___________________________________________________________________________
Conferences
Saturday April 5, 2014: Twentieth Anniversary Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Conference
9:00 am to 5:00 pm at Veterans’ Memorial Center, 203 E 14th Street, Davis CA 95616
Childhood Trauma: Focusing on Solutions
Keynote Speaker:
Wendy Murphy
attorney, former child abuse/sex abuse prosecutor
wendymurphylaw.com
Special guest:
Johnna Janis
star of documentary “Invisible Scars”
http://pavingtheway.net/wordpress/tag/johnna-janis/ ;
Yolo County Panel:
Creating a Trauma Informed Community
Exhibits:
Museum of Lost Childhoods and the Survivor Quilts
____________________________________________________________________
Friday May 9 -Monday May 12, 2014: Many events in a few days in Washington DC.
Conference
Battered Mothers and Kids Custody Conference
at George Washington University
9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Friday, May 9 Domestic Violence Advocate Training with Barry Goldstein and National Coalition Against Domestic Violence on how to help battered mothers involved in custody cases.
Saturday, May 10 Mothering Under Duress with Joy Silberg, PhD on how to effectively mother your children when they are forced to live with abusers. There will be a workshop with Mo Hannah PhD and a panel with Linda Marie Sacks and other mothers.
Activism
Sunday, May 11 Mothers of Lost Children March at the White House from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at 1600 Pennsylvania NW. Wear white clothing and good walking shoes, and bring a hat. Wear sunglasses and a wig as needed. Mothers of Lost Children t shirts will be provided. www.mothers-of-lost-children.com and
https://www.facebook.com/mothersoflostchildren.org
Lobby Day
Monday, May 12 Lobby Day at the House of Representatives on Independence Ave. Lobbying information and training will be provided at the conference on Saturday May 10.
We are working on having another Congressional Briefing to bring the family court crisis to the attention of our national elected representatives.
Here is a link to the previous October 2, 2013 Congressional briefing on Protecting Abused Children of Divorce and Separation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awa_PALX-Ek&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN6VH2tzWks&feature=em-upload_owner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ap8KDveHgA&feature=em-upload_owner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nKdi1phvQ&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share
The formal BMCC is skipping a year, so this is a mini BMCC. There is no fee. We will collect cost to cover lunch costs when you get to the conference. We will need to make our own arrangements for lodging. The International Hostel and the William Penn House are centrally located and inexpensive hostels. Travelocity, Priceline and Cheaphotels have more information on places to stay near George Washington University.
_________________________________________________________________________
August 15 – 17, 2014, between 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
A conference to help survivors of severe child abuse (ritual abuse) and torture will be held on Saturday and Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport, 16 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA). This conference will help educate survivors of this abuse and their helpers. Pre-registration is preferred. For information write S.M.A.R.T., P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 E-mail: smartnews@aol.com, conference information is at: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
_____________________________________________________________________
Excellent Videos and Talk Show
Kathleen Russell (Center for Judicial Excellence) has done a wonderful job of interviewing children of divorce and California whistleblower mediator Emily Gallup.
Children’s Voices: Kids of Divorce Speak Out about Family Court
http://centerforjudicialexcellence.org/cje-projects-initiatives/kids-of-divorce-speak-out/
Kathleen and Joy Silberg also spoke on the Wisconsin Public Radio program about the terrible problems when a child discloses child sex abuse in the context of divorce and custody. http://www.wpr.org/shows/troubled-family-courts-and-child-sexual-abuse
____________________________________________________________________________
Dylan Farrow and Child Sexual Abuse
The Leadership Council has an outstanding discussion and data on child sexual abuse in response to 28-year-old Dylan Farrow’s confirmation of her report when she was seven that actor Woody Allan sexually abused her.
“The current public drama of accusation being played out between Woody Allen’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen is a familiar dynamic to child abuse professionals who work in the family court arena. Unfortunately, child abuse experts know that family court is a difficult venue for a child who alleges sexual abuse to be protected. While in Dylan Farrow’s case, the Judge protected her, in many cases children are forced into ongoing contact despite their allegations.”
For more information, please go to http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/blog/df.html
Dylan Farrow
“(A note from Nicholas Kristof: In 1993, accusations that Woody Allen had abused his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, filled the headlines, part of a sensational story about the celebrity split between Allen and his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. This is a case that has been written about endlessly, but this is the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public. It’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence. So why publish an account of an old case on my blog? Partly because the Golden Globe lifetime achievement award to Allen ignited a debate about the propriety of the award. Partly because the root issue here isn’t celebrity but sex abuse. And partly because countless people on all sides have written passionately about these events, but we haven’t fully heard from the young woman who was at the heart of them. I’ve written a column about this, but it’s time for the world to hear Dylan’s story in her own words.)”
Here is the rest of the story. http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&;
There has been the predictable blowback from kneejerk pedophile protectors supporting Dylan’s incestuous abuser who married his other adopted daughter. There has also been amazing support for Dylan. One excellent response is by Nancy Lee Grahn of General Hospital.
My Thoughts on Dylan Farrow
Posted on February 9, 2014 by Nancy Lee Grahn
“Much is being written about Dylan Farrow’s open letter in Saturday’s New York Times about the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, thanks to her powerful adoptive father, filmmaker and current Oscar nominee Woody Allen.
