Abusers Doin’ What They Do and Gettin’ Exposed

I saw this posted on facebook… and since it said post it everywhere I wanted to share it here but with a few added words from me… so once you read what I’ve copied over please see my comments below it

~~PLEASE BLAST THIS ALL OVER THE INTERNET AND LET ALL WOMEN AND MEN KNOW THE TACTICS OF ABUSERS~~You have got to love it when abusers use the children in an attempt to hurt and further abuse you??? It is so blatantly obvious what they are doing and How they operate.... They have no clue how and what this movement is going to end up like!!!! Keep trying Bucky, YOU ARE EXPOSED... Thank you so much for continuing to give me drive to fight you abusers... Every tactic makes me more and more determined ;-) Nice try though!!!!

Yes, unfortunately abusers DO (always have and always will try) to use the kids as pawns in their own sick little games.  It is hurtful to the victimized parent, BUT what about the kids?  It is damaging to them as well, which just proves that the abuser is an abuser and will try to pull any damn thing they can to continue to control their victims.  Now let me explain a little about the above quote…
A kid texts their mom and says something like hey dad says my sibling needs more clothes.  The mom being a good mom and having clothes at her house calls the other kid to find out what is needed.  Rather than that kid saying I need this or that, that kid goes off on a rant (prompted by the abuser) at the mom. 
All too often abusers get custody of the kids because they have one asset the rest of society doesn’t have… they can charm anyone and can turn that on and off at the drop of a hat.  They are GREAT at manipulating people and they use this skill set they have to control their victims.  These victims include their OWN children!
Do you have an abuser that needs to be exposed like Blake Melinn just was?

When No One Listens

This is EXACTLY what happens when no one listens to abuse victims!!  Educate yourself and others... I’m not feeling sorry for the abusers that this teen boy killed, I feel sorry for the boy.  For what HE had to endure before he finally broke and had to take matters into his own hands because NO ONE LISTENED all those years ago!!

From Dastardly Dads:

The mom lost custody of this boy nine years ago, right after she divorced the father. Her description of the marriage paints a distinct picture of a controlling abuser: Isolated her at home, wouldn't "allow" her to see friends. Strict "disciplinarian" who was "severe" with her and the child (i.e. physically violent). Unfortunately, Mom blames what she calls a severe depression for why she lost custody. In reality, feelings of hopelessness and despair are normal and predictable among abuse survivors--especially when the abuser goes on to take their children away from the mother and cut off all contact (must have total control, you know). And none of this can take place unless the courts aid and abet the abuser. But the article doesn't go into that....
And now the son is accused of killing his father, CHRISTIAN LIEWALD.
Who are the people who wouldn't listen to this mother? Let's name names, shall we?
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/29319392/detail.html
Homicide suspect's mother says warning signs were there
Posted: 4:51 pm EDT September 27, 2011
Updated: 6:20 pm EDT September 27, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The mother of a teenager charged with killing his father and stepmother says she could see trouble coming, even when he was a child.
Shelby Hodges told Eyewitness News that she has not seen her son, Matthew Liewald, for nine years, since she and her husband Christian Liewald divorced.
Early Monday morning police said Matthew shot and killed Christian Liewald and his wife Cassie at their home south of Pineville, and Hodges said she knew when she saw the story on the news that her son might have been involved.
"I saw it. I recognized the street name. I told my husband, I said, 'It's Matthew,'" Hodges said.
She held a picture of Matthew when he was a toddler and spoke about the boy's father, who had been severe with her and his son.
"(Christian) isolated me when I lived with him, when I was married to him. I wasn't allowed to see my friends," Hodges said.
She said Liewald took the same strict approach to discipline with Matthew, and when the couple divorced she lost custody of the boy because she was severely depressed.
She said that she was concerned when she heard that Christian Liewald and his wife Cassie had taken Matthew out of school and that his intense parenting may have pushed the teen over the edge.
"I think he snapped. I think he just had more abuse than he could handle, and I just hope that now someone will listen to me," she said.
"This is a mother's nightmare. If people had listened to me when I was begging them to help me, it wouldn't have gotten this far."

Domestic Violence Daily is out! Edition of Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011

 

Domestic Violence Daily

Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011

HEADLINE

Girls Like Us: The Hidden Story of Human Sex Trafficking in America

(Photo: HarperCollins).Teenage girls forced to work as prostitutes under the thumb of violent pimps and traffickers. That something that only happens in faraway places like Cambodia and the Philipp...

GEMSGIRLS

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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

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TABLE OF CONTENT

173 articles by 93 contibutors

Living  38

Crime  25

Stories  15

Art & Entertainment  11

Health  5

Education  5

#vaw  18

#dv  4

Domestic Violence Daily is out ! Edition of Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011

 

Domestic Violence Daily

Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011

HEADLINE

Anger of health experts over weightlifting kit for children as young as four

By Mail On Sunday Reporter Last updated at 10:03 PM on 23rd April 2011 A weightlifting kit for four-year-olds has been criticised by health experts who say that the equipment could cause physical d...

mwilliamsthomas

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FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

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 operationSAFE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

84 articles by 69 contibutors

Living 23

Stories 8

Crime 7

Art & Entertainment 5

Health 3

Education 2

#vaw 18

#opsafe 2

The Daily Caller - Extradite Dr. Phil now

 

http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/09/extradite-dr-phil-now/

Extradite Dr. Phil now

Published: 1:25 PM 02/09/2011

By Grier Weeks

Alaska authorities have charged a woman with child abuse for brutalizing a Russian boy she adopted, but federal authorities should be looking hard at charging television’s “Dr. Phil” McGraw for his role in the crimes.

Jessica Beagley, the 35-year-old wife of an Anchorage police officer, was featured on McGraw’s show forcing the seven-year-old boy to drink hot sauce, verbally assaulting him and then putting him in a cold shower for punishment. The abuse was so disturbing it caused audience members to cry and call for removal of children from Beagley’s home.

Holding the camera throughout the harrowing scene was Beagley’s 10-year-old daughter. The Associated Press reports that McGraw’s producers had asked Beagley to get them footage of her abusing the child, after she sent them a video describing the punishment she planned.

The “Dr. Phil” show sought the footage in order to capture “naturally occurring behaviors and interactions,” claims spokeswoman Stacey Luchs. Beagley and her attorney claim she believed she would get on the show for parenting help.

But McGraw’s producers wanted footage of actual abuse.

Having solicited and received the video, the show promoted it with lurid advertisements, featuring their gritty, child’s-eye-level camera work. McGraw then broadcast the boy’s humiliation on a show entitled, “Mommy Confessions.”

“What happens behind closed doors can be shocking,” McGraw promises his viewers, chin in hand. A split second later, piercing screams emerge from behind a shower curtain.

McGraw’s degenerate production has provoked a minor international incident, focusing attention on abuse by Americans of children adopted from overseas. “This video caused a huge wave of outrage in Russia,” says Andrey Bondarev of the Russian Consulate in Seattle.

An embassy press officer interviewed by ABC News says Russian authorities “are in contact with the U.S. officials regarding this case.” Another official, said to be an assistant to Russia’s Commissioner of Children’s Rights, told the Anchorage Daily News that “there is quite a big chance” of the boy and his twin brother being taken from their American siblings and returned to Russia if Beagley is convicted.

Despite all this, news reports appear blind to the obvious role McGraw played in commissioning the child abuse for his television show. Law enforcement authorities — made aware of the incident by the Russians, if by no one else — also seem to take for granted that television entertainment is an acceptable motive for inducing crimes against children.

No matter how you look at it, it seems clear that McGraw caused abuse to occur that might not otherwise have happened. On the day in question, one child was cruelly assaulted in a staged incident, while a second was forced to hold the camera and film her brother’s suffering for McGraw’s benefit.

Instead of immediately notifying Anchorage authorities of the abuse — and their own role in it — the McGraw show made the decision to take their ill-gotten gain and exploit it for commercial profit. Their actions further exacerbated the pain suffered by both child victims and their siblings, pain that is not over yet.

Phil McGraw should give up every penny of his foul profit immediately, in some arrangement that benefits these or other victims of abuse, without any chance of further contact or manipulation by him and his show. Then he should answer in a court of law, along with Beagley, for his role in this incident.

After that, maybe he can be extradited to Russia. You can see it from Alaska.

Grier Weeks is Executive Director of PROTECT (www.protect.org).

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/09/extradite-dr-phil-now/#ixzz1Da7lP1w9

Related articles

• Russia Rages Over Boy's Hot Sauce Punishment (foxnews.com)
• Russian Anger Over Adopted U.S. Boy's Punishment (foxnews.com)
• Mother featured on "Dr. Phil" says not guilty of child abuse (reuters.com)
• Russian uproar over adopted boy's punishment in US (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Woman Charged With Abuse After Appearing on 'Dr. Phil' (abcnews.go.com)
• Mom scolded by "Dr. Phil" pleads not guilty to child abuse (reuters.com)

Justice Denied

JUSTICE DENIED « MamaLiberty's Weblog

Press Release 02/08/11

World’s Most Famous Beach….World’s Most Scandalous Case

Florida Mother DENIED justice when Presiding Judge Torphy, Judge Evander and Judge Cohen REFUSED  to Review Ruling En banc, Write Written Opinion, and Certify Questions to the Florida Supreme Court on  02/07/11

Constitutional and Human Rights Violations in Family Court Cases Rampant in the U.S.

