PLEASE NOTE: This blog is a bigotry free zone open to all persons, regardless of age, race, religion, color, national origin, sex, political affiliations, marital status, physical or mental disability, age, or sexual orientation. Further, this blog is open to the broad variety of opinions out there and will not delete any comments based upon point of view. However, comments will be deleted if they are worded in an abusive manner and show disrespect for the intellectual process.
Showing posts with label KATHI SORRENTINO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KATHI SORRENTINO. Show all posts

Saturday, March 7, 2015

ANATOMY OF A CUSTODY SWITCHING SCHEME: THE KATHI SORRENTINO STORY, PART IV!

Question: Mr. Sorrentino, you and your ex-wife share joint legal custody, correct?

Answer:  Yes.

Question:  And you've also alleged she's violated the spirit of joint legal custody?

Answer:  Yes.

Question:  In other words, she doesn't confer with you about decisions surrounding your son?

Answer:  Yes.

You will note that, Attorney Kevin Finch, father's attorney doesn't ask about Kathi Sorrentino's adherence to the letter of the agreement.  The question might have been much harder for Mr. Sorrentino to answer without lying had the letter of the agreement been in question. 

But how are you supposed to defend yourself about questions in regard to the spirit of the agreement.  What is that, truly?  Either you do or do not confer--yes or no.  Kathi Sorrentino has stated that she did confer and she has the evidence to prove it, while Sam Sorrentino does not.

We have already seen how Mr. Sorrentino misrepresented what was going on in regard to Storm applying to private high school--Notre Dame.  The email record confirms that Mr. Sorrentino was perfectly well informed regarding what was going on with the plans for private school. Where else did he have complaints?

He complained that he was not getting information about school events in a timely fashion, "I would find out after the fact about activities, parenting--parent conferences, things of this nature."  Again, this is simply not true because the evidence Kathi Sorrentino provided indicates that she provided him with full information.  But lets put that all aside.  You see, this is the thing.  You have joint custody meaning that both of you bear equal responsibility for being on top of school matters.  Ms. Sorrentino is not your Mommy.  So if you, Mr. Sorrentino, want to know what is going on in school, you need to speak to the Principal or the secretary in the main office like every other non-custodial parent in the United States so that you receive all of the school notifications.

You yourself were fully aware of this, Mr. Sorrentino, because in your testimony you stated, "I had indicated this to Ms. Sorrentino that I need to be aware of these things.  She--her response was that I need to work it out with the school."  Exactly, you need to work it out with the school!  It is not as if the school system has never ever dealt with a non-custodial parent before!  My ex has signed up with each school my kids have been in and they send him an exact duplicate of every flyer, notification, and school bulletin that they send to me.  They even call him and tell him of every snow day and school delay, even when he is out of state and can't do anything about it.

But this is the spirit of the thing, since we aren't talking about the letter.  If Mr. Sorrentino wants to know what is going on in school with his son, he is well within his rights to obtain the emails of every last one of his child's teachers, the guidance counselor and the principal and he can request regular weekly updates from each one of them.  Furthermore, he has the option to volunteer at the school.  He could actually volunteer to be a member of the local parent teacher organization.  Nothing stops him!  Unless, the point is not to co-parent, but instead to sit on your duff and complain, point fingers at your ex wife, and spend your time legally stalking her through the court system!

This is where we return our attention to Dr. Eric Fraser, graduate of Miami Institute of Psychology, and PAS Tzar. Here we have a GAL who is determined to prove that Kathi Sorrentino was alienating the children from the father. 

But you see, again, here's the thing, I have in front of me a notarized letter written by Ms. Willie Brevard, a mental health professional, stating, "I do not find Kathi to be an alienator."  And also Brevard states, Kathi always encouraged the relationship between Storm and his father and continues to do so.  Storm loves his dad and has always spoken highly of him.  Kathi has always put the well being of her children first." 

This doesn't sound like a person with parental alienation syndrome to me! 

Then there is the problem of the abuse.  At one point, Mr. Sorrentino allegedly threatened to commit suicide in front of his ex-wife and children.  Sounds like, by doing that, he did a good job of alienating himself!

Predictably, at a later hearing Mr. Sorrentino claimed that he had never threatened to kill himself in front of Kathi or his children.  When Kathi Sorrentino pointed out that his testimony was contradicted by a letter of apology he himself wrote to Kathi stating that he was sorry that he had made those threats to kill himself, he denied that he wrote the letter and declared that it was a forgery.  The bad news for Mr. Sorrentino, however, is that a handwriting expert confirmed that he did, in fact, write it. 

