How PAS Champions NAMBLA - Safe Child Custody Fund

Constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley, is a nationally recognized legal scholar, who appeared on MSNBC's Countdown (December 16, 2008). Turley posed one of the major questions in recent times. But will his question on "power without principle or true change" be ignored?

$$$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$PAS$$$

Proponents of the disastrous, abusive, child molesting Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS: junk science), which has been debunked/dismissed by major mental health organizations, are likely to dismiss Turley's question. But will the electorate of all just and fair-minded people do the same?

The creator of PAS, psychiatrist, Richard Gardner, who committed suicide by plunging a butcher knife in his neck, throat, and heart after testifying (per hefty fees) in child custody cases that placed many children in the care of abusive and child molesting parents, was an advocate of child molestation among other despicable things. In addition, some of the children who were removed from their protective parents and placed with their abusers have committed suicide; some were harmed and re-molested. Lobbyists and others have had their hands and large sums of monies fully engaged in decisions of some governing bodies selling Dick Gardner’s junk science, which continues to harm innocent children, even as it outlives the gory suicidal ending of the creator of PAS.

"We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident..."

One would need to be gifted with the ability to go well beyond suspension of judgment, ignoring all truths and evidence, to find many differences between the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), Dick Gardner, and his PAS (junk science). Besides education as the great equalizer, does the challenge of the 21st century also include a principled way of protecting children as they strive to be educated in our society? It seems the morality question is outstanding: Can a child reach his or her full potential while living with the threat of molestation and other forms of abuse? Will said child become a full functioning adult after surviving such pain? Will the reigning powers of a system and its dominance be allowed to continue its immoral assertions in the dismissals of such cases of child abuse/child rape/child molestation, via PAS, and its tortuous practice defeat the innocent bliss and “good form” of children? Will there ever be fairness, as it relates to the aforementioned children, and their protective loved ones fighting to keep them from harm?

It is our hope that the decency of all people will prevail and reject the shameful neglect of the powerless from a common assault, irrespective of the murkiness of an unbalanced system and its belligerency. We hope that decency will succeed a seemingly unstoppable system that places children and their protective parents in the cross hairs of insanity, practiced within and beneath the radar.

______________________________________
Team: Safe Child Custody Fund
December 16, 2008

Comparison of Gardner 's Views with Those of NAMBLA

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a political, civil rights and educational organization that advocates sex between adult males and male children. Mary De Young (1989), associate professor of sociology at Grand Valley State University, outlined the arguments used by NAMBLA to justify, normalize, and/or rationalize sex between adults and children. NAMBLA members were found to utilize four major strategies: denial of injury; condemnation of the condemners; appeal to higher loyalties; and denial of the victim. Although literature by NAMBLA is not cited by Gardner, similar strategies are mirrored throughout his writings (See Figure 1).

Figure 1: How Gardner 's Views Compare with Those of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)

Conclusion:

Dr. Richard A. Gardner is a prominent forensic expert whose work has served as a basis for courtroom decisions affecting the welfare of children across the nation. His theories regarding pedophilia and paraphila as well as his recommendations regarding therapeutic treatment for the sexually abused child, the child's mother, and the pedophiliac father are unique and do not appear to fall within the mainstream of generally accepted clinical practice.

ENDNOTES

1. http://www.rgardner.com

2. Gardner is an ardent critic of mandated reporting and has lobbied Congress to abolish mandated reporting and immunity for those who report abuse (Gardner, 1993).

REFERENCES

De Young, Mary. (1988). The indignant page: Techniques of neutralization in the publications of pedophile organizations. Child Abuse & Neglect, 12(4), 583-91.

De Young, M. (1989). The world according to NAMBLA: Accounting for deviance. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 16(1), 111-126.

Gardner, R.A. (1986). Child Custody Litigation: A Guide for Parents and Mental Health Professionals . Cresskill , NJ : Creative Therapeutics.

Gardner, R.A. (1988). Clinical evaluation of alleged child sex abuse in custody disputes. In P.A. Keller & S.R. Heyman (Eds). Innovations in Clinical Practice, Vol. 7. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Exchange, Inc., pp. 61-76.

Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics.

Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and false accusations of child sex abuse. Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics.