In the “World’s Most Famous Beach”…Daytona Beach, Florida…………they also have the most scandalous case involving a wealthy millionaire, his power, money, and connections to the community that has most experts involved in the national crisis in the family courts regarding “custody visitation scandal cases” asking when will justice prevail for these Florida  children and their Mother.

National advocates and organization’s  are asking for federal investigations into the crisis in the family courts and have documented  violations of litigants constitutional rights and are advocating for America’s children. The Leadership Counsel and Interpersonal Violence (www.leadershipcounsel.org) research shows that US family courts order about 58,000 children a year into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the US.

Dr. Phil in April 2010 had the very 1^st show regarding the family courts failure to protect abused children, and family court judges dismissing documented evidence of abuse, and taking away loving, caring Mothers.

Linda Marie Sacks, a “Squeaky Clean Mom”, is headed to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. in her continued efforts to be re-united with her children, and is speaking  out about this injustice to her children, and the national crisis in the family courts. Her daughter’s teacher said..if you can lose custody, America better wake up, because if you can, anyone can. Her case is a Justice for Children case,(www.justiceforchildren.org)

and they are a national organization who advocate for children in abusive situations when “official avenues” judges, police, Dept of Children and Family,  have failed to protect them.

On 12/21/10 she  filed 3 pro se Motions asking the Fifth District Court of Appeals reconsider their 12/7/10 (Case 5D09-3752) ruling that has violated  her constitutional rights to be a parent to her children. On 02/07/11, the Fifth District Court of Appeals, with Presiding Judge Torphy, Judge Evander and Judge Cohen, DENIED all of her Motions, and affirmed the erroneous ruling by the trial court of Judge Shawn L. Briese.

This is her second appeal before the court of appeals. In her first appeal, (Case 5D07-1682) the ruling on custody of her children was REVERSED AND REMANDED due to violations of this Mothers constitutional rights to due process and the opportunity to be heard. In their ruling they stated that Mothers hand written Motion for Continuance was legally sufficient, and should not  have been denied by Judge Briese, and the hearing to decide custody of the minor children should NEVER have taken place. This rare reversal by an appeals court provided NO relief to Mother and her children as the trial court of Judge Shawn L. Briese refused to be disqualified from her case, or VACATE the unjust supervised visitation ruling.

Mother appealed to the Fifth District Court of Appeals in a Writ of Prohibition, (Case 5D08-3668) and provided documented evidence of judicial misconduct by Judge Briese, and the attorneys of record for the Father, James L. Rose of Rice and Rose, and Leonard R. Ross of Ross and Burden. The documented evidence of judicial misconduct included violations of Judges Canon #3, Fl. Ad Code 2.330, ex parte communication with the attorneys of record and violations of her constitutional rights. The Fifth District Court of Appeals DENIED her Writ and Judge Briese was allowed to hear the “Rehearing of the Custody of Minor Children” in April 2009.

In this hearing, (Case 2004-30312 FMCI) Judge Briese refused to allow Mothers witnesses to testify and refused to allow her exhibits. In his oral ruling he stated that mother did not buy greeting cards for children to give to the father, and mother did a Channel 9 news interview in New York and this was a concern to the court, and so she MUST continue to stay on Supervised Visitation. It WAS NOT a concern that Father admitted to an altercation with his daughter at 8 years old and this resulted in her getting a split lip and blood. This matched Mothers Domestic Violence Injunction of Protection, Police Reports and DCF reports. Father also admitted to “wiping down the vaginas” of his school age children, which also matched the Domestic Violence Injunction of Protection, Police and DCF reports. This credible evidence was DISMISSED, IGNORED and SUPRESSED by the trial court of Judge Shawn L. Breise, and now, DISMISSED, IGNORED and SUPRRESSED by the Fifth District Court of Appeals, as they have just AFFIRMED the trial court’s ruling.

With only 79 hours of contact in 3 years and 10 months…under Supervised Visitation at the local Family visitation center, for two hours a month……..this “squeaky clean” class Mom, soccer Mom, community volunteer, with no drugs, no alcohol, no abuse, nothing……just a loving, caring Mother lost custody of her children… will have to continue on with the Supervised Visitation, with NO case plan or reunification plan provided by the trial court. This Mother is the LONGEST family law referral in the history of the Daytona Beach supervised visitation center….now at 3 years and 10 months.

National Advocates, experts, and Mothers were in Albany, New York on  Jan.7, 8,and 9^th, 2011  for the Annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference,( www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org) to address this national crisis of  Mothers losing custody with documented evidence of abuse to their children, and safe, protective parents  having all of their contact with their children either terminated  by the family courts or are being place on supervised visitation for years without a case plan or reunification plan.

The trend documented by the latest research is that judges routinely dismiss, ignore and suppress documented evidence of abuse to the children in the “custody-visitation scandal cases”, and batterers are asking for Sole Physical Custody and are successful 70% of the time. www.apa.org/pi/viol&fam.hmtl and  www.aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/pages5.html

The Florida NOW, National Organization for Women Ad Hoc Family Law Committee has published a brochure a “Crisis for Women in Family Court: What to Expect and How to Fight Back”. (www.nowfoundation.org/issues/family)

Numerous national organizations are demanding  federal investigations into the crisis in the family courts and asking for congressional hearings to address these human rights violations to America’s children and their Mothers.

The latest research on this issue is in the book Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody Legal Strategies and Policy Issues Edited by Barry Goldstein, J.D. and Dr. Mo Therese Hannah. And can be found at www.civicresearchinstitute.com/dvac.html

Linda Marie’s daughters said “Mommy fight for us and do something every day to get us back and don’t ever stop. So after 3 years and 9 months, this Florida Mother is now more determined than ever, and is headed to the Florida Supreme Court and then on to the U.S. Supreme Court. She has kept her promise to her daughter’s and now she is speaking up for her children and all of America’s children.

For more information  on this crisis in the family courts please contact:

Center for Judicial Excellence www.centerforjudicailexcellence.com

California Protective Parent Association www.protectiveparent.com

Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project www.dvleap.org

Stop Family Violence www.stopfamilyviolence.org

Randi James www.randijames.com

Court Whores www.courtwhores.com

American Mothers Political Party www.AmericanMothersPoliticalParty.org

Family Court in America www.juliafletcher.wordpress.com

Talia Carner  www.taliacarner.com

Protective Parents for Children’s Rights www.protectiveparent.ning.com

Liz Notes www.lizlibrary.org

Many thanks to all who are part of the solution to the crisis in the family courts. You are all true American heroes.

For contact information re: this press release please contact:

Linda Marie Sacks

386-453-3017

Lindamariesacks@aol.com

It’s All About the Power and Control, I Mean the Kids - Part Two

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” ~ Cyril Connolly (1903-1974)

Ok, so with that thought in mind I move on to part two of this topic, and oh yes there will be a part three... just don’t you worry. 

As I was saying in part one, the people who make up the Father’s Rights Movement may not have started out where they have ended up.  They originally may have been honestly good fathers and what they have morphed into is the result of many abusers jumping onboard and running away with the movement.

Along these lines the men in the FR Movement have touted and tried to throw in the face of all women (feminists, non-feminists, mothers and every one really) a quote from Gloria Steinem... attempting to ‘prove’ that even SHE sees their side of it, that fathers need to be equal in parenting...  FR’s go on with that thought regardless of whether or not the father is abusive.

The quote I’m referring to is:  “Women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.”

As far as I can find Gloria Steinem actually said this sentence twice, once in an interview published in the NY Daily News and once in an article she wrote which was published in the Opinion Section of the LA Times.  The LA Times article is no longer available but I found the article copied here, so that I can still reference it.

In both cases the FR Movement refuses to take the quote in the context of what she was actually saying.  Taking shit out of context is one of my biggest pet peeves and in this case shows how totally twisted they have actually gotten it.

In the interview, which was for the occasion of her 75th birthday, she was speaking in a general sense of women’s equality.  What she actually said was: 

“We’ve demonstrated that women can do what men do, but not yet that men can do what women do. That’s why most women have two jobs — one inside the home and one outside it — which is impossible. The truth is that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.”

In the article she wrote for the LA Times she was speaking about Sarah Palin running for VP.  What she actually said was: 

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

She wasn’t saying that men should be equal in the home, thus supporting fathers being caregivers to young children then turning around and abusing them because they are not equipped to handle it.  What she is saying is that women have TWO jobs, which are impossible to juggle from a man’s point of view... but that women do it everyday.

Yes, she does state that Obama and Biden were campaigning on their belief that men should, can and want to be home for their kids.  She did NOT say she supports that... she specifically used the words “their belief”. 

So, Father’s Rights Activists.... I ask you this, where exactly does Gloria Steinem say you should be allowed to stay home and not work while your children’s mom does and pays you child support to abuse your kids?  I must have missed that.

