Los Angeles, CA–The Feminist Family Law Movement claims that abusive fathers often employ “Parental Alienation Syndrome” in family court. I’ve never doubted that such cases are possible, though they’re not very common.
There have been several cases which the FFLM has made into cause celebres in recent years, including Genia Shockome, Sadia Loeliger, and Bridget Marks. In each case, the FFLM claimed that abusive fathers used claims of Parental Alienation Syndrome or similar tactics in order to win custody of their children from protective mothers.
I’ve thoroughly investigated each of these three cases and found the FFLM’s claims to be, frankly, a fraud. To learn more, click here.
Jennifer Collins was a guest on Morning Show with Mike and Juliet last week and she says she’s a victim of her father’s false claims of Parental Alienation Syndrome. To watch Jennifer, click here and go to about 2:55.
Jennifer’s mother, Holly Collins fled to Holland with her two children in 1994, claiming that her husband had abused the children and that she needed to flee to protect them. Jennifer is now 23 and supports her mother’s version of events.
I don’t know the details of the case and have no position as to whether Holly Collins is telling the truth or not.
There is one fact revealed in the article that does cast some suspicion on Collins case–the custody evaluator who said the father was abusive was Dr. Eli Newberger, a member of the Leadership Council”s Board. The Leadership Council is in the forefront of fighting fathers’ access to their children in custody disputes, and in disparaging Parental Alienation. The fact that Newberger said that Collins’ kids were abused means little, though it’s certainly possible that he got it right in this case.
Jennifer has been doing a lot of public work on behalf of her mother in the case, and was awarded the Medal of Courage by the California Protective Parents Association. The CPPA is the one who foisted the Sadia Loeliger scam on PBS, and the show’s producers were later forced to publicly apologize to Scott Loeliger, her ex-husband.
Now here’s my question–would anybody (or group of two or three people) like to investigate the Collins case for me? To be clear, I do NOT want people who will go in with the intent of proving Holly Collins to be a liar and Jennifer deluded–I want the truth, whichever way it falls. If you find that what Holly and Jennifer claim happened is true, I will make it clear that this is your finding.
I will publish your results here on my blog with full credit to you if you wish. Some background on the case can be seen in this article in City Pages, which is sympathetic to the mother.
Anybody interested should contact me by clicking here.
[Late note: A reader pointed out this comment on the pro-Collins City Pages story from an individual who apparently was a custody supervisor for the Collins family many years ago. The individual, identified as JES, wrote:
I read your story with some amazement…and also with some shock. You see I had personal interaction with this family many years ago in a professional setting…and for years had wondered what had come of Holly and her children.
What I found in this article was a biased, one sided representation of what occurred in this family – and presented Holly as abused, “damaged” and needing to be a hero when no one could for herself and her children. While I was not in the home of Holly and Mark while they were married – I can speak to their MANY visitation visits when Mark had custody of Jennifer and Zachary.
I did numerous visitations for Holly and her children and legally documented many of their interactions. I was even the supervisor for the first visit where Holly brought baby Christopher to meet his older two siblings…but until she brought in the baby, no one had known she was expecting…and the baby was not on the court order to be part of the visitations. What I viewed over time was a woman who presented herself as a victim, someone who was not being heard, and abused. What I witnessed was a woman who tried at every occassion to manipulate and break the visitation rules, who felt “above” such stipulations, and I also witnessed and documented a full blown Munchausen incident with Jennifer that Holly created.
I don’t know what has gone on in Holly’s home as she grew up nor do I know what went on in her home with Mark. What I do know is that with my advanced degree/education and years of experience working with children, parents and families is that Holly is a highly narcissitic individual who has the education and background to manipulate situations and individuals to make herself appear to be victimized and traumatized…when in fact, the truth of what has and is going on is a bit more complex than she presents…
I also don’t see where you address that Holly took her third child with her on these travels – and how the father of baby Christopher dealt with never knowing where his son was or whether he was alive…but no wait, Holly doesn’t need to address that as she knows best.
While I think this is a compelling story with multiple layers of pathology, pain and areas for individuals to learn about family dynamics and healing – I also see where there are HUGE holes where one side has been told…but there are SO MANY MORE points of view to truly tell the full truth of the matter.]