St. Louis County Courts Target Women

I have spoken with approximately ten people who describe an atmosphere in St. Louis County courts where due process is routinely violated, bias is shown, dogma is favored over facts, and this targeting is primarily against women. 

Patty Fish

Find an interview with Fish below.  

Fish tells an amazing story in which her ex-husband forged her signature on multiple mortgage loan documents on a property she owned herself- this property even had a spousal waiver- but this loan was still allowed to go through and numerous Missouri courts- including at least one Appeals Court- found against her. 

In fact, Christine Bertelson, the Missouri courts public affairs officer, told me as much about this case, "{Fish's ex} and Patricia Fish were defendants in the mortgage case. Judgment was entered on 12/12/18 against both defendants after a multi-day bench trial. The judge made a number of findings of fact. See 13SL-CC03334. The court of appeals affirmed at 600 SW3d 273."

Fish tells me that her ex-husband was charged criminally but, after a five year court process was found not guilty and that not guilty verdict was used as leverage against her in lawsuits.

Fish also tells me that the judge who presided over his criminal trial, Judge Nancy Watkins McLoughlin, also presided over one of her civil trials. 

Judge McLoughlin determined that Fish's ex-husband had been given authority based on a few emails and purported phone calls even though the Missouri statute is clear that it requires a formal power of attorney. 

Find Fish's summary of the case below.

Nightmare in St Louis Count... by mikekvolpe

Fish's case has one more interesting tidbit, the appearance of Elaine Pudlowski, who was Fish's ex-husband's divorce attorney. 

Fish told me it was Pudlowski who initially told him to say that Patty somehow authorized him to make this loan. 

Pudlowski comes up numerous times; she declined to comment when I reached her by email. 

Pudlowski and 50/50

In this interview below, listen to one woman describe how her child made disclosures that her ex was molesting them. Pudlowski became the GAL in 2017. This woman said a previous GAL had already been threatened by another GAL that any more disclosures could lead to her losing custody. Full interview below.  

"She hired a custody evaluator for the case. She gave this custody evaluator all the information on the parties. She picked and chose what she decided to hand to him. There was a CAC that was taking place with my child in a  DSS investigation." This woman said. "She watched a video of  my son disclose in full detail because he was a lot older at the time, about what was happening to him, and she turned around in the courtroom and stated her opinion rather than the professional who does this for a living."

The Lawsuit

Pudlowski is also a defendant in a recently filed lawsuit. 

I received a fair amount of communication about this lawsuit; this included a press release from a group calling itself Daily Docket News which stated in part, 

It has been a national scandal for decades in which family courts systematically failed to protect our minor children from physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse by predatory parents. What is equally scandalous is the silence on the coverage of this unimaginable issue. Daily Docket News is dedicated to shine light on the grave injustices taking place in the family court “Swamp”, in the State of Missouri.

Daily Docket News is investigating the allegations raised by Tolu vs. James D. Reid, Ph.D., Elaine Pudlowski, Esq. & Jennifer Webbe Van Luven, LCSW, et al., Case No. 20SL-CC04680 filed in the Saint Louis County Circuit Court. A scandal appears to be brewing in this case, where Tolu, a former child custody litigant, is suing the court appointed forensic evaluator, James D. Reid, Ph.D. with the firm of James D. Reid, Ph.D., LLC, the court appointed guardian ad litem, Elaine Pudlowski, Esq. with the law firm of Frankel, Rubin, Klein, Siegel, Payne & Pudlowski, P.C. and the court appointed therapist, Jennifer Webbe Van Luven, LCSW with West County Psychological Associates. It is alleged that all three are involved in a horrific scheme, “Kids for Cash”, that benefited a predatory parent and exploited vulnerable minor children.

The full lawsuit is below. 

Tolu v. Reid et al by mikekvolpe

Pudlowski is accused of not following proper protocols, not completing her work, and other malfeasance. 

As with other cases, abuse was allegedly covered up in this case. 