I still stick to my opinion that most of those in the FR Movement are abusers trying to cram their ideological patriarchal power and control down everyone else’s throats.

SAY NO - UNiTE to Stop Violence Against Mothers And Their Children - UN Mothers

 

Please go to link below sign in and SAY NO-UNiTE To End Violence Against Women AND THEIR CHILDREN.

Stop Violence Against Mothers And Their Children

 

 

As many are aware, there is a silent genocide occurring against women. This is part of a major reason why women all over the world are united to end violence against women.  What many do not know or connect is that a lot of women experiencing violence perpetrated against them are also mothers.  Many ads on stopping violence against women portray women without children as a means to get the message across clearly; but they fail to represent the large proportion of mothers in this situation. 

Experts in intimate partner violence have noted that there is a high correlation between abuse and pregnancy.  Some scholars state that this is because they are envious of the relationship between the mother and the child.  Using violence, coercion and control is often part of the effort to destroy these bonds.  The problem then exacerbates when a mother tries to leave--often not to save herself but to save the child.  Leaving is one of the most dangerous times for all women enduring intimate partner violence, and, accompanied with an inadequate system, the odds are stacked against her.  With a community plagued by stereotypes on child custody cases, closed courtrooms and loopholes in laws compounded by pop-psychology, we have a situation where most mothers in this predicament are torn away from the children they tried to protect.  In the 1980s, Dr Richard Gardner coined the term, “Parent Alienation Syndrome”.  This term remained a term only, because most of the scientific community rejected it.  His literature promoted ideas that victims of abuse were mentally ill and deliberately raised concerns about the abuse as an act of hate.  Dr Richard Gardner also testified in a homicide case where a mother was shot 13 times.  Gardner claimed that her “alienating behavior” drove him to kill her.  Although the scientific community rejected Parent Alienation Syndrome, the legal community embraced it.  Carefully removing the word "syndrome", the belief set remained.  Whilst his work began in US, he traveled around the world promoting these ideas to court professionals and others who had a direct influence on child custody case outcomes.  Some organizations that offer training for judges even held workshops on “maternal gate-keeping”, which trivialized the experiences of women and children leaving intimate partner violence.   Whilst Dr. Gardner passed away several years ago, his doctrine lives on and others have polished up his work to continue its grave influence upon the legal community. 

Mothers are often subjected to degrading treatment within the courtrooms where they are forced to deny their experiences and their need to survive and protect--or they will face jail.  All legal avenues within this culture are blocked.  This is why we have a battered mothers custody conference where mothers, professionals and young people unite to end violence against women and children through the system.  It is why I traveled all the way from Australia to be there this year amongst others who have also traveled from other parts of the globe to attend.  It is a global issue that affects many.  This year, Holly Ann Collins, the first American to receive asylum in Netherlands, spoke about her ordeal.  Revered by many as a brave mother who, against all odds, was able to save herself and her children.  She was listed and hunted by US as an abductor even though they knew why she ran.  She arrived at the airport with a suitcase of evidence which led to her being granted asylum.  She was hard on herself because she did not do it sooner.  Whilst leaving with the children under these circumstances should be seen as the best thing to do, there is no legal avenue to do so.  Some laws and treaties appear from the surface to have some consideration of women and children experiencing violence, but the processes, culture, economics and ambiguity of the situation stifle opportunities to do so.  Holly Ann Collins' outcome is a rare one.  We need better laws that protect mothers and children from violence without punishment or further victimization. 

SPONSORED by UN MOTHERS

CONTACT INFORMATION

Name: UN Mothers

Title: Advocate

Email: smith@ssl-mail.com

OTHER PARTNERS

American Mothers Political Party

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Related articles

• Joan Dawson: Parental Alienation and Domestic Violence (rightsformothers.com)
• Parental Alienation: A Rational Approach (stopfamilyviolence.org)
• DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Greenville, New York - 1998) (dastardlydads.blogspot.com)
• Massachusetts Can't Look at DCF Files in Child Custody Cases (randijames.com)
• Child Sexual Abuse & Parental Alienation Syndrome Allegations (rightsformothers.com)

Mothers Of Lost Children February Rally in Washington DC

Less than two weeks to go!  Remember, there is a meeting the evening of the 13th at the hostel where many are staying.  For information on the hostel…click here.

For more information on the vigil or press conference read below or visit:  http://mothersoflostchildren.com or http://www.mothers-of-lost-children.com/ 

SAVE THE DATES
Sunday February 13, 2011
Mothers of Lost Children will hold a vigil at the
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
Washington DC from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

We can stay at the International Hostel,
1009 11th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 Telephone: (202) 737‐2333

Monday February 14, 2011
We will hold a press conference and rally at the
U. S. Department of Health and Human
Services, 200 Independence Ave SW from
11:00 am to noon, then march to the U.S.
Senate to ask again for Congressional Hearings.

More information: cppa001@aol.com

 

Related Articles:

Please Join Us For Another Rally in Washington D.C., February 13th and 14th

WASHINGTON DC - VALENTINE'S RALLY 2011

Judge Makes Excuses for Step Mom’s Abuse of 5 yr old

As a world society we hold the two genders to differing standards when it comes to child rearing.  Regardless of whether a person is a biological parent or a step parent we still hold men and women to different standards where parenting is concerned.  When abusive men molest, beat and murder their children or step children there is sometimes a small blurb in the paper and quotes from neighbors say how much of a good father he was.  Good fathers do NOT rape, beat and murder children... sorry. 

I won’t go in to that too much though, because you can read all about all those good daddies if you click on over to Dastardly Dads.

When women molest, beat and murder kids everyone usually wants to crucify them and call them monsters.  Therein lies the differing standards.  Women are supposed to just automatically be held to a higher standard when it comes to dealing with kids. 

Please note that I am NOT condoning anyone that harms a child in ANY way regardless of gender or parental status!

The reason I’m pointing this out is to comment on the following excerpt from:  Stepmum role not easy: judge where surprisingly the judge made excuses for the abusing step monster:

The repeated assault of a 5-year-old boy by his stepmother reflected child abuse regularly happening in New Zealand, an Invercargill District Court judge said yesterday.

Judge Christopher Somerville said all children behaved badly at times and that behaviour could be dealt with appropriately by a loving parent. But it was more difficult for a stepmother to deal with bad behaviour because they did not have the same emotional bond to the child.

Society was made up of people in many different types of relationships and people needed to understand how difficult it was to be a stepmother, the judge said.

It was unacceptable for fathers to enter into new relationships and then expect the woman, who is essentially a stranger to his children, to bring them up.

"The reason it is so hard for stepmothers is that they have been given a child to care for when what they really wanted was a relationship with the child's father. "They seem to come as a package, and it's hard to do. They didn't carry that child for nine months or look after it as an infant."

If you click the link above and read the entire article you will also find that this stepmom, Veda Elizabeth Tutty, had already been found guilty of five charges of child abuse and that Judge Christopher Somerville sentenced her to only eight months of home detention.

Judge Somerville did state that IF authorities decided to return this boy to his father and stepmother in the future, it should be done with extreme caution.

BULLSHIT!  This child should NEVER be put back into a home with this woman.

Why in the hell did a family court judge give this father custody to begin with?  If this were a custodial mom who had re-married and the stepfather had done these things the MOTHER would probably have also been charged with neglect or at the very least failure to protect. 

Why the different standard for daddies?

Family Courts around the world are awarding (like it is a competition) custody of children to fathers more and more.  I don’t see how in the world a judge or anyone else can excuse child abuse because it is supposedly so fucking hard to be a step parent.

If a person can’t behave themselves appropriately where children they are not the biological parent of is concerned... then maybe those people shouldn’t become involved in relationships with people that have children already.  It is not that hard! 

PSA:  If you can not manage to NOT rape, beat or murder children that are not yours then STOP dating, living with, etc people that have children from previous relationships!

Shared Parenting: Number One Cause of Children Being Murdered

Hat tip credit to Annie for saying “Shared Parenting is the Number One Cause of Children Being Murdered By A Parent” which gave me the topic and thought to write this post.

In 2009 every time you turned on the news or read the news you learned of another murder-suicide where one parent would kill them self, their spouse and children.  All the experts blamed this on the economy, no one really looked into the reasoning past that.  Domestic Violence is the reason, abusers are the reason.  When an abuser can not control something, someone or a situation they lash out; many times with lethal measures.

I want to highlight here what we are seeing this year in 2010.  We are still seeing many familicides, but either there are less this year or they are old news and not sensational enough to warrant top headlines.  This year we are seeing more and more reports of one parent killing them self and their children in situations where there is a shared parenting agreement.  Generally shared parenting agreements are forced by abusers to continue their reign of terror and control over their victims.

When an abuser feels they are losing that control for whatever reason they are capable of lashing out violently and lethally.  Some may even see this as a way to control their victim from beyond the grave.  They have taken their victims, children’s lives forever... leaving the victim mourning the loss of the children and blaming them self for not doing more to protect them.

