Editor’s note: Resource Perspectives features articles written by members of Lovefraud’s Professional Resources Guide.
Rebecca Potter works as a licensed mental health counselor in West Palm Beach, Florida. She can be reached at: tlc211@gmail.com.
Judge William Adams shown beating his daughter with a belt on YouTube
By Rebecca Potter
Rebecca Potter profile in the Lovefraud Professional Resources Guide
As I saw the following video and commentary on CNN last night, I could not sleep. It appears that the sheriff in the town of Rockport, Texas has received countless calls of concern about Judge William Adams, who was shown beating his daughter with a belt on YouTube. Judge Adams is a family court judge. People were concerned about this judge being allowed to make decisions about the welfare of children. Judge Adams has three years left to make decisions about the welfare of families in Rockport, Texas.
Here’s the YouTube video: Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the Internet
Judge Adams feels that he was fairly disciplining his daughter for downloading music from the Internet. When I saw this video of his daughter, who has cerebral palsy, she was being beaten with a belt as she begged for him to stop. The daughter had set up her computer web camera as she felt the beating coming. Recent comments from the judge indicate that he sees nothing wrong with how he abused his child. News stories indicate he has left town, and officials are stating that he will not preside over cases that involve children.
Family court ignores the physical and emotion affect of abuse on children
Current research is able to document the effects of child abuse on the brain. As a professional, when I testify in court regarding the damage to children from trauma and abuse, I am not taken seriously. The judges feel that there is no physical damage, and they say permissive parenting by the protective parent is the cause of acting out behaviors of children. Meanwhile, current research shows that 60 percent of children who experience trauma and abuse will develop a substance use disorder.
Unfortunately, many of us have had to appear before judges like the Texas Judge Adams who feels justified to whip (beat and attack) his daughter with a belt, as she had been caught downloading music. These judges discount the scientific research and evidence of physical abuse causing permanent brain damage.
Hanley Center currently researching the effects of substance use and trauma on brain health
Brain scan technology is showing evidence of physical scars that occur in the brain after trauma and abuse. I attended a lecture by Dr. Barbara Krantz, Medical Director of the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Brain imaging is being used in her facility. It is now possible to document what drugs and/or alcohol have been consumed based on the areas of the brain that show injury in brain scans. What also was shared was the difference in the hippocampus of an abused child and the hippocampus of a child who did not suffer abuse. This is the proof of permanent physical damage to the brain of a child who has been abused. Often these children medicate the emotional pain with substance use.
Practicing Mental Health without a license
Family judges are practicing mental health without a license. This practice by family court judges is dangerous to the health of our families, our nation and our financial well-being
- Many of these judges are unaware of current research.
- Judges do not allow children to testify or be a part of the court hearings that determine their well-being
- Children and protective parents are developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Additionally, when a judge has a tendency for personal pathology, they relate to the litigant who is also shares the personal pathology traits. These disordered individuals agree in the harsh punishment, punishment that does not fit the crime. This is the philosophy of control and dominance. These judges discriminate against the protective parent because they have not processed very personal feelings, and the protective parent is unbearable to their own personal philosophy. The judges are able to make decisions that affect the mental health of a child without the ability to understand their own personal opinions and processing of their own injuries. Readers will want to read articles on www.highconflictinstitute.com to understand the ignorance of judges who are confronted with the high conflict divorce and custody cases.
I have worked in the mental health field, and have had years of training to separate my own personal views and judgments from the individuals that I treat. This discernment and ability to separate your personal opinions and judgment comes from intensive personal training, supervision and counseling. Judges are exposed to mental health issues of families and children. They have not had this training and they are unable to provide a competent decision in these cases. In my opinion, I feel that Family Court judges are being asked to practice the profession of mental health without the proper training.
Judges use of defense mechanisms to insulate themselves against protective parents
When an individual does not have the training, supervision and experience to understand their use of defense mechanisms (your own dysfunction and personal defects), the individual blames and targets the individual who reminds you of your emotional pain. The use of these defense mechanisms allows an individual to insulate themselves from the pain, guilt, and shame.
