9.4.11

MOMMY, MOMMY, I WANT MY MOMMY OUT OF JAIL!!! Caroline Marie Halonen-Rice

A Mother’s Love

The following you about to read is heart wrenching as the adult daughter of Caroline Halonen-Rice ,who was jailed this week by the corrupt system that failed her and her children, tells the tale of abuse, control and a childs neverending love for their Mother.  It is our continued hope that ALL that read of the corruption, collusion and cronyism that exists in the family court system be exposed to the fullest extent.

Please watch the video at the link at the bottom!

My mom, Caroline Marie Rice, was arrested on Monday. This was the third time she had been arrested. I watched the arrest, trying to hold back my tears. I failed, but I stopped crying sooner than the last time she was arrested. It was probably because I saw her being arrested this time. She was calm, like it was something that happened regularly. She told me she could be calm, because she knows she has done nothing wrong. I was not calm, because in Carver County I have not seen any justice for my family.
Prior to her arrest, my mom and I were moving from place to place, running from the people who were supposed to protect us. We were running from the cops and social workers, because an attorney my mom tried to retain advised her to run if she was required to see a psychologist selected by the petitioner’s side (Brent Rice, my biological father, is the petitioner on the order for protection). The attorney said she represented two other women who were perfectly normal who were sent to a mental institute, because of the psychologist’s recommendations. The attorney said that those women are still there today.  My mom already had three normal psychological evaluations when the court asked her to do another one, this time with a special psychologist. When my mom was informed of this requirement, we ran.
My name is Lauren Elizabeth Rice. I am the nineteen-year-old daughter of Caroline. I am the second oldest of five children. In order from oldest to youngest; Kristina Marie (22), me, Brent Thomas (18), Jayson Douglas (15), and Annelise Claire (13). I attended Holy Family Catholic High School and went on to run division one cross-country and track at North Dakota State University and then at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I withdrew from school (leaving behind my scholarship, my friends, and some of my eligibility as a college athlete) when my little sister (Annelise Claire) ran away from my abusive father (Brent Rice). I wanted to be with her and my mother, if it meant going to a different country, it would be worth it. With an order for protection in place that was supposed to keep my mother from contacting my sister, we headed to Canada with hopes of receiving refugee status. Because of the immense stress, our plan was not well thought out. In order to receive refugee status we would have been separated during the court proceedings. They recommended that we go to another country during the court proceedings so that we could stay together. When we were re-entering the US, my mom was arrested, for the second time. We learned later that there weren’t any warrants at the time of her arrest, so whoever put handcuffs on her should be in trouble. It wasn’t until she had been in jail for several days that warrants were produced. Her charges were for deprivation of parental rights, for failing to appear in court, and for violating the order for protection.

My mom was in jail for twenty-three days in Port Huron, Michigan. She was treated horribly and has not yet explained to me all of the details, because it is still a sensitive topic for her. My mom was held in a special cell for six days, which is used to observe the new inmates. Generally, people are held in this type of cell for a maximum of seventy-two hours. In that cell the lights were on twenty-four seven and everyone could see her as they walked in and out of the jail. The entire time she was in Port Huron jail, she watched other inmates withdrawing from drugs and listened to cops screaming all hours of the day.
The first time she was arrested, I was not with her, so I do not know so many of the details. I do know that she was in the driveway of the place she was living, about to head out for a run. Two unmarked police cars pulled up, nearly hitting her to keep her from running. Detective Patrick Barry was one of the men who arrested her. Neither of the men who were there to arrest her wore a uniform.

The first time she was arrested and bailed out, we fled. The second time she was arrested and bailed out, we fled again. So, the high bail is no surprise to my mom or me. I guess this is when we stop running.

While my mom and I were running from the corrupt orders of the court and the shady policemen enforcing them, my three younger siblings were living with my dad and going downhill.

Jayson, who is fifteen, broke his arm on two separate occasions. The first time, he was skiing. He knew it hurt badly enough to be broken so he called my father, who picked him up and brought him home. He told my brother that his friend is a doctor and that his friend would look at his arm. His friend looked at Jayson’s arm and told him that it wasn’t broken. Three weeks later, when my brother was still in pain, he went to the doctor who said his arm was broken.  This same brother broke his hand again by punching a wall in the dugout when he struck out during a baseball game. Before the divorce, I had seen Jayson upset, but never violent.

My youngest sister had many issues while living with my dad. The issue that stands out the most in my mind is when she needed an emergency root canal and my dad refused to bring her to the dentist. So did the social worker. Annelise had a sinus infection, a headache, and was extremely dizzy. All of those symptoms are signs of a serious infection getting close to the brain. My older sister pleaded with my dad to bring Annelise to the dentist and when he refused, my sister met my mom and brought my younger sister to the dentist herself.  My older sister, Kristina, became too nervous to drive. So my mom began driving with the cops and social workers following them to the dentist. They were rushed inside and the endodontist did an emergency procedure. He explained to the social worker that Annelise could not be brought back to school no matter what the court order said. This was an emergency. He locked the door and allowed my mom to hold Annelise’s hand during the entire procedure. That contact between my mom and Annelise violated the court order and may have saved her life.http://opentopossibility.blogspot.com/

VIDEO:http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/digitalstories/Caroline.mov

A Mother’s Love: Caroline Marie Halonen-Rice Jailed for Protecting her Children- In Her Daughter’s Own Words- a Plea for Help, for Justice for Love

A Mother’s Love

activism, child abuse, Child Custody Issues, Children's Rights, Family Courts, domestic violence, Child Custody for fathers, Government Corruption
Tags: custody, domestic violence, family court, abusers, government corruption, abused children, bad fathers, misogynists, CPS, protective parent, abusive men, mother rights, family court corruption, violence against women, court whores, maternal deprivation, stupid men,Caroline Halonen-Rice, Carver County Minnesota, Brent Rice, Detective Patrick Barry

The following you about to read is heart wrenching as the adult daughter of Caroline Halonen-Rice ,who was jailed this week by the corrupt system that failed her and her children, tells the tale of abuse, control and a childs neverending love for their Mother.  It is our continued hope that ALL that read of the corruption, collusion and cronyism that exists in the family court system be exposed to the fullest extent.