Family courts play a huge role in this and in my opinion are just as at fault as the abuser is in these murders.  By granting and/or forcing shared parenting when there has been domestic violence in the relationship, family courts are basically signing the death warrants of these children.

Father, girls found dead near Junction City in apparent murder-suicide: Richard Rauscher and his two daughters die of gunshots in an apparent murder-suicide near Junction City

Rauscher and his estranged wife, Jennifer, shared custody of their two daughters, police said. Richard Rauscher had weekend custody and was with the girls on Sunday, when they attended a birthday party

 

3 children killed in suspected murder-suicide attempt (chron.com)

Goher had threatened to kill or hurt himself if he lost visitation

While there was a history of violence against the mother — including a 2006 conviction against Goher for beating her

I’m including many articles, just the two most recent; that is enough to get my point across.

Think about it... shared parenting kills kids when domestic violence is involved.  Judges and GAL’s need to start paying attention to the family dynamics and know that if an abuser has been abusive to his spouse in the past then when she is not there the abuse will be transferred to the kids. 

People who are abusive HAVE to have someone to control.  When the main victim removes them self from the relationship and there are kids involved, it has been proven time and time again that the abuse continues... just then it is child abuse.

Don’t just take my word for it... do some Google searches on the effects of domestic violence on children and what happens when the adult victim leaves the abusive relationship.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Are You in an Abusive Relationship? (lifescript.com)
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• What Is Domestic Relations Court? (brainz.org)
• ATTENTION KANSAS LEGISLATURE: Mother and Child Need Help (nowpublic.com)

AU: Act aids abusive fathers, imperils children

Really?  Hmmm, finally someone see it!  Hat tip to Annie for this one!

http://www.theage.com.au/national/act-aids-abusive-fathers-imperils-children-20100623-yz3u.html

Act aids abusive fathers, imperils children

ADELE HORIN

June 24, 2010

THE Family Law Act is failing to protect children from ongoing trauma at the hands of abusive and violent fathers, a study has found.

The act's aims of protecting children from violence and giving them ''meaningful involvement'' with both parents was being resolved in favour of contact even in cases of severe domestic violence, the study reveals.

Sydney University education and social work senior lecturer Lesley Laing, the report's author, said more thought needed to be given to what formed a ''meaningful relationship'' when a parent had traumatised a child through domestic violence. ''There is no requirement that a parent who has harmed a child in this way must demonstrate they can offer a safe and meaningful relationship,'' she said.

The report is based on interviews with 22 women, contacted through domestic violence services, who were negotiating parenting arrangements in the family law system. It is the first study that has allowed women experiencing domestic violence to speak about the impact of the 2006 legal changes that put greater emphasis on shared parenting while still maintaining protection in cases of violence.

The women describe a situation where they are discouraged by legal advisers and others from raising violence issues in the Family Court for fear of being seen as an ''unfriendly'' or ''alienating'' parent unwilling to support contact with the father.

''Anything that you do to try and advocate for your children is somehow twisted into being high conflict and parental alienation,'' one woman said. ''So you are basically silenced. And the children are silenced.''

Another said she had agreed to the children having sleepovers at their father's place because she felt she had no choice. Her lawyer had convinced her that if she objected the judge would give the father even more contact.

Dr Laing said some women felt guilty they had escaped violent men but their children had not. ''Forty years ago some women could only escape domestic violence by leaving the children behind, and they were pilloried,'' she said. ''Now there is a new form of child abandonment, at least part time. It's a terrible thing we are asking women to do.''

The report shows the women are battling a complex and unco-ordinated system that often sees state child protection services shunting matters to the Family Court though the court with no powers of investigation.

As well, the women battled community attitudes that regarded them as liars who misused the system. Professionals constantly stressed to the women the importance of fathering, without regard to its quality. It was commonly assumed that at least some contact was inevitable, no matter what violence had occurred, and that supervised contact would eventually move to unsupervised contact.

The study, No Way to Live, will put further pressure on federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland to amend the Family Law Act. An earlier review he commissioned recommended amendments to provide greater protection.

Abuse Survivor Speaking Out

We found this at Tailored Life Coaching, the link to her post is:  http://tailoredlifecoaching.blogspot.com/2010/06/survivor-story-survivor-and-kids-still.html 

This story was emailed to me to post here to help raise awareness to the issues that victims of domestic violence face.

THIS IS MY STORY...

ON DECEMBER 27, 2007 MY EX CAME HOME AROUND 6 AM DRUNK.  HE ACCUSED ME OF HAVING SOMEONE IN HIS HOUSE THAT DID NOT BELONG.  AT THAT POINT HE SWUNG AT ME, AND HIT ME IN THE SIDE OF MY FACE.  MY BEST FRIEND WAS SITTING ON THE COUCH, AND HE TURNED TO HER AND SAID 'YOU WANT SOME TOO BITCH?'  SHE RAN.  WHEN SHE REACHED HER CAR AND LOCKED HERSELF IN, SHE CALLED 911.  I WAS STILL IN THE HOUSE, TAKING MY BEATING.  WHEN THE POLICE SHOWED UP, IT WAS OBVIOUS THERE HAD BEEN A STRUGGLE. SHELVES HAD BEEN KNOCKED ONTO THE FLOOR, WHEN MY HEAD HIT THEM. MY GLASS COFFEE TABLE WAS SHATTERED. MY FACE WAS BADLY BRUISED. THEY DID NOT TAKE PICTURES. THEY ALMOST LET HIM GO, BECAUSE HE CONTINUOUSLY BEGGED ME NOT TO 'LIE' TO THE POLICE, AND TO PLEASE NOT TO THIS TO HIM.  MY KIDS WERE AT HOME. THEY WERE STILL ASLEEP. I BEGGED OFFICERS TO TAKE HIM AWAY. THIS WAS NOT MY FIRST BEATING...AND MY BABIES WERE MORE IMPORTANT.  I SAW THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE MY CHILDREN, AND MYSELF, FOR THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST...OR THE LAST BEATING.  THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND, MY DOOR WAS KICKED IN 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW. THE WEEK AFTER THAT, HE FOUND ME AT A BIRTHDAY PARTY, AND GAVE ME THE MOST BRUTAL BEATING YET. HE VIOLATED A PFA, AND NOTHING WAS DONE ABOUT IT. THERE WERE NO "EYEWITNESSES" TO THE BEATING. THE WEEK AFTER THAT MY WINDSHIELD WAS BUSTED OUT OF MY CAR.  I DECIDED THIS NEEDED TO END, AND I WENT INTO HIDING, AND STARTED TO RUN. HE WOULD FIND ME, AND BEG.  I WOULD STAND MY GRAND, HE WOULD ATTEMPT SUICIDE. THE LAST SUICIDE ATTEMPT HE SHOWED UP WHERE I LIVED, AND SWALLOWED AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF PILLS IN FRONT OF ME...I JUST LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID "I HOPE YOU'RE NOT EXPECTING ME TO CALL AN AMBULANCE, IM NOT GOING TO", THAT TIME HE ACTUALLY LEFT...I WENT BACK TO SLEEP....

WE DIDN'T HEAR FROM HIM AGAIN, PHONE CALLS HERE AND THERE CUT SHORT.  WE LET HIM SEE THE GIRLS ONCE OR TWICE, SUPERVISED ONLY...AND THEN THE CALLS AND CONTACT STOPPED. FOR 8 MONTHS, BECAUSE IN FRONT OF HIS MOTHER, HE SLAPPED MY 3 YR OLD BABY IN THE FACE AND CALLED HER WHITE TRASH WHILE DROPPING THEM OFF...IT ENDED THERE. MEMORIAL WEEKEND 2009.

OCTOBER 2, 2009

HE WAS FOUND IN CONTEMPT OF COURT FOR NON PAYMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT. HE WAS GIVEN A 6 MONTH SUSPENDED SENTENCE.  AFTER 2 YEARS OF NONPAYMENT, HE IS ALLOWED 3 MORE MONTHS TO ATTEMPT, OR GO TO JAIL JAN. 11, 2010. I HAVE STILL RECEIVED NO PAYMENTS.

OCTOBER 20, 2009

MY MOTHER DROPS MY KIDS OFF, FOR UNKNOWN REASONS WITH HIS PARENTS....THE MINUTE MY CHILDREN STEP FOOT INTO THEIR HOUSE...SRS IS CALLED.  THE ALLEGATIONS ARE CHILD ABUSE/NEGLECT, DUE TO A "KNOT" ON ONE'S FOREHEAD, AND THE OTHER'S "BLACK EYE".  SRS CONTACTS ME, AND I EXPLAIN...WE WERE AT A FRIEND'S HOUSE, WHO HAS 2 OLDER CHILDREN.  THEY WERE PLAYING ON BUNKBEDS AND HEADBUTTED EACH OTHER AT SOME POINT. THEY ARE KIDS...AFTER GETTING OFF THE PHONE WITH SRS, I RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM HIS PARENT'S "COME PICK THESE KIDS UP, I HAVE PLANS, AND THEY ARE TOO MUCH FOR ME TO HANDLE".  CONSIDERING THEY ARE MINE, AND WERE TAKEN THERE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE, SURE THAT'S FINE...