Gardner, R.A. (1993) Revising the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: Our best hope for dealing with sex-abuse hysteria in the United States . Issues in Child Abuse Accusations, 5(1), 25-27.

Quinn, K.M. (1991). Family evaluation in child custody mediation, arbitration, and litigation (Book Review). Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, 19(1), 101-02.

Sherman, R. (1993, August 16) Gardner 's law. The National Law Journal, pp. 1, 45-46.

AUTHOR NOTE

Stephanie Dallam, R.N., M.S.N., is a Family Nurse Practitioner and Legal Nurse Consultant. She is currently an officer and researcher for the Leadership Council of Mental Health, Justice and the Media, a nonprofit organization that promotes the ethical application of psychological science to the public welfare. She worked in pediatric intensive care for 10 years at University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics, and is a former nursing instructor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has written numerous articles on issues related to the welfare of children.

Source: The Leadership Council

FULL ARTICLE: Click Here

Comments

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NAMBLA/PAS--there is no difference!
Posted on: 2008-12-17 16:31:43 By: checkmate08

This is disgraceful!!! Shameful!! Disgraceful!! And a governor proclaimed a day for this NAMBLA/PAS!!! How ugly of him! How disturbing that Obama feels like he has to give out goodies to everyone he thinks sort of helped him get more power??! Vilsack supported Clinton not Obama. Obama had already won Iowa. Iowans rejected Clinton even when Vilsack endorsed her because they thought they were choosing change instead of the same old politics. Making a man supporting child molester policies secretary of anything is DISGUSTING! Change? Hell, it sounds like more of the same!!

I guess we will be cycling around Blago's kind of politics for the next four years!

Re: NAMBLA/PAS--there is no difference! Posted on: 2008-12-17 16:45:43 By: anthony678
We are officially a nation of child molesters!!! Score a big one for NAMBLA!

Re: NAMBLA/PAS--there is no difference!
Posted on: 2008-12-17 18:30:24 By: andi

Edited By: andi
On: 2009-09-13 03:04:21

There is no doubt Dick Gardner was a quack!! How nuts do you have to be to kill yourself with a butcher knife? Everyone here should read the guy's autopsy report. He stabbed himself over and over again in his throat and chest!!! What a sick twisted f#@ker he was!!! I just want all the ladies coming to this site to know all men are not sick and twisted psychos like these inanimate heartless freaks passing for humans. I could see how hard it is when you have to fight this sh!t! But it was a guy who said "for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" so there are a few good men including me still around. So don't give up hope. Child molester freaks like that freak Arthur Stiles raping the three-year old baby girl and video-taping it could only get away with it because child molesters are in politics and the court systems. We have to get rid of them starting from the highest offices.

What I can't understand is how the Dick Gardner freak got away with this for so long. He's still getting away with it--they keep using his quack theory in court. If Parental Alienation Syndrome is exclusively from divorce, then how would Dick's quack theory explain Arthur Stiles??? He was the woman's boyfriend for a while and she didn't even know he was raping and video-taping himself with her little girl. She wasn't married to the pervert! There was no marriage or divorce!

I'm sick to my stomach after reading this piece. I want to go kick a child molester freak in the face now!

Re: NAMBLA/PAS--there is no difference!
Posted on: 2008-12-17 18:49:02 By: andi

Edited By: andi
On: 2008-12-18 12:13:12

So much for change we can believe in!!!!! I read up on Vilsack and he was an orphan. Maybe Obama thinks he has something in common with the guy since his father abandoned him too. So what?!! They were bad characters anyway. So these brilliant minds are willing to keep up America's disgrace by forcing kids to be around people who hurt them and their moms??! What else will our "change" President-Elect give us? He won't do anything about the Bush ciminal administration so what else should anybody expect??? It was all about power! They need to give up thinking up bullsh!t like effing PAS Day!! What the f#@K!!! That's like saying it's a Free Pass Day for child molesters to rape kids. That's like praising and celebrating Dick frekking Gardner. They couldn't have sent a better message to child molesters to go out and rape and kill some more kids. Dead Dick a$$wipe must be the biggest hero to the child molester freaks. Psychos!!!!

I'm just as pi$$ed off as everybody else after reading this!!

