5.10.09

Dates for the Seventh Annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference Announced

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury]Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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Dates for the Battered Mothers Custody Conference Announced

Filed under: Activism, Battered Mothers Custody Conference, Best interest of the child, Child Abuse, Child Custody, Child Custody Battle, Child Custody Issues, Child Custody Mediation,Child Custody for mothers, Child custody for fathers, Children and Domestic Violence, Children who witness abuse, Children's rights, Conferences, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Relations,Domestic Violence, Events, Family Court Reform, Family Courts, Family Rights, Help for Victims of Domestic Violence, New York — justice4mothers @ 8:54 pm

Just announced by Dr. Hannah:


Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody,
A National Crisis VII:
“Now That We Know, What are We Doing About It?”


The Seventh Annual Battered Mothers
Custody Conference
January 8th, 9th, & 10th, 2010
(Friday evening, 6 p.m. – Sunday afternoon)

A brief and simple proposal form for
workshops and panel presentations is attached.

All proposals are welcome; however–

This year, we especially invite grassroots groups and other organizations
to share what they’ve done to combat unjust family court practices that cause harm to battered mothers and their children.

CONFERENCE HOTEL

Holiday Inn Turf
205 Wolf Road, Albany, NY
(five minutes away from Albany International Airport)

Call: 1-800-HOLIDAY or 518-458-7250

Ask for Battered Mothers Custody Conference block
Reserve early!

Visit www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org for further details, which will be coming soon!

Dr. Mo Therese Hannah
Professor of Psychology, Siena College
Save the dates for the BMCC VII
Jan. 8th-10th, 2010
Albany, NY
mhannah413@aol.com
518-210-2487


Here is a video produced at a previous Battered Mothers Custody Conference:

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5viwjaIorU8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Technorati Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury]Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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Analyze This: Wichita Woes — What happened after 911? (1st time, 2nd time).

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury]Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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Let'sGetHonestBlog

Not a Private Matter – Why "Family" "Law" System Hurts Us All

Analyze This: Wichita Woes — What happened after 911? (1st time, 2nd time).

leave a comment »

I rest my case on “certifiably insane protection orders”. . . .

This article is a quiz (answers below).  Do this:

A.  Put events in order. 

B.  What piece of the puzzle doesn’t “fit” and which pieces are missing?

C.  Keeping this within Kansas, bring this case history  to Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, recently found sponsoring (yet another) Fatherhood act of some sort in Kansas and ask for commentary.  Request permission to record, and share on youtube with the rest of us, why a man like this needed to be within cutting/shooting range of his 21 month old daughter.  (Because if he didn’t get this, someone was going to pay, bad?).  And how the (decade-plus) of prior fatherhood initiatives may or may not have contributed to this young man’s sense that after punching XXX officers and threatening to slit the throat of his wife, for calling for help, society still owed him something…

D.  Rewrite the headline, more appropriately reflecting the crucial issues in the case.

And then Alternately

E-1.  Pray to the tooth fairy that this isn’t you or anyone you know and/or recite after me:

E-2.  “it spiraled out of control.  We had no idea.  It spiraled out of control.  The real social crisis of our time is fatherlessness, not lawlessness.  It wasn’t his fault.  It wasn’t her fault.  It wasn’t anyone’s fault.  Nevertheless, the Feds + faith-based + local agencies will fix this situation.  We WILL eradicate violence against women and murder by men if we JUST try harder, train more professionals, and dump some dollars in that direction.  We WILL, right??”


The children are our future.  Now, Where’s that Valium?

Kansas.com

Suspect in deputy’s shooting had violent past

. . . (and they married WHY???)

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BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

The 27-year-old man accused this week of ambushing a Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy had a history of violence against his ex-wife — and against officers.

{{For why the word “had” is used, see 2nd article, below}}

In 2005, Richard Lyons’ ex-wife, Jenifer, accused him of holding a hunting knife to her throat and threatening to kill her after she called 911, an affidavit filed in Sedgwick County District Court said.

Lyons pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and served several months in the county jail followed by about 16 months in a state prison.

He was released on parole on March 2, 2007. His sentence and parole supervision ended on April 11, 2008, records show.

In March 2005, four Wichita police officers responded to a report of a disturbance with a knife at his ex-wife’s home in the 900 block of South Waverly, in southeast Wichita.

Lyons had arrived and “demanded she give him their infant daughter,” the affidavit said.

She reported that they argued and that after she called 911, Lyons held a 4- to 6-inch knife blade to her throat and threatened her. The knife reportedly came from a sheath attached to his pants.

“Jenifer said she hung up the phone because she was in fear for her life and believed Richard would carry out his threat,” said the document, used to bring the felony aggravated assault charge against Lyons.

On the 911 call, a male voice could be heard saying, “I will cut you,” the affidavit said.

When he went to get a diaper bag in another part of the house, his ex-wife grabbed her two children and fled, the affidavit said.

At the home, officers found signs of a disturbance, and when they tried to arrest Lyons, he punched two officers, the document said.

Although prosecutors also initially charged him with two counts of misdemeanor battery against an officer, those two charges were dismissed after he agreed to plead guilty to the more serious charge of aggravated assault, records show.

His ex-wife obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Lyons.

In April 2005, about a month after the incident involving his ex-wife, court records show Lyons was living at the house where he is accused of shooting Deputy Brian Etheridge this week — first with a rifle and then with the deputy’s own gun.

