Media
Media Coverage of Court Licensed Abuse
Fox News L.A.'s Children Lost in the System Series
http://www.myfoxla.com/category/248760/lost-in-the-system
True Crime Series
No Way Out But One
Documentary by Garland Waller
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In 1994 Holly Collins became an international fugitive when she grabbed her three children and went on the run. It all happened because a family court had ignored Holly’s charges, the children’s pleas, Holly’s broken nose, Zackary’s fractured skull, and other medical evidence of domestic violence. The family court in Minnesota gave full custody of Zackary and Jennifer to Holly’s ex-husband. It was at that point that Holly came to believe she and the children had No Way Out But One.
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Family Court Crisis
Documentary by Center for Judicial Excellence
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Working with Kathleen Russell Consulting and Ludlow Media, CJE produced a 42-minute documentary addressing the serious systemic breakdown of our family courts. The film, Family Court Crisis: Our Children At Risk, features interviews with individuals whose lives have been affected by the dysfunctional family law system and expert analyses of what has gone wrong. Issues addressed in the documentary include:
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Article comparing Penn State, the Catholic Church, and the Family Court Crisis
In the Wake of Jerry Sandusky
Who Would Believe a Kid?
by Barry Nolan
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"Yes indeed, who would take the word of a mere child over that of a beloved coach like Jerry Sandusky about sexual abuse? Even though we know that such terrible crimes are far too common and the numbers are staggering, we can’t believe it.
...And yet, nearly every day, in family courts across the country, people who should know better choose not to thoroughly investigate charges of child sexual abuse — because the allegations come from a kid and they are lodged against someone who is “respectable.” The charges aren’t investigated, and the child continues to have contact with someone who is hurting them. Touching them. Raping them. It’s what some experts call the process of “growing your own victims.” Watch this video and read the account of Damon, a young man who pleaded with a family court judge when he was a child not to force him to go on visits to the father who was sexually abusing him. But the judge wouldn’t listen to him. After all, Damon was just a kid. And so Damon kept going on those visits. And kept getting raped. For years. |
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....If enough of them come forward and enough of us start to listen, maybe one day when the question is asked — who would believe a kid? — the answer will be different."
The Catholic Church, Penn State, Syracuse
& the Custody Courts:
The Pattern of Powerful Institutions Protecting Pedophiles
Article by Barry Goldstein, J.D.
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Like the Catholic Church, Penn State, and Syracuse University, the custody court system is a powerful institution with substantial resources and a strong moral reputation. This has helped them put off the day they will be exposed. Their advantages have provided extra time but inevitably a sensational case or a prize winning journalist will expose the continuing scandal and the rest of the media will jump on board. |
Wall of Silence: Dr. Amy Neustein
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Interview with Amy Neustien, Ph.D., author of "From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from Family Courts".
In this video, Amy discusses the Orthodox Jewish cover up of sexual abuse, but it is analogous to the family court cover up. 'Rabbis' can virtually be replaced with 'judges'. Amy Neustein is a protective mother from 26 years ago, when her daughter, Sherry, at 6 years old, was taken away from her after she reported sexual abuse. Sherry was isolated from her mom and 'brainwashed', as per the usual 'treatment' for abused children in family courts. As far as we know, Sherry still does not speak to her mom. She may suffer from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. |
Dr. Amy Neustein
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Memo to judges: First do no harm!
Article by Wendy Murphy, J.D., CNN Legal Analyst
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"Family court judges put children in harm’s way so often, there are national conferences on the topic at hotels where rooms are filled with parents (mostly moms) telling stories about judges who gave full custody to violent men, often with the blessings of useless legal guardians and 'court evaluators.'" |
A Life Sentence
U.S. FAMILY COURTS SACRIFICING MOTHERS & CHILDREN
Family Courts Behind an Epidemic of Pedophilia & Judicial Abuse
Article by human rights investigative journalist Keith Harmon Snow
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A five month investigation reveals an epidemic of violence and corruption facilitated by Family Courts in the United States. Children all over the United States are being taken from their protective mothers and delivered to abusers.
With clear evidence of racketeering and corruption, high court judges and insider lawyers use and abuse the Family Court system to destroy protective mothers and deliver life sentences of suffering to innocent children. Rich, poor, middle-class....No child in America is safe. |
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California Family Courts Helping Pedophiles,
Batterers Get Child Custody
Article by Peter Jamison
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Illegal Guardians When judges award child custody to abusive parents, the family court system is broken. Joyanna Silberg, a psychologist with the Baltimore-based Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, says this drive to assure each party due parental rights has evolved into a form of judicial prejudice. In cases where abuse accusations are true, she says, this prejudice has the practical affect of abetting the abuser. "What it is, is a family court culture that seems to be about dividing property," she says. "It's not about seeing whether a crime is committed."