Re: NAMBLA/PAS--there is no difference!
Posted on: 2008-12-17 19:59:52 By: bushisawarcriminal

So when will people go from angry to action? Bush gets a fee pass and nothing happens to Dick Cheney. Does anybody kids rank anywhere near this? Get real! If and when one of these guys kids get molested or killed then maybe something changes. Slaves got their freedom after 3 hundred years. They built the White House that the first black president will live in for four years. Does anybody think kids rank anywhere near that? Let's get real people. Kids don't have movements for change or civil rights leaders. It's just not that important yet. Try this on for size:

What's so wrong with Dick Gardner's theories anyway? Maybe he was right. Maybe kids can seduce grownups. Let's say I was a child molester, that's the kind of thing that sounds just right. When I change my son's diapers and he's obviously aroused, how does anyone really know what he needs? He could be saying I need relief. I need you to love me. He's just not able to say it yet. Dick says it's human nature. This stuff has been going on since the beginning of time and kids live don't they? So what's the big deal. Or as Dick and George would say, "So what?" So what if a bunch of you bleeding hearts want to call child abuse? So what? Deal with it.

OK, that's a sick as I could get! I hope the protectors of child abusers and molesters get what I'm saying. Kids can't consent to this kind of stuff and until we make them a priority in every way, this crap will go on!

For the record, I AM NOT A CHILD MOLESTER! Go Caroline Kennedy! Maybe you can make the government really protect kids.

Alec Baldwin's homophobic comments on Larry King!
Posted on: 2008-12-17 22:43:02 By: doreen1

I hope you all caught Alec Baldwin on Larry King tonight. They made sure it was a woman he liked interviewing him--Joy Behar. Nice! Brilliant move! All done to soften the blow to his ex-wife, Kim and other non-compliant/non-submissive women. Baldwin is a big movie star so he gets a voice but what happened to women without that kind of power to get on CNN? I hope you all caught Baldwin's homophobic comment about gay women parenting! Amazing! He made it seem like gay women could never be good parent minus a man!! So what happens to single moms who raise excellent children? What happen to abusive nut jobs who the police have to handcuff to get out of the house after they beat up their wives or girlfriends in front of the kids??!!

I used to think the guy was decent but what I realized about that is that most of us women thought he was this handsome man and how could he be an abusive brute/jerk? It's just like kids getting molested in the church, not even the parents believed their priests would do something like that because nobody wants to believe what the mind can't handle. So just keep getting hurt and their safety kicked to the curb.

Joy Behar "sort of" tried to hold Baldwin's foot to the fire with his comments but he wriggled his way out of it. He had the fathers' rights morons on to help him push his new book and the junk science parental alienation syndrome bull*bleep*. Nobody mentioned anything about Dick Gardner, the PAS doctor, because they want to keep that dirty little secret away from the mainstream public. Just imagine if a woman was brave enough and had the clout like Baldwin to challenge his nonsense with science, accuracy, facts, and could talk about the fanaticism of Dick Gardner on the Larry King show. They'd have to deal with Gardner's disgusting theories. So what Baldwin is getting away with, essentially, is discussing PAS without opposition, without talking about who created it and what it really stands for or does to kids. Just absolute friggin Amazing!!! To blame his ex-wife for his outrageous behavior calling his daughter an effing pig and hang on to some junk science as an excuse is very p**sy of him! And that's an insult to p**sy. What a prissy b*t*h he is!!

What this all comes down to is the fathers' rights lobbyists are hanging on to Dick's PAS theory for dear life. They don't want anybody delving into Gardner's theories. They don't want to talk about the fact that the American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, The National Association for Mental Health, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Leadership Council and others all dispute Dick Gardner's PAS nonsense. If kids weren't in danger of PAS it would be hilarious or a Monty Python gimmick.

Lawmakers don't want to address this because some of them want PAS in the court room just in case they need to use it in their own divorce. PAS gives them a ready excuse and points the fingers at moms--case closed. They don't have to investigate further to see if an abusive father actually raped his kid or used other forms of abuse on his kid.

