Opinion ID: 3169923
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: February 2015 Decision

Text: ¶ 13. This brings us to the decision on appeal, which was issued in February 2015, fifteen months after the court’s prior ruling. The ruling followed three days of hearings. At the outset of its decision, the court again emphasized that the abuse claims were baseless. Father, stepmother, and the child nonetheless remained convinced that mother and her boyfriend assaulted the child. Over time, their allegations had expanded to wide-ranging accusations that mother began assaulting the child when he was an infant and that mother intended to kill all three of them. None of the allegations were grounded in fact, but they had resulted in mother’s estrangement. This estrangement constituted the real, substantial, and unanticipated change in circumstances in October 2012. Mother has seen the child twice since May 2012. The court explained that, since its prior order, parent coordination and the corresponding reunification efforts had been terminated by the therapists at Hummingbird Associates. The question remained what schedule of contact, if any, was in the child’s best interests, or, alternatively, if awarding parental rights to mother was in the child’s best interests. ¶ 14. The child was now nine and in the fourth grade. He was doing well in school and he socialized well with other children. He was in all outward respects a normal and happy child. The child was entirely enmeshed, however, in father’s belief that mother abused him, and the notion of the abuse was consistently reinforced by father and stepmother. ¶ 15. A reunification therapy team had been put in place in May 2014, and the child began therapy in July 2014. The therapist had individual sessions with mother, and with father and stepmother. The therapist asked father, stepmother, and the child’s former therapist not to speak with the child regarding the allegations of abuse or his mother or what happened in therapy. The therapist indicated that father and stepmother were “desperate” that the child not 6 meet with mother or return to having any kind of contact with her. They expressed their belief that the court had been “paid off” to issue its decisions ordering reunification. They also expressed their belief that mother had threatened the court and the child’s former attorney. Additionally, they attributed various statements to Dr. Knapp. None of these assertions had any basis in fact. ¶ 16. The therapist noted that, while in session and engaged in play and conversation, the child seemed happy. This was borne out by the recording of the session. When the child realized that his stepmother had arrived to pick him up, he would stop smiling, appear sad, and would transition to his stepmother with that presentation. He did not want his stepmother to observe that he had been lighthearted while visiting the therapist. After seven weeks of therapy, the therapists concluded that the child was deeply traumatized and that he firmly believed that his mother was going to kill him, his father, and stepmother. The child told the therapist that “this is all we ever talk about.” He expressed anger and frustration at “the court,” which appeared to represent judges, lawyers, and therapists. The therapists concluded that from the child’s perspective, “it never ends for him.” The child now contended that mother had threatened to kill him at a school play, that she had tried to kill him, and that mother and her boyfriend wanted to kill his father. The court believed that the child said these things because he had been in the sole care and control of father and stepmother for two and a half years and their unrelenting negative attitude against mother had taken an unshakeable hold on him. ¶ 17. Father and stepmother denied talking to the child about therapy, but they were unable to explain why the child told the therapist that “this is all they talk about at home.” Either they, or the child, were lying, and the court found that doubts about these parties’ credibility affected every aspect of this case. Despite their concerns that the child was being affected by father and stepmother’s interference with therapy and reunification, the therapists felt it was contraindicated to continue the reunification process, given the level of the child’s trauma they 7 observed in therapy. In their view, it did not matter why the child believed mother wanted to kill him, their paramount concern was the risk to the child’s psychological wellbeing if efforts to reinstate contact between him and his mother continued. The therapists recommended that the child engage in weekly counseling with an experienced trauma informed clinician and that father and stepmother also engage in regular counseling. They recommended that the possibility of reintroducing the child to his mother be brought up, if indicated by his therapy, when the child reached adolescence. One of the therapists testified that she did not believe that “forcing” the child to visit mother was best for him, given his level of trauma. She did not endorse foster care for the child. She believed that suddenly taking the child away from his home environment could trigger serious depression for him. The court noted that the therapist had made a recommendation for trauma therapy in September 2014 and, in the three months from that date to the trial date, father made no arrangements for the child to begin receiving this therapy. ¶ 18. Father testified that he would be willing to participate in therapy; stepmother said that she would not participate in therapy. She reiterated her belief that mother abused the child and asserted that she too was a “victim” of mother. The court again expressed that it viewed stepmother’s actions in this case with an extraordinary degree of concern. It was convinced that stepmother bore near total responsibility for alienating the child from his mother. Father now appeared totally invested in stepmother’s claims about years of abuse and mother’s homicidal intent. The court thus found that some of the responsibility for the unfounded estrangement between mother and child now belonged to father as well. ¶ 19. The court found it