Flash backward:

Minnesota court finds that Husband physically abused Wife.

Husband and Wife’s seven year old girl reveals to therapist that she is being physically abused by her father and that she doesn’t feel safe with him.

Girl reports the same thing to court-appointed investigators / advocates for her.

Ample artwork by both children seems to support their accounts of abuse and cries for help.

Outcome of this Minnesota child custody case?

The girl and her older brother are placed in the custody of her father.

The Court concluded that the abused Wife was unstable and had coached the children, and that the children were better off with the abusive Husband.

Flash forward:

The seven year old is now twenty-three years old. Now able to choose, she lives with Wife.

She maintains that she told the truth during the custody trial – and the legal system turned a deaf ear to her and her brother.

Grown up now, she wants to advocate for abused children and children’s rights in family court cases that, too often, are all about the parents and the parents’ rights – at the expense of their children.

Experts agree that all an abuser has to do to gain custody of innocent children in many courtrooms is utter the words “parental alienation syndrome” in the same breath with the other parent’s name.

And the abused parent who tries to protect their children from the abusive parent is labeled the bad parent whose visitation should be restricted.

Read more in this Minneapolis City Pages article: Reporter’s Notebook: Jennifer Collins speaks about her family’s case.

American Wife and Belgian Husband separate. Wife allows children to travel to Belgium to spend the entire summer of 2006 there with Husband.

Husband keeps children in Belgium beyond date they were supposed to return. Further, Husband, filed for – and won – sole custody of the children in a Belgian court.

This isn’t a case where the Wife was reckless or foolish in handing over the kids for this international jaunt. No, a US Court ordered Wife to send the kids to Belgium to visit Husband for the summer.

The US Court was presumably influenced by the fact that Belgium is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. But Wife hasn’t seen her kids for two years now – except via webcam, on occasion.

The family did live in Belgium for a time, but it was reportedly agreed to be only on a temporary basis while Husband completed his studies there. Further, when Husband, according to Wife (and her mother), became physically and verbally abusive and threatening toward Wife and the children during a visit to the US in 2004, Wife refused to return with him to Belgium.

Due to the Husband’s defiance of US court orders, the first entered anywhere, the US court refuses to entertain any arguments by the Husband against child custody jurisdiction in the US.

But that doesn’t transport the children back to the US and their mother, Wife.

Read more in this Lake County [IL] News-Sun article: Couple’s custody dispute has a 4,000-mile barrier.

A 12 year old Illinois boy recently died, apparently, from beatings. His 16 year old brother’s face is scarred and his arm is in a sling.

The cause of their injuries? Likely, child abuse, according to reports.

By whom? Allegedly, their adoptive parents – who still had eight minor children in their home at the time of the boy’s death. There reportedly may have been additional abuse of the dead boy by an adoptive or foster sibling.

Several of these children are adopted, the rest, extended biological family of their “caregivers”. All are in the state’s protective custody at this time.

The adoptive / foster parents went to court to request visitation. Not surprisingly, their request was denied.

No charges have been filed yet. But child welfare agency investigations and police investigations continue.

Read more in this SouthTown Star article: Will County judge denies visitation to Crete parents.

On October 1, Florida’s new law governing co-parenting after separation goes into effect. The new law represents a major rewrite.

At least as far as definitions and terminology. No longer will the terms custody or primary residential parent or similar terms be used.

Instead, Florida will join the ranks of states in which separating parents will have to adopt a parenting plan … a very, very detailed parenting plan … to conclude their family court cases.

The new statute’s sponsor is of the opinion that child custody battles were just about labels. So now, separating parents won’t have any reason to fight over child issues. Therefore, family court litigation will diminish.

The new statute’s sponsor also describes the new law as giving both parents “equal rights”.

Some are hailing the new law as a dramatic substantive change.

Others are saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same; a rose by any other name”.

Soon enough, time – and Florida’s court dockets – will tell.

Read more in this [Central Florida] Voice article: Victory for fathers’ rights in divorces.

Some minor children were arrested on charges of killing swans and geese in a Kansas zoo. These are felony charges, including animal cruelty.

The youths are in juvenile justice detention and could remain there for some time.

Accordingly, the government has requested that the parents of the juveniles pay child support to save the taxpayers the cost of supporting the youths while they are in detention.

If this seems strange, it shouldn’t. It is not unusual to to require the non-indigent parents of minor children to pay support while their kids are in the extended care of the government.

Read more in this Kansas Emporia Gazette article: Parents are asked to pay support for juvenile suspects in zoo case.