Erika

My daughter is 6 now and I haven't seen her since she was one.

My ex and I moved in with his parents when my daughter was two weeks old, and that’s when it all began. My ex was really abusive to me and so was his family.

I noticed my daughter started getting yeast infections and rashes in her vaginal area. Later I found out that my ex’s father is a level three sex offender.

I left to go live with my sister and everything was OK for a little bit. But then my ex started stalking me and breaking in and taking my daughter.

He falsely accused me of taking drugs so I was court-ordered to take drug tests. Little did I know he had already planned to take custody of my daughter away from me. He had a lawyer and they accused me of all kinds of false things that were actually all about HIS abuse. He even threatened me and my family in open court.

The judge didn’t care. She called me a liar and only cared about what my ex wanted. She told me I had two hours to surrender my daughter to him at the police station. That was the day that I will never forget.

The next morning I was served with a restraining order so that I couldn't see her at all. He moved around a lot and I couldn’t even find out where she was.

It was not fair and not right. I want to stand with every woman who has had this happen and make it stop.

Sara

There was so much evidence of abuse by my ex, the criminal court judge granted a restraining order for both my son and me in less than 15 minutes.

Despite this active criminal protective order, the family court judge forced me to send my son on unsupervised visits when he was just 9 months old. He would come home from visits distraught, ending up in the ER several times because he was inconsolable and displayed other concerning symptoms. But he was too little and too afraid to tell me what was going on.

Instead of the judge being concerned, I was accused of "Munchausen’s by proxy" and told I had to send my son on unsupervised visits or face jail for contempt. I was also ordered to sop breastfeeding as it interfered with the father's visitation.

My ex committed multiple restraining order violations, stalking, assaults, vehicle tampering, got DUI's, and there were police reports of child endangerment. He was even committed to a mental hospital for violence on the job and was diagnosed with dual addictions and cluster B personality disorders. But the judge and all the others who were supposed to help us ignored this evidence of his unfitness.

At age 5, when our son was old enough to find the words, he divulged heart-breaking abuse that had been happening since before he could speak about it, and also that his father had threatened to kill both of us if he told. There were reports filed by mandatory reporters with heart-breaking audio recordings of our son telling about the abuse...and again no one who was supposed to help us cared.

After he disclosed the abuse, my ex filed for full custody. Our son was terrified, even afraid to go to school, saying his father would shoot us because he told.

I fought hard for years to protect my son, but ran out of money after he launched a full scale custody battle that spanned 2 states. I was left representing myself in the middle of our last trial with none of my files, after the attorney I paid 25K bailed on me after throwing my case.

I was accused of "parental alienation" but I was not allowed to present evidence, witnesses, or allowed to cross examine theirs. Because I was pro se, I could not question myself, and I was prevented from seeing the evidence presented against me.

Custody was flipped and I was given just 2 hours to drive across town to pick up my son from summer camp, pack a bag, and hand over my little boy to our abuser. There was no time for emotional preparation or goodbyes before a gloating father took him 1100 miles away to another state.

There is no parenting plan in the order, so my ex is in control of when I can see or talk to my son. I have seen my boy 5 times in the last 3 years at great cost (2200 miles of travel plus $100/hour for a monitor). We are not allowed to speak on the phone, text, email or send pictures.

My ex has threatened to take our son and hide him “where you’ll never find him". He just got a restraining order against me without cause, prior notification, or the required service of documents...so as to prevent me from inquiring where he lives and knowing where my son is.

I can only imagine what my son has been through and the added abuse he has suffered since telling about the abuse. It has almost killed me.

Marissa RIP

"It all began when Marissa called to seek help in protecting her toddler daughter. She provided evidence of the abuse, but the tables were turned on her. She was accused of "coaching", and it was all hell from there on out.

After 7 long years and thousands of dollars later, she had custody stripped from her. The devastation proved too much and Marissa is no longer alive because of the toll it took on her.

She, like so many women, fought so hard, for so long within a system that is corrupt, ugly, degrading and deadly."
Marissa's Mother

Jessie

I lost custody of my 3 children during my second divorce. We were divorcing because I discovered when I was 20 weeks pregnant with my 3rd that my husband had been having a long-standing affair for years. Both of my ex-husbands teamed up, lawyered up and kicked my ass. I was in court at least once a month for over 2.5 years. I have been portrayed as a drug addict and a mental case—but I only broke down after losing my children!

