Exercising Self-Help in Custody Cases

    Kathleen Aubain is in the Oneida County Jail in New York for violating a court order.  Aubain has a two and a half year old daughter, Isabellah Rose Campos with Eric Campos.  All three were living in Arizona.  Campos has custody of Isabellah. Aubain’s mother says the only reason Campos has custody is because Aubain didn’t bring Isabellah back to him at the end of her custodial time.

    Aubain then left the state of Arizona and fled, with Isabellah, to Utica, New York.  She didn’t have permission to leave Arizona.  She has been arrested and is currently in jail.  She is refusing to tell authorities where Isabellah is or who is caring for her.  Aubain claims that she is protecting Isabellah who she believes is being abused by Campos.  The Arizona social worker determined that the police investigator who examined Isabellah found the bruising to be consistent with Campos’ account that the child’s five-point safety harness used while riding a Rhino vehicle on rough terrain in the desert caused the bruising. 


http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Mother-still-refuses-to-disclose-Arizona-toddlers-whereabouts-270534811.html

    I have said it before.  Do not exercise self help.  Do not defy a court order.  If you feel like there is something happening, such as abuse, notify the proper authorities, and make a request through the court.  Exercising self help is a good way to lose custody.

Impact of Domestic Violence on Children

The majority of domestic violence goes unreported. Only one in four cases of domestic violence will be reported. According to a study published by the American Psychological Association, parents or caregivers were physically injured in more than one out of three cases in which children witnessed domestic violence, but less than 2% of the cases resulted in jail time for the perpetrator.

This study included 517 children who had witnessed domestic violence in some form in their household. Three out of four children saw the domestic violence, 21% heard it and 3% saw the injuries later. Incidents of domestic violence was spread relatively equally throughout socio-economic lines. The children were from families of various ethnicities, 53% white, 20% African American, 16% Latino and 11% other races. Three out of four perpetrators were male.

The study found that children who witness domestic violence are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, nightmares, teen dating violence and disruptions with school work.  According to the study, these effects are similar to when the children are the victims of the abuse themselves.
http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/415878.html

Update on the Pelletier Case

This is a follow up to one of my older blogs about Justina Pelletier, the 15 year old Connecticut teenager who suffers from some psychiatric and physical medical issues. Justina was removed from her parents’ custody while receiving medical treatment at a Boston area hospital and temporarily placed in the custody of the state. 

Last week, Massachusetts Juvenile Court JudgeJoseph Johnston awarded "permanent" custody of Justina to the state. Her parents are not allowed to appeal the decision until summer.
According to the Boston Globe, the Judge found there was sufficient evidence to find that Justina’s parents "were unfit to care for the complex medical and psychiatric needs of their daughter." The state has no immediate plans to return Justina to Connecticut or to the custody of her parents.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/03/25/justina-pelletier-placed-permanent-custody-massachusetts/lMO3EJpwPOfiVJWu06IY5K/story.html

Demographics of Reported Cases of Child Maltreatment

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released statistics and demographic data regarding the victims and perpetrators of child maltreatment. It appears that most of the data was obtained and processed through information that was provided by state child protective services agencies, so this might be only data of reported child maltreatment cases.

Of the victims, 79% were the victims of neglect, 18% of physical abuse, 9% of sexual abuse and 10% of other maltreatment such as threatened abuse, parent’s drug/alcohol abuse or lack of supervision. In 2011, 35% of the victims were younger than 3 and children younger than 1 have the highest rate of victimization (21.2 per 1,000 children). In 2011, 80.8% of the abuse was by a parent, 5.9% was by relatives other than parents, 4.4% by unmarried partners of parents and 2.9% by other unrelated adults. Again, in 2011, 45.1% of perpetrators were men and 53.6% were women.

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cm-data-sheet--2013.pdf

Poor Parenting Choices: This Just in From Minnesota

If your 12 year old daughter gets poor grades, it's probably a bad parenting idea to shave her head, and make her run around outside in a diaper, as a means of disciplining her.

Child Abduction in Custody Disputes

The number of child abduction cases that involve a child custody dispute has increased from 9% in 2009 to 50% in 2012.  The cases included in these statistics are those where a non-custodial parent takes a child(ren) from the custodial parent against the will of the child(ren) or custodial parent. Sometimes the motivation might be to retaliate against the custodial parent, sometimes it’s an effort to reconcile. Apparently, children under the age of three are at the greatest risk of being taken by a non-custodial parent against their or the custodial parent's will.

