It isn't only our children that can be alienated.
Adults can be alienated as well. Evil sees no age. What evil wants evil gets! Evil parents of adult children will not stop manipulating situations to get what they want. It's sick what an evil enmeshed parent will do to their children well into adulthood!
It's so sick that the adult can't or wont open their eyes to see what's really going on!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Landmark divorce case gets 'urgent' treatment
April 21, 2009 08:29 AM - A Mississauga teen will celebrate his 19th birthday this week without his brothers, as legal wrangling continues over his request to see his 12- and 14-year-old siblings in a divorce case gone out of control.
Lawyers in the complex case — one of the most controversial cases of parental alienation to be dealt with by the courts — have been urged by a judge to "clear the decks" so that the teen's legal request can be "treated with urgency."
The case will be back before Justice Steven Clark of the Ontario Court of Justice on April 30, when the teen's lawyer will ask to have the case moved out of Brampton court and into another jurisdiction. The teen was recently granted standing by Clark, the first step in seeking custody of his two brothers, who have been in foster care since last December.
He wants to raise his brothers in his father's bare-bones, two-bedroom apartment, but has said he will move out if necessary and sue both parents for support, even though his father has not worked in years.
The mother maintains that her eldest son is being used by her ex-husband to get custody of all three boys through a back door. She has accused the father of a decade-long campaign to turn the boys against her, with the teen's help.
Last November, the boys spent five months in a psychiatric ward, then were placed in a Mississauga foster home after they refused to undergo treatment for parental alienation.
They said they feared being turned into "zombies" through the controversial U.S.-based Family Workshop for Alienated Children run by forensic psychologist Randy Rand.The mother has said she will not force the boys into Rand treatment, but would rather get them some kind of counselling that is more home-based.
The mother is appealing the teen's request for standing and has made it clear she wants him kept away from his siblings. She also wants the media barred from the proceedings.
Landmark divorce case gets 'urgent' treatment - The Mississauga News - Mississauga.com
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Lawyers in the complex case — one of the most controversial cases of parental alienation to be dealt with by the courts — have been urged by a judge to "clear the decks" so that the teen's legal request can be "treated with urgency."
The case will be back before Justice Steven Clark of the Ontario Court of Justice on April 30, when the teen's lawyer will ask to have the case moved out of Brampton court and into another jurisdiction. The teen was recently granted standing by Clark, the first step in seeking custody of his two brothers, who have been in foster care since last December.
He wants to raise his brothers in his father's bare-bones, two-bedroom apartment, but has said he will move out if necessary and sue both parents for support, even though his father has not worked in years.
The mother maintains that her eldest son is being used by her ex-husband to get custody of all three boys through a back door. She has accused the father of a decade-long campaign to turn the boys against her, with the teen's help.
Last November, the boys spent five months in a psychiatric ward, then were placed in a Mississauga foster home after they refused to undergo treatment for parental alienation.
They said they feared being turned into "zombies" through the controversial U.S.-based Family Workshop for Alienated Children run by forensic psychologist Randy Rand.The mother has said she will not force the boys into Rand treatment, but would rather get them some kind of counselling that is more home-based.
The mother is appealing the teen's request for standing and has made it clear she wants him kept away from his siblings. She also wants the media barred from the proceedings.
Landmark divorce case gets 'urgent' treatment - The Mississauga News - Mississauga.com
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Nightmare in Family Court: Amber James' Battle Continues
[On The Spot]
The saga continues. And the beasts also tried to take me down.
A week after I first reported the James family’s legal woes in Family Court in the Black Star News, (please see www.blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=5406) the State Supreme Court Appellate Division made its decision public on February 24th, which was hardly in the best interest of the child.
One of the four judges was ready to send Amber James home to her real parents mentioning a few recommendations for the mother.
The ACS case against the James’ family was created, in the first place, from an unproven allegation. ACS Commissioner John Mattingly, and the first Family Court judge to hear the case, Edwina Richardson-Mendelson, learned that Amber James was in no "imminent risk," after ACS caseworker Geraldine Fowler submitted her first home visit report.
Judge Richardson-Mendelson, who was later promoted to Supervising Judge, sent Amber home with her parents. "Judge Mendelson was the judge and said ‘there’s no neglect here,’" recalls Vanessa James, the mother. "‘By the way Ms. James do you mind if ACS gives your daughter an educational evaluation?’ I told her I didn’t mind because she was a very smart little girl. Then the judge said to come back the following week to clear the matter up," Vanessa continued.
By the time the James family returned to court, Judge Marybeth Sara Richroath was now the new hearing judge. Let the nightmare begin.
Amber’s parents, Marvin and Vanessa James did not know they were going to lose Amber until the judge ordered that she be turned over to the custody of the Administration for Child Services (ACS), the dreaded City agency. The parents were ordered to get emergency psychiatric evaluation. They were promised before taking four psychiatric evaluations, which they both passed, that Amber would be returned to them. Of course, she was not.
This case and many others I have now covered mirrors what many parents say is a common occurrence within the system. Judges and the system wresting children away from parents on flimsy charges in order to get them into the labyrynthian ACS system, where children become commodities.
Readers may want to know that even as a reporter of these alleged injustices, I myself was recently victimized. My regular check from disability was illegally interfered with and withheld by the government. The publisher of The Black Star News fired off an angry letter to the compensation Board and copied it to Governor David Paterson; within less than two weeks, my checks, including the missing one, were in my pockets. The Publisher of The Black Star News informed the governor that he did not believe that it was a coincidence that someone tried to interfere with my livelihood and that of my family after I started focusing on ACS.
Back to the case at hand.
Vanessa James, who was a stay-at-home mom strongly feels the judge targeted her mainly because she protested in front of the court for her child. It does appear this case has become a cover-your-ass case, where judges are not adjudicating facts, and protecting the court’s seal. Is this a case of poor judgment and abuse of power on the part of Judge Richroath?
Amber James’s parents engaged in rallies in front of the Queens Family Court in their child interest, after Judge Richroath ordered Amber from the home. A hearing is supposed to commence under Family Court Act 1028 within 72 hours after a child is removed. Judge Richroath invoked, "imminent risk to the child," in order to remove her from the parents before all the facts were determined.
The day Amber was taken, everyone in the courtroom but the judge knew there was no, "imminent risk to the child," and there is no imminent risk to the child even today.
Marvin and Vanessa James were hoping and praying for the Appellate Court to send their little Princess back home; but the odds are too high and the stakes are too great.
The case is back before the Family Court to continue with a neglect proceeding, which the judges said would leave Amber in limbo for at least another year, if not permanently. Appellate also stated that "the mother continue in therapy and compliance with any course of medication, if indicated".
Heartbroken Vanessa James laments: "This is what Judge Richroath wanted. Those judges did not get our whole case they made their decision on fraud. They just want to keep my baby".
The Appellate Court judges who concurred with Judge Richroath – clearly failed Amber.
In their decision, these judges seem to have made the same remarks ACS and Family Court made, that "the child be enrolled in a school outside of the home."
"We never said Amber was going to be home schooled. I don’t know where they got that from," Marvin James stated.
"Amber was not of school age and became of school age in ACS’s care. We promised the court that we were going to put Amber in private school and the judge agreed with that," Vanessa James recalls.
One misleading telephone call made by a doctor who just met the James family continues to draw questions. "I took Amber to Dr. Julia Garber’s office and was in there for 15 minutes. She didn’t examine me. She knew nothing about my family medical history," Vanessa stated. "How can these people get away with making this stuff up?"
Vanessa was alleged to have Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (MBPS), a condition that involves the fabrication or exaggeration of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker seeking attention; it’s a harmful form of child abuse.
I spoke with a few doctors who said it is hard to charge someone with MBPS without knowing the patient and having a detailed medical record of visits. None of which Dr. Garber presented to the Family Court.
"When she testified, she said her records were shredded," Vanessa said.
If this is true, many questions should be raised about the James family’s legal representation in the court. How much do 18B lawyers make on each case?
I visited the ACS building in Brooklyn and watched Amber James jumping around playing with the other kids until her father walked through the glass door. She jumped up and screamed "Daddy" and ran to hug him. It was like a scene from a movie; had these judges witnessed it, they would have all agreed to send Amber James home on the spot.
Amber’s mother, Vanessa, said she carried her around like a doll, never had to beat her, did not ever abuse her, and cared for her like a mother should.
However, Judge Richroath issued an order of protection on Vanessa, which prevented her from visiting Amber for almost a year now. Amber does not know why she is not seeing her mother and asks for her father for her on every visit. Isn’t this a form of child abuse?
In another Queens Family Court case that has made the rounds of all the newspapers recently, a mother lost custody of her daughter to the father. She then hired a hit man to kill the father in a playground right in front of their four year old daughter’s eyes. Even while in jail this mother still got to visit with her daughter. She was recently convicted.
The James family had a unique address. They lived right over Assemblywomen Michele R. Titus Queens’ office. "Assemblywomen Titus knows Amber; she would see Amber when Marvin came home from work and took her to the store," Vanessa recalls.
Telephone calls, faxes and emails sent to the Assemblywoman’s Queens and Albany offices, since November 2008 have not received a reply to date.
My last article in the Black Star News has attracted the attention of many parents across this country who are being bullied in Family Courts and being ordered to take psychiatric evaluations, medication, and being forced to admit to guilt before the trial even ends. I have received numerous phone calls and e-mail messages. Can all these cases be mere coincidences? Who is benefiting from these tests being ordered by Family Court?
We know what happened to the guinea-pig kids, where children in ACS and foster care lost their lives. Now, it seems, the parents are becoming the guinea-pigs. This has to be stopped.
Many good parents who are not abusing their children are being ordered to jump through hoops and are being degraded because they want their children back. Some parents never get their children back even when they jump though those hoops.
"My five year old son is in foster care and he has been seriously injured without me being notified," said Sandra Allen, an aggrieved parent. "The judge ordered me to take a test, which is going to cost me $10,000 and I still may not get my son back," she adds.
Allen is expected back in the Queens Family Court March 23rd, to learn the fate of parental rights.
When the Family Court case commenced, Allen was forced to take a leave of absence from her job and her husband was deported out of the U.S.
"When you have an ACS case, you can’t keep any employment," MaShon Baines, another parent with a case of her own, lamented.
More stories are coming.
Contact Winkfield for his consideration regarding covering your own story: (347) 632-2272
By mail: On The Spot, Post Office Box 230149, Queens County 11423;
Email: Bsnonthespot@aol.com or milton@blackstarnews.com; call (212) 481-7745.
Together we can get the justice everyone just talks about.
To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan Global weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to
Milton@blackstarnews.com
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
Nightmare In Family Court: Amber James' Battle Continues
My Two Cents-
I wonder how this author will respond when I send him my story along with the racist comments of the hearing officer bonnie cohen gallet- telling me that I must understand that my children live in white bred middle class Staten Island and to have mommy show up on a motorcycle with a black man would embarrass them - as she denied me any visitation with my children based on the racial issue and bogus claims that I was a dangerous drug addict - DESPITE 100% negative hair drug tests.. which eventually led to my Malicious Prosecution and Negligent Misrepresentation law suit against the City and ACS. (further proof of the above allegations can be found in my article 78 against judge debra silber on the bottom right hand side of this blog. To date it's been EIGHT YEARS since they've [il]legally kidnapped my children!
May they all (any judge/attorney/social worker/ACS worker/or forensic evaluator keeping good parents away from their children) rot in hell!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
The saga continues. And the beasts also tried to take me down.
A week after I first reported the James family’s legal woes in Family Court in the Black Star News, (please see www.blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=5406) the State Supreme Court Appellate Division made its decision public on February 24th, which was hardly in the best interest of the child.
One of the four judges was ready to send Amber James home to her real parents mentioning a few recommendations for the mother.
The ACS case against the James’ family was created, in the first place, from an unproven allegation. ACS Commissioner John Mattingly, and the first Family Court judge to hear the case, Edwina Richardson-Mendelson, learned that Amber James was in no "imminent risk," after ACS caseworker Geraldine Fowler submitted her first home visit report.
Judge Richardson-Mendelson, who was later promoted to Supervising Judge, sent Amber home with her parents. "Judge Mendelson was the judge and said ‘there’s no neglect here,’" recalls Vanessa James, the mother. "‘By the way Ms. James do you mind if ACS gives your daughter an educational evaluation?’ I told her I didn’t mind because she was a very smart little girl. Then the judge said to come back the following week to clear the matter up," Vanessa continued.
By the time the James family returned to court, Judge Marybeth Sara Richroath was now the new hearing judge. Let the nightmare begin.
Amber’s parents, Marvin and Vanessa James did not know they were going to lose Amber until the judge ordered that she be turned over to the custody of the Administration for Child Services (ACS), the dreaded City agency. The parents were ordered to get emergency psychiatric evaluation. They were promised before taking four psychiatric evaluations, which they both passed, that Amber would be returned to them. Of course, she was not.
This case and many others I have now covered mirrors what many parents say is a common occurrence within the system. Judges and the system wresting children away from parents on flimsy charges in order to get them into the labyrynthian ACS system, where children become commodities.
Readers may want to know that even as a reporter of these alleged injustices, I myself was recently victimized. My regular check from disability was illegally interfered with and withheld by the government. The publisher of The Black Star News fired off an angry letter to the compensation Board and copied it to Governor David Paterson; within less than two weeks, my checks, including the missing one, were in my pockets. The Publisher of The Black Star News informed the governor that he did not believe that it was a coincidence that someone tried to interfere with my livelihood and that of my family after I started focusing on ACS.
Back to the case at hand.
Vanessa James, who was a stay-at-home mom strongly feels the judge targeted her mainly because she protested in front of the court for her child. It does appear this case has become a cover-your-ass case, where judges are not adjudicating facts, and protecting the court’s seal. Is this a case of poor judgment and abuse of power on the part of Judge Richroath?