OR SO I THOUGHT...

THE CASEWORKER ON THE CASE DOING THE "INVESTIGATION", TELLS ME I AM "MINIMIZING" THE SITUATION. SHE BELIEVES MY HUSBAND IS ABUSING ME AND THE CHILDREN, AND I AM TOO AFRAID TO COME FORWARD. SHE HAS "SEVERAL STATEMENTS" FROM PEOPLE "CLOSE" TO US TO BACK THIS UP...FINALLY I TELL HER, I WILL NOT SPEAK TO HER ANYMORE WITHOUT PRESENCE OF AN ATTORNEY.  SHE CONTINUOUSLY MAKES ME TO BELIEVE MY OWN FAMILY IS OUT TO GET ME, EVEN MY OWN MOTHER. I DON'T KNOW WHO TO TRUST, SO I QUIT TALKING TO ANYONE INVOLVED IN THE CASE.  THIS WOMAN OFFERED A FEW FAMILY MEMBER'S MONEY, MONTHLY, TO TAKE MY CHILDREN. SHE OFFERED TO PAY FOR CHILDCARE, TO TAKE MY CHILDREN.  SHE STATED TO ME SHE "DID NOT BELIEVE, I OR MY EX SHOULD HAVE OUR CHILDREN."  THEN SHE DID THE MOST HORRIBLE THING POSSIBLE...SHE GAVE THE EX, MY ADDRESS, MY PHONE NUMBER, MY EMPLOYER INFO, AND CONTACT NUMBERS BELONGING TO MY FAMILY.  HE HAD ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS INFORMATION TO BEGIN WITH. SRS PUT ME AND MY FAMILY, IN DIRECT DANGER, WITH A MAN WHO HAD ALREADY BEEN CHARGED AND CONVICTED, FOR BEATING ME. THE EXACT PEOPLE, WHO ARE SPECIFICALLY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING TO PROTECT MY CHILDREN...PUT MY CHILDREN AND MYSELF'S LIVES AT RISK...THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT...AND STILL ARE!

DECEMBER 2. 2009

A LETTER COMES IN THE MAIL FROM SRS. THE CASEWORKER ADVISES THAT SHE "EMPATHIZES" WITH MY SITUATION, AND HAD RECEIVED THE LETTER I WROTE HER.  WHILE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO MY OPINION, SHE HAS SEVERAL FACTS AND STATEMENTS BACKING UP WHAT SHE "BELIEVES" IS GOING ON. DESPITE HER FACTS AND EVIDENCE, SHE WILL BE CLOSING MY CASE SOON.  SHE ALSO ADVISES ME THAT IF THERE ARE ANY FURTHER REPORTS IN THE FUTURE, MY CHILDREN WILL BE AT RISK FOR REMOVAL FROM MY HOME....LATER ON THAT DAY....WHILE DOING LAUNDRY, I TELL THE KIDS TO STOP JUMPING ON THE BED...OF COURSE MY HANDS ARE FULL, AND THEY DO NOT LISTEN. NOT 2 MINUTES LATER, THEY ARE BOTH CRYING.  I GO INTO THE ROOM, MY 3 YEAR OLD STOPS CYRING, BUT MY 2 YEAR OLD SAY SHE IS HURT.  WHEN ASKING HER WHERE IT HURTS, SHE POINTS TO HER FOOT, HER LEG, HER HAND, AND HER ARM.  I FIGURE SHE IS JUST TIRED, AND TELL THEM TO LAY DOWN FOR NAP TIME.  WE HAVE ORIENTATION FOR SCHOOL, SO WE CALL A SITTER WHILE THEY ARE STILL ASLEEP, AND LEAVE.  THE SITTER CALLS MID-ORIENTATION STATING SHE THINKS MY 2 YEAR OLD'S ARM OR SHOULDER IS HURT.  WE COME HOME AND SURE ENOUGH, SHE SEEMS TO BE IN A LOT OF PAIN.  I CALL OUR FAMILY DOCTOR, AND HE IS WORKING ER AND SAYS TO BRING HER IN. AFTER BEING ASSESSED AND EVALUATED IT IS DETERMINED HER COLLAR BONE IS BROKEN, BUT IS A VERY COMMON FRACTURE....

DECEMBER 4, 2009

I RECEIVE YET ANOTHER CALL FROM THE CASEWORKER.  QUESTIONING ME ON THE INJURY MY DAUGHTER RECEIVED 2 DAYS BEFORE. I EXPLAIN TO HER WHAT HAPPENED, AND SHE ADVISES THE CASE WILL NO LONGER BE CLOSING DUE TO HER "NEW" INTAKE AND REPORT.  SHE TELLS ME SHE NEEDS TO "INTERVIEW" THE GIRLS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  I HANG UP. WHILE AT A FRIENDS HOUSE LATER ON THAT DAY, MY LANDLORD CALLS. HE IS VERY UPSET, AND ADVISES ME HE LET THE WPD IN TO SEARCH MY HOME, AND THEY ARE LOOKING FOR MY CHILDREN.  IN SHOCK, I CALL MY MOTHER TO WATCH THE CHILDREN SO I CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON.  THE MINUTE WE GET TO THE HOUSE, THE WPD CALLS AND SAYS "NOBODY IS IN TROUBLE, WE JUST NEED YOU TO SIGN SOME PAPERWORK".  10 MINUTES LATER THEY SHOW UP WITH AN ORDER FOR PROTECTION. AT THIS POINT THEY NOTIFY ME, THEY HAVE ALREADY TAKEN MY CHILDREN INTO CUSTODY, AND RELEASE THEM TO THEIR FATHER.(THE ABUSER)  OVERCOME WITH EMOTIONS I AM SO HYSTERICAL I CAN'T EVEN SPEAK....THIS IS FRIDAY EVENING...THE COURT HOUSE IS CLOSED...THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO, AND MY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN ENDANGERED. NEXT YOU WILL READ AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY A DEAR FRIEND IN REFERENCE TO ME.

Sedgwick County 18th Judicial Court

Judge Jeff Syrios

Judge Syrios gave custody and granted a protection order of two small children to a convicted domestic violence criminal and the children who are aged 2 & 3 years old, were picked up on friday, 12/4/09, by the Wichita police and transported to an unknown location and the mother still has no idea where her children are. The mother of the little children went to see Judge Syrios today, 12/7/09,  to explain the father's past and criminal conviction, father is suicidal, lives in a halfway house, and that these children are in danger, but Judge Syrios would not release the children back to the mother.

This father had other children from a previous relationship and his parental rights were severed in this same jurisdiction, here in Sedgwick County.

Mother had been investigated because one of the children had fallen and broke their coller bone. This was cleared by two medical physicians who noted that this was an accident. But now since father filed a protection order, the SRS is involved again which looks more like SRS is working for this convicted criminal.

DECEMBER 7, 2009

ME AND MY HUSBAND HEAD TO THE COURTHOUSE, TO SEE IF THERE IS ANYONE TO GET MY GIRLS BACK.  OUR FIRST STOP IS THE PFA OFFICE.(WE THOUGHT THEY COULD ASSIST IN PROTECTING US) NO LUCK. THEY BASICALLY SAY, SORRY HE HAS TO BEAT YOU AGAIN, AND THEN WE CAN PROTECT YOU.  THEY ARE ALSO MADE AWARE OF THE PFA FILED BY THE EX.  AGAIN, SORRY, THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO, HE RAISED HIS HAND AND SWORE THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HE MUST HAVE BEEN TELLING THE TRUTH...BLAH BLAH BLAH.  NEXT STOP DISTRICT ATTORNEY NOLA FOULSTON'S OFFICE...AGAIN...NOTHING.  NEXT STOP, THE JUDGE'S CHAMBERS. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE JUDGE SPEAKS TO US. HE IS INFORMED OF THE ENTIRE SITUATION, BUT STATES ALL HE CAN DO IS MOVE THE HEARING DATE UP, AND WE CAN BE SEEN IN 3 DAYS....THIS IS BECAUSE ONCE AGAIN, SRS IS INVOLVED.  APPARENTLY HE CALLED THE CASEWORKER ASSIGNED TO THE CASE, AND LOW AND BEHOLD SHE TOLD HIM SHE "RECOMMENDED" THEY STAY WHERE THEY ARE AT.  WE WERE TOLD THEY ARE "FED, CLOTHED, CLEAN AND SAFE" AND "NOT TO WORRY, JUST SHOW UP FOR COURT"....

