ARE FATHERS GETTING A FAIR STAKE IN FAMILY COURTS IN MASSACHUSETTS? This is a DETAILED account of the current family court system in Massachusetts summarizing research in Massachusetts over the last 24 years since the Gender Bias Study of Massachusetts Courts in 1990.
The United States spends over one trillion dollars on health care, crime and economic loss annually as a result of domestic violence.
The statistical information, data and numbers can not be ignored.
We think we have a health care and economic problem now? Unless something is done about how family courts render custody to abusers, the economic toll to the tax payer will be devastating. It is time to stop ignoring the issues victims of abuse face every day and start becoming a part of the solution. Whether we realize it or not, by ignoring the problem directly impact our children, our families, our communities and our wallets.
My Letter To The
Jeff Kuhner Show
My name is Laura
Joseph and I was one of your callers that called in
on Wednesday morning 2/26/14 regarding whether or not fathers are
getting a fair stake in custody in the State of Massachusetts.
I wanted to forward some
information onto you that is FACT based not story based as my father who
listens to you every morning tells me you are a straight up fact based kind of
guy.
“Whenever family courts in America give
custody to abusers, or ignore credible evidence of domestic violence or child
abuse in making custody decisions, it is a gross injustice. When it happens all
across the country and occurs on regular basis, it is a national scandal.” (Nolan & Waller, No Way Out But One, 2012)
Here are some troubling statistics/facts
Nationally:
- Batterers
will gain custody of the children 70-85% of the time in Family Court at
record rates and problem is increasing. (Ass. Of Judges) (New
England School Of Law, 1990)[i]
- Judge
Salcido, a former California Family Court Judge, spoke out on the tactics
the state of California used to train judges to automatically disqualify
any mother’s concerns or allegations of abuse.[ii]
- ACE
Study backed by CDC[iii] (Kaiser
Permanente, 1998-2006) - The ACE Study findings suggest that certain
experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and
death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. Children exposed to domestic violence will
suffer more illnesses and injuries throughout their lives and have shorter
lives,
- The
annual health care costs of intimate partner violence are between $333-750
billion. The higher amount is
likely because even in a medical setting patients routinely deny their
partner’s abuse for safety and other reasons.
(Academy on Violence and Abuse, 2009)
- The
United States spends over one trillion dollars on health care, crime and
economic loss annually as a result of domestic violence. This is in effect an abuser
subsidy. Best practices based on
the Quincy Model would quickly save $500 billion annually of this expense. (Goldstein)
- Every
year 58,000 children are sent for custody or unprotected visitation with
dangerous abusers. (Silberg)
- A
U. S. Department of Justice study found that the standard and required
training for evaluators, judges and lawyers does not provide the necessary
domestic violence expertise. This
is the worst possible combination because the professionals do not have
the understanding they need of domestic violence, but think they do so
fail to consult with genuine experts and make the same mistakes over and
over. This explains why so many
true allegations of domestic violence and child abuse are denied. (Saunders,
2011)
In
Massachusetts, data has repeatedly shown that “Fathers
who actively seek custody obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70% of the
time” (New England School Of Law, 1990).[iv] This statistic is the same across the country
as documented through various studies by the Department of Justice and the
Association of Judges and over the years has shown a drastic increase of
custody to fathers to a rate as high as 85%.
Since the Gender Bias Study has been
published in 1990, not much has changed in Massachusetts. Starting with the
Gender Bias Study in 1990 to the Fox News Report “Lost In The System” interview
with former Family Court Judge Salcido in 2013, billions of dollars are being
spent on domestic violence programs in a broken system. The system now compared
to 1990 is not much safer if at all for victims especially when confronted with
family court judges who routinely discriminate and punish victims and
protective parents for trying to protect their children from abuse as you will
see.
In 1990, the Gender Bias Study cited other serious concerns in regards to child
custody determination in Massachusetts Family Courts. “The presumption in favor of shared legal custody that is currently
held by many family service officers can result in the awarding of shared legal
custody in inappropriate circumstances. We also found that abuse targeted at
the mother is not always seen as relevant to custody and visitation decisions.
