Sunday, August 2, 2009

The Gregory Mantell Show — Parental Alienation, Part 2

Because of the tremendous response to our first show on Parental Alienation, we take another look a year and a half later. Has there been a change in awareness by the courts or public? Plus, Ross Peterson and Lanie Adamson experienced the harm PA can cause firsthand.

Link Below for Video clip.

The Gregory Mantell Show — Parental Alienation, Part 2 « Parental Rights




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Friday, July 31, 2009

Refusing a C-Section, Losing Custody of a Baby

By Lisa Belkin
July 28, 2009, 1:11 pm
In Motherlode- Adventures in Parenting/New York Times

Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old Minnesota boy whose parents supported his refusal of chemotherapy until the court stepped in, had another meeting with the judge in the case and, based on reports that the treatment continues to be working, the order to continue with chemo stands.

We’ve talked about Daniel often on Motherlode, and while there was some disagreement in the comments, most of you seemed to believe that it was the right of the authorities to step in when parents are making unwise medical choices. I agree. But now comes news that a New Jersey court has, under this same theory, ordered a child (identified in court papers as V.M.G.) to remain in foster care, where she has apparently been for two years, initially because her mother (V.M.) refused a C-section while in labor and demonstrated “combative and erratic behavior.”

Doctors thought the C-section was necessary; the laboring mother did not. As it happens, she was right, because the baby was born vaginally, and healthy. But the court has upheld the original petition by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (NJDYF) that the mother “abused and neglected” her child. (The court reversed similar charges against the father, B.G., and also said their reason in upholding was not the c-section per se, but rather other factors brought to the bench by authorities.)

There are details in the court documents describing those other factors. In investigating the referral from the hospital, the NJDYF learned that “V.M. had been under psychiatric care for 12 years prior to V.M.G’s birth.” But the mother’s mental health was not the reason given for placing the child in foster care in the first place. The refusal of the C-section, and the behavior around the actual birth, were.

Reaction to this case across the Web (there is an excellent analysis over on Momlogic.com) is that authorities here went too far. That was my gut reaction too. Personally, I can’t imagine refusing a C-section if my OB told me it was necessary. But isn’t everyone “erratic” when in labor?

There are many differences between ordering life-saving cancer treatment and ordering a woman to have a C-section. The most obvious is that of the mother’s medical autonomy — it is her body being anesthetized and cut. Here the mother is also the patient, unlike the Hauser case, and with that comes all the messy, slippery slope questions of the abortion debate.

Second, the data in the Hauser case is stronger. The treatment doctors were urging for his cancer has a remarkable record of success. C-sections, on the other hand, have been shown to be widely over-used, and while the details of any given labor vary, and we do not know those details here, women can be forgiven for thinking that too many doctors are too quick to cut.


On the other hand, the basic parallel holds. In both cases doctors, believing that one path risks a child’s life and the other has great odds of saving that life, ask the courts to step in. Where do parent’s rights end and the court’s responsibility to children begin? What is the difference, if any, between Daniel Hauser and V.M.G.?

Edited to make it clearer that the court ruled that the c-section refusal was no longer the reason that custody is being denied, and also to add details of the mother’s history of mental illness.

Refusing a C-Section, Losing Custody of a Baby - Motherlode Blog - NYTimes.com

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Friday, July 24, 2009

After 70 years, brothers find each other online


John Mellinger, left, and Dan Newburn saw their family resemblance right away. Now 70 and 71, they were separated when Mellinger was 9 months old and Newburn was 20 months old.

For nearly 30 years, John Mellinger Jr. knew that he had a brother. He just didn’t know who – or where – he was. Then, in the space of two weeks, that changed. First came the e-mail, Mellinger said, from “a fella named Dan Newburn. It says, ‘John, I think I might be your older brother.’ ”

They became friends on Facebook. They started talking daily using the Internet phone service Skype. They noted the family resemblance, the similar noses. They sorted out the family history.

Finally, on Wednesday, Mellinger and Newburn met face to face in Mellinger’s Spokane home – a reunion some 70 years in the making.

“How very cool,” Newburn said as he walked up to embrace his brother on the front step of Mellinger’s north Spokane home. “Hi, little brother.”

It was the first time the brothers were together since 1939, when, at 9 months and 20 months old, they were placed in the Children’s Home Society in Boise by their teenage mother. Later adopted by separate families, the brothers’ lives diverged.

