Legislators want to change bill they voted for, saying they didn’t know it would restrict past abuse reports. The state’s top child protection official wants to scrap a law her agency helped pass four months ago that made it more difficult for social workers to investigate maltreatment cases. In May, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill that forbids county child protection agencies … [Read more...]

Kristi Shelloner wears her grief around her neck like an anchor in a world rapidly filling with water. During her employment as a family support worker at a Humboldt County community resource center, she has experienced rage, frustration, sorrow and depression. Shelloner has seen the worst: gutter slugs and night crawlers that molest their own children, depraved parents who have done things … [Read more...]

Last year, an Oklahoma family court judge ordered that a six-year-old girl’s father be given sole custody even though he’s a registered sex offender. The decision was so egregious it made headlines around the world, but experts in protecting children call it just another example of judicial sex trafficking in the United States. “We think of human traffickers as sleazy characters evading the … [Read more...]

Last month, Federal District Judge Mark Fuller was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges after he allegedly assaulted his wife at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlanta. Fuller is a George W. Bush-appointee to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. His wife reportedly had visible cuts at the time of his arrest. Fuller, however, will almost certainly escape this … [Read more...]

A judge who moves a drunken-driving trial from his courtroom to a local high school each year as a cautionary tale to students is now himself charged with the offense. Perry County Judge Dean L. Wilson was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and failing to stop after an accident. A Mercedes-Benz that Columbus police say he was driving hit a … [Read more...]