Coin a Phrase

Writer Joan Dawson sent this article from the Santa Fe Reporter, noting it is the first article she's read that uses the term "domestic violence deniers." That term derives special force from the absurdity of Holocaust deniers. Coining phrases can provide adroit terminology and clinch a new insight.

For the complete article, go to
http://www.sfreporter.com/stories/man_up/5234/all/

MAN UP: THERE IS ANOTHER SIDE TO THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STORY...


By: Corey Pein 12/16/2009

On the face of it, Joshua Gonze is a successful man.

A wealthy, fit and handsome 47-year-old executive at Thornburg Investment Management, Gonze has shared his financial expertise with CNBC, Bloomberg and USA Today. A vocal Libertarian, he campaigned for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and organized “tea party” protests. A prominent member of Temple Beth Shalom, Gonze has described himself as “a happily married father in Santa Fe.”

Those words may have been true two years ago when they were published. But there is another side to this powerful man’s life, one that casts a troubling light on the views he has espoused.

Publicly, Gonze supports a controversial cause known as “fathers’ rights.” Less known is that for years, Gonze has been able to suppress and counter domestic abuse claims made by two former spouses. His latest ex-wife claims that on Aug. 18, Gonze threatened her with a 10-inch kitchen knife and “waterboarded” their 2-year-old daughter during a dispute over custody. On Dec. 1, in an open courtroom in Santa Fe, Gonze withdrew his own petition, in which he claimed his wife had lied about the incident, and that she was the “abusive” one prone to “hysterical rage.”

Gonze also has been the subject of numerous 911 calls. And a former court officer claims Gonze stalked her after a series of rulings didn’t go his way.

Gonze appears to have avoided the usual consequences of such actions. Although his second wife worked in a local newsroom, the multiple allegations against Gonze never so much as made its police blotter. In fact, Gonze may have influenced the system in his favor by spearheading a law that limits wealthy men’s child support liability.

Gonze was helped in that effort by Albuquerque lawyer David Standridge, who stood beside him in a court at the beginning of the month. Standridge is a theological men’s advocate: He has written in praise of the “warrior life,” defined as “violent men” who rule their households.

Indeed, the men’s movement that Gonze and Standridge belong to is about much more than fathers’ rights. And like many of its members, the movement has a dark side.

The “fathers’ rights” narrative goes something like this: Family courts, cowed by decades of feminist activism, are biased against anyone with a Y chromosome. A few brave men, undaunted by the forces of feminist oppression, are fighting for their rights as fathers—and for the rights of all male-kind.

David River, a divorce mediator and co-facilitator of the Santa Fe Coordinated Community Response Council, an umbrella group for efforts against domestic violence, says the view has some merit. There are men with legitimate grievances, he says—particularly those who wind up in the system following a false accusation, or are punished inappropriately based on outdated laws that fail to consider the context of any given case.

“But then,” River says, the fathers’ rights groups “tend to minimize everything, and fail to see how many women get killed in domestic violence situations. They refuse to give [domestic violence] any legitimacy.”

Most child custody cases, like most lawsuits, settle out of court. Those that don’t can get nasty. Soon-to-be-published research shows that approximately 90 percent of contested cases involve domestic violence or abuse. In these cases, the child becomes a tool through which the abuser, usually the father, continues to exert control over his ex.

How many women get killed? According to the latest Department of Justice figures, 1,640 women were killed by “intimate partners” nationwide in 2007. That’s compared to 700 men. In Santa Fe, 2009 brought a terrible wave of violence against women, including the murder of a pregnant 17-year-old by her angry boyfriend, police say.

Within fathers’ rights circles, such stories are little more than spin by a “party line” feminist press. That charge was made against SFR by one local man, Kenneth Kast, who founded a shelter for men like himself, who were made temporarily homeless and jobless by restraining orders.

To date, Kast’s shelter has served no clients, he says. Starting it was “more of a political statement,” he tells SFR.

“The party line is the woman can say and do anything. If the man reacts physically, he needs to be punished. And she does not need to understand that she played a role in that,” Kast, a retired licensed social worker, says.

Like many in the movement, Kast has been the subject of a restraining order; Kast says his ex-wife’s attorney admitted on appeal that he had not been violent.

While it’s true that every story has at least two sides, for DV deniers, the woman’s side is always a lie.

For the complete article, go to
http://www.sfreporter.com/stories/man_up/5234/all/

Children who write about being sexually abused

From left: David Mohler, Jared Mohler, Burrell Mohler Sr., Burrell Mohler Jr. and Roland Mohler face charges.

Two current stories show child victims of sexual abuse writing about it. In Missouri, the Mohlers' alleged child victims reportedly wrote about their pain, placed those pages in jars and buried them in the ground.

Follow this story and its updates at
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/11/missouri.child.sexual.abuse/index.html

In Louisiana, police have used technology to expose those who are downloading child pornography:


G. Andrew Boyd / The Times-Picayune
A real-time Google map showing where computers are located that are uploading and downloading sexually explicit images of children. State Police and the attorney general's office now have sophisticated software that can detect child pornography sharing and downloading.

