The Use of Dr. Richard Gardner's
Parental Alienation Theory (PAS)
In The Hamilton County, Ohio Courtroom Of
Judges Ronnie Panioto and Judson Shattuck Jr.
Welcome to Cincinnatipas.com. On these pages you will read the incredible lengths that Cincinnati lawyers, psychologists and judges go to lie, steal and cheat in order to protect one-another and abusers, at the expense of children and their protective parents. In essence, the court system further abuses the children by failure to protect, undoubtedly makes possible more abuse, and victimizes the accusing parent (usually mothers) by denying them custody and visitation. Individually, many of the court personnel are nice people. As a group, they are sick and wrong. This has been going on for over two decades, ever since Judge Ron Panioto took over as of one of the most pro-abuser jurists in Ohio.
Panioto's Court is a proponent of Dr. Richard Gardner's debunked PAS theory. Gardner and PAS theory have been rejected by the scientific community. See this website's Dr. Richard Gardner's PAS Debunked page to read all the amazing pro-pedophile things Gardner said and wrote before he slashed himself to death. The misogynist Gardner trained Panioto's Court personnel, an infection lasting to this day as Gardner played the court for the fools they are.
This website does the work here that the local Cincinnati media should have done long ago. The local newspapers lack the type of journalistic hustle and integrity needed to expose the danger that our children face walking into Panioto's pro-pedophile courtroom. The slow witted Panioto is not alone as Gardner's theory is most expediant, a disincentive to litigants that seek to bring time consuming allegations of abuse, and goes a long way to glossing over messy cases. Cincinnati's family court judges have bought into PAS hook, line and sinker. Read now what happens when good parents bring allegations of child molestation to Cincinnati's family court.
PAS Judge Judson Shattuck's Pro-Abuser Decision
To Protect Judge Panioto, Judge Shattuck Traumatized
The Thibodeaux Children
To Do That - He Had To Cheat
The great thing about Skyline Chili is that you can order and eat it in 15 minutes, which is about how long it takes PAS Judge Judson Shattuck to scribble allegedly pro-abuser decisions on a napkin. He roamed from county to county in southern Ohio handing out child custody decisions in favor of alleged abusers wherever he went. It's good work if you can get it. Required almost no writing skill and certainly no thought. If you know how to use copy and paste in word processing, as Judge Shattuck did, then just fill in the blanks where it says "Father's name" in front of "Awarded" and the "Mother's name" where it reads "Denied". It's good pay and your name appears on documents next to Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who appoints the roaming PAS Judges.
Convicted abusers and alleged abusers had a mighty friend and protector in PAS Judson Shattuck. If Shattuck didn't exclude evidence of abuse allegations and testimony outright, then he simply ignored the allegations in his decisions. The reason he avoided mention of serious allegations was for the simple reason of beating any appeal of his decision. You see, if he didn't mention it at all ... then he can't be in error. No error means no reversal. That kind of thought process is evil.
Shattuck probably had but two regrets. First, that he was not always there when the mother finds out that she lost her children to an alleged abuser; and secondly, that he's not there to party with the alleged abuser when he gives him custody of the alleged victims. The shocking losses for the protective mother are an adrenaline rush for Shattuck. And the surprise wins given to the alleged abusers give him that warm, fuzzy feeling that only PAS judges can know and appreciate. He did this many times in his twisted career. Indeed, he was on a roll in November 2004, having done the exact same thing with the exact same custody and visitation schedule in the Lanfranc case the previous month.
Everybody knew that Judge Judson Shattuck Jr. had a major screw loose, that he was a knucklehead. Nobody knew why? In Greene County, Ohio, he had been called "the worst thing ever to happen to abused children". We do know that he lied on his state compensation reports regarding the Thibodeaux case. He bilked Ohio out of thousands of dollars in falsified expenses while also cheating the protective mother and her children. The knucklehead got caught and the mother's brother made him pay a heavy price with a bar complaint aimed at taking away his license, and the threat of felony charges to follow. Shattuck had deluded himself into thinking that he could cheat and get away with it, probably because he always had. But how could he not see the mother's brother coming? What a fool.
