Help Wanted
Protective mothers
Has your child disclosed abuse?
Have you told the authorities? Are the authorities unwilling or unable to protect your child(ren) from further abuse?
Is your child(ren) the subject of a family court case? Are those involved in the family court also unwilling or unable to protect your child(ren) from further abuse?
Do you need help protecting your child(ren)?
Feel free to send a brief – one page – summary of the case history to me at juliafletcher714@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to post your request. Please don’t include names of people or exact locations ie. towns, cities, schools etc. in your request. Also, sign your request for help anonymously such as “Mother in (your state here)”.
Feel free to copy your request and post it on your state’s page so more people will see it.
The Family Court in America website has been online for almost a year. According to our statistics meter, we’re averaging 50 visits to our site each day. We hope attorneys, lawmakers and advocates from your state who are willing and able to help your child(ren) will see your request and respond with advice and/or offers to help. That might take a while, so please also see the links to the right of our Home Page to find organizations and individuals with many years of experience helping those who face the challenges of seeking protection from abuse in our nation’s family courts. Their help is just an email or a phone call away!
Attorneys, Advocates and Lawmakers
If you are among the wonderful people who have already helped, we hope and pray that you will be blessed for your good work.
If you are a lawyer, a law student or a lawmaker who is just learning about the family court crisis, and if you’d like to help, there are many wonderful attorneys and legislators already familiar with this issue who will be glad to help you in your efforts.
If you’d like to help and are not quite sure where to start, you can begin with the links provided on the Family Court in America home page to find great people and great resources.
Investigative Journalists, Lawmakers and Advocates
In the video, Faces of the Family Court Crisis, one protective mother is quoted as saying, “This is probably one of the biggest civil rights cases of our time…and it will be a career-maker for somebody.”
Are you that somebody?
A Call to Men
Custody Preparation for Moms
http://www.afterthetrauma.org/
National Family Court Watch Project
PROTECT
WATCH
If there is anyone in California – or Louisiana – who is willing and able to help this mother, please post your contact information or send it to juliafletcher714@gmail.com. We will be glad to forward the information. Thank you!
July 12, 2010
I would like to give you a brief synopsis of my life over the last few years. When my ex husband, a resident of Sacramento County asked me for a divorce, it was a long time coming as we had been separated during 2002/2003 and moved back in together for an additional tumultuous 5 years. I had endured verbal, psychological and financial abuse so that my daughters could have a “family” for as long as possible. My ex husband had an assortment of friends, male and female who my children could associate with but from whom I was kept separate- he also vacationed often without “us”. I filed for divorce immediately as I knew that there would be an uncertain and unbearable fight. I was mostly a stay at home mom to my children as well as to his daughter from a previous marriage. I remarried a man who serves our country in the United States Army. He is wonderful to my daughters and wanted to ensure that I at least had insurance and the girls were covered as well so that I would not be buried in medical bills. My husband was stationed in California at the time and we visited during his 4 day leave periods during the month. Let me state that my ex and I have no family in California and we moved there for his job in which he makes over $100k per year. My husband has family and was from the Central Valley area. In 2009, my husband received orders to move to Louisiana and I informed my ex as well as the attorneys and the mediator at the time. There was a CPS investigation going on in regards to my ex husband which he admitted “walking around naked” in front of my girls and yelling at them. Nothing became of the investigation because apparently he didn’t mean any harm. My daughters were uncomfortable and now my older daughter has been labeled a liar because the charges were dropped. A reminder, my ex admitted doing this repeatedly as well as other items during a mediation appointment. Nothing was done to protect my children. Because of this investigation, I was ordered to remain in California during the period in which the matter could be cleared up. My husband and household goods were moved to Louisiana and because the mediator and lawyers dragged their feet on any kind of decision, I was forced to leave my children and move. Many people have asked why I left and that they would have never left. In part, I agree, however, these people don’t pay my legal fees nor do they pay my rent or any other living expenses. My living in a ghetto while my ex lived in the $450k+ community property home would not have helped my ability to keep my children in the environment that they were used to. I had permission from the court to take the girls to Louisiana for my two week, uninterrupted parenting time. When I returned my daughters, my ex husband went to court and convinced the judge that I would kidnap the children and that I needed to have supervised visitation during my visits with them. My children, husband and I were devastated with the act of alienation from my ex husband. My main goal was and still is to figure out how to share the children and his stance has been that the children are residents of the state of California and refuses to let them see me. My older daughter is old enough to speak to the presiding judge in this case per the rules of the Court and my former lawyer, the mediator and the following evaluator have all rejected that idea. My former lawyer failed to inform me of the court date when my ex husband pleaded with the judge to rule for supervised visitation. Also during that court date, the legal fees that I had been petitioning for under the Family Code 2030 were also reversed. I have email correspondence in which he takes full responsibility for the missed court appointment but then never filed any motions to dismiss those rulings.
My ex drinks in front of my children and constantly drops them off with friends and has even given them to a woman who has had a molestation conviction. I never put my children in harm’s way and yet because of state lines and my husband’s military service, I have been condemned to watch my children become shells of the children that I knew a year ago. He gets away with these things because CPS won’t do anything to protect my children and getting the paperwork getting in front of a judge is nerve wracking and opposing counsel takes full advantage that I’m learning California law on my own. Opposing counsel is openly demeaning towards me.
I come from a military family. My father served in the Air Force and both of my grandfathers served in the Army and Air Force. It is disheartening to me that because of my decision to marry a soldier who has sworn an oath to defend this country, who has been deployed and will most likely be deployed again, has given the last 5/6yrs dedicating his life to uphold the rights and protect the very laws that are now being used against us and now we have been punished and had my children taken from us.
Sincerely,
Mother in Louisiana, daughters in California