DECEMBER 10, 2009

PFA COURT.  AFTER ABOUT 4 HOURS OF SITTING AND WAITING, OUR CASE IS FINALLY HEARD BEFORE A JUDGE.  ON THE PLAINTIFF SIDE, ABUSE ALLEGATIONS ARE MADE, MEDICAL RECORDS ARE PRODUCED, AND TESTIMONY IS MADE BY HIM AND HIS MOTHER.  THEY DUG A PRETTY DEEP HOLE ON THEIR ON, AND CONTRADICTED THEMSELVES MANY TIMES.  THE ISSUE OF SRS GIVING THEM MY PERSONAL INFORMATION COMES UP, AND IS NOT CONTESTED BY EITHER.(INTERESTING HUH)  THE REAL KICKER...PART OF THEIR DEFENSE CONSISTS OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION FROM THE SRS CASEWORKER, INVESTIGATING OUR CASE....FAXED FROM THE SRS CASEWORKER TO THE FAMILY COURT TRUSTEE....MORE PRIVATE INFORMATION BEING PASSED AROUND.  NEEDLESS TO SAY AFTER 2 JUDGES HAVE REVIEWED THE EVIDENCE, EVERYTHING GETS DROPPED....AT LEAST UNTIL SRS DECIDES TO STEP IN, OR CUSTODY COURT ON DECEMBER 21ST.  THE JUDGE ALSO ORDER A CHILD CUSTODY INVESTIGATION TO TAKE PART BEFORE COURT ON THE 21ST...BUT I AM ALLOWED TO PICK UP MY CHILDREN DIRECTLY AFTER COURT....AND AT THIS POINT...DEC. 10TH...THEY ARE IN MY HOME. SAFE. LOVED. AND SECURE.  THE JUDGES AND FAMILY COURTS WILL STILL NOT PROVIDE ME WITH A PFA. UPON ARRIVING AT HOME, MY 3 YR OLD LOOKS ME IN THE EYES, AND SAYS "IF YOU ARE MEAN TO "TROY", HE IS GOING TO BEAT YOU REALLY BADLY."  I ASSUME THIS MESSAGE WAS SENT THROUGH HER, DUE TO THE NO CONTACT ORDER IN PLACE....I AM PUBLIC WITH MY STORY, BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE.  I THINK SOMETHING DEFINITELY NEEDS TO BE CHANGED OR FIGURED OUT.  THESE ARE CHILDREN, NOT PAYCHECKS.  IT IS OUR GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO BE A PARENT.  WE ARE NOT EVEN GIVEN A CHANCE TO DEFEND OURSELVES AGAINST THE ALLEGATIONS MADE.  ONCE A  REPORT IS RECEIVED, WE ARE GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT.  OUR RIGHTS AS HUMANS ARE BEING VIOLATED. THIS HAS GOT TO END.  OUR STORIES NEED TO BE HEARD, AND NOT FILED AWAY.  THIS IS TRAUMATIZING OUR CHILDREN, AND THEY ARE NOT GIVING THEM A CHANCE.  THEY ARE DESTROYING OUR KIDS, AND EVERYONE BUT THE MOTHER'S AND/OR FATHER'S ARE THE ONLY ONE'S WORRYING ABOUT PROTECTING THEM.  MY CASEWORKER NEARLY SIGNED MY DEATH WARRANT, BY GIVING OUT VITAL INFORMATION TO MY PERPETRATOR.  NOT ONLY THAT, BUT IS BASICALLY HOLDING HIS HAND THROUGH THE PROCESS.....IS THIS JUSTICE? IS THIS HOW THE SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO WORK?

tailored life coaching

Child abuse investigator charged

Finally someone in this position being held accountable for their actions!  We need more cases like this...make people in public service do their jobs.  If they don’t want to do what is required of them for whatever reason then they need to find another freaking job.  I’m sick and tired of hearing about kids being killed AFTER investigations into their abuse have been done and closed.  I’m sick and tired of hearing about how the social workers involved did the best they could and are over worked.  I know they are, most people know they are over worked.  Something needs to change in how these cases are handled, investigated or something.

http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_1bb6d242-7a40-11df-98aa-001cc4c002e0.html

Child abuse investigator charged with fabricating reports

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JANINE ANDERSON janine.anderson@journaltimes.com | Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2010 1:41 pm | (11) Comments

 

The six cases

The charges against fired child protective services investigator Todd O'Brien stem from six cases. Information was taken from the criminal complaint against him filed Thursday in Racine County Circuit Court.

- March-April 2008: The Human Services Department received a letter saying a woman with a day care sexually assaulted her younger sister and was mentally unstable. O'Brien was assigned to investigate, and reported he visited the woman's home and spoke to each child there. He found the allegations unsubstantiated. The woman told HSD officials this year that O'Brien had never come to her house.

- December 2008: A hospital told HSD that a baby had been born with marijuana in its system. O'Brien reported he found the home "modest, well-kept, fortified for children, with food, diapers, clothing, crib and other necessary items," and that he did not see any safety concerns. When investigators spoke to the woman this year, she said she never saw anyone from HSD after her child was born.

- January 2009: O'Brien investigated a report that a couple was physically abusing a child. O'Brien's report says he visited the home and spoke to the girl, who said she was not afraid of her step-father, and that he was a "nice guy." This year, the couple told investigators no one came to their house or interviewed them about abuse allegations.

- January 2009: A 17-year-old girl was treated at the hospital for scratches on her arm. O'Brien's report stated the girl had fought with her mother over a party the girl had thrown, and that there was no issue. He wrote he met with the girl and the mother at their home. During the follow-up investigation this year, the woman said no one from HSD had come to their home.

- January 2009: A student at the Mack Center reportedly had an injury to his face. O'Brien's report on the incident said he spoke to the boy and his mother at their home on Jan. 23, and that he had no injuries. In a follow-up investigation this year, the boy's mother said no one came to their home. School records show the boy was in school at the time O'Brien said he visited the home.

- September 2009: A school employee reported a 5-year-old boy had a bruise under his right eye. O'Brien's report said the boy told him he was wrestling with his father and brothers, and that there was an accident. His report stated the "child was happy" and the "clean and appropriate." The mother told investigators this year that no one from HSD came to her home or interviewed her or her son.

Todd P. O'Brien

Age: 37

Address: 9305 S. 29th St., Franklin

Charges: Six counts of misconduct in public office, making a fraudulent record or statement

Possible maximum penalty: Nine years prison and $60,000 fine plus 12 years extended supervision

Allegation: O’Brien was a veteran child protective services investigator for Racine County who allegedly made up reports showing he investigated claims of child abuse. The people he said he investigated later told officials that O’Brien never came to their homes to speak with them.

Related Stories

• Related: Fired investigator: withhold judgment until all facts available
• Related: COUNTY: INSTEAD OF INVESTIGATING CHILD ABUSE, WORKER FILED FALSE REPORTS

RACINE - A former Racine County Child Protective Services investigator was charged Thursday with fabricating reports in six cases where there were allegations of abuse against children.

Todd P. O'Brien, 37, of Franklin, is charged with six counts of misconduct in office for making a fraudulent record or statement. Each count carries a maximum possible penalty of 1 1/2 years in prison.

O'Brien was a veteran investigator with the Racine County Human Services Department when his work came under scrutiny earlier this year. He was subsequently fired by the county.

HSD began looking into his work in February after someone being considered as a possible placement for a child who needed a new place to live had a flag on their file from a previous investigation. HSD workers saw the person had been previously investigated for possible sexual abuse of a child, and asked the woman about it. She told them no one had ever spoken with her about anything like that. O'Brien's report from the 2008 allegations said he spoke with the woman and interviewed the children in her home. He found the allegations unsubstantiated.

After that incident, county officials looked into other cases where O'Brien determined an abuse suspicion was unsubstantiated and found five other cases where they suspected O'Brien fabricated information. In each of those cases his reports contained detailed information about interviews with people against whom abuse allegations had been made, but where the people involved said he never came to speak with them.

O'Brien made his initial appearance on the charges against him on Thursday. He remains out of custody on a $5,000 signature bond. If he violates the conditions of bond - including having no contact with any of the victims in the case and making all his court appearances - he would likely have to pay the full amount.

HSD has hired someone specifically to look into O'Brien's cases.

"Every case from 2007 forward we've pulled," said Kerry Milkie, manager of the youth and family division of the Racine County Human Services Department. "Any case that he worked alone is being assigned to this individual and he's making phone calls to those contacts to ensure from a quality assurance standpoint that A, those contacts happened, and B, the family received the service they needed and if they didn't, that they now receive that service."

HSD Director Jonathan Delagrave said they are being "very diligent and very careful" with regard to O'Brien's cases. Milkie said there are in excess of 250 cases that are being reviewed. No one has been hired to fill O'Brien's vacated position. The person who's looking into his other cases has been with the county for about a month, and has so far reviewed approximately 50 cases.

Delagrave said he was not ready to share what, if anything, the investigator has found, though expects the results of the investigation to be made public at some point.

Milkie said the department is taking this very seriously: "We're going to work until it's done, until it's resolved. We're going to ensure these families' needs are met."

In a previous statement through his attorney O'Brien asked people to withhold judgment until all the facts are available. The case is due in court next month for a preliminary

Custodial dad, step blamed dead girl's injuries on her mother--who hadn't seen her in months

This from Dastardly Dads

Custodial dad, step blamed dead girl's injuries on her mother--who hadn't seen her in months (Muncie, Indiana)

We just posted on this case earlier today, but this article provides additional information. This story is utterly sickening. Seems the custodial dad and step were busy blaming the mother for the child's abuse symptoms when the mother hadn't even seen the child in MONTHS and was in fact searching for her. And CPS BELIEVED the custodial dad and step! Unfortunately, in a political environment where mothers, especially single mothers, are trashed as the cause of all social ills, these kinds of lies have become much more believable and seemingly legitimate. Although it still seems to me that a lot of CPS employees need to be terminated NOW.

