Louisiana's SB 461 will protect families who are abused by the family court system

Sen. Troy Carter has proposed SB 461 this session.  This bill, if it becomes law, will change EVERYTHING that caused my son's father to abuse us via the court system for 16 years, and eventually steal him away from me for three years.

The bill eliminates a well-hidden aspect of the overt corruption in our family courts: the ability of wealthy, well-connected people to pick and choose custody "evaluators" and "mental health professionals" who will do whatever is required to secure custody for the parent who had them hired by the judge. 

The bill is currently in committee.  You can email the committee members and encourage them to approve the bill.  After they approve it, they will forward it to the legislature for a full vote.  If approved by the full House and Senate, the bill will then go to the governor's desk to be signed into law. 

PLEASE contact your state legislators and tell them to vote FOR this bill.

Children and parents experiencing painful family separation deserve this protection from Louisiana's corrupt, vile, one-sided court system!

Following is the email I sent to my legislators and the committee.  You are welcome to use/modify it as you wish:
_________________________________

Senators,

First, thank you for your service to our state. This has been an especially difficult year for Louisiana, and I appreciate your tenacity and willingness to go the extra mile for your constituents.

Second, I would like to encourage you to support Sen. Troy Carter's SB 461.

As the mother of a son who endured 16 years of family court abuse in Louisiana, I am hopeful that this legislation will eventually reverse the widespread corruption and overt graft in our state's district courts.  This bill represents the only glimmer of hope for systemic improvement and progress in an otherwise notoriously corrupt family court system.

My son's father is an attorney here in Shreveport, and I cannot begin to tell you how harshly he abused my son, me, and the system by using his unfettered access to personal friends who are also court officials.  You are welcome to read a sample of our horrific court transcripts here: http://debbiehollis.blogspot.com/2009/08/top-20-craziest-things-on-record-during.html

Over the years, countless parents across the region have contacted me about their similar painful experiences with custody/divorce trials, and several of us have started a support group for people who have lost children via the courts and their faulty use of unqualified, prejudiced mediators and court-appointed "experts." NOTE: Parents in our group were never reported to or investigated by the Department of Children & Family Services.  Our experiences are all the result of intentional abuse by and through the court system via a circle of attorneys/mediators/judges who have a well-documented history of working together to manipulate the 1st Judicial District court to their financial and personal advantage. In addition, each parent in our group was found 100% fit to rear our children upon being evaluated by independent licensed psychological professionals, despite the findings of court-appointed mediators and judges during the course of our trials.

This type of abuse is rampant and unchecked here in the 1st Judicial District; there is no evidence that other districts in our state operate any differently.

This bill, as I understand it, eliminates a portion of the overt corruption in our family courts: the ability of wealthy, well-connected people to pick and choose custody evaluators and mental health "professionals" who will do whatever is required to secure custody for the parent who (literally) had them hired by the judge.

It also forbids ex parte communication between the court and the mediators, as well as eliminating many other prejudicial practices I have personally witnessed in the courtroom while fighting to rightfully maintain custody of my own son for 16 years.

I encourage you to approve this bill as it is written, and send it for a full vote of the legislature.

Children and parents experiencing painful family separation deserve this legal protection from Louisiana's corrupt, one-sided family court system. 

I trust that you will do what is best for our state's children and families.

Many thanks,

Debbie Hollis

(Address, Phone)

Women: You Must Vote in 2014!

Shreveport Times - Aug. 14, 2014

The Republican Party of Louisiana.

They control the governor’s mansion.  They control the state House of Representatives.  They control the state Senate.  The majority of Louisiana’s Congressional delegation are members of the Republican Party of Louisiana.

Unfortunately, none of these political “leaders” has ever read the Louisiana GOP party platform.

Following is an excerpt from the preamble of their party platform: 

“The pursuit of opportunity has defined America from our very beginning. This is a land of opportunity. The American Dream is a dream of equal opportunity for all. And the Republican Party is the party of opportunity.”

“….any American who works hard, dreams big and follows the rules can achieve anything he or she wants…We will lift the torch of freedom and democracy to inspire all those who would be free.”

“Trust the people. Limit government. Respect federalism. Guarantee opportunity, not outcomes. Adhere to the rule of law. Reaffirm that our rights come from God, are protected by government, and that the only just government is one that truly governs with the consent of the governed.” 

Now, let’s apply their Republican logic to Louisiana’s 2014 legislative session.

Louisiana Right to Life lobbyists purchased Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) early on in the session.  Her proposed HB 388 – which is copycat legislation declared unconstitutional in Mississippi, Texas and other GOP-led states – demanded hospital admitting privileges of doctors providing comprehensive, legal healthcare services to women.