In addition to threatening suicide, Mr. Sorrentino was reportedly sexually inappropriate with the older daughter (aged 15 when it happened) to the point that at the time of the divorce she was allowed to visit or not visit her father on her own terms. 

Again, this is the point, even among PAS advocates, it is well recognized that the presence of abuse rules out the diagnosis of parental alienation syndrome. 

Why didn't Dr. Eric Fraser bring up some of these issues in his report to explain where Ms. Sorrentino was coming from?  Clearly, because he didn't want any inconvenient facts to get in the way of his pet PAS theories in connection to this good mother.  Then when Ms. Sorrentino attempted to bring these issues up in court, Judge Corinne Klatt refused to allow the information onto the record even though she didn't have any solid, legal basis for that denial. 

If the court is going to censor all the information that comes before it and edit anything out of the record it doesn't want to hear, then naturally you get the kind of inappropriate ruling that this Court ended up with. 

I also want to point out that not only was there the presence of interpersonal abuse, there was also economic abuse at play in the Sorrentino case.  Again, this would rule out the diagnosis of parental alienation disorder in this case.

Originally, at the time of dissolution, Sam Sorrentino was required to pay $1000.00 per week in child support and alimony with the express intent that Kathi Sorrentino would use that money to pay off the mortgage on her home which was in his name.  However, not long after the divorce, Mr. Sorrentino had his child support and alimony reduced to $204 per week so Kathi was unable to pay that mortgage. 

Then, around 2009 even though the bank was not taking the home to foreclosure yet, Mr. Sorrentino filed a motion for contempt against Kathi for failure to pay the mortgage. While the bank was willing to work out a plan, Judge Gould, who was considering the motion said the process would take too long, ignored the bank and ordered Ms. Sorrentino to pay the back mortgage or else sign an agreement that required her to assume more of her ex-husband's debts. 

When she refused to do so, Judge Gould put her in a maximum security prison in Niantic, CT for a week. 

So this is a case where Mr. Sorrentino has freely taken advantage of his superior legal position in Family Court to bully, harass, and legally abuse his ex wife.  And then he goes around complaining, poor me, my kids don't like me and it's her fault.  I don't know that there are many children who are going to like the kind of father who would put their mother in jail, particularly when they have a mother who is as devoted to their welfare as Kathi Sorrentino is to hers.

Then, to add insult to injury, Kathi Sorrentino tried to defend herself from the Court's threats to put her in jail and impose unwarranted debts on her by going on the Lisa Wexler Radio Show to explain the situation.  Like many victims of family court she hoped that the pressure from local media would force the Court to act properly.  While she was being interviewed, the children were kept in a sound proof room where they were unable to hear the show.  Nonetheless, Dr. Eric Frazer used that situation also as the basis for his claim of Parental Alienation Syndrome stating wrongly that the children were in the room with Kathi when she was being interviewed.  Well, no, the record shows that they were not in the room and, in fact, Dr. Frazer was simply speaking carelessly if not outright lying.

But the bottom line is, this incident took place in 2010 and the hearing on custody took place in February and March of 2014.  That was a whole four years prior and was hardly relevant to the case at present.  In fact, I question the legality of even bringing it up.  In my view, the only reason  the Court allowed information on the Wexler show into evidence along with the inaccurate speculations regarding what happened at the show was to punish Kathi Sorrentino for having the nerve to try to defend herself or speak out publically about her plight. 

This is how the Connecticut Judicial Branch has succeeded in shutting off the flow of information to the public regarding the many Protective Mothers who have unjustly lost custody of their children, by silencing these mothers with threats of jail, loss of their children and other equally vicious punishments.   