Our research indicates that witnessing, as well as personally experiencing,
abuse within the family causes serious harm to children.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
The
Gender Bias Study also showed serious
concerns involving domestic abuse citing “that domestic abuse cases in the civil and
criminal arena may not receive the emphasis they merit and that this underlies
the poor coordination between the courts and law enforcement agencies.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
Victims
of abuse many times have difficulty leaving their abusers due to financial
controls, abuse, lack of resources. Most are unable to afford housing or an
attorney due to lack of resources and retaliations by Family Court Judges, and
many times the abuser sabotages the victim’s ability to maintain employment. According
to the Gender Bias Study, the
committee discovered that women in general experience a serious “lack of access to adequate legal representation: many
women cannot obtain [*747] the assistance they need, particularly
in the crucial first days and months after separation. Women without legal
representation (pro se) find
the system difficult to navigate, and free legal services are often not
available to them. Private counsel may be unwilling to represent women because
of the difficulty obtaining adequate awards of counsel fees during, and
sometimes after, a trial. The second issue is repeated concern expressed by
family law attorneys regarding the accuracy of financial data presented to the
courts and the failure of the courts to take seriously the rules surrounding
discovery in family law cases.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
How bad is it? In 1993, then-Senator Joe
Biden conducted a three-year investigation into the causes and effects of
violence against women with a startling report that led to the 1994 passage of
the original Violence Against Women Act. In that report, Biden wrote, “…violence against women reflects as much a
failure of our nation’s collective moral imagination as it does the failure of
our nation’s laws and regulations…it deserves our profound public outrage.”
What has changed since 1990? Unfortunately,
not very much where family courts, custody and abuse are involved in
Massachusetts.
MASSACHUSETTS
SNAPSHOT ABOUT ABUSE:[v] (Massachusetts Failing To Protect
Victims Of Abuse, 2011)
- In 2010, nearly 1 in 2
women and 1 in 4 men in MA have ever experienced sexual violence
victimization other than rape.
- Nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5
men in MA have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an
intimate partner in their lives.
- Eleven percent (11%) of high
school students and six percent (6%) of middle school students reported
being physically hurt by a date sometime in their life.
- 56% report being late for work
due to tactics by batterers.
- Just in the last ten years
alone, child abuse has doubled in the State of Massachusetts since
Governor Deval Patrick took office, while funding to services and
protections to victims of abuse have been slashed.
- 2004 Study by Harvard
University states, Family Courts in Massachusetts are failing victims of
abuse and their children.[vi]
There
have been many well-known individuals and experts who have been outspoken about
the problems surrounding family courts in Massachusetts and abuse. To name a
few who have been outspoken in Massachusetts include, Wendy Murphy, Barry
Nolan, Garland Waller, Kristen Lombardi, Lundy Bandcroft to name a few.
Wendy
Murphy is an adjunct professor at New England School of Law and ex-prosecutor
who has represented many victims of abuse pro se and authored many articles
criticizing the State of Massachusetts for their failures to protect victims of
abuse. In one of her articles in the Patriot Ledger in 2011, she cites that "...During Patrick’s administration,
the rate of domestic violence murders skyrocketed”. She also blasts many of
the local domestic violence organizations for their failures citing “victim advocates in this state don’t fight
for justice and tough punishments. They ask the public to “speak out” about
domestic violence and to call a battered women’s program when abuse
happens....And because advocates have been co-opted with ideology-driven
promises of trivial sums for their piddly “training and education” budgets, in
exchange for silence about the failure of political leaders to give a damn, we
can be assured of more dead bodies in the future." (Murphy, 2011)
Kristen Lombardi is another writer who was
courageous enough to expose the corruption and bias in Family Courts against
victims of abuse. In her 2003 article in The Boston Phoenix, “Custodians of Abuse” (Lombardi, 2003), she cited three studies
regarding child custody and abuse in family courts; all with the same
conclusion. “The nation’s family courts
are failing to protect children from abuse.” Kristen Lombardi also
documented what is repeatedly being reported nationally, that not only are
victims of abuse losing custody to abuser at alarming rates, but Family Courts across
the country are prohibiting the protective parent from having any contact with their
children. No phone calls. No visits. Nothing. Family-court judges simply don’t
believe the protective parents.
Lombardi also cited a study from Amy Neustein
stating that “The system retaliates
against mothers with such ferocity that they lose their rights….Family-court
judges, for example, hold women in contempt, throw them in jail, scale back
their visitation privileges, and even forbid them to seek psychological care
for their children. In some instances, judges have gone to the extreme of
ordering women not to have any contact — no letters, no phone calls — with
their children.” (Lombardi, 2003) Her article is
detailed, thorough and well researched citing many credible sources on the
epidemic problem in family courts and abuse.