Please watch the video at the link at the bottom!

My mom, Caroline Marie Rice, was arrested on Monday. This was the third time she had been arrested. I watched the arrest, trying to hold back my tears. I failed, but I stopped crying sooner than the last time she was arrested. It was probably because I saw her being arrested this time. She was calm, like it was something that happened regularly. She told me she could be calm, because she knows she has done nothing wrong. I was not calm, because in Carver County I have not seen any justice for my family.
Prior to her arrest, my mom and I were moving from place to place, running from the people who were supposed to protect us. We were running from the cops and social workers, because an attorney my mom tried to retain advised her to run if she was required to see a psychologist selected by the petitioner’s side (Brent Rice, my biological father, is the petitioner on the order for protection). The attorney said she represented two other women who were perfectly normal who were sent to a mental institute, because of the psychologist’s recommendations. The attorney said that those women are still there today.  My mom already had three normal psychological evaluations when the court asked her to do another one, this time with a special psychologist. When my mom was informed of this requirement, we ran.
My name is Lauren Elizabeth Rice. I am the nineteen-year-old daughter of Caroline. I am the second oldest of five children. In order from oldest to youngest; Kristina Marie (22), me, Brent Thomas (18), Jayson Douglas (15), and Annelise Claire (13). I attended Holy Family Catholic High School and went on to run division one cross-country and track at North Dakota State University and then at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I withdrew from school (leaving behind my scholarship, my friends, and some of my eligibility as a college athlete) when my little sister (Annelise Claire) ran away from my abusive father (Brent Rice). I wanted to be with her and my mother, if it meant going to a different country, it would be worth it. With an order for protection in place that was supposed to keep my mother from contacting my sister, we headed to Canada with hopes of receiving refugee status. Because of the immense stress, our plan was not well thought out. In order to receive refugee status we would have been separated during the court proceedings. They recommended that we go to another country during the court proceedings so that we could stay together. When we were re-entering the US, my mom was arrested, for the second time. We learned later that there weren’t any warrants at the time of her arrest, so whoever put handcuffs on her should be in trouble. It wasn’t until she had been in jail for several days that warrants were produced. Her charges were for deprivation of parental rights, for failing to appear in court, and for violating the order for protection.

My mom was in jail for twenty-three days in Port Huron, Michigan. She was treated horribly and has not yet explained to me all of the details, because it is still a sensitive topic for her. My mom was held in a special cell for six days, which is used to observe the new inmates. Generally, people are held in this type of cell for a maximum of seventy-two hours. In that cell the lights were on twenty-four seven and everyone could see her as they walked in and out of the jail. The entire time she was in Port Huron jail, she watched other inmates withdrawing from drugs and listened to cops screaming all hours of the day.
The first time she was arrested, I was not with her, so I do not know so many of the details. I do know that she was in the driveway of the place she was living, about to head out for a run. Two unmarked police cars pulled up, nearly hitting her to keep her from running. Detective Patrick Barry was one of the men who arrested her. Neither of the men who were there to arrest her wore a uniform.

The first time she was arrested and bailed out, we fled. The second time she was arrested and bailed out, we fled again. So, the high bail is no surprise to my mom or me. I guess this is when we stop running.

While my mom and I were running from the corrupt orders of the court and the shady policemen enforcing them, my three younger siblings were living with my dad and going downhill.

Jayson, who is fifteen, broke his arm on two separate occasions. The first time, he was skiing. He knew it hurt badly enough to be broken so he called my father, who picked him up and brought him home. He told my brother that his friend is a doctor and that his friend would look at his arm. His friend looked at Jayson’s arm and told him that it wasn’t broken. Three weeks later, when my brother was still in pain, he went to the doctor who said his arm was broken.  This same brother broke his hand again by punching a wall in the dugout when he struck out during a baseball game. Before the divorce, I had seen Jayson upset, but never violent.

My youngest sister had many issues while living with my dad. The issue that stands out the most in my mind is when she needed an emergency root canal and my dad refused to bring her to the dentist. So did the social worker. Annelise had a sinus infection, a headache, and was extremely dizzy. All of those symptoms are signs of a serious infection getting close to the brain. My older sister pleaded with my dad to bring Annelise to the dentist and when he refused, my sister met my mom and brought my younger sister to the dentist herself.  My older sister, Kristina, became too nervous to drive. So my mom began driving with the cops and social workers following them to the dentist. They were rushed inside and the endodontist did an emergency procedure. He explained to the social worker that Annelise could not be brought back to school no matter what the court order said. This was an emergency. He locked the door and allowed my mom to hold Annelise’s hand during the entire procedure. That contact between my mom and Annelise violated the court order and may have saved her life.http://opentopossibility.blogspot.com/

VIDEO:http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/digitalstories/Caroline.mov

7.4.11

FATHERLESS CHILDREN STORIES


These are transcripts from "A Fatherless Minute" series sponsored by The Liz Library for The Justice Hour radio show on WPBR 1340 AM. The term "fatherless" ("fatherlessness") is used in this series as it is in current research and policy rhetoric by the U.S. federal government, DHHS and the National Fatherhood Initiative, most U.S. states in connection with child custody law and policy, and various family values and fatherhood interest policy and lobbying groups. (For the research, see the subsections Research Myths and Factsand Child Custody, as well as the section on FAMILY LAW generally.)

