Judge Threatens Tween with Jail if She Doesn't Start Loving Her Father
And 4 other PSC Cases with the Same Judge
A South Carolina Family Court judge threatened a tween—directly, in open court—with jail if she did not start loving her father.
A 10 year-old. Threatened with jail. By a judge. For not loving or wanting to be with a man who had abused her mother and her. Shocking, but not surprising—just another Post-Separation Crisis [PSC] case. This awful judge is also involved in four other mothers’ cases highlighted below.
The judge went above and beyond when she ordered the bailiff to take the girl to the jailhouse so she could see the awful conditions that awaited her if she continued to resist reunifying with her father. There seems to be no limit to what judges will do to achieve their agenda of maintaining men’s control in their family post-separation. It is, though, an absurd step further than usual to order a child to love her father.
Meanwhile, the tween’s mother, Brittney, watched—horrified—as the bailiff appeared to be following through on the judge’s threat to take her daughter to jail, approaching her with outstretched handcuffs. Turns out he was just helping the judge terrorize the tween into docile compliance with what would come next...
BRITTNEY’S STORY
Brittney’s husband was repeatedly violent with her. She made multiple reports of DV before finally leaving him. On her way out, she was granted a Restraining Order protecting both herself and her daughter, Kylie. It is unclear whether Kylie was directly abused, but that doesn’t matter since violence against the mother is emotional abuse of the child.
So Brittney packed up and moved from their home in New York to South Carolina to get away from him and his abuse. That was about 5 years ago.
Thus began what is commonly called a “high conflict divorce” or a “custody battle”. This language camouflages the true nature of the proceedings. It is not really a “conflict” and the “battle” is a mother fighting to maintain primary custody and protect her child from an abusive ex.
At some point, Judge Jan Bromell Holmes was assigned to the case. She is notorious for destroying mothers’ lives who have the misfortune of appearing before her.
The predictable PSC pattern followed. Judge Holmes appointed all the usual lackeys who did her bidding. These minions aided in the cover up of abuse by the father, the fabrication of evidence against Brittney, and the ultimate goal of switching custody.
Brittney went into debt from all the litigation. Judge Holmes continuously threatened to put her in contempt and jail her if she did not pay the lackeys—who were colluding in steering the case to the father. She does not have the money to pay them so jail is a constant worry for her.
The threats of jail were also wielded in an attempt to get Brittney to cooperate with “reunification” between Kylie and her father. But apparently that didn’t work because Kylie has refused to participate and Brittney was either unwilling or unable to force her.
That is what led to the hearing a couple weeks ago, where Judge Holmes threatened Kylie with jail if she would not get with the program and learn to love her father. But Brittney was also held responsible for this insubmission.
At the hearing, Judge Holmes issued an emergency order conveying custody from Brittney to the Department of Social Services (i.e. CPS). The basis for the fake emergency was the false finding that that Brittney was alienating Kylie from her father by not participating in the reunification and, hence, is emotionally abusive. This is the most common ploy used in Family Court to effectuate the custody switcheroo.
Transferring custody to the father via CPS is common and facilitates the transition in a few ways. One is that the maternal deprivation traumatizes children, making them vulnerable to the coercive persuasion, aka brainwashing, used in “therapy” to change children’s true belief system—my mother is wonderful and my father is an abuser—to a false one—my father is not an abuser and my mom is a liar. Or, failing that optimal goal, to get them to doubt the abuse really happened and “put the abuse in the past and move on”—the abuser-enabler mantra.
But the overall objective is to get children to accept living with their father, whatever path that takes. It’s all about maintaining men’s power and control in the family—the Family Court agenda.
What’s next for Brittney and Kylie?
There have been a couple dependency court hearings since Kylie was taken into protective custody. Brittney was given a State attorney since it is now a dependency case. She has been allowed a couple of brief supervised visits.
Judges employ simultaneous carrots and sticks with “reunification therapy”. The child is told s/he will not be able to see or live with her mother unless s/he reunifies; and, if s/he does reunify, s/he will be able to see and live with her/his mother again.
Under that insurmountable pressure, children almost always comply. The problem with this is, judges lie. Time and again they do not follow through and allow the children to return to the mother after they cooperate. They still give custody to the father, regardless.
Hopefully it will be different for Kylie and she will be back with her mom soon and allowed to visit her father if and when she pleases. That is how it should be.
Updates will be posted when available.
OTHER MOMS VICTIMIZED BY JUDGE HOLMES
One judge, so many women victimized—and there are certainly many more who have not gone public—yet. Here are a few of them.