Lombardi further cited the November 2002
sharp critique of the Massachusetts family court system as part of a three-year
research effort known as the Battered Women’s Testimony Project (BWTP) by the
Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. The report contends that
officials who work in the Massachusetts family courts “regularly commit what the report described as “human-rights
violations” against battered mothers.” (The Wellesley Centers For Women, 2002)
A 2004 Harvard Study also cited Family Courts
failures to protect victims of abuse and corroborated with same or similar
statistical information as previous studies. In their study, “several themes emerged that corresponded to
a consistent pattern of potential human rights violations by the Massachusetts
family courts”. (Silverman, 2004) According to Silverman and his team, these
included:
1. Granting
physical custody of children to men who had used violence against the mothers
or both the mothers and their children
2. Granting
unsupervised visitation of children to men who had used such violence
3. Failing
to accept or consider documentation of domestic violence as relevant evidence
in child custody determinations
4. failure
to investigate allegations or consider documentation of child abuse
The Harvard study goes on to cite that “many family courts view such concerns as
either irrelevant or a tactic to be ignored in cases of divorce, said
Silverman. This failure directly leads to courts placing children in harm's
way.” (Silverman, 2004). As result of these
failures, the state of Massachusetts and the family courts have also failed to
sufficiently consider the following:
1. "right
to due diligence" as described in the UN Declaration on the Elimination of
Violence Against Women;
2. The
"best interests of the child" as described in the Convention on the
Rights of the Child;
3. The
right to "bodily integrity," a fundamental human right enshrined in
both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights;
4. And
the "right to equal protection" under the law described in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In
June 2007, Judge James Menno of Plymouth/Brockton Family Court was the key note
speaker for the Fatherhood Coalition for incarcerated fathers on how to gain
visitation and custody of their children paid for by a Father’s Rights
Coalition and The State of Massachusetts. (Holland, 2007)[vii] There are NO such programs for incarcerated
mothers in the state of Massachusetts. Who is getting a fair share in custody
courts? In this 2007 press release,
incarcerated fathers noted gained FULL legal and physical custody within 2wks
after release for manufacturing and drug distribution of meth. No reports on
where the mother is or why mother not involved.
Why
is this relevant? Judge Menno has recused himself three times in his career –
ALL domestic violence related cases (mine being one of those cases). There are
20 known cases so far with Judge Menno granting custody to documented abusers …
some documented child sex abusers.
What
is Judge Menno’s track record in custody proceedings? Let’s just say some research and watch dogs
groups need to take a closer look, because, Judge Menno has rendered some very
troubling custody decisions in abuse cases. Judge Menno is just one example of
a systemic problem in the state of Massachusetts.
In September 2012, Boston’s Barry Nolan wrote
an article in Boston Magazine summarizing the under reported problematic issues
surrounding domestic violence as well as the lobbying and political
efforts by groups being funded by abusers whose agenda is to undermine the
protections and laws put in place for victims of abuse in Massachusetts. This
is a must read article and the threats of protections to victims need to be
taken seriously. These protections that threaten victims affect all of our
children too. (Nolan, Attack of the 50-Foot Feminist Agenda, 2012)[viii]
Barry Nolan is also the co-producer with Garland Waller for the award winning documentary,
No Way Out But One, which is about
the first American woman to be granted asylum by the Netherlands on the grounds
of domestic violence. (Nolan & Waller, No Way Out But One, 2012). This is a must see
film that documents one family’s atrocities regarding custody, abuse, and the
family courts.
Finding this hard to believe? In 2013, Judge Salcido, a former California Family
Court Judge, spoke out on the tactics the state of California used to train
judges to automatically disqualify any mother’s concerns or allegations of
abuse. The key is that California was directly targeting mothers to disqualify
and punish them for raising any concerns of abuse valid or not. You can see her
commentary on the Fox News series Lost In The System. (FOXLA, 2013)
Batterers have been gaining custody at a rate
of 70-85% of the time in contested cases[ix]
(American
Judges' Foundation). The cost of society IGNORING abuse
exceeds $333 BILLION annually just in healthcare alone not taking into the
account of the cost to the prison system, welfare, Medicaid, housing etc. (CDC, 2013) The cost may be as high as $750 BILLION,
because even in a medical setting, patients routinely deny their partner’s
abuse for safety and other reasons. (Academy on Violence and Abuse, 2009) "The economic burden rivals the cost of other high profile public health problems, such as stroke and Type2 diabetes." (CDC, 2014)
The
United States spends over one trillion
dollars on health care, crime and economic loss annually as a result of
domestic violence. This is in effect an
abuser subsidy. Best practices based on
the Quincy Model would quickly save $500 billion annually of this expense. (Goldstein)
Want to know why the cost of healthcare so
high? The failure of family court to properly conduct early intervention,
medical professionals improperly coding domestic violence, and protect the
victim of abuse is one reason and based on our research the number reported by
the CDC is grossly under-reported. The
medical community is beginning to recognize the seriousness of screening for
interpersonal violence, but still fails to address the proper coding. (Skolink &
Clouse, 2014)
The ongoing
ACE study is the longest study that start in 1997 with over 17,000 participants
(Kaiser Permanente, 1998-2006). The study focuses
on childhood abuse, neglect, and exposure to other traumatic stressors which
is termed adverse childhood experiences (ACE). The short- and long-term outcomes of these
childhood exposures revealed a multitude of health and social problems. Those
who adversely affected are at higher risk for the following health problems:
·
Alcoholism
and alcohol abuse
·
Cancer
·
Aids
·
Diabetes
·
Eating
disorders
·
Chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
·
Depression
·
Fetal
death
·
Health-related
quality of life
·
Illicit
drug use
·
Ischemic
heart disease (IHD)
·
Liver
disease
·
Risk
for intimate partner violence
·
Multiple
sexual partners
·
Sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs)
·
Smoking
·
Suicide
attempts
·
Unintended
pregnancies
·
Early
initiation of smoking
·
Early
initiation of sexual activity
·
Adolescent
pregnancy
Are fathers getting their fair share in
family court? My answer is abusers in general have the upper hand in court.