In October of 2004, PAS Judge Judson Shattuck pretended to preside over this Cincinnati child custody trial. Except that it wasn't a trial. Shattuck excluded the sexual abuse allegations from evidence. So there really was no trial. Only a sham of a trial. Shattuck ignored what evidence he did let in, Louis and Kelly Thibodeaux's reading of the "Understanding The Borderline Mother" book. Ignored as well PAS attorney Dominic Mastruserio's blatant deceit and skulduggery, and rendered a decision that demonstrated absolutely no thought or concern for the children. It could have been written between his three-way chili and cheese coney at Skyline and maybe was.
Becoming Dominic Mastruserio's willing fool, Judge Judson Shattuck humiliated himself by handing over what was left of his sorry reputation to quite possibly the most prolific liar in the Hamilton County courts. Mastruserio made a complete monkey of Judge Shattuck. At one point, when Mastruserio was caught in one of his many lies (insisting that the mother reported abuse to Children Services when it was actually the school principal), Shattuck ruled that Mastruserio didn't have to admit the deceit out loud because he's an "Italian". What a stupid thing to say. What an insult to the many fine and honest Italian lawyers in this country. Decent and hard-working Italian lawyers (that's most of 'em) find Mastruserio an embarrassment. Shattuck thinks it's funny.
After several years as the presiding judge, PAS Judge Ron Panioto quit the Thibodeaux case under pressure from the mother's brother, having botched the investigation into the original allegations that Dr. Louis Thibodeaux had sexually molested the Thibodeaux daughter, and before that, his son. The quivering Panioto ran from the case three hours into the first trial. The brother had spooked him with a steady dose of testimony linking the Panioto court evaluator, Dr. Michael Borack, who had ordered two children that he hadn't the ability to assess "deprogrammed" - as if they had been brainwashed into believing they were abused - with the 1960's Cultural Revolution in Communist China that had also sought to "re-educate" or brainwash their citizens. The point was that Hamilton County Ohio was recklessly engaging in mind control. Try doing that to an American citizen or his family and watch out! Minutes after that damning accusation and the day after this web site went public with the allegation that Panioto's top aide had perjured herself in deposition (he knew for a fact that she had), Panioto quit the case under false pretenses. Like most candy-ass bullies, he ran when he got punched.
Judge Penelope Cunningham was assigned the case. She was the only Cincinnati judge known to protect children. Her husband is right wing radio talk show host Bill "Not Hussein" Cunningham, the fellow John McCain "threw under the bus" in 2008 following tasteless remarks about Senator Barack Obama. Judge Cunningham didn't write any Profiles In Courage chapters herself, opting out of the hot Thibodeaux case for the same lame and false excuse Panioto used - that a friend was a witness. We hasten to add that Mr. Cunningham correctly has attacked on his radio show church officials who have covered up allegations of molestation. However, he has remained stone silent about the skeletons in his wife's worklife, that she rubs shoulders daily with people who award custody to child molesters and do it under the auspices of junk science, namely the pro-pedophile PAS theory. While decrying others who do the wrong thing, Mr. Cunningham stops short at pointing the finger at people of whom he is likely to see at his wife's Christmas party.
So the Thibodeaux case rolled to the third and last Cincinnati judge, Susan Tolbert, who had been the subject of an NBC Dateline report for having awarded custody in another case to ... an alleged child molester. See here Dateline NBC - Farmer that Judge Tolbert failed to protect the little girl and caused that mother and daughter to flee the country, making a felon of the mom. So Judge Tolbert was immediately attacked on this cincinnatipas.com website because her mind has been poisoned by PAS theory. Unlike Judges Panioto and Cunningham, Tolbert admitted to reading this website and recused herself as a result of it. So she's no liar. A stupid PAS jurist, but no liar.