ANATOMY OF A CUSTODY SWITCHING SCHEME: THE KATHI SORRENTINO STORY, PART II

As you can deduce, the Sorrentino case was very difficult and time consuming for Connecticut Family Court to handle.  In fact, every year, a certain number (10-50% depending on who you are talking to) of CT Family Court divorces end up involving high conflict.  In such cases, the Court usually orders an investigation through a Family Study or the appointment of a GAL, or both.  
With the first approach the parties agree to work with a private custody evaluator who can do a study in order to figure out what is going on and what the problems are.  Litigants who contract for this kind of service are generally people who have money and can afford to pay the exorbitant prices of up to $5,000 - $15,000 or more. 
Often, the custody evaluator can then consult with a psychologist who is a member of the only mental health profession truly qualified to do psychological evaluations.  That usually costs an additional $5,000 per couple.  The results of the psychological evaluation can then be incorporated into the custody evaluation to provide a comprehensive picture of what is going on with a family.  It would be irresponsible to bandy about mental health diagnoses without a complete psychological evaluation (which is exactly what happened in the Sorrentino  case, by the way).
The second option if the parties are indigent or low income is to have the Family Relations Department of the Connecticut Judicial Branch do a custody evaluation at no charge.  Family Relations can also farm out litigants for psychological evaluations at no cost or low cost to be conducted by psychologists who have contracts with the CT Judicial Branch to do such work.  The information from those psychological evaluations can also be included in the final report. 
Of course, I know of many who are extremely well off who have one or the other party earning six figures who end up having custody evaluations through Family Relations at no charge, so I am not exactly sure how that happens.  All I can say is that I have frequently seen it done. 
At the same time, if the Court believes it necessary, the judge can appoint a Guardian Ad Litem who can conduct an investigation as well.  You can pay for one privately at considerable cost or, through the Children's Law Center obtain a GAL and pay using a sliding scale.  Again, a broad range of individuals use the Children's Law Center including a good many middle class, low income, and indigent clients.   
Often the work of a custody evaluator and a Guardian Ad Litem overlap, so in many cases you don't have both, you just have one or the other. 
In the Sorrentino case, on November 8, 2013, Judge Corinne Klatt ordered that the Sorrentino's hire Dr. Eric Frazer as a private GAL at the charge of $250 per hour, with a $4,000 retainer to be paid by both parties 50/50 within 30 days of the hearing date.  That makes perfect sense until you consider the fact that Kathi Sorrentino has no money.   
As Ms. Sorrentino stated during the hearing in response to Judge Klatt's orders,  "I am indigent...I don't have the money."  Further, she stated, "I can bring in my bank statements...I am a full time student...I have not worked in 20 years.  I've been an at home Mom."  Again, "Your Honor, what can I do if I don't have the money."  At another point, Ms. Sorrentino stated that she was received food stamps and fuel assistance and only $204 per week in combined child support and alimony and was ready to submit a financial affidavit to that effect.  Even without one, there is a presumption that a person is in poverty if they are on state aid. The court record shows that Kathi has been on state aid since the divorce. 
But Judge Klatt was not interested in hearing it and refused to allow Kathi to submit the financial affidavit verifying her statements.  Instead, Judge Klatt stated, "I'm ordering you to pay it, ma'am.  I am ordering you to pay it, all right." 
Again, at a later hearing on December 13, 2013, Judge Klatt made it clear to Kathi Sorrentino that if she did not sign the retainer letter and pay her share of $2,000 by December 16, 2013 at 2:00p.m., Judge Klatt would seriously consider the option of putting Ms. Sorrentino in jail.  So what about the rights of litigants to choose their own professionals and establish their own financial arrangements  with those professionals--non-existent, I guess.

What happened in the end is that Kathi Sorrentino went to her church which gave her the $2,000 because church leaders felt it was important to keep the mother of a minor child out of jail.  In Kathi's Church usually, members pray for people to be moved to come forward with contributions in times of trouble. Compassionate, not wealthy, people pitch in expecting that such a request is not going to be ongoing because the church is not equipped to take care of all the people going through divorce. 


But can you imagine a judge bullying the church out of money by threatening one of their members? 

And, of course,  here is the Court using jail and other sanctions as threats directed towards litigants so they are forced to go begging among friends and parents for money.   Make no mistake, these judges know what the consequences are when they confront family court litigants with such ultimatums.  As I recall so clearly Judge Constance Epstein saying to me when I ran out of money to pay my attorney's fees, "Go get the money where you got it the last time" which was, as she knew, from my parents.  I am not sure what she thought gave her the authority to order my parents to pay my expenses, but that is exactly what she did.  The bottom line in Court always is the money one way or another.
What these judges count on is that there are going to be enough people out there who have compassion and who are appalled by the Court's actions that they will contribute.  
You may ask, was there some imperative that Dr. Eric Frazer act as the GAL in this case?  No, of course, there wasn't, except insofar as Dr. Frazer is the "go to" guy in the State of Connecticut for custody switching schemes. 
Was there a much cheaper alternative?  Indeed, there was; there was Family Relations, as I mentioned, which is ready and available to provide services to indigent and low income clients such as Kathi Sorrentino (as well as the many wealthy who are able to slip themselves in there).  Plus, there was the Children's Law Center which Kathi Sorrentino requested in a motion dated December 16, 2013 which provides GALs at no cost or low cost to family court litigants.  Judge Corinne Klatt refused both options. 

