Broken and Corrupt Family Court System

FAMILY COURT CPS  WATCHDOGS

Families are being abused by State CPS and Family Courts through out the United States of America!

Father sued the mother in civil court for “malicious prosecution” and received an award of $3.5 million damages.

CASE STUDIES OF PAS IN COURT

Compiled by DV LEAP, Joan Meier, Director, and Andrew Hudson (intern) for consideration by the Committee on the DSM-V

The following brief compilation includes cases that DV LEAP is aware of, either through its own litigation, that of colleagues, and/or press accounts. Where there are published appellate opinions, cases are cited instead in the accompanying memorandum overview of all published cases referencing PAS as of 2009. A very few cases are cited in both this memorandum and the accompanying one.

1) O. v. O. (Ark. 2008)

In a divorce action, the husband admitted to physically abusing the wife on two occasions, and the trial court credited the wife’s account of a third incident, but found that it did not reach the level of domestic violence. The oldest child and to a lesser extent the younger child reported abusive incidents by the father, and fear of the father, to their therapist, who testified. However, a psychiatrist – relied on by the state child protection agency - testified that the mother’s and children’s allegations of physical abuse were nothing more than Parental Alienation Syndrome. On this basis, as well as the trial court’s finding that the three known incidents did not constitute a “pattern,” as required by statute, the court denied a PO.

The court subsequently awarded sole physical custody of the children to the husband, again influenced largely by the PAS evaluator. The psychiatrist testified that the mother would, if given the opportunity, spread the “condition” to the other children as well.

After the trial court’s order was entered, the father was arrested at gun-point and charged with child endangerment after he fled the scene of an auto accident he caused, leading police on a high-speed chase with the three boys in the truck. Despite this and another incident necessitating temporary removal of the children from the father, neither DHS nor the court would return custody to the mother, and the father retains custody. Both the PO and the custody case are on appeal.

www.dvleap.org

2) B v. D (2001-2007)

Mother and father had never lived together, and father was threatening and abusive toward the mother. On returning from a visit at her father’s the daughter (then 5) told her mother that the child’s father had touched her vagina with his fingers for “a long time.” After being advised by the counselor who had been working with the child to report to DCF, DCF advised her to call the police and pediatrician. The police commenced their own investigation which included an interview of the team by the State’s abuse team coordinator, employed by the Yale-New Haven Child Abuse and Sex Abuse Clinic. The child reported several other sexual touchings to this evaluator, who found her statements credible. The Yale Clinic found that the child had been sexually abused. DCF’s social worker also reported a credible disclosure by the child.

The father was criminally prosecuted but the case resulted in a hung jury. The child refused to testify again so re-prosecution was not possible. In the meantime the Family Court concluded that the father had not abused the daughter, in large part due to the opinions of several evaluators who opined that the mother and daughter were afflicted by Parental Alienation Syndrome. They claimed that the mother fervently believed that her daughter was molested, and had convinced her daughter that she was, but she wasn’t. At least one of these “diagnoses” was provided without any contact with the child.

The father then sued the mother in civil court for “malicious prosecution” and received an award of $3.5 million damages, which was upheld despite a vigorous and well-conducted appeal. The father has since terminated his parental rights; the mother is sole provider for the child, and is forced to pay the father a weekly deduction from her meager paycheck. (The father is now suing the state agencies that believed the child; he also unsuccessfully sued one of the judges.)