SHANDA
Shanda was the primary bond and caregiver to her two wonderful kids, 4 and 7 years-old. She also had a thriving business. She lost both in a 15 minute hearing in front of Judge Jan Bromell Holmes.
Shanda made an 11 minute video about the horror of what she’s been through. You can watch it on Youtube.
There was a CPS order protecting the kids from their abusive father, so the intermediate step Holmes used in transferring the kids to him was temporary custody to the father’s mother. Shanda was kicked out of her home and her mother-in-law moved in and took over parenting the girls. Shanda was restricted to 3 hours/week visitations—supervised.
Judge Holmes made outrageous decisions that have ruined my life and others.
All the usual court-appointed villains have aided Holmes in the Family Court agenda, with the GAL [guardian ad litem] acting in the star role. A mediator, sometimes used in PSC cases, also had a part in steering her case to her ex.
KATIE
When her daughter began having nightmares, Katie took her to a therapist. She disclosed sexual abuse by her father and the therapist reported it. Forensic interviewing confirmed the father was sexually abusing both young daughters.
At the very first hearing in Family Court, Judge Holmes removed the girls from Katie to CPS custody, despite an open case into the sexual abuse and no abuse by Katie to justify the removal from her. Holmes replaced the girls’ non-court-affiliated therapist who had reported the abuse with a court-appointed lackey—under the guise s/he was neutral. Right.
CPS closed the case as unfounded, in collusion with Judge Holmes.
My daughter has opened up about these horrible things that have happened to her and nobody wants to hear…Nothing is being done…My children’s voices are not being heard.
Like the other mothers, Katie has been financially devastated.
I don’t know how people can afford this. This is insane. Financially I am tapped out now.
Katie sent a tearful message to her elected officials:
Please fix the system. Children are suffering…So many kids are being hurt and people are getting away with [enabling] this.
Katie tells her story in this 5 minute interview which you can watch on Youtube.
GINGER
After a stint in rehab for alcohol addiction in 2014, Ginger’s ex just never came home. Ginger raised their four kids by herself. He rarely visited. He was not asked for child support, so perhaps that is why he did not file for divorce and fight for custody. Ginger never filed either, until recently, after her ex cooked up an elaborate “Screw the Bitch” scheme to take the marital assets. That’s a long story we won’t go into but it’s detailed in this 30-minute interview if you’re interested.
Last year, in a 15 minute hearing (sound familiar?), Judge Holmes granted Ginger’s ex complete control of their businesses. This followed 25 years of her having built up the businesses. Holmes gave her ex the authority to ban her from involvement in them—which, of course, he did. That was the plan—to give him control of the substantial marital assets.
…Judge Bromell Holmes facilitated basic money laundering and the misappropriation of $840,000 in PPP loans that should not have been removed from our family owned businesses.
When her youngest child was 16 (all others aged out), her ex accused her of alienation and a GAL [guardian ad litem] was appointed. This GAL, notorious in PSC cases, facilitated an interesting “contempt ruse”. There was a hearing at which Ginger was placed in contempt for not following an order. But the GAL had not put the order in the mail until the day before the hearing—as confirmed by the postmark—so Ginger did not know about the order. Holmes was surely in on the ruse.
For two years, my children and I have suffered through unimaginable cruelty…The Family Court has facilitated effectively removing me from my daughter’s life when she needs support most…I have never known or imagined such cruelty in my life.
Another ruse involved a mediator who pressured her to sign an agreement regarding the splitting of marital assets. She was threatened that if she did not sign it the judge would put her in contempt and she’d be jailed. The judge had already threatened her with jail on other bogus grounds and she has already been sentenced to six months in jail, although they have not arrested her on that warrant yet. So this upstanding citizen, this wonderful mother of four children, has lived continuously under this Sword of Damocles.
And it wasn’t just the judge and court-appointed lackeys doing the dirty work. It was her own attorney selling her down the Family Court river.
My own attorney worked against me harder than the opposing attorney.
Ginger laments about how this treatment of her is so unamerican.
I don’t feel like I’m an American citizen anymore. Everything you’re taught growing up about the American dream—we have a [Family Court] system that it can be taken away in 15 minutes.
She tearfully recalling reading a transcript from a hearing that where she was not present because her attorney did not tell her about it:
I read a transcript where four people chatted about their weekend plans while they put things on the record to destroy my life. And I have a real hard time understanding how that’s okay.
LINDA
Linda’s case appears to be “just” financial devastation. She says her attorney submitted a false final divorce agreement document with a forged signature, which Judge Holmes allowed. This led to her to losing millions of dollars in one short hearing.