Amber James’s parents engaged in rallies in front of the Queens Family Court in their child interest, after Judge Richroath ordered Amber from the home. A hearing is supposed to commence under Family Court Act 1028 within 72 hours after a child is removed. Judge Richroath invoked, "imminent risk to the child," in order to remove her from the parents before all the facts were determined.
The day Amber was taken, everyone in the courtroom but the judge knew there was no, "imminent risk to the child," and there is no imminent risk to the child even today.
Marvin and Vanessa James were hoping and praying for the Appellate Court to send their little Princess back home; but the odds are too high and the stakes are too great.
The case is back before the Family Court to continue with a neglect proceeding, which the judges said would leave Amber in limbo for at least another year, if not permanently. Appellate also stated that "the mother continue in therapy and compliance with any course of medication, if indicated".
Heartbroken Vanessa James laments: "This is what Judge Richroath wanted. Those judges did not get our whole case they made their decision on fraud. They just want to keep my baby".
The Appellate Court judges who concurred with Judge Richroath – clearly failed Amber.
In their decision, these judges seem to have made the same remarks ACS and Family Court made, that "the child be enrolled in a school outside of the home."
"We never said Amber was going to be home schooled. I don’t know where they got that from," Marvin James stated.
"Amber was not of school age and became of school age in ACS’s care. We promised the court that we were going to put Amber in private school and the judge agreed with that," Vanessa James recalls.
One misleading telephone call made by a doctor who just met the James family continues to draw questions. "I took Amber to Dr. Julia Garber’s office and was in there for 15 minutes. She didn’t examine me. She knew nothing about my family medical history," Vanessa stated. "How can these people get away with making this stuff up?"
Vanessa was alleged to have Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (MBPS), a condition that involves the fabrication or exaggeration of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker seeking attention; it’s a harmful form of child abuse.
I spoke with a few doctors who said it is hard to charge someone with MBPS without knowing the patient and having a detailed medical record of visits. None of which Dr. Garber presented to the Family Court.
"When she testified, she said her records were shredded," Vanessa said.
If this is true, many questions should be raised about the James family’s legal representation in the court. How much do 18B lawyers make on each case?
I visited the ACS building in Brooklyn and watched Amber James jumping around playing with the other kids until her father walked through the glass door. She jumped up and screamed "Daddy" and ran to hug him. It was like a scene from a movie; had these judges witnessed it, they would have all agreed to send Amber James home on the spot.
Amber’s mother, Vanessa, said she carried her around like a doll, never had to beat her, did not ever abuse her, and cared for her like a mother should.
However, Judge Richroath issued an order of protection on Vanessa, which prevented her from visiting Amber for almost a year now. Amber does not know why she is not seeing her mother and asks for her father for her on every visit. Isn’t this a form of child abuse?
In another Queens Family Court case that has made the rounds of all the newspapers recently, a mother lost custody of her daughter to the father. She then hired a hit man to kill the father in a playground right in front of their four year old daughter’s eyes. Even while in jail this mother still got to visit with her daughter. She was recently convicted.
The James family had a unique address. They lived right over Assemblywomen Michele R. Titus Queens’ office. "Assemblywomen Titus knows Amber; she would see Amber when Marvin came home from work and took her to the store," Vanessa recalls.
Telephone calls, faxes and emails sent to the Assemblywoman’s Queens and Albany offices, since November 2008 have not received a reply to date.
My last article in the Black Star News has attracted the attention of many parents across this country who are being bullied in Family Courts and being ordered to take psychiatric evaluations, medication, and being forced to admit to guilt before the trial even ends. I have received numerous phone calls and e-mail messages. Can all these cases be mere coincidences? Who is benefiting from these tests being ordered by Family Court?
We know what happened to the guinea-pig kids, where children in ACS and foster care lost their lives. Now, it seems, the parents are becoming the guinea-pigs. This has to be stopped.
Many good parents who are not abusing their children are being ordered to jump through hoops and are being degraded because they want their children back. Some parents never get their children back even when they jump though those hoops.
"My five year old son is in foster care and he has been seriously injured without me being notified," said Sandra Allen, an aggrieved parent. "The judge ordered me to take a test, which is going to cost me $10,000 and I still may not get my son back," she adds.
Allen is expected back in the Queens Family Court March 23rd, to learn the fate of parental rights.
When the Family Court case commenced, Allen was forced to take a leave of absence from her job and her husband was deported out of the U.S.
"When you have an ACS case, you can’t keep any employment," MaShon Baines, another parent with a case of her own, lamented.
More stories are coming.
Contact Winkfield for his consideration regarding covering your own story: (347) 632-2272
By mail: On The Spot, Post Office Box 230149, Queens County 11423;
Email: Bsnonthespot@aol.com or milton@blackstarnews.com; call (212) 481-7745.
Together we can get the justice everyone just talks about.
To comment or to subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan Global weekly investigative newspaper, or to send us a news tip, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to
Milton@blackstarnews.com
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
Nightmare In Family Court: Amber James' Battle Continues
My Two Cents-
I wonder how this author will respond when I send him my story along with the racist comments of the hearing officer bonnie cohen gallet- telling me that I must understand that my children live in white bred middle class Staten Island and to have mommy show up on a motorcycle with a black man would embarrass them - as she denied me any visitation with my children based on the racial issue and bogus claims that I was a dangerous drug addict - DESPITE 100% negative hair drug tests.. which eventually led to my Malicious Prosecution and Negligent Misrepresentation law suit against the City and ACS. (further proof of the above allegations can be found in my article 78 against judge debra silber on the bottom right hand side of this blog. To date it's been EIGHT YEARS since they've [il]legally kidnapped my children!
May they all (any judge/attorney/social worker/ACS worker/or forensic evaluator keeping good parents away from their children) rot in hell!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Former county probation official surrenders social work license
By Michael Sisak
Staff Writer
Published: Monday, April 20, 2009 3:28 PM EDT
Sandra M. Brulo, the Luzerne County probation official who pleaded guilty last month to altering a juvenile court file, has agreed to permanently surrender her license to practice social work in Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés said.
“The guidance and protection of our children is among the most profound responsibilities we are entrusted with, and one which has been breached in this judicial corruption case,” Cortés said in a statement. “We acted swiftly to ensure Ms. Brulo will never again practice social work in Pennsylvania.”
View stories, documents and videos related to the court corruption probe
The Department of State licenses and regulates social workers and other professionals working in Pennsylvania.
Brulo pleaded guilty March 26 to a felony charge of obstruction of justice after she allegedly attempted to conceal her recommendation that Ciavarella send a juvenile defendant to a detention facility.
Federal prosecutors could also recommend a lighter sentence depending on her level of cooperation in an ongoing corruption probe at the county courthouse.
Brulo pleaded guilty last Thursday to a felony charge of obstruction of justice after she allegedly attempted to conceal her recommendation that Ciavarella send a juvenile defendant to a detention facility.
Brulo admitted to the FBI agents who arrested her last month that she created a fabricated recommendation for the juvenile to serve probation instead of detention, an affidavit said.
Brulo requested the file on Feb. 13, according to the affidavit, the same day she was named as a defendant in the original draft of a class-action lawsuit.
The county, through its insurance providers, will represent Brulo in the lawsuit.
Conviction of a felony is a violation of the state Social Workers Practice Act. Upon being notified of the federal conviction, the Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs set in motion the proceedings that led to Brulo’s agreement to voluntarily and permanently surrender her license, Cortes said.
“Our close cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare allowed us to reach a swift conclusion on this case,” Basil Merenda, commissioner of the Department’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, said. “We will continue to work with federal and state agencies to protect the public welfare wherever and whenever possible.”
Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Citizens' Voice.
I'd like to thank Bob for sharing this story.
Breaking News: Former county probation official surrenders social work license
Realted articles-
Ex-official surrenders her license Wilkes-Barre News The Times Leader
http://www.slashlegal.com/showthread.php?p=1044517
Social Worker Surrenders License After Admitting Guilt in Judicial Fraud Case
PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California
Luzerne County official surrenders license to practice social work
Staff Writer
Published: Monday, April 20, 2009 3:28 PM EDT
Sandra M. Brulo, the Luzerne County probation official who pleaded guilty last month to altering a juvenile court file, has agreed to permanently surrender her license to practice social work in Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés said.
“The guidance and protection of our children is among the most profound responsibilities we are entrusted with, and one which has been breached in this judicial corruption case,” Cortés said in a statement. “We acted swiftly to ensure Ms. Brulo will never again practice social work in Pennsylvania.”
View stories, documents and videos related to the court corruption probe
The Department of State licenses and regulates social workers and other professionals working in Pennsylvania.
Brulo pleaded guilty March 26 to a felony charge of obstruction of justice after she allegedly attempted to conceal her recommendation that Ciavarella send a juvenile defendant to a detention facility.
Federal prosecutors could also recommend a lighter sentence depending on her level of cooperation in an ongoing corruption probe at the county courthouse.
Brulo pleaded guilty last Thursday to a felony charge of obstruction of justice after she allegedly attempted to conceal her recommendation that Ciavarella send a juvenile defendant to a detention facility.
Brulo admitted to the FBI agents who arrested her last month that she created a fabricated recommendation for the juvenile to serve probation instead of detention, an affidavit said.
Brulo requested the file on Feb. 13, according to the affidavit, the same day she was named as a defendant in the original draft of a class-action lawsuit.
The county, through its insurance providers, will represent Brulo in the lawsuit.
Conviction of a felony is a violation of the state Social Workers Practice Act. Upon being notified of the federal conviction, the Department of State Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs set in motion the proceedings that led to Brulo’s agreement to voluntarily and permanently surrender her license, Cortes said.
“Our close cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare allowed us to reach a swift conclusion on this case,” Basil Merenda, commissioner of the Department’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, said. “We will continue to work with federal and state agencies to protect the public welfare wherever and whenever possible.”
Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Citizens' Voice.
I'd like to thank Bob for sharing this story.
Breaking News: Former county probation official surrenders social work license
Realted articles-
Ex-official surrenders her license Wilkes-Barre News The Times Leader
http://www.slashlegal.com/showthread.php?p=1044517
Social Worker Surrenders License After Admitting Guilt in Judicial Fraud Case
PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California
Luzerne County official surrenders license to practice social work
Monday, April 20, 2009
Domestic violence: Male entitlement mentality a factor
Adult language and a not so popular opinion (mine) in the D.V. world below-
Anger isn't the only driving force when it comes to abuse.
By ANGIE MASON Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 04/18/2009 10:06:58 PM EDT
It's not all about anger.
Factors such as anger, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness or a bad relationship might be contributing factors in domestic violence situations, said Roger Steffy, director of the ADVANCE program, part of Lutheran Social Services of South Central Pennsylvania. But they're not the cause of abuse.
The real problem is a belief system rooted in male entitlement.
"The underlying belief system is, 'Because I'm the man in this relationship, I'm in charge,'" Steffy said.
More - Domestic violence: Male entitlement mentality a factor - The York Daily Record
My two cents -
Well if you ask me it's about *&%^% ** time.. they started Connecting the Dots.
(Copyright Title of the book I'm writing)
It's high time the professionals (DV people) figured it out!
Most abusers (MALE AND FEMALE) feel entitled- to not only abuse but to alienate the children after the target leaves the abuse!
Wake up people in the DV world.. do your own homework - see that parent alienation is more often than not (if not always) initiated by those that feel "entitled" the personality disordered - who abuse (in one form or another) during the ENTIRE marriage!
So how can they yell - PAS is junk science?? BULLSHIT!
PA/PAS is as real as the nose on their faces - and more and more abused women are losing children to those that feel "entitled" to use the children as pawns!
So just cause Richard Gardner noticed the "entitled" abusive females alienating years before anyone noted the "entitled" abusive males doing it doesn't mean that only males feel entitled to abuse or only females are (in the DV worlds eyes wrongfully) accused of alienation.
** actual curse word changed to *^%$$# for Karlene and her church group - She better feel loved .. nobody gets my mouth to say &^%$ instead of (insert a curse) but her!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Anger isn't the only driving force when it comes to abuse.
By ANGIE MASON Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 04/18/2009 10:06:58 PM EDT
It's not all about anger.
Factors such as anger, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness or a bad relationship might be contributing factors in domestic violence situations, said Roger Steffy, director of the ADVANCE program, part of Lutheran Social Services of South Central Pennsylvania. But they're not the cause of abuse.
The real problem is a belief system rooted in male entitlement.
"The underlying belief system is, 'Because I'm the man in this relationship, I'm in charge,'" Steffy said.
More - Domestic violence: Male entitlement mentality a factor - The York Daily Record
My two cents -
Well if you ask me it's about *&%^% ** time.. they started Connecting the Dots.
(Copyright Title of the book I'm writing)
It's high time the professionals (DV people) figured it out!
Most abusers (MALE AND FEMALE) feel entitled- to not only abuse but to alienate the children after the target leaves the abuse!
Wake up people in the DV world.. do your own homework - see that parent alienation is more often than not (if not always) initiated by those that feel "entitled" the personality disordered - who abuse (in one form or another) during the ENTIRE marriage!
So how can they yell - PAS is junk science?? BULLSHIT!
PA/PAS is as real as the nose on their faces - and more and more abused women are losing children to those that feel "entitled" to use the children as pawns!
So just cause Richard Gardner noticed the "entitled" abusive females alienating years before anyone noted the "entitled" abusive males doing it doesn't mean that only males feel entitled to abuse or only females are (in the DV worlds eyes wrongfully) accused of alienation.
Males abuse and alienate just as women abuse and alienate- wake up! It isn't about gender it's about personality disorders and the "ENTITLEMENT" that comes along with Psychopaths - Malignant Narcissists Borderlines and Histrionics's.
