Battered Women, Battered Children, Custody Abuse

I Too Have A Dream. That All Battered Mothers and Their Children Can One day Be Free.

2012-01-16T08:16:00.001-06:00

Every MLK Day, I always think of this snippet of Dr. Martin Luther King. Freedom, humanity, hope, the great struggle and ultimate revolution and victory. Wow what a wonderful concept.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

All over the Nation Battered Mothers and Their Children remain enslaved. We ARE NOT FREE. We have never have been free. We are being murdered, our children murdered at pandemic proportions. We remain tortured if we survive.

MLK didn't stand up for the Black woman and her children, he stood up for the black man. However, great was the cause.

Gandhi (and I am a great fan of his quotes) the same. They stood up for the India ‘Man’, not India’s women and children. However, great was the cause.

Women and children all over the world remain ‘owned’ remain enslaved by patriarchy, father rule sometimes known as fathers rights. Just ask any battered mother. When they thought they had the ‘human right’ to protect herself and her children from violence, well, they do not. And, her children like has been for over four thousand years - are taken from her with the blessings of whatever authority that be in place, and given to the abuser, the father, the slave master.

He who has the right to beat, abuse, maim and kill. (e.g. Topeka Decriminalizing Domestic Violence) This STILL Remains. In Fact as a result, Violent Crime has escalated out of control, not only to just women and children, but to the entire community, because you see when we as a society allow our families to be killed and tortured, we allow it to happen to our communities. Everything starts at home folks.

Did you know that the Leading Cause of Death to Mothers is Father Violence?

On this day, I ask each one of you to look around you, the world quite simply would cease to exist with out ‘mother’. Mother is honorable, Mother is the soul of humanity. Mother gives freely, there is no need to continue to oppress her.

“ I Too Have a Dream too…… That All Mothers And Their Children Can One Day Be Free”

Full Text of speech here.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

Live Stream: The Ninth Annual ‘Battered Mothers Custody Conference’ Begins Tonight Jan 6, 7 & 8th, Albany, NY

2012-01-06T09:10:00.001-06:00

Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody: "A National Crisis"

The Ninth Annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference:

BMCC IX, January 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2012

Friday evening through Sunday

You can watch the Conference live stream beginning tonight at 7 PM EST here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-ninth-battered-mothers-custody-conference Updated Conference Schedule P resenters

There is a crisis in our nation's family courts. Judges are awarding child custody to abusers and pedophiles and punishing the safe parent who tries to protect the children from harm. All Over America Battered Women Are Loosing Custody of Their Children To The Batterers When They Try To Leave To Protect Their Self And Their Children From Further Abuse. The Family Courts Are Routinely Giving Child Custody To Batterers And Pedophiles And Completely Separating The Mother From Her Child(ren).

About The Conference: Battered Mothers Custody Conference The Conference includes presentations, round-table discussions, and question & answer sessions with nationally distinguished professionals whose work is ...

Battered Mothers Custody Conference Interviews

[IMPORTANT: The following audiovisual piece includes real-life interviews featuring disturbing verbal content and statements on child abuse and domestic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.] Prof. Garland Waller produced "Small Justice: Little Justice in America's Family Courts" which is an independent documentary that explores the relationship between domestic violence, child sexual abuse and custody laws in America. To learn more about the stories of the women seen in this 10 minute clip, please go to http://batteredmotherscustodyconferen...Jessie Beers Altman, a graduate student in the College of Communication, was in charge of editing this video.For more information of Boston University's Department of Film and Television at the College of Communication, visit: http://www.bu.edu/com/ft

Now Available: Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Child Custody: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues

Edited by Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D. and Barry Goldstein, J.D.

Mothers File International Petition To Inter American Commission On Human Rights

Full Text of IACHR Petition. On May 11, just before Mother’s Day weekend, ten mothers, one victimized child, now an adult, and twelve leading national organizations filed a complaint against the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Their petition claims that U.S. courts, by frequently awarding child custody to abusers and child molesters, has failed to protect the life, liberties, security and other human rights of abused mothers and their children. More http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/info/custody-abuse/legal-documents/petition-to-inter-american-commission-on-human-rights

NATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES ON THE CRISIS IN FAMILY COURTS

Click the image or the link for the Entire Documentaries

Family Court Crisis; Our Children at Risk

2008 Family Law Documentary

by the Center For Judicial Excellence

Faces of the Family Court Crisis

by James Hall Photography

PBS: Breaking The Silence; Children's Stories

by Tatge/Lasseur Productions and Connecticut Public Television

Dr. Sharon K. Araji Talks about

Domestic Violence in Contested Child Custody

Parental Alienation: What This Phoney Syndrome Does in Custody Battles Why More Fathers Are Able to Yank Children Away from Their Mothers Legally

2012-01-03T09:06:00.001-06:00

Yahoo! Voices

There are many instances that I could cite here where physically and sexually abusive fathers have gained custody of the children in custody battles, but instead I will list only a few of the more heinous crimes done to these children legally in divorce court. Sure fathers have rights to the children too but what about in these cases where the children are harmed? Does that not effectively prove to the court that they are unfit? Do these fathers still deserve visitation with these innocent, traumatized children? If you had been raped repeatedly as a child, can you imagine a judge forcing you to visit with the person who hurt you?

Father X was furious when Mother X filed for divorce. The judge forced the mother to take the kids for visitation anyway. Father X had made threats in court but the judge would not relent. Mother X came back to get the children and found them hanging by a home-made noose. The children survived barely. The judge in the case placed the mother in jail for refusing to allow any more visitation. The father eventually did go to jail for attempted murder but only after a year fighting for custody of the children.

Father X was recorded threatening to kidnap the children when he was allowed visitation. The mother would never see her children again. This was played for the judge in divorce court. The judge told the mother that if she did not allow visitation, she would go to jail. An arrest warrant was placed for the mother but she went through criminal court to have the father arrested for threats made against her children.

Father X raped his young teen daughter. Mother X refused to allow more visitation. The father cited parental alienation as the reason for the claims against him. He won custody and the mother is still fighting for her daughter.

There are websites that tell how fathers win custody of their children through citing parental alienation although they have physically and sexually harmed their children. Manuals are sold online to help fathers win custody or visitation of these children. Yanking even breastfed infants away from their mothers. Step by step directions on how to win in custody battles for fathers who have never been involved with the children. Children who never even saw their father before are being sent to a stranger's house basically. Can you imagine how horrifying and traumatizing this would be for a small child? Typically mothers do not fight in court for no visitation unless there is a good reason. Mothers who trust fathers to take good care of the children will not resist a visitation schedule. Mothers who have any qualms about it should be listened to by the courts. Mothers' instincts come into play here as well.

Small children need stability. Why judges do not take this into consideration is a puzzle to me. How they allow fathers who have never cared for a child before to take over full custody is beyond my comprehension. If a parent has been the full time caregiver, why would a judge change this? Parental alienation. A made-up term supposedly meaning that the mother has turned the children against their father. Strangely most mothers would never even speak to their children about grown-up issues such as an unfit father. They don't need to do that, these children know that their father is a stranger to them. They know when they have been abused. If a child is refusing to go on visitation, the judge should take a closer look as to why. Of course the father's rights advocates blame the mother, hence "parental alienation" claims.

If a child is alienated from their father, it could be for good reason and have nothing to do with the mother at all. This is centered more around mothers as it is rare that a father will be a full time caregiver. Usually it is the mother doing all of the caregiving while the father works. There are many reasons for this happening...for fathers to get custody and liberal visitation although there are health and safety concerns for the children. Most judges are men and side with the fathers. The woman's attorney is a cheap one as the mother can't afford a better attorney. The men's attorneys are highly paid attorneys, fathers are the breadwinners in most all cases. So mothers start out lower on the totem pole. The judge is already against her and the father has the better attorney. The deck is stacked against her. This isn't only about mothers though. It is about protecting our children from harm.

Divorce is not painful in and of itself. The pain for children comes from being torn away from their homes, away from their mothers. The children stop trusting adults when they are forced to go with an abusive parent. The judge ordered it after all, the mother didn't stop it, and the father wasn't placed in jail where he belongs. The harrassment of mothers needs to stop in family court. The traumatizing of children needs to stop in family courts around the United States. It is never in a child's best interests to be sent with an abusive father or a total stranger whichever the case may be. Judges need to look up and pay attention during custody disputes. Children of divorce depend on them to make the right decisions.

Published by Carolyn Foster

"Auld Lang Syne" Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ?

2011-12-31T23:19:00.001-06:00

Mothers Are Vanishing – humanity is at a critical threshold, teetering on the balance of survival or destruction. We - alone or together can and will be the answer. as we bring in the new year. Know that this may be the beginning—or the end.

May your heart be full of love – your conscious clear. Let ‘truth, self respect and dignity’ be your guide and "Auld Lang Syne"

Happy New Year!

xoxo

Claudine Dombrowski (mother of Rikki Dombrowski)

A Battered Mother Survives

####

Below you will find the lyrics for this traditional favorite in the English Translation (minimalist). I included a few interesting facts concerning this wonderful old song. I hope knowing the words to "Auld Lang Syne" in advance of the festivities, will help you to enjoy your New Year celebration even more.

- "Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song." It's often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year, generally at the stroke of midnight.
- "Guy Lombardo is often credited with popularizing the use of the song at New Year’s celebrations in America, through his annual broadcasts on radio and television, beginning in 1929. The song became his trademark."

"Same Auld Lang Syne"

As another year comes to a close, we are reminded of the many major events that have taken place in the world and in our lives; wars and fighting, new territories conquered, great heroes and heroines that we have lost, new friends we have made, babies that have born into our families- our children stolen by pedophiles and abusers, Friends and relatives that have passed on through this world and into their eternal destiny. (Betty Gail sales –Stumpf)

There have been good times and not so good times, but those are the building blocks that construct and build the multi-levels and form the layers of our lives. Memories created and forever etched in our minds, hearts thoughts and lives; this is the stuff that life is made up of, so we take the good and the bad and make the best of it, choosing to highlight the good and joyful times.

The new year is rapidly approaching and as such, we plan our traditional New year's Eve parties. Bringing in the new year with good food, music, prayer, hugging and kissing; grateful and thankful to be in good company during this special time as we usher in a fresh new year full of possibilities and potential.

Countdown to the new year begins at 10 seconds before midnight, then as the clock strikes 12:00, it's time to share your rendition of the classic traditional song, "Auld Lang Syne".

The only problem that can exist now is the possibility that you might not know or remember all the lyrics or words to the song, since it's not a tune that is sung on a regular basis throughout the year. The lyrics (words) to this traditional classic are as follows:

"Auld Lang Syne" English Translation (minimalist)

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind ?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !

and surely I’ll buy mine !

And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,

and picked the daisies fine ;

But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,

since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,

from morning sun till dine† ;

But seas between us broad have roared

since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !

And give us a hand o’ thine !

And we’ll take a right good-will draught,

for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Repeat

Who Will Protest Against the DSM Harm? Integrity, Concern, and Action is needed for DSM Protest

2011-12-19T14:02:00.001-06:00

Paula Caplan, Ph.D. on psych diagnosing

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-isnt-golden/201112/who-will-protest-against-the-dsm-harm

Who Will Protest Against the DSM Harm? Integrity, Concern, and Action is needed for DSM Protest Published on December 19, 2011 by Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D. in Science Isn't Golden

Problems
The good news: More people than ever before are learning that psychiatric
diagnosis is not grounded in good science and causes a vast array of harm
to people who have turned for alleviation of their suffering to those who
are called helping professionals.

The bad news: The forces keeping the psychiatric diagnosis juggernaut
rolling and misleading the public are more powerful than ever.
I have written about these concerns here before, as well as elsewhere
(They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide
Who's Normal and Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis, as well as at
psychdiagnosis.net), so I will not repeat most of what I have already
said. Today I focus on the danger of assuming that organized protest
against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is
well in hand and likely to be effective in stopping the harm. There is no
reason to believe that this is the case.

You may have heard about the petition started by several divisions of the
American Psychological Association, who express concern about possible
harm to children, adolescents, and the elderly and ask for an external
group (the DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association) to
evaluate the proposals for the next edition, called DSM-5. This petition
has garnered thousands of signatures and the support of additional
American Psychological Association divisions. Although it is wonderful
that these brave divisions have at last spoken out about the devastation
caused to untold numbers of people over the many decades of the DSM's
existence, it is stunning that they would specifically omit mention of
harm to adults who are not elderly.

When I wrote petition coordinator David Elkins to inquire about this, he
did not respond to the question. (Note added December 19: Please see in
Comments section after this article that Dr. Elkins has now responded
there to the question I had emailed him about this awhile back. I am
delighted to hear that his group is also concerned about adults who are
not elderly, and I hope they will take pains to make clear in the future
that they are concerned about everyone who has been hurt by psychiatric
diagnosis. This does not change the other concerns in this essay, and in
his comment here below, Dr. Elkins did not address those.) It is hard not
to wonder whether this is due to the association of Allen Frances with
this petition.

Former Psychiatric Manual Chief Demonizes Those Hurt By His System
Frances, the psychiatrist who headed the work on DSM-IV -- on which I
served as a member of two committees before resigning in horror at the way
they ignored, distorted, and even lied about the scientific basis for
their diagnoses -- recently wrote in an article called "The user's revolt
against DSM-5: Will it work?" in the November 10, 2011, Psychiatric Times
that he was worried that the "harmful anti-psychiatry movement" would
damage this petition campaign.

He pointed out that, although "DSM-5 is such a mess," nevertheless,
psychiatry "is essential and extremely helpful -- DSM-5 is nor more than
an unfortunate and temporary aberration." His intense need to defend and
protect psychiatry in general is clear.

I simply could not believe my eyes when I read Frances' opening statement
in that article. He wrote: "When it comes to DSM-5, experience has proven
conclusively that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) will not
attend to the science, evaluate the risks, or listen to reason. A user's
revolt has become the last and only hope for derailing the worst of the
DSM-5 suggestions."

I thought of the many years during which he steadfastly ignored the
questions that were raised about the woeful state of "science" in his
edition of the DSM, his dismissive attitude when concerns were raised
directly with him about the patients whose lives had been ruined because
of psychiatric diagnosis, and his claim, when asked, "Is there at least
some evidence that more people have been helped than harmed," that "Well,
of course there's no way of knowing that." Hardly the response of someone
who understands that science is useful in answering exactly such
questions.

Frances' disdain for those adults (who include some proportion but by no
means the majority who are elderly members) who joined the anti-psychiatry
movement because they were so profoundly harmed by the traditional mental
health system is revealing... and terrifying.

Are the only good ex-patients those who stuff deep inside themselves the
ways the system hurt them? And I have to wonder, does he not grasp the
point that, even though he believes the anti-psychiatry movement is
harmful, he might want to refrain from publicly tarring a movement that
includes such sterling organizations as MindFreedom International, The
Icarus Project, PsychRights, the National Empowerment Center, and the
International Society for Ethics in Psychology and Psychiatry (which
includes some survivors as well as some professionals)?

This would matter less if the APA petition had a prayer of leading to
change. I fervently hope I am proven wrong, but here are two of the major
reasons for doubt:

(1) In the mid-1980s, beginning at the Association for Women in Psychology
conference, I coordinated the first petition campaign in which any DSM
categories were challenged.

This was in regard to then-forthcoming DSM-III-R, whose Task Force was
headed by Robert Spitzer, who is now, like Frances, suddenly speaking out
about the lack of science and the harm from psychiatric diagnosis.
Did they suddenly discover this once they were no longer in command of the
manual? Our 1980s campaign ultimately netted signatures and letters from
individuals and organizations representing more than six million people
(in contrast to the thousands so far signing the Elkins petition), but
that did not stop the DSM authors from steamrolling ahead. And it
certainly did not stop Allen Frances from including in his edition,
DSM-IV, categories that he knew had led to harm.

How do I know he knew? I told him in a telephone conversation, and I sent
him documentation of harm. If another major lobby group, the American
Psychological Association, which long ago raised serious concerns about
the DSM but now refuses to challenge it as a body (hence the courage of
those of its divisions that started this petition) and in fact profits
from offering Continuing Education courses about the DSM that lack
critical components, would get on board with any anti-DSM petition, that
would carry considerable weight. Up to now, they have refused to do so.
In a recent press release (December 2, 2011), they stated that any
psychiatric classification system "must be based on the best available
science and serve the public interest." The disingenuousness of that
statement is striking, given that unless they have spent many decades
under a rock, they know full well that the DSM is unscientific and causes
harm.

Furthermore, according to the press release, they share the belief of the
petition's authors that "the purpose of any diagnostic classification
system should be to improve treatment outcomes." Yes, it should be. But as
I have learned through reading the research, diagnosis of mental disorders
does not help (except to get insurance coverage, and I have a proposal for
how to deal with that), does often cause harm, and does not correlate with
outcome.

We learn from the press release that the American Psychological
Association has "called upon the DSM-5 Task Force to adhere to an open,
transparent process based on the best available science and in the best
interest of the public." They might as well shut themselves in a closet
and whisper that request.

(2) So many powerful systems have a stake in maintaining the fundamentals
of psychiatric diagnosis that it strains credibility to think that the
DSM-5 heads would turn over the evaluation of their work to some outside
group.

Historically, under Spitzer and Frances, the DSM chiefs boasted about
"consulting" with many hundreds of professionals (note: they included
hardly any, if any, people who had been patients in their system) in
constructing their manuals, but I know from my experience and the
experiences of others that they compile an impressive list of all these
consultants but freely reject any opinion that goes against their aims, no
matter how grounded in science and/or humane concerns those conflicting
opinions might be.

Actions
Concerned about all of the above, a number of organizations and
individuals recently formed the PLAN T Alliance (Psychiatric Labeling
Action Network for Truth) and decided that it is time to stop asking the
DSM heads please to listen to reason, to look at the science, and to
consider the ways diagnosis hurts people. Instead, the PLAN T Alliance
decided to take action. Two actions are for those professionals who use
the DSM to boycott it and for Congressional hearings about psychiatric
diagnosis to be held.

The federal government through Medicare, Medicaid, the military, and
Veterans Affairs relies heavily on the DSM, as do many hospitals, clinics,
and other practices, which is the reason for the focus of the boycott on
the DSM. This should not be taken to indicate that the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD), which also includes some psychiatric
categories, is based on science and does not cause harm. But the initial
target of the boycott is the DSM, because it garners huge profits for the
American Psychiatric Association, which is actually a powerful, wealthy
lobby group. It remains to be seen what is done with the profits from the
ICD, but perhaps its publisher, the World Health Organization, uses them
for compassionate purposes. Find a Therapist

The rationale for calling for Congressional hearings is that no entity
regulates psychiatric diagnosis, and because of its lack of scientific
basis and the harm it causes, we need a national airing of whatever anyone
would like to say about it.

Those who report feeling relieved to be given a label for their suffering
can testify, as can those who report that they were harmed. (The former
ought, however, to be given the option of hearing from us, "We will listen
to you and believe that you suffer and will try to help you without
requiring you to accept a psychiatric label."). And this would lead to a
national conversation about how to prevent the harm and still provide help
and support for those who suffer. (Many such ways are already known, of
course.)

The PLAN T Alliance petitions are:

Boycott the DSM
http://www.change.org/petitions/boycott-the-dsm
and
Call for Congressional Hearings About Psychiatric Diagnosis
http://www.change.org/petitions/everyone-who-cares-about-the-harm...

Another kind of action, one in which anyone can take part in various ways,
is MindFreedom International's "5/5 Against DSM-5," a protest that will
take place in and around May 5, 2012, in Philadelphia, when the American
Psychiatric Association will vote on whether to accept the proposed
contents of DSM-5 and send it to press.

MFI will have space near the convention for people to assemble to make
speeches, do performances, and there will be events right in front of the
convention area itself. Information will increasingly appear on the MFI
website at http://mindfreedom.org/

My own view, first expressed in 1995 in They Say You're Crazy, has long
been that lawsuits would potentially be the most effective way to stop the
harm from psychiatric diagnosis. In a later essay, I may write further
about this.

In the meantime, it remains to be seen whether the APA divisions' petition
or the above-described kinds of action will be effective, but not to act
is to be complicit with the destruction of people's liberty, health, and
peace of mind through psychiatric diagnosis.
---
Copyright 2011 by Paula J. Caplan
All rights reserved

From Tragedy To Action: The National Release of "Jana’s Story". Jana Mackey Kansas University Student & NOW Lobbyist Who Was Brutally Murdered In An Act of Domestic Violence....

2011-12-06T19:13:00.001-06:00

The video "Jana's Story" is now available. Please see the link below. http://www.JanasStory.org/

This powerful video is about the dramatic impact of domestic violence. Most importantly, however, this short film is about hope, inspiration, and encouragement for others to take action. Today, Jana's light shines brighter than ever. VIEW IT. SHARE IT. and LIVE IT by taking action and making a difference.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3rUqTSxSrc]

National Release of "Jana’s Story" Video Set For December 6th

On December 6, 2011, Jana's Campaign will release its long anticipated video "Jana’s Story". This powerful video brings to light the dramatic impact of domestic violence. The story of Jana’s life and death are illustrated in the hopes of encouraging others to take action. See the video at www.JanasStory.org. VIEW IT. Witness the powerful story of Jana’s life. SHARE IT. Help us tell Jana’s story and spread the word. LIVE IT. Take action and make a difference.

The timing of this video release has been scheduled to coincide with The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. This campaign begins on November 25, the International Day Against Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

These dates symbolically link violence against women and human rights, and emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation. Since 1991, this annual campaign has mobilized more than 3,700 organizations in 164 countries to raise awareness about the multiple forms of violence women face. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is hosted and sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University.

Jana’s Campaign would like to thank all those who have made this video production possible.

10,000 Angels - Justice For Mother and Child

2011-12-06T13:49:00.001-06:00

Courtesy MamaLiberty 10,000 Angels

Mindy McCready sang about 10,000 angels in 1996 and now they sing for her. Protective mothers who also know all too well about family courts, DCF and abusers what Mindy has been through with custody of her son. This is a victory that will not go unnoticed with the large community of protective mothers. We applaud Judge Harrod for what we can only assume is reason and logic that a mother should be with their child, we couldn’t agree more.