The bill was celebrated by Louisiana’s GOP-led legislature….but many of our esteemed elected officials walked out on expert testimony and neglected their final voting responsibility.

Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the bill into law at a Baptist church, along with the imprecise HB 1274 which dictates that a dead woman shall be kept alive by the State if she happens to be pregnant. In fact, the State’s dictate supersedes the wishes of her family, the recommendation of her doctor, and possibly her own advance directive (DNR). 

“Trust the people. Limit government…the only just government is one that truly governs with the consent of the governed….We will lift the torch of freedom and democracy…” 

Our Republican governor refused Medicaid expansion, eliminating access to basic affordable healthcare for over 200,000 working families, women and children in Louisiana.

Our GOP-led Senate rejected equal pay for all women in our state, watering down the bill to restrict fair compensation to only those who work for the government.

Republicans in the Senate never bothered to vote on SB 334, which would have reduced Louisiana’s gender pay gap –the second worst in the U.S.

The GOP also shot down all six bills that would have allowed for an increase in the minimum wage in Louisiana - and 2/3 of minimum wage workers are women. 

“This is a land of opportunity…any American who works hard, dreams big and follows the rules can achieve anything he or she wants….” 

Republican-led efforts defeated every comprehensive sex-ed initiative for Louisiana’s teens. As most Americans know, our state leads the country in STI’s, teen pregnancy rates, and HIV/AIDS case rates among young people under 24 years of age.

Then, Louisiana’s GOP House members killed a bill to protect domestic violence victims from eviction.

Young women in Louisiana have to face facts.

As long as Republicans control our state government, we will not have access to comprehensive sex education in public schools, we will not earn equal (or even fair) pay, we will not have access to adequate healthcare, and we will be denied opportunity after opportunity simply because WE ARE NOT MEN.  Republicans don’t even want women to have fair housing if they are abused, or die on their own terms! 

“The American Dream is a dream of equal opportunity for all. And the Republican Party is the party of opportunity…” 

LOUISIANA WOMEN: DON’T FORGET TO VOTE - YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

(I originally wrote this article for Choice Louisiana in August 2014.)

Three Tiger Stadiums Filled With Poor Children: The Scandal of Poverty in Louisiana

Excerpt from the article by Robert Mann:

"...as much as these people needed mercy, they desperately needed someone (a governor, perhaps) to devote his or her energies to achieving something far more valuable.

These people needed justice.

More than thirty years later, I’m ashamed that Louisiana hasn’t done so well in either the mercy or justice department.  More than thirty years of children have been born into poverty-stricken communities that haven’t changed much since the days when I first saw the despair that Monroe welfare office.

The sad fact is that those 30 years represent decades of lost chances to build opportunities for better lives for our children. They represent thirty years of injustice and suffering — because our state and national leadership has regarded poverty as an unfortunate fact of life — and not a scandal and a cause for national shame.

According to the National Priorities Project, almost 19 percent of Louisiana’s citizens, one in five, live in poverty.  Put another way, that’s 825,000 Louisiana residents.  See a chart comparing the states here.

But the numbers are far worse when you look at children.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual rankings of the states, Louisiana has ranked 49^th among the states in overall child well-being since 2002.  In its most recent collection of data, the Casey Foundation ranked Louisiana among the bottom ten states on nine out of the ten key measures of child well-being.  See a summary of the report here.

If you are a child, Louisiana is one of the worst places in this country to grow up.

Twenty seven percent, almost a third, of all children in this state live in poverty.  That’s 285,000 children. See a chart on Louisiana’s child poverty numbers here.

Louisiana ranks 46^th out of the 50 states in the percentage of children in poverty. Only Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico and Mississippi fare worse. See the state rankings here.

It’s a depressing situation for a state whose leaders don’t seem even remotely willing to face up to the enormous challenges facing us.

Today, in Louisiana, we have the equivalents of three Tiger Stadiums full to the brim with children living in poverty.

Photo:  www.tigerrag.com

Among our state’s many problems, it’s our largest and most vexing. It should be the top priority of every legislator and our governor.

So, I leave you with these partially rhetorical questions: How much time did legislators devote to addressing poverty in the 2012 legislative session (beyond a half-baked effort to improve the bottom line of faith-based private schools)?

How much do our leaders really care about ridding Louisiana of an economic cancer that threatens the future of 285,000 Louisiana children?

~dedicated to the legislative legacy of LA Rep. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport). - DBE