Hello is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.. is there anyone at home
** actual curse word changed to *^%$$# for Karlene and her church group - She better feel loved .. nobody gets my mouth to say &^%$ instead of (insert a curse) but her!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Friday, April 17, 2009
Parent Alienation- 27 years later: Father found daughter online, both were told the other was dead!
Parent Alienation- 27 years later: Father found daughter online, both were told the other was dead!
PAS at it's worst!
Thank God for the Internet!!
Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com#/video/living/2009/04/16/gertsch.man.daughter.reunited.komo#/video/living/2009/04/1...
Daughter finds out the truth.. moves to America to find her father and starts her search by putting out an ad, online!
Shes pregnant and now the alienation will not go another generation - God bless this woman and her baby, may they enjoy their new found truth - EACH OTHER!
May the mother that alienated these two rot in hell!
I'd bet my last dollar this is the reason that snake judge debra silber tried to gag me -
by intentionally violating my constitutional right to mention my children's names online under the circumstances of my case!
She (judge debra silber) chose to ignored her own boss's (Judge Judith Kaye's) ruling on SUNSHINE IN THE COURTS - INCLUDING FAMILY MATTERS except in severe cases including blah blah blah NOT MY CASE!
See article 78 on the bottom right hand side for more on the unconstitutional gag order to keep my children from knowing the truth.
Judge debra silber and the rest of you helping mr. louis m. argenziano keep my children from me- may you all rot in hell for what you are doing to my children's minds-and what you did to me!!!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
PAS at it's worst!
Thank God for the Internet!!
Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com#/video/living/2009/04/16/gertsch.man.daughter.reunited.komo#/video/living/2009/04/1...
Daughter finds out the truth.. moves to America to find her father and starts her search by putting out an ad, online!
Shes pregnant and now the alienation will not go another generation - God bless this woman and her baby, may they enjoy their new found truth - EACH OTHER!
May the mother that alienated these two rot in hell!
I'd bet my last dollar this is the reason that snake judge debra silber tried to gag me -
by intentionally violating my constitutional right to mention my children's names online under the circumstances of my case!
She (judge debra silber) chose to ignored her own boss's (Judge Judith Kaye's) ruling on SUNSHINE IN THE COURTS - INCLUDING FAMILY MATTERS except in severe cases including blah blah blah NOT MY CASE!
See article 78 on the bottom right hand side for more on the unconstitutional gag order to keep my children from knowing the truth.
Judge debra silber and the rest of you helping mr. louis m. argenziano keep my children from me- may you all rot in hell for what you are doing to my children's minds-and what you did to me!!!
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Thursday, April 16, 2009
What do you think? We Want To Hear From You
PsyCare is interested in hearing from you.
If you had an opportunity to review the other pages on PAS, you will have read my premise that severe alienation is frequently incurable. If you had been a victim of severe alienation and had the experience of your child hating you because of alienation but now have a loving relationship, we would like to hear your story about how this change occurred. Perhaps we could share your story and offer other parents some insight about what worked for you. We would protect your confidentiality and not publish anything without your written permission.
We would also like your comments about our articles on PAS. If you want to elaborate on a point or offer a different perspective, let us know. Because of the large volume of e-mails we receive, we may not always be able to respond with much depth. We do make note of your comments, however.
If you have questions about PAS, we will try to answer them, realizing that our forum has limited space. Keep in mind that we cannot offer you a consultation or recommendations about your case through e-mail. Most cases are too complicated for simple answers.
We would like your suggestions on future PAS topics, and your comments about books or articles that you have read on parental alienation, visitation, "deadbeat parents," reunification, custody, etc. If you have written a book, research paper, or an article, mail it to us and we will publish a summary for our readers. We plan on offer summaries and research findings on this site.
How to contact us
There are two ways of communicating with us.
You can write directly to us at:
Douglas Darnall, Ph.D.
% PsyCare
2980 Belmont Ave.Youngstown, OH. 44505
330-759-2310
Fax 330-759-0018
Or you can e-mail us at douglas900@com.
Who is Douglas Darnall, Ph.D.?
Dr. Darnall has been a licensed psychologist for 25 years. He received his Ph.D. from Kent State University in 1979 in Counseling and his Masters in Vocational Rehabilitation from San Diego State University in 1969. He is PsyCare's C.E.O. and Clinic Director since PsyCare was founded in 1985. He was previously Director of the Psychology Department at Woodside Receiving Hospital and Staff Psychologist for Trumbull County Court.
He currently practices clinical and forensic psychology at PsyCare, Inc. and Trumbull County Family Court. He is a member of the Weathersfield School Board. Dr. Darnall has completed over 800 custody evaluations during the past 16 twelve years. He has authored "Divorce Casualties: Protecting your Children from Parental Alienation" and “Not in the Child’s Best Interest” for the North Dakota Law Review, Vol. 75, September, 1999. He is now preparing a new book about alienation, to be published sometime next year.
What do you think? We Want To Hear From You. Parental Alienation Syndrome.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
If you had an opportunity to review the other pages on PAS, you will have read my premise that severe alienation is frequently incurable. If you had been a victim of severe alienation and had the experience of your child hating you because of alienation but now have a loving relationship, we would like to hear your story about how this change occurred. Perhaps we could share your story and offer other parents some insight about what worked for you. We would protect your confidentiality and not publish anything without your written permission.
We would also like your comments about our articles on PAS. If you want to elaborate on a point or offer a different perspective, let us know. Because of the large volume of e-mails we receive, we may not always be able to respond with much depth. We do make note of your comments, however.
If you have questions about PAS, we will try to answer them, realizing that our forum has limited space. Keep in mind that we cannot offer you a consultation or recommendations about your case through e-mail. Most cases are too complicated for simple answers.
We would like your suggestions on future PAS topics, and your comments about books or articles that you have read on parental alienation, visitation, "deadbeat parents," reunification, custody, etc. If you have written a book, research paper, or an article, mail it to us and we will publish a summary for our readers. We plan on offer summaries and research findings on this site.
How to contact us
There are two ways of communicating with us.
You can write directly to us at:
Douglas Darnall, Ph.D.
% PsyCare
2980 Belmont Ave.Youngstown, OH. 44505
330-759-2310
Fax 330-759-0018
Or you can e-mail us at douglas900@com.
Who is Douglas Darnall, Ph.D.?
Dr. Darnall has been a licensed psychologist for 25 years. He received his Ph.D. from Kent State University in 1979 in Counseling and his Masters in Vocational Rehabilitation from San Diego State University in 1969. He is PsyCare's C.E.O. and Clinic Director since PsyCare was founded in 1985. He was previously Director of the Psychology Department at Woodside Receiving Hospital and Staff Psychologist for Trumbull County Court.
He currently practices clinical and forensic psychology at PsyCare, Inc. and Trumbull County Family Court. He is a member of the Weathersfield School Board. Dr. Darnall has completed over 800 custody evaluations during the past 16 twelve years. He has authored "Divorce Casualties: Protecting your Children from Parental Alienation" and “Not in the Child’s Best Interest” for the North Dakota Law Review, Vol. 75, September, 1999. He is now preparing a new book about alienation, to be published sometime next year.
What do you think? We Want To Hear From You. Parental Alienation Syndrome.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Child Protective Services accused of ignoring a judge's order
The last thing law enforcement wants to do is take a child from its parents. Still, they have to do exactly that thousands of times a year. But this story is different because of what they did with the child once they took her away from her mother.
The consensus is, keep a child with it's extended family whenever possible. That's the approach Child Protective Services wants to take. But Monday we met a woman who says they didn't do that in her case, even though they had a court order telling them to.
One thing is absolutely clear. Everybody wants what's best for baby Sara.
"She can't defend herself. She's only three months old," said her mother April Register.
When Child Protective Services was going to take away April's son and daughter, April knew she wanted her mother-in-law to have custody.
"She's a very strong woman. I trust her entirely," she said.
But they went to a foster family instead. CPS sayes a member of the grandmother's household failed criminal background checks.
5 days later, the 3 month old little girl was out of foster care, and in the hospital.
"When I saw her I saw how bad it really was. She had a diaper rash that was red and swollen that went all the way up her back. She had a deep cut on her knee," aid Register.
April's convinced that her 3 month old daughter was severely neglected, even abused while in foster care. Both Child Protective Services and North Las Vegas Police are investigating that. But no matter what the outcome of those investigations, the question remains: should those kids have been in foster care, or with their grandmother in the first place.
"Very surprised," said Attorney Tom Michaelides of the placement decision. "The reason why is there was no ambiguity in the judge's order."
Michaelides is handling the case for April. He says a family court judge had told CPS to place the kids with their grandmother. But they didn't.
"I've never in 15 years every had anybody completely ignore a judge's order like that. Especially a government agency," he said.
Even after all of that, Child Protective Services is sticking with their original argument. Today the kids were placed with their grandmother. And in court Monday, CPS told the judge, they still think he got it wrong.
Meanwhile, April Register herself is still under investigation for the incident that started all of this. A mistake, she says, that put prescription drugs in the hands of her son, and her son in an emergency room.
People are going ot want to know why are they in the system? We told her.
"They are going to come at me with whatever they can because they're in trouble right now. I'll do whatever it takes to get my kids back," she told us.
Child Protective Services told me, they just don't agree that baby Sara is best off in her grandmother's house. And they have different take on what landed the three-month-old in the hospital too. They say it wasn't abuse, but dehydration.
The foster parent assigned to take care of Sara and her brother brought them back to Child Haven - saying the kids were more than she could handle.
See link for pictures and original article
KTNV ABC,Channel 13,Las Vegas,Nevada,News,Weather,Sports,Entertainment,KTNV.com,Action News .:. Child Protective Services acc...
My Two Cents-
Sadly this families story is NOT unique. This is rather typical of child protective services in America - Follow the money -Disgusted with the system: Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
The consensus is, keep a child with it's extended family whenever possible. That's the approach Child Protective Services wants to take. But Monday we met a woman who says they didn't do that in her case, even though they had a court order telling them to.
One thing is absolutely clear. Everybody wants what's best for baby Sara.
"She can't defend herself. She's only three months old," said her mother April Register.
When Child Protective Services was going to take away April's son and daughter, April knew she wanted her mother-in-law to have custody.
"She's a very strong woman. I trust her entirely," she said.
But they went to a foster family instead. CPS sayes a member of the grandmother's household failed criminal background checks.
5 days later, the 3 month old little girl was out of foster care, and in the hospital.
"When I saw her I saw how bad it really was. She had a diaper rash that was red and swollen that went all the way up her back. She had a deep cut on her knee," aid Register.
April's convinced that her 3 month old daughter was severely neglected, even abused while in foster care. Both Child Protective Services and North Las Vegas Police are investigating that. But no matter what the outcome of those investigations, the question remains: should those kids have been in foster care, or with their grandmother in the first place.
"Very surprised," said Attorney Tom Michaelides of the placement decision. "The reason why is there was no ambiguity in the judge's order."
Michaelides is handling the case for April. He says a family court judge had told CPS to place the kids with their grandmother. But they didn't.
"I've never in 15 years every had anybody completely ignore a judge's order like that. Especially a government agency," he said.
Even after all of that, Child Protective Services is sticking with their original argument. Today the kids were placed with their grandmother. And in court Monday, CPS told the judge, they still think he got it wrong.
Meanwhile, April Register herself is still under investigation for the incident that started all of this. A mistake, she says, that put prescription drugs in the hands of her son, and her son in an emergency room.
People are going ot want to know why are they in the system? We told her.
"They are going to come at me with whatever they can because they're in trouble right now. I'll do whatever it takes to get my kids back," she told us.
Child Protective Services told me, they just don't agree that baby Sara is best off in her grandmother's house. And they have different take on what landed the three-month-old in the hospital too. They say it wasn't abuse, but dehydration.
The foster parent assigned to take care of Sara and her brother brought them back to Child Haven - saying the kids were more than she could handle.
See link for pictures and original article
KTNV ABC,Channel 13,Las Vegas,Nevada,News,Weather,Sports,Entertainment,KTNV.com,Action News .:. Child Protective Services acc...
My Two Cents-
Sadly this families story is NOT unique. This is rather typical of child protective services in America - Follow the money -Disgusted with the system: Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
Are you sick of CPS destroying our children's lives?
Sick of CPS [il]legally kidnapping our children?
If you are...then NOW is the time to air your grievances!!!
Abuse Freedom United is now organizing a letter writing campaign on behalf of Parents and Children that have been abused by the system of "CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES".
These letters must GRAPHICALLY describe the atrocities that any of you have endured at the hands of children's court judges, attorneys, psychiatrists, social workers, foster care providers, group home staff members, psych ward staff, and juvenile detention staff members.
We need NAMES, DATES, and SPECIFIC INCIDENTS!
Hold onto your letters and wait until the designated time that we will ALL submit them to the White House in an organized and organized manner.The projected deadline date for this united effort is:
MOTHER'S DAY on MAY 10th 2009, Sunday
Letters should be addessed to:
First Lady, Michelle Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
For more information and further instructions please contact:
jane@abusefreedom.com or cjane904@hotmail.com
You can also call:
(803) 438-8119
Leisha Tringaliloop_hole_justice@yahoo.com
http://loop-hole-justice.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/loop_hole_justice
United Civil Rights Councils of America
http://www.unitedcivilrights.org
Regional Membership Director Region 7 New Hampshire State Leader
New Hampshire, Rockingham County Leader
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
If you are...then NOW is the time to air your grievances!!!
Abuse Freedom United is now organizing a letter writing campaign on behalf of Parents and Children that have been abused by the system of "CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES".
These letters must GRAPHICALLY describe the atrocities that any of you have endured at the hands of children's court judges, attorneys, psychiatrists, social workers, foster care providers, group home staff members, psych ward staff, and juvenile detention staff members.
We need NAMES, DATES, and SPECIFIC INCIDENTS!