Here is the opening to that story by Robert Travis Scott at the Times-Picayune:

Trapped in a nightmare of unrelenting sexual molestation and torment by her stepfather, a 12-year old central Louisiana girl tried to console herself by writing about her distress in a spiral-notebook diary.

"If you are reading this help me I really need your help," she wrote last year in a desperate three-page entry. "I am really scared with fear in my body. ... I try to pray about it but it never goes away."

The girl's ordeal finally ended when State Police, using new computer software, discovered the stepfather's criminal practice of trading sexually explicit images of children through the Internet. After officers arrested the stepfather in connection with the material found on his computer, they found the girl and her notebook, leading to additional charges and a conviction for child molestation.

The case is one of an increasing number of arrests in Louisiana and nationwide resulting from breakthroughs in software that can monitor the digital-age trafficking of images depicting child sexual exploitation and rape.

Although the story demonstrates the software's great potential and the very real possibility of rescuing abuse victims, the frustrating truth is that the technology finds many more criminal targets than law enforcement officials can afford to arrest and prosecute.

"We have the key, but we are barely using it," said Heather Steele, president of the Innocent Justice Foundation, a nonprofit group fighting child pornography.

Read the whole story at
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2009/11/post_72.html

Writing Books and Book Reviews

You can write truth to power by writing books (and book reviews):


Book review published in the Providence Journal, Sunday, October 25, 2009
http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-SCARED-SILENT_10-25-09_C3FTVKM_v9.1059466.html

The Beltway Sniper's violent past

by Anne Grant
Special to The Journal

In 2002 the nation watched in horror as the D.C. Beltway Sniper murdered random victims. He turned out to be a veteran of the Gulf War engaged in a custody battle. Encouraged by a Tacoma group called Devoted Dads, who reunited fathers and children with federal funds, John Muhammad pursued his ex-wife across the country. He had already promised to kill her: Like a tightening noose, his rampage led to her doorstep.

A modest, thoughtful woman, Mildred Muhammad decided to tell her story to help those trapped by terrorists in their own homes. The back-story reads like many intractable custody cases that are wrongly portrayed in the courts as “high-conflict,” as if both parents are selfishly squabbling and equally guilty. But one practices terror while the other tries desperately to protect their children.

From the start of their romance, John lied. Married to another, the father of two by different women, he was charming, like many narcissistic abusers. Raised in a violent household, he resisted talking about the torment he had suffered as a child. He emerged from that trauma as a man determined to control others by seduction or force.

When life-changing videos on racism led the couple into the Nation of Islam, they assumed the name Muhammad. Mildred hoped this would transform John, especially after he went to the Million Man March in 1995 and took Minister Louis Farrakhan’s pledge to practice non-violence and not abuse his wife or children.

His conversion did not last. John told Mildred she was “mind over matter” to him, explaining: “I don’t mind, because you don’t matter.”

Two years before he terrorized the Beltway, John abducted their three children. Mildred tried to warn Tacoma police that he was dangerous, but police minimized the kidnapping, arguing that he was the children’s father. They never submitted his name to the National Crime Information Center or listed the children’s names as missing. If officers had done those things as they promised, they might have averted the children’s 18-month ordeal and the D.C. killings.

Mildred Muhammad tells how John waged psychological warfare without leaving visible wounds: “To keep the peace, I began doing what he wanted the way he wanted. I found myself changing to accommodate him.”

More than a memoir, this revealing book shows Muhammad’s wisdom in helping her children cope. She includes a safety plan and resources for victims of domestic violence.

Anne Grant has written about domestic violence and custody cases in The Providence Journal and elsewhere, including littlehostages.blogspot.com and a forthcoming text from Civics Research Institute (parentingproject@cox.net).

Petition to Put Polanski in Prison

Stop Family Violence has published a petition and a list of blogs on Roman Polanski's crime and the celebrity rush to his defense. You can sign the petition here:

http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/action/act-now/petition-send-polanski-to-prison

2009 books on sex crimes against children

Our extended family includes a convicted pedophile. This year, under an assumed name, he published his memoir, in which he describes his obsessive search for friends, jobs, and travel destinations that gave him sexual access to young boys, much like “Molly” and “Sara’s” paternal grandfather in the custody case reported at http://littlehostages.blogspot.com

Both men went to prison for these crimes--but not for their crimes against children in their own families. (An editor removed accounts of incest from our relative’s book, apparently because these “complicated” his story.)

http://www.amazon.com/Made-USA-Memoir-Sex-Offender/dp/1887650504

The late Richard Gardner, psychiatrist, author, and self-publisher, created “Parental Alienation Syndrome” in 1985 and built it into a cottage industry. He lobbied against mandatory reporting of sex crimes against children. He argued that society was too restrictive when it prohibits sex between adults and children.

His theory held that children who complain of abuse by their fathers should not be believed, since their mothers had probably alienated, brainwashed, and coached them. These children, Gardner advised, should be taken from their mothers and awarded to their fathers.

