Thanks for your post - I will pass it on to Shy (ATB, Graham).
Here is a notorious case for you in return:-
"And they say Parental Alienation does not exist! A kid who has not seen his father since he was in diapers has no reason to fear his father other than what he has been told about his father. Unless this father truly is a monster, who has the amazing ability to keep his monstrous tendencies from resulting in criminal charges for monstrous behavior, (highly unlikely) then the mother's actions are reprehensible."
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=65810
East Valley Tribune
18 May 2006
Mom wages custody battle from jail cell
By Mary K. Reinhart, Tribune
As nasty as custody battles can get, family law attorneys say they don't recall it ever coming to this. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has jailed an east Mesa mother for the past two weeks because she refuses to let her ex-husband see their two children.
Crystal Mendoza has been ignoring a court order for years that gives the children's father visitation rights.
She claims he's a danger to them. He claims she's poisoned them against him.
The records show a dysfunctional relationship dominated by cursing and fighting and the usual components of a messy divorce with children - orders of protection, nonpayment of child support, accusations of all manner of abuse and multiple calls to police, with a wide circle of friends and extended family getting into the fray.
Caught in the middle, as always, are the children - 5-year-old Tiffany and 8-year-old Joshua, along with their 10-year-old half-sister, Morgan.
"This girl would rather sit in jail for the rest of her life before she hands those kids over," said her attorney, Josephine Cuccurullo. "She really believes what she's saying."
The father, Steve Toscano, a former Apache Junction firefighter, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Jerry DeRose, said the children have been programmed to fear their father and will do fine once they're allowed to spend time with him.
"The last time he saw his daughter she was in diapers," said DeRose, former Gila County attorney. "I don't know what they've been telling Josh all these years."
The boy has threatened suicide, been hospitalized twice for psychiatric care and twice assaulted his teachers, according to school and medical records.
He told classmates he would cut their heads off with a chainsaw, then held a pair of scissors to his throat.
He's attacked his little sister and tried to jump out of a car as it sped down the freeway. He's told family members that he's afraid of his father and will kill himself if he has to see him again.
To settle him down, but without a judge's permission, Mendoza moved the kids in December to their grandparents' home in rural Missouri, and has refused to bring them back.
"I don't like to see my daughter in jail," said Mendoza's mother, Sharon Hand. "But I don't like to see justice not being done either."
Judge John Ditsworth sent Mendoza to jail May 2 and gave her ex-husband sole custody of the couple's twochildren after Mendoza missed a court hearing and then returned to Arizona from Missouri without the children.
Within days, grandparents Darrell and Sharon Hand handed the children over to Missouri child welfare officials to avoid being accused of kidnapping or custodial interference.
"It was terrifying for them," Hand said. "I told them, 'They put your momma in jail and your dad's trying to get custody of you. We have to do this in order to protect you guys and to protect your mom and to protect us.' "
The children, now wards of Missouri, were returned to their grandparents after about three days in foster care, pending a hearing scheduled today in Gainesville, Mo.
Toscano is expected to attend the hearing, where the judge in that case will decide who should have custody.
"We believe that if the father does show up, the judge will give him the kids," Cuccurullo said. "There's a valid court order that says he gets them."
Ditsworth late Wednesday ordered Mendoza released from custody, but she won't leave the county's Estrella Jail until sometime today.
So nearly four years after she won sole custody of the two children, and after going to jail to prevent them from seeing Toscano, Mendoza will be limited to only supervised visits.
In interviews with at least two counselors, Josh has said he fears his father. Both counselors recommended against even supervised visits with Toscano.
Darrell and Sharon Hand have mortgaged their 5-acre property to hire lawyers in Arizona and Missouri for their daughter's custody case, after Mendoza spent four years trying to work through the system on her own.
The family agrees she made a mistake by taking the children out of state without permission, but said Mendoza filed her own motions for hearings that were never processed and that she was desperate to help Joshua.
"This little boy will go bananas" if he is returned to his father, Sharon Hand said.
"These kids have lived in fear," she said. "For the first time in their lives, they've been able to feel free to go out and play and not have to worry about anything."
Contact Mary K. Reinhart by email mreinhart@aztrib.com or phone (480) 898-6867.