Etheridge was responding to a 911 call from the South Rock Road residence, reporting a theft — a report authorities now think was concocted.

In Lyons’ 2005 divorce case, court records say he was working for Colortime in El Dorado at the time. The court at one point required him to pay $234 a month in child support.

At another point in 2005, Lyons temporarily lost visitation with his 1 1/2-year-old daughter because of the incident involving his ex-wife.

On Tuesday, a man who said he was Lyons’ father declined to comment.

Lyons’ ex-wife could not be reached.

In September 2003, about two years before the knife incident, Lyons was convicted of misdemeanor battery against an officer.

In the years before that, he had been convicted of felony criminal threat and misdemeanor domestic battery and criminal damage to property, records show.

As a juvenile, he had misdemeanor convictions dating to 1995, when he was 12, for criminal damage to property.

Wichita school district records show that Lyons withdrew from Metro Boulevard Alternative High School in July 2002.

Contributing: Hurst Laviana of The Eagle Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

QUIZ ANSWERS (mine) BELOW:  (I interspersed A & B as dialogue)

Events, apparent order (quite different from article, which jumps around considerably)

  • 1995 Juvenile Richard Lyons, age 12, has misdemeanor convictions for criminal damage to property, ergo he was born about 1983.
  • July 2002, Lyons withdraws from alternative high school (age, about 19)
  • Between age of majority (2001?) and 2003, he has convictions for felony criminal threat AND misdemeanor domestic battery, meaning, probably against a WIFE or GIRLFRIEND.  This is called “domestic violence,” folks.  SEE 1994 VAWA Act.
  • ??? somewhere in there he gets married to Jenifer Lyons.
  • Sept. 2003, misdemeanor Battery against an officer.
  • Somewhere in 2003  Jenifer gives birth to his child(Note:  Physical assaults sometimes begin with pregnancy.  Mine did).
  • Somewhere between then and 2005, they get divorced(Given the assaults, probably understandable.  What’s not quite understandable is why they got married, unless the pregnancy PLUS her lack of other options to survive (i.e., HER family of origin support), PLUS no doubt some of this federal pushing of marriage on everyone…??  Who knows.  Maybe they wanted to.  Maybe HER household (how old was she?) was a place she needed to get out of.
  • By 2005, he has a child support order in place and is actually, it appears working.  Apparently they’ve entered the family court system somehow, I’d guess.  The man is all of 22 years old, so this is a good thing and possibly a change for him?
  • THIS IS TAKING LONGER THAN I PLANNED.
  • OBVIOUSLY they had “visitation” (unsupervised, obviously).  Note:  He assaults women AND officers, felony-style, and threatenes (someone — seee above).  He destroys property and punches policemen.  NEVERTHELESS, an infant needs her Daddy.  Daddies can be nurturers too. If we try hard enough, perhaps all of us (through funds, and social support and of course parenting classes) can transform this young man into a real nurturer before he kills someone for telling he can’t combine nurturing infants with wife assault.

Now in March 2005, things start getting, well, interesting:

  • “In 2005, Richard Lyons’ ex-wife, Jenifer, accused him of holding a hunting knife to her throat and threatening to kill her after she called 911, an affidavit filed in Sedgwick County District Court said“
  • HEre’s the account, I rearranged some sentences.  Apparently by now there are 2 children (both his?  Maybe not?)
  1. Lyons had arrived (EXCHANGE OF THE KIDS  RIGHT?  Here’s a CLASSIC CASE involving DV, and no help with the exchange.  Yes, I’d imagine this was in family law system already, totally oblivious (per se!) to the potential danger of the situation, despite lethality assessments and DV literature dating back to at least 1985 (Barbara J. HART), 1989 (Family Visitation Centers started in Duluth Minnesota), 1994 (Violence Against Women Act) and all kinds of other literature.  THis hadn’t reaached the “heartland” yet, I guess. ) and “demanded she give him their infant daughter,” the affidavit said((OMISSION – was there a custody/visitation in order or not?  if so, was it clear and specific, as many states require (but don’t practice) cases involving DV be, to avoid incidents like this?  If it WAS clear and specific, was his demand in compliance with or NOT in compliance with that order?  As they say, and we see, this isn’t typically a guy that plays by the rules, not even the rules for graduating from high school, or refraining from damaing others’ propery.  We’ll, he’s about graduate from punching officers to putting a knife to his wife’s throat.  I wonder if this was the first time….)
  2. She reported that they argued {{POSSIBLY OVER WHETHER OR NOT IT WAS HIS TIME TO SEE HIS DAUGHTER?}} and that after she called 911, {{POSSIBLY THE ARGUMENT CONTAINED SOME THREAT OR PHYSICAL ELEMENTS?}} Lyons held a 4- to 6-inch knife blade to her throat and threatened her. The knife reportedly came from a sheath attached to his pants.  {{May I speculate that perhaps Mrs. Lyons was aware that Mr. Lyons sometimes carried knives, and this may have contributed to her decision to call 911, even if the argument was only “verbal” in nature?}}
  3. On the 911 call, a male voice could be heard saying, “I will cut you,” the affidavit said.  (I’m going to assume this is “evidence” and it was his, not a responding officer’s.  I will further assume that this was a criminal prosecution, because someone actually got ahold of that 911 call.  GIVEN the history, was this a creditable threat?  It appears to the reader that her report was accurate in this part.  Contrary to the “false allegations” stigma associated with women reporting violence (or threats of it), ” because they want to get custody,” this report seems to have some merit.
  1. “Jenifer said she hung up the phone because she was in fear for her life and believed Richard would carry out his threat,” said the document, used to bring the felony aggravated assault charge against Lyons.  {AS FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS SHOW, YES HE WAS CAPABLE OF AND WILLING TO COMMIT MURDER WHEN HE FELT WRONGED OR WAS ANGRY OR ??  SO HERE, SHE DROPS THE “911″ METHOD OF SELF PRESERVATION AND, if I may add, protecting her children, WITH HER KIDS OPTS FOR THE “FLEE” METHOD.   Amazingly, a charge was actually filed.  For why, possibly, read on.
  2. When he went to get a diaper bag in another part of the house, his ex-wife grabbed her two children and fled, the affidavit said.  {{I have done this flee while he’s in the other part of the house routine, often enough}}
  3. HERE COME THE RESPONDING OFFICERS:  In March 2005, four Wichita police officers responded to a report of a disturbance with a knife at his ex-wife’s home in the 900 block of South Waverly, in southeast Wichita.   {{Officers KNOW domestic violence wih a weapon can be lethal.  They didn’t send one custody evaluator, one parenting educator, one mediator, and one guardian ad litem, they sent FOUR officers, and I BET they were armed…  Yet women are left to face this, sometimes weekly, without adequate protection.}}
  4. At the home, officers found signs of a disturbance, and when they tried to arrest Lyons, he punched two officers, the document said.

