Office) part of the Health Department, initiated a “No visitation from the father”. An investigation was undertaken by that office.
After many hearings and spending $1,000’s of dollars on lawyers, S. has been through hell and back and so has my daughter. The DSS and the courts at first worked together, but slowly, once a therapist got on board with the father’s lawyer, the case was lost.
The first Judge McMahan ruled that it was just insensitivity on S.’s part toward what her father put her through. He ruled that S. who had been on the stand for a total of 9 hours, with the father staring her down the whole time, was just not credible. Goes downhill from there.
In 2010, a Judge in Kingstree, SC ruled that Sarah was to be removed from her home with her mother and placed in foster care to be under a therapist and no contact with her mother or the family during the whole time. They stated that it would be 6 months to a year and depended on S’s and my daughter’s cooperation in reuniting her with the father. By the way, the father is studying to be a Jewish Rabbi in Israel. S. ended up staying there for a year and now is after more hearings living in Israel with the very father she stated molested her. Now, can anyone explain how this could possibly be so twisted? Now my daughter is being threathened with jail and her wages are being taken for child support to Israel. Also, the father had his own Jewish lawyer whom he only paid $500 to for a period of over 6 years and still he uses him for harrassing my daugher. Not only are the family court judges corrupt as they make decisions before they even have a hearing, but the Jewish Synagogue is involved with protecting a child molestor.
Trust me when you have no money to fight these corrupt people, no one is there to help either. They have the power to destroy a family and will do it without a thought.
No Rebecca you are not alone. This was just a very short version of this nightmare.
almost 5 yrs. ago the police asked in pawtucket rhode island surronded my house with guns and told me to give them my precious 4 yr. old son oliver and my weapons. I had no weapons what were they talking about? then i saw him he stood across the street my former husband Craig McLaughlin who told me that morning there would consequences for my behavior – oh my god not my son no not my son. he took my son with the help of his sister who is one of the state of rhode island’s lawyer for mental health Patricia Hessler – they both warned me for yrs. if i told the federal government on them they would take my child. how could they do that? i am healthy a therapist and teach in several New England Colleges and universities. they did and it is almost 5 yrs. later. I am a walking dead woman most of the time – my son too on some level. this past week he told me he wanted to assinate his father – I of course told him he could not do that and why would he want to do that to his daddy? his said to me do you think I don’t know what has been going on for the past 4 1/2 yrs. he is only 9 yrs. old is breaks my heart that he thinks that way. i have found nothing i can do to help him except love him every moment we are together which are supervised visits in my home some overnight for the past 41/2 or so years – every monday 5:30 – 8:30PM and Friday from 5:30pm – saturday at 1pm. we do our best. there are no psy evals nor drug tests to support allegations of drugs nor mental illness however i do have ptsd from having my son ripped from me horribly and he from me so he has ptsd as well.
i go back to court this coming monday – sept. 20 – 10 – i am not looking forward to the same old same old. Corruption for sure I am sure. I am writing a book called “the rhode island political war zone once you get in your may never get out.” I try to keep my sense of humour – it is what keeps me alive. i am so grateful for sites like this because I often think I am the only one…but unfortuantely I am not – wish I were because the horror I feel i wish upon no one except my ex husband his sister, his lawyer, and the judge. what kind of animals are they? they can’t be human there is no way. Narcassitic sociopaths.
Rebecca L. McLaughlin (ABD), Ph.D.