  • "Fatherless America" list of famous fatherless children (25% of American presidents)
  • Fatherless Children Stories in reading order by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Myths and Facts about Fatherhood  |  more research  |  custody reseach CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome; hostile-aggressive parenting; enmeshment
    NOTE: The LIZNOTES index page contains links to recommended off-site locations as well as the on-site articles. Also see Section onPSYCHOLOGY, because the entertaining of alienation theory (by whatever name **) has become integral to the plying of the therapeutic jurisprudence trades in the family courts. It is a primary creator of the relationship engineering industries, and spawns work for "experts" opining pro and con, as well as GALs, supervised visitation centers, court-ordered therapists, custody evaluators, parenting coordinators, and all of their respective lawyers. [** hostile-aggressive parenting, enmeshment, intrusive parenting, intractable hostilities, high conflict, etc.]

  • Index: Parental Alienation Index Page
  • About "PAS" -- Why Is It So Often Used Against Mothers? by John E. B. Myers SCHOLAR
    with Richard Gardner and "Parental Alienation Syndrome" by Trish Wilson
  • Battered Mothers' Testimony Project Report by AZCADV PDF SCHOLAR
  • Breaking the Silence: PBS documentary aftermath, issues by Dominic Lasseur and Joan Meier
    with additional comments by liz
  • But I've Seen It! (No, you haven't) by liz
  • Compulsive Tree-Planting Syndrome (liz to Gardner) by liz
    Responds to Gardner's 1998 "Misperceptions" article in response to liz's "But I've Seen It!" (above)
  • Criticism of Divorce Poison by Richard Warshak by Cheryl Metellus
  • Cross-Referral relationships of PAS purveyors, Joe Goldberg etc. by liz
  • Custody Switch by Jill Kramer Pac.Sun 10/01 PDF
  • Disciplining Divorcing Parents: Social Construction of Parental Alienation by F. Besset PDF SCHOLAR
  • Domestic Violence by Proxy by Joyanna Silberg, Ph.D. (Leadership Council) SCHOLAR
  • Evidentiary Admissibility of Parental Alienation Syndrome by Jennifer Hoult PDF SCHOLAR
  • Fairness and Accuracy in Evaluations of DV and Abuse by Smith and Coukos PDF SCHOLAR
  • Friendly Parent Concept: A Flawed Factor by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR
  • Fetid Fathering Syndrome satire by liz in response to Turkat's "Malicious Mother Syndrome"
    with complete text of Malicious Mother Syndrome by Ira Turkat CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Lack of Empirical Data, Research or Scientific Basis by Justice for Children DOC CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Letter to Richard Gardner satire by Karen Anderson
  • NCJFCJ Judges' Guide to Custody Evaluations in Cases of Abuse (it's not PAS) PDF SCHOLAR
  • Overblowing the Child Suggestibility Research by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH AND NEWS
  • PAS and Alienated Children -- getting it wrong in child custody cases by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome: Getting It Wrong in Child Custody Cases Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • See Prof. Bruch's articles at Index: Carol S. Bruch
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Dangerous Aura of Reliability by Cheri L. Wood TXT SCHOLAR
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome by Antonio Escudero RTF SPANISH SCHOLAR
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome: Frye v. Gardner in the Family Courts by Jerome Poliacoff PRACT
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome: Proponents Bear the Burden of Proof Robert E. Emery, Ph.D. off-site PDF SCHOLAR
  • PAS and Parental Alienation: Research Reviews by Joan S. Meier PDF SCHOLAR
  • Retaliation Against Professionals Who Report Child Abuse by Katherine Hine SCHOLAR
  • Richard Gardner and "Parental Alienation Syndrome" by Trish Wilson
  • Richard Gardner: A Self-Made Man by Judith M. Simon
  • Richard A. Gardner pedophilia quotes orig. compiled by Stephanie J. Dallam
  • Sound Research or Wishful Thinking in Custody Cases? by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians ad Litem; Parenting Coordinators; Custody Evaluators, etc.

    Guardians ad Litem; Parenting Coordinators; Custody Evaluators, etc.


    This category includes the various forms of so-called ADR (alternate dispute resolution) practitioners, such as GALs, parenting coordinators, parenting evaluators, forensic psychologists, recommending mediators, special masters, court-ordered therapists, other court-appointed mental health professionals, supervised visitation centers, and other profiteers of "therapeutic jurisprudence", whose methods involve -- in non-criminal cases -- intrusion and coercion under the threat of court sanctions, and actual or de facto extra-judicial decision-making.

    This website heavily criticizes all of these practices, which have multiple things wrong with them, not the least of which is denigration of due process, and the diminution of a publicly observable, regulated, and appealable "rule by law" by substituting the caprice of men and women.

    These practices have been promoted as "cures" for ailings of the court system and the litigants in it by self-serving persons who apparently are ignorant, or else just do not care about the harms they cause to children and their parents because they make money from the ideas they promote, churning profit in proceedings that fly in the face of the foundations of our justice system. The bulk of these materials are listed in the section on PSYCHOLOGY. Also see the sections on the specific substantive issues, such as child development or parental alienation.

  • Court-appt'd Parenting Evaluators and GALs: The Case for Abolition by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians ad Litem in Custody Litigation: The Case for Abolition by Richard Ducote PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians for Profit: LA Times expose, elder abuse by professional conservators by LA Times Staff
  • Parenting Coordination Issues (outline) by liz
  • Parenting Coordinators, Practical Considerations by liz
  • The Proper Role of Mental Health Professionals in Domestic Violence Cases by Barry Goldstein, Esq. Editorial
  • Troubling Admission of Supervised Visitation Records in Court by Stern/Oehme PDF SCHOLAR
  • What's Wrong with Parenting Coordination by liz
  • Family Court Issues, Activism, Corruption, Etc.

    Family Court Issues, Activism, Corruption, Etc.