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has emphatically rejected “Parental Alienation” for failure to meet evidentiary standards. But Rhode Island’s Family Court has groomed psychologists who actively promote it.

This year, some superbly written books have been published that challenge pedophile assumptions:




Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed

Journalist Kathy Marks tells of a historically Christian society where men routinely raped and assaulted children while women acquiesced on the Island of Pitcairn that was settled more than 200 years ago by mutineers. Marks went to the remote island in 2004 to report on the trials of village leaders and others for raping children. She provides an astonishing account of this sexually permissive criminal culture and some of its profoundly disturbing consequences.

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Paradise-Modern-Day-Pitcairn-Revealed/dp/1416597441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253114284&sr=1-1




Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History

History Professor Lynn Sacco meticulously documents centuries of denial, steeped in class, race, and gender, that refused to prosecute white fathers for incest. She describes the manipulation of medical evidence to shore up patriarchal power at the expense of girls’ physical and emotional integrity. With concern for their own careers, otherwise progressive professionals have preferred to help defense attorneys "detect ‘malicious prosecutions’ and false allegations" rather than reporting actual medical evidence of abuse.

http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu:80/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801893001&qty=1&source=2&viewMode=3&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y




Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals

Sociologist Amy Neustein exposes collusion between a district attorney and council of rabbis intent on suppressing sex abuse allegations against yeshiva administrators, therapists, and rabbis. In 2000, a Yiddish-language newspaper in Brooklyn, NY, published a full-page notice signed by fifty prominent rabbis reminding readers of the “severe prohibition” against informing non-Jewish authorities against another Jew. This included reporting child abuse to police. The record shows similarities to the Catholic Church's history of covering up sexual abuse of children by priests.

http://www.upne.com/1-58465-671-9.html





My Body Belongs To Me

Assistant District Attorney Jill Starishevsky prosecutes sex crimes against children in New York City. Her book uses simple words in readable rhymed verse to give young children a sense of ownership over their bodies. If an adult touches them in ways that scare them, they can tell parents or teachers. “He said it’s our secret/ and told me not to tell./ But I ran away real fast/ and then began to yell.” Sara Muller has illustrated the book with expressively whimsical drawings to help children understand their personal right to feel safe and respected.

http://www.mybodybelongstome.com/




Angela Shelton’s Warrior Workbook

Filmmaker Angela Shelton, who escaped childhood incest along with her siblings, has designed a therapeutic step-by-step journal that she subtitles “Be your own hero" with the reminder: "It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” Her outspoken humor is healing and smartly illustrated by James Murray. Disarmingly clown-like and powerful, Angela’s infectious, can-do spirit and spontaneity help the wounded to take heart and find their unique voices.

http://store.searchingforangelasheltonstore.com/swordwb.html

Digitizing Your Documents

Custody cases bring a blizzard of paper. Those of us who live these cases or write about them wade through boxes and bags of paper--police, court, medical records, psych evaluations, children's drawings, photographs, school records, handwritten notes, journals. Some of the pages have been crumbled in rage, torn, tattered, stained with coffee and tears.

In courthouses I wrestle with pronged folders and pour a small fortune into copy machines. I research cases at state archives, law offices, private homes. Some people deliver boxes to me or beg me to take them away, because these reminders give them nausea, anxiety, depression.

When parents ask me to investigate their cases, I tell them I need access to all the documents. This is true and also a test. Will they show me only those documents favorable to them? Sometimes naive reporters get conned into telling a simplistic, one-sided story, often without realizing they have become part of the scam.

Most protective parents give me access to everything, including documents of the back-story that show what was happening in their family long before they went to court. Often there was a long history of domestic violence, sexual abuse, or coercive control, sometimes reaching back into prior generations.

Most protective parents are deep in debt to lawyers and court contractors. None of them has ever paid me. This is important: I am obligated to no one, except the best interests of the children.

To figure out what is going wrong in these cases, I sort papers into chronological order and document the history through textual analysis. Will I find similar patterns from case to case? In past years I produced articles for my Overcoming Abuse column in the Providence Journal (1990-1996), for op-eds, and other publications.

One woman scanned and emailed scores of documents to me. How could she do it so fast? She recommended the Fujitsu ScanSnap. Their portable model proved to be just what I needed to carry into homes and courthouses to quickly turn documents into fine quality PDFs.



Here's how I used it:



I entitled each scan with the family name and date that would electronically organize documents in chronological order.

I set up a file called Parenting Project Cases. Within that, each family has their own file.



Usually I type the family's name first, then the date, starting with the year (4 digits), then month (2 digits), then day (2 digits).

In this case, I needed to merge documents from two families, showing the relationship between them in two different states. So I wrote the date first.

[UPDATE: I am now preferring to write the date first (using the court stamp date if available), followed by the family name. Each family has its own file. This will allow me to merge several families chronologically later in a separate merger file if I want to look at the performance of a particular judge, guardian ad litem, or expert. I can color each family's chronology differently and paste several lists in a new merged file, where they will line up chronologically with the different colors making it easier to distinguish the families.]  