WE NEED TO NOT FORGET BALDWIN IS AN ABUSIVE MAN WHO CALLED HIS DAUGHTER AN EFFING PIG THEN BLAMED HER MOTHER FOR HIS DESPICABLE BEHAVIOR THEN TRIED TO GET THE WHOLE WORLD TO BELIEVE HE COULDN'T CONTROL HIMSELF BECAUSE HIS WIFE MADE HIM TO IT. WHAT A WIMP!!! SOUNDS LIKE HE'S BLAMING EVERYBODY BUT HIMSELF. AND MOST OF ALL HE SOUNDS LIKE DICK GARDNER REINCARNATED. SEXIST, ARROGANT...NOW WHO'S A PIG, BALDWIN??!

Who will he run to when the Republican get lock and load??
Posted on: 2008-12-18 00:37:22 By: jamie

Progressives are pissed now but they should wait until the Republicans start in on the new administration. Sure his head is bloated and he's forgotten who stood by his side through thick and thin. He's got four years to live in a White House with the only prior residence of white dudes. So what is right! But just wait until Bush is out of the way for a while and all the crap starts flying his way. No amount of Obama centrism will inoculate him from the far right wing segment. They will come after him with everything they got. And blacks and kids won't pull it off alone either. Looks like a one-term administration to me. The Karl Rove types may be down now but I never put anything past that guy. He can diss us progressives for as long as he wants but sooner or later he's going to need our support and quite frankly I can't see why we would continue to support him after what he's been doing lately. And to invite that anti-gay hater pastor to the inauguration when that was absolutely unnecessary tells us volumes. For some reason he seems to believe he's going to get stuff done in Washington if he bows and give them key positions in an election mandate against the right wing administration. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If Bush wasn't as bad as he was/is and the economy hadn't crashed the way it did, I have real doubts that we would be talking about an Obama administration right now. Towards the end, Clinton was kicking his butt in one primary after the next. So you can diss us progressives now but when the progressive voices return the diss don't blame anyone but yourself Obama! You let the swelling of your head get too big. But the Republicans, no matter how much you appeal to their so-called better angels, none o dem will hear ya!

Oh and Alec Baldwin and the rest of the fathers wrong movement are blow hard/hard up wimps!

"In Your Guts You Know He's Nuts"--FDR
Posted on: 2008-12-18 01:13:56 By: dba2010

Wow! There's a lot of action over here! You guys are pissed off big time! I just wanted to slow things down a little to point to the real bad guy here: Dick Gardner was a pedophile, let's face it. No reasonable person could read about his PAS theory and think he was sane. The best answer to this is to say that anyone who supports Parental Alienation Syndrome is either a child molester, child abuser, or an domestic violence abusive jerk and opportunist looking for inoculation in the PAS freaky non-science.

Obama is still an old fashioned real traditional kind of guy. Kids like him cause he seems cool but it's mostly how different he looks and that he seems to know some up-to-date cultural stuff. But let's face it, he was a member of that crazy Rev. Wright church for 20 years. C'mon, he was never anything near progressive. We just wanted anything but Bush! He's a politician and sold himself as everything to everyone in an election. I ain't mad at him for doing what politicians do. We didn't ask the right questions. Although his nuance style would have gotten him through that too. But so far, he is still a different bird than George W. Bush! Maybe he thinks he'll be another FDR. I don't know that that will be possible since Roosevelt made history in Congress because he understood that he "was" mandate and backlash against to the prior admin. Obama will soon need to realize that the far right is just giving him a little honeymoon now but they're going to hit hard. Then we'll see what he's got. But none of these guys get this far unless they play some political games along the way so let's not pretend to be too surprised with the Obama admin so far. He seems ungrateful to progressives and the folks who supported him all the way but let's just hang in there. All we have to do is sit back and watch the fireworks. Basically, I don't think a Hillary admin would have been that much different. They were right--he's not that far from the Clinton methods. We just need to chill out and mobilize for 2012. The Repugz will do what they do. If this keeps up we will need to have an unforgiving nature and whack back in due time!

Don't forget what Roosevelt said:
"In Your Guts, You Know He's Nuts"
to Goldwater's:
"In Your Heart, You Know He's Right"

Soon we'll find out which applies with our next government. In the meantime the "...Nuts" slogan works for Dick frekkin Child Molester Gardner and his followers! Now that's for sure!