Good parents and children are losing to the racket of family courts. Victims of
abuse are routinely being harmed with staggering statistics for long term
damage and cost to the tax payer for the family courts failures. The
statistical information, data and numbers can not be ignored.
We think we have a health care and economic
problem now? Unless something is done about how family courts render custody to
abusers, the economic toll to the tax payer will be devastating. It is time to
stop ignoring the issues victims of abuse face every day and start becoming a
part of the solution. Whether we realize it or not, by ignoring the problem
directly impact our children, our families, our communities and our wallets.
My story is just one of many listed in all
this statistical data enthralled in one of the worst legal battles in the
history of Massachusetts involving many aspects that would make a great movie
plot. I won’t belabor the facts behind my case due to the fact, when my story
is told (backed with facts) it is usually overwhelming for the listener or
reader. However, I can provide you evidence and proof of everything from
corruption, cover-ups, theft, extortion, as well as depriving me and my
children a loving relationship since 2007 for speaking out about the abuse
perpetrated upon me, my family, and other families alike despite state DCF and appointed
supervisor testimonies and evidence to corroborate my story. I have never been
declared an unfit parent. I do not drink. I do not do drugs. I have never been
convicted of a crime. I have never abused my children. My only crime in the
eyes of family court, is trying to protect my children from an abusive father.
My case started out as a domestic violence case, and I have had little to no
contact with my children since September 2007 AFTER I went to court seeking
protections from abuse. If you wish to learn more about my case or about the
general problem in Massachusetts, I would be happy to provide you with names,
numbers, and documentation to back up my story and claims. I would even
consider being a guest on your show if permitted to discuss the systemic
problem in general, not necessarily my case. (Bonetzky-Joseph, n.d.)
I look forward to hearing back from you in
something we are both passionate about …. Protecting children from harm and injustice.
References
Academy on Violence and Abuse. (2009). The Hidden
Costs of Healthcare: The Economic Impact of Violence and Abuse. Academy on
Violence and Abuse, Eden Prairie, MN. Retrieved from
http://www.ccasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Economic-Cost-of-VAW.pdf .
American Judges' Foundation. (n.d.). Domestic
Violence and the Court House: Understanding the Problem. Knowing the Victim .
Williamsburg, VA. Retrieved from http://aja.ncsc.dni
Goldstein, B. (n.d.). Not a Private Matter: Ending
the $500 Billion Abuser Subsidy . Robert D. Reed.
Holland, C. D. (2007, June 27). More than 1,600
Offenders Have Become Better Fathers Thanks to Probation's Fatherhood Program.
(O. o. Probation, Ed.) PRESS RELEASE: The Massachusetts Court System.
Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/courts/probation/pr062707.html
Kaiser Permanente. (1998-2006). Adverse Childhood
Experiences (ACE) Study. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence
Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ace/
Skolink, A., & Clouse, A. M. (2014, February 1).
Clinical Guidelines: Screening for intmate partner violence, abuse of
vulnerable adults. Family Practice News, 44(2), 1, 19.
The Wellesley Centers For Women. (2002). Battered
Women's Testimony Project (BWTP). Three Year Research Effort on
Massachusetts Family Court System, Wellesley College, The Wellesley Centers
For Women.
[iii] Kaiser Permanente; Adverse
Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study; CDC; The initial phase of the ACE Study was
conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997. More than 17,000 participants
completed a standardized physical examination. No further participants will be
enrolled, but the CDC is tracking the medical status of the baseline
participants. http://www.cdc.gov/ace/
[viii] Nolan, Barry; Attack
of the 50-Foot Feminist Agenda; Angry, radical men’s groups believe males
are being victimized by out-of-control judges and politicians. They’re wrong
and they’re dangerous and they need to be stopped; Boston Magazine; September
2012
[ix] American Judges' Foundation. Domestic Violence and the Court
House: Understanding the Problem.Knowing the Victim . Williamsburg, VA: Author. (see,
Forms of Emotional Battering Section, Threats to Harm or Take Away Children
Subsection: http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html
) Fathers are often awarded sole custody even when their sexual and
physical abuse of the children is alleged and substantiated. According to the
American Judges Association, 70% of the time the abuser convinces the court to
give him custody. http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/dv.html
