GIRLs...This could be the most important THREE MINUTES of your life.
Category: Nonprofits & Activism
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PAS= Perpetrators Aligning Strategically
Domestic Violence Pregnancy Child Custody ...Gun Powder and Lead Family Court Claudine Dombrowski Alec Baldwin P.A.S. Parental Alienation Syndrome children4justice is NOT about children OR justice
Children Against Court Appointed Child Abuse – CA3
from CA3 - Children Against Court Appointed Child Abuse by childrenunderground
My name is Jennifer Tveter, publically known as Jennifer Collins.
I am speaking to you all who share my frustrations in the current workings of the family court. I know all to well how the family court fails to protect children. I have only begun to publically share my personal experiences within the last year.
I am setting up my own organization CA3 -Children Against Court Appointed Child Abuse
http://www.ca3cacaca.blogspot.com/
My goals are:
1.) To aspire to be the voice of every child who is a victim of Court Appointed Child Abuse (CA- CA!)
2.) To find a way to hold the family court authorities accountable for their "Failure to Protect" children from abuse.
3.) To make it clear that CA-CA will no longer be tolerated and the 'The CA-CA stops here!'
I would like to invite you to look through this site. Please consider if there is any way that you would write your story and share it with other kids/young adults who are struggling to make sense of the abuse they suffered as children. You can always keep anonymous if you feel more comfortable. This is a summary of what happened to me:
When I was a little girl I was abused by my father. I told my mom that my dad was hurting me. She believed me and told the court. Even though my mother believed me and tried to protect me, I was not listened to by the family court system. The court thought that my mother was over reacting to ‘isolated incidents’ of 'harsh treatment' from my father and not a 'pattern' of child abuse. They suspected that our mom may have an unreasonable fear of our father because of the domestic abuse she suffered from him. The court found domestic violence but the judge said that our mom should get over the abuse.
My mother was accused of PAS, Parental Alienation Syndrome. When my mom stood up to the judge and tried to protect us, he decided to punish her by taking me and my brother away from her and giving us to our father.
On December 22 1992 I didn’t understand what was happening when a car pulled up and a court officer pulled me out of my mother’s arms and handed me to my abusive father. I was kicking and screaming “Mommy Please don’t make me go with him. He hurts me and he hurts my brother. Mommy I want my Mommy.” It was the worst day of my life!
My brother and I were forced to live in abuse for 18 months and 8 days. It was hell. We weren’t allowed to have any contact with our mother for what seamed and eternity. When we were finally allowed to have limited supervised visitation with our mom I told her “He’s still hurting us.” I showed her the bruises and welts on my back and bottom. The visitation supervisor gasped but then scolded me “you are not allowed to talk about those kinds of things anymore.” During another visitation I told my mom about even more abuse. The supervisor threatened us that if we mentioned that my father was hurting us again, we would not be able to see our mother at all.
The family court tried to silence me as a child but my mom had raised us to 'always tell the truth no matter what.' My brother and I secretly wrote messages to our mother when we were at our father’s house. During visitation we would sneak the notes in her pockets. We kept begging our mom to come rescue us.
Our mom finally "kidnapped" us back on June 30th 1994. It was the best day of my life!! While we were on the run, my mom researched the libraries of the local towns we were hiding in. She found the Elizabeth Morgan story, another mother who sent her little girl to New Zealand when the US courts failed to protect her. My mom decided to also try to get us to New Zealand. We spent a lot of time at airports trying to find a way out of the United States. Eventually we snuck out of the United States and we were apprehended in Europe. After 3 long years of living in Dutch refugee centers with other refugees from Bosnia, Iran, Somalia, etc... we were the first Americans to be granted asylum in the Netherlands. We continued to live in secrecy for almost 14 years when we were found by the FBI.
The United States brought criminal charges against our mom for kidnapping and tried to have her extradited. I searched the internet for anyone and everyone to help us. I started an email campaign and sent out over 1000 emails telling our story all over the world. Through the Leadership Council I found Dr. Silberg, a child psychologist who believes kids! She became my mentor and she is a tremendous support. I also found the most help from Marlene. Kaufmann the General Counsel for the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission.) and from Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives.