Mellinger, 70, worked for years as a police officer in Baltimore, then changed course and moved back to the Northwest, where he ran a barbershop in Hillyard until his retirement.

Newburn, 71, worked as a pastor, journalist and photographer in Las Vegas, where he still keeps busy with various projects.

The men plan to spend the next couple of days together, visiting, going out to dinner and catching up.

“I’m excited, but I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet,” Mellinger said, telling Newburn, “I recognize you and accept you as my brother, but it hasn’t really snapped in.”

Newburn said that for most of his life, he wasn’t overly curious about his biological roots – unlike Mellinger, who tried to investigate his background in 1980 with limited success. But now that Newburn has found Mellinger, along with a half-brother and two half-sisters, he said it has enriched his life.

“All of a sudden, I had a sense of being connected like I never had before,” he said. “I found a kinship.”

A dead end
The men’s mother was 17 when she had Newburn; their father was 32. He was a salesman and she was a waitress, and their marriage was brief, Newburn said. Their dad left them, though many of the details are murky.

“It sounded like our father, when he drank, he was a mean drunk,” Newburn said. “I felt like she didn’t want to put us in harm’s way.”

The boys went into the Children’s Home Society, a Boise orphanage that has become a children’s services agency.

Mellinger was adopted by a Boise family. His father was an administrator with the Social Security Administration, and the family moved to Baltimore in 1954. He had known he was adopted since he was 9. In his 40s, he decided to seek out information about his birth parents, driven partly by the desire to know more about his medical history.

When Mellinger approached the Children’s Home Society, he found the names of his parents, but nothing about a brother. Later, he found an aunt in Pocatello, Idaho, who told him he had a brother. But when he went back to the home society, they would tell him nothing.

He left a note in his file, saying if anyone inquired about him, they could get in touch with him.

“So I let that go,” he said.

Facebook friends
Newburn, meanwhile, had spent his childhood with a family in southern Idaho, later moving to California, where they lived in Los Angeles and Vista.

He hadn’t been particularly driven to learn about his birth parents, he said. Like Mellinger, he’d had a happy experience with his adoptive family, and curiosity about his medical history pressed him to investigate his past.

That was two weeks ago. He called an official with the Idaho state records office, and soon was connected with the Children’s Home Society. Within a day, he heard back.

“She said, ‘I’ve opened your file. You have a brother named John Forrest Mellinger Jr. who’s been trying to get ahold of you,’ ” Newburn said.

Newburn got online and searched for Mellinger, whose Facebook account popped up. Newburn also has an account on the social networking site, so he sent his brother a message and a friend request.

Back in Spokane, Mellinger found an e-mail alerting him to the request.

“I went on Facebook and saw his picture, and oh, boy, there was no doubt about it,” Mellinger said. “He was my brother.”

Finally face to face

For a couple of guys in their 70s, the brothers are pretty tech-savvy. They immediately began talking daily over the Internet, planning their face-to-face reunion. While Newburn was flying into Spokane Wednesday morning, Mellinger checked the progress of his flight.

When the plane landed, Mellinger sent him a text message: “Welcome to Spokane.”

Mellinger and his wife, Linda, were waiting on the concrete front step of their home when Newburn pulled up in a rental car with his wife, Liz. The two men embraced and then went inside, where they sat down and began chatting about their lives.

“I’m absolutely convinced this was a God thing,” Newburn said. “In three days I found out I had … a younger brother, I talked to him, saw him on the Internet. It was just kind of like – wow.”

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Surgery Wed. July 22, 2009


UPDATED- Pic- can you say OUCHHHHH??
FYI- They did the nerve transplant into the thumb as well
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
Good morning to all my regular readers.

I am having surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) on my ulnar nerve.

Ulnar nerve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Due to the extent of the surgery (which the Dr. has not determined yet- possible transplant of nerves into the thumb)

This blog may appear to be abandoned for a while.

I WOULD NEVER ABANDON MY BLOG OR MY BABIES (the reason for this blog)!

I will be back asap.

Pray for really good pain meds for me. LOL

Stay tuned I hope to return by Friday - even if I have to type with one dayum hand!

