Get a load of the punishment for this "father". Parenting classes and 15 days in jail. Parenting classes???? No substance abuse treatment program, no license suspension...
This blogger wonders, where is the child's mother?

Alaska judges in custody cases involving drinking dads often put in clauses in custody decrees stating that "father shall not consume alcohol within X hours of parenting time". Yeah, that's gonna stop em. Are these judges really about protecting the children's right to safety or protecting father's rights? Attorneys anectodally report that alcoholics having children drive isn't all that uncommon.

http://newsminer.com/2007/08/30/8651

Drunk dad puts 11-year-old boy in driver’s seat

By Amanda Bohman
abohman@newsminer.com
Published August 30, 2007

Fairbanks police stopped an 11-year-old boy after he was seen driving the wrong way on a one-way street in his father’s 1992 Chevy pick-up truck late Tuesday.

Authorities say the boy’s father, 35-year-old Frank Neff of Fairbanks, was too drunk to drive and had told the child to drive them home.

Neff pleaded no contest to charges of reckless endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the incident. He was ordered to spend 15 days in jail and to take parenting classes.

Prosecutor Joe Dallaire said an 11-year-old is not an appropriate designated driver.

“When you’ve got your 11-year-old son who is driving you around who is unlicensed, that creates a hazard not only for the child but for the public,” Dallaire said.

The jail term is 12 days longer than if Neff had been convicted as a first-time drunken driver.

The incident took place after Neff had been drinking beer and shots with a friend in the Northward Building.

“He was really drunk,” said Ron Schumann, who saw Neff in the hallway.

Schumann and his friend left the building at the same time Neff left with his son.

“My friend said, ‘Man, do you know what he is going to do? He’s going to have his little son drive the truck,’” Schumann said.

Concerned, Schumann and the friend followed the Chevy.

The boy squealed the tires as he turned from Second Avenue to Noble Street, Schumann said.

“He was going over the curbs,” Schumann said. “He didn’t know how to drive.”

The boy turned onto First Avenue and then headed southbound on Cushman Street, which is a one-way street going north.

“We called the police,” Schumann said. “We just wanted to get him stopped right away so that he wouldn’t go any further.”

The boy passed the Fairbanks Police Department, where surveillance cameras reportedly caught him on tape.

The boy turned right onto 10th Avenue and left onto Barnette Street, where a police officer stopped him, according to court records.

The officer saw Neff lean over and place a seat belt over the boy, the prosecutor said.

Neff told authorities that he had been teaching his son how to drive since the child was 8 years old.

Neff registered 0.193 on a preliminary chemical breath test, so a DUI charge would have been likely had Neff been caught driving, Dallaire said.

“The only good thing that can be said about your conduct is that you didn’t drive drunk,” said Mary Greene, a retired Superior Court Judge and temporary magistrate who sentenced Neff on Wednesday.

Greene dismissed charges of disorderly conduct and permitting an unlicensed driver to drive after Neff accepted a plea deal at his arraignment.

Neff’s punishment includes 110 days of suspended jail time, which is time Neff could be ordered to serve if he gets into more trouble.

The prosecutor said he deliberately asked for a harsher jail sentence than is imposed on first-time drunken drivers.

Pete Eagan, president of local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, called the incident frightening.

“I think it points out just how impaired one’s judgment can be when you’re drinking,” Eagan said. “It could very easily have been yet another tragedy here.”

Contact staff writer Amanda Bohman at 459-7544.

(ANDVSA wrote Governor Palin's office in approximately March 2007 alerting them to the problems with PAS and advising them against signing any PAS Day Proclamations. Kudos for their quick and decisive action.

Sick Joke or Sick Reality?

Below the Belt: A Biweekly Column by NOW President Kim Gandy

May 17, 2007

I know you think I'm talking about "Opie and Anthony," recently suspended from their radio talk gig for "joking" with a guest, "Homeless Charlie" who said he wanted to rape Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush. The hosts encouraged these horrifying remarks -- in fact they laughed and imagined "the horror" on Rice's face as she is held down and punched in the face.

No, I'm talking about another sick reality. Let me ask you first: Would you trust a guy who wrote that rape victims "gain pleasure from being beaten, bound, and otherwise made to suffer" as "the price they are willing to pay for gaining the gratification of receiving the sperm?" A guy who published his belief that "the child who has suffered bona fide abuse may very well have enjoyed the experience..."? A guy who claimed that incest is not harmful, (citing Shakespeare) only "thinking makes it so"?

