Topics covered included Jake Burkhart's case from Washington state, featuring Shannon Moreau, I also go over Donna Wooten's case, found here. We also talk about Theresa Wright, a Social Worker with Forsyth (NC) Department of Social Services and Victor Isler, the Director of Forsyth DSS. Finally, we interview Gabe Shapiro and some notes on his case are below. Gabe's case is from Miami Dade and find another article about that situation here.
Topics include: interview with Wayne Dolcefino, interview with Eric Satin, discussing the unfolding ring in Miami-Dade. Cindy Kamen, the Guardian ad Litem in his case, is a part of the ring, along with Dr. Edward Sczechowicz and the Family Crossroads Solutions Inc (FCSI), a child visitation supervising company.
We also talk about Charlisa Powell and Sara Royster, both Guardian ad Litem for the Children's Law Center of Central North Carolina: cases are from Forsyth County (NC); lastly, audio of Forsyth DSS caseworker Theresa Wright is played.
There appears to be a ring operating out of the Miami-Dade family court and I will be investigating.
This will be an in-depth and multifaceted investigation, but I recently introduced it in the previous livestream starting thirty two minutes in.
So far, I'm focusing on two cases: involving Eric Satin and Gabe Shapiro.
Both involve a child visit supervisor named Agata Curbelo.
Curbelo produced an affidavit in Satin's case alleging that her then employer, Family Crossroad Solutions Incorporated (FCSI), was engaging in a scheme to target Satin. Here is part of her affidavit.
"Unfortunately, my experiences with Mr. Satin was similar to my experiences supervising other fathers with ongoing custody disputes in Miami-Dade. In Mr. Satin's case, it became obvious to me that FCS was working with the court appointed guardian ad litem, Cindi Kamen, in an attempt to falsely portray Mr. Satin as an incompetent father based on false allegations of mental health issues and/or abuse. I received pressure from FCS president, Karen Sanchez, to include information in Mr. Satin's report to falsely portray him in a negative light to the court. I have seen this happen whereby a guardian ad litem works with FCS to inappropriately influence reports for the purpose of improperly impacting custody rights in favor of the other parent."
Satin said that his ex-wife engaged in several attempts to paint him with false allegations of abuse. For instance in this body-cam footage below, starting at approximately 8:30, she is caught in several lies.
In the video, she claims that Eric pushed and her and she feel to the ground, but then an officer says, "wait, you said you never fell to the ground."
She later claimed to have an injury on her arm, despite earlier refusing to have cops look for injuries on her arm.
A couple months after this, his ex-wife refused to come on Satin's property for a custody exchange, even though the police thought it was a good idea.
Satin said the false allegations continued until the court settled on a charge that he coached his daughter to say that her mother and her mother's family was coaching her to make false allegations against him.
This, Satin said, came shortly after his daughter disclosed to him yet another scheme to try and tag him with child molestation charges.
Satin said that the GAL recommended Dr. Edward Sczechowicz, who wrote bogus evaluations to assist the guardian and ex-wife to continue keeping him separated from his children.
Satin said that FCSI and Sczechowicz are part of his case and the other case, involving Gabriel Shapiro.
Jordan Abramowitz is also involved in both cases; he represents Satin's ex, while previously representing Gabe Shapiro.
Abramovitz, as I mentioned in the livestream, is a jack of all trades in these schemes; willing to be the bulldog or to lie down for the cause.
In Shapiro's case, he chose to lie down.
After the livestream, I spoke with Leslie Ferderigos, Shapiro's current attorney. She also recently began representing Eric Satin and said she has now several cases in Miami-Dade, where the same people keep coming up, particularly Abramowitz and Sczechowicz.
In Shapiro's case, the parties settled in 2020, with each getting 50/50, but, Ferderigos told me, Shapiro's ex quickly began filing motions to modify the custody.
During this period, Shapiro said his son disclosed sexual abuse which allegedly occurred while in his mother's care and he filed his own countermotions.
Ferderigos told me that Shapiro has been hamstrung by two stipulations which his ex-wife hammered out with his then lawyer, Jordan Abramowitz.
She said that Abramowitz presented to Shapiro that these were temporary orders to be in effect while the abuse was investigated.
Instead, they've been used to keep him from both his children for months now.
Shapiro said his case involves one of the leaders of this ring, Dori Morales, who represents Shapiro's ex and is the outgoing president of the Florida Bar.
Not only has Morales secured these rulings, effectively giving her client sole custody, while controlling the future of the case, but she has also repeatedly won fees.