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Interview with Dr. Eli Newberger
Comparing the Penn State Scandal to the Family Court Cover Up
Interview by NECN Boston
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“I consult in a lot of cases where mothers lose the custody of sexually abused children to the perpetrators of the abuse. And there are courts around the country in some places that you’ve been in many times where such are the relationships between the bar and the judge and the appointed child’s attorney or guardian ad litem that very frequently there is a similar pattern of collusion, if not corruption, here. And I’ve got one case on my roster right now which is very Penn State-like. It involves a prominent university, one of whose faculty member has done terrible things and everybody’s ganged up against the mother, and he’s now temporarily got custody of the child he’s abused. This happens more often than you can believe." |
Dr. Eli Newberger teaches at Harvard Medical School and founded the Child Protection Team at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He is the author of The Men They Will Become.
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Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories
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This powerful new PBS documentary chronicles the impact of domestic violence on children and the recurring failings of family courts across the country to protect them from their abusers.
In stark and often poignant interviews, children and battered mothers tell their stories of abuse at home and continued trauma within the courts. The one-hour special also features interviews with domestic violence experts, attorneys and judges who reveal the disturbing frequency in which abusers are winning custody of their children and why these miscarriages of justice continue to occur. |
Dr. Phil on the Family Court Crisis
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Dr. Phil tackles the issue of Family Courts ignoring evidence of abuse and placing children with abusers. Amy Leichtenberg's children were murdered by her ex after she begged a judge for protection. Kathleen Russell talks about the 'cottage industry' created by parents trying to protect their children. |
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Father 'drugged, raped and murdered his daughter, 14,
just months after being granted custody'
Article by Alfonso Serrano
- Prosecutors seek death penalty because of age and vulnerability of victim
- Man also charged with sexually molesting two other girls
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Prosecuters are seeking the death penalty for a California man accused of raping and killing his 14-year-old-daughter before burying her body in the backyard of their home.
Mark Edward Mesiti, 44, allegedly drugged and sexually abused his daughter Alycia before killing her in August 2006, just months after a judge granted him custody of his daughter and son, according to court documents. The Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office said it is seeking the death penalty because of a 'special enhancement' to charges against Mr Mesiti. Those charges accuse Mesiti of committing murder 'before or during' rape, sodomy and oral copulation, according to court documents. |
Custody Crisis: Why Moms Are Punished in Court
Article by Gina Kaysen Fernandes
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To an outsider, Linda Marie Sacks had the perfect life. Her husband was rich, and they lived in a huge home in Daytona Beach, FL, where she spent her days shuttling her girls to school and various activities. Linda Marie describes herself as a "squeaky clean soccer mom" who "lived my life for my children." Behind that facade, Linda Marie says she married a monster -- a man who verbally and emotionally attacked her for years and sexually abused their two young daughters.
When she finally left him and tried to take her girls with her, she encountered a new monster -- family court. Rather than protecting Linda Marie and her two young daughters from a sexual predator, a family court judge denied Linda Marie custody and put her daughters into the hands of their sexually abusive father. |
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Documents Shed Light on Family Courts' Soft Stance
Toward Abuse
Article by Peter Jamison
Convicted child molesters Rex Anderson (left) and Henry Parson were awarded custody of their daughters in family court
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In this week's cover story, SF Weeklytakes a look at some of the tragic results of mistakes by California's family courts. These courts' insufficient provisions for investigating child abuse and spousal battery have led, in multiple instances, to children being placed with dangerous parents. |
Small Justice: Little Justice in America's Courts
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This program explores the family court system which routinely takes children away from the protective parent and puts them in the care of the person the children have named as their abuser. It describes how fathers use and sacrifice their children in order to control and punish the mothers, and how the courts, often unwittingly, help those men. By following the stories of three dedicated women and their lawyers the program exposes a systematic legal failure to protect those who need protection the most.
For more information, please visit the official "Small Justice" web site at www.smalljustice.com. |
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Awards
Garland Waller, producer, writer, director, and professor at Boston University
- Annual Award for Excellence in Media, Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute
- Winning Documentary, Key West Indie Film Festival
- Best Social Documentary, New York International Independent Film and Video Festival
Garland Waller, producer, writer, director, and professor at Boston University