In sports they say winning starts at the top. In law it can be said ethics, or the lack of it, does too. Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer assigned the crookedest judge he could find, Judson L. Shattuck Jr. of nearby Greene County. Shattuck bent over backwards to cheat the children and their mother from their day in court. He served not to protect the allegedly abused children, but to protect the alleged child abuser, Louis Thibodeaux. In his decision, Judge Shattuck cited none of the trial testimony, witnesses or exhibit evidence, which strongly favored the mother. But that's what PAS judges do, ignore evidence that is damaging to alleged abusers. Shattuck's decision demonstrated almost no thought or effort. He was a hired gun, a hack, who was sent to protect Panioto, who had come under fire for his pro-abuser court rulings.
Unfortunately for Dr. Louis Thibodeaux, because his PAS attorney Dominic Mastruserio also struggled so mightily to keep out the allegations of child sexual abuse, lying often in the process, there is absolutely no vindication for Mr. Thibodeaux.
The question still remains, did Mr. Thibodeaux abuse his children as a number of therapists suggest? And if he didn't, why would his attorney lie for him in court? And why would he not want a trial on the abuse allegations? Didn't he want his name cleared? Why run if you're innocent? What happened, or better still, what didn't happen in Shattuck's court, leaves nothing answered, nothing settled.
Of course, everyone also wonders and it's so very worth asking ...
... why won't Mr. Thibodeaux take his children to a therapist, a mandatory reporter of abuse?
Or does the question also serve as the answer?
Shattuck, well known in Greene County, Ohio for supporting suspected child abusers, denied the mother the opportunity to have a highly qualified and nationally prominent therapist interview the children. The shocking decision protected Louis Thibodeaux from possible new allegations of abuse and trapped the children into Dr. Michael Borack's incompetent PAS reports of four years prior.
The children had not been evaluated since 2001 - though they subsequently disclosed abuse to school counselors - because the mother was precluded from doing so. She would have lost visitation if she had taken her children to a therapist. Mr. Thibodeaux admitted in court that his children needed therapy, but that he couldn't find anyone to see them. He blames this website. As of 2008, he still has denied them therapy.
We hasten to call attention, however, to the fact that all therapists are mandatory reporters of abuse, and if the children disclose yet again, Mr. Thibodeaux would be in even more trouble. Isn't that really why he has never taken them to a therapist? After all, if the children have been coached, a good therapist would likely uncover it and vindication results. But Mr. Thibodeaux would not take them to a therapist. Why not?
But one thing was for certain, Judge Shattuck was also not in search of the truth when he denied the mother the right to have the children evaluated by a nationally prominent therapist. Did that decision serve the children's best interest? Of course not. Whomever Shattuck was protecting, it wasn't the children.
Shattuck did not allow the mother to present evidence or testimony regarding the sexual abuse allegations leveled against Louis Thibodeaux by three separate therapists (Kowalski, Boat & Olafson). Again ruling to protect the alleged abuser, Louis Thibodeaux, Shattuck denied the mother her day in court, and denied the children justice as well. For that this site will hound him to the grave.
Understanding The Borderline Mother
In his tersely worded Skyline Chili decision, Judge Shattuck completely ignored the trial's remaining number one issue, the only one he would leave on the table, that Mr. Thibodeaux had intentionally denigrated the mother by having his wife Kelly Reichert Thibodeaux read to the children"Understanding The Borderline Mother". Judge Shattuck devoted zero words to the book. So it must be okay for alleged abusers and step-mothers to read psychological books to children to convince them that their mother is crazy. Judge Shattuck considers that sort of thing unworthy of the slightest comment.
So is it now okay for the mother to read to the children "Understanding The Borderline Child Molester"? I think we all know what a PAS court would do in that situation.
Clouding the real legal issue of child abuse and who really is the better parent, Judge Shattuck used the excuse that the mother is a flight attendant and AWARDED custody to the alleged abuser, a doctor, who is also very busy or should be. Shattuck strained to find any morsel to deny the mother. It read lame because it was lame.
Which REWARDED Louis Thibodeaux and his deceitful attorney, Dominic Mastruserio, for using "Parental Alienation" theory against the protective mother.
The Mother appealed and lost.