In another case, I put the family's name first. I clicked a few times on the name/date column to be sure the list of PDFs had all lined up chronologically. Once they were in order, I could copy and paste the list into a long Word document, making an index. Here are a few of the entries (with names, initials changed):

Jones 1995ff AB Summary of Events.pdf
Jones 19990827 Police Report.pdf
Jones 19991006 CDE Arrest.pdf
Jones 19991019 Police Report.pdf
Jones 19991024 FG Fee Agreement 1.pdf
Jones 19991106 FG Notice of appeal.pdf
Jones 20010301 HJ arrests KLM.pdf
Jones 20010301 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010301ff Incident Diary.pdf
Jones 20010302 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010307 FG bill A.pdf
Jones 20010307 FG bill B.pdf
Jones 20010307 FG bill C.pdf
Jones 20010315 FG Fee Agreement 2.pdf
Jones 20010320 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010321 A Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010321 B Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010321 C Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010326 FG bill Misc.pdf
Jones 20010328 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010330 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010330 Police Report.pdf
Jones 20010330 CDE Arrest.pdf

[UPDATE Since posting this, I have improved my process by standardizing several abbreviations, such as using PL, DF, STIP after the date to indicate whether court documents were introduced by plaintiff or defendant or by stipulation that both agreed to. I indicate ORDER followed by judge's name. I have learned what terms I may want to search for, such as the names of certain "experts".]

An entire family file of scanned documents in chronological order, with the additional Word document as an index (plus any emails relating to the case) can be saved on a CD, making it relatively easy to share with others, including reporters, and to flip through the history of the case on a monitor.



The ScanSnap, laptop computer (plus cords, adapters, power strip, staple remover, stapler, notebooks, snacks) fit easily into a small wheeling suitcase: An office on wheels!

Custody Cases in Women's History

A woman's ability to produce a new human directly from her body is an extraordinary power. Until recently in human history, a man had no way to prove any child was actually his.

Men asserted their power through laws that made women and children their property, giving men rights of ownership over all human production. As in many other cultures, Old English Common Law crafted marriage from the same fabric as slavery. Custom required a woman to take her husband's name at marriage: she had become his property.

Struggles over custody are nothing new. In her book Revolutionary Heart, (QuindaroPress.com), Diane Eickhoff presents Clarina Nichols' account of her 1860 arrest and trial with other citizens intent on rescuing children from their violent father:

http://www.clarinanichols.com/Clarina_Nichols_-_Revolutionary_Heart_-_First_Chapter.html



Clarina Nichols' writing and speaking helped spread awareness of custody as a women's issue. The power of abusive men to seize custody of their children would expand as they paid psychologists to allege that mothers were mentally ill or had "alienated," "brainwashed," or "coached" children against their fathers. Soon custody courts produced a river of revenue for lawyers and clinicians until children reached emancipation at age 18. These cases multiplied throughout the next century. The first Battered Mothers Custody Conference met at Siena College in Albany, New York, in 2004.

Nichols still inspires us as we write about children held hostage by 21st Century custody courts and the lawyers and clinicians who have built and exploited this market.

Verbatims

If you cannot record conversations on a camera, cellphone, ipod, or other recorder, then use “verbatims” to document appointments, hearings, children’s disclosures. Write as much as you can remember as soon as possible after it happens.

Verbatims look like a script and use people’s names or initials followed by precise words using this simple format:

DATE:
TIME:
PLACE:
OCCASION:

This is an actual verbatim that I inserted into this post at a later date:

JH = Judge Higgins, District Courtroom 4C
PR=Special Assistant Attorney General Peter Roklan, State Prosecutor
JP=Jeffrey Pine, lawyer for MD; Pine is a former Attorney General
MD=mother of 3-year-old
HF=sister of MD’s ex-husband
AF=husband of HF

Situation: MD's ex-husband and his family have subjected her to repeated frivolous arrests and imprisonments, a well-known pattern of abuse called domestic violence by proxy. She is now being accused of taking photographs outside the home of HF, her ex-husband's sister, who claims to have a restraining order against MD. The Attorney General's office is aggressively prosecuting her.

DATE: September 2, 2009
TIME: 2 pm
PLACE: Garrahy Courthouse, Providence, RI District Court 4C and Superior Court 5G
OCCASION: Arraignment for MD (mother of 3-year-old AD).

District Court Judge Higgins sends MD to Superior Court Magistrate Gallo; Special Assistant Attorney General Peter Roklan is upset that Cumberland prosecutor did not cite MD as a probation violator.

JP: For God's sake, how many times are you going to prosecute this woman for the same crime? (JP leaves courtroom and returns to District Courtroom 4C.)

(In District Courtroom 4C:)

JH: I will not hear it. If your client is going to prison, it is just too bad, and you'll have to take it up with the AG.

JP: We just had a hearing in Superior Court and had a date set for a violation and/or bail hearing.

JH: My decision is final.

(Later state prosecutor PR returns to 4C.)

PR: She can't be released.

JP: There is not even a scintilla of probable cause on which to hold her. The restraining order was in the name of HF and the complaint was brought by AF and furthermore the restraining order was never served on MD and therefore was invalid. … Where are your balls? Be a man! Make a decision! You have the authority to make this decision!