Re: "In Your Guts You Know He's Nuts"--FDR
Posted on: 2008-12-18 20:59:53 By: gellanu

Edited By: gellanu
On: 2008-12-19 21:12:44

I read something about Obama's strategists being happy as a bug in a rug about the reaction from progressives about Rick Warren being one of the first voices the world will hear at the inauguration. My question is will that inoculate him from the far right when it comes to getting things done if nobody believes he stands for anything? You can't play politics in almost everything you do; eventually you will have to show the people what you stand for. If he intends to prostitute himself by giving the right of way to intolerant people pretty soon you're not just prostituting but in fact you are pretty much a prostitute. It's not just progressives who rejected the far right this time around it was also mainstream democrats, moderates, etcetera. And that poster who wrote the piece about FDR having a mandate was correct. He knew he had the power of the people on his side so it didn't matter what the far right was doing or saying. Obama is setting himself up to lose the strength of the only thing that matters and that is if the people see him as just another politician doing and saying anything to get and keep power. Will these guys ever learn?! The other poster was right too who said we just need to sit back and watch the fireworks. No matter how much he caters to the intolerable types they are a dying breed; they just don't know it yet. The only way they come back is if people lose hope and faith in Obama. If they can't find a reason to respect him or trust what he says based on what he does, he loses and so goes the next election. They seem to be thinking only of getting over the hump of the next four years, but I don't think most presidents set themselves up to be a one-term president when two terms are possible. There will be no progressives on TV challenging talking points of the far right. They will be no backing of moderates when you stand for nothing and fall for everything. Kids will lose hope too.

Re: "In Your Guts You Know He's Nuts"--FDR
Posted on: 2008-12-19 21:22:26 By: nomdeplume

Damn! People are really upset with Obama nowadays. I give him one year before he is fully gray. LOL. I'm just trying to lighten things up folks! I am just as upset with some of Obama's choices too but he is not even in office yet so let us wait and see what else he does folks. Please! The Time magazine writer was completely out of line with his piece about Obama being a bigot. That is crazy!! He has some fundamentalist views but bigot?! His Rick Warren choice is unexplainable considering how Warren cooked up that thing he had with Obama and McCain in the general. Somebody allowed McCain to hear the questions before getting there so it was obvious Warren was out to ignite the evangelicals against Obama. Hell, you guys are right....I don't get it either. He's sending the wrong message with Warren, but just think what the reaction would be if he had chosen crazy Rev. Wright. That's another joke folks. Lighten up just a little! Maybe we should keep a wait and see attitude for now.

"Obama's team miscalculated the stink of the new pastor problem"
Posted on: 2008-12-20 00:24:23 By: atre

Edited By: atre
On: 2009-01-04 12:59:40

Hey you guys, guess who said this: "I'm naturally inclined to have sex with every beautiful woman I see"? If you guessed Pastor Rick Warren, you'd guess right! He said that, among other things, in his interview with Ann Curry. You all should have seen Curry's eyes pop open...hahaha!! Then the intolerant pastor used the similar crap that most bigots use: "I have gay friends who ask me why they shouldn't have sex with anybody they want." DOES ANYBODY BELIEVE THIS DEMAGOGUE HAS A GAY FRIEND??! Give me a friggin break with this already! These guys need more original stuff! That's like when you catch a racist in the act and he tries to to cover his racism with stuff like: "I'm not a racist, my black friend knows I'm not racist."

Oh, and he said the thing about his so-called gay friends after his comment about giving "them" (the gays) water and donuts when they protested his bigotry. The guy is not just ignorant but absolutely ignorant and clueless. This thing is growing by the day. The pastor stink isn't going away. You'd think the Obama team would have learned to stay away from pastor problems by now. They keep making only political calculations sideswiping the people who supported them because they think these folks have no place else to go. When you keep up these political games, minus sensitivity of your supporters, this is the broad sweeping results sometimes. They probably didn't expect so many people coming out in so many states rallying against Prop 8 but it's not just gays begging for recognition anymore. Gays have powerful friends too and these politicians better recognize. I don't honestly believe they would have allowed this pastor if he had KKK alignments and said bad stuff about blacks or anti-semitic stuff.... I'm not gay but I'm tired of this kind of bashing on gays or any group of people. It's hateful and hurtful. And I'm not waiting for them to bash anybody else they don't like.