If a PAS court is sick and twisted (see Hamilton County, Ohio), there is no control mechanism in place to reign them in. The Appeals Court lacks spine, common sense, intellect and legal ethics as they reward blatant deceit which serves to further trap allegedly abused children. On the one hand they boast about serving on the board of "Pro-Kids" while on the other they validate judges who are "Pro-Abuser". The geniuses who looked the other way in the Thibodeaux case are Hildebrandt, Painter & Sundermann.
After Shattuck's pro-abuser decision, the delighted PAS Court Administrator Ray Shannon and Mr. Panioto supplanted the usual visiting judge, Charles Lowman of Montgomery County, by specifically requesting henceforth of Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, the more pleasing crook of a judge, Judson L. Shattuck Jr. of Greene County Ohio.
So Lowman is out and Shattuck is in. Mr. Lowman should feel honored to be rejected by misters Panioto and Shannon.
Judge Lowman had been assigned to every Hamilton County case requiring a visiting judge from 2001 until the Thibodeaux case in 2004. Judge Shattuck now gets all of Hamilton County's business. Give a PAS Court a PAS decision, and more business will follow.
How did the Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court take away the children from an "excellent mother"? In short, the PAS court used pro-abuser PAS theory against her and then cheated her again by hiding the court evaluator's PAS reports from the Appeals Court.
Because of those actions, the mother never received a full trial on the sexual abuse issues.
The trial judge (Shattuck) ignored every transgression of the alleged abuser, all the trial testimony and evidence - and then took away the mother's children. His Skyline Chili decision does not explain his reasoning. He can't explain it.
Here's a brief case history:
1. In 2000, child abuse expert Dr. Jacqueline Kowalski determined with "psychological certainty" that Louis Thibodeaux had abused his three year old daughter and brought the allegations to Judge Ron Panioto’Äôs court.
2. Judge Panioto turned to Dr. Richard Gardner's debunked, pro-abuser PAS theory and appointed Dr. Michael Borack, a "parental alienation" expert, to investigate the abuse allegations and report his findings to the court. His old buddy, Dominic Mastruserio, who is Louis Thibodeaux's deceitful attorney, had requested a "parental alienation" expert. Good buddy Panioto replied, "I have no problem with that." The PAS fix was in. This is what they do to protective parents.
3. But Dr. Borack did not investigate the sexual abuse allegations against Mr. Thibodeaux. PAS evaluators almost always attack the protective parent and Borack did exactly that, following Gardner's methods right down to deprogramming the children and recommending full custody to Mr. Thibodeaux. Borack ignored his two court appointed deprogrammers, Drs. Boat & Olafson, who called the mother "excellent" and "honest" and like Dr. Kowalski, reported non-coached disclosures of "possible sexual touching".
4. When the mother protested to Mr. Thibodeaux in July 2000 that their 8 year old son did not like his father physically bathing him, Dr. Borack did not investigate the new allegation of abuse, but instead wrote another report attacking the mother and writing that he was of a mind to award full custody to Mr. Thibodeaux. The deceitful and opportunistic Dominic Mastruserio threatened to go to trial where he was confident that with his PAS evaluator Borack, and his old buddy Panioto, he would win custody for his client.
5. Between a rock and a hard place, the mother's then attorney, William Abernethy, told her to sign a "temporary" six month agreement giving the alleged abuser, Louis Thibodeaux, sole custody of the children and allowing for the deprogramming of the children (as if they had been brainwashed into believing they were abused) and an intervention to change or stop the mother's allegations (which they failed to investigate). Once the mother signed the coerced agreement (she was crying), Judges Panioto and Shattuck used it against her to rule again and again that she had basically turned her back on all the previous abuse allegations leveled against Louis Thibodeaux. Temporary became permanent. It was the worst thing that she could have done. William Abernethy, her attorney, failed her and the children. He capitulated to Panioto's pro-abuser court and eventually quit as her attorney with the parting words, "I need to make a living in this town."