What isn’t being discussed by the various talking heads on every major network are the hard and cold facts about child sexual abuse, particularly when this life-altering crime is handled by family courts during a divorce or custody dispute.
Dylan wrote that, “There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child… I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand.”
See the rest of this outstanding article and data on child sexual abuse, including statistics, at http://www.nancyleegrahn.com/my-thoughts-on-dylan-farrow/
__________________________________________________________________________
Theatrical production
FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT is a theatrical production co-authored by Lundy Bancroft and Patrice Lenowitz that raises questions about legal responses to domestic violence and child abuse. Through extensive victim interviews, FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT tells the true stories of children who have been required by a family court judge to go into dangerous circumstances where they have been repeatedly harmed by their abusive father. The play demonstrates how most contested custody cases are actually domestic violence or child abuse cases in which abusers have been allowed to use the courts to regain control over their victims and bankrupt the safe protective mom. In all of these stories, judges, lawyers and evaluators have chosen to ignore extensive evidence that the children and mothers were telling the truth, putting the child in harm’s way, and leaving mothers FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT her children and herself. A Theatre Reading of FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT was performed at Bergen Community College on January 27th
Patrice will be a guest of Aleah Holland on her blog radio show this evening called “The Untold Horror Stories of Family Court.” Please join us tonight, Thursday Feb 13th at 6:00pm EST (3pm PST).
Call in number: (661) 551 9123
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thelegacyofanation/2014/01/30/untold-horror-stories-of-family-courtcps-the-new-holocaust-with-aleah-hollandrn https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Holocaust-Untold-Stories-from-Family-CourtCPS-with-Aleah-RN/203535823178688
__________________________________________________________________________
Article
By Maralee McLean
Jan 9, 2014 (WOMENSENEWS)–
” My long involvement in our often archaic and biased judicial system is a journey that should never have been necessary in the face of abuse that should never have occurred.
Not much has changed since my battles began, and the myth that mothers make more false allegations of abuse than fathers during divorce and custody battles still holds sway in too many courtrooms. This remains true even though the American Bar Association reports fathers are far more likely than mothers to make intentionally false accusations (21 percent compared to1.3 percent). Change, dramatic change, is needed now, to end these tragic outcomes.
At the outset, I had full custody of my little girl and her father had limited visits twice a week.
But after raising sexual abuse allegations against her father, and spending three years in the family court trying to protect my daughter, I was reduced to one-hour-a-week supervised visits for eight years and treated as if I were a hardened criminal. This was all due to a custody evaluator’s opinion through an “ex-parte” (a hearing without all the parties present). That evaluator cited Dr. Richard Gardner’s debunked “parental alienation syndrome” and left out all medical reports, police reports and pre-school teacher reports.
The ordeal began the day I took my beautiful little girl Ami, freshly bathed, with her dark hair in a high ponytail and wearing a pink dress, to her day care center. On the way I imagined how her father would pick her up for his three-hour visitation that afternoon.
That evening, I went to his house to pick up Ami. I knocked and waited until he finally came to the door. He waved me in and said he would get Ami. As I waited, I noticed that Ami’s beautiful clothes were strewn about the living room floor.
When he brought her down, Ami was wet, nude and limp in his arms. Her arms dangled at her sides, her ponytail was out of its band and her hair was matted. She was soaked with sweat. My heart sank and my gut pulled tight. “What happened to her?” I asked him. He looked at me with a strange smirk. That may have been the first time he abused our daughter. And that terrible sight of him carrying her down the stairs limp in his arms would wake me out of sleep over and over, causing me to sit straight up in my bed shocked and horrified.”
See the rest of this article at http://womensenews.org/story/in-the-courts/140108/courts-must-open-eyes-and-ears-abused-children#.UtG4VfRDuSp
Legal Remedies recommended by Maralee McLean
- Move cases like this one to criminal court since sexual abuse and assault are crimes. If one adult does this to another, we call this a crime; why not when a parent rapes and molests a child? Do not let this be addressed in family and child custody courts.
- Ensure “safety first” for children who report abuse, including safety from those about whom there are reports of sexual and other physical abuse.
- Bring in multidisciplinary teams and forensic interviewers to videotape the children’s testimony and/or descriptions of the abuse they are experiencing.
- Recognize parents who are acting in good faith.
- Completely discontinue parental alienation syndrome and similar arguments.
- Require the courts to consider past and/or present domestic violence, the abuse of the protective parent herself.
- Build effective oversight and accountability for judges and training in this arena.
- Require continuing education taught by experts in child sexual abuse and domestic violence for all court professionals and judicial officers. Include exams to certify passing these courses.
- Develop a system to more easily remove incompetent, poorly trained professionals, including judges and custody evaluators.
|
Require disclosure of conflicts of interest on the part of all involved in these legal processes at all levels. Require judges to receive training about psychopaths and how they can manipulate the legal processes and family courts.
_______________________________________________________________________
Connecticut action
The US Department of Justice, Attorney General John Hughes indicated to a protective mother that they are going to be investigating Americans with Disabilities Act violations in the Connecticut Judicial Branch. Attorney Hughes cited letters of complaint as grounds for their decision to proceed to examine the judicial branch.
|