All Smiles

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mindy-mccready-leaves-court-happy-girl-ruling-son/story?id=15089586

By LUCHINA FISHER (@luchina) and YUNJI DE NIES Dec. 6, 2011

Country singer Mindy McCready left an Arkansas courthouse a “happy girl” Monday without divulging details about a juvenile court judge’s ruling on what will happen to her and her five-year-old son Zander.

“I can’t talk about it, but I can tell you all I’m a happy girl. I’m a happy girl right now,” she said to reporters gathered outside the Izard County courtroom of Judge Lee Harrod.

“I love Judge Harrod, I’ll tell you that. I love that man. He’s a good man,” she said before being driven away from the courthouse.

Later Monday evening, McCready sent a text message to HLN’s Jane Valez Mitchell that the host read on air.

“WE WON!!! ZAN STAYS,” McCready wrote. “Court details sealed but we love Judge Lee W Harrod.”

Details on when the singer may be able to take Zander back home to Nashville, and whether McCready will get permanent custody of her son remain unclear.

“The next step would be for the judge to decide,” Amy Webb, director of communications for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, told ABC News.

Florida Department of Children and Families officials had been expected to request in the hearing that Zander be sent back to Cape Coral, Fla., where McCready’s mother, Gayle Inge, is his legal guardian.

“We will not discuss details of this case per the judge’s order. Of course we continue to work with all involved parties to ensure this child’s safety and well-being,” a Florida DCF spokeswoman told ABCNews.com.

McCready’s rep offered no information either. “All proceedings and documentation surrounding the hearing are sealed,” Kat Atwood said in a statement to ABCNews.com. “No further information is available at this time.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpzzY3r_0Ec]

activism, child abuse, Child Custody Issues, Children's Rights,domestic violence, Family Courts, Government Corruption
Tags: abused children, CPS, family court, Florida DCF, mat

Teri C. Stoddard Attacks, Accuses & Sides w/Child Molesters

2011-12-01T00:37:00.001-06:00

Please click the link below and support this news media for naming names, truth telling and calling out the queen of pro pedo pro abusers.

http://www.elliscountyobserver.com/2011/11/28/mother-of-child-molester-ex-italy-high-school-student-falsely-accuse-the-ellis-county-observer/

A woman who sides with pedophiles and child molesters is threatening readers, sources and news staff of The Ellis County Observer and Freedom of the Press Group LLC. This is once again another opportunity to show the tactics and strategies of sick mongrelized filth. Teri C. Stoddard has been e-mailing one of our sources in California, Anthony Lingle, about associating with this Web site (and our two California sister Web sites.) Our other California sources, Connie Bedwell (SaveAaliyah.com) and Presley Crowe(SaveOurSkye.org) can vouch for this woman’s sordid history. Stoddard’s first sentence to Anthony Lingle in an e-mail sent Nov. 27 was:

Teri C. Stoddard and her “experimenting” son. Sick

Stoddard responds:
“The news story I commented on where someone misunderstood what I meant was YEARS ago. And now you’ve twisted it to say I was talking about my own son.”

“I will say that I think you’re wrong about Shane [Crowe]. How can you believe a woman whose own attorney says she’s lying????? There are many liars, men and women, in our movement. The trick is figuring out who is who. If I am right, your reputation is being hurt by you associating with the anti-male, anti-truth “protective mother” types. They’ve had a bad reputation for years. I am not writing any of this to “hassle” you. I am trying to help you.”

Those who have followed the case against Shane Crowe and his daughter Presley’s two interviews and other documented information would find Studdard’s comments highly offensive. Background on Presley Crowe and her sister Skye’s story: http://theamadorarrow.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/shane-crowe-demands-stories-photos-be-removed/

Anthony Lingle’s E-mail Exchange with Teri C. Studdard:

Teri C. Stoddard

Anthony, come on. I never said anything bad about you. Why are you going there?

2 hours ago

Teri C. Stoddard
- I will say that I think you’re wrong about Shane. How can you believe a woman whose own attorney says she’s lying????? There are many liars, men and women, in our movement. The trick is figuring out who is who. If I am right, your reputation is being hurt by you associating with the anti-male, anti-truth “protective mother” types. They’ve had a bad reputation for years. I am not writing any of this to “hassle” you. I am trying to help you.
2 hours ago

Teri C. Stoddard
- Seriously…you’re working with THIS guy? http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-combine-chief-arrest-story,0,4223338.story BE CAREFUL OF YOUR REPUTATION! It is not true that all media coverage is good.
- http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-combine-chief-arrest-story,0,4223338.story
  
  www.the33tv.com
  
  Share
2 hours ago

Teri C. Stoddard
- More: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.ragezone.com%2Ff10%2Fneed-assistance-silly-pedophile-734070%2F&h=xAQEWt6K9
- Need assistance – Silly pedophile – RaGEZONE forums
  
  forum.ragezone.com
  
  There is a guy who runs a news website for Ellis County in Texas, same county my hometown is in (Italy). Recently he has been invading the privacy of high school students in
  
  Share

Teri C. Stoddard

Is that movie really based on your story?

10 hours ago

Anthony Lingle
- YES IT IS ABOUT RIGHTS OF FATHERS OUT OF WEDLOCK AND ALSO HAS TO WITH PART OF MY CASE
10 hours ago

Teri C. Stoddard
- Did he talk to you before he filmed it?
10 hours ago

Anthony Lingle
- I SENT HIM INFO
8 hours ago

Teri C. Stoddard
- That movie is about william fain. that blog/article says it’s about you.
8 hours ago

Anthony Lingle
- i told you that i sent him info about my case and the movie is about a case just like mine and the blog says Lingle’s story is also the subject of a true-story documentary titled, “Father’s Rights.” Watch it here:
  WE ALL CAN LEARN FROM THIS DOCUMENTARY AND SAVE ARE CHILDREN
8 hours ago

Anthony Lingle
- you r missing the point here
  i am not going to sit here and pick apart this with you this is what i said for you look at not the point of the movie but yes i sent him info about parts of my case and how it went down not trying to make a movie for me or get paid just info about rights in the court room about fathers but if you look it is atrue story of him and his fight for his daughter and the laws he had change so stop trying to make something out of nothing it the point of right and the system to give people a clue how it happen to fathers…………………..
35 minutes agoSent from Mobile

Teri C. Stoddard
- Who are you arguing with? All I said was the blog was inaccurate. If I were you I’d ask the blog owner too fix the wording, to keep your reputation clean, that’s all. Since it’s a blog not a news article people might think you’re in on the lie.
30 minutes ago

Anthony Lingle
- ok
- what blog r u talking about please sent it me

‘Monsters’ Short Animated Video That Depicts Devastating View of Domestic Violence From a Child’s Perspective Launched by Verizon and National Domestic Violence Hotline

2011-11-30T22:36:00.001-06:00

Verizon and National Domestic Violence Hotline Launch ‘Monsters,’ a Short Animated Video That Depicts Devastating View of Domestic Violence From a Child’s Perspective

Video (below) Aimed at Encouraging Public to Support Domestic Violence Prevention Efforts and to Call for Help

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. —“Monsters,” a provocative new video, portrays the alarming impact of domestic violence on families and children, as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Produced and funded by theVerizon Foundation and supported by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the video encourages the public to get involved in domestic violence prevention and education efforts, and also emphasizes that help for victims and their families is just a phone call away: 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233).

Verizon Wireless customers can quickly reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline by dialing #HOPE. The hotline offers confidential help 24/7. To help support the hotline’s efforts, Verizon Wireless, through HopeLine has donated $75,000. HopeLine collects no-longer-used wireless phones and recycles or refurbishes them to support domestic violence victims and survivors.

The video, two minutes and 34 seconds long, graphically describes how domestic violence affects children. The child’s voice states:

“A child who lives with domestic violence lives in darkness. …She struggles to separate her nightmares from reality because there’s very little difference. The child who lives with domestic violence isn’t afraid of the dark. She’s afraid of her dad because the monster doesn’t live in her closet – it’s just down the hall.”

Studies suggest that between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence each year. And according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, witnessing violence between parents or caregivers is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next. The video notes that girls who witness abuse are more likely to be abused later in life, and boys are twice as likely to abuse their own partners – “because that’s the world they know.”

Rose Kirk, president of the Verizon Foundation, said:

“To end this devastating cycle of violence, we must motivate silent bystanders to take action. People need to understand that when they look the other way, they condone this deplorable behavior. Verizon is committed to preventing domestic violence by educating our employees, customers and the public about the importance of stepping in to help someone in need. We believe that this provocative video will help us accomplish this life-saving goal.”

According to some studies, less that 1 percent of domestic violence cases are reported to the police.

Dyanne Purcell, CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said: “It takes an incredible amount of courage to come forward and ask for help. The more established domestic violence is in our national dialogue, the more likely victims will be able to seek help and make a lasting change.”

The video concludes with the child narrator making a poignant plea for the public to help:

“Maybe you don’t wake up every day shaking, or jump every time the phone rings. But maybe you should look a little harder. Maybe it’s a friend, a co-worker, or your neighbor. …Your help could make all the difference. We need everyone to bring domestic violence into the light.”

Kirk said, “Please share the link to the ‘Monsters’ video with your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. It’s a simple action that may have a huge impact.”

The “Monsters” video can be viewed athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=367JvtoTm34.

About the National Domestic Violence Hotline

The National Domestic Violence Hotline was established in 1996 as a component of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed by Congress and is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The Hotline is a nonprofit organization providing crisis intervention, information and referral to victims of domestic violence, perpetrators, friends and families. The Hotline answers a variety of calls and is a resource for domestic violence advocates, government officials, law enforcement agencies and the general public. http://www.thehotline.org

About Verizon Foundation

The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon, uses its technology, financial resources and partnerships to address critical social issues, with a focus on education and domestic violence prevention. Verizon has invested more than $28 million in domestic violence prevention. For more information on the foundation, visit www.verizonfoundation.org.

About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, with more than 106 million total connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 196,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of $106.6 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON’S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon’s News Center on the World Wide Web atwww.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Rhode Island: RIFC Chief Judge Bedrosian, “Naming Names” Corrupt Family Court Crisis, Abusers Getting Custody, Mothers being ‘locked’ in court rooms.

2011-11-27T15:49:00.001-06:00

We frequently get mothers who want information published below follows such information “Naming Names” this is from RI

From: Rebecca L. McLaughlin

Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 7:07 PM

To: damonmdlaw@aol.com ; patd2929@cox.net ; asenteio@yahoo.com ; ashy_cashy@hotmail.com ; angeltorres4@gmail.com ; bdaypartiesri@yahoo.com ; bkerr@projo.com ; Beth Flanagan ; Joann URI ; boston.mail@ic.fbi.gov ; boredalert@aol.com ; chairperson@americanmotherspoliticalparty.org ; charles smith ; cahirparkcottages@eircom.net ; marie-pierre dargnies ; david.deabreu@zurichna.com ; dgreybeard@yahoo.com ; Pamela Elizabeth ; ekruse@courts.ri.gov ; ghppas@yahoo.com ; murshili hatti ; hyde.judy@gmail.com ; info@bvadvocacycenter.org ; info@dayoneri.org ; info@ebccenter.org ; indrek.reile@ttu.ee ; ironlion2010@gmail.com ; info@ncjwri.org ; jeff@solidk9training.com ; jane@abusefreedom.com ; kirk.feather@gmail.com ; kato.lee@verizon.net ; louise@monroe.necoxmail.com ; letters@providencejournal.com ; lee102586@yahoo.com ; momaxoxo@yahoo.com ; mkmbrat70@aol.com ; mrc.donato@gmail.com ; nbc10newsalert@jaremail.mediageneral.net ; nancypickett@comcast.net ; officer.matsumoto@gmail.com ; orodrigues@wfri.org ; otmanzellou@gmail.com ; onemac2@aol.com ; paulcazeaux@gmail.com ; pbnurse1@yahoo.com ; quatta@hotmail.com ; robert.sherwin@morganstanleysmithbarney.com ; rdst150@hotmail.com ; rsmith375@aol.com ; Ronald Carter ; rongolinger@aol.com ; sjohnson@womenscenterri.org ; settipanelaw1@aol.com ; settiguy@aol.com ; secretaryofstatemollis@sos.ri.gov ; stp.sdc@gmail.com ; tjemma@cox.net ; tknmu@cox.net ; Thom Voorn ; victor_wong@brown.edu ; vanwhiting@yahoo.com ; vvolz@sojournerri.org ; wcri@womenscenterri.org ; wbhurley@comcast.net ; y6677y@yahoo.com

Subject: Enjoy - R.

Republican Attorney Damon D'Ambrosio goes ballistic in April 2011 (Wayland Square - East Side)

Date: 2011-11-16, 1:06PM EST

Reply to: theflorencedevelopmentgroup@hotmail.com

Republican Attorney Damon D'Ambrosio [later suspended??????] went ballistic on RIFC Chief Judge Bedrosian for harming his client and her son intentionally, unethically and corruptly. He filed many motions against the RIFC Chief Bedrosian in Supreme Court for locking his client up in the courthouse for visits with her son, and not allowing his client to see or talk to her son for six weeks [let's talk about the truth] when all opposing parties were very well aware of the harm they were causing an innocent little precious boy "O." D'Ambrosio didn't sleep for days...and...days...and days, mostly without pay because he was determined to stop all of the above from harming an innocent mother and child.

His favorite saying was during that time in reference to Genesis 1:1, he "hoped opposing client could reap what he sowed." "You will reap what you sow! ... Genesis 1:11." Opposing client and Chief Legal Council for DCYF, and of course, with opposing council's knowledge, committed some of the most henious crimes against an innocent little precious boy "O," by committing blatant perjury and fraud to the RIFC in front of the RIFC Chief Judge. Bedrosian must make one of the ultimate decisions of her career continue to harm an innocent little precious boy, loved [by his mother not father], to keep politically fornicating as she so appears to need to do, or free the mother and child as she should do. D'Ambrosio, along with his clients "O" and his mother produced one of the most judicary arguments, thus far, in the case of RIFC 03-2979, that does not in any way imply that D'Ambrosio's client's first Attorney Quatrucci was anything but the best.

D'Ambrosio was also the Attorney on Case P08-6157 in the Superior Court representing "O's" mother, it is a case against Temple Habonim who's President and Rabbi from 2005 turned their back on "O's" mother after their contractor forced himself into the home she rented on the grounds of Temple Habonim. There is no doubt that "O's" mother has a huge mouth and a very loud voice, but she is not dangerous nor a liar. "O" says that is her best asset and to keep screaming and fighting for him. You can lock my mommy up he says but you can't shut her up. This case is still active, despite opposing attorney's efforts to dismiss the case based on the order from Family Court. That case is also about heinous calculated intentional corruption that destroyed the life that "O" and his mother once had in Barrington, Rhode Island, where "O's" mother has been active, and still is, her entire life. DCYF's Chief legal council also committed perjury and fraud to the police along with her brother "O's" father in that investigation as well, and of course many other politically fornicating monsters. That case was the beginning of the destruction of "O's" life and they will pay "O" monetarily for the damage, legally. And if there is a God they will all go straight to h... and hopefully suffer 10 times more on their way there.

"O's" mother is representing him and herself in FC and SC for the moment, her motto is "bring it on," "hit me with your best shot," "go f... yourselves." She found her dog Lola who was lost in the first few months of the custody battle, and after 4 1/2 yrs. as she promised "O" she found their dog Lola, and she has promised "O" that she will get him back too. If you know "O's" mother she always always keeps promises she makes, especially to her children. "O" is also one of the bravest boys his mother has ever met. Despite the constant inner turmoil he feels and pain from of the loss of his mother and the life he had before John Pagliaro committed a home invasion while "O" was there; he continues to fight, to stay healthy, do his school work and be a very good boy. His mother promises him constantly that she starts the fight to bring him home every morning the moment she opens her eyes. He constantly begs her and recently indicated that it must be 7 yrs., when will he ever get out of the courthouse and be able to go home with his mother and dog Lola.

"O" deserves insurmountable restitution from Judge Bedrosian, Judeg Suttle, JDC, Governor Caceri and Governor Chafee [who are more worried about a man that committed a murder than about an innocent child being harmed by the RIFC] Temple Habonim, opposing legal council McKiernan, Hessler DCYF's Legal Council ["O" paternal aunt who is at the helm of destruction of "O's" life], "O's" father, Patrick Lynch, Lynch's sister Margret, Susan Lincoln from East Bay Mental Health [at least they did what was ethical and professional and humane, not Lincoln, EBMH, they settled out of court with "O's" mother], Officer Traverse and Chief LaCross from Barrington, neither could solve anything never mind a corrupt home invasion where the victim had bruises, Louis Pulner, City Solicitor, Jay Litman,Chair of Temple Habonin, Rabbi Rosenberg and Patricia Buff, "O's" mother's family for committing fraud and perjury to DCYF and the FC ["O's" mother has made it very clear to her family she will never ever speak to any of them again unless the march down to the RIFC and tell the truth, depsite their constant efforts to contact her she will not, as she promised, never ever speak to them again], Pawtucket Police Department, domestic violence programs throughout the State of RI, RIFC Staff inlcuding Jerimiah, Tassoni, DCYF for allowing "O" to be in abusive situations, Cynthtia Roeberg from DCYF who took the stand in the custody case and blantantly committed perjury and fraud, Pagliaro contractor for Temple Habonim who ultimately destroyed "O's" life with his mother and dog Lola, and everyone else who turned their back on "O" and his mother shall "reap what they have sowed" as well.

So as you can see D'Ambrosio's suspension was not only about some of his character defects, which he admits freely, openly and honestly; it was also about his unending excellent devotion to his client "O," his belief in the justice system, the US and RI Constitution, and his ethical and professional character assests as well. D'Ambrosio also has another major character defect he did not charge most of his clients, which also caused him much turmoil. PS he is in need of a job, he can be reach at damonmdlaw@aol.com, although he can not do legal court work he can do some legal research, writing briefs, etc.

Footnote: McKiernan was not reprimanded for taking his penis out while completely intoxicated on East Avenue in Pawtucket, RI which was reported to the JDC after drinking at Patrick's Pub on Smith Street, during the day with a young witness. Isn't that corruption as well? Curtin says behavior not a violation.

There are always two perceptions to every story!!!!!!

FYI:

Rhode Island is without any resources for women like "O's" mother including domestic violence program's that can protect her and her son, opposing council and DCYF Chief Legal Council ["O's" paternal aunt] is on the Sourjourner House Board of Directors, "O's" case is clearly about corruption, there is no where in the State of RI that "O" and his mother can go to seek justice and refuge from the abuse, she has tried endlessly for almost 6 yrs., except for one program headed by Anne Grant who has got to be one of the bravest, amazing women in Rhode Island, she is a retired minister, coordinates the Parenting Project at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church and writes http://custodyscam.blogspot.com, littlehostages.blogspot.com - custodyscam.blogspot.com/2011/01/hague-domestic-violence-project.html - http://www.rhode-island-divorce-lawyer.com/2008/07/ask-more-questi.html, without Anne most of the men and women would have given up. She has brought amazing men and women together to fight the RIFC. "O's" mother headed the first training programs for police, counselors, guards, etc. in the State of RI for Domestic Violence, which she was trained for by the State of Massachusetts while she was she overseeing a program in the Bristol County House of Corrections providing services to domestic violence perpetrators and sex offenders.

And she can't find anyone to help her. It appears that programs like Anne Grant's that are not funded by any outside sources are the best, Mathewson Street United Methodist Church which allows her a space to work and meet people, she funds it all on her own and runs it all on her own, endlessly every minute of the day. Please send donations to the RI Parenting Project or Anne Grant at 134 Mathewson Street Providence, RI 02903, Anne works endlessly to fight for innocent parents/care takers and children, as well as to the FDGroup, 49 Medway Street, Providence, RI 02906, which is owned by "O's" mother [not-tax-exempt] to help us to continue to fight for children in the State of RI. All monies will be given directly to the men and women who are fighting for their children and other children, supplies, staff employment, etc. Thank you. And please purchase "without providence" you will not be disappointed.

Other exceptionally amazing women in Rhode Island besides "O's" mother and Anne Grant are Patrice Livingstone who has not seen her daughter for over 2 yrs. who is beyond the legal age of 14 because of corruption as well, Phyllis Stafford who lost her child to corruption, Melanie Baron-Kent who is one of the bravest women of all of us who also fought for her son for 5 yrs. did unsubstantiated prison time because of fraud and perjury committed against her repeatedly by former husband, etc., who recently gained custody of her son [like "O's" mother she worked for DCYF and gave of her life endlessly to protect children], Karen Ricci who has battled the FC mostly alone for 9 yrs. and is without a doubt one of the most amazingly brave heroines who recently gained custody of her youngest daughter [her husband and childhood best friend hijacked her children like "O's" mother except it was "O's" mother's sister who had an affair with "O's" father during the custody trial, paternal aunt, neither see "O" anymore], Kathy Lee of Massachusetts who also continues a vicious battle to gain custody of her son for over 5 yrs. because she reported sexual abuse by the child's father and the courts gave him custody, Faith Torres who fought a gag order issued by the RIFC with the help of the ACLU, she has regained custody of 3 out of 4 of her children, and many others who have not given permission to be named. I added this again: "And let's not forget Melanie Baron-Kent's mother Louise who just published an amazing book about her daughter's fight for her own life, her endless days and nights worrying sick about how to protect her daughter and grandson from the horror which took over there lives for many years, how the son-n-law tortured their family endlessly and how the police ignored their constant screams for help, "without providence: A CHILD IN THE HANDS OF AN ABUSIVE FATHER" by Louise Baron-Kent, recently published by Tate Publishing & Enterprises. To purchase a copy please go to withoutprovidence.tateauthor.com. The book should be a best seller which is written by an amazing social revolutionist who broke the silence for all of us in Rhode Island who have children who are in the hands of an abusive parent.

All of the above have been traumatized, humiliated, been called lairs, loud, dangerous, obstructive, discriminated against, bullied by state judges and magistrates, clerks, capitol police, attorneys and others, brutally terrorized and horrified by the abuser and the system, maintains sanity despite outrageous judgments, ignored and laughed at, lose of finances, jobs, careers, friends, family, nights of sleep, hasn't posed a danger to the community nor coerces, threatens or intimidates anyone, is labeled alienating, unreasonable, labeled mentally ill, has to dispose of body fluids on demand, gave up all of their lives everything, i.e. reputation, financial security, submit to drug tests and intrusive forced paid by themselves for psychological and psychiatric evaluations to protect their children's rights and life, etc. These men and women are heroes and heroines.