There's also all the news coming out about Rev. Wright and that he was suppose to give the invocation when Obama announced his candidacy in Chicago. They're saying Axelrod made a statement that they had to rescind the offer to Wright because they thought he would cause problems for Obama. That suggests they knew the guy was trouble from the beginning. So the question is if they can rescind one pastor to protect Obama's political ambitions--a pastor who made insensitive comments about Jews and others--why offer another pastor the right to be heard by the world when he's made statements about human beings that is insensitive and disgraceful??? What they seem to be saying is a pastor problem is only a problem when it could negatively affect Obama's political ambitions. Hmmmm....sounds like this could do that too if they keep finding out more stuff about pastors Wright and Warren. I saw David Corn (with Mother Jones) say Obama should have told Warren that he'll find other ways to work with him on things they could agree on rather than give the guy "numero uno" spot at his inauguration. How can the inclusive president to be suggest it's okay to include a divisive and far from inclusive pastor to something that important??! You can't change these people! You just have to build on a coalition of rational and reasonable people. That doesn't include extremists of any kind. They just dug up this other thing about Warren. Apparently he bars gay people from his church unless they repent their gayness first. Supposedly he's one of those nut jobs trying to change the biology of gay people through self-righteous exorcism? This is a very bad and extremist thing that's happening right before our eyes! And as stubborn as Obama is on this, since he thinks he can afford to tick off gay people and their supporters, this has the capacity to get worse. Women (groups) are ticked off too! This is not going away anytime soon no matter what the patriarchal talking heads say.

Re: "Obama's team miscalculated the stink of the new pastor problem"
Posted on: 2008-12-20 01:01:48 By: abby28

Wow!! Atre, well done! This is the place to be! I agree with most of what everyone is saying. But the poster who wrote the thing about Caroline Kennedy is kind of confusing. Does anybody know where she stands on preventing child abuse? Has she taken any stance on PAS? All we really know about what she's done is in education but I don't know how a child can learn when they are being abused by a parent or someone else. It just seems like safety comes first before anything else. As far as the Obama pastor problem. It seems like self-inflicted controversy that is totally unnecessary. I still support him but I don't know why he makes these decisions that cause him and others grief. This is not just about children, women, or gays. It's about oppressed people. It's about human rights.

How ironic! Posted on: 2008-12-25 13:27:32 By: lunie
I love how ironic this all seems! Sometimes mortals are way too quick to anoint another mortal immortal. But you live and learn. I wish everyone a healthy holiday season!

The PAS case of Shirley Riggs & kids
Posted on: 2009-01-25 21:19:46 By: bobbi

I received this email recently and I hope people will do something for this poor woman and her kids:

My name is Shirley Riggs, I’m 39 years old and the mother of 4 beautiful children. I’m writing this inside the Thurston County jail, Olympia, WA, waiting for extradition to Kansas City, Missouri to face charges of custodial interference. My bond stands at $500,000 cash only. This secures that I as a mother will sit in jail because I chose to protect my children from further sexual abuse and because of a broken system. My heart aches for my children in a way few will ever realize….

…. My children and I have suffered great injustices in our lives in the past 4 years. We have been denied our right to due process and protection. Laws have been swept under the rug, resulting in my children being placed with their father and grandfather, who both have substantiated sexual abuse findings involving my oldest daughter. My children have been illegally ripped from the home, family, society, and way of life they love, the place they felt safest and the community they held so dear.

Shirley twice fled Missouri with her children to protect them from abuse when the family court failed to do so. Now, Shirley is in jail in Independence, Missouri, and the State has2 court cases pending against her. In the criminal case for custodial interference, Shirley could spend up to 16 years in prison, if convicted. In the second case the state is trying to permanently terminate Shirley's parental rights and give custody to the abusive father.

You can help! Visit www.StopFamilyViolence.org/551 to learn more about what is happening.

Read the excerpts substantiating the abuse, watch the video of Shirley on KCTV 5 news -where a retired judge went out on a limb to comment about the handeling of this case. Read about the blatant conflicts of interest that have put Shirley and her children in harms way and see how the bogus theory of Parental Alienation is the abuser's favorite excuse.