Often times, the judges are so angered by the protective parent that to further insulate the judge, the protective parent is thrown in jail, or worse, the children are taken away and given to the parent with whom the judge can relate and identify. There is further emotional and financial pain placed upon the protective parent. The protective parent and children are damaged by the trauma of the court and develop complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In my opinion, this is use of a defense mechanisms to project blame and repress the protective parent. If the children are removed and the protective parent is placed in jail, the judges do not have to face their own dysfunction. The saying, “out of sight, out of mind” is the attitude of a dysfunctional individual who wants to keep memories, fears, guilt and shame repressed.
Behavioral Research
Typically, all behavior research has demonstrated that punishment does not achieve a reduction in undesirable behavior. Punishment will actually increase the behavior. The individual who is punished will become more rebellious, fearful and sneaky. There are some severe situations in which punishment is used to extinguish a behavior. The use of punishment must be reviewed by other professionals to determine the effectiveness of the punishment and the safety of a plan that is put in place.
Overseeing the Family Court System
The children who are exposed to court and legal trauma are developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They have been exposed to a war and punishment. The children are left in a state of hopeless despair, fear and victimhood. There is no committee of professionals who oversee the effect of the Family Court decisions on families and children.
I honor the courage and strength of the judge’s daughter for exposing his abuse to the nation. I feel inspired by this brave young girl’s courage and write about this very controversial topic to inspire our nation to band together to write letters and support each other as we attempt to change this ignorant archaic system used in our courts.
One person will not be able to change this system. It is time to band together and develop a plan to insist that the judges no longer have the only authority to make decisions for families. We must also insist that psychologists who depend on the court for fees are not allowed to diagnose a traumatized parent as a personality disordered parent. It takes a trauma specialist to diagnose this disorder and protective parents are often diagnosed with personality disorders. This has become a major epidemic in the American judicial system, an epidemic that has serious legal, health and financial consequences to our nation. We need to demand committees of independent professionals be involved in Family Court decisions.
G1S, the sneer, yes, I remember my mother’s sneer as well. She never had to go to the gym – she just had to “sweat it out” two or three times a week by using me as her boxing routine when nobody else was home. It felt like a dirty little secret – she’d be a happy lark after a beating and I’d be sullen and miserable with bruises galore under my clothes – and the rest of my clueless family would think it was ME who had the attitude problem.
I never popped her one back, like you did. Reading your post gave me a thrill because I have fantasized about it a lot over the years, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve even more deeply regretted not drawing the line on her abuse. After I left home at seventeen, my younger brother became the official punching bag, but eventually he threatened to punch her back and she quit.
My life would have been so much different, I think, if I’d drawn the line in my teens then waiting twenty odd years like I’ve done. I try not to regret but I do wonder.
Dear Grandma,
Thank you for continuing to fight the good fight for these children. A pox upon the judge! Jesus said that any “who offends these little ones would be better off to have millstone tied around his neck and cast into the sea” and I doubt not that that judge deserves such treatment and he will in the end receive his just due when he falls into the hands of a just God. God bless you and those children! (((hugs))))
ladies, I can completely relate to THE LOOK, the SNEER, and I think that what we have called here in many other posts “that LOOK” that the psychopaths seem to have, it is a stare or it is a sneer of utter contempt, or the look of GLEE, it has various incarnations, but is recognizable when you see it. It totally sucks the “value out of you” it demeans you. It is definitely one of the things that every psychopath I’ve ever known had in common. THE LOOK.