Other educational resources available below [again there is no where to turn in RI because the politically corrupt are running most of the programs]:

http://americanmotherspoliticalparty.org/

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/fbi-searches-court-administrator-s-office-1.1232356#ixzz1dmhQ6tm2

http://www.evawintl.org/

http://www.centerforjudicialexcellence.org/

http://juliafletcher.wordpress.com/category/julia-fletcher-2/

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/end-legal-abuse/jxqKVzSY?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/projects_initiatives/ombudsmen.html

http://www.judicialwatch.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-diary-whistleblowers-get-a-defender/2011/10/18/gIQAtnvfvL_story.html

NFOJA - National Forum On Judicial Accountability

The Official Network of Community Forums on Judicial Accountability (CFOJA)

50states.ning.com

The pictures below are of "O" and his mother while locked up in the RIFC supervised visitation program "O" is motioning with his tongue a scream to get him and his mommy out of the courthouse that she is innocent and the best best bravest mommy, he also says she is going to be famous one day [angels work there...complete kind angels]; D'Ambrosio whom "O" refers to as the sheriff who knew D'Ambrosio was going to be suspended a month before he did...how did a 10 year old know that D'Ambrosio was going to be suspended a month before D'Ambrosio? Corruption!!; and "O's" mother after she was locked up in the RIFC for telling the truth again with another man from the RIFC program who was also locked up with his daughter and consequently one of D'Ambrosio's clients, however, ironically, during the national protest [www.goveabuse.org] D'Ambrosio showed up and told him he had to go into the courthouse unexpected hearing, he received unsupervised visits that day. The final picture is of the bravest women and a man I know who daily from the moment their eyes open are at war with the abusers and the system that supports abuse of thier children and other's children. It is not a place of horror this war they face everyday, it is a place of justice, love, laughter, dignity and respect, which makes them feel liberated and useful in a very dreary dreary system. Please help us fight for the innocent children in the State of RI's corrupt FC and DCYF.

So, as you can see the newspapers forgot to include the other side of the story of D'Ambrosio's suspension. Republican liberal social activists who are in the RIFC are not allowed to protect their clients, especially if they go after the RIFC Chief Judge in the Supreme Court. Best to D'Ambrosio who is doing just fine except he needs to find employment, again, he can be reached at damonmdlaw@aol.com; he is very talented and motivated to succeed.

· Location: Wayland Square - East Side

· it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2705612540

U. S. Department of Justice v. Custody Court System

2011-11-25T07:42:00.001-06:00

(Battered Mothers, Abused Children are Being Further Battered and Abused by the US Courts failure to let Domestic Violence Mothers Leave With Their Children. Many Ask, “Why Doesn’t She Just Leave?” When it comes to Domestic Violence, besides all the other very unsafe reasons those with children will loose their children to the very animal who hurt them and their children. Many mothers,(most) have never seen their children again after the Courts gave their child[ren] to the Abusers. Most Children, if the survive, end up just like they were taught raised and reinforced by the Courts, as abusers themselves for boys and victims for girls. That is not county all the other trauma related issues. This has passed beyond just injustice but has stepped full fledge in Human Rights Violations. It truly is like the holocaust, the destruction of women and their children by the USA, Sanctioned Genocide Against Mothers and their Children. Right in Plain View, See: Mothers Day Law Suit filed Against the U.S. at the Inter American Commission Human Rights. (still pending)

From Times –Up!! Attorney Barry Goldstein

photo courtesy of Family Court Crisis-Abusers Getting Custody!

By Barry Goldstein

Protective mothers have been complaining about mistreatment by the custody court system, but have routinely been dismissed as “disgruntled litigants.” As recently as the beginning of the Battered Mothers Custody Conferences in 2004, there was little professional support for protective mothers. The mothers’ complaints have now been confirmed and supported by the domestic violence community, many women’s organizations, numerous governmental agencies, many in the academic community and a substantial body of research such as contained in our book DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE and CHILD CUSTODY.

Last summer at the NCADV Conference, Dr. Daniel Saunders of the University of Michigan and some of his colleagues presented their findings from a major Department of Justice study that confirms the findings in our book and other research that the present custody court practices for domestic violence cases are deeply flawed. The publication of these findings has taken longer than expected as Dr. Saunders and the Justice Department seek to carefully present the information in a clear and accurate manner, but they should soon be available on the Department of Justice web site. Many of us who seek to reform the broken custody court system are excited about this study because it should be difficult for the courts to dismiss or ignore because of where it comes from. Significantly, the findings are incompatible with a continued belief that the present practices are working for the benefit of the children the courts are supposed to protect.

Custody Courts Frequently Disbelieve Valid Abuse Complaints

Custody courts have a particularly poor record in responding to domestic violence cases. The research demonstrates that court professionals reject a high percentage of valid complaints by protective mothers. This problem has been confirmed in many ways. It is confirmed based on the frequency of mistaken outcomes. Although battered mothers make deliberately false allegations only one or two percent of the time, in contested custody cases the alleged abuser wins custody or joint custody over seventy percent of the time. Subsequent events regularly confirm courts’ mistakes. This occurs when men found safe by the court professionals are later convicted or otherwise found to have to have committed domestic violence, sexual abuse, murder or other similar crimes.

The revelations of the Courageous Kids Network further demonstrate the frequency in which courts fail to recognize valid complaints of abuse. Courageous Kids are young adults who have aged out of their custody orders and decided to speak out about the harm caused by these orders. The context is important in understanding their stories. These are cases in which the court disbelieved the mothers’ abuse allegations and gave the fathers complete control. The children have been threatened, coerced and punished if they continue to complain about their father’s abuse or seek a relationship with their mother. In other words the fathers have had tremendous assistance in silencing the children. Accordingly the children now speaking out represent a small minority of those mistreated by fathers the court believed were safe. The descriptions by the Courageous Kids demonstrate the fathers deliberately sought to hurt the mother and children based upon their belief system that the mother had no right to leave them. The children have had little or no contact with their mothers often for many years so we know the mothers could not be influencing the children’s decision to speak out about the fathers’ abuse. These are all too common examples of cases in which the court professionals failed to believe valid allegations of abuse.

The research not only demonstrates the fact that the custody courts get a large majority of domestic violence cases wrong, but also that the standard practices used by court professionals are deeply flawed and make it difficult for judges to recognize legitimate complaints about domestic violence and child abuse.
Court professionals routinely discredit allegations of abuse based upon factors that are not probative. At the same time these professionals do not understand the importance of looking to the abusers’ patterns of controlling and coercive behavior in order to recognize domestic violence. The court professionals often make the mistake of considering each incident and each allegation separately. Genuine domestic violence experts understand the importance of context in recognizing domestic violence, but the mental health and other professionals relied on by the courts do not understand the importance of context and thus make it more difficult to recognize valid allegations of abuse.

One of the big obstacles to recognizing valid abuse complaints is the common use of mental health and other professionals without expertise in domestic violence. The main purpose of considering domestic violence in custody cases is to protect the safety of children. Nevertheless the evaluators relied on by custody courts rarely know how to conduct a safety assessment or what behaviors have been associated with higher lethality and other dangers. The evaluators do not understand domestic violence dynamics and often are unfamiliar with the effects of domestic violence on children or other information based upon the specialized body of scientific research that could be used to better understand domestic violence issues and recognize truthful allegations of abuse.

The new Department of Justice study helps explain why the evaluators and other professionals relied on by custody courts routinely fails to recognize domestic violence. The study found that most evaluators and other professionals relied on by the courts do not have adequate domestic violence training and those with inadequate training are more likely to believe in the myth that women frequently make false allegations of abuse to gain an advantage in litigation. The professionals who believe this myth, in turn are more likely to make recommendations that harm children. In other words judges have little chance to protect the children under their control as long as they rely on these unqualified professionals and tend to believe their deeply flawed analysis.

Judges often become defensive when protective mothers or their attorneys request that any evaluator or other court professional be required to have domestic violence expertise in order to be appointed. We have repeatedly seen judges refuse to listen to domestic violence experts offered on behalf of protective mothers. The courts often focus on the need for a mental health degree even though the academic training for most mental health professionals included no or virtually no domestic violence instruction and the law does not require advance degrees to qualify as an expert (a common example is a mechanic without a high school degree who can testify as an expert in automotive repair based on experience and training).

In recent years most court systems have encouraged and usually required some domestic violence training for court professionals. This is a good thing but has often been implemented in ways that undermine the purpose. Many of the trainings include substantial misinformation such as the belief most contested custody cases are “high conflict” when the research establishes a large majority are really domestic violence cases. Some of the trainings even include Parental Alienation Syndrome (sometimes by another name because of its deserved notoriety) even though it was recently again rejected for inclusion in the DSM-V because there is no scientific basis for it. Many of the trainings fail to include domestic violence advocates or other genuine experts in domestic violence.

We have also seen some really good programs used to train court professionals, but I have heard many trainers complain that some of the judges, evaluators and lawyers pay little attention to the valuable information presented. In one Queens County, New York case I cross-examined an experienced evaluator who went to a really excellent domestic violence training in order to qualify as a parent coordinator. They provided numerous excellent research studies that could have helped him recognize domestic violence and protect children. During my cross-examination it became clear he never read the research and was unfamiliar with the current scientific research he needed to understand the case. When I pressed him about the training he described it as “not a life changing experience.” This was a man who needed a life changing experience because he failed to recognize the obvious history of abuse by the father, demanded the mother cooperate with her abuser and when she continued to try to protect herself and her son, the unqualified evaluator recommended custody for the abusive father. The judge failed to discredit the evaluator based on his failure to read or consider the current scientific research provided at the training.

We need much more and better trainings for court professionals, but there is also the danger that attending trainings can give judges and other professionals a false sense of confidence in their understanding of domestic violence. The findings by Dr. Saunders and his colleagues that most court professionals have inadequate training in domestic violence confirms our concern that in most cases the professionals relied on by the court are not qualified to participate in a domestic violence case without the assistance of a genuine expert. Even if the judge has received good training the court is likely to be influenced by unqualified evaluators and other court professionals.

The failure to possess adequate training in domestic violence means that it will be difficult for these professionals to recognize and respond effectively to domestic violence, but the widespread belief in the myth that women frequently make false allegations of abuse is a bias that strongly undermines the cases of protective mothers. These mistakes result in frequent findings denying the mother’s abuse allegations which is exactly what the other research has found. If a professional believes the myth they will expect to see false allegations and without training in how to recognize domestic violence they have little chance to get these cases right and protect the children. Even worse, courts having found against the mothers because of the deeply flawed practices and biases are severely punishing mothers and children because the mothers continue to believe their true allegations despite the disbelief of the unqualified court professionals.

A few months ago, in this forum, I wrote an article about the extreme decisions we often see in domestic violence cases. These are decisions in which the alleged abuser receives custody and the mother who was the primary attachment figure is limited to supervised or no visitation. The primary attachment figure is the parent who provided most of the child care during the first couple of years of the child’s life. When children are separated from their primary attachment figure they are significantly more likely to suffer depression, low self-esteem and to commit suicide when older. It can never be right to separate children from their primary attachment figure unless she is unsafe such as a drug addict, someone who beats the kids or otherwise poses a danger. In most of these cases the father allowed or even demanded the mother provide child care until she decided to leave him. It should be obvious that her decision to leave a man she found to be abusive does not make the mother unsafe. Unqualified court professionals frequently limit the mother’s contact with her children based upon some version of alienation or pathologizing the mother based on psychological tests that were not made for the populations seen in custody cases. We know the diagnosis is not safety related because the mother functions fine in all other aspects of her life except interacting with her abuser and the court professionals supporting him. These are not safety issues so these extreme decisions can never be beneficial to the children.

The reliance on court professionals with inadequate training and belief in the myth takes place in the context of many other common mistakes discussed in earlier research. The courts cannot protect mothers and children in domestic violence cases if they cannot recognize domestic violence when it is present. The frequent decisions that harm children are confirmed by later findings and information, the extensive research court professionals routinely fail to consider and the new Department of Justice study and they provide multiple confirmations of the present inability of custody courts to recognize domestic violence and child abuse when it exists.

Misuse of Mothers’ Anger and Emotion

Let’s look at this issue from the mother’s perspective and in the context of her experience. These are domestic violence cases. The father usually has a long history of controlling and coercive behaviors and the mother has finally gained the courage and resources to leave her abuser in order to protect her children. She is fearful because of the many threats he made of what he would do if she left and knowledge that the most dangerous time for a woman is after she has left. She is angry at the way he has mistreated her and often the children. She may be worried about her ability to support and protect her children because her partner has been telling her how useless she is throughout their relationship.

Even if the father’s physical abuse ends when he no longer has access to the mother (which makes unqualified court professionals believe he is now safe), he continues his domestic violence through litigation abuse and often other ways. The abusers often use any contact provided by the court to seek reconciliation and/or to harass and attack her verbally or psychologically. Many women expect the courts to protect her children because the evidence is so overwhelming and instead find the court pressuring her to cooperate with her abuser and punishing her if she tries to protect her children from a man they have found to be hostile and dangerous. In other words she has good reason to be angry and emotional and in fact this would be a normal reaction to her experiences.

The research contained in our book and elsewhere supports this understanding and analysis. We discussed the common mistake of custody courts that treat the mother’s actions as a litigant as if they were an indication of her behavior as a parent. Over forty states and many judicial districts have created court sponsored gender bias committees. These committees have found widespread bias particularly against women litigants. One of the common examples of gender bias was blaming women for the actions of their abusers. One of the typical examples of this bias is when courts blame mothers for their anger and emotion caused by the father’s mistreatment of them and their children. In many cases the abusers deliberately harass or pressure them shortly before a court appearance is scheduled in order to obtain an emotional reaction the court is likely to misunderstand. Abusers tend to be extremely manipulative and so after their abuse that the judge does not see, come to court calm and cooperative. Court professionals are often fooled by this act.

The new Department of Justice study confirms what we said in our book and other similar research. Dr. Saunders found that court professionals frequently treat mothers’ anger and emotion as far more important than it actually is in terms of the well being of children. These professionals may be uncomfortable with the mothers’ emotions particularly if she criticizes their response to the father’s abuse. Clearly these are difficult and unpleasant issues to confront. The misinformation treating contested custody as if it were “high conflict” when it is actually domestic violence contributes to the misunderstanding of the mothers’ anger and emotion. The professionals are focused on forcing the parties to cooperate even though this is not the best approach for children. When the parties have difficulty cooperating and certainly in domestic violence cases, parallel parenting is a more effective approach for children. The problem, as demonstrated by the Saunders’ study is that these professionals are focused on their beliefs and preferences rather than research about what works best for children. The custody courts did not get into the practice of looking to current scientific research and particularly the specialized body of research about domestic violence because there was no such research when the initial court practices were developed. We now have substantial research that would help inform court decisions and avoid the frequent mistakes but court professionals rarely look to this research to help them make better decisions. This is why we rarely see custody courts weigh the benefits and harms to children of a proposed resolution. The Department of Justice study establishes that these flawed practices lead to decisions that hurt children.

Cottage Industry Supporting Abusive Fathers

We often hear complaints about corruption in the custody court system. This belief is supported by the many cases in which courts make findings that are far removed from a fair evaluation of the evidence and decisions that seem to be disconnected from the well being of the children involved. There are cases of outright corruption such as the Garson case in Brooklyn, New York, but more often, I believe courts create the appearance of corruption because of bias, ignorance and deeply flawed practices. One of my concerns with complaints about corruption is that it makes it harder for judges in the broken system to hear the complaints and create the reforms that are needed. An important contributing factor to the widespread belief in corruption is the cottage industry that has been created to support abusive fathers.

Most contested custody cases involve abusive fathers seeking custody as a tactic to pressure their victims to return or punish them for leaving. Domestic violence is all about control so these abusive fathers usually have controlled the family finances and have these resources to support their custody litigation. Some lawyers and mental health professionals have figured out that they can make a large income by supporting practices and approaches that support abusers. We often see them advertise as supporting “fathers’ rights.” In many cases we see fathers’ attorneys and GALs promoting the appointment of evaluators who support abusive fathers. It is particularly frustrating when judges refer to these professionals who regularly support abusers as “neutral professionals.”

Protective mothers often have no chance when these biased professionals are appointed regardless of how strong their cases may be. Many of the mothers have complained that the evaluators and GALs make misrepresentations to the court in order to justify findings in favor of the abusive fathers paying their fees. When such professionals lie to the court about the evidence or to justify fees they did not earn, the mothers are justified in complaints suggesting corruption.
Many of these biased professionals strongly support PAS despite a lack of scientific justification. Significantly, PAS is based upon the assumption that virtually every complaint by mothers about the father’s abuse is deliberately false. The Department of Justice study found a problem with inadequately trained professionals who believe the myth that women frequently make deliberately false allegations of abuse. The unqualified professionals supporting PAS are even worse assuming that virtually all such allegations are false. The courts have virtually no chance of making the right decision if they treat such biased professionals as having any credibility.
The Department of Justice study’s contribution to this issue is a finding that evaluators working for the court or the county made recommendations that worked better for children than those of evaluators in private practice. When Dr. Saunders described this finding at a workshop during the NCADV Conference I asked him if he thought the findings supported our concerns about the cottage industry that has developed to support abusive fathers. He agreed this was a good interpretation. Evaluators working for the court or county are not paid extra for each evaluation so they have no incentive to favor the wealthier parent.

Professionals often have fundamental conflicts of interest. Medical doctors who schedule tests or procedures will earn money from performing the services they recommend. Tests may be scheduled to shield the doctor from potential lawsuits rather than to benefit the patient. Lawyers who recommend going to trial, starting a lawsuit or making a motion will earn money when the client takes their advice. Similarly, mental health professionals benefit financially when patients accept recommendations for more services. The conflict of interest is largely unavoidable and the professionals are expected to have the integrity to act in their client’s best interests instead of their own. Unfortunately some of the evaluators and lawyers, particularly those supporting abusive fathers have not fulfilled this ethical obligation.

We have repeatedly seen problems in custody courts with mental health professionals and particularly ones sympathetic to abusive fathers making recommendations requiring protective mothers to use their unwanted and unneeded services. We see these biased professionals pathologizing mothers who have always taken good care of their children with diagnoses that are clearly wrong. This would include the frequent finding of rare conditions such as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, conditions like paranoia or delusional based on the mothers’ continued belief in the father’s abuse despite the failure of the court professionals to recognize his abuse and other emotional problems that magically seem to affect only her relationship with her abuser and the court. They seem oblivious to the fact that that she does fine in other parts of her life that under any unbiased circumstances would rule out the claimed diagnosis.

Some of these mistakes are clearly deliberate and qualify as corruption. Other cases may involve bias and ignorance and a lack of the needed qualifications as the Saunders’ study demonstrates. When the professionals who are part of the cottage industry engage in gender bias they usually do so without realizing it. Many actually believe in the theories and practices they use despite a lack of scientific basis. Some of this can be explained by confirmation bias where the professional focuses on information or accusations that support what the professional expects to find and ignores information that undermines their theories and assumptions. We see this kind of mistake frequently in domestic violence custody cases and the mental health professional is often unconscious that they are engaging in confirmation bias. In fact they are likely to become defensive and angry at the suggestion. The Department of Justice study demonstrates the harm of using professionals who are part of the cottage industry and the need for custody courts to screen court professionals to avoid relying on them. Even worse, courts often use these unqualified professionals to train other court professionals. This can only serve to spread misinformation which makes it harder for court officials to recognize the problems demonstrated by the Saunders’ study and other current scientific research.

Conclusion

The custody court system tends to look at each case and each issue or event in a case separately. This is based on a belief that just because a man slapped his wife on Monday does not mean he punched her on Friday. The court system uses stare decisis which means once a case or an issue has been decided the same parties cannot relitigate it. There are good reasons for these practices, but they work poorly in domestic violence cases because of the importance of context in understanding domestic violence. We often see cases where the court denies allegations of domestic violence and they may even have been right if there was insufficient evidence. Naturally the abuser continues his abusive behavior so more evidence becomes available, but many courts refuse to hear the new evidence or refuse to consider it in the context of the previous evidence because those issues were previously litigated. In doing this the court is denying itself the ability to recognize the pattern of the father’s abuse and protect the children. Domestic violence experts are confident that the custody court system is broken because we see the pattern of mistakes and harmful decisions, but the powers in the court system are offended at the criticism and cannot believe the problem because they refuse to look at the patterns.

The findings of the Department of Justice study, by itself, provides convincing documentation that the custody court system is getting a large majority of domestic violence custody cases wrong. It would be impossible for courts to get most cases right when most of the court professionals have inadequate domestic violence training, those with inadequate training tend to believe the myth that women frequently make false allegations, the courts are placing too much weight on mothers’ anger and emotion and the evaluators who earn additional money through appointment in custody cases are making decisions more harmful to children then those who do not have a financial incentive. This study was not made in a vacuum, but was produced in the context of a substantial and growing body of scientific research that establishes the custody courts are making bad decisions in contested custody cases that endanger children. The research also establishes that the standard practices used in the custody courts are deeply flawed and outdated.

I am hopeful that a study coming from the U. S. Department of Justice will be harder for the custody court system to ignore. They have a strong reputation and can only be considered neutral. Furthermore, the courts frequently seek grants and other funding from the Department of Justice. Protective mothers and their attorneys can cite this research and it should be harder for the courts to ignore. I can’t wait until it is published on the DOJ web site.

Barry Goldstein is a nationally recognized domestic violence expert, speaker, writer and consultant. He is the co-editor with Mo Therese Hannah of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE and CHILD CUSTODY. Barry can be reached by email at their web sitewww.Domesticviolenceabuseandchildcustody.com

One More Battleground: Domestic Violence, Child Custody, and the Batterers’ Relentless Pursuit of their Victims Through the Courts

2011-11-23T13:17:00.001-06:00

Courtesy Source: AMPP

SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

[excerpt]

II. REASONS WHY BATTERERS USE FAMILY COURTS TO CONTINUE THEIR ABUSE

When a couple divorces, the legal system may become a symbolic battleground on which the male batterer continues his abuse. Custody and visitation may keep the battered woman in a relationship with the battering man; on the battleground, the children become the pawns.36

There are numerous reasons why a batterer chooses to use the courts and the litigation process; many of them are explored below. Before delving into the specific reasons, it is important to discuss the frequency with which batterers decide to participate in family court proceedings.

