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         March 2007    A grandmother speaks out against Judge Marilea Lewis wondering what allows someone like this on the bench.



Dear Ms Bradley,

I was devasted, repulsed, alarmed and irate at the decision of Judge Marilea Lewis to throw a distraught mother into the Dallas jail for contempt of court. A mother whose only "crimes" were the actions she took to try to protect her child from an abusive father. Actions that the judicial system should have provided to safeguard the young boy in the first place. Years ago.

What is wrong with this woman?  This judge whose tag line reads: A Decade of Experience. A Lifetime Dedicated To Family.

She needs a new tag line. One that truly represents what she does. She destroys families and, what is equally concerning, she forces everyone whose life touches the wounded party in crisis - friends, neighfors, peers, business associates etc. -  to now regard the judicial system with skepticism, distrust and distain instead of as a place where justice should and will be served.

What is wrong with the Dallas judicial system, to allow this judge to make such shocking decisions and no one, of authority, stepping up to confront and derail her?

I'm the grandmother of an 11-year-old boy. If someone were to have abused him and my family trusted and turned to OUR judicial system here in California to be sure it would never happen again....and if MY judicial system failed us all...as the Dallas system failed this mother and child...I would react just as this mother did. As would my daughter. As I am sure YOU would, too. As would any mother with a beating heart.

What can we do, within the limits of the law, to be sure Judge Lewis protects our children? Better yet, be sure that Judge Lewis is no longer in a position to make any decisions in regards to our children?



                FEB 28, 2007
  How PERVERTED is DALLAS FAMILY COURT?  One outraged person writes regarding the mother of five put in jail, in         handcuffs, and left alone for hours... by the outrageous Judge Marilea Lewis
"The humiliating details do not really surprise me but it sickens and outrages me -- shackles?!  Filthy toilets, no lights, no food, no water?!?!?!  Sick, sick, sick, sick. It's about inflicting trauma and inducing fear in the divorced/divorcing mother, plain and simple, it's Kafkaesque but we, all of us, already know that the system IS Kafkaesque. It has SO many openings for manipulators and bullies to punish the woman who dares to try to protect herself and the kids. I remember when "XXX" went after me with false complaints to the cops and I was interrogated; my armpits were pools of sweat. It's the innocent that suffer most because of the Kafkaesque aspect of being treated like a criminal or a vulgar person or a liar or a bad mom when you're NOT those things, you're the opposite of everything your accusers and evaluators and judges tell you to your face you are. No-one ever comes out of such a scenario the same again. Who can wander the gauntlet of the Twilight Zone and emerge the same person? It's so frightening."



                                                               
JUDGE MARILEA LEWIS and the Baby in the  I .C.U.


A  baby boy, a triplet,  is undergoing a routine surgical procedure.  He is only a few months old, but no one expects problems.  Suddenly, the surgeon rushes out of the OR and announces,  "There's a problem. His heart is in very bad shape. The situation is critical."

If he survives the night,  baby boy is going to need heart surgery.  Right now he is in the ICU, in a  coma, and it is unknown if he will wake up.

Mom calls her former husband in Dallas and asks her older son,  the baby's sibling,  to return to see his brother for what may be the last time.  It's an emotional call,  the kind a mother never dreams of making: "Son, we need you here, your brother is very sick and may not make it."

Older brother is ready to come, he loves his siblings and is excited about them - (and he has an older sister also who hehas been separated from.)   He wants  to fly to Mom and siblings.

But will he?

No.  Dallas Family Court has determined that allowing a sibling to be with his critically ill triplet baby brother is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Why?

Well, it's Dallas Family Court,  circa Rankin and Lewis.  Rankin and Lewis are good friends.  Apparently they share more than just a martini now and then.  They seem to share the same judicial philosophy:   When in doubt, throw mom out.  Never tell why, never explain. If they ask, punish them  for asking and call  them they are delusional. (you can find more Mom adjectives in the 'PAS Handbook for Judges Enmeshed with Grandiose Thoughts'.)

Can't be because Mom is unfit.   She is a respected, practicing cardiologist,  primary caretaker of the triplets, and always on the run at Marilea's beck and call to return for a one hour hearing in Dallas, having to leave the triplets behind.

Compounding the issue:  Mom isn't allowed to see Dr. Zervopoulos' notes in which he minimized abuse and said dad should have custody.  Ah, back to Dr. Z who uses Parental Alienation Syndrome,  (the pedophiles playground),  then writes in Texas Law Journal that one shouldn't use a syndrome is court for custody issues.  Who invited logic to the party? No one, apparently. ( Logic flew over Dallas, listened to the Baptists preaching anti gay material  as they speed dialed Massage for Men, and headed out for greener pastures).

Dallas big brother wants to return to baby siblings and older sister.  Hell no, he can't go!  Mom has to come to Texas if she wants to see him.   But wait!  Marilea says, "You just had triplets, so you probably can't come." (Logic is flying higher and higher away, cruising into Phoenix maybe, heading to Palm Springs for the winter).

Marilea, I know you didn't invent Catch-22.  But you sure marched it into these kids lives.  If I was writing for Reader's Digest right now I'd be pulling out all the stops with family value trigger words.  But, what I really like is VIA, that's Values in Action. (see Seligman, Univ of Penn).  Instead of Hallmarking 'family values', you practice them.  You know, like families together on holidays. But I understand Mom doesn't get that too often....you wouldn't  let her son be with her on one holiday last year. Dad got both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If the litigants of your court knew they were entering some new Dante's circle of hell, they would make other choices. People have expectations that a judge will follow the law, understand the bond of mothers and their children, have read enough of the literature to know that men who ask for custody are often manipulators, wealthy and present with a calm demeanor and that the multi billion dollar industry of therapists and evaluators and GAL's is just that...a  cash cow.

Parents are tired, Marilea.  Very tired. Especially a mom with triplets, whose son you gave to an abusive dad, a psychologist who thinks pedophilia is ok , and a kid who may die, and who has to fly from another state to your courtroom to see you for an hour and fly back to the sick baby.

Are you going to reunite this family? or revictimize them?  You're the judge, you will make the decision.  Here's some information to help educate yourself on why so many abusers fight for custody and moms become emotional. It's not because they are hysterical, delusional and too enmeshed (god, you can't win for losing being a mom), but because they are loving, caring, and very, very scared.

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