Most recently, earlier this week Gabe Shapiro was ordered to pay her fees, she charges $700 per hour, even though his ex-wife saw over $1 million from her initial property settlement. That order is below.
Agato was also the supervisor in Gabe's case and an incident in which she was berated by several members of the FCSI brass was secretly recorded. That's below.
When Agato said "He's the father," referring to Gabe, one of her supervisors responded, "right there, your statement right there is absolutely out of order."
Donna Wooten made a terrible mistake nearly a decade ago and she continues to pay for it.
That mistake was exploited by the St. Louis County courts to grant her ex-husband, Paul Wooten, sole legal and physical custody, despite a prior Colorado court finding that he was physically abusive and had been keeping their son away from her, despite court orders.
Around 2013, while living in Colorado, Wooten decided it would be best for her son to live with his father, who lived in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
"I was going through a very serious emotional rollercoaster because I had moved from an apartment into a program. I thought it would be good for us to have the stability in case I lost my job." She said, "{Her son} was getting trouble in school and I was being threatened for them to put him out of the after school program that he was in, in order for me to go to work."
She continued, "The new teacher of the new program made a contract with him without me knowing- with a five year old- and told him if he got in trouble again, he would get put out of the program. So, I reached out to my ex because I needed his help with {their son}. So, I sent him down there {St. Louis}."
Find the full interview below.
Wooten said she even paid for someone to fly with her son. But when her son arrived in St. Louis, no one was waiting for him.
She said that after several hours, her ex-husband's mother finally came.
Wooten was then charged with abandonment and Anthony Wooten began using this as leverage in their divorce and custody matter.
"Yes, Your Honor, I would like to
just enforce that it's been proven in the courts that Donna
basically abandoned {their son} and she really sent him here
permanently on a plane." Anthony Wooten said at a court hearing in Colorado on July 30, 2013. "It's
been proven that Donna suffer from a mental condition where
she has to take medication; and she haven't been taking her
medication."
Anthony Wooten was entirely unfit, and the Judge in Colorado, Michelle Amico, found as much. First she found that Anthony Wooten beat Donna and their son.
"Mother was
clearly the victim of domestic violence by Father and this is
what started this dependency and neglect action. The CFI
report adequately outlines the history that took place with
this case, but in summary, the Department of Social Services
petitioned for custody of {their son} at one point due to safety
concerns, because the parties themselves were not cooperating
with the family services plan that had been put in place for {their son}. Quite simply, {their son} was at risk. In May of 2009, {their son} was
returned to Mother, as they believed she was finally in a
position to keep {their son} safe, safe from Father." Judge Amico found during the same July 30, 2013 hearing.
Judge Amico noted the CFI report, done by social services, which was also scathing in its assessment of Anthony Wooten.
"Despite testimony by Michelle Hamel that detailed the Department of Social Services involvement with the family and the concerns for {their son's} safety, and completing domestic violence offender treatment, Anthony denies that he was ever abusive toward Donna. He stated that Donna called the police on him all the time, but he was never arrested. He stated that DSS became involved because Donna called the police so much. He referred to the incident that resulted in {their son} being placed into foster care and Donna being taken to the hospital as a little 'scuffle.'"
Referring to this incident which temporarily placed their son into foster care, the CIF report stated, "On March 6, 2009, an emergency pick up order for {their son} was issued and {their son} was taken into the custody of DSS because of another domestic violence incident that left Donna seriously injured while {their son} was in her care."
Judge Amico did not only conclude that Anthony Wooten was physically violent but that he proactively interfered with Donna's relationship with her son, upon gaining custody.
"In addition, the CFI found and the Court agrees with
this finding, that Father was acti-ve1y engaging in alienating
Mother," Judge Amico stated, "This CFI found, and the Court
concurs, either to be controlling, manipulative, deceptive,
engaging in alienating behaviors, dishonest with her,
dishonest with Ms. Witt, {their son's} therapist; and the Court finds,
based upon the evidence, this was an accurate assessment of
Father, more importantly, reaIly, of father's conduct during
the course of her investigation."
While Judge Amico did not want to give Anthony Wooten custody, she had no choice as Donna was incarcerated and would serve four months for abandonment, which Judge Amico cited and admonished her for as well.
"Given the history between the parties, the Court is
completely perplexed at Mother's choice. she has her own
mother, the Court heard, lives here in Colorado that I know at
least at some point provided assistance to Mother; she paid
for her to travel to see {their son}. {Their son} had been involved, there was
a school, there were a lot of other people she could have
reached out to. So the Court doesn't know the thought process
she engaged in or how she could have even relied upon the fact
that father would return {their son}, let alone be assured that {their son} would be physically safe in Father's care." Judge Amico stated.