As mentioned earlier, fathers who abuse are twice as likely to seek sole custody of their children as nonviolent fathers, and notably, abusive fathers are three times as likely to be in arrears of child support.37 In one recent study in Massachusetts, fifteen of the forty fathers (approximately 38 percent) who sought custody received sole or joint custody of the children, despite the fact that each and every one of these men were reported to have abused both the mother and the child/children prior to separation and continued to do so after separation.38

Thus, before exploring why courts may choose to disregard a history of domestic violence,39 it is important to note that a history of violence does not stop batterers from obtaining custody. In fact, a history of abuse seems to increase the likelihood that the batterer will seek custody.

So, why do batterers use family courts as a battleground at all? What is it about the courts, and family courts specifically, that is so appealing to them?

[because they can]

A. Only Available Contact Left

One of the most obvious reasons batterers use family courts is because it is often the only way they can legally maintain any contact with the survivor.40 After leaving their abuser, survivors may try to keep their contact information private in order to keep as much distance from the batterer as they can. They may seek formal protection through restraining orders or civil protection orders. They may move without allowing the batterer access to their current address or phone number. However, even if a survivor can achieve this physical distance from a batterer, the batterer may try to initiate contact through the courts by seeking custody of or visitation rights with his child/children. In this way,the courtroom may present an opportunity to prolong contact with the victim or seek contact that is not otherwise available.41

As mentioned earlier, not all batterers who abuse the mothers will abuse the children. Certainly, nuanced solutions exist that can provide an opportunity for fathers, even those with a history of domestic violence, to remain in some sort of communication with their children. Every family has unique circumstances that can allow for a variety of solutions;however, because the courts may be the only way and the only forum for abusive fathers to continue abusing their former spouse and children, it is important for courts to take a comprehensive look at each situation and to act carefully if a history of abuse is present.

See Full Document From Journal Here:
One More Battleground: Domestic Violence, Child Custody, and the Batterers’ Relentless Pursuit of their Victims Through the Courts

One More Battleground Domestic Violence, Child Custody, And the Batterers' Relentless Pursuit of Their Vict...

Gender Politics and Child Custody: The Puzzling Persistence of the Best Interest Standard

2011-11-21T06:30:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth S. Scott* & Robert E. Emery**

The best interest of the child standard has been widely criticized by scholars for its vagueness and indeterminacy, and yet for forty years it has been the prevailing rule for resolving custody disputes. This article confirms the deficiencies of the standard, focusing particularly on a problem that has received little attention: Best interests poses daunting verifiability problems because a) much family information is private, b) parties often are unable to prove the qualitative factors that that lawmakers have endorsed as proxies for best interest, and c) the incommensurability of these factors precludes courts from assigning them appropriate weights.

Despite the substantial risk of erroneous or arbitrary custody decisions, the best interest standard remains firmly entrenched, with the apparent approval of policymakers and courts. We explain this puzzle as the product of two interrelated factors.

First, a protracted gender war has embroiled advocates for mothers or fathers for decades, thereby creating a political economy deadlock. The main front in the gender war has been the legislative battle over joint custody, but it has also played out in the efforts of mothers’ groups to make domestic violence a key factor in custody disputes and the responsive effort by fathers’ advocates to elevate claims of parental alienation. These efforts have brought apparent determinacy to important categories of cases, and thus have contributed to the entrenchment of the best interest standard.

Second, courts and legislatures have failed to recognize the intractable problems inherent in resolving these contests because they mistakenly believe that psychologists and other mental health professionals have the expertise to obtain accurate family information and then to evaluate and compare the competing evidentiary claims. Courts routinely ask these professionals to guide them in making custody decisions- an unusual role for experts in legal proceedings.

But mental health experts do not have the skill or knowledge to perform these functions; acting without the constraints generally applied to experts, they routinely go beyond the limits of science and of their own expertise in advising courts about custody. Their participation thus masks the deficiencies of the best interest standard and contributes to its perpetuation. Exposing the illusion that psychological experts can overcome the problems inherent in best interest determinations is an important step toward real reform and better custody decision making. Desirable reforms include adoption of the ALI approximation standard, restrictions on the admissibility of psychological
evidence, and encouragement of private ordering for resolving most custody disputes.

I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................……….……..2

*Harold R. Medina Professor of Law, Columbia University School of Law.
**Professor of Psychology; Director, Center for the Study of Children and the Law, University of Virginia. For helpful comments, we thank Kate Bartlett, Emily Buss, Peg Brinig, Maxine Eichner, Bert Huang, Clare Huntington, Jeannie Suk, Lois Weithorn and especially Robert Scott. For excellent research assistance, we thank Sara Weinberg, Sadie Holtzmann and Kristine Van Hamersveld.

II. THE BEST INTEREST STANDARD AND THE PROBLEM OF VERIFIABILITY .......7

A. A Brief History of Modern Custody Doctrine ..........................................…………..7
B. Custody Decision making and the Limits of the Judicial Capacity ....................…9
      1. Traditional Arguments for and Against the Best Interest Standard ...........….. 9
      2. An Overlooked Consideration: The Problem of Verifiability ....................…….10
            a. Family Privacy and Verifiability. ..............................................…………….11
            b. The Challenge of Qualitative Proxies .........................................…………12
            c. The Incommensurability Problem .............................................………….13
      3. The Search For Better Proxies For Better Interest ............................………..13

III. THE GENDER WAR OVER CHILD CUSTODY REGULATION ............................... 15

A. Legislative Struggles and the Political Economy Deadlock ..............................…16
       1. The Father’s Movement and the Battle over Joint Custody ......................….16
       2. The Politics of Motherhood .........................................................……………20
       3. Legislative Response to Gender Politics.............................................……...22
B. Defining Best Interests- Domestic Violence and Parent Alienation .....................23
       1. The Domestic Violence Presumption ..............................................………..25
       2. Parental Alienation as a Response. .................................................………..31

IV. THE ILLUSION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERTISE IN RESOLVING CUSTODY
DISPUTES ...........................................................................................……………………..35

A. How Important Are Mental Health Experts in Resolving Custody Disputes? ..........36
B. Analyzing the Custody Evaluation Process- The General Critique .....................…38
C. Assessing Family Violence and Parental Alienation ......................................……..41
1. Family Violence. ......................................................................………………….41
2. Parent Alienation “Syndrome.” ......................................................……………..43
D. Bad Science and the Absence of Evidentiary Standards .................................…..45

V. REFORMING THE BEST INTEREST STANDARD ................................................…..47

A. The Case for Approximation .............................................................………………48
B. Improving Accuracy in Custody Proceedings .............................................……….51
C. Avoiding Adjudication- Collaborative Divorce and Mediation ...........................……53
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................………………….56

Full Article Here:

Gender Politics and Child Custody- the Puzzling Persistence of the Best Interest Standard

One More Battleground: Domestic Violence, Child Custody, and the Batterers’ Relentless Pursuit of their Victims Through the Courts

2011-11-21T06:29:00.001-06:00

II. REASONS WHY BATTERERS USE FAMILY COURTS TO CONTINUE
THEIR ABUSE

When a couple divorces, the legal system may become a symbolic
battleground on which the male batterer continues his abuse.
Custody and visitation may keep the battered woman in a
relationship with the battering man; on the battleground, the
children become the pawns.36

After looking at how domestic violence operates as a mechanism of
control, perhaps it is not surprising to discover that batterers manipulate the
courts and their victims during dissolution, custody, and visitation
proceedings. After all, domestic violence is a pattern of behavior that is not
easily reversed, so separation alone is unlikely to break the pattern of abuse.
There are numerous reasons why a batterer chooses to use the courts and
the litigation process; many of them are explored below. Before delving
into the specific reasons, it is important to discuss the frequency with which
batterers decide to participate in family court proceedings.

As mentioned earlier, fathers who abuse are twice as likely to seek sole
custody of their children as nonviolent fathers, and notably, abusive fathers
are three times as likely to be in arrears of child support.37 In one recent
study in Massachusetts, fifteen of the forty fathers (approximately 38
percent) who sought custody received sole or joint custody of the children,
despite the fact that each and every one of these men were reported to have
abused both the mother and the child/children prior to separation and
continued to do so after separation.38 Thus, before exploring why courts
may choose to disregard a history of domestic violence,39 it is important to
note that a history of violence does not stop batterers from obtaining
custody. In fact, a history of abuse seems to increase the likelihood that the
batterer will seek custody.

So, why do batterers use family courts as a battleground at all? What is it
about the courts, and family courts specifically, that is so appealing to
them?

[because they can]

A. Only Available Contact Left
One of the most obvious reasons batterers use family courts is because it
is often the only way they can legally maintain any contact with the
survivor.40 After leaving their abuser, survivors may try to keep their
contact information private in order to keep as much distance from the
batterer as they can. They may seek formal protection through restraining
orders or civil protection orders. They may move without allowing the
batterer access to their current address or phone number. However, even if a
survivor can achieve this physical distance from a batterer, the batterer may
try to initiate contact through the courts by seeking custody of or visitation
rights with his child/children. In this way, the courtroom may present an
opportunity to prolong contact with the victim or seek contact that is not
otherwise available.41

As mentioned earlier, not all batterers who abuse the mothers will abuse
the children. Certainly, nuanced solutions exist that can provide an
opportunity for fathers, even those with a history of domestic violence, to
remain in some sort of communication with their children. Every family has
unique circumstances that can allow for a variety of solutions; however,
because the courts may be the only way and the only forum for abusive
fathers to continue abusing their former spouse and children, it is important
for courts to take a comprehensive look at each situation and to act carefully
if a history of abuse is present.

Full Document Here:

One More Battleground Domestic Violence, Child Custody, And the Batterers' Relentless Pursuit of Their Vict...

One More Battleground: Domestic Violence, Child Custody, and the Batterers’ Relentless Pursuit of their Victims Through the Courts

2011-11-20T19:24:00.001-06:00

II. REASONS WHY BATTERERS USE FAMILY COURTS TO CONTINUE
THEIR ABUSE

When a couple divorces, the legal system may become a symbolic
battleground on which the male batterer continues his abuse.
Custody and visitation may keep the battered woman in a
relationship with the battering man; on the battleground, the
children become the pawns.36

So, why do batterers use family courts as a battleground at all? What is it
about the courts, and family courts specifically, that is so appealing to
them?

[because they can]

As mentioned earlier, not all batterers who abuse the mothers will abuse
the children. Certainly, nuanced solutions exist that can provide an
opportunity for fathers, even those with a history of domestic violence, to
remain in some sort of communication with their children. Every family has
unique circumstances that can allow for a variety of solutions; however,
because the courts may be the only way and the only forum for abusive
fathers to continue abusing their former spouse and children, it is important
for courts to take a comprehensive look at each situation and to act carefully
if a history of abuse is present.

Full Document Here:

One More Battleground Domestic Violence, Child Custody, And the Batterers' Relentless Pursuit of Their Vict... http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=73301306&access_key=key-1zb9x2hkdqmw641m75ob&page=1&viewMode=list

WHEN BATTERED WOMEN LOSE CUSTODY: Dangerous Parents or Systems Failure?

2011-11-20T14:38:00.001-06:00

By: Daniel G. Saunders, Ph.D.
University of Michigan School of Social Work

Note: This article is summarized in part from the article, Child Custody and Visitation Decisions in Domestic Violence Cases: Legal Trends, Risk Factors, and Safety Concerns (Revised 2007) by Daniel G. Saunders (saunddan@umich.edu), and published by VAWnet, a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence/Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The article can be retrieved fromhttp://new.vawnet.org/category/Main_Doc.php?docid=1134 See this source for a complete list of supporting citations.

When a mother enters a visitation/exchange program as the visiting parent, workers may be quick to assume she failed as a parent or, worse, that she’s dangerous. After all, her referral to the center probably came at the end of a lengthy process of expert evaluation and court hearings. However, in all too many domestic violence cases, community systems have failed her. There is growing evidence that gender bias and myths about battered women stack the cards against them in child custody disputes. Ironically, their very attempts to protect their children may make it more likely they will lose custody to an abusive ex-partner.

Slowly, battered mothers have received increased legal protections. For example, some states in the U.S. exempt them from mandatory mediation or make it easier for them to move a safer distance from an abuser. Approximately half of all states have a legal presumption that an abuser should not have sole or joint physical custody. In the remaining states, the judge must consider domestic violence in custody and visitation decisions, but as just one of many factors for consideration. Canada has no presumption in its federal law against granting custody to abusers and the law states that maximum contact should be given to the noncustodial parent. However, protections are increasing in some provinces through consideration of domestic violence as a factor in decision making. Some provinces also apply conditions to temporary protection orders and order abusers into treatment as a condition of visitation. With new legal protections have come more domestic violence training and resource manuals for judges, custody evaluators, and others involved in custody decisions.

Despite this progress, misconceptions and faulty practice continue. One common misconception is that allegations of domestic violence are common in disputed custody cases. There is also no evidence, despite claims from fathers’ rights groups, that false allegations of domestic abuse or child abuse are common, especially from mothers. On the contrary, evidence shows that false allegations are rare. In addition, a recent comparison of mothers’ and fathers’ abuse allegations showed that mothers’ allegations were substantiated more often. Another misconception is that “high conflict” do not involve domestic violence. It is now clear that domestic violence is a current or past reality in the majority of these “high conflict” relationships. Domestic violence simply goes undetected in many cases, an oversight that increases danger to children and their mothers.

More alarming are findings that, even when detected, domestic violence is often not considered or taken seriously in court decisions and mediators’ and evaluators recommendations. A 1990s study found that custody evaluators did not consider domestic violence to be a major factor in their recommendations, yet they often considered parental alienation to be crucial. In a more recent study, evaluators reported that domestic violence weighed heavily in their recommendations, but only a third of them attempted to systematically detect the violence. The impact of the violence must also be considered. Psychological and custody evaluations can be misleading when a survivor’s trauma history is ignored. Her traumatic stress symptoms can mimic severe mental illness or personality disorders. Survivors are usually at a disadvantage due to the effects of overwhelming stress, not only from domestic violence, but from the intense fear of losing a child to an abuser.

Several studies show that knowing the history of domestic violence appears to have little influence on judges’ decisions and mediators’ recommendations. A likely explanation for courtroom outcomes is gender bias. Gender bias commissions over the last decade report frequent, negative stereotyping of women, especially about their credibility. When domestic violence is not adequately understood, victim-blaming, accusations of lying, and trivializing the abuse are more common. Judges may hold images of the “good” or “typical” victim -- terrified and submissive – and lack understanding of those who are angry or with a history of substance abuse. A study of cases brought to appeal showed reversals in the mothers’ favor when domestic violence was considered. Not surprisingly, there is some evidence that female judges show more support for victim protection. Training also seems to matter. In one study, judges with domestic violence education and more knowledge of domestic violence were more likely to grant sole custody to abused mothers.

A further barrier for battered women is that some laws and psychiatric theories often put them in a “Catch-22.” As a result of the “friendly parent” legal standard and the nonscientific “parent alienation syndrome,” actions to protect themselves and their children often work against them. In many cases, battered women are reasonably reluctant to co-parent out of fear that their ex-partner will harm them or their children. These women may sense that separation increases the risk of homicide, which in reality it does. In addition, physical abuse, harassment, and stalking of women continue at fairly high rates or escalate after separation, affecting as many as 35% of survivors. Up to a fourth of battered women report that their ex-partner threatened to hurt the children or kidnap them. Women may be reluctant to reveal their address or allow unsupervised visits. Yet such reluctance means they are more likely to be seen as “unfriendly” or “uncooperative,” which counts against them in the custody criteria of most states and the Canadian Divorce Act. Claims of “parent alienation syndrome” (PAS) similarly place women in a Catch-22. If mothers report child abuse or even raise concerns about danger to their children, some evaluators and courts immediately label them as “alienators.” In the original formulation of PAS, no investigation of her allegations has to occur and she is labeled as pathological simply for exercising a legal right. The syndrome assumes that programming has occurred if an allegation is made and thus has a circular definition. PAS does not have legal standing, yet the general concept or label may influence decision makers.

What are the implications of these findings for supervised visitation/exchange programs? First, providers would be wise to check for their own potential biases about visiting mothers who are survivors. Second, comprehensive provider training is essential. Topics need to include methods for detecting abuse and assessing danger, the impact of domestic violence on children, the ways that abusers often manipulate court and social systems, and, in particular, the impact of violence on survivors. Visiting mothers are often depressed and have post-traumatic stress symptoms as a result of being battered and losing their children. Providers need to realize that depression and traumatic stress symptoms often manifest as anger or apathy. Without such understanding, providers may be quick to label these mothers as “hostile,” “uncooperative,” or “disinterested.”

Third, although supervised visitation/exchange programs cannot act as advocates for individual women who lose custody disputes, they can raise concerns about apparent systems failures with their community’s domestic violence coordinating councils. Building a close collaborative tie with your local coordinating body can place visitation/exchange programs in a position to help make changes in local policies and practices. (For more information on advocacy roles for supervised visitation programs, see “Guiding Principles: Safe Havens Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program” at www.praxisinternational.org/pages/visitation/materials.asp.)

In addition, providers may need new skills for protecting mothers and their children. Supervised Visitation Network (SVN) standards require that programs “refer any victim of domestic violence to a resource expert that can assist and help the victim in developing a personal safety plan.” This assumes that program staff have the skills and screening tools to detect domestic violence among their clients. In addition, a referral for safety planning may not go far enough. A referral for legal advocacy, such as help with stalking, threats, and restraining order violations, may be necessary to protect a mother and her children. Recent evidence shows surprisingly high rates of stalking and threats occur between visits and exchanges. Close working relationships with domestic violence programs will help make the most meaningful and effective referrals – through first hand knowledge of these programs and the ability to learn detection and referral skills from them. By failing to take steps to help, supervised visitation centers risk being one of a long line of so-called “helping systems” that fail survivors, adding another blow to their psyches.

(For more information on domestic violence practice in supervised visitation see “Beyond Observation: Considerations for Advancing Domestic Violence Practice in Supervised Visitation” at http://endabuse.org/programs/children/).

Providers may be reluctant to make referrals or give other help for fear of violating a standard of “neutrality.” However, SVN Standards are clear: “Neutral/neutrality means maintaining an unbiased, objective, and balanced environment. . . . Being neutral does not mean providers disregard behaviors such as abuse or violence of any kind.” Centers can create a neutral “environment” for parents to visit with their children, but they should never be neutral toward violence against either children or adults. Specialized help can also be given to abusers without violating the standard of neutrality. Supervised visitation programs are in a unique position to encourage men to become responsible fathers, which in turn can increase their motivation to participate in abuser intervention and fathering-after-violence programs. (For more information on fathering-after-violence programs, see “Fathering After Violence: Working with Abusive Fathers in Supervised Visitation” at http://endabuse.org/programs/children/)

On a broader level, programs can work with other agencies and professional organizations to ensure that judges, mediators, custody evaluators and other professionals have adequate domestic violence training. Systems advocacy can mean working to remove “friendly parent” standards for cases of domestic violence. In this way, programs can help those who have suffered doubly - from the personal injustice of intimate partner abuse and from the social injustice of “helping systems” that fail to help. A likely result will be greater long-term safety for the children and parents who are your clients.

The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap. Why We Should Reconsider Gender Neutral Family Leave Policies

2011-11-19T20:32:00.001-06:00

The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap by Susan Pinker

http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/sexual-paradox.html

Myth -- "Equality under the law" means that men and women are the same in all ways.

Fact: -- "Equality" under the law means that WHEN men and women are the same in all ways, the law will treat them that way, and that when they are not,
the law will not default to what is characteristic of "man" as the standard.

Thus, "equality under the law" means more than merely consideration of each person as an individual. It also means that that "consideration" will not be cast in terms of standards and rights that can attain only to non-gestating human beings. The law will not determine what is "reasonable" with reference solely to what would be "reasonable for a man;" the law will not determine what is "just" by reference solely to what could be "achievable by someone who cannot gestate;" and the law will not ignore reproductive differences between mothers and fathers where they do indeed exist and have effect.

###

Why We Should Reconsider Gender Neutral Family Leave Policies

Pages 79-80:

"...One might expect that men married to female university professors would be more likely to have egalitarian views and share child care
equally, but this is another myth. Steven Rhoads, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, had similar assumptions. He ran a nationwide study and found that 75 percent of female faculty believed their husbands should take on equal amounts of child care, housework, and
paid work. Just over half of their husbands agreed. Yet the women spent much more time with their children than their husbands did, and in
universities where they were offered paid parental leave, 67 percent of the eligible women took advantage of it, only 12 percent of male faculty
took that time off, and when they did, they didn't use the time the same way. 'We heard stories of male academics who took paid post-birth leave in
order to advance their publishing agendas,' wrote Rhoads, commenting that he'd heard of one school that changed its rules as a result. Upon
returning from her maternity leave, one female colleague recalled being asked by a male colleague how the leave had gone. She replied, 'I used the
time well.' Then the man said, 'So you got a lot of work done.' But that's not what she meant.

"If more academic mothers use a leave to spend time with their baby and more new fathers use the time to publish, then a system based on men and
women being identical ends up punishing women. When these family-friendly policies are applied equally to both sexes, academic women experience more discrimination, not less. One unofficial study at an Ivy league college found that parental leave benefits available to both sexes had that
paradoxical effect: no woman who had taken a family leave in the previous fifteen years had subsequently received tenure. Most if not all of the
small number of men who had taken family leave did. This was never published or even tallied up as a real study, but it became commonly cited
during the tenure discussion, summarized as 'a woman takes family leave and comes back with a backlog, a man takes family leave and comes back
with a book'... Realizing what was happening, a committee at the college tweaked the policy to allow additional leave for those who give birth
(obviously, fathers wouldn't be eligible). This helped... [N]o one wanted to discuss the issue openly, allow the college to be named, or be
identified in any way. The topic was taboo..."