Hold onto your letters and wait until the designated time that we will ALL submit them to the White House in an organized and organized manner.The projected deadline date for this united effort is:
MOTHER'S DAY on MAY 10th 2009, Sunday
Letters should be addessed to:
First Lady, Michelle Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
For more information and further instructions please contact:
jane@abusefreedom.com or cjane904@hotmail.com
You can also call:
(803) 438-8119
Leisha Tringaliloop_hole_justice@yahoo.com
http://loop-hole-justice.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/loop_hole_justice
United Civil Rights Councils of America
http://www.unitedcivilrights.org
Regional Membership Director Region 7 New Hampshire State Leader
New Hampshire, Rockingham County Leader
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Suing the xxxxx for allowing bullying to take place
I recieved the following email this morning..
Thought it might be helpful to some of my readers..
Hi,
Thought you might like to see what I am doing today. This link will take you to a story done last year. I now have my own support group and meet with legislators as much as possible. I am now part of Autism United Coalition and I bring with me lots of experience. At this time we are about to sue the (xxxxx I ((louise)) took the place being sued out intentionally) for allowing bullying to take place and really not doing anything about it!
Thank you for your support
Tammie Knight Verona NY
OH Post US code title 42 section 15009 to your blog <>
http://cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=tM1207773015t47fd2757e52b5
Tammie if you want me to add the place that you are about to sue back into this email send me a short note and I will change it.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Thought it might be helpful to some of my readers..
Hi,
Thought you might like to see what I am doing today. This link will take you to a story done last year. I now have my own support group and meet with legislators as much as possible. I am now part of Autism United Coalition and I bring with me lots of experience. At this time we are about to sue the (xxxxx I ((louise)) took the place being sued out intentionally) for allowing bullying to take place and really not doing anything about it!
Thank you for your support
Tammie Knight Verona NY
OH Post US code title 42 section 15009 to your blog <>
http://cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=tM1207773015t47fd2757e52b5
Tammie if you want me to add the place that you are about to sue back into this email send me a short note and I will change it.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Child Abuse Domestic Violence Divorce and Parent Alienation part of your life? Please take part in this poll
For those of you that may have missed the poll over there >>> Disgusted with the system
I'm gonna whine for a min or two until you go take it!!
I am putting it here in the body of this post for all to see!
I'm well into writing a book... I had the P.C. version of my book, all ready to be put together..
Then one of my nearest and dearest friends a Christin God fearing, non cursing, non smoking woman.. read the first chapter and .. believe it or not.. she said "Where's Weezie in there?"
She said she could see that I was holding back the real me!
Well for those of you that know the "real Weezie" that's not such a bad thing.. can you believe some people actually have the nerve to say I'm obnoxious? Pftttttttttt!! (smile)
So, I edited it and gave her the Weezie version - raw uncut and uncensored!
Any who.. The topic[s] of the book are child abuse..domestic violence..divorce and parent alienation..
The title is Connecting The Dots.
It's a combination Biography.. Self Help..navigating yourself back to you and navigating the System..
It's written in almost.. umm ok not almost .. more often than not.. it's written with a fantasy sorta flair.
Now the bigger question is ..
Do you want to read it.. Raw uncut and uncensored.. (and is anyone willing to critique it?)
Or would you rather have the P.C. version.. wrapped up all pretty in a lil pink bow?
Orrrr should I keep the P.C. version and start off with that.. then get down and dirty later?
Please take a moment to vote in the poll...
(1) Do you want the raw.. fuck you .. you fuckin fuck what are you blind.. version?
(2) Do you want the politically correct.. excuse me sir, it's over there version.
(3) Or a combo of both?
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
I'm gonna whine for a min or two until you go take it!!
I am putting it here in the body of this post for all to see!
I'm well into writing a book... I had the P.C. version of my book, all ready to be put together..
Then one of my nearest and dearest friends a Christin God fearing, non cursing, non smoking woman.. read the first chapter and .. believe it or not.. she said "Where's Weezie in there?"
She said she could see that I was holding back the real me!
Well for those of you that know the "real Weezie" that's not such a bad thing.. can you believe some people actually have the nerve to say I'm obnoxious? Pftttttttttt!! (smile)
So, I edited it and gave her the Weezie version - raw uncut and uncensored!
Any who.. The topic[s] of the book are child abuse..domestic violence..divorce and parent alienation..
The title is Connecting The Dots.
It's a combination Biography.. Self Help..navigating yourself back to you and navigating the System..
It's written in almost.. umm ok not almost .. more often than not.. it's written with a fantasy sorta flair.
Now the bigger question is ..
Do you want to read it.. Raw uncut and uncensored.. (and is anyone willing to critique it?)
Or would you rather have the P.C. version.. wrapped up all pretty in a lil pink bow?
Orrrr should I keep the P.C. version and start off with that.. then get down and dirty later?
Please take a moment to vote in the poll...
(1) Do you want the raw.. fuck you .. you fuckin fuck what are you blind.. version?
(2) Do you want the politically correct.. excuse me sir, it's over there version.
(3) Or a combo of both?
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
For the Justice Department, it was a week that might have echoed the toughest days of the Bush era.
Once again my dear friend Nora has asked me to post something on this blog - I should give her the password and let HER have a go at whatever she thinks would work. That's how much I trust her judgement...
Although I haven't had time to read it I trust her enough to post it blindly!
I've been engulfed in my book and other stuff relating to my personal case - and don't want to pass up the chance to get it all out there while the thoughts are many!
So here goes.. thank you Nora!
Mike Scarcella04-13-2009
For the Justice Department, it was a week that might have echoed the toughest days of the Bush era.
First, the department got a very public, and perhaps unprecedented, spanking from a federal judge for mishandling the corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. U.S.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan targeted six top prosecutors in a criminal contempt investigation for failing to turn over evidence to the defense. He also took strong aim at the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which had been investigating the prosecutors, and wondered aloud whether the office was up to the job of policing Justice.
That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. replaced the longtime head of the OPR with a veteran prosecutor. The department insists the switch had been in the works for some time and was unrelated to Sullivan's remarks. But the day after the move, Holder was being touted in The Washington Post for launching an era of reform at Justice.
In fact, the thing that may have made last week quite different from the Bush years was the public response by, and the political reaction to, Holder and the DOJ. On Tuesday, just after his department was pummeled in court, he appeared on the "CBS Evening News" with Katie Couric and said that he was "obviously troubled by the findings that -- and the statements that --
Judge Sullivan has made. But we'll cooperate fully with the investigation that has been ordered."
Holder also faced a fairly mild response from Capitol Hill. It helped that Congress was in recess. But even strong critics of the OPR stayed fairly silent. During the scandal over the U.S. Attorney firings, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed a bill that would have beefed up public scrutiny of internal misconduct cases. Last week, in the wake of the Stevens debacle, a spokeswoman said Lieberman has no plans to reintroduce the legislation.
Whether Holder will stay so lucky remains to be seen. A public contempt proceeding could air even more of the department's dirty laundry and invite interference from the Hill. Defense lawyers are also watching the Stevens case closely, wondering if the DOJ's problems will give them a future path to challenge prosecution tactics.=2 0David Freedman of Crumpler Freedman Parker & Witt in Winston-Salem, N.C., who represented former Durham, N.C., district attorney Michael Nifong in a criminal contempt case, says Sullivan's decision could encourage prosecutors and defense lawyers to make trials about the lawyers and not the facts.
"If every time the prosecutor and defense doesn't turn over a document, is that always going to be contempt?" Freedman asks. "If you start determining on each instance that it is, where does that stop?"
FIRST STRIKE
On April 1, Holder made his first pre-emptive strike in the Stevens case. He announced that the DOJ would move to dismiss the matter, saying that the prosecution had failed in its obligation to turn over evidence to the defense. "He's the one, in a sense, who put this all into play," says criminal defense lawyer Stanley Brand of D.C.'s Brand Law Group.
Brand and other defense lawyers say they doubt Holder was surprised when Judge Sullivan took the bench a week later to slowly and deliberately read a prepared statement. The judge said that, in 25 years on the bench, he had never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct in the Stevens case. He then said he had asked Henry Schuelke III, a partner at D.C.'s Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler, to investigate the conduct of the prosecutors. Sullivan ordered the DOJ to preserve its evidence and cooperate with Schuelke, who has subpoena power.
The judge named the six who would be investigated: William Welch II, chief of the department's Public Integrity Section; Brenda Morris, his principal deputy and former lead prosecutor in the case; Public Integrity trial attorneys Edward Sullivan and Nicholas Marsh; and Alaska-based Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Goeke and Joseph Bottini.
Sullivan's move was "extremely rare. Indeed, I cannot think of another case like this one," says Pace University Law School professor Bennett Gershman in an e-mail. Gershman studies prosecution ethics.
It was so out of the norm that some white-collar defense lawyers questioned whether Sullivan had the authority to launch a criminal probe without first contacting the U.S. Attorney's Office. The prosecutors under investigation are already making calls to prominent defense attorneys in D.C., says one white-collar defense lawyer who reports getting a call.
TARGET OPR
As he targeted the prosecutors, Sullivan also trained his fire on the OPR, noting the office had been looking at the prosecutors since October. Sullivan said the misconduct allegations are "too serious and too numerous to be left to an internal investigation that has no outside accountability. This court has an independent obligation to ensure that any misconduct is fully investigated and addressed in an appropriate public forum."
Sullivan is just the latest judge to publicly vent about the OPR. Last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf of Massachusetts, who helped establish the OPR three decades ago, sent a letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey questioning the DOJ's handling of prosecutorial misconduct claims stemming from a high-profile mafia case. Wolf told Mukasey that he was forced to release from prison two peo ple associated with a mob family in New England because of the misconduct. Wolf wrote that the DOJ's performance "raises serious questions about whether judges should continue to rely upon the department to investigate and sanction misconduct by federal prosecutors."
Until last week, the OPR had been run for 10 years by H. Marshall Jarrett, a longtime Holder colleague and only the second person to head the office since its creation in 1975. Holder and Jarrett had worked together at the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. and at Main Justice when Holder was deputy attorney general. Jarrett will land at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, which oversees the 94 U.S. Attorneys' oOfices across the country. His supporters say the move was less a referendum on his OPR stewardship than Holder's promotion of a friend and accomplished prosecutor to a position of increased responsibility.
In Jarrett's place, Holder named another longtime colleague: Mary Patrice Brown, criminal chief in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. She'll serve as acting head of the OPR. (She is "acting" because the career position must be formally advertised within the department.) Brown has held numerous high-level positions in the U.S. Attorney's Office -- and worked directly with Holder when he was=2 0U.S. attorney for D.C.
Despite naming a new head, Holder said little about actual reform of policy inside the OPR. Even in private practice at Covington & Burling, Holder was a staunch supporter of the office. In 2007, amid the scandal surrounding the U.S. Attorney firings, Congress considered legislation that included a provision giving the Justice Department's inspector general the power to investigate allegations of attorney misconduct -- in effect, taking over the OPR's primary role.
Holder wrote Sen. Lieberman, one of the bill's co-sponsors, to defend the OPR. "The current weakness of the Department of Justice and the seriousness of the allegations against its former leadership should not cause Congress to destroy a mechanism," Holder wrote. The OPR provision died in committee.
Even after Holder decided to pull the plug on the Stevens case, Justice was defending its ability to keep OPR issues in-house. At the American Bar Association's spring meeting this month in Birmingham, Ala., members of the ABA's Criminal Justice Section proposed a resolution calling for greater transparency in the OPR. They asked for regular reports on the office's activities -- essentially20a return to OPR practices under Attorney General Janet Reno. The office has not issued such a report since 2005.
Michelle Morales, of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the DOJ's Criminal Division, requested that the resolution be tabled because she said the new administration was starting to review the issues raised. The ABA obliged. Joe Palazzolo contributed to this article.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Although I haven't had time to read it I trust her enough to post it blindly!
I've been engulfed in my book and other stuff relating to my personal case - and don't want to pass up the chance to get it all out there while the thoughts are many!
So here goes.. thank you Nora!
Mike Scarcella04-13-2009
For the Justice Department, it was a week that might have echoed the toughest days of the Bush era.
First, the department got a very public, and perhaps unprecedented, spanking from a federal judge for mishandling the corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. U.S.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan targeted six top prosecutors in a criminal contempt investigation for failing to turn over evidence to the defense. He also took strong aim at the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which had been investigating the prosecutors, and wondered aloud whether the office was up to the job of policing Justice.
That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. replaced the longtime head of the OPR with a veteran prosecutor. The department insists the switch had been in the works for some time and was unrelated to Sullivan's remarks. But the day after the move, Holder was being touted in The Washington Post for launching an era of reform at Justice.
In fact, the thing that may have made last week quite different from the Bush years was the public response by, and the political reaction to, Holder and the DOJ. On Tuesday, just after his department was pummeled in court, he appeared on the "CBS Evening News" with Katie Couric and said that he was "obviously troubled by the findings that -- and the statements that --
Judge Sullivan has made. But we'll cooperate fully with the investigation that has been ordered."
Holder also faced a fairly mild response from Capitol Hill. It helped that Congress was in recess. But even strong critics of the OPR stayed fairly silent. During the scandal over the U.S. Attorney firings, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed a bill that would have beefed up public scrutiny of internal misconduct cases. Last week, in the wake of the Stevens debacle, a spokeswoman said Lieberman has no plans to reintroduce the legislation.
Whether Holder will stay so lucky remains to be seen. A public contempt proceeding could air even more of the department's dirty laundry and invite interference from the Hill. Defense lawyers are also watching the Stevens case closely, wondering if the DOJ's problems will give them a future path to challenge prosecution tactics.=2 0David Freedman of Crumpler Freedman Parker & Witt in Winston-Salem, N.C., who represented former Durham, N.C., district attorney Michael Nifong in a criminal contempt case, says Sullivan's decision could encourage prosecutors and defense lawyers to make trials about the lawyers and not the facts.
