Tribute to Those Who Have Had the Courage
to Stand Up for Children
Despite Threats, Harassment and Intimidation
600's AD
Dymphna and Father Gerebran
Dympha, a beautiful young girl, fled from her incestuous father, a king of Ireland. Father Gerebran helped her escape. Both were found and beheaded. The people canonized her as a saint. There is a shrine to her in the town of Gheel where people are said to be cured of many illnesses. Their story can be seen here: A Brief Story of St. Dymphna
1879
Captain Andrew Geddes
Captain Andrew Geddes was court martialed as a result of trying to protect a girl from her father who was regularly raping her. He was called a liar, he was kicked out of the army, his life destroyed.
The Court Martial of Captain Andrew Geddes
Ungentlemanly Acts: The Army's Notorious Incest Trial
The Court Martial of Captain Andrew Geddes
Ungentlemanly Acts: The Army's Notorious Incest Trial
1897
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud does not deserve a tribute, since he not only did not help protect children, but came up with theories used to enable sexual abuse. But what happened to him helps people to see how extreme the pressure is on anyone who attempts to get the truth about children being molested, especially by fathers. Freud could not withstand the onslaught from the Old Boys, but he put up a good fight for almost two years to get them to accept that his patients were suffering from mental illness caused by being raped by their father. He was ostracized and threatened with the loss of status and income at a vulnerable time when he needed to support a new family.
He wrote, "I am as isolated as you could wish me to be and a void is forming around me." So he eventually gave in and "recanted", what children and their advocates today are forced to do.
Ironically, the man who identified the defense mechanism of denial, used it to be able to live with himself after selling out what would be millions of children who have been molested and silenced, using his bogus theories (infantile sexuality, oedipus complex, penis envy, etc.) in which the blame was shifted from father molesters to the innocent child victims.
The Assault on Truth
He wrote, "I am as isolated as you could wish me to be and a void is forming around me." So he eventually gave in and "recanted", what children and their advocates today are forced to do.
Ironically, the man who identified the defense mechanism of denial, used it to be able to live with himself after selling out what would be millions of children who have been molested and silenced, using his bogus theories (infantile sexuality, oedipus complex, penis envy, etc.) in which the blame was shifted from father molesters to the innocent child victims.
The Assault on Truth
1933
Sandor Ferensczi
Sandor Ferenczi was a student of Freud's and kept trying to convince him his early theory that the children were telling the truth about the sexual abuse was correct. Freud participated in ostracizing him and calling him crazy. Ferenczi died a broken man in a mental institution, but he never caved.
About Sandor Ferenczi
About Sandor Ferenczi
1981
Jeffrey Moussaief Masson
Jeffrey was fired because he exposed the truth about how Freud was pressured to retract his discovery that sexual abuse is common and often causes mental illness. Still he did not back down. He moved to New Zealand and wrote a great book on the subject:
The Assault on Truth
The Assault on Truth
1986
Dr. Jim Singer
Jim Singer, formerly a psychologist working in Pennsylvania, said that he reported a case of child molestation in 1986 to Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services agency, and not only was his report ignored, but soon after, in retaliation, the Pennsylvania Psychology Board prosecuted Singer and eventually removed his license to practice psychology.
Former Pennsylvania psychologist says he reported child molestation, lost license
Former Pennsylvania psychologist says he reported child molestation, lost license
1992
Dr. Judith Herman
1997
Adam Steed, 14 year old hero
A hundred years after Freud, 14 year old Adam Steed suffered ostracism for trying to protect his fellow boy scouts from a scout leader who was molesting them. It was thanks to his brave efforts that many boys were saved. However, the rumors and harassment by parents, scouts and other boy scouts directed at him for daring to stop an otherwise "nice guy" were so bad at his high school that he left, took the GED to graduate and took college courses. Today, the child molester is an Eagle Scout with five palms.Adam Steed is not.
The Whistle-Blower
The Whistle-Blower
2008
Barry Goldstein, J.D.
Barry had his license suspended for five years as a result of fighting hard to protect children from abusive fathers. Despite this tremendous act of intimidation, Barry is still advocating for children, protective moms and victims of domestic violence. He has written many wonderful articles which can be found at:
Time's Up
And the definitive resource on this issue:
Domestic Violence, Abuse and Child Custody
Time's Up
And the definitive resource on this issue:
Domestic Violence, Abuse and Child Custody
2013
Martin Burns
Martin Burns was the only TV journalist to take on the issue of Court Licensed Abuse and stay with it. He was intimidated and threatened but maintained that nobody could silence him about such an important topic. He was in the process of producing many stories of children who were given to their abusers by family court judges when he passed away while hiking in what some people think were suspicious circumstances.