I reached out to the attorney representing the plaintiff and he provided a statement. Part of it is below. 

When we hear horrific stories of children being separated from their parents at the border, my heart bleeds. We commend people for trying to feed and find relatives and family members for the children in distress at our borders. We hear these stories every day. There is a lot of attention given to the social injustice surrounding the children separated from their parents. 

These heart-breaking stories immediately take me to my personal story. My children were not taken away from me at the border. My children were taken away from me by the Saint Louis Family Court and with absolutely no factual basis. I do not drink and am not an alcoholic. I do not do drugs and am not a drug addict. I do not have a criminal record. I work seven days a week. I pay my taxes. I volunteer at church. I donate to the food pantry. I help elderly who are frail or who have no family members around to help them with daily necessities like translating their letters from Russian to English, writing letters for them in English, taking them to a doctor, calling a nurse for them, taking them to a grocery store, running to a pharmacy, or helping to fix their internet or telephone issues. I volunteer for two nonprofits.

Find the full statement below. 

 

Tolu Personal Statement 10-... by mikekvolpe

I interviewed several other people, some of who also had Pudlowski, but they did not name her.

50/50

One other theme I heard was that St. Louis courts adhered to the 50/50 dogma. 50/50 or shared parenting argues that the best custody arrangement is for parents who split to share custody equally. With that, child support is often not required. 

This dogma often ignores abuse. It was something I described in my 2015 article Making Divorce Pay.

All proponents of equal parenting always make a caveat for cases of abuse, but the climate created by other AFCC-supported theories makes proving abuse nearly impossible.

Take Charles Paclik’s divorce, which started in Illinois in 2006. After his ex-wife moved to California, the jurisdiction for the divorce moved with her. He didn’t see his two children for more than three years from 2007-2010 at the behest of the court, and four AFCC-trained social workers: Lucinda Beall, Laura Wittenberg, Stuart Lord, and Mary Jo Dierickx. Then his 14-year-old son from a previous marriage testified in court that his stepmother was physically abusing him and his two half-brothers. After that testimony, the court ruled Paclik and his ex-wife should have shared parenting. He lost primary contact with his children again after his wife’s move to an adjacent county in 2013 triggered another custody fight. Paclik’s custody continues to be litigated nine years after it began.

Below, listen to one St. Louis County woman describe how her ex-husband was convicted of a crime similar to child endangerment but then she was forced into a 50/50 arrangement.  

I asked Ms. Bertelson about this tendency on settling on 50/50 and she replied, "I cannot comment on blanket assertions about the court."

Other Victims

I spoke with several other victims as well. Below is a two part interview with another St. Louis County woman who lost custody after bringing forward child molestation allegations. 

 

 Hazardous Drugs 

In this story, a St. Louis County woman describes how she was possibly exposed to hazardous chemicals and this was covered up.

"My case was turned around based on a psychological evaluation that was done and everything was focused on mental health and all of the facts were completely dismissed. The psychological evaluation was fabricated, not based on the actual evaluation data, but based on my exes hearsay. I was then diagnosed with a mental disorder, which became the focus of the case."

She was diagnosed with delusional disorder, arguing that she was making up the allegations that she was exposed to hazardous chemicals. 

Find the whole interview below. 

 

More Child Molestation Disclosures Covered Up

In this interview, another St. Louis woman describes how she brought forward child molestation allegations only to have the courts cover them up. 

 

 

A Man Speaks

I also spoke with a man who described how the court catered to his ex-wife and ignored how his child began to devolve after being forced to move schools. 

Post Script

This is the second of four articles I'm doing in conjunction with a new organization entitled FIRST4. FIRST4 hopes to build software which would make activists aware whenever a child is taken by CPS anywhere in the US because the first four hours in the system are the most critical. The first article is here; the second article is here. 

UPDATE

Please check out the article I did which followed up this one on St. Louis County courts: Elaine Pudlowski, their Kids for Cash scheme, and more players are mentioned.