My son L.C. recently had a birthday, for which I had to give my gift for him to my older son to deliver. I wasn’t able to watch him open it. I wasn’t able to tell him Happy Birthday. I wasn’t able to have cake with him or share the moment in any way. This was the second year in a row I haven’t seen him for his birthday. The first time would be more on his mom, but the second time is on the representatives of the court including Guardian ad Litem, Leisa Wintz (GAL) and Reunification Therapist Dr. Lisa Saponaro (REUN). They, instead of helping to resolve the disconnect with the mom, worked to extend it allowing them to make more money off the situation. They achieved this by stating without any proof that they had reason to doubt my mental stability so I could see my son only while paying for REUN to supervise this and the only way out of this was to undergo a cost-prohibitive psychological evaluation under a provider they chose and with a demand that they must provide input to the provider. That would allow them the opportunity to bias the findings to support a claim that I needed additional therapeutic services to cure me of whatever mental illness they came back with – all while they continued to profit off the situation. And the worst part is that even if I’d been able to mortgage my financial future to come up with the funds (affecting my ability to support my kids going forward), my only hope at the end of that journey was that I might get back to square one. Well, if square one was good enough, then I wouldn’t have taken this to court in the first place, so I couldn’t accept that.
The thing is, never once have they given any rationale for their claims – just some vague comments using trigger words with no substance behind them. They have produced absolutely no evidence to support their claims – apparently all it took was having REUN, as an “expert witness”, state support for the GAL’s recommendations for the judge to sign off on the request. Where were the checks and balances to protect against abuse of power and collusion? Why didn’t they have to prove that what they were saying was valid instead of just making blind claims? Why was I told when I finally got a rehearing that the burden was on me to prove that what they were saying wasn’t true when they never offered any proof that it was? (What happened to Innocent until Proven Guilty?) After the hearing I pushed GAL to explain what her recommendations were based on but she kept just deflecting and saying it was covered in the prior hearing. So, I typed out their complaints noted from that hearing, which were all fairly minor / petty and asked her to tell me which this was based on or for her to let me know if there was something I missed. She declined.
In the first hearing, I started showing evidence of inconsistencies in the GAL & REUN’s stories when suddenly everyone said they had to go and the judge then accepted the GAL's recommendation without letting me finish making my case. When I finally got a rehearing (6 months later) based on the lack of due process, I showed the evidence of the GAL creating a false sense of urgency in order to get the judge to sign off on the emergency order in the first place, but that was ignored. I had plenty of arguments that showed based on Florida case law that the criteria to request for me to take a psych eval had not been met and how taking my child away without just cause violated my constitutional rights based on the 14th amendment, but I was not allowed to present those arguments. I started out with a quote that was objected to as hearsay (despite the reputability of the source) and then the judge said I had to skip all the rest of my arguments without giving any explanation as to why. (Even if I excluded the quoted text, the case law referenced should have been sufficient on its own – not to mention there were additional arguments to make.) Also not allowed were the results of a private psych eval I got through my insurance. They objected since not being able to give input to the evaluation and the judge excluded it because the provider was not open to testifying about the results. To me, that should maybe lower the weight it is given, but to throw it out altogether seems unfair. I took this as a compromise to allow moving things forward, and felt it showed that a more in-depth and costly evaluation was not needed.
So, to wrap up, what I’m faced with here is a situation where the legal system I turned to for help, turned against me instead. I asked for help restoring access to my child, but after the court reps assigned were able to get him, they decided to prolong his return to me while demanding actions of me that cost me money and finanically benefitted them. This is the type of thing you hear about in less developed countries, but how is this able happen in America, especially in such a blatant manner? How can a child be taken from their parent so frivolously? How can the onus be on a parent to prove that they are good enough instead of for anyone disputing that to prove they are not? How can someone acfing as an “expert” with clear bias and financial incentives for their findings be considered a valid source while reports from an independent, neutral expert in the field are dismissed? How is that those given responsibility to protect the best interests of the child and the family relationships of that child, are instead able to hijack the situation to force requirements that will financially benefit them even to the detriment of the child and the child’s family relationships. How are the conflicts of interest that enable such activity even permitted? How is it that they were able to get their actions to take a child away from a parent enacted so quickly and easily with no real review of the circumstances while all attempts to contest this keep getting put off? How is it that the very arguments that should provide basis for the prior decision to be overturned are skipped over. The judge should know the associated laws already and have acted accordingly without me specifically having to point them out, but to refuse to answer my inquiries about this and offer any explanation seems plain negligent to me.
The proof is in the pudding if anyone would bother to take a look. Instead, I’m being forced to file an appeal to try having my arguments actually heard. While I do believe that truth and justice will prevail in the end, that will take some time given the lack of cooperation I’m receiving. By the time this is resolved, my child may be 18 or close to it and there will be no relief or compensation that can get back that time.
The button below opens a shared folder with associated evidence, so you can judge for yourself. This includes:
Note: This share also includes a worksheet that logs what was added and when to make it easier to come back for updates. Also, the evidence provided contains redactions to exclude personally identifiable information of me and members of my family. (If you happen to notice something I missed, please let me know!) Also, some areas are heavily redacted where they include personal health information (e.g. the details of my psych eval) as well as personal information about my child and in some cases my ex. Finally, I point out where things are to make it easy to find specific evidence that supports my claims, and there is also plenty of supporting text if you like to read - it's just a little lengthy!