Not one but 2 officers.  Tell them to thank Wade Horn, George Bush (Jr.), former President Clinton, present President Obama, (well, adjust for the year), and others for those punches to the face.  Father-engagement.  Healthy Families. . .. You’re in it. . . . . . .   Were these male and female officers, I wonder, and which ones got punched.  But in an incident, it could easily be any of them.

Moving on in our sequencing:

5.  Prosecutors initially charged him with two counts of misdemeanor battery against an officer.

6.  he agreed to plead guilty to the more serious charge of aggravated assault.  (good move, as they saw evidence, and he was already heard on tape threatening to cut her.)

7.  The lesser charges (above) were dismissed.  Is this called a “plea-bargain?

8.  His ex-wife obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Lyons.   (((WHEN?? see last post on police reporting of incidents).  Now?  Or had she earlier?  Criminal, or civil?)

NOW — figure out this timeline if you can:

9.  Lyons pleaded guilty to aggravated assault (See 6, above.  WHEN?  WHAT MONTH 2005?) and

10. served several months in the county jail followed by about 16 months in a state prison.

March 2007 is 24 months from March 2005 (date of assault).  Ergo “about 16 months” plus “several months” possibly does NOT add up to 24.  How many people do this kind of mental math when reading leading bleeding headlines? 

March 2005 (arguing, resulting in 911 call, threatening to slit wife’s throat in retaliation for calling 911, with 2 kids, one of them a toddler girl, in the home, Mom + 2 flee for safety, 4 police come, 2 of whom are punched) – March 2007 is most definitely 24.

The question is, what is “several” months?  Is it 8, or 9 (8 + 16 = 24, right?)   WHEN did he plea-bargain?  After punching officers and threatening to kill wife was he then RELEASED in this foul mood?  If he threatened to slit her throat and assaulted people who tried to help in March 2005, what kind of response might we expect after being sentenced, if he was released on bail?

11. He was released on parole on March 2, 2007.

12. His sentence and parole supervision ended on April 11, 2008, records show.

What this section of reporting does is to reassure that his crime (of — see above) was indeed punished properly.  Or was it?

13.  In April 2005, about a month after the incident involving his ex-wife, court records show Lyons was living at the house where he is accused of shooting Deputy Brian Etheridge this week — first with a rifle and then with the deputy’s own gun.

Omittting the obvious — after arrest (i’m going to hazard a guess that the 2 punched officers or their colleagues eventually handcufffed the guy) he was free on bail or own recognizance until arraignment and incarceration

YES, you read it right, finally.  Threaten to slit her throat, punch TWO responding officers, and get out scot free, for a few months.  This is an interesting sentence (I don’t operate under press deadlines, but still . . . . .  the sentence bridges four years of time:  2005 & 2009!)  Well, not quite scot free.  He was punished with not seeing his daughter, “temporarily.”  Wonder what time frame THAT word spans.

14.  At another point in 2005, {{Can we get a hint which month?}} Lyons temporarily lost visitation with his 1 1/2-year-old daughter because of the incident involving his ex-wife.

When I filed for a DV restraining order with kickout, and we had the guns, knives and assaults thing, but not on officers — we got ALMOST 7 days with no visitation, as I recall.  Perhaps at the most 14, as he had to find a place to live.

Now here is about the slain officer:

  1. Sheriff: Deputy was ambushed
  2. Suspect in deputy’s shooting had violent past
  3. Marriage came as a surprise to Johansson
  4. Deputy was quiet, funny, passionate about his work
  5. Opinion Line (Sept. 30)
  6. Robbers strike as police look for killer
  7. Deputy’s funeral set for Friday
  8. Sedgwick County Commission remembers slain deputy
  9. Opinion Line Extra (Sept. 30)
  10. Wichita man arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty

Sheriff was Ambushed

A black band around the badge of Sheriff Bob Hinshaw. The badges are in honor of deputy Brian Etheridge, who was shot and killed in the line of duty on Monday.

WICHITA – Richard Lyons set the trap shortly before noon on Monday by calling 911 to report a theft at his house.