Children Lost in the Family Court System
Children Lost in the Family Court System
??? to Present
All the Protective Moms who lost their children and their lives as a result of trying to protect them
More Professionals Who Paid for Standing Up for Kids
by Katherine Hine, J.D.
From: Retaliation Against Professionals Who Report Child
"...Pennsylvania clinician Jim Singer was stripped of his professional license in apparent retaliation against his efforts to assist a 15-year-old suicidal child who had disclosed incidents of sexual abuse. His suit against various entities in the State of Pennsylvania instrumental in the removal of his license at one time reached a federal Court of Appeals.20Singer’s case prompted then Congressman (now Governor) Tom Ridge to comment in a letter asking U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to address Singer’s case:Dr. Singer has been labeled a criminal. He has lost his license, and he has spent thousands of dollars pleading his case, thus depleting his resources. This case is a perfect example of what is quickly becoming a national problem. Child advocates have stated that although child abuse continues to increase, the number of cases reported has decreased. The reason is simple. Mandated reporters fear retaliation, and their fear is legitimate enough that they are willing to risk children’s lives by ignoring the abuse.21Although an ethics complaint filed with the American Psychological Association was dismissed, Singer continues, as of this writing, to be unable to practice as a clinician.Other clinicians against whom apparently spurious civil suits have been filed include: Dr. Kathleen Faller22 a well-known researcher and co-author of a judicial training curriculum sponsored by the American Bar Association and the National Organization of Women Legal Defense Fund; Memory and abuse author Dr. Charles Whitfield23 former Treating abuse Today editor, David Calof.24 and Dr. Laura S. Brown, former professor of clinical psychology at the University of Washington.25Those clinicians who testify, especially if they do so repeatedly in family court, have become equally vulnerable to litigation; e.g., Linda Palmer26 and Cecilia Owens-Beckham of Oklahoma27 and Dr. Mary Froning of the District of Columbia28 Even making a report apparently too favorable toward the credibility of the abuse disclosing child can provoke retaliation; i.e., Dr. Pamela Hall of New Jersey29 Dr. Leslie Rudy of Ohio,30 Susan Jones, formerly of New Hampshire,31 Dr. Virginia Humphrey of California,32 and Dr. Daphne J. Timmons and Dr. J.W. Scott Wallace of North Carolina33 Although Drs. Timmons and Wallace were vindicated, Christopher Barden, an attorney who has filed many suits against therapists, states that such victories are rare.34Attorneys In her 1992 testimony to Congress about the desperate need for judicial training on child sexual abuse, Attorney Joan Pennington, director of the National Center for Protective Parents in New Jersey, mentioned attorneys Garnett Harrison and Alan Rosenfeld as having either lost their licenses or been subjected to severe disciplinary sanctions in connection with representing parents trying to protect their children from child sexual abuse.35
The Oklahoma Supreme Court in April of 1997 issued a public reprimand to this author, then legal advisor for Stop Child abuse Now (SCAN), for alleged “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice”36 in connection with her activities as a citizen child advocate. The United States Supreme Court summarily denied certiorari in October 1997.37 The child, on whose behalf this author had acted with “altruistic motives,” according to the Oklahoma Supreme Court,38 was held to have been sexually abused, and as of December 1995, was not required to visit his abusers or their sympathizers except under supervision.39
Singer’s case prompted then Congressman (now Governor) Tom Ridge to comment in a letter asking U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to address Singer’s case:Dr. Singer has been labeled a criminal. He has lost his license, and he has spent thousands of dollars pleading his case, thus depleting his resources. This case is a perfect example of what is quickly becoming a national problem. Child advocates have stated that although child abuse continues to increase, the number of cases reported has decreased. The reason is simple. Mandated reporters fear retaliation, and their fear is legitimate enough that they are willing to risk children’s lives by ignoring the abuse.21Although an ethics complaint filed with the American Psychological Association was dismissed, Singer continues, as of this writing, to be unable to practice as a clinician.Other clinicians against whom apparently spurious civil suits have been filed include: Dr. Kathleen Failer22 a well-known researcher and co-author of a judicial training curriculum sponsored by the American Bar Association and the National Organization of Women Legal Defense Fund; Memory and abuse author Dr. Charles Whitfield23 former Treating abuse Today editor, David Calof.24 and Dr. Laura S. Brown, former professor of clinical psychology at the University of Washington.25Those clinicians who testify, especially if they do so