Judge Holmes destroyed my life.
The money she allowed to be stolen from me is life changing…Millions of dollars.
What she did to me was truly evil.
The Coalition’s new platform includes the financial destruction being inflicted upon women post-separation, along with custody and protection injustices. This is an important aspect of the Crisis as it aids greatly in the oppression of women.
GETTING IT WRONG
Although it’s great that these mothers’ stories are being told by local media, the public is being led to believe that generic corruption in Family Court is the problem. Even the mothers seem unaware that what has happened to them is a gendered issue.
Is there generic corruption? Is everyone profiting off divorce cases? Yes, of course. Corruption occurs in every system. But that does not explain the Crisis.
Most judges side with fathers not because of monetary profit but because they know they will be rewarded by the OBN with promotions and increased status. Judge Holmes has her eye on a promotion to the Appellate Court. Those who go along with the agenda to maintain men’s power in the family rise to the top.
The dramatic title of the article about Brittney’s case: State-Sponsored Child Trafficking, Courtesy of Judge Bromell-Holmes insinuates that Holmes is acting to profit monetarily. The term child trafficking is also used by many activists. But even if it is meant in a metaphorical sense, the term “child trafficking” is understood by the public to mean pimps selling children for profit. That is misleading. Although judges do profit, it is usually through status, not money. Focusing on profiting obscures what judges are really doing: giving children to fathers who want them, whether they profit or not, because that is their job.
It is important the media be given the truth so they can get it to the public. The fact is, there is only one Post-Separation Crisis: women unjustly losing custody, unable to protect their children, and being financially devastated—not men.
Note that these South Carolina moms say their own attorneys aided in their oppression and effectively sold them down the Family Court river. They undoubtedly did that for profit—both the monetary and status kind. But they are profiting by going along to get along with the Family Court agenda. They would not profit if they did not.
So women—beware—do not hire an attorney if at all possible. Represent yourself, or if that is not possible, get unbundled legal services and do not let anyone in the court know who is helping you.
TAKE AWAYS
There are many possible takeaways from these five cases but we’ll just tackle the theme of the column here.
Jail. Threats of jail. Actual imprisonment. A mighty judicial weapon.
The power to imprison women is the most potent arrow in a judge’s quiver, behind the I’ll-take-your-child-away one, to coerce women and children into getting with the program. Countless women all over the world, and a few children, have been threatened and jailed by Family Court judges. It is the penultimate means of achieving the Family Court agenda: continuing male power in the family after separation.
A foundational principle of democracies is that citizens cannot be imprisoned and deprived of their freedom without being found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of their peers and having been afforded due process. But Family Court gets around that by deeming a mother in contempt for violating a court order, and, thereby, jailable. That contempt could be for any order, like what the mothers in South Carolina are accused of: not paying up court lackeys (which also gets around the no debtor jail principle), not forcing a child to visit the father, not forcing a child into reunification therapy with an abusive father, etc. The list is endless.
This epidemic of judges using threats and actual imprisonment in the agenda to coerce women to submit to their ex’s control supports the fact that Family Court needs to be shut down.
The only effective solution to the Crisis is one that attacks the root cause—judicial power being used to entitle men. That means cases must be heard in regular civil courts before judges whose power is checked by a jury and an Appellate Court with a normal standard, not deference.
Join The Women’s Coalition to support our cause. If you’d like to engage in activism, join Sisters in Solidarity.
CREDIT to Myrtle Beach SC News for their coverage of these mothers’ stories.
IN OTHER NEWS
THE SAGA
Chapter 8 of Dr. Blue’s book is out this week!
All previously published chapters are included in the Women’s Coalition News & Views Section: “The Saga of One F**ked Mother” accessible on the top bar of our home page.
SISTERS IN SOLIDARITY
The next Sisters in Solidarity forum will be on March 16th at 1pm Pacific; 4pm Eastern; 9pm GMT/UTC.
If you’d like to join SIS, please read this column and fill out the linked form. You will receive an invitation to the zoom.
You may also give a gift subscription to a mother who is going through her own Family Court nightmare and doesn’t understand why.
Or you can support the Coalition’s work through a one-time or recurring contribution at paypal.me/TheWomensCoalition.
All contributions, large and small, are greatly appreciated!
Family court judges abuse their power. They separate good mothers and their children. Family court judges threaten women and children into submission. Facts don't matter. Systemic male entitlement rules in family court. Judicial gender, race and ethnicity do not make a difference. Child custody is given to males that request it. Women will continue to lose their children as long as family court exists. Family court judges must be stripped of their power.
That is just the craziest shit I ever heard