He then hid in the shadows of a tree and brush in the backyard of a house in the 3600 block of South Rock Road with a high-powered rifle, authorities said Tuesday. He waited for a law enforcement officer to show up.

That happened to be Sedgwick County sheriff’s Deputy Brian Etheridge.

“It does appear to have been an ambush situation,” Sheriff Bob Hinshaw said Tuesday of the shooting death of Etheridge, 26, the first Sedgwick County deputy to die in the line of duty in 12 years.

Lyons, 27, was shot to death a few hours later in a field not far from the house in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers.

“It’s scary,” Hinshaw said. “It could have been any law enforcement officer… this was just a call to 911 to get any officer to respond.”

Investigators spent Monday night and Tuesday collecting shell casings and other evidence, Hinshaw said, piecing together a chain of events from what was left behind.

Based on that evidence, Hinshaw offered this account:

Lyons called 911 at 11:42 a.m. Etheridge was dispatched to the address just east of McConnell Air Force Base and radioed his arrival at 11:51 a.m.

When no one answered his knock on the front door, he asked dispatchers for contact information for the caller. He then walked around to the backyard of the house and saw no one.

Lyons was hiding in the shadows on the bright, sunny day, and opened fire with a .30-30 rifle — a weapon commonly used by deer hunters — when Etheridge turned his back as he was either approaching the back door or returning to the front of the house, Hinshaw said.

The bullet hit Etheridge in the back, penetrating his body armor and knocking him down. Lyons approached the fallen deputy and tried to fire his rifle again, but it malfunctioned.

He took Etheridge’s gun and shot him in the leg before disappearing.

Etheridge radioed for help, and scores of law enforcement officers from throughout the metropolitan area converged on the scene.

The wounded deputy was alert and communicating with the first officers on the scene, Hinshaw said, but their priority at that time was his medical care — not gathering information about the suspect.

Escorted by patrol cars, an ambulance raced Etheridge to Wesley Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.

Authorities established a one-mile perimeter around the house and urged residents inside that area to leave if possible.

Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said authorities had information indicating Lyons was likely inside the house, so that address remained the focus of their attention even as law enforcement officers combed outlying areas within the perimeter.

Tear gas was deployed twice into the house in attempt to flush the suspect out, Williams said, and SWAT team members were preparing to blast open the front door at about 5:15 p.m. when authorities were notified that the suspect had been spotted hiding near a tree row in a nearby field.

Agents from the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were patrolling a field in a Humvee when one of the officers spotted Lyons’ leg as he lay on the ground.

They stopped the Humvee, and Lyons stood up and fired at the vehicle with the deputy’s handgun. He then began running, firing several more shots as the ATF agents and KHP officers ran after him.

The law enforcement officers returned fire, striking Lyons “multiple times,” Hinshaw said.

Lyons was taken to Wesley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.

Investigators hope to talk to neighbors and relatives of Lyons, Hinshaw said, but he doesn’t expect every question raised by the shooting to be answered.

“We may never know what the motive is,” he said.

Results of the investigation, including the use of force, will be presented to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

Flags at Wichita City Hall and other city buildings have been lowered to half staff in honor of Etheridge. They will remain at half staff through Friday, the day of Etheridge’s funeral.

“We’re just really shocked and saddened by what has happened,” Mayor Carl Brewer said. “It has affected all of our law enforcement agencies.”

Brewer said the city is providing counselors for police officers who were involved in the shoot-out and others who may be shaken by the violence.

“Every time they make a stop or enter a house, they don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “This demonstrated just how much risk there is.”

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

FIRST 911 — from a woman — consequence, she’s threatened and has to flee for her life, BUT her ex-husband IS jailed — for about 2 years, or less.

SECOND 911 — from the formerly jailed young man (27 yrs old is young) — his ambush.  SOMEONE was going to pay.  Was Etheridge (the officer killed) a responding officer in the former arrest, or just anyone in uniform would do?  Was he upset at what had happened in prison?

Was this suicide by cop?  Sounds like possibly, to me.

WOULD IT HAVE PLAYED OUT DIFFERENTLY IF THE COUPLE HAD STAYED TOGETHER, OR WOULD SHE BE A STATISTIC, NOT THE OFFICER?

ANYONE WANT TO DO A PSYCHOLOGICAL WORK-UP ON THIS ONE (PLACE BESIDE THE WORK-UPS ON PHILLIP GARRIDO, AND HIS WIFE?)  WAS IT UNEMPLOYMENT MADE HIM DO IT?  WAS IT THE CHILD SUPPORRT ORDER?  WAS IT ACTUALLY TAKING CONSEQUENCES FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY?  WAS IT HIS LACK OF A FATHER IN THE YOUTHFUL HOME (FATHER CONTACTED DECLINED TO COMMENT).  DID HE NOT HAVE A PLACE IN SOCIETY, WAS THAT IT?  WAS HE ON MEDS?  was he FORMERLY ON MEDS AND NOW OFF MEDS? 

WOULD’IT HAVE BEEN BETTER TO, AT ABOUT $20K/PRISONER/YEAR (??) KEEP HIM IN  LONGER, OR INDEFINITELY? 

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I SAID EARLIER ABOUT “COLLATERAL DAMAGES” OF DV (OR SIMILAR PHRASE) IN YESTERDAY’S POST?