    Also see multiple text and graphical links at LIZNOTES as well as the off-site links at The Liz Library RESEARCH ROOM

  • In the News - Outragescustody evaluator bullshit bingo
  • In the News - Justice's Posterous
  • Judicial Blunder of the Year "Award" 2001 by NCFJC
  • NOW 2002 Report on the Courts PDF
  • Outrages: Naming Names multiple contributors
  • Run, Mommy, Run! by Talia Carner
  • Smear Campaign: Psychologist versus Robin Yeamans by Robin Yeamans
  • Fathers' Rights Movement

    Fathers' Rights Movement

  • Busting the Fatherhood Myth by Lily DeVilliers
  • Case for Father Custody, The email exchange between liz and FR Nick Szabo
  • Deconstructing Fatherhood Propaganda: liz versus Wade Horn editorial by liz
  • Deconstructing the Deconstructing: liz versus Silverstein and Auerbach editorial by liz
  • Disagreeing with Helen Alvare editorial by liz
  • Father's Rights Joint Custody Propaganda from the AAML editorial notes by liz
  • Media Distortions by Fathers' Rights Advocates editorial by liz
  • Myths and Facts about Fathers and Family Law CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • The National Fatherhood Initiative editorial criticism by liz
    with email comments by David Usher (FR lobbying 1995 welfare deform)
  • Politics of Fathers' Rights Advocates by Mandy Dunn DOC CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Response to "Be Thankful for Fathers" by Amy Ridenour editorial by liz
  • Stalking Through the Courts: the father's rights movement by Janet Normalvanbreucher SCHOLAR
  • Index: "The Pig Page" - The Father's Rights Movement In Their Own Words
  • "The Pig Page" - The Father's Rights Movement In Their Own Words page 2
  • "The Pig Page" - The Father's Rights Movement In Their Own Words page 3
  • About the Children's Rights Council circa 1998 by liz
  • ANCPR readers defend Darren Mack, wife-murderer and judge shooter
  • Wolfgang Hirczy de Mino on Linda Elrod's Washburn family law listserve
  • Dean Hughson (FR originator of web site sold to current owner of Divorce Source)
  • Anne P. Mitchell's F.R.E.E. bit.listserve defending murderer
  • NCFC Dispute with ACFC (in-fighting)
  • Attorney Steven Imparl's "men-law" listserve
  • More posts from the"men-law" listserve
  • And yet more posts from the"men-law" listserve
  • Ralph Underwager's "Litany for Fathers" with Paedika pedophilia comments by liz
  • Ralph Underwager feeling misunderstood and falsely accused by liz
  • Response to Father's Rightster "Pearle Harbour" by liz
  • Trish Wilson's Articles and Materials
  • Warren Farrell materials index
  • Warren Farrell and "family sex" (Off Our Backs interview) annotated by liz
  • manuscript with editing notations of Farrell's "Three Faces of Incest" article source unknown
  • Warren Farrell and "genitally caressing" (Penthouse interview) annotated by liz
  • complete html text of the 1977 Penthouse article "Incest: The Last Taboo"
  • jpg images of original magazine pages:    1  |   2  |   3  |   4  |   5  |   6
  • Farrell emails libeling liz, interspersed with comments by liz
  • More Farrell emails libeling liz, interspersed with responses by liz
  • Warren Farrell's research distortions in "Myth of Male Power" by Cynthia Teague
  • Warren Farrell's "Top Ten Holiday Suggestions" by liz
  • Warren Farrell Does a Custody Evaluation by liz
  • Mother's Rights: Maternity, Paternity and Pregnancy Issues

    Mother's Rights: Maternity, Paternity and Pregnancy Issues
    Pregnancy and maternity/maternity issues are integrated with the issues of child custody, property and support issues rights, parental alienation defense theory used to counter allegations of abuse and otherwise discredit women's testimony and childcare histories, child development (education and attachment issues), father's rights, and other family law issues, so check related sections for other relevant articles. NOTE: The LIZNOTES index page contains links to recommended off-site locations as well as the on-site articles. Also see subsection on Attachment and Bonding in CHILD DEVELOPMENT, and Alimony in FAMILY LAW. For history of mothers' rights, seeTHE WOMEN'S LIBRARY.

  • Index: LIZNOTES Table of Contents
  • Babies Need Their Mothers Beside Them by James J. McKenna, Ph.D.
  • Bias: examples of societal bias against mothers and motherhood by liz
  • Busting the Fatherhood Myth by Lily DeVilliers
    with Mark Evans RockAmerica Speech
  • Effects of Pregnancy by liz
    Effects of Abortion
    Reasons for a late-term abortion
  • Feminists on Alimony by liz ALIMONY THEORY ARGUMENT FOLLOWING QUOTATIONS
  • Gender-Blind, Gender-Neutral Equality: When "Equal" Isn't by liz
  • Male Bashing? Brief history of family law politics. by liz
  • Multiple Meanings of Equality: Case Study in Custody Litigation by Jane Gordon PDF SCHOLAR
  • Myths and Facts about Motherhood and Marriage by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Reasking the Woman Question at Divorce by Penelope Bryan PDF SCHOLAR
  • Reconciling Marriage, Motherhood, and Feminism - One (traditional mother) by liz
  • Reconciling Marriage, Motherhood, and Feminism - Two (feminist mother) by liz
  • What is a Primary Parent? by liz
  • Why Divorced Mothers Should Get Alimony by liz
  • Why Most Primary Parents are Mothers by liz
              with Staying alive: Evolution, culture and women's intra-sexual aggression, by Anne Campbell SCHOLAR
  • Why People Divorce by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • FATHERLESS CHILDREN STORIES


    These are transcripts from "A Fatherless Minute" series sponsored by The Liz Library for The Justice Hour radio show on WPBR 1340 AM. The term "fatherless" ("fatherlessness") is used in this series as it is in current research and policy rhetoric by the U.S. federal government, DHHS and the National Fatherhood Initiative, most U.S. states in connection with child custody law and policy, and various family values and fatherhood interest policy and lobbying groups. (For the research, see the subsections Research Myths and Factsand Child Custody, as well as the section on FAMILY LAW generally.)

