Profiteering judges, lax oversight and sexism have set up a cottage industry that works against poor parents
The toddler could barely walk, but already he was lost.
In 1992, his mother, a woman named Josie Cohen, reported to Sacramento area authorities that she suspected her estranged husband was sexually abusing the 2-year-old.
According to investigative records documenting the case, obtained by SN&R, the boy told a Child Protective Services investigator in 1993 that his father regularly sodomized him. A medical exam proved inconclusive. But in April 1994, the case was heard in Sacramento County’s family court, where multiple witnesses testified that the child had described being abused or raped. His attorney even relayed a CPS social worker’s conclusion that the father was masturbating “and ejaculating in front of” the toddler.
But Judge Peter McBrien—still with the court today—was convinced the boy had been coached by his mother to concoct the allegations and handed him over to his father for primary custody. The reports of abuse continued. In July 1995, the child called the police himself, asking for protection from his dad. [Read Full Article]
The Judge Took My Son Away – Sacramento News & Review by Alastair Bland (PDF)