I do have one comment, here:  Something sounds narcissistic in the mix.  This person was supposedly a hell-raiser from an early age, but didn’t get help.  Possib ly being a father was a shot at sanity, but I think that the child support order was probably NOT a good idea for such a person.  It would’ve been better for all to let her do welfare.  She’d probably get off it quicker without the threats to her life than with them.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESOURCES IN KANSAS:

http://www.ksag.org/page/domestic-violence  (Attorney General Site):

Domestic Violence

The new Domestic Violence Unit within the Kansas Attorney General’s Office seeks to keep our families safe, stop domestic abuse and end the cycle of violence that threatens our communities.

Online Resources:

(Be sure to catch this “get inside their head” speculation (many didn’t apply to my case, i know):  date:

Source: The Battered Woman by Lenore Walker, Harper & Roe, 1979.  (I’m comforted to know that the Attorney General has the latest psychological profile of batterers and their victims — only 30 years old…..)

  • Believes all the myths about battering relationships  {{NO one questioned me, and I hadn’t heard these…}}
  • A traditionalist about the home, strongly believes in family unity and the prescribed sex role stereotype  {{The alternative being, punishment….}}  {{BY THE WAY, this now describes the Health and Human Services Dept., in general, on this matter….}}
  • Accepts responsibility for the batterer’s actions  {{SAYS WHO?}}

Resources for Law Enforcement

Child Exchange and Visitation Center Program – (CEVC)

This program provides supervised child exchange or supervised child visitation to children and families at risk because of circumstances relating to neglect; substance abuse; emotional, physical, or sexual abuse; domestic or family violence; etc. The state portion of funding can be used to fund the local match required for receipt of federal child exchange and visitation center grants.

Mighta been helpful for Jenifer Lyons . . . . .

The Essential Elements and Standards of

Batterer Intervention Programs in Kansas

The Essential Elements and Standards of Batterer Intervention Programs were developed over

seven years through the hard work of many professionals who are dedicated to ending

domestic violence in Kansas.   The Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence

convened the initial work group and wishes to thank the following organizations for their work

during this process:

Developed and/or Reviewed by representatives from the following:

Alternatives to Battering, Topeka

Correctional Counseling of Kansas, Wichita   {{MAYBE Mr. Lyons got this and didn’t take kindly to it?”}}{{Or, the problem was, he DIDN’t get it?}}

Family Crisis Center, Great Bend

Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board

Halley Counseling, P.A., Girard

Johnson County Office of Court Services

The Family Peace Initiative, Girard

Kansas District Judges’ Association

Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six

Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence

Kansas County and District Attorney Association

Kansas Department of Corrections 

The Mental Health Consortium

Office of Judicial Administration

Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Center, Hutchinson

Wyandotte Mental Health Center

Family Crisis Center, GreatIn 2007, The Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board (GDVFRB), chaired by

former Attorney General Robert Stephen appointed a subcommittee to review and update the

Essential Elements and Standards of Batterer Intervention Programs. The GDVFRB adopted

these as best practice standards in providing batterer intervention programming in Kansas, and

recommended that the Office of Attorney General implement a training and certification program

for providers of batterers intervention programs.

Attorney General Steve Six readily accepted the recommendation to train and certify batterer

intervention providers in Kansas using the Essential Elements and Standards of Batterer

Intervention Programs in Kansas.  

For More information about this initiative, contact the 

Director of Victim Services in the office of

Kansas Attorney General 

Steve N. Six

120 S.W. 10th Avenue

Topeka KS 66612-1597

785/368-8445

“FATHERHOOD  IN KANSAS (google, results 124,000)

ACCESS VISITATION IN KANSAS:

Child Custody, Support and Visitation Rights - Kansas Bar

Visitation, often called “access” is the right of the parent who does not …. Child support and visitation are considered by statute in Kansas to be two
www.ksbar.org/public/public…/child_custody.shtml - Cached - Similar -


Crisis Resource Center of SE Kansas -

Child Exchange and Visitation Center. 669 South 69 Hwy. Wichita Childrens Home Child Access. 810 North Holyoke
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/…/access_visitation…/ks.html - Cached - Similar -

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson website Funding Source, The Federal State Access &Visitation grant program is a formula grant program to states and
www.governor.ks.gov/grants/grants_savppp.htm - Cached - Similar -

  1. Overland Park Visitation Attorney | Leawood KS Parenting Plans

    Visitation & Parenting Plans. Kansas Visitation Lawyer custody or non- residential custody, your children have the right of access to both parents.
    www.cavlaw.com/PracticeAreas/Visitation-Parenting-Plans.asp - Similar -

    You will have access, at our Download Site, to the legal forms you need to modify custody-visitation in Kansas.

    These forms are the most current versions
    www.custodycenter.com/MODIFYCUSTODY-KS/index.html

    Paternity Fathers Rights Attorney Kansas | Johnson County

    Following an emotional breakup, many moms allow or deny visitation by whim, {{OR WHEN HE THREATENS TO SLIT ONE’s THROAT< CASE IN POINT}}

    leaving the dads without regular access to their children.
    www.kslegalhelp.com/Divorce-and-Family…/Paternity.shtml - Cached - Similar -

    YES, THERE WAS A DIRE LACK OF SERVICES FOR MR. LYONS…

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury]Battered Mothers Rights - A Human Rights Issue.

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Church Pastors Now are ‘Packing’ Guns for Protection

Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] A Human Rights Issue-Custodial Justice.