  • "Fatherless America" list of famous fatherless children (25% of American presidents)
  • Fatherless Children Stories in reading order by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • Myths and Facts about Fatherhood  |  more research  |  custody reseach CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
  • PSYCHOLOGY; CUSTODY EVALUATIONS; THERAPY-Forensic Psychology; Guardians ad Litem; Therapeutic Jurisprudence

    PSYCHOLOGY; CUSTODY EVALUATIONS; THERAPY


    Forensic Psychology; Guardians ad Litem; Therapeutic Jurisprudence
    The sociological and psychological research on families and child well-being impacts public policy and the issues of child custody in family law. The research frequently is misrepresented, and mis-cited by mental health professionals, lawyers, forensic psychologists and others, as well as interest groups lobbying for laws. Also review the sections pertaining to the issues impacted by the "therapeutic jurisprudence", such as child custody, parental alienation theory, research pertaining to child development, the subsection for researchMyths and Facts in FAMILY LAW, and other family law issues. Also see the subsection on Child Custody in FAMILY LAW. The Therapeutic Jurisprudence index page contains links to recommended off-site locations as well as the on-site articles

  • Index: Therapeutic Jurisprudence
    This section of the website contains current public material from on-going research being conducted around the United States and in Canada by various scholars and organizations who are sharing findings, as well as links to articles and off-site locations on the issue of the harmful use of psychology and psychological theories in the family court systems. Therapeutic jurisprudence in the family courts, i.e. a "mental health approach to the law" substitutes the opinions of mental health practitioners for traditional evidence and decision-making procedures. Because these persons actually do not have any kind of "expertise" to opine this way, what originally was thought to be a helpful idea (in this medicalized and psychologized world) has become merely economic opportunism, harming not only the litigants and children in the system as well as the court system itself, but also perverting substantive and procedural law. It is not science, but compensated yenta-ism that has permeated the courts under the pretexts that engineering family affectional relationships is within the ability of mental health "science" practitioners to accomplish, and that this is an appropriate goal of the government, court system, and state police power because children "need" something it has to offer. See additional comments on this index page here. If you are interested in activism, helping with research in your state, or contributing articles or materials on "therapeutic jurisprudence" contact cce-research@argate.net
  • Are Psychologists Hiding Evidence? A Need for Reform by Lees-Haley and Courtney SCHOLAR
  • Child sex abuse, the limits of Loftus, and overblowing the memory research LIZNOTES, CITES
  • Children's Associational Rights: Why less is more by Emily Buss PDF SCHOLAR
  • Collaborative Law: What's Wrong with Multidisciplinary Practice? by liz
  • Court-appointed Parenting Evaluators: The Case for Abolition by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR
  • Custody evaluators' arguments about test records -- and why they're wrong
  • Custody Evaluations: Ten Signs of Questionable Practices by Joel V. Klass, M.D. SCHOLAR
  • Disciplining Divorcing Parents: Social Construction of Parental Alienation by F. Besset PDF SCHOLAR
  • Family Court is Not a Family-Friendly Place by Lisa Marie Macci, Esq.
  • Guardians ad Litem in Custody Litigation: The Case for Abolition by Richard Ducote PDF SCHOLAR
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome -- getting it wrong in child custody cases by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Parenting Coordination Issues by liz
  • Psychology in Court: A Trial Within a Trial by liz
  • Psychology in Court: The Detectives by liz
  • Psychology in Court:The Diagnosticians by liz
  • Psychology in Court: Discovery of Test Data by liz
  • Reevaluating the Evaluators (overview of the problem) by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
    Custody Evaluator Quotes by liz (companion to above article)
  • Socialization, Personality Development, and the Child's Environments by Judith Rich Harris SCHOLAR
  • Sound Research or Wishful Thinking in Custody Cases? by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Troubling Admission of Supervised Visitation Records in Court by Stern/Oehme PDF SCHOLAR
  • What Does the Guardian ad Litem do in Family Court? by liz
  • Warren Farrell Does a Custody Evaluation by liz
  • What's Wrong with Parenting Coordination by liz
  • Why "Therapeutic Jurisprudence" Must Be Eliminated From Our Family Courts by liz
  • Why "Therapeutic Jurisprudence" Must Be Eliminated From Our Courts by liz (pub. version)
  • Critical Assessment of Child Custody Evaluations by Emery, Otto, Donohue off-site PDF SCHOLAR

  • Family Court Therapist Janelle Burrill Charged with Misconduct by Attorney General's Office (Legal Child Trafficking)

    Family Court Therapist Janelle Burrill Charged with Misconduct by Attorney General's Office

    By Peter Jamison, Thu., Apr. 7 2011 @ 2:19PM

    Categories: California family courts, Law & Order

    scalesjustice.jpg

    ​The California Board of Behavioral Science and California Attorney General's office have filed formal accusations of misconduct against a Sacramento family-court therapist.
    The therapist, Janelle Burrill, is a clinical social worker who works with children and parents as ordered by family courts in Sacramento and elsewhere. Burrill has been the subject of multiple complaints by families unhappy with her work.
    Documents filed against her by the Behavioral Sciences board and the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris allege that Burrill "committed acts that fall sufficiently below the standard of conduct of the profession as to constitute acts of gross negligence."
    The documents assert that Burrill lied to both the American Board of Examiners for Clinical Social Workers and to a Placer County judge, claiming in both cases that no formal complaints had been filed against her by clients when she knew otherwise. If the accusations are upheld, her social-worker license could be suspended or revoked.
    Burrill has been a lightning rod for criticism in Sacramento, and is only one of numerous family-court officials who have come under scrutiny for faulty and potentially dangerous practices in child-custody proceedings. Last month, SF Weekly published a story detailing multiple instances in which family courts had delivered children into the custody of parents with convictions for child molestation or spousal battery.
    Kathleen Russell of the Center for Judicial Excellence, a family-court reform group, said Burrill should be removed from cases in which parents or children have concerns while the case against her proceeds.
    "It seems prudent for the Courts to remove her from any case in which she is involved, at the request of either parent or child, to ensure the safety and well-being of the families and children they serve," Russell said in a statement. "And major policy reforms are needed to ensure a more timely resolution of these complaints."