But if that's not possible hang around as Arnold Schwarzenegger says "I'll be back"

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

WAS- Panel Tosses Contempt Sentence Against Lawyer for "Sarcastic' Expression

I've never posted anything without a link directly back to it's original source
(link in question below)

Law.com - Panel Tosses Contempt Sentence Against Lawyer for 'Sarcastic' Expression

However, apparently that wasn't good enough. I had assumed under these guidelines (below) it would be.

Copyright Notice: According to US Copyright law, copyright vests initially in the author(s) of the work. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: Title 17, Sec.107. If you are the copyright holder and choose to have your work removed from this website, email HaveUmistakenMe@aol.com and it will be done. However, we hope you prefer that our researchers continue to benefit from access to your work.

But today I recieved a letter from:

Fabio Bertoni
Deputy General Counselincisivemedia 120 Broadway
5th Floor
New York, NY 10271
(212) 457-9680 tel.
(646) 822-5160 fax
fabio.bertoni@incisivemedia.com
www.incisivemedia.com

Asking me to remove it- Oh well, so much for this article.

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Brooklyn mom says doctors were too busy accusing her of abusing her son to treat dying baby



DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, July 16th 2009, 4:00 AM


A pounding headache sent 4-year-old Desville (Jomo) Charles to the emergency room, but his mom says a botched diagnosis killed him - and a false accusation made things even worse.

Instead of finding the brain aneurysm that eventually killed the little boy, Jomo's mom says in court papers that officials at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center accused her of abuse.
"They said I hit him," and they called the Administration for Children's Services, a sobbing Connie Charles told the Daily News. "I said, 'Why you call ACS? I don't hit my child. I don't hit him.'"

It wasn't until after the boy died - and after ACS cleared his mom - that an autopsy uncovered the cause of the crushing headaches that had tortured Jomo.

"Brookdale could have discovered this with a simple test, which they did not do," said Charles' lawyer, Steven Schiesel. "If they did, the child would be alive today. They were too busy blaming the mother for the child's problems."

A precocious Brooklyn boy, Jomo was just 4 in October 2005 when he told his mom his head hurt.

Charles, who works as a home health aide, rushed Jomo to the hospital just three blocks from their Brownsville apartment.

Doctors there took a look at Jomo, gave him some Tylenol, and sent him home, the suit states.
The next month, Jomo's headache returned with a vengeance, and once again, Charles took her son to the hospital. Only this time, it was be three days before they would let Jomo go home.
While doctors did a medical workup on the boy, including a bone scan, investigators questioned his mom and inspected his home, the suit charges.

"The detective tell me, 'He's a smart kid - is he in school?'" said Charles, who is from St. Vincent. "The detective said, 'Nobody hit him; you can let him go.' I was so upset. They angered me. I been abused as a child. Why should I hurt him?"

Three weeks later, Jomo was awakened by the worst headache yet and admitted to the hospital. He died there on Dec. 10, 2005.

"An autopsy was done by the medical examiner which showed an undiagnosed ruptured aneurysm in the brain," Schiesel said.

Brookdale's lawyer did not return phone calls for comment. A hospital spokeswoman declined to discuss the case because it's in court.


My Two Cents - What a shame!

What this mother didn't know was that if there was federal funding (Title IV-E) to find brain aneurysm's instead of federal funding to chough-protect-choke-gag-manufacture abused children her child would have been alive today!

It's high time they (doctors-shools- and whomever) stop looking so hard for abuse they may be missing something real!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Children: Father didn't abuse us: Ex-Vancouver police officer spent nearly 20 years in prison


Matthew Spencer, left, testified Friday that he’s always known in his heart that his father, Clyde Ray Spencer, right, never abused him. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian)
Saturday, July 11 2:21 a.m.

COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

The two adult children of former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer, who spent nearly 20 years in prison after being convicted of molesting them, testified in court Friday the abuse never happened.

A 33-year-old son recalled how, at age 9, he was repeatedly questioned, alone, by now-retired Detective Sharon Krause of the Clark County Sheriff's Office. He said after months of questioning, he said he was abused to get Krause to leave him alone.

A 30-year-old daughter said she doesn't remember what she told Krause at age 5, but recalled Krause bought her ice cream.

Both children, who live in Sacramento, Calif., said that while growing up in California they were told by their mother, who divorced Spencer before Spencer was charged, that they were blocking out the memory of the abuse.