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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/oct/04/churches-on-edge-as-shootings-spike/

Churches on edge as shootings spike

Pastors arming themselves; guards, cameras are common

William Wan
Washington Post

The Rev. Lawrence Adams is shown outside his Westside Bible Church in Detroit. Responding to a break-in at his church last Sunday, Adams, a retired police lieutenant, surprised a burglar and shot the man in the abdomen.
(Full-size photo) (All photos)

WASHINGTON – The youth choir belted out “Oh Happy Day” as folks trickled in through the church doors. Few noticed the accountant sitting in the back pew, watching each latecomer.

In one hand, he held a Bible. In the other, tucked inside his coat pocket, he gripped a .38-caliber revolver.

He had come to People’s Community Baptist Church in Silver Spring, Md., looking for his estranged wife. And once she arrived and began arguing with him outside, the Bible would be forgotten. The gun would be raised. And in a matter of seconds, the congregation’s sense of sanctuary would be shattered.

What happened that Sunday morning at People’s Church was just one in a string of fatal shootings at houses of worship across the country. The most high-profile incidents – a Kansas abortion doctor gunned down in May, an Illinois pastor shot mid-sermon in March, a Tennessee church attacked during a children’s play in 2008 – have begun to alter the way many churches operate.

Sanctuaries that once left their doors open all day now employ armed guards, off-duty police officers, surveillance cameras and even undercover plainclothes guards who mingle with the congregation.

Some pastors have resorted to arming themselves. The Rev. Lawrence Adams surprised a burglar at his Westside Bible Church in Detroit last Sunday, shooting the man in the abdomen after he swung his bag of loot at the clergyman.

“As a pastor, I’m referred to as a shepherd,” said Adams, a 54-year-old retired police lieutenant. “Shepherds have the responsibility of watching over their flock. Do I want to hurt somebody? Absolutely not!”

The burglar survived – for which Adams is grateful – but the reverend said he could have been hurt or killed if he had not been armed.

People’s Church in Silver Spring had a security plan in place for its 3,000-member congregation that included off-duty officers hired for traffic and protection. But none of it stopped Kevin Kelly from killing Patricia Ann Simmons Kelly on Feb. 22. And now, like other places of worship shaken by violence, its members are grappling with deep wounds – psychological and spiritual – that have lingered long after the police cars and ambulances pulled away.

Nathaniel Fuller sees the shooting today as clearly as he did seven months ago.

At the time, it seemed like fate that Fuller, a doctor with emergency room experience, had arrived late to church. From across the parking lot, he saw Patricia Kelly talking to her husband, who had just moved out of their home.

Tight finances had strained their marriage of nine years, court testimony later revealed, and Kevin Kelly, 53, suspected there was another man, something Patricia’s family adamantly denies. All of it led to their argument in the parking lot – and then gunshots.

In the seconds that followed, an off-duty police officer subdued Kevin while Fuller ran to help Patricia. Months later – long after the ambulance rushed her to a hospital, long after the 52-year-old legal secretary was pronounced dead – Fuller found himself constantly replaying this scene in his head. He had lost patients before, but this was different. He had known this woman.

The doctor still doesn’t understand why God had placed Fuller so nearby if not to save Patricia. “I’ve prayed and asked,” he said. “I haven’t received an answer yet. I don’t know if I ever will.”

Although no federal agency or law enforcement group keeps track of killings at houses of worship, some people recording cases on their own believe that there has been a disturbing uptick in recent years.

Carl Chinn started compiling a database of such attacks shortly after a gunman burst into the Christian organization Focus on the Family where he was working in 1996 and took hostages. Eleven years later, Chinn was working security for the New Life Church in Colorado when another gunman appeared and killed two people.

By Chinn’s count, fatal attacks at houses of worship have grown from a handful a decade ago to at least 32 last year – a number that includes people killed inside the buildings as well as homicides that take place on church steps and in parking lots. But he acknowledges that it’s become easier to track police reports and news stories online in recent years, which could partly account for the perceived increase.

Randy McAlister, a police sergeant in Minnesota doing similar research at Concordia University, likens increasing church violence to school shootings a decade ago: on its way to becoming a persistent phenomenon.

One reason might be that in an increasingly high-alert world, churches remain an easy target. In cases of domestic violence, perpetrators know that once a week, their victim will show up at a specific time, perhaps even park in a certain spot or sit in a certain spot.

Compounding the problem is the prominent role many houses of worship occupy in today’s volatile culture wars.

“You see the language being thrown around … people demonizing each other,” said the Rev. Chris Buice, whose liberal Unitarian church in Knoxville, Tenn., was attacked by a right-wing gunman last year. The shooter walked into the sanctuary in the middle of a production of “Annie” and pulled a 12-gauge shotgun out of a guitar case, killing two people and injuring seven.

But many cases remain enigmas.

The killings at New Life Church in 2007, for example, were carried out by a gunman with no direct ties to the church. Matthew Murray killed two people and wounded three before a church security guard shot him. He then turned the gun on himself.

Even now, two years later, parishioners arriving for Sunday worship pass police cars stationed at the entrance.

“We’ve begun to heal. We’ve even grown,” the Rev. Brady Boyd said. “But in some ways, New Life is never going to be the same. We lost our innocence.”

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Overland Park Kansas: Woman, Missing Since Tuesday, Had Been A Recent Victim Of Domestic Violence

Note: Cross posted from (blogger angelzfury) Battered Women, Battered Children, Custody Abuse.

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http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1487659.html

Authorities said anyone who has seen Alyea should notify the Overland Park Police Department or local police, or call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).