    Follow us on Twitter at @SFWeekly and @TheSnitchSF

    Tags:
    Board of Behavioral Science, Department of Consumer Affairs, divorce, family court, Janelle Burrill, Jayraj Nair, Parental Alienation Syndrome, Placer County, Sacramento

    Letters From A War Zone": A Battered Wife Survives

     

    The clarity of the survivor is chilling. Once she breaks out of the prison of terror and violence in which she has been nearly destroyed, a process that takes years, it is very difficult to lie to her or to manipulate her.

    She sees through the social strategies that have controlled her as a woman, the sexual strategies that have reduced her to a shadow of her own native possibilities. She knows that her life depends on never being taken in by romantic illusion or sexual hallucination.

    The emotional severity of the survivor appears to others, even those closest to her, to be cold and unyielding, ruthless in its intensity. She knows too much about suffering to try to measure it when it is real, but she despises self-pity.

     

    She is self-protective, not out of arrogance, but because she has been ruined by her own fragility. Like Anya, the survivor of the Nazi concentration camps in Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's beautiful novel of the same name, she might say:

    "So what have I learned?

    I have learned not to believe in suffering. It is a form of death.

    If it is severe enough it is a poison; it kills the emotions." She knows that some of her own emotions have been killed and she distrusts those who are infatuated with suffering, as if it were a source of life, not death.

          In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived.
          In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then.
          In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society.

    And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.

    http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIIIB.html

     

    LETTERS FROM A WAR ZONE

    WRITINGS 1976-1989

    by

    Andrea Dworkin

    Part III

    TAKE BACK THE DAY

    A Battered Wife Survives

    1978, 1988, 1993

    Copyright © 1978 by Andrea Dworkin.

    All rights reserved.

    This essay is now ten years old. Wife-beating is the most commonly committed violent crime in the United States, according to the FBI. In New Hampshire, I meet eighteen-year-old women who work in a battered women's shelter. One talks about how she feels when women decide to go home and she has to drive them. In Toronto, I meet two women who travel through rural Canada in the dead of winter to find and help battered women. In a project called "Off the Beaten Path," Susan Faupel is walking 600 miles--from Chicago, Illinois, to Little Rock, Arkansas--for battered women. In a southern state, I am driven to the airport by an organizer of the rally I have just spoken at; the car keeps veering off the road as she says she is being battered now; when? I keep asking; now, now, she says; she has gone to the organizing meetings for the antipornography demonstrations with make-up covering the bruises on her face. In the South especially I meet lesbians, married with children, who are being beaten by their husbands--afraid to leave because they would lose their children, battered because they are lesbian. In Seattle, I find safe houses, secret from most feminists, for women being beaten by their women lovers. In small towns where there are no shelters, especially in the North and Midwest, I find safe houses organized like an underground railroad for women escaping battery.

    I knew not but the next

    Would be my final inch--

    Emily Dickinson

    In a few days, I will turn thirty-one. I am filled with both pride and dread.

          The pride comes from accomplishment. I have done what I wanted to do more than any other thing in life. I have become a writer, published two books of integrity and worth. I did not know what those two books would cost me, how very difficult it would be to write them, to survive the opposition to them. I did not imagine that they would demand of me ruthless devotion, spartan discipline, continuing material deprivation, visceral anxiety about the rudiments of survival, and a faith in myself made more of iron than innocence. I have also learned to live alone, developed a rigorous emotional independence, a self-directed creative will, and a passionate commitment to my own sense of right and wrong. This I had to learn not only to do, but to want to do. I have learned not to lie to myself about what I value--in art, in love, in friendship. I have learned to take responsibility for my own intense convictions and my own real limitations. I have learned to resist most of the forms of coercion and flattery that would rob me of access to my own conscience. I believe that, for a woman, I have accomplished a great deal.

          The dread comes from memory. Memory of terror and insupportable pain can overpower the present, any present, cast shadows so dark that the mind falters, unable to find light, and the body trembles, unable to find any solid ground. The past literally overtakes one, seizes one, holds one immobile in dread. Each year, near my birthday, I remember, involuntarily, that when I was twenty-five I was still a battered wife, a woman whose whole life was speechless desperation. By the time I was twenty-six I was still a terrorized woman. The husband I had left would come out of nowhere, beat or hit or kick me, disappear. A ghost with a fist, a lightning flash followed by riveting pain. There was no protection or safety. I was ripped up inside. My mind was still on the edge of its own destruction. Smothering anxiety, waking nightmares, cold sweats, sobs that I choked on were the constants of my daily life. I did not breathe; I gulped in air to try to get enough of it each minute to survive a blow that might come a second, any second, later. But I had taken the first step: he had to find me; I was no longer at home waiting for him. On my twenty-fifth birthday, when I had lived one quarter of a century, I was nearly dead, almost catatonic, without the will to live. By my twenty-sixth birthday, I wanted more than anything to live. I was one year old, an infant born out of a corpse, still with the smell of death on her, but hating death. This year I am six years old, and the anguish of my own long and dreadful dying comes back to haunt me. But this year, for the first time, I do more than tremble from the fear that even memory brings, I do more than grieve. This year, I sit at my desk and write.

    Rape is very terrible. I have been raped and I have talked with hundreds of women who have been raped. Rape is an experience that pollutes one's life. But it is an experience that is contained within the boundaries of one's own life. In the end, one's life is larger.

          Assault by a stranger or within a relationship is very terrible. One is hurt, undermined, degraded, afraid. But one's life is larger.

          A battered wife has a life smaller than the terror that destroys her over time.