"If every time the prosecutor and defense doesn't turn over a document, is that always going to be contempt?" Freedman asks. "If you start determining on each instance that it is, where does that stop?"
FIRST STRIKE
On April 1, Holder made his first pre-emptive strike in the Stevens case. He announced that the DOJ would move to dismiss the matter, saying that the prosecution had failed in its obligation to turn over evidence to the defense. "He's the one, in a sense, who put this all into play," says criminal defense lawyer Stanley Brand of D.C.'s Brand Law Group.
Brand and other defense lawyers say they doubt Holder was surprised when Judge Sullivan took the bench a week later to slowly and deliberately read a prepared statement. The judge said that, in 25 years on the bench, he had never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct in the Stevens case. He then said he had asked Henry Schuelke III, a partner at D.C.'s Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler, to investigate the conduct of the prosecutors. Sullivan ordered the DOJ to preserve its evidence and cooperate with Schuelke, who has subpoena power.
The judge named the six who would be investigated: William Welch II, chief of the department's Public Integrity Section; Brenda Morris, his principal deputy and former lead prosecutor in the case; Public Integrity trial attorneys Edward Sullivan and Nicholas Marsh; and Alaska-based Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Goeke and Joseph Bottini.
Sullivan's move was "extremely rare. Indeed, I cannot think of another case like this one," says Pace University Law School professor Bennett Gershman in an e-mail. Gershman studies prosecution ethics.
It was so out of the norm that some white-collar defense lawyers questioned whether Sullivan had the authority to launch a criminal probe without first contacting the U.S. Attorney's Office. The prosecutors under investigation are already making calls to prominent defense attorneys in D.C., says one white-collar defense lawyer who reports getting a call.
TARGET OPR
As he targeted the prosecutors, Sullivan also trained his fire on the OPR, noting the office had been looking at the prosecutors since October. Sullivan said the misconduct allegations are "too serious and too numerous to be left to an internal investigation that has no outside accountability. This court has an independent obligation to ensure that any misconduct is fully investigated and addressed in an appropriate public forum."
Sullivan is just the latest judge to publicly vent about the OPR. Last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf of Massachusetts, who helped establish the OPR three decades ago, sent a letter to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey questioning the DOJ's handling of prosecutorial misconduct claims stemming from a high-profile mafia case. Wolf told Mukasey that he was forced to release from prison two peo ple associated with a mob family in New England because of the misconduct. Wolf wrote that the DOJ's performance "raises serious questions about whether judges should continue to rely upon the department to investigate and sanction misconduct by federal prosecutors."
Until last week, the OPR had been run for 10 years by H. Marshall Jarrett, a longtime Holder colleague and only the second person to head the office since its creation in 1975. Holder and Jarrett had worked together at the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. and at Main Justice when Holder was deputy attorney general. Jarrett will land at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, which oversees the 94 U.S. Attorneys' oOfices across the country. His supporters say the move was less a referendum on his OPR stewardship than Holder's promotion of a friend and accomplished prosecutor to a position of increased responsibility.
In Jarrett's place, Holder named another longtime colleague: Mary Patrice Brown, criminal chief in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. She'll serve as acting head of the OPR. (She is "acting" because the career position must be formally advertised within the department.) Brown has held numerous high-level positions in the U.S. Attorney's Office -- and worked directly with Holder when he was=2 0U.S. attorney for D.C.
Despite naming a new head, Holder said little about actual reform of policy inside the OPR. Even in private practice at Covington & Burling, Holder was a staunch supporter of the office. In 2007, amid the scandal surrounding the U.S. Attorney firings, Congress considered legislation that included a provision giving the Justice Department's inspector general the power to investigate allegations of attorney misconduct -- in effect, taking over the OPR's primary role.
Holder wrote Sen. Lieberman, one of the bill's co-sponsors, to defend the OPR. "The current weakness of the Department of Justice and the seriousness of the allegations against its former leadership should not cause Congress to destroy a mechanism," Holder wrote. The OPR provision died in committee.
Even after Holder decided to pull the plug on the Stevens case, Justice was defending its ability to keep OPR issues in-house. At the American Bar Association's spring meeting this month in Birmingham, Ala., members of the ABA's Criminal Justice Section proposed a resolution calling for greater transparency in the OPR. They asked for regular reports on the office's activities -- essentially20a return to OPR practices under Attorney General Janet Reno. The office has not issued such a report since 2005.
Michelle Morales, of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the DOJ's Criminal Division, requested that the resolution be tabled because she said the new administration was starting to review the issues raised. The ABA obliged. Joe Palazzolo contributed to this article.
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
The Macabre Dance of Family Law Court, Abnormal Psychology, and Parent Alienation- By Dr. Jayne Major
Jayne A. Major, Ph.D.
“Our litigation system is too costly, too painful, too destructive, and too inefficient for civilized people.” ~ Justice Warren Burger
If we accept that Family Law courts have a moral imperative to seek truth and to do as little harm as possible, our Family Court system is failing miserably.
Too often what prevails in court is not the truth, but the illusion of truth. The current litigation system is not capable of protecting children from the horrendous damage inflicted by those parents who are disturbed.
Children lose critical thinking ability, incur the devastating loss of one-half of their heritage and a lifetime doomed for failed social relationships and psychiatric disorders.
Few lawyers, judges, or laypersons are able to recognize seriously disturbed people who look and often act “normal.” Yet, their numbers are large and the damage they do to the targeted parent, their children, and society is staggering. Sociopaths are cruel, and are without moral conscience, empathy, sympathy, or compassion. Their purpose is to win by domination. Harvard psychologist Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, states that one in twenty-five people are a sociopath. Furthermore, there is an estimated 20% of the general population with personality disorders. Those individuals who are the most dangerous are described in the DSM IV, Axis II Cluster B. The descriptive labels of these disorders are borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and anti-social.
We can assume that a much higher percentage of these disturbed people can be found in Family Law courts because they are unable to compromise or to work out family solutions without conflict.
They lack insight, are unable to realize how they contribute to the problem, want their way, blame others, can’t self-correct, have difficulty forming trusting relationships, are unreasonable and demanding, create upset and distress with people around them, and justify inappropriate behavior. They have a “my way or the highway” mindset. Their behavior is not episodic but a pervasive character flaw that has always been present.
Therapy is of little help to these individuals, as their disorder is not fixable. Gregory Lestor described the reason that does not work as “you can’t have a conversation about a problem when the problem is answering the question.” Thus, the cure-all of sending such people to therapy is of little value. In fact, because sociopaths have no moral conscience, therapy gives them the language and skills to manipulate others more effectively; it helps them become better at being sociopaths. And they often get the upper hand in court by diverting attention off of themselves and onto the targeted parent by making numerous false allegations.
Often judges order a psychological evaluation to help them decide what would be the best
orders for a family. The evaluation is intended to curb the dysfunctional parent from doing more damage; however, this is often not the outcome. When only one professional evaluates a family, the chance for error is high. Personal bias is one problem.
Psychologists are not immune to being unduly influenced by a cunning and persuasive sociopath. Another problem is a policy followed by most evaluators to routinely offer a middle-of-the-road recommendation rather than address the psychiatric problems directly. A third problem is that evaluators are unwilling to use labels that would identify these disorders. While there are many valid reasons to not label people, the end result is that the psychologists’ report does not provide a clear and accurate picture of the underlying dynamics of the family and causes of the dysfunction.
Imagine a parent who has to deal with the other parent’s crazy-making behavior day in and day out as they watch his or her child deteriorate under the disturbed parent’s care. They do not understand why the alienating person is so difficult and irrational. Most of all, the targeted parent wants to know what they can do to make the situation better. Without clarity, truth is hard to distinguish. The unfortunate outcome of too many psychological evaluations is that hard decisions to protect a child are not made early,which necessitates more litigation and future evaluations…in the mean time, more damage is done.
Furthermore, in litigation, lawyers are supposed to advocate for their clients, not for their
clients’ children or the well-being of the family. It is very easy for a lawyer to manipulate
situations to make the healthier parent look disturbed and their own disturbed client appear superior. For those lawyers who hold litigation as a sport of winning and losing combatants, the principle of “the best interest of the child” is used as a slogan to justify what is not in a child’s best interest. The result is often disastrous. The parent who will do the most damage to a child ends up with substantial legal and physical custody. In terms of preserving the mental health of all concerned, litigation of these cases causes profound and permanent damage, a loss of family assets, and untold suffering. The dance between Family Law courts and those who are psychologically abnormal is macabre indeed.
Do we really want to co ntinue to let mentally unstable people get the upper hand and create mayhem? We are the professionals, the leaders, the creative thinkers who have the responsibility to implement a better way of handling family reorganization. The destruction of our families, our children, our wealth, has a horrific ripple effect into all of society.
Following is a paradigm that will not only stop parental alienation syndrome but preserve
the well-being of all members of separating families. The plan relies on mediation,education, and prompt legal intervention. Highly trained professionals who understand family systems and are able to recognize mentally disturbed parents work as a team.
Families are tracked by a Case Manager. A six-week Divorce Education course provides a foundation of knowledge that creates understanding and enhances positive adjustment in the reorganizing family. Financial issues are worked out by professionals who also educate parents about how to manage their money. Parents pay for the services they receive according to their ability to pay. Most of all, parents always have a place to go when they see that the family plan is not working. Parents need to complain, in the following model their complaints are heard and acted on when appropriate. The cost of this method of resolving family dissolution is minimal compared to the cost of maintaining an elaborate Family Law court system. High-conflict disputes are minimized or eliminated. The result of using this method would have a healthy impact on society as we would not be passing on from one generation to the next abusive practices that carry mental instability to the next generation.
Model for Family Reorganization
Presumptions:
Both parents will share legal and physical custody 50/50. Time share is decided according to the developmental stage of the child(ren) and the needs of the family.
Tier One:
a. Parents seeking a divorce meet with a Case Manager, who completes a detailed family assessment. The Case Manager gives parents an orientation packet to the program and assigns a Mediator to the case. The Case Manager is responsible for all record-keeping.
Parents are provided information about the financial division of the Court, which will handle decisions about child or spousal support and distribution of property and will investigate abuses.
Parents begin a series of meetings with their Financial Advisor. Parents are given an income and expense declaration and asked to return it completed at a future meeting. Parents make arrangements to pay for services, which are decided according to their ability to pay.
b. Parents arrange for the services of Paralegals, who will handle dissolution papers.
c. Parents schedule a series of meetings with the Mediator. The Mediator orients them to the program and assigns the child(ren) to divorce-adjustment educational groups based on their age. Reports of the child(ren)’s attendance and adjustment are sent to the Case Manager.
d. Parents are given a booklet that explains how to create a detailed parenting plan and are asked to complete a plan and be ready to discuss it at a future meeting.
e. All parents are required to complete a 6-week divorce education course, which totals 18 hours.
Divorce Education Curriculum:
1. The Do’s and Don’ts of Divorce in relation to the child(ren) and the other parent. Parents make agreements regarding expectations. Consequences for parents who are excessive in their behavior, such as losing time with a child, are made clear.
2. How children experience divorce (“Children in the Middle”)
3. Adjustments parents make after a divorce, including emotional issues
4. Conflict Resolution (New Ways for Families, High Conflict Institute)
5. Resolving financial matters, planning for the future
6. Resources for parents, consequences for not following agreements,requirements to report aberrant behavior
f. The Mediator discusses specific areas of family conflict as well as services that are available to resolve the issues. Such choices might be parent education classes, alcohol and drug treatment, anger management, domestic violence classes, and treatment for inappropriate sexual behavior. Parents are encouraged to obtain private therapy.
g. The Mediator will close a case as soon as the family appears to be stabilized.
Parents are told that they may come back at any time to resolve new issues.
h. Reports are sent to the Case Manager regarding progress, achievements, and the status of the family.
i. As soon as the Mediator sees that there is severe conflict where one or both parents are behaving inappropriately and are unlikely to change, he or she prepares a report for the Judge and recommends that the family move to Tier Two for evaluation.
Tier Two:
a. A judicial order is obtained to further evaluate the family. Parents who are unable to resolve conflict in Tier One are appointed a Supervisor. The Supervisor is in charge of reviewing all work to date, meeting the parents, and deciding what additional information is needed to understand why the family is unstable. For example, the Supervisor may order forensic testing of the psychological status of each parent, including a parenting skills assessment. The mother and father are assigned a minimum of three sessions with a Clinical Psychologist trained in recognizing serious psychological problems. Children are provided with a Child Development Specialist who will investigate the adjustment of the child(ren).
A team of four professionals (a Supervisor, a Clinical Psychologist, a Forensic Tester, and a Child Psychologist) write reports as to their findings. These reports are submitted to the team members, and include recommendations for resolving the family problems.
b. Team meetings are scheduled to share findings and make remediation suggestions. The Supervisor prepares a plan of action for the family.
c. The Supervisor meets with the parents and explains their findings and suggestions for remediation.
d. The Supervisor follows up with additional meetings with the parents and assesses their progress.
e. If the family becomes stable during this time, the case is closed with the invitation
to the parents to return to their Mediator if additional problems arise.
f. If there are serious and unfixable problems in the family, the Supervisor
recommends a Special Master at Tier Three.
g. Records of treatment and recommendations in Tier Two are sent to the Case
Manager.
Tier Three:
The Special Master has a quasi-legal role and can make decisions that the parents are
unable to make, such as what school the children will attend or medical care. The Special
Master reviews the information on the family and decides what legal action is necessary.
This recommendation will be presented to a Judge. Parents may hire a lawyer to present
to the Judge their own point of view about what needs to happen. Arguments are then
presented to the Court with recommendations for court orders.