And I know I don't even have to ask this -- but would you trust this guy with your kids?

I thought not. Which leads me to ponder how on earth the "theory" this guy thought up has found its way into court rooms across the country, and is currently influencing child custody decisions, especially those involving child abuse. That's right, this guy, a psychiatrist named Richard Gardner -- who, by the way, also asserted that adult-child sex is normal AND beneficial for both parties as well as for the survival of the human race -- is being given credence in cases involving the fate of children and families.

And believe it or not, it seems that nine state governors have jumped on Gardner's pro-pedophilia bandwagon. In Florida, Indiana, Connecticut, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa, Maine, and Nevada, there is now reportedly a whole day officially dedicated to raising "awareness" about Gardner's theory called Parental Alienation Syndrome, in which the very reports of abuse by a child against a father are themselves evidence that the child is being brainwashed by the mother (and if the child is angry at the father, or doesn't want to visit, that's even more evidence) and the only "cure" for this syndrome is to force the child to live with the abuser and deny ANY contact with the protective mother, who has no history of abuse.

C'mon, you're thinking, what judge would buy this crock? Doesn't it matter if the abuse really happened? Apparently not.

Although it may sound like it, this is no sick joke. It's a sad, sick reality. And anyone who cares even a little about children's human rights and the epidemic of family violence should take note and take action.

Let's start with the lowdown on "parental alienation syndrome" (PAS), which is also being called "parental alienation." Like I said, Richard Gardner thought it up. The late Dr. Gardner was a child psychiatrist who liked to tell people he was a full professor at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Actually, he was an unpaid volunteer. But hey -- professor, volunteer; child sexual abuse, fun adult-child sex -- hey, what's the difference? If you're Richard Gardner, not much.

But I digress. While Gardner was volunteering at Columbia in the 1980s, he formed some opinions and made some personal observations that, together, he decided to call "parental alienation syndrome." He defined PAS as a condition arising from one parent's (mostly mothers, he said) "programming" of the child to wage an unreasonable "campaign of denigration against" the other parent (most of the time, the father, according to Gardner). PAS, he said, arises most often during child custody disputes, usually involves false allegations of child sexual abuse as part of the programmer parent's attempt to turn the child against the other parent, and causes "enormous grief" in the alienated parent.

Gardner's diagnostic criteria included finding out from the child the parent's "frequency of programming thoughts" and the parent's "success in manipulating the legal system to enhance the programming." The ridiculousness of these criteria goes without saying. Gardner was insistent that the "programming parent" is the mother, and that the alienated parent is the father. He opined that treatment involve forcing the mother to stop expressing negative views about the father and granting custody of the child to him and denying any visitation to her. No part of the PAS diagnostic process involves examining the father's psychiatric history or conduct, or even inquiring whether he had actually engaged in abuse.

According to an article by Dr. Paul J. Fink, past president of the American Psychiatric Association, and Hon. Sol Gothard, retired judge and former faculty member for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges:

"Parental Alienation Syndrome has been used nationwide by batterers as a courtroom tactic to silence abused children by attempting to discredit their disclosures of abuse. This theory is not recognized as valid by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, or the American Medical Association. Parental Alienation Syndrome is not accepted as a psychiatric diagnosis, and has been rejected by the mainstream psychological community. Parental Alienation Syndrome is junk science; there is no valid research or empirical data to support this unproven theory."

To date, none of the studies necessary to judge the validity of Gardner's so-called syndrome have been conducted. In 2006, the Children's Legal Rights Journal (a multi-disciplinary journal published in conjunction with the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the Loyola University School of Law) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges each published analyses finding no scientific or legal basis for the use of PAS.

And yet, PAS keeps making appearances in courts across the country, subverting and perverting the pursuit of justice one family at a time. According to the Children's Legal Rights Journal, a North Carolina court incarcerated a teenage girl who refused to visit her father, and a New Jersey court suspended a mother's contact with her two children, granting sole custody to the father despite "'foreseeable emotional upset and possible trauma'" to the children (Hoult, 1). In Pennsylvania, a court ordered a teenager into "PAS treatment," and he subsequently hung himself.