Early reporting of an abduction to the proper authorities will minimize the likelihood of harm to the child. If there is a history or domestic violence or threats of taking the child(ren), perhaps restraining orders or restricted and/or monitored visitation is appropriate. There are additional steps to reduce the chance of custodial issues or potential abduction or harm to the child(ren) such as always keeping a copy of the entered order at all times, dropping a copy of it off at all the schools, the local police station, and the day care or any other place the children spend time.

Spousal Support and Child Abuse

Ed Abar was convicted of raping his stepdaughter over 16 years starting when she was 9 years old. When her mother, Carol Abar, found out what was happening to her daughter, she divorced Ed. Since Carol was the higher earner, she was ordered to pay Ed spousal support of $1,300 per month. Ed spent more than a year in jail for the rapes. A judge stayed the spousal support payments when he was in jail. He is now out of jail and seeks the reinstatement of the $1,300 per month in addition to approximately $30,000 in back-pay. At the time he was sent to prison, Carol had already paid him $22,000.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/05/06/mother-forced-to-pay-spousal-support-to-man-who-raped-daughter/

It does not appear that the judge has granted Ed’s request for spousal support, but the case caught the attention of Assemblywoman, Melissa Melendez who has introduced legislation (AB 681) which would prohibit spousal support from being awarded to a spouse who has been convicted of a violent sexual felony of a child of the marriage. Currently, while domestic violence between the spouses is taken into account when determining spousal support, child abuse is not technically a factor to be considered.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/06/21/cbs2-report-inspires-legislation-that-would-prohibit-spousal-support-in-child-sex-abuse-cases/

Parenting, Custody and Realistic Risk Assessment

Which is more risky for a nine-year old: letting the child wait alone at a bus stop for ten minutes, in mid-day, or letting the same child ride a bicycle for a half hour near his house? How about letting the same child visit a friend who has a swimming pool? A friend whose parent owns firearms and keeps them in the house? (See Dubner and Levitt's Freakonomics for that dyad.) Which are most parents likely to think are acceptable and appropriate? Which are judges likely to think demonstrate responsible or irresponsible parenting?

Should parents or judges make these calls based on their "gut sense" or "intuition", or should real EVIDENCE be required before the court injects itself into this sort of decision?

California Child Custody: What's Going On? Is It Broken? How?

"Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear. "*

Last week, a Northern California newspaper published an extended piece, asserting, yet again, that the family law system is (quoting the cover headline) "helping pedophiles, batterers get child
custody".

While buried in the body of the piece was an acknowledgment that " it is impossible to say how common such cases are", that isn't exactly the same impression conveyed by the headline.

The same week, the Los Angeles Times ran a story regarding a psychiatrist/child custody evaluator in Los Angeles**. While that story was less obviously agenda-driven than the Northern California piece, it seemed short on well-verified facts, and long on "it is alleged, in documents filed with the court". Again, those authors implied that the problems that they referenced were systemic and pervasive. They offered no evidence for that implication.

There's little to offer.

The "studies" and "research" on the issues of the adequacy of the child custody/family court system in protecting children and victims of domestic violence, including those cited by outlets as reputable as Newsweek, are, if cited in support of any generalization about the system, are thin soup, perilously close to scientific junk.***

It may be that these problems are grossly under-reported, and systemic; my thirty-two years of practice makes me think otherwise, and leads me to conclude that the California system is actually quite child-centered, and victim-protective. I'm certainly unconvinced by the "studies", and by the information in the two articles. While I've railed about the lack of real objective information for nearly a decade, since the last such "scandal' erupted, the quality of the information has not yet noticeably improved.

The problems with the family law system are not, as far as I can tell, mostly the result of some system-wide bias or agenda; they're mostly from (a) the lack of adequate financial resources for the system to address these issues, and (b) the gross mis-allocation of resources within the judicial system. As I've said before, nobody ever successfully ran for statewide office in California on the platform: "I promise to spend more of your tax money on divorce court!"


* Ben Franklin, or E.A. Poe, or Marvin Gaye.

** Note that I have not provided links to the pieces above; they're here: "Helping" "Evaluator"
*** "That's not 'thin soup'. It's rat pee." Prof. Michael Shapiro.
"The plural of 'anecdotes' isn't 'data.' " Frank Kotsonis.