Tier Four:
The Special Master will present the evidence and recommendations to the Judicial Officer. Lawyers may present each client’s side. A Judge will make orders as to what parents must do to stabilize the family. This may include greatly minimizing time with a child, monitoring, move-away issues, termination of parent responsibilities, or adoption. The Judge may be asked to rule on financial issues if no settlement has been reached.
ADVANTAGES:
1. By using educational programs a nd mediation, parents have the advantage to being oriented to the do’s and don’ts of how to manage their separation. When parents have a knowledgeable person to mentor them through the divorce process, they are much more likely to arrive at an agreeable solution to their family’s problems.
2. Parents preserve family income; they do not have to give up to lawyers their savings, IRAs, children’s college funds, or home equity. They pay an affordable amount for the services they receive.
3. Decisions are made on the basis of accurate assessment, testing, and collaboration among professionals. One person is not responsible for making recommendations, as is currently done in a 730 Evaluation. This greatly enhances the chance of a more accurate assessment and outcome.
4. Due to the education parents receive through the help of a Mediator, the family unit becomes stronger and parents learn how to solve problems appropriately as they arise.
5. Children are provided with help to adjust to their parents’ separation.
6. It minimizes court time.
7. Parents benefit20by preserving assets, minimized court appearances, and more focused recommendations based on accurate data.
CHALLENGES:
1. All professionals working in this program would need to be highly trained to
do their job successfully.
2. A pilot study is needed.
3. Grants will be necessary to fund the program.
4. Implementation, judicial backing, and legislation will need to be passed to
support the program.
5. Family law lawyers may feel displaced and be unsupportive.
6. Problems may arise with enforcement of orders with those who are unstable.
7. A non-court agency needs to work with the Family Law Court and be responsible for delivering the services.
I believe that most lawyers care deeply about their clients. While I have greatly minimizing their role in this model, I know that lawyers are highly intelligent people who are capable of practicing their chosen profession in many other fields of law and doing very well. Over 75% of parents do not use a lawyer, which deprives them of the skill and knowledge that lawyers could offer if they could afford that level of help.
I invite those of you who recognize the issue, share my concern, and are interested in leading the way to stop parent alienation to please join me in exploring a new paradigm for reorganizing families. Our Family Court system is the wrong way to handle the delicate affairs of families. The current financial burden on families and taxpayers is untenable. I invite each of you to join me in leading the way to a more effective and just resolution to parental alienation. We need to start today to focus our resources more effectively, lessen the financial burden on families and taxpayers, and put children first.
While the changes that I am proposing are radical and revolutionary it is time to understand Einstein’s oft quoted “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What can YOU do to make a difference? Are you willing to participate in making a revolutionary change in the way that Family Law cases are handled?
The Macabre Dance of Family Law Court, Abnormal Psychology, and Parental Alienation Syndrome – Summary
You may contact me at:
Jayne A. Major, Ph.D.
Stop Parental Alienation of C hildren
12405 Venice Blvd. #172
Los Angeles, CA 90066
jaynemajor@gmail.com
www.stopparentalalienation.org
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
“Our litigation system is too costly, too painful, too destructive, and too inefficient for civilized people.” ~ Justice Warren Burger
If we accept that Family Law courts have a moral imperative to seek truth and to do as little harm as possible, our Family Court system is failing miserably.
Too often what prevails in court is not the truth, but the illusion of truth. The current litigation system is not capable of protecting children from the horrendous damage inflicted by those parents who are disturbed.
Children lose critical thinking ability, incur the devastating loss of one-half of their heritage and a lifetime doomed for failed social relationships and psychiatric disorders.
Few lawyers, judges, or laypersons are able to recognize seriously disturbed people who look and often act “normal.” Yet, their numbers are large and the damage they do to the targeted parent, their children, and society is staggering. Sociopaths are cruel, and are without moral conscience, empathy, sympathy, or compassion. Their purpose is to win by domination. Harvard psychologist Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, states that one in twenty-five people are a sociopath. Furthermore, there is an estimated 20% of the general population with personality disorders. Those individuals who are the most dangerous are described in the DSM IV, Axis II Cluster B. The descriptive labels of these disorders are borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and anti-social.
We can assume that a much higher percentage of these disturbed people can be found in Family Law courts because they are unable to compromise or to work out family solutions without conflict.
They lack insight, are unable to realize how they contribute to the problem, want their way, blame others, can’t self-correct, have difficulty forming trusting relationships, are unreasonable and demanding, create upset and distress with people around them, and justify inappropriate behavior. They have a “my way or the highway” mindset. Their behavior is not episodic but a pervasive character flaw that has always been present.
Therapy is of little help to these individuals, as their disorder is not fixable. Gregory Lestor described the reason that does not work as “you can’t have a conversation about a problem when the problem is answering the question.” Thus, the cure-all of sending such people to therapy is of little value. In fact, because sociopaths have no moral conscience, therapy gives them the language and skills to manipulate others more effectively; it helps them become better at being sociopaths. And they often get the upper hand in court by diverting attention off of themselves and onto the targeted parent by making numerous false allegations.
Often judges order a psychological evaluation to help them decide what would be the best
orders for a family. The evaluation is intended to curb the dysfunctional parent from doing more damage; however, this is often not the outcome. When only one professional evaluates a family, the chance for error is high. Personal bias is one problem.
Psychologists are not immune to being unduly influenced by a cunning and persuasive sociopath. Another problem is a policy followed by most evaluators to routinely offer a middle-of-the-road recommendation rather than address the psychiatric problems directly. A third problem is that evaluators are unwilling to use labels that would identify these disorders. While there are many valid reasons to not label people, the end result is that the psychologists’ report does not provide a clear and accurate picture of the underlying dynamics of the family and causes of the dysfunction.
Imagine a parent who has to deal with the other parent’s crazy-making behavior day in and day out as they watch his or her child deteriorate under the disturbed parent’s care. They do not understand why the alienating person is so difficult and irrational. Most of all, the targeted parent wants to know what they can do to make the situation better. Without clarity, truth is hard to distinguish. The unfortunate outcome of too many psychological evaluations is that hard decisions to protect a child are not made early,which necessitates more litigation and future evaluations…in the mean time, more damage is done.
Furthermore, in litigation, lawyers are supposed to advocate for their clients, not for their
clients’ children or the well-being of the family. It is very easy for a lawyer to manipulate
situations to make the healthier parent look disturbed and their own disturbed client appear superior. For those lawyers who hold litigation as a sport of winning and losing combatants, the principle of “the best interest of the child” is used as a slogan to justify what is not in a child’s best interest. The result is often disastrous. The parent who will do the most damage to a child ends up with substantial legal and physical custody. In terms of preserving the mental health of all concerned, litigation of these cases causes profound and permanent damage, a loss of family assets, and untold suffering. The dance between Family Law courts and those who are psychologically abnormal is macabre indeed.
Do we really want to co ntinue to let mentally unstable people get the upper hand and create mayhem? We are the professionals, the leaders, the creative thinkers who have the responsibility to implement a better way of handling family reorganization. The destruction of our families, our children, our wealth, has a horrific ripple effect into all of society.
Following is a paradigm that will not only stop parental alienation syndrome but preserve
the well-being of all members of separating families. The plan relies on mediation,education, and prompt legal intervention. Highly trained professionals who understand family systems and are able to recognize mentally disturbed parents work as a team.
Families are tracked by a Case Manager. A six-week Divorce Education course provides a foundation of knowledge that creates understanding and enhances positive adjustment in the reorganizing family. Financial issues are worked out by professionals who also educate parents about how to manage their money. Parents pay for the services they receive according to their ability to pay. Most of all, parents always have a place to go when they see that the family plan is not working. Parents need to complain, in the following model their complaints are heard and acted on when appropriate. The cost of this method of resolving family dissolution is minimal compared to the cost of maintaining an elaborate Family Law court system. High-conflict disputes are minimized or eliminated. The result of using this method would have a healthy impact on society as we would not be passing on from one generation to the next abusive practices that carry mental instability to the next generation.
Model for Family Reorganization
Presumptions:
Both parents will share legal and physical custody 50/50. Time share is decided according to the developmental stage of the child(ren) and the needs of the family.
Tier One:
a. Parents seeking a divorce meet with a Case Manager, who completes a detailed family assessment. The Case Manager gives parents an orientation packet to the program and assigns a Mediator to the case. The Case Manager is responsible for all record-keeping.
Parents are provided information about the financial division of the Court, which will handle decisions about child or spousal support and distribution of property and will investigate abuses.
Parents begin a series of meetings with their Financial Advisor. Parents are given an income and expense declaration and asked to return it completed at a future meeting. Parents make arrangements to pay for services, which are decided according to their ability to pay.
b. Parents arrange for the services of Paralegals, who will handle dissolution papers.
c. Parents schedule a series of meetings with the Mediator. The Mediator orients them to the program and assigns the child(ren) to divorce-adjustment educational groups based on their age. Reports of the child(ren)’s attendance and adjustment are sent to the Case Manager.
d. Parents are given a booklet that explains how to create a detailed parenting plan and are asked to complete a plan and be ready to discuss it at a future meeting.
e. All parents are required to complete a 6-week divorce education course, which totals 18 hours.
Divorce Education Curriculum:
1. The Do’s and Don’ts of Divorce in relation to the child(ren) and the other parent. Parents make agreements regarding expectations. Consequences for parents who are excessive in their behavior, such as losing time with a child, are made clear.
2. How children experience divorce (“Children in the Middle”)
3. Adjustments parents make after a divorce, including emotional issues
4. Conflict Resolution (New Ways for Families, High Conflict Institute)
5. Resolving financial matters, planning for the future
6. Resources for parents, consequences for not following agreements,requirements to report aberrant behavior
f. The Mediator discusses specific areas of family conflict as well as services that are available to resolve the issues. Such choices might be parent education classes, alcohol and drug treatment, anger management, domestic violence classes, and treatment for inappropriate sexual behavior. Parents are encouraged to obtain private therapy.
g. The Mediator will close a case as soon as the family appears to be stabilized.
Parents are told that they may come back at any time to resolve new issues.
h. Reports are sent to the Case Manager regarding progress, achievements, and the status of the family.
i. As soon as the Mediator sees that there is severe conflict where one or both parents are behaving inappropriately and are unlikely to change, he or she prepares a report for the Judge and recommends that the family move to Tier Two for evaluation.
Tier Two:
a. A judicial order is obtained to further evaluate the family. Parents who are unable to resolve conflict in Tier One are appointed a Supervisor. The Supervisor is in charge of reviewing all work to date, meeting the parents, and deciding what additional information is needed to understand why the family is unstable. For example, the Supervisor may order forensic testing of the psychological status of each parent, including a parenting skills assessment. The mother and father are assigned a minimum of three sessions with a Clinical Psychologist trained in recognizing serious psychological problems. Children are provided with a Child Development Specialist who will investigate the adjustment of the child(ren).
A team of four professionals (a Supervisor, a Clinical Psychologist, a Forensic Tester, and a Child Psychologist) write reports as to their findings. These reports are submitted to the team members, and include recommendations for resolving the family problems.
b. Team meetings are scheduled to share findings and make remediation suggestions. The Supervisor prepares a plan of action for the family.
c. The Supervisor meets with the parents and explains their findings and suggestions for remediation.
d. The Supervisor follows up with additional meetings with the parents and assesses their progress.
e. If the family becomes stable during this time, the case is closed with the invitation
to the parents to return to their Mediator if additional problems arise.
f. If there are serious and unfixable problems in the family, the Supervisor
recommends a Special Master at Tier Three.
g. Records of treatment and recommendations in Tier Two are sent to the Case
Manager.
Tier Three:
The Special Master has a quasi-legal role and can make decisions that the parents are
unable to make, such as what school the children will attend or medical care. The Special
Master reviews the information on the family and decides what legal action is necessary.
This recommendation will be presented to a Judge. Parents may hire a lawyer to present
to the Judge their own point of view about what needs to happen. Arguments are then
presented to the Court with recommendations for court orders.
Tier Four:
The Special Master will present the evidence and recommendations to the Judicial Officer. Lawyers may present each client’s side. A Judge will make orders as to what parents must do to stabilize the family. This may include greatly minimizing time with a child, monitoring, move-away issues, termination of parent responsibilities, or adoption. The Judge may be asked to rule on financial issues if no settlement has been reached.
ADVANTAGES:
1. By using educational programs a nd mediation, parents have the advantage to being oriented to the do’s and don’ts of how to manage their separation. When parents have a knowledgeable person to mentor them through the divorce process, they are much more likely to arrive at an agreeable solution to their family’s problems.
2. Parents preserve family income; they do not have to give up to lawyers their savings, IRAs, children’s college funds, or home equity. They pay an affordable amount for the services they receive.
3. Decisions are made on the basis of accurate assessment, testing, and collaboration among professionals. One person is not responsible for making recommendations, as is currently done in a 730 Evaluation. This greatly enhances the chance of a more accurate assessment and outcome.
4. Due to the education parents receive through the help of a Mediator, the family unit becomes stronger and parents learn how to solve problems appropriately as they arise.
5. Children are provided with help to adjust to their parents’ separation.
6. It minimizes court time.
7. Parents benefit20by preserving assets, minimized court appearances, and more focused recommendations based on accurate data.
CHALLENGES:
1. All professionals working in this program would need to be highly trained to
do their job successfully.
2. A pilot study is needed.
3. Grants will be necessary to fund the program.
4. Implementation, judicial backing, and legislation will need to be passed to
support the program.
5. Family law lawyers may feel displaced and be unsupportive.
6. Problems may arise with enforcement of orders with those who are unstable.
7. A non-court agency needs to work with the Family Law Court and be responsible for delivering the services.
I believe that most lawyers care deeply about their clients. While I have greatly minimizing their role in this model, I know that lawyers are highly intelligent people who are capable of practicing their chosen profession in many other fields of law and doing very well. Over 75% of parents do not use a lawyer, which deprives them of the skill and knowledge that lawyers could offer if they could afford that level of help.