Young people who have suffered due to inhumane court rulings involving PAS are speaking out.

They are not the only ones. This month, the NOW Foundation joined other leading organizations working on family law and family violence in a complaint filed against the United States with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The complaint charges that U.S. courts are failing to protect the life, liberties, security, and other human rights of abused mothers and children by frequently awarding child custody to abusers and child molesters. PAS is one predominant strategy being used by lawyers to place children in such danger. A recent Newsweek article noted the finding of a Harvard study that in custody cases involving documented spousal abuse, 54% granted custody to the batterer, and parental alienation was used as an argument in nearly every single one.

This is not a trend that will fade away. It's junk science that's gaining momentum, amassing victims, fooling powerful government officials, and even attracting an unfortunately famous ally or two like Alec Baldwin. PAS advocates play down the theory's unquestionably absurd roots in Gardner's pseudo-science, pathologize and punish mothers fighting to protect themselves and their children, and stand faithfully by fathers' so-called right to unfettered access to their children despite any history of assault or abuse. And the judges and the media are buying it hook, line and sinker.

Do something about it. Contact the governors who've proclaimed "Parental Alienation Awareness" days and raise their awareness about what's in the best interest of our families. Contact the media outlets who are giving PAS advocates like Alec Baldwin a platform to lie to the public. Pressure your judges to educate themselves and get our justice system back on track.

Gloria Steinem said, "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." I'm definitely pissed off about PAS and hope you are too. It's just what we need to set our families free from junk science, junk justice, and sick realities.

---

For more detailed information and sources on PAS: Hoult, Jennifer, (Spring 2006). The Evidentiary Admissibility of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Science, Law, and Policy, Children's Legal Rights Journal, 26(1) pp. 1-61.

More unbelievable quotes from Richard Gardner

International complaint Against the United States on Behalf of Abused Mothers, Children
Mother’s Day complaint claims United States courts systematically violate children’s and mothers’ human rights.

On May 11, just before Mother’s Day weekend, ten mothers, one victimized child (now an adult) and leading national organizations will file a complaint against the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights. Press conferences in Los Angeles and Sacramento will announce the details and motivation of the complaint. The complaint claims that U.S. courts, by frequently awarding child custody to abusers and child molesters, has failed to protect the life, liberties, security and other human rights of abused mothers and their children.

The petition seeks a finding from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the U.S. has violated the Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of Man and the Charter of the Organization of American States and a statement of the steps that the U.S. must take to comply with its human rights obligations in regards to battered women and children in child custody cases.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was created in 1959 and is expressly authorized to examine allegations of human rights violations by members of the Organization of American States, which include the United States. It also carries out on-site visits to observe the general human rights situations in all 35 member states of the Organization of American States and to investigate specific allegations of violations of Inter-American human rights treaties. Its charge is to promote the observance and the defense of human rights in the Americas.

The complaint details several cases where there was documented medical evidence of child sexual abuse, yet in each instance the identified abusing father was given full custody of the children he abused. Several of the mothers were jailed by the courts because of their persistent efforts to protect their children from abuse. Every single mother was denied contact with her child for some period of time, though none was ever proven to have harmed them.

"My life was completely shattered apart on that day and my childhood was destroyed," said Jeff Hoverson, the adult child petitioner, about the day a family court judge ordered sheriff deputies to deliver him into the custody of his abuser. "It was as if I was just kidnapped. I was torn from everything I knew....I was made into a possession rather than a child." Hoverson endured years of trauma and fear living in his father's home before escaping and returning to his mother at age 17. He is haunted by years of feeling helpless to prevent his father's night-time visits to his sisters’ bedrooms.

“Abused parents in Alaska face the same obstacles to protecting their children as those faced by women across the country.” said Paige Hodson, founder of the grassroots Alaska Moms for Custodial Justice”. “Abusive parents often know how to manipulate the court process and have the money to litigate the protective parent into poverty. I get several calls or emails through my website each month from women across the state that have been re-victimized by the same court system that is supposed to be protecting them.”

Studies of gender bias in the courts, conducted in the 1980’s and 90’s, found disturbing trends of courts minimizing or excusing men’s violence against women, and favoring the abusers. In 1990 the United States Congress passed a resolution recommending the prohibition of giving joint or sole custody to abusers. Seventeen years later, the practice continues unabated. Ten years ago today, leading national organizations were joined by members of Congress in a protest in Washington D.C. to again raise awareness about the problems in family courts. Today, petitioners say, the problem is systemic and widespread in family law courts across the nation.