Mothers and Fathers are Different

Pages 163-164:

"...given the choice, 60 to 80 percent of American and European women choose part-time work over full-time schedules or staying home full-time
-- even if they had initially intended to work full-time and even if the decision will cost them in job security and earnings. 'The vast majority of women who claim to be career-oriented discover that their priorities change after they have children.' writes [British sociologist Catherine] Hakim. Eroding the idea of a united sisterhood, Hakim has amassed data from European and American census and national surveys that clearly show that women in modern societies are hardly homogeneous. Instead, they separate fairly cleanly into three groups. There are those who want to stay home full-time, whom she calls 'home-centered' (approximately 20 percent). There are those whose careers take precedence, whom she calls 'work-centered' (approximately 20 percent). These career-oriented women experience few disadvantages to being female; if they have the same credentials and put in the same hours, they achieve the same rewards as men.

"The majority, the remaining 60 percent, are women who try to combine children and career, drifting between various work schedules and
positions, looking for the perfect arrangement. There 'adaptive' women adjust their careers to accommodate their families' needs and their own values, a trend as powerful in socially progressive Sweden and Norway as it is in the United States...

"Calling it 'Preference Theory,' Hakim nailed two realities. Not all women want the same thing. And when women have choices, only about 20 percent
will choose what men choose... exclusively career-oriented women are a minority, Hakim says..."

Pages 168-170:

"If you had asked me before my first child was born to choose from Hakim's three groups, I wouldn't have hesitated before placing myself with career
oriented women. I didn't expect to feel any differently after my baby was born than I did before -- or much differently than her father would. But
my plans for a swift return were shot to hell when a wrinkly, underweight, and squalling baby appeared instead of the placid, pink-cheeked, robust infant I'd imagined cheerily handing off to a babysitter... Work demands seemed remote... I was shocked by my protective feelings. I needed to be
with her. I needed her to be healthy....

"In the early eighties I was not alone in thinking that men and women had nearly identical brains, but that we had been socialized to take on
different roles. If my husband, a doting father, could leave his scrawny newborn after two weeks at home and go to work for ten hours a day without
a backward glance or a blip in his concentration, the script dictated that this was because he had learned that his role was to be the provider. And
if I felt physical distress about tearing myself away from a six-week-old baby -- notwithstanding the monotony and isolation of new motherhood -- I
had internalized mine as a maternal caregiver. Never mind that my mother and both grandmothers worked outside the home, as well as in it. Many of
us thought that if only women could tame their outdated sentimentality, if only men were present and willing to offer their babies more bottles, then
our parental roles could be reversed... At the time we assumed that men and women were equals -- not just in rights and opportunities, as they should be, but also in underlying psychology and behavior. Any differences, including physical differences, could be fixed via technology, policy, or force of will...

"This is the vanilla gender assumption: that female is just a variation of male. But more than two decades after my daughter was born, brain imaging
and neuroendocrinology have unveiled many of the biological networks underlying mothers' specific longing for their infants and their drive to nurture them... "

Pages 210-211:

"[Harvard professor Robert] Trivers's theory suggests that competitive risk-taking is wired into males. Due to her own unique wiring, a female invests greatly in her future offspring, feeding them nurturing them, and raising them to maturity, all at significant cost to herself... once pregnant, that's it. She's committed. No matter how many one-night stands she has, a female will only have a given number of offspring during her lifetime -- which she's programmed to guard with her life -- while a successful, competitive male striver can father... even a hundred...

"The math was demonstrated by Lucky Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty of Morocco (1646-1727), who fathered 888 children with multiple wives. Meanwhile, the female record holder, Madalena Carnauba of Brazil, married at 13 and gave birth to 32 children. The evolutionary anthropologist Sarah Hrdy points out that the context is missing. We don't know how many children from each family survived, or how many of their rivals' offspring were done in by Moulay's more competitive wives. But the difference in output between Lucky and Madalena is still 856 children. More recent accounts... Rahman, who has fathered seventy-eight children and set a target of one hundred children by 2015... Jogi... who became the world's oldest dad when he fathered his twenty-first child with his fourth wife..."According to Trivers, the parent who invests more in their offspring is the one who ultimately limits how many there are -- namely mothers..."

Feminist Fear and Political Correctness

Pages: 258-263:

"[T]There's a fear that if we recognize the existence of sex differences we'll become part of a conservative backlash that will send women back to the kitchen. I'd argue that a more nuanced understanding of the average differences between men and women can lead to progress instead. In fact,
several problems arise from NOT acknowledging that sex differences exist. Workplaces and career schedules designed for a single, standard male approach to competition and success now discourage many women, notwithstanding their native smarts, their educational opportunities, and
their impressive accomplishments...

"Exhorting women to make 'male' choices is more pernicious than simply encouraging them to earn more. Educated women who forgo the highest paying or high-status jobs are usually aware of their options and have weighed the pros and cons. The finger-wagging about being influenced by the media,
not knowing the consequences of their actions, or giving license to employers to discriminate against women... follows in a long tradition of assuming that women don't know their own minds... the prevailing message is that these women are either patsies or victims. The idea that women don't know what they want, or don't have the power, interest, or inclination to determine their own fate lends a feeling of deja vu to the debate about men, women, and work. Telling women that they'd prefer computer science to a degree in English or history if only they weren't blindered by cultural norms, or that putting in fourteen-hour days when their children are toddlers is really what's in their best interests, is a form of infantilization. It's also a form of homogenization. The problem is not that some women choose to opt out, others to work part-time, or that other women prefer to keep working as long and as hard as they can. The problem is that only one choice is seen as the right one..."

Subheadings on the excerpts above are by thelizlibrary.org
The URL for this webpage is http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/sexual-paradox.html
-----------------

Kansas Public Conference Reveals Deep Contempt for the Poor and for Women – Fatherhood Initiatives - Control of Women and Children Under the Guise of "Responsible Married Fatherhood"

2011-11-17T00:22:00.001-06:00

[My comment’s are in Red to Kari’s article below- Good Job Kari- and thank you for covering this.] The real agenda- is much more sinister. The National Fatherhood Initiative: supporting a misogynistic agenda with "politically correct" jock straps.

Federal and Kansas Fatherhood Initiatives, Fathers Rights, Grant Funding, under HHS Federal to local Kansas SRS- Fatherhood Programs…Kansas Fatherhood Coalition, etc. After all, single (Government Funded) abusive, killer daddies are so much better than single women with children.

See: Children need. . . THIS? THE FATHERS RIGHTS MOVEMENT: IN THEIR OWN WORDS Fatherhood.Gov, (Not Motherhood.gov) The National Fatherhood Initiative: Supporting a Misogynistic Agenda (all this money spent, much more than ADC ever has been). Fatherhood the real pork.

Just recently Kansas Children's Service League (KCSL) Grant Funding for a father Class “How to Not Kill your Child”. sick sick sick…“DADDY WELFARE IN KANSAS - KANSAS FATHERHOOD INITATIVES”

Kansas’s STRONG ‘REMINDING’ statement below, that ‘you women are owned, your children belong to the Father and or State- and if you claim Abuse Domestic Violence or child sexual Abuse by the father- You will be punished severely’ - The Abuser WILL TAKE your child(ren), You will be driven into poverty, joblessness. You will be further punished via proxies of the Court, Custody Evaluator, the GAL, Children's Rights Groups such as but NOT limited to the umbrella groups - e.g Children’s Rights Council- (CRC), to Kansas Children Service League (KCSL) just to name a few….All who get paid federal and State funding for ‘legal child trafficking’ – and this will go on for years- [I have experienced 17 hell years in the ‘System’ in KS as described above.]

All because you thought (wrongly) that you had the Human Right to be free from torture and left an Abusive Marriage - So if you were having thoughts of ‘human rights’- think again.

In Kansas, A Public Conference Reveals Deep Contempt for the Poor and for Women

From RH Reality Check

by Kari Ann Rinker, National Organization for Women (NOW), Kansas

November 16, 2011 - 3:49pm (Print)

“This Governor failed!” This was my angry proclamation to Kansas Public Radio after listening to Robert Rector from the Heritage Foundation speak in Kansas City, Kansas on the topic of childhood poverty. Robert Rector was introduced as the “intellectual godfather of welfare reform." Mr. Rector was invited to Kansas to speak by Governor Sam Brownback.

Governor Brownback stated at the start of the conference that he was seeking bi-partisan solutions to the problem of high rates of children living in poverty within our state. He declared “the best way to do it is to reach as far across the political spectrum and find someone as far opposite or different from you as you can and start to talk about strategy." This advice is obviously meant for all of the left leaning and moderate folks in the room, because this far right, radical Governor brought in a far-right, radical talking head from the Heritage Foundation. This is how the Governor failed. Obama who openly supports the misogynistic Fatherhood Initiatives by pouring Billions of $$ into Responsible fatherhood Programs (RFP). Brownback failed by bringing in the National Fatherhood Programs- while Congressman and is filtering that money even more into KS State $$- its all about oppression of women and their children and of course it’s monetary- it’s all about the money.] See: Ron Nichols, National Center for Fathering and Here in Kansas

Robert Rector’s resume includes a piece he wrote titled “The Myth of Poverty”, claiming that the Census Bureau is overestimating the number of those truly living in poverty. He recently wrote a piece for the National Review, “How do the poor live? For starters, a poor child in America is far more likely to have a wide-screen plasma television, cable or satellite TV, a computer and an Xbox or TiVo in his home than he is to be hungry." Mr. Rector backed up his resume of crazy by spouting off some of these doozies during the course of his 45 minute speech…

It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the means-tested welfare system to support children in the United States is predominately a support system that compensates for the erosion of marriage. (fathers rights and patriarchy)

And...

Your state is separating into 2 social castes- unmarried women and married couples. SINGLE DADDYS- [KCSL is Federally Funded recently a grant to teach KS Fathers ‘HOW NOT to Kill their Children’ and support SINGLE DADDY or aka Daddy Welfare]

And...

Marriage is stronger than education in reducing child poverty—[WTF?] it has the same effect as 4 or 5 years of education for the mother. [You have got to be kidding me?= oh those terrible mothers]The effect of marriage in reducing poverty is stronger statistically than graduating from high school. [oh good goddess]

And....

These women [ewww were so infested] regard having children as the most significant thing in their lives. It’s what gives their lives meaning. [As a Battered Mother who was a Nurse in the psych field in Kansas for 13 years prior to having my daughter- only to then be battered by the FATHER – I leave the ‘marriage’ only to be punished by this BS thinking –that ‘man-is-‘god-mentality = Maintaining Complete Control over women and their children’ and gave my child to a known admitted and convicted batter—I say FU!] It’s just that they think of marriage like we think of a trip to Honolulu-it’d be nice sometime in the future, but not right now! First they get pregnant, and then they worry about marriage. [f*# that s*#t]

And...

We’ve absolutely saturated these communities with birth control. In fact, Title X clinics don’t seem to be doing a very good job, do they?! [sigh]

And...

Sequential cohabitation is the primary cause of spousal abuse and child abuse. If they’re not the dad and just living with the mom, and the child is screaming and yelling, then the guy is more likely to react not in a positive way. [WRONG WRONG WRONG!! See Dastardly Dads and 175 Killer Dads: Fathers who ended their children’s lives in situations involving child custody, visitation, and/or child support (USA)

And...

Low income women aren’t hostile to marriage-they’re not radical feminists. They’re actually quite conservative.

Mr. Rector’s government ‘solution to the problem of unmarried ladies’ was presented as a three-part plan…

1. Explain the benefits of marriage in middle and high schools with a high proportion of at-risk youth;

2. Create public education campaigns in low-income communities on the benefits of marriage;

3. Require federally funded birth control clinics to provide information on the benefits of marriage and skills needed to develop stable families to interested low-income clients. [Right just what we need- more Government pork—like Fatherhood.gov, National Fatherhood Initiatives, Head Start, YWCA, Access Visitation, Kansas Children's Service League etc… the pay flow is endless, utterly. Just Google any of the above, the genocide of ‘Battered Mothers and Their Abused Children’- all by ‘daddy dearest of course.]

I can condense those three parts into two words… indoctrination and coercion. [enslaving women and entrapping children]

Mr. Rector backed his statements up by producing a big screen with a power point that had lots of “data." [hahah what data? his? try this data—Leadership Council- or better this data The Liz Library – or how about this data, the Battered Mothers Custody Conference] or DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE, and CHILD CUSTODY: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues

’A reporter later asked me what I thought about the data. I agreed with the fact that the majority of children that are living in poverty are living in the homes of single mothers. However, focusing on this one piece of this very large puzzle is not just short-sided, it perpetuates the right wing sexist myth of lazy welfare moms. So, for Mr. Rector’s purposes…focusing on this one piece serves him, Governor Brownback and the rest of their right wing radical base well.

What young women need (beyond the obvious need for greater access to low cost birth control and improved sex education in schools) is a boost to their self-esteem. They need mentors that will tell them that they are greater than their biological ability to pro-create. [no shit- that they are what ?human beings? damn straight] They need to be told that they possess greatness within themselves beyond what can be obtained by any outside stimulus, whether that be men, babies, money, drugs or alcohol. We must prop these young women up with not only internal fortitude, but with jobs that pay a living wage and opportunities for secondary education.

These “town halls” created to perpetuate myths and sexist stereotypes about women for the political purpose of crushing welfare benefits to the needy within our state will do nothing to combat the true problem of childhood poverty. These events are despicable and they are sad. This Governor is using the poor children of Kansas as pawns to advance his personal political agenda.

The one positive that could potentially come from these high profile staged “town hall” events in Kansas, is the outing of this Governor. This Governor is not just an opponent of abortion, or even birth control, he is an opponent of women.

In Kansas, Secrecy, Control, and Limited Participation Are Hallmarks Of Brownback's Town Halls

by Kari Ann Rinker

Governor Brownback's policies are designed to favor the likes of the Kochs, not the kids of Kansas. His "town halls" are further proof of the control that our governor demands over every interaction, every policy and every man, woman and child within Kansas boundaries.

What Topeka Tells Us: When the Budget Cuts Come, It's Women and Children First

by Jodi Jacobson

This week's power struggle over who would pay for prosecuting domestic violence crimes in Shawnee County, Kansas is both a reflection and a foreshadowing of how anti-tax, anti-government, religiously ideological leaders see their states and our country going. In short, when it comes to making cuts, it's women and children first.

New tool gives abused women a voice in courtroom Advocates pushing for Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit

2011-11-12T08:07:00.001-06:00

Click here for News Video WGN News

Example of How to do an Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit here.

By Marcella RaymondWGN News

One in four women is abused. Nationwide eight women a day are murdered by an abuser. But now there is a new tool that is helping women stay alive and giving them a voice in the process.

The evidentiary abuse affidavit was born out of Stacy Peterson’s disappearance. It is a tool advocates say will wipe out hearsay since it comes from the woman herself. First she details on paper abuse that, for some, has gone on for decades. The affidavit is witnessed by at least two people and notarized. Then she reads it on tape.

Susan Murphy-Milano has advocated for abused women for more than 20 years. She created the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit.

Through Murphy-Milano, at least 1,000 women in the last year have made the evidentiary abuse affidavit. All of them are still alive.

DuPage County State`s Attorney Robert Berlin says while the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit statements would take away hearsay, now the 6th Amendment comes in to play where a defendant has the right to confront a witness against him. Unless there`s more evidence that proves he made her disappear so she couldn`t testify.

The Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit will be available December 25th in app form at apple stores nationwide.

You can also get all the information in Susan Murphy-Milano's book “Time's Up.” It's available on her websitewww.susanmurphymilano.com

Shawnee County Commissioners: Shelley Buhler, Ted Ensley, Mary Thomas- Refuse to fund Domestic Violence Cases but prioritize golf course irrigation and personal profitable interests. A Special Interest Group-only.

2011-10-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Who is overseeing you? The Shawnee County Commissioners - Shelly? Ted? and Mary?

We need an audit into these 3 people who control all the funding in Topeka,Shawnee County, KS. Imagine, three people who have the qualifications of a high school graduate, controlling all the money in the county without any oversight without any accountability but with plenty of personal vested interest with the ‘departments’ they fund—or defund. e.g Golf course irrigation contract approved

But when these three Gestapo ‘puppet’ Nazi’s do not get their way when they bully and screw the local tax payer, the citizens of Topeka and Shawnee county, what they do?

“Well they whine and cry of course.” Check out today's latest whine. Commissioners turn to AG, citing 'no faith' in DA inquiry

Shawnee County Commissioners Contact information:

commission@snco.us

S.Buhler@snco.us and buhlerfam87@yahoo.com

M.Thomas@snco.us

T.Ensley@snco.us

Shelly Buhler(S.Buhler@snco.us), Chair
District 1

Shelley Buhler aka ‘Michelle Buhler” Shelly Buhler | Facebook

Michele A Buhler

(785) 584-6617

503 W Maple Ct

Rossville, KS 66533-9783

Age:
45-49

Associated:
Husband, Stephen R Buhler and Son, Mitchell Buhler

Mary M. Thomas(M.Thomas@snco.us)
District 2

Mary Thomas--- best friend to Vic Millers ex wife-(give’s new meaning to ‘keeping it in the family)

Mary M Thomas

3511 SE Tomahawk Ct

Topeka, KS 66605-3133

Age:

50-54

Associated:

Larry J Thomas, Dana Thomas

Ted Ensley(T.Ensley@snco.us), Vice Chair
District 3

Ted Ensely aka ‘Theodore D. Ensley’ better known for his ‘county funded’ Ensley Gardens

Ted D Ensley (Democrat)

(785) 478-2030

2500 SW Rother Rd

Topeka, KS 66614-4746

Age:

65+

Associated:

Elna N Ensley

Theodore D Ensley

E******D@___.NET

Now, I ask, how in the hell can these three people wield so much power with out any transparency, accountability or oversight?

Final Budget for 2012 County budget line items indicated:

27 budgets were cut,

18 were increased and

9 were unchanged.

I will find which is what. (If I can, the very last thing I wanted was to delve into local politics) We all already know that the Criminal, Justice, District Attorney and even the county Morgue were ‘cut’.

We have been able to ascertain that the golf course, the parks and recreation, the Ensley gardens, Public library, Expo Center were not, and some in fact increased.

We, just want you to know, Shelly, Ted and Mary, that we are calling you out. We demand that you and your commission be investigated. We are tired of your lack of prioritizing when it comes to public safety and we will not tolerate it any more.

The Community, the Victims and the Survivors are behind only one person in all this mess. Chad Taylor, the District attorney. The Topeka City Council sold us out when they ‘decriminalized domestic violence’, the Commissioners started the sell out with cuts to DA – only to have Vic Miller resign same day to take a judge position with the city. Now the Commission continues to throw tantrums?

Their is much more going on with the City Interim Manager, City Council and the Shawnee County Commission, and it stinks.

Topeka, No money for Domestic Violence but Millions $ for Golf Course’s

2011-10-26T19:35:00.001-05:00

The District Attorney only needed a pitiless 350K (that was cut) to be able to continue to ‘on a shoe string’ to prosecute Domestic Violence cases. So now these are the real priorities, now that the national media is dying down. It’s back on to the good ole boys business as usual and ‘how we can help ourselves, our personal agenda- now that we got rid of those annoying Domestic Violence Victims/Survivors and Advocates.. …..”

It’s Business as usual in the land of OZ- Where the wizard failed to give out any hearts, brains or courage to the City government.

Topeka City Counsel Members have approved a one million dollar heath care for its City employee’s this week. (just among some other non ‘public safety’ spending spree.)

But they can NOT afford to prosecute Domestic Violence cases? WTF? They ‘decriminalize domestic violence’ to save money for non ‘public safety’ issues. I mean Crime is at an all time high in Topeka, Ks. I Guess Topeka Citizens safety is JUST NOT important. The Topeka County Commissioners (the ones who Cut the District Attorney’s Budget to prosecute Domestic Violence Case’s) is to approve a golf course irrigation system with total debt service estimated at nearly $1.4 million.

But no one thinks that 350K for Domestic violence prosecutions is important. At least not in Topeka, KS.

What’s that matter with Topeka? There is not enough public outrage-

The Commissioners Cut Funding for DV Prosecutions
The City ‘Decriminalizes Domestic Violence’-(so they do not have to pay for it)

TOPEKA, KANSAS pure and simple does not give a shit about Victims of Domestic Violence. It is business as usual--- yes, profit business in Topeka. The only city in the Nation to Decriminalize Domestic Violence, and cut funding for Domestic Violence Prosecutions.

I say ladies, grab your guns and girdles- it’s time to take care of yourself and your children, and do an “Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit'” so when you are murdered at least he wont ‘get away with it’ as they say they will and usually do. This is just one of many from Domestic Violence expert and author Susan Murphy Milano’s

The book "Time's Up A Guide on How To Survive and Abusive and Stalking Relationship"

is the prescription that every person must obtain before they announce they are leaving. Below is an example from Chapter 4, one of many unique tools provided in the book. It is available on Amazon.com, or you can purchase via e-book or on a CD. If you have questions, the email address is: timesupforjustice@gmail.com

Chapter 4 featuring the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit contains information that is critical to help victims’ in documenting their experiences and creating a record to insure that instances of abuse are memorialized should they be needed for future use in the
legal system.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=14769756&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit by Susan Murphy Milano from the Book "Time's Up" from Courage Network on Vimeo.

Topeka, KS: Domestic Violence Prosecutions Need to Be Funded Now!!!

2011-10-26T09:34:00.001-05:00

This is WHY Topeka Kansas 'Decriminalized Domestic Violence" within the City. LACK OF FUNDING! We Demand that Funding be restored so that Domestic Violence will be Prosecuted in Topeka, Kansas.

Domestic Violence Victims Need Justice Now! Sign now! http://www.change.org/petitions/topeka-ks-domestic-violence-prosecutions-need-to-be-funded-now

Amplify’d from www.change.org

This is WHY Topeka Kansas 'Decriminalized Domestic Violence" within the City. LACK OF FUNDING! We Demand that Funding be restored so that Domestic Violence will be Prosecuted in Topeka, Kansas.

Domestic Violence Victims Need Justice Now!

The Shawnee County Commission needs to make the ‘Safety’ of Domestic Violence Victims a ‘priority' and get adequate funding in place for the prosecution of Domestic Violence case's and seek Justice for Victims.