I invite those of you who recognize the issue, share my concern, and are interested in leading the way to stop parent alienation to please join me in exploring a new paradigm for reorganizing families. Our Family Court system is the wrong way to handle the delicate affairs of families. The current financial burden on families and taxpayers is untenable. I invite each of you to join me in leading the way to a more effective and just resolution to parental alienation. We need to start today to focus our resources more effectively, lessen the financial burden on families and taxpayers, and put children first.
While the changes that I am proposing are radical and revolutionary it is time to understand Einstein’s oft quoted “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What can YOU do to make a difference? Are you willing to participate in making a revolutionary change in the way that Family Law cases are handled?
The Macabre Dance of Family Law Court, Abnormal Psychology, and Parental Alienation Syndrome – Summary
You may contact me at:
Jayne A. Major, Ph.D.
Stop Parental Alienation of C hildren
12405 Venice Blvd. #172
Los Angeles, CA 90066
jaynemajor@gmail.com
www.stopparentalalienation.org
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Interview and Articles by Dr. Jayne Major on Parent Alienation
This is an interview with Dr. Jayne Major. She speaks very openly about Parent Alienation and Parent Alienation Syndrome.
This is a must watch!
If I can take one sentence from this interview and get it out there it would be...
TARGET PARENTS- DON'T BE PASSIVE!
That was my downfall!
Being passive is the problem of most if not all "target" parent's..
Are you going through a divorce with someone that you believe is "not playing with a full deck."
Are you going through a divorce with someone that seems "out of touch with reality?"
Are you going through a divorce with someone that has "aligned the children of the marriage with them self?"
Are you always being "undermined" in your parenting efforts or any other efforts, by your partner or in laws?
Do you often times find yourself wondering if it is "you" that has lost your mind.. due to the way your partner acts in situations?
More likely than not if you answered yes to these questions above you are involved with someone who is not in touch with reality.. someone who has a personality disorder and that means you are at HIGH RISK for losing your children to that person! Don't be an ass like I was ..
EDUCATE YOURSELF on Parent alienation- learn all you can- before it's to late!
Adult children that were separated from one parent.. were you alienated?
You may be suffering from the effects of being raised by the more disturbed parent.. please I'm pleading with you.. WATCH THIS VIDEO!
If you are reading this and were or are either an alienated parent or feel you may be a child that was alienated from the healthier parent - THERE IS HOPE - YOU CAN BE HELPED!
Please consider talking to a therapist!! Personality disorders can be worked through.. you can learn to think healthier - to live a more productive life- less drama- less self destruction- less self sabotage!
You may not be ready to hear this- but you must want to end the negativity in your life -no one but you and your therapist have to know what is going on in therapy!
IT CAN BE DONE!
PLEASE GO FOR HELP!
Things in your life may not be the way you perceive them- you may be creating your own insanity- simply due to the way you were raised.. by a personality disordered parent!
THIS INTERVIEW IS A MUST WATCH!
Click the link below for more including the interview with Dr. Jayne Major-
http://angiemedia.com/?p=2113
Click here for more coverage on parental alienation.
Here’s an interview with Jayne Major, Ph.D., a Los Angeles psychologist and educator advocating means to stop parental alienation behaviors and heal the damage they cause. In the interview, she answers common questions about parental alienation.
She describes the range from mild bad-mouthing to sociopathic intent to brainwash children to hate the other parent.
She notes that in severe alienation cases, the target parents (those who are alienated against) must learn to stand up for the truth if they are to have hope of not losing their children permanently to the brainwashing of the alienating parent.
She notes that the most dangerous alienating parents often have one or more personality disorders:
"Few lawyers, judges, nor laypersons are able to recognize seriously disturbed people who look and often act “normal.” Yet, their numbers are large and the damage they do to other parents, their children, and society is staggering. Sociopaths are cruel—without moral conscience, empathy, sympathy, or compassion. Their purpose is to win by domination. Harvard psychologist Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, states that one in twenty-five people is a sociopath. Furthermore, there is an estimated 20% of the general population with personality disorders. Those individuals who are the most dangerous are described in the DSM IV, Axis II Cluster B. The descriptive labels of these disorders are borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and anti-social."
Individual Questions in the Interview:
What is “parental alienation”?
Why do parents engage in parental alienation?
What type of parent is likely to engage in parental alienation?
How do I know if my spouse is actually committing parental alienation?
What is “severe parental alienation”?
How will parental alienation affect the targeted parent?
How will parental alienation affect my child?
How will parental alienation affect my child when he grows up?
How do I prevent parental alienation?
How do I cope with parental alienation?
What is “parental alienation syndrome”?
How does parental alienation syndrome affect my child?
How do I cope with a child experiencing parental alienation syndrome?
How do I stop parental alienation if it is occurring?
Articles by Jayne Major, Ph.D. on Parental Alienation
Parents Who Have Successfully Fought Parental Alienation Syndrome
Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS): Its Causes, Cures, Costs, and Controversies
The Macabre Dance of Family Law Court, Abnormal Psychology, and Parental Alienation Syndrome – Summary
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
This is a must watch!
If I can take one sentence from this interview and get it out there it would be...
TARGET PARENTS- DON'T BE PASSIVE!
That was my downfall!
Being passive is the problem of most if not all "target" parent's..
Are you going through a divorce with someone that you believe is "not playing with a full deck."
Are you going through a divorce with someone that seems "out of touch with reality?"
Are you going through a divorce with someone that has "aligned the children of the marriage with them self?"
Are you always being "undermined" in your parenting efforts or any other efforts, by your partner or in laws?
Do you often times find yourself wondering if it is "you" that has lost your mind.. due to the way your partner acts in situations?
More likely than not if you answered yes to these questions above you are involved with someone who is not in touch with reality.. someone who has a personality disorder and that means you are at HIGH RISK for losing your children to that person! Don't be an ass like I was ..
EDUCATE YOURSELF on Parent alienation- learn all you can- before it's to late!
Adult children that were separated from one parent.. were you alienated?
You may be suffering from the effects of being raised by the more disturbed parent.. please I'm pleading with you.. WATCH THIS VIDEO!
If you are reading this and were or are either an alienated parent or feel you may be a child that was alienated from the healthier parent - THERE IS HOPE - YOU CAN BE HELPED!
Please consider talking to a therapist!! Personality disorders can be worked through.. you can learn to think healthier - to live a more productive life- less drama- less self destruction- less self sabotage!
You may not be ready to hear this- but you must want to end the negativity in your life -no one but you and your therapist have to know what is going on in therapy!
IT CAN BE DONE!
PLEASE GO FOR HELP!
Things in your life may not be the way you perceive them- you may be creating your own insanity- simply due to the way you were raised.. by a personality disordered parent!
THIS INTERVIEW IS A MUST WATCH!
Click the link below for more including the interview with Dr. Jayne Major-
http://angiemedia.com/?p=2113
Click here for more coverage on parental alienation.
Here’s an interview with Jayne Major, Ph.D., a Los Angeles psychologist and educator advocating means to stop parental alienation behaviors and heal the damage they cause. In the interview, she answers common questions about parental alienation.
She describes the range from mild bad-mouthing to sociopathic intent to brainwash children to hate the other parent.
She notes that in severe alienation cases, the target parents (those who are alienated against) must learn to stand up for the truth if they are to have hope of not losing their children permanently to the brainwashing of the alienating parent.
She notes that the most dangerous alienating parents often have one or more personality disorders:
"Few lawyers, judges, nor laypersons are able to recognize seriously disturbed people who look and often act “normal.” Yet, their numbers are large and the damage they do to other parents, their children, and society is staggering. Sociopaths are cruel—without moral conscience, empathy, sympathy, or compassion. Their purpose is to win by domination. Harvard psychologist Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, states that one in twenty-five people is a sociopath. Furthermore, there is an estimated 20% of the general population with personality disorders. Those individuals who are the most dangerous are described in the DSM IV, Axis II Cluster B. The descriptive labels of these disorders are borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and anti-social."
Individual Questions in the Interview:
What is “parental alienation”?
Why do parents engage in parental alienation?
What type of parent is likely to engage in parental alienation?
How do I know if my spouse is actually committing parental alienation?
What is “severe parental alienation”?
How will parental alienation affect the targeted parent?
How will parental alienation affect my child?
How will parental alienation affect my child when he grows up?
How do I prevent parental alienation?
How do I cope with parental alienation?
What is “parental alienation syndrome”?
How does parental alienation syndrome affect my child?
How do I cope with a child experiencing parental alienation syndrome?
How do I stop parental alienation if it is occurring?
Articles by Jayne Major, Ph.D. on Parental Alienation
Parents Who Have Successfully Fought Parental Alienation Syndrome
Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS): Its Causes, Cures, Costs, and Controversies
The Macabre Dance of Family Law Court, Abnormal Psychology, and Parental Alienation Syndrome – Summary
REFRESH - Go to Home-Page
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sunday-school teacher arrested in killing of California girl
Police have arrested a Sunday-school teacher in the killing of California 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, authorities said early Saturday.
Melissa Huckaby was arrested on charges of kidnapping and murder, according to Tracy, California, police Sgt. Tony Sheneman.
Police would not reveal what led to Huckaby's arrest, but said it followed questioning. They did not offer a possible motive.
Huckaby lived in the same mobile home park as Sandra's family, and Sandra was friends with Huckaby's daughter, Sheneman said.
Sandra's body was found Monday, stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond. The girl, from Tracy, had been missing since March 27. The suitcase that held Sandra's body belonged to Huckaby, Sheneman said.
Police have had contact with Huckaby before, but she does not have a record of violence, Sheneman said, without offering further details.
An autopsy was conducted on Sandra's body on Tuesday. Autopsy results are not expected for four to six weeks, CNN affiliate KRON-TV reported earlier in the week, citing the coroner's office.
Police have conducted hundreds of interviews in the case.
Melissa Huckaby was arrested on charges of kidnapping and murder, according to Tracy, California, police Sgt. Tony Sheneman.
Police would not reveal what led to Huckaby's arrest, but said it followed questioning. They did not offer a possible motive.
Huckaby lived in the same mobile home park as Sandra's family, and Sandra was friends with Huckaby's daughter, Sheneman said.
Sandra's body was found Monday, stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond. The girl, from Tracy, had been missing since March 27. The suitcase that held Sandra's body belonged to Huckaby, Sheneman said.
Police have had contact with Huckaby before, but she does not have a record of violence, Sheneman said, without offering further details.
An autopsy was conducted on Sandra's body on Tuesday. Autopsy results are not expected for four to six weeks, CNN affiliate KRON-TV reported earlier in the week, citing the coroner's office.
Police have conducted hundreds of interviews in the case.
On Tuesday, authorities searched a Baptist church near the mobile home park where Sandra lived.
The church's pastor, Lane Lawless, and his wife, Connie, spoke to KRON as they drove by the church Tuesday. Lawless said police had seized computers, phones and other items from his family's trailer, located in the same park as Sandra's family. He said his great-granddaughter regularly played with Sandra.
"We've been in the park for 13 years, and we've known her and her sister since before they were born," Connie Lawless told KRON. "So they're like children to us; they're like our children."
The day Sandra was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby.
A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman.
Police said the girl's clothing helped them identify her body.
Don't Miss
KCRA: Suspect in child's death is pastor's granddaughter
KCRA: Suspect in child's death is pastor's granddaughter
Staten Island loses shining star
Student body president overdosed on OTC painkiller, coroner concludes
Friday, April 10, 2009
By JOHN ANNESE, AMISHA PADNANI and JEFF HARRELL
Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The death of the student body president of Port Richmond High School on Monday has been ruled a suicide by the city medical examiner, who said the young woman ingested an overdose of painkiller.
Senior Jin Ju Kim, 18, of New Springville, died of "complications from acetaminophen toxicity," a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office told the Advance yesterday. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol; in large doses, it can cause liver failure and death.
Miss Kim's death has sent ripples of grief through the student body and faculty, who remembered her for her beaming smile, warm personality and seemingly bright future.
"She was really smart," said Port Richmond student Chris Reyes. "One of those students who was really on track."
Several students said Miss Kim left class on Monday complaining of stomach pains and was hospitalized.
In a letter sent home to parents, Principal Timothy Gannon said the incident had a tragic impact on the school's community.
"This is a very sad time for our Raider family," the letter said. "With the Spring Break upon us, I am concerned for the well-being of those students who are particularly impacted by this sad event. ... I encourage you to support your child during this difficult time and to encourage them when needed to make use of the counseling services offered here on Staten Island."
Though Miss Kim moved to the United States just four years ago, parent leaders said she immersed herself in the school's community. Teachers and students recognized her as the girl who was always smiling.
"Everybody at the school was devastated," said Joanne Wojcik, the PTA co-president, who worked with Miss Kim last year on the school leadership team. "She was really insightful and had a lot of good ideas for the school. She was very well-loved by all the teachers and students. It's a shame, it really is."
Grief counseling was offered at the school on Wednesday and the school has set up a Web site memorial for peers at rememberingjinju.blogspot.com.
Student body president overdosed on OTC painkiller, coroner concludes
As of yesterday afternoon, nearly two dozen people had shared their stories.
"You were fun to be with and easy to talk to," wrote one friend, who identified himself on the site as Nathan Alba. "More importantly you had one of the greatest smiles ever and it would make me smile to know that you were my friend. I will always remember you."
Others posted photos of her and quotes from William Butler Yeats and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"It hit a lot of the kids very hard," said Missy Forsyth, the school's PTA co-president. "We're still not sure of a lot of what happened."
A single Tylenol Extra Strength tablet contains 500 mg of acetaminophen. Typically, 10 grams, or 20 to 30 tablets, can cause liver toxicity, while 20 grams -- 40 tablets -- or more, can prove fatal, though those numbers vary depending on a person's weight.