In September 2008 I returned to the United States for the first time since we fled 14 years ago to try to find a way to protect my mom. After all she was in this trouble because she believed me and my brother and she only broke the law trying to protect us when the courts failed. Eventually all kidnapping charges against my mother were dropped and she had to plead guilty to only one count of contempt of court. My mother said "I admit to having contempt for the court which failed to protect my children."
Now the Dutch government has granted our family indefinite asylum and we are safe in Holland. We would like to return home to Massachusetts but the same judge who didn't believe me as a child is still trying to take my 16 year old brother away from the only family he has ever known. We are forced to remain in exile for 2 more years until my brother turns 18.
Now that I am an adult I refuse to be further Silenced. I have decided to expose the injustices to children in the American family courts. I would really appreciate your help if you could come forward and share your story. Together we can demand reform of the family courts and protect young children from the abuse we endured.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Our story can be found in more detail on http://www.americanchildrenunderground.blogspot.com/
Darcey Freeman's death must be catalyst for change
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24986892-27197,00.html
(a comment from reader) ‘’ I thought it was my children as they had been with dad at the time.’’
Article from:
Madonna King
January 30, 2009 11:00pm
EVERY time I've looked at my young daughters in the past 24 hours, I've conjured a picture of Darcey Freeman. Sometimes she's in a princess dress.
Other times, she's fighting with her brothers, like any other four-year-old. Then I wonder whether she started Prep like my daughter this week. Or whether this little girl was even too young to walk through the gates of the Victorian education system.
She certainly wasn't too young to know terror, and the rest of us can only imagine the sheer panic she would have felt as she was allegedly tossed like rubbish off a Melbourne bridge.
But Darcey Freeman shouldn't be remembered for the ugly end to her short life; she should be remembered for the massive community change her death warrants.
And that change should centre on an overhaul of those issues at the centre of a family break-up: from how the law operates, including the time it takes to hear cases, to how we divide up our children post-divorce.
About 50,000 divorces are granted each year in Australia; half of those involve children. And despite the revamp we've seen, the system that envelopes family breakdown is still not working.
Each week, my column in-tray becomes home to another case where the break-down of a family destroys the lives of those experiencing it.
This week it was a mother in north Queensland. She went to family services with concerns her ex-husband was sexually interfering with their 18-month-old child.
Court hearings followed, as did a story repeated in case after case. Threatening phone calls, her pet dog attacked with a hammer, lights broken in the garden, her mother harassed, and eventually a domestic violence order taken out.
But it was the response from authorities - family services, busy hospital departments, and police hamstrung in finding specific evidence - that prompted her next decision.
"Rightly or wrongly and out of sheer desperation I decided to go away," she told me.
"This was the hardest thing I had ever done - leave my family and friends. I sold what I could and moved to Victoria."
But the law has a habit of catching up with people who try to go around it, and last year, Australian Federal Police knocked on her door.
Her son now lives with her ex-husband and she's faced accusations she tutored the lad to accuse him of sexual misconduct. I've only heard her side, but her broken spirit reverberates with each sentence.
The director of the violence research centre at Griffith University, Professor Paul Mazerolle, says that while homicide rates might be decreasing, Australia can expect to host a growing number of the type of killings we witnessed on Thursday.
He blames our lifestyle - where quick living, a lack of social integration and faulty safety nets work against those struggling through family break-downs. Indeed, Professor Mazerolle believes we might learn from some developing world countries, where strong family ties and a "culture of community" bolster those at the centre of those emotional battles.
Bond University criminologist Professor Paul Wilson says a sense of isolation and detachment has created "human rockets or missiles" and politicians should focus on that, rather than the influence of video games and television.
"The solution is outside the police and criminal justice system," he says.
And that leaves the solutions in the hands of politicians, who set policy.
Remember the 2020 summit - that ideas fest set up about a year ago to determine the way forward?
It was hailed as the means of building a social fabric that along with a strong economic base, would guide Australia into the next decade.
Those ideas are still being mulled over, but Darcey Freeman should teach us that time has run out.
The talk yesterday was about Band-Aid measures like building safety barriers on our bridges.
Let's do that, if it helps.
But what about looking at why someone might stop a car and toss a little body over a bridge?
Or why a parent - male or female - feels so desperate that they will pack up their child in the middle of the night and run away.
It might be because they can't live without their child, or that they believe it is the best way to hurt the same person they once liked enough to share the birth of a child with.
Either way, the emotional and financial cost of family breakdown must be considered as big a threat to our community as the economic meltdown.