“For more than 30 years U.S. judges have given custody or unsupervised visitation of children to abusers and molesters putting the children directly at risk,” says Dianne Post, an international attorney who authored the petition. “These horrendous human rights violations have been brought to the attention of family court systems, and state and federal governments, to no avail. We turn now to international courts to protect the rights and safety of U.S. children.”

The national organizations supporting the international complaint include: The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, National Organization for Women, National Organization for Women Foundation, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Justice For Children, Sexual Assault Report, National Family Court Watch Project, Stop Family Violence, Family Violence Prevention Fund, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Sidran Institute, Legal Momentum and the National Center on Sexual and Domestic Violence. The petition is supported by many state organizations as well.

In December 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition against the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights for their failure to protect Jessica Gonzales’ three children from their abusive father, who murdered them. Their petition, the first of its kind, asserted that domestic violence victims have the right to be protected by the state from the violent acts of their abusers.

More information, as well as speakers and plaintiffs, will be available at the press conferences. For additional information, contact Irene Weiser, Stop Family Violence
iw@stopfamilyviolence.org .The petition and supporting documentation will be available on the Stop Family Violence website on Friday May 11 at 10 am EST. www.StopFamilyViolence.org

Documentary films:
Small Justice: Little Justice in America’s Family Courts by Garland Waller
www.smalljustice.org

Breaking the Silence: Children’s Stories by Catherine Tatge and Dominique Lasseur
http://www.tatgelasseur.com/pages/bts.html

###

Alec Baldwin's Profane Taped Rage at Child

Alec Baldwin did abused women and children in custody litigation a favor by providing a Class A example of how such men treat their children, demean and denigrate the mother's of their children, but scream at the top of their lungs that they are being treated unfairly by the courts and spout claims that it is all the protective mother's fault because she is a psycho, alienating bitch.

Baldwin goes into a lengthy and profane diatribe to his 11 year old daughter on her cell phone voice mail. Not only does he swear, call her names, call her mother names and threaten her, but his rant demonstrates he doesn't even have a clue as to how old she is.

Further sickening is some of the public's response, which is representative of the treatment of domestic violence victims in society and underlying support of abuse against women and children. So many people have justified his treatment of his daughter and ex wife as being "deserved" or "provoked" and equate Kim Basinger's attempts to protect her daughter from this abusive parenting as equally abusive.

There is NO excuse for woman abuse and child abuse and Basinger is to be applauded for doing every thing she can for their child.

It should be clear to anyone who truly has children's best interests at heart to curtail visitation and contact with a parent who thinks that he is entitled to get love and attention by demanding it. Court personnel hearing this case and so many others like it should consider how it feels to be treated like this by your father.

The Baldwin tape illustrates common sense in child raising and human behavior, as well as the findings in domestic violence literature related to custody issues: children reject parents that bully them, threaten them and humiliate them. One can only imagine the terror at visiting the parent who made threats as he did.

Father's rights groups are all over the net in support of Baldwin and justifying his behavior. Basinger is being pilloried for supposed "parental alienation". The only alienation going on is that the Baldwin has created for himself.

So now he is caught and busy trying to gain sympathy by playing the victim.
No surprise here--this is what batterers do.

This tape confirms what Basinger has been saying all along, clearly demonstrating the way abusive men use Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) against abused women and children and
shows in detail the ways abusive men justify, minimize and excuse their behaviors and how society is complicit in the cover-up.


http://www.tmz.com/2007/04/19/alec-baldwins-threatening-message-to-daughter/

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-basingerapr24,0,5459394.story?coll=la-home-entertainment

http://www.alaskastar.com/stories/081006/new_20060810001.shtml

Woman points camera at domestic violenceDocumentary to show how DV, courts impact children

An Eagle River documentary maker is examining the impacts of domestic violence on children and the shortfalls of the Alaskan judicial system that she said often grants joint custody to parents with a history of domestic violence.

Elisa Fleener is writing, directing and producing the documentary with the working title "Who Will Hear Our Voices."

Rhonda Street, a domestic violence investigator with the Anchorage Police Department, said Alaska has the highest rate of domestic violence in the country and the department responds to about 300 domestic violence calls a month.