In the vast majority of situations where the ex husband has the money, but the ex wife does not, Connecticut statute allows for the Court to order the father to pay for the entirety or at least the majority of these GAL fees, rather than go 50/50.  This is a standard procedure in Connecticut Family Court when there is inequity in terms of income between the parties.  However, the judge, by refusing to allow Kathi Sorrentino's financial affidavit into evidence, side stepped that statute.  Among her many actions and statements, this was among the first that indicated the biased predisposition of Judge Corinne Klatt against Kathi Sorrentino which should have disqualified this judge from hearing the case further.

The following year, during a hearing before the Judiciary Committee  of the Task Force to Study Legal Disputes Regarding the Care of Custody of Minor Children, the GALs on the Task Force--Sharon Dornfeld and Sue Cousineau--insisted that Family Court judges do not force people to agree to any particular GAL or fee schedule.  Clearly, that was a false statement, and not the first one.  More to come in Part III.  

Thursday, March 5, 2015

ANATOMY OF A CUSTODY SWITCHING SCHEME: THE KATHY SORRENTINO STORY, PART III

In the book "Man's Search For Meaning" Viktor Frankl stated that of all the many sufferings he endured in the Nazi Concentration camps, the worst he had to bear was not the physical privations, but the verbal abuse he had to put up with on a daily basis.  "Why was this so?" he was asked, Because it was so unfair." he answered.

This is no truer than within the context of Connecticut Family Court when, like Kathi Sorrentino, you find yourself a victim of a custody switching scheme, and are subjected to lie after lie after lie in your case where the court demonizes you, ascribes false motives to you, and makes you out to be some awful human being.  The intention is to demoralize you, to break you, and ultimately convince you that you are that terrible person they are describing you as. 

It must have been extremely tough for Kathi Sorrentino to listen to Judge Klatt pretend that she cared about Kathi's children when the judge was in the middle of implementing a fraudulent custody scheme against her.  Witness the following interchange that took place in Court during one of the hearings in this case:

Judge Klatt:  "I watched the torment on [your daughter's] face when she listened to your testimony.  I watched her break down in tears...I am not going to allow your daughter to testify.  You may not care about her well-being and mental health..."

Kathi:  "No, I do."

Judge Klatt: "...but I certainly do and I will not allow her to go through any more torture.  It was horrendous watching her face listening to you testify.  It was heartbreaking..."

Kathi:  "And the reason why she was upset is because she's not being heard."

The real reason Kathi's daughter was upset was because she had to watch the Court bully and mistreat her mother, and yes, she was not being heard.  

Legally speaking, Judge Klatt had no authority to deny Kathi's daughter the right to provide her testimony before the court because she was over 18 and no longer a minor.  Even if she were a minor, she had the right to provide her testimony and were this taken to appeal, my best guess is that Judge Klatt would be criticized for denying the daughter's testimony.  Of course, the problem is Judges do what they do, their victims don't always know the law, and so Judges figure they are quite likely to get away with it, as in this case.

Another legal point that is worth making is that the Court allowed Mr. Sorrentino to provide a broad range of testimony and speak at length complaining about his ex-wife.  However, he never provided one iota of evidence--in terms of documentation or witness testimony--to prove any of his claims. The Court just gave him credit for what he said on face value.  In contrast, when Ms. Sorrentino provided her testimony she backed up everything she said with considerable documentation to prove each one of her points, as well as testimony, but the Court simply dismissed her defense with snide remarks. 

 
Judge Klatt's disrespect and hyperbole was the kind of "blaming the victim" behavior she indulged in through the hearings and which, again, should have disqualified her from the case. 

Did Judge Klatt have the faintest idea what was going on with Kathi's daughter or with the Sorrentinos? 

No. 

The Judge's deliberate misinterpretations and her disregard for any testimony provided to support Kathi Sorrentino's position are exactly what Viktor Frankl found so unfair when the Nazi's did the same thing to him and other Jewish concentration camp victims. 
 
Judge Corinne Klatt was legally obligated to allow Kathi's daughter to provide her testimony.  But she chose not to.  Her words were a disingenuous exercise in hypocrisy, pure and simple--a means to avoid allowing the daughter to testify on the stand and bring the truth out into the open. 

