We have lived in a nightmare for 15 years. Anyone please feel free to email me privately for further info or just to communicate.This is a very brief synopsis of a very long, complicated story. It is all true, and names have not been changed to protect the innocent or guilty. All names are a matter of public record, so I post them here freely.
We live in Mississippi and my husband, Mike, is incarcerated here. In April 1985 just as we were becoming involved in a relationship that would lead to marriage, Mike's two sons, of whom he had custody, were taken from his home by DHS, based on allegations from his mentally ill (schizophrenic) ex-wife.
"Anonymous" reports were called in to the child abuse hot line that Mike was sexually abusing the youngest son. In a manner reminiscent of the Gestapo, the boys were hauled away from their daddy, the five-year-old kicking and screaming. Their father was not allowed to talk to them, and they were taken to a shelter. Even though they never should have been, within a few weeks they were put into the physical custody of their mother, the one who made the accusations, along with her sisters.
That was our family's entrance into a hellish nightmare that has been going on for fifteen years. In essence, we never saw the children again other than one very brief supervised visit at the welfare department, and court appearances. The first farce of justice we went through was the youth court, where we heard of a particular "therapist" for the first time. She had previously seen the ex-wife in another clinic, so in fact had no business being involved in this case at all. A medical doctor who was associated with the therapist wrote medication prescriptions for children based solely on the recommendation of the two social workers in the clinic, without the doctor every see the children.
The youngest boy was placed on the medication Ritalin, which is given to control children and aid in their brainwashing. In the Youth court, the child was adjudicated to be abused, and that could have been done without us even being present, as what we said was virtually ignored. Mike was arrested immediately at the end of this youth court hearing. He was never read his Miranda rights, and they did know what he had been charged with for hours.
Although the boys remained in the literal custody of DHS, several weeks later they began living with their mother, who verbally, emotionally and physically was the actual abuser in the past, especially to the younger boy. Mike was under a verbal court order barring him from having any contact with the boys.
Ten days after the boys were seized from Mike, they were taken and left alone at a pediatric clinic, where the youngest one's medical history was given by the older one. There was no semen found, no concrete physical evidence. The above mentioned therapist, along with a state social worker, was instrumental in this travesty of justice that virtually decimated our family. However, they were only a cog in a big wheel greased by lies, even to the point that these social workers committed perjury on the witness stand.
We tried to fight, but we didn't know how; we only knew that truth was totally ignored, there was no investigation, objectivity was never a factor, and no one but the innocent was ever held accountable. As the result of the hearing at Youth Court, Mike was arrested and charged with sexual battery. He was actually tried under the Youth Court act of 1986 (voted into law by our state legislature), which permitted hearsay evidence, i.e.; the therapist testified what the child had allegedly told her.
He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years. The conviction was overturned by our state Supreme Court and remanded for trial. He was retried, found guilty and still sentenced to 25 years. He will be out in 2004, unless he is released on parole before then.
At the time it was the dawning of a popular thing to do, especially in custody disputes, to accuse someone of child abuse for the twisted purpose of revenge or vindictiveness. This was going on all over the country.
While we recognize the real problems of child abuse, our contention is that while social workers, psychologists, prosecutors, and others involved in these cases are pursuing, prosecuting, and persecuting people for abuse that never was committed, children that are actually being abused are falling through the cracks of the system that should be their savior.
In so many instances the children are placed in the custody of the ones actually doing the abusing, while they accuse the other parent, grandparent or whomever, of being the abuser. In the past several years, there have been people freed from prison because children, who originally were brainwashed into making the accusations, have come forward as young adults and said the abuse never happened. In each of these cases, there is a very pronounced common thread.
After the children had been removed from their parent's custody, they were either/or threatened, coerced and/or brainwashed by the people that were supposed to be protecting the, such as social workers, law enforcement, physicians.
We need to unite and make a noise in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. We can talk to each other forever, but we need to take action.
For a more complete account of Mike's story, click here.
October 5, 2004, Mike was released from prison after serving his required time of one-half of the twenty five years he was sentenced to. During these years he was denied parole four times; despite the fact that he was a top custody level and model inmate, having never received any disciplinary write ups. We are trying to resume what is left of our lives and do not live in Mississippi; at the time of his release he was 54 and I was 57; we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary in December of 2004; we have spent the actual prime of our lives with Mike locked up for a crime he did not commit!We are forever committed to help others in like situations, especially those accused by an ex-partner or spouse. We will offer support, advice or consultation; just whatever is needed. Please feel free to contact us.