The BOTTOM LINE:

The District Attorney's Office is underfunded, under staffed (unlike the City of Topeka) and still only the most severe crimes will ever make it to trial with most pleading out to avoid cost of trial.

Domestic Violence Cases - will remain completely without consequence to batterers. At best they will be plead out to 1.) disorderly conduct or 2.) destruction of personal property. To get them out of the system quickly so that what remaining resources can be used for higher level crimes of felony.

The City of Topeka has ‘repealed’ the ban on Domestic Violence so victims no longer have the City of Topeka Court as an option to fall back on.

Currently, Domestic Violence Victims now have a better chance of winning the lottery, than having the crimes committed against them ever be prosecuted and Justice still remains denied.

We strongly urge the Shawnee County Commissioners: Shelly Buhler, Ted Ensley and Mary M. Thomas to make ‘Safety’ a priority and act swiftly to provide adequate funding for all crimes, especially the crime of Domestic Violence in Topeka, KS.
Read more at www.change.org

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rNkusR

Domestic Violence: Why Doesn't She Just Leave? The Courts Won't Let Her!

2011-10-26T08:46:00.001-05:00

Battered Mothers are NOT allowed to leave the Batterer. If they do--- The Mother is then punished buy the Courts, by loosing her children to the man who terrorized and brutalized her. The ultimate form of control on the batterers part just short of murder. For a lot of the moms who have lost their children to abusers, it is a death they must endure daily - worst than death.

Amplify’d from www.nowayoutbutone.com

THE PROJECT: No Way Out But One is a feature length documentary currently in post-production. It tells the story of an American woman accused of kidnapping her own children, a woman who fled the country and became the first American to be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands on grounds of domestic violence. The 13-minute version presented here serves as a trailer for the feature and a documentary short. Read more here

THE STORY: In 1994 Holly Collins became an international fugitive when she took her three children and fled the United States to protect them from abuse. The family courts had ignored medical evidence of domestic violence and gave full custody of Holly's children to the man they named as their abuser – her ex-husband and the children's father. Wanted by the FBI, Holly became the first U.S. Citizen to receive asylum from the Netherlands. Read more here.

THE LARGER PICTURE: In No Way Out But One, Holly Collins shares a story that in many respects is like thousands of others. It is estimated that 58,000 children a year are ordered into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States. Read more here.

IN THE END: Unlike so many of the other tragic stories happening around the country, Holly was able to protect her children and keep them safe. Despite all the harrowing trials, her story ultimately has a happy ending. Even though she and the kids had No Way Out But One.
Read more at www.nowayoutbutone.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/tQo0EH

NO WAY OUT BUT ONE: a story of love and justice by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan

2011-10-26T08:31:00.001-05:00

http://www.nowayoutbutone.com/

Project Update #14: From Boston Magazine: ‘No Way Out But One’ to Unveil at MIT

Posted by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan

BY SARA EDWARDS

A compelling new documentary debuts in Boston this week that will open your eyes to a stunning injustice. No Way Out But One was co-written and directed by Emmy award winning television producer Garland Waller, currently a professor at Boston University. Waller, a friend and former colleague of mine at WBZ-TV, asked me to go to San Diego in August to critique the unfinished doc at a conference on domestic violence.

The film follows a case that gained international attention 10 years ago when a divorced mother made the FBI’s Most Wanted List for kidnapping her children from their father and escaping overseas.

Holly Collins, a battered wife living in Minnesota, divorced her husband but lost custody of her kids when the family court deemed she was so traumatized by the abuse that her parenting skills were questionable. The court also ignored evidence her ex-husband severely beat the children, even cracking his young son’s skull. In interviews with the children, now young adults, we hear about the emotional and physical cruelty they endured while living with their father. Collins took her kids and ran.

The film details their harrowing escape, how Collins eluded security at the airport pre-9/11, and how she and her children eventually became the first Americans ever granted asylum in the Netherlands.

But Collins is one of the lucky ones. She and her family (including her daughter, Jennifer, who’s director of the Courage Kids Network, which helps abused children) are now back in the U.S. and plan to attend the screening at 7 p.m. Thursday on MIT campus, room 6-120. Co-producers Waller and Barry Nolan will also be there. (Full disclosure: Nolan is a Boston Daily blogger.) Waller says she is thrilled the film was picked to lead off the new Chicks Make Flicks series, sponsored by Women in Film & Video/New England.

“I know it’s not a pleasant subject, talking about child abuse and having to acknowledge that the American family court system isn’t protecting abused children, but perhaps once people realize what is happening they can initiate change,” Holly Collins said.

It takes courage to put the spotlight on an issue that a flawed system would prefer be left in the shadows. No Way Out But One persuasively makes the case for much-needed change.

Care to comment? View this update on Kickstarter →

KICKSTARTER

Topeka, KS: Domestic Violence Prosecutions Need to Be Funded Now!!!

2011-10-25T13:37:00.001-05:00

This is WHY Topeka Kansas 'Decriminalized Domestic Violence" within the City. LACK OF FUNDING! Demand that Funding be restored so that Domestic Violence will be Prosecuted! Sign the petition, Forward to everyone!

Amplify’d from www.change.org

Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas: Domestic Violence Victims Need Justice Now!

The Shawnee County Commission needs to make the ‘Safety’ of Domestic Violence Victims a ‘priority' and get adequate funding in place for the prosecution of Domestic Violence case's and seek Justice for Victims.

1. Shawnee County Commissioners Cut the District Attorney’s office funding by 10%. (After there was a request for an increase due to the high crime rate).

2. Shawnee County District Attorney as a result of the Budget Cuts was forced to place all Misdemeanors including Domestic Violence charges on the City of Topeka Court.

3. The City of Topeka, did not want to pay to do 'Domestic Violence' cases (Although quite capable)

4. The Topeka City Council, City Manager and Mayor then caused a national outrage by 'Decriminalizing Domestic Violence' and repealing the ban on Domestic Violence within the city limits so that they would not be jurisdiction. http://bit.ly/rgk8TL

5. Thereby forcing the Shawnee County District Attorney to 'review' the Domestic Violence Cases, as a State law.

6. Since the City of Topeka, 'Decriminalized' Domestic Violence, the Shawnee County District Attorney of course is now forced to review these cases. (Although the DA's Office does not have sufficient funding and in fact suffered a 10% budget cut)

7. The Shawnee County Commissioner's still have not provided adequate funding for District Attorney.

8. District Attorney is now forced to lay off 17% of his staff effective December 23, 2011. http://bit.ly/ogHoer

The BOTTOM LINE:

The District Attorney's Office is underfunded, under staffed (unlike the City of Topeka) and still only the most severe crimes will ever make it to trial with most pleading out to avoid cost of trial.

Domestic Violence Cases - will remain completely without consequence to batterers. At best they will be plead out to 1.) disorderly conduct or 2.) destruction of personal property. To get them out of the system quickly so that what remaining resources can be used for higher level crimes of felony.

The City of Topeka has ‘repealed’ the ban on Domestic Violence so victims no longer have the City of Topeka Court as an option to fall back on.

Currently, Domestic Violence Victims now have a better chance of winning the lottery, than having the crimes committed against them ever be prosecuted and Justice still remains denied.

We strongly urge the Shawnee County Commissioners: Shelly Buhler, Ted Ensley and Mary M. Thomas to make ‘Safety’ a priority and act swiftly to provide adequate funding for all crimes, especially the crime of Domestic Violence in Topeka, KS.
Read more at www.change.org

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/udqd9m

SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT – It Wasn’t Topeka and their “Lack of Stand’ on Domestic Violence

2011-10-24T06:45:00.001-05:00

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month we want the world to know that we are here… we always have been. It was only up until recently with the ‘slap in the face’ against domestic violence survivors and victims in Topeka Kansas that our voices have only gotten louder. We honor our fallen sisters who were not as lucky as we are to have survived a relationship. We have faith in knowing they are guiding us as we preserve their memory. Many are now gone but not forgotten, this is for you. http://www.topeka.org/cityofficials/. Several Petitions here that have been making a difference, as well as all their contact info Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas Contact #’s

I highly urge you to sign the petitions for the demand of City Council to stop ‘bitch slapping’ DV victims, and to HIGHLY encourage and DEMAND that the Shawnee County Commissioners Shelly Buhler, Ted Ensley and Mary Thomas to Start prioritizing PUBLIC SAFETY and reinstate funding cut from all of Topeka’s DA, prosecutors, Sherriff and even the morgue.

Cut instead the funding from parks and recreation. Ted Ensley’s Parks and Gardens, to including but definetly NOT limited to: the Expo Center, the Fancy Public Library, 400K for a new Irrigation System for County Golf Course, several 250K per round-abouts...(sadly this list goes on and on…)

I strongly urge you to watch this 20/20 Diane Sawyer report on Domestic Violence.

This is the NORMAL for a Victim/Survivor – (However,She was the lucky one.) The System worked for her, 90% of DV Victims do not walk away with their lives – or as the walking dead-without her children.

1 in 4 Women are in or have been in a DV situation as below. 1 in 2 people will know someone who is or has been a DV Situation – or what it really is “Coercive Control” a fundamental loss of life, liberty, and human rights.

The Courts the System, the Community has failed to Support the women in their lives.

SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT

by mamaliberty

This woman saved my life. When I was in a violent relationship I saw the particular story on Oprah. I recognized myself in these videos, trying had to be quiet to prevent his hands on me. The judge who sentenced this abuser was emotional when describing what he saw in that video of Susan. I wonder what did he see? Did he realize that domestic violence is far more damaging of a crime than originally thought? Do we really have the equal protection under law? We as survivors of intimate partner violence have come a long way. Just like Susan, I am a far cry from the subservient battered slave I once was.

If it were not for Susan and the countless other of survivors that have found their voice and share their story to the world to let us know, we are not alone, we are not crazy and you too can survive! My work on this blog and elsewhere has led me down a path filled with love and empowerment. My hope for the future is that all women will be protected as every human deserves. Since we cannot eradicate “abuse” it is up to law enforcement and the judiciary to be well-informed and educated on the subject of domestic violence. We have not only shattered that proverbial glass ceiling we are coming through it in masses.

You are not alone, your sisters are all around you, come find us!

Shawnee County Commissioners: Adequately Fund for Prosecution of Domestic Violence Case's in Topeka, KS

2011-10-22T00:16:00.001-05:00

Sign Petition here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/shawnee-county-commissioners-adequately-fund-for-prosecution-of-domestic-violence-cases-in-topeka-ks

Why this is Important

Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas: Domestic Violence Victims Need Justice Now!

The Shawnee County Commission needs to make the ‘Safety’ of Domestic Violence Victims a ‘priority'and get adequate funding in place for the prosecution of Domestic Violence case's and seek Justice for Victims.

1. Shawnee County Commissioners Cut the District Attorney’s office funding by 10%. (After there was a request for an increase due to the high crime rate).

2. Shawnee County District Attorney as a result of the Budget Cuts was forced to place all Misdemeanors including Domestic Violence charges on the City of Topeka Court.

3. The City of Topeka, did not want to pay to do 'Domestic Violence' cases (Although quite capable)

4. The Topeka City Council, City Manager and Mayor then caused a national outrage by 'Decriminalizing Domestic Violence' and repealing the ban on Domestic Violence within the city limits so that they would not be jurisdiction. http://bit.ly/rgk8TL

5. Thereby forcing the Shawnee County District Attorney to 'review' the Domestic Violence Cases, as a State law.

6. Since the City of Topeka, 'Decriminalized' Domestic Violence, the Shawnee County District Attorney of course is now forced to review these cases. (Although the DA's Office does not have sufficient funding and in fact suffered a 10% budget cut)

7. The Shawnee County Commissioner's still have not provided adequate funding for District Attorney.

8. District Attorney is now forced to lay off 17% of his staff effective December 23, 2011. http://bit.ly/ogHoer

The BOTTOM LINE:

The District Attorney's Office is underfunded, under staffed (unlike the City of Topeka) and still only the most severe crimes will ever make it to trial with most pleading out to avoid cost of trial.

Domestic Violence Cases - will remain completely without consequence to batterers. At best they will be plead out to 1.) disorderly conduct or 2.) destruction of personal property. To get them out of the system quickly so that what remaining resources can be used for higher level crimes of felony.

The City of Topeka has ‘repealed’ the ban on Domestic Violence so victims no longer have the City of Topeka Court as an option to fall back on.

Currently, Domestic Violence Victims now have a better chance of winning the lottery, than having the crimes committed against them ever be prosecuted and Justice still remains denied.

We strongly urge the Shawnee County Commissioners: Shelly Buhler, Ted Ensley and Mary M. Thomas to make ‘Safety’ a priority and act swiftly to provide adequate funding for all crimes, especially the crime of Domestic Violence in Topeka, KS. read more here: http://www.change.org/petitions/shawnee-county-commissioners-adequately-fund-for-prosecution-of-domestic-violence-cases-in-topeka-ks

Denise Everhart, Richard Harmon - True ‘elected’ Public Servants Support Victims of Domestic Violence at Rally, Topeka, KS

2011-10-21T17:58:00.001-05:00

Denise Everhart (left) and Richard Harmon (right) two of the three that voted against ‘decriminalizing’ Domestic Violence were also at Topeka, KS YWCA March Against Violence October 21, 2011. More Photos here.

It was so nice to see these Topeka City Council officials at the rally today. (Especially after ‘Manspeaker’s fail’).

These two (actually 3) have taken a lot of ‘heat’ from the other 7 members of the City Council that voted to repeal DV as a crime within the city limits. I was so glad they showed up. So were they, they needed the support as well knowing that they din in fact stand up for the ‘right’ thing and voted ‘no’.

They greeted every one, advocates, survivors and victims, all thanked them for their ‘stand’ against Domestic Violence. They marched with us from the State Capitol down Topeka Blvd with Topeka Police motorcycle (Harley’s even :-D ) escort. When we arrived at the YWCA, they immediately donned gloves and aprons and began ‘serving the public’- hot dogs. The event had about a 150 turn out. Not including the awesome Topeka High Drumline. (video below)

While I was talking with Ms. Everhart, she informed me that the city council is still getting tons of email (YEAH-KEEP IT UP). That several organizations, groups have boycotted Topeka until they reinstate the ‘bam on Domestic Violence’. I asked Denise how we could help, she stated that we really need to put pressure on the Shawnee County Commissioners. Plain and simple the DA’s office needs that funding to prosecute crimes especially low level DV crimes.

So we are still no better off than we were before, the city ‘decriminalized domestic violence’—the city has no responsibility –obviously now. But that does not fix the problem. Bottom line, the Commission cut funding to the DA which in turn forced DA to give City all misdemeanor charges including DV. The City decriminalized it-so they would have to prosecute- and now we are back at the DA needing funding. Who holds the key? The Shawnee County Commission.

Thank you to all who turned out today to support Topeka, KS Victims of Domestic Violence! A Big thanks to my hero’s Denise Everhart and Richard Harmon, you are hero’s to every DV Victim/Survivor Nationally—Internationally! We support you for as you GOOD PUBLIC SERVANTS! You have the World Supporting you and your Stand Against Domestic Violence. Thank you.

You can thank them personally as well below for taking a stand against Domestic Violence.

District 4
Denise Everhart (Voted Against Repeal)
785-267-4098 District 9
Richard Harmon (Voted Against Repeal)
785-271-6962 District 5
Larry Wolgast (Voted Against Repeal)
785-272-6896

Those who ‘decriminalized domestic violence’ can be reached below.

Mayor
Bill Bunten
785-368-3895 District 2
John Alcala
785-233-7110

District 6
Chad Manspeaker
785-220-9493 District 8
Andrew Gray
785-806-0068

District 3
Sylvia Ortiz
785-357-0717 District 7
Bob Archer
785-817-8157

District 1
Karen Hiller
785-232-2917 City Manager Dan Stanley
785-368-3725

SHAWNEE COUNTY COMMISIONERS

200 SE 7th B11
Topeka Kansas
66603-3971
(785) 233-8200
Ext. 4040

Chairman (District 1)
Shelly Buhler

(District 2) Mary Thomas

(District 3) Ted Ensley

TOPEKA HIGH DRUM LINE For DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RALLY

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150428997845229

Insult to Injury- Chad Manspeaker who voted to ‘Decriminalize Domestic Violence’ shows up at Domestic Violence Rally in Topeka,KS

2011-10-21T17:57:00.001-05:00

Hey Topeka Women - SLAP! Slap! Slap!! Compliments of Chad Manspeaker. Just to make sure you didn’t get ‘Slapped enough’ the first time – see here

Topeka Voted tonight to Decriminalize Domestic Violence - A Move that Sets Back a 100 years of DV work

10-21-2011“Manspeaker,who voted with the majority of the council to repeal misdemeanor domestic battery from city ordinance’

This was insane, Chad Manspeaker, not only showed up at rally but spoke abouthis decision (and 6 others city councilpersons) who voted to ‘Decriminalize Domestic Violence’ with in the Topeka City limits that outraged the Nation. This ELECTED official, a ‘public servant’ huh? could have fooled me- Had the audacity to show up at OUR DV rally and further had the audacity to ‘explain his decision’STILL thinking he ‘is da man’ - He is not, he is a coward as are the others who voted to further insult battered women--

And really Chad, while the other two council members Everhart and Harmon (who voted against repealing the ban) were ‘serving the public’ and hot dogs- Manspeaker wouldn’t do ‘public servant work’ he just sat and ate his hotdogs.

Boooooo Manspeaker—how dare you show up and talk your crap at a rally for survivors and victims of ‘Domestic Violence”- the same that YOU ‘DECRIMILIZED?’
SLAP!! SLAP!! Take that- you women! I guess abusers are like that. They like to control intimidate and expect you to kneel down and lick his shoes for his greatness in making sure that Victims of Domestic Violence crime is decriminalized.
Any ways, let him know how victims/survivors do not appreciate his actions.

Chad Manspeaker , 1304 SW College Ave, Topeka, KS 66604
Cell: 220-9493 email: manspeakerfortopeka@gmail.com

Council District #6
Chad Manspeaker, Councilperson
1304 SW College Ave., Topeka, KS 66604
cmanspeaker@topeka.org
785-220-9493
Chad Manspeaker (@manspeaker) on Twitter

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ManspeakerForTopeka?v=info

Topeka Maneuvers Over Domestic-Abuse Law Outrage Survivors

2011-10-17T07:58:00.001-05:00

From the LA Times

Claudine Dombrowski tells of having her wrists broken, being hit on the head with a crowbar, getting chipped teeth and, at one point, needing 24 stitches to close a wound. Even when she left her boyfriend, she says, the abuse didn't stop. Ultimately, she says, she was left on total disability.

“I called the police, I did all the right things, I ended up in court, and on a good day, it got reduced from domestic violence to disorderly conduct,” Dombrowski, a Topeka, Kansas, resident and now an advocate for abuse survivors, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

So Dombrowski was outraged when misdemeanor domestic abuse — already an insult, she thinks, for not being equal to an assault charge — went unpunished for a month in Topeka after a local funding dispute turned into a circular firing squad that caught battered women in the center.

The county didn’t want to pay for prosecuting misdemeanor domestic battery; the prosecutor didn’t want to take the cases without more resources; and the city didn’t want to pay for handling the cases either.

Meanwhile, as many as 30 abuse suspects went free before the city of Topeka, in a legal maneuver, forced Shawnee County prosecutor Chad Taylor to resume prosecution of the cases — by dramatically pulling its own domestic abuse law from the books. The state has its own law, which the prosecutor would need to enforce.

“The fact that it happened just makes me feel pretty worthless, you know?” Dombrowski said. “We spend millions of dollars on public service announcements saying we [domestic-violence victims] don’t have to live this way ... and you really do.”

Times have been tough for local governments. The economic buck stops with them because they don’t get to run on debt the way the federal government does, and some of the collapses have been spectacular.

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, threw up the white flag this week and declared bankruptcyafter a failed $300 million incinerator project capsized the city’s budget. The city manager formoribund Vallejo, Calif., has one assistant; she has to lock the door when she leaves, because there’s no one else in the office.

But for women, the symptoms of the municipal budget crisis are especially stunning in the sleepy prairie metropolis of Topeka. There, the symbolic decriminalization of domestic violence has thrown a spotlight on a chronically underreported issue in a state where women’s advocates are used to fighting uphill battles.

“We live in Kansas, where we are used to taking a lot of punches on the chin,” said Kari Ann Rinker, state coordinator for Kansas NOW, which recently saw the state legislature try to defund Planned Parenthood.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s conservative stances have led a few residents to derisively dub the state “Brownbackistan.”

But beyond the familiar battlefronts over abortion, domestic violence hits especially close to home. In 2008, Jana Mackey, a 25-year-old Kansas NOW lobbyist who volunteered to aid victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, was found slain in an ex-boyfriend’s home.

“When I went in front of the county commission in Shawnee County about this issue [funding prosecutions for domestic abuse in Topeka], I brought everything I had, and I was emotional,” said Rinker. “Sometimes I’m accused of being less than professional. But I’ve tried to do this nicely, to fight this mentality in this state, and we’ve reached this point where we need to stop being nice and start rattling some cages to do so.”

Added Dombrowski: “If these people really cared about women, they would come up with the money. They wouldn’t argue about it.”

The past month has been treacherous for domestic abuse survivors in Topeka, according to Becky Dickinson, program director for the Topeka YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment, which she said saw an increase in the number of women needing help.

“It became a very scary and dangerous time for victims to get law enforcement involved,” Dickinson told The Times, adding that victims “were calling the police and seeing their abusers being arrested but getting released in 48 hours.”

In an abuse situation, Dickinson said, abusers are often the most dangerous after they’ve been arrested. They come home looking for revenge. Needless to say, Dickinson said, “victims were concerned” about the budget spat.

Dickinson said that in 2010, the Topeka YWCA helped 1,305 county residents with services and counseling for domestic and sexual violence, assisted with 586 protection orders, housed 190 women and children in a shelter, and received nearly 2,000 calls to its crisis hotline.

Those numbers are likely low. Domestic violence often goes unreported. So it’s a dark irony that Topeka’s new time in the international limelight comes during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. “Now Topeka is known as the domestic violence capital of the world,” Kansas NOW’s Rinker said.