And what is the truth? 

The truth is that in Kathi Sorrentino's case Dr. Eric Frazer produced a report that was grossly substandard and negligent in its content and format. 

The report was simply a tool for  a custody switching scheme, one which I have no doubt that Judge Corinne Klatt was complicit in because she is not a fool.  All the defects that I notice regarding Dr. Frazer's report as a layperson, I have no doubt Judge Klatt was aware of as well. She has seen hundreds of these reports in the course of her work as a family court judge, and she knows exactly how these reports should be written.  So when she saw the piece of trash that Dr. Eric Frazer provided, it would be naïve to think she didn't know. 

So what, you ask is the matter with the GAL report that Dr. Eric Frazer submitted to the court in the Sorrentino case? 

The answer is that Dr. Frazer took one only month to conduct the investigation before providing his report, and the report itself is only a single page in length. 

There is no way that a GAL can conduct an adequate investigation in a single month.  In addition, some of that time constituted the Christmas and New Year's season which shaves off at least a week of that time, so he probably spent just three weeks on it.  

Further, in terms of witnesses, Dr. Frazer stated in the report that he consulted only five individuals other than the parties and the child, Storm, himself.  He does not indicate that he spoke to the daughter, although it makes no sense  that he wouldn't.  Even if the daughter disagrees with him, all of that is important data and any fair minded evaluator would have included it.   

One of these witnesses, Diane Safran, a co-parenting coordinator, had not been involved with the Sorrentino's case for over twelve years, and for that reason she simply stated that she refused to discuss the case with Dr. Fraser at all.   Nonetheless, Dr. Fraser cited her as providing the basis for his determination that Ms. Sorrentino was an alienator.  How could he do that without talking to her?  Another co-parenting coordinator Dr. Fraser mentioned had not been involved with the family in three years. 

Ordinarily, in a properly written GAL report, I would expect testimony included from a broad range of individuals--friends, family, school personnel, mental health professionals--the whole gamut--at least up to ten or more, in order to get a full picture of what is going on in a family.  Not to emphasize quantity over quality, but there should be some visible attempt to actually do the job and collect information from a reasonable variety of sources who have actually had recent contact with the family.

I understand this is a GAL report and not a custody evaluation, but I do think I there are minimum standards. 

The majority of GAL investigations take at least three months, and, at least in my case, a final report of seven pages single spaced typed is more what you would expect from a reasonably qualified GAL. 

I have a copy of a friend's custody evaluation through family relations which took six months to complete, and is 20 pages long--again, single spaced typed.  And when I look at my own custody evaluation, it took a year to complete and was 27 pages single spaced typed.  Each of these reports includes input from 15 - 20 witnesses.

How do you take a 14 year old boy who has spent his entire life in the primary care of his mother and remove him from the only home he has ever known based upon a three week investigation resulting in a one page report focused on a single topic:  parental alienation disorder, a diagnosis that doesn't even exist in the diagnostic manual for mental health disorders and which is widely known to be quack science--a report that includes lots of opinion, but no actual facts.  If that isn't a setup, I don't know what is.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

ANATOMY OF A CUSTODY SWITCHING CASE: THE KATHI SORRENTINO STORY! PART I!

In headlines recently--January 23, 2015--a young teenager, Storm Sorrentino, who had been missing for at least a month, resurfaced a few miles from his mother's home.  According to police, "Storm was sitting on a stonewall, cleanly dressed and possibly waiting for a ride." 
 
Not long afterwards, his mother, Kathi Sorrentino, was released from Niantic prison. Judge Gerard Adelman had placed her there because he said he believed she refused to reveal where her son was, even though Kathi vociferously stated she did not know.  Throughout the entire ordeal, Ms. Sorrentino repeatedly stated she didn't know where her son was and was concerned about his whereabouts.
 
Reports of this case stated that Ms. Sorrentino and her ex Saverio "Sam" Sorrentino are engaged in a bitter custody battle over their son, Storm, and that Mr. Sorrentino had just been awarded custody last May.  Digging deeper into this matter, it has become clear that this is much more than just a custody battle.  This is the story of a custody switching scheme made possible by a combination of quack psychology, judicial negligence and bullying. 
 
Like many of these cases in family court, the Sorrentino case is not a recent situation, but one that has been going on since 2006 and has resulted in approximately 759 motions as of this date. This more recent custody matter began on May 13, 2013 when Kathi's ex husband Sam Sorrentino submitted a request to the Court to file a Motion For Contempt in regard to custody.  He stated that Kathi Sorrentino had "violated the parties Parenting Agreement" and "alienated the parties children" from him.  In his request for relief, he asked to be given custody of their son, Storm.
 