6. When the mother attempted to appeal Judge Panioto's decision not to reverse the Borack coerced agreement, Judge Panioto then also refused to supplement the official record with Dr. Michael Borack's PAS reports for the Appeals Court to read and consider. This shocking and blatant attempt to hide material so germane and central to the case served to cheat the mother from justice as the Appeals Court decided that Panioto had given them "no choice" but to affirm him. Panioto protected himself at the expense of the children.
7. Judge Panioto squandered several months fighting off the mother's motion that he recuse himself from the case for reasons of bias. Three hours into the mistrial in February 2004, however, Judge Panioto did step aside but not for the reasons he stated. It had come to light only days earlier that his top aide, Jayne Zuberbuhler, had perjured herself in deposition testimony, and the Judge removed himself before the issue, and his personal knowledge of it, embroiled him. Zuberbuhler's office is down the hall from Panioto's. They're tight. She lied about Borack in deposition, got caught, and Judge Panioto is a witness.
Enter this website cincinnatipas.com
8. Judge Susan Tolbert recused herself because of her familiarity with this website, a public criticism of the Hamilton County Domestic Relations PAS Court. This website is a double edged sword. By exposing the Court's secret PAS world and failure to protect abused children, this website is intimidating and causes unethical people who cannot explain themselves to run. It also creates even more animosity from a morally bankrupt court system that lost its bearings the day Dr. Richard Gardner stepped into Cincinnati to train them.
9. Giving some credit where some credit is due, Judge Ron Panioto did make one attempt to correct his errors. He signed a pretrial court order allowing testimony and evidence that would include all the sexual abuse allegations going back to 1997. Never mind the coerced agreement, bring it all in. Of course that's the right thing.
10. Second trial Judge Judson Shattuck did exactly the opposite. He ignored Judge Panioto's Pretrial Order and refused to bring it all in. Erring on the side of the alleged abuser, Louis Thibodeaux, PAS Judge Shattuck used the Dr. Borack coerced 2nd agreement signed in 2000, which Judge Panioto had refused to reverse, to preclude all testimony and evidence regarding the alleged abuser's sexual molestation of the children. Judge Panioto's decision in 2002, therefore, not to reverse Dr. Borack's incompetent recommendations, ultimately led to a full pardon in 2004 of every sexual abuse allegation leveled against Louis Thibodeaux.
11. Mr. Thibodeaux was let off the hook, was never held accountable for his actions, and to the mother's horror received full custody of his alleged victims. Judge Shattuck had conducted a Sham Trial and rendered a Skyline Chili decision in favor of the alleged abuser without citing any evidence, exhibits, witnesses or trial testimony. That's because his decision cannot be supported by the evidence, exhibits, witnesses or trial testimony.
12. After the trial Mr. Thibodeaux's attorney Dominic Mastruserio was investigated by the state for lying and frauds upon the court. Judge Judson Shattuck was caught stealing money from the state in his billing on the case. Judge Ronald Panioto's real reason for recusal came to light as Ray Shannon goofed by not keeping to the story - the lie, that Panioto had a friend as witness. It was really this website that made him cut and run. Mr. Thibodeaux's second wife Kelly Thibodeaux gave up the facade that they had an All-American family and left him almost immediately after the trial, feigning a marriage until the appeals were exhausted. She left Louis Thibodeaux for two years from October 2005 until the fall of 2007. She told the Thibodeaux children that she would have been fine with the children's real mother gaining custody, and seemingly wasn't too happy that it turned out the way that it did. Adding insult to injury, most likely her name would have been redacted from this website long ago with a simple 50/50 split of visitation.
13. Teresa's children are now left alone 83% of the time with Louis Thibodeaux. Nobody knows how safe they are because he won't take them to a therapist, and the court has stopped the mother from doing so. The court has no idea whether Mr. Thibodeaux is a child molester or not? We do know that the children are desperately lonely and ache for their mother and her extended family. By incompetence, fraud and deceit, Misters Mastruserio, Borack, Panioto & Shattuck have collectively ruined their childhoods.
Before he died, Shattuck was caught profiting from the Thibodeaux case -
