Monday, February 25, 2008

Waiting for the sealed transcript

I haven't received the sealed transcript of CPS social worker Sally Mitchell's court testimony yet. Here is a brief summary of what I want to use on my appeal.

When asked what was the worst thing I had done, she told a wacky story about how I ran over a neighborhood dog with my car. The dog owner testified later, and refuted the story.

When asked for another example that she regards as particularly outside the norms of good parenting, she told how I would set the kids' alarm clock for 7:00 am on school morning. She admitted that she lied in her report when she said that the alarm made the kids late for school. Nevertheless, she argued that the alarm clock was bad because the kids might have felt rushed in the morning.

She said that there was no physical or sexual child abuse, and no child neglect. She said that there was no single act of any kind of abuse that she could identify.

She accused me of emotional abuse, but admitted that nothing met the statutory definition of emotional abuse.

She admitted that her opinion was purely subjective, and she knew of no way to determine whether her conclusions were correct or not. She said that her supervisor just approves and signs whatever reports she writes, regardless of its validity.

She admitted that she failed to get confirmation for any of the allegations against me. Later, she claimed that she did verify with the kids' school that the school did not permit me in the classrooms, but the school issued a letter saying that I was allowed in the classrooms just the same as any other parent.

In the end, Comm. Irwin Joseph admitted that Sally Mitchell had serious credibility problems, but he ruled against me anyway.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually this is a personal message, so you can delete the comment.

Have you seen this about 2 NY fathers who fought for their children - but lost in court - and lost their children for good after the mom murders the kids???

Sick...

1. Mom Killed the Kids, But At Least They Didn't Give Dad Custody

2. 2nd Father in NY Child Murder Case

When will this crap reach "National Embarrassment" status???

MWG said...

This was my husband's experience, also.

His ex-wife's allegations were all unproven, "I-just-did-it-because -I-thought-it-was-the-'right'-thing-to-do"
arguments and though the court, itself, acknowledged that she had not only lied to the child AND to my husband but lied to the COURT as well, it made not one bit of difference. She STILL got exactly what she wanted, despite my husband's insistence that custody remain at 50/50.

SHE decided she wanted to have full custody after 12 years of 50/50. She was allowed to remove the child from my husband's care despite his calling the police, and despite the then-current court order stating he was legally entitled to 50/50 custody.

And the family court handed her everything she wanted, including an enormous child support increase (which was, in Truth, her sole motivation for the custody change, NOT the best interests of the child.)

Currently, my husband has NO relationship with his child, as the child was/is so brainwashed by mom's PAS and is complicit with her mother in getting her the full custody she wanted, that she refuses to even speak to my husband on the phone. Now, whether that's because mom forbids it or because the child feels guilty for abusing her own father the way she did, we may never know.