THEN TAKE ACTION!

Send a free, pre-written message to the new Missouri Governor, the new Attorney General, the new Director of the Department of Social Services, the Missouri Children's Advocate and the Jackson County Prosecutor, urging them to drop the charges, return the children to Shirley, and investigate the actions of the Jackson County Children's Division. www.StopFamilyViolence.org/551

LAST - Please forward this message to everyone you can, post it on blogs and message boards and do everything you can to help ensure that Shirley is released and reunited with her children.

There isn't much time - proceedings against Shirley begin in February!

Thanks for your quick response.

Together, we can.. www.stopfamilyviolence.org
Irene Weiser

"2 Pa. judges to plead guilty to public corruption"
Posted on: 2009-01-27 19:02:35 By: gellanu

Check this out everybody!!

The Times Leader ran this story today at this link:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=1522532

A lawyer for a judge accused of a kickback scheme says a plea agreement announced by prosecutors could fall apart.

Al Flora represents Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella (shiv-ah-REL'-lah). He told a Wilkes-Barre newspaper, The Citizens' Voice, that the plea agreements require the defendants to accept the facts to be presented by prosecutors at a plea hearing. He says the hearing hasn't been scheduled yet.

Ciavarella is charged along with Senior Judge Michael Conahan (CON'-ah-han). Prosecutors say they got $2.6 million in kickbacks in return for placing juvenile offenders into certain detention facilities.

They have agreed to plead guilty to honest services fraud and tax fraud. Conahan's lawyer, Philip Gelso, declined comment.

"Feds: Judges used system to enrich selves"
Posted on: 2009-01-27 19:15:30 By: workedover99x

Gellanu, you can bet they were doing this to mostly poor kids. Just another day at the expense of poor people! I found some more details on the story about the judges:

"Feds: Judges used system to enrich selves"

Feds: Judges used system to enrich selves
Allegations are that Ciavarella, Conahan took $2.6M in kickbacks in exchange for judicial rulings regarding detention centers.

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com
Law & Order Reporter

SCRANTON – For more than a decade, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan served on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, developing reputations as hard-working judges.

On Monday, federal prosecutors revealed the longtime jurists were allegedly working equally hard behind the scenes on a far less noble endeavor – enriching themselves at the expense of the public and juveniles who appeared in Luzerne County Court.

They did so in the form of kickbacks -- $2.6 million worth – that U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson said were paid to the judges by two unnamed people in exchange for favorable judicial rulings regarding the PA Child Care juvenile detention center in Pittston Township, and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care in Butler County.“This is a sad event when individuals who took an oath violate that oath and violate the law,” Carlson said at a Monday afternoon press conference at the federal courthouse where he announced charges of conspiring to defraud the IRS and devising a scheme to defraud taxpayers of their honest services had been filed against the jurists.

Carlson said Ciavarella, 58, and Conahan, 56, have signed plea agreements that call for them to serve 87 months in prison and to pay a yet-to-be-determined amount of restitution.

The judges have also agreed to resign from office within 10 days after the court accepts their pleas, and will immediately be disbarred from practicing law. Ciavarella resigned as president judge on Friday.

The maximum combined penalty for the two offenses was 25 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines. Carlson said he believed the plea deal that was worked out serves justice.

The charges stem from a more than two-year investigation by the FBI and IRS that uncovered a “flagrant violation of public trust,” said Leslie DeMarco, special agent in charge of the IRS criminal investigation unit.

“They sold their oath of office to the highest bidders and engaged in an ongoing scheme to defraud the public,” Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI’s Scranton office, said at the news conference.

The 22-page complaint details an elaborate scheme the judges developed to ensure PA Child Care, then owned by Butler Township attorney Robert Powell and Gregory Zappala, prospered financially. Gregory Zappala is the son of former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Zappala.

According to the complaint:

Conahan removed funding for the county-operated juvenile center on River Street in Wilkes-Barre in 2002, ensuring its closure. The county began sending youths to PA Child Care when it opened in February 2003.

Just prior to its opening, Conahan signed a “placement guarantee agreement” with the facility that guaranteed the courts would pay an annual rental installment of $1.3 million.