I was a stay at home mom for 8 years prior to my divorce so I am unable to make the amount assigned as my earning capacity and am ordered to pay $1800 a month in child support. I am behind on all my bills and I’m on food stamps. Family Court says if I don't make the payment each month they will put out a bench warrant on me.

I haven’t spoken to my 14 yr old from my 1st marriage in over a year. I speak with my younger 2 when their father feels like picking up the phone. Never on holidays.

Michelle

After my 4yr old boy disclosed penetrative sexual abuse IN A FORENSIC INTERVIEW, a crooked cop who hadn't even seen the interview lied on the stand saying I coached him.

I lost custody and have to pay $90 per 2 hour visit 3 times a week for the highest level of supervised visitation.

I've also had to pay for a costly psych eval of myself even though we already had a full custody exam which revealed my psych tests were 100% normal and father's were all "invalid".

I've been besieged for 3.5 years since I escaped my abusive marriage. Recently my ex illegally discontinued visits and I had NO CONTACT, not even by phone with my baby for two months.

Everyday is pain without my child and worrying about his safety.

Minisiah

I am a victim of domestic violence. My abuser served 6 years in prison for gun possession, robbery and assault and is currently unemployed. He has been investigated by social services three times with one case still active.

I’ve never used drugs, I’m not an alcoholic, no criminal record, no abuse record, and I’ve been employed and paid well for the past 16 years.

After I left my violent ex, he used the judicial system to continue his abuse. The judge made decisions without even allowing me to talk. He took my three children away from me and gave me only 3 hours visitation one week and 2 days the other. I have been fighting to get them back for almost a year.

The judge’s ruling has caused me great depression and is also greatly affecting my children. They lived with me their whole lives and I have taken care of them full-time without ever collecting child support or receiving any government assistance. The judge recently awarded my abuser the right to have access to my residence. I feel so helpless that a judge would do this. I thought that once I left I would be safe but I’m not.

Tricia

I am a loving mother of three wonderful children. I have always been the primary caregiver. My Ex is military and was never home. I survived a 7 year abusive marriage and was finally free, so I thought.

My children and I were healthy, happy, and doing well. However, he is an abusive narcissist that always needs power and control. He made it clear when we separated that no one would ever want me and he would make sure I lost everything.

In 2014 he began a crusade against me in order to take my kids. He spared no tactic, using manipulation, lies, bullying. Three years of his excessive litigation left me in financial devastation.

My attorney withdrew 5 days before trial because of money. I was left scrambling for representation. Unfortunately, I was left very poorly represented at time of trial and lost my children in 2017.

There was no evidence I was an unfit mother! I even have a solid career as a critical care RN for 23 years. Yet I went from sole custody to one weekend a month and one phone call a week.

We have now lived this nightmare for three years, regardless how much my children reach out for help and beg for someone to hear their pleas. My children and I suffer daily. I’ve been fighting pro se ever since with no hope in sight. I lost everything. My children beg to come home and for me to help them.

Sheila

After divorcing my ex-husband, I had sole physical and shared legal custody of our 3 sons. But when I filed for sole legal custody to help protect my kids from their father’s abuse, the magistrate switched sole custody to my ex. Without warning, my 7 year-old son and 6 year-old twins were uprooted and moved 6.5 hours away to another state where their only familial tie was their father.

Testimony from my kids' teachers, therapist reports made to CPS, a police escort to the hospital after another weekend with their father resulting in unexplained bruises, and a recommendation by the Court's own medical office that I should get custody were ignored by the judge.

My ex soon disregarded the custody order altogether. He denied court-ordered phone calls with me and refused to allow 5 consecutive holiday visits. He falsely accused me of abuse and filed in his home state after keeping my children away from me completely for eight months. My home state has jurisdiction over the case but won’t do much to help.

I was restricted to supervised visitation after the judge accepted as gospel truth my ex’s accusation that I have a mental illness, while ignoring all the evidence he was abusive. Any time my children show signs of connection to me or enjoyment being with me, the visit gets rescheduled or one of the kids mysteriously decides he no longer wants to visit me. Then the judge uses that against me.