PR: I am not in a position to make that decision.

Clerk: What is the final decision?

JP: I don’t know. It’s up to the AG, and he is not budging.

Clerk: The judge will not hear you. He’s left me in charge to note the final decision in the record.

JP (slamming his papers and file on the desk and pounding his index finger on the desk in front of the clerk): I want to be heard! You get that judge out here! I demand to be heard!

(Clerk leaves. A few moments later, Judge Higgins returns to the bench.)

JH: She’s going to the ACI, and that’s that!

JP: You will hear me, because if you do not, you are abusing your power and allowing the AG to perpetuate a malicious prosecution case. … HF has a restraining order against MD. However, HF did not file the complaint.

JH: That doesn’t matter. If MD was out on the street taking pictures, then she is in violation of the restraining order.

JP: No restraining order is presently in existence, because it was never served on MD, and if there is no knowledge, then there is no order.

JH: I’ll incarcerate MD until tomorrow and that will give them time to check the court records to see if the order had been served or not.

JP: That won’t be necessary. MD’s mother went to the clerk’s office and picked up the original that was never served from Magistrate Shepard’s clerk, and she has it with her.

JH: Do you in fact have it?

MD’s mother: I certainly do. (Searches in bag and gives it to sheriff who gives it to judge.)

JH: It is not possible that this was not served on MD.

(Judge reads, then speaks to PR)

JH: You’ve got to dismiss this case. If you don’t, I’ll 48A it.

JH (to JP): There is no valid restraining order in existence. AF does not have a restraining order against MD.

JH (to MD’s mother): I know you paid bail money, and I want you to go right down there and get your money back.

JP: Judge, her husband and his family have her arrested every time there is an issue of custody in family court.

JH (to JP): This is what to put in the dismissal stipulation. Do it now.


Verbatims
• report words as precisely as possible
• include actions in parentheses
• make it easier to recall and document conversations
• keep a more accurate record than a narrative description
• help you keep calm when your child's disclosures upset you
• help you avoid asking your child about disclosures (which might contaminate the disclosure)
• make the event more accessible for a reader to envision it happening

WARNING: When you document troubling comments that your children say to you, do not show these records to court officers or clinicians who may use them against you, as if you were “alienating," "brainwashing," or "coaching" your child to say these things against an abuser. However, the verbatims you keep of your child's disclosures may some day help your child to comprehend early traumatic experiences. For more about the search to find traumatic causes of DID, see The United States of Tara explanation: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1847322218/bclid5253538001/bctid6803420001

Evaluate Clinicians and Lawyers

It is generally not a good idea to file professional complaints in the midst of litigation, though it could force an abusive contractor or judge to leave a case. (One Family Court judge left the system because lawyers practicing before him also loaned him money for his gambling habit. This did not prevent one of those lawyers from becoming a Family Court judge. The court system ignores ethical failures when no one bothers to complain.)

In Rhode Island, you can file well-documented complaints against clinicians with the Department of Health:
http://www.health.ri.gov/hsr/bmld/complaints.php

You can file well-documented complaints against lawyers with the Disciplinary Counsel:
http://www.courts.ri.gov/supreme/disciplinary/defaultdisciplinary.htm

You can file well-documented complaints against judges with the Commission on Judicial Tenure and Discipline:
http://www.courts.ri.gov/supreme/jtd/defaultjtd.htm

In addition to filing complaints against contractors (clinicians, lawyers, etc.), you can register your concerns in numerous online websites when you google a contractor's name and state. Your comments will appear in a single paragraph. Be sure that what you write is accurate, provable, and not intended to harass. Here is an example that is posted at:

Http://providence.citysearch.com/search?context=directory&query=lori+meyerson&cslink=cs_topbar_search&searchOpt=cs

(This appears to have been removed, but you get the idea. Here is what it said:)

Lori Meyerson’s work fails national standards

RI Family Court recruited psychologist Lori Meyerson in 2004 for a case involving a former court employee who sought custody of his 10-year-old daughter despite a long history of police involvement relating to domestic violence and weapons charges. Chief Judge Jeremiah’s aide David Tassoni stated that he had been searching for a guardian ad litem who “understood parental alienation” to serve at no charge in this case. Without visiting either parent's home or seeing the father and daughter together, Meyerson recommended removing the girl from her mother and giving her to her father, against the advice of the girl's physician and her therapist--both of whom Master O'Brien stopped from seeing the girl, based on Meyerson's recommendation. On the witness stand, Meyerson minimized the girl's fearful comments and the father's remarks about slicing the mother's face. Meyerson criticized the mother's behavior without recognizing it as symptomatic of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although O'Brien decided against awarding custody to this father, the case established Meyerson's role in Rhode Island Family Court cases. She moved from a cramped office in Riverside to a suite at the Regency Plaza and became the Court’s leading promoter of the so-called “Parental Alienation Syndrome.” In 2006, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges warned that references to “parental alienation” fails to meet evidentiary standards and should be stricken from custody evaluation reports. See page 24 of Navigating Custody and Visitation Evaluations... at the NCJFCJ website. Complaints against Meyerson and others who base recommendations on “parental alienation” should be submitted with documents to the RI Department of Health, using complaint forms on their website, to the professional standards and ethics committee at the RI Psychological Association website, with copies to: Parenting Project, 134 Mathewson Street, Providence, RI 02903.