 

By ALAN BAVLEY
The Kansas City Star


Alyea

Alyea

    The Overland Park Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing woman who authorities fear may be in danger.

    Keighley Ann Alyea, 18, of Overland Park, last was seen at her home about midnight Tuesday. Police described her as 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 113 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Police do not know what she was wearing when she disappeared.

    Investigators have interviewed two young men who police had said previously may have been with Alyea.

    “Nobody’s in custody. Nobody’s been arrested,” Jim Weaver, a police spokesman, said Saturday. “We just needed to talk to them. They knew her and were friends.”

    Weaver said police were particularly concerned about Alyea’s well-being because she was the victim of domestic violence last week.

    “That’s certainly a factor, and that she’s been gone so long,” Weaver said.

    Police have checked Alyea’s phone records and found nothing that would indicate her whereabouts, Weaver said.

    Alyea has been entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database as a missing person who is possibly endangered.

    The missing woman drives a dark green four-door Mazda 626 with a Kansas license plate 198-BOV. Her car also is missing.

    Authorities said anyone who has seen Alyea should notify the Overland Park Police Department or local police, or call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).

    To reach Alan Bavley, call 816-234-4858 or send e-mail to abavley@kcstar.com.

    Posted on Sat, Oct. 03, 2009 10:15 PM

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    Domestic Violence Abuse Reports On The Rise!

    Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] A Human Rights Issue-Custodial Justice.

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    http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20091004/UPDATES01/91004013

    Domestic violence abuse reports on rise In weak economy, shattered lives get even harder to rebuild

    “Throw in the Criminal Rewards of Battering your spouse Taking her children and you have total domination and Genocide! It will take US ALL to CHANGE this!!”

    BY MARK CURNETTE • CINCINNATI ENQUIRER • OCTOBER 4, 2009

    CINCINNATI -- The stinging pain of her boyfriend's open hand slapping her jaw shot through Angela Lewis' teeth and tongue.

    He did it again.

    In fact, he hit her every week.

    She endured three years of slaps before she decided to leave him.

    Lewis is one of hundreds of women trying to escape domestic violence since the economy declined, but their road out of an abusive household takes longer because of the shortages of jobs, housing and money for programs to help them.

    Average shelter stays are up, as much as 20 to 35 days in the YWCA Battered Women's Shelter in Hamilton County. Other shelters across the region are at capacity.

    On the front end of abuse, the inclination of some men to beat women surfaces because of stress over money.

    "(Financial problems) can trigger more outbursts," said Kendall Fisher, Women Helping Women executive director.

    On the back end, jobs and housing now are simply harder to come by.

    Unemployment peaked at 10.3 percent in Ohio in July and was a seasonably adjusted 10.8 percent in Kentucky in August. Subsidized housing vouchers are limited. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority has a waiting list.

    Those shortages and delays tempt some women to flee back to the familiar abusive household they're trying to escape.

    "The economy makes it much more difficult for victims to get free from abusive partners," said Theresa Singleton, protection from abuse director for the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati.

    For her part, Lewis stayed with a friend the night her live-in boyfriend threw her out of their Price Hill apartment, dragging her by the hair so viciously that her knees bled. He threw her clothes, including underwear, into the front yard.

    Why not end it?

    Lewis said she had been clean and sober for almost a year, since the night in April 2008 when she thought she was having a heart attack. The emergency room doctor confirmed her drug and alcohol abuse and told her she was slowly committing suicide. His words scared her straight: "Why not just get it over with?"

    Ten months later, her boyfriend had starting using again and lost his job. She had come home from her restaurant job, a job she would soon lose because she said the pace was too fast. He wanted money and snatched her purse. She said no and grabbed it back.

    "He pushed me in the chest and knocked me down," Lewis said. "There was a lot of cussing going on."

    She picked up some of her clothes from the yard and ran, cradling them against her, down the street to her friend's apartment. Her friend, like the doctor, told Lewis she had a choice: She could start using cocaine and drinking again and die.

    "Or I could get help," Lewis said.

    She waffled. She wanted to go back, an easier path. Changing her life would be much more difficult: lonely nights in a shelter, staying clean and sober, finding a new job and a place to live, fighting the urge to go back to the man she said she loved, even though he beat her.

    Lewis went into the YWCA Battered Women's Shelter on Feb. 26 and stayed for two months. It was a crowded place.

    As the economy crumbled and more women sought help, the average stay in shelters in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky increased 20 percent, Lewis was in the shelter for two months. She remembers how "beautiful, like a real home," the shelter was. "It wasn't an institution."

    Crying over her plight

    Despite the pleasant accommodations, Lewis didn't sleep for three nights. She couldn't eat. She went into her caseworker's office and cried and cried and cried.

    Megan Murphy listened for as long as Lewis needed to talk.

    " 'This is it,' I said to myself," Lewis said. " 'You really have hit rock bottom.' I thought about saving him. I said, 'Maybe he won't hit me again.' (The shelter) was real scary. It was the last place I thought I ever would be."

    She's not alone.

    Calls to an emergency line run by Women Helping Women, a Cincinnati-based provider of intervention and support services, increased 68 percent from 829 in the first quarter of 2008 to 1,395 in 2009.

    The YWCA is expanding its shelter from 54 to 74 beds and earlier this month learned it would get $492,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to create a temporary housing program and provide cash help for battered women in Clermont County.

    The YWCA's Clermont County shelter received 500 calls for help in August. That was up 67 percent from the 300 calls in June.