Ciavarella, the county’s longtime juvenile court judge, helped ensure PA Child Care had a high occupancy rate by, at times, ordering children be detained there even when the juvenile probation department felt it was not necessary.

Ciavarella did that in part by establishing a “specialty court” that created a potential for an increased number of juveniles to be sent to PA Child Care.

The judges’ actions assisted the two juvenile centers in securing agreements with Luzerne County that were worth “tens of million of dollars” for the placement of juvenile offenders, the complaint says.

The complaint also describes how two others involved in the scheme – identified as “participant 1” and “participant 2” – funneled money to the judges by disguising the payments as a “broker fee” or as falsely portraying them as rental payments for a Florida condominium.

Carlson would not identify the two participants, but details contained in the complaint indirectly identify them as Powell and Robert Mericle of Mericle Construction, the contractor who built both the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care facilities.

The complaint notes that in June 2000, Ciavarella had a conversation with a Luzerne County attorney “who was interested in constructing a juvenile detention facility” in the county. Ciavarella then introduced that person to a contractor, a friend of Ciavarella who was later hired by that attorney to build the center.

The complaint also notes several transfers of funds that were made by Mericle Construction and Vision Holdings, a company owned by Powell, that prosecutors contend were made to conceal payments to Conahan and Ciavarella.

No charges have been filed against Mericle, Powell or Zappala. Asked if any more charges were forthcoming, Carlson would only say the investigation is continuing.

Powell could not be reached for comment Monday. In prepared statements, Mericle and Zappala, who bought out Powell’s interest in the centers last June, denied any criminal activity.

“At no time did Robert Mericle or Mericle Construction ever make any payment to influence a decision to secure a contract to build any PA Child Care facility,” said Lew Sebia, general counsel for Mericle Construction. “Mr. Mericle has cooperated with authorities with respect to this investigation and will continue to do so in the future without exception.”

William Brucker, attorney for PA Child Care, said Zappala did not have “any knowledge whatsoever of the actions” described in the complaint.

“I can confirm only that no charges have been brought against the companies or its principal owner, Gregory Zappala, and that none are anticipated,” Brucker said.

Ciavarella’s attorney, Al Flora, of Wilkes-Barre, said Ciavarella and Conahan also dispute some of the allegations contained in the complaint.

“The information you have before you constitutes the government’s allegations. It is not an admission to all those allegations,” Flora said.

Flora explained the plea agreement is a “conditional plea.” The precise facts that Ciavarella and Conahan will admit to will not be known until they actually appear before a judge to enter their pleas, Flora said. No date has been set for that hearing.

At the time the judges appear in court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will have to recite evidence in support of the various allegations, Flora said. Ciavarella and Conahan would then have to decide whether to admit to those particular facts, he said.

Flora said Ciavarella will not admit to all of the information included in the complaint. If the government presents facts in support of each of those allegations, Ciavarella will not agree to enter the plea, he said.

“I can tell you, Judge Ciavarella will not admit to every one of those allegations,” Flora said.

Flora said he is also speaking on behalf of Conahan, who is represented by attorney Philip Gelso. He said he believes Conahan also will not admit to all of the allegations contained in the complaint.

It was not clear Monday whether the case will be heard by a judge sitting in Scranton, or be transferred to a jurist within another section of the Middle District, such as Harrisburg or Williamsport. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod.

Conahan and Ciavarella will remain free pending their court appearances. Asked why the judges were not immediately taken into custody, Carlson said it is standard procedure to allow anyone charged with a “white-collar crime” such as this to remain free until they are summoned to enter the plea in court. He stressed that all proceedings involving the judges will be public.

“While some might wish for a moment of high drama, that sort of perp walk … justice requires us to deal with these defendants like we would every other defendant in a similar situation,” he said.

Stressing the investigation is continuing, Carlson called upon anyone who may have further knowledge relating to the case to contact the FBI or IRS.

Re: "Feds: Judges used system to enrich selves" Posted on: 2009-01-27 21:29:11 By: bev
CROOKS!!! THEY ARE MAGGOTS! HOW DISGRACEFUL. I FEEL SORRY FOR THE POOR KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS WHO ARE MOST LIKELY POOR MINORITIES.

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