Building a Chronology

Custody scams depend on creating confusion with rumors, lies, false accusations, secret meetings, and undocumented decisions in judge's chambers. These true stories can sound incredible.

The first step I have found most useful is to get documents in order, including police, medical and court records, reports, correspondence, lawyer's itemized bills, children's drawings, school papers, and especially photos and recordings. Pin down everything that helps to explain how this story grew, including people's motivations and litigation strategies.

I begin by putting a date at the upper right corner of every possible document, giving year first, then month and day: YYYYMMDD. I hole-punch the pages and place original drawings in plastic sleeves to organize chronologically in notebooks.

On a computer Word document or Excel spread sheet, I use the same date-format to list documents and events. For example:

19981023 Sue and Joe meet
19990225 Sue and Joe marry
19990511 Sue enters shelter
19990603 Sue goes home
19991008 Joey born
19990108 Police report: Joe arrested 1st time
19990109 3-page letter from Joe apologizing
19990115 counseling with Chris Smith, LCMSW
20000220 Joe goes to Florida with his girlfriend
20000225 Joe sends postcard to Joey from Florida
20000310 Sue files for divorce

As the list grows more extensive, I often color-code entries. For example, every entry referring to the guardian ad litem has its own color. Every appointment with a specific court-ordered psychologist has another color. When these two contractors meet together, each one's name is highlighted in its own color. Sometimes converging dates reveal connections among contractors who function as a cabal.

When you do this, you build a data base of critical details that will assure accuracy and accessibility for many writing projects.



When you think chronologically, it is natural to use an active voice, which is a much stronger form of writing than the passive voice. It is simpler to say I ate an apple than An apple was eaten by me. Name the actor before the action. This makes the sentence more chronological and simpler to grasp without having to read it again.

One of the easiest ways to improve writing is to circle these static verbs: is, are, was, were, will be. Try to rewrite without them. This forces us to think more precisely about what is happening and to write more succinctly with active verbs.

Lessons in good grammar and writing skills are online. Just google these subjects. For example, by googling "passive active," you can find handouts like these: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/grammar/g_actpass.html

Social workers and psychologists sometimes use the passive voice as if it makes their assertions sound objective, scientific, and authoritative. I call this writing style the Voice-From-On-High. (I will add some examples from court reports by guardians ad litem and clinicians.)

When custody stories get too complex, listeners drift. Audiences appreciate our efforts to keep words precise, focused, and brief.

Shape and polish everything you write like a jewel. Set it aside; read it again. Shorten words, phrases, sentences, until they flow smoothly with no confusion about the meaning. Do not use five words if two will do. You will gain facility at using the same story for different purposes, perhaps in a letter to the editor, an op-ed, a freedom-of-information letter to a government official, statehouse testimony on proposed legislation, a blog, a song, a children's story.

As I became familiar with several custody stories, I combined themes they had in common, such as: profiteering by lawyers and clinicians; teen dating violence leads to custody scams; how information gets extracted from children in court-ordered visits to use against them in court.

Try to observe court hearings and people's interactions directly. Write about what you see and hear. Quote documents directly and annotate them, substituting pseudonyms for the children and their family. Avoid hearsay or speculation that will make your story less credible.

Finally, do not give up when others cannot tolerate these stories.

Many people have experienced horrendous forms of abuse. True stories about childhood abuse and official malfeasance can awaken painful memories. Those who turn away may have good reasons to feel fragile. Some are trying to hold back a flood of rage and despair.

Do not try to tell the whole story at once. It is better to give your readers too little than too much, which can be overwhelming and frighten people from this cause altogether.

Ending custody scams will take time. We need to equip ourselves for a long, steady campaign.

Give your audience reasons to hope. Among the best reasons for hope will be you and your writing.

Good Government Allies

Many of us writers tend to be reclusive. But we cannot mount an effective movement alone. Our untested ideas are often sophomoric. (That can feel embarrassing, but it is perfectly normal!)

Be intentional about seeking comfortable friendships with people who know more about state government than you do. Build a network with allies. Together extend your reach to a wide range of experts. Respect their time and ask succinct questions to inform your strategies and compensate for any blind-spots.

To change the custody courts, we must change the law. The primary way to do that is by writing bills and lobbying for them in the state legislature, which has responsibility for domestic relations and child protection.

Lay people often feel intimidated trying to write legislation, which involves careful analysis of existing laws and definitions. It is not enough to simply insert a good idea. All new legislation must be harmonized with existing state laws.

To do that, work with your allies in the community to find a sympathetic state legislator who will submit your ideas as drafts to legislative lawyers, who can refine them and connect them to existing laws.

