St. Louis County Grants Physical Abuser Sole Custody

(Wooten from her Facebook page)

 

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. 

1. October 19, 2018
2. October 26, 2018
3. December 21, 2018
4. January 11, 2019
5. January 25, 2019
6. February 8, 2019
7. February 15, 2019
8. March 15, 2019
9. Jun 28, 2019
10. July 5, 2019
11. 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. 

Post Script

Please check out my previous articles on St. Louis County: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6, Article 7, Article 8, Article 9, Article 10, and Article 11.

Also check out the crowdfunding campaign which supports this series.