This reminds me of the Charlenni Ferreira case in Philadelphia. Last fall, Charlenni died in the home of her custodial father and step, and they pulled the same stunt: blaming the girl's injuries and health problems on her mother. Only one problem. The girl's mother lived in Puerto Rico and hadn't seen her child in months either. But nobody followed up those lies--not until it was too late.

http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/02/dhs-not-at-fault-for-abuse-death-of-10.html

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100616/NEWS01/6160321

Red flags not recognized during fatal neglect of Lauren McConniel
By SETH SLABAUGH • • June 16, 2010
MUNCIE -- In the months leading up to her death, 5-year-old Lauren McConniel was treated twice at Ball Memorial Hospital, once at Southway Urgent Care Center, once at St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester and three times at Merdian Services, a behavioral health care provider.
Despite staff seeing broken fingers, malnutrition, a head injury, weight loss, unusual vaginal appearance and bizarre behavior, only one of these professional caregivers called Child Protective Services (CPS), which was just a 1-800 telephone call away, police say.
Karen Royer -- a counselor at Meridian who reported that in all of her years of dealing with kids she had never heard of such bizarre behavior, and who believed the girl was being seriously sexually abused -- did contact CPS. Lauren looked exhausted, frail and fragile to Royer.
But that was on March 1, and the target of the sexual abuse allegation was not the girl's father, Ryan, or stepmother, Brittany, who had custody of Lauren. The target was Amber Huggins, the girl's natural mother who was living in Knoxville, Tenn. Huggins had last seen her daughter seven months earlier, when Lauren was in good health, and Huggins had been desperately searching for her.

By March 3, Lauren was hospitalized at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where she developed seizures, respiratory failure and shock. She died there six days later.
"Child Protective Services was contacted by Karen Royer over allegations of sexual abuse that Ryan and Brittany made about the natural mother," said Muncie police Sgt. Jimmy Gibson. "The trouble is, Karen Royer believed Ryan and Brittany. They were believable. But I don't suspect the natural mom at all. The natural mom hadn't had contact with the child since August, and here this (allegation) was coming up in February and March. When the natural mom had custody of her, her weight was normal and the pictures showed she was healthy and happy."

And those weren't the only lies the McConniels told to caregivers, Gibson said. They also claimed that Lauren was being treated for malnutrition by a Winchester physician, who had never even seen her once.
Also, at Southway Urgent Care on Feb. 4, the McConniels presented themselves as rescuers of the child, claiming they had just recently obtained custody of the girl. "When questioned about the girl's weight, they acted concerned and blamed the natural mom," Gibson said. "And they were convincing."

Bill Gosnell, a nurse at Southway who treated Lauren, declined comment, saying, "This is going to trial."
On Dec. 8, Lauren was treated by physician Tom Mengelt in the emergency department at BMH for broken right fingers from jumping on the bed.
"I don't know why they didn't report that to (CPS)," Gibson said. "People don't want to believe that parents would hurt their kids that way. They think surely the parents care or they wouldn't bring a kid in with broken fingers."
The child was seen again at BMH on March 2 for a head injury caused by a fall. A clinical impression of malnutrition and behavioral problems was also noted during that visit. The hospital sent Lauren home after treatment including a CT scan.
On that same day, the McConniels took the child to Valle Vista Health Systems in Greenwood for psychiatric treatment (the couple were unable to contact Meridian).
Ellen Harrington, a counselor at Valle Vista, diagnosed the girl's problem as lack of supervision, failure to thrive, malnutrition and medical neglect. Harrington referred Lauren to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where she was taken in the early morning hours of March 3. She died there on March 9.
"We can't comment regarding any specific patient or related processes, but we are cooperating fully with the investigation, and our hearts go out to the family," BMH spokesman Neil Gifford said.
Hank Milius, president of Meridian Services, said, "We at Meridian Services are deeply saddened by the death of Lauren McConniel. While privacy laws prevent us from commenting specifically on this case, in the event there is a suspected case of child abuse or neglect, Meridian staff are trained to make a report to the Indiana Department of Child Services."
Gibson credits Southway with referring Lauren to Meridian Services, and he credits Meridian Services for contacting CPS.
Under Indiana law, anyone who has reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect is required to report it.
Investigation ongoing

Police have not closed their investigation of the hospital's and Southway's failure to report the McConniels to CPS. Failing to report is a misdemeanor, Gibson said.
"Any red flag could be reported to us," said Ann Houseworth, a spokesman for the department of child services. "We would rather assess a situation that was not a case of abuse and neglect than not assess a situation and find that the child was placed in more harm."
The child abuse hotline is staffed 24 hours a day. If a child is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm, CPS is required by law to respond within an hour. If a child may be a victim of abuse, the agency must respond within 24 hours, and if a report of child neglect is made, the maximum response time by law is five days.
"If someone sees something that makes you wonder, you might want to ask questions to find out more," Houseworth said.
She declined comment on Lauren's death.
After Royer reported the suspected abuse of Lauren to CPS, "I believe CPS here contacted CPS in Tennessee, because that's where the allegations were," Gibson said. "Lauren was scheduled to be interviewed by SMART (Sexual Molestation and Abuse Response Team), me or (Sgt. Linda) Cook, on March 3. We were doing it as a courtesy for Tennessee. That's when she went into Riley. I wish I could have talked to her. I hate it that I didn't."
Police also haven't closed their investigation into other family members for failure to report.
Lauren's stepgrandparents Robert and Angie Lee and her step aunt Samra Lee shared a house at 2304 S. Ebright St. with the McConniels, Lauren and Lauren's older sister.
"There are a whole lot more family members (than the McConniels) who could be held accountable," Gibson said. "But how far do we go? Do we arrest everybody? We're behind on other cases and under-staffed."

Court Sanctioned Child Abuse

I found the transcription below while doing some research about parental alienation and child abuse.  I do not know any of the individuals involved in this meeting, so I have taken the liberty of x’ing out the names to protect their identities.  This meeting was several years ago, so I doubt attempting contact for permission to use this would be fruitful.  For the same reason I am not providing a link to the original document in which this segment is located.

I chose the below to highlight that protective parents have been fighting this battle for several years.  This is not something new.  Family Courts have been sentencing young children to lives of hell for far too long and nothing seems to be being done to put a stop to this.

Ordinary, everyday, citizen’s (for the most part) are not even aware that such atrocities are taking place in the judicial buildings that we as a society pay for with our tax dollars.  Most people never realize that child are being handed over to abusive criminals; until it happens in their small sphere of being.  Then it is an outrage for a time and they resume life eventually, never to think of it again.

Protective parents don’t get that luxury, if you will, to go on about life as if their children were not ripped away from them and handed to the very person that has abused them.  Those children don’t get the luxury of going on about their lives in a safe, loving and well cared for existence.

I ask you to read the below testimony and think about it.  What would you do in this situation?  What are you going to do now that you know this is happening to children around the world?  Will this be one more piece of information that you will half-way process and go back to life as usual; not to think of again...until it happens to you or someone you know?

 

Ms. XXXX XXXX (Nemesis Network): Good afternoon.

This committee has a wondrous responsibility and a magnificent possibility to relieve the silent agony of millions of Canadians. I wish you tremendous success.

I was savagely attacked and viciously beaten by my husband. He sodomized my baby girls. He cruelly and severely abused my son. He blew up pets with rifles in front of my tiny children. He shot at my son and pets and farm animals with an air pellet gun. He attacked men, got into fights, took drugs, smoked marijuana, and entered and stole from cottages.

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): Is all that material in a case report? It's in the context under which we meet. Can you give us that reference?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Yes. I have to finish the paragraph.

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): It's better to give the reference and then you can finish the paragraph.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: This is my case.

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): Have you the name of the case and the jurisdiction in which it took place?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: The judicial jurisdiction is Terrebonne. I don't have the number of the case with me.

Committee Member 1 XXXX XXXX: It's just for the record.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: The divorce judgment?

Committee Member 1 XXXX XXXX: No, your case. So-and-so versus whom?

Ms. XXXX XXX: XXXX v. XXXXX. Sorry about that.

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): That's fine. When you make this kind of statement, we need to know that it's on the record.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: I understand.

Committee Member 2 XXXX XXXX: Is what you have just stated on the court record?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Some of it.

Committee Member 2 XXXX XXXX: Please limit your comments to what was on the court record.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Okay. I will eliminate anything that is not on the court record.

I made my first call to the police in early 1979. We subsisted with a cruel terrorist. I don't know why we didn't all die. But here I am, and what I need you to understand is that my story is the story of millions of muted mothers and silent children. Because I didn't die, I have an awesome responsibility to make audible our souls' silent screams.

The majority of even minimally decent and responsible parents recognize the crucial importance of nurturing the young. It is the child abusers and wife beaters who most frequently sue for and often receive custody of or generous access to their small victims.