It's what is going to be done about it that will make all the difference. Darcey Freeman's death is the catalyst for change; what we do about it should be her legacy.
Madonna presents Mornings each weekday from 8.30am on 612 ABC Brisbane.
madonnak@bigpond.net.auWhere to get help:
13Health 1343 2584
Lifeline 131 114; www.lifeline.org.au
Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; www.kidshelpline.com.au
Beyond Blue info line 1300 224 636; www.ybblue.com.au
Filed under: Angry fathers, Child Abuse, Children's rights, Corrupt bastards, Domestic Law, Domestic Violence, Getting screwed by the Family Courts, Getting screwed by the politicians, Speak Out — justice4mothers @ 12:00 am
This is the first case from the U.S. involving violence against women to ever be heard before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and people can actually watch it live over the Internet.
Jessica Gonzales (now Lenahan) sadly lost her case against the Castle Rock [Colorado] police in the U.S. Supreme Court. They held the police had no duty to protect her children by enforcing her order of protection, despite clear law in Colorado mandating that police arrest anyone in violation of an order of protection. The failure resulted in her ex-husband killing all three of their children. Her case, now reframed as a violation of her human rights by the U.S. government, will be presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this coming Wednesday (Oct. 22nd).
It is officially scheduled from 3:15 to 4:15 pm (Eastern Time)in Washington, DC at 1889 F St., NW at the corner of 19th St. Her information will be posted on the ACLU’s web site. For those who can’t attend in person (most readers, I suspect), but would like to hear the arguments, read the draft of what she plans to post on the ACLU web site, which ends with how to access the court’s hearing on-line. (And one can listen in on about 5 languages, including English.) Note that she will testify herself, as well as be represented. Please feel free to pass this on to others likely to be interested in seeing this case. It is an amazing opportunity. The IACHR court grants only a few hearings even when it takes cases. Previously it heard issues around standing and exhaustion of remedies in this case. Feel free to pass this on to others who might want to watch this case.
All my best, Joan Zorza
Editor, Domestic Violence Report
My name is Jessica Lenahan and I am a survivor of domestic violence. On Wednesday I will make my second appearance before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC. The IACHR is responsible for promoting and protecting human rights throughout the Americas. I turned to the IACHR three years ago because the justice system in the United States abandoned me.
Jessica and her three murdered daughters
In June 1999, my estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, abducted my three young daughters in violation of a domestic violence restraining order I had obtained against him three weeks before. I repeatedly contacted and pleaded with the Castle Rock Police for assistance, but they refused to act. Late that night, Simon arrived at the police station and opened fire. He was killed and the bodies of my three girls were found murdered in the cab of his truck.
I sued the town of Castle Rock, Colorado for failing to enforce the restraining order I had against my husband at the time. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, but they ruled that the enforcement of a restraining order wasn’t mandatory under Colorado law. I felt utterly abandoned: the police had failed in their duty to protect me and my girls, and the government told me there was nothing wrong with that. I was sure that I would never have my day in court or a proper investigation of what happened. I nearly gave up at that point – I had gone all the way to the Supreme Court, and I thought that was the end of the line.
But in December 2005, with the help of the ACLU and the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, I filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In March 2007, I testified before the IACHR – the first time I was allowed to tell my story in a legal forum. Before this case, I never knew this regional system existed and never thought of my private issues as human rights violations. I am the first survivor of domestic violence to bring an individual complaint against the United States for international human rights violations. I want other people like me out there to know that this system exists to protect all of us, and that our government cannot just turn its back on us and get away with it. Although the U.S. is always pointing its finger at other countries for their human rights violations, there are plenty of violations occurring right here at home. International human rights bodies like the IACHR give U.S. citizens the opportunity to have a voice, particularly those who have lost everything.
It is fitting that my hearing is being held in October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, an important marker of what continues to be one of the most dangerous issues facing women today.
To watch a webcast of the hearing on Wednesday go to:
http://www.oas.org/oaspage/live/OASlive.asp.
For more information, contact:
*Selene Kaye, Advocacy Coordinator*
Women’s Rights Project | American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004
T: 212.549.2645 | F: 212.549.2580 | skaye@aclu.org
www.aclu.org/womensrights
See previous post about Jessica’s case.
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Time's Up is a Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships written by Susan Murphy-Milano