Wooten served four months and then moved to St. Louis to try and be near her son.
When she tried to initially modify custody, she was in St. Louis City court. When the case got complicated, it was moved to St. Louis County.
On October 18, 2018, Kelly Chevalier was appointed to be the Guardian ad Litem. Chevalier was one of the nearly forty GALs to be on the infamous Zoom call.
Chevalier declined to speak to me when I reached her about this story.
Wooten said she met with Chevalier just once in person, for ten minutes, and during that meeting, Chevalier took her check and spent most of their meeting speaking on the phone with her husband.
Despite this, Chevalier recommended that Anthony Wooten, despite his history of physical violence, get physical custody.
Meanwhile, Donna Wooten said that just as in Colorado, Anthony Wooten was blocking her from seeing their son.
Here is part of an email she sent to Chevalier, after being asked to provide dates Anthony Wooten made her miss for custody with her son.
October 19, 2018
October 26, 2018
December 21, 2018
January 11, 2019
January 25, 2019
February 8, 2019
February 15, 2019
March 15, 2019
Jun 28, 2019
July 5, 2019
July 12, 2019
The late days are every week. They never show on time to the meet place they picked Quiktrip around the corner from where they live on Highway K and Mexico road. They show up approximately 15 minutes after we get there every time and this can be confirmed by the video cameras on the lot of Quiktrip. They try and make it seem like I am late all the time by texting as if they are waiting on the lot and several times I am on the lot waiting when the texts have come through ans I am willing to print all the text if need be.The last time (July 19th) they did not show up for an hour. I texted while still on the highway at 8 pm so I would not have to wait, I arrived at 8:10pm and no one showed up until 8:58pm
But none of that mattered once things got into St. Louis County.
The history of domestic abuse was turned into violence toward each other.
"During their time in Colorado both parties testified that there were multiple altercations between the parties, with police being called multiple times. Mother testified that father was abusive, busted her lip on one occasion in 2008 which resulted in him being convicted of 'hitting her' and her subsequently getting an order for protection. However, Mother produced no evidence of any orders for protection in Colorado, no evidence of father being convicted of 'hitting' or assaulting her, no evidence of any police reports." The Judge, Joseph Green ruled on January 26, 2021.
The judgment from Colorado was available to the court and I spoke with Wooten's attorney in Colorado who said normally judgments, like the one rendered in Colorado, are supposed to carry a lot of weight with other courts.
An email to Judge Green was left unreturned as was an email to Christine Bertelson, the public affairs officer for the St. Louis County Courts.
I spoke with the attorney in St. Louis for Anthony Wooten, Susan Ward.
She told me that she could not read the judge's mind, so she could not answer why Judge Green rendered his decision. She said the decision was made after a full and fair trial. Furthermore, while her client has physical custody, Donna receives visitation.
But Donna said this is not true, since Anthony has been consistently keeping their son away from her and that she has not seen him in over a year.
Furthermore, Wooten was ordered not only to pay for child support for many of Anthony Wooten's court costs, leaving her in financial dire straits.
Her ex-husband, she told me, has used the courts to continue to abuse her, doing what he did in Colorado and keeping their son away, while carrying on court battles she does not have the resources to fight.
Topics include: the new North Carolina DSS series from Carolina Public Press: find it here.
Also, Shannon Moreau, the notorious GAL from Washington is covered; an article about her is here.
Judge Gordon "Gordo" Miller of Forsyth County North Carolina is covered, the audio from this trial is below. The GAL is Sara Royster of the Children's Law Center of Central North Carolina.
Finally, find the interview with Victor Isler, Head of Forsyth DSS here.
Topics discussed include the Mikaela Haynes case, Woodward Vs Boyer from Utah, Forsyth Judge Gordon Miller, Kent Webb, Forsyth DSS caseworker, and Sara Royster of the Children's Law Center of Central North Carolina.
Covered on the program are Children's Law Center of Central North Carolina, Sarah Royster, Judge Gordon Miller, Victor Isler, Forsyth DSS Director, Donald Kent Webb, Forsyth DSS caseworker, Joanne McDowell, Neil Shelton, and Randy Davis.
Please note. I welcome any and all comments from any political perspective. I will not stand or approve any swearing, and personal attacks will likely also not be approved.