Whether the county prosecutor’s announcement that it is resuming prosecutions will fix the problem remains to be seen; the prosecutor’s office is expected to lay off almost a fifth of its staff by the end of the year, which could impact the prosecution of domestic violence cases that the office just resumed prosecuting.

“Even on a good day, it doesn’t work,” Dombrowski said of Topeka’s handling of domestic abuse victims. “And now it’s even worse.”

--Matt Pearce in Kansas City
Twitter.com/mattdpearce

Photo: Claudine Dombrowski, left, a survivor advocate, greets Amber Versola, a lobbyist for Kansas National Organization for Women, on Tuesday at a rally at the Shawnee County Court House in Topeka, Kansas. Credit: AP / The Capital-Journal, Anthony S. Bush

Topeka's "Week Without Violence" Begins Today in the Only City in the Nation that 'Decriminalized Domestic Violence

2011-10-17T07:56:00.001-05:00

"Week Without Violence"

I am saddened. The City Council continues to twist and mince words. The bottom line and in simple English is -

YES, THEY DECRIMINALIZED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE within the city of Topeka.

See some of the other posts on this site.

They want to be called hero's? They are cowards.

They think that they know what is best for domestic violence victims? They are wrong.

The YWCA begins its week with out violence in the First City in the Nation to decriminalize Domestic Violence. See event here: and please be sure to attend the March on Friday where all the State, City and County Gov. officials will be leading the March.
KEEP WRITING the city council (express your outrage over their thoughtless and heartless repeal of Dv) and Write the city commissioners we need the DA's office funded! We need help!!

The Attorney General Derek Schmidt knows that Domestic Violence Victims will suffer (MORE than they have already) from budget cuts and reduced staff in DA office.

As for all those on the City Council who voted to repeal ban -- “You have not helped us “- You have hurt us -even more.

Happy "Week with out Violence" in honor of "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month".
Topeka has become an 'abuser' to battered women as well as an already broken system and sympathy for abusers. Be ashamed, be very ashamed.

Labels: DISTRICT ATTORNEY, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, FUNDING, MISDEMEANOR CHARGES, TOPEKA, Topeka City Council, Topeka Kansas Decriminalize Domestic Violence"

Topeka Kansas: Successfully Votes Making "Domestic Violence Legal"

2011-10-12T09:24:00.001-05:00

From Times Up!!

By Susan Murphy Milano

In Topeka, Kansas on October 11, 2011, members of the City Council voted and successfully repealed the city's ordinance banning domestic violence during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Talk about a punch, a kick and slap for victims of intimate partner violence by city government’s financial misconduct as their excuse for not wanting to do their jobs. At the center of dysfunction, the absent District Attorney Chad Taylor, who is refusing to prosecute domestic violence crimes in the city.
During the two hour televised council meeting, the one sided discussion from 7 of the 10 elected members amounted to nothing more than political finger pointing. Leading the charge, and ultimately dictating the vote, was Interim City Manager Dan Stanley, brow beating those during the hearing into submission of his way or the highway. It was classic manipulation "101" presented in a live stream real time format.
According to National Advocate, organizer and expert Claudine Dombrowski, inattendance at the City Council meeting, “I witnessed the Council of elected officialssupport the decriminalization of domestic violence within the city limits of Topeka and berate speakers, who were survivors and victims. The elected council members temper tantrums during the meeting and finger pointing were disgusting.”
Approximately 24 years ago, after years of lobbying by victims, advocates and families of those slain by their partner, legislation was signed by Governors nation-wide making domestic violence a crime. The pen used to sign the bill, was not filled with ink, but the blood of all those who lives were lost at the hands of those professing to love them.
This "stunt" today will cost Topeka more than the mere 10% budget shortfall cited by city officials as the reason not to prosecute. Expect an increase in intimate partner related missing persons cases (providing they will still be allowed to make a report) and count on more funerals for those victims whom the police did not respond.
This certainly gives new meaning to creating prevention and awareness duringNational Domestic Violence Awareness Month, doesn't it?

· “16,800 homicides (that are reported) attributed to intimate partner homicide per year, 2.2 million medically treated injuries costing $37 BILLION per year.[i] [CDH1]
· The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion dollars each year; $4.1 billion of which is for medical and mental health services.”[ii]
· Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner.[iii]
· In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.[iv] [CDH2]
· Less than one-fifth of victims reporting an injury from intimate partner violence sought medical treatment following the injury. [v][CDH3]
· Intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.[vi]
[i] NCDAV reporting sourced from: The Cost of Violence in the United States. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GAhttp://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf
[ii] NCDAV reporting sourced from: The Cost of Violence in the United States. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA
http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf
[iii] Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports “Crime in the United States, 2000,” (2001)
[iv] NCDAV report sourced from: Campbell, et al. (2003). “Assessing Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Homicide.” Intimate Partner Homicide, NIJ Journal, 250, 14-19. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice
[v] U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States,” December 2006
[vi] Costs of Intimate Partner Violence against Women in the United States. 2003.

****

Susan Murphy Milano is a staff member of the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is a specialist with intimate partner violence prevention strategies and high risk cases and available for personal consultations through the Institute. She is also part of the team atManagement Resources Limited of New York.
Susan is the author of "Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships,"Moving out, Moving on, and Defending Out Lives. Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time's Up !" . She is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated "The Roth Show" with Dr Laurie Roth and a co-host on Crime Wire.

Topeka Kansas: Successfully Votes Making "Domestic Violence Legal"

2011-10-12T09:18:00.001-05:00

I witnessed the Council of elected officials support the decriminalization of domestic violence within the city limits of Topeka and berate speakers, who were survivors and victims. The elected council members temper tantrums during the meeting and finger pointing were disgusting.”

Amplify’d from timesupblog.blogspot.com

In Topeka, Kansas on October 11, 2011, members of the City Council voted and successfully repealed the city's ordinance banning domestic violence during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Talk about a punch, a kick and slap for victims of intimate partner violence by city government’s financial misconduct as their excuse for not wanting to do their jobs. At the center of dysfunction, the absent District Attorney Chad Taylor, who is refusing to prosecute domestic violence crimes in the city.

During the two hour televised council meeting, the one sided discussion from 7 of the 10 elected members amounted to nothing more than political finger pointing. Leading the charge, and ultimately dictating the vote, was Interim City Manager Dan Stanley, brow beating those during the hearing into submission of his way or the highway. It was classic manipulation "101" presented in a live stream real time format.

support the decriminalization of domestic violence within the city limits of Topeka and berate speakers, who were survivors and victims. The elected council members temper tantrums during the meeting and finger pointing were disgusting.”

Approximately 24 years ago, after years of lobbying by victims, advocates and families of those slain by their partner, legislation was signed by Governors nation-wide making domestic violence a crime. The pen used to sign the bill, was not filled with ink, but the blood of all those who lives were lost at the hands of those professing to love them.

attendance at the City Council meeting, “I witnessed the Council of elected officials

This "stunt" today will cost Topeka more than the mere 10% budget shortfall cited by city officials as the reason not to prosecute. Expect an increase in intimate partner related missing persons cases (providing they will still be allowed to make a report) and count on more funerals for those victims whom the police did not respond.

This certainly gives new meaning to creating prevention and awareness during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, doesn't it?

· “16,800 homicides (that are reported) attributed to intimate partner homicide per year, 2.2 million medically treated injuries costing $37 BILLION per year.[i] [CDH1]

· The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion dollars each year; $4.1 billion of which is for medical and mental health services.”[ii]

· Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner.[iii]

· In 70-80% of intimate partner homicides, no matter which partner was killed, the man physically abused the woman before the murder.[iv] [CDH2]

· Less than one-fifth of victims reporting an injury from intimate partner violence sought medical treatment following the injury. [v][CDH3]

· Intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.[vi]

[i] NCDAV reporting sourced from: The Cost of Violence in the United States. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf
[ii] NCDAV reporting sourced from: The Cost of Violence in the United States. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA
http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf
[iii] Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports “Crime in the United States, 2000,” (2001)
[iv] NCDAV report sourced from: Campbell, et al. (2003). “Assessing Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Homicide.” Intimate Partner Homicide, NIJ Journal, 250, 14-19. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice
[v] U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States,” December 2006

[vi] Costs of Intimate Partner Violence against Women in the United States. 2003.
Read more at timesupblog.blogspot.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/qmDYCP

Topeka, KS: “Outraged” KS-NOW Spearheads Protest at City Hall and DA’s Office - Over Domestic Violence Debacle. Tuesday October 11, 2011 4PM

2011-10-08T09:25:00.001-05:00

Spearheaded by KS-NOW: Kansas National Organization for Women

Topeka’s Plan to decimalize Domestic Violence – In Domestic Violence Awareness Month –no less. shame.

Several National Media Articles – under Google search in News “Topeka Domestic Violence”

Time Tuesday, October 11 · 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Location 200 SE 7th St. Topeka, Ks. 66603
Kansas National Organization for Women

More Info

Come protest the District Attorney Chad Taylor's office from 4 pm- 5:30 pm. We must stand up against the decisions being made regarding women and their families' lives due to budget cuts right here in Kansas.

Bring your signs!

Following the protest there will be a city council meeting in the same building starting at 6 pm.

We need people to come in masses and please call the Shawnee County Courthouse if you would like to speak at the meeting in order to get your name on the docket before 5 pm on Tuesday. Please send the word out and your presence is needed in this time of lost priorities. We will hand out purple ribbons at the protest.
*If you do wish to speak (and call to put your name on the list), they request that you limit your time to 4 minutes MAX.

OZ OutLawZ 2nd Annual Domestic Violence Poker Run, Topeka, KS (11 am at the Dugout in Topeka, KS)

2011-10-07T20:57:00.001-05:00

Women In The Wind - OZ OutLawZ Domestic Violence Poker Run, Topeka, KS

Starting at the Dugout at 11:00 am October 8th, 2011 Come have Fun!!

http://www.witwozoutlawz.org/

These are some awesome awesome awesome women—in the wind!! Thanks for all you do!! Topeka and surrounding areas—this is an awesome Time!! and of course a great cause—since our local government has failed Victims of Domestic Violence—the people have not.

The Video below is from last years 1st DV poker run!! Women who ride ROCK!!!!!

TURN UP YOUR SPEAKERS!!

http://www.witwozoutlawz.org/

http://www.witwozoutlawz.org/domesticviolenceFlyer.jpg

Father of two denied bail in teacher death

2011-10-05T12:07:00.001-05:00

Separated father of two Florin Fitzpatrick, who took the surname of his Irish wife, and with a former rental address at The Green, College Road, Galway, appeared in custody before a special sitting of Galway District Court yesterday.

Amplify’d from www.independent.ie

relation to the murder of schoolteacher John Kenny" width="294" height="294"/>

Supt Noel Kelly objected to bail because of the seriousness of the charge and he believed the man also posed a flight risk.

A 37-YEAR-OLD Romanian man has been remanded in custody, charged with withholding information in connection with the ongoing investigation into the murder of schoolteacher and publican John Kenny.

Judge Mary Fahy refused bail and remanded the accused in custody to appear at Harristown District Court in Co Roscommon on Friday.
Read more at www.independent.ie

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rseCmm

Teenager who stabbed girlfriend to death in row over garlic bread jailed for at least 15 years

2011-10-05T12:02:00.001-05:00

A TEENAGER who stabbed a young mother-of-two to death in a "ludicrous" argument about garlic bread was told today he would serve a minimum of 15 years behind bars.

Jamie Ellis murdered Alami Gotip, 22, in a "brutal and frenzied" knife attack at her home in the Dedridge area of Livingston, West Lothian, while her two young children slept upstairs.

She was stabbed around 40 times after Ellis, 18, "snapped" because she had been "moaning at him" over his failure to make garlic bread for dinner, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

Amplify’d from www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Jamie Ellis murdered Alami Gotip, 22, in a "brutal and frenzied" knife attack at her home in the Dedridge area of Livingston, West Lothian, while her two young children slept upstairs.

Ellis, who was in an on-off relationship with Ms Gotip, was told by Judge Lord Glennie he had robbed two young children of their mother.

The teenager pleaded guilty to the murder last month.

After being handed a life sentence, he was told he will not be considered for parole until he has spent at least 15 years in custody.

Passing sentence, Lord Glennie said: "Your actions not only took the life of someone you say you loved but deprived two young children of their mother.

She had two young daughters from a previous relationship with Neil Henderson and, despite their relationship ending in November last year, they remained close friends and shared childcare responsibilities.

Ms Gotip and Ellis broke up several times during their relationship and he was jealous of her continued friendship with Mr Henderson.

After the murder, Ellis, crying and with blood and cuts on his hand, went to his cousin's house and told him: "I don't know what I've done."

Ellis later told his mother over the phone: "I have done something bad. I have stabbed Alami."

He added: "It's not that I am a horrible person but s*** happens."
Read more at www.dailyrecord.co.uk

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/qT82ID

FATHER's plea in wife's death may resolve son's death

2011-10-05T11:56:00.001-05:00

CONCORD, N.H.—The mystery behind the killing of a 4-year-old New Hampshire boy may be resolved when his father pleads guilty to killing the boy's mother.

Thirty-eight-year-old Christopher Smeltzer of Auburn is charged with second-degree murder in the beating and strangulation death of his wife, Mara Pappalardo, last fall

Amplify’d from www.boston.com

Police on Nov. 8 also found the couple's 4-year-old son, Mason, dead of ligature strangulation in the family's Auburn home. Seven-year-old daughter Mercey Smeltzer was injured but survived.

No one has been charged with killing Mason and injuring Mercey.

The autopsy report indicates something was tied tightly around Mason's neck to kill him.

Smeltzer is scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday in Rockingham Superior Court.

Other court records show that Mara Pappalardo had filed a petition seeking custody of the children two months before she was killed. She told a Salem family court judge she was homeless and living with her mother-in-law, and that she couldn't afford to pay any court fees at the time but would once she was back on her feet. There is no indication the petition was ever served on her husband.
Read more at www.boston.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/owGrVU

Children Of Wife-Killing Suspect Fear Grandparents Will Kill Them

2011-10-05T11:50:00.001-05:00

How the hell were the parents of the man accused of killing these kids mother granted custody? Mother is killed, father takes custody of kids. Subsequently father gets arrested, so his parents take custody of children.

Sounds like the normal in murdered mother cases. The murderers parents ALWAYS fight and usually get custody of the remaining victims.

Amplify’d from gothamist.com

The young children of the NJ mom who was allegedly killed by her husband and his mistress are stuck in a rotten custody battle. And worse, they are allegedly terrified of the grandparents who they have been staying with.

Riyan and his two-year-old brother, Shayaan, have been staying with their paternal grandparents since the killing of their mother, Nazish Noorani. The children's father, Kashif Parvaiz, has been charged with arranging for his mistress, Antoinette Stephen, to murder his wife by shooting her in broad daylight while the couple strolled on a suburban NJ street. Prosecutors have called Parvaiz "sociopathic" and "narcissistic," while Stephen has denied her involvement in the murder.
Read more at gothamist.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/op19Wz

Topeka Council discusses failure to prosecute domestic battery

2011-10-05T08:28:00.001-05:00

The city plans to repeal the city law of Domestic Battery being a crime, in their thinking that the DA will be forced to begin prosecuting.

Amplify’d from cjonline.com

Two domestic violence survivors addressed the Topeka City Council on Tuesday evening after it heard the first reading of a proposal targeted at forcing Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor to resume prosecuting domestic batteries committed in Topeka.

“I just ask that somehow there has to be a resolution,” Jo Charay told the council.

Charay and Claudine Dombrowski appeared separately before the council during the public comments portion of its meeting.

She said domestic battery cases should be prosecuted in district court instead of Topeka Municipal Court because “the city does not have the resources and the agencies to deal with domestic violence the way that the county does and the state does.”

The council is expected next week to consider the proposed changes, which would include repealing the part of the code that bans domestic battery.

Dombrowski told the council her mother always told her two wrongs don’t make a right. She said repealing the part of city ordinance banning domestic battery would be “the second wrong” after Taylor stopped prosecuting those crimes.

Dombrowski also said criminal activity undoubtedly would increase when the consequences for it are removed.
Read more at cjonline.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/pwptcs

Michigan man who killed 7, self 'just lost it'

2011-10-05T07:45:00.001-05:00

He told his friend Willie Cunningham that he was upset with his estranged wife, Jennifer Heeren-Dantzler, 29, because she had taken his 12-year-old daughter for three days and not returned her.

Amplify’d from www.ajc.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An ex-convict who killed seven people in July before taking his own life in a Grand Rapids shooting spree had pledged in a suicide note to take his mother-in-law "with me."

Dantzler's suicide note "obviously indicated his frustration" with his estranged wife and her parents, Belk said. "Why he continues his rampage throughout the day . . . I don't think we'll ever know."

Dantzler shot at four police officers July 7 as he led them on a 12-minute chase through city streets and nearby highways, a prosecutor's report said. He wounded two people in downtown Grand Rapids during the chase and took three people hostage in a four-hour standoff. He released one before killing himself.

In a suicide note left for his mother, he complained, "it seems like everyone that loves me walk (sic) out of my life."

Dantzler blamed his mother-in-law for talking Heeren-Dantzler into leaving him, writing, "I dont (sic) have anything nice 2 say about her! I gonna take her with me!!!"

"It would appear that he was simply a very angry man,"

Dantzler previously dated Kimberlee Ann Emkens, 23. He also killed her sister, Amanda Renee Emkens, 27, and her niece, Marissa Lynn Emkens, 10.

Dantzler had a criminal record as far back as 1992, when he was charged as a juvenile with breaking and entering and car theft. That was followed over the next eight years by charges of trespassing, domestic violence, destruction of property, larceny and assault.

He couldn't legally own a firearm because of his criminal record but used a stolen .40-caliber handgun in the shootings.

He told Cunningham he'd killed his father-in-law first and then his mother-in-law, estranged wife and their daughter. He also said he'd killed someone else but didn't mention he'd killed seven people in all.

This photo provided by the Grand Rapids police via WOOD-TV shows Rodrick Dantzler, 34, an ex-convict who shot and killed seven people and wounded two others before fatally shooting himself in Grand Rapid, Mich., on July 7, 2011. Police planned to release audio and video recordings in the case on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Grand Rapids Police via WOOD-TV)
Read more at www.ajc.com

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Topeka, KS – City Plans to “Decriminalize” Domestic Violence and Repeal the City Ordinance Making Domestic Battery a Crime!

2011-09-28T13:46:00.001-05:00

Domestic battery ordinance repeal to be taken up

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2011-09-27/domestic-battery-ordinance-repeal-be-taken Back | Next

TIM HRENCHIR/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Interim city manager Dan Stanley spoke Tuesday evening at a work session where the Topeka City Council discussed how to react to District Attorney Chad Taylor's decision to stop prosecuting misdemeanors committed in Topeka, including domestic batteries.

Cut TANF Title IV-D programs which represent $4Billion of waste

2011-09-28T13:07:00.001-05:00

Click here to sign the petition------>> http://www.change.org/petitions/cut-tanf-title-iv-d-programs-which-represent-4billion-of-waste?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=autopublish

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

This letter is to request that you take action to cut spending on pork barrel spending on certain TANF Title IV-D programs which represent $4 billion untraceable dollars that no one keeps track of. These funds meant for needy children were diverted and wasted by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to non needs based programs available to all fathers engaged in the family court litigation industry---no matter how wealthy they are. These parents now ask Congress to take a stand to hold ACF’s defective leadership and the programs destroying families accountable by demanding the following budget cuts:

1. TANF Contingency Fund authorized under 403(b) Social Security Act for payment to States and other non-federal entities under Titles I, IV-D, X, XI, and XIV “to remain available until expended.” (p. 474)

2. ID Code 75-1552-0-1-609, lines 0005 and 0009 [$990 million] (p. 473)

3. ID Code 75-1501-0-1-609 lines 0002, 0003 [Access and Visitation] [$1.7 billion] (p. 474)

4. Discretionary “Child Support Incentives” to States [$305 million] (p. 475)

5. ID Code 75–1512–0–1–506 “Healthy Families” [$1.7 billion] (p.476)

6. ID Code 75–1512–0–1–506 “Abstinence Education” [$1.7 billion] (p. 477)

7. Line 0129 “Faith Based Initiatives” [$1 million] (p.479)

Struggling parents want things like jobs, housing, education, childcare, and access to medical care to help them weather the current economic crisis. Instead, these hard working families are forced to invest $4 Billion in irresponsible, extortion based, Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) programs that promote widespread Medicaid and child support fraud, protracted high conflict litigation, and bogus therapy programs.

Child support agencies deliberately withhold and mismanage billions of paid collected support, which starves children onto TANF and causes parents to be falsely prosecuted for nonpayment.

Good parents are being exploited, bankrupted, and emotionally destroyed while their kids are needlessly placed on the welfare, Medicaid, and foster care system rolls. Billions of dollars of child support remains unaccounted for nationwide.

These frivolous programs spend without restraint and direct money to places HHS cannot identify (as noted by the OIG and GOA reports on the second page.) There is no oversight. DHHS’s position is that once the money goes to the states, they are not responsible for oversight. Fraud is rampant, yet the OIG does nothing to enforce the laws to protect families.

90% of the parents paying child support are fathers. Using child support enforcement programs as a vehicle, these extortion based programs force fathers to elect between criminal penalties and inciting “high conflict” family court litigation to create a “need” for their own publicly funded services. These irresponsible programs cash in on the “incentives” by placing children in unstable homes, and then starve the entire family onto some sort of public assistance. We can identify no legitimate purpose for these programs and request that Congress take the following actions:

(1) Revoke or reduce funding to Administration for Children and Families (ACF) child support incentives, Access and Visitation (AV) programs, and gender based funding to child support agencies.

(2) End collateral child support/custody funding mandates.

(3) Overhaul Office on Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) on the federal level to remove staff with conflicts of interest and bias.

(4) Audit OCSE to find out where our tax dollars are actually going, and then implement rigorous transparency, oversight, and accountability measures on programs.

The [unlawful] programs are supposed to be ADMINISTRATIVE, but they used quasi judicial power to create, amend, and enforce court orders without judicial authorization. The agency does not provide due process, nor do they have to show you their files. Judges have to look the other way because if they object, they will lose their HHS funding, and at the same time the judge has to accept responsibility for the agency’s badly managed and even crooked interference when litigants are hurt.

