Boy Taken from Mom Kills Dad
New Documentary Exposes Family Court’s Role in Killing
“I Just Killed My Dad” is a new 3-part Netflix documentary about a 17 year-old boy who killed his abusive father—eleven years after a Family Court judge took him away from his loving, primary-nurturing mother.
2nd DEGREE MURDER OR NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE?
This focus of this true crime series is not whether Anthony killed his father—he admits to that in a 911 call in which he literally says, “I just killed my dad.” The spotlight is on whether Anthony should be prosecuted for second degree murder, which carries a life sentence, negligent homicide, which allows for a much lighter sentence, or not at all, considering his father’s abuse.
What the series does well is delving into Anthony’s childhood to explain what led up to him killing his father, Burt. It shines a light on Burt’s severe and continuous physical violence and coercive control, not only of Anthony, but of his ex-wives. It exposes Burt as a monster in his family life, disguised as an upstanding, nice, middle class man in public—a common occurrence in Custody Crisis cases.
What the documentary doesn’t do well is give appropriate attention and blame to the Baton Rouge judge who gave the father custody and the Family Court system that enabled Burt to take Anthony away from his mother, Teresa, at the tender age of 6 years-old.
Burt carried on a normal life while mine was destroyed.
Teresa, Anthony’s mother
The judge who unjustly switched custody is not even named, although he is arguably more culpable for the father’s death than Anthony. If this judge had not forced Anthony to live with his father, the killing would not have occurred. But the media is loathe to put blame on judges—or any otherwise upstanding fathers, for that matter, unless they are dead or in prison.
“TEMPORARY” CUSTODY SWITCH
The documentary highlights the time Burt abducted Anthony from their home in Houston, although Teresa found him a short time later in Louisiana. It was there in Baton Rouge that a Family Court judge granted the father “temporary” sole custody.
Burt claimed in court papers that Teresa was “unbalanced” (i.e. crazy), “unfit”, a drug abuser, and that she had abandoned Anthony. Burt did not proffer one shred of evidence to support his false accusations, nor was Teresa notified of the hearing. But, as usual, the judge granted him “temporary” sole custody anyway.
One of the most common tactics in the switching of custody to fathers is judges giving “temporary” custody to a father making false allegations at an emergency hearing without the mother present—when there is clearly no emergency. They then never correct their ruling, even after the mother submits proof of the falsity of the father’s claims.
That is what happened to Teresa. She fought hard for a while but was financially devastated in the process of trying to get Anthony back. Bankrupting mothers is another common tactic in punishing and disempowering mothers for daring to challenge male authority in the family.
To his credit, Anthony’s defense attorney, Jarrett Ambeau, who generously fought quite hard for Anthony pro bono, rightly places some blame on Family Court.
[Burt] did not physically kidnap Anthony, but he certainly used Family Court to take that child from Teresa.
Jarrett Ambeau, Anthony’s pro bono attorney
Although it is great that Jarrett assigns blame to Family Court, it is a common and misleading framing of the issue to merely say a father used the system to get custody. It would be more accurate to clarify that the system is designed so a father can use it to take children away from their mother if he so chooses.
A SOCIOPATH OR TRAUMATIZED?
Another theme is in determining whether Anthony is a sociopath lacking any empathy, which the D.A. capitalizes on to justify indicting him for murder and tossing him into a dangerous adult prison.
A DV expert helpfully explains how abusers often use custody of children to punish their ex and how this is the worst kind of abuse. A forensic expert, who interviewed Anthony extensively, gives perspective on how Anthony’s emotional problems can be explained by trauma caused by the father’s abuse.
SPOILER ALERT
[If you are going to watch the documentary, you may want to skip over this section.]
As the story unfolds, and the public is clearly more and more empathic towards Anthony and the D.A.’s position becomes more and more unpopular. There appears to be great pressure to reduce or rescind the indictment.
In the end, the D.A. capitulates to the pressure from Jarrett and the public and reduces the charge to negligent homicide. Anthony pleads guilty to that and is sentenced to only probation for 5 years.
There is no doubt that if Jarrett had not fought for Anthony and the media had not covered it, that the D.A. would have made sure Anthony was convicted for murder and spent the remainder of his life in prison.
A GREAT ENDING
Best wishes for Anthony in his new life.
Much happiness for Teresa with her baby back in her life—finally.
Kudos to Jarrett for his advocacy for Anthony.
As for the Louisiana judge who caused the devastation to Anthony’s and Teresa’s lives: may he suffer greatly somehow for the damage he’s caused this wonderful mother and child. [If anyone finds out who the judge is, please put in the comments.]
IN OTHER NEWS
There is another new 5-part docu-series recently out called “Children of the Underground” which will be reviewed here in the coming weeks.
The theme is whether Faye Yager, who helped countless mothers go into hiding from sexually abusive fathers over decades after Family Court failed them is a “Saint or Criminal”.
Which way will this series lean? The Coalition View may surprise you…
It airs on Hulu and for free through cable TV, Spectrum, ABC and FX.
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All contributing parties need to be brought to light so the victims can have closure and those people get the recognition they deserve
Addendum to what just wrote. UNANIMITY must be emphasized as Kayden's Law (& VAWA) 1st got unanimous Senate approval, as have initial presentations of NY Kyra's Law (unanimous NY Sen. Judiciary Committee) & Piqui's Law (CA)- all 3 kids - 2 girls, 1 boy- murdered by fathers who then committed suicide. In 2018 H.Con.Res.72 passed the U.S. House WITHOUT DISSENT- "House Concurrent Resolution ," which had failed to be introduced prior year with #150. Kyra's Law denies funding to states who fail to pass credible FC reforms, but fact that judges have almost unlimited discretion re how or even if laws will be adhered to, plus need for sanctions for judges & all courts actors when result is custody or unsupervised visits get awarded to abusers, CLEARLY a problem since in article, "Boy Taken from Mom Kills Dad," judge's name has yet to be made available over decade!.....