repeatedly in family court, have become equally vulnerable to litigation; e.g., Linda Palmer26 and Cecilia Owens-Beckham of Oklahoma27 and Dr. Mary Froning of the District of Columbia28 Even making a report apparently too favorable toward the credibility of the abuse disclosing child can provoke retaliation; i.e., Dr. Pamela Hall of New Jersey29 Dr. Leslie Rudy of Ohio,30 Susan Jones, formerly of New Hampshire,31 Dr. Virginia Humphrey of California,32 and Dr. Daphne J. Timmons and Dr. J.W. Scott Wallace of North Carolina33 Although Drs. Timmons and Wallace were vindicated, Christopher Barden, an attorney who has filed many suits against therapists, states that such victories are rare.34Attorneys In her 1992 testimony to Congress about the desperate need for judicial training on child sexual abuse, Attorney Joan Pennington, director of the National Center for Protective Parents in New Jersey, mentioned attorneys Garnett Harrison and Alan Rosenfeld as having either lost their licenses or been subjected to severe disciplinary sanctions in connection with representing parents trying to protect their children from child sexual abuse.35
The Oklahoma Supreme Court in April of 1997 issued a public reprimand to this author, then legal advisor for Stop Child abuse Now (SCAN), for alleged “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice”36 in connection with her activities as a citizen child advocate. The United States Supreme Court summarily denied certiorari in October 1997.37 The child, on whose behalf this author had acted with “altruistic motives,” according to the Oklahoma Supreme Court,38 was held to have been sexually abused, and as of December 1995, was not required to visit his abusers or their sympathizers except under supervision.39
In 1997, Georgia attorney Laura Burton, on behalf of a client, filed a federal claim against various government officials including a state court judge alleging 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 and RlCO Act violations arising from a child custody case in which the identified child abuser received custody.40 Since that time she reports having been threatened with prosecution for wiretapping, found in contempt for publicly quoting from a public court order, assessed fines aggregating close to $100,000, and, as of this writing, is facing professional disciplinary action.41Documentary Participants Attorney Randy Burton, president of the Texas-based child advocacy organization Justice for Children, along with others including HBO, was sued in the early nineties for his role in a documentary entitled “Women on Trial.”42
Produced by actress Lee Grant, the film suggested that there was corruption among Houston family court judges who frequently changed custody of allegedly abused children to their identified abusers.Journalists Michele Landsberg, a Toronto Star columnist who has declined to write sympathetically at the behest of individuals claiming to have been falsely accused of child abuse, has written columns criticising the scientific claims of backlash spokespersons. Possibly because her newspaper supports her, she does not characterize her experiences as “retaliation,” but indicates thatthe Freyds43 and other lovely people have attempted to bombard my paper with frequent, verbose, obsessive complaints, and their Canadian counterparts have done the same. At times, they’ve threatened to take me to the Ontario Press Council (a voluntary non-judicial tribunal for complaints against the press) but have not actually succeeded in doing so … despite some typically false information that the Freyds attempted to spread on the Internet.44Katy Butler, a free-lance writer who covered the Ramona v. Isabella trial for the Los Angeles Times and a contributing editor for Family Therapy Networker, was asked by Newsweek to write a story about the backlash. Butler was subjected to such “a we!l-organized action”45 by FMSF proponents to block the story, that Newsweek ultimately declined to have Butler do the piece.The Southeast Oklahoma News reported extensively on events leading up to and including the aftermath of the March 5, 1995 murder of two-year-old Ryan Luke, the grandson of Don Luke, a rival newspaper editor. The death of the child quickly became a high-profile story throughout Oklahoma and continued to be so, even after the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.46
News editor/publishers Kathy and Steve McGilberry found that they could no longer tolerate being boycotted by their advertisers, the pre-April 19, 1995 bomb threats to their facility, and other threats of violence they began receiving following their reporting. As they continued reporting on the trials which involved missing DHS records, alleged witness tampering, and grand jury investigations connected with Ryan Luke’s death, the McGilberrys ultimately experienced pressure of such a level that by the end of 1997 they discontinued their newspaper.47
Police Officers Police officer Art Acevedo suffered damage to his career due to another 1995 ruling of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The Court’s opinion made it clear that other interests outweighed Art Acevedo’s First Amendment rights to expose and to try to rid the Department of a child molesting officer, as well as other corruption he allegedly found in the Muskogee Police Department.48