These legislative counsels will produce two companion versions of the bill--one for the House of Representatives and one for the Senate. You will need a legislator in each house to shepherd through this legislation, ideally a representative and a senator who actually sit on the House and Senate committees most likely to consider the bill.

The next phase is developing talking points and testimony for legislative hearings. Organize witnesses who will tell a legislative committee how they have been affected by problems in the existing law. You may need to help them write succinct statements explaining the impact of this law and why it needs to be changed. Set up a model hearing so your witnesses can practice presenting their statements and answering questions effectively.

Draft sample emails, letters, and phone messages, and organize a campaign to persuade legislators on the committees hearing your bill to promote it with their leadership and to make sure it passes. Identify those legislators who can best influence the governor to sign. Then your bill becomes law.

Start by reaching out to potential allies who may not have thought about this issue, but who might support your bill as part of their own legislative package. Coalition partners might include organizations promoting good government, like Common Cause and League of Women Voters, and others who work on issues relating to women and children, such as Coalitions Against Domestic Violence, National Organization for Women, American Association of University Women, and United Way. The American Civil Liberties Union may be a potential ally, but may be more likely to protect civil liberties of the accused over those of alleged victims.

Research your state's legislation promoting good-government. These are hard-won tools that can help us end the scandal in custody courts. Start with Google or another search engine: Search for good-government themes (such as: open meetings, conflict-of-interest, financial disclosure, ethics commission, whistleblowers' protection, etc.) + your state. Here are some Internet links to begin:

Open Meetings Laws
http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/
The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press offers an Open Government Guide as a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. Each state's section is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare laws in various states.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The state version of this federal law goes by different names. In Rhode Island, we call it APRA, for the Access to Public Records Act. It allows people to request information that government officials must provide within ten days. The Parenting Project used this law to get information from our child protection agency:
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/therapeutic-jurisprudence-in-Rhode-Island.pdf

Anti-SLAPP Suit Legislation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP
http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html
The United States and California constitutions grant every person the right to participate in government and civic affairs, speak freely on public issues, and petition government officials for redress of grievances. Yet, individuals and community groups are often sued for exercising these constitutional rights. These suits are known as "SLAPP suits," or "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation."

Soon after Rhode Island's Anti-SLAPP Suit legislation passed, a batterer tried to name me and our agency as third parties in his custody case because we were helping his wife. Our attorney identified his motion as a SLAPP suit because he was retaliating against our public participation on behalf of battered women. The judge threw out his motion against us.

Merit Selection of Judges
http://www.ajs.org/selection/sel_stateselect.asp
Those states that elect judges put justice on sale, throw open the door to profiteering, conflicts of interest, and the cabals that run custody scams. Where does your state stand on merit selection and public evaluation of judges? In Rhode Island, the Parenting Project has testified against Family Court judges seeking elevation to higher courts, based on their roles in custody scams. We attended interviews of candidates for judgeships and for child advocate. We submitted questions for Judicial Nominating Commissioners to ask candidates. And we sent a petition under the State's Administrative Procedures Act asking the Judicial Nominating Commission to change its rules and to require candidates for chief judge in any court to submit written statements about the improvements they needed in that court. We recently submitted this op-ed to the Providence Journal:

(727 words)
Improve the process to choose our Chief Justice
by Anne Grant

Should the Judicial Nominating Commission ask candidates for Chief Justice how they might help our courts serve the public more effectively?

In September, the Parenting Project petitioned Rhode Island’s Judicial Nominating Commission under the Administrative Procedures Act to require candidates for chief of any court to submit written statements of their views about issues facing that court and their visions for improving its performance.

We wrote: “the invitation to provide such a document would, among other things, show that the JNC, and more particularly our state courts, rise above personalities and politics to the highest principles of jurisprudence. Seasoned attorney applicants who love the law, revere the court system, and recognize the need for continuous improvement would have the opportunity to focus proactively on the court where they hope to serve. We believe that many applicants would offer valuable recommendations.”

Although the Act requires a substantive answer within thirty days, JNC chairperson Stephen Carlotti replied that the Commission would not consider our petition until they had a vacancy to fill. They now have four vacancies following the retirements of Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams and Family Court Associate Justice Howard I. Lipsey and the deaths of District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio and Family Court Associate Justice Gilbert T. Rocha.

The process to fill these vacancies needs fine-tuning. But now the JNC has no time to promulgate a new rule, which would require a draft, public notice and hearings on the proposed change. Commissioners can still ask applicants to discuss their concerns about the judicial process and their ideas for improvements. But it is too late this time to require written statements.

That’s too bad for the commission, the governor, and legislators, who might make wiser decisions if they had more substantive information about what these candidates will do if appointed as chief justice. Too bad also for the public whose lives will be directly affected by the court.

Why did the Parenting Project make our request to the JNC?

We are a group of volunteers, including professionals and litigants involved in Rhode Island’s Family Court, who worry about children’s safety. We started meeting in 1996 to focus on custody cases in which the court seemed to punish children who protested domestic violence or sexual abuse by removing them from the parent they sought to live with and “reunifying” them with the parent they feared.