But lets not be naïve.  The real explanation for why Mr. Sorrentino submitted his motion for contempt was primarily because Kathi Sorrentino had gone to court requesting  more child support.  In the vast majority of these custody switching schemes, it is this request for money that precipitates the decision a father makes to go for full custody. 
 
[As a point of interest, you might wonder why Mr. Sorrentino filed a "request" to file a motion instead of the motion itself. When a case is contentious, many judges will issue an order stating that no party in the case can file any motions without first requesting permission of the Court. The hope is that this will stop litigants from constantly filing more and more motions.  However, the reality is that if there are sufficient problems in the case, all this does is double the number of motions as parties both request to submit motions, then submit the motions, because judges rarely deny such requests.  True to form, if you look at the case detail for this case, it is full of “requests”!] 
 
When he saw the motion, the judge should simply have denied permission for the motion for contempt for one simple reason.  There are two children in this case—one, an older sister, who is already in college and out of the home.  So her custody is not an issue.  The other child, Storm, was around 13 years old at the time.   Storm had grown up living with his mother who had been a full time mother for more than 20 years.  As Storm made repeatedly clear in both written and verbal communications, he wished to stay with her. 
 
Unfortunately, instead of using common sense and denying the request, the Court permitted the motion and thus touched off another lengthy round of litigation which continues up to the present.  The end result of the litigation has been that custody of Storm was transferred to the father despite the fact that this is not what Storm wanted.  But who cares what the child wants, right!

What is ironic is that one of the central factors in the outbreak of this custody battle had to do with what Storm wanted. 
 
Apparently, in the Fall of 8th grade, Storm had become interested in going to a private high school called Notre Dame in Fairfield, CT for which he was hoping to get a scholarship.   In preparation, he decided to go to an open house for the school, and this was where the shit hit the fan because before telling his Mom what his plans were, Storm shared them with his father.  Mr. Sorrentino proceeded to tell Storm that he thought it was a good idea and to go ahead.  However, later on in court, Mr. Sorrentino denied that he had given his son permission.  Instead, he said that Kathi Sorrentino had made all the arrangements without his permission, and cited it as an example of parental alienation.   
 
Imagine being this young man—you can’t even hope and dream for your future without your Dad using it as an excuse to go to court and attack your Mom. 
 
I will also say I have seen this frequently, in my own case as well as others, that when mothers try to improve their children's chances of success by sending them to prep schools, either through a scholarship or the assistance of grandparents, abusive men like to use that as a means to attack the mother.  I mean, God forbid their children gain the advantage of a private school education!  



Such fathers will either use their power to refuse as a means to wrest financial concessions from their ex-wives, or else as in the Sorrentino case, use it as a way to seize custody by claiming they were not consulted, even when the evidence shows they were—another testimony to the concept that no good deed by a mother will go unpunished.

Eventually, in the Sorrentino case,  the father’s motion for contempt appeared before Judge Corinne Klatt on November 8, 2013 who then decided to appoint a Guardian Ad Litem, Dr. Eric Fraser, Miami Institute of Psychology grad, and an expert on the quack theory of parental alienation syndrome which is in standard usage for custody switching schemes perpetrated by abusers and their allies.  And from what I gather from Dr. Eric Fraser, there isn't a custody switching scheme this psychologist doesn’t like. 
 
When she did this, Judge Klatt made the statement that she was interested in hearing from Storm regarding what he wanted stating “ What I want to know is what the child is thinking, and then I’ll issue orders..”  And further she stated, “I don’t know who to believe, that’s why I’m going to listen to what a guardian ad litem’s going to say – hear from the child.” 
 
The question we are left with then is, granting the evidence of recent events, did anyone hear the child? 
 
Apparently, no. 
 
Storm did not wish to have a change in custody.  He stated that repeatedly. 
 
As it stands, he spent two months at Notre Dame High School where he was happy and successful, until his father withdrew him and transferred him to Newtown High School.  So what happened to what Judge Klatt said about wanting to know what the child was thinking?  Was that all a scam? 


At this point, it is my understanding that Storm is being told, among other things, that he can never see his mother or sister again, and this is why he runs away from home. He is also being told that his mother will be thrown in jail if he sees her.  How can this situation ever be considered in the best interests of a child.


More on this story in Part II.