(AUTHOR NOTE: The unusual degree of danger associated with exposure of corruption in law enforcement precludes the citing of further examples.49)
Prosecutors Woody Allen, whose sexual abuse defense apparently employed many typical backlash strategies, brought a grievance against prosecutor Frank Maco due to Maco’s press conferences and a letter Maco had faxed to judges presiding over the Mia Farrow/Woody Allen custody/visitation proceedings. On July 17, 1997, following several years of disciplinary proceedings in which prosecutor Maco had been charged with violations of Rule 8.4(d) of the Professional Responsibility Code (“conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice”) a Connecticut Statewide Grievance Committee voted 12 to 1 to dismiss the complaint.50
However, even though Maco was vindicated and although backlash litigation and/or grievances against professionals who are financially able to defend themselves zealously rarely win … it is still costly to defend a court action even when you are innocent. In addition, this type of strategy has a chilling effect on all of those who would like to help the protective parent, but are afraid of the expense of defending in a civil lawsuit. 51
Other prosecutors have not fared as well. A Michigan prosecutor gave a newspaper interview toward the end of a criminal trial in which he criticized a judicial decision excluding expert testimony about child sexual abuse and other evidence. Although the prosecutor had reason to believe the interview would not be published until after the jury came to a verdict, and although a hearing panel dismissed the complaint against him, he was ultimately subjected to a reprimand by his disciplinary board.52
Judges In Ohio, as recently as June 1999, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Judge Robert A. Ferreri was suspended from the practice of law and removed from the bench immediately and without pay for his public criticism of two court administrators who had allegedly lied about the success of a juvenile detention program, and for his disclosure during a television interview that the county juvenile detention center was allegedly routinely covering up beatings.53
In Connecticut, a convicted child sexual abuser accused Judge Charles Gill of being in violation of a judicial canon requiring him to disqualify himself in situations “in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned?4 The alleged basis of the bias was Judge Gill’s status as co-founder of the National Task Force for Children’s Constitutional Rights and his service on the Connecticut Bar Association Crime Victims Committee. After a thorough analysis of every aspect of the sexual offender’s argument; the appellate court concluded that there was no reason to question Judge Gill’s not disqualifying himself on the basis of alleged bias. In Belgium, where the function of magistrates is more investigatory than purely adjudicatory, the efforts of popular Magistrate Jean-Marc Connerotte were crucial in finding alive two girls who had been abducted by convicted rapist Marc Dutroux. (The bodies of 2 other young girls murdered by Dutroux had previously been found.) in 1996, the Belgium Supreme Court removed Magistrate Connerotte from office, purportedly for attending a fund raising dinner for the families of the murdered girls.55Volunteers Private citizens who act in a volunteer capacity as child advocates as well as professionals who act purely as private citizens when advocating for children are also vulnerable to retaliation.56
Civil suits against citizen organizations involved in court watching activities, particularly where the proceedings being watched involve allegedly abused children or children from violent homes, are far from unknown.57 Instances of retaliation against foster parents who become overly critical of the child protection system are usually only documented privately,58 but at least one newspaper has reported on this phenomenon.59
CONCLUSION
Retaliation against those who report incidents of child abuse is nothing new. However, since the early 1990s, retaliation against mandated reporters and those who advocate for children in other arenas appears to be on the increase. These accounts of retaliation establish that the immunity statutes and strategies that were once the cornerstone of child abuse reporting legislation contain serious flaws. The fact that substantial numbers of careers in child protection have been destroyed or cut short has repercussions beyond the individual lives affected. The “chilling effect” upon speech that is a frequent subject of legal opinions about the First Amendment, may be best expressed by the testimony of child advocate and protective mother, Dianna Carroll, referring to attorneys who try to assist child advocacy organizations.They come under fire very frequently. We have attorneys holding seminars on how to defend a pedophile, which includes how to dissect the child on the stand. And nobody touches them with a ten-foot pole.
However, if someone tries to come forward in behalf of children, they get their hands slapped, forewarned. It’s just not worth it."