I didn't feel respected as a person in court. It became too traumatic just going into the courtroom after a while. It was hard going in there and being berated over and over by the judge, not being listened to, quickly dismissed, and called a liar. I was even told I should not have brought this to court.

At one point, the judge just asked my ex-husband questions and his answers became became "facts" used in her memo attached to the revised custody order. Never once did she look at the actual documented facts provided to her or allow them to be discussed during the hearing. I even tried to appeal and the craziest thing, the appeal court's opinion was almost verbatim the lower court’s.

You have to fight because it's your children and you know they need you to continue on for them. But some of us are losing our homes, jobs and professional licenses because of this crisis.

Janeith

I left my ex because he abused me. I invited him to visit the children, but he never did. I kept him informed of what was going on in their lives, but 8 months later he filed a motion claiming I abducted them and custody was granted to him at a hearing I was never made aware of.

When I got to court for my first hearing, it was clear the judge was already biased against me. He did not look at any of the evidence I submitted and accused me of not informing my ex of my whereabouts and avoiding service. I forced him to look at the evidence that showed my ex knew my address and there was no proof of service. The judge was extremely rude, yelled at me, and threatened to kick me out of the courtroom. He threatened to prevent me from having any visitation with my children whenever I attempted to speak. He refused to look at the evidence of my ex’s abuse and kept pointing out that I never filed for a restraining order.

The judge repeated whatever my ex's attorney said like it was fact and acted like they were the best of friends. I asked him to recuse himself due to bias but he refused. My ex never filed any evidence and never informed the court of why it was in the kids’ best interest to be with him. I pointed out how my ex and his attorney had continuously perjured themselves.

After finally looking at the evidence of abuse, the judge determined that the kids should live with their father and I would have supervised visitation. For that, I would need to fly to another state, get a hotel room and pay a monitor. I told the judge that I couldn’t afford this and I couldn't take a week off work every month to fly there. The judge did not care about my concerns or how this might affect the children.

He granted shared legal custody but gave my ex tie-breaker power, which he uses to make decisions without getting my input. Since the orders said he had to approve the monitor, it gave my controlling ex full control to prevent me from seeing our kids by claiming we can't agree on a monitor, claiming they aren't available, or ignoring my requests.

Our kids are 2 and 3 now and even though I have been their primary caregiver all their lives, I’ve only had one 4 hour visit with them.

Rachel

My ex took my son and said the only way he would let me visit him is if I agreed to him having primary custody. So I did—but then he moved across state and kept contact very minimal.

When I would fly in to see my son, my ex wouldn’t show up. Courts, cops, and agencies wouldn’t help me. After 6 months of not talking to or seeing my son, I hired a private investigator to find him.

A judge ruled we had to talk and I flew out for an emergency hearing. I was only allowed to see my son for 48 hours. He told me he thought I had died.

During a summer visit, I found out he was failing in school, had disciplinary records for violent behavior, and that his father hadn’t been giving him his medication for a life-threatening seizure condition.

I reported all that to the judge, but it didn’t matter. After a year of fighting for custody and $20,000 in attorney fees, the judge allowed my ex to keep my son away from me in another state.

I am a senior education major and an honor and deans list student. I have been shown to not have any mental health issues and I have a clean record. I am a homeowner and our home is clean. But my ex was still allowed to take my child away from me.

My ex was granted 100% physical custody of my two baby girls. I was their primary caregiver, the best mother any child could ask for. Now I get monitored phone calls, and now my ex is saying I need to start setting up visits at the visitation center. He is charged with third degree felony assault. He has 5 DUI's, prior domestic violence assaults, and has been in and out of jail and treatment centers our entire 20 year relationship. I myself have no criminal history.

My heart and soul have been ripped out of my life. Now I have to ask my abuser to talk to my children. I messaged my girls yesterday and now he is saying he's going to get a restraining order against me…God help us.