They said they realized as adults the abuse never happened, and they came forward because it was the right thing to do.

The fallout from Friday's hearing won't be known for months, after appellate judges weigh in. But the hearing does pave the way for the state Court of Appeals to allow Spencer to withdraw the no-contest pleas he entered in 1985 and have his convictions vacated.

After Matthew Spencer and Kathryn (Spencer) Tetz each took a turn on the witness stand, Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis said their testimony followed the written declarations they filed with the Court of Appeals.

Since the appellate court doesn't take live testimony from witnesses, Lewis was ordered to listen to the children testify and see whether they stuck by their written declarations, even under cross-examination by a prosecuting attorney.

They did, Lewis said.

Spencer, 61, who goes by Ray, hugged his son and daughter after the hearing while a dozen supporters cheered.

In 1985, Spencer was also convicted of abusing a 4-year-old stepson, who was not at Friday's hearing.

The Court of Appeals ruled his testimony was not necessary, given his age at the time of the alleged crimes and the fact his mother had an affair with Krause's supervisor.

According to Krause, the children were together when they were abused.

Both Matthew Spencer and Tetz testified their stepbrother was never abused by their dad.

In 1985, Spencer entered the no-contest pleas, a type of guilty plea, after learning his court-appointed attorney had not prepared a defense. He felt pleading no contest was his only option, and that he would appeal his convictions.

Former Judge Thomas Lodge sentenced Spencer to two life terms in prison, plus 14 years.

For several years, Spencer's appeals failed. He was denied parole five times because he refused to admit guilt and enter a sex offender treatment program.

He hired Seattle attorney Peter Camiel in the mid-1990s. Camiel and a private investigator uncovered several disturbing facts about the investigation — including that prosecutors withheld medical exams that showed no evidence of abuse, despite Krause's claims that the children had been violently, repeatedly raped — and those discoveries led Gov. Gary Locke to commute Spencer's sentence in 2004.

Spencer was ordered to be on supervision for three years.

He's still a convicted sex offender, and Friday's hearing was just another step in the long process of clearing his name.

The process has admittedly taken its toll on Spencer, who suffered a heart attack in April.

"For so many years, nothing went right," said Spencer. "When things keep going right, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kim Farr grilled Spencer's children about why they are so certain they weren't abused.

Matthew Spencer said he knew his father had ruined the relationship with his mother.

"He had downfalls. But none of them were molesting children," he said.

Tetz said when she finally read the police reports she was "absolutely sure" the abuse never happened.

"I would have remembered something that graphic, that violent," she said.

Krause, who declined an interview request from The Columbian in 2005, could not be reached Friday.

If the Court of Appeals vacates Spencer's convictions, the case would return to the Clark County Prosecutor's Office.

Charges would either be refiled or dismissed.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Dennis Hunter wasn't ready to wave a white flag on Friday. He said if convictions are tossed, prosecutors could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

After the hearing, Spencer, who has received his doctorate in clinical psychology but cannot get his state license as long as he has a criminal record, said he will just have to wait and see.

But at least he has his children, who didn't talk to him for more than 20 years.

"They were my life, and they were taken away from me. That was the hardest part. I could serve in prison," Spencer said, before his voice trailed off, and his son came up for another hug.

Stephanie Rice: stephanie.rice@columbian.com or 360-735-4549.


Children: Father didn't abuse us - Columbian.com

What a disgrace! PAS at it's very best!!

I couldnt help but notice, the details are different..

THIS CASE- allegations of sexual abuse vs MY CASE- false allegations of child abuse)

THIS CASE- The wife having an affair with the Supervisor of the man that "got" the abuse claims out of the children vs MY CASE -a financial partnership between CYO where my husband worked for 20 years under the direction of JOSEPH PANEPINTO the CYO Director- and ACS who is BEING SUED now BY ME, because of their malicious prosecution and negligent misrepresentation of abuse charges against me - lets not forget MY CASE - Joseph Panapinto being married to SUPREME COURT JUDGE BARBARA PANEPINTO- and my estranged husband living with AGGIE PANEPINTO.

See that 30 years and so many lifes srewed because someone had their bleeeppp in the right place- in other words it wasn't about the truth it was about who was sleeping with whom!

I hope he sues those bastards involved and gets every last dime they ever made- and they spend 20 years in prison for their efforts!

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