Her family members declined comment yesterday, saying that they'd prefer to remember Miss Kim in privacy.
Miss Kim's funeral was yesterday morning. The arrangements were handled by the Central Funeral Home in Flushing, Queens.
"She was always very happy and told others to smile," Ms. Forsyth said. "She was just a typical teenager."
Staten Island loses shining star - SILive.com
Friday, April 10, 2009
By JOHN ANNESE, AMISHA PADNANI and JEFF HARRELL
Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The death of the student body president of Port Richmond High School on Monday has been ruled a suicide by the city medical examiner, who said the young woman ingested an overdose of painkiller.
Senior Jin Ju Kim, 18, of New Springville, died of "complications from acetaminophen toxicity," a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office told the Advance yesterday. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol; in large doses, it can cause liver failure and death.
Miss Kim's death has sent ripples of grief through the student body and faculty, who remembered her for her beaming smile, warm personality and seemingly bright future.
"She was really smart," said Port Richmond student Chris Reyes. "One of those students who was really on track."
Several students said Miss Kim left class on Monday complaining of stomach pains and was hospitalized.
In a letter sent home to parents, Principal Timothy Gannon said the incident had a tragic impact on the school's community.
"This is a very sad time for our Raider family," the letter said. "With the Spring Break upon us, I am concerned for the well-being of those students who are particularly impacted by this sad event. ... I encourage you to support your child during this difficult time and to encourage them when needed to make use of the counseling services offered here on Staten Island."
Though Miss Kim moved to the United States just four years ago, parent leaders said she immersed herself in the school's community. Teachers and students recognized her as the girl who was always smiling.
"Everybody at the school was devastated," said Joanne Wojcik, the PTA co-president, who worked with Miss Kim last year on the school leadership team. "She was really insightful and had a lot of good ideas for the school. She was very well-loved by all the teachers and students. It's a shame, it really is."
Grief counseling was offered at the school on Wednesday and the school has set up a Web site memorial for peers at rememberingjinju.blogspot.com.
Student body president overdosed on OTC painkiller, coroner concludes
As of yesterday afternoon, nearly two dozen people had shared their stories.
"You were fun to be with and easy to talk to," wrote one friend, who identified himself on the site as Nathan Alba. "More importantly you had one of the greatest smiles ever and it would make me smile to know that you were my friend. I will always remember you."
Others posted photos of her and quotes from William Butler Yeats and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"It hit a lot of the kids very hard," said Missy Forsyth, the school's PTA co-president. "We're still not sure of a lot of what happened."
A single Tylenol Extra Strength tablet contains 500 mg of acetaminophen. Typically, 10 grams, or 20 to 30 tablets, can cause liver toxicity, while 20 grams -- 40 tablets -- or more, can prove fatal, though those numbers vary depending on a person's weight.
Her family members declined comment yesterday, saying that they'd prefer to remember Miss Kim in privacy.
Miss Kim's funeral was yesterday morning. The arrangements were handled by the Central Funeral Home in Flushing, Queens.
"She was always very happy and told others to smile," Ms. Forsyth said. "She was just a typical teenager."
Staten Island loses shining star - SILive.com
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Susan B. Anthony Trial
Today folks we have a guest blogger N. - she also gives her two cents or dollar fifty worth..
May I welocome one of my dear friends N. This post is here at her request..
(she didn't mention if it was ok to use her full name - if that changes I will add it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ontario County Courthouse
Ontario County Courthouse and The Susan B. Anthony Trial
By Anita Womack-Weidner
Location: Main Street, Canandaigua, N.Y.
Houses: Supreme, County and Surrogate’s Courts and Commissioner of
Jurors
Judicial District: Seventh
Built: 1858, expanded and renovated 1908
Architects: Henry Searl (also known as Searle) was the first architect
of the present Ontario County Courthouse. Searl went on to be the
supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury and designed the master
campus plan for Howard University in Washington, D.C. John Foster
Warner, a Rochester-based architect and the son of the prominent
architect A.J. Warner, designed the expansion.
Architecture: The Ontario County Courthouse is a two-story Greek
Revival building. Its external walls were constructed of brick above
stone foundation walls and a limestone water table. The brick walls were
surfaced with mastic. Officials believe the courthouse as originally
built was covered by a low-pitched cross-gabled roof, probably sheathed
with tin pans. A large hemispherical dome with an octagonal base rose
about the intersection of these roofs. The base of the dome, which
appears to have housed a bell, was pierced by louvered openings that
would have allowed for the transmission of sound. The dome was also
sheathed with metal pans and surmounted by an octagonal cupola, covered
by a small dome. Atop the dome stood a 12-foot statue of “Justice,”
carved from doweled wooden planks.
Historic Status: On the National Registry of Historic Places, as well
as the state and local registry. Ontario County Courthouse was just 15
years old when it was selected as the site of the Susan B. Anthony
trial.
The Susan B. Anthony Trial
On June 17, 1873, suffragette Susan B. Anthony walked through the doors
of the Ontario County Courthouse and under its large, gold-colored dome
to stand trial for “illegal voting” in a federal election because
she was a woman.
Anthony had campaigned for the re-election of Ulysses S. Grant and his
Republican Party platform that stated it was “mindful of its
obligations to the women of America.” In 1872 women did not have the
right to vote, but Anthony and 50 suffragettes attempted to register in
Rochester anyway. Everyone was turned away except for the 15 women who
went to the 8th Ward registration office with Anthony. The women were
permitted to register in Rochester after arguing their case by reading
the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution and provisions of the
New York State election law, despite the strong objections of election
officials, according to the book Ontario County Courthouse: Its History
and Restoration. On Election Day, Nov. 5, the 16 women voted. Anthony is
said to have voted a straight Republican ticket. Arrest warrants were
issued on Thanksgiving Day for all of the women, and in January 1873 a
federal grand jury indicted Anthony. Officials declined to prosecute the
other women.
Anthony initiated a speaking tour in the Midwest and Rochester,
bringing publicity to her upcoming trial. The pre-trial publicity forced
the United States attorney to ask that the venue be changed from
Rochester. The Circuit Court granted the request, and Ontario County
Courthouse was selected as the new venue for the trial.
The trial was greeted with a packed courtroom that included former
President Millard Fillmore. Anthony’s defense counselors were Henry R.
Seldon, a former judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, and John
Van Voorhis. The prosecutor was Richard Crowley. Anthony pleaded
innocent to the charges.
During her trial, Anthony was barred from testifying, and Judge Ward
Hunt instructed the jury to find her guilty. She was found guilty the
next day. Judge Hunt surprisingly asked Anthony if she had anything to
say before her punishment was imposed. She did.
“Yes, your Honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered
verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of
our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights
are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privileges of
citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a
subject; not only myself individually, but all of my sex are, by your
Honor’s verdict, doomed to political subjection under this so-called
Republican government. … [H]ad your Honor submitted my case to the jury,
as clearly your duty, even then I should have had just cause to protest,
for not one of those men was my peer, but each and every man of them was
a political superior, hence in no way my peer.”
Anthony refused to pay her $100 fine—her only sentence—and
officials never pursued the case. However, the election inspectors who
allowed her and the other women to vote were similarly tried, convicted,
fined and imprisoned. Gifts of money poured in for Anthony, and she used
the funds to pay her attorney and the fines of the election inspectors
who had been prosecuted, as well as to print a pamphlet of the
proceedings of her trial, which was sent to newspapers across the
country.
President Ulysses S. Grant later pardoned the election inspectors.
While the trial lasted for just two days, its effect would be
long-lasting and far-reaching. Anthony would spend the rest of her life
fighting for the right of American women to vote. On Aug. 26, 1920—14
years after her death—the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was
adopted and women won the right to vote.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She suggested I could write something or antother in my two cents ..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Or use my (her) two cents.
The account of the trial of Susan B. Anthony happens to be a highlighted story on the OCA official website.
Can we only grasp the obvious after someone has already been dead for
fourteen years?
Can the court system only respect a visionary if everyone else has for
one hundred years?
What about acknowledging this present problem that is not life serving or honoring our Constitution or the Declaration of Human Rights issued by the UN or the Ten
Commandmentsor probably the Code of Hammurabi for God's sake.
OCA and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, is it time to get the lead out in overcoming the courts' blindness to the human cruellty of aiding and abetting the alienating parent in instilling hatred and sabotage of parental relationship by means of court empowered parental alienation?
Is it time to stop ignoring and obstructing relationship for mothers and
fathers who only want to extend love and let their children be allowed
to love them back?
May I welocome one of my dear friends N. This post is here at her request..
(she didn't mention if it was ok to use her full name - if that changes I will add it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ontario County Courthouse
Ontario County Courthouse and The Susan B. Anthony Trial
By Anita Womack-Weidner
Location: Main Street, Canandaigua, N.Y.
Houses: Supreme, County and Surrogate’s Courts and Commissioner of
Jurors
Judicial District: Seventh
Built: 1858, expanded and renovated 1908
Architects: Henry Searl (also known as Searle) was the first architect
of the present Ontario County Courthouse. Searl went on to be the
supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury and designed the master
campus plan for Howard University in Washington, D.C. John Foster
Warner, a Rochester-based architect and the son of the prominent
architect A.J. Warner, designed the expansion.
Architecture: The Ontario County Courthouse is a two-story Greek
Revival building. Its external walls were constructed of brick above
stone foundation walls and a limestone water table. The brick walls were
surfaced with mastic. Officials believe the courthouse as originally
built was covered by a low-pitched cross-gabled roof, probably sheathed
with tin pans. A large hemispherical dome with an octagonal base rose
about the intersection of these roofs. The base of the dome, which
appears to have housed a bell, was pierced by louvered openings that
would have allowed for the transmission of sound. The dome was also
sheathed with metal pans and surmounted by an octagonal cupola, covered
by a small dome. Atop the dome stood a 12-foot statue of “Justice,”
carved from doweled wooden planks.
Historic Status: On the National Registry of Historic Places, as well
as the state and local registry. Ontario County Courthouse was just 15
years old when it was selected as the site of the Susan B. Anthony
trial.
The Susan B. Anthony Trial
On June 17, 1873, suffragette Susan B. Anthony walked through the doors
of the Ontario County Courthouse and under its large, gold-colored dome
to stand trial for “illegal voting” in a federal election because
she was a woman.
Anthony had campaigned for the re-election of Ulysses S. Grant and his
Republican Party platform that stated it was “mindful of its
obligations to the women of America.” In 1872 women did not have the
right to vote, but Anthony and 50 suffragettes attempted to register in
Rochester anyway. Everyone was turned away except for the 15 women who
went to the 8th Ward registration office with Anthony. The women were
permitted to register in Rochester after arguing their case by reading
the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution and provisions of the
New York State election law, despite the strong objections of election
officials, according to the book Ontario County Courthouse: Its History
and Restoration. On Election Day, Nov. 5, the 16 women voted. Anthony is
said to have voted a straight Republican ticket. Arrest warrants were
issued on Thanksgiving Day for all of the women, and in January 1873 a
federal grand jury indicted Anthony. Officials declined to prosecute the
other women.
Anthony initiated a speaking tour in the Midwest and Rochester,
bringing publicity to her upcoming trial. The pre-trial publicity forced
the United States attorney to ask that the venue be changed from
Rochester. The Circuit Court granted the request, and Ontario County
Courthouse was selected as the new venue for the trial.
The trial was greeted with a packed courtroom that included former
President Millard Fillmore. Anthony’s defense counselors were Henry R.
Seldon, a former judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, and John
Van Voorhis. The prosecutor was Richard Crowley. Anthony pleaded
innocent to the charges.
During her trial, Anthony was barred from testifying, and Judge Ward
Hunt instructed the jury to find her guilty. She was found guilty the
next day. Judge Hunt surprisingly asked Anthony if she had anything to
say before her punishment was imposed. She did.
“Yes, your Honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered
verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of
our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights
are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privileges of
citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a
subject; not only myself individually, but all of my sex are, by your
Honor’s verdict, doomed to political subjection under this so-called
Republican government. … [H]ad your Honor submitted my case to the jury,
as clearly your duty, even then I should have had just cause to protest,
for not one of those men was my peer, but each and every man of them was
a political superior, hence in no way my peer.”
Anthony refused to pay her $100 fine—her only sentence—and
officials never pursued the case. However, the election inspectors who
allowed her and the other women to vote were similarly tried, convicted,
fined and imprisoned. Gifts of money poured in for Anthony, and she used
the funds to pay her attorney and the fines of the election inspectors
who had been prosecuted, as well as to print a pamphlet of the
proceedings of her trial, which was sent to newspapers across the
country.
President Ulysses S. Grant later pardoned the election inspectors.
While the trial lasted for just two days, its effect would be
long-lasting and far-reaching. Anthony would spend the rest of her life
fighting for the right of American women to vote. On Aug. 26, 1920—14
years after her death—the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was
adopted and women won the right to vote.
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She suggested I could write something or antother in my two cents ..
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Or use my (her) two cents.
The account of the trial of Susan B. Anthony happens to be a highlighted story on the OCA official website.
Can we only grasp the obvious after someone has already been dead for
fourteen years?
Can the court system only respect a visionary if everyone else has for
one hundred years?
What about acknowledging this present problem that is not life serving or honoring our Constitution or the Declaration of Human Rights issued by the UN or the Ten
Commandmentsor probably the Code of Hammurabi for God's sake.
OCA and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, is it time to get the lead out in overcoming the courts' blindness to the human cruellty of aiding and abetting the alienating parent in instilling hatred and sabotage of parental relationship by means of court empowered parental alienation?
Is it time to stop ignoring and obstructing relationship for mothers and
fathers who only want to extend love and let their children be allowed
to love them back?
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