    Domestic violence reports are up across Kentucky and Ohio, reflecting the national trend since the start of the recession in December 2007.

    A battered woman often leaves with just the clothes on her back. Lewis left behind the bedroom, dinette and living room furniture she struggled to buy - given misdemeanor theft and bad-check convictions from the 1990s that still hang over her.

    "I had to support my habit," she said. "I made mistakes."

    Their substance abuse was common in violent relationships. About 20 percent of abused women use booze or drugs. Some 60 percent of batterers drink.

    "Drugs and alcohol made me feel numb," she said.

    Now out of the shelter, Lewis lives in temporary housing. She has a small kitchen, bedroom and bath - sparse but safe.

    "I'm learning to live alone and be by myself," she said. "I'm learning I don't need to be with a man."

    Lewis is attending Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings several times a week, earned her GED last month and is trying to find a job and permanent place to live.

    She is getting job training in the Women's Work program and the temporary apartment, both thanks to the YWCA. Lewis has been referred to Dress for Success, which provides professional clothing to poor women to re-enter the workplace. Lewis has written her résumé and handed it out on a dozen job interviews. She is checking out apartments.

    Despite her problems, Lewis might be in a better position than many abused women.

    Her son and three daughters, ages 24 to 34, are grown. She doesn't have to worry about child-care and school schedules. She was not married, so there is no divorce to figure out. She has a work history and experience in the restaurant business.

    Daughter helps

    Lewis has a car. She frequently can't afford gas and repairs so she takes the bus. Goodwill has a program that might fix her brakes. Her oldest child, daughter Ivy Lewis Ivory, 34, of Colerain Township, gave her mother a small television for her apartment. She meets her mom every Saturday morning and fills up the gas tank of her car.

    Lewis' children have offered to do more.

    "I tried to get her to move in; we have four bedrooms," Ivory said. "She always says she doesn't want to take our attention away from raising our families."

    Lewis has eight grandchildren.

    "My children know what I have been through and what I have done," she said. "I don't want my grandchildren to know me that way."

    Lewis got pregnant as a sophomore at Hughes and did not graduate from high school. She had three more children with the same man, who beat her. He served prison time for domestic violence, drug trafficking and drug possession.

    The man, whom Lewis never married, punched her with a closed fist, splitting her eye and causing a cut that extends from her eye down her cheek to the corner of her mouth, she said.

    Ivory remembers.

    "He was stable financially, and my mother had four children," the daughter said. "She took it because she needed to feed her children, send them to school and keep a roof over our heads. I remember my mom before she touched anything (drugs and alcohol). She always put us first."

    The process is long and arduous, but, as a woman who grew up in an abusive household and was beaten by two men, Lewis said she is growing each day and determined to live differently.

    "I've never known normal," she said. "I want to be normal."

    Two major goals

    Most of Lewis' time has been spent on finding a job and an apartment. Maybe the most important part of rebuilding her life is remaining sober.

    Keeping busy helps her recovery. She is apartment hunting.

    She recently toured a one-bedroom apartment that was clean and featured some new kitchen appliances.

    Lewis liked it. She had received a subsidized housing voucher through the Shelter Care-Plus Program at Talbert House. It's for recovering addicts and alcoholics and includes regular drug testing and counseling.

    "You have to work for it," Lewis said. "I like that."

    The apartment's landlord was wary. He said he was not familiar with the Talbert House program and wanted to know more.

    He would call. Rent is $500 a month.

    Lewis opened a black folder and pulled out a certificate that showed she completed a tenant education program at Santa Maria Community Services.

    "I want to show him I know how to be a good tenant," Lewis said. She also scheduled several more apartment visits.

    Every day is scheduled. It's a 12-step meeting, a job interview, apartment hunting, Women's Work at the YWCA, a stop at Talbert House.

    Sometimes, a YMCA caseworker will visit her temporary apartment.

    Denise Nichols took out Lewis' file.

    "Do you have a birth certificate?"

    "Yes, but it's raggedy and all folded."

    "As long as it has a raised seal you are fine."

    Sitting at the kitchen table, the women discuss work possibilities.

    "A guy I know from my 12-step program works at a restaurant," Lewis told Nichols. "He told me to come by."

    Ronald Jackson works at the East Side restaurant as night manager. He has known Lewis for 14 years.

    He referred her to the café. Lewis met with the executive chef and owner, Mary Swortwood. Lewis wore khaki Capri pants, a bright top and jacket.

    The women sat in a booth at 10:30 a.m., half an hour before opening. Lewis told her about her background - professionally and personally.

    "You have good experience," Swortwood said. Lewis had completed the Cincinnati Cooks program through the FreestoreFoodbank and worked at a few restaurants.

    She gave Lewis a kitchen tour and introduced her to staff. Jackson hugged Lewis.

    They talked for more than 40 minutes. A customer came in. Swortwood gave Lewis a menu and fact sheet.

    And hope.

    "She said she would call me and wanted to have me come in to work a few nights," Lewis said outside. "She said we would go from there."

    And going from there means - finally, after a seven-month process - Lewis now just hears the slap of veggie burgers hitting a sizzling grill.

    http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20091004/UPDATES01/91004013

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    Note: Cross posted from [wp angelfury] A Human Rights Issue-Custodial Justice.

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    Abusers Getting Custody, Abusers Getting Custody, Abusers Getting Custody….

    Note: Cross posted from [wp ridezstormz] Battered Mothers, Child Custody, Abuse and Murder.

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