very clear that father and stepmother were waging war against mother and making allegations of abuse that were not true. Father, and more egregiously stepmother, had indoctrinated the child to believe that mother was out to kill him and that mother viciously abused him since he was a small child. The court found it difficult to imagine a more complete destruction of a parent-child relationship based on false allegations of abuse. Whether 8 the experts labeled it alienation or not, father and stepmother clearly had destroyed the child’s formerly good relationship with mother. The court found mother’s expert, Dr. Eric Mart, a very credible expert in the field and he offered his expert opinion on the general issue of parental alienation. He opined that in cases where parental alienation exists, one sees an “unjustified campaign of denigration and disrespect,” and the child has “nothing good to say” about the other parent. The court found that that description fit the facts of this case very closely. Dr. Mart also expressed that in cases of parental alienation, the child becomes “over empowered,” which also fit the facts of this case. ¶ 20. Turning to mother, the court found that she had acknowledged the court’s earlier concerns about her stability and mental health. She had engaged in different forms of therapy over the prior years. The court found that she now appeared far more composed and organized in her presentation than she had since the very first trial many years ago. Mother believed that if she were awarded custody, the child would withstand the transition well. ¶ 21. The court found this to be a heartbreaking case. It was thoroughly convinced that father and stepmother were solely responsible for the child’s trauma and for his utter estrangement from mother. It did not believe that any of the allegations of abuse had any foundation in fact whatsoever. Yet, two therapists had credibly testified that the child would be at serious risk of severe depression and even suicide if he was forced to see mother. If forced to live with mother, one of the therapists testified that it would be a significant and traumatic event for the child. The court concluded that it could not simply order the child to live with mother, even though it was “the right thing to do.” Instead, it must consider what course of action was in the child’s best interests as set forth by statute. The court found the controlling factors were the quality of the child’s present adjustment to his home, school, and community, and the potential effect of any change. The child was doing well in school, he was well liked by his peers, and he loved being in his home with his pets and with many activities to enjoy. He had lived in the 9 same community since kindergarten. The court again cited the expert testimony from one of the therapists that the child would be at significant risk of mental health problems if removed from father’s home. From the therapist’s perspective, it did not matter why the child was at risk, it could not be ignored that he was at risk. The court noted that the child had never been to mother’s new home. He did not know her new community, and would have no peers to turn to for companionship. He would not have his pets; he would have to go to a new school. The court found that this change would be a “violent dislocation” cautioned against by this Court in deciding modification of parental rights cases. ¶ 22. The court stated that the fact that the child had seen mother only twice in twoand-a-half years was not an overriding factor against awarding parental rights to mother. The court had no doubt that, but for father and stepmother’s actions, the child’s natural love and affection for mother would likely return if he were reunited with her. The risk was that father and stepmother would not then refrain from further alienating behavior. The child lacked the innate ability to withstand their attitudes about mother. In short, the court reasoned, if it gave custody to mother, the child would still see father and stepmother, and the prospect of regular contact with them would only perpetuate his exposure to their egregious behavior. ¶ 23. The court expressed concern that the child would never have a normal relationship with mother, and that severing his relationship with mother based on unfounded allegations of abuse could damage the child’s long-term psychological development. These concerns for the child’s future development were counterbalanced by immediate concerns for his psychological equilibrium if his custody were to be abruptly transferred to mother. The court thus concurred in the recommendation of the parent coordinator to stop efforts at reunification at this time, with certain conditions. The court thus denied mother any parent-child contact, with the exception of letters and the like for the child to be mailed to the child’s attorney. 10 ¶ 24. The court directed father to immediately obtain a child-trauma therapist, and to refrain from interfering, or allowing stepmother to interfere, with the child’s therapy. If the trauma therapist recommended it, in the context of therapy, the child could have telephone and in-person contact with mother at the therapist’s office. Father was also directed to engage in therapy, and to use his best efforts to encourage stepmother to engage in therapy as well. On or before the child’s eleventh birthday in August 2016, unless the child had already begun routine visits with mother as a result of the therapy ordered above, the court ordered that he recommence office visits with Hummingbird Associates, with a goal toward reunification with mother. ¶ 25. Finally, the court ordered father to pay certain costs associated with the litigation, finding it abundantly clear that the child’s trauma, estrangement from mother, and the colossal use of court, attorney, and guardian-ad-litem time, was due solely to father and stepmother’s conduct. The court reiterated that they had estranged the child from mother and that they had impeded reunification every step of the way, starting with the evaluation conducted by Dr. Knapp, and finishing with the therapy provided by Hummingbird Associates. Mother appeals from the court’s order.