          Marriage circumscribes her life. Law, social convention, and economic necessity encircle her. She is roped in. Her pride depends on projecting her own satisfaction with her lot to family and friends. Her pride depends on believing that her husband is devoted to her and, when that is no longer possible, convincing others anyway.

          The husband's violence against her contradicts everything she has been taught about life, marriage, love, and the sanctity of the family. Regardless of the circumstances in which she grew up, she has been taught to believe in romantic love and the essential perfection of married life. Failure is personal. Individuals fail because of what is wrong with them. The troubles of individuals, pervasive as they are, do not reflect on the institution of marriage, nor do they negate her belief in the happy ending, promised everywhere as the final result of male-female conflict. Marriage is intrinsically good. Marriage is a woman's proper goal. Wife-beating is not on a woman's map of the world when she marries. It is, quite literally, beyond her imagination. Because she does not believe that it could have happened, that he could have done that to her, she cannot believe that it will happen again. He is herhusband. No, it did not happen. And when it happens again, she still denies it. It was an accident, a mistake. And when it happens again, she blames the hardships of his life outside the home. There he experiences terrible hurts and frustrations. These account for his mistreatment of her. She will find a way to comfort him, to make it up to him. And when it happens again, she blames herself. She will be better, kinder, quieter, more of whatever he likes, less of whatever he dislikes. And when it happens again, and when it happens again, and when it happens again, she learns that she has nowhere to go, no one to turn to, no one who will believe her, no one who will help her, no one who will protect her. If she leaves, she will return. She will leave and return and leave and return. She will find that her parents, doctor, the police, her best friend, the neighbors upstairs and across the hall and next door, all despise the woman who cannot keep her own house in order, her injuries hidden, her despair to herself, her smile amiable and convincing. She will find that society loves its central lie--that marriage means happiness--and hates the woman who stops telling it even to save her own life.

    The memory of the physical pain is vague. I remember, of course, that I was hit, that I was kicked. I do not remember when or how often. It blurs. I remember him banging my head against the floor until I passed out. I remember being kicked in the stomach. I remember being hit over and over, the blows hitting different parts of my body as I tried to get away from him. I remember a terrible leg injury from a series of kicks. I remember crying and I remember screaming and I remember begging. I remember him punching me in the breasts. One can remember that one had horrible physical pain, but that memory does not bring the pain back to the body. Blessedly, the mind can remember these events without the body reliving them. If one survives without permanent injury, the physical pain dims, recedes, ends. It lets go.

          The fear does not let go. The fear is the eternal legacy. At first, the fear infuses every minute of every day. One does not sleep. One cannot bear to be alone. The fear is in the cavity of one's chest. It crawls like lice on one's skin. It makes the legs buckle, the heart race. It locks one's jaw. One's hands tremble. One's throat closes up. The fear makes one entirely desperate. Inside, one is always in upheaval, clinging to anyone who shows any kindness, cowering in the presence of any threat. As years pass, the fear recedes, but it does not let go. It never lets go. And when the mind remembers fear, it also relives it. The victim of encapsulating violence carries both the real fear and the memory of fear with her always. Together, they wash over her like an ocean, and if she does not learn to swim in that terrible sea, she goes under.

          And then, there is the fact that, during those weeks that stretch into years when one is a battered wife, one's mind is shattered slowly over time, splintered into a thousand pieces. The mind is slowly submerged in chaos and despair, buried broken and barely alive in an impenetrable tomb of isolation. This isolation is so absolute, so killing, so morbid, so malignant and devouring that there is nothing in one's life but it, it. One is entirely shrouded in a loneliness that no earthquake could move. Men have asked over the centuries a question that, in their hands, ironically becomes abstract: "What is reality?" They have written complicated volumes on this question. The woman who was a battered wife and has escaped knows the answer: reality is when something is happening to you and you know it and can say it and when you say it other people understand what you mean and believe you. That is reality, and the battered wife, imprisoned alone in a nightmare that is happening to her, has lost it and cannot find it anywhere.

          I remember the isolation as the worst anguish I have ever known. I remember the pure and consuming madness of being invisible and unreal, and every blow making me more invisible and more unreal, as the worst desperation I have ever known. I remember those who turned away, pretending not to see the injuries--my parents, dear god, especially my parents; my closest female friend, next door, herself suffocating in a marriage poisoned by psychic, not physical, violence; the doctor so officious and aloof; the women in the neighborhood who heard every scream; the men in the neighborhood who smiled, yes, lewdly, as they half looked away, half stared, whenever they saw me; my husband's family, especially my mother-in-law, whom I loved, my sisters-in-law, whom I loved. I remember the frozen muscles of my smile as I gave false explanations of injuries that no one wanted to hear anyway. I remember slavishly conforming to every external convention that would demonstrate that I was a "good wife," that would convince other people that I was happily married. And as the weight of social convention became insupportable, I remember withdrawing further and further into that open grave where so many women hide waiting to die--the house. I went out to shop only when I had to, I walked my dogs, I ran out screaming, looking for help and shelter when I had the strength to escape, with no money, often no coat, nothing but terror and tears. I met only averted eyes, cold stares, and the vulgar sexual aggression of lone, laughing men that sent me running home to a danger that was--at least familiar and familial. Home, mine as well as his. Home, the only place I had. Finally, everything inside crumbled. I gave up. I sat, I stared, I waited, passive and paralyzed, speaking to no one, minimally maintaining myself and my animals, as my husband stayed away for longer and longer periods of time, slamming in only to thrash and leave. No one misses the wife who disappears. No one investigates her disappearance. After awhile, people stop asking where she is, especially if they have already refused to face what has been happening to her. Wives, after all, belong in the home. Nothing outside it depends on them. This is a bitter lesson, and the battered wife learns it in the bitterest way.

    The anger of the survivor is murderous. It is more dangerous to her than to the one who hurt her. She does not believe in murder, even to save herself. She does not believe in murder, even though it would be more merciful punishment than he deserves. She wants him dead but will not kill him. She never gives up wanting him dead.