As you can tell from my log in name, I have been trying to expose the corruption in the family courts for 3 years now. This “judge” is probably one of hundreds if not thousands of Personality Disordered Abusers that fill the ranks of the family court system! From GALs to “Therapists”/”Social Workers”, magistrates and referees, PC’s etc…… The system is the single most destructive structure in our society. IT is filled with Spaths and worse. These people have ZERO accountability, no oversight, and the freedom to abuse children and parents daily because they have no accountability. Discretion is synonymous with abuse in family court. We need to uncover the heinous behavior that is destroying the lives of tens of thousands of children and healthy fit parents every year. It is all done for money and power and dysfunctional needs of those in positions of authority who have never undergone any psychological evaluation whatsoever!!!!! As one of my sons former therapists (the Ex got him removed because he dealt with her reality as an emotional and psychological abuser) said to me, when I expressed my concerns that the GAL was a Sociopath as well……..”It takes one to know one”. He acknowledged that “many” of those who work for and operate in the Family Court System are themselves abusive/disordered personalities! We need LAWS that require EVERY potential employee who is to be involved in Child Custody or any child or parent conflict in Family Law be required to take an extensive PSychological Evaluation, and pass with flying colors!!!1 We also need to require that EVERY single interaction between a child or parent and a GAL or Social Worker be RECORDED! This is to protect the child and the fucntional/fit parent, and to protect the TRUTH. These people go about distorting and creating a truth that meets the needs of the COURT, and them personally (Money, Money, MOney), and destroy the lives of tens of thousands EVERY year, in order to meet “objectives” that allow for more Fedeeral funding of their jobs. Many of them also get paid to “Sell” supervised visitation services, and creating conflict is their goal. The LIE that they repeat ad nauseum, that they are protecting the “Best Interests of The Children”, is nothing more than a heinous abuse of their corrupt power. We also need Judicial reform! Judges cannot be above the law in any respect! They must be held accountable as any citizen. We have the single greatest “organized Crime Family” in our judiciary/Lawyer industry because they have NO INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT! It is the proverbial Fox watching the Hen house, and they have created a cult of abuse that is far reaching and devastating to our society. It is never more CLEAR than in the family court, where the victims (Children and functional parents) are made powerless by vindictive actions and rules they created themselves to protect the money making industry that is making them all rich!!!
This Judge should be prosecuted, found guilty, and lose his job and his license to practice law. Every Judge and Lawyer in this country should be appalled and should demand it! I forget if it was Ghandi or someone else who said, “Not taking sides, remaining neutral, when there is oppression, is taking the side of the Oppressor”….or something very similar to that. We need to take action! We need to take back our sanity, we need reform and we need to PROTECT ourt children and their healthy fit fucntional parents from the abusers!
Unfortunately, too many of us sit quietly on the sidelines hoping someone else will speak up. We don’t want to sound CRAZY by saying the sky is falling. But it is.
Perniciousfamilycourts ~
I have spent almost 10 years now fighting this same battle. You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT IN EVERYTHING YOU SAID. Unless you have personally gone through this joke of a system, you have NO IDEA the extent of the JUDICIAL ABUSE of these children and the individuals that do TRY to protect them.
In a system where there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY, speaking up just does NOTHING. We have been warned that if we even fill out the comment sheet and complain about the GAL from Hell, that we are opening ourselves up being sued by her. Do you know what a vindictive, no morals, sociopathic attorney can do to you? We would spend additional tens of thousands just fighting her.
Thanks for writing this, perniciousfamilycourt, at least here we can vent and try to get support for our cause.
@perniciousfamilycourts
That was Elie Weisel, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize:
I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
I remember he asked his father: “Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”
And now the boy is turning to me. “Tell me,” he asks, “what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?” And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.
And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe.
http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/nobel/index.html
@MiLo,
Re: your first comment above. I e-mailed Donna and asked her if she is OK sending you my e-mail address. If you’re interested in following up please feel free to contact me. I don’t have a lot of health or energy, but am completely behind you on this. If Donna isn’t comfortable doing this, Oxy has my e-mail address.
I’m so sorry to read about your situation, but your wise words have always provided validation for my own long-past childhood experiences, and I’m personally very glad that you post here.
Annie ~
Thank you for your kind words. I would appreciate your e-mail and follow up conversations. If Donna isn’t comfortable, I will get it from Oxy.
Again, just yesterday, in our State, I read of a little two year old killed by his father and a mother who didn’t get him medical attention after the beating. He had been in foster care since birth, social services recommended termination of custody. Parents had done nothing as far as following a case plan. The case had been in front of a juvenile court magistrate something like 39 times. GAL assigned to the case decides parents need another chance, social services doesn’t fight it, magistrate accepts GAL’s recommendation – CHILD IS DEAD 2 DAYS LATER. Everyone is shocked, how did this happen? IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. The foster parents tried to stand up for the baby they had taken care of for 2 years, NO ONE CARED.
Actually, I doubt that’s really true. It sounds like the foster parents cared. You cared. I care. It’s only the people entrusted with the safety of that poor child who didn’t care. And I have to ask why not.
That’s one of the head-shaking things I see, that even those horribly vulnerable young children who *actually have* people who want them and want to protect them – which is often so rare in our society – even in those cases the child ‘protection’ systems put themselves in between those children and those people who genuinely want them, and instead give them to those who often have told everyone they could care less. Except for the support cheques, that is.