INITIATIVE
1873
WASHINGTON STATE INITIATIVE OF THE PEOPLE
Require JUDGES to report child abuse or neglect
Update the law to require that judges report to law enforcement or the appropriate state agency if, while presiding over a legal proceeding, they witness or receive credible information alleging child abuse or neglect READ FULL PROPOSED INITIATIVE
Join me in updating the law to make Judges report child abuse.
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Enter your address and sign
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Mail to: Initiative 1873
7001 Seaview Ave NW
Suite 160-836
Seattle, WA 98117
Or scan and send to: albert_coburn@yahoo.com
WHY AN INITATIVE
Incredibly Washington States judges are not reporting child abuse in divorce cases to child protective services
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Family courts are making decisions on if child abuse occurred, or if false allegations were made, entirely on who has the best divorce lawyer.
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Family court has its own set of laws and is not designed to investigate child abuse or deal with it's criminal implications
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Non-reported / non-investigated child abuse allegations make it impossible for the accused parent to get reasonable time back with their child in a divorce proceeding
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Child abuse claims that are never reported to child protective services can easily be used by the accuser in the divorce process to maximize their financial settlement
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By not reporting, judges skew federal statistics on the extent of child abuse or if false allegations of child abuse occur
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Seven other states already require judges to be mandatory reporters: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia.
MY STORY
In my divorce, a King County "Family" Court judge didn't report child abuse.
My divorce started with my daughter being taken from me by my then wife Lara Seefeldt and her family Nadia Rodacker. For five months they restricted me from seeing my daughter to a few hours one day a week based on the Lara and her family's claims in signed divorce declarations that I abused my child. Lara and her family never reported their claims of child abuse to Child Protective Services, they just unilaterally enforced their version of a temporary parenting plan they filed in divorce court. During the five months, Lara and her lawyer Deborah A. Bianco didn’t bother to make the few hours visitation I got supervised. They accused me of child abuse in court, but still let me see my child all alone for a few hours a week.
After five months of begging with the Lara and her lawyer to get more time with my daughter, I went to family court. On 12/23/2016 Commissioner Michael Louden presiding over my divorce hearing did not report for child abuse allegations for investigation, but he still restricted me from seeing my daughter as if I might be a child abuser. Ridiculously, the court also considered child abuse allegations that were not worth reporting as somehow not possibly of being false.
It is very difficult to prove you are innocent of child abuse, someone’s word alone is sufficient evidence. It is furthermore difficult to prove child abuse allegations might be made in bad faith when they are not reported to Child Protective Services. I faced an impossible choice, if I demand the divorce is finalized by a judge, I have no evidence to prove my innocence of being a child abuser; I would be presumed guilty by default. I was deemed guilty by default by the court appointed evaluator Debra Hunter, who recommended in an evaluation I be even more restricted from my child because “I might be a child abuser”; for allegations that were never reported Child Protective Services and that she is required by law to report.
I decided the only way to prove my innocence of child abuse, and still get more time with my daughter was to trade money during divorce mediation. I felt that my friends and family, who knew about the child abuse allegations Lara and her family made, would recognize that any mother who was accusing a father of abusing their child would never settle a divorce or at a minimum never give up more time with the child then they had to. I know if I believed someone was abusing my child, I would never settle and fight to the end to ensure my child was never mistreated. During mediation I offered money to be with my child. The mediator, Dan Williams, even acknowledged that I was trading money to see my daughter, and Lara accepted it. She accepted money in trade for giving me more time with my daughter than Commissioner Michael Louden specified in the temporary parenting plan or Debra Hunter recommended in a family evaluation.
I never expected the court would sign the agreement:
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How could a divorce that contains a child abuse allegation that was never reported to CPS, or investigated, allowed to be settled?
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How is a divorce settlement where an accused child abuser increases their visitation with a child allowed?
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It is against the law - RCW 25.09.016 states: “Mediation is generally inappropriate in cases involving domestic violence and child abuse”.
I have been further stunned that several judges since the divorce refuse to reverse the settlement. Superior Court Judge Craighead ruled in 1/7/2018 that not reporting child abuse for investigation by Commissioner Michael Louden was a completely acceptable, and that a divorce settlement can be accepted, and mediation can occur, in cases where child abuse allegations occur.