          The clarity of the survivor is chilling. Once she breaks out of the prison of terror and violence in which she has been nearly destroyed, a process that takes years, it is very difficult to lie to her or to manipulate her. She sees through the social strategies that have controlled her as a woman, the sexual strategies that have reduced her to a shadow of her own native possibilities. She knows that her life depends on never being taken in by romantic illusion or sexual hallucination.

          The emotional severity of the survivor appears to others, even those closest to her, to be cold and unyielding, ruthless in its intensity. She knows too much about suffering to try to measure it when it is real, but she despises self-pity. She is self-protective, not out of arrogance, but because she has been ruined by her own fragility. Like Anya, the survivor of the Nazi concentration camps in Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's beautiful novel of the same name, she might say: "So what have I learned? I have learned not to believe in suffering. It is a form of death. If it is severe enough it is a poison; it kills the emotions." She knows that some of her own emotions have been killed and she distrusts those who are infatuated with suffering, as if it were a source of life, not death.

          In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived.

          In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then.

          In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society. And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.

    5.4.11

    Flaws and Deficiencies in the Family Law

    http://www.fassit..co.uk/flaws_deficiencies.htm

    advocacy - a guy, too

    Flaws and Deficiencies in the Family Law

    Charles Pragnell

    By Charles Pragnell

    A recent two-day Conference of Family Court Judges was convened in Hong Kong to address the very serious defects and deficiencies in the current Family Laws around the world and the need for fundamental changes to be made. Family Court judges from Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand and several other countries attended.

    Chief Justice Diane Bryant attended the conference to represent Australia and took the opportunity to highlight the successes of the Australian Family Law system and especially the pilot projects allowing children to have a more direct say in Family Court Proceedings and to diminish the adversarial nature of Family Court proceedings.

    Unfortunately Justice Bryant did not also highlight the very many flaws in the Australian Family Law and its implementations in the Courts.

    The law in Australia gives very little regard to the rights of children under the U.N. Convention and particularly the right to be safeguarded and protected from abuse and exploitation. As a consequence children have been forced into contact with fathers who have abused and even killed them. Very often such fathers have had a history of violence towards their wives and children, a record of drug and alcohol addiction, a criminal record, a serious mental illness or even convictions for child sex abuse. In a recent case in South Australia, the father was awarded residence despite of his children having been convicted and awaiting sentence. In too many cases this has been disregarded by judges who hold paramount the father’s rights to contact and to have a `meaningful relationship’ with the child, regardless of the quality of that relationship.  One Judge stated recently that if children refuse to leave their mothers and are distressed, they should be punished and forced to go.

    Many children have disclosed being abused by their fathers or mothers' new partners. during contact, even when such contact was supervised. In some cases professionals such as teachers and doctors confirmed the abuse allegations and social workers found them to be substantiated. Nevertheless some Family Court judges allowed contact to continue after the abusers' lawyers claimed that the mother had `coached’ the child into making the allegations as part of `alienating’ the child from the father. This has been supported by `Hired Gun’ psychiatrists and psychologists acting as expert witnesses, often never having met the mother or child. False allegations have been found by researchers to be extremely rare yet are still accepted by Courts with no factual evidence to support the contention and the fanciful speculations and conjectures of these psychiatrists. A counter-allegation against the mother of Parental Alienation Syndrome has been successfully made by psychiatrists although this theory was rejected by the American scientific community, having been propounded by a practitioner (Charles I think he was a psychiatrist) whose self-published articles revealed sympathies with paedophiles.

    If a mother refuses to allow contact, obstructs contact in any way, or fails to encourage and facilitate contact, then she can be severely punished by the Courts. Some mothers have been imprisoned for trying to protect their children from men where there was a proven history of violence. Most usually the child is removed from the mother's care and the accused abuser is granted residence of the child. When mothers have fled abroad to protect their children, the children have been seized by police, returned to Australia with strangers and placed in state care for several years while awaiting the Court's decision. Mothers who fled interstate were forced to return to face the retribution of the same Judges who made the original orders.

    The needs, wishes and feelings of children can be completely disregarded when adherence to the law takes priority. Breast-feeding mothers have been forced into day-about and week-about `Shared Care’ arrangements and have had to express their milk to provide sufficient for the week the child spends with the father. Other small children have been forced into contact and residency with fathers that they have never known or seen and who have never taken an interest in their care until they are located by the CSA and are required to make maintenance payments. Shared care allows a considerable reduction in paternal maintenance payments and no payment is required at all if it is an equal shared care arrangement. There are over 120,000 children in Australia for whom there is no financial support from an absent parent, mainly fathers, and have to be financially supported by taxpayers.

    It is rarely considered by Courts that children have other supports in the area where they live. Many have extended families and friends who take them to sports and recreation activities. These are extremely important elements in a child’s life and provide the security, stability, and consistency that children need. This is often the reason why children refuse to go to contact. Attending dance classes or a `Footy’ game can have far more appeal than a day with `Dad’ in a McDonald’s cafĂ©.

    It is obviously not in children’s best interests to be uprooted from their homes and neighbourhoods and relatives and made to go to live in the outback of North Queensland or Dubai in order to be near a parent and their work, solely to provide an opportunity for contact.

    In these ways the law and the decisions of Courts are no less than discriminatory against children and an abuse of their rights.

    Chief Justice Bryant and those currently conducting the reviews into the Family Law Act and the operations of the Courts may wish to ponder on some of these issues, as part of the fundamental reforms which are needed to the Family Law Act.

    If children’s needs, wishes, and rights are not given paramountcy over father’s rights as specified in current legislation, then they will be condemning another generation of children to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and even death as has been so frequently seen in the recent past.

    Charles Pragnell

    Diploma in Social Work and Letter of Recognition in Child Care Expert Witness – Child Protection and Social Care Consultant and

    Child/Family Advocate.