The most brutal abusers live in families scared to death of their terrorists. No one tells. It would be worth their lives or that of their protective parents. Often the most severe abusers become known only after the death of the protective parent and/or the children. The rest and those who report are silenced and live a noxious existence, for the destruction pervades every aspect and detail of a lifetime. This is the legacy of sanctioned abuse under our present laws.

Of course, I lost custody. My xxx tiny hurt girls were wrenched from their protective parent and sent to live with their abuser. He subsequently disappeared with them. They are registered in the Canadian registry of disappeared children.

I cannot imagine a surer way to destroy children and their mothers. I cannot imagine a greater cruelty or a more unnatural behaviour than to destroy the young of a species and the mothers who bear them. This is a tactic of war.

Protective parents who stay alive exist in society-imposed exile and poverty, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible and attempting to survive the horrendous agony of knowing what their children are enduring. It is hard for decent people—and most of us are—to imagine that a human could so choose to destroy and dehumanize their own children and their mothers. Many if not most of us naturally recoil and choose to believe more comfortable and frequently dangerous theories. The mind cannot accept what the soul cannot imagine. In our inability to confront ugly realities, we actually promote and sanction reprehensible child exploitation and abuse.

I have used an example to explain a point I want to make. Do I need to refer also...?

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): What point do you want to...?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: At one point, having once again managed to get an appointment with the head of the local youth protection team, the man accusingly and acidly spat at me, “You are obsessed”. At the time, I did not take it as a compliment but rather as evidence of his madness and hatred for children. Now I also see his comment as a compliment, for his statement placed me firmly in the camp of the civilized and he solidly with the savages.

Abused children and their protective parents in custody and access wars are forced to deal with the savagery of ignorance as well as the continued and escalated terrorism of the abuser. Although one cannot ensure an acceptable level of evolution in all who are in contact with children, one can mandate careful selection and appropriate ongoing training for all those who are and will be involved in deciding the fate of children in custody and access cases. Solutions are there, but one cannot begin to implement solutions unless a problem is perceived.

Inform the public with media presentations, for example, as they are doing now in the United States. There must be an immediate way to exclude those who are suffering from criminal ignorance and vested interests that have to do with exploitation and not nurture. They must be removed so as not to continue their contribution to the carnage.

Government must accelerate this evolutionary process by immediately instigating leadership in law-making and mandatory policy regulation that responds to the reality of desperate need and provides redress for those victims who never lost all hope.

Without retroactivity and accountability, the revictimization is lifelong and the perpetrators escalate and continue their reign of terror with the unwitting sanction of much of society.

Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by Canada in 1989. Mandate the selection of those who can learn with their soul's mind. Provide mandatory ongoing training and education for those who have been chosen. Create ethics codes and protocols and write them into nationwide laws. Make all laws and policies subject to scrutiny and accountability. Do all this and more retroactively and swiftly. Then Canada may begin to slow the heinous destruction and redress some incomprehensible wrongs.

Facilitate and accelerate the process by adapting programs already used in other countries. Inform the public of all changes and services available. Change existing laws and change the words. “Custody” and “access” are property law terms. The terms “best interests of children” and “friendly parent” are problematic. A protective parent, usually a mother, is most reasonably unwilling to send her traumatized children to spend weekends and more with their rapist/terrorist/abuser. Judges, lawyers, psychologists, social workers and others frequently interpret this sane reticence as unwillingness to cooperate and a desire to hurt the man, and so judges give children in custody cases to the perpetrators of terrible crimes.

Examine related laws. Privacy acts maintain the secret of abuse. Streamline and coordinate the fragmented and often fractious systems, courts and agencies. Increase and implement sanctions. Perpetrators abuse and continue because they can.

Expedite all changes. Speed is essential. Traumatized babies become lost children, tormented teens and agonized adults in the wink of an eye. Why not create a parallel system using existing resources, and the second there is even a hint of abuse this system swings into action?

Without laws there can be no justice—

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): Are you just about at the end?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Yes.

Without laws there can be no justice, but if there is no justice, can we say we have laws? When the laws of society do not allow justice and even promote injustice, the law of the jungle fills the void.

It has often been suggested that if one is not able to face one's own past one will be consumed by it. This is the responsibility that Canada must immediately assume. Confront and acknowledge our reprehensible past record concerning children, for our society is already being consumed, as evidenced by the violence rumbling and erupting across our nation.

Allow Canada to join other nations and greet the next century with a modicum of morality and some hope of evolution in human rights ethics.

I welcome your questions.

The Joint Chair (Senator XXXX XXXX): Thank you very much.

Questioner: I just want to ask Ms. XXXX a question. What's very worrying in this pursuit of justice is when somebody with a story such as yours says, “Of course, he got custody”. The “of course” is something that's very upsetting. I'd like it if you could put on the record how that ends up as “of course”.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: I put the words “of course” in on purpose. Over the years it grew like Topsy. I started to receive phone calls from women, and I discovered to my horror—and it still horrifies me and always will—that my case is not, as I said at the beginning, unusual.

I'm still getting phone calls from women who have gone to court, naively, as I did, and said this is not really good for the children and myself; I want out—and they lost custody. I think it's almost automatic. We have a sort of black humour in the different conversations that sustain us, and it's like this is automatic. You're accused of wanting to hurt a nice man.

I have problems with the parental alienation syndrome. I have a lot of problems with that, and it feeds into this. I don't have a problem with the fact that what our grandmothers called brainwashing exists; it does exist that people do this. Where I have a problem is when one reads Dr. Gardner's works, when one actually reads them and analyses them, they are his theories, ideas, opinions. They grew out of Dr. Ralph Underwager's theories, opinions. There's no research. It's not scientific. In the psychologists' manual there are already syndromes listed on a continuum, and what some people call parental alienation syndrome fits into that already. It's already known.

The problem with the parental alienation syndrome is that when one reads Gardner's works, and one just has to read one book of his, he refers to mothers as causing it to the children. He does not use the word “parent”. It's very highly slanted when you actually read it and analyse it. But it's a comforting theory. It's comfortable, and it fits in with Freud's theories when he reneged on the sexual abuse part and said that these women are all hysterical. It fits into all of that, and it's comfortable and it works. And the books are available; they're sent free.

The word passes, word of mouth, if you're going for a divorce and you're from an abusive situation.... I must clarify: only abusive situations. I'm not talking about the majority of decent people here. The word is don't report it; don't report it or you'll lose everything. You'll probably lose everything anyway, but if you report sexual abuse, you will surely lose everything. That's the reality.

Questioner: Do you have any suggestions as to how we in this committee can change that and make sure that isn't the case?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: I'm not a lawyer. Maybe because I'm an educator—no, not only because of that.... People I speak with, and I mean people who have doctorates and big degrees and fancy people, which I'm not, are all saying the same thing: educate, educate, educate.

I personally believe, and I'm not alone, that most people know that sexual abuse breeds on secrecy. I think it also breeds on ignorance, like many other things. So I think one of the keys is, as I think I mentioned, mandate training and a media blitz. The United States has short advertisements now on television and radio; it's a blitz right across the country. And it's known that there is a very high statistical correlation between men who beat women and those same men who abuse their children. The correlation is very high. The States has begun this. It's been going for a while.

I think education.... Judges are supposed to know about the law and how to apply it. They don't know about child development and child abuse. The average decent person doesn't know about this. When it happens to you....

Questioner: I guess that's why there's been a suggestion to go to...maybe we wouldn't call them a mediator, but we'd call them early judicial intervention or somebody with the expertise you've referred to. That is the first stop before people get to the judge. Lots of them only want to judge; they don't actually want to do this other....

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Yes, and that's okay.

Questioner: I guess I'm worried that.... Are you seeing that even in people where the perpetrator has been in the criminal justice system, or is it only the ones where it's secret?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: The ones where it's secret. Those are frequently the worst cases.

Questioner: And where it's secret it's not safe to tell the truth because of the climate that everybody knows about.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: Exactly.

Questioner: And if this were done in a different milieu, in a clinic kind of setting rather than the judge's chambers or the courtroom, do you think maybe it would be safer for people to tell what's really going on?

Ms. XXXX XXXX: That is my personal opinion. I think Canada does have already some judges, some lawyers, some psychologists, some everything who are already informed and who are tough enough to take it. I guess “tough” is the right word, because it's not a pleasant task. It must be excruciating for you people to listen to this, but you have to. I think if you could take those people and say okay, we're going to have a separate cadre corps, and you're all lawyers and you're psychologists and everybody that's used anyway.... We have obligatory mediation in Quebec. The minute there's a hint of abuse, conjugal violence or other, a hint, you go to this parallel—

Questioner: Special place.

Ms. XXXX XXXX: —using the existing facilities and the people who are already there, except they have indicated a willingness to take training and go with it at least for a while.

In Montreal they have a special sex crimes unit. They're all crown prosecutors, everybody. It's all the same courts, the same rooms, the same buildings, the same people; but they have special training, which is ongoing, and they deal with it. It just shifts kind of to the left and works.