Judges who preside over Family Court and Superior Court may be nearing retirement also. We hoped that the JNC would find merit in our proposal and recognize the urgency of inviting candidates to write their views and visions for improving a system that struggles with enormous burdens. Just as our nation weighed the ideas and proposals of presidential candidates, Rhode Island needs to evaluate prospective judges. The JNC’s nominating procedure is the only place where that can happen.

Rhode Island is the only state where judges enjoy life tenure without review. Their salaries and pensions have long been among the highest in the nation. Two of Williams’ predecessors left the high court in disgrace in 1986 and 1993. Few would deny that our courts still have room for improvement.

It is hard to imagine any credible candidate seeking a lifetime position who would not expect to give specific reflections on critical issues and possible solutions related to that job. By urging applicants to undertake such analysis in writing, to describe best practices, and to envision improvements in our courts, the JNC could provide a valuable resource to Rhode Island.

Rather than examining applicants through the narrow lens of a single judicial position, such a rule could establish a process that encourages constructive dialogue within the community of judges and lawyers. This may catalyze positive change from within the system.

Candidates’ papers would stimulate discussion and produce a keener appreciation of judicial issues by students, journalists, and the larger public. These JNC documents would offer insight to each candidate’s thought process, temperament, and wisdom in approaching potentially divisive matters.

If the JNC fails to ask candidates to set forth their views and visions in writing, we hope Governor Carcieri, the leaders of the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate, and the press will, at the very least, ask all judicial candidates this vital question: What are your priorities for improving the court where you seek to serve?

Anne Grant coordinates the Parenting Project at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, Providence. She is a retired pastor and former executive director of the Women’s Center of Rhode Island (parentingproject@cox.net).

Screenplay Structure

Here are some helpful resources to start thinking about a story as a movie:

http://www.write-bros.com/
http://www.keepwriting.com/

I adapted the following from Michael Hauge, “Screenplay Structure/The Five Key Turning Points of All Successful Scripts,” www.screenplaymastery.com.

ACT 1

Stage I: The Setup
10% (10 pages, based on standard screenplays in which 100 pages=100 minutes)
Draw the reader/audience into the initial setting of the story. Reveal the everyday life that the hero has been living. Establish identification with the hero by making the hero sympathetic, threatened, likable, funny and/or powerful.

Turning Point 1: The Opportunity
At 10% (page 10)
Present the hero with an opportunity to create a new, visible desire that will start this character on a journey.

Stage II: New Situation
Next 15% (to 25%: to page 25)
The opportunity produces a new situation, and the hero reacts to it.

Turning Point 2: The Change of Plans
At 25% (page 25)
Something happens to your hero one-fourth of the way through your screenplay that will transform their* original desire into a specific, visible goal with a clearly defined end point.

ACT 2

At this point, you have defined your story concept and revealed your hero’s outer motivation. (The outer motivation is the visible finish line that your audience is rooting for your hero to achieve by the end of the film.)

Stage III: Progress
Next 25% (to page 50)
Your hero’s plan seems to be working as she or he takes action to achieve their goal.

Turning Point 3: The Point of No Return
At 50% (page 50)
At the exact midpoint of the screenplay, your hero commits to a goal. Up to this point, she or he had the option of turning back, giving up their plan, and returning to the life they were living at the beginning of the film. Hero burns bridges and jumps in!

Stage IV: Complications and Higher Stakes
Next 25% (to 75%: around page 75)
Achieving the visible goal becomes far more difficult. Hero has much more to lose if he or she fails. This conflict continues to build until, just as it seems that success is within the hero’s grasp…

Turning Point 4: The Major Setback
At 75% (around page 75)
A major setback occurs to the hero that makes the audience think all is lost. This disastrous event leaves the hero with only one option.

ACT 3

Hero must make one last, all or nothing, do or die effort as hero enters…

Stage V: The Final Push
Next 15% (to 90%: to page 90)
Beaten and battered, hero must now risk everything she or he has, and give every ounce of strength and courage they possess, to achieve their ultimate goal. During this stage of your script, the conflict is overwhelming, the pace has accelerated, and everything works against your hero, until she or he reaches…

Turning Point 5: The Climax
9% (to 99%: to page 99)
Several things must occur at the climax of the film: the hero must face the biggest obstacle of the entire story; The hero must determine their own fate; and the outer motivation must be resolved once and for all. This is the big moment where your placement will be determined by the amount of time you need for…

Stage VI: The Aftermath
1% (to 100%: page 100)
No movie ends precisely with the resolution of the hero’s objective. You must reveal the new life your hero is living now that he or she has completed their journey. There is little to show or explain, and the writer’s goal is to leave the audience stunned or elated. So the climax occurs near the very end of the film. (In most romantic comedies, mysteries and dramas, the aftermath will include the final five or ten pages of the script.)

* Rather than repeating unwieldy pronouns (she or he/his or her) I have sometimes used the "singular they." This has long been part of common usage. ("No one will get granny off that mountain unless they kill her first.") Rather than being a grammatical purist on this, I believe we can let grammar evolve to meet a greater need for inclusion of both sexes, with clear meaning and graceful expression.