"It's very prevalent in our community here and across the nation," Fleener said, adding that a majority of the victims she spoke with are women.

Fleener, 50, said she began working on the project in November 2005 with funds supplied through a chancellor's grant received by the University of Alaska Anchorage's sociology and justice departments, which coordinated the production of the documentary with her.
Since then, Fleener has been on a journey of discovery that has taken her to the doorsteps of battered wives and into the judicial system that determines the fate of children throughout the state.

Fleener, who lived in a volatile home as a child, said she has seen the impacts of domestic violence throughout her life.
"I grew up in a house where my parents fought a lot, and it had really affected me. It has affected my life," she said.

In compiling the information for the documentary, Fleener said she talked with a gamut of personalities, to include Tanya Brown, who is Nicole Simpson's sister. Local women also shared their stories of domestic violence and the impacts of being forced by courts to share custody or allow visitation with their children with their former abusive partners.

"The children are used as pawns in these situations," Fleener said. "I'm really concerned about the children. It just breaks my heart to hear some of the stories I've heard."

Melanie Horner, 31, of Eagle River went in front of the camera as a means of dealing with the domestic violence she experienced and to help educate the public on how imperative responsible court rulings are to the well being of children, despite the difficulty she has discussing her experiences.

"It's not something that you want to go out and talk about to a documentary, and it's not something you want to go to a columnist about," she said. "A lot of people didn't know. It's a secret thing a lot of the time, and the effects of having your name being printed or your picture on the TV, that in itself is really hard."

Horner said she was in a destructive relationship with her ex-husband for 10 years before she realized how seriously it was impacting her. She said she left him in 2002, after being married for about six years, when her daughter began to emulate his abusive behavior.
She said she is currently in appeal over the court's decision to allow her ex-husband to share joint custody of her daughter despite documented domestic violence evidence she presented in court.

"They believe it happened in the past. It didn't directly happen to her, so the connection of it affecting her isn't quite made," Horner said.

Fleener said the documentary examines how parents such as Horner often seek to protect children by removing them from homes filled with domestic violence only to be seen as impeding with the perpetrator's rights as a parent.

Family lawyer Allen Bailey of Anchorage has worked for 32 years representing abuse victims and prosecuting domestic violence perpetrators. He says Fleener's examination of the state's Friendly Parent Rule could shed some light on why many judges grant abusive parents custodial and visitation rights.

According to Bailey, the Friendly Parent Rule concept was adopted by the Alaska Legislature in the early '80s and stressed the importance of each parent's willingness to foster a loving and frequent relationship with the other, which often worked against parents who removed children from abusive homes.

"A good parent that has been victimized by her partner is going to want to protect her children from the risk of spending too much time with their dad or being in his custody. That's normal. It's good parenting," Bailey said, adding that visitation or joint custody is often granted because separating children from abusive parents is sometimes viewed as interfering with their rights by the courts.

Bailey also participated in the documentary as a family court authority and as someone who has had personal experiences with domestic violence.

"I represent abuse victims, both men and women. I have been a witness in a domestic homicide before I went to law school. My best friend was murdered by an ex-girlfriend. I've had clients shot, stabbed, raped, every degree of assault that there is. The children have been sexually abused, and this is something that needs to change," he said.

Fleener said she hopes the documentary will educate lawyers, judges and mental health professionals on the long-term effects of domestic violence.

"It seems to me that it is kind of disregarded. The issues that happen in a domestic violence relationship continue on," she said. "There's still control and there's still issues that are presented and when there's a child involved, it's really easy for them to continue to control you."
Horner agreed saying she continues to struggle with her ex-husband's controlling behavior.
"You cannot co-parent with someone who is trying to control you," she said. "There's no communication."

Fleener said the documentary is scheduled to be released in November, and she has tentative commitments for it to air on local television. She said UAA would incorporate it into its curriculum as well to help educate the next generation of judicial officials.

"I think that on a grander scale I can effect the society as a whole," Fleener said. "I mean, we live in a very violent society and this situation just makes it even more violent. We're breeding and cloning these kinds of kids in these situations. I hope it helps in making our society a more peaceful place."

Reach the reporter at mary.rall@alaskastar.com. Click here to return to story:http://www.alaskastar.com/stories/081006/new_20060810001.shtml