Since a restraining order against my ex was lifted he rarely allows me to see my children. The police and the judge presiding over the custody case enable him to alienate the children from me. The children are now subject to domestic violence and emotional and psychological abuse, but the judge refuses to acknowledge any of it. The last time I told her about all of it she said, "That's not why we are here." She also limited my time during the week with my children to lesser than allowed by state law for no reason.

My husband raped me and got custody. He is a police officer. I'm currently on bail for harassment after sharing my ordeal online. No apologies—the world needs to hear about the abuse of women and children and lies in the court and institutions which support it.

Debb

I was the sole caregiver of my four children until two years ago when a Family Court judge gave full custody to their alcoholic father who abused me mentally, verbally and physically.

I was the “breadwinner” of our household for 17 years and did everything I could to keep everyone happy. I finally had the courage to leave, and when I did, I thought I was free of my ex’s abuse. I was wrong—it got worse. I felt even more afraid due to his threats after I moved to the city 3 hours away for a new job.

During our divorce trial, he showed up smelling of alcohol and lied about everything. He said my career was more important to me than my children, that I had no family where I lived, which was only 3 hours away, that I worked long hours in the medical field.

The female judge acted irritated with me and asked rudely if I could prove my ex was an alcoholic. I told her yes, that there are records of his DWI’s, of his admissions to detox, and also records of his numerous arrests for domestic violence against me, which I could get to her.

But she didn’t wait. She gave him sole custody. It all came down to that one trial and I failed.

Now I have to pay child support to an unemployed, alcoholic ex and I only get to see my children when it’s convenient for him.

Being without my children breaks my heart. I pray for them every day.

My son, who had a diagnosis of epilepsy, was taken from me and given to his abusive father a year ago. He died alone in his father’s house from a huge seizure because his father left him unattended for a whole week while in New York with his wife.

It's been 11 years since my son was given to his violent and controlling father. I had a few hours visit in the first couple of years and one phone call. Nothing else since.

My ex physically, mentally and sexually abused my daughter at such a young age of 4yrs old. The Family Court Judge was completely biased from the very beginning and ignored all evidence of abuse, turned away all witnesses from testifying, including medical professionals, child protection, and the state Children's Sexual Assault center (who founded the abuse), etc.

I went through 5 very long years of abuse by family court, the DA., Sheriffs dept. and my evil Ex abusing my daughter, harassing me on a daily basis, treating me like the criminal. I left with my child while I still had full custody. I was placed on the on the Americas Most Wanted Criminals and captured at the Canadian border. I was charged with abduction and haven’t had any contact with my daughter since then. The totally bogus kidnapping charge is still pending so family court can use that to keep my daughter away from me.

They’re denying my right to be a mother and my daughter’s right to have her mother. Meanwhile she is living with the monster that started it all. Really, where is the justice in all our cases?

Alexis

I thought I was doing what was best for my children when I entered Family Court asking to keep primary custody. I had been their primary caretaker their whole lives—9 and 12 years.

But in reality I was signing myself up for the removal of my children from the only full-time home they’d ever known to live in another state, and for having over $90K sucked from my children’s and my future.

The children’s attorney did his due diligence and looked into the history of the case. He agreed the children should get their wish and stay with me, but his recommendation was dismissed by the judge.

The custody evaluator was paid by my ex and his 80-page report was seriously flawed and biased against me. Two lawyers quit on me at critical times in the process.

After a two year battle, the judge sided with my ex and the custody evaluator and switched custody to him. She sided against me, against the wishes of the children, and against the recommendation of their appointed attorney.

I did nothing to warrant the removal of the children from my care.

I lost custody of my two kids. They gave my abusive ex-husband custody. My daughter had an STD and still they gave custody to him.

The judge allowed my child to be emotionally and mentally harmed. Her father decided he wanted to take her from me after 10 1/2 years, but she refused to go with him. The judge

Denied her an attorney and sentenced me to jail for not punishing her and physically force her to go with her father.

My 14-3/4 yr old daughter was suddenly taken from our home 2-1/2 years after the final divorce in which the father "gave me our 2 children," using an Affidavit full of false information which our County Judge signed at 8:37 a.m. (obviously didn't even read it).

Father wanted one year off from work without paying his small child support obligation. He didn't care for her and she crashed in a car last August 3, 2016 and has Anoxia Traumatic Brain Injury.