On the author's family court case, the bills were inflated and no one would let me have receipts for services, without telling me or the judge, support orders were modified, documents falsified, and support enforcement would not let me see their files. Like hundreds of families I am aware of, this money was used to force my family into needless litigation which cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

In 2011, we ask why the Obama Administration inexcusably ignored the pleas of desperate hard working parents and doubled the budget for these pork barrel projects, starving them out of their home. It’s time to get serious about deficit reduction, and require the president to exercise fiscal restraint on programs which would target and extort families under the most trying circumstances.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION: WHERE DOES CHILD SUPPORT GO?

Recovery Act: Thousands of Recovery Act Contract and Grant Recipients Owe Hundreds of Millions in Federal Taxes
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-686T

This Government Accountability Office report recently came out which shows that these HHS grant recipients owe us struggling tax paying families hundreds of BILLIONS in taxes.

OIG STATE AUDIT REPORTS ON UNDISBURSIBLE ARREARS
The more federal dollars were receive the less States collected in support. States refuse to distribute child support to "families first," and are instead keeping the money for themselves-without accounting for it.

These reports can be found here:
http://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/oas/acf.asp

The Office of the Inspector General found HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars in undisbursed child support which was never accounted for when it audited the child support services programs from only a hand full of counties in approximately 30 states. There are only incentives to COLLECT support and put families on TANF, and NONE to actually disburse it to the children it is intended to benefit. When undistributed arrears were discovered, the OIG ordered the States to give 66% to the federal OCSE office, and allowed the State to keep the remaining 34% for themselves. And so the states deliberately don't tell parents they collected the money, then create "set up to fail" disbursement methods to retain the funds for the general fund:

• send checks to the wrong address,
• illegal liens on accounts
• create massive arrears, give dad the tax benefit, then garnish the tax benefit,
• put child support it in trust accounts during litigation-that lasts more than 3 years,
• retroactively abate arrears, then keep it for themselves without telling either parent.

When the OIG identified the embezzled funds, they did not help them find the children it was intended to benefit, the OIG instructed States to properly report…So the feds could have their 66%. This policy entirely lacks accountability or consequences for this fraud. Subsequent reports demonstrated that the problem has continued to worsen, and there are [still] no protocols and procedures in place to define, identify, and track these monies.

Healthy Marriage And Responsible Fatherhood Initiative: Further Progress Is Needed in Developing a Risk-Based Monitoring Approach to Help HHS Improve Program Oversight:
www.gao.gov/new.items/d081002.pdf

•$500 Million Unconditionally Given To Activists: Operating under a deadline that allowed HHS 7 months to award grants, HHS shortened its existing process to award Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grants to public and private organizations. During this process, HHS did not fully examine grantees’ programs as described in their applications, including the activities they planned to offer, and this created challenges and setbacks for grantees later as they implemented their programs. –P. 2

•Failure to Implement Uniform Standards, Policies, and Procedures: HHS uses methods that include site visits and progress reports to monitor grantees, but it lacks mechanisms to identify and target grantees that are not in compliance with grant requirements or are not meeting performance goals, and it also lacks clear and consistent guidance for performing site monitoring visits. –P.2

•Embezzlement and Fraud Was Likely Vastly Under Estimated: Moreover, we did not survey organizations that received money from grant recipients to provide direct services, subawardees. Since making the initial awards, 4 organizations have relinquished their grants, 1 organization had its grant terminated, and 1 new grant was awarded. There are 6 organizations currently pending non-continuation of award funds.

GAO REPORT: Child Support Enforcement: Better Data and More Information on Undistributed Collections Are Needed
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-377

Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: Effective Implementation of Recent Laws and Agency Actions Could Help Reduce Improper Payments
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-409T

Child Support Enforcement: Departures from Long-term Trends in Sources of Collections and Caseloads Reflect Recent Economic Conditions
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-196
In fiscal year 2009, the child support enforcement (CSE) program collected about $26 billion in child support payments from noncustodial parents on behalf of more than 17 million children. The CSE program is run by states and overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). States receive federal performance incentive payments and a federal match on both state CSE funds…The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) eliminated this incentive match beginning in 2008, but the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 temporarily reinstated it for 2 years….

In fiscal year 2009, the CSE program experienced several departures from past trends. For one, child support collections failed to increase nationwide for the first time in the history of the program in fiscal year 2009… Also in fiscal year 2009, the number of CSE cases currently receiving public assistance increased …Preliminary HHS data show that total CSE expenditures grew by 2.6 percent in fiscal year 2008 as many states increased their own funding to maintain CSE operations when the federal incentive match was eliminated…In contrast to fiscal year 2008, a different picture emerged in fiscal year 2009, when the incentive match was temporarily restored but total CSE expenditures fell slightly by 1.8 percent, which HHS officials told GAO was due to state budget constraints. Most states nationwide have not implemented "family first" policy options…because giving more child support collections to families means states retain less as reimbursement for public assistance costs.

Administrative Expenditures and Federal Matching Rates of Selected Support Programs
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-839R

Sincerely,

Change.org Petitioner

sign here ---> http://www.change.org/petitions/cut-tanf-title-iv-d-programs-which-represent-4billion-of-waste?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=autopublish

Girl, 5, On 911 Call: 'My Daddy Shot My Mommy' Child In DCF Custody After Double Murder-Suicide

2011-09-28T10:29:00.001-05:00

SEE VIDEO HERE: http://www.local10.com/news/29319816/detail.html

Amplify’d from www.local10.com

MIAMI -- A judge is now deciding where a 5-year-old girl should go after witnessing the killings of her mother and her grandmother in their Sunrise home Sunday, as police release the emergency calls for help from the shootings.
Police believe Marcus Trotman fatally shot his wife, Danielle, 30, and her mother, Linda Scudera, 56, on Sunday at a home in the 4000 block of Del Rio Way before killing himself.

Listen:

UNCUT: Sunrise 911 Call
The 30-year-old woman's 5-year-old daughter, Angelique, witnessed the shootings, ran next door and called 911 with the help of a neighbor.
"It was a shoot and then my daddy shot my mommy and then he shoot my grandma, and now my daddy's dead. My grandma's dead," the child told a 911 dispatcher.
"Is she injured in any way?" the dispatcher asked the neighbor.
"No. I am just praying to God that she was watching TV and it's not true," the neighbor said.
"Where did he shoot Mommy?" the dispatcher asked the child.
"On the ear," the girl said.
"On her ear? And where is she now?" the neighbor asked the child.
"She was shot on the ear?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yes. My grandma's dead and my daddy's dead," the girl said. "Please."
"I'm trying to find mommy's number," the neighbor said.
"I told you they're dead," the girl said.
In court Tuesday, Angelique was the focus of a hearing. A man at the hearing claimed he is her biological father and agreed to a DNA test.
Meanwhile, she will be taken from a family friend and placed in a foster home until the Department of Children and Families can determine the best place for her to stay permanently.

Watch:

Little Girl Cries For Help After Murder-Suicide
The man whose gun sources said was used by Trotman, local celebrity Lazaro Mendez, also known as D.J. Laz from Power 96, issued a statement via a publicist Tuesday. The statement said:
"Lazaro Mendez is deeply shocked and saddened by the events that transpired over the weekend. We ask that the media respect Lazaro Mendez and his family's privacy during this time. He will take the next few days to grieve and will at all times be helpful to police investigators. His condolences go out to all of the victims of this tragedy and their families. Thank you for your support and concern during this difficult time."

Sources told Local 10
that Trotman had been staying with Mendez while separated from his wife.
Local 10 has learned that Mendez reported the gun stolen after hearing what happened and realizing the weapon was missing. Mendez told investigators he does not know how Trotman got the gun out of its case.
Read more at www.local10.com

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Woman found murdered inside family home

2011-09-28T08:10:00.001-05:00

"There was nothing that I noticed that would lead me to believe there was forced entry. I saw no broken windows nothing that as involving any doors being pried open, kicked open, forced open, something of that nature," said Guest.

Amplify’d from www.wlbt.com

RANKIN COUNTY, MS (WLBT) -

A woman was found murdered inside her Rankin county home Tuesday, launching an investigation joined by state and county authorities.

Law enforcement is tight lipped about the details but does confirm they are in the middle of a homicide investigation.

Rankin County authorities

Crime

RANKIN COUNTY, MS (WLBT) -

A woman was found murdered inside her Rankin county home Tuesday, launching an investigation joined by state and county authorities.

Law enforcement is tight lipped about the details but does confirm they are in the middle of a homicide investigation.

Rankin County authorities, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and the Mississippi Crime Lab spent most of the day combing for evidence in a homicide investigation at 1436 Star Road.

Sheriff Ronnie Pennington would not release the identity of the deceased white female found around noon inside the gray mobile home.

But investigators did indicate her body was discovered near the doorway.

"Her father called or a family member called 911 to report that his daughter was injured. There's no suspect in custody, but we're following up several leads. Again every investigator we have in the sheriff's office is out working on this case right now," said Rankin County Undersheriff Bryan Bailey.

WLBT has been told that the victim is 36 year old Leslie Olivia Sheppard Doame.

Her father, Johnny Sheppard, reportedly found her body inside his home suffering from a gunshot wound.

Authorities would not confirm any of this information.

Sheppard's Facebook page stated that she worked at AAA Cooper Transportation in Richland as an operations clerk.

We are told she worked nights and slept during the day and could have been the victim of a robbery.

Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest said he was called to the crime scene by the sheriff.

"There was nothing that I noticed that would lead me to believe there was forced entry. I saw no broken windows nothing that as involving any doors being pried open, kicked open, forced open, something of that nature," said Guest.

According to the Facebook page, Sheppard moved back home 10 years ago, had been married twice and had no children.

"I saw a lot of cars here about noon time today," said neighbor Frank Scott.

The 90 year old lives about a half mile away but did not know Sheppard or her family.

He stopped to find out why so many law enforcement vehicles were parked at the home.

"It's a very safe area, and I've never heard of any robberies or anything of that nature here," said Scott.

Family and friends gathered at the home throughout the day consoling one another but made no comment about the murder investigation.

Copyright 2011 WLBT. All rights reserved.

Mississippi Crime Lab spent most

the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and the Mississippi Crime Lab spent most of the day combing for evidence in a homicide investigation at 1436 Star Road.

Sheriff Ronnie Pennington would not release the identity of the deceased white female found around noon inside the gray mobile home.

But investigators did indicate her body was discovered near the doorway.

"Her father called or a family member called 911 to report that his daughter was injured. There's no suspect in custody, but we're following up several leads. Again every investigator we have in the sheriff's office is out working on this case right now," said Rankin County Undersheriff Bryan Bailey.

WLBT has been told that the victim is 36 year old Leslie Olivia Sheppard Doame.

Her father, Johnny Sheppard, reportedly found her body inside his home suffering from a gunshot wound.

Authorities would not confirm any of this information.

Sheppard's Facebook page stated that she worked at AAA Cooper Transportation in Richland as an operations clerk.

We are told she worked nights and slept during the day and could have been the victim of a robbery.

Rankin County District Attorney Michael Guest said he was called to the crime scene by the sheriff.

ccording to the Facebook page, Sheppard moved back home 10 years ago, had been married twice and had no children.

"I saw a lot of cars here about noon time today," said neighbor Frank Scott.

The 90 year old lives about a half mile away but did not know Sheppard or her family.

He stopped to find out why so many law enforcement vehicles were parked at the home.

"It's a very safe area, and I've never heard of any robberies or anything of that nature here," said Scott.

Family and friends gathered at the home throughout the day consoling one another but made no comment about the murder investigation.
Read more at www.wlbt.com

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Susan Powell’s children: temporary custody granted to her parents

2011-09-28T08:08:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, Susan Powell’s parents were granted temporary custody of her two children; another hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Susan Powell is the missing Utah mom who disappeared almost two years ago in Salt Lake City; Josh Powell, Susan’s husband is the only person named a person of interest in her disappearance.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Susan Powell’s children: temporary custody granted to her parents - Salt Lake City Headlines | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/headlines-in-salt-lake-city/susan-powell-s-children-temporary-custody-granted-to-her-parents#ixzz1ZFgtwkeK

Amplify’d from www.examiner.com

Chuck and Judy Cox are in Washington State today after Josh Powell’s father was arrested six days ago on voyeurism child pornography charges, and have filed for custody of the children. The two children have been in foster care for six days. Tuesday afternoon, ABC 4 reported that Josh Powell is also being investigated on voyeurism and child pornography charges. A court hearing was already scheduled for Wednesday, but with this latest news about Josh Powell, a Washington State judge granted temporary custody of Josh and Susan Powell’s children to Chuck and Judy Cox.

Josh Powell has had custody of their two children and moved to Washington State shortly after Susan’s disappearance to live with his father, Steven Powell.

See more at www.examiner.com

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Topeka, KS - Domestic Violence Case's Still Not being Prosecuted

2011-09-28T07:59:00.001-05:00

This is beyond insane and illegal. See 9-22-2011: Claudine Dombrowski on Intimate Partner Violence and Barry Goldstein protecting Battered Women in the Courtrooms on Zeus Radio

http://archives.zeusradio.com/here-women-talk/susan-murphy-milano-times-up/9-22-2011-smm/

Interim city manager Dan Stanley hoped to see Topeka's governing body reach a consensus Tuesday on how to deal with Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor's decision to stop prosecuting misdemeanors committed in the capital city, including domestic battery.

That didn't happen, Stanley said after a work session Tuesday evening focusing on that topic.

Amplify’d from cjonline.com

Stanley said he will continue the discussion next week, when he will arrange for the governing body to hear the first reading of a proposed ordinance that would repeal the part of city ordinance making domestic battery a crime.

Such a move would force the district attorney to handle the prosecution of those who commit domestic battery in Topeka, according to the city attorney's office.

Council members John Alcala, Sylvia Ortiz, Chad Manspeaker, Bob Archer and Andrew Gray each indicated at the work session they could support repealing the domestic battery ordinance.

"If the D.A. thinks that we don't want to play hardball, I say we all suit up and play hardball," Manspeaker said.

Alcala said, however, that he also could support entering into a one-time arrangement for 2012 through which the city, the county commission and the district attorney enter into a "friendly compromise" to share prosecution costs.

Stanley said after Tuesday's session that he saw no clear direction from a majority of the governing body on what to do and would continue the discussion when the governing body next week hears the first reading of the proposal to repeal the domestic battery ordinance.

Governing body members generally act on proposed ordinances one week after they are heard for first reading.

Taylor announced Sept. 8 that he would no longer prosecute misdemeanors committed in Topeka, including domestic battery, saying his action required the city attorney's office to prosecute the cases his office would no longer handle, an obligation Stanley said the city isn't prepared to execute.

Stanley told governing body members last week the city's options included:

■ Seeking to negotiate an agreement through which the city would pay some costs to help finance the district attorney's prosecution of misdemeanors.

■ Seeking some period of transition while the city develops a program for prosecuting and providing services related to domestic battery cases.

■ Trying to force the district attorney to prosecute.

Stanley said the proposal on next week's agenda for first reading would pursue the latter strategy by seeking to repeal the ordinance banning domestic battery the council adopted as part of the uniform public offense code developed by the League of Kansas Municipalities.

Chief city prosecutor Craig Spomer said the city may repeal the section regarding domestic battery while leaving the rest of the code in place.

Spomer said Topeka police officers filing reports on cases regarding domestic battery have written them up "since the beginning" under the state statute banning that crime instead of under the city ordinance.

He said the city "for a lot of years" hasn’t prosecuted domestic batteries, as the district attorney's office has handled those.

In response to a question from Councilwoman Denise Everhart, Spomer said the city's repeal of its domestic battery ordinance wouldn't necessarily mean Taylor would choose to prosecute the cases involved.

Everhart asked Stanley about his statement reported in The Topeka Capital-Journal last week that if he had to pick from among the city's options, he would arrange for it to assume prosecution of the domestic battery cases.

Stanley replied that he would choose that option "in a perfect world that I could construct with infinite money, the perfect court and perfect support system," though that isn’t what the city faces.

Stanley also told the governing body he had had discussions with county officials and senses "there is a willingness to negotiate something that is fair to all."
Read more at cjonline.com

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Teen girl and man, 26, die in apparent Inglewood murder-suicide

2011-09-26T12:09:00.001-05:00

Amplify’d from latimesblogs.latimes.com

Teen girl and man, 26, die in apparent Inglewood murder-suicide

A 17-year-old girl was killed in an apparent murder-suicide inside an Inglewood optometry center, authorities said Thursday.

The apparent shooter, 26-year-old Christopher James McLeish, was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a bathroom at the location.
Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com

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Oakdale deaths are double murder, suicide

2011-09-26T12:00:00.001-05:00

The couple's children will live with memory of bloody scene all their lives, a trauma expert says.

Amplify’d from www.startribune.com

The shooting scene at the blue split-level house, which involved two parents and a babysitter, left other victims as well. A 6-year-old girl returning home from school Thursday found the bodies and ran screaming into the street with blood on her hands. She and her two brothers, ages 3 and 8, were left orphaned.

"When I heard the child found the bodies it really did break my heart," said Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, who expects the county might be asked to help with foster care. "I don't know what it would be like walking in to see your mom and dad dead. That's something that child will never get out of her head, ever."

The dead were identified as Cintia Guadalupe Ornelas Bustos, 28; Jaime Anival Almaras Velasquez, 32, and babysitter Angela Uscanga Gonzalez, 43.

Police declined to say who was responsible for the shooting because the investigation is not complete. But the medical examiner's office has determined that Velasquez committed suicide, said officer Michelle Stark.

A handgun and spent ammunition were found inside the house on the 7000 block of 13th Street.

Stark said that "the crime appears to have been entirely contained inside the residence" and that police weren't looking for additional suspects "at this time."

It was Oakdale's first homicide since 2007, when 17-year-old Nicole Beecroft stabbed her newborn baby to death. She is serving life in prison. The only other homicide there in the past 25 years was in 1986 when Gloria Oursland, 49, was found beaten to death.

Oscar Amparan, a pastor who counseled the Oakdale couple, said Thursday that Velasquez was "a little violent" and had previous problems with alcohol.

Bustos and Velasquez had three children together but the legal status of their relationship hasn't been confirmed, Stark said.

The youngest boy reportedly was inside the house when the shootings occurred, while the older boy was outside when his sister discovered the bodies. Police responded at 4:12 p.m.

Brady Hartman, a teenager who lives about four houses away, said he was outside when he saw the girl run out of the house sobbing and screaming, "Mommy, daddy dead! Mommy, daddy dead." His mother, Julie Hartman, tried to console the little girl.

"She is going to have a lot of trauma," Julie Hartman said. "She went in there. She had blood on her hands."

As police took the three children away, the 3-year-old boy could be heard saying over and over, "momma dead, momma dead," Hartman said. "He was in there alone."

The violence shook the congregation at Iglesia Apostolica De La Fe En Cristo Jesus in Minneapolis, which Bustos and Gonzalez attended for seven years. The church at 1534 E. 24th St. is small -- just 21 pews in all. Maps of Guatemala and Mexico grace the back walls.

The children currently are staying with relatives.
Read more at www.startribune.com

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Another "Perfect Family'' Slaughtered by Father

2011-09-26T11:54:00.001-05:00

Rocky Nelson, a friend, said the Teagarden father was "a nice guy. He didn't party. He worked. He was really into his family, so it was a big shock to me when I heard about this."

Nelson added, "To me, they was like the perfect little family."

Amplify’d from www.wtae.com

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ORGAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A husband, wife and two children that a friend described as "the perfect little family" were found shot to death at their rural home in Morgan Township, Greene County.

A news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. Stay with WTAE.com for updates.
State police at the Waynesburg station said troopers were sent to the Teagarden residence on Chartiers Road just after 10 p.m. Sunday to check on the welfare of the family.
Police say upon arrival, they discovered the husband, wife and two children all dead.
It was not immediately known what caused police to check on the family.
Police said their investigation is being handled as a murder/suicide and autopsies were scheduled for later in the day.

Rocky Nelson, a friend, said the Teagarden father was "a nice guy. He didn't party. He worked. He was really into his family, so it was a big shock to me when I heard about this."
Nelson added, "To me, they was like the perfect little family."
"He never mentioned any problems of any kind," said neighbor Don Bates, who, like Nelson, said the Teagardens seemed to be "a very happy family."
The devastating news spread quickly to Jefferson-Morgan Elementary School, where Superintendent Donna Furnier was moved to tears upon learning that a third-grade student was one of the victims.

Spark Conversation
Read more at www.wtae.com

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WICHITA, Kansas - Police Arrest Man in Domestic Violence Homicide.

2011-09-26T11:33:00.001-05:00

Amplify’d from www.ksn.com

domestic violence homicide.

WICHITA, Kansas (KSN) -

ichita police have arrested a man in what's being called a domestic violence homicide.

Shortly before 11 a.m. police received a call about a woman who was not breathing. Officers went to the 800 block of South Beverly and found a woman in her 40s dead. Officers initially said her death appeared suspicious, but hadn't immediately called it a homicide.

After investigating, they now believe it was a case of domestic violence, and have arrested a man that had been dating the woman. Her identity has not been released.
Read more at www.ksn.com

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Mayor Bill Bunten 785-368-3895	District 2 John Alcala 785-233-7110
District 6 Chad Manspeaker 785-220-9493	District 8 Andrew Gray 785-806-0068
District 3 Sylvia Ortiz 785-357-0717	District 7 Bob Archer 785-817-8157
District 1 Karen Hiller 785-232-2917	City Manager Dan Stanley 785-368-3725

Battered Women, Battered Children, Custody Abuse

I Too Have A Dream. That All Battered Mothers and Their Children Can One day Be Free.

Live Stream: The Ninth Annual ‘Battered Mothers Custody Conference’ Begins Tonight Jan 6, 7 & 8th, Albany, NY

The Ninth Annual Battered Mothers Custody Conference:

BMCC IX, January 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2012

Friday evening through Sunday

You can watch the Conference live stream beginning tonight at 7 PM EST here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-ninth-battered-mothers-custody-conference *Updated Conference Schedule * Presenters

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Another "Perfect Family'' Slaughtered by Father

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You can watch the Conference live stream beginning tonight at 7 PM EST here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-ninth-battered-mothers-custody-conference Updated Conference Schedule P resenters